RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 208 | Saturday, 31 July 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: With a single-day rise of 44,230 cases, India’s COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,15,72,344 on Friday, while the death toll due to the viral disease shot up to 4,23,217 with 555 more people succumb-ing to it, the Union health ministry said.

The number of active Coronavirus cases in the country registered an increase for the third consecutive day, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 am.

The number of active cases has gone up to 4,05,155, accounting for 1.28 per cent of the total caseload, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.38 per cent, the data showed.

An increase of 1,315 cases was recorded in the active COVID-19 tally in a span of 24 hours.

Also, 18,16,277 tests to detect the infection were carried out on Thursday, taking the total number of such tests conducted so far in the coun-try to 46,46,50,723, while the daily positiv-ity rate was recorded at 2.44 per cent. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.43 per cent, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recu-perated from the disease has gone up to 3,07,43,972, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data showed.

Union Science and Technology Min-ister Jitendra Singh said on Friday that seventy cases of Coronavirus Delta Plus variant were found in genome sequencing by INSACOG, a grouping of 28 laborato-ries involved in the task.

In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said so far, 58,240 sam-ples of SARS-CoV2 have been sequenced in the country and of these, 46,124 were analysed. Continued on P4

COVID-19: India logs 44,230 fresh

cases, 555 fatalities

7 dead; overnight rain leaves parts of Bengal deluged OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA/ DARJEEL-ING: Overnight heavy rain-fall wreaked havoc in several parts of Bengal inundating various stretches within the city and also in the districts; disrupting rail and road traffic with at least seven people being killed across the state in sepa-rate incidents of electrocution and due to the collapse of mud houses on Friday.

This had led to the can-cellation of 12 long-distance trains in the Howrah division. Due to incessant rain, there were water-loggings in vari-ous yards, including How-

rah, prompting the officials to cancel 12 long-distance trains scheduled to leave Howrah on Friday. A senior Railway offi-cial said two trains — 02834 Howrah-Ahmedabad Special and 02821 Howrah Chennai Special — scheduled to leave from Howrah in the inter-vening night of July 29-30 remained cancelled. The other trains, scheduled to leave from Howrah Station on July 30, were also cancelled.

The Regional Meteorologi-cal Centre said that the inten-sity of rainfall in Kolkata and other adjoining districts will reduce in the next 24 hours but there will be heavy show-

ers in Purulia, West Burdwan, Bankura and East Burdwan. An orange alert has been

issued in these districts. In North Bengal, Dar-

jeeling and Kalimpong will

receive heavy to very heavy rainfall while Cooch Behar and Alipurduar will witness

heavy rainfall. Light rain has been predicted in Kolkata and adjoining districts.

Trains cancelled also include 02096 Howrah-CSMT (Mumbai) Special, 02517 How-rah-Titlagarh Special, 02703 Howrah Secunderabad Special, 02087 Howrah-Puri Special, 08011 Howrah-Ahmedabad- Adra-Chakradharpur/Bokaro Steel City Special.

Rainfall in the Hills trig-gered multiple landslides resulting in the death of two persons and many oth-ers injured in different areas of Kalimpong that witnessed heavy rainfall since Thursday afternoon. Continued on P4

INTENSITY IN KOLKATA & ADJOINING DISTRICTS WILL REDUCE IN NEXT 24 HOURS BUT MET PREDICTS HEAVY SHOWERS IN PURULIA, WEST BURDWAN, BANKURA & EAST BURDWAN; ORANGE ALERT ISSUED

Highlights » This had led to the cancel-lation of 12 long-distance trains in the Howrah division » In North Bengal, Darjeel-ing and Kalimpong will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall while Cooch Behar and Alipur-duar will witness heavy rainfall. Light rain has been predicted in Kolkata and adjoining districts

A private bus almost submerged at an under-pass waterlogged due to incessant rain, in Kolkata, on Friday MPOST

A BIG PUNCH

Lovlina Borgohain clenches her fist after winning her bout against Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei during women’s welterweight (64-69kg) category boxing match, at the Summer Olympics 2020 in Tokyo, on Friday See P11

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recorded the highest ever pass percentage of 99.37 in this year’s Class XII results, declared on Friday, with girls outshin-ing boys by a slender margin of 0.54 per cent.

The pass percentage increased by over 10 points against last year’s 88.78 per cent. The difference between the pass percentage of girls and boys was nearly 6 per cent last year. The board has announced the results on basis of an alternate assessment policy after the exams were cancelled in view of the aggressive second wave of COVID-19.

According to the policy decided by a 13-member panel of the board, the theory paper evaluation formula is 30 per cent weightage to Class X marks, another 30 per cent to Class XI marks

and 40 per cent weightage to marks obtained in Class XII unit test, mid-term, pre-board exams.

“For the implementation of tabula-tion policy successfully and in the given time frame, it was considered impor-tant to facilitate the work to be done by teachers. So, in order to facilitate schools and help them in compilation and moderation of results and reduce any inadvertent errors on their part, a comprehensive and feature-rich sys-tem was developed by IT team of the CBSE,” said CBSE Examinations Con-troller Sanyam Bhardwaj.

Bhardwaj noted that there were about a lakh students who were from boards other than CBSE.

“The schools were requested to ver-ify their roll numbers, name of candi-dates and name of the Board so that their data could be taken from the Boards concerned. Continued on P4

CBSE records highest ever 99.37 pass percentage

CLASS XII RESULTS

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: As the business of the Parliament has come to a standstill after the end of two weeks of the Monson Ses-sion due to the ongoing stand-off between the Opposition members and ruling benches over the issue of a debate on alleged Pegasus snooping, the government on Friday soft-ened its stand by saying that

the Opposition parties can still seek clarification from IT Min-ister Ashwini Vaishnaw on his statement over the matter.

With ‘softening’ its stand, the government is hopeful that the Monsoon Session, which started on a stormy note on July 19 over the Pegasus and farmers’ issue, may see some brisk business in the remain-ing two weeks.

While interacting with

reporters, after the Lok Sabha was adjourned, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the government had agreed to them seeking clarifi-cation from Vaishnaw after he made statements in both the House and these parties can still do so.

As the Opposition mem-bers continued their protests over Pegasus and farmers’ issue, proceedings of both Lok

Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day on Fri-day. When the Lower House reassembled at 12 pm, two Bills — The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021 and the General Insurance Busi-ness (Nationalisation) Amend-ment Bill — were introduced amid the ruckus.

Continued on P4

RS, LS adjourned till Monday amid Oppn protestOpposition can seek clarification from minister on Pegasus issue: Pralhad Joshi

City: Pg 3Sero positivity rate in five districts around 60.9%

Nation: Pg 5Oppn seeks JPC probe to ascertain details of farmer deaths during stir

Film: Pg 12Johansson sues Disney for breach of contract

» Rainfall in the Hills trig-gered multiple landslides resulting in the death of two persons and many others injured in different areas of Kalimpong that witnessed heavy rainfall since Thursday afternoon

» In North 24-Parganas’ Bongaon, a mother and her son died after being electrocuted » A mud house collapsed and fell on a 65-year-old man in Bankura’s Simlipal. He later died from severe injuries » Several stretches in the city, including Central Avenue, Exide More, Park Street, Hospital Road were inundated disrupting vehicular movement

Delhi visit fruitful, will come back every 2 months: MamataOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she would be visiting Delhi every two months to drive her mission of ‘saving the country by sav-ing the democracy’.

Before she left for Kolk-ata on Friday, she described her five-day visit as “fruitful”, again urging all like-minded parties to join hands to fight against the ruling BJP.

She called the national sit-uation “devastating”. Banerjee alleged that the Centre has collected Rs 3.75 lakh crore by raising fuel and cook-ing gas prices at an abnor-mal level, “causing misery to the common man”. Fur-ther, the Central government also failed in controlling the Covid situation in the country.

During her visit to the national Capital, on one side, she met Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi and Union Road and Transport minister Nitin Gadkari to discuss important national issues and to push developmental projects of the state while on the other, the Chief Minister also met Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other important Opposition leaders, includ-ing her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Congress veterans Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma.

According to Banerjee “democracy must be alive” and “we can save the coun-try only through that”. She

further aims to unite the regional parties and claimed that the general elections of 2024 will be people vs. Modi.

The Bengal Chief Minis-ter had also spoken to NCP chief Sharad Pawar over the phone. There was speculation of a meeting of the two, but, due to the flood-like situation in Maharashtra, Pawar had to go back, Banerjee told media persons.

There is also a flood-like situation in West Ben-gal similar to other states due to incessant heavy rain and Banerjee assured of taking all possible measures to nor-malise the situation and save lives.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference in New Delhi MPOST

State logs 711 cases, at least 5 fatalities in the past 24 hours

Trinamool takes control of all 11 GPs in Farakka

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Kolkata Munici-pal Corporation (KMC) has taken up bio-mining and treat-ment of legacy waste spread over 45 hectares at the Dhapa dumpyard.

About 40 lakh metric tonne of legacy waste will be pro-cessed and transformed into wealth in three years time at an estimated project cost of Rs 260 crore.

“The organic waste will be composted and can be used as soil conditioner for agricul-tural activities, and the inor-ganic material found in the waste such as plastics, rub-ber, cloth, leather, wood and glass items will be used by the cement industry,” Firhad Hakim, Chairman of Board of Administrators KMC said,

while unveiling the project at Dhapa on Friday.

According a senior official of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department of KMC, the area has been divided into three mountains of waste. The work shall be carried out in a phase-wise manner. The tar-get is to clear 9 lakh MT, 13 lakh MT and 18 lakh MT in the first, second and third year respectively.

About 4,400 metric tonnes of solid waste is generated daily in the KMC jurisdictional area and the bulk of it is dumped at Dhapa. KMC has started segre-gation of waste at source in 27 wards in the city.

Hakim also inaugurated a waste plastic recycling plant at Dhapa. “The project of waste plastic recycling will be done in PPP mode. “KMC has pro-

vided resources to the company that will execute the work. They will be using plastic from the

dumpsite itself for making a variety of products like plastic lumber, door farmes, planks,

boards. We will be getting a portion of the revenue share from the company,” Debabrata Majumdar, Member Board of Administrators, KMC in-charge of SWM department said.

KMC has already success-fully sealed a 12-acre por-tion of dumpsite at Dhapa. It has transformed the portion

into a green site with dump-ing of waste being stopped completely. Dhapa comes under the Ramsar site and the National Green Tribunal has directed the state government to take steps to make Dhapa garbage-free.

Legacy waste that gets accu-mulated year after year forms methane gas which when comes in contact with oxygen causes fire. The smoke ema-nating from this waste con-tains carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide. It is also rich in PM 2.5 and PM 10, tiny pollut-ants that enter the deepestcrev-ices of the lungs and can trigger a host of respiratory diseases. Hakim also inaugurated a con-struction and demolition waste process plant on virtual mode at Patharghata in New Town.

KMC to process 40L metric tonne legacy waste in 3 yrsPPP Mode: Hakim inaugurates plastic recycling plant at Dhapa dumpyard

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) has formed its board in all 11 Gram Panchay-ats in Farakka Assembly con-stituency in Murshidabad.

The state’s ruling party has formed boards in all the 11 Gram Panchayats with the joining of members from the Opposition parties.

This is for the first time since independence when Tri-namool Congress has bagged the Farakka Assembly constit-uency seat.

Since, the Assembly elec-tion results came out, leaders and workers of Opposition par-ties have been constantly join-ing Trinamool Congress.

Now, Trinamool Congress has formed board in two Gram Panchayats in Farakka with joining of Panchayat Pradhans and seven members.

Out of 11 Gram Panchay-ats in Farakka Assembly con-stituency, Trinamool Congress had won in nine GPs in the last Panchayat polls.

One each of the remaining two GPs was under the BJP and

the Congress. With the joining of the pradhans and members of these two panchayats, the same came under the control of Trinamool Congress.

According to a Trinamool Congress leader, the BJP work-ers and leaders joined the rul-ing party in the state to be a part of the overall development programme taken up by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Meanwhile, CITU joined INTTUC at Mothabari in Malda.

The CITU members of the Mothabari’s office of the Power department joined the INTTUC affiliated West Ben-gal State Bidyut Employees and Workers’ Union.

SANCTUM SANCTORUM OF KALIGHAT TEMPLE TO REOPEN TODAYKOLKATA: The sanctum sanctorum of Kalighat temple will open from Saturday with a maximum of 10 devotees to be allowed at a time. Entry will be al-lowed from 6 am to 12 noon and from 4 pm to 7pm. Puja offering with flowers and sweets will be allowed. All devotees will have to wear masks and abide by other COVID-19 protocols. The Kalighat temple had opened for visitors from June 24 but the entry into the sanctum sanctorum was not allowed.

FIRE AT GODOWN DOUSED AFTER ABOUT TWO HOURS, NONE INJUREDKOLKATA: A major fire broke out at a godown of pulses located on Canal East Road on Friday morning. Seven fire tenders doused the fire after about two hours. No one was injured in the incident. According to sources, on Friday around 5 am, local people spotted smoke emanating from the godown located at 2/4, Canal East Road. Immediately, the fire brigade personnel and police were informed. Ini-tially, three fire tenders were pressed into action but later four more fire tenders were sent. The fire was controlled around 7 am. The cooling process was car-ried out for one more hour. It is suspected that the fire may have broken out due to a short circuit. Forensic experts may visit the godown to collect samples in order to ascertain the cause of fire.

‘FAKE IPS OFTEN VISITED A POSH HOTEL’KOLKATA: The fake IPS Rajarshi Bhattacharya used to visit a luxurious hotel on Park Street where he met the Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of Park Street police station. Police are probing to find out whether the ASI had taken money from Bhattacharya or not. According to police, Bhattacharya had fallen in love with a woman and wanted to marry her. The fake IPS claimed that the woman was also in love with him. But a friend of the woman was creating problems whom Bhattacharya wanted to kill. For the purpose he asked the ASI to give him the subscriber details of the woman’s friend. The police have summoned the woman to find out whether the claims made by the fake IPS is true or not. The police have also sum-moned the man as well.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Two new town-ships, Khela City and Green City, will be set up in state, Housing minister Firhad Hakim said on Friday.

Hakim, who is the newly-appointed chairman of Housing Infrastructure Devel-opment Corporation (HIDCO) held the first meeting in New Town on Friday. He said Khela City would come up in Howrah.

However, he did not elabo-rate the place where it would come up along with the pro-posed area.

Similarly, he also did not mention where the Green City would come up.

However, both the town-ships will be set up following

the New Town model.Hakim inaugurated the new

website of Eco Park, the biggest urban park in the country.

The mobile responsive web-site is not only user friendly it given every details on Prakriti Tirtha. Hakim saw a presenta-

tion on New Town, given by the managing director of HIDCO Debashis Sen, and took stock of the situation.

Hakim has firsthand knowl-edge about the township as he was the Urban Development minister in Mamata Banerjee Cabinet from 2011-2021.

He also discussed about the projects that got stuck up due to court cases and slowed down due to fund crunch.

The next meeting of HIDCO board will take place on August 13.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The number of single-day fatalities on Friday dropped to 5 from what it stood at 14 on Thursday. Bengal saw a single-day rise of 711 corona-virus infections on Friday tak-ing the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 15,27,250 so far while

active cases stood at 11,171. Around 14,97,951 patients

have already been released from the hospitals as they recovered.

As many as 835 people were discharged from different hos-pitals on Friday. The recovery rate has reached 98.08 per-cent whereas the fatality rate

remains at 1.19 percent for the past few days. Bengal has so far carried out 1,56,88,265 Covid sample tests out of which around 43,209 tests were done in the past 24 hours.

As many as 18,128 people have so far died of Covid in the state. The percentage of pos-itive cases out of the sample tested remained at 1.65 on Fri-day whereas the percentage of occupancy of Covid beds in the State remains at 3.97.

In the past 24 hours, around 74 new cases were reported from Kolkata while North 24-Parganas has seen 101 new cases. This is the highest daily infection by any district. Dar-jeeling has seen 67 fresh cases on Friday while Coochbehar reported 39 new cases and Jal-paiguri 26. Hooghly has seen 47 new cases, South 24-Parga-nas 49 and Howrah 25.

Kolkata has registered 1 Covid death on Friday while North 24-Parganas has seen none. South 24-Parganas has seen no death while Hooghly has registered 1. West Mid-

napore has seen 1 death while Jalpaiguri 2. The total death toll in Kolkata has so far reached 4,972 whereas North 24-Parga-nas has lost 4,563 people so far.

Around 612 people have been given tele-psychologi-cal counselling in the past 24 hours taking the total number of counselling to 4,04,698 till Friday.

Health department has so far addressed 20,57,600 gen-eral queries so far out of which 2,791 queries were addressed in the past 24 hours. Telemedicine consultations have been given to 1,598 people on Friday and

around 8,22,297 people have so far received telemedicine con-sultations till date.

Around 203 dedicated hos-pitals have been operating in the state currently out of which 196 are government owned. The number of earmarked beds stands at 23,947 on Friday.

As many as 2,861 ICU/HDU are operational across the state. The total number of safe homes stands at 200 on Friday. There are around 11,507 beds that are still operational in those safe homes. There are 9,366 patients in home isolation.

RECOVERY RATE STANDS AT 98.08%

News at a Glance

2 millenniumpostCitympSATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021 | KOLKATA

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Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 5 » Total death toll so far 18,128 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 711 » Total COVID positive cases so far 15,27,250 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 14,97,951 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 835 » Total sample tested so far 1,56,88,265

Over 2.91 cr doses

cumulatively administered

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal has cumu-latively administered over 2.91 crore doses till now out of which 3,07,560 doses have been applied on Friday. On Wednes-day around 2.5 people received vaccines.

In the special category vaccine group aged between 18-45, around 55,10,056 doses have been administered so far. Around 2,91,33,070 doses have been cumulatively adminis-tered in Bengal so far.

Around 2,214 Common vaccination centres (CVCs) have been set up across the state till Wednesday. Around 2,284 AEFI cases have been reported across the state till date.

The wastage of vaccines in the state is minimal com-pared to the figures from vari-ous other states.

Bengal has received around 36 lakh doses of vaccine but they are not enough. Peo-ple have been standing in the queues outside various centres from the early morning, many of whom are returning home empty-handed. State health department had to scale down the vaccination drive due to a lack of adequate stock.

Many Covid vaccination centres (CVCs) across the state have been witnessing agitations due to a want of a vaccine. State government has however asked the district officials to ensure that people seeking second doses are not denied.

The number of confirmed deaths due to mucormycosis in Bengal has remained at 19 while 45 others who have died are still among the suspected cases.

No new confirmed mucor-mycosis case was reported from the state on Friday and no new suspected case has been reported.

The total number of mucormycosis infected cases remained 85 in the state on Friday. No death was reported among suspected or confirmed cases in Bengal in the past 24 hours. The total number of sus-pected cases stood 184 in the state so far.

Nadia: BJP’s Bharat Mata Canteen shuts down

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Within two-and-a-half months after the BJP was trounced in the state Assembly election, the Bharat Mata can-teen in Nadia district, which was opened to provide lunch to the people at nominal rates, closed down for fund crisis.

Countering the Ma can-teen—an initiative of Mamata Banerjee where lunch compris-ing rice, dal, vegetable curry and egg is given at Rs 5 all over the state—the state BJP had opened Bharat Mata canteen in some districts.

The canteen in Nadia had been closed since last Sun-day. Local leaders said despite repeated reminders, the state leadership did not send money to the local unit. The leaders

said to clear the dues of the grocers and vegetable sellers, they had paid from their own pockets.

They said after the party was defeated in the Assembly election, state leadership lost interest and despite repeated requests no money was sent to them.

When contacted, BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya said he would look into the matter.

‘State to get ‘Khela’ & Green cities’ Cops start spl drive to implement night curfewPINAK PANI CHOWDHURY

BALURGHAT: In a bid to ensure the night curfew declared by the district admin-istration as per instruction of the state government is fol-lowed, police started special drives in and around Balurghat town to implement the order strictly.

According to a police offi-cial, no one would be allowed to move outdoor between 9 pm and 5 am when the night cur-few had been on.

“We have started special drives in the town in order to impose the order strictly. There has been a strict ban on mov-ing outside as per instruction served by the district adminis-tration. We have already con-ducted route-march across the

town and requested the resi-dents not to go outside during the particular period of time,” said the official.

He said stringent legal action would be initiated if anyone is found flouting the norms. “We are being asked to ensure that all pandemic protocols are strictly enforced. The violators will be booked as per the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and sections of the Indian Penal Code,” he said, also adding the people should avoid unnecessary movement and as the cases are rising. “All outdoor activities including the movement of vehicles and peo-ple shall be strictly prohibited between 9 pm to 5 am except for health services, law and order, essential commodities,” the order mentioned.

COLLAPSED

Portion of a 100-year-old building collapsed on Friday morning at 4D Sree Mohan Road in Mudially area of south Kolkata. KMC had sent notices to the owners of around 100 very insecure buildings requesting them to vacate the premises immediately. Despite the notices, the owners or residents refused to vacate such buildings citing various reasons. There are around 2000 old dilapidated buildings in Kolkata. Most of these structures are situated in north and south Kolkata and parts of Behala. The civic authorities have asked the borough engineers to keep an eye on the old buildings in their respective areas during the ongoing monsoon PICS/MPOST

Cyber fraud: Retired man duped of Rs 50K

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BALURGHAT: A retired per-son of Balurghat lost Rs 50,000 from his bank account after being duped by cyber frauds. He fell into the trap laid by fraudsters and shared the One Time Password (OTP) to an unidentified caller, assuming that it to be a step towards com-pletion of the Know-Your-Cus-tomer procedure.

The victim, Ashish Kumar Kundu, who is a resident of Bal-urghat’s Saheb Kachari, lodged a complaint at Balurghat Cyber police station.

