WOMEN FLOOD DELHI’S BORDERS, TAKE CHARGE OF FARMER PROTESTS PG2

MYANMAR SECURITY FORCES KILL 2 ANTI-COUP PROTESTERS PG8

NO TESTING LAB REPORTED DISCORDANT RESULTS: GOVT PG4

A DIFFERENT BALL GAME

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PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL.16, ISSUE 68 | Tuesday, 9 March, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00 NO HALF TRUTHS

Shikhar Dhawan (right) and skipper Virat Kohli play football with teammates during a training session, ahead of T20 series between India and England, at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, on Monday P11

DY CM MANISH SISODIA TABLES ECONOMIC SURVEY & OUTCOME BUDGET IN ASSEMBLY

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The econ-omy of Delhi is expected to contract by 5.68 per cent in real terms while the per cap-ita income is projected to fall to Rs 3.54 lakh in the cur-rent financial year due to the impact of the pandemic, according to Delhi Economic Survey 2020-21.

However, the advance estimate of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Delhi at the current price during 2020-21 is Rs 7,98,310 crore, showing a contraction of 3.92 per cent over the pre-vious year.

The GSDP at current prices increased by about 45 per cent in the last six years- from Rs 5,50,804 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 7,98,310 crore during 2020-21.

The per capita income also went down from Rs 3.76 lakh in 2019-20 to Rs 3.54 lakh in the current fiscal year, stated the survey tabled in the Bud-get session of Delhi Assem-bly by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday.

In real terms, the con-traction in Delhi’s GSDP is expected at 5.68 per cent in 2020-21 compared to a degrowth of 8 per cent at the national level, said the report.

Sisodia said in the Assem-bly that the pandemic halted government activities for some months, causing a decline in trade and revenue and financial constraints.

Delhi has the second-highest per capita income (in real terms) in India. The per capita income of Delhi at current prices during 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 3,54,004

against per capita income of Rs 1,27,768 at the national level, the report said.

“Delhi’s per capita income during 2020-21 at current prices, has been worked out to Rs 3,54,004 as against Rs 3,76,221 during 2019-20 showing a contraction of 5.91 per cent. In real terms, per capita income of Delhi has been estimated at Rs 2,54,001 in 2020-21 as against Rs 2,74,671 in 2019-20 register-ing a contraction of 7.53 per cent,” the Survey said.

It showed a predominance of the service sector with its

share of contribution to Gross State Value Added (at current prices) at 84.59 per cent dur-ing 2020-21 followed by sec-ondary sector (13.56 per cent) and the primary sector (1.85 per cent).

The income from trade, hotels and restaurants in Delhi constituted Rs 79,263 crore during 2020-21 (advanced estimate) at current prices, which is nearly 11.18 per cent of Gross State Value Added (GSVA) of Delhi (base year 2011-12). More clearly, this sector’s contribution to GSVA of Delhi during the last 10

years was more than 11 per cent, it said.

The GSVA of Delhi at 2011-12 prices showed a declining trend of agriculture and allied sector.

The report also noted that Delhi’s debt problem is “well under control”, stating that the government had an outstand-ing debt of Rs 29,608.31 crore in 2011-12, which was equal to 8.61 per cent of its GSDP. In 2019-20, with an outstanding debt of Rs 34,461.83 crore as on March 31, 2020, the debt-GSDP ratio had declined sub-stantially to 4.15 per cent.

The ratio of interest pay-ment to revenue receipts also declined to 5.84 per cent in 2019-20 from the high ratio of 13.03 per cent in 2011-12.

Delhi has maintained its consistent revenue surplus which was Rs 7,499 crore dur-ing 2019-20 (provisional) as compared to Rs 6,261 crore in 2018-19. Delhi’s revenue surplus was 0.90 per cent of GSDP during 2019-20 and 0.91 per cent during 2020-21 (budgetary estimate), the Sur-vey said.

Delhi’s economy projected to contract by 5.68% this fiscal

CM Rawat leaves for Delhi amid speculation of leadership change

CMO confirmed his departure but said the visit was of a ‘routine nature’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat left for Delhi on Monday amid growing speculation about a leadership change in the state. An official at the Chief Minister’s Office here confirmed his departure but said the visit was of a “routine nature”.

BJP sources said the party high command summoned Rawat to the national Capital for further discus-sions after a meeting of the state BJP’s core committee presided over by Central Observers was held here on Saturday.

However, Uttarakhand BJP chief Bansidhar Bhagat claimed there was no leadership change likely in the state and Saturday’s meeting dis-cussed events to mark the completion of the Rawat-led government’s four years in office. Rawat had to attend several programmes in Gairsain and Dehradun on Monday but they had to be cancelled following the summons from Delhi.

While the issues of growing resentment among party MLAs and a long overdue Cabinet expansion keep raising their heads from time to time, speculations about a leadership change in the state gained momen-tum after BJP national vice-presi-dent Raman Singh and state party in-charge Dushyant Kumar Gautam arrived here on Saturday to preside over an unscheduled meeting of the

state party’s group.The core group meeting was held

at a time when most of the party MLAs and ministers including the Chief Minister were in Gairsain to attend the important Budget session of the state Assembly.

The Budget session was brought to an abrupt end after passing the state’s Budget for 2021-22 fiscal and all MLAs and ministers were called to Dehradun for the core commit-tee meeting.

Core group members Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Bansal, Tehri MP Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah, former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Naini-tal MP Ajay Bhatt, Cabinet minis-ter Madan Kaushik, minister of state Dhan Singh Rawat, state BJP general secretary Ajeya Kumar among others attended the meeting which went on for over two hours.

Raman Singh, the former Chhat-tisgarh chief minister, talked sepa-rately to each member of the core group to get their feedback.

He also went to the Chief Minis-ter’s official residence where around 40 party MLAs had gathered and later visited the RSS office here.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Both the Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day as the Opposition leaders contin-ued their sloganeering to demand discussions on the rise in fuel prices. Mean-while, both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will function as per usual timings existing before the Covid-19 situa-tion from Tuesday.

Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue of a sharp rise in prices of petrol, diesel and LPG in Rajya Sabha on Mon-day, and demanded that the Upper House discuss this “burning subject” as people are suffering. Soon after the house was adjourned for the first time, Kharge said Con-gress MPs would continue their agitation once the Rajya Sabha reconvened.

Amid the high-voltage run-up to the Assembly elec-tions in four states and a UT, the month-long second leg of the Budget session began on Monday.

Both Houses adjourned for

the day as Oppn protests fuel price hike

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Five countries, including India, account for about half of the total child brides in the world, according to a new analysis released by UNICEF said on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

According to the analysis ‘COVID-19: A threat to progress against child mar-riage’, 10 million additional child marriages may occur before the end of the decade, threatening years of progress in reducing the practice.

Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were mar-ried in childhood, with about half of those occurring in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria, according to the analysis.

To off-set the impacts of COVID-19

and end the practice by 2030 the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals progress must be significantly accel-

erated, it said.One year into the pandemic, immediate

action is needed to mitigate the toll on girls and their families. By reopening schools, implementing effective laws and policies, ensuring access to health and social ser-vices including sexual and reproductive health services and providing comprehen-sive social protection measures for families, we can significantly reduce a girl’s risk of having her childhood stolen through child marriage, said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

With 25 million child marriages averted in the last decade, UNICEF warned on International Women’s Day that these gains are now under serious threat.

Quoting its previous report, UNICEF said one in three of the world’s child brides

lives in India. The UN body said the persistence of

child marriage remains a potential chal-lenge to India achieving Sustainable Devel-opment Goal 5 by 2030 even as its progress has been one of the strongest among coun-tries in South Asia during the last decade.

The analysis said findings from NFHS surveys between 1992-93 and 2015-16 show the percentage of young women who married in childhood has halved (from 54 to 27 per cent), and the pace of decline has increased in the last decade.

“The decline has been led by urban areas, which only had 18 per cent of women in the age group of 20-24 reporting (in 2015-16) as compared to 32 per cent in rural areas having got married before the age of 18,” it said.

5 countries, including India, account for about half of total child brides in the world: UNICEFWorldwide, an estimated 650 mn girls & women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those occurring in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria, according to the analysis

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY

MHA says Rs 200 cr given to states to set up women help desks in police stations OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Union Home ministry on Monday said Rs 200 crore has been sanctioned to states and Union Territories (UTs) to set up women help desks in police stations and to strengthen anti-human trafficking units in all districts of the country.

On the occasion of Inter-national Women’s Day, Union Home minister Amit Shah also said women empower-ment has always been the focal point of the policies of the Narendra Modi government.

“On the occasion of Inter-national Women’s Day, I bow to women power symbolising courage, valour and dedica-

tion. Women empowerment has always been the focal point of the policies of the Modi government and it is a mat-ter of pride that today women power is contributing signifi-cantly in realising the resolve of a self-reliant India,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Later, in a statement, the Home ministry said to enhance the safety and secu-rity of women in the country, it has taken several initiatives which are funded by the Nirb-haya Fund.

A separate women safety division has also been set up in the Home ministry to sensi-tise states and UTs on women safety-related issues including timely completion of investi-

gation of sexual assault cases, it said.

The government has sanc-tioned Rs 200 crore to states and UTs to set up Women Help Desks in police stations, and to set up or strengthen Anti-Human Trafficking Units in all districts of the country as also on vulnerable borders, the statement mentioned.

The Home ministry said the Bureau of Police Research and Development has distributed 14,950 Sex-ual Assault Evidence Collec-tion kits to states and UTs and these SAEC kits will facilitate the efficient collection, han-dling and storage of forensic evidence in cases of sexual assault.

India records 18,599 new Covid cases, 97 fresh fatalities

Nearly 17L vaccine doses given in a single dayOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: New cases of Coronavirus infection in India were recorded above 18,000 for the third consecutive day tak-ing the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,12,29,398, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Monday.

The active cases also regis-tered an increase for the sixth consecutive day and the COVID-19 active caseload increased to 1,88,747 which now comprises 1.68 per cent of the total infec-tions. The recovery rate has dropped fur-ther to 96.91 per cent, the data stated.

A total of 18,599 new infec-tions were registered in a day, while the death toll increased to 1,57,853 with 97 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours.

The number of people who have recuperated from the dis-ease surged to 1,08,82,798 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.91 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.41 per cent.

Maharashtra, Kerala, Pun-jab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are the six states that cumulatively account for 86.25 per cent of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Meanwhile, India on Mon-day registered the highest single-day vaccination as the country reported 16,96,588 doses of jabs in a day that took the total

nationwide inocula-tion doses to over 2.26 crore till 9 pm on the 52nd day of the vacci-nation drive that com-menced on January 16.

As per the Health ministry’s provisional report, a total of

2,26,85,598 vaccine doses have been given till 9 pm on Monday.

“Of the total, 70,41,584 healthcare workers (HCWs) have taken the first dose, while 37,12,906 HCWs have taken the second dose. A total of 67,73,081 frontline workers (FLWs) have been administered the first dose of the vaccine while 3,13,835 FLWs have been given the sec-ond dose,” it said, adding that 41,85,274 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 6,58,918 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific comorbidities have been vaccinated till date.

In today’s paper

...

Scindia once decision-maker in Congress, now BJP backbencher

RAHUL GANDHI

CITY

239 NEW COVID CASES IN DELHI 3

NATION

‘ATTEND PARL, OBSERVE DEBATES’ 5

EDIT

TURNING POINT 7

INTERNATIONAL

20 DEAD IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA BLASTS 8

BUSINESS

LPG PRICE DOUBLE IN 7 YEARS 10

SPORT

WI BEAT LANKA BY 3 WICKETS 11

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: “We have the highest respect for women,” a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde observed on Monday and said the reputation of the judiciary is in the hands of its lawyers, the “Bar”.

The observations by the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasub-ramanian, were made while it was hearing a case of a 14-year-old pregnant rape victim seek-ing a nod to abort the foetus of almost 26 weeks.

The comments — on Inter-national Women’s Day — come in the wake of recent criticism against the Supreme Court that it had asked a rape accused in another case whether he would marry the victim, who was a minor when the crime was committed.

CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat had written to the Chief Justice asking him to withdraw his remarks report-edly made during the March 1 hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of the accused.

Several women’s rights activists, eminent citizens, intellectuals, writers and artistes had also penned an open letter to the Chief Justice demanding an apology and retraction of the remarks.

It was stated earlier that the Apex Court’s query asking a rape accused whether he would marry the victim was based on ‘judicial records’ containing an undertaking from the man that he would marry the minor girl, a relative, after she turns 18 years of age.

Referring to the earlier case, the bench said on Monday: “We do not remember any case of marital rape was before us ...We have the highest respect for women.”

“Our reputation is always at the hands of the Bar,” the top court observed. The view was endorsed by lawyers appearing in the case.

Lawyer V K Biju, appearing for the petitioner in the case listed on Monday, said a sec-tion of the people is tarnishing the institution and some kind of mechanism is needed to deal with this.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a visit to Bangladesh on March 26 to participate in the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. The visit will be his first foreign visit in 15 months amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

According to officials familiar with the visit, Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are likely to flag off a direct passenger train service between Dhaka and New Jalpaig-uri in West Bengal. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar had visited Dhaka last week to pre-pare the ground for Modi’s upcoming visit and held talks with his counterpart on the progress of bilateral ties.

“This is an important meeting as it is expected to lay the groundwork for the upcom-ing visit of Indian Prime Minister Modi and his talks with our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” a Bangladesh foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by a news website.

Hasina and Modi had held a virtual summit on December 17 when they jointly flagged off the train service between Haldibari and Chila-hati. Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen visited India in January during which both sides extensively deliberated on Modi’s visit to Dhaka.

The ties between India and Bangladesh have witnessed a major upswing in the last few years.

Around 93,000 Pakistani troops had surren-dered before the joint forces of the Indian Army and the “Mukti Bahini” on December 16, 1971, that led to the birth of Bangladesh.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS

We have highest

respect for women: SC

Modi to visit B’desh on March 26

Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia oversees the State Budget 2021-22 on a tablet device, on Monday PTI

Highlights » The per capita income of Delhi at current prices during 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 3,54,004 against per capita income of Rs 1,27,768 at national level

» The service sector contributed to 84.59% of the Gross State Value Added (at current prices) during 2020-21, followed by the secondary sector (13.56%) and primary sector (1.85%)

MUMBAI CITY BEAT FC GOA 6-5 IN TIE-BREAKER TO REACH MAIDEN ISL FINAL PG11

NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

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mp city2

NO STONE UNTURNED

Security personnel at Tikri border during the ongoing farmers' protest on Monday PIC/PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A court here on Monday convicted Ariz Khan, allegedly associated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, for the mur-der of Delhi police inspec-tor Mohan Chand Sharma and other offences in con-nection with the 2008 Batla House encounter.

Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav said the evidence produced by the prosecution duly proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

The judge said that it was duly proved that Ariz Khan and his associates caused murder of police official and fired gunshot on the police official.

The court will hear argu-ments on the quantum of sentence on March 15.

Inspector Sharma of the Special Cell of Delhi was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi.

A trial court in July 2013 had sentenced Indian Muja-hideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed to life imprison-ment in connection with the case.

His appeal against the trial court's verdict has been pending in the high court.

Ariz Khan had fled from the spot and was declared proclaimed offender.

He was arrested on Feb-ruary14, 2018 and faced the trial.

Indian Mujahideen

man convicted in Batla House encounter case

DEAD NEWBORN FOUND DUMPED BEHIND NATIONAL MEDIA CENTRENEW DELHI: The body of a baby was found in the Parliament Street area on Monday. Police said at 1.40 pm they received information through PCR call that the body of a child has been found behind the National Media Centre. "The newborn baby was found buried in sand dumped for construction in the centre. The baby was a male and there was a clip attached to the umbilical cord. The body was highly decomposed and seemed very old with maggots in most parts of the body. The spot was examined by the district crime team," police said. A case under Section 318 IPC has been registered.

WANTED MAN HELD AFTER GUNFIGHTNEW DELHI: A 35-year-old man, wanted in an extor-tion case, was arrested after a brief exchange of fire here, police said on Monday. The accused has been identified as Munnawar Ali alias Sameer, a resident of Jafarabad, they said. Police received information on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday that Ali, previously involved in five criminal cases, including murder as well as robbery, and recently an extor-tion case, would come to Shahdara to meet someone, a senior police officer said. Thereafter, a trap was laid and the accused was apprehended after a brief exchange of fire. The accused fired two rounds and the police fired back in self-defense, they said. The accused sustained gunshot injury in his leg and was rushed to the GTB hospital, police said.

NEWS AT A GLANCE

ABHAY SINGH

NEW DELHI: On Interna-tional Women's Day, the Delhi Police, in a bid to show how integral women are to the force, put in efforts to maximise their visibility across all spheres of policing from roads to police stations. The Delhi Police have said that over 10,000 of their 80,000-strong force (around 13 per cent) are women.

However, the number of women in leading positions at the Delhi Police seemingly reduces as one goes up the ranks. Out of over 100 Dep-uty Commissioners of Police (DCPs), Additional DCPs, Additional CPs, Joint CPs and Special CPs, only 21 are women which comes out to around 17 per cent.

And significantly, across the 15 district jurisdictions of the Delhi Police, not one police sta-tion out of a total of over 170, has a woman Station House Officer.

However, one official said, "At the Special Police Unit for Women and Children (SPU-WAC), there is a woman SHO. Meanwhile, women cells in districts handled by women officers."

"We have additional SHOs but no woman SHO leading police stations in 15 districts,"

the official said.The Delhi Police have six

ranges, 15 districts, 71 subdivi-sions, 209 police stations which includes 178 territorial, seven railway unit police stations, 16 Metro unit police stations, two at IGIA, six police stations of specialised units.

While the maximum num-ber of women in the Delhi Police are posted as Constables at around 7,400, they reduce in numbers up the ranks. Over 20,000 Head Constables in the force, nearly 810 are women (3.9 per cent); more than 6,800 Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 636 are women (9.24 per cent; of more than 6,600 Sub-Inspec-tors, around 930 are women (14 per cent); of the 1,392 Inspec-tors, 104 are women (7.4 per cent); of over 60 DCPs and Addl DCPs, 15 are women (23.8 per cent); of more than 2O Addl CPs, over 15 Joint CPs and around 17 Special CPs, two of each rank are women (8.6 per cent, 12.5 per cent, 11.76 per cent). These figures are cur-rent up to March 1 this year.

