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M anipur’s acting Chief M i n i s t e r Nongthombam Biren Singh was unanimously elect- ed as the Chief Minister of the State, for the second-time in a row, in the BJP Legislature Party meeting in Imphal. However, the suspense over the name of the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand that has been going on for the past 11 days would be cleared in the meet- ing of the Legislature Party of the BJP on Monday. The BJP leadership is also engaged in finalising the Cabinet of Yogi Adityanath and deciding the Chief Minister of Goa. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting to discuss the formation of the Government in Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand. Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and party chief JP Nadda were present at the meeting. Shah will be flying to Lucknow on Monday and holding a discussion with Yogi to give the final shape to his Cabinet. Earlier today, the BJP announced that N Biren Singh will continue as the Chief Minister of Manipur for a sec- ond straight term. The announcement came a day after Singh, along with the other contenders — Biswajit Singh and Yumnam Khemchand — met the top leadership of the party. Soon after the Legislature Party approved Singh as the State Chief Minister, the BJP’s cen- tral observer for Manipur, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “It is a good decision taken unani- mously by everyone. It will ensure that Manipur has a sta- ble and responsible Government which will build the State further because the Centre today, under the lead- ership of PM Modi gives spe- cial attention to the North- Eastern States.” The Legislature Party’s meet- ing and the announcement follow ten days of suspense since the Assembly poll results were announced with rival leaders Biren Singh and senior BJP MLA Biswajit Singh rush- ing to Delhi twice to meet cen- tral leaders. A former football player, a BSF jawan, and a journalist, N Biren Singh was picked as the Chief Minister of Manipur for the second time after the BJP had won 32 seats in 60-mem- ber State Assembly. The BJP has the support of at least 11 more MLAs from two of its allies in the State. Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav were also present on the occasion as central observers along with Sitharaman. All central observers and Union Ministers felicitated Singh on his selec- tion as the CM and presented him with bouquets. BJP spokesperson and State-in- charge Sambit Patra, too, was present on the occasion and greeted the new CM. Singh had this week met with Modi with an indication that he would retain the top post. The BJP’s central observers for the State had landed in Imphal earlier in the day for the crucial meeting. Continued on Page 2 I n what could be seen as a preventive measure amidst rising Omicron cases in many countries across the world, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), the highest tech- nical body of the Union Health Ministry on immunisation has recommended reduc- ing the gap between the first and second dose of Covid vaccine Covishield to eight to 16 weeks. At present, the second dose of Covishield is being administered 12-16 weeks after the first dose under the nation- al vaccination drive. India’s apex body on immunisation now recommends this be curbed to ramp up the administration of the second dose of Covishield to the remaining population amid rising cases in European nations and some other coun- tries. The Government had on May 13, 2021, extended the gap between the first and sec- ond doses of the Covishield vaccine from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, based on the rec- ommendations by NTAGI that provide guidance to the Union Health Ministry on the immunisation. Though India contin- ues on a downward trend of new Covid cases, in the last couple of days, discussions and worries have started to gather pace with a sudden rise in new cases of coronavirus globally, mainly in the South Asia region. The WHO has even warned countries to remain vigilant against the virus. China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea are among the South East Asian countries witnessing a rise in Covid cases. Dr NK Arora, the head of Covid-19 Task Group in National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NTAGI), had recently said, “The fourth wave will be driven by a new variant since BA.2 is present in 75 per cent of the population. Can’t say when India will witness the fourth wave. Vaccines avail- able now do not cover Omicron to the extent that boosters will benefit.” In India, a total of 1,761 fresh Covid cases were recorded nationwide on Sunday which is the lowest in around 688 days. Following a continuous downward trend, India’s active caseload has also declined to 26,240, constituting 0.06 percent of total positive cases. I n a big boost to ties between the two countries, Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will visit India in the first week of April. It will mark 30 years of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between India and Israel. Sources said Bennet is like- ly to under- take a four-day tour starting April 2. Bennett will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on issues rang- ing from bilateral ties, the sit- uation in Ukraine, terrorism and the security scenarios in the neighbourhood. The two leaders will explore ways to further enhance coop- eration in the field of defence and strategic relations. Israel has emerged as one of the major weapon suppliers to India in the last 30 years besides co- operating in the fight against terrorism. “I am delighted to pay my first official visit to India at the invi- tation of my friend,” Prime Minister Modi, and together we will continue leading the way for our countries’ relations,” Bennett said, as quoted by Israel Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Sunday. The two leaders first met on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow last October, where Modi invited Bennett to pay an official visit to India. The Israeli PMO said in a release the purpose of the visit is to advance and strengthen the strategic alliance between the countries, and to expand bilateral ties. “In addition, the leaders will discuss the strengthening of cooperation in a variety of areas Continued on Page 2 U krainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the embattled port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine’s President said an unrelenting Russian siege would be remembered for cen- turies to come. It was the sec- ond time in less than a week that city officials reported a public building where resi- dents had taken shelter coming under attack. A bomb hit a Mariupol theatre with more than 1,300 people believed to be inside on Wednesday, local officials said. There was no imme- diate word on casualties from the reported strike on the art school, which The Associated Press could not independently verify. Ukrainian officials have not given an update on the search of the theatre since Friday, when they said at least 130 had been rescued. Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been under bombardment for at least three weeks and has seen some of the worst horrors of the war in Ukraine. At least 2,300 people have died, some of whom had to be buried in mass graves, and food, water and electricity have run low. “To do this to a peaceful city, what the occu- piers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “The more Russia uses terror against Ukraine, the worse the consequences for it,” he added. In recent days, Russian forces have battled their way into the city, cutting it off from the Azov Sea and devastating a massive steel plant. The fall of Mariupol would be an important but costly victory for the Russians, whose advance is largely stalled outside other major cities more than three weeks into the biggest land invasion in Europe since World War II. In major cities across Ukraine, hundreds of men, women and children have been killed in Russian bombard- ments, while millions of civil- ians have raced to under- ground shelters or fled the country. In the Capital, Kyiv, at least 20 babies carried by Ukrainian surrogate mothers are stuck in a makeshift bomb shelter, waiting for parents to travel into the war zone to pick them up. The infants - some just days old - are being cared for by nurses who cannot leave the shelter because of con- stant shelling by Russian troops who are trying to encircle the city. In the hard-hit north- eastern city of Sumy, authori- ties evacuated 71 orphaned babies through a humanitari- an Continued on Page 2 F ormer Union Minister Sharad Yadav on Sunday announced that he has merged his Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, calling it the “first step in Opposition unity”. With this, the two ailing leaders — once seen as rivals — come back togeth- er after decades. Asserting that nationwide Opposition unity is imperative to defeat the BJP, the ailing socialist leader Sharad Yadav on Sunday pitched for the coming together of all forces for fighting the ruling party. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav welcomed the veteran leader, who had fought some of the keenest Lok Sabha poll battles against his father Lalu Prasad Yadav in the 1990s, into his party’s fold, saying it is a mes- sage for the anti-BJP parties to unite to take on the ruling dis- pensation. The young RJD leader alleged that the Constitution and democracy are in danger and all parties standing for sec- ularism and social justice must join hands. In an apparent swipe at the BJP over its lead- ers’ support to Hindi film ‘The Kashmir Files’, he said people are in distress due to price rise and unemployment, and debate should be over these issues instead of some Continued on Page 2 L akshya Sen’s dream run at the All England Championships ended with a heartbreaking straight-game loss against world number one and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles final, continuing India’s 21-year- long agonising wait for the cov- eted trophy. After four days of sensational badminton, the 20- year-old Sen faltered on the cusp of history as he committed too many errors to go down 10- 21 15-21 to former champion Axelsen in a lop-sided summit clash that lasted 53 minutes at the Barclaycard Arena. On Saturday, Sen had become only the fifth Indian after Prakash Nath (1947), Prakash Padukone (1980, 1981), Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Saina Nehwal (2015) to reach the final of the prestigious tournament after outwitting defending cham- pion Continued on Page 2

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Page 1: 3ZcV_ Zd >R_Zafc 4> RXRZ_ - Daily Pioneer

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Manipur’s acting ChiefM i n i s t e rNongthombam Biren

Singh was unanimously elect-ed as the Chief Minister of theState, for the second-time in arow, in the BJP LegislatureParty meeting in Imphal.However, the suspense over thename of the new Chief Ministerof Uttarakhand that has beengoing on for the past 11 dayswould be cleared in the meet-ing of the Legislature Party ofthe BJP on Monday.

The BJP leadership is alsoengaged in finalising theCabinet of Yogi Adityanathand deciding the ChiefMinister of Goa.

Prime Minister NarendraModi held a meeting to discussthe formation of theGovernment in Uttar Pradesh,Goa and Uttarakhand. UnionMinisters Amit Shah andRajnath Singh and party chiefJP Nadda were present at themeeting. Shah will be flying toLucknow on Monday andholding a discussion with Yogito give the final shape to hisCabinet.

Earlier today, the BJPannounced that N Biren Singhwill continue as the ChiefMinister of Manipur for a sec-ond straight term. The

announcement came a dayafter Singh, along with theother contenders — BiswajitSingh and YumnamKhemchand — met the topleadership of the party.Soon after the Legislature Partyapproved Singh as the StateChief Minister, the BJP’s cen-tral observer for Manipur,Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said, “It isa good decision taken unani-mously by everyone. It willensure that Manipur has a sta-ble and responsibleGovernment which will buildthe State further because theCentre today, under the lead-ership of PM Modi gives spe-cial attention to the North-

Eastern States.”The Legislature Party’s meet-

ing and the announcementfollow ten days of suspensesince the Assembly poll resultswere announced with rivalleaders Biren Singh and seniorBJP MLA Biswajit Singh rush-ing to Delhi twice to meet cen-tral leaders.

A former football player, aBSF jawan, and a journalist, NBiren Singh was picked as theChief Minister of Manipur forthe second time after the BJPhad won 32 seats in 60-mem-ber State Assembly. The BJPhas the support of at least 11more MLAs from two of itsallies in the State.

Union Law and Justice

Minister Kiren Rijiju, UnionEnvironment MinisterBhupendra Yadav were alsopresent on the occasion ascentral observers along withSitharaman. All centralobservers and Union Ministersfelicitated Singh on his selec-tion as the CM and presentedhim with bouquets. BJPspokesperson and State-in-charge Sambit Patra, too, waspresent on the occasion andgreeted the new CM. Singh hadthis week met with Modi withan indication that he wouldretain the top post. The BJP’scentral observers for the Statehad landed in Imphal earlier inthe day for the crucial meeting.Continued on Page 2

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In what could be seen as a preventivemeasure amidst rising Omicron casesin many countries across the world, the

National Technical Advisory Group onImmunisation (NTAGI), the highest tech-nical body of the Union Health Ministryon immunisation has recommended reduc-ing the gap between the first and seconddose of Covid vaccine Covishield to eightto 16 weeks. At present, the second doseof Covishield is being administered 12-16weeks after the first dose under the nation-al vaccination drive. India’s apex body onimmunisation now recommends this be

curbed to ramp up the administration ofthe second dose of Covishield to theremaining population amid rising cases inEuropean nations and some other coun-tries.The Government had on May 13, 2021,extended the gap between the first and sec-ond doses of the Covishield vaccine from6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks, based on the rec-ommendations by NTAGI that provideguidance to the Union Health Ministry onthe immunisation. Though India contin-ues on a downward trend of new Covid

cases, in the last couple of days, discussionsand worries have started to gather pace witha sudden rise in new cases of coronavirusglobally, mainly in the South Asia region.The WHO has even warned countries toremain vigilant against the virus. China,Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, SouthKorea are among the South East Asiancountries witnessing a rise in Covid cases.Dr NK Arora, the head of Covid-19 TaskGroup in National Immunisation TechnicalAdvisory Group (NTAGI), had recentlysaid, “The fourth wave will be driven by anew variant since BA.2 is present in 75 percent of the population. Can’t say when Indiawill witness the fourth wave. Vaccines avail-able now do not cover Omicron to theextent that boosters will benefit.”In India, a total of 1,761 fresh Covid caseswere recorded nationwide on Sundaywhich is the lowest in around 688 days.Following a continuous downward trend,India’s active caseload has also declined to26,240, constituting 0.06 percent of totalpositive cases.

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In a big boost to ties betweenthe two countries, Israel

Prime Minister Naftali Bennettwill visit India in the first weekof April. It will mark 30 yearsof the establishment of formaldiplomatic relations between

India andIsrael.

Sources saidBennet is like-ly to under-take a four-daytour startingApril 2.Bennett willhold talks with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on issues rang-ing from bilateral ties, the sit-uation in Ukraine, terrorismand the security scenarios inthe neighbourhood.

The two leaders will exploreways to further enhance coop-eration in the field of defence

and strategicrelations. Israelhas emerged asone of themajor weaponsuppliers toIndia in the last30 yearsbesides co-

operating in the fight againstterrorism.

“I am delighted to pay my firstofficial visit to India at the invi-tation of my friend,” PrimeMinister Modi, and together wewill continue leading the wayfor our countries’ relations,”Bennett said, as quoted by

Israel Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) on Sunday.

The two leaders first met onthe sidelines of the UN ClimateChange Conference (COP26)in Glasgow last October, whereModi invited Bennett to pay anofficial visit to India.

The Israeli PMO said in arelease the purpose of the visitis to advance and strengthenthe strategic alliance betweenthe countries, and to expandbilateral ties. “In addition, the leaders willdiscuss the strengthening ofcooperation in a variety ofareas Continued on Page 2

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Ukrainian authorities saidSunday that Russia’smilitary bombed an art

school sheltering some 400people in the embattled portcity of Mariupol, whereUkraine’s President said anunrelenting Russian siegewould be remembered for cen-turies to come. It was the sec-ond time in less than a weekthat city officials reported apublic building where resi-dents had taken shelter comingunder attack. A bomb hit aMariupol theatre with morethan 1,300 people believed tobe inside on Wednesday, localofficials said.

There was no imme-diate word on casualties fromthe reported strike on the artschool, which The Associated

Press could not independentlyverify. Ukrainian officials havenot given an update on thesearch of the theatre sinceFriday, when they said at least130 had been rescued.

Mariupol, a strategicport on the Azov Sea, hasbeen under bombardment forat least three weeks and hasseen some of the worst horrorsof the war in Ukraine. At least2,300 people have died, someof whom had to be buried inmass graves, and food, waterand electricity have run low.

“To do this to apeaceful city, what the occu-piers did, is a terror that will beremembered for centuries tocome,” Ukraine’s PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy said inhis nightly video address to thenation. “The more Russia usesterror against Ukraine, theworse the consequences for it,”he added.

In recent days,Russian forces have battledtheir way into the city, cuttingit off from the Azov Sea anddevastating a massive steel

plant. The fall of Mariupolwould be an important butcostly victory for the Russians,whose advance is largely stalledoutside other major cities morethan three weeks into thebiggest land invasion in Europesince World War II.

In major cities acrossUkraine, hundreds of men,women and children have beenkilled in Russian bombard-ments, while millions of civil-ians have raced to under-ground shelters or fled thecountry. In the Capital, Kyiv, atleast 20 babies carried byUkrainian surrogate mothersare stuck in a makeshift bombshelter, waiting for parents totravel into the war zone to pickthem up. The infants - somejust days old - are being caredfor by nurses who cannot leavethe shelter because of con-stant shelling by Russian troopswho are trying to encircle thecity. In the hard-hit north-eastern city of Sumy, authori-ties evacuated 71 orphanedbabies through a humanitari-an Continued on Page 2

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Former Union MinisterSharad Yadav on Sunday

announced that he has mergedhis Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD)with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD,

calling it the “first step inOpposition unity”. With this, thetwo ailing leaders — once seenas rivals — come back togeth-er after decades. Asserting thatnationwide Opposition unity isimperative to defeat the BJP, the

ailing socialist leader SharadYadav on Sunday pitched for thecoming together of all forces forfighting the ruling party.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadavwelcomed the veteran leader,who had fought some of thekeenest Lok Sabha poll battlesagainst his father Lalu PrasadYadav in the 1990s, into hisparty’s fold, saying it is a mes-sage for the anti-BJP parties tounite to take on the ruling dis-pensation.

The young RJD leaderalleged that the Constitutionand democracy are in dangerand all parties standing for sec-ularism and social justice mustjoin hands. In an apparentswipe at the BJP over its lead-ers’ support to Hindi film ‘TheKashmir Files’, he said people arein distress due to price rise andunemployment, and debateshould be over these issuesinstead of some

Continued on Page 2

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Lakshya Sen’s dream run atthe All EnglandChampionships ended with

a heartbreaking straight-gameloss against world number oneand Olympic champion ViktorAxelsen in the men’s singlesfinal, continuing India’s 21-year-long agonising wait for the cov-eted trophy. After four days ofsensational badminton, the 20-year-old Sen faltered on thecusp of history as he committedtoo many errors to go down 10-21 15-21 to former championAxelsen in a lop-sided summitclash that lasted 53 minutes at theBarclaycard Arena.

On Saturday, Sen hadbecome only the fifth Indian afterPrakash Nath (1947), PrakashPadukone (1980, 1981), PullelaGopichand (2001) and SainaNehwal (2015) to reach the finalof the prestigious tournamentafter outwitting defending cham-pion Continued on Page 2

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Page 2: 3ZcV_ Zd >R_Zafc 4> RXRZ_ - Daily Pioneer

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In a change in its strategy infomenting the three-decade-

long cross-border terrorism inJammu and Kashmir, Pakistanis again employing the tacticsof brainwashing the local youthin the name of religion andexploiting the "religious faultlines", officials said here onSunday.

The change in tacticsshould also be seen in thelight of Pakistan's desperateattempt to get out of the greylist of the Financial ActionTask Force (FATF), they said.

The terror movement, ini-tiated by Pakistan's spy agencyInter-Services Intelligence (ISI)under the garb of calls of'Azadi' (freedom) and right toself-determination, has slowlyand steadily transformed intoa low-intensity conflict thatstands on the pillars of "religionand radicalisation" today, theofficials said.

From 2016, to get itself outof the FATF grey list, the ISIstarted creating multiple pseu-

do terror groups like TheResistance Front (TRF),Kashmir Tigers (KT), ThePeople's Anti-Fascist Force(PAFF) and Kashmir JanbazForce (KJF), to name a few.These groups are nothing butshadow groups of banned ter-ror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen

set up with the primaryaim of creating a smoke screento shield Pakistan from FATFsanctions and the secondaryaim of re-strategising and giv-ing terrorism in Kashmir anindigenous face.

"Pakistan is definitelychanging its subversion narra-tive, giving it a religious tonenot only to manipulate theminds of the youth in theValley but also to exploit thereligious fault lines that existwithin India," an official said.

Having seen its failure inmobilising locals, especiallyafter the death of veteran sep-aratist leader Syed Ali ShahGeelani in September last year,the ISI believes that religion

holds the key to its next movein Kashmir. "The neighbourhas been and still remains thebiggest menacing factor thathas pulled back Kashmir andits people. Having vitiated andradicalised the Sufi soul of theValley for the last three decadesto meet its nefarious design, themasters of destruction acrossthe border now believe that thetime is ripe to infuse religiousschism into the mix, and cham-pion itself (Pakistan) as the sav-iour of religion," the officialsaid.

Analysis of the recent inter-cepts and questioning of arrest-ed terrorists show that the ISIand others in Pakistan are des-perate to polarise the localpopulation in Jammu andKashmir and generate dissentagainst the State in the name ofreligion, the officials said.

Carrying out a detailedanalysis of last year's incidentsof targeting of minorities inKashmir, especially prominentchemist Makhan Lal Bindroo,the officials said that initiallyterror groups claimed respon-

sibility and labelled him as agovernment agent but thenumber of people who joinedhis funeral was an eye-openeras locals, despite the falseclaims, expressed their anger athis killing.

The officials said thechanging contours of Pakistan'snarrative in Kashmir are theoutcome of the fact that itsrhetoric of the right to self-determination has failed andthe propaganda machinerybeing run from across the bor-der has realised the futility ofthe call for "freedom movementand resistance against the so-called occupational forces".Once the vanguard of theindigenous face of terrorism inKashmir, Hizbul Mujahideenhas fallen in the hierarchy ofterror groups with its cadresdwindling drastically.

As on January 1, the outfitonly had 30-odd terroristsoperating in the Valley, pri-marily in Anantnag district insouth Kashmir, and negligiblepresence in north and centralKashmir.

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Amid a resurgence ofCOVID-19 cases in

Southeast Asia and parts ofEurope, experts in India feelthat given the high vaccinationcoverage and immunity due tonatural infection, any futurewaves are unlikely to have amajor impact in the country.Some of them even said thatthe government should con-sider relaxing the mask man-date as the daily COVID-19cases and deaths have remainedlow for a while.

India on Sunday recorded1,761 fresh COVID-19 cases,the lowest in around 688 days,and 127 deaths. The activecases also declined further to26,240, according to govern-ment data. Dr Sanjay Rai,senior epidemiologist at AIIMSand the principal investigatorof Covaxin trials for both adultsand children at the institute,said that SARS-CoV-2 is anRNA virus and mutations are

bound to occur. Already morethan 1,000 mutations haveoccurred, although there areonly five variants of concern."India experienced a very dev-astating second wave last year,which was very unfortunate,but currently this is our mainstrength as natural infectionprovides better and longerduration of protection.

Also, there is high vacci-nation coverage. Hence, severeimpact of any future wave isunlikely," Rai, professor at theCentre for CommunityMedicine at AIIMS, said."It isalso time that the Indian gov-ernment may consider relaxingthe mask mandate," he said,adding that senior citizens andthose at a higher risk of con-tracting the infection shouldcontinue wearing masks as aprecautionary measure.

Having said that, Raiemphasised, the governmentshould continue with theSARS-CoV-2 surveillance,including genomic sequencing,to monitor the emergence ofany future variant. Accordingto Dr Chandrakant Lahariya,an epidemiologist and public

health specialist, the possibili-ty of a fresh surge in India islow even with a new vari-ant."If we analyse data on sero-prevalence, vaccination cover-age and evidence on the spreadof Omicron, it is logical to con-clude that the COVID-19 epi-demic in India is over. ForIndia, the possibility of a freshsurge for many months andeven with a new variant is low,"he said.

The reason is that becauseof the hybrid immunity afterthree waves of natural infectionand a large proportion of adultsreceiving both doses ofCOVID-19 vaccine, the sus-ceptible pool has come downdrastically, Lahariya said.

"We know that antibodylevel declines over a period oftime but hybrid immunity con-tinues to provide protection.Moreover, at this stage of thepandemic, infections and newCOVID-19 cases are not aconcern. The outcome of thoseinfections should be the crite-ria to assess the situation," hesaid. Lahariya, however,stressed the need for the gov-ernment to continue tracking

situations in other countries,experts to analyse the situationin India, continue genomicsurveillance and citizens to getthe recommended vaccineshots. "It is also a time that asa society, we prepare for livingwith Covid," he said. Lahariyafurther said the time is right todo away with the mask man-date for the majority of thepopulation.

"It is also time that Indiangovernment reviews and revis-es the face mask-related regu-lation. The time has come thatmask requirement for majori-ty of population can be doneaway with. It can be done in agraded manner," he stated.

Dr Jugal Kishore, head ofCommunity Medicine atSafdarjung Hospital, said due tohigh prevalence of seroposi-tivity, which indicates thatmore than 80-90 per cent ofpopulation has been infected bycoronavirus, measures likewearing masks can be doneaway with. He also pointed outthat due to high natural infec-tion, people are unlikely to havesevere symptoms if a new waveof coronavirus comes.

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ADelhi court has orderedframing of charges under

the Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA) againstJammu & Kashmir LiberationFront (JKLF) chief MohammadYasin Malik and others in a caserelated to alleged terrorism andsecessionist activities that dis-turbed the Valley in 2017.

The court ordered framingof charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder HafizSaeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chiefSyed Salahuddin, Kashmiri sep-aratist leaders, including YasinMalik, Shabbir Shah, MasaratAlam and others, under varioussections of the stringent UAPAand Indian Penal Code (IPC),including criminal conspiracy,waging war against country,and unlawful activities and ter-rorism, in a case pertaining tosecessionist activities that dis-turbed Jammu and Kashmir.

The court also chargedHafiz Muhammad Saeed, MdYusuf Shah, Aftab AhmadShah, Altaf Ahmad Shah,Nayeem Khan, Farooq AhmadDar, Md Akbar Khanday, RajaMehrajuddin Kalwal, BashirAhmad Bhat, Zahoor AhmadShah Watali, Shabir AhmadShah, Masarat Alam, AbdulRashid Sheikh and NavalKishore Kapoor.Special Judge

Praveen Singh, after discussionof evidence, said prima facie, itis established that Shabir Shah,Yasin Malik, Rashid Engineer,Altaf Fantoosh, Masrat andHurriyat/Joint ResistanceLeadership (JRL) were directrecipients of terror funds.

"So far from the statementsof witnesses, a pattern is emerg-ing - Pakistan or its agenciesand accused share a commongoal and there is an agreementon the means to be used forachieving that goal and terrorfunding is also being providedfrom Pakistan," he said.