The police registered a case under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act

for cheating. No one has been arrested so far.

The victim, Kundu, said: “I have lost Rs 50,000 from my bank account by sharing the OTP number in order to update KYC of my account with a person.

The man had asked me to share the OTP number to him otherwise the bank account would be blocked. Without suspecting anything, I shared the OTP number with him. I received two consecutive SMSs later from the bank informing me that my account was deb-ited Rs 50,000.” Bank author-ity has repeatedly appealed to citizens to stay cautious and never share their confidential banking details with anyone.

The waste will be processed at an estimated cost of Rs 260 cr PIC/MPOST

KMC has already successfully sealed a 12-acre portion of dumpsite at Dhapa. It has transformed the portion into a green site

Both townships to follow New Town model, says Min

Hakim said the ‘Khela’ city would be developed in Howrah

The canteen was shut down due to lack of funds after the saffron party was trounced in state polls

Out of 11 Gram Panchayats in Farakka Assembly constituency, Trinamool Congress had won in nine GPs in the last Panchayat polls

Firhad Hakim

Representative Image

3millenniumpost City mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021

SULAGNA SENGUPTA

KOLKATA: With the intro-duction of Lok Prasar Prakalpa scheme in Bengal to uplift the socio-economic condition of the folk artistes, around 84,720 per-formers have benefitted from it.

Senior officials of the state gov-ernment are optimistic that after the second Duare Sarkar camps to be organised on August 16, more applicants will apply for the scheme.

A senior official of the state government said: “We are getting feedback from various District Magistrates (DMs) that many folk artistes who are yet to apply for the scheme have shown interest to go ahead and we have asked the DMs to verify all applications and sub-mit them to the officials who will organise camps in each district under the Duare Sarkar scheme on August 16.”

According to the folk artistes, after the pandemic, many of them are unable to perform due to the ongoing Covid restrictions and so

granting them retainer fees have helped the folk artistes a lot.

Samar Das, a Baul, and a resi-dent of Santiniketan, said: “The scheme has greatly helped the folk artistes during this pandemic. Not

only the distressed and the vet-eran artistes received a monthly pension, but the retainer fee of the artistes has helped folk artistes in these trying times.”

Under the Lok Prasar Prakalpa,

not only the folk artiste receives an identity card and retainership fees, but the state government inducts them in various government pro-grammes so that they can make both ends meet.

Folk artistes mired in Covid make both ends meet with Lok Prasar Prakalpa

Senior officials of state govt are optimistic that after 2nd Duare Sarkar camps are held on August 16, more applicants will go for the scheme

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Kolkata Metro Railway is mulling to introduce new technology (QR code) to avoid gath-ering of passengers at counters. At present, passen-gers having valid smart cards are being allowed to travel on Metro trains. No tokens are being issued.

According to sources, the tickets can be bought online through an app soon. Payment can be done through Google Pay. Once the payment is done after selecting the boarding and deboarding stations, a QR code will be sent to that particular mobile num-ber. Passengers will have to scan the QR code at the time of entering the plat-form premises (similar to that of a smart card). The passenger will again have to

scan the QR Code at the time of getting out from the station premises.

It is learnt that QR Code scanning machines will be installed at all the Metro stations. The installa-tion of QR Code machines has been completed at Park Street and Maidan Station.

The Kolkata Metro Railway services were sus-pended after Covid restrictions were imposed in the state on May 16.

The services were thrown open to the pub-lic with 50 percent seating capacity maintaining COVID-19 protocols from July 16.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will upgrade the lock gates that offload the accumulated water from the streets into river Hooghly.

Tarak Singh, Member, Board of Administrators, along with senior officials of the Drainage department vis-ited all 27 lock gates and took stock of the situation.

These lock gates had been constructed during the Brit-ish era. The lock gates offload the accumulated water from the streets of old Kolkata (cov-ering wards 1 to 100) into the river Hooghly.

Singh said because of inces-sant rain on Thursday, all the lock gates had to be closed from 3 am to 7.30 am. As a result, there was waterlogging in some pockets in the city.

Firhad Hakim, chairman, Board of Revenue, said the duration of water logging in the city would be less from 2022 due to the steps taken up by the KMC.

The Irrigation and Water-ways department has been asked to carry out dredging operations on Monir Khal.

A pumping station has been installed to clear the accumu-lated water from the roads situ-ated on the low lying pockets of Kidderpore.

Hakim said this has been a recurring problem in Kidder-pore for more than a century. However, the installation of a pumping station would mini-mise the duration of waterlog-ging in the low lying pockets.

A tender had been floated to find out an agency that would clear the brick sewer in central Kolkata.

Once it is completed, the duration of waterlogging in central Kolkata will be minimised.

The KMC with the support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 2000-2005 had upgraded the underground sewer lines in parts of south, central and north Kolkata.

As a result, the duration of waterlogging is minimal in vast areas surrounding Rabi-ndra Sadan and Akashvani Bhavan.

Due to the upgradation, water recedes fast from some pockets in Bhowanipore and areas surrounding Hedua, which had been vulnerable to waterlogging.

Kolkata Metro to introduce QR codes to avoid gatherings

Waterlogging: KMC to upgrade lock gates

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The state govern-ment is implementing One Nation One Ration Card with immediate effect for the purpose of portability in the distribution of subsidised foodgrains to eli-gible ration card holders under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The move is to ensure that migrant labourers are able to obtain their share of ration from any part of the country.

“We will initiate a new mod-ule — Integrated Management of Public Distribution Sys-tem (IMPDS) — at the ePOS machine for the implementation

of One Nation One Ration Card. Transactions are to be made by mandatory biometric verifica-tion in two attempts. If that fails, mobile verification has to be made and if even that fails, the unverified transaction will be done,” an official in the Food and Supplies department said.

A video conference regard-ing the implementation of the project was held by senior offi-cials of the state Food & Supplies department with all stakehold-ers, including the ration deal-ers’ federation. It was stated that there will be tagged beneficiaries and untagged beneficiaries in the case of the IMPDS module.

The tagged beneficiary would include beneficiaries of Bengal while untagged ones would cover those from other states. The Stan-dard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding the transaction process will be shared soon. There will be separate login for IMPDS mod-ules besides the Public Distribu-tion System one. The other states’

beneficiaries must bring Aadhaar cards and ration cards for obtain-ing the foodgrains. The dealer will put the other state benefi-ciary ration card or the Aadhaar number to proceed. A maximum of 50 percent foodgrains will be provided to other state beneficia-ries at a time. The dealer will have to check whether the beneficiary

is obtaining ration from another state. If so done, the deducted stock will be shown.

“There has been confusion among a section of ration deal-ers regarding the directions in Friday’s video conference as the Aadhaar seeding with ration cards for all the beneficiaries has not yet been over,” Biswambhar Basu, general secretary of the All India Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Federation, said. The depart-ment has also directed the ration dealers to mandatorily make all transactions through online mode with effect from August 2 reiterating that there should not be any offline transaction.

‘Mandatory to make all transactions online’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The leading CBSE schools in the city performed exceedingly well in the Central Board of Sec-ondary Education (CBSE) Class XII examinations the results of which were declared on Friday.

In South Point High School among the 575 stu-dents who appeared, 111 students scored above 95 percent, 273 above 90 per-cent while 519 scored above 80 percent.

Archishman Bandyo-padhyay topped the school in the Science stream by scoring 99.8 percent while Soumya Das came second with 98.8 percent.

Three students occupied the third position with Sou-myadeep Choudhury, Tarak Das and Dhruba Dey bag-ging 491 marks out of 500.

Archishman has been offered admission in six prestigious US universi-ties and he has chosen to enroll in the College of Sci-ence and Engineering of the University of Minnesota

(with Mathematics as his intended Major) because of its high rank and two hand-some scholarships it offered, namely Global Excellence Scholarship and Undergrad-uate Research Scholarship.

For Delhi Public School, Ruby Park, out of 898 stu-dents who appeared, 418 stu-dents secured marks above 90 percent, 389 between 80 and 89 percent with the school average being 87.99 percent.

Megha Abedin topped by bagging 99.2 percent in Humanities. Tanvi Jain received the highest marks in Science with 99 percent while Shivangi Dokania topped in Commerce with 98.2 percent marks.

For Lakshmipat Sing-hania Academy, the topper bagged 98.4 percent marks in Humanities.

The highest percentage in Commerce and Science was 98.2 and 98 percent respectively. 99 out of 134 children who appeared got above 90 percent while 49 children scored above 95 percent.

South Point High School topper heads to Univ of Minnesota

CBSE CLASS XII RESULT

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A Serological-survey (Sero-survey) carried out in five districts by the ICMR reveals that Sero positivity rate is around 60.9 per cent in those districts and the Covid antibodies have the high-est prevalence among doctors and health workers taking part in the survey.

It says that in case of general popu-lation, the Sero positivity rate is around 59.1 per cent in Alipurduar, 66.7 per cent in Bankura, 54.1 per cent in Jhargram, 62.2 per cent in South 24-Parganas and in case of East Midnapore, the number stands at 53.9 per cent.

States like Madhya Pradesh, Rajast-han and Bihar are much ahead of Bengal

in terms of Sero positivity rate with 79.0 per cent, 76.2 and 75.9 percent respec-tively. It means that in those states many more people had developed Covid anti-bodies. The prevalence of Sero-positivity rate in Bengal is much higher among doctors and health workers. They have already developed Covid antibodies. The report says among doctors and health workers, the Sero positivity rate is around 88.0 per cent in Alipurduar, 79.0 per cent in Bankura, 72.7 per cent in Jhargram, 82.7 per cent in South 24-Parganas and 78.0 per cent in case of East Midnapore. According to experts compared to health professionals, the general public is more susceptible to the Covid third wave as they are far behind when it comes to

the development of antibodies. Sero-survey was conducted on around 408

samples in Alipurduar, 411 samples in Bankura, 410 in Jhargram, 413 samples in South 24-Parganas and 401 in East Midnapore. However, the experts said it is not clear that people in Bengal are heading towards hard immunity and it is not evident whether around 5 per cent of those undergoing Sero survey had developed antibodies after receiv-ing the vaccine.

In the country, the Sero positivity rate stands at 67.6 per cent. States like Kerala, Assam and Maharashtra are far behind with only 44.4, 50.3 and 58.0 per cent respectively. A Sero-survey is an anti-body test conducted on a sample of the population to assess how many people have been affected.

Sero positivity rate in five districts around 60.9%

1 year extension for Project Clearance Committee KOLKATA: With direc-tions given by Chief Minister Mamata Ba-nerjee to ensure proper utilisation of funds, the state government has decided to extend the tenure of the Project Clearance Committee by a year.

The said commit-tee was set up to go through the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of projects taken up by all departments. There are senior officials of the state Finance department and the state Public Works Department (PWD) in the committee. Projects only get implemented if the committee gives its clearance after going through all aspects of the same.

The committee is headed by Srikumar Bhattacharya, who was earlier the Engineer-in-Chief of the state Public Works Department. He is the chairman of the committee.

The financial as-pects of all the projects will also be looked into by the commit-tee before giving the go-ahead. Steps will be taken accordingly if it becomes possible to bring down the cost of the proposed projects. Measures have been taken to ensure timely implementation of work and at the same time to rationalise the expenses of the state government. It needs a mention that this comes at a time when the capital expenditure of the state has gone up 7.2 times from Rs 2,225 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 18,170 crore in 2020-21. At the same time, ex-penditure in the social sector increased 10.11 times between 2010-11 and 2020-21. MPOST

MAROONEDTorrential rain owing to the formation of a low-pressure area over Gangetic West Bengal has thrown life out of gear in several districts of the state, where streets have gone under water and rivers overtopped banks, submerging low-lying areas. Many Eastern Railway & South Eastern Railway trains had to be cancelled or rescheduled as tracks remained inundated near Howrah and Kolkata terminal stations, officials said. The MeT department said on Friday that the well-marked low-pressure area, situated over the interior parts of Gangetic West Bengal, is likely to move to Jharkhand, south Bihar and southern parts of UP in the next 2 days. Kolkata recorded 150 mm rainfall during the period, the MeT dept said MPOST/PTI

Highest prevalence of Covid antibodies among doctors, health workers taking part in the survey

Committee is led by Srikumar Bhattacharya, former Engineer-in-Chief of the state PWD

Archishman Bandyopadhyay Megha Abedin

According to the folk artistes, after the pandemic, many of them are unable to perform due to the ongoing Covid restrictions and so granting them retainer fees have helped the folk artistes a lot.

‘We will initiate a new module — Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS) — at the ePOS machine for the implementation of One Nation One Ration Card’

‘Easing of lockdown, non-adherence to Covid norms led to surge in cases’

Three killed as heavy rains lash parts of north India

MoS FOR HEALTH BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR SAYS IN WRITTEN REPLY

4 millenniumpostNationmpSATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Easing of lockdown combined with pandemic fatigue, lack of com-munity adherence to Covid-appropriate behavior, and circulation of more transmis-sible variants of SARS-CoV-2 can be attributed to the surge in new cases in some states and union territories, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

In a written reply, Minis-ter of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said, according to the WHO, there is some evi-dence to indicate higher trans-missibility for cases infected with variants of SARS-CoV-2 like Delta and Delta plus.

"The ministry of health after expert deliberations has concluded that the existing clinical management proto-col for managing COVID-19 cases suffices for treatment of cases infected with variants of COVID-19 and doesn't war-

rant any change, Pawar said."Easing of lockdown com-

bined with pandemic fatigue, lack of community adher-ence to COVID appropriate behavior and evolution and circulation of more transmis-sible variants of SARS-CoV-2 viruses can be attributed for the surge in Coronavirus cases in some states and UTs," the minister said.

Pawar was responding to a question on whether new strains like Delta plus and Lambda are more infectious and the reasons for the recent surge in coronavirus cases in some states and UTs includ-ing Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur.

Elaborating on the steps taken by the government for urgent control and contain-ment measures of the disease, Pawar said, although health is a state subject, the Union government has provided the

required technical support and also provided logistic and financial support to the states to further strengthen the existing health infrastructure to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

A three-tier arrangement of dedicated COVID-19 health facilities [(i) COVID Care Cen-ter (CCC); (ii) Dedicated Covid

Health Centre (DCHC) and (iii) Dedicated COVID Hos-pital (DCH)] has been imple-mented in the country to reduce the risk of cross infec-tion to non-COVID patients as well as to maintain conti-nuity of non-COVID essential health services in the country, Pawar said.

The central government has roped in tertiary care hospitals under other ministries to sup-plement the hospital facilities. Further, many large temporary treatment facilities were estab-lished by the DRDO to manage the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the minister said.

The isolation bed capac-ity and ICU bed capacity was also enhanced continuously, Pawar said. The daily liquid medical oxygen (LMO) supply was increased by enhancement of LMO production in steel as well as other plants. Further, restrictions were also imposed on industrial use of oxygen, the minister said.

Online digital solutions like Oxygen Demand Aggrega-tion system (ODAS) and Oxy-gen Digital Tracking System (ODTS) have been developed to ascertain the demand for medical oxygen from all med-ical facilities and to track their transportation, Pawar said.

NEW DELHI: Over 2.27 lakh pregnant women have received their first dose of anti-coro-navirus vaccine under the ongoing national COVID-19 inoculation drive, the Union health ministry said on Friday.

This can be seen as a result of regular counselling of preg-nant women by health workers and medical officers about risks of the infection and benefits of vaccination, it said. This sus-tained campaign has empow-ered pregnant women to make an informed choice on Covid vaccination, the ministry said.

Tamil Nadu is leading the way by vaccinating over 78,838 pregnant women, it said.

The ministry also said that 34,228 pregnant women have been vaccinated in Andhra Pradesh, 29,821 in Odisha, 21,842 in Madhya Pradesh, 18,423 in Kerala and 16,673 in Karnataka. As part of the campaign to dispel fears, appre-hensions, misinformation and some social taboos and issues, a guidance note to assist states and union territories (UTs) in operationalising the Covid vac-cination programme for preg-nant women was shared by the Union health ministry on July 2.

This was followed up by training of programme man-agers, service providers and frontline health workers to equip them to counsel preg-nant women and their families during antenatal care about the importance of COVID vacci-nation during pregnancy, the ministry said. AGENCIES

CHANDIGARH: Hary-ana Chief Minister Manohar Lal said that the government is focussed on spreading the teachings and thoughts of Saints and Great personalities.

The Chief Minister said this while speaking at a pro-gramme organized by the Akhil Bhartiya Aggarwal Samaj to thank Chief Minister held here on Friday.

Agrawal Community of Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh organised this pro-gramme after Chief Minister Manohar Lal announced to

name Hisar Airport as Maha-raja Agrasen International Airport.

During this programme, representatives of various orga-nizations expressed their grat-itude to the Chief Minister by presenting silver mace, shawls, turbans, souvenirs, bouquets etc.

The Chief Minister said that the people of Agrawal Com-munity are selflessly engaged in social service and have been doing social work continuously by taking forward the thoughts and culture as preached and

taught by great personalities. Society will always progress taking inspiration from such people, said Manohar Lal.

The Chief Minister said that the State Government has decided to celebrate birth anni-versary of great personalities at state level so as to take forward their thoughts and ideals so as to inspire the society.

State level functions are being organized on the occa-sion of Maharishi Valmiki, Guru Ravidas, Sant Kabir Das, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar jay-anti. Besides this, the birth

anniversaries of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji are also being celebrated in the State with great enthusiasm, added the Chief Minister.

He said that the names of big institutions of the state are also being named after great men. The Horticulture Univer-sity of Karnal is named after Maharana Pratap, Skill Uni-versity of Palwal is named after Lord Vishwakarma. Similarly, it was decided to name Hisar airport after Maharaja Agrasen, said Manohar Lal.

Govt focussed on spreading the teachings of saints and great personalities: Haryana CM

A BMC health worker collects swab sample of a passenger for COVID-19 test, at Dadar station in Mumbai, on Friday

NEW DELHI: A total of 292 children have been registered on the portal under PM CARES for children scheme to support those kids who have lost their parents due to COVID-19 pan-demic, the government said on Friday. In response to a question in Lok Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said states and union ter-ritories have been directed on July 22 to identify children eli-gible for support under the PM CARES for children scheme and register them on the por-tal that was launched under this scheme. As of July 29, about 292 children have been registered on the portal to support children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guard-ian or adoptive parents due to COVID-19 pandemic, accord-ing to the data shared by Irani in her written response.

As many as 18 states and union territories have not yet

furnished the number of such children on the portal and it currently shows zero while states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have registered the highest number of such chil-dren at 112 and 85 respectively. According to information pro-vided by states and union ter-ritories, 645 children have lost their parents to Covid since April 2021 to May 28, Irani said.

The scheme provides sup-port for education and health and will create a corpus of Rs 10 lakh for each child when he or she reaches 18 years of age. This corpus will be used to give a monthly financial support/ sti-pend form 18 years of age, for the next five years to take care of his or her personal requirements during the period of higher edu-cation and on reaching the age of 23 years, he or she will get the corpus amount as one lump-sum for personal and profes-sional use. MPOST

NEW DELHI: On his first visit to Delhi after becoming chief minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai on Fri-day met Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi and the BJP top brass after which he said the expansion of the state Cabinet could take place within the next week keeping in view the ris-ing Covid cases and floods in some districts. Bommai said he explained the necessity of "early cabinet expansion" at his meeting with BJP president J P Nadda.

"We will get the nod within the next week. I have not dis-cussed the list of probables in today's meeting. But told the need for an early decision on this issue," he told reporters here after a string of meetings.

Bommai said he may visit Delhi again on this issue and sought time from the BJP

high command.Bommai, who was elected

as the new leader of the BJP legislature party on Tuesday following a change of guard after B S Yediyurappa's resig-nation, took oath as the chief minister on Wednesday. Only Bommai took oath of office. "We discussed the state political situation. He (Nadda) told me to strengthen the party in the state. There should be a coor-dinated efforts to face several polls from local body elections to by-polls," he said. Assembly elections in Karnataka are due in the first half of 2023.

Expanding his Cabinet will be the first big challenge before Bommai as he will have to navigate maintaining a bal-ance between factions within the ruling BJP. There are several aspirants among the party old guard, and legislators who had

joined the BJP after quitting the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019. Bommai also made it clear that his government will not be a rubber stamp. "No Bommai stamp or rubber stamp, my administration will have only the BJP stamp."

At his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Bommai said he updated him about the

Covid and floods situation in detail for about 35 minutes.

"I discussed vaccination shortage in the state. The prime minister has assured full support," he said, adding, "He (Modi) told me to give a better and clean government, which the party is expecting and accordingly asked to take decisions".

On the Covid situation in the state, Bommai said that PM asked him to take measures to control the spread of the dis-ease taking note of the rising cases in neighbouring Kerala.

"I informed him that a direction has been issued to district collectors (DCs) and superintendent of police (SPs) of bordering states for better monitoring and control of the covid situation," he said.

The DCs have been told to increase the testing facili-ties and strengthen the health infrastructure in bordering dis-tricts, he added.

Besides the prime minister and BJP chief, Bommai met Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and the Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Three people were killed in rain-related inci-dents in Uttar Pradesh, while heavy showers drenched many parts of north India.

The India Meteorologi-cal Department issued a 'red alert' in Rajasthan, predicting very heavy rains in many dis-tricts of the state, while it issued an 'orange alert', warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in almost half of Madhya Pradesh, which has so far received three per cent more rain than the average.

Three trekkers were reported missing on Friday in Himachal Pradesh where over 200 people remained stranded in Himachal in the state's Lahaul-Spiti following a cloudburst and landslides ear-lier this week, while the district administration of Maharash-tra's Raigad asked 413 fami-lies, comprising 1,555 people, from the villages of Mahad and Poladpur talukas to move to safer places due to the threat of landslides.

