Parisians complete domestic quadruple withCoupe de la Ligue triumph edging pastOlympique Lyonnais 6-5

Actor Prachi Tehlan says every safetymeasure is being taken at herwedding venue in Delhi

COMPLYING TO NORMS

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SPORTS | P12

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 122 | www.orissapost.com BHUBANESWAR | SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 | 2020

LEISURE | P2

President Trump may ban TikTok asMicrosoft eyes buying the Chinese-owned app INTERNATIONAL| P10

US TO BAN TIKTOK

12 PAGES | `4.00

IRREGULAR by MANJUL

New policy allows one to pick subjects fromdifferent streams. I guess it’s time you

acquire a few more degrees, sir!

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25.5°MAX

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Humidity 94% 76%Rainfall 5.6mm Nil

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26.6°

MANISH KUMAR, OP

Bhubaneswar, August 1: The out-break of Covid-19 pandemic in thestate has led to surge in demand forVitamin C tablets owing to its im-munity boosting qualities.

As the demand grows exponen-tially, chemist shops are running outof ‘nutraceutical’ and other products.

It is found that several alterna-tives or substitutes by some phar-maceutical companies have madeinroads into the market but inter-estingly, they have further pushedthe prices up. A few companieshave rebranded their products andupped the prices by three timeswithout even changing the combi-nation. There are also some firmswhich have changed the composi-tion to cater to the high demandingmicronutrient. A close survey ofsome of the chemist shops in thestate capital revealed that somenew brands have also entered thepharma market to sell their ver-sion of the nutraceutical.

“Earlier, there was hardly anyonebuying Vitamin C tablets but nowdue to the surge in demand becauseof Covid, we are seeing many cus-tomers. Several new brands offeringthe tablet and some with a combi-nation of Vitamin C and Zinc havenow entered the market and aremaking good business,” said a rep-resentative from Shree Krishna

Medical Store, Satya Vihar in the city.Medically speaking, both Vitamin

C and Zinc are considered as mi-cronutrients with immunity boost-ing capabilities. “Both the nutri-ents are taken to boost immunity.They are even recommended bythe ICMR for treatment of Covid pa-tients. As they are nutraceutical,they are easily bought over thecounter without any prescription,”said Dr Manoj Sahu, a gastroen-terologist from the city.

He also said that prolonged andexcessive use of the drug should beavoided. Dr Sahu highlighted thatwhile many countries do havenorms to regulate sales of nu-traceuticals, India is yet to finalisethe norms. “The process had startedfor regulation of norms, but Covidpandemic delayed it further,” hesaid. With lesser regulations, sev-eral pharmaceutical firms havenow chipped in to get dividendsfrom the high demanding product.

Nevertheless, doctors and pharmarepresentatives claim that prices oflife-saving and essential drugs havenot been tinkered with during thishour of crisis.

“There could be some sporadicreports of black-marketing but atlarge we have not seen any rise inprices of drugs for most of the dis-eases. In fact, prices of cancer drugshave come down due to the regu-lation of the lifesaving drugs bythe National PharmaceuticalsPricing Authority (NPPA) in thepast two years,” said Ajay Goenka,Treasurer, Utkal Chemist andDruggists Association, Cuttack.

Dr Alakta Das, a gynecologist fromthe city also said that the prices ofdrugs for hypertension and diabetesand other common co-morbiditieshave not changed drastically. Sheadded that surgical and medical equip-ment like masks, sanitisers and gloveshave seen a spike in prices with theonset of Covid-19 in the state.

PPE kits revive single-use ‘plastic’ monster

11 killed as cranecollapses on PSUpremises in Vizag

Odisha records1,602 Covidcases in 24 hrsPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: Odishareported its highest single-dayspike of 1,602 coronavirus cases inthe last 24-hour cycle, taking thestate’s total to 33,479, the HealthDepartment said Saturday.

The death toll increased to 187after 10 more fatalities were re-ported from Ganjam, Khurda,Gajapati, and Sundargarh dis-tricts. Corona hotspot Ganjam dis-trict has so far recorded 99 fatali-ties, followed by Khurda at 25.

Of the 1,602 new cases, 993 werereported from quarantine centresand 609 are local contacts. Thenew cases have been detected in 29districts. Contact-tracing and fol-low-up actions have been initi-ated, said an official. Ganjam dis-trict registered the highest 308new cases, followed by Khurda(285), Rayagada (164) and Gajapati(108). The active cases now total12,737, with 20,517 patients curedand discharged so far. P4

AVIRAL MISHRA, OP

Bhubaneswar, August 1: Odishawas set to earn accolades as an eco-friendly state in the country afterit had snubbed plastic. The gov-ernment, in a notification September30 last year, prohibited manufac-ture, sale, trade, import, storage,transportation and distribution ofsingle-use plastics.

However, we are back to squareone after the pandemic hit us. PPEkits, armour against Covid-19, havebecome a headache now as dispos-ing them involves health risk apartfrom environmental concerns.

PPE or Personal ProtectiveEquipment which includes goggles,face shields, masks, gloves, cover-alls or gowns are made of plastic.Used largely by doctors and re-searchers, PPEs which are SingleUse Plastic (SUP) have seen an ex-ponential rise in demand.

Moreover, apart from the PPEkits, countless masks, gloves andother protective gears made of SUP

and discarded after use by the pub-lic are finding their way to water bod-ies. A study by environmentalistsand conservationists presented agrave picture. The report said: Ifeach citizen (state’s) uses a single-use face mask a day for a year, itwould create an additional 32,000tonnes of contaminated waste and17,000 tonnes of plastic packaging.

“These are disturbing numbers asOdisha is already struggling to curbsingle-use plastic. There are severalreports of PPE kits and masks being

dumped on streets. Their non-seg-regation from the daily waste couldprove fatal! The pandemic mightget over but people will continue touse protective gears. This (dump-ing) will be an issue when state re-opens its tourism industry,” saidAshok Kar, a former IFS officer.

Even though the state govern-ment has issued strict StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs) fordisposing PPE kits by hospitals,the civic behaviour defeats the pur-pose. Panic gripped the denizens

of Nabarangpur June 26 after usedPPE kits were found dumped on abusy road, the report added.

Furthermore, with the state gov-ernment’s priorities shifting frombattling plastic to battling Covid, sin-gle-use plastics have resurfaced inmarkets and shops. “Even thougha drop in demand for plastics hasbeen observed due to closure ofrestaurants, malls, poor enforce-ment has seen plastics and poly-thene re-emerge,” said ShubhenduRoy, an environmentalist.

As per sources, the state hadseized about 21,845 kg of plasticand collected fines of about `59.20lakh from 30 districts until January.

The Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) too boasted seiz-ing 5,100 kg of plastic with `13.26lakh fines during the same period.However, ever since the first Covid casewas detected in the city in March nosuch information regarding fines andraids have been presented.

“Our priority has always beenconservation of our nature but

right now it has shifted to safety ofour people,” a senior BMC officialsaid. “We have shifted our atten-tion and allocated manpower tobattle Covid and once this is overwe will continue our fight againstplastic,” he added.

MICROBIAL FORCES TO DEFEAT HARD-FOUGHT VICTORIES THAT CURBED SINGLE-USE PLASTIC IN THE STATE

n Coronavirus survives as long onplastic as it does on other surfacessuch as stainless steel

n Irresponsible dumping of PPE kits andother plastic-made Covid safetygears has exacerbated the situation

n Sanitation workers exposed toinfection threat as denizens don’tmind segregating daily waste fromplastic waste

AGENCIES

Visakhapatnam, August1: At least 11 persons werereported killed and severalothers injured when a jettycrane collapsed Saturday atthe Hindustan ShipyardLimited premises.

According to eyewitnessaccounts, the mishap oc-curred between 11.30 am and12 noon when officials weretesting the crane. At least20 persons were working onthe spot when the cranebroke and fell on its side,crushing many workers.

Of the 11 casualties re-ported so far, four personsare said to be regular em-ployees, while the remain-ing seven are contract staff.

District authoritiesrushed to the spot and tookstock of the situation.

District Collector VVinay Chand said: “The 70-tonne capacity jetty cranewas procured and com-missioned two years agoand its full-fledged trialswere initiated this morning.During the trials, officials

were testing the dead-weight capacity of thecrane when its cabin por-tion on the top and its baseportion separated and thecrane collapsed.”

While rescue efforts wereunderway, some workerswere believed to be trappedunder the collapsed cranesince rescuers and by-standers could hear theringing of mobile phonesunder the collapsed crane.

Saturday’s incident isthe third major mishap inthe port city since May thisyear, when a gas leak inLG Polymers had led to 12deaths.

Rescue operations underway at the mishap site in Visakhapatnam

During the trials,officials were testing

the dead-weightcapacity of the crane

when its cabin portionon the top and its baseportion separated and

the crane collapsedV VINAY CHAND|

COLLECTOR, VISAKHAPATNAM

Some workers were believed to betrapped under the collapsed crane

since their phones were heard ringingfrom below the machine

during the rescue operations

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: Gujarat— from wherenearly about 4 lakh people arrived to Odishaduring the lockdown period— is found to be re-sponsible for major Covid-19 transmission inthe state.

This was revealed from a study conducted byBhubaneswar based Regional Medical ResearchCentre (RMRC) and Institute of Life Sciences (ILS)after analysing 225 viral genomes of Covid pos-itive patients who had migrated from 13 Indianstates including Gujarat.

About 10 lakh people from various states andcountries returned to the state in betweenMarch and July. Of them, about 4 lakh werefrom Gujarat alone and most of them re-turned to Ganjam district, which has reportedhighest 10,672 cases so far.

“We have analysed the samples for sequenc-

ing collected during March to July, 2020. Analysisof samples showed the presence of all five reportedclades (19A, 19B, 20A, 20B and 20C) of Covid-19genome in the patients of Odisha,” said RMRCdirector Sanghamitra Pati.

However, clade 19B was found to be muchmore prevalent in analysed samples as com-pared to other genomes reported so far fromIndia, she said.

The study showed evolution of 19A and 19B

in parallel. Majority of the 19A and 19B cladeswere present in cases that migrated from Gujaratstate suggesting it to be one of the major initialpoints of disease transmission during month ofMarch and April.

The director added phylogenetic analysisshowed that clades 20A and 20B evolved quite rap-idly in the Indian population and are majorsource of disease transmission in the country.Whereas, 20C strain is rarely detected and ap-peared to be less adapted or somehow contractedat early stages of infection.

The analysis also revealed higher proportionof symptomatic patients with clades 20A, 20B and20C. The clade 20C was observed in Odisha andnot present in any other isolates included in1000 genome analysis. From these results it isobvious that Europe and Southeast Asia aretwo major routes of disease transmission inOdisha, she concluded.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) Saturday said a fresh lowpressure area is likely to form over north Bayof Bengal around August 4. Under its impact, veryheavy rainfall will lash several parts of the stateduring the next four days.

“The southwest monsoon has become weakin the state during past 15 days. A low pressurearea is developing over north Bay of Bengal, whichwill bring heavy rainfall in many places acrossthe state from tomorrow,” said Bhubaneswar MetCentre director HR Biswas.

So far, thestate has re-ceived 17 percent deficitrainfall thannormal rainin this mon-soon season.As many as 13districts have recorded deficit rainfall of 20 to 59per cent. The districts are—Puri (52 per centdeficit), Khurda (48%), Kendrapara (45%), Jajpur(45%), Cuttack (42%), Balasore (40%), Sonepur(37%), Jagatsinghpur (33%), Bhadrak (28%),Mayurbhanj (24%), Nayagarh (23%), Keonjhar(22%) and Bolangir (20%).

Out of 61 days in the past two months, therewere 23 rainy days in June and 25 in July. Thestate witnessed 48 rainy days. Puri district sawonly 35 rainy days while it was 43 in Khurda dis-trict, 41 days in Jagatsinghpur, 31 in Kendrapara,45 in Bhadrak and 46 in Sonepur.

Some coastal districts have recorded deficitrainfall and this low pressure will bring rain inthose areas, experts said, adding, the rainfall ac-tivity may also continue further. The monsoonwill be there in the state till October 10.

AGENCIES

San Francisco, August 1: The USDepartment of Justice has chargedthree young individuals includ-ing one juvenile with hackingTwitter last month that compro-mised the accounts of 130 high-pro-file celebrities, politicians andbusinesses. Accounts of former USPresident Barack Obama, JoeBiden, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, ElonMusk, Apple and Uber are said tohave been compromised.

The 19-year-old Mason Sheppard(aka ‘Chaewon’) of the UK wascharged in a criminal complaintin the Norther n District ofCalifornia with conspiracy to com-mit wire fraud, conspiracy to com-mit money laundering, and theintentional access of a protectedcomputer.

“Nima Fazeli, aka ‘Rolex’, 22, ofOrlando, Florida, was charged ina criminal complaint in theNorthern District of Californiawith aiding and abetting the in-tentional access of a protectedcomputer,” the Department ofJustice said in a statement Friday.

The third defendant is said to be17-year-old. “With exceptions thatdo not apply to this case, juvenileproceedings in federal court aresealed to protect the identity ofthe juvenile,” said the statement.

Twitter has revealed that the mas-sive hack that spread a cryptocur-rency scam by hijacking accounts ofhigh-profile celebrities, politiciansand businesses was a result of aphone spear phishing attack.

Immunity-boosting Vit C tabs selling like hot cakes

Despite new entrants in the market to cater to the demand, prices up by 3 times

3 lads booked inepic Twitter hack

n Of the three, the youngest ofthem is said to be the mastermind

n The trio broke into accounts of130 Twitter accounts and dupedfollowers of influential users totransfer more than $100,000 inBitcoin accounts

n The incident raises concernsaround Twitter tools and levels ofemployee access

Very heavy rain to lash Odisha from tomorrow

The state has received 17 pcdeficit rainfall this monsoon

COVID TRAVELOGUE: FROM GUJ TO ODISHA About 10 lakh people from various states and countries returned to the state between March and July; 4 lakh from Gujarat alone

ANALYSING STRAINS n Analysis of samples shows presence of all five

reported clades (19A, 19B, 20A, 20B and 20C)of Covid-19 genome in patients of Odisha

n Clade 19B found to be much more prevalent

n Majority of the 19A and 19B clades were presentin cases that migrated from Gujarat state

n Clades 20A and 20B evolve rapidly in Indianpopulation and are major source of transmis-sion in the country

MUMBAI: Actress Alia Bhatt is a big catlover, and she has surely turned into acat paparazzo during the lockdown.

Alia took to Instagram Saturday andposted a few pictures of her black cat,Juniper, and white cat, Edward.

“When all else fails turn cat paparazzi,”she captioned the post.

Reacting to the post, celebrity lensmanManav Manglani quipped: “Nice click.you can join my team.”

Alia bought home Juniper last month.“This girl duo just became a girl trio.

Meet our new baby Juniper. Herskills include biting, selfie-

taking and being generallyadorable,” Alia had

shared.On the work front,

Alia will be seen inSadak 2, which is di-rected by her fatherMahesh Bhatt. Thefilm is a sequel to his

1991 film of the samename, starring Pooja

Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt.Sadak 2 will release on

OTT platform. IANS

It's all about familytoday. In fact, the biggerthe better sinceGanesha foresees it isquite likely that both close and distantrelatives will fill your heart with gleetoday. It might be some good news wor-thy of raising a toast to. However, youmight be doubtful about getting alongwith your peers at work.

P2 COURTENEY COX IS BACK IN SCREAM SAGA AS JOURNO

leisure Actress Courteney Cox will be back asnews reporter Gale Weathers in theupcoming reboot of hit film, Scream.Filming is expected to begin later thisyear in Wilmington in North Carolina,reports variety.com.

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds hasannounced a new initiative to supportaspiring filmmakers from the unrepresentedcommunities. Reynolds took to Twitter toshare the news of the initiative through atwo-minute video, reports variety.com.

SUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSToday, you will speak andeveryone else will listen!Your eloquence will bringyou recognition. But you must take it astep further. You will also manage toimpress someone, and Ganesha sees thebeginning of a new relationship. Butdon't forget to listen sometimes.

PISCESThere is a lot of brain-racking in store for youtoday, as you try to con-jure up ways to convert your extraordi-nary brilliance into exceptional perform-ance. Keeping in mind that your family isthe foundation of your success could pro-vide some vital insights, says Ganesha.

SAGITTARIUSHandicraft business islikely to draw your atten-tion. People around youwill marvel at your com-mitment and dedication to work andfamily alike. Ganesha advises you to bitethe apple of love and share some roman-tic moments with your spouse.

LIBRA

SCORPIOIt is quite likely that youwill have an outstandingfield day today, predictsGanesha. At the workplace, you will pos-sibly feel that you are stuck in the rutdoing regular activities day after day. Inrelationship matters, evening will be fullof surprises and excitement for you,expects Ganesha.

LEOWith Lady Luck smilingdown on you, todaypromises to be ratherspecial, forecastsGanesha. Expect to find favourable con-ditions and come out with flying coloursin whatever task you undertake, espe-cially if it happens to be something likean interview. Bask in the kudos andappreciation at work, as your perform-ance far exceeds the expectations ofthe management.

VIRGOHelping your col-leagues will bringloads of good will.Your superiors will besuperiorly happy with your work.Interaction with friends will be special.Revel in the company of your loved one,says Ganesha.

GEMINIGod helps those whohelp themselves. Maybe.But He definitely helpsthose who help others. Support your col-leagues and they will be grateful to you.This way, even your bosses will noticeyour talents, if they haven't already. Theywill shower praise on you, and favourstoo. An entirely enjoyable evening withyour loved ones will serve as the icing onthe cake, says Ganesha.

CANCERYou are likely to be ingood spirits throughoutthe day. With you brim-ming with confidenceand positive energy, others around youwill also feel upbeat. The entire day, youwill be looking forward to the evening,so that you could spend some qualitytime with your loved ones. It will beworth the wait.

ARIESBelieve it, life is goodsometimes; today is onesuch day. Things will notbe hectic, even thoughyou remain occupied, both at work andin your personal life. With no troublesbrewing, what more can you ask for?Perhaps, Ganesha is trying to impart thecrucial lesson of contentment.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSThe three Es will ruleyour mood throughoutthe day: energy, exuber-ance and excitement. Such enthusiasmis always contagious and near and dearones will be charmed by it. Things willget better as the day progresses. Take abreak from work to relax and recharge ifyou feel weary, says Ganesha.

CAPRICORNNot many know how stu-pendous is your wealthof wisdom; today will bea good day to make adisplay of it, says Ganesha. You will haveyour wits about you and will impressmany with your show of intellect. In thesocial circuit, you will indulge in spread-ing the message of love while at work,your excellent managerial skills willensure that everything is under control.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

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

RYAN PUSHES FOR MORE DIVERSITY IN HOLLYWOOD

Mumbai: Actress Prachi Tehlan will getmarried August 7 in New Delhi, and saysevery safety measure is being ensuredat the celebrations.

The actress, who was last seen in theMammootty-starrer Mamangam, is get-ting married to Delhi-based business-man and wildlife conservationist Rohit Saroha, whom she has been dat-ing since 2012.

“We have kept the engagement andwedding on the same day -- engagementceremony will be held in the morningwhile the latter will take place in theevening. Accordingly, we have invited 50

people for each function andmade all the arrangements ofmasks and sanitisers at thevenue,” said Prachi.

The wedding will takeplace at a farmhouse in Delhi.

The Diya Aur Baati Humactress is a former captain ofthe Indian Netball Team whichrepresented the country in the2010 Commonwealth Games.Under her captaincy, theIndian team won its firstmedal in 2011 South AsianBeach Games. IANS

MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan hasa witty suggestion on the occasionof Eid, in the time of social dis-tancing.

Extending festive greetings on hisverified Twitter account Saturdayafternoon, the actor advised every-one to give themselves a ‘self hug’on Eid, as customary hugging won’tbe possible this year owing to theCovid pandemic.

“Eid Mubarak to everyone. Maythis day and actually everydaybring peace happiness and healthto all your loved ones. Everyonegive yourself a self hug,” tweetedShah Rukh Khan.

The actor also shared a silhou-ette photo of his younger sonAbRam, stretching his palmsin prayer.

Fans of the superstarwished him on the occa-sion.

“Love you #SRK,”

commented a fan.“What a beautiful pic! The sil-

houette of a precious angel in B&W,the sight of innocence, wishingpeace, happiness and health to all

like his sweet dad.May Life wrap you

with love and itsbest gifts. Tonsof love,” wroteanother fan.

IANS

STATE’S FIRST EVER ONLINE THEATRE FEST KICKS OFFPOST NEWS NETWORK

KORAPUT: In a maiden initiative,the first ever online theatre festivalorganised by Nandanik, a local the-atre troupe, started Saturday herein the district.

The three-day festival was inau-gurated by Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi,Minister for Culture & Tourism,Government of Odisha, KoraputLok Sabha MP Saptagiri SankarUlaka, Odisha Sangeet NatakAkademi secretary Prabodh Rathand renowned theatre personalityAnanta Mohapatra.

Eminent Odissi exponent PadmaVibhushan Sonal Mansingh, whiledelivering the Foundation Day lec-ture 2020 of Nandanik, elaboratedthe concepts of Abhinaya and

Abhivyakti in Indian tradition of per-forming arts. She also demonstratedthe use of body and psyche to expressthe Bhavas and Rasas during a per-formance. Dwelling upon other con-

cepts of Indian classical perform-ing arts traditions like Nataraj,Lingaraj, Harihara, ChakshooshaYagna, Astapadi, Rasa Nispatti,Shanta Rasa, Shatha Nayaka,

Dheera Lalita and Manodharma,Mansingh highlighted the contri-bution of Odia litterateur SitakantaMohapatra, whose works she hadadapted. She also reminisced hertutelage by Guru KelucharanMohapatra.