The court said, in the con-spiracy, “The baton was held byconductors sitting across theborder in the form of Pakistaniagencies such as ISI and each ofconspirators, knowing everyother conspirator, was playinghis own role as per directionsof conductor in order to createa symphony of bloodshed, vio-lence, mayhem and destructionwith ultimate object of seces-sion of J&K.” It said the moneyfor terror funding was sentfrom and by Pakistan and itsagencies and even diplomaticmission was used to fulfil evildesign. Money for terror fund-ing was also sent by proclaimedinternational terrorists andaccused Hafiz Saeed, it said. Itsaid a criminal conspiracy washatched with a final object of

secession of J&K from Union ofIndia and within that conspir-acy, a conspiracy was hatchedto commit certain acts toachieve object of original con-spiracy and those acts, as dis-cussed above, have been foundto be terrorist acts.

After reading a joint pressstatement issued by Syed AliGeelani and Mohammad YasinMalik and others, the courtnoted that terrorist organisa-tions and JRL/All PartiesHurriyat Conference (APHC)not only share a common goalbut from their own officialwords, it is apparent that theywork in unison towards thatgoal.

The court also noted thatprima facie there existed acriminal conspiracy pursuant towhich large-scale protests,resulting in violence and arsonat a massive scale, were orches-trated.The court said Malikhad set up an elaborate struc-ture and mechanism across theworld to raise funds for carry-ing out terrorist and otherunlawful activities in Jammuand Kashmir in name of “free-dom struggle”.It said accusedZahoor Ahmad Shah Wataliwas one of main conduits forflow of this terror funding andaccused Naval Kishore Kapoorhad played an active part infacilitating it.

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From Page1

In the 2022 election BJP haswon 32 seats, one more thanthe simple majority mark,reducing the main rivalCongress to a few seats.Whilethe Congress had bagged 42 in2012, this time around, endedup with five seats, two less thanthe National People's Party(NPP) headed by MeghalayaChief Minister Conrad K.Sangma. NPP which was an alliancepartner of the BJP in the lastgovernment is no more a BJPalliance partner in the state.TheNaga People's Front (NPF), anally of the BJP, has won fiveseats in the state assemblyaround the Naga inhabitedhills in Manipur. NPF was analliance partner of the BJP inthe last Singh-headed govern-ment in Manipur.The JanataDal (United), which fielded

many nominees rejected bythe BJP has surprisingly wonsix assembly seats in Manipurand is also supporting theBJP.The newly-floated KukiPeople's Alliance has won twohill constituencies it contestedin the state. Meanwhile, thesuspense on the names of ChiefMinister of Uttarakhand whereBJP returned to power is alsolikely to end soon with themeeting of state legislativeparty meeting early next weekBJP has been holding back-to-back meetings since Saturdayover the government formationin Uttarakhand and Goa.Uttarakhand's acting CMPushkar Dhami and state BJPhead Madan Kaushik met AmitShah on Sunday.Ahead of themeeting, Dhami was quoted assaying "The procedure for gov-ernment formation is under-way...the BJP central leadershipwill take a decision ."

From Page1

corridor, regional governorDmytro Zhyvytskyy saidSunday. He said the orphans,most of whom need constantmedical attention, would betaken to an unspecified foreigncountry. Russian shelling killedat least five civilians, includinga 9-year-old boy, in Kharkiv, aneastern city that is Ukraine'ssecond-largest.

The British DefenseMinistry said Russia's failure togain control of the skies overUkraine "has significantlyblunted their operationalprogress," forcing them to relyon stand-off weapons launchedfrom the relative safety ofRussian airspace.

A rocket attack on theBlack Sea port city of Mykolaivearly Friday killed as many as40 marines, a Ukrainian mili-tary official told The New YorkTimes, making it one of thedeadliest single attacks onUkrainian forces.

In a separate strike, theRussian Defense Ministry saida Kinzhal hypersonic missilehit a Ukrainian fuel depot inKostiantynivka, a city nearMykolaiv.

The Russian military saidSaturday that it used a Kinzhalfor the first time in combat todestroy an ammunition depotin the Carpathian Mountains inwestern Ukraine. Russia hassaid the Kinzhal, carried byMiG-31 fighter jets, has a rangeof up to 2,000 kilometers(about 1,250 miles) and flies at10 times the speed of sound.

Pentagon press secretaryJohn Kirby said Saturday thatthe US couldn't confirm the useof a hypersonic missile inUkraine. Konashenkov saidKalibr cruise missiles launchedby Russian warships from theCaspian Sea were also involvedin the strike on the fuel depotin Kostiantynivka and wereused to destroy an armourrepair plant in northernUkraine.

Unexpectedly strongUkrainian resistance hasdashed Russian PresidentVladimir Putin's hopes for afast victory after he ordered histroops to invade Ukraine onFeb. 24. While the Kremlin hassaid Russia is conducting a"special military operation"aimed at legitimate targets, USDefense Secretary Lloyd Austinsaid Saturday that "brutal, sav-age techniques" targeting civil-ians had allowed Moscow'stroops to advance.

UN bodies have confirmedmore than 847 civilian deathssince the war began, thoughthey concede the actual toll islikely much higher. The UNsays nearly 3.4 million peoplehave fled Ukraine as refugees.

Estimates of Russian deathsvary widely, but even conserv-ative figures are in the lowthousands. The reported bat-tlefield deaths of four Russiangenerals - out of an estimated

20 deployed in Ukraine, sug-gest an impaired command

of the fighting, said DmitryGorenburg, a researcher onRussia's security at theVirginia-based CNA thinktank. Gorenburg said. Russiawould need 800,000 troops -almost equal to its entire active-duty military - to controlUkraine in the face of pro-longed armed opposition,according to Michael Clarke,former head of the British-based Royal United ServicesInstitute, a defense think tank.

"Unless the Russians intendto be completely genocidal -they could flatten all the majorcities, and Ukrainians will riseup against Russian occupation- there will be just constantguerrilla war," Clarke said.

Ukraine and Russia haveheld several rounds of negoti-ations aimed at ending theconflict, but the neighbouringcountries remain divided overseveral issues. Zelenskyy hassaid he is willing to dropUkraine's bid to join NATO butwants certain security guaran-tees from Russia.

Moscow is pressing forUkraine's complete demilita-rization. Evacuations fromMariupol and other besiegedcities proceeded along eight of10 humanitarian corridors thatUkraine and Russia agreed toon Saturday, Deputy PrimeMinister Iryna Vereshchuksaid, and officials said a total of6,623 people left Kyiv andother cities.Vereshchuk saidplanned humanitarian aid forthe southern city of Kherson,which Russia seized early in thewar, could not be deliveredbecause the trucks werestopped along the way byRussian troops.Mariupolauthorities said Sunday thatnearly 40,000 people had leftthe city in the last week, the vastmajority in their own vehicles,despite ongoing air and artillerystrikes.

The Mariupol city councilclaimed Saturday that Russiansoldiers had forcibly relocatedseveral thousand city residents,mostly women and children, toRussia. It didn't say where,and AP could not immediate-ly confirm the claim. SomeRussians also have fled theircountry amid a widespreadcrackdown on dissent. Sincethe invasion of Ukraine start-ed, police have arrested thou-sands of antiwar protesters,while government agencieshave silenced independent

media and cut off access tosocial media sites like Facebookand Twitter. In Ukraine,Zelenskyy on Sunday orderedthe activities of 11 political

parties with links to Russiato be suspended during theperiod of martial law. Thelargest of those parties has 44out of 450 seats in the country'sparliament."Activities by politi-cians aimed at discord and col-laboration will not succeed," hesaid in the address.

From Page1

Including innovation, econo-my, research and development,agriculture and more,"Bennett's office informed.Thevisit will mark the celebrationsof the 30th anniversary of theestablishment of full-fledgeddiplomatic relations betweenthe two countries as Indiaopened an Embassy in TelAviv in 1992. For years, thebilateral engagement revolvedaround defence and agricul-ture, but, in recent years, therelations have seen rapidgrowth across a broad spec-trum of areas.The Israeli PrimeMinister appreciated Modi andgave him credit for "restartingrelations between India andIsrael." He said the "relationsbetween our two unique cul-tures…are deep, and they relyon deep appreciation and

meaningful collaborations.""There are many things we canlearn from the Indians, and thisis what we strive to do.Together we will expand ourcooperation to other areas,from innovation and technol-ogy, security and cyber, toagriculture and climatechange," Bennett added. He also said ties are based on

mutual "appreciation andmeaningful collaboration."Thevisit also aims to expand thecooperation between the twocountries in the areas of inno-vation and technology, securi-ty and cyber, and agricultureand climate change. Modi was the first IndianPrime Minister to visit Israelsince diplomatic ties wereestablished. The visit in 2017saw him holding wide-rangingtalks with then Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu.

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The movie setting agenda.which seeks to highlight theviolent trauma KashmiriPandits underwent leading totheir exodus from the Valleyover three decades back, hasbeen accused by critics, includ-ing leaders of Opposition par-ties, of fomenting "hate anddivision" with its alleged neg-ative portrayal of KashmiriMuslims. "Politics of hate is taking place,and the Constitution anddemocracy are in danger,"Tejashwi Yadav told reporters,thanking Sharad Yadav forshowing his faith in him.The move by Sharad Yadav(74), who had been keepinglow after battling health issuesfor months, is seen as an effortto rehabilitate his colleaguesand other associates as his LJDcould never become a seriousforce after its launch followinghis separation with JD(U)leader and Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar.He had contest-ed the 2019 Lok Sabha electionon the RJD ticket while hisdaughter had fought the 2020Bihar Assembly poll as a nom-inee of the Congress, then anRJD ally.Unity of Opposition parties ishis priority, Sharad Yadav toldreporters here, while laudingTejashwi Yadav for leading thefight against the BJP-led NDAin Bihar.Opposition partiesshould join hands nationwideto take on the BJP, he said,adding that no one party cansinglehandedly defeat it. He

hailed Tejashwi Yadav as Bihar'sfuture and played downreporters' queries about thepossible leader of the opposi-tion parties if they were tounite. Citing past instances, hesaid parties have first joinedforces and a leader was pickedlater. A broader unity of oppo-sition parties should be the firststep considering the situationin the country, he said. "This step (merger) has beennecessitated as an initiative of my regular efforts for bringingtogether scattered Janata pari-var in view of the currentpolitical situation in the coun-try," he had earlier said in astatement, claiming the BJPgovernment has been a failureand people are looking for astrong opposition. The merger marks his comingtogether with Lalu PrasadYadav after more than threedecades with both leaders bat-tling health issues and seen tobe at a fag end of their politi-cal career. Lalu Prasad had quitJanata Dal in 1997 to form hisparty over differences with itsleadership as the probe againstfodder scam, in which he wasa main accused, gathered pace.Sharad Yadav was then seen ashis rival within the Janata Dal,and he later joined hands withNitish Kumar to end the RJD's15-year reign in Bihar in2005.Sharad Yadav was, how-ever, also seen as a key votaryfor JD(U)-RJD alliance in 2015assembly polls in Bihar againstthe BJP, and he later partedways with Kumar over hisdecision to ally with BJP again.

From Page1

Lee Zii Jia in a gruellingsemifinal.A week back, Senhad recorded his first win overformer world championAxelsen en route to his finalappearance at German Openbut he couldn't sustain hiscraft on Sunday as his highly-fancied rival returned favours,claiming his fifth overall winagainst the Indian.

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Farooq Khan, an advisor toJammu and Kashmir Lt

Governor Manoj Sinha, sub-mitted his resignation onSunday evening and was set tobe given an "important assign-ment" in the BJP ahead of thefirst assembly elections in theunion territory, officials saidhere.

A retired IPS officer whowas instrumental in breakingthe backbone of terrorism inJammu and Kashmir in theearly 1990s, Khan had earlierserved as a national secretaryof the BJP and held variousposts in the party's minoritycell. The 67-year-old is likelyto be assigned the responsi-bility of preparing the party forthe first assembly elections inthe union territory. Though

the poll schedule has not beenannounced yet, the official-sexpect that the elections willbe held after October follow-ing completion of the ongoingdelimitation exercise by May.The erstwhile state of Jammuand Kashmir was bifurcatedinto union territories and itsspecial status under Article370 of the Constitution wasabrogated in August 2019.

In July 2019, Khan wasappointed as advisor to thenLieutenant Governor SatyaPal Malik. Prior to that he wasthe administrator ofLakshadweep.

Khan started his career inJammu and Kashmir as a sub-inspector of police in 1984 andwent on to become the inspec-tor general of police. He waspromoted to the Indian PoliceService (IPS) in 1994.

He came into the limelightwhen he volunteered to heada specialtask force (STF) of thepolice in 1994 at a time whenthe morale of the force was lowand security-related opera-tions were being carried out bythe Army and the BSF.The STFwas set up with personnelfrom the Jammu and KashmirPolice and acted a crack teamin anti-militancy operations.

Belonging to Poonch inJammu, Khan was deputyinspector general of Jammuregion and led crack teams toend a siege laid by militants atthe famous Raghunath Templein 2003.After his retirement in2013 as an IGP and head of theSher-e-Kashmir PoliceAcademy in Udhampur, Khanjoined the BJP in 2014 in thepresence of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed a 53-year-old man for

allegedly assaulting his elderlymother over property disputein Delhi’s Dwarka area.

Police said that the woman,identified as Angoori Devi,later died in the hospital.

According to a seniorpolice official, on Thursday,information was received fromDeen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU)hospital regarding quarrel andinjury following which a policeteam was dispatched.

“Police team found thatone Angoori Devi (76), a resi-dent of Uttam Nagar, wasadmitted to the hospital by herson-in-law Manoj Kumar. Shereceived injuries on her headand arm and was found unfit

for the state-ment,” said thesenior police offi-cial.

“Thereafter,a case was regis-tered under sec-tion 308 (attemptto commit cul-pable homicide)of the IndianPenal Code(IPC). AllegedBhagwan Dass, a resident ofMohan Garden, son of thedeceased has been arrestedand is under judicial custody,”said the official.

The reason behind thescuffle was property disputeamong the children of thedeceased out of her two wed-dings, police said.

On Friday evening, police

got information regarding thedeath of the woman atSafdarjung Hospital. Later, sec-tion 304 (punishment for cul-pable homicide not amountingto murder) of the IPC has beenadded in the case, the officialsaid.

Proceedings under section174 CrPC are under process,police added.W

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The Special Cell of the DelhiPolice has arrested a 27-

year-old woman fromGhaziabad who was declaredproclaimed offender in anabduction cum murder case.

The accused has been iden-tified as Nidhi, a resident ofGhaziabad in Uttar Pradesh(UP). Police said that Nidhi hadgone underground after gettingbail in 2017 in this case and shewas declared a proclaimedoffender in 2018 in this case.

According to JasmeetSingh, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Special Cell, onSaturday, police received spe-cific inputs about Nidhi near acafé in Govindpuram,Ghaziabad, following which atrap was laid and Nidhi wasnabbed.

According to police, ninepeople, including Nidhi andher husband Rahul Jaat, hadconspired and abducted one

Sagar on April 1, 2015 fromGTB Enclave area. They beathim and took to Baghpat. Theypushed him in front of a truckwhere he was crushed to death.

“Nidhi and Rahul hadobjected to deceased Sagar’sapproach to Nidhi’s sister Aartieven after her marriage. Theyhad asked Sagar to stay awayfrom Aarti, but he did not lis-ten and kept on meeting Aarti.Due to this reason, Nidhi withothers had planned and exe-cuted the abduction-cum-killing of Sagar. The reason forgetting him crushed under thetruck was to make the murderlook like a case of simple roadaccident,” said the DCP.

Nidhi’s husband Rahul wasalso out on bail in this case. Heis an associate gangster ofnotorious Rohit Chaudharyand Ankit Gurjar. Rahul wasalso involved in three cases ofmurder, attempt to murder,abduction for murder andArms Act in Delhi, policeadded.

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of Delhi

Police has registered an FirstInformation Report (FIR)against M3M India PrivateLimited, its Managing DirectorBasant Bansal and other direc-tors for allegedly misappropri-ating land of value of approxi-mately Rs 450 crores.

According to a senior policeofficial, the FIR has been regis-tered upon a complaint made byMGF Developments Limitedfor misappropriating land ofadmeasuring 31.06 value ofapproximately Rs 450 crores sit-uated in sector 112 and 113,Gurugram by illegally gettingthe land transferred in their name.“MGF has alleged thatM3M and other accused per-sons made false representations

to them and induced them intoa deal promising substantivemonetary consideration. Theyhanded over post dated cheques(which were never paid) toMGF,” said the police official.“The land was transferred toM3M group companies on thecondition that the land wouldvest in M3M Group companiesonly on honour of all the post-dated cheques tendered towardsconsideration amount other-wise the transfer would be ren-dered null and void ab-initio,”stated the FIR.“The M3M Group compa-nies did not pay the considera-

tion amount and on the otherhand even though they were nothaving physical possession ofthe land they went ahead andgot the mutation of the landdone in their name and someportions of the land parti-tioned,” stated the FIR.“They further went aheadand applied for licence to theDTCP, Haryana for construc-tion of a residential projectunder ‘New IntegratedLicensing Policy (NILP)’ onpart of the land. M3M intend-ed to make a project and sell itto many customers,” as per theFIR.

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The AAP Government haswon the trust of the people

by taking back the security ofex-Ministers, giving compen-sation for ruined crops, launch-ing an anti-corruption helplineand announcing 25,000Government jobs, Aam AadmiParty (AAP) NationalConvener and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidon Sunday.

During the virtual meetingwith all AAP MLAs in Punjab,Kejriwal applauded the newMLAs for their wonderful workin this short span. “Peoplehope in us is turning into firmconfidence and trust. On onehand, we have administered theoath, formed the new cabinet,and have started working forthe people of Punjab, and onthe other hand, BJP is stillunable to form its governmentin four states,” he said.

Addressing newly electedMLAs, he said “I can bear withanything, but I can never tol-erate dishonesty, corruption,and theft of public money. Wehave to work with the teachers,doctors, police, and tehsildarsto change the system inPunjab.”

Congratulating PunjabAAP MLAs for the victory,Kejriwal said, "I am both elat-ed and emotional because oftwo reasons. First, the people ofPunjab have elected us with ahuge margin, eradicating all theold leaders from Punjab.Second, the way in whichBhagwant Mann Ji has workedin Punjab is tremendous, hewas sworn in on 16th March,and the whole world is talkingabout the wonderful work doneby Mann Saab in just threedays.”

The AAP convener furthersaid, "An anti-corruptionaction line was launched inPunjab two days back. I am get-ting messages and calls fromPunjab. Somebody told mehow because of the action line,

they got their registry donewithout having to give anybribe.”

In his message to partyMLAs, he said each ministerhas to work very hard. "I haveheard that those MLAs whocould not be elected as minis-ters are disappointed. We havegot 92 seats, only 17 out of youcould have been appointed ascabinet ministers. I know eachand every one of you. 90-95 percent of you have fought in theelections for the first time.Many of you come from a verysimple background and manypopular leaders have lost infront of you. I am certain thatMann Saab and his cabinet willappoint only good and honestofficials. If an official does notfulfill their duties or indulges incorruption, the cabinet willtake strict action against theofficial. You have to work withsheer honesty," said the CM.

Kejriwal also warnedMLAs of strict action who arefound indulging in corrup-tion. “Many MLAs are doingon-ground inspections, visitinglocal schools, local hospitals,and local offices. But please donot misbehave and threaten theofficials,” he said.

Punjab Chief MinisterBhagwant Mann said, "If mysignature can help light thestove in somebody's housethen there will be no greatervirtue than this. If you work onrecommendations, then youare killing someone else'srights, AAP does not work onrecommendations. We shouldnot get into caste and any dis-crimination."

Mann said that there aremany such people who havewon by 60-75 thousand votes."Survey of every MLA andminister will also be done. Ifyou want to secure your seat,then you have to maintain astrong friendship with people.There should be only one goalthat Punjab should be made'Rangla Punjab',” he said.

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The AAP Government hasfailed to keep any of the

promises the party made inpast seven years, said UnionMinister of State MeenakshiLekhi while addressing a largenumber of farmers sitting ondharna near Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal’s residencehere on Sunday.

BJP State president AdeshGupta said the working modelof Kejriwal can be gauged fromthe fact that by taking farmersland in the name of schools orcommunity centres, haj houseis being made there. “There isa Government in Delhi whichdoesn't have time to hear thefarmers sitting on dharna forover 40 days now. Some of thefarmers' land in Delhi is underdirty water for years and noth-ing has been done to make itusable again,” he said.

Gupta said under the lead-ership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over 11 crorefarmers are now getting KisanSamman Nidhi and several

works are being done in Delhias well. Also the land poolingpolicy is being amended so thatit becomes even easier, he said.

The Leader of Oppositionin Delhi Assembly RamvirSingh Bidhuri said the farm-ers have been tirelessly protest-ing in support of theirdemands for 42 days nowtheir voice will also echo in thestate assembly session begin-ning March 23. He said we

asked for Rs 50000 per acrecompensation for cropsdestroyed by farmers in 128villages here due to untimelyrains but he didn't even both-er to visit these villages forgetthe compensation. In the pastseven years, Kejriwal didn'tfulfil even a single promisewhether it is doing away with81 A section or free power tothem, he said.

Senior BJP leader and MP

Manoj Tiwari said that sever-al BJP ruled states give freepower for irrigation purposebut in Delhi farmers have topay bills on commercial rate.“Nothing can be more shame-ful than the fact that evenafter a farmer's death his landis not getting transferred to hisheir. You must go to everyhousehold to tell the reality ofthis deaf and dumb govern-ment, he said

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The Delhi BJP slammed theAAP Government for the

“poor” condition of roadsmaintained by the ‘PublicWorks Department’ (PWD).

Delhi BJP SpokespersonPraveen Shankar Kapoor haswritten a letter to Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia sayingthat despite repeatedannouncements by CM ArvindKejriwal and his predecessorSatyendra Jain, there is noimprovement in the patheticcondition of roads in thenational capital.

"The poorly maintainedroads cause a rise in roadmishaps and contribute to pol-

lution apart from increasingtravelling time for commuters,"he said.

Major roads like RingRoad, Outer Ring Road, S.P.Mukherji Marg, Netaji SubashMarg, Vikas Marg, G.T. RoadShahdara, Vikas Marg, SwarnCinema Road, SeelampurRoad, Najafgarh Road, PatelRoad, Lala Lapat Rai Marg,Tito Road, Khelgaon Marg,Model Town Road,Keshavpuram Road,Pitampura to Rohini RithalaRoad, Punjabi Bagh PeeragarhiRoad etc. to name a few acrossthe city are full of potholes andtotally withered due to lack ofupkeep by PWD officials, hesaid.

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Endowed with a Mughal-style 'baradari' and rich

stocks of flowers, a new her-itage-themed park near JamaMasjid in old Delhi was inau-gurated by President Ram NathKovind on Sunday.

The park was opened amidcolourful cultural perfor-mances, strains of classicalmusic and traditional dance bya troupe of artists in the'baradari' which was decked upwith flowers and a chandelier.President Kovind inauguratedthe park by unveiling a plaque.He was also given a tour of thegarden during his brief visit. Inthe first phase, an area of about1.75 acres has been developedat an estimated cost of Rs 7.65crore, civic officials said.

After months of hardlabour and meticulous plan-ning, the plot, which was ear-lier covered in filth andencroached from multiple sidesand often used by anti-social

elements, has been transformedinto a beautiful park, they said.Conceived in 2017, the parkhas been built with NorthDelhi Municipal Corporation'sfunds and contributions fromvarious MPs cutting acrossparty lines and former Unionminister Vijay Goel, officialshad earlier said. It has beendeveloped using rich stocks offlowers and has structures builtwith traditional craftsmanship.

A white marble-made'baradari' (pavilion) withcusped arches is the centrepieceof this garden while red sand-stone, white marble, Dholpurstone, and Delhi quartzitestones have been used in theconstruction. In the secondphase of this urban renewalproject, the remaining 2.25acres is to be developed at anestimated cost of Rs 10.03crore. For the first phase, theNDMC had arranged Rs 4.70crore from its resources, offi-cials said.

The second phase also

envisages reviving the old waterstream (referred to as 'nahar' bylocals) that existed on a stretchlocated adjacent to the currentboundary wall of the park,they said. The park is alsoendowed with Mughal-style'chatris', stone railings andlamp posts, borrowing designelements from the Red Fort'sramparts, ornate gates, asunken open-air theatre, andalso has toilet facilities. Delhi LtGovernor Anil Baijal, ChiefSecretary Vijay Dev, mayors ofthree BJP-led municipal cor-porations — Raja Iqbal Singh

(NDMC), Mukesh Suryan(SDMC) and Shyam SunderAggarwal (EDMC), senior BJPleader Baijayant Panda, andRajya Sabha member RoopaGanguly, who also has con-tributed funds for the park,were among those present onthe occasion.

"I am very happy to havecontributed funds for this pro-ject through MPLADS, anddelighted to see this beautifulpark finally being inauguratedtoday. Heritage plays a veryimportant role in any societyand this is a great addition to

the recreational spaces inDelhi," Ganguly told PTI.

A food court area has alsobeen developed, said architectKapil Aggarwal, who designedthe park. The park sits in closeproximity to the 17th centuryJama Masjid and faces RedFort, a UNESCO WorldHeritage site, on the other side.

