CORONAALERT

AHMEDABAD l SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 255

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COVID-19 UPDATE

GUJARAT2,629

DEATHS69,986

CONFIRMED CASES

KARNATAKA3,091 DEATHS 1,72,102 CASES

RAJASTHAN 778 DEATHS 51,328 CASES

INDIA21,51,899CONFIRMED CASES

43,453DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA17,367 DEATHS 5,03,084 CASES

TAMIL NADU4,808 DEATHS 2,90,907 CASES

DELHI4,098 DEATHS 1,44,127 CASES

WORLD7,27,025

DEATHS1,97,03,085

CONFIRMED CASES

India, China’s Major Generals hold discussionNew Delhi: The Major General-level talks be-tween India and China, being held at Daulat Beg Oldi area to discuss dis-engagement by the Chi-nese side along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh sector, con-cluded at around 7:30 pm on Saturday, said In-dian Army sources.

“Major general-level talks held today between India and China con-cluded around 7:30 pm. The two sides discussed disengagement by the Chinese side in the Ladakh sector including the Depsang Plains area and other friction points,” the sources said. During the talks, which was scheduled to start at 11 AM, the two sides focused on disen-gagement from Depsang Plains, where the Chi-nese have marched with over 17,000 troops along the LAC.

India has also de-ployed more than 15,000 troops there along with heavy deployment of ar-moured regiments to counter any possible Chi-nese thrust. The Chinese have also come there in with several armoured regiments. Turn on P6

India’s Covid tally surges to 20 Lakh mark on SaturdayNew Delhi: With a spike of 61,537 new COVID-19 cases and 933 deaths India’s COVID-19 tally surged to 20,88,612 on Saturday, as per the Union health ministry.

The death toll due to the disease now stands at 42,518 in the country, according to the Minis-try of Health and Fam-ily Welfare (MoHFW).

The COVID-19 tally of 20,88,612 cases includes 6,19,088 active cases, 14,27,006 cured/dis-charged/migrated. COV-ID-19 confirmed cases had crossed the 10 lakh mark in India on July 17 when the tally reached 10,03,832. Compared globally, India has one of the lowest cases per mil-

lion at 1469 as against the global average of 2425 and added that the Case Fatality Rate stands at 2.04 per cent.

With 48,900 patients discharged in the last 24 hours, India’s total re-coveries from COVID-19 has reached 14,27,005.

The recovery rate stands at 68.32 per cent.

Meanwhile, 12,822 COVID-19 cases and 275 deaths due to the disease were reported in Maha-rashtra, the worst af-fected state by the pan-demic, making the tally of the state Turn on P6

Kailash Choudhary @KailashBaytuFollowing the test done after showing symptoms, my report for coronavirus has come out positive. All friends who came in contact with me in the last few days should get themselves tested.

MEGHWAL TESTS CORONA +VEUnion Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal

has tested Corona positive on Saturday. According to the sources, he has been

admitted to the Trauma Center of AIIMS.

Military bands perform at Red FortGRATITUDE TO CORONA WARRIORS

New Delhi: Military bands from the three services belted out soul-ful music amid the back-drop of the iconic Red Fort on Saturday in the run up to the Independ-ence Day celebrations.

From “Teri Mitti....” to “Jai Jaikara”, the bands performed with aplomb while taking all the pre-cautions due to the coro-navirus pandemic.

In a first, military bands from the three services are performing for a fortnight across the country ahead of the Independence Day celebrations on August 15, officials said.

On Saturday evening, the bands assembled

keeping social distanc-ing in mind, many bandsmen and conduc-

tors sported masks while playing instruments.

The bands of army,

navy and police have al-ready performed at Por-bandar, Hyderabad,

Bengaluru, Raipur, Am-ritsar, Guwahati, Alla-habad and Kolkata so far, officials said.

“The performances are intended as ges-tures of gratitude and appreciation of the na-tion towards the corona warriors who have been steadfastly fighting to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the country even at the risk of their lives,” the de-fence ministry said in a statement earlier.

