...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to...

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T he round one of the Rajasthan political crisis went to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday after he mobilised nearly 106-7 MLAs, including those from Independents, but the threat to his Government remained real with no sign of any climb down by Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. The party has called anoth- er round of meeting of legisla- tors on Tuesday in its last effort, hoping that some of the supporters of Pilot would this time attend the CLP meeting. As of now, all the Gehlot sup- porters MLAs are residing at a resort at the outskirts of Jaipur where they were taken soon after the CLP meeting. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi is likely to reach Jaipur to solve the dispute between Gehlot and Pilot. Pilot has been camping in Delhi with 16-17 MLAs and is reported to be also in touch with BJP leaders, though the saffron party has denied such speculation. Congress leaders have claimed that party chief Sonia Gandhi, senior leader Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication of a thaw. Congress chief spokesper- son and AICC nominee Randeep Surjewala said 109 MLAs of the Congress led Government in Rajasthan under Gehlot have given their letter of support. However, sources said smaller parties and a couple of Independents who have sup- ported the Gehlot Government so far may abstain in case there is a floor test. Surjewala in a late night media briefing at Jaipur said MLAs gave their support letter and thus they have failed BJP’s attempts to topple the Congress Government. He said another Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meet will be at 10 am on Tuesday to discuss the political situation and that party had again requested Pilot and all MLAs with him camping in Delhi to attend the meeting at Jaipur. “They (MLAs) are request- ed to come and discuss how to strengthen Rajasthan and serve the eight crore people togeth- er. If there are some differences with someone, then they should say that with an open mind. Sonia and Rahul are ready to listen to everyone and find solution,” Surjewala said. Rajya Sabha member and a close aide of Rahul, Rajeev Satav, has also been deputed to initiate talks between the two factions even as Ajay Maken and Surjewala are already mak- ing attempts. A dopting a “wait & watch” approach towards the Rajasthan political crisis trig- gered by rebellion by Deputy- Chief Minster Sachin Pilot, the BJP on Monday said the Congress has completely failed to set its house in order in the State and blaming others for the instability of its Government would not do any good to it. The BJP has demanded that the Gehlot Government prove its majority in the Assembly at the earliest. Pilot, who has not been able to muster enough support of MLAs to count on the BJP to topple the Gehlot Government, has maintained that he will not be joining the saffron party in a fashion done by Jyotiraditya Scindia, who facilitated ouster of the Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh in March and crossed over to the BJP. According to sources, BJP leaders are in touch with Pilot but awaiting the full unfolding of the numbers game. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has held consultations with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the Rajasthan crisis a day before Pilot moved to Delhi making public his opposition to the State Chief Minister. Sources, however, denied that Pilot met BJP Central leaders saying “rumours were spread by the Gehlot camp” to discredit the Deputy CM. Asked about the BJP’s move on the developing situ- ation in the State, sources said, “Situation is not ripe for the BJP to step in directly.” As about Pilot doing a Scindia , they said, “In Rajasthan rebel numbers need to swell up to 50 or more before opposition party takes the challenge of forming an alternative.” The BJP is hopeful that sooner or later it can replicate its MP template in Rajasthan too, given the “unbridgeable differences” within the Congress and trusts that a “bigger split” in the Congress is expected any day soon. Responding to the charges that the BJP was engaged in the toppling game, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP and senior leader from Rajasthan Om Prakash Mathur said, “Congress should look within as what it has done with the mandate given by the people.” A mid the crisis in Rajasthan over power tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot, two of the CM’s aides were raided on Monday morning by the Income Tax Department in a signature measure of the Central agen- cies alleged meddling in such political turbulence. Similar moves by the Central probe agencies were initiated during the recent cri- sis in Manipur and in the run up to the toppling of the Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh. The probe agencies were similarly active in Karnataka before the polit- ical crisis that led to the fall of Congress-JD(S) alliance Government last year. “The BJP has three front agencies and two of them, Income Tax and ED, have swung into action and it’s a matter of time when the third one, the CBI, will also come into play. It’s nothing but murder of democracy,” said senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala. Rajasthan Government chief whip Mahesh Joshi con- demned the Income Tax raids on premises linked to two Congress leaders. Joshi was speaking to reporters outside the residence of the Chief Minister where a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party has been convened. “I condemn this. The raids are uncalled for and intended at threatening but we are not going to be dis- tracted or scared by this,” he said. “Entire country is watch- ing this,” Joshi added. The IT Department raid- ed Rajiv Arora, vice president of the party’s Rajasthan unit, and Dharmendra Rathore and the searches yielded cash, jewellery, property docu- ments and lockers. The searches were also extended to Bhilwara and Jhalawad besides Delhi. In Delhi, the searches were conducted on the premises of Kothari brothers who were allegedly awarded a mega irrigation project in Rajasthan and faced com- plaints of irregularities in the dam construction. The searches were also conducted on the premises of Om Metals Infra Projects Ltd in Saket and Sainik Farms area here. The ED teams carried out searches at Hotel Fairmount in Jaipur promoted by Ratan Kant, close to Gehlot’s son Vaibhav. G oogle will invest 75,000 crore ($10 billion) in India to boost the digital economy over the next five to seven years. The investment will be done through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. The development comes after a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday. According to Google, this investment will help realise PM’s vision of a Digital India. “Today at #GoogleForIndia we announced a new $10B dig- itization fund to help acceler- ate India’s digital economy.” We’re proud to support PM @narendramodi’s vision for Digital India — many thanks to Minister @rsprasad & Minister @DrRPNishank for joining us,” Pichai, the 48-year-old Indian- American Google CEO, wrote in a tweet. Calling India’s digital jour- ney far from complete, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the Google for India Digitization Fund that will invest nearly $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years. “We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital econo- my,” wrote Pichai. “This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” Pichai said on a webcast dur- ing the annual ‘Google for India’ event. “Investments will focus on four areas important to India’s digitization,” Google said in a statement. “First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own lan- guage, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other. Second, building new products and services that are deeply rel- evant to India’s unique needs. Third, empowering business- es as they continue or embark on their digital transformation. Fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture,” it said. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he had “an extremely fruitful interaction” with Google CEO Sundar Pichai. “We spoke on a wide range of subjects, particularly leveraging the power of tech- nology to transform the lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs,” the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter. The Prime Minister also shared pictures of the virtual interac- tion. New Delhi: India saw yet another record single-day jump of over 28,000 Covid-19 cases, pushing its tally to over 9 lakh on Monday, while the death toll climbed to 23,727. This was the fourth con- secutive day that Covid-19 cases in the country have increased by more than 26,000. According to the ICMR, 1,18,06,256 samples had been tested for COVID-19 till July 12, of these 2,19,103 samples were tested on Sunday. London: Scientists have demonstrated that two small, stable antibody variants derived from South American mam- mals llamas can neutralise the novel coronavirus in lab-cultured cells, an advance which may lead to the devel- opment of new cure against Covid-19. The study, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, noted that the “nanobodies” can prevent infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by blocking its interaction with the protein ACE2, which it uses as a gateway to enter body and infect cells. Moscow: Russia has become the first nation to complete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine on humans, and the results have proven the med- ication’s effectiveness. Chief researcher Elena Smolyarchuk, who heads the Centre for Clinical Research on Medications at Sechenov University, told Russian news agency TASS that the human trials for the vaccine have been completed. T he Supreme Court on Monday upheld the rights of the Travancore royal family in the administration of historic Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, considered to be one of the richest temples in the country. It set aside the Kerala High Court’s 2011 verdict which had directed the State Government to set up a trust to take control of management and assets of the temple. A bench headed by Justice UU Lalit said as an interim measure, the District Judge of Thiruvananthapuram will head an administrative committee to manage the temple’s affairs. The top court delivered the verdict on a batch of appeals, including the one filed by legal representatives of the Travancore royal family, chal- lenging the January 31, 2011 verdict of the high court. Former chairman of the Supreme Court Committee on Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple treasures, CV Ananda Bose, said on Monday told PTI the verdict is “landmark”, and “A game changer which will value faith and religion, rituals and will respect heritage”. The sprawling temple, an architectural splendour in granite, was rebuilt in its pre- sent form in the 18th century by the Travancore Royal House which had ruled southern Kerala and some adjoining parts of Tamil Nadu before integration of the princely state with the Indian Union in 1947. While pronouncing the judgment, the apex court held that the death of earlier ruler of Travancore royal family does not affect the right of ‘Shebaitship’ (the right to man- age the deity and the temple as a priest) of Marthanda Varma, the brother of last ruler of the royal family, and his legal heirs. The SC said death of the last ruler does not entitle the S t a t e Government to take over the management of committee as law of escheat does not apply in this case and the management of the temple continues to vest in trust of the ruler of Travancore. T he condition of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his actor-son Abhishek Bachchan, who were admitted to Nanavati Super Specialty Hospital at Vile Parle in north-west Mumbai on Saturday night after they test- ed positive for Covid-19, is “better” and “stable” Quoting the doctors attending on the father-son duo, informed sources at the hospital said that the two actors did not need any “aggressive treatment” for now. “Both Amitabh and Abhishek are bet- ter and clinically stable. They do not need any aggressive treat- ment,” the sources said. “Get well soon” message continued to flood various social media platforms from the Bachchan fans and well- wishers for the third consecu- tive day on Monday. Earlier in the day, an over- whelmed Amitabh tweeted: “It shall not be possible for me to acknowledge and respond to all the prayers and wishes expressed by them that have shown concern towards Abhishek, Aishwarya, Aaradhya and me .. I put my hands together and say ..Thank you for your eternal love and affection.” Later in the evening, Big B put out one more tweet, this time in Hindi, thanking his fans and well-wishers for their mes- sages wishing him, his son Abhishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya and granddaughter Aaradhya. While Amitabh and Abhishek were admitted to the Nanavati Hospital on Saturday, Aishwarya and Aaradhya, who tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, are under quaran- tine at their home. Confirming that his wife and daughter had tested posi- tive for Covid-19, Abhishek had tweeted on Sunday evening: “Aishwarya and Aaradhya have also tested Covid-19 positive. They will be self quarantining at home. The BMC has been updated of their situation and are doing the needful. The rest of the family, including my mother, have test- ed negative. Thank you all for your wishes and prayers”. “My father and I remain in hospital till the doctors decide otherwise. Everyone please remain cautious and safe. Please follow all rules!,” Abhishek had said in another tweet. W ith the detection of 184 fresh coronavirus posi- tive cases on Monday, Chhattisgarh crossed the 1,000 active Covid-19 cases mark. Currently, there are 1,044 active cases in the State. According to data received from the Health department, of the new cases, 87 were from Raipur, cur- rently the Covid hotspot in the state. Presently, there are 436 active Covid cases in Raipur. Forty-nine patients were also discharged following their recovery from various hospitals across the state, Health Department officials said. Raipur reported 87 fresh positive cases, Rajnandgaon 26, Durg 25, Mungeli 9, Gariaband 8, Dhamtari 7, Bemetara and Kabirdham 4 each, Bilaspur 3, Baloda Bazar 2 and Balod, Mahasamund, Raigarh, Janjgir-Champa, Surguja, Korea, Jashpur, Narayanpur and Gaurela Pendra Marwahi reported 1 patient each, the officials said. So far 4,265 persons have been infected by Covid in Chhattisgarh, out of which 3,202 have been discharged after their recovery. Also, 19 people have died due to coronavirus infection. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

Transcript of ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to...

Page 1: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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The round one of theRajasthan political crisis

went to Chief Minister AshokGehlot on Monday after hemobilised nearly 106-7 MLAs,including those fromIndependents, but the threat tohis Government remained realwith no sign of any climbdown by Deputy ChiefMinister Sachin Pilot.

The party has called anoth-er round of meeting of legisla-tors on Tuesday in its lasteffort, hoping that some of thesupporters of Pilot would thistime attend the CLP meeting.As of now, all the Gehlot sup-porters MLAs are residing at aresort at the outskirts of Jaipurwhere they were taken soonafter the CLP meeting.

Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi is likely toreach Jaipur to solve the disputebetween Gehlot and Pilot.

Pilot has been camping inDelhi with 16-17 MLAs and isreported to be also in touchwith BJP leaders, though thesaffron party has denied suchspeculation. Congress leadershave claimed that party chiefSonia Gandhi, senior leaderRahul Gandhi, PriyankaGandhi, Ahmed Patel, and PChidambaram have spoken toPilot several times over the last48 hours, but so far he has notgiven any indication of a thaw.

Congress chief spokesper-son and AICC nomineeRandeep Surjewala said 109MLAs of the Congress ledGovernment in Rajasthanunder Gehlot have given theirletter of support.

However, sources saidsmaller parties and a couple ofIndependents who have sup-ported the Gehlot Governmentso far may abstain in casethere is a floor test.

Surjewala in a late nightmedia briefing at Jaipur said

MLAs gave their support letterand thus they have failed BJP’sattempts to topple the CongressGovernment.

He said another CongressLegislative Party (CLP) meetwill be at 10 am on Tuesday todiscuss the political situationand that party had againrequested Pilot and all MLAswith him camping in Delhi toattend the meeting at Jaipur.

“They (MLAs) are request-ed to come and discuss how tostrengthen Rajasthan and serve

the eight crore people togeth-er. If there are some differenceswith someone, then theyshould say that with an openmind. Sonia and Rahul areready to listen to everyoneand find solution,” Surjewalasaid.

Rajya Sabha member anda close aide of Rahul, RajeevSatav, has also been deputed toinitiate talks between the twofactions even as Ajay Makenand Surjewala are already mak-ing attempts.

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Adopting a “wait & watch”approach towards the

Rajasthan political crisis trig-gered by rebellion by Deputy-Chief Minster Sachin Pilot, theBJP on Monday said theCongress has completely failedto set its house in order in theState and blaming others forthe instability of itsGovernment would not do anygood to it.

The BJP has demandedthat the Gehlot Governmentprove its majority in theAssembly at the earliest.

Pilot, who has not beenable to muster enough supportof MLAs to count on the BJPto topple the GehlotGovernment, has maintainedthat he will not be joining thesaffron party in a fashiondone by Jyotiraditya Scindia,who facilitated ouster of theCongress Government inMadhya Pradesh in Marchand crossed over to the BJP.

According to sources,BJP leaders are in touch withPilot but awaiting the fullunfolding of the numbersgame.

Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan hasheld consultations with UnionHome Minister Amit Shah onthe Rajasthan crisis a daybefore Pilot moved to Delhimaking public his oppositionto the State Chief Minister.

Sources, however, deniedthat Pilot met BJP Centralleaders saying “rumours werespread by the Gehlot camp” todiscredit the Deputy CM.

Asked about the BJP’smove on the developing situ-ation in the State, sourcessaid, “Situation is not ripe forthe BJP to step in directly.” Asabout Pilot doing a Scindia ,they said, “In Rajasthan rebelnumbers need to swell up to50 or more before oppositionparty takes the challenge offorming an alternative.”

The BJP is hopeful thatsooner or later it can replicateits MP template in Rajasthantoo, given the “unbridgeabledif ferences” within theCongress and trusts that a“bigger split” in the Congressis expected any day soon.

Responding to the chargesthat the BJP was engaged inthe toppling game, BJP’s RajyaSabha MP and senior leaderfrom Rajasthan Om PrakashMathur said, “Congressshould look within as what ithas done with the mandategiven by the people.”

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Amid the crisis inRajasthan over power

tussle between Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot and his deputySachin Pilot, two of the CM’saides were raided on Mondaymorning by the Income TaxDepartment in a signaturemeasure of the Central agen-cies alleged meddling in suchpolitical turbulence.

Similar moves by theCentral probe agencies wereinitiated during the recent cri-sis in Manipur and in the runup to the toppling of theCongress Government inMadhya Pradesh. The probeagencies were similarly activein Karnataka before the polit-ical crisis that led to the fallof Congress-JD(S) allianceGovernment last year.

“The BJP has three frontagencies and two of them,Income Tax and ED, haveswung into action and it’s amatter of time when the thirdone, the CBI, will also come into play. It’s nothingbut murder of democracy,”said senior Congress leaderRandeep Surjewala.

Rajasthan Governmentchief whip Mahesh Joshi con-demned the Income Tax raidson premises linked to twoCongress leaders. Joshi was

speaking to reporters outsidethe residence of the ChiefMinister where a meeting ofthe Congress LegislatureParty has been convened.

“I condemn this. Theraids are uncalled for andintended at threatening butwe are not going to be dis-tracted or scared by this,” hesaid. “Entire country is watch-ing this,” Joshi added.

The IT Department raid-ed Rajiv Arora, vice presidentof the party’s Rajasthan unit,and Dharmendra Rathoreand the searches yielded cash,jewellery, property docu-ments and lockers. Thesearches were also extendedto Bhilwara and Jhalawadbesides Delhi.

In Delhi, the searcheswere conducted on thepremises of Kothari brotherswho were allegedly awardeda mega irrigation project inRajasthan and faced com-plaints of irregularities in thedam construction. Thesearches were also conductedon the premises of Om MetalsInfra Projects Ltd in Saketand Sainik Farms area here.

The ED teams carriedout searches at HotelFairmount in Jaipur promoted by Ratan Kant,close to Gehlot’s son Vaibhav.

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Google will invest �75,000crore ($10 billion) in India

to boost the digital economyover the next five to sevenyears. The investment will bedone through a mix of equityinvestments, partnerships, andoperational, infrastructure andecosystem investments.

The development comesafter a virtual meeting betweenPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Google CEO Sundar Pichaion Monday. According toGoogle, this investment willhelp realise PM’s vision of aDigital India.

“Today at #GoogleForIndiawe announced a new $10B dig-itization fund to help acceler-ate India’s digital economy.”We’re proud to support PM@narendramodi’s vision forDigital India — many thanks toMinister @rsprasad & Minister@DrRPNishank for joining us,”Pichai, the 48-year-old Indian-American Google CEO, wrotein a tweet.

Calling India’s digital jour-ney far from complete, Google

CEO Sundar Pichai announcedthe Google for IndiaDigitization Fund that willinvest nearly $10 billion inIndia over the next five to sevenyears. “We’ll do this through amix of equity investments,partnerships, and operational,infrastructure and ecosysteminvestments. This is a reflectionof our confidence in the futureof India and its digital econo-my,” wrote Pichai.

“This is a reflection of ourconfidence in the future ofIndia and its digital economy,”Pichai said on a webcast dur-ing the annual ‘Google forIndia’ event. “Investments will

focus on four areas importantto India’s digitization,” Googlesaid in a statement.

“First, enabling affordableaccess and information forevery Indian in their own lan-guage, whether it’s Hindi,Tamil, Punjabi or any other.Second, building new productsand services that are deeply rel-evant to India’s unique needs.Third, empowering business-es as they continue or embarkon their digital transformation.Fourth, leveraging technologyand AI for social good, in areaslike health, education, andagriculture,” it said.

Earlier in the day, PrimeMinister Narendra Moditweeted that he had “anextremely fruitful interaction”with Google CEO SundarPichai. “We spoke on a widerange of subjects, particularlyleveraging the power of tech-nology to transform the lives ofIndia’s farmers, youngsters andentrepreneurs,” the PrimeMinister wrote on Twitter. ThePrime Minister also sharedpictures of the virtual interac-tion.

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New Delhi: India saw yetanother record single-day jumpof over 28,000 Covid-19 cases,pushing its tally to over 9 lakhon Monday, while the death tollclimbed to 23,727.

This was the fourth con-secutive day that Covid-19cases in the country haveincreased by more than 26,000.

According to the ICMR,1,18,06,256 samples had beentested for COVID-19 till July12, of these 2,19,103 sampleswere tested on Sunday.

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London: Scientists have demonstratedthat two small, stable antibody variantsderived from South American mam-mals llamas can neutralise the novelcoronavirus in lab-cultured cells, anadvance which may lead to the devel-opment of new cure against Covid-19.

The study, published in the journalNature Structural & Molecular Biology,noted that the “nanobodies” can preventinfection with the novel coronavirusSARS-CoV-2 by blocking its interactionwith the protein ACE2, which it uses asa gateway to enter body and infect cells.

Moscow: Russia has become the first nation tocomplete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine onhumans, and the results have proven the med-ication’s effectiveness. Chief researcher ElenaSmolyarchuk, who heads the Centre for ClinicalResearch on Medications at Sechenov University,told Russian news agency TASS that the humantrials for the vaccine have been completed.

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The Supreme Court onMonday upheld the rights

of the Travancore royal familyin the administration of historicSree PadmanabhaswamyTemple in Kerala, considered tobe one of the richest temples inthe country.

It set aside the Kerala HighCourt’s 2011 verdict whichhad directed the StateGovernment to set up a trust totake control of managementand assets of the temple.

A bench headed by JusticeUU Lalit said as an interimmeasure, the District Judge ofThiruvananthapuram will headan administrative committee to

manage the temple’s affairs.The top court delivered the

verdict on a batch of appeals,including the one filed by legalrepresentatives of theTravancore royal family, chal-lenging the January 31, 2011verdict of the high court.

Former chairman of theSupreme Court Committee onSree PadmanabhaswamyTemple treasures, CV AnandaBose, said on Monday told PTIthe verdict is “landmark”, and“A game changer which willvalue faith and religion, ritualsand will respect heritage”.

The sprawling temple, an

architectural splendour ingranite, was rebuilt in its pre-sent form in the 18th centuryby the Travancore Royal Housewhich had ruled southernKerala and some adjoiningparts of Tamil Nadu beforeintegration of the princely statewith the Indian Union in 1947.

While pronouncing thejudgment, the apex court heldthat the death of earlier ruler ofTravancore royal family doesnot affect the right of‘Shebaitship’ (the right to man-age the deity and the temple asa priest) of Marthanda Varma,the brother of last ruler of theroyal family, and his legal heirs.

The SC said death of thelast ruler does not entitle theS t a t eGovernment to take over themanagement of committee aslaw of escheat does not apply inthis case and the managementof the temple continues to vestin trust of the ruler ofTravancore.

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The condition of Bollywoodsuperstar Amitabh

Bachchan and his actor-sonAbhishek Bachchan, who wereadmitted to Nanavati SuperSpecialty Hospital at Vile Parlein north-west Mumbai onSaturday night after they test-ed positive for Covid-19, is“better” and “stable”

Quoting the doctorsattending on the father-sonduo, informed sources at thehospital said that the two actorsdid not need any “aggressivetreatment” for now. “BothAmitabh and Abhishek are bet-ter and clinically stable. They donot need any aggressive treat-ment,” the sources said.