"We wanted visitors to feelthe park was part of both thesites and therefore, we choseheritage elements after carefulresearch, so that new structureswould complement the existingheritage fabric of the region," headded. The part, which is to bedeveloped under the secondphase, is now slowly beingbarricaded, and civic officialssaid work has begun to reclaimthe neighbouring plot fully forthe park project. A seniorNDMC official had earlier saidthe park has "rich stocks" off lowers and shrubberies,including petunia, dog flowers,marigold, carnation, poinsettia,ornamental cabbage, croton

and furcaria."Once we open it to public,

there will be a nominal ticketfee," he said. Visitors will alsoget to enjoy delicious cuisine ofChandni Chowk and handi-crafts of Old Delhi at the park,officials said. The park, locat-ed opposite the Parade Groundparking facility, was originallynamed 'Heritage Park'. Thename of Charti Lal Goel, for-mer deputy mayor of the erst-while unified MunicipalCorporation of Delhi and firstSpeaker of the Delhi LegislativeAssembly, was later prefixed toit, officials said.

A white marble bust ofCharti Lal Goel, father of VijayGoel, has also been installednear the ornately-carved'baradari'.

President Kovind garland-ed the statue and also posed forsome pictures. An amount ofRs 17.68 crore was requiredtowards the completion of theproject which has been plannedin two phases, officials said.

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The police here nabbed a 20-year-old on charges of sup-

plying illegal weapons andseized arms and ammunitionfrom his possession, officialssaid on Sunday. Abhishek aliasGabbar alias Kalu, a resident ofAligarh in Uttar Pradesh, wasarrested by the crime unit,Sector 17, at Panchgaon Chowkhere on the Delhi-Jaipur high-way late on Saturday night, theysaid. He was in Gurugram tosupply weapons. The policehave secured his remand for acouple of days, the officials said.

Abhishek has studied up toClass X and he began dealingwith illegal weapons after hisfather's death, they said.

“Twenty five country-made pistols and two live car-tridges, which he carried in abag, have been seized. We arequestioning the accused and itwill be clear during the inves-tigation as to how many timeshe has supplied the weapons,and who his suppliers andbuyers are… our teams areconducting raids to nab hisother associates”, RajivDeshwal, DCP (crime), said.

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Over five narco tests hasbeen conducted at the

Forensic Science Laboratory(FSL) here since the facility wasstarted in August last year,officials said on Sunday.

The FSL started the narcoanalysis facility, the first innorth India, in collaborationwith Ambedkar Hospital here,they said.

FSL Director Deepa Vermasaid efforts were being madefor the past two years to startthe facility. However, the firstsession was conducted onAugust 9, 2021, she said.

Narco analysis involvesinjecting a drug which inducesa hypnotic or sedated state inwhich the person's imaginationis neutralised and he or she isexpected to divulge true infor-mation.

"The narco analysis is beingconducted after administeringdrug to the suspect. So, thedirection of the court is alsoneeded.

"The laboratory also playsan important role. We also

needed a support system fromthe hospital because this test isconducted in the operationtheatre so that the suspectremains under medical super-vision," Verma said.

The FSL director said ateam should be present duringthe test to monitor the suspect'sparameters.

This process requires bothpsychologists and doctors, shesaid.

"It took two years to start.This is the first such facility innorth India. A lot of effort wasneeded to be put like how thefacility will be set up, whatwould be the requirements,how will we prepare, howwould the medical team be pre-pared among others.

"Also , the training was notavailable easily due to theCovid pandemic because ofwhich it took a longer time forall these preparations.Otherwise, we would havestarted it a year ago," Vermasaid.

The teams have conductedsessions on six to seven sus-pects and all were from Delhi,she said.

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Emergency services forpatients with burn injuries

have been made operational atthe Burns and Plastic SurgeryBlock of AIIMS, recently.

The facility, located next tothe Trauma Centre, was so farbeing used as an ad hoc facil-ity to treat COVID-19 patients.

"Emergency services forthe burns patients has beenmade operational at Burns andPlastic Surgery Block wef (witheffect from) March 15," accord-ing to a circular issued by theAIIMS medical superinten-dent.

The emergency servicesare made available on theground floor of the Burns andPlastic Surgery Block with ded-icated areas, and one can enterfrom Chaudhary Jhandu SinghRoad in JPNATC Campus, thecircular read.

Eight observation bedshave been facilitated for theemergency services, it said.

The block, according tothe officials, is equipped to han-dle approximately 15,000 burnemergencies and 5,000 burnadmissions a year.

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An audit of annual saplingplantations conducted in

Delhi between 2016 and 2019has shown wild animals andstray cattle damaged the plantsat many sites, and soil andwater conservation measureswere not adopted at a majori-ty of the places.

The Dehradun-basedForest Research Institute (FRI),which had last year conductedan audit of annual saplingplantations, also said "recordsof plantation sites were not pre-sented or shown to surveyteams".

"This is a serious problemwith respect to monitoringand future implementation ofthe activities. Only the numberof plants, names of the sites andGIS maps were shown," the FRIsaid in a report submitted tothe Delhi forest department.

"At many sites, the plantswere found damaged due towild animals and stray cattle.Measures need to be enhancedto provide protection to thenewly planted saplings," the

report accessed by PTI read.It was also found that soil

and water conservation mea-sures were "feeble consideringthe fact that such measureswere not adopted at majority ofthe sites", the FRI stated.

Soil and water conserva-tion measures are important toenhance the productivity of theland, recharge the water tableand improve the water regimeat the plantation sites.

In the long run, such mea-sures play a significant role inimproving the survival rate ofplantations by improving pro-ductivity and increasing soilmoisture content.

"It would be prudent if thesoil and water conservationcomponent is compulsorilyincluded in the plantation pro-grammes and annual workplans," the report said.

Although the findings ofthe plantation audit presentedan "encouraging" picture, itwas also observed that GIS-based planning was not adopt-ed for taking up plantation andsoil and water conservationactivities at the sites selected forthe plantation.

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In the shifting geopoliticallandscape post the Russia-

Ukraine crisis, Chinese foreignminister Wang Yi is likely topropose a Russia-China-India(RCI) oil/gas pipeline projectduring his upcoming NewDelhi visit later this month.

The move is said to havebeen formulated in response tothe US sanctions againstMoscow not only hitting theeconomic interests and busi-nesses of Russia but also hittingIndia and China hard, top

sources privy to the develop-ment said.

The possible propositionof the RCI Pipeline projectcomes in the backdrop of theTaj i k i s t an-Afg hanis t an-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Pipelinenot taking off due to securityrisks posed by a destabilisedKabul and the perennial anti-India stance of Islamabad.

The TAPI has been underdiscussion for nearly threedecades. However, India isunlikely to go ahead with anysuch proposal without gaugingthe possible impact on domes-

tic audiences as well securingnational interests, according toofficials. Taking advantage ofits sanctions against theKremlin, the US has beenseeking to leverage with NewDelhi to further enlarge itsdefence procurement fromWashington which has eventhreatened India with sanc-tions under CounteringAmerica’s Adversaries throughSanctions Act (CAATSA) forthe acquisition of S-400 missiledefence systems from Russia,the sources said.

However, New Delhi is inno mood to budge and spoil itsdecades-long strategic rela-tions with Moscow, especiallywith a firm realisation here thatnot only American defenceassets are costly but invest-ments in technology transfersin India by the US in the sec-tor are low as compared toRussia, they said.

During the likely visit of Yi,a proposal of AlternativePayments System (APS)between Russia, China andIndia to offset the impact of thesanctions against the Kremlin,including the removal of

Moscow from the SWIFT pay-ment system, is also likely tocome up. Initially, Russia,China and India could be thepart of the proposed APS andsubsequently more countriescan join the grouping, shiftingthe global order in the processby shaking off the dominanceof the American Mastercardand Visa.

The three countries havea combined population ofnearly three billion out of theglobal population of 7.9 billionand a corresponding captivemarket with a sizable con-sumer base.

Counter-terrorism anddefence analyst Dr RiturajMate said, “China’s proposal ofRCI Pipeline Project is basedon a double game with Beijinggaining the contract for instal-lation of the pipeline on theone hand and getting royaltyfrom India on the other hand.”

“Once the pipeline comesto fruition, oil and gas priceswill decrease in India and alsoimprove New Delhi’s bargain-ing leverage with other energysupplying countries. This willhelp Beijing in improving its

image in India. The pipelinewill also increase China’s good-will in India,” he said. At thegeopolitical level, China willget another lever to arm twistNew Delhi into submission tofulfil its larger dominance inthe region and push globalstrategic ambitions. Beijingwill just have turn the knob ofthe supply line, squeezingIndia’s energy needs instantly,he added.

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The Chinese CommunistParty is said to havetasked a team of infor-

mation technology experts toprepare a list of 5,000 Indianswho are spoiling Indo-Chinarelations for political, monetaryor career considerations, byscouring the Internet. It wasnot immediately clear as towhat CCP intends to do withthe monitoring list. PNS

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Normal life in parts ofAndaman and Nicobar

Islands was affected on Sundaydue to rain and strong windsdue to Cyclone Asani, which islikely to intensify within 24hours.

Inter-island shipping ser-vices have been stopped andfishermen warned not to ven-ture into the sea, and around150-200 personnel of theNational Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) have beendeployed and six relief campsopened in various parts of theislands as a precautionary mea-sure. According to the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD), no heatwave condi-tions have been reported fromany parts of the country onSunday.

Besides, the Indian CoastGuard (ICG) swung into actionand is taking pre-emptive mea-sures. ICG ships and aircraft onthe southeast Bay of Bengal andadjoining south of theAndaman Sea are relayingweather warnings to allmariners and fishermen at sea.

Directorate of ShippingServices ordered the cancella-tion of all inter-island servicestill March 22. MV Campbellship from Visakhapatnam andChennai-bound MV Sindhuwere also canceled. Accordingto officials of Andaman andNicobar Islands, north andmiddle Andamans experiencedrain and strong winds but life

in Port Blair remained normal.Schools and colleges have beenshut because of the cyclone Asper the advisory, unsafe andloose structures were alsoremoved to prevent any hazardowing to randomly flying sharpobjects such as tin sheets.

"Depression over thesoutheast Bay of Bengal andadjoining south Andaman Sealay centered at 0830 hrs IST onSunday, about 110 km north-northwest of Car Nicobar(Nicobar Islands).

To intensify into a DD by0530 hrs IST of 21st and into acyclonic storm by 0530 hrs ISTof 21st," the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said in a Twitter post onSunday. The IMD has listed itspredictions and warnings onTwitter.

As per the prediction, theAndaman islands on March 20are expected to witness light tomoderate rainfall or thunder-shower at most places withheavy to very heavy rainfall ata few places and isolatedextremely heavy rainfall, whileisolated heavy rainfall is expect-ed in Nicobar islands.

“It will move along and offthe Andaman and NicobarIslands and reach theBangladesh-north Myanmarcoasts on March 22”, the IMDsaid advising fishermen to notventure into the Bay of Bengaland the Andaman Sea duringthis period. The system isexpected to move towards theBangladesh-Myanmar coasts.

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India's export of maize, alsoknown as ‘corn’, has reached

$816.31 million in the first 10months of financial year 2022(April to January) - risingfrom $634.85 million record-ed in the corresponding peri-od of the previous year.Bangladesh, Vietnam andNepal are the major importersof maize from India.

Maize dubbed the "Queenof Cereals" around the world,has emerged as a prominentforeign export cereal amongthe commodities covered bythe Agricultural andProcessed Food ProductsExport DevelopmentAuthority (APEDA).

As per the Ministry ofCommerce & Industry, froman exports realization of$142.8 million in 2019-20, theexport of maize increasednearly sixfold, taking the totalvalue of shipment to $1593.73 million in the lastthree years despite logisticalchallenges posed by theCOVID19 pandemic out-break. Bangladesh hasimported maize worth $ 345.5million in the current fiscal(April-January), while Nepalhas imported maize worth $132.16 million during this

period.India exported maize

worth USD 244.24 million toVietnam this year. Otherprominent importing coun-tries are Malaysia, Myanmar,Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Taiwanand Oman. Dr M.Angamuthu, Chairperson,APEDA said, “The significantrise in agri-exports is seen asa testimony of the govern-ment’s commitment toincrease farmers’ incomethrough creating requisiteinfrastructure and improv-ing value chains on boostingexports of agricultural andprocessed food products."

Maize is farmed all year inIndia, but it is primarily aKharif crop, with 85 per centof the land under cultivationduring the season.

After rice and wheat,maize is India's third mostimportant cereal crop.Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,Kerala, Bihar, Tamil Nadu,Telangana, Maharashtra, andAndhra Pradesh are the stateswhere the cereal crop is large-ly grown.

Maize is one of the mostflexible developing crops,with greater adaptation to avariety of agro-climatic situ-ations. It has the largest genet-ic output potential amongcereals.

Maize is a basic raw mate-rial/ingredient in many indus-trial goods, including starch,oil, protein, alcoholic bever-ages, food sweeteners, phar-maceutical, cosmetic, film,textile, gum, package, andpaper sectors, among others.

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The Supreme Court hasagreed to hear a petition

challenging the Madras HighCourt order which had dis-missed a plea seeking appoint-ment of a trustee committee,headed by a retired judge, in allHindu temples in Tamil Nadu.

A bench of justices IndiraBanerjee and J K Maheshwariissued notice to the State ofTamil Nadu and others seekingtheir responses on the pleaagainst the December 9 lastyear order of the high court.“Issue notice,” the bench said inits March 16 order.

The high court’s Maduraibench had passed its order ona plea filed by the ‘HinduDharma Parishad’ seeking adirection to the state and thecommissioner of the HinduReligious and CharitableEndowments Department toappoint an ‘arangavalar’ com-mittee (trustee committee)headed by a retired judge in allHindu temples in Tamil Nadu.

While also seeking a direc-tion to appoint a social activist,a devotee, a scheduled castesperson and a woman as mem-bers of the committee to man-age temples, the petitioner

before the high court hadclaimed that several Hindutemples in the state were notmaintained well and weredestroyed.

While dismissing the plea,the high court had noted in itsorder that the advocate gener-al had pointed out that accord-ing to section 47 (1)(c) of theTamil Nadu Hindu Religiousand Charitable EndowmentsAct, 1959, every board oftrustees constituted underclause (a) or (b) shall consist ofnot less than three and notmore than five persons, ofwhom one shall be a memberof the scheduled castes orscheduled tribes and anotherone shall be a woman.

In its plea filed in the apexcourt challenging the highcourt order, the petitioner hasclaimed that the high court had“failed to see that for the pastsome years, ‘arangavalar’ werenot appointed in Hindu tem-ples” and many temples werenot renovated.

The petitioner, representedby advocate C R Jaya Sukin inthe top court, has also allegedthat many temples were notmaintained and particularly,some ancient Hindu templeswere destroyed.

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The BJP's legislature party inUttarakhand and Goa is

expected to meet on Monday toelect new Chief Ministers of twoStates. The BJP on Sunday decid-ed that Biren Singh will lead itsgovernment for the second timein Manipur.

The marathon meetings todecide Chief Ministers ofUttarakhand and Goa continuedhere as Prime Minister NarendraModi huddled with top partyleaders Amit Shah, RajnathSingh and J P Nadda to discusscandidatures of different chiefministerial contenders.Themeeting also deliberated on like-ly composition of YogiAdityanath dispensation in UttarPradesh. According to sources,Shah, who is also an observer forthe UP, will be reachingLucknow to work out composi-tion of UP council of Ministers.

Eleven UP Ministers havelost their elections besides for-mer Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya and lead-ership seeks to finalise list of cab-inet with several "new and youngfaces" while retaining old onesincluding those losing theirassembly seats, sources said.Uttarakhand seems to be mostdifficult state eluding a consen-sus on Chief Ministership with

several claimants to post includ-ing ex-state ministers SatpalMaharaj, (also a formerCongressnan) and Dhan SinghRawat. The caretaker CMPushker Dhami, who lost hisassembly election, is also report-edly in the reckoning.

Dhami along with State chiefMadan Kaushik on Sunday metShah. Uttarakhand legislatureparty is expected to meet onMonday where a decisionregarding new State ChiefMinister may be taken. Therewere reports of walkouts and dis-content in the BJP meets. In Goa,the BJP state leaders will meetGovernor on Monday and stakea claim to form next govern-ment, according to state unitpresident Sadanand ShetTanavade.

The much-delayed Goa BJPlegislature party meeting will alsobe held on Monday to selectleader of House, who will be nextchief minister."Our nationalPresident J P Nadda has said thatlegislature party meeting has tobe taken tomorrow.

The central party observersNarendra Singh Tomar and LMurugan are coming to Goa andalong with them our Goa elec-tion incharge Devendra Fadnavisalong with All India GeneralSecretary CT Ravi are comingtomorrow," said Tanavade.

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The mRNA vaccines provideprotection against Omicron

BA.2 but the protection againstcoronavirus infection and symp-tomatic disease wanes withinmonths of a third dose, a studyhas said. This comes at a timewhen the Omicron subvariant isfueling a massive COVID surgein parts of Asia and Europe andscientists are trying to under-stand how severe the infectionscaused by it can be .

It is already known thatBA.2 spreads faster than BA.1,but it wasn’t immediately clearwhether the subvariant is moreadept at evading vaccines.“BA.2 could be even worsethan BA.1 — this was the fear,"says Laith Abu-Raddad, aninfectious-diseases epidemiol-ogist at Weill CornellMedicine–Qatar in Doha and a

co-author of the study, as quot-ed by the scientific journalNature. The study, published onthe preprint server medRxiv,has not yet been peer reviewed.The study showed that peoplewho received two doses ofeither the Pfizer–BioNTech orModerna mRNA-based vac-cine enjoyed several months ofsubstantial protection againstsymptomatic disease caused byeither BA.1 or BA.2.

But protection waned toaround 10per cent after only4–6 months, meaning that thevaccines prevented only 10percent of the cases that wouldhave occurred if all of theindividuals had been unvacci-nated, the article by Naturesaid. It further added, protec-tion against BA.2 did not seemto wane any faster than pro-tection against BA.1, and abooster shot brought the pro-

tection against symptomaticinfection by either subvariantback to 30–60per cent.

Surveillance data collectedin the United Kingdom reveala similar trend: vaccine effec-tiveness against symptomaticCOVID-19 is less than 20per-cent for both subvariants 25weeks or more after a second

dose, but rises to roughly 70percent 2–4 weeks after a thirddose. Abu-Raddad says theresults give him hope becausevaccines prevent many of theworst COVID-19 cases, even inresponse to BA.2. “The vac-cines are actually workingremarkably well, given chal-lenges of evolution," he said.

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Pressured by the Group of 23senior Congress members,

also known as G23, for animmediate revamp of the grandold party, former party chiefRahul Gandhi is said to beworking on a formula with hisclose aides like Sachin Pilot,Mukul Wasnik, BhupeshBaghel, Ashok Gehlot andMallikarjun Kharge to bridgethe gap between the dissidentsand the leadership.

Engaging with the leadersfor regular communication willalso be part of the exercise toput the house in order. Rahulhas been often blamed forremaining incommunicado tothe leaders and party workers.Sources said Rahul has evensought suggestions from themabout others who can play agreater and a trustworthy rolefor the future of the partywithout compromising theCongress’ ideologies.

Among others, the party isalso seriously considering pro-

jecting “Chhattisgarh Model” ofgovernance in the next stateelections including that inGujarat before the 2024 gener-al elections. Sources said thatRahul has been frequent inseeking suggestions, advicesfrom Wasnik, Gehlot, Baghel,Kharge and Pilot, who havealso been tasked to get intouch the dissidents likeGhulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibaland others to carry forward the“inclusive and collective lead-ership” growth of the party aspropounded by the G23 duringthe three regular meetings inthe last one week held post thepoll debacle.

A senior party membersaid that Congress presidentSonia Gandhi too has soughtnames and suggestions fromAzad for party’s revival. Azadhad met Sonia on Friday andreiterated his suggestion torejig Madhusudan Mistry-ledcentral election committee, thetop body to decide party tick-ets, and revive the parliamen-tary board that once oversawthe Congress’ parliamentary

activities. The high commandhas also received a suggestionto appoint at least four work-ing presidents to take care ofnorthern, southern, easternand western India, anotherparty leader said.

Party sources said Soniahas been in regular touch withsome rebel leaders but is quiteannoyed by senior party leaderSibal who has been vocalagainst party leadership sincelast one and a half years ques-tioning the high command forsuccessive defeats in elections.

Azad has already sought tosettle dust on debate on Sonia’sleadership by pointing out thatshe had offered to resign butentire working committeeunanimously rejected her pro-posal and asked her to contin-ue. AICC sources said thateach of CWC members hasbeen asked to prepare a roadmap which should be in inter-est of party’s revival and also innational interest. The nextCWC is scheduled by firstweek of April followed byChintan Shivir by mid-May.

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Of the 403 Assembly seatsin Uttar Pradesh, 254

winning candidates are thosewhose names start withEnglish alphabets R, S, A, Mand P. Of them, 184 are fromthe BJP and 70 from theSamajwadi Party. Of the 26letters of the English alphabet,there is no MLA in the UPassembly whose names startwith alphabets –Q, W and X .

The scrutiny of the list ofwinning candidates of UPassembly polls showed thatthere are 65 MLAs whosename starts with the Englishalphabet R. Of these, 38 MLAsare from BJP, 23 MLAs belongto Samajwadi Party, threeMLAs belong to the SP allyRashtriya Lok Dal, and oneMLA, Raghuraj Pratap Singhalias Raja Bhaiya, belongs toJansatta Party.

The list includes RamAchal Rajbhar, Rajeev Singh

”Parichha”, Ramesh ChandraMishra, Rani PakshalikaSingh, Rampal Verma, andRam Naresh Agnihotri.

According to astrologerDr Shesh Narayan Vajpayee,K e t u - J u p i t e r - M e r c u r yMahadasha, two ShadashtakYoga were formed —Jupiter-Mercury and Jupiter-Ketu,which acted favorably forthose candidates having namesstarting with RSAM and P let-ter.

Besides, Dasha during thiselectoral period was KetuMahadasha with GuruAntardasha also helped them.There are 62 such MLAs whohave reached the assemblywhose first letter is S. Of

them, 48 are from the BJP and14 from the SP.

Yogi government minis-ters Suresh Khanna, SidharthNath Singh, Sushil KumarShakya, Satyapal SinghRathore, Suresh Pasi, SuryaPratap Shahi are few nameswhose names start with S.There are 62 MLAs whosenames start with A. Of these,BJP has 49 MLAs. There areonly 13 MLAs of SP whosename starts with A.

These include the namesof SP chief Akhilesh Yadav,Azam Khan, Abbas Ansari.There are 37 MLAs whosenames start with English let-ter M. Of them, 11 MLAs arefrom the SP and 26 MLAsfrom the BJP.

Out of the 11 names of SPincluded, 5 names are from theminority community, whosename starts with the first wordMohammad.The scrutiny ofwinning candidates list of UPassembly polls showed that

there are 30 such MLAs whohave won whose names startwith P. Of them, 22 are fromthe BJP and eight are associ-ated with the SP.

The name of the lone BSPMLA Umashankar Singhstarts with the rest of the let-ter U. The names of SP MLAsZahid, Ziauddin Rizvi andZiaur Rehman start with theletter Z. After the high-voltageAssembly elections in UttarPradesh, parties, especiallythe ruling BJP and SP areheading for the political bat-tle of the legislative councilelections.

The biennial elections forthe 36 out of 37 vacant seatsfor the Upper House (VidhanParishad) of Uttar Pradeshwill be held on April 9, thecounting for which would bedeclared on April 12. It wouldbe interesting to see whethercandidates having names start-ing with RSAM and P repeatthis time or not.

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Summoned by theEnforcement Directorate to

appear in its office in Delhi,Trinamool Congress nationalgeneral secretary AbhishekBanerjee on Sunday attackedthe BJP Government for usingthe ED and Central

Bureau of Investigation astools of political vendettaagainst the political opponentswho they failed to defeat in elec-tions.

Moments before boardingthe flight to Delhi, Banerjee saidin an apparent reference toBJP leader Suvendu Adhikari,“it is an irony that those whowere seen in camera acceptingmoney rapped in towels andnewspapers are not called bythe ED or CBI … the leaderswhose names were mentionedby Sudipto Sen (Sharada chitfund kingpin) in his letters toChief Minister (MamataBanerjee) and Prime Minister(Narendra Modi) are todayruling as the Chief Minister of

a neighbouring State or theLeader of Opposition in Bengal… instead

they (ED) are harassingthe TMC leaders because herethe BJP was given a shamefuldefeat in the elections.”

The TMC MP — who isalso the nephew of the BengalChief Minister — and his wifeRujira have been summoned bythe ED to Delhi in connectionwith a money laundering caserelated to cow and coal smug-gling.

A fuming junior Banerjeewho had on an earlier occasionbeen grilled by the ED in Delhisaid that neither he nor hisparty would be bow downbefore the BJP.

“We will hold our headshigh … we will never bowdown before the BJP … letthem use ED or CBI … thepeople are watching every-thing,” he said questioning eventhe decision of the Delhi HighCourt let the central Agencysummon him to the nationalCapital.

“It is quite strange that thedecision was held pendingbefore the Delhi Court ---where I had appealed against

me being summoned to Delhi--- for four months and sud-denly this order letting the EDsummon me there … I have noproblem appearing in Kolkata… but now I have to go to Delhidespite the fact that I have aneye surgery conducted on me… Still I will obey the ordersand cooperate with the EDbecause I am a law abiding cit-izen,” he said.Referring to an

earlier speech he said that if theED could prove that he had“embezzled even 10 paise …then I will get myself hangedpublicly… there is no need toput ED and CBI after me.”