One official said for promo-tion, a screening committee, depending upon ranks of offi-cers, police personnel, are con-stituted and then they check credentials of the police per-sonnel or officer who is to be promoted.

Meanwhile, from time-to-time, the city police have come up with out-of-turn promo-tions for outstanding work. Last year, city police issued an order that any constable or head constable who found at least 50 missing children aged below 14 (of whom at least 15 children must be younger than eight years) in a year would be eligible for an out-of-turn promotion.

Last year, Head Constable Seem Dhaka became the first cop in Delhi to receive an out-of-turn promotion for tracing as many as 76 missing chil-dren in under three months. The Delhi Police had said, "The women police personnel are working with the male coun-terparts shoulder to shoulder in all the spheres of policing."

21 in sr leadership & no women SHOs

Women flood Delhi's borders, take charge of farmers' protests

Across the 15 district jurisdictions of the Delhi Police, not one police station out of a total of over 170, has a woman Station

House Officer

NDMC prepares to bring 24x7 potable water facility to residents

Delhi CP honours 22 women police personnel for their commendable work

CHHAVIANSHIKA SINGH

NEW DELHI: New Delhi Municipal Council’s latest Smart Cities initiative is an ambitious project to provide 24x7 potable water facility to its residents, DP Singh, NDMC’s Director for Smart Cities and IT, said on Monday.

“This is one of the main goals of the Smart Cities Proj-ect. Our project has three cor-nerstones — 24x7 water supply, all of the water supplied will be potable, AMI smart meters will be installed at about 150 places along existing water pipelines”, Singh said.

Regular water supply throughout the day will shift the onus of storing water in roof-top/underground tanks from individual households to the NDMC.

The total area under NDMC is 42.7 square metres, in which the civic agency is solely respon-sible for water and sewerage supply/distribution. However, due to security reasons and space constraints, there is no water treatment plant in the NDMC area. Therefore, NDMC purchases 100 per

cent of its potable water from the DJB.

Currently, NDMC purchases water from DJB from four differ-ent locations (tanks) with 18 in-let locations across the NDMC area. This water is then stored in 24 decentralised underground storage tanks and supplied via NDMC infrastructure.

“For this project (24x7 water supply), NDMC requires a larger-sized underground water reservoir, namely, exclu-sive access to one of the four DJB tanks. Such a tank is already available with the NDMC, namely Hasanpur Lake in Nehru Park. It has an overall capacity of 1 crore litres, which will be sufficient”, Singh said.

Additionally, NDMC will ensure the entirety of water being supplied is fit for con-sumption, meaning that no additional filtration systems, such as RO water purifiers, will be required. While the civic body already has the water sup-ply/pipeline infrastructure in place, it has hired a consultant to install an advanced filtering technology, which is the biggest factor for the estimated cost of this project being Rs 300 crore

(approximately).“Of this amount, Rs 50 crore

has been reserved for install-ing AMI smart metres and sen-sors at 150 locations at existing water-pipelines, through which one can monitor water con-sumption, water supply (quan-tity) and the quality of the water supplied through a smartphone app”, Singh said. With consis-tent, real-time monitoring of water consumption and sup-ply, Singh said he hopes for increased water conservation in the area.

Notably, Singh dispelled concerns regarding this proj-ect affecting the water supplied by DJB to the rest of the city. At present, about 125 MLDwater is supplied by the DJB in two sessions, morning and evening. “The average individual water requirement, and the amount of water supplied within the NDMC area will not change. Instead of water being supplied in bulk in the mornings and evenings, the same amount of water will be supplied uniformly throughout the day,” Singh said.

This project is scheduled to be completed in October this year.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the Haryana government to avert a potential severe water crisis in Delhi, water utility's vice chair-man Raghav Chadha said.

Chadha claimed the Hary-ana government has reduced the supply of raw water to Delhi, resulting in shortage of water supply in the national capital.

Such behaviour of the Hary-ana government is not only undesirable, but also deeply disappointing. The regular fall in the level of Yamuna, espe-cially during summers, along with the discharge of pollutants that cause rise in ammonia lev-els, is a matter of grave concern,

he said in a statement."Delhi is facing a potential

severe water crisis due to high ammonia levels in the Yamuna and the continuously depleting water level at Wazirabad bar-rage, which supplies drinking water to the Wazirabad, Okhla

and Chandrawal water treat-ment plants of the DJB, he said.

The DJB has moved the SC against Haryana to avert a severe water crisis in Delhi. It has sought directions from the apex court to the neighbour-ing state to immediately cease the discharge of untreated pol-lutants into the Yamuna and release sufficient water to the national capital, Chadha said.

Raw water is sourced from the Yamuna and is drawn at Wazirabad barrage. The quan-tity and quality of raw water at Wazirabad Barrage is depen-dent on the release of water by the Haryana government, he said.

Haryana supplies water to Delhi through the Carrier-Lined Channel (CLC), Delhi

Sub-Branch (DSB) and the Yamuna.

CLC and DSB supply water from Hathni Kund via Munak canal and Bhakra Beas Manage-ment Board.

At present, Delhi receives 479 million gallons water a day (MGD) against 609 MGD from Haryana. Besides, Delhi draws 90 MGD groundwater and receives 250 MGD from the Upper Ganga Canal.

The continuous fall in the Yamuna's water level is a mat-ter of grave concern. Despite notifying officers concerned of the Haryana government on a daily basis, no concrete action has been taken yet and there has been no improvement towards restoring any normalcy, Chadha said.

Water crisis: DJB moves SC against Hry govt

SDMC inaugurates welfare centre for women safai sainiks

DCPCR, WCD dept organise 3-day training programme for CWC, JJB & DCPO members

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: On Interna-tional Women’s Day, the South Delhi Municipal Corpora-tion’s South Zone inaugurated a welfare centre named the S3 Swasth Shikshit Sehchaari Cen-tre for its 1,434 women safai karamcharis. Notably, this cen-tre was remodelled out of an abandoned Dhalao Ghar, the demolition of which was also a long-pending demand of local residents.

South Zone Chairperson Dr. Nandini Sharma and Dep-uty Commissioner Dr Sonal Swaroop inaugurated the cen-tre, where the civic body, in association with Select City-walk and Aarohan will pro-vide facilities like Mobile Health Clinic thrice a week where medical checkup, health counseling, NCD tests will be done on the spot along-with treatment for common ailments.

Through NGO Aarohan, basic education and training

will also be provided to all the women safai sainiks regard-ing financial and digital liter-acy etc.

In this training schedule, all the women safai sainiks will be given awareness about govern-ment schemes for them and their children.

Training for skill develop-ment and waste upcycling etc will also be the part of the pro-gramme at this S3 Centre. In this programme one women safai sainik from each ward was also awarded for their spe-cial contribution in Swachh Survekshan-2021.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Com-mission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) and Depart-ment of Women and Child Development (WCD), Delhi Government jointly organ-ised a two-day refresher course and training programme for the newly-appointed members of Child Welfare Committees (CWC) and Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) and District Child Protection Officers (DCPO).

The Selection Committee, headed by retired High Court Judge Justice RK Guaba, has made several new appointments to the CWCs and JJBs, ensuring a diverse panel with adequate representation.

Anurag Kundu, Chairper-

son, DCPCR, articulated the need, design and background of the training programme. He also shared the learning from the first round wherein the Minister of Women and Child Develop-ment Rajendra Pal Gautam and Justice Madan Lokur (Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India) were the Chief Guests.

Dr Rashmi Singh, Director, DWCD, emphasised the role of the CWCs, JJBs, DCPOs and assured unconditional support of the Department of Women & Child Development and com-mitted to prioritising the issue of substance abuse through joint partnerships with NGOs, DCPCR and other bodies. The current round of training has been organised in partnership with civil society organisations.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police cel-ebrated International Women’s Day in a ceremony held at Delhi Police headquarters with Com-missioner of Police SN Shrivas-tava as chief guest.

Police said to recognise and celebrate their achievements, women police personnel on Monday took the lead in all areas of field policing, inter-alia, managing of major traffic inter-sections, pickets, driving PCR vehicles, attending to helpdesks at police stations and working as duty officers.

On the occasion, the Com-missioner of Delhi Police honoured 22 women police personnel for their remarkable efforts beyond the call of duties during the pandemic period and 15 civilian women from various fields including good samaritans who have made a significant contribution to soci-ety. To highlight the occasion, nine women who had delivered babies in PCR vans on their way to hospitals were special invitees

with their kids.CP Delhi said, “We wanted

to make a statement on this Women’s Day in two ways. One, by letting our women force take command roles and manage pri-ority policing today. Secondly, by felicitating women police officers who have done excep-tional work in their fields and much beyond. Our idea is to profoundly state that with self-belief women can and are doing marvellous works, shoulder to shoulder with men, breaking gender stereotypes," he said.

The Commissioner further said, “We invited women from the society who have helped us

serve better. We also invited the nine mothers from vulnerable sections whom we assisted to transport them to hospital for their deliveries but as providence would have it, their babies were born in our PCR vans and we got a chance to assist them.”

Reiterating Delhi Police’s zero-tolerance approach towards crime against women, SN Shriv-astava stated that although a lot of progress has been made in achieving gender equality, dis-crimination is still there in some areas of society which would also change with time. Last year, crimes against women reduced by 30 per cent in Delhi.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Thousands of women farmers held protest marches and delivered speeches at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur border protest sites on Interna-tional Women's Day as women took over the movement against the Centre's three farm laws.

Noting that women contrib-ute significantly to the country's farming sector, the organisers laid out elaborate plans for women farmers to manage the stage, arrange food and security and share tales of their strug-gles on the occasion. In fact, on many occasions, protest-ers strictly enforced the day's rules and stopped men from taking over the protest stages across the three border protest sites.

"The stage is being man-aged by women, the speakers are all women and the issues that are being discussed are of both farming and women farm-

ers more specifically," farmer leader Kavitha Kuruganti told reported on Monday.

"The discourse of the debate is focusing on women farmers. The debate is also on the contri-bution of women in this move-ment," said Kuruganti, who is also a member of the Samyukta

Kisan Morcha.She added that the partici-

pation of women has increased significantly with the arrival of "thousands of women".

Women from different parts of Punjab, Haryana and UP converged at Delhi's borders to celebrate Women's Day and

participated in protest activities. Many said that the government was hoping farmers would leave the protest and tend to their lands. They would figure out a way to sustain both - if needed the women will protest as the men tend to the lands or the women will sow the crops as the

men protest — but the movement will not be stopped, they said.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the Delhi bor-der points for over 100 days, demanding the repeal of farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price for their crops.

Meanwhile, as the protest activities picked up pace across the border site, the Delhi Metro shut the Entry and exit gates of stations on the Tikri Kalan-Brigadier Hoshiar Singh section of the Green Line for over five hours "due to security reasons". At around 4 pm, the DMRC again tweeted that the entry and exit facilities had been reopened.

International Women's Day is celebrated across the world on March 8 and it is a day when women are recognised for their achievements, according to the United Nations.

WOMEN IN DELHI POLICE

PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

mp city 3millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021

TOTAL CASES6,41,340HOME ISOLATION

947ACTIVE CASES

1,730

DELHI COUNT

COVID-19

IRON LADY

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal felicitates farmers' agitation icon 80-year-old Mohinder Kaur during an event on International Women's Day on Monday PTI

DEPUTY CM MANISH SISODIA IS EXPECTED TO PRESENT A PAPERLESS BUDGET FOR THE NEXT FISCAL TODAY

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment's "Outcome Budget" for 2020-21 was presented by Deputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia on Monday, show-ing education, health, PWD and environment departments as top performers in a unique metric designed by the govern-ment to measure productivity in these departments.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal asserted that his government was the first to give an account of its Budget to the people.

"The Delhi government pre-sented its fourth outcome budget in a row. The first government in the country that gives account of its previous budget to the people," Kejriwal tweeted.

The year 2020-21 started in the shadow of COVID-19 pan-demic and a strict lockdown that led to a shortfall of revenue which affected the progress and achievements of targets set in the Outcome Budget 2020-21, Sisodia said after presenting it in the Delhi Assembly.

The Outcome Budget for 2020-21 covered 2,113 indica-tors of 595 schemes of major government departments.

The performance report of the Budget showed that 84 per

cent of education indicators were 'on track', meaning over 75 per cent of the target had been achieved.

Other top performing departments were health (80 per cent), environment (79 per cent), power( 75 per cent), PWD (73 per cent) among others.

The Outcome Budget was introduced in 2017-18 by the AAP government as a tool link-ing the Budget with outcomes to capture the progress of vari-ous schemes, programmes and projects and final deliverables from the citizens' perspective.

The pandemic caused great disruption in government rou-tine activities, revenue collection

nosedived and resources were targeted to minimise the impact of COVID 19. This coupled with lockdown affected progress and achievements of targets set in Outcome Budget 2020-21, Siso-dia said in the Assembly.

The performance report of the Delhi government presented an account of funds used and an overall score of a department in terms of percentage of indica-tors up to December 31, 2020, for a critical set of output and outcome indicators.

In the Education depart-ment, 37 schemes were covered in the Budget. Status of criti-cal indicators highlighted that 35,275 economically weaker

section (EWS) students were admitted to private schools under RTE Act. Government schools recorded 97.92 pass percentage in Class 12 results in 2019-20.

The Budget covered 56 pro-grammes of the Health depart-ment consisting of 1,616 output indicators including 499 critical ones. The establishment of 496 Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics against the target of 750 were among the major indicators.

Total 1.82 lakh children in the 9-11 month age group were fully immunised against a tar-get of 2.96 lakh while 1.20 lakh institutional deliveries were assisted through ASHA work-

ers. The status of critical indi-cators of Transport department showed that fleet utilisation of cluster buses increased while that of DTC buses declined. The bus operation in the city was shut from March 31 to May 18, 2020, during the lockdown.

The percentage of fleet utili-sation of cluster buses increased to 98.58 per cent against the tar-geted 97 per cent despite halted bus service up to December 2020. Fleet utilisation of DTC decreased to 73.71 per cent against a target of 90 per cent.

Status of other critical indi-

cators included 47.78 lakh pol-lution under check certificates issued against a target of 75 lakh, CCTV cameras installed in 5,200 DTC and cluster buses, construction of bus depots at Gummanhera and Mundela Kalan.

The Environment depart-ment's 19 programmes and 33 critical indicators were assessed in the Budget. Status of crit-ical indicators showed fully functional 26 ambient quality monitoring stations and 771 beneficiaries given subsidy for battery-operated four-wheelers.

Dy CM tables 'Outcome Budget 20-21', edu, health, PWD, environment top performers

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded 239 new Coronavirus cases and three deaths on Monday, as the positivity rate rose to 0.50 per cent, the Health Department said.

The new cases came from 47,689 tests, including 35,968 RT-PCR tests and 11,721 rapid antigen tests, conducted the previous day, the bulletin said.

The number of active cases stood at 1,803. Three new deaths took the toll to 10,924, according to the data.

The positivity rate stood rose to 0.50 per cent from 0.31 per cent a day before.

Health experts and doctors have attributed this "sudden rise" in the number of cases to complacency among peo-ple, not following COVID-19-appropriate behaviour and

"assuming all is well now".Meanwhile, over 35,700

beneficiaries received shots of the COVID-19 vaccine in the national Capital on Monday, the highest number of peo-ple vaccinated in a single day since the start of the inocula-tion exercise on January 16, as per official data.

In the age bracket of 60 and above, 20,123 people were vac-cinated while in the 45-59 years age group, 2,710 beneficiaries received the jabs, a senior offi-cial said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Before the COVID-19-induced lockdown last year, the average daily pas-senger journeys covered on the Delhi Metro was nearly 57 lakh, which has plummeted to about 10 lakh at present due to social distance norms in place, accord-ing to the Delhi Economic Sur-vey report 2020-21 presented on Monday. As per directions of the government to check the spread of coronavirus infection, Delhi Metro train services were sus-pended from March 22 onwards in 2020. From September 7, ser-vices were resumed in a graded manner, in compliance with all the COVID-19 safety norms.

Journey or line utilisation is calculated by the number of cor-ridors passengers use to reach their destinations.

"Before the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the average daily passenger journeys on the Delhi Metro was about 57 lakh (including the Airport Line and Rapid Metro in Gur-gaon)," as per the latest Delhi Economic Survey report.

"Due to social distanc-ing norms, presently average daily passenger journeys has decreased to about 10 lakh (including the Airport Line and the Rapid Metro in Gurg-aon)," the report said. The Eco-nomic Survey report also said the average daily line utilisa-tion in Delhi Metro was 50.64 lakh during the year 2019-20. In addition to this, the "Outcome Budget" showed that last year, the percentage fleet utilisation of cluster buses had increased to over 98 per cent against a target of 97 per cent and the on-time performance of cluster buses had increased to 69.46 per cent against a target of 50 per cent. Both fleet utilisation and on-time performance declined for DTC buses.

And during 2019-20, 10.58 crore free trips in DTC and 8.72 crore free trips in cluster buses were made by women passen-gers, the Survey showed.

Moreover, since the Delhi government's Electric Vehicle Policy being announced, the city has registered over 4,900 electric vehicles, with over 75 per cent of the incentives hav-ing been disbursed.

The government did bring in a slew of measures like EV policy and increased the green cover to curb pollution but it failed to achieve its target (75 lakh) for the issuance of the Pollution Under Control Cer-tificate and only managed to issue 47.78 lakh of it.

The Survey highlighted that the total number of motor vehi-cles on road as of March 31, 2020, was 118.92 lakh thus indicating a 4.40 per cent growth from the previous year.

"The Delhi government also gave financial aid to 18,111 Per-mit Holders and 1,38,239 PSV Badge Holders of paratransit Public Service Vehicles i.e. Auto Rickshaw, Taxis, PhatphatSewa, Eco-friendly Sewa, Gramin-Sewa, School Cabs, Maxi Cabs and owners of E-Rickshaw,” the government’s economic sur-vey stated.

239 fresh cases in city, positivity

rate rises to 0.50%

'Avg daily Metro journeys dropped from 57 lakh to 10 lakh after pandemic'

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The expenditure incurred by the Delhi govern-ment per student annually on education has increased from Rs 50,812 in 2016-17 to Rs 78,082 in 2020-21, according to the Delhi Economic Survey report.

Deputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia tabled the Economic Survey report during the Budget session in the Delhi Assembly on Monday. According to the report, there are 5,691 recog-nised schools in Delhi with an approximate enrolment of 44.76 lakh students. The Delhi govern-ment has 1,230 government and government-aided schools which comprise 21.61 per cent of the total schools running in Delhi, whereas, the share of enrolment in government and government-aided schools is 37.18 per cent of the total enrolment of all schools in Delhi during 2019-20, the report said.

The total expenditure on edu-cation, including sports, arts and culture, increased from Rs 6,555 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 15,102

crore in 2020-21, it said.The share of expenditure on

education to the total Budget of the Delhi government has increased from 21 per cent in 2014-15 to 23 per cent in 2020-21, it added. The report stated that the expenditure on educa-tion as a percentage of the Gross State Domestic Product of Delhi was 1.89 per cent in 2020- 21.

As per state Budget Analysis Report of the Reserve Bank of India, the Delhi government has the highest budgetary allocation of 23.2 per cent to the education sector among all states in 2020-21, it said.

"In Delhi, the per student per annum expenditure incurred by the government on educa-tion has increased to Rs 78,082 in 2020-21 from Rs 50,812 in 2016-17," it said.

The ''Happiness Curricu-lum'' has been implemented in all government schools under the Department of Education (DoE) and approximately 7.95 lakh students have been ben-efitted during 2019-20, it said.

To develop the reading habit

of government school students, 4,513 classroom libraries have been set up in the primary sec-tion and 7.34 lakh books have been purchased for school librar-ies, it said.

The economic survey report showed that during 2019-20, under the RTE Act, 35,962 stu-dents of EWS and DG category have taken admission in the private unaided schools on the basis of online lottery as com-pared to 32,455 EWS admissions in 2018-19.

It further said installation of CCTVs at all Delhi government schools is in progress and CCTV cameras have been installed in 459 school buildings out of 728 school buildings. The Economic Survey also showed that with classes going online and semi-online, a total of 229 days of classes were conducted against the usual 220 days in an academic session. It added that about 98 per cent of the children received worksheets on Whatsapp or in print and 83 per cent of them had sent it back after complet-ing the activity.

Delhi govt's annual edu expenditure per student rising, shows Economic Survey

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Monday sought response of the Ministry of Environment, AAP govern-ment and ASI on a plea seek-ing to immediately stop entry and parking of vehicles inside the Sunder Nursery in Niza-muddin area here beyond the Mughal Pavilion as it is endan-gering the avifauna and dam-aging the natural environment due to vehicular emission and pollution.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notices and asked

the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Delhi government, Central Public Works Depart-ment (CPWD), Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), trustees of World Heritage Site, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and Aga Khan Devel-opment Network to respond to the petition filed by a lawyer.

A 16th-century heritage park complex adjacent to the Humayun''s Tomb, the Sun-der Nursery was opened for the general public after a decade of restoration work by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture over two years ago.

UNESCO declared the Nursery a world heritage site in 2016 — even before it could be fully renovated.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture had signed a memo-randum to redevelop Sunder Nursery in collaboration with Delhi''s Central Public Works Department, the Archaeo-logical Survey of India and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The court on Monday also issued notice on a stay appli-cation filed along with the petition and listed the mat-ter for further hearing on March 25.

AAISHA SABIR

NEW DELHI: The Economic Survey presented on Monday by the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi showed that the govern-ment was now providing around 93 per cent of the city's house-holds with “piped water supply”.The Delhi government ensured free lifeline water of up to 20 kilolitres to every household which benefitted around 6 lakh consumers. The government has provided regular water supply to the unserved and under-served areas and has covered 1,571 (87 per cent) unauthorised colo-nies. The report stated that the DJB has a total water treatment capacity of 916 MGD through 12 Water Treatment Plants while the Board has increased sew-age treatment capacity of 597 MGD.

“Approximately 55 per cent of the total generated waste is processed through Waste to Energy and Waste to Compost plants,” the Economic Survey report stated. The State govern-ment has also provided financial

assistance of Rs 2,000 per month for senior citizens between the ages 60 and 69 and Rs 2500 per month for senior citizens above 70 years, the Outcome Bud-get stated.

The same was also given to 1.06 lakh persons with special needs and 2.75 lakh women in distress during the same time period. Such schemes benefitted around 4.49 lakh senior citizens in the current fiscal year 2020-21 however during 2019-20, the same scheme had benefitted around 4.64 lakh senior citizens.

In addition, the Delhi gov-

ernment provided free dry rations to more than 60 lakh people, who did not have ration cards, during the lockdown in April and May last year. Besides, 71 lakh existing ration cardhold-ers received free rations from April to November 2020.

The dry rations were distrib-uted through approximately 550 designated centres across Delhi from April 7, 2020.

The government also enrolled 2,071 SC/ST/OBC/EWS students in different coaching institutes under the “Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Prat-ibha Yojana” in 2019-20 with 22 students enrolling for Engi-neering Entrance exams, 56 for Medical Entrance exams, 57 for SSC and 85 students qualifying for other exams.

However, the Social Welfare Department has 21 per cent of its projects and schemes on the off-track list of the Out-come Budget. Meanwhile, the Women and Child Develop-ment Department has 30 per cent of its projects on the off-track list.

HC asks Centre, govt to respond to plea to bar entry of vehicles inside Sunder Nursery

'93% homes have piped water, including 1,571 illegal colonies'

The Delhi govt provided free dry rations to more than 60 lakh

people, who did not have ration cards, during the lockdown period

last year

'Average levels of pollutants in 2020 were lowest in 7 years'OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Aver-age levels of various pollut-ants, including PM10, PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide, in Delhi last year were the low-est since 2014, according to the Delhi Economic Survey report.

Government data also showed that average levels of the major pollutants in the city have been decreasing steadily over the years.

The annual average con-centrations of PM2.5, fine par-ticulate matter that is about three per cent the diameter of a human hair and can lead to premature deaths from heart

and lung diseases, decreased from 149 microgram per cubic meter ( g/m3) in 2014 to 101 g/m3 in 2020, it said.

The annual average of PM10 also decreased from 324 g/m3 in 2014 to 187 g/m3 in 2020, according to the Eco-nomic Survey report, tabled by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Assembly on Monday.

PM 2.5 levels below 40 g/m3 and PM10 levels below 60 g/m3 are considered safe in India.

The annual average for PM2.5 and PM10, at all the monitoring locations, exceeded the prescribed standards, the report said.

Nitrogen Dioxide's annual average concentration has decreased from 82.45 g/m3 in 2014 to 40.30 g/m3 in 2020.

The yearly average of car-

bon monoxide concentration has dipped to 1.27 mg/m3 in 2020. It was 2.07 mg/m3 in 2017, the highest in the last seven years.

The safe limit for CO levels is 2 mg/m3.

However, no significant variation was observed in the annual average value for Sul-phur dioxide, which emanates during the burning of fos-sils fuels, between 2014 and 2020.

The annual city average for SO2 at all the monitoring loca-tions is within the prescribed standard i.e 50 g/m3, it said.

Various studies conducted in the wake of COVID-19-in-duced lockdowns have shown that air pollution levels have fallen significantly across the world due to the reduced traf-fic and restricted industrial activity.

HIGHLIGHTS » Directorate of Education has 84 per cent of its projects and schemes 'on track'

» In the Health Department, 80 per cent (402) of the projects and schemes are 'on track'

» 62 per cent of the projects and schemes in the Social Welfare Department are 'on track'

» In the Transport Department, 71 per cent of the projects and schemes are 'on track'

» As for Delhi Jal Board, 62 per cent of the projects and schemes are 'on track'

» And in the Power and Environment department, 75 per cent and 79 per cent of the projects and schemes respectively are 'on track'

IN OTHER NEWS » Union Transport Min-ister Nitin Gadkari on Monday confirmed to Parliament that under the Delhi govern-ment’s Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy, 2020, scrapping incentives, including up to Rs 7,500 per vehicle for auto and light commercial vehicles, will be provided. The Delhi government notified the Delhi EV Policy 2020 on Aug 7, 2020, with an intention to promote the adoption of clean mobility solutions

Load shedding lowest in last 2 decades, says Eco Survey

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Load shedding in the national Capital has dropped to 0.03 per cent of the total consumption, the lowest in the last two decades, accord-ing to the Delhi Economic Sur-vey report.

The development comes even as the number of electric-ity consumers in the city grew by 81.74 per cent during the decade, it said.

The report was tabled by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Assembly on Monday.

Delhi, being an urban place with high load density, has seen the electricity consumption increasing from 25,668 MUs in 2010-11 to 33,082 MUs in

2019-20"."The total power purchase

in Delhi has grown by 21.37 per cent during the last ten years (from 2009-10 to 2019-20). The power purchased in Delhi has increased from 32,744 MU in 2010-11 to 35,419 MU in 2019-20," the report said.

While 14.72 per cent of total power purchase is sourced from own generation by the Delhi government power plants, 85.28 per cent is purchased from the central government and other sources.

Delhi, where electricity prices have not been increased since 2015, also saw about 42 lakh households (more than 83 per cent of the total domestic electricity consumers) getting electricity subsidy.

NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp nation4

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Monday started anti-COVID-19 vaccination of its officials with its acting direc-tor Praveen Sinha taking the first shot, officials said.

The agency continued its investigations and prosecution process during the pandemic even though over 680 officials, about nine per cent of the total staff, contracted the virus while working on various cases and four officials succumbed to the deadly disease.

After getting nod from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, several senior officers led by Sinha took the jab on the first day of the process. The vac-cination drive will continue on different days, CBI spokesper-son R C Joshi said. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Till now no "major report of discordant test results" has been reported by COVID-19 testing labo-ratories, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey told Rajya Sabha on February 9. It was inadvertently reported as a reply given on March 8.

He was responding to a question on whether capping the price of COVID-19 tests has forced several labs to use relatively inexpensive kits rais-ing the risk of false negative and compromising data.

Keeping in view fast track-ing of approval of test kits, increasing indigenous manu-facturing, inclusion of alterna-tive platforms like CBNAAT and GeneXperts, improved market availability at compet-itive prices, the Union health ministry has advised state gov-ernments and union territory (UT) administrations to nego-tiate with private labs and fix mutually agreeable prices for COVID-19 testing, Choubey said. Fixing price of diagnos-tic products for COVID-19 is therefore being undertaken by states and UTs, he said in a written reply.

To ensure the quality of test kits, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) undertakes validation of diag-nostic kits and provides reports to kit manufacturers, which is used for marketing authorisa-tion, the minister said.

In addition, for RT-PCR testing, the ICMR under the "Inter Laboratory Quality Con-trol for molecular based testing

laboratories for COVID-19" has identified quality control (QC) laboratories in each state and UT and mapped private testing labs to different QC labs.

"All testing labs need to liaise with the recommended QC labs and will ensure regu-lar participation in QC activ-ity. Till now no major report of discordant test results has been

reported by the participating COVID-19 testing laborato-ries," Choubey said in his reply.

In addition, the Cen-tral Drugs Standard Control Organization grants "manu-facturing/import licenses for diagnostic kits, under the pro-visions of Medical Device Rules, 2017, to ensure quality, safety and performance of the products", he said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The expenditure to be incurred as operational cost for COVID-19 vaccina-tion of estimated three crore healthcare and frontline work-ers is about Rs 480 crore and vaccines' cost is about Rs 1,392 crore, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey told the Rajya Sabha on February 9. It was inadvertantly reported as a reply given on March 8.

In response to a question on whether the government plans to distribute the vaccine free of cost to any section of popula-tion in the country, the minis-ter said, "Presently, the vaccine is being provided free of cost to healthcare workers and frontline workers." As on February 4, a total of 96.28 lakh healthcare workers and 78.51 lakh front-line workers have been identi-fied for COVID-19 vaccination, he said in a written reply. The

database of frontline workers is in the process of getting updated on the Co-Win digital platform, he said.

"The expenditure to be incurred as operational cost for vaccination of estimated 3 crore healthcare workers and frontline workers is about Rs 480 crore and vaccines cost is about Rs 1392.82 crore," Choubey said.

Two COVID-19 vaccines -- Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India

and Covaxin manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Limited -- have been granted permission for restricted use in emergency situation by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) so far.

These two vaccines have been procured for COVID-19 vaccination drive in the coun-try which began on January 16.

Till January 26, a total of 200 lakh doses of Covishield and 28.03 lakh doses of Covaxin

have been supplied, Choubey said. The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) pro-vides guidance on all aspects of vaccination including prioriti-sation of population groups for vaccination. The NEGVAC has prioritised healthcare and front-line workers during the initial phase of COVID-19 vaccination followed by prioritized popula-tion groups of persons aged 50 years and above, and those aged

NEW DELHI: At the start of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, fewer beneficiaries than planned attended inoculation sessions due to transient technical issues in the Co-WIN portal, vac-cine hesitancy etc, which have progressively been addressed, Rajya Sabha was informed in February. It was inadvertently reported as a reply given on March 8. The rate of vaccina-tion coverage has subsequently increased, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey said in a written reply.

"More than 50 lakh health-care workers and frontline workers have been vaccinated in 21 days in India, which is the fastest rate in the world," Choubey said. A total of 93.6 lakh healthcare workers and 77.9 lakh frontline workers have been registered as on January 31.

A total of 37.58 lakh workers were vaccinated till January 31, he said. "Initially the coverage was low. At the start of COVID-19 vaccination drive, fewer than planned beneficiaries attended vaccination sessions due to tran-sient technical issues in Co-WIN portal, vaccine hesitancy etc., which have progressively been addressed," he said.

A communication cam-paign was carried out to raise awareness about the COVID-19 vaccines and address mis-information. MPOST

No testing lab reported discordant results: Govt‘To ensure the quality of test kits, ICMR undertakes validation of diagnostic kits and provides reports to kit manufacturers’

‘Expenditure incurred as ops cost for vaccination of 3 cr HCWs, FLWs is ̀ 480 cr and vaccines cost is ̀ 1392.82 cr’

Vaccination drive coverage was

initially low due to issues in Co-WIN, hesitancy: Govt

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A total of 42,848 personnel of tri-services have tested positive for COVID-19 till date, said Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik on Monday.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases in the Indian Army have been 32,690 and the fatality rate stands at 0.24 per cent till date, Naik said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

There have been 6.554 and 3,604 COVID-positive cases in the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy, respectively, he mentioned.

Their fatality rate stands at 0.39 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively, he added.

"As per the rules, no spe-cial compensation for deaths occurring due to infectious disease is provided to armed force personnel, while they are in service. However, all such cases of death while in service are provided terminal benefits," Naik stated.

He also said that no defence personnel has left service due to stress in the last three years as per available data.

In early January, a study by think tank United Service Institution of India (USI) had said the Indian Army has been

losing more personnel every year in suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents than in any enemy action and over half of its soldiers seem to be under severe stress presently.

To a question in Rajya Sabha, Naik said in his written reply, “The number of suicide and fratricide cases are mini-mal and they have been going down due to a large number of measures initiated by the armed forces, including con-duct and implementation of recommendations of studies by Defence Institute of Psycholog-ical Research (DIPR).”

After media reported on the USI study in early January, it was removed from the think tank’s website. Moreover, its findings were rejected by Army Chief General M M Naravane during a press conference on January 12.

Naik said on Monday, “As per available data, no defence

personnel has left service due to stress in last three years.”

The government has taken several steps towards stress amelioration amongst troops, which include deployment of trained psychological coun-sellors, improvement in the quality of food and clothing, training in stress management, provision of recreational facili-ties and leave concessions, Naik noted.

In another writtten reply, the minister said that the Army received a total of seven com-plaints of human rights viola-tions in 2020, but none of them were found to be true.

The Army had received 26 complaints of human rights violations in 2019 and one of them was found to be true, he said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

In 2018, there were 42 such complaints, but they were found to be false, he said.

“No human rights viola-tion cases were reported during 2018 to 2020 from the Indian Navy and Air Force,” the min-ister noted.

“The Army has zero toler-ance policy on human rights violations. All troops are trained and briefed regularly to ensure that operations are conducted as per laid down instructions,” he added.

42,848 armed forces personnel have tested Covid positive till date: Naik

Naik to RS » No defence personnel has left service due to stress in last 3 years » Army got 7 complaints of human rights violations in 2020, none found to be true

CBI begins vaccinating its officials

NEW DELHI: The estimated manufacturing capacity of COVID-19 vaccine Cov-ishield' is 70-100 million doses per month, while the indige-nously developed Covaxin' has a planned production capacity of 150 million doses per year, the Department of Biotechnol-ogy told a parliamentary panel.

The Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, For-ests and Climate Change also strongly urged the department to explore deeper into develop-ing cure for certain rare diseases, for which the country is, by and large, dependent on imports and patients have to shell out exorbitant amount of money for the cost and their excise/import duty.

The panel also desired to know the status of the current vaccine production capacity with respect to the two approved vaccines, and how soon could these vaccines be made avail-able to non-priority population.

"The inactivated vaccine candidate, COVAXIN, devel-oped jointly by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Med-ical Research (ICMR), has a planned production capacity of 150 million doses per year.

"The estimated manufac-turing capacity of the non-rep-licating viral vector vaccine, COVISHIELD, by the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, is about 70-100 million doses per month," the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) told the panel. MPOST

Manufacturing capacity of Covishield 70-100 mn doses per month, Covaxin 150 mn doses per year: DBT to panel

less than 50 years with comor-bidities. Presently, the vaccine is being provided free of cost to healthcare and frontline work-ers, Choubey said.

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: In a move that may help in sensitising people towards buying local natu-ral products prepared by tribal artisans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday purchased a toda handwoven shawl, a jute file folder and a Gond painting through Tribesindia.com por-tal, which is a flagship initiative of TRIFED --- a marketing arm of the Tribal Affairs Ministry.

“It a major boost to tribal artisans, and women artisans in particular, on the occasion of International Women’s Day as the Prime Minister ordered these few unique pieces from Tribes India portal,” said Pravir Krishna – the MD of TRIFED.

Among the tribal art items that the PM ordered is a Gond painting by Sarita Dhurvi, a tribal artisan from Dindori district, Samnapur tehsil, Madhya Pradesh, he said, adding that the Toda shawl ordered by the PM has been crafted by the Toda artisan Monisha.