The tri-services band will be giving three per-formances in Delhi, one each at Red Fort, Raj-path and the India Gate on August 8, 9 and 12 re-spectively, it had said.

As part of the ongoing celebration of the 74th Independence Day, the Indian Armed Forces give a musical band performance at Red Fort in Delhi.

`10L FROM KERALA GOVT, AIR INDIA EACH Kerala government on Saturday announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died. “The state government has decided to provide a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who have lost their lives. The medical expenses of those under treatment will be taken over by the state government,” Kerala CM Vijayan said. AIE said it is adequately insured and would pay the compensation in accordance with applicable law at an appropriate time.

‘THERE WAS ENOUGH FUEL’Hardeep Singh Puri, when asked about the speculation on the fuel in the ill-fated aircraft, said the plane was carrying enough fuel to attempt a diversionary landing elsewhere. “Let us await the fi ndings of investigation,” the minister said.

BLACK BOX RECOVEREDBlack box of AIE plane that crashed at Karipur International Airport has been recovered and will be taken to Delhi for further investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), said an offi cial of aviation regulator DGCA.

PURI ANNOUNCES INTERIM RELIEF FOR VICTIMSMINISTER ANNOUNCED RS 10 LAKH FOR EACH OF THOSE WHO

DIED, `2 LAKH EACH FOR THOSE WHO SUFFERED SERIOUS INJURIES AND `50,000 FOR THOSE WITH MINOR INJURIES

Hardeep Singh Puri inspects the crash site of an Air India Express fl ight at Karippur in Kozhikode.

KOZHIKODE FLIGHT CRASHKozhikode: Civil Avia-tion Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday announced an interim relief of Rs 10 lakh for each of those who died in the Air India Express crash at the Karipur airport here.

He also assured the kin of victims that steps would be taken to get them compensation in line with an internation-al convention of Inter-national Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Addressing the media after visiting the acci-dent site, along with his ministerial colleague V Muraleedharan and oth-ers, the Minister an-nounced Rs 10 lakh for each of those who died in the plane crash, Rs 2 lakh each for those who suffered serious injuries and Rs 50,000 for those with minor injuries.

This was over and above all the other com-pensations, which might be forthcoming

from different agencies, insurance of the air-craft etc, he noted.

“I might mention that the Air India aircraft are properly insured and discussions will be made with passengers and their families at the appropriate juncture in line with the Montreal convention of interna-tional civil aviation or-ganisation”, Puri said.

“First of all, every passenger in the air-craft has been account-ed for. Twenty three people were discharged because they had only minor injuries. A total of 149 are in the hospi-tal receiving treatment.

We are working very closely with the state and central machiner-ies to tide over the dif-ficult situation and ex-tend possible support to the families of deceased passengers and provide all kinds of assistance to the injured persons,” the said. —PTI

‘SATHE WAS EXPERIENCED’Puri said the aircraft was captained and operated by “one of our most distinguished, experienced commanders”, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, who was among those killed in the accident. “In fact, the Captain had more than 10,000 hours of fl ying experience. He has landed on this very air piece, I think as many as 27 times including this year”, Puri said. The co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar, 32, who also died in the mishap, had a total fl ying experience of 1723 hours.

� 6 RAJ BJP MLAs NOW IN PORBANDAR

Amid poaching fears, BJP herds MLAsGargi Raval & Aishwarya Pradhan

Ahmedabad/Jaipur: In yet another turn in the Rajshtan politics just a few days ahead of the assembly session, the BJP has shifted around 20 MLAs to Gujarat anticipating fear of poaching from the ruling party. On August 14, the assembly session is slated where the floor test of the rul-

ing party under Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will be held to prove the majority.

In a special charter plane, six MLAs, Nir-mal Kumawat, Gopi Chand Meena, Jab-bar Singh Sankhala, Gurdeep Shahpini, Dharmendra Kumar Mochi and Gopal Lal Sharma, who are close to former chief minister Vasundhara Raje have been shift-ed. They are staying at Sagar Darshan Hotel in Somnath.