“Get well soon” messagecontinued to flood varioussocial media platforms fromthe Bachchan fans and well-wishers for the third consecu-tive day on Monday.

Earlier in the day, an over-whelmed Amitabh tweeted: “Itshall not be possible for me toacknowledge and respond to allthe prayers and wishes

expressed by them that haveshown concern towardsAbhishek, Aishwarya,Aaradhya and me .. I put myhands together and say ..Thankyou for your eternal love andaffection.”

Later in the evening, Big Bput out one more tweet, thistime in Hindi, thanking his fansand well-wishers for their mes-sages wishing him, his sonAbhishek, daughter-in-lawAishwarya and granddaughterAaradhya.

While Amitabh andAbhishek were admitted to theNanavati Hospital on Saturday,Aishwarya and Aaradhya, whotested positive for coronaviruson Sunday, are under quaran-

tine at their home.Confirming that his wife

and daughter had tested posi-tive for Covid-19, Abhishekhad tweeted on Sundayevening: “Aishwarya andAaradhya have also testedCovid-19 positive. They will beself quarantining at home. TheBMC has been updated of theirsituation and are doing theneedful. The rest of the family,including my mother, have test-ed negative. Thank you all foryour wishes and prayers”.

“My father and I remain inhospital till the doctors decideotherwise. Everyone pleaseremain cautious and safe. Pleasefollow all rules!,” Abhishek hadsaid in another tweet.

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With the detection of 184fresh coronavirus posi-

tive cases on Monday,Chhattisgarh crossed the1,000 active Covid-19 casesmark. Currently, there are1,044 active cases in the State.

According to datareceived from the Healthdepartment, of the new cases,87 were from Raipur, cur-rently the Covid hotspot in thestate. Presently, there are 436active Covid cases in Raipur.

Forty-nine patients werealso discharged following theirrecover y from various hospitals across the state,Health Department officialssaid.

Raipur reported 87 freshpositive cases, Rajnandgaon26, Durg 25, Mungeli 9,Gariaband 8, Dhamtari 7,Bemetara and Kabirdham 4

each, Bilaspur 3, Baloda Bazar2 and Balod, Mahasamund,Raigarh, Janjgir-Champa,Surguja, Korea, Jashpur,Narayanpur and GaurelaPendra Marwahi reported 1patient each, the officials said.

So far 4,265 persons havebeen infected by Covid inChhattisgarh, out of which3,202 have been dischargedafter their recovery.

Also, 19 people have dieddue to coronavirus infection.

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Page 2: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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Announcing more curbs tocheck the spread of novel

coronavirus in the state, PunjabGovernment on Mondayannounced to bans all publicgatherings, reducing guests atweddings to 30, making wear-ing of masks mandatory,besides ordering compulsoryregistration of a case for vio-lating restrictions on publicgatherings.

The State Government hasalso partnered with IITChennai experts to intensify

surveillance, using technologyin order to identify super-spreader gatherings in the pastthat have resulted in spread, toguide future action.

Issuing new and revisedguidelines, to be implementedfrom July 1 to 31, in line withthe announcement made onSunday by the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh, theState Government has put acomplete bar on all publicgatherings while restricting thesocial gatherings to five andmarriages or other social func-tions to 30 instead of the cur-

rent 50.Mandatory FIRs shall be

filed against those found vio-lating the curb on public gath-erings, which now stand strict-ly disallowed.

A detailed notificationissued by the Government stat-ed that joint teams of policeand civil administration shallstrictly enforce the restrictionson social gatherings (restrict-ed to five under section 144imposed in all districts) aswell as weddings and socialfunctions.

The management of mar-

riage palaces or hotels will beheld responsible and face sus-pension of licence in case ofviolation of norms.

Further, the managementof marriage palaces, hotels orother commercial spaces willhave to certify that adequatearrangements for ventilation ofindoor spaces have been made.

As per the new guidelines,wearing of masks has beenmade compulsory in workplaces, offices or closed places.

At the same time, theguidelines also asked for strictenforcement of the Health

Department advisory on airconditioning and ventilation orair circulation. “Public dealingin offices may be curtailed tocater to need based and urgentissues. The online PublicGrievance Redressal System,recently approved by theCabinet, should be extensive-ly popularized and used,” saidthe guidelines.

“There shall be no physicalpresentation of demand char-ters by Associations etc, serv-ing of tea, etc has to be avoid-ed, as are physical meetings ofmore than five persons, at the

workplace, as per the revisedmanagement and containmentstrategy for COVID-19,” stat-ed the guidelines.

To ensure optimum uti-lization of health infrastructure,asymptomatic or mildly symp-tomatic persons with no co-morbidities or vulnerabilitieswill have to be in COVID-19Care Centres or HomeIsolation where applicable.

Beds in Level II and IIIfacilities will not be used tocater to such patients, it added.

Further, a person in a LevelII or III facility, who no longer

needs this facility, must be referredby way of reverse referral to alower level treatment facility.

The State Government hasalso clarified that the MoU withPrivate Healthcare Facilitiesdoes not mean blocking ofbeds for patients referred by thegovernment at a later stage, itonly provides the chargespayable by the government toits referred patients.

The DeputyC o m m i s s i o n e r s ,Commissioners of Police, andSenior Superintendents ofPolice have been mandated to

ensure that all hospitals, thatcan undertake care of COVIDpositive patients, have sup-plied information on their bedsavailability and are not denyingtreatment to COVID positivepatients.

Cognisant of the risk ofwater-borne diseases duringthe monsoon, the StateGovernment has also decidedon a sanitation drive, to beundertaken by both urbanlocal bodies and Panchayati Rajinstitutions on campaign basis,for the prevention of dengue orvector borne diseases.

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Aday after the “reduced”syllabus of various subjects

of Classes IX to XII of PunjabSchool Education Board(PSEB) for the session 2020-21has been uploaded on its offi-cial website, the PunjabGovernment on Mondaydenied any reduction in the syl-labus of any class of the Board.

The government claimedthat the “reduced” syllabus wasuploaded on the website onSunday “without any approval”,and the same has beenremoved after Punjab StateEducation Research andTraining Council (SCERT)brought the matter to thenotice of the PSEB chairman.

SCERT director JagtarSingh Kularia said that in orderto reduce the curriculum dueto COVID-19 infection, a com-mittee of education experts isbeing constituted in the officeof the State Director, StateCouncil for Education

Research and Training, Punjab.After a thorough review by

the committee, these recom-mendations will be forwardedto the Government and actionwill be taken on the curriculumafter getting the approval, saidKularia adding that the syllabusof any class has not beenreduced yet.

“The syllabus wasuploaded on the Board's web-site without the approval of thegovernment, which is a seriousnegligence. SCERT directorhas written to the PSEB chair-man to take departmentalaction against any employeewho has uploaded this syllabuson the site,” said the EducationDepartment’s spokesperson.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal has accord-

ed approval to set up three newmedical colleges in the state.

Apart from this, the ChiefMinister also approved startingDM Cardiology course at Pt.B.D Sharma Post GraduateInstitute of Medical Sciences(PGIMS) Rohtak, opening ofnew Primary Health Centre(PHC), one Sub Health Centre(SHC) and also to upgrade oneSub Divisional Civil Hospital,one Community Health Centre(CHC), one Primary HealthCentre and one Sub-HealthCentre in the State.

Three new medical collegeswould come up in Sirsa, Kaithaland Yamunangar districts, saidan official spokesman.

He said that the medicalcollege in district Sirsa wouldbe set up on the land ofHaryana AgriculturalUniversity, Sirsa whereas in dis-trict Kaithal, the medical col-lege would be established in vil-lage Sarpankheri. In districtYamunanagar, the medical col-lege would be set up on a pan-

chayat land, he added.The spokesman said that

DM Cardiology course at Pt.B.D Sharma Post GraduateInstitute of Medical Sciences(PGIMS), Rohtak would rununder the Medical Council ofIndia.

The Pt. B.D SharmaPGIMS, Rohtak already has allthe requisite infrastructure,equipment and full time facul-ty as per the requirement ofMedical Council of India, tostart separate course in DMCardiology, he said.

Notably, the PGIMS,Rohtak is the apex teachingmedical institute of Haryanaaffiliated to Pt. B.D SharmaUniversity of Health Sciences,Rohtak. The institute is run-ning under graduate and postgraduate courses in variousdisciplines and Super-special-

ty courses like DM/M.Ch.The spokesman further

said that a decision has alsobeen taken to upgrade the SubDivisional Civil Hospital,Jagadhari (Yamunanagar) from60 bedded to 100 bedded hos-pital. Also, the CHC, Hodal indistrict Palwal would beupgraded to 50 bedded CivilHospital.

The Chief Minister hasgranted approval for the cre-ation of new posts for upgrad-tion of the Jagadhari Hospitalwith an additional wage bill ofRs 18.14 crore per annum. Incase of Palwal Civil Hospital,the additional posts would costRs 21.91 crore per annum, headded.

Similarly, PHC in villageSambhli in district Karnalwould be upgraded to CHCand SHC in village UrlanaKalan in district Panipat wouldbe upgraded to PHC.

The Chief Minister hasalso accorded approval to opena new SHC in village Bataur,district Panchkula and a newPHC in village Khambi in dis-trict Palwal, the spokesmanadded.

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Punjab Finance MinisterManpreet Singh Badal on

Monday met the UnionMinister of Chemicals andFertilizers DV SadanandaGowda to seek the establish-ment of a nationalPharmaceutical Park inBathinda.

The Finance Ministerinformed the Union Ministerthat Bathinda is the best posi-tioned destination to set up aPharmaceutical Park, and atranche of 1350 acre of land isreadily available for the venture.The land has been vacated bythe erstwhile BathindaThermal Plant.

Further, a functional rail-way siding and infrastructureis also available for the supplyof raw materials and carriagefor the Pharma industry, hetold the Union Minister.

Manpreet also thankedGowda for his prompt andpositive response in providingan opportunity to presentPunjab’s case. The Centre hasalready announced its intentionto establish three pharmaceu-tical parks in the country.

The Finance Minister alsorequested the Union Ministerto depute a team to visit the site.

“The proposed park inBathinda could cater to theentire area north of Delhi,reaching out to Punjab,Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,neighbouring Rajasthan, andeven Jammu and Kashmir andLadakh,” reasoned Manpreet.

He added that the pharmaecosystem in Punjab is scalableas it is home to some of thebiggest US Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA)approved pharmaceutical com-panies like Sun Pharma,Centrient, and IOL Chemicals.

Punjab’s research anddevelopment (R&D) ecosystemis bolstered by the presence oface institutes like NationalInstitute of Pharmaceutical

Education and Research(NIPER), Indian Institute ofScience Education andResearch (IISER), Institute ofMicrobial Research, Institute ofNano Technology, and AllIndia Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS), and this willbe hugely beneficial to thosecompanies desirous of settingup business in Punjab, headded.

Manpreet informed theUnion Minister that the erst-while Bathinda thermal plantwas gifted to Punjab to markthe 500 years of Guru NanakDev. “Since the entire nation iscurrently celebrating 550 yearsof the Guru Sahib, it would bebefitting tribute if we couldestablish a PharmaceuticalPark. This would be a humbletribute to Guru Nanak Dev onhis 550th birth anniversary,” headded.

Later, Manpreet also had ameeting with Union Ministerof State for Chemicals andFertilizers Mansukh LMandaviya and discussed var-ious Punjab related issues,besides conversing modalitiesand feasibility for the upcom-ing projects.

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In view of the continuing risein the number of Covid-19

patients in the Dehradun dis-trict, the police prohibitedthe entry of four wheelers insome crowded market areas ofthe city since Monday to limitthe crowd and reduce traffic.

At least two police per-sonnel were stationed at theentry points of various mar-ketplaces including Raja Road,Paltan Bazaar and MotiBazaar.

One of the police person-nel stationed at the entrypoint of Raja Road, RekhaBhandari said, "We did notallow any four-wheelers andthree-wheeler vehicles insidethe market. Some people insist

on letting them enter at leastonce but we did not permit it.

However, if somebodyresides in that area, we letthem go." Apparently, suchbarricades at the entry pointsof the main marketplaces wereset up on the suggestion of theshopkeepers and business-men of marketplaces.Informing about this, the citypresident of Udyog VyaparMandal, Pankaj Masson saidthat some officials fromDehradun district adminis-tration along with the policearrived in the market onSunday to mark the shopswith the numbers so that theshops can be opened with theeven and odd number systemfrom Monday.

However, according to

him, the shopkeepers did notapprove this move of theadministration.

"We talked to SP (City)Shweta Choubey along withsome officials from districtadministration and askedthem to barricade the mainentry points in the marketswhere the crowd congestion ishigh instead of directing shop-keepers to open shops as perodd and even system," saidMasson. He said that the over-crowding in the market prob-ably gives out the idea to oth-ers that they all come to shopin the market but it is not so.According to Masson, theshopkeepers in the marketare not doing quite wellpresently and applying theodd-even system will bring

them toward more loss."The administration has

told us that if the situation willnot get better in the marketsdespite taking all the preven-tive measures by Wednesday,the administration wil limplement the odd-even sys-tem for the operation of shopsto limit the crowd," saidMasson. On the question ofwhether the shopkeepers willapprove of this decision,Masson refused saying that noshopkeeper will operate theirshops as per the said system.

However, he added, if sit-uation will demand it, admin-istration can either allow themarkets to open for five daysa week or allow shops to openon alternate days as it wasbeing done earlier.

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The chairperson ofState Commission for

Protection of ChildRights (SCPCR), UshaNegi recently received acomplaint letter from amother against a privateschool in Nehru Colonystating that the school isasking for the school feeof her daughter who wasadmitted in the schoolunder the Right ofChildren to Free andCompulsory Education(RTE) Act.

According to the let-ter, the daughter wasadmitted under RTE Actin class I and since then,the parents were regular-ly submitting the schoolfee in the school. Thisyear, the child gave theexams of class VI butsince the father of the

child lost his job duringlockdown, the parentswere unable to depositthe fee due to which theschool reportedly refusedto issue the mark sheetbesides excluding thechild from the onlineclasses.

Taking action on thebasis of the complaint,Negi has written to thechief education officer(CEO) stating that it isnot legitimate to collectschool fee from the stu-dents who take admis-sion under RTE Act andthose who have takenany fee in the past havereturned the charges tothe parents as per theorders.

Therefore, Negidirected the CEO toinvestigate matter andsubmit report to com-mission within 15 days.

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In protest against the rising pricesof petrol and diesel, the Congress

party took out a procession inDehradun city on Monday. TheUttarakhand Congress has resolvedto hold protests to register its protestagainst the rising fuel prices onMondays.

The Congress party leaders andworkers took out a procession (footmarch) on the roads of the Dehraduncity on the day. The PradeshCongress Committee (PCC) presi-dent Pritam Singh led the march. TheCongress leaders and workers dis-tributed pamphlets in which com-parison of fuel prices during theCongress led regime and the BJP gov-ernment was given.

The Congressmen started themarch after offering floral tributes toBaba Sahab B R Ambedkar at ClockTower. The march meanderedthrough Paltan Market, Dhamawala,and Dispensary road and ended at

Rajiv Gandhi Complex.Beforeembarking on the march, theCongress workers assembled at theRajiv Bhawan. Addressing the partyworkers, PCC President Pritam Singhsaid that at a time when the interna-tional prices of crude are at their bot-tom Indian Government is regular-ly increasing the prices of petrol anddiesel.

He said that the highest exciseduty is imposed by India on petroland diesel. Singh said that theCongress would continue its agitationtill the government stops this openloot. He said that the people reelingunder the onslaught of the Covid-19pandemic were hoping that theUnionGovernment would providesome relief to them but instead ofhelping them, the Narendra Modigovernment has rubbed salt on thewounds of people by hiking theprices of petrol and diesel.

Singh said that the Congresswould further intensify the protestfrom next week.

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Accusing the operators ofthe three-wheeler vehicles

of charging the fare as per theirwill to lure passengers againstthe permits issued to them, thecity bus operators recentlystated that they will surrendertheir buses by the next week ifthe authorities do not take anyaction against them.

In the response to this, themembers of the unions of

auto rickshaws, Vikrams and e-rickshaws said that they aredoing nothing against the rulesand it is not their fault if the

passengers prefer their vehiclesover the city buses. Accordingto a member of Vikram Union,Kuldeep Chaudhary, more pas-sengers are currently com-muting through Vikrams prob-ably because it saves themsome money. "The fare of thecity buses is twice of the usualrate whereas we have increasedmaximum by Rs five in ourusual fare.

Since everyone is facingsome kind of financial prob-lems in the current crisis, acommon man will not travel bypaying double money whenone can travel for less.

We are not luring anyoneto commute in our vehicles. Itis common sense that peopleprefer those services whichsave them some bucks," saidChaudhary. He further addedthat it is people's choice to trav-el through any public transportthey find suitable but blaminganyone for their decision isjuvenile and unjustified.

Supporting these thoughts,some members of e-rickshawassociation and auto rickshawunion also said that they arecharging slightly more thantheir usual fare which is obvi-ously less than the city buses

but it does not imply they aresnatching their passengers.

"When the people used toconsider the city buses as acheaper and comfortableoption, they travelled in thembut now if they find themexpensive they have turned toother alternatives. We are notforcing anyone to commutewith us. Levelling such allega-tions at us is totally pointless.We all are just trying to earnlivelihood amid the crisis tofeed our family and nothingelse," said a member ofautorickshaw union, ManojThapa.

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Students of Steel City regis-tered a stellar performance in

the class 12th exams of theCentral Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE), whoseresults were declared onMonday. In Jamshedpur, HardikAgarwal from DAV PublicSchool, Bistupur was declaredtopper with 98.4 per cent marksin commerce. In science streamMayank Kumar Panda of DAVPublic School was declared top-per with 97.2 per cent marks.

Toppers from all streamsscience, commerce and arts arefrom DAV Public SchoolBistupur. While science MayankKumar was declared the citytopper scoring 97.2 % marks, hewas followed by Anjali KumarJha who scored 96.8 % marksand was declared the secondtopper in school and the city.Jasmine Saha and JayeshNandan with 96.6 % markswas joint third topper in theschool and Steel City. AhsenKamal and Apurva were joint-ly declared the fourth city top-per scoring 96.4 per cent marks.

In Commerce, HardikAgarwal was crowned topper.Anshul Kedia with 96.8 per centwas second topper in the school

and city while Ayushi Kabra wasthe third topper in the schooland city scoring 96.4 % marks.Suhana Pandey attained fourthposition in school and the cityscoring 95.2 % marks.

Pragya Singh, principal ofDAV Bistupur was pleased withthe results as the school record-ed cent per cent result. 'Bothgirls and boys have performedequally better. It is the hard workplus passion and dedication forachieving it that is important.The performance is improvingwith every passing year and we

don’t just see the toppers as allthe students have put in hardwork,' said Singh.

In Jamshedpur around4,000 students had appeared forthe Class XII examinationsfrom 12 steel city schools andneighbouring areas. " We arevery happy with the perfor-mance of our students. As it isthere was much hue and cryabout moderation policy thisyear but I am happy about theoverall results this year as it wasexpected," said an official ofVidya Bharti Chinmaya

Vidyalaya.Revealing his success for-

mula, Hardik said that study ona regular basis and work regu-larly, for that helps ease the pres-sure as the exams approach.

Students of the city provedtheir merit in the CBSE exam-ination and rejoiced along withthe school authorities. Schoolcampuses and cyber cafes werechoc-a-bloc soon after theresults get declared. Studentsfrom the city have high scoringperformances in the class 12examination.

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Page 3: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

RAIPUR | TUESDAY | JULY 14, 2020chhattisgarh 03

As part of the drive for plantation on river banks, tribal villagers carry out plantation along the Indravati river underJanpad Panchayat Tokapal in Bastar district on Monday. Pioneer Photo

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh

Baghel will administer theoath of office and secrecy to15 ParliamentarySecretaries at a function onJuly 14 at 4.00 pm at theChief Minister’s officialresidence cum office.

According to an officialcommunication, theCongress MLAs who willtake the oath areDwarikadhish Yadav(Khallari), Vinod SevanlalC h a n d r a k a r( M a h a s a m u n d ) ,Chandradev Prasad Rai

(Bhilaigarh), ShakuntalalSahu (Kasdol), VikasUpadhayay (Raipur city-West), Ambika Singh Deo(Baikunthpur), ChintamaniMaharaj (Samri), U.D. Minj(Kunkuri), ParasnathRajwade (Bhatgaon),Indershah Mandavi(Mohala-Manpur), KunwarSingh Nishad(Gunderdehi), GurudayalSingh Banjare (Navagarh),Dr Rashmi Ashish Singh(Takhatpur), Sishupal Sori(Kanker) and RekhchandJain (Jagdalpur).

The appointment ofParliamentary Secretariesmarks a U-turn for the nowruling Congress party.

When the BJP govern-ment in the state had in itslast three tenures appointedParliamentary Secretaries,the Congress had opposedit tooth and nail.

It also approached HighCourt of Chhattisgarh,seeking the disqualificationof the members. But thecourt ruled otherwise.

Interacting with media,Forest Minister MohammedAkbar said the Congressgovernment decided to haveParliamentary Secretariessince the High Court hasruled that suchappointment ‘is not liable tobe declared void andinoperative’.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

With Covid-19 positivepatients rising in

Chhattisgarh, Health andFamily Welfare DepartmentMinister T.S. Singh Deo onMonday ordered expandingsample testing across the stateon a daily basis.

An official statement saidthat Singh Deo reviewed thetests and treatment for Covidduring the day at the StateControl and CommandCentre.

The Minister said RealTime Reverse TranscriptionPolymerase Chain Reaction(RT-PCR) test facility will besoon available at MedicalColleges of Rajnandgaon,Bilaspur and Ambikapur.

At present, the RT-PCRtests are done at the AIIMSand the Medical Colleges ofRaipur, Jagdalpur and Raigarh,said the statement.

The True-NAT tests cur-rently available in 10 districtswill be extended to all the

remaining districts ofChhattisgarh soon, theMinister said.

The rapid antigen kitsample testing should also beincreased at Community and

Primary Health Centres, hesaid, asking officials to focuson contact tracing and surveywork.

