Actor Priyanka Copra’s Evil Eye as part of theseries Welcome to The Blumhouse willbe released on OTT platform

EVIL EYE FOR OTT PLATFORM

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A majority of Russian docs are wary of therapidly approved Covid-19 vaccine, astudy shows

ROW OVER RUSSIAN VAX

INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 135 | www.orissapost.com

LEISURE | P2

Shiv Sena downplays storm created by NCPchief Sharad Pawar’s public reprimand ofhis grand-nephew Parth TWO STATES | P7

MAHA POLITICS

12 PAGES | `4.00

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Odia added to MS TranslatorBhubaneswar: Odia texttranslation has been added toMicrosoft Translator, thecompany said in a statement.“Odia is available now or will beavailable soon in the MicrosoftTranslator app, Office,Translator for Bing, and throughthe Azure CognitiveServices Translator forbusinesses and developers,” itsaid. Odia was recently addedto the translation service ofGoogle.

RBI to transfer ̀ 57,128cras dividend to Centre

BHUBANESWAR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 15 | 2020

In this Maharashtra village, children speak JapanesePRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Aurangabad, August 14: A fas-cination for robotics and technologyhas pushed students of a ZillaParishad-run school in a remotevil lage of Maharashtra’sAurangabad district to learnJapanese.

Gadiwat village, located 25kmfrom Aurangabad city, may not haveaccess to good roads and other nec-essary infrastructure, but Internetconnectivity has proven to be aboon for children studying at thelocal Zilla Parishad School.

In September last year, the gov-ernment-run school decided to

launch a foreign language pro-gramme, under which studentsfrom Classes 4 to 8 were asked tochoose a language they would liketo learn.

“Surprisingly, most of them saidthey were interested in roboticsand technology and were keen tolear n Japanese,” DadasahebNavpute, a secondary teacher atthe school, told this news agency.

Despite having no proper coursematerial and professional guidancefor teaching Japanese, the school ad-ministration managed to gatherinformation from videos and trans-lation applications on the Internet,he said.

However, the school has nowroped in Sunil Jogdeo, anAurangabad-based language expert,who has been conducting Japaneseclasses for free. On learning aboutthe initiative, Jogdeo approachedthe school with a plan to conducthour-long evening classes virtually.

“I have conducted 20 to 22 ses-sions since July. Children are ded-icated and eager to learn. It is amaz-ing how much they have picked upin this short span,” Jogdeo said.

Since every student does not haveaccess to a smartphone for the on-line classes, the school has comeup with the concept of ‘vishaymitra’ (subject friend), under whichchildren who attend the sessions canteach their classmates.

“Ever since the online classeswith Jogdeo started in July, chil-dren have been speaking with eachother in Japanese” school head-master Padmakar Huljute said withdelight.

The success of the programme isevident when Vaishnavi Kolge,daughter of a farmer-couple, rattlesoff complete sentences in Japaneseto introduce herself.

“We first learnt some basic wordsand now we are gradually learn-ing how to communicate in completesentences,” the Class 8 student said.

Meanwhile, education extensionofficer of Aurangabad Zilla ParishadRamesh Thakur said there weremore than 350 students at the school,of which 70 have been learningJapanese.

The initiative was an attempt togive international standard edu-cation to children, he said.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, August 14: TheReserve Bank of India (RBI)will be transferring ̀ 57,128crore of its surplus to theUnion government for the fis-cal 2019-20, against ̀ 1.76 tril-lion of transfer it did lastyear, the central bank saidin a statement.

The government had bud-geted `60,000 crore as divi-dend to bridge its fiscaldeficit, but government of-ficials had expected morefrom the RBI. Economists,however, had expected thedividend transfer to be rel-atively muted this year andthe transfer is largely inline with the expectations.

However, as per the eco-nomic capital framework(ECF) adopted by the RBIboard last year, the contin-gency risk buffer, or realisedequity, has to be maintainedat 5.5-6.5 per cent of the bal-ance sheet. The RBI boarddecided to maintain theBuffer at 5.5 per cent.

In financial year 2018-19,`1,23,414 crore of its sur-

plus to the central govern-ment for the fiscal year 2018-19 (July to June), and an ad-ditional `52,637 crore ofexcess provisions as rec-ommended by the BimalJalan committee on ECF.The surplus is commonlycalled ‘dividend’. In 2018-19,the RBI had transferred`65,896 crore, in 2017-18`50,000 crore, while in 2016-17, the dividend transferwas just `30,659 crore be-cause of demonetisation.

The central bank’s financialyear runs from July to June,but from next year, the fi-nancial year will get alignedwith that of the governmentand will end in March.

The central bank’s boardmet Friday to review RBI’sbalance sheet, the surplustransfer is part of that re-view process. “The board re-viewed the current economicsituation, continued globaland domestic challenges andthe monetary, regulatory andother measures taken by RBIto mitigate the economic im-pact of COVID-19 pandemic,”the RBI said in its statement.

NOTICEThere will be no edition of thepaper August 16 (Sunday) as theoffice and press of Orissa POSTwill remain closed Saturday on theoccasion of Independence Day.

Wishing readersHAPPY INDEPENDENCY DAY

- EDITOR

MANISH KUMAR, OP

Bhubaneswar, August 14:Institutions involved in the serosurvey of Berhampur as well ascoronavirus experts in the stateclaim that some pockets of theBerhampur, capital of Ganjam dis-trict, might have develop herd im-munity against COVID-19 in thelast few months.

Their claims are based on re-ports that the sero prevalence insome areas of the city is about 60per cent with majority of the peo-

ple not showingany symptoms ofbeing infected.Experts claim

that this may provide the residentsof the region a natural protectionagainst the pandemic.

“It is likely that the residents inthe areas where sero prevalenceis up to 60% have possibly developedherd immunity which can prove tobe a natural vaccine against thevirus. This was the first phase ofour survey. We hope to get a clearerpicture in the next survey report,”Dr Sanghamitra Pati, Director,Regional Medical Research Centre(RMRC), told Orissa POST.

She, however, denied the possi-bility of community transmissionin the areas, citing the return oflakhs of migrants to the district dur-

ing the pandemic.Former director of All India

Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, Dr AshokMohapatra accepted that sero preva-lence of 50 per cent to 60 per centwith no symptoms hint towardsherd immunity and claimed that un-less the sample size is large enoughas well as uniform, it would be sci-entifically incorrect to say thatthere is herd immunity.

“To arrive at a scientific con-clusion, we need a large sample fortesting and the testing should be uni-form and taken from different partsof the region. Herd immunity comeswith the exposure to the virus overa long period – about four to sixmonths,” Dr Mohapatra said.

Mohapatra further said that herdimmunity does not occur unless thepandemic is four to six months old.

Others claim that there are otherreasons involved in herd immunity.“Up to 60% sero prevalence hints thatthe region is headed towards herdimmunity. In this situation, somewould be infected, while others willget immunity. However, this alsodepends on RO which is an indica-tion of the virus’ rate of reproduc-tion. An RO below one hints at lowtransmission,” said Dr Manoj Sahu,who is associated with WHO forHepatitis Eradication andCoronavirus Prevention.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: In a bid torevive the real estate sector and makehousing schemes affordable in urbanareas in the post-pandemic period, thestate government has introduced majorreforms in building plan rules in de-velopment authority areas.

Housing and Urban DevelopmentMinister Pratap Jena Friday said thestate government has already notifiedthe Odisha Development Authority(Planning & Building Standard) Rules,2020, which aimed at bringing unifor-mity of norms and procedures.

The new rules will also do away withthe majority of the provisions of mul-tiple regulations notified by differentdevelopment authorities. This will helpto introduce a common online plat-form for building plan approval acrossthe state, he said.

“The new rules are both proactive andprogressive,” Jena said, adding, “they(rules) will address the concerns of allthe segments of urban population.”

There are many exemptions, relax-ations and incentives, which will notonly make the small private buildingseasy to plan, construct and occupy, but

also encourage construction of largescale high-rise projects and make thehousing units more affordable, theminister said.

The setbacks have been relaxed for

almost all the categories of buildings.The restriction of maximum FAR (floorarea ratio) on low risk buildings hasbeen removed.

“As many as 108 pre-approved de-signs for low-risk buildings have beenmade readily available, which will notonly reduce dependency of people onthe architects, technical persons andthe planning authorities, but the planswill also get approved almost instantly,”the minister said.

Construction of houses and ob-taining Occupancy Certificates willalso be easier than before, he said,adding, that provisions have also beenmade for development of commercialareas in the residential buildings.

Private developers can now get 60 percent of the project land on a freeholdand free of cost basis for developing af-fordable housing over 40 per cent ofthe project area.

“Odisha is the first state in the coun-try to take such a path-breaking and pro-gressive initiative,” he said.

While the rate of purchasable FARhas been reduced to half, a lot of re-laxations have been given for flexibil-ity in design and relaxations in openspaces have also been provided. Part oc-

cupancy has also been allowed.Replying to a question, the minister

said structural stability and fire safetynorms have been made non-negotiable.He said the government is consciousof the environmental impact, there-fore the ground coverage restrictionshave been introduced along with var-ious measures for enhancing greencover and open spaces.

Provisions relating to enforcementhave also been made more stringent andthird party inspection has also been in-troduced along with various penalmeasures, he said.

In Bhubaneswar DevelopmentAuthority area, no building exceeding10 meters height will be permitted with-out clearance from Commissioner ofPolice within 200-meter radius fromthe boundary of the Governor’s House,State Secretariat, Legislative Assemblyand Residence of the Chief Minister.

Provision of rain water harvestinghas been made mandatory for all sizesof plots, which are more than 115square meters in area including openspaces while recharging of groundwater is mandatory for all types ofbuildings having a plot area more than300 square meters.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 14: The SupremeCourt Friday held activist-lawyerPrashant Bhushan guilty of criminal con-tempt for his two derogatory tweetsagainst the judiciary saying they can-not be said to be a fair criticism of thefunctioning of the judiciary made inthe public interest.

Holding that Bhushan attempted toscandalise the entire institution of theSupreme Court, the top court said: “Ifsuch an attack is not dealt with, with req-uisite degree of firmness, it may affectthe national honour and prestige in thecomity of nations”.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BRGavai and Krishna Murari said: “Thetweets which are based on the distortedfacts, in our considered view, amount tocommitting criminal contempt.”

“In the result, we hold alleged con-temnor No.1 - Mr. Prashant Bhushanguilty of having committed criminal

contempt of this Court”. In its 108-pageorder, the top court discharged the no-tice issued to Twitter Inc, California,USA in the contempt case after accept-ing its explanation that it is only an in-termediary and does not have any con-trol on what the users post on the platform.

The bench said the company has alsoshown its bona fides immediately afterthe cognizance was taken by this Courtas it has suspended both the tweets.

“We, therefore, discharge the noticeissued to the alleged contemnor No.2.(Twitter Inc),” the bench said.

The top court said it would hear August20, the arguments on the quantum of

sentence to be awarded to Bhushan inthe matter. A contemnor in this casecan be punished with simple imprison-ment of up to six months or with a fineof up to `2,000 or with both.

The bench analysed the two tweets ofBhushan posted on the micro-blogging siteJune 27 on the functioning of judiciaryin past six years, and on July 22 with re-gard to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde.“In our considered view, it cannot be saidthat the tweets are a fair criticism of thefunctioning of the judiciary, made bonafide in the public interest,” it said.

An attempt to shake the very foun-dation of constitutional democracy hasto be dealt with an iron hand, the benchsaid, adding that the June 27 tweet (onjudiciary) has the effect of destabilisingthe very foundation of this importantpillar of the Indian democracy.

“The scurrilous/malicious attacks by thealleged contemnor No.1 are not only againstone or two judges but the entire SupremeCourt in its functioning of the last six years.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: Thestate Health and Family Welfaredepartment Friday issued stan-dardised rates for reimbursementof different consumables cost atCOVID Hospitals and COVID CareCentres for different category ofservices availed from the privateplayers.

In what can be described as amajor relief to COVID patients,the state government has ap-proved reimbursement of ̀ 13,000per patient per day as consoli-dated consumable cost in IntensiveCare Unit (ICU) with ventilator fa-cilities, while approving `12,000for treatment in ICU without ven-tilators.

A notification issued by the de-partment said that ̀ 1,750 would begiven as consolidated consumablecost per COVID patient per dayin general wards of in COVIDHospitals.

While the private hospitals sofar received anything between`1,200 and `3,000 per day per bedin general ward, they would nowbe entitled to consumable costsbetween ̀ 2,000 to ̀ 5,000 per bed inICU as per an MoU inked betweenthe state and the parties.

In COVID Care Centres, the re-imbursements for each bed andconsumables for each patient havebeen approved at `1,000.

The government, in the breakupof the consumables, said that pay-ments were approved worth ̀ 7,000per COVID patient per day as med-icines in ICUs and `3,000 as med-icines in general wards. The gov-er nment has also approvedpayment of ̀ 200 per day for masksin ICU and ̀ 1,500 per day for PPEkits.

FASCINATION FOR ROBOTICS AND TECHNOLOGY HAS PUSHED STUDENTS OF A SCHOOL IN AURANGABAD TO LEARN JAPANESE

Gehlot-led govtwins trust voteJaipur: The Ashok Gehlotgovernment in Rajasthan won themotion of confidence by voicevote during the special Assemblysession convened Friday. As soonas the special session gotunderway at 1 p.m., RajasthanParliamentary Affairs MinisterShanti Dhariwal moved a motionof confidence, which wasaccepted by Speaker CP Joshi. P8

Parts of Berhampurmay develop herdimmunity: Experts

The government had budgeted `60,000 croreas dividend to bridge its fiscal deficit

Pvt hosps to get`13K/day for eachpatient in ICU

Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt

Police personnel participate in the full dress rehearsals for the 74th Independence Day celebrations, amid theongoing COVID-19 pandemic, at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium, in Vijayawada, Friday PTI PHOTO

I-DAY DRY RUN

Reforms to revive real estate in Odishan 2% reservation of land for EWS & LIG

made mandatory

n Relaxation in setbacks, road width,parking requirement

n Up to 8 residential units in one blocknot to be treated as apartment

n FAR restrictions removed for low riskbuildings

n Permission limit of FAR enhanced to 7,which is highest in the country

n Part occupancy certificate will begiven for apartments

n No building exceeding 10 metres inheight will be permitted within 200metres of Raj Bhawan, CM House,Secretariat and the Assembly

n Rainwater harvesting mandatory forplots more than 115 sq metres

COVID-19 TREND

SERO PREVALENCE IN SEVERAL REGIONS OF THECITY WAS FOUND TO BE HIGHER THAN IN DELHI

COVID REIMBURSEMENTS

Actor Sonu Sood is beinghailed as messiah of mi-grants lately, due to his

efforts in helping them reachhome during the pandemic-in-duced lockdown. However,there was a time when thingswere not so rosy for him here.

Talking about his days ofstruggle, Sonu said: “I am anengineer, and after my gradua-

tion when I went back to myfamily, I thought Iwould start afamily busi-ness there.But I al -ways

wished tocome toMumbai.Initially Ithought thatmy parentswould stop

me fromgoing to

Mumbai as I am their only son,but my mother asked me to goand achieve my dreams.”

“I still remember when I firstcame to Mumbai, I had R5,500which I had saved. I went to FilmCity, paid R400 to get an entry be-cause I was stopped at the gate.I thought that if I roamed aroundin Film City, a director or a pro-ducer would spot me and cast mein their project, which never

happened. It is only becauseof my parents’ blessings

that I am here now,”added the actor, who hadstarted his film careerwith the 1999 Tamilmovie Kallazhagar.Sonu opened up on his

film journey while shoot-ing for the Azadi special

episode of the showIndia's Best

Dancer.IANS

Mumbai: Several Bollywood stars,including Varun Dhawan andParineeti Chopra have now joinedthe growing social media campaigndemanding a CBI probe into theSushant Singh Rajput death case.

Varun took to his InstagramStories and wrote: "#CBIforSSR",with a folded hands emoji.

Parineeti posted: "All that isneeded, is the truth. #JusticeforSSR."

Actor Siddhant Chaturvedi alsoasked for "#CBIInquiryforSushant",and so did actress Mouni Roy.

Actor Gulshan Devaiah tweeted:

“No hashtags, no finger pointing, noconclusions. I really hope & pray, thatthe matter around the tragic pass-ing of Sushant Singh Rajput comesto a decisive conclusion. How we ‘feel’is less important than true, unbiasedjustice!! Justice for the sake ofJustice & nothing else.”

Actress Zareen Khan shared hersentiments on Twitter and wrote:“Sushant’s family needs to knowthe truth, his fans & every personwho loved him needs to know thetruth. #CBIForSSR #CBIforSushant#Warriors4SSR

#JusticeForSushantSinghRajput.”These demands follow a new

video posted by Sushant’s sisterShweta Singh Kirti on Instagramand Twitter Thursday, demandingCBI investigation into his death.“We stand together as a nation forCBI Enquiry! Demanding an un-biased investigation is our rightand we expect nothing but the truthto come out. #CBIForSSR#Warriors4SSR#justiceforSushanthSinghRajput@PMOIndia @narendramodi@AmitShah,” Shweta had saidin the video, which she posted

on her verified Instagram accountand her unverified Twitter handle.

In another post, she was seenholding a placard that reads: “I amsister of Sushant Singh Rajput andI request for #CBIforSSR.”

She had captioned the image as:“It’s time we find the truth and getjustice. Please help our family and

the whole world to know what thetruth is and find closure, oth-erwise we will never be ableto l ive a peacefullife!!#CBIForSSR Raise yourvoice and demand

#JusticeForSushantSinghRajput#WarriorsForSSR @sushants-inghrajput.”

Following her post, actressKangana Ranaut also shared a videodemanding a CBI probe into thedeath. Actresses Ankita Lokhande andKriti Sanon also lent their supportto the family. Sushant was found deadin his Bandra apartment in MumbaiJune 14. His family has lodged an FIRaccusing his girlfriend, actress RheaChakraborty, and her family withabetment to suicide among othercharges. IANS

P2 SAI DHARAM TEJ TO STAR IN AMYSTICAL THRILLER

leisureSouthern star Sai Dharam Tej will be seen in amystical thriller film directed by debutantKarthik Varma Dandu. The untitled project is his15th film. Sai Dharam Tej made theannouncement on Instagram and also sharedthe poster of the upcoming movie.

Before taking a break for medical treatment,actor Sanjay Dutt plans to wrap up the dubbingwork of his upcoming film, Sadak 2. “Sanjay willcomplete the last leg of dubbing for his filmSadak 2 by next week, before going on amedical break,” said a source close to the actor.

SATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSGood news from acrossthe seven seas bringscheer! If you're seeking avisa, you may get onetoday. Everything looks positive and itreflects in your mood. Share your happi-ness with your family, says Ganesha, andyou will find it multiplies manifold.

PISCESConflicts galore will comeyour way at the workplacetoday. Keep a calm headover your shoulders anddo keep tabs on your tongue. Differencesonly crop up if there are substantial thoughtprocesses involved, and keeping this inmind ought to give you the perspectiveneeded to get ahead, says Ganesha.