The third Asim Basu MemorialAward was conferred on HimanshuRanjan Satapathy by actressBhaswati Basu in virtual mode.The award, named after Asim Basu,late theatre thespian of Odisha anda joint venture by Nandanik andAsim Basu Foundation is givenevery year as a mark of encour-agement to young theatre artistsof KBK region.

An e-Book titled, Dhemsa MaroNona, on the activities of Nandanikin Koraput over last five years, was

released on this occasion by MrinalChatterjee, Regional Director, IIMC,Dhenkanal. Chatterjee lauded thetheatre troupe for hosting a series ofprogrammes in a remote area likeKoraput.

Eight plays in five Indian lan-

guages with two webinars will bestreamed through Nandanik’s socialmedia page over the next two days,infor med g roup’s secretaryMonideepa Gupta.

Sourav Gupta, Director ofNandanik moderated the session.

ALIA TURNS CAT PAPARAZZO

Prachi to tie knot Aug 7

SRK’s Eid tip to fans

A scene from Bengali play Sujaner Golpo

Sonal Mansingh explaining a concept of Indian performing arts

Eminent Odissi exponent Padma Vibhushan Sonal Maningh delivered the Foundation Day lecture of Nandanik on Abhinaya and Abhivyakti in dance

P3 FESTIVAL AHEAD

Women buy rakhi from a stallin College Square area ofCuttack ahead of the ‘RakshaBandhan’ festival, Saturday downtown

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SUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, August 1: Anyone visitingthe Siddhamahavir level crossingoffice here would be forgiven formistaking the office as a nursery.

It is quite unlikely of anypassersby to pass by the level cross-ing office without giving it a thor-ough look. And if they are new tothe area, they can’t help them-selves visiting the office premisesto have a look at the office deco-rated with beautifully arrangedflower plants.

From a distance, one can seehundreds of plastic bottles withcolourful flower and foliage plantsgrowing from them either hangingor tied to the office grilles andaesthetically placed on the officepremises. The person responsi-

ble for all of this is KamadevMoharana, a resident of AstarangBadagola area and an employee ofthe Indian Railways. He works asa gatekeeper at Siddhamahavir

level crossing. Kamadev says he has been a

nature lover since his childhood.“My family members used to saythat trees planted by me grow

well,” he reminisced. The idea of using used plastic

bottles to plant trees struck himwhen he saw passengers throw-ing single-use plastic bottles out

of the train windows. There used to be hundreds of

bottles lying scattered near thelevel crossing, reflecting badly onthe level crossing office. “Then Istarted thinking about how thesebottles could be put to the bestpossible use. And the idea of usingthem for growing flower plantsstruck me,” he said.

“I collected all the bottles. Cutsome of them from the top endand some others from the bottom.Then I filled them with soil, cowdung and chips and finally plantedsome saplings in them. I usedsome pieces of iron wires to hangthese bottles from the office grilles,”he added.

There are hanging and pottedplants of various varieties of flow-ers like hibiscus, marigold and

rose. They apart, there are alsocroton plants. According toKamadev, “If the discarded ma-terials can be reused suitably, theywould have a positive impact on theenvironment. As of now, not manytrains are running due to the coro-navirus pandemic. So, I am gettingmuch free time to focus on thegarden,” he added. Kamadev hasalso converted his PKRIT quar-ters into a small garden by plant-ing several varieties of flower andfruit saplings in the open space.

He also has a penchant for writ-ing poems. He has participatedin many literary seminars andpoetry recitation programmes.‘Kabi’, ‘Chhai Saha Sabu Dina’and ‘Coffee Bagicha’ are the threebooks penned by him and havebeen published.

Discarded plastic bottles put to best use by Rly mann It is quite unlikely of anyone to pass bythe level crossing office without givingthe mini garden a thorough look

n From a distance, one can see hundredsof plastic bottles with colourful flowerand foliage plants growing from themeither hanging or tied to the office grilles

n The person responsible for all of this isKamadev Moharana, a resident ofAstarang Badagola area and anemployee of the Indian Railways

WASTE TO WEALTH

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: In a bidto further strengthen the health-care system in Covid hotspotGanjam district, Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik Saturday inau-gurated two Covid care hospitalsin Berhampur through video-conferencing.

The two hospitals were openedat Kanishi and paediatric ward ofM KC G M e d i c a l C o l l e g e o fBerhampur. These hospitals with150 beds and 24 ICU beds eachwith ventilators will provide crit-ical care for patients from withinthe district itself, Naveen said.

After Unlock 1, lakhs of Odiapeople living outside the state re-turned to Ganjam district, espe-cially from Covid hotspot areas.“Thanks to the dedication andsacrifice of our Covid warriors,cooperation and support frommy beloved people of Ganjam,the district is fighting the pan-demic very well,” he said.

The Chief Minister further

said that at least 85 per cent ofrural Ganjam is in green zoneand the recovery rate in Ganjamis much higher than the nationalaverage. Besides, there is a de-cline in the positivity rate.

“The state government will putall out efforts to protect lives ofour citizens and fight this pan-demic. Recently, plasma therapywas also started. In the absence

of vaccine or treatment, the onlyway to effectively fight this pan-demic is by using mask, followingsocial distancing norms and othergovernment regulations,” hestated. He appealed to everyoneto avoid stepping out if it is notrequired and avoid crowded placesand not to allow complacency.

The CM assured that his gov-ernment will leave no stone un-

turned in fighting this pandemicand saving lives of the people ofOdisha.

Among others, AssemblySpeaker Surya Narayan Patro,Forest and Environment MinisterBikram Keshari Arukha, localMP, MLAs, Chief Secretary AsitT ripathy and DevelopmentCommissioner Suresh Mohapatraattended the videoconference.

Ganjam gets two more Covid hospitals AT LEAST 85 PER CENT OF RURAL GANJAM IN GREEN ZONE, SAYS CHIEF MINISTER

LONG-DRAWN BATTLE

THE TWO HOSPITALS WERE OPENEDAT KANISHI AND PAEDIATRIC WARD OF

MKCG MEDICAL COLLEGE OFBERHAMPUR

THESE HOSPITALS WITH 150 BEDS AND24 ICU BEDS EACH WITH VENTILATORS

WILL PROVIDE CRITICAL CARE FORPATIENTS FROM WITHIN THE

DISTRICT ITSELF

RESTRICTIONS EASED

Several places in Bhubaneswar including Bapuji Nagar, Kalpana Square and Unit-1 market area witness heavy traffic as shops resumed businesses after the 14-day lockdown over Covid-19, Saturday OP PHOTOS

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: TheBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)Saturday hit out at the state gov-ernment for stopping the OdishaState Treatment Fund (OSTF) meantfor the poor.

Party spokesperson GolakMohapatra Saturday told the mediathat Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikand Health Minister Naba KishoreDas have backtracked on their ownpromise of continuing the OSTFscheme for the poor of Odisha.

He said, “The state governmentshould not have made such tallpromises of serving the people inneed. Naveen Patnaik had promisedthat he would never stop the schememeant to provide a handholdingsupport to the poor during med-ical emergency.”

The BJP leader also added, “It wassaid by the CM before elections.What is the point of such a falsepromise if you cannot keep it?Similar statements were also madeby the health minister in theAssembly.”

The saffron party criticised thediscontinuance of the special treat-ment fund to the poor at Covidtimes. This comes after the state gov-ernment, through a notification

and official correspondence, talkedabout stopping the scheme for thepeople in the light of Covid-19 pandemic.

Several people from economi-cally weaker sections of the societywere earlier able to undertake sev-eral critical life-saving surgeriesin private and other hospitals withthe financial assistance provided bythe state government under OSTF.

The state government, however,claims that although it has stoppedOSTF aid, Biju Swasthya KalyanYojana will continue in the state.

Mohapatra, meanwhile, attackedthe state government for not com-ing on board with the Modi gov-er nment for the ambitiousAyushman Bharat Yojana which, hesaid, could have helped scores of peo-ple during this health crisis.

BJD leader Debi Prasad Mishrasaid, "There are other alternativesin place. The state governmenthas now decentralised the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund (CMRF)which the District Collectors canuse for the people in need in theirdistricts."

PNN/AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, August 1: TheEast Coast Railway (ECoR),Saturday, appealed to people to en-able trial run of goods trains on thenew Haridaspur-Paradip line asit will make the tracks fit for op-erating passenger trains on theroute in the near future.

The appeal by ECoR comes a dayafter the trial run of a goods trainwas halted at Nuagaon in Kendraparadistrict as local people blocked thetracks for around two hours de-manding immediate start of pas-senger train services on the route.

The 82-km-long railway line con-nects the mineral belt of the statewith the port town of Paradip.

Work on the much-awaitedHaridaspur-Paradip line, whichalso brings Kendrapara district onthe railway map, is almost com-plete and trial run of goods trains

started July 31, the ECoR said in astatement.

“Trial run of goods trains is a pre-step to culminate in running ofpassenger trains till the essentialsafety works are completed andpassenger facilities are created,”it said.

Obstructing trial runs of goodstrain as happened Friday will pushthe whole process of making thisline fit for passenger trains farther

into the future, the statement said.“ECoR, therefore, appeals to you

to enable these goods train trialruns so that the line can be madefit for running passenger trains inthe near future,” it added.

Paradip-Haridaspur railway lineproject was sanctioned in 1996 andits foundation stone was laid in1999. However, the completion ofthe project was delayed by almosttwo decades.

Haridaspur-Paradip line: ECoR forsmooth trial run of goods trains

Work on the much-awaitedHaridaspur-Paradipline, which alsobrings Kendraparadistrict on the railway map, isalmost complete

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: TheBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC), Saturday,urged the traders’ bodies andcitizens to bring in behaviouralchanges and adhere to Unlock-3guidelines issued by the stategovernment to contain spreadof infection.

Briefing the media after a meet-ing with the traders’ bodies, BMCCommissioner Prem ChandraChaudhary asked the shopkeepersnot to entertain a customer if heor she doesn’t obey the rules suchas social distance or wearing mask.

“We also urge the citizens ofBhubaneswar to maintain socialdistancing and follow all Covidrelated guidelines. People shouldavoid going to markets regularly.A behavioural change is a must interms of shopping, and onlinepurchase of essentials should beprioritised. The danger still loomslarge and the only way of break-ing the spread of chain is avoid-ing physical touch and over-crowding,” he added.

Meanwhile, the market associ-ation representatives have wel-comed the decisions and meas-ures suggested by BMC to ensurestrict compliance of Covid-19guidelines in their respective areas.They also talked about the issuesthey are facing. “The meeting wasreally good and extremely im-portant. We have told the shop-keepers to strictly follow the rulesas advised by BMC today. We willimplement ‘no masks, no goods’and ‘no social distancing, no goods’in our market,” said GayadharaSwain, president of Unit – 1 MarketAssociation.

He also urged the BMC officialsto impose heavy penalty on someunruly customers who never followrules despite repeated warnings.

PATNAIK APPEALED TO EVERYONE TO AVOID STEPPINGOUT IF IT IS NOT REQUIRED AND AVOID CROWDED

PLACES AND NOT TO ALLOW COMPLACENCY

THE CM ASSURED THAT HIS GOVERNMENT WILL LEAVENO STONE UNTURNED IN FIGHTING THIS PANDEMIC ANDSAVING LIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF ODISHA

Youth’s body found under flyover

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 1,78,58,865 1,12,31,434 6,84,897

India 16,95,988 10,94,374 36,511

Odisha 33,479 21,273 187

COVID-19 TRACKER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: Thebody of a youth was Saturday foundunder the flyover at Fire StationSquare in Khandagiri police limitsunder mysterious circumstances.

The deceased was identified asRajesh Kumar Panda whose age isbelieved to be around 25 years. Hewas a resident of Niali in Cuttackand staying at Satya Nagar inKharavela Nagar area here.

Soon after spotting the body, lo-cals informed Khandagiri policewho rushed to the spot and recov-ered the body which was foundwithout any clothes which wererecovered from near the spot. Theface had severe injuries and was re-portedly hit with a heavy object.

Sources in the police claimedthat he might have committed sui-cide by jumping off the flyover. Healso fell on a tree there and subse-quently slipped down under theflyover. Some others also claimedthat he might have fallen off thebridge in an inebriated condition.

Police started investigating intothe incident after sending the bodyto Capital Hospital for postmortem.

However, cops failed to answer

why Panda removed his clothes be-fore his death. Many locals alsoclaimed that blood stains at thespot point towards dragging of thebody from near the tree to the placewhere the body was found.

Moreover, except for the facethere was no other injury or scratchmark on Panda’s body despite fallingon the tree. Police sources said au-topsy report will reveal the exactcause of the death.

BJP slams govt for stopping OSTF

n The BJP criticised the discontinuanceof OSTF meant for poor at Covid times

n Party spokesperson GolakMohapatra Saturday told the mediathat Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikand Health Minister Naba Kishore Dashave backtracked on their own prom-ise of continuing the OSTF scheme forthe poor of Odisha

n The state government, however,claims that although it has stoppedOSTF aid, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojanawill continue in the state

Bhubaneswar: DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP) ofBhubaneswar Umashankar DashSaturday released a WhtasAppnumber through his official twitterhandle urging citizens to sharewith the officials the details of anysocial distancing norm violation. Denizens can send videos orphotos of violation of socialdistancing norms by individuals orat commercial complexes to thepolice through the given number-7440006709. They can also text thedetails about the place andviolators. Police will soon reachthe place and initiate action as perrules. The DCP tweeted, “FightingCovid-19 is our joint responsibility.Please help us in ensuringimplementation of Govt guidelineson social distance. Whatsappvideo/text/photos related to socialdistance violation to 7440006709.”

WhatsApp numberto report violations

Kamadev Moharana decorates the office of Siddhamahavir level crossingin Puri with plants OP PHOTO

Carpenters dismantle Darpadalan chariot at the Lions’ Gate of Srimandir in Puri, Saturday. The temple administrationwould preserve the three chariots of this year’s Rath Yatra at Srijagannath Ballav mutt OP PHOTO

PRESERVATION PLAN

Behaviouralchange nowa must: BMC

Sources in the police claimed thatPanda might have committedsuicide by jumping off the flyover

However, cops failed to answerwhy he had removed his clothesbefore his death

downtownSUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP4

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DEBI MOHANTY

Every year, Sanatana Bhoi, 60,a landless share cropper inAnastamala, grows paddy on

one acre of land. The return, around15 bags of paddy (his share) en-sures Sanatan’s family of three,rice for the year.

This year though, Santana is ap-prehensive of that luxury. With anerratic monsoon causing insuffi-cient rainfall, so far, Sanatana trans-planted paddy seedlings last weekafter watering the patch of landwith the help of a kerosene runpump. He had to shell out Rs 800 forthis. However, he is unsure aboutthe harvest.

A few houses away, Harihar Das,60, another marginal farmer, hasspent Rs 4000 on water that he hadsaved to visit his migrant worker son,who hasn’t been able to return homefrom Kozhikode in Kerala afterCovid 19 lockdown was announcedin March. Harihar, who has culti-vated two acres including his own.4 acre patch, is worried, too.

“Bad monsoon has thrown anextra burden of expenses on ourshoulders,” Harihar says, adding,“Even, water pumps are not easily available.”

The entire approximately 50 fam-ilies in Anastamala, a hamlet underBagalpur village of Turintira pan-chayat in Khurda district’s Balipatnablock- a majority of them are sched-uled castes- echo Harihar’s senti-ment. Some of them are landless,the rest own smaller patches; allfall into the category of small andmarginal farmers. Primarily de-pendant on paddy (kharif), theygrow mung (green gram) duringrabi season. All of them are sharecroppers. A few hundred metres

away lives Manguli Bhoi (62) withhis wife Kusuma in Bagalpur. Bothhis young sons have died in acci-dents, the younger, last year. Age andailments, don’t allow the landless,Manguli or his wife to work ondaily wages. The 10 bags of paddythey earn from less than an acre ofland they cultivate is all that theycan hope for survival.

Even, for others, who work ascasual, daily wagers during off timein the vicinity, Covid 19 has cur-tailed such avenues. “We don’t know

what to do,” says Manguli. It’s notdifficult to visualize the sense ofuncertainty writ large on his face.

Already pushed to the wall dueto the Covid 19, all that the farmingcommunity hoped for was a decentmonsoon. Left with no option, theyblame it on their own destiny.“Perhaps it’s happening becauseof our bad luck,” thought a farmerand father of three school-goinggirls, Chandan Bhoi, 36 in Bagalpur.

While as many as 23 districts ofOdisha have recorded a deficit rain-fall ranging from 20-57 per cent inJuly, Khurda tops the list with arainfall deficit of 57 per cent. Thedistrict has received only 124.9 mmof rain this year against 287.3 mmin a normal monsoon. Puri andCuttack districts are closely behindwith less rainfall of 56 and 51 percent respectively.

According to experts, July is themost crucial month for paddy cul-tivation (kharif) as up-rooting andtransplanting of paddy seedlings aregenerally carried out in this month.

“Major portion of water requiredfor paddy cultivation is used in theland preparation for transplantingduring the soil puddling phase. Aminimum level of water is essentialnot only for the growth of the plants

but also to avert excess of weeds. Under irrigated paddy cultiva-

tion, kharif crops depend on sup-plementary irrigation. With mon-soon already throwing its tantrums,delay in irrigation could well leadto crop damage. Moreover, underminor irrigation command, “scopeof getting water has little possibil-ity due to water level being at belowdead storage level (DSL)”, said asenior officer in the agriculture de-partment.

“Coupled with erratic rainfall,the high temperature experiencedthis year could cause heat injury topaddy plants and other field cropsat younger stage,” the officer cau-tioned. According to experts, excessor deficit rainfall of 19 per cent is nor-mal in the cropping season. Apartfrom coastal and central districtsof Khurda, Puri, Cuttack, Nayagarh,Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Balasore,Bhadrak, those in the northern part,Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj andSundargarh are the worst-hit witha shortfall of over 40 per cent.

Currently, the area under culti-vation of paddy, pulses, oil seedsand cotton is about 45 per cent inOdisha. Both farmers and experts,say, the best period to transplantpaddy seedling is between 14 and 21

days though it’s safe to carry out theprocess when the seedlings arearound 30 days-old. “The youngerthe seedlings are transplanted, thebetter the vigour of the plants andproduction,” said an agro expert.

Some amount of standing waterin the paddy field after transplant-ing not only helps the plant to es-tablish itself, it also suppressesweeds’ growth. This year, lack ofrequired amount of soil moisturehas put a question mark on the sur-vivability of the seedlings.

Monsoon’s whims have left thefarmers, small and big, high and dry.Already, beusaning has been de-layed. Though farmers at differentlocations have irrigated their landwith pumps and carried out trans-plantation of seedlings, the nextfew weeks, experts say, are crucialand would determine the fate ofharvest.

“We are sitting with fingerscrossed,” viewed Sukanta Pradhan,54, a farmer in Nimapara block ofPuri district. Lack of water hasforced Sukanta to reduce paddycultivation from 7 to 4 acres. “If wedon’t receive normal rainfall in thenext two-three weeks, we wouldn’teven have enough rice straw evenfor the cattle,” he added.

Elusive rain adds to pandemic woes of farmers MONSOON DOESA VANISHING ACT

Already pushed to the wall dueto the Covid 19, all that the

farming community hoped forwas a decent monsoon. Left

with no option, they blame it on their own destiny

While as many as 23 districts ofOdisha have recorded a deficit

rainfall ranging from 20-57 per cent in July, Khurda tops the

list with a rainfall deficit of 57 per cent

Monsoon’s whims have left the farmers, small and big, high and dry.Already, beusaning has been delayed

Record spike in Covid-19 cases, toll mounts to 187POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1:The stateregistered its highest single-dayspike of 1,602 Covid-19 casesSaturday pushing the state's tally to33,479 Saturday and the toll rose to187 with 10 more deaths, a health de-partment official said.

The 10 fresh fatalities were re-ported from four districts. Ganjamreported the highest five deaths,three in Khurda and one each inGajapati and Sundergarh districts,the official said.

Ganjam district, which hasemerged as Odisha's coronavirushotspot, has so far accounted for99 fatalities, followed by Khurdawhich reported 25 deaths, he said.

Apart from the 10 fatalities, an-other 30-year-old Covid-19 positivemale patient of Nayagarh districtdied due to acute chronic kidney dis-ease and septic shock.

With this, the number of Covid-19 positive patients succumbing toother reasons has gone up to 38 inthe state, the official said.

Of the new cases, 993 people weredetected positive from quarantinecentres, he said adding contact trac-

ing and follow up action have been initiated.

The districts reporting high num-bers of fresh cases include Ganjam(308), Khurda (285), Rayagada (164)and Gajapati (108). Odisha now has12,736 active cases, while 20,518 pa-tients have recovered from the con-tagion so far, the department said.

Saturday’s 1,602 new cases areconsidered the highest ever singleday spike in the state so far asOdisha had reported 1,594 freshpositive cases July 23.

Seven of the state’s 30 districtspresently have a caseload of morethan 1,000. Ganjam tops the listwith 10,672 cases followed by Khurda-

4485 and Cuttack-2125 cases. Thestate Friday conducted 14,135 sam-ple tests taking the total coronatests to 5,28,708, he said.

