RNI NO.: DELENG/2005/15351REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2018-20

VOL.16, ISSUE 289 | Monday, 18 October, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOTTAYAM/IDUKKI: The death toll in incidents related to heavy rains, including land-slides and flash floods in Ker-ala rose to 22 on Sunday while Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered assistance to the south-ern state to tackle the situation.

Twenty two bodies, 13 from Kottayam district and 9 from Idukki were recovered from various rain-hit areas while NDRF teams continued their rescue operations. The casual-ties occurred on Saturday due to landslides and flash floods in the hilly areas of Kottayam and Idukki districts following heavy rains, officials said.

In the high range Idukki district, where a travel ban is in place due to inclement weather, District Collector Sheeba George said two per-

sons are still missing.“Till now, we have recov-

ered nine bodies. Two people are missing,” she said.

PM Modi called Ker-ala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and discussed the sit-uation arising out of the rains.

“Spoke to Kerala CM Shri @vijayanpinarayi and discussed the situation in the wake of

heavy rains and landslides in Kerala. Authorities are work-ing on the ground to assist the injured and affected,” Modi tweeted.

“I pray for everyone’s safety and well-being,” he said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Centre will provide all possible assistance to the people of Kerala, who

have been affected by heavy rains and resulting floods.

He tweeted that the govern-ment was “continuously mon-itoring the situation in parts of Kerala in the wake of heavy rainfall and flooding.” State Revenue Minister K Rajan said an assistance of Rs 4 lakh will be given to the relatives of those who have lost their lives.

Officials said the bodies of three children buried under the slush were recovered in Iduk-ki’s Kokkayar after intense res-cue efforts.

Children, aged eight, seven and four, were found holding each other. Kerala Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, who visited Kokkayar and Koottickal alleged that the state government failed to launch rescue operations in time in the affected areas.

At Koottickal in Kottayam

district, a family of six includ-ing three girl children aged 14, 12 and 10 were killed as their house was swept away in the landslide.

Bodies of three people were recovered Saturday and the remaining were found by the rescuers today.

Many hapless families in the high range hamlet were dis-placed and became inmates of rehabilitation camps.

Several elderly villagers said it was for the first time in their lives they were experiencing such intense rainfall.

Meanwhile, a scientist at the Cochin University of Sci-ence and Technology (CUSAT) claimed that the brief, intense rain spells in some regions in Kerala indicated mini cloud-bursts, a factor that also led to casualties, damage and loss of properties. Turn to P4

PM SPEAKS WITH CM VIJAYAN TO DISCUSS SITUATION

City: Pg 3312

Nation: Pg 5Kas

Film: Pg 12Abd

ADIOS FOR NOW

Devotees immerse an idol of Goddess Durga in the Hooghly River in Nadia PTI

India logs 14,146 fresh Covid cases, 144 more deaths in a day

Govt will decide on Coronavirus vaccination of children, adolescents on ‘scientific rationale’: Covid Task Force chiefOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India recorded 14,146 fresh COVID-19 infec-tions in a day, the lowest daily rise in 229 days, while active cases dropped to 1,95,846, the lowest in 220 days, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data on Sunday.

The death toll climbed to 4,52,124 with 144 more fatal-ities. The country has so far reported 3,40,67,719 Covid cases, it said.

In a day, active cases declined by 5,786 and currently comprise 0.57 per cent of the total infections. The national Covid recovery rate was 98.10 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A total of 11,00,123 tests were conducted on Saturday, taking the cumulative tests con-ducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 59,09,35,381.

The number of people who

have recuperated from the dis-ease surged to 3,34,19,749, while the case fatality rate was 1.33 per cent, the ministry said.

The weekly positivity rate (1.42 per cent), has been less than 3 per cent for the last 114 days and the daily positivity rate (1.29 per cent) has been less than 3 per cent for 48 days.

Over 97.65 crore Covid vac-cine doses have been adminis-

tered in the country under the nationwide vaccination drive. Meanwhile, Covid Task Force chief V K Paul said on Sunday that the government will take a final decision on vaccinat-ing children and adolescents against coronavirus on the basis of overall scientific rationale as well as the supply situation of vaccines available for those below 18 years old. Turn to P4

BHOPAL: A speed-ing car rammed into a Durga idol immer-sion procession in the Madhya Pradesh capital, leaving four persons, including a head constable, injured, police said on Sunday.

Police have arrested the driver and seized the car, a senior officer said.

The incident occurred on the road outside the Bhopal rail-way station on late Saturday night when the procession was moving forward, Bajaria police station in-charge Umesh Yadav said.

Three persons were injured and one of them sustained serious injuries and undergoing treat-ment at a hospital, he said.

The car also hit an on-duty police head con-stable, who sustained minor injuries to his leg, he said.

Yadav said after the car rammed into the pro-cession people started shouting to get hold of the car driver, who panicked and fled by reversing the car speedily.

He said a case was registered.Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG)

Irshad Wali told reporters on Sunday afternoon that the car involved in the incident was seized and its driver arrested.

The driver’s interrogation is underway, he said but refused to elaborate.

Wali said the injured person, undergoing treatment at a hospital, is out of danger and sta-ble. He sustained injuries that are not serious, Wali said citing a hospital doctor.

Meanwhile, a video of the incident shows a car is being reversed speedily while the people are seen trying to save themselves by moving away from the path of the vehicle. Turn to P4

MPOST BUREAU

SRINAGAR: Terrorists shot dead two workers from Bihar and injured another after barging into their accommodation in Kulgam in south Kashmir on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks on non-locals prompting the police to direct that all such labourers in the Valley be brought to the nearest security camps “immediately”, offi-cials said.

This is the third terror attack on non-local workers in less than 24 hours. A street vendor from Bihar and a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh were shot dead by the ultras on Saturday evening.

So far this month, 11 people have lost their lives in shootings targeting civilians.

“Terrorists fired indiscriminately upon #NonLocal labourers at Wanpoh area of #Kulgam. In this #terror incident, 02 non-locals were killed and 01 injured,” Kashmir zone Police said on its Twitter handle.

It said police and security forces had cor-doned off the area.

The deceased have been identified as Raja Reshi Dev and Joginder Reshi Dev, while Chun Chun Reshi Dev has been injured. All are residents of Bihar, the offi-cials said.

The militants entered the rented accom-modation of the labourers and fired on them indiscriminately, they said.

In a message flashed to all district police in the Valley, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said, “All non-local labourers in your respective jurisdiction should be brought to the nearest police or central paramilitary force or army establish-ment just now.” “The matter is most urgent,” the message to the 10 districts in the Valley said. Turn to P4

2 more labourers from Bihar shot

dead by terrorists in south KashmirSUSHIL MANAV

CHANDIGARH: Two days after his meeting with senior Congress leader K C Venugopal, the Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday tweeted his letter written to Sonia Gandhi seek-ing meeting with her on his 13-point agenda.

The 4-page letter dated October 15 tweeted by Sidhu on his twitter handle highlights issues he feels the state gov-ernment “must deliver upon”.

He has sought meeting with Sonia Gandhi to present his 13-point agenda which can be included in the 2022 poll manifesto.

Sidhu said in his letter that it was Punjab’s “last chance for resurrection and redemption”. The letter to Sonia Gandhi reminded her of the party’s 18-point agenda “given to the last chief minister” of Punjab and said that those were “equally relevant today”.

“Today, I write to your esteemed self with priority areas among the 18-point

agenda of the 2017 campaign and the manifesto promises which the state gov-ernment must deliver upon.”

The letter said that the people of Pun-jab demand justice for the 2015 police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot following the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib during the previous SAD-BJP regime.

Talking about the drugs issue, Sidhu said in his letter that “The big fish men-tioned in the STF report must be imme-diately arrested and given exemplary punishment.” Turn to P4

Sidhu seeks meeting with Sonia to discuss his 13-point agenda

MP: Four hurt as speeding car rams into Durga puja procession

City: Pg 3CM lays foundation stone of new 1,430-bed hosp in Shalimar Bagh

Nation: Pg 6Jaishankar in Israel, says looks forward to great visit

Film: Pg 11Hina Khan questions Bigg Boss house rules

CityHEAVY RAINS LASH DELHI 2

NationRAHUL SLAMS GOVT 4

edit

MARRIAGE OF CHOICE? 7

InternationalPAK HOUSE FIRE KILLS 7 8

businessGOLD IMPORTS JUMP TO $24 BN 10

In today’s paper

...

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Petrol and die-sel prices on Sunday were hiked again by 35 paise a litre and the auto fuels now cost a third more than the rate at which ATF is sold to airlines.

The fourth straight day of 35 paise per litre hike sent petrol and diesel rates to record highs across the country.

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 105.84 a litre and Rs 111.77 per litre in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

In Mumbai, diesel now comes for Rs 102.52 a litre; while in Delhi, it costs Rs 94.57.

With this rise, petrol is now at Rs 100-a-litre mark or more in

all state capitals while diesel has touched the 100-mark in over a dozen states. Diesel crossed the Rs 100-a-litre mark in Bengaluru, Daman and Silvassa.

Petrol used in two-wheelers and cars now costs 33 per cent more than the price at which avi-ation turbine fuel (ATF) is sold to airlines. ATF in Delhi costs Rs 79,020.16 per kilolitre or Rs 79 per litre.

The costliest fuel is in the bor-der town of Ganganagar in Raj-asthan where petrol comes for Rs 117.86 a litre and diesel for Rs 105.95.

Since ending of a three-week long hiatus in rate revision in the last week of September, this is the 16th increase in petrol price and the 19th time that diesel rates have gone up.

While petrol price in most of the country is already above Rs 100-a-litre mark, diesel rates have crossed that level in over a

dozen states/UT including Mad-hya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chattis-

garh, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka and Ladakh.

Prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.

Shedding the modest price change policy, state-owned fuel retailers have since October 6 started passing on the larger inci-

dence of cost to consumers.This is because the interna-

tional benchmark Brent crude is trading at $84.8 per barrel for the first time in seven years.

A month back, Brent was trading at $73.51.

Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel at rates equivalent to international prices.

The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for pet-rol and September 24 for diesel.

Since then, diesel rates have gone up by Rs 5.95 per litre and petrol price has increased by Rs 4.65. Prior to that, the petrol price was increased by Rs 11.44 a litre between May 4 and July 17. Die-sel rate had gone up by Rs 9.14 during this period.

Petrol, diesel prices hiked again; cost 30% more than ATFFourth straight day of 35 paise per litre hike sends petrol and diesel rates to record highs

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The government is yet to decide on 12 names reiterated by the Supreme Court collegium between March and September this year for appointment as judges in four high courts, sources aware of the procedure of appointment in the higher judiciary have said.

On different occasions, the gov-ernment had returned these names to the Supreme Court collegium with a request to reconsider its recommenda-tions to elevate these people as judges of high courts.

While five names are for the Cal-cutta High Court, three are for the Jammu and Kashmir HC. Two names each are for Karnataka and Allahabad high courts.

Between March and September this

year, the Supreme Court collegium had reiterated to the government its recommendations to appoint these 12 candidates as high court judges, the sources said.

While HC judges are being appointed from the list of fresh rec-ommendations made by the SC col-legium, the government is yet to take a call on the names reiterated by the three-member body headed by the chief justice of India, they said.

As per the established proce-dure, high court collegiums send names of candidates they deem fit to be appointed as HC judges, to the

Law Ministry. The ministry, in turn, attaches IB reports about the candi-dates and other details, before for-warding them to the Supreme Court collegium.

The apex court collegium then pro-cesses these names and recommends some to the government for elevation as HC judges.

The 12 names were recommended by the respective HC collegiums two to four years ago.

On Saturday, seven advocates were appointed as judges of the Gujarat High Court, in a fresh set of appoint-ments to the higher judiciary. Turn to P4

Govt yet to decide on 12 names reiterated by SC collegium for appointment as judges

Medic takes swab sample for COVID-19 test in Navi Mumbai PTI

PUNJAB’S LAST RESURRECTION CHANCE

Kerala landslide toll touches 22, Centre offers assistance

Workers conduct a rescue operation after a landslide due to heavy rain in Idukki, on Sunday PTI

‘Government killings’ have replaced ‘contract killings’

with help of Central agenciesSanjay Raut

The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for petrol and September 24 for diesel

Police to bring non-resi-dent workers in Valley to camps of security forces

Navjot Singh Sidhu

POSTER CAMPAIGN

Delhi auto drivers launch a poster campaign against the Aam Aadmi Party near Gole Market in New Delhi, on Sunday PTI

INITIATIVE LAUNCHED AGAINST CRIME, CRIMINALS IN NORTHEAST DELHINEW DELHI: The Delhi Police’s Northeast district has launched an operation against crime and criminals in the district, officials said on Sunday. The initiative, Ankush , was undertaken on the intervening night of October 16-17 for which three companies outside the force — District Reserve Force, Special Wings of the district and maximum police station and office staff — were deployed, they said. Under the newly-launched opera-tion, 11 FIRs were registered under the Arms Act and 11 persons were arrested. Two country-made pistol and nine button actuated knife were recovered, said Sanjay Kumar Sain, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast).

DELHI: MAN ARRESTED AND JUVENILE APPREHENDED FOR DUPING PEOPLENEW DELHI: A man has been arrested and a juvenile apprehended for allegedly duping people by promot-ing an investment module on a social media platform through which they promised to double their money in a short span of time, police said on Sunday. Devender Choudhary was nabbed on Friday after the Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell busted an investment fund module named ‘Profit_Mania’, a page that was being actively promoted on Instagram through many social media influencers, they said. The police said over Rs 12 lakh have been credited to the account of the fraudsters in last few months.

City Briefs

2 millenniumpostCitympMONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

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

Printed and Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at The Indian Express Pvt. Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) and published from First Floor, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Editor: Durbar Ganguly. Email: editor@millenniumpost.in, Tel. No. 011-47777500

14-year-old twins fall to death from 25th floor Gzb flat

RAHUL SINGH

GHAZIABAD: In a tragic incident in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 14-year-old twin brothers here died after they fell off the balcony of their apartment on the 25th floor of a high rise apartment complex in the Siddharth Vihar area of Ghaziabad.

A senior police officer aware of developments in the case said that the incident took place around 1 am in the Pra-teek Grand society. The two brothers were identified as Satya Narayan and Surya Nara-yan, both aged fourteen years. They studied in the ninth stan-dard at a private school in the National Capital Region.

At the time of the inci-dent, the boys’ mother and sis-ter were sleeping in another room. The police found that their father was away and had gone to Mumbai for some offi-cial purpose, said police.

Mahipal Singh, Circle Offi-cer, Ghaziabad, said that the police received information about what is now presumed to be accidental deaths, around 1:05 am. “Following the infor-mation conveyed, a police team rushed to the spot and both the victims were rushed to

nearby hospital where doctors declared them brought dead,” said Singh.

“The police are looking for post-mortem reports to ascer-tain the actual reason for their death. As of now, we have not received any complaint into the matter,” he added. The senior police officer also said that the family was badly shaken after the incident and were not in a condition for their statements to be recorded instantly.

Officials said the family members’ statements will be recorded once their condition

is stable. A security personnel

deployed at the society told Millennium Post that he heard a loud scream followed by the sound of a heavy object hit-ting the ground. “I rushed to the spot and saw two young boys lying in a pool of blood,” he said.

The security officer of the society continued that even though the boys fell on a patch of land that had grass, the height from which they fell led to serious injuries to their heads and bodies.

AIIMS students’ body apologises after Ramlila skit on campus causes social media outcry

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The AIIMS Stu-dents’ Association issued an apology on Sunday after video clips of a Ramlila skit per-formed by some students of the institute drew widespread social media condemnation for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

The skit, allegedly giving a modern spin to some charac-ters of Ramayana with a comic flavour, was performed on the occasion of Dussehra by some first-year MBBS students near

the hostel quadrangle at the AIIMS campus.

It caused outrage among netizens with many alleging it

was disrespectful of religious sentiments.

Responding to the crit-icism, the AIIMS Student Association issued an apology through a tweet.

“A video clip of a Ramlila skit done by some students of AIIMS has been circulating on social media. On behalf of the students, we apologise for the conduct of this skit which was not meant to hurt anyone’s sen-timents. We will ensure that no such activity takes place in the future,” it said.

Taking note of the matter,

the AIIMS administration held a discussion with the students, an official said, adding, “The students, realising the sensitiv-ity of the issue, have apologised and issued a tweet. They have assured that such an incident won’t recur.”

The official further said the skit was not part of any offi-cial activity or event and the students had organised it on their own.

A first-year student, who was a part of the skit, put out a video seeking apology and say-ing they had organised it it out

of “childishness” and when they saw the video later, they them-selves felt ashamed.

“I and all of us want to apologise and assure that something like this will never happen again. It is being said that the AIIMS is Hindupho-bic and that here Hindu festi-vals are not respected which is not true.

“We celebrate all Hindu fes-tivals here with grandeur....so it’s not true that we are against Hindus. We respect all our gods and goddesses,” he says in the video.

15-year-old ‘sold’ for Rs 60,000, rescued from Rajasthan: Police

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police have now tracked a 15-year-old girl who went missing from her home more than a month ago, discover-ing that she was sold to a man in Rajasthan for Rs 60,000 by a man she had befriended near her home in Delhi’s Haiderpur area, officials said on Sunday.

The police, through their investigations across state lines, found that the victim girl was “sold” so that she could be ille-gally married.

Officials here said that the victim had befriended one Neeraj Sonkar in her Delhi neighbourhood, who first lured the girl to the home of a woman named Sheetal in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra with the help of another woman.

Following this, Sheetal and

her associates further arranged for them to “sell” the girl to a man named Gopal Das, a resi-dent of Rajasthan’s Sikar area, according to the Delhi Police’s findings.

The Delhi Police also found that both Sheetal and Neeraj had split the money evenly between them.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Alok Kumar, said that the case was very dif-ficult to track because despite efforts, there were no clues leading them to a solve.

In light of this, the Joint CP said, a dedicated team of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit/Crime comprising HC Gopal Krishan, Ct Vijay Kumar and Inspector Amleshwar Rai was formed under the supervision of the AHTU ACP SK Gulia.

After several trips to meet relatives and friends of the

victim girl and conducting local inquiries in her neigh-bourhood, the police found out about her friendship with Neeraj, also a resident of Hai-derpur. After first going to Agra and then Sikar in Rajast-han along with the victim girl’s brother, the police found Gopal Lal and discovered that he had “bought” the girl to marry her forcibly to his brother-in-law — Daanvir.

The police here said that they had recovered Rs 30,000 from Neeraj’s possession and eventually brought Gopal, Neeraj and Sheetal to the police station in Delhi for legal action. The Joint CP said legal action will be taken against these three and the woman who helped Neeraj get the girl to Agra.

They have added that Gopal’s brother-in-law Daan-vir remains absconding.

Ggm Namaz row: CM Khattar calls for peaceful resolution

OUR CORRESPONDENT

GURUGRAM: Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who was in Gurugram on Saturday for the citizens grievances meeting has urged both religious com-munities to find a peaceful and acceptable solution to Friday Namaz being held in Sector-47.The Chief Minister highlighted that even though the District Administration was making sure that interests of both con-cerned parties are served in this matter.

With incidents of Namaz being disrupted through loud chanting of Bhajans and Kir-tans by certain residents of Sec-tor-47, the Chief Minister stated that there should not be any dis-ruption to prayers of devotees of any kind. He also mentioned that land for Namaz should only be specified when it is acceptable to both the communities and residents of that particular area.

“The Gurugram District Administration should work towards a peaceful solution to this matter. Both communi-ties should also find ways that are amicable and acceptable to all. Mass prayers at public land should not be disrupted but should also be organised only if it is acceptable to the local

community over there”, said the Chief Minister.

The residents are claiming that organising Friday prayers in the vacant land is a deliber-ate attempt to encroach upon the prime property where a commercial centre for the residents of Sector-47 is to come up in coming years. The res-idents also allege that with a large number of outsiders com-ing to pray for Friday Namaz there are also fears of security for residents.

With certain Hindu outfits now also joining in this protest, tension and uneasy calm at the area is prevalent every Friday afternoon when the Namaz is being held. To prevent the situ-ation going out of control there is heavy deployment of police officials every Friday to avoid untoward incidents of any kind.

As per officials, there have been two alternate sites that have been proposed for Muslim devotees to offer their Friday Namaz. However, these pro-posals as of now have not been accepted by the Muslim side as per officials. The residents of Sector-47 on the other hand have stated that they will con-tinue with the protests till the time Friday prayers will be held in their locality.

Father’s responsibilities wouldn’t end at son attaining 18 years age, says HC

NEW DELHI: A father cannot be absolved of responsibilities to meet education expenses of his son merely because he has attained the age of majority, the Delhi High Court has said.

The high court said the husband must carry the finan-cial burden of making certain that his children are capable of attaining a position in the society wherein they can suffi-ciently maintain themselves and the mother cannot be burdened with the entire expenditure on the education of her son just because he has completed 18 years of age.

“The father cannot be absolved of all responsibilities to meet the education expenses

of his son because the son may have attained the age of majority, but may not be financially inde-pendent and could be incapable of sustaining himself. A father is bound to compensate the wife who, after spending on children, may hardly be left with anything to maintain herself, Justice Sub-ramonium Prasad said.

The court’s order came while dismissing a plea by a man seek-ing a review of an HC order by which he was directed to pay Rs 15,000 monthly interim mainte-nance to his estranged wife till the son completes his gradua-tion or starts earning, which-ever is earlier.

Earlier, a Family Court had ordered that the son was

entitled to maintenance till he attained the age of majority and the daughter would be entitled to maintenance till she gets employment or gets married, whichever is earlier.

The high court said it is true that in a majority of households, women are unable to work due to socio-cultural as well as struc-tural impediments, and, thus, cannot financially support themselves.