SAGITTARIUSCupid is hunting and youare the game today.Cupid's arrows will haveyou adrift on the oceanof love and turbulent emotions. Your res-cue is imminent, when a member of theopposite sex answers your SOS calls. Butuse your discretion as to which boat youhitch a ride back home, says Ganesha.

LIBRASome days you get thecarrot, while on others,it is the stick! Today isgoing to be one of those‘stick' days when it comes to dealingwith your seniors, foresees Ganesha. Itwould be wise to delay auction bids orsealed tenders.

SCORPIOYou shall be completelyimmersed in your routinetoday. It's the same oldhumbug of a day for you,says Ganesha. But this exhausting daymay transform into an exciting evening –so be prepared to get surprised.

LEOEveryone wants to bedifferent. But little dothey realise that theyalready are unique, saysGanesha. Today, you may meet a lot ofsuch different people at work, some ofwhom may even test your patience.Always remember that working in ateam means balancing a variety of egosand opinions.

VIRGOTake time off all byyourself and intro-spect today, saysGanesha. Office cubi-cle looks set to be a war front and paydue attention there, lest things turn tobe more difficult, advises Ganesha. Newlove may just blossom today, and youmay even enjoy a nice quiet eveningwith friends.

GEMINIToday, you are likely toget encouragement andsupport for your endeav-ours from all quarters. You have a gift ofgab and your ability to dispel tension witheven the simplest of your remarks will beput to test. Still, you will rise to the occa-sion and prove your mettle.

CANCERIf you are a stockbroker,you may feel that thingsare not going too wellfor you. Today, you mayregret being a stockbroker.Manufacturers must delay the launch ofa new product. However, after a waitinggame, you may go on to launch theproduct with a fanfare.

ARIESYou are creative, andtoday you will prove tobe resourceful andthereby successful! Okay, you are ambi-tious, says Ganesha, but don't bite offmore than you can chew. Be confident ofyour abilities, work hard and have faithin providence.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSYou will feel the burden offinancial responsibilitieson your shoulders today,says Ganesha. Do not let expenses botheryou. Money will come to you from unex-pected sources later in the day. If you canmaintain an impartial judgement, thenyou will yield wonderful results on thefinancial front, advises Ganesha.

CAPRICORNWork will suck you dry ofyour energy today, saysGanesha. Business rivalswill go out of their way tomar your reputation and project you asincompetent. But to their dismay, youwill prove to be way too smart to letthem succeed in their sinister motives.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

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

SANJAY DUTT TO WRAP UP SADAK 2DUBBING BEFORE MEDICAL BREAK

Celebs join CBI probe demand in Sushant case

Varun Dhawan Gulshan Devaiah Parineeti Chopra Zareen KhanSiddhant Chaturvedi

New Delhi: Actress Priyanka Copra executive-pro-duces Evil Eye, which is one out of eight spinechillingand interlinked films that constitute the upcomingoriginal OTT series, Welcome To The Blumhouse.

The eight films will have a common theme cen-tred on family and love as redemptive or de-structive forces.

The first two films — Veena Sud’s TheLie and Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.’sBlack Box — will drop October 6. Thesewill be followed by Priyanka's Evil Eye,and Nocturne, written and directed byfilmmaker Zu Quirke, October 13.

The rest of the slate will be un-veiled in 2021.

Based on playwright MadhuriShekar’s award-winning production,Evil Eye is directed by Elan Dassaniand Rajeev Dassani, and stars SaritaChoudhury, Sunita Mani, OmarMaskati, and Bernard White. It showshow a seemingly perfect romanceturns into a nightmare when a motherbecomes convinced that her daughter’snew boyfriend has a dark connection to her own past.

The Lie, written and directed by Sud,stars Mireille Enos, Peter Sarsgaardand Joey King. IANS

Mumbai: Actor Ishaan Khatter has been roped in toplay Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta in an upcomingwar film.

Titled Pippa, the film has the celebrated Army tankat the core of its plot and is directed by Airlift makerRaja Krishna Menon.

“I’m exhilarated to be a part of a film of such mag-nitude and importance. Getting to play the suave andspirited tank commander Captain Balram Mehta is atrue privilege. I’m looking forward to the exciting ex-perience of Pippa,” Ishaan said, of working in the tankbattle film.

Veteran Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta of the 45thCavalry tank squadron, along with his siblings, foughton the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistan war of1971, and the film recounts his story. It is based on hisbook, The Burning Chaffees. Pippa is co-written byRavinder Randhawa, Tanmay Mohan and Raja KrishnaMenon. The film is co-produced by Ronnie Screwvalaand Siddharth Roy Kapur.

Talking about the film, Menon said: “Pippa is a warfilm, but it also has an emotional core celebrating thetriumph of love and humanity.” IANS

Evil Eye headedto OTT platform

Priyanka’s Sonu recalls his initial days of struggle in Mumbai

Ishaan to star in awar action film

P3 I-DAY READY

A member of VandeMataram Group performs atGandhi Marg inBhubaneswar, Friday, on theeve of Independence Day

downtown

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SATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 2,11,61,797 1,39,81,618 7,59,220

India 24,61,542 17,51,846 48,153

Odisha 54,630 39,206 324

COVID-19 TRACKER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: For thefourth time running, Odisha has beenadjudged the best-performing state in im-plementing the Pradhan Mantri GramSadak Yojana (PMGSY) as the state con-structed 5,300 km roads in 2019-20.

The rankings were announced dur-ing a meeting of the State Level StandingCommittee headed by Chief SecretaryAsit Tripathy held Friday. AdditionalChief Secretary of Rural DevelopmentPK Jena presented the details of the per-formance before the panel.

Starting from the financial year 2016-17 to the year 2019-20, the state retainedthe No 1 position at the national levelon execution of PMGSY.

Rural Development directorSudarshan Parida said, “5,300 km ofroads were constructed in the state dur-ing 2019-20, which is highest at the national level.”

It was decided in the meeting that 9,400kms roads will be constructed in the third

phase of PMGSY during the period of2020-21 to 2024-25.

During the meeting, the governmentapproved 518 road projects with a totallength of 3,500 km in 13 districts. Theseprojects will be constructed underPMGSY Phase-III with an investmentto the tune of Rs 2205 crore.

The Chief Secretary directed theRural Development department to pre-pare proposals for another 5,900 kmroad and submit it for approval bySeptember. According to sources, atotal of 60,334 km of roads and 574

bridges have been constructed in the stateduring Phase-I and II of the PMGSYscheme. In this regard, the Central andstate governments have jointly pro-vided Rs 25,682 crore.

Development Commission SureshChandra Mohapatra advised to con-struct roads linking main road to nearbyvillages and institutions.

Under the PMGSY scheme, the cen-tral government provides 60 per cent ofthe funding and the state government40 per cent for the construction of roadsand poles.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: Followinga five month hiatus, Prashant Swain,was elated to restart his workout regimeas gyms in the city were allowed toopen. However, much to his surprise,Prashant was asked to renew his quar-terly membership, payment of whichhe had made only in January.

Gym goers and fitness enthusiastslike Prashant were left baffled by therevised fee structure used by gym own-ers who are hell bent on not consideringa rebate for the closure period. Denizenshave complained that they are askedto renew their membership despitenot using services during the lock-down.

“Earlier in mid-January, I had shiftedfrom Bangalore. Within a week, I found

a gym to my liking which was alsonear my residence. Since I’m a pro-fessional body builder I had taken thehalf-yearly plan and paid about Rs.7,500. However as I re-joined the gyma week ago, I was asked to repay thesame or take a monthly plan,” com-plained Prashant.

Moreover, apart from renewal ofplans, people complained that gymowners are reluctant to consider theweekend shutdown in their new plans.“Out of 30 days, the gyms are boundto be closed for eight days a month. Yet,we are asked to pay monthly,” saidSasmita Mohanty, a gym goer here.

Set at a minimum amount of Rs.1,000 and maximum of Rs. 12,000, var-ious gyms in the city have lured cus-tomers with their fancy equipmentand fitness plans.

However, pointing out to the heavylosses and sluggish business post re-opening, gym owners stated their in-ability to provide extension.

“Our hands are tied. We did not getany rebates from our heavy monthlyrentals and other expenses. We are al-ready suffering from heavy losses and

post unlock there has been no heavyturnout of customers fearing COVID-19. However, we are mulling giving aone-month rebate on our quarterly,half yearly and yearly plans if lockdownis imposed for more than a week,” saidAsish Rout, Manager of BhubaneswarHealth Club.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14:Providing a fillip to implementationof the 5T framework, the state gov-ernment has decided to developan online platform for real-timemonitoring of minor mineral re-sources.

While holding a meeting withsenior officials, Chief SecretaryAsit Tripathy instructed theRevenue department to focus onprocess reengineering of the ex-cavation and transportation ofminor minerals in the statethrough adoption of technology.

He instructed the officials to de-velop i-4MS (Integrated Minor Minesand Mineral Management System)software for online monitoring ofminor minerals. The state govern-ment identified 4,693 new minormineral sources by the end of July.

Odisha tops in PMGSY again

No gym rebate riles fitness enthusiasts

State to go fore-tracking ofminor minerals

Our hands are tied. We didn’tget any rebate from our

monthly rentals and otherexpenses. We’re already suffering fromheavy losses. Post unlock, there’s apoor turnout of customers. However,we’re planning to allow a month’srebate on our quarterly, half yearly andyearly plans if lockdown is imposed formore than a week ASISH ROUT BHUBANESWAR HEALTH CLUB MANAGER

From 2016-17 to 2019-20, Odisha retainedthe top position at the national level on

execution of PMGSY

A total of 60,334 km of roads and 574bridges have been constructed in Odisha

during Phase-I and II of the scheme

Odisha aims to construct 9,400 km ofroads in Phase-III of PMGSY from 2020-21

to 2024-25

Heavy rainlashes state

Bhubaneswar: Heavy rainfall lashed several parts of the stateFriday due to formation of a low pressure area over the Bay ofBengal while the India Meteorological Department said that thedownpour will continue for next three days.

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OTDC braces for ensuring safety of touristsPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: TheOdisha Tourism DevelopmentCorporation (OTDC) has startedtaking steps to overcome the impactof Covid-19 pandemic which hasdealt a body blow to the tourism sec-tor in the state.

The OTDC has shared somevideos regarding tourism desti-nations in Odisha and how pre-cautions are being taken for thesafety of tourists. The videos alsoshow how proper protocols arebeing followed to curb the spreadof the novel coronavirus and ensurepleasant stay for the tourists, saidthe OTDC.

In the videos shared on OTDC’sofficial social media platforms, the

corporation showcased specialpackages for the tourists. Thisapart, special wedding event pack-

age and honeymoon package wasalso showcased.

An official said, “The safety of

tourist is our priority and OTDCPanthanivas is following properprotocols to curb the spread ofCovid-19 to make your stay pleas-ant.”

Earlier, the corporation had is-sued advisory for OTDC hotels inview of Covid-19. OTDC chairper-son Shreemayee Mishra had saidthe OTDC has taken some majorsteps to contain the pandemic. She

said that for hotels the managersshall ensure the premises of theirrespective units are clean and hy-gienic. They should ensure andpromote regular and thorough handwashing by the employees and cus-tomers, she added.

The managers should also en-sure that face masks and tissue pa-pers are adequately available attheir units for those who have arunny nose and cough.

Meanwhile, Hotel and RestaurantAssociation of Odisha (HRAO) hassought help from the government.HRAO chairman J K Mohnaty saidhotels in the state are incurringhuge losses as almost all bookingsby inbound tourists, marriage func-tions and conferences have beencancelled.

In the videos shared onOTDC’s official social media platforms, the

corporation showcasedspecial packages for

the tourists

A still from a video shared by OTDC OP PHOTO

The Millennium City occupies a spe-cial place in the freedom struggleand it was undoubtedly the nerve

centre of freedom movement in Odisha.Besides, many prominent leaders who hadjoined the struggle for Independence wereassociated with Cuttack. Orissa POSTmakes an attempt to present the legacy ofCuttack in the freedom movement:

Swaraj AshramLocated in Sahebzada Bazar in Cuttack,

Swaraj Ashram played a key role in the in-dependence struggle. The Ashram had in-spired thousands of people from acrossOdisha to join the movement against theBritish rule in India. Top leaders of the free-

dom struggle used to congregate at SwarajAshram and devise strategies to fight theBritish colonialism. Legendary leaderslike Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru,Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, SardarVallabhbhai Patel and Dr Rajendra Prasadhad visited the ashram during the move-ment.

Meet on Kathajodi riverbank Kathajodi riverbank here had two historic

meetings during the Non-CooperationMovement. Freedom fighters from Odishaincluding Utkalmani Pandit GopabandhuDas, Harekrushna Mahtab, JadumaniMangaraj, Bhagirathi Mahapatra,Jagabandhu Singh and Mukunda PrasadDas had participated in the Nagpur ses-sion of Indian National Congress (INC)that had passed a resolution to launch theNon-Cooperation Movement against theBritishers. Pandit Das had convened a pub-lic meeting on the bank of Kathajodi riverJanuary 24, 1921 and urged people to par-ticipate in the movement. In the same year,Gandhiji had also addressed a public meet-ing on the riverbank March 23. At least50,000 people congregated at the meeting tolisten to Gandhiji’s speech.

Civil Disobedience Movement The Civil Disobedience Movement of

1930 had received massive support fromthe residents of the Millennium City.Cuttack witnessed a complete hartalDecember 14, 1930 to protest the sealing ofCongress office in the city by the British.Many prominent freedom fighters includ-ing Malati Choudhury and Lingaraj Mishrawere taken into police custody. The residentsof Cuttack had observed the IndependenceDay January 31, 1931 as per the resolutionpassed in the Lahore session of INC.

Choudhury Niwas Choudhury Niwas, the ancestral home

of prominent freedom fighters GopabandhuChoudhury, Nabakrushna Choudhury,Rama Devi and Malati Devi at Bakharabadin Cuttack had a special link with the free-dom struggle. The National Flag was hoistedat Choudhury Niwas to observe January26, 1930 as Purna Swaraj Diwas. GopabandhuChoudhury had launched his historicLabana Satyagraha Yatra to Inchudi fromthe verandah of Choudhury Niwas. UtkalGandhi Smaraki Nidhi is now operatingfrom Choudhury Niwas to propagateGandhian thoughts.

Role of Ravenshaw College Ravenshaw College which was later up-

graded into a university had contributeda lot to the freedom struggle. Many stu-dents of this institution had participatedin the movement. Ravenshaw was the almamater of several prominent freedom fight-ers from Odisha. Incidentally, Ravenshawhad hosted the first meeting of OdishaLegislative Assembly once the countrywas freed from the British rule.

The old jail The old jail at Darghabazar in Cuttack

had hosted many freedom fighters. TheBritishers had set up the jail in 1863.Prominent freedom fighters includingGopabandhu Das, Madhusudan Das andNabakrushna Choudhury were lodged inthis jail. The state government had de-clared the jail as a memorial in 2010.But, no step has been taken for its preser-vation.

How Cuttack played a key role during freedom struggle The Tricolour was hoisted at Choudhury Niwas in the city to observe January 26, 1930 as Purna Swaraj Diwas

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: Twincity Police CommissionerSudhanshu Sarangi along withsenior officials of CommissioneratePolice Friday reviewed the securityarrangements at the ExhibitionGround where the state-levelIndependent Day celebrations willtake place Saturday.

A dog squad of Odisha Policemade a thorough scan of the groundfor any explosives materials.

The state government had ear-lier announced that IndependentDay celebrations would be a low-keyaffair this year in view of Covid-19 pandemic. As many as 100 guestsincluding Covid warriors will be al-lowed to be present at the groundduring the flag hoisting programmeby Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The guests present at will obeyall the Covid-19 norms like wear-ing masks and social distancing

at the venue. None will be allowedto enter the g round without mask. DCP UmashankarDash said that the city police forcealong with four additional DCPs, 10ACPs, 12 Inspectors, and 20 SIs willbe in charge of the security of theground. The weekend shutdownhas been relaxed till 11am Saturdayfor the celebrations. Meanwhile,Commissionerate Police has is-sued a traffic advisory for theIndependence Day celebrationshere. The directions regarding thetraffic restrictions and diversionswill be in force on MadhusdanMarg, stretching from Unit-IV toRam Mandir square, and the areasin its periphery.

All set for I-Daycelebrations in City POST NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, August 14: Thestate Friday reported record 1,977fresh coronavirus cases, takingOdisha’s tally to 54,630, an officialof Health and Family Welfare(H&FW) department said.

Ten more Covid-19 patients alsolost their lives, following which thedeath toll reached 324, said the of-ficial.

Of the new cases, 1,241 were re-ported from different quarantinecentres. The remaining 736 weredetected during contact tracing ofpeople who have already tested pos-itive for Covid-19.

Most of the new cases were de-tected in Khurda where 332 peopletested positive, followed by 280 inGanjam, 120 in Mayurbhanj, 118 inBhadrak and 101 in Cuttack, theofficial pointed out.

Four of the latest fatalities werereported from the state’s coron-avirus hotspot Ganjam. Three pa-tients died in Puri, and one deatheach was reported from Cuttack,

Sambalpur and Sundargarh.So far, 53 more Covid-19 patients

have lost their lives in the state butthese fatalities have been attrib-uted to ‘other reasons’.

Ganjam’s Covid-19 toll increasedto 151 with the latest fatalities.Among the 30 districts, Ganjamcontinued to be on the top with14,122 Covid cases followed byKhurda 7,784 cases and 42 casualties.

Sundargarh district has reported21 Covid deaths and 2,805 caseswhile Gajapati registered 16 casu-alties and 2,212 cases. Similarly,Cuttack and Rayagada districtshave reported 14 deaths each while

Puri and Nayagarh registered eightdeaths each.

Odisha Thursday tested a record42,761 samples. So far, it has con-ducted 8,07,826 tests.

Capital sees 247 casesAs many as 247 more persons

tested positive for the virus in theCapital city here, taking the tally to4,842. “Out of the fresh cases, 148were quarantine cases while 99were local contact ones,” theBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation said.

With this, the number of activeCovid-19 cases in Bhubaneswarrose to 1,695 while 3118 personshave so far recovered from the dis-ease. The temple City has so farseen 23 deaths due to the viral in-fection.

nCoV tally surges past 54K mark; toll 324

COVID CARE HOME FOR SERVITORSPuri: With novel coronavirus spreading its tentacles to every nook andcorner of the state, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA)has made elaborate arrangements to tackle any eventuality related tothe pandemic. According to sources, as many as 11 rooms of hotelRock Bay at City Road here have been kept aside to be used as CovidCare Home (CCH). “In case a Srimandir servitor or temple staffer testspositive for the virus, he would be kept at the facility exclusivelytaken on rent for the purpose. Adequate facilities have been put inplace at the rooms to host the patients. This apart, health staffershave also been trained for the purpose,” said a source at SJTA.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: TheTourism department has made adocumentary film on Odisha’s in-digenous cuisine, highlighting ori-gin and recipes of ‘pitha’ and‘pakhala’ among other items, whichwill be aired on Doordarshan Odiaon Independence Day, an officialsaid Friday.

