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12 PAGES | `4.00BHUBANESWAR | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17 | 2021

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Yami Gautam has a busy year ahead with threefilms coming up. As many as five morecould be on the way

YAMI HAS HER KITTY FULLChina makes it must for people coming from Indiaand 19 other nations to get Chinese-madeCovid-19 vaccines

DRAGON’S VISA CONDITION

INTERNATIONAL | P10LEISURE | P2

India’s youngest state has achieved aturnaround in farming by almost doublingagriculture production TWO STATES | P7

T’GANA DOUBLES FARM OUTPUT

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 344 | www.orissapost.com

IRREGULAR by MANJUL

Counter them with out party men? Theyare our party workers only who didn’t get

ticket to contest elections!

SHORT TAKES

New Delhi: Maharashtra is inthe beginning of second Covid-19 wave, a central report hassaid, highlighting that there islimited active effort to track,test, isolate cases, and there isno adherence to Covidappropriate behaviour. Basedon the report, Union HealthSecretary Rajesh Bhushanwrote to the state government,stating "measures such as nightcurfews, weekend lockdownsetc. Have very limited impact oncontaining/suppressing thetransmission" and urged thestate to focus on strictcontainment strategies,strengthening surveillance andaugmenting testing. P7

It’s official: Mahainto 2nd Covid wave

WEATHERBHUB

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New Delhi: Former CabinetSecretary and Principal Advisorin the Prime Minister's Office(PMO) PK Sinha, has resignedfrom his post on personalgrounds. Sources said theretired 1977-batch IAS officerof the Uttar Pradesh cadre putin his papers Monday evening.Sinha was appointed in thePMO in September 2019following the general elections,after he retired as the CabinetSecretary. The veteran formerbureaucrat was earlier madethe Officer on Special Duty inthe PMO August 30, 2019 afterModi accepted the request ofhis Principal SecretaryNripendra Misra to be relievedfrom the post.

Top PM aide quits

INDEX VARIATION

SENSEX 50363.96 31.12

NIFTY 14910.50 19.00

DOLLAR 73.00 `0.02

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MARKET WATCH

35K acres Jagannathland to be sold out

AVIRAL MISHRA, OP

Bhubaneswar, March 16:The capital city projecteditself as an ultra ‘smart city’in the country ahead of theHockey World Cup 2018. Fastforward to 2021, a slew ofambitious projects launchedthen are lying waste now.

Among the many proj-ects launched by theBhubaneswar Smart CityLimited (BSCL) was theAdaptive Traffic SignalControl (ATSC) that indi-cates how public fundsshould not be utilized. As peran RTI inquiry by OdishaSoochna Adhikar Abhijan,the BSCL received Rs700crore from the Centre andthe state government to de-velop the smart city here.

With an aim to efficientlymanage the rising trafficin the City, ATSCs wereerected at 50 junctions tooptimise the traffic flow bydynamically changing thesignal timings. As per theRTI, the BSCL spent aboutRs. 10 crore on the project.

“The number of vehicleshas increased dramaticallyin the city and so have thegridlocks. ATSCs are thereat selected places only. Peakrush hours see huge con-gestions in Rasulgarh,

Market Building andBomikhal areas that don’thave ATSCs. As it heavily re-lies on manpower, absencesof traffic cops sees people ig-noring the system,” observedSmruti Ranjan Patnaik, anurban planner here.

Moreover, the projectbrought in about 14 pelicansignals and five blinkers atdifferent locations to en-sure road safety. Pelican sig-nals are manually-controlledsignals that give pedestri-ans a duration of 15 sec-onds by turning the trafficlights red to cross the roadssafely. Blinkers were to helpcommuters to be cautiouswhile manoeuvring im-portant junctions.

Thanks to poor aware-ness and lack of enforce-ment, the initiative hasturned out be a completefailure. Put up at key loca-tions like RD College, PressClub Road, KIIT School andSum Hospital, the ridersgive two hoots to trafficlights even if they turn red.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: The stategovernment has initiated a process tosell 35,272 acres of land belonging to LordJagannath, in Odisha and six otherstates, Law Minister Pratap Jena toldAssembly, Tuesday.

Giving a written reply to a questionof BJP lawmaker Mohan Charan Majhi,Jena said as per the recommendationsof a committee formed under the chair-manship of then Governor BD Sharma,the government is taking necessarysteps to sell 35,272.235 acres of landproperties of the temple.

Jena said Lord Jagannath owns60,426.943 acres spread over 24 of the30 districts of Odisha. Out of which, thetemple administration could preparefinal Record of Rights (RoR) over34,876.983 acres. “In accordance with therecommendation of the commission,steps are being taken to sell out theland as per state government’s ap-proved Uniform Policy (Saman Niti),”the minister told Assembly.

Meanwhile, the government has al-ready sold out 315.337 acres ofJagannath’s land including BharatiMatha building in Cuttack city and`11.20 crore earned from the land salehas been deposited in the temple cor-pus fund, the minister said.

Similarly, steps are being taken to sell395.252 acre of land identified in sixstates outside Odisha. The governmenthas written to the concern DistrictCollectors in this purpose, he said.

Sources said the 12th-century tem-ple has maximum of 322.930 acre in WestBengal followed by 28.218 acre inMaharashtra, 25.110 acre in Madhya

Pradesh, 17.020 acre in Andhra Pradesh,1.700 acre in Chhattisgarh and 0,274acre in Bihar. The minister furthersaid about 100 acre has been identi-fied at Bagha area and the governmentis collecting share amount of paddy eachyear from the sharecroppers. A Khamarihas been engaged at Bagha in this pur-pose while another Khamari has beenengaged at Dochhian to take care of landproperties located in the area, he said,adding, paddy collected from theDochhian area is also sold each year.

Besides, 582.255 acres located inKhurda have been given to OdishaCashew Development Corporation

(OCDC) on a lease basis. In return, thegovernment is getting `3 lakh fromthe corporation each year, the minis-ter added.

According to sources, people whohave occupied Srimandir land for morethan 30 years would have to pay ̀ 6 lakhper acre to take the temple land in pos-session. Those who have acquiredSrimandir land for less than 30 years butmore than 20 years would have to pay` 9 lakh per acre to purchase the plots.

Besides, individuals who have oc-cupied the temple plots for less than 20years but more than 12 years wouldhave to pay a hefty sum of `15 lakh

per acre, the source said.The law minister further said the state

government has constituted four com-missions to bring reforms and probe var-ious incidents related to the Jagannathtemple. The panels are—justice BKPatra Commission, a committee headedby BD Sharma, Justice PK MohantyCommission and Justice BP DasCommission. To implement various rec-ommendations made by the commis-sions, a committee has been consti-tuted under the chairmanship of templechief administrator following the ap-proval of the Shree Jagannath TempleManaging Committee, he added.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 16: Twenty-two of the world's 30 most pollutedcities are in India, with Delhi beingranked as the most polluted capitalcity globally, a new report saidTuesday. The report is prepared bySwiss organisation, IQAir, in theform of the 'World Air QualityReport, 2020', which has releasedglobally.

The report, however, shows thatDelhi's air quality improved by ap-proximately 15 per cent from 2019to 2020. It said that despite the im-provement, Delhi ranked as the10th most polluted city and the top

polluted capital city in the world."India continues to feature promi-

nently at the top of the most pollutedcities ranking, with 22 of the top 30

most polluted cities globally," the re-port said.

Besides Delhi, the 21 other Indiancities among the 30 most polluted

cities in the world are Ghaziabad,Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur,Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur,Lucknow, Meerut, Agra andMuzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh,Bhiwari in Rajasthan, Faridabad,Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bandhwari,Gurugram, Yamuna Nagar, Rohtakand Dharuhera in Haryana, andMuzaffarpur in Bihar.

As per the report, the top most pol-luted city is Xinjiang in China fol-lowed by nine Indian cities.Ghaziabad is the second most pol-luted city in the world followed byBulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur,Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur,Lucknow and Bhiwari.

The global cities ranking reportis based on PM2.5 data from 106countries, which is measured byground-based monitoring stations,most of which is operated by gov-ernment agencies. The report alsoreveals the impact of COVID-19lockdown and behavioural changeson global particulate pollution(PM2.5) levels.

Major sources of India's air pol-lution include transportation, bio-mass burning for cooking, elec-tricity generation, industry,construction, waste burning andepisodic agricultural burning. "Thetransportation sector is one of themajor contributors to India's lead-

ing PM2.5 emission sources acrosscities,” the report said.

Contextualising the global IQAirreport in the Indian context, AvinashChanchal, Climate Campaigner atGreenpeace India said while manycities, including Delhi, have recordedmarginal improvements in air qual-ity due to lockdowns, the healthand economic cost of air pollutionremains severe.

He said it is pertinent that gov-ernments prioritise sustainable andclean energy sources, as well as thecities, need to encourage low cost,active and carbon-neutral mobilitychoices such as walking, cycling, andaccessible public transport.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 16: In whatcould put smartphone users at anew privacy and security risk,text-messaging management serv-ices are now being misused foras little as `1,160 (nearly $16) tocovertly redirect text messagesfrom users to hackers, giving cy-bercriminals access to two-factorcodes/login SMSes.

The invisible cyber-attack oncompanies providing SMS redi-rection services is being carriedout in connivance with workers attelecom companies, reportsMotherboard. "The method of at-

tack, which has not been previ-ously reported or demonstrated indetail, has implications for cy-bercrime, where criminals oftentake over target's phone numbersin order to harass them, draintheir bank account, or otherwisetear through their digital lives," thereport said late on Monday.

Using these services, attackersare not only able to intercept in-coming text messages, but they canreply as well. "It's not hard to see theenormous threat to safety and se-curity this kind of attack poses," USSenator Ron Wyden said in a state-ment. There are several other meth-ods to exploit the SMS services andSIM swapping is one of those. Butwith SIM swapping, it's easy to findout that you are under attack asyour device will be disconnectedfrom the cellular network.

22 of world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India: ReportDELHI RANKS THE MOST POLLUTED CAPITAL CITY GLOBALLY WHILE GHAZIABAD THE SECOND MOST POLLUTED IN THE WORLD FOLLOWED BY BULANDSHAHAR

Your SMSes areup for grabs at just ̀ 1,160

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: TheElection Commission of India(ECI) Tuesday announced thedates for the much anticipatedPipli Assembly bypoll besides an-nouncing dates for byelections inseveral other states.

“After taking into considera-tion various factors like local fes-tivals, electoral rolls, weather con-ditions, movement of forces andpandemic, the commission hasdecided to hold byelections to fillvacancies,” the poll body said.

The ECI has fixed the pollingdate April 17 (Saturday) for thePipili bypoll. The gazette notifi-cation of the polls will be issuedMarch 23 while the last date ofnominations has been fixed tillMarch 30. The ECI has fixed thedate of scrutiny of the nomina-tions till March 31. Candidatescan withdraw their candidaturestill March 3, around two weeks be-fore the poll day. Counting of votesis slated for May 2 (Sunday). Thepoll watchdog has fixed May 4 forall the poll related activities to end.

Pipli bypoll April 17

PNN & AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar/ New Delhi, March16: Bank strike continued for day-two Tuesday, led by nine unions ofpublic sector banks (PSBs) in thecountry, opposing government'spolicy to privatise the lenders.

Customers will be inconveniencedto get services such as cash with-drawals, deposits, cheque clear-ances, remittance services.Government transactions related totreasury as well as business trans-actions will also be impacted.

“We have received major supportfrom every association. A largenumber of youths and women of-ficers actively participated in thestrike. Another noticeable aspectwas the participation of familymembers of our officers in thestrike. Despite the threat unveiledby many banks, senior executivesin SMGS IV & V participated inthe strike.” Soumya Datta, GeneralSecretary of AIBOC, said. UnitedForum of Bank Unions (UFBU),an umbrella body of nine unions,

had given a strike call for March15 and 16. Members of UFBU in-clude All India Bank EmployeesAssociation (AIBEA), All IndiaBank Officers' Confederation(AIBOC), National Confederationof Bank Employees (NCBE), AllIndia Bank Officers' Association(AIBOA) and Bank Employees

Confederation of India. Othersare the Indian National BankEmployees Federation , IndianNational Bank Officers Congress,National Organisation of BankWorkers and NationalOrganisation of Bank Officers.

Unions on Monday said nearly 10lakh staffers across the countryhave participated in the strike,terming it a "success".

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in her Union Budgetspeech for 2021-22 said the govern-ment will privatise two more pub-lic sector banks going forward.

The government has already pri-vatised IDBI Bank by selling itsmajority stake in the lender to LICin 2019, and has merged 14 publicsector banks in the last four years.

`10cr lost as smartsignal project failsMONETIZING LORD’S PROPERTIES

n Process has begun to sell 34,876 acres identified inOdisha and 395 acres in six other states: Law minister

n Lord Jagannath of Puri owns 60,426.943 acres of landspread over 24 of the 30 districts of Odisha

n The temple administration has prepared final Recordof Rights (RoR) over 34,876.983 acres

BANKS PARALYSED ON DAY 2

Protesting bankers holding a sit-in as part of a nationwide bank strike in front of UCO Bank at Master Canteen in the city

10L STAFF PARTICIPATE

Mumbai: The Federation of Western IndiaCine Employees (FWICE) has issued a Non-cooperation Directive against actress GauaharKhan for two months for allegedly floutingCovid-19 rules by continuing to shoot despitebeing testing positive for the virus.

A press release issued by the FWICE, in-forms about the stringent action taken bythe body against the actress.

It reads: “The FWICE highly condemnsthe act of Ms. Gauahar Khan for resumingshooting after being tested positive for covid-19 infection even though she was advised tobe quarantined. Her act is highly irrespon-sible and is against the strict guidelines laiddown by the Government of India andMaharashtra issued for the media and en-

tertainment industry post resumption of

shootings in Maharashtra.”“It is indeed a serious of-

fence and that she has notonly breached the rulesissued by the governmentbut also endangered the livesof the entire crew membersworking with her on the re-spective shoot. Such ignorancewill not be tolerated by theFWICE and it thanks the BMCand Mumbai Police for theFIR lodged against Ms.Gauahar Khan for her in-human, disrespectful act towards the other crewmembers as well as the government.” IANS

Arjun and Parineeti go slapstick again

Mumbai: Actor Arjun Kapoor hasbeen slapped yet again by ParineetiChopra! Strictly on screen, of course,and in their upcoming film SandeepAur Pinky Faraar, after their 2012 co-starrer Ishaqzaade.

On a serious note, Arjun opens upon how Dibakar Baner jee’s upcoming film trains focus on vio-lence against women. “Violence againstwomen is taken seriously by someonelike me who has grown up in an en-vironment surrounded by women. Ifirmly believe when you are doing a

character you have to step out of

being your personal self and believethat you have signed up to play a char-acter because people like that exist insociety,” said Arjun.

“Having said that, Pinky (his char-acter in the film) does not raise hishand on Sandeep (played by ParineetiChopra). The physical violence thatis there is circumstantial. It is moreabout helping one another and pro-tecting one another. There is also a feel-ing of angst and frustration thatSandeep feels towards Pinky, whereshe literally wants to cry and hit meand at the same time it is just me pro-

tecting myself in that sequence,” headded. Arjun says the situation is“real because that is what the direc-tor wanted.”

“I have been slapped yet again byParineeti like I was in Ishaqzaadeand that trend continues! But it wasnot pressuring because you have reada script and you have understood thedemand of the character and cir-cumstances, and it comes in a mo-ment of emotional chaos in both theirlives, so it is not like I am beating herup. I don’t think I would play a char-acter like that,” he added. IANS

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar: BidyakanakSrujanusthan, a city-based theatregroup, staged comedy play Alli AlokAlbert on the third day of a state-leveldrama festival at Bhanja KalaMandap here, Tuesday.

Established in 2002 by a few com-mitted artistes, Bhubaneswar-basedPanchamaveda is organising thefive-day event in collaboration withShristi Theatre of the same city.

Every human being longs forwealth and wants to lead a luxuriouslife. Some people accomplish themwith hard work and honesty whilethere are others who resort to un-ethical means to reach the destina-

tion. The latter may manage to playhide-and-seek with the law for sometime but ultimately prison's darkcells become their destiny.

This was the message the directorintended to deliver with generousdoses of humour. The production wasfull of mystery, thrill and high on en-

tertainment. Written by DilipBalabantaray, the drama was di-rected by Jagadish Prasad Maharana.The artistes who performed on stageinclude Nabin Parida, Shubhakanta,Sunanda, Sonika and Sai.

OSHB Chairman PriyadarshiMishra, Odisha Bhasa PratisthanDirector Bhagyalipi Malla and Steeland Mines Special Secretary SangramKeshari Swain were amongst theguests who graced the occasion.

Srasta of Balasore will presentMun Hata Bahuda, a dramatisedverson of poetry writ ten byVyasakabi Fakir Mohan Senapati, onthe fourth day of the festival, in-formed Panchamaveda’s secretaryPrakash Maharana.

‘There was a time I had no film’

P2 I GOT GOOD AT HIDINGMYSELF: ORLANDO BLOOM

leisure Hollywood star Orlando Bloom says he hated being lookedat the whole time in his twenties, and quickly learned howto disappear. Bloom rose to fame in The Lord Of The Ringsand the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises in the early2000s. There was too much media hype around him and hesaid that he got good at hiding himself.

Legendary American guitarist Eddie VanHalen’s son Wolfgang Van Halen is notimpressed by the Recording Academy’s tributeto the iconic guitarist in the ‘In Memoriam’segment at the recent Grammy Awards.

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSYou have already fulfilledyour short-term objec-tives. But you are ambi-tious, and straightawaybegin setting your long-term goals. Butall work and no play makes Jack a dullboy, says Ganesha. Leisure time withfamily will rejuvenate and prepare you fora better stint at work.

PISCESWhile you like cooperatingwith your colleagues,there is nothing like a littlecompetition to spice things up. You willnonchalantly take on the challengescoming your way, and thrive on thesweet smell of success today. Luck is inyour favour as well.

SAGITTARIUSYour days ahead are verydark, says Ganesha.Shun all luxuries andgive up your ego toplease the stars. Your attitude may landyou in serious problems, be careful fromnow. You will suffer from pains and mental issues today, predicts Ganesha.

LIBRAIt's a day of reachingnew heights when itcomes to finances. Thecosmos favours money-lenders and stock marketeers. Call it thespecial touch that you give to all transac-tions monetary, but today you have theuncanny knack of raking in the moolahfrom all sources.

SCORPIOToday, there are chancesthat you would be dis-turbed by continuous flowof negative thoughts inyour mind. Try to divert your mind andlook for positive people or friends whowould cheer you up. Understanding needypeople and living up to their expectationswould bring some respite to your disrupted mind, says Ganesha.

LEOYou sure love playing ateam sport, but thatdoes not diminish thefact that you are atough player to compete with, saysGanesha. If only they had a rugby teamat the local club! You derive a sense ofcompletion from the fact that you havegiven your best effort to any endeavour.

VIRGOMoney matters will hita major snag today,says Ganesha. Let yourmind overrule yourheart. Take extreme care of personalbelongings, legal responsibilities and newventures with long-term effects in mind.

GEMINIYou are desirous of per-fection in everything thatyou do, and you practicethis philosophy in every aspect of your life.You make sure that all of your energies areconcentrated on taking forward yourefforts in the right direction.

CANCERIt is about time that youcultivated healthy eat-ing habits. Today, youwill be prone to doingeverything in excess. You may overeat orget swept away by emotions. You mustkeep a check on your emotions, or itmay lead to unwanted complications.

ARIESOld, fond memories willdefine your mood today,which will show up in themanner in which youdeal with work, where your mellow sidewill be visible to others. You are also cir-cumspect with money and tend towardssaving it. Ganesha says people dealingin cash and money-lenders will benefit.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSYou are likely to get intoarguments today, pre-dicts Ganesha. Youshould avoid any open confrontation.Legal disputes may bother you as well. Tryyour hand at meditation or resort to musicof your preference to relax and unwind.

