˘ˇˆ ˘ ˙ˇ˝ ˛˘˚ ˇ ˘ !3 4 - The Pioneer

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T he State reported three Covid-19 deaths on Friday, with which its total toll mount- ed to 1,938. The deaths were reported from Balangir, Ganjam and Sambalpur dis- tricts, the Health and Family Welfare Department said. Meanwhile, the positive cases in the State crossed the 3,000-mark on Friday with the reporting of 3,108 new cases in 30 districts and the State pool, the biggest single-day jump of 2021. With this, the total tally rose to 3,61,450.Of the new cases, 1,806 were from quar- antine and 1,302 were local contacts. Notably, the State had registered over 3,000 cases around six months ago on October 8, 2020 when 3,144 people were infected. Khordha district reported the day’s highest 534 cases fol- lowed by Sundargarh with 523 , Cuttack 163, Nabarangpur 156, Sambalpur 153, Baleswar 151, Nuapada 140, Bargarh 132, Balangir 133, Puri 114, Keonjhar 105, Mayurbhanj 71, Ganjam 55, Kalahandi 55, Bhadrak 53, Angul 44, Subarnapur 42, Rayagada 38, Jagatsinghpur 29, Koraput 23, Kendrapada 22, Deogarh 19, Gajapati 18, Dhenkanal 16, Nayagarh 15 and Kandhamal 10.The active cases in the State stood at 16,889 on Friday and the cumulative samples tested were 95,28,182. The positivity rate stood at 3.79 per cent. S tate capital Bhubaneswar reported as many as 311 new Covid-19 positive cases on Friday. With this, the city’s total positives’ tally mounted to 34,890. Out of the new cases, 66 were detected from quarantine while a whopping 245 were local contact cases. Out of local contacts, 16 each were from Patia and Khandagiri, 13 from Nayapalli, 12 from Hanspal, 10 from Old Town, eight each from Unit-8 and Shailashree Vihar, seven each from Rasulgarh and Tankapani, six from Sundarpada and five each from Badagada, Damana and Laxmisagar. Currently, number of active cases incity stood at 1,981 and total recoveries were 32,638.Chief Secretary Suresh Mahapatra directed BMC to hike testing of samples to 3,000 a day. The CS launched a toll- free number-1229 for informa- tion about Covid-19 testing and directed BMC to respond. A day after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) directed for closure of all centrally-protected mon- uments for visitors keeping in view the Covid resurgence, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Friday imposed restriction on entry of devotees to the shrine for two days a week. The temple would remain shut for devotees every Saturday and Sunday with effect from April 24. A decision to this effect was taken at a Chhatisa Nijog meeting held under the chairmanship of SJTA Chief Administrator Dr Krishan Kumar. A total of 46 centrally- protected monuments and sites in Odisha, including Puri Jagannath Temple, Konark Sun Temple and Bhubaneswar Lingaraj temple come under the ASI. F ugitive gangster Sheikh Haider, who had fled from the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack on April 10, was brought back to Odisha from Telangana in a flight on Friday. Later, the Commissionerate police pro- duced him in the JMFC Court in Cuttack.The court allowed police to take the murder con- vict on a seven-day remand from 7 am on April 17 to 7 pm on April 23. During the remand period, it would be ascertained how Haider managed to flee from the hospital,” Twin City Commissioner of Police Saumendra Priyadarshi said. Priyadarshi said the teams of Commissionerate police man- aged to zero in on the gangster following a 120-hour opera- tion. At around 4 pm or 4.30 pm, Haider escaped from the hospital after drugging the on- duty guard of the Sambalpur police.Priyadarshi said the Cuttack police received the information about his escape after three hours at around 7 pm. Based on his criminal records, the Cuttack police led by DCP Prateek Singh launched a manhunt and initi- ated a probe from all angles to track the gangster. Expediting the investiga- tion with the help of old con- tacts and CCTV footages, the CP had formed police teams to track the criminal in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana“In this connec- tion, one of Haider’s associates, Yakub, was arrested in Cuttack. We grilled many of his associates to ascertain his whereabouts. On April 11, we came to know that Haider had a bigger chance to move to Andhra Pradesh or Telangana,” Priyadarshi said. Based on inputs from tech- nical surveillance team, two police teams led by the Badambadi and Chauliaganj IICs went to Telangana. Haider had fled to Telangana with help of his son and some of his associates living in Hyderabad by a car on April 10. “We ascer- tained that Haider had moved to Telangana via Andhra by road. Based on information from the technical surveillance team under supervision of Cuttack DCP, we tried to track his locations; and with help of Hyderabad and Telangana police teams, we kept a close vigil on his movement.” Based on inputs about his presence at a particular place in Sangareddy district, we inter- cepted Haider, who was riding a motorcycle. The team led by the Badambadi IIC caught him on the way at around 6 pm on Thursday,” he added.“We have detained seven people, includ- ing three women, who helped Haider escape”, Priyadarshi added. W ith the current rate of the daily surge, India’s Covid- 19 cases could reach anywhere between 3.5 and 4 lakh by the end of April. Going by the cur- rent death rate of around 0.5 per cent, India could see a daily fatality of around 175 to 200 per day by month-end. On Friday, India recorded over 2.08 lakh new cases and 1,124 deaths, compared to 2.17 lakh cases and 1,185 deaths the previous day. The country’s average daily Covid-19 growth during the last two weeks is around 5.2 to 6 per cent, or 12,000 to 15,000 a day. Even in the case of a high- ly optimistic scenario where the cases stabilise around an aver- age of 10,000 per day, the country total should go easily past 3.5 lakh in the remaining two weeks of this month. The most worrying part is the fact that the number of new cases is rising alarmingly in States other than Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, which bore the brunt of the onset of the second wave of the Covid-19. A s corona surge continues, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered “Sunday curfew” across the State and also ordered setting up of 1,000- bed Covid hospitals in Lucknow to meet the demand of shortage of beds. The State Government also stated that 1,000 fine will be charged for not wearing masks and 10,000 fine for second time violation. The Sunday curfew will continue till May 15. In the review meeting, the CM ordered closure of mar- kets, offices and other business establishments on Sunday so as to allow sanitisation of the markets across the State. “There will be a weekly closure in all rural and urban areas of the State on Sunday. Only sanitisation and emergency services will operate during this period. Necessary aware- ness works should also be done in this regard. He hint- ed that even public transport and commutation won’t be allowed.“A 1,000-bed Covid hospital will be established in Lucknow. The venue of the Defence Expo in Vrindavan Colony has been chosen for setting up of this makeshift hospital,” the Chief Minister said during a review meeting with divi- sional commissioners, district magistrates, Chief Medical Officers and members of the Team-11 (a core team of 11 officers).Yogi also ordered clo- sure of OPDs in all Government hospitals in the State to control crowds. He also announced that it is com- pulsory for everyone to wear a mask. “A fine of 1,000 would be imposed for the first time caught without a mask. If caught without a mask a sec- ond time, a penalty of 10,000 would be imposed, “he added. Bengaluru/New Delhi: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time in eight months, and has been shifted to a pri- vate hospital. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar too tested positive for coronavirus. Chandigarh: The Haryana Government on Friday announced consolidated guidelines to contain the spread of Covid-19, ordering closure of schools, colleges and coaching institutes till April 30 and capping num- ber of attendees at gatherings and passengers in vehicles. T he SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 is pre- dominantly transmitted through air, according to a new assessment carried in the medical journal Lancet which said it found little to no evidence that the virus spreads easily via large droplets, which fall quickly through the air and contam- inate surfaces. The study added that public health measures that fail to treat the virus as pre- dominantly airborne leave people unprotected and allow the virus to spread. The study observation is significant for India where mass gatherings and election rallies continue unabated even as overall Covid-19 cases are breaking records daily. A multi-research team from the UK, the US and Canada warned that public health measures that fail to treat the virus as predomi- nantly airborne leave people unprotected and allow the virus to spread.Silent (asymp- tomatic or presymptomatic) transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from people who are not coughing or sneezing accounts for at least 40 per cent of all transmission.This silent transmission is a key way Covid-19 has spread around the world, “supporting a predominantly airborne mode of transmission,” as per the assessment. By contrast, the researchers found little to no evidence that the virus spreads easily via large droplets, which fall quickly through the air and contam- inate surfaces. “The evidence supporting airborne transmission is over- whelming, and evidence sup- porting large droplet trans- mission is almost non-exis- tent,” said Jose-Luis Jimenez, a chemist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Transcript of ˘ˇˆ ˘ ˙ˇ˝ ˛˘˚ ˇ ˘ !3 4 - The Pioneer

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The State reported threeCovid-19 deaths on Friday,

with which its total toll mount-ed to 1,938. The deaths werereported from Balangir,Ganjam and Sambalpur dis-tricts, the Health and FamilyWelfare Department said.

Meanwhile, the positivecases in the State crossed the3,000-mark on Friday with thereporting of 3,108 new cases in30 districts and the State pool,the biggest single-day jump of2021. With this, the total tallyrose to 3,61,450.Of the newcases, 1,806 were from quar-

antine and 1,302 were localcontacts. Notably, the Statehad registered over 3,000 casesaround six months ago onOctober 8, 2020 when 3,144people were infected.

Khordha district reportedthe day’s highest 534 cases fol-lowed by Sundargarh with 523, Cuttack 163, Nabarangpur156, Sambalpur 153, Baleswar151, Nuapada 140, Bargarh132, Balangir 133, Puri 114,Keonjhar 105, Mayurbhanj 71,Ganjam 55, Kalahandi 55,Bhadrak 53, Angul 44,Subarnapur 42, Rayagada 38,Jagatsinghpur 29, Koraput 23,Kendrapada 22, Deogarh 19,Gajapati 18, Dhenkanal 16,Nayagarh 15 and Kandhamal10.The active cases in the Statestood at 16,889 on Friday andthe cumulative samples testedwere 95,28,182. The positivityrate stood at 3.79 per cent.

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State capital Bhubaneswarreported as many as 311

new Covid-19 positive cases onFriday. With this, the city’s totalpositives’ tally mounted to34,890. Out of the new cases, 66were detected from quarantinewhile a whopping 245 were localcontact cases.

Out of local contacts, 16each were from Patia andKhandagiri, 13 from Nayapalli,12 from Hanspal, 10 from OldTown, eight each from Unit-8and Shailashree Vihar, seveneach from Rasulgarh andTankapani, six fromSundarpada and five each fromBadagada, Damana andLaxmisagar.

Currently, number of activecases incity stood at 1,981 andtotal recoveries were32,638.Chief Secretary SureshMahapatra directed BMC tohike testing of samples to 3,000a day. The CS launched a toll-free number-1229 for informa-tion about Covid-19 testingand directed BMC to respond.

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Aday after theArchaeological Survey of

India (ASI) directed for closureof all centrally-protected mon-uments for visitors keeping inview the Covid resurgence, theShree Jagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA) onFriday imposed restriction onentry of devotees to the shrinefor two days a week.

The temple would remainshut for devotees everySaturday and Sunday witheffect from April 24. A decisionto this effect was taken at aChhatisa Nijog meeting heldunder the chairmanship ofSJTA Chief Administrator DrKrishan Kumar.

A total of 46 centrally-protected monuments and sitesin Odisha, including PuriJagannath Temple, Konark SunTemple and BhubaneswarLingaraj temple come underthe ASI.

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Fugitive gangster SheikhHaider, who had fled from

the SCB Medical CollegeHospital in Cuttack on April10, was brought back to Odishafrom Telangana in a flight onFriday. Later, theCommissionerate police pro-duced him in the JMFC Courtin Cuttack.The court allowedpolice to take the murder con-vict on a seven-day remandfrom 7 am on April 17 to 7 pmon April 23.

During the remand period,it would be ascertained howHaider managed to flee fromthe hospital,” Twin CityCommissioner of PoliceSaumendra Priyadarshi said.Priyadarshi said the teams ofCommissionerate police man-aged to zero in on the gangster

following a 120-hour opera-tion. At around 4 pm or 4.30pm, Haider escaped from thehospital after drugging the on-duty guard of the Sambalpurpolice.Priyadarshi said theCuttack police received theinformation about his escapeafter three hours at around 7pm. Based on his criminalrecords, the Cuttack police ledby DCP Prateek Singhlaunched a manhunt and initi-ated a probe from all angles totrack the gangster.

Expediting the investiga-tion with the help of old con-tacts and CCTV footages, theCP had formed police teams totrack the criminal in WestBengal, Jharkhand,Maharashtra, Andhra Pradeshand Telangana“In this connec-tion, one of Haider’s associates,Yakub, was arrested in Cuttack.

We grilled many of hisassociates to ascertain hiswhereabouts. On April 11, wecame to know that Haider hada bigger chance to move toAndhra Pradesh or Telangana,”Priyadarshi said.

Based on inputs from tech-nical surveillance team, twopolice teams led by theBadambadi and ChauliaganjIICs went to Telangana. Haiderhad fled to Telangana withhelp of his son and some of hisassociates living in Hyderabadby a car on April 10. “We ascer-tained that Haider had movedto Telangana via Andhra byroad. Based on information

from the technical surveillanceteam under supervision ofCuttack DCP, we tried to trackhis locations; and with help ofHyderabad and Telanganapolice teams, we kept a closevigil on his movement.”

Based on inputs about hispresence at a particular place inSangareddy district, we inter-cepted Haider, who was ridinga motorcycle. The team led bythe Badambadi IIC caught himon the way at around 6 pm onThursday,” he added.“We havedetained seven people, includ-ing three women, who helpedHaider escape”, Priyadarshiadded.

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With the current rate of thedaily surge, India’s Covid-

19 cases could reach anywherebetween 3.5 and 4 lakh by theend of April. Going by the cur-rent death rate of around 0.5per cent, India could see a dailyfatality of around 175 to 200per day by month-end. OnFriday, India recorded over2.08 lakh new cases and 1,124deaths, compared to 2.17 lakhcases and 1,185 deaths theprevious day.

The country’s average dailyCovid-19 growth during thelast two weeks is around 5.2 to6 per cent, or 12,000 to 15,000a day.

Even in the case of a high-ly optimistic scenario where thecases stabilise around an aver-age of 10,000 per day, thecountry total should go easilypast 3.5 lakh in the remainingtwo weeks of this month. Themost worrying part is the fact

that the number of new casesis rising alarmingly in Statesother than Maharashtra andChhattisgarh, which bore thebrunt of the onset of the secondwave of the Covid-19.

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As corona surge continues,Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath hasordered “Sunday curfew”across the State and alsoordered setting up of 1,000-bed Covid hospitals inLucknow to meet the demandof shortage of beds.

The State Governmentalso stated that �1,000 fine willbe charged for not wearingmasks and �10,000 fine forsecond time violation. TheSunday curfew will continuetill May 15.

In the review meeting, theCM ordered closure of mar-kets, offices and other businessestablishments on Sunday soas to allow sanitisation of themarkets across the State.“There will be a weekly closurein all rural and urban areas ofthe State on Sunday. Onlysanitisation and emergencyservices will operate during

this period. Necessary aware-ness works should also bedone in this regard. He hint-ed that even public transportand commutation won’t beallowed.“A 1,000-bed Covidhospital will be established inLucknow.

The venue of the DefenceExpo in Vrindavan Colonyhas been chosen for setting upof this makeshift hospital,”the Chief Minister said duringa review meeting with divi-sional commissioners, district

magistrates, Chief MedicalOfficers and members of theTeam-11 (a core team of 11officers).Yogi also ordered clo-sure of OPDs in allGovernment hospitals in theState to control crowds. Healso announced that it is com-pulsory for everyone to weara mask. “A fine of �1,000would be imposed for the firsttime caught without a mask. Ifcaught without a mask a sec-ond time, a penalty of �10,000would be imposed, “he added.

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Bengaluru/New Delhi:Karnataka Chief Minister BSYediyurappa on Friday testedpositive for Covid-19 for thesecond time in eight months,and has been shifted to a pri-vate hospital. Union MinisterPrakash Javadekar too testedpositive for coronavirus.

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�� ����������� ���!����!!�"� �#$Chandigarh: The HaryanaGovernment on Fridayannounced consolidatedguidelines to contain thespread of Covid-19, orderingclosure of schools, collegesand coaching institutes tillApril 30 and capping num-ber of attendees at gatheringsand passengers in vehicles.

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The SARS-CoV-2 virus thatcauses Covid-19 is pre-

dominantly transmittedthrough air, according to anew assessment carried inthe medical journal Lancetwhich said it found little to noevidence that the virusspreads easi ly via largedroplets, which fall quicklythrough the air and contam-inate surfaces.

The study added thatpublic health measures thatfail to treat the virus as pre-dominantly airborne leavepeople unprotected and allowthe virus to spread.

The study observation issignificant for India wheremass gatherings and electionrallies continue unabatedeven as overall Covid-19 casesare breaking records daily.

A multi-research teamfrom the UK, the US andCanada warned that publichealth measures that fail totreat the virus as predomi-nantly airborne leave peopleunprotected and allow thevirus to spread.Silent (asymp-tomatic or presymptomatic)transmission of SARS-CoV-2from people who are notcoughing or sneezingaccounts for at least 40 per

cent of all transmission.Thissilent transmission is a keyway Covid-19 has spreadaround the world, “supportinga predominantly airbornemode of transmission,” as perthe assessment.

By contrast , theresearchers found little to noevidence that the virusspreads easi ly via largedroplets, which fall quicklythrough the air and contam-inate surfaces.

“The evidence supportingairborne transmission is over-whelming, and evidence sup-porting large droplet trans-mission is almost non-exis-tent,” said Jose-Luis Jimenez,a chemist at the CooperativeInstitute for Research inEnvironmental Sciences(CIRES) and the University ofColorado Boulder.

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The Commissionerate policeon Friday urged the citizens

of Bhubaneswar to abide by thenight curfew guidelines, whichwould be in force from 9 pm to5 pm.

City DCP UmashankarDash said, “We appeal to peo-ple other than those engaged inemergency services to closetheir business establishments,shops by 8 pm so that theyreach their respective homesbefore implementation of thenight curfew restrictions,” said

Dash.Dash further said strin-gent action would be takenagainst the violators duringenforcement of the curfew.“We will deploy police force at25 points in different parts ofthe city. After a review, thedeployment will be enhancedor rearranged as per the situa-tion,” he added.

Meanwhile, BMCCommissioner Prem ChandraChaudhary urged people not toindulge in panic buying andstockpiling of essential items.He assured that there would beno scarcity of resources andessential commodities in themarkets.

The appeal came followingreports of people rushing tomarkets on Thursday nightsoon after the Governmentannounced night curfew across

the State’s urban areas.“I assure that there will be

no shortage of essential itemssuch as milk, edibles and med-icines in the city. Therefore, cit-izens should not indulge inpanic buying of these items andovercrowd marketplaces,” stat-ed Chaudhary in a video mes-sage.

BMC officials said allessential services would con-tinue as usual and people canopt for online shopping andavail home delivery of itemsinstead of going to markets fordaily shopping in order toavoid crowding.

“Please do not believe anyrumours and hoax messages onsocial media and personal mes-saging platforms regardingcomplete shutdown or marketclosures,” Chaudhary added.

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In the second wave of theCovid-19 pandemic, the

virus is infecting the youngstersmore than elderly people,informed Director of MedicalEducation and Training(DMET) Dr CBK Mohanty.