Laying emphasis ontraining of lab technicians, hesought availability of humanresources for laboratories.

He enquired about thefacilities for treatment andother resources available at theeight Specialised Covid-19hospitals and 10 districthospitals.

Through video confer-ence, the Minister interactedwith Bastar Collector RajatBansal, Jagdalpur MedicalCollege Dean Dr U.S. Paikra,Bilaspur Collector Dr SaranshMittar and the Chief Medicaland Health Officer ofBilaspur.

He reviewed theavailability of testing and PPEkits, ventilators as well asN-95, triple layer and surgicalmasks.

STAFF REPORTER nRAJNANDGAON

Security forces have seizeda cache of ammunition,

detonators and wireless setsfrom a Maoist dump in theforests of Chhattisgarh'sRajnandgaon district, policesaid on Monday.

The seized items includeda diary of Dipak Teltumbade,a Central Committee memberof the outlawed Maoist party,a senior officer said.

The recovery was madefrom a hill located betweenDhobedalli, Mangikholi andChhuipani villages inGatapar police station limitson Sunday on the basis ofinputs given by a Naxalite'commander' arrested earlier,Rajnandgaon Superintendentof Police Jitendra Shukla told

the media here.The Maoist commander,

identified as David aliasAgnan Uikey (34), wascaught after he was injuredin an encounter with securi-ty forces on June 30.

He commanded platoonno. 1 under the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone ofthe Maoists, the officer added.

During interrogation, hedisclosed locations of fourMaoist dumps in the forestsof Gatapar and Bagnadiareas of the district adjoin-ing Maharashtra, followingwhich separate teams ofsecurity personnel andBomb Disposal Squads weresent, he said.

During the search, asquad of Chhattisgarh ArmedForce (CAF) and district force

found three dumps on a hillbetween the three villages, hesaid. Two dumps were empty.

The third dump had twosteel boxes containing 975 livecartridges for various firearms,including 35 live cartridges ofAK-47 rifle, 345 of 9MM pis-tol, 169 of LR rifle and 162 of.303 rifle, six detonators, 12walkie-talkie sets, chargerclips and the diary of DipakTeltumbade, Shukla said.

Security forces alsounearthed a dump in a hillbetween Kanhartol andSherpar in which 10 plasticbags and a milk powder pack-et were recovered, he added.

The diary of Teltumbadecould reveal crucial detailsabout Maoist formationsand their activities in theChhattisgarh-Maharashtraborder, the officer added.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Online registration forThe INSPIRE Awards

- MANAK 2020-21 hasbegun. Interested andeligible students cansubmit their applicationsand project ideas for thenational level competition,an official statement saidon Monday.

This time theChhattisgarh governmenthas set a target of register-ing 60,000 students.

Jitendra Shukla,Director of PublicInstructions, said onMonday: “In order to havemaximum number of regis-trations for the new aca-demic session 2020-21, allthe middle school and high

school students are asked toparticipate in the nationallevel award competition."

Innovation in SciencePursuit for InspiredResearch (INSPIRE)scheme is one of theflagship programmes ofthe Department of Science& Technology.

The students fromClass 6 to 10 are eligible for

registration. Selectedaspirants are givenassistance of `10,000 tomake their innovativescience-based models.

The students whosemodels are selected can getan assistance of `50,000,the communiqué said.

In 2019-20, 37,359students were registeredfrom Chhattisgarh.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Dr. B R AmbedkarMemorial Medical

College Hospital,Chhattisgarh's biggest, suc-cessfully carried out 7,177heart related surgeries,including complex ones,between 2013 to June 2020.

After acquiring theprivate Fortis Escorts HeartCentre in November 2017,the cardiology department ofthe Raipur-based hospital hascreated a record inperforming surgeries,hospital officials said.

The 7,177 surgeriesinclude angiography,angioplasty, bypass andinstalling pace makers.

The majority of theseoperations are supported bygovernment-funded schemes

such as ‘Dr KhubchandBaghel Health AssistanceScheme’, 'MukhyamantriVishesh Swasthya SahayataYojana', ‘Ayushman Bharat

Scheme’ and others, Dr. SmitShrivastava, Head ofDepartment, Cardiology, toldThe Pioneer over phone onMonday.

"We have successfullyoperated patients whose agerange from 20 days to 102years," he said.

According to government

records, the Cath Lab unitwas started in the hospital in2009. It then used to provideangioplasty services to 41patients per annum.

In 2013, its angiographycapacity increased to 110patients a year and now thenumber had touched 1,600,added Dr Shrivastava.

The cardiology unit ispresently equipped with anadvanced 2D-3D machineand providesElectrophysiology Studies(EPS) facility to criticalpatients, the doctor said.

"We have a dedicatedteam of doctors in ourcardiology department andour objective is to establishthe unit as the premierinstitution in cardiology inIndia," he said.

The “Advance CardiacInstitute” bagged thenational-level Scotch Orderof Merit Award in 2018 for itsbest management in medicalpractices, said another doctor.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Village shepherds should bemade a compulsory part of

the Godhan Nyay Yojanascheme with profit earned fromthe sale of vermi-compostshared with them, ChhattisgarhChief Minister Bhupesh Baghelsaid on Monday.

He added that districtCollectors have an importantrole to play in the pro-gramme's implementation.

Baghel was reviewingpreparations for implementa-tion of Godhan Nyay Yojanaon Monday.

The Chief Minister calledfor setting up GauthanCommittees after approvalfrom Ministers in charge ofthe districts.

He directed that cowdung procured should be

handed over to GauthanCommittees and the vermin-compost should be preparedby women self-help as well asyouth groups. A room in eachcowshed should have storagefacility for compost.

Green fodder should be

given to cattle arriving in thecowsheds. The compost pack-age bag should have the name ofthe Gauthan Committee on it.

The Chief Minister alsocalled for visits by veterinarydoctors. Agriculture ProductionCommissioner Dr M. Geetha

outlined the scheme and itsdetails through a power-pointpresentation. District Collectorshave the responsibility to ensureavailability of necessaryresources for vermi-compostprocessing and construction ofvermi tanks in Gauthans.

CM to administer oathto 15 ParliamentarySecretaries today

Maoist weapons, diaryfound in C’garh hill

Expand sample testing across state: Singh Deo

Dr. Ambedkar Hospital carries out 7,100 heart surgeriesSTAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Two liquor outlets in capitalRaipur were found selling

liquor at prices higher than thegovernment specified ratesduring surprise raidsconducted on Monday.

The raids followedcomplaints about irregularitiesin shops selling country andforeign liquor. The ExciseDepartment's DivisionalFlying Squad at Raipur thengot into the act, an officialstatement said.

Country made and IndianMade Foreign Liquor shops ofSantoshi Nagar, Labhandi,Hirapur, Lakhenagar andRaipura were raided. Casesunder the Excise Act were

registered against the shops atSantoshi Nagar and Raipura(Sarona) for selling liquor atinflated prices.

A proposal has been sentto the competent authorities tostop the guilty retailers fromrunning these shops.

Deputy Commissioner(Excise) S.L. Pawar said suchsudden inspections will beconducted from time to time.

Meanwhile, theChhattisgarh BJP said thewhole incident points towardsa bigger scam.

BJP spokespersonSachchidanand Upasane saidin a statement that the stategovernment is patronizing theguilty traders.

Collectors have key role to playin Godhan Nyay Yojana: CM

Raids on liquor shopsselling at higher rates

Applications invitedfor Tourist FacilitatorRAIPUR: Applications areinvited from male and femalecandidates based inChhattisgarh for online trainingunder the Incredible IndiaTourist Facilitator CertificationProgramme (IITFC).

A statement from theChhattisgarh Tourism Boardsaid the Union Ministry ofTourism is imparting onlinetraining on different aspects oftourism, including facilitatingdomestic and foreign touristsduring visits to different touristspots in the country.

The candidates should bemore than 18 years and lessthan 40 years. Their minimumeducational qualification mustbe 10+2 or equivalent. Theyshould have interest in touristplaces. After the training, cer-tificates will be issued and theycan be called to work as TouristFacilitator across the country.

Interested candidates canvisit the Ministry of Tourismwebsite www.incredibleindia.organd portal https://iitf.gov.in forfurther details.

Cong govt targetingour workers: BJPRAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh BJP onSunday accused the Congressgovernment of using the police toattack its party workers and pledgedto fight the "abuse of power".

The party was reacting to theassault on BJP Kisan Morcha GeneralSecretary Bhushan Sahu’s family bypolice personnel in village Pirda inMahasamund district.

BJP spokesman Sanjay Shrivastavastated that without any complaint, thepolice barged into Sahu's house andassaulted his minor son.

He said in a statement that thestate government is using the police tocrush the voices raised against itsshortcomings.

The spokesman said this alsooccurred when the Congress formed agovernment after the birth ofChhattisgarh (2000-03) when BJPactivists were assaulted andtraumatized.

The BJP leader asked thegovernment to refrain from indulgingin "non-democratic" rule. The BJPwill give a fitting reply to the policeaction, he added.

Registration for INSPIRE AwardsMANAK 2020-21 begins

Page 4: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has arrest-

ed two accused in an IslamicState Khorasan Province(ISKP) case, including a jour-nalism student, a 22 year oldgirl from Maharashtra.

On Sunday, NIA teamscarried out searches in Puneand arrested the two accusedpersons—Nabeel S Khatri(27), a resident of Pune andSadiya Anwar Sheikh (22)who hails from Phulenagar,Yerwada, Pune in connec-tion with Islamic StateKhorasan Province (ISKP)Case, NIA Spokesperson said

in a statement.Nabeel S Khatri runs a

gym in Pune while SadiyaSheikh is a 2nd year studentof Mass Communications andJournalism at Baramati.

This case was initiallyregistered by Delhi PoliceSpecial Cell on March 8 thisyear after the arrest of aKashmiri couple —JahanzaibSami Wani and his wife HinaBashir Beigh from JamiaNagar, Okhla Vihar, Delhi.

“The couple was havingaffiliations with ISKP, whichis a banned terrorist organi-sation and is a part of ISIS,and was found to be involvedin subversive and anti-nation-

al activities. They were alsofound to be in touch withAbdullah Basith, who isalready lodged in Tihar jail inanother NIA case (ISIS AbuDabhi module),” thespokesperson said.

The investigation hasrevealed that accused SadiyaSheikh was continuously intouch with Jahanzaib Sami,Hina Bashir Beigh andAbdullah Basith on varioussecure messaging applicationsand deliberating on ways topropagate the ideology ofISIS and further its activitiesin India.

They were trying to buildup a cadre of ISIS in India byrecruiting gullible youth forterrorist activities, the agencyfurther said.

It has also come to lightthat along with Jahanzeb Samiand Abdullah Basith, accusedNabeel Khatri was also active-ly involved in the planning tocarry out violent terroristattacks in India by arranginglogistic support such as pro-curement of weapons, fakeSIM cards and assembling ofImprovised Explosive Devices

(IEDs) to further the activitiesof ISIS in India.

He was continuously incontact with Jahanzeb on var-

ious secure messaging plat-forms, the official said.

It has also been revealedthat Sadiya Sheikh was in con-

tact with ISIS recruitersthrough social media since2015. She was planning to exe-cute a terrorist attack in Jammu

& Kashmir and was detainedby J&K Police in 2018.

The two arrested accusedwill be produced before NIA

Special Court, New Delhi.Further investigation in thecase is continuing, agencyadded.

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Banned Pakistani terrorgroup Jaish-e-Mohammad’s

Chief Maulana Masood Azharhas in a statement welcomedconversion of Hagia Sophiamusuum into a mosque inTurkey and expressed hopethat Ram Mandir in Ayodhyawould also become a mosqueat some point in time.

Ayodhya has been on theradar of the JeM for a long timeand Azhar had issued a video in2018 threatening to return thethen defunct mosque to theMuslims. The issue has alsobeen exploited by the terror out-fits, including JeM, to recruit asection of the gullible youthfrom a particular community tojoin their ranks to further their

nefarious agenda in the country.This besides, such fault lines arealso exploited by the PakistanArmy-ISI and their jehadicohorts to get traction of thefringe elements of the minoritycommunity to disturb harmonyby enlisting their support forlogistics and supporting theirsleeper cells to carry out terrorattacks.

The JeM has been respon-sible for major terror attacks inIndia beginning from the hit onthe Parliament House in 2001 to

Pathankot Air Base and ArmyBase in Uri (2016) and Pulwama(2019) among others.

Intelligence assessmentshere suggest the Jaish could tar-get multiple controversial reli-gious sites in the region, includ-ing in India, ahead of Muslimfestival of Bakrid later thismonth. The Intelligence agen-cies are seized of the issue andcounter-measures are beingplanned accordingly, sourcessaid.

Interestingly, Azhar has alsojustified the hostage taking ofpeople, including seven Chineseengineers, at Lal Masjid in 2007.China had defended Azharagainst India’s bid to ban him bythe United Nations. Azhar is alsobelieved to be harbouring someUyghur groups that are waging

a struggle against Chineseoppression in the Xinjiangprovince.

Meanwhile, the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or thePakistani Taliban has uppedthe ante against the Pakistanisecurity forces and fatally hittingthem almost on a daily basis.The outfit is also opposedagainst exploitation of the localresources by the Chinesethrough mining rights and otherprojects in the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC).The Paksitan-Army and ISIhave also formed fictitiousBaloch groups to target Chineseinterests and extract more fundsfrom Beijing to provide securi-ty to their business interests, acounter-terrorism expert said.

The TTP operates along

the Pak-Afghan border inhab-ited largely by the tribals and isopposed to the oppression oftheir lot by the Pakistani Armyand other agencies.

The way Azhar has force-fully mentioned Hagia Sophia,Babri Masjid and Lal Masjid inhis speeches and internal com-munication indicates the terrorgroup, under the patronage ofthe ISI, has hatched a grand con-spiracy to execute some majornefarious designs.

During the last six months,both Azhar and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba have praised theTurkish President Recep TayyipErdogan about five to six times.This could be an indicationthat the terror masterminds seea godfather in Erdogan.

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The Supreme Court onMonday said it would hear

on July 24 the pleas filed by for-eigners challenging the Centre’sorders that blacklisted morethan 2,700 citizens of 35 coun-tries from travelling to India for10 years for alleged involve-ment in Tablighi Jamaat activ-ities.

The matter came up forhearing through video-con-ferencing before a bench head-ed by Justice A M Khanwilkar.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, representing the Centre,requested the bench to adjournthe matter for two weeks.

The bench said the matterwould be taken up for hearingon Friday next week.

The Centre had earlier sought dismissal of thepleas and informed the topcourt on July 2 that it hasissued individual orders on acase-to-case basis for cancel-lation of visas and blacklistingof 2,765 foreign nationals.

As per the informationavailable, 205 FIRs have beenlodged against the foreignTablighi Jamaat members by11 states and 2,765 such for-eigners have been blacklistedso far, the Centre had said inits affidavit.

Of these, visas of 2,679 for-eigners (including 9 OverseasCitizen of India (OCI) cardholders) have been cancelled,it had said, adding thatremaining 86 include Nepalnationals who do not requirevisa.

The top court was alsoinformed by the Centre that1,906 Look Out Circulars(LOCs) were issued againstforeign Tablighi Jamaat mem-bers and 227 left India beforethe issuance of LOCs/BlackListing.

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The Supreme CourtMonday asked the Madras

High Court to decide thepleas, including one filed byTamil Nadu Government,against the Centre’s decisionnot to grant 50 per cent quotato OBCs in medical seatssurrendered by the state in allIndia quota for under gradu-ate, post graduate and dentalcourses in 2020-21.

A bench of Justices LNageswara Rao and HemantGupta said the high courtshould decide the plea of thestate government and othersirrespective of the pendencyof another case here.

In a hearing conductedvia video link, the top courtsaid, “All the contentionraised in petitions (before it)should be decided by theHigh Court” and requestedthe High Court to deal withthe case.

Earl ier, the StateGovernment had moved theSupreme Court on July 2seeking a direction to theHigh Court to expeditiouslydecide its plea challenging theCentre’s decision not to grant50 per cent quota to OBCs inmedical seats surrendered bythe state in all India quota forUG, PG and dental courses in2020-21.

It had assailed the June 22high court order whichrefused to grant any interimorder on the OBC quota rowsaying that a similar petitionwas already scheduled to beheard by the Supreme Court.

The apex court, whichwas scheduled to hear thecase titled as Saloni Kumarversus Union of Kndia onJuly 8, has adjourned the hear-ing and had fixed the case fora later date.

The High Court had fixedthe state’s plea on quota on July9.

The State Governmentand some political parties suchas DMK, All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK), CPI (M), TamilNadu Congress Committeeand CPI had moved the highcourt after the Supreme Court,on June 11, refused to enter-tain their petitions and askedthem to approach the highcourt.

“Direct the High Court toexpeditiously hear and disposeof the writ petitions...,” thestate government said in itsplea before the top court.

The High Court has ineffect declined to take up thewrit petitions in spite of thefact that the Respondents(Centre, MCI and others) hadvirtually conceded to theprayer sought for in the writpetition.

“The High Court hasfailed to appreciate that therespondents are stalling adju-dication of the issue. The

(High) Court has been misledby the Respondent’s con-tentions and has unjustifiablykept the Petitioner’s writ peti-tion in abeyance till this courtissues orders in an ostensiblyidentical matter...,” it said.

The high court hadrefused to pass any interimorder on the pleas after takingnote of the Centre’s submission that since 1986 noreservation has been providedin the AIQ (All-India quota)seats for medical admission asper the apex court directive.

“The same was modifiedafter 10 years, providing reser-vation for SC/ST. In 2015,pleas were moved seekingOBC reservation, which isstill pending before the apexcourt, which has to take a calland modify the order,” thecounsel for the Centre had toldthe High Court.

The State Governmentand various political partieshave challenged the Centre’’sdecision not to grant 50 percent reservation to OBCs asper Tamil Nadu law.

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The Centre on Monday saidthat private hospitals

empanelled under the CentralGovernment Health Scheme(CGHS) will charge frombeneficiaries the rates pre-scribed by the DelhiGovernment for COVID-19treatment till their States fixtheir own charges.

Last month, theGovernment had decided toreimburse the cost of pulseoximeter (per family) pur-chased by CentralGovernment Health Scheme(CGHS) beneficiaries in caseinfected by the Covid-19.

An of f ice memorandum issued by theCGHS director said the ratesfor treatment of COVID-19 inprivate-empanelled hospitalsfor CGHS beneficiaries shallbe as per the package rate pre-scribed by the state govern-ment concerned.

“In case, no such rate hasbeen prescribed by the stategovernment in any CGHScity, the rates prescribed bythe government of NCTDelhi, shall be applicable tillrates are notified by the concerned state government,”the memorandum dated July10, 2020 read.

The Delhi Governmentlast month issued an orderfixing the cost of a Covid-19isolation bed in any privatehospital in the range of Rs8,000-10,000 and an ICU bedwith ventilator at �15,000-18,000 per day.

According to the memo-randum, the Union HealthMinistry had received repre-sentations regarding clarifi-cations and guidelines onrates applicable for treatmentat private healthcare organisations empanelledunder the CGHS, followingwhich the matter wasreviewed.

For non-Covid-relatedtreatment in private hospitalsempanelled under thescheme, the normal CGHSpackage rate shal l be admissible, the memorandumstated.

The Covid-19 test shall bepermitted as per the Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) guidelinesand the CGHS rate shall be asper the rates fixed by stategovernments or actual,whichever may be less.

“If the State Governmenthas not notified such rates,the rates prescribed by theICMR are applicable till ratesare notif ied by StateGovernment,” it said.

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Mothers, newborns, youngchildren and adolescents

are losing 20 per cent of theirhealth and social services dueto the Covid-19 pandemicacross the world, according tothe UN Secretary-General’sIndependent AccountabilityPanel (IAP).

“Health systems in bothrich and poor nations aremassively struggling and theservices for mothers, new-borns, young children andadolescents are crumbling,”said Elizabeth Mason, co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s IndependentAccountability Panel (IAP)for Every Woman, EveryChild, Every Adolescentreviewing the impact ofCovid-19 on these groups.

“Especially worrisome aredeclines in access to life-sav-ing vaccines for children andmaternal health services dueto closures and movementrestrictions. Immunisation

campaigns are being haltedand health workers are beingdiverted from maternity toCOVID-19 units,” Dr Masonadded.

The Panel provided anoverview of estimated impactsfrom COVID-19 pandemicon women, newborns, youngchildren and adolescents sinceits start in January. The datawas disturbing.

The report said that 5.3million deaths in childrenunder 5 by pre-pandemicestimates, and over 400,000additional deaths due to the infection-related disruptionsin services.

Similarly, 2.5 millionnewborn deaths pre-pan-demic, with a minimum of168,000 additional deathsestimated while 295,000maternal deaths were pre-pandemic, with an addition-al 24,400 additional deathsestimated. Atleast, 13.5 mil-lion children missed vaccina-tions against life-threateningdiseases while more than 20countries reported vaccine

shortages caused by the pan-demic.

Also, said the panelsround 42-66 million childrenrisk falling into extremepoverty even as some 370 mil-lion children are missingschool meals.

“These new findings showhow weak our health sys-tems are at protecting moth-ers, newborns, young childrenand adolescents,” says JoyPhumaphi, co-chair of thePanel and former WHOAssistant Director-General.“We are at a point wheredecades of progress for thisgroup could be easi lyreversed.”

The COVID-19 pandem-ic has interrupted steadyprogress and has led toincreased poverty and unem-ployment.

Early data finds womenexperience not only loss ofvarious categories of supportand social safety nets, but alsoan inability to accessincreased support, comparedto men.

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Becoming infected withSARS-CoV-2 or Covid-19

not only triggers substantialrespiratory pathology, but alsoresults into plethora of extra-pulmonary manifestationssuch as thrombotic complica-tions, myocardial dysfunction,acute coronary syndromes,acute kidney injury, gastroin-testinal symptoms, hyper-glycemia and ketosis, neuro-logic illnesses, ocular symp-toms, and dermatologic com-plications among others.

According to researchers,SARS-CoV-2 seems to employmechanisms for receptorrecognition similar to thoseused by prior virulent coron-aviruses such as SARS-CoV,causing the SARS epidemic of2003.

