RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 269 | Friday, 1 October 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

Bhabanipur bypoll witnesses 53.32% turnout till 5 pm

Bengal extends Covid curbs till Oct 30, relaxes night movt for Puja

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Extending the Covid restrictions till October 30, the Bengal government on Thursday allowed the move-ment of people and vehicles between 11 pm and 5 am for 10 days from Durga Puja to Lakshmi Puja in the middle of the month.

All outdoor activities, including the movement of people and vehicles would, however, remain restricted on other days of the month till October end. The state gov-ernment has decided not to impose night restrictions from 11 pm to 5 am from October 10 to 20 “in view of the ensu-ing festive period”.

Maha Saptami of Durga Puja is on October 12. The relaxation on night restric-

tions would allow people to visit pandals following the Covid guidelines even after 11 pm from the day of Chaturthi. Till Lakshmi Puja, which will be observed on October 20, there will be no restrictions on the movement of people and vehicles from 11 pm to 5 am.

However, wearing of masks, maintenance of physi-cal distancing and health and hygiene protocol has to be fol-lowed properly or else strict

action will be taken as per the provisions of the Disas-ter Management Act 2005 and Indian Penal Code.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said while addressing the Durga Puja coordination meeting of the Kolkata Police at Netaji Indoor Stadium, that the state govern-ment’s decision on allowing people to visit pandals at night would be informed later.

The police administration in every district has already held coordination meetings with all the Durga Puja organ-isers. In the meetings, both the police and officers of civil administrations have informed the Puja organisers about the norms that need to be followed in terms of erecting pandals and crowd management.

Continued on P4

SUSHIL MANAV

CHANDIGARH/ NEW DELHI: Days after he stepped down as Punjab Congress chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday met Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi “for talks” at the Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.

According to sources, all issues were “resolved to sat-isfaction” between Sidhu and the Channi Cabinet during

the meeting. Before the meet-ing, Sidhu had said that he was open to “any discussions”.

Meanwhile, former Pun-jab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday laid rumours to rest, confirm-ing that he will not be join-ing BJP, but will be leaving the Congress. In an interview with NDTV, Singh, who was forced to step down as CM earlier this month, said he will not be “treated in this manner”.

“So far I am in the Con-gress but I will not remain in the Congress. I have already made my position very clear. I will not be treated in this manner,” the Captain said in an interview a day after meet-ing with Union Home minister Amit Shah in Delhi. Soon after the reveal, he dropped “Con-gress” from his Twitter bio. A formal resignation would come at an “appropriate time”, he said. Continued on P4

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana, has recommended 16 names for elevation as judges of the high courts of Bombay, Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab and Haryana.

In its meeting held on Wednesday, the Collegium approved the proposal for the elevation of 16 names — six judicial officers and 10 advo-cates as judges of these four high courts.

As per the statements uploaded on the Apex Court website on Thursday, the Col-legium has approved the pro-posal for the elevation of four judicial officers — A L Pansare, S C More, U S Joshi-Phalke and B P Deshpande — as judges of the Bombay High Court.

Similarly, the Collegium has recommended names of advocates Aditya Kumar Mohapatra and Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo and judicial offi-cers Radha Krishna Pattanaik and Sashikanta Mishra for their elevation as judges of the Orissa High Court.

For the Gujarat High Court, the Collegium has approved the proposal for elevation of seven advocates — Mauna Manish Bhatt, Samir J Dave, Hemant M Prachchhak, Sandeep N Bhatt, Aniruddha Pradyumna Mayee, Niral Rashmikant Mehta and Nisha Mahendrabhai Thakore — as judges there.

The Supreme Court Col-legium in its meeting held on September 29, 2021 has approved the proposal for ele-vation of Sandeep Moudgil, advocate, as judge in the Pun-jab and Haryana High Court, said one of the statements.

Besides the CJI, the three-member Collegium which deals with the appointment in high courts includes Justices U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar.

The Collegium has been taking steps by recommending names to fill up a large number of vacancies in higher judiciary in the country. Continued on P4

Sidhu meets Channi; Amarinder says ‘not joining BJP, but won’t stay in Cong’

SC Collegium recommends 16 names for elevation as

judges of 4 HCs

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The bypoll at Bha-banipur Assembly constitu-ency on Thursday passed off peacefully without any untow-ard incident leaving the BJP only to lodge 12 “baseless” complaints with the Election Commission.

Banerjee cast her vote at 3.15 pm at Mitra Institution at ward number 73 of the Kol-kata Municipal Corporation while Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also cast his vote at the same venue at around 4.30 pm.

Despite a sloth at the begin-ning with only 21.73 percent votes polled till 11 am, the per-centage went up in the South Kolkata’s Assembly segment in the second half as it recorded 48.08 percent polls till 3 pm and 53.32 percent till 5 pm. There are around 2.05 lakh vot-ers, including 95,209 female and four third gender voters in Bhabanipur.

The Election Commission would announce the final poll percentage on Friday. It needs a mention that the by-election on Thursday witnessed a record turnout of voters compared to that of 2011 bypoll when only 44.73 percent votes were polled in that constituency.

The 12 “baseless” com-plaints include the allegation of BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal of the presence of

an outsider at a polling station housed at Khalsa Girls’ High School. It was later revealed that the youth is a voter of Bhabanipur Assembly con-stituency but he is presently staying in Bansdroni for the

time being. Though the inci-dent led to chaos in the area, it did not affect the poll pro-cess at the booth. Later, voters from the constituency staged a demonstration against Tibre-wal accusing her of creating

disturbance in the area.Another attempt of spread-

ing false news regarding ten-sion in Bhabanipur was foiled when the Kolkata Police released the footage of CCTV cameras rubbishing the claim of Kalyan Chowbey, the elec-tion agent of Hindustani Awami Morcha candidate and a close associate of the BJP, that his car was vandalised by sup-porters of some political lead-ers. Police confirmed that the incident did not have any polit-ical connection as Chowbey’s car was damaged by a youth after a collision between the latter’s bike and his car near Padmapukur. Continued on P4

Highlights » Despite a sloth at the beginning with only 21.73 percent votes polled till 11 am, the percentage went up in the South Kolkata’s Assembly segment in the second half as it recorded 48.08 percent polls till 3 pm and 53.32 percent till 5 pm » The 12 “baseless” complaints include the al-legation of BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal of the presence of an outsider at a polling station housed at Khalsa Girls’ High School. It was later revealed that the youth is a voter of Bhabanipur Assembly con-stituency but he is presently staying in Bansdroni for the time being » Besides the 35 companies of the Central forces, senior officers, including 5 Joint Commissioners of Police, 14 Deputy Commissioners of Police and 14 Assistant Commissioners ensured tight security arrangements when people exercised their franchise at 287 booths in eight wards (63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 77 and 82). All the booths were under CCTV surveil-lance and webcasting

Sidhu likely to stay on as Punjab Congress chief for now: Sources

Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek arrive to cast their votes on Thursday MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Petrol and diesel prices on Thursday neared record levels across the country after rates were hiked by 25 paise and 30 paise a litre respectively.

The government also hiked by 62 per cent the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers and turned into CNG to use as fuel in automobiles and cooking gas for household kitchens. This is the first increase in rates since April 2019 and comes on back of firming benchmark international prices but does not reflect the spurt in spot or current price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) witnessed during the last couple of weeks.

The price of petrol was hiked to Rs 101.64 a litre in Delhi and to Rs 107.71 per litre in Mumbai, according

to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Diesel rates increased to Rs 89.87 a litre in Delhi and Rs 97.52 in Mumbai.

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

This is the second price increase in petrol since the ending of a three-week-long hiatus in rate revision and the fifth in the case of diesel.

The hike took the retail price of petrol to a near-record high. Petrol had hit a record high of Rs 101.84 a litre in Delhi in July and Rs 107.83 in Mumbai.

Continued on P4

Diesel at a record high, petrol nears all-time

high as rates hiked again

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Taking a grim view of the continuing blockade of highways con-necting the national Capital to the neighbouring states by farmers protesting against the three farm laws, the Supreme Court on Thursday observed that such stretches cannot be blocked perpetually, and said it is the executive’s duty to implement the law laid down by the court.

The top court allowed the Centre to file a formal application to make farmer unions party to the plea seek-ing opening of road blockade at Delhi-Uttar Pradesh bor-der at UP Gate here.

A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sun-dresh said: “The redressal of problems can be through

judicial forum, agitation or through Parliamentary debates. But how can the highways be blocked and this is happening perpetu-ally. Where does this end?”

The top court was hear-ing a plea of a NOIDA resi-dent Monicca Agrawaal, who has sought removal of block-ade saying that earlier it took

20 minutes to reach Delhi and now it is taking over two hours and people of the area are facing hardships due to protests at the UP Gate on Delhi border.

At the outset, the Bench asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj what is the government doing in the matter.

Nataraj said that they had convened a meeting with the protesting farmers and details have been mentioned in the affidavit.

The Bench said: “We may lay down a law but how to implement the law is your business. The court cannot implement it. It is the execu-tive who has to implement it.”

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that it is the duty of the executive to implement it. Continued on P4

‘How can highways be perpetually blocked?’

SC ON FARMERS’ STIR AT DELHI BORDER

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: With the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) extended deadline coming to an end, there will be no auto-matic recurring payment for various services including recharge and utility bill as the additional factor of authen-tication (AFA) will become mandatory from Friday.

On December 4, RBI had directed all banks including RRBs, NBFCs, and payment gateways that the process-ing of recurring transactions (domestic or cross-border) using cards or Prepaid Pay-ment Instruments (PPIs) or Unified Payments Interface (UPI) under arrangements/practices not compliant with AFA would not be continued beyond March 31, 2021.

As part of risk mitigation measures, RBI announced this step to bolster safety and security of card transactions.

Continued on P4

New auto debit rules of RBI from today

INDIA RECORDS 23,529 COVID CASES VOTING ‘LARGELY PEACEFUL’ IN STATE

City: Pg 3Bengal logs 749 cases; about 744 discharged in past 24 hrs

Nation: Pg 5‘TMC planning to contest all 40 seats in Goa Assembly polls’

Film: Pg 12Sonakshi takes a dig at nepotism in Bollywood

File photo

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

Ahead of Durga Puja, an artisan gives finishing touches to an idol at his workshop on Thursday PIC/MPOST

Bengal logs 749 cases; about 744 discharged in past 24 hrs

KMC, cops to urge owners to vacate dilapidated houses

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Ensuring better passenger services, Kolkata Metro Railway has decided to run 10 additional services from Monday.

“Metro will run 266 daily services (133 UP and 133 DN) instead of 256 services from Monday to Friday from Octo-ber 4 from 07:30 am to 10.30 pm for the convenience of the passengers,” said an official of Kolkata Metro Railway.

He reiterated that Metro is going to run 10 additional daily services on weekdays.

Out of these services, 167 services (83 UP and 84 DN) will run in between Kavi Sub-hash and Dakshineshwar instead of 148 services (74 UP and 74 DN).

The first service will start at 7.30 am from Dumdum to Dakshineshwar, from Kavi Subhash to Dakshineshwar,

from Dumdum to Kavi Sub-hash and from Dakshineshwar to Kavi Subhash.

The last service will be at 9:18 pm from Dakshineshwar to Kavi Subhash, at 9:30 pm from Dumdum to Kavi Sub-hash and at 9:30 pm from Kavi Subhash to Dakshineshwar.

During morning and eve-ning peak hours, Metro will run services at an interval of 5 minutes.

In the UP direction, there will be 12 services from 10 am to 11 am, 12 services from 4 pm to 5 pm and 12 services from 6 pm to 7 pm.

In the DN direction, there will be 12 services from 10 am to 11 am, 12 services from 11 am to 12 noon, 12 services from 5 pm to 6 pm and six ser-vices between 7 pm and 7.30 pm.

“East- West Metro services will remain unchanged. No Tokens will be issued,” pointed out the official.

Meanwhile, Kolkata Metro Railway has decided to add more AC rakes to its existing fleet.

According to sources, there are 22 air-conditioned rakes for commercial services in the North- South Corri-dor. Six trains are being kept as reserved and run only if there is any technical snag or emergencies.

Two more rakes will be added to the existing fleet of 28 AC rakes. One AC rake is expected to come in October and the other in November.

Metro to operate 10 additional services on weekdays from Oct 4

Soon, more AC rakes will be added to the existing fleet

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Kolkata Munic-ipal Corporation (KMC) authorities along with the city police will request the own-ers of premises that have been declared as “severely dilapi-dated ” to vacate the houses immediately.

The decision has been taken on Thursday, following the death of two persons when portions of an old building at 9 Ahirtola Street fell on them on Wednesday.

Police field an FIR against the owner of the building for flouting the KMC order ask-ing him to vacate the premises.

The civic authorities began pulling down the entire struc-ture. The century-old build-ing is a Debattur trust and has not been maintained for many years.

Senior officials of KMC said there are 100 buildings in the city that have been declared as “severely dilapidated.”

Notices have been served on the owners requesting them to vacate the premises at

the earliest to avoid any acci-dent. The officials said: “ We have not taken action against these owners on humanitar-ian ground. But their indiffer-ence to the KMC notices have caused loss of lives.”“We have no other option but to vacate these houses,” senior officials said. The civic authorities have over and again requested own-ers of these buildings to submit plans to set up new structures with provision for the tenants.

But the owners could not

approach the KMC as most of these properties are litigated. As the buildings have not been maintained for the past sev-eral years it is very risky for those staying in the adjoining premises.Meanwhile, portions of two old dilapidated build-ings collapsed in the Bur-rabazar area on Thursday. No injuries were reported. The office building at 3, Clive Row is abandoned while the house on Cotton Street the tenants continue to live.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Tarpan at the ghats situated adjacent to Dak-shineshwar and Belur Math temples will not be held on Mahalaya.

Mahalaya will be held on October 6. On the day, millions of Hindus offer water to their ancestors. Water is offered to those have died on battle field and those departed souls who belong to other religions. Thou-sands of people gather on the ghats situated adjacent to Dak-shineshwar temple and Belur

Math offer water and take a holy dip in the river Hooghly. In view of Covid pandemic, offering Tarpan in these two ghats have been banned. Peo-ple have been requested to offer Tarpan indoor. Special police arrangements will be made to ensure that people do not come to these ghats to offer Tarpan.

The state government is yet to decide whether Tarpan will be allowed on Babughat and other ghats situated along the river Hooghly.

I-CORE CHIT FUND: EX-MAYOR QUIZZEDKOLKATA: Sovan Chatterjee on Thursday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the investigation of the I-Core chit fund scam case. Chatterjee on Thursday around 10 am reached the CBI office at CGO Complex in Salt Lake accompanied by his friend Baishakhi Banerjee. Sources informed that Chatterjee was asked about the deal between the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and I-Core group during his tenure as Mayor of Kolkata. The investigating officials came to know that the Uttam Mancha was leased out to the I-Core group. Later, the property was handed over to the KMC after a deal between the civic body and I-Core group. Chatterjee on Thursday was questioned how the deal had taken place and why KMC showed inter-est to take over the Uttam mancha. After almost three hours of questioning, Chatterjee came out of the CBI office.

WATERLOGGING: FEW TRAINS CANCELLED KOLKATA: Eastern Railway has cancelled a few trains due to water logging in Asansol. “In view of suspension of movement on all four lines between Kalipahari and Nimcha due to rising of water level above danger in Asansol Division, 03553 Asansol-Varanasi special, 63598 Asansol –Ranchi MEMU, 03541 Asansol-Gomoh DEMU and 03502 Asansol-Haldia Inter City special have remained cancelled on September 30,” said an official of Eastern Railway.He reiterated that two staff special trains have also been cancelled.

BJP MAN’S MURDER: CHARGESHEET FILEDKOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed chargesheet against 20 people in the Narkeldanga BJP leader Avijit Sarkar murder case.The investigation of the case was taken up by the Central agency on the orders of the Calcutta High Court. Sarkar was allegedly beaten to death on the day of Assembly election results. Later, a case was registered at the Narkeldanga police station against unknown accused persons. During the probe, police had arrested a few of the accused. However, CBI of-ficers conducted an inquiry and recorded statements of several witnesses.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BALURGHAT: Calcutta High Court in an order issued on Wednesday directed the Central government to produce an affidavit and sought expla-nation before the concerned court as to why the much-needed Balurghat-Hili Railway project had been stopped instead of its immediate completion. The verdict came after a Public Inter-est Litigation (PIL) petition was filed in July this year in this regard.

The petitioner’s lawyer Kalyan Kumar Chakraborty said the division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee had directed the Centre to produce the affi-davit and an explanation in the next hearing slated to be held on Novem-ber 29, also adding the same direction was applicable for the State govern-ment as well.

As per the petition, the unfinished rail project had been lying incomplete for about 10 years.

In 2011, the then Rail minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a 29.7-km Railway extension project from Balurghat to Hili and the funds

were sanctioned in the next three Union Rail budgets. Nothing has been done so far except building the pillars on Atreyee and Yamuna and 410 acres had been identified for the project.

Fund of Rs 100 crore was allo-cated in the 2011 Railway budget to build concrete pillars on Atreyee and Yamuna rivers. The Railway depart-ment had started identifying land for the much-needed Rail project in South Dinajpur.

In 2016, a fund of Rs 200 crore was allocated by the Centre to keep the project on. In 2017, the fund was increased to Rs 400 crore to expedite the project. Surprisingly, after 2017 the Central government had apparently lost interest in the project.

The petitioner, Birendranath Mahato said: “There will be a boom in the overall development in the region if the project is completed. The local youths can be absorbed in jobs too. The PIL petition was filed at the High Court so that the initiative is taken up by the Railway authority to complete the project as early as possible. The local sentiment is also attached with the project.”

HC asks Centre to reply why Balurghat Rly project halted

‘Tarpan’ not allowed on

ghats around Dakshineshwar & Belur Math

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DARJEELING: All-India Gorkha League (Bharati Tamang) faction has pulled up the BJP-led Union government for having failed to live up to the assurance of holding tri-partite talks for a permanent political solution for the Hills by September.

They have now decided to launch a Satyagraha for Gork-

haland instead. Incidentally, SP Sharma, the general secretary of the AIGL had launched a fast unto death, which he later lifted based on the assurance by

the Union government to call tripartite talks in the first week of September, the invitation let-ters for which had to be deliv-ered to stakeholders by August

12.With the letters not arriving and the talks not taking place in the first week of September, the AIGL has taken up weekly programmes of taking out an effigy of BJP MP Raju Bista gar-landed with shoes. Reacting to this, BJP MLA from Dar-jeeling Niraj Zimba had given statements that he would self immolate if talks were not held by September.

“We visited the BJP MP’s

office on Thursday but no one was there. The politics of deceit that has been on since ages has been exposed once more. From October, we will launch Satyagraha for Gorkhaland, as it is the people’s aspiration,” stated Sharma. Marches will be held in all areas that have been incorporated in the pro-posed map of Gorkhaland with a demand of tabling a Gorkha-land Bill in winter session.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The number of active Covid cases on Thursday dropped to 7,570 from what stood at 7,580 on Wednesday.The number of Covid infected cases stood at 749 on Thurs-day. As many as 744 Covid recovered patients have been released from different hospi-tals on Thursday.

The number of fatalities on Thursday remained at 15 while. The Covid recovery rate remained at 98.32 percent. The total number of infected people has reached 15,69,070 so far. Out of this, around 15,42,707 people have so far recovered and released from the hospitals. Around 18,793 people have so far died of Covid in the state. The percentage of occupancy of Covid beds in the State stood at 3.42 on Thursday while the positivity rate stood at 1.90 per-

cent. The fatality rate in Bengal stood at 1.20 percent.