Dr Mohanty told reportersthat the virus’ trend haschanged in the second wave asit is spreading faster this time.Since elderly people were most-

ly infected by the virus in thefirst phase, antibodies havebeen created in their bodies.Hence, the virus is highly infec-tious to the youths in the sec-ond wave. Dr Mohanty cau-tioned that the infection wouldfurther spread in coming daysif people do not take precau-tions. The number of cases isrising in Khordha districtmainly because people in theState capital Bhubaneswar arenor following the safety guide-lines.

“Experts say infection ratemay decline in May. Currently,we are focusing on expeditingidentification of those infected.But it is too early to say if fatal-ity rate will increase in comingdays,” he said.

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Even as Covid-19 is fastspreading its tentacles

across the country in its secondphase, Odisha has so far vac-cinated 48,10,780 peopleagainst the deadly virus.

Informing this, Health andFamily Welfare Director andState Vaccine in-Charge BijayPanigrahi on Friday said thepeople were administered thevaccine at 1,050 centres onThursday and Friday and theimmunisation drive is under-way at 700 centres. Regardingvaccine shortage, the officialsaid the vaccination drive had

been halted at 800 centres onFriday due to the shortage. Itwas completely stopped inKoraput district.

“We are expecting 3 lakhdoses of Covishield vaccine toreach Bhubaneswar today andit will be sent to different dis-tricts,” he informed.

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The Odisha State AIDSControl Society (OSACS)

was set up by the StateGovernment with the objectiveto prevent HIV transmissionand control its spread and toreduce morbidity and mortal-ity associated with HIV infec-tion.

Besides, it was also sup-posed to reduce the adversesocio-economic impact result-ing from HIV infection and tocoordinate and strengthenSTD, HIV, AIDS surveillance.But unfortunately, the func-tioning of OSACS is virtually ina shambles. Prevention is thebest strategy of the NationalAIDS Control Programme

(NACP) and NACP-IV focus-es on early detection and con-tinued care and support to thehigh-risk vulnerable commu-nities to prevent further infec-tion in the society.

These high risk popula-tions includes women sexworkers, intravenous drugusers, trans-sexual and trans-gender (TSTG), men havingsex with men (MSM) andbridge population like migrantsand truckers.

In Odisha, high-risk preva-lent districts such as Rayagada,Nabarangpur, Jharsuguda andCuttack where targeted inter-vention project has failedbecause of closure of projectowing to non-selection ofimplementation partners since2015. The CentralGovernment is providing near-ly 1 crore annually for theseseven districts which are

unspent besides crores of othergrants. The OSACS soughtexpression of interest manytimes but could not materialiseit. In 2020 OSACS again invit-ed expression of interest fromvarious NGOs, but no proac-tive steps have been taken,which has put the fate of vul-nerable community in jeop-ardy.

The applications have beenput in cold storage in theOSACS office here and there isno communication oracknowledgement to the appli-cants, said an official request-ing anonymity. It is allegedthat the the OSACS authoritiesare not honouring the objec-tives of the 5T initiatives of theChief Minister. The situationhas worsened as in the pre-vailing Covid -19 pandemicsituation, there is more possi-bility of infection spreading

among the community. So,the objective stands defeated,said a transgender Mita. Thetransgenders are unable to getlivelihood due to closure ofproject since long. There isneed for earliest implementa-tion of programme throughselection of partners so thatthousands of high-risk popu-lation comes within safe sexfold and check further spread-ing of HIV and other co-morbidities, said SmitaTripathy, chairperson ofGurukul Foundation whichworks for HIV affected peoplein Rayagada district.

However, Health MinisterNaba Kishore Das said theState Government is commit-ted to the cause of TSTG andhe would discuss the matterwith health officials andOSACS to avoid further delayin interest of the beneficiaries.

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The Union Ministry ofPorts , Shipping &

Waterways has accordedadministrative approval forsanction of Rs 50.30 crore fordeveloping an all-weatherROPAX (Roll-on/Roll-offPassenger) jetty and alliedinfrastructure connectingKaninali in Bhadrak district

and Talachua in Kendrapadadistrict under the Sagarmalainitiative.The Government ofOdisha would fund 50% costof the project.

The total capital cost ofthe project is Rs 110.60 crorewhich includes constructionof RO-PAX jetty at Kaninaliand Talachua, utility infra-structures such as parkingarea development, naviga-

tional aids and dredging. Thisproject would reduce traveltime for passengers from sixhours by road to one hour bywaterway.

The development of theexisting ghat with all-weath-er ROPAX jetties is beingcarried out with intent ofaccommodating boats,

launches and other ves-sels as well as to ply vesselhaving capacity to carry 10light motor vehicles, 20motorbikes along with 60passengers at a time, simul-taneously ensuring safety ofall passengers and vehicles.

The project would facili-tate indirect employmentopportunities to locals aroundthe Dhamra river and reduceroad distance of 200 km fromTalachua to Dhamra. Thepeople of Talachua and near-by villages largely dependupon the Dhamra Port fortheir livelihoods.

The port is 4 km fromKaninali Ghat. Since there isno connectivity throughroads, the locals depend onpassenger ferries at ghats ofKaninali and Talachua tocross the river (a stretch of 7km).

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The Crime Branch’s SpecialTask Force (STF) busted an

inter-State racket in Cuttackdistrict allegedly involved intheft of ferrochrome andarrested six persons in this con-nection.

Around 214 tonnes fer-rochrome was seized duringthe raids carried out by the STFin the Manguli and Tangi area..The market value of the seizedmineral would be more than Rs2 crore.

The STF registered threecases and arrested six personsidentified as Ajit Gupta,Santosh Kumar Verma, BabliGupta, Kundan Paswan, NandaKishore Singh andRadheshyam Gupta.. Theagency also seized three trucks,a generator set and an electricsewing machine.

“Based on inputs regardingorganised inter-State cargotheft of ferrochrome, the STFconducted multiple raids atvarious places near Manguliand Tangi in the last two days.During these raids, an inter-State gang operating in Odisha,West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,and Jharkhand was busted anda huge quantity of stolen cargoof ferrochrome was seized..

“It is learnt that the gangmembers would either removeor steal the cargo from thetrucks while it is being trans-ported to consignee at variousports. Generally, ferrochromeis exported from India throughvarious ports to different coun-tries like Japan and SouthKorea,” the STF added.

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The transgenders in the citycelebrated the National

Transgender Day to mark theseventh anniversary of the his-toric judgment by the SupremeCourt in which the transgen-ders were recogniszed as the“third gender”.

The celebration was carriedout at Kalinga Studio, KinnarBasti, Bhubaneswar, whilecommunities, members of civilsociety and supporters con-nected virtually from Jaipur,Delhi, and Pune. On April 15,2014, the Supreme Court haddelivered an important verdict,recognizing transgender as the“third gender”, going beyondthe binary of female/male.

SAKHA, a leading CBOworking for the rights andentitlements of transgender,

joined hands to mark the dayfor advancing the rights oftransgender, generating aware-ness and understanding ongender equality, social inclusionand facilitate participation anddialogue among all key stake-holders.

At the event, MeghnaSahoo traced the journey of“Pariborton” Single Windowsince 2018, and said that thetransgender self-help group,Sweekruti, formed by CFAR in2018, was the first transgenderSHG of Odisha.

District Social SecurityOfficer for Khordha, PrasannaKumar Mallick said thatAadhaar camps would be heldespecially for the transgenderso that more of them can beconnected to social securityschemes. Sushree Sujata Behera, PMU Cell, Social Security and

Empowerment of Persons withDisabilities Department(SSPED), laid stress on educa-tion of the transgender.Amongothers, CFAR’s ExecutiveDirector Akhila Sivadas, spoke.

Representatives of three

Self-help Groups representingmen, women and transgendershared their experiences ofpursuing sanitation linkedlivelihood and the opportuni-ties and challenges they are fac-ing due to the pandemic.

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Despite the economic down-turn caused by Covid, the

State’s revenue generation hasgrown by over 20 per cent inthe financial year 2020-21 over2019-20.

The revenue generation in2020-21 has crossed of Rs 56,363 crore in absolute figures.These data were presented onFriday by Finance Department

Principal Secretary AshokKumar Meena in a high-levelmeeting held under the chair-manship of Chief SecretarySuresh Chandra Mahapatra.While complementing thedepartments for good perfor-mances, Mahapatra set a targetof Rs 40,000 crore from owntax revenue for the year 2021-22 which is around 15% morethan the revenue generated in2020-21.

Mahapatra also set a targetof Rs 21,500 crore from nontaxsources for 2021-22. The bud-get estimate from nontax andown tax sources had been fixedat Rs 20, 000 crore and Rs37,500 crore, respectively, for

the current fiscal. Based on the5T principles in financial man-agement, around 95% of theState’s revenue collection hasbeen brought into electronicfold.

At present, about 95% ofthe own revenue is being col-lected electronically. The CSdirected to achieve 100% elec-tronic receipts of the taxes inthe current financial year.

The CS also directed thedepartments to focus on col-lection of arrears by exploringpossibilities of mutual and out-of-court settlement methodsfor collection of arrears ofindustrial water rate and elec-tricity dues.

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In view of upsurge in Covid-19cases, East Coast Railway

(ECoR) General Manager VidyaBhushan has appealed to thegeneral public to refrain fromvisiting railway offices.

He has also requested thatinstead of visiting offices physi-cally, correspondences may bedone by means of email, phone,fax or by SMS. Apart from this,Bhushan has also advised railwayemployees to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour strictly bymeans of wearing facemaskscompulsorily, maintaining socialdistance positively, washing orsanitising hands frequently andgetting vaccinated on their turnsimmediately.

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The Niladrivihar Youth andCultural Association

(NYCA) observed the OdiaNew Year and Maha BishuvSankranti. The associationextended its helping hand toorphans, handicapped, home-less and financially-backwardstudents staying in differ-entshelter homes during thecorona pandemic.

As it is not possible toreach out to the students due tothe coronarestrictions, a specialevent was organised under thechairmanship of NYCA presi-dent Dr Prakash ChandraPanigrahi where clothes, fooditems and other daily-use mate-rials for distribution among thestudents were handed over to

the Kanchan Foundation, aleading organisation workingin field. Present on the occasionwere foundation presidentTapas Ranjan Mallick and advi-sor Subhojit Panda.

They accepted the itemsgladly and conveyed theirheartfelt thanks to the NYCAfor its noble gesture and urgedto work together. NYCA sec-retary Biswajit Pattnaik (Silu)gave a brief note about thelongjourney of association.

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The Vigilance police onFriday caught Arun Kumar

Parida, Junior Clerk,Chhanipur High School inSalepur of Cuttack district,red-handed while accepting abribe of Rs 4,000.

Parida had demanded thebribe from Bipin Bihari Biswalof village Satabati for paymentof the scholarship amount infavour of his daughter. Later,Parida was arrested and for-warded to court. He wasremanded to judicial custodytill April 29.

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The Marine FisheryDepartment has imposed a

ban on fishing activities fromThursday along the easterncoast of Bay ofBengal, includ-ing Kendrapada andJagatsinghpur, for 60days(starting from April 15 toJune 14) to facilitate fish breed-ing.

Additional Fishery Officer(Marine), Kujanga, ManasKumar Sahu saidthe ban isimposed every year during theperiod and the MarineFisheryDepartment hasappealed to the fishermen not

to venture into sea withmech-anised vessels and trawlers asit would not only affect the-breeder fish but also affectbreeding process.

The ban extends to 12nautical miles off Odisha coastwith anobjective to conservefish species during the mon-soon, which is aspawning sea-son for many varieties includ-ing the shrimp, said Sahu.

The boats, whether it ismotorised or non-motorised,measuring up to8.5 meter long,are exempted from the ban.The Marine FisheryDepartment has also asked theauthorities of industries set up

near the port town of Paradipnot to discharge effluents intothe waterbodies for theiradverse impact on fish breed-ing and spawning,informedSahu.

According to Sahu, asmany as 21,832 fishing vessels,including 1,741trawlers, areregistered with the Fisherydepartment. The monsoon-trawling ban was introduced in1998 to help unhindered breed-ing offish during the rainyseason in the sea. The mon-soon period is thebreedingseason of nearly 300 species,including the Hilsa fish alongthe coast of Odisha.

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In less than 15 years, Odishawill turn 100. In this context,

the Orissa EconomicsAssociation is preparing theOdisha Vision 2036 document.On April 14, which is also cel-

ebrated as the Odia New Year,the association held a virtualconsultation meeting amongthe life members.

Eminent economists likeProfessor Prabhat Pattnaik,

JNU; Prof Pulin B Nayak, DelhiSchool of Economics; ProfUdaya, S Mishra, Centre forDevelopment Studies,Trivandrum; Prof Keshab Das,Gujarat Institute ofDevelopment Research,Ahmedabad; Prof DeepakMishra, JNU; Prof SaudaminiDas, Institute of EconomicGrowth; Prof Amalendu

Jyotishi, Azim PremjiUniversity; Prof Mitali Chinara,Utkal University; Prof RabiNarayan Patra, Prof NirmalChandra Sahu, Prof KailashSarap and Prof Sarba NarayanMishra provided their sugges-tions for the preparation of thevision document.

Professor Prabhat Patnaikemphasized that the Stateshould have a clear vision forgenerating employmentthrough Panchayat level enter-prises like the Chinese villageenterprises. Strengthening theSelf-Help Groups will empow-

er the women and increasefemale work participation. Careservices can generate largenumber of employment,through which a large numberof female workers can beengaged. Prof Pulin BihariNayak viewed that the Stateshould use the coming 15 yearsto have a clear roadmap fordevelopment. If it succeeds, itcan create a template for othereconomically backward States.

Professor Udaya S Mishrahighlighted that the Stateshould use the demographicdividend for transforming the

economy and be prepared forproviding social security tothe old and vulnerable sectionsof the society.

Prof Keshab Das arguedthat the State should createfacilitating infrastructure andadopt a cluster approach forstrengthening the MSMEs inthe State. The State shouldalso focus on value additions inthe tourism sector, he added.The meeting was presided overby the president of the associ-ation, Prof Surjya NarayanTripathy, and moderated bysecretary Dr Amarendra Das.

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Adigital discussion was heldrecently on the

topic“Explore the attractiveincentives potential of Odisha foryourbusiness.” Hosted jointly bythe Indian Consulate in NewYork, MilanCultural Associationand Odisha Society of NewEngland, the onlinemeeting wasattended by several distinguishedguests across the globe.

The brainstorming videoconferencing session was meantto promoteOdisha as a hub fordoing easy business. The speak-ers highlighted thebilateral busi-ness opportunities and propos-als for mutual benefits forbothUSA and Odisha. They invitedentrepreneurs for establish-ingstartups as well as small andlarge enterprises taking advan-tage ofthe business friendlyatmosphere and investmentsdelight policies.

The speakers pointed outthat Odisha is fast emerging asa mineral andmanufacturingState of the eastern India. Witha rich maritime tradehistoryand having one of the largestmajor ports of the country at

Paradip, Odisha is poised tobe the most vibrant easterngateway forthe ASEAN region.They also elaborated the fact thatthe huge mineralresources com-bining with steel and aluminumsmelting capacity has beenin-strumental for Odisha to emergeas the major global steel and alu-minum hub.With its attractiveincentive potential and appro-priate work forceexpertise,

Odisha is evolving as an investorpreference for aluminumbasedaerospace and defence manu-facturing, aviation and mainte-nancerepair and overhaul(MRO) facilities along with bio-technology, IT, ITenabled serviceand ESDM units, petroleum,chemicals andpetro-chemicals,pharmaceuticals, plastics andpolymers, tourism andhospital-ity.

Addressing the online con-ference, Indian Consul Generalat New YorkRandhir Jaiswalapplauded the spectacularprogress of Odisha, whenIndia isabout to celebrate 75 goldenyears of her existence nextyear.Assistant Director, Indian TouristOffice, New York, VSethurKumaran presented anoverview on Odisha’s industrialpotentialities. Principal SecretaryMadhusudan Padhi presented adetailed account on

Odisha’s port policy andother programmes aimedtowards creatingalternative ener-gy sources.State Minister forIndustries, Energy, MSME andHome Capt. DibyaShankarMishra focussed on what Odishastands for and what it has toof-fer in terms of natural resourcesand human capital.

Chiarman of KMFInvestment Group, USA, KVKumar shared about theeco-nomic relationship betweenIndia and US and different pro-grammesfor agro, pharmaceuti-cal and other industries. MD ofAtmosphere Hotelsand Resorts,Salil Panigrahi and secretary, Barand RestaurantAssociation ofOdisha, Satya Mohanty high-lighted the tourism industryofOdisha and their plans onexploring and expanding the dif-ferentkinds of tourism in Odisha.

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A high level confidentialinquiry has been sought

by the district police depart-ment against Bijay Kabi, whois the director of NGO‘APOWA’ and was praised byPM Modi on his 75th episodeof the Mann–ki-Baat.

CM Naveen Patnaik toopatted him on his tweeterpage on March 13. He gotappreciations from the PM

and CM for making a man-grove forest of 25 acres inBadakot vil lage underRajnagar block. Meanwhile,there is a growing demand toinquire about his antecedentsand confirm whether he madea mangrove forest or not ,stat-ed a senior police officerrequesting anonymity.

The State police depart-ment has directed recently tothe Kendrapada police to starta probe against Bijay followingseveral media exposed him fornot converting mangrove for-est, whereas the villagers ofBadakot, who have raised theforests in two acres of land ,

alleged Kabi took credit onsheer falsehood. FormerCongress Minister GaneswarBehera too alleged demandeda high -level inquiry in thematter and action against theNGO and its director.

It may be pertinent tonote here that , in 2015, theForest department had givena project to Kabi’s NGO‘APOWA’ for raising man-grove in 42 hectares of land infour seaside villages, includingGoja, Chitakhola,Debendranarayanpur andCharigharia under Rajnagarblock with funds of Rs 10.72lakh under the Integrated

Coastal Zone ManagementProject(ICZMP) programme.One Somanath Barik ofSilapokhari village later filedan application under RTI Actbefore Rajnagar MangroveForest and Wildlife Division toget information on mangroveafforestration project.

The reply provided by theconcerned authority wasrather surprising. It was toldthat 99 per cent of saplingswere found non-existing inmost of villages by September17, 2016. Only, 50 per cent ofplanted mangrove saplingswere found existing inJunusnagar village.

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The convenor of Puri-basedSri Jagannath Sanskruti

Parishad, Odisha, Anil Biswalhas filed a complaint before theNational Human RightsCommission (NHRC) allegingillegal arrest of Naga BabaVaishnab Puri on March 18.

The commission acknowl-edged the complaint onThursday. According to the

complaint, the Odisha policeand the State Governmenthave blatantly violated humanrights of the Naga Sadhu.

Samal alleged that theSadhu staying in Puri hadrepeatedly opposed theGovernment’s decision todemolish a heritage monasteryon the plea of beautification ofthe Jagannath Temple and hadalso protested against theGovernment’s attempt to stopthe Jagannath Rath Yatra.

For these issues, Samalalleged, the Sadhu washarassed for months and evenwas threatened by police toleave Puri. Later on March 14,he was attacked by police foralleged Covid protocol viola-

tion and arrested.After 20 daysof arrest, he was shifted to theChoudwar jail and is nowunder treatment as a psychi-atric patient in the SCB

Medical College Hospital,Cuttack. Samal further statedthat there is a conspiracy tomake the Sadhu mentallyunstable.

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Afew days after GadasilaRevenue Inspector (RI) in-

Charge Ranjan Panigrahi wassuspended when a video of himin a compromising positionwith a woman at his office wentviral, the Dhenkanal policearrested him on Friday.