“The shawl, the file folder and the paint-ing totalling Rs 3,849.60 is being shipped by TRIFED to the Prime Minister’s residence on Monday and it would reach him on Tuesday with all our love too,” Krishna said.

Following the clarion call by the Prime Min-ister to promote women entrepreneurship, and in particular that of the tribal women, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal also purchased products from the Tribes India website.

Irani bought a bright and beautiful Kantha cotton/silk saree, handcrafted by the master craftswomen of West Bengal, while Vardhan purchased a multicolour cotton shirt and some foxtail millets and Goyal bought a handloom woven herringbone waistcoat, he said.

PM logs in TRIFED’s shopping site as a customer and buys

tribal products

CISCE REVISES EXAM SCHEDULE FOR CLASS X, XIINEW DELHI: The Council for the Indian School Certificate Ex-aminations (CICSE) on Monday revised the exam schedule for classes 10 and 12, rescheduling a few subjects, officials said. As per the ICSE (class 10) revised timetable, no exams have been scheduled on May 13 and May 15.

millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021mp nation 5

Demand for women reservation in Parliament, state assemblies

The demand comes in backdrop of a Bill which sought to give 33% reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies lapsing a few years ago

Attend Parliament, observe debates: RS Chairman to MPs

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Several Rajya Sabha members on Inter-national Women's Day on Tuesday pushed for at least one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies, saying this will ensure they get adequate representation.

The demand comes in the backdrop of a bill which sought to give 33 per cent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies lapsing a few years ago.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on the occa-sion appreciated the services rendered by women members of the House for the country's development and prosperity.

"We need to ensure an envi-ronment that allows women to express themselves to their full potential in the form of both words and deeds," he said and wished them more strength and power.

The chairman also

acknowledged the contribu-tion of women citizens to the development of the nation.

Congress member Chhaya Verma recalled that the gov-ernment of former prime min-ister Rajiv Gandhi had given reservation to women in local bodies.

Similar provisions should be made for women in state assemblies, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, she said.

BJP member Saroj Pan-dey said that the government has taken various measures to empower women and high-lighted the law against triple talaq.

She also said that the sex ratio of the country has improved because of the gov-ernment's 'beti bachao, beti padhao' campaign.

However, Congress' Phulo Devi Netam alleged that though the government has given the slogan 'beti bachao, beti padhao', women are not secured anywhere.

Nominated member Sonal

Mansingh made a case of cel-ebrating 'international men's day' on the line of women's day.

Shiv Sena member Pri-yanka Chaturvedi was of the opinion that as women form around 50 per cent of the coun-try's population, their repre-sentation in Parliament and state assemblies too should be

in the same proportion, and not merely 33 per cent.

Fauzia Khan of the NCP said the beginning could be made by bringing the legisla-tion on the 33 per cent reser-vation for women in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

She noted that many women heads of state and

leaders were widely recog-nised and appreciated for their promptness and effectiveness in handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congress member Amee Yajnik claimed that 90 per cent of women in rural or urban areas are not aware that a day has been specially carved out for them.

"They do not know that there has to be a celebration on this day," the MP said.

"I wish that all women get access to all schemes, all rights that have been given by the Constitution, and that every empowered woman see to it that another woman gets empowered," Yajnik said.

BJP member Seema Dwivedi said women are excel-ling in all fields.

Sampatiya Uikey of the BJP said that there are 78 women members in Lok Sabha and 27 in Rajya Sabha.

She also said women are getting opportunities in all spheres of life.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several Union ministers and leaders of polit-ical parties conveyed their wishes on Monday on the occa-sion of International Women's Day, extolling the role of 'nari shakti' in various fields. Prime Minister Modi greeted women on the occasion of the Interna-tional Women's Day and said India takes pride in their many accomplishments.

He said it was his govern-ment's honour to work towards furthering women empower-ment in the country across a wide range of sectors.

"Saluting our indomitable #NariShakti on International Women's Day! India takes pride in the many accom-plishments of the women of our nation. It is our Govern-ment's honour to be getting the opportunity to work towards furthering women empower-ment across a wide range of sectors," he tweeted.

President Kovind also took to Twitter to wish on the occa-sion and called for collectively resolving to promote gender justice and eliminate inequal-ity between women and men.

"On the occasion of Inter-national Women's Day, greet-ings and best wishes to all fellow citizens. Women in our

country are setting new records and achievements in various fields. Let us collectively resolve to promote gender justice and eliminate inequality between women and men," Kovind tweeted.

Saluting women health-care workers on International Women's Day, Union minister Smriti Irani said their unequiv-ocal contribution played an important role in India's fight against coronavirus.

"There is No HERO With-out HER! The spread of COVID-19 brought to the fore selfless and determined role of #NariShakti during the crisis. This Women's Day, we salute our 6 million+ women health workforce for their unequivo-cal contribution in India's fight against Corona.@WHO," the Women and Child Develop-ment minister said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said "women are capa-ble of creating history and future with formidable grace".

"Don't let anyone stop you," he said in a tweet as Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other lead-ers of the party echoed him in sending out the message of women's empowerment on the day. Giving more and more space to women's voices is the foundation of women's empowerment, Priyanka Gan-dhi said on Twitter.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the government led by Prime Minister Modi is deeply committed to women empowerment in all walks of life. "On International Wom-en's Day, I truly appreciate the role of India's #NariShakti in strengthening the foundations of this great nation. The gov-

ernment led by Prime Minister @narendramodi is deeply com-mitted to women empower-ment in all walks of life," Singh tweeted.

Home Minister Amit Shah said women empowerment has always been the focal point of the policies of the Modi gov-ernment. "On the occasion of International Women's Day, I bow to the Nari Shakti sym-bolizing courage, valor and dedication. Women's empow-erment has always been the focal point of the policies of the Modi government and it is a matter of pride that today our mother power is contribut-ing significantly in realizing the resolve of a self-reliant India," Shah tweeted in Hindi.

BJP president J P Nadda shared a 'shlok' and conveyed best wishes to all mothers and sisters on the day. "Our women power has made the entire nation proud with its amazing talent and hard work in every field," he wrote on the microb-logging site.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted, "Despite the odds, women have consis-tently proved their potential. Women are playing a lead-ing role in every field. Some real life heroes,#COVID19 My salute to the female warrior. Happy International Women's Day to all women.#IWD2021 #ChooseToChallenge".

Prez, PM, ministers laud women for their roles in various fields

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said that mem-bers should make it a point to be present in the House to enhance understanding of par-liamentary procedures and also use the library facility.

On the first day of the sec-ond part of the Budget Session, Naidu said that he has been told that some members do not attend the proceedings even when they are in the national capital.

"Going to library is going to enhance your knowl-edge. Attending the session, not missing it, also enhances understanding of Parliament procedures. So I call upon members to please visit (Parlia-ment) library, make use of the library...and also please attend Parliament," he said.

He further said, "I am told they are in Delhi but they are not present in the House".

He, however, made it clear that he was not referring to any particular member or any party. "I appeal to all the mem-bers, please make it a point to be in the House and then observe debates, enrich your knowledge," he said.

The Parliament Library

is completing 100 years this year. It has a huge collection of about 14 lakh books includ-ing hundreds of journals in all languages.

"I am told that the foot-fall of Members of Parliament in this source of information and knowledge is not very encouraging," Naidu said, stressing that sufficient home-work is required on the part of members to make quality contribution to debates and interventions.

Naidu also gave an account of the examination of the Demands for Grants for 2021-22 of various ministries under-taken by the eight Department Related Parliamentary Stand-ing Committees of Rajya Sabha

during the 3 week-recess after the first part of the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.

He referred to several posi-tives that emerged during the Budget scrutiny by the Com-mittees of Rajya Sabha and some concerns as well.

Naidu, however, expressed concern over low attendance of members of non-BJP and non-Congress parties in the meetings held for scrutiny of Demands for Grants.

Naidu said attendance of such other parties and groups has fallen to 27.60 per cent from 40 per cent last year. Conse-quently, the overall attendance this year in the 21 meetings has fallen to 42 per cent from 48 per cent last year. AGENCIES

FIRST COMMERCIAL PASSENGER FLIGHT TO BAREILLY FLAGGED OFF FROM DELHI NEW DELHI: The first commercial passenger flight to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh operated by an all-woman crew was flagged off from the Delhi airport by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday. “The Bareilly airport has been upgraded for com-mercial flight operations under the regional connec-tivity scheme Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the government of India,” the civil aviation ministry said in a statement. The all-woman crew oper-ated Alliance Air’s Delhi-Bareilly inaugural flight on International Women’s Day, it said. Alliance Air will be deploying its ATR 72-600 aircraft, which can seat around 70 passengers, on the Delhi-Bareilly route, the statement said.

KARNATAKA GOVT’S GIFT: 6-MONTHS’ CHILD CARE LEAVE FOR EMPLOYEES BENGALURU: On international women’s day, Kar-nataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurapps on Monday announced a proposal to provide six-months child care leave to women employees of the Government.He also announced a grant of Rs 37,188 crore for women oriented programmes.Presenting the 2021-22 budget in the Legislative Assembly, he proposed upgradation of Anganwadis situated in Bengaluru and other cities into creches for the benefit of urban working women.Action would be taken to open creches in two major government offices in each district centre, the Chief Minister said, announcing a slew of initiatives benefit-ing women.

BRIEFSNATION

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed the Bill clearing the decks for the BJP government to hold next polls to the four Municipal Corporations –Dharamshala, Palampur, Mandi and Solan on party symbols. This was despite the Congress MLAs and lone CPM MLA Rakesh Singha staging a walk-out as their plea to make certain amendments in the Bill were not allowed by the government, especially minister for urban local bod-ies Suresh Bhardwaj.

Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and Con-gress Chief whip Jagat Singh Negi pointed out that the Bill has several shortcom-ings, including one relating to application of roster of reserva-tion for the Mayor and Deputy Mayors belonging to SC/ST/OBC and others.

The reservations, as per Bill, were to be decided on the basis of draw of lots –which is neither a transparent way nor acceptable to the members.

Inside the House, Agni-hotri urged the government to give two more days to allow members to submit their amendments.

However Deputy Speaker Hansraj read a notification in

the House and added that the MLAs were given sufficient time to speak on the Bills.

Negi said the government had not specified in the new legislation about cross voting. He said provisions should be made in the Bill to check cross voting. The power to conduct Municipal Corporation polls should be given to the Election Commission of India in place of the State Election Commis-sion because the ruling party could influence the govern-ment officers to ensure cross voting in favour of party can-didates for the post of Mayor or Deputy Mayor.

He asked why the govern-ment was in a hurry to pass the bill. It’s clear that it has political considerations and the bill was being brought to amendment without giving opportunity to house members to submit their suggestions.

CPM MLA Rakesh Singha also opposed the Bill.

He said that the govern-ment, which has an absolute majority in the House, can get the Bill cleared. Yet, even if the Government is able to pass the bill today without accept-ing opposition amendments, it would be challenged in court.

"I reserve my right to take proper legal recourse against the bill,” Singha said.

HP House passes Bill to hold MC polls on party symbols

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: Hary-ana Government has taken steps to ensure that the state is anemia and malnutrition free. Chief Minister Mano-har Lal launched a campaign in this regard during a State-Level function organized on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Besides this, for ensuring a safe environment for women, the Chief Minister laid empha-sis that the state will take strin-gent steps to reduce the cases of crimes against women and strict action will be taken

against the guilty. Speaking on the International Women’s Day Celebrations here, the Chief Minister said that today women are excelling in every field and the state is sensitive towards decreasing the incidences of crime against women. Mano-har Lal was addressing the participants present in the pro-grammes across the state from the State Level Programme organised at the Chief Minis-ter's residence in Chandigarh through video conferencing.

Among those present on this occasion were Education Minister Kanwar Pal, Minis-ter of State for Women and

Child Development Kamlesh Dhanda, Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan, Commissioner and Secretary of Women and Child Development Department Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Additional Prin-cipal Secretary to Chief Minis-ter Dr. Amit Agarwal, Deputy Principal Secretary Ashima Brar and other senior officers of the Women and Child Devel-opment Department.

Other than starting a cam-paign for ensuring that the state is anemia and malnutrition free, the Chief Minister also inaugurated 30 model crèches. Besides this, the state also plans to introduce 500 model crèches

in the state through mobile crèches.

Further upgrading wom-en’s safety, the Chief Minister on Monday started Whatsapp Women Helpline. Now, women of the state can also complain through WhatsApp on the number 9478913181 in case of emergency. Earlier, the help line number 181 was available for assistance.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister shared that numerous schemes ensuring women empowerment are being run in the state under the leadership of Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi.

Campaign launched to make Haryana free from anemia and malnutrition

LEADING FROM THE FRONT

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla with women MPs on the occasion of International Women’s Day Celebration in New Delhi on Monday MPOST

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Stressing on women empowerment, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, “International Women’s Day, which is celebrated across the globe, gives us an opportu-nity to mark our respect and gratitude towards womankind for the unparallel contribution they make in our lives”.

While addressing a webi-nar organised by the WHO, Vardhan said, “In India, we call our revered Motherland as Matribhumi, quite in con-sonance with the Indian tra-dition which ordains high and respectable position for women in society.”

“Our history” is the sacred biography of the Mother. Our philosophies are the revelations of the Mother’s mind,” he said.

The union minister further said, “I have always said where there is a woman, there is magic. Today’s celebration is not about making our women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”

In a contribution towards women empowerment, scien-tists have developed a new tech-nique Ayouthveda to protect women from infections as the products prepared under the aegis of Ayouthveda are free

from chemicals.As about 80 per cent of

women ignore the importance of their internal hygiene that led to various bacterial and fungus infections, the herbal-based Ayouthveda vagitone inti-mate hygiene wash, which is rich in green tea, haridra and amla among others, is prov-ing an effective preventive cure to get rid of women’s internal problems.

“Mostly, it has been found that chemical-based products have an adverse health impact on the women. Hence when it comes to internal hygiene organs of women, it is more important to be careful,” said Sanchit Sharma, who repre-sents herbal drug manufactur-ing firm AIMIL.

Studies have indicated that women in the age group of 18 to 45 years do not share their ‘internal’ problems either due to their busy schedule or shyness.

When women are empowered, history is created: Vardhan

RAIPUR: Addressing a state level women's conference on the occasion of International Women's Day on Monday, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that there has always been a sig-nificant contribution of mother power in Chhattisgarh. The CM said that women have been given the right to equality in the Constitution, and now is the high time to give equal rights to women in the family as well, so that they may take decisions on their own.

He said that state govern-ment is continuously working towards the education, health and self-reliance of women.

Baghel said that when an educated man benefits him-self, but when a woman is educated, it benefits the whole family. Entire family gets edu-cated and the society moves ahead and progress.

He said that state govern-ment has made provision of free education for girls and boys up to 12th standard. In the name of Swami Atmanand, 52 Eng-lish mediums have been started this year, and in the budget of 2021-22, provision for 119 Eng-lish medium schools has been made. In the near future, Eng-lish medium schools will be opened in every development block headquarters, so as to pro-vide English Medium education facility to the daughters in the development block itself.

The CM said that State Gov-ernment is conducting several schemes to provide better nutri-tion and better health facili-ties to women. 20,000 women

suffering from anemia have become healthy due to the Chief Minister's Nutrition Campaign (Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan. Through this cam-paign, 99,000 children have been cured of malnutrition in one year. Women are also get-ting the benefit of health ser-vices through Mukhyamantri Haat-Bazaar Clinic Scheme, Urban Slum Health Scheme and Dai-Didi Clinic Scheme. Under Dai-Didi clinic scheme, the entire staff including the doc-tor is female, so that women do not hesitate to tell their health related problems.

The CM said that 20 lakh women have been provided employment and income resources by associating them with self-help groups. Other than making vermi compost, women are conducting various economic activities in Gauthans, they are also earning from the collection of minor forest pro-duce. Earlier, only 7 types of minor forest produce were pur-chased on support price, now their number has been increased to 52, which has also contrib-uted to the increase in income of women. MPOST

‘Women should get right to equality in families as well’

Shiv Sena member Priyanka Chaturvedi was of the opinion that as women form around 50 per cent of the country’s population, their representation in Parliament and state assemblies too should be in the same proportion, and not merely 33 per cent

Women officers of Himachal Pradesh police perform stunts on the occasion of International Women's Day, at Ridge, in Shimla

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu conducts proceedings of the House during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament, in New Delhi

mp nation6 NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: The NIA has taken over the case of a vehicle laden with explosives being found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai, officials said on Mon-day, a move that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thac-keray said showed something was fishy.

A spokesperson of the National Investigation Agency said in a brief statement that the anti-terror agency had taken over the probe following orders from the Union Home Minis-try and was in the process of re-registering the case being investigated by the Maharash-tra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Crime Branch. Besides the recovery of the vehicle, the Cen-tral anti-terror agency will also probe the mysterious death of Mansukh Hiren, the owner of the stolen vehicle.

A Scorpio, with 20 gelatin sticks inside, was found near Antilia, Ambani’s high-rise resi-dence in south Mumbai, on Feb-ruary 25. Police said the vehicle was stolen from Airoli-Mulund Bridge on February 18.

The mystery deepened after Hiren’s body was found in Thane district neighbour-

ing Mumbai.“We had handed over the

case of the vehicle laden with explosives and the mysterious death of Mansukh Hiran to the ATS. The NIA taking over the case shows something was fishy,” Thackeray said as news came in about the NIA taking over the case.

Governments come and go, but the official administrative machinery remains the same and one needs to trust it, the chief minister told reporters in Mumbai.

The ATS, he said, will con-tinue to conduct its probe into Hiren’s death.

Hiren had written a letter to Thackeray and said the interro-gation by various agencies had disturbed his peace of mind. Despite “being a victim, I am treated as an accused. I have also been receiving calls from media houses who have been harass-ing me and my family”, he said.

The letter dated March 2, purportedly written by Hiren and also addressed to Home Minister Anil Deshmukh as well as the police commissioners of Thane and Mumbai, surfaced on Saturday. He alleged that he was being harassed despite not

having any knowledge about the culprits, who not only “stole his vehicle but also misused it”.

The Maharashtra ATS had registered the FIR against unidentified persons on the order of the state home depart-ment under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing dis-appearance of evidence of offence) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy).