Extending his wishes to the de-partment for the programme, ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik, in a videomessage, said that ‘pakhala’, a hum-ble rice dish, was his all-timefavourite food item.

The CM also said that he servesOdia food to his guests at his resi-dence.

“Odisha is the land of LordJagannath, who Himself is a

‘Chhapanbhogi’ (one who eats 56food items a day). I have a specialliking for Odia festivals, differentpithas (rice cakes) and foods ofOdisha. Odia cuisine has its ownidentity and I like ‘pakhala’ themost,” Naveen said.

The documentary – ‘Ama Ghara,Ama Handisala’ (Our home, our

kitchen) — will promote select Odiarecipes through home chefs, theofficial said.

Patnaik had earlier this year in-vited Union Home Miniter AmitShah and his counterparts in Bengaland Bihar, Mamata Banerjee andNitish Kumar, to Naveen Niwasand served them Odia food.

DD documentary on Odia cuisineNaveen says ‘pakhala’, a humble rice dish, was his all-time favourite food item

Odisha is the land ofLord Jagannath,

who Himself is a‘Chhapanbhogi’ (onewho eats 56 food itemsa day). I have a specialliking for Odia festivals,different pithas (ricecakes) and foods ofOdisha NAVEEN PATNAIK I CHIEF MINISTER

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, August 14: As manyas 14 personnel of Odisha policehave been conferred with President’sPolice Medal for DistinguishedService and Police Medal forMeritorious Service on the eve ofIndependence Day, 2020.

According to Ministry of HomeAffairs, Deputy Superintendent ofPolice K Benugopal Acharya andConstable Biranchi Narayan Sahoowere awarded with President’sPolice Medal for DistinguishedService. As many as 12 police offi-cials were felicitated for MeritoriousService. They are: AdditionalSuperintendent of Police AbhiramKar, Assistant Commandant (SOG)Tapas Ranjan Mohapatra, ACP AnilMishra, DSP Vigilance AnupamaMohapatra, Additional DCPBhubaneswar Raj Kishor Paikray,

Inspector under Cuttack UPD AjayaKumar Das, Inspector Atul KrishnaDas, Inspector Saroj Kumar Patel,Inspector Nir mal KumarMohapatra, Subedar KishoreChandra Balabantaray, OSAP SepoyRatha Lakra and HavildarMohammad Fazal Umar.

The MHA informed that PoliceMedals for Gallantry (PMG) havebeen awarded to 215 police per-sonnel for their conspicuous gallantaction. President’s Police Medals forDistinguished Service have beenawarded to 80 police personnel andPolice Medal for Meritorious Serviceto 631 police personnel across thecountry. Last year, at least 23 po-lice officials from state were awardedPolice Medal for Gallantry and 11officials with Police Medal forMeritorious Service. Two officialswere awarded President’s PoliceMedal. Meanwhile, four Odisha

cops have been selected to receive‘Union Home Minister’s medal forExcellence in Police Investigation’award for 2020.

Further, nine officials of OdishaFire services department have alsobeen selected to get various medalsincluding the President’s medal forgallantry and distinguished services.

Prakash Kumar Bal, leading fire-man, has been chosen for the gal-lantry medal while Surendranath

Gadapala and Manoj Kumar Sahu,both working as station masters, willreceive President’s medal for dis-tinguished services. Similarly, sixother officials including DeputyFire Officer of Bhubaneswar,Ramesh Chandra Majhi, will beconferred with President’s medal fortheir meritorious services. Further,four home guards including onecivil defence volunteer will also re-ceive President’s medal.

Police medal for 14 cops from Odisha Ghanashyam Upadhyay new IG, Vigilance

Bhubaneswar: The Home department Friday effected a minor reshuffle in Odishapolice. 1999-batch senior IPS officer Ghanashyam Upadhyay, who currently holdsthe post of Inspector General of Police for Economic Offences Wing (EOW), hasbeen given the charge of IGP, Vigilance. Similarly, 2002-batch IPS officer SKGajbhiye, presently the SP (Computer), will now hold the post of Principal ofUrban Police and Traffic Training Institute (UPTTI) in Bhubaneswar. OPS officerManoj Kumar Mohanta, the additional SP of Kalahandi, has been posted as SP In-charge of Deogarh district. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo, the principal of UPTTI will be thenew Commandant for 7th Battalion, Bhubaneswar. Meanwhile, the transfer orderof SC Jamadar, the AIG Police Headquarters, has been cancelled.

Tribal Museum in virtual modeBhubaneswar: Now, one can makea virtual tour of Odisha State TribalMuseum as the ST/SCDevelopment department hasmade it online amidst Covid- 19pandemic. The virtual tour willenable the audience to visualiseexclusive tribal artifacts, habitatsand unique aspects of TribalMuseum. One can visit facebookand twitter pages @scstrti,@scstdev to witness the uniqueaspects. One can virtually visit themuseum every Sunday. Virtualtour will continue for 14 weeks,which began August 2, said ABOta, Director, SCSTRTI.

VITAL STATSOf the 1,977 fresh Covid-19 cases, 1,241were reported from quarantine centresand 736 during contact tracing

Khurda topped the list with 332 freshinfections followed by Ganjam (280),Mayurbhanj (120) and Bhadrak (118)

Ten more coronavirus patients losttheir lives, taking the death toll to 324

Four additional DCPs, 10 ACPs, 12 Inspectors,

and 20 SIs will be incharge of security

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: TheNational Human RightsCommission (NHRC) has askedBargarh District Magistrate tosubmit an action-taken report(ATR) in connection with pay-ment of compensation to the rel-atives of a 12-year-old minor girlwho was sexually abused by amarried man in 2019.

The NHRC issued the directionwhile hearing a petition filed byrights activist Himanshu SekharNayak, who has sought Rs 15 lakhcompensation for the victim andstringent action against the culprit.

The issue came to fore after thegirl was found five months’ preg-nant May 26, 2019. Subsequently,her family members lodged a case(129/19) with Barpalli police underPOCSO Act. The accused was laterarrested. Bargrh Superintendentof Police, in a report to the NHRC,asserted that the allegations werefound to be true during investi-gation and medical examinationof the victim. The Collector ofBaragrh had also sent a report tothe NHRC mentioning that a teamformed by CDMO and DCPU ofBargarh examined the victim andsent her to VIMSAR at Burla forfurther treatment.

After perusal of the reports,NHRC directed the Collector tosubmit the ATR within six weeks.

NHRC seeks ATR onBargarh minor’s rape

The old jail at Darghabazar in Cuttack

REFLECTING THE HERITAGE

The Srimandir in Puri reflects in rainwater, Friday OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Koraput, August 14:Even as many pockets inKoraput are deprived ofsafe drinking water, anultra mega drinkingwater project will be setup at Boipariguda area.This was informed byMLA Raghuram Podalhere Thursday.

Addressing apresser here, Podalsaid over 1.05 lakhpeople in 225 villagesof 14 panchayatswill benefit from thisme ga drinkingwater project.

Another suchdrinking water proj-ect will be set up inMalkangiri to pro-vide drinking waterto 56,200 people in10 panchayats. Headded that an esti-mated ̀ 258.67 crorewould be spent forthe two drinkingwater projects.

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Bolangir, August 14:Construction workof the ambitious Lower Suktel IrrigationProject in Bolangir has remained stalledover last two years.

Locals united under the BalangirAction Committee (BAC) have warned ofan agitation over the stalemate if thework is not started within a month.

Meanwhile, a six-member delegation ledby MLA Narasigh Mishra has submitteda memorandum to the Chief Ministerthrough Collector Arindam Dakua.

MLA Narasingh Mishra, president ofthe BAC Gopalaji Mishra, president of theNagarika Committee BikramanandaBohidar, president of the district BarAssociation Pramod Kumar Tripathy,lawyer Bhawani Shankar Satpathy andRatan Kumar Moharana held discus-sions with the Collector over the statusof the project and the bottlenecks ham-pering the work.

During the discussions, the delega-tion demanded that the administrationshould appoint a regular land acquisitionofficer and other staff.

The delegation members also madeit clear that the work of an important ir-rigation project like Lower Suktel shouldnot be stopped while there is a need to paycompensations to the displaced and proj-ect affected people.

“For a long time, RPDAC meeting hasnot been held. As a result, problems of thedisplaced are not taken up for discus-sion. The displaced people should getwhat they deserve and the RPDAC meet-

ing should be called immediately,” saidMLA Narasingh Mishra.

Mishra also said that he would holdtalks with the Speaker, the minister of thewater resources department and the sec-retary so as to ensure work within amonth. The members of the delegationwarned that people of Bolangir would def-initely protest if the project work is notstarted within a month.

The BAC is spearheading the movementin support of the dam project. Membersof the BAC had visited Paradhiapali andconducted a meeting with the villagerswho were up in arms against the project.

The construction work of the projectwas stopped due to stiff opposition fromvillagers around seven months back.

Paradhiapali village is the epicentreof the agitation against the project. Itsresidents are seeking a one-time com-pensation as per the Land Acquisition andRehabilitation Act, 2013. They also de-manded that their family members whohave now achieved 18 years of age be

included for compensation.Worried over stoppage of project work,

the BAC had earlier urged the district ad-ministration to end the impasse withthe agitating villagers.

BAC leader Gopalji Panigrahi urgedthe villagers of Paradhiapali to cooper-ate with the administration in carryingout the project work.

The members also discussed the prob-lems arising out of the project, com-pensation and rehabilitation issues withthe villagers. It may be noted here thatthe government has already spent overRs1,000 crore for the project. At the meet-ing, the villagers raised their concernsover the proposed dam and pressed fortheir old demands.

Once commissioned, the project willirrigate 29,146 hectares in Balangir dis-trict and 2,684 hectares in Sonepur, cov-ering 189 villages. Due to frequent con-flicts between pro and anti-dam activists,the work on the project has been dis-rupted several times in the last 12 years.

Efforts renewed to endlogjam over Lower Suktel

8-year-old Ganjam girlin India Book of Records

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, August 14: Ishita Acharya,an eight-year-old girl from Ganjam district,has found a place in India Books of Records.

Ishita achieved this feat by writing theRamayana at such a young age. She has seta record for being the youngest author towrite the Hindu epic.

Ishita, who is presently staying inChennai at the work place of her farther,has written a summary of the world famousepic in English language in 57 pages. Ishitatook 22 days to complete her writing. Ishitais a Class-III student studying at NSNMemorial School.

Expressing happiness over their daughter’sachievement, Ishita’s parents said right fromher childhood she was inclined towards re-ligious scriptures. “After watching the re-telecast of Ramanand Sagar’s iconic TV se-rial Ramayana during the COVID-19 lockdown,Ishita had expressed her willingness to starta summary of Ramayana in English lan-guage”, added her parents.

Ishita’s father Sanjit Achary said, “Shestarted writing the book in May and finishedit within 22 days.” After Ishita completedwriting the book, her parents informed theIndia Books of Records officials regarding hercreation. They also sent a picture of the book

and other necessary documents.Then after verifying all the documents,

India Books of Records placed Ishita’s featon the book. Ishita was given a certificate, agold medal and the book featuring her name.

After achieving the award Ishita said, “Iam very happy by finding my name in IndiaBooks of Records. My parents supported mea lot to complete my book.”

Now she dreams to find a place in theLimca Book of Records and Guinness WorldRecords in future writing books on extra-ordinary topics, she said.

“We are proud of our daughter. Sincechildhood she was attracted towards mytho-logical stories. Her grand-mothers used to nar-rate one mythological story to her every day.She is often curious to know and that is whathelped her to achieve this feat,” said Ishita’sparents Sanjit and Rashmita Acharya.

Posthumous ‘SurajSamman 2020’ toGanjam organ donorPOST NEWS NETWORK

Chhatrapur, August 14: On theoccasion of ‘World Organ DonationDay’, donor P Priyankarani Patraof Digapahandi town in Ganjamwas posthumously given SurajSamman 2020 Thursday afternoon.The function was hedl at theCollectorate.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikawarded the prestigious honour toPriyankarani’s kin through videoconferencing. Also as part of theaward, her kin were handed anamount of Rs 5,00,000.

The award was handed over toher husband V Sameer KumarRaju by Odisha Assembly SpeakerSurya Narayan Patro.“Humanitarian values are stillalive these days, in human beings,the chief minister said in his videomessage.

5T Secretary VK Pandian,Collector Vijay Amruta Kulangeand ADM Amiya Kumar Sahoowere at the ceremony.

Priyankarani was injured inan acident January 26 and suc-cumbed later. Her kin wanted todonate her organs. Her kidneyswere transplanted into the body oftwo critical patients at ApolloHospital, Bhubaneswar and SCBMedical College and Hospital.

57 healthybabies bornfrom Covid-19positive momsPOST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur,August 14: Eventhough Ganjam hasemerged as ahotspot for COVID-19 infections inOdisha, one wouldbe sur prised toknow that amid theongoing crisis, 57healthy babies havetaken birth frommothers who hadtested positive forCOVID-19 duringtheir pregnancy.

Collector VijayAmruta Kulangetwittted about itThursday. ChiefMinister NaveenPatnaik also ex-pressed his happi-ness over the inci-dent in his twitteraccount Friday. Out ofthe 57 babies, 16 aregirls and the rest are boys.

All these babieshave no Covid symp-toms despite beingborn from Covidpositive mothers,said Kulange.

Their mothershave recovered fromthe disease. The sit-uation in the south-ern part of the dis-trict is improvinggradually.

Koraput to havemega drinkingwater project

Ishita summed up Ramayan in English during lockdown

Locals united under theBalangir Action Committee(BAC) have warned of an agitation over the stalemate if the work is not started within a month

Meanwhile, a six-member delegation led by MLA NarasighMishra has submitted a memorandum to the ChiefMinister through CollectorArindam Dakua

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

I ndia will take over as a non-permanent member of the UN SecurityCouncil (UNSC) in January 2021. The government has begun preparationsby deciding to upgrade India’s diplomatic presence at the UN. The Indian

delegation is being strengthened with the appointment of an additionaldeputy permanent representative and a counsellor to solely handle SecurityCouncil matters.

According to sources, the 1999-batch Indian Foreign Service officer R.Ravindran, who is joint secretary (Central and West Africa) will join the IndianPermanent Mission in New York in the rank of additional deputy representative.He served in the office earlier under Hardeep Singh Puri, who is nowMinister of Civil Aviation, Urban Development and Commerce, but who headedthe mission when India was a non-permanent member in 2011-2012.

Ravindran’s colleague Pratik Mathur, who is from the 2007 batch, and isdeputy secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), will be a counsellor.Both IFS officers will join the mission before the 75th UN General Assemblyopens next month. The India mission is currently headed by T.S. Tirumurthi,with Nagaraj Naidu as deputy permanent representative.

It is also said that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will be keenlyfollowing India’s stint at the Security Council with re gular monthly reviews.

Retirement practicesAt a time when the Covid pandemic has forced states to tighten their fi-

nances, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to increase retirementbenefits for retired senior officials. Citing petitions from the IAS Officers’Association and senior bureaucrats, it has permitted an additional Rs 10,000monthly servant allowance to all re-tired chief secretaries and addi-tional chief secretaries.

The move is bound to raise eye-brows since many other states withstraitened finances have been forcedto hold back DA of government of-ficials and pushed back pensiongrants. Barely two months ago, the government had increased the retirementage of babus from 58 to 59 years, ostensibly to postpone the huge pension bur-den it would face. More recently, the government has given retiring chief sec-retary K Shanmugam a three-month extension.

According to sources, the state government has based the order on a sim-ilar move by neighbouring Karnataka in 2015. Then Karnataka had allowedchief secretaries and additional chief secretaries a servant allowance of Rs6,000 plus telephone and medical allowances over and above the pension andother benefits of the retired babus.

Bitter medicineManipur has a qualified doctor as the state’s new chief secretary. Senior

IAS officer of the Manipur cadre, Rajesh Kumar who was additional chiefsecretary, has succeeded J. Suresh Babu who superannuated from govern-ment service. Incidentally, Babu was also a doctor who became a civil servant.

Kumar’s appointment comes in the backdrop of a demand from severalstudent organisations in the state to appoint a “qualified state native” to thepost of chief secretary. Kumar, who is an IAS officer of the 1988 batch, is not.Once Kumar’s appointment was announced, some organisations are now de-manding that the decision be reviewed. The state government, however,has shown no sign of acknowledging this demand.

With the students upset over what they term as “denial of rights of thenative communities” by the state government, Dr Kumar as the new chiefsecretary may have to apply a healing balm to the “hurt” sentiments of thestudent community first, besides getting down to discharging his own con-siderable administrative duties.

Share a babu experience! Follow dilipthecherian@twitter.com.Let’s multiply the effect

R iver Hooghly used to getdry in the last century. Wemade the Farakka Barrage

in the seventies to divert the waterof the Ganga to the Hooghly tokeep her alive. Subsequently, wem a d e a n a g re e m e n t w i t hBangladesh to share water of theGanga equally. We are now di-verting one-half of the water toHooghly and one-half is going toBangladesh through River Padma,by which name the Ganga isknown in Bangladesh. Farakka has been successful inmaking the Hooghly live again.However, three problems havearisen.

The first problem is that theSunderbans are getting eroded dueto the Farakka. The sedimentsbrought by the Ganga are distrib-uted unequally between Hooghlyand Padma. The Farakka Barragehas gates to regulate the flow toHooghly and Padma. A pond hasbeen formed behind the barrage.The sediments settle in this pond.The water coming out from belowthe gates of Farakka goes toBangladesh. This water carries

more sediments. Water from theupper levels of the pond goes tothe Hooghly. This water carriesless of sediments. The result isthat while water is shared equally,more sediments go to Bangladeshand less to Hoo ghly. BothBangladesh and India are sufferingdue to this imbalance.

When more sediments go toBangladesh, these get depositedon the bed of the Padma, chokingthe channel, resulting in more offlooding in Bangladesh. A fortu-itous result, however, is that a partof these excessive sediments reach-ing the Bangladesh sea coast meantaccretion of the land of Bangladesh.On the other hand, the water goingto Hooghly has less sediments. Thisbrings trouble of a different type.The sea has a natural hunger forthe sediments just as we havehunger for bread. Since the Hooghlyis bringing less sediments, thehunger of the sea is not satisfiedand the sea has started to eat theGanga Sagar Island. In this way, theFarakka Barrage is eating the sa-cred land of India.

The sea brings in a large amount

of sand with it during the hightide, which is stronger. It is, how-ever, not able to carry this sandback with the low tide, which isweaker. Therefore, the sea has al-ways deposited sediments in themouths of the Ganga. Indeed, apart of the land of Ganga Sagarbeing eaten by the sea today isbeing deposited in the mouths of theGanga. This natural phenomenonhas become adverse because thesesediments were previously beingpushed back into the sea during themajor floods.