However, in households wherein the women are work-ing and are earning sufficiently to maintain themselves, it does not automatically mean that the husband is absolved of his responsibility to provide suste-nance for his children.

“A father has an equal duty to provide for his children and there cannot be a situation wherein it is only the mother who has to bear the burden of expenses for raising and educat-ing the children, it said.

“The court said it cannot shut its eyes to the reality that simply attaining majority does not translate into the under-standing that the major son is earning sufficiently.

At the age of 18, it can be safely assumed that the son is either graduating from 12th standard or is in his first year of college. More often than not, it does not place him in a position wherein he can earn to sustain or maintain himself. AGENCIES

DU 3rd cut-off admissions start todayOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Even as Delhi University opens the admis-sions portal for undergraduate seats under its third cut-off list today — which remains on the higher side, there is a glimmer of hope for students as there are still nearly 20,000 seats up for grabs. The aspirants will have time till October 21 to apply for the course of their choice. The last day to pay the fees will be October 25.

Over 51,000 candidates have already secured admis-sions under the two lists with colleges also over-admitting stu-dents to certain popular courses. There are around 70,000 seats in total at the varsity.

After the third cut-off, a spe-cial cut-off will be declared on

October 25 for candidates who were eligible but could not or did not take admission in the earlier three cut-offs for what-soever reasons.

According to the guidelines, the declaration of special cut-offs will be subject to the avail-ability of vacant seats in the respective programmes. The special Cut-off will be the last declared cut-off of the respec-tive programmes in a college.

“For example, if in a col-lege, the first cut-off for B.Sc

(H) Mathematics for a specific category was 98 per cent and the college did not declare sec-ond and third cut-off for the programme in that category and seats remained vacant later, then special cut-off for B.Sc (H) Mathematics for that specific category for college A will be 98 per cent,” according to the guidelines. Candidates who have secured admission in any of the earlier three cut-off lists will not be allowed to participate in the special cut-offs.

MCD polls: BJP launches own version of ‘Snakes & Ladders’NEW DELHI: With poll rheto-ric catching steam ahead of the MCD elections next year, the Delhi BJP on Sunday took their attacks against the Aam Aadmi Party to the next level, distribut-ing a modified “Snakes & Lad-ders” board game to children of slums in Kusumpur Pahadi, Jai Hind camp and JJ Bandhu camp as part of their “Jhuggi Samman Yatra”.

The catch, however, was that in the game, senior AAP lead-ers, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Dy CM Siso-dia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, MLA Atishi, were depicted as “snakes” and schemes of the Central government were depicted as “ladders”.

The Delhi BJP said that the board game features purported

scams and allegedly “mislead-ing” statements of the AAP-led Delhi government.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta, while addressing a ‘Jhuggi Samman Yatra’, said PM Modi-led government works for the upliftment of the poor always.

Notably, the saffron party has printed over 1 lakh copies of this controversial chart for distribution.

The Delhi BJP chief noted that children in slum areas do not have access to playgrounds to play. However, he has now directed all BJP councillors in the city to encourage chil-dren to play board games such as the ones they have printed instead of building access to playgrounds. MPOST

Cops not reporting POCSO cases to CWCs: DCPCR‘Child welfare committees must be informed of such cases within 24 hrs of registering FIR’OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Com-mission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has now written to the Delhi Police Commissioner, asking him to direct Station House Officers in police stations to manda-torily report all POCSO cases to Child Welfare Committees within 24 hours of registering the FIR.

The child rights body here

wrote to Commissioner Ast-hana, reminding the Delhi Police that the reporting of POCSO cases is mandated by the very legislation as it pro-vides for the child to be pro-duced before CWCs if there is a reasonable apprehension that the abuser/perpetrator lives in the same household as the vic-tim, or if the child is housed in an institution, or is without any parental or institutional support, the letter from DCPCR chief

Anurag Kundu to the Delhi Police chief said.

Kundu noted that local police stations are not report-ing these cases to the CWCs as they were either unaware of the mandated rules or were “uncon-cerned” about the provisions of the law.

“Non-reporting of the case to the Child Welfare Commit-tee means no measures of inte-gration and rehabilitation of the child who has to undergo the

trauma of sexual violence… this step would go a long way in ensuring the recovery from the trauma-induced to POCSO victims and their families,” the letter to the Delhi Police read.

Significantly, the DCPCR, under Kundu, has consistently raised issues with the Juvenile Justice system - including the measures meant to protect the rights of the children in con-flict with the law. Several times in the past, the DCPCR chief

has raised concerns over the design of Juvenile Justice laws, the gaps in them and the lack of implementation on the ground.

In August last year, the DCPCR chief had pointed out that in the current laws, there is an absence of procedural guide-lines for transferring or refer-ring a child from the Juvenile Justice Board to the Child Wel-fare Committee by declaring him and her as a child in need of care and protection (CNCP).

In addition, the rights body had found there was an absence of legally binding guidelines for conducting Medico-Legal cases of child victims of sexual violence and an absence of pro-cedural details for the function-ing of the high-level committee under section 16 (2) of the JJ Act 2015. It had also noted that there were no detailed guidelines for probe officers who investigate cases where minors are either accused or victims.

At the time of the incident, the boys’ mother and sister were sleeping in another room

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Unable to cope with the pressure of studies, a class 12 student allegedly hanged herself from a ceil-ing fan at her house in west Delhi’s Hari Nagar area on Sunday, police said. The girl was taken to a nearby hos-pital where she was declared brought dead, they said.

A suicide note recovered from the spot which revealed that the 17-year-old girl was unable to cope up with the

pressure of studies and that may have forced her to take the extreme step, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Urvija Goel said, “The crime scene was inspected by a team. A small diary containing the sui-cide note and two pieces of black and blue ‘dupatta’ were taken into police possession from the spot.” Inquest pro-ceeding is in process, police said, adding that body will be handed over to family after post-mortem.

‘Unable to handle pressure, Class 12 girl dies by suicide’

3millenniumpost City mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021

BJP’S DELHI UNIT STAGE PROTEST OVER GOVT’S ‘NON-FULFILMENT’ OF PROMISESNEW DELHI: The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday staged a protest against the AAP government over alleged non-fulfilment of its promises made to farmers here. The party leaders said they have also submitted a 15-point memorandum to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on their demands. However, the protest was suspended due to heavy rains in the national capital. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta accused the Kejriwal government of “suppressing the voice of farmers for the past seven years”. “Today, farmers are fighting even to have ownership rights of their own land but the Kejriwal government’s policies would neither give them the benefit of Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna nor of Kisan Fasal Yojana,” he said.

NOIDA: WOMAN, MINOR SON INJURED AFTER PORTION OF HOUSE COLLAPSESNOIDA: A woman and her minor son were injured after portion of a their house collapsed due to heavy rain and thunderstorms in Sector 70 area of Noida on Sunday afternoon. Police said that the incident took place in village Basai. The ceiling of house completely collapsed while the woman and her son who were un-derneath were trapped in the debris. Locals raised an alarm and a team from phase-III police station. The vic-tims were rescued and taken to nearby private hospital where they were discharged after getting treatment.

DELHI CONG VP SLAMS BJP LEADER FOR ‘DEMEANING’ TWEET AGAINST UDIT RAJNEW DELHI: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) vice president and former MLA Jai Kishan Monday condemned BJP functionary Santosh Ranjan Rai’s “de-meaning” remarks against Congress leader Udit Raj. In a statement, Kishan said it was highly “deplorable and ob-jectionable” that a BJP functionary has described Raj in a disparaging manner. “Such remarks only reemphasise the BJP’s prevalent attitude of treating Dalits as outcasts of the society,” Kishan said in the statement.

WATER SUPPLY TO BE AFFECTED TODAYNEW DELHI: The water supply will be affected today from 9 am due to the interconnection work in 900 mm Kalkaji main inside Okhla WW, near Sukhdev Vihar Bus Depot & Modi Mill. The areas to be affected are Okhla Phase-III, Kalkaji Extn, Govindpuri, G.B Pant Polytechnic, Shyam Nagar Colony, Okhla Sabzi Mandi, Village Gahri, Lajpat Nagar, Amar Colony, EPDP, Srini-waspuri and adjoining areas. Residents are advised to store sufficient quantity of water in advance as per their requirement during the shutdown period.

SAYS EVERY BED WILL HAVE O2 AND ICU FACILITIES, TO BE READY IN 6 MONTHS

WHY PENDING FOR 8 YEARS?

City Briefs

CM lays foundation stone of new 1,430-bed hosp in Shalimar Bagh

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Chief Minis-ter Arvind Kejriwal on Sun-day laid the foundation stone of a 1,430-bedded government hospital in Shalimar Bagh here, announcing that the facility in the next six months. Address-ing a gathering at the hospital construction site, CM Kejri-wal said the city had witnessed a dearth of hospital beds, ICU beds and medical oxygen dur-ing the second wave of corona-virus pandemic.

“As a responsible govern-ment, we are taking all impor-tant steps for the third wave. Today, I have laid the foun-dation stone of a new 1,430 bed government hospital here (Shalimar Bagh). All these beds will be ICU beds and every bed will be equipped with oxygen supply. This hospital will be completed within six months,” Kejriwal said.

He said the government is constructing seven new hos-pitals (including Shalimar Bagh) with a total capacity of 6,800 beds in the city, which will give a boost to health infra-structure and medical facilities in Delhi.

It will be a world record when the Delhi government will build seven new govern-ment hospitals with a capac-ity of 6,800 beds in the next six months, Kejriwal said later in a statement.

“Because the people chose

an honest government, it costs only Rs 20 lakh to build an ICU bed, whereas earlier even a normal bed would cost Rs 1 crore,” he said. Health and Pub-lic Works Department Minister Satyendar Jain and Shalimar Bagh MLA Bandana Kumari were also present in the cer-emony along with health and PWD officials.

The CM also said the gov-ernment will develop and implement an international standard system for medical care and facilities.

“We will implement HIMS and I don’t think any country in the world has such a sys-tem yet. We will also distribute health cards to citizens. People with health cards will get free treatment at hospitals”, Kejri-wal said.

Through HIMS, the gov-ernment will have all medi-cal-related data of citizens and people will be able to book

online appointments with doc-tors at government hospitals. It will end queues for people at hospitals, the Delhi govern-ment has said.

The Shalimar Bagh hospi-tal is estimated to cost around Rs 275 crore. Apart from the ground floor, it will have two floors with two OT complexes.

Health Minister Jain also tweeted, “Delhi government is going to build another state-of-the-art hospital for the peo-ple of Delhi. Its foundation was laid by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Shalimar Bagh today. The construction work of this hospital with a capacity of 1,430 beds will be completed in the next 6 months”.

During the event, a ‘havan yagya’ was also performed and Kejriwal along with Jain participated in the ritual according to traditions and unveiled a commemorative stone plaque.

Air turns ‘very poor’ as CM blames farm fires; Centre says share in pollution 2%

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: As Delhi’s air quality plunged into the “very poor” category on Sunday morning, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed increasing stubble burning in neighbour-ing states for the corresponding increase in pollution levels here, declaring that the governments there were “doing nothing” to help farmers to stop it.

He appealed to the govern-ments of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to understand their responsibilities towards reducing stubble burning and controlling pollution.

“Farmers are compelled to burn stubble as their govern-ments are doing nothing for them (towards stopping stubble burning),” Kejriwal said while laying the foundation stone of a Delhi government hospital.

Kejriwal said the Delhi gov-ernment is doing every bit from anti-dust campaign to spraying of bio-decomposer liquid in fields to controlling inbound pollution, but the neighbour-ing states were yet to act. At 2 pm on Sunday, the AQI in Delhi was 339, which is in the “very poor” category.

The Ministry of Earth Sci-ences’ forecast body SAFAR said the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded as 350, which falls in the ‘very poor’ category with PM2.5 as the lead pollutant.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai also reiterated similar con-cerns and said that air quality in the city was deteriorating because of increasing incidents of stubble burning in neigh-bouring states. According to NASA pictures, the number of stubble burning incidents that day was low but within the last three days, incidents of stubble burning have increased with great speed in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, he said.

“We need a responsible approach from (neighbouring) states in reducing the number of stubble burning. They should

make arrangements to spray bio-decomposer in their states so that pollution can be con-trolled,” Rai said.

However, according to SAFAR, stubble burning’s con-tribution to Delhi’s pollution had dropped from a whopping 14 per cent to just 2 per cent on Sunday.

And the IARI, said Punjab recorded 14 farm fires with no such incidents reported from Haryana and Rajasthan on Sun-day. UP recorded 39 instances.

The Environment Minis-ter added that his government was tackling internal sources of pollution, announcing that the Red Light on Gaadi Off cam-paign will be launched today to check vehicular pollution at key intersections.

“As a long term solution, we are promoting electric vehicle policy and working of tree plantation issues,” Rai said, adding, “We will not hesitate in taking even the toughest step if required.”

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Mandating the Pollution Under Control Cer-tificate (PUCC) for vehicles in view of rising pollution lev-els in winter, the Delhi Trans-port department has requested motorists to show the docu-ment to its teams deployed at fuel stations in the city.

The department has launched a massive enforce-ment drive against vehicles that do not have a valid PUC Cer-tificate, said a notice issued by the Pollution Control Division of the department.

“All the registered vehicle owners are requested to show their validly issued PUC Cer-tificates while refuelling at fuel stations,” it said.

Transport department offi-cials said nearly 50 teams will be deployed randomly at fuel stations across the city.

The teams will mainly check PUC Certificates of vehicles and ask motorists to get one if they do not have it already. “The focus will be on encouraging vehicle owners not having a PUCC to get it rather than penalising them.

“However, those declining to do so or trying to speed away may be challaned,” said a senior transport officer.

Vehicle owners who fail to get a valid PUCC are liable to be challaned under Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1993, leading to impris-onment of up to six months or fine up to Rs 10,000, or both.

Vehicular pollution: Motorists asked to cooperate with checks

Untimely rains inundate parts of CapitalOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A surprise spell of rains lashed Delhi on Sunday leading to waterlogging and traf-fic jams at several parts of the city causing inconvenience for commuters, while the maxi-mum temperature settled at 30.4 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal, the India Mete-orological Department said.

The IMD attributed the untimely rains to western dis-turbance. The minimum tem-perature settled at 23.5 degrees Celsius, four notches above nor-mal while the relative humidity recorded at 5.30 pm was 96 per-cent, it said.

Besides Delhi, moderate to heavy rains were predicted for Sunday for almost all adjoining NCR areas in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

The fresh spell of rains came as air quality turned “very poor”.

The IMD had predicted moderate to heavy rains at Loni Dehat, Hindon Air Force Station, Bahadurgarh, Ghazi-abad, Indirapuram, Chhapraula, Dadri, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Manesar, Ballabhgar,

Sohana, Manesar, and Rewari among others.

The weatherman has pre-dicted generally cloudy sky, light rain and thunderstorms for Monday. The maximum temperature is expected to

be around 29 degrees Celsius while the minimum tempera-ture is expected to be around 20 degrees Celsius respectively.

The city received 3 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, the IMD said.

32 fresh cases, positivity 0.07%

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded zero death due to COVID-19 and 32 fresh cases of the infec-tion with a positivity rate of 0.07 per cent on Sunday, according to the health bulletin issued by the government.

Two fatalities due to COVID-19 have been recorded so far this month in the city, on October 2 and 10, according to official data. Only five Covid-related fatalities were reported last month, one each on Sep-tember 7, 16 and 17, and two on September 28, according to official figures.

The death toll due to corona-virus in Delhi stands at 25,089.

On Saturday, 21 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 0.04 per cent while on Friday, 26 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 0.04 per cent.

The number of cumulative cases stands at 14,39,390. Over 14.13 lakh patients have recov-ered from the infection.

A total of 44,867 tests — 29,275 RT-PCR and 15,592 rapid antigen — were conducted a day ago, the bulletin said.

The number of active cases decreased to 320 on Sunday from 326 a day before, accord-ing to the bulletin.

ACTIVE CASES

320DEATH TOLL

25,089

DELHI COUNT

COVID-19

Delhi Metro launches free WiFi on all stations along Yellow Line

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Commuters of the Delhi Metro can now access the internet using free high-speed WiFi at all its Yellow Line stations, as the DMRC launched the facility on Sunday.

The Delhi Metro Rail Cor-poration in association with a technology consortium is work-ing on introducing this facility inside metro trains (besides the Airport Express Line) also in a year’s time, officials said.

In January 2020, the urban transporter launched a high-speed WiFi facility inside train coaches on the Airport Line that connects New Delhi and Dwarka Sector 21 stations.

It was the first such facil-ity in any country in the South Asian region.

The 22.7-km swankiest line on the Delhi Metro network has six stations — New Delhi, Shivaji Stadium, Dhaula Kuan, Delhi Aerocity, IGI Airport and Dwarka Sector 21.

“The DMRC on a trial-basis had introduced free WiFi ser-vice in the trains of its Airport Line, which were suspended due to Covid-induced constraints in 2020, and are now in the process of being restored within the next 10-15 days time,” the DMRC said in a statement.

In its efforts to continuously enhance travel experience for its commuters, the Delhi Metro has successfully introduced the facility of free high-speed WiFi service at all metro stations of the Yellow Line or Line-2, from Samaypur Badli to HUDA City Centre), the officials said, add-

ing that work is on to expand the facility to stations of other corridors of the network.

This high-speed service on the Yellow Line will prove to be a special boon to students trav-elling to and from North Delhi Campus of Delhi University, the DMRC said.

This service, coinciding with the festival season, has been launched on this line which consists of 37 metro stations, and runs mostly underground through one of the most con-gested parts of the city, cover-ing outer Delhi, north Delhi through central Delhi and south Delhi and finally Gurgaon, the officials said. More than 330 access points have been installed at these 37 stations to provide uninterpreted internet access to the commuters, the DMRC said.

BJP bowing down to Oppn, Dangal Maidan

sale cancelled: AAPOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday declared that their continuous protests and agitation had pushed the BJP-ruled North MCD into a corner — forcing the administration to cancel the proposal to sell the Dangal Maidan land here near the Old Delhi Railway Station.

AAP’s MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said that the BJP had been trying to bring proposals to sell the properties of the MCD and the AAP has been strongly opposing this. He added that BJP has imple-mented many proposals arbi-trarily and his party had been continuously fighting against them.

The leader added that he is extremely happy by the decision to not sell Dangal Maidan and that “the BJP is bowing down to the opposition of the Aam Aadmi Party”. Later stating that

he hopes that the BJP does not repeat its mistakes of selling MCD’s assets arbitrarily, tak-ing a dig at the party for often “going back on their word”.

According to Pathak, one of BJP’s own leaders seems to believe selling MCD’s assets is a mistake.

The AAP leader said that the impact of their mistakes will reflect clearly in the municipal elections in 2022 and BJP won’t be able to compensate for their wrong decisions as their own leaders are not accepting the mistakes of the party.

Pathak said, “Aam Aadmi Party works only and only in the interest of the public, will never allow anything wrong to happen to the public. We will not allow BJP to sell MCD’s properties. The Aam Aadmi Party also demands that the proposal of the novelty cinema land sale by the BJP also be canceled.”

Non-issuance of ration card to daily wage worker: HC seeks stand of govt

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has sought the city gov-ernment’s stand on why an application for issuance of a ration card by a daily wage worker has remained pending for eight years.

Justice Rekha Palli issued notice on the petition by the worker seeking a ration card in a time-bound manner, with names of all her family mem-bers, and granted time to the Delhi government counsel to get instructions.

The petitioner alleged that in spite of applying for a ration card in September 2013 and making repeated representa-tions, no action has been taken by the authorities.

Keeping in view the nature of relief sought in the pres-ent petition, Mr. (Gautam) Narayan (Delhi government

counsel) is directed to obtain instructions as to why the peti-tioner’s application has been pending for the last eight years, the court said in its order dated October 6.

In the petition filed through lawyers Jayshree Satpute and Tripti Poddar, the petitioner said that she and her family

are being denied their right to subsidised food grains owing to inactions and inefficiencies of the authorities, in violation of the Right to Food, Right to Health and Right to Life guar-anteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The court was informed that the petitioner and her fam-

ily resides in a slum cluster in South Delhi and the ration card issued in her husband’s name in 2005 was unilaterally cancelled by the authorities in 2013.

The petitioner and her fam-ily continue to live in abject poverty, and are unable to provide food for their family, despite having applied for a ration card eight years prior, the petitioner stated.

It further informed that although the petitioner col-lected the free ration being distributed by the authori-ties during the pandemic, she faced difficulties in accessing it on grounds on account of the pendency of her ration card application.

In the petition, the peti-tioner has also sought com-pensation of Rs 25,000 from the authorities.

The matter would be heard next on October 25.

Anti-dengue drive to be intensified in East Delhi

NEW DELHI: The East Delhi Municipal Corporation has intensified its drive to combat dengue, and a new awareness campaign via radio stations will be set in motion from Monday, officials said. Over 480 cases of dengue have been reported in the national Capital this sea-son, including more than 140 in October, according to data shared by civic bodies.

Over 80 cases of dengue, 20 of malaria and two of chi-kungunya have been logged in areas falling under the EDMC’s jurisdiction.

“We have intensified our anti-dengue drive as large num-ber of cases are being recorded due to excessive rains this year. A radio campaign is ready. It will carry the message of pre-cautions to be taken at home to ward off any possibility of

breeding of mosquito larvae at home,” East Delhi Mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said. Besides, our dengue breeding checking staff are going from house to house to check any breeding of dengue mosquitoes to prevent its spread, he said, and claimed that the staff has visited nearly 40 lakh households till date.

Dengue mosquito larvae breed in clear, standing water, while those of malaria thrive even in dirty water. Cases of vector-borne diseases are usu-ally reported between July and November, but the period may stretch till mid-December.

