3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a...

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E ven as drug manufacturers are racing to develop a vac- cine to combat Covid-19, India has already used its manufac- turing capability to pre-order 600 million doses of the coro- navirus shots and is negotiat- ing for another billion doses. This will be enough to vaccinate at least half the pop- ulation, according to an analy- sis of purchasing agreements for Covid-19 vaccines by the US-based Duke Global Health Innovation Center. After the US, India is the only country in the world which has pre-ordered such a large number of doses under negotiation. The point about India was made by Andrea D Taylor, assistant director of pro- grammes at the Duke Global Health Innovation Center. “In terms of numbers of confirmed doses, the USA has pre-ordered the largest number (810 million confirmed, anoth- er 1.6 billion doses under nego- tiation), followed by India (600 million doses confirmed, with another 1 billion doses under negotiation), and the EU (400 million doses confirmed, another 1.565 billion doses under negotiation),” said Andrea D Taylor. She went on to add that in terms of per cent of population covered by confirmed pur- chases, Canada has pre-pur- chased enough vaccine to cover 527 per cent population, fol- lowed by the UK at 277 per cent population. “Of course, it is important to remember that most likely only some of the vaccine purchases will come through, depending on regu- latory approval,” Taylor said. The three potential vac- cines undertrials in India are Bharat Biotech and ICMR’s Covaxin, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Oxford- AstraZeneca in partnership with Serum Institute. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech on Sunday said that it is planning to launch its vaccine for Covid-19 in the second quarter next year if it gets the requisite approvals from the Indian regulatory authorities. Continued on Page 2 A high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Monday attributed the sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi to the festive season, greater move- ment of people along with lax- ity in adhering to safe Covid behaviour. The Home Secretary said efforts will be made for testing, contact tracing and treatment, especially in critical zones of the city. The meeting emphasised that Metro travel should be carefully regulated as per the strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as Delhi is witnessing a third surge in cases.. “The recent surge in the number of active cases was attributed to the festival season, which has witnessed greater movement of people, accom- panied by laxity in adhering to the basic principles of safe Covid behaviour,” said MHA in a statement. The hospital bed situation was reported to be comfortable with 57 per cent of the 15,789 dedicated beds being vacant, it said. While the new Covid cases and total active cases are going up, the administration is focusing on testing, contact tracing and treatment. Continued on Page 2 I n an election fought by the participants with the aggres- siveness of a real war, every seat and every phase matters, and yet the second round of the bat- tle of Bihar holds far greater significance than the other two phases. After all, the Tuesday’s sec- ond phase has the highest number of seats, 94, at stake. The round will also decide the fate of Grand Alliance chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav, who is contesting from Raghopur in Vaishali. The round is most crucial for the RJD, which had won 33 of the 42 seats it contested in 2010 polls in alliance with the JD(U) and Congress. The JD(U) had won 30 seats. On the other hand the BJP won 20 of the 63 seats it contested in 2010. The RJD has 56 candi- dates in the fray this phase, the BJP 46, the JD(U) 43, the RLSP 36 and the Congress 24. CPI, CPI(M-L) and CPI(M) are contesting 14 seats. Mukesh Sahini-led Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP), an ally of the NDA, is contesting 5 seats out of total 11 seats allotted to them. While Tejashwi Yadav is in the fray from Raghopur in Vaishali, his mercurial brother Tej Pratap is contesting from Hasanpur in Samastipur dis- tricts. Tej Pratap won from Yadava-dominated Raghopur in 2015. Incidentally, his moth- er and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi had lost from there in 2010. Tejashwi should easily retain his seat, but Tej Pratap has a tough contest on his hand against two-time sitting MLA Rajkumar Rai of JD(U). Continued on Page 2 I n a move which could help in addressing increasing pollu- tion in the national Capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday no manufacturing unit will be allowed in new industrial areas of the city and only service and hi-tech industries will be per- mitted there. Addressing an online Press conference, he said the Centre has okayed the Delhi Government’s proposal by changing the definition of industry in the Delhi Master Plan 2021 and issued a notifi- cation to implement it. Kejriwal said the existing manufacturing units, which cause pollution, will be given the option to shift to service or hi-tech industry. However, no action will be taken against the existing man- ufacturing units and they will be encouraged to make the shift, an official clarified. The Chief Minister expressed hope that there would be no manufacturing industry in Delhi as they cause pollution significantly. Asserting that Delhi’s econ- omy is mainly based on service industry, he said, hi-tech and service industry will be pro- vided more space at cheaper rates in industrial areas. “The service and hi-tech industry were, so far, covered under office category in the Master Plan and could open only in commercial areas. So, due to very high rates in com- mercial areas, these were not opening in Delhi and were going to Gurugram, Noida and Faridabad instead,” Kejriwal said. Now, such establishments need not to go to other cities as they will get more space at cheaper rates in industrial areas of Delhi, he said. In service and hi-tech industry category, charted accountants and lawyers can also open their offices, which currently fall under office cat- egory in Delhi’s Master Plan. That is why they were only allowed in commercial areas, the Chief Minister said. Offices of media, software industry and IT service indus- try, ITES, BPOs, vocational and educational institutions, Internet and e-mail service providers, television pro- gramme production, research and development, offices of architects and placement ser- vices and the likes can also be set up in new industrial areas, he added. Kejriwal thanked Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, saying this “historic step” will prove decisive in reducing pol- lution. “I thank Hardeep S Puri for approving our proposal to amend master plan to change definition of industrial activi- ty. Earlier, manufacturing was permitted which led to pollu- tion and filth. Now, only hi- tech and service industry will be permitted. Industrial areas will become neat, clean and green,” he tweeted. Kejriwal hoped that the face of industrial areas in Delhi will change and pollution-caus- ing manufacturing industries like steel and plastic will be gradually replaced by the ser- vice and hi-tech industries. T he Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Election Commission order which revoked the “star campaigner” status of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath for model code violation during the campaign for bypolls in 28 Assembly con- stituencies in the state. The counsel appearing for the poll panel told a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde that Nath’s plea has become infructuous as the campaigning has ended and the voting is to take place on Tuesday. “We are staying it,” said the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. The SC was hearing Nath’s plea challenging the October 30 order of the EC revoking his star campaigner status. While a political party pays for the expenditure of its star cam- paigner, the candidate con- cerned bears the expense of other campaigners. The SC issued notice to the EC seeking its response on Nath’s plea. Continued on Page 2 T he Supreme Court on Monday refused to extend the security of former special judge SK Yadav who had pro- nounced the verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case and acquitted all 32 accused, including BJP veterans LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharti. A bench, headed by Justice RF Nariman and also com- prising Justices Navin Sinha and Krishna Murari, was con- sidering the former judge’s request to continue his per- sonal security in view of the sensitivity of the case decided by him on his last day in office. “Having perused the letter, we don’t consider it appropri- ate to provide security,” the bench said. On September 30, the spe- cial court had acquitted all 32 accused in the case saying there was no conclusive evi- dence that they were part of any conspiracy to bring down the disputed structure in Ayodhya. The 16th century mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992 by “kar sevaks” who believed that it occupied the site where Lord Ram was born. T he Delhi Government has published a list of over 800 open spaces across the city where people will be permitted to burn green firecrackers between 8pm and 10pm on Diwali on November 14. The list posted on includes parks, vacant plots, school playgrounds and open grounds covering all of the city’s 272 municipal wards. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of only green crackers, which contain fewer polluting substances as compared to tra- ditional ones, and are less noisy as well. Continued on Page 2 T he security forces in Jammu & Kashmir have scored a “hat-trick” by eliminating more than 200 terrorists for the third time in one calendar year in the last one decade. Earlier 220 terrorists were killed in anti-terrorists opera- tions in 2017 and the highest number of 271 was gunned down in 2018 by the security forces in J&K. This year more than 200 terrorists, including over two dozen top commanders of Lashkar-e- Tayyeba, Jaish-e- Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen and other terror outfits, have been killed by the security forces till October. Director General of Jammu & Kashmir Police Dilbagh Singh late on Sunday told the media, “Since January 1, 2020 more than 200 terrorists have been gunned down which included 190 in Kashmir and over a dozen in Jammu region”. Over 30 top commanders — who were either number one or number two — have been eliminated in the last 10 months, after which their lead- ership structure has been bro- ken to a great extent. Continued on Page 2 E ven as farm fires continued to rage in neighbouring States, the national Capital wit- nessed a dip in pollution levels on Monday with high wind speed aiding dispersion of pol- lutants. The city recorded a 24- hour average air quality index (AQI) of 293, which falls in the “poor” category. It was 364 on Sunday, with stubble burning contributing 40 per cent to Delhi’s pollution and negating the effect of bet- ter ventilation. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”. The Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said a “significantly” large number of fires were observed over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Sunday which is likely to impact the air quality in Delhi- NCR and northwest India. Higher wind speed and better ventilation index will be favourable for dispersion of pollutants on Tuesday, it said. According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pol- lution was 16 per cent on Monday. It had soared to 40 per cent on Sunday, the maximum so far this season. Stubble burning accounted for 32 per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on Saturday, 19 per cent on Friday and 36 per cent on Thursday. Last year, the farm fire contribution to Delhi’s pollu- tion had peaked to 44 per cent on November 1, according to SAFAR data. According to Punjab Pollution Control Board, the State has recorded 33,165 “fire events” this season so far, while Haryana has reported 6,034 farm fires during the period. NASA’s satellite imagery also showed a large, dense cluster of fire dots covering Punjab and parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. According to the India Meteorological Department, the predominant wind direction was westerly- northwesterly and the maxi- mum wind speed was 18 kilo- meters per hour on Monday. The city recorded a minimum temperature of 10.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the sea- son so far. Calm winds and low tem- peratures trap pollutants close to the ground, while favourable wind speed helps in dispersion. Continued on Page 2 G unmen stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan, sparking an hours-long gun battle and leav- ing at least 25 dead and wound- ed at the war-torn country’s largest school. The ministry’s spokesman, Tariq Arian, would not break down the casualty numbers for the attack at the campus in the Afghan capital, though local media reports were saying there may be as many as 20 killed. Arian also said there were three attackers involved in the assault, all of whom were killed in the ensuing firefight. As the sun slowly set over the Afghan capital, there were few details though the Taliban issued a statement denying they took part in the assault. The attack came as the insurgents are continuing peace talks with the US-backed gov- ernment. Those negotiations, taking place in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, aim to help the US. Finally withdraw from America’s longest war, though daily bloodshed continues and an Islamic State affiliate launch- es its own attacks on Shiites in the country. Five hours into the fight- ing, sporadic grenade explo- sions and automatic weapons fire echoed down the empty streets surrounding the uni- versity’s fenced compound. Afghan troops stood guard. Earlier, students were fleeing for their lives from the site. “Unfortunately, there are casualties,” Arian said as the assault unfolded, without elab- orating. Ahmad Samim, a univer- sity student, told journalists he saw militants armed with pis- tols and Kalashnikov assault rifles firing at the school, the country’s oldest with some 17,000 students. He said the attack happened at the univer- sity’s eastern side where its law and journalism faculty teach. Afghan media reported a book exhibition was being held at the university and attended by a number of dignitaries at the time of the shooting. Continued on Page 2 New Delhi: At least 19 Indian passengers from New Delhi to Wuhan Air India flight tested Covid-19 positive on arrival in Wuhan on October 30. Among the 277 passengers who came on the flight, at least 39 were suspected to be “potentially asymptomatic” Covid-19 patients as tests found anti- bodies in them. Continued on Page 2

Transcript of 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a...

Page 1: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

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Even as drug manufacturersare racing to develop a vac-

cine to combat Covid-19, Indiahas already used its manufac-turing capability to pre-order600 million doses of the coro-navirus shots and is negotiat-ing for another billion doses.

This will be enough tovaccinate at least half the pop-ulation, according to an analy-sis of purchasing agreementsfor Covid-19 vaccines by theUS-based Duke Global HealthInnovation Center.

After the US, India is theonly country in the worldwhich has pre-ordered such alarge number of doses undernegotiation.

The point about India wasmade by Andrea D Taylor,assistant director of pro-grammes at the Duke GlobalHealth Innovation Center.

“In terms of numbers ofconfirmed doses, the USA haspre-ordered the largest number(810 million confirmed, anoth-er 1.6 billion doses under nego-tiation), followed by India (600million doses confirmed, withanother 1 billion doses undernegotiation), and the EU (400million doses confirmed,another 1.565 billion dosesunder negotiation),” saidAndrea D Taylor.

She went on to add that interms of per cent of populationcovered by confirmed pur-chases, Canada has pre-pur-chased enough vaccine to cover

527 per cent population, fol-lowed by the UK at 277 percent population. “Of course, itis important to remember thatmost likely only some of thevaccine purchases will comethrough, depending on regu-latory approval,” Taylor said.

The three potential vac-cines undertrials in India areBharat Biotech and ICMR’sCovaxin, Zydus Cadila’sZyCoV-D and Oxford-AstraZeneca in partnershipwith Serum Institute.Hyderabad-based BharatBiotech on Sunday said that itis planning to launch its vaccinefor Covid-19 in the secondquarter next year if it gets therequisite approvals from theIndian regulatory authorities.

Continued on Page 2

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Ahigh-level meeting chairedby Union Home Secretary

Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Mondayattributed the sudden surge inCovid-19 cases in Delhi to thefestive season, greater move-ment of people along with lax-ity in adhering to safe Covidbehaviour.

The Home Secretary saidefforts will be made for testing,contact tracing and treatment,especially in critical zones ofthe city.

The meeting emphasisedthat Metro travel should becarefully regulated as per thestrict Standard OperatingProcedures (SOPs) as Delhi is

witnessing a third surge incases..

“The recent surge in thenumber of active cases wasattributed to the festival season,which has witnessed greatermovement of people, accom-panied by laxity in adhering tothe basic principles of safeCovid behaviour,” said MHA ina statement.

The hospital bed situationwas reported to be comfortablewith 57 per cent of the 15,789dedicated beds being vacant, itsaid. While the new Covidcases and total active cases aregoing up, the administration isfocusing on testing, contacttracing and treatment.

Continued on Page 2

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In an election fought by theparticipants with the aggres-

siveness of a real war, every seatand every phase matters, andyet the second round of the bat-tle of Bihar holds far greatersignificance than the other twophases.

After all, the Tuesday’s sec-ond phase has the highestnumber of seats, 94, at stake.The round will also decide thefate of Grand Alliance chiefministerial candidate TejashwiYadav, who is contesting fromRaghopur in Vaishali.

The round is most crucialfor the RJD, which had won 33of the 42 seats it contested in2010 polls in alliance with theJD(U) and Congress. TheJD(U) had won 30 seats. Onthe other hand the BJP won 20of the 63 seats it contested in2010.

The RJD has 56 candi-dates in the fray this phase, theBJP 46, the JD(U) 43, the RLSP36 and the Congress 24. CPI,CPI(M-L) and CPI(M) arecontesting 14 seats. MukeshSahini-led Vikasheel Insaan

Party (VIP), an ally of theNDA, is contesting 5 seats outof total 11 seats allotted tothem.

While Tejashwi Yadav is inthe fray from Raghopur inVaishali, his mercurial brotherTej Pratap is contesting fromHasanpur in Samastipur dis-tricts. Tej Pratap won fromYadava-dominated Raghopurin 2015. Incidentally, his moth-er and former Bihar ChiefMinister Rabri Devi had lostfrom there in 2010. Tejashwishould easily retain his seat, butTej Pratap has a tough conteston his hand against two-timesitting MLA Rajkumar Rai ofJD(U).

Continued on Page 2

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In a move which could help inaddressing increasing pollu-

tion in the national Capital,Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal said on Monday nomanufacturing unit will beallowed in new industrial areasof the city and only service andhi-tech industries will be per-mitted there.

Addressing an online Pressconference, he said the Centrehas okayed the DelhiGovernment’s proposal bychanging the definition ofindustry in the Delhi MasterPlan 2021 and issued a notifi-cation to implement it.

Kejriwal said the existingmanufacturing units, whichcause pollution, will be giventhe option to shift to service orhi-tech industry.

However, no action will betaken against the existing man-ufacturing units and they willbe encouraged to make theshift, an official clarified.

The Chief Ministerexpressed hope that therewould be no manufacturing

industry in Delhi as they causepollution significantly.

Asserting that Delhi’s econ-omy is mainly based on serviceindustry, he said, hi-tech andservice industry will be pro-vided more space at cheaperrates in industrial areas.

“The service and hi-techindustry were, so far, coveredunder office category in theMaster Plan and could openonly in commercial areas. So,due to very high rates in com-mercial areas, these were notopening in Delhi and weregoing to Gurugram, Noida andFaridabad instead,” Kejriwalsaid.

Now, such establishmentsneed not to go to other cities asthey will get more space atcheaper rates in industrial areasof Delhi, he said.

In service and hi-techindustry category, chartedaccountants and lawyers canalso open their offices, which

currently fall under office cat-egory in Delhi’s Master Plan.That is why they were onlyallowed in commercial areas,the Chief Minister said.

Offices of media, softwareindustry and IT service indus-try, ITES, BPOs, vocationaland educational institutions,Internet and e-mail serviceproviders, television pro-gramme production, researchand development, offices ofarchitects and placement ser-vices and the likes can also beset up in new industrial areas,he added.

Kejriwal thanked UnionHousing and Urban AffairsMinister Hardeep Singh Puri,saying this “historic step” willprove decisive in reducing pol-lution.

“I thank Hardeep S Puri forapproving our proposal toamend master plan to changedefinition of industrial activi-ty. Earlier, manufacturing waspermitted which led to pollu-tion and filth. Now, only hi-tech and service industry willbe permitted. Industrial areaswill become neat, clean andgreen,” he tweeted.

Kejriwal hoped that theface of industrial areas in Delhiwill change and pollution-caus-ing manufacturing industrieslike steel and plastic will begradually replaced by the ser-vice and hi-tech industries.

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The Supreme Court onMonday stayed the Election

Commission order whichrevoked the “star campaigner”status of former MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister KamalNath for model code violationduring the campaign forbypolls in 28 Assembly con-stituencies in the state.

The counsel appearing forthe poll panel told a benchheaded by Chief Justice SABobde that Nath’s plea hasbecome infructuous as thecampaigning has ended and thevoting is to take place onTuesday.

“We are staying it,” said thebench, also comprising JusticesAS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian.

The SC was hearing Nath’splea challenging the October 30order of the EC revoking hisstar campaigner status. Whilea political party pays for theexpenditure of its star cam-paigner, the candidate con-cerned bears the expense ofother campaigners. The SCissued notice to the EC seekingits response on Nath’s plea.

Continued on Page 2

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The Supreme Court onMonday refused to extend

the security of former specialjudge SK Yadav who had pro-nounced the verdict in theBabri Masjid demolition caseand acquitted all 32 accused,including BJP veterans LKAdvani, MM Joshi and UmaBharti.

A bench, headed by JusticeRF Nariman and also com-prising Justices Navin Sinhaand Krishna Murari, was con-sidering the former judge’srequest to continue his per-sonal security in view of thesensitivity of the case decidedby him on his last day in office.

“Having perused the letter,we don’t consider it appropri-ate to provide security,” thebench said.

On September 30, the spe-cial court had acquitted all 32accused in the case sayingthere was no conclusive evi-dence that they were part of anyconspiracy to bring down thedisputed structure in Ayodhya.

The 16th century mosquewas demolished on December6, 1992 by “kar sevaks” whobelieved that it occupied the site where Lord Ram wasborn.

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The Delhi Government haspublished a list of over 800

open spaces across the citywhere people will be permittedto burn green firecrackersbetween 8pm and 10pm onDiwali on November 14.

The list posted on includesparks, vacant plots, schoolplaygrounds and open groundscovering all of the city’s 272municipal wards.

Delhi EnvironmentMinister Gopal Rai said inline with a 2018 Supreme Courtorder, the Government hasallowed the manufacture andsale of only green crackers,which contain fewer pollutingsubstances as compared to tra-ditional ones, and are less noisyas well.

Continued on Page 2

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The security forces in Jammu& Kashmir have scored a

“hat-trick” by eliminating morethan 200 terrorists for the thirdtime in one calendar year in thelast one decade.

Earlier 220 terrorists werekilled in anti-terrorists opera-tions in 2017 and the highestnumber of 271 was gunneddown in 2018 by the securityforces in J&K.

This year more than 200

terrorists, including over twodozen top commanders ofLashkar-e- Tayyeba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, HizbulMujahideen and other terroroutfits, have been killed by thesecurity forces till October.

Director General of Jammu& Kashmir Police DilbaghSingh late on Sunday told themedia, “Since January 1, 2020more than 200 terrorists havebeen gunned down whichincluded 190 in Kashmir andover a dozen in Jammu region”.

Over 30 top commanders— who were either number oneor number two — have beeneliminated in the last 10months, after which their lead-ership structure has been bro-ken to a great extent.

Continued on Page 2

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Even as farm fires continuedto rage in neighbouring

States, the national Capital wit-nessed a dip in pollution levelson Monday with high windspeed aiding dispersion of pol-lutants.

The city recorded a 24-hour average air quality index(AQI) of 293, which falls in the“poor” category.

It was 364 on Sunday, withstubble burning contributing40 per cent to Delhi’s pollutionand negating the effect of bet-ter ventilation.

An AQI between 0 and 50is considered “good”, 51 and100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200“moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”,301 and 400 “very poor”, and401 and 500 “severe”.

The Air Quality EarlyWarning System for Delhi saida “significantly” large number

of fires were observed overPunjab, Haryana, UttarPradesh and Madhya Pradeshon Sunday which is likely toimpact the air quality in Delhi-NCR and northwest India.

Higher wind speed andbetter ventilation index will befavourable for dispersion ofpollutants on Tuesday, it said.

According to the Ministryof Earth Sciences’ air qualitymonitor, SAFAR, the share ofstubble burning in Delhi’s pol-lution was 16 per cent onMonday. It had soared to 40 percent on Sunday, the maximumso far this season.

Stubble burning accountedfor 32 per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5pollution on Saturday, 19 percent on Friday and 36 per centon Thursday.

Last year, the farm firecontribution to Delhi’s pollu-tion had peaked to 44 per centon November 1, according to

SAFAR data.According to Punjab

Pollution Control Board, theState has recorded 33,165 “fireevents” this season so far, whileHaryana has reported 6,034farm fires during the period.