This is not happening now because water is less, as a share ofthe water is being removed at Tehri,Haridwar and Narora. The resultis that it is becoming progressivelydifficult for ships to come to Haldiaand Kolkata ports. Often, a dredgermoves in front of a ship, clearingthe channel for the ship to some in.The purpose of Farakka to assistnavigation has been utterly defeated.

The solution to these problemsrequires a comprehensive study.Some preliminary thoughts canhowever be shared. Firstly, we need

to find alternative ways of divert-ing the water to the Hooghly insuch a way that the balance be-tween water and sediments is notdisturbed. One possibility is todredge the Bhairavi and Jalangirivers downstream of Farakka.These rivers join the Hooghly. Wedivert the water-and-sediment ofthe Ganga to the Hooghly thoughthese rivers if we do not make a bar-rage and a pond wherein the sed-iments settle. The second step tobe taken is to make an agreementwith Bangladesh to provide 80 percent water to Bangladesh during onemonth in the monsoons, and 80per cent to the Hooghly the nextmonth. This will restore the majorfloods in the Padma and Hooghly,push the sediments coming fromthe upstream and the sand com-ing with the high tide back into thesea. That will clear the channel ofthe Hooghly and perhaps save theHaldia and Kolkata ports fromincapacitation.

The writer is a formerProfessor of Economics at

IIM Bangalore.

Balance between water, sediments

CATCHING THEM YOUNGT

he 86th Amendment tothe Constitution madefree and compulsory ed-ucation to all children

in the age of 6-14 a FundamentalRight. However, early childhoodcare and education remained as anunenforceable mandate for thestate to children between 3-6 years.This has denied around five crorechildren in the age group of 3-6 thebenefit of non-formal learningand proper nourishment, beforethey step into formal learning.

The Kasturirangan Committeehas duly noted this serious deficitand implored the government tomake early childhood care and ed-ucation (ECCE) a fundamentalright. The National Policy onEducation, 2020, makes amendsfor the dichotomy in the 86thAmendment and paves the wayfor bridging the huge opportunitygap in pre-schooling between theaffluent and the underprivileged.Besides, it also takes note of the re-curring concern of ASER reportson how Right to Education Act,2009, has been underperforming interms of educational outcomes.

Stanley Wolpert, the eminenthistorian, calls education ‘theswiftest elevator for modern Indianpower’. The Education Policy ofIndia stood on the tripod of ac-cess, equity and quality. TheNational Policy on Education (1986and 1992) focussed on access andequity, and less on promoting qual-ity education. The RTE Act 2009 laiddown the legal underpinning forUniversal Elementary Education.The quality dimension has beena pivotal concer n of UN’sSustainable Development Goals(2015), to which India is a signatory.The present policy adds two moredimensions to the education pol-icy, viz. affordability for all sec-tions of society and accountabil-ity on part of all stakeholders likethe state, planners and teachers.

The policy looks at a crucial el-ement of early education, namelyquality nutrition, where surveysby UNICEF ( Rapid Survey ofChildren) clearly reveal unac-ceptably high levels of malnutri-tion (38 per cent) among children,leading to stunting and wasting.Demographic dividend carries inits womb the seeds of disaster anddeprivation. Since 80 per cent of achild’s cumulative brain develop-ment takes place before age 6, thepolicy has advocated provision of

wholesome nutritious food withadequate protein intake, vitaminsand micro nutrients to childrenwho will be undergoing pre-school-ing. The policy has set a target ofachieving foundational literacyand numeracy by 2025, where ASERreports find close to 60 per centand 70 per cent deficits respec-tively. It has also emphasised thatbesides foundational and numer-acy skills, children have to developcognitive skills (critical thinking)and soft skills like cultural aware-ness, as advocated by Joseph Nye.

In order to achieve such a trans-formative change, the policy ad-vocates for standalone Anganwadis,co-located with primary schools, asalso pre-primary schools co-lo-cated with primary schools andstandalone pre-schools. It also laidemphasis on the importance ofimproving quality of infrastructureof Anganwadis and of well-trainedteachers who can take the man-date of quality informal teachingin a joyful environment to fruition.The policy also looks at seriousproblems of high dropouts afterchildren cross the age of eight.

As per UNESCO Institute ofStatistics, close to 6.2 crore childrenwere out of school in 2013. It alsotakes note of open distance learn-ing which needs to be revampedand restructured; and looks at re-structuring the curriculum bypooling children in the age groupof 3-8 wherein they will have thebenefit of foundational learningand activity based works, besidesgiving importance to team work.The policy takes note of the nat-ural potential of children to learna number of languages and sug-gests encouraging multi-lingual-ism in the age-group of 3-8. But it

does seek to change the three lan-guage format. Use of technologyhas been recognised as a powerfultool to enhance learning, assess-ment and planning. During thepresent Covid times, the impor-tance of online teaching has beenclearly recognised. The study ofopen distance learning has broughtout a few important deficiencies;firstly that teachers need to becomfortable while using ICT. Also,ease of use has been a major chal-lenge as four students are given onePC, the maximum capacity of ICTlab being of 40 students. Manysuch centres do not have prescribedtime table for ICT; and access andavailability are limited. As JennyArledge observes, “Technologycan become the wings that willallow the educational world to flyfaster, if we allow it.”

Funding of education has beena serious problem, particularlyafter its universalisation. Due topoor funding of public schools,poor quality of school infra-structure, and poor accountabilityof teachers, there has been a sig-nificant rise in the number of chil-dren gravitating to private schools(30 per cent) . The KothariCommission had suggested that 6per cent of GDP should be ear-marked for education. The newpolicy notes that most states spendonly 10 per cent of their total budgetexpenditure on education. Theoverall spending is around 4 percent of GDP by the Centre and thestates. The policy recommendsthat states should increase theirspending to 20 per cent of theirannual budget and 6 per cent ofGDP, in a decade’s time. This is awelcome move. The policy alsoseems to put a premium on public

education and strongly deplorescommercialisation of education.

A mention may be made of theBirla-Ambani Report of 1999, wherethey had strongly pitched for totalcommercialisation and corpo-ratisation of education. The pres-ent policy does not fall for such amarket/business driven approachto education and considers earlyschooling and primary educationas a merit. Economist RichardMusgrave had strongly suggestedthat quality early childhood edu-cation should be the predominantremit of governments. The spin-up of such expenditure on qualityprimary education will have a cas-cading effect later on in the knowl-edge economy that we straddle.

The recommendations of thepolicy are indeed salutary. However,since education is a concurrentsubject, it remains to be seen howthe state governments rise to thechallenges of earmarking morefunds for quality education. The ex-perience so far reveals wide vari-ation between states. Kerala, Delhiand Tamil Nadu spend nearly 25 percent of their budget on education,while it is limited to 10 per cent inmost other states. The decrepit in-frastructure, poor IT support andindifferent teacher quality are a tes-timony to the poor educationaloutcomes. Therefore, a strong reg-ulatory authority would be re-quired to ensure that quality ofcurriculum and dispensation ofteaching conform to the lofty ob-jectives of promoting foundational,cognitive and other skills.

The world is rapidly changingas a knowledge landscape. Rise ofbig data, machine learning, and ar-tificial intelligence is renderingmany unskilled jobs redundant.There is a greater need for high- endskills. However, it has to be sup-plemented by exposure to liberalarts, character building and en-couraging learners to be more eth-ical, rational, compassionate, car-ing and secular. The mind of achild is like a clean canvas. The ef-fort should be not to crowd it withrote learning but to provide ho-listic education where arts, crafts,sports and science coalesce. The pro-posed paradigm shift in ECCE ismost welcome.

SN Misra is a professor ofEconomics and Sanjaya

Kumar Ghadai is a research scholar

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

India at UN

UNUSED HEART

An elderly patient needs a hearttransplant and discusses his

options with his doctor. The doctorsays, ‘We have three possible donors.One is a young, healthy athlete. Thesecond is a middle-aged businessmanwho never drank or smoked, and the

third isan

attorneywho just died after

practising law for 30years.’ ‘I’ll take the lawyer’s heart,’says the patient. ‘Why?’ asks thedoctor. The patient replies, ‘It’s neverbeen used.’

SATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

The body should reject illness asenergetically as in the mind wereject falsehood.

THE MOTHER

RIVERS

THE MIND OF ACHILD IS LIKE A

CLEAN CANVAS.THE EFFORT

SHOULD BE NOTTO CROWD IT

WITH ROTELEARNING BUT

TO PROVIDEHOLISTIC

EDUCATIONWHERE ARTS,

CRAFTS, SPORTSAND SCIENCE

COALESCE

Dr. SN Misra &Sanjaya Kumar

Ghadai

WISDOM CORNERHeard melodies are sweet, but those unheard, are sweeter.

JOHN KEATS

The devil is not so black as he is painted. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death isdistant, try to save your soul; when death is imminent what can youdo? KAUTILYA

EDUCATION

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

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

SINCE THEHOOGHLY IS

BRINGING LESSSEDIMENTS, THEHUNGER OF THE

SEA IS NOT SATISFIED AND THE

SEA HAS STARTEDTO EAT THE GANGA

SAGAR ISLAND

BharatJhunjhunwala

Justice to Sushant

Sir, People are puzzled as to whether thenation’s law and order systems are of anyhelp to the people. Sixty days have passed,but not a single suspect or accused has beenarrested in the Sushant Rajput death case.Reports say witnesses are absconding andthe Mumbai police is not being seriousabout the investigations. The home min-ister in Maharashtra is claiming the statepolice is competent enough to handle thecase. Others might not agree to such claims.The Maharashtra Police is not willing tohand over the case to the CBI. First of all,the prime accused are to be arrested.Witnesses are to be brought forward togive evidence as to what happened in thefateful night at Sushant’s flat.

Naresh Mandal, Prachi Nagar, BHADRAK

Boost e-office system

Sir, The South Western Railwayzone sets an example to be an e-of-fice. The digital file movementtripled in the past four monthsamid the Covid pandemic. SWR’se-files created by users, standing at3,623, rose to 14,069. During thistime, 803 new e-office users were reg-istered. This is a brilliant move to-wards Digital India. The e-officesystem minimises human and phys-ical contact at workplace, replacingmanual filing systems, saving op-erational costs, and reducing car-bon footprint. The need of the houris that all departments establishthe e-office system. This will helpcut red tape.

Amit Singh Kushwaha, SATNA

Child labour

Sir, We are making many laws to control childlabour. Still, a lot of children are working ingarages, hotels, dhabas and grocery shops. The con-dition and education levels of migrant children arepretty bad. Governments are providing rations,homes and other facilities to the poor to improvetheir condition. Governments are supporting poorfarmers through various schemes. But the situa-tion has not changed. Most of the parents in tribalareas do not take proper care of their children. Girlsare suffering more in tribal and backward fami-lies. Data shows many children engaged in workhave their names in the school register. Due topoor engagement and rough behaviour of teach-ers, most children in rural areas are leaving schoolsbefore completing their education. Most schoolsare focusing more on MDM rather than teaching.

Santosh Kumar Mohanty, Safa, CUTTACK

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Dilip Cherian

BABUDOMBYTES

Teetotal

It’s an odd-looking word. The first part makes no obvious sense, and as aresult some people have assumed that it’s a misspelling, suggesting that

those who abstained from alcohol turned to tea for their refreshment, onwhich they became totally reliant — hence tea-total. Where it comes fromhas puzzled people to the extent that other odd stories exist. It has beenargued that those who signed the pledge at temperance meetings hadtheir names marked with the letter T to indicate their total abstention.Lansing, New York, is often quoted here, where it is said to have firsthappened in January 1827, but there’s no contemporary evidence for it —the story only surfaced much later in the century. However, this story isnot too far from the truth of the matter. It’s accepted that the word, atleast in the abstinence sense, was coined by Richard ‘Dicky’ Turner in aspeech he gave to a temperance meeting in Preston, Lancashire, inSeptember 1833. Turner was an illiterate working man, a fish hawker, whohad visited one of the early Preston temperance meetings in 1832 as a jokewhile half-drunk, but who came out of the meeting a convert. He was oneof the founding Seven Men of Preston who signed the pledge and became afervent advocate of that form of temperance that demanded totalabstention from all forms of alcoholic drink, not just spirits as some moremoderate reformers urged. There’s no formal record of what he said at themeeting — one report had it that his words were “nothing but the tee-totalwould do” but it is also claimed that he said in his strong local accent, “I’llbe reet down out-and-out t-t-total for ever and ever.” Here’s where it allgets a bit murky. Did Dicky Turner stutter, did he invent a new word byadding t as an intensifier to the front of total, or was he using one alreadyknown? We will probably never be entirely sure. What is certain, though, isthat his word caught on in the local temperance movement, was oftenquoted in its journal, the Preston Temperance Advocate, giving the creditto him as inventor, and soon became a standard word in the language.Richard Turner died in 1846 and is buried in St Peter’s churchyard inPreston; he may be the only person in the world whose claim to haveinvented a new word is cited on his tombstone.

The NEP, 2020, makes amends for the dichotomy inthe 86th Amendment and paves the way for bridging the huge opportunity gap in pre-schoolingbetween the affluent and the underprivileged

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Shimla, August 14: HimachalPradesh Chief Minister Jai RamThakur has said the industry hasbeen badly affected due to the Covid-induced lockdown and migrationof labourers.

Speaking at the inauguralsession of a webinar organisedby CII on 'HP Economic Summit-Getting the Growth Back', hesaid out of 3,636 coronaviruscases in the state, 800 were fromindustrial areas. Thakur saidefforts would be made to expe-dite the work on four laning ofthe road passing through in-dustrial areas. For this, stepswere being taken to persuadethe Union government to en-

sure railway connectivity inBaddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarhindustrial area in Solan districtwould be strengthened. Thestate offers attractive incen-

t ive s u n d e r t h e I n d u s t r i a lInvestment Policy to boost in-dustrialisation and make it moreattractive and industry-friendly,he said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Aurangabad, August 14: Hit hardby the coronavirus-induced lockdown,‘Himroo’ weavers in Maharashtra’sAurangabad district are waiting forreturn of international tourists, primecustomers of their products, and full-fledged start of normal activities forrevival of their business.

Imran Qureshi, who belongs to a localfamily of Himroo weavers, is a worriedman as his business has suffered con-siderably due to the lockdown and isnow pinning his hopes on "Unlocking"process to bring customers. "Theturnover of our business prior to lock-down was Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh a year.This is almost zero now. "I had a unitof six handlooms, but I have decidedto shut it and bring those looms home.Foreign tourists, who are our prime cus-tomers, are not coming to Aurangabadsince lockdown. How long it will takefor situation to normalise, we dontknow," Imran Qureshi told PTI.

"We have a limited number of crafts-men who know this art of weaving. We

didn’t reduce manpower in lockdown,but they are not getting the salaries theyused to get earlier," said another mem-ber of the family, Aamer Qureshi.

Imran is worried about the van-ishing art of traditional Himroo weav-ing, which is one of the identities ofAurangabad, a city in centralMaharashtra with a rich history andculture and also an internationaltourist hub. "No marketing, use ofpowerlooms and lack of governmentinitiative is making this art rare.There are many places in Aurangabadwhere Himroo-like fabrics are soldwhich are actually made on powerloom.

"The actual Himroo fabric is handweaved. I tried to continue the workwith weavers called from Banaras(Varanasi). But its demand has de-clined so is the production," said ImranQureshi, whose family is involved inHimroo weaving for generations.

Stoppage of flights from Rajasthanled to a negative impact on Himroo busi-ness in Aurangabad, he said. "Touristscoming by Udaipur flight to Aurangabadused to be Europeans, Americans and

Mexicans. They used to buy Himrooproducts on a large scale. Now, thescene has changed as Thai, Chinese andKorean tourists visit the city in morenumber. But they don't buy (theseproducts) much," Imran said.

Another Himroo weaver and busi-nessman Ramesh Khatri said, “Myyearly turnover used to touch Rs 1crore. But the business in two monthssince Unlock phase is not more thanRs 4 lakh.”

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HIMACHALPRADESH

SATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7 MAHARASHTRA

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, August 14: The ShivSena Friday sought to downplay thecontroversy created by NCP presi-dent Sharad Pawar’s public repri-mand of his grand-nephew ParthPawar for seeking a CBI probe intoactor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

The political storm generatedover the public rebuke by SharadPawar of his grand-nephew ParthPawar was "not even a storm inthe tea cup", the ruling saffron partyin Maharashtra and an ally of theNCP said.

The NCP chief had saidWednesday that he attached "ab-solutely no importance" to ParthPawar's demand for a CBI probe intothe actor's death. The Pawar senioralso called Parth Pawar, who is theson of his nephew and deputy chiefminister Ajit Pawar, "immature".

An editorial in the Shiv Sena

mouthpiece 'Saamana' hit out atnews channels for "blowing theissue out of proportion". There wasnothing wrong in what Shard Pawardid, the Sena publication said.

"These people (news channels) cre-ate artificial storm for their liveli-hood. Pawar's comments on Parthare being construed as sign that

not all is well in the Pawar family."Sharad Pawar is a senior leader

and head of a political party. Hecan admonish the young. Even late(Shiv Sena founder) Bal Thackerayhas done that," the editorial said.

"When your tongue is not in yourcontrol, you face a lot of problems.Ajit Pawar has gone through such

problems. So now he controls him-self. His son Parth is new in politicsand that is why his statements cre-ate controversy. Even some seniorand experienced politicians havedemanded a CBI probe," the edito-rial said in a veiled reference toBJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

"Pawar's comments against his

grand-nephew were just to put abreak on his actions. Why so muchhue and cry over it?" the Marathidaily asked.

Parth Pawar welcomed the startof the construction of the new Ramtemple in Ayodhya and wrote a longpublic letter about it, the editorialsaid. "There is nothing wrong inspeaking in favour of Ram mandirwhich is being constructed withthe Supreme Court approval.(Congress leaders) Priyanka Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi, too, have ex-pressed their views. (Chief Ministerand Sena president) UddhavThackeray visited Ayodhya. Butnobody wrote long letters to ex-press their views like Parth," the ed-itorial said.

The paper advised Parth Pawarto take the senior Pawar's rebuke asa blessing and learn right lessonsfrom "the political gymnasium"that exists in his home.

SENA DOWNPLAYS PAWAR’S SNUB TO KINAfew days ago, Parth Pawar had

met state Home Minister AnilDeshmukh and later wrote a letterdemanding a CBI probe into SushantSingh Rajput’s death, which probablyirked the NCP chief

Sarad Pawar’s statement shockedpolitical circles and served to

refuel speculation of cracksemerging within the state's leadingpolitical clan as Parth is the son ofDeputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar

FAMILY POLITICS

Virus scourge in industrial areastakes toll on Himachal’s economy

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Shimla, August 14: Farmers in tinyhamlets dotted over Himalayanpeaks of the landlocked LahaulValley of Himachal Pradesh arenot in high spirits amid the pan-demic with government plans to pro-mote contract farming of the highlyremunerative barley for makingmalt whiskey having gone awry,at least this year.