Panigrahi, who served asAdditional Revenue Inspector,was engaged as the RI in-Charge of Gadasila Circle officeunder Odapada Tehsil for pastfew months. Two days ago, the

concerned woman had lodgeda complaint at the Town policestation and a case was regis-tered in connection with theincident. Acting on a tipoff, thetown police led by IIC NamitaNayak conducted a raid on alodge in the Caltex area here.

Seeing the cops, Panigrahi triedto run away, but the cops man-aged to nab him at Haat Road.He was brought to the olice sta-tion.

On April 11, districtCollector Bhumesh ChandraBehera had suspendedPanigrahi for six months aftera video showing him in a com-promising position with thewoman in the office went viral.

The Collector also haddirected the Odapada Tehsildarto initiate an inquiry into theincident and submit a report.

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The “Mahan Sangh” nomi-nated its new office bearers

for 2021. Notably, social work-er Sushant Kumar Sabat wasonce again nominated to thepost of president of the presti-gious body. Among others,Hariprasad Malana was nom-inated as working president, V

Rabi Kumar Gupta as vice-president (Finance), PradeepKumar Panda (Office), SanjayMajhi (Project), Prasant KumarPatra as general secretary,Harikrushna Mishra as jointsecretary (Finance), PrakashBhajani (Office), BanditaTripathy as joint secretary(Project) and RupkantSamantara as treasurer.

In addition to these officebearers, 11 members werenominated to the ExecutiveCouncil of the Sangh.TheSangh organised a 10-day-long“Covid Awareness Programme”from Tuesday for which a brief

meeting was organised inwhich Brahmapur SP and Sub-Collector attended as guests.The awareness camp was inau-gurated here on Tuesday. TheSangh aims to aware the com-mon public about use of sani-tisers, frequent hand-washing,

social distancing and wearingof face mask in public interest,said Sabat. The Sangh willconduct the awareness camp atdifferent strategic places of thetown on different dates andwould distribute 10,000 masksto common public at railway

station, bus stand, places ofworship, market areas, Sabatpointed out. On Tuesday, ateam of the volunteers of theSangh, through a speciallydesigned attractive tiger imageas the medium, visited thecrowded Bijipur market,Brahmapur railway station anddistributed sanitisers, facemasks etc to the passengers ofTirupati-Puri Train.

SMR of the BrahmpaurRailway station DP Brahmaand RPF IIC Dillip Kumarjoined the station camp asguests and appreciated theefforts of the Sangh.

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After scoring big in GATEexams, Gradeup has done

it again. More than 1,500 of itsstudents have cleared the IBPSPO 2020-21 exam, furthercementing Gradeup’s positionas the one of the most trustedbrands for competitive exampreparation. Leading the way isAshish Suna from Balangir,Odisha, who has scored 52.76marks in the competitive exam-ination.

The students of Gradeupacross India have showcased anoutstanding performance, witha success rate of 72%.Commenting upon thisachievement, Business Head,Gradeup Pawas Sharma said,“We congratulate and areextremely proud of all our stu-dents for their exceptional per-

formance. We will be reward-ing these deserving studentswith gifts upto Rs 2 lakh. Thisresult is a testament to the factthat Gradeup is always a stu-dent-first organisation. AtGradeup, our motto remains tomake quality education avail-able to our students.”

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In view of the soaring Covid-19 positive cases at

Balisankara gram panchayat(GP) of Sundargarh district, theSarpanch on Friday declared acomplete lockdown in the pan-chayat for seven days to containthe virus spread.

The lockdown wouldremain in force at BalisankaraGP from April 16 to April24,With fresh restrictionsimposed in the panchayat, allbusiness establishments would

be closed and people’s move-ment are banned in villagesunder the GP. However, theshops selling essential com-modities and dairy productshave been exempted from thelockdown and would remainopen from 7.00 am to 11.00 amfor consumers during lock-down. The State Governmenthas already enforced microcontainment restrictions atTelijor revenue village underBalisankara GP.On the day,Sundargarh district reported523 new positive cases.

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In a shocking and shamefulincident, a 17-year-old dif-

ferently-abled minor girl hasbeen impregnated allegedly bya distant uncle.

A complaint in this regardhas been lodged with Khairapolice and the accused is iden-tified as Pradip Sethi.In thecomplaint, the girl’s brother hasstated that she was in a physi-cal relationship with accusedon the pretext of marriage andnow she is about seven-monthpregnant.

When she informed Sethiabout her pregnancy, heallegedly asked her for abortionof child and refused to keeppromise of marriage. Further,she was threatened to be killedwhen she refused to abort herpregnancy, alleged she.Theaccused has absconded beforepolice initiated an probe.

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The Central University ofOdisha (CUO) observed

130th Birth Anniversary of DrBabasaheb Ambedkar at itscampus on April 14 and paidfloral tributes to him.

Vice-Chancellor Prof IRamabrahmam addressed theuniversity community on theoccasion and highlighted thecontribution of Ambedkar tothe nation.

He said, “Dr Ambedkarwas instrumental in designingand delivering important socioeconomic frameworks includ-ing the Constitution of India,Finance Commission, ReserveBank of India and guidelines

for equity and inclusive devel-opment." Pro-Vice Chancellorof the University Prof KshitiBhusan Das highlighted thecontribution of Ambedkar tomodern Indian education,nation building process andsocial changes.

Former Director Generalof Prasar Bharati, PIB, DAVPand Visiting Professor ofJournalism and MassCommunication, CUO, Prof

Akshay Raut describedAmbedkar as most distin-guished personality of theworld.

Among others, Prof PDurgaprasad, Prof SharatKumar Palita, Prof E Rajarao,Prof Bhagabat Patra, SK KosalaRao and Dr Ram Sankar spoke.Dr Kapila Khemundu extend-ed vote of thanks. PublicRelations Officer Dr PhagunathBhoi coordinated.

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Haladhar Biswal, an inhab-itant of Nuaganbila village

in Kusumjodi GP ofKamakhyanagar in Dhenkanaldistrict, was in trouble due tocareless Covid testing by CHCstaffers.

Haladhar after feelingunwell moved nearestAnlabereni CHC for his Covidtesting on Thursday. He wasfound to be positive. Thoughshocked, he too raised doubtover test. He soon moved toDhenkanal District

Headquarters Hospital and didhis testing there. Astonishingly,result was negative.He waspuzzled seeing results of bothreports which were contradic-tory and informed regardingthis to Odisha Praja SangharshaSamiti State president Er

Debashisha Hota. Er Hota crit-icized careless Covid testingsand expressed that poor peoplewere suffering a lot due to this.He demanded action againsterrant staff and said that nopoor person be cheated inname of Covid.

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The Covid situation in thedistrict near Chhatisgarh

border is getting worse day byday including the Jharsugudaheadquarters town.

After the onset of Covid-19 second wave in Jharsugudadistrict, the highest 84 personswere reported Corona positiveon April 14 and the tally is onthe rise ever since.

Now, the situation is get-ting very difficult to treatCovid patients in the availablehospitals. While the ICUs arealmost full, no ambulance is

available to shift the patientsoutside, which has been agreat concern for the admin-istration.

The review of Corona sit-uation of the last week revealsthat on April 14, highest 84patients were identified asagainst 55 on April 13, 10 onApril 12, 43 on April 11, 42 onApril 10, 52 on April 9,36 onApril 8 and 23 on April 7.

Many outsiders are com-ing to the district by road, railand air. The night curfewimposed has not become sohelpful to check Corona trans-mission as rush of people is

seen during day hours in shopsand roads. Social distancingnorms are not adhered to bythe people moving here andthere without covering facesby masks.

As it appears, people havelost their patience during lastlockdown and shutdown peri-ods. On the other hands, thedistrict administration shouldtake more stringent steps onthe defaulters.

When asked, Covid hos-pitals in charge Dr HrusikeshNayak said that more doctorsfrom Hitech Medical organi-sation have joined with some

more to join shortly. Whenthe conditions of the patientsbecome serious, they areadvised for outside hospitals.The shortage of ambulancewith ventilator has furtheraggravated the situation, heinformed.

ADM Pradip KumarSahoo said two ambulanceswere giving service at present."Further, two more will bereaching the district within aday or two. 10 beds with ven-tilators are now operational inICU and oxygen pipelinecould not be installed in other10 more ICU beds," he added.

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The Kalakara HeteisheeManch and Baristha

Kalakar Manch jointly cele-brated the Maha VishuvaSankranti Samaroha (OdiaNew Year) here on Wednesday.

Keeping the resurgence ofCovid-19 pandemic in the dis-trict in mind, a

limited number of artistsfrom leading socio-culturalorganisations like, ManchaJyoti, Seela Padma and JatiyaSangeet Kala Kendra collec-tively joined adhering to theCovid-19 protocols.Workingpresident of the Manch DurgaPrasad Acharya presided.

Among others, DaksheenOdisha Kalakara Mahasanghpresident Dr Tirupati Sahu,Ganjam Zilla Mancha KalakarSammilanee president KBalaram Das, Natya ShreeFoundation chairman BhavaniShankar Mishra, Daresh

Chandra Pradhan of BaristhaKalakara Manch, dance direc-tor Subash Chandra Sahu(Mamma) and laughter cham-pion Nilambara Sahu gracedthe event as guests and spokeon the significance of OdiaNew Year and Maha VishuvSankranti with its traditionalmanifestation.

Dasakathia singer SarathiPanda and Bhagaban Patra,Palia artists Ullash Panda andPradeep Kumar Sahu, play-

back singer Brundaban Sahuand dancer BijayalakshmiPadhi were felicitated by“Sheela Padma” with memen-to and citation for their con-tribution to field of art and cul-ture. Treasurer of the SanghBaladev Sahu introduced theguests while singer AnuradhaPani recited the inaugural song.Secretary of the Sangh SubashChandra Sahu Roshan wel-comed the guests. A patrioticdance was performed.

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Former CBI Director RanjitSinha died here on Friday

morning reportedly due toCovid-19.

Sinha, 68, was confirmedpositive for novel coronavirusinfection on Thursday nightand succumbed to the diseaseearly on Friday, officials said.

An IPS officer of the 1974-batch (Bihar cadre), Sinha tookover as the Director of CBI onDecember 3, 2012 and retiredon December 2, 2014. He wasthe 26th Director of CBI afterits formation in 1963.

Prior to joining as Director,CBI, Sinha was DirectorGeneral of ITBP. He had earli-er held several important posi-tions in CBI including the postof Joint Director and DIG.Sinha served as Superintendentof Police of Madhubani,Saharsa and Railway (Patna).He had also served as DIG,Magadh Range, Gaya. He hadserved in CRPF as InspectorGeneral (Operations) atSrinagar, IG (Personnel) atDirectorate General and ADGin ITBP.

Sinha, a Post Graduate inScience from Patna University,had an M.Phil from IIPA, NewDelhi and a Diploma in HRManagement fromWollongong University,Australia. He was decoratedwith the Police Medal forMeritorious Service in 1991

and the President’s PoliceMedal for DistinguishedService in 1997.

In-charge Director, CBI,Praveen Sinha, in his condo-lence message said, “Our heart-felt condolences are with thebereaved family in this hour ofintense grief. May his soul restin peace”.

Incidentally, it was duringSinha’s tenure at the CBI dur-ing which the agency earnedthe sobriquet of “caged parrot”from the Supreme Court.

The scathing remarks byJustice RM Lodha were a resultof Sinha’s nine-page affidavit tothe Supreme Court givingdetails of his meetings with the

then Law Minister AshwaniKumar and other senior offi-cers during which changeswere made in the coal scamprobe report submitted to theapex court.

“Whatever the SupremeCourt says is correct,” was hisresponse to the reporters afterthe controversy.

Towards the fag end of histenure, another controversystuck him. A purported visitors’diary with names of personsunder the CBI scanner in coaland 2G scam surfaced in 2014.It showed that these peoplewere allegedly frequenting hisresidence.

The Supreme Court direct-

ed the then CBI chief to recusehimself from the 2G scamprobe on PIL alleging thatSinha met the accused at his

residence. The Supreme Court asked

former CBI special director MLSharma to carry out an inquiry

into allegations. Taking note ofSharma’s report, the CBI regis-tered an FIR against Sinhawhich remains under probe.

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The Centre on Friday direct-ed the States to ensure

uninterrupted movement ofmedical oxygen carrying vehi-cles along their borders, andsaid they must not imposeany curb on production andsupply of the essential publichealth commodity anywhere.Union Home Secretary AjayKumar Bhalla’s communicationto chief secretaries of all Statesand Union Territories came inthe wake of reports of shortageof the medical oxygen forCovid-19 patients in differentparts of the country in the lastfew days.

The Home Secretary alongwith his Health counterpartRajesh Bhushan chaired high-level meetings to review statusof Covid-19 in Chhattisgarhand Uttar Pradesh and thepublic health measures takenfor containment and manage-ment of Covid-19 by the Statehealth authorities. Dr V KPaul, Member (Health), NITI

Aayog, Dr. Balram Bhargava,DG ICMR, Dr (Prof) SunilKumar, DGHS were also pre-sent along with ChiefSecretaries, DGs of State Policeand Health Secretaries of bothStates.

“Chhattisgarh and UttarPradesh along withMaharashtra are the only threeStates in the country whichhave more than one lakhactive cases. BothChhattisgarh and UttarPradesh are reporting veryhigh number of daily newCovid-19 cases and highdeaths caused by Covid-19.Chhattisgarh has reportednearly 6.2% increase in week-ly new Covid cases based on

7 day moving average. In lasttwo weeks, the State has seenalmost 131% increase in week-ly new cases. 22 districts inChhattisgarh have crossedtheir reported highest cases inthe last 30 days; Raipur, Durg,Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur arethe most affected districts. Incontrast to the week 17th-23rdMarch 2021, in the week of7th-13thApril 2021, RT-PCRtests have decreased to 28%(from 34%) while the AntigenTests have increased to 62%(from 53%).

“Uttar Pradesh has report-ed a growth rate of 19.25% indaily new cases. 46 districts inUttar Pradesh have crossedtheir reported highest cases in

the last 30 days; Lucknow,Kanpur, Varanasi andPrayagraj are the most affect-ed districts. In contrast to theweek 17th-23rd March 2021,in the week of 7th-13th April2021, RT-PCR tests havedecreased to 46% (from 48%)while Antigen tests haveincreased to 53% (from 51%),”said the Home Ministry in astatement.

The Home Secretar yemphasised that medical oxy-gen is an essential publichealth commodity and anyimpediment in its supply inthe country may criticallyimpact the management ofpatients suffering fromCOVID-19 disease in otherparts of the countr y.“Therefore, you are requestedto ensure that no such restric-tion is imposed on the move-ment of medical oxygenbetween the states and UTs,and transport authorities shallbe instructed to accordinglyallow free inter-state move-ment of oxygen carrying vehi-cles,” the letter said.

Bhalla told the states thatno curb shall be imposed onoxygen manufacturers andsuppliers to limit the oxygensupplies only to the hospitalsof the state in which they arelocated and there shall be freemovement of oxygen carryingvehicles into the cities, withoutany restriction of timings,while also enabling inter-citysupply without restriction.

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India may witness 1,750coronavirus-related deaths

per day, surging to around2,320 daily by the first weekof June while in financialterms, the country may needto expend over $7.8 billion ontesting and $1.7 billion onhealthcare usage because ofinfections by September 2021,according to a report of theLancet Covid-19 Commissionby India Task Force members.

The report, t it led“Managing India’s secondCOVID-19 wave: Urgentsteps”, underlines the key ele-ments of the second COVID-19 wave. It also suggests mea-sures like ramping up vaccineproduction, vaccination tothe needy, quarantine andban on assembly of groups ofover 10 that should be takento help mitigate the spread ofinfection.

As per the preliminaryreview of the report, “whilethe pandemic has spread, thegeographic contours of thesecond wave closely mirrorthose of the first wave, thoughwith a deeper penetrationinto tier-2 and tier-3 cities.”The study also indicates thatthe second wave has beenmore geographically bundledso far.

The tally of districts con-stituting the top 50% of thecases has fallen from over 40

at the time of the first peak toless than 20 presently, it saidpointing out that at the timeof the first surge of the novelcoronavirus cases duringAugust-September 2020, thecount of districts contributingto 75% of the total COVID-19cases was 60-100, whereas ithas been approx. 20-40 dis-tricts during the second wave.It took 40 days to go from10K-80K in COVID-19 sec-ond wave

The second wave is unlikethe first in two significantways. Firstly, the rate ofincrease in fresh coronaviruscases is substantially higher.Secondly, more coronaviruscases are asymptomatic ormildly symptomatic, causingrelatively low rates of hospi-talisation and mortality.

The overall Case FatalityRatio (CFR) since the outsetof the coronavirus pandemicin March 2020 has been

reported to be around 1.3%.The CFR among Covid-19patients who have contractedthe infection since the begin-ning of 2021 is considerablyless at 0.87%.

The report also recom-mended solutions such asvaccination including alladults, comprising thosebelow 45, with severe comor-bidities into the prioritygroup, enhancing jab pro-duction, widening jab basketincluding Pfizer-BioNTech,Moderna, and Johnson andJohnson besides addressingvaccine hesitancy.

The report also doesn’tpropose a blanket national orstate lockdown. Indicatingthat economic closures aremost disruptive to the poor-est sections of society, it pro-poses a middle-groundapproach in India, comprisingphased, localised closures orcurbs.

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Paramilitary forces havealmost witnessed five-fold

increase in active Covid-19cases in the last 10 days. OnApril 5, jawans who had test-ed positive for the virus inCentral Armed Police Forces(CAPFs) were 522 while nowthe tally goes up to 2,915.Apart from this, the totalinfected jawans who were test-ed positive in last 24 hours havealso increased more than fivetimes.

Fifty seven jawans weretested positive on April 5,which now increased to 301 onthe 10th day (Thursday).According to the data, CentralReserve Police Force andBorder Security Force haveseen the highest spike in num-ber of COVID cases. The BSF,which had only 20 cases onApril 5 has seen a massive spikeand on April 15 it witnessed117 cases in the last 24 hours.The total number of activecases in BSF stands at 1,850which was 166 on 10 days back.Similarly, CRPF which werewitnessing four to five cases perday in first week of April hasseen massive spike.

On April 5, 97 jawans hadbeen tested positive for thevirus. The total active cases inCRPF has almost doubled.

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With the menace ofCovid-19 getting scari-

er by the day, formerCongress chief Rahul Gandhion Friday said the Centre’sstrategy to fight the pandem-ic consisted of imposing a‘Tughlaqi lockdown, ringingbells and singing praises tothe Lord. Rahul said one yearlater, the country continues tosuffer and infrastructure havecrumbled while the PrimeMinister (Narendra Modi)continues to turn away fromhis responsibilities.

The Congress-ledOpposition has been criticis-ing the Government over itshandling of the pandemicand the vaccination drive,while the Centre has main-tained that its timely stepshave been instrumental infighting Covid-19. “TheCentral government’s Covid-19 strategy — Stage 1- Imposea Tughlaqi lockdown, Stage 2-Ring bells, Stage 3-Sing prais-es to the Lord,” Rahul tweet-ed.

Later, on Instagram, theGandhi scion posted a videofrom his remarks to the mediaon this day last year when hehad talked about lockdown

providing time for rampingup health infrastructure andcontrasted it with a videoreport of how there is a mas-sive shortage of resources tofight the pandemic currently.

“One year later, our peo-ple continue to suffer, ourinfrastructure continues tocrumble and our PrimeMinister continues to turnaway from his responsibili-ties,” he said in his post.

