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WEDNESDAY13 October 2021

Published from Srinagar | Volume : 01 | Issue No: 78 Pages: 08 | Price Rs 10/-

New Delhi, Oct 12: The Central

Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tues-

day conducted searches at around 41

locations including at Sri-

nagar, Anantnag, Banihal,

Baramulla, Jammu, Doda,

Rajouri, Kishtwar (Jammu

& Kashmir), Leh, Delhi and

Bhind (Madhya Pradesh).

The searches were con-

ducted at the official and res-

idential premises of around

14 then public servants including

then DMs (IAS/KAS), DIO, Clerks etc;

around five private persons (middle-

men/agents); around 10 Gun houses/

dealers in an on-going investigation of

a case related to Arms licence racket.

During searches, incrimi-

nating documents including

issuance of arms licenses, list

of beneficiaries, documents

related to investment in

FDRs and other sale proceeds,

property documents, bank

account details, locker keys,

diary comprising incrimi-

nating details, arms license registers,

electronic gadgets/mobile phones and

See CBI on pg 7...

Srinagar, Oct 12: Jammu and

Kashmir Tuesday witnessed 80

fresh positive cases taking the

number of total active cases in

the Union Territory to 993

while no fresh death was

reported in the UT in the

last 24 hours.

With no more deaths,

the death toll in the UT

stands at 4,426 and 80 fresh

positive cases reported on

Tuesday have pushed the tally of

positive cases to 330,666.

Of the exact number of 330,666

cases, 206,556 are from Kashmir

division and 124,110 from Jammu

division.

Officials said that among 80

new cases, 67 belong to

Kashmir division while

as 13 are from Jammu

division, adding that

the total number of

positive cases in Kash-

mir division have reached

to 206,556 including 203,558

recoveries and 2,252 deaths while

as total number of positive cases

See Coronavirus on pg 7...

Arms Licensing Racket

CBI conducts searches at 41 locations in JK

Coronavirus: JK reports 80 new cases

Srinagar, Oct 12: The Lakes and Water

Development Authority (LAWDA) on

Tuesday claimed that in the last one cen-

tury, the water surface of the Dal Lake has

been slightly increased from 18.21 square

kilometres to 20.21 square kilometres in

the past 114 years.

According to the official data available,

in the year 1895 the water surface of the Dal

Lake was 18.21 square kilometres.

As per the recent Electronic Total Sta-

tion (ETS) survey carried out by the Rev-

enue Authorities in 2009, the Water surface

of the Dal Lake is 19.83 square kilometres

(39226 Kanals) and in the same year sat-

ellite images show that the actual water

surface covered by the Dal is 20.21 square

kilometres.

Top officials from the Lakes and Water-

ways Development Authority (LAWDA)

said that the area of Dal Lake has not been

shrinking, on the contrary area has been

slightly increased.

“The Dal Lake has not been shrinking,

from the past many years it is taking its

own course and more area is adding up.

At least more than two square kilometres

of the water surface area has been added,

not decreased. Shrinking of Dal Lake is not

true,” he said.

According to the data, land mass or

fixed cultivation of the Dal in the year 1895

was 7.65 square kilometres which shows a

decrease to 5.17 square kilometres in the

ETS survey. As per the satellite images

See Water on pg 7...

Water surface of Dal Lake increased 18.21 sq kms in past 114 years, claims LAWDA

India will decimate militancy in JK: Tarun ChughJammu, Oct 12:

Asserting that

India will decimate

militancy in Jammu

and Kashmir, BJP

national general sec-

retary Tarun Chugh

on Tuesday said the

security forces will give a befitting

reply to a sudden spurt in Pakistan-

sponsored militant attacks in the

Union Territory.

He was referring to the seven

selective killings, including of

See India on pg 7...

JK heading towards new era of development, prosperity: AnupriyaRajouri, Oct 12: As part of the Central

Government’s Public Outreach Pro-

gramme, Union Minister of State for

Industries and Commerce Anupriya

Singh Patel Tuesday concluded her two-

day visit to district Rajouri.

On the second day of her tour, the

Union MoS visited Panchayat Saranoo

See Heading on pg 7...

New Delhi, Oct 12: Slamming those

who engage in "selective interpretation"

of human rights with an eye on political

gains and loss, Prime Minister Narendra

Modi said on Tuesday that such conduct

harms human rights as well as democracy.

Speaking at the 28th foundation day of

the National Human Rights Commission

(NHRC), Modi said the country should be

wary of such people who try to dent its

image in the name of raising the issue of

human rights violations.

In his speech, Modi highlighted a

number of measures taken by his govern-

ment to empower the poor, women and

See Modi on pg 7...

NIA to take up civilian killing case if MHA orders so: Officials

Srinagar, Oct 12: Jammu and Kashmir

police Tuesday said that two out of the

four cases of selected killings in Kash-

mir by killing two militants who were

involved in the act.

A senior police official said that in an

encounter at Hajin in northern district

of Bandipora, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (TRF)

Imtiyaz Ahmed was killed. “He was

involved in the killing of sumo driver

Muhammad Shafi alias Sonu. This way

with the elimination of Imtiyaz, the first

case of civilian killings stands solved,”

he said.

Similarly, the official said on Tues-

day, one of the three militants killed

in Shopian encounter, identified as

Mukhtar Shah, who was involved in the

killing of a non-local vendor at Lal Bazar

area of Srinagar. The slain vendor was

identified as Virender Paswan of Bihar.

“With the killing of Mukhtar Shah, the

second case of targeted killings stands

solved,” he said.

A top police officer said that the other

two cases would also be solved as the

security forces have stepped up human

and technical intelligence. “The move-

ment of suspects is being tracked and

we are hopeful that rest of the two cases

would also be resolved soon,” he said,

wishing not to be quoted.

Meanwhile, the National Investiga-

tion Agency (NIA) has registered a case

to “bust the militant networks in Kash-

mir.” “This particular case is about

See Selected on pg 7...

PM Modi slams ''selective'' interpretation of human rights

Selected killings in Kashmir: Two out of four cases solved, says Police

Srinagar, Oct 12: General officer Com-

manding (GoC) of Srinagar based army’s

15 Corps Lieutenant General D

P Pandey said that anti-militan-

cy operations launched by the

army in the past few days are

based on human intelligence

and he would not like to connect

any operation with the events

that took place in Srinagar or

elsewhere.

He, however, said that security forces

and the people of Kashmir need to be very

careful to keep the communal harmony

intact. Talking to reporters on the side-

lines of a function at SKICC here, the GoC

Pandey said that all the anti-

militancy operations launched

in the past few days were based

on human intelligence.

“I would not like to connect

these operations with any of

the events that took place in

Srinagar or elsewhere,” he said

in an obvious reference to the

selected killings in Srinagar. Replying to a

query, the GoC Pandey said that the

See GoC on pg 7...

Anti-militancy Ops going on in Valley purely based on human

intelligence: GoC 15 Corps

Shopian, Oct 12: As Kashmir

witnessed spurt in encounters,

five local militants were killed

in twin encounters in South

Kashmir's Shopian district on

Tuesday.

A senior police official said

that on Monday evening on

a specific information about

the presence of militants a

joint team of forces includ-

ing Police, 34 RR and CRPF

launched search operation in

Tulran, Imamsahib and Feri-

pora area of Shopian district.

He said that Tulran after

the presence of militants got

ascertained, they were given

repeated surrender offers but

hiding militants fired upon

forces which retaliated lead-

ing to an encounter.

“After initial exchange of

fire, operation was called due

to darkness, however, cordon

was intact and operation

resumed on Tuesday morning

after militants again rejected

surrender offers,” the official

said, adding that in the ensu-

ing gunfight, three militants

identified as Danish Hus-

sian Dar, Yawar Naikoo and

Mukhtar Shah were killed.

Similarly, in Feripora

cordon and search operation

was suspended throughout the

night and contact with hiding

militants was established

See Five on pg 7...

Jammu, Oct 12 (PTI)

The Jammu and Kashmir

government on Tuesday

directed Kashmiri migrant

employees not to leave the

valley as security has been

tightened for them, saying

absence from duty will be

dealt with as per service

rules.

The authorities also

impressed upon officers

to preferably post these

migrant employees in safe

and secure zones for the time

being.

Fear psychosis was trig-

gered among over 3,000

Kashmiri Hindu employees

living in seven different

transit camps in the Valley

due to selective and system-

atic killings of three Hindus

and one Sikh teacher by

terrorists in Srinagar last

week.

"The chair (divisional

commissioner of Kashmir)

directed that no migrant

employee needs to leave the

district/valley and whoso-

ever will be absent (from

duty) shall be dealt with as

per service rules," an order

issued by Assistant Commis-

sioner (Central) Aziz Ahmad

Rather said.

These directions were

issued after a security

review meeting of deputy

commissioners and senior

superintendents of police of

the Kashmir valley chaired

by Divisional Commis-

sioner Pandurang K Pole in

Srinagar.

Five militants killed in twin Shopian encountersJ&K govt directs

Kashmiri migrant employees not to

leave valley

Amit Khare appointed as advisor to PMNew Delhi, Oct 12: Former bureau-

crat Amit Khare, who last month

retired as higher education secre-

tary, has been appointed as advisor

to Prime Minister Narendra Modi

for two years on contract basis, a

personnel ministry order issued on

Tuesday said.

Khare, a 1985 batch (retired) IAS

officer of Jharkhand cadre, had

superannuated on September 30.

The Appointments Committee

of the Cabinet has approved the

appointment of Khare as advisor to

the prime minister in Prime Minis-

ter's Office, in the rank and scale of

secretary to government of India, on

contract basis, initially for a period

of two years, it said.

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Modi govt's welfare policies protecting people's human rights: Amit ShahNew Delhi, Oct 12: Prime Minister

Narendra Modi's government has been

relentlessly working for the welfare of

poor, backwards and deprived sections of

society, thereby protecting their human

See Shah on pg 7...

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI): Entry of advocates in court premises here should be allowed based on a smart card having a digital chip for verification of identity, lawyers’ bodies Tuesday told the Delhi High Court in view of the recent shootout that killed three people in a Rohini courtroom here

The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) and Bar Council of Delhi (BCD), in their suggestions given to a bench headed by Chief Justice D N Patel on improving court security, said that such smart cards would be akin to the proximity cards issued to law-yers for securing entry in the Supreme Court premises.

The bench, also comprising Justice Jyoti Singh, was hearing a petition concerning the security and safety at court premises, which is initiated on its own following the Septem-ber 24 shootout at Rohini Court.

The bench had earlier asked all stake-holders, including the Centre, Delhi govern-ment, and various bar associations to also give their suggestions on the issue so that they could be incorporated in the order.

Advocates may be permitted with ID cards, like proximity cards in Supreme Court... There will be a mechanical scanning

of these digitised cards, said DHCBA Presi-dent and senior lawyer Mohit Mathur.

Lawyer Devendra Singh, appearing for BCD, stated that a new card containing a chip will be issued to advocates to regulate their entry into court premises.

He added that all advocates must abide by the security checks and any refusal to fol-low the same shall amount to misconduct.

The DHCBA further suggested that all visitors including advocates must be frisked by using advanced metal detectors, all the vehicles should be checked by employing hi-tech devices and entry of hawkers should be banned.

It also said that only licensed shopkeep-ers must be allowed access and identity cards should be issued for their staff.

The BCD called for a three-tier security system, including posting police personal in civil clothes inside courtrooms, setting up a 24-hour control room and installing more CCTVs to monitor the security at court premises.

It was also suggested that an active inter-action and meetings of stakeholders must be ensured to deal with the issues and a separate uniform may be prescribed for law interns.

Rohini Shootout: Issue smart cards to advocates for securing entry, Bar bodies to HC

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 12 (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijay-an on Tuesday said instructions would be given to complete the government level procedures at the earliest to with-draw police cases registered during the Sabarimala and anti-CAA protests in the state.

He said the government had al-ready issued orders in February this year to take necessary action to with-draw cases that were “not of serious criminal nature”, in connection with the incidents.

Based on the order, the state DGP had directed the district collectors and district police chiefs to look into the nature and present status of each such case registered in their respective ar-eas, he told the state Assembly.

A panel, comprising Crime Branch IG and the superintendents of the Spe-cial Cell and the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), has been set up to col-lect information related to such cases and examine its nature and status.

The committee was also entrusted

with the codifying of information re-lated to the steps required to withdraw such cases, the CM said while replying to a submission by Leader of Opposi-tion V D Satheesan on the issue.

Each case should be examined sep-arately and it can be withdrawn only with the permission of the court under the Section 321 of the Criminal Proce-dure Code, he explained.

“The government has limitations in this regard as it is a matter falling within the purview of the judiciary. Yet, instructions will be given to the concerned officials to complete the pro-cedures at the government level at the

earliest,” Vijayan added.However, Satheesan criticised that

the Chief Minister’s assurance to with-draw the cases related to Sabarimala women-entry issue and anti-CAA pro-tests were yet to be fulfilled.

Reminding Vijayan’s earlier words that it was not the policy of the Left gov-ernment to file cases against those pro-testing against the CAA, he said a total of 836 cases had been registered in this connection, of which only 13 had been withdrawn so far.

“As many as 2636 cases had been registered in connection with the pro-tests related to Sabarimala,” he said.

At the same time, the government has decided to withdraw a total of 5326 cases registered between 2016 and September 2021 in the state, but they were not related to Sabarimala or anti-CAA protests, the Leader of Op-position added.

Opposition Congress had welcomed the CPI(M)-led LDF government’s deci-sion to withdraw the cases ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls.

Sabarimala protest cases: Kerala CM assures speedy completion of procedures

Lawyers can’t disrupt court proceedings, put clients interest in jeopardy: SC

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI): It is “unprofessional” and “unbecoming” for a lawyer to refuse to attend the court due to a strike or boycott by the Bar Associations as they cannot disrupt court pro-ceedings and put the interest of their clients in jeopardy, the Supreme Court has said.

The top court further observed that an advocate is an officer of the court and enjoys a special status in the society.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna made the observation while hearing a case in which the advocates in the Rajasthan High Court went on strike on September 27, 2021.

“...it is unprofessional as well as unbecoming for a lawyer to refuse to attend the court even in pursuance of a call for strike or boycott by the Bar Association or the Bar Council. It is further observed that an Advocate is an officer of the court and enjoys a special status in the society; Advocates have obli-gations and duties to ensure

the smooth functioning of the court; they owe a duty to their clients and strikes interfere with the administration of justice,” the bench said.

“They cannot thus dis-rupt court proceedings and put the interest of their cli-ents in jeopardy. Despite the law laid down by this Court in the aforesaid deci-sions and even the concern expressed by this Court against the strikes by the lawyers, things did not im-prove...,” it said.

The apex court took note of the submission of Bar Council of India Chairman

Manan Kumar Mishra that BCI has issued the notice to the Bar Association of the High Court of Rajasthan at Jaipur.

The senior advocate stated that there was a call to boycott only one court.

The apex court said even that also cannot be tolerated.

“To boycott only one court will hamper the inde-pendence of the judiciary and there may be a pres-sure on the particular judge whose court is boycotted and it may lead to demorali-zation of the judiciary,” the bench said.

The bench issued notice to the President, Secretary and the Office Bearers of the Bar Association of the High Court of Rajasthan at Jaipur to show cause why contempt proceedings may not be ini-tiated against them.