Meanwhile, State has administered 4,64,488 doses on Thursday and the cumula-tive doses administered in Ben-gal so far reached 5,77,46,777. On Wednesday, around 5 lakh doses were administered across the state.Around 123 fresh Covid cases were detected

in North 24-Parganas while in Kolkata the number was registered at 149. Darjeeling has seen 43 new cases, South 24-Parganas 69 and Hooghly 41 and Howrah 41.

Bengal has so far carried out 1,81,45,661 Covid sam-ple tests out of which around 39,477 tests were done in the past 24 hours. Kolkata and

South 24 Parganas have seen 3 deaths each on Thursday while North 24 Parganas has reported 4 deaths. Hooghly has seen 1 death, East Midnapore 1, Jhargram 2 and Darjeeling 1.

Health department has so far addressed 22,11,893 gen-eral queries so far out of which 2,436 queries were addressed in the past 24 hours. State has so far given telemedicine con-sultations to 9,03,277 people

so far out of which 1,232 were given consultation in the past 24 hours. Around 537 people have been given tele-psycho-logical counselling in the past 24 hours taking the total num-ber of counselling to 4,38,042 till Thursday.

As many as 203 dedicated Covid hospitals have been functional in the state out of which 196 are government hospitals.

AT LEAST 15 DEAD IN A DAY

Permanent solution for Hills: Gorkha League to launch ‘Satyagraha’ News at a Glance

2 millenniumpostCitympFRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

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

“MILLENNIUM POST”, Printed & Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Saraswati Printfactory Pvt. Ltd., 789, West Choubhaga Kolkata - 7000105 and published from Tivoli Court 1A, Ballygunge Circular Road, Block–A, Flat–94, 1st Floor, Kolkata–700 019. Editor: Durbar Ganguly. Email: editor@millenniumpost.in, mpostcal@gmail.com. For marketing, contact: 9836292306, 9830532306. For editorial, call: 9836072100

Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 15 » Total death toll so far 18,793 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 749 » Total COVID positive cases so far 15,69,070 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 15,42,707 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 744 » Total sample tested so far 1,81,45,661

Man flees with over Rs 7L collected for hosting

events in DarjeelingAMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJEELING: A man from Nepal has allegedly walked off with more than Rs 7 lakh col-lected for organising Mara-thons and a fashion show to commemorate World Tourism week in Darjeeling.

The 40-year-old who intro-duced himself as Daniel Saint representing Club 7D of Mum-bai, had been camping in Dar-jeeling for more than a month.

In this period, he befriended a number of local residents, visited local businesses, NGOs and offices including the Gork-haland Territorial Administra-tion, winning their confidence and making them sponsor for the events.

“The Darjeeling Marathon Week had three events on Sep-tember 27, 29 and October 1 along with a fashion show on October 3. The registration fees per person per marathon was Rs. 1000 and Rs. 5000 to par-ticipate in the fashion show. The marathons on Septem-

ber 27 and 29 were held at the Chowrastha but prize money was not paid. He is abscond-ing. His phones are switched off also,” alleged Dhondup Bhutia, addressing media persons.

Bhutia had left his hotel job to work for Daniel. The person even used a SIM registered in Bhutia’s name.

“He made the contestants sell 25 tickets each for the fash-ion show. There are 22 partici-pants,” added Pedenla Yolmo, a fashion show contestant.

“We will lodge a complaint with the police,” stated Bhutia, addressing media persons.

Incidentally, sources said that a photocopy of a Nepal passport, found from his rented apartment on Thursday, bear-ing his photograph, had the name registered as Prakash Adhikari of Kathmandu.

“We will inquire into the matter and if required will lodge an FIR also,” stated Sonam Bhutia, executive director, Tourism, GTA, while speaking about the matter.

With talks not taking place in September, the AIGL has taken up weekly programmes of taking out an effigy of BJP MP Raju Bista garlanded with shoes

The state is yet to decide whether Tarpan will be allowed on other ghats

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: Haringhata Meat has now come up with outlets in the city where people can have their chicken freshly cut and processed right immedi-ately. About 10 such outlets in the city are already functional with the West Bengal Livestock Devel-opment Corporation (WBLDC) setting a target of adding 40 more by the end of this ongoing fiscal.

The outlets with infrastructure for cutting and processing of chicken in a hygienic manner (live) has been evoking very good response since its grad-ual roll out from August. “Our frozen meat sale has remained unaffected and there is a huge demand among customers. However, being a state govern-ment entity, we felt that we need to cater to those customers who want to buy chicken slaughtered and dressed right in front of their eyes,”Gouri Shankar Koner, managing director of WBLDC said.

He added that the price of chicken at these out-lets will vary but will surely be less in comparison to that of open market. WBLDC has its empanelled farmers who are given boiler chicken and are allot-ted a time of 35-40 days to nurture and grow these birds. Then WBLDC procures these from the farm-ers and sends them to its meat camp for slaughter. Now, a sizable amount is being diverted to Har-inghata Live outlets. The Live shops have come up in Narendrapur, Park Circus, Collin Street in Park Street, Behala, Sarat Bose Road in Lansdowne, Bansdroni to name a few. WBLDC presently has 630 outlets across the state run by franchises.

Haringhata Meat now comes up with live outlets

Representative Image

Representative Image

Two died on Wednesday after portions of an old building at Ahirtola Street collapsed FILE PIC

‘...BY THE PEOPLE’

(Top) Firhad Hakim outside a polling booth after casting his vote, and (above) citizens show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting their votes during the by-election to the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, where Mamata Banerjee is contesting, in Kolkata, on Thursday

Bengal bypolls: Voting largely peacefully, moderate turnout

Bhabanipur: About 53% cast votes; polling up by 10% against 2011 bypoll

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: With release of around 1 lakh cusec of water by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the state government has taken precautionary measures to ensure safety of people, including deployment of eight columns of Indian Army in some of the south Bengal districts.

Move has been taken to evacu-ate around 3 lakh people from the vulnerable areas. The reason being water has been released through river Ajay and is threatening to turn the situation worse in dis-tricts including West Burdwan, Hooghly, Bankura and Howrah.

Three columns each of the Indian Army are being deployed in West Burdwan and Hooghly, while two columns are deployed in Howrah.

At the same time, about 12 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and more teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are getting deployed. Additional numbers of boats are being brought from adjacent districts.

Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi

held a meeting with concerned district magistrates to ensure proper arrangements to avoid fur-ther loss of life and property if cer-tain areas of south Bengal districts get inundated again.

Sources said there was enhanced discharge of 2.04 lakh cusec water from down Durga-pur Barrage at 5.30 pm and the trend shows that it would fur-ther increase. DVC’s combined discharge was 1 lakh cusec after 3 pm. There was discharge of 3,000 cusec from Mayurakshi Dam, 12,000 cusec from Tilpara Barrage, 90,000 cusec from Sikatia Barrage and 30,000 cusec from Kangsabati Dam. The combined discharge of Darakeswar and Gandheswari at Bankura was 1.20 lakh cusec.

Meanwhile, Asansol and Bankura recorded the highest rainfall in history in the last 24

hours even as a well-marked low-pressure, causing the torrential rain, moved to north Jharkhand and Bihar, the weather office said on Friday.

Enhanced rainfall activity is, however, likely to continue over the districts of south Bengal till Friday morning, it said. Asansol recorded 434.5 mm rainfall in 24 hours till Thursday morning, while Bankura, the headquarter town of Bankura district, recorded 354.3 mm rain during the period, it said in a bulletin.

“These are the historical high-est 24 hours rainfall recorded so far in Asansol and Bankura,” the weather office said.

The previous highest for Asan-sol was 192 mm on July 27, 2018 and for Bankura the recorded maximum rainfall was 292.4 mm on June 22, 1922, it said.

DVC releases about 1L cusec water, state deploys at least 8 columns of Army

‘Move has been taken to evacuate around 3 lakh people...’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In contrary to the common perception that people in Bhabanipur do not cast their votes in large numbers during by-election, the polling per-centage for the bypoll held on Thursday went up to 53.22 per cent, up by about 10 per cent from the 2011 bypoll.

The polling percentage in the 2011 by-election was 44.73 per cent and Trinamool Con-gress chairperson had won by over 54,000 votes.

On Thursday, with the poll percentage going up to 53.22 per cent, political experts said it was expected that Mamata Banerjee’s winning margin would go up sub-stantially with BJP and CPI(M) failing to have any impact on the by-election.

Bhabanipur, once a Congress stronghold, shifted its loyalty towards Mamata Banerjee after she formed TMC in 1998. She was elected twice from the seat in 2011 and 2016. She had to

contest the by-election in Bha-banipur, following an alleged conspiracy hatched by the BJP in Nandigram where she lost to BJP candidate by a narrow mar-gin. She had filed a case challeng-ing the result in Calcutta High Court. The by-election showed that the people of Bhabanipur had rejected BJP.

In the 2021 Assembly elec-tion, union Home minister Amit Shah had participated in a rally and star campaigners had worked for the party’s nominee, Rudra-nil Ghosh.

Despite that, he was defeated by over 28,000 votes.

Two Union ministers, Smriti Irani and Hardeep Singh Puri, had campaigned for Priyanka Tibrewal, the party’s nominee in

Bhabanipur while Arjun Singh, BJP MP from Barrackpore, was made the in-charge of the elec-tion. BJP could not give polling agents in many booths.

There is massive erosion in the vote bank of CPI(M). Experts opined that it was certain that Srijib Biswas, CPI(M) candi-date’s deposit may get forfeited.

From 1952 to 1977 when Bha-banipur Assembly seat became a part of Chowringhee Assembly seat, CPI(M) had won the seat only once when its candidate Sadhan Gupta was elected in 1969. When the seat was again formed in 2011, Subrata Bak-shi was elected. Subsequently Mamata Banerjee won the bypoll in2011 and later won the Assem-bly election in 2016.

KOLKATA: House of a Trinamool worker was allegedly attacked by the Congress work-ers at Samsherganj in Murshidabad late on Wednesday night.

According to sources, late on Wednesday night a group of people alleg-edly led by the Con-gress candidate for Samsherganj bypoll Zaidur Rahman attacked the house of a TMC worker at Ghanashyampur.

It is also alleged that another Congress leader Biplab Haque was present at the spot when the house was attacked. On Thursday Rahman claimed that he went to the spot in order to control a tense situation which cropped up due to a certain issue. Rahman, on Thursday, was reportedly asked by the police to stay at the police station premises till the by-election was over. Police have obtained surveillance camera footages where the accused persons are seen in front of the Trin-amool Congress worker’s house. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Much to the relief of the labourers ahead of the festive season, the state Labour department’s special drive has resulted in clear-ing of dues of 26775 workers across the state, amounting to Rs 154 crore in September. The dues of several labourers in the form of pension, prov-ident fund, accidental death or damage related benefits etc had been lying pending due to technical problem in the portal related to unorgan-ised labourers. The dues of the labourers were in con-nection with Samajik Sura-kha Yojana scheme initiated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2017.

State Labour minis-ter Becharam Manna had directed his officials to take suitable measures for quick disbursal of the pending dues in both offline and online mode with problems crip-pling the online portal for quite some time.

According to sources in the department, through the recently organised Duare Sarkar camps the state gov-ernment has disbursed Rs 186.08 crore at the rate of Rs 55 per month as provident fund to the bank accounts of 22.56 lakh unorganised labourers from the period of

April 1 till June 30.“The Covid pandemic has

affected the livelihood of the labourers not only in the state but in the entire country. So, reaching out their due ben-efits on a priority basis will be of great help to them,”a senior official of the depart-ment said.

The technical problem with the portal has been sorted to an extent and the department is hopeful that it will start function-ing normally by November. The department has also addressed the issue of elec-tricity of Howrah Jute Mill, which has resumed its pro-duction in full swing.

The mill that has around 3,500 workers was shut from May 11 and opened up from August 7. However, some issues related to electricity posed hindrance in starting production.

Cong candidate attacks TMC worker’s house

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: By-elections in three Assembly constituen-cies in Bengal—Bhabanipur in south Kolkata, Samsherganj and Jangipur in Murshidabad ended peacefully with not a single case of arrest or recovery of arms or bombs in any of the constituencies. The results will be announced on October 3.

The polling percentage till 5 pm was 78.60 and 76.12 in Samsherganj and Jangi-pur respectively while Bhow-anipore from where Mamata Banerjee is contesting regis-tered a poll percentage of 53.22. There were only 57 complaints received till 5 pm among which the majority was from BJP.

Attempts of spreading false reports by Kalyan Chowbey, election agent of Hindustani Awami Morcha candidate and claimed to be close to BJP, that his car was vandalised by

supporters of some political leaders were foiled when an ongoing probe attributed that the incident had no link with politics.

There was a minor scuffle at Khalsa High School in Bhaba-nipur where the BJP supporters alleged that TMC was trying to push false voters into the polling station. However, the Central Force soon intervened and dispersed the gathering

near the booth.TMC leader Firhad Hakim

tweeted urging voters to come and vote in Bhabanipur soon after the poll percentage was found 8 per cent till 11 am. Another similar tweet was found in the name of TMC vet-eran Subrata Mukherjee, that BJP branded as an attempt to influence the voters. “I cannot tweet. I can simply make phone calls and read and send What-

sApp messages. It is a deep-rooted conspiracy on the part of BJP who are sure of losing the elections,” Mukherjee said.

Mamata Banerjee voted a little after 4 pm at Mitra Insti-tution while TMC national general secretary Abhishek

Banerjee cast his franchise at around 3 pm. Hakim voted at Chetla Balika Vidyalaya while TMC veteran Sobhandeb Chat-topadhyay, voted at Manmatha Private School in Kansaripara area a little after 11 am.

Exchange of pleasant-ries among the candidates was another salient feature of the peaceful elections. TMC leader Hakim responded to a proposal of having a cup of tea with CPI(M) candidate Srijib Biswas right inside the camp office. TMC and BJP candi-dates from Samsherganj Jakir Hossain and Sujit Das also showed courtesy while mov-ing in different booths and even had a short friendly interaction.

A few hours before the end of polling Congress candidate from Samsherganj alleged rig-ging on the part of TMC in 9 booths and claimed to have appealed to the Commission for re-poll.

‘NOT A SINGLE CASE OF ARREST OR RECOVERY OF ARMS OR BOMBS’

Highlights » There were only 57 complaints received till 5 pm among which the majority was from BJP » ‘I cannot tweet. I can simply make phone calls and read and send WhatsApp messages. It is a deep-rooted conspiracy on the part of BJP...’ » Exchange of pleasantries among candidates was another salient feature of peaceful by-elections

Despite busy schedules, Patuapara artisans exercise their franchise

Vandalisation of Kalyan Chowbey’s car has ‘nothing to do with politics’

PRITESH BASU

KOLKATA: Artisans, mainly women, of Kalighat’s Patuapara under Bhabanipur Assembly constituency took some time out of their busy schedules—with barely 10 days left for Durga Puja—to cast their fran-chise in the bypoll on Thursday.They had given preference to cast their votes despite heavy work load when inces-sant rainfall already ham-pered their work in the past few days.

They considered this by-poll to be one of the most signif-icant elections in recent times as it had given them an oppor-tunity to give a befitting reply to the defeat of their “parar meye” Mamata Banerjee, who became a victim of an alleged conspir-acy at Nandigram.

Secondly, they thought they had got an opportu-nity to express their grati-

tude towards Banerjee for implementing a number of schemes.

An election just ahead of Durga Puja is a rare occasion that the artisans of Patuapara have come across in the past few decades.

“This is the peak time for all the artisans here as we have no time to sleep. Durga Puja organisers will start taking the idols to their mandaps in the next four to five days. Despite all these challenges, I along with my family members have cast our vote before starting my work today. After all, our “parar meye” is contesting the elec-

tion,” said 65-year-old Gopal Chitrakar.

He cast his vote at the election booth at Childrens’ Academy.

There are around 400 arti-sans, at Kalighat, who have to meet their deadline.

A 47-year-old woman arti-san, Mousumi Pal, was found busy painting an idol of God-dess Durga.

“I have cast my vote at 11.30 am at St Helen School taking a break from my work. We really feel proud being a resident of the locality of the state’s Chief Minister,” she said.

With the economy witness-ing an upward graph compared to that of 2020, the artisans have received orders to make more idols this time.

The artisans mentioned that they had not faced any prob-lems due to the campaign of the elections.

Rains: Waterlogging leads to traffic snarls at

Biswa Bangla Sarani

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Traffic movement along the Biswa Bangla Sarani was slow between Mahisbathan crossing and Nicco Park due to waterlogging situation after it rained for almost an hour on Thursday afternoon.

According to sources, due to the ongoing Airport-New Garia Metro project construc-tion, the drainage system has been affected badly.

As a result during the rain water gets stagnant on the roads. However, the accu-mulated water clears within an hour after rain stops. On Thursday due to the inundated,

traffic movement got slower. According to Nabadiganta

Industrial Township Author-ity (NDITA), waterlogging problem in and around Col-lege More and Techno India crossing the most lower area of Sector V.

As a result the area always gets under water when it rains a bit heavy. On Thursday the road from College More to Areva crossing was also under water.

“It took some time for the accumulated water to recede as there was incessant rainfall for around an hour and the drain-age system had over-flown,” said a NDITA official.

3millenniumpost City mpKOLKATA | FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021

For most, bypoll was a chance to express gratitude towards ‘parar meye’ Mamata Banerjee

A polling booth in Bhabanipur

The polling percentage in the 2011 by-election was 44.73 per cent and Trinamool Congress chairperson had won by over 54,000 votes

Samajik Surakha Yojana: State clears dues of over

26K labourers

pic/mpost

pic/pti

‘The pandemic has affected the livelihood of the labourers..., so reaching out their due benefits on a priority basis will be of great help’

File pic

It is also alleged that Congress leader Biplab Haque was also present when the house was attacked

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Attempting to spread false news regarding tension at Bhabanipur was foiled when the Kolkata Police released the footages of CCTV cameras rubbishing the claim of Kalyan Chowbey, election agent of Hindustani Awami Morcha candidate and claimed to be close to BJP, that his car was vandalised by supporters of some political leaders.

Police confirmed that the incident did not have any polit-ical connection as Chowbey’s car was damaged by a youth after a collision between the latter’s bike and his car near Padmapukur. The police said

while Choubey was moving along Sarat Bose road a motor-cycle rider and some people stopped his vehicle and were found banging the door of Choubey’s car.

They further found that the car in which Choubey was trav-elling did not have permission of the Election Commission.

On being asked he told the police that the vehicle which had permission had developed

a snag and so he had to take another vehicle.

Finding no other option the BJP leaders including Choubey who had become vocal about the deteriorating law and order situation in Bhabanipur left the place.

Ashim Basu, Trinamool Congress councillor of ward 70 said: “After failing to fight Trinamool Congress politi-cally, BJP from morning tried to create trouble in different areas of Bhabanipur. The attack on Choubey’s car is one such incident.”

“In future BJP should learn that by spreading lies the party will become more unpopular,” Basu added.

Police confirmed that the incident did not have any political connection

The reason being water has been released through river Ajay and is threatening to turn the situation worse in districts including West Burdwan, Hooghly, Bankura and Howrah

SKIN-TO-SKIN

4 millenniumpostNationmpFRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Bhabanipur bypollTrinamool Congress leaders Firhad Hakim

and Subrata Mukherjee also rubbished the claim of BJP that they have campaigned through social media and also visited certain places of the Assembly segment. “We do not have to learn the poll protocols from them. I have been in poli-tics for the past 50 years. I do not know how to handle Twitter and would lodge a complaint with the police as it has been said that someone urged people to vote in our favour through a Twitter account in my name,” Mukherjee said.

Hakim, who cast his vote with all his fam-ily members at Chetla Balika Vidyalaya, said: “I was at my camp office and would like to state that I never did anything unethical to campaign”. He was also found taking tea at a CPI(M) camp office with the Left workers, who are his child-hood friends, at Chetla. The CPI(M)’s candidate Srijib Biswas expressed his concern over the low poll percentage in the morning.