NASA’s satellite imageryalso showed a large, densecluster of fire dots coveringPunjab and parts of Haryanaand Uttar Pradesh. Accordingto the India MeteorologicalDepartment, the predominantwind direction was westerly-northwesterly and the maxi-mum wind speed was 18 kilo-meters per hour on Monday.The city recorded a minimumtemperature of 10.8 degreesCelsius, the lowest in the sea-son so far.

Calm winds and low tem-peratures trap pollutants closeto the ground, while favourablewind speed helps in dispersion.

Continued on Page 2

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Gunmen stormed KabulUniversity on Monday as it

hosted a book fair attended bythe Iranian ambassador toAfghanistan, sparking anhours-long gun battle and leav-ing at least 25 dead and wound-ed at the war-torn country’slargest school.

The ministry’s spokesman,Tariq Arian, would not breakdown the casualty numbers forthe attack at the campus in theAfghan capital, though localmedia reports were sayingthere may be as many as 20killed. Arian also said therewere three attackers involved inthe assault, all of whom werekilled in the ensuing firefight.

As the sun slowly set overthe Afghan capital, there werefew details though the Talibanissued a statement denyingthey took part in the assault.

The attack came as theinsurgents are continuing peacetalks with the US-backed gov-ernment. Those negotiations,taking place in the Gulf Arabstate of Qatar, aim to help theUS. Finally withdraw from

America’s longest war, thoughdaily bloodshed continues andan Islamic State affiliate launch-es its own attacks on Shiites inthe country.

Five hours into the fight-ing, sporadic grenade explo-sions and automatic weaponsfire echoed down the emptystreets surrounding the uni-versity’s fenced compound.Afghan troops stood guard.Earlier, students were fleeingfor their lives from the site.

“Unfortunately, there arecasualties,” Arian said as theassault unfolded, without elab-orating.

Ahmad Samim, a univer-sity student, told journalists hesaw militants armed with pis-tols and Kalashnikov assaultrifles firing at the school, thecountry’s oldest with some17,000 students. He said theattack happened at the univer-sity’s eastern side where its lawand journalism faculty teach.

Afghan media reported abook exhibition was being heldat the university and attendedby a number of dignitaries atthe time of the shooting.

Continued on Page 2

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New Delhi: At least 19 Indianpassengers from New Delhi toWuhan Air India flight testedCovid-19 positive on arrival inWuhan on October 30. Amongthe 277 passengers who cameon the flight, at least 39 weresuspected to be “potentiallyasymptomatic” Covid-19patients as tests found anti-bodies in them.

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Page 2: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

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Hitting out at ruling AamAadmi Party ( AAP)

Government for disruptingwater supply to Delhi citizens,Delhi Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) president Adesh Guptasaid increased ammonialevel in Yamuna affectedthe water supply in variousareas of Delhi and thepeople of Delhi have beencompelled to drink dirtyand polluted water.

Gupta said that the people ofDelhi should also know thetruth that instead of protectingthem, Kejriwal government hasbecome more careless even inthis corona crisis. As a result, thepeople of Delhi are compelled tobreathe polluted air and drinkpoisonous water.

He said that last year when

the level of ammonia in Yamunariver increased, then ChiefMinister Kejriwal hadannounced that 14 new STPswould be set up for which Rs4206 crore were allocated but nota single has been set up. Doctorsand experts are of the opinion

that if the people ofDelhi have to drinkammonia-rich water forthe next 10 years, dueincreasing levels ofammonia in theYamuna, then life-threat-

ening diseases like cancer canoccur.

Gupta said that there are 20sewage treatment plants of 597MGD capacity in Delhi andonly 520 MGD is being used. 750MGD of waste is produced inDelhi with around 230 MGDbeing dumped into the YamunaRiver causing water pollution.

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Delhi Police has arrested a24-year-old man from

Assam for allegedly harassinga Delhi-based woman on socialmedia and threatening todefame her by making her pic-tures viral on WhatsApp.

The accused has been iden-tified as Chandan Nath, who isa graduate in Political Scienceand works in a mobile shop atMangaldoi village in Darrangdistrict in Assam. Police saidthat the accused used to harassthe Delhi-based woman viachat and video calls and laterthreatened her.

According to Atul KumarThakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), South district, the mat-

ter came to light on September30 after a woman lodged acomplaint at Malviya Nagarpolice station.

“She al leged that anunidentified man was harass-ing her through chats andvideo calls on social media. Hehad also threatened to makeher pictures viral onWhatsApp to defame her,”said the DCP.

“Based on her complaint, acase was registered under sec-tion 354 A (sexual harassmentand punishment for sexualharassment), 509 (word, ges-ture or act intended to insultthe modesty of a woman) and506 (punishment for criminalintimidation) of the IndianPenal Code and IT Act and theprobe was taken up,” said the

DCP.“During investigation,

through surveillance andtechnical analysis, the policemanaged to locate the mobilenumber of the accused and hewas zeroed down atMangaldoi village. A teamwas sent there and theaccused, who was later iden-tified as Chandan Nath, wasarrested. The mobile phoneused by the accused has alsobeen recovered,” said the DCP.

“The accused disclosedthat he had a habit of makingfriends on social media. Afterbefriending them, he laterintimidated them by threaten-ing to make their chats and pic-tures viral on social mediaplatforms to defame them,”the DCP said.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police isinvestigating the alleged misap-propriation of donation fundsfor Malviya Nagar-based 'Babaka dhaba' after Kanta Prasad, theowner of the popular eatery, fileda complaint against Instagraminfluencer Gaurav Wasan for

misappropriation of funds.Prasad, 80, had shot to fame

after a video of him tearfullyrecounting the desperation ofthe months since the lockdownwas shared widely across socialmedia platforms recently.

Prasad's plight had come to

light when Gaurav Wasan whoruns a page - Swad official - cap-tured the eatery owner breakingdown as he talked about hisstruggles in a video shared onthe YouTuber's social mediaaccount.

Soon, the video went viral

and hundreds of people flockedat the dhaba taking selfies withthe old man and offering himmonetary help.

"We have received a com-plaint and are probing the mat-ter. We will register an FIR afterpreliminary inquiry and only if

the allegations are found true,"said DCP South Atul Thakur.

In his complaint to police,Prasad said Gaurav Wasan shothis video and posted it online,asking the public on socialmedia to donate money to theeatery owner.

He further alleged thatWasan "intentionally and delib-erately shared only his and hisfamily/friends bank details andmobile numbers with the donorsand collected huge amount ofdonations through differentmode of payments - bank

account/wallets without pro-viding any information to thecomplainant."

Wasan, who had posted theBaba ka Dhaba video of anelderly couple running a dhabain Malviya Nagar, has alsoshared his bank statement after

people accused him of onlinescam.

"Transparency link verifiedby bank. Anybody who donat-ed can go and verify and re-ver-ify. Thank you for supporting,"he wrote.

IANS

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From Page 1It was, however, highlighted

both by the Delhi Governmentofficials and the Delhi PoliceCommissioner that there hasbeen no let up in enforcementand awareness generation.

The strategy to contain thespread of Covid-19 in Delhi,especially keeping in view thefestival season and decreasingtemperatures accompanied byrising pollution, was discussed atlength with representatives of theMinistry of Health and thehealth experts, who were alsopresent in the meeting.

It was decided to concentrateefforts in certain key areas, suchas targeted RT-PCR testing insensitive and critical zones suchas restaurants, market places,barber shops and salons; gear upthe availability of medicalresources including beds, ICUs,and ventilators as a preemptivemeasure and ensure high degreeof contact tracing along withmonitoring of quarantined con-tacts so as to suppress and breakthe chain of transmission, thestatement said.

It was also emphasised thatMetro travel should be careful-ly regulated, strictly in accor-dance with the SOPs that hasbeen issued in this regard, thestatement said.

The Union Home Secretary,while appreciating the efforts ofthe Delhi Government officials,emphasised that the strategies forcontainment of spread of Covid-19 in Delhi should be strictlyenforced and implemented.

Bhalla stressed the need forreaching out to the residents ofDelhi to sensitise them about safeCovid behaviour through RWAs,‘mohalla’ and market commit-tees, public announcement sys-tems, message on police vehiclesamong others. He also informedthat the situation in Delhi wouldbe reviewed again in the comingweek, along with other districts

of the National Capital Region(NCR).

The meeting was attendedby VK Paul, Member, NITIAayog, Secretary, Ministry ofHealth, Director General, ICMR,Chief Secretary and other seniorofficers of the Delhi Governmentand the Delhi PoliceCommissioner.

The Delhi Government alsomade a presentation on the cur-rent situation of Covid-19 in thecity. The national Capitalrecorded 5,664 new Covid-19cases on Sunday, taking theinfection tally to over 3.92 lakh,even as the positivity ratejumped to nearly 13 per cent.The death toll has risen to6,562 with 51 more fatalities.Sunday was the fifth day on thetrot that the city reported over5,000 new cases amid festivitiesand rising pollution in the city.The sudden spike in Covid-19cases comes amid festivitiesand rising air pollution level.While Durga Puja celebrationsended on October 25, the nextmajor festivals are Diwali andChhath in November.

From Page 1He said, the anti-terrorists

operations like last year wouldcontinue even during the win-ter months and would be car-ried out with more vigour andseverity.

Referring to the eliminationof Chief OperationalCommander of HizbulMujahideen Dr Saifullah inRangreth area of Srinagar,Dilbagh Singh said after thekilling of Reyaz Naikoo in May2020, Hizbul Mujahideen hadbecome leaderless and after thekilling of Dr Saifullah, it hasbecome leaderless once again.

Earlier in May 2020, JunaidSehrai, the top Hizbul

Mujahideen commander andson of Tehreek-Hurriyat chair-man Ashraf Sehrai was killed inNawakdal area in Srinagar.

In the last week ofSeptember 2020, Aijaz AhmedReshi, one of the longest sur-viving Lashkar-e-Tayyeba com-mander was eliminated. He wasworking as an over groundworker in 2015 and joined theranks of a terrorist outfit beforeHizbul Mujahideen commanderBurhan Wani. He took part in anattack at EDI Pampore in whicheight CRPF men were killed. Hehad transported the Lashkarmen to the spot. He had fired atthe Army party killing three sol-diers at Kadlabal, Pampore”.

In June 2020, three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists,

including an improvised explo-sive device (IED) expert andmastermind of the car bombattack, Abdul Rehman aliasFouji Bhai, a resident of MultanPakistan, was killed in SouthKashmir’s Pulwama district.

Patting the back of the jointteam of security forces, who par-ticipated in the operation onSunday in which Dr Saifullahalias Ghazi Haider was killed,the DGP said that securityforces had inputs that DrSaifullah and his men wereplanning to attack some moresecurity installations and civil-ian areas in the Valley. He saidthe operation was launchedand the top commander wasneutralised without sufferingany collateral damage.

From Page 1The Delhi Government

will start campaign on Tuesdayurging people not to burn firecrackers this Diwali for lesserair pollution amid ongoingCovid-19 crisis which maytrigger cases further. Urgingpeople not to use firecrackers,Rao said, “I appeal to people tonot burn any fire crackers at allthis year. Because of the ongo-ing Covid-19 pandemic, healthhazards due to air pollutioncould turn more dangerous. Ifanyone really wants to burnfirecrackers, then please useonly green crackers.”

The prominent locationsinclude Buddha Park in MayurVihar, a park in B block ofChanakyapuri, Ramleelaground in Laxmibai Nagar,Ajmal Khan Park in KarolBagh, Sudarshan Park in MotiNagar, West Mehram NagarPark in Delhi Cantonment,CBD ground opposite HotelLeela and Gandhi Park in Saket.

It may recalled, in 2018 and

2019, despite the ban on thesake of crackers, pollution lev-els in city witnessed huge spikepost Diwali days.

From Page 1“Issue notice. Until further

orders, there shall be a stay oforder dated October 30, 2020issued by Respondent No.1 -Election Commission of India,”the bench said in its order.

Besides seeking quashingof the EC order, the seniorCongress leader has also soughtframing of appropriate guide-lines for speeches during cam-paigning by star campaignersor campaigners, “keeping inmind the right to freedom ofspeech and expression andconcept of democratic elec-tions”.

During the hearing con-ducted through video-confer-encing on Monday, senioradvocate Rakesh Dwivedi,appearing for the EC, told thebench,

“This is infructuous ascampaigning has ended. Votingis tomorrow.”

Senior advocate Kapil

Sibal, who along with seniorcounsel Vivek Tankha appearedfor Nath, said the matter hasnot become infructuous andthe EC had not issued anynotice to the former chief min-ister before passing the October30 order.

“How can you determinewho is their leader? It’s theirpower not EC’s power,” thebench asked EC’s counsel.

Dwivedi said, “We haveacted under the model code ofconduct and moreover, now thematter is infructuous”.“It does not matter whether thematter is infructuous or not.We will determine that fromwhere do you get power,” thebench said.

When Dwivedi said if thecourt is to determine thisaspect then EC’s order shouldnot be stayed, the bench said,“No, we are staying it.”

Nath, who is currently thepresident of Madhya PradeshCongress Committee, has saidin his plea that the EC has

passed the order without anynotice or hearing him based ona complaint by the BJP againsta speech delivered on October13. “It is submitted that theimpugned order (of EC) isillegal, arbitrary, unreasoned,passed in complete violation ofbasic canons of natural justiceand in negation of fair play andtherefore, deserves to bequashed. “Further, no noticehas been issued to the peti-tioner (Nath) with regard to theimpugned order in completeviolation of principles of nat-ural injustice,” said the plea,filed through advocate-on-record Varun Chopra.

In his plea, Nath said thatEC has passed the October 30order and has revoked hisname from the list of ‘starcampaigners’ of the IndianNational Congress on the“ground of repeated violation ofmodel code of conduct (MCC)and advisories” of the pollpanel.

The plea has said that

MCC has been in force for 12districts of Madhya Pradeshsince September 29 when theschedule for by-elections to 28seats in the state legislativeassembly, which are to be heldon November 3, wasannounced by the EC.

The former Union minis-ter and nine-time Member ofParliament further claimedthat leaders of the BJP havebeen “repeatedly makingstatements ex-facie in violation”of the model code during cam-paigning for the by-elections.

“It is reiterated that despiteuse of such language in publicview and blatant violation ofthe Model Code of Conduct,the Respondent No.1 (EC) hasnot taken any such actionagainst any leaders of BJP orthe party itself for allowing itsleaders to repeatedly violateprovisions of MCC,” it hassaid. The plea has also raisedseveral questions of law ofpublic importance, includingwhether the fundamental right

of freedom of speech andexpression guaranteed to Nathhas been abrogated by the EC.

In the order, the poll panelhad said, “...For repeated vio-lation of Model Code ofConduct and for completelydisregarding the advisoryissued to him, the Commissionhereby revokes the status ofleader of political party (StarCampaigner) of Kamal Nath,Ex-Chief Minister, MadhyaPradesh, with immediate effectfor the current Bye-elections ofLegislative Assembly ofMadhya Pradesh.”

The commission referredto his remarks against MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan. He had usedthe words “mafia” and “milawatkhor” against a political rival ata recent campaigning event.Last week, the EC had askedNath not to use words like“item” in campaigning. He hadused the jibe to hit out at stateminister and BJP candidateImarti Devi at a rally. PTI

From Page 1While Afghan officials

declined to discuss the book-fair, Iran’s semiofficial ISNAnews agency reported Sundaythat Iranian AmbassadorBahador Aminian and cultur-al attaché Mojtaba Norooziwere scheduled to inauguratethe fair, which would hostsome 40 Iranian publishers.

Iranian state televisionreported the attack occurred,but did not offer informationon its officials.

Iranian diplomats havebeen targeted previously byattacks in the country andnearly sparked a war betweenthe two countries. In 1998, Iranheld the Taliban responsible forthe deaths of nine Iraniandiplomats who were working inits consulate in northernAfghanistan and sent rein-forcements to the 950-kilome-ter- (580-mile-) long borderthat Iran and Afghanistanshare.

No group immediatelytook responsibility for theongoing attack though theTaliban issued a statement say-ing they were not involved.However, suspicion immedi-ately fell on the Islamic Stategroup. Last month, the IslamicState group sent a suicidebomber into an education cen-ter in the capital’s Shiite dom-inated neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, killing 24 studentsand injuring more than 100.The Islamic State affiliate inAfghanistan has declared waron Afghanistan’s minorityShiite Muslims and have stageddozens of attacks since emerg-ing in 2014.

From Page 1On 18 seats, or one in every,

the outcome was decided bybelow 5,000 margin. WithChirag Paswan-led LJP contest-ing 51 seats in the second phase,JD(U) winners of closest contestswill be particularly vulnerabledue to possibility of the LJP tak-ing away a chunk of NDA votes.Late Ramvilas Paswan wieldedconsiderable influence in pock-ets of Samastipur, Khagaria andVaishali and Chirag hopes to playspoilsport for the JD(U) cajndi-dates on most of the seats fallingin these districts.

Their performance in thisphase will indicate if the issuesraised by Paswan during hiscampaign -- corruption chargesagainst Nitish Kumar, educationdegrees getting delayed, lack ofjobs, and migration for liveli-hood -- found resonance amongthe people.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav,who is drawing huge crowd ofenthusiastic youth in his rallies,has kept his focus on the issuesfacing the common man andpromised to offer 10 lakhGovernment jobs to the unem-ployed youths. He has also high-lighted the poor status of edu-cation and health facilities, andChief Minister Nitish Kumar’shandling of the coronavirus cri-sis among other things. On theother hand, the BJP has basical-ly tried to stoke the fear ofreturn of the Jungle Raj andplayed the soft Hindutva card.

The last day of campaigningwitnessed hectic canvassing withPrime Minister Narendra Modiaddressing back-to-back ralliesin support of NDA candidates,and criss-crossing over a dozenvenues.

According to the ElectionCommission, more than 2.85crore voters will decide the elec-toral fate of 1,463 candidates --1316 male, 146 female and onetransgender.

The Election Commissionsaid it has set up a total of 41,362booths at 18,823 polling stations.Maharajganj constituency hasthe maximum 27 candidates inthis phase, while the minimumfour are from Darauli con-stituency (SC).

The 94 constituencies which

are going to poll on November3 are in 17 districts: WestChamparan, East Champaran,Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Madhubani,Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur,Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran,Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai,Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Nalandaand Patna.

Besides the Prime Minister,several Union Ministers includ-ing Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani,Giriraj Singh and AnuragThakur, besides senior partyleaders such as BJP chief JPNadda addressed campaign ral-lies.

In his Sunday rallies, thePrime Minister excoriated theOpposition over the Pulwamaattack after Pakistan’s admis-sion of complicity in it andberated the RJD-Congress com-bine, calling it an alliance of“double-double yuvraj” (twocrown princes) whose sole con-cern was to protect their “respec-tive thrones”.

BJP leaders repeatedly rakedup the Ram temple issues, Article370, triple talaq and also promi-nently mentioned the PakistaniMinister’s admission of his coun-try’s involvement in the Pulwamaattack of 2019 that had left 40CRPF jawans dead.

For attacking the RJD, theirconstant refrain was “jungle raj”,“lantern era”, “kidnapping indus-try”, slamming the party over itsrecord on law and order.

Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi addressed two ral-lies for this phase of elections

where he cornered Modi andChief Minister Nitish Kumarover the issues of unemploy-ment, migrant crisis, farm lawsand sugar mills. He had said thePrime Minister talks about othercountries in his speeches but notabout the issues facing the nationsuch as unemployment.

Tejashwi, in the meanwhile,scaled up the intensity of hiscampaign and addressed close toa dozen, or even more, ralliesevery day since the voting forphase 1 of election on October28.

Tejashwi’s salvos drew sting-ing response from Kumar whotried to blunt his attack by com-paring the law and order situa-tion under the RJD’sGovernment (1990-2005) withthat under his 15 year rule andconstantly reminding the voterthat RJD chief Lalu Yadav hasbeen implicated for corruptionand is serving a jail term.

With massive crowdsthronging these rallies, Covid- 19guidelines on social distancingwere flagrantly violated.

Among other prominentfaces whose fate would be closedin EVMs in this phase are: BJPleader and Road ConstructionMinister Nand Kishore Yadav(Patna Sahib), JD(U) lawmakerand Rural Development MinisterShrawan Kumar (Nalanda), BJPMLA and Cooperative MinisterRana Randhir Singh(Madhuban), and JD(U) leaderand State Minister RamsevakSingh (Hathua).

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From Page 1The Centre has already

asked the States and UTs toform three-tier committeeswhich would oversee the roll-out of the vaccine and addressany hiccups, including rumors.“Once the distribution of thevaccine starts, the district taskforce would work on develop-ing robust communicationplanning at all levels to addressrumor-mongering as well asvaccine eagerness”, said anofficial from the Union HealthMinistry.

The three-tier committeeswould comprise the State steer-ing committee, State task force,and district task force in eachState and UT.

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From Page 1According to the Central

Government’s Air Quality EarlyWarning System for Delhi, thecity’s ventilation index - aproduct of mixing depth andaverage wind speed - wasaround 12,000 meter squareper second on Monday -favourable for dispersion ofpollutants.

Mixing depth is the verti-cal height in which pollutantsare suspended in the air. Itreduces on cold days with calmwind speed.

A ventilation index lowerthan 6,000 sqm/second, withthe average wind speed lessthan 10 kmph, is unfavourablefor dispersal of pollutants.

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From Page 1All 58 passengers have beentransferred to designated Covid-19 hospitals and quarantinezones.

“All our passengers toWuhan had boarded the flightfrom Delhi with C0VID-19negative reports from certifiedlabs. Air India strictly adheres toall the safety protocol laid downby regulatory bodies and con-forms to requirements at desti-nation airports. There is noquestion of passengers boardingany of our flights without validCOVID 19 negative reports,” theAi India said in a statement.

The October 30 flight, the

sixth operated by India to Chinain recent months and the first toWuhan where the virus emergedin December last year, brought277 Indians from New Delhiand evacuated 157 on its returnunder India’s mega mission toevacuate stranded Indians fromabroad. All the Indian passen-gers needed to undergo twocoronavirus tests before beingpermitted to board the flights.

There is a big rush for VBMflights from India to China asBeijing has recently lifted thetemporary ban on holders of res-ident permit visas.

About 1,500 to 2,000Indians who are either workingin China or connected to busi-nesses want to return.