BHUBANESWAR: TheBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) Saturday saidthat 126 more people have tested pos-itive for Covid-19 in the city in past24 hours. While 77 of them arequarantine cases, remaining 49are local contact ones. Meanwhile,133 persons who earlier tested pos-itive for the disease also recovered.

"Further contact tracing is stillcontinuing. Primary contacts &nearby houses are being quaran-tined, sanitised and will be underactive surveillance," BMC said. Itfurther added that all positive cases

have been shifted to dedicatedCovid hospitals. According to anotification issued by the civicbody, as of Saturday, 2,861 personshave tested positive for Covid-19in Bhubaneswar out of which 1,566have recovered. While there are1,276 active cases, 17 persons suc-cumbed to the disease. Meanwhile,Odisha registered its highest sin-gle-day spike of 1,602 Covid-19cases, pushing the state's tally to33,479, while the death toll rose to187 with 10 more fatalities. Of thenew cases, 993 people were detectedpositive from quarantine centres.

City tally up to 2,861; 126 new cases

CUTTACK: The Cuttack MunicipalCorporation (CMC) Saturday saidthat 43 more people have tested pos-itive for Covid-19 in the city in past24 hours. While five of them werereported from institutional quar-antine centres, 27 were home quar-antine cases and remaining 11 werelocal contact ones. "Active surveil-lance, contact tracing, and saniti-zation of the concerned areas areunderway," CMC said. Accordingto a notification issued by the civicbody, as of Saturday, 949 personshave tested positive for Covid-19in Cuttack out of which 478 haverecovered. There are 461 activecases and 10 persons have suc-cumbed to the disease. Meanwhile,Odisha registered its highest sin-gle-day spike of 1,602 Covid-19cases, pushing the state's tally to33,479, while the death toll rose to187 with 10 more fatalities. Of thenew cases, 993 people were detectedpositive from quarantine centres.

Cuttack records 43fresh infectioncases; tally at 949

Op theatre of Puri DHH sealed after doc, nurse test +ve PURI: The operation theatre (OT)of Puri district headquarters hos-pital (DHH) was sealed Saturday.Acting on the order of the chiefdistrict medical officer (CDMO),the DHH authorities have sealedthe OT of gynaecology departmentafter a doctor, a staff nurse and anANM tested positive for coron-avirus. The move is to stop the fur-the spread of the virus.

The sudden decision of the DHHauthorities has left many patientsin a lurch. Many new mothers along

with their infants were seen wait-ing outside the facility, hoping forresumption of the facility.

However, the DHH authorities

later advised them to go to any hos-pital in Bhubaneswar or Cuttack.The patients belonging to poor fam-ilies were seen to be the worst suf-ferers.

Notably, the district reported 50new cases of Covid-19 Saturday.With this addition, the district’stally has swelled to 803. Of them,while 421 patients are still under-going treatment at Covid-19 hospi-tals, 377 have so far been dischargedfrom hospitals. The Covid-19 tollin the district remains at three.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: TheECoR has decided to extend theservice of Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Special Train up to August12, 2020. This train will leave fromRourkela at 5:10 am and fromBhubaneswar at 2:10 pm fromAugust 3 to August 12, 2020 exceptfor Saturdays and Sundays.

The train will stop atRajagangpur, Bamara, Jharsuguda,Rengali, Sambalpur City, Rairakhol,Boinda, Angul, Talcher Road,Dhenkanal and Naraj Marthapurbetween Rourkela andBhubaneswar.

Apart from this, services of othertwo intra-state special trains havealso been extend to run up to August

12, 2020 as per the following.The Bhubaneswar-Bolangir-

Bhubaneswar special will leaveBhubaneswar at 06: 30 am and fromBalangir at 2:45 pm from August1 to August 12, 2020 except forSaturdays and Sundays (5 days aweek). Similarly, the Bhubaneswar-Koraput-Bhubaneswar special willrun from Bhubaneswar at 6:30 pmMondays, Wednesdays and Fridaysand from Koraput at 5:30 pmTuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays(3 days a week). The tickets willbe available at railway reservationcounters and also IRCTC website.

Other special trains runningfrom New Delhi to Bhubaneswar,Bhubaneswar to Mumbai,Bhubaneswar to Howrah will con-tinue to run as notified earlier.

ECoR extends service ofspecial train up to Aug 12

Ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi, an artisan giving finishing touches to idols at Silpi Kumbhar Sahi in Cuttack, Saturday OP PHOTO

2 rakhi outlets amongthree sealed in Cuttack POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack, August 1: An enforce-ment team of Cuttack MunicipalCorporation (CMC) sealed threeshops including two rakhi shopsand a rope godown here on chargeof violation of Covid-19 norms,Saturday.

The enforcement team with thehelp of Purighat police sealed tworakhi shops at Keuta Sahi and arope godown in the city allegedlyfor assembling heavy crowds out-side their establishments in vio-lation of Covid-19 norms, CMCDeputy Commissioner AbinashRout said.

Similar raids were carried out

in Dargha Bazaar and ChowdhuryBazaar areas in the city.

The business establishmentsin the city witnessed heavy crowdsas soon as the state governmentrelaxed the lockdown restrictionsfor the first weekend in August.These shops opened Saturday afterremaining closed during the 14-daylockdown. People were seen vio-lating Covid-19 norms like socialdistancing and wearing face masks.

People were unable to buyrakhis due to lockdown and withone day left for the RakshaBandhan, all rakhi shops anddress stores witnessed large crowdsas soon the shops reopened,Saturday.

People come out in large numbers for shopping in Silver City after lockdownrestrictions were relaxed Saturday OP PHOTO

GOD OF INTELLECT

Dev to handle culture dept Bhubaneswar: Senior IAS officerand tourism secretary Vishal Devhas been given additionalcharge of Odia language,literature and culturedepartment. Dev will takecharge of the department fromAugust 5 as the five yeardeputation period of presentculture secretary and IRS officerManoranjan Panigrahy is endingAugust 4. The state governmenthas relieved Panigrahy from hisduties in the state governmentwith effect from August 4.

Section 144 clampedon twin-cities Bhubaneswar: Twin City PoliceCommissioner Sudhanshu SarangiSaturday said Section 144 of CrPChas been imposed inBhubaneswar and Cuttack toenforce Covid-19 inducedlockdown. According to Sarangi,prohibitory orders debarmovement of people and vehicleson roads for any kind of non-essential work between 9 pm and5 am till August 31. “There is anurgent need to avoid danger tohuman life, health or safety posedby the spread of Covid-19pandemic,” an order issued byPolice Commissionerate read.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhuban, August 1: A two-kilo-meter stretch of National Highway-53 that falls inGadanrusinghaprasad village underBhuban block in Dhenkanal districthas become a bane of villagers.

The stretch passes bang in themiddle of the village, dividing itinto two parts. On one side, thereare offices of Seva SamabayaSamiti, a primary school, grampanchayat and RI office while onthe other side, there are two highschools, one college, one healthcentre, a veterinary hospital andelectricity office.

This apart, labourers and em-ployees working at over 15 mines inSukinda area depend on this road,making it more crowded. Four-lan-ing work of the NH-53 is going on.At the same time, work on Talcher-Sukinda railway line is also un-derway. The villagers had requestedthe district administration to get anunderpass or overbridge constructedto solve the traffic problem. They hadalso sought three drains for releaseof water from agricultural land,but to no avail. When asked, sub-collector Bishnuprasad Acharyasaid letters have been sent to boththe railway department and NHAIin this regard. “Soon steps willbe taken to solve the villagers’problems,” he assured.

NH-53 provesbane of villagers

Representative picture

POST NEWS NETWORK

Sonepur, August 1: July is over, butmost parts of Sonepur district, oneof the major paddy producing dis-tricts in western Odisha, hasrecorded steep deficit rainfall tilldate. Farmers started apprehend-ing a possible spectre of a droughtwith the monsoon almost doing avanishing act.

According to reports, farmlandshave been left bone dry in manypockets under Sonepur, Trabha,Ullinda and Birmaharajpur blocks.In other areas, farmlands are foundcracked for want of rain whilepaddy saplings have started drool-ing. Farmers are deeply worriedhow to face the situation whenthings are already in a mess owingto Covid pandemic.

“If it does not rain in a day or two,the situation will worsen towardsdrought. Farming activities havebeen completely delayed. Paddysaplings and sprouts have dried atmany places,” lamented some farm-ers of Sonepur and Biramaharajpurblocks.

The agriculture department hasset a target to produce paddy in1.235 lakh hectares in the district inthis kharif season.

With the state witnessing a deficitof around 12% of rainfall, the sit-uation is extremely severe in thisregion.

It is said Sonepur district re-ceived 31 per cent rainfall deficit tilldate which is far less than its neigh-bouring districts.

However, Tarabha block had re-ceived a little more rainfall thanthe normal in June and July.

In July, the district is supposedto receive an average of 373,82 mmrainfall, but it was 198.28 mm. Therainfall in July was most impor-tant for farming, but there was

deficit rainfall, farmers rued.The district recorded a deficit

rainfall of 46.96 by July 30. In some areas, farmers have been

trying to keep the paddy saplingalive by pumping out water fromcreeks and rivers.

In other areas, several hectaresof land have been left fallow.

Farmers said, “Covid has alreadymade our situation worse. Deficitrainfall has badly affected paddy cul-tivation. Without rains, savingpaddy plants will be a difficult job.In view of possible drought, the

department should take immedi-ate step to alleviate the situation.”

As for the situation, district agri-culture officer, Prashant KumarSatpathy, said, “There was deficientrainfall in July. This problem hasarisen in non-irrigated Sonepurand Birmaharajpur blocks.”

However, water was releasedfrom Hariharajora dam to someparts of Ullunda and Birmajarajpur.

“If the district does not receivegood rainfall within seven days,farmers will definitely suffer loss,”he admitted.

stateSUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP5

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DROUGHT STALKS SONEPUR, JAJPUR

JAJPUR: Farmers here stare atmassive crop loss with drought fearlooming large in the district dueto scant rainfall, a report said.

They are clueless as to how tomanage livelihood in the event of naimminent crop loss . A report fromthe agriculture department saideven as monsoon is nearing its end,the district has received only48.75mm rainfall. Reports said thedistrict has received only 171.09mm rain by July end -- 51 per centless than the rainfall required.

Kharif work here is dependenton rainfall during June, July andAugust. This has happened as nineunder-construction mega lift irri-gation projects are yet to become op-erational. The project works aregoing on for the last nine years andare yet to get completed. Reports saidnine mega lift irrigation projects arebeing constructed in the rivers flow-ing through Barchana, Bari,Dharmasala, Jajpur and Rasulpurblocks to provide irrigation facili-ties to over 12,800 acres.

Similarly, the condition of farm-ers in the riparian villages ofBrahmani, Kharasrota, Baitaraniand Birupa rivers are no less acutedue to lack of irrigation facilities.They have left everything to fateby cultivating. The farmers ap-prehend that they may face sproutblight if rain does not occur withinnext three to four days.

Industrial areas in the districthave been deprived of rain duringJune and July. Two of the industrialareas Danagadi and Sukinda blocks

have received only 244 mm and204.60 mm rain respectively dur-ing this period.

Environmentalist Aswini KumarDhala and for mer sar panchPushpakanta Nayak rejected thereport, stating it to be manipulated.They said the administration is al-legedly manipulating the rainfall re-port to divert the attention of peo-ple from industrial pollution. Theywarned they will challenge the rain-fall report.

They said the areas received rain-fall between 7.6 mm and 34.4 mm forfive to six days in July but no heavyrain (74.5-124.4mm) was witnessedduring the period. They allegedthat many of the farmers in both theareas were yet to start their culti-vation due to lack of rain.

When contacted, Sarat KumarPrusty, deputy director district agri-culture department, confirmed thedevelopment. He said he has sub-mitted a report to the state gov-ernment.

9 mega lift irrigation projects incomplete

“If it does not rain ina day or two, the

situation will worsentowards drought.Farming activities havebeen completelydelayed. Paddy saplingsand sprouts have driedat many places,”lamented some farmersof Sonepur andBiramaharajpur blocks

As for the situation, district agricultureofficer, Prashant Kumar Satpathy, said,

“There was deficient rainfall in July. Thisproblem has arisen in non-irrigatedSonepur and Birmaharajpur blocks.”

The district recorded a deficit rainfall of46.96 by July 30. In some areas, farmers

have been trying to keep the paddy saplingalive by pumping out water from creeksand rivers

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bolangir, August 1: The powersector in western Odisha receiveda major boost after the much-awaited 220 KV line from Bolangir(Sadeipali) sub-station to PGCILBolangir substation was commis-sioned Saturday.

It is one of the major projects ofthe Orissa Power TransmissionCorporation Limited (OPTCL).

The transmission line will enablean additional 220 KV power forwestern Odisha districts of Bolangir,Bargarh, Subarnapur, Boudh,Kalahandi and Nuapada, said a re-lease from OPTCL.

These regions faced power cuts dueto overloading during peak hours andnow have a dedicated alternativesource for steady power supply.

Apart from household con-sumers, these being agrarian dis-tricts, the additional line will helpin improving the voltage profileof agricultural feeders and alliedindustry feeders. The press noteadded that the 220 KV circuit willbe a parallel system to the existingline. Thus the load would be easily

shared. Even during peak demand,both the lines can tolerate the loadand help in meeting the increasingdemand of the command area.

“We are also mulling furtherstrengthening of the system inwestern Odisha by laying two morelines i.e. from Balangir PG toKesinga and Sadeipali to Kesinga,”said Dr Saurabh Garg, Chairman,OPTCL.

He also thanked all the teammembers for delivering a high levelof dedication for commissioning ofthis line. The commissioning ofthe 220KV line had been pendingdue to some bottlenecks. After thegovernment and the district ad-ministration intervened in the mat-ter, the power line was eventuallycommissioned.

Sadeipalli-Bolangirpower line dedicated

POWER BOOST

The transmission line willenable an additional 220KV power for Bolangir,Bargarh, Subarnapur,Boudh, Kalahandi and Nuapada

POTABLE WATER

Workers sinking a tube well at Baidyanath Chhak in Sambalpur OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Tikiri, August 1: The governmentexecutes the Swajaldhara Yojana toensure safe drinking water for peo-ple in rural areas, but the schemehas been a far cry for some in remotepockets of Shankarada panchayatunder Kashipur block of Rayagada.

According to reports, even 73years after independence, 10 vil-lages under this block were de-prived of basic facilities like roadsand safe drinking water.

Even in the monsoon, people arefound drinking water from pitsthey have dug out on dry riverbeds.Patients are carried on cots in theabsence of good roods. Ambulancefails to enter the villages duringemergency times, locals alleged.

This panchayat is 4 km from theblock headquarters. Over 200 trib-als and some SC families live in 10villages. These villages areGobarighati, Nisithal, Atakana,Padakona, Chauli, Sarubali and

Nadana and Dumburipodi The villagers have to face a lot of

difficulties in availing safe drinkingwater and have to collect water frompits and rivulets. Women gather-ing around a pit are found routinely

in the area. Electricity has been adream, even though poles have beeninstalled in some villages.

“We have no safe drinking waterin these villages. The block ad-ministration spends a lot for drink-

ing water projects in other villages.We are deprived of this,' the residentsalleged.

Consumption of contaminatedwater from the pit often causeshealth hazards for the people, theysaid. They have demanded immediatestep for redress their problems.

Swajaldhara a dream for Rayagada villagesTRIBAL PEOPLE OF 10 VILLAGES CONSUME PIT WATER EVEN DURING THE MONSOON

Even in the monsoon, peopleare found drinking water

from pits they have dug out ondry riverbeds. Patients arecarried on cots in the absence ofgood roods. Ambulance fails toenter the villages duringemergency times, locals alleged.

Consumption of contaminatedwater from the pit often

causes health hazards for thepeople, they said. They havedemanded immediate step forredress their problems

GRIM REALITY

Women collecting water from a pit on riverbed OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Kendrapara, August 1: Two doc-tors of a private hospital inKendrapara district were arrestedalong with six others for allegedlyattacking a journalist and policehere. The prime accused have beenidentified as Debashis Sahu andSibashis Sahu.

Reportedly, all the eight accusedhave been forwarded to court.According to available informa-tion, a journalist reportedly captureda picture of the hospital while theprivate hospital was overcrowded

with people.Spotting the same, the accused

duo approached the journalist andallegedly quizzed him before mis-behaving with him. Later, thestaffers of the hospital started as-saulting him after they received

the orders of the same from theaccused brothers. The assailantsalso snatched the journalist’s phoneand vandalised his motorcycle.

On being informed, KendraparaTown Police reached the spot.However, the cops also faced op-position and were engaged in ascuffle with the accused. The ac-cused allegedly hit the Police ASI.

Later, acting on the directionsof the District Collector, police ar-rested eight people including the twodoctors late Friday night. The ac-cused will be forwarded to courtSaturday, sources said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Khaira, August 1: Mathanuagaonvillage of Nandur panchayat underKhaira block in Balasore district hasbeen declared ‘open defecation-free’ (ODF), but its reality is com-pletely reverse, a report said.

The Centre had set out to achieveopen defecation-free (ODF) India byOctober 2, 2019 under the govern-ment’s Swachh Bharat Mission.However, several blocks in Balasoredistrict paint a completely differ-ent picture.

Balasore rural water supply andsanitation (RWSS) declared the vil-lage as ODF July 22. Despite theprovision of toilets being madeavailable to local villagers, mostfamilies do not have one. Asuriavillagers in this block also havethe same fate.

A grim picture was revealed dur-ing a recent drive in the block tocheck progress of the ambitiousSwachh Bharat Mission (SBM).“Those having the facility preferdefecating in open due to lack of pro-vision for adequate water supply,”said a villager requesting anonymity.

“This apart, the amount whichis being provided by the govern-ment to build latrines is meagre.Central government provides`12,000to a household for constructing a la-

trine. It is insufficient to meet withthe ever-rising prices of construc-tion materials,” local villagersfumed.

“A signage put up at village ap-proach roads read, ‘An open defe-cation-free Mathanuagaon villagewelcomes you’. Local villagers arecommitted to keeping our respec-tive villages open defecation-free’.Such meaningless signage are noless than a mockery,” villagersnamely Laxmana Behera, PradeepSamal, Bidyadhara Parida,Lakshmikanta Mohanty, ParsuramMohanty and Upendra Parida ex-pressed.

The villagers said the latrine-building has become a money-mint-ing sport for a few unscrupulousblock officials as they work hand-in-glove with the local contractorsto make some extra bucks.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Dhenkanal, August 1: Police ar-rested a person for inflicting phys-ical and mental torture on a minorgirl and in a way forcing her to com-mit suicide at a village underBhapur outpost of Sadar policelimits in Dhenkanal district Fridayevening.

Dhenknal SP Anupama Jamesinformed the reporters about thearrest at a presser organised atSadar police station. She also saidthat Inspector General of Police(North-Central Range) NarasinghaBhol had suspended former out-post officer SI Prashant Padhiaryon charge of dereliction of duty.ASI Padmanabha Sahu had earlierbeen suspended on the sameground.

The accused has been identi-fied as Subash Muiduli alias Suba (29).

After the death of the rape-sur-vivor, her family members hadlodged an FIR and following whichSadar police had registered a caseunder Section 306 of IPC (CaseNo-290/20). In this connection, anunnatural death case (Case No-33/20) had earlier been registered.

Raids were conducted at six toseven places of his relatives inBhubaneswar, Cuttack andDhenkanal from Thursday night.Acting on a tip off that he washiding in Bodhiabereni jungle,the police team gheraoed the jun-gle and arrested him. Subashthen confessed to his crime.

The SP also said that the ac-cused has another rape and mur-derous attack case (Case No-206/14)pending against him.

Attack on cops: 2 docs among 8 held

Youth held for torture leading tosuicide of minor girl

Swachh Bharat goes for a toss

POST NEWS NETWORK

Dhenkanal, August 1: Dhenkanaldistrict Saturday reported 92COVID-19 cases with Gandia blockalone registering a single-dayspike of 84 cases.

Similarly, ward No-11 underBhuban notified area council(NAC) limits witnessed three,Surapratappur two, Derasingharea under Sadar block one,Balyamba one and Kunjakantaunder Dhenkanal civic limits oneCOVID-19 cases Friday, respec-tively.

One more patient belonging to

Dhenkanal district who had pre-viously gone to a private hospitalat Cuttack for his routine healthcheckup has tested positive forCOVID-19. However, Gandia blockwhich borders Jajpur has come outas a hotspot in the district.

In order to prevent a probable

spread of COVID-19 infection inthe days ahead, the district ad-ministration has imposed shut-down on Pingua,Dasamanapatana, Nihalaprasad,Khandabandha, Sadangi pan-chayat areas under Gandia blocklimits till August 6, Dhenkanaldistrict Collector BhumeshChandra Behera informed.

Contact tracing and swab test-ing activities have been acceler-ated in these panchayats follow-ing the spike in cases. All health,Anganwadi and Asha workershere have been engaged for the pur-pose.

1-day spike: 92 cases in Dhenkanal

BERHAMPUR: In yet another caseof medical negligence in Ganjamdistrict, a patient died Fridayallegedly due to the hospital staffnot attending to the patient on thepretext of unavailability of PPEkits. Pankaj Behera of Rajiv Nagararea in Berhampur town had beensuffering from fever. His familyrushed him to City Hospital Friday.The doctors there referred him toBiju Patnaik Homoeopathy CollegeCOVID Care Centre citing thereason that the patient was inneed of oxygen support. At theCOVID-19 Care Centre, neither thedoctors nor the nurses attendedto him citing they did not havePPE kits. They only turned up totreat the patient when the familymembers bought them therequired number of PPE kits frommarkets. However, by that time,the patient had already breathedhis last. Family members havealleged that it is nothing butmedical negligence that claimedPankaj’s life. CDMO UmashankarMishra said an investigation hasbeen initiated into allegedmedical negligence.