The Election Commission has received 12 complaints from Bhabanipur through its NGS portal. Sources said the Election Commission has found all the complaints from Bhabanipur to be baseless. Besides the 35 companies of the Central forces, senior officers, including 5 Joint Commissioners of Police, 14 Deputy Commis-sioners of Police and 14 Assistant Commission-ers ensured tight security arrangements when people exercised their franchise at 287 booths in eight wards (63, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 77 and 82). All the booths were under CCTV surveillance and webcasting. The bypolls are also being held in Jangipur and Samserganj seats in the Mur-shidabad district. A total of 6,97,164 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the three constituencies, including Bhabanipur. Votes will be counted on October 3.

Curbs till Oct 30Meanwhile, India recorded a single-day rise

of 23,529 Covid cases on Thursday, taking its infection tally to 3,37,39,980, while the count of active cases dipped to 2,77,020, the lowest in 195 days, according to Union Health ministry data.

The number of people who have recuper-

ated from the disease has surged to 3,30,14,898 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent. The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,48,062 with 311 new fatalities being recorded, according to the data updated at 8 am.

As many as 30 medical students of civic-run KEM Hospital in Mumbai have tested Covid positive, a BMC official said on Thursday.

One of the MBBS students, having mild symptoms of the infection, has been admitted to Seven Hills Hospital for treatment, said the Bri-hanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) offi-cial. The other students are asymptomatic and have been quarantined, he said.

Sixty-nine per cent of the country’s adult pop-ulation has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 25 per cent has taken both doses, the government said on Thursday.

It also said that increased population den-sity raises chances of COVID-19 spread and it will be prudent to avoid non-essential travel and observe festivity at low key.

The government has exempted customs duty on COVID-19 vaccines for three months till December 31, which will boost domestic avail-ability and make them cheaper. In a notification dated September 29, the Central Board of Indi-rect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said the exemp-tion would come into force on October 1, 2021, and remain in force up to December 31, 2021.

Sidhu meets ChanniPulling no punches, the Captain also pre-

dicted the Congress’ downfall in Punjab — in the run-up to the polls — and called his rival Nav-jot Singh Sidhu a “childish man” who had been given a serious job by the party.

Meanwhile, though neither Sidhu nor Channi spoke to the media after the meeting, sources close to the former said issues on which he had tendered his resignation will be resolved and the cricketer-turned-politician will continue to remain on the party post.

Channi left the meeting venue around 6 pm while Sidhu came out about half-an-hour later.

Neither of the two, nor any other party leader spoke to the media after the meeting concluded.

Sources suggest that some of Sidhu’s major concerns, including the appointment of Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota as DGP, are likely to be addressed by Channi.

Earlier, Sidhu reached Chandigarh from Pati-ala to meet Channi.

The meeting was reportedly arranged after a number of MLAs called up both Sidhu and the Chief Minister to find an amicable solution.

Before his meeting with Channi, Sidhu attacked the state’s new DGP, alleging that he wrongly indicted two Sikh youths in a desecra-tion case and gave a clean chit to the Badals.

Condemning the ongoing crisis within the Punjab Congress, former PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar said it was time to end repeated attempts to undermine the authority of the Chief Minister. In a veiled dig at Navjot Singh Sidhu, Jakhar said that it was wrong for ‘aspersions to be cast’ on the selection of top officials, like AG and DGP.

SC CollegiumAfter assuming charge as the CJI in April this

year, Justice Ramana has recommended nearly 100 names for appointment to different high courts, besides filling up nine vacancies of judges in the Supreme Court in one go.

The 25 high courts in the country have a combined sanctioned strength of 1,080 judges and on May 1, 2021, they were functioning with 420 judges only. In a historic decision on August 17, the Collegium had recommended nine names, including three women, for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court.

The names were cleared with significant pace by the Centre leading to the swearing-in cer-emony on August 31 when the new judges were administered oath of office as Apex Court judges.

Diesel, petrol pricesFor diesel, the increase led to rates equalling

the all-time high of Rs 89.87 a litre touched in Delhi in the same month. International oil prices are at a three-year high with global benchmark Brent trading at $78.64 per barrel. This spurt in global rates led state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) resum-ing daily price revisions on September 24, end-ing the pause in rates that came into effect from September 5.

Auto debit rulesHowever, non-readiness of some of the play-

ers forced the RBI to extend the deadline on

recurring payment such as utility bills, recharge of phone, DTH and OTT, among others, till Sep-tember 30.

Under the new norms, banks will be required to inform customers in advance about recur-ring payment due and transaction would be car-ried following a nod from the customer. So the transaction would not be automatic but would be done after authentication from the customer.

For recurring payments above Rs 5,000, banks are required to send a one-time password to customers as per the new guidelines.

Most of the banks, including State Bank of India (SBI) have informed their customers about the new rules.

HDFC Bank in a bulk message to custom-ers said as per RBI guidelines on e-Mandate on cards, the bank will decline non-compliant recurring transaction at merchant web or app on your Credit/Debit Card from October 1, 2021.

“Alternate Solution - Retry regular payment on Merchant Web/App authenticated via OTP or Pay via AutoPay in BillPay on our NetBank-ing for your Electricity /Water/Gas/ Landline/Postpaid mobile/Broadband/Insurance billers,” it said.

In August 2019, the RBI had issued a frame-work for processing of e-mandates on recurring online transactions.

Initially applicable to cards and wallets, the framework was extended in January 2020 to cover Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transac-tions as well.

RBI had said the requirement of AFA has made digital payments in India safe and secure and the primary objective of the framework was to protect customers from fraudulent transac-tions and enhance customer convenience.

In the interest of customer convenience and safety in the use of recurring online payments, the framework mandated use of AFA during reg-istration and first transaction (with relaxation for subsequent transactions up to a limit of Rs 2,000, since enhanced to Rs 5,000), as well as pre-trans-action notification, facility to withdraw the man-date, etc.

‘How can highways be perpetually blocked?’

The Bench stated: “When we lay down the law, you will say it is encroachment and we tres-passed into the domain of the executive. This has

ramifications but there are also grievances that need to be addressed. This cannot be a perpetual problem.”

Mehta said that when it is invited then it will not be encroached upon.

He said that at the highest level a three-mem-ber committee was formed to address the griev-ances but the farmers’ representatives who were invited refused to join in the discussions.

Mehta said the court should allow the peti-tioner to make the farmers union party to the petition, so that later they don’t say that they were not made parties in the matter.

The Bench told Mehta that it is he who will have to move an application for making farmers representative party as the petitioner, a private individual may not know who their leaders are.

“If you feel that someone is to be made party, you will have to make a request. You move a for-mal application giving details about the steps taken to resolve their grievances and how the impleadment of representatives of farmers will help in the resolution of the dispute,” the Bench said, while listing the plea for hearing on Octo-ber 4.

Mehta said that they will file the application by Friday.

On August 23, the top court had said that the Centre and Delhi’s neighbouring states should find a solution to road blockades on the national Capital’s borders due to farmers’ protest.

It had told the Centre why the government can’t find a solution to this problem as though farmers have the right to protest but at the desig-nated places and due to the protests, inflow and outflow of traffic cannot be disrupted.

The top court had said that this will have an impact on toll collection as well because vehi-cles will not be able to pass through due to the blockades.

It had then ordered: “Solution lies in the hands of the Union of India and the concerned state governments. They have to coordinate to find a solution that when a protest takes place, roads are not blocked and traffic is not disrupted to cause inconvenience to the common people.”

The Solicitor General had said that if the court is willing to pass some orders then two farmers unions can be made parties and he can give their names.

The top court had said that tomorrow another two unions will come forward and say they represent the farmers and this will go on.

On March 26, the top court had issued notice to Uttar Pradesh and Haryana on the plea.

From Page 1

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Thursday extended the validity of motor vehicle documents like driving licence, registration certificate and per-mits till October 31, 2021, in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said it has asked the enforcement authorities to treat documents, including those related to fitness, permit (all types), driving licence and registration, as valid till Octo-ber 31.

"Taking into consideration the grim situation still continu-ing due to condition for pre-vention of COVID-19 across the country, it is advised that the validity of all above ref-

erenced documents...whose extension of validity could not, or was not likely to be granted due to lockdown and which has expired since February 1, 2020 or would expire by October 31,

2021, the same may be treated as valid till October 31,2021," it said.

This will help citizens in availing transport related ser-vices, it added.

The ministry said all the states and union territories are required to implement this advisory in letter and spirit so that citizens, transporters and various other organisations which are operating under this difficulty time do not face difficulties.

It had earlier issued advi-sories dated March 30, 2020, June 9, 2020, August 24, 2020, December 27, 2020, March 26, 2021 and June 17, 2021 in con-nection with extension of valid-ity of documents related to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.

NEW DELHI: The provision defining the offence of sexual assault against children under the POCSO Act must be looked at from the victim's perspective and if the sexual intent is pres-ent then the offence is made out even without "skin-to-skin contact", the Supreme Court Thursday orally observed.

A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit stressed on the intent to commit the sexual offence and said the results would be disastrous if the term physi-cal contact in the provision is interpreted in a way where the skin-to-skin contact becomes necessary for constituting the offence.

The top court reserved its verdict on two appeals filed against the Bombay High Court verdict, which had come under intense scrutiny, and had held that no offence of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act is made out if there is no direct skin-to-skin contact between accused and the victim.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, discussed threadbare the definition of section 7 of the POCSO Act which deals with the offence of sexual assault against the children.

The provision says: Who-ever, with sexual intent, touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the child

touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact with-out penetration is said to com-mit sexual assault.

So, therefore, the primary thing is that if the sexual intent is proved then everything will fall in place, the bench orally observed while expressing its reservation on the interpreta-tion made by the high court.

Senior advocate Siddhath Luthra, appearing for the con-vict in the case as an amicus curiae, referred to the contents of the provision and said that there were issues with the first part of the provision which said if an accused, with sex-ual intent, touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the

child or makes the child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person then the offence of sex-ual assault is made out.

However, the second part of the provision said that for constituting the offence of sex-ual assault, an accused has to commit an act which involves physical contact without pen-etration and here the skin-to-skin interpretation creeps in.

Luthra said the second part requires sensitive interpreta-tion .

One must rely on differ-ent situations to see whether a given interpretation logically holds and when an offence has been clearly laid down then if there was any need to stretch one's reasoning and rely on other provisions, the bench said.

One must look at things from the victim's perspective. If a pen is used to poke a person, there is no skin-to-skin touch and according to arguments advanced there is no sexual assault. But there is an inva-sion of privacy and violation of modesty of the child, it said.

"If we accept the submis-sion (on physical contact with-out cloth), what kind of results will we get. According to us, the results will be disastrous, it observed.

Luthra said the legislature consciously used the term 'physical act' in the second part of the provision.

"So, do we understand your submission that the first part skin to skin need not be there? According to you, in the sec-ond part skin to skin contact is essential," the bench asked.

Another amicus curiae Sid-dhart Dave and others argued in the case and the counsel for Maharashtra adopted the sub-missions of Attorney General K K Venugopal who had vehe-mently argued for the setting aside of the verdict by the Nag-pur bench of the Bombay High Court.

While reserving the ver-dict, the bench asked parties to file their written submissions within three days.

Venugopal had earlier told the apex court that the con-troversial verdict of the Bom-bay High Court would set a "dangerous and outrageous precedent" and needed to be reversed.

The top court, which was hearing separate appeals of Attorney General and the National Commission for Women (NCW), had on Janu-ary 27 stayed the order which had acquitted a man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act saying groping a minor's breast without 'skin to skin contact' cannot be termed as sexual assault .

Two judgments were passed by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of Bombay High Court (Nag-pur Bench). AGENCIES

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The country received "normal" rainfall dur-ing the four-month Southwest Monsoon season from June to September, the India Meteoro-logical Department (IMD) said on Thursday, even as there is an extended period of rainfall.

The IMD said the Northeast Monsoon which brings rainfall to southern states from Octo-ber to December is likely to be normal.

IMD Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra said conditions are very likely to be favourable for the com-mencement of withdrawal of the Southwest Monsoon from some parts of northwest India from around October 6.

Southwest Monsoon with-drawal from northwest India normally begins from Septem-ber 17.

"Quantitatively, 2021 all India monsoon seasonal rain-fall during June 1 to September 30 has been 87 cm against the Long Period Average of 88 cm of 1961-2010 (99 per cent of its LPA)," Mohapatra said.

"Southwest Monsoon sea-sonal rainfall for the country as a whole during June-September has been normal (96-106 per cent of the LPA)," he added.

This is for the third consec-utive year that the country has recorded rainfall in the nor-mal or above normal category. Rainfall was above normal in 2019 and 2020.

Southwest Monsoon is critical for the Indian econ-omy whose GDP is still heavily dependent on agriculture and its allied activities. It is crucial for filling the reservoirs which are used to supply drinking water and irrigate vast swathes of land.

The rainfall over the coun-try as a whole was 110 per cent in June, 93 and 76 per cent in

July and August respectively -- the months that bring the maximum rains. However, the shortfall of July and August was compensated in Septem-ber which recorded rainfall 135 per cent of the LPA.

In its four divisions, the IMD said, the Southwest Monsoon rainfall was normal over northwest India (96 per cent) and central India (104 per cent), below normal over east and northeast India (88 per cent), and above normal over South Peninsula India (111 per cent).

Nagaland, Manipur,

Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, west Uttar Pradesh and Lakshadweep received deficient rainfall.

West Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telan-gana, north interior Karna-taka, Gangetic West Bengal, Konkan and Goa, Marathwada and Andaman and Nicobar recorded excess rainfall dur-ing the monsoon season.

The Southwest Monsoon made onset over Kerala on June 3, after a delay of two days. It rapidly covered central, west, east, northeast and south India by June 15.

It also covered many parts of north India, even Barmer and Jaisalmer — its last out-posts — but the monsoon winds failed to reach Delhi, parts of Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh.

It then witnessed a lull. It finally covered Delhi, parts of Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh, on July 13, five days after its normal onset date, belying IMD's forecasts.

Mohapatra said it again witnessed a lull from August 3 and entered the active phase of August 18. The month recorded large deficiency. It again entered an active phase.

‘Country received normal rainfall during June-Sept’‘Rainfall from October to December is likely to be normal’

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

10

15

12

1

5

4

1

20

16

19

26

25

22

19

6

5

5

9

6

10

16

-1%

+9%

+10%

-9%

-5%

-3%

-14%

Normal(-19%

to +19%)

Excess(+20%

or more)

Deficient(-20%

to -59%)

Departure

from

Normal

Total subdivisions: 36 KBK graphicsInfo

Rainfall during June-September in

number of meteorological subdivisions

Monsoon Last Seven Years

Source: IMD

Definition of sexual assault in POCSO must be looked from victim’s perspective, says SC

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment Thursday dismissed as "baseless" allegations that dead people were issued vaccination certificates on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday, and clarified that there was a case in Madhya Pradesh due to an "inadvertent error" by a vac-cinator as the beneficiary had registered for the inoculation when he was alive.

On Modi's birthday on Sep-tember 17, a record was cre-ated as over 2.5 crore vaccine doses were administered in the country.

Responding to a question

that in some states, it seems dead people were given vac-cine certificates while in some, there was pending data entry which added to the numbers, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a media briefing, "That was an instance in Mad-hya Pradesh and we found that the registration was done when the person was alive, and on the date when the person was sup-posed to come for vaccination unfortunately the person died."

"There was an inadvertent error by the vaccinator in press-ing the button in front of that name, so that error happened which has subsequently been corrected," he added.

Govt clarifies on claim that dead person issued vaccine certificate on PM’s birthdayGovt says there was a case in Madhya Pradesh due to an ‘inadvertent error’

The primary thing is that if the sexual intent is proved then everything will fall in place, the bench orally observed

Govt extends validity of motor vehicle documents till Oct 31

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Thursday said Zydus Cadila's indigenously-devel-oped needle-free COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D will be introduced in the nationwide anti-coronavirus vaccination drive very shortly and would have a differential pricing than the jabs being used currently. As far as the price at which it will be procured is concerned, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a press conference that the government is in talks with the manufacturer.

"As far as the price of the vaccine at which it will be pro-cured is concerned, we are in conversations with the man-ufacturer. Since it is a three-dose vaccine and comes with a needleless delivery system, it would have a differential pricing than the existing vaccines that

are being used in the Covid vac-cination programme," he said.

"It will be introduced in the COVID-19 vaccination drive very shortly," Bhushan added.

As regards the WHO clear-ance for Covaxin, Indian Coun-cil of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said, "We know that scientific data, public health considerations and international health requirements are all con-sidered on which the clear-ance is given by the WHO. All these have been provided and are being looked at. It will be

decided by the World Health Organization accordingly."

ZyCoV-D has received the Emergency Use Authorisation from the Drugs Controller Gen-eral of India (DCGI) and will be administered to people aged 12 years and above. The Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V vaccines are being given to only those above 18 years of age and unlike ZyCoV-D, which is a three-dose vaccine, these are administered in two doses.

The Department of Biotech-nology had earlier said ZyCoV-D is the world's first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavi-rus and when injected into the human body, produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from the disease as well as viral clearance. MPOST

‘ZyCoV-D to be introduced in Covid vaccination drive soon’

This will help citizens in availing transport related services, it added

5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021

Kejriwal promises ‘health guarantee’ in Punjab

LUDHIANA: AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday promised the people of Punjab a 'health guarantee' with free treatment and medi-cines at government hospitals if his party is voted to power in the assembly elections begin-ning next year.

Making six promises which he described as a health guar-antee for the people, the Delhi chief minister said free and bet-ter treatment will be available at all government hospitals in the state if his party wins the polls.

Medicines, operations and tests will be free, and health cards will be made for all cit-izens, he said, adding that 16,000 pind and ward clinics will be opened on the lines of Delhi's mohalla clinics.

The condition of existing government hospitals will be improved and new big medical facilities will be opened, Kejri-wal further said, and added that treatment of road accident vic-tims will also be made free.

"Every person in Punjab will get free and good treat-ment (in govt hospitals), which will be at par with good private hospitals. It is my guarantee," he said at a news conference here. It has been done in Delhi, Kejriwal said.

The AAP leader's two-day visit to Punjab ends Thursday.

People in Punjab were forced to go to private hospi-tals as no proper health ser-vices were being provided in primary and community healthcare centres in the state, he alleged.

"The condition in govern-ment hospitals in Punjab is so bad that you don't get treat-ment, and people are forced to go to private hospitals There is loot in private hospitals. In government hospitals in the state, people are facing prob-lems with regards to medicines,

and availability of doctors and better equipment," Kejriwal claimed.

AAP state unit chief and MP Bhagwant Mann, the par-ty's Punjab affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh and co-incharge Raghav Chadha were also present.

Kejriwal said his govern-ment has changed the shape of government hospitals in Delhi.

"I am giving six guaran-tees for the health of citizens of Punjab (if AAP is voted to power in Punjab)," he said.

"We will ensure that med-icines are available at every government hospital, and all machines and other equip-ment are available and func-tional Many people from Punjab come to Delhi for bet-ter treatment facilities, which we will make available in the state itself," Kejriwal said.

Even if anyone has to undergo an operation cost-ing up to Rs 10-15 lakh, that too will be free in government hospitals if the AAP is voted to power, he said.

Every citizen of Punjab will be given a health card, which will have all health-related information of that particular person, Kejriwal.

"We will computerise the entire system, and it will be our responsibility to give people the best treatment," he said.

Taking a dig at the ruling Congress, Kejriwal said that people had brought the party to power with high hopes.

"But today, we don't see anything worth calling a gov-ernment here," he said.

"The government has been reduced to a 'tamasha'," the Delhi chief minister said, refer-ring to the latest political devel-opments in the state.