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Page 3: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

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To strengthen fight againstpollution, Environment

Minister Gopal Rai on Mondaylaunched Red Light On, GaadiOff campaign in all the 272wards in Delhi.

Conveying to the massesabout collective efforts to dealpollution problem, Raiappealed to the CentralGovernment to analyse bio-decomposer as alternative to theissue of stubble burning in theneighbouring States of Delhi.

He said that through ini-tiatives such as 'Red Light On,Gaadi Off ', the DelhiGovernment is combatinginternal sources of pollution in

the Capital. "To curb rising pol-lution levels in Chief Ministerof Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal onOctober 5, launched the“Yuddh, Pradhushan keViruddh” campaign.

“Under this umbrella cam-paign, initiatives to combatpollution caused by dust, stub-ble burning or vehicles werelaunched. Anti-dust drive wasalso launched under this cam-paign. 'Red light On, Gaadi Off 'campaign is being implement-ed within Delhi till November15. We are taking it to 272wards as the pollution levels areincreasingly rising."

"But, we have always main-tained that we will do every-thing in our capacity to make

sure pollution is contained,but we cannot do anything tostop the toxic haze from stub-ble burning to pollute the city.Union Minister PrakashJavadekar says stubble burningcontributes 4 - 6 per centwhereas the statistics clearlystate 40 percent contribution,"said Rai.

Rai said Delhiites are work-ing hard day and night to curbpollution levels. Stubble burn-ing is the biggest contributor ofpollution in Delhi especiallyahead of Diwali season. "Howshould Delhi deal with that? Irequest the CentralGovernment to take someaction rather than just makinga commission, because pollu-

tion combined with the currentpandemic can cause cata-strophic consequences for thepeople of Delhi," he added.

He further said, “Pollutionis not defined by state bound-aries, it is defined by air sets. Ithas an air set of around 300kms, which means pollutionwill affect the radius of 300kms. People are being ignorantof this fact. In order to combatpollution, there is a require-ment for action to be imple-mented on the ground.Collective effort is required todeal with this issue. But, we inDelhi, have decided to createawareness against pollutionand its damaging effects,amongst Delhiites with theirparticipation. We are launchingthe Red Light campaign in all272 wards to reduce the localsources of pollution in Delhi."

On the issue of ban ofcrackers by Rajasthan, Rai said,“Pollution is defined by the airset. Individual effort is notenough to fight pollution.There is a need to implementcollective action. All ministersneed to take cognizance ofthis fact. In Delhi, it was repeat-edly being said that the risingpollution level is due to stub-ble burning in neighbouringstates, and the response wereceived from the central gov-ernment and states was thatthere is no alternative to stub-ble burning."

"In Delhi, we have used thebio decomposer developed byPusa Research Institute.

The report of the same hasbeen extremely positive. OnNovember 4, CM Arvind

Kejriwal shall be inspecting theground reality at Hiranki. Wewant to tell the states and the

central government that thereis no cheaper alternative thanthis for stubble burning. We

request them to physically wit-ness the bio decomposer atwork," he added.

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A26-year-old Delhi Policesub-inspector (SI) alleged-

ly shot himself dead with hisservice pistol at his residence inwest Delhi's Mohan Gardenarea on early Monday morning.

The deceased, identified asRituraj, was posted in PaschimVihar (West) police station,which falls under the outer dis-trict of Delhi Police.

According to A Kaon, theDeputy Commissioner of Police(DCP), Outer district, a call wasreceived a suicide in Ranholapolice station around 5.15 AM.

“The caller informed abouthis brother's suicide at his res-idence following which anEmergency Response Vehicle(ERV) was dispatched for thespot,” said the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP).

“On spot, police teamfound no suicide note but pre-liminary enquiry suggested thatthe sub-inspector took theextreme step due to financialcrisis,” the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP)said.

“The body will be handedto his family after post-mortem.Further investigation into thematter is underway,” said theDCP.

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The Delhi Commission forProtection of Child Rights

(DCPCR) completed its two-part orientation session ofmembers of the 'School

Management Committee'(SMC) Cell, an initiative,which aims to further decen-tralize management of Gov-ernment schools by enhancingcommunity participation andparent involvement so thatgreater accountability and effi-cacy can be ensured.

The meeting was attend-ed by representatives fromDirectorate of Education,Municipal Corporations andNGOs, Saajha and Samarthyaof Delhi to discuss roles andresponsibilities.

"The members shall trackand reach out to at least 250students in each district fromNovember, who are enrolledin schools but are not trace-able. They shall also assist inenrolling a minimum of 100children in schools. Throughseveral activities, challengeson the field were highlightedand the potential impact ofwork of SMC Cell was dis-cussed," he said.

In August, 2020, DCPCRconstituted the SMC Cellunder Education andChildren With Special Needs

(CWSN) Division of theCommission. The Cell ,chaired by Member(Education and CWSN) con-sists of five representativesfrom SMCs of every district,threr from SMCs of everyzone of municipal corpora-tions and another two fromnon-profit organisationsworking on parental engage-ment, a statement from thegovernment read.

Primarily, members ofSMC Cell shall conduct fieldvisits, ensuring that childrenwith attendance less than 33per cent are reached out andtrack children who have beenabsent for 30 consecutive daysor more without intimation, itsaid.

Highlighting the essen-tial work and significant con-tribution that SMC Cell canpotentially make, AnuragKundu, Chairperson, DCPCRstressed upon the dire need ofidentifying nearly two lakhchildren who have remaineduntraceable by the schoolssince the lockdown due topandemic.

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Senior Aam Aadmi Partyleader and MCD in-charge

Durgesh Pathak on Mondaysaid that the teachers of BJP-ruled-municipal corporation’sschools are on protest demand-ing their pending salaries evenafter the AAP Governmenthas already released around Rs746 crores till October

Pathak said that the BJP-ruled Corporations havewrongly utilized the Rs 746crores released by the AAPgovernment for the salary ofteachers and Delhi BJP chiefAdesh Gupta must clarifywhere did this money go?

“The 14 years of BJP’s rulein Corporations has complete-ly destroyed the functioning somuch so that they are unable topay the salaries of its employ-ees. The doctors and nurses areon strike, workers have plannedto go on strike from November9,” he said.

Pathak said, “DelhiGovernment has released allfunds pertaining to the salaryof teachers till the month ofOctober to all three corpora-tions. “I want to inform all theteachers who are protesting thatthe Delhi Government hasreleased your salaries till themonth of October but the BJPhas not processed your pay-ments yet. They have deprivedyou of your salaries worth?746 crores. BJP has madeMCD as the epitome of cor-ruption,” he said.

“The BJP has made it avicious cycle. Whatever fundsthey get is used for encourag-ing corruption. I want to knowwhere have the ?746 croresgone? This is a criminal activ-ity that during the pandemicwhen people are already dis-tressed, they are using theirsalaries to fill your own pock-ets and upgrading your livingstandards as opposed to theones who deserve this money,”he alleged.

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Power major BSES has expandedits ‘Solar City Programmess’ by

launching ‘Solarise Safdurjung” and‘Solarise Karkardooma’ on Monday.BSES Rajdhani Power Limited(BRPL) has over 2800 roof-top solarinstallations with a installed load ofabove 90 MWp.

The ambitious discom led andcommunity-based demand aggrega-tion programmes were launched invirtual ceremonies in presence of theRWAs from the two areas. This ini-tiative, a pilot, is pursuant to aStatement of Intent (SoI) signed bythe US Department of State and

India’s Ministry of New andRenewable Energy (MNRE) underthe US-India Clean Energy FinanceTask Force on November 15, 2018.

BSES Rajdhani Power Limited(BRPL) and BSES Yamuna PowerLimited (BYPL) are committed toaggressively promote roof-top solarin South, West, East and CentralDelhi.

A senior BSES official said thisinitiative has been rolled-out inpartnership with SmartPower, a USbased non-profit organisationfocused on local community cam-paigns to increase consumer adop-tion of clean energy, WeeGreen andCouncil on Energy Environment

and Water (CEEW), a leading not-for-profit policy research organisa-tion.

“The objective is to create a mar-ket based approach for scaling-up

roof-top solar and introduce com-munity-led demand aggregation fordeployment. In the first phase, thecampaign will aggressively promotethe adoption of roof-top solar inSafdurjung and Karkardooma areasas part of ‘Solarise Safdurjung’ and‘Solarise Karkardooma’. Subsequently,depending on the results, the pro-gram will also be launched for otherBSES areas,” he said.

The intensive 8-10 week cam-paign aims to accelerate the adoptionof roof-top solar by raising awarenessthrough community participationand dialogue. Adapting to the ‘newnormal’ in the wake of Covid-19, theentire ‘Solarise Safdurjung’ and

‘Solarise Karkardooma’ programsare completely virtual, using innov-ative online tools, including the‘WeeGreen’, a global platform thatbrings together the residents andvendors at one place he added.

“The program will educate con-sumers about the benefits of solarenergy while ensuring strict qualitycompliance of the systems beinginstalled. It will also facilitate variousfinance options available to the con-sumers. BSES has been at the fore-front of promoting the concept ofrooftop solar and its beneficialimpact on electricity bills. The latestinitiative promises to be a game-changer in a bid to accelerate adop-

tion of rooftop solar in Delhi. ”-added the BSES spokesperson.

According to Delhi Solar Policy,Delhi is blessed with 300 dayssunny days and around 31 sq.kmsof roof-top space available for solarpanels.

This gives Delhi a solar energygeneration of around 2500 MWp. Asper estimates, while exploitable solarpotential in South and West Delhi isaround 800 MWp, it is around 200MWp in East and Central Delhi.

BRPL and BYPL are premierpower distribution companies andJoint Ventures between RelianceInfrastructure Limited andGoNCTD.

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The Delhi Government onMonday appealed to the

Central Government to analysebio-decomposer as an alterna-tive to tackle the issue of stub-ble burning in the neighbour-ing States of Delhi, saying thatthe share of farm fires in Delhi'spollution has soared to 40 percent.

Launching the 'Red LightOn, Gaadi Off ' campaign in allthe 272 wards in Delhi,Environment Minister GopalRai said collective action onground is required to counterthe effects of pollution in Delhi.

“Stubble burning in neigh-bouring States is behind the 40per cent pollution in thenational Capital. The DelhiGovernment is combatinginternal sources of pollution inthe capital through the initia-

tives such as 'Red Light On,Gaadi Off,” he said.

According to the Ministryof Earth Sciences' air qualitymonitor, SAFAR, the share ofstubble burning in Delhi's pol-lution rose to 40 per cent onSunday, the maximum so farthis season. It was 32 per centon Saturday, 19 per cent onFriday and 36 per cent onThursday, the second highestthis season so far.

“Pollution is not defined bystate boundaries but by airsets. It has an air set of around300 kms, which means pollu-tion will affect the radius of 300kms. People are being ignorantof this fact. In order to combatpollution, there is a require-ment for action to be imple-mented on the ground.Collective effort is required todeal with this issue," he said.

On the issue of ban of

crackers by Rajasthan, Raisaid, “Pollution is defined bythe air set. Individual effort isnot enough to fight pollution.There is a need to implementcollective action. All ministersneed to take cognizance of thisfact. In Delhi, it was repeat-edly being said that the risingpollution level is due to stub-ble burning in neighbouringstates, and the response wereceived from the central gov-ernment and states was thatthere is no alternative to stub-ble burning.

"In Delhi, we have used thebio decomposer developed byPusa Research Institute. Thereport of the same has beenextremely positive. OnNovember 4, chief ministerArvind Kejriwal will beinspecting the ground reality atHiranki. We want to tell thestates and the central govern-

ment that there is no cheaperalternative than this for stubbleburning. We request them tophysically witness the biodecomposer at work," headded.

Addressing the media atChandgi ram akhara, he fur-ther said, "To curb rising pol-lution levels, an initiative the“Yuddh, Pradhushan keViruddh” campaign waslaunched on October 5.”

Under this umbrella cam-paign, initiatives to combatpollution caused by dust, stub-ble burning or vehicles werelaunched, he said, adding thatanti-dust drive was alsolaunched under this campaign.The campaign is being imple-mented within Delhi tillNovember 15.

"We have always main-tained that we will do every-thing in our capacity to make

sure pollution is contained,but we cannot do anything tostop the toxic haze from stub-ble burning to pollute the city.Union Minister PrakashJavadekar says stubble burningcontributes 4 -6 per centwhereas the statistics clearlystate 40 per cent contribu-tion," said Rai.

The Minister further saidthat Delhiites are workinghard day and night to curbpollution levels. “Stubbleburning is the biggest con-tributor of pollution in Delhiespecially ahead of Diwaliseason. I request the Centralgovernment to take someaction rather than just mak-ing a commission, becausepollution combined with thecurrent pandemic can causecatastrophic consequences forthe people of Delhi," headded.

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Total penalty of over Rs29.70 lakh was imposed on

129 violators on Monday bythe teams deployed to moni-tor implementation of mea-sures to combat pollution inGurugram under the Underthe Graded Response ActionPlan (GRAP).

The GRAP had come intoforce from October 15.

These include Rs 65 thou-sand penalty imposed on 13violators in case of burning ofgarbage, Rs 5 lakh on 20 vio-lators of C&D dumping, Rs 55thousand on 11 violators ofspreading of garbage and non-compliance of environmentalregulations in constructionactivities.

A total of 80 violators

faced fines amounting to Rs 23lakh 50 thousand who wereinvolved in dust blowing.

A team of MunicipalCorporation, Gurugram visit-ed multiple locations in the cityafter several complaints werereceived from these places bythe residents.

The complaints were relat-ed to flouting of environmen-tal norms. On the basis of thecomplaints, the above 129 vio-lators were fined Rs 29.70 lakhduring the spot inspection.

The Violators were warnedby the civic body officials tocomply with environmentalregulations in constructionactivities. Under this, the con-struction sites and construc-tion material should be cov-ered, otherwise an FIR will befiled against them and legalaction will also be levelled

against the violators.“The corporation teams

are constantly monitoringthose who violate the GRAP inthe municipal area and finesare being imposed as per therules. The construction pro-jects that violate the environ-mental norms will be penal-ized to keep pollution undercontrol,” said Jaspreet Kaur,Additional Commissioner ofMunicipal Corporation,Gurugram.

“The civic body is con-stantly spraying water in thearea to prevent dust fromblowing and the roads arebeing cleaned throughmechanical machines. TheMunicipal Corporation isworking effectively to ensurecompliance of the GradedResponse Action Plan,” shesaid.

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Delhi Transport MinisterKailash Gahlot on

Monday reviewed the prepa-rations made ahead of resum-ing Inter-State bus services inDelhi on Tuesday.

The meeting was attendedby senior officers fromTransport Department, DelhiTransport InfrastructureDevelopment Corporation Ltd.(DTIDC), Delhi TransportCorporation (DTC) and DelhiIntegrated Multi-Modal TransitSystem Ltd.(DIMTS).

The three 'Interstate BusTerminals' (ISBTs) at KashmereGate, Sarai Kale Khan andAnand Vihar used to cater topassengers to a tune of 3500trips of interstate buses and2000 trips of local buses daily.This will be the first timeinterstate bus travel will beallowed in Delhi since COVIDlockdown was announced bythe Government of India (GoI)

In order to ensure the safe-

ty of both passengers and crew,detailed Standard OperatingProcedures (SOP) have beenput in place prior to resumingservices, the government saidin a statement.

"The interstate buses shallbe sanitized by the respectivedepots of bus operators at thepoint of origin and beforedeparture from the respectiveISBT. Thermal checking ofboth passengers and bus crewat boarding and at the point ofentry to ISBTs will also bemandatory," he said.

Passengers have to manda-torily wear face mask and nostanding passengers will beallowed in the buses, it said,adding that social distancingwill be ensured on groundstation, at the time of boardingof passengers and inside thebus as per government guide-lines.

"These will be donethrough markers on groundand waiting areas, similar to theones in all buses and metro. In

addition to these, testing campsfor Rapid/ RT-PCR tests havealso been set up at all 3 ISBT’sin case any asymptomatic pas-senger shows signs of illnesspost thermal screening," hesaid.

In a meeting to reviewpreparations ahead of resum-ing of Inter-state travel, Gahlotsaid ” The safety of both pas-sengers and staff and crew areof utmost priority to us. Wehave been carefully monitoringpatterns of travelling since weresumed bus services, and eventhough inter-state travel is achallenge, we are ensuring san-itization at every point."

Apart from this, regularannouncements and sensitiza-tion of passengers about Covid-19 precautions through audio– visual communication is alsobeing undertaken, he said.

The minister further saidthat srict ban on use of gutka,tobacco products, etc in thepremises of ISBTs shall bemade.

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Page 4: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

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As many as 1,201 of the3,722 candidates (over 32

per cent) in the Bihar Assemblyelections have criminal casespending against them, of which915 are serious. Atleast 73 can-didates have declared casesrelated to murder (IPC Section-302) while 278 candidates havedeclared cases related toAttempt to murder (IPCSection-307). Tejaswavi Yadavled Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)had maximum candidates withcriminal cases, followed by theBJP, Congress and LJP. Thereare 1,231(33%) are crorepatis inthe fray.

According to theAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR) report onBihar Assembly polls, a total of98 of the 141 RJD candidateswhose affidavits were analysedface criminal cases, followedby the BJP with 76 out of 109candidates. The report saidthat 45 out of 70 candidates ofthe Congress have pendingcriminal cases, followed by 70of 135 from Lok JanshaktiParty (LJP), 56 of 115 fromJanata Dal-United, and 29 of78 candidates from BahujanSamaj Party (BSP). As per thereport, 72 out of the 141 RJDcandidates face serious crim-inal cases, followed by 55 ofthe 109 BJP candidates, 33 ofthe 70 Congress candidates, 55of 135 LJP nominees, 36 of the

115 candidates from JanataDal-United and 23 of the 78BSP candidates. Of the totaltainted candidates, 115declared cases related to crimeagainst women, including 12who declared cases related torape. A total of 73 candidatesdeclared murder cases and278 others attempt to murder.

All major parties contest-ing the Bihar Assembly elec-tions gave tickets to 37 per centto 70 per cent candidates whohave declared criminal casesagainst themselves.

During the 2015 assemblypolls, 1038 (30 percent) haddeclared criminal cases. Ofthem, 796 (23%) candidateshad declared serious criminalcases. Serious criminal casesare non-bailable offencesattracting over five years ofimprisonment.

According to report, 1231( 33 percent) of the total 3722candidates, are crorepatis. In2015 860 (25%) crorepatishad contested the polls.“Among the major parties94(86%) of 109 candidatesfrom BJP, 120(85%) of 141candidates from RJD, 96(84%)of 115 candidates from JD(U),99(73%) of 135 candidatesfrom LJP, 51(73%) of the 70candidates from the Congressand 33(42%) of 78 candidatesfrom BSP have declared assetsworth more than �1 crore,” thereport said.

In the third phase, of the

1,195 candidates, 31 per centhave declared criminal casesagainst themselves.

About 282 or 24 per centhave declared serious criminalcases against themselves. Asmany as 361 or 30 per cent ofthese candidates have statedtheir financial assets to beworth crores of rupees, thereport said.

Out of 1,195 candidatesanalyzed, 371 or 31 per centhave declared criminal casesagainst themselves, it said.According to the report, 32 (73per cent) out of 44 candidatesanalysed from the RJD havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves and 22 (50 per cent)of them have declared seriouscriminal cases against them-selves in their affidavits.Thereport said 20 candidates havedeclared cases related to mur-der (IPC Section-302) againstthemselves and 73 candidateshave declared cases related toattempt to murder (IPCSection-307) against them-selves.

The Bihar assembly elec-tions are being held in threephases for a total of 243 seats— the first phase for 71 seatson October 28, the secondphase for 94 seats onNovember 3 and the thirdphase for the remaining 78 will be held onNovember 7. The results willbe announced on November10.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has arrested

Al-Qaeda conspirator of WestBengal, Abdul Momin Mondalof Murshidabad district, WestBengal, in connection with theAl-Qaeda case of West Bengaland Kerala.

“Yesterday (01.11.2020),NIA arrested accused AbdulMomin Mondal, aged - 32years, son of Rejaul Mondalresident of village Nazrana, PSRaninagar, DistrictMurshidabad, West Bengal inconnection with the Al-Qaedacase of West Bengal andKerala,” the NIA said in astatement here on Monday.

The NIA further said, “Thecase was registered onSeptember 11, 2020 and relatesto anti-national activities by agroup of Jihadi terrorists con-sisting of more than 10 mem-bers inspired by globally pro-scribed terrorist organisationAl-Qaeda, who were planningto carry out anti-national andterrorist activities at differentlocations in India including butnot limited to West Bengal,Delhi and Kerala.”

Investigation revealed thataccused Mondal was working asa teacher in Raipur Darur HudaIslamia Madrassa inMurshidabad district and wasallegedly found to be involvedin a series of conspiratorialmeetings convened by themembers of the Al-Qaeda mod-ule, the agency said.

He was also trying to recruitnew members for the group andwas raising funds for furtheringits terrorist activities, it alleged.

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Aconsortium of 62 leadingnational farmer organisa-

tions under the aegis of theRashtriya Kisan Mahasangh(RKM) has written to all ChiefMinisters of India and to thePrime Minister of India tobuild up a dashboard which canhelp the Government to planand improvise the whole sup-ply chain. This can provide allservices timely with precisionand support distribution ofvarious essential inputs likefertilisers, seeds, water arrange-ment. Talking about the impor-tance of this mulling up of cre-ating this dashboard ofAgriculture, Rashtriya KisanMahashangh founder memberBinod Anand said that theMahashangha demands to cre-ate constructive dialogueamong all stakeholders withfarmers at core. The organisa-tion has undertaken a nation-wide consultation among them-selve to seek farmer opinionespecially across 22 States of theUnion of India.

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The Department RelatedParliamentary Standing

Committees (DRSCs) of RajyaSabha have reported a markedimprovement in their function-ing in respect of duration ofmeetings and attendance during2019-20, as per an analysis doneby the Parliament of function-ing of its eight committee.

The secretariat has analysedthe functioning of theCommittees of Rajya Sabhaduring the last three years asdesired by the ChairmanM.Venkaiah Naidu. Naidu hasbeen regularly reviewing thefunctioning of these committeesand shared some of his concernswith the Chairmen of thesecommittees.