Congress general secre-tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraappealed to the people to fol-low COVID-appropriatebehaviour such as wearingmasks and taking other pre-cautions. “We have to win thisbattle together with cautionand compassion,” she said ina tweet in Hindi.

The grand old party in thepast also has compared someof the government’s decisionsto those taken by DelhiSultanate ruler Muhammadbin Tughlaq, to allege thatthey were arbitrary and notwell though out.

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The Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) has “activat-

ed” all its hospitals and opera-tionalised a Covid care centrein Delhi for serving and retiredpersonnel of the force in viewof the spurt in coronavirusinfections across the country.

ITBP director general S SDeswal issued a message in thisregard to around 90,000 per-sonnel and an estimated 20,000retired and dependents of theforce that was raised in 1962after the Chinese aggression.

“All our hospitals havebeen activated to treat our‘Himveers’ (braves of themountains) and their families.Our doctors are highly moti-vated and committed to takecare of you. A helpline isbeing started in this regard. ACOVID care centre has beenmade functional at Chhawla(south-west Delhi) campusand it is fully equipped,” astatement issued by the forcequoting the DG said.

“We are always concernedand committed to take care ofour veterans and their fami-lies. These facilities are avail-able to our veterans also,” itadded.

Deswal said it was again“challenging times for thecountry in view of the second

assault by COVID-19.”“Most of you have been

vaccinated as per prioritygiven to us by the government.We are warriors, and willfight it out by following the

COVID-19 safety protocols,”the message said.

The ITBP chief asked thepersonnel not to take anychances.

“Himveers have to saveother citizens also by render-ing all help. Be a sincere fol-lower of COVID-19 safetyprotocol. Protect yourself, fam-ilies, and near and dear ones,”the message said.

The ITBP is primarilytasked to guard the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control(LAC) with China apart fromrendering a variety of duties inthe internal security domain ofthe country.

As per official data pub-lished on April 14, various cen-tral armed police forces(CAPFs) are also witnessing ajump in coronavirus infec-tions as the country is wit-nessing a surge in recent times.

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New Delhi: Two days after USPresident Joe Bidenannounced withdrawal ofAmerican troops fromAfghanistan, India on Fridaysaid any political settlement inthe war-ravaged country mustbe inclusive and should pre-serve the socio-economic andpolitical gains of the past 19years.

The Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) said it hasnoted the decision of the USto withdraw its troops fromAfghanistan and to end itsmilitary operations there.

“India remains engagedwith the Afghan stakeholdersand also our regional andinternational partners regard-ing next steps,” MEAspokesperson ArindamBagchi said.

He said India is “deeplyconcerned” about the increasein violence and targetedkillings in Afghanistan andthat it has called for an imme-diate and comprehensiveceasefire.

“We are closely followingthe ongoing intra-Afghanpeace process. Afghan peoplehave seen more than fourdecades of war and unrest anddeserve long-lasting peaceand development,” thespokesperson said.

Bagchi was responding to

media queries on the USannouncement.

“India is of the view thatan Afghan peace processshould be Afghan-led,Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. Any political set-tlement must be inclusive andshould preserve the socio-economic and political gainsof the past 19 years,” he said.

“India supports a united,democratic and sovereignAfghanistan. We are deeplyconcerned about the increasein violence and targetedkillings in Afghanistan. Indiahas called for an immediateand comprehensive ceasefire,”Bagchi added.

The MEA spokespersonsaid India has participated inthe Doha conference, theGeneva conference and theHeart of Asia conference inDushanbe on the Afghanpeace process.

“India remains engagedwith the Afghan stakeholdersand also our regional andinternational partners regard-ing next steps,” he said.

In a major announcement,President Joe Biden onWednesday said US troopswill be withdrawn fromAfghanistan beginning May 1and the process will be com-pleted by September 11.

PTI

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday came out witha slew of directions to ensurespeedy disposal of chequebounce cases and asked theCentre to amend laws to ensureclubbing of trials in cases whichare lodged within one yearagainst a person relating to thesame transaction.

The apex court directed allthe high courts across thecountry to issue guidelines fortrial courts to deal with chequebounce cases.

A five-judge bench headedby Chief Justice S A Bobde fur-ther said that the evidence incheque dishonour cases cannow be tendered by filing affi-davits and there would be noneed to examine witnessesphysically.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices L Nageswara Rao,

B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and SRavindra Bhat, asked theCentre to make “suitableamendments” in the NegotiableInstruments Act to ensure thattrials in cheque bounce caseslodged in 12 months against aperson can be clubbed togeth-er into one consolidated case.

It reiterated the earlierdecision and held that trialcourts have no “inherentpower” to reconsider theirdecisions to summon personsto face trials in the chequebounce cases.

The apex court said theissues which have not beendealt by it would be consideredby a committee headed byJustice R C Chavan, formerjudge of the Bombay HighCourt.

On March 10, the top courthad constituted the committee

to submit a report in threemonths specifying the steps tobe taken for early disposal ofcheque bounce cases across thecountry.

It said a three-judge benchwould now take up the suomotu matter on ensuring earlydisposal of cheque bouncecases after eight weeks. Ithad earlier termed the pen-dency of over 35 lakhs chequebounce cases as “grotesque”and suggested to the Centre tocome up with a law to createadditional courts for a partic-ular period of time to deal withsuch cases.

On March 5 last year, thetop court had registered a suomotu case and decided toevolve a “concerted” and “coor-dinated” mechanism for expe-ditious disposal of such cases.. PNS

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt has appointed formerAdditional Solicitor GeneralManinder Singh and advocateRajesh Batra as special publicprosecutors (SPPs) for trial ofmulti-crore coal scam casesfiled by the EnforcementDirectorate.

Senior advocate R SCheema, who was appointedSPP in 2014 by the top court,has sought permission to berelieved of the responsibilityciting his age and shortage oflaw officers assisting him.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice S A Bobde said thatthough there was no consensuson the names of individuals,the counsel appearing on allsides unanimously agreed thatthe apex court should appoint

a seasoned trial court lawyer ofimpeccable integrity and a des-ignated senior advocate toguide him and conduct theproceedings.

“Taking into account theabove said criteria, we herebyappoint (i) Shri ManinderSingh, Senior Advocate andformer Additional solicitorGeneral of India; and (ii) ShriRajesh Batra, Advocate asSpecial Public Prosecutors inthe place of R S Cheema.

“R S Cheema, may getrelieved upon the newlyappointed Prosecutors takingcharge. This Court recordsappreciation for the servicesrendered by R S Cheema,” saidthe bench, also comprisingJustices A S Bopanna and VRamasubramanian. PNS

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When Europe gets cold TamilNadu sneezes. The adage has

been proved again as countries likeGermany, France and Britainannounced lock down due to Covid-19 pandemic leaving nearly one thou-sand knitwear units in Tirupur gasp-ing for breath.

Despite the Centre’s announce-ments about various financial packagesas part of the Atmanirbhar schemes forthe resuscitation of the gloomy indus-trial sector in the State, the knitwearexporters are yet to come out of theabyss to which they have fallen sincethe breaking out of the pandemic allover the world. The textile materialsmanufactured in Tirupur stand out inthe global market because of qualityand craftmanship. But that has notbeen successful in reviving the cashliquidity faced by the European endusers of Tirupur’s knitwear products,according to Raja M Shanmugham,president, Tirupur Exporters’Association (TEA).

Shanmugham, a real Raja of theknitwear industry, says the fortunes ofthe industry could be turned for thebetter by a few measures which couldbe ordered by Nirmala Sitaraman, thecountry’s finance minister. “The sec-ond lockdown promulgated inmajor countries like Germany,France and UK from November, has

lead us, mainly MSMEs into a liquid-ity crisis. In addition to this we are fac-ing another shock in the form of everincreasing price of yarn, our importantraw material due to business dynam-ics. These factors have eroded the com-petitiveness of the knitwear industry,”Shanmugham, known for his fightingspirits, told The Pioneer with uncer-tainty written all over his face.

He said measures like InterestEqualisation Scheme which wasannounced for a brief period of threemonths , if extended to a period of twoyears would help in soothing the painbeing suffered by the industry. “Thiswill help us to tide over the financialcrunch we are facing due to lock downand high yarn prices and also in sus-taining the global competitiveness ofBrand Tirupur,” said the TEA president.

The TEA in a memorandum to theminister has pointed out that theRemission of Duties and Taxes onExport Products (RODTEP)announced in January 2021 to replacethe ROSCTL (Rebate of State andCentral Taxes and Levies) has not beenoperationalised which has put theexporters and MSMEs between deepsea and devil.

“The MSMEs are not receiving thereimbursement of the embeddedtaxes including electricity tax, Manditax, GST on petro-products. The non-disbursement of RODTEP is causingsevere liquidity crisis,” said the TEAplea.

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John Brittas, the ideologicalconsultant to Chief Minister

Pinarayi Vijayan , has beennominated as the CPI(M) rep-resentative to the Rajya Sabhafrom Kerala. Brittas, who ispresently the managing directorand chief executive officer of theCPI(M)-owned Kairali TVchannel was one of the closeadvisors to Pinarayi Vijayanalong with Raman Srivastava,the former director general ofKerala Police.

The CPI(M) has also nom-inated V Sivadasan, a formerpresident of the party’s studentwing SFI as its second nominee.Based on the strength of theparty in the current legislature,the CPI(M) can win two seatsout of the three at stake. TheMuslim League has nominatedNRI businessman P V AbdulWahab as its candidate for theApril 30 election.

The names of Brittas andShivadasn were announced after

the State Committee of theparty met on Friday at theimposing AKG Centre atThiruvananthapuram. A releaseissued by the party head quar-ters after the meeting claimedthat the CPI(M)-led LDF wouldwin 80 to 100 seats in the justconcluded assembly election toKerala. “Kerala will see for thefirst time the demolition of theanti-government feeing and theruling party coming back topower with more seats,” said therelease.

The nomination of Brittasis being seen as the CPI(M)’smove to cobble up a grandalliance before the 2024 LokSabha election which the partyhopes to win comfortably basedon the recent farm agitation andother people movements head-ed by the party. “Brittas enjoysconsiderable clout with manyopposition politicians in NewDelhi, his second home turffrom where he controlledDeshabhimani, the CPI(M)’sofficial mouth piece.

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Aligarh Police has started "JailBharo Andolan" with Operation

Prahar to crack down on criminals.Along with this, two other specialoperations have also been conduct-ed, in which more than one thou-sand criminals have been arrestedwithin 15 days. On an average, 50people are being interrogated everyday.

The 'Jail Bharo Andolan' wasstarted by the new SSP KalanidhiNaithani. SSP took over the districton 27 March. Three days later, onMarch 30, Operation Awara started.It was a screw up on those whodrink on the road. Under this,action has been taken against 987people. . After this, the operation,'unarmed' in the district started onApril 2. It tightened up those peo-ple who are illegally possessingweapons. So far, reports have beensent to the DM to suspend the actu-al license of 120 people in this oper-ation. After this, Operation Praharwas started from 10 April. Underthis, the wanted and the warrantswere attacked. In five days, 177 mis-creants have been arrested. In the 10days before April 10, about a hun-dred criminals were caught.

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KOCHI/CHENNAI: Kerala, onceclaimed as inaccessible to the pan-demic by political masters, tested10,031 new Covid-19 patients in the12 hours that ended at 6 PM onFriday. The State also registered 21deaths and a Test Positivity Ratioof 14.8 which has accorded the sta-tus of Covid-19 epicenter to Kerala,according to a Department ofHealth physician in Ernakulam.

Situation is alarming in neigh-boring Tamil Nadu which diag-nosed 8,449 new cases and record-ed 33 deaths by Friday evening. Thefigures in both the States are like-ly to see a surge for the next fewweeks, according to doctors in theGovernment doctors. V P Joy,chief secretary of Kerala, made itclear that the impact of the restric-tions announced on Thursdaywould be known only after tendays.

Though the KeralaGovernment had declared thatmore than 2.5 lakh persons wouldbe tested on Friday and Saturday,as part of its test, track and isolatemission, the State has tested only67,000 persons till Friday 5 pm.

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Even as Mamata Banerjee contin-ued to attack Prime Minister

Narendra Modi for importing coro-na in Bengal in his bid to win elec-tions, the BJP on Friday released anaudio-tape showing a conversationbetween the State Chief Minister andCooch Behar district TrinamoolCongress president Pratha PratimRoy where she was allegedlyinstructing him to make prepara-tions for taking out a rally with thecorpse of people killed in Sitalkuchipolice firing last Saturday.

This, BJP leadership claimed wasplanned by the Chief Minister tostoke communal riots in order topolarise the Muslim voters. A time-ly banning of politicians — includ-ing the Chief Minister — by theElection Commission of India fromentering Cooch Behar till lastTuesday however till foiled her“criminal designs to fan riots in order

to win elections.” BJP leader AmitMalavya said.

Four persons were killed whenthe CPF opened fired after an allegedcrowd of 300-350 men tried toattack the booth number 126 duringthe fourth phase of polling.

In the purported audio-tape fea-turing Banerjee and Roy who is alsothe TMC candidate from Sitalkuchithe Chief Minister also directed himto make arrangements for lodging anFIR against those who opened fireand implicating in that document thedistrict SP and the local CircleInspector, the BJP leader said addingRoy was asked get the FIR drawn byprofessional so as to frame not onlythe central forces but also the districtSP and the local circle inspector.

At a time when she should havestood with the law-enforcing agen-cies the Chief Minister was seenstanding by the law-breakers,Malavya said. “Imagine had thisrally been allowed to take place

what would have been the situationof Bengal what kind of communaldisturbance it would have ignited,” hesaid.

“This betrays the criminal mind-set of the Chief Minister who has noproblem with playing politics withthe death of people … she was try-ing to reap political dividends withdead bodies,” Malavya said addinghow Banerjee had been trying toinstigate people saying the BJPwould invoke National PopulationRegister to victimize its opponentsin the name of pushing out allegedinfiltrators.

“There is no plans of briningNPR now and neither there is anyproposal of raising detention camps,”Malavya said claiming how theChief Minister has been spreadingfalse stories in the election rallies tocreate a mass panic and reap polit-ical dividends. “This she is doing asa last resort because she knows thatshe is going out of power.”

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Opposing Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee’s suggestions that

the 8-phase elections be effectivelyreduced to six phases so to say, the BJPon Friday said it was against clubbing the last threephases of elections into a single-daypolling saying the exercise would goagainst democratic spirit putting the vot-ers and candidates into a position of dis-advantage.

Bengal goes to the fifth phase ofpolling on April 17 that is Saturday.Senior BJP leader and its candidate fromTarakeshwar seat in Hooghly SwapanDasgupta, said after emerging from theall-party meeting called by the ElectionCommission of India “we have said ourparty will abide by all protocols put inplace by the Election Commission, andurged that no steps be taken that dis-criminates those voting in the next phas-es from those who have already exer-cised their franchise. We have not saidanything about clubbing (of phases),...we feel that the elections will be held ineight phases.”

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Considering the firing deaths in thefourth phase of Assembly elections

in Bengal last Saturday the ElectionCommission of India have made mas-sive arrangements for the fifth phasewhich would be held on Saturday.

More than a crore voters of 45Assembly constituencies would exer-cise their franchise deciding the fate of342 candidates on when 45 seatswould go to polls in the fifthphase.

According to sources the ECIwould deploy about 853 companies ofcentral forces to ensure free and fairvoting. Voting will be held at 15,789polling stations in 16 seats in North 24Parganas, eight each in BardhamanEast and Nadia, seven in Jalpaiguri, fivein Darjeeling and one inKalimpong district.

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Taking cognisance of the fact thatas many as 30 critical patients were

undergoing cancer treatment andanother 22 critical patients were beingtreated for cardiac/nephro ailments,the Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) on Friday madesome changes in its earlier decision toconvert Mumbai’s famed JaslokHospital in south Mumbai into a ded-icated Covid-19 hospital.

A day after it announced its deci-sion to convert Jaslok Hospital into adedicated Covid-19 hospital, the BMCamended its earlier move and decid-ed not to convert the private medicalfacility into a fully dedicated Covid-19 hospital, saying that it did “not wantto risk the lives of these 52 criticalnon-COVID patients, presently admit-ted in Jaslok hospital”.

In a revised order issued onFriday, the BMC said that it had con-veyed its Thursday’s decision to theJaslok Hospital management.“However, it has been brought to thenotice of MCGM by the said man-agement that presently 30 criticalpatients undergoing cancer treatmentand another 22 critical patients under-going cardiac/nephro treatment arealready admitted in the hospital andconsidering their medical condition,shifting them to other hospital at thisjuncture may prove fatal,” MumbaiMunicipal Commissioner I S Chahal

said in his revised order.“Hence, it is imperative on part of

MCGM not to risk the lives of these52 critical non-COVID patients,presently admitted in Jaslok hospital.Presently, 227 activated beds exist inJaslok hospital,” Chahal said.

Making amendments in his earli-er order, Chahal said “Of the total 227beds in Jaslok Hospital, 175 beds willfunction as COVID beds. Of these 175Covid beds, 29 will be ICU beds”

Chahal said that the remaining 52beds catering to above mentioned crit-ical patients shall continue to be non-COVID beds. “ Rest of the conditionsin our earlier will remain unchanged,”he said. In effect, the BMC will utilise175 out of 227 beds to treat Covid-10patients.

Meanwhile, the BMC has instruct-ed the hospital management to dis-charge all the non-cancer and car-diac/nephro patients undergoing treat-ment in speciality wards, to shift allsuch patients requiring non-Covid ter-tiary care to nearby tertiary hospitalsin 48 hours and to discharge allpatients admitted for elective treatments by postponing their surg-eries.

The BMC has also asked theJaslok Hospital management to aug-ment suspected/ holding area for sus-pected Covid-19 cases, if required andfollow all protocols and guidelines laiddown for dedicated Covid hospitals asearlier.

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ACRPF CoBRA Commando RakeshwarSingh Manhas, abducted and later

released by the Maoists in Bijapur area ofChhattisgarh last week, received a hero'swelcome on his arrival here in Jammu onFriday.

Accompanied by social workers whoplayed a key role towards ensuring his saferelease from the custody of Maoists onApril 8, Manhas landed at Jammu airportwhere his five year daughter received himalong with her mother and cheerful rela-tives amid patriotic chants hailing 'MotherIndia'.

From the airport Manhas was escort-ed in a cavalcade to a famous resort wherehe was accorded a red carpet welcome too.He was warmly hugged by his family mem-bers and close friends at the main entranceof the resort. His mother and Wife alongwith hundreds of close relatives and well

wishers garlanded him and performed spe-cial prayers before escorting him inside thehall.

"I am very happy today. I hugged myfather and kissed him when he took me inhis arms after landing at the Jammu air-port", the five year old daughter toldreporters wearing a big smile on her face.

Meenu Chib, wife of Rakeshwar SinghManhas was jubilant after meeting her hus-band. "I am very happy. All our prayerswere answered and every one in the gov-ernment at all levels played their role at thecentre and state level to ensure safe release

of my husband". "I also thank CRPF offi-cials and the entire media fraternity for alltheir support and help" she added.

Rakeshwar Singh in his brief interac-tion told large gathering of reporters, "I amfeeling happy in the company of my fam-ily". He said all the jawans who were partof the operation in Bijapur fought brave-ly before attaining martyrdom. He said,"when i was in their captivity i had no cluewhat was happening as i had no tools ofcommunication available with me". Heonce again thanked all those social activistsand local media persons from Chhattisgarhwho ensured his safe return.