The matter is listed for next hearing on October 25.

The apex court directed the Registry to serve notices through the Registrar Gen-eral of the High Court of Ra-jasthan at Jaipur.

“The Registrar Gen-eral of the High Court of Rajasthan at Jaipur is di-rected to see that the notices upon the office bearers/President/Secretary of the Bar Association of the High Court of Rajasthan at Jaipur is served upon them well in time,” the bench said in its October 4 order.

Referring to its earlier decisions, the top court said that to go on strike by the Bar Association and the lawyers is absolutely contemptuous and just con-trary to the earlier decisions of this Court.

Bengaluru, Oct 12 (PTI): Ahead of the working com-mittee meeting, clamour seems to be growing for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Congress president, as its Karnataka unit chief D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said it is the unanimous voice of the party workers from across the country.

“Whole country, Con-gress workers, want Rahul Gandhi to take up the respon-sibility. We have been putting pressure on him since he re-signed. The unanimous voice of the Congress workers from across the country is Rahul Gandhi (should take up the mantle of the party),” Shiva-kumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said “Rahul Gandhi is discharging 90 per cent of the responsibilities even now, we want him to take up the responsibility.”

“There is a Congress

Working Committee meet-ing on October 16....let’s see,” he said.

Another senior party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too on Monday had expressed

his wish that Rahul Gan-dhi take charge as the party president.

On reports about the party’s leadership offering a national role for Siddara-maiah, Shivakumar said it is for the leadership to de-cide and no such discussion has happened with the state unit.

“It is for the party and the legislature party leader (Siddaramaiah), I don’t want to interfere in it, these are mere speculations now, it has not been discussed with us,” he said.

There have been specu-lations that AICC president Sonia Gandhi had recently offered a national role in

the party for Siddaramaiah, which he is said to have re-fused.

Rejecting such reports, Siddaramaiah, however, clarified that no such role was offered to him.

The KPCC president also claimed that several peo-ple are keen on joining the Congress, and were holding talks with other leaders and local leaders.

Stating that he was gathering information on coal and power shortage in Karnataka, the former state power minister, in response to a question, said “during our (Congress) rule, we had excess power and we were selling it to others....”

Party workers want Rahul to be Congress prez: D K Shivakumar

Kanpur/Mathura, Oct 12 (PTI): Kickstarting his party’s “mission 2022” with a “rath yatra”, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday hit out at the BJP, saying it has “crushed farmers” and on return to power in Uttar Pradesh would “crush the Constitution” as well.

The former UP CM launched the “Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra” from UP’s Kanpur and it will cover all 403 Assembly segments ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls in the state.

Meanwhile, Shivpal Yadav, who is Akhilesh’s uncle and heads the Pra-gatisheel Samajwadi Party, also launched a “Samajik Parivartan Yatra” from Ma-thura.

Akhilesh launched the yatra after taking blessings of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday.

The yatra was flagged off by “Khazanchi”, a child who was born in a queue outside a bank during demonetisa-tion days.

A Mercedes bus has been transformed into the “rath”.

Besides Mulayam Singh Yadav, it displays photo-

graphs of Dalit icon B R Am-dedkar, Acharya Narendra Deva, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayprakash Narayan, former president APJ Abdul Kalam, party veteran Janeshwar Mishra and jailed MP Mo-hammad Azam Khan.

The yatra will pass through Kanpur, Kanpur De-hat, Hamirpur and Jalaun in the first phase and promises to make people aware about the “corrupt, autocratic and suppressive” policies of the BJP government and estab-lish “real democracy”.

Attacking the ruling par-ty, Akhilesh said, “The BJP has crushed farmers and if

they come back to power, they are all set to crush the Constitution.”

“Therefore, the Sama-jwadi Vijay Rath will go to people and throw the BJP out of power,” the former CM said in apparent refer-ence to the mowing down of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri last Sunday.

“This rath will go on continuously for restoring the rights and honour of farmers,” he added.

Akhilesh exhorted party workers to reach out to peo-ple and seek their support.

On the importance of Kanpur, Akhilesh said his

party worked for its develop-ment.

“It is a big and industrial city. Today, business estab-lishments here have closed down. This city can not only give employment to the youth but can also improve the economy of the country and our party will work for it,” he said.

He recalled that his fa-ther Mulayam Singh Yadav had also started his “rath yatra” from this town and the party is following that tradition.

“I am confident that peo-ple will give their support and the SP government will be formed with majority,” Akhilesh remarked.

Highlighting the sig-nificance of the yatra, an SP spokesman said whenever the party has taken out such a yatra, it has come to power.

Exhibition of photo-graphs of Samajwadi Party’s Muslim face Azam Khan indicates the party efforts to cash in on his popular-ity among the minority com-munity and also evoke their sentiment against the BJP for sending him and his son to jail in Rampur.

Bhopal, Oct 12 (PTI): A total of 55 candidates are contest-ing the upcoming bypolls to one Lok Sabha constituency and three Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, an election official said on Tuesday.

After the last date of withdrawal of candidature Monday, a maximum of 19 candidates are in fray from the Raigaon (SC) Assembly seat in Satna district and 16 from the Khandwa Lok Sabha constituency for the bypolls to be held on October 30, the of-ficial said.

In Jobat (ST) Assembly seat of Alirajpur district, nine candidates are in the fray, while 11 candidates are trying their luck from Prithvipur Assembly seat in Niwari dis-trict, the official said.

The main contest is be-tween the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in the state.

In the Khandwa Lok Sab-ha seat, the BJP has fielded former district panchayat pres-ident Gyaneshwar Patil, deny-ing ticket to Harshvardhan Chauhan, son of sitting MP Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan, whose demise necessitated the bypoll in the constituency.

The Congress has fielded former MLA Rajnarayan Sin-gh Purni from the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat.

For the bypoll to Jobat (ST) Assembly seat, which fell vacant due to the death of sitting Congress legisla-tor Kalawati Bhuria, the BJP has given ticket to Sulochana Rawat against Congress can-didate Mahesh Patel.

Rawat, a former MLA, joined the BJP recently after quitting the Congress. She earlier won from the seat twice on Congress’s ticket in 1998 and 2008.

From Raigaon (SC) seat, the BJP has fielded Pratima Bagri, the daughter-in-law of sitting MLA Jugal Kishore Bagri, whose death necessi-tated the bypoll.

The Congress has given ticket to Kalpana Verma, who earlier unsuccessfully con-tested against Jugal Kishore Bagri in the 2018 state Assem-bly elections.

From Prithvipur Assem-bly seat, the BJP has fielded Shishupal Singh against Congress’s Nitendra Rathore. Singh had joined the BJP af-ter quitting the Samajwadi Party.

Nitendra Rathore is the son of former minister Bra-jendra Singh Rathore, whose death has necessitated the by-poll in the constituency.

The counting of votes will take place on November 2.

Lucknow, Oct 12 (PTI): BSP president Mayawati on Tuesday questioned the “si-lence” of Congress leaders over the lynching of a Dalit youth in Rajasthan and sug-gested that the Supreme Court should take suo moto cogni-zance of the case as it had done in the Lakhimpur Kheri vio-lence in Uttar Pradesh.

She also questioned the silence of the Congress lead-ership over the “ruthless murder in Rajasthan” and accused the party of restrict-ing its Dalit leaders from speaking on this topic.

In a tweet in Hindi, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president said, “In the latest incident in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the ruthless mur-der of a Dalit was discussed and condemned all over the country, but the Congress leadership not only kept mum but also imposed re-strictions on its Dalit leaders from speaking about it. This is very sad and shameful.”

Alleging that Dalits hold no importance for the Con-gress party, she said, “This proves that in the eyes of the Congress party and their

governments, there was no importance of Dalits in the past and now also there is no concern for their lives, prop-erties and safety. The new CM of Punjab and the new leader of Gujarat have also maintained silence by adopt-ing double standards.”

“The FIR was lodged three days after the killing in Rajasthan due to which there are scant chances of the family getting justice from the government. There-fore, like the Lakhimpur Kheri case of UP, if the Su-preme Court takes suo moto cognizance of this matter as well, it would be better,” she said in another tweet.

The Dalit man, identified as Jagdish, was thrashed to death by the accused on Oc-tober 7 in the Prempura area of Hanumangarh.

The accused also shot a video of the entire incident in which they are seen giv-ing water to the victim to drink and then beating him up repeatedly with sticks.

Four people have been arrested and one minor de-tained in connection with the incident.

Mission 2022: Akhilesh Yadav launches ‘rath yatra’ from Kanpur

MP: 55 candidates in fray for bypolls to 1 LS constituency, 3 Assembly seats

Mayawati targets Congress over killing of Dalit youth

in Rajasthan

Gangtok, Oct 12 (PTI): The Sikkim government on Tuesday lifted inter-state travel restrictions in the fes-tive season allowing people to enter the state without producing negative RTPCR test reports or vaccination certificates at the border, as the Covid-19 situation has improved, according to a no-tification.

The notification was issued by the home depart-ment. This will help both homegrown and outside tourists who want to travel during the festive season.

In another notification, the education department

of the Himalayan state said students from Lower KG to Class 8 can now attend of-fline classes from October 18.

Classroom teachings have already started for class-es 9 to 12 from September 27.

Initially only 50 per cent of the students should be called on alternate days with parental consent, which shall be further increased based on monitoring of the situation,” the notification said.

The decision was taken as it has been observed that positivity rate of COVID-19 has come down considerably and re-opening of all classes can now be considered, it said.

Sikkim lifts curbs on inter-state travel; schools to open from Oct 18

Mumbai, Oct 12 (PTI): BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that be-cause of people’s love, he did not feel that he had ceased to be the chief minister of Ma-harashtra.

He was speaking at a public event in Navi Mum-bai.

“People never made me feel that I am not the chief minister. I still feel that I am chief minister as I have been roaming in the state over the last two years. The love and affection of people has not receded, said Fadnavis.

A person’s work is more important than his or her po-sition, he added.

I have not just sat at home. I am serving people and doing well as leader of the opposition (in the As-

sembly), he said.Fadnavis became the

chief minister of Maharash-tra after the 2014 elections and went on to complete a full term, something which no chief minister of the state had managed in the previ-ous three decades.

After the Shiv Sena walked out of the alliance with the BJP after the 2019 polls, he forged an alliance with a breakaway group of NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pa-war and was sworn in as chief minister with Pawar as his deputy.

But this government lasted only for three days for want of the numbers and was replaced by an alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, headed by Uddhav Thackeray.

Never felt I am no longer chief minister: Fadnavis

New Chief Justice of

Chhattisgarh High Court takes oath

Raipur, Oct 12 (PTI): Jus-tice Arup Kumar Goswami was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Chhat-tisgarh High Court here on Tuesday.

He was previously the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Governor Anusuiya Uikey administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Chief Justice (60) at a function here at Raj Bhavan.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his cabinet col-leagues, former CM Raman Singh and senior officials, among others, were present on the occasion.

The Chief Justice’s wife Dr Nilakshi Goswami and HC judges were also present at the function.

As per information available on the Andhra Pradesh High Court website, Chief Justice Goswami was born on March 11, 1961, at Jorhat in Assam.

He completed his gradu-ation in Economics (Hons) from the Cotton College in 1981 and obtained law degree from the Government Law College, Guwahati, in 1985.

He was enrolled as an advocate on August 16, 1985, and appointed as an Addi-tional Judge of the Gauhati High Court on January 24, 2011, and became a perma-nent judge with effect from November 7, 2012.

CJ Goswami was the Chief Justice (Acting) of the Gauhati HC from September 6, 2018, to October 29, 2018, and also from May 24, 2019, to October 6, 2019, according to the website.

Lakhimpur violence: Ashish Mishra taken to Crime Branch

office for interrogation

Lakhimpur Kheri, Oct 12 (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh Police took MoS Home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish to the Crime Branch office here on Tuesday for interrogation in the Lakhimpur Kheri vio-lence case, a day after a court sent him to three-day police custody, an official said.

Chief Judicial Magis-trate Chintaram on Monday had granted three-day police remand, with the condition that Ashish Mishra would not be harassed and his lawyer would remain present during interrogation. He was arrested on Saturday night in connec-tion with the October 3 Lakh-impur Kheri violence in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

The police had demand-ed a 14-day remand of Ashish, but got a three-day remand beginning October 12 and it will end on October 15, senior prosecution officer (SPO) SP Yadav had told reporters.

Mishra was questioned for 12 hours in the Crime Branch office on Saturday before his arrest.

Kashmir Tone 2Srinagar | Wednesday

13 October 2021NATION

Kashmir Tone 3Srinagar Wednesday

13 Octoberber 2021NEWS

Training program for Farmers held at village Paryote of Doda district

DODA, OCTOBER 12: A training program for farmers was today organised by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare here at village Paryote of Doda district under Soil Health card scheme (NMSA).

The Programme was organised under the guidance of the Chief Agriculture Officer, Anil Gupta and under the overall supervision of Director Agriculture Jammu K K Sharma. Block Development Council Chairman Khaleeni Munish Kumar pre-sided over the function, while District Agriculture officer Haroon Hussain was guest of honour on the occasion.

About 30 farmers of Paryote A and B attended the programme.The Chief Guest spoke at length about the agriculture sector

and advised the farmers to take the maximum possible benefits from government schemes as it is the only sector which has scope in the area. He also asked for holding more such camps in his block as it can help in increasing the awareness regarding govern-ment schemes.

District Agriculture officer, Haroon Hussain gave a detailed lecture on the importance of Soil Health Card scheme. He advised the farmers to get their soil tested at an earliest as it can help them improve the health of different crops grown by them. He also answered the different queries raised on the occasion and assured to solve all matters in a phased manner.

Sarpanch Paryote A Rajinder Rukwal and Sarpanch Paryote B Sandeep Manhas also spoke on the occasion and appreciated the department for the organisation of awareness camps in the area.They also demanded more such camps in other areas also.

Earlier, Junior Agriculture Extension Officer, Manjeet Manhas briefed the farmers about the aims and objectives of the programme. AEA Mushroom scheme Wasim Raja delivered a lecture on the benefits of Mushroom cultivation. SDAO Pranoo Kuldeep Bhasan spoke about the ongoing schemes being imple-mented in the district.

At the end organic fertilizer was also distributed among the farmers present on the occasion.

Director Agriculture reviews functioning of Paddy Procurement CentersJAMMU, OCTOBER 12: Director Agriculture Production & Farm-ers Welfare, Jammu, K. K. Sharma today reviewed the function-ing of Paddy Procurement Centers (Mandies) in Jammu, Kathua and Samba Districts here at a meeting with Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Mandi Labour Contractors (MLCs).

Joint Director (Marketing, PHM Infra & Farm Mechaniza-tion), A. S. Reen; Chief Agriculture officer Jammu, Arvind Baru; CAO Samba, Sanjay Verma; DM, FCI, Satya Prakesh; Manager QQ, FCI, Gopal Krishan; SDAO Marh, SDAO Akhnoor, Mandi Labour Contractors (MLCs) besides other concerned officers of the Department of Agriculture attended the meeting.