“The average attendance inthe total 117 meetings of these8 committees comes to 49.20 %during 2019-20, again the bestof the last 3 years. The averageattendance crossed the halfwaymark with 50.73% for the firsttime during the first half of2019-20,” said a Parliamentsource.

It has, however, come downto 41.15% in the meetings heldin the second half during thepandemic period, marking adecline of over 9.50%. However,the committees met for an aver-age duration of 2 hours 23 min-utes during the pandemic.

During this year, the num-ber of meetings held with atten-

dance of 50% or more membersin each committee increased to46.15% of the total as against14% and 30% during the previ-ous two years respectively. Thenumber of meetings held with-out the required quorum hasdeclined to 10% this year, thelowest of the last 3 years.

These 8 committees met fora total duration of 254 hours 27minutes this year, the longest ofthe last 3 years. During the 3year period of 2017-20, the 8committees of Rajya Sabha helda total of 300 meetings over aduration of 571 hours 22 min-utes. The 3 year average dura-tion of meetings has been 1 hr54 minutes and the averageattendance being 45.35%.

During 2019-20, theCommittee on Home Affairsmet for the longest duration of47 hours 27 minutes followed bythe Committee on Health &Family Welfare-42 hrs 22 min-utes and the Committee onHRD-40 hrs 44 minutes.

During 2017-20, theCommittee on HRD met for thelongest duration of 100 hrs 05minutes followed by HomeAffairs -87.17, Transport,Tourism & Culture-80.11,Health & Family Welfare- 76.15,Commerce- 70.17, Science &Technology and Environment,Forests & Climate Change-68.47, Pensions, PublicGrievances, Law & Justice-52.19hours and Industry-36 hours 11minutes.

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Retail prices of essential veg-etables, especially tomato,

potato and onion, have sky-rocketed across India in the lasttwo months, upsetting house-hold budgets. According to asurvey by community socialmedia platform LocalCircles,71 percent households say theyare paying more than �50/kgfor Tomato, �40/kg for Potatoand �50/kg for Onion. As perthe daily rate quoted by theMinistry of Consumer Affairson November 2, if you buy onekg Aloo (potato), Pyaz (onion)and Tamatar (tomato) each, it

will cost Rs 150-235 dependingon the cities.

LocalCircles conducted asurvey to understand howmuch extra are people spend-ing to purchase per kilogram ofonions, potatoes and toma-toes. This comes as consumersshow discernment over therising price of these vegetablessince the last two months.

To the first question thatasked, “What best describes theper kilogram price that yourhousehold paid for buyingonion, potato and tomato inthe latest purchase?”, 8,273responses were received fromcitizens. Notably, 71% citizens

said they are paying morethan �50 per Kg for tomato,�40 Kg for potato, and �50 perKg for onion. In comparison toa similar survey byLocalCircles published onSeptember 11, 2020, 61%households had said they werepaying more than � 60 per perKg for tomato, �30 per Kg forpotato, and �25 per kg foronion. This means that whilean average retail price major-ity of households paid perkilogram for potatoes rose by30% and onions rose by 100%,while the price for tomatoes fellby 15% in just one month.

The individual data onthese three vegetables suggeststhat 42% citizens bought“tomato at �60 or higher, pota-to at � 60 or higher, and onionsat �70 or higher.” Whereas,29% citizens said they boughtper Kg of “tomato at INR 50-59, potato at �40-59, and onionat �50-69”, while 11% said tohave bought “tomato at Rs 30-49, potato at �20-39, and onionat �30-49”. Only 6% citizens

said they bought “tomato at�20 or lower, potato at �19 orlower, and onion at INR 29 orlower” in some places.

The report further notedthat 70 per cent of householdssaid they paid 25-100 per centhigher prices this year for buy-ing per kilogram of tomato,potato, and onion. Whereas,only 5 per cent of citizens saidthey “paid the same as last year”,while 1 per cent of citizens saidthey paid less in comparison tolast year. 11 per cent voted for“can’t say.”

This comes as many house-holds have faced a significantloss of earnings or loss ofemployment during the pan-demic. Sectors like tourism,hospitality, and restaurants havealso faced severe cutbacks.

While the price per kilo-gram for tomato paid by major-ity of the citizens marginallyreduced in the last 30 days, theprice per kilogram for potatorose by 30% and the price perkilogram for onion rose by100% upsetting the household

budget for essentials. The sec-ond question asked citizens,“Overall, in 2020, how muchhigher price has your house-hold paid on average for toma-to, potato and onion in com-parison to 2019?” 7,904 citizensresponded. Notably, 70%households said they paid 25-100% higher prices this year forbuying per kilogram of toma-to, potato, and onion. Whereas,only 5% citizens said they “paidthe same as last while 1% citi-zens said they “paid less incomparison to last year,” and11% voted for “can’t say”.

This is indicative of a sig-nificant squeeze given the factthat many households havefaced significant loss of earningsor loss of employment duringthe pandemic.

Sectors like tourism, hos-pitality and restaurants havefaced severe cutbacks as peoplecontinue to limit movementbecause of the fear of COVID-19. Those employed in manysuch sectors are dipping intosavings, taking high interestloans just to make ends meet.

The survey received morethan 16,000 responses from cit-izens across 242 districts ofIndia. Of which, 58% werefrom tier 1, 23% from tier 2,and 17% respondents werefrom tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

It also tried to understandan average amount a householdpaid this year for buying thesevegetables as compared to2019.

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Aday before the bypollsfor eight Gujarat

Assembly seats, the Congresson Monday demanded aninquiry by a Supreme CourtJudge into the resignations byparty MLAs “ in l ieu ofmoney” ahead of the RajyaSabha elections in that Statein June.

A Congress sting alleged-ly showed Somabhai Patelclaiming in a video that hewas paid money to resign inMarch ahead of elections tothe four Rajya Sabha seats in

Gujarat.State Congress leader

Arjun Modwadia told themedia: “All central agenciesare working at the behest ofthe Union government. So, aninquiry by a Supreme CourtJudge should be done into thematter.” The 45-second videowas earlier released by GujaratCongress in Ahmedabad.

“It is a big issue. Electionlaws should be amended tosuch defections through res-ignations,” Congress leaderAbhishek Manu Singhvi saidat a Press conference.

He also demanded a case

be registered under thePrevention of Corruption Actand the Indian Penal Code.

Congress state affairsincharge Rajeev Satav allegedthat the BJP was misusingcentral agencies and adoptingother methods to get MLAsinto its camp.

The eight Congress MLAshad resigned, which led to thedefeat of one Congress can-didate in the Rajya Sabhapolls. Eight Assembly seatswill go to the bypolls inGujarat on November 3, whilethe counting of votes willtake place on November 10.

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Researchers from AIIMS inDelhi have concluded that

the rapid antigen test showedan excellent specificity to ‘rule-in’ Covid-19 patients within thefirst five days of illness with amoderate sensitivity.

The overall sensitivity andthe specificity of the test was81.8 percent and 99.6 percentrespectively, and the test accu-racy was 95.4 percent. Thesensitivity of the test was high-er (85.9 percent) in participantswith the duration of illness less-er than five days, said thecross-sectional study pub-lished in the Indian Journal ofMedical Research.

The study was done on 330patients admitted at AIIMS,Delhi, between May 31 and July24. Researchers included symp-tomatic patients and asympto-matic/pre-symptomatic con-tacts of laboratory-confirmedcases with exposure between 5and 10 days.

“The analytical perfor-mance…depends on the mix-ing of NP swab with buffer andthe viral load in the sample, butclinical performance of thetest may be variable whichdepends on the technique ofsample collection and durationof illness of patients. Hence, thesensitivity will be average inasymptomatic patients becauseit is difficult to analyze pre-testprobability in asymptomaticpatients,” stated the paper.

Of the 330 participants, 77were RT-PCR positive forCovid-19. Sixty-four of themalso tested positive in the rapidantigen test. The most com-monly presented symptomsamong screened participantswere fever (31.5 percent),cough (25.4 percent),fatigue/malaise (11.8 percent),headache (3.3 percent) andrunny nose (3.3 percent). Asmany as 57 participants pre-sented with sore throat but onlytwo of them (3.5 per cent) hadCovid-19.

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Delhi, Jaipur, Indore,Amritsar, Pune, Srinagar,

Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai,Kozhikode andVishakhapatnam are amongthe 30 cities in India which willface increasing water risks inthe next few decades owing torapid urbanisation, climatechange, and lack of appropri-ate infrastructure , according toa World Wide Fund (WWF)study.

The WWF has called foran urgent action to mitigateand adapt to climate change.China accounts for almost halfthe cities plaguing with acutewater shortage, said the WWF’sreport as it estimated that hun-dreds of millions of people incities across the globe could beat danger. Other cities areJakarta, Johannesburg, Istanbul,Hong Kong, Mecca and Rio deJaneiro.

According to the scenariosin the WWF Water Risk Filter,the 100 cities that are expect-ed to suffer the greatest due torise in water risk by 2050 arehome to at least 350 millionpeople, including importantnational and globaleconomies.

Globally, populations inareas of high-water risk couldrise from 17 per cent in 2020to 51 per cent by 2050.

“The future of India’s envi-ronment lies in its cities. AsIndia rapidly urbanizes, citieswill be at the forefront both forIndia’s growth and for sus-tainability,” Sejal Worah,

Programme Director, WWFIndia, said.

“For cities to break awayfrom the current vicious loopof flooding and water scarci-ty, nature-based solutions likerestoration of urban water-sheds and wetlands could offersolutions. This is our chance tore-evolve and re-imagine whatthe future of the cities couldbe,” Worah said.

The Smart Cities initiativein India could offer an inte-grated urban water manage-ment framework combiningurban planning, ecosystemrestoration and wetland con-servation for building future-ready, water-smart and cli-mate-resilient cities.

Urban watersheds andwetlands are critical for main-taining the water balance of acity, flood cushioning, micro-climate regulation and pro-tecting its biodiversity. Thefuture of our cities and sus-tainability lies in the efficien-cy in closing the loop by inte-grating water supply, demandmanagement.

“Cities across the worldhave paid a high price inrecent years due to worseningwater risks. From acute risksthat have seen historic floodsto chronic risks that have seentheir taps running dry, thewater challenges cities are fac-ing are only going to increasein the coming decades becausethe impacts of climate changewill primarily be felt throughwater,” said Alexis Morgan,WWF Global WaterStewardship Lead.

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Page 5: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

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Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan onMonday lambasted the Central

agencies investigating various cor-ruption charges against hisGovernment and alleged that all theseprobes were as per script prepared byforces outside the State.

“Certain forces want to tarnish theimage of my government and they arediscrediting the good works done byus during the last five years. This isagainst federalism and an open viola-tion of the Constitution,” said Vijayanwho read out a statement from a pre-pared speech.

Addressing the media as part ofbriefing the Covid-19 situation in theState, Vijayan came down heavily onEnforcement Directorate for exceed-ing its brief and interfering in theaffairs of the State. The ED is probingcharges of money laundering andgold smuggling scam in which theChief Minister’s Office is allegedlyinvolved.

M Sivsankar, the former principalsecretary to the Chief Minister who isalso his close confidante has beenarrested in connection with the caseand is under the custody of theagency. Bineesh Kodiyeri, son of partysecretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan toowas arrested by the agency for his rolein narcotic smuggling and moneylaundering. The two arrests havebrought the opposition parties to the

streets and has put the CPI(M)-ledgovernment in a dilemma.

Chief Minister blamed both thecentral agencies and the media forselective leaking and publishing of cer-t a i nreports which he said was against allnorms. “The State Government isobserving the norms specified in theConstitution. But these agencies areinvestigating the cases with ulteriormotives as they have a hidden agen-da,” charged Vijayan.

He read out a list of encomiumsbestowed on his government by someNGOs and media houses and said thatit proved that Kerala was the best man-aged State in the country. Though theChief Minister did not point out thekind of trespass made by the centralagencies, he alleged that certain forceswere behind the the attempts to sab-otage LIFE Mission and K-Phoneprojects, two flagship programmes ofthe State.

The K-Phone Project (Kerala FibreOptic Network) is a joint venturebetween two public sector undertak-ings, Kerala State Electricity Boardand Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd,which envisages internet connectivi-ty to 2 million houses free of cost.

There were reservations expressedby the Kerala State ElectricityRegulatory Commission which ques-tioned the viability of such a projectwhile the Centre’s Bharat Net missionwas on the verge of completion.

KOCHI: A day after Sobha Surendran, vice-president and senior BJP leader came out in theopen accusing V Muraleedharan, UnionMinister of State for External Affairs and KSurendran, president of the Kerala unit of con-spiring to finish her political career, P MVelayudhan, senior BJP leader and national exec-utive member too lambasted party leadershipfor insulting him.

Velayudhan started sobbing while describ-ing the humiliation he is undergoing in thehands of the party leaders. “I joined the partyonly to serve Bharat Matha and not expectingany position or power in return. After dedicat-ing my entire life for the growth of the party inthe State, I feel that I have been dumped in anold age home,” said Velayudhan who was seensobbing uncontrollably.

Speaking to reporters on Monday,Velayudhan, a Dalit leader, compared himselfto aged parents dumped to old-age homes bytheir children who consider them a burden.“Surendran became party president because Ivoted for him. But he started ignoring me the

day he was appointed as party president.Though he comes to my town regularly, he neverbothers to call me or even attend my calls,” saidVelayudhan who was seen weeping despite theefforts of his aides to console him.

According to party insiders, Kerala BJP isa house divided along caste and communal lines.While Muraleedharan and Surendran representthe powerful Eezhava lobby, leaders like KrishnaDas and former Mizoram Governor KRajasekharan lead the Nair faction in the party.Sobha has said that Muraleedharan, who couldnot win any election from anywhere in the State,is out to destroy the emergence of new leaders.

“Despite his indifference to party cadre, westood with him when scams involving ArunRaveendranath, a fraudster from Kottayam and reportedly a close friend of theminister and a woman by name Smitha Menonjolted the party. But both Muraleedhatran andSurendran have their own interests and partyworkers feel let down,” said a senior BJP leaderin Kerala. PNS

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Aligarh: Currently there is arelief from the Governmentlevel for the detainees releasedduring corona lockdown. Afterthe parole is over, it will againextend for an 8-8-week basis,although the police are keepingan eye on their activity outsidethe jail.

On March 23, the Hon’bleSupreme Court had suggestedthat the number of prisonersshould be minimized in the jaildue to the Coronavirus. TheBench of Chief Justice SABobde and Justice L NageshwarRao had asked all the state gov-ernments to form a high-levelcommittee and said that theprisoners sentenced less thanseven years punishment can bereleased on parole. After thisorder, the state government hadissued guidelines related to therelease of prisoners on parolein all the districts. PNS

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One thousand volunteershave been invited to enrol

in a series of large-scale clin-ical trials aimed at evaluatingthe safety and efficacy ofCovaxin, Hyderabad-basedBharat Biotech-led coron-avirus vaccine at theJawaharlal Nehru MedicalCollege (JNMC), Aligarh Muslim University(AMU).

The clinical trials will begin

from November 14 and con-tinue till the end of January.

JNMC has enhanced thepreparations for the trails aftera nod from the IndianCouncil of Medical Research

(ICMR).AMU received the confir-

mation to begin the clinical trials from ICMR on Fridayafter several days of corre-spondence, said the ViceChancellor, Professor TariqMansoor.

Agra: With 48 fresh cases in the dis-trict, Agra's Covid-19 tally now standsat 7,281. So far there have been 148deaths while the number of dis-charged was 6,763 as per the statehealth department.

District Magistrate P.N. Singhsaid the recovery rate in the districtwas 92.89 per cent. This is above thenational recovery rate of 91.54 per

cent.He said the number of samples

collected for testing had reached2,68,718 .

The health department officialssaid the statewide campaign to ran-domly test groups of people by theirvocations, continued on Sunday. Ofthe 549 restaurant workers testedonly two were found positive. IANS

Bahraich (Uttar Pradesh): Six personswere killed and 10 injured in a road acci-dent in Bahraich district on Mondaymorning. The accident took place near theShivdaha crossing when the SUV theywere travelling in crashed into an uniden-tified vehicle. Six persons died on the spotand ten have been admitted to the hospi-tal in a serious condition.

All the passengers belonged to

Lakhimpur Kheri and were returning froma shrine in Ambedkar Nagar.

Station officer of Payagpur, MukeshSingh, said the bodies had been sent forpost mortem and their families had beeninformed of the incident. Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath has expressed grief at theaccident and has directed officials toensure proper treatment of the injured per-sons. IANS

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Three infants, all under six months of age, died at an UttarPradesh government-owned children's home and pre-adop-

tion centre between October 24 and 26, almost a month afteran inspection at the centre revealed that the children were notbeing provided adequate nutrition.

According to an official communication, four-month-oldSunita died on the way to SN Medical College on October 24,three-month-old Prabha and two-month-old Awani, died with-in hours of being admitted to the hospital on October 25.

At present, two workers take care of 44 children for eighthours in each shift a day.

An additional district sessions judge had conducted aninspection at the Siroli village centre in mid September. Therewere 13 children then all below five years of age. He had senta letter to the district probation officer (DPO) citing lack ofproper care or nutrition for them.

However, the superintendent at the centre has blamed thesudden weather change in the city and the premature birthsof the babies for the deaths that started on October 24.

“I was told by the centre management that two childrenwere lodged there in a critical condition. They were thrownaway by their parents. Another child was having health com-plications and died during treatment,” District MagistratePrabhu N. Singh said.

At present, 44 children below 10 years of age are lodgedat the state government's shelter facility in Agra for childrenwho have no known guardians to look after them.

There are six women contractual workers on duty at thecentre to take care of kids in three shifts which means that ata given time, there are only 2 workers to look after 44 kids.

“I have asked chief development officer J. Reebha to con-duct an inspection at the centre. We will ascertain if the deathof the children is due to nutritional deficiency or certain med-ical conditions. I have also ordered medical check-up of all thechildren lodged at the centre,” Singh added.

In his letter dated September 19, Additional District SessionsJudge Sarvjeet Kumar Singh had written, “By looking at chil-dren, it does not seem that they are getting an adequate amountof milk/nutritious powder.

“The children look extremely weak. The centre in-chargewas not able to give any satisfactory answer when asked aboutthe lactogen powder and food purchase register. Children arenot provided milk and nutritious food as per the norms, whichis objectionable.”

�������<=*����� �����)�����������������4�>��Jammu: The Government has repealed 11 land laws thatexisted in the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmirreplacing the old, regressive, intrinsically contradicto-ry and outdated laws with a set of modern, progressiveand people-friendly provisions.

The new land laws will not only afford protectionto over 90 per cent of the land in J&K from being alien-ated to outsiders but will also help revamp the agri-culture sector foster, rapid industrialisation, aid eco-nomic growth and create jobs in J&K.

This was stated by the Principal Secretary,Information and government spokesman, Rohit Kansalat a press conference in Jammu on Monday.

Kansal made these comments while interacting withthe media on a host of issues related to the UT of Jammuand Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws)Fifth Order, 2020.

Elaborating, Kansal remarked that the repealed lawswere made to serve the old agrarian-based economy andwere required to be modified for modern economicneeds. Besides, they were beset with ambiguities, con-tradictions and redundancies and in many cases, wereclearly regressive. For instance, a number of laws hadcontradictions leading to scope for discretionary inter-pretation and rent seeking.

An official statement said the Prohibition ofConversion of Land and Alienation of Orchards Act,1975 not only prohibited alienation of orchard lands;it surprisingly restricted creation of new orchards too.Similarly, the old Agrarian Reforms Act prohibited theselling of land distributed to tillers even after 44 years.The Right of Prior Purchase Act severely constrainedan owner's right to dispose off his own property.

It further added the new Land Laws are modernand progressive even while affording adequate pro-

tection against alienation of land to outsiders. A num-ber of protections have been built into the new land lawson similar lines as has been enacted in other states suchas Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. To begin with,no agricultural land can be transferred to any personfrom outside the UT of J&K but can only be sold to anagriculturist from within J&K. No land used for agri-cultural purpose can be used for any non-agricultur-al purpose.

The terms agricultural land and agriculturist havebeen unambiguously defined to include not just agri-culture but horticulture and allied agro-activities as well.Agriculturist has been defined as “.. a person who cul-tivates land personally in the UT of J&K..”. The safe-guard on agricultural land alone would ensure that morethan 90 per cent of land in the UT which is an agri-cultural land remains protected and with the people ofJ&K. The statement said the new provisions not onlyaddress the infirmities in the old set of laws but alsoprovide for modern and enabling provisions to aid inthe agricultural and industrial growth of the UT of J&K.While progressive provisions of the repealed laws havebeen retained by including them in the modified LandRevenue Act, new provisions have been added to mod-ernise existing laws.

There are now provisions for setting up of a Boardof Revenue, Regional planning for regulating use of land,alienation and conversion, land lease, consolidation andContract Farming. The Board of Revenue comprisingsenior officers will not only be the DevelopingAuthority for preparing regional plans but can notifya scheme of consolidation of land holdings and also ascheme for restricting and regulating the fragmenta-tion of agricultural land holdings to make agricultureviable. IANS

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The Jammu & KashmirGovernment on Monday

described the reaction by manypoliticians to the new land lawsin the Union Territory as 'unchar-itable and result of misappre-hension'.

Rohit Kansal, governmentspokesman, said at a press con-ference on Monday, “A number ofold laws, at least 11 of them, havebeen repealed and four majorlaws have been modified. The oldlegislations were outdated, regres-sive and anti-people.”

Reacting to reactions bymainstream politicians, who havesaid the new land laws have putJ&K on sale, the spokesman said,“Many of these reactions areuncharitable.

“For example, some politicalparties have said that J&K is nowon sale. Some others have saidthere is no protection with regardto land on similar lines as hasbeen given to people by someother states.

“We think there are lots ofmisapprehension, misinforma-tion and lack of clarity on theseissues. The old land laws wereprobably a product of their timesand may have been appropriate tothe times when those were intro-

duced.“The old land laws were

essentially meant to serve an oldagrarian rural economy. Quiteobviously, many of those laws hadbeen outdated and obsolete.

“For example the big landsabolition act fixed a ceiling of 182kanals, but it was superseded bythe agrarian reforms act of 1976which redefined the law and yetthe two laws continued to coex-ist.”