Turn on P6

� MERGER MUDDLE

BSP MLAs want Goa and Raj cases clubbed in SCAditi Nagar

New Delhi: Six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs from Ra-jasthan on Saturday moved Su-preme Court seeking transfer of the case against their merger with the Congress party in the state from Rajasthan High Court to the top court. Interestingly the MLAs are of the view that the 2/3rd of Congress MLAs merged with BJP in Goa to form govern-

ment then why cant the BSP leg-islators do the same in Rajasthan.

“The Supreme Court is already hearing such matter which is re-lated to Goa. Since both the mat-ters are on the same subject, the Supreme Court should hear the Rajasthan MLAs’ matter also,” says senior advocate AK Jain.

BSP MLAs, in their petition, also submitted that similar mat-ters pertaining to the interpreta-tion of Para 4 of the Turn on P6

Dharmnarayan Joshi, Arjun Lal Jingar, Jagasi Ram Koli, Samaram Grasiya, Phool Singh Meena, Amrit Lal Meena, Pratap Gameti, Babulal Kharadi at Shamlaji temple in Gujarat.

—PHOTO BY AISHWARYA PRADHAN

I am very much aware of BJP MLAs going for an

excursion. Whenever BJP Legislature party meets, they all will be there as Rajasthan BJP is intact and united. We trust our MLAs and it remains intact.

SATISH POONIA, Rajasthan BJP President

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First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: In a stra-tegic move, Chief Min-ister Vijay Rupani has taken to visiting the districts of the state re-porting a surge in novel coronavirus cases in the last few weeks. On Saturday, the CM was in Bhavnagar district, which has recorded over 1,773 cases of COV-ID-19 so far. He was ac-companied by Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel to assess the med-

ical care being provided at hospitals as well as fire safety.

CM Rupani plans to visit at least two dis-tricts, where there has been a rise in nCov cases, in a week. At a meeting was held with officials and people representa-tives of Bhavanagar, the chief minister as-sured full assistance from stakeholders in the state. He also in-structed them to in-crease sample testing

in the district.Addressing the me-

dia, Rupani said, “The government has been taking active measures to control the spread of the virus ever since the state reported its first case.”

For the past five months, the CM has been conducting daily meetings with a high powered core group at his official resi-dence to discuss dif-ferent strategies and policies to combat the

ongoing health crisis.“The situation in the

state is under control. We have enough stock of the injectable drugs. From the total import-ed stock of these injec-tions in the country, Gujarat has been im-porting almost 55%. Currently, we are con-ducting an average of 25,000 tests per day. In order to control the number of cases in Bhavnagar, all check-posts will have medical teams to facilitate

screening of people en-tering the district,” said Rupani.

Talking about the recovery and mortal-ity rate of the state, CM Rupani said that Gujarat had a 75.4% recovery rate and a death rate of 3.5%. “People are advised to strictly follow social distancing norms, wear a mask while venturing out of their homes, and wash their hands frequent-ly,” asserted Rupani.

Screening people will curtail nCov in Bhavnagar: RupaniTAKING ACTION

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani hands over a Yoga Certifi cate to a guru; Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel is on the recipient’s right.

HOMAGE TO THE FALLEN

Congress MLAs and party workers paid a fl oral tribute to those warriors who lost their lives during the ‘Mahagujarat Andolan’ near Lal Darwaja in Ahmedabad on Saturday. The movement was initiated by Gujarati speaking people demanding the creation of a separate state in 1956. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a fi-nancing facility of Rs 1 lakh crore under the Agricultural Infra-structure Fund via video conferencing on Sunday. He will also re-lease the sixth install-ment of funds under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-KISAN) scheme, a statement from the Prime Minis-ter’s Office (PMO) said.

“The PM will launch a financing facility of Rs 1 lakh crore under the Agri-cultural Infrastruc-ture Fund on August 9 at 11 am via video conferencing. He will also release the sixth installment of funds of Rs17,000 crore to 8.5 crore farmers un-der the PM-KISAN scheme. The event will be witnessed by

lakhs of farmers, co-operatives, and citi-zens across the coun-try. Union Minister

of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, will also be

present on the occa-sion,” the statement said.