CAPRICORNYou are in hot water, butdo not lose hope duringthese turbulent times.Maintain a calm headover your shoulders and deal with theproblems, guides Ganesha. Also, do notjump to conclusions or be argumentativewith the people around you, as you mayend up being at the losing end.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

post To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to E.

EDDIE VAN HALEN’S SON SLAMS THE GRAMMYS

Mumbai : Actress YamiGautam has a busy year aheadwith three films coming up.As many as five more couldbe on the way, but official an-nouncements are awaited. Thesudden signing spree spellsgood news and she is happythat her time has come. She also admits that life hasthrown a curve ball at herin the past but she ishappy she handledit well.

“I reallywaited forthis oppor-tunity,”YamitellsIANS,

adding: “I really waited forthis time when I could pickand be part of scripts that Iwant to do, versus I have to dofor the lack of a better option.That was a very different timefor me. So, if someone asksme, ‘how do you feel that youare doing so many films thisyear?’ I’ll say I have also seen

a year when I was doingno film or may be one-

odd film. So, itcame after a lot

of patience,

thought and I have waited forthis time.”

The actress, who made herBollywood debut with VickyDonor (2012), will be seen play-ing a cop in upcoming filmDasvi and is currently shoot-ing in Agra Central Jail forthe film. She has also signed thethriller A Thursday and will beseen in Bhoot Police.

Yami reveals that diversityin what she does is her priority.

“Whatever I am choosing tobe a part of right now is a veryconscious decision. Havingsaid that, I am an actor and Iam looking at substance. I amnot looking at genre. I startedin the middle of a pandemicwith a film like Bhoot Policeand that’s a very different genre.The idea was to be as diverseas possible and whatever roleI have, that should be sub-stantial,” she says. IANS

Alli Alok Albert high on entertainmentPANCHAMA VEDA’S COMEDY PLAY FEST – DAY 3

Gauahar issued Non-cooperation

Directive by FWICE

A scene from the play Alli Alok Albert staged at Bhanja Kala Mandap, Tuesday

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WEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARMYRIAD HUES

A vendor displays avariety of colours inJhola Sahi area ofCuttack ahead of theHoli festival, Tuesday

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 12,09,13,582 9,75,07,348 26,74,895

India 1,14,09,831 1,10,27,543 1,58,856

Odisha 3,38,323 3,35,796 1,918

COVID-19 TRACKER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: Evenafter an all-party meeting convenedby the Speaker twice, stalematecontinued in the Assembly for thefourth consecutive day Tuesday.The House witnessed several ad-journments and no business couldtake place throughout the day.

As soon as the House assembledfor the Question Hour at 10:30am,both opposition and treasury benchmembers trooped into the well of theHouse and raised slogans againsteach other.

The treasury bench membersdemanded an apology from BJPMLA Subash Panigrahi for his at-

tempt to commit suicide inside theAssembly while the oppositionpitched for procurement of paddyfrom farmers. Speaker SN Patroadjourned the proceedings till11:30am. As the situation saw noimprovement at 11:30am too, theSpeaker adjourned proceedings till12pm and convened an all-partymeeting to end the deadlock.

However, the meeting remainedinconclusive after OppositionBJP and Congress staged walk-out as the paddy procurementissue was allegedly ignored atthe meeting. Meanwhile, the ad-journment lasted till 4pm. Thepost-lunch session also witnessedthree adjournments including

the last one—till Wednesday. In a bid to bring back normalcy

in the House, Patro again called anall-party meeting Tuesday, but ittoo remained inconclusive.

Din over paddy continues for 4th dayPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: TheCommissionerate Police Tuesdayreceived a preliminary sketch of theface of an unknown woman whoseskeleton was recovered from a seizedSUV on the premises of Janla policeoutpost in February. Speaking to themedia, Bhubaneswar DCPUmashankar Dash said that a soft-ware firm in Hyderabad has sent arough sketch which will be examinedby the cops before making it public.

The human skeleton’s imageshad been sent to Hyderabad forskull mapping. Experts of a softwarecompany will reconstruct the faceof the lady using artificial intelli-

gence (AI) for identification of thedeceased. He also said that after fi-nalization, the sketch will be pastedoutside all the police stations inthe city urging the public to verifythe identity of the dead woman.

Similarly, the police Tuesdayrecorded the statements of several peo-ple including the doctor who con-ducted autopsy of the skeleton andsuspended OIC of Janla outpost,Satyabrata Grahacharya. Dash alsorevealed that the police will inter-rogate the persons who have visitedthe outpost since November 2019.He assured that police have beentaking all the steps to get the identityof the lady and the circumstances thatled her to get into the vehicle.

Janla case: Cops receivesketch of dead lady’s face

AS SOON AS THE HOUSEASSEMBLED FOR THE QUESTION

HOUR AT 10:30AM, BOTHOPPOSITION AND TREASURY BENCH

MEMBERS TROOPED INTO THEWELL OF THE HOUSE AND RAISEDSLOGANS AGAINST EACH OTHER

THOUGH THE SPEAKER CONVENEDALL-PARTY MEETINGS TWICE IN THE

DAY, THEY REMAINEDINCONCLUSIVE

Over 9L tourists visitwildlife sanctuariesBhubaneswar: Over 9 lakh tourists are visit-ing 14 wildlife sanctuaries in Odisha everyyear, Forest and Environment Minister BKArukha told the Assembly, Tuesday. In a writ-ten reply to the House, the minister said 19wildlife sanctuaries are there in the state.However, tourists are visiting 14 sanctuaries.Entry of tourists to Nalabana in Chilika hasbeen restricted while tourists are not visitingto another four wildlife sanctuaries, he said.

OHRC to probe Bhedengangrape & murder Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human RightsCommission (OHRC) has asked its investiga-tion wing to probe the alleged gangrape ofthree tribal girls and murder of two of themby seven people including two police offi-cials at Bheden in 2016. The rights bodyexpressed its displeasure over the investiga-tion report submitted by Bargarh SDPO. TheOHRC has directed the ADG of Police-Cum-Director of Investigation for OHRC to initiateprobe the matter. It has asked to submit thereport within three months. As per the FIR,seven persons allegedly raped three womenand killed two of them.

downtownWEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP4

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POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, March 16: Biju JanataDal (BJD) MP Prasanna AcharyaTuesday urged the Union govern-ment to set up fast track courts(FTCs) for speedy trial of crimesagainst women and children.

Speaking during Zero Hour inRa j ya Sabha, the BJDParliamentary party leader in theUpper House said the Union andthe state governments are takingsteps to prevent crimes againstwomen and children but unfortu-nately in spite of all the stepstaken, such horrific incidents areincreasing in the country.

Acharya cited the NationalCrime Records Bureau (NCRB)data highlighting the gravity of thematter and said on an average,87 rape cases were occurring everyday in 2020 – a 7 per cent rise inthe crime against women as com-pared to 2019.

“In 2019 alone, altogether 4,05,861cases of crimes against women hadbeen reported. These are all re-

ported cases. There are many caseswhich are not being reported be-cause people and concerned fami-lies are very much concerned abouttheir social prestige and socialstigma. The total number of childpornography and child rape inci-dences is 13,244 from March toSeptember 2020, within six months'time,” Acharya said.

He said the Parliament enactedPOCSO Act which mandates au-thorities to register FIR in crimeagainst children and complete trialwithin six months.

“For speedy trial, the act hasprovision of setting up of FTCs inall the districts of the country.But, unfortunately, in many of thedistricts of the country, FTCs areyet to be set up. Therefore, manycases are pending for a longertime in the respective courts,”Acharya said.

The senior BJD MP appealed tothe Union government to ask the re-spective High Courts and the re-spective state governments to set upFTCs as quickly as possible.

Open FTCs for speedy trial of crimes: BJD to Centre

O D I S H A I N

Acharya cited NCRB data highlightingthe gravity of the matter and said onan average, 87 rape cases wereoccurring every day in 2020 – a 7 percent rise in the crimeagainst women ascompared to 2019

He said theParliament enactedPOCSO Act which mandates author-ities to register FIR in crime againstchildren and complete trial withinsix months

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, March 16: A delega-tion of Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) MPs from Odisha, led byUnion Minister DharmendraPradhan, urged the Union FoodMinister Piyush Goyal to send ahigh-level committee to Odisha toscrutinise the alleged derailmentof paddy procurement in the state.

The saffron party alleged that thestate government was misleadingthe farmers on issues of paddyprocurement and had been conve-niently trying to belie its own sys-tematic failure ingovernance and inproviding alliedagricultural serv-ices to Odisha’sfarmers.

In a memoran-dum submitted toGoyal, the BJP del-egation said thatdespite this year’sbetter-than-ex-pected paddy har-vest, thanks to afavourable mon-soon, the state gov-ernment did not revise its ceilingon paddy procurement of 19 quin-tals for every acre of irrigated landand 13 quintals for every acre of non-irrigated land.

“Due to this, thousands of farm-ers were left with unsold paddywhich they had to sell at half theprice of MSP fixed by the Centrei.e. Rs 1868 per quintal. There havealso been many cases reported inlocal media where farmers havebeen prohibited from selling duequantities of their harvest as pertheir landholding so as to favour a

few political supporters of the rul-ing party at a heavy cost to manysmall and marginal farmers,” BJPsubmitted.

Taking a pot shot at the token sys-tem of the state, the team said thattokens are becoming invalid due todelay in procurement as there is a30-day deadline.

“Many registered farmers donot receive the token at all due todelays in verification of theirplot, bank account, Aadhaar andirrigated land by the state gov-ernment, while some receive to-kens for dates even before the

harvest of paddyis possible,” theBJP MPs said.

“The suf fer-ings of Odisha'sfarmers due tolack of logisticalsupport in stor-age and trans-port of their har-v e s t a r ecompounded bymandi mafia op-erating in guiseo f b r o k e r s ,agents, millers

and other middlemen at PPCs inconnivance with state govern-ment's officials,” the memo-randum reads.

The delegation told Goyal thatmany farmers are unable to affordthe transportation and storagecosts, and are forced to sell their har-vest at throw-away prices in theAPMC mandis.

“Without getting due remuner-ation, these farmers fall into aninescapable vicious cycle of debt andpenury resulting in attempts tocommit suicide,” the BJP said.

PADDY PROCUREMENT ROW

BJP team meets Goyal,flays token system

Highlighting the need of in-vestment in education sec-tor, the Biju Janata Dal

(BJD) Tuesday pointed out thatthe education sector would alwaysneed reforms as it is ever-evolv-ing in nature.

Speaking during a discussionon Demand for Grants under theMinistry of Education for 2021-22,BJD MP from Kandhamal, AchyutaSamanta praised the Union gov-ernment for the steps it had takenduring the pandemic for the edu-cation sector and also expressedthe need of investment in health andeducation sectors.

“Pandemic has taught us thatinvestment in health and educa-tion is the most important and ur-gent. The government’s supportto private educational institutionsis commendable. But the work re-quired in the grassroots has in-creased manifold as witnessed by

what happened during the pandemic,” Samanta said.

He also suggested focusing onthe issues of teacher training, digital development and nutritionalrequirements for the students.

The BJD MP pointed out theneed for an industry-ready work-force and innovation in the coun-try to tackle challenges of the everevolving nature of education sec-tor. He also raised concerns over thedelay and controversy in appoint-ing vice-chancellors and asked theUnion government to relook intothe process of appointment.

Samanta sought the Centre’s at-tention on the aspirational dis-tricts of the country and urged thegovernment to take educationalreforms there. He pleaded the Uniongover nment to set up moreKendriya Vidyalayas, JawaharNavodaya Vidyalayas and SainikSchools in Kandhamal constituency.

Samanta thrust on investment in edu

Cuttack: The twin cityCommissionerate PoliceTuesday claimed to have arrest-ed two persons on charges ofpeddling drugs after recoveringaround 270 gram of brown sugarfrom their possession here lateMonday night. The accusedwere identified as SudhirMohanty, 32, of Fakirpada PandaSahi under Jagatpur police lim-its and Bikram Samal, 24, ofSalanga Nakhara area underChoudwar police limits here.

2 peddlers held

POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack, March 16: A womanundergoing treatment at SCBMedical College and Hospital(SCBMCH) here succumbed to theinjuries she had sustained after aceiling fan fell on her March 8.

The woman, identified as ParbatiDas, 75, was initially undergoingtreatment for burn injuries. Shewas a resident of Krushna Nagarin Jajpur district.

According to a source, Das hadsustained burns and was admit-ted to the surgery ward of SCBMCH.Unfortunately, the ceiling fan fell onher March 8 when she was under-going treatment. Her condition de-teriorated after the accident.

She was immediately rushedto the ICU in the trauma care unit.However, all theefforts by the doc-tors to save herwent in vain.

The relativesof the deceasedhad lodged acomplaint with the police, the su-perintendent of SCBMCH andOdisha Human Rights Commission(OHRC) after the incident.

An attendant had told the mediathat the fan was shaking and pro-ducing a screeching sound when-ever it was switched on. The con-dition of the fan was brought to thenotice of the hospital staff, butthey took it very casually.

As the news of the septuage-narian’s death spread, other pa-tients and their relatives expresseddissatisfaction over the hospitalstaff not being serious.

Patient succumbsto SCB fan injuries

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: TheUK will host the UN climate changeconference ‘COP26’ in Glasgow inNovember 2021. This will providean opportunity for the world tocome together and commit to urgentaction.

As part of the UK’s SustainableFuture campaign, British DeputyHigh Commissioner to Kolkata,Nick Low chatted with environ-mental filmmaker from Odisha,Nila Madhab Panda, on climatechange. In the chat Panda talkedabout the impact of climate changeand how it affects people at thegrassroots.

Panda said, “Our environment isno more in a state that we can takeit for granted. It is affecting everyone of us in some form or the other.Climate change is a reality and it’s

happening. Each of us has to beconscious about our own environ-ment. That’s how we can think ofcreating a sustainable future.”

Panda also said that the solu-tion to tackle climate change is tostart using more and more renew-able energy and reduction of car-bon emission.

He said reducing the use of un-avoidable CO2 emissions is a prac-tical and immediate way to takeownership of your personal con-tribution to climate change.

In the online conversation, Lowshared that being the COP26Presidency, the UK will take thelead in supporting a clean, inclusiveand resilient recovery building onthe principles of the ParisAgreement and the SustainableDevelopment Goals. “The UK willwork to ensure that the linked chal-lenges of public health, climatechange and biodiversity are ad-dressed,” he said.

Panda’s Odia film ‘Kalira Atita’(Yesterday's Past) recently missedout of the Oscars 2021 race.

The film is about the disappearingvillages of India's eastern coast-line in Odisha because of climatechange and rising sea level.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: If thingsgo well, the state-run IndustrialTraining Institute (ITI) in Jajpur willhave a ‘Thermal Cutting and WeldingCentre of Excellence (CoE)’ withinsix months with the Directorate ofTechnical Education & Trainingand Messer Cutting Systems IndiaPrivate Limited signing an MoUfor the initiative, Tuesday.

Orissa Minerals DevelopmentCompany will provide Rs 5.25 crorefor the project. The agreement wassigned by Technical Education andTraining director Reghu G and MesserCutting Systems India Private Limiteddirector (Sales and Marketing) UdayMukherjee in the City. Apart frommeeting the needs of Jajpur indus-trial cluster, the centre is expected toprovide requisite skills in welding andthermal cutting to the ITI students.

BJD MP N Bhaskar Rao informed the Rajya Sabha Tuesdaythat as many as 69 gram panchayats in Rayagada are

without network connectivity and urged the Union govern-ment to take steps in this regard. Speaking during Zero Hourin the Upper House, Rao said that around 400 villages of 11blocks under Rayagada have not got network connectivitydespite several flagship programs of the Union government.“Digital India is a flagship programme of the Centre with avision to transform India into a digitally empowered societyand knowledge economy. But 400 villages of Odisha arewithout network connectivity,” the BJD MP said.

BJP MP from SambalpurNitesh Ganga Deb Tuesday

urged the Railway Minister toallocate Rs 500 crore to Talcher-Bimalagarh railway project insupplementary Budget.

Taking part on the discussionon Demands for Grants underMinistry of Railways, the BJPMP said Deogarh in his par-liamentary constituency hasnot been found a place in rail-

way map till date, after 73 yearsof Independence.

“The Talcher-Bimalagarh (154 km)new railway line goesthrough Deogarh dis-trict and links manyvillages once this projectis completed. The proposedcost of this project is about Rs1,928 crore. Only 20 km of theproject is completed with Rs 839

crore. The work from 20 km to43.50 km has started but the

progress is very slow in-deed,” the BJP MP said.He said that the state gov-ernment has to expeditethe land acquisition and

handing over the remaining916 acres of land. This delay ne-cessitated increasing the cost of theproject. “Though Rs 140 crorewas allocated in last year’s

Budget, only Rs 10 crore hasbeen allocated in the currentyear’s Budget. I urge theRailway Minister to at least al-locate Rs 500 crore in supple-mentary Budget and Ministryof Railways may take pro-grammatic approach to com-plete the project for the so-cioeconomic development ofmy Parliamentary ConstituencySambalpur," Ganga Deb said.

Ganga Deb seeks ̀ 500cr for Talcher-Bimalagarh rly line

The delegation of BJP MPs from Odisha, led by Union Minister DharmendraPradhan, meets Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi, Tuesday

THE BJP ALLEGED TOKENSARE BECOMING INVALID DUETO DELAY IN PROCUREMENT

AS THERE IS A 30-DAYDEADLINE

THE SAFFRON PARTYDELEGATION URGED THE

UNION FOOD MINISTER TOSEND A HIGH-LEVEL

COMMITTEE TO ODISHA TOSCRUTINISE THE ALLEGED

DERAILMENT OF PADDYPROCUREMENT IN THE STATE

Climate change is a realityand it’s happening: Panda

TheUK willwork toensurethat thelinkedchallengesof publichealth, climate change andbiodiversity are addressedNICK LOW | BRITISH DEPUTY HIGHCOMMISSIONER TO KOLKATA

State inks pact for CoE at Jajpur ITIPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: TheVigilance department probing thealleged multi-crore rupees PPEkit scam Tuesday submitted a preliminary probe report before t h e L o kayu kt a h ere. T he three-member bench of OdishaLokayukta will go through the re-port on the next hearing sched-uled to be held March 26.

Earlier, while hearing petitionsfiled by Sudarshan Das and an-other social activist, the Lokayuktahad directed the anti-corruptionwing of the state to enquire into theallegations of massive irregulari-ties in procuring personal protec-tive equipment (PPE) kits, masksand other equipment for fightingCovid-19 pandemic. The PPE kitswere procured by the Odisha StateMedical Corporation Limited

(OSMCL) December 7, 2020. The Vigilance department that

was asked to submit the report byFebruary 15, 2021 failed to submitthe report in time and sought onemonth extension.

Notably, several top bureaucratswere reportedly involved in the al-leged irregularities in buying Covid-19 PPE kits and other equipment.The PPE kits were allegedly boughtat exorbitant prices.

Vig submits report on PPE kit ‘scam’

Artistes perform Odissi at the 34th Shradhanjali Samaroh organised by Tridhara at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar, Tuesday OP PHOTO

GRACEFUL MOVES

69 GPs in Rayagada sansnetwork: N Bhaskar Rao

AFFIDAVITI, Rebati Devi, spouse ofRabindra Sahoo, Resident-Keshadurapal, Keonjharchanged my name fromRebati Devi (DOB:10.09.1966) to Rebati Sahoo(DOB: 21.05.1966) videaffidavit (10.03.2021) beforeDistrict Court,Bhubaneswar.

CLASSIFIEDAFFIDAVIT

WASSUP TODAYBHUBANESWAR

n 13th Kalinga Herbal Fair, IdcoExhibition Ground, 10 am

n Rally and dharna by Shramika EkataManch, Railway station to LowerPMG, 10.30 am

n Demo by Samajwadi Party statecommittee, Lower PMG, 11 am

n Dharna by Odisha Gram PanchayatEmployees’ Union, Lower PMG, 12noon

n 27th Guru Pankaj Utsav and MahariSamman, Rabindra Mandap, 6 pm

n Staging of play ‘Hata Bahuda’ byPanchamveda, Bhanjakala Mandap,6.45 pm

CUTTACKn Unveiling of Rajendra Kumar

Pradhan’s poetry book,Sriramchandra Bhawan, 6.30 pm

Programmes/announcements for wassup today may be sent to

opwassup@gmail.com for record, it must also carry the sender’s

mobile number for our verification, but not for publication.