Kansal further said: “TheAgrarian Reforms Act 1976 is 44years old and yet this act pro-hibited selling of any land thatwas available to the tiller and evenafter a generation has past, theland could not be sold or trans-ferred. As a consequence of this,you had large number of benamitransactions.

“There was a need to straight-en up, clean up the system andprovide a set of simple land lawswhich would prevent unnecessarylitigation and prevent discre-tionary interpretation of lawswhich leaves opportunities for thevested interests.”

As per the new land lawsenacted on October 27 by theMinistry of Home Affairs, any cit-izen of India can buy land in J&K,except land reserved for agricul-tural purposes.

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Slamming the CBI for itsdelay in the investigations

into the Sushant Singh Rajputcase, the MaharashtraCongress on Monday demand-ed to know from the investi-gation agency as to “why thereis so much silence” on its parton the forensic report submit-ted to it more than a month agoby the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS),which had “concluded” thatthe actor committed suicide.

“It's been a month since theAIIMS report was submitted tothe CBI and there is neither anyaction nor any official state-ment issued by CBI as yet. Whyis there so much silence?,”Maharashtra Pradesh CongressCommittee’s general secretary

and spokesperson SachinSawant asked.

Sawant said that the inves-tigations into the Sushant SinghRajput death case was handedover to the CBI after “somepeople raised questions” aboutthe probe carried out earlier bythe Mumbai police.

“But, even the CBI has notbeen able to reach any conclu-sion. Suspicion was also raisedon the autopsy report given bythe Cooper hospital. TheAIIMS team said in its reportthat Sushant committed suicide The AIIMS panelalso confirmed the findings ofthe autopsy report prepared bythe Cooper Hospital and it wasconcluded that Sushant hadcommitted suicide,” the stateCongress spokesperson said, ashe questioned the CBI as

to why it had notspoken anything about the

report. Raising questions on the

CBI’s role in the investiga-tions, Sawant wanted to knowif the CBI was following theelection code of conductimposed due to the Bihar elec-tions. “Or has Prime MinisterNarendra Modi asked them notto act until the elections areover?, he asked.

“We have been saying fromthe very start that the Sushantcase has been politicised andwas being used to serve polit-ical interests of BJP. TheSupreme Court too has vali-dated the investigations doneby the Mumbai Police in thecase,” Sawant said.

Sawant said he had a rea-son to believe that the

Narendra Modi governmentmight have asked the CBI toremain silent as the “conspira-cy hatched by the BJP” had fall-en on its face.

“A conspiracy was hatchedto discredit the Mumbai Policeand the Maharashtra govern-ment by playing dirty politicsover Sushant Singh's death.That is why it has now beenproven that three central inves-tigative agencies, including theCBI, were used politically.Sawant also said that the CBImay have been asked to remainsilent as the plot that the BJPhatched has fallen on its face,”the Congress spokespersonsaid.

It may be recalled thatBollywood actor Sushant SinghRajput was found hanging to aceiling fan in his closed room

of his duplex flat at MontBlanc building at Bandra’s Carter Road in north-west Mumbai on June14.

Having registered a case ofAccidental Death Report(ADR) in connection withSushant’s death, the Bandrapolice had collected all docu-ments and pieces of evidence,including autopsy and forensicreports and recorded 56 state-ments as part of the investiga-tions carried out by it undersection 174 of Cr PC. Aftersubstantial investigations, theMumbai police had inferredSushant’s death was a case of“suicide”.

In the third week ofAugust, the Supreme Courttransferred the investigations inthe case to the CBI.

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The recovery rate crossed 90per cent in the country's

worst Covid-19 affected State ofMaharashtra on Monday, as theinfections plummeted to 4009and deaths dropped to 104 invarious parts of the state.

Maharashtra -- which hasbeen witnessing a steadyincrease in the recovery rate forthe last several days – saw therecovery rate increase from89.92 per cent to 90.31 per cent.

The development came ona day when 10,225 peoplereturned home from varioushospitals, taking the total num-ber of people discharged fromvarious hospitals after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this year went up to15,24,304.

The number of “activecases” in the state droppedfrom 1,25,109 to 1,18,777. Themortality rate in the state stoodat 2.61 per cent.

Currently, 25,33,780 peopleare in home quarantine while12,195 people are in institu-tional quarantine.

Meanwhile, a day after thedaily infections dropped to5369 and the deaths camedown to 113 in the state,Maharashtra witnessed thedaily infections come down to4009. Monday’s was the secondlowest number of infections infive months, Earlier on October26, infections plummeted to3645.

With fresh 4009, the totalnumber of infections jumpedfrom 16,83,775 to 16,87,784.Similarly, the Covid-19 toll inthe state mounted from 44,024to 44,128.

Of the 104 deaths report-ed in the state on Monday,Pune accounted for a maxi-mum of 31 deaths, followed by30 deaths in Mumbai, 9 inSangli, 8 in Gadchiroli, 7 inThane, 5 in Solapur, 3 each inAhmednagar and Satara, 2each in Raigad and Osmanabad

and one death each in Palghar,Nashik, Aurangabad andChandrapur.

With 30 deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai shot up from10,318 to 10,348 while theinfected cases rose by 706 totrigger a jump in the totalinfections from 2,58,405 to2,59,111.

Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of casesincrease from 3,34,719 to3,35,094 while the total num-ber of deaths in Pune increasedfrom 6703 to 6734.

Thane district remainedin the third spot --after Puneand Mumbai – after the totalnumber of infections rose from2,23,802 to 2,24,300 while thepandemic toll climbed from5345 to 5352.

Meanwhile, out of90,65,168 samples sent to lab-oratories, 16,87,784 have test-ed positive (18.62 per cent) forCOVID-19 until Monday.

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Page 6: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

The decision of the FrenchPresident EmmanuelMacron to defend free-dom of speech in hiscountry, following the

barbaric beheading of a schoolteacher and some others by radi-calised Muslims, has led to violentprotests across Islamic nations. Theperpetrators of these violent acts inFrance, it is believed, were seekingto avenge the caricaturing of ProphetMohammed in a French magazine.So it has become a blasphemy ver-sus free speech issue in a nation thatrests on the foundation of liberty,equality and fraternity.

Most of the protesters in theIslamic world are justifying thebeheadings and baying for theblood of the French President. Thebiggest culprit is the formerMalaysian Prime Minister, MahathirBin Mohamad, who said thatMuslims have the right “to be angryand to kill millions of French peo-ple for the massacres of the past”.This is an open encouragement tobloodshed and must easily be themost outrageous and irresponsiblestatement made by a person who hasheld an important public office in abig nation. It is surprising thatTwitter has only deleted Mohamad’stweet and restrained itself from tak-ing more severe action.

While all this is on in the Islamicworld, how should citizens of Indiarespond to the developments inFrance? Several Indian cities haveseen angry protests by Muslim cit-izens against the caricaturing of theProphet. There is legitimacy forthese protests so long as they arepeaceful and non-violent and do notcause any disturbance to the normalrun of life. That is why the conductof Farhan Zuberi, a student leaderfrom Aligarh Muslim University(AMU), who has justified thebeheadings in France and held outan open threat to behead anyonespeaking against Islam, deserves tobe condemned.

India, given its democratic cre-dentials, has taken the right standagainst this kind of violence. TheForeign Ministry condemned thebeheading of the school teacher inParis and said there can be no jus-tification for terrorism “for anyreason or under any circumstances”.For once, the Ministry put aside itsweakness for prevarication and“strongly deplored” the personalattack on the French President andsaid it is a violation of the most basicstandards of international discourse.

Prime Minister Narendra Modihas also taken a firm stand. In atweet, he strongly condemnedthe terrorist attacks, including theheinous attack in Nice inside achurch. “India stands with Francein the fight against terrorism”, hetweeted.

This is where all Indians haveto draw the line. They cannotbehave like the citizens in theIslamic States where everythingrevolves around religion and thespace for public discourse isseverely constricted.

For the moment, it can be saidthat the violent outbursts of theAMU student leader are an aber-ration. It is not the rule. All thosewho value democracy speak adifferent language. That is whythe statement of one hundredIndian personalities, who“unequivocally and uncondi-tionally” condemned the recentkillings in France by fanatics inthe name of faith, is important.The signatories to this state-ment, who included actorNaseeruddin Shah, formerIndian Police Service Officer,Julio Ribeiro and lyricist HussainHaidri, said: “We are deeply dis-turbed by the convoluted logic ofsome self-appointed guardians ofIndian Muslims in rationalisingcold-blooded murder anddeplore the outrageous remarksof some heads of state.” The sig-natories attacked whatabouteryand condemned attempts torationalise crimes by comparingthem with other similar crimes.They said this was irrationaland absurd. “No god, gods, god-desses, prophets or saints may beinvoked to justify the killingand/or terrorising of fellowhuman beings.”

India is the world’s largest, sec-ular, liberal, democratic republic

and all of us who care for the freeair we breathe must unite againstindividuals who defend suchbrutality.

As citizens of the most demo-cratic and diverse nation in theworld, our future lies in thepreservation of the core values inour Constitution and our demo-cratic way of life. Secular, liberaldemocracies cannot survive, let

alone flourish, if any section ofthe population offers justificationfor violence in order to assert thecorrectness of its stand. Thisapplies to all Indian citizens and,in the present context, especial-ly to citizens who are adherentsof Islam. No citizen of India cantake lessons from Islamic nationswhich have no respect for plural-ity and equality. We are different.In fact, we are unique, and wemust assert our uniqueness andthe exalted status that ourConstitution has given us.

Co-existence within a pluralsociety demands a high degree oftolerance. Our Constitution mak-ers recognised this and it is herethat our constitutional arrange-ment is slightly different fromthat of France. Our “freedom ofexpression” is subject to “reason-able restrictions.” We cannot useit to disturb, among other things,“public order, decency, morality”or resort to “defamation or incite-ment to an offence.” This is fur-ther reinforced by provisions inthe Indian Penal Code, such asSection 153 A, 295 and 295 A,which prohibit any activity whichpromotes enmity between differ-ent groups or amounts to “delib-erate and malicious acts intend-ed to outrage the religious feel-ings of any class by insulting itsreligion or the religious beliefs”.Therefore, we are distinct and weshould completely stay clear ofthe violence that is being promot-ed by the Islamic nations againstFrance.

As the campaign for a separateMuslim nation started buildingup in the 1940s, Dr BRAmbedkar, after much delibera-tion, came to the conclusion thatthe creation of Pakistan wasinevitable. In his book, Thoughtson Pakistan, he said, “The alle-

giance of a Muslim does not reston his domicile in the countrywhich is his, but on the faith towhich he belongs. To the MuslimUbi Bene Ibi Patria is unthink-able. Wherever there is the ruleof Islam, there is his own coun-try. In other words, Islam cannever allow a true Muslim toadopt India as his motherlandand regard a Hindu as his kithand kin.” Dr Ambedkar said this75 years ago and in a certain con-text — when Muslims in Indiasaid that they constituted a sep-arate nation — and establishedPakistan. About 35 millionMuslims stayed back in Indiaafter Pakistan was born becausethey believed that life in a liber-al, democratic environment wasfar better than in an Islamic State.In these Muslim families, thethird generation is growing upwith the protection and safe-guards offered by India’sConstitution.

These citizens, like all othersbelonging to other faiths, whohave grown up under this secu-lar, democratic umbrella, cansee that Pakistan is a failed Statethat is weighed down by its ownfailures and has cross-borderterrorism as a single-pointnational agenda. The issues thatprompted the creation ofPakistan are no longer relevant.That being the case, they need toprove Dr Ambedkar wrong. Thetimes have changed and peace-ful co-existence offers all of us thebest chance. As Indians, we allneed to stand by France and allother democracies and wage aunited war against terrorism andagainst all those who are opposedto secular, democratic values.

(The writer is an author special-ising in democracy studies. Viewsexpressed are personal)

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������������ ����Sir — The admission made bythe Federal Cabinet MinisterFawad Chaudhry on Islamabad’srole in the Pulwama terror strikeshould be taken into considera-tion by the United Nations andother international bodies for ini-tiating action against Pakistan forusing terror as an instrument ofState policy. The Financial ActionTask Force (FATF) must takecognisance of this fact and black-list Pakistan. However, till sucha time, India needs to develop atargetted strategy to focus on thebusiness interests of Pakistan.The Government should start byidentifying companies and indi-viduals from India that do busi-ness with Pakistani entities oreven those who have a presencethere.

New Delhi should adopt amulti-pronged approach ratherthan impose sanctions in silos.With its focus on policies likeNeighbourhood First, Act Eastand multipolarity, India is nur-turing friendships with othercountries and can further lever-age these in the implementationof its sanctions strategy againstPakistan.

Yash Pal RalhanJalandhar

���������� �����Sir — Many State Governmentsare making tall promises to pro-vide Government jobs to theyouth as a way to get their vote.On the contrary, a rather strangestatement was made by the ChiefMinister of Goa. On October 31,during a web conference with vil-lage panchayat representatives ofthe Swayampurna Mitra out-

reach, launched in Panaji,Pramod Sawant said that even ifGod himself became the ChiefMinister, he would not be able toprovide Government jobs toeveryone.

This highlights the reality ofthe Government jobs in thecountry, especially when theeconomy has been hit badly bythe ongoing COVID-19 pan-demic. The State Governments

must stop making empty promis-es of employment and initiatesteps to create new job opportu-nities by organising skill-basedtraining programmes in varioussectors. People need to startfocussing on other employmentalternatives by bringing downtheir dependence onGovernment jobs.

Amit Singh KushwahaSatna

����������������Sir — On November 1, theshare of stubble burning inDelhi’s pollution rose to 40 percent, the maximum so far thisseason. The Ministry of EarthSciences’ air quality monitor,System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting AndResearch (SAFAR), had spotted3,216 farm fires over Punjab,Haryana, Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand on the day before.As the common man continuesto trudge helplessly through thesmoke and pollutants, theGovernment needs to take strictaction this time, especially as wecontinue to live with theCoronavirus. The immediatestep would be banning the saleof firecrackers as Diwali is justaround the corner. The Centreand State Governments shouldwork on alternative ways of dis-posing of the stubble like theaccelerated straw decomposi-tion process. We also need tobring innovation in the energysector. We have no option but toinvest in new ideas.

Urvi JainUjjain

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Page 7: 3˘˘˛ 4 A3 ˛= ˙*˜˙ B ˛ ˜˙ B ˛ B...2020/11/03  · Minister Gopal Rai said in line with a 2018 Supreme Court order, the Government has allowed the manufacture and sale of

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The enactment of the three farm laws by theCentral Government has triggered agitationsby farmers’ organisations and a spate of coun-

ters, specially from non-NDA ruled States. Theirmain worry is that growers won’t get the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) on sales made outside theAgricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)mandis (markets). All this, when it is well-knownthat under the APMC, agriculturists are already get-ting a raw deal. The constitutional validity of thefarm laws has been challenged in the SupremeCourt, too, with the Chhattisgarh Government argu-ing that these have in effect repealed the State lawon the mandi system. It will be some time beforethe matter is adjudicated by the top court. The factremains that with multiple selling options availableunder the new Central laws, growers will definite-ly be much better off. Instead of trying to undo whatthe Centre has done, the States should focus on howAPMC mandis can do better.

The most strident criticism of the laws is basedon a belief that big food companies, who now getto buy directly from agriculturists outside the des-ignated APMCs — courtesy, the Farmers’ ProduceTrade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation)Act, 2020 — will use their power to deny growers,particularly small and marginal ones, the MSP fortheir produce. In fact, an amendment passed byPunjab says that the sale of its cash crops, wheat andpaddy, will be valid only if the seller pays a priceequal to or greater than the MSP announced by theCentral Government and that any violation wouldbe punishable.

Before jumping the gun and speculating overwhat the farmers won’t get, we need to introspectas to what they are getting under the existing dis-pensation. At present, they are required to bring theirproduce to the mandi notified by the StateGovernments under their respective APMC Acts.Growers can’t take their produce to any other place(if any farmer does this, s/he runs the risk of thevehicle being impounded by the State agencies forviolating the extant law). If a buyer is willing to pickthe produce up from the farmers’ doorstep, even thatis not possible.

On reaching the designated mandi, the agricul-turist is confronted with two major players, name-ly arhtiyas or commission agents and licencedtraders or buyers. The main function of thearhtiyas is to arrange for the auction and deliveryof the harvested crop to the buyers. He gets a com-mission at the rate of 2.5 per cent of the purchaseprice and this has to be borne by the buyer. In addi-tion, the latter has to pay other charges levied bythe State Government (for instance, Punjab leviesmarket fee at the rate of three per cent and ruraldevelopment cess or RDC at three per cent).

In cases where the licenced trader is a Stateagency, such as the Food Corporation of India (FCI),which purchases grain for meeting the requirementsof the Public Distribution System (PDS) and giv-ing them to beneficiaries at a subsidised price, thefarmer is assured of the MSP. But State agencies don’tbuy all of the produce brought by growers to themandi for sale. Even for wheat and paddy, wherethe agencies have a well-entrenched network, thepurchase is only about 33 per cent of the total pro-duce. For others (the Centre notifies MSPs for 22agri-items), this is much less.

The agriculturists, who are not fortunate to sell

their produce to State agencies (these arepredominantly small and marginal grow-ers), are left at the mercy of the arhtiyasand licenced traders and are forced todump it at a price substantially below theMSP. Arhtiyas exploit farmers in otherways, too. They lend money for buyingagricultural inputs, namely seeds, fertilis-ers, pesticides and so on (in many cases,for weddings, medical emergencies, too).The interest charged is a minimum 1.5 percent a month. That leads to mountingdebt for farmers.

According to a study on IndebtednessAmong Farmers and AgriculturalLabourers in Rural Punjab, as many as 86per cent of farmers and 80 per cent of agri-cultural labour households are mired indebt. Over a fifth of that debt was owedto commission agents and moneylenders.What’s more, the debt burden gets worsedown the scale. It’s the heaviest amongmarginal and small farmers.

The conditions of millions of smalland marginal growers could not havebeen worse than what it is today. And thishas to do fundamentally with the absenceof alternative options to sell their produce.

The extant arrangements are beingused by States to bolster their coffers (forinstance, Punjab garners about �1,750crore annually from levy of RDC at therate of three per cent) at the cost of theCentre. This is because the levies increasethe cost of food procurement for distri-bution under the National Food SecurityAct, 2013, which increases the food sub-sidy. It is a typical case of States gainingaccess to Central funds outside the awardof the Finance Commission (whether onelikes or not, the taxpayers’ money is alsoused up for adding to the riches of arhtiyas

as their commission too, is coming outof the food subsidy).

The Central law on trade and com-merce opens up a world of opportunitiesto the farmers even while keeping theAPMC intact. They can go to a privatemarket for selling; they can enter into acontract for selling to a company (proces-sor, aggregator, large retailer, exporter andso on) at their doorsteps, form farmer pro-ducers’ organisations (FPO) and sellunder their umbrella. To worry aboutwhether they will get MSP on all suchsales, that too when at present they are lit-erally getting nothing, is flawed thinking.By all means, they must be protected fromexploitative corporations. That doesn’tmean they should be denied access tothem though.

In August, 2018, among the severalamendments approved by the thenDevendra Fadnavis Government to theMaharashtra Agricultural ProduceMarketing (Development and Regulation)Act, 1963, a provision related to makingpurchase of farm commodity below theofficial MSP a punishable offence. Withthis, if a private trader buys farmers’ pro-duce at a price lower than the MSP, hecould be jailed for one year, and will haveto pay a fine of �50,000. This led to wide-spread consternation and had to bedropped.

Even so, the Farmers (Empowermentand Protection) Agreement on PriceAssurance and Farm Services Act, 2020on contract farming has provisions to pro-tect the interests of farmers. For instance,the grower can walk away from the con-tract anytime but the company can’t. Itprotects the minimum guaranteed pricein the event of a drastic fall in the open

market rate, even as the agriculturist getsa share of the post-contract price surgeafter a contract farming agreement issigned. To give a fillip to development ofparallel markets, the Central law has alsodisallowed State levies (market fee, RDCand so on) on transactions outside theAPMC platform. While, on one hand, thismove will reduce the cost of food to con-sumers, on the other, it will lessen the bur-den of food subsidy. Instead of re-intro-ducing these levies, the States will do wellto abolish these on purchases made atAPMC mandis as well.

Complementing the other two legis-lations, the Centre has also enacted, theEssential Commodities (Amendment)Act, 2020 to exclude pulses, cereals, edi-ble oil, oil seeds, onions and potatoes fromthe purview of this archaic law. This willfree the processors, millers, exporters andso on from stock limits and other shack-les and help them do their business in aseamless manner. However, the excep-tions (imposition of stock limits in situ-ations of sudden spike in price like in thecase of onions right now) should be spar-ingly used as it gives the wrong signal, par-ticularly in export markets, and will even-tually boomerang on farmers.

Giving more options to farmers to selltheir produce can’t be stalled just becausethe potential buyers won’t give them MSP.Instead of opposing reform that promis-es something distinctly better than whatthe farmers are getting today, the Statesneed to work to make their mandis effi-cient and healthy. Both APMC and non-APMC markets giving competition toeach other is the best foot forward forensuring a fair deal to farmers.

(The writer is a policy analyst)

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Alegislation on air quality man-agement in the Delhi-NationalCapital Region (NCR) is per-

haps an idea whose time has come.With the Supreme Court hot on itsheels on the issue of air pollution, theCentral Government has taken a holis-tic view of the matter. A new law willseek to put a permanent statutory bodyin place with participants from theaffected States of Punjab, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh (UP) and, of course,Delhi to reduce air pollution in con-tiguous areas. Delhi’s air quality hasbeen in the “very poor” category andis predicted to remain so till the endof winter. The National Aeronauticsand Space Administration’s satelliteimagery also showed a very dense clus-ter of fires in Punjab, Haryana andnearby regions. Air pollution in urban

areas arises from multiple sources,which may vary with location anddevelopmental activities.Anthropogenic activities, such as ram-pant industrialisation, exploitation andoverconsumption of natural resourcesand the ever-growing population size,are major contributors to air pollution.

The Delhi-NCR region bears thebrunt of farmland fires that contributeheavily to the annual air pollution cri-sis. Dense smoke billows from smoul-dering paddy fields, which are set onfire to prepare the ground for sowingthe next crop. The smoke rises and set-tles over vast swathes of north andnorth-west India. Coupled with localemissions and dust, it has in recentyears turned cities into what the apexcourt once described as “gas chambers.”