"A dirty fight for power is going on. Every leader of that party (Congress) wants to become chief minister. Such a bitter fight for power is going on that the government is invis-ible. People are not able to understand whom they should approach for their problems," he said. In such a situation of despair and political instability, people see a ray of hope in the AAP, which is the only party thinking about their problems right now, Kejriwal said.

He said the AAP is the party which is concerned about the state's development and the people. "We are working hard for this. After the polls, the AAP's government will be formed," he said. MPOST

Free treatment, medicines at govt hospitals

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with Punjab AAP President Bhagwant Mann and others during a press conference, in Ludhiana, Thursday

‘TMC planning to contest all 40 seats in Goa Assembly polls’

WE ARE GOING ALL ALONE: LUIZINHO FALEIRO

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PANAJI: A day after join-ing the Trinamool Congress (TMC), former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro on Thursday said the Mamata Banerjee-led party plans to contest all 40 seats in next year's Goa Assembly polls on its own, and without forging any alli-ance. The elections are due in February.

Talking to reporters during a press conference here, the for-mer chief minister also stated that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee would visit the state once the ongoing 15-day 'pitru paksh' period, which is consid-ered inauspicious for launching new projects, gets over.

Faleiro joined the Trin-amool on Wednesday in Kol-kata along with nine other leaders.

He addressed the press con-ference here in the presence of senior TMC leaders, includ-ing Derek O'Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Prasun Banerjee and Manoj Tiwary.

"The party is scouting for fresh faces for the upcom-ing election in Goa...As far as TMC is concerned, we would like to give 40 clean new faces," he said in response to a query on whether the party would consider those MLAs, who have defected from one party to another. When asked if the TMC plans to forge an alli-ance, he said, "We are going to go all alone." It is possible for the TMC to win the upcoming elections in Goa although the time left for the polls was very short, he added.

Faleiro attacked the Con-gress saying that the party never wanted to form a govern-

ment in Goa and therefore it did not stake claim for it despite emerging as the single largest party after the 2017 elections.

He said that I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee)

has been conducting a survey in Goa, the results of which would be available in next 10-15 days, after which the detailed roadmap for elections in Goa would be prepared.

He said the TMC would release a "charge sheet" against the BJP government in Goa, which would expose its "misdeeds".

In the last Assembly polls, the Congress had won the highest number of 17 seats, restricting the BJP to 13 seats. However, surprising the Con-gress, the saffron party allied with regional parties and formed government under the leadership of senior leader Manohar Parrikar.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already thrown its hat in the ring ahead of the polls, with the party's national convener and Delhi Chief Min-ister Arvind Kejriwal announc-ing free power up to 300 units per month and 80 per cent jobs for locals if his party is voted to power during his recent visit to Panaji.

Former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro joined the Trinamool on Wednesday in Kolkata along with nine other leaders

NEW DELHI: The NHRC has sought a report from the Etah district police in Uttar Pradesh into a recent incident of alleged suicide by a minor boy after he was "sent to a jail as an adult" on charges of drug possession, officials said on Thursday.

In addition to this, the com-mission has also directed its investigation division to con-duct an on-the-spot inquiry into the case.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in a state-ment said that it has directed the Etah senior superinten-dent of police (SSP) to have the allegations probed by a senior-rank police officer and

submit an action taken report to the commission within four weeks. The rights panel said it has "taken cognisance of a complaint, accompanied by a news clipping, that a 15-year-old minor boy, unable to bear the torture of being sent to a jail as an adult, on charges of drug possession, committed suicide, when released on bail after three months in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, on September 21, 2021".

It said that allegedly, the boy was arrested by the Etah police in connection with "drug pos-session" and was sent to the district jail, instead of being produced him before a Juve-nile Justice Board.

The boy's father has report-edly alleged that his son was "illegally arrested and tortured to extort money by the police," it said. The NHRC has directed the SSP to have the allegations inquired into, keeping in mind some points, including what protocol is being followed for assessing the age and date of birth of the accused by police.

It said that according to Rule 7 and Section 94 (c) of the Juve-nile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act (JJ Act), date of birth is the primary proof of age. Therefore, under what circum-stances, the juvenile was treated as an adult, the panel has asked the police. MPOST

Minor boy sent to jail in UP, commits suicide; NHRC seeks report from SSP

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Amarinder Singh met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Thurs-day, a day after he called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, amid speculation over his future move after resigning as the Punjab chief minister.

Singh met Doval at his residence here. The meeting between the two lasted for around 30 minutes.

After the meeting, Doval went to the residence of Shah, where he met the home min-ister, along with several other top officials. The meeting at Shah's residence lasted for nearly two hours.

Singh's meeting with Shah on Wednesday had added another dimension in the pol-itics of Punjab where no party is being seen as a clear favou-rite in the polls expected to be held early next year.

The politically signifi-cant meeting, which came days after Singh resigned as the chief minister after accus-ing the Congress of humili-ating him, raised speculation over his future plans ahead of the Punjab polls, with some political analysts viewing it as an indication that the veteran leader may be seeking the sup-port of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). AGENCIES

Day after meeting Shah, Amarinder calls on Doval

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Prahlad Singh Patel visited the National Gal-lery of Modern Art (NGMA) on Thursday to review the 3rd round of e-auction of pres-tigious and memorable gifts presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking on the occasion, Patel said that Modi is the first Prime Minister of the country, who has decided to auction all the gifts he receives for a noble cause of conserving the lifeline of the country-the river Gan-ges through “Namami Gange”.

The Minister said that the e-auction provides an oppor-tunity to the general public not only to possess the invalu-able memorabilia gifted to the Prime Minister but also for contributing to the cause of preserving the holy river

Ganga. He thanked PM Modi for this innovative and noble initiative.

The e-auction is being held from September 17 to Octo-ber 7 through the web por-tal www.pmmementos.gov.in. In this round of e-auctions, around 1348 mementos will be e-auctioned. The mementos include the equipments gifted to the Prime Minister by win-ners of the Tokyo 2020 Para-

lympic games and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The items with the highest value in the e-auction are the Javelin used by gold medalist Sumit Antil in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games and the Jav-elin used by Neeraj Chopra in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games with the base price at Rs one crore each. The lowest priced item is a small sized decorative elephant for Rs 200. MPOST

Minister visits NGMA to review e-auction of mementos gifted to PM

SHILLONG: At least five per-sons died and several others were injured after a bus fell into a river in East Garo Hills district in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The Meghalaya Trans-port Corporation bus, trav-eling from Tura to Shillong, plunged into the Ringdi river at Nongchram around mid-night, they said. Many people are feared trapped inside the vehicle, police said, adding, the cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained.

"Five people have been confirmed dead. The injured are being shifted to Rongjeng PHC for medical assistance. Rescue attempts are under-way," the district police said in a statement. AGENCIES

5 dead as bus falls into river in Meghalaya

NEW DELHI: Several Con-gress leaders of the 'Group of 23', which had last year writ-ten to party chief Sonia Gandhi demanding an organisational overhaul, on Thursday strongly condemned the attack on their colleague Kapil Sibal's house and termed it as "orchestrated hooliganism".

Congress workers pro-tested outside Sibal's house and reportedly damaged a car, after he raised questions over the party's functioning and attacked its leadership.

Senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Vivek Tankha and Raj Babbar were among those who rallied behind Sibal.

Former Punjab CM Ama-rinder Singh also criticised what he said was an "attack" at the house of Sibal by Congress workers only because he "chose to express views that were not palatable to the party leader-ship". This does not augur well for the party, Singh said, adding that it was unfortunate that the seniors are being "completely

sidelined", which is not good for the party.

Azad, former leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, also strongly condemned the "orchestrated hooliganism" at Sibal's residence. "He (Sibal) is a loyal Congressman fight-ing for the party both inside and outside Parliament. Any suggestion from any quarter should be welcomed instead of suppressing, hooliganism is unacceptable," tweeted Azad, who along with Sibal is part of the 'Group of 23' which last year had written to Gandhi seeking organisational over-haul of the party.

Former Haryana CM Bhu-pinder Singh Hooda said, "Orchestrated hooliganism outside Kapil Sibal's residence last night is not the culture of the Congress." "If one has any difference of views, the same should be brought up and dis-cussed at party forum," he said on Twitter.

Asserting that difference in opinion and perception are integral to a democracy, Sharma, also a part of the

G-23, said intolerance and vio-lence is alien to Congress val-ues and culture. "Shocked and disgusted to hear the news of attack and hooliganism at Kapil Sibal's house. This deplorable action brings disrepute to the party and needs to be strongly condemned," Sharma said in a series of tweets.

Taking to Twitter, Con-gress MP from Punjab, Man-ish Tewari, unequivocally condemned what he said was "orchestrated hooliganism" at Sibal's residence last night. "Those who masterminded the assault must bear in mind that he fights for @INCIndia both inside and outside courts of law. You may find his views uncomfortable but that can-

not be a license for violence," Tewari, who is a part of the 23 leaders who wrote to Gandhi last year, said.

Shashi Tharoor, who was part of the leaders who wrote to Gandhi, tweeted, "That is shameful. We all know @Kap-ilSibal as a true Congressman who has fought multiple cases in court for @INCIndia." "As a democratic party we need to listen to what he has to say, disagree if you must but not in this way. Our priority is to strengthen ourselves to take on the BJP!" he said.

Congress leader Vivek Tankha tweeted, People may disagree with him. Even pro-test. But not damage his car. At least in my life I never encour-aged or promoted hooligan-ism." Another Congress leader Raj Babbar said, "Don't unleash mob-power on ideological co-travellers -- you will look more pitiful in front of ideological rivals." "Is critising what hap-pened outside Kapil Sibal's resi-dence not a part of Congress culture," he asked in a tweet in Hindi. MPOST

G-23 leaders condemn protest outside Kapil Sibal’s house

Difference in opinion, perception integral to democracy: Anand Sharma

ICA-

1479

(12)

/202

1

2 GET LIFE TERM IN 11-YR-OLD MURDER CASE IN ODISHA BARIPADA (ODISHA): A court in Odisha’s Mayurb-hanj district on Thursday sentenced two persons to life imprisonment for murdering a man over a dispute on the construction of a school building 11 years ago. Additional District and Sessions Judge Prabir Kumar Chowdhury awarded the punishment to Anadi Giri and Sanjib Giri after finding them guilty of murder. Following a quarrel during a meeting of a school committee at Sakua village in Barsahi block, the two men attacked Niranjan Mohapatra with sharp weap-ons seriously injuring him on June 25, 2010. He died at a hospital later. Mohapatra and the two had some dispute over constructing the school building. The three were members of the school committee.

MP: WOMAN STRANGLES, STABS MINOR STEPCHILDREN TO DEATH DATIA: A 37-year-old woman allegedly strangled and stabbed her two minor step-children to death in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district, police said on Thursday. The police have arrested the accused Jyoti Prajapati, who allegedly went shopping after killing her stepson Arnab (7) and stepdaughter Janhvi (11) at their home in City Kotwali area on Wednesday evening, an official said. The accused strangled the children in separate rooms and then stabbed them with a knife multiple times, leaving them in a pool of blood, Datia additional superintendent of police Kamal Maurya said.

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpFRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAIPUR: The government is making efforts to ensure each district of the coun-try has a medical college or an institution for post-gradu-ate medical education, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday.

He also said the gap in medical education and deliv-ery of health services is being reduced and that the govern-ment's focus is on preventive healthcare as well as promot-ing ayurveda and yoga.

In six years, more than 170 medical colleges have been completed and work on over 100 new medical colleges is going on at a fast pace, Modi said at a virtual ceremony to mark the foundation stone lay-ing of four medical colleges and inauguration of the Insti-tute of Petrochemicals Tech-nology in Rajasthan. "The Centre is making efforts that there should be one medical college or institution for PG (post-graduate) medical edu-cation in every district," he said.

Talking about the erst-while Medical Council of India (MCI), he said that questions used to be raised on its deci-sions and there were allega-tions on its transparency. These had an adverse impact on quality of medical educa-tion and delivery of health ser-vices, the prime minister said. He said after efforts and many challenges, the government was finally able to bring reform by forming the National Medi-cal Commission in place of the MCI. The impact of the com-mission is now visible, Prime Minister Modi said.

Modi said when he became chief minister of Gujarat 20 years ago, there were many

challenges in the areas of medical infrastructure, medi-cal education and treatment facilities, but he accepted the challenges and tried to change the situation with collective efforts. He said the shortcom-ings in the health sector, which he felt as a chief minister, are now being removed in the country. The Centre worked on a national approach and a new national policy to transform the health sector, Modi said.

"Health is a state subject and I know what difficulties are there, because I was also a chief minister. We worked on that. The problem here was that the health system was divided and there was a lack connectivity and collective approach at the national level," he said.

"There was also a gap in traditional and modern medi-cine systems, and the short-comings in governance also needed to be removed. There-fore, we started working on a new national health policy," he said. The prime minister said that from Swachh Bharat Abhi-yan to Ayushman Bharat and now, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, many such efforts are being made.

Stressing on the need to

spread the network of health-care facilities across the coun-try, he said be it AIIMS or medical colleges it is very important to spread their net-work rapidly to every nook and corner of the country. "Today we can say with satisfaction that India is moving from six AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) to a strong network of more than 22 AIIMS," he said.

In 2014, the total seats for under-graduate and post-graduate medical studies in the country was close to 82,000, which has now increased to 1.40 lakh, Modi said.

"The success of the central government's free (COVID-19) vaccine campaign for all is a reflection of its efforts. Today, more than 88 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in India," he said.

The prime minister said that for many English has been a hindrance to get medical education. But the new edu-cation policy has paved way for education in Indian lan-guages and those who did not get the chance to study in Eng-lish-medium schools will also be able to become doctors and serve humanity, he said.

NEW DELHI: Protecting India's sovereignty and integ-rity will be ensured at any cost, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari said on Thursday after taking charge as the Chief of the IAF.

He succeeded Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria fol-lowing his retirement. "Protec-tion of our nation's sovereignty and integrity is to be ensured at any cost," the new IAF Chief said. Air Chief Marshal Chaud-hari added that enhancement of operational capability through integration of newly inducted platforms, weapons and equip-ment with existing assets and dovetailing the same in the concepts of operations would remain a priority area.

In a brief address to the IAF personnel, he also spoke on acquisition of new technology, promotion of indigenisation and innovation, strengthening of cyber security and need for adopting new training meth-ods to deal with future security challenges. The Chief of Air Staff

also urged the IAF personnel to "always uphold the ethos and credo of the 'Air Warrior' and strive to be an asset" to force in any role tasked for.

Air Chief Marshal Chaud-hari was serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff before assuming the new role. Before becoming Vice Chief of the IAF, he was serv-ing as commander-in-chief of the IAF's WAC that looks after the security of India air space

in the sensitive Ladakh sector as well as various other parts of north India.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari was com-missioned into the fighter stream of the IAF on Decem-ber 29, 1982. In a distinguished career spanning nearly 38 years, the officer has flown a wide vari-ety of fighter and trainer aircraft in the inventory of IAF. AGENCIES

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar said that a unique scheme for mountaineering would be formulated for the school students of Haryana. Under this, the student who will climb any one of the 10 highest peaks of the mountains will be given an cash reward of Rs 5 lakh.

The Chief Minister said this while interacting before flagging off a moun-taineering team of school students here today.

The Chief Minister said that in the series of 75th Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, a team of 75 students and teachers from various government schools of the state in collaboration with the School Education Depart-ment and National Adven-ture Club, Chandigarh, will go for mountaineering to Mount Yunam, located at a height of 6111 meters in the Lahaul region of Himachal Pradesh.

He said that Haryana is the first state in the country which is known as a sports hub. The players of Haryana have brought maximum number of medals in Olympics and Para-lympics. Therefore, a scheme will also be chalked out for mountaineers on the lines of sports.

The Chief Minister said that in reality life is not limited to education as extracurricular activities help the students to generate new ideas and also increase their knowledge.

The more one partici-pates in such activities of mountaineering on Mount Yunam, the more one will be successful in life, said the Chief Minister.

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday issued notice to state’s Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Reve-nue) seeking complete ban and scrapping of the perpetual sys-tem of land leases being granted to various persons, trusts and NGOs in Himachal Pradesh.

A Division Bench compris-ing Acting Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed the orders on a petition taken up suo moto by the Court as Public Inter-est Litigation (PIL) based on a letter written to Chief Jus-

tice by one Rakesh Kumar of Kangra, state’s biggest district ,which also has large tracks of Kangra tea.

In the letter Kumar drew the attention of the Chief Jus-tice on a contentious issue relat-ing to doling –out of several acres of prime government land on leases to several persons and organisations arbitrarily for a period of 99 years.

“In many cases, the land leases have been done in com-plete violation of the laws and prevailing rules. These leases actually result in conferring

ownership rights to the lessee for all intents and purposes. The property thereafter passes on to next generations,” he wrote in the letter.

Kumar alleged that it was also illegal that the legal heirs of the beneficiaries inherit the lease rights of the original les-see. If such a system contin-ues, the entire land in Himachal Pradesh would be taken over by outsiders and the resources belonging to the state, would be captured and enjoyed by those, who are not entitled to it. This would eventually lead

to subjugation of the residents of the State.

He has also alleged that many people have turned such leases into a business empire and main source of income.

He has stated that it needs to be ascertained that from such leases, how much income the government is earning, how much income is being generated by the ben-eficiaries, how much taxes are being paid by beneficiaries and how much of leased land has been denuded of forest cover, by the lessees. MPOST

CHANDIGARH: The Depart-ment of Social Welfare, Women and Child Development, Chandigarh Administration has always been at the fore-front of bringing about change and shown great zeal to serve society. POSHAN Maah is being celebrated throughout the country from 1st to 30th September 2021. To mark the last day of the celebra-tions and make it a milestone in the commemoration of the POSHAN Abhiyaan, a State Level function - Exposure visit at Botanical - POSHAN Maah-2021 - was organised with full enthusiasm on 30th September 2021 at the Botanical Garden, Sarangpur, Chandigarh.

Nikita Pawar, Secretary Social Welfare graced the event by doing the honour of being present as the Chief Guest of the function. Dr. Abdul Qayum (IFS,DCF) and Navjot Kaur, Director, Social Welfare, also attended the event. MPOST

One college per dist needed for medical education, says PM

C’garh admin concludes

Poshan maah celebrations

Haryana mulls unique scheme to encourage mountaineers

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari takes charge as new chief

PIL questioning land leases in HP filed, HC issues notice to Govt, CS

New Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari (R) with outgoing Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, during his taking over ceremony at Vayu Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday PIC/PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

‘Success of the Central government’s free (COVID-19) vaccine campaign for all is a reflection of its efforts’

NEW DELHI: The Centre will launch a special campaign beginning Saturday to dispose of public grievances and old files in all its departments, the Personnel Ministry said on Thursday. During this special campaign, files of temporary nature shall be identified and weeded out as per the extant instructions, it said.

Further, redundant scrap material and obsolete items may be discarded to improve cleanliness at workplaces, a statement issued by the minis-try said. The preparatory phase of the special campaign was conducted from September 13-30, during which the min-istries and departments have identified the status of pen-dency, it said.

Over 2 lakh cases of pend-ing public grievances and 2 lakh physical files for weeding have been identified for dis-posal in the campaign. The cleanliness campaign will be undertaken in 1,446 campaign sites and 174 rules/processes have been identified for sim-plification, the statement said.

The move comes following

a directive from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that a special campaign for disposal of pend-ing matters shall be undertaken in each ministry/department and all attached/subordinate and autonomous bodies of the government of India, dur-ing the period from October 2-31, it said. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh will launch the campaign and a dedicated portal on Friday.

The special campaign is aimed at ensuring timely and effective disposal of public grievances, references from Members of Parliament, state governments, inter-ministerial consultations and parliamen-tary assurances, the statement said. The government has directed that during the spe-cial campaign period, all-out efforts may be made to dispose of the identified pending refer-ences, it said.