It further mentioned

that the fund would bring about the crea-tion of post-harvest management infra-

structures and commu-nity farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres and

processing units.These assets will

enable farmers to get greater value for their produce, as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wast-age and increase pro-cessing and value ad-dition. An amount of Rs1 lakh crore will be sanctioned under the financing facility in partnership with multiple lending in-stitutions.

The beneficiaries of the scheme will include farmers, PACS, Market-ing Cooperative Socie-ties, FPOs, SHGs, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Coopera-tive Societies, Agri-en-trepreneurs, Startups, and Central/State agen-cy or Local Body spon-sored Public-Private Partnership Projects.

The PM-KISAN scheme that was

launched in Decem-ber 2018 had provided direct cash benefit of over Rs75,000 crore to more than 9.9 crore farmers and enabled them to fulfill their agricultural require-ments and support their families.

“The rollout and im-plementation of the PM-KISAN scheme have happened at an un-paralleled pace, with funds being directly transferred into the Aadhaar authenticated beneficiaries` bank ac-count to prevent leak-age and increase con-venience for farmers. The scheme has also been instrumental in supporting farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the release of nearly Rs22,000 crore to aid the farmers during the lockdown period,” the statement added.

PM Modi to impart `1 lakh crore to Agricultural Infrastructure FundThe beneficiaries include farmers, PACs, agri-entrepreneurs, public-private partnership projects, among others

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is the most popu-lar minister for Indians, according to the India Today Group-Karvy In-sights Mood of the Na-tion (MOTN) 2020, with as many as 39% Indians believe the second-most powerful man in the Modi cabinet is the best performing minister.

Shah has been hit-ting headlines ever since the new Naren-dra Modi-led govern-ment came back to power in 2019 and has been behind some of the key decisions tak-en by the government--from repealing Arti-cle 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir to getting the contentious Citizen-ship Amendment Bill passed through both houses of Parliament despite BJP not hav-ing enough numbers in the upper house.

Apart from this, the Ministry of Home Af-fairs has also been at the forefront of India's fight against COVID-19, from issuing rules for

the lockdown and un-lock of the world's sec-ond-most populous country to managing the mammoth task of ensuring all Indians re-turn home safely and stay fed during the un-

precedented crisis.Amit Shah has only

seen a minor dip of three percentage points in popularity between January and now.

After Amit Shah, De-fence Minister Rajnath

Singh has been chosen as the second-most pop-ular minister in the Modi cabinet with 17% of respondents voting for him. However, Ra-jnath Singh has lost a significant amount of

favour with the public in the six-month period from January to Au-gust. He has seen a whopping 22% point drop in popularity.

The drop in Rajnath Singh’s approval rat-ings come at a time when India is em-broiled in a better bor-der faceoff with China for more than four months now. In mid-June, twenty Indian Army personnel, in-cluding a commanding officer, were killed in a fierce clash with Chi-nese troops in the Gal-wan Valley in Ladakh.

Despite India’s strong stand, China has yet to disengage from the flashpoints of the con-flict completely.

Other popular minis-ters in the Modi cabinet are Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari (10%), Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman (9%) and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (3%).

Compared to January 2020, the only change is in the fifth place where Ravi Shankar Prasad has replaced Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

AMIT SHAH IS INDIA’S FAVOURITE MINISTERA recent poll says as many as 39% of the nation believes he is the best performing Union minister

KEEPING BUSY

PM MODI INAUGURATES RASHTRIYA SWACHHATA KENDRA AT RAJ GHATNew Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Rashtriya Swach-hata Kendra (RSK), an interactive ex-perience centre on Swachh Bharat Mission. The inau-guration was held on the occasion of the centenary cel-ebrations of Ma-hatma Gandhi’s Champaran Satya-graha. The Rash-triya Swachhata Kendra is situated at Raj Ghat, the sa-

madhi of Mahatma Gandhi.