According to data compiled by theUnion Agriculture Ministry, Punjabaccounted for 82 per cent of the stub-ble burning cases, besides Haryana andUP, between October 1 and 23. Thiscontributed heavily to the foul air chok-ing Delhi-NCR.

In a recent order, the top court hadordered the deployment of the NationalCadet Corps, National Service Schemeand Bharat Scouts and Guides forassisting in the monitoring of crop

residue burning in the fields ofPunjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi-NCR,saying all it wants is that the “peoplecan breathe fresh air without any pol-lution.”

The law intends to address theissue of multiplicity of authorities thathampers coordinated action, though ithas to address State jurisdictionsinvolved in implementing steps. Thereare enough laws to deal with the situ-ation, experts feel, saying multiplicityof institutions and overlapping lawsmay end up creating even more con-fusion and friction.

Both the Centre and the Stateshave enough powers under the exist-ing laws and more than any new leg-islation, there has to be actual actionon pollution sources while imple-menting existing rules and regulationseffectively, say experts.

As of now, the CentralGovernment has been using its pow-ers under Section 5 of the Environment(Protection) Act, 1986 in order to issuedirections to control pollution. Both theState and Centre have enough powersunder existing laws — the Air(Prevention and Control of Pollution)Act, 1981 and the Environment(Protection) Act, 1986 — to take pre-

ventive and remedial measures to dealwith air pollution. In case the Centreintends to enact a law regulating farm-ing practice, it will have to ensure thatit does not encroach upon the domainreserved for the State. Agriculture is aState subject while the environment isin the Concurrent List. In case it direct-ly impacts agricultural practices, it islikely to face both social opposition aswell as legal challenges, say environ-mental experts, who rue that theSupreme Court, EnvironmentPollution (Prevention and Control)Authority (EPCA), the National GreenTribunal (NGT), the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) and the StatePollution Control Boards (SPCBs)may not be that clear as to what needsto be done. They say that if theGovernment is keen on resolving theissue, it must undertake a thoroughreview of the various laws and institu-tions in order to look at their efficacyand utility.

Enacting laws or issuing directionswithout any assessment and consulta-tion only ends up as a way to divertattention from long-term comprehen-sive solutions to short-term myopicinterventions.

“The problem lies in the fact that

political will is missing when it comesto implementation. Having said that,it will be a welcome step if there is aspecific provision to deal with cropresidue burning at the national level.It should not be left alone as a prob-lem in Punjab and Haryana only.Satellite images from central andsouthern India show the extent of cropwaste burning in these parts as well,which have an impact on local climateresilience,” says Polash Mukerjee, AirQuality Researcher.

There is no dearth of power underthe law, the question is of adherence,says Anumita Roy Chowdhury,Executive Director, Centre for Scienceand Environment.

The moot question, according toformer counsel for the CPCB in theSupreme Court Vijay Panjwani, iswhat action the Centre can take if theState fails to follow the directions?

A report by Beijing-based policythink tank, Bluetech Clean Air Alliance(BCAA), released in June 2019, hadsaid that China faced a similar prob-lem and the Chinese Governmentstarted to show strong political com-mitment in tackling the issue from thehighest levels, which is widely consid-ered to be a key factor for the success

of such measures. “Political commit-ments from the State Governments arealso required to ensure they are trans-formed into solid actions. Effective airquality management requires science-based policy-making, analysing scien-tific assessments, data monitoring,emissions inventory, air quality mod-elling, source apportionment studiesand transport planning. China’s lessonsshowed that significant investmentsand efforts that have no foundation inscience are made in vain, with noimpact on air quality improvement,”says the report.

Despite US President DonaldTrump’s jibe about India’s “filthy air”,Delhi did record a drop of 25 per centin PM-10 levels and a 19 per cent fallin PM-2.5 in 2019, as compared with2016. But neither the pace of declineof these two key air pollutants, nor theexisting target under the NationalClean Air Programme are likely to beenough to make the city breathe easi-ly even by 2024, going by the nation-al ambient air quality standards. Airquality management is the need of thehour and must be undertaken at allcost.

(The writer is Technical Associate,Forest Survey of India, Dehradun)

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Washington: President DonaldTrump and his Democraticchallenger Joe Biden were mak-ing a last ditch efforts onMonday to convince undecid-ed voters of their plans andpolicies on the final day of thecampaign in critical battle-ground states, with polls indi-cating that the race for theWhite House could be headedfor a photo-finish.

The two candidates spentSunday making their finalpitches to voters ahead ofTuesday’s election. Trump, 74,toured five battleground statesof Michigan, Iowa, NorthCarolina, Georgia and Floridawhile his 77-year-old rivalspoke at a campaign event inPennsylvania, where the racealso looks tight.

Trump, a Republican, plansa hectic campaign trip throughWisconsin and Pennsylvaniaon Monday, aimed at saving thekey states he won four yearsago.

Both Biden and Trumpare also trying to woo Indian-American voters, one of thecritical voting blocs in thisyear’s election.

There is an estimated fourmillion Indian-American pop-

ulation of which about 2.5million are potential voters inthe November 2020 presiden-tial elections. Over 1.3 millionIndian-Americans are voters inkey battleground states, includ-ing Texas, Michigan, Floridaand Pennsylvania.

Amidst the ragingCOVID-19 pandemic,Americans have voted in largenumbers, already casting arecord 93 million ballots, abouttwo-thirds of the overall 2016vote count of 138.8 million.Some 239 million people areeligible to vote this year.

The mail-in ballots couldtake days or weeks to be count-ed in some states - meaning awinner might not be declared

in the hours after polls close onTuesday. The figure of 93 mil-lion includes 33 million in-per-son votes and 58 million mail-in ballots.

National polls continue toshow Biden leading Trump, byabout 8 percentage points.

US elections, however, arenot determined by the nation-al popular vote, but rather inthe 538-member ElectoralCollege, with each candidateneeding a majority of 270 towin the presidency.

In all but two of the coun-try’s 50 states, either Trump orBiden will win all the electorsfrom each state by winning thepopular vote there, with themost populous states holding

the most electors.The coronavirus pandem-

ic is a major topic during thiselection. The US has recordedmore cases and more deathsthan any other country world-wide, reporting more than81,000 new infections onSunday alone. Some 9.2 millionpeople are also affected by the

disease.The US economy saw

record-breaking 33 per centgrowth in the third financialquarter of this year, followinga record 31 per cent contrac-tion in the second.

On Monday, Trump andBiden started their war ofwords on Twitter. PTI

Warsaw: A leader of Poland’smassive protests triggered bythe tightening of the country’sstrict abortion law saidMonday the court ruling mustbe withdrawn.

Klementyna Suchanow,leader of the “Women’s Strike”rights organisation, said that a12th daily round of streetblockades and marches wasplanned Monday and morewill come during the week,despite an anti-COVID-19 banon public gatherings of morethan five people.

Nationwide protests byhundreds of thousands of peo-ple have been held daily sinceOct. 22 when a constitutionalcourt barred abortions of fetus-es with congenital defects, fur-ther narrowing one of Europe’smost restrictive abortion lawsin the predominantly Catholicnation.

The court ruling meansthat an abortion is only per-mitted in Poland when a preg-nancy threatens the mother’shealth or is the result of crimelike rape or incest.

“The ruling by the so-called Constitutional Tribunalmust be withdrawn,”Suchanow said, stressing thatthe legal status of the courtitself is being contested.

Critics question the inde-pendence of the tribunal afterthe ruling right-wing Law andJustice party put its loyalists inthe court shortly after it tookpower in 2015. Some say themove was a breech of the law.

Suchanow said thatPoland’s abortion law needsliberalization, but admitted itmay not be possible under thecurrent conservative govern-ment, which has a narrowmajority in the lower house ofparliament.

Support for the rulingparty started shrinking evenbefore the abortion ruling.The government’s moves tocontrol the judicial system, anew animal rights law andremarks against LGBT rightsby top officials created politi-cal divisions and provokedsome protests. AP

Dhaka: Some radical Islamistsvandalised and set on fire thehouses of several Hindu fam-ilies in Bangladesh’s Comilladistrict over rumours about analleged Facebook post slan-dering Islam, promptingauthorities to order sternpunitive actions against theculprits, officials said onMonday.

The households werevandalised and later set on fireon Sunday after a Bangladeshiman, who lives in France,allegedly praised PresidentEmmanuel Macron for takingsteps against “inhumane ide-ologies” after a teacher inParis was decapitated forshowing caricatures of theProphet, officials said.

The headmaster of a

kindergarten school in PurboDhour and another personreportedly shared his com-ments welcoming Macron’saction in a comment on thepost which was spread onsocial media with the claimthat the headmaster support-ed caricatures of the Prophet.

As the rumours about theFacebook post spread, tensionmounted in the area onSaturday.

The village chief, himselfa Hindu, handed them topolice. They were producedbefore a local court whichdenied bail and sent them tojail pending trial. The policelaunched a case under theDigital Security Act againstthem.

“Orders have been issuedto arrest anyone who appearedas suspects alongside launch-ing routine legal proceduresagainst those involved,” HomeMinister Asaduzzaman KhanKamal told PTI. PTI

Washington: Justice AmyConey Barrett is expected tojoin her Supreme Court col-leagues on Monday to heararguments for the first time.

Because of the coronaviruspandemic, the high court beganhearing cases by phone in May.

That means the publicwon’t see the new justice, butthey’ll be able to hear her if sheasks questions, as all her col-leagues have been doing. Alsobecause of the pandemic, thecourt has been allowing thepublic to listen to arguments inreal time, a change from thepast.

Participating in oral argu-ments will be among the firstthings Barrett will do afterbeing confirmed last week in a52-48 virtual party-line vote,with Republicans overpoweringDemocrats to install PresidentDonald Trump’s third SupremeCourt nominee. AP

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President Donald Trump issuggesting that he will fire

Dr Anthony Fauci afterTuesday’s election, as his riftwith the nation’s top infectiousdisease expert widens whilethe nation sees its most alarm-ing outbreak of the coron-avirus since the spring.

Speaking at a campaignrally in Opa-locka, Florida,Trump expressed frustrationthat the surging cases of thevirus that has killed more than230,000 Americans so far thisyear remains prominent in thenews, sparking chants of “FireFauci” from his supporters.

“Don’t tell anybody but letme wait until a little bit afterthe election,” Trump replied tothousands of supporters justafter midnight Monday,adding he appreciated their“advice.”

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Fayetteville (US): Democraticpresidential candidate JoeBiden has said that if elected,he will convene a global sum-mit of democracies in the firstyear of his presidency tocounter the “rising authoritar-ianism” in the world andaddress issues of election secu-rity and human rights.

Biden accused PresidentDonald Trump of “embrac-ing” every autocrat in the worldwhich he said has underminedAmerica’s credibility.

“One of the things that

have hurt us so badly, is thatthis president has embracedevery thug and every autocratin the world, in ways that haveundermined our credibility,”the former vice president saidduring a conference call onSunday.

“I’ll energise the commu-nity of democracies to counterthe rising authoritarianism wesee in the world. In my first year,we’re going to host a summit ofthe democracies to address elec-tion security, human rights,etc,” Biden said. PTI

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Paris: French schoolsreopened on Monday for thefirst time since the beheadingof a teacher who opened a classdebate on free speech by show-ing students caricatures of theprophet of Islam, in mourningand under tight security for anational homage.

Samuel Paty was killed onOct. 16 outside his school insuburban Paris by an 18-year-old refugee of Chechen originto punish him for showing thecaricatures published by thesatirical newspaper CharlieHebdo, which triggered anewsroom massacre byextremists in January 2015.

Since their re-publicationin September at the start of theongoing Paris trial over thekillings, France has enduredthree attacks blamed onMuslim extremists: one by aPakistani refugee that injuredtwo people outside the news-paper’s old headquarters, theslaying of the schoolteacher,and a deadly knife attack lastThursday in a church in theMediterranean city of Nice.All three have prompted ter-rorism investigations, andFrance is now at its highest levelof alert.

French PresidentEmmanuel Macron promisedto increase protection ofschools and churches immedi-ately after the Nice attack,more than doubling the num-ber of soldiers actively deployed

in the country. Paty was killedat the beginning of a two-weekFrench school holiday.

On Monday, the schoolwhere he taught at Conflans-Saint-Honorine reopened forteachers only. AP

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Dhaka: Tens of thousands ofMuslims marched in the streetsof Bangladesh’s capital onMonday in the country’s largestprotest yet against the Frenchpresident’s support of secularlaws that allow caricatures ofthe Prophet Muhammad.

The protesters, organisedby the Hefazat-e-Islam group,a network of teachers and stu-dents at thousands of Islamicschools, gathered outside themain Baitul MokarramMosque in downtown Dhaka.

They chanted “Down withFrance” and “Boycott FrenchProducts” and burned effigiesof French President EmmanuelMacron.

“I ask the French govern-ment to apologise to the 2 bil-

lion Muslims in the world. Ialso ask the world’s Muslims todemonstrate their faith by boy-cotting French products andterminating diplomatic rela-tions with France,” Nur-Husain-Kashemi, a leader ofthe group, told the protesters.

“I ask the government toshut down the FrenchEmbassy. It’s a shame that theyhaven’t passed a resolution ofcondemnation in Parliament,”he said. Monday’s protest wasthe largest in a series of anti-France demonstrations inBangladesh since last weekthat have called for the closureof the French Embassy and forPrime Minister Sheikh Hasinato condemn France. Hasina hasyet to officially comment. AP

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Manila: At least 16 peoplewere killed as Typhoon Gonilashed the Philippines over theweekend, and about 13,000shanties and houses were dam-aged or swept away in the east-ern island province that wasfirst hit by the ferocious storm,officials said Monday.

Goni blasted intoCatanduanes province at dawnSunday as a super typhoonwith sustained winds of 225kilometers (140 miles) perhour and gusts of 280 kph (174mph).

But the storm weakenedconsiderably after makinglandfall and shifted directionto spare the capital, Manila,before blowing out into the

South China Sea.The Office of Civil

Defense said at least 16 peoplewere killed in Catanduanesand nearby Albay province,where three others remain

missing.Catanduanes, an island

province of more than 260,000people that is often lashed byPacific storms, was isolatedafter losing power and com-

munications due to Goni andanother typhoon that had hita week earlier. But managed toconnect to the outside worldon Monday after disaster-response authorities flew tothe devastated island withsatellite phones.

Catanduanes Gov JosephCua and other officials said atleast five people drowned andfour were injured in thetyphoon, which whipped up 5-meter (16-foot) storm surges.About 13,000 shanties andhouses were damaged or sweptaway when the typhoonslammed into the province,they said. Many residents fledto safety from their homes asthe typhoon approached. AP

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.���������� � ����<������������������������ ����*���Peshawar: An alliance of

Opposition parties in Pakistanhas been asked by a minister inthe Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gov-ernment to postpone theirupcoming rally in Peshawaragainst Prime Minister ImranKhan due to threats of a pos-sible terrorist attack.

The Pakistan DemocraticMovement (PDM), an alliance of 11 opposition par-

ties formed on September 20,has launched a three-phasedanti-government movementunder an “action plan” toremove the Khan-led PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) gov-ernment.

The PDM, which earlierheld rallies in Gujranwala,Karachi and Quetta, plans itsnext demonstration in Peshawaron November 22. PTI

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Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan will launch

work on a mega city devel-opment project under theChina-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) in Rashakaitown of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province onNovember 18, according to amedia report.

Federal Minister forDefence Pervez Khattakannounced that the primeminister would launch the‘CPEC City’ project whileaddressing a public meeting inAbakhel, Nowshera Kalaan onSunday, the Geo News report-ed.

“The city will be con-structed under the CPEC(project) and will consist ofeducation and commercialzones, public buildings, apart-ments, golf course, themepark and sports facilities,” theminister said.

He said a large number ofindustrial units would be setup at the “CPEC City” whichwould create thousands ofjobs for the people ofNowshera and other nearbydistricts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

The USD 60 billionCPEC connecting China’sresource-rich Xinjiangprovince with Pakistan’sstrategic Gwadar port inBalochistan is regarded asthe flagship project of themulti-billion BRI, the petscheme of President Xiaimed at furthering China’sinf luence globally withChinese funded infrastruc-ture projects.

India has objected to theCPEC as it is being laidthrough Pakistan-occupiedKashmir (PoK).

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Data centres, which haveseen a massive growth

on the back of data localisa-tion diktats and the pan-demic, will witness USD 5billion in investments tillMarch 2025 and a threefoldincrease in capacity, a report

said on Monday.The overall capacity,

which is measured by theamount of power they con-sume, stood at 360 MW as ofMarch 2020 and the same isexpected to surge to 1,100-1,200 MW by end of March

2025 after the investments ofup to USD 5 billion, the reportby the research arm of ratingagency Crisil said.

The data centre businesshas entities like Japan’s NTT,Sify, Hiranandani Group etc inthe fray already, and others likethe Adani Group and an arm ofBharti Airtel have alreadyannounced investment plans.

The research note saidthere was a 38 per cent growthin data consumption in April-June period and the consump-tion will continue to grow at acompounded rate of 25-30 percent per year in the next few

years, it said.The growth in consump-

tion will be driven by factorssuch as high growth in e-com-merce, increase in usage ofsocial media, greater preferencefor over the top (OTT) plat-forms, the government’s impe-tus to the Digital India initia-tive and rapid digitalisation

of services across indus-tries, it said. Data localisationnorms initiated by the govern-ment and regulators, whichmandate storage of sensitivedata within India, will also sup-port development of local datacentres, it said.

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The Finance Ministry onMonday said it will trans-

fer �6,000 crore as the secondtranche of GST compensationshortfall to 16 States and 3Union Territories - includingMaharashtra, Bihar, Assam,Puducherry and Delhi.

The Centre had onOctober 23 transferred �6,000crore to 16 States and 2 UTs ofDelhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

In the second tranche oftransfer, Union Territory ofPuducherry has been included.

“The Ministry of Finance,Government of India, under its‘Special Window to States formeeting the GSTCompensation Cess shortfall,’will be releasing an amount of�6,000 crore as second trancheto 16 States and 3 UnionTerritories today,” the min-istry said in a statement.

This borrowing was doneat an interest of 4.42 per cent,which is lower than the cost ofborrowings for the states andUTs, thus benefitting them, itsaid.”Ministry of Finance hasfacilitated loans of �12,000crore till date under the SpecialWindow to States/UTs,” itadded.

21 states and 3 UnionTerritories till date, have optedfor the Special Window and the

loans raised by the Centrewould be released on a back-to-back basis to states/UTs, in lieuof GST Compensation Cessreleases.The loans have beenreleased to the following statesand Union Territories - AndhraPradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa,Gujarat, Haryana, HimachalPradesh, Karnataka, MP,Maharashtra, Meghalaya,Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura,UP, Uttarakhand, Delhi, J & Kand Puducherry.

Last month, the Centregave in to the demands ofopposition ruled states to bor-row and fund the GST com-pensation shortfall.

The Finance Ministry saidthat the Centre would borrowfrom the market to pay theGST compensation shortfallof �1.1 lakh crore to states, andthen act as an intermediary toarrange back-to-back loans tostate govts. This arrangementwill not reflect in the fiscaldeficit of the Centre and willappear as capital receipts forstate govts.The Centre had inAugust proposed two optionsto states: borrow Rs 97,000crore (on account of GSTimplementation) from a specialwindow facilitated by the RBIor the complete shortfall of Rs2.35 lakh crore (including Rs1.38 lakh crore due to COVID)from the market.

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Equity indices found firmerground on Monday after

three days of declines as robustdemand for banking and finan-cial stocks amid upbeat macro-economic data neutralisedheavy selling in heavyweightReliance Industries. A positivetrend in global markets too bol-stered sentiment, though asharp depreciation in the rupeecapped the gains, traders said.

After gyrating 633.11points in a choppy session, the30-share BSE Sensex settled143.51 points or 0.36 per centhigher at 39,757.58.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty advanced 26.75 points or0.23 per cent to 11,669.15.

IndusInd Bank was thetop gainer in the Sensex pack,rallying 7.10 per cent, followedby ICICI Bank, HDFC, AxisBank, Bharti Airtel, SBI, BajajFinance and HDFC Bank.

ICICI Bank on Saturdayreported an over four-foldjump in consolidated net prof-it at Rs 4,882 crore for theSeptember quarter, drivenlargely by core income growthand lesser provisions for thepandemic-related impact.

Mortgage lender HDFCLtd on Monday said its con-solidated net profit declined by57.5 per cent to Rs 4,600 crorein the July-September quarterof 2020-21. However, duringthe quarter ended September30, 2019, Rs 8,000 crore per-tained to profit on loss of con-trol of subsidiary GRUHFinance Limited, it added.

Reliance Industries (RIL)was the top laggard among theSensex constituents, crashing8.62 per cent, after the compa-ny on Friday evening reporteda 15 per cent drop in secondquarter net profit as a slump incore oil and chemicals businessdragged down continued goodshowing in consumer-facingverticals such as telecom.

HCL Tech, TCS, AsianPaints, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto,

Maruti and UltraTech Cementalso ended in the red, skiddingup to 2.49 per cent.

“The weak openingreflected the rough waters mar-ket the entered last week.

However, some recovery wasseen as investors showed inter-est in banking stocks as majorplayers announced Q2 results,beating the street estimateswith positive outlook.

“Additionally, the bankingstocks are attempting to price,in expectation of the positiveSC verdict on moratorium.The Indian market is expectedto be volatile, amidst mixed

global sentiments due toincreasing COVID cases, USelection and delayed stimulus,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices.

New Delhi:Larsen & Toubrohas emerged as L1 for anotherpackage in the Bullet Train pro-ject - the country’s biggestinfrastructure project till date.

Larsen & Toubro emergedas the lowest bidder at �7,289crores for the C6 package forthe Mumbai-Ahmedabad HighSpeed Rail Project, popularlyreferred to as the Bullet Trainproject from the NationalHigh-Speed Rail CorporationLtd (NHSRCL). Coming at theheels of winning the mega C4package of �24,985 crore (thatconstitutes 46.66 per cent of theproject), C6 involves the designand construction of civil andbuilding works.