Lack of PE kits: Docs,staff blamed for death

GANJAM: In yet another case ofalleged medical negligence, ayoung businessman of Ganjamwho tested Covid positive diedwhile undergoing treatment atTata COVID hospital Saturday.

The deceased has been iden-tified as Laxinarayan Patra,known by his nickname Nahana.He was also a social activist.

Patra’s family members, how-ever, alleged that his death tookplace as a result of medical neg-ligence.

According to their allegation,Nahana had tested positive for thedeadly virus a week ago. He wasimmediately shifted to TataCOVID hospital. Realising thatNahana’s treatment was not upto the mark, they had requestedthe hospital authorities to allowthem to take their patient toBhubaneswar. But the hospitalpaid no heed. They blamed thehospital for death. The owner ofa medicine store in Digaphandialso died of Covid.

Two people die in Ganjam

JAGATSINGHPUR: Jagatsinghpur district has bagged the prestigious‘SKOCH Award’ in the ‘Silver Category’ for effective management ofCOVID-19 situation. This information was given Friday by DistrictCollector Sangram Keshari Mohapatra. Mohapatra congratulated theadministration team for the achievement and thanked Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik for his support and guidance. Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik also congratulated the district administration for theachievement. Earlier, Jagatsinghpur district had won the ‘SKOCH Award’for excellence in e-office governance. To ensure removal of red-tapismand speedy disbursal of pending files, the e-office system had beenlaunched in March 2019. Notably, the ‘SKOCH Award’, instituted in 2003,recognises people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile tomake India a better nation.

J’singhpur wins SKOCH award for mgmt

FILE PHOTO

DEFICIT RAINFALL

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

M ainstream media refers to the established houses of journalism,mostly newspapers but to some extent also television. Newersources of media such as websites or apps that do not have a phys-

ical presence in the form of a printed product are not yet thought to be main-stream media even though some of them have quite deep presence. InIndia, websites like The Wire and Scroll have been around for about adecade or so and have large readerships.

However, these new places do not have the size of reporting resources thatmainstream media does. And at least so far they have not been able to fillthe space that mainstream media is rapidly giving up.

The media space in India is funded primarily by advertising. The readeror viewer pays very little by way of subscription and our newspapers arethe cheapest in the world. But the share of print in the overall advertisingpie is shrinking. In 2019, for the first time digital jumped over print in India,and by a lot. Digital got 27 per cent of the advertising money spent in Indiawhile print got 22 per cent. TV remained number one at 43 per cent but bothTV and print were expected to shrink further in 2020 and give up share todigital. The Covid crisis has accelerated this process.

We should understand that “digital” means essentially two companies,Google and Facebook, which now take more ad-vertising money in India than the Times of Indiaor Hindustan Times or any other large Indian news-paper. This process will continue and newspaperswill continue to fade away. This is one trend. Itis visible and is happening before our eyes.

There is a second trend that is also visible andhas also come before our eyes. It is that the mediahas taken a majoritarian, Hindutva edge. Whatis meant by Hindutva or majoritarianism? Theidea that one part of society is privileged and en-titled to primacy. Conversely, the others mustexist on sufferance and have to be tolerated.

Of course this has happened hand in handwith a change in the political language andnarrative of the state in India. During theCongress period, whether or not you agreed withthe party, the fact is that the tone and tenor wasinclusive. It was not trying to divide Indians onthe basis of the background they were born into.

The BJP exists precisely because it was suc-cessful at mobilising on the basis of division.It has nothing else that is markedly different fromany other party except the fact that it is will-ing to be openly bigoted. This view is todaymainstream and acceptable in the media. It isacceptable to blame one religion for spreading a virus that has infected theworld. It is fine to look away when members of another religion go aheadwith their events despite the same threat of spread.

The media can look away today from the failures of the government at theactual business of governance. The enemy occupies land that 3,000 Indiansdied fighting to defend in 1962. But we are being regaled with shlokas aboutthe landing of five warplanes. Are they going to be used to kick the invaderout? No, the story is merely that they have arrived.

Saturday brought the news that there was 70 per cent more demand forMNREGA work in July 2020 than July 2019. More than 3 crore householdshad asked for it, meaning that at least 15 crore Indians were dependent onit. Another piece of news was that the government was considering ex-tending the “moratorium” on defaulting loans. Companies have been allowedto skip the EMIs on their term loans and individuals with house and auto-mobile loans have also been given this opportunity to not pay now and paywith more interest later. The finance minister said that it was possible thatthis facility would be extended because of demand from some sectors thatwere still, four months after the lockdown began, unable to make their reg-ular payments. Automobile and two wheeler sales in India have been decliningyear-on-year for 18 of the last 19 months. Commercial vehicle sales have notgrown since Modi took office in 2014, meaning that industrial growth hasbeen hammered. But the media is focussed on the suicide of one youngman. The misuse by the Prime Minister’s Office of the EnforcementDirectorate even in this matter is not a problem or issue of concern. The storyis that one religion’s people have captured the entertainment industry.

A decade ago, even though the sentiment might have been felt in largeparts of the media, it was not expressed. There was a reserve and there wasa culture that adhered to the principles expressed in the constitution.That we were a diverse and secular nation. That has ended now in politicsand it has ended in the media.

W hen Cyclone Amphancame barreling up theBay of Bengal this past

May, South Asia's first named stormof the year appeared to pose a mas-sive threat to the people who live onthe coastal floodplains and to the an-imals and plants – including manyendangered species – that rely onthese sensitive ecosystems. But na-ture came to the region’s rescue.

The Sundarbans, the world'slargest mangrove forest, offeredbetter protection than any man-made storm wall could have done.When Amphan’s 16-foot storm surgeslammed into this 4,000-square-mile national park, the mangrovestook the teeth out of it, just as theydid with the two other superchargedcyclones, Aila and Sidr, that havemade landfall in recent times.

On the other side of the world, nat-ural storm defenses on the lower endof Manhattan have long since beenpaved over. Real-estate developershave even extended the island intoNew York Harbor with acres oflandfill, neglecting to build up stormsurge protections. As a result, whenHurricane Irene and SuperstormSandy hammered the city in 2011and 2012, respectively, lowerManhattan, including the city’s fi-nancial district, was inundated.

City planners have since beenworking with the US governmentto plan for the next wave of su-perstorms. But the price tag ofthe infrastructure needed – a re-tractable wall across New YorkHarbor costing at least $62 billion– has prevented any plans frombeing finalised.

As we look to rebuild the globaleconomy following COVID-19, con-serving our remaining natural as-sets must be top priority. If we don’tact, we risk losing plants, animals,and microorganisms needed to keepour air clean, our water pure, andour food supplies plentiful – not tomention mangroves and barrierreefs that stand between us and su-perstorms that are becoming morefrequent as a result of climate change.

The world has become less wildas we have built and expandedcities, cut down forests for cropsand livestock, drained wetlands forroads, and flooded valleys for dams.The economic cost of this ecologi-cal damage goes mostly uncounted.But it is prohibitively high, erodingthe value of goods and servicesthat nature produces. One millionspecies are now at risk of extinction.

Fortunately, there is a relativelysimple initiative underway to curbsome of these losses and solve

our looming conservation crises.Under the heading of ‘30x30,’ itaims to protect 30 per cent of ourplanet’s land and oceans by 2030through effective, permanent meas-ures. Over 20 member states inthe UN Convention on Biodiversityhave already committed to sup-porting this target.

According to a new report au-thored by over 100 scientists andeconomists from around the world,expanding existing protected areasto 30 per cent of the planet wouldadd $250 billion to annual global eco-nomic output, on average. Moreover,the study finds that protected areasand the nature-based activitiesthey support are among the world’sfastest-growing economic sectors,with 4-6 per cent projected annualrevenue growth, compared to lessthan 1 per cent in agriculture, andnegative growth in fisheries.

For countries with large areas offorest and mangroves, embracing30x30 would prevent the loss of anaverage of $350 billion ($170-534billion) annually in ecosystem serv-ices. These costs stem largely fromflooding, soil loss, storm surges,and the release of stored carbon thatoccurs when natural vegetation isdestroyed. By protecting India andBangladesh over the years, the

Sundarbans have provided an ex-traordinarily valuable service.

Conversely, environmental de-struction in the Brazilian portionof the Amazon has resulted inmajor, far-reaching losses. Evendrinking water shortages that af-flict São Paulo are directly con-nected to Amazon deforestation.

As governments contemplatehow to re-open their economiesafter the lockdown, they must ac-commodate the need for greaterconservation and restoration ofnatural resources.

India and Bangladesh are for-tunate to have the Sundarbans.But no country in the world lacksnatural areas that are worth con-serving or restoring. Not only is itcritical for all countries to adopt the30x30 target, but each should alsolook for ways to invest more in itsnatural areas. By doing so now,governments can ensure that na-ture-based sectors and ecosystemservices will recover at the samepace as the rest of the economy.There’s no better time to start thanbefore another storm strikes.

The writer is Chair of theIntergovernmental

Science-Policy Platform onBiodiversity and Ecosystem

Services. @ PROJECT SYNDICATE

Nature by the numbers

SOME HITS, MANY MISSEST

he New Education Policyannounced after 34 yearsclaims to make way forlarge scale transforma-

tional reforms in education onthe foundational pillars of access,equity, quality, affordability and ac-countability. The announcementneeds to be welcomed.

The three outstanding featuresof the NEP are a) recognition of ed-ucation for children from class 1 to5 and preferably up to grade 8 intheir home language, mothertongue and regional languages, b)recognition and introduction ofvocational education from the 6thgrade and c) elimination of sci-ence, commerce and arts streamsin the old system of what is pop-ularly known as the “ten plus two”system, under which the 10th andthe 12th class were critical mile-stones. That is being replaced bya “5+3+3+4”. This third aspect willensure freedom to higher second-ary students to pursue the highereducation of their choice, desire andaptitude once they are out school.Students with good scores andgrades may prefer to go for hu-manities, social and pure scienceinstead of being pushed to pro-fessional “career promising”courses by their parents.

The National Conference onEducation held in Marwari Schoolin Wardha in 1937 under Gandhiji’sleadership had strongly recom-mended that we have the mothertongue as the medium for learn-ing in school and education throughvocations as an integral part oflearning and skill building. It waschristened as Buniyadior NaiTalim. The country took 83 yearsto realise that children learn bet-ter in their mother tongues whenyoung and that the development ofthe brain is positively associatedwith learning to work with hands.

Vocational education also im-proves the scope of self employ-ment and employability. The ped-agogy for vocational education isleft to be developed by NCERT. Ithas the competence and under-standing of Nai Talim and weshould hope that Gandhiji andJohn Dewy’s principle of learn-ing by doing will find space in the

pedagogy of the new curricula.Here lies the promise for reapingthe demographic dividend, a win-dow of opportunity that exists forthe next two decades. But it willhave to be delivered. A relatedpoint is about the pedagogy forteaching about learning languageand computational skills in earlychildhood up to the age of 10.NCERT should be open and learnfrom dozens of ongoing scientificand innovative experiments in thecountry. Let us hope that NCERTwill ensure that dismal findingsfrom the ASER [Annual Status ofEducation Report (Rural) 2019]studies will change. The latest 2019ASER report notes that only 50per cent of children in grade 5 inrural India could read a grade 2 leveltext, and only 28 per cent in grade5 could solve a division problem.

The announcement and the draftpolicy document are silent on thestructure and finance of schooleducation in the country underthe NEP. Universal primary edu-cation is no new announcement.Access to all is promised but thestructures suggested are unclear.In almost all countries that have agood record in school education, theState is fully responsible to financeschool education, and the struc-ture promises school admissionto any child in a State or local gov-ernment-run school in the neigh-bourhood. The system of privatefee charging schools has to be re-stricted severely to those who haveample resources to invest on theirchildren’s education. Any child inthe country must have the right to

get admitted to a school which isnearest to her place of residence.School education should thus becompulsory and free and accessi-ble in the immediate neighbour-hood. The NEP is silent about thisvitally important policy issue inschool education. The tacit silencemay encourage commercialised,profit oriented and greedy insti-tutions, many of which are al-ready in the system and will movein for the kill very fast.

Ram Manohar Lohia needs to beremembered in this context. Raniho ya mehatrani, sabke liye eksamaan shiksha (Queen or sweeper,everyone should have the sameeducation). Unless the countryfollows Lohia’s adage in letter andspirit , education relatedSustainable Development Goalswould remain a dream.

Gandhiji would have been inpain to read the provision of in-troducing Sanskrit only as an op-tional language at all levels fromschool to higher education underthe heading of promotion of lan-guages. Not that he would haveany quarrel with Sanskrit; actually,quite the contrary. In this coun-try where an overwhelming ma-jority understand and speaks Hindi-Hindustani for centuries, ignoringUrdu language is an unpardon-able omission. Gujarat Vidyapith,a national university founded byMahatma Gandhi in 1920 had in itsschool and higher education cur-ricula the Urdu language. BothSanskrit and Urdu were taught toall children in the secondary schooland undergraduate college.

Unfortunately, it has discontinuedin Gandhiji’s Vidyapith too. Shouldwe be reminded that Urdu is the lan-guage developed in Hindustan andnot Persian or Farsi? The en-lightened Muslims are stronglyrecommending that the madarsasshould join the mainstream edu-cation system. Offering Sanskritalone as an optional subject wouldhave a negative impact on madarsasbeing persuaded to join the main-stream. Recognition and intro-duction of Urdu would give a nudge.Such reform is always possible.

An Indian Institute ofTranslation and Interpretation isa welcome idea. We have lost theopportunity till date to learn fromeach other in this country withdiverse languages and knowledge.Free exchange was hardly possible.There have not been any formalstructures to encourage and pro-mote learning from one languageand take it to another. The initia-tive should not be starved for fundsand linguists and scholars shouldkeep away from politicising.

Discussing higher education inthe NEP would require separatespace. However, a few things canbe said in this limited space. Thereis no clarity with respect to the gov-ernance structure of higher edu-cation. Increasing the gross en-rolment ratio to 50 per cent by2035 will have meaning only ifschool education settles well andevery school graduate has the ca-pability and the skill set to earn adecent livelihood. Higher educa-tion should be pursued by thosewho have the aptitude, the desireand the competence. The govern-ment will have to be vigilant thathigher education should not be-come an institution of the richand elite, by the rich and elite andfor the rich and elite. Some poorand deserving may be sneaked into showcase inclusion. The high-lights in the policy announcementpoint towards such a pattern toemerge, but one should wait for thedetails to come. The jury is still out.

The writer is a notedGandhian economist and

former VC of GujaratVidyapith, Ahmedabad.

THE BILLION PRESS

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

The announcement and draft policy documentare silent on the structure and finance of schooleducation in the country under the NEP

Majoritarian media

SALESMAN

Anew vacuum cleaner salesmanknocked on the door on the first

house of the street. A tall ladyanswered the door. Before she couldspeak, the enthusiastic salesmanbarged into the living room andopened a big black plastic bag andpoured all the cow droppings onto thecarpet. “Madam, if I could not cleanthis up within five minutes with the

use of thisnew

powerful vacuumcleaner, I will eat all

this dung!” exclaimed theeager salesman. “Do you need chillisauce or ketchup with that,” askedthe lady. The bewildered salesmanasked, “Why, madam?” “There’s no electricity in the house…”said the lady.

SUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

The whole world yearns afterfreedom, yet each creature is inlove with his chains; this is thefirst paradox and inextricableknot of our nature.

SRI AUROBINDO

CONSERVATION

THE GOVERNMENTWILL HAVE TO

BE VIGILANTTHAT HIGHER

EDUCATIONSHOULD NOTBECOME AN

INSTITUTION OFTHE RICH ANDELITE, BY THE

RICH AND ELITEAND FOR THE

RICH AND ELITE

Sudarshan Iyengar

WISDOM CORNERWhere is the justice of political power if it executes the murdererand jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighbouringlands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills? KAHLIL GIBRAN

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense ofwhat you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Becurious. STEPHEN HAWKING

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. Whenyou realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

LAO TZU

EDUCATION POLICY

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

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

INDIA ANDBANGLADESH ARE

FORTUNATE TOHAVE THE

SUNDARBANS. BUTNO COUNTRY IN

THE WORLD LACKSNATURAL AREAS

THAT ARE WORTHCONSERVING OR

RESTORING

Robert Watson

Whither BYV

Sir,The Biju Yuva Vahini (BYV) sub-scheme was launchedby the state government in Odisha with an aim to chan-nelise the vast youth power during the times of emer-gencies like natural calamities and epidemics, andalso in sports, culture, art, and social services. Sadly,since the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, no onehas heard of the BYV, putting a question mark on theorganisation’s existence. With three lakh members,the BYV pampered youths in all blocks and wards with‘My Hero’ functions by spending lakhs of rupees. Butsince last March when elderly people, women, orphansand patients needed help in assisting them during thepandemic and performing the last rites of their nearand dear ones, no member of the outfit came to theiraid. Several members of the organisation though werefound visiting countries like Singapore ‘to gain expe-rience of social work.’ They were sent to the foreign coun-tries by the organisation by spending huge funds fromthe corpus. Janaki Ballav Dash, MAYURBHANJ

Unfortunate incident

Sir, The arrest of eight persons including twodoctors of a private hospital in Kendrapara dis-trict for allegedly attacking a journalist and po-lice personnel has set a bad precedent when thestate is battling the coronavirus pandemic. The stateis witnessing a huge surge in Covid cases withGanjam, Gajapati, Khurda, Cuttack districts andRourkela Municipal Corporation becoming hotspots.The state government has named doctors as Covidwarriors who work on the frontline risking theirlives. Journalists and police also work riskingtheir lives. However, it is unfortunate to see doctorsof a private hospital accompanied by their staffersmanhandling a scribe who had reportedly cap-tured a picture of the hospital overcrowded withpatients in violation of Covid-19 norms. The groupalso assaulted a cop. The behaviour of the doctorsis uncalled for.

Manas Ranjan Kar, CUTTACK

Right decision

Sir, The Union government’sdecision to extend the ban oninternational scheduled flightstill August 31 is a step in theright direction. The countryhas seen a drastic increase inthe number of Covid-19 casesin recent weeks and any effortto open up foreign air travelwould be a misadventure. Butflights operating under the'Transport Bubble' agreementsthat India has signed with theUS, France, and Germany willcontinue to operate. The re-strictions won’t apply also to in-ternational all-cargo flights.

NJ Ravi Chander, BANGALORE

cmyk

cmyk

Tabnabs

These are well known to crews of British merchant navy ships and NorthSea oil rigs. They’re pastries or cakes, always baked on board, that are

usually served at tea breaks, morning or afternoon. The first known user ofthe term in print is Malcolm Lowry. In his Under the Volcano of 1947 appears:“The tabnabs were delicate and delicious little cakes made by the secondcook.” It is definitely older. Its provenance is obscure. It may originally havebeen Royal Navy slang, but every written reference is to merchant shipping.An editor’s footnote to The Collected Poetry of Malcolm Lowry (1992) saysthey were “small pasty delicacies, usually reserved for officers andpassengers (thus, to be nabbed from the table).” The suggested origin isplausible, but unverified (and probably unverifiable). There certainly seemsto have been a class-consciousness about them at one time. WilfredGranville defined them in his Sea Slang of the Twentieth Century (1950) as asteward’s term in the merchant navy for “Buns, pastry and confectionerywhich are reserved for the passengers in a liner and are not for the crew.”The term is certainly more democratic than that today, and perhaps alwayswas, away from the stifling conventions of cruise ships and liners.

Aakar PatelThe media can

look away todayfrom the failures

of the governmentat the actual

business of governance

cmyk

cmyk

MADHYAPRADESH

SUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7

DELHI

AGENCIES

New Delhi, August 1: DelhiDeputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia Saturday wrote to UnionHome Minister Amit Shah, seek-ing directions to LG Anil Baijalto allow hotels and weekly mar-kets in the city.

Sisodia's letter comes a day afterBaijal rejected the Arvind Kejriwalgovernment's decision to allow ho-tels and weekly markets to reopenin the national capital, saying theCOVID-19 situation continues tobe "fragile" and the threat is still "farfrom over".

Baijal Friday overruled the citygovernment's decision to open ho-tels and allow weekly bazaars ontrial basis as a part of the thirdphase of easing the lockdown. Thiscame a day after the Arvind Kejriwalgovernment decided to reopen ho-tels and allow weekly bazaars tofunction on a trial basis for a weekwith social distancing and all nec-essary precautionary measures.

In the letter written in Hindi,the deputy chief minister said thatthe Delhi government will againsend its proposal on reopening ofhotels and weekly markets to thelieutenant governor Tuesday.

"I request you to ask LG not to stop

the proposal. If traders start theirbusiness, jobs will be generated,and that the condition of economywill improve," Sisodia, who alsoholds the finance portfolio, said.

Earlier, Baijal had reversed theDelhi cabinet's decision to rejectthe Delhi Police's panel of lawyersfor the riots cases in the High Courtand the Supreme Court. “The de-cision of the Delhi government's cab-

inet Tuesday to appoint a panel oflawyers in the Supreme Court andHigh Court for the Delhi riots hasbeen rejected by Lt. Governor AnilBaijal. The Lt Governor did thisby using exclusive authority fromthe Constitution. Also, the HomeDepartment of the Government ofDelhi has been ordered to approvethe panel of Delhi Police,” a gov-ernment statement said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 1: A freshsero-prevalence survey began inthe national capital Saturday, withthe five-day exercise set to coverall districts and various demo-graphic segments.