But a Polish company that re-cently signed a pact with the stateis eyeing to compensate growersowing to coronavirus by procuringlocally grown high variety, disease-free Kufri Chandramukhi and KufriJyoti varieties of potatoes -- rated thebest in the world for high altitudegrowing -- for its vodka brands.

State agriculture officials said itis not feasible to go for plantingbarley at this point in time as thesummer cultivation season in thevalley is almost near completion.

The state November 6, 2019,signed a MoU with Polish spirits pro-ducer Neilson Europe to initiallyinvolve nearly 200 farmers ofLahaul-Spiti district and somepockets in Kinnaur and Chamba dis-tricts to go for contract farming ofa high-yield barley variety im-ported from Scotland and Europe.

“We were hopeful to go for con-tract farming of barley this season,but the coronavirus scare had de-layed it, maybe for a year now. Thisseason we again went for the cul-tivation of our traditional potatocrop,” Ishwar Bodh, a farmer ofDarcha, told IANS.

The Lahaul Valley is known forgrowing prized seed potatoes, whosehistory goes back to 1854 when mis-sionary AW Hide from Germany es-tablished a farm near Keylong, thedistrict headquarters town. Theseed potatoes are in great demandin states like West Bengal,Bihar and Karnataka. The

other cash crops are peas, cauli-flower and hops.

As per the pact, the Polish spir-its producer has proposed to investRs 110 crore under its project 'Grainto Glass' to produce the organicHimalayan single malt whisky byinvolving farmers in contract farm-ing and setting up a world-classdistillery. According to the pro-ducer of the award winning spir-its ZOUK and Extill, world’s sin-gle estate rye vodkas, the geographicand climatic conditions of HimachalPradesh are on a par with Scotland’sand many other European regionswhich will lead to deriving a uniqueand special terroir. A total of 85 kgof barley seed of the Laureate va-riety per acre will be provided toeach 200 farmers on a trial basis bythe company. This variety is themost widely grown spring malt-ing barley in Scotland. Surveys bythe agriculture department showthe area under cash crop potatocultivation in the Lahaul Valleyhas declined in 10 years from 2,000hectares to about 700 hectares.

Likewise, there has been a neardecline in the cultivation of hops, akey ingredient in brewing beer, asa major cash crop in the valley owingto dumping of cheaper varietiesfrom China, the US and Germany.

High altitude potato toget global attention

Polish firm Neilson Europe will procure locally grownKufri Chandramukhi and Kufri Jyoti varieties of

potatoes for its vodka brands

Himroo weavers wait for int’ltourists for biz revival

Himroo is a fabric made of silk and cottonand its origin in Aurangabad can be traced

back to medieval India

The once thriving Himroo weaving industryhere is now struggling for survival andefforts are on to obtain Geographical

Identification (GI) mark for the art in a pushto save it from going into total oblivion

THE FABRIC

Packages fortribals, workershit by lockdownINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, August 14: Ina significant move, theMaharashtra cabinet hasgiven its nod to packagesfor tribal families and con-struction workers in thestate who are hit hard bythe lockdown, it was an-nounced Friday. As per thecabinet decision, there willbe a package of ̀ 436 crorefor tribals and forest-dwellingcommunities, under whicheach family will get a spe-cial grant of ̀ 4,000.

Labour Minister DilipWalse-Patil has also an-nounced a second in-stalment of `300 crorefor nearly 10 lakh con-struction workers whohave been rendered job-less in view of the ongo-ing lockdown. Under this,all eligible labourers willget `3,000 directly intotheir bank accounts tohelp them tide over theimmediate crisis.

The Lahaul Valley isknown for growingprized seed potatoes,whose history goesback to 1854 when missionary AW Hidefrom Germany established a farm nearKeylong, the districtheadquarters town

P8

nationalSATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

If a cancerpatientbecomes

COVID-19 positive, itis very dangerous.We have askedcancer patients notto come to hospital for treatmentbecause if they contract the virus, itwill be very serious

HIMANTA BISWA SARMA | ASSAM HEALTH

AND FAMILY WELFARE MINISTER

of theday uote

The BJP hasconstructed500 party

offices across thecountry whereas theconstruction workon 300 others is inprogress

JP NADDA | PRESIDENT OF BJP

Resumption ofmining is veryimportant for

the development ofGoa. The issue isbefore the court, butthe CM is alsoworking to find a political solutionfor this through legislative means.I am satisfied with the attemptsmade by the CM

SATYA PAL MALIK | GOA GOVERNOR

India will be one of theCOVID-19 vaccine-

producing nations. It needs aclearly-defined, inclusive andequitable vaccine access strategyensuring availability, affordabilityand fair distribution. TheGovernment of India must do it nowRAHUL GANDHI | CONGRESS LEADER

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, whowas undergoing treatment forcoronavirus, Friday said he has testednegative. Shah said that on the adviceof the doctors, he will be in homeisolation for the next few days

AMIT SHAH RECOVERS

Girl raped New Delhi: A 13-year-oldgirl was allegedly raped byher neighbour when shewent outside to relieveherself in southeast Delhi'sSarita Vihar area, policesaid Friday. The police havearrested the 18-year-oldman. The incident tookplace Thursday, they said.The girl, a Class IX studentat a government school,was taken to a hospital formedical examination, asenior police officer said.The father of the minor toldthe police that the incidenttook place when hisdaughter had gone outsidethe jhuggi to relieve herself.Her neighbour and one ofhis friends took her behindthe bushes, where the 18-year-old raped her. Later,the accused fled the spot,the officer said.

AIIMS doctor found deadNew Delhi: A doctor in theAIIMS's PaediatricsDepartment was foundhanging at his residencenear the hospital, policesaid Friday. Thedecomposed body of MohitSinghla, 40, was found in ahouse in south Delhi'sGautam Nagar. The policecontrol room was informedby a caller at around 3 p.m.that a foul smell wascoming from the house,and a team reached the spot.

UP MLA booked Lucknow: Vijay Mishra, theMLA from Gyanpur inBhadohi district who wasbooked on charges ofgrabbing property andintimidation, was arrestedFriday from Agar in MadhyaPradesh, an official said.Bhadohi Superintendent ofPolice Ram Badan Singh toldreporters that Mishra wasarrested on a tip-offprovided by Bhadohi policeto their counterparts inMadhya Pradesh. The SPsaid that a police team hadbeen sent to MadhyaPradesh to bring the MLA toBhadohi on a transitremand.

Five arrestedNew Delhi: Five men havebeen arrested for allegedlyprocuring SIM cards on fakeIDs and selling them tounauthorized call centres,spammers and thoseinvolved in cyber-crimefraud, police said Friday. Theaccused have been identifiedas Usman Goni (26), aresident of Assam, VirenderSingh (24), Nishant Bansal(24), Gagan Chopra (22) andPrateek Sharma (21), allresidents of Delhi, they said.

SHORT TAKES

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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 14: In a veiledmessage to China amid the borderstandoff, President Ram NathKovind Friday asserted that whileIndia believes in peace it is also ca-pable of giving a befitting responseto any attempt of aggression as hesaid "some in our neighbourhood"tried to carry out "misadventureof expansion".

In his address to the nation on theeve of the 74th Independence Day,Kovind also spoke about the'Aatmanirbhar' initiative launchedby Prime Minister Narendra Modiand allayed fears of foreign in-vestors saying India's self-reliancemeans being self-sufficient with-out alienating or creating distance

from the world, with which it wouldcontinue to engage.

Touching upon the COVID-19pandemic, Kovind said the nationis indebted to doctors, nurses andother health workers who have beencontinuously on the forefront ofthe fight against the disease whichhas disrupted all activities world overand taken a huge toll.

He also complimented the Modigovernment, noting it is very re-assuring to note that the Centrewhile anticipating the tremendouschallenge responded effectively andwell in time. "For a country so vastand diverse with high populationdensity, meeting this challenge re-quires super-human efforts."

Without taking China's name,the President said "while the world

community needs to fight togetheragainst the greatest challenge(COVID-19) before humanity, somein our neighbourhood tried to carryout their misadventure of expan-

sion." He saluted the brave soldierswho laid down their lives defendingthe country's borders.

"Those worthy sons of 'BharatMata' lived and died for nationalpride. The entire nation salutes themartyrs of Galwan Valley. EveryIndian feels grateful to their familymembers," he said. Twenty per-sonnel of the Indian army werekilled during clashes with theChinese PLA in Galwan Valley ineastern Ladakh on June 15.

"Their bravery in combat hasdemonstrated that while we believein peace, we are also capable of giv-ing a befitting response to any at-tempt of aggression. We are proudof the members of our ArmedForces, paramilitary forces and po-lice personnel who protect the bor-

ders, and ensure our internal se-curity."

The President also said con-struction of the temple at Shri RamJanmabhoomi in Ayodhya "was in-deed a moment of pride for all".Prime Minister Modi performedthe 'Bhoomi Pujan' for the Ramtemple August 5. "People of thecountry maintained restraint andpatience for a long time and re-posed unflinching trust in the ju-dicial system. The issue of RamJanmabhoomi was resolved throughjudicial process. "

All concerned parties and thepeople respectfully accepted theverdict of the Supreme Court anddisplayed before the world, Indianethos of peace, non-violence, loveand harmony, he said.

On I-Day eve, Prez issues veiled warning to China

MONSOON FURY

Flood-affected people move on banana rafts, following heavy rain in Nalbari district, Friday PTI PHOTO

HAPUR RAPEACCUSED HELDINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, August 14: UttarPradesh Police Friday arrestedDalpat, the man accused of kid-napping and brutally raping a six-year-old girl in Hapur district.

Dalpat, was shot in the leg whenhe snatched a policeman's gunand tried to flee after his arrest, saidthe police who managed to arresthim more than a week after theminor girl was attacked. The girlwas kidnapped on August 6 eveningwhen she was playing outside herhouse in Garhmukteshwar Kotwaliarea. She was found a day later incritical condition in a field wherethe accused left her to die. Thevictim has been undergoing treat-ment in Meerut and her condi-tion remains critical.

Hapur police chief SanjeevSuman said: "Dalpat was taken tothe site of the crime for investi-gation after his arrest where hesnatched a policeman's pistol andtried to fire at them. He was hit onthe leg in retaliatory firing, and hasbeen admitted to a hospital."

The doctor at the hospital saidDalpat has a bullet injury in his legbut was out of danger. Dalpat willbe interrogated as soon as he isout of the hospital, a police officialadded. Earlier this week, the policehad released a photo of Dalpat,days after three sketches were re-leased based on the statements ofthe girl's parents and neighbours.For the last few days Dalpat carrieda reward of Rs 50,000 as policesought information about the at-tacker and was under pressure tosolve the case. Earlier on Friday, theAmroha police had found a set ofclothes, an identity card and a pur-ported suicide note from Dalpatthat said that he did not want to bekilled in an encounter and waschoosing other means to end his life.

4 OF FAMILYFOUND DEADINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Hyderabad, August 14: Fourmembers of a family were founddead under suspicious circum-stances in Telangana's Wanaparthydistrict Friday, police said.

The bodies of a woman, herdaughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter were found lying in different parts of their house in Nagpur village of Revalli mandal.

As nobody had come out of thehouse in the morning, the neigh-bours went in only to find all fam-ily members lying dead. They im-mediately alerted the police, whichshifted the bodies for autopsyand took up the investigations. Apolice officer said they were try-ing to find if the family commit-ted suicide or somebody mur-dered them. Police found lemon,coconut and incense sticks nearthe body of Khawaja Pasha closeto the boundary wall on the rearside of the house. A pit was alsodug in the premises. Police saidthey were investigating if thedeaths were related to witchcraft.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 14: TheSupreme Court Friday said it isnot in favour of appointing a com-mission of inquiry into the allegedmismanagement of the Covid-19pandemic in the country.

A bench headed by Justice L.Nageswara Rao noted that there isa worldwide view that judiciaryshould not interfere in executive de-cisions in an emergency situationlike Covid-19 pandemic.

The top court did not pass anyorder on the plea seeking an inde-pendent inquiry through a com-mission, headed by retired apexcourt judge, into alleged gross mis-management in the Covid-19 pan-demic, and adjourned the matter fornext week.

The top court queried the peti-tioners counsel to show it the vio-lation of fundamental right or law.The bench said it cannot pass anorder on a roving inquiry, as the pe-titioners think that the executive ac-tion was not satisfactory.

A group of six petitioners, in-cluding retired bureaucrats, filed theplea through advocate PrashantBhushan claiming that Centre's re-sponse to the pandemic and its dele-terious impact on the lives andlivelihoods of citizens of the coun-try is a definite matter of public con-cern and warrants appointment ofa Commission.

The plea contended that the in-

quiry is essential with respect to thefailure of the Centre to undertaketimely and effective measures forcontaining the transmission of thedisease within India even afterbeing notified about it by WHO inearly January.

"Failure of the respondent(Centre) to adhere to its statutoryobligations under the DisasterManagement Act 2005, including

constitution of and consultationwith advisory committees con-sisting of experts under Section 7,drawing up a National Plan underSection 11A," said the plea.

The petitioners contended that theCentre failed to consult the nationaltask force appointed by it on March18, which consisted of experts in thefield of epidemiology and publichealth prior ahead of the imposi-tion of the nationwide lockdown andits subsequent extensions.

The plea claimed that the lapseson the part of the Centre whiledealing with Covid-19 pandemichave led to a severe infraction of thefundamental rights of the people."Firstly, the respondent (Centre)failed to nip the problem in the budby conducting effective screeningand surveillance of internationalpassengers coming into India...,"said the plea. Criticizing the gov-ernment's decision to declare alockdown, the plea said it was "ar-bitrary, irrational and without dueconsultation with experts or stategovernments".

A bench headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao noted that there is a worldwide view that judiciaryshould not interfere in executive decisions in an emergency situation like Covid-19 pandemic

TOP COURT REFUSES TO INTERFERE

‘MISMANAGEMENT’ OF PANDEMIC

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, August 14: With acure for coronavirus still notknown, more and more peopleare turning to Ayurvedic 'Kadha'prescriptions to keep the virus atbay.

In a newstart-up,kiosks sell-ing Kadhashave sprungin at severalplaces, espe-cially thosefrequentedby morningwalkers.

"We usedto sell juicesof bottle gourd, bitter gourd here,but now we have added Kadhaand the majority of our cus-tomers prefer a glass of thisAyurvedic concoction," saidRamesh Sharma who sets up astall near a park in Indira Nagarlocality every morning.

Ramesh claims that his wifeand mother prepare the Kadhaby boiling various species, in-cluding cardamom, ginger, nut-meg, peppercorns, basil leaves,cinnamon, honey and turmeric.However, he admitted that hewas not aware of the quantity

of spices that should go intothe making of the decoction.

He sells a small glass of theconcoction for Rs 40 and manycustomers even get it packedfor home. Swadesh Sharma, aseptuagenarian, said, "I drinkone cup and take home three

c u p s. M yw i f e a n d Idrink thisKadha twicea day."

RavindraKumar, an-other morn-ing walkerand a regu-l a r K a d h acustomer,s a i d t h at

preparing the decoction at homewas a cumbersome task.

"My wife and I go to work andwe barely get time to cook ameal. Preparing the Kadha takesa lot of time so we drink a cuphere," he said.

"This is in a powder form andyou simply have to boil it inwater. The spices are in meas-ured quantities and there is noneed to even strain the decoc-tion," said Mohan Lal, who sellspackets of the Kadha powder in his g rocery store in Mahanagar area.

People turn to ‘Kadha’to keep virus at bay

Tight security across Kashmir INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Srinagar, August 14: The broaddaylight killing of two local po-licemen by terrorists Friday hasforced authorities to heighten se-curity across the Kashmir Valley.

The terror attack took place onthe eve of Independence Day despiteintelligence inputs about such apossibility. The two victims werepart of a deployment party on theSrinagar-Baramulla national high-way in Nowgam area of Srinagardistrict. Another policeman wasalso injured in this hit and run ter-ror strike.

Vijay Kumar, IGP (Kashmir)rushed to the spot immediately fol-lowing the incident. He said that theterrorists who carried out the attackbelonged to the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit.

"We have identified them. Theybelong to the Jaish outfit. The po-

lice party did not retaliate to avoidcivilian casualties. "We had intel-ligence inputs about such an at-tack and we have put all security per-sonnel on high alert. The militantsalways try such things aroundAugust 15. "The death of two ofour jawans is unfortunate," saidthe IGP.

He however, refused to acceptthat the attack had taken place be-cause of a security lapse. Giventheir past experience, the security

forces have already sounded a redalert across Kashmir and randomchecking of vehicles enteringSrinagar city has been going onbesides electronic surveillance byCCTV cameras and drones for thelast three days.

Sniffer dogs have also been de-ployed around all sensitive secu-rity installations in Srinagar citywhere the main Independence Dayparade is scheduled to be heldSaturday.

RAJASTHAN GOVTWINS FLOOR TESTINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, August 14: The AshokGehlot government in Rajasthanwon the motion of confidence byvoice vote during the specialAssembly session convened Friday.

The special session was ad-journed for two hours when it gotunderway on Friday. As soon as itstarted at 1 p.m., RajasthanParliamentary Affairs MinisterShanti Dhariwal moved a motionof confidence, which was acceptedby Speaker C.P. Joshi who allotteda three-hour slot for debate.

After a lengthy debate, the Gehlotgovernment won the confident mo-tion by voice vote. The stateAssembly has now been adjournedtill August 21. The Gehlot govern-ment is now safe for at least sixmonths, as the Opposition can'tmove a no-confidence motionwithin the next six months.

It may be mentioned here thaton Thursday, BJP's Leader ofOpposition Gulab Chand Katariahad said that his party will movea no-confidence motion againstthe state government in the spe-cial Assembly session.

However, the saffron partydropped the idea as soon as theCongress moved the motion ofconfidence on Friday.

The Assembly session came afew days after the patch up be-tween Gehlot and rebel partyleader Sachin Pilot, marking ahappy ending to the over a month-long political uncertainty in thestate. Pilot was provided a newseating arrangement in theAssembly, where his seat wasshifted to the second row fromthe first row earlier.

During the debate, whenDeputy Leader of OppositionRajendra Singh Rathore was re-

peatedly taking his name, for-mer Deputy CM Pilot stood upand told the Speaker, "I was won-dering that my seat has beenshifted. This looks like a border,with the ruling government oneside and the opposition on theother. Those being sent to theborders are the strongest. Theremay be bombardment at this bor-der, but we will be the armourand keep everything safe."

He also said, "We had raisedour concerns with a 'doctor'. Nowall of us stand here unitedly afterreceiving 'treatment'." Pilot saidthat many facts will come to thefore in the coming days.

Earlier, Parliamentary AffairsMinister Dhariwal said that AmitShah could not succeed inRajasthan.

Rajendra Singh Rathore im-mediately objected to the referenceto Union Minister Shah. Dhariwalthen said that just as Akbar wastaught a lesson by MaharanaPratap, similarly the BJP wasshown the door by the brave sonsof Rajasthan who nullified theirplans to topple the elected stategovernment.