The BJP had won elec-tions in four States but it failedto defeat the TMC in Bengalwhich was why it was taking outits anger on the TMC leadersBanerjee said.

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The Kashmir Files team,including director Vivek

Ranjan Agnihotri, actorsAnupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi,and the film’s producerAbhishek Agarwal on Sundaymet Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and GovernorAnandiben Patel in Lucknow.

Yogi Adityanath said thatthe film “boldly” revealed theinhuman horror of religiousbigotry and terrorism.

"The film#TheKashmirFiles boldlyreveals the inhuman horror ofreligious bigotry and terrorism.Undoubtedly, this film willwork to make society and thecountry aware. Congratulationsto the entire team for produc-ing such a thought-provokingfilm. @AnupamPKher @vivek-agnihotri," Yogi Adityanathsaid in a tweet.

Uttar Pradesh is one of thestates that has made 'TheKashmir Files' tax-free in thestate. The movie, which wasreleased in theatres on March

11, stars Anupam Kher,Mithun Chakraborty, PallaviJoshi, Darshan Kumaar, andothers. It revolves around thegenocide of Kashmiri Pandits

in 1990 and has been direct-ed by Vivek Agnihotri, knownfor films like 'Tashkent Files','Hate Story' and 'Buddha in aTraffic Jam'.

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Syed Tufail Hasan, theSamajwadi Party MP from

Moradabad, has demanded aban on the film 'The KashmirFiles’.

He said this film was cre-ating hatred between two reli-gions, which could have anadverse impact on the socialharmony in the country.

The Samajwadi Party MPalso said that the film did notdepict anything close to theground reality and there wereincidents of fist fights among

the people in the theatres afterwatching the film.

He said there was ampleground for banning the film.

Hasan said that if ‘TheKashmir Files’ was not banned,then films should be madewhich showed all the incidentsof major communal riots in thecountry. He said films like‘Gujarat Files’, ‘MoradabadFiles’, and ‘Bhagalpur Files’would start being made andthey would also have to beallowed by the Censor Board.

The Samajwadi Party MPsaid everyone shared the pain

and anguish suffered by theKashmiri Hindus and it wasindeed painful to be a refugeein one's homeland.

The MP from Moradabadasked if the cycle of hatredbetween the two big commu-nities started, where wouldIndia go? He said such filmswould add to widening thetrust deficit between the twocommunities.

He demanded that the gov-ernment ensure the rehabilita-tion of the Kashmiri Hindus atthe earliest in the Kashmirvalley.

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Like the abrogation of Article370, which was "'beyond the

imagination" of people, theBJP Government led byNarendra Modi will keep itspledge to "liberate" Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir(PoJK), Union MinisterJitendra Singh said on Sunday.

He also took a dig at theNational Conference over itscriticism of “the Kashmir Files”,a recently released movie basedon the exodus of KashmiriPandits from the valley in the1990s, and claimed the "rigged"assembly elections of 1987worked as a trigger for theeruption of terrorism in J-K.

“Parliament passed a res-olution unanimously in 1994,emphasising that Pakistan mustvacate parts of Jammu andKashmir under its illegal occu-pation. It is our promise to lib-erate the PoJK,” the Unionminister told reporters afterunveiling a 20-ft statue ofMaharaja Gulab Singh – thefounder of erstwhile J&K state- in Kathua district.

“Article 370 was removedand it was done in accordancewith the BJP's promise even

though it was beyond the imag-ination of many people.Likewise, former prime minis-ter A B Vajpayee had predict-ed a landslide victory for theparty in 1980, which was againbeyond the thinking of thepeople. "The ModiGovernment took over andunder his leadership, all thepledges and promises made tothe people, including liberationof POJK, will be fulfilled,”Singh, who is the minister ofstate for Prime Minister's Office(PMO), said.

The bronze statue of theMaharaja, astride a horse, hasbeen made by Padma ShriRavinder Jamwal, a renownedsculptor of J&K who workedfor the last three years on it.

“It is a day of great satis-faction for us to pay our great-est tribute to the great ruler andwarrior of J-K…

"Our last king MaharajaHari Singh had said his religionis justice but the region faceddiscrimination after his forcedexile. The sacrifices and ser-vices of the Dogra rulers weretotally neglected by the suc-cessive rulers in the last sixdecades,” Singh said.

However, he said the situ-

ation changed after Modibecame the prime minister andthe projects which were pend-ing for decades were cleared toensure fast-paced development.“We have full support andpatronage of the prime minis-ter who himself is monitoringthe developmental activities inall parts of Jammu andKashmir,” the minister said.

On the criticism of formerchief minister and NationalConference vice presidentOmar Abdullah about “The

Kashmir Files” movie, he said“they are terming it a one-sidedstory because they had buriedthe truth in the grave under astrategy".

"A couple of families ofAbdullahs and Muftis had anunderstanding with (the thenprime minister Jawahar Lal)Nehru. The friendship whichstarted between SheikhAbdullah and Nehru was takenforward by Nehru's grandsonRajiv Gandhi and Abdullah'sson Farooq Abdullah,” he said.

Singh alleged, “FarooqAbdullah rigged the 1987assembly elections by misusingthe government machineryand Gandhi closed his eyes,which ultimately became thetrigger for eruption of terror-ism and subsequent events."'Farooq fled to London and aspate of killings which startedwith the killing of local BJPleaders (creating fear amongthe pandit community).” Hesaid former governorJagmohan has written every-

thing in detail in the secondedition of his book “My FrozenTurbulence”.

“We have not forgottenanything,” the minister said.

Singh said JKLF chiefYaseen Malik openly attackedAir Force personnel but insteadof facing any action, he wasgiven "VIP treatment".

“It was only this govern-ment which has taken actionagainst him - the action whichshould have taken 30 years ago.It was possible because ofHome Minister Amit Shah,”Singh, who is an MP fromUdhampur constituency, said.

The minister saidwhen Abdullah returned fromLondon in 1996 and the elec-tions were held, the polling per-centage was negligible.

“The party won seats onmerely a few percent votingbecause of the fear psychosis.They want terrorism to con-tinue and enjoy power bybecoming chief minister byexploiting the vacuum,"' heand said reiterated his demandfor passage of a bill in parlia-ment to make a certain per-centage of polling in an electioncompulsory for the successfulcandidate.

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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut onSunday accused the BJP of

promoting 'The Kashmir Files'movie with an eye on theforthcoming Assembly pollsin Gujarat and Rajasthan, andalso alleged that an attempt hasbeen made in the film to sup-press several "harsh truths".

In his weekly column'Rokhthok' in Shiv Senamouthpiece 'Saamana', Rautsaid it was the BJP's promise toensure the return of displacedKashmiri Pandits to Kashmir,but the same has not happeneddespite the abrogation ofArticle 370, and sought toknow whose failure it was.

Raut also labelled PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofbeing the main promoter of thefilm. Attacking the BJP further,the Rajya Sabha member askedthe NDA constituent what hap-pened to its promise of inte-grating Pakistan occupiedKashmir (PoK) with India.

Written and directed byVivek Agnihotri and producedby Zee Studios, the film 'TheKashmir Files' depicts the exo-dus of Kashmiri Hindus fromKashmir following systematickillings of people from thecommunity by Pakistan-backedterrorists. Since its release onMarch 11, the film has sparkeda debate among political par-ties. Several BJP-ruled states,including Madhya Pradesh andGujarat, have exempted thefilm from entertainment tax.

"The story based on thefleeing of Hindu Pandits in

Kashmir, their killings, atroci-ties inflicted on them and theiranger disturbs one's mind. Butwhat disturbs even more is (theattempt) to divide Hindu-Muslims out of it (the story)again and win the upcomingelections," Raut said.

"The Kashmir file has beenopened to win the (forthcom-ing) elections in states likeGujarat and Rajasthan," healleged.

Raut said that films like'The Kashmir Files' should becreated, but - he alleged - theagenda of such movies hasnow been to spread hatredand confusion about (political)opponents. The Shiv Senaleader said the makers of 'TheKashmir Files' had earlier pro-duced 'The Tashkent Files',through which, he alleged, itwas implied that only theGandhi family was responsiblefor the death of former primeminister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

"In 'The Kashmir Files', anattempt has been made to sup-press several other harsh truthswhile showing true news.Thirty-two years ago, theatmosphere in Kashmir wasbad not only for KashmiriPandits, but for all, and theKashmiri Pandits were themost-affected," Raut said.

The Rajya Sabha membernoted that Kashmiri Sikhs andMuslims, too, were amongthose killed in Kashmir at thattime, besides Kashmir Pandits.

Raut said that the firstpolitical murder in Kashmirwas of National Conferenceleader Mohammed Yousuf

Halwai in August 1989. Before that, an attack was

made on the inspector gener-al of police, in which the offi-cer's bodyguard was killed, headded. "Several such truths arehidden through 'The KashmirFiles'," he alleged.

Raut said that KashmiriPandits were not impelled toflee Kashmir for 43 years afterthe Independence. He furtheradded there was a BJP-sup-ported V P Singh governmentat the Centre when theKashmiri Pandits and Sikhshad to leave Kashmir in 1990.

"BJP leader Jagmohan wasthe Governor of Kashmir (then).The Kashmir file was in coldstorage when the Hindus weredying in the Valley and fleeing it,"Raut said, adding only late ShivSena founder Bal Thackeraywas voicing support for theKashmiri Pandits at that time.

Raut further also asked theBJP how it formed a govern-ment with the PDP (in March2015) "which had shaken handswith militants". "These people(BJP) did not even condemnthe displacement and killings of

Kashmiri Pandits at that time,"Raut said.

He asked why were the BJPministers in that governmentwere silent when the PDP hadtermed 2001 Parliament attackconvict Afzal Guru as "freedomfighter" and questioned thekilling of terrorist Burhan Waniby security personnel. Rautalso asked the BJP what hap-pened to its announcement ofintegrating PoK with India.

The Shiv Sena leader saidThackeray had ensured five percent reservation for children ofdisplaced Kashmiri Pandits inmedical and engineering edu-cation in Maharashtra andasked why BJP-ruled statesnever took such a decision.

Referring to the deaths of40 CRPF jawans in the 2019Pulwama attack, Raut said thesecurity personnel may nothave been "pandits" and askedwhose fault was it that they losttheir lives in the incident.

"Isn't the file of Kashmirincidents smeared with ourblood due to attacks like Uri,Pathankot to Pulwama?" heasked.

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In what is being seen as a counter measure taken by the BengalGovernment against the summons issued to TMC national gen-

eral secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a money laundering case,the Kolkata Police on Sunday issued summons to threeEnforcement Directorate officials asking them to appear at theKalighat Police Station between 12 and 1 pm on Monday.

Three officials including an investigating officer and a super-visor of the central investigation agency have been summonedby the Kolkata Police in relation to an audio tape case that wentviral in 2021, sources said. The ED officials have been summonedunder section 160 of the CrPC, sources said.

The ED officials were summoned last year too but they failedto turn up showing occupational preoccupations.

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Sangeet Natak Akademi, NewDelhi, an autonomous body

under the Ministry of Culture, isorganising Putul Utsav, a puppetfestival to mark World PuppetryDay on 21st March . With Indiacelebrating 75 years of indepen-dence, the theme of the festival

is Azadi ke Rang, Putul Ke Sangin keeping with the spirit ofAzadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. In thisgala event, tales of India’s strug-gle for freedom will be retoldthrough the medium of puppets.The festival commencing onthe 21st of March, 2022 will becelebrated by various events infive different cities - Varanasi

(Uttar Pradesh), Hyderabad(Telangana), Angul district(Odisha), New Delhi andAgartala (Tripura).

An interesting line-up ofacts includes performances byfamous puppeteers, both tradi-tional and contemporary, a sem-inar, demonstrations and work-shops where participants can

create their own puppets andcarry them back home. InHyderabad and Varanasi, PutulUtsav is marked by three-daylong festivities from March 21 toMarch 23, 2022 while in Anguldistrict, it will be held on March21 - 22. Delhi and Agartala havea one-day event on March 21,2022.

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Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav

Thackeray on Sunday rejectedvehemently a proposal mootedby the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)that it was willing to join theShiv Sena-led ruling MahaVikas Aghadi (MVA) inMaharashtra, by dubbing theAIMIM's proposal was a “con-spiracy” hatched by theOpposition BJP to “defame” theShiv Sena.

A day after the AIMIM MPImtiaz Jaleel crested a sensationthat his party was willing tojoin the Shiv Sena-led MVA toprevent the BJP coming fromcoming to power in the forth-coming elections, Uddhav said:“The BJP does not lose anyopportunity to term the ShivSena as anti-Hindu party.Without rhyme or reason, the

AIMIM has come out with anoffer that it intends to join theMVA. The offer is part of theBJP's conspiracy. The AIMIMhas made an offer on behalf ofthe BJP. The question of ourforging an alliance with theAIMIM will never arise”.

Charging that the BJPpractised the ideology ofGoebbels and Hitler whoplayed on the fears and hopesof the people, Uddhav said:“They (BJP) creates an atmos-phere among the people thatHindutva is in danger andthere will be a doom if otherselected to power. Like Gobbles,they spread baseless and falserumours among the people.The AIMIM’s offer of joiningthe MVA has actually comefrom the BJP. We will neveralign with a party (AIMIM)that pays obeisance toAurangazeb”.

Singling out the BJP for its'

'politics of machinations'',Uddhav exhorted his partyworkers to create awarenessamong the people about the ShivSena’s brand of Hindutva and“expose” the “conspiracy” behindAIMIM’s offer to join the MVA.“These ( BJP) are the same peo-ple who slept with MehboobaMufti for power. Mehbooba'swas the party that opposed theexecution of Afzal Guru. Theyare now talking about us. Beingin the MVA, we know how topractise alliance dharma. Theyneed not teach us”.

Coming down heavily onthe BJP for its efforts to“defame” the Shiv Sena and“misguide” the people about itsstaunch Hindutva ideology,Uddhav – who is the ShivSena president – said: “Like Ihad said during my visit toAyodhya, we have severed ourlinks with the Shiv Sena andnot Hindutva. They (BJP) use

Hindutva for the sake of poli-tics, whereas we ( Shiv Sena)indulge in politics for the sakeof Hindutva. That is the dif-ference between the two par-ties”.Taking a potshot at RSSchief Mohan Bhagwat, Uddhavsaid: “Moihan Bhagwat saysthat RSS runs on Hindutva ide-ology and asks people to prac-

tise Hindutva. As far as we areconcerned, Hindu dharmashastra is Manav Dharma shas-tra and that’s we are HinduRashra. There is unity in diver-sity. That is what Hindutva isknown for across the world.That being the case, how canwe exclude Muslims from theHindutva?”.

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Amakeshift gallery at aschool football ground near

Wandoor in this district, col-lapsed,injuring 225 people,police said on Sunday.

However, no injuries werelife threatening, they said.

The incident occurred atPoongodu, a soccer crazy villagenear Wandoor and Kalikavu,just minutes before a sevensfootballmatch was about tocommence on Saturday night.

A probe has been launchedinto the incident and a case hasbeen registered under sections337 (causing hurt), 338 (causinggrievous hurt) and 308 (attemptto commit culpable homicide)of the IPC against the organis-ers of the match held at thefootball ground of a local school.

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The Yogi Adityanath-ledBharatiya Janata Party

Government, in the span ofthe last five years, has madesignificant efforts to fostersports culture, which hasenabled players of the state toperform and shine interna-tionally.

The Government has notonly worked to support ath-letes but also has worked todevelop sports infrastructurein the state.

Taking inspiration fromPrime Minister NarendraModi’s resolve of encouragingathletes and sports activities,the Yogi Government 2.0 hasensured encouragement andinclusiveness of women insports.

An official communiquéreleased here on Sundayevening confirmed that one ofthe major highlights of the

Yogi Government 2.0 is theState Talent Search andDevelopment Scheme forwomen athletes at a cost of Rs500 crore.

Under this scheme, afinancial assistance of up to Rs5 lakh will be provided to theselected female athletes.

It is noteworthy that dur-ing its last tenure, the Yogigovernment majorly con-tributed towards encouragingwomen players.

For imparting training in16 sports in 19 districts of thestate, 44 hostel facilities werearranged for around 890 play-ers.

For 18 players who wonmedals in the 21stCommonwealth Games, afinancial reward of nearly Rs2.60 crore was given.

Besides, nearly 46 playerswho won medals in the 18thAsian Games were awarded Rs3.90 crore.

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Caveat Emptorium, the Latinmaxim for “Customers

Beware!” is what RajmohanPillai, chairman, Beta Group,Kerala’s lead industrialist tellsprospective entrepreneurs whowant to make investment in theState. This is the first time thesoft spoken Pillai is using crit-ical comments about his ownState. What made him comeout in the open is the ill-fatedventure by 41-year old RajeshBabu of Kollam whose TaureanMetals became yet anothervictim of ‘trade union terror-ism”.

A West Asian returnee,Babu spent his entire life’searning of Rs one crore andavailed loan worth Rs 1.5 croreto set up Taurean Metal in thehope that his zodiac signTaurus would not let himdown. By last week, it became

clear to him that Taurus has notbrought any good luck to himand the enterprises that costhim Rs three crore had to beshut down. The unit, the firstfully automated iron and steelsuper market offered cus-tomers quality products at rea-sonable prices. Babu eveninstalled giant crane for safeloading and unloading of rawmaterials and finished productswhich did away with the ser-vice of head load workers, a lawunto themselves in the State.

“The crane was installed ata cost of Rs 28 lakh.

But the trade union boss-es wanted me to pay the headload workers the sum deter-mined by them whether I hiretheir services or not. Theunloading and loading ofgoods is a skilled job becauseit could be executed only withexpertise,” Babu told ThePioneer.

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Page 6: 3ZcV_ Zd >R_Zafc 4> RXRZ_ - Daily Pioneer

gion, so that an employer doesnot avoid the appointment ofa scarf-wearing woman or askullcap-wearing man.

These provisions ensurenot only the neutrality of polit-ical authority but also the free-dom of conscience and beliefas well as equality before thelaw. The Stasi Report hasemphasised secularism as acornerstone of a democracy.Every State is sovereign and hasthe right to frame itsConstitution as well as otherlaws according to the needs ofits society. How else hasMalaysia declared itself anIslamic Republic, completelyoverlooking the presence ofHindus, Buddhists andChristians who comprise near-ly half of the population? Whyshould Bangladesh andPakistan have the privilege tocall themselves Islamic?Bangladesh had reduced itsHindu population to 10 percent by 1991. The figure for2001 is awaited. In 1947,Hindus comprised 30 per centof East Bengal. Pakistan hastoday, according to its own cen-sus figures, only 1.5 per centHindus. The rest have sufferedethnic cleansing. The fact thatIndia has never challenged therights of Bangladesh orPakistan to do what they have

done means that we haverespected their sovereignty.

Going further, would theEmirates in West Asia be jus-tified in not allowing a templeto be built on their territory?Should Saudi Arabia have theright to disallow even the entryof a non-Muslim on the soil ofMecca and Medina? Does anyuniversal declaration of humanrights apply to these respectedmembers of the internationalcommunity in general and theUN in particular? The StasiReport has clarified that Article9 of the European Conventionof Human Rights andFundamental Freedom doesnot create an absolute right toreligious licence.

‘Sarva Dharma SamaBhava’ does not add up to sec-ularism. The spirit behindthese words was universal tol-erance. Secularism is essential-ly the separation of the Churchfrom the State. India never hada big enough Church nor didit ever interfere in the runningof the State. Islam, on the otherhand, does not separate thetemporal from the spiritual.The ultimate evidence of thiswas that the Caliph, or the rep-resentative of ProphetMohammed, was the spiritu-al head and the temporal chiefrolled into one. There was no

dividing line between Caesarand God.

In India, the practice dur-ing the British Raj was non-interference by theGovernment in affairs of thereligion. This was especially soafter the so-called SepoyMutiny. It was only afterIndependence and the adventof vote bank politics that ‘SarvaDharma Sama Bhava’ began tobe twisted in order to play onecommunity against the other.Articles 25 to 30 were firstintroduced in 1946 with theintent of dissuading theMuslim League from insistingon Partition. Mysteriously,however, they survived in thedraft Constitution even afterthe country was torn asunderby Partition. The Marxistsalso call themselves secular.Their idea, however, is the abo-lition of religion. Karl Marxhad considered religion to bethe opium of the masses. Inpursuance of his philosophy,the Stalinists converted manya church, mosque and syna-gogue into a shop, museum oran office across the SovietUnion.

(The writer is a well-known columnist, an authorand a former member of theRajya Sabha. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

����������� �� ������ �������Sir — No movie has moved me the waythis movie has. For 32 years, this coun-try had absolutely no idea what hap-pened to our brethren in Kashmir — theHindu Pandits. In fact, we have a veryclose Kashmiri Pandit friend and evenhis family didn’t talk to us about the cat-aclysmic event in their lives. It just goesto prove what a wonderful, stoic andlaw-abiding community they are. Theywent through the genocide, they wentthrough the deprivations, the sufferingsand other untold humiliations but notonce did they come out and talk aboutwhat happened to them. They did notseek sympathy, they did not seek finan-cial aid, they did not seek succour.

Vivek Agnihotri, Pallavi Joshi,Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty andDarshan Kumar have battled all odds,their commendable acting has broughtto us the real-life story. The second andmost important action is from theCentral Government. And lastly, weIndians need to be ever vigilant that nosuch incident ever recurs in our coun-try. If we even see the signs of a poten-tial pogrom, we need to raise our col-lective voices and pre-empt it. After all,today we are in the era of instant news,instant communication and instantaction. Hearty congratulations to theentire team of The Kashmir Files.

CK Subramaniam | Navi Mumbai

����������������������������Sir — It is hard for India to stay alooffrom the issue of Russian invasion ofUkraine even while dealing with part-nerships with other nations like Japan.In the latest partnership with Japan ona $42 billion investment target, theUkraine-Russia conflict found somewiggle room for discussion. PMNarendra Modi made no direct refer-ence to the situation when his Japanesecounterpart commented on the ongoingconflict. It’s best not to stir the pot againafter our recent oil shopping spreefrom Moscow. The world’s politicianswant us to get involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict but we can’t afford to

take such drastic steps.We don’t enjoy certain privileges like

the United States, Japan, Canada andGermany do to impose sanctions of anykind when we depend on Russia for ourcrude oil supply. India has the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as its shieldfor not getting involved in the conflict;however, our recent dialogue withRussia on buying two million oil barrelsby HPCL & IOC has raised some eye-brows. From time to time, we are beingrepeatedly asked to “take a clear posi-tion” in the bipolar world.

Anjna Kumari | Kangra

������� ���������� �������Sir — After the Gujarat Governmentgave its nod to teaching the BhagwadGita as a religious lesson in school class-rooms, Karnataka also supported themove. The teaching of Gita has beenmade mandatory in all Governmentschools in both these BJP-ruled States.So far, we had seen the controversial tus-sle between different sections of stu-

dents, parents and school authoritiesover the type of religious education tobe included. A few days back, the sameState of Karnataka was dealing withgrowing tensions over the hijab issue.And now with the Gita lessons, commu-nities may again enter into a conflict.

We Indians, after all, belong to a sec-ular State. The introduction of Gitatoday may propel others to introduceteachings of Quran in Muslim-runschools. We must not let religion enterschool campuses for imparting values toour children. This job must be left to theparents and family of the child. They cando this job better. If we fight over Gita’steachings and Quran’s teaching, wecan’t give a free learning environment toour kids. Religious affairs must not bemixed with education on the campus.Home is the best place to teach religiousvalues to our younger generation.

Kirti Wadhawan | Kanpur

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Without there beingconsensus or a clar-ification on whatcomprises secular-

ism, India as a society andnation will continue to be adrift.The hijab controversy inKarnataka has also brought tothe fore as to what is secularismand how far it should let minori-ties do what they like. Whetherthe wearing of hijab extended toignoring a school uniform andwhether it could be extended toall girl classrooms, were thequestions thrown up.

References to secularismappear often enough in the media.But seldom is a mention made ofthe Bernard Stasi report which isthe latest thesis on what is a sec-ular State. It was submitted in2003 and was treated as the back-grounder for the secular lawpassed by the French NationalAssembly in 2004. It definesthree essential principles as free-dom of conscience, equality in lawfor spiritual and religious beliefs,and neutrality of political power.

The report has ordained thatstudents attending Governmentschools or employees working inGovernment offices must notdisplay religious symbols of a con-spicuous nature which wouldinclude even a large cross. Thereis no restriction on wearing anyform of dress or display of anyreligious symbols in the countryat large. The State, however, hasto maintain absolute neutralitybetween one religion and anoth-er. The French insistence on sec-ularism or the absolute separationof the Church from the State goesback to 1905, guaranteeing thefree exercise of religious beliefs.