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The Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Coal and

Steel on Monday discussedissues related to production ofcoal and lignite as well as plan-ning in different coal fields inIndia.The meeting was held inParliament premises at 11.30a.m. The 31-member commit-tee, including 21 Lok Sabhamembers and 10 Rajya Sabhamembers, discussed “produc-tion of coal and lignite, its pro-jection and planning with spe-cific reference to performanceof Western Coalfields Limitedand Central CoalfieldsLimited”.Bharatiya Janata

Party’s (BJP) leader andMember of Parliament fromJabalpur in Madhya Pradesh,Rakesh Singh, chaired the com-mittee which was reconstitut-ed on September 13 this year.

Coal Controller’sOrganisation granted permis-sion for opening and re-open-ing of nine coal or lignitemines during April 1, 2019 toDecember, 31, 2019. There hasbeen a continuous increase inoverall consumption of coalover the years. Consumption oractual supply of coal (includingimports) increased from 836.93million tonnes in 2016-17 to968.03 million tonnes in 2018-19.

New Delhi:The Supreme Courton Monday asked the Centre tofile status report on extraditionof fugitive businessman VijayMallya within six weeks.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, representing the Centre,submitted before a bench head-ed by Justice U.U. Lalit thatsome legal proceedings are stillpending in the UK, which isdelaying Mallya’s extradition.

The top court after a briefhearing in the matteradjourned the case to the thirdweek of January. IANS

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Before we get into the lacu-nae of this column, one

should know that the auto sec-tor will likely also declarerecord sales for the month ofNovember 2020. This is pri-marily because in 2020, the fes-tive season has been later thanmost years and is split almostequally between the twomonths with Diwali takingplace on November 14. Thatsaid, how much should oneread into the massive domes-tic sales announced by allmajor automobile, two-wheel-er and commercial vehiclemanufacturers? First thingsfirst, while sales in October2020 are significantly higherthan October 2019, one should

remember that this time lastyear, the automotive industrywas hurting as sales haddeclined sharply since the2017-2018 time period. Yes,sales are up from last year, butin many cases sales have notrecovered to pre-downturn lev-els, and pretending that thebrakes hadn’t been applied in2019 will be a disservice toeveryone.

The other major thing toremember for all automotivecategories is that despite thesales bump in October andexpected bump in November,sales for the year are still downon last year as there were nosales in April and the monthsof May, June and July barelyexisted as well.

Even after October, if onelooks at ‘Year To Date’ salesfor this fiscal year over lastyear, sales are down between15-25 percent for mostautomakers and while thereare a few who have buckedthe trend, notably Kia, that isbecause they are a companyin a growth phase in India.

There are also a couple ofother things to keep in mindright now, for companies likeHyundai Motor IndiaLimited which had recorddomestic sales of 56,000 unitsin October, that has come atthe cost of exports. Of course,

exports are up significantly forsome companies, notably BajajAuto whose exports haveclimbed dramatically thanks totheir operations in Africa, acontinent notably less affectedby the pandemic, but four-wheeler exports are down sig-nificantly across the board.Predicting the rise of globaldemand is going to be difficultand for a nation like India,which has become a major autexport hub, this is something tokeep an eye on.

Thanks to Maruti-Suzuki,India’s largest carmaker beinga listed company, there aresome other learnings that onecan glean from their results andconference as well.

Sales of cars that operatedcommercially, mainly as taxisfor the likes of Ola and Uber,sales have nosedived. Maruti-Suzuki said that from as muchas seven percent a few quartersago, sales of such vehiclesaccount for just 2.4 percent ofvolumes today.

From this one can gleanthat the recovery for the likesof Ola and Uber may be a longand drawn out one. And if pri-vate car sales are up, that is alsoan indication that the trust lev-els for such app-based opera-tions have crashed. Let us behonest, a plastic sheet betweenthe driver and passenger will

make little of no differencewhen the ventilation system isthe same.

There are also some posi-tives for the market here. Theaverage ticket size of a sold carfor one large manufacturer hasgone from Rs 4 lakh/unit to Rs8 lakh/unit from 2014 to 2020.People are spending moremoney on their cars and theywant more features on cars.This means buyers want morefeatures - touchscreens, safetyand more - in their cars. Thatis a good thing and a higherticket size usually means morework for component manu-facturers as well.

But all this is no indicationof how things will play out in2021, and here Maruti-SuzukiChairman RC Bhargava mightbe precinct, the company doesnot know how sales will be in2021 as the real impact of theCoronavirus might be nextyear as people really tightentheir pursestrings.

Those who have to buy acar or motorcycle due to thecollapse of app-based taxis andpublic transport would havealready done so, and attractingpeople into the market nextyear with job growth beingminimal and next to chance ofsalary increments will betougher than most peopleexpect.

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The rupee depreciated 32paise and settled at 74.42

(provisional) against the USdollar on Monday trackingstrong American currencyamid global risk aversion.

The local unit opened at74.40 at the interbank forexmarket, then lost furtherground and finally closed at74.42 against the greenback,down 32 paise over its lastclose.

During the session, thedomestic unit witnessed anintra-day high of 74.28 and a

low of 74.45 against the green-back.

On Thursday, the rupeehad declined by 23 paise toclose at a two-month low of74.10 against the US curren-cy.

Forex market was closedon Friday on account of Id-E-Milad.

Uncertainty ahead of USpresidential election weighedon investor sentiment, traderssaid.Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges thegreenback’s strength against abasket of six currencies, rose0.23 per cent to 94.25.

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Gold prices rose �103 to�51,286 per 10 gram in

the national capital onMonday supported by strongglobal trends and rupeedepreciation, according toHDFC Securities.

The precious metal hadclosed at �51,183 per 10 gramin the previous trade.

Silver also gained �793 to�62,155 per kilogram, from�61,362 per kilogram in theprevious trade.

“Spot gold prices for 24

karat in Delhi were up by�103, supported by strongglobal gold prices and rupeedepreciation,” HDFCSecurities Senior Analyst(Commodities) Tapan Patelsaid.

The rupee depreciated 32paise and settled at 74.42(provisional) against the USdollar on Monday trackingstrong American currency.

In the international mar-ket, gold traded with gains atUSD 1,885 per ounce and sil-ver was flat at USD 23.83 perounce.

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There is a famous saying“The idle brain is the devil’sworkshop”. As Covid-19has rendered several people

with imperilled jobs, this has fab-ricated disquietude pressure uponpeople which is making them livein monochrome due to gettingengrossed with depressing thoughtsand this has become a buzzword forthe past few months. The world’sreluctance regarding poor mentalhealth is discreetly visible all theseyears.

The continual rise of deteriora-tion of psychological conditionamong people is finally succumb-ing to the society’s nonchalant pur-suit. Our mental wellbeing hasbeen needlessly tossed on a bonfiredue to an existence bedevilled bytedium which has also given a raiseto vacious mental health disorder —delusion thinking and paranoia—making people suffer so muchworse during this time of pandem-ic. In times of unexpected uncer-tainty, our inability to cope with thecrisis may increase chances of men-tal health problems like paranoiaand delusional thinking. Such con-dition tends to strongly incapacitat-ed people due to incorrect interpre-tation of reality.

Psychological delusion andparanoia are silent destroyers —justlike the virus. If we do not open thisPandora’s box, it could mutate tocreate self-defeating dimensions. Ithas potential to create mass violencein the inner world which developsdelinquency in functioning thedaily routine of an individual. Thecause of paranoia lies behind abreakdown of many mental andemotional functions that involvereasoning and assigned meanings.The reasons behind these break-downs vary. Some symptoms relateto denied, projected, or repressedfeelings. Paranoid thoughts andfeelings are often related to relation-ships and events in a person’s life.This increases their isolation, andmakes it more difficult to get help.

Some symptoms of paranoiaand delusional disorders are:

�Intense irrational suspicion ormistrust

�Fear, anger and betrayal �Hypervigilance�Difficulty forgiving�Defensive attitude�Hidden motives keeping you

busy�Fear of being taken advan-

tage/inability to relax�ArgumentativeHere are few tips to effectively

cope up with such phenomena: Aromatherapy: Aromatherapy

will help healing paranoia. Essentialoils derived from plants are eitherinhaled or absorbed through theskin to promote a sense of calmnessand ease physical discomfort.

Frankincense essential oil hasbeen said to help lift mood and bal-ance irrational fear within a para-noid person. One study whichused frankincense alongside otheroils known to promote relaxation

found that the combination waseffective in alleviating fear due toirrational thinking for terminally illpatients, and may have helped withpain management as well. Anotherstudy conducted on mice found thatfrankincense stimulates the portionof the brain that regulates feelgood emotions, in addition to acti-vating a protein that plays a role inthe perception of warmth. Theseeffects together can create a senseof comfort and peace to the personwith paranoia. Also, lavender is agood choice to relax the mindwhen the person is suffering frommental disturbances.

Aquatic therapy: Severe trau-matic paranoia events can physical-ly weaken the joints and muscles tothe point where they can’t supportyour body’s weight or motion capa-bilities on land. Aquatic therapygives mental health patients morebuoyancy which makes it easier toperform, touch, feel and move.The water also provides the resis-tance needed to strengthen brainmuscles.Water can improve one’sbrain health by simply increasingblood flow and oxygen to the brain– which, in turn, improves concen-tration and cognition (supportingmemory function) and helps bal-ance moods and emotions, reduc-ing stress and headaches.

Breath for life: A recent studyfound that practicing mindfulnessmeditation, even over a short peri-od, reduces feelings of paranoia.Mindfulness meditation is the onelinked to predicting levels of para-noia. Mindfulness meditation pro-duces brain oscillation changesand increases brain network inte-gration, which could contribute tothe decreased abnormal brain activ-ities and reduced delusion.Mindfulness training increases

acceptance and ameliorates anxi-ety/distress emotion, resulting ingeneral improvement in psychoticsymptoms.

Compassion with Chakras:Balancing your chakras can helpyou restore the energy flow inyour system and thus, reduce delu-sion levels. Derived from theSanskrit word "wheel," chakras areconsidered the centers of energy in

the body. Chakras are centers wheremajor nerve points meet and wherelife force, or "prana," flows harmo-niously. Hindu and Buddhist tradi-tions believe that when the flow ofenergy is blocked, it disrupts phys-ical, emotional, and mental health.There are seven main chakras thatconnect to nerve points or plexus-es in the body. According to theWestern practices, these sevenpoints affect the nervous system andthe endocrine glands. Each chakrais associated with a specific colourfrom the seven rays of the spectrumlight, or rainbow. Colour light is anelectromagnetic wave that affectsour bioenergy and stabilises ourmental health energy.

Hypnosis: also referred to ashypnotherapy or hypnotic sugges-tion, is a trance-like state in whichyou have heightened focus and con-centration. Hypnosis is usuallydone with the help of a therapistusing verbal repetition and mentalimages. When you’re under hypno-sis, you usually feel calm andrelaxed, and are more open to sug-gestions.Hypnosis can be used tohelp you gain control over unde-sired thinking and to help you copebetter with delusional thinking orpain. It’s important to know thatalthough you're more open to sug-gestion during hypnosis, you don'tlose control over your behavior.

Yoga Nidra: Yoga nidra hasbeen found to be effective in reduc-ing symptoms of delusional think-ing more than other types of relax-ation techniques. Yoga nidra arewidely known to alter the percep-tions and mental responses to bothexternal and internal stimuli, slow-ing-down reactivity and instillgreater control over stressful-situ-ation.

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As the festive season has begun and so does our indulgencein food. Puddings, sweets, ghee-laden puris and all kind

of beverages take a toll on our digestive system and we oftencomplain of indigestion, acidity, bloating, constipation andother gastric issues. And, if these problems are dampening thespirit of the festive seasons then fret not. We have come upwith some easy ways to take care of your gut health. By fol-lowing these few simple and effective tips, you can enjoy thefestive season comfortably and smoothly. These tips include:

Stay hydrated: We often forget to drink enough water andkeep ourselves hydrated during the festive season. However,we should have adequate amount of water to keep ourselvesfresh and make our health good as water helps in passing thefood from our body. Dehydration can disrupt the smooth func-tion of the gut and when we drink adequate quantity of water,it helps to create our stool softer and with the same it doesn’tconstipate you.

Limiting the intake of oily and fatty foods: We all knowthat festivals do not let us limitour food intake but we need tobe cautious and avoid foodsthat are very high in fat con-tent. The fat rich foods put usat a greater risk of constipationand higher chances of indiges-tion.

Don’t skip your exercise:Since you have slept latebecause of the festival season,it should not be an excuse togive your exercise a miss. Gofor your daily dose of exer-cise/workout for healthy andhassle-free digestion duringyour festival holidays. Exerciseimproves your gut health too.

Avoiding the intake ofcaffeine: To prevent yourselffrom falling sick, try to avoidtaking too much of caffeine

during the festive season as excesses of caffeine can harm yourdigestive system. You should balance your diet accordingly. Ifyou’re taking a lot of caffeinated or aerated drinks, then includesalads, fruits and veggies in your diet. It will add roughages,which are good for gut health.

Practise moderation: We completely understand that it'sdifficult to not gorge on the food-items, which you have beenwaiting for long to eat during the festive season. But you needto practise portion control. As the name suggests, it means wedon't have to avoid the food we love but we have to eat in mod-eration. The best way to do is to limit the portion size by usingsmaller plates, utensils and serving spoons.

Relax and breathe: Irregularity of sleep and food is quitecommon during the festive season. Therefore, sometimes sucherratic schedules can lead to stress. Relaxing for a while is veryimportant for your body to stay healthy. Festivities don’t meanyou should forget to keep calm.

Plan your day wisely: By this we mean that you need toplan your day keeping in mind your health. Enough sleep, lessintake of sugary snacks, planning your meals is important. Tokeep your body fresh all day, you need to take care of all thethings. A good planning lets you to enjoy the festival in a morehealthy, relaxed and better way.

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�� �������Also known asbadian or chakra phool, staranise is a spice that workwonders for your health andskin in winters.

The oil produced fromstar anise contains thymol,terpineol and anethole,which is used fortreating cough andflu. It makes ita must havespice, espe-cially duringthe cur-rent timewhen allone wants isto keep fluat bay.

Anise alsohelps improve digestion,alleviate cramps and reducenausea. Consuming star anise

tea after meals helps treatdigestive ailments such asbloating, gas, indigestion andconstipation.

It is also rich in antioxi-dants and Vitamin A and C,which help fight free radicalsthat are responsible for early

ageing and Diabetes. Italso helps boost

immunity.Not only

this, butadding star

anise toa

h e a l t h ydiet andl i f e s t y l e

may be able tokeep your heart in

good shape to protectagainst issues like heart dis-ease and stroke.

Stomach aches are com-mon. While some goaway on their own, oth-

ers can be extremely painful.And if it is a toddler whois suffering from onethen you are defi-nitely in for asleepless night.

Here are afew homeremedies thatcan help.

First, keepyour childhydrated at alltimes. Water or freshfruit juice will work wonders.

Second, try warm com-press. The best thing aboutwarm compress is that itdoes not have any side effectsand it provides quick relief.But make sure the cloth orheating pad is not too warm.

Third, try applying hingdiluted in water on the

tummy area. Take a pinch ofhing, add some water to itand heat the paste until itbecomes lukewarm.

Fourth, honey canalso do the trick.

Add honey inwarm waterand makeyour toddlerdrink it.

Last, butnot the least

give a mas-sage. The

aching nerves andmuscles of the stom-

ach area can be relieved byenhancing the blood circu-lation around it and this canbe easily achieved by givinga gentle massage. Using yourpalms and fingers, gentlymassage in circular motionsin the clockwise directionaround the navel area of yourchild.

Stomach ache can make onefeel extremely uncomfortable.

More so, if it occurs in toddlers.ROSHANI DEVI shares easyhome remedies that can helpease the pain and discomfort

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We have all heard about co-morbidities(the state of having multiple health con-

ditions at the same time) being primarilyresponsible for the high number of COVIDdeaths, so if you are reading this and knowsomeone who can benefit from knowing howexcess weight and immunity are linked, makesure they read this. Knowing the scientificfacts and how natural remedies actually formthe basis for warding off deadly infectionsshould be the primary objective in everyhousehold today! A disciplined routine,nutritious diet, quality exercise & sleep andyour daily vitamins and plant based naturalsupplements — this is the real recipe andsecret to a long and healthy life!

Speaking of which, weight gain and obe-sity are matter of serious concern among peo-ple in the developing world. Obese people aremore prone to having a poor immune sys-tem which in turn leads to an array of healthproblems like diabetes, hypertension (elevat-ed blood pressure), heart problems, PCODand even cancer. If you thought theCoronavirus was the real pandemic, thinkagain!

Our immune system is very sensitive tolifestyle & nutritional changes as they direct-ly affect the gut flora (gut microbiome) andhormone/enzyme activity. A little imbalancecan cause a negative immune response.Oxidative stress (as a result of poor eating, asedentary lifestyle,or even over exercising) canresult in weight gain as the stress hormonecortisol dominates. Excess fat results inmalfunctioning of the insulin hormone,disrupts the functioning of the sex hormonestestosterone, oestrogen and progesterone,basically causing an overall breakdown.

It has been established that the severityof infectious diseases of a particular type arepresent more in an obese body than a non-obese body. Reason being that fewer antibod-ies are present inside an obese body whichresults in weaker immunity as it cannot pro-vide full protection from the viruses.

Now that this has been established, somewords of wisdom will help you in decipher-ing the code to having a healthy immune sys-tem. First and foremost, you do not need aprotein rich diet, but a diet rich in fibre. Yes,all the colourful fruits and vegetables you seeout there are full of natural anti-oxidants, anti-cancer and medicinal qualities. Ditch thepotato and opt for more colour — remem-ber, more colour means more nutrients! Ohand remember, these fibre rich foods are thereal food for the healthy/good bacteria liv-ing in your gut!

Secondly, fats are not bad for you, theyare actually essential for proper heart andbrain function. You just need to knowwhich fats to consume and where to get themfrom. Think Omega 3! Ideal sources ofOmega 3 are those sourced from foods likenuts and seeds like flaxseeds, chia seeds, andwalnuts. And lastly, avocados and olive oil arenot the real super foods meant for us. We havethe locally grown and acquired coconut anddesi ghee or rice bran oil. Our DNA is morein sync with these super foods. They are richin natural healthy fatty acids, have great anti-oxidant properties and can alkalise your body.

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HEALTHY DIET���&AB

Olena, a leading plant basednutrition company with clean,sugar free, non gmo, gluten

free products which cater to everydayindividuals will be soon launching ahost of women wellness products fromplant based Biotin to Collagen etc. tohelp women not miss out on theirhealth and daily nutrition, Mumbaibased Olena is offering its customersplant based proteins and womenwellness products.

Olena is adding Biotin to theirrange of products. Biotin helps innourishing the hair, which wouldmake the hair fuller and healthier. Itencourages the concept of beauty fromwithin. It aims to break the silence ondamaged and thinning hair and pre-sents a solution, embracing the changeand the beauty from within.

The Collagen Builder supports thefunction and enhances the body’s nat-ural beauty & radiance. The blend of100mg Hyaluronic Acid, 600mcgRetinol, 40mg Vitamin C and 90mgSilica provides all the nutrients andvitamins our body needs to boost col-lagen. This anti-ageing formula isvegan, Non - GMO, Gluten Free, withno added sugar or preservatives.

The Evolve Protein powder is avegan protein supplement created toboost post workout recovery. The pro-tein is derived from yellow peas andsprouted brown rice. It contains theantioxidants.

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Our skin’s health is influ-enced by several factors

like pollution, stress and sundamage that sometimes has ahuge impact on the conditionof the skin, at our complexionand make it more prone toroughness, wrinkles, age spots,bruises and sagging. Especiallypeople who struggle withgenetic conditions like eczema,ichthyosis, keratosis pilarisand psoriasis are especiallysusceptible to having dry andrough skin.

With age, women'’ bodiesundergo several chemical andhormonal changes due to per-imenopause and menopausecan contribute to an overallloss of skin smoothness andcause textured skin. In fact, thenormal aging process plays ahuge role in the skin’s health.

There are many reasonswhich cause a textured skincondition. The build-up ofdead and keratinised skin cellsand irritation also take a toll onthe skin's texture and appear-ance. Those people who havea history of acne can get littlebumps under their skin that of

scarring acne will get atroph-ic scars, excess oil producerswill have enlarged pores andthose who pick at their zits canget popular scars. Dry orcoarse feeling skin, patchi-ness, fine lines and wrinkles,enlarged open pores and scarsare left behind post-acne. Andit causes textured skin condi-tions. Excessive build-up ofdead skin cells on the surfaceof the skin, genetics, sun dam-age and pollution, and a poorskincare routine and diet aresome other common causes ofuneven skin texture.

Here are a few skincaretips one can follow for glass-like skin texture:�Opt for skincare productswith acids like AHAs andBHAs. Alpha Hydroxy Acidand Beta Hydroxy Acid aretwo hydroxy acids popularlyfound in various skincareproducts like cleansers, mois-turizers, peels and exfoliatingproducts. These are very goodfor ideal skin texture.�We can’t talk about clear andsmooth skin without mention-ing exfoliation. Whether using

a physical exfoliator, such ascrushed walnut or gentle jojo-ba beads or a chemical exfo-liator like glycolic or lactic acid.Exfoliation will slough awaydead skin cells that dull skinand clog pores and give a glass-like texture.�Keep your skin hydratedwith a moisturiser that ismade for your skin type.Sunburn or sun damage is oneof the most common reasonsfor uneven skin texture. Keepyour skin protected with abroad spectrum SPF 30 sun-screen and try to cover up asmuch as you can when youstep out in the sun.�Chemical peels are a verypopular treatment to get rid oftextured and uneven skin con-ditions. Switch up your regu-lar facial with a fruit acid peelin-clinic and let a profession-al handle that pesky dry skinbuild-up. Chemical peels giveyou instant results and revealfresh and glowing skin fromwithin.

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It’s that time of the year when you willfind women on a shopping spree,markets bustling with bangle stalls,

mehndi and all things that come undersolah shringar. Other than this, there arecharming accessories and gifts as wellto add on to the vibe of Karva Chauthfestival. It is a day of love when womenfast for the well-being and long lives oftheir husbands as well as an occasion forspouses to reinforce their commitmentand promises to each other.