P9

nationalSATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

The Kanyashree scheme,started in 2013, has won

the UN (first prize)award. Nearly 67 lakh girls havebeen empowered through thisunique scheme. Girls are theassets of our nation and we areproud of themMAMATA BANERJEE | WEST BENGAL CM

Students of Jadavpur Universityhave made an electronic maskwhich will be able to annihilateany virus in close proximity to theperson wearing it, an official said

WAR AGAINST VIRUS

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The Centre'songoing peacetalks with the

NSCN-IM in Delhiwon't affect theterritorialboundaries

N BIREN SINGH | MANIPUR CM

of theday uote

On the eve oftheIndependence

Day, the camp is atribute to both fallenwhite coat warriorsand the Kargilmartyrs. We must remember theultimate sacrifice made by theCOVID warriors including doctors,nurses or paramedical staff whilesaving people's lives in thepandemic

HARSH VARDHAN | UNION MINISTER OF

HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

J’khand unveilsnew emblemRanchi: Jharkhand GovernorDraupdi Murmu Friday unveiledthe new emblem of the state inthe presence of state ChiefMinister Hemant Soren. Theunveiling ceremony took placeat Aryabhat auditorium inpresence of the Chief Minister,Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)leader Shibu Soren and otherpeople. The new emblem hasthe Ashoka emblem enclosedwithin concentric circles, statetribal dance celebration motifs,the Palash flower also known asthe flame of the forest andelephants. The verdant greencolour in the emblemsymbolises the greenery of thestate blessed with naturalbeauty and resources.

Family vandalisesAgra hospital Agra (UP): Family members of apatient, who died during thetreatment, vandalised a privatehospital in Agra and thrashedthe staff alleging carelessnessby the doctors andovercharging. The hospital isowned by former SamajwadiParty MLA Rajendra Singh.Rajendra Singh, the owner ofGR Hospital, said that thepatient, Nahar Singh (50), wasadmitted in a critical conditionon July 19. He was shifted fromSN Medical College. The patientwas kept at the Intensive CareUnit on a high oxygen flow forover three weeks as he wassuffering from acuterespiratory distress syndrome.

Man, son killedAzamgarh (Uttar Pradesh): Afather and his son were shotdead by some unidentifiedassailants in a Uttar Pradeshvillage in Azamgarh district.According to reports, MithaiYadav and his son Tej Yadavwere attacked in front of theirhouse at Rasoolpur Dudhaharvillage on Thursday night.Hiralal died on the spot whileTej succumbed to gunshotinjuries at the LalpurCommunity Health Centre whileundergoing treatment, aDeogaon Kotwali circle policeofficial said that the incidentcould be fallout of politicalrivalry.

Exotic birds seized Kolkata: The BSF seized a pairof exotic toucans from near theIndia-Bangladesh border inWest Bengal's North 24Parganas district, officials saidFriday. The birds, worth aroundRs 14 lakh, were seized in asearch operation conducted bya special team of the BorderSecurity Force (BSF) in theforest area near the Angrailborder outpost on Thursday,they said. During the searchoperation, the BSF team spottedtwo persons hiding behind thebushes, officials said.

SHORT TAKES

The upcomingfestival ofGanesh

Chaturthi should becelebrated in apersonalisedmanner on a smallerscale in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases in Goa

VISHWAJIT RANE | GOA HEALTH MINISTER

Women cheer with a Tricolour on the eve of Independence Day in Lucknow, Friday PTI PHOTO

JOYOUS MOMENT

INDO-ASIAN NEW SERVICE

Bangalore, August 14: KarnatakaCongress legislator's nephew PNaveen has admitted to the postingof a dero g atory remark onFacebook, which triggered riotsin the city's eastern suburb onAugust 11, police said Friday.

"In the course of questioning,Naveen admitted to have postedthe derogatory remark after deny-ing it earlier and claiming that hisFacebook account was hacked,when he was arrested on August 12,"Beng aluru East De putyCommissioner of Police SDSharanappa said here.

Naveen, 26, is a nephew ofCongress MLA Akhanda SrinivasMurthy from Pulakeshinagar (re-serve) segment in the city's north-eastern suburb. "Naveen is in our cus-tody for investigation into the riots,as it was his provocative post onthe social media that instigated a mobto commit violence, in which hisuncle's (Murthy) house was burnt andone of our police stations in thearea (DJ Halli) was attacked anddamaged," Sharanappa said.

Opposition Congress claimedthat "inordinate delay" in actingagainst Naveen by the police evenafter a complaint against him forthe derogatory post led to theprotests and subsequent mob vio-lence in which a number of vehi-cles were burnt and public propertydestroyed.

"Had the police acted swiftly byarresting Naveen soon after thecomplaint was lodged against himin the DJ Halli police station bythe aggrieved party, mob violence,arson and rioting would not haveoccurred and three lives wouldhave been saved," Congressspokesman MA Saleem said here.

When caning and tear gas failedto control the mob from attackingthe police station, police fired shots,in which three area youths died."Though Naveen is related toMurthy, he is a BJP supporter, asevident from a post on his Facebookaccount in which he claimed tohave voted for the BJP in the May2019 Lok Sabha elections," assertedSaleem.

Besides investigating Naveen'spolitical leanings, police are look-ing into his call records and post-ings in social media accounts likeWhatsapp to ascertain if he was act-ing alone or with others.

In all, 206 accused have been ar-rested so far in connection withthe riots, including 60 earlier inthe day. Those held included KaleemPasha, husband of Congress cor-porator Irshad Begum from theNagwara civic ward in the city'seastern suburb. "Though Pasha isone of the signatories in the com-plaint against Naveen, he is al-leged to have instigated the un-ruly mob to set Murthy's house onfire and attack the police station,"a police source said.

MLA’s NEPHEW ‘ADMITS’TO POSTING REMARK

BANGALORE RIOTS

"In the course of questioning, Naveen admitted to haveposted the derogatory remark after denying it earlierand claiming that his Facebook account was hacked,when he was arrested on August 12," Bangalore EastDeputy Commissioner of Police SD Sharanappa said

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 14: The Covid-19 pandemic has cast its shadowover the 74th Independence Daycelebrations across the country.Keeping in mind the required pre-cautions, this year many crucialchanges have also been made at thevenue at Red Fort in Delhi forSaturday’s event.

The event will be limited to pres-entation of the Guard of Honour tothe Prime Minister by the armedforces and the Delhi Police, un-furling of the national flag, ac-companied by playing of the na-tional anthem, and firing of a 21-gunsalute, a speech by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, and release of tri-

coloured balloons at the end."No presence of schoolchildren

would be there this year, only thecadets of the National Cadet Corpswould attend the celebrations atthe Red Fort," said a senior policeofficer.

Because of the Covid-19 guidelinesand extended precautions this year,only 20 per cent of VVIPs and otherparticipants will be able to witnessthe speech of Prime Minister Modilive compared to previous years.Till last year, close to 10,000 peopleused to attend the function to wit-ness the address by the PrimeMinister.

Also, the invited VVIPs wouldnot be able to sit at the ramparts fromwhere the Prime Minister delivers

his Independence Day speech.Earlier close to 1,000 VVIPs used

to sit on the upper level on bothsides. But this time, they will haveto sit at the lower level, with ap-proximately a 100 allowed. This is

strictly as per social distancingnorms.

As many as 1,500 people, whohave recovered from coronavirus,will also attend the function.Among them, 500 would be from

the local police while the other 1,000would be from different parts ofthe country.

In Delhi at least 350 police per-sonnel who will be part of the guardof honour at the Red Fort have beenquarantined ahead of the ceremonyat the Police Colony in DelhiCantonment.

Also, the Delhi Police has ad-vised people who have Covid-19symptoms to avoid attending theevent. "In the case of any invitee ex-periencing or having a history of anysymptoms of Covid-19 within 2weeks of the Independence Day2020, who is yet untested or con-firmed positive for Covid-19, theinvitee may consider refrainingfrom attending the event," said a

senior police officer.However, there would be extra

vigil on the ground and in the skyduring the celebrations and multi-layered security would guard the RedFort and other strategic locationsaround it. Delhi Police said thatnecessary coordination has beenmade with other agencies like NSG,SPG and ITBP.

"All the agencies will work inclose coordination with each otherto cater to all kinds of threat in-puts. SWAT teams and Parakramvans have been strategically sta-tioned," police said.

Plainclothes policemen wouldalso be deployed at strategic loca-tions across the capital, particu-larly in and around the Red Fort.

A different Independence Day celebration this year

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 14: India'sCovid-19 tally crossed the 24-lakhmark Friday with 64,553 new casesin 24 hours, while the toll climbedto 48,040 with 1,007 more fatalities,said the Health Ministry.

The actual caseload of the coun-try is the active cases, which cur-rently stands at 6,61,595.

Notably, the case fatality rate,which is the proportion of peoplewho die from the disease amongindividuals diagnosed, has droppedto 1.96 per cent, the ministry said.The country had touched the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and addedmore than four lakh cases in sevendays. The silver lining, however,is that the gap between recoveriesand active cases is growing everyday. Currently, recoveries are over10 lakh more than the active cases.

As many as 8,48,728 samples weretested on Thursday, taking the totalto 2,76,94,416 samples being testedtill date, according to the IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR). Maharashtra remainedthe worst-hit state with a total of5,60,126 cases and 19,063 deaths; fol-

lowed by Tamil Nadu with 3,20,355cases and 5,397 deaths.

Then comes Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, Delhi, and UttarPradesh.

On Thursday, the union govern-ment stated that it has distributedmore than 3.04 crore N95 masks, morethan 1.28 crore PPE kits to states,union territories and central insti-tutions free of cost in the last fivemonths. Over 22,000 'Make in India'ventilators have also been delivered.

The Centre has been strength-ening the health infrastructure tofight the pandemic and effectivelymanage it. Along with augment-ing Covid-19 facilities, the govern-ment has been providing medicalsupplies free of cost to the stateand union territories to supple-ment their efforts. India continuesto be the third worst-hit after Brazilwith 3,164,785 infections and 104,201deaths, and the US with 5,248,172cases and 167,092 fatalities.

Covid tally crosses 24L-mark Notably, the case fatality rate, which is the proportion of people who die from the disease

among individuals diagnosed, has dropped to 1.96 per cent, the ministry said

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 14: A totalof 926 officials of various state po-lice and paramilitary forces fromacross the country have been se-lected for prestigious PoliceMedals on the Independence Daythis year.

Late Delhi Police InspectorMohan Chand Sharma's nameis mentioned in the list of recip-ients as 6th BAR to Police Medalfor Gallantry posthumously.

Sharma, posted in the SpecialCell, was killed during the 2008Batla House encounter here. Thehighly decorated police officerwas posthumously awarded theAshoka Chakra, India's highestpeace-time military decoration,on January 26, 2009.

As per the list issued by

Ministry of Home Affairs, lateConstable Eknath Yadav andAdditional Superintendent ofPolice Rajesh Sahni -- both fromUttar Pradesh Police-- have beenselected for Police Medal forGallantry posthumously.

Besides, CRPF Constables PranjalPachani, Laju NS, Fatte SinghKudopa, and Laxman Purty, andBorder Security Force's AssistantCommandant Vinay Prasad havebeen selected for Police Medal forGallantry posthumously.

A total of 215 personnel fromdifferent forces, including statepolice and paramilitaries, havebeen selected for the PMG award.Besides, 80 personnel have beenselected for the President's PoliceMedal for Distinguished Serviceand 631 for Police Medal forMeritorious Service.

926 personnel selected forpolice medals on I-Day

ANDHRA MAN KILLS SONINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Visakhapatnam, August 14: In ashocking incident, a man bru-tally hammered his 40-year-oldson to death over a property dis-p u t e i n t h e c o a s t a l c i t y o fVisakhapatnam in AndhraPradesh. The macabre act justoutside their house at Pendurthiwas caught on a CCTV footage, po-lice said.

Accused Veer Raju is seen pick-ing up a hammer, moving closerto his son sitting on a stool, frombehind and then hitting him on hishead.

The man showed no mercy evenafter his son collapsed in a poolof blood and continued to hammerhim on his head. The accused isalso seen walking up to the gateand then turning back to ham-mer the victim again.

T h e i n c i d e n t o c c u r re d

Wednesday in the portico and thechilling footage has since goneviral. Jala Raju was shifted to ahospital by the family membersbut he succumbed on the way.

Veer Raju later surrendered tothe police, who registered a caseof murder against him and pro-

duced him before a magistrateon Thursday. "We have recoveredthe CCTV footage and are inves-tigating the crime from all an-gles," said Assistant Commissionerof Police Swarupa Rani.

According to the police, the fa-ther and son had a heated argu-ment over property dispute be-fore the crime. Veer Raju, whoearlier worked as seaman, wasliving with his son Jala Raju andother family members. Jala Raju,who was also working as a sea-man, had recently started con-struction of his own house at an-other place.

Veer Raju wanted Jala Raju togive some money to his three sis-ters. Jala had agreed but soughtsome time to do the same. Duringpreliminary investigations, thepolice found out about the heatedarguments between father andson.

DOGS KILL 10-YR-OLD BOYINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), August14: A 10-year-old boy in UttarPradesh was mauled to death bya pack of stray dogs in Pilibhitdistrict while he was on his wayto his father's farm.

Aziz Raza died while beingshifted to a medical facility.Bisalpur SDM Chandra BhanSingh, Thursday, sought the as-sistance of forest and wildlife di-vision as well as the departmentof animal husbandry to trap thesestray dogs from Rasiakhanpurvillage in Bisalpur tehsil.

Raza's father, Ahid Khan, saidthese stray dogs have attackedover two dozen villagers in thepast three months. Villagers rushedto help the boy on Wednesdayhearing his cries when the dogs at-tacked him but he had alreadysuffered multiple wounds by thenas they tore him apart.

The SDM said, "Some villagersthrow bones after eating meatwhich attracts these dogs. Their ten-dency to feed on meat may be afactor behind their abnormal be-haviour of attacking children. Ihave asked the block developmentofficer, the veterinary officer ofBisalpur and the tehsildar to visitthe village to review the situation."

Delhi air qualityimprovesINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 14: The airquality of the national capital im-proved drastically on Friday fol-lowing heavy rains that lashedmost parts of the city a day ago.People living near the IGI airportenjoyed the best air quality, datashowed.

Particulate matter with a di-ameter of 2.5 and 10 microns,which are too small to be filteredout of the body, plummeted to 18and 31 micrograms per cubic mak-ing the air in the city "good".

The System of Air QualityWeather Forecasting and Researchcategorizes air quality in the 0-50range as good, 51-100 as satisfac-tory, 101-200 as moderate, 201-300as poor, 301-400 as very poor andabove 400 as severe. The overall airquality index is docked at 45 underthe 'good' category.

The man showed nomercy even after his soncollapsed in a pool ofblood and continued tohammer him on hishead. The accused isalso seen walking up tothe gate and then turning back to hammerthe victim again

P10SATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalIt is time not only tochange the politicalsystem but to restartthe countryBOYKO BORISSOV | BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER

A new study has revealed that socialdistancing during the six weeks ofthe Covid-19 pandemic has reducedinfection rates by up to 45 per cent inEurope, according to the Universityof Southern Denmark

PANDEMIC SAFETY NORMS

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We have triedto bring backdemand in

various ways. Cargoplanes are still usingChangi, but they areonly about 5 percent of total flights pre-COVID-19

ONG YE KUNG |SINGAPOREAN TRANSPORT MINISTER

of theday uote

Working fromhome is a bigproblem for

the British capital,as the nation entersthe biggestrecession on record

SADIQ KHAN | LONDON MAYOR

Through the COVAX GlobalVaccines Facility, countriesthat represent

nearly 70 percent ofthe globalpopulation havesigned up orexpressed aninterest to be part ofthe new initiative

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS |WHO DIRECTOR-GENERAL

Fresh quarantinecurbs for visitorsLondon: Hundreds ofthousands of Britishholidaymakers Friday facedthe prospect of having to gointo self-isolation for 14days when they return home after the Britishgovernment reimposedquarantine restrictions onFrance following a recentpick-up in coronavirusinfections. In anannouncement lateThursday, the governmentsaid France is beingremoved from the list ofnations exempted fromquarantine requirementsbecause of risingcoronavirus infections,which have surged by 66 percent in the past week.

Kim appointsnew PremierSeoul: North Korean leaderKim Jong-un appointed anew premier during apolitburo meeting of theruling Workers' Party inPyongyang, state-mediareported Friday. According toPyongyang's official KoreanCentral News Agency(KCNA), the appointmentwas made during theThursday meeting .

Islamabad gets 1st‘public fruit garden’Islamabad: The first phase ofIslamabad’s inaugural publicfruit garden has beencompleted after 200 saplingswere planted on a greenbeltadjoining a major road in thePakistani capital, the mediareported Friday. The ImranKhan government haslaunched an ambitiousproject to plant 10 billiontrees across the country.

SHORT TAKES

Starlings are seen in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya REUTERS

AGENCIES

Washington, August 14: Democraticvice-presidential candidate Senator KamalaHarris has been hit by a “birther move-ment”, with US President Donald Trumpsaying he had heard that shedoes not meet the re-quirements to servethe White House.

For mer USPresident BarackObama was alsohit by a birthermovement,where his op-ponents ques-tioned about theorigin of hisbirth.

Born to aJamaican fa-ther and anIndianmother,55-year-old

California senator, Harris, was named byJoe Biden as his vice-presidential run-ning mate Tuesday.

The conspiracy theory about Harrisstarted following a Newsweek Op-Ed by DrJohn Eastman, who ran in the Republicanprimary to be California's attorney generalin 2010. Eastman, who lost the race toHarris, a Democrat, said that there are

some questions about the eligibility forthe position. The theory was also cir-culated on social media.

The Biden campaign called opin-ion piece racist.

“I just heard that. I heard it todaythat she doesn’t meet the require-ments and by the way the lawyer that

wrote that piece is a very highlyqualified very talented lawyer. Ihave no idea if that's right,” Trump

said in response to a questionduring a press conference at theWhite House.

Trump did not give his opin-ion on it but acknowledged

that he has heard about suchclaims circulating on so-

cial media that Harris is not eligible to bethe president of the United States.

Harris was born October 20, 1964, atOakland in California. Her motherShyamala Gopalan migrated to the USfrom Tamil Nadu in India, while her father,Donald J Harris, moved to the US fromJamaica.

If elected in the November presiden-tial elections, Harris would be second inline of succession after Biden, who is theDemocratic Party’s presidential nominee.

As per the Constitution, the presidentneeds to be born in the United States

Harris is the first black, and first Indian-American and African-American to be se-lected for this second highest elected officein the country.

During the news conference, Trumpsaid, “I would have assumed the Democratswould have check that out before she getschosen to run for vice president but that’sa very serious -- you are saying that theyare saying that she doesn't qualify becauseshe wasn't born in this country." “I just heardabout it. I will take a look,” Trump said re-sponding to another question.