The Shimla MeT Centre issued a yellow warning of heavy rains till August 3 as it advised people to not go near rivers and water bodies as the level may increase to heavy rains in the coming days. It also warned of landslides and predicted heavy rains in the plains and low and mid hills of the state till August 5.

The rescue operation to locate 20 people missing after a cloudburst in a village in Jammu and Kashmir's Kisht-war resumed on Friday after seven persons were found dead and 17 others were res-cued in an injured condition as the remote Honzar village in Dacchan tehsil was hit by flash floods triggered by the cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday.

Three persons, including a minor, were killed and four injured when the roof of a house collapsed on them due to

heavy rains in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district.

The incident occurred in Begarajpur village under the Mansoorpur police station area on Thursday night.

The Southwest Monsoon gained momentum due to the low pressure area over coastal Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal leading to heavy rains in Rajasthan, the Meteorologi-cal Department said and issued a 'red alert', predicting very heavy rains in many districts of the state in the next 24 hours.

Heavy rain was recorded in many areas of Rajasthan in the last 24 hours, including 268 mm rainfall was recorded in Rajasthan's Shri Mahavirji (Karauli) followed by 135 mm at Rajgarh in Churu, 114 mm at Uchhain of Bharatpur and 104 mm at Mahwa in Dausa.

Light to moderate rain and thundershowers occurred at most places in Uttar Pradesh. Rainfall was reported from Kheri, Auraiya, Jalaun, Muzaf-farnagar, Hamirpur, Bareilly, among other places.

The maximum tempera-tures on Friday hovered below normal limits at most places in Haryana and Punjab.

Bhiwani, Gurgaon and Ambala were among places in Haryana which received rains.

The India Meteorologi-cal Department also issued an

orange alert, warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in almost half of Madhya Pradesh. The alert, which is valid till Sat-urday morning, forecasts the likelihood of heavy to very heavy rainfall with thunder-storm and lightning at isolated places in 24 districts, including Rewa, Sidhi, Satna, Singrauli, Shahdol, Umaria, Anuppur, Gwalior, among other places.

In the eastern part of the country, torrential rain over the past two days owing to the for-mation of a low-pressure area over Gangetic West Bengal threw life out of gear in several districts in the southern part of the state, where streets have gone under water and rivers overtopped banks, submerging low-lying areas.

Meanwhile, the district administration of Maharash-tra's Raigad asked 413 fami-lies, comprising 1,555 people, from the villages of Mahad and Poladpur talukas to move to safer places due to the threat of landslides, an official said on Friday.

The IMD said has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls at isolated places east Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over sub-Hima-layan west Bengal and Sikkim and Chhattisgarh. MPOST

NDRF personnel during a search operation for the people missing after flash floods due to cloudburst 2 days ago, in Lahaul & Spiti district

Cabinet expansion could take place within next week: K’taka CM after meeting PM, top BJP leaders

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with New Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Bommai in New Delhi, on Friday

7 dead In the wee hours of Friday, a landslip

occurred at the ITDCL rail construction tun-nel of the Sevok Rungpo Rail Project at Mamk-hola near Rungpo under the Kalimpong Police Station. A labour camp was washed away in the boulders falling resulting in the inundation of a rivulet. The National Highway 10 to Sikkim experienced multiple landslides, including one at 29th Mile and the other at Melli. However, the debris was cleared opening up a single lane to traffic thus making the road operational. Land-slides were experienced in many other places in Kalimpong Municipal area and in Kalimpong 1 block. A number of roads were blocked in these areas owing to the slides.

“Two persons died in the incident, two oth-ers are injured and ailing at the Kalimpong Dis-trict Hospital while three others are still missing. Sniffer dogs were brought in from Siliguri along with a Disaster Management Team to conduct search and rescue operations for the missing,” said R Vimala, District Magistrate, Kalimpong.

In North 24-Parganas’ Bongaon, a mother and her son died after being electrocuted. Locals said the son went to the rooftop to put some clothes for drying and he touched a metal rope that had already become electrocuted. The vic-tim’s mother came to save him and got electro-cuted in the process. Both were rushed to the hospital where they were declared brought dead.

A 35-year-old man from Dasnagar in How-

rah was electrocuted when he entered his sub-merged meter box. He was pronounced dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital.

A mud house collapsed and fell on a 65-year-old man in Bankura’s Simlipal. He later died from severe injuries. In a similar incident in Murshid-abad’s Raghunathgunj, a mud wall collapsed on an elderly person who eventually died in the hos-pital. In West Midnapore’s Garbeta, a 55-year-old woman died after a mud wall fell on her.

On Sree Mohan Lane under Mudiali in Kol-kata, a portion of an old house collapsed. Around six members were rescued. A boundary wall of an adjacent nursing home was also damaged in the incident.

Several stretches in the city, including Cen-tral Avenue, Exide More, Park Street, Hospi-tal Road were inundated disrupting vehicular movement. Patipukur underpass in Dum Dum went under water. A private bus of 47B route almost drowned. However, the passengers were safely evacuated. Tarak Singh, Member, Board of Administrator, in charge of Drainage department of KMC, visited various lock gates. “No water-logging in the city has happened for a long time. Accumulated water has been drained out in most places,” said Singh.

Various parts of South Bengal were inun-dated. The water level in various rivers rose, including Darkeswar, Gandheswari, Shali. Water-logging was reported from several stretches in the Indus block of Bankura. Some parts of the Jangalmahal were disconnected from Bankura with road connectivity disrupted. Water-logging occurred in some parts of North 24-Parganas, Howrah. Embankments along the Shilabati river were damaged. People in more than 50 villages are apprehensive that the areas of Chandroka II block may get flooded.

RS, LS adjourned “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said

that the government is ready to discuss different issues. We want the Opposition to raise people-related matters and the government will reply. It is unfortunate that some members of the Oppo-sition have been creating a ruckus, tearing papers and throwing them at the Chair and ministers,” Joshi said.

After the first two adjournments, the Rajya Sabha proceeding was adjourned till 2.30 pm on Friday. When the House re-assembled, just after a few minutes, the Upper House was adjourned for the day as several Opposition members trooped into the Well. Some of the members of Opposition parties were carrying placards and raising slogans against the government.

In the meantime, the House took up a few of the listed questions and the ministers concerned replied to the members’ queries.

After having a meeting of like-minded Oppo-sition leaders ahead of the start of the tenth day of the Monsoon Session, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, “We only want discussion on the Pegasus issue. For that, PM Modi and Home Minister’s pres-ence is necessary. This (snooping) is treason. If they let us discuss the issue, the House will func-tion properly.”

Meanwhile, slamming the Opposition mem-ber, Prahlad Joshi said in Lok Sabha that the controversy was a “non-issue” and the govern-ment was ready for discussion on issues “directly related” to the people. On the passage of some Bills without much discussion in the Lok Sabha, he said, “We don’t want to pass Bills without dis-

cussions.” Notably, the IT Minister had dismissed the reports of the use of Pegasus software to snoop on Indians by saying that the allegations levelled just ahead of the session were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.

CBSE records...“The system also calculated Class X compo-

nent based on data taken from various Boards. It also facilitated schools in uploading of class 10 marks for non-CBSE candidates whose data could not be received from board concerned and calculation of its 30 per cent component,” he said.

The number of candidates scoring above 95 per cent has increased from 38,686 last year to 70,004 this year. However, the number of candi-dates scoring between 90-95 per cent has gone down from 1,57,934 to 1,50,152.

The number of Children with Special Needs scoring above 95 per cent is 129 while 400 stu-dents in the category have scored above 90 per cent. In CBSE-affiliated schools abroad, 99.92 per cent students have passed Class XII.

Kendriya Vidalayas and the schools under the Central Tibetan Schools Administration have achieved a 100 per cent pass percentage as against 98.62 per cent and 98.23 per cent respec-tively last year.

The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas have improved their pass percentage from 98.70 to 99.94 this year. The pass percentage of gov-ernment and government-aided schools have increased by 4.78 per cent and 7.92 per cent respectively. The pass percentage of private schools has increased by over 11 per cent since last year.

Only 6,149 students have been placed under compartment as against 87,650 students last year.

“The compartment examination will be con-ducted between August 16 to September 15. The exact dates will be announced in some time,” Bhardwaj said.

COVID-19: A majority of these samples — 17,169 — were

of Delta variant, Singh said.The Delta variant of SARS-CoV2 was behind

the deadly second wave in the country that killed thousands and infected lakhs from March to May. It is also driving the pandemic in different parts of the world. This variant of coronavirus was first detected in India.

There were 4,172 cases of the Alpha variant, followed by 217 of Beta and just one of Gamma.

Meanwhile, aviation regulator DGCA said on Friday that the coronavirus-induced suspension of scheduled international passenger flights has been extended till August 31.

“However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the compe-tent authority on a case-to-case basis,” the Direc-torate General of Civil Aviation added.

Scheduled international passenger services have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But spe-cial international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.

India has formed air bubble pacts with around 24 countries including the US, the UK, the UAE, Kenya, Bhutan and France.

From Page 1

Over 2.27 lakh pregnant

women given first dose of

vaccine: Govt

‘292 kids registered on PM CARES for scheme’

5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021

Oppn seeks JPC probe to ascertain details of farmer deaths during stir

‘India records highest no. of forest fire alerts in 3 years’

OVER 7,800 PIB ACCREDITATION GRANTED BETWEEN 2018 & 2020, SAYS GOVT NEW DELHI: Over 9,000 applications for Press Infor-mation Bureau accreditation were received between 2018-20, out of which 7,831 were granted, the Centre told Parliament on Friday. In written reply in Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Information and Broad-casting Anurag Thakur also informed that in this year so far, 2,514 media persons residing in Delhi and its periphery were granted accreditation by the bureau. He was asked about Press Information Bureau (PIB) accreditation granted in the last three years. “During 2018-20, 9,220 applications for accreditation were received of which 7,831 have been granted accredi-tation and 227 applications were rejected for non-fulfilment of the eligibility conditions,” Thakur said.

ISRO-NASA JT SATELLITE PROJECT NISER PROPOSED TO BE LAUNCHED EARLY 2023: NEW DELHI: The ISRO-NASA joint mission NISER (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite, aimed at making global measurement of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging, is proposed to be launched in early 2023, Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday. In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said NISAR is a joint Earth-Observation mission between ISRO and US space agency NASA for global observations over all land masses including the Polar cryosphere and the Indian Ocean region.

LEADERS OF SAD AND OTHER PARTIES SET TO MEET PREZ ON SAT

Nation Briefs

SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

NEW DELHI: To check wait-ing list passengers are not dropped, Indian Railways has focused on the production of Vande Bharat, Tejas, LHB, Vistadome types of coaches in trains. It has invited bids for private participation to induct 151 trains (rakes) over 12 clus-ters through Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha on Friday, rail minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed

that about five crore dropped waiting list passengers were observed in 2019-20 due to lack of capacity.

"The existing passen-ger train services shall not be affected by the operation of train services through PPP mode and these will be in addition to the existing train services. The list contain-ing details of these train ser-vices spread across the entire Indian Railway network had been uploaded on http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/Indica-

tiveRoutesfor12clusters.pdf.." the reply mentions.

The financial bids for all the 12 clusters for the PPP project have been opened on July 23, the last year. The bids are under financial evaluation.

However, the minister also clarified that there is no pro-posal for the privatization of Indian Railways.

Keeping eye on the current pandemic situation and to con-tain the spread of COVID, the Indian Railways will keep dis-continuation on all regular

passenger trains and on basis of the occupancy and waitlist position of the special trains- it operates "Clone trains", on routes where traffic demand is high, the minister also men-tioned in another reply in the Upper House. The regular pas-senger train services are sus-pended till March 23 last year.

The ministry is also in talks with the state governments and GMs of respective zones over the situation and demand of rail services, a ministry source said.

‘More production of Vande Bharat and Tejas type coaches to accommodate waiting list passengers’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAIPUR: "Fishery has been given the status equivalent to agriculture in Chhattisgarh, and now people practising fish farming will be provided ben-efits of electricity supply at sub-sidized rates and zero-interest loan facility, as provided in the agriculture. This will benefit the fishermen and help the ones who could not do fish farming due to their weak economic condition. More and more peo-ple from the fishing commu-nity should also come forward to take advantage of these pro-visions," said Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel while virtually addressing the 'oath-taking cer-emony' of the Vice-Chairman

and members of Chhattisgarh Fishermen Welfare Board from his office located in Vidhan Sabha premises here on Friday.

In the programme, Chhat-tisgarh Fishermen Welfare Board's Vice-Chairman Rajen-dra Dhimar, members Dinesh Futan, Dev Kunwar Nishad, R.N. Aditya, Prabhu Mallah, Vijay Dhimar and Amrita Nishad, took oath of office.

On this occasion, Chair-man of the Board MR. Nishad, Chairman of Chhattisgarh Text Book Corporation Shailesh Nitin Trivedi and former MLA Dilip Laharia were also present.

Congratulating the newly appointed Vice-Chairman and members of Chhattisgarh Fish-ermen Welfare Board, Chief

Minister Baghel said that every district from north to south and east to west in the state have people from fishermen community, rivers, ponds, and drains. Since time immemo-rial, people have been practic-

ing fish farming and vegetable cultivation for their sustenance. Ponds and dams are allocated for fish farming by mak-ing committees. Often it is reported that people from fish-erman community are unable to get the work and some-times even when the work is available, people of the com-munity are unable to do fish farming because of their weak economic condition. They are often forced to work for big traders for small wages. But now with facilities and benefits similar to agriculture, people will be able to do fish farming easily and profitably.

The Chief Minister said that there is good potential for fish-ery in the state.

‘Now, electricity at subsidised rates and zero-interest loan facility for fish farming’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India recorded 3,45,989 forest-fire alerts between November 2020 and June 2021, highest in the last three years and almost triple the number of alerts generated during the same period the pre-vious year, the Centre told Par-liament on Friday.

In a written reply to a ques-tion in the Lok Sabha, Minis-ter of State for Environment Ashwini Choubey said 3,45,989 forest-fire alerts were sent by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) using SNPP-VIIRS sen-sors (including large, continu-ous and repeated forest fires) between November 2020 and June 2021.

According to the details shared by the minister, the number of forest-fire alerts between November 2019 and June 2020 was 1,24,473 and between November 2018 and June 2019, the country recorded 2,10,286 such alerts.

"The number of incidents of forest fire in the country varies from year to year depending on various natural and anthropo-

genic reasons. Forest fires do occur every year during sum-mer due to various natural and anthropogenic reasons, includ-ing accumulation of inflamma-ble materials such as dry leaves, twigs, pine needles etc.

"These factors have also been highlighted in a joint study by the Ministry of Envi-ronment, Forest and Climate Change and the World Bank. Most of the forest fires in the country are ground fires in which ground vegetation etc. get burnt. The Forest Survey of India (FSI) sends forest-fire alerts to all registered users on the alert system," Choubey told the Lower House of Parliament.

According to the figures, Odisha recorded the highest number of forest-fire alerts at 51,968, followed by Madhya Pradesh (47,795) and Chhattis-

garh (38,106) between Novem-ber 2020 and June 2021.

There was a steep rise from last year in the number of for-est-fire alerts generated in these three states. While Odi-sha recorded 10,602 alerts between November 2019 and June 2020, Madhya Pradesh recorded 9,537 in the same period and Chhattisgarh 6,360.

The data showed that Delhi recorded only 14 forest-fire alerts this year, down from last year's 21.

The minister also said the responsibility of forest-fire pre-vention and management lies primarily with the respective state and the ministry sup-ports the efforts of the states and Union territories in pre-venting and controlling forest fire by providing financial assis-tance for various measures.

BAREILLY (UP): With the traditional "Kanwar Yatra" being banned in the wake of the Covid crisis, many devotes are going to post offices in western Uttar Pradesh to buy bottles of Gangajal. In Bareilly city, 350 bottles have been sold in the past six days, an official said.

Post Master General Sanjay Singh, who is the incharge for western UP, said over 300 post offices have been made sales centres in the region.

Due to the ban on "Kanwar Yatra," people will not be able to go to Uttarakhand but Gan-gajal collected from Gangotri is available at select post offices in all major cities, he added.

The postal department has kept the price for a 250 ml bot-tle at Rs 30, he said, adding that the sale is expected to increase on Mondays.

While 190 bottles of Gan-gajal were sold from the head post office, 160 were sold from other post offices in the city, Bareilly's Senior Postmaster P K Singh said. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Shiromani Akali Dal, NCP, Shiv Sena and some other opposition parties, including the Left parties, have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for a Joint Parlia-mentary Committee (JPC) probe to ascertain the details of farmer deaths during the "Kisan Andolan" against three agriculture laws.

In a letter to the speaker, leaders of various parties, including SAD, Shiv Sena, NCP, BSP, JKNC, RLP, CPI and CPI-M, have urged his inter-vention in the matter.

The letter came in the wake of Agriculture Minister Naren-dra Singh Tomar's statement that the Centre has no knowl-edge of farmer deaths.

The Opposition leaders said the minister's statement has hurt the sentiments of the farming community across the country and he should apolo-

gise as he has insulted the farm-ers. They said Tomar has stated in Parliament that the Centre does not have any record of the farmers who died during the ongoing Kisan Andolan at Del-hi's borders.

The farmers have been pro-testing against three agricul-ture laws of the Centre and demanding their scrapping since November last year.

Leaders of SAD and other parties are set to meet the presi-dent in this regard on Saturday morning.

"It is shocking that the 'annadaata' was subjected to this insult, despite clear-cut recorded proof of hundreds of farmers being martyred dur-ing the Kisan Andolan. It is even more appalling that the agriculture minister has gone on record to say that neither a study has been conducted to verify the numbers of these farmer deaths nor a study to understand the apprehensions

in the minds of farmers regard-ing the three farm laws," the leaders said.

They said this is a very seri-ous lapse on the part of the minister and alleged that "he has, in fact, misled the nation".

"We urge you to ask the minister to apologise to the farming community for his

intemperate remarks that have hurt their self-respect.

"We urge you to form a Joint Parliamentary Com-mittee led by an Opposition member to probe the entire issue and ascertain details of the total number of lives lost in the ongoing Kisan Andolan and suggest ways and means to

rehabilitate the victim families," the Opposition leaders said.

The JPC could also take feedback directly from farm-ers and their representatives about their reservations vis-a-vis the three agriculture laws and submit the same to the government for necessary action, they said in their letter.

The leaders hoped that the insult meted out to farm-ers and their democratic pro-test is addressed through the speaker's intervention, which will send out a clear signal that the temple of democracy stands with the "annadaata" and will not take any insult heaped on him.

Among the signatories to the letter were Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD), Supriya Sule (NCP), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena), Danish Ali (BSP), Hanuman Beniwal (RLP), P R Natarajan (CPI-M), M Selvaraj (CPI) and Hasnain Masoodi (JKNC).

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Com-mittee on Information Tech-nology, has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take action over ministry officials' "last-minute refusal" to attend a panel meet, which he said constituted "contempt of the House".

The panel was to hold a meeting on Wednesday to dis-cuss several issues including the Pegasus snooping allegations.

It had summoned officials from the Ministry of Electron-ics and Information Technol-ogy (MeitY), the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Communications (Depart-ment of Telecommunications) on the subject 'Citizens data security and privacy'.

However, the meeting could not take place as the BJP mem-bers of the panel did not sign the attendance register, even though they were present in the meeting room, leading to a lack of quorum. In his letter to Birla, Congress MP Tharoor

said just before the sitting, he was informed by the committee branch of the secretariat that e-mail communications have been received on July 28 after-noon from the three ministries/department that their repre-sentatives would not be able to appear before the committee.

Tharoor said the Ministry of Home Affairs forwarded their mail at 2:33 pm, MeitY at 2:44 pm and the Depart-ment of Telecommunications at 2:52 pm.

Detailing the sequence of events, the parliamentary panel chief said in his letter that MeitY had sought exemption from appearance stating the chairperson of the joint com-mittee on Personal Data Pro-tection Bill, 2019, has desired to have an urgent meeting with the secretary and other senior officers of MeitY for discus-sion/clarification on Bill at 3:45 pm in the chairman's chamber.

The Ministry of Home Affairs sought exemption on account of urgent and press-ing commitments related to the

ensuing Parliament Session, Tharoor's letter read.

Similar communication was received from the Depart-ment of Telecommunications that it will not be possible for the secretary to appear before the committee due to an urgent Parliament-related matter.

Tharoor said that as chair-person of the panel he did not excuse these witnesses from attendance. The notice inform-ing the members of the com-mittee for the sitting was issued on July 20 and the ministries/

department concerned were also informed on that day, he said, adding all the three min-istries/department had con-firmed their participation.

"The last-minute refusal of the ministries/department to appear before the commit-tee has been unprecedented and clearly constitutes breach of parliamentary privilege and contempt of the House. Besides, this has undermined the authority of a parliamen-tary committee," Tharoor said.

He urged the Lok Sabha

Speaker to take serious cog-nizance of this matter and undertake action as deemed appropriate under the rules.

Tharoor has reportedly cir-culated the letter dated July 29 to the members of the panel.

On Thursday, Tharoor had taken a swipe at the BJP members of the parliamentary panel, saying "some elements" have chosen to reduce it to a "ping pong match" that is not in the spirit of Parliament.

An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for surveil-lance using Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus spyware.

Opposition leaders includ-ing Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers –Prahlad Singh Patel and Railways and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, business-man Anil Ambani, a former CBI chief, and at least 40 jour-nalists are on list on the leaked database of NSO. It is, how-ever, not established that all the phones were hacked. AGENCIES

Take action over officials’ ‘last-minute refusal’ to attend panel meet, Tharoor urges Birla

NEW DELHI: No death has been reported due to manual scavenging, the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has told Parliament, drawing sharp reaction from activists who said that those people were being robbed of dignity even in their deaths.