Also, in the course of such disposal, the existing processes may be reviewed with a view to reduce compliance burden and unnecessary paperwork done away with, wherever feasible, the statement said. MPOST

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan gov-ernment on Thursday banned the sale and bursting of fire-crackers in the state from Octo-ber 1 contending that smoke emanating from them affects the health of the people as the threat of a possible third wave of COVID-19 looms.

The Home Department has asked authorities to not issue licenses for the sale of firecrack-ers from October 1 to January 31 in view of the possible third wave of virus. MPOST

Raj bans sale, bursting of

crackers from Oct 1 to Jan 31

Govt to launch spl drive to dispose of public

grievances, old records

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife Rujira Banerjee on Thursday appeared before a Delhi court through video conferencing in relation to a complaint filed by the Enforcement Direc-torate for allegedly refusing to join the probe in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Ben-gal. Chief Metropolitan Mag-istrate Pankaj Sharma directed Rujira to appear before the court physically on October 12, while granting her exemp-tion from the personal appear-ance for the day.

In her plea seeking exemp-tion from personal appear-ance, Rujira told the court that she was unable to travel with her child on short notice. The court had directed Rujira to appear before it on Septem-ber 30.

Her plea was opposed by ED's Special Public Prosecu-tor Nitesh Rana, who told the

court that she had to appear before the court physically and seek bail since she was accused of evading summons.

The judge granted the exemption for the day after noting that Rujira appeared through the video confer-encing and her advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, who appeared physically, assured that she will appear before the court in person on the next day of the hearing. In its com-plaint, the ED alleged that she refused to appear before the agency here despite repeated summons issued to her.

The couple had earlier approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of summons issued to them by the ED for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal, saying they are resi-dents of Kolkata and should not be compelled to join the probe in the national capital.

The plea is currently pend-ing before the high court,

which is scheduled to further hear it on Friday.

Abhishek Banerjee and his wife have challenged the September 10 summons and also sought to direct the ED not to summon them for their appearance in Delhi and thereby not compelling them to join the investiga-tion in the instant case here. The plea before the high court also said that a greater degree of protection is granted to a woman under Section 160 of the CrPC, which mandates that she shall not be required to attend any place other than where she resides.

It claimed the repeated issuance of summons to Rujira Banerjee to appear before the ED was ex-facie illegal and mala fide and sought court's intervention before any coer-cive measures are resorted to by the agency.

The ED lodged a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act on the basis of a

November 2020 FIR regis-tered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coal-fields Ltd mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.

Local coal operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case. The ED had earlier claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade. He has denied all charges.

Abhishek said ED has repeatedly summoned him and his wife for examination in person in Delhi without supplying a copy of the ECIR (Enforcement Case Infor-mation Report) and without specifying whether they are being summoned as witnesses or accused, nor indicating the scope of the investigation being carried out.

He stated their examina-tion may take place in Kolkata where ED has a functional and fully equipped zonal office.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife Rujira appears before Delhi court virtually

COAL SCAM CASE

Couple had earlier approached Delhi HC seeking quashing of summons

PREPARATIONS

A worker prepares an idol of Goddess Durga ahead of Durga Puja festival in Hyderabad on Thursday PIC/PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday hit out at China for attempting to blame it for the eastern Ladakh standoff, asserting that the “provoca-tive” behaviour and “unilat-eral” attempts by the Chinese military to alter the status quo along the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC) in the region seri-ously disturbed peace and tranquillity in the region.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said China continues to deploy a large number of troops and armaments in the border areas and it was in response to Chi-nese actions that Indian armed forces had to make appropriate counter deployments.

He said China’s allegations have “no basis in facts” and that it is India’s expectation

that the Chinese side will work towards an early resolution of the remaining issues while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols.

India’s reaction came in response to China’s fresh alle-gation that the “root cause” of the tensions between the two countries was New Delhi fol-lowing a “forward policy” and “illegally” encroaching Chinese territory.

Replying to a media query on China’s allegations, Bagchi said India has already made its position clear on the matter a few days back and rejected such statements that have “no basis in facts”.

“It was the amassing of large number of troops by the Chinese side, their provoca-tive behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter status quo in contravention of all our bilat-

eral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquillity along the LAC in eastern Ladakh,” he said.

“China continues to deploy large number of troops and armaments in the border areas. It was in response to Chinese actions, that our armed forces

had to make appropriate coun-ter deployments in these areas to ensure that India’s security interests are fully protected,” he said.

He also referred to Exter-nal Affairs Minister S Jais-hankar’s message to his Chinese counterpart in a meeting in Dushanbe earlier this month.

“As emphasised by the external affairs minister in his meeting with Chinese foreign minister earlier this month, it is our expectation that the Chinese side will work towards early resolution of the remain-ing issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols,” Bagchi said.

A Chinese foreign minis-try spokesperson on Wednes-day accused India of following a “forward policy”.

“India has long been fol-lowing the forward policy and illegally encroached upon Chi-na’s territory across the bor-der,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing while replying to a question on reports of India deploying artil-lery guns in eastern Ladakh.

“This is the root cause of the tensions,” Hua said.

Since the border standoff last year, India has been hold-ing China’s provocative actions responsible for triggering it.

The border standoff between the Indian and Chi-nese militaries erupted on May 5 last year in eastern Ladakh following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

India hits out at China; rejects fresh allegations against it over eastern Ladakh standoff

7millenniumpost Editorial mpKOLKATA | FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021

Not so ‘golden’

A concerning issue

Overdependence on gold for investment, in both formal and informal credit, has negative fallouts; alternative options, along with credible institutions, are needed

The recent amendments to Plastic Waste Management Rules have been made without due deliberations and require to be reworked; writes Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh

According to the World Gold Coun-cil, India tops the list of 13 coun-

tries, followed by China, US, Turkey and Thailand in gold consumption. As per media reports, around 25,000 tonnes of gold is estimated to be in India worth nearly USD 1.5 trillion (Rs 1,07,14,500 crore) based on current prices. The yellow metal, mostly in pri-vate possession in the form of jewellery, bars or coins, is revered as infallible security against financial hardships. But the question is whether this valuable resource is really productive, or is it only a dead investment of a good portion of people’s hard-earned savings hibernating in a metal.

Until The Great Depression of 1930, the ‘Gold Standard’, whereby paper currency’s value linked to that of gold, used to be the monetary system in the entire world. Today, only less than 10 per cent of currency reserves are invested in gold. ‘Fiat money’, which is the value of currency not based on phys-ical commodity but allowed to fluctuate dynamically against other currencies, has replaced gold. However, according to WCG, gold accounts for around 12 per cent of the value of total ‘reserves’ glob-ally, as Central Banks need it as a hedge against inflation in order to moderate the currency fluctuations caused by eco-nomic and monetary policies. There is still a huge demand for physical gold bars, coins, gold-backed ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) and over-the-counter investments in the financial markets.

The gems and jewellery industry is rough of a size of Rs 6.5 trillion and contrib-utes around seven per cent to the GDP and around 16 per cent to India’s total merchan-dise exports. But it’s hasty to celebrate before understand-ing the negative impact of the ‘gold love’ on the economy. Firstly, with domestic produc-

tion of gold only at 1 per cent, and recycling at 10 per cent, the remaining 89 per cent of the demand is met by imports, the second-largest after crude oil, often leading to Current Account Deficiency (CAD). Gold imports have increased multifold (22.58 per cent) to USD 7.9 billion (Rs 58,573 Cr) during the April-June 2021 quarter from USD 688 million (Rs 5,208 Cr) of the same period last year push-ing the trade deficit to USD 31 billion. It is simple econom-ics that the more the imports, the greater will be the current account deficiency as dollars will flow out of the country weakening the Rupee, a sce-nario that doesn’t augur well for the health of the econ-omy in the long run. Hike in tax or duty to discourage gold imports has only encouraged smuggling, as one-fourth of the total volume of gold entering India is through illicit trade, a vehicle for black money.

Secondly, more than 80 per cent of demand for gold is from households, mostly jewellery, driven by cultural values and investment concerns, but sadly the investment is unproduc-tive and the opportunity cost is ignored. Even if half of the

gold available in the country is monetised, it would not only help the growth and develop-ment of the economy but also will ensure better returns for people’s investment.

Gold is believed to have store value, deliver risk-adjusted returns over multi-ple time zones, be effective as a diversifier, work as a hedge against inflation and offset a decline in stock markets. These arguments, influenced more by market fears, cannot dis-prove the fact that the gains in gold investment are far infe-rior to those in other forms like stock, real estate etc. Actually, the important reason for pre-ferring gold to other forms of investment appears to be the waning of trust in finan-cial institutions, stock markets and real estate in the last two decades. The global meltdown of 2008 and many ‘pump and dump’ scams in stock markets affected not only sentiment but also fundamentals. People found gold as a safe and secure investment as institutions suf-fered from credibility crises.

Gold needs to be discour-aged as a vehicle for invest-ment. In the larger interest of the economy, we have a three-fold task to perform: first,

monetize the gold lying idle in private possessions, second, encourage non-gold alternative investments and, third, restore the credibility of institutions. With regard to the first, few schemes were rolled out in 2015. Sovereign Gold Bonds are debt funds as an alterna-tive to gold. These are gov-ernment securities with 2.75 per cent interest which can be redeemed in cash at the market price of gold. However, since the bonds are not secured by physical gold, and their price is at a high premium vis-à-vis the market price, the scheme couldn’t deliver expected results. The Gold Monetiza-tion Scheme is a modification of the Gold Deposit Scheme, 1999 for mobilizing physical gold from people’s possession to banks for interest payable at 2.25-2.50 per cent. But the hitch is that since a large part of gold is not officially accounted for, people apprehend a poten-tial risk of harassment from the Income Tax Department. The other disincentives include 8 years locking period and tax-ability of interest gains. Per-haps revisiting the schemes is necessary in order to make them more investor-friendly with tax relief and voluntary

disclosure provisions. The second and third tasks

are interlinked and depend mainly on the banking sector in terms of professionalism and expansion in order to restore the confidence of investors in non-gold products. Even NITI Aayog in its report (2018) on the gold market, emphasised greater participation by banks in the GMS and GML. There is no dearth of alternative invest-ment schemes. Gold saving account powers digital gold with returns in the value of the metal rather than that of cur-rency. Several diversified port-folios promising 10-15 per cent return and flexible exit options are available in the financial market. But the problem is they are in the reach of only a section of educated people and haven’t reached out to the vast majority of people. Inadequate financial inclusion is the main cause for which the banking sector is largely responsible. It is difficult to ensure fiscal empowerment of people when out of around 6,50,000 vil-lages only around 36,000 have a bank branch. Bureaucratiza-tion crept in operations, com-promising professionalism, that even to open an account or to invest in a product, a simple villager must fill in and sign on half a dozen pages of application form and submit unquestionable KYC proofs. The banking sector is going through a credibility crisis for quite some time due to the pil-ing up of enormous amounts of NPAs, and financial scams. Reforms are long overdue to improve matters. Enhanced spending in the social sector, in the long run, especially on education, can help in bringing attitudinal changes on invest-ment in rural India. Similarly, effective control is also nec-essary for the informal credit sector where gold is the most common asset of a mortgage.

The writer is a former Addl. Chief Secretary

of Chhattisgarh. Views expressed are personal

KDP RAO

Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to letter2editor.mp@gmail.com. You can also send your comments to The Editor,

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

DearEditorThis is in reference to the news report “3-year-old girl & woman dead after portion of old building collapses”. The fatal incident of an unsafe building in the city is a wakeup call. Sadly, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had listed the building as critically unsafe a year ago and urged the residents to vacate it. But despite the warnings, few people who resided in the building continued to do so till Wednesday morning collapse claimed two lives. In the city, there are more than 100 such critically unsafe buildings that are equally at risk and can collapse any day. Several of them are located in north and central Kolkata. For the record, time and again, KMC has failed to convince the tenants to move away. It had even tweaked the building rules three years ago to offer the owners of insecure buildings incentives for reconstruction so that they could find the venture profitable even after providing the tenants their space in the newly built structure. In truth, government agencies are responsible for alerting the public staying in dangerous buildings. But the onus of being safe is on residents as well. Lack of options is probably the reason but this can be suicidal, especially during monsoon.

For the success of the Digital Health Mission of the Government of India, we need to spend more on the health sector as well as find ways to plug the digital divide which is very stark at the present moment. Otherwise, the dividends of such plans will be reaped by only a few having access to technology. Further, apart from doctors and nurses available to the population in the country being much less than the WHO prescribed norms, there is also an acute shortage of competent biomedical engineers. Many graduates and trained medical technicians in the field, who did not get good placement with adequate wages in India, preferred to move overseas. Digital healthcare data management is a peculiar domain which requires intelligent networking coordinators to be posted in hospitals for making quick data available to doctors, staff as well as the patients at one click at their computers. Healthcare data management has to be strengthened for giving impetus to medical research.

The Union govern-ment notified the Plastic Waste Man-agement (Second

Amendment) Rules, 2021 on September 22 — just weeks after the first amendment was notified on August 12, listing 20 single-use plastic items to be phased out. The latest noti-fication is a U-turn by the Centre.

The use of recycled plas-tic was prohibited for food contact applications in the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. This proposal was skipped in the Draft Plas-tic Waste Management Rules, 2021, formulated in March this year.

The latest amendment allows the recycling of “plastic or products made of recycled plastic to be used for storing, carrying, dispensing or pack-aging ready to eat or drink foodstuff”

It was only in 2018 that the FSSAI banned the use of recy-cled plastic or newspaper for packaging of food items from July 1, 2019. Ideally, FSSAI, being the competent author-ity for food safety in the coun-try, should have initiated the amendment in their policy.

The stand and the approach taken by the Union govern-ment in notifying this amend-ment is difficult to understand.

Two major rules have been added to the Plastic Waste Management Rules without them being part of the Draft rules 2021. This means, no public consultation happened around these two issues.

First, the rules provided a moratorium of 10 years to big companies to keep polluting, assuring that more single-use plastic products will be added to the phase-out list only after

a decade from the notification of the first amendment of 2021.

This is in addition to the use of recycled plastics for food products introduced in the lat-est amendment.Composition of recycled plastics

Materials like glass, alu-minium and steel are recy-cled and used for food contact applications. Contamina-tion after its use has not been a problem with them. These materials are recycled end-lessly with a recycling effi-ciency of 75 per cent.

There are, however, over 4,000 legacy chemicals that are inherently present in post-consumer plastic. These are primarily a result of the plas-tic additives for desirable properties.Why is it a problem?

India recycles 60 per cent of its plastic waste. A lion’s share of this is done by the informal workforce in the country. The crude methods used by them to produce plas-tic pellets raise concerns, espe-cially around contamination and purity issues.

Plastic is used in a variety of sectors ranging from medi-cines to chemical fertilizers, which also raises the concern around the source of the recy-cled plastic that will be used in food contact applications.

A growing body of research proves there is migration of chemicals from plastics to food. In a blended product, it is practically impossible to tell the amount of recycled plas-tic that has been added to the final product.

The only way to ascertain the concentration of recycled plastic is by labelling. There is no way to corroborate the claims a producer makes while labelling. The only option we have is to trust the producer.

This may give the big play-ers a way out to keep using vir-gin polymers, while improving the eco-conscious image of their brand in the minds of consumers.Global practices

In the US, manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that the recycled product is of suitable purity.

These requirements have

been laid out in the federal reg-ulations and the suggestions for the use of recycled plas-tic in product packaging are contained in the Guidance for Industry.

The Food and Drug Administration in the US is very well aware of the con-taminants from post-con-sumer plastic that may appear in the final product. Therefore, each proposal of using recycled plastic is evaluated before issu-ing a no-objection letter.

The European commission back in 2018 was preparing to fast-track approval of 140 recy-cling processes for use in food and drinks packaging.

“Only food-contact mate-rials and articles that contain recycled plastics obtained from an authorised recycling process may be marketed in the EU after petitions for recycling pro-cesses are evaluated,” according to regulation 282 / 2008.

Moreover, plastics regula-tion 10 / 2011 outlines specific requirements for manufactur-ing and marketing within the EU plastic materials and arti-cles intended to come into con-tact with food.

These deliberations have been going on for long and only a handful of regulations have come in from time to time.

Most countries in Asia lack a specific regulation to explic-itly allow or prohibit the use of recycled plastics in food applications. Recent updates by Korea, China and Thai-land indicate that the region may soon see food packaging applications using recycled materials.

Industrial packaging hap-pens to be the highest user of plastic. This is why the world’s major economies have set a

priority to develop guidelines to ensure that products made with recycled plastic are fit for being used in packaging and food packaging applications.Recommendations for India

The first and foremost aspect of notifications has to be transparency to inform us of the intent and objective of the government.

Opaque processes and half-baked notifications only add to the confusion of how the noti-fication has to be interpreted.

Before the FSSAI takes a call to include recycled plastic for food contact applications, we have to ensure the follow-ing things:

Most, if not all, our plastic has to be recycled in autho-rised recycling facilities.

The use of recycled plastic should have been mandated for non-food applications ini-tially to understand the issues faced by the industries in terms of production and social acceptability.

An inventory needs to be created of the types of pro-cesses that we have in the country to recycle our plastics and then identify the safe plas-tic recycling processes.

Guidelines are required for the use of recycled plastic for packaging of ready-to-eat food materials.

A working mechanism needs to be developed with all the stakeholders, which include but are not limited to MoEFCC, FSSAI, the Central Pollution Control Board, all the State Pollution Control Boards and the Pollution Con-trol Committees, the Urban Local Bodies, representatives of the plastic industry, includ-ing the plastic recycling indus-try as well as consumers. DTE

Views expressed are personal

Gems and jewellery industry is of Rs 6.5 trillion and contributes around seven per cent to the GDP

— KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email

— BRIJ B GOYAL, LUDHIANA via email

A growing body of research proves there is migration of chemicals from plastics to the food

EDITORIALTread cautiously

For the past year, the school education system in India has been at the crossroads, struggling to take decisive action on the reopening of schools. The safety of children was rightly prioritized over the

continuance of schooling. But it appears now that phase is a thing of the past as there is greater clarity over the resumption of schools across India in view of the dip in daily cases below 20,000. Brihanmumbai Municipal Cor-poration ordered reopening of schools, subject to Covid protocols, in Mumbai for classes 8 to 12 from October 4. Delhi, where schools were re-opened for classes 9-12 a month before, is considering re-opening of schools for remaining classes from November after the festive sea-son ends. Tamil Nadu is set to open schools for classes 1-8 from November. The Rajasthan government has also re-opened schools for students of classes 1-5. The Assam government, which had earlier resumed physical school-ing for Classes 10 and 12, will now resume schooling for class 9 from October 1, and classes 1-8 and class 11 from October 19. Apart from the dip in cases at the national level and across the states, it is the successful operation of schools by certain state governments — including Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Delhi — that has helped a great deal in allaying the fears around reopening of schools. It is important to retain the habits and prac-tices that we had adopted during the harsher phases of the pandemic. The positive situation today has been achieved through the improved vaccination rates, awareness among the masses etc. To ensure a foolproof recovery from the negative ramification of the pandemic on school educa-tion, the continuance of safe practices should be consid-ered imperative. It is of utmost importance at this juncture to follow the ICMR guidelines during the re-opening pro-cess. Though the re-opened schools have not shown any significant threat to school-going children, the students above the age of 12 have been found significantly suscep-tible to Covid-19 infection. The severity of infection may be milder among children but the long-term repercussions of milder contraction cannot be completely ruled out. A clear implication that needs to be drawn at this point in time is to ensure vaccination of children above the age of 12, parallel to the resumption of classes. The fourth round of the National Serosurvey for COVID-19, conducted in June this year, revealed that more than half of the children aged between six and 17 were seropositive. On the need for masking, ICMR has not recommended masks for chil-dren below the age of five years but left it to the individual capacity of children between the age of six to 11 to wear or not wear masks. It has however mandated the use of masks for children above the age of 12 years. Besides the ICMR guidelines, states have also devised their own set of SOPs — depending upon the regional threats — that need to be strictly implemented. Reopening schools is a mammoth and sensitive exercise and requires extensive caution and planning at each step. Of course, all attempts need to be made to avoid any possible threat to the health of children. But still, there is no guarantee of safety given the unpredictable nature of the virus and its strains. It is in this view that the states must have a closure strategy for schools in mind, at least at a local level, in case the situ-ation deteriorates regionally. The fact is that schools will have to re-open at some point in time. At the present, when the number of cases has gone down appreciably, and certain states have successfully operated schools through effective SOPs and following Covid-19 protocols, it may be the right time to re-open schools for children of different age brackets. But this is not at all the sign of being in the safe zone, it is rather a necessity that cannot be avoided for a long time. The present situation doesn’t offer us a secure path to roam along, but rather a tightrope to just keep us going. So, tread cautiously.