Kamala hit by ‘birther’ conspiracy theoryBiden not ‘good’ for US: Trump

P resident Donald Trump has said that the US wouldcollapse and become the world’s laughing stock if

the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee Joe Bidenwins the November 3 presidential elections. Trump saidBiden’s proposed policies were not good for the coun-try. “Today, we saw Joe Biden continue to politicise apandemic and to show his appalling lack of respect forthe American people. That’s what it is. At every turn,Biden has been wrong about the virus, ignoring the sci-entific evidence and putting left-wing politics beforefacts and evidence,” Trump told reporters Thursday atthe White House. “The world will be laughing and tak-ing full advantage of the United States if Joe Biden everbecame President. Our Country would COLLAPSE!”Trump said in a tweet.

AGENCIES

Dubai/Jerusalem/Washington,August 14: In a major diplomaticbreakthrough, the UAE Thursdaybecame the first Gulf country andthe third in the Arab world to es-tablish diplomatic relations withIsrael as part of a deal to halt thecontroversial annexation of partsof the West Bank that Palestinianssee as a part of their future state.

US President Donald Trump tookto Twitter to break the news saying,“Huge breakthrough today. HistoricPeace Agreement between our twoGREAT friends, Israel and theUnited Arab Emirates!”. A WhiteHouse announcement said that theleaders of the US, Israel and theUAE “spoke today and agreed tothe full normalisation of relationsbetween Israel and the United ArabEmirates”.

Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, who has often boastedabout Israel's close relations withstates in the Arab world under hisleadership, even without normalisedties, tweeted minutes later simplysaying, "Yom Histori" (Historic Day)in Hebrew.

UAE's ruler, Sheikh Mohammedbin Zayed Al Nahyan, was a bitguarded in his Twitter message

saying “The UAE and Israel alsoagreed to cooperation and settinga roadmap towards establishing abilateral relationship”, highlight-ing that "an agreement was reachedto stop further Israeli annexationof Palestinian territories".

A joint statement from the UnitedStates, Israel and the UAE said that"this historic diplomatic break-through will advance peace in theMiddle East region and is a testa-ment to the bold diplomacy and vi-sion of the three leaders and thecourage of the United Arab Emiratesand Israel to chart a new path thatwill unlock the great potential in theregion".

Close neighbours, Jordan andEgypt, are the only two other Arabstates to have diplomatic ties withIsrael under peace agreements that

have weathered several storms overthe decades to hold firm.

Many believe that the big diplo-matic breakthrough is going to po-litically boost Trump's electoralprospects and also strengthenNetanyahu as he battles regularprotests calling for his resignationdue to the corruption trial againsthim and failure in the proper han-dling of the coronavirus crisis.

According to the joint statement,delegations from Israel and theUAE will meet in the coming weeksto sign bilateral agreements re-garding investment, tourism, di-rect flights, security, telecommu-nications, technology, energy,healthcare, culture, the environ-ment, the establishment of recip-rocal embassies, and other areasof mutual benefit.

The statement also said that, asa result of this diplomatic break-through and at the request ofPresident Trump with the supportof the UAE, “Israel will suspenddeclaring sovereignty over areasoutlined in the President's Visionfor Peace and focus its efforts nowon expanding ties with other coun-tries in the Arab and Muslim world.”

Netanyahu had previouslyplanned to annex parts of the Israelioccupied West Bank, viewing theWhite House's plan released inJanuary as an opportunity to extendIsraeli sovereignty to parts of thedisputed territory. In recent months,UAE officials have been vocal inwarning Netanyahu against plansto annex much of the West Bank andJordan valley.

UN, Arab and European officialswarned that the move would ef-fectively end any hope of a two-state solution with an independ-ent Palestine that has EastJerusalem as its capital. Under thedeal, the UAE and Israel will alsoimmediately expand cooperationon the treatment of and the devel-opment of a vaccine for the coro-navirus. Working together, theseefforts will help save Muslim,Jewish, and Christian lives through-out the region.

UAE and Israel establish diplomatic ties

Lanka appointsex-military man asnew Foreign SecyAGENCIES

Colombo, August 14: The SriLankan government Friday ap-pointed an ex-commander of theNavy and President GotabayaRajapaksa's key aide.

Admiral Jayanath Colombageas the new Foreign Secretary, be-coming the first non-foreign serv-ice person to hold the top diplo-matic post. His appointment camedays after the new Cabinet took theoath with President Rajapaksa re-taining the key defence ministry.

Colombage, 62, replacesRavinatha Aryasinha, a careerforeign service officer. He headedthe Sri Lanka Navy between 2012and 2014, and since November lastyear, he has been the foreign affairsadvisor to President Rajapaksa.This is the first time that a non-for-eign service person has been ap-pointed as the Secretary of theSri Lankan Foreign Ministry.Colombage is one of the four ex-military officers appointed by thepresident to key positions in the bu-reaucracy after the Rajapaksa-ledSri Lanka People's Party (SLPP)won a landslide victory in the par-liamentary elections held on August5 that allowed the influential fam-ily to consolidate power for thenext five years. The SLPP and its al-lies won a record 150 seats in the 225-member Parliament. Since Rajapaksaassumed the presidency, many ex-service personnel have been pickedfor key positions. President Gotabayaadministered the oath of office tothe 28-member Cabinet which istwo less than the 30 allowed bythe Constitution Wednesday.

He retained the Ministry ofDefence while his elder brotherand Prime Minister MahindaRajapaksa were assigned finance,urban development and Buddhistaffairs ministries.

AGENCIES

Moscow, August 14: A majority ofRussian doctors would not feelcomfortable being injected withRussia’s new COVID-19 vaccinedue to the lack of sufficient dataabout it and its super-fast approval,a survey of more than 3,000 med-ical professionals showed Friday.

Russia has said that the world’sfirst vaccine for the novel coron-avirus will be rolled out by the endof this month, with doctors amongthose set to be administered withit on a voluntary basis.

The vaccine, called “Sputnik V”in homage to the world’s first satel-lite launched by the Soviet Unionin 1957, has yet to complete its finaltrials and some scientists said theyfear Moscow may be putting na-tional prestige before safety.

A survey of 3,040 doctors andhealth specialists, conducted bythe “Doctor’s Handbook” mobile ap-plication and quoted on Friday bythe RBC daily, showed 52% were notready to be vaccinated, while 24.5%said they would agree to be giventhe vaccine. Just a fifth of re-spondents said they would rec-ommend the vaccine to patients, col-leagues or friends.

Their misgivings are shared bysome Russians who say they are tooscared to try the vaccine, while

others agree with their govern-ment that scepticism expressed byforeign experts is driven by jealousy.

The Russian vaccine’s approvalcomes before trials that wouldnormally involve thousands ofparticipants, commonly knownas Phase III. Such trials are usu-ally considered essential pre-cursors for a vaccine to secureregulatory approval.

Russian President VladimirPutin has said the vaccine, devel-oped by Moscow’s GamaleyaInstitute, was safe and that it hadbeen administered to one of hisdaughters.

AGENCIES

Kathmandu, August 14: Powerfullandslides triggered by torrentialrains hit central Nepal 'sSindhupalchowk district Friday,killing at least 11 people and leav-ing 27 others missing, an official said.

The landslides hit Jugal RuralMunicipality of Sindhupalchowkdistrict, 130 kilometers east ofKathmandu Friday morning. Fivepeople who sustained serious in-juries have been airlifted by theNepal Army in a helicopter andbrought to the district headquarterswhere they are undergoing treat-ment, the official said.

"Of the injured, four have beentaken to Chautara-based districthospital, while another injuredhas been flown to Kathmandu-based Civil Hospital," DeputySuperintendent of Police MadhavPrasad Kafle was quoted as say-ing by The Kathmandu Post. Thebodies of five children, four men,

and two women have been recov-ered from the incident site.

Members of five families, total-ing 27 have gone missing when alandslide buried 13 houses in LidimoLama area of Jugal Municipality,the official said. About 25-30 housesare at risk of getting buried, the of-ficial said, adding that the incessantrainfall has affected rescue efforts.

The Nepal Army and NepalPolice personnel have been mo-bilised to carry out rescue opera-tions. “Over a dozen houses werecompletely buried and over 30houses sustained significant damages, while we are still un-certain how many people are miss-ing in the incident,” said Kafle.

Belarus frees detaineesamid protesters’ pressureASSOCIATED PRESS

Minsk, August 14: Belarusian authorities have released about1,000 people detained amid demonstrations contesting the re-sults of the presidential election, inan attempt to assuage public angeragainst a brutal crackdown onpeaceful protests.

Around midnight, scores of de-tainees were seen walking out of oneof Minsk’s jails. In the early morn-ing, volunteers also saw at least 119detainees being released in the cityof Zhodino just northeast of theBelarusian capital. Ambulances ar-rived to carry those who apparentlywere unable to walk on their own.

Many of those who were releasedtalked about brutal beatings andother abuse at the hands of police, and

some showed bruises. Some wept asthey embraced their relatives. The re-leases came hours after Belarus' toplaw enforcement official apologisedon state television for the indis-criminate use of force by police.

“I take responsibility for what theysay was violence against those peo-ple, who happened to be nearby andfailed to back off quickly enough,”Interior Minister Yuri Karayev saidlate Thursday. The move comes onthe day that European Union foreignministers are due to meet to dis-

cuss possible sanctions againstBelarus. Lukashenko's main chal-lenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,who has been given refuge inneighboring Lithuania, posted avideo statement contesting theresults of the vote and demandingthat the government start a dia-logue with protesters.

In five days of massive protests,crowds of demonstrators swarmedthe streets to contest the vote resultsand demand an end to the 26-yearrule of authoritarian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko. Nearly7,000 people have been detainedand hundreds injured. The officialresults said Lukashenko won 80%of the vote and Tsikhanouskayaonly 10%. Police have broken upprotests with stun grenades, tear gas,rubber bullets and severe beatings.

NATURE’S FURY

Landslides kill 11 in Nepal

TOP MEDIC QUITSA top respiratory doctor quit the Russian health ministry’s ethics council after thecountry decided to go ahead with the registration of a Covid-19 vaccine evenbefore conducting a crucial Phase 3 trial, MailOnline reported It appears thatProfessor Alexander Chuchalin wanted to block the registration of the vaccine on‘safety’ grounds, before quitting the ethics council, said the report Thursday.Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the country had regis-tered the world's first Covid-19 vaccine. However, the country has faced criticismfrom different quarters for rushing the vaccine into production.

GAME CHANGER OR DAMPNER?

‘Russian docs wary of rapidly approvedCOVID-19 vaccine’

n A survey of 3,040 doctors and healthspecialists showed 52% were not readyto be vaccinated, while 24.5% said theywould agree to be given the vaccine

n Russia has said that the world's firstvaccine for the novel coronavirus willbe rolled out by the end of this month

n Just a fifth of respondents said theywould recommend the vaccine topatients, colleagues or friends,according to a survey

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Los Angeles (US), August 14:Crews scrambled to protect homesfrom a huge wildfire thatprompted evacuations north ofLos Angeles, and officials warnedthe blaze could flareup again Thursdayas a blistering heatwave descended onCalifornia.

The fire explodedin size within hoursafter it broke out indense forestWednesday afternoon, sending upa towering plume visible for hun-dreds of miles around. Flamesraced across ridges and steepslopes, including in some areasthat had not burned since 1968,fire officials said. By Thursdaynight, the blaze still threatened

more than 5,400 homes and hadcharged through 17 squaremiles (44.5 square kilometers)of brush and forest land.

The blaze was only 5% con-tained. Light winds and scattered thundershowers early

in the dayhelped fire-fighters tamethe flamessomewhat butFriday’s forecast calledfor hot, dryweather with

“near critical” fire conditionsbecause of possible gusty winds,a fire update said.

The heat wave was expectedto last through the weekend,bringing triple-digit tempera-tures and extreme fire danger tolarge parts of California.

CALIFORNIA BATTLES DEADLYWILDFIRES AMID PANDEMIC

Benjamin Netanyahu & Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

P11

businessSATURDAY | AUGUST 15 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

One of the challengesstartups face is the

limited access to finance, whichincreases their dependence ondebt capital resulting indistorted capital structures andstifled cash flowsASHISH KUMAR CHAUHAN | MD AND CEO, BSE

Contracting for the 5th straight month, India’sexports slipped 10.21% to $23.64 billion in July,on account of decline in the shipments ofpetroleum, leather and gems and jewelleryitems, according to government data. Thecountry's imports too dipped 28.4% to $28.47billion, leaving a trade deficit of $4.83 billion

TRADE DEFICIT NARROWS TO $4.83 BN

cmyk

cmyk

At present,what mattersmost is

sharing theresponsibility of thefight against theadversity. We wouldlike our (flood) fund to be utilisedfor providing relief material andmedical assistance, hoping the littlesupport that we are extending canprove helpful for the affectedfamilies

RAJEEV JUNEJA | CEO, MANKIND PHARMA

of theday uote

It (tariffrelaxation)will be a big

support for thecruise tourism inIndia which hassufferedtremendously due to the adverseeconomic impacts of nCoV. It willprovide the opportunity to earnhuge amount of foreign exchangeand generate sizeable direct andindirect onshore employment

MANSUKH MANDAVIYA | SHIPPING MINISTER

The sharp fallin the marketsin March

provided a goodpremise forinvestors to invest inthe equity markets.Hence, it's quite likely that manynew investors would have foundthis as an opportunity to invest inequity markets through MFs route

HIMANSHU SRIVASTAVA | SENIOR ANALYST,MANAGER RESEARCH, MORNINGSTAR INDIA

Fortis plans tochange nameNew Delhi: Fortis HealthcareFriday said its board hasgiven an in-principle nod tochange the name of thecompany and its subsidiariesto 'Parkway' in relation to thehospital business, todisassociate itself from theerstwhile promoters.'Parkway' is a well renownedand internationallyacclaimed brand in the fieldof healthcare, belonging tothe IHH Group, the ultimateparent of Northern TKVenture Pte Ltd. Northern TKVenture is the promoter ofthe company with 31%shareholding, FortisHealthcare said.

Airtel to offeradditional dataNew Delhi: Airtel Friday saidthose buying itsXstreamFiber HomeBroadband connection willget 1,000 GB additional dataas part of Independence Daycelebration offer. The offer isfor a limited period andapplicable on all AirtelXstreamFiber plans, exceptunlimited data and prepaidbroadband plans. Theadditional data is valid for aperiod of six months, it said.It will be available tocustomers across top cities.

Mobile app fortourists launchedNew Delhi: Digital startupfirm Xpertnest Friday said ithas launched a mobile appfor tourists to check leastcongested beaches in theUnited Kingdom amid COVID-19 pandemic. "In addition toshowing how busy eachbeach area is, the appprovides handy informationon the beach lifeguardstatus, and information onbylaws," Xpertnest FounderArun Kar said.

Duggal takes overas Vedanta CEONew Delhi: Vedanta LtdFriday announced thatindustry veteran and formerCEO of Hindustan Zinc LtdSunil Duggal is elevated asCEO of the company. "We aredelighted to welcome SunilDuggal as our CEO. Sunil is aproven leader with a wealthof strategic executiveexperience. He has motivatedand led teams to deliver highstandards of operationalexcellence and stakeholdermanagement," VedantaChairman Anil Agarwal said.

SHORT TAKES

REUTERS

New Delhi/Shanghai, August 14:Chinese companies like Xiaomi arefacing delays getting approvals fromIndia’s quality control agency fortheir goods, five industry sources toldReuters, as the business environmentdeteriorates after a clash on theirHimalayan border.

Greater scrutiny of Chinese im-ports follows calls for boycotts fromIndian nationalist groups linkedto Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sruling party, angered by the killingof 20 Indian soldiers in the borderclash in June.

The Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) has in recent weeks delayedapprovals for mobile phone com-ponents and televisions, jeopar-dising the plans of firms such asXiaomi as well as Oppo, industrysources in India and China said.

BIS Director General PramodKumar Tiwari did not respond to re-quests for comment. China’s com-merce ministry and the foreignministry did not immediately re-spond.

Xiaomi declined to comment,while Oppo did not respond.

The most serious border tensionin decades between the Asian giantshas hurt already hurt their eco-nomic ties and Indian officials ex-pect the damage to get worse.

“The relationship has gone southdramatically,” said one official,adding India was unlikely to im-mediately approve several invest-ments proposals from Chinese com-panies. “We cannot do business asusual.”

India had mandated the screen-ing of investment flows fromChina in April but the govern-ment has been slow in approv-

ing any since the clash.India’s trade ministry did not re-

spond to a request for comment.STALLED APPROVALS

A senior Indian official said thegovernment was working on a newstandards policy - likely to be an-nounced by the end of August - ina bid to target low-quality products

from China and elsewhere.But those deliberations have

stalled approvals for even brandedChinese companies’ hoping tostep up sales, one Indian industrysource said.

“The products are not gettingclearance as quality standards arebeing upgraded because of which

many product lines could be af-fected,” said the official, who de-clined to be identified.

Chinese smartphone brands, in-cluding Oppo and Xiaomi, accountfor eight of every 10 smartphonessold in India. While the two com-panies assemble most of their mod-els in India, several components

are imported from China.Modi has in recent weeks called

for a “self-reliant India”, urging in-dustry to focus on boosting domesticproduction.

Under the BIS’s registrationscheme, certain electronic goods -whether imported or locally made- need to meet India’s standards.After companies get their productstested in a certified laboratory, BISapproves the applications.

A source briefed at a smartphonemaker in China, which has beenaffected by delays, said BIS appli-cations were typically processedwithin 15 days but had now “beenleft in limbo”.

As of Friday, 643 applicationswere pending for registration,with 394 pending for more than 20days, the BIS website said. It didnot say how many were fromChinese companies.

NEW IMPORT HURDLES IN INDIA BATTER CHINESE COsThe Bureau of IndianStandards has in recentweeks delayed approvalsfor mobile phone components and televisions, jeopardisingthe plans of firms such as Xiaomi as well as Oppo

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 14: The nextfew months will be “critical” for thecountry in the bid to revive economicactivity and further fiscal measuresmay be warranted to ensure that re-covery gathers pace, Niti Aayog ViceChairman Rajiv Kumar said Friday.He also noted that while early signsof economic recovery are encourag-ing, sustainability of this recovery willbe key. "The 'next few months' willbe critical for India as well in the bidto revive economic activity. "... thedownside risks are still very real.Further fiscal measures may be war-ranted to ensure that the recoverygathers pace and does not peter out,"

he wrote in Niti Aayog's newsletter'arthNITI'.

In May, the government announceda nearly ̀ 21 lakh crore stimulus pack-

age to help over the economic crisisinduced by the coronavirus pandemicand subsequent lockdowns.

India's economy grew 4.2% in 2019-20. For the current financial year,various global and domestic agen-cies have projected a sharp contrac-tion of the domestic economy.

On a year-on-year basis, most ofthe high frequency indicators arestill in negative territory, Kumar said,adding that the fiscal deficit is ex-pected to widen significantly. Yet,data for June seems to suggest thereare some green shoots visible, he said.