“The radio campaign is ready, and it will be launched tomorrow. People will get to hear the message on the air-waves either from tomorrow or the day after,” a senior offi-cial said. PTI

In the petition, the petitioner has also sought compensation of Rs 25K from the authorities

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

India enhances surveillance over LAC in Arunachal sector

For first time, no Covid-19 death

in Mumbai

4 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MISAMARI (TEZPUR): India has significantly cranked up its day and night surveil-lance at the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC) in the Arunachal Pradesh sector using a fleet of remotely piloted aircraft and other assets as part of a broad strategy to strengthen overall military preparedness to deal with any Chinese misadven-ture, people familiar with the developments said on Sunday.

As tensions boiled over between the two countries following the Galwan Valley clashes last year, India ramped up its overall deployment along the nearly 3,400-km-long LAC besides speeding up infrastruc-ture development to gain a tac-tical advantage.

The people cited above said a sizeable fleet of Israeli-made Heron medium-altitude long-endurance drones is car-rying out round-the-clock sur-veillance over the LAC in the mountainous terrain and send-ing crucial data and images to command and control centres.

Along with the drones, the Indian Army's aviation wing has also been deploying the Weapon System Integrated (WSI) variant of the Advanced Light Helicopter Rudra in the region, adding more teeth to its tactical missions in the region, they said.

In an expansion of its avi-ation wing in the region, the Army has come out with an independent aviation brigade in the region this year to bol-ster its overall operational preparedness in the sensitive region, they said.

They said though the Heron drones were first deployed in the region around four-five years back, now the integration of surveillance has been sig-nificantly enhanced under the 'sensor to shooter' concept to employ military forces at short notice for any possible opera-tional objectives.

The deployment of the WSI version of the ALH helicopters has also provided the Army an added advantage to carry out various missions in the high-altitude areas.

Asked about the weapons package of the ALH helicop-ters, they refused to divulge the details but said it is one of the best and would be very effective against the adversary.

"Overall, our day and night surveillance capability has seen massive upgrades since last year and we are in a much better position to deal with any eventualities in the region," said

one of the people cited above.The Indian Army is also

procuring a fleet of Heron TP drones on lease from Israel that are capable of operating for nearly 45 hours at an alti-tude of up to 35,000 feet.

The Heron TP drones are equipped with automatic taxi-takeoff and landing (ATOL) and satellite communication (SATCOM) systems for an extended range.

They said additional roads, bridges and railway infra-structure are being built in the Arunachal sector considering their strategic requirement in

the wake of evolving security dynamics in the region.

The government is also working on connecting Tawang with a railway network as part of the decision to enhance infrastructure in the region.

The people cited above also said that infrastructure at almost all airfields along the LAC including the Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) was enhanced as per operational requirements.

The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas and both sides grad-ually enhanced their deploy-ment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

The tension escalated fol-lowing the deadly clashes in Galwan Valley on June 15 last year.

As a result of a series of mil-itary and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disen-gagement process in the Gogra area in August and in the north and south banks of the Pan-gong lake in February.

However, the last round of military talks on October 10 ended in a stalemate.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector.

NEW DELHI: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Sun-day said 'Rail Roko' protests will be held across the coun-try on October 18 to demand the dismissal and arrest Union Minister Ajay Mishra in con-nection with the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

In a statement, the umbrella body of farmer unions spear-heading the farmers' agitation against the Centre's three agri laws, said "protests will only be intensified until justice is secured" in the Lakhimpur Kheri case. The SKM said dur-ing the 'rail roko' protest, all train traffic will be stopped for six hours from 10 am till 4 pm on Monday. "To press for its demand for MoS Home Ajay Mishra's dismissal and arrest, so that justice can be secured in the Lakhimpur Kheri mas-sacre, Samyukt Kisan Morcha has announced a nation-wide Rail Roko program tomorrow.

"SKM put out a call to its constituents to stop rail traffic for six hours on October 18, between 10 am and 4 pm. The SKM asks for this action to be taken up peacefully, without any destruction and damage of any kind to any railway prop-erty," it said. Four of the eight people who died in violence on October 3 were farmers, allegedly knocked down by a vehicle carrying BJP workers. Angry farmers then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. AGENCIES

Bid to strengthen overall military preparedness to deal with any Chinese misadventure

As tensions boiled over between the two countries following the Galwan Valley clashes last year, India ramped up its overall deployment along the nearly 3,400-km-long LAC besides speeding up infrastructure development to gain a tactical advantage.

Lakhimpur incident:

SKM to hold ‘Rail Roko’ on Oct 18

PUNE: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday accused the BJP-led central government of acting against the interests of workers and claimed that it was making changes in law so that employees can be removed from service any time.

He said that those who are against the interests of workers should not be in power.

Pawar also alleged that the Centre was trying to pose financial hurdles before

Maharashtra by not releasing the GST dues. Addressing the workers of his party in Pim-pri Chinchwad, an industrial township near Pune city, he also told them how Hindu-stan Antibiotics (HA) as well as several automobile compa-nies were set up there.

"The present Union gov-ernment is against the inter-ests of workers. Now anyone can be thrown out of job at any time. The BJP government at

the Centre is bringing changes in law so that workers can be removed from service any time. This move is 100 per cent not in the interests of workers," he said. "Those who are against the interest of workers should not be in power we all have to tell this to them, and for that Pim-pri Chinchwad can be one of the cities which will give this strong message," he added.

But the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state

is going to work for industries and employment generation, he asserted.

The NCP shares power with the Shiv Sena and the Congress in the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.

Sharing an anecdote about how the Hindustan Antibiotics started functioning in Pimpri Chinchwad and how manu-facturing of penicillin began, he said when Mahatma Gandhi was living with his wife Kas-

turba Gandhi in a bungalow on Ahmednagar Road in Pune, Kasturba Gandhi was battling a disease that needed a specific type of medicine which was not being produced in India at that time. Later she died due to the illness.

"When the then prime min-ister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited Gandhi after that, the latter told Nehru about the non-availability of medicine in India. It was then that Nehru

took a decision and the HA was formed," he said. Pawar also shared how Tata's vehicle manufacturing company was retained in Maharashtra and set up in Pimpri Chinchwad.

"When we were in power, we tried to keep the industry afloat. We worked towards the decentralization of industries. The then chief minister Yash-wantrao Chavan decided to go for decentralization of indus-tries. Then industries started

functioning in Thane and Pim-pri Chinchwad," Pawar said.

"Chavan also met JRD Tata and requested him to set up the company in Pimpri Chinchwad instead of Jamshedpur. He per-sonally met Tata and promised to extend all help to set up the company in Pimpri Chinchwad. The same happened with Bajaj, Telco and others special efforts were taken by the government, he said. Pawar said that as a Union agriculture minister for

10 years between 2004 and 2014, he and the UPA government worked to change the situation and India became an exporter of wheat. Earlier, India used to import rice, but now it is one of the topmost countries that exports it, he said.

"We worked towards using our power for the betterment of the farmers who can solve the hunger issues, but now the BJP is doing exactly the oppo-site," he said. AGENCIES

Civic chief calls it ‘great news’

Kerala landslide toll touches 22

Citing more than 5 cm rain received in two hours in worst affected areas of Idukki and Kot-tayam districts, S Abhilash of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, CUSAT said it was a “mesoscale mini-cloudburst type of event”.

Mini cloud bursts are marked by intense short spells which may not exceed 10cm in one hour-a classical definition by India Meteorologi-cal Department.

The Indian Navy said a helicopter from Naval Air Station, INS Garuda was launched in the morning to drop relief materials to the affected people.

The helicopter undertook aerial sorties to assess the status of the floods and landslides for authorities to plan any land based search and res-cue operations.

“At present all Air assets, Rescue teams, and Team of Naval divers are kept on standby to assist civil administration at short notice”, a Navy statement said.

Army said despite the harsh and inclement weather conditions, its personnel reached the affected areas within a few hours of requisition and have been employed in assistance to the civil administration in rescue and relief operations.

“Working since the late hours, the team was the first to reach the site at Kavali in Kottayam district and have been successful in recovering three bodies from the debris. The recovery oper-ation became further difficult as the team had to clear the entire landslide only after the road was cleared for movement of the JCB”, an Army release said.

During the process of recovery, the Army team had salvaged large quantities of gold and expensive accessories which were immediately handed over to the Civil administration for fur-ther accountability.

“The team is working in close coordination with the DC, Kottayam and the Tehsildar of Kan-jirapally in distribution of the much needed relief material and in ensuring that normalcy returns in the area at the earliest”, it said.

In its forecast, India Meteorological Depart-ment said Saturday’s Low pressure area over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Kerala has become less Marked and now seen as a trough from south Interior Karnataka to south Tamil Nadu at lower levels.

“Under its influence, isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over Kerala and Mahe on 17th Octo-ber 2021 and significant reduction thereafter,” it said.

Thereafter, a fresh spell of easterly wave is likely to affect south Peninsular India from Octo-ber 20 and cause fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls likely over Kerala from Octo-ber 20 and likely to continue for subsequent 3-4 days, it added.

The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) informed that it has incurred an estimated loss of Rs 13.67 crore due to the downpour in the state.

“The most damage happened in Pathana-mthitta, Pala and Thodupuzha circles. A total of 3,074 distribution transformers stopped func-tioning out of which 60 were totally destroyed. 339 hi-tension posts were destroyed, 1398 low-tension posts damaged and 4.18 lakh electricity connections got snapped,” KSEB said in a release.

The higher education department in the state informed that all the exams scheduled to be held tomorrow have been postponed while the classes that were scheduled to begin from October 18 have been postponed to October 20.

Culture Minister Saji Cheriyan said families residing in the low-lying areas of Chengannur and Kuttanad areas have been shifted to relief camps as water from Pamba and Achankovil riv-ers began rising due to heavy rains in the eastern part of the state.

The Central Water Commission has issued an Orange alert for Manimala, Kallada, Achankovil, Neyyar and Karamana rivers of the state.

The IMD has withdrawn the red alert and currently, there is a Yellow alert sounded for the south-central districts of the state.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said inces-sant rains are continuing at Thrissur, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts.

“NDRF teams have been deployed to Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Malappuram districts. Directions have been issued to deploy five additional teams to Idukki, Kottayam, Kollam, Kannur and Palak-kad districts,” he said.

Sidhu seeks meeting with Sonia

He also wrote that the state government must reject the “three black farm laws” of the Centre “by announcing that they will not be implemented in Punjab at any cost”. The state government must release a white paper on power purchase agreements and cancellation of “all faulty PPAs as promised by us”, Sidhu said in the letter.

“Thus, I request you kindly consider these points and give your august direction to the state government to act in the best interests of the people of Punjab immediately,” he wrote. In the letter, Sidhu sought a meeting with Sonia Gan-dhi to present to her a “Punjab Model with a 13-Point Agenda to be part of the Congress man-ifesto for the 2022 Assembly Elections”.

The Punjab Congress chief described the “13-point agenda” as separate from the manifesto by “means of its long-term vision to be imple-mented over a longer period, crafted through years of consultations with academics, civil soci-ety, party workers and feedback from the people of Punjab”.

Sidhu had posted his resignation as state unit chief on Twitter on September 28. He was not happy with the appointment of the new Punjab Police chief and the advocate general, besides some portfolio allocations to ministers after the new cabinet formation. During the meeting with Congress senior leaders K C Venugopal and Rawat, the Punjab Congress leader had raised his concerns over the 18-point agenda taken up by the leadership on which actions are pending. These included action against those involved in the sacrilege issue and the drugs mafia.

Two more labourers from Bihar shot dead by terrorists

The terror attack drew strong condemnation from political parties across the spectrum.

“There are no words strong enough to con-demn the repeated barbaric attacks on inno-cent civilians. My heart goes out to their families because they leave the comforts of their homes to earn a dignified livelihood. Terribly sad,” PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted.

BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur said the killings were “nothing but pure genocide”.

“The gruesome murder of non-locals is noth-ing but inhuman and shows the frustration of militants,” he said.

CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami said killing innocent labourers who have come here to earn their livelihood is a heinous crime.

“This is aimed at targeting the interests of people of Kashmir and this is happening at a time when the harvesting season is at its peak,” he said.

Tarigami said mere condemnation is not enough and it was time for all to come forward and unitedly raise voice against these criminals who are committing such heinous crimes.

“We appeal to civil society, political parties irrespective of their political agenda to raise their voice against such barbaric acts,” he added.

Amid the civilian killings, Jammu and Kash-mir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had on Sunday vowed to avenge every drop of their blood by hunting down terrorists and their sympathisers.

Sinha said attempts are being made to dis-rupt the peace and socio-economic progress of Jammu and Kashmir and the individual growth of people, and reiterated the commitment to the

fast-paced development of the Union territory.“I pay my heartfelt tributes to the martyr

civilians and condolences to the bereaved fami-lies. We’ll hunt down terrorists, their sympathis-ers and avenge every drop of innocent civilians’ blood,” Sinha said in his monthly radio pro-gramme ‘Awaam ki Awaaz’.

Govt yet to decide on 12 names reiterated by SC collegium

On October 14, seven judges, including four advocates, were appointed to three high courts.

A total of 14 new judges were on Wednes-day appointed to three high courts, a day after a record 17 appointments across three other high courts.

On October 11, three advocates and two judi-cial officers were elevated as judges of the Rajast-han High Court.

On October 9, eight judges were elevated as chief justices of high courts and five high court chief justices were transferred based on rec-ommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium.

In a separate development, seven judges were on October 11 transferred to different high courts.

On October 5, as many as 15 judges of 11 high courts were transferred.

MP: Four hurt... One of the injured persons, Chaturanan Sahu

(26), said a grey car crashed into the procession of the Chandbarh Durga Utsav when it reached near Gupta tea stall outside the Bhopal railway station.

“Two persons were travelling in that car which crashed into the procession and again hit the people while reversing,” he claimed.agencies

India logs 14,146 fresh Covid cases

Paul, who has been playing a key role in the government’s efforts in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, also cautioned that even though infections are coming down and the sec-ond wave is subsiding, it will not be fair now to say that the worst is over since many countries have seen more than two waves.

Currently, three vaccines — Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V — being administered in

the country are only for those above 18 years of age. All of them are two-dose vaccines.

Zydus Cadila’s indigenously developed nee-dle-free COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D is set to become the first vaccine that will be available in India for those in the age group of 12-18 years. It has received Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA).

“We do know that several countries have introduced vaccination for adolescents (people) and children. We will take a final decision based on the overall scientific rationale and the sup-ply situation of the child licenced vaccines, going forward,” Paul told PTI in an interview.

An expert panel of India’s central drug authority has recommended granting EUA to Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for children and ado-lescents in the 2-18 years age group with certain conditions.

If approved by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), it will be the second vaccine after ZyCoV-D to get EUA for use among those below 18 years.

The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) is looking at how ZyCov-D should be positioned for most opti-mum use.

According to Paul, Covaxin is a part of the adult vaccination programme and how to provi-sion the vaccine, if at all for children, has to be also examined in the totality of the requirements of the vaccination programme.

“A pragmatic decision (on vaccination of chil-dren and adolescents) can be taken (only) by balancing the supply and the potential eligibil-ity,” he said.

While noting it will not be possible now to give a particular timeline on when COVID vac-cination will start for children, Paul said, “The preparation for incorporation of Zydus Cadi-la’s vaccine into the vaccination programme is proceeding well, training is already being held. NTAGI advice for the best use of the vaccine is explored. So soon, this will be rolled out”.

According to Paul, children are part and par-cel of the chains of COVID transmission and are infected in large numbers. At the same time, COVID infections in children are very mild or asymptomatic, and that is one side of the story.

On the other side, he said that once there is enough vaccine available that can be used in chil-dren, “so why not protect them”.

Schools have reopened in many states, mainly for higher classes.

When asked whether the worst of the pan-demic is over, Paul said, “It is reassuring that the number of COVID cases are now on the decline and the second wave is now subsiding but to say that the worst is over will not be fair because we have seen in other nations, there have been more than two waves”.

Cautioning that the country is passing through a phase when there are festivals and potential gatherings, he said this is a critical phase as the virus can spread again.

From Page 1

Centre acting against interests of workers; should not remain in power: Pawar

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Mumbai on Sun-day did not report even a single death due to COVID-19 for the first time nearly since the pan-demic broke out in March last year, a top official said.

Mumbai civic commis-sioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the city reported zero death due to the virus during the day for the first time since March 26, 2020.

"This is a great news for all of us in Mumbai," he said.

The metropolis had reported its first coronavirus positive case on March 11, 2020, and its first death six days later on March 17 that year.

"As municipal commis-sioner, I salute team MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) for their spectacular performance," he added. The city logged 367 positive cases on Sunday. With this, Mumbai's caseload has not reached 7,50,808 and death toll 16,180.

A statement from the civic health department said that 518 patients recuperated dur-ing the day, pushing the recov-ery count to 7,27,084.

A total of 28,697 tests were carried out, which took the overall test count to 1,09,57,392.

There are 5,030 active COVID-19 cases in Mumbai

at present. Its recovery rate is 97 per cent, while the case doubling rate is 1,214 days. The overall growth rate of corona-virus cases from October 10 to 16 is 0.06 per cent.

Mumbai had recorded the highest 11,163 cases on April 4, 2021 and most number of deaths at 90 on May 1 this year.

Chahal said that a total of 97 per cent eligible citizens of Mumbai have received their their first dose of vaccina-tion and 55 per cent are fully vaccinated.

"Let us all keep the mask on our face and let every citizen of Mumbai get vaccinated if some of us haven't yet. I appeal to everyone to help us keep Mum-bai safe," he added.

A BMC health worker conducts thermal screening of outstation passengers for COVID testing at Dadar Railway Station, Mumbai

5millenniumpost Nation mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021

Three detained for questioningSinghu lynching: Six days police

remand for three

2 KILLED, 3 INJURED IN INCIDENT OF LIGHTNING STRIKE IN UP’S BAHRAICH BAHRAICH (UP): Two people were killed and three others sustained serious injuries when they were hit by lightning here on Sunday, police said. The incident occurred in Behrha village under Khairighat area of the district, they said. SHO of Khairighat Police Sta-tion Rajkumar Singh said some villagers were grazing cattle when it started raining. They took shelter under a mango tree and were struck by lightning. The five injured were taken to a health centre where Santosh Kumar (45) and Chandan (30) were declared dead by the doctors, he said. The other three were referred to Bahraich Medical College, he added.

MP: FOUR RPSF JAWANS INJURED AS GUN GOES OFF WHILE BEING CLEANED BHOPAL: Four jawans of the Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) were injured on Sunday when an automatic gun accidentally went off while it was being cleaned in Madhya Pradesh’s Itarsi town, an official said. The incident occurred in the guard run-ning room of the railway station at Itarsi, about 95 kilometres from the state capital, Archana Sharma, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Railway), Itarsi, said over phone. “In an accidental firing during the cleaning of an automatic gun, four RPSF jawans were injured by shrapnel on Sunday afternoon. They were admitted in Hoshangabad’s Narmada Hospital,” she further said.

Nation Briefs

NITIN AGARWAL SET TO BE ELECTED UP ASSEMBLY DY SPEAKER

LUCKNOW: Nitin Agarwal, who was elected as a legislator on the Samajwadi Party ticket but then cozied up to the ruling BJP, is all set to be the deputy speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly with the support of the saffron party.

A miffed Samajwadi Party, which has fielded Narendra Verma as its official candidate for the contest that is taking place just months ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, hit out at the BJP, accusing it of trying to sabotage democracy, and asserted that the post should traditionally go to the opposition party. After the election on Monday, Uttar Pradesh will get its first Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly after a gap of over 14 years. In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP had won 304 seats in the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly and its majority in the House will ensure Agarwal's victory. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Priyanka Gan-dhi Vadra will be the face of the Congress’ election cam-paign in Uttar Pradesh, par-ty’s newly-appointed campaign committee chief P L Punia said on Sunday, asserting that the AICC general secretary is the most popular political figure in the state at present.

Punia, who on Friday was named as the head of the key 20-member election campaign committee of the Congress for the UP polls next year, noted that very rarely has the Con-gress announced a chief min-isterial face and said that not

having declared one till now will not hamper the party’s chances as it already has a per-sonality like Priyanka Gandhi to lead the charge against the BJP.

It is a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP in the UP polls as both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have “fallen behind” and were “not in the fight anymore”, Punia said in an interview.

Punia said Priyanka Gan-dhi has fought for truth on all issues and when the Lakhim-pur Kheri incident happened, she immediately left to meet

the family of the victims, and was detained in Sitapur, but remained determined in her quest for justice.

He said she was “success-

ful” in her struggle and went to Lakhimpur Kheri and Bah-raich to met the families of the victims. Punia said earlier also -- be it Sonbhadra, Unnao or Hathras incidents -- Priyanka Gandhi had fought for justice.

“So, the people are impressed by her and currently in the entire state, no politi-cian is more popular than Pri-yanka Gandhi. As far as around whom the campaign will be centred, we are fortunate that Priyanka Gandhi is available for (campaigning) all the time,” he said.

There are always demands

from other states for Priyanka Gandhi to campaign and hold one or two meetings, but in UP she is available 24X7, Punia said. “Priyanka Gandhi ji hi humara ek chehra hongi jinke ird-gird poora election campaign chalega (the elec-tion campaign will be revolve around Priyanka Gandhi),” he said. Punia also said the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and justice for farmers would be important issues in the elec-tions, asserting that the way the farmers were “trampled upon”, was a condemnable incident. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a dig at the government over the increasing prices of petrol and diesel, alleging that there was "destruction for all" and development of "rising prices".

Tagging a media report which claimed that if the gov-ernment had not hiked taxes, petrol would have been Rs 66 per litre and diesel would have been Rs 55 per litre, Gandhi alleged that the government was indulging in "tax extor-tion". "'Sabka vinash, mehen-gaai ka vikas' (destruction for all, development of ris-ing prices)," Gandhi tweeted in Hindi using the hashtag 'TaxExtortion'.