The case was also discussed at the ongoing session of the Maharashtra Assembly where Deshmukh said the state police was capable of solving Hiren’s death and the recovery of a car with explosives near the Reli-ance Industries CMD’s resi-dence. Making a statement in the Assembly, Deshmukh said the ATS registered a case against unidentified persons after Hiren’s wife expressed sus-picion that her husband may have been murdered,

Further more, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday said the state police were capable of solving the case of auto parts dealer Mansukh Hiran’s death and the recovery of a car with explosives near the residence industrialist Mukesh Ambani. AGENCIES

NIA takes over case of vehicle laden with explosives found near Ambani's home

Something fishy, says Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Monday passed a bill that penalizes reli-gious conversion through mar-riage or any other fraudulent means and provides for a prison sentence of upto 10 years.

While the opposition Con-gress questioned the need for a new law, Home Minister Narot-tam Mishra said unlike the 1968 legislation, the present act provides for annulment of mar-riage and a harsher sentence.

The act also provides for fine of up to Rs one lakh.

It replaced an ordinance promulgated by the BJP gov-ernment on January 9. A simi-lar law has been enforced in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

The ordinance barred reli-gious conversion by “misrep-

resentation, allurement, use of threat of force, undue influ-ence, coercion, marriage or by any other fraudulent means”.

After the “Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill 2021” was passed by a voice vote, some BJP MLAs chanted “Jai Shri Ram”.

Replying to the debate before the bill was passed, Home Minister Mishra said the government would not toler-ate “Rafiq becoming Ravi” for “Love Jihad”. The government was not “averse to love but is against Jihad”, he said.

The Congress objected to the bill, just as it had opposed in Parliament the Citizenship Amendment Act, the law ban-ning triple talaq and abolition of Article 370, he said.

“There is peace in the (Kashmir) valley now,” he added. Mishra also accused the Congress of instilling fear among Muslims and claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime min-ister, indulged in “politics of division”.

Congress members Vinay Saxena and others objected to this remark and said it should be expunged. Acting Speaker Laxman Singh said the House should focus on the bill. Mishra further said the bill provides for annulment of marriage solem-nized through unfair means, makes fraudulent conversion a non-bailable offence with pun-ishment upto 10 years and puts the onus of proving innocence on the accused. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court sought responses from states on Monday on a ques-tion of "seminal importance" whether legislatures were com-petent to declare a particular caste to be socially and edu-cationally backward for grant of quota.

The top court will examine the question of interpretation of the 102nd amendment to the Constitution dealing with reservation to a particular com-munity, named in the list pre-pared by the President.

The 102nd Constitu-tion amendment Act of 2018 inserted Article 338B (deals with the structure, duties and powers of National Commis-sion of Backward Class) and 342A (power of the Presi-dent to notify a particular caste as Socially and Educa-tionally Backward Class (SEBC)) and the power of Parliament to change the SEBC list.

The issue of interpretation of 102nd amendment arose before a five-judge constitu-tion bench while examining a batch of pleas on the validity of the Maratha reservation law and the legal issue of whether a state legislature is competent enough to declare a particular caste to be socially and edu-cationally backward for grant

of quota.The bench, headed by Jus-

tice Ashok Bhushan, said it would also hear arguments on the issue of whether the land-mark 1992 judgement in the Indira Sahwney case -- also known as the Mandal verdict, which caps the quota at 50 per cent -- should be re-looked and referred to a larger bench.

The bench, also compris-ing justices L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat, said it would commence the hearing from next Monday and asked the states to file a brief note of written submissions on the issue.

"We have considered the submission of different par-ties and are of the view that the interpretation of 102nd amendment of the Constitu-tion is of seminal importance and, therefore, notice has to be issued to the states," the bench said.

"Notices be served on the standing counsel of each state and brief notes of submissions be filed," it added.

It noted the submission of senior advocates MukulRo-hatgi, KapilSibal and P S Patwa-lia, appearing for Maharashtra government, the verdict on the question of interpretation of the 102nd amendment might be affecting the federal struc-ture of the states and, therefore,

they needed to be heard.Attorney General K KVenu-

gopal, appearing for Centre, said the states might be affected with the decision of the court on interpretation of the 102nd amendment and it would be better if notices were issued to all the states.

Some of the parties opposed the issuance of the notice, say-ing the question of interpreta-tion did not concern them and it might delay the process.

The top court had said on February 5 that it would hear from March 8 in a hybrid man-ner -- a combination of physi-cal and virtual hearings -- the pleas pertaining to the 2018 Maharashtra law granting res-ervation to Marathas in educa-tion and jobs.

It had fixed the schedule for hearing of the matter and said it would try to wrap up the hearing on March 18 itself. On January 20, the Maharashtra government had told the bench that a case of this nature should be heard once physical hearing commences.

On December 9, the apex court had said that issues per-taining to the 2018 Maharash-tra law, granting reservation to Marathas in education and jobs, requires "urgent hear-ing" as the legislation had been stayed and the "fruits accrued" were not reaching to the people.

MP Assembly passes Bill penalizing fraudulent religious conversions

NEW DELHI: Observing that country is “returning to nor-malcy”, the Supreme Court Monday decided to end the extension of limitation period which was granted for filing appeals in March, 2020 to liti-gants due to COVID-19 pan-demic situation.

The apex court had on March 23 last year invoked its plenary power under Arti-cle 142 of the Constitution to extend the limitation period of appeals from courts or tri-bunals on account of the pan-demic with effect from March 15, 2020.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices L Nag-eswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat had been extending the limitation period by interim orders and finally decided to put an end to this keeping in mind the improved situ-ation in the country and the fact that courts have started functioning.

“Though, we have not seen the end of the pandemic, there is considerable improvement. The lockdown has been lifted and the country is returning to normalcy. Almost all the Courts and Tribunals are func-

tioning either physically or by virtual mode.

“We are of the opinion that the order has served its pur-pose and in view of the chang-ing scenario relating to the pandemic, the extension of limitation should come to an end,” the apex court said in its order.

It considered suggestions of Attorney General K K Venugo-pal and issued a slew of direc-tions regarding future course of action on filing of appeals.

“In computing the period of limitation for any suit, appeal, application or proceeding, the period from March 15, 2020 till March 14, 2021 shall stand excluded,” it said.

Consequently, the balance period of limitation remain-ing as on March 15, 2020, if any, shall become available with effect from March15, this year, it said.

“In cases where the limita-tion would have expired during the period between March 15, 2020 till March 14, 2021, not-withstanding the actual balance period of limitation remaining, all persons shall have a limi-tation period of 90 days from March 15, 2021,” it said. AGENCIES

SC ends extension of limitation period, says

country returning to normalcy

‘Remarks on rape case last week completely misreported’OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde on Monday said its observations during the hearing of a rape case last week were completely misreported and added that it has the high-est respect for women.

The comments -- on Inter-national Women's Day -- come in the wake of recent criticism against the Supreme Court that it had purportedly asked a rape accused whether he would marry the victim, who was a minor when the crime was committed.

We (had) asked are you going to marry? We didn't order (him to) 'marry'," the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasub-ramanian, said. It also said the reputation of the judiciary is in the hands of its lawyers.

The observations by the bench were made while it was hearing another case that of a 14-year-old pregnant rape survivor seeking permission to abort the foetus of almost 26 weeks.

In the proceedings con-ducted through video con-

ferencing, it referred to a provision of the Evidence Act and said the query was posed in the context of the records, but the issue was completely misreported .

It was earlier stated that the apex court's query asking a rape accused whether he would marry the victim was based on 'judicial records' containing an undertaking from the man that he would marry the minor girl, a relative, after she turns 18 years of age.

CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat had written to the chief justice asking him to withdraw his remarks report-

edly made during the March 1 hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of the accused.

Several women's rights activists, eminent citizens, intellectuals, writers and artistes had also penned an open letter to the chief jus-tice demanding an apol-ogy and retraction of the remarks.

Referring to the earlier case, the bench said on Monday, "We do not remember any case of marital rape was before us ...We have the highest respect for women."

"Our reputation is always at the hands of bar," the top

court observed. The view was endorsed by lawyers appearing in the case.

Lawyer V K Biju, appearing for the petitioner in the case listed on Monday, said a sec-tion of the people is tarnish-ing the institution and some kind of mechanism is needed to deal this.

The Bar Council of India had backed the Supreme Court and asked activists who had written to the CJI to withdraw his remarks to not "scandal-ise" the highest judiciary and take "political mileage" of its

proceedings.In the March 1 observa-

tions, the bench headed by Bobde was hearing a plea filed by the accused, serving as a technician in Maharash-tra State Electricity Produc-tion Company Ltd, who had moved the apex court against a Bombay High Court February 5 order cancelling his anticipa-tory bail.

The man's lawyer said the accused was initially willing to marry the girl but she had refused and now he was mar-ried to someone else.

PANAJI: The Narcotics Con-trol Bureau has arrested a Goa-based man who allegedly had links with the accused in a drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death, an NCB official said on Monday.

The NCB raided the prem-ises of the accused, Hemant Saha, at Morjim in North Goa district and recovered 15 blots

of LSD (commercial quantity) and 30 gm charas, NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede said in a release.

The raid was part of a series of searches held in Goa over the weekend.

The accused was arrested on Sunday from Miramar beach village near Panaji fol-lowing a joint operation by the

NCB from Mumbai and Goa, Wankhede said. The official said the drugs case accused Anu-jKeswani and Regal Mahakaal during questioning named Saha as thesupplier of LSD and charas.

Saha, a native of Madhya Pradesh, was running a shack in Morjim area for past several years, he said. AGENCIES

Sushant case: NCB arrests drug peddler in Goa

HIGHLIGHTS » CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat had written to the chief justice asking him to withdraw his re-marks reportedly made during the March 1 hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of the accused

» Several women's rights activists, eminent citizens, intel-lectuals, writers and artistes had also penned an open letter to the chief justice demanding an apology

» The Bar Council of India had backed the Supreme Court and asked activists who had written to the CJI to withdraw his remarks to not "scandalise" the highest ju-diciary and take "political mileage" of its proceedings

‘Don’t remember any case of marital rape was before us, have highest respect for women’

Apex Court seeks states' response on quota to specific class

Format C-7(for political parties to publish in the newspapers, social media platforms & website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates.(As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in contempt petition(C) no. 2192 of 2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of 2011)Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021

Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL(1) Name of the Constituency – 28- CHOPRA

Name of the candidate – Mr. HAMIDUL RAHAMAN

Sl.no.1. Criminal antecedentsi) a. Nature of the offences Section 147/148/149/448/323/342

of Indian Penal Code - 1860b. Case no. Chopra PS Case No. 04 of

15.10.1979c. Name of the Court ISLAMPUR COURT COMPLEXd. Whether charges have been framed or

not (Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be

givenGOT BAIL

ii) a. Nature of the offences Section 171(f),188 of INDIAN PENAL CODE & 177/179 of MOTOR VECHILE ACT

b. Case no. GR No. 388/2014c. Name of the Court Ld. A.C.J.M 1st, KISHANGANJd. Whether charges have been framed or

not (Yes/No)YES

e. Date of conviction if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone if

anyN/A

g. Any other information required to be given

N/A

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selection shall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

Mr. Hamidul Rahaman has worked exceptionally well during his two previous terms and the people of the constituency including members of AITC want him as a candidate once again.

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates (not more than 100 words)

Same as above.

(2) Name of the Constituency - 28- CHOPRAName of the candidate: Mr. HAMIDUL RAHAMAN

* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency.

Signature of office bearer of the Political Party

Name and designation

The Akanksha Foun-dation was founded in 1991 with a sim-ple idea to deliver

high-quality education to all children, regardless of their socio-economic back-grounds. Started by a driven and dynamic 18-year-old with a big dream, the journey com-menced when the founder Sha-heen Mistri, then a student, began teaching a group of stu-dents from a donated class-room nestled in Holy Name High School in Colaba.

Today, Akanksha Founda-tion has grown from a team of student volunteers to a profes-sional organisation with over 700 staff members, teachers and volunteers — all together on a quest to create a holis-tic educational experience for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Recognizing the need to work with public schools to make an impact on a greater scale, the foundation began a School Project in 2017 in col-laboration with the municipal corporations of Mumbai and Pune. The PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model is rooted in the best practices of high-per-forming schools globally and Akanksha’s own experience in education.

In 2018, Akanksha was invited to start its first CBSE school in Navi Mumbai in col-laboration with the Navi Mum-bai Municipal Corporation (NMMC). What makes this partnership unique is NMMC’s commitment to a cost-sharing model to reimburse Akanksha for 55 per cent of teacher sala-ries. Further, this has prompted corporations from other cit-ies to work with Akanksha on a similar cost-sharing model. The foundation is now in the process of setting up six schools in the city of Nagpur in the year 2021-2022.

As of 2021, The School Project has grown to include 21 public-private schools across Mumbai and Pune, cater-ing to the educational needs and potentials of over 9,300 students and 3,100 alumni. Today, schools run by Akank-sha Foundation form one of

the largest urban networks of public-private partnership of its kind in India.

Each Akanksha school builds and develops a team of teachers, a school leader, counsellors and social work-ers in collaboration to run the school. The team serves as an enabler for children to realise their highest potential by creating a safe, collabora-tive and positive learning environment.

The organization believes it is important to invest in teach-ers to support adaptation to remote learning and continue developing innovative and interactive educational meth-ods. Teachers’ professional development is at the heart of Akanksha’s work, and continu-ous upskilling of all educators through the year is of utmost importance. At the beginning of the school year, all newly recruited teachers as well as returning teachers commit to four weeks of intensive pro-fessional development train-ing, followed by another year of training that includes weekly workshops, peer observation, feedback and one-on-one mentoring.

Over the last four years, under the able leadership of CEO Saurabh Taneja, Akank-

sha Foundation has created a roadmap for children to realise their potential through its stu-dent vision framework. Sau-rabh is an IIT engineer by qualification and had worked as a school leader in one of the foundation’s schools in Pune before assuming the role of the CEO.

To promote a culture of holistic development and quality learning, each school in the Akanksha network is focused on investing in three core areas:Academic achievement: Akanksha schools set rigor-ous learning standards to maximise students’ potential and create a nurturing envi-ronment for children to excel in academics. The multidisci-plinary curriculum is reflected in the daily timetable with sub-jects ranging from Information and Computer Technology, integration of the Arts in math-ematics and science, to music, physical education and sports to even library/reading. Above all, Akanksha schools ensure the inclusion of technology and the use of digital learning techniques in the day-to-day activities of the classroom.

Akanksha classrooms were using digital technology even before the pandemic. The

school shutdown has acceler-ated Blended Learning as a way for students and teachers to use technology effectively. A rounded approach using a mix of traditional (in-person/class-room) and virtual teaching techniques have been adopted. A key pillar of Blended Learn-ing is to provide personalized learning solutions to all chil-dren to ensure that the learn-ing never stops. Despite being located in tier-1 cities of Mum-bai and Pune, overcoming the digital divide continues to be a real challenge for Akanksha. Teachers are working hard towards delivering education to every home, and so far, Akanksha has procured 1,500 new tablets for grades ninth and tenth, investing a total of 1.6 crores towards enabling digital access.

A creative and prag-matic learning tool, unique to Akanksha, is the ‘Art for Akanksha’ (AFA), empowering curriculum for the socio-emo-tional and academic develop-ment of all Akanksha students.Socio-emotional well-being: Socio-emotional development is a core aspect of Akanksha’s student vision. This philoso-phy is grounded in the idea that success in the 21st cen-tury requires each child to go

beyond just academics and develop soft skills for lifelong learning and growth. Cur-rently, all 21 Akanksha schools implement Socio-Emotional and Ethical (SEE) learning practices as part of their daily timetable. SEE is a creative and pragmatic learning tool aimed at providing socio-emotional support while honing fun-damental skills developed by Emory University in partner-ship with the Dalai Lama Trust. The year 2020 was a challeng-ing year, more so for schools and school-going students. To combat and grapple with the emotional trauma experi-enced by students during the school shutdown, all Akank-sha schools actively engaged in periodic student well-being calls. A support system aimed at preventing students, who were unable to participate in remote learning, from drop-ping out entirely. These well-being check-ins also address the concerns of children in distress or at high-risk due to health ailments.Community engagement: At Akanksha, it is believed that parents are partners in the learning journey. Hence, intensive support is provided to empower parents in the areas of community health, economic resilience and as learning facilitators. Outside the classroom, community initiatives are guided by social workers and counsellors who have formed strong ties with students’ families and the local community.

Looking ahead, Akanksha plans to expand its network of innovative schools, share effective practices and advo-cate for systemic reform in education for children across India. It envisions a network of 21st-century schools, enabling children to harness the power of digital tools to grow into empowered, global citizens!

Akanksha has demon-strated that good work can not only be done but can be scaled through public-private partnership in the true spirit of Nexus of Good.

Views expressed are personal

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TUSSLE WITHIN DearEditor

BJP is sensing a huge opportunity in Bengal. Recently, party chief JP Nadda flagged off five “parivartan” yatras in the state with holding back-to-back meetings. On Sunday, Prime Minister addressed a massive rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata. In fact, BJP is leaving no stone unturned – from laying claim to the legacy of Netaji Subhas Bose to promising new infrastructure projects and new jobs – to ensure victory in Bengal. And most tellingly, the party has seen a steady stream of TMC leaders join its ranks in the last few months. On the one hand, this underlines that BJP has the tailwinds and has potentially solved its old problem of lacking charismatic Bengali faces – especially after former TMC ministers Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee and ex-Rajya Sabha member Mithun Chakraborty switched sides. On the other hand, there is growing disquiet within the party over the new inductees, with the old guard feeling marginalised. This recently forced BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya to announce that the party was halting “mass joinings” of leaders from TMC. Besides, there is a perception that many of the TMC defectors were anyway facing anti-incumbency in their respective constituencies and they’re denied tickets for the forthcoming election from their old party. Some apprehensions inducting TMC members accused of corruption and extortion – the charges BJP has been levelling against the Mamata Banerjee government – could prove costly to the image of BJP. Finally, there is resentment among grassroots BJP cadre now having to work with their former political rivals. In fact, there have been several clashes between the BJP old-timers and new entrants. But even as BJP now becomes more circumspect about new inductees, Mamata will keep raising headwinds for its project by emphasising that the turncoats have entered “BJP washing machine”.