With domestic production of gold only at 1 per cent, and recycling at 10 per cent, the remaining 89 per cent of the demand is met by imports — second-largest after crude oil

Opaque processes and half-baked notifications only add to the confusion of how the notification has to be interpreted

millenniumpost.in

SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

DIGITAL HEALTHCARE

8 millenniumpostWorldmpFRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

China, US in talks on military relations amid strained ties

BEIJING: Defence officials from China and the US have held two days of talks in a small sign of progress amid a con-tinuing sharp downturn in relations.

The secure video con-ference held Tuesday and Wednesday was led by Maj Gen Huang Xueping, deputy direct of the People's Libera-tion Army's Office for Interna-tional Military Cooperation, and US Deputy Assistant Sec-retary of Defense for China Michael Chase.

Chinese Defence Minis-try spokesperson Wu Qian on Thursday said the sides exchanged in-depth views on relations between the two countries and the two militaries and issues of common concern.

However, he blamed con-tinuous provocation and con-tainment of China by the US for the considerable difficulties and challenges between the two militaries.

China's sovereignty, dignity and core interests brook no vio-lations," Wu said at a monthly briefing.

Regarding the relationship between the two armed forces, we welcome communication,

welcome cooperation, face dif-ferences and oppose coercion."

In a statement issued in

Washington, Department of Defence spokesperson Lt. Col Martin Meiners said the

meeting was an important component of the Biden-Har-ris administration's ongoing effort to responsibly manage the competition between the US and the PRC by maintain-ing open lines of communica-tion with the PRC."

During the talks, he said the two sides held a frank, in-depth, and open discussion on a range of issues.

Both sides reaffirmed con-sensus to keep communication channels open. The US side also made clear our commitment to

uphold shared principles with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

Relations between China and the US are facing the worst strain in decades over trade, technology, human rights and Chinese military activities in the South China Sea, where Beijing has built airstrips and other infrastructure atop man-made islands.

Military-to-military ties have been characterized by deep mistrust, with the US accusing China of a lack of transparency as it massively upgrades the capabilities of the PLA, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party.

China has been angered by the Navy sending ships to sail close to islands it controls in what Washington calls free-dom of navigation operations, along with US support for Tai-wan. President Joe Biden has maintained a tough line on China, but has sought better communication with Beijing.

The talks between Huang and Chase are believed to mark the first direct high-level contact between defense officials under the Biden administration. AGENCIES

Wu Qian said the sides exchanged in-depth views on relations between the two countries and the two militaries and issues of common concern

Riot: Ecuador declares prison emergency after 116 killed

QUITO (Ecuador): Ecuador's president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a coastal lockup that killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what author-ities say was the worst prison bloodbath ever in the country.

Officials said at least five of the dead were found to have been beheaded.

President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency Wednesday, which will give the government powers that include deploying police and soldiers inside prisons. The order came a day after blood-shed at the Litoral peniten-tiary in Guayaquil that officials blamed on gangs linked to international drug cartels fight-ing for control of the facility.

Lasso, visibly moved by the carnage, said at a news confer-ence that what had happened in the prison was bad and sad. He also said he could not guarantee that authorities had regained control of the lockup.

It is regrettable that the pris-ons are being turned into ter-ritories for power disputes by criminal gangs, he said, adding that he would act with "abso-lute firmness to regain control of the Litoral prison and pre-vent the violence from spread-ing to other penitentiaries.

Images circulating on social media showed dozens of bod-ies in the prison's Pavilions 9 and 10 and scenes that looked

like battlefields. The fighting was with firearms, knives and bombs, officials said. Earlier, regional police commander Fausto Buena o had said that bodies were being found in the prison's pipelines.

Outside the prison morgue, the relatives of inmates wept, with some describing to report-ers the cruelty with which their loved ones were killed, decapi-tated and dismembered.

In the history of the coun-try, there has not been an inci-dent similar or close to this

one, said Ledy Z iga, the former president of Ecuador's National Rehabilitation Council.

Z iga, who was also the country's minister of justice in 2016, said she regretted that steps had not been taken to prevent another massacre fol-lowing deadly prison riots last February.

Earlier, officials said the vio-lence erupted from a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs.

Col. Mario Pazmi o, the former director of Ecuador's military intelligence, said the bloody fighting shows that transnational organized crime has permeated the structure" of Ecuador's prisons, adding that Mexico's Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels oper-ate through local gangs.

They want to sow fear, he told The Associated Press on Wednesday, urging the gov-ernment to temporarily cede control of the prisons to the National Police. The more radi-cal and violent the way they murder, the more they achieve their goal of control, he added.

Ecuador's president said that care points had been set up for relatives of the inmates with food and psychological support.

He added that a 24 million program to address the coun-try's prisons will be accelerated, starting with investments in infrastructure and technology in the Litoral prison. AGENCIES

N Korea's Kim seeks better ties with SouthSEOUL: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed will-ingness to restore stalled com-munication lines with South Korea in coming days while shrugging off U.S. offers for dialogue as cunning ways to conceal its hostility against the North, state media reported Thursday.

Kim's statement is an apparent effort to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washing-ton as he wants South Korea to help him win relief from crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions and other conces-sions. Pyongyang this month has offered conditional talks with Seoul alongside its first

missile firings in six months and stepped-up criticism of the United States.

The U.N. Security Coun-cil scheduled an emergency

closed meeting on Thursday at the request of the United States, the U.K. and France on North Korea's recent tests.

During a speech at his country's rubber-stamp parlia-ment on Wednesday, Kim said the restoration in early October of cross-border hotlines which have been largely dormant for more than a year would real-ize the Korean people's wishes for a peace between the two Koreas, according to the offi-cial Korean Central News Agency.

Kim still accused South Korea of being bent on beg-ging external support and cooperation while clamoring

for international cooperation in servitude to the U.S., rather than committing to resolv-ing the matters independently between the Koreas.

Kim echoed his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong's calls for Seoul to abandon double-deal-ing attitude and hostile view-point over the North's missile tests and other developments.

Some experts say North Korea is pressuring South Korea to tone down its criti-cism of its ballistic missile tests, which are banned by UN Secu-rity Council resolutions, as part of its quest to receive an international recognition as a nuclear power. AGENCIES

China delivers 1st batch of aid to Taliban's interim govtBEIJING: China has delivered the first batch of its USD 31 million humanitarian assis-tance, comprising emergency supplies such as blankets and jackets, to the Taliban's interim government in Afghanistan.

The China-donated sup-plies, which arrived at the Kabul International Airport on Wednesday night, have been handed over to the Afghan-istan side, state-run Xinhua news agency reported from the Afghan capital.

China's Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu and Acting Minister of Refugee Affairs of the Afghan care-taker government Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani attended the handover ceremony at the airport.

Wang said that amidst

many difficulties, China has managed to arrange the emer-gency humanitarian aid mate-rials for Afghanistan in a short time, which included blankets, down jackets and other winter supplies urgently needed by the Afghan people.

He said China will con-tinue to prepare for other materials, including food aid, which are expected to arrive before long.

Haqqani thanked China for providing the emergency supplies.

Terming China as a good neighbour and friend of Afghanistan , Haqqani hoped China could provide further assistance in the future, the state-run China Global Tele-vision Network (CGTN-TV) reported. AGENCIES

Campaign financing case: Sarkozy convicted by courtPARIS: French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy was con-victed and sentenced to a year of house arrest Thursday for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 reelec-tion bid.

The court will allow him to

serve the sentence at home by wearing an electronic monitor-ing bracelet.

Sarkozy, France's president from 2007 to 2012, had vig-orously denied wrongdoing during the trial in May and June. He can appeal the deci-sion, which would suspend the sentence.

Sarkozy wasn't present at the Paris court for the rul-ing. He was accused of hav-ing spent almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ( 27.5 mil-lion) on the reelection bid that he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande.

The court stated that Sar-kozy knew the legal limit was at stake and voluntarily failed to supervise additional expenses. Prosecutors had requested a six-month prison term, as well as a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of 3,750 euros ( 4,354). AGENCIES

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a parliament meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea PTI

The secure video conference held Tuesday and Wednesday was led by Maj Gen Huang Xueping, deputy direct of the People's Liberation Army's Office for International Military Cooperation, and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China Michael Chase

Outside the prison morgue, the relatives of inmates wept, with some describing to reporters the cruelty with which their loved ones were killed, decapitated and dismembered

NIeT-26 & 27/ 21-22 Dated 29.09.2021

e-Tenders are invited by the Executive Engineer on behalf of West Bengal Agro Industries Corpn. Ltd, 23B, Netaji Subhas Road, 3rd Floor , Kolkata-700001 from bonafide and resourceful Agencies for completion of civil works for Coochbehar and Alipurduar District. Tender document may be downloaded from http://wbtenders.gov.in. Bid submission start date 30.09.2021 after 9.00 AM. Bid submission end date 29.10.2021 before 6.00 PM as per respective NIeT. Date: 29.09.2021 sd/-Executive Engineer

9millenniumpost Business mpKOLKATA | FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021

NEW DELHI: State-run power giant NTPC on Thursday said its arm NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NTPC REL) has signed the first green term loan agree-ment of Rs 500 crore with Bank of India.

The green term loan agree-ment is for its two solar projects in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

NTPC REL has signed its first Green Term Loan agree-ment of Rs 500 crores at a very competitive rate with a tenor of 15 years with Bank of India on September 29, 2021 for its 470 MW solar project in Rajasthan and 200 MW solar project in Gujarat, a company statement said. The Facility agreement was signed in the presence of A K Gautam, Director (Finance), NTPC, C K Mondal, Director (Commercial) NTPC & Chair-man of NTPC REL, Mohit Bhar-

gava, ED (RE) NTPC & CEO (NTPC REL), Aditya Dar ED (Fin) NTPC & Director NTPC REL and senior officials from Bank of India.

A green loan is a type of loan instrument that enables bor-rowers to finance projects that have an environmental impact.

NTPC REL, a 100 per cent subsidiary of NTPC Ltd, cur-rently has a renewable project

portfolio of 3,450 MW of which 820 MW projects are under con-struction and 2,630 MW proj-ects have been won for which PPAs (power purchase agree-ments) are pending to be exe-cuted. NTPC had incorporated NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd with the Registrar of Compa-nies, NCT of Delhi & Haryana on October 7, 2020, for renew-able energy business. MPOST

NEW DELHI: Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday said it has pur-chased 1.8 crore shares of the proposed National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL).

“Punjab National Bank has subscribed to 1,80,00,000 shares of National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (pending execution of invest-ment agreement),” the bank said in a regulatory filing.

NARCL is yet to become

operational. It will take over the bad assets of the banks in its own account for speedy res-olution of such assets.

PNB said the shares have been acquired at a cash con-sideration of Rs 10 per equity share (at par) and it will com-plete the transaction by the end of the last quarter of this fiscal.

The lender said the invest-ment of equity stake of 12.06 per cent by it in NARCL will be reduced to 9 per cent by December 31, 2021.

Earlier this month, the gov-ernment cleared the proposal to provide government guar-antee worth Rs 31,000 crore to security receipts issued by the NARCL.

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

It will be 51 per cent owned by PSBs and the remaining by private sector lenders. PTI

KOLKATA: Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), South Asia’s largest hospitality company, on Thursday announced the sign-ing of a new SeleQtions hotel in Kolkata, West Bengal. The hitherto operating hotel, Raa-jkutir, will be branded as an IHCL SeleQtions hotel. This hotel is in partnership with the Ambuja Neotia Group.

Commenting on the sign-ing, Suma Venkatesh, Exec-utive Vice President - Real Estate & Development, IHCL, said, “IHCL remains com-mitted to the Eastern part of India as we continue to tap into the region’s tremen-dous potential. This distinc-

tive hotel will offer travellers an opportunity to experience the many facets of Kolkata in a new and unique manner. We are delighted to continue to strengthen our partnership with the Ambuja Neotia Group with this project.”

The 33-room heritage inspired hotel embodies the spirit of quintessential Ben-gal renaissance while catering to the contemporary travel-ler. Strategically located near Salt Lake, Kolkata’s premium residential area, the hotel is in close proximity to various business districts and enter-tainment hubs as well as the international airport. With

varied culinary and leisure experiences, and extensive banqueting and meeting facil-ities, the hotel reflects the true essence of the City of Joy.

Commenting on the part-nership, Harshavardhan Neo-tia, Chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with IHCL once again. This will be our third IHCL hotel in the vibrant city of Kolkata, further providing strong impetus to city’s growing status as a busi-ness and leisure destination.”

With the addition of this hotel, IHCL will have seven hotels across brands in West Bengal. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday hiked by 62 per cent the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers and turned into CNG to use as fuel in automo-biles and cooking gas for house-hold kitchens.

This is the first increase in rates since April 2019 and comes on back of firming benchmark international prices but does not reflect the spurt in spot or current price of liquefied natu-ral gas (LNG) witnessed during the last couple of weeks.

The oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) said the rates paid for gas produced from fields given to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) will be $2.90 per million British thermal unit for the six-month period begin-ning April 1.

Simultaneously, the price for gas produced from difficult fields such as deepsea, which is based on a different formula, was hiked to $6.13 per mmBtu from the current $3.62 per mmBtu.

This is the maximum price that Reliance Industries Ltd and its partner BP plc are entitled to for the gas they produce from deepsea blocks such as KG-D6.

The increase in gas price is likely to result in a 10-11 per cent rise in CNG and piped cooking gas rates in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, industry sources said.

It will also lead a rise in cost of generating electricity but con-sumers may not feel any major pinch as the share of power pro-duced from gas is very low.

Similarly, the cost of produc-ing fertiliser will also go up but as the government subsidises the crop nutrient, an increase in rates is unlikely.

At the last revision in April this year, rates paid to ONGC were left unchanged at UD 1.79, while the deepsea gas price was cut from $4.06 per mmBtu to $3.62.

A $1 increase in gas price results in Rs 5,200 crore rev-enue for ONGC on an annual-ised basis. After accounting for

taxes and other levies, it trans-lates into Rs 3,200-3,300 crore in EBDITA for the company, sources said.

Gas prices were last raised in April 2019 and have since only fallen due to a drop in global benchmark rates.

While the government sets the price of gas produced by ONGC from fields given to it on a nomination basis, it bi-annually announces a cap or maximum price that operators who won exploration acreage under licensing rounds can get.

The operators are supposed to do a market price discovery by seeking bids from users but that rate is subject to the price ceiling announced by the gov-ernment, sources said.

Reliance-BP had in the recent price discovery for new gas from their Krishna Godavari basin block, got rates of over $6

per mmBtu.“The price of domestic natu-

ral gas for the period October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, is $2.90 per mmBtu on Gross Calorific Value (GCV) basis,” PPAC said.

Similarly, “the price ceiling” for gas produced from “discov-eries in deepwater, ultra-deep-water and high pressure-high temperature areas” is $6.13 per mmBtu, it said.

Natural gas price is set every six months -- on April 1 and October 1 -- each year based on rates prevalent in surplus nations such as the US, Canada and Russia in one year with a lag of one quarter. So the price for October 1 to March 31 is based on the average price from July 2020 to June 2021.

The sources said gas prices had fallen when the pandemic broke out but recovered later as demand picked up.

The recent spurt in rates will get reflected in prices that become effective from April next year.

The gas price fixed in the last couple of years was unremuner-ative for producers as it was way below the cost of production.

ONGC, the sources said, had posted a Rs 4,272 crore loss on gas business in 2017-18, which widen to over Rs 6,000 crore in fiscal April 2020 to March 2021.

ONGC had been incurring

losses on the 65 million stan-dard cubic metres per day of gas it produces from domestic fields shortly after the govern-ment in November 2014 intro-duced a new gas pricing formula that had “inherent limitations” as it was based on pricing hubs of gas surplus countries such as the US, Canada, and Russia.

The sources said ONGC in a recent communique to the government has stated that the break-even price to produce gas from new discoveries was in the range of $5-9 per mmBtu.

The Congress-led UPA had approved a new pricing for-mula for implementation in 2014 that would have raised the rates but the BJP-led govern-ment scrapped it and brought a new formula.

The new formula takes into account the volume-weighted annual average of the prices prevailing in Henry Hub (US), National Balancing Point (the UK), Alberta (Canada), and Russia with a lag of one-quarter.

The rate at the first revision, using the new formula, came to $5.05 but in the subsequent six-monthly reviews kept falling till it touched $2.48 for April 2017 to September 2017 period.

Subsequently, it rose to $3.69 in April 2019-September 2019 before being cut in subsequent rounds to $1.79.

NEW DELHI: The food and consumer affairs ministry on Thursday said value-chain par-ticipants in the pulses indus-try have declared 30.97 lakh tonne of pulses stock on a gov-ernment portal and this data can be used for taking steps to ensure smooth supply of the key commodity at affordable rates.

As part of its measures to control rising prices of pulses and check hoarding, the min-istry had in July directed states to ensure stockists, millers and traders provide details of the stock they are holding on any given date on portal https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp.

“At least 11,635 stockhold-ers have registered declaring 3097694.42 tonne of stock of pulses on the official portal of Department of Consumer Affairs as on September 20, 2021,” the ministry said in a statement.

Digitization of pulses stock is in full swing, it added.

According to the minis-try, stock declaration through traders, millers, importers, and warehouses which are both public and privately owned will create a data bank.

This will enable the gov-ernment to understand which states are producing and keep-ing a stock for milling pur-poses. It will also help keep a check on undesirable prac-tices of hoarding and artificial

scarcity creation through stock declaration and real time verifi-cation of the same, it said.

The portal can also be accessed by any citizen. Pri-vacy of data is maintained. The data declared by any stock-holder will be visible to them besides the state and central governments.

Further, the ministry said the data helps them in knowing the movement of stocks and the quantum of stocks with them on any given date.

State governments can monitor the registrations done and stocks declared by vari-ous stakeholders pertaining to their own states. This gives the data of the quantum of stocks of various pulses available in their states.

It also throws light on any

expected shortfall of any par-ticular pulse so that the state government can act proac-tively to ensure smooth avail-ability by way of imports or through central buffers depending upon the situation, it added.

Stating that the Department of Consumer Affairs monitors the situation at the national level, the data provided on the portal will also make aware of any expected shortfall of any particular pulse across the country so that the Centre is able to act proactively.

“The various measures that will be taken by the govern-ment based on the data from the portal will help in ensuring smooth availability of pulses at affordable prices for the con-sumers,” it added. PTI

Govt hikes natural gas price by 62%; CNG rates may go up

The increase in gas price is likely to result in a 10-11 per cent rise in CNG and piped cooking gas rates in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai

Stockists declare 30.97L tonne pulses stock on govt portal

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Com-mon Services Centres (CSC) has denied writing any letter to either the PMO or the DoT offering to buy a stake in the BBNL. “We have not submit-ted any proposal to the govern-ment to buy a stake in BBNL. It is factually incorrect and we deny it,” an official statement from the CSC said.