“The coronavirus spikeprotein facilitates entry of thevirus into target cells. Thespike subunit of SARS-CoVand that of SARS CoV-2engage ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) as anentry receptor. In addition,cell entry requires priming ofthe spike protein by the cellu-lar serine protease TMPRSS2or other proteases.

“In addition, the efficien-cy with which the virus bindsto ACE2 is a key determinantof transmissibility, as shown instudies of SARS-CoV. Recentstudies have demonstratedhigher affinity of binding ofSARS-CoV-2 to ACE2 than ofSARS-CoV to ACE2, whichmay partially explain theincreased transmissibility ofSARS-CoV-2,” explained theresearchers.

Covid-19 seems to strikethe elderly and immunocom-promised the hardest, alongwith any of us with underlyinghealth conditions such as dia-betes, heart and lung disease.But the young shouldn’t takeanything for granted -- therehave been deaths among peo-ple aged 20 to 50, as well.

T h r o m b o c y t o p e n i a ,although often mild (in 5–36%of admissions), is associatedwith worse patient outcomeswhile Acute kidney injury(AKI) is a frequent complica-tion of the infection and isassociated with mortality. InChina, the reported incidenceof AKI in hospitalized patientswith Covid-19 ranged from 0.5per cent to 29 per cent. Studiesfrom the USA have reportedmuch higher rates of AKI.

The incidence of gastroin-testinal manifestations hasranged from 12% to 61% inpatients with COVID-1 9 5 , 1 5 8 , 1 5 9 , 1 6 0 , 1 6 1 .Gastrointestinal symptomsmay be associated with alonger duration of illness buthave not been associated withincreased mortality, as per areview article published in thejournal Nature (Medicine).

The researchers revieweda recent meta-analysis of 29studies (of which the majorityare from China), the pooledprevalence of individual symp-toms was reported, includingthat of anorexia (21 per cent),nausea and/or vomiting (7 percent), diarrhea (9 per cent),and abdominal pain (3 percent). In a study from theUSA, a higher prevalence ofthese symptoms was reported(anorexia, 34.8 per cent; diar-rhea, 33.7 per cent; and nausea,26.4 per cent).

SARS-CoV-2 may alsodirectly damage the biliaryducts by binding to ACE2 oncholangiocytes There is grow-ing evidence of neurologiccomplications of COVID-19.Neurologic and ophthalmo-logic manifestations of Covid-19, said the researchers.

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The National HighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI)

on Monday said it will partnerwith institutes like the IndianInstitutes of Technology (IITs)for improving the road infra-structure ecosystem. The objec-tive is to leverage the intellec-tual prudence of students andfaculty towards improvementof the road infrastructureecosystem of the country.

“In its endeavour to pro-vide world-class NationalHighways (NH) network,NHAI has approached all IITs,National Institutes ofTechnology (NITs) and reput-ed engineering colleges to col-laborate and adopt nearbystretches of NH, on voluntarybasis, as part of InstitutionalSocial Responsibility (ISR),”the NHAI said in a statement.

The institutes along with itsfaculty and students have bet-ter appreciation of localrequirement, topography,resource potential, among oth-ers, and these vital inputs canbe utilised by NHAI during dif-ferent stages of pre-construc-tion, construction and opera-tion of NH stretches, it said.

This decentralisedapproach, besides building asense of participation in deci-sion making, also provides anopportunity to the studentsfor hands-on-learning, optionfor internship and future areasof research, it said.

Besides, the adoption ofstretch by institutes opensavenue for access to importantdata, which can be used toimprove the quality and safety

aspects of NH and enhancelocal capacity of institutes interms of advanced lab andsimulation systems. “Adoptionof NH stretch by an institutewould facilitate stakeholderengagement and help to miti-gate the routine local problemssuch as traffic movement, con-gestion and immediate identi-fication of accident prone sites,”the statement said.

The highway users becomemore empowered in resolvinglocal problems through theinstitute and the Authority, itsaid, adding that such instanceswould help NHAI in under-standing the local needs bothin present and future projects,improve maintenance and rid-ing comfort, and develop way-side amenities for enhanceduser experience. “The overalloutcome shall be commuterfriendly and enjoyable ride onthe NH stretch,” NHAI said.

The statement said largenumber of IITs, NITs and engi-neering colleges has opted tojoin the scheme and NHAIofficers have started mutualconsultation with directors ofthe interested Institutes.Memorandums ofUnderstanding (MoUs) arebeing signed between the indi-vidual institutes and NHAI forinstitutionalization of thescheme and bring reformativeimprovements in the roadinfrastructure of the country.

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The Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs

(MoHUA) has issued a noticeto news agency Press Trust ofIndia (PTI) for allegedly vio-lating terms of the lease underwhich it was allotted land for itsSansad Marg office in Delhiand asked to pay a penalty of�84.48 crore within a month.

The notice dated July 7,issued by the ministry’s Landand Development Office,warned that an additional 10per cent interest may need to becoughed out by PTI if it fails tofurnish the concerned amountwithin the stipulated time peri-od.

This comes two weeks afterthe Prasar Bharati expresseddispleasure over the newsagency’s recent interview withChina’s ambassador to India,who said India was the aggres-sor in the June 15 skirmish inGalwan Valley and said that itis reviewing its annual sub-scription with the news agency.Prasar Bharati is among PTI’sbiggest subscribers.

According to the min-istry officials, the PTI officeis built on land leased to theagency by the government.The officials said PTI had notpaid ground rent since 1984.“Since 1984, PTI has not paidthe ground rent. Besides, theyhave misused the land-allot-ment terms by converting thebasement into an office andseveral unauthorised con-struction was undertaken.Under the lease term, thebasement is to be used onlyfor storage purposes,” officialssaid.

The notice that sought Rs

84,48,23,281 argues that “theless will be pleased to regu-larise the breaches in thepremises temporarily up to14.07.2020 and withdraw theright of re-entry of thepremises subject to the fol-lowing conditions being ful-filled by you within 30 daysfrom the date of issue of thisletter.”

The notice adds that thenews agency must give anundertaking on non-judicialstamp paper stating that it willpay the difference of “mis-use/damage charges” if theland rates are revised with ret-rospective effect from April 1,2016, and will also remove the“breaches” by July 14, 2020 ,or get them regularised bypaying charges. The Landand Development Officeadded that if the amount isnot paid in the stipulatedtime period, an additional10% interest may be levied.

“Further action to executethe lease deed shall be subjectto complete payment andputting to use of the premis-es as per permissible underthe master plan,” the noticeread. The notice added that ifPTI did not comply with itsterms, the “concession of lim-iting the penalty” will bewithdrawn.

Officials said that anamount of �84 crore penaltyincludes all these violations,which the agency has failed toaddress despite several noticesfrom us in the past. Thenotice also warns that furtheraction to execute the deed hasto be subject to completepayment and putting thepremise to use according tothe masterplan.

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Page 5: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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Atotal number of 4,328 freshCovid-19 patients joined

the list of persons afflictedwith the pandemic in TamilNadu on Monday. The Statealso saw 66 persons succumb-ing to the disease in the last 24hours according to the medicalbulletin issued by the TamilNadu government.

By Monday evening, num-ber of persons infected with thecoronavirus across the Statereached 48, 196 while the totalnumber of cases traced tilldate crossed 1.42 lakh.

As part of aggressive test-ing all over the State, 105 lab-oratories tested 43, 548 personson Monday while the numberof persons tested till datecrossed 1.58 million.

Taking a cue from theincrease in the number ofpatients, Tamil Nadu

Government banned publictransport across the State tillJuly 31.

Monday also saw 3,035persons getting dischargedfrom hospitals across the Statetaking the number of recover-ies till date to 92, 567. Out ofthe 66 deaths reported onMonday, 59 died with comor-bidities.

Chennai continued toshow a fall in the number ofpersons afflicted with Covid-19. Out of the 4,328 tested pos-itive on Monday, 1,140 werefrom Chennai.

Though the decrease inthe number of patients inChennai was not considerable,the capital city is showing

trends that the pandemic hasbeen contained. Expertsattribute this to the fever clin-ics launched by the GreaterChennai MunicipalCorporation, according to GPrakash, CorporationCommissioner.

“High number of residentsbeing screened in fever clinicshas led to a declining trend forthe last 12 days in Chennai thathas a population of 87 lakh,”said the corporation commis-sioner.

But the same could not besaid about the other districts.The three neighbouring dis-tricts of Chennai continued toshow high number of cases onMonday too.

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Kolkata: The dreaded virus hasclaimed its first victim in State civilservices rank with senior WBCSofficer Debdatta Roy succumbingto the disease on Monday,Government sources said addingRay was tasked with the handlingof migrant workers.

“After contacting the diseaseshe was asked to remain in homeisolation. But as her conditiondeteriorated she was hospitalisedwhere she finally succumbed,”Health Department sources said.

33-year-old Ray, who wasposted as a Deputy Magistrate atChandannagar in Hooghly district,died at a private hospital inSerampore. She was a 2010 batchWBCS (Executive) officer.

Meanwhile even as coronasituation worsened in Bengal adead body of a corona victim wasfound lying for hours on the side-walks of a street in Liluah inHowrah, sources said adding theelderly women was taken away bythe municipal staff after about fivehours.

Bengal had recorded about30,000 positive cases with a recov-ery rate of about 64 percent. TheState has thus far witnessed 932deaths. PNS

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Notwithstanding the factthat 449 persons were

diagnosed with Covid-19 onMonday, Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan said thatKerala has the best coron-avirus management pro-gramme in the country.

“There are attempts bysome sections to portray thecovid-19 management in theState in poor light. Kerala hasthe lowest Case Fatality Ratewhich is even better than theWorld Average. The Globalcase fatality rate is 4.38, whilethat of India is 2.67. ButKerala’s CFR is 0.39 per cent,”said the Chief Minister in hisinteraction with the media.

He also said that while thenational average in the num-ber of deaths per million was17.1, Kerala’s average is 0.9 percent.

“Even in Test PositivityRate , Kerala is ahead of allother States and that of theworld,” claimed Vijayan.

He also disclosed that144 persons were infectedthrough social transmissionon Monday. “The day also

saw 713 persons gettingadmitted to the hospitals andthis is the highest number tobe recorded on a single day.As on Monday, there are4,376 undergoing treatmentin hospitals in the State,” saidthe chief minister.

Vijayan said a sense ofennui has set in among healthworkers and volunteers due tothe repetitious nature of thekind of work.

“We are in the process ofintensifying People’s Defenceagainst the pandemic,” hesaid. Without naming theOpposition, the chief minis-ter repeated the charge thatthere are attempts by somesection to derail theGovernment’s good work incontaining the covid-19 pre-ventive measures.

As on Monday, there were223 hotspots in the State.Vijayan said that till date 2.44lakh samples have been sentfor testing.

The Chief Minister alsosaid that the health depart-ment was making all arrange-ments to face any situationarising out of further surge inthe number of covid-19 cases.

Lucknow: Senior BJP leaderand former Uttar PradeshChief Minister Kalyan Singh onMonday accused the thenCongress Government at theCentre of levelling “false andbaseless allegations” againsthim in the Babri mosquedemolition case and said hewas “innocent”.

“The then CongressGovernment at the Centre lev-elled false and baseless allega-tions against me and filed a caseout of political animosity,” hetold reporters after appearingbefore a CBI special court herein connection with the 1992Babri Masjid demolition case.

The 88-year-old leadersaid, “As the UP Chief Minister,I and my government ensuredadequate three-tier security ofthe disputed structure inAyodhya.”

Singh, during whose tenurethe demolition took place, wasassisted by two persons as hewalked out of the court afterover three-hour-long ques-

tioning.“I was falsely implicated, I

am innocent,” he asserted as heleft the court premises.

The CBI court is current-ly recording statements of 32accused under the CrPCSection 313, a stage in the trialthat follows the examination ofaccused.

Other accused, includingformer deputy prime ministerLK Advani and senior BJPleader M M Joshi, are yet to beexamined at this stage.

Their lawyers have indi-cated to the CBI court that theyprefer to appear through videoconferencing.

Another accused, RamChandra Khatri, is presentlylodged in a Sonipat jail inHaryana in connection withanother case.

The special court had lastweek reiterated that a remindershould be sent to the NationalInformatics Centre (NIC) formaking arrangements to recordhis statement through video

conferencing.With regard to another

accused, Om Prakash Pandey,the CBI had furnished a report,saying he was untraceable.

Members of the Pandey'sfamily had claimed that he hadbecome a monk years ago anddid not come home.

His brother MahendraPandey had said he would tryto find him and inform theCBI.

The court had then direct-ed the agency to remain in con-tact with Mahendra Pandeyand furnish further report.

The court has alreadyissued a non-bailable warrantagainst Om Prakash Pandey.

The mosque in Ayodhyawas demolished in December1992 by 'kar sevaks' whoclaimed that an ancient Ramtemple had stood on the samesite. The CBI court is con-ducting day-to-day hearingsto complete the trial by August31, as directed by the SupremeCourt. PTI

Jammu: In another successfuloperation, the joint teams ofsecurity forces on Mondaygunned down two more ter-rorists of Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terroroutfit in Srigufwara area ofAnantnag district.

This is the second success-ful operation in the last 48hours in Kashmir valley. ThreeLashkar-e- Toiba (LeT) ter-rorists including two Pakistaninationals were earlier gunneddown by the security forces inRebban area of Sopore inBaramulla district.

Since July 1, a total num-ber of 11 terrorists have beenneutralised by the securityforces in six encounters.

According to a policespokesman, “One of the killedterrorists has been identified asNasir alias Shahbaz alias BazBai,a Pakistan resident. He waslisted as ‘A’ category terrorist,

while the identification of theother killed terrorist is beingascertained.

Police spokesman said, theoperation was launched in thearea on the basis of a specificinput generated by AnantnagPolice regarding presence ofterrorists in Srigufwara area ofAnantnag.

“During the search opera-tion when the firct contactwas established with the hidingterrorists they were given theopportunity to surrender, how-ever they fired indiscriminate-ly upon the joint search party,which was retaliated leading toan encounter”, policespokesman said.

“In the indiscriminate fir-ing by terrorists, one womanreceived gunshot injuries. Shewas shifted to hospital fortreatment where her conditionis stated to be stable”,policespokesman said. PNS

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Amid rising incidents of crossborder firing especially in

the Hiranagar sector of Kathuadistrict, Chief of Army Staff(COAS), General MM Naravaneon Monday reviewed the currentsecurity situation and opera-tional readiness of the troopsdeployed on ground in Jammu-Pathankot region during hisvisit to the forward areas of theRising Star Corps.

During his interaction withthe field formation comman-ders, Gen Naravane reinstatedthe fact of ‘Zero tolerance’against the ceasefire violations byPakistan and infiltrationattempts by terrorists.

In Jammu, Defence PRO Lt-Col Devender Anand said, “thearmy chief was separately briefedby Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi,GOC, Rising Star Corps on theoperational preparedness, up-gradation of security infra-structure and the internal secu-rity matters.”

According to officialsources, for the last couple ofdays Pakistani rangers havebeen regularly targeting sever-

al border outposts of BorderSecurity Guards in a bid to diverttheir attention while pushinggroups of heavily armed infil-trators via the Hira Nagar sec-tor.

This route is consideredthe traditional route of infiltra-tion by the handlers of infiltra-tors. Kashmir bound truckersferry arms consignment andeven terrorists in small batchesvia the same route. So far twosuch attempts have been foiledby the alert security personneland on both the occasions theterrorists were neutralized beforethey could reach Kashmir valley.

Earlier, on his arrival inJammu, the Army Chief wasreceived by Lt Gen RP Singh,GOC-in-C Western Command,Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, GOCRising Star Corps, Maj Gen VBNair, GOC Tiger Division andAir Cmde AS Pathania, AOC,

Air Force station, Jammu Defence PRO, Lt Col

Devender Anand in a pressstatement said, “After attendinga briefing, the Army Chiefaccompanied by GOC TigerDivision reviewed operationalpreparedness in forward areas.He interacted with the fieldformation Commanders andtroops on ground during the for-ward area tour. The General alsovisited the forward areas ofGurj Division and was briefed byMaj Gen YP Khanduri, GOCGurj Division.

The Army Chief alsoaddressed all ranks of WesternCommand through video conferencing and lauded themorale of the troops. Heexpressed complete confidencein Indian Army’s capabilities tothwart any misadventure by theenemies of our country and han-dle any situation.

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Swapna Suresh and SandeepNair, who were arrested by

the National InvestigationAgency on Saturday fromBangalore in connection withGold Smuggling throughThiruvananthapuram Airportwere on Monday sent to NIACustody for eight days by aSpecial Court at Kochi.

The NIA officials informedthe Court that both of themhave to be questioned in custodyas the charges against themwere grave and of nationalimportance. The duo have beensmuggling gold into the coun-try using diplomatic channeland the smuggled gold wasbeing used for anti-nationalactivities like terrorism and tosubvert the country’s economy.

The Agency also told thatSwapna, who was a formeremployee of the UAE Consulatehad got counterfeit diplomaticseals and certificates to smugglethe gold through diplomaticchannel. She was helped in theoperations by Sandeep, said theagency.

The Special Court judge P

Krishnakumar asked the NIA toproduce the duo before thecourt on July21. The agency toldthe court that it was in posses-sion of all documents and evi-dences to prove their charges..

The smuggling making useof the diplomatic route washappening since 2019, said theagency officials. Swapna was aformer staff of the UAEConsulate atThiruvananthapuram but herservices were terminated fol-lowing charges of improperconduct. She got the diplomat-ic seal of the UAE Consulatemade through the contacts shedeveloped during her tenure inthe Consulate.

Meanwhile there are reportsthat the NIA is likely to inter-rogate some prominent per-sons including film personalitiesin connection with gold smug-gling.

Earlier in the day, Rameez,a Malappuram based MuslimLeague leader who was held bythe Customs officials in con-nection with the smugglingcase was sent to the custody ofthe Customs for seven days bya special court in Kochi.

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The Travancore Royal Family, erstwhile rulersof Kerala, expressed their satisfaction over

Monday's Supreme Court verdict that quashedthe 2011 Kerala High Court verdict which hadremoved the Family's hold over the managementof the Sree Padmanabha Temple, the centuriesold shrine at Thiruvananthapuram. . “This is theblessing by Lord Padmanabha and I don’t havewords to express our gratitude to the lakhs ofpeople who had prayed for us. We are the servileof Lord Ananthapadmanabha and will remainso in future.

This is a victory for LordAnanthapadmanabha and he has blessed hisdevotees with this verdict,” said AswathiThirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi , eminent writerand a member of the Travancore Royal Family.

Kadakampalli Surendran, Kerala Ministerfor Devaswom (temple administration) said theGovernment welcomed the Supreme Court. “Wewill take the future course of action after study-ing the verdict,” said Surendran atThiruvananthapuram.

Govind Bharathan, senior advocate, KeralaHigh Court , said the Supreme Court verdict

delivered on Monday is a victory of not onlythe Travancore Royal family but the Hindus inthe country too. “A secular government does nothave the right to meddle with the rituals asso-ciated with the temple and this verdict sub-stantiates and underscores that tradition. Withthis judgement the Supreme Court has spoiledthe designs of the Kerala Government to takecontrol of the temple properties,” said Bharathanwho was in the forefront of agitations againstthe attempts by various governments to take overthe temple.

K Ramkumar, senior advocate, Kerala HighCourt welcomed the verdict. “The SupremeCourt has upheld the rights of the TravancoreRoyal Family in the administration and man-agement of the Temple. This is a victory forHindus and all believers in the State. The KeralaHigh Court had taken the rights of the RoyalFamily by its 2011 verdict, a painful chapter inKerala’s history. The Royal Family had dedicat-ed everything under its possession for the wel-fare of the people but the so called democraticgovernments were trying to usurp the treasurestored in the chambers of the Temple. TheSupreme Court has atoned for the action of theKerala high Court,” said Ramkumar.

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Dubbing the Narendra ModiGovernment’s recent decision to take

away the official residence of former PrimeMinister Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter PriyankaGandhi in the national Capital as an“uncultured” move, NCP chief SharadPawar said here on Monday that the deci-sion reflected both “arrogance” and “mis-use” of power on the part of the Modi dis-pensation.

In the third and final part of a three-part interview published in the Shiv Sena’sofficial mouth-piece “Saamana”, Pawar dis-approved strongly of the Modi government’sdecision to take away official residence givento Priyanka and said: “One should exercisepower with all humility. Once arrogance of

power goes to the head of the rulers, thiskind of thing happens”.

“Jawaharlal Nehru made an immensecontribution to India’s freedom.Subsequently, he contributed to taking thecountry on the path of democracy. Hisdaughter Indira Gandhi and grandsonRajiv Gandhi sacrificed their lives for thecountry. Here is the family that sacrificedtwo of their members for the country andits earlier members had contributed theirentire life to the country. Priyanka Gandhicomes from this family”.

“After the assassination of RajiVGandhi, his wife Sonia Gandhi has rebuiltthe Congress. The ruling BJP may havepolitical differences with the Congress, butit does not mean that it can misuse powerand harass opponents. This kind of

approach is unwise. You are taking away theofficial residence of the daughter of a latePrime Minister and she has been forced toshift her residence to Lucknow. I do notthink this is a cultured way of dealing withthings,” Pawar said.

When his attention was drawn to thevindictive approach adopted by the ModiGovernment towards the non-BJP gov-ernments in the country, Pawar said: WhenManmohan Singh was heading the UPAgovernment, then Chief Minister of GujaratNarendra Modi – ahead of the meetingscalled the Prime Ministers-- used to holdmeetings of the chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states in an uncharacteristic manner.Even at the meetings called by the PrimeMinister, Modi used to forcefully on theissues relating to the BJP-ruled State.

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Ahead of the arrival of tourists in Jammu& Kashmir, via air route from July 14,

the situation is turning grim especially inKashmir valley. On Monday, 314 fresh casesof coronavirus were detected taking the totaltally to 10,827. Out of this, 4,545 are activepositive cases in the region.

As most parts of Srinagar witnessedcomplete lockdown across 88 containmentzones, 225 fresh cases of coronavirus weredetected in Kashmir valley alone. Out of this,101 cases tested positive from Srinagar dis-trict while eight more deaths due to Covid-19 were reported from Kashmir division,taking the total tally to 187.

At present 1,236 cases were active pos-itive in Srinagar district alone followed by1326 cases in Baramulla and 1,021 inKulgam district.

The downtown areas of Srinagar and themain city centre, Lal Chowk observedcomplete lockdown in the wake of a spikein the number of cases of coronavirus.

No official function was observed at theMazar-e-Shahuda located in Shehar-e-Khaas. Concertina wires were spread and themain gates also remained closed. No polit-ical leader was permitted to offer floral trib-utes inside the premises.

Anantnag, Kupwara and Ganderbaldistricts also observed lockdown to containthe spread of coronavirus.

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With the doubling rate for Covid-19 cases in thecountry’s commercial capital having increased

to 50 days, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner ISChahal on Monday made it clear that there is noplan to re-impose lockdown in the metropolis.

“The coronavirus situation in Mumbai is total-ly under control. There is no need for re-imposinglockdown in Mumbai,” Chahal said, while talkingto a regional television channel.

In what has come as a big relief to theMumbaikars is that the doubling rate for Covid-19cases – which was three days on March 22, rose to15 days on April 5 and increased further to 30 dayson June 22 –has gone up 50 days on July 10.

In the case of suburbs like Bandra, Khar (east)and Santa Cruz – which fall under H-East ward –the doubling period has gone up to 154 days.

Chahal said that the testing done by theBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hadgone up from 4,000 to 6,800 every day. “However,the total number of positive cases has come downfrom 1,400 to 1,200 now,” the city chief said.

Of these 1,200 to 1400 positive cases, the symp-tomatic cases are less than 200. “That being the case,the BMC needs only 200 beds daily,” Chahal said.

“We have put in place Standard OperatingProcedure (SOP) to streamline allocation of Covid-19 beds to the patients. Now it is essential for theprivate labs to submit reports of the patients with-in 24 hours of testing. Soon after that we will under-take contract tracing and isolate those who havecome in contact with the positive patients, “ Chahalsaid.

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Page 6: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sstrong message to Beijing fromLadakh some days ago and theglobal support he has garnered forcalling out China’s belligerence

marks a much-awaited change in India’sapproach to the coercive tactics of this trou-blesome neighbour. China’s attempt to re-draw the boundaries in the Galwan Valleylast month is only the latest in a long list ofsuch incursions it has resorted to. While thebrave soldiers of the Indian Army chal-lenged the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)men at the site, one has not seen similarassertiveness among Indian politicians,especially in the past.

This is something that is going on fromthe days of former Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru, who seemed to have sometotally impractical and unrealistic notionsof friendship with China. Strangely, hebelieved that ties with our neighbourwould improve with the passage of time and,therefore, he went out of the way to buildbridges with that nation. This included hiseagerness to see China as a member of theUnited Nations Security Council.

However, China has never really reci-procated. It has shown no inclination toresolve border-related issues so that therebe any finality to the demarcation of terri-tories. It has preferred a Line of ActualControl (LAC) to a regular border as thevagueness of the description of a line sep-arating the two nations enables it to nibbleaway at land on our side. It has kept the potboiling for over seven decades. Apart fromthis, China has, over the years, befriendedPakistan, supplied it with arms and aidedits nuclear weapons programme. It has alsoturned a blind eye to the terror factories thatare run by Pakistan to wage a proxy waragainst India.

What does all this amount to? The truthis that China is an enemy nation and theChinese Communist Party (CCP) is anenemy organisation, as noted lawyerMahesh Jethmalani has opined recently.

Prime Minister Modi’s ringing messagefrom Ladakh, his Government’s firm resolveto ban Chinese apps and scrap many bigprojects, which were being awarded toChinese companies, must have come as ashocker for our eastern neighbour. Neverbefore had an Indian leader spoken andacted with such sternness. Modi’s declara-tion that “the era of expansionism is over”is a sharp message to China that it mustchange its ways. It is also a message to therest of the world that India will not put upwith this kind of bullying any more.

The Prime Minister reminded Chinaand the world that expansionist policies tendto destroy humanity and pose a grave threatto world peace. History has also shown usthat such powers, which believed in orattempted hegemonistic policies, have beendestroyed or forced to mend their ways.

Modi’s reference to “expansionism”

and its deleterious effects onworld peace brought back thedreadful memories of WorldWar II. Modi was telling theworld, without naming China,that that country, too, wasbehaving in a crazy way, withconfrontationist policiestowards many nations.

Hitler’s expansionist policymade the Germans believe thatthey were invincible; that theycould gobble up all the neigh-bouring nations; and destroy theUK, Russia and the allies led byAmerica. Hitler began his hege-monistic misadventure withthe invasion of Austria, Polandand Czechoslovakia. Then cameNorway, Denmark andBelgium, Yugoslavia and Greecefollowed by Luxembourg andthe Netherlands. When heinvaded France and later,Russia, he had bitten more thanhe could chew.

Looking back, one can saythat was an act of extremearrogance by a nation whichwas convinced about its invin-cibility. China’s attempt to pro-voke India along the LACcomes alongside its attempts tochallenge the maritime andsovereign rights of Japan,Australia, Vietnam, SouthKorea, Singapore and manyother nations. The latest countsays China has disputes with 23nations, apart from going backon the promises made vis-a-vis

Hong Kong and Taiwan. This isa reminder to the world of thereckless and irresponsiblebehaviour of the Nazis 80 yearsago. Many nations, includingthe US, Australia, Japan, Franceand several members of theASEAN, have been highly crit-ical of China after India blew thewhistle.

The Prime Minister alsosent across two other veryimportant messages fromLadakh — that only strengthbegets peace and that India hasstepped up and will continue tostep up development of infra-structure along the LAC. Theseare very significant messagesindeed and are meant for thedomestic audience, which hasbeen made to believe thatneighbours will reciprocatedecency and cordiality fordecades. This myth needs to bebusted once and for all.

China’s response to thePrime Minister’s speech islaughable. After having set itselfon a confrontation course formany months, the ChineseForeign Ministry issued a state-ment, saying this was not thetime to ratchet up tensionsalong the border. It said Indiashould avoid a “strategic miscal-culation” with regard to China.This is strange because the waythe dice has rolled out, it isChina which has made “a strate-gic miscalculation” on India.

The Chinese Army got ashock when Indian soldiersstood up to their bullying tac-tics at Galwan and gave them abloody nose. Till today, Chinahas not had the courage to tellthe world the number of casu-alties it suffered at Galwan.This speaks a lot about the innerstrength of that nation.

There comes a time in thelife of every nation when it mustsay “enough is enough.” Indiamust now get “Galwanised” todeal with a hostile China. It isgoing to be a long haul but whatis a decade or two in the life ofa nation? We are a nation of1,350 million and in a couple ofdecades, we will be the mostpopulous nation in the world.The time has come for theworld at large and the Chinesein particular to absorb this fact.As the sociologists say “demog-raphy is destiny.”

While the talks are on todisengage at the border and theChinese Ambassador has issueda placatory statement appealingto Indians not to view China asa “war-like” country, we shouldnot lower our guard. As thePrime Minister has said morethan once, we need not put upwith those who cast an evil eyeon us. Also, pusillanimity doesnot bring peace. Strength does.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal.)

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Sir — It is ironic that the US, thenation with the highest COVID-19 tally, has decided to withdrawfrom the WHO. US PresidentDonald Trump has alleged thatthe world body has been func-tioning at the behest of China, thecountry which he believes isresponsible for the spread of thevirus. China promptly defend-ed the WHO with vehement crit-icism of the US stand.

As it is, the US has a traditionof withdrawing from groups andcontracts. Ever since Trumpassumed office, this has becomethe new norm. There is no deny-ing the fact that the WHO’s asso-ciation with China in the wake ofthe calamity has not been abovesuspicion. The WHO has avoid-ed direct criticism of China. Andthe latter has only good words todescribe the world health bodyand it has, thus, often reciprocat-ed China’s goodwill.

Nevertheless, the US’ move towithdraw from the WHO is a per-fect example of the country pur-suing unilateralism. The movealso illustrates the foreign policyfollowed by Trump. At a timewhen nations are fighting a health

crisis, its pullout will impact theway the world fights the pandem-ic. The worst-hit will be thedeveloping countries and theones having high infection cases.

Venu GSKollam

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Encounter the truth” (July 11).Without any doubt, gangsterVikas Dubey deserved severe

punishment — death penalty orlife sentence — but this shouldhave been done after all judicialprocesses were observed. Policebrutality is unwarranted. That thepolice took the law into its ownhands to deliver instant justice is

not only barbaric but also uncon-stitutional. It wouldn’t be anexaggeration to say that thepolice-criminal-politician nexusworks to settle personal scores.Such encounters are used routine-ly by the police to eliminate thecriminals on the whims and fan-cies of those in power. This needsto change. The judiciary mustintervene.

Rati SinghVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Encounter the truth” (July 11).With the death of the dreadedgangster, Vikas Dubey, manyquestions will remain unan-swered and unexplained. Nobodyhas any sympathy for the gangsterbut the incident gives a sad mes-sage where the police has acted asprosecutor, judge and execution-er. No civil society can digest sucha scenario. We need to focus onthe politico-criminal nexus. Timefor a change now.

AF NadwiMumbai

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Page 7: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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On June 26, three days after the father-sonduo, P Jayaraj and Bennix, died after beingbrutally tortured in police custody in

Sathankulam in Tamil Nadu (TN), a non-gov-ernmental organisation (NGO), the NationalCampaign Against Torture (NCAT), brought outits annual report for 2019. It revealed that a totalof 1,731 people had died in custody in India dur-ing 2019, which is a whopping five deaths everyday. A majority of these deaths, 1,606, happenedin judicial custody and 125 in police custody, likethe present ones.

The methods of torture used, like drivingnails in the body or rods through the private parts,burning or other atrocious methods of tormentwould put even the medieval Inquisition toshame. It also highlighted that 75 per cent of thevictims belonged to poor and marginalised com-munities or minorities, who have practically noaccess to legal remedies.

Investigations into these cases almost alwayslead to closure without any culpability beingestablished and instances when someone is actu-ally punished for the deaths are extremely rare.The deaths are attributed to either “natural caus-es” like prior illnesses and “injuries sustained priorto police custody” or “unnatural causes” like sui-cides. As per the statistics provided in theNational Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB’s) lat-est report on Crimes in India, 2018, in cases of70 deaths in police custody, not even a singlearrest was made, let alone conviction.

As per the Constitution of the country,policemen are public servants and a police sta-tion is considered a public property. Therefore,the duty and the behaviour of a policeman mustconform to the country’s law, respect basic humanfreedom and obey as well as maintain law andorder. However, the ground reality is far from thisand time and again, policemen are involved incustodial violence and deaths.

To prevent custodial violence, elaborateguidelines to be followed in all cases of arrest ordetention were prescribed by the SupremeCourt in its 1996 verdict in the DK Basu vs Stateof West Bengal case, and subsequent judgmentsmade in 2001 and 2015. These guidelines areobserved only in their breach. Any inquiry by ahuman rights group through the Right toInformation (RTI) Act or otherwise almost alwaysdraws a blank, with the information sought being“unavailable.”

In 2015, Section 176 (1) of the CriminalProcedure Code (CrPC) was amended by replac-ing the earlier provision of inquiry by anExecutive Magistrate with that by a JudicialMagistrate. This also is rarely conducted or con-ducted mechanically, only to satisfy the formal-ities. Only after the nationwide outrage after theSathankulam incident, the Madurai Bench of theMadras High Court ordered a Judicial Magistrate’sinquiry into the incident and the five policemenwere arrested in the case and transferred to theMadurai Central Jail from Tuticorin. Now, theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is prob-ing the case.

In 2006, the apex court also directed thatevery State should have a Police ComplaintsAuthority where anyone can lodge a complaintagainst policemen. Only a few States such asKerala, Jharkhand, Haryana, Punjab andMaharashtra have set up the authority. But thathas not prevented custodial deaths — Punjab,

along with Uttar Pradesh (UP) and TN,recorded the highest number of deathsin police custody in 2019.

In 1994, in its 152nd report, the LawCommission had remarked that despiteall legal and constitutional safeguards,“The growing incidence of custodial tor-ture and deaths has become a disturb-ing factor in society and the gory talesof dehumanising torture, assault anddeaths in the custody of police are beingreported almost in every morningnewspaper.” It observed that inquiriesare conducted as a mere formality. Evenmore than 25 years later, things have notchanged one bit on the ground. At besta monetary compensation is offered bythe State. In the TN case, the StateGovernment announced a compensa-tion of �20 lakh and the DMK’sThoothukudi MP Kanimozhi declareda compensation of �25 lakh for thebereaved family. However, this is notenough to make up for the loss of themain bread-winners of the family,which is not backing off and is seekingjustice for the two men.

But in other cases, money usuallysilences the victims’ families, whomostly come from poor and margin-alised backgrounds. In a rarest of therare instances of its kind, for torturinga man to death in custody in 2006, aDelhi Sessions Court sentenced five UPpolicemen to 10 years of rigorousimprisonment in 2019. They hadmanipulated records to erase all evi-dence of custodial death before closingthe case as a suicide.

The judge very aptly remarked onthat occasion, “One of the reasons forcustodial death is that the police feel thatthey have the power to manipulate evi-dence as the investigation is their pre-rogative. And with such manipulatedevidence, they can bury the truth.They are confident that they will not beheld accountable even if the victim diesin custody and even if the truth is

revealed.” The fact remains that theinter-departmental solidarity will alwaystend to shield the perpetrators and givethem protection in such cases. This givesthem a sense of invincibility and givesthem a licence to kill with impunity. Thefailure of the judicial system to bring theculprits to book follows as a naturalcorollary to the failure to fix account-ability.

Indeed custodial torture shouldhave no place in a civilised society butin our criminal justice system, it hasbeen institutionalised. Torture andextra-judicial killings deem even to haveacquired some legitimacy in the eyes ofthe public, as shown in the Hyderabadkilling of four gang-rape accused by thepolicemen last December.

Whitewashing and covering up arethe norms. After the Sathankulam inci-dent, the top police brass was busy try-ing to cover up the case, citing esotericprocedures. The Judicial Magistrateinquiring into the murders was intim-idated by three police officers, the cru-cial CCTV footage in the police stationwas erased and the woman constable,who courageously deposed against hercolleagues and whose testimony final-ly nailed the murderers, was under con-stant threats and intimidation.

It was only the widespread publicanger that forced the TN Governmentto arrest the five culprits, transfer theprobe to the CBI and take the extraor-dinary step of transferring theSanthakulam Superintendent of Policeto keep him under “compulsory wait”at the DGP office, probably the first ever.This, however, is no punishment, andonce the public anger subsides, it willbe business as usual.

In the US, the 46-year-old GeorgeFloyd had struggled for nine minutesunder the knee of the white Minneapolispolice officer, Derek Chauvin, beseech-ing and begging for his life — “I can’tbreathe.” Actually the chokehold has

been suffocating the US justice deliverysystem for the Blacks for a long time butthe incident triggered the pent-upanger and resentment, leading toprotests and violence that spread likewildfire across the globe.

The ‘Black Lives Matter’ movementupset many Indians, too, who voicedtheir anger on the social media. But noprotests against police atrocities haveerupted across our cities after thedeaths of P Jayaraj and Bennix. Eitherwe are too scared or we just don’t careif cops go on a rampage. In the US, ithas led to calls for police reforms anddefunding the police. Use of chokeholdshas been banned and it has also forcedUS President Donald Trump to issue anexecutive order for establishing a data-base to track police officers with a his-tory of “excessive use-of-force com-plaints” in their records. Derek Chauvinhad a history of using excessive force;such persons in future would carry it intheir service records. This will likelyserve as an effective deterrent.

The 18th Century French politicalphilosopher Montesquieu wrote in hismagnum opus, The Spirit of Laws,“There is no greater tyranny than thatwhich is perpetrated under the shieldof the law and in the name of justice.”

If we aspire to have some semblanceof a civilised society, we must eradicatesuch tyranny. The only way to preventand eliminate custodial deaths is tomake the senior police officers direct-ly accountable whenever such incidentsoccur in police stations under theirjurisdictions. A death should be reflect-ed in their service records and shouldcarry a negative weightage in their pro-motions and postings. Senior police offi-cers alone can prevent this, and onlywhen they are made directly account-able will this scourge stop.

(The writer is a former DirectorGeneral at the Office of the CAG of Indiaand an academic.)

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The wilful, negligent and unmind-ful attitude of the Chineseauthorities has led to the cata-

strophe of COVID-19. While someconsider the inaction and lackadaisi-cal behaviour of China coupled withsuppression of information as “treasonagainst humanity”, the possibility ofmaintaining a successful lawsuitagainst our neighbour has to beexplored rigorously.

There have been a couple ofinstant suits filed against China, seek-ing compensation for the politicalopacity and lack of response by theChinese authorities, which have causedhumongous damage to human life and

economies across the globe. There havebeen charges alleging creation andrelease, accidental or otherwise, of theNovel Coronavirus and of unleashingbiological warfare. In all probability,positive outcomes of such legal chal-lenges are highly sceptical.

Undeniably, the Chinese author-ities have deliberately chosen denial,have behaved irresponsibly through-out the saga and deserve the condem-nation of the entire world. The regimeof transferring patently false informa-tion all this while has made thingsunnecessarily worse as we stand today.Legal liability, however, is a disparatephenomenon. Here we need to realise,that the Government of China is pro-tected by the ambient sovereign immu-nity, and misconduct, even if proved,will not be able to cater to sufficientgrounds for a waiver of that indemni-ty.

Sovereign immunity is not just ajudicial favour for foreign regimes.International treaties of shared under-

standing and reciprocity not allowingpeople to sue the country primarilyguide it. The difficulty at this stage aris-es as the act of China, despite being inthe nature of criminal negligence, failsto fall in the bracket of exception laiddown by the international law to theimmunity enjoyed by the States.Rather, there is a specific bar upon theexercise or performance or the failureto exercise discretionary powersregardless of whether the discretion isbeing abused. Possibly, the recklessbehaviour of the Chinese Governmentis baked into the very idea of sovereignimmunity.

The next leg of the argumentrevolves around the proposition thatChina did very little to stop the spreadof the virus. Unfortunately, the thrustof the argument on legal principles istremendously weak. Sovereign immu-nity does not work on benevolence butreciprocity. China has been rejectingall such allegations and is certain tojunk every summon it receives, ulti-

mately making the entire exercise afutile thing. The World HealthOrganisation’s (WHO’s) InternationalHealth Regulations, 2005 is beingreferred to in order to assert that Chinaviolated its international obligations.Articles six and seven of the WHO reg-ulations make timely notification andinformation-sharing obligatory onthe country where an outbreak takesplace. Consequently, China has beendenying all such allegations, which inturn nullifies the violation as the legalliability could only be fixed if the coun-try consents to it. There is a very minorand primarily a technical gateway todrag China to the International Courtof Justice (ICJ) over the Coronaviruspandemic provided in the WHO’sConstitution. This provision does notrequire the consent of the defendantcountry. A member country will haveto establish or create a doubt thatChina deliberately withheld informa-tion from the WHO and the interna-tional community at large. Article 63

of the WHO’s Constitution providesthe legal basis for this route.

Tort law generally rests on theproposition that people will take rea-sonable care if they know there is aninherent danger that could causeharm to others. Under sovereignimmunity, the costs of misbehaviourof the Government tend to lie wherethey fall. The concept of internation-al terror and henceforth laws to tack-le it were conceptualised a few yearsback. However, the absence of robustlegislations possibly will not entail anypunishment for another country’srecklessness and the motive is appo-site to be political.

Nevertheless, for the massive eco-nomic fallout, China cannot be allowedto go scot-free. Perhaps, world leadershave to work in mutiny to diplomat-ically pressurise China for causing thepandemic and the present situation.On the contrary, China has called theallegations xenophobic, which inval-idates all possible actions undertaken

as of now. Further, the most difficultpart of the regime is to prove the delib-erate intention of China in causing allthe trouble the world is in at present.

In a nutshell, China has a strongposition to rescind all legal allegationsbrought against it by world players,including India. It is a very bleakproposition to contemplate that Chinawill eventually compensate for themajor fallout and global recessioncaused by its laxity and disregard forthe state of affairs. However, the legalremedy of filing lawsuits seems to befutile and superfluous without muchpossibility of any fruitful upshot andconclusion. Nevertheless, how goodthe sequel stands will be eventuallyproven, as and when the lawsuitsalready instituted, are heard by thejudiciary, while the wise option wouldbe to avoid any bulging aspiration tobe accrued from the judicial reactionto the legal battle.

(The writer is Managing Partner atKS Legal)

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Page 8: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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London: Scientists havedemonstrated that two small,stable antibody variants derivedfrom the South Americanmammals llamas can neutralisethe novel coronavirus in lab-cultured cells, an advancewhich may lead to the devel-opment of new therapeuticsagainst COVID-19.

The study, published inthe journal Nature Structural &Molecular Biology, noted thatthe ‘nanobodies’ can preventinfection with the novel coro-navirus SARS-CoV-2 by block-ing its interaction with theprotein ACE2, which it uses as

a gateway to enter and infectcells.

According to the scien-tists, including those from TheRosalind Franklin Institute inthe UK, passive immunisa-tion, which involves giving apatient virus-neutralising agent-- either from people previouslyinfected with SARS-CoV-2 orpurified antibodies -- can be auseful therapy for COVID-19.

They said antibodiesagainst the 2002-03 SARS pan-demic virus could preventinfection of cells by blockingthe binding of the virus’ spikeprotein to ACE2. PTI

Terre Haute (US): A US districtjudge on Monday ordered a newdelay in federal executions,hours before the first lethalinjection was scheduled to becarried out at a federal prison inIndiana.

The administration imme-diately appealed to a highercourt, asking that the executionsmove forward.

US District Judge TanyaChutkan said there are still legalissues to resolve and that “thepublic is not served by short-cir-cuiting legitimate judicialprocess.” The executions, pushedby the Trump administration,would be the first carried out atthe federal level since 2003.The new hold on executionscame a day after a federal appealscourt lifted a hold on the exe-cution of Daniel Lewis Lee,which is scheduled for 4 pmEDT on Monday. AP

Kabul: Taliban insurgentslaunched a complex attack onan intelligence compound innorthern Afghanistan onMonday that began with a sui-cide bombing and killed at least11 intelligence agency person-nel, officials said.

The attack took place inAybak, the capital of theSamangan province. Sediq Azizi,a spokesman for the provincialgovernor, said another 63 peo-ple were wounded in the attackand the ensuing clashes.