The Niti Aayog Vice Chairmannoted that a global economic con-traction is on the cards, the magnitudeof which is undergoing constant re-

vision. "The same is true for India.Economic activity was at a virtualstandstill in April and May. And thiswas reflected in all high frequency in-dicators of the economy," he said.

Kumar also pointed out that Indiahas taken several decisive steps apartfrom monetary and fiscal easing toboost the economy.

"An ambitious vision of anAatmanirbhar Bharat has been laidout by the Prime Minister. Realisingthis vision will entail leveragingIndia's advantages relative to theworld," he noted.

Further, Kumar said that countries arealso taking on more and more debt as theyannounce stimulus packages to battle theeconomic crisis.

Next few monthscritical for India:

Niti Aayog VCWith government debt levels at historic highs,

and interest rates at historic lows, credit-drivengrowth is likely to be modest at best

RAJIV KUMAR I VICE CHAIRMAN, NITI AAYOG

REVIVING ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

AGENCIES

New Delhi, August 14: FinanceMinister Nirmala SitharamanFriday exhorted large central pub-lic sector enterprises (CPSEs) toachieve by next month 50% of theirplanned capital expenditure tar-get for FY’21 to support economicgrowth in the backdrop of chal-lenges posed by COVID-19.

She held a virtual meeting withsecretaries of the ministries ofshipping, road transport and high-ways, housing and urban affairs, de-fence and telecom, an official state-ment said.

The chairman and managing di-rectors of seven CPSEs belongingto these ministries also attended themeeting to review the capital ex-penditure (CAPEX) in this financialyear, it said.

This was the third meeting inthe ongoing series of meetings thatthe finance minister is having withvarious stakeholders to acceleratethe economic growth amidst COVID-19 pandemic.

She asked the secretaries to

closely monitor the performance ofCPSEs in order to ensure capital ex-penditure to the tune of 50 per centof capital outlay by the end of sec-ond quarter of 2020-21 and make ap-propriate plans for it, the state-ment said.

The combined CAPEX target for2020-21 for these seven CPSEs is`1,24,825 crore as against ̀ 1,29,821crore in the previous fiscal.

"The achievement was ̀ 1,14,730crore i.e. 88.37 per cent. During Q1

of FY 2019-20, the achievement was`20,172 crore (15.53 per cent) andachievement up to July 2020 (FY2020-21) is `24,933 crore (20 percent)," it said.

"While mentioning the significantrole of CPSEs in giving a push tothe growth of the Indian economy,the finance minister encouragedthe CPSEs to perform better toachieve their targets and to ensurethat the capital outlay provided tothem for the financial year 2020-21is spent properly and within time,"it said. She said that better per-formance of CPSEs can help theeconomy in a big way to recoverfrom the impact of COVID-19, itadded. The CPSEs discussed con-straints being faced by them espe-cially due to COVID–19 pandemic.

"The finance minister stated thatextraordinary situation requiresextraordinary efforts and with col-lective efforts, we will not only per-form better but also help the Indianeconomy to achieve better results,"it said. Last month, she held twomeetings to review capex plans ofCPSEs.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURETARGET FOR FY’21

FM pushes large CPSEsto meet half of targetSitharaman held a virtual meeting with secretaries of the ministries of shipping, road

transport and highways, housing and urban affairs, defence and telecom

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai , August 14 :Privatisation-bound national re-f iner Bharat PetroleumCorporation Friday said due tothe pandemic-driven disruptions,it has scaled down capex plansfor FY21 to ̀ 8,000 crore from ̀ 12,500crore originally planned as proj-ects are stuck due to unavailabil-ity of skilled manpower.

The company on Thursday re-ported a doubling of its net in-come at `2,076 crore in the Junequarter boosted by an inventorygain of `565 crore and a market-ing gain of `1,003 crore.

It, however, earned 39 cents onturning every barrel of crude oilinto fuel as compared to a gross re-fining margin (GRM) of $2.81 abarrel in the same period of theprevious year.

The bottomline would have beenhigher but for the refinery loss`438 crore due to the massive over35% drop in demand, NVijayagopal, the executive direc-tor in charge of finance, told re-porters in a post-earnigns con-call. "We are forced to scale downthe capex to `8,000 crore from`12,500 crore as we are unable tofind the highly skilled manpowerwe need to complete two of our crit-ical proejcts. The lower capex planhas got nothing to do with funds.In fact our leverage ratio is only0.96x now down from 1.12x a yearago," Vijayagopal clarified.

BPCL trims FY21 capexplans to ` 8,000 cr

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, August 14:To help drivechange towards sustainable hous-ing through empowering women,the European Union (EU) haslaunched a 1-million-euro projectin four districts of Maharashtra andOdisha under which it will train3,000 women in masonry, plumbingand electrical fitting, among others.

The project is being implementedin Beed and Osmanabad districtsof Maharashtra and the Dhenkanaland Jajpur districts 0f Odisha andis aimed at positively impactingtwo lakh families over the nextthree years. The project aims attargeting 3,000 women-led house-holds in these four districts and isbeing implemented with the hous-ing-focussed not-for-profit Habitatfor Humanity India.

"This is the first-of-its-kind sus-tainable housing on a large scale inIndia under which we train womento build sustainable houses," RaimundMagis, the chargé d'affaires at the EUin India, told PTI.

He added that through this, "weaim at empowering women by en-hancing their technical and entre-preneurial skills, creating women-led enterprises, promotingclimate-adaptable and green hous-ing support services at communitylevel". Magis said that over the years,

the EU has invested over 100 millioneuros in green and sustainable proj-ects in the country and this is the sin-gle-largest scheme solely focused onwomen.

He said that despite the con-struction sector being the second-largest employer and women con-stituting a significant part of theworkforce in the housing sector, theymostly work as unskilled labourersand face discrimination. Magis addedthat this scheme, called ProjectNirmanshree, aims at ending this andmaking them entrepreneurs and ac-tive stakeholders.

"Women's issues are importantfor us and so are environmentalissues. Thus, EU is investing closeto 1 mn euros in the 1st phase andwill increase the spending de-pending on the success of this proj-ect,” Magis said.

Samsung R&D spending hits record highSeoul: Samsung Friday said its researchand development (R&D) spending for thefirst half of the year hit a record high of10.58 trillion won ($8.9 billion) as itfocused on new growth drivers. Thefigure represented a 500 billion-wonincrease from a year earlier, according tothe first half business report of the South Korean tech giant. Its R&Dinvestment accounted for 9.8 per cent of its sales in the first six months. Inthe first half of the year, Samsung's total capital expenditure reached 17.1trillion won, with 14.7 trillion won used for the chip business, reportsYonhap news agency. As of end-June, the number of Samsung employeesin South Korea reached 106,074, up 0.9% from a year earlier.

Flipkart eyes alcohol delivery forayBangalore: Walmart’s e-commerce platformFlipkart has partnered with a startup backedby spirits giant Diageo to deliver alcohol intwo cities, according to government lettersseen by Reuters, months after Amazonplanned a similar foray. Flipkart andAmazon’s interest in delivering alcohol in India marks a bold move to makeinroads into an alcohol market that is worth $27.2 billion, according toestimates by IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. The state governments of WestBengal and Odisha states have said that Flipkart can be associated as atechnology service provider of Diageo-backed HipBar, an Indian alcoholhome delivery mobile application. Flipkart’s customers will be allowed toaccess HipBar’s application on the e-commerce giant's platforms,according to the letters, which have not previously been reported.

BIZ BUZZ

EU launches €1 mnproject in Odisha

Under the project, 3,000women in masonry,plumbing and electricalfitting will be trained

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 14: ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik Fridayinaugurated two new branches ofState Bank of India (SBI) atMahanadi Vihar, Cuttack & SMEBhubaneswar on the eve of the74th Independence Day. Also,Patnaik inaugurated 28 FI&MMDistrict Sales Hubs (DSHs) acrossthe state and 51 new CustomerService Points (CSPs)/Grahak SevaKendras.

SBI has created a separate ver-tical Financial Inclusion & MicroMarkets (FI&MM) to give enhancedfocus to financial inclusion andmicro markets in the rural andsemi-urban areas. SBI has created7 dedicated FI&MM Regional Officesat Khordha, Jajpur Road, Keonjhar,Jharsuguda, Bolangir,Bhawanipatna & Phulbani and 28District Sales Hubs spread acrossall the districts of the state, to reachthe vast population of rural andsemi-urban areas of the state.

In this endeavour, Mission Shaktiand Odisha Livelihood Mission ismonitoring/guiding and extend-ing support in the effective func-tioning of the Self Help Groups(SHGs) in Odisha.

Patnaik prioritised to provideloan to women SHGs with zero in-terest. “The state has taken majorsteps to include women into fi-nancial inclusion, CM said. On theinaugural day, SBI also financed501 new Women SHGs.

At present, SBI is having 4,435Grahak Seva Kendras/ CustomerService Points (CSPs) for bankingservices to serve the un-banked farflung areas.

SBI has also rolled out a newSME structure whereby SeniorOfficials (AGMs) are placed atimpor tant Centres such asBhubaneswar, Sambalpur andB e r h a m p u r t o f u n c t i o n a sSingle Point of Contact for theSME clients.

CM launches two newSBI branches in state

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Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/371591

American comes off bench to send RB Leipzig into ChampionsLeague semifinals as Atletico Madrid packed back

ADAMS’ EVE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lisbon, August 14: For anAmerican not used to scoring, TylerAdams sure knows how to make amark in European soccer. Adamssurely came on as a substitute tostamp authority on the eve, whichsaw RB Leipzig continue their fairy-tale journey in the ChampionsLeague.

The connection of Adam andEve is quite known to everyone.According to the creation myth ofthe Abrahamic religions, they werethe first man and woman. They arecentral to the belief that humanityis in essence a single family, witheveryone descended from a singlepair of original ancestors.

And Thursday’s story was quitesimilar, to some extent though, asthe midfielder came on as a sub-stitute to score an 88th-minute win-ner that gave Leipzig a 2-1 win overAtletico Madrid. It’s like the scriptsaying the eve belonged to Adams.

“When I came on I wanted tobring energy and help the team inany way possible,” Adams said.“Getting your first goal is a little bitunexpected for me. I’m not a typi-cal goal scorer but I’m happy I couldhelp the team.”

Adams scored with a shot fromoutside the area that deflected offa defender, ensuring that Leipzig’ssurprising European run will con-tinue into the last four.

“Today coming into this game Iwas told I wasn’t going to start butI needed to be ready to come offthe bench and make an impact,”Adams said.

Dani Olmo had opened the scor-ing for Leipzig in the 51st and JoaoFelix equalised for Atletico fromthe penalty spot in the 71st minute.

The result ended yet another titlerun for Atletico, which was seen asa big favorite to reach the semifinalsbut again will endure a disap-pointing elimination. DiegoSimeone’s team knocked out de-fending champion Liverpool in thelast 16 and was looking to return tothe last four for the first time since2017, a year after it lost its secondfinal in three seasons.

Leipzig, founded 11 years agowith investment by Red Bull, willnext face French powerhouse ParisSaint-Germain, which eliminatedAtalanta in Wednesday’s quarter-final in Lisbon.

The Champions League is fin-ishing the season amid the coron-avirus pandemic with a last eighttournament in Lisbon. The semi-finals will be next week and thefinal will take place August 23.

Making only their secondChampions League appearance,Leipzig looked more dangerousthan Atletico during most of thematch at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.Neither team created many sig-nificant chances but Leipzig threat-ened the most with its quick pass-ing and player movement up front.

Some of that fast action in frontof the area led to Olmo’s close-range header after a cross from theright side. Atletico improved afterPortuguese forward Joao Felix cameoff the bench in the second half, andhe equalised from the penalty spotafter being fouled inside the area.Felix, a former Benfica star, wasplaying at the stadium of rivalSporting Lisbon.

Atletico seemed in control afterequalising but couldn’t stop thelate breakaway that ended the team’stitle hopes again. “I’m convinced thatwe gave everything we had,”

Simeone said. “But it was-n’t enough. We have toraise our heads and tryagain next season.”

Adams, who enteredthe match in the72nd, picked upa pass from theleft side andsent a low right-footed shot thatdeflected offAtletico de-fender StefanSavic and tookgoalkeeper JanOblak out of ac-tion. “It’s a de-flection but itcounts as a reg-ular one so Iwill take it,”Adams said.

Adams joinedLeip zig inJanuary 2019from another clubowner by the RedBull organization,the New York RedBulls of MajorLeague Soccer.

Leip zig weremaking their debutin the knockout

round after one previous appearancein the group stage of the Europeancompetition. They eliminatedTottenham in the round of 16, butentered the last eight without topscorer Timo Werner after he joinedChelsea. “Tonight we’re happy, to-morrow we’ll start looking at (PSG),”Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmannsaid. “That will be another difficultgame, but we’ll have a plan.”

IT WAS TYLER ADAMS’ FIRSTGOAL FOR THE CLUB, AND ALSO

MADE HIM THE FIRSTAMERICAN TO SCORE IN THE

QUARTERFINALS OR LATER INTHE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

HE COULD NOWBECOME ONLY THE

SECOND AMERICANTO PLAY IN ACHAMPIONS

LEAGUE SEMIFINALAFTER DAMARCUS

BEASLEYAPPEARED FOR PSV

EINDHOVEN AGAINSTAC MILAN IN

2005

Man City face Lyon testAGENCIES

Lisbon, August 14: After seeing offReal Madrid in the round of 16,Manchester City will next take onLyon in the final quarterfinal matchhere Saturday, aiming to reach thelast four for just a second time.

Lyon, on the other hand, stunnedItalian champions Juventus toprogress to last eight stage. So itwould be foolish to just write off theFrench side, despite the form ManCity are in.

The winners of this match atthe Estadio Jose Alvalade, which willbe played over just one leg, willface either Barcelona or BayernMunich in next week’s semifinals.

Pep Guardiola has previouslyjoked that he would be nothingmore than a ‘failure’ if he fails towin the competition during histime with City, and on the face of itthere is no better time to lift the fa-mous trophy than this season.

After finishing second in thePremier League and exiting the FACup at the semifinal stage,Guardiola knows that there iseven more weight on his shoul-ders to go all the way this timearound.

The Citizens certainly have mo-mentum on their side followingtheir 4-2 aggregate victory overMadrid in the first knockout round,following up their 2-1 first-leg tri-umph with a win by the same score-line in last Friday’s return fixture.

That famous victory made itthree wins in a row for EFL Cup win-ners City in all competitions, andsix victories in their last seven,scoring 23 goals and conceding onlyfour during that run.

It will all ultimately count forlittle if they fail to overcome Lyon,however, and Guardiola will needno reminding of his side’s struggles

against the Ligue 1 opposition whenthey met twice in last season’sgroup stage.

Guardiola has a habit of over-thinking knockout ties, trying to getinto the opposition’s head with histeam selection, and it may well bethat he focuses closely on thosetwo matches – even if there hasbeen a small turnover of players atboth clubs.

Rudi Garcia’s men showed ex-

actly what they are capable ofagainst Juventus in the last 16, edg-ing through 2-2 on away goals de-spite Cristiano Ronaldo’s best effortsin the second leg last week.

Lyon looked a little rusty againstJuve last time out and that is not atall surprising given that it was justtheir second competitive game infive months, the other being a de-feat to PSG in the Coupe de Liguefinal July 31.

Man City and Lyon havemet twice last season inthe Champions Leaguegroup stage, where theEPL side won 2-1 at theEtihad Stadium, followedup with a 2-2 draw in thereverse fixture

This will be Lyon’sfirst appearance inthe quarterfinals ofthe ChampionsLeague since 2009-10,and they haveprogressed from justone of their previousfour games at thisstage, eliminatingBordeaux in 2009-10

Man City arecompeting at thelast eight stage forthe fourth time infive seasons,meanwhile, butthey haveadvanced fromjust one of thoseprevious ties –knocking out PSGin 2015-16

Man City would like Raheem Sterling to carry his goal-scoring form forward

MAN CITYVS

LYON

Time12:30 am

TelecastSony Tenchannels

ATP adjusts schedule amid pandemic

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Southampton, August 14:Mohammad Rizwan (53 bat-ting) scored a gritty, unbeatenhalf century to guide Pakistanpast 200 against an increas-ingly frustrated England be-fore the teams were forced offbecause of bad light beforetea on the second day of thesecond Test, Friday.

Pakistan were 215/8 at theenforced end of the session,wit h Rizwan on 53 andMohammad Abbas on two.England looked like wrappingup the Pakistan innings afterstar batsman Babar Azam (47)

edged behind a brilliant ballfrom Stuart Broad that seamedand squared up Babar.

That made the score 158/6and two more wickets fell for18 runs, with Yasir Shah (5)flashing at a delivery fromJimmy Anderson and edgingto give wicketkeeper JosButtler another catch beforeShaheen Afridi (0) was runout by Dom Sibley at the non-striker’s end after a mix-up.

England’s seam bowlingunraveled in the final half-hour, with the field set by cap-tain Joe Root perhaps too neg-ative under threatening skiesand with two lower-order bats-men in the middle. On occa-sions, there were five or six outnear the boundary as Rootspread the field. Andersonhas the best bowling figures,with 3/48.

The tourists trail 1-0 in thethree-match series after losingthe first match by three wick-ets in Manchester.

Another victory for Englandwill clinch a first test seriesagainst Pakistan in 10 years,and a second series of thispandemic-affected summerhaving already beaten theWest Indies.

BRIEF SCORES (AT TEA):Pakistan 215/8 (MohammadRizwan 53 batting, BabarAzam 47; Jimmy Anderson3/48, Stuart Broad 2/48) vsEngland. Match to continue.

Atletico Madrid players wear a dejected look afterconceding second goal against Leipzig, Thursday

ASSOCIATED PRESS

London, August 14: The ItalianOpen is shifting to a week earlierthan originally planned inSeptember, and the HamburgEuropean Open – scrapped in Julybecause of the coronavirus pan-demic – will follow it on a provisionalATP calendar for the rest of the2020 men’s tennis season.

The season-ending ATP Finals inLondon are still slated for November15-22, without spectators. But theATP said Friday it ‘remains hope-

ful’ that will change and some fanswill be allowed to attend.

The clay-court tournament inRome is taking over the week whenthe Madrid Open was supposed tobe played before it was canceleddue to the outbreak.

So the Italian Open now will startSeptember 14, the day after the USOpen is scheduled to end in NewYork, and will finish September 21,a Monday. That’s the same day playwill start in Hamburg.

The French Open begins in ParisSeptember 27. That will be followed

by tournaments in St. Petersburg,Russia; Antwerp, Belgium; Moscow;Vienna; Paris; and Sofia, Bulgaria,before the ATP Finals.

The tour said it is sti l l considering ways to add more tournaments this season.

ATP play was suspended inMarch because of the pandemicand is slated to resume next week in New York with the Western & Southern Open, anevent usually played in Cincinnatibut moved to the site of the USOpen this year.

Rizwan helps Pakreach 215/8 at tea

Mohammad Rizwan plays a shotduring his innings, Friday