Manual scavenging is banned under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabili-tation Act, 2013.

In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Min-ister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale has said 66,692 man-ual scavengers were identified.

However, on how many deaths of manual scaven-gers have been recorded, he replied, "No such deaths have been reported due to manual scavenging." The government does not identify deaths due to manual scavenging and instead calls them deaths due to haz-ardous cleaning of septic tanks and sewers.

During the last session of Parliament, on March 10, Atha-wale had said, "No deaths due to manual scavenging has been reported. However, there have been reports of death of per-sons while cleaning sewers or septic tanks."

Activists have described the government's response as a complete lack of apathy.

Bezwada Wilson, the national convener of Safai Kar-

machari Andolan, an organ-isation working to eradicate manual scavenging, said the minister had himself admit-ted that 340 people died while cleaning sewers.

"Now, he is making a state-ment technically and think-ing manual scavenging as dry latrines. So, he must mention in his statement very clearly that in dry latrines people may not die but here in septic tanks people die. The government is denying everything and in the same manner, he is deny-ing deaths due to manual scav-enging," he said. "It is not fair on the part of the government. When we kill these people we must have the courage to say that it is due to some kind of mistake that we are going to prevent. The government is denying the fundamental right of dignity to these people and is not even counting the deaths. It is a modern form of untouch-ability -- ignoring the life of a Dalit," Wilson added.

Sanjeev Kumar, the sec-retary of Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch, told PTI that the number of deaths is anyway underreported and the govern-ment denying it completely is highly condemnable. "In Delhi alone, there have been so many such deaths. It is very sad that the government is not acknowledging their deaths. Those who lost their lives are being robbed of dignity even in their deaths," he said. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at the Opposition for stalling proceedings of the Parliament, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is deputy leader in Rajya Sabha and Union Minister of Minor-ity Affairs, said on Friday that Congress has once again dis-appointed the country as the Opposition party is stalling the government work in the Par-liament on unsubstantiated, baseless and fabricated issue of Pegasus, which has no rele-vance to interests of the people of the country.

“After demanding for the last six months that the session of Parliament be convened for having an elaborate discussion on various issues, including the Covid-19 crisis, the Opposi-tion has not shown any inter-est in joining the proceedings for even a single day during the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Parliament,” he said, add-ing that the Opposition lead-ers have made it clear in their statements that this entire ses-sion has been “washed out” from their side. The country’s ‘Grand Old party Congress, is becoming “champion” of this “irresponsible politics” done by some Opposition parties, he further alleged.

“In May, Leader of the Con-gress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ran-jan Chowdhury had requested the President of India to con-vene a special session of Par-liament immediately. The Congress leader had then said that the session is very impor-tant as all the MPs want to dis-cuss the situation arising out

of the Covid-19 pandemic cri-sis in their respective areas,: he said, adding, “The Congress’ “new friend” Shiv Sena MP and leader Sanjay Raut had also reiterated the demand for the special session of Parliament.

“Even though the govern-ment put in all efforts to control the second wave of the pan-demic, convening a Parliament session at that moment was not advisable as Covid-19 proto-cols, the Opposition mem-bers continued to criticise the government’s stand for several days,” he said. The Monsoon session is underway for more than a week and the Opposi-tion is not allowing the Parlia-ment to work smoothly even for a single day, he alleged.

Besides, when on the first day of the session Prime Min-ister Narendra Modiji invited leaders of the Opposition par-ties for a special meeting to share their suggestions regard-ing the steps taken by the gov-ernment to tackle the Covid-19 and future course of action to deal the pandemic, some lead-ers, including those from the Congress, had questioned the need for a separate meeting citing that House has started, he said.

‘Congress becoming ‘champion’ of

irresponsible politics’

The move came in the wake of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar's statement that the Centre has no knowledge of farmer deaths

Centre says no death reported due to

manual scavengingActivists decry govt response

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Choubey said 3,45,989 forest-fire alerts were sent by the Forest Survey of India between Nov 2020 and June 2021

Panel was to hold a meeting on Wed to discuss several issues including Pegasus allegations

‘Kanwar Yatra’ banned: Buy

Gangajal from post offices in

western UP

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel

There is good potential for fishery in the state: Chhattisgarh CM

MOMENT OF JOY

Students celebrate after CBSE declared class 12th results, in Prayagraj, Friday PIC/PTI

2 UNDERTRIAL PRISONERS ESCAPE FROM DHANBAD JAIL DHANBAD: Two undertrial prisoners escaped from the highly-guarded Dhanbad divisional jail in Jharkhand on Friday morning, officials said. Both of them were undergoing trial in two different cases of the POCSO Act, they said. The prisoners fled after cutting an iron grill, Jail Superintendent Ajay Kumar said. “CCTV footage of the jail and outside the premises are being screened. District and police administrations have been informed about the incident and police teams are raiding their hideouts,” Kumar said. On being informed about the incident, ADM (law and order) Kumar Tara Chandra and SDM Dhanbad Surendra Kumar reached the jail and inspected the spot.

MAN WANTED IN OVER DOZEN CRIMI-NAL CASES HELD IN UP’S SULTANPUR SULTANPUR (UP): A man wanted in over a dozen criminal cases, including murder, and carrying a re-ward of Rs 25,000 on his arrest was nabbed here on Friday, police said. Ajay Dev Shukla, alias Suryabhan, was arrested by a team of the Special Task Force and the local police of the Jaisinghpur area, Additional Superintendent of Police Vipul Kumar Srivastava said. Shukla was wanted in connection with more than a dozen criminal cases such as murder, attempt to mur-der and loot, he said. He had been on the run since 2018 when he allegedly killed a liquor salesman in Bagia village, the officer added.

HARDSHIPS CAUSED BY FLOODS

ELGAR CASE

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpSATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021 | KOLKATA

NEW DELHI: To tackle the human-trafficking nexus oper-ating globally, the Union gov-ernment has decided to set up centres where women and chil-dren who are in crisis inter-nationally can get protection, said Women and Child Devel-opment Minister Smriti Irani on Friday.

With the passage of the Trafficking in Persons (Preven-tion, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021, the government will enhance cooperation interna-tionally to address cross-border trafficking, she said at the inau-gural session of the national consultation on the elimination of human trafficking.

The event has been organised by the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foun-dation and its sister group BachpanBachaoAndolan.

"On international nexus with regard to trafficking, in partnership with the Exter-nal Affairs ministry, we have decided to set up centres for

women who are in challenge or in crisis internationally so the women and children get protection.

"I am sure that with the pas-sage of the bill we will enhance that cooperation internation-ally as well so that cross-border trafficking, which is a major concern with regard to traffick-ing of women and children, can also be addressed," Irani said.

About the bill, Irani said it is for the first time that "we are looking at trafficking in its entirety as an organised crime which means that the bill will now propose a comprehen-sive list of different forms of

trafficking which are aggra-vated in nature and accord-ingly enhance punishment for the same".

The Union Minister said that in many conversations it was highlighted how the Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not live up to the expectation of the populace with regard to the stringent punishment when it comes to human trafficking.

"In our conversation with the Home Ministry we are assured that appropriate amendments to IPC will be made to complement the seri-ousness with which the govern-ment proposes the trafficking bill," she added.

"The important one aspect I would like to flag is the issue of mandatory reporting and pun-ishment for those who neglect to report a case of trafficking when it comes before them.

"We have provided provi-sion for closure of premises and eviction of offenders from properties who indulge in pur-

chase from trafficking. In the bill, we have provided for an institutional arrangement to combat trafficking, apart from rescue, recovery, rehabilitation, repatriation and reintegration of victims," she said.

Irani also highlighted that the bill has been drafted with a victim-centric approach to provide for the safety and pro-tection of witnesses and entitle them to basic benefits and ser-vices and prescribe measures for their further care, relief and compensation.

"Special courts designated in districts for speedy trials and justice is delivered within a limited time frame that has also been proposed within the exacts of the bill," she said.

Out of the Nirbhaya Fund, the government has mone-tarily provided support to every state government to ensure that every district has an anti-human trafficking unit spe-cially dedicated to this cause, Irani said. AGENCIES

Irani: Govt will set up centres for women in crisis internationally

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minis-ter Nitish Kumar has agreed, in principle, to take up the issue of a caste-based census with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav claimed here on Friday. Yadav said this while talking to reporters after calling on the chief minister inside the assembly premises, leading a delegation of leaders of the five-party Grand Alliance helmed by his RJD.

The Centre's recent state-ment in the Parliament that a caste-based census would include only the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes has triggered a fresh demand for inclusion of the OBCs, who dominate the political scenario in Bihar post implementation of the Mandal commission report. "The chief minister told us that he agreed with our demand for a caste based cen-sus. He said he was leaving for Delhi later in the day. Upon his return on August 02 he will write to the Prime Minister and seek an appointment", Yadav said.

The former Deputy CM has been suggesting that the chief minister should meet the PM heading a delegation, which could include the leader of the opposition, to broach the subject.

Notably, Kumar, an OBC himself, too has repeatedly spoken in favour of holding a caste-based census and recently urged the centre to reconsider its stance on the issue.

Besides, resolutions in sup-port of a caste-based census have been passed unanimously

by both Houses of the state leg-islature in the past.

Yadav claimed, "we also proposed that in the event of the centre not agreeing to the demand, the state should con-sider holding such an exercise on its own like Karnataka did a few years ago. The Bihar chief minister said he was not aware of the same but would look into this alternative as well".

A "social and educational survey" was held in the south-ern state way back in 2015.

At present the Congress, which was then in power, is engaged in a tussle with the rul-ing BJP over the latter's appar-ent reluctance to make public the findings of the survey.

The RJD leader sought to give a wide berth to ques-tions about alleged disparaging remarks against Biharis made by an MP of the ruling TMC in West Bengal.

"I have not heard the state-ment myself. Yesterday you (journalists) came to me with a statement purportedly made by a TMC MP who has sought to refute the remarks attributed to him", said Yadav referring to controversial utterances of MohuaMoitra. BJP MP from Godda in Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey has alleged her of call-ing him a "Bihari Goonda" during meeting of Parliamen-tary Committee on Informa-tion Technology Wednesday. Senior BJP leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi and Shahnawaz Hussain besides Hindustani AwamMorcha president Jitan Ram Manjhi have strongly condemned the alleged deroga-tory comment. MPOST

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday granted tem-porary bail to lawyer Suren-dra Gadling, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to enable him perform certain rituals for his mother who died last year.

Gadling, lodged at Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai, can be out on bail from August 13 to 21, said a division bench of Justices S SShinde and N J Jamadar.

Earlier this year, he had moved the HC through his lawyers R Sathyanarayan and senior counsel Indira Jaising against a lower court's denial of

emergency bail to him to attend his mother's funeral when she died of COVID-19 in August 2020.

His lawyers told the HC last week that as most of his family members were either hospitalized or under home isolation then, the last rites and condolence meeting for his mother were yet to be performed.

The family has decided to perform these rites on her first death anniversary on August 15, advocate Jaising told the court, seeking temporary bail for him. MPOST

NEW DELHI: India and the US on Friday renewed for another five years a global develop-ment partnership agreement that provides for jointly offer-ing assistance to their partner countries in areas of connec-tivity, trade and investments, healthcare and agriculture.

Both sides signed the sec-ond amendment to the State-ment of Guiding Principles (SGP) on Triangular Coopera-tion for Global Development, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

The SGP agreement was signed in November 2014 and the fresh amendment extended the pact’s validity up to 2026.

“Under the agreement, India and US will continue to offer capacity building assis-tance to partner countries in multiple sectors, focusing pri-marily on agriculture, regional

connectivity, trade and invest-ments, nutrition, health, clean and renewable energy, women empowerment, disaster pre-paredness, water, sanitation, education and institution building,” the MEA said.

The US embassy said the SGP between the US and India leverages the com-bined capacities of the two sides to address global devel-opment challenges facing countries in the wider region and the world, particularly in Asia and Africa.

“The US-India partnership is a significant contributor to regional and global stability and prosperity. Today the two countries reiterated their com-mitment, signing a five-year extension to the Statement of Guiding Principles on Trian-gular Cooperation for Global Development (SGP),” it said in

a release.Atul Keshap, the Charge

d’Affaires of the in India, described renewal of the agree-ment as a signal by the two sides to their joint commitment to global prosperity.

“As a signal of our joint commitment to global pros-perity, today, the United States and India renewed our global development partnership agreement, affirming our goals to meet the development aspi-rations of partner countries, particularly in Asia and Africa. #USIndiaDosti,” he tweeted.

The MEA said the second amendment expands the scope of capacity building activities undertaken jointly by India and the US and also provides for a consultative mechanism for biannual monitoring and review of activities undertaken under the SGP. AGENCIES

PUNE/ MUMBAI: Maha-rashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said reha-bilitation of people was the only solution to the hardships caused by floods, and assured that his government would provide every possible help on this front.

Speaking during his visit to Kolhapur district to take stock of the damages caused by last week's torrential rains and subsequent floods, he urged the affected peo-ple to discuss among them-selves and take a decision about their rehabilitation, and also asked the flood-prone vil-lages to unanimously pass a resolution about it.

Later, while addressing a press conference after tak-ing a review of the situation, Thackeray said that strict measures would be taken soon to find a permanent solution to the hardships faced by the people living in the flood-prone areas.

Interacting with the flood-

affected people put up at tem-porary shelters at a village in Shirol tehsil of the district, he said, "If the entire village is ready to get rehabilitated, the state government will provide all the help it needs for the process."

"Rehabilitation is the only solution to the frequent hard-ships caused due to floods. You (people from the flood-affected villages) sit and decide (about the rehabili-tation) and we will provide the help," the chief minister told the villagers.

The government was keen to find a permanent solution to the situation faced by the flood-prone villages in the state, he added.

In Narsinhwadi, villagers talked to him about the 2019 floods, last week’s flood situa-tion and the COVID-19 pan-demic, saying that these things have played havoc in their lives in the last three years. They sought assistance from him in rebuilding their lives. MPOST

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Police carried out searches in Pargwal area near the International Border (IB) here after local residents alleg-edly spotted a flying object believed to be a drone, officials said on Friday.

The operation was launched in several villages of Pargwal late Thursday evening, shortly after a local resident noticed a blinking light in the sky at around 8.30 pm and alerted fellow villagers, they said.

However, the search opera-tion was suspended late night and resumed at around 5 am this morning. However, noth-ing objectionable was recovered

during the operation.Three suspected Pakistani

drones were also sighted simul-taneously over Bari-Brahmana, Chiladya and Gagwal areas in Samba district around the same time on Thursday.

A massive combing opera-tion was carried out in the areas where the movement of the sus-pected drones was picked up throughout the night and in the morning. However, noth-ing was found on the ground, a police official said.

Personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) fired a couple of rounds towards one of the drones in Chiladya before it returned to the Pakistani side,

officials said.The other two drones dis-

appeared from the sky shortly after hovering over sensitive security installations at Bari Brahmana and along Jammu-Pathankot highway in Gagwal, they said. The latest sightings were recorded nearly a week after police shot down a Pak-istani drone carrying five-kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED) material in the border belt of Kanachak near here.

There has been a spurt in drone activities, especially after the bombing of Indian Air Force (IAF) Station in Jammu on June 27, resulting in injuries to two security personnel. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The Enforce-ment Directorate on Friday said it has attached a London hotel worth Rs 58.61 crore in connection with a money laun-dering probe against realty firm Unitech Group and its promot-ers Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra. The hotel, named Bed and Breakfast, is owned by a company called Ibourn-shorne Limited, a UK-based associate firm of the Carnoustie group.

A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act (PMLA) has been issued by the ED to attach the property. The case is based on a number of Delhi Police eco-

nomic offences wing (EOW) FIRs filed by homebuyers against the Unitech Group and its promoters. The agency claimed in a statement issued here that "tainted funds of Rs 325 crore belonging to home-buyers were diverted to Car-noustie group". "Out of this, Rs 41.3 crore was diverted to UK after substantial layering through Carnoustie Group, India and through Indesign Enterprises Pvt Ltd, Cyprus."

These funds, it alleged, were "used for purchasing the shares of Ibounshorne Limited, UK in the name of Carnoustie Man-agement India Pvt Limited, an entity belonging to Carnoustie

group".For attaching an asset

based out of India, the ED approaches its counterpart in the respective country under established international money laundering and other financial crimes cooperation protocols and freezes its sale and transfer.

The ED filed a criminal case under various sections of the PMLA early this year against the Unitech Group and its pro-moters over allegations that the owners -- Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra -- illegally diverted over Rs 2,000 crore to Cyprus and the Cayman Islands. AGENCIES

Rehabilitation only solution: Maha CM

Searches carried out after suspected drone sighting near IB in Jammu HC grants temporary

bail to Surendra Gadling

Money laundering probe of Unitech group: ED attaches London hotel

India, US renew global development partnership deal for 5 years

‘Nitish has agreed to take up with Centre

issue of caste census’

We have provided provision for closure of premises, and eviction of offend-ers from properties who indulge in purchase from trafficking, says WCD Min

Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha attends all-party legislators meeting with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Congress leader Ajit Sharma and Deputy CM Tarkishor Prasad and Renu Dev during the Monsoon Session of State Assembly in Patna PIC/PTI

Smriti Irani

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday issued fresh summons to former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and his son to appear before it next week in connection with a money laundering case probe, official sources said.

The development comes on a day the Supreme Court adjourned Anil Deshmukh’s plea, which sought protection from any coercive action by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the criminal case registered under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act (PMLA), and said it would hear his petition on August 3.

The 71-year-old NCP poli-tician and his son, Hrishikesh Deshmukh, have been asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case on August 2 at the ED’s office in south Mumbai. This is the fourth summons to Anil Deshmukh.

The notice has been issued under provisions of the PMLA as the agency wants to further record his statement in this

case, sources said.Anil Deshmukh has

skipped at least three sum-monses of the federal probe agency in the past for question-ing in the case. His son and wife too were summoned and they also did not appear.

He recently issued a video statement stating that he would appear before the ED “after” the apex court’s decision on his petition. “I had received ED’s summons after which I filed a petition in the Supreme Court. I will go to the ED to record my statement after the SC’s decision on my petition,” Anil Deshmukh had said.

The summonses were issued in connection with the criminal case registered under the PMLA related to an alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket in the Maha-rashtra police establishment that led to Anil Deshmukh’s resignation in April.

The agency had last month raided his premises in Mumbai and Nagpur apart from that of his aides and some others. AGENCIES

Anil Deshmukh, son summoned again

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: An action plan aimed at strengthening result-oriented cooperation among the BRICS countries to combat ter-rorism, radicalisation and terror financing will be adopted at a meeting of the national security advisors of the grouping next month. The Ministry of Exter-nal Affairs said on Friday that the action plan was finalised at a meeting of the BRICS Coun-ter-Terrorism Working Group (CTWG) that took place virtu-ally on July 28 and 29.

“The BRICS Counter-Ter-rorism Action Plan is one of the key deliverables during India’s chairship of BRICS and will be adopted at the meeting of BRICS National Security Advi-sors scheduled next month,” the MEA said.

BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings

together five of the largest devel-oping countries of the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade.

India has been strongly pitching for deeper coopera-tion among the BRICS mem-ber countries in dealing with terrorism, extremism and radicalisation.

At the CTWG meeting, the

BRICS countries exchanged views on the assessment of the threat from terrorism at national, regional and global level and resolved to further enhance counter-terrorism cooperation in line with the action plan, the MEA said in a statement. It said the countries also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

The 6th meeting of the CTWG was held under the

chairship of India. “The main outcome of the working group meeting was the finalisation of the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Action Plan containing spe-cific measures to implement the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by BRICS Leaders in 2020,” the MEA said.

“The action plan is aimed at further strengthening result-oriented cooperation between BRICS countries in areas such as preventing and combating ter-rorism, radicalisation, financing of terrorism, misuse of internet by terrorists, curbing travel of terrorists, border control, pro-tection of soft targets and infor-mation sharing,” it said.

Mahaveer Singhvi, joint sec-retary for counter-terrorism in the MEA, chaired the CTWG meeting while senior coun-ter-terrorism officials from all BRICS countries participated in it.

BRICS finalises action plan to combat terrorismBRICS brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world

7millenniumpost Editorial mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021

Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to letter2editor.mp@gmail.com. You can also send your comments to The Editor,

Millennium Post, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002

DearEditor

Folk festivals exhibit the same characteristics irrespective of continental differences. Almost all folk cultures of different communities in the world have something in common. The other day I was reading about our Assamese festival ‘Mohoho which is celebrated in most parts of lower Assam. Mohoho is celebrated on the full moon day of ‘Aghon’ month when cowherds of different villages gather together with bamboo sticks in one hand and a lantern in the other. They go to every family in the village and sing ‘Mohoho’ songs. The whole purpose of this festival is to get rid of mosquitoes and other insects to keep the villagers safe. The villagers offer gifts in the form of money, hen, ducks or whatever is available in the house. Halloween is another folk festival which has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain where people would light bonfires and put on weird costumes to ward off the ‘ghosts’. The Celts who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. In the modern form of Halloween, kids knock at the doors of their neighbours and ask a question “trick or treat?” and are offered candies, clothes or other such gifts. Somewhere these two festivals have something in common. While the latter is famous all over the world, the former is still under the blanket of anonymity. I urge the state government and especially the department of culture to put special emphasis on these types of folk festivals to give them a new lease of life. It is seen that Halloween is now celebrated even in Assam which is not a bad thing, we have to inculcate the good, no matter where it comes from but then we will be a laughing stock before the world if we do not know and celebrate our own culture.