At the outset, the Director AP & FW informed that 20 Paddy Procurement Centres have been made functional in Jammu, Kathua and Samba to facilitate the farmers for hassle free sale of their produce. He said that the procurement centres have been fully digitalized this year by integration of Mandies with the E Procurement Portal specially developed for the UT of J&K and more than 1000 farmers have already been registered on the portal. The digitalization of the procurement process will promote greater transparency in procurement of farmers’ produce and further ensure payment as per MSP directly into their bank ac-counts within 72 hours, he added.

The Director sought suggestions from the participants regard-ing smooth functioning of the mandies and uniform Cleaning charges to be recovered from the farmers for their produce. He also instructed the concerned officers to ensure all sort of Infra-structural and logistic support at all these paddy procurement centres.

It was given out that Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs. 1960/- per quintal for Grade A and Rs. 1940/- per quintal for Com-mon Grade Paddy has been fixed this year by GOI.

Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav: NYK Doda organises cleanliness drive at KaharaDODA, OCTOBER 12: Nehru Yuva Kendra Doda today organised a cleanliness drive at Block headquarter Kahara as a part of the ongoing Clean India drive campaign launched countrywide under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

A series of activities were organised to give wide publicity to the campaign. The entire program was organised under the instructions of Deputy Commissioner Vikas Sharma.

The BDC Chairperson Kahara Fatima Begum, Block Develop-ment Officer, Javed Ahmed, besides Officials of RDD, NYVs of NYK, members of Hrib Youth Club and scores of locals partici-pated in the event.

The locals and PRI members appreciated the efforts of the NYK and RDD Officials for carrying out the drive in Kahara, besides asked them to continue it so that the aims and objectives of the campaign shall reach to every corner of the area.

Around 15 kg of waste was collected during the cleanliness drive and was later on handed over to NYVs of the NYK depart-ment for proper disposal.

JKACL hosts Multilingual Mushaira at Poonch

POONCH, OCTOBER 12: A Multilingual Mushaira was today or-ganised by J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (Rajouri- Poonch) in collaboration with Poonch Development Authority and District Administration here at historical Poonch Fort.

The event, organised under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrut Ma-hotsav, was presided over by the prominent Poet, historian and research Scholar K.D Maini, while Additional Deputy Commis-sioner Dr Basharat Inqalabi was the Chief Guest.

Tehsildar Haveli, Anjum Khatak made the arrangements for the audience in the Heritage site Gole Ghar of Poonch Fort. The proceed-ings were conducted by a Senior Lecturer, Haroon Rashid Rathore.

Special Officer for Cultural Activities (SOCA) Rajouri /Poonch, Dr Alamdar Adam in his welcome address spoke about the importance of literary activities in the premises of Heritage sites. He stressed upon encouraging the participation of youths in literary activities to inculcate in them a taste for literature and imbibe moral values.

The poets mesmerized the audience by reciting their poetic work on a range of social and moral issues. Prominent among them were K.D.Maini, Nazir Bhatti, Rayaz Sabar, Mehmood Tahir, Sadeeq Ahmad Sadeeqi, Bashir Lohar, Dr Jhangir Asgar, Prof Fateh Mohd Abassi, Nazuk Shah, Nazarat Khan , Imran Sahil, Akbar Ali Ban-day, Ishrat Bhat, Mohtashim Ahtesham, and others.

The event witnessed participation of civil society members including youth and officers of district administration.

Advisor Farooq Khan visits B'la; inaugurates "Inclusive Sports Event" for Specially Abled Persons

BARAMULLA, OCTOBER 12: Advisor to Lieutenant Gover-nor, Farooq Ahmad Khan, today visited Baramulla district and inaugurated "Inclusive Sports Event" organised for spe-cially abled persons at Showkat Ali Stadium.

The event was organised by Hope Disability Centre in col-laboration with Youth Services and Sports Baramulla wherein an array of sports activities were conducted. The theme of the event was "Know Me For My Abilities, Not My Disability".

The inaugural cricket match was played between Kup-wara lines and Baramulla Tigers which was won by Baram-ulla Tigers by 5 runs.

Advisor, while speaking on the occasion, complimented the organizers for holding such a unique event terming it a step forward towards empowering speciality abled persons. He said that sports play an important role in psychological and social development and there is a dire need to provide appropriate platform to youth enabling them exhibit their sports talent.

Reiterating administration's commitment of empower-ing this vital section of society, Advisor said that various measures are being taken up to provide them with proper avenues so that they became able enough to compete at na-tional and international level. He also said that specially abled persons constitute an inalienable part of our society.

Meanwhile, Advisor flagged off a wheel chair race in which several specially abled sports enthusiasts partici-pated. He also participated in a carrom match that was orga-nized as part of the programme.

Director General Youth Services and Sports, Gazzanfar Ali, ADDC Baramulla, Aijaz Abdullah Saraaf, SSP Rayees Mohammad Bhat, Joint Director, Planning M Yousuf Rather and other concerned functionaries were present on the oc- casion.

Jal Jeevan Mission empowers village communities to own piped water infra in J&KEnsure JJM is mass movement: Syed Abid Rasheed to officials

SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 12: To in-stil ‘sense of Ownership’ for the Piped water supply infrastructure in the community, J&K Jal Shakti Department under the banner of Jal Jeevan Mission has embarked on a mission to constitute Paani Samiti in every village.

The role of Pani Samitis is to implement the in-village piped water and related infrastructure development.

A centrally sponsored pro-gramme- Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is being implemented in J&K to provide functional tap water connection to every rural home by 2022.

Mission Director Jal Jeevan Mission J&K, Syed Abid Rasheed said JJM is ramping up its efforts to ensure decentralised approach; thus making it a mass movement

by involving communities in planning, implementation, man-agement, operation and mainte-nance of the in-village water sup-ply systems.

“Communities facing vari-ous challenges together are joined by a common goal of de-velopment. For better outcomes communities learn to work as a collective and think together for the development of their village,” he said.

To ensure transparency in budgets and expenditure, JJM funds and works are open to scru-tiny of community from the con-ceptualization of the project till its community handover.

Recognizing the key role that women can play in mobilizing the village community and empower-ing them to ensure assured piped

water supply in rural homes, pro-visions have been made in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mis-sion to enable their 50 Percent par-ticipation in Pani Samitis to make Jal Jeevan Mission – Har Ghar Jal, a 'Jan Andolan'.

For ensuring water qual-ity testing, the JJM is using FTKs (Field Test Kits), periodic testing at laboratories and disseminating the same among community and undertake sanitary inspection in which women play a key role. The JJM also holds capacity building programmes for youth, students, and women to carry out these ac-tivities.

Likewise, the JJM in liaison with Pani Samitis also conducts awareness programmes on water importance and judicious use of water.

DLSA Udhampur hosts awareness webinar on Rights of senior Citizens

UDHAMPUR, OCTOBER 12: Dis-trict Legal Services Authority, Ud-hampur under the guidance of its Chairman, organized an awareness campaign on the Rights of Senior Citizens through Virtual Mode.

The Programme hosted in connection with the Pan India Awareness and Outreach Cam-paign under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav was aimed at to raise Awareness about the issues related to Senior Citizens and the problems faced by them. The DLSA Udhampur organised Five programmes through virtual Mode on the subject at Govern-ment Model Girls Hr. Second-ary School, Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, Government Higher Secondary School Tikri, Government Higher Secondary, Garhi, and Govern-ment Higher Secondary School

Salmeri. The Resource Persons of the Programme were Panel Lawyers Advocate Pawan Gupta, Advocate Akhil Dubey, and Ad-vocate Mallikarjun Singh Slathia. The resource persons highlighted the issues faced by the Old aged Citizens and legal means for their redressal. The Principals of the schools Nasib Singh, R.S Slathia, Sunil Sharma, Ajay Vashisht and Pawan Slathia along with the school staff were also present in the Programme.

The Resource Person Advo-cate Akhil Dubey (Panel Lawyer) while thanking the students and the staff threw light on the Rights of the Senior Citizens in the soci-ety and stressed upon the need to safeguard the same. The students who spoke in the programme were later felicitated by ranking them 1st, 2nd 3rd.

I&C Deptt hosts Interaction of Jammu Industrialists with Northern Railways Business Development Unit

JAMMU, OCTOBER 12: Directorate In-dustries & Commerce Jammu organised an interactive session between the Busi-ness Development Unit (Firozpur Divi-sion) of Northern Railways and leading industrialists of Jammu Division.

The session was held on the direc-tions of Principal Secretary to Govern-ment, Industries and Commerce De-partment, J&K Government, Ranjan Thakur, and under the guidance of Di-rector Industries & Commerce Jammu, Anoo Malhotra.

Unit holders involved in manufac-turing of Copper, Cement, Steel, Fertil-izers, Heavy Engineering equipment, pharmaceuticals and others involved in transportation of raw materials/fin-ished goods to long distances attended the session.

Senior Divisional Operations Man-ager, Northern Railways (Ferozepur Division) Naveen Kumar Jha, gave an overview of Indian Railways and made aware the attendees that Indian Rail-ways is the backbone of the country's logistics sector which carries more than 1.2 Billion tonnes of freight traffic every year over a network of 68000 KMs. With their network touching almost every nook and corner of the country, rail-ways play a crucial role in facilitating a balanced and inclusive socio economic development of the country, he said. He

added that Railways carry almost all commodities including bulk commodi-ties like Coal, Iron ore, Iron & Steel, Food grains, Cement, Petroleum prod-ucts, Fertilizer and other commodities carried in containers.

Divisional Railway Manager, Firo-zpur Division, Seema Sharma, high-lighted that Railways are the most environment friendly mode of land transportation . “Trains are not just the safest way to transport freight - they are also green and amongst the most energy efficient modes of transportation” she added. She said that the Railways gener-ate up to 80% less CO2 and consume 75-90% less energy for freight traffic than road transport.

Railways carry a significant amount of nation's freight, reducing Carbon Emissions, saving on Fuel costs, relieving highway congestion. She informed that transporting goods by train also provides benefits to the environment beyond fuel efficiency and sustainability. It reduces supply chain costs, allowing Indian businesses to be more competitive in the global market. Recently, Railways have come up with so many innovations in the logistics sec-tor - Railways have altered the freight scenario of the country but this is yet to reach J&K. She requested the Industrial Associations/Federations/Trade Bod-

ies and the individual Unit holders to take benefits of these innovations.

Industrialists present in the meeting welcomed the initiative by Northern Rail-ways and Department of Industries and Commerce and thanked them for organ-ising the session. They highlighted the challenges being faced by Industry in the region in terms of logistical movement of raw materials and finished goods.

They also requested that the quality of services be upgraded and transit time be reduced by Railways. They also re-quested that a modernised tracking sys-tem be integrated into railway logistics so that Industries are kept apprised of real time tracking of the consignments while in transit. Further, they also requested the Business Development Unit to consider allowing part load and Roll on –Roll Off services for Industrial units.

Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Northern Railways, Baldev Raj ; Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Freight) Northern Railways (Ferozepur) Vimal Kalra; General Man-ager, District Industries Centre Samba, Surinder Sharma; Functional Manager, D’te of Industries and Commerce Jam-mu, Pankaj Sassan , and other senior officers of Industries and Commerce and Railways also were present in the meeting.

DLSA Udhampur hosts awareness webinar on Rights of senior Citizens

UDHAMPUR, OCTOBER 12: District Legal Services Authority, Udhampur under the guidance of its Chairman, organized an awareness campaign on the Rights of Senior Citizens through Virtual Mode.

The Programme hosted in connection with the Pan India Awareness and Outreach Campaign under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav was aimed at to raise Awareness about the issues related to Senior Citizens and the problems faced by them. The DLSA Ud-hampur organised Five programmes through virtual Mode on the subject at Government Model Girls Hr. Secondary School, Govern-ment Model Boys Higher Secondary School, Government Higher Secondary School Tikri, Government Higher Secondary, Garhi, and Government Higher Secondary School Salm-eri. The Resource Persons of the Programme were Panel Lawyers Advocate Pawan Gupta, Advocate Akhil Dubey, and Advocate Mal-likarjun Singh Slathia. The resource persons highlighted the issues faced by the Old aged Citizens and legal means for their redressal. The Principals of the schools Nasib Singh, R.S Slathia, Sunil Sharma, Ajay Vashisht and Pawan Slathia along with the school staff were also present in the Programme.

The Resource Person Advocate Akhil Dubey (Panel Lawyer) while thanking the stu-dents and the staff threw light on the Rights of the Senior Citizens in the society and stressed upon the need to safeguard the same. The stu-dents who spoke in the programme were later felicitated by ranking them 1st, 2nd 3rd. The rest of the students were awarded with cer-tificates of appreciation by Advocate Akhil Dubey (Panel Lawyer).

Smridhi was adjudged 1st, Tamana Akbar stood 2nd and Anjali Sambyal stood at 3rd. Simi-lar Programmes were also organized at TLSC Ramnagar, TLSC Chenani and TLSC Majalta.

C. Raja Mohan

Last week’s in-person summit in Delhi was with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. This was apt, since

Europe looms so large in the Indian diplo-matic agenda today and smaller European states draw unprecedented political atten-tion from Delhi.

If the Danish encounter highlighted In-dia’s immense possibilities with the smaller European countries, the prospects for larger strategic cooperation with the European col-lective have opened up with the articulation of a comprehensive Indo-Pacific strategy by the European Union last month. That Den-mark, a country of barely six million people, can establish a significant green partnership with India, is a reminder that smaller coun-tries of Europe have much to offer in India’s economic, technological, and social transfor-mation.

If tiny Luxembourg brings great finan-cial clout, Norway offers impressive mari-time technologies, Estonia is a cyber power, Czechia has deep strengths in optoelectron-ics, Portugal is a window to the Lusophone world, and Slovenia offers commercial ac-cess to the heart of Europe through its Adri-atic sea port at Koper. The list goes on. As In-dia begins to realise this untapped potential, there are new openings with the 27-nation EU headquartered in Brussels.

That the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy got little public attention in Delhi is part of the entrenched indifference to Europe in India’s foreign policy discourse. To be sure, the re-lease of the EU’s approach to the Indo-Pacific was overshadowed by the controversial an-nouncement of the AUKUS partnership on nuclear-powered submarines. The nuclear-powered submarines to be built by the US and UK for Australia won’t sail the waters of the Indo-Pacific for years to come; but that generated much, if pointless, excitement in Delhi. The EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy, hardly noticed in Delhi, is likely to have a much greater impact on the region more imme-diately and on a wider range of areas than military security. They range from trade and investment to green partnerships, the construction of quality infrastructure to digital partnerships, and from strengthen-ing ocean governance to promoting research and innovation. Defence and security are important elements of the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy that “seeks to promote an open and rules-based regional security architecture, including secure sea lines of communica-tion, capacity-building and enhanced naval presence in the Indo-Pacific”.

For the first time since the European co-lonial powers retreated from Asia amidst the

surge of nationalist movements in the mid-dle of the 20th century, Europe is returning as a geopolitical actor to Asia and its waters — the Indo-Pacific if you will. But the con-text is very different. Few Asian countries view Europe with strategic suspicion. Many in Asia see Europe as a valuable partner. A survey earlier this year of policymakers and thought-leaders in the ASEAN region put the EU as the most trusted partner in the region after Japan and ahead of the US. China and India are way down the list.