The exercise is being undertakenfor a comprehensive assessment ofthe COVID-19 situation in Delhi.

The survey has begun and sam-ples will be collected from four dis-tricts, including North Delhi andNorthwest Delhi, to start withSaturday.

A senior government official said15,000 samples would be collectedfrom August 1 to 5 as part of the ex-ercise, spanning different areasand age groups. Representativesamples will be taken from all the11 districts.

A sero-prevalence survey in-volves testing the blood serum of in-dividuals to check for the preva-lence of antibodies against infection.

Delhi Health Minister SatyendarJain July 22 had announced thatafter analysing the results of the lastsurvey, it was decided that moresuch exercises would be under-taken every month to formulatebetter policies for tackling theCOVID-19 situation in the city.

The last sero-prevalence survey

was conducted by the Delhi gov-ernment in association with theNational Centre for Disease Control(NCDC) from June 27 to July 10.

The fresh round would follow thesame protocol as that was for the lastsurvey, officials said.

The Delhi health department

has prepared a detailed plan underwhich every district medical officerhas been asked to conduct the sur-vey in their respective jurisdic-tions, they said.

All CDMOs have been taskedwith carrying out the survey intheir districts. Random people willbe tested for antibodies.

The last sero-prevalance surveyhad found that around 23 per centof the people surveyed had beenexposed to the novel coronavirus,the central government had said.

The previous study had tested21,387 samples. Prior to that sur-vey, a similar exercise was carriedout only in the containment zonesof the city.

The Delhi government had de-cided to conduct more monthlysero surveys to find a greater per-centage of such people who hadgot infected and recovered so as toformulate better policies for tack-ling COVID-19, Jain had said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

New Delhi, August 1:An ayurvedicdoctor jailed for life for murderingtruck drivers and feeding their re-mains to crocodiles has been caughtafter jumping parole while on releasefor good behaviour, police said.

Devendra Kumar Sharma, 62,was arrested by Delhi police in thecapital late Tuesday. In January hefailed to return from a weeks-longparole after serving 16 years be-hind bars.

Sharma was given a life sentencein 2004 in Rajasthan after beingfound guilty of several murdersbetween 2002 and 2004, earning himthe nickname "Dr Death" in themedia.

"(He) was involved in dozens ofcases of kidnapping and murder oftruck and taxi drivers in Delhi,Haryana, Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan," Delhi Police DeputyCommissioner Rakesh Paweriyasaid in a statement.

Police alleged that Sharma firstcame to the attention of authoritiestwo decades ago over his involve-ment in an illegal kidney trans-plant racket between 1994 and 2004.

Sharma, with help from otherdoctors and middlemen, allegedlyarranged at least 125 transplants inan organ trafficking racket.

Police also accused him of being

part of a gang that hired taxis andtrucks before killing their drivers,robbing them and selling the ve-hicles.

"They used to dump dead bodiesin Hazara canal in Uttar Pradesh'sKashganj, which had crocodiles,(and) there was no chance of re-trieval of any body," Paweriya said.

Sharma was later convicted of atleast six murders, police said, butPaweriya added that he had ad-

mitted to carrying out many more."He disclosed to have been (the)

mastermind of more than 50 suchmurders," the statement said.

"Media reports of that periodshow that he had committed morethan 100 murders of taxi drivers forwhich cases were registered inDelhi, UP, Haryana and Rajasthan."

Sharma told police he jumpedparole to move to Delhi and hadhoped to start a new life.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Gwalior, August 1: Infuriated overthe condition of an office toilet usedby women employees in a state gov-ernment office building here, MadhyaPradesh Energy Minister PradyumanSingh Tomar decided to set an ex-ample in public hygiene -- or per-haps put officials concerned to shame-- and proceeded to clean it.

Tomar had gone to Moti Mahalbuilding Friday to discuss someissues with the DivisionalCommissioner. While returning,some women employees complainedto Tomar that the toilet reserved forthem in the office building was notcleaned regularly and they werethus inconvenienced.

On hearing the complaint, Tomarinspected the toilets on the prem-ises and found them dirty. He or-

dered the officials to bring toiletcleaner and brush etc and pro-ceeded to clean the toilet himself.

Tomar also urged the employ-ees to take responsibility for keep-ing toilets in government officesclean. The officers too should con-stantly monitor and regularly getthe toilets cleaned, he added.

The minister also asked RevenueDepartment Joint Commissioner RP

Bharti to take special care of pub-lic conveniences made available towomen staff in government officesand take punitive action againstthose responsible for dirty toiletson the premises. It is not the firsttime that Tomar has come forwardto clean up the mess. Earlier, hehad cleaned a stormwater drainwith a shovel and swept a publicpark with a broom.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Gwalior, August 1: Governmentofficials and employees in Gwaliordivision of Madhya Pradesh havebeen instructed to come to officewearing 'decent and dignified'clothes. They have been bannedfrom wearing 'faded jeans' and 'T-shirt' in office.

Divisional commissioner MBOjha in an order has asked all of-ficials and employees of the divi-sion to wear dignified, decent andformal attire while dischargingtheir responsibilities in the of-fice. Disciplinary action would beinitiated against those who dis-obey the order.

He said that during his visit toAshok Nagar district, senior offi-cials such as an additional collec-tor wearing faded jeans at the meet-ing was contrary to the dignity ofthe post of a government servantand as such inappropriate.

In the letter sent by Ojha toall divisional officials and dis-trict collectors of the division, hehas said that government ser-vants should come to office only

in formal clothes.Complaints should be sent to the

competent officer for disciplinaryaction against employees who dis-regard these instructions.

The chief secretary and the chiefminister expressed their displeas-ure at the Mandsaur district mag-istrate wearing a T-shirt during areview meeting organized throughvideo conferencing under the chair-manship of the chief minister onJuly 20, 2020.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mandla (MP), August 1: MadhyaPradesh Forest Minister Vijay ShahSaturday said the state governmentwas considering putting up stoneboundary walls and solar powerfences to permanently end man-animal conflicts.

Speaking to PTI, the ministersaid the state government was alsoworking to provide land on pattas(lease) to tribals and forest dwellersunder the Forest Rights Act.

“The biggest problem right nowis that (wild) animals enter fieldsclose to jungles for grazing and de-

stroy crops. Animals also attackhumans and sometimes lives arelost,” he said.

The state government is thinkingof erecting stone boundary walls andsolar power fences, wherever nec-essary in areas close to forests to pro-

tect crops from animals and endman-animal conflicts permanently.

Apart from this, the state gov-ernment was also working to pro-vide land on pattas (lease) to trib-als and forest dwellers under theForest Rights Act, the ministersaid.

On the direction of ChiefMinister Shivraj Singh Chouhan,virtual conferences are being heldwith officials to facilitate land trans-fers to tribals under the Act, theminister said, adding that theprocess is being expedited to providethe same before August 15.

Efforts were also underway to

generate employment in the tribal-dominated and forested areas tomake the state self-reliant, he said.

Shah further said he was over-whelmed that Madhya Pradesh hadregained its tiger state status andpraised forest department officialsfor the feat.

“We have doubled our tiger pop-ulation to 526 in just eight yearsinstead of the 10-year target that wastalked about,” he added.

The forest cover of MadhyaPradesh is 77,482.49 sq km, whichis 25.14 per cent of the state's totalgeographical area, a central gov-ernment report has said.

Sisodia writes to Shah afterLG blocks unlock 3.0 move

Baijal Friday overruled the citygovernment's decision to openhotels and allow weekly bazaarson trial basis as a part of the thirdphase of easing the lockdown

Earlier, Baijal had reversed theDelhi cabinet's decision to rejectthe Delhi Police's panel of lawyersfor the riots cases in the High Courtand the Supreme Court

In his letter, Sisodia said Delhi government will again send its proposalon reopening of hotels and weekly markets to the lieutenant governor

Fresh sero survey begins in DelhiTHE LAST SERO-PREVALENCE SURVEY HAD FOUND THAT AROUND 23 PER CENT OF THE PEOPLE

SURVEYED HAD BEEN EXPOSED TO THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

A sero-prevalence survey involves testingthe blood serum of individuals to check forprevalence of antibodiesagainst infection

Women complain of filthy toilet to minister; he cleans it himself

Tomar urged the employees to take

responsibility for keepingtoilets in government

offices clean and askedofficers to constantly

monitor and regularly getthe toilets cleaned

Walls, fences to end man-animal conflict

Delhi’s ‘Dr Death’ may have killed over 100, threw bodies to crocodiles

n Devendra Kumar Sharma wasgiven life sentence in 2004 inRajasthan after being found guilty ofseveral murders between 2002 and2004, earning him the nickname "DrDeath"

n In January he failed to return froma weeks-long parole after serving 16years behind bars

n Sharma, with help from other doc-tors and middlemen, allegedlyarranged at least 125 transplants inan organ trafficking racket

n Police also accused him of beingpart of a gang that hired taxis andtrucks before killing their drivers,robbing them and selling the vehicles

HOW HE EARNED THE MONIKER

Govt servants banned fromwearing T-shirt, jeans to office

RECENTLY, THE CHIEF SECRETARY AND THE CHIEF MINISTER EXPRESSEDTHEIR DISPLEASURE AT A DISTRICT MAGISTRATE WEARING A T-SHIRT

DURING A REVIEW MEETING ORGANISED THROUGH VIDEO CONFERENCING

‘Delhi model’ earns Union min’s praise

All states in the country need to emulate the "Delhi model" for con-trolling the spread of the coronavirus, Union Minister of statefrom Home G Kishan Reddy said Saturday. "I am requesting

the state government (Telangana) to focus on testing, tracing and treat-ment. There is a need to increase the number of tests (in Telangana).The more number of the tests, the faster the containment of the dis-ease. You know, Delhi as a union territory I am personally monitoring.There is 84 per cent recovery rate in Delhi. All the states should emu-late the Delhi model," he told reporters in Hyderabad.

Divisional commissionerMB Ojha in an order hasasked all officials andemployees of the division to wear dignified, decent andformal attire while discharging theirresponsibilities in office

Policemen imposefine on visitors fornot wearing masksnear India Gate during Unlock 3.0, inNew Delhi, Saturday.

PTI PHOTO

SAFETY PROTOCOL

Energy Minister Pradyuman Singh Tomar cleaning the toilet.

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nationalSUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

LokmanyaTilak unitedthe country

against the Britishwhile AnnabhauSathe raised issuesof the poor anddowntrodden sections of society

BALASAHEB THORAT | MINISTER FOR

REVENUE IN MAHARASHTRA

of theday uote

The stategovernmentshould

recommend socialreformer and folkpoet AnnabhauSathe for aposthumous 'Bharat Ratna’

JAYANT PATIL | MAHARASHTRA MINISTER

Greetings toall on theauspicious

occasion of Eid al-Adha. May theAlmighty bless youand your loved ones

AMARINDER SINGH | PUNJAB CM

It's the responsibility of thegovernment to set its priorities.

Giving basic comforts to theneedy must top the agenda of everyeffective administration. Welcomedecision of Governor of Goa to keep thenew Raj Bhavan project on hold. EconomicRevival Plan is (the) need of the hourDIGAMBAR KAMAT | FORMER GOA CM

The Group of Ministers (GoM) onCOVID-19 Saturday agreed to theproposal of the Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare to allow theexport of made-in-Indiaventilators

CENTRE PERMITS EXPORT OFMADE-IN-INDIA VENTILATORS

Five workerskilled in blast Nagpur: Five workers werekilled in an explosion at abio-CNG plant inMaharashtra's Nagpurdistrict Saturday afternoon,the police said. Theincident took place at a bio-CNG project on thepremises of sugar anddistillery plant of ManasAgro Industries andInfrastructure Ltd at Bela inUmred tehsil around 2.15pm. A biogas leakage in thebio-digester during weldingwork led to the blast, saidthe company spokespersonNitin Kulkarni. SarangGadkari, son of Unionminister Nitin Gadkari, is adirector of the company,the spokesperson said. Allfive workers sustainedgrievous burn injuries anddied on the spot, the policesaid. Superintendent ofPolice Rakesh Ola visitedthe spot following theincident, officials said.

Yedi’s son dons new roleBangalore: B.Y. Vijayandra,second son of KarnatakaChief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa, has beenappointed vice-presidentof the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party's (BJP) stateunit. "BJP's state unitpresident Nalin KumarKateel appointedVijayandra as one of the 10vice-presidents along withfour general secretaries,10 secretaries, twotreasurers and sevenheads of morchas(organisations)," a partyofficial said.

Covid patientends life Agartala: A 31-year-oldCOVID-19 patient allegedlydied by suicide by jumpingoff the third floor of ahospital building in TripuraSaturday, police said. Theman, a resident ofMuhuripur village in SouthTripura district, wasadmitted to the state-runGovind Ballabh PantHospital here on Fridayafter allegedly consumingpoison, they said.

Racket busted English Bazar (WB): Aninternational racket dealingin snake venom was bustedin West Bengal's Maldadistrict Friday, and twopersons were arrested in amajor operation by thestate CID and local police,officials said. The sleuths ofthe CID along with officersof Bamongola policestation seized 600 grams ofsnake venom, estimated tobe worth around `1 crore,from a car in Pakuahatpetrol pump area, theysaid. Two kingpins of an international racketwere arrested in the raid,police said.

SHORT TAKES

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INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 1: Eid al-Adhawas celebrated Saturday on a sub-dued note. People offered namaz atmosques as well as homes in themorning and exchanged greetingsto mark the festival, following safetyguidelines amid Covid-19 pandemic.

The people avoided hugging eachother after morning prayers atmosques -- a tradition followed onfestive occasions -- to curb the spreadof coronavirus that has infected16,95,988 people across the country.On Saturday, a record 57,118 casesand 764 deaths were reported for thelast 24 hours.

The people restricted themselvesto do 'salam'. Citizens above 60 years,

persons with comorbidities orasymptomatic and children below10 years offered namaz at home asadvised. There were no prayers atEidgahs or in open grounds. Earlierin the day, mosque care-takers dis-infected the premises and sur-roundings before and after namaz.Most mosques saw prayers in twophases to ensure social distancingamong the worshippers.

At most mosques, people who of-fered 'fajr' or pre-dawn prayersstayed back for Namaz-e-Eid, held30-60 minutes after the sunrise. Eidul-Adha or Bakrid is the secondmajor Muslim festival celebrated tocommemorate the sacrifice byProphet Ibrahim, who offered tosacrifice his son Ismail on the Allah's

command. The almighty, however,replaced Prophet Ismail with a lamb

just as Prophet Ibrahim was aboutto slit his throat.

Calling upon the devout to imbibeProphet Ibrahim's spirit of sacri-fice, Imams, in their sermons on theoccasion, said the Eid's message wasthat they should always be readyto surrender to the Allah's will.After prayers, Muslims offered sac-rifice of 'halal' animals. Sacrificingis obligatory for adults who are'saheb-e-nisab' or possess wealthequivalent to 87.48 gram gold or612.35 gram silver.

An individual can sacrifice asheep or goat or may join six oth-ers to sacrifice a big animal. Themeat of the sacrificed animal isdistributed equally in three parts.The person making the sacrificekeeps one part for his family and distributes two parts among

the relatives and the poor.This year, the number of people

offering sacrifice at homes camedown due to Covid-19. To avoid therisk while buying the animal orhiring services of butchers, manyeither outsourced the job to tradersor socio-religious organisations.Many people preferred taking a'hissa' or share in the cattle with theindividuals and groups who or-ganised a 'ijtemai qurbani' or col-lective sacrifice every year.

Community leaders said manypeople entrusted the task of dis-tribution of meat among the poorto the groups arranging collectivesacrifice. They wanted to avoid vis-its to relatives, friends and othersto distribute meat due to Covid-19.

INDIA CELEBRATES EID AL-ADHA AMID PANDEMICPEOPLE AVOIDED HUGGING EACH OTHER AFTER MORNING PRAYERS AT MOSQUES

Children greet each other while celebrating Eid al-Adha, during the completelockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Bhopal PTI PHOTO

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Jaisalmer/Jaipur, August 1:Rajasthan Chief Minister AshokGehlot Saturday urged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to get thealleged attempt to topple his gov-ernment stopped and said he isopen to welcoming back theCongress rebels led by Sachin Pilot.

Asked if the dissidents will be for-given, he said, “It depends on theparty high command. If the partyhigh command forgives, I shall em-brace them.” Since the power tus-sle between him and Sachin Pilotresurfaced last month, the Congressveteran has used harsh wordsagainst his former deputy, onceeven referring to him as 'nikamma'or useless. But Gehlot said he will do whatever the Congress lead-ership wants.

He said the party trusted himand he has been a Union minister,AICC general secretary, state unitpresident and chief minister for athird time.“What else do I want? Iam doing this to serve the public,”he told reporters in Jaisalmer.

The chief minister was on his wayback to Jaipur after an overnightstay at Jaisalmer's Suryagarh resort,where loyalist MLAs have beenshifted ahead of the assembly ses-sion from August 14. The Congresshas accused the BJP of playing amajor role in the rebellion by thenow sacked deputy chief ministerand 18 other Congress MLAs whoare threatening his government.

“We have no personal quarrelwith anyone. In a democracy, fightshappen over ideology, policies andprogrammes and not for topplinga government. “Modi should getthe drama which is going on in

Rajasthan ended,” the chief ministersaid outside the hotel where theMLAs were shifted Friday.

Gehlot said Union ministerGajendra Singh Shekhawat shouldresign on moral grounds, claimingthat his involvement in a “con-spiracy” to topple the Rajasthangovernment is now known. He saidShekhawat's name also cropped upin a cooperative society scam inwhich money from poor people waslooted.

The chief minister also allegedthat some other Union ministers areinvolved in the “conspiracy” againsthis government. Gehlot and otherRajasthan ministers are likely tospend most of their time in thestate capital as the Congress triesto keep its numbers intact inJaisalmer.

Including the 19 rebels, theCongress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member assembly. The BJP has 72MLAs. He claimed that democracyis under threat in the country andthe Union Home Ministry is afterhis government in the state. He re-peated the charge that the 'rate' fortrying to lure MLAs away has goneup after the announcement of theassembly session.

Back in Jaipur, he said BahujanSamaj Party chief Mayawati is giv-ing statements “under pressure”and asserted that all six BSP MLAslawfully merged with the Congressin Rajasthan last year. The BSP re-cently challenged the merger in thehigh court, prompting the Congressto charge that the party made themove at the behest of the BJP.

AGENCIES

Mumbai/New Delhi, August 1:The Bihar police Saturday said ac-tress Rhea Chakraborty was "underwatch" in the abetment to suicidecase in the death of Bollywood starSushant Singh Rajput while herplea before the Supreme Court fortransfer of the FIR against herfrom Patna to Mumbai is listed forhearing on August 5.

A four-member Bihar policeteam is in Mumbai since Wednesdayto probe the FIR registered in Patnaagainst Chakraborty, 28, and sixothers including her family mem-bers based on the complaint filedby Rajput's father. Krishna KumarSingh (74) had lodged the com-plaint for the alleged abetment tosuicide of his son on Tuesday.

As the chorus for a probe by theCBI into the case grew louder, aBihar minister said Chief MinisterNitish Kumar would definitely actif a demand for the premier in-vestigating agency to step in comesfrom the family of Rajput. Bihar'sDirector General of Police (DGP)Gupteshwar Pandey, meanwhile,said the state police wants the foren-sic science laboratory reports, in-quest report, post-mortem reportand relevant CCTV footage in thecase to facilitate its probe.

Saturday, the Bihar police team vis-ited the Bandra police station. Whenasked whether Chakraborty, whowas Rajput's girlfriend, would beinterrogated, an official of the Biharpolice said, "It is not required as ofnow. But she is under our watch."

Another member of the visit-ing team said they have sent a no-tice to Chakraborty under the rel-evant CrPC sections, asking herto cooperate with the police in theprobe. He also said the Mumbaipolice was cooperating with themin the investigation of the case.

Rajput, 34, was found hanging inhis suburban Bandra apartmentin Mumbai on June 14.

A Mumbai police official said thevisiting team has recorded thestatements of six persons as partof the probe.

"Till now, the police team fromBihar has met the late actor's

friends, colleagues and relatives.They have recorded the statementsof six persons-- Rajput's sister, whostays in Versova, former girlfriendAnkita Lokhande, a cook, his friendsand colleagues," the official said. Thepolice team is also likely to ques-tion the members of Rajput's staff,he said.

"They gathered informationabout Rajput's various bank ac-counts and also visited the banksto look into the financial transac-tions," he said. As per the causelist uploaded on the Supreme Court'swebsite, the transfer petition filedby Chakraborty will come up forhearing before a bench of JusticeHrishikesh Roy on Wednesday.

Sushant’s sisterwrites to PMMumbai: Fearing evidence isbeing tampered with in theongoing investigation ofSushant Singh Rajput deathcase, his sister Shweta SinghKirti has penned an open letterSaturday to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, requesting himto intervene. In her letter, shehas also claimed that Sushantdid not have a godfather inBollywood and similarly hisfamily does not have one in life.Shweta posted the letter on herverified Facebook account. Shewrote: "I am sister of SushantSingh Rajput and I request anurgent scan of the whole case.We believe in India's judicialsystem and expect justice atany cost. @narendramodi@PMOIndia #JusticeForSushant#SatyamevaJayate."