— NOOPUR BARUAH, TEZPUR via email

EDITORIALReturning to normal

At the height of global shutdowns last year, 188 countries closed their schools, affecting over a billion children who have been placed at risk of falling behind on their education. Naturally, just

as work-from-home was made a norm at the time, so was learning-at-home or remote learning. UNICEF noted that around 80 per cent of the countries that went for school shutdowns resorted to some kind of remote learning prac-tice. But over a year of remote learning, it has become clear that remote learning cannot automatically be custom-fitted to take the place of learning in a school environment. The single biggest reason for this is the considerable digital gap between students from different backgrounds and countries. UNICEF data shows that around 31 per cent or 463 million school-going children could not be reached through broad-cast or digital media as they lacked the necessary infrastruc-ture at home or because they were not targeted by policies to effectively implement remote learning. With remote learn-ing currently failing to be as comprehensive a solution to the education problem during the pandemic, the focus once again has shifted to swiftly reopening schools and doing so safely. On Tuesday, the UN insisted that schools closed due to the pandemic must reopen. James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund told reporters that “schools should be the last to close and the first to reopen”. He added that it was a “terrible mistake” to reopen bars before reopening schools. He also emphasised that “Reopening schools cannot wait for all teachers and students to be vaccinated.” Elder ref-erenced a grim prediction made by the World Bank last year in regards to the 1.6 billion school children whose educa-tion was being delayed, stating that without remedial action, this generation of students could incur as much as $ 10 tril-lion in lost earnings. Back in India, last week, a group of 50 academicians, doctors, lawyers and parents from Maharash-tra, Delhi and Karnataka have written to their respective state CMs to urge them to reopen schools. The argument is one that is increasingly being used worldwide. The pandemic is not going away any time soon and COVID-19 may actu-ally be here to stay. In this case, shutting down to avoid the risk of infections is a strategy with limited effectiveness and the negatives soon outweigh any positive safety benefits. The petitioners stated that children being forced to stay at home not only creates learning loss but also leads to mental distress and reduced social skills. Furthermore, the petitioners have pointed out that despite the scientific consensus that it would be best to reopen schools with restrictions, most education institutes throughout the country remain shut. The sugges-tion from the group is not to blindly dive in however but rather reopen educational institutions in a staggered man-ner, starting with pre-primary and primary sections before moving on to secondary education. At the same time, other measures must also be undertaken such as priority vaccina-tions for teaching staff and reduced number of days for phys-ical attendance of schools. But of course, nothing is quite so simple. While schools are being reopened across the world, new waves of COVID are also causing them to be shut down elsewhere. The general scientific consensus according to the available evidence is that children are less likely to be infected by the virus and even if they are infected, they are less likely to go through more severe illnesses. But it is also important to note that the effect of new COVID variants such as the infectious Delta variant has not been adequately studied as of now. While there is evidence that not only is the Delta vari-ant more infectious but also more likely to cause hospitalisa-tions, there is simply no similar data for younger age groups. What is known is that children can still act as highly effective carriers of the virus precisely because it is less likely for them to exhibit any serious symptoms. This becomes a particular cause for concern with the more virulent Delta variant. At the same time, vaccinations for children are yet to properly kick-off worldwide. But this cannot mean that inaction is the answer. Social distancing, masking, proper ventilation and timely vaccination of everyone around the school going chil-dren from teaching staff to family members are just some of the measures that can be adopted to help children get back to school faster and safer.

millenniumpost.in

SHUTAPA PAULCELEBRATING DIVERSITY

Unequivocal empowerment

Her body, her choice

Dalit Bandhu Scheme is expected to empower the community financially in Telangana and serve as a model for other states to emulate

The Tokyo Olympics has seen female athletes defy sexist clothing rules; this resistance was long overdue

Telangana Chief Min-ister, K Chandrashek-har Rao has come up with yet another

innovative and revolutionary empowerment scheme called the Dalit Bandhu Scheme which is bound to change the life and financial status of Dalits in Telangana forever. In the long run, it will become a model for other states to emulate, which would be left with no alternative except to adopt the same. The scheme, which will be introduced on a pilot basis from Huzurabad assembly constituency in Telangana, could herald a sea change in the lives of Dalits and become a torchbearer for Dalit empowerment elsewhere in the country.

As the old adage goes: ‘Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime’. This is what exactly CM KCR is doing. He is giving the DBT cash required for the Dalit families to start a business of their own so that they can become traders, businessmen, service sector operators etc. to make themselves economi-cally self-reliant and live with dignity which will ensure free-dom for them from all sorts of discrimination they have been facing to date.

Telangana Dalit Bandhu scheme will help Dalits define their own development and become partners in the pro-cess of development. The scheme has three factors — monitoring the implementa-tion of the scheme, evaluation of the results, and creating a security fund for the benefi-ciaries through government’s participation.

Dalit Bandhu is not just a government’s welfare pro-gramme but also a massive people’s movement, aimed at empowering each Dalit fam-ily financially. It can be com-

pared to Telangana statehood agitation initiated and led by KCR with an aim to have a sep-arate Telangana state, which was eventually achieved.

Ambedkar had shown the path for Dalit empowerment and their rightful status in soci-ety. CM KCR, who studied the subject as part of the Centre for Subaltern Studies, understood the problem and found solu-tions. He realised that if Dalits are economically empowered, they would be away from any discrimination. He has been upset that Dalits who have the talent and skills are kept away from the production sector in the name of untouchability. He is also upset that women are confined to the non-produc-tive sector because of existing gender bias.

CM KCR has carefully and innovatively defined, designed and developed the scheme so that it helps Dalits come out of their weak economic situation and directly get into earning money through legal means in a dignified way. In the sec-tors where there is an ample

opportunity to get financially developed — such as fertil-izer shops, medical shops, rice mills, wine shops etc. — the government will provide res-ervations for Dalits. With the Rs 10 lakh per family assis-tance, Dalits could establish themselves without any sup-port from the banks or other such institutions.

Under the scheme, Dalits can set up their choice of business such as power til-ler, harvester, paddy planting machine, autos, tractors, poul-try, tent house, dairy industry, oil mill, grinding mill, cement and bricks businesses, indus-try, hotel, steel, cement and construction material shops, photography, videography, mobile phone shops, mobile tiffin centres, hotels, cloth emporium, furniture shops etc.

Under the scheme, Dalit Security Fund is also being set up on a permanent basis with the government and benefi-ciary participation. This fund will be managed by District Collectors with a committee

of beneficiaries. Every year, a minimum amount will be deposited and it will be con-tinued regularly to further help Dalits become financially strong.

The scheme envisaged Rs 1,200 crore for assisting as many as 11,900 families in 119 assembly segments. The plan is to allot Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 2,000 crore in addition to Rs 1,000 crore budgetary allo-cation under the scheme. In the coming four to five years, the government aims to spend around Rs 45,000 crore on the implementation of the scheme and help Dalits achieve finan-cial freedom. If necessary, the government is even prepared to spend up to Rs one lakh crore.

Like the Rythu Bandhu Scheme, beneficiaries of the Dalit Bandhu Scheme would also get the assistance amount directly into their bank accounts. This would be done by profiling Dalit fami-lies. Since the issues faced by Dalits are not uniform and dif-fer across rural, semi-urban

and urban areas, classification will be done along these cate-gories to implement the Dalit Bandhu Scheme properly.

To track, monitor and supervise the implementation of the scheme, CM KCR put the technology to its best use. Identity cards for Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries will have an elec-tronic chip inserted for each beneficiary. The transactions will be monitored through a bar code.

In the Huzurabad con-stituency, 20,929 families — Huzurabad Mandal (5,323 families), Kamalapuram Man-dal (4,346 families), Veena-vankamandal (3,678 families), Jammikunta Mandal (4,996 families), Illanthagunta Man-dal (2586 families) — would be scrutinized for selection of the beneficiaries. For the eli-gible Dalit families, according to the guidelines, Dalit Bandhu Scheme would be implemented in the saturation mode.

The light emanating from the success of the scheme in Huzurabad will spread not only in Telangana but country-wide. As the CM said, “Inspira-tion should begin somewhere. Huzurabad is becoming the one and people there should feel proud of it”. He said, rising over the party, ideology and other differences, that every-one should work for the suc-cess of the scheme without any fights or differences. If Dalits get victory in Huzurabad and subsequently create awareness all over the state then it will be an exemplary action. If Dalit Bandhu Scheme is successful, the development of Dalits will be ensured. The Huzurabad victory of Dalit Bandhu will be etched permanently in the history of the country.

With inputs from VJM Diva-kar. The writer is the Chief Public Relations Officer to

the CM of Telangana. Views expressed are personal

VANAM JWALA NARASIMHA RAO

To be a woman is to be told what to do. Reli-gious books, laws, diktats, guidance,

rules — through the ages all of these have been written by men, and among other instruc-tions, they have essentially set out to tell a gender completely different from their own, how to conduct themselves. Obvi-ously, these rules have been challenged by resolute women, who not only refused to follow the commands of men but also dared to change them.

Even today, guidelines set by men are being defied by women. In some cultures, men have forced women to cover up from head to toe while in some they have been ordered to don skimpy uniforms with overtly sexual overtones. The discussion over the clothing of sportswomen has been trig-gered once again, this time at the Tokyo Olympics. It started when the Norwegian female volleyball team refused to wear bikini bottoms during a match against Spain and swapped them for the com-fortable and more utilitarian shorts. Each player was fined 50 euros by the European Handball Federation, which created a huge uproar. Ger-man gymnasts followed suit by opting to wear unitards rather than their usual linge-rie-like apparels.

For far too long, women in competing sports have been compelled to dress a certain way — a way that sexualises them and their body parts even if they don’t want it. The dress code for some of the games in the Olympics have been sex-ist for a while but have been tolerated in silence. This time though, history is being etched with the female resistance against the sexist clothing gaining momentum. Sporting outfits are meant to be func-tional and aid performance,

however, unnecessary sexu-alisation of the uniform only draws attention away from the athlete’s prowess and grit, and more to their bodies. Objecti-fication of the female form has long been a factor of discom-fort to female athletes.

These clothing rules are apparently put in place by the federations of each sport, obvi-ously men. Volleyball, gym-nastics, figure skating — all have uniforms that exude sex-uality. While male volleyball players wear loose tops and shorts, women wear tank tops with their stomachs showing and bikini bottoms (just read this rule about female cloth-ing in volleyball) “with a close fit and cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg” and a maximum side width of four

inches. Going by the aesthetics of their clothing, the women rolling in the sand are to per-form, not for the sport, but for the lascivious eye of the male observer.

Interestingly, the so-called rules were quite different when women were first allowed to participate in the Olympics in 1900. Women were made to cover up with long dresses, high necks, and loose sleeves. This was done so that men don’t get distracted by their female counterparts. In 1908, the bottom half of the legs could be shown but uniforms were still conservative, and over the years, with women breaking (yes, ‘breaking’ not ‘making’ because that’s how hard they had to push to com-pete in the Olympics) their

way into newer sports, the uniforms too evolved. The evolution of sporting attire happened with a view to make female clothing more feminine to take away from the mascu-linity of competing in sports (yes, rolling my eyes while I write this) while still helping the women attract husbands. So, whether the women were asked to hide their sexuality a century ago or expose it now, the ‘rules’ were always spelt out by men; women played no role. It’s in this context that the revolt of these gutsy women at the Tokyo Olympics gains importance.

Some sportswomen have a flamboyant style; their var-ious looks, like with Serena and Venus Williams, often cre-ate headlines. But it’s always

been their decision to dress the way they want, pushing their limits of comfort and agility. They are not governed by rules that compel them to cavort about in revealing gar-ments even when they don’t want to. British Paralympian Olivia Breen, who is partici-pating in the Tokyo Olympics said she was “disgusted” when an official told her that her shorts were, well, too short. How female athletes decide to dress and determine their comfort levels, is best left to them. No matter what the woman decides to do, flaunt or cover her body, should ulti-mately be her choice — her body, her rules, right?

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views

expressed are personal

The plan is to additionally allocate Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore under the scheme to empower Dalits

Olympic athletes’ stance against sexualisation should bring in the overdue changes; not just heap praises

The light emanating from the success of the scheme in Huzurabad will spread not only in Telangana but countrywide

For far too long, women in competing sports have been compelled to dress a certain way — a way that sexualises them and their body parts even if they don’t want it

8 millenniumpostWorldmpSATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021 | KOLKATA

Delta variant may spread as easily as chickenpox: Reports

CAUSE MORE SEVERE INFECTION

NEW YORK: The Delta vari-ant of the Coronavirus may cause more severe illness than all other known versions of the virus and spread as easily as chickenpox, media reports quoting an internal document from the US health authority said.

The document from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlines unpublished data that shows fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant, first identified in India, at the same rate as unvaccinated people, reports said.

The contents of the doc-ument - a slide presentation - were first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.

Dr Rochelle P Walensky, the director of the CDC, acknowl-edged on Tuesday that vacci-nated people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant carry just as much virus in the nose and throat as unvaccinated people and may spread it just as readily, if less often.

But the internal document lays out a broader and even grimmer view of the variant.

The Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the sea-

sonal flu and smallpox, and it is as contagious as chickenpox, according to the document, a copy of which was also obtained by The New York Times.

The Delta variant -- orig-inally known as B.1.617.2 -- might cause more severe disease, according to the document.

The immediate next step for the agency is to acknowledge the war has changed, the docu-ment said.

The document's tone reflects alarm among CDC

scientists about Delta's spread across the country, the NYT quoted a federal official, who has seen the research described in the document, as saying.

The agency is expected to publish additional data on the deadly variant on Friday.

The CDC. is very concerned with the data coming in that Delta is a very serious threat that requires action now, the official said.

There are roughly 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vac-

cinated Americans, according to data collected by the CDC as of July 24 that was cited in the internal presentation.

But the agency does not track all mild or asymptomatic infections, so the actual inci-dence may be higher.

Infection with the Delta variant produces virus amounts in the airways that are ten-fold higher than what is seen in people infected with the Alpha variant, which is also highly contagious, the docu-ment noted.

The amount of virus in a person infected with Delta is a thousandfold more than what is seen in people infected with the original version of the virus, according to one recent study.

The CDC document relies on data from multiple stud-ies, including an analysis of a recent outbreak in Province-town, Massachusetts, which began after the town's Fourth of July festivities.

Walensky told CNN that the Delta variant "is one of the most transmissible viruses we know about. Measles, chicken-pox, this -- they're all up there."

And she said everyone in schools -- students, staff and visitors -- should wear masks at all times.

"The measures we need to get this under control -- they're extreme. The measures you need are extreme," Walensky said.

"The bottom line was that, in contrast to the other vari-ants, vaccinated people, even if they didn't get sick, got infected and shed virus at similar levels as unvaccinated people who got infected," Walter Oren-stein, who heads the Emory Vaccine Center and who viewed the documents, told CNN. But vaccinated people are safer, the document indicates. AGENCIES

There are roughly 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans, according to data collected by the CDC

Evacuation flight brings more than 200 Afghans to US

WASHINGTON DC: The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, including scores of children and babies in arms, to resettlement in the United States on Friday, and President Joe Biden welcomed them home.

The evacuation flights, bringing out former interpreters and others who fear retaliation from Afghanistan's Taliban for having worked with American servicemembers and civilians, highlight American uncertainty about how Afghanistan's gov-ernment and military will fare after the last US combat forces leave that country in the com-ing weeks.

Family members are accom-panying the interpreters, trans-lators and others on the flights out.

The airliner carrying the 221 Afghans in the special visa pro-gram, including 57 children and 15 babies, according to an inter-nal US government document obtained by The Associated Press, touched down at Wash-ington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, according to the commercial FlightAware tracking service.

Biden called the flight "an important milestone as we continue to fulfill our prom-ise to the thousands of Afghan nationals who served shoul-der-to-shoulder with Ameri-can troops and diplomats over the last 20 years in Afghanistan. He said he wanted to honor the military veterans, diplomats and others in the U.S. who have advocated for the Afghans.

Most of all, Biden said in a statement, I want to thank these brave Afghans for standing with the United States, and today, I am proud to say to them: Wel-come home.'"

Russ Travers, senior deputy homeland security adviser at the National Security Coun-cil, told reporters on Thursday as the Afghan families were en route that the flight "rep-resents the fulfillment of the U.S. commitment and honors these Afghans' brave service in helping support our mission in Afghanistan and in turn, help-ing to keep our country safe.

The Biden administra-tion calls the effort Operation Allies Refuge. The operation has broad backing from Republi-can and Democratic lawmakers and from veterans groups. Sup-porters cite repeated instances

of Taliban forces targeting Afghans who worked with Americans or with the Afghan government.

Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly approved leg-islation that would allow an additional 8,000 visas and USD 500 million in funding for the Afghan visa programme.

Biden announced earlier this year the US would end its military role in Afghanistan by Sept 11, honoring a withdrawal agreement struck by former President Donald Trump. Some administration officials have expressed surprise at the extent and speed of Taliban gains of territory in the countryside since then.

Biden said that although US troops are leaving Afghanistan, the US we will keep supporting Afghanistan through security assistance to Afghan forces and humanitarian and development aid to the Afghan people.

The newly arrived Afghan people will join 70,000 others who have resettled in the United States since 2008 under the spe-cial visa program.

Subsequent flights are due to bring more of the roughly 700 applicants who are far-thest along in the process of getting visas, having already won approval and cleared secu-rity screening.

The first arrivals were screened for COVID-19 and received vaccines if they wanted them, said Tracey Jacobson, the US diplomat running the effort.

They were expected to stay at Fort Lee, Virginia, for about seven days, completing medi-cal exams and other final steps, Jacobson said. AGENCIES

US to hold 2nd lottery for H-1B visa applicantsWASHINGTON DC: In what can be good news for hun-dreds of Indian IT profession-als seeking the H-1B work visa, the US' immigration agency has decided to conduct a rare second lottery for the most sought-after visas to decide on the successful applicants who could not make it in the first random selection.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Thursday that a deci-sion was taken after deter-mining that the computerised draw of lots for H-1B visas con-ducted early this year did not give them enough numbers of the Congressional mandated H-1B visas.

The H-1B visa, the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupa-tions that require theoretical or technical expertise.

The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the cap.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

We recently determined that we needed to select addi-tional registrations to reach the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 numeri-cal allocations.

On July 28, we selected pre-viously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process, the USCIS said in a statement.

The petition filing period based on registrations selected on July 28 will begin on August 2 and close on November 3. Individuals with selected registrations will have their myUSCIS accounts updated to include a selection notice, which includes details of when and where to file, it said. AGENCIES

US warns China building more nuclear missile silos

TAIPEI: The US military is warning about what analysts have described as a major expansion of China's nuclear missile silo fields at a time of heightened tension between Beijing and Washington.

Researchers at the Feder-ation of American Scientists estimate that China has approxi-mately 250 underground missile silos under construction after they used satellite imagery to identify a new field being built in western China.

US Strategic Command tweeted a link Wednesday to a story in The New York Times on the federation's findings, which were published this week.

The public has discovered what we have been saying all along about the growing threat the world faces and the veil of secrecy that surrounds it, said Strategic Command, which oversees America's nuclear arsenal.

The field in the Xinji-ang region is the second one reported this summer. In June, researchers at the James Mar-tin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California identified another field under construc-tion in neighboring Gansu prov-

ince. China has not commented on the reports. Asked about the latest one, the Foreign Ministry said Friday that it was not aware of the situation.

The reports come at a time when relations between the U.S. and China have plunged to their worst level in decades. The two nations remain sharply at odds over a range of issues, including trade, technology, cybersecurity, human rights and China's increasingly assertive foreign policy under President Xi Jinping.

The expansion of China's nuclear force would likely fac-tor into any U.S. calculations for potential military confron-

tations over flashpoints such as Taiwan or the South China Sea.

The outspoken editor of the state-owned Global Times newspaper said this week that US institutions and the media are hyping the reports about the missile fields to pressure China, but that the nation shouldn't be cowed.

Look at what American poli-ticians are saying about China and look at the provocative actions of their warplanes and warships near China, Hu Xijin said. "China must fully step up construction of its military force and nuclear deterrence as the cornerstone of its national security.” AGENCIES

Congress passes Bill to fund Capitol

security, Afghan visasWASHINGTON DC: Con-gress has overwhelmingly passed emergency legislation that would bolster security at the Capitol, repay outstanding debts from the violent January 6 insurrection and increase the number of visas for allies who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war.

The 2.1 billion bill now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature. The Senate approved the legislation early Thurs-day afternoon, 98-0, and the House passed it immedi-ately afterward, 416-11.

Senators struck a biparti-san agreement on the legisla-tion this week, two months after the House had passed a bill that would have provided around twice as much for Capi-tol security.

But House leaders said they would back the Senate version anyway, arguing the money is urgently needed for the Capitol Police and for the translators and others who worked closely with U.S. government troops and civilians in Afghanistan.

The bill loosens some

requirements for the visas, which lawmakers say are espe-cially pressing as the U.S. mili-tary withdrawal enters its final weeks and Afghan allies face possible retaliation from the Taliban.

The money for the Capitol including for police salaries, the National Guard and to bet-

ter secure windows and doors around the build-ing comes more than six months after the

insurrection by former President Donald Trump's

supporters. The broad support in both chambers is a rare note of agreement between the two parties in response to the attack, as many Republicans still loyal to Trump have avoided the sub-ject. The former president's loy-alists brutally beat police and hundreds of them broke into the building, interrupting the certification of Biden's elec-tion win. Democrats have said that if Congress didn't pass the bill, money would start run-ning out for officers' salaries by August and that the National Guard might have to cancel some training programs. AGENCIES

Japan expands virus emergency after record spikes amid Games

TOKYO: Japan expanded a Coronavirus state of emergency to four more areas in addition to Tokyo on Friday following record spikes in infections as the capital hosts the Olympics.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared an emergency in Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, near Tokyo, as well as in the western city of Osaka, effec-tive Monday until August 31. Emergency measures already in place in Tokyo and the south-ern island of Okinawa will be extended until the end of August, after the Olympics and well into the Paralympics which start August 24.