The only restrictions weredecreed in the interest of publicorder. The Stasi Report has stat-ed that Islam is believed to beincompatible with secularism.This was the provocation to theinvestigation carried out ofBernard Stasi and the subsequentpassing of the legislation. As faras private employers of schoolsare concerned, the law is that thewill of the institution would pre-vail and not any idiosyncrasy ofthe employee. The intentionbehind the stipulation is to ensurethat there is no discriminationagainst members of any reli-

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prastara — described by Pingalacan be thought of as a binarysequence of 1s and 0s. Certain othertechniques (nashta and uddisht)described by Pingala along withprastara form an important part ofthe study of modern-day combina-torics - in the name of ranking andunranking!

Indian Number System: TheBakshaali Manuscript is the first sur-viving reference of the IndianNumber System. The algebraicproperties of the number zero werefirst formalized in Brahmagupta’sBrahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE.The Hindu Number System wastransmitted to the Arab world byaround 800 CE and was popularizedby the great Persian mathematicianAl-Khwarizmi and by the greatphilosopher Al-Kindi. From theArab world, it was transmitted toEurope by around 1100 CE. TheEuropeans thus mistakenly called itthe ‘Arabic Number System’. To thisdate, most of us read this as the ‘Arabic Number System’ in our textbooks.

Negative Numbers inMathematics: In the 7th century,among many other remarkable dis-coveries in mathematics,Brahmagupta also conceived ofnegative numbers and wrote downrules for working with them. Hereferred to positive numbers as for-tunes (dhana) and negative num-bers as debts (rina). His rule states:“A fortune subtracted from zero isa debt,” and “a debt subtracted fromzero is a fortune”. Brahmagupta alsoknew that “The product of a debtand a fortune is a debt” which cor-relates to the idea that a positivenumber multiplied by a negative isa negative.

Binomial Coefficients: It is awell-known that Sanskrit versesare classified as syllabic metres(akshara-chandas) or moric metres(maatra-chandas) based on whetherthe rhythm gets generated by therepetitive pattern of a certain countof syllables employed or the num-ber of beats employed in the met-rical composition. The patterns arerecognised, by assigning the value1 to laghu syllable and 2 to a guru.The answer to the question- “Howmany metres can one construct fora given number of syllables”, is givenby Pingala’s Meruprastara, which isan infinite mountain of numbersconsisting of binomial coefficients.This Meruprastara also providesanswer to the question ‘How manymetres are there of n syllables hav-ing k laghus and (n - k) gurus?.Today, we study this PingalaMeruprastara by the name ofPascal’s Triangle named after the French mathematician BlaisePascal (c. 1650).

Virahanka Numbers: TheIndian prosodist, Virahanka (c.700CE) came up with an ingeniousanswer to this question - ``Howmany kinds of patterns can begenerated with a given number ofbeats? He asserted that we shouldwrite down the numbers 1 and 2.And then each subsequent numberis obtained by adding up the twoprevious numbers. The nth numberin the sequence 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,34, 55, .... gives the number of dif-ferent patterns that can be generat-ed with n beats. One may recall thattoday, we know these numbers asFibonacci Numbers after Italianmathematician Leonardo Bonacci,also known as Fibonacci.Unfortunately, Virahanka’s name is

almost never associated with thisimportant series of numbers usedin multiple fields, including busi-ness, biology and computer science.

The Infinite Series for Pi:Madhava (c. 1400), the founder ofKerala School of mathematics andastronomy, for the first time in thehistory of mathematics discoveredan infinite series for ? - one of themost mysterious numbers. Thisseries which gives the exact value of ?, is generally referred to as‘Gregory-Leibniz’ series in the text-books of mathematics. Madhavaalso cleverly made use of this series-by inventing certain ingeniousmathematical techniques — toobtain very good approximations of? that was correct to almost 11 dec-imal places. This was indeed a land-mark discovery which laid the foundations of the discovery of calculus in India.

Some of this may be news, whileother bits may be partially known,but not celebrated. Our youngergeneration remains unaware and attimes indifferent to this rich lega-cy. It isof course understood thattopics like these require ongoingresearch, debate and cross pollina-tion of ideas. Our efforts throughthe lens of ‘Dh?r?: An Ode toIndian Knowledge System’ is aimedat starting these conversations anddebates and in ensuring that our col-lective history of achievements donot stay forgotten in the folds ofsome neglected manuscripts. We atthe Ministry of Culture remaincommitted to spotlighting the myr-iad contributions of Indians acrossfields and to celebrate them as partof Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav andbeyond. Come join us in celebrat-ing India with pride.

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(The writer isSecretary, Ministry ofCulture, Governmentof India. The views

expressed are personal.)

Vivek Agnihotri’s TheKashmir Files has beena raging success at the

box-office with its collectionstopping �27 crore over the firstweekend.

But more important thanthe financial success is its altru-istic mission: to uncover thetruth of a horrendous past,intentionally kept buried forover 30 years; to let Indiansknow what their brethren suf-fered; and to jolt the comatoseconscience of an indifferentnation. The Kashmir Filesbrings to the fore the long sup-pressed and heart wrenchingtragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits-namely the heinous ethniccleansing of over a quarter mil-lion Kashmiri Pandits whobecame refugees in their owncountry, overnight.

This was an ethnic cleans-

ing that was deliberately mar-ginalized by the internationalcommunity especially theHindu phobic Western media indeference to what it termed asMuslim self- determination.Domestically too this atrocitywas downplayed by influentialsections of our media who cal-lously popularized the abom-inable canard that the KPs leftvoluntarily at the behest of thethen Governor Jagmohan- ineffect blaming the victim for thecrime.

More than 30 years haveelapsed since that fateful exodusand a whole generation ofIndians have come of age. It isethically crucial that they knowthe truth including our own fail-ing as a nation that facilitatedthis barbaric crime.

The targeting of Hindusbegan in late 1989. The first to

be killed was Pandit Tika LalTaploo, a prominent KashmiriHindu Pandit: he was gunneddown in broad daylight outsidehis home.

In the months leading toJanuary 1990, pressure againstthe Hindus kept mounting.Walls were plastered withposters asking Hindus to leaveKashmir, Hindu homes are dot-ted red and Hindu women areforced to sport marks on theirforeheads. The scene was rem-iniscent of Nazi Germany: the

KPs were the new Jews.Then on January 19, 1990

dubbed as the Kristallnacht ofthe Kashmiri Hindu Panditcommunity, the pressurereached its zenith. As duskapproached, Hindu families-women and children - coweredinside their homes, behind thefalse security of their doors,while outside the spine-chillingexhortations blared out frommosque tops; the followingthree taped slogans repeatedlyresonated throughout the coldJanuary night:

“Kashmir mei agar rehna-hai, Allah-O-Akbar kehnahai(If you want to stay in Kashmir,you have to say Allah-O-Akbar)”.

“Yahan kyachalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa (What do we wanthere? Rule of Shariat)”.

“Asi gachchi Pakistan,BataoroasteBatanevsan (We

want Pakistan along with Hinduwomen but without their men)”.

Grabbing just what theycould carry, Kashmiri Panditsfled leaving behind their ances-tral homes.

All in all, according toIDMC (internal displacementmonitoring center of theNorwegian Refugee Council)350,621 Kashmiri Pandits or 90per cent have fled Kashmir. Themajority of them still continueto live in refugee camps as oftoday.

At the beginning of the 20thcentury there were close to 1million Kashmiri Pandits.Kashmiri Hindus made up 15per cent of the population in1941. By 1991, their numbershad dwindled to comprise amere 0.1 per cent.

While it is easy to blame theterrorists, it cannot absolve us of

our responsibility. There was atotal failure, at every level of thedefence mechanisms that definea civilised nation: society, gov-ernment and the press-all abro-gated their responsibility andfailed the Kashmiri Hindu.

What happened in Kashmircould not have occurred with-out the tacit compliance of civilsociety, namely Kashmir’smajority Muslim communityand so, despite their protesta-tions, they must bear the bruntof this charge.

And large sections of themedia were content to be mutespectators. There was noscreaming, frontpage headlines,no hard-hitting editorials orincisive op-eds. There was aconspiracy of silence to main-tain the charade of a false sec-ularism. When we can crowdthe streets for a supposed act of

potential (not actual) discrim-ination like the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA), whywere there were no streetprotests, no candle light vigils,and no sit ins like Shaheen Baghfor a palpable and visible act ofbrutal ethnic cleansing?

Is it because Indian secu-larism rests on a shaky premise-- the victimhood of the Hindu?

The ethnic cleansing ofKashmiri Pandits is an Indeliblestain on an otherwise pristinefabric of our democracy andsecularism. Only when thiswrong is righted can we hold upour heads with pride.

Indian civil society mustintrospect and have the courageto confront what is unequivocal-ly the ultimate moral lapse ofpost-independent India. TheKashmir Files compels us to do that.

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(The author, a US-basedacademic and political

commentator, frequentlywrites on current affairs

in India. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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�%1����03�� The great physicist, Albert Einstein,once said, “We owe a lot to theIndians, who taught us how tocount, without which no worth-

while scientific discovery could have beenmade.” While many of us may know aboutzero and its origins in India, it remains arueful fact that India’s contributions toglobal knowledge creation remains unat-tributed and uncelebrated.

Our history as an independent mod-ern nation is 75 years young but our civ-ilization is more than 5,000+ years old.Needless to say, the contribution of Indiato human knowledge is plenty, and whatbetter a time, than the occasion of AzadiKa Amrit Mahotsav, commemoratingseventy-five years of independence, to ini-tiate a concentrated and focused effort inthis direction.

‘Dh?r?: An Ode to Indian KnowledgeSystems’ is the Ministry of Culture’s flag-ship initiative in this direction. It is con-ceptualized as a series of lectures and dis-cussions dedicated to specific areas ofinquiry highlighting India’s civilizationalachievements. Dh?r? embodies that ideaof ‘continuous flow’ of knowledge and wis-dom from one age to another, being adopt-ed, questioned and modified over time sothat we not only move ahead to the nextlevel of insights across various fields butdo so on the back of the work that isalready available to us from our past.

It is my observation that outings andendeavors with connection to ancient pastrelated topics often find polarizing respons-es due to lack of credible and rigorous evi-dence. Our attempt at program curationis mindful of the same and systemic effortsare being made to bring in academic schol-ars of the highest calibre to add the layerof rigorous reasoning and scientific cred-ibility to these discussions.

Our first event under the aegis ofDh?r? was held recently and it was dedi-cated to “India’s Contribution toMathematics Through Ages”. This uniqueconference saw lectures from Field’s medalwinner Prof. Manjul Bhargava as thekeynote speaker and other renownedscholars Prof. K Ramasubramanian, Prof.Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, Prof.Amartya Dutta, Prof. M. D. Srinivas, Prof.M. S. Sriram and Prof. SG Dani, as alsointernational scholars Prof. Jean MichelDelire, Prof. Avinash Sathaye, and Prof.Clemency Montelle. The wisdom of Indiain mathematics captured during this con-ference was an eye-opener and a tribute toour system which promoted open inquiry,imagination, and synthesis. In what fol-lows, we highlight some of the importanttopics that were discussed by scholars dur-ing the conference.

Binary Numbers: The Pingala’sChandas-sastra is the first known descrip-tion of a binary numeral system that datesback to 300 BCE. Listing of all the possi-ble sequential arrangement of laghu (lightor short) and guru (heavy or long) sylla-bles — technically referred to by the term

Page 8: 3ZcV_ Zd >R_Zafc 4> RXRZ_ - Daily Pioneer

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The Government is planningto merge Bharat

Broadband Nigam Limited(BBNL) with the loss-makingstate-run telecom operatorBharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(BSNL) this month, a seniorofficial has said.

BSNL chairman and man-aging director PK Purwar at arecent event organised by theAll India Graduate Engineersand Telecom officersAssociation (AIGETOA) saidthat the government is givingthe telecom firm an opportu-nity for a turnaround.

"The government hastaken a policy decision thatBBNL is going to be mergedinto BSNL. This means allwork of BBNL at the pan-Indialevel is going to come toBSNL," Purwar said at the AllIndia Conference of AIGE-TOA on March 13.

Referring to his meetingwith the union telecom min-ister, Purwar said he had anhour-long meeting to thiseffect.

BSNL already has a net-work of over 6.8 lakh kilome-ter of optical fibre cable (OFC)network.

With the proposed merg-er, BSNL will get 5.67 lakh kilo-meter of optical fibre whichhas been laid across 1.85 lakhvillage panchayats in the coun-try using Universal ServiceObligation Fund (USOF).

Special purpose vehicle(SPV) BBNL was formed inFebruary 2012, to lay out opti-cal fibre network across 2.5lakh village panchayats acrossthe country using USOF andprovide its access to all telecomoperators on a non-discrimi-natory basis.

Telecom operators arerequired to pay an 8 per centlicence fee on their revenuefrom sale of telecom serviceswhich includes a 5 per centlevy for USOF.

The state governments donot levy right of way (RoW)charge on laying of OFC by theBBNL, which helps it in savinga significant amount com-pared to the fees that telecomoperators are required to pay.

A query sent to theDepartment of Telecom andBBNL elicited no reply in thematter.

However, few BBNL offi-cials said that employees in thedepartment are not in favourof the proposed merger due to

non-performance of BSNL onBharatnet project in the pastand pending dues of vendorsdespite payment already madeto the state-run telecom firmby the SPV.

The officials shared acommon view that privatetelecom operators also con-tribute to USOF and transfer-ring BBNL assets under oneplayer will be against idea andobjective of creating the SPV,which was to provide access torural broadband network onnon-discriminatory basis toall players.

When contacted, Purwarsaid "no such views are innotice of BSNL.

The delivery of BBNL tomeet the objectives of BharatNet is much below the desiredlevel. BSNL, as a custodian ofUSOF assets, will ensure thatall such assets are made avail-able to all TSP/ISP and otheragencies on arm length prin-ciples."

In his speech at the con-ference, BSNL CMD askedemployees to tighten their beltand put their best foot forwardfor the growth of BSNL, as thepolitical leadership has given afree hand for the turnaroundand there is going to be no

capex crunch for the next twoyears at least.

Purwar said, "in the bud-get, provision of around Rs45,000 crore has been made forBSNL. It was earlier Rs 24,000crore. Earlier provision wasonly for spectrum. Now, it isspectrum, capex and others. Sothe government wants to giveyou a free hand. Can you per-form?"

He said that the companyis in the last stage of testing for4G and may approach theboard for placing a small orderin the month of March, so thatsupply can start in the monthof May and June and ground-level network testing and expe-rience can be done.

"Then it should be takenfurther after a commercial dis-cussion. The government'sexpectation is very clear fromus. The Prime Minister wantsit to be (done) by August 15,"Purwar said.

He said that the nextphase of telecom growth willcome from fibre-to-the-homeservice and in the comingdays, 1 lakh mobile base sta-tions will serve as a point ofpresence for the distribution offibre-based broadband con-nections to the subscribers.

"If we lose this opportuni-ty then there is no way that wewill have an alternate option.The government is goingagainst its stated policy forBSNL. If you see what is thepolicy for CPSE.

"The government's policyis to either perform or perish.The government wants to giveBSNL a chance so that BSNLbecomes a strategic asset. Wehave a responsibility to proveourselves, Purwar said.

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Country's largest lender SBIhas lined-up a dozen non-

performing assets (NPAs) onsale to recover loan dues of overRs 820 crore, as per the bank'snotifications.

In terms of the bank's pol-icy on sale of financial assets, inline with the regulatory guide-lines, SBI said it has placed theseaccounts for sale to asset recon-struction companies(ARCs)/banks/Non-BankingFinancial Companies(NBFCs)/financial institutions(FIs), on the terms and condi-tions indicated there against.

In various notices on itswebsite, State Bank of India(SBI) has put up a total of 12bad assets for sale during thismonth to April 13.

NPA account TopworthUrja & Metals Ltd, with a loanoutstanding of Rs 396.74 croreis to be sold in an e-auction tobe held on March 29, 2022.With reserve price fixed at Rs85 crore, SBI said the NPA

account will be sold on acash/cash-cum-SR ratio of50:50.

"Bid with highest cashcomponent shall be consid-ered as successful bid," it said ina notice.

Another account, BalasoreAlloys with dues of Rs 186.10crore (reserve price Rs 178.22crore) will also be e-auctionedon March 29.

"In case the bid is higherthan the total dues as on date ofassignment, plus outstandingnon-fund based facilities, thebank reserves its right to retainsuch higher amount as a pre-mium in its books and is notunder any obligation to refundto any of the parties concernedincluding the borrower," itadded on Balasore Alloys.

On March 30, the bank willconduct e-auction of as manyas six accounts with a total out-standing of Rs 112.05 crore.These accounts are : AnupamIndustries with outstanding ofRs 46.38 crore; Clutch Auto (Rs26.14 crore); Kingston Paptech

Pvt Ltd (Rs 17.15 crore);Sambhav EXIM (Rs 11.39crore); Vraj Cotspin Pvt Ltd (Rs8.06 crore) and GhantakarnaEnterprise (Rs 2.93 crore).

The loan dues on AnupamIndustries is excluding BG(bank guarantee) outstanding ofRs 4.74 crore, SBI said.

The country's largestlender will auction the rest offour NPA accounts on April 13,with total dues of Rs 125.32crore.

These NPA accounts are :Anamika Conductors havingan outstanding of Rs 102.30crore loan; Madhav CottonGinning & Pressing Factory (Rs16.80 crore) ; Om KailashCotton (Rs 5.23 crore) andAjanta Ellora Estates (Rs 0.99crore).

"The interestedARCs/banks/NBFCs/FIs canconduct due diligence of theseassets with immediate effect,after submitting expressions ofinterest and executing a non-disclosure agreement with thebank," SBI said.

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The government is working onclassification of cryptocur-

rency as goods or services underthe GST law, so that tax can belevied on the entire value oftransactions.

Currently, 18 per centGoods and Services Tax (GST)is levied only on service provid-ed by crypto exchanges and iscategorised as financial services.

GST officers are of the viewthat cryptos, by nature, are sim-ilar to lottery, casinos, betting,gambling, horse racing, whichhave 28 per cent of GST on theentire value. Besides, GST at 3per cent is levied on the entiretransaction value in case of gold.

"There is a clarity needed inregard to levy of GST on cryp-tocurrencies and whether it hasto be levied on the entire value,We are seeing whether cryp-tocurrencies can be classified asgoods or services and alsoremoving any doubt on whetherit can be called an actionable

claim," an official said.Another official said that if

the GST is levied on the entiretransaction of cryptocurrenciesthen the rate could be in therange of 0.1 to 1 per cent.

"Discussions are in anascent stage on the rate of tax,whether it would be 0.1 per centor 1 per cent. First a decision onclassification will have to befinalised and then rate will bediscussed," the official told PTI.

The Goods and ServicesTax (GST) law does not clearlystate about classification of cryp-tocurrency and in the absence ofa law on regulating such virtualdigital currencies, the classifica-tion has to take into accountwhether the legal frameworkclassifies it as actionable claim.

An actionable claim is aclaim which can be made by acreditor, for any type of debtother than a debt secured bymortgage of immovable prop-erty.

The 2022-23 Budget hasbrought in clarity with regard to

levy of income tax on cryptoassets. From April 1, a 30 per centI-T plus cess and surcharges, willbe levied on such transactions inthe same manner as it treatswinnings from horse races orother speculative

transactions.The Budget 2022-23 also

proposed a 1 per cent TDS onpayments towards virtual cur-rencies beyond Rs 10,000 in ayear and taxation of such gifts inthe hands of the recipient. Thethreshold limit for TDS would beRs 50,000 a year for specifiedpersons, which include individ-uals/HUFs who are required toget their accounts audited underthe I-T Act.

The provisions related to 1per cent TDS will come intoeffect from July 1, 2022, while thegains will be taxed effectiveApril 1.

Separately, the governmentis working on legislation to reg-ulate cryptocurrencies, but nodraft has yet been released pub-licly..

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The government hasextended the timeline up

to ten years for startups to con-vert debt investments made inthe company into equityshares, a decision which islikely to give a relief to bud-ding entrepreneurs to dealwith the impact of Covid-19pandemic, according to a pressnote of the DPIIT.

Earlier the option ofchanging convertible notesinto equity shares was allowedfor up to five years from theday when initial convertiblenote was issued. Now thattimeline has been extended toten years.

An investor can invest ina startup through convertiblenotes, which is a kind ofdebt/loan instrument. But inthis investment, the investor isgiven the option that if thestartup performs well orachieves some performance

milestones in future, theinvestor can ask the startup toissue equity shares of the com-pany against the money thatthey had initially invested asloan/debt.

"Convertible note meansan instrument issued by astartup company acknowl-edging receipt of money ini-tially as debt, which isrepayable at the option of theholder, or which is convertibleinto such number of equityshares of such startup compa-ny, within a period not exceed-ing ten years from the date ofissue of the convertible note,upon occurrence of specifiedevents as per the other termsand conditions agreed to andindicated in the instrument,"the note has said.

According to experts,convertible notes have increas-ingly emerged as attractivefinancing instruments for earlystage funding of startups sinceits inception in 2017.

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Led by Maharashtra, thecumulative revenue collec-

tion from stamp duty and reg-istration fee of all the statesjumped to Rs 1,00,100 crore forthe first eight months of thecurrent fiscal year, which forthe entire FY21 was Rs 1,27,700crore, according to a report.

An analysis of state-wisedata by Motilal Oswal FinancialServices showed that the aver-age monthly collection by 28states stood at Rs 12,500 croreduring the reporting period ofApril-November 2021, which isslightly lower than Rs 12,800crore in the pre-pandemic days.But, the monthly average ishigher than Rs 10,600 crorerecorded in FY21.

The report did not offer a

comparative number for thesame eight months period ofFY21 when the country was hitwith the pandemic.

Thanks to Mumbai andPune, Maharashtra recordedthe highest collection of Rs17,097 crore, contributing 17.1per cent of the total collectionduring the period, followed byUttar Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Karnataka with Rs 12,800crore, Rs 8,700 crore and Rs8,400 core, respectively, as perthe analysis.

In FY21, Maharashtra's

collection stood at Rs 25,427crore or 19.9 per cent of thenational total, followed by UttarPradesh at Rs 16,475 crore or12.9 per cent of the total, TamilNadu Rs 11,675 crore or 9.1 percent, Karnataka 10,576 crore or8.3 per cent, Telangana Rs5,243 crore or 4.1 per cent,Gujarat 7,390 crore or 5.8 percent, Haryana 5,157 or 4 percent.

Madhya Pradesh collected6,760 crore or 5.3 per cent ofthe national mop-up in FY21,Bengal Rs 5,527.6 crore or 4.3

per cent, Andhra Pradesh at5,603.3 crore or 4.4 per cent,Rajasthan Rs 5,297.3 crore or4.1 per cent, Bihar Rs 4,206.3crore or 3.3 per cent, andKerala Rs 3,489.6 crore or 2.7per cent.

Other states had under Rs3,000 crore collection or lessthan 3 per cent of the nation-al share.According to NikhilGupta, the chief economist atthe brokerage, the residentialreal estate sector has bouncedback strongly since the secondhalf of FY21, and it continuesto perform well in FY22.

In fact, it is doing betterthan anticipated. Consideringits massive forward and back-ward linkages to the real econ-omy, it has the potential toboost GDP growth substan-tially.

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Bharat Sanchar Nigam expects over Rs 17,000 crore revenuefrom services in FY22, a tad lower than the previous fiscal,

mainly due to the removal of call connect charges that used tobring in additional inflows, according to its Chairman andManaging Director PK Purwar.

Purwar asserted that the state-owned telecom corporationis confident of retaining its customer base and defending its turfwith quality 4G services to be launched in the coming months,even as competition intensifies with private telcos gearing up for5G services.

The start of 5G offerings by private operators will not placeBSNL at an immediate disadvantage, as the device ecosystem forthe new-age services is still evolving, he said, adding that prepa-ration for BSNL's 4G services launch is well on track.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is targeting a 4G roll-out in 2022.

"Despite the challenges, we have been able to maintain sta-ble revenue (from services, excluding other income) in FY22.Against Rs 17,452 crore income from services in FY21, this yearwe will close at over Rs 17,000 crore of revenue," Purwar toldPTI.

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Consumers may have to paymore for their daily essen-

tial items with FMCG compa-nies mulling another round ofprice hike to offset the impactof an unprecedented level ofinflation in commodity pricessuch as wheat, palm oil andpackaging materials.

Besides, the ongoing warbetween Russia and Ukrainehas also added another blow toFMCG makers as they expecta rise in the prices of wheat,edible oil and crude.

Companies such as Daburand Parle are watching the sit-uation and will undertake cal-ibrated price increases to mit-igate the inflationary pressures.

According to some mediareports, makers such as HULand Nestle have increased theprices of food products lastweek.

"We are expecting a 10-15per cent hike by the industry,"Parle Products Senior CategoryHead Mayank Shah told PTI.

Shah further noted thatthe prices are witnessing highfluctuation and hence it wouldbe difficult to tell about theexact increase due to volatilityof price.

The price of palm oil hadincreased to Rs 180 per litreand now has come down to Rs150 per litre. Similarly, crude oilprices had risen to nearly USD140 a barrel and has nowslipped below USD 100 perbarrel, he added.

"However, it is still higherthan what it was earlier," Shahsaid, adding that the companiesare also hesitant in taking priceincreases significantly becausedemand was reviving after

COVID and they do not wantto tinker with that.

Last time, the makers didnot take the price hike to com-pletely mitigate the impact andhad absorbed some part of that.