Brent crude oil prices averaged USD 55 per barrel in January 2021, which was USD

five per barrel higher than the December 2020 average price, but USD nine per barrel less than from January 2020. The reason for the fluctuations in the price of crude oil in the international market is due to controlled production by producing countries for their benefit.

The states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu etc. have generated the highest rev-enue in the nine months of FY 2021 by imposing sales tax or VAT on petroleum products. Last year too, these states gen-erated the highest revenue from VAT or sales tax. The average share of all states in revenue from petroleum prod-ucts is about 15 per cent.

The state governments do not want to bring petrol and diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) due to a huge amount of revenue earned from sales tax or VAT. Not only this, but the Central Government is also earning money by levying excise and customs duties on various products made from oil and oil products. Due to this, pet-rol and diesel have not been brought under GST so far.

It is worth mentioning that no transparent process is adopted in the pricing of petro-leum products in any country of the world, but due to the federal structure of India, there is a lot of difficulty in the pric-ing of petroleum products here. At present, each state has its own tax structure and state governments are levying taxes on various products as per their requirements.

If we assume, the crude oil price is USD 60 per barrel and the dollar exchange rate is Rs

73, the transportation charge for diesel is Rs 7.25 and Rs 3.82 for petrol, dealer commission is Rs 2.53 for diesel and Rs 3.67 for petrol, cess on petrol is Rs 30 and Rs 20 on diesel and GST of 28 per cent (14 per cent for the Central Government and 14 per cent for the State Gov-ernment), then the price of pet-rol would be Rs 75 and price of diesel would be Rs 68 per litre.

If the price of crude oil remained at USD 50-60 per barrel and petrol and die-sel prices remained at Rs 75 and Rs 68 consecutively, then increased consumption of pet-rol and diesel can fetch rev-enue from Rs 35,000-50,000 crores. Due to this, the total revenue loss of the Central and state governments, which is estimated at Rs 1.30-1.50 lakh crore, can be reduced to around one lakh crore. Though the states which have levied higher taxes on petrol and die-sel may suffer more in the GST taxation structure, this will bring uniformity in the price of petrol and diesel across the country and will benefit those states which have levied lesser

taxes on petrol and diesel. This will benefit the common man the most. According to an esti-mate, due to the low price of petroleum products, they can save up to 10 to 30 rupees.

In the year 2018, under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), the Govern-ment had given free gas con-nections to eight crore poor families. Now in the Budget of 2021-22, the Government has announced to give one crore more LPG connections to the needy, which will be given in the next two years. So that clean fuel can be made avail-able to 100 per cent of the pop-ulation. Although the PMUY has resolved the problem of clean fuel availability, for the time being, the challenge of maintaining this availability will remain before the Gov-ernment even in the coming months and years.

According to the latest fig-ures of the Controller Gen-eral of Accounts (CGA), the Government’s fiscal deficit reached a level of Rs 12.34 lakh crore at the end of Janu-ary 2021, which is 66.8 per cent

of the revised estimate for FY 2021. The expenditure figures show that the Government has already spent Rs 25.17 lakh crore, which is 73 per cent of the revised Budgetary esti-mate. Significantly, according to the revised Budgetary esti-mate, Rs 34.50 lakh crore was to be spent. 83 per cent of the revised budgetary estimate of Rs 4.38 lakh crore has already been spent on capital expen-diture, but the Government still has to spend a total of Rs 0.76 lakh crore towards capital expenditure till March.

The Government has earned revenue of Rs 12.42 lakh crore by January 2021, especially on the excise tax front, which is 79.9 per cent of the revised budget estimate for FY 2021. It is noteworthy that in the same period of the last financial year, the Government had achieved 66.3 per cent of the revenue of the budgetary estimate under this head. The Government has an additional amount of Rs one lakh crore due to the high revenue col-lection. The Government also currently has a cash surplus of

Rs 2.34 lakh crore. Even after adjusting the amount of the states’ share, the Government is estimated to have a cash sur-plus of about Rs 0.5 lakh crore by March 2021. The fiscal defi-cit can also come down to 0.8 per cent of GDP. It will there-after reduce from 9.5 per cent to 8.7 per cent of GDP.

Today, due to the increased price of petrol and diesel, infla-tion is also increasing. There has also been an unprece-dented increase in the price of LPG. Further, there may be difficulties in running the Ujjwala scheme. The price of other petroleum products has also increased. Food and transport fares are also increas-ing, while the common man is already suffering from the neg-ative impact of the pandemic. Employment of crores of people has been snatched away. Many people are facing difficulties in arranging two-time meals.

In the current economic scenario, it is not difficult to reduce the price of petrol and diesel. The economic condition of the central and state govern-ments has already improved and it is likely to improve fur-ther in the coming months.

India is a democratic and welfare country, therefore, it is the duty of the Government to redress the problems of its citizens like a guardian. By the way, if the state and Cen-tral Government wish, then in the long term, the price of petrol and diesel can also be brought under the purview of GST. This will benefit both the state and Central govern-ments. Also, the common man will get relief.

The writer is the Chief Manager in the Dept

of Economic Research at the Corporate Centre of

SBI, Mumbai. Views expressed are personal

Since November 2020, the price of non-subsidized cylinders has increased from Rs 594 to Rs 819 — an increase of Rs 225 per cylinder. According to data from DBTL, the subsidy given was Rs 22,635 crore in FY 2020, which has come down from April to December 2020 to Rs 3,363 crore. The difference between subsidized and non-subsidized cylinders has become almost negligible

Bringing petroleum products under the ambit of GST is economically viable and could reduce the prices to the welfare of people

Striking a balance

Akanksha FoundationFacilitating education and holistic development of deprived children through

innovative schools and active engagement with stakeholders

To promote a culture of holistic development and quality learning, each school in the Akanksha network is focused on investing in three core areas — academic growth, socio-economical well-being and community engagement

EDITORIAL

Turning pointIn some ways, what the Oprah interview with the Sussexes

confirmed is exactly what many people imagined was hap-pening behind the scenes. The very revelation that the interview would be a never before seen ‘tell-all’ arrange-

ment invoked memories of another ‘tell-all’ interview that has continued to be controversial to this day — that of Princess Diana. In some major ways, there were similarities to the sto-ries of Meghan and Princess Diana. Both spoke of isolation, a culture of silence and compliance, biased media coverage and thoughts of suicide.

But of course, unique to her experience, race and colour seems to sadly have played a part in Meghan’s harrowing association with the royal family as well. When Meghan was first introduced to the British public and media, there were some uncomfortable racial undertones to the coverage and discussions at certain points. There were rumours that such discussions were taking place in the royal family as well. In the interview, the Sussexes confirm as much. Before their son Archie was born, there was some serious discussion and con-cern over what skin colour the baby would have. Meghan fur-ther revealed that she knew early on that her son would not be treated the same or indeed given a title or protection. She claimed to be shocked at the behaviour of the family explain-ing that being inclusive of her son would have been ‘a reflec-tion of the world today’. When prompted to name names in this regard, Meghan declined. Harry also declined to comment but dropped another revelation when he spoke of the whole skin colour episode. He revealed that the family had suggested Meghan should go back to acting because there wasn’t enough money for her and that she wasn’t going to be given the same security as the rest of the family.

Harry also mentioned his personal disappointment with his family for not coming and defending his wife when the tabloids took on a colonial tone in incessantly attacking her in an increasingly uncomfortable manner. Members of the UK Parliament came out against such a media attitude but his own family remained silent. While Harry was ‘hurt’, he has claimed to understand just how frightened the royal family is of the tabloids turning on them. The royals and the Queen, in particular, have always been concerned regarding their public perception and are keen to appear as beloved symbols of the UK. The constraining nature of the role they are thrust into shapes the royal family. Harry claimed to not have understood just how trapped he was until he met Meghan. He also claims to have huge compassion for his father and brother despite not really being on talking terms because they were still trapped by the system and could not leave.

Harry and Meghan also revealed the darkest point of the whole affair when Meghan was feeling suicidal and she claimed that she could not tell Harry initially because she was worried he would relate what had happened to his mother before to what was happening to Meghan. When Harry did learn of it and approached his family, he claimed the concerns were use-less and his wife was denied the opportunity to seek help. This and more became the catalyst for the Sussexes finally leaving the family.

The rest of the interview had Meghan and Harry comment on their changing relationship with various members of the royal family but the Queen herself was conspicuously absent from much of the discussion beyond small tidbits. The Queen likewise has not deigned to comment on the interview and it is unknown if she will ever make a comment on it. What is clear is that this is likely a significant turning point. Anyone who thought Harry and Meghan could eventually reconcile with the royal family should now understand that no such thing is pos-sible. It is unknown what sort of a storm this interview will set off but it is apparent that the palace and its media apparatus is ready to get personal and petty in retaliation if there is a need to divert the narrative away from the ‘faults’ of the royal fam-ily. For Meghan and Harry at least, there is hope for the future. They both claim to be deeply enjoying their freedom and are expecting a baby girl. Perhaps time will heal all other wounds.

Continuous upskilling of teachers is at the core of Akanksha’s efforts to educate disadvantaged children

....KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email

MAHUA MOITRA @MahuaMoitra

Didi’s scooty won’t fail in Nandigram nor on the way to Delhi. Much the same way spinners from Ahmedabad never fail (even against the British)

tweet OF THE DAY

millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021

Nexus of Good

ANIL SWARUP

Due to the increased price of petrol and diesel, inflation is also increasing

SATISH SINGH

NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp world8

Myanmar security forces kill 2 anti-coup protesters

MANDALAY (Myanmar): Security forces shot dead two people in northern Myan-mar on Monday, local media reported, as the military gov-ernment continued its attempt to stamp out opposition to its February 1 coup.

The Irrawaddy newspaper said the victims were shot in the head during anti-coup protests in Myitkyina in Kachin State. Graphic video on social media showed protesters in the street backing away from tear gas, responding with rocks, then fleeing after a fusillade of what seemed to be automatic gunfire.

Demonstrators hurriedly carried away a number of casu-alties, including one appar-ent fatality, a person who had clearly sustained a severe head wound.

A second body was seen a little later, on a stretcher, his head covered with a cloth.

Security forces also clamped down on anti-coup protest-ers elsewhere Monday, firing tear gas to break up a crowd of around 1,000 people who were demonstrating in the capital, Naypyitaw.

The protesters deployed fire extinguishers to create a smoke screen as they fled from authorities.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters marching in Man-dalay, the country's second-largest city, dispersed on their

own amid fears that soldiers and police were planning to use force to break up their demonstration.

Large-scale protests have occurred daily across many cit-ies and towns in Myanmar since the country's military seized power, and security forces have responded with ever greater use of lethal force and mass arrests.

The coup and its violent aftermath have led foreign governments and international organizations to impose mea-sures against Myanmar's mili-tary leaders.

In the latest example, Aus-tralia suspended its defense cooperation with Myanmar and is redirecting humanitar-

ian aid in the country because of last month's military take-over of the government and the ongoing detention of an Aus-tralian citizen.

Australian Foreign Minis-ter Marise Payne said Monday that diplomats and relatives had only been able to contact eco-nomic policy adviser Sean Tur-nell twice by phone since he was detained in early February. She described the access as very limited consular support.

Australia announced late Sunday that it had suspended a defense training program with Myanmar worth about 1.5 million Australian dollars (USD 1.2 million) over five years. AGENCIES

CANBERRA: Australia has suspended its defence coop-eration with Myanmar and is redirecting humanitarian aid because of the military takeover of the government and ongoing detention of an Australian citizen. For-eign Minister Marise Payne said on Monday that Aus-tralian diplomats only had access to economic policy adviser Sean Turnell twice since he was detained in early February.

She described the access as very limited consular support.

We continue to abso-lutely call for the release of Professor Sean Tur-nell, Payne told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Australia announced late Sunday it had sus-pended a defense training program with Myanmar worth about 1.5 million Australian dollars ( 1.2 mil-lion) over five years. AGENCIES

The Irrawaddy newspaper said the victims were shot in the head during anti-coup protests in Myitkyina in Kachin State

Australia ends defence cooperation

with Myanmar

Anti-coup protesters discharge fire extinguishers to counter the impact of the tear gas fired by police during a demonstration in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday PTI

Schools, colleges reopen in 1st step of UK's

lockdown easingLONDON: Prime Minis-ter Boris Johnson hailed the national effort that has gone into fighting against Corona-virus as schools and colleges opened on Monday to mark the step one in the UK's phased roadmap to lift strict lock-down restrictions in place for months to control the spread of COVID-19.

Secondary schools and col-leges will be inviting students for their first rapid lateral flow test, with schools and colleges having discretion on how to stagger the return of their stu-dents over this week to facilitate testing and a safe return to the classroom.

After three initial tests onsite, students will be pro-vided with two rapid tests to use each week at home.

The reopening of schools marks a truly national effort to beat this virus. It is because of the determination of every per-son in this country that we can start moving closer to a sense of normality and it is right that getting our young people back into the classroom is the first step, said Johnson. AGENCIES

At least 20 dead, 600 hurt in Equatorial Guinea blastsOUAGADOUGOU (Burkina Faso): A series of explosions at a military barracks in Equato-rial Guinea killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 600 others on Sunday, authorities said.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the explosion at 4 pm local time was due to the negligent handling of dynamite in the military barracks located in the neighbourhood of Mon-dong Nkuantoma in Bata.

The impact of the explosion caused damage in almost all the houses and buildings in Bata," the president said in a state-ment, which was in Spanish.

The defence ministry released a statement late Sun-day saying that a fire at a weapons depot in the barracks caused the explosion of high-calibre ammunition.

It said the provisional toll was 20 dead and 600 injured, adding that the cause of

the explosions will be fully investigated.

The country's president said the fire may have been due resi-dents burning the fields sur-rounding the barracks.

State television showed a huge plume of smoke rising above the explosion site as crowds fled, with many peo-ple crying out we don't know what happened, but it is all destroyed.

Images on local media seen

by The Associated Press show people screaming and crying running through the streets amid debris and smoke. Roofs of houses were ripped off and wounded people were being carried into a hospital.

Equatorial Guinea, an Afri-can country of 1.3 million peo-ple located south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968. Bata has roughly 175,000 inhabitants. AGENCIES

COURT NOTICE(U/o 5 Rule 20 CPC)IN THE COURT OF Sh Saurabh Kumar

Additional Civil Judge(Senior Division),

Ravi (minor) through grandmother Vs.

General Public For grant of succession certificate

CNR No. HRJR02-001400-2019Next Date:-25-03-2021

Publication issued to:General Public IndiaIn above titled case, the defendant (s)/ respondent(s) could not be served. It is ordered that defendant(s)/ respondent(s) should appear in person or through counsel on 25.03.2021 at 10:00 am.For details logon to https://highcourtchd.gov.in/?trs = district notice & district = Jhajjar*

Sd/- Sh Saurabh KumarAdditional Civil Judge(Senior Division),Dated 08-03-2021 Jhajjar

millenniumpost NO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

I have changed my name from Vasim Siddiqui to Vaseem Fatima Siddiqui W/o Sh. Iqbal Khan R/o 17/6, Labour Colony, Lal Quarters, Ghaziabad UP forever.

CHANGE OF NAME

Format C-7(for political parties to publish inthe newspapers, social media platforms& website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected ascandidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals withoutcriminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates(As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of theHon’ble Supreme Court in contemptpetition(C) no. 2192 of2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of 2011)Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

(1) Name of the Constituency –198-TARAKESWAR

Name of the candidate – Mr. RAMENDU SINHA ROYSl.no.1. Criminal antecedentsi) a. Nature of the offences U/S

147/148/149/325/427/506 I. P.C

b. Case no. Tarakeswar P.S Case No-80/2010 dt 13/5/10

c. Name of the Court Chandannagar Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given N/A

ii) a. Nature of the offences 147/148/149/323/324/186 I.P.C

b. Case no. Tarakeswar P.S Case No-15/2010 dt 16/1/10

c. Name of the Court Chandannagar Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given N/A

iii) a. Nature of the offences Section 147/148/149/427/506 I.P.C

b. Case no. Tarakeswar P.S Case No- 94/10 dt 27/5/10

c. Name of the Court Chandannagar Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given N/A

iv) a. Nature of the offences Section 341/325/323/506/34 I.P.C

b. Case no. Dhaniakhali P.S Case No- 90/16 dt 20/5/16

c. Name of the Court Chinsurah Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given N/A

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selectionshall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements, and merit of the candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

Ramendu Singha is a hard working, committed and loyal party member. He has helped the public of Tarakeswar constituency actively. Also, he has been recommended for candidature from 198, Tarakeswar assembly by majority of the party workers.

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminalantecedents could not be selected as candidates (notmore than 100 words)

Same as above

(2) Name of the Constituency – 198- TARAKESWAR

Name of the candidate: - Mr. RAMENDU SINHA ROY* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council byMLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency.

Signature of office bearer of the Political PartyName and designation

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (EAP)-III DELHI JAL BOARD, GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI O.H.T. ASHOK VIHAR, NEW DELHI 110052

"STOP CORONA; WEAR MASK, FOLLOW PHYSICAL DISTANCING, MAINTAIN HAND HYGIENE" Press NIT NO:- 04 2020-21 (Reinvited)

Pre-bid meeting will be held on 16.03.2021 at 11:00 a.m. in the Conference Hall, Varunalya Phase-II, Jhandewalan, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005. The NIT is available with bid forms and other details at http://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in . Any future amendment/corrigendum, pre-bid reply etc. can only be seen on website.Issuded By PRO (Water) Sd/- Advt. No. J.S.V./2020-21/477 Executive Engineer (EAP)-III

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALOffice of the District Election Officer & District Magistrate, Paschim Medinipur

General Election to WBLA 2021 The details of the Hon’ ble Expenditure Observers i.c.w the General Election to WBLA 2021.

Sd/- District Election Officer &District Magistrate, Paschim Medinipur

ICA- T5041(3)/2021

mp business � 9millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday held that the NCLT has jurisdiction to adjudi-cate disputes, which arises solely or relates to the insolvency of a corporate debtor.

The top court, however, cau-tioned the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and its appellate tribunal (NCLAT) to ensure that they do not usurp the legitimate jurisdiction of other courts, tribunals and forum, when the dispute is not related to the insolvency of the Corporate Debtor.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah said, Therefore, considering the text of Section 60(5)(c) (of IBC) and the interpretation of similar provisions in other insolvency related statutes, NCLT has juris-diction to adjudicate disputes, which arise solely from or which relate to the insolvency of the Corporate Debtor .