Five other areas, includ-ing Hokkaido, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka, will be placed under less-stringent emergency restrictions. Tokyo has reported a record increase in cases for three days in a row, including 3,865 on Thursday, before log-ging another 3,300 on Friday. The cases have doubled since last week, although officials say

the surge is unrelated to the Olympics.

Officials said 2,995 are hos-pitalised, about half the current capacity of 6,000 beds, with some hospitals already full. More than 10,000 others are isolating at home or in desig-nated hotels, with nearly 5,600 waiting at home while health centres decide where they will be treated. Tokyo is also setting up a facility for those requir-

ing oxygen while waiting for hospital beds. "Infections are expanding in the Tokyo and western metropolitan areas at an enormous speed that we have never experienced before," Suga said as he declared the expan-sion of the state of emergency. If the spike continues at the cur-rent pace with the spread of the more contagious delta variant, Japan's medical system could collapse, he said. AGENCIES

Tokyo has reported a record increase in cases for 3 days

US urges UN Council to press Myanmar to return to democracy

UNITED NATIONS: A senior US diplomat urged the U. Secu-rity Council on Thursday to press Myanmar's military to stop violence and restore democracy, warning that with COVID-19 surging and hunger increasing, the longer we delay, the more people die.

Deputy US Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis said Myan-mar is reeling from a surge in COVID-19 cases and faces a burgeoning health catastrophe as a direct result of the mili-tary's brutality and adminis-trative failures since its coup six months ago.

The violence and military crackdown that followed have also displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and up to 2.8 million additional peo-ple may be facing food short-ages, he said.

His appeal for Security Council action follows a call two days ago by Tom Andrews, the UN special investigator on human rights in Myanmar, for the Security Council and the

UN's 193 member states to push for an emergency COVID ceasefire in light of an explo-sion of Coronavirus infections and deaths.

Too many in Myanmar have needlessly perished and too many more will die without action by the United Nations, Andrews warned.

The UN must act immedi-ately to halt the military junta's attacks, harassment and deten-tions in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis ... so that doctors and nurses can provide life-saving care and international organi-zations can help deliver vac-cinations and related medical care.

DeLaurentis told the infor-mal council meeting that Myanmar's military has said it doesn't plan to honor com-mitments it made in April at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN. Myanmar, previously known as Burma, belongs to the 10-member regional group. AGENCIES

Philippines extends travel ban to India, 9 other nations

till Aug 15MANILA: The Philippines on Friday extended travel restric-tions for those coming from India and nine other countries till August 15 to check the spread of Delta COVID-19 vari-ant amid a surge in the num-ber of Coronavirus cases in the country. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte approved the recom-mendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to extend the travel restrictions currently imposed to 10 countries start-ing August 1 until August 15, 2021, Presidential Spokesper-son Harry Roque said in a Face-book post.

The countries include India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Ban-gladesh, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, he said.

The Philippines imposed the travel ban on India initially on April 29 which was extended. On July 14, the government extended the travel ban, which covers India, Pakistan, Bangla-desh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, UAE, and Oman till July 31. AGENCIES

Health workers treat a COVID-19 patient at the Dr. Suyoto General Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia PTI

President Joe Biden PTI

People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus walk on crossings in Tokyo PTI

The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by Congress

The first arrivals were screened for COVID-19 and received vaccines if they wanted them, said Tracey Jacobson, the US diplomat running the effort

millenniumpost NO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

CHANGE OF NAMEI, Rabiul Mondal @ Rabiul Islam S/o Euosop Mondal R/o Vill. Purba Polta P.O. Gobindapur, P.S. Swarupnagar, Dist. North 24 Parganas, do hereby declare that my name is recorded in my Pancard (ADWP1362G) as Rabiul Islam, Present Rabiul Mondal shall henceforth be known Rabiul Mondal and Rabiul Islam is same and one identical person vide affidavit sworn before the Ist class Judicial Magistrate Basirhat Court on 05-01-2021.

9millenniumpost Business mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021

FRANKFURT: Europe emerged from a double-dip recession in the second quar-ter with stronger than expected growth of 2% over the quarter before, according to official fig-ures released Friday, as hard-hit southern European economies Spain, Italy and Portugal deliv-ered surprisingly strong results.

But the economy in the 19 countries that use the euro currency still lagged pre-pan-demic levels and trailed the faster recoveries in the US and China, with the delta variant continuing to cast a shadow of uncertainty over the upturn.

The growth figure for the April-June quarter announced Thursday by the European Union’s statistics agency Euro-stat compared to a drop of 0.3% in the first quarter as the 19 countries that use the euro endured a double-dip recession after a rebound in mid-2020. The second-quarter growth fig-ure was stronger than the 1.5% foreseen by market analysts.

Italy was a major positive surprise, growing 2.7% and Por-tugal boomed with 4.9%, while growth returned in major econ-omies France, which grew 0.9% compared to the previous quar-ter, and Germany, which saw growth of 1.5% after a sharp

drop of 2.1% in the first quarter. German auto companies in par-ticular have shown strong profits despite a shortage of semicon-ductor components as global auto markets recover, particu-larly for the higher-priced vehi-cles sold by Mercedes-Benz and by Volkswagen’s Audi and Porsche luxury brands.

Yet the recovery lags the one in the US, where the economy surpassed its pre-pandemic level during the quarter. Fri-day’s figures leave the eurozone 3% smaller than before the virus outbreak, according to Capi-tal Economics. China was the only major economy to con-tinue growing during pandemic year 2020.

The stronger performance in southern Europe may be the result of stronger spending by households, said Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Eco-nomics. Spain, with consumer spending up 6.6%, both illus-trated the rebound and under-lined how far it has to go, since gross domestic product remains 6.8% below where it was before the pandemic. Lag-ging vaccinations held back the European economy in the first part of the year but have made steady progress since. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Petroleum Min-ister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday promised an open-door policy to resolve any issue faced by the industry as he sought for-eign and private investments to boost domestic oil and gas production.

At an investor meet called to promote India’s latest offering of discovered fields for bidding, Puri said India, besides offer-ing the world’s fastest-growing energy markets, also offers a rule-based regime.

“The government stands ready to partner with you both in the identification of what remedial steps we need to take in the ecosystem and what need to do to overcome hurdles,” he said.

The Indian economy, he said, is poised to take off and the same is going to contribute to the growth of energy demand. And to meet that, domestic exploration and production has to be increased.

Puri said he wants for-eign and private firms to get involved in the Indian oil and gas exploration and production.

“If anyone, anywhere in the world is thinking of good investment in energy, India is a good place to begin,” he said.

Addressing representatives of private and foreign com-

panies who joined the meet online, he said, “I look forward to many of our friends who are on the screen... to intensify their interest here.”

“My doors are open... tell me what is it we have to do to make sure that you are able to take business decisions,” he said.

As many as 32 oil and gas blocks with 75 discoveries have been offered in the Discovered

Small Field (DSF) round-III. These small and marginal fields were discovered by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corpora-tion (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) but they were not eco-nomically viable to be devel-oped due to the fiscal regime and their small size.

Under DSF, liberal terms including pricing and market-ing freedom are offered, mak-ing them viable.

Stating that he is very bull-ish about the Indian economy, the minister said per capita energy consumption in India is one-third of the global aver-age and it will rise as incomes grow and urbanisation rises.

Responding to a partici-pant’s comment, Puri said dealing with the government was a “dreadful experience” 20 years ago.

The participant had com-

paring ease of doing business now and in the past, stating that being called by the Director-ate General of Hydrocarbons -- the oil ministry’s technical arm for oil and gas production -- was a “dreadful experience 20 years back”.

“Somebody said 20 years ago DGH was a dreadful expe-rience. I don’t know why they regard only DGH as a dreadful experience. 20 years ago any-thing to do with the govern-ment was a dreadful experience. I mean it. I was a civil servant for 39 years,” the minister said.

In DSF-III, 11 onshore blocks, 20 offshore and one deepwater area are being offered for bidding. These blocks, spread over about 13,000 square kilometers, hold 75 oil and gas discoveries with a combined resource base of 230 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas.

In the previous two rounds between 2016 and 2018, 54 blocks, taken away from ONGC and OIL, were awarded.

According to DGH, 29 field development plans entailing $1.76 billion investment have been submitted.

Oil production from the areas awarded in two rounds of DSF is envisaged to reach 1.3 million tonnes by 2024 and gas output to touch 2.9 billion cubic meters.

NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Cor-poration (IOC), the country’s top oil firm, on Friday reported a three-fold jump in its June quarter net profit on the back of higher refining margins and inventory gains.

Standalone net profit of Rs 5,941.37 crore in April-June was up 210 per cent when compared with Rs 1,910.84 crore a year earlier when lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic hammered fuel demand and squeezed margins.

The profit was down 32 per cent in comparison to the pre-ceding quarter, mostly because of mobility being hit by the onset of the second wave of COVID-19 in April and May, the company’s stock exchange filing showed.

Talking to reporters on the earnings, IOC Chairman Shri-kant Madhav Vaidya said the company earned $6.58 on turn-ing every barrel of crude oil into fuel in June quarter.

This is compared with a loss (negative gross refining margin) of $1.98 per barrel in the same period last year. The refining margins included a component of inventory gain, IOC Director (Finance) Sandeep Gupta said without elaborating.

Inventory gains arise when crude oil is bought at a par-ticular price but by the time it is shipped to India and pro-cessed into fuel, rates would have gone up. And since the refinery gas prices are bench-marked to global rates, an inven-tory gain is booked.

Inventory loss is booked when the reverse happens. After netting out inventory gain, the core gross refining margin (GRM) was $2.24 per barrel.

Revenue from operations was up 74 per cent at Rs 1.55 lakh crore.

IOC and its unit, Chennai Petroleum, control close to a third of India’s 250 million tonne refining capacity.

Vaidya said petrol consump-tion reached pre-COVID levels

in first week of July while die-sel is at about 88 per cent of the pre-COVID levels.

“If a third wave does not strike, we should reach pre-COVID levels for diesel by Diwali,” he said adding ATF, which is at 50 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels, may take by the end of the fiscal to reach normal consumption levels.

Air travel continues to be restricted, impacting sales.

Refinery run-rate, or capac-ity utilisation, is likely to touch near normal in a quarter, Vaidya said.

IOC refineries operated at 88.5 per cent of their capacity in April-June mainly because of the lower demand of fuel by consumers. “The run-rate is closer to 90 per cent in the cur-rent month,” he said.

Last year, when a nation-wide lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus infections, refinery run-rate had almost halved. Petrol sales rose 32 per cent in the quarter to 2.7 million tonne and diesel by 22 per cent to 7.8 million tonne.

Cooking gas LPG sales how-ever fell 1.8 per cent to 3 million tonne as lockdown last year had made people eat at home more

than outside, he said.“Petrol sales are up due to

rise in personal vehicle use as public transport is not fully operational and people have concerns about using public transport,” he said.

IOC has planned a capital spending of Rs 28,500 crore in the fiscal year to March 31, 2022. Of this, it spent about Rs 4,000 crore in the first quarter (April-June).

Vaidya said global crude oil prices had fallen to around $70 per barrel from $75 after pro-ducers and their partners, called OPEC+, earlier this month agreed to raise output. But they have crept back to $75 levels.

Product cracks or the mar-gin on diesel have narrowed to $4.67 per barrel in July from $5.14 in the previous month. The same on petrol widened to $7.64 from $4.78 while that on jet fuel (ATF) shrunk to $2.12 from $2.34.

Moreover, IOCon Friday said it will partner with Malay-sia’s Petronas for natural gas and transportation fuel retail-ing business.

IOC and Petronas have a 50:50 joint venture, IndianOil Petronas Pvt Ltd (IPPL) for import of LPG. It sells LPG to commercial customers who are not allowed to use subsidised cooking gas sold to households by state energy firms.

This joint venture will “diversify into natural gas and transportation fuel retailing business,” IOC Chairman Shri-kant Madhav Vaidya said. IPPL will set up petrol pumps as well as get into the city gas distribu-tion business, he said.

He however said detailing of the business has not been done yet. IOC owns 32,303 out of 77,709 petrol pumps in the country. It also has licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in several geographical areas.

Vaidya said IPPL will have its own branding and marketing. MPOST

Puri seeks foreign, private investments in oil, gas output

At an investor meet Oil Minister said India, besides offering world’s fastest growing energy markets, also offers a rule-based regime

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Highlights » The Indian economy, he said, is poised to take off and the same is going to contribute to the growth of energy demand. And to meet that, domestic exploration and production has to be increased » ‘If anyone, anywhere in the world is thinking of good investment in energy, India is a good place to begin,’ he said » As many as 32 oil and gas blocks with 75 discoveries have been offered in the Discovered Small Field (DSF) round-II

In the previous two rounds between 2016 and 2018, 54 blocks, taken away from ONGC and OIL, were awarded. According to DGH, 29 field development plans entailing $1.76 billion investment have been submitted

IOC Q1 profit jumps 3-fold to `5,941.37 crore

NEW DELHI: Power Minister R K Singh on Friday said that providing quality and reliable power supply round-the-clock is a key factor for accelerated growth of the economy.

“Providing 24x7 quality and reliable power supply with enhanced consumer satisfac-tion is very important as this is the key ingredient for accel-erated growth of economy and country at large,” Singh said in a statement after chairing a review meeting.

He chaired the virtual meet-ing with Additional Chief Sec-retaries/Principal Secretaries (Power/Energy) and CMDs/MDs of DISCOMS of all States/UTs. Minister of State for Power Krishan Pal Gurjar, Union Sec-retary Power Alok Kumar and

senior power ministry officials were also present at the meeting.

During the meeting, reforms being undertaken in the power sector as well as on the guide-lines of the new Reforms Based and Results Linked Distribution Sector Scheme were reviewed. IPDS and DDUGJY Schemes were also reviewed. At the meet-ing, Singh said the power sec-tor has witnessed tremendous growth over the past few years

in the areas of generation, trans-mission and distribution. With a total installed generation capac-ity of 384 GW, the country has transformed from a power defi-cit to a power surplus country.

Transmission network has been expanded to connect the whole country into one inte-grated grid with inter-regional transfer capacity of over 1 lakh MW, he noted.

With the joint efforts of the Centre and state govern-ments, universal access has been achieved, with 100 per cent electrification of the vil-lages and electrification of 2.82 crore households, the minis-ter said and emphasised that in today’s scenario, all policies and programmes should be consumer centric. PTI

IOC Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya

IOC on Friday said it will partner with Malaysia’s Petronas for natural gas and transportation fuel retailing business

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department on Friday said it has issued refunds worth over Rs 43,991 crore till July 26 in the current fiscal.

It comprises personal income tax refunds of Rs 13,341 crore and corporate tax refunds of Rs 30,651 crore.

“CBDT issues refunds of over Rs 43,991 crore to more

than 21.03 lakh taxpayers between 1st April, 2021 to 26th July, 2021. Income tax refunds of Rs 13,341 crore have been issued in 19,89,912 cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs 30,651 crore have been issued in 1,12,567 cases,” the I-T department tweeted. PTI

I Refunds worth `43,991 cr issued till July 26, says I-T department

NEW YORK: European regu-lators have fined Amazon 746 million euros ( $886 million) for data protection violations.

Amazon said in a regulatory filing on Friday that the Luxem-bourg National Commission for Data Protection issued a deci-sion against the company ear-lier this month, claiming that its processing of personal data did not comply with the European Union general data protection regulation. Amazon said that it believes the decision is with-out merit and that it will defend itself vigorously.

Amazon has come under scrutiny by the EU before. In November regulators filed anti-trust charges against the com-pany, accusing Amazon of using its access to data from com-panies that sell products on its platform to gain an unfair advantage over them.

While the U.S. initially criticized the EU for targeting American companies, it has more recently started taking a tougher line on big tech as well, suing Google last year for abusing its dominance in online search and advertising.

In May a court annulled a ruling by the European Com-mission that a tax deal between Amazon and Luxembourg’s gov-ernment amounted to illegal state support. AGENCIES

EU regulators fine Amazon $886 million

European economy grows 2%, ending

double-dip recessionNEW DELHI: Industry chamber CII on Friday said it has entered into an agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) to accelerate COVID vaccination in small towns and rural areas.

The chamber said the part-nership with Serum Institute will help catalyze industry participation to reach out to communities at large.

“Overall, industry has been playing a responsible part in ensuring vaccination of workers and their families, but clearly given the scale and urgency of the vaccination program, we can complement and supplement the efforts of the government in this piv-otal mission for the nation,” CII President T V Narendran said in a statement.

On the development, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said it is essential that all stakeholders work together towards carry-ing out the inoculations.

“Our partnership with CII will be a good way to close the gaps, as there is plenty of supply of Covishield available for distribution,” Poonawalla said.

As part of the pan-India vaccine demand aggrega-tion exercise, CII under-

took a survey with response from over 3,000 companies in 196 cities.

“This identified a require-ment of over 7 million sin-gle dose vaccines. As of July 23, 2021, a total of 34,75,301 (3.4 million) single doses have been administered through 430 camps held across the country by the CII and the CII Foundation,” it added.

To further scale up the efforts, CII said it is now map-ping the vaccination need requirement state-wise and setting up vaccination camps along with its members focus-ing on reaching Tier 2/3 cities and rural areas. PTI

CII to work with SII to expand Covid vaccination in small towns, rural areas

Quality 24X7 power supply key for accelerated growth‘With a total installed generation capacity of 384 GW, India

has transformed from a power deficit to a power surplus’

Power Minister R K Singh

KMDA TENDER NOTICE e-NIT No: 03/EE(Plng Divn.)/SD

&SWM/KMDA of 2021-2022 Online e-Tender is invited by the Executive Engineer (Civil), Planning Division, SD&SWM Sector, KMDA, Unnayan Bhavan, Block-B, 1st floor, Salt Lake City, Kolkata-700091, from eligible, reliable, resourceful and experienced agencies / firms / companies / individual contractors for the work,, Name of Work, Estimated Value, Earnest Money Deposit, Time of Completion, Operation and Maintenance of the 30 KLD Capacity Septage Treatment Plant at Pramod Nagar constructed for the South Dum Dum Municipality including cost of all required Manpower, Chemicals & Reagents Electricity & Transport charges, Gardening, Repairing of all civil Structures, Machineries & Laboratory equipments complete for one year., Rs.3041754.75, Rs.60,835/-, 12 months, Last date & time of online Tender submission: 13.08.2021 upto 18:55 hrs., For details contact the above office or visit both websites. (KMDA-254) www.kmdaonline.org www.wbtenders.gov.in

ICA- T9159(3)/2021ICA- T9163(3)/2021

KMDA TENDER NOTICE e-NIT No: SE(EB)/T-03 of 2021-22

e-Tender is invited by the Superintending Engineer (EB), W.S. Sector, KMDA, Unnayan Bhavan, Block-A, 6th floor, DJ-11, Sector-II, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700091, from reliable, experienced and resourceful Agencies for the work,, Name of Work, Estimated Amount, Earnest Money, Time of Completion, Cost of tender Paper, Design, fabrication and erection of Pipe Crossing steel bridge over Howrah Drainage canal near Amra sabai club of about 42 meter span and laying of one no. of 200mm dia (ID) DI pipe in Howrah Municipal Corporation on Turnkey Basis., Rs.4912434.32, Rs.98,300/-, 02 months, Rs.2,500/-, Last date & time of online Bid submission: 25.08.2021 upto 13:00 hrs., For details contact the above office or visit both websites. (KMDA-258) www.kmdaonline.org

ICA- T9167(3)/2021

ICA- T9172(3)/2021

ICA- T9178(4)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE N. I. T No.- 16of G.M (E)-II of 2021-2022

WB HIDCO invitesonline item rate open tender in two bid system for “Cen-tre for Career Development and Excellence of Sustainability at Nazrul Tirtha in New Town, Kolkata”for resourceful bonafide Govt. Contactors and eligible outsiders in the manner as described in the detailed tender notice available on http://wbtenders.gov.in on and from 30.07.2021 at 11.00 A. M.Corrigendum / Addendum, if any to this e-tender would appear only on above Website and not be published.

General Manager (Engg)-IIWB HIDCO

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE

NOTICE INVITING TENDERe-N.I.T No.10 of G.M. (Elect) of 2021-22

Sealed Single Part tenders on Percentage basis are invited for the work of “ Engage-ment of Manpower for Day to day Operation and Maintenance of internal and external electrical installation including operation of Sound System, Pumps, Diesel Generator set, Elevators & A.C. system and cleaning of electrical equipment’s, fixtures and other appliances observations of sub-station including HT & LT switch gear, LT panels & Transformer at Various offices under WBHIDCO for One Year i.e. 365 days.”.” from the agencies having ability in execution for similar nature of work. Last date of receiving application 09-08-2021 upto 6.00 P.M. Detailed may be seen in our website at www.wbhidcoltd.com.

ICA- T9191(3)/2021

ICA- T9200(4)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

10 millenniumpostBusinessmp SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021 | KOLKATA

KARGIL/GURUGRAM: Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), a Maharatna CPSU under Min-istry of Power, Gov-ernment of Indiahas successfully commis-sioned 40-kms of 11kV trans-mission line from Lalung to Darchik under rural electrifi-cation scheme namely PMDP (Prime Minister Development Program). The line is used for electrification of enroute adjoining villages namely

Lalung, Silmoo, Batalik, Dar-chik, Hurdass, Sinikcey and Garkon.With commissioning of this line, all remote villages in Aryan Valley (in Kargild-istrict) are now connected to the National Grid through 220 kV Srinagar Leh Transmission System. Earlier, these villages were dependent on DG sets for power supply which was avail-able for limited time only.