As the deepening confrontation between the US and China begins to squeeze South East Asia, Europe is widely seen as widen-ing the strategic options for the region. The perspective is similar in Delhi, which now sees Brussels as a critical element in the construction of a multipolar world. As Ex-ternal Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jais-hankar puts it, India’s strategy is to “engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play”. For the students of Indian foreign policy, the command to “cultivate Europe” is certainly new.

The Cold War, which divided Europe into East and West, had distorted India’s perspective of the region. In the colonial era, both the nationalists and the princes developed a wide-ranging engagement with Europe. After independence, India viewed Western Europe as an extension of the US and saw Eastern Europe through Moscow’s eyes. As it tilted to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, India developed a political prickliness towards the western part of Eu-rope and took the East for granted.

As Europe launched the bold experiment to construct a Union in the 1990s, Delhi had a different set of diplomatic priorities — sal-vaging a relationship with post-Soviet Rus-sia, normalising relations with China, con-necting with the US, and managing a more troubled relationship with nuclear Pakistan. This left little diplomatic bandwidth in Delhi to think strategically about Europe. Asked to explain his remarks on ‘cultivating Europe”, at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia last

month, Jaishankar admitted that Delhi did not devote adequate attention in the past to Brussels. He added that Delhi is now focused on developing a strong partnership with Brussels and engage all its 27 members — big and small — individually. Brussels has long been ready to dance with Delhi.

The EU outlined a strategy for India in 2018 to focus on four themes — sustainable economic modernisation, promotion of a rules-based order, foreign policy coordina-tion, and security cooperation. At the sum-mit in Portugal in May this year, the EU and India agreed to resume free trade talks and develop a new connectivity partnership that would widen options for the world be-yond the Belt and Road Initiative. Above all, there is a recognition in both Delhi and Brussels that the India-EU strategic part-nership is crucial for the rebalancing of the international system amidst the current global flux.

The clamour in Europe for “strategic au-tonomy” has certainly increased in the wake of AUKUS that pushed France out of its sub-marine deal with Australia. Washington has moved quickly to rebuild trust with Paris.

In a joint statement issued after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden affirmed the “strategic impor-tance of French and European engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, including in the framework of the European Union’s recent-ly published strategy for the Indo-Pacific.” Whatever the specific circumstances of the AUKUS deal and its impact on France, the US wants all its partners, especially Europe, to contribute actively to the reconstitution of the Asian balance of power.

The EU strategy, in turn, sees room for working with the Quad in the Indo-Pacific, while stepping up security cooperation with a number of Asian partners, including India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sin-gapore and Vietnam.

A stronger Europe with greater geopo-litical agency is very welcome in Delhi. India is conscious that Europe can’t match Amer-ica’s military heft in the Indo-Pacific. But it could help strengthen the military balance and contribute to regional security in mul-tiple other ways. Delhi knows that Europe could significantly boost India’s capacity to influence future outcomes in the Indo-Pacif-ic. It would also be a valuable complement to India’s Quad coalition with Australia, Japan and the United States.

It was Russia that defined India’s dis-course on the multipolar world after the Cold War. Today, it is Europe — with its much greater economic weight, technological strength, and normative power — that prom-ises to boost India’s own quest for a multipo-lar world and a rebalanced Indo-Pacific.

Jayamala Subramaniam

India’s water quality and scarcity issues can be tackled using science and community participa-tion. However, to be effective, this needs to be

done at scale.India is the largest extractor of groundwater in

the world. We extract more groundwater than the USA and China put together. Not only does this lead to debilitating water scarcity issues—nearly three-fourth of India’s rural households do not have access to piped and portable water—but it also causes an increase in contaminants like arsenic and fluoride in drinking water, putting 10 million and 66 million Indians respectively at threat for severe infection.

Despite this, all hope is not lost. A large number of grassroots organisations and technical experts working on water security have, through their work, proven that both water quality and scarcity issues can be tackled using science and community partici-pation. However, to be effective, they need to be done at scale.The need for scale

Consider these facts: India is projected to face se-vere water stress by 2050

As of 2019, only 17 percent of the 191 million rural households in India had access to tap water connec-tion.

According to the Central Groundwater Board report (2017), close to 40 percent of the 700 districts in India have reported ‘critical’ or ‘overexploited’ groundwater levels.

As per a recent NITI Aayog report approximately 49 percent of India’s rural population had access to safely-managed water in 2015, resulting in about two lakh annual deaths. Additionally, because groundwa-ter is a dynamic resource (there are variations in its input, such as rainfall; and output, such as agricultural uses), the magnitude of the water problem in India is not just large, but also complex. This means that work-ing on water security entails ongoing management of water resources, demands, and behaviours.

Given the complexity of the challenge, it is evi-dent that unless we act fast, the problem will soon outpace our individual ability to solve it. Take, for instance, the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s flagship pro-gramme, Atal Bhujal Yojana. The scheme promises to address the problem of groundwater scarcity and management in over 9,000 gram panchayats across seven states in India—Rajasthan, Haryana, Karna-taka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, over a period of five years, using a variety of intervention strategies. While the scheme sounds promising, if we want to replicate its model across the entire country, it could take close to 80 years—which is time we do not have.

It is evident therefore, that we need solutions that offer speed, scale, and sustainability.The role of science and community participation

Arghyam (the organisation we work with) has been working on various aspects of water security for the past 15 years. In this time, we have seen that the most successful models are those that use accu-

rate data, and place trained community members at the centre of problem-solving. Here’s what they need for the models to work:Community members need to understand the pros and cons of water management

Understanding the science of groundwater man-agement galvanises communities into action around managing their water. People need to understand that effective water management has economic benefits and value; and, on the flip side, there are economic and livelihood consequences of poor water manage-ment. For instance, in Randullabad, Maharashtra, ACWADAM explained the principles of water man-agement to the communities they work with, who then changed their crop choice significantly with a focus on increased crop diversity and horticulture crops. A shift in rabi cropping pattern (from depend-ing heavily on jowar to diversifying to include toma-toes, brinjal, capsicum, etc.) saved them water and rewarded them financially—incomes nearly doubled from INR 40,000 per acre to INR 70,000 per acre.First mile workers, who have been trained in water security, need to be embedded in large government schemes

Over the years, it became clear that the first point of contact and gateway to all development programmes and services are the community cad-res—anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, teachers, panchayat secretaries, Public Works Department staff, and many others. Most commonly referred to as frontline workers (FLW), they form the backbone of India’s social welfare programmes. Today, India has about two crore FLWs working on health-related ser-vices, across 2,50,000 gram panchayats.

Since government schemes are administered at a gram panchayat level, and the FLWs that work on water-related issues are already embedded in these gram panchayats, it makes sense to invest in their training and capacity building.

However, in order to reach 100 million people, an organisation would need to invest in training and building the capacity of 150,000 FLWs at a gram pan-chayat level. Additionally, given the dynamic nature of the water problem, these workers would need con-stant access to learning, updated data, and space to practice what they know.An investment in participatory digital infra-structure is necessary to meet the needs of these frontline workers

An open-source digital infrastructure can help keep a record of all trained personnel, ensure the timely management of all programme-specific con-tent, open channels of interactions between commu-nity people and programme teams, and enable swift data-driven governance for programmes.

For example, in 2019, Arghyam joined hands with the Government of Meghalaya, to create a network of first-mile water leaders and build their capacities us-ing such a participatory digital infrastructure. This ap-proach allowed them to take stock of all the assets they had—140 trainers, 705 pieces of training content (dem-onstration videos, instruction manuals, etc), and 1,161 trained Village Community Facilitators (VCFs)—and make them available to anyone who needed them.

How Delhi came to see Europe as a valuable strategic partner

Preventing a severe water crisis

Printer, Publisher, Owner: Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief: Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmad, Published from: Chinar House, Kathi Darwaza, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, Printed at: Lubaab Publications,

Radio Colony, Gund Hassibhat Bhat, Lawaypora, Srinagar 190017, Title Code: JKENG01338, Cell No: 8825090402, email Id: editor@kashmirtone.com

Seema Jayachandran

In a few weeks, millions in India will breathe much more polluted air as farmers across northern India burn stubble to clear fields for the winter wheat

sowing season. It is both a health and an environmen-tal hazard that repeats every year — one that a 2018 Lancet study found to be the number one reason for premature deaths in India. Cash payments — despite failed past attempts — remain a promising way to ad-dress this health emergency in the short run.

Annually, Indian farmers set some 92 million tonnes of crop residues on fire. Many are aware of the health costs to themselves and others. But they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Rules delay-ing onset of paddy sowing means later harvesting, leav-ing a short interval for field clearing. And financially strapped farmers often can’t afford other methods of crop residue management.

In this setting, imposing and collecting fines for burning is not viable. Politically, penalising farmers who face financial distress is unlikely to pass muster especially in the run-up to state elections. Instead, based on a recent study, we see the potential in provid-ing farmers financial incentives to not burn.

We studied crop residue management in 171 villag-es in Punjab in 2019 and ran a randomised evaluation of a cash payment programme through J-PAL South Asia that rewarded farmers who did not burn their paddy stubble in kharif 2019.

Our study revealed four important lessons for policy. The first two are about how farmers view the decision to burn and the other two are about how cash transfers can help.

First, farmers perceive the alternatives to burning as too expensive, even though the central government has subsidised equipment for crop residue manage-ment. For them, the subsidies have not changed the calculus that moving away from burning hurts their bottom line.

Second, farmers state a preference for ex-situ man-agement equipment such as balers over in-situ ma-chinery such as the Happy Seeder and the Super SMS: They prefer to remove the paddy stubble from the field rather than working it into the field.

The good news is that the cash transfers we of-fered succeeded in getting some farmers to switch from burning to residue management, in no small part be-cause they began to change the financial calculus and allowed farmers to use the removal method they pre-ferred.

The third lesson that emerged from our study per-tains to the best format of cash transfers: It was critical to offer some of the payment upfront. In principle, one could ask the farmer to manage stubble without burn-ing, verify that, and then pay him only afterwards. However, this approach did not work in our study. Cash rewards worked only if a portion of the payment was given at the beginning.

Why is partial upfront payment essential? One reason is that it builds trust. Without it, farmers do not trust that they will get the promised payment af-terwards. It also gives farmers some financial cushion given they need to pay for the equipment rental. They need cash to manage the stubble, so providing it to them after they have demonstrated they managed it properly is too late.

The final lesson is that the rewards farmers are offered need to cover their costs of managing stubble without burning. In our study, we offered Rs 800 per acre to most farmers, which accounted for about a quarter of the costs of equipment rental. That sufficed to get some farmers to change behaviour — the pro-gramme succeeded in reducing burning. But the ma-jority of farmers who were offered that payment level still burned their paddy stubble. The problem was that they were still being expected to cover the remaining costs themselves — upwards of Rs 2,000 per acre.

Our study results suggest that a subsidy of about Rs 2,500 per acre should be able to achieve a marked reduction in burning. This was the amount the states of Punjab and Haryana had planned to pay farmers in 2019. Widespread health benefits mean that subsi-dising the entire cost for farmers to make the switch away from burning their paddy stubble is worth it for society.

In light of these four lessons, there are different

ways forward in dealing with the issue of crop burning in the short run.

, of course, the government could restart condition-al cash payments. Our study shows that this strategy can work, if the policy is designed correctly.

Other options are also on the table, though it will be important to test both the design and impact of these options to ensure they actually reduce burning.

The government can subsidise ex-situ equipment. Policies that may reap benefits in the longer run in-clude further encouraging the operation of biogas plants, which could reduce the net cost of ex-situ man-agement because farmers can sell the crop residue, or to encourage innovation of new, much cheaper and more appealing farm equipment for in-situ manage-ment.

An effective policy solution will be one that takes into account farmers’ preferred method of crop residue management (ex-situ right now) and recognises that they are making a financial calculation.

Testing effectiveness before these policies are scaled up is important for avoiding spending on things that don’t work.

Finding effective ways to make farmers prefer crop residue management to burning would bring large gains to society: The budget allocation to such poli-cies will pay for themselves many times over with im-proved health and economic productivity for everyone.

How to get farmers to not burn crop residue

Kashmir Tone 4Srinagar | Wednesday

13 October 2021EDITORIAL/ OPINION

DISCLAIMER: The content, information, research or whatsoever the matter in the articles that appear on the editorial pages of Kashmir Tone and are uploaded on its online edition, is strictly authors’ own work. Kashmir Tone does not take any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, originality, and not plagiarised, or validity of any information on these articles. The information, facts or opinions appearing in these articles in no way reflect the views of Kashmir Tone , and Kashmir Tone does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. The responsibility of the content, in whatever manner, is solely, and totally, of authors’.

Prof Rajesh K Singh

In present era of globalization, academic institutions are trying hard to get global recognition. For most of the ranking frameworks and global accreditations such as AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA, research is an important

component. Therefore, most of the academic institutions have started giving emphasis on quality research by their faculty members. Due to this change in academic environment, for faculty promotions and recruitments, research publications in top ranking journals is becoming an important criterion.

Publication in top journals has now become very tough due to exponential growth in research papers submissions. In most of the top ranking journals of ABDC, ABS, FT 50, UT Dallas, acceptance rate is lesser than five percent. Most of the research papers submitted to such top ranking journals are desk reject-ed by Editors. Major reason for rejection of manuscript is unstructured pres-entation. Usually, research paper should describe all components of research in comprehensive manner and in a simple language for easy understanding of audience. Major components of research paper are selection of title, abstract, introduction, literature review, research methodology, results, discussion, managerial implications, conclusion, limitations and future scope.

Title selection is first step for writing a quality research paper. Usually title should specifically predict about content of the manuscript. Second com-ponent of research paper is abstract. Abstract should be crisp. Usually size of abstract should be around 200 words. It should be able to provide maximum information in limited words. Abstract should briefly describe objectives of study, research methods used in the study, major findings and implications. At the end of abstract, authors should give four to five keywords. Key words facilitate searching of articles by other researchers. After abstract, next com-ponent of research paper is introduction. Introduction should set the initial tone for research paper. Introduction should provide background information about the topic of research, reasons why present study is being carried out based on significant research gaps, research objectives and research ques-tions, scope of research, uniqueness and novelty of study and last paragraph of introduction should be on organization of complete paper. Length of intro-duction should not exceed one fifth of total size of the research paper.

Next component of research paper is literature review. Purpose of litera-ture review is to synthesize prior research related to topic of the paper. Based on previous studies, authors should try to identify research gaps to prove uniqueness of the study. Most of the researchers make mistake in this part, as problem of study is not identified based on research gaps and papers get desk rejected by editors. Authors should prefer to refer latest research papers at least for ten years. If authors are targeting to a particular journal, it should be ensured that no paper from that journal in identified research area is left for review. Next component of paper is research methodology. It should be well-written, clear, and logically organized. It should be tied up with research objectives of the paper. There may be different kind of research methods such as case study based, empirical studies or modelling based. Authors should clearly justify use of specific methodology. It is also desirable that different steps of research methodology are given in form of a flow chart.

After research methodology, results section should be described. Results section should clearly describe all findings in sequential manner. As far as possible findings should be presented in the form of tables and figures without any repetition. Authors should describe the results honestly without distor-tion of the data. After results section, discussion of findings is done. Find-ings should be interpreted in context to research questions mentioned in the paper. Findings should be also compared with previous studies done in the same area. Usually authors ignore the discussion section after describing the results. After discussion, authors should also give managerial implications of findings. If implications of study are not significant for academia and indus-try, chances of paper acceptance are usually less. Lastly authors should give conclusion of study. In this section, authors should briefly restate about objec-tives, major findings, unique contribution, limitations and future scope of the study. At the end, it is recommended that authors should try to maintain flow of contents in the whole paper for better readability.