Covid norms tightenedahead of Prez visitBhubaneswar: Ahead of President RamNath Kovind’s two-day visit to Odishascheduled from March 21, the stategovernment has made RT-PCR testmandatory for officers, employees andstudents connected with the visit. TheChief Secretary asked the districtadministrations of Sundargarh,Jharsuguda, Puri and Khurda to ensurestrict compliance of Covid-19 normsduring the President's visit. On March21, the President will attend the convo-cation of NIT in Rourkela. Students whowill be receiving degrees and certifi-cates from the President will have toundergo Covid-19 test. The Presidentwill also inaugurate a super specialtyhospital on IGH campus. He will visit theSun Temple at Konark the following day.The President will also visit Srimandir.

Plea to rename Puri VIP Road after Gandhiji Puri: The district administration has accepted a proposal regarding renaming of theVIP Road here as Mahatma Gandhi Marg to commemorate the centenary of Gandhiji’svisit to Puri. The proposal has been moved by Puri Vikash Parishad, a city-based outfit.A recommendation has also been sent to the Works department, said a press note bythe outfit president Jagannath Bastia. This apart, the outfit has urged the East CoastRailway authorities to replace a controversial plaque at Puri railway station. Gandhijialong with his spouse Kasturba and youngest son Devdas had visited the Holy City forthe first time March 26, 1921. He had addressed a public meeting at Saradhabali onthe same day which was attended by Rajendra Prasad and Pandit Gopabandhu Das.Gandhiji had also visited Srimandir during his three-day stay in Puri. He had left forBerhampur via train March 29. The Holy City is scheduled to observe the centenary ofGandhiji’s visit Mach 26. A padayatra would be taken out from Puri railway station toGandhi Ghat at 7am. An all-faith prayer meeting would also be organised at GandhiGhat. Besides, a seminar on Gandhiji’s philosophy and state-level poetry recital eventwould be held to mark the occasion, said the press note.

Proposal for NEET centrein each districtBhubaneswar: Health and Family Welfare(H&FW) department has written to NationalTesting Agency urging it for one exam centre ineach district of Odisha for NEET (UG) 2021. Thedepartment’s additional chief secretary PKMohapatra, in a letter to NTA director generalVineet Joshi, said, “Odisha has got vast tribal pock-ets having geographically inaccessible areas andfar away from the urban centeres of the state forwhich the students of this state may be deprivedof appearing the NEET UG as they will have tomove long distance for appearing the test.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the automobile industry hard. Now, people involved with this industry are looking forward to revival andgrowth. While the Centre’s Scrappage Policy has given this industry

a ray of hope, high taxes hinder growth. In an interview withOrissa POST, Shaunak Raj Parikh, Director of Utkal Automobiles

Private Limited, talks about how the pandemic hit the automobileindustry and what they plan to do ahead. Excerpts:

stateWEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP5

cmyk

cmyk

n You say education is the third eyeof a child. Can you please elaborate onthis?

n Education is everything to all ofus. In present days, a child can’t do any-thing without education even thoughhe/she has two eyes. I am the best ex-ample of the said statement. I wasborn to a very poor family but whatI am now is because of education. It’sbecause of and education that theworld can see me and so can I.

n Why are we lagging behind in educational research and innovationas compared to other parts of theworld?

nEducation is really the backbone ofa society. When we see Europe andUSA, there are universities that aremuch older like 1,000 or 700 years old.But in India, we have only 150-year-olduniversities. I believe the countries orstates which have developed their ed-ucational facilities have developedthemselves. These counties have strongfacilities for research and innovationbecause they have established theirstrong education system. However, atpresent, our country and Odisha havebeen focusing on education.

n How was concept of KIIT and KISSborn?

nWell, it is a long story. I started boththe organisations – KIIT and KISS –in a rented house in 1992-93. So, in asense it was a ‘startup’ venture witha capital of just Rs 5,000. When Istarted these organisations, I wasmuch worse than a beggar. Now,they have reached milestones andgarnered appreciations from acrossthe world. This is nothing but God’sblessings, for what we are now! Successof KIIT and KIIS is because of myhard work and sacrifice.

n You lost your father at a tenderage but now you’re the ‘father’ ofover 60,000 tribal kids. How do you

express your feelings?

n It is actually satisfying. When I lostmy father, there was no one to take care,comfort, encourage or guide me. I haddecided to offer that kind of support,that I never received, to poor chil-dren. And now the vision has cometrue. It is more satisfying and joyfulexperience.

n Have you planned for expandingKISS?

nSee, about one-fourth of the tribal pop-ulation of our state are majorly in-habited in 20 districts. I have a pas-sion to bring tribal children into themainstream through education. To ac-complish that vision, we are openingKISS branches in the state. We have al-ready opened branches in five districtsand it is likely to be opened seven moredistricts this year. I wish to open suchbranches in these 20 districts.

n You hail from a remote village inCuttack but now the world knows you.What is the mantra of your suc-cess?

nMany have achieved successand I’m not unique. But yes,success comes when you arefocused, dedicated and em-brace sacrifice in life. It isnot easy to gain global pop-

ularity or achieving suc-cess in social work andeducation.

n How much time do you devote towork every day?

n Well, I work for at least 17-18 hoursa day. I have been working for the past30 years otherwise the entire thingwould not have come to this position,starting from the scratch. And I am notconfined to only KIIT and KISS, butI have tremendous contributions to art,culture, literature, film, media andothers.

nNow you are an MP. Do you think theposition would help you in realising yourvision?

n Yes. I am a Parliamentarian be-cause of the blessing of our ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik. I organiseda job fair in Kandhamal. I invited 80companies to participate in whicharound 7,000 youths received em-ployment. I also want to eradicatepoverty.

n Your advice to the youth?

nYouth should comeforward as entre-

preneurs so thatthey can standfor themselvesand offer em-ployment to oth-

ers. The initialfive years may be

a difficult time butif they pursue it pa-

tiently, they willsurely achieve success.

Achyuta Samanta, who was born to a poor family, is now one ofthe biggest social entrepreneurs globally. His life story is an

inspiration to all. He dedicated himself to the cause of upliftment of the poor. He is also the founder of Kalinga

Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Instituteof Social Sciences (KISS), Odisha, and has been working

relentlessly for zero poverty, zero hunger and zero illiteracy.During an interaction with Orissa POST, KIIT-KISS founder

Achyuta Samanta shared several glimpses of his journey. Excerpts…

BRINGING TRIBAL KIDS INTO MAINSTREAM IS MY PASSION: SAMANTA

nWhat impact did COVID-19 have on yourbusiness?

nCOVID-19 impacted all the stakeholdersin the value chain, such as suppliers,OEMs, dealers/distributors, mobility &online players. The Indian automotive in-dustry suffered losses worth more than Rs2,300 crore per day during the prolongedlockdown period. Job loss in the sector isestimated to be about 3.45 lakh. Besides,286 auto dealers had to shut shops. Revenuegeneration in Odisha dropped to 58% inmotor vehicle tax collection in the first quar-ter of 2020. Impact on dealers was – block-age of working capital in BS-IV inven-tory, potential decline in BS-IV sales as itwas expected to pick up in March, delayin production and availability of BS-VI mod-els led to further decline, drop in auto-motive demand due to price increase forBS-VI transition.

n What is your view on buying behaviourof customers in Odisha?

n Consumer behaviour has been evolv-ing. The number of visits to brick-and-mortar dealerships has dropped. Digitalmedia is playing an increasingly importantrole in determining purchase decisions ofcustomers. Consumers today are re-searching online before purchasing a ve-hicle, even in smaller cities and towns.Behaviour of customers in Odisha is dig-itally driven.

n How would you differentiate UtkalHyundai in terms of service? What do youoffer the customers?

nOur offers are always in line with Hyundaiguidelines. Offers do change from monthto month depending on a lot of factors likeavailability of stock, schemes offered by com-petitors etc.

n Automobi le industry i s facing various problems. Demands havealso muted. What should the govt do to helpthe auto industry?

n Scrappage Policy: The Central govern-ment has been talking about the scrap-page policy which I feel, if rolled out, willhelp generate demand.

High rate of taxation: Affordability hasbecome one of the main hindrances in

the growth of automobile sector in India.Prices have increased due to several fac-tors like upgradation of safety and emis-sion standards (Bharat Stage-VI emissionnorms), high rate of taxations like GST-28%, cess imposed on cars from 3% up to48%, TCS-1%, state road and registrationtax etc. All factors cited above are drivingup the costs of automobiles which need tobe addressed carefully.

nAutomobile dealers play an important rolein providing jobs as well as revenue to thegovernment. What do you want from stategovernment in this regard?

n The automobile industry is one of thelargest employment providers in the coun-try and employs close to 37 million peopleacross the country. But due to the pan-demic situation it is not only unable togenerate employment, but also raisingquestions on the sustainability of deal-ership itself. State government’s role hasa lot more to do with the cost of operatingan industry. The taxation of the state gov-ernment is quite high, petrol tax for exampleis much higher and the affordability of acar is very much de-termined by thestate govern-ment’s poli-cies, which intur n havemuch to gainor lose fromhow the in-dustry

grows. There are some states like Jharkhand& Gujarat and Union Territory likeChandigarh where road taxes are calculatedbefore GST. However, other states, in-cluding Odisha, calculate road taxes on ex-showroom price, resulting in the increaseof vehicle cost which affects the ability ofcustomers to buy new vehicles, leadingto drop in sales. In reference to above,sales were much higher in these statescompared to those which didn't increaseroad taxes. Our state government shouldlook into this.

n What motivated you to step into automobile dealership business?

n I was born and brought up in a familyrunning an automobiles business. Thisbusiness is inherent in my blood. Apart fromthat, this industry deals with an array as-pects, knowledge and experience that mo-tivated me to come in this business.

n What is your view on success? Any advice to the youth?

nThe meaning of success varies from oneperson to another. It could be career,title, money, big house, stable relation-ships, social status etc. Success doesn’tcome overnight. It needs a dream thatwon’t let you sleep, a clear vision that youhave to focus on, hard work that youhave to do even if you feel exhausted, con-sistency that takes courage & honesty thatshould last forever even if everyone isagainst you. What matters in the end ishow happy you are. My message to theyouth is choose a career that makes you

happy and for which you can devoteyourself for the rest of your life.

Don't avoid something because it iss e e n a s u n a c c e p t abl e. D o

whatever pleases you.

PANDEMIC HAS HIT ALL STAKEHOLDERSIN AUTO INDUSTRY HARD: PARIKH

POST NEWS NETWORK

Chhatrapur, March 16: Have youever heard of lots being drawn todecide who will go home with apitcher full of drinking water?Strange as it may sound, it doeshappen. This rule is followed atStation Road Sahi village inChhatrapur of Ganjam district. Itis bizarre as Chhatrapur town is thedistrict headquarters.

There are 20 to 25 families re-siding in Station Road Sahi village,which suffers from lack of drink-ing water with the advent of everysummer.

For the residents, it is a matterof great regret that their villagehas only tap delivering water. Whatis more appalling is that water is sup-plied only for 15 minutes in an en-tire day.

Initially, the villagers would fightwith each other to get a pitcher fullof drinking water. This constantquarrelling led to the evolvementof the lottery system.

Every day the lots are drawn.When the tap delivers water, theperson with the No.1 token gets thefirst chance to fill up his vessel.

Then tokens 2, 3, 4 and 5 follow insequence to get water. By the timethe fifth person reaches the tap, theflow of water turns into a trickle andfinally stops. So the others have toreturn empty-handed.

Sushama Padhy, a local resident,narrated the ordeal of the villagers.“No one realises our problem. One

has to experience the hardship tobelieve it. We have repeatedly in-formed the RWSS junior engineerabout our problems, but to no avail,”she stated.

Echoing the same grievances, RLaxmi, who is Sushama’s neigh-bour, alleged that she managed totake two pitchers of drinking waterback to her house. Now she hasbeen without drinking water forthe last couple of days.

When contacted, NAC, executiveofficer, N Ganesh Babu said theproblems faced by residents ofStation Road Sahi village have al-ready been brought to the notice ofthe higher officials. “I hope, theirproblems will soon be addressed,”he said.

Till then, amid the gruelling heat,the locals and their kids have tosuffer.

Villagers draw lots to get drinking water POLITICKLE by MANJUL

SUMMER ORDEAL

POST NEWS NETWORK

Baripada, March 16: The taskforce formed by the state governmentto review incidents of forest fireon a daily basis and improve theSOPs to prevent as well as restrainsuch wildfires is currently takingstock of the situation in SimilipalWildlife Sanctuary of Mayurbhanjdistrict.

The task force headed by formerPrincipal Chief Conservator ofForests (PCCF) Sandeep Tripathialong with two members,Jaykrushna Panigrahi and Dr BijayAgrawal, said that wildfires can becontrolled with help of technology,public awareness and governmentincentives to people.

The team held discussion withfield director of Similipal TigerProject M Yagojayanand andBaripada DFO Santosh Joshi re-garding chronology of fires, fire-

fighting exercises, their causes,prevention, existing fire-fightingprotocols and geometric-based firewarnings. They are likely to brain-storm on fire management, pre-vention, effective plan to encourage

community participation and as-sessment of damage to wildlife andbiodiversity in the affected area.

“Fires have been controlled. In thecoming days, fires can be preventedand contained with help of tech-

nology, public awareness and fi-nancial support to communities,”said Jaykrushna Panigrahi.

The task force is looking into is-sues related to extent of damagecaused by wildfires, their impact on

wildlife and forest and livelihood oftribal communities. The task forcesaid that it has proposed that the gov-ernment provides fiscal support totribals inhabiting the fire-proneareas. More forest protection com-mittees, Vana Surakhaya Samitis,voluntary organisations, people’srepresentatives, members of SHGsand NGOs will be roped in to pro-tect the forests and prevent as wellas control forest fires.

It is expected that the task force,in his report, will suggest meas-ures for augmentation of existingfire management protocols, in-cluding a Geomatics-based fire alertsystem, and recommend sugges-tions for improved community par-ticipation in fire management andprevention. It is conducting a post-assessment of forest fire-affectedareas, loss to wildlife, biodiversityand will suggest appropriate meas-ures for augmentation.

Technology, awareness key to tackling fires: Task force Maoists issue death warrantto villagers in Malkangiri POST NEWS NETWORK

Malkangiri, March 16: Terrorhas gripped the inhabitants ofAndrapalli village in SwabhimanAnchal (earlier known as cut-offarea) of Malkangiri district afterMaoists issued death threats to 10villagers.

The ultras issued the death war-rants Sunday to the villagers for per-suading people not to join the out-lawed group. Fearing for their lives,the threatened villagers, initiallydid not disclose the development toothers. However, the matter cameto the fore Tuesday.

People who have received deaththreats include Trinath, RajuHantal, Sarba, Raju Khara, Andha,Damuru Lade, Jageshwar, ManaHantal, Shyam Hantal and Pitu.They have received the threatsthrough letters. According to a

source, the Maoists are trying to re-gain their hold on the locality. Theyare reportedly conducting meet-ings and forcibly inducting localsinto their outfit. The red rebels areissuing death warrants to thosewho are not attending their meet-ings and refusing to join them.

The Maoists have also blamed the10 villagers for convincing othersnot to join the ultras. Since the let-ters have been issued, the 10 vil-lagers and their family membersare spending sleepless nights. Theyare apprehensive that Maoists willattack them any moment.

The team held discussionwith field director of

Similipal Tiger Project MYagojayanand and BaripadaDFO Santosh Joshi regardingchronology of fires, fire-fighting exercises, theircauses, prevention, existingfire-fighting protocols and geometric-based fire warnings

The team is also lookinginto issues related to

extent of damage causedby wildfires, its impact onwildlife and forest andlivelihood of tribalcommunities

IN SEARCH OF REMEDY

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

T he two-day national strike called by the United Forum of Bank Unions(UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, to register theirprotest against the Centre’s proposed privatisation and disinvest-

ment plan, entered the second day on March 16 causing widespread hard-ships to customers across the country. The dislocation of services is severeas the nation’s 12 public sector banks employ 1.3 million-strong workforcewith about 1 lakh branches spread over the country. The nationwide strikecomes in the wake of the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s an-nouncement during the Budget presentation in February that the govern-ment would privatise two more public sector banks.

The decision is yet another evidence of the government’s bankruptcy ofideas to improve the country’s financial health. The disinvestment route tofix the economy has been repeatedly failing. Yet, the government is persistingwith this policy. The grandiose plan to privatise government units with theostensible goal of rejuvenating the economy has simply fallen flat. The gov-ernment could not get the large sums it expected the disinvestment wouldbring in.

The bank unions fear the privatisation of banks, like the insurance sec-tor, would not only lead to massive job losses, but would only help privateplayers those that are close to the ruling party earn windfall profits. Theyare gearing up to launch an even greater movement on lines of the ongoingfarmers’ agitation.

On the first day of the protest, thousands of bank employees took to thestreets across several states. Nearly a million bank staff joined the protestas claimed by the unions. The managers participating in the strike head 80to 90 per cent of the branches. This shows the scale of disruption affectingkey services, including cash withdrawals, deposits, cheque clearances, andremittances across public sector banks. According to one report, 2.01 crorecheque instruments worth ̀ 16,500 crore could not be processed at the threenational grids in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. Clearing of cheques couldnot be done as branches did not accept cheques.

The fear of the agitators that the government’s policies are going toworsen the economy further is not misplaced. The government’s intentionseems to compromise the country’s financial security in order to placate pri-vate players who are keen on maximsing profits.

The striking unions got support from former Reserve Bank of IndiaGovernor Raghuram Rajan who remarked it would be a colossal mistake tosell the banks to industrial houses. The government has already privatisedIDBI Bank by selling its majority stake in the lender to LIC in 2019 and hasmerged 14 public sector banks in the last four years.

As the government is handing over public sector banks to private play-ers, the irony is it was able to implement its own schemes like zero-balanceJan Dhan accounts only on the back of the public sector banks, though it isdoubtful in whose interests the accounts were opened. There were reportsthese accounts were used to turn black money into white during the ill-con-ceived demonetization.

Moreover, India was largely untouched by the 2008 global financial melt-down as it had strong public sector banks. These banks as well as public sec-tor units are the only ones that give strength to public policy initiatives. Forinstance, the government has been insisting on digitisation of virtuallyevery mode of financial transaction. With privatisation of banks, one canvery easily foresee a situation where the private owners would prefer andwill definitely try to shrink the number of branches, eliminating those inthe rural belt that are not profitable as standalone units. This would lead tothe creation of more compact and efficient operations for the new ownersbut would also entail banks moving away from a large section of the pub-lic. This is bound to happen sooner than later, no matter what counter ar-guments are put up at present. When cash has already been sucked away fromthe system and banks will not be physically available, the bulk of the coun-try will be again pushed into the old Indian system of money lenders play-ing a crucial financial role. Lest some forget, it is this money lending activitythat had created bonded labors. Apart from this, the disappearance of bankswill lead to people depending more on chit funds and micro finance ofwhich, barring a very few, most are rogues. This has been especially provenin Orissa and West Bengal.

While it is undoubtedly preferable if government gets itself out of com-mercial activities, it must also be kept in mind that the corporate sector ofIndia has never demonstrated any innovation except trying to achievesuper-normal profits for itself. Banking is a very core public utility servicewhich can be equated with drinking water or electricity supply. It is re-quired for survival of every individual. Handing such critical services overto untrustworthy companies with dark pasts can never be considered as adecision favorable to the national interest.

I f you’ve been vaccinated againstCovid-19, please accept my sin-cere congratulations. You have

not only protected yourself from thevirus, you have also shown con-cern for those around you: yourfamily members, your neighbours,your dog and cats.