The top court verdict came on an appeal filed by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd against a NCLAT order by which it had

upheld the decision of NCLT staying the termination of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) entered with a firm Astonfield Solar (Gujarat) Private Limited, which later went into insolvency.

Dismissing the appeal, the top court said that the insti-tutional framework under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) contemplated the establishment of a single forum to deal with matters of insol-vency, which were distributed earlier across multiple fora.

In the absence of a court exercising exclusive jurisdic-tion over matters relating to insolvency, the corporate debtor would have to file and/or defend multiple proceedings in differ-ent fora. These proceedings may cause undue delay in the insolvency resolution process due to multiple proceedings in trial courts and courts of appeal. A delay in completion of the insolvency proceedings would diminish the value of the debtor s assets and hamper the pros-pects of a successful reorgani-

zation or liquidation, it said.It said that for the success of

an insolvency regime, it is nec-essary that insolvency proceed-ings are dealt with in a timely, effective and efficient manner.

In its 138-page verdict, Jus-tice Chandrachud, writing the judgement on behalf of the bench, said that in the pres-ent case, the PPA was termi-nated solely on the ground of insolvency and in the absence of the insolvency of the corpo-rate debtor, there would be no ground to terminate the PPA.

The termination is not on a ground independent of the insolvency and the present dispute solely arises out of and relates to the insolvency of the corporate debtor, it noted.

Therefore, we hold that the RP (resolution professional) can approach the NCLT for adjudication of disputes that are related to the insolvency resolution process. However, for adjudication of disputes that arise dehors the insol-vency of the corporate debtor,

NCLT has jurisdiction to adjudicate disputes solely relating to insolvency of corporate debtor, says SC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Price of domestic cooking gas, LPG has doubled to Rs 819 per cylinder in the last seven years while the increase in taxes on petrol and diesel has swelled collections by over 459 per cent, Oil Minister Dharmen-dra Pradhan said on Monday.

In written replies to a spate of questions on rising fuel prices in the Lok Sabha, Pradhan said the retail selling price of domes-tic gas was Rs 410.5 per 14.2-kg cylinder on March 1, 2014. This month, the same cylinder costs Rs 819.

Small price hikes over the past couple of years have elimi-nated subsidy on cooking gas as well as PDS kerosene.

Pradhan said the price of domestic subsidised LPG has been raised during the last few months. It cost Rs 594 per cylin-der in December 2020 and now is priced at Rs 819.

Similarly, kerosene sold to the poor through the public dis-tribution system (PDS) has risen from Rs 14.96 per litre in March 2014 to Rs 35.35 this month,

he said.Petrol and diesel prices too

are at an all-time high across the country.

The rates, which vary from state to state depending on local sales tax (VAT), are currently at Rs 91.17 a litre for petrol and Rs 81.47 for diesel in Delhi.

“Prices of petrol and diesel have been made market deter-mined by the government with effect from June 26, 2010 and October 19, 2014 respectively,” Pradhan said. “Since then, the public sector oil marketing com-

panies (OMCs) take appropriate decision on pricing of petrol and diesel in line with their interna-tional product prices, exchange rate, tax structure, inland freight and other cost elements.”

With taxes accounting for the bulk of the retail selling price of petrol and diesel, the minis-ter said tax collected on the two fuels was Rs 52,537 crore in 2013, which rose to Rs 2.13 lakh crore in 2019-20 and swelled further to Rs 2.94 lakh crore in the first 11 months of current fiscal year.

The government currently

levies Rs 32.90 per litre excise duty on petrol and Rs 31.80 a litre on diesel, he said adding that excise duty on petrol was Rs 17.98 a litre in 2018 and Rs 13.83 on diesel.

Pradhan said the central gov-ernment’s total excise collection from petrol, diesel, ATF, natural gas and crude oil has increased from Rs 2.37 lakh crore in 2016-17 to Rs 3.01 lakh crore during April-January 2020-21.

Between November 2014 and January 2016, the govern-ment had raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occa-sions to take away gains aris-ing from plummeting global oil prices. In all, the duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in those 15 months.

The government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 in October 2017, and by Rs 1.50 a year later. But, it raised excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019. It again raised excise duty in March 2020, by Rs 3 per litre each. In May that year, the government hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and on diesel by Rs 13 a litre.

LPG price double in seven years; tax collection on fuel up 459%: Pradhan

the RP must approach the rel-evant competent authority, the bench said. The bench said that section 238 of the IBC stip-ulates that the code would over-ride other laws, including an instrument having effect by vir-tue of any such law and NCLT in its decision dated August 29, 2019 had given detailed findings on the issue. PTI

NEW DELHI: Over 10,000 companies were shut down vol-untarily in the country from April 2020 till February this year, also a period when the coronavirus pandemic and sub-sequent lockdowns had signif-icantly disrupted economic activities. The latest data avail-able with the Ministry of Cor-porate Affairs (MCA) showed that a total of 10,113 companies were struck off under Section 248(2) of the Companies Act,

2013, in the current financial year till February.

The Section 248(2) implies that the companies had shut their businesses voluntarily and not due to any penal action.

The ministry administers the Act and maintains the registry of companies on the basis of doc-uments and applications filed.

“A total of 10,113 number of companies during the year 2020-21 (from the month of April 2020 to February 2021)

have been struck off under sec-tion 248(2) of the Act. MCA has not run any drive to strike off companies suo moto during 2020-21,” he. As per the minis-try’s data, a total of 2,394 com-panies were struck off in Delhi while the number stood at 1,936 companies in Uttar Pradesh.

Tamil Nadu and Maharash-tra saw shutting down of 1,322 companies and 1,279 compa-nies, respectively, during the April 2020-February 2021

period. As many as 836 com-panies were shut down volun-tarily in Karnataka, while it was 501 in Chandigarh, Rajasthan (479), Telangana (404), Kerala (307), Jharkhand (137), Madhya Pradesh (111) and Bihar (104).

The numbers in other states and Union territories are Meghalaya (88), Orissa (78), Chattisgarh (47), Goa (36), Pondicherry (31), Gujarat (17), West Bengal (4) and Andaman & Nicobar (2), the data said. PTI

10,113 cos shuttered ops during Apr 2020-Feb 2021

NEW DELHI: Mango pro-duction in the country is esti-mated to increase 4.24 per cent to 21.12 million tonnes in the crop year 2020-21 ending June, the latest data from the agricul-ture ministry said on Monday.

The output of mango, the ‘king of fruits’, stood at 20.26 million tonne during the 2019-20 crop year (July-June).

The arrival of mangoes from southern and western India has started, while the sea-son in the northern states like Uttar Pradesh will begin from mid-June onwards.

However, production of other summer fruits -- musk-melon and watermelon -- is estimated to be slightly lower than the previous year, as per the first estimate of horticul-tural crop production released by the ministry for the crop year 2020-21.

Production of muskmelon is estimated to be 1.30 million tonnes this year as against 1.36 million tonne last year, while that of watermelon output esti-mated to be 3.12 million tonnes as against 3.15 million tonnes last year. PTI

Mango production likely to jump

4.24% in 2020-21MUMBAI: The microfinance industry’s gross loan portfolio (GLP) grew 10.1 per cent to Rs 2,32,648 crore as on Decem-ber 31, 2020, according to the data collated by industry body Microfinance Institutions Net-work (MFIN).

The industry’s GLP had stood at Rs 2,11,302 crore at the end of December 2019.

The association said 14 banks hold the largest share of the portfolio in micro-credit with a total loan outstanding of Rs 97,956 crore followed by non-banking financial com-panies-microfinance institu-tions (NBFC-MFIs), with a loan outstanding of Rs 72,128 crore.

Small finance banks (SFBs) have a total loan amount out-standing of Rs 39,062 crore with a total share of 16.79 per cent. NBFCs account for another 9.06 per cent, and other MFIs account for 1.04 per cent of the microfinance universe, it said.

During the December 2020 quarter, the microfinance indus-try’s loan disbursement de-grew 3.86 per cent to Rs 59,507 crore, from Rs 61,894 crore in the year-ago quarter. On a sequential

basis, the industry’s loan dis-bursement saw a growth of 90.4 per cent, the industry body said.

MFIN is an industry associa-tion comprising 58 NBFC-MFIs and 39 associates including banks, small finance banks (SFBs) and NBFCs. It released its Micrometer report for the third quarter of fiscal 2020-21.

GLP of MFIN’s NBFC-MFI members grew 11.1 per cent at Rs 74,712 crore as on Decem-ber 31, 2020, compared with Rs 67,255 crore last year in the same quarter. It rose 5 per cent in comparison to Rs 71,147 crore as of the end Septem-ber quarter. GLP includes an owned portfolio of Rs 63,710 crore and a managed portfolio of Rs 11,002 crore.

NBFC-MFIs witnessed a 2.9 per cent growth in loan dis-bursement at Rs 19,696 crore in the third quarter of FY21 as against Rs 19,150 crore in the year-ago period. However, on a sequential basis, their loan dis-bursement grew at massive 85.5 per cent. In the quarter ended September 2020, NBFC-MFIs had disbursed loans worth Rs 10,617 crore. “It is heartening

that the green shoots seen at the end of Q2 (second quar-ter) have proved to be true and sector disbursements are reach-ing almost at pre-COVID-19 levels backed by increased demand for loans to restart livelihoods.

“The disbursements during Q3 2020-21 are around 96 per cent of Q3 2019-20, indicating that it should reach normal lev-els by end of Q4 fiscal 2020-21,” MFIN CEO and Director Alok Misra said. NBFC-MFIs’ average loan disbursement per account for Q3 FY 2020-21 stood at Rs 34,070, which is an increase of around 19 per cent to Rs 28,620 a year ago, MFIN said.

During the quarter, NBFC-MFIs received a total of Rs 10,876 crore in debt funding, which is 0.5 per cent less than the third quarter of 2019-20 and 10.4 per cent more as compared to second quarter of 2020-21, the report said.

Total equity of the NBFC-MFIs grew by 16.6 per cent to Rs 18,077 crore as on Decem-ber 31, 2020, as compared to Rs 15,508 crore in the year-ago period, the association said. PTI

‘Microfinance loan portfolio stands at `2,32,648 cr as of December end’

MUMBAI: India’s domestic air traffic fell 37 per cent year-on-year to 78 lakh passengers in February amid travel curbs and capacity restrictions due to the pandemic, according to Icra.

Even the sequential growth slowed down for the second consecutive month in Febru-ary with a nearly flat growth over January 2021, rating firm Icra said in a release.

Domestic passenger traf-fic in January this year was recorded at 77.34 lakh, accord-ing to DGCA data.

Similarly, 1.23 crore people travelled on local routes in Feb-ruary 2020 as against 78 lakh passenger in February this year.

“The number of flights departing has also gradually increased from 416 on day one (May 25, 2020, when domes-tic operations were resumed) to 2,885 on day 267 (February 14, 2021).

“For February 2021, the average daily departures were around 2,296, significantly lower than the average daily

departures of 3,137 in Febru-ary 2020, though better than around 2,190 in January 2021,” said Kinjal Shah, Vice Presi-dent, Icra.

The average number of pas-sengers per flight during Feb-ruary 2021 was 121, against an average of 136 passengers per flight in February 2020, she said, therefore, it is expected that the domestic aviation industry operated at a passen-ger load factor (PLF) of around 78 per cent in February 2021, against 87.7 per cent a year ago, that too on a low capacity.

The PLF for February 2021

was higher than around 73 per cent in January 2021, due to the decline in capacity deploy-ment by around 5 per cent, she added.

Overall, from May 25, 2020, till February 28, 2021, domes-tic passenger traffic has been pegged at around 45.6 million, said Shah.

The Ministry of Civil Avi-ation (MoCA) has allowed the Indian airlines to gradu-ally increase capacity from about 33 per cent in May 2020 (at the time of resumption of operations) to 80 per cent at present. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the fiscal measures taken by the government have resulted in positive growth of 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of the cur-rent financial year.

The economy is estimated to contract by 8 per cent during 2020-21 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The fis-cal measures taken by Govern-ment during 2020-21 have been calibrated to sustain high spend-ing in the economy and assist in its V-shaped recovery, resulting in a positive GDP growth of 0.4 per cent in third quarter of FY 2020-21,” she said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The minister further said that the gradual unlocking of the economy has eased sup-ply-side disruptions enabling inflation to decline from 7.6 per cent in October, 2020 to 4.1 per cent in January 2021, mainly on account of decline

in food inflation.“Lower inflation has

increased the real purchasing power of the people leaving more money in their hands to spend,” she added.

Sitharaman said that the money to spend has further increased under PMGKY and ANB packages through direct benefit and in-kind (food; cook-ing gas) transfers, emergency credit to small businesses and wage increase for MGNREGA

workers, among others.With regard to lockdown,

the minister said the govern-ment imposed a strict 21-days nationwide lockdown from March 25, 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19 and ramp up the health infrastructure with a view to saving lives.

“Astute management of the lockdown and subse-quent unlocking along with strengthened health infrastruc-ture was accompanied by roll

out of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) and Atmanirbhar Bharat (ANB) packages that besides saving lives also protected livelihoods and businesses. These mea-sures, amounting to Rs 29.87 lakh crores - equivalent to 15 per cent of India’s GDP, have boosted consumer confidence as their implementation advanced through 2020-21,” she said.

The Consumer Confidence Survey, January 2021, of Reserve Bank of India shows that con-sumer confidence has been-creasing since May 2020 in respect of future expectations and since September, 2020 in respect of current expectations, she added.

Replying to another ques-tion, Sitharaman said, the Cabi-net Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA), in its meeting held on January 27, 2021 has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for 100 per cent disinvestment of Government of India (GOI) shareholding in RINL also

called Visakhapatnam Steel Plant or Vizag Steel along with RINL’s stake in its subsidiaries/Joint Ventures through stra-tegic disinvestment by way of privatisation.

While deciding the terms and conditions of the strategic sale, she said, legitimate con-cerns of the existing employees and other stakeholders are suit-ably addressed through appro-priate provisions made in the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA). “The State Government does not have any equity in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL). However, the State Gov-ernment is consulted in specific matters as and when needed and their support is also solicited in the matters that require their intervention,” she said.

Strategic disinvestment of Government of India’s equity will lead to infusion of capital for optimum utilisation, expansion of capacity, infusion of technol-ogy and better management practices, she added.

Fiscal steps taken by govt led to positive growth in Q3: Fin MinEconomy is estimated to contract by 8% during 2020-21 due to impact of pandemic

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment addresses legitimate con-cerns of employees and other stakeholders of central pub-lic sector enterprises (CPSEs) through appropriate provisions in the share purchase agree-ments with bidders at the time of disinvestment, Finance Min-ister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

On January 27, the Cabi-net Committee of Economic

Affairs (CCEA) gave ‘in-prin-ciple’ approval for 100 per cent disinvestment of the govern-ment’s stake in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), also called Visakhapatnam Steel Plant or Vizag Steel.

This will be along with RINL’s stake in its subsidiar-ies/ joint ventures through stra-tegic disinvestment by way of privatisation.

Sitharaman said strate-

gic disinvestment of the gov-ernment’s equity will lead to infusion of capital for opti-mum utilisation, expansion of capacity, infusion of tech-nology and better management practices.

This will result in higher production and productiv-ity and expansion of direct and indirect employment opportunities.

“While deciding the terms

and conditions of the strate-gic sale, legitimate concerns of the existing employees and other stakeholders are suitably addressed through appropriate provisions made in the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA),” she said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

The minister was replying to a question on whether the government has considered the ramifications of strategic sale of

Vizag Steel on the stakehold-ers involved, including impact on jobs.

Sitharaman said the state government does not have any equity in RINL.

“However, the state gov-ernment is consulted in spe-cific matters as and when needed and their support is also solicited in the matters that require their intervention,” she added. PTI

Disinvestment of CPSEs: Govt addresses stakeholders’ concerns through provisions in SPAs, says Sitharaman

‘India’s domestic air traffic falls 37% to 78 lakh passengers in Feb’

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

From May 25, 2020, till February 28, 2021, domestic passenger traffic has been pegged at around 45.6 mn

VIVAD SE VISHWAS SCHEME

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has realised Rs 53,346 crore through direct tax dis-pute resolution scheme Vivad Se Vishwas till February 22, Parliament was informed on Monday.

To a query in the Lok Sabha on whether the government has been able to achieve the objec-tive of settling income tax cases after launching the Vivad se Vishwas scheme, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said, “Yes”.

He said over 1.28 lakh decla-rations have been filed under the scheme involving a disputed tax of Rs 98,328 crore. Of this, Rs 53,346 crore has been received as payments against disputed tax. This include Rs 27,720 crore worth payments made by the central public sector undertak-ings (PSUs), Rs 1,023 crore by state PSUs, and Rs 24,603 crore by others.

The Vivad Se Vishwas scheme provides for settlement of disputed tax, disputed inter-

est, disputed penalty or disputed fees in relation to an assessment or reassessment order. The dis-pute is settled on payment of 100 per cent of the disputed tax and 25 per cent of the disputed pen-alty or interest or fee.

The taxpayer is granted immunity from levy of inter-est, penalty and institution of any proceeding for prose-cution for any offence under the Income Tax Act in respect of matters covered in the declaration. PTI

Govt nets ̀ 53,346 crore till Feb 22

10| NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmpFormat C-7

(for political parties to publish in the newspapers, social media platforms& website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates(As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in contempt petition(C) no. 2192 of2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of 2011)Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

(1) Name of the Constituency – 158 Kolkata PortName of the candidate – Mr. Firhad Hakim

Sl.no.1. Criminal antecedents

a. Nature of the offences Section 7, 13(2) read with 13(1)(a) and 9(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and section 120 B of Indian Penal Code, 1860

b. Case no. Rc 10 of 2017 CBI/ACB/Kolkata

c. Name of the Court Court of the Special Judge Bichar Bhawan Kolkata

d. Whether charges have been framed or not(Yes/No)

No

e. Date of conviction, if any NAf. Details of punishment undergone, if any NAg. Any other information required to be given NA

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selection shall be with reference to the qualifications,achievements and merit ofthe candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

Mr. Firhad Hakim has exhibited extreme care and concern for the people of his constituency. He has always helped the needy and the Party feels he will work diligently for the betterment of the people there.