Get this drama stopped: Gehlot to PM Rhea ‘under watch’,say Bihar policemenAsked if the dissidents will be

forgiven, he said, “It dependson the party high command. If theparty high command forgives, Ishall embrace them”

Since the power tussle betweenhim and Sachin Pilot

resurfaced last month, theCongress veteran has used harshwords against his former deputy

“Modi should get the dramawhich is going on in

Rajasthan ended,” the ChiefMinister said

BALANCING ACT

Villagers make a temporary crossing with bamboo above a river after the bridge over it was washed away in floodwater following heavy rain, at Jartaluk in Baksa district, Saturday PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Mandya, August 1: A 21-year-old BBM student stabbed motherto death because she objected to hisgoing out to meet friends, said anofficial, here Saturday.

"Manu Sharma stabbed hismother to death after a petty fightas she objected to his going out tomeet friends and also some otherissues," Mandya Superintendentof Police (SP) K. Parasuram said.

Mandya is 100 km southwest ofBangalore. Sharma's mother did-n't approve of him going out tomeet friends during the lockdown."She also didn't like him talking toa girl related to the family," hesaid. Sharma was also said to bedepressed as he couldn't make itto the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

On Wednesday, he wanted togo out to meet his friends. Buthis mother objected to that andscolded him. "Following a pettyquarrel, in a fit of rage, Sharmabeat the mother and stabbed herto death. He then fled the spot,"Parasuram said.

Mandya man stabs mother to death

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bangalore, August 1: Karnataka'sAgriculture Minister B.C. Patiland his wife Vanaja have testedCOVID-19 positive and are in homequarantine, an official saidSaturday.

"As the Minister and his wife areasymptomatic with mild symp-toms of the virus, they both areunder quarantine at their ownhome in the city's northeast sub-urb," Patil's Personal AssistantKeeranna said here.

In a message to his family mem-bers and supporters, Patil said theyneed worry about he being infectedas he would recover to get back towork soon. "The Minister's son-in-law was also infected by the virusat Hirekerur in Haveri district,which is his Assembly constituency,"Keeranna said. Hirekerur is about330km northwest of Bangalore inthe southern state.

Covid-19 stingsKarnataka minister PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 1: Leadersacross the political spectrum con-doled the death of Rajya SabhaMP and former Samajwadi Party(SP) leader AmarSingh Saturday andsaid he had friendsin all parties.

SP presidentAkhilesh Yadavtweeted a photo-graph of Singh withhis father and partypatriarch MulayamSingh Yadav, andpaid homage to thedeparted soul. Vice Presidentand Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu conveyed hiscondolences to Singh's familyand associates and prayed to god for the peace of the departedsoul.

Paying homage to Singh,Defence Minister Rajnath Singhdescribed him as an energetic

leader with a humorous natureand said he had friends in all thepolitical parties. Echoing similarsentiments, Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) president JP Naddasaid Singh was a strategist and

a skilled politicianwith a sociable na-ture.

Senior Congressleader Ahmed Patelsaid Singh will al-ways be remem-bered as a valuedcolleague and awonderful humanbeing. Patel's partycolleague Raj

Babbar paid homage to Singhand said may the almighty blesshis soul and give strength to hisfamily to bear the irreparableloss. Singh (64) died in Singapore,where he was undergoing treat-ment, on Saturday. He had un-dergone a kidney transplant in2011 and was not keeping wellfor a long time.

AMAR SINGH WAS A SKILFULPOLITICIAN, SAY LEADERS INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 1: Senior jour-nalist N. Ram, former UnionMinister Arun Shourie and ac-tivist-lawyer Prashant Bhushanhave moved the Supreme Courtchallenging the constitutional va-lidity of Section 2(c)(i) of theContempt of Courts Act and termedit as a violation of the Articles 19and 14 of the Constitution.

The petition has been moveddays before the apex court is slatedto take up two contempt petitionsagainst Bhushan for allegedly mak-ing derogatory remarks againstthe judiciary and bringing it underdisrepute.

On July 22, the top court issuednotices to Bhushan and TwitterInc for his tweets allegedly scan-dalising the judiciary. Two dayslater, a bench headed by JusticeArun Mishra decided to begin hear-ing on another contempt caseagainst Bhushan pending since2009. The two cases will be taken upfor hearing on August 4 and 5.

The petitioners argued that thissub-section is unconstitutional, asit is incompatible with preambu-

lar values and basic features of theConstitution, and violates Article 19(1)(a). They claimed the sub-section isunconstitutionally and incurablyvague, and is manifestly arbitrary.

The Section 2(c)(i) of theContempt of Courts Act, 1971, de-fines 'criminal contempt' as publi-cation of anything - whether bywords, spoken or written, or bysigns, or by visible representation,or otherwise of any matter or thedoing of any other act whatsoever- which scandalises or tends to scan-dalise, or lowers or tends to lowerthe authority of any court.

The petitioners have asked thetop court to issue directions de-claring Section 2(c)(i) of the Contemptof Courts Act, 1971 as being viola-

tive of Articles 19 and 14 of theConstitution. "The impugned sub-section, despite setting out penalconsequences, is incurably vague.It uses vague terminology whosescope and limits are impossible todemarcate. In particular, the phrase"scandalises or tends to scandalise"invites subjective and greatly dif-fering readings and applicationwhich is incapable of being certainand even-handed," said the plea.

The petitioners' argued that thesub-section violates the right tofree speech and expression guar-anteed under Article 19(1) (a) anddoes not amount to a reasonable re-striction under Article 19(2).

"That the impugned sub-section,despite setting out penal conse-quences, is incurably vague. lt usesvague terminology whose scopeand limits are impossible to de-marcate. ln particular, the phrase'scandalises or tends to scandalise'invites subjective and greatly dif-fering readings and applicationwhich is incapable of being cer-tain and even-handed. Thus, theoffence violates the Article 14 de-mands of equal treatment and non-arbitrariness," said the plea.

Contempt Act challenged in SC

SUSHANT DEATH CASE

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nationalSUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

While taking note of the requisitetechnical readiness, Jammu and

Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland andUttarakhand, the Department of Food & PublicDistribution has enabled the integration ofthese four states/UT with existing 20states/UTs for the national portabilityRAM VILAS PASWAN | CABINET MINISTER OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS,FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

Prime Minister Narendra ModiSaturday paid tribute toLokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak,one of the firebrand freedomfighters and the strongestproponent of 'purna swaraj', onhis 100th death anniversary

PM PAYS TRIBUTE TO TILAK

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I have writtento you (YogiAdityanath)

earlier highlightingthe issue of law andorder situation inthe state. And nowcrimes in broad daylight are beingcommitted creating fear psychosisamong people

PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA |CONGRESS GENERAL SECRETARY

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WithEducationplaced in the

State List, theCentre will assumethe remaining rightsof the states andtake in its control (aspects ranging)from syllabus to university. This isan attack on the federal structurebeing underscored by theConstitution of India

M K STALIN | DMK PRESIDENT

I amrequesting thestate

government(Telangana) to focuson testing, tracingand treatment.There is a need to increase thenumber of tests (in Telangana). Themore number of the tests, thefaster the containment of thedisease. You know, Delhi as a unionterritory I am personallymonitoring. There is 84 per centrecovery rate in Delhi. All the statesshould emulate the Delhi model

G KISHAN REDDY |MINISTER OF STATE FOR HOME AFFAIRS

Jawan killed Jammu: An Indian Armyjawan was killed whenPakistan opened heavy fireon forward posts along theLoC in Jammu and Kashmir'sRajouri district Saturday, adefence spokesperson said.He said the Pakistan Armyviolated the ceasefireagreement by opening firealong the Line of Control(LoC) in Rajouri sector."Indian troops respondedstrongly to the enemy fire,"the spokesperson said. In theincident, Sepoy Rohin Kumarwas critically injured and helater succumbed to hisinjuries, he added. Kumar, aresident of HimachalPradesh, was a brave, highlymotivated and a sinceresoldier, the spokespersonsaid.

2 Naxals held Bijapur: Two Naxals werearrested from separateplaces in Chhattisgarh'sBijapur district Saturday,police said. Mahesh Yadav(32) was nabbed fromTindodi village underBhairamgarh police stationlimits and Manku Modiyam(32) from Chilnar villageunder Bijapur police stationarea, an official said. Yadavwas involved in the killing ofpoliceman Somaru Poyamand injuring his parents attheir house in Matwadavillage on July 1, he said.

3 killed in MPJabalpur: Three personswere killed and five othersinjured after a car collidedwith a mini cargo vehicle inJabalpur district of MadhyaPradesh, police saidSaturday. The accident tookplace late Friday night nearGosalpur village, around 32kms from Jabalpur, theysaid.

Body foundBallia (UP): A 15-year-old boywas found dead in a pit at avillage here, police saidSaturday. The body ofRaghvendra Singh was foundFriday, the police said,adding that they suspectpersonal enmity behind thekilling. On the basis of acomplaint filed by the fatherof the victim, a case ofmurder has been lodgedagainst Gayaghat villagehead Vijay Pratap Singh andfour others, AdditionalSuperintendent of PoliceSanjay Yadav said.

SHORT TAKES

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 1: India con-tinues to maintain the record ofregistering the lowest COVID-19mortality rate on the global platform,the Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare said Saturday.

"The Case Fatality Rate stands at2.15% on Friday, lowest since the 1stlockdown. It has been continuouslyreducing from around 3.33% inmid-June" the ministry said. Thecase fatality rate, in epidemiology,is the proportion of people whodie from a disease among all indi-viduals diagnosed with it.

The reduction is being attrib-uted to focused, coordinated, pre-emptive, graded and evolving 'TestTrack Treat' strategy and the ef-forts of the Centre along with thestate governments. The emphasison early detection through ag-gressive testing and effective clin-ical management of the hospitalizedcases has resulted in the continu-ously falling fatality rate, the min-istry officials said, adding that it in-dicates that India has been able tosuccessfully contain the fatalityrate of COVID-19.

On Saturday, India reported anew record surge of 57,118 freshinfections, taking the total num-ber of cases to 16,95,988. The coun-try also witnessed 764 COVID-19

related deaths in the last 24 hours.The total fatalities due to the virusnow stand at 36,511.

Meanwhile, the total number ofrecovered cases is nearly elevenlakh. With 36,569 patients dischargedin the last 24 hours, the total re-coveries have jumped to 10,94,374.The recovery rate stands at 64.53 per-cent amongst COVID-19 patients.

With such a consistent increasein recoveries, the gap between re-covered patients and active COVID-19 cases currently stands at 5,29,271.Active cases (5,65,103) are undermedical supervision. As on Saturday,there were 1488 dedicated COVID

Hospitals with 2,49,358 isolationbeds, 31,639 ICU beds, 1,09,119 oxy-gen supported beds and 16,678 ven-tilators. 3231 dedicated COVID HealthCentres with 2,07,239 isolation beds,18,613 ICU beds and 74,130 oxygensupported beds and 6,668 ventilatorshave also been operationalised.

Moreover, 10,755 COVID CareCentres with 10,02,681 beds are nowavailable to combat COVID-19 inthe country. The Centre has alsoprovided 273.85 lakh N95 masksand 121.5 lakh Personal ProtectiveEquipment (PPEs) and 1083.77 lakhHCQ tablets to the States and CentralInstitutions.

Fatality rate lowest sincefirst lockdown, says Govt

The reduction is being attributed tofocused, coordinated, pre-emptive,

graded and evolving 'Test Track Treat'strategy and the efforts of the Centrealong with the state governments

The case fatality rate, inepidemiology, is the

proportion of people who diefrom a disease among allindividuals diagnosed with it

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, August 1: The WestBengal forest department is bring-ing six tigers to Buxa Tiger Reservein Alipurduar district, as part ofits effort to augment the popula-tion of big cats in the nationalpark, an official said Saturday.

The six big cats are beingbrought from Kaziranga NationalPark in Assam, Chief WildlifeWarden Ravikant Sinha said."Arrangements have been made toensure safe and smooth transit ofthe animals," he said.

Sinha said the governmentwanted to increase the popula-tion of Royal Bengal tigers in BTR,the largest forest in North Bengalwith an area of 745 sq-km."Recently, two Royal Bengal tigershave been spotted in Buxa throughour camera traps. These two bigcats were seen from various lo-cations of the core area of the for-est. So, at least two tigers are therealready and we need to raise thenumber," Sinha said.

The six tigers are being relo-cated from Kaziranga to Buxa asthese two reserve forests have sim-ilar habitats, the official said. TheBTR, which is spread over theplains and foothills, has about 390sq-km of core area and is home of73 mammal species including leop-ard, chital deer and wild boar.

The forest department had re-cently launched a short film aboutthe BTR, the official said. The filmwas handed over to the NTCA tocreate a buzz about the reserveforest nationally, he added.

BENGAL TO GET SIXTIGERS FROM ASSAM

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 1: Even asthe veterans vs Team Rahul warwithin the Congress is out in theopen, former Union Minister ShashiTharoor came to the rescue of partycolleagues Manish Tewari andMilind Deora, saying the UPA'stransformative 10 years were dis-torted and traduced by a motivatedand malicious narrative.

Tharoor took to Twitter andwrote, "I agree with Manish Tewariand Milind Deora. UPA's trans-formative ten years were distortedand traduced by a motivated andmalicious narrative. There's plentyto learn from our defeats and muchto be done to revive Congress. Butnot by playing into the hands ofour ideological enemies."

His remarks came amid the rowover a Congress meeting chaired byparty interim chief Sonia Gandhitwo days ago, which saw argumentsand sharp criticism by youngerleaders who appeared to blame theparty's last government for itsdownfall. Amid the criticism ofthe senior leaders, a section of theparty rallied behind former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh onTwitter.

Congress leaders Anand Sharma,Tharoor, Tewari and formerMumbai Congress chief Deora -all ministers in Singh's cabinet atone point - defended the formerPrime Minister, tagging criticism

for him as "ill-informed" and partof a "motivated and malicious nar-rative".

Earlier in the day, Deora re-sponding to a tweet of Tewari said,"Well said, Manish. "When demit-ting office in 2014, ManmohanSingh said history will be kinderto me. Could he have ever imag-ined that some from his own partywould dismiss his years of serviceto the nation and seek to destroy hislegacy - that, too, in his presence?"

Deora's remarks came afterTewari Saturday hit out at partyleaders who questioned 10 yearsof the United Progressive Alliance(UPA) rule at the Centre, callingthem "ill-informed".

Senior leaders rallybehind Manmohan

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bangalore, August 1: The Citypolice department is waging a waron narcotics and drug peddlers,busting multiple racketeers of late.Marijuana or ganja has emergedas the most peddled and seized drugin Bangalore in the first six monthsof 2020.

"We are waging a war againstdrugs. Trying hard to collect in-formation and pursue further,"Central Crime Branch (CCB) DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP)Kuldeep Jain said. On Wednesday,the crime branch busted a darknetdrug racket involving four educatedKerala youngsters, targeting pubhopping youth and seized drugsworth Rs 1.25 crore.

The case assumed such signifi-cance that the state Home MinisterBasavaraj S. Bommai himself andPolice Commissioner Bhaskar Raoattended the press conference.

Last weekend, Bangalore EastDCP S. D. Sharanappa conducteda special drive against drugs, ar-resting 29 people including aNigerian national, and booking29 cases in just 48 hours. "SeizedMDMA, ganja drugs. Watch alsokept on hotels and lodges beingmisused for narcotics duringCovid," said Sharanappa high-lighting that the special drive wascontinuing.

Similarly, Bangalore South DCPRohini Katoch Sepat had also con-ducted a weekend drive againstdrugs, registering 18 cases and ar-

resting 19 persons. Sepat appealedto the people to come forward andfight the drug menace alongsidethe police, asking for tip-offs on

1908 or 100 police numbers.To reinforce the police crackdown

further, Joint Commissioner of PoliceSandeep Patil has invited the general

public to call toll free number 1908to report on drugs and narcotics."1908 toll free number to report drugsand narcotics related issues. So farthis year, received 18 calls but 18 isa very small number. Request moreto come forward, amplify our ac-tion against drugs," said Patil.Incidentally, the 18 tip-offs lead to raidsand cases while Patil promised pro-tecting the informants' identity.Bangalore police social media han-dles are also reaching out to the pub-lic actively, asking for leads in bust-ing the drug rackets.

Bommai warned managementsof educational institutions thatthey will be held liable if banneddrugs are found in their institu-tions' premises. Recently, AndhraPradesh Director General of Police

Gautam Sawang said drug dealersin Visakhapatnam have links withsimilar others in Bangalore, aftera drug peddling quartet was busted.Sawang said drugs peddlers aresourcing MDMA and LSD fromBangalore and Goa.

On June 26, International DayAgainst Drug Abuse and IllicitTrafficking, the CCB displayed thetotal quantity of drugs seized inthe city in the first six months of 2020,amounting to 312 kg marijuana andothers. "As many as 510 ganja caseshave been registered, leading to theseizure of 312 kg of ganja in 2020,"said Jain then. Cases and seizuresof other drugs paled in compari-son to marijuana. Only one caseeach has been registered for brownsugar, opium and others.

BANGALORE POLICE WAGING WAR AGAINST DRUGS

An artist paints Ram on earthen lamps ahead of the foundation laying ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya inBikaner, Saturday PTI PHOTO

GEARING UP

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bangalore, August 1: A freakaccident caught on video in the cityshows a wire fling a man onto anunsuspecting woman in the op-posite direction as she walks downa pavement path unaware, an of-ficial said Saturday.

"We have seen the viral videoand it happened at TC Palya inBattarahalli, within K.R. Purampolice station limits but could notfind out who the man and womanwere yet," said a police official.Likewise, the official is also clue-less as to when the incident oc-curred.

Already viral for a few days onsocial media, the video showshow a man who appeared to be anautorickshaw driver was standingbeside a three-wheeler was flunga few metres by a thin wire.

With a little portion of the wireperched on the ground between hislegs and a major portion alsohanging before and after him, thewire was forcibly pulled by some-thing leading to the man beingpropelled up into the air and falling

right on a woman walking be-hind.

He was pulled up into the airfrom between his legs and therewas not escape for him. It is notclear in the video if a vehicle oranything else pulled the wire butthe pull had sufficient power tofling the man of some 60 - 70 kgweight far enough.

The unsuspecting woman wear-ing a pink dress had no idea whathappened but took a heavy hitfrom the flying man and fell flaton the tiled floor. The entire in-cident unfolded at a place that ap-peared to be the front portion ofa series of shops leading to theirentrance.

Following the incident which oc-curred beside a service road, atractor and other vehicles pausedto figure out what exactly hap-pened as the video ends. "We didnot receive any police complaintand I am also not sure when itactually happened," he said. Theofficial said they will try to go tothe source of the video or theowner of the cctv from where thefootage emerged.

Freak accident in Bangalore

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Chandigarh, August 1:The deathtoll in the Punjab spurious liquortragedy rose to 86 Saturday evenas Chief Minister AmarinderSingh suspended seven exciseofficials and six policemen, of-ficials said.

The government also announceda compensation of Rs 2 lakh foreach of the families of the deceased,they said. Tarn Taran alone ac-counted for 63 deaths, followed by12 in Amritsar and 11 in Gurdaspur'sBatala. Till Friday night, the statehad reported 39 deaths in the tragedyunfolding since Wednesday night.

According to an official state-ment, the CM ordered the sus-pension of seven excise offi-cials, along with six policemen.Among the suspended officialsare two deputy superintendentsof police and four station houseofficers.

Strict action will be takenagainst any public servant or oth-ers found complicit in the case, saidthe chief minister, describing thepolice and excise department fail-ure to check the manufacturingand sale of spurious liquor asshameful. Nobody will be allowedto get away with feeding poison toour people, he added.

Liquor tragedy toll rises to 86

BJP LAUNCHESPROTESTS IN KERALA INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Thiruvananthapuram, August1: The BJP Kerala unit Saturdaylaunched protest demonstrationsacross the state to demandPinarayi Vijayan government'sresignation in the wake of un-earthing of the gold smugglingracket.

BJ P nat ional Secretar yBhupender Yadav, who launchedthe protests online from Delhi, al-leged that the CMO was "facili-tating" the gold smuggling. Theseprotests will continue till August18, with all top state BJP lead-ers observing one-day fasts atvarious place during this period.

On Saturday, lone BJP legislatorin Kerala Assembly, O. Rajagopal,began his day-long fast at the stateparty headquarters here. Yadavsaid Vijayan will go down in his-tory as the "most corrupt ChiefMinister" in the country.

"Vijayan, your time is now up.

You will be forced to tell the truthon how the gold smuggling istaking place, as your own officehas direct control over it. Lookinto those who have been arrested-- they include Swapna Suresh,who despite no qualificationswas given a job in the ITDepartment headed by Vijayan.You will have to answer," the BJPleader said in his speech.

State BJ P President K.Surendran, participating in thelaunch of the protest from hishome in Kozhikode, said the sit-uation is grave as allegations havenow surfaced that the "smugglingof gold going on with the help ofVijayan's office has terror links too".