Uncle of Rakeshwar Singh Manhas, onbehalf of the family made a brief statementthanking all those involved and responsi-ble for ensuring safe return of the CRPFcommando. The family also paid rich trib-utes in the memory of CRPF jawans mar-tyred in the Maoist attack in Bijapur areaof Chhattisgarh.

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In a major breakthrough in a sensational case involving inter-national ramifications, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)

has smashed a gang engaged in the cultivation of cannabis insidea two bed room-Hall-Kitchen (BHK) flat at Dombivli in neigh-boring Thane district.

Announcing the busting of the cannabis growing gang thatwould purchase seeds from Netherland and sell the drugs in cashand crypto currencies like Bitcoins, NCB’s zonal director SameerWankhede said here on Friday : “This is indeed a big case. Weare investigating the entire network that was involved in culti-vation of Cannabis by hydroponic technique”.

Hydroponics is an effective method for growing plants thatplaces the plants in a water solution that's rich in nutrients.Instead of using soil to grow the plants, the roots of the plantscome into direct contact with the nutrient-rich solution.

Acting on intelligence inputs, the NCB carried out the raidsat a 2 BHK flat at Dombivli’s Palava City, where the investiga-tors found Cannabis being cultivated.

The NCB identified the two arrested persons as JavedJahangir Sheikh and Arshad Khatri. “We are trying to find outtheir antecedents and links,” Wankhede said.

“During our raids, we found that Cannabis was being cul-tivated there through Hydroponic techniques. From the site wehave recovered cultivation setup, PH regulators, plant nutrients,clay pebbles , water pumps, air circulation systems, CO2 gascylinders, photosynthesis lighting systems,” Wankhedesaid.

The cannabis cultivation was being done clandestinely inthe flat owned by one Rehan Khan who is away in Saudi Arabia.Khan is suspected to be financing the illegal cannabis cultiva-tion. While nArshad is an expert in hydroponic cultivation, Javedused to manage distribution of harvest.

“The two were procuring seeds from Amsterdam in theNetherlands through the dark web. The yield was sold to medi-ums size peddlers of Mumbai and Pune at the rate of 2,500 pergram for retail,” Wankhede said.

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Gandhinagar: The GujaratHigh Court, in its order on thesuo moto PIL it filed regardingthe current upsurge in theCovid situation, has asked theState Government to reach tothe public in an honest andtransparent manner so as totackle the crisis the state is fac-ing.

A division bench of ChiefJustice Vikram Nath and JusticeBhargav D. Karia, which hadheld a hearing on the Covid sit-uation with Advocate GeneralKamal Trivedi appearing onbehalf of the state government,was dissatisfied with the "rosypicture" painted by the gov-ernment as the prevailing sit-uation was opposite its claims.

The high court, in its order,ordered the state governmentto increase the existing RT-PCRtesting facilities and ensurethe reduction of time to get thereports. It also ordered thataccurate reporting of the RT-PCR results to be made public.

"The state should not feel shyof publishing the correctdata."

Regarding the public per-ception about remdesivir injec-tions being a miracle drug andTrivedi's explanation that thedrug was over-prescribed, thecourt ordered that remdesivir'sadministration and its depen-dency should be explained andcommunicated to the publicthrough various print, elec-tronic and social media, so thatthe deficit and misuse by blackmarketeers stop.

The court also ordered thestate government control theonline portal providing detailsof availability of beds etc, andthat instead of the data beingupdated twice a day, the dataand the display of availability ofbeds should be made real time.

The government was alsotold to report to the courtabout the status of availabilityof oxygen in the state withregards to the demand.

The court order alsoadvised the state government tomake efforts to find out theactual number of Covid casesso as to remove the general per-ception in the public that stateprovided data was not accurate.

"Make necessary arrange-ments to be made by theresponsible officer with regardto the number of positivepatients, the number of deathsdue to Covid, the number ofdeaths due to Covid with co-morbidity, to restore faith andtrust in the public," the courtsaid.

"The state should come uppublicly in a transparent andfair manner with regards toavailability and modalities ofthe required amenities, medicaland related infrastructure fortreatment of the patients, whorequire facilities of Covid-19hospitalisation, with oxygen,ventilators, medicines etc.

"In order to achieve theobjectives of removing the

public perception and restoringthe faith, the state needs to havehonest and transparent dia-logue with the public whichshould be communicated withall, through print, electronicand social media," it added.

"The state has nothing togain by hiding the real pictureand hence, suppression andconcealment of accurate datawould generate more seriousproblems, including fear, loss oftrust, panic in the public.Coming out in a transparentand honest manner will alsocreate awareness about thegrave situation prevailing in thecurrent times, to persuade thepublic to strictly abide by theStandard Operating Protocolregarding Covid."

The court, noting therequest from the IndianMedical Association's Gujaratbranch wishing to participate,said that it was free to do so asit scheduled the next hearingfor April 20. IANS

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Maharashtra breached another grim Covid-19 landmark on Friday, as it recorded a

staggering 63,729 infections thus crossing a totalof 37 lakh infections, even as alarming 398 morepeople succumbed to the pandemic in variousparts of the state.

A day after the pandemic claimed 349 livesand left 61,695 more infected in the state, thedaily tally of infections rose by 2034 while thedaily Covid-19 went up 49.

With 63729 fresh cases, the total infectionsclimbed from 36,39,855 to 36,03,584. Similarly,with 398 new deaths, the total Covid-19 toll rosefrom 59,153 to 59,551.

As 45,335 patients were discharged from thehospitals across the state after fu3ll recovery, thetotal number of people discharged from the hos-pitals since the second week of March last yearwent up to 39,04,391. The recovery rate in thestate for the first time in several days droppedfrom 81.3 per cent to 81.12 per cent.

The number of “active cases” total cases inthe state rose from 6,20,060 to 6,38,034.. Thefatality rate in the state dropped from 1.63 percent to 1.61 per cent.

With 53 fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll inMumbai rose from 12,197 to 12,250, while theinfected cases went up by 8803 to trigger a jumpin the infections from 5,53,404 to 5,62,207.

While Pune accounted for a maximum1,16,665 “active cases” in the state, Mumbaistood second with 84,378 active cases, followed

by Thane (84038), Nagpur (71539), Nashik(49,925), Aurangabad (13,630), Ahmednagar(18,049), Nanded (13,134), Bhandara (13987),Jalgaon (11,570), Latur (14033), Solapur (11051),Satara (10551), Parbhani (10,336), Beed (7922),Nandurbar (7330), Chandrapur (10,144) andGondia (7336).

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per cent of the country’s forestarea while mildly affectingabout 54 per cent, which makesabout two-third of India’sforests vulnerable to fires.

The question is: Why is itso? Lightning is the mostimportant natural cause.Another is the spontaneouscombustion of dried-upleaves and sticks. The one thathas been an increasinglypotent factor, and is set tobecome even more so, isglobal warming. It dries upthe leaves and shrubbery onthe ground, making themhighly inflammable. It alsodries up the soil. Thus, thelack of soil moisture as a resultof rainfall deficiency duringmonsoons — less than 18 percent and 20 per cent in 2019and 2020, respectively — hasbeen an important factor inthis year’s Uttarakhand fires.In fact, it has been a cause notonly in many other parts ofIndia but the entire world —the blazes bedevillingAustralia, California in the USand the Amazon rainforestsin Brazil are examples.

Human activity, however,is responsible for the over-whelming majority of forestfires the world over. In India,these blazes are mainly causedby the slash-and-burn methodof shifting agriculture, known

as jhum in Arunachal Pradesh,Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram,Meghalaya, Tripura and Assam,where it is practised over about15,000 sq km of forest land.The blazes are also set off toclear the ground for mining,timber felling and the construc-tion of human settlements andindustrial units, besides ward-ing off the wild animals.

People burn dry leavesand shrubbery on forestgrounds, believing that itwould lead to the sprouting ofnew and healthier grass.Poachers light fires on threesides to corner fleeing wildanimals in one area as theirconcentrated presence helpskilling. People visiting forestsare often careless and leavebehind lighted butts of ciga-rettes or bidis, besides inflam-mable material.

Things are made worseby the fact that it is difficultto extinguish forest fires. Theabsence of roads preventsfire tenders from reaching thesites and high winds carry thesparks to new areas.Helicopters are pressed intoservice — as in Uttarakhandrecently where two Indian AirForce helicopters, each witha 5,000-litre water tank, weredeployed. There are, howev-er, limits to the number ofhelicopters that can be used

and the availability of largelakes or rivers from whichthese can draw water.

Forest fires wreak havoc inIndia every year. They destroyforests, cause pollution, turnstreams dry or adversely affecttheir water quality, damage soilnutrients and increase the riskof soil erosion. They killwildlife and insects, includingendangered species, anddestroy their habitats, damagenational parks and sanctuar-ies, driving the wild animalslike tigers, leopards and ele-phants towards human settle-ments, thus aggravating thehuman-animal conflict. And,of course, they kill humansand destroy their property.

The question is: What is tobe done? Forest fires are as oldas forests and will continue tooccur as long as forests exist.One, however, can limit theirincidence by firmly dealingwith the timber, builder andmining mafia, and the poach-ers, and simultaneously enlight-ening people not to carelesslyleave incendiary material inforests. The Central and StateGovernments will have tolaunch sustained campaigns tothis end. The consequences ofnot doing so will be severe.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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The surge of forest firesin Uttarakhand onceagain underlines thegrowing incidence of the

phenomenon in India. Therehas been a series of these this yearin Himachal Pradesh, theNagaland-Manipur border,Odisha, Madhya Pradesh andGujarat. According to the IndiaState of Forest Report 2019 (ISFR)— the latest in the line of suchreports — released by the ForestSurvey of India (FSI), Dehradun,over 30,000 forest fires werereported in the country in 2019.The report identified nearly 21.67per cent (7,12,249 sq km) of thecountry’s land area as forested.Another 2.89 per cent (95,027 sqkm) was under tree cover.

The report identified 2,77,758forest fire points across the coun-try, and stated that about 21.40per cent of India’s forests are proneto fires. Of this, 3.89 per centbelonged to the category ofextremely fire-prone, 6.01 percent very highly fire-prone and11.50 per cent highly fire-prone.

The forests in Assam,Mizoram and Tripura are“extremely prone” to conflagra-tions. According to the Ministryof Environment, Forest andClimate Change (MoEFCC)annual report for 2020-21, theStates with large forest areas andfalling under the “very highlyfire-prone” category — includ-ing Andhra Pradesh, Manipur,Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland,Odisha, Maharashtra, Bihar andUttar Pradesh — were turninginto “extremely fire-prone”hotspots; so were regions likewestern Maharashtra, southernChhattisgarh and areas ofTelangana and Andhra Pradesh,along with central Odisha. Areasunder the “highly prone” and“moderately prone” categoriesmake up about 26.2 per cent ofthe total forest cover — a stag-gering 1,72,374 sq km.

A State prone to forest fires isHaryana which suffered at least540 of these from 2016 to 2020.Uttarakhand and HimachalPradesh are witness to the mostfrequent forest fires annually.According to the National ForestInventory under the MoEFCC,the fires severely affect almost 10

SOUNDBITE���������������� ����������������Sir —Instead of getting stunned by the ris-ing number of COVID cases in the coun-try, we must admit the fact that we are notmoving towards a second wave but are actu-ally in its grip. As the demand forRemdesivir surges, the Centre has fast-tracked applications from companies tomanufacture the critical anti-viral drug inorder to ensure its smooth availability. Nightcurfews and partial lockdowns are beingimposed in many parts of the country as ameasure to control the deadly virus. Amidthe rising cases, the Centre has announcedthe cancellation of the CBSE Board examsfor Class 10 and has deferred Class 12exams.

On the other hand, lakhs of devoteeshave been taking a holy dip in the Gangaon the occasion of the Kumbh Mela inHaridwar, flouting the COVID norms. It ishowever ironic that while the Governmenthas no compunction about cancelling theBoard examinations, elections in the coun-try are continuing as if nothing has hap-pened. These fears have been magnified allthe more with the dismal disregard shownby various State Governments to clampingdown on mass public events and gatherings.While a proactive approach to control andmanage the crowds when it comes tostonewalling the widely contagious virus,is a remedy to the problem, the completedisregard shown towards the basic safetyprecautions is indeed perplexing!

Pachu Menon | Goa

��������������������������������Sir — The US’ decision to withdraw troopsfrom Afghanistan is not good at the pre-sent moment as the situation on theground is far from satisfactory. The Talibanis still controlling parts of Afghanistan andthere is considerable influence of Pakistanand support from China, too. The chancesof disintegration of Afghanistan are quitehigh. The withdrawal of the US troopsmight create a vacuum which, if acquiredby the disruptive forces, will push the coun-try into turmoil. President Joe Biden hassaid the US troops will be withdrawn from

Afghanistan beginning May 1 and theprocess will be completed by September 11.For his part, Afghan President Ashraf Ghanisaid he spoke to Biden and that his coun-try respects the US decision.

Maybe the US troops might be shiftedto some other regions of the world. The USis also facing domestic problems and is rav-aged by the COVID pandemic. Washingtonneeds a war to run its economy. Theweapons industry needs insecurity amongthe countries to sell weapons and makeprofits. In my opinion, the US troops willbe shifted to another war. Let’s wait andwatch till the withdrawal in September.

Sunil Pradhan | Odisha

�������������������Sir — It refers to the editorial ‘Matters offaith’ (April 16). At a time when theGovernment has done away with bridgingtrials for foreign-made vaccines for

COVID-19 to facilitate acceleration invaccination, it should seriously think aboutbanning religious events like the KumbhMela which has become a super-spreader.In just five days, 1,701 people have testedpositive for COVID-19 in the Kumbh Melaarea. The Uttarakhand Police was unableto impose the standard operating proce-dures (SOPs) on the seers of akhadas andthe ash-smeared ascetics crowding the HarKi Pauri on the two shahi snans becauseof time constraints. Now Niranjani Akhada,one of the 13 akhadas of seers participat-ing in the Kumbh, has decided to returnfrom the event in the wake of the deterio-rating COVID-19 situation. But it is too lateas the damage has already been done.

Bal Govind | Noida

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The pandemic and its prevalence have taughtus many lessons in perseverance and patience.We have raced from one decision to the next,

hoping that the latest one will make everything nor-mal again. While the scientists have been workingrelentlessly to understand the virus and come upwith increasingly promising vaccine candidates, thevirus has been playing truant and evolving in newforms to ditch human efforts and survive as morerobust variants. In the wake of the ever-changingvariants, efficacy statistics and reported side effects,the so-called ultimate solution to end the pandem-ic, the anti-Corona vaccine, doesn’t appear to be soattractive anymore. People are hesitant to take theshot, confirming the ‘Nocebo Effect’ to the perceivedsolution of the pandemic that doesn’t seem to begetting anywhere close to its end. The hesitancy isspread across the globe. Some think they will neverget the disease while others believe the virus is onits way out. Social media has been most instrumen-tal in spreading the hesitancy due to varied opin-ions of people who have wide social media presenceand have contributed to turning the solution fromplacebo to nocebo.

Understanding and addressing vaccine hesitan-cy has become very important in the drive towardsnormalising life, avoiding deaths and allowing theeconomy to run to its full capacity. These were thevery reasons why a COVID-19 vaccine was need-ed in the first place. What made the long wait fora solution turn into vaccine hesitancy needs seri-ous thought. As per the World Health Organisation(WHO), vaccine hesitancy is the delay in acceptanceor refusal of vaccines despite their availability.Medical practitioners and scientists have been mak-ing all out efforts to discuss and address the com-mon causes of concern. Fear and hesitancy comefrom the unknown, hence the awareness needs torise. This has led to a negative mindset against thevaccine. The hesitancy has also been triggered bythe side effects reported in some cases as a resultof administering the vaccine. The directions to con-tinue with the safety measures and stay withCOVID-appropriate behaviour along with report-ing of positive cases in some vaccinated individu-als have amplified the vaccine hesitancy.

With many cases of blood clotting reported asa side effect of the AstraZeneca jab and discontin-uation of the vaccine thereafter in at least a dozenEuropean countries before resuming them again,doubts have grown more than ever. The latest newsthat Denmark has totally stopped the use of theAstraZeneca jab in its inoculation drive is not help-ing the cause and instilling confidence in people.

While Governments across the globe have rolledout the vaccine and invited people to get vaccinat-ed at the earliest, the vaccination centres report adifferent story. Dealing with vaccine hesitancy hasbecome the next big challenge, even in a countrylike India, which is now the second-most badly hitnation in the world after the US.

In order to build trust and confidence in the jab,a multi-pronged strategy is required with transpar-ent communication as the key. With the second wavealready in full swing and numerous variants of theoriginal virus here, the danger is far from over. Herdimmunity, as it was being perceived, is nowhere insight as there are people who have reported a sec-ond infection. The diversity of the disease is unfath-omable.

Attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccines have changed overtimeand varied greatly. The theory ofdeveloping antibodies on beinginfected has also led to a decrease inthe relevance of the vaccine. Infectedindividuals feel they have devel-oped antibodies and are immunisedagainst the disease, so they do notneed a shot. However, the protectiveabilities of antibodies in sero-surveysis unknown and their effectiveness inpreventing reinfection is still to bestudied. The belief that the vaccineis rushed and has not been testedproperly is another setback.

That some of the scientists havebeen supporting this belief has alsogiven boost to hesitancy. It is alsoassumed that the efficacy of the vac-cine is being underplayed so thatpeople do not become lax in observ-ing COVID-appropriate behaviour.Another view being expressed is thatthe immunity after vaccination lastsfor only six months, which wronglyimplies that the shot is not effective.People also think that if the survivaland recovery rate is 99.6 per cent,why even bother getting a jab.

All these supposed opinions andviews have stopped people from get-ting vaccinated. Giving compensa-tion for getting vaccinated has alwaysbackfired as people think that theyare being paid because there issomething to hide. The only groupsthat have justifiable concerns are theelderly, people with co-morbidities,pregnant women and those with highallergic reactions to vaccines. Also,

there is no vaccine to protect our chil-dren, as of now. Though getting vac-cinated is a personal choice, the mostsuccessful inoculation drives havebeen built on knowledge exchange,accessibility and successful stories ofthose getting vaccinated.

Sherita Hill Golden, vice-presi-dent, chief diversity officer and aProfessor of Medicine at JohnsHopkins Medicine talks of 12 thingsyou need to know in the wake of thecurrent vaccine hesitancy. The factsand insights into making a person-al choice to get inoculated include thefollowing: Getting vaccinated canprotect you from getting COVID asyour body will be ready to fight theCoronavirus if you are exposed to it;the people of colour are especiallyvulnerable to severe COVID-19 andits risk factors; getting inoculatedhelps others in the community, moreso when people have chronic med-ical conditions; more vaccinationsmean a chance to return to normalafter having to experience closures,cancellations and postponements;though the vaccine developmentwas fast, no steps were skippedwhile testing for safety and efficacy;diversity in vaccine testing helpedassess safety and effectiveness; sideeffects of the COVID-19 vaccine aresparse and temporary, mainly limit-ed to a sore arm, mild fever or bodyaches; it is possible to get the shotdespite allergies except if you havesevere allergic reactions to vaccines;the vaccine is safe for breastfeedingmothers, though pregnant women

should discuss it with their doctorsas the vaccine have not been testedin pregnant women; the jab can giveyou extra protection, if you alreadyhad COVID-19; waiting too longallows the virus to spread in the com-munity, hence, time is of the essencefor the vaccine; the pandemic canonly be shortened if the vaccine iswell-received.