Your pets may not get Covidfrom you, but if you get the virusand are hospitalised, who is goingto feed them?

Millions of Covid vaccine dosesare being distributed around theworld, made by pharmaceuticalcompanies such as Pfizer, Moderna,Johnson & Johnson andAstraZeneca. In most countries,priority for the vaccine has beengiven to people considered mostvulnerable. This includes peoplewith certain underlying medicalconditions, such as cancer andheart disease, as well as frontlineworkers and healthcare profes-sionals.

Old people also have priority,because if you do not keep the oldpeople alive, who is going to forcethe young people to get vaccinated?

Old people and young people donot have the same fears about thevirus.

Grandfather: “If I get Covid, Imight end up in the hospital and pos-sibly die.”

Grandson: “If I get Covid, I mightgive it to my grandpa and he mightdie.”

Nobody enjoys getting vacci-nated, but considering everythingwe’ve been through for the pastyear, everyone should be excited toget the Covid vaccine. But many peo-ple are like my teenage daughter,Divya, who does not like any typeof vaccination whatsoever. If therewas a vaccine to protect her againstschool teachers, she wouldn’t get it.

Divya is not yet eligible to get theCovid vaccine, but I’m sure she isalready having nightmares aboutit—picturing a nurse approachingher with a syringe and a needle aslong as a fishing pole.

Nurse: “Divya, do you want it inyour left arm or your right arm?”

Divya: “Can you put it in mydad’s arm?”

Fear of the needle is just one of

a number of reasons that manypeople are reluctant to get the Covidvaccine, even if they’re eligible forit. A few of them are just plainlazy. It takes a little effort to getvaccinated. You can’t just click a but-ton on your phone. Healthcare pro-fessionals do not generally visityour home to vaccinate you. Ifsomeone came to our door hold-ing a syringe and needle, Divyawould hand over all our posses-sions. “Take everything we own,”she would say, “but please do not vac-cinate me.”

Some people are reluctant to getthe vaccine because they’ve re-ceived either misinformation ordisinfor mation about it .Misinformation comes throughthe internet; disinformation comesthrough Donald Trump.

As a result of this false infor-mation, people have started to be-lieve some of the myths about theCovid vaccine. Here are just threeexamples of these myths:

Myth 1: The Covid vaccine causesinfertility. This is not true. If you wantto have a baby, one of the best things

you can do is get vaccinated againstCovid. Ask any medical professionaland they will tell you that in orderto have a baby, it’s absolutely nec-essary that you stay alive.

Myth 2: The Covid vaccine willgive you the Covid virus. Somepeople actually believe this—thatyou might get Covid from the vac-cine that was created to protectyou from Covid. These are the samepeople who will avoid going to thepolice station to report a robbery,because they’re afraid that the po-lice might rob them.

Myth 3: The Covid vaccine willalter your DNA, turning you intoanother person altogether. Peoplewho are happy with their lives donot want to get vaccinated and findthat they’ve suddenly turned intosomeone else. But others may bewilling to take the risk, hopingthat they will suddenly find them-selves writing like Salman Rushdieor batting like Virat Kohli. Ofcourse, if the vaccine actually al-ters their DNA, they’re far morelikely to find themselves writing likeKohli and batting like Rushdie.

Don’t be afraid to get the Covid vax

‘MY LORD’ VS ‘YOUR HONOUR’O

n 23 January, this yearthe dormant but neverending national dis-course over the manner

of address to judges of the higherjudiciary was sparked off onceagain when a law student ap-pearing before the Supreme Court(SC) Bench comprising ChiefJustice of India (CJI) SA Bobde andJustice AS Bopanna as a party-in-person addressed the Bench as‘Your Honour’. There was a sharpreaction from the CJI who re-torted, “When you call us YourHonour, you either have theSupreme Court of the Unite Statesor the Magistrate in your mind. Weare neither.” When the petitionerquickly apologised and startedaddressing the Court as ‘My Lord’,the CJI lightened the issue andsaid, “Whatever, we are not par-ticularly what you call us, butdon’t use incorrect terms.”

However, this happened not forthe first time. In another similarexchange in the CJI’s Court inAugust, 2020, when a lawyer usedthe term ‘Your Honour’, CJI Bobdehad reprimanded him, “Are you ap-pearing before the United StatesSupreme Court? The use of ‘YourHonour’ is in the US and not inIndian Supreme Court.” Whenthe concerned lawyer explainedthat there was nothing in the Lawthat prescribed such an address bythe lawyers, the CJI said, “Maynot be in Law, but it is about prac-tice of the Court.”

Surprisingly, what CJI Bobdeterms as ‘incorrect terms’, washeld correct by him in 2014 whenhe was a puisne justice in the SC.On 6 January, 2014 an SC Benchcomprising the then CJI HL Dattuand Justice SA Bobde heard a PILfiled by a lawyer named Shiv SagarTiwari who prayed for banningthe use of the terms ‘My Lord’and ‘Your Lordship’. Tiwari’s con-tention was that these terms werethe symbols of slavery of the colo-nial era and should be strictly pro-hibited in Indian Courts as it wasagainst the dignity of the country.

The PIL was dismissed by theBench without citing any specificreason, but the Bench held that call-ing the SC judges ‘My Lord’ wasnot mandatory for lawyers andheld, “When did we say it is com-pulsory? You can only call us in anydignified manner. To address theCourt what do we want? Only a re-spectable way of addressing. Youcall (the judges) ‘Sir’, it is accepted.

You call ‘Lordship’, it is accepted.There are some of the appropriateways of expression which are ac-cepted.”

On 6 May, 2006 the Bar Councilof India (BCI) published its reso-lution in the Gazette of India men-tioning: “Consistent with the ob-ligation of the Bar to show arespectful attitude towards theCourt and bearing in mind thedignity of Judicial Office, in formof address to be adopted whetherin the Supreme Court or HighCourts or Subordinate Courtsshould be as follows: “Your Honor”and “Hon’ble Court” in SupremeCourt and High Courts and in theSubordinate Courts and Tribunalsit is open to the lawyers to addressthe Court as “Sir” or the equiva-lent words in respective regionallanguages.” An explanation wasalso provided as - “My Lord” and“Your Lordship” are relics of colo-nial past, it is proposed to incor-porate the above rule showing re-spectful attitude to the Court.

This resolution by the BCI wastaken after considering the ob-servations made by the SC whilehearing a PIL filed by theProgressive and Vigilant Lawyers’Forum for abolishing the terms

“My Lord” and “Your Lordship”.The SC dismissed the PIL on theground that the matter relating tothe manner in which the Bar wouldaddress the Bench was a matter tobe decided by the BCI. The BCIhas incorporated this resolutioninto the Bar Council of India Rules,as Chapter- III-A, Part VI.

Following the above BCI reso-lution and BCI Rules, many SCand HC justices have from time totime conveyed the Bar not to ad-dress them as “My Lord”. In 2009Justice K Chandru of Madras HC,in 2020 the Rajasthan HC, earlierthis year (2021) Justice SMuralidhar of the SC, the ChiefJustice of Calcutta HC Justice TBNair Radhakrishnan and very re-cently, on March 3, 2021 JusticeArun Kumar Tyagi of Punjab &Haryana HC notified to the mem-bers of the Bar not to addressthem as “My Lord” or “YourLordship”, and instead use theterms “Your Honour” or just “Sir”.

The origin of the address “MyLord” certainly goes back to the dis-graceful colonial era. Since thejudges of the Supreme Court ofEngland were holding Lordship,which was a typical feudal titleof the British system, they were

addressed by the British lawyersas “My Lord” or “My Lady”. Themannerism and address of theBritishers were accepted by the sub-ject-people of India during pre-independence era. However, afterindependence also this disgrace-ful and ludicrous colonial legacycontinued for quite long, as perhapsold habits die hard.

The sanctity or dignity of theCourts is directly proportional tothe respect the judges commandfrom the Bar and the commonpeople. So the lawyers must displaytheir highest respect to the judges.However, there is no rhyme or rea-son behind demanding to be ad-dressed as “My Lord”. Firstly, thisBritish custom has its root in itsconservative feudal tradition whichhas till today preserved theMonarchy even though it prides it-self to be the mother of moderndemocracy. The Upper House of theBritish Parliament is known asHouse of Lords.

Secondly, people out of respectand reverence provide judges thestatus of divinity. But judges arecertainly not omnipotent or om-niscient gods. They are also mor-tals like any human being and arealso fallible, and that’s why thereare multiple layers of courts ofappeals to reconsider erroneousjudgments.

The address of “My Lord” isonly retained by the ex-colonies ofthe British Empire like India, SriLanka, Pakistan, Canada and afew other countries. Even the for-mer colony Australia and NewZealand have given up such colo-nial addresses. In many of theEuropean countries like France,Italy, Germany, Sweden, Russia,and the US the Judges of their re-spected Apex Courts are being ad-dressed as “Your Honour”,“Honorable Judge” or simply “Sir”.

It is high time a democratic re-public l ike India whoseConstitution champions the causeof liberty, equality and dignity ofthe individual, gave up the dis-graceful colonial address of “MyLord” and replaced it with “YourHonour” or “RespectedSir/Madam”. A large portion ofboth the Bench and the Bar havealready done it spontaneously andwillingly, and that has never re-duced the prestige, dignity, majesty,sanctity or sublimity of judges.

The writer is a senior advocate. Views are personal.

FOCUS

IN

It is high time a democratic republic like India whose Constitution champions the causeof liberty, equality and dignity of the individual,gave up the disgraceful colonial address of “My Lord” and replaced it with “Your Honour”or “Respected Sir/Madam”

Messing With Banks

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

There is no greater pride andglory than to be a perfectinstrument of the Master.

SRI AUROBINDO

JEST THIS

THE ORIGIN OFTHE ADDRESS

“MY LORD” CERTAINLY GOES

BACK TO THEDISGRACEFUL

COLONIAL ERA

Jayakrishna Sahu

WISDOM CORNERWhen you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace ofmind is waiting there.

GEORGE HARRISON

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. Youare what you are!

JOHN LENNON

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silveror gold.

BOB MARLEY

JUDICIARY

Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: edit@orissapost.com

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

FEAR OF THE NEEDLE IS JUST

ONE OF A NUMBEROF REASONS THAT MANY PEOPLE ARE

RELUCTANT TO GET THE COVIDVACCINE, EVEN

IF THEY’RE ELIGIBLE FOR IT

Melvin Durai

Fighting failure

Sir, When you are down and feeling very low on your con-fidence some people will take extreme measures of endingtheir lives much to the discomfort of people dependent onthem. At this juncture what that person has to do is to seekthe guidance of the right person and act accordingly till thesituation improves. Here are some instances when promi-nent sporting personalities benefitted from the advices of suit-able persons. When Virat Kohli was facing consecutive fail-ures recently he had a chat with AB De Villiers. WhenPrithvi Shaw was faced with repeated failures and SuryaKumar Yadav was not selected in the Indian cricket team,they took the advice from Sachin Tendulkar and the re-sults are there to see. Sachin himself wanted to retire fromInternational cricket after a series of low scores in 2007World Cup. Then he had a long chat with Sir Vivian Richards,who guided him not to take the hasty decision of quittingcricket. Eventually Sachin was part of Indian cricket teamthat lifted the Cricket World Cup in 2011.

V Nagendra Kumar, HYDERABAD

cmyk

cmyk

Methinks

The Australian-born humorist, broadcaster and poet Clive James wrotein the Guardian “I save time on the web by reading nobody’s opinion

that contains the word ‘methinks’.” His dislike is understandable. TheOxford English Dictionary describes it as archaic, poetical and regional. Itmight have added “pretentious” because that’s surely the quality of onlinewriting that James finds unattractive and likely to waste what little time hehas left in this world. He would presumably have passed over anappearance in the Guardian: “So, where will the steel be purchased?Methinks from George Osborne’s new friends in China.” Luckily for thereputation of the paper in James’s eyes, that was in a reader’s letter.Methinks has long ago fallen out of spoken usage, except in expressionssuch as “Methinks the witness doth protest too much”, a misquotationfrom Hamlet. Style guides mostly don’t bother to include it, not even to tellreaders to avoid it, which would be good advice. Bryan Garner doesprovide an entry in his guide, without castigation but calling it “an ever-popular archaism”. I would have contested that, had I not found more thana thousand examples in a database of British newspapers from the past 20years. Many appearances of methinks suggest that the OED should haveadded “humorous” to its list of likely contexts, though the jocularity can beso ponderous that the eyelids droop in sympathy. Some journalists doseem to believe it marks prose as elevated or serious, as in the down-market Sun in July 2015: “Time, methinks, for author John O’Farrell torepublish his excellent memoirs”, and in May in the mid-market DailyTelegraph: “Methinks that a bit more modesty about how ‘rich’ we are, andaccordingly about our ability to dish out largesse, might not go amiss.”Methinks isn’t only archaic but also ancient. It’s in one of the oldest worksin English, King Alfred’s translation before 899 of Boethius’ De ConsolationePhilosophiæ, the Consolations of Philosophy. It was then two words, methyncth (but then written me þincð, using the old characters thorn andeth). The word looks like a thrusting together of me and think, meaning “itseems to me”, and as though it comes directly from the Old Englishequivalent of think. But at that time there were two closely similar verbs, inmodern spelling thencan, to think, and thyncan, to seem or appear. Thesource of methinks is actually the second one. In Middle English the twobecame confused and coalesced into one form that evolved into ourmodern verb to think. Methinks followed. If you’re ever tempted to use thepast tense, it’s methought. But please don’t.

Yemeni crisis

Sir, It is unfortunate to know that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen has beengoing on unabated with no strong solutions in sight. The recent exclusive re-ports on CNN have just highlighted the sorry state of Yemen and also the poorplight of numerous malnourished children in the region. There have been plentyof newborn children facing acute malnutrition. Heartrending pictures andtheir treatment-related difficulties in hospitals have been shocking to thecore. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has warned of malnutrition-re-lated child deaths in great numbers in Yemen. All these disturbing things can-not be brushed aside by pointing the finger at others. All stakeholders includingthe world community must be held accountable to the ongoing Yemeni crisis.Right now famine has also been projected to raise its ugly head across the re-gion. The international community should not think twice to help out Yementhrough strong food assistance and other financial backup programmes.Given that the Asian continent has been home to beautiful natural world andfarming activities for longer time, it is also high time to analyse the possiblechances to create and encourage farming activities in Yemen to a greater ex-tent possible. Such well-planned green activities will surely help fight Yemenicrises like food shortfall and malnutrition.

P Senthil Saravana Durai, MUMBAI

cmyk

cmyk

TELANGANA

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP7

MAHARASHTRA

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, March 16: The Centrewarned Maharashtra Tuesday thatthe state is witnessing a beginningof the second wave of the Covid-19pandemic and asked the state gov-ernment to focus on containmentstrategies and scale up the pace ofvaccination campaign, especially indistricts witnessing a sharp in-crease in infections.

Issuing a letter to Maharashtra’sChief Secretary Sitaram Kunte,which is based on the assessmentof the central govt team, the Unionhealth ministry has urged the stateto bring down its positivity rateand step up contact-tracing.

The letter enclosed the analysisof the pandemic in Maharashtra bya central team which was deputedthere to assess the situation on theground. The team noted the lack ofCovid-19-appropriate behaviourand tracking and testing of casesas the prime reason behind the in-fection surge, apart from the apa-thy of the district administrationto implement already prescribedmeasures for transmission control.

“Maharashtra is at the begin-ning of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. There is very limitedactive effort to track, test, isolatecases and quarantine contacts.There is no adherence to Covid-ap-propriate behaviour among peo-ple both in rural and urban areas,”Union Health Secretary, RajeshBhushan, warned in the letter.

He also pointed out that eight ofthe top 10 districts of India in termsof active Covid-19 infections arein Maharashtra and the only wayto curb the spread is to increasethe pace of vaccination.

“Covid-19 pandemic in the re-cent past has shown a rising trendin Maharashtra where the num-ber of active cases has increased by171.5% over the last one monthfrom 36,917 cases February 11, 2021,to 1,00,240 cases March 11, 2021,”Bhushan wrote to Kunte.

The letter also noted that thenumber of people testing positivewas high, ranging from 5.1% inMumbai to 30% in Aurangabad,implying that many cases were notbeing tested and "there is hightransmission in the community".

The report by the central teamrevealed that the main concept ofcontact tracing was not clearly un-derstood by the field level staff.

Due to limited contact tracing, alarge pool of asymptomatic andpre-symptomatic people was notbeing tracked and tested, said theletter, suggesting that testing beconsiderably enhanced accordingto protocol laid down by the IndianCouncil of Medical Research.

The team observed no adherenceto Covid-appropriate behaviour amongpeople, both in rural and urban areas.“This was conspicuous both for phys-ical distancing and for use ofmasks/face covers. There should bepersuasive communication to sus-tain adherence to Covid-appropriatebehaviour,” the report said.

The central team also pointedto the lack of human resource to im-plement test, track, isolate and treatpolicy for Covid positive cases. “Asthe health staff too is pre-occupiedwith vaccine administration, thereis the limited human resource forthe surveillance and contact trac-ing activities,” it reported.

Besides, the team also found alackadaisical approach of the districtadministrations to manage the sit-uation on the ground. “The districtadministrations are not much wor-ried about the evolving situation. Wecould sense a feeling that enough hasbeen done already. This compla-cency may take its toll,” it concluded.

Beginning of Covid 2nd wave: Centre warns Maha

In a letter to Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte, which is based on theassessment of a central team, the Union health ministry has urged the state to

bring down its positivity rate and step up contact-tracing

Burdi flyover wears a deserted look during a complete lockdown, imposed byauthorities due to surge in coronavirus cases, in Nagpur, Tuesday. PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Hyderabad, March 16: India’syoungest state Telangana hasachieved a turnaround in agricul-ture by almost doubling the agri-culture production and the areaunder cultivation during the lastseven years.

Officials say this could be possibledue to completion of several irri-gation projects, revival of tanks,24X7 free power to farmers and Rs10,000 financial assistance to farm-ers towards input costs per acreannually.

In 2014, when Telangana wascarved out of Andhra Pradesh, thearea under cultivation was 1.41 croreacres. The same has now gone up to2.10 crore acres during the com-bined period of Vaanakalam (Kharif)and Yasangi (Rabi) seasons. Theagriculture yield has doubled from2.05 crore tonne to 4.11 crore tonneduring the same period.

According to official figures,paddy was cultivated in 34.97 lakhacres in 2013-14, and this has goneto 1.04 crore acres in 2020-21. Theprocurement of paddy by the gov-ernment has gone up from 24.30lakh tonnes in 2014 to 1.11 croretonnes last year.

The government claims thatstate has become the rice bowl ofthe country. The fact was high-lighted during Governor TamilisaiSoundararajan’s customary ad-dress to the joint session of boththe houses of state legislatureMonday, the first day of the budgetsession. She said Telangana has be-come Annapurna or food providerto the country.

Last summer, the FoodCorporation of India (FCI) pro-cured 1.15 crore tonne of paddy allover the country. Of this, 64 lakhtonne, that is about 56 per cent wasprocured from Telangana alone.

Paddy production duringVaanakalam was around 1.3 croretonne and during Yasangi it is ex-pected to be 1.25 crore tonne, thehighest for any state in the countryduring Rabi season. Thus the paddy

production for the year is estimatedto be 2.55 crore tonne.

The area under cotton cultivationhas also gone up from 41.83 lakhacres to 60.54 lakh acres. The cottoncrop then accounted for only 18.45lakh tonne annually, whereas now,it accounts for 37.62 lakh tonne an-nually.

To cater to the growing require-ments of the state, the state alsoexpanded marketing and godown fa-cilities. The number of marketshas gone up from 150 to 192. The ca-pacity of godowns today stands at24.73 lakh tonne against 4.17 lakhtonne in 2014.

The state is also on course tocross another milestone with thegross production value of agricul-ture and horticulture crops for 2020-21 crop year expected to touch theRs 1 lakh crore. The figure for 2019-20 figure was Rs 89,058 crore.