GOLD SMUGGLING

P10SUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalI knew I wasgoing to catch

it (COVID-19) someday,as I think unfortunatelynearly everyone here(in Brazil) is going tocatch it eventuallyJAIR BOLSONARO | PRESIDENT, BRAZIL

Thousands of protesters againstGerman coronavirus restrictionsconverged in Berlin for ademonstration proclaiming “the endof the pandemic” has arrived just asauthorities’ voice increasing concernabout an upturn in new infections

THOUSANDS PROTEST IN BERLIN

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Following thecompletion ofclinical trials

of a vaccine, we arepreparing a massvaccinationcampaign againstthe novel coronavirus by October

MIKHAIL MURASHKO |HEALTH MINISTER, RUSSIA

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Indian expatsin the UAE cannow get their

passports renewedin 2 days aftersubmitting theirapplications. Also,the Consulate in Dubai will acceptpassport applications from expatsliving across the UAE, irrespectiveof their place of residence or theemirate that issued their visas

AMAN PURI |CONSUL GENERAL OF INDIA (DUBAI)

The US-Indiarelationship isbroad, deep,

and growing – andwe discussed howvital the cooperationbetween our nationsis to countering commonchallenges and aggression in theregion and upholding a rules-basedinternational order in the Indo-Pacific

CORY GARDNER |US’S REPUBLICAN SENATOR, COLORADO

Indonesia reports62 nCoV deathsJakarta: Indonesia reported1,560 new coronavirusinfections Saturday, bringingthe total in the SoutheastAsian country to 1,09,936,data from the country’sCOVID-19 task force showed.It also reported 62 COVID-19related deaths, taking thedeath toll to 5,193.

Police arrest fivedrug traffickersMelbourne: A small planewhich crashed shortly aftertakeoff on a flight from aremote airstrip in Papua NewGuinea (PNG) to Australialast week was overloadedwith more than 500 kg ofcocaine, police said Saturday.Police from Australia andPNG said they had recovered28 bags of cocaine worthA$80 million and arrested fivesuspected drug traffickersconnected to the Cessnawhich came down shortlyafter takeoff from Papa LeaLea, north of Port Moresby,July 26. The five men weremembers of a Melbourne-based criminal syndicate, thepolice said.

15 civilians diein border clashesKabul/Quetta: Afghanistanhas accused Pakistan ofkilling 15 civilians duringclashes at a border crossingwhere crowds were jostlingto cross for the Muslimfestival of Eid al-Adha. OnPakistan’s side, hospitalofficials reported sevendeaths from the flare-upbetween the Asianneighbours who are USallies but often tradeaccusations of backingmilitants. The governor ofAfghanistan’s southeasternKandahar province,Hayatullah Hayat, saidshells fell on homes in theborder town Spin Boldak,with women and childrenamong 15 dead and 80 hurt,during the clashes betweenboth nations’ securityforces.

Ryan launchesdiversity progLos Angeles: Hollywood starRyan Reynolds has launched‘The Group Effort Initiative', aself-financed diversity andinclusion program that willgive people of colour anopportunity to work andlearn on the actor'sproductions. The “Deadpool”star took to Twitter toannounce the initiative.

SHORT TAKES

REUTERS

Palermo, August 1: At 96, GiuseppePaterno has faced many tests inlife - childhood poverty, war and,more recently, the coronavirus pan-demic. Now he has sailed throughan exam that makes him Italy’s old-est university graduate.

This week, the former railwayworker stepped forward to receivehis diploma and the traditional lau-rel wreath awarded to Italian stu-dents when they graduate, applaudedby his family, teachers and fellow stu-dents more than 70 years his junior.

“I am a normal person, like manyothers,” he said, when asked whatit felt like to be graduating so late.“In terms of age I have surpassedall the others but I didn’t do it forthis.”

Already in his 90s when he en-

rolled for a degree in History andPhilosophy at the University ofPalermo, Paterno grew up lovingbooks, but he never had the chanceto study.

“I said, ‘that’s it, now or never,’and so in 2017, I decided to enrol,”he told Reuters in his apartmentin the Sicilian city of Palermo,which he rarely leaves nowadays dueto his frailty. “I understood that itwas a little late to get a three-yeardegree but I said to myself ‘let’ssee if I can do it’.”

On Wednesday, he graduated firstin his class with top honours, re-ceiving congratulations from theuniversity chancellor FabrizioMicari.GREAT DEPRESSION, THEN WAR

Growing up in a poor family inSicily in the years before the GreatDepression, Paterno received only

basic schooling as a child. He joinedthe navy and served during WorldWar Two before going on to work inthe railways as he married andbrought up two children.

In a society focused on rebuild-ing after the war, work and familywere the priorities, but Paternowanted to learn and graduated fromhigh school at the age of 31, always

harbouring a desire to go further.“Knowledge is like a suitcase

that I carry with me, it is a treasure,”he said. As a student, he tapped outhis essays on the manual typewriterhis mother gave him when he retiredfrom the railways in 1984. He es-chewed Google in favour of printedbooks and was not tempted by thelate-night student parties of his 20-year-old classmates, who applauded

him warmly at the graduation cer-emony.

“You are an example for younger stu-dents,” his Sociology professor,Francesca Rizzuto, told him after hepassed his final oral examination inJune. Paterno confessed to a little un-ease with the video calls that replacedclassroom teaching during the coro-navirus shutdown, but said he wasnot put off by the disease itself afterthe war and everything else he had beenthrough.

“All of that strengthened us, all ofmy peer group, all of those who are stillalive,” he said. “It didn’t really scareus that much.” As for what he plannedto do next, he said he was not about tostop now he had graduated. “My proj-ect for the future is to devote myself towriting; I want to revisit all the textsI didn’t have a chance to explore fur-ther. This is my goal.”

KNOWLEDGE A ‘TREASURE’ FOR ITALY’S OLDEST GRADUATEGrowing up in a poorfamily in Sicily, Paternoreceived only basicschooling as a child. He joined the navy andserved during theWorld War-II beforeworking in railways

AGENCIES

Beijing, August 1: ChinesePresident Xi Jinping Saturday saidhe wants to push for a continued ad-vancement of ties with Nepal amidstBeijing's sustained forays to shoreup pro-China Prime Minister KPSharma Oli's grip on power in thebackdrop of intra-party feud in theruling communist party.

In an exchange of congratula-tory messages with his Nepalesecounterpart Bidhya Devi Bhandarion the 65th anniversary of the es-tablishment of diplomatic rela-tions, Xi asserted that he was readyto work to bring greater benefits tothe two peoples of the two neigh-bouring countries.

The Chinese President said thathe attaches great importance tothe development of China-Nepalrelations and is willing to workwith his Nepali counterpartBhandari to push for the contin-ued advancement of the bilateral re-lationship.

Xi, also General Secretary of theruling Communist Party of China,said that since the establishment ofthe diplomatic ties, the two countrieshave always respected each other,treated each other as equals, en-hanced political mutual trust anddeepened mutually beneficial co-operation.

Noting that he and Bhandari ex-

changed visits last year and ele-vated the bilateral ties to a strate-gic partnership of cooperation fea-turing ever-lasting friendship fordevelopment and prosperity, Xi saidthe two sides have stood togetherthrough thick and thin in the fightagainst the COVID-19 and have writ-ten a new chapter of friendship be-tween China and Nepal, state-runXinhua news agency reported.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang andhis Nepalese counterpart Oli too ex-changed greetings.

"Highlighting the deep-rootedcordial friendship since ages, thePrime Minister (Oli) underlinedthat Nepal has consistently main-tained the ‘One China Policy' and

China has always respected Nepal'ssovereignty, territorial integrityand political independence,” Nepal'sForeign Ministry said in a state-ment. Nepal's Minister for ForeignAffairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, inhis message to China's StateCouncilor and Minister of ForeignAffairs Wang Yi, appreciated Wang'srole in strengthening the bilateralties, it said.

Wang expressed his "willingnessto work together with Gyawali tostrengthen communication and co-operation, implement the impor-tant consensus reached betweenthe leaders and make a positivecontribution to the development ofChina-Nepal Strategic partnership

of cooperation featuring ever-last-ing friendship for development andprosperity”, the statement said.

Nepal and China establishedtheir diplomatic relations on August1, 1955. China's political profile inNepal has been on the rise in the re-cent years with billions of dollarsof investments under Beijing'smulti-billion-dollar Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI), including the build-ing of the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network.

Besides the investments, China'sambassador to Kathmandu HouYanqi has made open efforts to gar-ner support for Oli, who faced amassive rebellion in his partyheaded by co-chair of the rulingNepal Communist Party (NCP)Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.

Xi seeks to boost ties with NepalThe Chinese Presidentsaid that he attachesgreat importance to thedevelopment of China-Nepal relationsand is willing to workwith his Nepali counterpart to push for the continued advancement of thebilateral ties

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, August 1: USPresident Donald Trump has saidthat he will act to ban TikTok assoon as on Saturday, amidst re-ports of American technology giantMicrosoft being in advanced talksto acquire the popular Chinese-owned video app.

Trump, talking to reporters trav-elling with him aboard Air Force1 from Florida on Friday, said hecould use the emergency economicpowers or an executive order toban TikTok in the United States.

“As far as TikTok is concerned,we're banning them from the UnitedStates,” he said.

Referring to the emergency eco-nomic powers, the President said:“Well, I have that authority. I cando it with an executive order orthat”. Trump also made it clearthat he was not in favour of a dealto let a US company buy TikTok'sAmerican operations.

Trump further told reportersthat he planned to take actionagainst the popular video-sharingapp as soon as Saturday. Earlier atthe White House, Trump said:

"We're looking at TikTok. We maybe banning TikTok. We may bedoing some other things. Thereare a couple of options. But a lot ofthings are happening, so we'll seewhat happens. But we are lookingat a lot of alternatives with respectto TikTok”.

India has banned as many as 106Chinese apps, including TikTok, amove welcomed by both the Trumpadministration and the US lawmak-ers. The Wall Street Journal on Fridayreported that Microsoft, headed byIndian-American Satya Nadella, isin advanced talks to acquire the USoperations of TikTok. The deal couldrun into billions of dollars.

"A deal could be completed byMonday, according to people familiarwith the matter, and the talks involverepresentatives from Microsoft,ByteDance and the White House.Talks are fluid, and a deal may not cometogether," the report said.

TRUMP TO BANTIKTOK IN US

There have been reports of tech-giant Microsoft

being in talks to buy the Chinese-owned app

A vendor waits for customers behind bags of aquarium fish for sale at a market on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia.The world’s most populous Muslim nation is experiencing the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases inSoutheast Asia PTI PHOTO

LIFE GOES ON

AGENCIES

London, August 1: Indian-ori-gin academic Prem Sikka, anEmeritus Professor of Accountingat the University of Sheffield innorthern England, is among 36new peers in the UK's House ofLords.

Former England cricket teamcaptain Sir Ian Botham and UKPrime Minister Boris Johnson'syounger brother and former MP,Jo Johnson, are also among thosewho will now go on to becomeLords after the list of peerages, rec-ommended by the government,were confir med by QueenElizabeth II Friday.

"The call for social justice andemancipatory change needs to beheard in all quarters, inside and out-side Parliament,” said Sikka, who wasnominated in the Political Peeragescategory by former Labour PartyLeader Jeremy Corbyn.

Botham, considered one ofEngland's cricketing greatsin a career spanning 102 Testmatches with 5,200 runs and383 wickets, is known for hisvocal support for Brexit.

The cricket commentator andChairman of Durham CountyCricket Club was knighted by theQueen in 2007 and will now sit inthe House of Lords as an inde-pendent crossbench peer.

In contrast, the UK PM's brotherJoseph Johnson was a staunch'Remainer' against the UK's exitfrom the European Union (EU).

Sikka, Botham newpeers in UK'sHouse of Lords

AGENCIES

San Juan, August 1: HurricaneIsaias ripped shingles off roofs andblew over trees as it carved its waythrough the Bahamas early Saturdayand headed toward the Floridacoast, where officials in Miami saidthey were closing beaches, marinasand parks.

Miami Mayor Carlos Giménezsaid Friday that 20 evacuation cen-ters were on standby that could beset up with COVID-19 safety meas-ures.

“We still don't think there is aneed to open shelters for this storm,but they are ready,” he said.

Authorities in North Carolinaordered the evacuation of Ocracoke

Island, which was slammed by lastyear's Hurricane Dorian, startingSaturday evening. Meanwhile, of-ficials in the Bahamas evacuatedpeople on Abaco island, who havebeen living in temporary struc-tures since Dorian.

People living in the eastern endof Grand Bahama were also beingmoved.

Isaias had maximum sustained

winds of 85 mph (135 kph) Saturdaymorning and some strengtheningwas possible later Saturday, theU.S. National Hurricane Center inMiami said.

The storm was centered about 50miles (85 kilometers) south ofNassau in the Bahamas and wasmoving northwest at 12 mph (19kph). Forecasters said some de-crease in its forward motion was ex-pected.

Paula Miller, Mercy Corps di-rector for the Bahamas, told TheAssociated Press that while the is-lands can normally withstand stronghurricanes, some have been desta-bilized by the coronavirus pan-demic and the damage caused byDorian.

REUTERS

Paris, August 1: Mexico now hasthe third most COVID-19 deaths inthe world, behind the United Statesand Brazil, while former successstory Vietnam is struggling to con-trol an outbreak spreading in itsmost famous beach resort.

China reported a more than 50%drop in newly confirmed cases ina possible sign that its latest majoroutbreak in the northwestern re-gion of Xinjiang may have run itscourse. However, in Hong Kong,infections continue to surge, withmore than 100 new cases reportedas of Saturday among the popula-tion of 7.5 million. Officials havereimposed dining restrictions andmask requirements.

South Korean prosecutors ar-rested the elderly leader of a se-cretive religious sect linked to morethan 5,200 of the country's 14,336 con-firmed cases. He has denied chargesof hiding members and underre-porting gatherings to avoid broaderquarantines. Mexican health offi-cials Friday reported 688 new deaths,pushing the country's total to 46,688.That put Mexico just ahead of theUnited Kingdom, which has 46,119,according to the tally by JohnsHopkins University.

In Vietnam, a third person diedof coronavirus complications, of-

ficials said Saturday, a day after itrecorded its first-ever death as itstruggles with a renewed outbreakafter 99 days with no local cases.

All three died in a hospital in DaNang, a hot spot with more than100 cases in the past week. Thousandsof visitors had been in the city forsummer vacation and are now beingtested in Hanoi and elsewhere.

Twelve additional cases wereconfirmed on Saturday, all linkedto Da Nang Hospital. The city hastightened security and set up morecheckpoints to prevent people fromleaving or entering the city, whichhas been in lockdown since Tuesday.

A makeshift hospital was set upin a sports auditorium and doc-tors have been mobilised from othercities to help. “I want to be testedso I can stop worrying if I havethe virus or not,” said Pham ThuyHoa, a banking official who re-turned to the capital from Da Nang.

Now, Mexico third inglobal pandemic deaths

Mexican health officials Friday reported 688 newdeaths, pushing thecountry's total to46,688. This putsMexico ahead of theUnited Kingdom interms of deaths

Hurricane Isaias lashes Bahamaswhile Florida battens down

Chinese President Xi Jinping with Nepalese counterpart Bidhya Devi Bhandari(REPRESENTATIONAL PIC)

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businessSUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Banks cannot refusecredit to MSMEs underthe emergency creditfacility and any refusalshould be reportedNIRMALA SITHARAMAN | FINANCEMINISTER

MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari launched a gift boxconsisting of four handcrafted silk masks developed byKhadi and Village Industries Commission, the MSMEMinistry said. The gift box developed by the KVICcontains masks packed in a crafted handmade paperbox in black colour with golden embossed printing

KHADI'S GIFT BOX OF SILK MASKS LAUNCHED

cmyk

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History iswitness to thefact that the

country’s farmersand rural economyhave neversuccumbed to anyadversity. The slogan given by thePrime Minister 'Vocal for Local' isalso deeply connected with ruraldevelopment

NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR | AGRICULTURE

MINISTER

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managing largeglobal workforces incompanies like UBS,and Credit Suisse, Irecognize soft skills as atremendous driver of a company’sculture and overall success.KeeperHR gives organisations thepower to leverage those skills

VISHAL AHLUWALIA | CO-FOUNDER & CEO,KEEPERHR

The All-IndiaIndex for June2020 stood at

332 with a rise oftwo pointscompared to May.However, rate ofannual inflation moderated to5.06% from 5.10% in the previousmonth and 8.59% in the month ayear before

SANTOSH GANGWAR | LABOUR MINISTER

TVS Motor Julysales dip 10%New Delhi: TVS MotorCompany has reported a 10%decline in total sales at2,52,744 units in July 2020.The company had sold2,79,465 units in thecorresponding month lastyear, TVS Motor Companysaid in a statement. Totaltwo-wheeler sales were at2,43,788 units last month, ascompared to 2,65,679 units inJuly 2019, down 8 per cent,while domestic two-wheelersales were at 1,89,647 units inthe period under review, asagainst 2,08,489 units in theyear-ago month, down 9%.

Signature Globalto invest `400 crNew Delhi: Realty firmSignature Global will invest`400 crore over the next fouryears to develop a newaffordable housing project inGurugram, Haryana. Thecompany will build 832independent floors in thisproject located at SohnaRoad, Gurugram, Haryana,Signature Global said in astatement. This is thecompany’s 22nd real estateproject.

BEL gets newdir. of financeBangalore: Navratnadefence PSU (public sectorundertaking) BharatElectronics Limited (BEL)Saturday got a new director(finance). He is DineshKumar Batra. He joined BELat its Ghaziabad unit in1984. In a career spanningover three-and-a-halfdecades, he served thecompany in variouscapacities in Delhi, Puneand Bangalore, a statementfrom the PSU said.

Power consumption slump narrowsNew Delhi: The slump inpower consumption hasnarrowed to just 2.64% inJuly at 113.48 billion units(BU) indicating spurt ineconomic activity andraised hopes that it wouldtouch normal level thismonth. Power consumptionin July last year was at116.48 BU, as per powerministry data. The latestdata of the power ministryshows that powerconsumption has improvedafter government startedgiving relaxations foreconomic activities andonset of summer.

SHORT TAKES

Auto fuel pricesremain unchangedAGENCIES

New Delhi, August 1: A day aftera hefty ̀ 8.38 per litre cut in dieselprices in the national capital dueto VAT reduction, the oil market-ing companies again went on apause mode to keep auto fuel pricesunchanged across the countrySaturday. Accordingly, diesel con-tinues to be priced at ̀ 73.56 a litrein Delhi while petrol price re-mains static at `80.43 a litre.

Across the metros, petrol anddiesel prices are keeping steady forthe past five days as pump pricesof auto fuels have not beenchanged.

On Friday, diesel prices fell bya sharp ̀ 8.38 a litre following Delhigovernment’s decision to reduceVAT on the product from 30% to16.75%.

The price cut has again madediesel cheaper than petrol in thecity after more than a month. Infact, diesel is cheaper than petrolin Delhi by the widest marginamong all metros now.

Delhi was the only major city inthe country where diesel priceswere higher than petrol. Dieselprices first rose above petrol's inDelhi last month, much to the dis-comfort of the transport sectorand the fuel dealers.

The ̀ 1.5 a litre difference had ledto substantial loss of business forpump operators in Delhi as vehi-cle owners preferred to buy dieselin neighbouring Haryana andUttar Pradesh.

Apple beats SaudiAramco as world’smost valuable co.AGENCIES

San Francisco, August 1: Ridingon strong quarter results despitethe pandemic, Apple has surpassedSaudi Aramco to become theworld’s most valuable companywith a market cap of $1.84 trillion.

The strong earnings reporthelped Apple shares closed up10.47% Friday to become the world'smost valuable publicly traded com-pany, surpassing the largest oilproducer, reports CNBC.

Saudi Aramco now trails at $1.76trillion. Despite the pandemic thathit its supply chain and forced theiPhone maker to close retail storesworldwide, Apple shares are upmore than 44% this year.

Apple has posted $59.7 billion inrevenue for its fiscal 2020 thirdquarter that ended June 27, an in-crease of 11% from the year-agoquarter, as iPhone sales beat theWall Street estimates.

GST COLLECTION

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: Despiteintermittent lockdown and sub-op-timal functioning of most of the sec-tors in the economy due to the on-going COVID pandemic, Odishawitnessed 13.04% growth in theState GST collection for the firsttime during the current financialyear in the month of July, 2020.

The collection of State GST(OGST) in July 2020 increased to`794.02 crore as against `702.44crore made during the correspon-ding month last year (July, 2019).

This collection came in the back-drop of poor performance duringthe first quarter of 2020-21 whichwas due to unprecedented lock-down of the state economy duringthe months of April and May, 2020.The growth rate of Odisha GSTfor April to June, 2020 was -61.15%,-25.22% & -5.83% respectively dur-ing the corresponding period lastyear (2019).

This turnaround of positivegrowth rate in July is primarilydue to the regular persuasion & fa-cilitation by the field officers, con-tinuous monitoring and hand hold-ing supported by data analytics bythe Commissionerate of CT & GSTas well as better performance inthe mining sector.

Meanwhile, the return filing po-sition of the State assigned tax-payers for February to April and

May 2020 reads 92.31%, 81.99%,74.72% and 60.03% respectively incomparison to 76.24%, 79.67%,77.66% and 79.88% during the cor-responding period last year.Taxpayers have been advised tofulfill their tax compliance liabili-ties within the prescribed due date.

The collection from one of thenon-GST items: petroleum prod-ucts also showed encouraging signsduring July. The collection of Julyagainst these items increased to`521.47 crore from ̀ 509.03 crore col-lected in July 2019 registering agrowth rate of 2.5%.

However, in view of setback inthe economy due to COVID-19, par-ticularly in the first quarter of 2020-21, the gross GST collection (i.e.OGST + IGST + CGST + Cess) tillthe end of July is ̀ 7,540 crore witha negative growth rate of 28% whilethe cumulative Odisha GST col-lection till July 2020 is ̀ 2,354 crorewith a negative growth rate of 22%.