Petrol and diesel prices on Sunday were hiked again by 35 paise a litre. The fourth straight day of 35 paise per litre hike sent petrol and die-sel rates to record highs across the country.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also attacked the government over rising prices, saying the BJP has hiked NPK (fertiliser) price by Rs 275 and NP (fertiliser) price by Rs 20. "With daily hikes, the government has made the diesel prices cross Rs 100. Under the BJP rule, workers and farmers are reeling under the burden of rising prices, while only Modi's friends are getting richer," she said in a tweet in Hindi.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akh-ilesh Yadav Sunday attacked the BJP dispensation, saying the state needs a 'yogya' (com-petent) government and not a Yogi government.

Speaking to reporters at the party's headquarters here, he further alleged the BJP "has no work to do" aside from chang-ing names. "It believes in filling pockets instead of potholes."

"Uttar Pradesh needs a 'yogya' (competent) govern-ment and not a Yogi govern-ment," he said.

He was speaking after for-mer Uttar Pradesh chief of Bahujan Samaj Party RS Kush-waha and former MP Kadir Rana joined the SP.

Yadav reiterated his par-ty's demand for a caste census, and said that when the Con-gress was in power at the Cen-tre, Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav), RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav had demanded that a caste census was done.

The SP chief also attacked the BJP government over rising prices of petrol, diesel and LPG.

"At a number of places, the price of petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre, and the public is forced to buy everything at a higher price. The prices of die-sel and LPG cylinders have also increased. Do they have any answer to this?" he said.

He also attacked the BJP over Samajwadi Party MLA Nitin Agarwal filing nomina-

tion for the deputy speaker's post in the Uttar Pradesh Leg-islative Assembly with the sup-port of the ruling party.

"Which party does the can-didate put up by the BJP belong to? What can be expected of a government which inaugu-rates already inaugurated proj-ects, and lays foundation stone of the projects, for which the foundation stone has already been laid?" he asked.

He also rubbished claims of factionalism in the Samajwadi Party and claimed the BJP will not give tickets to 150 MLAs in the 2022 polls.

Yadav had earlier said that SP will win 400 out of the 403 seats in the UP Assembly. He termed the BJP government "anti-farmer". MPOST

LUCKNOW: The stage is set for the inauguration of the much-awaited Kushinagar International Airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 20.

The grand inauguration ceremony of the airport, which is being seen as a major conduit in the Buddhist circuit to boost tourist inflow, will be attended by Sri Lankan President Lt Colonel Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Chief Minister Yogi Aditya-nath and a host of dignitar-ies, including ambassadors of around 15 countries to India.

The airport will also wit-ness the arrival of its maiden international flight from Colombo with the president and a 125-member delegation accompanying him on board, including Buddhist monks and pilgrims on the occasion.

With the opening of Kushi-nagar Airport, the inflow of international tourists as well as outbound tourism are expected to increase by 15 to 20 percent in the coming years, because of its strategic location near Buddhist sites in both Uttar

Pradesh and north Bihar.The airport will facilitate

hassle-free movement of tour-ists from countries with size-able Buddhist population in East Asia and South-East-Asia to the six Buddhist sites in Uttar Pradesh located in Kushi-nagar, Sarnath and Shravasti because of its better connec-tivity to these places, as well as Buddhist sites located in north Bihar. In Bihar, Kesaria stupa, the largest Buddhist stupa in the world, and Vaishali are not far from Kushinagar and those willing can cover these sites in one visit with the opening of Kushinagar Airport.

Earlier, the entry point for the Buddhist Tourists in India were Kolkata, Delhi, Gaya & later Varanasi, which are situ-ated far away from one another. Besides, due to lack of air con-nectivity, it was time taking and most tourists could not even think of completing the circuit in one go. Now, with the open-ing of Kushinagar Airport for-eign tourists can complete their pilgrimage in considerably less time. MPOST

Modi to inaugurate Kushinagar Int’l

Airport on Oct 20

MUMBAI: Launching a sting-ing attack on the BJP and the Centre over the alleged mis-use of investigative agencies, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday alleged that "contract killings" are now replaced by "government killings" to fin-ish off political rivals in Maharashtra.

With some ministers in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) govern-ment under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax, and at least one of them facing a CBI inquiry, Raut said that Central investi-gating agencies are working as "contract killers for the party in power in Delhi".

"Is there a rule of law or (a rule of) raids in Maharash-tra? This is the question which comes to one's mind consid-ering the record-break raids being conducted through Cen-tral investigating agencies," Raut wrote in the weekly col-

umn 'Rokhthok' in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' of which he is the executive editor.

Earlier, Delhi rulers used to lie but now (ordering) frequent raids have become a new busi-ness without any capital invest-ment, he stated.

"Use people's money, gov-ernment machinery to remove political opponents. In the past, contract killings were the order of the day in Mumbai (when Underworld was active). Hit-men were hired on contract to kill rivals (by gangs). This is now replaced by 'govern-ment killing'. Central investi-gating agencies are working as contract killers for the party in power in Delhi," Raut said.

Finishing off the unwanted political rivals through these agencies seems to have become a new policy, Raut stated.

Referring to the arrest of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and state minis-ter Nawab Malik's son-in-law

Sameer Khan by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Raut said Khan had been arrested under the pretext of his involve-ment in a drug racket and was put in jail for eight months.

"Now the court has granted him bail. The court said herbal tobacco was found in the pos-session of Khan and not drugs. Malik should file cases against NCB officials," Raut said in the

write-up.The Sena leader further

said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was raid-ing homes of former Maha-rashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh instead of finding out the whereabouts of Param Bir Singh, the former commis-sioner of Mumbai police who had accused Deshmukh of cor-ruption with the help of some police officers when he was serving as the home minister of the state.

Raut also slammed the raids conducted recently by the Income Tax department on the family members of NCP leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The details of the PM Cares Fund are not made public. It is said this fund is not a gov-ernment fund but a private fund. Funds worth crores of rupees are collected in the name of the prime Minister," Raut stated. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAMMU: Three persons, including a mother-son duo, were detained for question-ing during an ongoing search operation in the forest belt of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch and Rajouri border districts where nine soldiers were killed in two separate gunfights with terrorists over the past week, officials said on Sunday.

Five Army personnel, including a junior commis-sioned officer (JCO), laid down their lives in a fierce gunfight during a counter-insurgency operation in Surankote for-est on Monday. Four soldiers, including another JCO, died in another encounter in the Mendhar sector on Thursday evening.

A man along with a 45-year-old woman and her son, all res-idents of Bhatta Durrian forest, were taken into custody for questioning on the suspicion of giving logistic support to ter-rorists, the officials said.

It was a matter of investi-gation whether they provided food and shelter to the terror-ists voluntarily or at gunpoint, they said.

The officials underlined that the area is mountainous and the forest is dense, which makes the operation difficult

and dangerous.So far, contact with hid-

ing terrorists was established thrice -- first on October 11 in Poonch's Surankote which was followed by another exchange of fire between the security forces and the fleeing terrorists in the adjoining Thanamandi forest in Rajouri district the same day but the ultras man-aged their escape in both the encounters.

The third encounter took place in the Nar Khas forest in the Mendhar area of Poonch on Thursday evening.

"The presence of terror-ists in the forest area con-necting Poonch and Rajouri was observed two-and-a-half months ago and accord-ingly tactical operations were launched to track them down," Deputy Inspector General of Police, Rajouri-Poonch range, Vivek Gupta said on Saturday.

"A joint security grid was tracking different groups of ter-rorists but sometimes opera-

tions take time depending on the topography of the area. Contact with the terrorists was established thrice this week based on intelligence inputs," the officer said.

The terrorists are holed up and the joint forces are on the job to take the operation to the logical conclusion, he added.

Officials said the entire forest area from Mendhar to

Thanamandi remains under a strict cordon and a massive search operation is on to neu-tralise the terrorists moving from one place to another in an attempt to escape the dragnet.

The Army has deployed para-commandos and a heli-copter was also seen hovering over the forest area for surveil-lance on Saturday.

Officials said the traffic

between Mendhar and Thana-mandi along the Jammu-Rajouri highway remained suspended for the third day on Sunday in the wake of the ongoing operation.

Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region have witnessed a rise in infiltration attempts since June this year. Nine ter-rorists have been killed in sep-arate encounters.

Rahul slams govt over rise in fuel prices

‘Priyanka will be face of Cong’s election campaign in UP’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: Three peo-ple allegedly involved in the lynching of a man at a farmers’ protest site near Singhu border were remanded to six days in police custody on Sunday.

In a separate but related development, the Haryana Police on Sunday set up two Special Investigation Teams to probe the incident.

Narain Singh, a key mem-ber of the Sikhs’ Nihang order, who was arrested on Saturday from near Amritsar, besides two more Nihangs—Govin-dpreet Singh and Bhagwant Singh—from Fatehgarh Sahib, who had “surrendered” before the Sonepat Police in connec-tion with the lynching, were produced before a court in Sonepat, which remanded them to six days in police custody.

The police sought remand of the accused on the ground that they have to reconstruct the scene of the crime, recover clothes which the accused wore at the time of incident, besides interrogating them in depth about the entire incident.

One of the SITs headed by IPS officer Mayank Gupta, who is Assistant Superinten-

dent of Police, Kharkhoda, Sonepat, will investigate the videos of the incident which were circulating on various social media platforms, while the other led by Deputy Super-intendent of Police, Sonipat, Virender Singh will carry out the overall probe into the incident.

The victim’s family had ear-lier questioned the attackers’ claim that he committed sac-rilege and demanded a high-level probe.

The mortal remains of Lakhbir Singh were cremated at his native village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran amid tight security in the presence of his family members on Saturday evening.

The case has sparked out-rage and triggered calls for action to clear the protest sites on Delhi’s borders where farm-ers have been camping since last November to press for the scrapping of the Centre’s three agri laws.

SEARCH OPS ENTER DAY 7 IN POONCH-RAJOURI FORESTS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: In a first , three poll-ing stations –one in Mandi Parliamentary constituency and one each at Jubbal-Kot-khai and Fatehpur constituen-cies will be manned by Persons with Physically Disabilities (PwDs for upcoming bypoll in Himachal Pradesh, slated on October 30.

Not alone this, two poll-ing stations each at Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly constituencies will see deployment of all women polling staff.

This was disclosed here by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C Paulrasu, who reviewed the arrangements for the upcom-ing byelections to Mandi Par-liamentary constituency and three state assembly constit-uencies having fallen vacant due to demise of sitting MP Ram Swaroop Sharma and three MLAs–Virbhadra Singh, a former Chief Minister, Sujan Singh Pathania and Narinder Bragta, both former ministers.

Paulrasu said there are a total of 18,054 physically chal-lenged persons in the state who will be voting in the upcom-ing elections. Special arrange-ments have been made to facilitate these persons to exer-cise their democratic rights.

Highest number of these are male persons whose num-ber is 11,674 while 6,380 are

females.In a new initiative, three

polling booths in the state will be manned by physically chal-lenged persons. These include one at Rampur, another two at Barot (Fatehpur) and Swar-swati Nagar ( Jubbal-Kotkhai).

The polling stations to be manned by women are: Barot-I and Sunet in Fatehpur, Arki-2 and Arki-3,Kotkhai and Jubbal in Jubbal Kotkhai.

The Chief Electoral Officer said 50 percent of the polling stations in Mandi Parliamen-tary Constituency and Fateh-pur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly Constituencies would be connected through webcasting.

Webcasting facility would be available in 1383 polling sta-tions out of a total 2796 polling stations set up for by-elections.

Webcasting would be con-

ducted in 1168 polling stations out of 2365 polling stations set up in all the Assembly Con-stituencies of Mandi Parlia-mentary Constituency for the implementation of these instructions and for effec-tive monitoring of the voting process.

He said that 215 polling stations out of total 431 poll-ing stations set up for by--elections of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assem-bly Constituencies would be connected through webcast-ing for effective monitoring of poll in polling stations with-out compromising the secrecy of voting.

Persons with disabilities to man three booths in Himachal bypoll

Akhilesh hits out at Yogi govtChief Electoral Officer (CEO) C Paulrasu

‘Govt killings’ have replaced ‘contract killings’ with help of Central agencies’

Paulrasu said there are a total of 18,054 physically challenged persons in the state who will be voting in the upcoming elections. Special arrangements have been made to facilitate these persons to exercise their democratic rights

Security personnel take position at the encounter site in Bhatadurian area of Mendhar in Poonch district

Nine soldiers have been killed in two separate gunfights with terrorists over the past week

Finishing off the unwanted political rivals through these agencies seems to have become new policy: Sanjay Raut

Haryana Police on Sunday set up two Special Investigation Teams to probe the incident

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

BUMPER TO BUMPER

Massive traffic jam on the illuminated road in Mysuru on Sunday PIC/PTI

POLICE FIRE AT GANJA-SMUGGLERS, INJURE ONE AT VISAKHAPATNAM DIST HYDERABAD: A member of a ganja-smuggling gang got injured in Visakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday when a police team from Telan-gana opened fire at the gang when it tried to attack the team with deadly weapons, the police said. The incident happened in a forest area on the Andhra-Odisha border when the team from Nalgonda District of Telangana was carrying out an operation to nab some ganja-smugglers after arresting one, a key member of the gang, this morning, they said, adding that a police vehicle was damaged by the smugglers. “Between 20 and 25 members of the ganja-smug-gling gang tried to attack the team of 15 policemen with daggers, axes after hurling stones. Following this, the police fired in self-defence and one of the smug-glers suffered a bullet wound in his thigh,” a senior official of the Telangana police told the news agency. No one in the police team was injured, the official said. He said over 20 people, some of them brokers, allegedly supplying the narcotics across the country from the border area, were caught in the last couple of days and thousands of kgs of ganja seized.

FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS DEAD AFTER EATING CONTAMINATED FOOD IN UP BALRAMPUR (UP): Four members of a family, includ-ing two girls, died after allegedly consuming contami-nated food in Shivpura area here on Sunday, police said. Additional Chief Medical Officer Dr A K Singhal said Kanchana (65), Suman (30), Rajni (7) and Shalini (3) of Gokuli village in Shivpura area of the district started vomiting after consuming food. Efforts were made to take them to a hospital, but they died before receiving medical care. He added that the condition of another three-year-old girl, Pinki, is serious, and undergoing treatment at a hospital.

UP: 45 STOLEN CYLINDERS RECOVERED, FOUR MEN ARRESTED IN THEFT CASE MATHURA (UP): Mathura police made a break-through in a gas cylinder theft case as four men were arrested and 45 LPG cylinders recovered on Sunday from an abandoned building in Mahmudgarhi vil-lage here, officials said. Gang leader Gaurav from Mathura along with three more accused have been arrested. Efforts are on to nab two more members of the gang,” Mathura SSP Gaurav Grover said. He said two country-made .315 bore pistols with two live and one used cartridges along with some tools used for breaking locks have also been recovered.

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpMONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi High Court to decide the applicability of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to intelligence and security organisations of the government while setting aside its order directing a department to furnish information to an employee on seniority and promotions.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna said the high court passed the directions without deciding the objection of the government department that the RTI Act was not applicable to it.

"It is the specific case on behalf of the Department that the RTI Act was not applicable to the organisation/department. Despite the above and without deciding such an objection, the high court has directed the appellant to furnish the documents sought under the RTI Act without deciding the applicability of the RTI Act.

That will be putting the cart before the horse," the bench said.

The apex court said the

high court ought to have decided the issue with respect to the applicability of the RTI Act to the organisation or department first.

"We direct the high court to first decide the issue with respect to the applicability of the RTI Act to the appellant organisation/department and thereafter decide the stay application/LPA. The aforesaid exercise shall be completed within a period of eight weeks," the bench said in its recent order.

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre against the 2018 decision of the high court which directed the department to provide information to the employee within 15 days.

The counsel appearing

on behalf of the Centre had told the high court that the Department from which information was sought is exempted as per Section 24(1) of the RTI Act, 2005. Therefore, the order of the CIC is illegal and contradictory to the provisions of the Section 24 of the RTI Act.

Section 24 of the RTI Act exempts certain intelligence and security organisations from the ambit of the transparency law except for information "pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations".

The high court had said that since the employee was facing prejudices regarding seniority, he sought information mentioned above and that the information neither hampers with intelligence nor security nor secrecy of the petitioner organisation.

"Though the petitioner organisation is kept away from RTI Act, but that is not regarding the information to its employee, if any of his rights have been denied.

The information sought by the respondent from the petitioner does not come under Section 24 of the Act," the high court had said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAMMU: The body of a co-pilot of an Army helicopter that crashed and sank into Ran-jit Sagar Dam in August was recovered from the water body in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, end-ing nearly two-and-a-half-month-long search for him, officials said.

The mortal remains of Cap-tain Jayant Joshi were fished out

from the dam around 2 pm in one of the longest search opera-tions in recent history and were later taken to Pathankot mil-itary station, a police official said. The Army aviation squad-ron’s Rudra helicopter had taken off from Mamun mili-tary station near Pathankot and crashed into the lake during a routine sortie on August 3.

After a hectic rescue and search operation, the body of Lt Col Abheet Singh Baath --

pilot of the helicopter -- was retrieved from the dam on August 15.

Persistent efforts by Indian Army and Navy for 75 days which were going on day and night to recover the body of Captain Joshi has finally suc-ceeded and body have been recovered from the lake bed using hi-tech equipment, Jammu-based defence spokes-man Lt Col Devender Anand said.

SUSHIL MANAV

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Sunday inaugurated as many as 71 'Har-Hith Stores' simul-taneously across Haryana from Gurugram and said the govern-ment aims to open 5000 such stores. As many as 550 products of 60 companies manufacturing domestic products have been made available at these stores at reasonable price.

The “Har-Hith” store serve the dual purpose of providing employment to unemployed youths and also providing household commodities to peo-ple at reasonable price.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the State Government has set a tar-get of providing employment to a member of every family of the state by the year 2025 and to achieve this goal no stone would be left unturned for creating new dimensions of self-employment.

Khattar opened the first store at Farrukhnagar and also became first customer of the store by buying some goods.

After this, Khattar went to Rosy Pelican Tourist Complex in Sultanpur, from where he vir-tually inaugurated 70 Har-Hith

stores opened across the state.The Chief Minister said that

such a store would be opened in an area having a population of 3,000 in rural areas and 10,000 in urban areas. People will get direct and indirect benefits from these stores.

Apart from MSMEs, small industrial units and coopera-tive sector units, quality prod-ucts prepared by the Self Help Group of women will be made available at these stores at a price lower than that in the market, added Khattar.

The Chief Minister added that all the goods will be sold through computerized system. He said that the local markets in rural areas are almost closed and now people have to go to the city to get the daily need items.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police arrested three fraudsters in connection with siphoning off more than Rs 300 crore taken as loan from YES Bank. Yateesh Wahaal, Satish Kumar Narula, Directors of M/s Nayati Healthcare and Research NCR Pvt Ltd and Rahul Singh Yadav, Proprietor of Ahluwalia Con-struction, a dummy firm have been arrested, based on a com-plaint of October 4.

Senior police officials men-tioned that the complaint was filed by Dr Rajeev Kumar Sharma against M/s Nayati Healthcare and Research NCR Pvt Ltd and its Directors-

Yateesh Wahaal, Satish Kumar Narula and others.

The complaint stated that the company was incorporated to build and run a hospital in Gurugram and the complain-ant was having 49 per cent shares whereas the remain-ing 51 per cent shares were held by the other two direc-tors of the company- Chan-dan Mishra and Charchit Mishra. Also, an MOU was signed between VIMHANS and OSLHPL (Currently known as M/s Nayati Health-care and Research NCR Pvt Ltd) for operating and man-aging VIMHANS' IPD, OPD, Emergency and Diagnostic Services and VIMHANS will provide its state of the art medi-

cal super speciality services for psychiatry and allied services to OSLHPL. The complainant was also promised a remuner-ation of Rs 30 Lakh per month as his professional fees for his services.

The complaint further stated that during the com-pletion of Gurgaon Hospi-tal, OSL Healthcare Pvt Ltd. faced a certain financial prob-lem and majority shareholders and directors sold their shares (51 per cent) to M/s Naarayani Investment Pvt Ltd., the hold-ing company of M/s Nayati Healthcare & Research NCR Pvt Ltd at the consideration of Rs 99 crores. Once the alleged persons or company entered into the shoes of the majority

shareholder, they took all the major decisions. It is alleged that the company took a loan of Rs 312 Crore from YES Bank for the development of Gur-gaon Hospital, but the money was not used for the said pur-pose and was misappropri-ated by the alleged company. Further, they had not paid the complainant his professional fees worth Rs 15.28 Crores and brought down his shareholding deceitfully from 49 per cent to 6.3 per cent.

During the investigation, it was found that after receiv-ing a loan amount of Rs 312 Crore from YES Bank by M/s Nayati Healthcare & Research NCR Pvt Ltd., a sum of Rs 208 Crore was transferred to a bank

account in the name of Ahlu-walia Construction. On veri-fication of the said account, it was found that the said account was opened by one Rahul Singh Yadav only to divert the loan amount as it was a dummy account. While contacted, Ahluwalia Construction- a renowned builder clarified that it has started a project at the site of Gurugram Project and had received only Rs 10 Crore from the alleged company. The proj-ect is still incomplete.

Cops also found that the said transfer of Rs 208 crore was authorized by Yateesh Wahaal and S K Narula, being Director and Authorised Signa-tory of the loan account of the alleged company.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has allowed an accused in a drugs case, who has expressed his wish to donate his kidney for his ailing father, to be taken to hospital from jail for necessary medical tests as and when required.

The apex court said if the accused is found fit to donate a kidney and the committee of the government medical college concerned grants approval for the transplant procedure, he may apply for interim bail before the Madhya Pradesh High Court which shall be considered sympathetically .