Agriculture department attrib-utes the increase in cultivation areaand production to improved irri-gation facilities with completionof new irrigation projects, revivalof tanks under Mission Kaktiyaand other measures like round-the-clock free electricity and RythuBandhu scheme under which everyfarmer is being paid Rs.10,000 per

acre every year towards input costs.The total crop sown area has in-

creased by 21 lakh acre comparedto 2019-20.

An official said the increase insown area and production over lastone year could also be because ofCovid-19 pandemic and lockdownas people who own agriculturelands shifted back to their primaryoccupation after losing other sourcesof income

To prevent farmers from lossesdue to glut in the market, the au-thorities are encouraging them togo for alternative crops rather thanrelying totally on paddy, cotton orother traditional crops. The de-partment has set a target to increasethe cultivation of horticulture cropsfrom existing 12.5 lakh acres to 66lakh acres over the next five years.

Officials say Mission Kaktiyaplayed a key role in augmentingirrigation facilities. Under this pro-gramme, the government took uprevival of 45,000 tanks constructedduring Kakatiya dynasty. This hasresulted in the raise in the ground

water levels.According to data released by

the Centre recently, out of 549 wellsanalysed in the state, ground waterincreased by 91 per cent in 498 wells.

The government embarked uponconstruction of major and mediumirrigation projects. Kaluwakurty,Nettempadu, Bhima, Koil Sagar,Devadula, Mid Manair, Yellampally,Singur, Kinnerasani, Palem Vagu,Kumaram Bhim, Mattadi Vagu,Neelvayi, Jagganathpur and otherprojects works were completed ona fast track. Kaleshwaram,Palamuru-Rangareddy, Dindi,Sitarama Lift Irrigation project arenearing completion.

The government claims thatTelangana region which was oncea permanent address for famineand drought is now transformedand shaped as an excellent agri-culture-based state.

Telangana doubles farm output in 7 yrsCOUNTRY’S RICE BOWL

THE FIGURES OF LAST SEVENYEARS SHOW THAT THE

STATE HAS MADE TREMENDOUSSTRIDES IN BOTH AREA UNDERCULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION

AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENTATTRIBUTES THE INCREASE

IN CULTIVATION AREA ANDPRODUCTION TO IMPROVEDIRRIGATION FACILITIES WITHCOMPLETION OF NEWIRRIGATION PROJECTS, REVIVALOF TANKS, ROUND-THE-CLOCKFREE ELECTRICITY AND RYTHUBANDHU SCHEME UNDER WHICHEVERY FARMER IS BEING PAID RS10,000 PER ACRE EVERY YEARTOWARDS INPUT COSTS

THE GOVERNMENT CLAIMSTHAT STATE HAS BECOME

THE RICE BOWL OF THECOUNTRY

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, March 16: The Shiv SenaTuesday said Belgaum should be de-clared as a Union Territory, allegingthat atrocities on Marathi-speaking peo-ple by pro-Kannada outfits were con-tinuing there.

An editorial in the Sena mouth-piece 'Saamana' alleged that a pro-Kannada organisation recently beatup Marathi people in Belgaum, re-moved Marathi boards from shopsthere and also targeted pro-Marathisocial media users.

The Karnataka police were also

harassing Marathi people, it claimed.“If the atrocities are not going

to stop, then the Centre should de-clared Belgaum as a Union Territory,”it said.

Maharashtra claims certain areas,

including Belgaum, Karwar andNippani which are part of Karnataka,contending the majority of populationin these areas is Marathi-speaking.

The dispute between the two statesover Belgaum and other border areasis pending before the Supreme Courtfor many years.

The editorial in 'Saamana' requestedMaharashtra BJP leader DevendraFadnavis to up take the issue with the Centre and Karnataka chiefminister.

There are Marathi people in Indore(Madhya Pradesh) and Vadodara(Gujarat) also. But, they never had

any clashes with locals, the publica-tion said.

It also said people speaking differ-ent languages have been residing inMaharashtra for so many years andthat Marathi people never treatedthem badly.

“The way the BJP government inKarnataka is handling the atrocitiescommitted on the Marathi communityby locals, it seems to be encouragingsuch miscreants,” the Sena alleged. Itis ‘illegal’ to treat Marathi-speakingpeople in such a way when the bound-ary dispute issue is pending before theSupreme Court, the editorial said.

Border row: Shiv Sena wants Belgaum to be declared UTThe dispute between the two states overBelgaum and other border areas is pendingbefore the Supreme Courtfor many years

BJP delegationmeets Guv overBhainsa violencePRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Hyderabad, March 16:The BJP in Telangana hasurged Governor TamilisaiSoundararajan to instructthe state government to takestringent action againstthose behind the March 7communal violence atBhainsa town.

A BJP delegation whichmet the Governor, sub-mitted a memorandum, requesting that a high level police inquiry be con-ducted “into the series ofcommunal incidents atBhainsa to identify allegedhabitual offenders who incite riots.”

Sunday picnic unearthscenturies-old mystery cave

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jalgaon, March 16: A casualSunday outing in the forestsnear the Maharashtra-MadhyaPradesh border by an ar-chaeologist resulted in a majordiscovery - a 2,000-plus yearold mystery cave dating backto the Satavahana dynasty era.

The cave is hidden and ob-viously in a secret location, 9km from the nearest humanhabitat -- Chaugav village inJalgaon district, said prouddiscoverer Bhujang R. Bobade,also a history scholar.

“We had actually gone tovisit the ruins of the fort builtthere by Gavli kings, deep inthe forested hills. Outside themain entrance of the fort, onthe left side, there is a large cavewith two entry points leadingto different directions. This iswhere we made the new dis-covery,” Bobade told IANS.

The entry to the large caveis through a water tank meas-uring 8 by two feet, after whichthere are rock cut pillars, saidBobade, 38, the Director of

Archives & MuseumDepartment at the DeccanArchaelogical and CulturalResearch Institute,Hyderabad. Since the entry isvery narrow and low, he saidone can approach only in akneeling position from thefresh water, at least two feethigh level, in the tank.

The path opens up into amassive cave measuring 30by 30 feet, which is also filledwith water round the year,fed from four other biggerwater tanks above, servingas a watering hole for thewild animals.

“This cave is barren. Thereare no symbols, carvings orstatues of any gods or god-desses. It is filled with murkywater, with a slippery floor andthe possibility of several dan-gerous reptiles lurking be-neath,” Bobade revealed.

“I sent the pictures for iden-tification to an expert, Dr. E.Sivanagi Reddy, the formerAssistant Director ofArchaeology, Andhra Pradesh.He immediately identified

these as belonging to theSatavahana era, and carved outaround 2,000-2,200 years ago,”Bobade said, on his crowningachievement after having ex-plored more than 850 caves orcave complexes around thecountry. Explaining the uniqueaspects, he said that thesecaves are approachable onlythrough a watery route, whichis unseen anywhere in India,and are carved out on an erst-while ancient trade route goingfrom Maharashtra via MP tothe north.

“It is possible that thewealthy traders of those timesmay have lived there for daysor months for business pur-poses and could have usedthese secret caves for de-positing their valuable goodsor money,” Bobade speculates.

Another probability is thesecaves, invisible due to thewater and greenery, mighthave served as some kind ofa 'safe house' for the royalfamilies during wars orcalamities. “All these and otheraspects need to be examinedin great detail by proper ex-peditions, I feel this is just thebeginning and there are moresuch ancient hidden caveswaiting to be dug out in thatregion,” Bobade said.

He has shared the detailsof the discovery with Dr. TejasGarge, Director ofArchaeology & Museums,Maharashtra and JalgaonCollector Abhijit Raut for further action.

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Whether it isJNU, JamiaMilia or

Aligarh or so manyothers, in the lastfew years, ourcampuses have nolonger remained inclusive spacesthat safeguard freedom ofexpression and individual liberties.

SHASHI THAROOR | CONGRESS LEADER

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TrinamoolCongressgoons

attacked the BJP'swhich was in honourof Bhim RaoAmbedkar. This isan insult to democracy andAmbedkar. CM Mamata Banerjee issquarely responsible for whateveris happening in West Bengal, thisspate of violence

PRAKASH JAVADEKAR | UNION MINISTER

When BJPleaders weremaking claims

of their victory inthe next stateAssembly polls fromthe dais during theparty's working committeemeeting, several office-bearers andleaders were raising their voiceagainst the misgovernance underthe party's rule

AKHILESH YADAV | SAMAJWADI PARTY (SP)PRESIDENT

Chhota Rajangets 10 yrs in jail Mumbai: A special MCOCAcourt in Mumbai Tuesdaysentenced gangster ChhotaRajan to 10 years in jail for afiring incident in suburbanMalad in 2013. A bookie-turned-builder Ajay Gosaliawas shot at and injuredwhen he was coming out ofa local mall. Special JudgeAT Wankhede convictedRajan and five others undersections 307 (attempt tomurder), 120 B (criminalconspiracy) of the IPC as well as MCOCAprovisions. Special publicprosecutor Pradeep Gharatsaid 50-60 witnesses were examined, includingGosalia and an accused whoturned approver.

NIA searchesWaze’s officeMumbai: The NIA which isprobing the case related tothe recovery of an SUV withexplosives near industrialistMukesh Ambani's houseTuesday searched arrestedpolice official Sachin Waze'soffice here. A court,meanwhile, rejected Waze'splea contending that themanner of his arrest by theagency was illegal. Waze, arrested in the caseMarch 13, was attached tothe Crime Intelligence Unit(CIU) of city police's crimebranch till recently.

Sukhbir Badal testsnCoV positive Chandigarh: Shiromani AkaliDal chief Sukhbir Singh BadalTuesday said he has testedpositive for coronavirus. Hemade the announcement aday after addressing a rally inTarn Taran. Badal said he isfine and has isolated himself."I would like to informeveryone that I have testedCOVID positive. My health isfine & as per protocol I haveisolated myself. I requestthose who came in contactwith me during the last fewdays to isolate themselves &get tested for COVID-19," saidBadal in his tweet.

Night curfew inIndore, Bhopal city Bhopal: In view of risingcoronavirus cases in thestate, the Madhya Pradeshgovernment Tuesdaydecided to impose nightcurfew in Bhopal and Indoremunicipal areas and alsoordered closure of shops at10 PM in eight other cities.The restrictions would comeinto force from Wednesday,an official said.

SHORT TAKES

The Supreme Court has launched aweb-based e-copying software tofacilitate “doorstep andcontactless'' delivery of certifiedcopies of its judgments andproceedings

E-COPYING SOFTWAREThere is noconclusive data

available toestablish a directcorrelation ofdeath/disease exclusivelydue to air pollutionASHWINI CHOUBEY | MINISTER OFSTATE FOR HEALTH

Govt should open doors for dialogue: SKMPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: TheSamyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM),an umbrella body of the farmerunions protesting against theCentre's new agriculture laws atDelhi's borders, Tuesday said the gov-ernment should remove "obstacles"and open the doors for dialogue,over a month and a half since thetalks between the two sides hit aroadblock.

The government and the farmershave held 11 rounds of talks, thelast one being on January 22, tobreak the deadlock and end theprotests at different border pointsof the national capital that began inNovember last year. "The SamyuktaKisan Morcha has always been infavour of dialogue. The governmentshould remove various obstaclesand open the way for dialogue," astatement issued by the SKM said.

The farmers have already re-jected the old proposal of the gov-

ernment, it said. Union AgricultureMinister Narendra Singh Tomarhad last month said the govern-ment was ready to resume the talkswith the protesting farmers, butfirst they should respond to its offerto put the three contentious farmlaws on hold for a year and a half

and set up a joint committee to findsolutions.

The talks between the two sideshave not resumed following thewidespread violence during a trac-tor rally by the protesting farmersJanuary 26. The protesters havebeen demanding a repeal of the

three farm laws and a legal guar-antee to the minimum support price(MSP) for their crops. It has beenmore than three months since theprotests began at Delhi's borders andthe government is not even show-ing basic humanity towards theprotesters, the SKM alleged.

It also condemned and "opposed"the Haryana Recovery of Damagesto Property During Disturbance to

Public Order Bill, 2021, claimingthat it will suppress the voice ofpeople. "This effort is being madeto suppress the current farmers'movement and engage the farm-ers in false cases," the SKM said.

In order to strengthen the move-ment nationwide, a joint sessionof trade unions, transport unionsand rights organisations will beheld on Wednesday, it added.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, March 16: TheRailways in Lucknow has hiredtwo brothers, belonging to theKalandar community, to shooaway monkeys by mimicking thevoice of langur.

The Kalandar community isknown for its expertise in train-ing bears and monkeys.

The brothers -- Aslam, 29, andRashid, 27, -- mimic the soundsmade by langurs to scare off mon-keys at the Charbagh railway sta-tion. The brothers have been em-ployed on a contract basis for sixmonths.

According to railway officials,there are over 100 monkeys whichroam around Charbagh railwaystation and snatch food from ven-dors and passengers and evendamage CCTVs and electricitywires.

According to Jagtosh Shukla,senior divisional commercialmanager, Lucknow division,

"Hiring a langur would haveamounted to cruelty to animals,hence professionals have beenhired to get rid of simian troublefrom railway station."

The two brothers remain atthe platforms from 8 a.m. to 8p.m. and mimic the sound of lan-gur when they see the monkeys.

The brothers say that they havebeen taught how to mimic thelangurs and have studied monkeybehaviour in detail.

In 2019, Kismat, a 42-year-oldmonkey handler, possessing sim-ilar skills, had been hired by therailways to take care of the simianmenace.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: A pecu-liar case came up before the DelhiHigh Court Tuesday wherein thebody of a Hindu man, an Indian cit-izen, was wrongly buried in SaudiArabia as per Muslim rites due toincorrect translation of his reli-gion on the death certificate byIndian Consulate officials in Jeddah.

The wife, who has been runningfrom pillar to post to get the body,has approached the high court seek-ing direction to the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) to takesteps to urgently exhume the re-mains and repatriate them to Indiain a time-bound manner.

Justice Prathiba M Singh saidthe woman has been approaching theauthorities since January, after thedeath of her husband, and adequatesteps ought to have been taken tobring back the body of the man toIndia to conduct the last rites.

"Accordingly, the concerned of-ficer from the MEA not below therank of deputy secretary shall join

the proceedings on March 18 to ap-prise this court about the update onsteps taken and status on trans-portation of mortal remains of thedeceased," the judge said, adding thatit was an "unfortunate" case.

The Indian man Sanjeev Kumarhad died January 24 in Saudi Arabia,where he was working, due to car-diac arrest, and his body was keptat a hospital there.

Petitioner Anju Sharma said inthe plea that on getting the news ofher husband's death, the family re-quested the authorities to repatri-ate the body.

Shockingly, February 18, the

Petitioner was informed that thebody of her husband has beenburied in Saudi Arabia while thefamily members were waiting forthe body in India.

"The officials in Indian Consulateexplained that it was due to a mis-take committed by the official trans-lator of Indian Consulate, Jeddah,who wrongly mentioned his reli-gion as 'Muslim'' in the death cer-tificate. They also shared a letter ofapology tendered by the officialtranslating agency of IndianConsulate in Jeddah with the peti-tioner herein," said the petition,filed through advocate SubhashChandran K R and Yogamaya M G.

It also said that neither thewoman nor any of the family mem-bers gave consent to bury SanjeevKumar's body in Saudi Arabia.

Thereafter, the woman requestedthe officials of the Indian Consulatein Jeddah to ask the local author-ities there to exhume the body of herhusband so that it can be trans-ported to India for performing lastrites as per the faith of the family.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bangalore, March 16: As Quadtakes a leap forward, India is deep-ening space ties with the US, Japanand Australia -- the other threemember nations of the group.

Known as the “QuadrilateralSecurity Dialogue”, the Quad group-ing held its first virtual summit lastweek. The four countries plan to es-tablish a series of working groupsthat will focus on climate change; crit-ical and emerging technologies, in-cluding working to set technologystandards and norms and jointlydeveloping some of the critical tech-nologies of the future, officials said.

The Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) last week shippedthe S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar

(SAR) to US space agency NASA'sJet Propulsion Laboratory as thejoint NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) mis-sion moved forward.

NISAR is a joint collaborationfor a dual-frequency L and S-bandSAR for earth observation. “NISARwill be the first satellite mission touse two different radar frequencies(L-band and S-band) to measurechanges in our planet's surface lessthan a centimetre across”, accord-ing to NASA (National Aeronauticsand Space Administration).

The mission is targeted for launchin 2022 from ISRO's Sriharikota space-port in Andhra Pradesh's Nelloredistrict, about 100 kms north ofChennai. NASA is providing themission's L-band SAR, a high-ratecommunication subsystem for science

data, GPS receivers, a solid-staterecorder and payload data subsystem.

ISRO is providing the spacecraftbus,the S-band radar,the launch ve-hicle and associated launch serv-

ices for the mission, whose goal isto make global measurements ofthe causes and consequences ofland surface changes using advancedradar imaging. On March 11,

Bangalore-headquartered ISRO andJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) reviewed the ongoing coop-eration in earth observation, lunarcooperation and satellite navigation.

“Both sides have agreed to ex-plore opportunities for cooperationin space situational awareness(SSA)and professional exchange pro-gramme”, according to ISRO.

On the occasion, ISRO and JAXAsigned an ' ImplementingArrangement' for collaborative ac-tivities on rice crop area and airquality monitoring, using satellitedata". ISRO and JAXA have planneda joint mission -- Lunar PolarExploration (LUPEX) -- to explorethe Moon's south pole in 2023.

LUPEX received a boost as Japanreportedly earmarked 2.8 billion

Yen (USD 26 million) for it for thefiscal 2021. In February, ISRO andAustralian Space Agency (ASA)inked an Amendment of the '2012India Australia Inter-GovernmentalMoU for cooperation in Civil SpaceScience, Technology and Education'.This Amendment makes India'sDepartment of Space and ASA asthe Executive Organisations andprovides scope for other related en-tities to conclude implementingarrangements for specific cooper-ation activities.

The two agencies reviewed the sta-tus of ongoing cooperation activi-ties in earth observation, satellitenavigation, space situational aware-ness and establishment of trans-portable terminal in Australia to sup-port Indias 'Gaganyaan' programme.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 16: Two menin their early 20s were stabbed todeath after a horrifying chase bytheir assailants in a case of roadrage in Outer Delhi's PaschimVihar Tuesday.

The deceased Rohit Agrawal,23, and Ghanshyam, 20, were chasedby two bike-borne assailants aftera minor case of grazing or touch-ing between the two vehicles.

The victims were chased downby the two attackers, including ajuvenile, and were cornered nearUdyog Vihar Metro Station beforebeing stabbed to death.

Both victims were rushed toSanjay Gandhi hospital wherethey were declared brought dead.

Police sid that Rohit Aggarwalwas a resident of Shiv Ram Parkand used to work in his father'sUtensil Shop in Nangloi.

The other victim, Ghanshyam,was from Bihar's Begusarai. Hewas a labour in Haryana Dairy inShiv Ram Park. During the courseof interrogation, it was revealedthat a road rage incident betweenboth parties led to the murder.

"We have arrested an accusedPardeep Kohli (19 years) a resi-dent of Jawalapuri, Delhi. Heworks as a labourer in scrap shopin Bahadurgarh. A juvenile alsoinvolved in the crime has beenapprehended," said A. Koan, DCPOuter Delhi. The incident re-minds one of the infamous Rohiniroad rage in which Sunita fromRohini was killed in May 2003 thatshook the capital.

Double murderon Delhi street

The money spinningmonkey business

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: RajyaSabha Tuesday passed a bill toraise the upper limit for permittingabortions from the present 20 weeksto 24 for "special categories ofwomen" including rape survivors,victims of incest, minors and dif-ferently-abled.

The Medical Termination ofPregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020to amend the Medical Terminationof Pregnancy Act, 1971 was passedby voice vote. The bill was passedby Lok Sabha about a year ago. Aresolution moved by Congressleader Pratap Singh Bajwa to sendthe bill to a select committee ofRajya Sabha was defeated by voicevote, along with some other amend-ments proposed by members. "Thebill as amended is passed," RajyaSabha Deputy Chairman HarivanshNarayan Singh said. Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan said theamendments in the bill have beenmade after studying global practicesand wide consultation within the

country. "Under the leadership ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi,we will not frame any law whichharms women. This is to preserveand protect the dignity of women,"he said. Besides Congress, members of various parties in-cluding Shiv Sena, AITC, CPI, CPI-M and Samajwadi Party had de-manded to send the bill to the selectcommittee.

The bill amends the act passedin 1971 to Medical Termination ofPregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Under the new act, pregnancy inspecial can be terminated "wherethe length of the pregnancy ex-ceeds 20 weeks but does not ex-ceed 24 weeks" if no less than tworegistered medical practitionerare of the opinion that the con-tinuance of the pregnancy wouldinvolve a risk to the life of thepregnant woman or of grave injuryto her physical or mental health orthere is substantial risk that if thechild were born, it would sufferfrom any serious physical or men-tal abnormality.

BILL PASSED TO RAISE LIMITFOR ABORTIONS TO 24 WEEKS

ISRO taking space ties with US, Japan & Oz to a higher orbit

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, March 16: FormerCongress leader PC ChackoTuesday joined the NationalistCongress Party after meeting itssupremo Sharad Pawar.

Ahead of joining the NCP, he hadmet Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary SitaramYechury. The NCP is part of theCPI-M-led Left Democratic Frontin Kerala where Assembly electionsare approaching.

Chacko said: "The need today isfor unity in the opposition par-ties. A united opposition shouldemerge as an alternative to theBJP. I don't see that initiative in theparty which I was a member of ear-lier." A former MP and Delhi in-charge, Chacko quit the Congresson March 10. He said he sent hisresignation letter to party interimchief Sonia Gandhi, saying that "ithad become difficult to continuein Congress". Chacko was miffedover ticket distribution in hishome state Kerala.

EX-CONG LEADERCHACKO JOINS NCP FESTIVAL OF COLOURS

Women smear dry colours on each other during Holi celebrations in Nadia district PTI PHOTO

Hindu man buried in Saudi due to consulate ‘mistake’

The incident remindsone of the infamousRohini road rage inwhich Sunita fromRohini was killed in May 2003 that shook the capital

BKU calls on Noida youth to join March 26 strikeNOIDA (UP): The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has called on youth ofNoida adjoining Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh to join a proposed strikeon March 26 over issues like unemployment, an office-bearer of thefarmers' union said on Tuesday. The BKU supporters are camping atGhazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border since November 2020 overdemand for repeal of the contentious farm laws and a legal guarantee onthe minimum support price (MSP) for crops. "BKU spokesperson RakeshTikait has called on the youth in Noida to join the 'chakka jam' on March26. The BKU members won't put up any blockade in Noida but we haveextended support to the 'chakka jam'," BKU's media in-chargeDharmendra Malik told PTI. Tikait has called on the youth to join theprotest over issues like unemployment, Malik added.

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Irregularities in theMunicipal Corporation ofFaridabad relating to LEDstreetlights and other issueswould be investigated by ahigh-level committeeANIL VIJ | HARYANA URBAN LOCAL BODIES MINISTER

India has taken care of the needs of theworld along with its domestic struggleduring the coronavirus pandemic,Prime Minister Narendra Modi saidTuesday at a virtual summit with hisFinnish counterpart Sanna Marin

PM HOLDS VIRTUAL SUMMIT WITH FINNISH COUNTERPART

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A century-oldCongressparty that got

63 seats (in 2011), 41(in 2016), now has25

K PALANISWAMI |TAMIL NADU CHIEF MINISTER

of theday uote

I am told thatMamataBanerjee is

now doing ChandiPath. But in the last10 years, you havebeen engaged inminority appeasement. Youhave stopped Saraswati Puja inthe state and immersion of idolsof goddess Durga

J P NADDA | BJP PRESIDENT

There is noprovision inthe law as per

which thegovernment candirect any privateschool for waivingthe fees for a particular period butsince it is the general sentiments ofparents, so the government willlook into the issue and see whatcan be done in this regard

VIJAY KUMAR CHAUDHARY |CABINET MINISTER OF BIHAR

4 Maoists killedin gun battleGaya (Bihar): Four Maoists,including a zonalcommander and three sub-zonal commanders, werekilled in Bihar's Gaya districtTuesday in a gun battle withsecurity forces. The gunbattle began in the morningwhen the 205 CoBRA unit ofthe Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) along with alocal unit of the paramilitarywing and state police forcecarried out an operation inMaunbar area under theDumaria police station inGaya district.

Swapan Dasguptaresigns from RSNew Delhi: SwapanDasgupta, the BJPcandidate fromTarakeshwar Assemblyconstituency in WestBengal, Tuesday resignedfrom the Rajya Sabha afterthe Trinamool Congress(TMC) pointed out that anominated member can notjoin a political party. It islearnt that the journalist-turned-politician has sent hisresignation with the requestthat it can be accepted byWednesday. His term asRajya Sabha member willend in April 2021.

More CBI raids in BengalKolkata: Amid the electioncampaigning in poll-boundWest Bengal, the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)Tuesday carried out searchesat several locations in the state,including the premises ofAmit Agarwal, a close aide ofkey accused Anup Majhi akaLala in connection with illegalcoal smuggling case. A CBIsource related to the probe toldIANS, "Multiple agency sleuthsare carrying out searches atthe premises of Agarwal inDurgapur and Kolkata."

CA shot dead New Delhi: A 45-year-oldchartered accountant wasshot dead Tuesday morningallegedly by unidentifiedmen in northwest Delhi'sAdarsh Nagar area, policesaid here. The deceased, AnilAggarwal, was a resident ofMajlis Park, they said. "OnTuesday around 10 am, a PCRcall was received regardingthe incident of firing in whichone person got injured. Apolice team reached thespot. The injured was shiftedto the Fortis Hospital,Shalimar Bagh, where hewas declared brought dead,"Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (northwest) UshaRangnani said.

SHORT TAKES

IN 2020, AROUND 84 %OF ALL MONITORED

COUNTRIES OBSERVEDAIR QUALITY

IMPROVEMENTS,LARGELY DUE TO

GLOBAL MEASURES TOSLOW THE SPREAD OF

COVID-19PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: All Indiancities showed air quality im-provements in 2020 owing to theCovid-19 impact compared to 2018,while 63 per cent saw improve-ments compared to 2019, said the2020 World Air Quality ReportTuesday that is based on PM2.5

data from 106 countries.Air quality improvements

across major cities in 2020 com-pared to 2019 include Beijing(minus 11 per cent) Chicago (minus13 per cent), Delhi (minus 15 percent), London (minus 16 per cent),Paris (minus 17 per cent) andSeoul (minus 16 per cent). However,India continues to feature promi-nently at the top of the most pol-luted cities ranking, with 22 ofthe top 30 most polluted citiesglobally. The report by IQAir saidin 2020, 86 per cent of the cities inChina experienced cleaner airthan the previous year.

Despite this, Chinese residents arestill exposed to PM2.5 levels morethan three times the World HealthOrganization (WHO) annual guide-lines. Hotan in northwestern Chinaranks as the world's most pollutedcity, largely due to sandstorms ex-

acerbated by climate change.Only 24 out of 106 monitored

countries met the WHO annualguidelines for PM2.5 in 2020.

The report says climate changecontinues to affect air quality. Theyear 2020 is tied with 2016 as thehottest year on record. Wildfires

and sandstorms fueled by the warm-ing climate led to extremely high pol-lution levels in California, SouthAmerica, Siberia and Australia.

South Asia is the most pollutedregion of the world with Bangladesh,India and Pakistan sharing 42 ofthe 50 most polluted cities worldwide.

In 2020, about half of all Europeancities exceed the WHO's target forannual PM2.5 pollution. The high-est levels of PM2.5 pollution wasfound in Eastern and SouthernEurope, with Bosnia Herzegovina,North Macedonia and Bulgaria tak-ing the lead.

"The year 2020 brought an un-expected dip in air pollution. In2021, we will likely see an increasein air pollution due to human ac-tivity, again," said Frank Hammes,CEO of IQAir.

"Many parts of the world expe-rienced unprecedented, but short-lived, improvements in air qualityin 2020, as restrictions related tothe COVID-19 pandemic caused asteep drop in fossil fuel consump-tion," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead an-alyst at the Centre for Research onEnergy and Clean Air (CREA), whoalso contributed to the report.

India saw air quality improve in 2020: Report

Summer shock: Pricesof veggies on the rise

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: With theonset of the Summer season,prices of potatoes and other veg-etables have started shooting up.Pointed gourd, cucumber, ridgedgourd and lady's finger have goneout of the reach of the commonman across the country.

Prices of cauliflower, radish,brinjal, spinach, peas and toma-toes have surged in March. Pricesof potatoes, which was expectedto have a bumper yield this year,have also started increasing.

Noida vegetable seller PappuKumar said that now the pota-toes entering the market have lit-tle moisture. As a result the tradershave started storing the vegetablewhich has led to the increase in prices.

At the same time, new vegeta-bles like lady's finger, cucumberand pointed gourd are yet to finda profitable market. The retailprices of these veggies have in-

creased to Rs 20 from Rs 10 per kgthis month.

The consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation was at 4.06per cent in January.

The rate of price rise in thefood basket accelerated to 3.87per cent in February, as against1.89 per cent in the precedingmonth, according to the NationalStatistical Office (NSO).

A major reason for the rise inretail and wholesale inflationrates has been the rise in theprices of food and beverages.

The prices of pulses and edi-ble oil was already on the riseand now the prices of vegetableshave also started rising thismonth. Vegetable wholesaletraders say that the consump-tion of vegetables has increaseddue to the fact that lentils are ex-pensive, so prices of cabbage,tomato and other vegetables havestarted to rise, while the whole-sale price of potatoes has in-creased marginally.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: A war ofwords erupted between theCongress and the government inLok Sabha Tuesday over registra-tion of sedition cases with the op-position party alleging that thestringent law is being misused,drawing a sharp retort from UnionMinister G Kishan Reddy whoasked it not to lecture others ondemocracy.

During the Question Hour,Congress member from TelanganaAnumula Revanth Reddy sought thenumber of cases registered underthe offence of sedition across thecountry during the last 10 years, theconviction rate and the steps takenfor their speedy trial.

The focus of his question was onclimate activist Disha Ravi whowas arrested in the farmer protesttoolkit case earlier this year andlater granted bail, and cases reg-istered against farmer union lead-ers after the January 26 violence inthe national capital.

Reddy, the Minister of State forHome, tabled a written response tothe question in the House.

According to the data, 47 cases ofsedition were registered in 2014;30 in 2015; 35 in 2016; 51 in 2017; 70in 2018 and 93 in 2019.

The highest 54 cases of seditionwere registered in Assam between2014 and 2019, 36 in Jharkhand,31 in Haryana, 30 in Karnataka,25 in Jammu and Kashmir and 17in Uttar Pradesh. The ministeralso made it clear that "there is nodirect involvement of the Centre insedition cases". However, Anumulawas not satisfied with the response.He said he had sought details for 10years but the information was pro-vided only from 2014-2019. Anumalasaid, "Giving half information is tak-ing the house towards a wrong di-rection." He also asked whetherthere is a proposal to drop the "falsecharges" against farmer unionleaders protesting against theCentre's three farm laws. In re-sponse, the minister said theNational Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) data is based on the in-formation received from all thestates. The minister added thatafter the Modi government tookcharge, it started presenting a sep-arate data on the sedition charges.

SEDITION CASES

Cong, govt engage inwar of words in LS

AAP TO PROTEST AT JANTAR MANTARINDO-ASIAN NEW SERVICE

New Delhi, March 16: The AamAadmi Party (AAP) Tuesday an-nounced that it will protest againstthe Centre's move to amend theGovernment of National CapitalTerritory of Delhi (Amendment)Bill-2021, at the Jantar MantarWednesday.

"AAP will hold a massive protestagainst (the) BJP's anti-Constitution

move of trying to curtail the pow-ers of Delhi's elected govt byamending the GNCTD Act," theparty said in a tweet.

Senior AAP MLA and chiefspokesperson Saurav Bharadwajtold IANS that the party will op-pose the Centre's unconditionaland undemocratic move to de-rail the elected government ofthe national capital. "We willprotest in and outside Parliament

against this Bill. AAP will ex-pose the BJP's hidden agenda torule in Delhi by giving more powerto the Lieutenant-Governor.

If the Centre succeeds in itsplan, the Delhi government willhave to wait for the L-G's approvalon every development issue andthe elected Government will runon mercy his office for publicservice," he added. On Monday, theCentre tabled the new Bill in the

Lok Sabha, which is an amend-ment to the Gover nment ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi Act, 1991, and also seeksto better define the role of theCouncil of Ministers and the L-G in Delhi.

The Bill gives discretionarypowers to the L-G even in matterswhere the Legislative Assemblyof Delhi is empowered to makelaws.

‘Shah conspiring to harass TMC’REFERRING TO THE LAST WEEK’S ‘ATTACK’ ON HER IN NANDIGRAM, BANERJEE SAID

NO INJURY CAN STOP HER FROM ENSURING HER PARTY’S VICTORY IN THE POLLSAGENCIES

Mejia/Chhatna/Raypur (WB),March 16: West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee Tuesdayaccused Union Home Minister AmitShah of ‘hatching a conspiracy’ toharass TMC leaders ahead of the as-sembly polls, and sought to know ifthe Election Commission (EC) istaking instructions from him. TheCM also said that she would beforced to stage a protest outsidethe poll panel's office, if the BJP con-tinues to "interfere" in its day-to-dayfunctioning.

Contending that Shah is "frus-trated" over the poor turnout athis rallies, Banerjee, who ad-dressed three public meetings inBankura during the day, accusedthe BJP of plotting to kill her,and claimed that her director ofsecurity, Vivek Sahay, was re-moved from the post by the pollpanel, following her injury inNandigram, for this reason.

"Amit Shah is frustrated as hisrallies have registered poor turnout.Instead of running the country, heis sitting in Kolkata and hatchingconspiracies to harass TMC leaders.What do they want? Do they wantto kill me? Do they think they canwin elections by killing me? If theythink so, they are wrong," she said.

Urging the EC to take note ofShah's "antics", Banerjee wonderedwhether the EC has been reducedto a political tool of the saffronparty. "Is Amit Shah running the EC?(It seems) he is giving instructionsto the EC. What happened to their

independence? My director security(Vivek Sahay) was removed (by EC)under his instructions," she said.

Banerjee claimed Shah, whoheld a series of meetings with thestate leadership Monday night,has understood well that hisparty is still miles away fromthe seat of power. "Will the homeminister run the country or spendtime harassing senior govern-ment officials, politicians? Willhe harass the home secretary?Send CBI notice?

"They are booking all hotels.They are planning to frame casesagainst TMC candidates, send CBI,ED teams to harass political rivals?They are sending notices to thosebehind the Nandigram land move-ment. Bankura and Bengal shouldshow others the way to defeat these

dictators," she said.Demanding free LPG gas for

every citizen, she said, the BJP is"selling off" railways, Coal India, clos-ing down BSNL and banks and"people should unite against this move".

"They have renamed a stadiumafter Prime Minister NarendraModi. If they get to have their waythey will change the name of thecountry," she said.

At another meeting in Chhatna,the CM said "Bengal will soon voteto decide who will be at the helm."Continuing her tirade against Shah,she said, "There is a home ministerwho garlands a statue mistakingit for that of Birsa Munda's. The bustof Vidyasagar statue was also van-dalised in his presence.

"He is professing his love for

backward communities by bringingfood from five-star hotels and savour-ing the items at their households,just for the cameras," she said.

The feisty TMC boss said sheand other party leaders hit thestreets in the interest of peopleamid the Covid-19 pandemic, whileBJP leaders chose to stay at home.

Talking about the measures takenby her dispensation to fight thepandemic, the CM said, "I had writ-ten to Prime Minister NarendraModi for arranging free vaccinationfor everyone in Bengal. I had saidthat we are ready to bear the cost.But he did not respond."

In a jibe at TMC's other rival,the CPI(M), she said, "erstwhile'harmads' (goons) of the Left partyhave now joined hands with theBJP. Please beware of them."

NO COVID ‘FEAR’

An artiste performs at a play during the Chamaria Satra Mahotsav at Boko in Kamrup district PTI PHOTO

Suspended Zomatodelivery boy lodgescounter complaintINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bangalore, March 16: Nearlyweek after Bangalore-based model-turned-make-up artiste complainedthat a Zomato delivery boy hadattacked her, the accused filed acounter complaint against herMonday, police said.

In his complaint filed at theElectronic City Police Station here,Kamaraj accused HiteshChandrani of abusing and slappinghim, falsely accusing him of as-sault, and defaming him.

Chandrani had shared a videoclip on Instagram and Twitter, al-leging that a Zomato delivery boyhad hit her and run away after aheated argument with her.

She claimed that a delay in de-livery of food was the reason fortheir argument.

Acting on her complaint, po-lice acted against the food deliveryboy and arrested him. AfterChandrani's video went viral,Zomato apologised to her for theincident and promised necessaryaction.

However, the issue took a localvs outsider angle with a section ofKannada activists siding withKamaraj, who had not only lost hisjob but also was in police custody.

He added that she had hit himwith "slippers".

"After I arrived at the door of herapartment, I gave her food and I wasexpecting her to pay me (as shechose cash as payment mode),"Kamaraj said, adding that he alsoapologised for delay in deliverydue to traffic and bad roads butChandrani was very rude to him.Police have registered a case andare investigating.

P10WEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalIt’s not just Canadathat is experiencing

turbulence. The entire globeis undertaking the largestmass vaccination campaignin its history with completelynew supply chainsANITA ANAND | PROCUREMENT MINISTER,CANADA

A mountaineering expeditionteam consisting of Bahrain’sPrince Sheikh Mohamed HamadMohamed Al Khalifa arrived inNepal to summit Mt Everest thisspring season

BAHRAIN PRINCE TOSUMMIT EVEREST

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Ultimately, wemust drive outviolence

against women andgirls and makeevery part of thecriminal justicesystem work to better protect anddefend them

BORIS JOHNSON | PRIME MINISTER OF THE UK

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The 10-yearlong Syrianconflict has

brought untoldsuffering to theSyrian people. Thereis an urgent need toincrease humanitarian assistanceto all Syrians throughout thecountry without discrimination,politicisation, and anypreconditions

T S TIRUMURTI | INDIA’S PERMANENT

REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UN

It’s a historicevent forBangladesh as

five heads of stateand governmentnever (without anysummit) visited herewithin a time span of 10 days

AK ABDUL MOMEN | FOREIGN MINISTER,BANGLADESH

Bolsonaro names4th Health MinSao Paulo: With COVID-19 stillraging in Brazil, President JairBolsonaro picked his fourthhealth minister since thepandemic began, this timethe head of the country’scardiology society who in thepast has spoken favorably ofthe country’s conservativeleader. Marcelo Queiroga willreplace Eduardo Pazuello, anactive-duty army generalwith expertise in logisticswho landed the position lastMay despite having no priorhealth experience. EarlierMonday, Pazuelloacknowledged in a pressconference that Bolsonaroaimed to replace him.

Houthis attackSaudi airbaseSanaa: Yemen’s Houthi militiasaid they launched a newattack Tuesday at the KingKhalid Airbase in SaudiArabia’s Khamis Mushait city.“The attack hit the targetaccurately,” Xinhua newsagency quoted Houthi militaryspokesman Yehya Sarea assaying in a statement.However, the Saudi-ledcoalition forces said earlierTuesday that they hadintercepted and destroyed anexplosive-laden drone fired bythe Houthi militia from Yementowards Kamis Mushait, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported.

Israel to allowall flights Tel Aviv: Starting Tuesday,flights to Israel will be allowedfrom all destinations, followinga decision by the cabinet toenable nationals to arriveahead of the March 23 generalelections. However, thecabinet decided to keep aquota of no more than 3,000arrivals per day, reportsXinhua news agency.Passengers will be required tocarry out coronavirus tests atthe airport. Israel had imposeda ban on incoming andoutgoing flights January 24.