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminalantecedents could not be selected as candidates (notmore than 100 words)

Apart from the reason stated in Sl. No. 2 the Party has been informed that no one else shares the same popularity as that of Mr. Firhad Hakim.

(2) Name of the Constituency - 158 Kolkata PortName of the candidate: Mr. Firhad Hakim

* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council byMLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency. Signature of office bearer of the Political Party Name and designation ………………………………….

Format C-7

(for political parties to publish in the newspapers, social media platforms & website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates

(As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in contempt petition(C) no. 2192 of 2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of 2011)

Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021

Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

(1) Name of the Constituency – 199-Pursurah

Name of the candidate – Mr. DILIP YADAV

Sl.no.1. Criminal antecedents

a. Nature of the offences Sections 147/149/448/506/120B/341/427/332/353/342/307 of Indian Penal Code 1860 r/w Sections 3/4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property, 1984.

b. Case no. P.S. Case No. 85 Dt.- 20/12/2000c. Name of the Court Arambagh Court

d. Whether charges have been framed or not(Yes/No)

NO

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be

givenN/A

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selection shall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

Dilip Yadav has toiled very hard at the grassroot level and has worked closely with members of his constituency. He has always been easily accessible to members of his constituency and is hard-working and diligent member of the Party. The Party feels that he will be the best candidate amongst its members to represent itself in Pursurah.

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates (not more than 100 words)

Same as above.

(2) Name of the Constituency - 199-PURSURAH

Name of the candidate: Mr. DILIP YADAV

* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency.

Signature of office bearer of the Political Party

Name and designation

……………………………………….

Format C-7(for political parties to publish inthe newspapers, social media platforms& website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected ascandidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals withoutcriminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates

(As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of theHon’ble Supreme Court in contemptpetition(C) no. 2192 of2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of2011)

Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021

Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

(1) Name of the Constituency – 259-Khandaghosh (SC)

Name of the candidate –Mr./Mrs./Ms. Nabin Chandra Bag

Sl.no.1. Criminal antecedents

a. Nature of the offences U/S-341/323/506/34 IPC

b. Case no. Case No. -1137/14c. Name of the Court Judicil Magistrate 5th Coart,

Purba Bardhaman

d. Whether charges have been framed or not(Yes/No)

No

e. Date of conviction, if any NAf. Details of punishment undergone, if any NAg. Any other information required to be given NA

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selectionshall be with reference to the qualifications,achievements and merit ofthe candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

NA

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminalantecedents could not be selected as candidates (notmore than 100 words)

NA

(2) Name of the Constituency - 259-Khandaghosh (SC)

Name of the candidate: Mr./Mrs./Ms. . Nabin Chandra Bag

* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council byMLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency.

Signature of office bearer of the Political Party

Name and designation

…………………………………………….

mp sports 11millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021

WI beat Lanka by 3 wickets, take T20 series 2-1OSBOURN: Fabian Allen hit three mighty sixes in the 19th over to help the West Indies to a series-clinching, three-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the third Twenty20 international.

Chasing Sri Lanka's mod-est 131-4, the West Indies were again constrained by Sri Lan-ka's spin attack and came to the 18th over at 105-7, needing 27

runs from 18 balls.Captain Jason Holder,

cool and with a plan in mind, blocked out the 18th over, the last from dangerous spinner Wanindudu Hasaranga, save for a six from a free hit which helped break the mounting tension.

With 20 runs needed from the last two overs, Allen hit

sixes from the first, third and last balls of the 19th over from Akila Dananjaya to get the West Indies home with an over to spare to clinch the series 2-1.

Allen hit 21 runs from six balls and also took 1-13 from four overs to earn player-of-the-match honors. He said there was no panic in the West Indies dressing room, even

when it's biggest hitters failed to fire.

"We have a lot of batting power," Allen said.

"I told Jason Holder that I'm not comfortable batting against Hasaranga. So I told him to bat him out and I'll be finishing.

"I just backed myself in the end. It was a good performance overall." AGENCIES

India beat Great Britain 3-2 to end Europe tour on unbeaten note

ANTWERP (Belgium): Striker Mandeep Singh struck a brace as the Indian men's hockey team eked out a close 3-2 win over Great Britain to end their Europe tour on an unbeaten note here on Monday.

Harmanpreet Singh's strike in the very first minute and two goals by Mandeep in the 28th and 59th minutes helped India remain undefeated on the tour.

For Great Britain, James Gall (20th) and striker Adam Forsyth (55th) were the goal scorers. In their previous match, India's Simranjeet Singh had scored a late goal to hold Great Britain to a 1-1 draw and against Germany, the PR Sreejesh-led side had secured a 6-1 win and a 1-1 draw respectively.

On Monday, India started off aggressively and earned themselves a penalty corner in the very first minute of the game. The opportunity was duly converted by India's vice captain Harmanpreet to give his side an early lead.

The early advantage helped India maintain pressure on their opponents, ending the first quarter with a 1-0 lead.

Great Britain restored par-ity in the 20th minute through midfielder James Gall's field goal. The much-needed equal-iser helped his team gain the right momentum. Put-ting India under pressure, Great Britain earned them-selves a penalty corner, but their attempt was derailed by a brilliant save by India skip-per Sreejesh. AGENCIES

Tough calls between Dhawan/Rahul, Chahar/Bhuvneshwar

T20 DILEMMAS

AHMEDABAD: The Indian team management faces a prob-lem of plenty going into the five T20 Internationals against England, an assignment which marks the beginning of the side's build-up to this year's T20 World Cup at home.

There are 19 players avail-able for selection and with two in contention for each slot, the XI for the five games, starting here on Friday, will be an indi-cation to how head coach Ravi Shastri, captain Virat Kohli and bowling coach Bharat Arun are looking at the next six to seven months for the shortest format.

Will they look for a settled combination to first clinch the series and then experiment or will they field absolute rookies in the squad looking at the big-ger picture?

For a team that's so closely followed, the result does matter and that's why one can expect a settled first eleven for the first three games since all matches are at the same venue on simi-lar kind of tracks.

The roaring comeback of Rishabh Pant will lead to a lot of interesting developments at the top of the order.

Pant's inclusion means that KL Rahul, who till a few months back was the first choice keeper-opener, is unlikely to don the big gloves.

Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma were a settled white ball

opening pair till recently but Rahul's emergence as a potent white ball specialist has spiced up the competition.

Dhawan recently had a score of 150 odd in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Delhi and when it comes to Rohit, there's nothing to be discussed.

So where does the team management fit in Rahul, who has been a successful IPL opener? Will he be slotted in the middle-order as Dhawan's game is not suited to batting

lower down?These are two pertinent

questions and in the answer, will be a follow-up question.

With skipper Kohli him-self coming in at No 3 and two game-changers like Pant and all-rounder Hardik Pandya expected to play the big shots at Nos 5 and 6, where does it ideally leave Rahul?

The only place he can be slotted is No 4 but Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav are also jostling for a place.

If one closely follows the pattern of picking the playing XI, Surya, a sentimental favou-rite, will have to wait for his turn as Shreyas has done noth-ing wrong.

But when it comes to a three-way battle between Rahul, Shreyas and Surya, the Karnataka man beats the two Mumbai boys hollow with his repertoire of strokes and ability to shift gears. Similarly, in the pace department, Bhuvnesh-war Kumar, once upon a time

India's best white ball exponent, is coming back after a long lay-off and will be engaged in a two-way fight with Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.

For Bhuvneshwar, his expe-rience and being a better bowler at the death compared to Cha-har holds him in good stead but he hasn't played a lot of cricket save a few Mushtaq Ali games.

Ditto for Chahar, a potent outswing bowler but more of a one-trick pony with lack of variations during the back-10.

Shardul is a crafty bowler who can swing it at brisk pace and among the three can use the long handle to the best effect.

Yuzvendra Chahal, Wash-ington Sundar and Axar Patel are the three spinners expected to feature in the playing XI on the sluggish Motera tracks.

In another three-way fight, Thangarasu Natarajan, with his variation of yorkers, stands a better chance to start off com-pared to Navdeep Saini.

Two players, who will only get a look-in if someone is injured or forcefully rested are Ishan Kishan and Rahul Tewa-tia as the two simply can't be fitted anywhere. In all, there are too many good players and very little space to fit all of them with three sure-shot picks -- Mohammed Shami, Ravin-dra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah already resting or recuperating from injury. AGENCIES

Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav are also jostling for a place

India-NZ World Test Championship final in Southampton: BCCI prez Ganguly

NEW DELHI: India will play their inaugural World Test Championship final against New Zealand at Southampton's Ageas Bowl Stadium from June 18-22, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly confirmed on Monday.

Initially, the final was sup-posed to be held at the Lord's but Southampton, with a five-star facility inside the stadium, will make it easier for both the ICC and the England and Wales Cricket Board to create a bio-bubble for the two teams.

"Yes, the final will be held at Ageas Bowl," Ganguly replied to a query from PTI.

India qualified for the mar-quee clash after beating Eng-land 3-1 in a just-concluded Test series.

The BCCI president, who has been on a medical break after undergoing a bypass sur-gery, is expected to travel to UK to watch the final match.

Southampton, with its slow-ish track, puts India on even keel with New Zealand as spin-ners will come into the game at the venue.

"I will go for the World Test Championship and hopefully we can get past New Zealand in the final. New Zealand will be there before us and they will play a couple of Test matches (against England)," Ganguly told 'India Today' channel.

He lavished praise on the team for its stupendous perfor-mance in both the away series against Australia and home games against England.

Massive achievement?"Oh yes, specially after what

players have gone through to be in those bubbles and play cricket day in and day out. It was remarkable. Right from IPL till

now. What they have achieved is fantastic," he told the channel.

"I think we must congrat-ulate Ajinkya Rahane, first in Australia and Virat Kohli in England, the head coach, sup-port staff, everybody. (Rahul) Dravid who does a lot of work behind the scenes with these boys. To see that day in Bris-bane was outstanding," he said.

Ganguly believes that Rishabh Pant is a match win-ner in the mould of Viren-der Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

"I have seen him for past two years and I have belief in match-winners. A player, who on his day will win you games. Pant is one such guy.

"Sydney Test, if he had been there for six more overs, he would have won us that game too. He is like Dhoni, Sehwag and Yuvraj, who can win matches alone," said the former India captain.

He was mighty impressed with Pant's game sense during his under pressure hundred at Motera. "...and look at how he played in Ahmedabad. His game sense while facing the second

new ball against James Ander-son, who has bowled well in the series. He counter-attacked and changed it."

He also lauded National Cricket Academy head Rahul Dravid, whose behind the scenes work has helped in cre-ating a solid bench strength.

"That's why I say Dravid has done a great job. Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur did so well in Australia and we won the final Test without Jasprit Bumrah."

On his health, he said that it was a "small blemish" but he is back to work now. He will be in Ahmedabad to watch the second and third T20 Internationals.

"I am fit and absolutely fine. God's been kind and it's been a small blemish. There's some adjustment. Back to work for a while now." About his minor heart attack, he said: "I really don't see it as a scare. You know as you grow older, adjustments happen in the body and it was a very small one.

"As they say, you need to address it immediately, cut, stitch or break and that's the best part of it." AGENCIES

Indian batsman Shikhar Dhawan (R) and skipper Virat Kohli (L) play football with teammates during a training session, ahead of T20 cricket series between India and England, at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Monday PTI

Mumbai City beat FC Goa 6-5 in tie-breaker to reach maiden ISL final

BAMBOLIM: Mumbai City FC edged past FC Goa 6-5 in a tie-breaker to reach their maiden Indian Super League final here on Monday.

They will meet the winners of the match between ATK Mohun Bagan and NorthEast United.

The match was the first ever sudden death of the tournament.

Goa brought on reserve goalkeeper Naveen Kumar while Mumbai raised some eyebrows when they decided to field Phurba Lachenpa in place of skipper and one of the best goalkeepers of the season Amrinder Singh.

But, as it turned out to be, the Sikkimese custodian survived the battle of nerves,

helping the Islanders book a place in the final for the first time.

With all to fight for in the second leg, this contest was always going down to the wire.

FC Goa remained in the ascendance with Mum-bai failing to register a single shot on target in the entire game.

The opening half proved to be a cagey affair with nei-ther side able to assert their dominance.

The shootout initially looked to be headed Mum-bai's way after Goa missed their first two penalties. But Mumbai then missed a couple, restoring parity. AGENCIES

Jorge Ortiz Mendoza of FC Goa dribbles with the ball during Semi Final 1, 2nd Leg of the 7th season of the Hero Indian Super League between Mumbai City FC and FC Goa, held at the GMC Stadium, Bambolim, Goa, Monday PTI

DELHI JAL BOARDOFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (E&M)-II

WAZIRABAD WATER WORKS, TIMARPUR, DELHI-110054 STOP CORONA-WEAR MASK, FOLLOW PHYSICAL DISTANCING, MAINTAIN HAND HYGIENE"

PRESS NIT NO-19(2020-21)/EE(E&M)-II

NIT along with all terms and conditions is available on DJB website https://govtprocurement.deihi.gov.inIssuded By PRO (Water) Sd/- Advt. No. J.S.V./2020-21/478 Executive Engineer(E&M)-II

Format C-7(for political parties to publish in the newspapers, social media platforms & website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates (As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in contempt petition(C) no. 2192 of 2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of 2011)Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

(1) Name of the Constituency – 106-Jagatdal

Name of the candidate – Mr. ICHINI SOMENATH SHYAMSl.no.

1. Criminal antecedentsi) a. Nature of the offences Section 25(1)(a) of Arms

Actb. Case no. Jagatdal P.S. Case No.

348/2000c. Name of the Court Barrackpore Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any “N/A”f. Details of punishment undergone, if any “N/A”g. Any other information required to be given “N/A”

ii) a. Nature of the offences Section 143/149/427/379 of Indian Penal Code, 1860

b. Case no. New Jagatdal P.S. Case No. 169/05

c. Name of the Court Barrackpore Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any “N/A”f. Details of punishment undergone, if any “N/A”g. Any other information required to be given “N/A”

iii) a. Nature of the offences Section b. Case no. Jagatdal P.S. Case No.

192/08c. Name of the Court Barrackpore Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any “N/A”f. Details of punishment undergone, if any “N/A”g. Any other information required to be given “N/A”

iv) a. Nature of the offences Section 341/506/323/34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860

b. Case no. Jagatdal P.S. Case No. 05/11c. Name of the Court Barrackpore Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any “N/A”f. Details of punishment undergone, if any “N/A”g. Any other information required to be given “N/A”

v) a. Nature of the offences Section 447/325/34 of Indian Penal Code

b. Case no. Jagatdal P.S. Case No. 352/11

c. Name of the Court Barrackpore Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any “N/A”f. Details of punishment undergone, if any “N/A”g. Any other information required to be given “N/A”

Vi) a. Nature of the offences Section 186/188/427/34 of Indian Penal Code

b. Case no. Jagatdal P.S. Case No. 374/15c. Name of the Court Barrackpore Courtd. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)NO

e. Date of conviction, if any “N/A”f. Details of punishment undergone, if any “N/A”g. Any other information required to be given “N/A”

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selection shall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

Mr. Shyam is a popular and hardworking individual who enjoys unparalled popular support from the people and party workers of 106 Assembly Constituency. He has worked extensively well in the aftermath of Amphan and during Covid-19.

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates (not more than 100 words)

Same as above.

(2) Name of the Constituency - 106-Jagatdal(3) Name of the candidate: Mr. ICHINI SOMENATH SHYAM

* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council by MLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency.

Signature of office bearer of the Political Party Name and designation

Format C-7(for political parties to publish in the newspapers, social media platforms & website of the party)

Information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates(As per the Commission’s directions issued in pursuance of the Order dated 13.02.2020 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in contempt petition(C) no. 2192 of 2018 in WP(C) no. 536 of 2011)Name of Political Party: ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS*Name of the Election: GENERAL ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL, 2021Name of State/UT: WEST BENGAL

(1) Name of the Constituency - 103-BIJPURName of the candidate – MR. SUBODH ADHIKARY

Sl.no.1. Criminal antecedentsi) a. Nature of the offences Sections 25/27 of the Arms Act

1959b. Case no. Bizpur P.S. Case No. 24 /2001

dt. 09/02/2001c. Name of the Court Addn. Chief Judicial

Magistrate, Barrackpored. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)No

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given

ii) a. Nature of the offences Sections 326/307/34 of Indian Penal Code 1860.

b. Case no. Bizpur P.S. Case No. 148/2000 dt. 10/12/2000

c. Name of the Court Addn. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barrackpore

d. Whether charges have been framed or not(Yes/No)

No

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given

iii) a. Nature of the offences Sections 364/201/120B of Indian Penal Code 1860.

b. Case no. Bizpur P.S. Case No. 216/1996 dt. 24/11/1996

c. Name of the Court Addn. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barrackpore

d. Whether charges have been framed or not(Yes/No)

No

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given

iv) a. Nature of the offences Section 286 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 r/w Sections 4/5 of Explosive Substance Act 1908

b. Case no. Bizpur P.S. Case No. 260/2018 dt. 04/05//2018

c. Name of the Court Addn. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barrackpore

d. Whether charges have been framed or not(Yes/No)

No

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given

v) a. Nature of the offences Sections 25/27 Arms Act 1959 b. Case no. Bizpur P.S. Case No. 271/2018

dt. 14/05//2018c. Name of the Court Addn. Chief Judicial

Magistrate, Barrackpored. Whether charges have been framed or not

(Yes/No)No

e. Date of conviction, if any N/Af. Details of punishment undergone, if any N/Ag. Any other information required to be given

2. The reasons for the selection of the candidate. Selectionshall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements, and merit ofthe candidate, and not mere “winnability” at the polls (not more than 100 words)

He has toiled hard to implement the policies and program of the party and the government. The party was of opinion that he was the best candidate available with them.

3. Reasons as to why other individuals without criminalantecedents could not be selected as candidates (notmore than 100 words)

Same as above.

(2) Name of the Constituency - 103-BIJPUR(3) Name of the candidate: MR. SUBODH ADHIKARY

* In the case of election to Council of States or States or election to Legislative Council byMLAs, mention the election concerned in place of name of Constituency.

Signature of office bearer of the Political PartyName and designation

12| NEW DELHI|TUESDAY, 9 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp