ALLAHABAD HC ASKS PARALYMPIC MEDALLIST SUHAS LY TO EXPLAIN ‘INACTION’Prayagraj: A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Piyush Agrawal on Mon-day directed Paralympic Games silver medallist Suhas LY, District Mag-istrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, to remain present in court on October 4 to explain his inaction in reference to recovery certificates issued by RERA Authority in several cases. “This court would pass appropriate order if no justification is found for the inaction of the District Magistrate,” said the court. More on P8

Yogi allots portfolios to new ministers

First India Bureau

Lucknow: The Utttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath allo-cated portfolios to the newly inducted mem-bers in the cabinet. Among the seven minis-ters sworn in on Mon-day, only Jitin Prasada was given a cabinet rank, the rest all having to be content with being

Ministers of State (MoS). Prasada has been given the Techni-cal Education Depart-ment and has also been

allocated a ministerial bungalow at 9, Kalidas Marg.

Of the six Ministers of State, Paltu Ram has

been allocated Sainik Kalyan, Home Guard, Prantiye Raksha Dal and Civil Defence. San-gita Balwant has been given Cooperative de-partment, Dharamvir Prajapati given Indus-trial Development De-partment, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar given Revenue, Sanjiv Kumar given Social Welfare, ST/ST Welfare. Dinesh Khatik has been given Jal Shakti and Flood Control department. The fresh inductees were invited for a tete-a-tete by the CM, who wished them success.

CM Yogi Adityanath speaking at the Tourism Carnival programme in Lucknow on Monday. —PHOTO BY SUMIT KUMAR

Jitin Prasada gets Technical Education, bungalow at 9, Kalidas Marg

A national highway wears a deserted look due to a ‘Bharat Bandh’ call given by farmer unions.

Police personnel remove activists from various Kannada organisations, who blocked the road during their ‘Bharat Bandh’ in Bengaluru on Monday.

Members of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ugrahan stop the Delhi-Shri Ganganagar Intercity Express during farmers’ Bharat Bandh against central government’s three farm reform laws near Patiala on Monday. —PHOTOS BY PTI

BHARAT AT STANDSTILL

Farmers block highways, railway tracks across states

New Delhi: The Indian Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) has issued a warning for heavy rainfall in Hyderabad and Mumbai on Tues-day. The Greater Hy-derabad Municipal Cor-poration (GHMC) has put the city on high alert. As per the weath-er report, the impact of Cyclone Gulab might last up to September 29.

According to a report by The News Minutes, the GHMC’s official note to the concerned authorities stated, “Alert Monsoon Emer-gency (MET) and sta-tion them at possible inundation locations based on previous expe-riences. Ensure that emergency team per-sonnel are on the field and respond to calls.

Cyclone Gulab puts Mumbai, Hyderabad on orange alert

New Delhi: Farmers blocked major high-ways and squatted on railway tracks in many states, including Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, during the Bharat bandh called by farmers’ bodies on Monday to protest against the new agri laws. The nationwide strike began at 6 am and ended at 4 pm.

Commercial estab-lishments remained shut and the movement of public transport was affected in many places as major high-ways and railway tracks were blocked by the protesters.

The effect of the bandh was felt the most around Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the cen-tre of the farm protests, and also in large pock-ets of Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Ben-gal and Odisha.

RAIL OPERATIONS LARGELY AFFECTED Rail operations in Delhi, Ambala and Firozepur divisions were impacted with people sitting on tracks. More than 20 railway tracks in Delhi were blocked by pro-testing farmers. Over 20 trains in the Ambala and Firozepur were affected.

‘MAKING EFFORTS TO REMOVE KISAN BLOCKADES’Amid continued blockade of key roads connecting Delhi to NCR regions by farmers protesting against farm laws, the Haryana Government has told the Supreme Court that it’s making “sincere” efforts to remove the blockade for re-sumption of free flow of traffic. “Sincere efforts are being made to remove the blockade from inter-state roads and National Highways and to resume free flow of traffic on those roads for the convenience of the general public by way of persuading the farmer organisations to cooperate,” the Haryana government said in an affidavit filed in SC.

Security personnel at Ghazipur border during farmers Bharat Bandh, in New Delhi on Monday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Bharat bandh was a massive success. We

had support of farmers. We can’t seal down

everything as we have to facilitate the

movement of people. We are ready for

discussions but no talks are happening.

— Rakesh Tikait, BKU leader

‘Exploitative govt doesn’t like satyagraha’Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to support to the protest by sharing a verse: “Kisanon ka ahinsak satyagraha aaj bhi akhand hai, Lekin shoshan-kar sarkar ko ye nahi pasand hai, Isliye aaj Bharat Band hai.” “Farm-ers’ non-violent satyagraha is intact even today. But the exploitative government does not like this.

PM launches Ayushman Bharat Digital MissionNew Delhi: Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi Monday launched the Ayushman Bharat Digi-tal Mission. Under this, a unique digital health ID will be provided to the people, which will contain all the health records of the person.

The pilot project of the National Digital Health Mission was an-nounced by the prime minister from the ram-parts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2020.

“Today is a very im-portant day. The drive to strengthen the health facilities of the country, in the last 7 years, is en-tering a new phase to-day. This is not an ordi-nary phase. This is an extraordinary phase,” Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi said, lauding the digital initiatives in the country.

During the address, PM Modi also praised the CoWIN platform.

www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

LUCKNOW l TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. UPENG/2020/80229 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 285

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD, LUCKNOW & NEW DELHI

The price of petrol rose by 13 paise per litre and of diesel by 37 paise per litre in Lucknow on Monday. Petrol now costs `98.30 and diesel `89.73 per litre.

BJP’s Dilip Ghosh was allegedly manhandled and faced “go back” slogans on the last day of cam-paign in Bhabanipur, where CM Mamata faces bypoll on Thursday.

Germany is embarking on a lengthy search for next govern-ment after Social Democrats nar-rowly beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc.

PETROL, DIESEL PRICES

ON THE RISE AGAIN

BJP’S DILIP GHOSH

HECKLED IN BHABANIPUR

GERMANY POLLS:

MERKEL’S PARTY LOSES

CORONA CATASTROPHE

UPINDIA

26,041new cases

276new fatalities

7 new cases

00new fatalities

It will bring all stakeholders in the field of health on a single platform and also help a patient connect with

a doctor who speaks the same language —Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

WHAT IS AYUSHMAN BHARAT MISSIONThe mission is currently being implemented in the pilot phase in six Union Territories. The mission will include a health ID for every citizen that will also be used as their health account. Personal health records can be linked to this account and viewed with the help of a mobile appli-cation. This health account will contain details of every test, every disease, the doctors visited for check-ups, the medicines taken and the diagnosis.

The Sensex gyrated 525 points and settled the day 29 points higher at 60,078. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty shut shop at 17,855, up only 2 points.

SENSEX UP 29 POINTS;

NIFTY AT 17,855

Get ready, Trinamool is going to Goa, declares Abhishek BanerjeeKolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) gener-al secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday said the party will ex-plore political opportu-nities outside West Ben-gal and will enter the poll scene in Goa in the coming days.Banerjee made it clear that, along with Tripu-ra and Assam, his party was taking Goa seri-ously. Several state Con-gress leaders are be-lieved to be in touch with the outfit, the sources said.

POLITICAL TOURISM HAS BEGUN: SAWANT

FORMER GOA CM FALEIRO RESIGNS AS CONGRESS MLA, LIKELY TO JOIN TMC

With the Assembly polls scheduled a few months away, Goa is promoting “po-litical tourism” Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on the occasion of ‘World Tourism Day’ while taking a dig at op-position political parties.

Former Goa chief minister and MLA Luizinho Faleiro resigned from the Congress party on Monday and is likely to join the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).Faleiro, who tendered his resignation as an MLA to Goa Assembly speaker, said, “Till now, no one is being held accountable for the loss of our 13 MLAs while sidelining of true Congress workers continues. The collapse of Congress party in the state is certain.”

UTTAR PRADESHLUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

02www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath on Monday invited peo-ple from all over the globe to come and ex-plore not only the cul-tural and natural beau-ty but also the rich her-itage sites of Uttar Pradesh, which had been developed with world class amenities.

With COVID-19 lock-down restrictions being removed across the world, the tourism in-dustry is looking for-ward to recovering from losses witnessed during the pandemic. This year’s theme is to highlight the travel sec-tor’s importance in the preservation of tradi-tional values. Describ-ing the wonders of the state CM Yogi said UP is a confluence and major center related to all faiths of which every Indian feels proud. “That is why our en-deavour and focus has been to develop tourism

facilities in the field of re l igious/spiri tual sites, whether it is Ayo-dhya, the holy land of Lord Shri Ram, Mathu-ra, the holy land of Lord Shri Krishna, Baba Vishwanath ji or the confluence of Moth-er Ganga and Yamuna,” he said.

“In 2019, we got the privilege of organizing a grand Kumbh in Pray-agraj, which was at-tended by more than 24 crore devotees in Praya-

graj in just 45 days.”, he added. He said that his government has imple-

mented reforms to pro-mote grim sites which also boost employment.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Nishad par-ty president Sanjay Ni-shad, who had demand-ed deputy chief minis-ter post but settled with his nomination as an MLC, thanked the BJP on Monday and said his party will ensure the NDA’s victory in next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

Sanjay Nishad, Jitin Prasada and two others were on Sunday recom-mended by the state government for nomi-nation to the legislative council.

“I am happy that I have been nominated to the Upper House of the

state legislature. It’s a big thing. Issues which were not heeded to by the previous govern-ments are being taken up by the BJP dispensa-tion,” Nishad told PTI.

Asked about his de-mand for deputy CM post, he said, “The BJP

has made a tea-seller prime minister of the country. It has recog-nised works done by me to awaken the Nishad community. Earlier, we used to fight on roads, now I will raise it in the House.”

Nishad had in July said his community wanted to see him as deputy chief minister and has accused BJP of not fulfilling its prom-ise of providing reser-vation to the Nishad community.

About his demand for reservation, Nishad said, “It is being seen. You can get a reaction from a government spokesperson.”

First India Bureau

Lucknow:Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma on Monday arrived in Kanpur to attend the centenary cele-brations of BNSD Inter College. In his address at the event after felicitating the teachers and alumni said that agriculture and farmers are one of the top priorities of the Bharatiya Ja-nata Party as the farmers are those who provide food for others.

He further added that due to the elec-tions approaching the state, people with political agendas are trying to malign the government in differ-ent ways.

Sharma said that

these people even during the last elec-tions tried to mislead the public but failed to do so miserably.

Speaking on Pri-yanka Gandhi to UP said that people who do not leave their homes for four and a half years go on po-litical tours s during elections.

On Owaisi’s public meeting in Kanpur, Sharma said that ‘Hyderabadi Bhai-jaan’ does not know about UP yet and that he should tell the people in Hyderabad that his party should learn from CM Yogi of Uttar Pradesh as there has not been a single communal riot since the BJP government came to power in UP.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: : Chief Min-ister Yogi Aditynatah has directed officials to fast-track construction of oxygen plants in all 75 districts of the State. He was reviewing the Covid-19 situation at a high-level meeting of officials at his resi-dence.

The UP CM was in-formed that the govern-ment had sanctioned 555 oxygen plants dur-ing the second Covid-19 wave during April and May this year. Of these 450 plants had been set up and 41 plants were set up in just 1 days. CM Yogi asked the officials to complete work on the remaining sanctioned 150 oxygen plants at a rapid pace.

“Real-time monitor-ing of the installation work has been planned and administrative of-ficials in districts have been asked to continu-ously monitor the pro-gress of installation work of plants and en-sure availability of raw material so that it can be completed on time,” he said.

Oxygen plants have also been mandatory in

hospitals which have the capacity of more than 50 beds.

The officials have been directed to assess the updated situation in this regard and take necessary action. Along with hospitals and medical colleges, oxygen plants are also being installed at the CHCs and the PHCs across the state.

Only 25 Oxygen plants

were functional in the state when the first Cov-id wave hit the State.

Oxygen plants are now also being in-stalled in CHCS and PHCS across the state. Before the second wave of coronavirus pandemic, only 25 oxy-gen plants were func-tional in UP. The gov-ernment later decided to spruce up supply in the state.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressing the event on the occassion of World Tourism Day said under the Chief Minister’s Tourism Promotion Scheme, each assembly constituency has been made a center and will be responsible development of one historical/religious site in the first phase of the programme.

EACH CONSTITUENCY TO DEVELOP A HISTORICAL SITE

CM Yogi has directed offi cials

to remain alert and Intensify sanitization, fogging and other measures for preven-tion and treatment of dengue and other viral diseases and also ensure availability of beds and medicines in hospitals.

UP CM has issued instructions that

Ramlila events should be held with strict compliance of Covid norms in UP. “Ramlila should be staged in open ground and audience should be allowed to attend as per the capacity of the ground,” he said

CM Yogi has

Yogi SpeaksYogi Speaks

CM Yogi inaugurates the UP Tourism Carnival on World Tourism Day in Lucknow on Monday. Urban Development Minister Ashutosh Tandon, Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh, Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia, Lucknow DM Abhishek Prakash and others were also present. —PHOTO BY SUMIT KUMAR

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a meet at Lok Bhawan.

Sanjay Nishad

Folk singer Malini Awasthi (Top) was the star performer at the Tourism Carnival programme organised by the UP Tourism Department at Gomti Riverfront in Lucknow on Monday. —PHOTOS BY SUMIT KUMAR

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Dedicated efforts of Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit San-sthan in promoting Sanskrit have started showing desired re-sults. The language has not only gained popu-larity nationally and internationally, but also, the number of Civil Service Aspir-ants opting for San-skrit has seen an over-whelming 2.5-fold icrease.

As a result of growing popularity of Sanskrit among the youth, over 500 civil service aspir-ants appeared in the entrance examination conducted for free preparation for civil services from Sanskrit by the UP Sanskrit Sansthan this year. The number of students has climbed up by two and a half times as compared to last year.The Yogi government has taken several ini-tiatives to promote In-

dian culture among the youth along with pro-

viding them with the knowledge and under-

standing of Sanskrit, consequently, the num-

ber of students taking online Sanskrit classes from UP Sanskrit San-sthan has reached 60 thousand.

To increase the im-portance of Sanskrit in the administrative ser-vices, under the free coaching programme by the Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan, the preparation for civil services ranging from preliminary examina-tion to interview is be-ing done in Sanskrit. The selection of stu-

dents is conducted in two phases. The first phase includes the en-trance exam.

After which the stu-dents are shortlisted for an interview ac-cording to the merit. A total of 60 students are selected.

There is also a provi-sion to give direct ad-mission to such candi-dates who have passed the preliminary exami-nation of UPSC. A total of 15 students are tak-en under this.

2.5 fold rise in number of students opting for Sanskrit in civil services examsVIJAYI BHAV

ACROSS STATES

Dy CM aspirant, now MLC nominee, Nishad thanks BJP

Expedite work on O2 plants: CM to officials

MOST NO. OF LPG CONSUMERS IN UP!

Farmers are top priority of BJP-led govt in UP: Sharma

Sharma at BSND Inter College in Kanpur on Monday.

Cultural events mark World Tourism Day, Golden Jubilee celebrations of UP Tourism DepartmentCM INVITES THE WORLD FOR UP DARSHAN

A DAY AFTER PRICE RAISE...

Sugarcane Minister of UP, Suresh Rana addressing a press conference on Monday at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow. ACS Sugarcane IAS Sanjay R Bhoosereddy, Director (Information), Shishir were also present. —PHOTO BY SUMIT KUMAR

The Yogi Adityanath

government in Uttar Pradesh

has taken several

initiatives to promote and

popularise Sanskrit

Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan.

UTTAR PRADESHLUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

03www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

MAN KILLED IN TIGER ATTACK

GIRL’S KIN PROTEST POLICE INACTION

Lucknow DM Abhishek Prakash oversees vaccination arrangements during the mega vaccination drive organised by the district administration on Monday. As many as 991 booths were set up at 433 sites in Lucknow with a target of vaccinating 573 persons on average at each booth. (R) People lined up for vaccination at a booth in Lucknow.

MAN HELD FOR NE DELHI RIOTS

New Delhi: A 29-year-old man wanted in several cases related to last year’s northeast Delhi riots and declared a proclaimed offender was arrested from Bulandshahr, the police said Monday. Police re-ceived information on Saturday that accused Mohd Salman was in Bulandshahr.

CRUCIAL READ

Lakhimpur Kheri: A 45-year-old man was killed in an attack by a big cat near Manjhra Reserve forest under North Nighasan forest range of Dudhwa buffer zone, officials said on Monday. The big cat is assumed to be a tiger based on eyewitness accounts and pugmarks found at the spot.

Bareilly: The family of an undergraduate student created ruckus at a police station here, alleging the police registered only a case of molestation despite the girl having been raped. The incident is being investigated and the victim has been sent to the hospital for medical examination.

@7, STATE LOGSlowest ever Covid case count

n Downward trend continues for eleventh consecutive week

n Positivity remains low at 0.01%, recovery rate climbs to 98.7%

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Marking al-most the end of corona-virus spell, Uttar Pradesh witnessed the steepest decline in the number of fresh cases with only 7 new cases being reported on Monday.

This is the lowest single-day tally so far. The downward trajec-tory of the virus has continued for the con-secutive eleventh week, testifying the success of numerous proactive measures im-plemented by the state government.

Consequently, UP, pushing the Covid graph southwards, has

maintained the daily Covid test positivity rate (TPR) at 0.01 per cent, the lowest in the country.

This rate was at its highest at 16.84 per cent on April 24 and now re-mains even lower than

the lowest post first wave of covid-19.

The Active Caseload in the most populous state now stands at 176, which has been brought down by over a remark-able 99 percent from its peak capped at 3,10,783

cases on April 30. With the recovery of

as many as 16,86,712 people from the Cov-id-19 infection, the state’s recovery rate has jumped to 98.7 per-cent.

With Highest Test-ing, Highest Recovery Rate and Lowest Test Positivity Rate, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a clear winner in com-bating coronavirus as the state’s covid condi-tion shows a healthier picture in comparison to all other states.

Earlier, UP adminis-tered over 30 lakh vac-cine doses on August 27, which was the highest ever in a day by any State.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Chairing a meeting of High Power Committee constituted under the chairman-ship of CS Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, the pro-gress of construction work of Delhi-Ghazi-abad-Meerut RRTS was reviewed.

Tiwari said for en-suring uninterrupted construction work, the Divisional Commis-sioner, Meerut and DMs, Meerut and Gha-ziabad and other offic-ers should remove all hindrances at the earli-est and get the land re-lated issues settled by October. He also direct-

ed to expedite the pro-cess for taking policy decisions from the competent level for rate fixation of government land.

Despite the unfore-seen challenges of Cov-id-19, he appreciated NCRTC for speedy con-struction work on the corridor.

Kannauj: Two girls were allegedly held hostage and gang raped in a cyber cafe here when they had gone to get some docu-ments photocopied, police said on Monday.

Four men took hos-tage of the two girl students at the cafe on September 13 and one of the accused also re-corded the act, the po-lice said. The accused also extorted Rs 10,000 from the girls, threat-ening to circulate the video.

SP Prashant Verma said a case was regis-tered at Sadar Kotwali on Sunday against six people, including a woman, based on the complaint of one of the girls.

The 17-yr-old said she had gone to the cafe with her friend at noon on September 13 when four people, who were already present there, raped them. One of the accused made a video of the act and handed it over to his brother-in-law who extorted Rs 10,000. —PTI

First India Bureau

Prayagraj: The CJM court on Monday al-lowed the CBI’s appli-cation for remand of Anand Giri, Aadya Ti-wari and Sandeep Ti-wari , who are accused in the suspicious death of Mahant Narendra Giri and granted seven days custody to the agency.

Earlier, the CBI had filed an application be-fore Prayagraj Court on Sunday, seeking custodial remand of the three suspects on the grounds that they have to recover elec-tronic gadgets contain-ing incriminating in-formation leading to the death of Narender Giri. The agency seeks to recover evidences from various places, which the three ac-cused can point out in Prayagraj and Harid-war. “For the purpose of investigation of the present case and also to unravel the mystery behind the alleged sui-cide of late Narendra Giri, custodial interro-gation of accused Anand Giri, Adya Prasad Tiwari and Sandeep Tiwari is es-sentially required,” the CBI had mentioned in its application.

CJM Harendra Nath’s granted 7-day custody to the agency and the three accused will be on CBI remand

from 9 am today ie Sep-tember 28 till 6 pm on October 4.

On Monday accused appeared through vid-eo conferencing.

On September 23, The court had directed senior superintendent of Naini Central Jail to take necessary steps to make security arrange-ments for the accused as per the provisions of jail manual and oth-er relevant laws.

CJM directed the senior superintendent

of jail that on the next date of hearing, the accused should be pro-duced in the court through video confer-encing.

It is to recall that on September 20, Mahant Narendra Giri was found hanging from a ceiling fan by a rope and a purported sui-cide note was found from the room and it named his disciple, Anand Giri, and two others as responsible for the extreme step.

Uttar Pradesh on Monday administered over 32.9 lakh doses, making it one of the highest ever single-day vac-

cine coverage for the state. This vaccine landmark was achieved under a mega free vaccination campaign conducted on September 27 to inoculate maximum of its eligible beneficiaries. Over 1,72,040 doses were administered in Lucknow itself. The state has so far given over 10,33,49,118 ‘Shots of Life’ to the people.

In another achievement, the most populous state has also administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to over 55 per cent of eligible adult population. Over 8,38,28,804 people have received first dose of the vaccine so far.

RECORD 32.9L DOSES IN A SINGLE DAY

CBI gets remand of accused in Narendra Giri case

CS reviews Del-Gzb-Meerut RRTS work

Prayagraj: The CBI has taken over case and accused were taken on 7-day remand. Initial investigations have raised questions on suicide theory and note recovered

from his room. It was reported that CCTV cameras installed in Math were not working when the incident occurred. Some ques-tions like how Mahant reached the room where he committed alleged suicide remains unan-swered after malfunctioning of CCTV cameras. Some Sevadar at Math claimed that electricity was out that time and DVR

machine connected to cameras was not functioning for past few days. It was also speculated that DVR machine was intentionally disturbed before incident.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS GALORE SURROUNDING DEATH MYSTERY

CBI officers at Baghambari Gaddi Math where Mahant Narendra Giri was found dead, in Prayagraj on Monday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Girls gang raped in cyber cafe, hunt on for 4

CS RK Tiwari chairing the meet on Monday.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: With 2022 as-sembly elections fast approaching, a quite battle has ensued among non-BJP parties for pie in dominant Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh. While so-called Muslim parties- AIMIM, Peace Party, Rashtriya Ulema Council (RUC) have been making tall claims to represent the commu-nity and provide leader-ship, major political players-Samajwadi Par-ty, BSP and Congress are closely monitoring the movements in the com-munity, which has been maintaining stoic si-lence and has been re-straining from any prov-ocation.

While AIMIM has al-ready launched its elec-tion campaign, the Peace Party headed by Dr Ayub and RUC of Maulana Amir Rashadi have float-ed United Democratic Front (UDF) to mobilise the community on a plat-form. They accused all non-BJP parties of ex-ploiting the community over decades and using

them simply as “vote bank”. “Whereever we are going we are asking the community to have patience and maintain low profile,” said a se-nior member of All In-dia Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). The community during successive elections in the past had resorted to “tactical voting” and this possibility cannot be ruled out in the next polls. The community

has been monitoring the emerging alliances among non-BJP parties and then it will decide course of action, said an AIMPLB member.

However, with smaller Muslim parties, which are being dubbed as “vote cutters” (Vote Katuwa) joining the fray, a big a debate has ensued in the community whether it would lead to split in vote or the Mus-lims would stay united.

As parties vie to woo Muslims, their allegiance still unclear

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi addressing a rally. —FILE PHOTO

The UDF, which has invited other “like-minded” parties to join the front, has announced to field candidates all over the state. Similarly, the AIMIM headed by Asadud-din Owaisi has planned to field at least 100 candidates in Muslim dominated constituencies. Even as sharp communal polarisation has been continuing in the state, the community has adopted “wait and watch” tactics to crystalise the situation among the non-BJP parties.

WAIT AND WATCH TACTICS

PERSPECTIVELUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

04www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

l Vol 1 l Issue No. 285 l RNI NO. UPENG/2020/80229.

Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Amar Ujala Ltd. B-5 Amausi

Industrial Area Kanpur Road Luc-know. Published at 98, Friend’’s Colony, Raheem Nagar, Dudouli Road, Madiyaon, Lucknow (UP).

Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan

responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Promoted by First India News International Pvt. Ltd.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

There is no fire like passion, there is no shark

like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no

torrent like greed. —Buddha

IN-DEPTH

Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal

Participated in the closing ceremony of ‘Vanijya Saptah’ in New Delhi.Heartening

to see the enthusiasm with over 700 physical & virtual events across various districts. The coalition between Govt. & businesses will drive innovation & help

strengthen Brand India globally.

Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp

TMCs brand of democracy, peace and social justice. Has @MamataOfficial sensed a repeat of Nandigram in the #BhawaniporeByElection? A must-win situation for her to hold on the

CM’s chair, Didi and her goons resort to their time-tested methods to

jeopardise fair elections.

TOP TWEETS

MORE FEMALE MPS DON’T MAKE ICELAND THE WORLD’S BEST PLACE FOR WOMEN

celand has elected Europe’s first female-majority parliament. After Sunday’s counting of votes, fe-

male candidates won 33 seats in the 63-seat parliament. No other country in Europe has a female-majority parliament. Rwanda, Cuba, Nicaragua and Mexico are the other countries where women are in majority in their respective parliaments, while in India they continue to struggle for 33 percent seats in the legis-lature without hope. With only 103 MPs in both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha women remain grossly under-represented.

Rated the world’s most gender-equal nation, has equal pay for men and women. Not many would be aware that it was the world’s first country to have an all-wom-en political party in the mid-eighties and also had the first fe-male president in the world.

Dubbed the best place in the world to be a woman, Iceland is one of the most violent societies for women. Incidents of domes-tic violence and sexual abuse have been aptly called the “Nor-dic paradox”.

I

ne year of the en-actment of three farm laws passed by the BJP govern-ment on Septem-

ber 17, 2020, went off unno-ticed. The farmers feared that the three laws will eventually lead to the abolition of mini-mum support price (MSP) and leave them vulnerable for the corporations to exploit. The three laws which became con-tentious are the Farmers’ Pro-duce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Essential Commodi-ties (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

The laws were challenged in the Supreme Court and farmers threatened to start an

agitation to force the govern-ment to withdraw the laws. Despite several rounds of talks the government refused to either repeal, or amend the laws. Full-fledged protests be-gan from November 25 on Delhi-Haryana border.

Attempts to malign the

kisan movement failed as the farmers steadfastly kept the protests apolitical, not allow-ing any political leader to ad-dress them. They bore winter chill, heat of the summer and lashing of the rain. Rakesh Tikait of the Kisan Morcha proved true to his words that farmers won’t budge till the laws are taken back.

The Bharat Bandh observed on Monday marked a culmina-tion of one year of the farmers’ protests. It’s impact was more visible in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP. The bandh showed that the movement was still go-ing strong. The BJP knows it. It also knows that Punjab and UP elections are not too far away and that a solution has to be found. Else, Western UP will majorly dent their elec-toral prospects.

FARMERS SHOW THEIR STRENGTH THROUGH BANDH

Attempts to malign the kisan movement

failed as the farmers steadfastly kept the

protests apolitical, not allowing any political

leader to address them. They bore winter chill,

heat of the summer and lashing of the rain

O

t was the last week of Sep-tember of 2021, a hectic three-day schedule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visits USA to share high-table with the US-president Joe Biden at White House, at-tends the QUAD summit comprising India, Australia, Japan and America, address-es UNGA and meets the top corporate leaders seeking investment for India.

Amidst these high-profile diplomatic activities, Modi finds time to contact the French president, Emma-nuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron, wins him back to seek French cooperation in various international issues, especially related to the Indo-Pacific. Thus, he tries to as-suage the French concern following the formation of the new military alliance comprising Australia, UK and USA, AUKUS.

It must have been quite sat-isfying for the Mandarins of the South Block that houses two key offices, PMO and Ex-ternal Affairs, in New Delhi,

who had made detailed prep-arations during the past sev-eral months for the success of these high-profile interac-tions. Therefore, it is an un-even or unnecessary com-parison of the recent perfor-mance of Modi with his Paki-stani counterpart, Imran Khan, in the UNGA. Khan, a cricketer turned politician, and an Oxford graduate, a proxy civilian face of the Pa-kistani army is known for indulging in false rhetoric and untruths causing much embarrassment to his men-tors at the GHQ in Rawalpin-di. He was asked to deliver his prepared UNGA speech on a video-link, but again he could not impact anyone due to its poor content and wrong information.

Meanwhile, during this short period, when Modi was away to meet the world lead-ers, India’s strategic com-mand got its much-awaited Agni-V, inter-continental bal-listic missile (ICBM), a deter-rent, capable of hitting tar-gets beyond five thousand kilometres and beyond with multiple war-heads. The in-duction of the new missile system to the Indian forces could not have been better timed, especially when India joins the concerned world leaders scared of China’s growing influence in the In-

do-Pacific region.Amidst these high-level

dialogues, Modi talks to the French president, Macron, to reassure him of the on-going Indian cooperation with France and European Union. Since 2018, under Macron, a trilateral cooperation among three countries, Australia, France and India has been introduced, but the coopera-tion suffered a setback fol-lowing the sudden cancella-tion of the diesel submarine deal between France and Australia this month, which was in the final stage of a prolonged five-year negotia-tion. Australia had dumped its ongoing negotiations with France, just a week before

the QUAD and had replaced the French offer by a multi-billion USD deal for obtain-ing American nuclear sub-marines.

It was a well enacted per-formance of an Indian Prime Minister in decades based on a well prepared text in Hindi. He appeared to be quite confident and natural while explaining the Indian view-point; therefore, it would just be a knavish to compare Modi’s diplomatic offensive with Khan. Apart from triggering off debate by branding the Pakhtoons and Taliban, his speech was based on a doctored video text. He was heard quoting the speech of the former US President Ronald Reagan, who according to him had compared the Afghan Tali-ban with the founders of the USA. In fact, Reagan was mentioning the Nicaraguan fighters, who had struggled against Marxists. It may also be noted that during Rea-gan’s tenure, the Taliban did not exist. Reagan was hon-ouring Abdul Haq Haqqua-ni, a Mujahideen trained in Pakistan, for fighting against the USSR’s invasion in Afghanistan.

As expected, there was much anguish in Pakistan regarding the worldwide em-barrassment caused by Khan’s speech. While Khan was seeking financial assis-tance for the Taliban govern-ment, the reports were pour-ing in that under unverified charges four accused were hanged publicly in Afghani-stan. An angry Pakistani woman journalist, Tamkinet Kareem and the founder of the Naya Daur digital chan-nel, Reza Rumi, were aghast by Khan’s use of doctored videos and information in his speech before the UNGA.

During the visit, apart from meeting Biden, Modi has also successfully estab-lished close ties with the world leaders. He presented US Vice President Kamala Harris with a government notification about her grand-father, PV Gopalan, who was a respected civil servant in India. It was framed in a beautiful wooden frame. He gifted the Australian Prime Minister, Morrison Scott, a handcrafted ‘meenakari’- a popular design of India, in pink coloured silver ship and the Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, a beautiful Buddha idol in sandalwood.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Imran’s UNGA Speech Compares Taliban With Founders of USA!

Modi’ blitzkrieg in international diplomacy, but Pak PM quotes from a doctored video

IKhan, a cricketer turned

politician, and an Oxford graduate, a proxy civilian face of the Pakistani army

is known for indulging in false rhetoric and

untruths causing much embarrassment to his

mentors at the GHQ in Rawalpindi. He was asked

to deliver his prepared UNGA speech on a video-

link, but again he could not impact anyone due to its poor content and

wrong information

During this short period, when Modi was away to meet the world leaders,

India’s strategic command got its

much-awaited Agni-V, inter-continental ballistic missile

(ICBM), a deterrent, capable of hitting targets

beyond five thousand kilometres and beyond with multiple war-heads

GOPAL MISRAThe writer is accredited as a Journalist

of Long and distinguished service with the Press Information Bureau of the Information

and Broadcasting Ministry

To Receive Free Newspaper PDF Daily

Whatsapp: https://bit.ly/whatsapplko

Telegram: https://t.me/firstindialucknow

Click the above link☝ & subscribe us on your

preferred platform.

INDIALUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

05www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

‘Not footballs in game of power’: SC slams Centre on NEET changesNew Delhi: The Su-preme Court on Mon-day came down heavily on the Centre for an-nouncing last-minute changes to the pattern of the National Eligi-bility cum Entrance Test Post-Graduate Su-per Specialty (NEET SS) exam 2021.

It has asked the gov-ernment to hold meet-ings of the concerned authorities and submit a response to a plea against the tweaks on October 4.

The plea by 41 post-graduate doctors had

challenged the abrupt changes contending that this was done to favour general medi-cine candidates. In 2018, NEET SS involved 40 per cent of the ques-tions from general medicine and 60 per cent from super speci-ality. This time, how-ever, all questions are to be from general med-icine.

The plea stated that dates of NEET-SS 2021 were announced on July 23, 2021, but the change in the pattern was made public more

than a month later on August 31 “when only two months remained before the NEET-SS 2021 exams, to be held on the 13th and 14th of November 2021”.

According to the 41 doctors plea, submitted by their advocate Jave-dur Rahman, aspirants have been preparing

for the older pattern for the past three years.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna ques-tioned government’s tearing hurry to imple-ment the change in the exam pattern.

“Don’t treat these young doctors as foot-balls in the game of

power...We can’t put these doctors at the mercy of insensitive bureaucrats...Put your house in order...Just be-cause somebody has the power, you can’t yield the power in any manner,” Justice Chan-drachud said.

The court asked what the National Medical Commission was doing and reminded the gov-ernment that the lives of doctors were in-volved in the issue.

“This is so important for their careers. Now you cannot introduce

changes last minute...These young doctors might be put at ruse due to last-minute changes,” Justice Na-garathna said.

The court said that students begin prepar-ing for super speciality courses “months and months” in advance and asked why the changes cannot be in-troduced from the fol-lowing year and not right away.

“Please deal with young doctors with sen-sitivity,” Justice Chan-drachud said. —Agencies

This is so important for their careers. Now you cannot introduce changes last minute...These young doctors

might be put at ruse due to last-minute changes. —Justice BV Nagarathna

What will come out of the investigation in Pegasus cases?

Sharat K Verma

New Delhi: The Pegasus espionage case seems to be a ‘concoct-ed’ nine-day-long affair over which the entire Monsoon session of Parliament was disrupt-ed. The Opposition con-tinued to demand a dis-cussion in the House on Pegasus case and a joint parliamentary panel to probe the matter, but government did not agree.

The matter later reached Su-preme Court. Several journal-ists and people associated with publication filed petitions in SC.

At the very beginning of the hearing on this petition, government said it would constitute a panel of technical ex-perts, which would ex-amine it and report to SC.

The government gave a one-page affidavit and said that this is not a subject on which there should be a public dis-cussion in SC. Under the guise of national security, government

kept postponing the is-sue of giving a detailed affidavit on the matter before SC.

On this, the court also expressed displeasure and said it does not want any information related to national secu-rity but the government should give a detailed affidavit.

When the govern-ment refused, SC said it would decide on it. Days after reserving the ver-dict, court informed

counsel for one of the petitioners

that it would constitute a committee of experts to inves-

tigate the matter and report to Supreme

Court. This is what even the government had been saying since day one. The only difference is that now this commit-tee will be formed under the Supreme Court.

But this alone does not ensure that the com-mittee will be able to conduct an objective in-quiry. After all, the more access the govern-ment gives to the com-mittee, the more it will be able to probe.

Anita Hada

New Delhi: The political heat in West Bengal is not go-ing to cool down anytime soon. Just on September 17, a lead article was published in TMC’s mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’ with the headline, ‘Rahul Gandhi Failed to Suc-ceed: Mamta Banerjee is the Only Alternative Face’.

This has given rise to con-troversy and has also raised questions on the unity of Op-position parties in India. Two months ago, West Ben-gal Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee had visited the na-tional capital for the first time after winning the as-sembly elections. During the course of her five day visit, she met important leaders of Opposition parties including Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Rahul Gandhi. Since then, speculations were be-ing made that a ‘United Op-position Front’ is being pre-pared against BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and Mamata has taken over the helm.

Mamata’s moves fuelled these speculations and

many thought that she wanted to pro-ject herself as the prime ministerial

candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But eve-

ry time her role in na-

tional poli-tics is t a l k e d

about, Mamata denies that she has the aspiration to be-come PM.

Mamata had said during her visit to Delhi, “I have a beautiful house in Kolkata and I want to stay there. I don’t want to be a leader but a cadre.”

However, two months after Didi’s statement, TMC leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bando-padhyay told party workers in north Kolkata in a private meeting, “I have been watch-ing Rahul Gandhi for a long time and he has not devel-oped himself as an alterna-tive to Modi. The country wants Mamata, so we will campaign with Didi at the Centre.” He had also said TMC is not advocating an al-liance without the Congress in any way. He had said, “We will talk to all the Opposition parties and before starting the election campaign, we will present Mamata as an alternative.”

On August 20, Mamata also

participated in the virtual meeting of 19 Opposition par-ties which was organised by Sonia Gandhi. There she in-sisted that even those parties that did not have an alliance with the Congress should be invited to Opposition block so that everyone unites against the saffron party.

During the 2019 general elections, Mamata was one of those leaders who first came forward and formulat-ed the strategy of a united opposition. When former Un-ion Minister and BJP MP from Asansol Babul Supriyo went to TMC, senior party leader and three-time MP Kalyan Banerjee said, “The picture has be-come very clear. In the 2024 LS polls, there will be only one face in front of Modi across India; that of Mamata.

These state-ments were not

just personal. TMC is trying hard to put Mamata on the national stage in a planned manner. And the instruc-tions to make such state-ments come only from the top leadership of the party.

Last Wednesday Time Magazine released its annual list of ‘100 Most Influential People of 2021’. Only two peo-ple from India are included in this list ie PM Modi and Mamata Banerjee. TMC lead-ers are very excited by this campaign and are calling Didi the only credible face in front of Modi.

IS TMC UNDERMINING EFFORTS OF OPPOSITION UNITY AGAINST BJP?MAMATA ALWAYS DENIES THIS, BUT TMC IS CONSTANTLY PITCHING HER AS PM FACE AGAINST NARENDRA MODI FOR 2024 GENERAL ELECTIONS

WHAT IS THIS SYNERGY BETWEEN CONGRESS AND MAMATA?

There has been an undeclared rapprochement between Mamata Banerjee’s party TMC

and the Indian National Congress headed by Sonia Gandhi. Mamata is contesting the by-election from Bhabanipur assembly seat, so Con-gress has not fi elded a candidate there. The candidate of Congress’ ally CPM is contesting but the party has also refused to go for his campaign. Mamata’s election strategist Prashant Kishor is ac-

tively involved in Congress politics these days and he is playing the role of bringing both the parties closer. On one hand this politics is happening and on the other hand Mamata is poaching Congress leaders one after the other. Along with the BJP, she is also getting the Congress leaders to switch sides. Moinukal Haque, a big leader of the Congress and a fi ve-time MLA, left the party to join TMC. Earlier last month, former All India Mahila

Congress President Sushmita Deb too joined TMC. Even Abhijit Mukherjee, son of former Presi-dent late Pranab Mukherjee and two-time Congress Lok Sabha MP, also joined Trinamool. When Mamata was against Congress, she had got Congress MP Mausam Noor included in her party. Just think, what is the plight of the Congress that its ally is breaking its party and the grand-old-party is not able to stop it from happening.

Rahul Gandhi

We will talk to all the Opposition parties and before starting the election campaign, we will present Mamata as an alternative. The picture has become very clear. In the 2024 LS polls, there will be only one face in front of Narendra Modi across India; that of Mamata Banerjee. —TMC leaders on Mamata Banarjee as PM face

Mamata Banerjee

Rakesh Ranjan

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Si-tharaman isn’t prone to exaggerated expressions. Indeed her hallmark has been understatements.

Go no further. Just look at her speech at the 74th Annual General Meeting of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) in Mumbai. “Get out of the socialist-era mindset, you have to be professional in every way,” she said.

It was possibly the understatement of the Century, wasn’t it? The real expression for what

she calls the socialist era is possibly the klep-tocratic or thievocratic era, whose impact the entire banking system is still trying to absorb. If one tot up the entire defaulted amount since the Independence, one could figure out how the thievocratic politi-cal elite brought the grinding poverty to the doorstep of 90% of the population.

And as banks try to limp back to steady treading, they may do well to heed to the FM’s advice on specialised banking where the op-portunity for growth and

profit is unlimited. In this context, she pointed out that the NDA admin-istration was targeting a $2trillion export income for 2030.

This could be achieved only if the banks invest in acquir-ing specialist knowl-edge for understanding the dynamics of various economic segments and make informed invest-ments in economic ac-celerators. Of the $2tril-lion exports targeted for 2030, $1 trillion will ac-crue from merchandise and $1 trillion from ser-vices exports.

“This target cannot

be achieved unless banks are going to be nimble, with a sound understanding of vari-ous businesses and sec-

tors,” she said.She underlined the

need for having four or five banks of the size of SBIs. This was necessi-

tated, according to her, in view of the steady pace of sectoral and fi-nancial reforms being planned and executed to provide a critical thrust to economy before it can take off. “I wish IBA rises to this occasion and provides India the best of financial servic-es,” she added.

Banks need to do a lot to provide customer sat-isfaction, she said. Be-sides being inclusive in the sense that it should cover even the remotest panchayats linked by op-tical fiber cables, she stressed the need for en-hancing the customer

experience for portfolios and offerings 24x7. “The communication world is a lot more agile, 24/7; you need to be real-time”.

She exhorted bankers to put flesh and blood in the UPI system. “In the payment world today, In-dian UPI has made a very big impression. A RuPay card which was not as glamorous as a foreign card is now ac-cepted in so many differ-ent parts of the world,” she added.

Further digitization of the banking system in remote rural areas would accelerate UPI’s popular-ity and cut the cost in-

volved in physical bank-ing, she pointed out.

Finally, she said that if the Account Aggregator Framework is put to use well, then there won’t be any need for specialized credit outreach.

An Account Aggrega-tor (AA) is a type of RBI regulated entity that helps an individual se-curely and digitally ac-cess and share informa-tion from one financial institution they have an account with to any other regulated finan-cial institution. The data cannot be shared without the consent of the individual.

FM MAKES UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY!

Nirmala Sitharaman

INDIALUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

06www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

CANCER PATIENT PIL

CRUCIAL READ

LS Speaker Om Birla launches Nidhi 2.0 and released “India

Tourism Statistics”

Thakur avers India can become hub of religious tourism as it has a huge potential to grow

Tourism is one of the growth engines of economy and

employment, says PM Modi

ON WORLD TOURISM DAY, CELEBRATING TOURISM

...FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTHNew Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, de-livered keynote address in the programme “Tourism for Inclusive Growth” organized by the Ministry of Tour-ism, GoI, to mark the World Tourism Day.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Birla said that post-Covid, the tourism sector is reviving in In-dia at a faster pace. He further said that com-mitted and collective efforts will ensure that India will emerge as the best tourist destination in the world.

OM BIRLA SPEAKS ON ROADMAP TO BOOST TOURISMTo boost tourism, LS Speaker Birla suggest-ed that ambitious and sustained efforts are needed to promote ru-ral tourism. This will strengthen rural econo-my by creating de-mands for handicrafts and other rural prod-ucts.

Similarly, tourist des-tinations which are still secrets should be brought on map of In-dia so that more and more people know about the destinations, he said. He emphasized on use of IT tools to pro-mote tourists. —PTI

New Delhi: On the oc-casion of World Tour-ism Day, Union Sports Minister Anurag Sin-gh Thakur said that the ‘Religious tourism’ sector in India is ex-tremely wide and has a huge potential to grow.

The minister is cur-rently in Jammu and Kashmir and visited Mata Kheer Bhawani Temple in the Gander-bal district. While talk-ing about tourism sec-tor in J-K, he said that after abrogation of Ar-ticles 370 and 35A, tour-ism sector received boost as peace was re-stored in the region & number of tourist are now visiting religious places more. —ANI

After abrogation of Art 370, tourism got boost in J-K: Thakur

MMMMINISTER LAUNCHES SPECIAL TOUR

Snow stretched moun-tains to lush green for-ests, ancient civilisa-

tional marvels to vibrant cul-ture & traditions, India has something to offer to everyone. Travel, explore and evolve! On #WorldTourismDay, let us pledge to explore the diversity of India. —Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister

The way we collectively defeated Covid-19, our collective force and coordinated efforts will take our economy to a new height.

Tourism is one of the growth engines of economy and employment. Therefore, spel focus is need-

ed for further development of this sector. —Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

The way we collectively defeated Covid-19, our collective force and co-

ordinated efforts will take our economy to a new height. Tour-ism is one of the growth engines of economy and employment. Therefore, special focus is need-ed for further development of this sector. —Om Birla, Lok Sabha Speaker

Om Birla with G Kishan Reddy & Shripad Yesso Naik releasing “India Tourism Statistics: At a Glance, 2021”in Program “Tourism for Inclusive Growth” organized by Ministry of Tourism, GoI, on Monday.

Ministers’ Training Day!Smriti Irani, Jitendra Singh, Hardeep Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan & Mansukh Mandaviya focus on grievances that flood ministers’ officesNew Delhi: In a unique initiative to increase ef-ficiency and improve the functioning of the public grievance re-dressal mechanism of Union Government, im-mediate employees of several Cabinet minis-ters underwent a day-long workshop.

To aid ministers in managing public and of-ficial responsibilities efficiently, the personal assistants, OSDs, pri-vate secretaries were shortlisted to undergo a training-cum-orienta-tion program for effec-tive time management. This is second such training in 2nd term of Modi government. —ANI

THE POINT OF DISCUSSION... FOCUS ON PUBLIC

RS bypoll: DMK’s Somu, KRN elected unopposedChennai: Two candi-dates of ruling DMK Dr Kanimozhi NVN Somu and KRN Rajesh Kumar were Monday declared elected unopposed to the RS from TN Assem-bly. Since Dr Kanimozhi and Rajesh Kumar were only candidates. EO, LAS K Srinivasan handed over certificate

announcing election to Upper House of Parl.

Total 3 vacant seats, bypoll to fill vacancy caused by death of AI-ADMK MP Mohamed-jan was held and DMK nominee MM Abdullah was declared elected unopposed to RS, tak-ing strength of DMK in Upper House of Parl.

Who is Kanimozhi NVN Somu?Kanimozhi, daughter of former Union Min-ister NVN Somu, is a renowned obstetri-cian, gynaecologist and laparoscopic surgeon. She had con-tested from T Nagar.

WHO IS RAJESH KUMAR?Rajesh Kumar is

in-charge for DMK in Namak-kal (East) & part of DMK Youth

Wing. By-elections were held to fi ll vacan-cies after resignations of AIADMK members.

SC GRANTS 4 MONTHS TO TAMIL NADU SEC FOR URBAN LOCAL BODY POLLSNew Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted four more months to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commis-sion’’s (TNSEC) for concluding the poll process for the urban local bodies elections in the state. The top court, on June 22, had granted an opportunity to the TNSEC to conduct by September 15 this year the local body polls in nine new districts carved out of four existing ones in Tamil Nadu and had warned it of contempt action in case of non-compliance.

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ‘LITTLE BIT MISCHIEF’ ON LOC: LT GEN PANDEY

ED QUESTIONS SP LEADER AZAM KHAN IN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE

Srinagar: In an obvious reference to recent incidents of infi ltration and an occasional ceasefi re violation on the LoC, Lt General Pandey said: “The army is ready to deal

with any situation on the LoC and the hinterland. “People have understood the game of the separa-tists. “The situation is peaceful across the valley and the tourist

footfall is increasing. Bookings at the hotels is also good”. The senior army offi cer was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function at Boniyar in the Uri sector.

Mumbai: SP leader Azam Khan was questioned by the ED in connection with a money laundering case at Sitapur Jail in UP where he is lodged, said ED offi cials.

The SP leader was grilled by ED offi -cials after the PMLA court authorised ED to question him. On September 20, ED offi cials said the investigating

agency received permission from the court to question UP leaders Azam Khan and Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmad in connection with an alleged money laundering case.

NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO ILLICIT RISE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS: SHRINGLA AT UNNew York: India is committed to the goal of a nuclear weapons free world and complete elimination of nu-clear weapons from the world, Foreign Secretary Harsh

Vardhan Shringla on Monday said at the United Nations Secu-rity Council meeting. “We believe that this goal can be achieved through a step-by-step process underwritten

by a universal commitment and an agreed global and non-discriminatory multilateral framework, as outlined in India’s Working Paper on Nuclear Disarmament submitted to the UN General Assembly in 2006,” Shringla added.

Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Monday alleged that All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owai-si is “behind-the-scenes facilitator” of BJP’s “successful journey” in country, called him “un-dergarment” of “con-tractor parent” BJP.

Saamana, Shiv Sena asked BJP if ruling par-ty’s politics could not progress without using name of “Pakistan”. Shiv Sena said Assem-

bly polls fast approach-ing in UP, Owaisi has made “preps to create caste & religious ani-mosity”. “Two days ago, on his way to Lucknow from Prayagraj, Owai-si’s supporters gathered on, raised slogans of ‘Pak Zindabad’. —ANI

Owaisi undergarment of BJP, behind the scenes facilitator, says Shiv Sena

SAAMANA SAIDNew Delhi: Describing the allegations made by Panchjanya, a journal with RSS leanings, against the American multinational compa-ny Amazon as serious, the Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh (RSS) has demanded that the gov-ernment investigate the whole matter. RSS leader said that the al-legations levelled against Amazon in the cover story of Panch-janya are serious & govt should probe. —ANI

RSS seeks govt probe

New Delhi: India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has crossed the 86 crore mark, the Union Health Ministry informed on Monday.

“With the adminis-tration of 38,18,362 vac-cine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage crossed the landmark of 86 (86,01,59,011) crores as per provision-al reports till Monday morning. —ANI

India’s vax coverage crosses 86 crSAFE, EFFECTIVE JAB

I personally believe that the area of re-

ligious tourism in In-dia is large. If you see in Himachal Pradesh, there are three times more tourists than the population and out of which two-three part of that tourist are also ‘religious tourists. —Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Sports Minister

HEALTHCARE

1,03,71,418get fi rst dose

88,35,377 get second dose

FRONTLINE

1,83,49,453get fi rst dose

1,48,33,709 get second dose

AGE GROUP 18 PLUS

34,82,66,215get fi rst dose

7,45,08,007 get second doseVA

CCIN

ATIO

N TR

ACKE

R

Dharmendra Hardeep Smriti Mansukh Jitendra

People wait in queue to get jab.

UNHAPPY OVER CONG FUNCTIONING, EX KERALA UNIT CHIEF RESIGNS AICC

PLEA IN HC SEEKS INCREASE IN SECURITY, SAFETY FOR SUBORDINATE COURTS

Thiruvananthapuram: The efforts of Congress leader-ship in Kerala to pacify party leader VM Sudheeran, who recently resigned from the PAC seems to not yield results as the senior leader relinquished his AICC mem-bership on Monday. The discontent brewing inside the Congress in Kerala had spilt out into the open after the party’s organization rejig was carried out following the drubbing suffered by UDF in the last Kerala Assembly polls. Sudheeran, who had stayed away from group politics in Kerala for long, is yet to react regarding this.

New Delhi: An application has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking direction to Delhi Police to increase security and other safety measures in subordinate courts premises of Delhi in the wake of a shootout in the Rohini court that left three gangsters dead. Advocate Richa Singh mentioned the matter before a Bench of the Justices DN Patel and Jyoti Singh on Monday and the court allowed the urgent listing of the matter. “We will hear the matter on Wednesday,” it said. A fresh applica-tion has been moved in an ongoing PIL of KG Singh.

NEWSLUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

07www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

TWO CYBER FRAUDSTERS ASSOCIATED WITH NIGERIAN GANG HELD

Two members of a Nigerian gang of cyber scammers

were arrested for allegedly siphoning off Rs 1 lakh from Goa Chief Secretary’s bank account, police said here on Monday. The Goa Police had recently informed that the email ID of the chief secretary, Praimal Rai, had been hacked and later Rs 1 lakh was fraudulently transferred into the account of one Shivkumar, a resident of Dhantiya, and Gulab

Gaus of Harharpur Matkli of Hafi zganj, Bareilly Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohit Singh Sajwan said. A joint team of Bareilly and Goa Police arrested both the accused from Cibiganj area on Sunday night and they will be taken to Goa on transit remand , the SSP said. According to police, Shivkumar has admitted that he works for a Nigerian gang of thugs based in Delhi and that the gang leader trusts him as he is well versed in

online banking and Ghulam Gaus is also linked to the business. Shivkumar also said that he has got opened dozens of accounts in the name of unemployed youth and women in rural areas luring them with 10 per cent commission. During interrogation, they said their gang members, after hacking the email, collected the bank account details and transferred money online into their accounts, police added.

—M Tariq Khan

EX-EMPLOYEE STEALS EMPLOYER’S CAR TO TAKE REVENGE

A n employee angered at being fi red stole the car of the

employer to get back at him.The incident took place in Juhi, Kanpur where a car with registration UP 78 FX 3811 was stolen from Anandpuri, and a case was registered by the car’s owner Amit Jain resident of Anandpuri after which the police began an investigation. The police showing quick action recovered the stolen car within 4 hours from the Juhi yard and arrested Abhishek alias, Saurabh Shukla. The arrested accused is

a resident of Pashupati Nagar who told the investigators that he used to work as a driver for Amit was fi red by Amit on 13th September and that angered by the fi ring by his employer, he decided to steal the car in an act of vengeance. The police after an investigation has sent the accused to jail.

—First India Bureau

First India Bureau

Lucknow: In order to regain lost ground in the Muslim communi-ty, the UP Congress has started a campaign dis-tributing a 16-point “Sankalp Patra” (mani-festo) containing prom-ises to the community if the party comes to power in the state.

However, the Con-gress’s move to dis-tribute the Sankalp Patra outside the mosques in all the as-sembly constituencies in the state, has at-tracted the ire of the UP BJP which has con-demned the party for its appeasement plan.

Taking a dig at Con-gress for appeasing the community by ap-proaching it outside 8432 mosques during

Friday prayers in Sep-tember and October.

The UPCC minority department chairman Shahnawaz Alam said that the party has been distributing the “Sankalp Patra” to draw the attention of

the people in front of main mosques in all the assembly constitu-encies.

The Sankalp Patra is consists of issued con-nected with the minor-ity community. There is a feeling in Congress

that party would be able to connect with larger number of peo-ple by approaching them outside the mosques every Friday.

Some of the impor-tant features men-tioned in the manifesto

include a promise to open tanneries shut down during the Sama-jwadi Party rule, a judi-cial investigation into the riots that happened when Akhilesh Yadav was the Chief Minister and also the setting up

of Mathur Commission if anyone is found guilty.

The Congress has also promised to with-draw the cases slapped on members of minor-ity communities dur-ing CAA-NRC agitation in the state.

The UPCC has also brought out a booklet targeting the BJP, BSP and SP alike for push-ing the state towards sharp decline.

Congress has consti-tuted a manifesto com-mittee headed by for-mer union minister Salman Khurshid to prepare the manifesto for 2022 assembly elec-tions.

The points of the Sankalp Patra are like-ly to be included in the main manifesto being prepared by Khurshid.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Police have arrested four accused for gang-raping a men-tally challenged girl in BG Railway colony while five more accused including a woman was still on the run. Police sources here said a men-tally challenged girl who went missing in Krishna Nagar area on September 23 was recov-ered next day in Alam-bagh Kotwali. He father, a retired clerk, found her in police station in very bad condition. Her clothes were torn & she was severely injured.

During investigation it was revealed that an auto driver offered her lift to home near juice corner in Krishna Na-gar area and took her to Alambagh where 8 peo-ple gang-raped her. Po-lice have arrested four accused while manhunt

was on for five others ac-cused including a wom-an who help the crimi-nals. Amarnath Vish-wakarma, inspector in-charge here said ac-cused Shiv Nandan, Sone Lal, Ashok Kumar & Girijesh Kumar were arrested while teams were searching 5 other accused. He said that statements of victim were recorded & further investigations were un-derway. Police have in-terrogated vendors in that area & accused were identified on grounds of statement of victim & local witnesses.

First India Bureau

Meerut: Lawyers in collectorate office con-ducted march in sup-port of farmer’s Bharat Band protest against the government over controversial agricul-tural laws. Farmers were on highways with tractor-trolley choked roads & toll-plazas.

Police & traffic de-partments faced a

tough times to handle situations & provide al-ternate routes to vehi-cles passing through highways & toll pla-zas. Students, patients faced trouble to reach their destination though people in farm-er’s agitation gave way for ambulances while clashes occurred at sev-eral places where nor-mal vehicles were stuck in jams. Lawyers came

out with slogans and banners on boards and protested against BJP government at the Centre.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Three men arrested for their alleged roles in a nationwide illegal religious conversion racket were on Mon-day remanded in po-lice custody for 7 days by an anti-terror court. The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror-ist Squad on Monday said the police re-mand of the trio was secured to interro-gate them to ascer-tain source of their funding. Identified as Muzaffarnagar resi-

dent Mohammad Id-ris and Mohammad Saleem and nashi na-tive Kunal Ashok Chaudhary alias Aatif, the 3 were ar-rested on September 26 & a plea had been made to the court for their police remand, the ATS said.

BJP SLAMS CONG FOR DISTRIBUTING ELECTION MANIFESTO IN UP’S MOSQUES Minority cell of UP Cong distributed a 16-point Sankalp Patra in mosques during Friday prayers

Members of the Uttar Pradesh Congress minority cell distributing the Sankalp Patra in Prayagraj.

—REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

—REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

Farmers blocking the NH-9 road during the nationwide ‘Bharat Bandh’ at Delhi- Ghazipur border, in New Delhi on Monday.

APPEASEMENT

Four held, five on run for gang-rapeof mentally-ill girl

Pramod Tiwari trashes Pratapgarh MP’s allegation

Plaints against Karni Sena chief transferred to UP: Police to court

First India Bureau

Pratapgarh: Former Congress MP Pramod Tiwari on Monday re-futed allegations that he and his party work-ers had assaulted BJP MP Sangam Lal Gupta during a function in Sangipur block of Pratapgarh district last week. Tiwari denied the charge, asserting that he has put all the evidence of his inno-cence in form of videos in the public domain and dared Gupta to prove otherwise. I have given all evidence in the form of video that nothing of this sort happened with him during the programme in Sangipur block on Saturday and now it is his (Gupta’s) responsi-bility to present facts proving any misbehav-iour with him, Tiwari told newspersons.

Gupta had on Satur-day accused Tiwari of leading a mob of his party workers to beat him up and his party’s activist during a social function in the San-gipur block of Pratap-garh district. The alle-

gation had prompted the police to register a case against several people including Tiwari and his daughter Arad-hana Misra who is the Congress’ legislature party leader in the UP assembly. Following the allegations made by Pratapgarh MP, Lalganj Circle Officer Jagmo-han Singh, in whose ju-risdiction the incident happened, was suspend-ed for laxity in duty, Ad-ditional Director Gen-eral of Police (Law &

Order) Prashant Kumar had said on Sunday. Soon after the Saturday incident, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had ordered the district administration to take strict action against the accused. A video on so-cial media shows a man, purported to be MP Gupta being beaten up by a mob, Congress leader Tiwari said, add-ing the man being beat-en is someone else as evident from his clothes.

I have given all evidence in the form of video that nothing of this sort happened with him

during the programme in Sangipur block on Saturday and now it is his (Gupta’s) responsibility to present facts proving any misbehaviour with him. —Pramod Tiwari, Ex-Congress MP

Lawyers show solidarity with protesting farmers

Conversion racket: Police get 7-day remand

Lawyers also protested against petrol-diesel price hike & alleged

govt failures to control inflation while

commoners struggled for basic amenities

New Delhi: Citing lack of jurisdiction, Delhi Police on Monday told a court that it has trans-ferred the complaints against Karni Sena Chief and Dasna Devi Temple Priest for their alleged communal re-marks to police stations in Haryana & UP for necessary legal action.

This was stated in the action taken report (ATR) filed before Met-ropolitan Magistrate Rajat Goyal on a plea seeking FIR against Suraj Pal Amu and Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.

In a plea before the court, the complainant

had stated that Amu al-legedly made commu-nally provocative and divisive remarks with the intention to out-rage religious feelings at two Mahapanchayat held in Haryana in May and July.

Whereas, Narsing-hanand Saraswati al-legedly made provoca-

tive statements against the Muslim community at a press conference in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, and insulted Aligarh Muslim Uni-versity and Jamia Mil-lia Islamia with an in-tention to outrage the religious feelings of Muslims studying in it, the complainant stated.

DIVISIVE REMARKS

Karni Sena chief Suraj Pal Amu.

—PHOTO BY ANI

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021082NDFRONT

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

Gyanendra Shukla

Lucknow: There was a time when the politics of UP was dominated by Congress, but the coun-try’s oldest party was out of power in this state for more than three decades, the party seemingly go-ing through a tough chal-lenge to rise again in state, with the largest population. After the general elections, the onus to re-establish roots in the state has appar-ently shifted to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress General Secretary and party’s Incharge of UP. Since the defeat in the general elections of 2019, Priyanka had realised that if the Congress par-ty has to be rebuilt in the state, then it will have to be strengthened on many dimensions, un-der this, work started from street struggle to the virtual war of social media besides strength-ening the cadre and train the workers upto the vil-lage level. To fulfill its objectives the Congress, under the leadership of

Priyanka Gandhi, has concentrated on setting up an organizational base at block and Nyay panchayat level in the recent past. Earlier, the Congress has launched the 100-day campaign to train its office bearers under the ‘Prashikshan Se Parakram’ pro-gramme, zone-wise training camps of block president, district presi-dent and state officials

were aimed to prepare the cadre for upcoming assembly polls.

During a recent tour Priyanka Gandhi held zone-wise brainstorm-ing sessions up to the block, wards and nyay panchayat level to map out the election strategy. UP Congress spokesper-son, Ashok Singh said, “The results of all activi-ties are very encourag-ing.”

Sumit Awasthi

Kanpur: The Pragat-isheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) on Monday pro-tested by showing black balloons when Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma arrived here.

Led by Ashish Choubey, they were pro-testing against the in-creasing incidents of robbery and crime in the state and even clashed with the police. The protestors who were flying black bal-loons at the Coca-Cola intersection when the Deputy CM visited Kan-pur, met him and hand-ed over to him a memo addressed to the CM.

Ashish Choubey who after the incident said that due to the failure of the administration, the public are suffering from negligence and ar-bitrariness of officials and are constantly try-ing to get the deserved justice but to no avail. He demanded the state government made prop-er arrangements for the

safety of the woman and called for suspension of officers involved in the incident of Kalyanpur Gulmohar Apartment. He further demanded that the FIR filed against the relatives of the de-ceased and those pro-testing the incident be dropped and compensa-tion be provided to the victim’s family along with a government job. Choubey also expressed his displeasure at the violence used against protesting students of the university.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati lashed out at the BJP-led gov-ernment, accusing it of trying to “mobilise votes” based on caste by inducting new

ministers into Chief Minister Yogi Adity-anath’s Cabinet,

months before the state votes to elect a

new govern-ment.

Taking to Twitter, the BSP chief warned Uttar Pradesh voters about the “dual character” of the state’s government, alleging that not only has the BJP-led govern-ment failed to take any concrete steps for the development of the sec-tions that the BJP is al-legedly trying to ap-pease by inducting new ministers to the UP Cabinet but it has also halted projects that were promised during

her administration in the state.

“Whoever has been made a minister by BJP yesterday to mobilise votes on the basis of caste in UP, it would have been better if they did not accept it. Be-cause by the time they will understand their respective ministries and try to do something, the code of conduct for election will be imple-mented here,” Mayawa-ti wrote in her tweet.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: BJP MP Varun Gandhi has once again voiced his sup-port for the farmers. The BJP MP who after Mahapanchayat of farmers held in Muzaf-farnagar on September 5 had come in support of the farmers on Mon-day too advised the gov-ernment to pay heed to the demands of the farmers.

Gandhi also wrote a

letter to CM Yogi Adity-anath demanding an increase in the basic support price of sugar-cane as well as a bonus to the farmers on be-

half of the government. The MP who put out a tweet along with the im-age of the letter he wrote thanked the CM Yogi for increasing the sugarcane rate from al-ready declared rate of Rs. 350 per quintal to Rs. 400 per quintal in view of rising cost and infla-tion. He further tweeted that the state govern-ment should give a sep-arate bonus of Rs 50 per quintal to the above de-clared rate.

First India Bureau

Prayagraj: The Alla-habad High Court on Monday directed Suhas LY, District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar to remain present in the Court on October 4 to ex-plain his inaction in ref-erence to the recovery certificates issued by RERA in several cases.

“The DM would come out with the details of all pending matters for a re-covery pursuant to the order passed by the RERA. This Court would pass appropriate order if no justification is found in the inaction of the DM, Gautam Buddh Na-gar,” said the court.

The bench comprising Acting CJ Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Jus-tice Piyush Agrawal passed the order in a pe-tition filed by Priya Kapahi. The court ob-served, “Due to inaction of the DM, unavoidable litigation is coming to this Court time and again. The present mat-ter is old by more than 2 and half years to make a

recovery pursuant to the order passed by RERA but no action is appar-ently available.”

In another case, the bench of ACJ MN Bhandari directed SDM, Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar on Septem-ber 28 to remain present in the Court to explain why no action has been taken to execute some order of RERA.

Anand Rai

Lucknow: With the Yogi Adityanath govern-ment taking credit for cracking down on crimi-nals and making it an election issue, political parties are now having a rethink on aligning with those who have a criminal background but also enjoy influence in their areas.

BJP leaders, includ-ing the CM, have been lately making claims on how the UP government has improved the state’s law and order situation by crushing the mafia and even demolishing unauthorised buildings owned by them.

Adding heft to the government’s claims, Defence Minister Ra-jnath Singh while speak-ing at a public meeting in Maharajganj last week had remarked that development requires good law and order and criminals start trem-bling even in their sleep

when they hear the name of Chief Minister Yogi”.

In a bid to distance herself from criminal elements, BSP chief Mayawati recently de-clared that her party will not field its jailed party MLA from Mau Mukhtar Ansari again in the assembly elec-tions due early next year.

She also tweeted that the BSP will not field ba-

hubalis (strongmen) and mafia in the upcom-ing polls.

Five-time MLA from Mau Mukhtar Ansari, who was accused in several serious cases, including the murder of MLA Krish-nanand Rai of Ghaz-ipur’s Mohammadabad region in the year 2005, is currently lodged in Banda jail.

However, smaller out-

fits like the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM are desperate to find their

footing in the politi-cal scene of Uttar Pradesh and are not averse to woo-ing the the alleged

criminals from big-ger parties.The AIMIM has offered Mukhtar Ansari the seat of his choice while Suheldev Bharatiya Sa-maj Party (SBSP) presi-dent Omprakash Rajb-

har, an old ally of the jailed legislator, has come out in his support.Besides Mukhtar Ansa-ri, others who have con-tinued to find their way to different houses with the support of political parties are Gyanpur (Bhadohi) MLA Vijay Mishra, Sayedaraja (Chandauli) MLA Sush-il Singh, former Jaun-pur MP Dhananjay Sin-gh and Phulpur MP Atiq Ahmed. —PTI

Cong’s roadmap to regain lost political space in state AS ELECTIONS APPROACH,

parties in UP shun ‘criminal-politicians’

AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrives at Chowdhary Charan Singh international airport on Monday.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with CM Yogi and other ministers at an event. —FILE PHOTO

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrived here on Monday on a fi ve-day visit during which she will discuss with workers and leaders the party’s preparedness for next year’s UP Assembly elections, sources said. Her visit to the state came just a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expanded his council of ministers by inducting Jitin Prasada and six others to bal-ance the caste & regional aspirations ahead of the polls.

5-DAY VISIT TO OVERSEE READINESS

2022

ELECTION WITH

22EL ON W

POLARISATION

POWERING INDIA

A new version of the Akash Missile – ‘Akash Prime’ – was successfully tested from Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur on Monday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Pragatisheel SP protests on arrival of Dy CM Sharma

The protestors waved black flags as soon as the Dy CM reached Kanpur and handed over a memo to him

Ald HC asks Gautam Buddh Nagar DM to be present in court

Varun Gandhi again voices support for farmers, asks govt to pay heed

Maya warns voters of govt’s dual character

First India Bureau

Kanpur: Alok Tiwari who is a 2007 batch IAS officer posted in the Cab-inet Secretariat on Cen-tral deputation shortly after returning to state was made the District Magistrate, Kanpur and in the last 1.5 years of his tenure he has garnered a reputation for himself by mitigating several challenges like Covid pandemic, providing bet-ter health services to the

people, curbing land ma-fia etc. His aggressive working style along with his ethics had become a talk of the town.

He was posted as DM when the Covid pandem-ic was at its peak when he took action against doctors who were show-ing negligence in treat-ing of patients and by visiting hospitals, he en-sured that the better health services provided to the public which is evident even today. He

also took head on the challenge land mafia by taking punitive action against them at the earli-est due to which the num-ber of such crimes in the district have reduced.

The brilliant work done by Tiwari has earned him a reward from the Centre, which has appointed him as the personal secretary of the Defense Minis-ter Rajnath Singh. He has already re-lieved himself from

his old post and reached Delhi where he is likely to take charge.

Famed DM Alok Tiwari bids adieu for bigger roleVALIANT CRUSADER

When Covid was peaking, he conducted

surprise inspection of hospitals and acted against

negligent doctors

The court said, “It seems to be a deliberate move. Explanation is to be given by the offi cer and if it is not found appropriate, this Court would pass orders for action against the erring offi cer.”

SEEMS DELIBERATE MOVE, SAYS COURT

A leader is solely responsible for his actions and their consequences; so must be

aware of this!—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, First India

Alok Tiwari

09LUCKNOW, TUESDAYSEPTEMBER 28, 2021

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindiafacebook.com/

thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

ome people are vicious in terms of their energy, they don’t stop until they achieve what they have al-ways dreamed of. Sonali Gupta, the young woman whose journey speaks a lot

about herself has become a name that has gained recognition in the world of glamour.

Sonali spills the beans over as she talks about her mantra of

success and her forward journey, “I was and still

am a commoner, I be-lieve in making my own mark by put-

ting my best foot forward without

giving up. As a b e g i n n e r , there was a

fair share of struggle that I witnessed, but, it could never stop me.”

The dynamic model and actress was recently seen in music videos. Aadat, Toota Dil, Tabahi to name a few. She will also be seen in the music video Ruger. She has worked for some of the prominent brands such as Tanishq Jewellers, Indian Couture Week, Wills India Fashion Lifestyle Week, Satya Paul among others. With a handful of plans in her kitty, the diva is paving her way to making it big in the industry.

Beneath the bold, beautiful and sen-sual looks, Sonali is a strong advocate of speaking her own mind and

putting forward her opinions whenev-er required. One of the incidents be-ing, Sonali sharing her views on Kan-gana’s office being demolished cruelly. She never fails to share her views on social media and lately had been spreading messages about following Covid-19 protocols.

She further shared, “My dream is to never stop. Make the best out of this life. Do what I was born to do and learn from my fail-ures. I was born to take the world by storm and every day must carry the same effort.”

CITY FIRST IN CONVERSATION WITH SONALI GUPTA HAILING FROM DELHI, A MODEL AS WELL AS AN ACTRESS WHOSE DETERMINATION AND STRONG WILL ARE ADMIRABLE TRAITS!

GIVING WINGS TO DREAMS

SUSHMITA AINDsushmita.aind@firstindia.co.in

S

—PHOTOS BY M

UKESH KIRADOO

Biker, Traveller, and Automotive Journalist, fond of doing at least a 1,000 km roadtrip on my bike every month which I’ve named - Akira, meaning graceful strength. For me, travel is more of exploration and observation that makes you richer in life in the real sense. Travelling teaches you a lot, makes you fi nd yourself, and broadens your perspective about life. Overall, it makes you a more well-rounded and more complete human being. As for Covid months, they taught me the importance of life. As of Covid, it has made me a more responsible person in terms of travel. The focus on personal hygiene, taking care of not lit-tering anywhere, and following all the necessary Covid protocols has increased signifi cantly. My biggest takeaway from travel is - it takes very little to be happy. It’s our experiences and not materialistic things that ensure inner happiness. —PRADEEP SHAH

I work as an advertising professional in an agency in Gurgaon. Being in the creative fi eld

, my work & my friends’ circle was such that I was often out of town, often travelling. That’s how

I took to travel. It started from weekend trips out of university and today I’ve shifted my base permanently

in the mountains. Travelling is about the sheer sense of freedom. Being able to see the things you once read about, experience the world in fi rst person is

what really kept me travelling. As for post covid travel, people are turning to long-stay vaca-

tions & workations. I, for instance, spent the last one year (as soon the norms

allowed) travelling to & working from several locations, from

Himachal to Arunachal. The one thing travel has

taught me is that dif-ferent people think different.

—ADITYARAJ SINGH

10ETC

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

HAR DIL HAR DIL BANJARA! BANJARA!

ello, my uncurable trav-el buffs! So, what was it for you this year, the popular choice, Goa or the luxury popular choice, Maldives? Just kidding! I know Covid

was public enemy number one this year but, what we found our ways in staycations and the mountains. Well, the heart wants what it wants!

For me, I was inside my cocoon, swiping through the marvellous reels and posts of people galli-vanting through the hills or chilling on the beach. But, what really got me going were the sto-ries of these Banjaras, the peo-ple they met, changes in travel post Covid and what they’ve learnt from their travels.

So, I decided to share some of them with you as we celebrated World Tourism Day on Septem-ber 27. So, grab your Chai/cof-fee (whatever’s your poison), swaddle yourself in a warm Razai and hop on-board as we listen to these tales of travels by storytell-ers, motorcyclists, cinematogra-phers and muggles like ourselves!

City First, indulges in vivid stories of avid travellers, as we celebrate wanderlust on World Tourism Day on September 27!

POORVI SINGHAL cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

H

Whatever my bike sees, I see. I am a Cinematographer and I enjoy travelling to the interiors of the most rustic lands on my bike – the Himalayan. I love motorcycle adventures and recently, I went on a road trip from the West Coast of the country - Maharashtra, Karnataka

and Kerala through Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, and UP. I experienced the beauty of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra, crossing the islands of Chillika For me, travelling is about meeting local people and uncovering their stories. Be-ing locked down gave me the time to read, refl ect, unwind and learn new skills but, my travel plans got postponed. The one thing I’ve learnt from my travel is

that the people are the same everywhere.

Hi, myself Aarti Vijay, a freelance wedding photogra-pher. I always dream about it, imagine about it and aim

about it to travel the world with my camera. Travel is like exploring my soul, it gives me motivation to live this life.

COVID highly impacted travel as many remote places are still closed for travellers because they don’t have enough resources to

fi ght with COVID and it is impacting their livelihood because tourism was their only way of earning. And COVID made us all a responsible travelers also. Hope this situation will get well soon. What I learn as a traveller is obviously that we should travel with responsibility. If you are visiting a place and exploring it, just keep it as it is don’t ruin the beauty of that place with plastics and trashes. —AARTI VIJAY

—ABHISHEK BHAR-GAVA

Travelling for me expands my horizon, Its living and dying everyday at the same time. It gives me rush meeting new people and knowing their stories. Every person has a different perspective about life and living, and there’s nothing more beautiful than being a small part of someone’s life. I am Vanika, and I travel for stories. Travel for me is a journey to know and understand a little more about myself everyday. It’s about feeling free in every moment, and being who I am unapologetically. Covid has made things a little more private, and valueable. When I couldn’t travel in covid, I realised how life is a little unpredictable. This resulted in this feeling of taking note of each and every moment.

—VANIKA SANGTANI

C hef Daniel, with an experience of 24 years, has worked with star properties in Delhi and Jaipur as well and earned

his name in the hospitality industry. Consider-ing the wonderful response from food lovers, he has come up with his own brand named, ‘The Daniels, Oriental Kitchen’ in Jaipur where the food lovers will experience multiple cuisines like authentic Chinese, Thai and Burmese. Chef Daniel has designed a menu that offers an array of delicacies soups, appetizers, main course and des-serts like Crispy Lotus Steam, Corn kernel, Chef Special Dumplings, Choice of Dim-sums, Clay Pot Soup’s, Exotic vegetables in Chinese wine Sauce, Chicken in Chef ’s own style, Seafood, Cracking Noo-dles, Treasure Clay Pot Exotic Fried Rice among many other mouth-watering delicacies.

Chef Daniel strongly be-lieves that there should be no compromise in the food quality, taste and uniqueness of any meal.

S chonfilt was cre-ated to

provide a new perspective on In-

dian design that works in a contempo-

rary sense. We aim to elevate the age-old hand-

icraft techniques and pro-vide a new market for

them. The footwear is de-signed in a way that carefully

articulates the needs of con-sumers based on their comfort

and aesthetic needs. We aim to provide footwear that is not only

gorgeous to wear but also ergonom-ically satisfactory.

Schonfilt: Innovative

yet Simple

ETCwww.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia LUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

11

BEST IN THE BUSINESS!

ashion Connect Season 10 is a m u c h - a w a i t e d event for all the fashion influenc-ers, bloggers, busi-ness tycoons, the

First India readers and the glamour world! ‘Caffe Birraio’ and ‘Ishtara Jew-

els’, the official partners of the Fashion Connect Sea-son 10.

Caffe Birraio provides on-demand fresh ground coffee which is calibrated with our espresso machines so every shot that you ex-tract is perfect so you never have to worry about your coffee supplies. While Isht-ara Jewels is truly the mag-nificent and purest jewel-lery with luxury diamond and platinum chain neck-laces, handcrafted with high quality and conflict-free rose cut diamonds!

MITALI DUSADcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

F

CITY FIRST EXCLUSIVELY SPOKE TO A FEW PASSIONATE PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR

NEW VENTURE AND HOW THEY’RE ESTABILISHING THEMSELVES!

Dive into the Caffé Birraio ExperienceT he rise of coffee cul-

ture around the world and the coin-

ciding lack of quality coffee in India gave birth to Caffé Birraio – India’s first brand that creates the finest espresso ma-chines, coffee brewing equipment and roasted coffee beans.

Since our inception in 2017, Caffé Birraio’s mis-sion has been to bring authentic Italian espres-so coffee without com-promising on taste by providing a user-friend-ly machine. Our vi-sion is to bring the authentic coffee revo-lution to India and replace commercial-grade coffee. Caffé Birraio espresso ma-chines, coffee brewing equipment is perfect for homes and offices. You can easily find Caffe Birraio’s roasted coffee beans in trendy cafes anywhere.

CAFFÉ BIRRAIO MACHINESOur Espresso Machines and Coffee Grinders are assembled in India and delivered across the country. As our aim is to help you brew a perfect and soothing cup of cof-fee, our experts will also

help you identify your palate so that your coffee

is made to suit your own tastes and preferenc-es. So sit back, ditch commercial coffee and join the authen-tic coffee revolution with Caffé Birraio.

CAFFÉ BIRRAIO ROASTED COFFEE BEANS

In 2019, our passion for coffee drove us to start roasting coffee

beans with a premium in-house roaster. We source exceptional dried coffee cherries, honey sun-dried and washed coffees from various coffee estates across the country such as Chandragiri and Hema-vathi. We procure various varietals such as Cataui, SL7N5, SLN9, Sarchimor.

From Espresso delight and Americano to Mac-chiato, Cortado and Con Panna, Caffé Birraio makes it easier for you to

become your favourite Barista and have endless brewing possibilities. We are proud to share that our machines have fea-tures of OPV (overpres-sure valves) that help to brew your espresso at a maximum of 10 Bar pres-sure to serve balanced and pronounced flavors in every cup. Our ma-chines are installed with SS 304 connectors that massively improves the quality of our machines.

Q: Tell us something about the name Ishtara.A: ‘Ishtara’ is an amalgamation of the names of my great-grand-father and great-grandmother- and that is what my brand is all about, the abiding influence of legacy in the contemporary world.

Q: What is your vision for Ishtara?A: I envision Ishtara as a high-end, luxury jewellery brand, which with its minimalist and el-egant designs, appeals to the tastes of our times.

Q: How did Ishtara come into be-ing?A: My ancestors had a very hum-ble beginning in this field, we weren’t doyens of the world of jewellry. But since then, we’ve come a long way in establishing ourselves across the globe with of-fices in Belgium, Taiwan, Thai-land and Hong Kong. A foray into the world of luxury jewel-

lery is a first in our family.

Q: So you have a base across countries already, why Jaipur then?

A: The people of Jaipur, since the city’s inception, have al-

ways been great connoisseurs of jewellery. I per-

sonally feel that the love that I

have for this fine craft has a lot to do

with the fact that my roots

are in t h e P i n k

City.

Q: What inspires you as a creator of luxury jewellery pieces?A: Jewellery, for me, is a mode of self-expression. It translates the wearer’s personality into some-thing tangible and externally per-ceptible. So I’m inspired by the very thought that I can give peo-ple the opportunity to express their unique selves through my brand.

Q: What kind of jewellery will Ishtara provide?A: Ishtara will be a one of it’s kind brand curating timeless pieces that speak of glamour and elegance.

Q: So does that imply that your jewellery is meant for special oc-casions?A: Not at all. In fact, we’ll be launching a wide-range of luxury jewellery- ranging from chic and light-weight everyday pieces to stylish and dazzling special occa-sion-wear.

Q: What makes you different from other luxury jewellery brands in Jaipur?A: Most luxury jewellery brands

based in Jaipur have begun here, and then expanded overseas. Isht-ara’s journey has been the other way round. And this is what makes us unique- our capacity to bring a global style to the other-wise largely traditional jewellery scene of Jaipur.

Q: Your motto talks of ‘relation with trust’. What do we infer from that?A : More often than not, jewel-lery pieces end up becoming heirlooms that are passed from one generation to an-other, reflecting a family’s heritage. For us at Ishtara, a customer’s trust is the most important brand asset because we be-lieve in a similar, fam-ily-like value-driven relationship of mu-tual trust.

Q: Finally, why choose Ishtara?A: Because your quest for luxury ends here.

ISHTARA JEWELS

‘The Daniels, Oriental Kitchen’

Sarvesh Bhandari

Chef Daniel

Samay Jain

ON THE OCCASION OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DAY, THE OLD CITY OF LUCKNOW SAW A LOT OF TRAVELLERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THEY INDULGED IN THE OLD WORLD CHARM OF THE NAWAABI CITY AND HAD THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES.

MONICA PRABHAKARcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

The birthday of IAS B Chandraka-la, and IAS Prashant Sharma was on Monday, S_eptember 27. We wish them all the best!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HERITAGE WALK

WORLD TOURISM DAYNEW PRESIDENT

NOBLE CONTRIBUTION

Lata Mangeshkar, aptly known as the Nightingale of India, cel-ebrates her 92nd birthday today. She is one singer who is accepted across generations and loved by one and all. City First wishes her a very happy birthday!

A heritage walk was organised on Monday under the banner of Travel Agents Association of India (TIE). This heritage walk started from Rumi Gate and ended at Bada Imambara. Students from the tourism sector, managers of the aviation industry, tour operators, veterans of the travel trade and others participated in the walk. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand (tie) Chairman S.M.A. Shiraz said that the purpose of the walk was to celebrate World Tourism Day.

On the occasion of World Tourism Day, the citizens of Lucknow were seen enjoying outside Rumi Gate, clicking selfi es. Also seen were women dressed in traditional attire as they gathered at the Gomti River Front for a special performance. —PHOTOS BY SUMIT KUMAR

Rakesh Kumar Choudhary created history by winning the election of the President of the 120 years old Avadh Bar Association of the Lucknow High Court.

BJP MLA Neeraj Bora was spotted reading First India newspaper on Monday. —PHOTO BY ASHOK DUTTA

SAVING LIVES!

A blood donation camp was organised at Lucknow University campus on Mon-day by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Avadh Province. Ghanshyam Shahi, Regional Organisa-tion Minister of ABVP, Eastern Uttar Pradesh region participated in the blood donation camp. —

PHOT

OS B

Y AS

HOK

DUTT

A

THE LIVELY NIGHTLIFE!

n Sunday, Sep-tember 26, a sundowner was organised by Firefly with DJ Deadrich and Kavya playing

the one of a kind EDM. The party was lit

with colours of fun, fri-volity and exhilaration of Lucknow's party clan. The show saw a mix of many socialites and social media influ-encers put their danc-ing shoes on and dance the night away.

The party was organ-ised by Shubhayu Gup-ta, along with Jagriti Singh and Azman Khan. Many fashion and lifestyle influenc-ers like Ambika Nim-balkar, Shalini Kanau-jia, Mansi Yadav, Alok Chauhan, Nitin Singh Rajput, Shahan Ansari, Deeksha Verma, and Shivali Verma were part of the celebration.

—PHOTOS BY ASHOK DUTTA

ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, A SUNDOWNER WAS ORGANISED BY FIREFLY WITH DJ DEADRICH AND KAVYA, PLAYING ONE OF A KIND EDM!

Saidham Mandir Foundation Trust in Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar organised a programme on Sunday wherein Central Cabinet Minister Kaushal Kishore presided over as the Chief Guest. Kaushal initiated the distribution of 5 Kg Aata bags to the parents of students coming to the Mandir Campus. Kaushal inaugu-rated the 'Swavlamban-Camp' and also gifted a refrigerator and a water purifi er to Amit Sharma, Founder of the Trust. —PHOTOS BY ASHOK DUTTA

MORNING!

O

—PHOTO BY ASHOK DUTTA

(L-R) Kalash, Rishabh, Shalini, Vaibhavi, AmbikaMansi, Vinay, Ayush

(L-R) Ambika, Shalini, Mansi

Isha and Vikas Deeksha Verma Ambika Nimbalkar and Mansi Yadav

12LUCKNOW | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

CITY BUZZGET VACCINATED

STAY MASKED

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS!—PHOTOS BY MUKESH KIRADOO

Jagdeesh Chandra greets Hemant Sharma, seen here with Veena Sharma (wife of Hemant Sharma) and Law Minister Brajesh Pathak

Hemant Sharma cuts the cake flanked by Veena Sharma, Brajesh Pathak, Kumar Vishwas, Pankaj Singh and Ram Gopal Yadav

ACS Information and MSME Navneet Sehgal greets Hemant Sharma

(L-R) Jagdeesh Chandra, Rajeshwar Singh Jt Director ED, Hemant Sharma, Rohit Sahay and Navneet Sehgal

Hemant Sharma, News Director, TV9 Bharatvarsh celebrated his 60th birthday on Monday, September 27 at The Imperial, New Delhi. Greetings poured in for the senior journalist from politicians, colleagues and friends across. The evening at Imperial was a get-together with memories, much laughter and sharing of anecdotes as family and friends gathered to celebrate the happy occasion.

Hemant and Veena Sharma with daughter Ishaanee and MP Ram Gopal Yadav

Celebrating travel! Celebrating travel!