A suicide bomber struckthe compound, followed by twoinsurgents who opened fire.Both were killed in the gunbat-tle, Azizi said. The blast from theinitial bombing could be heardmiles (kilometers) away anddamaged several nearby build-ings. Abdul Khalil Musadiq, aprovincial hospital chief, saidmany of those wounded werecivilians, including children.

The Taliban claimed theattack. The insurgents have

continued to regularly targetAfghan security forces despitesigning a peace agreement withthe US in February that wasintended to pave the way for anend to decades of war.

On Sunday, the Talibanattacked checkpoints in thenorthern Kunduz province,killing at least 14 Afghan secu-rity forces, according toEsmatullah Muradi, aspokesman for the provincialgovernor.

The Taliban said they werebehind the attacks but claimedgovernment forces fired mortarshells in response, hitting civil-ian homes — a claimed dis-missed by the Defence Ministry.

The Taliban and govern-ment forces have been tradingblame over a recent surge inviolence across Afghanistan— even as efforts continue totry and bring about the start ofdirect peace talks between thegovernment and the insur-gents. AP

Beijing: China on Mondayimposed visa restrictions onsome top US officials and politi-cians in the latest tit-for-tatresponse to America’s move tosanction several Chinese offi-cials for alleged human rightsabuses targeting ethnic minor-ity groups in the Muslim-major-ity Xinjiang province.

Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingtold the media here that thebehaviour of the US officials andpoliticians, and visa ban onsome Chinese officials fromUyghur Muslim dominatedXinjiang province “severelydamaged China-US relations,”and should be condemned.

Hua made the comments inresponse to US sanctions andvisa restrictions on three seniorofficials of the ruling ChineseCommunist Party fromXinjiang for alleged humanrights abuses targeting MuslimUyghurs.

China has decided toimpose sanctions starting fromMonday against USCongressional-ExecutiveCommission on China (CECC),

US Ambassador at Large forInternational Religious FreedomSamuel Brownback,Congressman Chris Smit andUS Senators Marco Rubio andTed Cruz.

The CECC is headed byRubio, a vocal critic of China.

Announcing the ban onUS officials, Hua reiterated“Xinjiang is entirely the internalaffair of China, and the US hasno right to interfere. TheChinese government’s deter-mination to protect its sover-eignty, and crackdown againstterrorism, separatism andextreme religious forces isunshakeable.”

Hua said China would takefurther measures based on thesituation. This is the first-timeChina has banned top US politi-cians in its retaliation to USsanctions and visa bans onChinese officials from Xinjiang,Tibet and over the new nation-al security law in Hong Kong.

Beijing’s move comes daysafter the US on Thursdayslapped sanctions on someChinese officials in-charge ofXinjiang Uygur autonomous

region who were “believed to beresponsible for, or complicit in,the unjust detention or abuse ofUygurs, ethnic -Kazakhs andmembers of other minoritygroups in Xinjiang”.

The three officials bannedby the US are Chen Quanguo,CCP Party Secretary of theXinjiang Uyghur AutonomousRegion; Zhu Hailun, PartySecretary of the XinjiangPolitical and Legal Committee;and Wang Mingshan, the cur-rent Party Secretary of theXinjiang Public Security Bureau.

China has been saying itwould retaliate with similarbans on US officials with “egre-gious behaviours”.

Secretary of State MikePompeo while announcingsanctions on Chinese officialsin Xinjiang on Thursday said“the United States is takingaction against the horrific andsystematic abuses in Xinjiangand calls on all nations whoshare our concerns about theCCP’s attacks on human rightsand fundamental freedoms tojoin us in condemning thisbehaviour”. PTI

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Turkey and the EuropeanUnion clashed on Monday

over Ankara’s decision tochange the status of HagiaSophia from a museum to amosque and its continuedenergy exploration in disput-ed Mediterranean waters.

After their their first face-to-face meeting in months,the 27 EU foreign ministerssaid that they “condemned theTurkish decision to convertsuch an emblematic monu-ment as the Hagia Sophia,” EUforeign affairs chief Josep

Borrell said.“This decision will

inevitably fuel the mistrust,promote renewed divisionbetween religious communitiesand undermine our efforts atdialog and cooperation,” hesaid after the meeting of EUforeign ministers.

He said there was “broadsupport to call on the Turkishauthorities to urgently consid-er and reverse this decision.”Hagia Sophia was originallybuilt in Istanbul as a Christiancathedral, and the pope andothers have expressed theirsadness and criticism of the

move by President RecepTayyip Erdogan.

Greek Governmentspokesman Stelios Petsas saidMonday that the EU was“faced with a challenge andinsult” meted out by Erdogan.

Turkish Foreign MinisterMevlut Cavusoglu hit backand rejected internationalintervention concerning itsdecision to convert HagiaSophia back into a mosque.

“Hagia Sophia was left asa legacy as a mosque and mustbe used as a mosque,”Cavusoglu told state broad-caster TRT.

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The postal voting for over700,000 Sri Lankan officers,

who will be on duty on August5 for the parliamentary polls,began on Monday amidst spe-cial security measures, follow-ing a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in the country.

The voting will go on for 5days with two days reservednext week for those who fail tocast their vote this week. Over700,000 officers who will be onelection duty on August 5 areeligible to cast their vote.

The election authorities

said the voting in the northcentral town of Rajanganayawas indefinitely postponed due to a COVID-19 threat.According to the health officials, a cluster has beenforming in the area since last week with the infectionsfrom a drug rehabilitation center at Kandakadu inPolonnaruwa district.

Nearly 500 new infection,including 70 students, weredetected from Kandakadu cluster. Around 600 close contacts of those who testedpositive have been sent forquarantine.

Beijing: Over 140 people havedied or are missing in the cat-astrophic floods that havebeen wreaking havoc in Chinasince last month, affectingmore than 37 million anddamaging 28,000 houses,media reports said on Monday.

China’s State FloodControl and Drought ReliefHeadquarters upgraded theemergency response for floodcontrol from level III to levelII on Sunday, as incessantdownpours continued acrossvast stretches of the country.

Over 2.24 lakh peoplehave been relocated as Chinafaces “flood catastrophe” with433 rivers in spate, testing thestrength of some of the waterbarrages including the world’slargest Three Gorges Dam.

The floods have affected37.89 million people in 27provinces, autonomousregions and municipalities.Since June, 141 people aredead or missing, and 28,000houses have collapsed, state-run CGTN quoted theMinistry of Water Resourcesas saying. PTI

Washington: A Republicangovernor rumoured to be eye-ing a run for the White Housein 2024 said Sunday that theGOP needs to be a “bigger tentparty” after President DonaldTrump leaves office.

Maryland’s Larry Hogan,who has been known to breakwith Trump, told NBC’s “Meetthe Press” that he doesn’t“know what the future holds inNovember.”

“But I know that theRepublican Party is going to belooking at what happens afterPresident Trump and whetherthat’s in four months or fouryears,” Hogan said.

“And I think they’re goingto be looking to, ‘How do we goabout becoming a bigger tentparty?’” The rebuke was a rar-ity from Republicans, who havelargely been afraid to criticizea president still popular withthe GOP rank-and-file despitequestions about how he hashandled the COVID-19 pan-demic.

Hogan did not rule outvoting for Joe Biden, theDemocrat challenging Trumpin the November election. In2016, Hogan wrote in thename of his father, a formerRepublican congressman fromMaryland.

“It’s a difficult choice,” he

said. “I think most peoplewould like to see somethingdifferent, and maybe we’ll fig-ure that out in 2024.”

The governor pointed tohis 2018 reelection as a model,when he won in deep-blueMaryland by almost 12 per-centage points “by reachingout, by trying to find that mid-dle ground where people canstand together” and by eschew-ing “divisive rhetoric.” He alsonoted that he did well with sub-urban women, a group thatpolls suggest has largely aban-doned Trump. AP

New York: A top prosecutor forspecial counsel Robert Muellerhas a book coming out this fallabout the two-year investigationinto the alleged ties betweenRussia and the 2016 campaignof President Donald Trump.

Random House announced

Monday that AndrewWeissmann’s “Where Law Ends:Inside the Mueller Investigation”will be published Sept. 29.

Weissmann, often the targetof criticism from Trump sup-porters, is calling the book ameticulous account of the

Mueller team’s probe and itsongoing battles with the Trumpadministration.

“I felt it was necessary torecord this episode in our his-tory, as seen and experienced byan insider,” he said in a state-ment. “This is the story of ourinvestigation into how ourdemocracy was attacked byRussia and how those whocondoned and ignored thatassault undermined our abili-ty to uncover the truth. Myobligation as a prosecutor wasto follow the facts where theyled, using all available tools andundeterred by the onslaught ofthe president’s unique powersto undermine our work.

“I am deeply proud of thework we did and of the unprece-dented number of people weindicted and convicted — andin record speed. But the hardtruth is that we made mistakes.We could have done more.‘Where Law Ends’ documentsthe choices we made, good andbad, for all to see and judge andlearn from.” Weissmann, whoworked as an FBI general coun-sel under Mueller, gainedprominence as a prosecutorinvestigating organised crime inNew York City and for hisleadership of a task force look-ing into the Enron scandal. AP

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Afghanistan’s exports toIndia will restart from July

15 through Wagah border aspart of Covid-19 managementmechanism with Pakistan,Afghan Ambassador toPakistan Atif Mashal has tweet-et. Pakistan had closed downthe Wagah border with India inmid-March in the wake of thecoronavirus pandemic.

“At the special request ofthe Government of Afghanistanand with a view to facilitatingAfghanistan’s transit trade,Pakistan has decided to resumeAfghan exports through Wagahborder crossing from July 15,2020, after implementing Covidrelated protocols,” the ForeignOffice (FO) of Pakistan said ina statement. Pakistan’s ForeignOffice stated that with thisstep, Pakistan has fulfilled itscommitments under thePakistan-Afghanistan TransitTrade Agreement (APTTA).Last month, Pakistan hadreopened the Torkham crossingin Khyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince, Chaman point inBalochistan and Ghulam Khanin North Waziristan to Afghantraders.

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Moscow: The clinical trials ofthe world’s first coronavirusvaccine on volunteers has beensuccessfully completed atSechenov First Moscow StateMedical University, Sputniknews agency reported quotingan official.

The Sechenov FirstMoscow State MedicalUniversity began clinical trialsof the vaccine produced byRussia’s Gamalei Institute ofEpidemiology andMicrobiology on June 18.

“Sechenov University hassuccessfully completed testson volunteers of the world’’sfirst vaccine against coron-avirus,” Vadim Tarasov, thedirector of the Institute forTranslational Medicine andBiotechnology, said. The firstgroup of volunteers would bedischarged on Wednesday andthe second on July 20, headded.

According to AlexanderLukashev, the director of theInstitute of MedicalParasitology, Tropical andVector-Borne Diseases atSechenov University, the objec-tive of this stage of the studywas to show the vaccine’’s safe-ty for human health, which was

successfully done.“The safety of the vaccine

is confirmed. It corresponds tothe safety of those vaccines thatare currently on the market,”Lukashev told Sputnik.

The further vaccine devel-opment plan is already beingdetermined by the developer’’sstrategy, including the com-plexity of the epidemiologicalsituation with the virus and thepossibility of scaling up pro-duction, Lukashev added.

“Sechenov University in apandemic situation acted notonly as an educational institu-tion but also as a scientific andtechnological research centerthat is able to participate in thecreation of such important andcomplex products as drugs ...We worked with this vaccine,starting with preclinical studiesand protocol development, andclinical trials are currentlyunderway,” Tarasov noted. ANI

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Washington: The RepublicanNational Committee andPresident Donald Trump’scampaign say they have nowhired 1,500 field staffers, aim-ing to convert their financialadvantage over Democrats intovotes in November.

Trump Victory, the jointfield effort of the two organi-sations, announced Mondaythe hiring of an additional 300staffers set to hit 20 target statesby Wednesday in the largestfield operation over mountedby a Republican. AP

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St. Petersburg (US): Floridahas shattered the nationalrecord for the largest single-day increase in positive coro-navirus cases in any state sincethe beginning of the pandem-ic, adding more than 15,000cases as its daily average deathtoll continued to also rise.

According to stateDepartment of Health statis-tics, 15,299 people tested pos-itive, for a total of 269,811cases, and 45 deaths wererecorded on Sunday.

California had the previ-ous record of daily positivecases — 11,694, set onWednesday. New York had11,571 on April 15. AP

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Retail inflation rose by 6.09per cent in June, mainly on

account of higher prices of fooditems, the Government datashowed on Monday.

Food inflation in Juneincreased by 7.87 per cent,according to Consumer PriceIndex (CPI) data.

The inflation figures arebased on data collected fromlimited markets in view of therestrictions imposed onaccount of coronavirus pan-

demic, the Ministry of Statistics& Programme Implementationsaid in a release. The data col-lected, however, did not meetthe adequacy criteria for gen-erating robust estimates ofCPIs at the state-level, it added.

The retail inflationbased on Consumer PrinceIndex was 3.18 per cent in June2019.

The Government hadreleased truncated CPI data forApril and May in the backdropof the lockdown to containCOVID-19 pandemic.

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Traders’ body CAIT, whichhas called for the boycott of

Chinese products, on Mondaysaid it has resolved for a“Hindustani rakhi” next monthand dent China’s estimated Rs4,000 crore of trade during thefestival. The Confederation ofAll India Traders (CAIT)would also hand over morethan 5,000 rakhis to DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh to befurther sent to soldiers guard-ing the country’s borders.

The CAIT, which has40,000 trade associations andseven crore members acrossIndia as its members, hasresolved for a “purelyHindustani Rakhi festival” onAugust 3 and dent China’s esti-mated Rs 4,000 crore trade dur-ing the festival, it said in a state-ment.

“This time any rakhi madeby China or any rakhi-relatedproduct from China will not beused! In order to encourage thebrave soldiers who are guard-ing the borders of the country,the women’s wing of the CAITwill give 5,000 rakhis toDefence Minister RajnathSingh for the soldiers,” thetraders’ body said.

The CAIT said that accord-ing to an estimate a trade of Rs6,000 crore takes place everyyear in India on RakshaBandhan in which China alonecontributes about Rs 4,000crore.

“Not only is finished rakhiimported from China but alsorakhi-making products likefoam, paper foil, rakhi thread,pearls, drops, decorative itemsfor rakhi are also imported.Due to CAIT’s campaign toboycott Chinese goods, noChinese goods will be used inrakhi this year and we areconfident that China is set tolose about Rs 4,000 crores ofbusiness,” Sushil Kumar Jain,the Delhi-NCR unit convenorof the CAIT, said. He said theCAIT has sent a message to all

its state chapters and othermajor associations working inall the states that Chinese rakhior related products should notbe sold.

“CAIT has also urged var-ious state chapters to get peo-ple working in raw settlementsin the cities, self-help groups ofwomen, women working inanganwadis, small artisans andothers to make rakhis and sellthem in markets which willalso be a great help to peopleof all these classes,” Jain said.

At the same time, CAIThas also urged small scaleindustries to make Rakhisusing Indian goods, he added.The trade body said that itswomen wing would also giverakhis to soldiers posted at mil-itary hospitals in each city ofthe country.

The women wing of CAITin every city of the country, willalso tie rakhi to police person-nel engaged in safety and secu-rity of citizens thereby giving amessage that every person ofthe country stands firmly withthe Army and the police forceof the country, the statementsaid.

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The rupee settled on a flatnote at 75.19 against the US

dollar on Monday amid highvolatility in the domestic equi-ty market.

The � traded in a narrowrange as investors awaited retailinflation data for further cues,forex dealers said.

During the four-hourtrading session, the domesticunit witnessed an intra-dayhigh of 75.08 and a low of 75.21against the US $.

The rupee closed at 75.19against the US dollar, up by just1 paisa over its previous close.It had settled at 75.20 againstthe greenback on Friday.

While weak US currencysupported the local unit, for-eign fund outflows and con-cerns over rising COVID-19cases weighed on investor sen-timent, traders said.

Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges the green-back’s strength against a basketof six currencies, fell 0.03 percent to 96.62.

Equity benchmarks Sensexand Nifty came off the day’s

highs due to losses in financialstocks. The BSE Sensex settled99.36 points, or 0.27 per cent,higher at 36,693.69 - giving upabout gains of 330 points fromits intra-day peak.

The NSE Nifty closed34.65 points, or 1.15 per cent,up at 10,802.70.

Foreign institutionalinvestors were net sellers in thecapital market as they soldshares worth �1,031 crore onFriday, according to provi-sional exchange data. Brentcrude futures, the global oilbenchmark, fell 1.25 per cent toUSD 42.70 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the number ofcases around the world linked

to the disease has crossed 1.29crore and the death toll hastopped 5.69 lakh.

In India, the death toll dueto COVID-19 rose to 23,174and the number of infectionsspiked to 8,78,254, according tothe Health Ministry.

“Rupee consolidated in anarrow range ahead of theimportant inflation numberthat will be released todayevening.

Expectation is that it couldgrow at 5.30 per cent in Junecompared to growth of 5.84 percent in the previous month,”said Gaurang Somaiyaa, Forex& Bullion Analyst, MotilalOswal Financial Services.

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The DPIIT would soonapproach the Union

Cabinet to seek approval forrelaxing norms to allow up to74 per cent foreign directinvestment (FDI) in defencemanufacturing under the auto-matic route, with a view toattract overseas players in thesector, sources said.

They said the Departmentfor Promotion of Industry andInternal Trade (DPIIT) hasdiscussed the matter with theDefence Ministry.

The decision to permit upto 74 per cent FDI in thedefence manufacturingthrough the automatic routewas announced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanin May while announcing thefourth tranche of the �20 lakhcrore stimulus package for thecoronavirus-hit economy.

As per the current FDI pol-icy, 100 per cent overseas

investments are permitted inthe defence industry - 49 percent under the automatic route,while beyond that the govern-ment approval is required.

In July 2018, theGovernment had relaxed for-eign direct investment normsin the defence sector by allow-ing up to 49 per cent FDI underthe automatic route.

The move was aimed atboosting domestic industry asIndia imports about 70 per centof its military hardware.According to the DPIIT data,

India’s defence industry hasreceived FDI equity inflows ofUSD 9.52 million (�56.88crore) during April 2000 andMarch 2020.

Under the Governmentroute, foreign investors have totake prior approval of therespective Ministry/depart-ment, while in the automaticroute, the investor just has toinform the RBI after the invest-ment is made.

Total FDI into Indiaincreased by 18 per cent toUSD 73.45 billion in 2019-20.

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After being net seller of theUS currency in the first

month of this fiscal, theReserve Bank of India (RBI)turned net purchaser in May asit bought USD 4.363 billion ofthe greenback on net basis,according to RBI data.

During the month, the RBIbought USD 4.663 billion fromthe spot market while soldUSD 300 million. In April, thecentral bank had sold USD1.142 billion US dollar on a netbasis.The central bank in May

2019 had bought USD 2.538billion of the greenback on anet basis. It had purchasedUSD 5.118 billion and soldUSD 2.580 billion in the spotmarket in May 2019.In FY20,the central bank was net pur-chaser of the US dollar at USD45.097 billion. It had boughtUSD 72.205 billion while soldUSD 27.108 billion in the spotmarket. In the forward dollarmarket, the outstanding netsales at the end of May stoodat USD 1.958 billion, comparedto a sale of USD 1.739 billionin April, the data showed.

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Non-financial services sec-tor may witness up to 25

per cent fall in revenue andbusiness disruptions of up to 12months on account of theCOVID-19 pandemic, says asurvey.

More than 200 leadingsenior representatives fromorganisations operating in thenon-financial services domainin the country participated inthe Protiviti India’s BusinessResilience Barometer survey.

The survey, however,noted strong revival initiativesamidst fall in revenue andbusiness disruptions.“Investments have to be clear-ly prioritised and planned outin augmenting the revival,”said Nirmalya Gupta,Managing Director, ProtivitiMember Firm for India. Guptafurther said “industries wouldgo for cost optimisation around

their current/conventionalways of operating in some ofthe key business areas and cer-tainly in the non-key areas anduse the resources and cashavailable in more intelligentand efficient initiatives underthe “new normal environment”.

As per the survey report,human capital, support func-tions and infrastructure costsare likely to witness major costreduction. The survey revealsthere have been “strong revivalinitiatives amidst fall in revenueof up to 25% and business dis-ruptions of up to 6 months forfinancial services organisa-tions”.

Around 55% of organisa-tions expect layoffs after thelockdown ends and do notexpect hiring to revive beforeat least 60 days, the survey saidadding that real estate andconstruction industry isexpected to see the most lay-offs.

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Mining giant Vedanta Ltdon Monday said it has

launched the second phase ofits ‘meal for all’ programmeunder which it would providemeals to 38,000 daily wageearners and their familiesacross Delhi, Mumbai andAhmedabad.

The programme will bea week-long initiative with atarget of reaching 38,000 dailywage earners and their familiesin the three cities, the compa-ny said in a statement.

The daily wage earners arebeing provided with ration kitsconsisting of daily essentialssuch as rice, pulses, refined oiland spices along with a pair ofslippers. More than 11.08 lakhmeals were provided to dailywage earners in the first phaseof the programme.

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Gold prices jumped �120 to�49,960 per 10 gram in the

national capital on Monday fol-lowing gains in global prices,according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, theprecious metal had closed at �49,840 per 10 gram. Silver alsorose by �858 to �53,320 per kgfrom � 52,462 per kg in the pre-vious trade. In the internationalmarket, gold was trading withgains at USD 1,805 per ounce,while silver was quoting atUSD 19.03 per ounce. “Goldprices continued upside onMonday on concerns oversurge in COVID-19 cases in theworld,” HDFC Securities SeniorAnalyst (Commodities) TapanPatel said.

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The Telangana StateInnovation Cell (TSIC)

along with some leading incu-bators and enablers here haveannounced a programme tosupport over 100 startups scaleup. Rejig.HydStartups is alarge-scale mentoring pro-gramme for startups to rejigstrategy to pivot towards cus-tomers and increased revenuepost-Covid-19.

As startups have been strug-gling due to economic slow-

down caused by Covid-19, theTSIC along with incubators,like T-Hub, CIE-IIITH, IKP,RICH and TiE, has designedthe initiative. The initiativewill support the ecosystem andwork with startups.