Maldives approvesSinopharm vaxMale: The Covid-19 vaccinedeveloped by China’sSinopharm has been approvedfor emergency use in theMaldives, the Maldives Foodand Drug Administration(MFDA) announced at a pressconference Monday. Thevaccine made by ChinaNational Pharmaceutical Group(Sinopharm) will be given topeople aged between 18 and60, local media reported, citingan official at the MFDA. TheMFDA also announced that thevaccine made by Pfizer hasalso been approved foremergency use, the Xinhuanews agency reported.

SHORT TAKES

PURPLE RAIN

Staffs of teamLab wearing swimsuits walk inside digital artwork combined with light, water and sound during a demonstration of TikTok teamLab Reconnect, digital artwork combined with sauna, ahead of its opening to the public this month in Tokyo, Japan REUTERS

AGENCIES

Beijing/New Delhi, March 16:China has made it mandatory forpeople coming from India and 19other nations to get Chinese-madeCOVID-19 vaccines if they wantto travel to this country.

For the purpose of resumingpeople-to-people exchanges in an or-derly manner, starting from 15March, 2021, the Chinese Embassiesand Consulates in India will providethe persons having taken Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine and hold-ing the Certificates of Vaccination,a notice posted on the ChineseEmbassy in New Delhi said.

The announcement makes lit-tle difference for thousands ofIndian students besides profes-sionals working in China and theirfamily members who are stuck inIndia awaiting Beijing to permittheir return as there are no Chinesevaccines available in India.

The Chinese Embassy noticedid not specify how Indians canaccess the Chinese-made vaccinesin India as they are not availablein the country.

Over 23,000 Indian students, mostof them medical students, besideshundreds of professionals work-ing in China are stuck in Indiasince last year due to coronavirustravel restrictions.

Despite repeated representa-tions from the Indian embassy andappeals by the students, China isyet to respond positively.

State-run Global Times reportedthat such notices were put up byChinese embassies in 20 countries.

Asked about the rationale of theregulation to have Chinese vac-cines in countries like India whereChina made vaccines are not avail-able, Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Zhao Lijian told a mediabriefing here Tuesday that many

countries have floated the idea oflinking vaccination status withopening up international travels.

Our proposal to facilitate thetravel of those who have been in-oculated with Chinese vaccines ismade after thoroughly consider-ing the safety and efficacy ofChinese vaccines, he said.

We believe this is a meaningfulexploration of facilitating inter-national travel once mass vacci-nation has been achieved. It is notlinked to the recognition of Chinesevaccines, he said.

FOREIGNERS RETURNONLY IF JABBED WITHCHINESE VAX: CHINA

The Chinese Embassy notice did not specify howIndians can access the Chinese-made vaccines in

India as they are not available here

China approves4th COVID vaxTAIPEI: China has approved anew COVID-19 vaccine foremergency use, one that wasdeveloped by the head of itsCenter for Disease Control,adding to its arsenal. Gao Fu,the head of China’s CDC, led thedevelopment of a proteinsubunit vaccine that wasapproved by regulators lastweek for emergency use, theChinese Academy of Sciences’Institute of Microbiology said ina statement Monday. It is thefourth such vaccine to be givenemergency use approval. Chinahas approved four vaccinesdeveloped by three Chinesecompanies for general use.

REUTERS

Jerusalem, March 16: Israeli ar-chaeologists racing against treasurehunters to search caves near theDead Sea have discovered a trove ofartefacts, including fragments ofa biblical text, the like of whichhas not been seen for decades.

The finds, preserved by the hot,dry air of the Judean desert, alsoinclude the 6,000-year-old partlymummified skeleton of a child, anda perfectly intact, finely woven bas-ket dating back 10,500 years thatthe Israel Antiquities Authoritysaid on Tuesday was likely to bethe oldest in the world.

The Authority has overseen asurvey of more than 100 km of cliffsand the caves carved or eroded into

them. The fragments of parchment,about 2,000 years old, bear biblicalverse, written in Greek, and matcha scroll discovered about 60 yearsago called the “Book of the 12 MinorProphets”.

That scroll is one of a trove of an-cient Jewish texts called the DeadSea Scrolls that were found in 1947by local Bedouin in the caves ofQumran, about 20 km east ofJerusalem.

The collection, which has cometo include texts discovered else-where along the western shore of theDead Sea, provided a window intoJewish society and religion beforeand after the time of Jesus.

A flurry of exploration followedtheir discovery but the search even-tually petered out - until recently,

when new pieces of scrolls and parch-ment appeared on the black market.

The likelihood that antiquities

robbers had found a new trovespurred the Authority into action.

Since 2017, crews have been ab-

seiling down marl and limestonecliffs and using drones to map hun-dreds of caves and hollows.

Many were filled with centuriesof sand and debris, and about a

dozen thought to be likely hidingplaces were excavated fully.

The new fragments of manu-script were found in the “Cave ofHorror”, which years ago yieldedup the 1,900-year-old skeletons ofJewish rebels who had foughtagainst the Roman Empire.

“These are new pieces of the puz-zle and we can add them to ourgreater picture of the period and ofthe text,” said Oren Ableman ofthe Antiquities Authority’s DeadSea Scrolls Unit.

“Even though these pieces aresmall, they did give us some new in-formation that we did not know be-fore.” The fragments allowed thereconstruction of 11 lines of text,and provided insight into the parch-ment the text is written on.

New piece of Dead Sea Scrolls jigsaw discovered after 60 yearsThe scroll is one of a trove of ancient Jewish texts called the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in 1947 by local Bedouin in the caves of Qumran

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

London, March 16: Peers inBritain’s House of Lords held a de-bate on the issue of freedoms ofnon-governmental organisations, ac-ademics and other groups in Indiaand called on Prime Minister BorisJohnson to take up the issues di-rectly with his Indian counterpartNarendra Modi during his visit toNew Delhi next month.

The India Restrictions onFreedom debate in the Upper Houseof the Parliament was called bycrossbench peer Lord RichardHarries Monday and, as is cus-tomary, Foreign, Commonwealthand Development Office (FCDO)minister Lord Zac Goldsmith re-sponded on behalf of the govern-ment to highlight the close ties be-tween the UK and India which allowBritain to raise all issues as part ofan ongoing dialogue.

He pointed to a very deep andbroad relationship with the world’slargest democracy, with which theUK’s trade and investment part-nership is thriving and collabora-

tion on defence and security meanthe two countries a force for goodin the world.

Our approach has always been toraise any concerns directly withthe Indian government. We willcontinue to engage India on thefull range of human rights mat-ters and raise our concerns wherewe have them — as we do — in-cluding at ministerial level, saidLord Goldsmith.

The Prime Minister will visitIndia shortly. That will be an op-portunity to discuss a very widerange of bilateral and multilateralissues directly with the Indian gov-ernment. Of course, where we havespecific concerns, the PrimeMinister will raise them directlywith the government of India, as youwould expect of a close friend andpartner, he said.

The Lords debate comes a week

after a debate in a House ofCommons committee room on theissue of farmers’ protests in Indiaover agricultural reforms.

India has firmly told Britain thatthe country’s MPs should refrainfrom practising vote bank politicsby misrepresenting events, espe-cially in relation to another fellowdemocracy. The Indian governmenttook strong exception over theCommons debate as gross inter-ference in the politics of anotherdemocratic country.

India has also consistently as-serted that protests by farmersmust be seen in the context of India'sdemocratic ethos and polity.

UK peers debate ‘freedoms’ in IndiaThey called on PrimeMinister Boris Johnson totake up the issues directly with his Indiancounterpart NarendraModi during his visit toNew Delhi next month

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Brussels, March 16: With coron-avirus cases rising in many places,governments faced the grimmest ofdilemmas Tuesday: push on with avaccine that is known to save livesor suspend use of AstraZeneca overreports of dangerous blood clots ina few recipients, even as the Europeanregulator said there was “no indi-cation” the shot was responsible.

It has created a jagged divideacross the globe, forcing politiciansto assess the health risks of haltingthe shots at a time when manycountries, especially in Europe,are already struggling to overcomelogistical hurdles and vaccine hes-itancy among their populations.

Sweden was the latest to join aswelling group of European Unionnations choosing caution over speed,even as the head of the EuropeanMedicines Agency said the agency

is “firmly convinced” that the ben-efits of the AstraZeneca shot out-weigh the risks.

Emer Cooke noted Tuesday thatthousands of people across the EUdevelop thromboses every year fora variety of reasons and that therewere no reports of increased bloodclots in the clinical studies of theAstraZeneca vaccine. Still, expertswould undertake a “very rigorousanalysis” and make a recommen-dation Thursday, she said.

Europe has the luxury to be ableto pick from several vaccine can-didates — but the decision is stillnot an easy one on the continent,

where the virus is again surging andwhere the vaccination campaignhas repeatedly stumbled.

The choice may be even morefraught elsewhere because manycountries are relying heavily onAstraZeneca, which is cheaper andeasier to handle than some othershots. The vaccine has so far playeda huge role in the global initiativeto ensure vaccines get to poorercountries known as COVAX.

The difficulty of the decisionwas clear in Thailand, the firstcountry outside Europe to tem-porarily suspend use of theAstraZeneca vaccine, only to re-cant on Tuesday — when its primeminister received a dose.

Many other countries in Asiahave likewise shrugged off con-cerns, though Indonesia halted useof the shot this week, saying itwould wait for a World HealthOrganization report on the issue.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Karachi, March 16: Pakistanauthorities said Tuesday that theyhave apprehended 11 Indian fish-ermen and confiscated their twoboats for allegedly straying into thecountry’s territorial waters.

“After initial investigation, theapprehended fishermen werehanded over to Docks PoliceKarachi for further legal formal-ities,” the Pakistan MaritimeSecurity Agency (PMSA) said ina statement.

It said two Indian fishing boatsalong with 11 crew members werelocated in eastern maritime ex-clusive economic zone of Pakistanduring routine surveillance.

The PMSA ships, aircraft andfast boats regularly undertakepatrolling and monitoring of the maritime zone because in therecent past, a number of un-war ranted intrusions intoPakistani waters have been observed, it said.

Pakistan arrests 11Indian fishermen

EU regulator ‘convinced’ Astra benefit outweighs risk

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Seoul, March 16: In North Korea’sfirst comments directed at theBiden administration, Kim JongUn’s powerful sister Tuesdaywarned the United States to “refrainfrom causing a stink” if it wants to“sleep in peace” for the next fouryears.

Kim Yo Jong’s statement was is-sued as US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken and DefenseSecretary Lloyd Austin arrived inAsia to talk with US allies Japan andSouth Korea about North Koreaand other regional issues. Theyhave meetings in Tokyo Tuesday be-fore speaking to officials in SeoulWednesday.

“We take this opportunity towarn the new US administrationtrying hard to give off (gun) powdersmell in our land,” she said. “If itwants to sleep in peace for coming

four years, it had better refrain fromcausing a stink at its first step.”

Kim Yo Jong, a senior officialwho handles inter-Korean affairs,also criticized the U.S. and SouthKorea for holding military exer-cises. She also said the North wouldconsider abandoning a 2018 bilat-eral agreement on reducing mili-tary tensions and abolish a decades-old ruling party unit tasked tohandle inter-Korean relations if itno longer had to cooperate withthe South.

N Korea warns US not to ‘cause a stink’

REUTERS

Vienna, March 16: A dissidentband of Roman Catholic priestsleading a disobedience campaignagainst the Vatican said Tuesdaythey would carry on blessing same-sex couples in defiance of Churchorders.

The Vatican said Monday thatpriests cannot bless same-sexunions and that such blessingsare not valid, in a ruling that dis-appointed gay Catholics who hadhoped their Church was becomingmore welcoming under PopeFrancis.

In some countries, parishes andministers have begun blessingsame-sex unions in lieu of mar-riage, and there have been calls forbishops to institutionalise de factosuch blessings. Conservatives inthe 1.3 billion-member RomanCatholic Church have expressedalarm over such practices.

Rebel priests defyVatican, vow to blesssame-sex couples

P11

businessWEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

Overall, inflationhas remained low

in the last sevenyears. But in some items,there was a rise in pricesdue to supply constraintsbecause of COVID-19 and arise in demandANURAG SINGH THAKUR | MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp reached acontent-supply deal with Facebook Inc inAustralia, the companies said on Tuesday,a step toward settling a dispute that sawthe social media giant briefly shut downthousands of pages in the country

NEWS CORP INKS AUSTRALIAFACEBOOK DEAL

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Thegovernmentalways makes

efforts to revivepublic sectorundertakings thatcan be revived. Theeffort always is to utilise fullcapacity of PSUs

PRAKASH JAVADEKAR | UNION MINISTER FOR

HEAVY INDUSTRIES AND PUBLIC ENTERPRISES

of theday uote

RBI imposes `2crpenalty on SBIMumbai: Reserve Bank ofIndia Tuesday imposed apenalty of ` 2 crore on StateBank of India (SBI) forcontravention of norms,including specific directionsto the lender onremuneration to itsemployees in the form ofcommission. The penalty hasbeen imposed forcontravention of certainsections of BankingRegulation Act and itsspecific directions of RBIissued to the bank onpayment of remuneration toemployees in the form ofcommission.

TCS launchesnew platform New Delhi: India’s largest ITservices company TataConsultancy Services (TCS)on Tuesday announced its`Automated VulnerabilityRemediation platform' aimedat helping enterprises toefficiently mitigate cyberrisks. The SaaS-basedplatform would enableenterprises to safeguardthemselves from maliciousattacks by identifying andprioritising vulnerabilities intheir software libraries andproactively fixing them. “TheAutomated VulnerabilityRemediation platform helpsenterprises build and executea contextual, risk-focusedand effective vulnerabilitymanagement programme,helping them decide on theright remediation approachacross assets, acrosscommon vulnerabilities andpatching,” TCS release said.

L&T bags ordersacross segments New Delhi: Infrastructurecompany Larsen & Toubro(L&T) Tuesday said it hasreceived multiple ordersacross its business segmentsin the domestic market. Thecompany did not provide thevalue of the contracts butsaid the orders fall under the“significant” category, whichranges between `1,000 croreand `2,500 crore according tothe classification ofcontracts.

PhonePe cementspositionMumbai: PhonePe processedthe most transactions in thelast three months to continueas India’s top UnifiedPayments Interface (UPI) appand WhatsApp, themessaging platform used bymillions in India, failed to liveup to expectations that it willgrow rapidly, data showed. InFebruary, WhatsAppprocessed 0.55 milliontransactions amounting to`32.41 crore.

SHORT TAKES

The economicattractivenessof electric

vehicles has beenon the rise withrespect to the ICEengine due to fallingbattery prices and rising cost of ICEengine vehicles with respect toincrease in regulations

GIRISH WAGH | PRESIDENT, COMMERCIAL

VEHICLE BUSINESS UNIT, TATA MOTORS

The balance oftrade inalcoholic

beverages is highlyskewed in favour ofthe UK and anyreduction in BCDwill further worsen it

VINOD GIRI | CIABC DIRECTOR GENERAL

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 16: The UnionCabinet Tuesday approved a billto set up a Development FinanceInstitution (DFI) to generate fundsfor investment in the infrastruc-ture sector, as the governmentmoves to increase spending onroads, ports and energy.

The proposed legislation willgive effect to the Budget an-nouncement made by FinanceMinister Nirmala SitharamanFebruary 1. The government has pro-posed ̀ 20,000 crore to capitalise theinstitution.

“The Cabinet has cleared thisBill, through which we will have aninstitution and institutional arrange-ment, which will help in increasinglong term funds,” she said after themeeting of the Cabinet.

The proposed DFI will have 50 percent non-of ficial directors,Sitharaman added.

In her Budget 2019-20 speech,Sitharaman had proposed a studyfor setting up DFIs for promotinginfrastructure funding. About 7,000projects have been identified underthe National Infrastructure Pipeline(NIP) with a projected investmentof a whopping ̀ 111 lakh crore dur-ing 2020-25.

“During Budget, we had men-tioned that we will be setting up anational bank to fund infrastructureand developmental activities. Past

attempts to have alternative in-vestment funds were taken up, butfor various reasons, we ended upwith no bank which could take uplong-term risk (which is very high)and fund development,” saidSitharaman.

She said DFI will start with 100%government ownership and willgradually be brought down to26%.

“I expect the institutionto raise up to `3 trillion inthe next few years,”Sitharaman told reportersafter a Cabinet meeting.

The DFIwouldseek

to raise funds from global pensionand insurance sectors for invest-ment in new projects, carrying cer-tain tax benefits, she added.

In the last five years, India hasadded more than 45,000 km of na-tional highways to link major in-dustrial hubs, while doubling ca-

pacity at ports andadding nearly 100

GW of powergenerationcapacityfor a totalof 374GW.

Cabinet approves setting up DFI

THE GOVERNMENT HASPROPOSED `20,000 CRORE

TO CAPITALISE THEINSTITUTION

DFI WILL START WITH100% GOVERNMENT

OWNERSHIP AND WILLGRADUALLY BE BROUGHT

DOWN TO 26%

THE DFI WOULDSEEK TO RAISE

FUNDS FROMGLOBAL PENSIONAND INSURANCE

SECTORS FORINVESTMENT INNEW PROJECTS

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENTFINANCE INSTITUTION

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 16: State-runIndian Oil Corporation (IOC) plansto sell hydrogen generating plantsat its oil refineries to monetise non-core assets and leverage opera-tional efficiencies by bringing in do-main experts, its chairman ShrikantMadhav Vaidya said Tuesday.

To begin with, the company willsell its hydrogen generatingunit at its Gujarat re-finery and based onthe experience, maytake up units atother refineries,he said.

The sale is partof the asset mon-etisation agendaof the governmentaimed at generatingrevenue from selling toprivate investors unutilisedor part utilised assets.

“These (hydrogen generatingunits) are already operating units.Now we are trying to leverage theefficiency of operations by hand-ing it over to the licensor of theunit,” he said.

Hydrogen is mostly producedfrom natural gas and naphtha andis used in the processing of inter-mediate oil products and for the re-moval of sulphur from refinedfuels to meet emission standards.

The sale consideration will be theasset value and the operation andmaintenance (O&M) charge thatthe new operator will charge fromIOC, Vaidya said.

“These units are locatedwithin the refinery com-

plex and I will be theonly buyer, con-

sumer (of hydro-gen),” he said.

IOC will sell 100per cent stake inthe 70,000 tonnes

per annum hydro-gen generating unit

at Gujarat refinery.“The idea is to get

somebody who can operatethe unit better. All other units of therefinery are my core business buthydrogen is a utility,” he said.

The government has identi-fied assets across sectors thatcan be monetised for as much as`2.5 lakh crore.

IOC plans to sellhydrogen plants

To begin with, the company will sell its hydrogengenerating unit at its Gujarat refinery and based onthe experience, may take up units at other refineries

SC shuts back-door arrangement fordefaulting promoters The impact of this judgment could be felt in

many IBC cases where a resolution plan fallsthrough and a company ends up in liquidation

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 16: Defaultingpromoters, who are barred from aresolution plan under Section 29Aof the Insolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC), cannot use the schemeof arrangement and compromise togain control of a company while it’sin liquidation, the Supreme Courtsaid Monday.

As such, the scheme of arrange-ment under Section 230 of theCompanies Act does not stop any-body from proposing a plan. However,if this provision is used to revive acompany which is facing liquidationunder IBC, the rules of 29A willapply in keeping with the intent ofthe law, the top court clarified.

Specifically in this case, the SCorder barred promoters of GujaratNRE Coke, a defaulting company,from proposing a revival plan inthe event of liquidation under IBC.

“The stages of submitting a res-

olution plan, selling assets of a com-pany in liquidation and selling thecompany as a going concern duringliquidation, all indicate that thepromoter or those in the manage-ment of the company must not beallowed a back-door entry in thecompany... Proposing a scheme ofcompromise or arrangement underSection 230 of the Act of 2013, whilethe company is undergoing liqui-dation under the provisions of theIBC lies in a similar continuum,” the

SC judgment by bench comprisingJustices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachudand MR Shah said.