Hence, people have been advisedto do their own research from reli-able sources and take an informeddecision regarding getting vaccinat-ed. Where the issue of the shortageof the vaccine in the country is con-cerned, the Government is doing allit can to ensure that the needs of thepeople are met at the earliest. Whilethe Russian vaccine Sputnik V hasbeen given the go ahead and will hitthe market soon after short trialshere, the Centre is also looking at fastapprovals for vaccines from othernations that have been approved bythe WHO for emergency use. It isonly a matter of time and the short-age will be a thing of the past. But thebig question is will vaccine hesitan-cy, too, be gone soon?

It is time to put resolve into wide-ly propagating the positives of gettingvaccinated, underplaying the sparsenegatives and whole-heartedly sup-porting the Government’s initiativestowards massive vaccination drivesso that the pandemic situation can becontrolled, the economic downturncan be lifted and normalcy restored.Its time we turned this nocebo to aplacebo and support humanity.

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The Kumbh Mela wasfirst mentioned in theaccounts of Hiuen

Tsang, the famous Chinesetraveller who visited India inthe seventh century. Thegrand event, with a 2,000-year-old history, commencedthis year in January and willcontinue till the end of April.Currently, at over two lakhnew cases, India accounts forone in six of all new COVIDinfections globally. But theserather grim facts did notdeter nearly 13.5 lakh devo-tees, including the membersof the 13 Akharas from tak-ing the holy dip or the ShahiSnan on April 13.

The consequences of theongoing Maha Kumbh uponpublic health have been dev-astating, to say the least. Inthe last 24 hours, Haridwarhas reported over 1,000 freshCorona positive cases. Withthe Indian Railways running

25 special trains to ferry thepilgrims across the country,the Maha Kumbh is all set tobecome a “Maha COVID-19super-spreader.” The situa-tion looks hopeless unlesseither the event is immediate-ly terminated or social dis-tancing norms are strictlyadhered to. But nothing sig-nificant seems to have beendone by the Governmentregarding it.

Health risks aside, theKumbh Mela is also notsomething that is known forenvironment friendliness.The Maha Kumbh is held atfour locations — Nashik,Haridwar, Prayagraj andUjjain — on a rotationalbasis after an interval of 12years.

While the Kumbh, ingeneral, is celebrated fourtimes over the course of 12years, with the site of theobservance rotating between

four pilgrimage places onthe four sacred rivers, name-ly, at Haridwar on the Ganga,at Ujjain on the Shipra, atNashik on the Godavari andat Prayagraj at the conflu-ence of the Ganga, theJamuna, and the mythicalSarasvati.

The Nashik Kumbh Melaheld in 2015 resulted in25,000 tonnes of solid wasteand faecal sludge that creptinto the groundwater tablefrom 33,000 hastily set-upmobile toilets without anyeffective waste disposalmechanism. It took an inter-national outcry triggered bymedia coverage and the even-tual intervention of theBombay High Court to cleanup the Nashik Kumbh Melamess and rescue the environ-ment. The event also causeda spike in river pollutionmaking it unfit for bathingand other purposes. The

maximum permissibleBiochemical OxygenDemand (BOD) for safebathing is 3.0 milligrams(mg) per litre but it rangedbetween 3.4-8.5 mg per litreduring the event. Meanwhilebacterial coliform rangedbetween 3,300 and 39,000Most Probable Number(MPN) per 100 ml while thepermissible limit is 500 MNPper 100 ml for human

bathing. The Maha Kumbh atHaridwar, too, is no differenteither in terms of the colos-sal health risk it poses or theecological collateral damageit brings.

In the run-up to theHaridwar Maha Kumbh, theNational Mission for CleanGanga (NMCG) has beenworking tirelessly to preventecological damage and as apart of its efforts, the NMCGhas diverted one of thebiggest local sewage drains —the Kassawan nullah — to asewage treatment plant. Butit should have been done ayear ago. This nullah hasemptied its effluents into theGanga for years.

A recent study by theDoon University on the pol-lution levels in the Gangaestablishes that in the stretchfrom Rishikesh to Haridwarthe river was high on pollu-tants due to the pilgrim

bathing load and urban wasteeffluent flow.

The study also revealedthat the overall concentrationof Polypropylene Copolymer(PPCP), a form of plastic pol-lutant in the Ganga wasfound to be up to 1,104.84nanograms per litre. Further,the presence of chemicalswas also found to be high inthe river water samples.

The election season, too,symbolised by huge politicalrallies, coupled with unre-strained religious gatheringsare in total defiance ofCOVID-appropriate behav-iour and protocol. Surely theGovernment is not ignorantof the health costs of theseunabated events during theongoing second wave of theCoronavirus pandemic, butpopulist measures andappeasement tactics are thetop priorities during electionsand they seem to score over

environmental and healthconcerns.

This is not surprising, butwhat is unfortunately star-tling is the inaction on thebehalf of the judiciary whichcould have taken a suo motuinitiative to shorten the dura-tion of the Kumbh Mela,thereby, saving lives and theenvironment. In the absenceof this, the Non-GovernmentOrganisations working in thefield of environment protec-tion and other individualscould have filed a PublicInterest Litigation to thiseffect, but unfortunately, thatalso did not happen yet.

It is a classic case of whowill bell the cat? Sadly, thereluctance of people to takeon what is obviously a com-munally-sensitive issue willcost the environment and thehealth and economy of thecountry dearly. Where are thetrue nationalists now?

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The writer is Registrar,IIT Delhi.

The views expressed are personal.

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Opponents of Myanmar’sruling junta went on the

political offensive on Friday,declaring they have formed aninterim national unityGovernment with members ofAung San Suu Kyi’s oustedCabinet and major ethnicminority groups.

The move comes on theeve of a diplomatic initiative tosolve Myanmar’s crisis by theAssociation of Southeast AsianNations, which is expected tohold a summit next week.

A violent crackdown by thejunta has failed to stemOpposition to the coup, and asthe Army has spread the fightto ethnic minorities in borderareas, some ASEAN membersbelieve the crisis threatensregional stability.

Opponents of the couphave been seeking an alliancewith ethnic minority groups asa way of strengthening theirresistance. The minorities fordecades have kept up on-again,off-again armed struggles for

greater autonomy in the bor-derlands.

While it was not clear if theminority political organisa-tions had formally joined analliance, the appointment ofprominent personalities fromtheir ranks showed a commit-ment to a joint struggle againstthe military, which is certain toboost morale to the anti-coup

cause.Security forces have killed

at least 726 protesters andbystanders since the Feb. 1 mil-itary takeover, according tothe Assistance Association forPolitical Prisoners, which mon-itors casualties and arrests.The protests and the killingshave been continuing on adaily basis.

The National UnityGovernment is nominally anupgrade from what had beencalled the CommitteeRepresenting PyidaungsuHluttaw, which was formedshortly after the coup by elect-ed lawmakers who were barredby the army from taking theirseats.

The CRPH sought inter-national recognition asMyanmar’s sole legitimate gov-ernment body, but won onlypopular support from thoseopposed to military rule.

The junta declared theCRPH an illegal organisation,and issued arrest warrants forits leading members.

A video posted Friday onsocial media showed veteranactivist Min Ko Naingannouncing the formation ofthe new body. He was a leaderof the failed 1988 uprisingagainst a previous military dic-tatorship and is one of thecountry’s most respected polit-ical figures aside from SuuKyi. He went quickly under-ground after the coup and

apparently has been active inpolitical organizing against thejunta since then.

“Please support theNational Unity Governmentfor the future of our citizensand our younger generation.”he said. “The people are thedecision makers and the peo-ple will fight the final battle.Victory is coming, We mustwin our revolution.”

More details were provid-ed in a statement on socialmedia by Dr. Sasa, a physicianand philanthropist who thoughin hiding has been the onlinepublic face of the CRPH..

“Today, at the end ofThingyan on the eve ofMyanmar’s new year, we areproud to announce the forma-tion of a new National UnityGovernment and the dawn ofa new era for the people ofMyanmar,” said Sasa.

“For the first time in ourhistory, Myanmar has a unitygovernment that will reflectone of our nation’s greateststrengths — the diversity of ourpeople.”

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Pakistan on Friday tem-porarily suspended the ser-

vices of social media platformslike Twitter, Facebook andWhatsApp to stop their use toorganise demonstrations fol-lowing violent protests by aradical religious group thathas now been banned by theGovernment.

The Government bannedTehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan(TLP) on Thursday followingthree days of violent protest byit to force the government toexpel the French ambassadorover a blasphemous caricaturepublished in France last year.

The TLP had launched thecountry-wide protest onMonday after the arrest of itschief Saad Hussain Rizvi.

The TLP supportersclashed with the law enforce-ment agencies in several townsand cities earlier this week,leaving seven persons deadand over 300 policemeninjured.

To stop the protests afterFriday prayers, the InteriorMinistry directed the PakistanTelecommunication Authority(PTA) to suspend social mediaservices for four hours from 11am to 3 pm.

The PTA said in a notifi-

cation that “complete access tosocial media platforms (Twitter,Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTubeand Telegram) may be blocked”.

The reason for the sus-pension of the services was notstated by the PTA but officialsources said that it was fearedthat protesters could use socialmedia to organise demonstra-tions.

Suspension of internet andmobile phone services is acommon practice in Pakistanto forestall protests and acts ofterrorism.

But this time only socialmedia has been particularlytargeted as the TLP was report-edly using it effectively againstthe government action.

On Thursday, InteriorMinister Sheikh Rashid Ahmedwarned the TLP against usingYouTube to upload propagan-da videos. The TLP came toprominence in November 2017when it staged a sit-in at theFaizabad interchange nearIslamabad and cut off the cap-ital from the old internationalairport.

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Hours after expelling 10Russian diplomats in con-

nection with interference in lastyear’s US presidential elec-tions, President Joe Biden hasproposed a strategic stabilitydialogue with Moscow, as offi-cials of the two countries dis-cussed the possibility of a sum-mit meeting in Europe thissummer.

The US on Thursdayannounced the expulsion of 10Russian diplomats and slappedsanctions on over 30 individu-als and key financial institu-tions as it held Kremlinaccountable for interferencein last year’s presidential elec-tion and the hacking ofAmerican federal agencies.

Hours after signing theexecutive order imposing sanc-tions on its erstwhile cold warrival, Biden told reporters at theWhite House that during a tele-phonic conversation with hisRussian counterpart, VladimirPutin, he had proposed thatthey meet in person this sum-mer in Europe for a summit toaddress a range of issues facingboth the countries.

“Our teams are discussingthat possibility right now. Andif that summit were to occur,and I believe it will, the UnitedStates and Russia could launcha strategic stability dialogue topursue cooperation in armscontrol and security,” Bidensaid.

“We can address criticalglobal challenges that requireRussia and the United States towork together, including rein-ing in nuclear threats from Iranand North Korea, ending thispandemic globally, and meet-ing the existential crisis of cli-mate change,” he said.

During the phone call,Biden said he expressed con-cern on Russia’s military buildup on the Ukraine border andin Crimea.

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Moscow: Russia on Fridayresponded in kind to a barrageof new US sanctions, saying itwould expel 10 US diplomatsand take other retaliatorymoves in a tense showdownwith Washington.

Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov also saidMoscow will add eight USofficials to its sanctions list andmove to restrict and stop theactivities of US nongovern-ment organizations from inter-fering in Russia’s politics.

He said the Kremlin sug-gested that U.S. AmbassadorJohn Sullivan follow the exam-ple of his Russian counterpartand head home for consulta-tions. Russia will also move todeny the U.S. Embassy thepossibility to hire personnelfrom Russia and third countriesas support staff.

The moves follow the sanc-tions on Russia announced thisweek by the Biden administra-tion. While the U.S. Wields thepower to cripple the Russianeconomy, Moscow lacks leversto respond in kind, although itpotentially could hurt Americaninterests in many other waysaround the globe.

Lavrov noted that whileRussia could take “painful mea-sures” against American business

interests in Russia, it wouldn’timmediately move to do that.

Russia has denied interfer-ing in the 2020 U.S. Presidentialelection and involvement in theSolarWind hack of federalagencies — the activities pun-ished by the latest U.S.Sanctions. The Russian ForeignMinistry warned of an“inevitable” retaliation, charg-ing that “Washington shouldrealize that it will have to paya price for the degradation ofbilateral ties.”

The U.S. On Thursdayordered 10 Russian diplomatsexpelled, targeted dozens ofcompanies and people, andimposed new curbs on Russia’sability to borrow money.Pundits had predicted thatwhile Moscow would respondin kind to the expulsions, itwould refrain from any othersignificant moves to avoid afurther escalation.

Russia’s economic potentialand its global reach are limit-ed compared with the SovietUnion that competed with theU.S for international influenceduring the Cold War. Still,Russia’s nuclear arsenal and itsleverage in many parts of theworld make it a power thatWashington needs to reckonwith. AP

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Washington: It was one of themore tantalizing, yet unresolved,questions of the investigation intopossible connections betweenRussia and Donald Trump’s 2016presidential campaign: Why wasa business associate of campaignchairman Paul Manafort giveninternal polling data — andwhat did he do with it?

A Treasury Departmentstatement Thursday offered apotentially significant clue,asserting that KonstantinKilimnik, a Russian andUkrainian political consultant,had shared sensitive campaignand polling information withRussian intelligence services.

Kilimnik has long beenalleged by U.S. officials to haveties to Russian intelligence.But the statement in a broad-er Treasury Department sanc-tions announcement was thefirst time the U.S. governmenthad so directly drawn a con-nection from the Trump cam-paign to the Kremlin’s intelli-gence services. The revelationwas all the more startlingbecause it went beyond anyallegation made in either spe-cial counsel Robert Mueller’s2019 report or in an evenmore damning and detaileddocument released last year bythe Senate IntelligenceCommittee. AP

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The US will continue to pushPakistan hard on supporting the

diplomatic efforts to ensure peace inAfghanistan as it has an interest over thelonger term in avoiding insecurity andinstability in the war-torn neighbour-ing country that can spill over and affectits own interest, CIA Director WilliamBurns has said. Burns was respondingto a question from Congressman AdamSchiff, who is the Chairman of the pow-erful House Intelligence Committee.

“Our withdrawal from Afghanistan,what impact do you think that will haveon the Pakistani relationship with theTaliban, the Pakistani intelligence, ISI

relationship with the Haqqani net-work or others? How do you see thatchanging without a US military pres-ence there?” Schiff asked during themeeting on Thursday.

“Pakistan today is playing a con-structive role in support of the diplo-matic efforts, at least that the UnitedStates and other countries are makingto try to bridge what is, at the moment,a pretty severe gap between the gov-ernment of Afghanistan and theTaliban,” Burns responded.

The CIA Director told lawmakersthat Pakistan has an interest over thelonger term in avoiding the kind of inse-curity and instability in Afghanistan thatcan spill over and affect its own interest.

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China poses the single biggest geopo-litical test for the US in the 21st cen-

tury, CIA Director William Burns hassaid, stressing that this threat is moreserious than those from Russia duringthe Cold War.

Burns made the remarks to mem-bers of the House Select Committee onIntelligence during a Congressionalhearing on worldwide threats onThursday.

“I think China poses the singlebiggest geopolitical test for the UnitedStates as far out into the 21st centuryas I can see,” Burns said.

“What distinguishes that challengefrom an increasingly adversarial ChineseCommunist Party from, for example, thechallenge we faced with the SovietUnion during the Cold War, is that thischallenge unfolds across a whole rangeof areas from military to ideological interms of our values, economic and espe-cially at its core competition and tech-nology as well,” Burns said.

The US and China are at odds overa range of issues from trade to humanrights in Tibet, Hong Kong and China’swestern Xinjiang region, as well as overTaiwan, Beijing’s assertiveness in theSouth China Sea and the coronaviruspandemic.

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Atop Chinese diplomat saidFriday that US policy

toward China is “too negative”and that cooperation could becritically important as theBiden administration focuseson combatting Covid-19 andpromoting economic recovery.

The US appears to be high-lighting confrontation andplaying down cooperation,Vice Foreign Minister LeYucheng said in a wide-rang-ing interview with TheAssociated Press.

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AHong Kong court onFriday sentenced five lead-

ing pro-democracy advocates,including media tycoon JimmyLai, to up to 18 months inprison for organsing and par-ticipating in a massive marchduring 2019 anti-governmentprotests that triggered an over-whelming crackdown fromBeijing.

A total of nine advocateswere given jail terms, but fourof them, including 82-year-old lawyer and former law-maker Martin Lee, had theirsentences suspended after their age and accom-plishments were taken intoconsideration.

They were found guiltyearlier this month of organiz-

ing and participating in a mas-sive protest in August 2019,where an estimated 1.7 millionpeople marched in oppositionto a bill that would haveallowed suspects to be extra-dited to mainland China. Themarch was not authorized bythe police.

Their convictions and sen-tencing are another blow to thecity’s flagging democracymovement, which is facing anunprecedented crackdown byBeijing and Hong Kong author-ities. The sentences were swift-ly met with international crit-icism.

The court suspended the11-month prison sentence ofLee, who is known for hisadvocacy for human rightsand democracy, for two yearsbecause of his age.

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Iran began enriching uraniumFriday to its highest level ever, edg-

ing closer to weapons-grade levels topressure talks in Vienna aimed atrestoring its nuclear deal with worldpowers after an attack on its mainatomic site.

A top official said only a fewgrams an hour of uranium gas wouldbe enriched up to 60 per cent puri-ty — triple the level it once did butat a rate far slower than what Tehrancould produce. International inspec-tors already said Iran planned to doso above-ground at its Natanznuclear site, not deep within itsunderground halls hardened to with-stand airstrikes.

The move is likely to raise ten-sions even as Iran negotiates inVienna over a way to allow the US

back into the agreement and lift thecrushing economic sanctions it faces.However, its scope also provides Iranwith a way to quickly de-escalate ifit chose.

The announcement also marksa significant escalation after theattack that damaged centrifuges atNatanz, an attack this past weekendsuspected of having been carried outby Israel. While Israel has yet to claimit, it comes amid a long-runningshadow war between the two

Mideast rivals.Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf,

Iran’s parliament speaker, announcedthe move in a Twitter post lateracknowledged by Iranian state tele-vision.

“The young and God-believingIranian scientists managed to achievea 60 per cent enriched uraniumproduct,” Qalibaf said. “I congratu-late the brave nation of Islamic Iranon this success. The Iranian nation’swillpower is miraculous and candefuse any conspiracy.”

The head of the Atomic EnergyOrganization of Iran, the country’scivilian nuclear arm, later acknowl-edged the move to 60 per cent,according to state TV. Ali AkbarSalehi said the centrifuges now pro-duce 9 grams an hour, but that woulddrop to 5 grams an hour in the com-ing days.

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New Delhi:State-owned powergiant NTPC will raise Rs 3,996crore through issuance of non-convertible bonds onTuesday.”NTPC has decidedto issue unsecured non-con-vertible bonds in the nature ofdebentures of Rs 3,996 crore on20 April, 2021, through privateplacement at a coupon of 6.87per cent per annum with adoor-to-door maturity of 15years 1 day on 21 April, 2036,”a BSE filing said.

The proceeds will be uti-lized for funding capital expen-diture, refinancing of existingloans and other general cor-porate purposes, it said. PTI

New Delhi:State-owned CILon Friday announced incor-poration of two wholly-ownedarms.The two subsidiaries areCIL Solar PV Ltd and CILNavikarniya Urja Ltd, CoalIndia Ltd (CIL) said in a filingto BSE.CIL Solar PV Limitedhas been incorporated for man-ufacturing in solar value chain(Ingot-wafer-Cell Module) andCIL Navikarniya Urja Limitedfor renewable energy, the filingsaid.