"Everybody is currentlytalking about a price hike of 10-15 per cent, although the inputcost has gone much more thanthat," he said.

When asked as to whetherParle would also go for a hike,Shah said right now it hasenough stock of packagingmaterials and other stocks andwould take a decision after amonth or two on this.

Expressing similarthoughts, Dabur India ChiefFinancial Officer Ankush Jainsaid inflation remains unabat-ed and is a cause of concern forthe second year in a row.

"The inflationary pres-sures and resultant priceincreases have led to con-sumers tightening their purse-strings and relooking at dis-cretionary purchases, whilealso downtrading to smallerpacks.

We are closely watching thesituation and will undertakecalibrated price increases tomitigate the inflationary pres-sures," he said.

Commenting on the cur-rent situation, EdelweissFinancial Services ExecutiveVice President Abneesh Roy,said FMCG makers are passinghigh inflation to consumers.

"FMCG companies likeHUL, Nestle have high pricingpower. They are passing oninflation in Coffee and pack-aging materials. We expect allFMCG companies to take afurther hike of 3 to 5 per centin Q1FY23," he added.

According to some newsreports, FMCG major HULand Nestle have alreadyincreased the prices of fooditems such as tea, coffee andnoodles, passing off some bur-den to the consumers to main-tain margins.

The reports had claimedthat HUL had hiked prices ofBru coffee, Brooke Bond tea etcas the company was facinginflationary pressure.

While Nestle India hasincreased the price of its pop-ular Maggi noodles by 9 to 16per cent, it has also taken aprice hike for milk and coffeepowder, the reports added.

An HUL spokespersonhad said: "We are witnessingconsumer volume titration dueto the impact of high inflation.In this environment, our pri-ority is to provide value to con-sumers, invest behind ourbrands and protect our finan-cial business model."

"We mitigate cost inflationfirst by driving our savingsagenda harder, looking at allcost lines with a laser-sharpfocus and removing any non-value-adding cost.

"Considering the inherentstrength of our brands and ourexecution prowess, we havebeen able to provide the rightprice-value equation to theconsumer, thus helping protectour business model in a high-ly inflationary scenario," headded.

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The price of diesel sold tobulk users has been hiked

by about Rs 25 per litre in linewith a near 40 per cent rise ininternational oil prices, butretail rates at petrol pumpsremain unchanged, sourcessaid.

Petrol pump sales havejumped by a fifth this monthafter bulk users like bus fleetoperators and malls queued upat petrol bunks to buy fuelrather than the usual practiceof ordering directly from oil

companies, widening the loss-es of retailers.

Worst hit are private retail-ers like Nayara Energy, Jio-bpand Shell, who have so farrefused to curtail any volumedespite a surge in sales. Butnow closure of pumps is a moreviable solution than continuingto sell more fuel at rates thathave been on freeze for arecord 136 days, three sourceswith direct knowledge of thedevelopment said.

In 2008, RelianceIndustries had shut all of its1,432 petrol pumps in thecountry after sales dropped toalmost nil as it could not matchthe subsidized price offered bythe public sector competition.

A similar scenario mayunfold again as retailers' loss-es widen from bulk users beingdiverted to petrol pumps, theysaid.

Price of diesel sold to bulkusers has been hiked to Rs122.05 per litre in Mumbai.This compares to Rs 94.14 alitre price of the same fuel soldat petrol pumps.In Delhi, diesel costs Rs 86.67a litre at the petrol pump, butfor bulk or industrial users it ispriced at about Rs 115.

PSU oil companies havenot raised retail prices of petroland diesel since November 4,2021 despite a surge in globaloil and fuel prices, a move seenas aiding the Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) in crucial stateassembly elections.

Prices were supposed tostart aligning with cost aftercounting of votes on March 10,but the ensuing start of the sec-ond half of the Budget Sessionmeant that the price increasesdidn't happen.

Private fuel retailers likeNayara Energy, Jio-bp and Shellwere forced to hold petrol anddiesel prices as they wouldhave lost customers, if rates attheir petrol pumps were high-er than those of Indian OilCorporation (IOC), BharatPetroleum Corporation Ltd(BPCL) and HindustanPetroleum Corporation Ltd(HPCL).

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The Income Tax departmentis working to improve the

"abysmally poor" tax literacy inthe country so that the numberof tax paying people and entitiescan be increased leading toenhanced collections, CBDTChairman J B Mohapatra hassaid.

He said the direct tax estab-lishment -- the governmentauthority that primarily collectspersonal income tax and corpo-ration tax among others -- willdo "everything possible" to seethat the effective number oftaxpayers who can add to therevenue kitty are enhanced.

"There are a few things to bedone here. One is expanding thetax literacy which is abysmallypoor across the country," he toldPTI.

"Banking literacy has gath-ered steam and people knowwhat is a bank and how to openan account. Banks have invest-ed in expanding the bankingknowledge of the people. Thatthing has not happened in(income) tax and that is on topof our mind," he said.

The CBDT chief was askedabout the steps being taken bythe taxman to widen and deep-en the tax base in the countrygiven that the departmentrecorded its highest-ever direct

tax collections at over Rs 13.63lakh crore (as on March 16) dur-ing the current financial year.

He said the I-T departmentrecently, on the intervention ofUnion Finance minister NirmalaSitharaman, concluded a fort-nightly 'mulaqat' event in the faroff and remote areas of Jammuand Kashmir where the depart-ment met locals and told themabout the department and itswork.

"This kind of interactionwith people in tier-II and tier-IIIcities, in 'panchayats' and blockshas to happen over a sustainedperiod. It can't happen in a yearor so but we have do it over aperiod of time," Mohapatra said.

"People's knowledge aboutthe tax department, what itstands for, how does a taxpayerand a potential taxpayer help innational development and sub-sequently the taxpayer adds hisshare to the growth of the econ-omy, all that has to be cultural-ly percolated to the taxpayers orthe potential taxpayers and thenthings will dramatically changein the department," Mohapatrasaid.

He added that the depart-ment will undertake outreachprogrammes and take help ofvarious modes of mass commu-nication and multimedia to takethe work and idea of the depart-ment among the people.

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Japanese automaker SuzukiMotor Corporation on

Sunday said it will investaround 150 billion yen (aboutRs 10,445 crore) by 2026, forlocal manufacturing of BatteryElectric Vehicles (BEV) andBEV batteries in Gujarat.

The company has signeda Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) to this

effect with the Gujaratgovernment.

It was signed "on March19, 2022 at the India-JapanEconomic Forum held in NewDelhi, India, in the presence ofJapanese Prime MinisterFumio Kishida and IndianPrime Minister NarendraModi," Suzuki MotorCorporation said in a state-ment.

Speaking at the forum,Suzuki Motor Corporation(SMC) Representative Directorand President Toshihiro Suzukisaid, "Suzuki's future missionis to achieve carbon neutrali-ty with small cars. We will con-tinue active investment inIndia to realise Self-reliantIndia (Atma-nirbhar Bharat)."

Under the MoU, the com-pany's wholly-owned armSuzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd(SMG) will invest Rs 7,300crore for the construction of aplant for BEV batteries at aland neighboring to SMG'sexisting plant by 2026.

Also, SMG will investanother Rs 3,100 crore forincreasing the productioncapacity for BEV manufactur-ing by 2025, the statementsaid.

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British Prime Minister BorisJohnson has issued a stark

message to China to choose theright side in the Russia-Ukraineconflict as he claimed thatthere are some signs of “secondthoughts” in Beijing.

In an interview with ‘TheSunday Times' on his way backfrom a tour of the MiddleEast, the UK Prime Ministeraccused Russian PresidentVladimir Putin of trying toestablish a new authoritarianworld order and said Chinarisked being on the wrong sideof history by not condemninghis actions. “I think that inBeijing you are starting to seesome second thoughts,” he toldthe newspaper. “I don't think Ihave ever seen such a clear caseof right and wrong. I've neverseen such a stark divisionbetween good and evil as thereis in this invasion. And it is clearthat right is overwhelmingly onthe side of the Ukrainians.That's why their plight is obvi-

ous to the world and why Ithink that in the last threeweeks people's understandingof what is happening is chang-ing,” he said.

With a reference to China,Johnson added: “I think thatsome countries began by think-ing Putin's war machine will gothrough like a knife throughbutter. That Kyiv will fall soonand it will be tragic, but it willbe speedily accomplished.

“They have now been dis-abused of that idea. I think fora lot of people this has been apsychological shock. This hasbeen a terrible realisation forpeople who may be living in afool's paradise. There's going tohave to be a new way of lookingat nations like Russia.” Back inthe UK, Boris Johnson cameunder fire for referencing Brexitin the context of the conflict inUkraine in his speech to theConservative Party SpringConference in Blackpool onSaturday. “This is a turningpoint for the world. And it's amoment of choice. It's a choice

between freedom and oppres-sion,” Johnson said in his speech.

“And I know that it's theinstinct of the people of thiscountry, like the people ofUkraine, to choose freedom,every time, I can give you a cou-ple of famous recent examples.When the British people votedfor Brexit, in such large, largenumbers, I don't believe it wasbecause they were remotely hos-tile to foreigners. It's because theywanted to be free to do thingsdifferently and for this countryto be able to run itself,” he said.

The Opposition LabourParty objected to the remarksand Liberal Democrat leaderSir Ed Davey said it was an"insult" to Ukrainians.

Tory peer Lord Barwellfrom Johnson's own party saidvoting in a referendum was not"in any way comparable withrisking your life" in a war.Chancellor of the Exchequer,Rishi Sunak, distanced himselffrom the comments whenasked about them during a tele-vision show on Sunday.

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Pope Francis has denouncedRussia's “repugnant war”

against Ukraine as “cruel and sacrilegious inhu-manity.”

In some of his strongestwords yet since Russia's inva-sion on February 24, Francis onSunday told thousands of peo-ple in St. Peter's Square thatevery day brings more atroci-ties in what is a “senselessmassacre.”

“There is no justificationfor this,'' Francis said, in anapparent reference to Russia,which sought to justify itsinvasion as vital for its owndefense. But Francis againstopped short of naming Russia as the aggressor.

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The authorities in thebesieged Ukrainian city of

Mariupol say that nearly 40,000people have fled over the pastweek. That's nearly 10 per centof its 430,000 population.

The city council in theAzov Sea port city said Sundaythat 39,426 residents have safe-ly evacuated from Mariupol intheir own vehicles.

It said the evacuees usedmore than 8,000 vehicles toleave via a humanitarian cor-ridor via Berdyansk toZaporizhzhia.

The strategic city has been

encircled by the Russian troopsand faced a relentless Russianbombardment for three weeks,coming to symbolize the hor-ror of the Russian invasion ofUkraine.

Local authorities have saidthe siege has cut off food,water and energy supplies, andkilled at least 2,300 people,some of whom had to beburied in mass graves. Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy saidSunday that the siege ofMariupol would go down inhistory for what he said werewar crimes committed byRussian troops.

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The US' Indo-Pacific strat-egy is as "dangerous" as

NATO's eastward expansionin Europe resulting in Russia'smilitary offensive againstUkraine, a senior Chinesediplomat has said.

"With the disintegrationof the Soviet Union, NATO(North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation) should havebeen consigned to historyalongside the Warsaw Pact,"China's Vice Foreign MinisterLe Yucheng said whileaddressing the InternationalForum on Security andStrategy hosted by the Centrefor International Security andStrategy of TsinghuaUniversity on Saturday.

"However, rather thanbreaking up, NATO has keptstrengthening and expand-

ing. One could well anticipatethe consequences going downthis path. The crisis inUkraine is a stern warning,"he said.

Chinese off icials sayNATO's plans to admit Kyivheightened Russia's insecuri-ty resulting in RussianPresident Vladimir Putin'smilitar y action againstUkraine. Ever since Russiabegan military operations inUkraine last month, China, aclose ally of Moscow, has beentreading a fine line, decliningto condemn it as an invasion.

"All sides need to jointlysupport Russia and Ukraine inhaving dialogue and negotia-tion that will produce resultsand lead to peace," Le said.

"One should not seek itsown absolute security,” saidLe, the former ChineseAmbassador to India and

widely tipped to succeed thepresent Chinese ForeignMinister Wang Yi in this year'sleadership reshuffle.

"Since NATO made apromise back then, it shouldnot renege on its word andkeep pushing its boundaryeastward. The pursuit ofabsolute security actually leadsto absolute insecurity,” he said.

"Going against the trendto pursue the Indo-Pacificstrategy, provoke trouble, puttogether closed and exclusivesmall circles or groups, andget the region off coursetoward fragmentation andbloc-based division is as dan-gerous as the NATO strategyof eastward expansion inEurope," Le said.

"If al lowed to go onunchecked, it would bringunimaginable consequences,

and ultimately push the Asia-Pacific over the edge of anabyss,” he said.

"We in Asia must keep thefuture firmly in our ownhands, pursue independent,balanced and prudent for-eign policies, and seekstrength through unity in theprocess of Asia-Pacific region-al integration," Le said,according to the excerpts ofhis address posted on thewebsite of the Chinese ForeignMinistry.

As the US' Indo-Pacificstrategy gained traction,China has stepped up itsattacks especially on the for-mation of Quad comprisingthe US, India, Japan, Australia,saying the grouping is akin toAsian NATO.

Early this month, Wang Yiin his annual press conferencesaid Washington is seeking to

create an Asian NATO to“suppress” Beijing.

"The real goal for theIndo-Pacific strategy is toestablish an Indo-Pacific ver-sion of NATO,” Wang said.

Earlier, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar haddismissed the notion that theQuad is an Asian NATO andsaid that there are "interestedparties" who advance suchanalogies and one should notslip into it.

"Quad is a grouping offour countries who have com-mon interests, common val-ues, a great deal of comfort,who happen to be located atfour corners of the Indo-Pacific, who found out that inthis world no country, noteven the US, has the ability toaddress global challenges allon their own," Jaishankar tolda panel discussion at the

Munich Security Conference

(MSC) 2022 at Munich lastmonth.

"I would urge you not toslip into that lazy analogy ofan Asian-NATO. It isn'tbecause there are three coun-tries who are treaty allies. Weare not a treaty ally. It doesn'thave a treaty, a structure, asecretariat, it's a kind of 21stcentury way of responding toa more diversified, dispersedworld," he said on the Quad grouping.

In November 2017, India,Japan, the US and Australiagave shape to the long-pend-ing proposal of setting up theQuad to develop a new strat-egy to keep the critical searoutes in the Indo-Pacific freeof any influence, amidstChina's growing military pres-ence in the region.

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The Russian military says ithas carried out a new series

of strikes on Ukrainian militaryfacilities with long-rangehypersonic and cruise mis-siles. Russian Defense Ministryspokesman Maj. Gen. IgorKonashenkov said Sunday thatthe Kinzhal hypersonic missilehit a Ukrainian fuel depot inKostiantynivka near the BlackSea port of Mykolaiv.

The strike marked the sec-ond day in a row that Russiaused the Kinzhal, a weaponcapable of striking targets 2,000kilometers (1,250 miles) awayat a speed 10 times the speedof sound.

The previous day, theRussian military said the

Kinzhal was used for the firsttime in combat to destroy anammunition depot in Diliatynin the Carpathian Mountains inwestern Ukraine.Konashenkov noted that theKalibr cruise missiles launchedby Russian warships from theCaspian Sea were also involvedin the strike on the fuel depotin Kostiantynivka. He saidKalibr missiles launched fromthe Black Sea were used todestroy an armor repair plantin Nizhyn in the Chernihivregion in northern Ukraine.

Konashenkov added thatanother strike by air-launchedmissiles hit a Ukrainian facili-ty in Ovruch in the northernZhytomyr region where foreignfighters and Ukrainian specialforces were based.

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At a makeshift basementbomb shelter in Ukraine's

capital, at least 20 babies bornto surrogate mothers are wait-ing for their foreign parents tobe able to travel to the war-torncountry and take them home.

Some just a few days old,the infants are well cared for,but even below ground theblasts of occasional shelling canbe heard clearly.

Many of the surrogacy cen-ter's nurses are also stranded inthe shelter because it's toodangerous to travel to andfrom their homes. Ukrainiantroops have been resistingRussian forces in Kyiv's suburbsas they attempt to encircle thecity.

“Now we are staying hereto preserve our and the babies'

lives,” said LyudmiliaYashchenko, a 51-year-oldnurse. “We are hiding herefrom the bombing and thishorrible misery.”

Yashchenko said they leavebriefly during the day to getsome fresh air but don't darestay out too long. She worriesabout her own children, too —both her sons, ages 22 and 30,are fighting to defend theircountry.

Exhaustion is constant.“We are almost not sleep-

ing at all,” Yashchenko said.“We are working round theclock.”

Ukraine has a thriving sur-rogate industry and is one ofthe few countries that allow theservice for foreigners. Thesebabies' parents live in Europe,Latin America and China.

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Russian forces pushed deep-er into Ukraine's besieged

and battered port city ofMariupol on Saturday, whereheavy fighting shut down amajor steel plant and localauthorities pleaded for moreWestern help.

The fall of Mariupol, thescene of some of the war's worstsuffering, would mark a majorbattlefield advance for theRussians, who are largelybogged down outside majorcities more than three weeksinto the biggest land invasionin Europe since World War II.

“Children, elderly peopleare dying. The city is destroyedand it is wiped off the face ofthe earth,” Mariupol policeofficer Michail Vershnin saidfrom a rubble-strewn street ina video addressed to Westernleaders that was authenticatedby The Associated Press.

Details also began toemerge Saturday about a rock-et attack that killed as many as40 marines in the southern cityof Mykolaiv the previous day,according to a Ukrainian mil-itary official who spoke to TheNew York Times.

Russian forces have alreadycut Mariupol off from the Seaof Azov, and its fall would link

Crimea, whichRussia annexedin 2014, to east-ern territoriescontrolled byMoscow-backedseparatists. Itwould mark arare advance inthe face of fierceUkrainian resis-tance that hasdashed Russia'shopes for a quickvictory and gal-vanized the West.

Uk r a i n i anand Russianforces battledover the Azovstalsteel plant inM a r i u p o l ,V a d y mD e n y s e n k o ,adviser to Ukraine's interiorminister, said. “One of thelargest metallurgical plants inEurope is actually beingdestroyed,” Denysenko said intelevised remarks.

The Mariupol city councilclaimed hours later thatRussian soldiers had forciblyrelocated several thousand cityresidents, mostly women andchildren, to Russia. It didn't saywhere, and AP could notimmediately confirm the claim.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an

adviser to Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy, said thenearest forces that could assistMariupol were already strug-gling against “the overwhelm-ing force of the enemy” andthat “there is currently no mil-itary solution to Mariupol.”

Zelenskyy said earlySunday that the siege ofMariupol would go down inhistory for what he said werewar crimes committed byRussian troops.

“To do this to a peacefulcity, what the occupiers did, isa terror that will be remem-bered for centuries to come,” hesaid in a video address to thenation.

Despite the siege inMariupol, many remainedstruck by Ukraine's ability tohold back its much bigger,better-armed foe. The UnitedKingdom's Defense Ministrysaid Ukraine's airspace con-tinued to be effectively defend-ed.

“Gaining control of the airwas one of Russia's principalobjectives for the opening daysof the conflict and their con-tinued failure to do so has sig-nificantly blunted their opera-tional progress," the ministrysaid on Twitter.

In Mykolaiv, rescuerssearched the rubble of themarine barracks that wasdestroyed in an apparent mis-sile attack Friday. The region'sgovernor said the marines wereasleep when the attack hap-pened.

It wasn't clear how manymarines were inside at thetime, and rescuers were stillsearching the rubble for sur-vivors the following day. But asenior Ukrainian military offi-cial, who spoke to The NewYork Times on condition ofanonymity to reveal sensitiveinformation, estimated that asmany as 40 marines were killed,which would make it one of thedeadliest known attacks onUkrainian forces during thewar.

Estimates of Russian deathsvary widely, but even conserv-ative figures are in the lowthousands. Russia had 64deaths in five days of fightingduring its 2008 war withGeorgia. It lost about 15,000 inAfghanistan over 10 years, and

more than 11,000 in years offighting in Chechnya.

The Russian military saidSaturday that it used its latesthypersonic missile for the firsttime in combat. Maj. Gen. IgorKonashenkov said Kinzhalmissiles destroyed an under-ground warehouse storingUkrainian missiles and aviationammunition in the westernregion of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Russia has said the Kinzhal,carried by MiG-31 fighter jets,has a range of up to 2,000 kilo-meters (about 1,250 miles) andflies at 10 times the speed ofsound.

Pentagon press secretaryJohn Kirby said the U.S.

Couldn't confirm the use of ahypersonic missile.

U.N. Bodies have con-firmed more than 847 civiliandeaths since the war began,though they concede the actu-al toll is likely much higher. TheU.N. Says more than 3.3 mil-lion people have fled Ukraineas refugees.

The northwestern Kyivsuburbs of Bucha, Hostomel,Irpin and Moshchun wereunder fire Saturday, the Kyivregional administration report-ed, and Slavutich, 165 kilome-ters (103 miles) north of thecapital, was “completely isolat-ed.”

Evacuations fromMariupol and other besieged

cities proceeded along eight of10 humanitarian corridors,Deputy Prime Minister IrynaVereshchuk said, and a total of6,623 people left.

Waiting to board a bus ata triage center near theMoldova-Ukraine border, awoman named Irina said shedecided to leave home inMykolaiv this week after aloud explosion shook the walls,waking her young daughter.

“Can you imagine the fearI had, not for me but for mychild?” said Irina, who didn'tprovide her last name. “So wemade decision to arrive here,but I don't know where we aregoing, where we'll stay."

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Abipartisan delegation ofU.S. Lawmakers visiting

Poland said Saturday that themost urgent need in Ukraine'sfight against a Russian inva-sion is to equip and supportthe country in every way thatwill help it defend its inde-pendence.

The seven-member dele-gation led by Rep. StephenLynch, a Democrat fromMassachusetts, has visitedreception centers for refugeesfrom Ukraine in easternPoland. They noted Poland'sopenness in accepting refugeesfrom Ukraine, including inprivate homes. More than 2million people fleeing warhave come to Poland since Feb.24, when Russia's troopsinvaded Ukraine.

“We are here to reassureand support the people ofUkraine. We are here to thankthe people of Poland for the

u n b e l i e v a b l egenerosity theyhave shown tothe refugees,”said Lynch, whois chairman ofthe subcommit-tee on NationalSecurity in theCommittee onOversight andReform.

During an online meetingwith the media Saturday, theAmerican lawmakers stressedthe need to urgently assistUkraine's military in theirfight against Russian forces.They said there is no room forpeace talks as long as there isa “hot war.”

“The most urgent actionthat we can take is to makesure that the Ukrainian fight-ers — those valiant patriotswho are fighting for their free-dom — have every bit ofequipment, every bit of supply,every bit of support that we

can possibly deliver to them,”Lynch said.

Answering a questionabout a potential peace mis-sion in Ukraine, he said “therewill be time for discussion,hopefully there will be time fordiplomacy, but right now Ithink that the Ukrainian mil-itary is stepping up in a veryheroic fashion against a muchlarger enemy."

U.S. President Joe Bidenwill attend an extraordinaryNATO summit in Brussels onThursday that is focused onthe war in Ukraine andEuropean security.

As long as RussianPresident Vladimir Putin con-tinues the aggression, "there isonly one way to respond tothat and that's military force,”Lynch said.

Rep. Mark Green, aRepublican from Tennesseewho is on the House ArmedServices Committee, had amessage for Putin.

“You've united NATO,you've united the EU andyou've united the United StatesCongress. We stand againstyour tyranny, your are a warcriminal," Green said."Withdraw your troops fromUkraine!”

Other members of the del-egation included DemocraticReps. Lori Trahan ofMassachusetts and ChelliePingree of Maine andRepublican Reps. JakeLaTurner from Kansas, PatFallon from Texas and NancyMace from South Carolina.

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Ukraine's PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy has

ordered to suspend activities of11 political parties with links toRussia.

The largest of them is theOpposition Platform for Life,which has 44 out of 450 seatsin the country's parliament.

The party is led by ViktorMedvedchuk, who has friend-ly ties with Russian President

Vladimir Putin, who is the god-father of Medvedchuk's daugh-ter.Also on the list is the Nashi(Ours) party led by YevheniyMurayev.

Before the Russian inva-sion. The British authoritieshad warned that Russia want-ed to install Murayev as theleader of Ukraine.

Speaking in a video addressearly Sunday, Zelenskyy saidthat "given a large-scale warunleashed by the Russian

Federation and links betweenit and some political structures,the activities of a number ofpolitical parties is suspendedfor the period of the martiallaw."

He added that "activities bypoliticians aimed at discordand collaboration will nots u c c e e d . " Z e l e n s k y y ' sannouncement follows theintroduction of the martial lawthat envisages a ban on partiesassociated with Russia.

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Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan on Sunday

lauded India for following an“independent foreign policy”,saying New Delhi importedcrude oil from Russia despiteAmerican sanctions onMoscow for its 'special militaryoperation' in Ukraine.

Khan, a fierce critic of theruling NDA government led byPrime Minister NarendraModi, spoke highly of India'sforeign policy.

Addressing a public rally inthe Khyber-Pakhtunkhwaprovince, he told his support-ers that he would like to praisethe neighbouring country Indiaas it was having an "indepen-dent foreign policy".