“CSC, which is a special pur-pose vehicle (SPV) of Ministry of Electronics & IT has not sub-mitted any proposal either to the Ministry of Telecom or the PMO as mentioned in a media report for purchase of a stake in the BBNL,” it added.

“CSC, which has a network of around 4 lakh VLEs mainly serving in rural India, has been providing various government services to the masses, and

maintenance of BharatNet rural broadband is one of them. We are working in close coordina-tion with BBNL in connecting rural India with a robust broad-band network,” it added.

CSC denies writing letter to PMO & DoT to buy stake in BBNL

‘We have not submitted any proposal to the govt to buy a stake in BBNL. It is factually incorrect and we deny it,’ CSC said

MUMBAI: The non-food bank credit grew by 6.7 per cent in August 2021 as compared to 5.5 per cent in the year-ago month, Reserve Bank of India data showed.

Bank loans to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering an accelerated growth of 11.3 per cent in August 2021, as against 4.8 per cent in August 2020, the data showed.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday released data pertaining to ‘Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit - August 2021’.

Credit to micro and small industries accelerated to 10.1 per cent in August 2021 from a contraction of 1.1 per cent a year ago.

Loans to large industries contracted by 1.7 per cent, compared to a growth of 0.5 per cent in August 2020, as per the Reserve Bank of India data. PTI

Non-food bank credit grows

6.7% in August

IHCL anounces signing of a new SeleQtions hotel33-room hotel embodies spirit of quintessential Bengal renaissance while catering to contemporary traveller

NTPC REL inks 1st green term loan

NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Nat-ural Gas Corporation (ONGC), on Thursday said it has spud the first well in an offshore block in Bangladesh, marking the start of an exploration campaign to find oil and gas.

“Well Kanchan#1 in Block SS04, Bangladesh was spud on September 29 at Maheshkhali Island. This exploratory well is planned to be drilled to a depth of 4,200 meters and will be tar-geting two prospective forma-tions,” the company said in a statement. This well will be fol-lowed by drilling at two more exploratory locations. OVL, in consortium with Oil India Ltd (OIL), was awarded two shal-low offshore Blocks SS-04 and

SS-09 in Bangladesh during the Bid Round of 2012.

The production sharing con-tract was signed between OVL, OIL and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Company Limited (BAPEX) in February 2014. OVL with participating interest (PI) of 45 per cent is the operator. OIL has 45 per cent interest, and BAPEX holds the remaining 10 per cent.

BAPEX is being carried equally by ONGC Videsh and OIL up to the commercial dis-covery stage. “All pre-drilling activities were completed with the rig being on location in late 2019 and with spudding sched-uled for March 2020.

However, the drilling had to be deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PTI

OVL begins exploratory drilling in Bangladesh

PNB purchases stake in NARCL GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

ICA- T12538(4)/2021

ICA- T12543(3)/2021

ICA- T12546(2)/2021

ICA- T12553(4)/2021

ICA- T12559(3)/2021

ICA- T12564(3)/2021

ICA- T12569(3)/2021

ICA- T12572(3)/2021

ICA- T12575(3)/2021

ICA- T12583(3)/2021

ICA- T12587(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL Notice

E-Tender is being invited from the bonafied contractors vide N.I.T. No.:- 09/BDO/Phd/MGNREGS/2021-22, Dated :- 30/09/2021, Memo No:- 1365/BDO/Phd/ Date:-30/09/2021 Last date for Submission of Bids - 07/10/2021 up to 12.00 Noon. Other details can be seen from the Notice Board of the undersigned in any working days. Sd /- Block Development Officer, Phansidewa Development Block

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpFRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

MUMBAI: Market benchmarks spiralled lower for the third ses-sion on the trot on Thursday as investors pared their exposure to riskier assets amid a bearish trend overseas due to macro-economic concerns.

A continuously depreciat-ing rupee, which tumbled for the fifth straight day against the US dollar, also weighed on sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shed 286.91 points or 0.48 per cent to end at 59,126.36. The index has now lost 951.52 points in three days.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty fell 93.15 points or 0.53 per cent to close at 17,618.15. It has declined by 236.95 points over three sessions.

PowerGrid was the top loser in the Sensex pack on Thursday, slipping 2.67 per cent, followed by Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Bajaj

Auto, SBI, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and M&M.

In contrast, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Sun

Pharma, HUL, Titan, HDFC twins and Dr Reddy’s finished with gains of up to 2.19 per cent.

According to traders, expiry of monthly futures and options (F&O) contracts also induced volatility during the session.

Sectorally, BSE realty, con-sumer durables, utilities, power and healthcare indices rose as much as 1.54 per cent, while bankex, metal, telecom and teck ticked lower. Broader BSE mid-cap and smallcap indices rose up to 0.56 per cent.

The rupee declined by 9 paise to end at 74.23 against the US currency on Thursday, marking its fifth straight ses-sion of fall, amid risk averse sentiments and foreign fund outflows. PTI

NEW DELHI: AREMHL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) has inked pact with Essel Green Energy to acquire a 40 MW operating solar proj-ect in Odisha.

Adani Renewable Energy (MH) Limited (AREMHL) has signed definitive agreements with Essel Green Energy to acquire 100 per cent economic value in an SPV that owns 40 MW operating solar project in Odisha, company said.

The project has a long-term power purchase agree-ment (PPA) with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for Rs 4.235 per unit, with remain-ing PPA life of about 22 years.

The closing of the transac-tion is subject to customary con-ditions. The acquisition of the project is at an enterprise valu-ation of Rs 219 crore.

With this acquisition, AGEL will achieve a total renewable capacity of 19.8 GW. The total portfolio includes 5.4 GW oper-ational assets, 5.7 GW assets under construction and 8.7 GW near construction assets. Vneet Jaain, Managing Director and CEO of Adani Green Energy, said, With the acquisition of this project in Odisha, AGEL will now have its footprint across 12 states in India. We are on an expansion path that will make us the world’s largest renewable player by 2030. MPOST

NEW DELHI: India accounts for only 2.5 per cent of the global agriculture exports, and there is an opportunity to double it in the medium term and improve the economics of the sector, ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri said on Thursday.

There is an urgent need to deal with the agriculture value chain, which would help in improving the quality of income in rural areas and ushering in socio-economic transformation in the country, Puri said while virtually addressing an event organised by PHDCCI.

The sector also needs

“immediate and substantive transformation” because it is also the most threatened by global climate change, he added.

“I think the most important sector that we need to deal with is really the agriculture value chains. And to that I would also add the wood-based value chains as an opportunity,” he said. “Presently, because of our productivity and limitations on quality, sustainability and limi-tations of value addition, India merely accounts for only two and a half per cent of the global exports,” Puri said.

“The opportunity is very

clearly to be able to double it in the medium terms, and dou-bling this offers the opportu-nity to actually improve, and improve the economics of this sector,” he said.

Some has been already

undertaken at the centre and states level on agri infrastruc-ture, funds, regulations, the marketing linkages, etc, Puri noted. “What we have to envi-sion is to move away from a production centric agriculture system to the next generation agriculture, which is demand-responsive,” he said.

The dependence of the workforce on the agri value chains in India is also immense. Nearly two-thirds of rural liveli-hoods come from the sector and about half of the workforce of India is engaged in the sector.

“Despite such a large work-

force being engaged in agri-culture, its share in the GDP is under 20 per cent, reflecting the endemic problems of productiv-ity and low incomes. So, this is really a serious concern in terms of the quality of incomes here,” he added. The food processing industry which lies at the inter-section of agriculture and active manufacturing is an “enormous economic multipliers” and has the best employment to capital ratios, Puri observed.

“It is an industry which cre-ates an enormous amount of post-harvest management live-lihood. It also brings inefficien-

cies, and also positively impacts farm incomes,” he said.

According to him, agricul-ture is a sector threatened by climate change, though it is a small contributor to it. “We have witnessed the extreme weather events, year on year, and the devastation they have caused on many facets of economic activity, but certainly substan-tially to agriculture, and experts actually predict that by 2050, if climate change continues unabated in the trajectory that it is progressing today, extreme weather events will multiply 75 times,” he added. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: India’s current account balance recorded a surplus of $6.5 billion or 0.9 per cent of the GDP in the quarter ended June, primarily due to contraction in the trade deficit and increase in services receipts, according to RBI data.

The country had registered a current account deficit of $8.1 billion or 1.0 per cent of the GDP in the fourth quarter (Jan-uary-March) of 2020-21. It was a surplus of $19.1 billion or 3.7 per cent of the GDP in the year-ago period.

India had reported a current account surplus of 0.9 per cent of the GDP in the pandemic-hit 2020-21 as against a deficit of 0.9 per cent in 2019-20.

“India’s current account bal-ance recorded a surplus of $6.5 billion (0.9 per cent of GDP) in Q1:2021-22 as against a defi-cit of $8.1 billion (1.0 per cent of GDP) in Q4:2020-21 and a surplus of $19.1 billion (3.7 per cent of GDP) a year ago (Q1:2020-21),” RBI said on Thursday.

The surplus in the cur-rent account in the first quar-ter of 2021-22 was primarily on account of contraction in the trade deficit to $30.7 bil-lion from $41.7 billion in the preceding quarter, and an

increase in net services receipts, it added.

The CAD is the gap between the country’s overall foreign receipts and payments.

As per RBI’s ‘Developments in India’s Balance of Payments during the First Quarter (April-June) of 2021-22’ report, net services receipts increased, both sequentially and on a year-on-year basis, on the back of robust performance of net exports of computer and busi-ness services.

Private transfer receipts, mainly representing remit-tances by Indians employed overseas, amounted to $20.9 billion, an increase of 14.8 per cent from their level a year ago.

Further, the net outgo from the primary income account, mainly reflecting net overseas investment income payments, decreased sequentially as well as on a year-on-year basis.

In the financial account, net foreign direct investment recorded an inflow of $11.9 bil-

lion as against an outflow of $0.5 billion in Q1:2020-21.

“Net foreign portfolio investment was $0.4 billion as compared with $0.6 billion in Q1:2020-21,” RBI said.

The net inflow on account of non-resident deposits decreased to $2.5 billion from $3 billion in the first quarter of 2020-21. RBI also said there was an accretion of $31.9 bil-lion to the foreign exchange reserves (on a BoP basis) as compared to $19.8 billion in April-June quarter of 2020-21.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The output of eight core sectors grew by 11.6 per cent in August, mainly due to an uptick in the production of cement, coal, and natural gas, official data showed on Thursday.

The eight infrastructure sec-tors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilis-ers, steel, cement and electricity had contracted by 6.9 per cent in August 2020 due to the nation-wide lockdown imposed to con-trol the spread of COVID-19.

The eight core industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

According to the commerce and industry ministry data, the production of coal, natu-ral gas, refinery products, steel, cement and electricity increased in August 2021 over the corre-sponding period of last year.

On the other hand, output of crude oil and fertiliser indus-tries declined.

Production of both coal and natural gas increased by 20.6 per cent in August 2021 over the same month of the previ-ous year. The output of cement sector rose 36.3 per cent and that of steel by 5.1 per cent in August 2021 on a yearly basis.

Petroleum refinery produc-tion climbed by 9.1 per cent and electricity generation was up by

15.3 per cent.However, crude oil produc-

tion declined by 2.3 per cent in August year-on-year. Fertilisers production too slipped by 3.1 per cent. The growth rate of these infrastructure industries during April-August 2021-22 stood at 19.3 per cent, as against a contraction of 17.3 per cent in the year-ago period.

Markets extend losses for 3rd session straightRupee depreciates by 9 paise to end at 74.23 against the US dollar

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on September 30, 2021

9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4 9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4

Previous close:

17,711.30

NSE NIFTYIntra-day on September 30, 2021

BSE SENSEX

High:

17,742.15Previous close:

59,413.27

High:

59,557.24Open:

17,718.90

Low:

59,019.28

Open:

59,549.57

Low:

17,585.35-93.15

(-0.53%)Close:

59,126.36Close:

17,618.15

-286.91

(-0.48%)

NEW DELHI: Union minis-ter Nitin Gadkari on Thurs-day said that the government will make it mandatory for all vehicle manufacturers to make flex-fuel engines, after it gets permission from the Supreme Court.

Flex-fuel, or flexible fuel, is an alternative fuel made of a combination of gasoline and methanol or ethanol.

Addressing the annual ses-sion of industry body PHDCCI, Gadkari further said that the government is working to develop an ethanol economy.

“We are going to make it mandatory for all vehicle man-ufacturers to make flex-fuel engines (that can run on more than one fuel),” the road trans-

port and highways minister said.The minister cited examples

of Brazil, Canada and the USA, where most automobile com-panies manufacture flex-fuel engines vehicles.

“We have submitted an affi-davit in the Supreme Court. When we get the permission of the Supreme Court, then we will make it mandatory for all vehi-cle manufacturers to make flex-fuel engines,” Gadkari added.

Gadkari suggested that the military should ban the use of diesel engine vehicles and use trucks which run on LNG, CNG and ethanol.

The minister pointed out that ethanol is much cheaper than petrol and diesel.

Noting that the government is working to develop the etha-nol economy, he said, “450 fac-tories have shown interest in manufacturing ethanol.

Stressing that there is a need to switch to indigenous fuels, the minister said that the gov-ernment is working to make the automobile industry a Rs 15-lakh-crore worth indus-try that will offer additional employment to around 1 crore people in India. PTI

‘Govt to make manufacturing of flex-fuel engines mandatory’

NEW DELHI: India is poised to become one of the largest digital markets with rapid expansion of mobile and internet as the coun-try is one of the fastest growing markets with over 2,100 fin-techs operational, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) trinity has enabled India to leverage its technical capabilities for developing the fintech sector, he said at the Global Fintech Fest 2021 organ-ised by the National Payments Corporation of India.

He added that fintech com-panies are playing a crucial role in financial inclusion in the country.

Goyal also said the fintech sector has demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of cit-izens towards technology and at 87 per cent, India has the high-est fintech adoption rate in the world against the global average of 64 per cent.

“Today, India is one of the fastest growing markets with over 2,100 fintechs operational,” he said adding “the non-finan-cial services sectors are also proactive in adopting fintech solutions. With expansion of their value chains, the demand for fintech services will grow exponentially”. PTI

India one of the fastest

growing mkts with over 2,100 fintechs: Goyal

AGEL to acquire 40 MW solar asset in Odisha

‘India’s agri exports can be doubled in medium term’Dependence of workforce on agri value chains in India is also immense. Nearly two-thirds of rural livelihoods come from the sector and about half of the workforce of India is engaged in the sector, ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri added

ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Thursday kept the interest rates on small savings schemes, including NSC and PPF, unchanged for the third quarter of 2021-22 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and ele-vated level of inflation.

Public Provident Fund (PPF) and National Savings Cer-tificate (NSC) will continue to carry an annual interest rate of 7.1 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

“The rates of interest on vari-ous small savings schemes for the third quarter of the finan-cial year 2021-22 starting from October 1, 2021, and ending on December 31, 2021, shall remain unchanged from the

current rates applicable for the second quarter (June 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021) for FY 2021-22,” the finance ministry said in a notification.

According to analysts, the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assem-bly elections may also have been

a factor behind the govern-ment’s decision to keep rates unchanged.

Uttar Pradesh is the sec-ond highest contributor to the small savings schemes after West Bengal.

During the West Ben-gal assembly elections earlier this year, the Centre decided to reduce the interest rate on these schemes.

However, the very next day on April 1, the finance ministry revoked the steep interest rate cut of up to 1.1 per cent, citing an oversight.

As a result, the first quar-ter rates were retained at the level of the fourth quarter of the last financial year. The cut

was touted as the steepest in many decades.

Interest rates for small sav-ings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis.

One-year term deposit scheme will continue to earn an interest rate of 5.5 per cent, while the girl child savings scheme Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana account will earn 7.6 per cent.

The interest rate on the five-year senior citizens sav-ings scheme would be retained at 7.4 per cent. The interest on the senior citizens’ scheme is paid quarterly.

Interest rate on savings deposits will continue to be 4 per cent per annum. PTI

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 4.68 lakh crore or 31.1 per cent of the Budget estimates at the end of August, as per data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Thursday.

The deficit figure in the cur-rent fiscal appears much better than the previous financial year when it had soared to 109.3 per cent of the estimates, mainly on account of a jump in expendi-ture to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between expen-diture and revenue was Rs 4,68,009 crore at end of August, the CGA said.

For the current financial year, the government expects the deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP or Rs 15,06,812 crore.

As per the data, the central government’s total receipts stood at Rs 8.08 lakh crore or 40.9 per cent of the corre-sponding Budget Estimate (BE) 2021-22 up to August, 2021.

The total receipts were 16.8 per cent of the BE of 2020-21 during the correspond-ing period of the last financial year.

Of the total receipts, the tax revenue was Rs 6.44 lakh crore or 41.7 per cent of BE. The tax revenue was only 17.4 per cent of BE of 2020-21 in the year-ago period.

The CGA said Centre’s total expenditure was Rs 12.76 lakh crore or 36.7 per cent of BE up to August 2021.

The fiscal deficit for 2020-21 was 9.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), bet-ter than 9.5 per cent projected in the revised estimates in the Budget in February. PTI

Eight core sectors’ output grows by 11.6% in August

KBK graphicsInfoSource: Ministry of Commerce & Industry

2020

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug

2021

20

30

40

50

60

-20

-30

-10

0

10

70

80

11.6

-6.9 -0

.5

0.6

-1.1

0.4

1.3

-3.3

12.6

62.6

16.4

9.3

9.9

Base:

2011-12=100Index of

Eight CoreIndustriesMonthly GrowthRate in Per Cent

MUMBAI: The country’s for-eign exchange reserves in nomi-nal terms, including valuation effects, increased by $34.1 bil-lion during the June quarter compared to $27.9 billion in the year-ago period, RBI data showed on Thursday.

The valuation gain, reflect-ing the depreciation of the US dollar against major curren-cies and increase in gold prices,

amounted to $2.2 billion during the April-June 2021 period. In the year-ago period, the same was at $8 billion.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday released Sources of Variation in Foreign Exchange Reserves in India dur-ing April-June 2021.

On a balance of pay-ments basis, excluding valua-tion effects, foreign exchange

reserves increased by $31.9 bil-lion during the June quarter compared to the same period a year ago.

The current account balance recorded a surplus of $6.5 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 as against a surplus of $19.1 bil-lion in the year-ago quarter.

The capital account surplus stood at $25.4 billion in April-June period. PTI

Forex reserves rise $34.1 bn in Q1

India’s fiscal deficit touches 31.1% of Budget estimates at August-end

India posts $6.5 bn current account surplus in 1st qtr

India had reported current account surplus of 0.9% of GDP in Covid-hit FY21 as against a deficit of 0.9% in FY20

Highlights » The surplus in the current account in the first quarter of 2021-22 was primarily on account of contraction in the trade deficit to $30.7 billion from $41.7 billion in the preceding quarter, and an increase in net services receipts » Private transfer receipts, mainly representing remittances by Indians employed overseas, amounted to $20.9 billion, an increase of 14.8 per cent from their level a year ago

‘Net foreign portfolio investment was $0.4 billion as compared with $0.6 billion in Q1:FY21,’ RBI said. The net inflow on account of non-resident deposits fell to $2.5 billion from $3 billion in Q1of FY21

NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom firm BSNL has approached the government for Rs 40,000 crore financial help, half of which it needs in the form of sovereign guarantee to clear short-term debt.

BSNL Chairman and Man-aging Director PK Purwar said that the company does not need any additional debt and its busi-ness has become self-sustainable to support the operations.