Following rituals, observing fastsand worshipping the moon, KarvaChauth fashion is all about ethnic andfusion looks with jewellery playing animportant role. The festival has alwaysbeen a reason to buy jewellery andinvest in designs that will remain withone forever. This year was meant to bethe same but considering how the pan-demic has affected the lives and budgetsfor each one of us, investing big in jew-ellery remains a tight-lipped question.Ageerika Hari, founder of Vaitaanika, ajewellery brand, says, “We have seen ashift in trend from big chunky pieces todistinctive yet functional luxury dia-monds. Consumers are picking pieceswhich can be worn on various occasionsand styled in many different ways.Grandeur is important, attractive andbeautiful but functionality is also essen-tial now. When it comes to gifting jew-ellery, you can never go wrong with cus-tomised fine diamonds. It’s trendy,

chic, functional and best suited in thisseason of love. Personalised, fine pen-dants, bracelets or earrings will be thebest buy. We have come out with a newminimalistic collection, which includesthe royal peacock shaped statementrings, bangles and necklaces withexquisite artwork.”

What works best for your ladyshould be something that can be worneveryday and at the same time bedesign pleasing. Ageerika feels thatone should follow their heart and nottrends. While picking a piece of jew-ellery for your loved one, buy what feelsright.

Jeweller y designer ArchanaAggarwal believes that every year thetrends keep on undergoing a shift,retaining the classic ones, and so is thecase this time. Says she, “Although wehave seen a shift in trend of jewellerylately, the classic one can never go outof style. Opt for pieces that could beworn on several occasions and styled in

various ways.”Shyamala Ramanan, business head

of Mia by Tanishq, feels glad that thegifting trends continue even more dur-

ing festivities. “This serves as a greatopportunity for families and partners toshow their love to each other. We areseeing a trend in gold jewellery being

sought after, especially the light weightones that have a variety of uses and canbe worn with both traditional andwestern wear. The booming categoriesare earring and bracelet/ bangles,” sayshe.

The season is usually dominated bytraditional clothes or fusions as they areconsidered to be the ideal festive wear.Milind Mathur, creative director andpartner, Kohinoor Jewellers, Agra,focusses more on what can be pairedwith traditional outfits. Says he, “Onecan wear colourful stones studdedornaments with traditional clothes. Itwill bring a trendy gaze for this festiveseason. By grading, cutting and polish-ing, gemstones are given a new look andcolour because of which the jewellerylooks even more attractive.”

Customised jewellery is a trend thatnever goes out of fashion. “Jewellerywith a caption adds a personal touchand helps you take your fashion gamea notch higher,” adds Milind.

Stack rings are next in line for thistime’s trend. Sachin Jain, managingdirector, De Beers, India, talks about thenew collection that Forevermark, thediamond brand of the group, hasbrought forth. “We have come up withour Tribute collection which compris-es 22 rings and can be stacked accord-ing to one’s personality. It gives the wear-er a choice to select each ring to stackas per their preference,” says he.

When she was an EnglishHonours student at Lady Shri

Ram College in Delhi, she wouldrepresent it at university festivals.The art collage contests had studentsfrom all over the country. But threeyears in a row, she won all the awardsand left the remnants for the others.Vasundhara Tewari Broota has formore than 30 years explored thehuman figure and in the discourse,unravelled her own perceptions of awoman and the psycho-politicalexistence of the female body insociety. Perfection and personifica-tion both play off each other on hercanvasses and paper works. Butmore than anything else, it is her pre-cision, accuracy and melodic moodsthat signify her brilliance andessence of an epoch that travelsthrough the tryst of time.

CHARACTER AND CHARISMAAt the Sangeet Shyamala

Celebration in Delhi, of which sheis the director, her paintings speakabout the feminine spirit as much asthe avatar of Devi. Contemporarycharacter and charisma both weaveinto her frames. In the public spaceof artistic domains, she first drewattention for her sensitive mixedmedia work in which an interpreta-tion of the suppressed womanhoodwithin the existing societal structurewas contextualised by her femalenude images. Her treatment and useof the female nude is both evocativeand stirring, elegant and born ofquestions — she creates abstractionin thoughts and weaves an emblem-atic eloquence of the inner lives ofcontemporary women. Her womenseep and float amid tensions arisingout of their naturalistically modelledfigures — above that it is the back-ground, the flat pictorial spacewhich she enriches with tiny islandsof tonal recessions creating islandsof nature with flora and plantar intri-cate details and elements.

BORN OF NATUREHer Devis are individuals who

live within the earthy tints of colourcodes that she chooses. The bluetinted backdrop is a brilliant hue ofexpanse that runs into layers and tex-tural terrain. “The blue one is a workthat symbolises the spiritual as alsothe expanse of nature-the sea-the skyall those domains from earth boundrealities,” she says. “The figure isboth of the material as well as thespiritual and so the partial trans-parency in the body. The design onher is both the structure within aswell as the armour to protect andguard. The red in the blue hints at

violence. She is both ancient andmodern and she hugs herself keep-ing herself protected. She is fierce butvulnerable. The bulbs reflect the lightand glow within her. Some lit, somenot. Where there is hope there is alsouncertainty,” adds she.

JAGDISHWARI AND DEVIDURGA

In another painting, she createsa Devi whose universe is under herfeet as she seems to symbolise theword ‘Jagadishvari’ or ‘Ishvari’ ofuniverse resounding in Ashiqur

Kumar’s rendition of Jai JagdishwariMata Saraswati. The colour tonesand fluid renditions reflect her richrepertoire of strokes and colourativechasms.

She explains, “The red canvas forSubrata was an image of Devi Durga,who’s the epitome of strength,courage and compassion. She emitsthe aura, the radiance when herdevotees are in danger. Like a fiercemother, she takes care of them. Shestands for power, compassion andpeace that the dancer has depictedthrough her vocabulary of Odissi.”

In all these four paintings, wesense a sensibility towards theunderstanding of the internal andexternal psychological spaces, where‘woman’ is displayed in lucid limplinearity. She plays between creatingher figure as a protagonist as well assomeone who shares an equi-focalspace with the background.Experiences and ruminative reflec-tions become a meaningful realityfor Vasundhara. Devi and the cele-bration of the contemporary woman,participant and goddess unafraid toreveal her soul stands at the centreof her epoch.

In the aftermath of a three-day choreogra-phy camp organised by Ashley Lobo’s insti-

tute The Danceworx, the Indian-Australianchoreographer engaged in a discussion withrenowned film and stage personality FarahKhan on how to build a professional dancecareer within the evolving dance scenario inIndia and overseas. Given the kind of restric-tions imposed by the global pandemic onmovement and interactive learning, this ses-sion saw over 200 students actively engage withthem.

Talking about the session, Lobo said, “Themain objective of this session was to expandthe understanding of commercial dance inIndia and create an environment for dancersto approach commercial dance as a career. Wewanted to create awareness about what is pos-sible still and equip dancers with the correctinformation about what it takes to build a pro-fessional dance career today. There could beno one better than Farah to interact with thestudents about these important topics.”

Farah talked about how dance happenedto her. “Dance was a very good way for me toforget my troubles at home and the circum-stances that we were living in. For me, therewas a joy that I would get. It actuallysaved my life at that point,” she said.Ashley couldn’t agree more. “I think thisis very common. It is said that you neverchoose dance, dance chooses you. It’salways an accident,” he added.

With the gross uncertaintythat performing artists are facedwith the current COVID-struckera, both of them shared realand helpful things for theenthusiastic bunch ofdancers. “Today is a greattime for people who aretrained in dance and whocan choreograph becausethere is so much work. It’snot only about doing workin films. There is so muchwork on television as there arethousands of reality shows.Today, there is a different indus-try where you can do corporateshows. If you do a film song thatdoes well, it becomes yourlegacy. If you want to makemoney and a career in dance,there are so many optionsnow, none of which wereavailable to us when westarted work,” Farah said.

The session exploredvarious problems that

affect the large generation of dancers, whichwere met with helpful tips from both Farahand Ashley — how does a dancer become anassistant choreographer, being flexible in thedance industry, staying true to one’s passionand art, being trained in more than one dance

styles, how its never too late to find yourcalling and be a dancer, and dealing

with the important reality of failureand rejection in the real world andnever giving up.

Ashley summed up the crux ofthe session aptly, painting a verypractical picture for the 200+

youngsters looking up to them.“There are various areas you

can get into dance because itis a very big world. Thereare lots of stuff you can doand find your place. Youjust got to figure out whatyour place is and whereyou want to take it. I thinkyou just need to expressyourself, have fun with itand discover yourself in

the process. You’re con-stantly trying to reinvent

yourself. That excitementtranslates into the work that isbeing done,” he said.

The session culminated acamp including a roster ofinternational artistes likeBrian Friedman, Exon Arcos,Gabe De Guzman, JakeKodish, Krista and AutumnMiller in a three-day extrav-aganza to create opportuni-ties for enthusiasts to learninternational styles.

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangcondemned Manchester

United to fresh misery at OldTrafford as his penalty clincheda 1-0 win for Arsenal, whileGareth Bale was the matchwinner with his first goal sincereturning to Tottenham in a 2-1 win over Brighton on Sunday.

Aubameyang ended a five-

game goal drought in the leaguewhen he stepped up to converta 69th-minute spot-kickafter Paul Pogba fouledHector Bellerin.

The Arsenal captain’sfirst league goal since theopening weekend of theseason gave the Gunnerstheir first league win at OldTrafford since 2006.

United have now failed to

win any of their four homeleague games this season, with

the three defeats includinga humiliating 6-1 routagainst Tottenham.

It is the Red Devils’worst start to a home leaguecampaign since 1972-73,leaving Ole Gunnar

Solskjaer’s team languishing justsix points above the relegationzone in 15th place.

Arsenal moved up to ninth,just a point off third, thanks totheir first win away at a ‘big six’rival in 30 attempts.

BALE RESCUES SPURSSpurs moved up to second

as Bale came off the bench tobreak Brighton’s resolve in acontroversial clash at theTottenham Hotspur stadium.

Harry Kane’s early penaltyput Jose Mourinho’s men infront before the visitors weredenied a spot-kick for a pull onLeandro Trossard by MattDoherty.

Brighton’s bright displaygot the slice of luck they need-ed to level 11 minutes into thesecond-half when refereeGraham Scott allowed TariqLamptey’s equaliser to standafter what appeared a clear foulon Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg inthe build-up, despite reviewingthe incident on the pitchsidemonitor.

Bale got Spurs and Scott offthe hook, though, when hepowered home a header 17minutes from time.

“It’s a great feeling,” saidBale. “I just want to come onand make an impact for theteam.

“I haven’t played a lot offootball. It’s taken time, I’mbeing patient and working hardwhen I get chances.”

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Riding high on momen-tum, resurgent

Sunrisers Hyderabad willback themselves to topplethe mighty MumbaiIndians and qualify for theIPL play-offs here onTuesday.

Thanks to their healthyrun-rate, a win againstMumbai Indians should beenough to send Sunrisersinto the final-four.

After taking a toughcall to leave out the danger-ous Jonny Bairstow fromthe playing eleven,Sunrisers have managed tofind out the ‘right’ balance.

Wriddhiman Saha hasmade an instant impact asDavid Warner’s openingpartner and the inclusion ofJason Holder has giventhem an all-round option.

Pacers Holder and

Sandeep Sharmawere extremelyimpressive, bothupfront and at thedeath, in the last gameRoyal ChallengersBangalore.

Add left-arm pacer TNatarajan and trump cardRashid Khan to their bowl-ing attack, it makes up fora well rounded attack.

Sunrisers are not justriding high on momen-tum, they are also ateam, full of confidence,having outplayedDelhi Capitals andRCB in their pre-vious two out-ings.

Sunrisersalso know thereis little scope forerror against for-midable outfitlike MumbaiIndians, who

seem to be oncourse for anunprecedentedfifth IPL title.

In the absence ofinjured skipper RohitSharma, Mumbai Indianssteamrolled RCB and DelhiCapitals in their previousencounters, becoming thefirst team to qualify for theplay-offs.

Trent Boult and JaspritBumrah have lookedmenacing with the swing-ing new ball and ever so

frugal with the old. A l r e a d y

assured of the topspot in thepoints table,M u m b a iIndians will beexpected toput up anoth-er ruthlessshow againstSunrisers.

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Two-time Champions Leaguewinner David Alaba is on

course to leave Bayern Munichafter the club said talks on a newcontract broke down.

Bayern set a deadline for theend of October for the Austrianand his agent to respond to a“very fair” contract offer, clubpresident Herbert Hainer toldregional TV show BlickpunktSport on Sunday. When that datepassed without an agreement,the offer was withdrawn, Hainersaid.

“The answer was that theoffer was still unsatisfactoryand that we should keep think-ing,” Hainer said. “After that wedecided to take the offer com-pletely off the table. That meansthat there is no longer an offer.”Hainer added that the deadlinegave Bayern “clarity” to plan forthe future.

Alaba, who can play as adefender or midfielder, hasmade 271 Bundesliga appear-ances for Bayern since joining asa youth player in 2008. He haswon nine German titles and theChampions League in 2013 and2020. His contract expires at theend of this season.

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World champion P VSindhu created a stir on

Monday by posting “I Retire” onsocial media only to follow it upwith a lengthy statement declar-ing that she would actually besaying goodbye to “the negativ-ity, fear, and uncertainty” trig-gered by the Covid-19 pan-demic.

The Olympic Silver-medal-list, who is currently in Londonto work on her nutrition andrecovery needs at the GatoradeSports Science Institute, startedher rather stunning post bysaying that the “Denmark Openwas the final straw. I Retire”.

She was referring to herpullout from the event lastmonth due to the pandemic.

“...I’m writing today to tellyou that I’m done...Not being

able to represent India in theDenmark Open was the laststraw,” Sindhu’s note on Twitterstated.

“Today, I choose to retirefrom this current sense of unrest.I retire from this negativity, theconstant fear, uncertainty. Ichoose to retire from a completelack of control over theunknown,” she said.

“Most importantly, I chooseto retire from substandardhygiene standards and our lack-adaisical attitude towards thevirus.”

The 25-year-old’s post drewa response from sports ministerKiren Rijiju, who said he wasstunned for a moment.

“You actually gave a minishock @Pvsindhu1 but I hadunflinching faith in your powerof determination. I’m sure youhave the strength and stamina to

bring many more laurels forIndia,” he tweeted.

The star shuttler, who lastcompeted at the All EnglandChampionships in March, istargetting a return to actionwhen the world tour comes toAsia in January.

Sindhu said the reason whyshe started the post with ashocker like ‘I Retire’ was toensure that maximum peopletake note of the message she wastrying to convey on dealingwith the virus.

“I might have given youguys a mini heart attack;unprecedented times requiresunprecedented measures. I guessI needed to get you guys to situp and take notice.”

Sindhu said she will contin-ue to fight the circumstancescreated by the virus and heropponents on the courts.

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Fantasy gaming platform Mobile PremierLeague’s subsidiary arm ‘MPL Sports

Apparel and Accessories’ is the new kitsponsor of the Indian cricket team for aperiod of three years.

A member of the Apex Council con-firmed the development on Monday thatBCCI has inked the apparel and merchan-dise deal with MPL, replacing Nike.

“Yes, Apex Council has passed thesponsorship deal for apparel of Indian team(men, women, A and U19). “However therate per match will be �65 lakh per gameinstead of �88 lakh that Nike was giving,”the senior official told PTI.

It is learnt that BCCI will also get 10percent of the royalty from the sale of mer-chandise. “MPL has formed an apparelmanufacturing company. They will also payan amount for merchandise contract. Thedeal will end in November, 2023,” thesource added.

Nike had a five year deal during whichthey paid �370 crore from 2016 to 2020with a 30 crore royalty.

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Delhi Capitals secured atop-two finish on theirway to the Indian

Premier League playoffs with asix-wicket victory over RoyalChallengers Bangalore, whoalso qualified, here on Monday.

While DC went straight toQualifier 1, RCB made theplayoffs after their opponentstook more than 17.3 overs tocomplete the task, helping ViratKohli’s side to finish the leaguestage engagements with betternet run rate than KolkataKnight Riders.

KKR will need SunrisersHyderabad to lose againstMumbai Indians on Tuesdayto qualify.

Getting their act together inthe nick of time after a two-week winless run, DC chaseddown a target of 153 with sixballs to spare.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan(54) and Ajinkya Rahane (64)struck fine half-centuries topower DC to their target aftertheir bowlers dished out a clin-ical performance and restrict-ed RCB to 152 for seven.

This was a much-neededvictory for Capitals after fourdefeats in a row.

Rahane and Dhawanstitched an 88-run partnershipafter the South African pace duoof Anrich Nortje (3/33) andKagiso Rabada (2/30) led a finebowling display to restrict RCB.

The Capitals will get twoshots at qualifying for the final,while RCB will play in theeliminator.

Openers Prithvi Shaw (9)and Dhawan began the chaseon an aggressive note, findingthe ropes from the very firstover.

However, the former Indiaunder-19 captain, who smashedtwo boundaries, once againdeparted early in the chase.

Dhawan found and ableally in Rahane as the two seniorbatsmen made full use of the

field restrictions with theCapitals racing to 53 for one inquick time.

Dhawan reached his fifty instyle, flicking the ball past shortfine for a four. Shahbaz Ahmedbroke the stand by getting ridof Dhawan in the 13th over.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer (7)was next to go with Rahane fol-lowing soon. However, RishabhPant (8) and Marcus Stoinis

(10) led Delhi to victory with anover to spare.

Earlier, Devdutt Padikkalshone with a half-centurybefore DC rallied to stop RCB.

The youngster, who lookedin good nick during his stay inthe middle, smashed five foursin his 41-ball 50 and shared a57-run stand with skipper ViratKohli (29 off 24) for the thirdwicket.

The Capital pulled thingsback brilliantly in the middleovers.

Invited bat, Padikkal andJosh Philippe (12) were circum-spect in the powerplay overs.Rabada provided the Capitalswith the early breakthroughoff his very first ball, claimingthe wicket of the Australian inthe fifth over.

The powerplay overs yield-ed 41 runs, including five foursand a maximum, for the loss ofone wicket.

Kohli, who was dropped on13 in the 10th over by Nortje,tried to up the ante in the 12thover by hitting Axar Patel for asix. The RCB skipper againlooked to smash the ball overthe fence in the next over butwas caught at deep midwicketby Marcus Stoinis off anAshwin delivery.

Nortje struck twice in the16th over to get ride of Padikkaland South African all-rounderChris Morris for a duck.

AB de Villiers (35) was yetagain in sublime touch andraised a 33-run stand withyoung Shivam Dube (17 off 11balls), but the duo couldn’tpower RCB to a bigger total.

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Skipper Virat Kohli onMonday insisted Royal

Challengers Bangalore deserveda qualification spot in the IndianPremier League playoffs andsaid his team would make fulluse of the opportunity.

RCB slumped to theirfourth defeat on the trot afterlosing to Delhi Capitals. Despitethe reverse, Kohli and his mensecured a playoff berth, largelybecause of their performance inthe first half of the tournament.

“It’s a mixed bag. As I saidat the toss, you come to gamesto try and get the result yourway,” Kohli said at the postmatch presentation.

“We are happy that we’vequalified. Top two would’vebeen very really nice. But I thinkwe’ve played good enough crick-et to earn a qualification spot,”he added.

RCB will have to wait andwatch who they face —Sunrisers Hyderabad or KolkataKnight Riders — in the elimina-tor.

“You could say just beforethe qualification, the mindsetwas a little bit tentative. We’vegot two games to reach the final.

“We have a shot, an oppor-tunity and that’s all we want asa team. I’m sure the guys will beexcited about what’s ahead forus. We can be more more bravewith the bat in pockets.”

The skipper said the teamjust has to focus on its strengthsto win matches.

“With the ball, we weredecent, probably we could havea strong powerplay which is ourstrength.

“If we implement thosethings, we’ll be at the right end

of the result. It’s important tostay positive. There are going tobe learnings along the way, butwe are glad that we are through.”

Asked about injured pacerNavdeep Saini and all-rounderChris Morris, who walked offthe field after bowling just twoovers, the skipper said the duowill have to be assessed.

“We’ll have to asses what’shappening, hopefully they’ll befine by the time we play our nextgame. And see how they go inthe next few days.”

Delhi Capitals skipperShreyas Iyer was delighted to getback to winning ways after atwo-week barren run.

“Very chuffed with the per-formance. We knew it was a do-or-die and an opportunity for usto get to the second spot. Wewere really motivated,” Iyer said.

With the win over RCB, theCapitals snapped a four-matchlosing streak while also assuringthemselves the second spot onthe points table, which will givethem two shots to reach thefinals.

“The teams winning in thelater half completely changedthe scenario of the table and itwas really commendable. Reallyhappy with how the tournamenthas gone so far,” Iyer said.

He lauded the performanceof his bowlers who laid the basefor Delhi’s win.

“The bowlers were really upwith their plans and they knewwhat they had to execute. Nortjewas really good and it workedout pretty well.

“Kudos to the way thebowlers bowled. We are one ofthe best teams in the tourna-ment and we need to stick to thebasics and if we try and executeour plans, the results will come.”

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The legendary Kapil Dev feels thatit will be “impossible” for

Mahendra Singh Dhoni to performwell if he decides on playing in theIPL without getting any match prac-tice, which was the case this year.

Chennai Super Kings were outof IPL play-offs for the first time in11 appearances and Dhoni, whoplayed competitive cricket for thefirst time since last year’s World Cupsemi-final, scored only 200 runs in14 games with no half-centuries anda poor strike rate of 116.

Kapil, who recently underwentan angioplasty after suffering a heartattack, wants the former India cap-tain to play a lot more in the domes-tic circuit to get his form back.

“If Dhoni decides on playingonly IPL every year, then it’s impos-sible for him to perform. It’s not agood thing to talk about age but at

his age (39 years), the more he plays,the more his body will be tuned,”Kapil told ABP News.

“If you don’t play any cricket for10 months a year and suddenly playIPL, you can see what happened. Youcan always have a season up or downif you have played so much cricket.It has happened to someone likeChris Gayle also,” the World Cupwinning former skipper said.

Kapil feels that it’s high time thatDhoni plays some domestic cricketthis season. “He should go back tofirst-class cricket (domestic List Aand T20) and play there.”

The straight-talking former all-rounder made it clear that it will bea challenge for Dhoni given that hehas already indicated that he is “def-initely not” retiring from the IPL.

“If someone has achieved somuch, the dip in form does affect andit becomes a challenge. Let’s see howhe comes out of it,” Kapil said.

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