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari said this while hearing a plea filed by the man challenging the June this year order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which had dismissed his bail application in the case.

The petitioner's counsel had told the top court that his father was suffering from kidney failure and requires a

transplant.He had told the bench that

the petitioner wishes to donate his kidney for his ailing father.

The counsel appearing for the state had opposed the plea seeking bail on several grounds including the seriousness of offence and also that the petitioner has other brothers and sisters who can take care of their father.

To take care of the parents is one thing and to donate a kidney for a parent, to which

all children, particularly married children with their own spouses and children might not agree, is another thing, the bench noted in its order passed earlier this month.

The apex court said as per the medical record, the petitioner's father requires renal transplant surgery for better survival and quality of life.

Since the petitioner wishes to donate his kidney for his

father, he may be escorted and taken to the hospital as and when required, for the necessary tests, reports of which are to be submitted to the government medical college for approval of the committee, it said.

In the event, the petitioner is found fit, physically and mentally to donate a kidney and if the committee of the government medical college grants approval for the kidney transplant procedure, in that case the petitioner may apply before the high court for interim bail, it said.

The bench also directed the trial court to expedite the trial in the case and dispose it, preferably within six months.

In its order dismissing the bail application of the accused, the high court had noted that he is in jail since September last year in connection with a case registered for the alleged offence under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JODHPUR: Former Rajasthan minister MahipalMaderna, a key accused in the 2011 Bhan-wari Devi abduction and mur-der case, died here on Sunday, a family friend said. He had been diagnosed with cancer.

According to family friend Ram Prakash, Maderna was undergoing therapy at his resi-dence in Jodhpur after return-ing from Chennai following treatment.

"He breathed his last around 6.30 am on Sunday. His funeral will be conducted at his ances-tral village Chadi in the Osian subdivision of Jodhpur,"

Prakash said.A Public Health Engineer-

ing Minister in the 2008-2013 Ashok Gehlot government, Maderna was a key accused in Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) Bhanwari Devi's mur-der that took place in Septem-ber 2011. After the furore hit the headlines, Maderna was sacked on October 16 the same year.

He was granted interim bail on health grounds on Septem-ber 18 last year after he was diagnosed with malignancy.

"He was out on bail since then. He moved a fresh appli-cation for permanent bail in August, admitting which, the high court allowed his bail

plea and was granted bail like all the 16 accused in the case in August," said his counsel Pradeep Choudhary.

During the recently held Panchayat election in Rajas-than, Maderna returned to Jodhpur to oversee the elec-tion preparations with his wife LeelaMaderna as a contestant for the post of ZilaPramukh in Jodhpur.

The CBI had filed its first charge sheet in the Bhanwari Devi case in December 2011. The trial in the case is currently underway in the lower court with the recording of state-ments of defence witnesses under progress.

‘Decide if intelligence, security organisations exempt under RTI’

3, including realtor, nabbed for siphoning off `300 cr in loan from Yes Bank: Delhi Police

Bhanwari Devi murder case key accused Mahipal Maderna dies

Body of crashed helicopter’s co-pilot recovered from J&K after 2 months

Khattar inaugurates 71 ‘Har-Hith Stores’

Haryana CM shops at a Har Hith store in Gurugram after its inauguration on Sunday MPOST

‘Accused wishes to donate kidney for ailing father, be taken to hosp for tests’The bench also directed the trial court to expedite the trial

in the case and dispose it, preferably within six months

SC was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre against the 2018 decision of the HC which directed the department to provide information to the employee within 15 days

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TEL AVIV: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sun-day said that he is looking forward to a great visit as he arrived here on a five-day offi-cial trip during which he will hold talks with the country's top leadership to mutually prepare a roadmap for further enriching the strategic ties besides exploring new areas of bilateral collaboration.

This is Jaishankar's first visit to the country as the External Affairs Minister.

Shalom Israel! Arrived on my first visit as External Affairs Minister. Looking forward to a great visit, he said on Twitter.

Jaishankar was received at the airport by Israel's Ambassa-dor to India Naor Gilon, Chief of Protocol at Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Gil Haskal and India's Ambas-sador to Israel Sanjeev Singla.

The External Affairs Min-ister would call on President

Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid during his standalone visit.

He will also be holding talks with leading academics from all over Israel, business com-munity leaders and interacting with the Indian Jewish com-munity. Jaishankar will also be visiting places of historical significance to India, demon-

strating its long-term presence in the region and constructive role played in shaping the his-tory of the region.

The visit will kick off with the External Affairs Minister paying tributes to brave Indian soldiers, who laid down their lives in the region during the World War I at the Talpiyot cemetery in Jerusalem.

About 900 Indian sol-

diers are interred in cemeter-ies across Israel in Jerusalem, Ramle and Haifa.

The heroics of the Indian soldiers have prominently come to light here during the past two decades and the story of liberation of the northern coastal city of Haifa, in what most war historians consider the last great cavalry cam-paign in history , has become a household tale with its inclu-sion in the city's local history textbooks.

The Indian Army com-memorates September 23 every year as Haifa Day to pay its respects to the three brave Indian Cavalry Regi-ments - Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers - that helped liberate Haifa follow-ing a dashing cavalry action by the 15th Imperial Service Cav-alry Brigade. Captain Aman Singh Bahadur and Dafadar Jor Singh were awarded the Indian Order of Merit (IOM) and Cap-tain Anop Singh and Second

Lieutenant Sagat Singh were awarded the Military Cross (MC) as recognition for their bravery in this battle.

Major Dalpat Singh, widely popular as the Hero of Haifa, was awarded a military cross for his bravery.

Indian cavalry regiments armed with spears and swords had displayed the highest tradi-tion of valour and cleared the enemy from the rocky slopes of Mount Carmel.

In a symbolic gesture of friendship with Israel, India renamed the iconic Teen Murti Chowk, a war memo-rial, during the visit of then Israeli prime minister Benja-min Netanyahu to Delhi in Jan-uary 2018 to Teen Murti Haifa Chowk.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Haifa ceme-tery during his visit to Israel in July 2017 and unveiled a plaque commemorating Major Dalpat Singh for his critical role in the liberation of the city.

Jaishankar in Israel, says looks forward to great visit

The EAM to hold high-level talks for further enriching strategic ties

EAM S Jaishankar visited the Indian Cemetery at Talpiot in Jerusalem. Paid homage to the brave Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifie during World War I on Sunday PIC/PTI

Pakistan has always been witnessing mil-itary misadventures since its inception 74

years ago. The country was hardly 11 years old, when its Commander in Chief, Gen-eral Ayub Khan (later the Field Marshal), imposed Mar-tial Law on October 7, 1958, abrogated the Constitution, disbanded the national and provincial assemblies, and out-lawed all political parties. His partner in crime was no other than the President of Pakistan, Iskandar Mirza. The irony of history is that within 20 days of assuming absolute power, Ayub Khan usurped position at the helm and sent Iskandar Mirza into exile. Such is the travesty of the history of Paki-stan. Again, not in the strictest sense, the country’s first Prime Minister, Liaqat Ali Khan, was killed in the early years of Paki-stani independence.

History chronicles inter-mittent coups and coun-ter-coups by the politically ambitious and power-hungry armed forces which saw mili-tary takeovers and long spells of despotism perpetrated by Gen Zia ul Haq and Gen Per-vez Musharraf, to name a few. So, the military role in med-dling into a civilian govern-ment has always been more of a rule than an exception in Pakistan.

The preceding paragraph sets the tone for perhaps a more in-depth study by the Pakistan watchers on the most recent reshuffle in Paki-stan’s all-powerful military. In

a significant shakeup, many senior army officers have undergone shifting from var-ious critical positions. Most important, however, has been the appointment of Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmad Anjum as the Director General (DG) of the omnipotent Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Equally cru-cial happening is the posting of Anjum’s immediate pre-decessor, Faiz Hameed, as the new Corps Commander, based in Peshawar. It seems imperative to point out that Gen Hameed enjoys close proximity with Prime Min-ister Imran Khan, and was the most important player in handling the new Afghan cabinet during the Taliban’s usurpation of power and placement of Pro-Pakistan and anti-Indian elements in the cabinet, including Sira-

juddin Haqqani of the noto-rious Haqqani network as Afghanistan’s interior minis-ter. This shows the extent of the power exercised by Gen Faiz Hameed. His fresh post-ing in Peshawar may leave him without the unbridled powers he had as the DGISI but, in terms of closer prox-imity to Afghanistan, will give him an opportunity to stay in touch with Afghan political players on the ground.

Further, as Corps Com-mander Peshawar, Hameed will be able to politick more vigorously, keeping an eye on the post of Army Chief of Pakistan which falls vacant in November 2022 when pres-ent incumbent Gen Qamar Ahmad Bajwa will hang his boots. However, this said, the race is not expected to be a cakewalk. Gen Anjum, as

the new DG ISI, is planning to stay in the fray to grab the top and most powerful posi-tion. Meanwhile, speculation is also rife that the appointment of Lt Gen Azhar Abbas as the Chief of General Staff in Army Chief Gen Bajwa’s office makes him yet another strong con-tender for the chiefship. His new mandate gives him active access to intelligence and oper-ational matters which is cru-cial. An officer of the Baluch regiment, he is also likely to prevail over the DGMO with a well-known fact in the pub-lic domain that he is closest to Bajwa, making the tussle of next year fiercer and more cutthroat. Though it’s a year away, yet given the domestic and international (especially in the light of declining US-Pakistan ties) tumult which Pakistan is afflicted with now, things could be very challeng-ing as the date gets closer. This certainly deserves a very close watch.

Meanwhile, another Paki-stan related development that merits mention is the mount-ing of scathing criticism of the current Pakistani government by a section of the powerful and influential print media. Influential, because it shapes public opinion. Basically, the assessment by one Niaz Mur-taza, a prominent newspaper columnist, states that euphoria, which is largely self-generated in Pakistan, has always been short-lived. For example, the chest-thumping Taliban vic-tory on August 15 in Afghan-istan, was rejoiced beyond

measure and the military, in particular, was gung-ho, more because of a self-perceived feeling of the defeat of the pro-India Afghan forces. But soon it vanished into thin air. Even nearly two months after the Taliban’s win, China or Russia have not recognized the Tali-ban regime.

These happenings apart, Murtaza opines that the Naya Taliban is in no mood to change their savage, medi-eval ways like treating women and children inhumanely. Such governance may cause seri-ous economic and security collapses with huge spillover effects in Pakistan as well. This is a clear warning as it will also have a cascading impact on the prevailing domestic polit-ical tensions in Islamabad. Perhaps, without any exagger-ation, the columnist describes it as a ‘gathering storm’.

The future of Afghani-stan and Pakistan, therefore, looks to be troubled on both sides of the Durand Line. It is hoped that Prime Minister Imran Khan, the current mil-itary dispensation, particu-larly the new ISI chief and his worthy predecessor nurtur-ing ambitions to be the Army Chief next year, are reading the message between the lines. They are loud and clear merit-ing to be heeded or else things could be irretrievable.

The writer is a retired IPS officer, a security

analyst and a former National Security Advisor to the PM

of Mauritius. Views expressed are personal

As I begin writing this column, I am repeatedly looking at my watch, racing

against the clock, and that’s because my power supplier discom (Distribution Com-pany) sent me a message late last evening: “Electricity sup-ply in your area will most likely be disrupted from 11 am to 3 pm tomorrow due to main-tenance work.” As summer finally draws to a close and cooler climes beckon, we are now maintaining our power distribution infrastructure. And we are maintaining it so diligently that I am now get-ting such messages every other day, informing and warning me about impending power outages.

But we all know the real reason for the sudden zeal to carry out maintenance work – it is the acute shortage of coal at India’s 135 coal-fired ther-mal power plants, with most having coal stockpiles of less than three days. The painful truth is that this crisis has not crept up on us like the Corona-virus or other disasters; this is not something that happened overnight and caught us nap-ping and unprepared. This is a crisis that was months in the making, which we chose to ignore as we waxed eloquent about green and renewable energy options, even as coal stockpiles at thermal plants crashed to alarming lows. In the end-game, the country is now facing a crisis of power supply like never before.

As a nation, we are seem-ingly getting used to moving from one crisis to another. The first was when all of India scampered for currency notes when demonetization hap-pened; then we faced an acute shortage of oxygen during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic; this, in turn, led to shortage of wood for crema-tion of the dead; and then came the crisis of vaccine shortage, as we decided to go on an ‘exports and free distribution’ mission to save the rest of the world, even as lakhs of Indians perished, while others ended up paying through their nose for the life-saving jabs at pri-vate vaccination clinics.Worst possible time

The current instance of looming power shortages in India could not have come

at a worse time. Non-power industry sectors that are just about shrugging off the killing blow of the pandemic are not being supplied with coal sup-plies till further notice. Power shortages and the resultant increase in prices will have an acutely adverse impact on industries, especially as global energy prices of crude oil, gas and coal are touching alarming levels. It is a painful paradox indeed; that as the global econ-omy attempts to bounce back at the fag end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, the power that fires up manufacturing plants is drying up.

Reduced coal production in China and India due to extended monsoons and flood-ing of mines has also led to an increase in the consumption of other options like oil and Natural Gas. Just last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said soaring natural-gas and coal prices are forcing power-generation companies and manufacturers to switch to oil and natural gas, a move that could add half a million barrels a day of crude oil alone to global demand. The IEA also jacked up its global oil-demand forecast for the remainder of 2021 by 170,000 barrels a day and 210,000 barrels a day in 2022, further warning that the cumulative effect of the con-tinuing energy crisis could be as much as 500,000 barrels a day from September through next year’s first quarter.

Admittedly, reduced wind generation and reduction in gas supply by Russia to Europe (Russia has strongly denied this, though) have stoked an already fragile situation. As the world turns to other sources of raw material for generating power, all relevant commodi-

ties are seeing a spike in prices, which is adding fire to the cost of all essential commodities and fanning inflation across the board, around the world.India is caught up too

India faces its own pecu-liar conundrum – not only are the authorities not providing any clear reason for coal short-age, they are denying that any such problem exists in the first place. But truth be told, the primary reason is that power generating companies have not stockpiled enough coal and the sudden economic revival has led to spiraling demand for power, with coal stocks at thermal plants dwindling even faster that normal.

Another problem is that while coal blocks and mining licenses were awarded to many private sector companies, very few mines are actually opera-tional. The reasons cited for the delay are also peculiar to India – issues around land acquisition, clearances (envi-ronment and forests), lack of funding by banks and other institutions and so on. Had these private mines been oper-ational, India would not be fac-ing at such a diabolical coal shortage situation, particularly as private mines would have sensed the increasing demand and the possibility of greater profits, immediately hiking production.

Paradoxically, one of the reasons for coal shortages is the excessive focus on renew-able energy options. While greener energy options sim-ply have to be focused on, the interim administrative focus on India’s conventional energy system should not have been reduced. The only way forward now is strict and continuous monitoring of coal produc-

tion, transport and sufficient stock-piling at power plants. This will ensure that any reduc-tion in power generation from other sources does not affect round-the-clock availability of power in the country. Green energy overtures worldwide have shown us that any power system can truly depend on renewable energy only when sufficient energy storage sys-tems are available.Changing world order

In the report quoted above, the IEA also said an acute shortage of natural gas and coal supplies stemming from the galloping global eco-nomic recovery was triggering a calamitous run-up in prices of energy supplies, in turn cat-alyzing a massive switch to oil products and direct crude use for power generation. As a result, power-generation com-panies, fertilizer manufactur-ing operations and refineries are all affected adversely.

Last week alone, oil prices rose by 1-2 per cent to nearly seven-year highs. Relatively weak natural-gas inventories and low wind levels in Europe (which is highly dependent on wind-fed power generation) have combined with the post-pandemic economic recov-ery, coal mining shortages in China and India, and the possibility of a cold Northern Hemisphere winter, sending fossil-fuel prices soaring. In the last three months alone, gas prices in Europe have jumped by nearly 190 per cent.

Analysts have also observed a rise in the trend known as gas-to-oil switch-ing, when power plants that run on oil are fired up or ones that can be converted to run on crude products are switching over. Late last month, Gold-man Sachs cited this in rais-ing its oil-price forecasts, while energy consultants warned that the Asian power sector would use around 400,000 more bar-rels a day of oil than it did previously.

Clearly, the global power order is changing, and unless dramatic steps are taken, India will have no option but to fol-low suit. And even though Coal India Ltd, the world’s big-gest coal miner, has temporar-ily stopped supplying stocks to non-power users, coal sup-plies are simply not enough. The situation is so dire, in fact,

that India’s power generation companies have been asked to import up to 10 per cent of their coal requirements. That’s the real cruncher, because international coal prices have jumped by over 300 per cent in the last few months.Typical Catch 22

In the race to procure more stocks of coal, India is compet-ing against buyers from Europe and China. China is the world’s largest coal consumer and is under tremendous internal pressure to ramp up imports amid a severe power crunch in the country. This competition and spiraling demand is firing up coal prices to record lev-els, making it all but financially unviable for India’s coal-based power plants to continue to sell power to discoms at contracted rates. India’s coal mining com-panies are stepping up their act and expanding operations and output. Further, Coal India Ltd is keeping a close watch on the stock situation of dry fuel in thermal power plants, aug-menting coal production and dispatches as and where most critically needed.

And as is customary in India, politics has entered the coal supply picture in right ear-nest. The Delhi Government warned of possible outages and blackouts in the National Capi-tal Region if supplies of coal were not immediately made available. The central authori-ties lashed back with a strong denial, which prompted Delhi’s Chief Minister to shoot off a letter to the President of India.

As this debate moves back and forth, discoms have jumped into the fray as well, sending out text messages to consumers directly, warn-ing them of possible outages and blackouts sometime very soon. Other than this dance and jingoism, we need careful and immediate planning, and even more watchful implemen-tation. That is the only way to ensure that parts of our coun-try are not thrown into dark-ness and that the economic recovery of sorts is not cut short just because we played the cat-and-pigeon game with coal supplies and stock-piles for months.The writer is a communicationsconsultant and a clinical analyst.

He can be reached at narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com.

Views expressed are personal

7millenniumpost Editorial mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021

RAJEEV NARAYAN

SHANTANU MUKHARJI

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

DearEditor

This is in reference to the editorial ‘Worrying slippage’ and the related article ‘All our hungry children’ (16 October). Out of 116 nations, India’s ranking on Global Health Index (GHI) is 101, a matter of deep concern and embarrassment. The government has raised doubts over the methodology used for indexing. India has been placed in the serious category with 27.5 points. One can argue that we are a bigger nation than many of our smaller neighbours, who individually have fared much better than us. The pandemic has hit the poor in the informal sector and those belonging to middle-income groups. Lower income and resultant under-nourishment lead to child mortality, child stunting and wasting. It is grossly vulgar and humanely horrifying to see emaciated faces and rising inequalities between well-fed people and starving ones. Samaritans and NGOs are helping in their own ways and deserve compliment. It becomes imperative for the government to kick-start ways and means to address issues of food unavailability and insufficiency, else, all better visions will have no meaning. First of all, young girls and boys must be stopped from going for child marriage. Secondly, annual budgets must have greater focus on income generation and food accessibility to all. Maximum governance and proper vigil are needed in this direction. Recent Poshan Abhiyaan, if implemented properly, can go a long way to fulfil child and lactating mother’s nutrition demands. In the interim, we have to inject money to distressed sections, give them food and, after economic recovery, must work towards achieving the Zero Hunger goal set by the United Nations for 2030. We may belittle Western origin reports but, truly speaking, cannot ignore their indication. Today’s child is the future of tomorrow. He / she must survive, must not be undernourished and remain physically stunted. This ‘worrying slippage’ must receive priority attention of the government; any callousness will cost the nation dearly.

Focus on India’s conventional energy system should not have been reduced

— PARTHASARATHY SEN, NEW DELHI via email

Faiz Hameed is better placed to contend for the Army Chief position

EDITORIALA more holistic approach

The signing of a memorandum of understanding between China and Bhutan to agree on a three-step roadmap to resolve their border issues has been portrayed quite positively by both nations. How-

ever, this might be just another cause of concern for India when it comes to China’s strategic expanse in the region and beyond. India’s clout with China has multiple dimen-sions. First, direct Chinese incursion in the disputed ter-ritories has extended beyond the Ladakh region. This year itself nearly 100 soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made an incursion across the Line of Actual Con-trol or LAC in Uttarakhand’s Barahoti region. Chinese troops further transgressed the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh. Though the incursion in Uttarakhand had been mild and Chinese soldiers went back within hours, it was problematic as it indicated growing assertiveness of China towards India’s ‘heartland’ — going well beyond the his-torically conflicted zones of Ladakh and Northeast. Sec-ondly, apart from direct incursions, as is well known, China has been trying to circumvent Indian territory through its investment and debt trap in the neighbouring countries. Of course, nothing appears new in such behaviour from the part of China. But here lies the biggest catch, the normaliza-tion of such an approach is allowing the gradual, and some-times steep, build-up that is potentially leading towards disastrous consequences. On one hand, we have examples of China building ports in countries like Sri Lanka, Myan-mar etc., on the other, one can notice direct interferences in territories of neighbouring countries — Bhutan and Taiwan being the fresh examples. Not to forget its all-encompass-ing Belt and Road initiative and the subsequent debt traps. So, what allows China to advance with the approach it does? Firstly, unlike India, it is relatively free from the constraints of democratic principles and the doctrine that respects ter-ritorial sovereignty. Secondly, it is China’s growing economic prowess that many tout as being the greatest in the world. It allows China to spend lavishly on military infrastructure. And third, China’s growing alliances in South Asia and the Middle East. The nature of its alliances has a character of its own — those are bare rational, far away from the garb of values — historical, democratic or otherwise. China appears to be adopting a hard and soft approach — be it Taiwan or Bhutan — wherein it asserts its dominance over smaller countries without portraying the same. China’s approach is highly ambitious and purely outcome-based. Indian alli-ances appear more to be focused towards the West in com-parison to those in the vicinity. It must be noted that despite being a huge country in terms of population, territory and economy, China accords importance to the countries in vicinity, with whatever approach and intention. Its proxim-ity with its allies descends as we move outwards along South Asia’s concentric ring. India, on the other hand, is banking on more prominent nations of the West. While Chinese ties with Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Nepal, Bhutan etc. are getting stronger with each passing day, India is engaging with coun-tries like the US, the UK, Australia, and fora like Quad. In contrast to Chinese alliances, India focuses more on values, democratic principles and cultural ties. The most impor-tant thing at the present point in time is to understand the importance of alliances. China’s economic prowess may be a powerful tool to maintain its hegemony, but its real strength is reflected in terms of its alliances. With every sin-gle advance in this direction, China appears more intruding and intimidating. It is high time for India to revisit its alli-ance approach which requires a fair bit of restructuring and balancing. While moving ahead with its alliances with West-ern nations, India needs to balance the regional alliances as well. Both have their own importance. China appears to be losing connection with the West but India cannot afford to do the same with countries in its vicinity. These need to be given more prominence. The second area that requires bal-ancing is the emphasis of alliances. India’s emphasis on cul-tural, historical and value-based ties has a great advantage but, if India wants to have an edge over China in future, it must strive to match with China in its tangible market-based approach to alliances as well. It is no doubt unfortunate that a kind of animosity has to be discussed in the South Asian region. But sometimes to neutralize animosity, it has to be taken to a level where both parties stand comparable to each other.