Khan said that India,which is a part of the Quadgrouping, has imported crudeoil from Russia despiteAmerican sanctions onMoscow. The Quad groupinghas the US, India, Japan and

Australia as its members.The US-led Western coun-

tries have imposed cripplingeconomic sanctions on Russiafor its military offensive inUkraine which was ordered byPresident Vladimir Putin onFebruary 24.

Prime Minister Khan saidthat his foreign policy wouldalso favour the people ofPakistan.

“I haven't bowed beforeanyone and will not let mynation bow either,” said Khan,who is rallying public supportahead of a no-confidence voteagainst him in Parliament.

Breaking from the tradi-tion of not openly discussingcomplicated matters relating toforeign relations in public ral-lies, Khan mentioned that hehad said “absolutely no” to theEuropean Union (EU) envoysseeking Pakistan's supportagainst Russia in the Russia-Ukraine conflict because "theybroke protocol by making therequest".

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There will be consequencesfor China if it decides to

provide substantial military orfinancial support to theRussians that allow them toescape sanctions, a topAmerican diplomat warned onSunday. In a call with China'sPresident Xi Jinping onSaturday, US President JoeBiden “detailed the implicationsand consequences” if Beijingwere to provide “material sup-port to Russia” in its attacksagainst Ukraine, the WhiteHouse has said.

Biden spoke at length withChina's leader to dissuadeBeijing from providing aid toMoscow.

US ambassador to the UN,Linda Thomas-Greenfield, toldCNN in an interview thatBiden was clear about his dis-cussion with Xi, in which he

made “our position very well-known that there will be con-sequences if China decides toprovide substantial military orfinancial support to theRussians that allow them toavoid the sanctions.”

“The conversation was twohours long, but it was extraor-dinarily frank, it was detailedand substantive. And we madeour position clear to theChinese,” she said.

“They're in an uncomfort-able position. They have beenput in a position of defendingRussia against our principles ofsovereignty and integrity ofborders. So, they have to decidewhere they will go from thispoint, and not sit on the fence,and call out the Russian aggres-sion for what it is, and not putthemselves in the position

of defending what is inde-fensible,” Thomas-Greenfieldsaid about Beijing.

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At least four persons died anddozens remain missing as aboat with over 50 passengers

onboard capsized on Sunday afterit was hit by a cargo vessel inShitalakshya River on the outskirtsof Bangladesh capital.

MV Afsar Uddin with at least 50passengers on board, on the way toMunshiganj, sank after being hit byMV Ruposhi-9 at the Syedpur AlAmin Nagar area around 2:20pm onSunday, officials said.

The Bangladesh Inland WaterTransport Authority (BIWTA) alongwith the river police, navy and thecoast guard have started rescueoperations in the area following theaccident. "Four bodies have beenretrieved so far, three of themwomen… The rescue campaign isunderway for the missing ones," afire service official was quoted assaying by the private IndependentTV channel.

Another official said several

more passengers were feareddrowned and some of them couldbe trapped inside the ferry.

Video footage, which went viralon social media and was carried bythe TV channels, showed the smallferry appear in front of an advanc-ing huge cargo ship that carried it

forward a few yards before it sankquickly.

Nearly 20 passengers were seenjumping off the ferry, known aslaunch, and some managed to swimashore or rescued by nearby boats.

Narayanganj district adminis-tration officials said fire service

divers launched the search campaignwith volunteers in the neighbour-hood immediately and they weresubsequently joined by coast guardpersonnel.

A ferry sank in Dhaka in Junelast year after a collision with anoth-er vessel, killing at least 32 people.

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Acar slammed at high speed into car-nival revellers in a small town in

southern Belgium early Sunday, killing sixpeople and leaving 10 more with life-threatening injuries. Several dozen weremore lightly injured.

"What should have been a greatparty turned into a tragedy," said BelgianInterior Minister Annelies Verlinden.

The prosecutor's office said that in theearly stages of the investigation there wereno elements to suspect a terror motive,and two locals in their thirties were arrest-ed at the scene in Strépy-Bracquegnies,some 50 kilometers south of Brussels.

In an age-old tradition, carnival rev-ellers had gathered at dawn, intending topick up others at their homes along theway, to finally hold their famous festivi-ty again after it was banned for the pasttwo years to counter the spread ofCOVID-19.

Some dressed in colourful garb withbells attached, walking behind the beat ofdrums. It was supposed to be a day ofdeliverance.

Instead, said mayor Jacques Gobert,"what happened turned it into a nation-al catastrophe."

More than 150 people of all ages had

gathered around 5 am and were standingin a thick crowd along a long, straightroad.

Suddenly, "a car drove from the backat high speed. And we have a few dozeninjured and unfortunately several peoplewho are killed," Gobert said.

The driver and a second person werearrested when their car came to a halt afew hundred meters further on.

Since Belgium was hit with twin ter-ror attacks in Brussels and Zaventem thatkilled 32 civilians six years ago, thoughtsof a terror motive are never far away.

But prosecutor Damien Verheyensaid "there is no element in the investi-gation at this time that allows me to con-sider that the motivations of the two couldhave been terror related."

The prosecutor's office also deniedmedia reports that the crash may havebeen caused by a car that was being chasedby police.

King Philippe and Prime MinisterAlexander De Croo were expected inStrépy-Bracquegnies later Sunday toexpress support for the families and vic-tims.

Carnival is extremely popular in thearea and the nearby version in Binche haseven been declared UNESCO IntangibleCultural Heritage.

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Nepal's President Bidya DeviBhandari has appointed

economist and former US envoyDr Shankar Prasad Sharma asthe country's new Ambassadorto India, an official announce-ment said on Sunday.

The post of Nepal's envoy inNew Delhi was vacant afterAmbassador Nilambar Acharya,who was appointed by the pre-vious government, was recalledsome six months ago.

Dr Sharma has beenappointed as Nepal'sAmbassador to India byPresident Bhandari on the rec-ommendation of the Council ofMinisters in accordance withArticle 282 of the Constitutionof Nepal, the President's officesaid in a statement.

Sharma had earlier served asNepal's Ambassador to theUnited States. He also worked asVice Chairman of NationalPlanning Commission between2002 and 2006.

Senior economist Sharmahad also served as the chief advi-sor at the Ministry of Finance.

Sharma holds a PhD inEconomics from the Universityof Hawaii.

He has participated in theUN General Assemblies, annu-al meetings of the World Bankand the IMF, SAARC Summits,UNESCAP annual meetingsand many other internationalmeetings.

Before joining the National

Planning Commission as amember in 1997, he worked asa Senior Economist in theInstitute of Southeast AsianStudies, Singapore and as aFellow in the East-West Center,Hawaii.

Sharma also served as aProfessor of Economics at theCentre for EconomicDevelopment andAdministration, TribhuvanUniversity.

He worked as a lead con-sultant to the ConstitutionCommittee on "Distribution ofNatural Resources, EconomicRights and Public Revenue" inhelping draft the newConstitution of Nepal.

He has published eightbooks on economy, energy andthe environment of the Asia-Pacific region including Nepal.He also worked as a consultantexpert in a number of nationaland international agenciesincluding the AsianDevelopment Bank, the WorldBank, and UNDP.

��� )��?6�)����

Japanese Prime MinisterFumio Kishida was in

Cambodia for talks with hiscounterpart, Hun Sen, onSunday to deepen relationswith one of the Southeast Asia'sclosest partners of both Chinaand Japan.

Kishida and Hun Sen werediscussing cooperation cover-ing trade and investment, edu-cation, infrastructure, defenceand security, and the post-pandemic recovery,Cambodian officials said.

After China, Japan isCambodia's largest donor andhas funded the construction ofbridges across the MekongRiver, main roads linkingPhnom Penh with provinces,the country's principalSihanoukville port as well asupgrading clean water andsewage systems in the capital.

But Japan and the US alsoshare concerns over China'sgrowing military assertiveness

in the region. In Cambodia,Washington has been recentlyfocused on China's construc-tion of new facilities at ReamNaval Base and the potentialfor its military to have futurebasing rights there.

Ream faces the Gulf ofThailand that lies adjacent tothe South China Sea, whereChina has been engulfed in ter-ritorial disputes with its small-er Southeast Asian neighbours.

Cambodia generally sup-ports Beijing's geopoliticalpositions, and in return,Beijing's backing for Hun Senallows the country to disregard

Western concerns about itspoor record in human andpolitical rights.

Kishida's visit came threedays after the departure of twoJapanese naval ships fromReam Naval Base, where theJapan Maritime Self-DefenceForce conducted deminingtraining with Cambodiancounterparts.

Japan has poured severalmillion dollars for mine clear-ing operations in Cambodia inthe aftermath of the 1975-1979 genocide that left an esti-mated 1.7 million people deadand the subsequent civil war.

Japan also provided moneyto the UN-backed KhmerRouge tribunal. In recentmonths, Japan has donated 1.3millions doses of coronavirusvaccines to Cambodia.

Upon arrival, Kishida andhis delegation laid a wreath atthe Independence Monumentand paid tribute at the RoyalMemorial Statue to KingNorodom Sihanouk.

���6----.,7.�G?��.8?H�

Worshippers at dawnprayer in a suburb of

Toronto tackled and subdueda 24-year-old man who alleged-ly entered their mosque andattacked people with bear sprayon Saturday, according to localpolice.

Peel Regional Police saidthe man walked into the DarAl-Tawheed Islamic Centre inMississauga, Ontario, andallegedly "discharged bear spraytowards people in the mosquewhile brandishing a hatchet?just before 7 a.M.

Speaking on behalf of themosque, Nadia Hasan of theNational Council of CanadianMuslims said a group of about20 men were praying when theman sprayed them.

"Some of the men turnedaround and they very bravelydecided that they were notgoing to let him attack them,"she said. "They tackled him tothe ground and apprehendedhim until the police showedup." Mohammad Moiz Oma ofMississauga has been arrested.Police say they're considering"all possible motivations" forthe incident, and charges arepending. Police said the con-gregants received minor

injuries as a result of the bearspray. "People are obviouslyquite shaken up and are recov-ering," Hasan said. "For themost part, folks are still pro-cessing what's happened andare trying to kind of see howthey can ensure that their com-munities remain secure." Canadian Prime MinisterJustice Trudeau condemnedthe attack, calling it "incrediblydisturbing" in a tweet. "I strong-ly condemn this violence -which has no place in Canada- and I'm keeping the com-munity in my thoughts today.

"I also want to applaud thecourage of those who werethere this morning." PremierDoug Ford, meanwhile, said,"There is NO place in ourprovince for such evil andhateful acts. We must ensurethose responsible are broughtto justice."

���� -�.6.*.��

Pakistan's Interior Minister SheikhRashid on Sunday warned the opposi-

tion leaders not to disrupt the OIC meet-ing here as he termed it a matter of nation-al security, amid opposition threat toblock the high-profile conference.

"I declare here that no one can dare tocreate any sort of hurdle in the holding ofthe Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) conference because it is an issue ofsecurity of Pakistan," Rashid said at a pressconference.

The minister asserted that up to 15,000

security personnel of police and the para-military forces would be deployed to pro-vide security to the delegates of Muslimcountries coming to participate in the con-ference.

The two-day event at the Parliamentwill have representatives of more than 50countries in attendance.

"Those due to attend the conference areour guests and the Pakistan Army has takenup the task of providing security to them,"he said earlier, adding that the governmentwould "take care" of the opposition withease and no one could dare create an obsta-cle in the way of the meeting.

Initially, the opposition had threatenedto stage a sit-in if the national assembly ses-sion was not called on time to take up a no-confidence motion against Prime MinisterImran Khan. However, the joint oppositiontoned down its stance on Sunday stressingthat Pakistan's political turmoil will not beallowed to affect the event in any way.

"The opposition pledges to do itsutmost to create an atmosphere in whichthe distinguished guests will be able tocarry out their activities with full attention,dedication and determination," said ajoint statement issued by opposition par-ties. ���� -�.6.*.��

Pakistan's National AssemblySpeaker Asad Qaiser on

Sunday announced to convenethe assembly session on March25 to take up a no-trust motionagainst Prime Minister ImranKhan.

Around 100 lawmakersfrom the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) andPakistan Peoples' Party (PPP)submitted the no-confidencemotion before the NationalAssembly Secretariat on March8, alleging that the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) govern-ment led by Khan was respon-sible for the economic crisis andthe spiralling inflation in thecountry.

On Sunday, the NASecretariat issued a notifica-tion, clearing the dust regardingthe key session which the oppo-sition had demanded to be con-vened by March 21 as per thelegal requirements.

"The session will convene at11 am on Friday and will be the41st session of the currentNational Assembly," accordingto the notification.

The speaker summoned thesession under the power givento him by Article 54 (3) and 254of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The opposition has beensaying that the session should besummoned within 14 days butInterior Minister Sheikh Rashidsaid at a press conference it canbe delayed due to extraordinarycircumstances.

The delay in this case is dueto the high-profile 48th summitof the Organisation of IslamicCooperation (OIC) startingfrom March 22 at the Parliament

House. Initially, the opposition had

threatened to stage a sit-in if thesession was not called on time.However, the joint oppositiontoned down its stance by stress-ing that Pakistan's political tur-moil will not be allowed to affectthe event in any way.

The lower house will delib-erate on the opposition's no-confidence resolution againstPrime Minister Imran Khan onMarch 25.

Once the motion is formal-ly taken up by the house, the vot-ing should be done betweenthree to seven days.

Both government andopposition politicians have beenworking overtime to tilt the bal-ance in their favour. The PPPheld the meeting of its core com-mittee, followed by the meetingof its leaders with PML-N andJUI-F leaders at a lunch hostedby PML-N president ShehbazSharif.

Khan also consulted hiscore group about the latest sit-uation. He also addressed thegroundbreaking ceremony ofRawalpindi Ring Road and toldhis supporters that the no-trustmove would fail.

Khan, 69, is heading a coali-tion government and he can beremoved if some of the partnersdecide to switch sides.

In the 342-memberNational Assembly, theOpposition needs 172 votes toremove Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician.

The PTI has 155 membersin the House and needs at least172 lawmakers on its side toremain in the government. Theparty has the support of 23members belonging to at least

?�����������������/���������/�������������������������������

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At least one person waskilled and 24 others

wounded, including children, ina shooting outside a car showin southeast Arkansas, policesaid.

Arkansas State Police saidin a news release Sunday thatone person was in custody andauthorities were searching forothers who may have fired intothe crowd Saturday evening.

Additional information,including conditions of thewounded, wasn't immediatelyavailable.

State troopers were dis-patched at around 7:25 pm toDumas, located about 90 milessouth of Little Rock, followinga report of gunfire outside a

business where the car showwas underway, Arkansas StatePolice spokesperson Bill Sadlersaid.

The car show is part of acommunity event held eachspring to raise funds for schol-arships and school supplies,according the website of theDelta NeighbourhoodEmpowerment YouthOrganisation.

Wallace McGehee, the carshow's organiser, expressedcondolences to the victims'families and the community.

"For something like this tohappen, it's a tragedy,"McGehee told KATV at thescene. "We did this here for 16years without a problem."

Chris Jones, a Democratrunning for Arkansas governor,tweeted that he'd attended theevent earlier Saturday, register-ing voters and enjoying "a pos-itive family atmosphere."

"I am deeply saddened (andhonestly angered) by thistragedy," Jones said in a state-ment.

��� �,*.�

Yemen's Houthi rebels unleashed abarrage of drone and missile

strikes on Saudi Arabia that targetedkey facilities including natural gas anddesalination plants early Sunday,Saudi state-run media reported, tem-porarily cutting oil production atone site.

The pre-dawn salvo marked thelatest escalation in the rebels' attackson the kingdom as the war in Yemenrages into its eighth year and peacetalks stall.

The attacks did not cause casual-ties, the Saudi-led military coalitionfighting in Yemen said, but damagednearby civilian vehicles and homes.

Hours after oil giant Aramco'sCEO told reporters the attacks had no

impact on oil supplies, the energyministry acknowledged that a dronestrike targeting the Yanbu AramcoSinopec Refining Company caused "atemporary reduction in the refinery'sproduction."

The disruption, coming as oilprices spike in an already-tight ener-gy market, "will be compensated forfrom the inventory," the ministrysaid in a statement, without elaborat-ing.

The assaults came as SaudiArabia's state-backed Aramco, theworld's largest oil company,announced its profits surged 124% in2021 to $110 billion, a jump fuelledby renewed anxieties about globalsupply shortages and soaring oilprices.

Aramco, also known as the Saudi

Arabian Oil Co., released its annualearnings after weeks of intense volatil-ity in energy markets triggered byRussia's invasion of Ukraine. Punitivesanctions on Russia, among theworld's largest exporters of crude andpetroleum products, have added tur-

moil to the market.The international oil benchmark

Brent crude spiked over $107 onSunday after nearly hitting a peak of$140 earlier this month. Saudi Arabiaand the United Arab Emirates have sofar resisted Western appeals toincrease oil production to offset theloss of Russian oil as gasoline pricesskyrocket.

Brig. Yehia Sarie, a spokesman forYemen's Iran-backed Houthis, said therebels had launched "a wide andlarge military operation," firing bal-listic missiles and bomb-laden dronesat Aramco facilities and other "sensi-tive targets."

He described the assault as retal-iation for the Saudi-led "aggressionand blockade" that has turned muchof Yemen into a wasteland.

The Saudi-led military coalitionsaid aerial strikes targeted a range offacilities: an Aramco liquified gas plantand petrochemicals complex in theRed Sea port of Yanbu, a power sta-tion in the country's southwest, adesalination facility in Al-Shaqeeq onthe Red Sea coast, an Aramco oil facil-ity in the southern border town ofJizan and a gas station in the south-ern city of Khamis Mushait.

The extent of damage on Saudiinfrastructure and energy facilitiesremained unclear, and the ministrysaid only the Yanbu refinery saw atemporary drop in output.

A joint venture between Aramcoand China, the $10 billion YanbuAramco Sinopec Refining Companyon the Red Sea pumps 400,000 bar-rels of oil a day.

��� .,-���

Four people were shot andwounded in downtown

Austin, Texas, early Sunday asthe city hosts the annual Southby Southwest festival, policesaid.

The Austin PoliceDepartment told people toavoid the area at around 2:50am, warning via Twitter thatthe gunman was still at large.

However, police tweetedthat a suspect was in custodyshortly before 5 am.

Police and the Austin-Travis County EMS said thevictims' injures were not life-threatening, and all four hadbeen taken to the hospital.

The coronavirus pan-demic forced the SXSW festi-val to go virtual the last twoyears.

In 2019, multiple shoot-ings took place as the festivaldrew to a close, promptingAustin's police chief to pledgemore security for the city'sentertainment district.

��� *�8���

More than 8,000people are attend-

ing an open-air concertin the German capital toexpress their supportfor Ukraine.

The “Sound ofPeace” concert at thecity's landmarkBrandenburg Gate onSunday features

German music starssuch as Marius Mueller-Westernhagen, who wasto perform his iconicsong Freiheit, or free-dom in German, vio-linist David Garrett,singer Peter Maffay, andthe bands Revolverheldand Silbermond.

Up to 20,000 peoplewere expected at theconcert which starteyd

in the early afternoonand was supposed tolast into the night.

On Sunday after-noon, police called onvisitors that the mainstreets leading to thevenue where so crowd-ed that newcomersshould look for othersways to get to the con-cert, German newsagency dpa reported.

���� �.�?8��

An accidental firecaused by shot-cir-

cuit triggered a series ofpowerful explosions at amilitary depot inPakistan's Punjabprovince on Sundaymorning, sparkingrumours that the keyarmy installation wastargeted by terrorists.

The accidental firebroke out in ammuni-tion shed near Sialkot

garrison, some 100 kmsfrom Lahore.

Pakistan Army'smedia wing - the InterServices Public Relations(ISPR) - issued a state-ment, saying "due toshort circuiting, acci-dental fire broke out inan ammunition shednear Sialkot Garrison.No loss of life.

Effective and timelyresponse containeddamages and fire hasbeen extinguished."

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AC Milan kept hold of theirthree-point lead at the top of

Serie A on Saturday with a 1-0 winat Cagliari, while Inter Milan fell fur-ther behind their local rivals afterbeing held 1-1 by Fiorentina.

Ismael Bennacer struck the onlygoal in the 59th minute of a hard-fought match in Sardinia to keepNapoli at arm's length after theybriefly drew level on points thanksto Victor Osimhen's double in a 2-1 win over Udinese.

A third win on the bounce forStefano Pioli's side stretched theirunbeaten league run to eight gamesand increased hopes of a firstScudetto since 2011, but it was amatch marred by racist abuse direct-ed at Mike Maignan and FikayoTomori from a section of home fansat the final whistle which sparked a

on-pitch shoving match."Maignan said to me 'It's not

possible that we're hearing thesesorts of insults'," Pioli told DAZN.

"It's the first time that he'sreacted and that means somethingbad happened that shouldn't havehappened. Tomori said the samething."

It was beautiful goal which wonthe game, Algeria internationalBennacer meeting Olivier Giroud'sinviting lay-off with a sumptuousfirst-time finish from the edge of thebox with his left foot.

However Milan would havehad a less stressful final few minuteshad Davide Calabria not ended ablistering counter-attack with atame finish straight at Alessio

Cragno when one-on-one only a fewyards out.

Leonardo Pavoletti thumpedthe crossbar with a powerful head-er as the match crept into stoppagetime, but Milan just about held onfor the win.

With eight games to go Milanalso have the gap between them andInter at six points as SimoneInzaghi's side continue their strug-gles.

The champions looked set for agrandstand finish at the San Siroafter Denzel Dumfries headed themlevel in the 55th minute, but thegame ended in an unhelpful stale-mate.

Simone Inzaghi's side sit third-- albeit with a game in hand -- after

having won just one of their lastseven league matches and whatwas a four-point lead at the start of2022 has slowly slipped throughtheir fingers.

"I would be more worried if theteam wasn't creating chances... in thesecond half we created a lot ofopportunities," said Inzaghi.

"We might not have got theresults but the team have been cre-ating."

They face Juventus next week-end in the 'Derby of Italy' and havetheir old rivals, who host bottomteam Salernitana on Sunday, fourpoints behind them in fourth andbreathing down their neck after a15-match unbeaten run in theleague. Fiorentina, who silenced the

home fans when Lucas Torreirasmashed home the opener fourminutes after half-time, are eighthand a point away from the Europeanplaces.

Loanee Torreira carried on play-ing despite losing a tooth afterbeing hit in the face, staying on thefield with a cotton swab in hismouth and then posting a image onTwitter of himself with a gap in histeeth.

They were saved by VAR 10minutes after Dumfries' leveller,when referee Daniele Chiffi over-ruled his own decision to give Intera penalty for a foul by LorenzoVenuti on Lautaro Martinez after anon-field review.

Osimhen was the hero of thehour for Napoli with both goals ina 2-1 win over Udinese, his bracekeeping Luciano Spalletti's sideright in the hunt.

��� ��.������-

Spanish superstar Rafael Nadalturned back the fierce challengeof young comptriot CarlosAlcaraz 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 on Saturday

to book an ATP Indian Wells Masterstitle clash with American Taylor Fritz.

Nadal, who claimed a record-set-ting 21st Grand Slam title at theAustralian Open in January, improvedto 20-0 in 2022, pushed all the waythrough three hours and 12 minutes bythe 18-year-old aiming to follow in thefootsteps of his childhood idol.

Fritz advanced with a 7-5, 6-4 vic-tory over world number seven AndreyRublev. Nadal won his only priormeeting with the 24-year-oldAmerican in the final at Acapulco in2020.

Nadal's experience was key in asee-saw battle in tricky winds thatstrengthened in the second set, send-ing debris skittering across the courtand at one point forcing a readjustmentof the billowing net late in the secondset.

The array of shots and athleticismthat have already stamped Alcaraz a

star were on full display, but a tenden-cy to go for too much in the keymoments may have contributed tosome damaging errors.

Even so, Nadal needed five setpoints to emerge with a hard-foughtfirst set that opened with Alcarazwinning the first two games.

The second game was a titanic bat-tle to hold serve in which the youngplayer fought off five of the astonish-ing 17 break points he would face inthe set.

Nadal won the next four gamesbefore surrendering his serve again, buthe pocketed the set with anotherbreak in the 10th game.

Down 0-40, Alcaraz delivered adrop shot winner, a backhand volleywinner and a service winner.

A forehand into the net gave Nadalanother opportunity, which the formerworld number one squandered with aneasy forehand miss. He'd make no mis-take two points later, pocketing the seton his fifth opportunity.

The second set was a tight affair,Alcaraz again seizing the initiative witha break for a 3-2 lead.

That launched a run of fivestraight breaks of serve, the lastanother marathon lasting almost 20minutes in which Nadal saved fivebreak points and missed two gamepoints before Alcaraz finally put himaway with a lob that dropped justinside the baseline as Nadal scrambledin vain to get back to it.

Alcaraz, who had won just threegames in his only prior career meetingwith Nadal in Madrid 10 months ago,then served out the set with an unre-turnable serve on his first set point.

As the wind died down again, thethird set saw both players hitting win-ners from every quarter of the court.

Nadal, faced with Alcaraz's speedaround the court, stepped up hisattack, coming to the net more in a bidto end the rallies.

It was his forehand volley in theeighth game that gave Nadal a breakand a 5-3 lead and he served it out witha love game.