Important components of a research paper

Kashmir Tone 5Srinagar Wednesday

13 Octoberber 2021WORLD

UK Parliament panel finds big mistakes' in early COVID-19

London, Oct 12 (PTI) The UK gov-ernment's response to the COVID-19 pandemic combined some "big achievements with some big mis-takes", a Parliament panel conclud-ed in a report published on Tuesday.

The Coronavirus: lessons learned to date' joint inquiry by cross-party MPs from the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Tech-nology Committee is highly critical of the government's early response to the pandemic and concludes that thousands of lives were lost due to delays and mistakes by ministers

and their scientific advisers. It also highlights the successes, praising the country's vaccine rollout against COVID-19 as a "guide for the future".

"The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future, said MPs Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clarke in a joint statement on behalf of both Commons committees.

Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace pro-

gramme took too long to become ef-fective," they said.

The government took the sci-entific advice seriously but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible, they said.

The 150-page report contains 38 recommendations to the govern-ment and public bodies and draws on evidence from over 50 witnesses, including Matt Hancock who was then UK Health Secretary and Domi-

nic Cummings British Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson's close aide in Downing Street at the time.

The joint inquiry, which began in October 2020, examined six key areas of the response to COVID-19: the country's preparedness for a pandemic; the use of non-pharma-ceutical interventions such as bor-der controls, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic; the use of the test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact of the pandem-ic on social care; the impact of the pandemic on specific communities; and the procurement and rollout of

COVID-19 vaccines.The initial decision to delay a com-

prehensive lockdown despite practice elsewhere in the world reflected a fa-talism about the spread of COVID that should have been robustly challenged at the time, the findings note.

The delays in establishing an ad-equate test, trace and isolate system hampered efforts to understand and contain the outbreak and it failed in its stated purpose to avoid lock-downs, they add.

The inquiry concluded that some initiatives were examples of global best practices, but others represented

mistakes and stressed that both areas must be reflected on to ensure that lessons are applied to better inform future responses to emergencies.

The inquiry added a special note of gratitude for the country's National Health Service (NHS) and care workers, scientists, officials, workers and millions of volunteers.

The UK's daily figures released by the government on Monday re-corded 40,224 COVID-19 infections and 28 more coronavirus deaths. The pandemic has claimed more than 150,000 lives in the UK and nearly 5 million worldwide.

Covid vaccination linked with reduced household transmission: StudyLondon, Oct 12: People without immunity against COVID-19 are at a significantly lower risk of infection and hospitalisation as the number of family members with immunity from a previous infection or full vaccination increases, according to a nationwide study in Sweden.

The research, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found that there was a dose-response association between the number of immune individuals in each fam-ily and the risk of infection and hospitalisa-tion in non-immune family members.

Non-immune family members had a 45 to 97 per cent lower risk of infection and hospi-talisation, as the number of immune family members increased, the researchers said.

"The results strongly suggest that vac-cination is important not only for individual protection, but also for reducing transmis-sion, especially within families, which is a high-risk environment for transmission," said Peter Nordstrom, a professor at Umea University in Sweden.

The researchers noted that there is a vast body of research showing that vaccines strongly reduce the risk of COVID-19.

However, less is known about the influ-ence of vaccination on transmission of the virus in high-risk environments, such as within families, they said.

The latest research is a nationwide, reg-istry-based study of over 1.8 million individu-als from more than 800,000 families.

The researchers combined registry data from the Public Health Agency of Sweden, the National Board of Health and Welfare, and from Statistics Sweden, which is the govern-ment agency that oversees statistical data.

They quantified the association between the number of family members with immu-nity against COVID-19 and the risk of infec-tion and hospitalisation in non-immune in-dividuals.

The study accounted for differences in age, socioeconomic status, clustering within families, and several diagnoses previously identified as risk factors for COVID-19 in the Swedish population.

The researchers noted that it appears that vaccination helps not only to reduce the individual's risk of becoming infected, but also to lower transmission.

This "in turn minimises not only the risk that more people become critically il, but also that new problematic variants emerge and start to take over, said Marcel Ballin, doctoral student at Umea University.

"Consequently, ensuring that many people are vaccinated has implications on a local, national, and global scale," Ballin, co-author of the study, added.

Kim Jong Un vows to build 'invincible' military while slamming USSeoul, Oct 12 (AP) North Korean lead-er Kim Jong Un reviewed powerful missiles developed to launch nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland, as he vowed to build an invincible military to cope with what he called persistent U.S. hostility, state media reported Tuesday.

In an apparent continued effort to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul, Kim also used his speech at a rare exhibition of weapons systems Monday to stress that his military might isn't targeted at South Korea and that there shouldn't be another war pitting Korean people against each other.

The U.S. has frequently signaled it's not hostile to our state, but there is no action-based evidence to make us believe that they are not hostile, Kim said Monday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The U.S. is continuing to create tensions in the region with its wrong judg-ments and actions.

Calling the United States a source of instability on the Korean Penin-sula, Kim said his country's most important objective is possessing an invincible military capability that no one can dare challenge.

The exhibition, which KCNA says was meant to mark the 76th birthday of the ruling Workers' Party on Sun-day, was the first of its kind since Kim took power in late 2011, according to Seoul officials. North Korean photos showed Kim, clad in a dark suit, walk-ing on a red carpet lined with big mis-siles mounted on trucks, passing by a multiple rocket launch system and watching jets flying in a formation.

The exhibition featured an ar-

ray of newly developed weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles North Korea has already test-launched or displayed during mili-tary parades in recent years, experts say.

Yang Wook, a military expert who teaches at South Korea's Han-nam University, said the weapons in the photos include what appears to be a new ICBM that North Korea dis-closed during a military parade last year but hasn't test-fired, Yang said. That missile mounted on an 11-axel launch vehicle during the parade is considered to be the North's biggest-yet ICBM.

Other weapons on display were another ICBM that North Korea test-ed in 2017; ballistic missiles that can be fired from submarines or a train;

solid-fueled, short-range missiles; and a developmental hypersonic missile that had its first test-flight last month, said Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert at South Korea's Science and Technol-ogy Policy Institute.

Basically, North Korea wants to send this message: We'll continue to develop new weapons and arm our-selves with nuclear force, so don't slap sanctions with these as we can't agree on the double standards,' Yang said.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities were analyzing the North Korean weapons displayed but didn't elaborate.

In recent weeks North Korea has sent mixed signals toward its rivals, as it resumed its missile tests after a six-month hiatus but offered condi-

tional talks with South Korea.During his exhibition speech,

Kim accused South Korea of hypocri-sy because it criticizes North Korea's weapons development as provoca-tions while spending heavily to in-crease its own military capabilities. But he still said his military doesn't target South Korea.

I say once again that South Ko-rea isn't the one that our military forces have to fight against, Kim said. Surely, we aren't strengthening our defense capability because of South Korea. We shouldn't repeat a horrible history of compatriots using force against each other.

Some experts say North Korea is attempting to use South Korea's de-sire to improve ties to pressure it to convince the United States to relax punishing economic sanctions on the North and make other concessions.

North Korea has long sought im-proved ties with the United States be-cause it wants sanctions relief and a better security environment to focus on reviving its moribund economy. The high-stakes diplomacy between the countries fell apart in early 2019 after the Americans rejected North Korea's calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for partial disarma-ment steps.

The United States has recently re-peatedly offered talks with North Ko-rea anywhere and at any time without preconditions. Kim has called such an offer cunning attempt to conceal U.S. hostility against North Korea, as he wants Washington to ease the sanc-tions or suspend its regular military drills with Seoul first before the talks can resume.

Israel PM urges UN to hold Iran to account for nuclear movesTel Aviv, Oct 12 (AP) Is-raeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Tuesday on the United Nations Secu-rity Council to take action against Iran over its escalat-ing nuclear programme.

Bennett spoke at a con-ference in Jerusalem, where he suggested that Iran's con-duct is every nation's prob-lem, and subject to global accountability.

After talks between Tehran and world powers on reviving the nuclear deal stalled earlier this year, Iran has breached limits set by the accord. It has been en-riching small amounts of uranium to its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade pu-rity as its stockpile contin-ues to grow.

Bennett said he has made the case to other lead-ers, including President Joe Biden and German Chancel-lor Angela Merkel, that Iran is violating basic interna-tional commitments in the shadow of the now-tattered 2015 nuclear deal.

Merkel, who visited Is-rael on Sunday in her final official visit, said that Ger-many remains committed to reviving the deal a step Israel opposes. The Biden administration is also trying to revive the nuclear deal.

Bennett said he expects global powers to bring (Iran) to the U.N. Security Council, hold Iran accountable for it. That, he added, would be the peaceful route" forward.

Bennett spoke as Israeli Foreign Minister Yair La-pid traveled to Washington, where he was expected to de-tail Israel's message on Iran in meetings with Vice Presi-dent Kamala Harris, Secre-tary of State Antony Blinken and congressional leaders in both parties.

Bennett last month met with Biden for the first time

as prime minister and presi-dent, with Iran topping the agenda. We're putting diplo-macy first and seeing where that takes us, Biden said. If diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options.

Israel has vowed to act unilaterally against Iran if need be. Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

Earlier this year, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Fox News that Israel was still working on its strike plans against Iran.

And just last month, Is-rael's recently-retired navy chief told The Associated Press that the military has stepped up its activities in the Red Sea exponentially in the face of growing Iranian threats to Israeli shipping.

Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit stopped short of confirming a series of attacks and mis-haps on Iranian ships that have been attributed to Isra-el. But he described Iranian activities on the high seas as a top Israeli concern and said the navy is able to strike wherever necessary to pro-tect the country's economic and security interests.

Bennett's message on Tuesday underscored that he was pushing diplomacy first.

There are other routes, he warned, but that's the right thing to do. And I'm going to continue pursuing that over the next few weeks and months. (AP)

Mumbai, Oct 12 (PTI): Rising for the fourth straight session, equity bench-marks Sensex and Nifty marked their new closing highs on Tuesday due to partici-pants’ continued buying interest in bank-ing, consumer durables and auto stocks.

After a volatile trading session, the 30-share Sensex ended 148.53 points or 0.25 per cent higher at 60,284.31. Intraday, the index swung between a high of 60,332 and a low of 59,885.

Likewise, the Nifty rose 46 points or 0.26 per cent to its fresh closing peak of 17,991.95.

Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 5 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Nestle In-dia, ITC, Axis Bank and Tata Steel.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, TCS and Sun Pharma were among the laggards.

In the past four sessions, the Sensex has added about 1,095 points or 1.84 per

cent; and the Nifty has gathered 345 points or 1.95 per cent.

Sectorally, BSE consumer durables, FMCG, metal, auto, realty and power indices rose up to 2.78 per cent on Tues-day. While IT, telecom, teck, utilities and healthcare indices ended in the red.

Broader midcap and smallcap indices advanced up to 0.65 per cent.

“The day witnessed hectic activity in PSU banking space with stocks from two-wheelers and consumer durables seeing good demand in line with the festive mood. While we did see a continuation of profit booking in IT names, the small and mid-cap space was buzzing with accumulation across sectors. A late surge in the metal In-dex led by aluminium stocks lent support to the rally,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shang-hai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended with losses.

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI): Retail inflation declined to 4.35 per cent in September, mainly due to lower food pric-es, according to government data released on Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index-based (CPI) inflation was at 5.30 per cent in Au-gust and at 7.27 per cent in September 2020.

As per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the inflation in food basket eased to 0.68 per cent in September 2021, significantly down from 3.11 per cent in the preceding

month.The Reserve Bank of

India (RBI), which mainly

factors in CPI-based infla-tion while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy,

has been tasked by the gov-ernment to keep it at 4 per cent, with a tolerance band

of 2 per cent on either side.Last week, RBI Gover-

nor Shaktikanta Das had said that overall, the CPI headline momentum is mod-erating, which combined with favourable base effects in the coming months could bring about a substantial softening in inflation in the near term.

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

Boston/Washington, Oct 12 (PTI): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman discussed investment opportunities, re-forms in India and other related issues during her meeting with leaders of global corporations, who said they were upbeat about investing in the country.

Sitharaman arrived in the US on Monday to attend the annual meet of the World Bank and IMF in Washington as well as G20 Finance Ministers and Cen-tral Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting.

During the official visit to the US, Si-tharaman is expected to meet US Treas-ury Secretary Janet Yellen.

After arriving in New York, Sithara-man travelled to Boston where she will meet investors during a roundtable host-ed by FICCI and US-India Strategic Part-nership Forum (USISPF) and executives of global corporations and also address students at Harvard University.

Prominent among those who met the minister in Boston were John Con-naughton, co-managing partner, and Ste-phen Pagliuca, co-chairman, Bain Capi-tal; Edmund DiSanto, Executive Vice President, Chief Administration Officer

and General Counsel of American Tower Corporation (ATC); Prahlad Singh, Pres-ident and CEO of Perkin Elmer and Dr John Ardill and Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil.

Expressing their confidence in the In-dian economy and the ongoing reforms, the corporate leaders said that they were upbeat about investing in the country.

Sitharaman also attended a dinner hosted by Lawrence Summers, former Treasury Secretary, along with other em-inent experts in the fields of economics, public policy, finance, and development.

The finance minister elucidated the intent of the country to be more inclusive

in development and growth, Prahlad Sin-gh said after his meeting with Sithara-man in Boston.

In a wide-ranging discussion with the minister, Singh stated that some of the best science graduates and skill sets that Perkin Elmer as a company leverage, come out of India.

Singh said that India’s healthcare in-dustry is ripe for investment.

Singh added that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, products that have been devel-oped in the company’s facilities in Goa are being used and exported outside the country for use for COVID-19 testing.

So that’s really a very good example of how we can use and leverage the in-clusive growth that the Finance Minister pointed out and what the country has been doing for using the capabilities and skill sets from India for our development as a company but also from the country’s perspective.

During the meeting, Sitharaman men-tioned government incentives and initia-tives towards promoting innovation in life sciences and research and develop-ment in the pharma sector.

Mumbai, Oct 12: The Re-serve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday debarred audit firm Haribhakti & Co from undertaking audit assign-ments in any of the banking and non-banking financial companies (NBFC) for two years starting April 1, 2022 for failing to comply with its direction.

Haribhakti was the au-ditor of SREI Infrastructure Finance (SIFL), a listed firm, for 2019-20. The RBI super-seded the boards of SIFL and Srei Equipment Finance (SEFL) on October 4 over governance concerns and payment defaults.

“This action has been taken on account of the fail-ure on the part of the audit firm to comply with a spe-cific direction issued by RBI with respect to its statutory audit of a systemically im-portant non-banking finan-cial company,” a statement uploaded on the RBI website said.

The audit firm, which is also a regular auditor of important banks, includ-

ing state-owned banks, has been debarred under section 45MAA of the Reserve Bank of India Act. This is the first time that any auditor has been implicated under this act, a source said.