Other than all the political brouhaha, the dance and the jingoism, what is needed is immediate and careful planning. That is the only way to ensure we’re not thrown into darkness and that the economic revival is not cut short just because we played the cat-and-pigeon game

The tussle for the post of Army Chief of Pakistan, which is to be vacated in November next year, has become more cutthroat

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FIX THE SLIPPAGE

Black gold to bustIt was a looming crisis that we ignored. We kept gabbing about green power,

even as coal stockpiles at thermal plants tanked, leaving us staring at blackouts

Unsettling trendsThe tumult arising out of the military reshuffle in Pakistan merits a close watch

8 millenniumpostWorldmpMONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Minorities call for hunger strike as vandalism continues

BANGLADESH DURGA PUJA VIOLENCE

DHAKA: A Hindu temple has been valdalised in Bangladesh in a fresh case of communal unrest amidst days of violence unleashed by unidentified Mus-lim bigots who attacked the minority community's places of worship during the Durga Puja celebrations over alleged blasphemy, prompting a minor-ity group to announce a coun-trywide hunger strike, media reports said on Sunday.

Hindu-owned temples and shops in Feni, about 157 kms from the country's capital, have been vandalised and robbed during fresh clashes on Saturday which broke out after an attack on demonstrators who were protesting against the attacks on Durga Puja venues in several places in Bangladesh, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

The clashes left at least 40 people, including the Officer In-charge Nizamuddin of Feni Model Police Station, injured in the clashes, it said.

On Saturday night, authori-ties deployed additional police forces and the paramilitary force -- Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), after several temples and businesses owned by Hin-dus were vandalised and robbed during clashes that lasted from 4:30 PM (local time) to mid-night, the report said.

The report said that some miscreants on Saturday vandal-ised six idols at the Daniapara Maha Shoshan Kali Mandir in Rashunia union of Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj, about 40 kms from here.

It said that protests against attacks and vandalism on Hindu temples during the Durga Puja

celebrations continued across the country on Saturday, as did the vandalism that led to the public outcry.

Meanwhile in the country's southeastern port city of Chit-tagong, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Coun-cil announced a sit-in and hun-ger strike from October 23 in protest against the attacks dur-ing the Durga Puja celebrations.

The protest events will take place at Dhaka's Shahbagh and Chittagong's Andarkilla, the council's General Secretary Advocate Rana Dasgupta said at a press conference at the Chit-tagong Press Club.

Before making the announcement, the forum observed a six-hour strike in Chittagong on Saturday.

The Bangladesh Puja Udja-pan Parishad has demanded exemplary punishments for those involved in the rampant vandalism, violence and may-hem that took place during the Durga Puja celebrations.

Milan Kanti Dutta, presi-

dent of the forum, said that they would launch a tougher move-ment if the government did not pay heed to their demand.

"From the home minister to ruling party General Secretary Obaidul Quader, everybody has assured us saying they are informed about everything. If you know everything, why are you not punishing the culprits?" he asked.

Charu Chandra Das Brah-machari, general secretary of ISKCON Bangladesh, warned that the community would not sit silent and watch the attacks happen.

"We believe a group of fun-damentalists are initiating such hatred to upset religious har-mony. We also know some activists of the ruling party are affiliated with such heinous crimes at some locations.

"I would like to urge the prime minister to not become weak and take action against them too," he said.

The leaders of the forum also demanded the enactment of a

protection law and a national minority council.

Meanwhile, the ruling Awami League-backed Blue Panel teachers of Dhaka Uni-versity on Sunday strongly condemned the vandalism at several Durga Puja venues and idols in various places across the country.

Blaming the Opposition for the violence, Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday blamed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for engineering violence.

" BNP-Jamaat is involved in communal incitement. The BNP-Jamaat has chosen the path of various conspiracies by fail-ing to deal with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina politically.

"There was a political motive behind the incident in Comilla which has provoked communal outrage across the country, the minister said.

Mahmud said that those vandalising temples and attack-ing the law enforcers are being identified through CCTV footage.

The masterminds behind the violence will also be brought to justice, he added.

The Durga Puja celebrations on Friday concluded in Bangla-desh amidst days of commu-nal unrest and violence over alleged blasphemy, leading to the deployment of paramili-tary forces in more than half of administrative districts.

The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has expanded the vigil from 22 to 34 out of 64 administrative districts. AGENCIES

The clashes left at least 40 people, including Officer In-charge Nizamuddin of Feni Model Police Station, injured in clashes

Venezuela halts talks after Maduro ally extradited to USMIAMI: Venezuela's govern-ment said Saturday it would halt negotiations with the country's opposition in retali-ation for the extradition to the US of a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro wanted on money laundering charges.

Jorge Rodríguez, who has been heading the gov-ernment's delegation in talks that started in August, said his team wouldn't travel to Mex-ico City for the next scheduled round of talks with his U.S.-backed opponents, although he stopped short of saying the government was abandoning the talks altogether.

The announcement came hours after businessman Alex Saab was put on a US-bound plane in Cape Verde after fail-ing in a 16-month fight to pre-vent his extradition to face money laundering charges in Miami.

Saab was arrested in the African archipelago while making a stop on the way to Iran for what Maduro's gov-ernment later described as a diplomatic humanitarian mission.

Rodriguez, standing in front of a giant sign reading Free Alex Saab, called his arrest an illegal aggression by the US, which has been pushing for years for Maduro's removal.

Adding to the intrigue, Ven-ezuelan security forces on Sat-urday picked up six American oil executives who have been under home arrest in another politically charged case.

It's unclear if the men all of whom were convicted and sentenced last year to lengthy prison terms in a corrup-tion case that the US says was marred by irregularities were being returned to jail. A law-yer for the men said he doesn't know where they were being taken.

The so-called Citgo 6, for the Houston subsidiary of Ven-

ezuela's state owned oil com-pany, were lured to Caracas in 2017 for a meeting when masked police busted into a conference room and took them into custody on embez-zlement charges tied to a never-executed deal to refinance billions in Citgo bonds.

Saab's arrival in the US is bound to complicate rela-tions between Washington and Caracas. Maduro's government has vehemently objected to Saab's prosecution as a veiled attempt at regime change by Washington.

US prosecutors say Saab amassed a fortune wheeling and dealing on behalf of the socialist government, which faces heavy US sanctions.

American authorities have been targeting Saab for years, believing he holds numer-ous secrets about how Mad-uro, the president's family and his top aides siphoned off mil-lions of dollars in government contracts for food and housing amid widespread hunger in oil-rich Venezuela.

However his defenders, including Maduro's govern-ment as well as allies Russia and Cuba, consider his arrest illegal and maintain that Saab

was a diplomatic envoy of the Venezuelan government and as such possesses immunity from prosecution while on official business.

In a statement Saturday, Venezuela's government again denounced the kidnapping of Saab by the US government in complicity with authorities in Cape Verde."

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Vene-zuela repudiates this grave vio-lation of human rights against a Venezuelan citizen, invested as a diplomat and representa-tive of our country before the world, the statement said.

The argument failed to per-suade Cape Verde's Constitu-tional Court, which last month authorised his extradition after a year of wrangling by Saab's legal team, which includes for-mer Spanish judge Baltasar Garz n and BakerHostetler, one of the US' biggest firms.

Federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Saab in 2019 on money-laundering charges connected to an alleged brib-ery scheme that pocketed more than USD 350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government. AGENCIES

Russian filmmakers land after shoot aboard space station

MOSCOW: A Soyuz space cap-sule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has landed after a 3 1/2-hour trip from the International Space Station.

The capsule, descending under a red-and-white striped parachute after entering Earth's atmosphere, landed upright in the steppes of Kazakhstan on schedule at 0435 GMT Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Pere-sild and Klim Shipenko aboard.

Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on October 5 for a 12-day stint to film seg-ments of a movie titled Chal-lenge, in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an urgent opera-tion in orbit.

Novitskiy, who spent more

than six months aboard the space station, is to star as the ailing cosmonaut in the movie.

After the landing, which sent plumes of dust flying high in the air, ground crews extracted the three space flyers from the cap-sule and placed them in seats

set up nearby as they adjusted to the pull of gravity.

They were then taken to a medical tent for examination.

All appeared healthy and cheerful. Peresild smiled and held a large bouquet of white flowers as journalists clustered

around her. But she said she also felt a touch of melancholy.

I'm feeling a bit sad today. It seemed that 12 days would be a lot, but I did not want to leave when everything was over, Pere-sild said on state TV.

The transfer to the medi-cal tent was delayed for about 10 minutes while crews filmed several takes of Peresild and Novitskiy in their seats, which are to be included in the movie. More scenes remain to be shot on Earth for the film whose release date is uncertain.

Seven astronauts remain aboard the space station: Rus-sia's Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; Americans Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kim-brough and Megan McArthur; Thomas Pesquet of the Euro-pean Space Agency; and Japan's Aki Hoshide. AGENCIES

US religious group says 17 missionaries kidnapped

in HaitiSAN JUAN (US): A group of 17 US missionaries, includ-ing children, were kidnapped by a gang in Haiti on Satur-day, according to a voice mes-sage sent to various religious missions by an organization with direct knowledge of the incident.

The missionaries were on their way home from build-ing an orphanage, according to a message from Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.

This is a special prayer alert, the one-minute message said. Pray that the gang members would come to repentance.

The message states that the mission's field director is work-ing with the US Embassy, and that the field director's family and one other unidentified man stayed at the ministry's base while everyone else visiting the orphanage was abducted.

No other details were immediately available.

A US government spokes-person said they were aware of the reports on the kidnapping.

The welfare and safety of US citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State, the spokesperson said, declining further comment.

Haiti is once again strug-gling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished after President Jovenel Moise was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7, and following a 7.2-magni-tude earthquake that struck southwest Haiti in August and killed more than 2,200 people.

Gangs have demanded ransoms ranging from a cou-ple hundred dollars to more than 1 million, according to authorities. AGENCIES

Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on October 5 for a 12-day stint to film segments of a movie titled Challenge

‘Pak blacklists Chinese firm for submitting fake papers’

LAHORE: Pakistan has blacklisted a Chinese firm and barred it from participat-ing in any government tender for a month over the allega-tions of submitting forged documents during the bid-ding of a government proj-ect, a media report said on Sunday.

The Chinese firm, which has not been named in the report, was blacklisted by the Pakistan's National Transm ission and Despatch Company (NTDC) for submitting forged documents to the department concerned during the bidding of a project, Dawn newspaper reported.

"[The Chinese firm] is hereby blacklisted and barred from participating in all NTDC bidding/ten-der process with immedi-ate effect for a period of one month on account of submit-ting forged and fake docu-ments, reads a letter issued a couple of days ago from the office of the NTDC general manager.

However, NTDC said the order will have a prospective effect and shall not be appli-cable on the existing contracts under execution (if any).

There are a lot of Chinese companies working in Paki-stan building up infrastructure and power projects. AGENCIES

UK says will beef up MPs' security after lawmaker killedLONDON: Britain's interior minister on Sunday said MPs' security would be beefed up, after a lawmaker was stabbed to death as he held a public meet-ing with constituents, in the sec-ond such attack in five years.

Veteran Conservative MP David Amess, 69, was talking with voters at a church in the small town of Leigh-on-Sea, east of London, when he was killed on Friday.

The attack has spread fear among MPs, coming just over five years after the similar kill-ing of Labour MP Jo Cox in the febrile run-up to the Brexit ref-erendum, AFP reported.

Police have said they are investigating "a potential moti-vation linked to Islamist extrem-ism". The investigation is being led by Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has ordered a review of security measures for lawmakers and told Sky News that "we need to close any gaps" in security

provision for MPs, whose work includes regular meetings with constituents, called "surgeries".

She said that police and parliamentary authorities were implementing "immedi-ate changes and measures that are actively being put in place, and discussed with MPs".

This includes MPs sharing information on their where-

abouts with police. Close pro-tection at surgeries was also "in consideration right now", she added.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that uniformed police were guarding some surger-ies following the attack, which prompted calls from some MPs for a pause in face-to-face meetings. AGENCIES

Frustrated & weary over long pandemic hours,

US workers are strikingWASHINGTON DC: Exhausted after working long hours during the Coronavirus pandemic and resentful that their bosses are not sharing sometimes huge profits, tens of thousands of nurses, labor-ers and entertainment workers are going on strike across the United States.

If they fail to reach agree-ment with the Hollywood studios on a new collective bargaining contract, 60,000 members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees plan to strike on Monday. The IATSE includes cinematographers, hairdress-ers, makeup artists and sound editors.

Some 31,000 employees of the Kaiser Permanente health-care group in the western states of California and Oregon are also poised to strike soon.

Since Thursday, 10,000 employees of the John Deere farm equipment company have been on strike; while 1,400 workers walked off the job at the Kellogg's cereal company on October 5, and more than 2,000 employees of Mercy Hospital in Buffalo, New York, began striking on October 1.

The sudden rash of strikes this month has even led some to coin the word "Striketober," a neologism since embraced on social media even by promi-nent progressive Democrat

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.- Pandemic sacrifices -During the pandemic,

workers say, they often had to bear extra burdens to make up for others who were stay-ing home.

"We've sacrificed our time with our families, we missed ballgames with our kids and dinners and weddings, in order to keep boxes of cereal on the shelves," said Dan Osborn, a mechanic at Kellogg's for 18 years.

"And this is how we're get-ting repaid," he continued, "by asking us to take concessions at a time when the CEO and executives have taken increases in their compensation."

Osborn, the president of a local chapter of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Work-ers and Grain Millers union (BCTGM), said workers object to a two-tier pay system that leaves some newer employ-ees making far less than older workers. AGENCIES

Volunteers in the sky watch over migrant rescues by seaABOARD THE SEABIRD (Mediterranean): As doz-ens of African migrants tra-versed the Mediterranean Sea on a flimsy white rubber boat, a small aircraft circling 1,000 feet above closely mon-itored their attempt to reach Europe.

The twin-engine Seabird, owned by the German non-governmental organization Sea-Watch, is tasked with documenting human rights violations committed against migrants at sea and relaying distress cases to nearby ships

and authorities who have increasingly ignored their pleas.

On this cloudy October afternoon, an approaching thunderstorm heightened the dangers for the overcrowded boat.

Nearly 23,000 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe since 2014, according to the United Nations' migra-tion agency.

Nour 2, Nour 2, this is air-craft Seabird, aircraft Seabird, the aircraft's tactical coordina-

tor, Eike Bretschneider, com-municated via radio with the only vessel nearby.

The captain of the Nour 2, agreed to change course and check up on the flimsy boat. But after seeing the boat had a Libyan flag, the people refused its assistance, the captain reported back on the crack-ling radio.

They say they only have 20 liters of fuel left, the cap-tain, who did not identify him-self by name, told the Seabird. They want to continue on their journey. AGENCIES

Venezuelan President of the National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez, center, speaks to press as an image of Colombian businessman and Venezuelan special envoy Alex Saab is in the back in Caracas, Venezuela PTI

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, and Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer, second from right, carry flowers as they arrive at the scene where a member of Parliament was stabbed Friday, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England PTI

In this photo taken from video footage released by Roscosmos Space Agency, Russian space agency cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, centre, actress Yulia Peresild, left, and film director Klim Shipenko sit in chairs shortly after the landing of the Russian Soyuz MS-18 space capsule, southeast of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Sunday PTI

Highlights » Hindu-owned temples and shops in Feni, about 157 kms from the country’s capital, have been vandalised and robbed during fresh clashes on Saturday » The report said that some miscreants on Saturday vandalised six idols at the Daniapara Maha Shoshan Kali Mandir in Rashunia union of Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj » Meanwhile in the country’s southeastern port city of Chittagong, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council announced a sit-in and hunger strike from October 23 in protest against the attacks during the Durga Puja celebrations

House fire in eastern Pak kills 7 family

membersMULTAN (Pakistan): Police were investigating after a fire overnight in eastern Pakistan killed seven family mem-bers, a rescue official said on Sunday.

The fire ignited at a house in the Ali Pur area of Muzaf-far Garh district in Pun-jab province, said rescue service chief Dr Hussain Mian.

He said firefighters retrieved the charred bod-ies of a 65-year-old man, two women ages 35 and 19, three boys ages 3, 10 and 12 and a 2-month-old infant.

Mian said the bodies have been sent for autopsy and forensic examination.

Police said the cause of the fire was being investigated and investigators want to know why none of the family mem-bers woke up when the fire erupted. AGENCIES

Japan PM sends offering to controversial Tokyo shrineTOKYO: Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida donated ritual offerings Sun-day to a Tokyo shrine viewed by Chinese and Koreans as a symbol of Japanese wartime aggression, though he did not make a visit in person.

Kishida donated masakaki religious ornaments to mark Yasukuni Shrine's autumn fes-tival. It was the first such obser-vance by Kishida since he took office on Oct 4.

Victims of Japanese aggres-sion during the first half of the 20th century, especially Chinese and Koreans, see the shrine as a symbol of Japan's militarism because it honours convicted World War II criminals among about 2.5 million war dead.

Such observances are seen by critics as a sign of a lack of remorse over the country's war-time atrocities.

Kishida was visiting the 2011 tsunami-hit areas in northern Japan over the week-end and stayed away from the shrine.

His predecessor, Yoshihide

Suga, also only made offerings during his one-year leadership. He stepped down in September and visited the shrine on Sun-day, dressed in a formal morn-ing coat.

Suga told reporters that he visited as a former prime min-ister to offer my respect to the sacred spirits of those who sacri-ficed their precious lives for the country and to pray that their souls may rest in peace .

After China and the Koreas reacted with outrage to a visit to Yasukuni by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013, Japanese leaders have avoided visiting the shrine while in office.

Many South Koreans deeply resent Japan for its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Pen-insula. Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have soured in recent years amid disputes over com-pensation for Korean wartime labourers and over the system-atic abuses of comfort women used for sex by the Japanese military before its World War II defeat in 1945. AGENCIES

9millenniumpost Business mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021

NEW DELHI: The National Asset Reconstruction Com-pany (NARCL) or bad bank will soon bring on board more directors for fair representation of shareholders and better cor-porate governance, according to sources.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave licence to the Rs 6,000 crore NARCL led by public sector lenders with 51 per cent stake in the entity.

There would be sharehold-ers’ representation from the private sector lenders’ side, which will have 49 per cent, sources said.

Besides, the RBI has asked NARCL to submit details of the full board soon, they added.

The Indian Banks’ Associa-tion (IBA), entrusted with the

task of setting up the bad bank, has put a preliminary board for NARCL in place. The company has hired P M Nair, a stressed assets expert from State Bank of India (SBI), as the manag-ing director.

The other directors on the board are IBA CEO Mehta, SBI Deputy Managing Director S S Nair and Canara Bank’s Chief General Manager Ajit Krish-nan Nair.

Last month, the Cabinet cleared a proposal to provide government guarantee worth Rs 30,600 crore to security receipts issued by NARCL.

Soon after this, SBI, Union Bank of India, Indian Bank picked up 13.27 per cent stake each in the NARCL, while Pun-jab National Bank acquired about 12 per cent stake.

The NARCL will pay up to 15 per cent of the agreed value for the bad loans in cash and the remaining 85 per cent would be government-guaran-teed security receipts.

The bad bank will take over identified bad loans of lend-ers. The lead bank with an offer in the hand of NARCL will go for a ‘Swiss Challenge’, wherein other asset reconstruction play-ers will be invited to better the offer made by a chosen bid-der for finding a higher valua-tion of a non-performing asset on sale.

The company will pick up those assets that are 100 per cent provided for by the lend-ers. Banks have identified around 22 bad loans worth Rs 90,000 crore to be transferred to NARCL in the initial phase.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in Budget 2021-22 said that the high level of provisioning by public sector banks of their stressed assets calls for measures to clean up bank books. “An Asset Recon-struction Company Limited and Asset Management Com-pany would be set up to consol-idate and take over the existing stressed debt,” she had said in the Budget speech.

It will manage and dispose of the assets to alternative investment funds and other potential investors for eventual value realisation, she had said.

India Debt Resolution Company (IDRCL), a step down asset management com-pany, was also registered last month with a capital of Rs 50 crore. PTI

NEW DELHI: The finance ministry will soon move the Cabinet to seek approval for setting up a company for trans-fer and subsequent monetisa-tion of land and non-core assets of privatisation-bound CPSEs, an official said.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) in the form of a com-pany would be set up to hold these assets which would be monetised to fetch value to the exchequer, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said.