In addition to above, elec-trification of 20 villages in

Leh district has also been completed by POWERGRID which involves commissioning of remote villages like Largiab in Nubra Valley.

Besides, number of 11 kVlines totaling 150 km, con-necting villages Wanla to Fatoksar, Lamayaruto Atishe & Fotorse and Saspol area have been established by POW-ERGRID and it connects all enroute villages.

POWERGRID has built a

state-of-the-art 220/66 kV Gas Insulated Sub-stations(GIS) at Drass, Kargil,Khalsti and Lehconnecting Ladakh region to the national grid through the 341-km of 220 kV trans-mission line emanating from Srinagar. 220 kV Srinagar-Leh transmission system has been transferred to POWERGRID as ISTS and we are committed to maintain high system availabil-ity and provide reliable power to entire Ladakh region. MPOST

MUMBAI: Mastercard has submitted a new audit report to the Reserve Bank of India, it told Reuters, as it seeks to overturn a ban on card issu-ance linked to concerns over the US giant’s handling of data processed abroad.

The RBI on July 14 sent panic-waves through Indian banking partners by announc-ing a ban, effective from July 22, to prevent the U.S. giant from issuing new cards. It cited non-compliance with 2018 rules

that required it to store pay-ments data only in India. read more The RBI imposed the ban after deciding a “system audit report” submitted by Mastercard’s auditor Deloitte in April was unsatisfactory, three sources familiar with its

decision-making said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Two of the sources said the RBI was reviewing the new report.

In a statement to Reuters, Mastercard said Deloitte per-formed a “supplemental audit” and a new report was submitted on July 20 to the RBI, six days after the ban was announced.

“We look forward to con-tinuing our conversations with the RBI and reinforcing how seriously we take our obli-

gations. We are hopeful that this latest filing provides the assurances required to address their concerns,” it said. Deloitte declined to comment, citing confidentiality obligations. The RBI did not respond to a request for comment.

The sources said the RBI was concerned Deloitte’s audit did not clearly state how long Mastercard took to purge Indi-ans’ card data that is processed abroad before being stored locally. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The central gov-ernment’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 2.74 lakh crore or 18.2 per cent of the full year’s Bud-get estimate at the end of June, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Friday.

The fiscal deficit at the end of June 2020 was 83.2 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) of 2020-21. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was at Rs 2,74,245 crore at the end of June.

For the current financial year, the government expects the fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP or Rs 15,06,812 crore.

The fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and reve-nue for 2020-21 was 9.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), better than 9.5 per cent projected in the revised esti-mates in the Budget in February.

As per CGA data, the gov-ernment received Rs 5.47 lakh crore (27.7 per cent of corre-sponding BE 2021-22 of total receipts) up to June 2021. The amount comprises Rs 4.12 lakh crore of tax revenues, Rs 1.27 lakh crore of non-tax revenues and Rs 7,402 crore of non-debt capital receipts. The receipts were 6.8 per cent of BE at the

end of June 2020.Non-debt capital receipts

consists of recovery of loans worth Rs 3,406 crore and disin-vestment proceeds of Rs 3,996 crore.

Further, Rs 1,17,524 crore was transferred to state govern-ments as devolution of share of taxes by the Government of India up to June 2021.

At the end of June, CGA said

that total expenditure incurred by the government was Rs 8.21 lakh crore (23.6 per cent of cor-responding BE 2021-22). Out of the total amount, Rs 7.10 lakh crore was on revenue account and Rs 1.11 lakh crore was on capital account.

Out of the total revenue expenditure, Rs 1.84 lakh crore was for interest payments and about Rs 1 lakh crore was on account of major subsidies.

Centre’s fiscal deficit touches 18.2% at June end

The fiscal deficit at the end of June 2020 was 83.2 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) of 2020-21

Government of India AccountsApril-June 2021

Total ExpenditureTotal Receipts

` 5,47,399 crore

(27.7% of Budget Estimates

for 2021-22)

` 8,21,644 crore

(23.6% of Budget Estimates

for 2021-22)

Revenue

Account

` 7,10,148

crore

Capital Account

crore` 1,11,496

Tax Revenue

` 4,12,680

crore

Non-Tax

Revenue

` 1,27,317

crore

Non-Debt Capital

Receipts: crore` 7,402

KBK graphicsInfo

` crore transferred to states1,17,524

as devolution of share of taxes

Source: Ministry of Finance

(Loans Recovery: 3,406 cr +`

Disinvestment Proceeds: 3,996 cr)`

Highlights » In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was at Rs 2,74,245 crore at the end of June » For the current financial year, the government expects the fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP or Rs 15,06,812 crore » The fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue for 2020-21 was 9.3 per cent of the GDP, better than 9.5 per cent projected in the revised estimates in the Budget in February

At the end of June, CGA said that total expenditure incurred by the government was Rs 8.21 lakh crore (23.6 per cent of corresponding BE 2021-22)

Markets succumb to last hour stock selling as Sensex falls 67 points, Nifty below 15,780

MUMBAI: The country’s foreign exchange reserves declined by $1.581 billion to stand at $611.149 billion for the week ended July 23, RBI data showed on Friday. The reserves had reached a lifetime high of $612.730 billion after rising by $835 million in the previous week ended July 16, 2021.

In the reporting week, the drop in the reserves was mainly due to a fall in foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major compo-nent of the overall reserves, as per weekly data by the Reserve Bank of India. FCAs declined by $1.12 billion to $567.628 billion.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves. Gold reserves were down by $449 million to $36.884 billion in the reporting week.

The special drawing rights (SDRs) with the IMF dipped by $3 million at $1.546 billion.

The country’s reserve posi-tion with the IMF also declined by $9 million to $5.091 billion in the reporting week, as per the data. PTI

Forex reserves fall $1.581 bn to $611.149 bnNEW DELHI: The output of

eight core sectors grew 8.9 per cent in June, mainly due to a low base effect and uptick in production of natural gas, steel, coal and electricity, official data showed on Friday.

The eight infrastructure sec-tors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilis-ers, steel, cement and electric-ity had contracted by 12.4 per cent in June 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions imposed to control the spread of corona-virus infections.

In May this year, these key sectors had recorded a growth of 16.3 per cent, while it was 60.9 per cent in April. According to the commerce and industry ministry data, production of coal, natural gas, refinery prod-ucts, steel, cement and electric-ity jumped by 7.4 per cent, 20.6 per cent, 2.4 per cent, 25 per cent, 4.3 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, in June 2021.

The same stood at (-) 15.5 per cent, (-) 12 per cent, (-) 8.9 per cent, (-) 23.2 per cent, (-) 6.8 per cent and (-) 10 per cent in the corresponding month last year. Crude oil output con-tracted by 1.8 per cent during the month under review as against a negative growth of 6 per cent in June 2020.

Fertiliser segment recorded a growth of 2 per cent in June.

During April-June period this fiscal, the eight sectors grew by 25.3 per cent against a con-traction of 23.8 per cent in the same period last year.

Commenting on the data, ratings agency ICRA’s Chief

Economist Aditi Nayar said con-tinued unlocking by the states, improved mobility and higher electricity demand, pushed up in part by the lull in rainfall, are expected to boost the core sec-tor growth to 11-14 per cent in July 2021.

Despite the gradual unlock-ing, the sequential uptick in the overall core index in June 2021 was mild at just 1.1 per cent , with double-digit increases in cement and fertilisers, damp-ened by a month-on-month

decline in petroleum refinery products and coal, with the lat-ter reflecting the onset of the monsoon, she said. “We expect the IIP (index of industrial pro-duction) to expand by 12-17 per cent in June 2021, exceeding the core sector growth, as some of the other high frequency indi-cators such as GST e-way bills and auto output have displayed a solid sequential uptick in that month, engendered by the relax-ation of state level restrictions,” she added. PTI

Output of eight core sectors up 8.9% in June

According to the commerce and industry ministry data, production of coal, natural gas, refinery products, steel, cement and electricity jumped by 7.4%, 20.6%, 2.4 per cent, 25%, 4.3% and 7.2%, respectively, in June 2021

Gold reserves were down by $449 million to $36.884 billion in the reporting week

NEW DELHI: Retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 5.57 per cent in June, mainly due to rising prices of certain food items.

“Year-on-year inflation for the month stood at 5.57 per cent compared to 5.24 per cent for the previous month and 5.06 per cent during the correspond-ing month a year before,” a labour ministry statement said.

According to the statement, food inflation stood at 5.61 per cent against 5.26 per cent in May 2021 and 5.49 per cent in June 2020.

The All-India CPI-IW (Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers) for June 2021 increased by 1.1 points and stood at 121.7 points.

On one-month percentage change, it increased by 0.91 per cent with respect to the pre-vious month, compared to a

rise of 0.61 per cent recorded between corresponding months a year ago.

The maximum upward pres-sure in current index came from food & beverages group con-tributing 0.72 percentage points to the total change.

At item level, rice, fish, poultry/chicken, eggs, edible oil, apple, banana, brinjal, car-rot, onion, potato and tomato, among others, saw price rise.

Electricity, kerosene oil, bar-ber/beautician charges, doc-tor’s/surgeon’s fee and petrol too contributed to the rise in the index.

However, this increase was checked by items like arhar dal, coconut fresh with pulp, mango, pomegranate, water-melon, lemon and tamarind, which put downward pressure on the index.

At centre level, Shillong

recorded maximum increase of 6.2 points, followed by Puduch-erry and Bhopal with 3.5 points and 3.1 points, respectively.

Among others, 13 centres observed an increase between 2 to 2.7 points, 30 centres between 1 to 1.9 points and 32 centres between 0.1 to 0.9 points. On the other hand, Indore recorded a maximum decrease of 1.1 points.

Among others, seven cen-tres observed a decline between 0.1 to 0.7 points. There was no change in two centres.

Director General Labour Bureau D P S Negi said, “The rise in Index during June, 2021 is in line with all other con-sumer price indices compiled and released by different agen-cies in the country and the rise in prices of Food & Beverages and Fuel items are responsible for increase in index.” PTI

Retail inflation for industrial workers rises to 5.57% in June

MUMBAI: The Sensex and Nifty closed modestly lower on Friday after investors offloaded banking, finance and metal stocks in the last hour of trade amid sluggish global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 66.23 points or 0.13 per cent to close at 52,586.84, while the broader NSE Nifty dipped 15.40 points or 0.10 per cent to 15,763.05.

The market remained range-bound for the most part of the session as investors kept their exposure lower due to weak global cues, traders said.

The selling pressure was witnessed towards the fag-end when European markets opened in the negative zone, they added.

Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Sensex pack,

shedding 2.59 per cent, fol-lowed by Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Tata Steel, Titan, Asian Paints and Axis Bank. On the other hand, Sun Pharma topped the

winners chart with a leap of 10.06 per cent after the drug major reported a net profit of Rs 1,444.17 crore for the June quarter, compared to a net loss

of Rs 1,655.60 crore in the year-ago period.

Tech Mahindra, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto, HCL Tech, M&M and NTPC were among the other gainers, spurting up to 7.24 per cent. On a weekly basis, the Sensex fell 388.96 points or 0.73 per cent, while the Nifty shed 93 points or 0.58 per cent.

Sector-wise, the BSE metal, energy, bankex, oil & gas and capital goods indices slumped as much as 1 per cent, while healthcare, utilities, auto and consumer durables notched up gains.

In the broader markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap indi-ces climbed up to 0.69 per cent.

The rupee fell 13 paise to close at 74.42 against the US dollar. PTI

Rupee depreciates 13 paise to close at 74.42 against US dollar

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Friday said that 1.37 crore candidates have been enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) as on July 10 since the launch of the scheme, cov-ering more than 700 districts and 37 sectors.

Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that under the PMKVY scheme, as on July 10, around 1.29 crore candidates are trained/oriented across the country against the target of 1.32 crore.

“Under PMKVY , as on July 10, 2021, 137 lakh candidates have been enrolled since the launch of the scheme covering more than 700 districts,” Dhar-mendra Pradhan said in a writ-ten reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Skill India Mission aims to empower the Indian youth through skill development. Under the Skill India Mission, the ministry is implementing its flagship scheme PMKVY which has two components - Short Term Training (STT) and Recognition of Prior Learning.

As on July 10, he said an expenditure of Rs 8,805.82 crore has been made against the budgetary allocation of Rs 10,641 crore. Under the third phase of the PMKVY, the tar-get is to train 8 lakh candidates across the country, he said in another reply. PTI

‘1.37 crore candidates

enrolled under PMKVY since launch’

NEW DELHI: High tariffs faced by domestic exporters in the European Union and the UK as compared to zero duty access given by them to nations like Bangladesh and Cambo-dia are affecting India’s exports performance, Parliament was informed on Friday.

Minister of State for Tex-tiles Darshana Jardosh also said that the textile industry has been hugely affected due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

India’s textiles exports in 2020 stood at $29.61 billion, while the shipments of Bangla-desh, Vietnam and Cambodia in that year were aggregated at $37.95 billion, $37.10 billion

and $7.77 billion, respectively.“High tariffs faced by Indian

exporters in key markets such as the EU and the UK as com-pared to zero duty access given to competing nations like Ban-gladesh and Cambodia are affecting India’s exports per-formance,” she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

In a separate reply, she said textiles exports to China have

increased to $1.56 billion in 2020-21 as against $1.13 bil-lion in 2019-20.

“The global pandemic of Covid-19 has adversely affected the textile sector such as restric-tion on social gathering, migra-tion of labourers, disruption of supply chain, thus affecting all the stakeholders from farm-ers to traders/exporters in the value chain. However, the situ-ation improved with time and production and exports looked up,” she said.

Jardosh also said that dur-ing cotton season 2020-21 (up to July 23, 2021), the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has procured seed cotton equiva-lent to around 91.893 lakh bales

under MSP operations.In another reply, the min-

ister said due to Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lock-down imposed by the various state governments, the produc-tion activities in all National Textile Corporation (NTC) Limited mill units including Minerva mill units were put on hold from March 25, 2020.

“During this period, the employees were paid salary regularly as per their status by NTC out of its cash reserve. After lifting up of the lock-down and as per availability of raw material, NTC restored operation of 14 mill units from January 2021 onwards,” she said. PTI

High tariffs faced by Indian exporters in EU, UK affecting exports performance: Govt

NEW DELHI: Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) has listed its foreign currency bonds and green bonds on NSE IFSC’s debt securities market platform.

The company has raised a capital of $2.25 billion by issuing bonds in different tranches under the $4 bil-lion global medium-term note and $500 million green bonds programmes, NSE IFSC said in a statement on Friday. NSE IFSC launched debt securities market for list-ing and trading of debt securi-ties in multiple foreign currency bonds, green bonds, masala bonds and notes in March 2018.

The debt securities market platform provides an efficient international listing process to issuers with a minimum turn-around time and investment opportunities for investors from across the world. “IRFC is happy to be listing on NSE Interna-tional Exchange at GIFT City. This gives us immense oppor-tunities to reach out to interna-tional investors and raise funds using a wide variety of prod-

uct and currencies,” Amitabh Banerjee, Chairman and Man-aging Director of IRFC, said.

He also said that IRFC will continue to focus on the railway sector and play a critical role in the development, modernisa-tion and growth of the Indian railways. Ravi Varanasi, Chief Business Development Officer of NSE, said development of a robust corporate bond market is the key to effective implemen-tation of large projects across sectors. Debt securities market at NSE IFSC enables the listing and trading of debt securities in foreign currencies as well as rupee-denominated masala bonds, he said. PTI

IRFC lists foreign currency, green bonds on NSE IFSC

Mastercard submits new audit to India after ban over data handling

POWERGRID successfully commissions 11 kV transmission line in Ladakh villagesElectrification of 20 villages in Leh has also been completed by POWERGRID

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on July 30, 2021

9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4 9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4

Previous

close:

52,653.07

Previous

close:

15,778.45

NSE NIFTYIntra-day on July 30, 2021

BSE SENSEX

Open:

52,792.36

High:

15,862.80

Open:

15,800.60

-15.40

(-0.10%)

High:

52,910.23

Low:

15,744.85Low:

52,533.91Close:

52,586.84

Close:

15,763.05

-66.23

(-0.13%)

11millenniumpost Sport mpKOLKATA | SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021

Fearless Lovlina assures India of first boxing medal at Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO: Debutant Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) assured India of their first boxing medal at the ongoing Olympic Games when she upstaged former world champion Nien-Chin Chen of Chinese Taipei to enter the semifinals here on Friday.

The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four where she will square off against reigning world cham-pion Busenaz Surmeneli of Tur-key, who hammered Ukraine’s Anna Lysenko in her quarter-final bout.

Borgohain, a two-time world championship bronze-medallist and the first female boxer from Assam to qualify for the Games, displayed tremendous calm in the face of a plucky opponent, who had beaten her in the past.

She was aggressive to start with, followed it up with a tre-mendous counter-attacking game and kept her defence tight in the final three minutes to emerge triumphant.

“She stuck to the plan of counter-attacking and taking advantage of her height. She had tried being aggressive with this girl in the previous bouts and lost. So this time, we told her ‘aap khade raho, usko aane do’,” national coach Mohammed Ali Qamar said.

“And what a cool mind she displayed, never got excited.

Never tried to barge in. She exe-cuted the plan to perfection. Had she tried to go on offen-sive, she would have ended up getting hit,” he said.

The youngster, who was laid low by COVID-19 last year and missed a training trip to Europe because of it, let out a huge scream after the referee raised her hand, pent up emo-tions finally getting the better of her.

She had caught the infec-tion while visiting her ailing mother Mamoni Borgohain,

who underwent a kidney trans-plant last year. Her father Tiken is a small-time businessman and her elder sister are also kick boxers.

Borgohain started out as a kick boxer herself before Sports Authority of India coach Padum Boro, while scouting for talent in Assam’s Golaghat district, noticed her.

He introduced her to box-ing and she took to it like fish to water, winning a bronze medal in her debut world champion-ship in 2018, following it up with

another bronze the next year.She is also a two-time Asian

Championships bronze-winner.Raised in Golaghat’s Baro

Mukhia village, Borgohain eventually moved to Guwahati to realise her boxing dreams.

India’s previous boxing med-als have come through Vijender Singh (2008) and M C Mary Kom (2012). Both of them had won bronze medals and Borgo-hain would look to better that.

Earlier, Simranjit Kaur (60kg) lost to Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee in the pre-

quarterfinals to make an early exit from the Games here.

The 26-year-old Indian, seeded fourth, went down 0-5 despite a gritty performance.

She was impressive in the opening round and seemed to have caught Seesondee on the back-foot with her measured approach, sticking to a counter-attacking strategy.

However, the judges ruled unanimously in favour of the Thai, causing Simranjit to be a tad reckless in the second round.

The Indian paid for the hyper-aggressive approach in the first few seconds itself when Seesondee managed to connect some eye-catching left hooks.

The defensive errors in the second put paid to Simranjit’s chances and even though she gave it her all in the third round, it needed nothing short of a demolition job to get over the line. However, that was not to be as she bowed out following a unanimous verdict.

The 29-year-old Thai is a two-time world championships medallist and also won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games.

On Saturday, world num-ber one Amit Panghal (52kg) will open his campaign against Colombia’s Yurberjen Herney Mart nez Rivas, the light fly-weight silver-medallist from the Rio Olympics. AGENCIES

Djokovic loses to Zverev at Olympics, ending

Golden Slam bid

TOKYO: There will be no Golden Slam for Novak Djokovic. The top-ranked Serb lost to Alexander Zverev of Ger-many 1-6, 3-6, 6-1 Friday in the semifinals of the tennis tourna-ment at the Tokyo Olympics.

Djokovic was attempting to become the first man to win all four Grand Slam tourna-ments and Olympic gold in the same year. He won the Austra-lian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon this year and needed the Olympic and U.S. Open titles to complete the collection.

Steffi Graf in 1988 remains the only tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam.

Zverev's opponent in the gold-medal match will be Karen Khachanov. The Russian beat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 6-3.

Djokovic will play Carreno Busta for bronze.

Djokovic's hadn't lost since getting beaten by Rafael Nadal at the Italian Open final 2 months

ago.On a humid and muggy eve-

ning at the Ariake Tennis Park, Djokovic committed a series of uncharacteristic errors after a strong start as the 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev started to win free points with his big serve.

When Zverev hit a back-hand winner down the line that Djokovic didn't move for to close it out, Djokovic walked to the net where he was embraced by Zverev. Djokovic responded by resting his head on Zverev's shoulder as the pair exchanged some words.

Djokovic's only Olympic medal was bronze in singles at the 2008 Beijing Games his first. He could still win a gold at the Tokyo Games in mixed doubles.

Djokovic was due back on the court almost immediately to play with Serbian partner Nina Stojanovic in the mixed doubles semifinals against the Russian duo of Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev. AGENCIES

Hockey: Quarter-finalists India ride on Gurjant twin strikes to beat Japan 5-3

TOKYO: Striker Gurjant Singh was twice on target as India comfortably outclassed hosts Japan 5-3 on Friday to complete their pool proceed-ings with four victories having already sealed a quarter-final berth in the Tokyo Olympics.

Apart from Gurjant (17th, 56th), Harmanpreet Singh (13th), Shamsher Singh (34th) and Nilakanta Sharma (51st) scored for India to hand the eight-time Olympic champions their third consecutive win in Pool A at the Oi Hockey Sta-dium. Kenta Tanaka (19th), Kota Watanabe (33rd) and Kazuma Murata (59th) were the goal getters for Japan, who were already knocked out of the last-eight race ahead of Fri-day's tie. By virtue of this win, India finished second in Pool A behind Australia with four vic-

tories out of five matches. They face Great Britain, who finished third in Pool B, in the quarterfi-nal scheduled on Sunday.

Australia ended their pool

engagements on top with four wins and a draw.