The RBI Act 45MAA talks about actions that can be taken if section 45MA is not adhered to. Section 45MA talks about the duties of an auditor of an NBFC.

It says an auditor of an NBFC would be duty-bound to inquire whether the firm being audited has furnished all the details on its deposits, assets, and liabilities, profit-and-loss account, etc. to the RBI that would form the basis of disclosure related instructions, or even special audit by the central bank on the firm.

The RBI’s communica-tion suggests that the audit firm failed to do so, leading to the two-year debarment.

However, the action will not affect Haribhakti’s audit-ing assignments for the cur-rent fiscal 2021-22, the RBI said.

New Delhi, Oct 12: Tata Mo-tors Ltd (TML) and TPG Rise Climate on Tuesday entered into a binding agreement whereby TPG Rise Climate along with its co-investor ADQ, shall invest in a subsidi-ary of Tata Motors that will be newly incorporated. TPG Rise Climate along with co-inves-tors shall invest Rs 7,500 crore in compulsory convertible in-struments to secure between 11 % to 15 % stake in this com-pany translating to an equity valuation of up to $9.1 bn.

“The new company shall leverage all existing invest-ments and capabilities of Tata Motors Ltd and will chan-nelise the future investments into electric vehicles, dedicat-ed BEV platforms, advanced automotive technologies and catalyse investments in charging infrastructure and battery technologies. Over the next 5 years, this com-pany will create a portfolio of 10 EVs and in association with Tata Power Ltd, catalyse the creation of a widespread charging infrastructure to fa-cilitate rapid EV adoption in India,” said Tata Motors in a statement.

N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors Ltd said: “I am delighted to have TPG Rise Climate join us in our journey to create a market-shaping electric pas-senger mobility business in India. We will continue to proactively invest in exciting products that delights cus-

tomers while meticulously creating a synergistic ecosys-tem. We are excited and com-mitted to play a leading role in the Government’s vision to have 30% electric vehicles penetration rate by 2030.”

Jim Coulter, Managing Partner TPG Rise Climate and Founding partner of TPG commented: “We are excited to partner with Tata Motors on their mission to lead the electrification of passenger mobility in India. There is sig-nificant momentum around India’s EV movement, sup-ported by the Government’s vision and policies, as well as growing consumer de-mand for greener solutions. The investment aligns with TPG Rise Climate’s focus on decarbonized transport and builds on TPG’s long history in India.”

It is expected that the first round of capital infusion will be completed by March 22 and the entire funds will be in-fused by end of 2022. Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are the joint financial advisors to TML, while BofA Securi-ties India Ltd are represent-ing TPG Rise Climate for this transaction.

Khaitan & Co are legal advisors to TML, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, Cleary Gottlieb are legal advisors to TPG Rise for the transaction.

The transaction is subject to conditions precedent and customary approvals.

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI): India’s industrial production rose 11.9 per cent in August, according to official data re-leased on Tuesday.

As per the Index of In-dustrial Production (IIP) data by the National Statis-tical Office (NSO), the man-ufacturing sector’s output surged 9.7 per cent in Au-gust 2021.

In August, the mining output climbed 23.6 per cent, and power generation in-creased 16 per cent. The IIP had contracted 7.1 per cent in August 2020.

During April-August this year, the IIP grew 28.6 per cent against a 25 per cent contrac-tion in the same period last year.

Industrial production has been hit due to the coronavi-rus pandemic since March last year when it had contracted 18.7 per cent.

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI): Telecom tri-bunal TDSAT on Tuesday asked the De-partment of Telecom to put on hold the encashment of bank guarantees in the penalty case of Bharti Airtel and Voda-fone Idea till the next date of hearing.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) bench headed by Justice Shiv Kirti Singh list-ed the matter for hearing on October 26.

“... No encashment of bank guar-antee shall be resorted to till the next date,” Singh said.

As per the Department of Telecom, companies are required to pay the pen-alty by October 21.

The telecom tribunal did not grant a stay on the penalty notice.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea moved the telecom tribunal to chal-lenge Telecom Department’s demand notices for payment of Rs 3,050 crore cumulative penalties in the points of interconnect matter.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has slapped a penalty of Rs 2,000 crore on Vodafone Idea and Rs 1,050 crore on Bharti Airtel based on sector regulator Trai’s recommendation five years ago, for violating norms by denying Reli-ance Jio points of interconnect (PoIs)

way back in 2016.The PoI are required to intercon-

nect networks of telecom operators.Lawyers representing Vodafone

Idea argued that the Telecom Regula-tory Authority of India (Trai) recom-mended a penalty based on just one day reading of quality of service data and even did not average it over the period of 30 days as per the norms.

In October 2016, Trai had recom-mended imposing a total penalty of Rs 3,050 crore on Airtel, Vodafone and Idea

(now merged) for allegedly denying in-ter-connectivity to Reliance Jio.

The regulator had, at that time, stopped short of recommending cancel-lation of their telecom licences saying it may lead to significant consumer in-convenience.

Trai’s recommendation had come on a complaint by Reliance Jio that over 75 per cent of calls on its network were failing as incumbents were not releasing sufficient num-bers of PoIs.

Mumbai, Oct 12 (PTI): Falling for the third day in a row, the rupee weakened further by 16 paise to end at 75.52 against the US curren-cy on Tuesday, weighed down by a strong greenback in the overseas market and firm crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign ex-change market, the local currency opened at 75.41 and witnessed an intra-day high of 75.16 and a low of 75.66 against the US dollar in the day trade.

The local unit finally settled at 75.52 a dollar, down 16 paise over its previous close.

On Monday, the rupee slid by 37 paise to close at a 15-month low of 75.36 against the US dollar.

In the last three trading ses-sions, the rupee has depreciated 73 paise against the US dollar.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.29 per cent to USD 83.89 per barrel.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trad-ing 0.02 per cent up at 94.33.

“The Indian rupee touched a low of 75.67, a level last seen on June 25, 2020. The dollar index stayed calm while dollar demand from oil importers and hedgers dragged the rupee lower. Market participants should keep eye on crude oil, Dol-lar index and US Treasury yields for short term movement,” said

Dilip Parmar, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Parmar further said that the medium-term trend for USD/INR remains bullish while short-term profit booking can’t be ruled out after vertical rise.

“The pair is having support in

the area of 75.30 to 75, while contin-ue to face resistance in the range of 75.90 to 76,” he noted.

On the domestic equity market front, the BSE Sensex ended 148.53 points or 0.25 per cent higher at 60,284.31, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 46.00 points or 0.26 per cent to 17,991.95.

“The Indian Rupee depreciated against the US Dollar for a third successive session, weighed down by dollar demand from oil market-ing companies supported by an uptick in crude oil prices,” said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Ana-lyst at Reliance Securities.

The unit had briefly weakened to 75.67 earlier in the session, its

lowest since June 29, 2020, but trimmed losses on exporters’ dol-lar sales and dollar position cover-ing by some foreign banks.

Most other Asian and emerg-ing market currencies came under pressure this Tuesday, continued to be weighed by the rise in crude prices.

India’s benchmark BSE index ended 0.3 per cent higher, shrug-ging off weak global cues and kept depreciation bias capped.

In the overseas markets, the dollar index was flat this Tues-day afternoon trade in Asia, ahead of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes and CPI data this week.

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI): Union Coal Minister Pral-had Joshi on Tuesday said the government is making full efforts to meet the coal demand of power producers and stressed that steps are being taken to soon ramp up the dry-fuel supply to two million tonnes per day, from the current overall dispatch of 1.95 MT per day.

“We at the ministry and Coal India Ltd (CIL) are making full efforts to meet the coal demand... Yester-day (Monday), we supplied around 1.95 million tonnes (MT) of coal. Around 1.6 mil-lion tonnes from CIL and the remaining from Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. All put together, 1.95 MT we have supplied,” the minister said.

The statement comes at a time when the country’s power plants are grappling with fuel shortages.

“I think that in the his-tory of India... this is the highest-ever supply we have made and I am assuring you that this supply will contin-ue throughout,” the minister said.

Joshi was speaking at the launch event of the third tranche of the auction for commercial mining of coal.

“From October 20-21 or before that, we will try to reach two million tonnes (supply), which will again be a record,” he said.

The minister assured all stakeholders of the coal supply required for power generation.

“I assure all the stake-

holders and even people of the country that whatever coal is needed for power generation, that coal will be provided from the coal min-istry,” he said.

The minister further said the coal supply will go up as the monsoon recedes.

“As of now...at Coal In-dia, we have around 22 days’ stock and as you all know the monsoon is receding now and our supply will fur-ther go up,” he said.

The minister also hinted that for another 30-40 years, coal definitely has got a future.

“This is an opportune time for auction of the third tranche of coal blocks. In the entire world and at some places in India, there are discussions taking place on what is the future of coal.

“On the one hand, they question us about the future of coal. Now, there has been little shortages of coal, this is being discussed not only in India but in the entire world,” he said.

Coal Secretary A K Jain also said this is an appropri-ate time for the launch of the third round of auction for commercial coal mining, as there are talks currently in the country about the supply of fossil fuel and there is also demand for coal.

He said that given the three-four times hike in the imported coal prices, if India is importing a large amount of fuel at this rate, the elec-tricity bills would have shot by two-three times.

CIL had earlier said it is marshalling all its efforts to

bridge the demand-supply gap to the extent possible.

With 40 million tonnes stock at its pitheads and in-creasing, the availability of coal will not be a problem, the company had said.

The total offtake has gone up to 1.73 MT per day during October (till Sun-day), posting a 10 per cent jump over the same period last year.

CIL Director (Market-ing) S N Tiwary had said, “The aim is to ramp up sup-plies to the power sector even higher which we hope to achieve after Puja. Once the despatch rate is main-tained, the stock build-up will help tide over the tight situation.”

Despite heavy rainfall, CIL produced about 126 MT

of coal during the second quarter of the current finan-cial year, setting a record high for the second quarter, posting a 9.6 per cent year-on-year growth.

During the first 10 days of October, CIL’s output has logged 6.5 per cent growth over last October.

Going forward, the pro-duction will increase further when the attendance at coal-fields improves after festival holidays.

CIL’s supplies to power generation companies (gen-cos) have been at an all-time high till now this fiscal but it is the never-experienced-be-fore hunger for the dry fuel, spurred by an unmatched increase in power genera-tion that upset the demand-supply scales.

Indices scale new peaks; banking,

consumer goods, auto shares rally

Retail inflation eases to 4.35 per cent in September: Govt data

Sitharaman discusses investment opportunities, reforms in India with corporate leaders in US

RBI bars Srei Infraauditor Haribhakti & Co

for two years

TPG Rise to invest Rs 7,500 cr in Tata Motors’ EV arm at

$9.1-bn valuation

Industrial production grows 11.9 pc in August

TDSAT asks DoT not to encash BGs against Airtel, VIL till next hearing

Rupee declines 16 paise to 75.52, extends losses for third day

Govt making efforts to meet gencos’ coal demand: Joshi

Kashmir Tone 6Srinagar | Wednesday

13 October 2021BUSINESS

Kashmir Tone 7Srinagar |Wednesday13 October 2021NEWS

FROM THE FRONT PAGE....

Five...on Tuesday morning.

“Militants were given ample

time for surrender who rejected

surrender offers and fired upon

forces,” he added. “In the ensuing

gunfight, two local militants identi-

fied as Ubaid Ahmad Dar and Khu-

baib Ahmad Nengroo were killed.”

Meanwhile, police spokesman

in a statement said that during

the past 24hrs, based on specific

inputs about the presence of mili-

tants in twin villages of Shopian

viz, Tulran and Feeripora two anti-

terrorist operations were carried

out resulting in elimination of

five militants. The killed militants

include Mukhtar Shah, who was

involved in the targeted killing of

non-local vendors at Lal Bazar area

of Srinagar.

The police spokesman said that

yesterday at about 6 pm, acting on

specific inputs provided by Police

about presence of militants in vil-

lages Tulran & Feeripora of Shop-

ian, Police along with 34RR and

CRPF launched joint cordon and

search operations in the said areas,

the spokesman said.

“During the search operation

at Tulran, as the presence of mili-

tants got ascertained, they were

given repeated opportunities to

surrender; instead they fired indis-

criminately upon the joint search

party which retaliated leading

to an encounter. However due to

darkness the operation was sus-

pended, while the cordon was kept

intact. In the wee hours, repeated

announcements were again made

to the hiding militants to surren-

der, but the militants again fired

on joint search party and the fire

was retaliated,” he said.

“In the ensuing encounter,

three militants were killed and

their bodies were retrieved from

the site of the encounter. They

have been identified as Danish

Hussain Dar resident of Ray

Kapren Shopian, Yawar Hussain

Naikoo resident of Pahlipora and

Mukhtar Ahmed Shah resident of

Sindbal, Ganderbal. As per police

records, the killed militants were

linked with outfit LeT (TRF) and

remained part of groups involved

in several cases including attacks

on security establishments and

civilian atrocities,” he said, “It is

pertinent to mention that killed

militant Mukhtar Shah was

involved in target killing of a non-

local vendor in Lal Bazar area of

Srinagar and shifted to Shopian.”

Meanwhile, search operation at

Feeripora Shopian also remained

suspended throughout the night

and resumed in the wee hours.

“Contact was established with the

hiding militants and they were

given ample opportunities to sur-

render. However, they started

firing indiscriminately at the

search party which retaliated lead-

ing to an encounter,” the spokes-

man said. “In ensuing encounter,

two militants were killed and their

bodies were retrieved from the site

of the encounter. They have been

identified as Ubaid Ahmad Dar

resident of Ray Kapren and Khu-

baib Ahmad Nengroo resident of

Braripora. As per police records,

both the killed militants were

linked with proscribed terror outfit

LeT and involved in several cases.”

Meanwhile, a fresh contact was

established with the militants at

Dera Ki Gali in Rajouri district, an

official said. On Monday, five sol-

diers including a Junior Commis-

sioned Officer (JCO) were killed

in the operation. An official said

that fresh contact was established

with the militants and the firing

was going on from both sides. “The

operation has entered day two,” the

official said.

GoC...civilian killings are highly con-

demnable and that security forces

and the people need to be very care-

ful to keep the communal harmony

intact.

On the infiltration attempts,

he said that so far two attempts

were made and both were foiled.

“Army is alert and ready to foil

any attempt of infiltration on the

LoC. The militants operating in the

hinterland will be killed with the

help of people,” he said. He said the

situation was being dealt with by

the army and there was no need for

additional forces anywhere.

The GoC paid tributes to the

five slain soldiers killed in an anti-

militancy operation at Dera Ki Gali

on Poonch-Rajouri border. He said

that even though the area of opera-

tion doesn’t pertain to him but “the

operation was on in the area.” Ear-

lier, the GoC flagged off 300 stu-

dents who would pursue different

courses across the country under

various scholarship programs.

CBI...some cash including old curren-

cy were recovered, the statement

issued reads.

“CBI had registered two cases

on the request of J & K Govern-

ment and further Notification from

Government of India, and taken

over the investigation of two FIRs

i.e No.18 of 2018 dated 17.05.2018

earlier registered at Police Station

Vigilance Organisation Kashmir

(VOK) and FIR No. 11 of 2018 dated

17.05.2018 of Police Station Vigi-

lance Organisation Jammu (VOJ)

on the allegations of bulk issuance

of arms licenses in the erstwhile

State of J & K during the period

2012 to 2016.”