“We are talking about a company which will be there for many years, which will specialise in handling sur-plus land and non-core asset

monetisation. We are expect-ing it shortly. As soon as we get Cabinet approval,” Pandey said.

There are some CPSEs for strategic disinvestment and “we feel certain portion of land is not really worth going with

the company and those assets could be monetised”, he said.

Post Cabinet nod, the Department of Public Enter-prises (DPE), which is now under the Ministry of Finance, will be entrusted with doing the asset monetisation.

The government is target-ing to conclude strategic sale of BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, this fiscal.

In the 2021-22 Budget, the government announced the PSE (public sector enter-prises) privatisation policy as per which all PSUs will be privatised, barring four strategic sectors of Atomic energy, Space and Defence; Transport and Telecommu-nications; Power, Petroleum, Coal and other minerals; and Banking, Insurance and finan-cial services.

In these strategic sectors, the government will retain only a bare minimum number of PSUs. PTI

NEW DELHI: The second quarter of the fiscal is likely to be a “healthy quarter” for telecom companies, where Jio’s performance will be driven by subscriber additions, and Bharti and Vodafone Idea will ben-efit from tariff hikes and some recovery post-severe wave of COVID-19, according to some analysts.

The urgency around tar-iff hikes has come down with Vodafone Idea Ltd’s (VIL) near-term cash outflow significantly

reduced, IIFL Securities said.“Second quarter is likely to

be a healthy quarter for telcos, though the drivers would be different for Jio and other play-ers,” IIFL Securities said in a recent note. It expects Bharti to “marginally outperform” Jio on sequential India mobile rev-enue growth.

“Jio’s revenue growth is likely to be entirely driven by sub-scriber adds, while Bharti and Vi would benefit from partial impact from tariff hikes (both

pre-paid and post-paid) taken in July and some bounce-back post the pandemic related headwinds in 1Q (first quarter),” it said.

The report forecast five per cent and four per cent quarter-on-quarter Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, deprecia-tion and amortisation) growth for Jio and Bharti consolidated and anticipated that VIL and Indus could see flat Ebitda.

“With the relief package reducing the urgency around tariff hikes, we now build-in

significant price increases only in 2H 2022 versus early 2022 previously,” it said.

As per Jefferies’ report, telcos Reliance Jio and Bharti may post a 5-7 per cent sequential rise in revenue alongside a steady margin for the second quarter of FY22.

Bharti’s growth will be led by segmented tariff hikes taken in the second quarter ended Sep-tember, while Jio’s growth will be driven by continued subscriber growth, it further said. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: An Indian con-sortium led by ONGC Videsh Ltd contractually has a right to take a 30 per cent interest in the Farzad-B gas field development in the Persian Gulf even after Iranian decision to award rights of the giant field to a local firm, top officials said.

In February, 2020, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) informed Indians about its intention to conclude the con-tract for Farzad-B development with an Iranian company. In May this year, it awarded a $1.78 billion contract to Petropars group.

“The field was discovered by the Indian consortium and naturally it was interested in bringing it to production and submitted a development plan. But Iranian government decided to go ahead with the project without a foreign par-ticipation,” a government offi-cial with direct knowledge of the matter said.

This many believed was a set back for India. “But all is not lost in the project. Contractu-ally as the original licensee and someone who has discovered the field, the Indian consortium has a right to take a 30 per cent interest in the project involv-

ing development of reserves and production of gas,” he said.

Expressing the Indian con-sortium’s interest in the project, OVL on July 29, 2021, sought details of terms and conditions of the development contract. With NIOC not responding to this, OVL has again written a couple of weeks back seek-ing details, another official said.

“The contract is very strong and clear. The licensee, in this case the Indian consortium, at its election has the right to

take a 30 per cent in the devel-opment project no matter who executes it,” the first official said.

OVL, the overseas invest-ment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), holds a 40 per cent stake in the 3,500 square kilometre Farsi off-shore exploration block in the Persian Gulf Iran. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) holds 40 per cent stake and the remaining 20 per cent is with Oil India Ltd (OIL).

The Exploration Service Contract (ESC) for the Block

was signed on December 25, 2002 and OVL in 2008 made a giant discovery on the block, which was later rechristened as Farzad-B.

The field holds 23 tril-lion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable. It also holds gas condensates of about 5,000 barrels per billion cubic feet of gas.

The Indian consortium sub-mitted a Master Development Plan (MDP) of Farzad-B gas field in April 2011 to Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), the then designated authority by NIOC for the development of Farzad-B gas field.

A Development Service Contract (DSC) of the Far-zad-B gas field was negotiated till November 2012, but could not be finalized due to difficult terms and international sanc-tions on Iran.

In April 2015, negotiations restarted with Iranian authori-ties to develop the Farzad-B gas field under a new Iran Petro-leum Contract (IPC). This time, NIOC introduced Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) as its representative for negotiations.

From April 2016, both sides negotiated to develop the Farzad-B gas field under an integrated contract cover-

ing upstream and downstream, including monetization/marketing of the processed gas. However, negotiations remained inconclusive.

In 2016, Iran said it was examining the Indian pro-posal but that an agreement was unlikely because of the differ-ence between Iran’s demanded gas price and India’s offer.

India offered a $6.2 billion development plan and a gas price of around $4 per million British thermal unit for Farzad-B in 2018.

Meanwhile, on the basis of new studies, a revised Pro-visional Master Development Plan (PMDP) was submitted to POGC in March 2017, sources said, adding that in April 2019, NIOC proposed development of the gas field under the DSC and offtake of raw gas by NIOC at landfall point.

However, due to the impo-sition of US sanctions on Iran in November 2018, technical studies could not be concluded which is a precursor for com-mercial negotiations.

The Indian consortium has so far invested around $85 mil-lion in the block. The contract provides for the Indian con-sortium being paid back the expense together with a fixed rate of return.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India’s coal import registered a decline of 2.7 per cent to 15.22 million tonnes (MT) in August this year amid the country’s power plants grappling with fuel shortages.

The country imported 15.64 MT of coal in the correspond-ing month last year.

According to data compiled by mjunction services, “Imports in August 2021 stood at around 15.22 million tonnes...imports in August 2021 were also down by 2.7 percent over August 2020.”

mjunction CEO and MD Vinaya Varma attributed the decline in volumes to the steady increase in seaborne coal prices coupled with the initiatives taken by the domestic miners for import substitution.

However, he said, there is a spurt in demand from the power sector.

“What impact it will have on imports, given the volatility in international prices, is to be seen,” he added.

Of the total import during August 2021, non-coking coal was at 9.08 MT, against 10.33 MT imported during August last year. Coking coal imports were at 4.37 MT, up against 3.17 MT imported during August 2020.

India’s coal imports during August 2021 through the major

and non-major ports are esti-mated to have decreased by 6.71 per cent over July 2021.

Imports in July stood at 16.31 MT.

During April-August 2021, coal import stood at 92.49 MT, about 21.27 per cent higher than 76.27 MT imported dur-ing April-August 2020.

During April-August 2021, non-coking coal import was at 60.85 MT as compared to 51.23 MT imported during April-August 2020.

Coking coal imports were recorded at 22.19 MT, against

14.38 MT imported during the same period last year.

Coal India which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output had earlier said that due to skyrocketing coal prices in international markets, all the consumers have been vying for domestic coal, hiking up the demand.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday said closure of some mines, and inundation of a few others due to monsoon led to the crisis but there is no need to panic as the situation is improving.

India has right to 30% stake in Iranian gas field contractually‘Licensee, in this case the Indian consortium, at its election has right to take a 30% stake in development project no matter who executes it’

The field holds 23 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves, of which about 60 per cent is recoverable. It also holds gas condensates of about 5,000 barrels per billion cubic feet of gas

India’s Coal import falls in Aug despite higher fuel demand

Of total import during August 2021, non-coking coal was at 9.08 MT, against 10.33 MT imported during August last year. Coking coal imports were at 4.37 MT, up against 3.17 MT during August 2020

NEW DELHI: The domestic sponge iron industry might report a negative growth in the ongoing December quarter “if the shortage of coal is allowed to continue”, according to apex industry body SIMA.

Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association (SIMA) Executive Director Deependra Kashiva said India is expected to report a 60 per cent quarter-on-quar-ter (q-o-q) fall in its sponge iron output during the July-September 2021 period, amid the ongoing coal crisis.

As per the JPC data, the sponge iron production growth in April-June 2021 was 70 per cent, compared with January-March 2021.

This is expected to come down by 60 per cent to a level of 10 per cent in the second quarter ended September 30, 2021, due to the coal crisis, he said without providing any

figures.“If the situation is allowed

to continue...if the shortage of coal is allowed to continue then I am expecting that in Q3 (October-December), the growth will be negative,” Kashiva said.

He said the JPC data for September will be released by the next week.

The Joint Plant Committee (JPC), under the Ministry of Steel, is the only institution that

collects and maintains data on the Indian steel and iron sector.

Speaking further on the situation, he said Coal India Ltd (CIL) recently announced to give coal to only thermal power plants.

“They have said that except for the power sector, we are stopping supply to all indus-try users, and sponge iron and cement are the two big con-sumers after the power sector,” the Kashiva said.

He added that the indus-try consumes about 40 million tonnes of coal annually and has provided three lakh direct and indirect jobs.

Sponge iron or direct reduced iron (DRI) is used in producing semi-finished steel items, ingots and billets, which are further used to make vari-ous finished steel items. Coal is a key raw material used to produce sponge iron. PTI

‘Sponge iron sector might report negative growth due to coal crisis’

The sponge iron production is expected to come down by 60% to a level of 10% in the second quarter ended September 30, 2021

NARCL to bring more directors on board soon

LONDON: Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bai-ley sent a fresh signal on Sun-day that the British central bank is gearing up to raise interest rates for the first time since the onset of the Coronavirus crisis as inflation risks mount.

Bailey said he continued to believe that the recent jump in inflation would be temporary, but that a surge in energy prices would push it higher and make its climb last longer, raising the risk of higher inflation expecta-tions, Reuters reported.

“Monetary policy cannot solve supply-side problems - but it will have to act and must do so if we see a risk, particu-larly to medium-term inflation and to medium-term inflation expectations,” Bailey said dur-ing an online panel discussion organised by the Group of 30 consultative group. “And that’s why we at the Bank of Eng-land have signalled, and this is another such signal, that we will have to act,” he said. “But of course that action comes in our monetary policy meetings.”

The BoE has forecast that Britain’s inflation rate will go over 4 per cent, more than double its target, as the world economy reopens from its COVID-19 lockdowns, causing shortages of supplies and staff, and the price of energy soars.

Investors are speculating that the BoE might become the first of the world’s biggest central banks to raise rates, later this year or early in 2022.

Bailey said demand for workers in Britain had been stronger than expected and the number of younger and older workers leaving the labour mar-ket had grown. AGENCIES

BoE will have to act to contain inflation: Bailey

NEW DELHI: India’s power consumption grew 3.35 per cent in the first half of Octo-ber to 57.22 billion units (BU), showing recovery amid coal shortage at electricity genera-tion plants, according to power ministry data.

Last year during Octo-ber 1-15, power consump-tion stood at 55.36 BU which was higher than 49.66 BU in the same period in 2019. The data clearly shows that there is recovery in power consump-tion as well as demand in the country.

Amid the coal shortage at power plants in the country, the peak power shortage mod-erated to 986 MW on October 15 in sharp contrast to 11,626

MW on October 7.It is to be noted that the

11,626 MW peak power short-age on October 7 was the high-est during the first half of this month.

Besides, the latest coal stock report for 135 coal-based power plants monitored by Central Electricity Authority for Octo-ber 13, showed that the number of non-pithead power plants

having less than four days of coal stock (supercritical coal stock) reduced to 64 from 69 on October 8 when the daily power consumption touched its peak of 3,900 million units in first half of this month.

Earlier this week, the power ministry had stated that the capacity of units under outage due to low coal stocks reduced from 11 GW on October 12 to 5 GW on October 14.

Experts are of the view that there would be good recov-ery in power demand as well as consumption due to the government’s efforts to ramp up coal supplies at plants and improvement in economic activities due to lifting of lock-down restrictions by states. PTI

Power consumption rises 3% at 57.22 billion units in October 1-15

FinMin to seek Cabinet nod for setting up firm to monetise land assets of divestment-bound PSUs

MUMBAI: State-run Bank of India on Sunday announced a cut in its interest rates on home and vehicle loans by 35 basis point and 50 basis points, respectively.

With this cut, the inter-est rate on home loans starts at 6.50 per cent against ear-lier 6.85 per cent, and at 6.85 per cent against 7.35 per cent prior on vehicle loans, the bank said in a release.

This special rate, which is effective from October 18, 2021, till December 31, 2021, is available for customers applying for fresh loans and also for those seeking trans-fer of loans, Bank of India’s release said.

The public sector lender said it has also waived pro-cessing charges for both home and vehicle loans till December 31, 2021. PTI

Bank of India slashes home, vehicle loan rates

Subscriber additions to drive Jio’s Q2 show; tariff hikes to aid Bharti & VIL, say analystsThe urgency around tariff hikes has come down with Vodafone Idea Ltd’s (VIL) near-term cash outflow significantly reduced,IIFL Securities said

NEW DELHI: Quarterly earn-ings and global cues will be the major sentiment driver for the equity market this week, accord-ing to analysts.

“Quarterly results will dic-tate market sentiment and will be the talk of this week as they pick up the pace. D-Street will be all ears to any management insights to forecast the future earnings trajectory. “With the anticipation that companies would keep up their momen-tum from the previous quarter into the second quarter, inves-tors may see whipsaw move-ments in the stock this week as results beat or miss market

expectations,” said Yesha Shah, head (equity research) at Samco Securities.

Among major earnings to be announced this week are from UltraTech Cement, ACC, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Asian Paints, Hindustan Zinc, IDBI, Bank of Maharashtra, South Indian Bank, Federal Bank and Reliance Industries Limited. PTI

‘Quarterly earnings, global cues to drive

market trends this week’

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT MAGISTRATE & DISTRICT

ELECTION OFFICER, NORTH 24-PARGANAS.

TENDER NOTICEADM (Elec.), North 24-Parganas invites NIT for “Digital Printing of Photo Electoral Roll”.Last date of bid Submission : 01.11.2021 upto 15.00 hrs. The details available : https://wbtenders.gov.in (Tender ID : 2021_DMNP_347600_1).

Sd/- ADM (Elec.), North 24-Parganas

AIR INDIA PRIVATISATION SAGA

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpMONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

NEW DELHI: Gold ETFs attracted Rs 446 crore in Sep-tember and inflow may continue in coming months due to strong demand on the back of festival season in the country.

The was sharply higher than the net inflow of Rs 24 crore recorded in the previous month. In July, the category saw a net withdrawal of Rs 61.5 crore, data with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed.

With this, gold exchange traded fund (ETF) category has received a net inflow of Rs 3,515 crore so far. The segment wit-nessed just one month of net outflows, which was in July. The latest inflow helped in pushing the number of folios in the cat-egory by over 14 per cent to 24.6

lakh in September from 21.46 lakh in the preceding month. So far this year, the folio num-bers have surged by 56 per cent.

Market experts attributed the inflow in September to cor-rection in the price of the yellow

metal and onset of the festival season in the country.

“Gold ETFs saw a prominent inflow for the past month. In the thick of a volatile market, resort-ing to a safe instrument can be one of the reasons for this move, with rising gold prices being the other reason drawing attention to the instrument,” Priti Rathi Gupta, Founder of LXME, said.

Arshad Fahoum, Chief Product Officer, Market Pulse, said that the ongoing rally in global equities, coupled with the fierce rally in Indian equities in 2021, could be making investors wary of further rise, which seem to have supported the signs of gold prices bottoming out.

“If we look back at the period from July to mid-Sep-

tember, Indian equities rallied strongly; which could have meant investors opting for equity-based and debt funds, which in turn could be a reason for gold ETFs witnessing net outflows in July, mildly positive inflows in August and the huge inflows in September,” he said.

Another interesting aspect is the outflows in gold ETFs expe-rienced by the US, UK and Can-ada in September 2021, while Indian gold ETFs saw a signifi-cant inflow in the month under review.

This could also be an indi-cation that the onset of the fes-tival season in India may have assisted the rising gold ETF inflows in September 2021, he added. PTI

NEW DELHI: Two aborted missions, three different minis-ters, multiple rule changes and two decades later, Indian tax-payers will no longer have to pay Rs 20 crore per day to keep the loss-making Air India flying.

While opposition Congress expectedly attacked the deci-sion as selling the family silver, DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said what Tata is getting is not a cash cow but an airline which is bleeding where money needs to be pumped in to refur-bish obsolete aircraft and dust up strangled ones while being

unable to touch any employee for one year and only be able to resize staff after paying a VRS.

“It won’t be a very easy task there. Only advantage is they (new Air India owner) are pay-ing the price which they think they can manage. They are not taking the excessive debt accu-mulated to fund years of losses. We are continuing it as an ongo-ing concern.... This process has also saved huge amount of tax-payers money going forward,” Pandey said.

Earlier this month, the gov-ernment had accepted an offer

by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of salt-to-soft-ware conglomerate Tata group, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and takeover Rs 15,300 crore of the airline’s debt. As on August 31, Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore. About 75 per cent of this debt or Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to a special purpose vehicle AIAHL before handing over the loss-making airline to the Tata Group.

Tatas would not get to retain non-core assets such as the Vas-ant Vihar Housing colony of Air India, Air India Building at

Nariman Point in Mumbai, and Air India Building in New Delhi.

“We have only allowed (Tata group) for use for two years, but within two years we have to work out a monetisation plan for

it to be sold so that the money can be used to set off AIAHL liabilities,” Pandey said.

Of the 141 Air India air-craft that Tatas would get, 42 are leased planes while the remain-

ing 99 are owned. Tata will also take over the capitalised lease liability on account of operating leases of Rs 9,185 crore. Besides, some of these 141 planes are grounded due to lack of engine and other maintenance. Also the obsolescence factor is there are many as not fuel efficient.

“We want to finish the handover quickly, because we are paying Rs 20 cr /day to run the airline. The new owner will need to put in a lot of capital because they have to do capital expenditure to improve aircraft, refurbish and give new orders

for obsolete aircraft. Only then they may be able to turnaround. Also conditions have been put that you cannot resize employ-ees for 1 year, and thereafter in the second year, you have to give VRS,” Pandey said.

The government is divesting its 100 per cent ownership of Air India and Air India Express along with its 50 per cent stake in ground-handling company AISATS. The government will, however, transfer about Rs 16,000 crore of unpaid current liabilities, in excess of current and non current assets, such as

fuel bills and other pending dues that Air India owes to suppliers, to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL).

A Letter of Intent (LoI) has been issued to Tatas on Octo-ber 11 confirming the govern-ment’s willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the air-line. Tatas have now to accept the LoI, post which the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) will be signed. Conditions precedent to the transactions would need to be satisfied by Tatas before they actually can take over the operations. PTI

NEW YORK: Opportunities are galore in India for all investors and industry stakeholders with the current reset in the global supply chain and clear-headed and committed leadership in the country, Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman has told CEOs of top American companies.

Sitharaman arrived here on Friday after her visit to Wash-ington DC where she partici-pated in the annual meetings of the World Bank and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund. Sithara-man and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also co-chaired the eighth ministerial meeting of the India-USA Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue in Washington.

“With the current reset in the global supply chain and clear-headed and commit-ted leadership in India, I see opportunities galore in India for all investors and industry stakeholders, Sitharaman said during her address to global business leaders and investors at a roundtable organised by industry chamber FICCI and the US-India Strategic Partner-ship Forum here on Saturday.

Startups in India have grown tremendously and many are now raising money through capital markets. This year itself, more than 16 of them will qual-ify as unicorns, she said.

India has fully leveraged the potential of digitisation even during the most challenging

times, the finance minister said.The role of technology in

the financial sector is enabling pushing the frontier of finan-cial inclusion and fintechs are playing a key role in this area, she said at the round-table, the Finance Ministry tweeted.

Sitharaman also met Master-card Executive Chairman Ajay Banga and Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, FedEx Cor-poration President and Chief Operating Officer Raj Subra-maniam, Citi CEO Jane Fra-ser and IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna, Executive vice presi-dent and head of Prudential Financial, Inc’s International Businesses Scott Sleyster and Legatum Chief Investment Offi-cer Philip Vassiliou.

Sitharaman met Banga and Miebach in New York. “The ini-

tiatives and progress towards financial inclusion and digital transformation formed part of discussion,” the Finance Minis-try tweeted. Following his meet-ing with Sitharaman, Banga said India is on a great pathway and trajectory with its continuing reforms and he can see great momentum.

“I’m particularly impressed by the production linked incen-tives that have been put into place, he said, adding that they can make a big difference to the way that labour intensive industries in India can develop.

I’m very hopeful that it’s not just one reform but the series of reforms that are continuing can keep guiding India on the trajectory. I believe that there is a lot of opportunity for India to participate in supply chains and this can be very helpful over the next period of years

to bring good jobs into India, Banga said, asserting that he is constructively optimistic about what India is doing. Miebach said he shares Banga’s optimism. Describing his discussion with Sitharaman as very construc-tive , he said it further raises the optimism and said MasterCard will continue to invest in India.

During Sitharaman’s inter-action with FedEx CEO Subra-maniam, “the recently launched initiative of National Infrastruc-ture Master Plan #GatiShakti and India having 3rd largest start-up ecosystem & unicorn base formed part of discus-sion,” the Finance Ministry tweeted.

Subramaniam said FedEx business in India is growing strong. We are very bullish on India. The very fact that we have a global air network puts us in a considerable position to be able to help move COVID-19 related material into India when it was needed.