PM Modi subse-quently watched a short video on the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ at the Rashtriya Swach-hata Kendra. “The installations at RSK will introduce fu-ture generations to the successful jour-ney of the world’s largest behaviour change campaign, the Swachh Bharat Mission,” a state-ment issued by the PMO said. —ANI

FUND BENEFITSThe fund under the PM-KISAN scheme would bring about the creation of post-harvest management infrastructures and community farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres and

processing units. These assets will en-able farmers to get greater value for their produce, as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage and increase processing and value addition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses after inaugurating the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra, an interactive experience centre built to promote ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, in New Delhi on Saturday.

First India Bureau

Bhavnagar: Two women were crushed to death under a wa-ter tank when it fell on them while they were washing clothes under it on Saturday morning. The tank was situated in an ag-ricultural field owned by former BJP state unit president Jitu Vaghani in Sihor Ta-luka of Bhavnagar district.

According to local residents, the overhead water tank collapsed af-ter a blast. One of the walls fell and injured Bhagyalakshmi Jambu-cha and Madhuben Bambhaniya. But wom-en were rushed to Gen-eral Civil hospital, where they succumbed to head injuries, while undergoing treatment.

Meanwhile, Vaghani did admit that the field

was owned by him, but had been deputed to a Bharatbhai for cultiva-tion since the past few years. “I have not visit-ed the field in years. Yet, the moment I came to know about the inci-dent, I rushed to the hospital and tried my best to help them,” said Vaghani.

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Masuma Bharmal Jariwala

Rajkot: In a heart-warming gesture, the authorities at Rajkot Civil Hospital ful-filled the wish of a COVID-19 deceased patient’s family mem-bers, by conducting the final rights on video call.

A 70-year-old man succumbed to the virus on Saturday and since his children were over-seas residents, they re-quested the hospital

team to perform all the rituals on a video call to enable them to be a part of their father’s last rites. Granting his ap-proval to the request, Dr Mahendra Chavda, incharge resident medi-cal officer at the COV-ID-19 hospital, said, “This is not the first time we have had such a request. A month ago, an elderly lady from Amreli breathed her last at the hospital. Her son had also tested posi-tive for novel coronavi-

rus and was admitted here at the hospital. The rest of the family members were under

home quarantine which meant that no one from the family could be pre-sent for the last rites.”

He added, “Her son ex-pressed his desire to see the rituals over a video call, so we made it hap-pen. Recording is not al-lowed there so we have taken to video calling. We try to fulfil the wish-es of all our patients.”

Talking about how challenging the task of performing rituals is in addition to the routine medical duty, Chavda said, “It is very gruel-ling because every ritu-al has to be performed according to the per-

son’s religion. There is a separate room in the hospital where four family members are permitted decked in PPE kits to perform any rituals. Then the body is transported to the crematorium where no more than 20 people are allowed to stand at a dis-tance of 10 feet while the final rites are per-formed. We strictly abide by the COVID-19 protocol while dispos-ing of the body to the ground or the fire.”

Hosp shares nCov patient’s last rites on video callFOR THE FAMILY

The hospital used video calling since recording is not permitted.

132 areas now in orange zone as V’dara sees 113 cases in 24 hrsState records 1,101 new cases and 23 fatalities; tally at 69,986 & death toll to 2,629; Surat leads with 226 casesFirst India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Va-dodara witnessed its highest single-day jump with 113 cases on Saturday, when the state reported a total of 1,101 cases. Of Vadodara’s 113 positive cases, 92 were from the city and 21 were from ru-ral areas. The city now has 1,179 active cases, of which 164 are on ventilator sup-port and 60 on BiPAP machines.

Despite recording its highest single-day jump yet, 132 areas of the city were moved from the red to the or-ange zone as the num-ber of cases in these areas have dropped. New cases are coming

from Karelibaug, Nav-apura, Alkapuri, Gor-va, Sama, Sayajipura Vasna road, Tandlja and other areas.

Across the state, Surat is leading in terms of new cases.