It was alleged that more than

2.78 lakh arms licences were issued

to the non-entitled persons. CBI

also collected documents pertain-

ing to the issuance of said armed

licences allegedly spread over 22

districts of J&K, it said.

“During investigation and

scrutiny of documents, the role of

certain gun dealers was found who

in connivance with the public ser-

vants i.e. the then DM and ADM etc

of concerned district had allegedly

issued such illegal arms licenses to

the ineligible persons. It was also

alleged that the persons who got

these licenses were not residents

of the places from where the said

arms licenses were issued,” the

statement said, adding that inves-

tigation is going on in this regard.

Selected...those involved in anti-national

activities and harbouring militants

by providing them logistics etc,”

said official sources privy to the

development.

They said if the Ministry of

Home Affairs (MHA) decided, the

NIA would take over the case of

selected killings in Kashmir. “It

depends as to how deep the conspir-

acy is and who are the conspirators

etc,” the sources said.

It is pertinent to mention that

between October to October 5,

seven civilians including a famous

chemist, a non-local vendor, two

teachers including a female

member of Sikh community were

killed. The spate of killing’s trig-

gered a fresh wave of panic in the

Valley forcing Security agencies

to put in extra efforts to bust the

modules involved in the selected

killings. (KNO)

India...minority Kashmiri Pandits and

a Sikh school principal, by militants

of The Resistance Front (TRF) in the

Kashmir Valley last week.

Expressing his grief and shock

at the martyrdom of five Army

jawans, Chugh lauded the bravery

and sacrifice of the security forces

and said the entire nation is with

them to ensure decisive defeat of

Pakistan-supported anti-national

forces.

Five army personnel, includ-

ing a Junior Commissioned Officer

(JCO), and two militants were killed

in three encounters in different dis-

tricts of Jammu and Kashmir on

Monday.

"The Indian security forces

would give a befitting reply to

sudden spurt in Pakistan-sponsored

militant attacks in Jammu and

Kashmir", he told reporters.

He said India will decimate mili-

tancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Chugh said that militants were

fighting a losing battle out of frus-

tration because the prime minister's

development policies have isolated

them in the Union Territory.

He slammed the Congress-

Abdullah-Mufti trio for "encourag-

ing and covertly supporting anti-

national elements in J&K" and said

that people of the Union Territory

want peace and development spear-

headed by Prime Minister Narendra

Modi.

"People now want to get rid of

the trio and want a new sunshine in

the valley," he said.

The BJP leader took a strong

exception to the manner Mehbooba

Mufti "added communal colour

to the NCB investigation" in the

Mumbai drug case.

The PDP president on Monday

alleged that Bollywood star Shah-

rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was

being targeted by the central agen-

cies merely because of his surname.

She claimed that Muslims are tar-

geted to please the core vote bank

of the BJP.

"Instead of making an example

out of a Union Minister's son accused

of killing four farmers, central agen-

cies are after a 23-year-old simply

because his surname happens to be

Khan. Travesty of justice that Mus-

lims are targeted to satiate the sadis-

tic wishes of BJP's core vote bank,"

Mehbooba tweeted.

She was referring to Ashish

Mishra, son of Union minister of

State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra.

Ashish Mishra is accused of mowing

down farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri

in Uttar Pradesh last week. He was

arrested after 12 hours of question-

ing late on Saturday night.

Chugh also lambasted Mufti for

"arousing anti-national sentiments."

"Mehbooba was indulging in cheap

politics at the cost of national secu-

rity", he said.

Heading...of Block Dhangri and interact-

ed with the women PRI and gen-

eral public. The PRIs and the locals

raised several issues and demands

about different sectors.

In her address, the MoS said

that J&K is heading towards a

new era of development and pros-

perity and witnessing a wave of

positive change with the Govern-

ment taking several reformative

measures for socio-economic devel-

opment, besides empowering the

people of the UT.

The Minister said that the

Union Government is commit-

ted to ensuring transparency and

accountability in its functioning

which are necessary for democrat-

ic and participative governance, as

they help build trust and improve

the impact of schemes.

Describing the objective of her

visit, she informed that the spe-

cial public outreach by the Cen-

tral Government to JK UT has

been launched to take first-hand

account of the public grievances at

their doorsteps and ensure better

implementation of the Govern-

ment schemes on the ground.

"All efforts are being made to

bring JK into mainstream devel-

opment and several schemes have

been launched in this regard", she

said.

Terming the 3-tier system a

boon for democracy, Smt. Patel

said that the system is playing

a crucial role in strengthening

democracy at the grassroots level

as the people themselves are now

formulating the plans as per the

needs of their areas.

While enumerating the steps

being taken to encourage invest-

ment and promote industrial devel-

opment in the UT, she informed

that in a major decision, the Gov-

ernment of India has approved a

new Industrial Developmental

Scheme for Jammu and Kashmir.

"To tap the export potential of

agricultural and industrial prod-

ucts, the Government is engaging

with states and union territories to

implement the Districts as Export

Hub (DEH) initiative in all districts

of the country", she informed.

She further informed that under

the DEH initiative, District Export

Promotion Committees (DEPCs)

have been constituted in most of

the districts and products/services

with export potential have been

identified in each district.

"The scheme will go a long

way in ushering an era of socio-

economic development of the

region and for catering to the aspi-

rations of people and it will also

provide impetus to Micro, Small,

Medium and larger enterprises",

she informed.

She informed that an Industrial

land bank has been established for

Industrial Growth and 6000 acres

of land has been acquired.

"Under this new Industrial

policy, 4.50 lakh unemployed youth

would be provided employment",

the Minister informed.

While stressing on export pro-

motion, the MoS said that it will

play a considerable role in employ-

ment generation and asked the con-

cerned to make a suitable district

export plan to make the district an

export hub of indigenous products.

She said as Rajouri has immense

potential in dairy and other sec-

tors, we are working on a multi-

pronged strategy on value addi-

tion and proper market linkage of

the indigenous products to raise

the per capita income of the dis-

trict. She also advised the District

Administration to involve youth in

these sectors as they have immense

potential which will help achieve

the desired outcomes.

Enlisting the measures taken

for Ease of Doing Business, Smt.

Patel apprised that necessary steps

are being taken to make Jammu

and Kashmir a point of attraction

under industrial investment.

Regarding granting ST Status

to the Pahari tribes, the Minister

assured to put the demand before

the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Reiterating the Centre’s com-

mitment, its strong resolve and

special concern for the upliftment

of the youth and women empower-

ment, she said that much empha-

sis is being paid on enabling and

empowering youth and women to

be skilled and creative and pro-

vide innovative solutions in every

sphere for building an 'Atmanirb-

har Bharat’.

During her visit to the Gyan

Public School, the Minister par-

ticipated in the Azadi Ka Amrit

Mahotsav celebration where she

paid rich tributes to all those who

had made supreme sacrifice in the

lines of duty.

She also honoured the Nok and

veer naris of the brave hearts who

had sacrificed their lives in protect-

ing the integrity and sovereignty of

the country.

Patel said that Jammu and

Kashmir is the land of unlimited

potential and opportunities and

several steps are being taken to

unleash the potential.

The Minister also handed over

sanction letters under PMAY-G,

Horticulture scheme, PMEGP and

trout culture besides distributing

Golden cards among the beneficia-

ries.

She also interacted with the

DDC members, BDC Chairper-

sons, Sarpanchs, Panchs and the

general public who apprised her

about many issues and demands.

The Minister gave a patient

hearing to all the issues projected

on the occasion and assured that

she will put all the issues before the

Hon'ble Home Minister of India.

District Development Commis-

sioner Rajouri, Rajesh Shavan,

Director Industries and Com-

merce, Anoo Malhotra; DDC

Member, Rajeshwar Singh; ADDC,

Pawan Parihar; ACR, Tahir Mus-

tafa Malik; ACD, Sushil Khaju-

ria, CEO, Gulzar Hussain; BDC

chairperson ; Kuldeep Raj Gupta,

Ex MoS VC PAB, Dinesh Gupta,

Randheer Thakur and other senior

Civil and Police Officers were also

present.

Shah...rights, Union Home Minister Amit

Shah said on Tuesday.

Addressing the foundation day

of the National Human Rights

Commission (NHRC) here, Shah

also appreciated the work being

carried out by the rights body for

creating awareness among people

of the country about their human

rights over the last 28 years of its

existence.

The home minister said a gov-

ernment with absolute majority

was formed at the Centre for the

first time in a long period in 2014

and since then it has been doing

welfare work for the poor and

deprived sections.

He said that after the Narendra

Modi government came to power,

10 crore families were given toi-

lets, thereby protecting the human

rights of the women, girls and all

others.

Four crore families were given

electricity connections, which is

helpful for the old and children

alike, 13 crore families were pro-

vided clean cooking gas connec-

tions that has helped in saving

women and others from various

diseases, he said.

Shah said the central govern-

ment has built two crore houses

for the poor while five crore more

houses will be built soon.

Seven crore people were given

financial assistance by the central

government directly to their bank

accounts, which were opened for

the first time.

He said the Centre has launched

an ambitious scheme to provide

potable water to every household

in the country and two crore

families will be given clean water

through pipes soon, thereby pro-

tecting their basic human rights.

The home minister said the

NHRC, since its inception, has dis-

posed of 20 lakh cases and award-

ed Rs 205 crore compensation to

scores of people for violation of

human rights, which is commend-

able.

The NHRC is a statutory body

that was constituted on October

12, 1993 under the Protection of

Human Rights Act for the pro-

motion and protection of human

rights.

The NHRC takes cognisance of

human rights violations, conducts

enquiries and recommends com-

pensation to victims from public

authorities besides other remedi-

al and legal measures against the

erring public servants.

Modi...persons with disabilities and

prevent injustice against them,

before launching a scathing criti-

cism of those who choose to see

human rights violations in some

incidents and not in others.

There is another aspect asso-

ciated with human rights which

I want to speak about today. In

recent years, some people have

begun interpreting human rights

in their own ways prioritising

their interests.

"They see human rights viola-

tion in one incident but cannot

see it in another incident of simi-

lar nature. Such mindset harms

human rights a lot, he said.

He added, Human rights suffer a

great deal when they are looked at

through a political prism and con-

sidered according to political gains

and loss. Such selective conduct

harms democracy a great deal too.

Though Modi did not name any

person or organisation, the ruling

BJP has been critical of a section

of human rights groups, including

those with a global presence, claim-

ing they have highlighted cases of

alleged rights violations selectively

and in a one-sided manner to target

the government.

The prime minister stressed

that duties are equally important

as rights and they should not be

discussed separately as they com-

plement each other.

Highlighting his government's

efforts during COVID-19 to help

the poor, including providing

free grains and cash transfer to

the elderly and other vulnerable

sections, Modi said a pandemic in

such a big population has triggered

instability in society in the past but

India proved all apprehensions

wrong with its work for the rights

of the common man.

"India on the one hand has been

courageously fighting a once-in-a-

lifetime global pandemic while on

the other it has ensured that the

basic rights of every individual are

respected," Modi said.

"I feel proud that even at the

peak of COVID-19, 80 crore Indi-

ans got access to free food grains,"

he said, adding that the mantra of

'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka

vishwas, sabka prayas' guarantees

human rights to every person.

He also touched on pro-farmer

steps like cash transfer and crop

insurance and said production of

crops hit a record during the crisis

due to these efforts as farmers are

no longer forced to take debts from

others.

He cited a number of measures

taken by his government during

the last seven years to deliver basic

needs like toilets, cooking gas, elec-

tricity and homes to the poor and

said this gives rise to their aspira-

tions and makes them more aware

of their rights.

Modi said the concept of human

rights is closely related to the dig-

nity of the poor and when their

basic needs like toilets, housing,

bank accounts or cooking gas are

taken care of, then they also grow

more aware of their rights.

He said by making a law against

'triple talaq', his government has

bestowed new rights on Muslim

women.

While noting that his govern-

ment has provided 26-week mater-

nity leave to working women, a

right not available in many devel-

oped countries, opened more sec-

tors for them to work and enacted

a more stringent law against rape,

he also spoke measures taken

for trans-genders, children and

nomadic and semi-nomadic com-

munities.

He asserted that India's freedom

movement and its history have

been a great source of inspiration

and values for human rights as

Mahatma Gandhi taught the world

non-violent struggle for rights at

the time when it was plunged into

violence unleashed by the Second

World War.

Not only India but the whole

world sees our Bapu as a symbol

of human rights and human values

, he said.

The NHRC, India's apex rights

body, was set up under the Protec-

tion of Human Rights Act, 1993, on

October 12, 1993, for the promotion

and protection of human rights.

The NHRC takes cognisance of

human rights violations, conducts

enquiries and recommends com-

pensation to victims from public

authorities besides other remedi-

al and legal measures against the

erring public servants.

Modi said freedom struggle and

India's history are a big source of

inspiration and values for human

rights.

Coronavirus...in Jammu division have

reached to 124,110 including 121,689

recoveries and 2,174 deaths.

The officials said that the total

number of active cases in Jammu

and Kashmir are 993 including 746

from Kashmir division and 247

from Jammu division.

With 126 more recoveries, the

tally of total recoveries in Jammu

and Kashmir has reached 325,247

which is 98.36 percent of the total

cases.

“Cases tested positive in J&K

include 37 from Srinagar, 06 from

Baramulla, 06 from Budgam, 01

from Pulwama, 04 from Kupwara,

08 from Anantnag, 00 from Bandi-

pora, 05 from Ganderbal, 00 from

Kulgam and 00 from Shopian in

Kashmir division while as 13 from

Jammu division include 02 from

Jammu, 00 from Udhampur, 00

from Rajouri, 01 from Doda, 01

from Kathua, 00 from Samba, 00

from Kishtwar, 02 from Poonch, 00

from Ramban and 07 from Reasi,"

officials disclosed.

Meanwhile, authorities on

Tuesday said that no fresh cases

of Mucormycosis popularly known

as black fungus was reported in the

UT and tally stands at 47.

As per officials figures, 74,758

positive cases including 842 deaths

and 73,487 recoveries are from Sri-

nagar, 24,410 including 282 deaths

and 24,047 recoveries are from

Baramulla, 23,695 including 23,397

recoveries and 207 deaths are from

Budgam, 15,495 including 15,281

recoveries and 194 deaths are from

Pulwama, 14,395 including 166

deaths and 14,198 recoveries are

from Kupwara, 16,562 including

16,330 recoveries and 205 deaths

are from Anantnag, 9,775 cases

including 9,649 and 102 deaths are

from Bandipora, 10,380 including

10,260 recoveries and 79 deaths are

from Ganderbal, 11,479 including

11,361 recoveries and 117 deaths

are from Kulgam and 5,607 includ-

ing 5,548 recoveries and 58 deaths

are from Shopian.

In Jammu division, 53,243

including 52,045 recoveries and

1,144 deaths are from Jammu

district, 11,408 including 11,269

recoveries and 137 deaths are from

Udhampur, 11,260 including 10,999

recoveries and 237 deaths are

from Rajouri, 7,806 including 7,650

recoveries and 133 deaths are from

Doda, 9,321 including 9,157 recover-

ies and 151 deaths are from Kathua,

7,151 including 7,029 recoveries and

120 deaths are from Samba, 4,817

including 4,770 recoveries and 44

deaths are from Kishtwar, 6,459

including 6,266 recoveries and

98 deaths are from Poonch, 6,037

including 5,968 recoveries and 67

deaths are from Ramban and 6,608

including 6,536 recoveries and 43

deaths are from Reasi.