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��� 6.�8�

Joao Felix's superb pass setup Koke's winner as Atletico

Madrid jumped to third in LaLiga on Saturday with a 1-0win over Rayo Vallecano.

With Barcelona playingReal Madrid in the Clasico onSunday, Atletico took advan-tage at Vallecas, their fifth con-secutive victory giving themsome breathing space in thefight for the top four.

They had to see out thelast nine minutes with 10 menafter Angel Correa, on as asubstitute, was sent off. Butjust as they did againstManchester United onTuesday in the ChampionsLeague, Atletico dug in andheld on.

They now have a five-point lead over Real Betis infifth and sit three ahead ofBarcelona in fourth, even ifBetis have one game in handand Barca two.

Diego Simeone's side cer-tainly head into the interna-tional break with momentumfor the run-in, after roundingoff an excellent seven days thatbegan with victory againstCadiz before knocking outUnited.

The draw on Fridayensured the reward for thatresult will be a meeting withManchester City in thelast eight and whileAtletico will be clearunderdogs against thereigning PremierLeague champions,they are also buildingform and confi-dence at just theright time. "Ithink we havefound the key,we haveincreased theintensity,the team isp l a y i n gbetter andthat's reflected in

the results," said Koke."We have grown together,"

added Simeone.Felix has been key, this his

seventh goal or assist in his lastseven matches, the 22-year-oldrepaying Simeone's faith whileLuis Suarez again started onthe bench.

This was the sixth consec-utive game Suarez has beennamed as a substitute and,with the quicker, more agilepairing of Felix and AntoineGriezmann up front, Atleticohave hit their stride.

Rayo stay 12th, after mak-ing it 10 league games withouta victory. They were in con-tention for the European spotsonly a few weeks ago but nowsit just eight points above therelegation places.

Felix was at the heart ofthe decisive moment in the49th minute as Koke collect-ed on the edge of the area andplayed inside to thePortuguese.

As Rayo's defence turnedto Felix, nobody spotted Kokecontinuing his run, except theforward, who slid the ballthrough first time for Koke tocurl in the finish.

Griezmann should havemade it two but was denied bya close-range save from StoleDimitrievski and Atletico werealmost undone when OscarValentin's driven cross found

Randy Nteka free five yardsout. Somehow Ntekaskewed over.

Correa was sent off inthe 85th minute for what

appeared to be an alterca-tion with Rayo's

Alejandro Catenaand Rayo went

close in injury-time, after

Dimitrievskiwas sent upfor a corner.

The balldropped loose for IvanBalliu and he shot low,but straight at Jan Oblak.

��� 6,�3�

Bayern Munich thrashedUnion Berlin 4-0 on

Saturday to open a seven-pointlead at the top of theBundesliga as RobertLewandowski netted twice topass the milestone of 30 leaguegoals this season.

Second-placed BorussiaDortmund are away to Cologneon Sunday.

"We played very well andcreated many chances. Wewanted to win to widen thegap" to Dortmund, admittedgoalscorer Kingsley Coman.

Bayern went ahead at theAllianz Arena when Coman hita superb shot into the top cor-ner from outside the area on 16minutes.

Teenage French defenderTanguy Nianzou then headedin his first Bayern goal beforeLewandowski converted apenalty to make it 3-0 at thebreak.

After drawing their previ-ous two league games, Bayernwere all business by dominat-ing possession and never allow-ing Union to settle.

Lewandowski has chalkedup 43 goals for Bayern this sea-

son in all competitions.He is one of four players

out of contract in 2023, yetBayern are reportedly yet tooffer him an extension.

The second half had bare-ly begun when Lewandowski,

who showed no signs of amidweek knee-injury scare,made it 4-0 by sweeping in aJamal Musiala pass.

At the other end, Bayerndefender Lucas Hernandezcleared a shot from a tight angleby Union striker TaiwoAwoniyi off the line.

The tempo dropped earlyin the second half, but Bayernwere rarely tested thereafter asthey cruised to the win.

Even Joshua Kimmich,who is notoriously hard on histeam's performances, washappy with Bayern's win.

"We allowed them two orthree chances in the first halfthat were unnecessary, but itwas still a deserved victory,"said Kimmich.

"The attitude and approachwere right."

The victory was Bayerngoalkeeper Manuel Neuer's311th in the Bundesliga, break-ing the record he previouslyshared with Oliver Kahn.

�� � ).8-

Paris St Germain produced awoeful performance as they

lost 3-0 at Monaco in Ligue 1 onSunday, a result that will putcoach Mauricio Pochettinounder more pressure less thantwo weeks after their ChampionsLeague exit.

PSG, on 65 points from 29games, still lead Olympique deMarseille and Nice by 15 pointsbefore those sides meet later onSunday, following third straightaway league defeat.

With Lionel Messi ruledout by a bout of flu, the capitalside showed close to nothing atthe Louis II stadium 11 daysafter being knocked in theChampions League last 16 byReal Madrid who scored threegoals in 17 minutes.

Monaco climbed to sev-enth on 44 points.

"They played well, congrat-ulations to them. They're a good

team, a great club," PSG strikerKylian Mbappe said.

"The goal is to get the 10thFrench title. We can win 8-0, 9-0, people will talk about theChampions League. Whateverhappens we must respect our-selves, if we have a little bit of selfesteem. We also need to respectthe fans." PSG were over-whelmed in midfield and it was

not long before they were pun-ished. Ben Yedder put the hostsahead on 25 minutes after beat-ing Presnel Kimpembe at thenear post to deflect YoussoufFofana's cross into the top cor-ner. The opener came shortlyafter PSG's first attempt of thegame, a curled shot fromNeymar that went just wide.

They improved slightly

before the interval, with Mbappeand Achraf Hakimi creatingchances, but their performancewas still well below their best.

PSG were not much betterafter the break, althoughMbappe wasted a couple ofgood opportunities beforeMonaco doubled their advan-tage in the 68th minute.

An unchallenged Fofanafound Ben Yedder on the rightand the France striker's passreached Ruben Aguilar whodeflected the ball for KevinVolland to score from six metres.

Pochettino replacedLeandro Paredes with MauroIcardi and Neymar with JulianDraxler, but the changes hadzero effect as PSG concededanother goal six minutes fromtime. Volland was tripped in thebox by Kimpembe and BenYedder converted the resultingpenalty to confirm PSG's fourthconsecutive away defeat in allcompetitions.

��� *��78.��

Untouchable Yulimar Rojasset a new outright world

record in the triple jump at theWorld Indoor Championshipsin Belgrade on Sunday en routeto winning an unprecedentedthird title.

The Venezuelan, who pre-viously won indoor Golds inBirmingham in 2018 andPortland in 2016, smashed herown previous best of 15.43metres when she soared out to15.74m on her sixth and finalattempt at the Stark Arena.

It capped yet another dom-inant display of triple jumpingby the Venezuelan -- not sincethe 2016 Rio Olympics has shebeen defeated at a global cham-pionships, and on that occasionshe still secured Silver.

The two-time world out-door champion also holds the

outdoor world record, 15.67m,which she set when winningGold in Tokyo last summer.

"I achieved my thirdindoor title here which iscrowned with the world record,I cannot be more thankful,"said Rojas.

"Coming here, I knew itwas the right time to achievethis and I took the chance. I didnot want to miss this opportu-nity today.

��� � *��78.��

Asian record holder shotputter Tajinderpal Singh

Toor failed to produce anyvalid throw in all his threeattempts as Indian athletesended their campaign withoutany impact at the World IndoorAthletics Championships here.

Toor, a Tokyo Olympian,fouled all his three attempts toend with 'No Mark (NM)'against his name.

Darlan Romani of Brazilwon the gold with a best throwof 22.53m, while AmericanRyan Crouser (22.44m) andTomas Walsh (22.31m) of NewZealand took the silver andbronze respectively lateSaturday night.

The 27-year-old Toor, whowon gold in the 2018 AsianGames, holds the Asian recordof 21.49m which he had pro-duced last year in Patiala.

Earlier, national recordholder long jumper MSreeshankar had finished sev-enth with a best jump of 7.92m,while Dutee Chand failed toenter the semifinals of women's60m sprint after finishing sixthin her heats and 30th overallwith a timing of 7.35 seconds.

Nadal reaches Indian Wells final

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Crystal Palace stormed intothe FA Cup semi-finals for

the first time in six years witha 4-0 thrashing of strugglingEverton on Sunday.

Marc Guehi, Jean-Philippe Mateta, WilfriedZaha and Will Hughes got thegoals as the Eagles continuedtheir impressive first seasonunder Patrick Vieira.

Everton's focus now turnsto just staying in the PremierLeague as they sit perilouslyjust above the relegation zone.

Frank Lampard's menmanaged just a second leaguewin in 12 games againstNewcastle on Thursday andstarted like they could buildon that confidence boost.

Michael Keane wasted aglorious early chance, whileRicharlison saw two appealsfor a penalty waived away.

However, there was noway back once their frailtyfrom set-pieces was exposedfor the opening goal.

Guehi was called into theEngland squad for the firsttime this week and celebratedwith his fourth goal sincejoining from Chelsea as heheaded in Michael Olise's cor-ner.

The combination of Olise,Zaha and Eberechi Eze thenbegan to cut Everton apart, nomore so than in a flowingmove for the second goal.

Eze's quick feet freed Zahadown the left and his low crosswas swept in by Mateta.

Everton laboured as theytried to get back in the tie withDemarai Gray's long-rangeeffort that flew wide the clos-est the came to a response.

But two more goals in thefinal 11 minutes set the seal ona resounding Palace win.

Zaha was alert after Olise'sshot looped up onto the cross-bar to slot home his 10th goalof the season.

And Hughes rounded off

the scoring with his first goalsince 2019 on the reboundafter Jordan Pickford pro-duced a stunning save to denyConnor Gallagher.

Palace join Chelsea in thedraw for the last four withSouthampton hostingManchester City andLiverpool travelling toNottingham Forest inSunday's two other quarter-final ties.

Page 12: 3ZcV_ Zd >R_Zafc 4> RXRZ_ - Daily Pioneer

���� �.�?8�

Australia Test skipper PatCummins says since theimpact of precautionaryprohibition on use of sali-

va for shining the ball was not ashuge as anticipated, a permanentban on its usage will not be a "bigdeal" for the seam bowlers.

Saliva application was barred bythe ICC in view of the COVID-19pandemic in May 2020.

Marylebone Cricket Club(MCC), the custodian of cricketlaws, recently imposed a complete

ban on the use of saliva whileannouncing its amended 2022 code,which will come into effect inOctober this year.

The MCC reasoned that apply-ing saliva had no impact on theball's movement, according to itsresearch.

"I don't think so (permanentsaliva ban will hamper the perfor-mance of the swing bowlers),"Cummins, himself a pacer, toldreporters ahead of Australia's thirdTest against Pakistan. "I don'tthink it has made a huge effect, asbig as we might have thought it

would. We can still use sweat so it'snot too big a deal," he added. TheMCC said that using saliva to shinethe ball would be treated as anunfair practice.

GREAT THAT KKR HAVERETAINED MOST OF THESQUAD

Cummins, who had become themost expensive foreign buy in theIndian Premier League (IP) in 2019when Kolkata Knight Riders boughthim for a whopping Rs 15.50 crore,will turn out for the Kolkata-basedoutfit once again. "Really excited. It's

been great that most of the squadhas been able to kept together. So,most of the players and staff knowreally really well," he said. KKR havenamed Indian batter Shreyas Iyer asskipper and having shared thedressing room with him in the 2017edition of the IPL, Cummins islooked forward to joining forceswith him once again.

"Shreyas, I played with atDelhi(Daredevils), we got on real-ly well. He's seem like a very calmguy and seems in form at themoment."

"I'm so excited to go over there,I have some close friends I will beplaying alongside, can't wait," headded.

KOHLI, BABAR BOTH REALLYCOMPLETE BATTERS

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam,who played a sensational 196-runknock against Australia in the sec-ond Test earlier this week, hasoften been compared to India bat-ting veteran Virat Kohli, who hasalready established himself as oneof the greats of the game.

Asked to compare the two,Cummins said, "They are bothreally complete batters no matterwhat format you play, they presenttheir challenges." "They are bothreally high quality (players), bothhave scored centuries againstAustralia over the years." Talkingabout the similarities of the currenttop batters of the world includingKohli, New Zealand skipper KaneWilliamson, England Test captainJoe Root and Azam, Cummins saidall of them are not easily flustered.

"All know their game incrediblywell, They are never flustered, happyto bat long periods of time. If thereis an opportunity, they get off themark pretty quickly, start accumu-lating the runs really quickly.

�� ����6��������� �!���" ��#$��%&�'��

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England kept their semi-finalhopes alive at the Women's

World Cup Sunday as Nat Sciver set upa dramatic one-wicket victory over hostsNew Zealand in Auckland.

Chasing New Zealand's below par 203,Sciver's 61 had England cruising to victory at187 for five before they lost four wickets fornine runs.

The last pair Charlie Dean and AnyaShrubsole took a nervous two overs to pickoff the remaining eight runs and seal the winwith 16 balls remaining.

"It's crazy, we just got over the line. Weprobably shouldn't have," a delighted Sciversaid after being named player of the match.

It made the tournament a lot brighter fordefending champions England who havebounced back from early losses to Australia,West Indies and South Africa.

"I'm just relieved to get over the line,"England captain Heather Knight said.

"The main thing today was getting the winand luckily we did.

"There's a bit of relief there and I thinkwe'll take being on the right side of this winand obviously reflect on what we could havedone better."

Unbeaten Australia have already qualifiedfor the final four while England, SouthAfrica, West Indies and India are all in con-tention for the remaining three slots.

Aiding England's cause is that theirremaining matches are against the two bot-tom-of-the-table sides — Bangladesh andPakistan. New Zealand still have a remotechance of advancing to the semi-finals butneed several unlikely results to go their way.

After New Zealand failed to bat out their50 overs, England took a relatively risk-freeapproach to their run chase.

There was a slight wobble when theyreached 98 for two when Heather Knight, for42, and Amy Jones, for one, fell in quick suc-cession.

But Sciver restored order with her wellcompiled 61 which included a 70-run standwith Sophia Dunkley, who made 33, as they

moved to within 17 of their target with 40 ballsremaining.

But when she was bowled with the scoreat 187 it started a nerve-racking period forEngland until Shrubsole clipped a four anda single off Brooke Halliday to get Englandhome.

New Zealand's hopes of firming up a top-four placing hit a roadbump when SophieDevine retired with a back injury and they lostfour wickets for 11 runs in the space of 17deliveries to go from 150-4 to 161-8.

Devine returned but only added fourmore before being dismissed for 41 whileMaddy Green ensured New Zealand passedthe 200 mark and was unbeaten on 52 whenthe innings ended in the 49th over.

Kate Cross accounted for New Zealand'srecognised batters with three for 35 whileSophie Ecclestone mopped up the lower orderwith three for 41.

Frankie Mackay was New Zealand'smost successful bowler with four for 34.

����6,6*.

Having bought a lot of newfaces at the IPL mega auc-

tion this year, Delhi Capitalshead coach Ricky Pontingstressed that the players whohave been retained by the fran-chise now have a responsibilityto guide the youngsters in theteam.

The Capitals had retainedfour players -- skipper RishabhPant, opener Prithiv Shaw, spinall-rounder Axar Patel andSouth Africa pacer AnrichNortje -- ahead of the auctionand the coach is trying his bestto get to know the rest of thesquad ahead of the league whichbegins on March 26.

"I have told the boys to keeptheir doors open when they arein their rooms and get to knoweach other. I am going to havebreakfast, lunch and dinnerwith all the younger guys that Idon't know," Ponting was quot-ed as saying in a media release.

"When you show love

towards the younger guys as acoach or a senior player, youknow that they are going to giveit back."

"The guys who have been inthe Delhi Capitals camp for awhile definitely have the respon-sibility of guiding the youngstersin the team.

"Rishabh's captain, so he'sgoing to do that anyway, butguys like Prithvi, Axar andNortje will also have their rolesand responsibilities within theteam," he added.

Ponting was impressed withthe energetic vibe around thegroup of players when he attend-ed his first training session withthe team.

"At the moment, we need toreally focus on what we need todo to get ready for game one. Ihad a great first session with theplayers. There's an energeticvibe around the team, which iswhat we always strive for,"Ponting said.

Delhi Capitals' new foreignrecruits include David Warner,Mitchell Marsh, Tim Seifert andRovman Powell.

Vicky Ostwal, ChetanSakaria, Yash Dhull, SarfarazKhan and Kamlesh Nagarkotiare the youngsters in the side.

Delhi Capitals will opentheir campaign against MumbaiIndians on March 27.

���6��*?,8��

Australian cricket superstarShane Warne was farewelled

at a private funeral on Sunday byfamily and friends, as formerfiancee Elizabeth Hurley said her"heart aches" that she was not ableto attend.

The legendary leg spinner'sbody was found at a luxury resortin Thailand on March 4, with hisdeath from a suspected heartattack aged just 52 provokingshock and grief around the worldfrom prime ministers, rock starsand fellow players.

An autopsy revealed Warnedied of natural causes, with a pri-vate jet last week flying himhome to his native Melbourne.

He was remembered Sundayin an invitation-only funeral at StKilda Football Club, an

Australian Rules team he sup-ported all his life.

Among the mourners wereWarne's three children Brooke,Jackson, and Summer along withfellow cricketers, local media per-sonalities and his close-knit pokergroup. The service ended with his

coffin given a lap of honour at StKilda's home ground as familymembers walked behind and thesong "The Time of My Life" fromthe movie "Dirty Dancing"boomed through loudspeakers.

Tina Turner's "Simply TheBest" played as the hearse left the

ground."He brought together so

many things," his close friend andtelevision presenter EddieMcGuire, who delivered a eulo-gy, told the Herald Sun newspa-per outside the venue.

"The reason why he was soloved is because he was fallible, hewas Superman.

"The magic part about ShaneWarne was that he sprinkled hisgold dust everywhere he went. Hedidn't become a hermit, hebrought his friends into every-thing in life," McGuire added.

Australia teammates at theservice included Mark Taylor,Ian Healy, Mark Waugh, MichaelClarke and Glenn McGrath whileex-England captain MichaelVaughan was also seen arriving.

But Warne's former partner,the British actress Hurley, said she

was unable to make the celebra-tion of a larger-than-life charac-ter who transcended his sport.

"My heart aches that I can't bein Australia tomorrow for Shane'sfuneral," Hurley wrote onInstagram late Saturday. "I wasfilming last night and, with thetime jump, physically can't getthere." She accompanied her mes-sage with pictures of the couplecelebrating their engagement inSri Lanka.

They became a couple afterWarne split with the mother of hischildren, Simone Callahan, butthey parted ways in late 2013.

"It still hasn't really sunk inthat he's gone," Hurley added.

"It seems too cruel that all thepeople who loved him will neverhave another Lion hug, but ourmemories will live forever. RIPLionheart, with love, your Luna."

���� 6,6*.

Indian quick Navdeep Sainiis eager to observe Trent

Boult "go about his business"and pick the New Zealandpace spearhead's brain in a bidto improve his game duringhis stint with the RajasthanRoyals in the IPL this season.

One of the fastest bowlersin the country currently, Sainiwill be an important cog in theRoyals' newly forged fast bowl-ing line-up alongside Boult.

"I am most looking for-ward to connecting with TrentBoult during the IPL. He issomeone who has achieved somuch in both internationaland IPL cricket, and it'll be agreat experience to just speakto him about various aspectsof fast bowling," Saini wasquoted as saying in a release.

"I'll be most focused onobserving him go about hisbusiness, and hopefully thatshould also help in improvingmy own game," added Saini,who has 17 wickets in the IPLat an economy of 8.47.

Having recently been a

part of the Delhi squad duringthe league stage of the RanjiTrophy, where he picked upfive wickets in two matches,the Karnal Express hopes toget better as he shifts his focusto the white-ball game, aimingto contribute and help theRoyals.

"I'm looking forward toworking with the very experi-enced coaching group and atalented group of players. TheRoyals are known for fosteringa fantastic atmosphere aroundthe group, and I'm simplylooking to experience thatand connect with everyoneand get going this season."

"I'm also really excited towork with Kumar Sangakkaraand Lasith Malinga, and picktheir brains on various aspectsof the game. I think this willbe a great opportunity for meto learn and groom myself,further evolving my skills andcontributing to the team's per-formances," Saini added.

Having missed majority ofIPL 2021 due to injury con-cerns, Saini said he's beenputting in the hard yards.

"I wasn't able to play a lotof matches last season, but Ithink I'm coming into this sea-son on the back of a lot of hardwork that I've put into myself,both on and off the field. "I'mfeeling good about my bowl-ing again, and can't wait to getback into the IPL and performfor the team." The speedstersigned off by touching uponhis ambitions for the seasonwith the Royals.

"I feel we've got a goodsquad with a mix of excitingand experienced players, all ofwhom have done well for theirrespective nations and statesides in the build-up to theIPL. There's been a nice feel-ing around the camp even attraining, and some reallyintense sessions."

"On a more personal note,the goal is to help the teamwith my abilities and perfor-mances, be it bowling with thenew ball, in the middle overs,or at the death. "It is importantto plan smartly and then exe-cute them properly, especial-ly, given the nature of modern-day T20” he said.

���� �,*.

The Chinnaswamy Stadiumpitch in Bengaluru, which

was used for the second Testbetween India and Sri Lankaearlier this month, was onSunday rated "below average" bythe ICC.

The venue thus receivedone demerit point under theICC Pitch and OutfieldMonitoring Process.

According to the revisedICC Pitch and OutfieldMonitoring Process, which wasintroduced on January 4, 2018,"if a pitch or outfield is rated asbeing substandard, that venuewill be allocated a number ofdemerit points."

"One demerit point will be

awarded to venues whose pitch-es are rated by the match refer-ees as below average, whilethree and five demerit pointswill be awarded to venues whosepitches are marked as poor andunfit, respectively.

"No demerit point will beawarded when the outfield israted as below average, but twoand five demerit points will beawarded to venues whose out-fields are marked as poor andunfit, respectively."

Demerit points will remainactive for a rolling five-year peri-od. When a venue accumulatesfive demerit points (or crossesthat threshold), it will be sus-pended from hosting any inter-national cricket for a period of12 months, the ICC said.

��� �.�?8�

After two batting-dominateddraws, rival skippers Babar

Azam and Pat Cummins are bothtargeting a series-winning victo-ry when the third and finalPakistan-Australia Test starts inLahore Monday.

The series -- Australia's firstin Pakistan for 24 years -- openedwith a high scoring stalemate ona featherbed pitch in Rawalpindibefore the hosts salvaged a fight-ing draw in Karachi on the backof an epic 196 from Azam.

Lahore's Gaddafi stadium isAzam's home ground and will bestaging a Test for the first timesince a fatal terror attack on theSri Lankan team bus in 2009caused international cricket to besuspended in Pakistan.

"I can't explain the feelings,"said Azam on Sunday.

"You have a different feelingwhen you play on your homeground and before your homecrowd.

"I see a result here and if wewin, against a major team, it willmean a lot and a proud momentfor us."

Both the pitches inRawalpindi and Karachi did notgive enough assistance to thespinners, but Azam hopes Lahorepitch will be more receptive.

"I feel it will definitely giveturn. It has small cracks fromwhere spinners get help and

patches are formed," said Azam,who may opt to include uncappedleg-spinner Zahid Mahmood tosupport slow-bowling pairNauman Ali and Sajid Khan.

Cummins felt the pitch mightturn out to be similar to the flattracks encountered in the firsttwo Tests.

"It seems hard, but I can't seeit being too much different fromthe other ones," said Cumminswho announced Australia willfield an unchanged side from thesecond Test.

"We feel like we've got allbases covered if needed, whetherit's reverse swing or swing later inthe game.

"Everyone has pulled up real-ly well. We gave them an extracouple of days to make sureeveryone has come up good. Butthere's no injury worries, every-one is freshened up, so we're con-fident in the eleven."

Cummins urged Australia,who dropped four crucial catch-es in the second innings inKarachi, to take their chances.

"Wickets are at a premium inthis series so you can't afford todrop too many chances," he said."So that's going to be the chal-lenge this week."

Australia have not won aTest series on Asian soil sincetheir 1-0 win in Sri Lanka in 2011.

��� A?�.���-*,87

Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada took5-39 as South Africa cruised to

a seven-wicket victory overBangladesh in the second ODI at

The Wanderers on Sunday tosquare the three-match series.Bangladesh chose to bat, but aftera poor start could only manage 194for nine in their 50 overs. Thehome side had no trouble chasing

down the target, which theyreached with 76 balls to spare.

Bangladesh collapsed to 34 forfive as the home seamers gotexaggerated bounce out of the sur-face and caught the edge with reg-ularity. Rabada was particularlydestructive, but when South Africalost their third seamer, WayneParnell, to a hamstring injuryearly in his spell, it opened an endfor the visitors. Afif Hossain (72from 107 balls) and Mehidy HasanMiraz (38 from 49 balls) put on 86for the seventh wicket to bringrespectability to the score, but itwas well below par at a venuefamous for high-scoring games.

That was proven by openerQuinton de Kock as he smashed62 from 41 balls in the home side'sreply and Kyle Verreynne (58 notout from 77 balls) led South Africato an easy win.

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‘Permanent saliva ban not big deal’

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