On Saturday, it re-ported 226 fresh cas-es: 182 were from the city and 44 from ru-ral areas. There are 221 active cases at the Surat Civil Hospital with 125 patients on

oxygen support, 13 on ventilators and 21 on BiPAP machines, while SMIMER has 124 patients under treatment including eight on ventilators, 30 on BiPAP and 59

on oxygen support. South Gujarat lost two veteran leaders from the cooperative sector, Dilipbhai Bhakt and Jagubhai Patel, when they suc-cumbed to COVID-19.

M e a n w h i l e , Ahmedabad had 158 cases, Rajkot, 93, Jam-nagar, 54, Bhavnagar, 47, Amreli, 33, Juna-gadh, 32, Panchmahal, 31, Mehsana and Gan-dhinagar had 30 each, Dahod, 27, Gir Som-nath, 26, Morbi and Kutch, 22 each, and Surendranagar, 21.

The state has tested 26,270 samples in the past 24 hours. There are now 14,530 active cases in the state, of which 82 are on venti-lator support; 14,448 patients are stable.

Of the 23 patients who died, 10 were from Surat, five were from Ahmedabad, two each from Vadodara, Kutch and Junagadh, and one each from Amreli and Gandhinagar.

Medics take a swab sample for COVID-19 testing. —FILE PHOTO

DATA BREAKDOWN

Two women die after water tank collapses in Jitu Vaghani’s field

40 firefighters, 6 vehicles take 3 hrs to douse 2nd blaze at Narol denim factory in 5 months

Diploma/certi courses intake rule violates AICTE

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: A ma-jor fire was reported at a production unit of Nandan Denim Ltd in Narol early on Saturday morning. A total of 40 firefight-ers and six vehicles of the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) were pressed into ac-tion in the second fire at a unit of the denim manufacturer since March. The flames were doused after a three-hour-long operation.

While no employees were injured, a fireman

has been admitted to LG Hospital in Manina-gar after sustaining burn injuries during the operation, AFES of-ficials said.

A senior official said that the fire department received a call about “a

major fire in the yarn manufacturing unit of the textile production house” early in the morning on Saturday, August 8, 2020

The firm’s employees first tried to put out the flames with in-house

fire extinguishers but called AFES when the flames began to spread.

“We sent six vehicles to the spot given the gravity of the situa-tion,” the official said, adding, “We even sta-tioned a vehicle at the unit even after the op-eration was completed, to prevent a recurrence due to any remaining stray embers.”

AFES officials said that a large stock of raw material and stored goods was gutted in the incident. They said that, according to pri-mary information from Nandan Denim, the unit has been non-func-

tional for some time. ML Patel, ACP K Divi-

sion, said that while the Narol police have regis-tered an application of complaint in the inci-dent, no FIR was filed as of Saturday morning. “No person is reported injured or dead as of now. Several of the are-as inside the unit were inaccessible due to fire. We will again carry out a search after the fire brigade’s operation is over,” he said on Satur-day morning.

It is to be noted that seven people had died in a fire at a unit of the same company in March this year.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: The As-sociation of Gujarat Engineering and Tech-nology Diploma Col-leges have challenged the state government’s second year lateral ad-mission rule before the state high court. Their contention is that the rule of grant-ing an additional in-take of 25% to offset the non-Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota is in violation of the All India Coun-

cil for Technical Edu-cation (AICTE) regu-lations rules and guidelines.

According to the as-sociation, Rule-4 of the Certificate Courses to Diploma Courses (CCDC) that regulates lateral admission to the second year of profes-sional diploma courses is in violation of norms of the All India Council for Technical Educa-tion (AICTE).

Their submission is that as per AICTE norms, vacant seats

from the first year of concerned courses can be offered to eligible can-didates for admission in the second year. Howev-er, unfilled vacancies are not included within the purview of the Rule 4 of the CCDC.

A candidate who has passed Class X is eligible for admission directly to the second year of pro-fessional courses on merit. In direct conflict with the AICTE norms, the state has permitted institutes an additional intake of 25% to offset

the loss of seats to the 10% reservation quota of the non-Economically Weaker Section (EWS).