As per the daily information bul-

letin 3,635,344 persons in Jammu

and Kashmir are under observa-

tion while 7,881 persons have

been kept under home quarantine

besides that 993 persons are in iso-

lation. According to the bulletin,

3,164,738 persons have completed

the surveillance period and 457,306

persons are under home surveil-

lance besides that so far results of

15,442,725 samples are available.

Out of 15,442,725 the number of

samples tested negative stands at

15,112,059 while as 330,666 have

tested positive, among them 993

persons are active, 325,247 persons

have recovered and 4,426 persons

have died.

Water...the land mass is 5.55 square kilo-

metres. “The total area of the Dal

in the year 1895 was 25.86 square

kilometres, as per ETS survey it is

25 square kilometres and satellite

images show 25.76 square kilome-

tres,” reads the official data.

Fraudulent case: CBK produces charge-sheet against Kulgam residentSrinagar, Oct 12: The Crime Branch Kashmir (CBK) on Tuesday said

that it produced a charge-sheet against Kulgam resident for his alleged

involvement in a fraudulent case.

According to a statement, CBK said that a charge-sheet was produced

in a case under FIR number 07 of 2014 under section 420 RPC of P/S

CBK against Irshad Ahmad Lone, son of Ghulam Mohammad Lone of

Yarikhah Damhal Hanjipora, Kulgam, before the court of JMIC, DH

Pora Kulgam.

“The Crime Branch had received a communication from JK Women's

Development Corporation (WDC) alleging therein that an amount of Rs

3.50 lacs was sanctioned by JKWDC in favour of Yamberzal Self Help

Group and the same was released in favour of the said group through

the cheques on 15-04-2012,” the statement said.

It added that the amount which was sanctioned in favour of the said

Yamberzal group was fraudulently transferred to some other accounts

instead of the beneficiaries.

“During the course of investigation it was established that the accused

in a deceitful way induced the account holders of Yimberzal Self Help

Group and fraudulently obtained their signatures on withdrawal slip,

thus utilized the government money for his personal use,” the CBK

said—(KNO)

Minor girl wounded in leopard attack in UriUri, Oct 12: A minor girl sustained wounds after attacked by a leopard

in Chollan Uri area in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Tuesday

evening.

Officials said that the girl Nuzhat Fatima (5) daughter of Aijaz Hus-

sain was outside her home when attacked by a leopard and dragged

away several metres from her home. Soon after intimated, a police team

alongside locals rushed the area to rescue the girl.

After efforts, the girl was barely rescued and rushed to SDH Uri for

immediate treatment officials said adding the victim has sustained few

wounds in the incident. (GNS)

United Kashmiri Sikhs Progressive Forum Delegation calls on Lt GovernorSrinagar, Oct 12: A delegation of United Kashmiri Sikhs Progressive

Forum (UKSPF) called on Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha at the Raj

Bhavan here Tuesday.

The delegation led by its Chairman S. Baldev Singh Raina submitted a

memorandum to the Lt Governor apprising him regarding the demands

and issues pertaining to Sikh community.

The Lt Governor while noting the concerns raised by the delegation

said that the enemies of humanity who perpetrated these heinous crimes

will not be spared.

The Lt Governor assured the delegation that UT government will

take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of the minority

communities in J&K.

Meanwhile, Sohail Shahazad, Member DDC Poonch also met Lt Gov-

ernor and apprised him about several prominent demands and public

issues of his constituency.

The Lt Governor assured the redressal of all genuine demands on

merit. He said that the UT government is committed towards equitable

development of all regions and ensuring welfare of all sections of the

society.

DC Kulgam reviews progress of NABARD funded projectKulgam, Oct 12: The District Development Commissioner (DDC)

Kulgam, Dr. Bilal Mohi-Ud-Din Bhat Tuesday chaired a meeting to

review the status of projects funded under Rural Infrastructure Develop-

ment Fund (RIDF) of NABARD in the district.

At the outset, DDM NABARD, Rouf Zargar gave a brief overview of

RIDF and eligible activities under the said fund.

It was informed that as many as 48 projects are funded under RIDF

of NABARD in the district under different sectors including R&B, PHE,

I&FC, and Health department with a combined outlay of 165 crores.

While reviewing the progress on these projects, the concerned Execu-

tive Engineers apprised the DDC about the physical as well as financial

progress on these projects and deliberations were also held to address

various issues related to fund flow, submission of Project Completion

Certificates, Utilization Certificates of the projects besides issues ham-

pering progress of non-starter and slow moving projects.

The DDC urged the implementing agencies to speed up expenditure

in the ongoing projects and urged the agriculture and allied departments

to come up with DPRs to avail the projects under NABARD.

DC Bandipora reviews Eid-e-Milad (SAW) arrangementsBandipora, Oct 12: The Deputy Commissioner (DC) Bandipora, Dr

Owais Ahmad Mir, Tuesday convened a meeting to review the arrange-

ments being made for the forthcoming Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi (SAW) in the

district. The meeting was attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner

Zahoor Ahmad Mir district heads of all the departments, representatives

from Wakf Board, Imams of major masjids and shrines besides other

senior officials.

The DC impressed upon all the concerned departments to ensure all

the respective tasks are covered with the highest degree of responsibili-

ties. While chairing the meeting, he enjoined on stakeholders to ensure

compliance of Covid SOPs particularly wearing of masks by devotees

and maintenance of physical distance. He said that Covid is not over yet

so the people need to observe guidelines in letter and spirit. He enjoined

officers to remain vigilant and remind people of covid protocol by making

frequent announcements.

He also stressed for making all the necessary arrangements to facili-

tate people on the upcoming auspicious occasion.

Dr Owais directed the PDD to ensure power supply as per schedule in

the district during the revered days and uninterrupted power supply at

Ahamsharief Dargah where the largest congregation is expected to take

place. He also directed the department to install Gen-set at the shrine to

ensure uninterrupted power supply and Halogen lights for street lighting

besides having a standby arrangement of additional Generators.

The PHE was also directed to ensure regular water supplies to the

major congregation sites in the district and also make arrangements of

water tankers at the congregation sites as a backup at these places par-

ticularly at Dargah Ahamsharief during the entire period of Eid-e-Milad.

8Kashmir Tone SPORTS Srinagar Wednesday13 Octoberber 2021

'Kohli has given RCB a profile that very few can

give their franchise'Dubai, Oct 12 (PTI) Virat Kohli has given Royal Challengers Bangalore the kind of profile that very few cricketers can give even though he couldn't end his leadership stint the way he would have liked, feels the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.

Kohli's dream of winning an IPL title with RCB ended in heartbreak after Kolkata Knight Riders beat them by four wickets in the elimina-tor on Monday.

Gavaskar said not all scripts are written in the manner players want them to. Kohli had announced that he would step down as RCB skipper after the end of the 14th edition of the lucrative league.

"He has given RCB that kind of profile, that brand recognition that very (few) cricketers have given to their franchise," Gavaskar told 'Star

Sports'.The former India captain com-

pared Kohli's last match as RCB skipper with Donald Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar farewells.

"Everybody wants to finish on a high. But these things never always happen according to your or fans' wishes. Look at what happened to Sir Don Bradman. Just four runs were needed in his last innings and he gets out for a zero.

"Sachin Tendulkar would have wanted to finish with a hundred, he got 79 (Tendulkar scored 74) in Mum-bai, his 200th Test match. 79 is not bad but somebody who is used to making hundreds would have wanted to get those extra 21 runs and then end his Test career there," Gavaskar added.

Sharing his thoughts on Kohli's failure to lift an IPL trophy, Gavas-

kar said Kohli had an ever-lasting impact on the team and mentioned the 2016 season when he amassed close to 1000 runs in a single edition.

"The script is not always writ-ten that way. Not everybody has this great fortune of going on a high. But can one ever dispute what he has done for RCB? He has done magnifi-cently.

"There was one year when he got 973 runs, 27 runs short of 1000 runs. Nobody has done it, nobody looks like ever getting to 1000 runs."

Since taking over as RCB's cap-tain in 2013, Kohli has led the team to the play-offs four times, including the last two seasons, and the final in 2016.

Kohli led RCB in 140 matches, winning 66 and losing 70. Four games did not produce any results.

Kohli is a leader, team will celebrate his contributions: Harshal PatelSharjah, Oct 12 (PTI) Virat Kohli's ten-ure as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore may have ended without an IPL triumph but the franchise will nonetheless "celebrate" his contribu-tions over the years, said the team's pacer Harshal Patel.

Harshal though did not specify how exactly the team plans to celebrate Kohli's contributions.

He stressed that Kohli, who has decided to step down as India T20 cap-tain after the upcoming World Cup and RCB skipper post the ongoing IPL, re-mains a "leader".

"In terms of his captaincy, there are captains and there are leaders, he is definitely a leader. Just because he won't have the captaincy tag, it doesn't

make him any less of a leader," Har-shal said after RCB's defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders in the eliminator on Monday.

"So, I just want to thank him for whatever he has contributed for this team and to my growth," he said, add-ing the skipper always supported him whenever he was "down".

He also said that the team would "celebrate" the contributions of Kohli as a skipper.

"Yeah, I think, absolutely we are go-ing to celebrate his contributions and it would have been nicer to celebrate that with the trophy in our hand, but it was not meant to be. But his contributions, like I said, have been immense and we are definitely going to celebrate that."

Dhoni won't charge

any fee for being mentor

of Indian team: GangulyNew Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) Former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will not charge any fee for mentor-ing the Indian cricket team during this month's T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly told PTI on Tues-day.

The iconic former captain was brought in as mentor by the BCCI last month when it announced the squad for the mega-event, sched-uled to start October 17.

"Dhoni will not charge any-thing to mentor the Indian team," Ganguly said.

The 40-year-old Dhoni retired from international cricket last year, his last India game being the 2019 World Cup semi-final, which the team lost to New Zealand.

It is believed that Dhoni was brought in for his experience in de-vising near-perfect white ball strat-egies. He led his franchise Chennai

Super Kings into the IPL finals on Sunday.

One of the most successful cap-tains in the history of Indian crick-et, the enigmatic wicketkeeper-batter led India to two world titles -- the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup in India.

The reticent player's retire-ment, announced by him through an instagram post on August 15 last year, had taken the cricket world by surprise and he has not spoken even once about it after that.

The highly-respected player from Jharkhand played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20 Internationals amassing 4876, 10773 and 1617 runs respectively across formats.

He has largely kept a low pro-file after retiring internationally, focussing on his IPL engagements and organic farming at his home town Ranchi.

Avesh Khan set to join Team India as net bowler

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) Delhi Capitals speedster Avesh Khan has been asked by the BCCI to stay back in the UAE after the IPL to join India's T20 World Cup squad as a net bowler.

The 24-year-old is the sec-ond fast bowler, after Kashmiri pace sensation Umran Malik, who has been asked to join the team and if BCCI sources are to be believed, the lanky fast bowler could well make it to the standby list by the time World Cup starts on Sunday. India will open their campaign on October 24 against Pakistan.

"The national selectors have decided to also include Avesh in the mix. As of now, he will be a net bowler but if the team man-agement feels, he can be upgrad-ed," a BCCI source close to the selection committee told PTI on Tuesday.

Avesh bowls at an express pace and in this edition of the IPL, he has picked 23 wickets for the Capitals with DC still alive in the competition.

He is second in the list of

wicket-takers with Harshal Patel leading the pack with 32 scalps.

"Avesh bowls at an average speed of 142 to 145 clicks, earns disconcerting bounce from the flattest of decks and has been on support staff's radar for some time," the source said.

Avesh was in England with the Test squad as a standby but a freak finger fracture during India's match against Combined Counties cut short his tour.

Many believe that Avesh had a good chance of playing had he got into the squad and all five Tests were held in England.Hardik to stay back as batter, Venkatesh Iyer to join as cover:

All-rounder Hardik Pandya will be staying with the Indian team but is expected to play pure-ly as a batter in the T20 World Cup as his back is still not in a condition to take the stress of fast medium bowling.

It is learnt that KKR's rising opener-cum-seam bowler Ven-katesh Iyer will be asked to stay in the bubble as cover.

India women shuttlers shine bright, qualify for quarterfinals of Uber Cup

Aarhus (Denmark), Oct 12 (PTI) Indian women team progressed to the quarterfinals of the Uber Cup with a convincing 4-1 vic-tory over Scotland as shuttlers Aditi Bhatt and Tasnim Mir registered confident singles wins, here on Tuesday.

India are now sitting second in Group B with two wins from as many matches.

The Indian team had beaten Spain 3-2 on Sunday when top player Saina Nehwal was forced retire from her match due to a groin issue.

Taking the court first, Malvika Bansod lost to Kirsty Gilmour 13-21 9-21 before Aditi got the better of Rachel Sugden 21-14 21-8 to level the scores.

The doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Rutaparna Panda then beat Julie Machper-son and Ciara Torrance 21-11 21-8 to hand India a 2-1 lead.

Tasnim sealed the tie in India's favour by defeating Lauren Middleton 21-15 21-6.

In the reverse doubles, the young Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, daughter of national coach Pullela Gopi-chand, fought hard before getting the better of Gilmour and Eleanor O'Donnell 21-8 19-21 21-10 in an exciting clash that lasted for 55 minutes.

The Indian team will taken on a strong Thailand on Wednesday.

India has twice (2014, New Delhi and 2016, Kunshan) reached the semifinals of the tournament.

MALVIKA BANSOD

LOST TO KIRSTY

GILMOUR 13-21 9-21

BEFORE ADITI GOT

THE BETTER OF

RACHEL SUGDEN

21-14 21-8 TO LEVEL

THE SCORES.

Our bowlers have shown us the way, says KKR skipper Morgan

Kolkata Knight Rid-ers captain Eoin Morgan attributed the team's massive reversal in for-

tunes in the second leg of IPL-14 to his bowlers' aggressive approach.

During the eliminator on Monday, Sunil Narine gave glimpses of his 'old mystery' with the ball and then topped it up with three monster sixes, as KKR's four-wicket victory dashed Virat Kohli's dream of winning an IPL trophy while leading Royal Challengers Bangalore.

"I think (in) the first phase of the tournament, we were trying to implement Baz's (head coach Brendon McCul-lum) mantra of trying to play positive, aggressive cricket, a brand of cricket that our fans really enjoy watching and also players really enjoy playing," Morgan said.

"In that first phase it didn't

quite happen, throughout different games, we showed glimpses of it, but throughout this whole second phase, peo-ple have turned out for differ-ent motivation and drive to try and play that aggressive brand of cricket."

The first phase of IPL was held in India before it was suspended owing to COVID-19 cases in its bio-bubble.

"Our bowlers have shown us the way (on) how to be ag-gressive with the ball and in trying to take wickets and identifying when to hold back and be a little more defensive and that's led the way with our batting as well," he added.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, the elated skipper lavished praise on all-rounder Narine, who played a vital role in the team's win over RCB, saying his impact in the match with both the bat and the ball was "huge".

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