“We do not need any addi-tional debt. We have asked for Rs 20,000 crore sovereign guar-antee to pay back our short-term debt and issue long term bonds. We will need Rs 20,000 crore if we have to set up 1 lakh node B (mobile sites) for mobile network rollout,” Purwar said.

The BSNL CMD confirmed that he has approached the government for the support, which is beyond the Rs 69,000 crore relief package that was announced in 2019. At pres-ent, BSNL has a debt burden of Rs 30,000 crore which is one of the lowest in the telecom sector.

Purwar also heads MTNL, which is proposed to be merged with BSNL. The government has already issued a permit to BSNL to operate mobile business in Delhi and Mumbai which was earlier managed by MTNL.

The Appointments Commit-tee of the Cabinet on Wednes-day extended the additional charge of Purwar as CMD of loss-making telecom firm MTNL for a period of one year till October 2022. PTI

BSNL seeks `40K crore

support from govt

Govt keeps interest rates on small savings schemes unchanged for 3rd quarter of FY’22

Public Provident Fund and National Savings Certificate will continue to carry an annual interest rate of 7.1% and 6.8%, respectively

11millenniumpost Sport mpKOLKATA | FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021

Day/Night Test: India finish rain-hit Day 1 at 132/1

MANDHANA SCORES CAREER-BEST 80

GOLD COAST: Smriti Mand-hana headlined a rain-hit open-ing day with a career-best 80 not out which had elegance written all over it as the Indian women's cricket team finished on 132 for 1 in the one-off Day/Night Test against Aus-tralia here.

Mandhana, who peppered the off-side field repeatedly with some gorgeous shots to reach 80 off 144 balls with 15 boundaries and a six, added 93 for the opening stand with Sha-fali Verma (31 off 64 balls), who played the second fiddle during their partnership.

Most of the second session's play was washed out but Mand-hana added another 16 runs to surpass her previous best of 78.

She pulled Tahlia McGrath for a six over deep square leg and also carted the same bowler over mid-wicket for a boundary.

Giving her company is Punam Raut (16 batting, 57 balls) and they added 39 runs for the unbroken second wicket stand before rain stopped play in the 45th over and didn't start again.

The Australian team's deci-sion to field first after laying a green strip for the visitors did seem to have backfired as Man-dhana attacked them straight-away during the first hour of play.

There were an astounding

16 boundaries hit in the first 16 overs, mostly by Mandhana and few by Shafali as Meg Lan-ning did shuffle around with his bowlers without much success.

In fact, it was a case of role reversal which perhaps caught the Australians off-guard as Shafali was more intent on playing a defensive game while her senior partner attacked with great gusto.

Debutant Darcie Brown got some special punishment as Mandhana hit her for a number of boundaries both on the off-side as well as a few whip shots on the leg-side.

Ellyse Perry also took a few overs to find the right length. The elegant Indian left-hander reached her run-a-ball fifty in no time with a cover drive of McGrath. Whenever Mand-hana bisected between point

and cover or cover or mid-off, it was the most pleasant sight.

It never looked as if she muscled any of the deliveries but simply caressed with her immaculate timing at the Met-ricon Stadium on Thursday.

In case of Shafali, she did hit four boundaries but also looked a bit scratchy and offered a cou-ple of chances -- one to Meg Lanning in the slips which was a reflex catch and the other to Annabel Sutherland stationed at mid-on.

Finally she was gone trying to hit left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux against the turn and offered a sitter to McGrath at mid-off. In fact once spinners Molineux (1/18) and Ashleigh Gardener (0/14 in 10.1) bowled with the semi-new pink Kookaburra, Australia finally found a way to check the run flow. AGENCIES

Tokyo Olympic stars Rupinder, Birendra retire from int’l hockey

NEW DELHI: Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh and defender Birendra Lakra, who played starring roles in the Indian hockey team's historic bronze medal-winning Tokyo Olympics campaign, on Thurs-day announced their interna-tional retirements within hours of each other, creating quite a flutter.

While Rupinder quit "to make way for youngsters" and announced his decision by post-ing a statement on his twitter page, Lakra's retirement was confirmed by Hockey India.

It has been learnt from reli-able sources that both the play-ers decided to quit after they were informed that they will not find a place in India's scheme of things going forward and will be ignored for the national camp that starts in Bengaluru next week.

The 30-year-old, regarded as one of the best drag-flickers of the country, Rupinder rep-resented India in 223 matches.

Nicknamed 'Bob', Rupinder scored four crucial goals, includ-ing a penalty stroke in the third-place match against Germany, during India's bronze-medal winning campaign in Tokyo.

"The past couple of months have undoubtedly been the best days of my life. Standing on the podium in Tokyo along with my teammates with whom I have shared some of the most incred-ible experiences of my life was a feeling I will cherish forever," Rupinder wrote in a statement on his official twitter handle.

"I believe it is time for me to make way for young and talented players to experience every great joy that I have felt in these last 13 years of repre-

senting India."Hours later, Lakra followed

suit with Hockey India officially announcing his retirement. The player is, however, yet to make a statement of his own on the matter.

"A solid defender and one of the most influential Indian Men's Hockey Team figures, the Odisha star has announced his retirement from the Indian national team. Happy Retire-ment, Birendra Lakra," HI tweeted.

The 31-year-old Lakra was one of the vice captains of India's bronze medal-winning side in Tokyo. He was also a part of the 2014 gold medal-winning Incheon Asian Games team and the side that claimed bronze in 2018 Jakarta.

Lakra, who was born on February 3, 1990 in Lachchada

village in the Sundergarh district of Odisha, played 201 matches for India.

A a reliable centre-back known for his calm and com-posed attitude when put under pressure, Lakra made his debut in 2012 in a Test series against South Africa and was part of the Indian team that finished last in the 2012 London Games.

Rupinder's decision was also motivated by his injury breakdowns.

According to sources, Rupinder wanted to continue till next year's Asian Games but once he was told that he won't be selected in the national camp, the player decided to make way for youngsters. Rupinder's jour-ney from Faridkot in Punjab to the podium in Tokyo was full of hardships and several comebacks. AGENCIES

Barcelona lose again in CL with 3-0 defeat to Benfica

LISBON, PORTUGAL: After yet another demoralizing loss, struggling Barcelona faces a grim future in the Champions League.

The Catalan club fol-lowed its 3-0 opening loss against Bayern Munich with another 3-0 defeat at Benfica on Wednesday. Bottom of its group, Barcelona suddenly sees itself in danger of not reaching the knockout stage for the first time since 2000-01.

“We are in a critical situ-ation,” Barcelona captain Ser-gio Busquets said. “We have zero points after the first two rounds.”

Darwin Nuñez scored twice — including three minutes into the match — and Rafa Silva added another goal at the Sta-dium of Light to help Benfica

end a 60-year winless streak against Barcelona. It was its sec-ond victory in eight matches against the Catalan club.

Bayern cruised past

Dynamo Kyiv in Germany in the other Group E match to reach six points from two matches. Benfica, which had opened with a draw at

Dynamo, has four points, three more than Dynamo. Barcelona stayed on zero points ahead of consecutive matches against Dynamo.

“We need to win our next two matches against Dynamo and then we’ll see what hap-pens,” Busquets said. “We have to think positively and work to improve many things.”

The loss added more pres-sure on Barcelona coach Ron-aldo Koeman, who hasn’t been able to make the team perform and has been at odds with club president Joan Laporta and even some of the players. The Dutch coach has said Barcelona has no significant chances of winning any titles this season.

“I don’t want to answer any more questions about my future because it is out of my hands,” Koeman said. “In the end the coach is always respon-sible. I feel I have the support from my players. I don’t know if I have it from the club.” AGENCIES

Bottom of its group, Barcelona suddenly sees itself in danger of not reaching the knockout stage

Qatar to host F1 race for

first time in November

DOHA: Qatar will host a Formula One race for the first time in November and for 10 years from 2023.

Qatar takes the remaining slot left vacant on this year's reshuffled calendar. The race will start under floodlights at 6 p.m. local time on Nov. 21 at the Losail International Circuit.

As the 20th of 22 races this season, it will be followed by the inaugural Saudi Ara-bian GP in Jeddah on Dec. 5 and the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP on Dec. 12.

"There was a strong will from Qatar to be help-ful to F1, and in the course of this process, the vision for a longer partnership was discussed and agreed," F1 said in a statement on Thursday.

"The vision for F1 to be the showcase for Qatar after the (soccer) World Cup in 2022 was the driving force."

There will not be a race in Qatar next year because of the World Cup so the 10-year deal starts the following year. AGENCIES

Ashwin hits back at England captain MorganASKS HIM TO ‘STOP TAKING MORAL HIGH GROUND’

DUBAI: An angry Ravichan-dran Ashwin on Thursday asked Eoin Morgan and Tim Southee to not use "deroga-tory" words and lecture him on 'Spirit of Cricket' by taking a moral high ground after their on-field bust-up over an extra run during an IPL game.

During Tuesday's IPL match between Delhi Capi-tals and Kolkata Knight Rid-ers, Ashwin tried to take a run after a throw from the deep by Rahul Tripathi had ricocheted off his partner Rishabh Pant's body.

Morgan and Ashwin then

had an altercation with the England white-ball skipper calling the Indian a "disgrace" and accusing him of not adher-ing to the 'Spirit of Cricket' despite MCC rules allowing runs after rebound from a bats-man's body.

England were also awarded four runs after a throw from the deep had rebounded off Ben Stokes' bat during the 2019 World Cup final, and the umpire had signalled over-throws, leading to their title triumph.

On Tuesday, after Ashwin was dismissed by fast bowler

Southee, the bowler had appar-ently rebuked the senior India star by saying, "That's what happens when you cheat".

Soon Ashwin was seen charging towards Morgan and Southee, prompting Dinesh Karthik to intervene and douse the fire.

In a series of tweets, Ashwin clarified his stand and made it clear that he would again run if the ball hit a fielder's body.

"1. I turned to run the moment I saw the fielder throw and dint (didn't) know the ball had hit Rishabh. 2. Will I run if I see it!? Of course I will and

I am allowed to. 3. Am I a dis-grace like Morgan said I was? Of course NOT," Ashwin said.

He then told Morgan and Southee that 'Spirit of Cricket' can't be different strokes for dif-ferent folks.

"Did I fight? No, I stood up for myself and that's what my teachers and parents taught me to do and pls (please) teach your children to stand up for themselves.

"In Morgan or South-ee's world of cricket they can choose and stick to what they believe is right or wrong but do not have the right to take

a moral high ground and use words that are derogatory," he further wrote.

Ashwin is not liking that people have got down to pass-ing judgements because of this incident.

"What's even more surpris-ing is the fact that people are discussing this and also trying to talk about who is the good and bad person here!"

The Indian off-spinner with 400-plus Test scalps then said that all 'Old School' proponents of the gentleman's game should allow different perspectives to co exist. AGENCIES

Ronaldo scores late winner for United in CLMANCHESTER: Cristiano Ronaldo removed his Man-chester United jersey, flexed his muscular physique and soaked in the acclaim of the fans after his winning goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Not a bad way for the Por-tugal superstar to mark another record-breaking night in the Champions League.

On his record 178th appear-ance in the competition, Ron-aldo made his most decisive intervention with virtually the last kick of the game at Old Traf-ford to complete United's dra-matic comeback in a 2-1 victory over Villarreal on Wednesday.

After winning a header from a hopeful cross into the area, Ronaldo showed his spright-liness at the age of 36 by then reacting to a loose ball after a touch by substitute Jesse Lin-gard and shooting underneath

Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli from a narrow angle.

"It's just what he has done throughout his career," United manager Ole Gunnar Solsk-jaer said.

"He is so strong mentally. He stays in the game. I have seen him all day, the way he has worked, built himself up for this game and how focused he has been.

"And when he gets that one chance, it's a goal."

Old Trafford erupted, with sprint great Usain Bolt draped in a red-and-white United scarf among the home supporters celebrating as chants of "Viva Ronaldo" swept around the stadium.

It was Ronaldo's fifth goal in five games since joining from Juventus for a second spell at United, and definitely his most important. AGENCIES

Birendra Lakra Rupinder Pal Singh

While Rupinder quit ‘to make way for youngsters’ and announced his decision by posting a statement on his twitter page, Lakra’s retirement was confirmed by Hockey India

Manu Bhaker wins gold, silver for

Esha SinghLIMA: Young Manu Bhaker fired her way to the gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol event at the ISSF junior world championship here on Thurs-day, returning with a bang after the disappointment at Olym-pics. Esha Singh, 16, grabbed the silver medal in a one-two finish for India while Rhythm ended in fourth place in the finals after missing out on a podium by just .2 points.

The 19-year-old Bhaker shot 241.3 to win the top prize in her event, while Singh managed 240.0. India's Rudrankksh Patil claimed the silver medal in the men's 10m air rifle competition.

Patil shot a total of 250.0 in the eight-man finals behind Tokyo Olympic medallist Wil-liam Shaner of the USA.

Ramita won bronze in the women's 10m air rifle junior event with a total score of 229.1, even as the well-known Mehuli Ghosh finished fifth in the final and Nisha Kanwar eighth.

The other Indian shooters in the men's 10m rifle finals, Parth Makhija and Srikanth Dhanush finished seventh and eighth respectively. In the wom-en's 10m qualifications, Olym-pian Bhaker (574), Singh (572) and Shikha Narwal (571) also made the final in the third, fifth and seventh places respectively in a field of 49 shooters, while Rhythm was second best over-all with 577. AGENCIES

Dhoni finishes in style as CSK sail into IPL play-offs

SHARJAH: Chennai Super Kings produced a convincing performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad to maintain their remarkable consistency this season and sail into the Indian Premier League play-offs here on Thursday.

The bowlers, led by Josh Hazlewood (3/24) and Dwayne Bravo (2/17), restricted SRH to 134 for seven after M S Dhoni opted to bowl first on a slow surface.

Chasing the total, in-form openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (45 off 38) and Faf du Plessis (41 off 36) shared a sublime 75-run stand to give CSK an ideal start.

A mini collapse in the mid-dle overs made the chase inter-esting before CSK got the job done in 19.4 overs with Dhoni (14 not out off 11) hitting the winning six and bringing back memories of his heydays.

The three-time former champions thus ended the chase, scoring 139 for four, for a convincing six-wicket win.

With their fourth win in as many games since the tour-nament's resumption, CSK showed not making the play-offs last season was just a blip in their successful IPL history.

The Sharjah pitch, which produced high-scoring games last year, has been a complete contrast this season with its slow nature making stroke making difficult.

Batting in the second innings got easier with the fast-rising Gaikwad displaying

supreme skills. The confidence with which he played star SRH spinner Rashid Khan was most impressive.

He charged down the track on Rashid's second ball and dispatched it for a straight six.

He also used his feet well against left-arm spinner

Abhishek Sharma for another crisp boundary.

Du Plessis too hit some cracking boundaries before falling to a tired shot.

From a commanding 103 for one, CSK slumped to 108 for four, making the dressing room slightly nervous. AGENCIES

The three-time former champions ended the chase, scoring 139 for four, for a convincing six-wicket win against SRH

MS Dhoni captain of Chennai Super Kings plays a shot during match 44 of the Indian Premier League between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Chennai Super Kings,at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Thursday PTI

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Recently, the Narcot-ics Control Bureau arrested late Bolly-

wood star Sushant Singh Rajput’s friend Kunal Jani in Khar. He was his close friend and was

absconding.The tweet shared by a

leading news agency read, “Drugs cases related to the

death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput: Narcot-

ics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested

hotelier Kunal Jani (in file

pic) from Mum-bai’s Khar

area. He was a close friend of

Rajput and was absconding.”In August, the NDPS

court had rejected the bail plea of SSR’s flat-mate and friend Siddharth

Pithani once again. Pithani’s lawyer Taraq Sayyed had confirmed the devel-opment. The Zonal Director of the Nar-cotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede revealed that the court dis-missed the application because they did not find any merit in the plea.

The ‘Chhichhore’ star passed away on June 14, 2020, under mysterious circumstances. After that, three central agencies - the Central Bureau of Inves-tigation, Narcotics Control Bureau and Enforcement Directorate - are inves-tigating the case. There is still a lot of speculation around the actor’s sudden death, with Sushant’s family pursuing multiple cases in court.

Apart from Pithani, SSR’s friend and actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and other staff mem-bers including Samuel Miranda and Deepesh Sawant were also arrested by the NCB. The late actor’s housemates Keshav and Neeraj, questioned by the NCB in August, hinted at Siddharth’s role in the drug case. AGENCIES

Sonakshi Sinha recently got candid about her career and revealed she has lost films to

others like many other star kids of Bollywood.

Taking a dig at the never-ending nepotism debate

in the industry, the Bol-lywood actor, during an interview with an entertainment portal, called losing out on

film ‘a part and parcel of the job’. Asserting that

star kids also get replaced in films like outsiders and yet do not go around crying about it as it hap-pens to every actor.

Calling it life, she urged every-one to deal with it and said that ‘there is no point talking about spilt milk’.

Taking an example of her father who was not a star kid like her, Sonakshi further added that he too

has lost out on projects and said the practise is not new in the industry.

“You move on with your life, work hard and keep at it,” she said in the interview.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Sonakshi Sinha recently appeared in the film ‘Bhuj: The Pride of India’ with Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt and Nora Fatehi, which was released on the OTT platform ‘Dis-ney+ Hotstar’.

The actor will next be seen in ‘Kakuda’ alongside Riteish

Deshmukh and Saquib Salem. The film, which follows a horror-comedy genre, has been helmed by Avinash Dwivedi and Chi-rag Garg. AGENCIES

Sonakshi takes a dig at nepotism in Bollywood

She asserts that star kids also get replaced in films like outsiders and yet do not cry about it

The hotelier was arrested from Khar. He was a close friend of Rajput and was absconding

NCB detains SSR’s close friend Kunal Jani

Calling it life, she urged everyone to deal with it and said that ‘there is no point talking about spilt milk’

Nushrratt earns a Busan nominationNushrratt Bharuccha is on

cloud nine as she has been nominated for the ‘Best

Actress’ category at the ‘Asian Con-tents Awards’ for the ‘Busan Film Festival’.

The ‘Chhalaang’ star, who is shooting for her upcoming film ‘Janhit Mein Jaari’, discovered the news from her manager.

The Bollywood actor expressed happiness and said she feels happy to see her name up there with other international names.

In a conversation with a lead-ing daily, Nushrratt said that she had a very strenuous day as she was shooting in a remote place under the scorching sun with thousands of people bombarding on their set.

She also said that she was the only person in the humidity shooting non-stop and smiling and dancing after hearing the news.

Nushrratt feels happy to see her name up there with other interna-tional names from different parts of

the world. She has been nominated for essaying the role of Meenal in the short film ‘Khilauna’, a part of the ‘Netflix’ anthology ‘Ajeeb Daastaans’.

Talking about what made her chose the project, Nushrratt said, “I read the script and liked it. I loved the story. For me, it has always been the script. I met Raj Mehta and while talking about the short film, we both were completing each other’s sentences. We were on the same page. We both had the same vision, to be honest and truthful to the subject and narrative.”

She also spoke about the most challenging part of playing a house help and said more than her, the director was worried.

“He was like, ‘You have to forget the ‘Chhote Chhote Peg’ and ‘Dil Chori’ girl and become this person’. I even joked with him and asked if he wanted me to sweep the floor in ‘Dharma’ and show him. I think trust is very important and it works both ways,” she shared.

The actor admitted, “I think for me, I become the per-son I play and the direc-tor is always welcome to intervene and help me become closer to the vision we have. The reason why a lot of people reacted to my character in ‘Ajeeb Daastaans’ is that it was a cohesive effort.” AGENCIES

The ‘Chhalaang’ star expressed her excitement over the news and said she feels happy to see her name up there with other international celebrities