The petitioner’s prayer is that the high court declare Rule 4 of the Certificate Courses to Professional Diploma Courses (Regulation of Admission and Payment of Fees) Rules, 2013 as ultra vires to the extent that it no longer excludes unfilled vacancies (the seats that remained va-cant) in the first year of the Professional Diplo-ma Courses.

The fi re gutted a large amount of raw materials and stored goods in the yarn manufacturing unit of the textile manufacturer.

Gujarat High Court. —FILE PHOTO

SMC drops Trident Hospital from COVID-19 list, seals it First India Bureau

Surat: The local civic body on Saturday stripped Trident Hos-pital of its COVID-19 designation and sealed as part of its fire audit initiated in the wake of Thurs-day’s fire at Ahmedabad’s Shrey Hospital.

In its fire audit, the Surat Municipal Corpo-ration on Friday scruti-nized the city’s desig-nated COVID-19 hospi-tals for compliance with fire safety norms and sealed three citing a lack of no-objection certification from the

fire department and the absence of fire-safety equipment. Another nine had been issued notice.

On Saturday, the SMC conducted its fire audit at the privately run Tri-

dent Hospital, where it found gross deficien-cies in the hospital’s preparedness for fire emergencies. With this, the city has cancelled its COVID-19 MOUs with four hospitals.

Surat Municipal Corporation. —FILE PHOTO

Uttam Maheshwari with BJP state chief CR Patil.

Animated films take youth from Surat to Cannes Film Festival

Ruchi Thakkar

Surat: An anima-tion film series cre-ated by two young-sters based in the diamond city has been selected for the renowned Cannes Film Festival.

Uttam Mahesh-wari and Shubham Apoorva from Surat made a series of ani-mated films on the lockdown period which is based on Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s ‘Coro-na Safety’ theme. Theirs is touted to be the only film selected for Cannes from In-dia this year.

The youths had

earlier made a short film on PM Modi’s ‘Main Bhi Chowk-idar’ initiative, which received internation-al acclaim and won several awards. Cur-rently, the duo is working on a unique theme for the Acade-my Awards.

Appreciating the achievement, BJP State Unit President CR Patil said, “I met and congratulated them both. They told me that since the se-ries has been selected for the Cannes Film Festival, people from all across the world would be voting to choose the best film. I hope they win.”

According to local residents, the

overhead water tank collapsed after a blast.

Former BJP state unit chief Jitu Vaghani. —FILE PHOTO

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

� Vol 1 � Issue No. 255 � RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020

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ou kind of fail your way to suc-cess,” observed Matt Lieber, head of podcast

operations at Spotify, at this year’s Audiocraft festival, an annual weekend of pan-els about podcasting. Nor-mally held in Sydney, this year, thanks to COVID-19, the festival shifted online.

Lieber was talking about StartUp, his podcast about establishing Gimlet Media in 2014. Lieber and his busi-ness partner, Alex Blum-berg, wanted to develop a podcast studio that would become “the HBO of audio”.

Last year, Gimlet hit the jackpot. It was acquired by Spotify for US$230 million (A$322 million).

While podcasts have been alive on the internet since 2004 (“But what to call it? Audioblogging? Podcasting? GuerillaMed-ia?” asked the Guardian),

2014’s Serial is largely cred-ited with starting a new boom for the form.

Serial hit 420 million downloads in late 2018; S-Town, from the same pro-duction company, had 40 million downloads in its first month.

Last week, the New York Times (whose own The Dai-ly has surpassed one billion downloads) acquired Serial Productions for US$25 mil-lion (A$35 million).

What was once on the fringes of the internet is now a multi-billion dollar industry.

THE GROWING NUMBERSFor a long time, podcasting was touted as the most democratic and accessible mode of journalism and public engagement.

On podcasts, hobbyists could indulge a passion for Greek legends, friends

could riff on their favour-ite books, celebrities could show their human side, and media organisations could share stories too un-wieldy for a newspaper or television format.

The early low-budget, niche podcasts were a far cry from shows like Serial or The Joe Rogan Experi-ence. (Hosted by comedian

Joe Rogan, the latter show has a reported 190 million downloads a month and was acquired by Spotify in May for around US$100 million (A$140 million).