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After declining for two con-secutive quarters, the

country’s foreign exchange(forex) reserves surged by USD4.34 billion to USD 581.21 bil-lion in the week ended April 9,according to the latest RBIdata.

In the previous week endedApril 2, the reserves had dippedby USD 2.42 billion to USD576.28 billion. It had droppedby USD 2.99 billion to USD579.28 billion in the weekended March 26, 2021.

The reserves had toucheda lifetime high of USD 590.18billion in the week endedJanuary 29, 2021.

In the reporting weekended April 9, 2021, theincrease in forex reserves wason account of a rise in foreigncurrency assets (FCA), a majorcomponent of the overallreserves.

FCA rose USD 3.02 billionto USD 539.45 billion, theReserve Bank of India’s (RBI)weekly data showed.

Expressed in dollar terms,the foreign currency assetsinclude the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-USunits like euro, pound and yenheld in the forex reserves.

The gold reserves increasedby USD 1.30 billion to USD35.32 billion in the reportingweek, the RBI data showed.

The special drawing rights(SDRs) with the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) roseUSD 6 million to USD 1.49 bil-lion in the reporting week.

The country’s reserve posi-tion with the IMF rose USD 24million to USD 4.95 billion inthe reporting week, the datashowed.

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The rupee on Friday soaredby 58 paise to end more

than one-week high of 74.35against the US dollar on easingUS bond yields and positivedomestic equities.

A weak dollar overseasand foreign fund inflows alsosupported the rupee. At theinterbank forex market, thelocal unit opened at 74.76against the greenback and wit-nessed an intra-day high of74.28 and a low of 74.76. Itfinally ended at 74.35 againstthe American currency, regis-tering its best single-day gain of58 paise in more than a month.On Thursday, the rupee hadsettled at 74.93 against theAmerican currency.

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The Sensex and Nifty tickedhigher for the third session

on the trot on Friday but couldnot wipe off weekly lossesamid a resurgence in Covid-19cases. A strong recovery in therupee, which zoomed 58 paise,and a bullish trend in globalequities supported the bours-es on Friday, traders said.

After a choppy session, the30-share BSE Sensex closed28.35 points or 0.06 per centhigher at 48,832.03.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty rose 36.40 points or 0.25per cent to 14,617.85.

Asian Paints was the topperformer among the Sensexcomponents, spurting 3.07 percent, followed by UltraTech

Cement, ONGC, M&M, SunPharma, HCL Tech, TechMahindra and Nestle India.

On the other hand, ICICIBank, L&T, Bajaj Finance, TCS,SBI, Infosys and RelianceIndustries were among thelosers, declining up to1.55 percent.

During the holiday-trun-cated week, the Sensex sank759.29 points or 1.53 per cent,while the Nifty tumbled 217points or 1.46 per cent.

A continued surge in sec-ond wave of COVID-19 casesin the country, which alreadycrossed 2 lakh daily cases, hascertainly posed a risk to sus-tainability of rebound of earn-ings momentum, said BinodModi, Head-Strategy atReliance Securities.

Mumbai:Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO AdarPoonawalla on Friday said the US needs to liftits embargo on raw material exports to help rampup vaccine production.

SII is currently manufacturing anti-coron-avirus vaccine Covishield, developed byAstrazeneca and Oxford University. The vaccineis not only being used in India, but exported toa number of countries. Poonawalla had earlieradmitted that SII has been facing problems insending out required number of batches of vac-cines due to the bureaucratic and government-related hurdles.

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Airline major IndiGowaived-off change

fees on new bookingsmade from April 17, 2021till April 30, 2021.

Besides, the airlineannounced that passen-gers can now do unlimit-ed changes for new book-ings made till April 30,2021 on regular fares under thisoffer.

“This offer is in line withour philosophy of providingour customers a hassle-freeexperience, and giving themmuch needed flexibility, espe-cially in these times,” said

Sanjay Kumar, Chief Strategy &Revenue Officer, IndiGo.

Other airlines are expect-ed to announce similar reliefmeasures as the resurgence ofCovid and imposition of locallockdowns has started to ham-per air passenger traffic.

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Amid revival in housingdemand, the residential

segment witnessed privateequity (PE) investments worth$234 million in Q1 2021 whichwas 64 per cent of that wit-nessed during the entire 2020,said a Knight Frank Indiareport.

It noted that in terms of thenumber of deals, the invest-ment activity touched 100 percent of 2020 levels and 39 percent of 2019 levels in the firstthree months of 2021.

The report titled‘Investments in Real Estate -Trends in PE Investment (Q12021 update)’ said that Indianreal estate attracted privateequity (debt and equity) invest-ments ($3.24 billion) across 19deals in Q1 2021 (January -March) period.

In the first quarter of 2021,the investment in the sector hasgrown by 16 times compared to$199 million in Q1 2020.

The investments in Q12021 in value terms were 80 per

cent of that witnessed in fullyear 2020 and 48 per cent offull year 2019.The strongmomentum in Q1 2021 waspredominantly driven by twomajor factors, spillover of cer-tain deals from 2020 and therise in investor confidence dueto the drop in Covid-19 infec-tions during early parts of Q12021, which had created someripples of positivity in theeconomy, it said.

The sustainability of thismomentum in investors’ senti-ments will therefore depend onhow soon the second wave ofinfection subsides and also thepace of vaccination, as per theKnight Frank India.

Out of the total PE invest-ments in real estate, the officesegment attracted 71 per centshare, followed by retail at 15per cent, residential and ware-housing with 7 per cent eachrespectively.

Shishir Baijal, Chairmanand Managing Director, KnightFrank India said: “The dealstreet market of Indian realestate witnessed an impressive

surge in both value and volumeof private equity investments inthe first quarter of 2021, whencompared to the entire year of2020.”

He said that office assetscontinue to be the preferredsegment attracting over 70 percent of PE investments Q12021 as the segment movestowards maturity whichincludes sustained demand,stability in rental income andchange in ownership profileover long -term. Investors areexpecting demand to recuper-ate faster as the pace of vacci-nation increases.

“While Q1 2021 has beenan encouraging quarter for PEinvestments, however, theupward trajectory can beimpacted by the rising secondwave of Covid-19 infections inIndia which started in themonth of April 2021. The sus-tainability of revival in investorsentiments will thereforedepend on how soon the sec-ond wave of infection subsidesand the pace of vaccination,”Baijal said.

6"���� ���&�'��

As government plans tocome up with a

Cryptocurrency Bill, sectorstakeholders have said that thegovernment should regulatethe cryptocurrency ecosystem,rather than banning them.

Experts are of the view thatIndia should formulate regula-tions in the lines of the devel-opment countries which regu-late these currencies includingthe US, UK, Japan, Australiaamong others.

Nischal Shetty, Founder &CEO, WazirX said: “India’scrypto policy should be gearedtowards fostering innovation,and customer safety. We shouldbe able to prevent bad activitiesbut keep the door to innovationopen by allowing everythingelse to be built.”

He said that so far there isno single regulator in a positionto regulate the entire cryptosector.

“It’s like trying to regulatethe Internet with one regulator.We can start breaking downcrypto based on its classifica-tion as currency, asset, utility,security, and let regulators han-dle the respective crypto.Eventually, it will become nec-essary to have a dedicatedcrypto markets regulator,”Shetty said.

He also recommended thatthe government should ensurethat all crypto businesses cater-ing to Indian customers areregistered in India and followKYC and AML policies. “Thereshould also be guidelines forcrypto businesses to ensuresafety of customer funds,” theWazirX CEO said.

Dev Sharma, RegionalManager (Central Asia) forPaxful also said that at a foun-dational level, India shouldregulate so that all companieshave to implement KYC andAML processes to protect con-sumers.”There is nothing aboutcryptocurrencies that makethem more appealing to ‘badactors’ than fiat currencies. So,cryptocurrencies need to beregulated in similar ways,” hesaid.

In addi-tion, it wouldbe great to seeIndia developmeasures topromote inno-vation in thesector forexample withincubators andstart-up funds.

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Jet fuel price on Friday wascut by 1 per cent, the sec-

ond reduction in rates thismonth following softeninginternational crude oil prices.

Aviation turbine fuel(ATF) price was reduced byRs 568.88 per kilolitre, or 0.9per cent, to Rs 57,805.28 perkl in the national capital,according to a price notifi-cation of state-owned fuelretailers.This is the secondreduction in rates this month.

Earlier, prices were cut by 3per cent on April 1.

These price cuts were thefirst in six months.

Meanwhile, petrol anddiesel prices remainedunchanged after the fourthreduction in three weeks onThursday.

Petrol price on Thursdaywas cut by 16 paise per litreand diesel by 14 paise.

Petrol now costs Rs90.40 per litre in Delhi, whilea litre of diesel comes for Rs80.73.

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�How was the project conceptu-alised?

Myna: I had worked withDavide on an exchange programmeof ideas and art between Italy andIndia at the India Art Fair two yearsback. We enjoyed this cross-cultur-al exchange tremendously wherethere were women artists, threeeach, from Italy and India. What wassurprising was the resonance amongthem. It was a universal and hybridmoment. While the contours ofwork were specific to the location,there was a shared universality aswomen artists.

From there came the germ of anidea. As the resonance was big, wewanted to share it with a wider audi-ence. Things quickly fell in place asDavide was invited as a curator toAartissima, Italy’s most pivotal artfairs, for India. As a larger narrativeformed, we got more ambitiousand wanted to communicate the ideabehind the curation. We wanted toshare this and a film, because of awider and diverse audience as wellas those who are new to art conver-sation or aren’t art enthusiasts buthave an inclination towards it, wasconsidered the best way to do it.

For me, talking about Indiaand its aesthetics can’t be separatedfrom the specificity of location.Instead of explaining this to theaudience, they get to peek into theaesthetics philosophies, history andthe contemporariness of everydayliving, landscape, crafts, arts andpolitical situation.

There is poetic resonance inboth countries in terms of themes,materiality, form and more. Thereare several intersections in the intel-lectual thought process, the time, theduration and the way artists workand the way nature interacts.

Davide: We were at a stagewhere we could truly have anexchange. There were questions,about our roles as cultural mitiga-

tors and that of culture in the con-temporary world, especially in thepandemic. Human beings aren’tjust consumers or survivors but arecultural beings. This isn’t just a jour-ney but also critically thinkingabout the role of culture and art.There’s a strong idea of presentingwhat it means to be in a cross-cul-tural environment and presentingyour own culture through a contem-porary spectacle. The idea isn’t tosimplify but to make it more layered.

�How much does the ruling dis-pensation and their outlook affectarts?

Onir: For independent film-makers, censorship has been therefor years and we’ve negotiated dif-ferent kinds of dos-don’ts. WhenOTT came, we thought it had morepossibilities but now there are newlaws. You’re always being told to besensitive about religion and morebut somewhere the artiste has dis-appeared in the scheme of things.However, art is a compulsion thatdoesn’t let you stay quiet as is evi-dent from Iranian cinema. It’s aboutfinding a new narrative to tell a story.

D: I think, radicality is happen-ing globally. This situation is con-ducive to art and culture not beingsecondary. There’s a strong will tofind solutions and ways to do thingsas well as support creativity in peo-ple.

M: One of the most interestingthings about art, when you’re look-ing at radicality, is the origin of theword. The etymology of radicality isroots. So you’re essentially goingback to the roots philosophically andsymbolically.

I spent 20 years in New York andthe burden of representation therewas very frustrating. For example, ifyou were a dancer, suddenly every-body would say this is South Asiandance but we know that there are somany dances in India alone. This

means that if you’re leading some-one into an exposition of culture, itsmultiplicity is so enormous, thatunless the viewer willingly embracesits complexity, nothing can beunderstood about culture.

Going from Kashmir to Gujarat,there were so many surprising sto-ries and encounters that there’s nofixed way to think about them. Thedocumentary looks into the multi-ple truths at this particular momentin time. The wonderful thing is thatit looks at both references as well asdepartures from these historicaland material references. It hopes toglimpse at multiplicity in all its glory.

�So, do you think these multiplelocations add to the storytelling?

M: Yes, of course. There are sim-ilarities and differences between —Gujarat’s Maharaja SayajiraoUniversity and Shanti Niketan,

Bengal — the two best-known aca-demic institutions of art. Then thereare many smaller ones besides folkand craft traditions, weaving tradi-tions or patterns or references, phi-losophy, spirituality... there is somuch. Even when you’re referring toa simple landscape, it is variedacross different parts of India.

D: The overlapping of feelings orrelationships is communicated byputting together extreme things ordifferences. This explodes into anemotional reaction rather than a his-torical or intellectualised analysis.Onir is extremely important in thisas the world he comes from and hisway of thinking is very different. It’sa journey through feelings, ideas,sketches of ideas, doubts and that isactually what will make the film veryappealing as it’s not about a linearidea but a complex journey throughreferences and aesthetics of actual-

ly connecting or disconnecting Indiaand Italy.

�So you would say that multiplelocations and multiple artists areadding to these voices of diversi-ty?

M and D: Yes sure. D: This is of course a point of

view and a rhetorical decision. Itisn’t always about absolute. It’sabout tentatives, absorbing thingsand getting back. The idea is tobring all those images and edit themto the minimum and maximumpossible.

M: The reason for bringingOnir is that we wanted to bring inan outsider who would also see itfrom the audience’s perspectivewith fresh eyes. So if it made senseto Onir, it would make sense to theaudience. He’s an outsider to theprocess while being a part of the

journey.

�Is this an attempt to bridge thegap as art is considered high-brow and inaccessible?

O: When Myna approachedme the idea to make it more “acces-sible” was exciting. This wasn’t atechnical documentary from thepoint of view of someone superiortalking about things you don’tunderstand but it was the journeyof experiencing and understandingthe long history of art and contem-porary art in the context of nature,culture, tradition and everythingelse. For me, starting from Kashmirand going to Gujarat changed theway I started seeing form, designand will affect the way I shoot films.To make art accessible needs a smallstep. This journey helped me takethat step and I hope that it does sofor other people too.

�What were the challenges inbringing everything — the journeyfrom Kashmir to Gujarat and theItalian as well as Indian influences— to one platform?

O: For me, the beauty is in find-ing threads that are diverse whilehaving a commonality because thatis what humanity is all about. It islike poetry, where you are using dif-ferent languages to convey the sameemotion. You see nature, tradition,patterns, forms and colours ofKashmir resonate in Gujarat whilebeing different.

�Is the focus more on contempo-rary artists in the documentary?

O: It is contemporary but comeswith thousands of years of history.What’s beautiful is that we are talk-ing about the works of contempo-rary artists and showing the milieuthat brought about their art.

D: What’s interesting isn’t theconflict between past and presentbut how the present is coming

from history. When you’re talkingabout how tradition is preserved,you also see professionals whobuild on that tradition. We’re goingto alphabets of creativity and show-ing that art is a discourse and a prac-tise which isn’t in conflict but a nat-ural consequence even though itmight go against tradition.

M: I don’t think of history as aprogression in a linear way butmuch more as a continuum.Everything in South Asia is ellipti-cal. What’s new today is old tomor-row and what’s old tomorrow is alsosuddenly new. Whether it is thematerials, colour, the way it is con-structed and used by artists on tem-pura and frescoes. Similarly, whilereferences to metaphor and mythshappen in ancient cultures but arealso made by very young contem-porary artists today.

�What is the audience you are tar-geting and what should they belooking at?

M: We hope that the film servesas an entry point for someone whois interested in art but never has hadan exposure to different conversa-tions or some of the different his-tories of art. At the same time wewant artists to find a resonance withother artists either from their partof the world or other parts of theworld. It isn’t a historical text butmore of symbols and signs that givean entry point into aesthetics. It’s aplural history.

D: We want to have a film thatgoes beyond the intellectual lan-guage that contemporary art had in-built globally and to try to create anarrative that talks to people.

O: It provides an experience tosomeone navigating art but not sofamiliar with it but at the same timeit has layers and subtexts woven insilently which will give a much morerefined narrative to artists who arefamiliar with the discourse.

Aglobal pandemic and an impend-ing lockdown may have yet again

impacted the commercial and creativeaspects of performing arts butAustralian-Indian choreographer andeducator Ashley Lobo believes anabiding passion for dance can openeven invisible doors. The point is topersist, keep learning and find newways to express oneself.

Drawing upon his expertise as amentor at his dance institutions, theDanceworx Performing ArtsAcademy and the Navdhara IndiaDance Theatre, and having spent overa year balancing the virtual stage andlive dance training, Ashley offerstips to aspiring dancers as to how theycan navigate this time yet again withhope, courage and even success.

INCULCATE PASSION“If a dancer has passion, she/he

will have the discipline to persevereregardless of the challenges ahead. Apandemic can be emotionally andphysically draining on a dancer whois used to synergising and perform-ing with other dancers on stage, instudios and also soaking in the liveappreciation of the audience. But pas-sion coupled with adaptability canpropel a dancer forward, says he andadds, “The one thing I learnt duringthe lockdown last year was that wealways have enough space and ener-gy to do what we really want. I adapt-ed my passion for dancing to a moreconstricted space and developed adaily routine that I stuck to. Duringmy online classes, I asked my studentsto do the same. No matter how over-whelmed you may be feeling, as adancer when your feet start moving,your mind also moves to happierplaces.”

IDENTIFY A FAVOURITE DANCESTYLE

When a dancer is serious aboutpursuing his or her passion as a voca-tion and a lifelong career, it is impor-tant to identify the style they want tospecialise in. Ashley cites the exam-ple of many young Indian dancerswhose dedication to ballet has won

them scholarships and taken themabroad to master the form. He says,“When you clarify just what creativezone you want to specialise, work orteach in, it distills your choices to theessentials and you are able to findoptions that are suited to you.”

GET THE FUNDAMENTALS OF

THEORY RIGHTAccording to him, to revise,

repeat and imbibe the basic theoriesof a chosen dance form is important.He suggests, “Learn online with ateacher, join an academy remotely ifyou cannot learn in person and tuneyour body and mind. Do your ownresearch on how great dancers builttheir technique, watch acclaimedperformances, check what interna-tional studios are working on. All thisinformation is out there. Be hungryand relentless. Build your foundationand never stop working on yourselfand your craft.”

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVESIt is hard to find motivation in

tough times but as Ashley says, “Oneof my favourite quotes that I userepeatedly to inspire myself and mystudents is, ‘My next move must bemotivated by dance itself.’ This is whatit is all about. When you let dance leadyou to your next step, the futurereveals itself and believe me, it will bebeautiful. The world over, dance isgetting the respect it deserves throughperformance-based shows and films.Dancers are beginning to representIndia at the global level as perform-ers, teachers and choreographers.And we are all set to make an evenbigger splash in the years to come. Sodream hard, work harder and you willgo places.”

Rapper Divine has teamed upwith American music video

and film director Gil Green for themusic video of his new track Rider.

The story of the song isinspired by Divine’s rags-to-rich-es tale. It is a love saga between adeprived dreamer, played byDivine, and an affluent bosswoman, played by singer LisaMishra.

Green has directed over 200music videos and has collaborat-ed with the likes of Adam Levine,John Legend, Pitbull, ChrisBrown, Akon, Lil Wayne, KanyeWest, Nicki Minaj, Drake, DJKhaled, Camila Cabello, Usher, P-Diddy, J Balvin, 50 Cent, SnoopDogg and Sean Paul.