The court was hearing the peti-tion of Gujarat NRE Coke promoterArun Kumar Jagatramka, who chal-lenged the provision 2B introducedby the Insolvency and BankruptcyBoard of India (IBBI). The provisionsays that that parties ineligible topropose a resolution plan underthe IBC cannot be a party to a com-promise or arrangement.

“Any other interpretation wouldhave left a gaping hole in the schemeof IBC and defeated the very ob-ject of Section 29A bar introducedboth for resolution and liquidationprocesses under the IBC,” saidMisha (who only uses her firstname), Par tner at ShardulAmarchand Mangaldas & Co.

Legal experts said the latest orderhad settled the two conflicting positionsof IBC, ensuring revival of the cor-porate debtor versus protecting the cor-

porate debtor from its own manage-ment. What you cannot do directlyyou cannot do indirectly. “It wouldnot be surprising to see the route ofschemes of arrangement being com-pletely discontinued during liquida-tion, given the incompatibility be-tween the two processes,” said HarishKumar, partner, L&L partners.

The SC also said the need for ju-dicial intervention or innovationfrom the National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) and NationalCompany Law Appellate Tribunal(NCLAT) should be kept at its bareminimum and should not disturb thefoundational principles of the IBC.

The ‘arrangement’ strategy wasapproved by the NCLT and NCLAT tooin the interest of promoting the coreobjective of IBC - revival of a company.But, the idea was not to create roomfor a backdoor entry of defaultingpromoters. It was in this context thatIBBI had brought the provision 2B forliquidation proceedings.

RETAILERS SEE FULL RECOVERY NEW DELHI: The quantum of de-growth inRetail sales has reduced as most segments in ithave started to show significant improvement.The 13th edition of the Retail Business Surveyby the Retailers Association of India (RAI)indicates sales in February 2021 were at -7 percent of last year's sales on a Y-o-Y comparisonand at -18 per cent in Q3FY21 on a Y-o-Y comparison. Consumer Durables &Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) categories have shown positive growth of15 per cent and 18 per cent (Y-o-Y) respectively in the month of February2021. Categories like Footwear, Beauty, Wellness & Personal Care, SportsGoods and Food & Grocery are showing steady month-on-month recovery ona Y-o-Y comparison, signalling growth from the month of March 2021.

Tata Motors to roll out small e-vehiclesNEW DELHI: After buses and passenger cars,automobile giant Tata Motors might soon roll-out anelectric variant of its small commercial vehicle. In aconversation with IANS, Girish Wagh, President,Commercial Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motorssaid the company has participated in 'FAME Phase I'scheme for electrification of buses. Centre hadintroduced the 'Faster Adoption and Manufacturingof (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India' (FAME India)scheme to promote the manufacturing of electric

and hybrid vehicle technology. “We have supplied more than 200 buses andcumulatively they have now covered more than seven and a half millionkilometres, which has given us a very good experience. We are also keepingtrack of other segments to see what the customers are looking for, where itmakes economic sense and therefore we are engaging with them, especiallyin the E-commerce sector to understand their needs," Wagh said.

BIZBUZZ

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 16: MGMotor India Tuesday launched thenew ZS EV 2021 in the capital cityat `22.99 lakh (ex-showroom,Bhubaneswar). The updated ver-sion comes with a best-in-class44.5kWh hi-tech battery and has acertified range of 419 km.

Having expanded the chargingecosystem across the country withits partners, the ZS EV 2021 is nowavailable for bookings in 31 cities.

The MG ZS EV comes with 143PSpower and 350N m torque and canreach from 0 to 100km/h in 8.5 sec-onds. New model is also India’sfirst pure electric internet SUV. Itis available in two variants Excite

& Exclusive.Abinash Samal, Managing

Director, MG Bhubaneswar, said,“We are proud to introduce the evo-lution of the ZS EV in a short spanof a year, reiterating our commit-ment to the EV space. To extend ourcustomers a superior ownershipexperience, we are building robustcharging infrastructure in the twincities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttackalong with our ecosystem part-ners."

The Chairman of Empreo GroupGangadhar Samal and Odia filmactors Sabyasachi Mishra andArchita were also present.

MGZSEV2021 is covered underMG e-Shield, wherein the automakerprovides a free-of-charge 5-yearwarranty for unlimited KMs,8yrs/1.5 lakh KM warranty on thebattery pack system, round- the-clock Road side Assistance (RSA)for 5years, and 5Labour-freeServices.

MG launches new ZS EV in City

Officials of MG Motor and other dignitaries, including Odia actors SabyasachiMishra and Archita Sahu, at the launch of MG ZS EV in the City, Tuesday

Rlys will neverbe privatised:Piyush Goyal AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 16: RailwaysMinister Piyush Goyal Tuesdayasserted that Indian Railwayswill never be privatised but saidprivate investment should beencouraged for more efficientfunctioning.

Replying to a discussion onDemands for Grants for Railways,Goyal said there has been no deathof any passenger due to a rail ac-cident in two years and the railwayshas been putting enormous focuson passenger safety.

He said the country can progresstowards high growth and createmore employment opportunitiesonly when the public and privatesectors work together.

"Indian Railways will never beprivatised. It is a property of everyIndian and will remain so," theminister said, adding that it willremain with the government ofIndia. Goyal said the Modi gov-ernment has hiked investment inrailways to `2.15 lakh crore in2021-22 fiscal, from ̀ 1.5 lakh crorein 2019-20 fiscal.

"We are focusing on passengersafety. I am happy to say that therehas been no passenger death in pasttwo years. The last death due totrain accident happened in March2019," the minister said.

"People criticised lockdown,but had it not been done, contin-uation of train services wouldhave spread Covid-19 across thecountry," added Goyal.

REUTERS

New Delhi, March 16: Indianstate fuel retailers’ diesel sales rose7.4% to 2.84 million tonnes in the firstfortnight of March from a year ear-lier, preliminary industry datashowed Tuesday.

This is the first annual rise ingasoil sales in the country sinceOctober. Fuel sales in India took ahit in March last year as the gov-ernment imposed a nationwide

lockdown to curb the spread of thenovel coronavirus.

India’s economy returned togrowth in the three months toDecember and the recovery is ex-pected to gather pace as consumersand investors shake off the effectsof the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rise in gasoil sales, whichaccount for about two-fifths of thecountry’s overall fuel demand, comesdespite record-high local retailprices and points to rising industrial

production in the country.State companies Indian Oil Corp,

Hindustan Petroleum Corp andBharat Petroleum own about 90%of India’s retail fuel outlets.

State retailers sold 3.3% lesscooking gas in the first half ofMarch than a year ago to 1.01 mil-lion tonnes as a significant reduc-tion in subsidies curtailed demandfor the fuel, the data showed.

Jet fuel sales were down 36.5% to204,000 tonnes.

India’s diesel sales rise 7.4%

Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/37159

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sportsWEDNESDAY | MARCH 17 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP12

Pride on line for eves

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Lucknow, March 16: The series al-ready out of their grasp, the Indianwomen cricketers, who are strug-gling to put together a cohesiveteam show, will have pride at stakewhen they clash with South Africawomen in the fifth and final ODIhere, Wednesday.

Barring the convincing nine-wicket win in the second match,the Indian women have barely firedin unison while the South Africans,who have already clinched the se-ries 3-1, have excelled as a team.

To be fair to the home side play-ers, they were a bit rusty as they areplaying their first international se-ries after more than a year due tothe COVID-19 pandemic while SouthAfrica recently beat Pakistan 3-0 athome.

The Indian team also missed theflair of young Shafali Verma at thetop of the order and the experi-ence of Shikha Pandey in bowlingdepartment.

Indian spinners, save Rajeshwari

Gayakwad (5 wickets from 4matches), were a big let down on theslow tracks and that has played abig part in India’s series loss whenthe South Africans chased down249 and 267 in the third and fourthmatches.

Senior leg-spiner Poonam Yadavcould not get a single batter out inthe four matches she has playedso far. It remains to be seen if shekeeps her place in the playing XIWednesday.

Veteran pacer Jhulan Goswamicontinued to be the pick of Indianbowlers as she topped the bowlingcharts with eight wickets from thethree matches she has played butshe did not get much support fromher colleagues except for spinnerGayakwad. Goswami did not playin the fourth match.

Top-order batter Punam Rauthas been in sensational form withscores of 10, 62 not out, 77 and 104not out in the four games. The 31-year-old top run getter among theIndians would like to continue fromwhere she left in the fourth match

where she hit an unbeaten century,though, in a losing cause.

Captain Mithali Raj and herdeputy Harmapreet Kaur were theother two consistent batters whilestar opener Smriti Mandhana shoneonly in the second match.

Opener Jemimah Rodrigueswas also disappointing and shewas left out of the fourth matchafter scores of 1, 9 and 0. Raj, whobecame the first Indian womancricketer and second interna-tionally to reach 10,000 runs dur-ing the series, had scores of 50, 36and 45 in the three innings shehas played so far. She did not batin the second match.

The same is for Kaur who hadscores of 40, 36, 54. She also did notbat in the second match. Aftersmashing a match-winning 80 notout in the second match, Mandhanahas not done much in the otherthree matches with scores of 14,25 and 10. With pressure off inthe inconsequential match, the24-year-old left hander is due fora big innings.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Barcelona, March 16: Lionel Messiscored twice as he tied XaviHernandez’s record of most ap-pearances for Barcelona, puttingthem within four points of theSpanish league lead after beatinglast-placed Huesca 4-1.

For his 767th match, Messi washonored by Barcelona with a largeimage behind one of the goals show-ing him embracing Xavi as the play-ers looked forward and pointed up-ward. The banner included thewords ‘767 matches’ and ‘touchingthe sky’.

“It’s incredible,” Barcelona coachRonald Koeman said. “His impacton this team is enormous. It’s amaz-ing what he has done for this clubup until now.”

Antoine Griezmann and OscarMingueza also scored at the CampNou Stadium as the Catalan clubwon their fourth straight leaguematch to increase the pressure onleader Atletico Madrid.

Atletico, seeking their first leaguetitle since 2014, had a comfortablelead until recently, having won onlytwo of their last six league games.They were held to 0-0 at GetafeSaturday. Diego Simeone’s teamwill visit Barcelona in May.

“We always said we wouldn’tgive up,” Barcelona midfielder PedriGonzalez said. “We have a goodsquad that can keep fighting forthis title and we have momentumon our side.”

Barcelona, coming off elimina-tion by Paris Saint-Germain in theChampions League last 16, was incontrol from the start Monday.

Messi scored in each half for his130th double in the league. He

opened the scoring with a shotinto the top corner after a nifty one-touch to clear a defender just out-side the area in the 13th minute,then closed the scoring with an-

other shot from outside the areain the 90th.

The Argentine playmaker has21 league goals, three more thanAtletico’s Luis Suarez at the top of

the scoring list.Barcelona kept pressing and

nearly added to the lead when JordiAlba hit the crossbar in the 33rd, anda couple of minutes later Griezmannadded his goal with a well-struckcurling shot into the top cornerpast Huesca goalkeeper AlvaroFernández.

Huesca pulled one back througha penalty kick earned after a break-away in first-half stoppage time,converted by forward Rafa Mir.Then Mingueza scored his firstgoal for Barcelona with a header offa cross by Messi in the 53rd. Huesca,who have won only one of theirlast six matches, stayed four pointsfrom safety.

Argentine talisman ties Xavi’s record as Barcelona cut AtleticoMadrid’s lead in La Liga standings with a comprehensive victory

Messi masterclass outclasses Huesca

767Appearances by Messi for Barcelona, joint most with club greatand former teammate Xavi Hernandez

21Goals for Messi this season in La Liga, most in the league, followedby his former teammate and friend Luis Suarez (18) of Atletico

13No. of seasons in succession where Messi reach 20-goal mark in asingle season of La Liga

130No. of braces (two goals in a match) for Messi in the SpanishLeague, including the double against Huesca Monday

660Goals for Messi for Barcelona, 428 more than second-placedCesar Rodriguez (232)

Jota helps Reds beat WolvesASSOCIATED PRESS

Wolverhampton (UK), March16: Diogo Jota scored the winneragainst his former club as Liverpoolbeat Wolverhampton 1-0 in anEnglish Premier League matchthat ended with Wolves goalkeeperRui Patricio being carried off witha head injury.

Jota, who spent three years atWolves before joining Liverpool inSeptember, drove in a low, first-time shot that squirmed into the cor-ner in the second minute of first-half stoppage time. Patricio got ahand to the ball but failed to keepit out at his near post.

The goalkeeper didn’t finish thegame after being struck on the head

in the 87th minute by the knee ofteammate Conor Coady, who wasrunning back into his area.

Coady looked particularly con-cerned as medical staff attended toPatricio with caution for 10 minutesbefore he was taken off on astretcher.

Wolves manager Nuno EspiritoSanto gave a positive update onPatricio’s condition after the game,saying: “He’s OK. He is conscious,he remembers what happened, heis aware. He is OK.”

In November, Wolves striker RaulJimenez fractured his skull in aclash of heads during a leaguematch at Arsenal. Jimenez was inthe empty stands at MolineuxMonday.

“Football becomes irrelevantwhen someone is down that long andthe doctors have to come on,”Liverpool defender AndrewRobertson said of Patricio.

“I know how it can affect thelads and that’s two (incidents)they’ve had this season. I hope tosee him in front of the goals againsoon because he’s a fantastic goal-keeper.”

It was only Liverpool’s second winin its last eight league games of atitle defense that has imploded inthe second half of the season.

The Reds climbed two places tosixth, but was still five points behindfourth-placed Chelsea with ninegames remaining in the race forChampions League qualification.Chelsea along with three otherteams in the race for the top four —Everton, West Ham and Tottenham— all failed to win over the week-end.

Aided by the return of Jota tospark the attack and Fabinho inthe holding midfield role, there aresmall signs of a revival for theReds, who also beat Leipzig lastmidweek to reach the ChampionsLeague quarterfinals and have kepttwo straight clean sheets.

But there was little betweenLiverpool and Wolves in a low-qual-ity match. “Three dirty points,”Liverpool manager Jurgen Kloppsaid. “We are completely fine withthat.”

Jota, who cost Liverpool aboutUSD 52 million, was playing hisfourth straight game since returningfrom three months out with a kneeinjury. He again started in place ofRoberto Firmino, who is still out in-jured.

“It’s a special game, I workedhere for over three years,” Jotasaid. “I know almost everyone in thatdressing room. I just wish the fanscould be here to make it even morespecial.”Diogo Jota (R) celebrates his goal with teammate Sadio Mane, Monday

Sindhu and Co. chase elusive title at All England ChampionshipsPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Birmingham, March 16: WorldChampion PV Sindhu will look toshrug off her demoralising SwissOpen final defeat and take advan-tage of a depleted field when shespearheads India’s challenge at theprestigious All England OpenBadminton Championships, be-ginning here Wednesday.

Sindhu looked a pale shadow ofherself in her defeat against CarolinaMarin, going down without muchfight as she struggled to containerrors.

Carolina, the three-time WorldChampion from Spain, though has

pulled out of the prestigious tour-nament due to an injury, takingsome shine off of the event.

Also missing in action will bethe Chinese, Koreans and ChineseTaipei shuttlers, who decided not tocompete in the Super 1000 event asit is not part of the Tokyo Olympicqualification period.

It affects the quality of the com-petition but also provides the 19-member Indian contingent an op-portunity to go deep in the drawand recapture the trophy which hasbeen won by just two Indians so far– the legendary Prakash Padukone(1980) and P Gopichand (2001).

While former World No.1 Saina

Nehwal had a runner-up finish in2015, Sindhu’s best finish was a semi-final in 2018 but none of the otherIndian shuttlers have been able to godeep in the tournament till now.

Olympic silver medallist Sindhuwill again be one of the top con-tenders but Saina is nowhere nearher best with just two quarterfinalfinishes to show in the last two years.

Among other Indians, formerNo.1 Kidambi Srikanth and youngmen’s doubles pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shetty, cur-rently ranked 10 in the world, hada good run in Swiss Open and willlook to put their best foot forward.

Fifth seed Sindhu will kick off her

campaign with a clash againstMalaysia’s Soniia Cheah and islikely to face Japan’s AkaneYamaguchi in the quarterfinals,provided she wins her initial rounds.

London Olympics bronze medal-list Saina has drawn in-form seventhseed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark inher first round and might meetScotland’s Kristy Gilmour next.

In men’s singles, Srikanth willopen against Tommy Sugiarto ofIndonesia, while WorldChampionships bronze medallistB Sai Praneeth will take on France’sToma Junior Popov and is likelyto clash next with second seed ViktorAxelsen, who has won the two Super

1000 titles in Thailand, and theSwiss Open.

Commonwealth Games goldmedallist Parupalli Kashyap willopen against World No.1 JapaneseKento Momota, who is returning tointernational circuit after a hor-rific car accident last year that sawhim undergo an eye surgery.

Among others in fray, formertop-10 player HS Prannoy will meetMalaysia’s Daren Liew. SameerVerma will be up against YgorCoelho of Brazil in opening roundand may face third seed AndersAntonsen of Denmark next. YoungLakshya Sen will meet Thailand’sKantaphon Wangcharoen.

English wicketkeeper-batsman nullifies Kohli’s effort propelling his sideto 8-wicket win over India as visitors take 2-1 lead in 5-T20I series

BUTTLER LIFTS ENGLAND

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Ahmedabad, March 16: ViratKohli’s (77 n o, 46b, 8x4, 4x6) brilliancewasn’t good enough to paper overan otherwise inept Indian battingperformance as England humbledthe hosts by eight wickets in the thirdT20I to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series here, Tuesday.

Eoin Morgan unleashed his fastbowlers Mark Wood (3/31) and ChrisJordan (2/35) to restrict the hosts for156/6, which the visitors surpassedeasily in 18.2 overs, riding on JosButtler’s unbeaten 83 off 52 balls(5x4, 4x6). Buttler was ably sup-ported by Jonny Bairstow (40 n o, 28b,

5x4) as the duo added an unbeaten77 runs to take the visitors home.

Skipper Kohli had mistakenlysaid at the toss that his team led 2-1 but Morgan, in his 100th T20I ap-pearance, made sure that oppositehappened. Buttler showed his mas-tery in white ball format after Kohlisingle-handedly carried the team toa reasonable score.

More than the Buttler’s blade, thedifference between two sides wasthe sheer pace generated by Englandpacers after Morgan won anothergood toss. Wood rocked the Indian

top order during the Powerplayovers and even Kohli’s magnificencewasn’t good enough to save the nightfor the ‘Men in Blue’.

Save Kohli, other Indian battersfound it difficult to put bat to ball aspace and bounce off the pitch workedwonders for English speed mer-chants. The Indian skipper withhis near perfect technique fought firewith fire, playing pull shots and thelofted hits, shuffling towards legstump to make room for himself.

His partnership with HardikPandya (17) fetched 70 runs off just

5.3 overs but it was all about Kohlifor the better part as the Barodaall-rounder was struggling to timethe ball. But others were not solucky with Wood making life mis-erable for them.

KL Rahul (0) was once again in themidst of a forgettable patch whereall the good deliveries were being ear-marked for him. Wood bowled oneat 91 mph, that pitched on lengthand nipped back enough to breachthrough the opener’s defence beforehe could bring his bat down.

Rohit Sharma (15) was playing hisfirst game of the series but Wood’swell directed bouncer got him as hewas holed out in the deep.

Ishan Kishan (4), after a dreamdebut, got a hostile welcome fromWood, who managed to soften theJharkhand dasher. The result wasJordan extracting extra bounceand the ill-timed pull shot bringingKishan’s downfall as the hostslooked in complete disarray.

BRIEF SCORES:India 156/6 (ViratKohli 77 n o, Rishabh Pant 25, HardikPandya 17; Mark Wood 3/31, ChrisJordan 2/35) lost to England 158/2 (Jos Buttler 83 n o, Jonny Bairstow40 n o; Washington Sundar 1/26,Yuzvendra Chahal 1/41) by 8 wickets.

JOS BUTTLER PLAYSA SHOT DURING HISINNINGS, TUESDAY

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