A programme for strategyrejig, followed by pitch prepa-ration for equity funding, debtor corporate market access willbe provided, according to arelease.

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Punjab National Bank pro-poses to accelerate self-ser-

vice and focus on automationwith a view to optimiseprocesses, employees andworkplace and thus deal withthe challenges following theoutbreak of coronavirus, thelender said in a message toshareholders.

“The current crisis willsteer the banking industry toremote working which is like-ly to shape the cost structure inthe days ahead”, PNB’s MD andCEO S S Mallikarjuna Rao saidin a letter to shareholders.

He noted that MSME,agriculture, agro-based indus-tries, healthcare, among others,present ample opportunitiesfor growth and lending.

“The bank will accelerateself-service and automationinitiatives through greater focuson technology to foster opti-misation of processes, employ-ee and workplace,” he said.

Rao said 2019-20 startedwith an overarching goaltowards ‘Year of Profitability

and Creating Value’, leaving theadversities of the previousfinancial year behind.

In the last financial year,PNB’s operating profitincreased year-on-year by 13.4per cent to �14,739 crore. Aftera gap of two years, the bankregistered a net profit of � 336crore for 2019-20.

On amalgamation of twopublic sector banks - OrientalBank of Commerce and UnitedBank of India - into PNB witheffect from April 1, 2020, Raosaid the amalgamation processprovides significant benefitsto PNB and its customersbesides providing scale andgrowth.

“The amalgamation haspropelled the bank to theposition of the second largestpubic sector bank in the coun-try and will enable us torealise operational, revenueand cost synergies,” he toldshareholders. On way for-ward for PNB, he said thebank’s prime goal will be tostrengthen the balance sheet,which will create a foundationfor sustainable profitability

going ahead.“The bank will continue

its focus on asset quality man-agement and capital improve-ment in the post- pandemicenvironment, apart from con-tinuing the acceleratedmomentum in recovery, prod-uct leadership, technology, effi-ciency, and small ticket lend-ing,” Rao said.

Going forward, he saidPNB’s endeavour will be toenhance value through multi-pronged digital transforma-tion strategy and greater focuson better underwriting pru-dence and risk controls.

He said the bank is con-siderably strengthened withthe amalgamation. “As a biggerentity, we have revamped ourproducts and delivery channels.It is our mission to build aglobal size, future-ready insti-tution which will substantiallycontribute to the country’sgrowth,” Rao said.

He exuded confidencethat in its new avatar, PNB 2.0will scale still greater heightsand contiune its growth tra-jectory.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Mondaychaired a meeting to review the implementation of

the insurance scheme for health workers fighting Covid-19, as announced under the Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Package (PMGKP).The meeting, throughvideo conferencing, was attended by senior officialsfrom Department of Financial Services, Ministry ofHealth & Family Welfare and the New India AssuranceCompany Ltd.A presentation was made by theChairman & Managing Director of New IndiaAssurance providing details about the highlight of thescheme and its status of implementation as on date.

Officials from Ministry of Health & Family Welfareprovided an overview of the mechanism being followedwith states’ nodal authorities to expedite the claims, alsohighlighting the issues being faced while reaching outto the family of deceased as well as obtaining the legalheir certificate.

Of the 147 intimations received till date, claim doc-uments have been submitted for 87, out of which 15have been paid, four approved for payment while 13 areunder examination.Further, a total of 55 claims havebeen found ineligible out of which 35 claims fall out-side the scope of the cover like police personnel, munic-ipal workers not related to hospitals, people fromEducation, Revenue Departments, etc. while another20 claims submitted have the cause of death other thanCovid-19 like cardiac arrest, etc.

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Tech Mahindra has facilitated returnof over 210 of its employees and

their dependents stranded in the UnitedStates due to COVID-19 induced lock-down.

A special chartered flight carryingthem took off on Monday fromDallas/Fort Worth International Airportand will land on Tuesday.

The firm in a statement said it hasensure the well-being and safety of ourentire employee, customer and partnerecosystem which is critical in the col-lective fight against this global pan-demic.

“Bringing our US-based associ-ates and their dependents back homeconveys our commitment towards ourcore values of ensuring employeessafety first, and reiterates TechMahindras ability to be adaptable andagile in keeping mission-critical systemson for global clients from anywhere inthe world, even during times of crisis,”Tech Mahindra Managing Directorand Chief Executive Officer CPGurnani said.

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Different types of beer, wine, or malt liquor can have very dif-ferent amounts of alcohol content. It’s important to know

how much alcohol your drink contains. In the US, one standarddrink (or one alcoholic drink equivalent) contains roughly 14grams of pure alcohol, which is found in: 4.2% alcohol content:some light beers, 12 ounces of regular beer, which is usually about5% alcohol, 5 ounces of wine, which is typically about 12% alco-hol, 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, which is about 40% alcohol.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism(NIAAA) defines moderate drinking as up to four alcoholic drinksfor men and three for women in any single day and a maximumof 14 drinks for men and seven drinks for women per week.

There are various health problems associated with alcoholintake as depression, dementia, mental health problems, alco-holic hepatitis, anemia, arrhythmias, cirrhosis, fatty liver, gout,high blood pressure, nerve damage, seizures, stroke, chronic dis-ease of the heart muscle, known as cardiomyopathy, some typesof cancer. All types of alcoholic drinks, including red and whitewine, beer, cocktails, and liquor, are linked with cancer. The moreyou drink, the higher your cancer risk.

There is consistent evidence that alcohol is a carcinogen. 3.5% of all cancer-related deaths were because of alcohol consump-tion. 5.5 % of all new cancer occurrences and 5.8 % of all can-

cer deaths worldwide wereattributable to drinking alcohol.But in spite of this only 13% ofpeople understand that canceris one of the health risks asso-ciated with alcohol consump-tion. Ignorance is a lot like alco-hol. The more you have of it,the less you can see its effect onyou.

There is evidence that alco-hol consumption increases therisk of seven different types ofcancers — that of the mouth,throat, voice box, esophagus,bowel, liver and breast.Whereas smoking is linked toat least 15 types of cancer, themost common being lung can-cer. It may also increase the riskof cancers of the skin, pancreasand prostate. Even low levels ofdrinking (up to two drinks aday) were associated with an 8to 23 % higher risk of prostate

cancer when compared to no drinking. Alcohol is thought to bethe cause of between 5% to 11% of all breast cancer cases.

A recent BMC Public Health study suggest that the cigaretteequivalent of a bottle of wine is five cigarettes for men and tenfor women. The authors estimate that in non-smoking men, theabsolute lifetime risk of cancer-that is, the risk of developing can-cer during one’s lifetime-associated with drinking one bottle ofwine per week is 1.0%. For women, it is 1.4%. Thus, if 1,000 menand 1,000 women each drank one bottle of wine per week, around10 extra men and 14 extra women may develop cancer at somepoint in their life. In men, this risk appears to be associated pri-marily with cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, whereas inwomen, 55% of cases appear to be associated with breast can-cer. The authors also found that drinking three bottles of wineper week — a level known to increase the risks of a wide rangeof different health problems — was associated with an increaseof absolute lifetime cancer risk to 1.9% in men and 3.6% in wom-eny. This is equivalent to smoking roughly eight cigarettes perweek for men and 23 cigarettes per week for women.

We all know drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.Drunk never looks good. So, please take a pause and think. Lessdrinking more thinking. Try a big cup of sobriety — now that’sa good stuff. Wake up with no hangover.

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��������A cherry is a stonefruit. These tiny fruits areloaded with Vitamins andantioxidants that help inreducing skin’ssigns of agingand makingit lookfresh andglowing.

It alsohelps in reg-ulating bloodp r e s s u r ebecause of the high potassiumcontent. The phytosterols incherries help reduce bad cho-lesterol levels.

They work wonders assleep stimulators. If you wantto have a good night’s sleepthen grab a cup of cherry juicebefore going to bed and after

waking up in the morning.Cherries are a good source of

melatonin, whichhelps us regulateour sleep cycles.Cherries havealso been found

to help withjet lag.

Sweetc h e r r i e shave a low

g l y c e m i cindex of 22

— lower than apri-cots, grapes ,and peaches. Thismakes them a better snack thanmany other fruits, especially fordiabetics.

Furthermore, these smallberries are good enough tokeep you hydrated and ener-getic throughout the day.

If you feel COVID-19 is a respi-ratory disease then you need tothink again. As a day passes, it

has been emerging as the biggestthreat to trigger a huge range ofneurological disorders. Stroke, anx-iety, confusion and fatigue are thefew names from the long list.There are many instances whenpeople have complaint of chal-lenges in staying focused, problemswith the memory and extremetiredness after the mild illness.

Neurological experts suggestthat earlier nobody realised that thevirus does cause problem in thebrain and after much analysis theyrealised that there could be manyfactors including lack of oxygenflow to the brain, blood-clottingand a hyper-inf lammatoryresponse of the immune systemthat a patient might be goingthrough. However, it is still notclear whether the novel virus itselfis affecting the brain too. Thoughthe recovery rate from the coron-avirus infection has gone up, manybelieve that getting back homefrom the ICU is the beginning ofmuch neurological disorder that apatient never had before.

There have been evidencesfrom the past that how a massivelockdown had affected the brainsof the people. During the end ofWorld War I, a mysterious neuro-logical syndrome known asencephalitis lethargica appearedand went on to affect more than amillion people worldwide. There islimited evidence of its causes, andwhether the trigger was influenzaor a post-infectious autoimmunedisorder is still unknown. Somepatients had movement disordersthat looked like Parkinson’s disease,

which affected them for the rest oftheir lives.

What researchers say?Neurologists are working hard

to have a better understanding ofhow coronavirus infection is affect-ing their patients when variousresearches have estimated that thedeadly virus is causing neurologi-cal impact. A recent researchers atthe University College London(UCL) have studied the brain of 43patients with confirmed or suspect-ed COVID-19 infections whodeveloped neurological symptoms,like inflammation, psychosis anddelirium. The scientists identified10 cases of temporary brain dys-function with delirium, 12 cases ofbrain inflammation, eight cases ofstrokes and eight patients withnerve damage. Most of those withinflammation were diagnosed withacute disseminatedencephalomyelitis (ADEM), a raredisease that the researchers said hasincreased in prevalence during thepandemic.

Whereas, when the researchwas conducted in aged patients,with an age group of 60 and above,it has been seen that they didn’tdevelop any respiratory problembut with the neurological disorderinstead becoming “the first andmain” symptom of COVID-19.

Even a study in China, hasfound out finds that the strokes,altered consciousness and otherneurological issues are relativelycommon in more serious cases ofCOVID-19. They studied the 214cases of severe coronavirus illnesstreated in Wuhan city during theearly phase of the global pandem-ic, doctors reported that 36.4 percent of patients displayed neurolog-

ical symptoms including disorien-tation or confusion, headaches oreven seizure. Some even hadimpairments in taste or smell

As the disease has been aroundfor a matter of months, we mightnot yet know what long-term dam-age COVID-19 can cause. Doctorsneed to be aware of possible neu-rological effects, as early diagnosiscan improve patient outcome.We’ve already seen evidence thatCOVID-19 can evoke an extreme-ly strong immune response, whichis called a cytokine storm. Duringa cytokine storm, the body over-produces immune cells and pro-teins to the point where they canattack tissues, leading to blood clotsand organ failure in some cases. Atthis point, there’s so little data onthese patients that these explana-tions are only ideas.

We now need detailed studiesto understand the possible biolog-ical mechanisms ... so we canexplore potential treatments. Aprospective, observational studywith a larger number of patientsthat includes more specific neuro-imaging and other diagnostic testsis warranted for more conclusiveevidence. Research should focus onif responses like the cytokine stormcan actually explain these neuro-logical symptoms.

Similar to the UK, which has asurveillance programme calledCoroNerve, India should also havesuch program on an urgent basis sothat the physicians can report neu-rological symptoms of COVID-19with the hope of better understand-ing the effect of the coronavirus onthe brain.

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Monsoon is a welcomechange after thescorching hot sum-

mer days. Unfortunately, itbrings with it a woe of prob-lems not to mention diseaseslike Dengue and Malaria.Prevention is betterthan cure. Hereis what peopleneed to do toensure thattheir sur-r o u n d i n gand homesare free frommosquitoes.

The mostimportant thing tokeep in mind is to getrid of all the water that hasbeen standing in tubs andplanters. Fill in fresh water. Ifyou use a cooler, drain out allthe water. Let it dry before youfill fresh water.

Did you know that Tulsi

keeps the mosquitoes away?Just keep shrubs of the plant atthe entrance door and win-dows to keep the mosquitoesat bay.

Camphor is another homeremedy that will help in

getting rid of mos-quitoes. Close all

of the doorsand then lightc a m p h o r .After about30 minutes,there won'tbe any mos-

quitoesBelieve it or

not garlic is a greatway to get rid of the

peskies. Crush a few cloves andboil them in water. Pour thesolution in a spray bottle andspray it around. The solutionkills mosquitoes instantly.Don’t worry, the house will notreek of garlic.

Rains bring along a plethora ofdiseases like dengue and malaria.

The adage ‘prevention is betterthan cure’ can’t be truer when it

comes to these two illnesses.ROSHAN DEVI shares tips that

can help keep the pesky pest away

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There are many argumentsregarding the best diet.

Nevertheless, health and well-ness communities admit thatdiets highlighting fresh, wholeingredients and minimisingprocessed foods are excellentfor overall wellness of the body.

The whole-foods, plant-based diet does just that.Dropping the phrase “plant-based diet” is in a buzz whentalking about nutrition thesedays. But why is it so hot rightnow? Because it focuses onminimally processed foods,specifically plants, and canimprove your health, boostenergy levels, and preventchronic diseases. Plant-baseddiets also offer all the essential

protein, carbohydrates, fats,vitamins, and minerals foroptimal health, and are alsohigher in fiber and phytonutri-ents.

Plant-based VS vegan: The vegan doesn’t con-

sume any animal products,including meat, eggs, milk,dairy, and honey. Yet, a vegandiet is not always as nutrition-ally virtuous as a plant-basedlifestyle. The focus of vegan isusually set to avoid animalproducts, but the priority is notset on unprocessed whole

foods based on plants.On the contrary, fully

avoiding animal productsdosen’t mean following a plant-based lifestyle (like a vegetari-an or vegan). In fact for plant-based eaters, animal proteinscan happily fit into the lifestyle,yet they typically serve as moreof a supporting role to yourveggies and whole grains.Therefore, a plant-basedincludes not only fruits andvegetables, but also nuts, seeds,oils, whole grains, legumes,and beans. Overall, plant-based

lifestyle is more of a flexible andbroad way of thinking aboutnutrition and ingredient qual-ity. Moreover, with a plant-based diet, the focus is on sim-ple, nutritious and whole foods.

So if you’re probably think-ing that moving to a plant-based diet sounds like a greatidea, but you don’t know whereto start. Don’t worry, we’ve gotyou covered.

Eat ample vegetables. Atlunch or dinner, fill half yourplate with vegetables at lunchand dinner. Try to includeplenty of colours when pickingyour vegetables. Enjoy vegeta-bles as a snack with salsa,hummus or guacamole.

Include whole grains forbreakfast: Start with quinoa,oatmeal, buckwheat, or barley.You can also add some nuts orseeds along with fresh fruit.

Go for greens: Try a vari-ety of green leafy vegetablessuch as kale, collards, spinach,and other greens every day.Steam, grill, braise, or stir-fryto preserve their nutrients andflavour.

Besides all these, the mosteffective and nutritious plantbased food is Hemp and hempseeds. It is because, they are oneof those few superfoods whichare incredibly healthy.

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At this time, the world is facing theCOVID-19 pandemic, a crisis that has

never been seen before. Today, wearing amask is one of the most effective ways tocombat the spread of the virus. No mat-ter wherever you go, the Government hasnow mandated customers and visitors tocover their mouth and nose with a maskor any piece of clothing. Masks keep us offfrom touching our face constantly. Whichis the most common habit to spread thisdeadly virus. Also, if someone is cough-ing or sneezing, it provides a guardagainst spreading droplets to get contactwith other individuals. But wearing themask for prolonged periods can cause alot of skin problems for many people.

Wearing face masks for a long dura-tion can cause flare up of acne problems.Sweat, oil and makeup are present on theskin and when we cover them with a mask,it becomes occluded. And when webreathe into the mask, the humiditydevelops in the mask, increasing thechances of acne.

There has been an increase in cases ofperioral dermatitis. Moisture and vapour,as well as any secretions such as saliva ormucus, are trapped inside the mask. It actsas an irritant dermatitis to the skin andupset the natural balance of the skin layeraround the mouth. This results in rash-es, redness, irritation and scaling aroundthe nose and mouth. Sometimes tiny pim-ples or pustules appear in clusters aroundthe skin of the lips.

Humidity due to wearing masks forlonger duration makes the skin layer toomoist, trapping all this moisture inside themask. It is almost like diaper dermatitis.But when the skin is in that moist envi-ronment and then we take the mask offand let the air out, then sometimes it canbecome too dry also and cause dryness ofthe skin with itching and redness.

There are many simple things we cando to protect our face from the side effectsof wearing masks. Sometimes, it alsodepends on the type of mask we are wear-ing. If it’s a cloth mask, you need to washit on a regular interval.

�If you are at home, where not manypeople are present, then avoid wearingmasks for extended periods of time.

�If your skin seems too much on thedry side, use a gentle, hypoallergenic mois-turiser. Don’t use something such aswitch hazel or rubbing alcohol that will beeven more irritating to the skin layer.

�Use a neutral cleanser, a mild soapor good face wash to clean your skin.

�If you’re using disposable masks thenafter using it, hang it up in a sunny placeto dry for a day or two before using itagain.

�Consult a dermatologist if you donot know how to manage your condition,without waiting for it to aggravate.

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Page 11: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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Muslim society in India remains ina state of denial when it comes tonikah halala. The Quran allows

divorce twice. After that the spouseseither live together happily or divorcegracefully. Nowhere does it allow marriagewith a pre-arranged date of divorce to anew man only to go back to the former hus-band.

Nikah Halala: Sleeping with a Strangerby Ziya Us Salam is a probing exercise thatexposes the cycle of instant triple talaq fol-lowed by a fake marriage, which too endswith another instant triple talaq thatallows the woman to marry the former hus-band. While the holy book does not men-tion instant triple talaq, this tradition isunique to the Indian subcontinent thatclaims to bring squabbling couples togeth-er but ends up making a mockery of thefaith and punishes women for the crimesof men.

The first-ever book to talk of the sub-ject, Nikah Halala presents the sordid real-ity of mock marriages against the back-ground of Quranic injunction on the sub-

ject and exposes the departure in practicefrom the teachings of the holy book thatgives divorced women complete freedomto follow their path.

An extract:

Islamuddin was not one to rest on hislaurels. Through one member of his grow-

ing circle of friends, he heard of a possi-ble vacancy at a mosque in Bombay. It wasat Dharavi. The friend put in a good wordand Islamuddin started for Bombay. Butbefore that, he packed off his wife and chil-dren to Sasaram. He was now single in thebig, bad city. He got the job all right butfound himself lost and overawed by the

pace of life. It was then thatan uncle of his friend,through whom he got the job,put his hand over his head.He told him about what toexpect from worshippers,how people often moved outat the end of the prayer with-out waiting for a collectivedua to begin. One day, hecame up with a proposal thatwas to change howIslamuddin looked at his wife,his children and, indeed,Islam itself. The uncle, clear-ly in the late 50s, and mani-festly prosperous, suggestedhe marry a girl. Startled,Islamuddin reminded him,‘Aapko toh pata hai hum biwi-bachche wale hain.’ (Youknow, I am married with awife and kids.)

‘I know. I am only suggesting a one-day nikah.

That is all,’ the uncle cleared the pic-ture.

‘Is it not haram?’‘You are like a son to me. Will I ask my

son to do anything haram? This is only tohelp a fellow Muslim brother to save hisfamily. You will be helping a fellow Muslimin distress,’ the uncle insisted, adding, ‘Herhusband might give you some nazrana.’(Gift.)

‘Let me speak to my wife,’ Islamuddinsaid.

‘What for? How will she know? If aman wants, he can keep four wives. Andit is just for a day. You are a young man.Your hair has not gone grey. Your wife issitting a thousand kilometres away...’ Unclewas not about to give up.

‘But I have no place to bring a wifehere, you know that.’

‘Yes, I know. I will ask her former hus-band to arrange a room in the vicinity ora hotel.’ Uncle solved another problem.

Two days later, Islamuddin got mar-ried. Again. Without his wife’s knowledgeor permission.

To whom?‘I do not remember her name. She was

from Vapi, I think. It was in 1991 or early1992.’ That is all he can recall in 2019.

A day later, he divorced her. The mar-riage was consummated. Divorce effectedfaithfully.

It was to be the first nikah halala of hislife. Neither before nor afterwards was hesure of the religious validity of the act.

A couple of years later, in 1994, he mar-ried another woman. ‘She was from Surat.Her husband was well-educated. He usedto teach in a college in Jaipur, I remember.He came with the proposal,’ Islamuddin

reveals.‘To you directly?’‘No, to the uncle. Nobody ever came

to me directly. It was always through thatuncle.’

Did uncle solemnise the nikah halalahimself?

‘Who else would do it? Something likethis is like charity. One hand should notknow what the other has given.’

Sometime in mid-1998, Islamuddinwas joined by his wife and children, effec-tively putting an end or at least a commato his career as a halala husband.

‘Do not say that. It was always to helpout, to protect families. Otherwise, is therea dearth of women for sex in a place likeMumbai? I left my family more than 40years ago but never touched a girl out ofwedlock.’ Fake wedlock, he might clarify.Islamuddin, as we said, always looked foravenues for growth. He learnt from anoth-er friend in Mumbai that Dubai offersmuch more money for the same job.

‘But for better chances to find an open-ing, you will have to shift to Delhi. Theagents first come to Delhi. It is only if theydo not get qualified people there that theygo elsewhere,’ he was told.

Once again, Islamuddin packed off hiswife to Sasaram; his daughter and elder sonwere anyway married and settled inSasaram and Patna respectively.

Once in Delhi, he found a job first inNizamuddin, then a little later at a smallmosque in central Delhi. He was paid bet-ter, given accommodation too. Even as hewaited for a Dubai opening, a halala oppor-tunity arose.

In July 2019, a man working in thefashion industry had divorced his wifethrough instant triple talaq. Some threemonths later, he wanted her back. Onceagain, through word of mouth, Islamuddinwas approached. This time he readilyagreed.

Will you not ask your wife?‘No, no, it is not needed.’‘Will you charge anything for it? How

much will be the mehr?’‘Jo unke husband ki marzi ho, de dijiye-

ga.’ (Give whatever her husband wishes.)We cannot stay here, I am old now. So thenikah will have to be solemnised some dis-tance away. And they will have to book aroom in a hotel and bear the expenses. Butwhat about the mehr?’

‘Woh bhi humein hi dena hoga?’ (I willhave to give that too?)

‘Yes, Sir. In Islam, marriage cannot besolemnised without mehr.’

‘Yes, I know. Make it �500. But makeit fast. I might have to go to Dubai any day.I want to finish your job before going.’

Islamuddin was a seasoned halala hus-band.

Anniversaries, birthdays,meeting long lost friends, no

mood for cooking — all weregood reasons to eat out, butheading out to restaurants does-n’t seem to be a viable optionthese days amid the pandemicscare. Isn’t it? However, thatdoes not mean that you miss outon dishes that you savour.

Most of the five star hotelshave tapped the delivery route todish out the favourites of theirpatrons. In keeping with ITCHotels’ commitment towardsenhancing gourmet experiences,the chain announced its partner-ship with Zomato, food deliveryplatform, to offer customersresponsible dining experiences inthe comfort of their home.Zomato, as an online aggregator,will not only enable ‘contactless’deliveries on all pre-paid orders,but will also provide patrons theoption of ‘takeaway menus’ viathis platform. The associationfurther strengthens the hotels’pan India distribution footprintfor home delivery and takeaway.This will widen the outreach ofthe chain’s signature culinaryofferings to thousands of cus-tomers.

The ten-year strong ethos of‘Responsible Luxury’ under-scores the chain’s culinary brandsand initiatives to present inno-vative cuisine experiences whileadhering to superior standards offood safety and hygiene. In keep-ing with the same, the hotel hasintroduced two unique gourmetexperiences — Gourmet Couchand Flavours. The formerencompasses a luxury diningexperience with exclusivelycurated menus delivered at theguest’s residence under stringent‘WeAssure’ hygiene and safety

protocol. The latter showcases anarray of authentic global culinarydelights and also celebratesindigenous flavours of the region

with the chain’s culinary initia-tive — ‘Local Love’. Thus, dinerscan enjoy the subtle flavours ofdifferent cuisines, authentic to a

region and culinary style.Anil Chadha, COO of ITC

Hotels, said, “We have alwaysshowcased the finest culinary

traditions through our globallyacclaimed signature brands.However, in a world wherechange is the order of the day, ithas been our endeavour toensure our patrons continue toenjoy their favourite cuisinesthrough an outreach diningexperience in the comfort andsafety of their homes. As part ofITC Hotels, Responsible Luxuryinitiative, the ‘WeAssure’ pro-gramme follows a stringent

hygiene and safety protocol forpan-India home delivery of foodto their valued guests. The col-laboration with Zomato will fur-ther assist us in responsiblydelivering our unique culinaryexperiences using their advanceddistribution network across thecountry.”

“ITC Hotels are known notjust for their luxurious hospital-ity but also for their culinarydelights. We are glad to partnerwith them. With the growingtrend of celebrations at home, webelieve that ITC’s exclusivegourmet and indigenous foodofferings powered by our wideon-ground delivery network willoffer great food delivery optionsfor consumers celebrating smallor large occasions. Zomato willensure that its safety measuresare well implemented in everydelivery,” added Mohit Sardana,COO, Food Delivery, Zomato.

Zomato has implementedeight Max Safety measures toensure utmost safety of food.These measures include —restaurants follow WHO prac-tices; contactless delivery; bothrestaurant staff and deliverypartners wear masks; tempera-ture checks and sanitisation sta-tions for both kitchen staff anddelivery partners and mandato-ry use of Aarogya Setu app.

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The fight against COVID-19continues to take place all

over the world. With most of ushomebound owing to the home-sheltering and social restric-tions, we have been able tospend quality time with the fam-ily.

For those with young chil-dren, managing work from homeas well as keeping the little onesoccupied has been challenging.Children are often bored athome and wish to go out, playand meet their friends, however,that’s best restricted right now.Thankfully, children do not seemto have suffered serious illness-es owing to this pandemic, but itsbest to equip them with informa-tion about the right way of safe-guarding themselves against dis-eases.

Parents have a major role toplay while teaching and inculcat-ing these good habits. To makeoptimum utilisation of the lock-down, Dr Gurudutt Bhat,

Consultant Pediatrician, FortisHospital Kalyan and Dr JesalSheth, Sr. Consultant,Pediatrician and NeonatalIntensivist, Fortis HospitalMulund, suggest some habitsthat you could gradually incul-cate in your child:

�Hand-washing properly withsoap and water for at least 20 sec-onds is the cornerstone of ourefforts to avoid all illnesses notjust COVID-19.�Follow this with sanitisation ofhands multiple times a day.�Follow social distancing whilevisiting public places. This habitwill have to be practiced for along time to come.

�Always maintain a distance oftwo metres or six feet betweenyourself and the other individualwhen you go out or even see yourfriends.�Always follow cough etiquettes,which means that you cough orsneeze in your elbow sleeves.�The virus enters the body if wetouch our nose, mouth and eyes.So always wear a face mask thatcovers the nose and mouth whileoutdoors and do not touch youface. Do not remove your maskor touch it till you reach home.�Take bath if possible whenyou come home, if not, washyour hands thoroughly.�Eat healthy, home cookedimmunity boosting food, includ-ing vegetables, fruits andlegumes.�Continue to be in touch withtheir peers and family members,not physically but by digitalmeans.�Inculcate a habit of physicalactivity comprising fun indoor

exercises.�Proper use of the internet andonline tools with appropriateuse of child-safe tools must betaught.�Instill in them the habit ofreading, writing or following ahobby of their choice�This is the best time to get toknow your kids. Understand thechallenges that they might be fac-ing. It is recommended to talkabout the importance of mentalhealth, especially during thesechallenging times�Pray and respect for all serviceworkers that are helpingCOVID-19 patients.

While you are at home, makethe most of your time and teachyour children life lessons by set-ting an example by things youregularly do. It could be spiritu-al, reading to them or even asbasic as dinner table discus-sions.

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Page 12: ...2020/07/14  · Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, and P Chidambaram have spoken to Pilot several times over the last 48 hours, but so far he has not given any indication

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Manchester City’s two-yearUEFA ban from Europeanfootball has been overturned

by the Court of Arbitration of Sport(CAS), the Lausanne-based court saidon Monday.

The CAS ruled that the EnglishPremier League runners-up did notbreach financial fair play (FFP) rules bydisguising equity funding as sponsor-ship, and also imposed a lower �10 mil-lion ($15.7 million) fine for failing toco-operate with the continental footballgoverning body.

“The club welcomes the implica-tions of today’s ruling as a validation ofthe club’s position and the body of evi-dence that it was able to present,” Citysaid in a statement.

The decision means PepGuardiola’s team will compete in nextseason’s Champions League, for whichthey have qualified by finishing secondto Liverpool in the Premier League.They also lead Real Madrid 2-1 in thisseason’s round of 16 after the away leg.

City were accused of deliberatelyinflating the value of income fromsponsors with links to the Abu DhabiUnited Group, also owned by Cityowner Sheikh Mansour, to avoid fallingfoul of FFP regulations between 2012and 2016.

The case against City was reopenedwhen German magazine Der Spiegelpublished a series of leaked e-mails in2018.

“Most of the alleged breachesreported by the (UEFA) adjudicatorychamber of the club financial controlbody were either not established ortime-barred,” CAS said in a statement.

UEFA had ruled in February that

City had committed serious breachesof FFP regulations and failed to coop-erate with its investigation, handingthem a ban and a �30 million fine.

City denied any wrongdoing andtheir appeal was heard over three daysby the CAS last month.

Without Champions League foot-ball, the side could miss out on at least£100 million ($175.3 million) in prizemoney and broadcast revenue, as wellas match day and other income.

The FFP regulations are designedto stop clubs running up big lossesthrough spending on players. They alsoensure sponsorship deals are based ontheir real market value and are genuinecommercial agreements — and notways for owners to pump cash into aclub to get around the rules.

City cheered the decision that willhave huge ramifications on the club’sfinances and potentially the future ofSpanish manager Pep Guardiola andstar players such as Kevin de Bruyneand Raheem Sterling.

“While Manchester City and itslegal advisers are yet to review the fullruling by the Court of Arbitration forSport, the club welcomes the implica-tions of today’s ruling as a validation ofthe club’s position and the body of evi-dence that it was able to present,” Citysaid in a statement.

Since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover 12years ago, City’s fortunes have beentransformed from perennially living inthe shadow of local rivals ManchesterUnited to winning four Premier Leaguetitles in the past eight years among 11major trophies.

Last Saturday, they secured quali-fication for the Champions League fora 10th consecutive season with a 5-0win at Brighton.

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Dominic Solanke scoredtwice as Bournemouth’s bid

for Premier League survival wasboosted by a 4-1 victory overChampions League-chasingLeicester, which was reduced to10 men.

They were the striker’s firstgoals since joining fromLiverpool in January 2019after failing to score in his38 previous leagueappearances.

At Dean Court,Leicester scored after 23minutes as Jamie Vardybagged his 23rd leaguegoal of the season toextend his lead in the GoldenBoot race.

But Bournemouth turnedthe game on Sunday in its favorduring a two-minute spell whichsaw Leicester lose a player.

In the 66th minute, Leicesterkeeper Kasper Schmeichel boot-ed a goal-kick into WilfredNdidi’s back, forcing his team-mate to trip Callum Wilson.

Junior Stanislas stepped upto score the resulting penalty and101 seconds later Dominic

Solanke’s weak shot trickledunder Schmeichel’s woefulattempt to save.

Leicester defender CaglarSoyuncu sent off for kickingWilson as he attempted toretrieve the ball from the netafter Solanke’s goal.

Bournemouth’s luck was inand Stanislas’s strike went in off

Leicester’s Jonny Evansfor an 83rd-minute owngoal before Solanke’scomposed finish made itfour in the 87th minute.

Bournemouth’s firstwin in 10 games, adrought stretching backto February 1, movedthem to within three

points of 17th placed Watford,with three games left for all theteams in the relegation fight.

Fourth-placed Leicester willdrop to fifth if ManchesterUnited beat Southampton onMonday, leaving their hopes ofChampions League qualificationin danger.

“I didn’t see that coming butwe are not good enough to gettoo comfortable. We will finishwhere we deserve to,” Leicestermanager Brendan Rodgers said.

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The FIFA U-17Women’s World

Cup will be held behindclosed doors only inthe worst-case scenario,All India FootballFederation general sec-retary Kushal Das saidon Monday amid a con-tinued rise in the coun-try’s Covid-19 casecount.

Already postponedonce, the tourney is tobe held from February17 to March 7 next yearas per the revisedschedule.

“In the worst casescenario, we will have todo it behind closeddoors and that will be apity (especially after thegrand success of the

men’s U-17 World Cupin 2017), but humanlives are of course mostimportant,” Das said.

The pandemic hasso far claimed morethan 22K lives with thenumber of positive casescrossing 8.5 lakh.

The camp for thetournament is likely tobegin in August withJharkhand emerging asthe frontrunner to bethe host. The state’s chiefminister Hemant Sorenhas taken it upon him-self to play host.

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Paris Saint-Germain routedsecond division Le Havre

in a friendly on Sundayremarkable not for the 9-0score, but because it drew thebiggest crowd for a match inone of Europe’s Big Five foot-ball nations since early March.

The French Governmentrelaxed the health protocolsbefore the weekend to allowfor a total attendance of 5,000,including players, journalistsand staff, at games and whilethe match at Le Havre was notthe first to be played, the oth-ers involved only lower-divi-sion clubs.

For the game at Le Havre,the tickets, priced between 30euros ($34) and 60 euros, soldout in six minutes.

“It is a victory for Frenchfootball, sport in general,” saidoutgoing Sports MinisterRoxana Maracineanu who wasat the match.

“I am delighted that foot-ball in France can resume ina popular way, with morepeople in the stadiums. It is theonly country in westernEurope to be able to do this.”

Unlike Germany, England,

Italy and Spain, France aban-doned its league season in theface of the coronavirus pan-demic, but when the otherfour countries resumed theirleagues, they did so behindclosed doors.

Although social distanc-ing rules were in place, fanstook a few liberties once theywere in the 25,000-capacityStade Ocean on Sunday.

On the field, Neymar andMauro Icardi each scoredtwice and Kylian Mbappe oncebefore PSG made 10 changesleading 5-0 at half time.

Pablo Sarabia, with two,Idrissa Gueye and ArnaudKalimuendo scored in thefirst 15 minutes of the secondhalf to complete the rout asPSG started to warm up fora busy few weeks in late Julyand early August.

PSG are due to play Saint-Etienne in the French Cupfinal on July 24 and Lyon inthe French League Cup Finalon July 31 before resumingtheir Champions League cam-paign away to Atalanta onAugust 12.

Both French finals will beat the 80,000-seat Stade deFrance in Paris.

������ AC Milan kept theirhopes of European footballalive on Sunday with a 2-2draw at Napoli that leavesthem with a strong chance ofreaching the Europa League.

Franck Kessie’s penalty17 minutes from time gaveMilan a battling point inNaples after Giovanni DiLorenzo and Dries Mertenshad put the hosts deserved-ly ahead with an hour gone.

The draw leaves Napoliin sixth place and the finalEuropa League spot, but asGennaro Gattuso’s side havealready qualified for thecompetition’s group stage by

winning the Italian Cup, sev-enth place currently offers aplace into the qualifyingrounds.

Milan, who are twopoints and one place behindNapoli, are favourites to takethe third spot in the Europa.

“When you get resultsand put in strong perfor-mances against this kind ofopponent, it really boostsyour confidence,” said Milancoach Stefano Pioli.

Theo Hernandez gavethe away side the lead againstthe run of play with 19 min-utes gone when he met AnteRebic’s brilliant cross with athumping volley, but Napoliresponded brilliantly togoing behind.

They were deservedlylevel 14 minutes later thanksto a fizzing free-kick deliveryfrom Lorenzo Insigne whichGianluigi Donnarumma pat-

ted out to Di Lorenzo, whotapped home.

Mertens put the hostsahead on the hour markwhen he met Jose Callejon’slow cross with a shot thatwas def lected pastDonnarumma by AlessioRomagnoli.

From there it lookedlike there would only beone winner but they weregiven the perfect chance toequalise when NikolaMaksimovic brought downGiacomo Bonaventura inthe area. Kessie made nomistake from the spot, riflinghis finish past David Opsina.

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Sevilla all-but secured ChampionsLeague qualification by beating rele-

gation battlers Real Mallorca 2-0 onSunday in La Liga.

Lucas Ocampos scored a first-halfpenalty before Youssef En-Nesyri addeda second late on to move Sevilla ninepoints clear of fifth-placed Villarreal.

With three games left and the supe-rior head-to-head, Villarreal are notmathematically out of contention butthey would have to take maximumpoints and see Sevilla lose both of theirremaining matches.

“Champions League qualificationwas our objective,” saidSevilla’s Fernando Reges.

“We are very closeand now we just havesome small steps left tomake it.”

Finishing in the topfour would be an impres-sive achievement forSevilla and their coach Julen Lopetegui,who took over last year following hisnightmares in charge of Spain and RealMadrid.

They could even yetfinish third, giventhey sit level onpoints withAtletico Madrid.

Defeat dam-ages Real

M a l l o r c a’sf a d i n ghopes ofavoidingr e l e g a -

tion.They remain

three pointsbehind Alaves,who have a supe-rior record head-to-head and a

game in handagainst Getafe onMonday.

����������� New Zealand’stop cricketers returned tosquad training on Mondayat the country’s HighPerformance Centre inLincoln after a prolongedbreak caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement issuedon Monday, New ZealandCricket (NZC) announcedthat six national campswill be conducted tillSeptember.

“New Zealand’s topmale and female crick-eters will return to squadtraining at the NZC HighPerformance centre inLincoln this week, in thefirst of six national campsscheduled for the comingwinter months,” read therelease from NZC.

“The South Island andWellington based BLACK-CAPS and WHITE

FERNS will train at theCanterbury hub this week,while a larger second campfor players further Northwill commence at BayOval in Mount Maunganuifrom July 19,” it added.

The male players whotrained on Monday wereTom Latham, Henry

Nicholls, Matt Henry andDaryl Mitchell. SkipperKane Williamson will bepart of the batch that willstart training next week inMount Maunganui.

New Zealand’swomen’s team’s officialTwitter handle posted pic-tures of the players train-

ing in Lincoln. The men’steam players trained inthe second half of the day.

New Zealand’s firstcamp in Lincoln will getover on July 16. It will befollowed by trainingcamps in August (10 to13) and September (datesnot yet decided). PTI

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England’s batting continues toremain their “nemesis” despite

the focus being on stand-in cap-tain Ben Stokes’ questionabledecisions in the opening Testagainst the West Indies, feels for-mer skipper Nasser Hussain.

Questions were raised evenbefore the match began as seniorpacer Stuart Broad was droppedfrom the crucial encounter. Stokesthen handed the visitors the ballafter winning the toss under greyskies, resulting in England beingbowled out from 204 in the firstinnings.

“Let’s not get lost with theBroad issue or the toss issue.England having batted first werebowled out for 204 — that is stilltheir nemesis,” Hussain was quot-ed as saying by Sky Sports.

“They did well in SouthAfrica, but in England, against theDukes ball, they often find them-selves 20-3, 30-3, and without

Root in the side this week that wasa nightmare. That is still theissue for England,” he added.

The two teams head toManchester to play the secondTest of the three-match series,starting on Thursday, and Hussainfeels England need to replicate theseries-winning batting perfor-mance they put up earlier this yearagainst South Africa.

“They are going to a goodsurface at Old Trafford. Root isback and they have to bat like theydid in South Africa this winterand at points in New Zealand. Notby being 204 all out.”

Hussain said maybe Englandunderestimated West Indies, cit-ing that had it been the Ashes,Broad would have been a definitestarter.

“All I would say about Broadis that if this had been the first Testof an Ashes series, would he havebeen playing. I would say, yes, 100per cent? So why wasn’t he play-ing against the West Indies?”

“Was it because we underes-timated West Indies and tookthem lightly? They hold theWisden Trophy — we have under-estimated them in the past andthey have beaten us, so why do ithere?”

Hussain said the West Indiesplayed “exceptional cricket” andthe win will boost heir confidenceheading to Manchester.

“It’s great for West Indies onso many different levels. Theydeserve it for coming over toEngland (amid the coronaviruspandemic) and doing what theyhave had to (quarantine and be ina bubble).

“Winning like that wasabsolutely phenomenal — andthat’s why it was an importantwin. Imagine doing all that andthen losing after bossing thisgame. They would then have dri-ven up to Manchester thinking‘we have done all the right thingsand we are 1-0 down’,” Hussainadded.

������ Manuel Pellegrini’s maingoal in his new coaching job withReal Betis is to make the Spanish cluba regular in European competitions.

Pellegrini was officially intro-duced as Betis’ new coach onMonday after signing a three-yeardeal that will begin next season.

“This is a team that has to befighting for European competitions,”the Chilean coach said. “It needs itas an institution and it will be mymain objective to help the club takethat leap and achieve better resultson the field.”

Pellegrini helped Villarrealthrive in Europe more than a decadeago, making it to the ChampionsLeague semifinals in 2006 and quar-terfinals in 2009. He also led the clubto a runner-up finish in the Spanishleague in 2008.

“If they told me before arrivingat Villarreal that we would play inthe semifinals and quarterfinals ofthe Champions League, or that wewould finish second in La Liga,

people would have said that thatwas crazy,” the 66-year-oldPellegrini said.

Betis last played in theChampions League in 2005-06. Itmade it to the Europa League in2013-14 and 2018-19.

Pellegrini said he hoped toachieve with Betis the same successhe had with his previous clubs inSpain.

“I'’m convinced that Betis hasa squad with a lot of quality andthat can achieve great things,”Pellegrini said. “I will try to helpwith my experience to try to getthe most out of the team.” AP

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��������Manchester City’s success inoverturning its Champions Leagueban on Monday has huge ramifica-tions on the Premier League and theremaining two teams that will quali-fy for Europe’s top club competition.

Chelsea, Manchester United andLeicester — and maybeWolverhampton Wanderers andSheffield United, too — are nowfighting for two qualifying spotsinstead of three with two weeks of theseason remaining.

The fight for a top-five finish hasreverted back to needing to be in thetop four to join champion Liverpooland City, already secured in secondplace, in earning tens of millions of

dollars in UEFA prize money next sea-son.

The most concerned team is like-ly to be Leicester.

In the top four since September —and, in December, even looking likethe most realistic title challenger toLiverpool — Leicester has imploded,collecting only two wins from its last11 league games stretching back to theend of January.

After losing to relegation-threat-ened Bournemouth 4-1 on Sunday,Leicester will find itself in fifth placeif Man United beats Southampton onMonday.

United appears much more like-ly to secure a top-four finish and

return to the Champions League aftera season’s absence.

With four straight wins ahead ofthe Southampton game, United is theform team in the league and also hasthe most benign remaining schedulewith upcoming matches againstCrystal Palace and West Ham beforewhat could be a winner-takes-allgame game at Leicester on the finalweekend of the season.

Making it all the more intriguingis the fact that another final-daymatch is between Chelsea and Wolves.

Chelsea is currently in third place,one point ahead of Leicester, but willdrop into fourth if United beatsSouthampton. AP

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U-17 WWC will be held behind closeddoors in worst-case scenario: AIFF

���� ������� The AllIndia FootballFederation plans to goahead with the 2020-21 I-League seasoneven if the clubs’ starforeign recruits areunable to make it dueto the coronavirus-forced travel restric-tions.

I n t e r n a t i o n a lflights remain sus-pended since March

owing to the Covid-19pandemic.

“The league mustgo on even if withoutforeigners. But thereare other peopleincluding the leaguecommittee chairman,Mr Subrata Dutta(who will also be needto be on same page),”AIFF general secre-tary Kushal Das saidon Monday. PTI

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