“I want to send a big shout outto Divine and the Gully Gang forcollaborating with me on thisvideo. Being a part of Divine’smassive influence in India’s hiphop movement is something spe-cial to me. The art form is trulyuniversal, and Divine continues topush the hip hop boundarieswith his music, lyrics, style andpresence,” says Green.

The video features Dubai’stourist attractions such as DubaiOpera, Burj Khalifa, Sheikh ZayedRoad, Dubai World Trade Centreto City Walk, Burj al Arab,Madinat Jumeirah, Palm Jumeirahand features the iconic desertsafari.

Divine adds, “Rider is a songthat is very close to my heart andI feel blessed to have worked with

a legend like Gil and his entireteam that fulfilled the vision I hadfor this music video. Lisa has beenan amazing and a fun collabora-tor to work with, easy to see thather voice and personality togeth-er in the video shines rightthrough.”

“Last summer, Divine madean Instagram post asking his fanswho he should work with on hisalbum. I thought I’d shoot my shot

in the comments and see if I gotlucky. And just like that, he mes-saged me that he had an idea andwas going to send it over. WhenI got the scratch, his verse and thehook had been written and he leftthe second half empty for me. Iloved the message of the song,about an independent womanwho he’s so comfortable with, itgoes beyond just a relationship,”says Lisa.

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CONFLUENCE OF ART AND FILM

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ADiscovery of Witches is a fanta-sy series based on the similarly-

named novel of the ‘All Souls’ trilo-gy, written by Deborah Harkness.Teresa Palmer portrays DianaBishop, a historian who discovers abewitched manuscript in theBodleian library. As she attempts tounravel the secrets this book holdsabout magical creatures, she isforced back into the world of magic,full of vampires, daemons, witchesand forbidden love. Forming anunlikely alliance, geneticist andvampire Matthew Clairmont, por-trayed by Matthew Goode, helpsDiana to attempt to protect the bookand solve the riddles within, whileat the same time dodging threatsfrom the magical creature world.Excerpts:

�Can you give a quick recap of ADiscovery of Witches season one?

It starts with Diana Bishop,a professor studying at Oxford,falling over. Her sheetsof paper zoom backinto her hands. So,as an audience, youknow straight awaythere’s some magicinvolved. She goesto the BodleianLibrary and takesout a book, whichturns out to beAshmole 782. Laterin the series, welearn this to be ‘TheBook of Life’.Matthew, who I play,has overheard Dianahas the book in herpossession, but shedoesn’t have it as it’s dis-appeared again. There is anattraction between them, but thecongregation, made up of witch-es, vampires and daemons, hasset rules that do not allow forspecies to mix. Matthew andDiana fall for each other and hetakes her to his mother’s housewho hates witches. They realisethat in order to escape the clutch-es of the congregation and figureout how much power Diana may ormay not have, they must travel backin time — 1590. At that time, I wasin the guise of another Matthew —Matthew Roydon — who was the

head of The School of Nightwith characters like Walter

Rayleigh and Kit Marlowe, both ofwhom are a big part of season two.

�What is it like being back for sea-son two?

The book is great. You pop thefirst one down and pick up anoth-er. Deb (Deborah) writes fantastical-ly good stories. They are dense andthere’s a lot of material, so you wantto mine that as much as possible. Inseason two, Matthew reassumes theidentity of Matthew Roydon. He wasLord Burghley’s right-hand and,basically, 007 for the Queen. It’s a

much darker season and I think westart to see Diana’s character becomestronger, not only with magic, but ina society that’s very patriarchal. It’sgreat getting the old gang backtogether even though we didn’t seea lot of them as they were filming themodern part of the story. JamesNorth has successfully knocked outa 1590s London town in a placecalled Plas Machen. Prior to arriv-ing on set, I wondered how theywere going to do it, and if it was justgoing to be a few pots, pans and beg-gars hanging around some cobbles. �What are the challenges thatMatthew and Diana face in season

two and how their relationshipdevelops?

In season one, Diana was a bitof a victim of circumstance. In sea-son two, she’s a lot smarter and as ahistorian, she thrives going back intime. Diana also steps up in the rela-tionship, looking after Matthewmentally because he starts to losehimself. It becomes a proper mar-riage based on equality.

�Can you explain how Diana isbeginning to harness her magic inthis season and what she has to gothrough?

Season two is a journey.

Through the tests they complete inseason one, we realise that Diana hasall the markers, which is very rare.Most of her magic has been quitefantastical, but she hasn’t been ableto control it. We eventually learn thatthis is because she’s spellbound.Season two follows her schooling bygreat witches and realising that sheis a weaver.

�Who is Kit Marlowe and why ishe important to Matthew?

Kit was a famous playwright inthe real world and is still a famousone in the show. He was accused ofbeing a spy and ends up gettingstabbed. In the book, he also worksfor Lord Burghley and is part of aring of undercover agents and TheSchool of Night. He is Matthew’sgreatest and closest friend. It goespear shape because the Matthew ofthe past hated witches and so Kit,who is a daemon, is wary when hecomes back and declares that he hasmarried one. Because of the ups anddowns of their relationship andtrust issues, he’s a great foil for sea-son two. These themes are veryapparent in Elizabethan society, atime of skulduggery, theft, murderand darkness.

�What’s it like working with TomHughes?

It’s always been a pleasure. Tomand I have worked together quite afew times now. He’s great and north-ern and looks at things differently.He gives Kit a real sense of otherworldliness that is difficult to putone’s finger on, but it really is quitemesmerising.

�Explain Philippe and Matthew’srelationship?

The relationship betweenPhilippe and Matthew is a trickyone. It was Ysabeau who siredMatthew many moons ago, butPhilippe fathered him in a verymasculine way. There’s a big secretfor the audience in season twoaround what Matthew’s history iswith Philippe. To talk about theirrelationship without mentioning thesecret is like a lot of father and sonrelationships nowadays. You hopethere’s love there but often that loveis unclear. That’s what parenting islike, but there is a massive love

between them and it’s all verymoving.

�Philippe’s acceptance of Matthewand Diana’s relationship is impor-tant, what do you think?

Philippe’s acceptance of Dianais huge as not only is he from 1590,he also hates witches. It’s verybemusing for him. After a while, hedoes start to twig that this is not thetime they’re from as he does notrecognise Matthew as the son heonce knew. It’s hugely important inthe story that he takes to Diana.

�What does the addition of his-torical characters bring to theshow?

They add that extra layer of his-tory, which is rather wonderful. Itgives it great historical context. Ithink the way Barbara (Marten)plays Elizabeth I in this is fantastic.She plays her without vanity and isslightly in love with Matthew.Probably my favourite portrayal ofElizabeth — up there with (Cate)Blanchett.

�What’s it been like having Teresaback?

The show doesn’t work withouther. Teresa is the shows beatingheart. She’s my best bud on this andwe spend all our time together. Ifanything happened to her and theysaid they’re going to bring anotheractor in, it wouldn’t work! It’s onebig travelling caravan ofAustralian/American love. Shecame back with the fire to push hercharacter and it’s made a big differ-ence.

�Season one is set in modern dayand season two is largely a peri-od piece, what’s it like to take theshow from one period to another?

Everything takes a fractionlonger as inaccuracies are not as for-givable. Any period drama does, beit by the costume or the hair.Working on James North’s setstransports you as an actor. If thoseelements weren’t nailed, I wouldn’thave been able to slip into charac-ter as easily. Apart from that, you’realso just trying to get your lines andmovement right.

(Season two is streaming onSonyLIV.)

�What made you say yes toImagine That Season 2? What’sdifferent in this installment?

As you know, I started myrelationship with Disney 25 yearsago and ever since then, it has beena very fulfilling experience. Wehave been looking at ways to col-laborate with each other for thelongest time. So when the channelwas kind enough to offer me thisshow, I grabbed the opportunity.From the t ime they haveannounced our collaboration, Ihave been overwhelmed with theresponse that I have been receivingfrom the audience. People areextremely nostalgic with my returnand they cannot wait for the show.Besides this, the format of theshow intrigued me the most. DIY(Do It Yourself) is an integral partof a lot of kids’ lives. It is entertain-ing and encourages them to growmentally. In this concept, I connectthe audience to the show; I am thevoice of the audience throughwhich I aim to bring a lot of joy,laughter and fun and at the sametime make sure that the simplest ofDIYs to the biggest are amazing.

�Now people are well-versed withthe DIY culture due to easy accessto the internet. What new is in itfor kids?

For starters, when you normal-ly watch a DIY, there are only saidinstructions on how to execute it.Whereas, in this show we have gotan entire gameplay around it, whichhas been filled with fun, laughter,entertainment and of course, learn-ing. Besides that, the kind of DIYwe are choosing is focussed on thetheme of ‘upcycling’. We use oldmaterial from the previous DIY byupcycling them for the new onesand like that we make sure we donot waste anything. The show iscentred on a lot of social relevancethat will educate the children andtheir parents about the concept ofupcycling and being friendlytowards the environment alongwith enjoying a good dose of laugh-ter.

�Why do you think DIY is impor-tant? Can we merge the conceptwith sustainability?

DIYs are extremely importantbecause it encourages a child to

think or motivates them to buildnew creative things. And this isalways something that we should belooking for. This show offersencouragement to the parents andtheir kids to come together andchallenge each other’s mind andcreativity to build something whichis actually going to be useful and isnot just a showpiece. Speaking ofsustainability — yes! We can mergethe concept with DIY. That isexactly what the show is about. Thefirst step to sustainability is nowastage, which is what we absolute-ly endorse and encourage. We donot waste a single piece of paper, astraw or even a single string. We useevery bit again and again and cre-ate amazing new things withoutcompromising on the quality ofwhat we are producing.

�How challenging is it to capturethe attention of the children whilehosting such shows?

Any TV show to the audienceis extremely difficult to captivate,it is not just with the kids. I havehad the fortune of hosting showsfor kids for the last 25 years andsomehow, I have found a veryfavourable response from my audi-ence. This is because I do not treatthem as kids. I do know my audi-ence but I do not treat them on the

basis of the intelligence I think theypossess. I, rather, treat them as myfriends. I believe this has what res-onated with them in a big way. I amconfident that the same resonancewill come back again be it with thekids or their parents after watchingme on the episodes.

�Given that things are easilyaccessible today, how do you thinkthe importance of DIY projectscan be explained to kids?

Well, that is something we arestriving to do but we should notundermine the intelligence of bothparents and children. But yes, youare right — everything is easilyavailable and we do bring that upin the show. Certain times on theshow I just say, ‘Hey, listen, we gotto give somebody a gift. Why don’twe just order it online?’ However,we teach and encourage the audi-ence to build a DIY. Punching inyour card numbers to order a giftonline is incomparable to thewholesome emotion. The grati-tude and the sense of achievementyou feel after creating something byspending those 15-20 minutes onit. That gift is far more truly yoursthan any purchased kind.

(The show will premiere onDisney Channel at 9.30 am onApril 18.)

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Actor-producer Ajay Devgnhas announced his new pro-

duction, a comic drama namedGobar along with Siddharth RoyKapur. The film is to be direct-ed by ad-filmmaker SabalShekhawat, who has also pennedthe script along with SambhitMishra. The film’s story is abouta veterinary doctor who discov-ers a tangled web of corruptionin his state hospital.

Ajay feels that people willlove the story. “The story ofGobar is at once unique, relatableand incredibly funny as well asgripping and entertaining tothe point that I’m confident itwill compel people to go to thetheatres,” he says.

“We are very clear about theimpact we want to make. Wewant viewers to laugh, relax, per-haps think a little bit and beentertained. The standard thatSiddharth observes in contentcreation and filmmaking makesthis collaboration very excitingfor us,” the actor-filmmakeradds.

Kapur says that the filmcentres around the journey of acommon man and comes with asimple message. “Gobar is astory that chronicles the seem-ingly pointless but ultimatelyheroic journey of a simple citi-zen who deals with corruptionin a way that will bring onmany laughs, much adventureand ultimately a simple messageabout the power of the common

man,” says Kapur.He adds, “What makes the

film entertaining and unique isthat it is a situational comedythat sheds light on the innerworkings of power. To be collab-orating with Ajay, someone Ihave always respected for his cre-ative choices, and his team atAjay Devgn Ffilms on bringingthis film to life is very exciting.”

Writer-director Shekhawatsays that the film has been writ-ten keeping in mind true events.

“Gobar is a film that willtake viewers back to the charm-ing days of the nineties and thesimple life of smalltown living.I wrote this story keeping inmind a few true events thatunravelled a gamut of issues, thecentre of which is a vet whoselove for his cows and animalssupersedes everything,” saysShekhawat.

“I’m grateful and happy thattwo esteemed producers likeAjay and Sid showed faith in myvision and offered a sizablecanvas to the storyline. Qualitycinema has come from bothproduction houses, and I’m surethat the treatment of my direc-torial will be no different. As afi lmmaker, I’m absolutelythrilled!” he says.

Produced under the bannersAjay Devgn Ffilms and RoyKapur Films, the film will go onfloors at the end of the year. Thecasting of the film is underway.

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Deepak Chahar’s superb openingspell stood out as Chennai SuperKings restricted Punjab Kings to

a below-par 106 for eight here on Friday.Tamil Nadu’s power-hitter M

Shahrukh Khan was the only Punjab bats-man to make an impression, with a 36-ball 47 (4X4s, 2X6s) before falling to SamCurran in the final over as CSK was allover their opponent.

Sam Curran (1/12), Moeen Ali (1/17),Dwayne Bravo (1/10) were the otherwicket-takers for CSK.

Aiming to bounce back after beingoutclassed by Delhi Capitals in their open-ing match, CSK bowlers justified skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to bowlfirst by reducing Punjab to 26 for four inthe powerplay.

Chahar engineered the Punjab slidein the very first over by sending backMayank Agarwal (0) with a beautywhich nipped away from middle stumpto hit the off stump. Chahar kept up thepressure and increased PBKS’s woeswith his consistency and conceded onlytwo fours in his four-over spell.

In-form Punjab skipper K L Rahul (5)was run-out by a brilliant direct throwfrom Ravindra Jadeja fielding at short-cover as the batsman tried to scramble fora single.

Jadeja was in the act in the fifth overagain, grabbing a superb catch diving full-length to dismiss Chris Gayle for 10 togive Chahar his second wicket.

Nicholas Pooran bagged his secondstraight duck, pulling a short deliverystraight into the hands of Shardul Thakurat long-leg. Deepak Hooda (10), whoplayed a blinder in Punjab's first matchagainst Rajasthan Royals, could notrepeat his heroics, lobbing a simple catchto Faf du Plessis as the team slipped to 26for five in the seventh over.

Shahrukh Khan and Jhye Richardson(15, 22 balls, 2x4s) added 31 runs for thesixth wicket in what was the best partner-ship of the innings. Murugan Ashwin (6)then added 30 runs with his Tamil Naduteammate Khan to help Punjab’s cause inan otherwise nightmare night for them.

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Getting the combination right would be top-most on Sunrisers Hyderabad’s to-do list

when they take on a qualitatively superiorMumbai Indians in an IPL encounter at Chepaukon Saturday, trying to arrest an early slide afterback-to-back defeats.

To make matters worse, the nature of theChennai track is not great news for the DavidWarner-led Orange Army that failed to chasedown a total which was less than 150.

Chasing has been Sunrisers’ achilles’ heel dur-ing the first two matches, once again bringingunder scanner, their lack of depth in the playingXI and below-par Indian bench strength.

In these circumstances, facing a formidableteam like Mumbai Indians, fresh from theirHoudini Act against Kolkata Knight Riders,would be a difficult proposition.

For skipper Warner, there are some seriousquestions about the choice of the playing XI,which many believe hasn’t been well thought outand the results also back that assessment.

Using two wicketkeepers — Jonny Bairstowand Wriddhiman Saha — in the same XI hasn’tserved any tangible purpose with the veteran Indianlooking completely out of sorts as an opener.

With a seasoned man like Kedar Jadhav inthe dug-out, along with two talented youngstersPriyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma, Saha is onborrowed time as far as his place in the side is con-cerned.

With only Warner and Rashid Khan beingcertainties among the overseas players, a fit KaneWilliamson is a must for SRH, factoring in hisprowess against spin bowling.

The manner in which the likes of ManishPandey and Abdul Samad played cross-batted

shots against RCB left-arm spinner ShahbazAhmed left Warner far from amused.

The other issue hasbeen team’s

bowling with T Natarajan not in the kind of formhe was last season and Bhuvneshwar Kumar alsoon the expensive side. It is unlikely that MI willtinker with their playing XI and more so afterwinning a thriller against KKR. However, theywould like to put up a better account of theirbatting.

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Mumbai Indians bowlingcoach Shane Bond on

Friday praised the team’s leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, sayingthe 21-year-old is a wicket-taking bowler and his rolenever changes in the star-studded team.

Chahar, who has played 3T20Is for India, returned withmatch-winning figures of 4/27in a low-scoring thrilleragainst Kolkata on Tuesday.

“He is doing extremelywell, if you look at Rahul(Chahar), he is still young,who has played a fair-bit ofcricket and now some high-pressure cricket, and (in)finals and a key member ofour team, so in terms of hisdevelopment, I still think heis got a long way to go,” Bondsaid ahead of the game againstSunrisers Hyderabad.

“He (Rahul) is a good lis-tener and is keen to get outthere and implement it in thegame and hope that will con-tinue over the next few years,”said 42-year-old Bond, who

played 18 Tests and 82 ODIsfor New Zealand.

According to Bond,Chahar’s role in the teamnever changes and the sidewants him to bowl wicket-tak-ing deliveries.

“We have got some out-standing strike bowlers tobowl in the power-play, Trent

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Chennai Super Kings skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday

played his 200th match for the Men inYellow when he took to the field againstPunjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadiumin Mumbai. Dhoni has led the franchisein all but one game (2012 ChampionsLeague T20) when he has been part ofthe XI. Virat Kohli has played 209 T20matches for RCB.

Dhoni has made 176 appearancesfor CSK in the IPL besides having 24outings for the side in the ChampionsLeague T20 tournament in the past. The

former India captain also representedRising Pune Supergiant in 30 IPLmatches in the 2016-17 seasons.

Dhoni, who has led the SuperKings to three IPL titles, is eighth on theall-time IPL batting charts with 4,632runs (4,058 for CSK) at an average of40.63 and a strike rate of 136.67.

In his 24 CLT20 appearances,Dhoni has amassed 449 runs with onefifty while leading CSK to two titles, in2010 and 2014. The 39-year-old veter-an also holds the record of most sixesamong Indians in the IPL with 216,while being the most successful wick-etkeeper with 148 dismissals.��: ����������9� ���������133�����

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Boult , Booms ( JaspritBumrah), and whoever com-pliments them, Krunal Pandyawho is brilliant for us in thelast game, probably slightlymore defensive bowler.

“And Rahul is a wicket-taking bowler, you make himbowl those balls that are justtoo good.

“Example is just the pow-erful (balls he bowled) in thelast game he bowled absolutejaffa, his role is to come andspin the ball and if the boysare around and create somepressure, it gives him oppor-tunity to take those wickets, sothat’s the role we look for himto do in the team.”

Against Sunrisers, Bondstressed that it is important toget r ival skipper DavidWarner and Jonny Bairstowout.

“Got to get those two guys(Warner and Bairstow) out.Davey is one of the best bats-men in the IPL, talisman fortheir team. We know howimportant they are,” he said.

“They (Sunrisers) are verydisciplined with the way theygo about their work. Theyflogged us in the last game (weplayed against them) last sea-son. They played beautifully.We plan the same for everyteam — how we are going toget them out, how we aregoing to best utilize the con-ditions,” added Bond.

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