State logs 13% growth in July

July GST collections drop to `87,422 cr: FinMinNew Delhi: GST collections in July fell to `87,422 crore from `90,917 crore in June,according to a Finance Ministry statement. However, July collections are higherthan `62,009 crore in May and `32,294 crore in April. "The gross GST revenue col-lected in the month of July, 2020 is `87,422 crore of which CGST is `16,147crore,SGST is `21,418 crore, IGST is `42,592 crore (including `20,324 crore collected onimport of goods) and Cess is `7,265 crore," a finance ministry statement said. Therevenues for the month are 86 per cent of the GST revenues in the same monthlast year. The ministry further said although the June collections were higher thanthat in July, however, it is important to note that during the previous month, alarge number of taxpayers also paid taxes pertaining to February, March and April 2020 on account of the relief provided due to COVID-19.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: TheIndian Oil Board Saturday gave itsgo-ahead for the implementationof an Integrated Para-Xylene (PX)and Purified Terephthalic Acid(PTA) complex project at Paradipin the state.

The project is estimated with aninvestment of `13,805 crore. ThePX-PTA complex shall be integratedwith IndianOil’s Paradip Refinery.

Chairman of Indian Oil, SMVaidya said, “This plant, along withthe upcoming MEG (Mono-EthyleneGlycol) plant of 357-KTA (kilo tonnesper annum) capacity at Paradip,would be a ready source of feedstockfor IndianOil’s upcoming 300-KTAtextile yarn manufacturing proj-ect at Bhadrak in Odisha, and cansimilarly facilitate other textileand polyester projects in the re-gion.”

The PX/PTA project will be com-pleted by early 2024. The petro-chemicals complex will have a PXproduction capacity of 800,000tonnes per annum, which wouldbe the feedstock for production of

PTA. The production capacity ofPTA would be 1,200,000 tonnes perannum. PTA is the raw materialfor the production of polyesteralong with MEG. Indian Oil’s MEGproduction facility is already underimplementation at Paradip andwill become operational towardsthe end of 2021.

The availability of both PTA andMEG at Paradip will give a boost topolyester manufacturing facilitiesin the vicinity. Also, 50,000 tonnesper annum of Toluene will be pro-duced. With the commissioning of

both PTA and MEG projects, thePetrochemical Intensity Index ofParadip Refinery will increase to 14.7from the present level of 4.5.

PTA is a major raw material formanufacture ofpolyester fibre/yarn,PET bottles and polyester film usedin packaging applications. PTA andMEG combined are the main feed-stocks for polyester manufacture.The Petroleum, Chemical andPetrochemical Investment Region(PCPIR) of Paradip will have thesefeedstocks of world-class qualityavailable under one roof.

OMC sets up fourCovid Care Homes

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 1: Followingthe appeal of Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik, state PSU—Odisha MiningCorporation Limited (OMC)Saturday opened four Covid CareHomes (CCHs) in the state.

The facilities have been inau-gurated at Bhubaneswar and itsthree regional offices—SouthKaliapani, Gandhamardan andDaitari.

Each of the CCHs has been fa-cilitated with 20-bed isolation fa-cilities to accommodate COVID-19suspect or positive cases. TheCCHs will be extension of thehome isolation facility exclusivelyfor OMC employees and its work-ers with asymptomatic and mildsymptomatic cases.

In the second phase, OMC willstart the Covid Care Homes in

four other locations—Kurmitarin Koida region, Seremda in Barbilre gion, Bangur re gion andKodingamali in Rayagada region.All these facilities will have 10-beds.

The OMC had earlier donated`500 crore to the Chief Minister’sRelief Fund (CMRF) in March tosupport the state government’sefforts to control the Covid-19 sit-uation and to help those affectedby the pandemic.

The State-owned entity, duringthe pandemic time, also trans-ferred ̀ 250 crore as the interim div-idend for the financial year 2019-20. The PSU has also funded for setup of 500-bedded stand-alone Covid-19 Hospital at KIMS. Besides, thecorporation also funded for es-tablishment of 10 stand-aloneCovid-19 Hospitals in eight dis-tricts across the state.

Each of the Covid Care Homes has been facilitatedwith 20-bed isolation facilities to accommodate

COVID-19 suspect or positive cases

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 1: A likely cutin repo rate will weaken the Indianrupee, which has lately been sup-ported by healthy fund inflows.Analysts said that the currencywill move into a range between 75and 74.50 as rising forex reserveskeep the rupee in check.

The RBI’s Monetary PolicyCommittee is expected to releaseits resolution on the monetarypolicy after its meeting on August4 to 6.

It is widely expected that theReserve Bank of India (RBI) islikely to administer another doseof lending rate cut to aid the re-vival process from the COVID-19induced economic downturn.

"The RBI is lapping up dollarsheavily under 75 and speculators are

supplying. A rate cut may mar-ginally weaken the rupee, but notmuch as relatively undervalued

rupee and high rate differentialwith the US can support the cur-rency. A range of 75.25 and 74.70 ison cards," said Anindya Banerjee,DVP, Currency and Rates, KotakSecurities.

Recently, India's foreign exchangereserves increased by $4.99 billionduring the week ended July 24. Thereserves grew to $522.63 billionfrom $517.637 billion.

India's forex reserves comprise

foreign currency assets (FCAs),gold reserve s, special drawingrights (SDRs) and the RBI's positionwith the International MonetaryFund (IMF).

According to Sajal Gupta, Head,Forex and Rates, EdelweissSecurities, "The market shall bewatching the RBI commentaryon monetary policy. MPC is ex-pected to be dovish and growthsupporting. Break below 74.50would only give further directionto the market."

Last Friday, the rupee margin-ally appreciated to 74.81 against agreenback.

"We expect a rate cut of at least25 bps to support the slowinggrowth," said Rahul Gupta, Head ofResearch-Currency, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services.

"This may give a boost to riskappetite and weigh on the USD-INR spot. Although the spot hasnot broken the crucial support of74.50, unless it falls below that, weexpect the spot to remain afloat.The trend for the next week willcontinue to be sideways with bear-ish bias between 74.50 and 75.10,"Gupta added.

Rupee to weaken as further repo cut expectedRATE WOES

The RBI is lapping up dollars heavily under 75 andspeculators are supplying. A rate cut may marginallyweaken the rupee, but not much as relativelyundervalued rupee and high rate differential with theUS can support the currencyANINDYA BANERJEE I DVP, CURRENCY AND RATES, KOTAK SECURITIES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 1: Industrybody ICEA, which represents topmobile phone makers like Apple,Foxconn, Wistron,Lava, etc, onSaturday said com-panies have com-mitted investmentsworth ̀ 11,000 croreunder the PLIscheme and theywill surpass man-ufacturing esti-mates by 2 to 2.5times.

Major globalplayers SamsungWistron, Pegatron,Foxconn and HonHai and Indiancompanies such as Lava, Dixon,Micromax, Padget Electronics,Sojo, UTL and Optiemus have ap-plied for benefits under the pro-duction-linked incentive (PLI)scheme.

According to the estimates ofIndia Cellular and ElectronicsAssociation (ICEA), mobile phonecompanies will increase devicesproduction in the country to around

`27.5 lakh croreon higher sideunder the PLIcompared togovernment'sannouncementof `11 lakhcrore.

Union tele-com and ITminister RaviShankarPrasad has an-nounced thatas many as 22domestic andinternational

firms have lined up with proposalsfor mobile phones production worth`11 lakh crore, which have poten-tial to create direct and indirectjobs for around 12 lakh people overthe next five years.

PLI SCHEME

‘Mobile cos commit`11K cr investment’

IndianOil grants `13,805cr ofPX-PTA complex at Paradip

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

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sportsSUNDAY | AUGUST 2 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

AGENCIES

Paris, August 1: Paris St Germain com-pleted their fourth domestic quadruple as theyscrapped past Olympique Lyonnais 6-5 onpenalties to lift the Couple de la Ligue Fridaywith the match ending in a goalless stalemateafter regular and extra time.

Second-half substitute Pablo Sarabiascored PSG’s final penalty in the shootout aftergoalkeeper Keylor Navas had saved BertrandTraore’s spot-kick to give the Ligue 1 cham-pions and French Cup winners their ninthCouple de la Ligue trophy.

It was the last roar for the competition,which was founded in 1995, as the FrenchProfessional Football League (LFP) decidedin September to scrap it as of next season untilfurther notice.

The LFP had failed to secure a broadcasterfor the 2020-2024 period but reserved the right

to relaunch the competition in the future.Lyon keeper Anthony Lopes made a string

of good saves in a cagey contest played in frontof 5,000 fans at Stade de France, who were al-lowed into the stadium in line with coronavirussafety regulations.

Lopes denied Brazilian forward Neymarthree times and also kept out shots by AngelDi Maria and Idrissa Gueye, while Navaskept out a Maxwel Cornet free kick at the otherend.

Lyon defender Rafael da Silva was sentoff in the last minute of extra time for a pro-fessional foul on Di Maria and Neymar blazedthe free-kick over the bar.

The Brazilian held his nerve to keep PSGalive in the shootout before Navas blockedTraore’s penalty and Sarabia calmly slottedhis shot past Lopes to spark wild celebra-tions among his team mates.

PSG, who beat St Etienne 1-0 in the French

Cup final last Friday, will face Italian sideAtalanta in the Champions league quarter-finals August 12 in Lisbon.

Their win over Lyon also means that StadeReims, who finished sixth in the FrenchLeague, have snapped up a berth in next sea-son’s Europa League qualifying.

The last match of the French season got offto a lackluster start, as both teams struggledto create meaningful opportunities. It wasn’tuntil late in the contest that there seemed tobe a sense of urgency on either end of the pitch.

PSG had the best chance to break the dead-lock, as Neymar’s header came close to creep-ing under the crossbar before it was superblypushed away by an outstretched Lopes.

The Lyon goalkeeper came up with an-other important stop in extra time when hisdiving effort denied Angel Di Maria’s pow-erful shot from the edge of the box.

PSG had a brief scare when Lyon came close

to taking the lead in the second half of extratime. However, a wide-open Maxwell Cornetfailed to hit the target from close range witha wild volley off a corner.

The match then went to a shootout, dur-ing which the two sides were perfect after fivesets of players stepped up to the mark. Aftercoming close on a pair of penalties, Navas fi-nally got his hand on a shot when he deniedTraore.

With the match on the line, Sarabia com-fortably slotted the ball past Lopes beforecelebrating with his teammates.

PSG kicked off their charge toward win-ning the domestic quadruple by winning theTrophee des Champions last summer. Theythen were crowned champions of Ligue 1when the season was canceled due to thecoronavirus pandemic. The club returnedto action last week to win the Coupe deFrance with a 1-0 win over Saint-Etienne.

PSG STAMPAUTHORITY

Parisians complete domestic quadruple with Coupe de la Ligue triumph edging past Olympique Lyonnais 6-5 via penalty shootout 6th sense a must

to be successfulstriker: Bhutia

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 1: LegendaryIndian footballer BhaichungBhutia says all strikers need to de-velop ‘sixth sense to smell’ theopportune time to strike if theyare to score regularly.

In a chat with AIFF TV, Bhutia,the first Indian footballer to haveplayed 100 international matches,said strikers can be successfulonly when they can read goal-scoring situations well.

“It’s all about that sixth sense.You need to smell it as to whereit would be coming. The best strik-ers in the world all have thatsense,” said Bhutia, who is knownas 'Sikkimese Sniper' for his strik-ing prowess during his playingdays.

“You need to read situations.Unless you don’t develop yoursixth sense, you won’t be a suc-cessful striker,” said the 43-year-old former captain who retired in2011 after scor-ing 40goalsfrom104 in-terna-tionalmatches.

Referringto current cap-tain SunilChhetri’s com-ments that‘scor-

ing goals was all about life anddeath for Bhaichung-bhai’, Bhutiastressed on the importance of‘making those runs every timeyou sense it’.

“Those runs are extremely crit-ical for a striker. I used to keeptelling Sunil that you need to an-ticipate and make runs fromwhere you can score. If you gowide, you have to dribble and getpast the defender, and by the timeyou turn and get past him, otherswill also rush in to block you,” hesaid.

“Only once or twice out ofmaybe 10 situations you will getthe chance to score. But you needto keep on doing it.”

Bhutia said top strikers willneed ‘to develop technically andmentally’ because they get onlya fraction of a second to put theball past the goalkeeper into thenet.

“Very often strikers come tome to ask what we can do whenwe don’t get goals. I only tell themno matter what, you should not

stop from making those runs.If you don’t score first ninetimes and then give up, you’llnot even be near to the ballin the 10th.

“If you look at Ronaldoand Messi, it’s not alwaysthat they dribble past 3-4 defenders. Rather, allbig strikers wait for the

ball and then touch it. Atthe end, it’s all about de-

veloping that sense andunless you keep on

making those runsyou will never de-

velop thatsense.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

T he torch relay was not al-ways a fixture of the modernOlympics, which began in

1896. The relay tradition started atAdolph Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics— the Games of the XI Olympiad —and was the brainchild of CarlDiem, who was the head of the or-ganizing committee.

The Tokyo Olympic relay is sched-uled to begin its Japan leg March26 in northeastern Fukushima pre-fecture. Tony Perrottet, in his 2004book ‘The Naked Olympics’ — pub-lished to coincide with the 2004Athens Olympics — captured theparadox of the Nazi regime ap-propriating the relay.

“Ironically, considering its re-pellent origins, the torch race hascome to symbolize internationalbrotherhood today, and remains acenterpiece of our own pomp-filledOlympic opening ceremonies,”Perrottet wrote.

He added: “The Nazis knew agood propaganda symbol when theysaw one.” Perrottet recounts how theOlympic flame was run from Greeceto Germany over 12 days, endingwith the lighting of a ‘colossal bra-

zier in the Berlin stadium before theFuhrer’s approving gaze’. Each ofthe torches carried the logo ofGerman arms manufacturer Krupp,Perrottet wrote.

The first person to set off July 20,1936, was Greek athlete KonstantinKondylis. The torch meanderedthrough Greece, Bulg aria,Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria,Czechoslovakia and Germany witheach runner covering a kilometer— or .62 miles.

Perrottet wrote that Hitler ad-mired the images of Greek godsand goddesses and wanted theOlympics to promote his idea ofthe supremacy, the perfection, ofthe German nation.

“Hitler took considerable per-sonal interest in the ritual, andpumped funds into its promotion:The Nazi propaganda machine cov-ered the torch relay slavishly, broad-cast radio reports from every stepof the route, and filled the Gameswith the iconography of ancientGreek athletics.”

The first Olympic flame appearedat the 1928 Amsterdam Games, andthen again in 1932 in Los Angeles.“Very little is known about the 1928and 1932 flames, but they were lit on

site and not at Olympia,” Dr. BillMallon, a former president of theInternational Society of OlympicHistorians, said in an email to TheAssociated Press.

There was no relay until 1936,and it’s been continuous since then.The Olympics were canceled dur-ing World War II (Tokyo was to holdthe 1940 Games) and resumed inLondon in 1948. There have beenmodifications along the way.

The flame for the SummerOlympics has always been lit in

Ancient Olympia, Greece, butWinter Olympic torches have notalways been lit there. For the 1952and 1960 Winter Olympics, it waslit in Morgedal, Norway. For the1956 Winter Games, it was lit inRome.

More recently, for the 1994 WinterOlympics in Lillehammer, Norway,the torch was lit in Greece and a sec-ond torch was lit in Norway. Havingtwo flame origins did not pleasethe tradition-steeped Greeks.

The relay was ‘commercialized’

at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympicswhen relay sponsor AT&T sold ‘kilo-meter legs’ of the event to allowpeople to run with the torch. Coca-Cola became the sponsor inBarcelona in 1992.

“Greece was not happy with thatin 1984 and threatened to not letLos Angeles light their flame inOlympia,” Mallon wrote. “It was

enough of a problem that PeterUeberroth (chairman of the or-ganizing committee) and JuanAntonio Samaranch (IOC presi-dent) actually made contingencyplans for the relay in case the Greeksheld to their threat. They eventuallybacked off and the flame was lit inAncient Olympia in 1984.”

The 2008 Beijing Olympic torchrelay ran into trouble as well. TheChinese relay, in addition to a do-mestic route, also circled the globe.It was targeted along the way byanti-China and pro-Tibet protests athalf the stops. Taiwan also boy-cotted the relay when China wantedto include it on its domestic route— implying Chinese sovereigntyover the self-governing island.

China’s authoritarian govern-ment has viewed Taiwan as a rene-gade province since the two sepa-rated in the 1949 civil war. Taiwan,which is also known as the Republicof China, governs itself as an in-dependent state.

The chaos at the time led IOCPresident Jacques Rogge to say theOlympics and the relay were in ‘cri-sis’. After the Beijing Olympicsended, the IOC did away with the in-ternational portion of the relay.

Olympic torch relay began in 1936 at Hitler’s Berlin Games

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Southampton, August 1: SamBillings believes England ODI sideis one of the toughest to break intobut said he is banking on his IPL ex-perience to stay in contention for theupcoming two World Cups in India.

Drafted into the team followinga back injury to Joe Denly, Billingssmashed an unbeaten 67 to guideEngland to a six-wicket win overIreland in the opening ODI Thursday.

With India scheduled to host theT20 World Cup in 2021 and the 50-over World Cup in 2023, Billingsfeels his ability to play spin willhold him in good stead.

“I think that’s definitely some-thing that I can potentially offercompared to other players. My gameagainst spin has benefited from allthe different franchises I have ex-perienced, particularly the IPL,”

Billings, who has played for ChennaiSuper Kings and Delhi Capitals,was quoted as saying by Skysports.

“I have had relative success onturning pitches in Chennai andDelhi. I back my game against spinand I have to continue to work hard.In ODI format or longer format,the subcontinent is somewhere Ithink I can do well. The longer for-mat is one I want to push my casein if I get the opportunity.”

The 29-year-old, who has played16 ODIs and 26 T20Is, never got a reg-

ular playing time with Englandsince making his debut in 2015 buthe grabbed the opportunity withboth hands when he was includedin the playing XI against Ireland.

“In a nutshell, my career hit aheavy speed bump last year (withthe injury) so for me it’s about build-ing that momentum back up,” saidBillings, who missed out of the 2019World Cup campaign due to a shoul-der injury.

“It’s been very up down (withEngland), I suppose, over the last fiveyears. I played five ODIs againstNew Zealand straight after the lastWorld Cup in 2015 and then 10 sincethen and July 2018.

“The opportunities have beensporadic but England’s ODI side isarguably one of the toughest sportsteams to get into at the moment soall I can do is take my opportunitieswhen they arise.”

ENGLISH CRICKETER BANKING ON IPL EXPERIENCEBillings eyeing 2023 WC

Sam Billings plays a shot during hismatch-winning innings against Irelandin the first ODI

In ODI format or longerformat, thesubcontinent is

somewhere I think I can dowell. The longer format is oneI want to push my case in if Iget the opportunitySAM BILLINGS

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 1: TheOlympics-bound Indian men’s andwomen’s hockey teams will re-turn for their respective nationalcamps August 4 at SAI Centre inBangalore and head straight to a14-day quarantine in keeping withthe COVID-19 protocols.

The decision was taken by theSports Authority of India afterthe nodal body received the go-ahead from the Karnataka gov-ernment that has been battlingrising COVID-19 cases in recenttimes.

“The camp will begin in keep-ing with all protocols and in strictadherence to the SOPs of SAI andthat of the state government.

Athletes, coaches and supportstaff will also be tested when theyarrive in Bangalore to ensure thatall campers are at a reduced riskof contracting the COVID-19virus,” SAI said in a statementSaturday.

The players and support staff,who will arrive from various partsof the country and abroad, will un-dergo a two-week quarantine in-side the campus before resumingtraining. They will be tested on ar-rival and will be tested again afterthe quarantine period ends.

Having spent nearly four monthsin the camp due to the nation-wide lockdown, the players headedto their home towns June 19 for afour-week break after the easingof restrictions.

India hockey campsto begin next week

Hamilton takespole position,Bottas second

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Silverstone, August 1: LewisHamilton set a new track recordat the British Grand Prix andclinched a record-extending 91stpole position Saturday.

He needs five more wins to equalMichael Schumacher’s FormulaOne (F1) record of 91 GP wins.The defending champion is alsoodds-on to equal the F1 great’srecord of seven world titles.

He clocked a time of one minute24.303 seconds at the Silverstonecircuit where he was won a recordsix times. He was 0.313 secondsahead of Mercedes teammate ValtteriBottas and about one second fasterthan Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari asmall boost with fourth ahead ofLando Norris, who could face a gridpenalty after failing to slow downunder a yellow flag in the secondpart of qualifying when Hamiltonmade a rare mistake. He span hiscar and sent gravel spraying, bring-ing the session to a brief halt afterBottas had set the quickest time.

Vettel, who had problems withundersteering and almost went offthe track toward the end of Q3, wasonly 10th fastest in qualifying.

Red Bull’s Alexander Albon fin-ished 12th ahead of Racing Point’slast-minute replacement NicoHulkenberg. He lost his seat inF1 this year, and is driving be-cause Sergio Perez tested positivefor the coronavirus following atrip back to his native Mexicoafter his mother had an accident.

Nicolas Latifi’s Williams spanoff the track near the end of Q1,the latest incident in the Canadiandriver’s difficult start in F1. KimiRaikkonen and Kevin Magnussenwere also among the five driverseliminated from Q1.