We are looking forward, we are very bullish on where poten-tial for India is, the fastest grow-ing large economy and growing trade environment, he said.

Citi’s commitment towards ‘Make In India’ and focus on digitisation and partnerships with fintechs towards digital transformation was discussed during the meeting between Sitharaman and Citi CEO Fra-ser, the finance ministry said in a tweet.

Fraser said Citi has a “very proud and very long history in India. We are delighted to see the strength of the recovery that’s happening on the ground there. Obviously there’s a lot of concerns around supply chain disruption at the moment but it’s around the world.

We are very positive about the opportunities for the coun-try. We’re seeing a real pickup in cross border flows. India is going to be a beneficiary, not just from supply chain move-ment around the world and it can be an important destination for many multinationals that will be looking to grow their operations globally.

She said the digitisation that India has done is truly impres-sive and “it will be one of the major hubs of digital trade and digital services in the world and a standard-bearer going forward.

“Fraser speaks about the strength of India’s economic recovery and how India will increasingly become an impor-tant destination of investment for multinational corporations looking to grow their opera-tions,” the finance ministry tweeted.

The minister discussed reforms towards the capital bond market, investor charter and other initiatives with Pru-dential COO and Executive Vice President Sleyster, the finance ministry said. PTI

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has sought a $500 million credit line from India to pay for its crude oil purchases amid a severe foreign exchange crisis in the island nation.

The move came few days after energy minister Udaya Gammanpila warned that the current availability of fuel in the country can be guaranteed only till next January.

The state-run Ceylon Petro-leum Corporation (CPC) owes nearly $3.3 billion to the two main government banks — Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank.

The state oil distributors imports crude from the Mid-dle East and refined products from other areas, including Singapore.

We are currently engaged with the Indian High Commis-sion here to obtain the facility ($500 million credit line) under the India-Sri Lanka economic partnership arrangement,” CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe was quoted as saying by local news website newsfirst.lk. He said the facility would be uti-lised for purchasing petrol and diesel requirements.

The energy secretaries

of both India and Lanka are expected to sign an agreement for the loan soon, the report quoted Finance Secretary S R Attygalle as saying.

The government has put on hold the expected retail price hike of fuel despite the last week’s increase in cooking gas and other essentials.

The price hike in the global oil prices has forced Lanka to spend more on oil imports this year.

The country’s oil bill has jumped 41.5 per cent to $2 bil-lion in the first seven months of this year, compared to last year.

Lanka is facing a severe foreign exchange crisis after the pandemic hit the nation’s earnings from tourism and remittances, Finance Minis-ter Basil Rajapaksa had said last month.

The country’s Its GDP con-tracted by a record 3.6 per cent in 2020 and its foreign exchange reserves plunged by over a half in one year through July to just $2.8 billion.

This has led to a 9 per cent depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee against the dollar over the past one year, making imports more expensive. PTI

Opportunities galore in India for investors, says Sitharaman‘Startups in India have grown tremendously, many are now raising money

via capital markets. This year, more than 16 of them will qualify as unicorns’

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Lanka seeks $500 mn loan from India for fuel purchase amid forex crisis

NEW DELHI: Amid a rise in prices of three key vegetables, the Centre on Sunday said onion prices are being stabilised with the release of buffer stock, while efforts are on to soften the rates of tomato and potato.

Onion stocks are being released in the market on the first-in-first-out basis in a cali-brated manner from the last week of August in a bid to mod-erate prices and ensure mini-mum storage loss, it said.

As a result of this, the retail onion price was ruling in the range of Rs 42-57 per kg in met-ros on October 14. The all-India average retail price of onion was ruling at Rs 37.06 per kg, while the average wholesale rate was Rs 30 per kg on October 14, it added.

In retail markets, onion was ruling at Rs 42 per kg in Chen-nai, Rs 44 per kg in Delhi, at Rs 45 per kg in Mumbai and Rs 57 per kg in Kolkata on Octo-ber 14.

In a statement, the food and consumer affairs ministry said buffer stock of onion is being released in states where prices ruled above all-India aver-age and also where prices are rising over the previous month.

“Till October 12, a total of 67,357 tonnes have been released in major markets such as Delhi, Kolkata, Luc-know, Patna, Ranchi, Guwa-hati, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Kochi and Rai-pur,” it said.

In addition, Grade-B onions (stocks which are below the fair average quality- FAQ) are dis-posed of in local markets in

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, it said.

Besides releasing onions in the market, the ministry has offered onions from the buf-fer at Rs 21 per kg to all states and Union territories for lift-ing from the storage locations. This will enable states to take up, by themselves, for market interventions either through direct supply to retail consum-ers through retail outlets or release in key markets to bring down prices.

The ministry further said the onion stocks are also avail-able for supply to central and state agencies involved in retail marketing either at an ex-storage rate of Rs 21 per kg or landed price after including transportation costs. Mother Dairy’s retail chain SAFAL has been offered at a landed price of Rs 26 per kg.

The government is main-

taining an onion buffer under the price stabilisation fund (PSF) with the objective of effective market intervention to moderate prices.

In 2021-22, about 2.08 lakh tonnes of onion buffer has been created from the 2021 rabi crop from April to July 2021, against the target of two lakh tonnes.

“Similarly, efforts are being made to soften the prices of potato and tomato,” the min-istry said.

The average all-India retail price of tomato was ruling at 41.73 per kg, while potato at Rs 21.22 per kg. Whereas, in the wholesale markets, potato prices were ruling at Rs 1,606.46 per quintal, while tomato at Rs 3,361.74 per quintal.

In Delhi, the retail prices of potato and tomato in Delhi were ruling at Rs 20 per kg and Rs 56 per kg, respectively, the minis-try said in the statement. PTI

‘Onion prices being stabilised with buffer stock release’

Govt said efforts are on to soften tomato and potato rates

In retail markets, onion was ruling at Rs 42 per kg in Chennai, Rs 44 per kg in Delhi, at Rs 45 per kg in Mumbai and Rs 57 per kg in Kolkata on October 14

NEW DELHI: Foreign portfo-lio investors (FPI) have turned net sellers in the capital markets in October so far, reversing the trend of net investments in the previous two months, due to depreciation in the rupee and global factors, experts said.

According to the deposito-ries’ data, FPIs have pulled out Rs 1,472 crore from capital mar-kets on a net basis in the current month so far. A trend rever-sal was witnessed in the debt segment in October from the big buying in the previous two months when FPIs had invested Rs 13,363 crore in September and Rs 14,376.2 crore in August.

In October so far, they pulled out Rs 1,698 crore.

“This trend reversal in debt investment is due to the INR depreciation in October,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief invest-ment strategist at Geojit Finan-cial Services.

In equities, FPIs invested Rs 226 crore on a net basis.

“FPIs who were sellers in

banking stocks in the first half of September turned buyers in the second half. But they were sellers in software ser-vices throughout September. The strong performance by IT companies like Wipro, Info-sys and Mindtree is likely to attract more flows into the seg-ment, going forward,” he added. Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar India said that as markets touched all-time highs and valuations soar, FPI would have preferred to stay on the sidelines, adopt a wait and watch approach and continue to book profits along the way. PTI

FPIs turn net sellers in October so far, pull out net `1,472 crore

NEW DELHI: Eight of the top-10 most valued companies together added Rs 1,52,355.03 crore in market valuation last week, with HDFC Bank and State Bank of India emerging as the biggest gainers.

Last week, the BSE bench-mark Sensex rallied 1,246.89 points or 2.07 per cent.

The benchmark went past the 61,000-mark for the first time ever on Thursday.

Markets were closed on Fri-day for Dussehra. Leading the gainers’ chart, HDFC Bank’s valuation jumped Rs 46,348.47 crore to Rs 9,33,559.01 crore.

The market valuation of State Bank of India zoomed Rs 29,272.73 crore to Rs 4,37,752.20 crore. Reliance Industries Lim-ited added Rs 18,384.38 crore to Rs 17,11,554.55 crore in its valuation.

The mcap of ICICI Bank rose by Rs 16,860.76 crore to reach Rs 5,04,249.13 crore and that of HDFC gained Rs 16,020.7 crore to Rs 5,07,861.84 crore.

Kotak Mahindra Bank’s valuation rose by Rs 15,944.02 crore to Rs 3,99,810.31 crore and that of Bajaj Finance jumped by Rs 7,526.82 crore to Rs 4,74,467.41 crore.

Hindustan Unilever added Rs 1,997.15 crore taking its mar-ket valuation to Rs 6,22,359.73 crore.

In contrast, the valuation of Tata Consultancy Services eroded by Rs 1,19,849.27 crore to Rs 13,35,838.42 crore. PTI

Mcap of 8 of top-10 cos jump over

`1.52 lakh cr

NEW DELHI: Gold imports, which have a bearing on the current account deficit, zoomed to about $24 billion during April-September 2021 due to higher demand in the country, according to data from the Commerce Ministry.

Imports of the yellow metal was $6.8 billion in the corre-sponding period last year, the data showed.

Gold imports during Sep-tember this year too rose to $5.11 billion as against $601.4 million in the same month last year.

On the other hand, silver imports dipped by 15.5 per cent to $619.3 million during April-September this fiscal. How-

ever, during September, these imports jumped to $552.33 million as against $9.23 mil-lion in September 2020.

A significant jump in the gold imports has led to record widening of the country’s trade deficit, difference between imports and exports, to $22.6 billion during September this fiscal as against $2.96 billion in

the year-ago period.India is the largest importer

of gold, which mainly caters to the demand of the jewellery industry.

In volume terms, the coun-try imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually.

Gems and jewellery exports increased to $19.3 billion dur-ing the first half of the current fiscal as against $8.7 billion in the same period previous year.

Gems and jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC) CHairman Colin Shah said that “festive season and a lot of demand” in the country is taking up the gold imports. PTI

Gold ETFs attract `446 crore in Sept; inflow may continue on festive season demand

The latest inflow helped in pushing the number of folios in the category by over 14 per cent to 24.6 lakh in September from 21.46 lakh in the preceding month

Gold imports jump multi-fold to $24 billion in April-September

‘Time we stopped paying `20 cr/day of taxpayers money to keep it flying’As on August 31, Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore. About 75% of this debt or Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to AIAHL

Mandira Bedi says all her energies are directed towards ensuring she is a

good parent to her two children, whom she considers her biggest strength and the driving force to become a better person.

The actor-TV presenter, who lost her filmmaker husband Raj Kaushal in June, said her children - son Vir (10) and daughter Tara (five) - mean the world to her.

“My motivation to keep work-ing, striving and doing better is my children. Everything I do, I do for them. They are my reason to carry on, my reason to live, to do better, to be better. They are the reason that I have courage, strength, the reason for me to earn. I need to be a good parent for them,” said Bedi.

The 49-year-old actor has been one of the most prominent faces on television. Though she has fea-tured in films like ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and the anthology ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’, she found acclaim and fame on the small screen with hit

shows like ‘Shanti’, ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ and ‘24’.

She has also hosted ICC Cricket World Cups in the years 2003 and 2007, the ‘Champions Trophies’ in the years 2004 and 2006 and the ‘Indian Premier League’ season 2.

Bedi said her career has been full of challenges, but she has no regrets as the setbacks have only taught her lessons that success would not have been able to.

“There have been many chal-lenges, the downs have been chal-lenging and there have been difficult times. But the public memory is short. You are known for the last project you have done. By God’s grace, I have had a lot of work behind me. The ups are wonderful, when you are experiencing them, they are great,” she added.

Mandira shared, “When you are down, they make you appreciate the good times. You learn more from your fail-ures than you do from suc-cess. The downs give you perspective in life and that is the way I look at challenges. I have had a lot that I have faced in my life and there is always growth and learning from them.”

Bedi is currently back with the third sea-son of the ‘Romedy NOW’ original, ‘The Love Laugh Live Show’. The celebrity chat show features Bedi reprising her role as the host. PTI

ADELE ON HER LATEST SINGLE ‘EASY ON ME’

Entertainment

Actor Ezra Miller gave a sneak-peek into ‘The Flash’, the much-awaited superhero

movie in which he returns as the titu-lar superhero.

Miller showed off the first footage from the long-gestating project during the 2021 edition of ‘DC FanDome’, the online fan convention.

“We are very excited to show you the movie and we cannot yet because we are still making it. We wanted to show you a teaser, but we can-not because we do not have enough material to make a teaser yet,” said Miller.

He added, “But we do have this small sneak peek that my maestro Andy Muschietti and I have put

together that we really hope you enjoyed.”In the brief clip, Miller’s Barry Allen (The Flash) is seen visiting the Batcave of Keaton’s

Batman and later travel-ling to the past to save his

mother. It is followed by a scene of Miller flaunt-ing his new

superhero suit.In the ending moments, the teaser

showcases multiple versions of his character who are then introduced to Keaton’s Batman, who has his back to the camera but can be identified from the shot of his iconic scowl.

The last scene sees Miller pulling off the sheet from the Batmobile of Keaton’s Batman.

Christina Hodson has penned the latest draft of the script that sees Flash go back in time to pre-vent the murder of his mother, an act that proves to have unin-tended consequences for his timeline. PTI

After wowing fans by being on the cover of ‘Vogue’ and ‘British

Vogue’ in the same month, Adele finally teased new music on ‘Instagram Live’ and finally released her single ‘Easy on Me’ this past week. Naturally, fans all over the world went gaga over her new track which was

inspired by

‘divorce babe, divorce’ in the words of the songstress herself.

The 33-year-old singer recently opened about the new track on Radio 1’s Greg James and revealed how it came to be. While chat-ting, Adele spoke about her forthcoming record ‘30’, revealing that she was planning to drop it

in 2020 until the pan-demic happened, as

well as her recent social media moves.

“I had no idea how to do it!” she said of her headline-mak-ing first ‘Instagram Live’.

She added, “I had a cold sore. I was just wearing a tee-shirt.”

Then the British singer finally opened up about ‘Easy on Me’ and said, “It is very me. It was the first song I wrote for the album at the beginning

of 2019. I was quite shocked that I got it out straight away. I had not been back in the stu-dio for four or five years before that. I was making decisions in my life that have been well-documented. There is some-thing hopeful about it, as well as sad. I bawled my eyes out while I was writing and record-ing it.”

The singer also revealed what she got up to during COVID-induced lockdown in the last two years. AGENCIES

Netflix’ estimates that its lat-est megahit, ‘Squid Game’, will create almost 900 million dol-

lars in value for the company, accord-ing to figures seen by ‘Bloomberg’, underscoring the windfall that one megahit can generate in the stream-ing era.

‘Netflix’ differs from movie stu-dios and TV networks in that the OTT platform does not generate sales based on specific titles, instead of using its catalogue and a steady drumbeat of new releases to entice customers every week. But the company does have a wealth of data concerning what its cus-tomers watch, which the company uses to determine the value derived from individual programmes.

‘Squid Game’ stands out both for its popularity and its relatively low cost. The South Korean show, about indebted people in a deadly contest for a cash prize, generated 891.1 million dollars in impact value, a metric the company uses to assess the performance from individual shows. The show cost just 21.4 mil-

lion dollars to produce - about 2.4 mil-lion dollars an episode. Those figures are just for the first season and stem from a document that details Netflix’s performance metrics for the show.

The document underscores just how successful this one show has been for ‘Netflix’ and offers the clearest pic-ture yet as to how the world’s most popular online TV network judges the success of its programming.

‘Netflix’ has released self-selected viewership metrics for a handful of TV shows and movies, but it does not share its more detailed metrics with the press, investors or even the programs’ creators. Guessing the popularity of a given show has become something of a parlor game in Hollywood, even ‘Netflix’ has begun to release data in dribs and drabs.

An attorney representing ‘Netflix’ said in a letter to ‘Bloomberg’ that it would be inappropriate for ‘Bloom-berg’ to disclose the confidential data contained in the documents. AGENCIES

Bigg Boss 15’s ‘Weekend Ka Vaar with Salman

Khan’ saw him express-ing his disappointment with the contestants who broke several important rules of the show.

But former con-testant Hina Khan

has a question for the ‘Bigg Boss’ himself. She

dropped a series of tweets asking if the rules of ‘Bigg Boss’ have changed as the fifteenth season of the reality show has started to feel like ‘smackdown and RAW’.

“So how is it going folks - are you enjoying smackdown and RAW Monday to Friday at 10:30 pm nowadays on ‘Colors TV?” Hina Khan wrote, adding that once upon a time, contestants were not even allowed to touch

each other, but now the story is different.

“Ek time tha jab ungli lagaana allowed nahi tha and now! What is happening BB? I usually do not tweet about BB. But this is so damn funny and I could not resist,” her tweet read.

She added, “With all due respect BB, kahin aap vish-wasundari ke pyaar mein to nahi pad gaye hain. Open your eyes BB and please wake up. I do not blame anyone in the house. It was the first and the most important rule of BB that you cannot touch any-one, but now this rule seems

non-applicable.”As soon as Hina posted her

tweets, her fans agreed with her.

“Finally, some celebrity raised a voice against the dras-tic and the foremost change happening in BB nowadays,” wrote a fan.

Another ‘Twitter’ user mentioned, “This is not BB. We have not watched in previ-ous seasons. I’m not liking this wrestling ground. BB is run-ning after content. They do not care what they deliver to the audience as it has lost its plot.”

Currently, ‘Bigg Boss’ house is hosting Simba Nag-pal, Karan Kundrra, Tejasswi Prakash, Pratik Sehajpal, Nis-hant Bhat, Shamita Shetty, Umar Riaz, Vidhi Pandya, Donal Bisht, Vishal Kotian, Afsana Khan, Akasa Singh, Jay Bhanushali, Miesha Iyer and Ishaan Sehgal. The audience witnessed the show’s first eviction last week when Sahil Shroff walked out of the show. AGENCIES

Hollywood star Jason Momoa and filmmaker James Wan recently pro-

vided a glimpse into the world they are building for the ‘Aqua-man’ sequel at the ‘2021 DC FanDome’.

Titled ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’, the new movie is a sequel to 2018’s ‘Aquaman’ and will see Momoa reprising the tit-ular part.

Wan, who helmed the first part, is also back for the sequel.

During the virtual fan event, a video was released, showcas-ing the various moments from the movie’s making, including Momoa’s first day on the set.

“I’m very proud of the sequel because it tackles a lot of issues environmentally. Stakes are higher and I’m just excited to have a big partner in James Wan,” the 42-year-old actor said in the video.

Momoa stressed that he feels personally ‘invested’ in the project as he loves the character and what it represents.

“There is nothing like this that I have been a part of,” he added.

Wan said the sequel is ‘more mature, yet still retains its fun’.

“It is a globetrotting story and visits so many worlds. This movie is not afraid of its fantasy and goes on this magical journey. I think it is going to be awesome,” he added.

‘Aquaman and the Lost King-dom’ will also mark the

return of Amber Heard as Mera and Patrick Wilson back as Orm Marius as well as Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as David Kane, also known as Black Manta.

“To play around with this cast again is quite a trip. We are having a blast. This movie is a lot of fun,” Wilson said. ‘Aquaman’, which was released in December 2018, grossed more than one billion dol-lars at the global box office.

The sequel is being produced by Wan and Peter Safran.

‘Aquaman and the Lost King-dom’ is will release on December

16, 2022, in the US. PTI

Titled ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’, the new movie is a sequel to ‘Aquaman’

‘Netflix’ has released self-selected viewership metrics for a handful of TV shows and movies

Momoa stressed that he feels personally ‘invested’ in the project as he loves the character and what it represents

‘Aquaman 2 tackles a lot of issues environmentally’

‘Squid Game will create almost 900

million dollars’

Hina Khan questions Bigg Boss house rules

She dropped a series of tweets saying that 15th season of the show has started to feel like ‘smackdown and RAW’

‘There is something hopeful about it’Fans all over the world are going gaga over her new track which is inspired by ‘divorce babe, divorce’ in the words of the songstress herself

Miller showed off the first footage from the long-gestating project during the 2021 edition of ‘DC FanDome’, the online fan convention 

She wrote that once upon a time, contestants were not even allowed to touch each other, but now the story is different

‘My motivation to keep working is my children’

Ezra Miller gives sneak peek of ‘The Flash’

The actor-TV pre-senter, who lost her filmmaker hus-band Raj Kaushal in June, said her children mean the world to her

11millenniumpost Leisure mpNEW DELHI | MONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021

12 mp millenniumpostMONDAY, 18 OCTOBER, 2021 | NEW DELHI

Transport Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi

Online applications are invited for

REGISTRATION OF 4261 E-AUTO RICKSHAWS

WHO CAN APPLY

Any person having a valid driving license

of Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) (car, jeep, etc)

or a holder of TSR driving license.

PSV BADGE

PSV badge not required at the time of

application.

A resident of Delhi, having Aadhaar with

Delhi address.

The successful applicant will have to

obtain a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) Badge,

within 45 days of the draw of allotment.

RESERVATION FOR WOMEN DRIVERS

33% of the total registrations i.e., 1406 e-autos

will be made in favour of women applicants.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES

A purchase incentive of 3̀0,000 per vehicle

Attractive loans with 5% interest relief shall be

provided through agencies empaneled

by Delhi Government.

Applications are invited from:th st

18 October to 1 November, 2021

transport.delhi.gov.inTo apply online, visit:

1076Helpline:

th stDate: 25 -31 October, 2021

Time: 9AM-4PM

Venues: Institute of driving training & Research (IDTR),

1. IDTR, Sarai Kale Khan

2. IDTR, Loni

In order to reduce pollution in Delhi, 'E-Auto Mela' is being organised by

the Delhi Government, where the auto drivers of Delhi will be able to see

and drive all the available models of E-Autos and explore the attractive

loan terms available.

E-Auto Mela

DELHI WILL SOON HAVE

THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF

ELECTRIC AUTOS

RUNNING ACROSS INDIA

DIP

/Sha

bdar

th/D

/010

6/21

-22