India's lone defeat -- a 1-7 drubbing -- came at the hands of Australia. The top four teams

from each pool of six qualify for the quarterfinals.

"Better performance tonight. First-quarter was pretty good, we lost a little bit after they scored. In the second half, we came out and sort of regained control over the game. But, I thought we played better.

"We really tried playing at a much higher tempo tonight, trying to get on the tempo that we are going to need on Sunday. Good to get a couple of field goals, created a lot of opportunities, but I think we still need to get better at those outcomes in the circle," said India chief coach Graham Reid.

Looking to keep their win-ning run intact, the Indians went on the offensive from the beginning and penetrated the Japanese attacking third on several occasions. AGENCIES

Sindhu enters semi-finals at OlympicsTOKYO: Reigning world champion P V Sindhu kept alive India's hopes of a first-ever Olympic gold in badmin-ton by reaching the semifinals of the women's singles with a straight-game win over world No.5 Japanese Akane Yamagu-chi here on Friday.

The 26-year-old Indian, who won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, defended bril-liantly and rode on her attack-ing all-round game to outclass the fourth seeded Yamagu-chi 21-13 22-20 in a 56-min-ute quarterfinal clash at the Musashino Forest Plaza here.

"The first game was mostly under my control. I was gain-ing the lead but I didn't take it easy because in her previ-ous matches she came back. But I maintained the lead and finished it off," Sindhu, seeded sixth, said.

"In the second game I was leading but then she came back. But I still fought back, I never lost hope and I con-tinued with the same tempo. I am very much happy with the way I controlled the shuttle, not many errors," she added.

Yamaguchi had scripted a late comeback in the sec-ond game, grabbing two game points but Sindhu ensured there were no hiccups, regis-tering her 12th win over Yama-guchi in 19 meetings. She had last beaten the Japanese at the All England Championship in March this year.

"I wasn't nervous even though she was at game point, my coach was saying: 'It's okay, keep the focus and you'll get there'. He was constantly sup-porting me and that got me by and I'm happy I got back in two games," Sindhu said.

"I have really worked hard for this and it is not over it. For me it's time to go back, relax

and get ready for the next match. I'm happy but I need to prepare for the next match."

Sindhu will next face sec-ond seed Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, who edged out Thai-land's Ratchanok Inthanon 14-21 21-18 21-18 in another quarterfinal match.

China's Chen Yu Fei and He Bing Jiao are the other two semifinalists.

The world No 1 Tai Tzu, whom coach Park Tae-sang considers as Sindhu's big-gest rival, has an overwhelm-ing 13-7 advantage against the Indian.

Sindhu, who has lost to Tai Tzu in last three occasions, however, has managed to out-wit the Taiwanese shuttler in important events such as the 2016 Rio Games, 2019 World Championships and 2018 World Tour Finals. AGENCIES

Mary Kom says deliberate ploy to disturb; IOC rules explain what happened

TOKYO: The absence of their own and the country's name on some Indian boxers' vests in the Olympics has caused a small furore here after the legendary M C Mary Kom alleged that she was forced to change minutes before her last-16 bout with-out proper explanation from the organisers. Mary Kom on Thursday and Lovlina Borgo-hain on Friday fought in uni-forms which neither featured their names nor identified their countries at the back of their vests.

"It was a bit unsettling that they asked me to change my uniform just five minutes before the bout. In fact, at that time my name had been announced," Mary Kom said, still agitated about the 2-3 pre-quarterfinal loss in which she won two of

the three rounds but fell short by a point in the final scoreline.

"I think it was deliberate action to disturb me because I had fought my first round with similar gear with Mary Kom and India written on it," she said. A conversation with Indian Box-ing's High Performance Direc-tor Santiago Nieva and a look at the International Olympic Com-mittee's rules threw some light at what exactly might have caused this little storm in a tea cup. "The boxers are allowed to wear their last names or the given name on vest, so if it was just Kom at the back, there would not have been a problem or just Mangte would have been fine too. "She was not allowed to wear Mary Kom. Same with Lovlina, she needed to have Borgohain on the back," Nieva explained. AGENCIES

Shooting needs a huge revamp

S KANNAN

NEW DELHI: To say that the Indian shooters flopped at the Tokyo Olympics would be stat-ing the obvious. On Friday morning, Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat failed to qual-ify for the sports pistol final, setting the alarm bells even louder.

Since the time the Tokyo Games began, the blame-game had begun. If, first, National Rifle Association of India Pres-ident Raninder Singh singled out Jaspal Rana for huge flak, it was in poor taste.

Jaspal was not sent to Tokyo and for the last six months his role was margin-alised by other shooters and a federation (NRAI) which lost grip on the proceedings. By the time adjustments had been made and Jaspal was thrown into cold storage, the "games" were at peak.

All the coaches and shoot-ers who first went to Croatia in May for the expansive camp were chosen by the NRAI. Jas-pal was sent very late and never considered for the Olympics. All this, when he had built the pistol squad over 10 years from the junior level.

"It hurts me badly. I have worked hard in building today's pistol shooters and today I am being blamed. If I am really responsible and shooters like Saurabh Chaud-

hary and Manu Bhaker do not want me in the system, I will never return to the ranges," Jas-pal told Millennium Post.

To be sure, blaming Jaspal for the failure of the pistol and rifle shooters makes no sense. Pistol coaches Ronak Pandit and Samaresh Jung were the ones who failed to deliver the goods as well as rifle coaches Suma Shirur and Deepali. Such was the arrogance of these coaches, they marginalised the foreign coaches hired by the Sports Authority of India.

Rifle coach Oleg Mikhailov did go to Tokyo from Croatia, but the Indian coaches never let him work. As regards for-eign coach for pistol, Pavel Smirnov, who produced 2012 London Olympics silver med-allist Vijay Kumar and 2016 Rio Olympics finalist Jitu Rai,

he was not allowed to travel to Tokyo.

The NRAI and the Sports Authority of India need to do a lot of calculations on money wasted on foreign coaches. There was fund over-utilisa-tion and under-utilisation of foreign coaches.

Jaspal Rana feels every-thing has fallen apart and building it all over again will not be easy. "I had instilled dis-cipline and a work ethic among all the pistol shooters. Nobody can blame me for not working hard. I gave 10 years to coach these kids and they have done well to get this far. We have tal-ented pistol shooters for sure, no doubting it," said the deeply hurt coach who was given the Dronacharya Award last year by the Indian government.

The last time an Indian

won a medal in shooting at the Olympics was in London 2012, when Gagan Narang won bronze. There have been two horrible Olympics after that. The NRAI president has prom-ised a post-mortem but the government must ensure they are part of the proceedings.

Not long back, there was a government observer for shooting. The last one was Moraad Ali Khan. After that, there has been no observer and the end result is the SAI has been hoodwinked by the NRAI. Perhaps, it calls for an inquiry into how coaches played games in collaboration with the NRAI.

Will Jaspal Rana return to coaching if asked? "I have never said no. I never said no to Tokyo also. If I am unwanted, why will I raise my hand again," said the cel-ebrated coach.

“If I am really responsible and shooters like Chaudhary and Bhaker do not want me in the system, I will never return to the ranges," Jaspal tells Millennium Post

Jaspal was not sent to Tokyo and for the last six months his role was marginalised by other shooters and a federation (NRAI) which lost grip on the proceedings

Another Olympic heartbreak for Deepika, crashes out in quarters

TOKYO: Another Olympics, another heartbreak for India's Deepika Kumari.

The world number one archer's quest for an Olympic medal ended in heartbreak for the third time as she surren-dered tamely to Korean top seed An San in straight sets in the quarterfinals here on Friday.

It was all over in six minutes.The fancied Indian misfired

three 7s in a row after drilling in as many 10s in succession to snuff out any chance of a come-back after being 0-2 down in the opening set.

An, who had a perfect open-ing set of 30, closed it out despite shooting in the red-circle thrice in succession (7-8-9) in second and third sets.

"I am not sure what hap-pened. I tried hard but I could not perform to my own expec-tations," Deepika, who shot a pathetic four 7s from seven arrows, said after her loss at the Yumenoshima Park.

"I feel very sad, because I did well in the last two World Cups. I had high expectations but I could not start off well," she admitted.

"It was not a hard match at all, but I could not perform to my potential and she had it easy," Deepika, who lost to her in straight sets in the final of the Tokyo Test Event here two years ago, said.

Deepika's husband Atanu Das is the only Indian left in medal contention after his stun-ning shoot-off victory over two-time Olympic champion Oh

Jin Hyek.In his last-16 match slated

on Saturday, Das will face home favourite Takaharu Furukawa, an individual silver medallist at the 2012 Olympics and a team bronze winner here.

Barring her three 10s on the trot in the opening set, there was no exceptional shooting from An, who had broken a 25-year-old Olympic record in the ranking round en route to winning two gold medals (team and mixed) in these Games.

But it was all about her Korean 'heavyweight tag' that proved to be the undoing for Deepika who came in as world number one after winning five World Cup gold medals this year.

"Rankings don't matter much in the Olympics. It hap-pens once in four years and one bad match can cost you a medal. Every match is like a final here." AGENCIES

India score late winner to keep QF hopes alive

WOMEN'S HOCKEY IN OLY

TOKYO: The Indian women's hockey team scored a late goal to eke out a narrow 1-0 vic-tory over Ireland in a must-win penultimate pool match to stay alive in the Olympics here on Friday.

Needing a win to keep their hopes alive after three con-secutive losses, India waited anxiously for 57 minutes before Navneet Kaur scored

the winner to keep her side in the hunt for a quarterfinal berth.

India will now need to win their final Pool A match against South Africa on Saturday and hope for Ireland to face defeat at the hands of Great Britain to seal their quarterfinal berth.

The top four teams from each pool qualify for the knockout stage. AGENCIES

The 23-year-old Assam boxer prevailed 4-1 to make the last-four where she will square off against Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey

India's Lovlina Borgohain lands a punch on Chen Nien-Chin of Chinese Taipei during women's welterweight (64-69kg) category boxing match, at the Summer Olympics 2020 in Tokyo, Friday PTI

Novak Djokovic PTI

India's Shamsher Singh (21) drives up the pitch against Japan's Kaito Tanaka (14) during a men's field hockey match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Friday, in Tokyo, Japan PTI

Deepika Kumari PTI

India's Pusarla V. Sindhu plays against Japan's Akane Yamaguchi during their women's singles badminton quarterfinal match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Friday, in Tokyo, Japan PTI

‘Dickwella, Mendis,

Gunathailaka banned for 1 yr, fined Rs 10 mn’COLOMBO: Sri Lanka Cricket on Friday banned senior play-ers Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilaka for one year and also imposed a fine of 10 million Sri Lankan rupees on them for breaching COVID-19 protocols on the tour of UK last month.

The trio was caught on cam-era on the streets of Durham during the limited overs series, which was a bio-bubble breach and they were sent back home midway into the tour and were suspended.

They also faced a disci-plinary committee headed by a retired judge, which rec-ommended two year bans for Mendis and Gunathilaka along with 18-month sanction for Dickwella.

However on Friday, the SLC committee decided to ban them from international cricket for one year and six months from domestic cricket. There will also be suspended sentence of one year which will be valid for two years provided there is another transgression from the players.

The three charges that have been brought by the SLC are : "Putting in jeopardy the safety of players by breaching COVID-19 safety guidelines, including instructions of the team man-agement. "Also breaking the team curfew of being in their hotel rooms by 10:30 pm and last but not the least was bring-ing disrepute to the country and cricket board." AGENCIES

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

SATURDAY, 31 JULY, 2021 | KOLKATA

MUMBAI: Superstar Akshay Kumar on Friday announced that his much-anticipated movie “Bellbottom” will arrive in cinemas on August 19.

The espionage thriller was originally scheduled to release in April this year, but was postponed to July 27 due to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India.

As the theatres open across the world and vari-ous parts of the country, the producers have locked a new release date for the movie.

“Mission: To Entertain

you on the BIG SCREEN. Date: August 19, 2021. Announcing the arrival of #BellBottom! #BellBot-tomInCinemasAug19,”

Kumar posted on Twitter.

Vashu Bhagnani is backing the film along with Jackky Bhagnani, Deepshikha Deshmukh, Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani and Nikkhil Advani.

Directed by Ranjit M Tewari, “Bellbottom” is set in the 1980s and revolves around one of India’s forgot-ten heroes.

Written by Aseem Arrora and Parveez Shaikh, the film also features actors Lara Dutta, Huma Qureshi and Vaani Kapoor. PTI

LONDON: Actor Jodie Whittaker, the first woman

to play the Time Lord in BBC’s ‘Doctor Who’, will exit

the sci-fi series in 2022.Whittaker, who

has been playing the 13th doctor since 2017, will leave after her third season.

The actor will appear in a six-part event serial as well as three specials before departing the series, BBC said in a statement on Friday.

Besides Whittaker, showrunner Chris Chib-nall is also leaving the

long-running series.“In 2017 I opened my glorious gift

box of size 13 shoes. I could not have guessed the brilliant adventures, worlds and wonders I was to see in them,” said Whittaker.

“My heart is so full of love for this show, for the team who make it, for the fans who watch it and for what it has brought to my life. And I cannot thank Chris enough for entrusting me with his incredible stories,” she added.

The 39-year-old actor said Chibnall and she made the decision to leave the show together.

“We knew that we wanted to ride this wave side by side, and pass on the

baton together. So here we are, weeks away from wrapping on the best job I have ever had.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express what this role has given me. I will carry the Doctor and the lessons I’ve learnt for-ever,” Whittaker added.

Chibnall concurred with the actor and said that they had made a ‘three series and out’ pact with each other at the

start of “this once-in-a-lifetime blast”.“So now our shift is done, and

we’re handing back the TARDIS keys. Jodie’s magnificent, iconic Doctor has exceeded all our high expectations. She’s been the gold standard leading actor, shouldering the responsibility of being the first female Doctor with style,

strength, warmth, generosity and humour. PTI

KOLKATA: National award-winning director

Srijit Mukherji said praise or criticism cannot alter the type of stories he wants to narrate.

Mukherji, who has recently made two short films in

the anthology ‘Ray’ on maestro’s birth centenary

on an international OTT plat-form triggering both barbs and praises, said Wednesday that he will not waver from his narra-tive style or readaptation tech-nique in the wake of negative reactions.

The Gumnaami director had made ‘Forget Me Not’ and ‘Bahrupiya’ in the 4 film

series ‘Ray’.Affirming that he will

not waver from his own narrative style or readap-tation technique in the

wake of such negative reactions, the film-

maker said, “Praise or criticism cannot actually alter the

type of stories I want to tell and the way I tell them.”

“I have always been kind of open-

minded. I am open to criticism,

I try to learn but at the end of the day I go by

my instinct in terms of story-telling,” Mukherji, whose debut feature film Autograph was a super hit, said.

“So I guess that is some-thing that is going to continue,” he added.

Mukherji, whose upcoming Bengali web series ‘Robindro-nath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni’ (REKKA) will be streamed from August 13 on a leading Bengali OTT, said “sto-rytelling elements are different in OTT and feature films for the big screen.”

The way the plot is unfolding, character arch, space devoted to character and plot everything is driven by different dynamics.

“Storytell-ing on OTT is not the same as storytelling in (fea-ture) films, which is basically why OTT is a brilliant option. OTT gives you an alternative timeline, space, to structure narrative you want to unfold and the plot,” the maker of Feluda Pherot web series said.

Now set to unveil his sec-ond web series in Bengali in REKKA, he said: “Defi-nitely OTT is a very exciting development. It is an alterna-tive medium for expressing oneself. So I think for direc-

tors it is a fantastic conduit for storytelling. I am personally enjoying it a lot, I think a lot of directors will welcome it with open arms.”

About REKKA, he said the novel by Mohammad Nazim Uddin has already been touted as one of the best Bengali thrill-ers of recent times, and I was very keen on adapting it.

“This title is something given by the author of the origi-nal novel Robindranath ekhane kakhono khete and I have used the acronym. The setting has

shifted to this part of Bengal having tw ists

obviously, which are organic and

plot-driven,” he said.

About helming

the Taapsee Pannu-starrer

sports drama, Shabaash Mithu,

the biopic of Mith-ali Raj, captain of the

Indian Women’s ODI cricket team, Mukherji said: “Cricket has always been my first love, So it is obviously dream project.”

“Really looking forward to it. And yes sports and sports biopic have for long fascinated me. This was a very very apt opportunity,” Mukherji who came on board to helm the biopic which was earlier being directed by Rahul Dholakia, gushed. PTI

Co-Director of the upcoming show ‘Human’, Mozez

Singh, is one director who believes in show-casing his admiration for his cast. Mozez recently took to his social media to shower praises on actor Kirti Kulhari.

The appreciation post came via Instagram wherein Mozez stated that “The most excit-ing thing about working with any actor is when the actor takes the given part many notches higher, sometimes kicking the ball way out of the park. Your extreme emotional intelligence, your delicate nuances, your willingness

to dive into the deep end & your constant refusal in not accepting a take till it was more than superb had both the directors, Vipul Sir and I, in your complete thrall. Thank you for the tremendous experience of working with you Kirti. The shoot is over but the celebrations begin now. Let’s lose ourselves to a

cosmic dance! Let’s fly !” An overwhelmed

Kirti was quick to reply back in com-ments stating that, “Mozez this is the sweetest thing a direc-tor has done for me.. written an appre-ciation post … m so touched.. had been waiting to see what you write for me I have learned so much from the two of u and together, I would like to believe that we have created some-thing special. thank u for being a father to #sairasabharwal and bringing her into this world.” MPOST

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has sued Dis-ney Studios for breach of contract over their decision to release Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow” standalone film on Disney Plus and in theatres simultaneously.

‘Black Widow’, featuring Johans-son as the titular superhero, was released in the theatres and on Dis-ney’s streaming platform on July 9.

The film set a pandemic-era box office record with its 80 million debut in North America and earned 78 million overseas. It also made 60 million on Disney Plus.

According to Deadline, in a law-suit filed on Thursday in Los Ange-les Superior Court, attorneys for Johansson claimed that the star’s contract was breached when the stu-dio opted not to debut the film exclu-sively in theatres.

The lawsuit contends that the Disney Plus release siphoned poten-tial theatergoers, costing her poten-tial compensation tied to the movie’s theatrical revenue.

Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the agreement, without justification, in order to pre-vent Ms. Johansson from realizing

the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel, the suit reads.

The suit seeks unspecified dam-ages and names the Walt Disney Company as the sole defendant.

The Walt Disney Co. responded to Johansson’s lawsuit via statement in which the studio said that the litigation showed a callous disregard to the COVID-19 pandemic and even revealed that she has so far received USD 20 million from the project.

There is no merit whatsoever to this filing. The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and pro-longed global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Disney has fully complied with Ms Johansson’s contract and further-more, the release of ‘Black Widow’ on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her abil-ity to earn additional compensation on top of the 20M she has received to date,” a Disney spokesperson said.

Directed by Cate Shortland, ‘Black Widow’ also features actors Rachel Weisz, David Harbour. PTI

Johansson sues Disney for breach of contract

She has been playing the 13th doctor since 2017

‘Praise or criticism cannot alter the type of stories I want to narrate’

Srijit Mukherji says he has always been kind of open-minded and is open to criticism

Directed by Ranjit M Tewari, ‘Bell Bottom’ is set in the 1980s and revolves around one of India’s forgotten heroes

He recently made two

short films in the anthology ‘Ray’ to celebrate the maestro’s birth

centenary

Bell Bottom to release theatrically on August 19

The espionage thriller was originally scheduled to release in April this year, but was postponed due to the second wave of the coronavirus

Doctor Who: Jodie to leave after 3 seasons

Mozez Singh showers praise on Kirti Kulhari

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday noted that passing a blanket gag order on the media against report-ing anything against Bolly-wood actor Shilpa Shetty, wife of arrested businessman Raj Kundra, shall have a chilling effect on the freedom of press and said there is a judi-cial limit on what can be con-strued as

good or bad journalism.Justice Gautam Patel, how-

ever, directed that three videos uploaded on YouTube chan-nels of three private persons be deleted and not uploaded again as they were malicious and

with not even the slight-est attempt to inves-

tigate the truth of the matter.

The court noted that

the free-dom of

press has to

be balanced with the right to privacy of an individual.

The court was hearing a suit filed by Shetty against alleged defamatory articles published against her and family after the arrest of her husband on July 19. Kundra (45) is currently in jail under judicial custody.

Shetty, in an interim appli-cation, had sought for media to be restrained from publishing any incorrect, false, malicious and defamatory content.

Justice Patel, however, noted that the plaintiff ’s prayer seeking media to be restrained will have a chilling effect on the freedom of press.

There is a judicial limit on what is good or bad journal-ism as this comes very close to freedom of press, the court said.

The court noted that the articles referred to by Shetty in her suit do not seem to be defamatory.

It cannot be like if you (media) are not going to write or say anything nice about me (Shetty) then do not say

anything at all. How can this be? Justice Patel said.

The actor’s application also sought damages of Rs 25 crore, stating that the respondents (several media publications and social media sites like Google, Facebook and You-Tube) are causing irrepara-ble loss and damage to her reputation.

In her plea, Shetty sought directions against social media platforms like Google, You-Tube and Facebook to remove all defamatory content related to her and family.

To this, Justice Patel said, Your prayer seeking for social media platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook to exercise control over editorial content is dangerous. The HC directed all defendants in the suit to file their affidavits and posted the matter for further hearing on September 20. PTI

They have worked together in the upcoming show ‘Human’

The court was hearing a suit filed by Shetty against defamatory news articles

Star objects to the simultaneous release of ‘Black Widow’ in theatres and on OTT

The film set a box office

record with its 80 million debut in North

America. It also made 60 million on

Disney Plus

Blanket gag order will have chilling effect on press freedom: HC