While some Spotify shows are still available on other podcasting services, produc-tions like The Joe Rogan Ex-perience and the platform’s latest offering, The Michelle

Obama Podcast, are availa-ble exclusively on Spotify.

Spotify’s known invest-ment in acquiring podcasts over the past 18 months comes to around US$696 million (A$975 million). This figure doesn’t include the unknown price Spotify has paid in deals with the Obamas and Kim Kardashi-an West to produce original

shows, nor the money Spo-tify is investing in-house.

While Rogan and Oba-ma’s podcasts are (for now) free to listen to, they will tempt people over to the platform and – Spotify hopes – create paying subscribers. Obama’s 2018 memoir, Be-coming, has sold over 10 mil-lion copies: that is a lot of potential listeners.

Far away from these me-ga-investment dollars, in-dependent producers are still creating smaller shows for devoted audiences. Many attending Audiocraft were these independent producers, seeking to learn more about the art, craft and business of bringing their podcast ideas to life.

Such aspirations were mocked by a recent ABC skit with celebrities begging people not to turn to pod-casting under quarantine.

FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO

WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM

How podcasting became a multi-billion dollar industry“Y

IN-DEPTH

A HUMAN TRAGEDY IN KOZHIKODE

n Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed at Kerala’s Kozhikode airport on Friday, bringing back tragic memo-ries of a horrific crash at Mangalore international airport in 2010 in which

the aircraft had overshot the table-top runway killing nearly 164 passengers. It was India’s worst air tragedy. In Friday’s accident, the plane skidded off the runway, broke into two, and fell down a 35 feet slope. Thanks to the presence of the mind and experience of the AI Express flight’s pilots, a lot of lives were saved. The pilots apparently realized that there was a potential risk in landing when the visibility was low after heavy rainfall and are said to have circled over the airport for some time to burn the fuel before landing. Fortunately, with lit-tle or no fuel, the aircraft did not burst into flames as it happened in Mangalore. A similar accident was averted at Kozhikode air-port in 2012 when AI Express flight Boeing 737-800 skidded while landing amid heavy rain. Luckily there were no casualties. In 2017 a SpiceJet Bom-bardier also skidded off the runway while landing.

The trouble lies with table-top runways which are located at an elevation on a hilltop or plateau with mountains and valleys on all sides and the end suddenly drops into a gorge. Making landing on such strips trickier is Kerala’s monsoon.

A

KASHMIRI PANDITS WAIT FOR JUSTICE

he change of guard in Jammu and Kash-mir on the anniversary of Article 370 abrogation came as a surprise for many political observers. A bigger surprise was the appointment of former Union

minister Manoj Sinha as Lieutenant-Governor. What led to the removal of GC Murmu, a confi-dante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the appointment of Sinha, a soft-spoken RSS favourite, is still being speculated.

As a politician, Sinha is expected to revive the political activities which were stopped with the detention of all political leaders in Kashmir. An indication of this was given by BJP general-secre-tary Ram Madhav in June when he said that the UT will soon have an elected legislature. But with PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti still in detention, even though other leaders have been released, po-litical parties are not enthused. They look at Sinha as “another Delhi man” who has been sent to fur-ther the anti-Muslim agenda of the RSS.

Kashmiri Pandits residing in the Valley even after hundreds of the community were either killed or forced to leave by terrorist groups to alter the demographic profile of the Valley are looking at Sinha with hope. Faced with joblessness they say that their survival was at stake. Many of them await government jobs which were cleared by the high court.

Under the changed laws giving jobs should not be a difficult proposition. A bigger challenge for Sinha would lie in resettling over 40 families of Kashmiri Pandits living as refugees outside the Valley. On the 30th anniversary of their exodus #HumWapasAyenge” campaign on Twitter only showed Pandits’ intent.

T

t 8.15 am on August 6, 1945, a USB-29 warplane, Enola Gay, piloted by Paul Tibbets dropped a single Atomic bomb on Hiro-shima in Japan, destroying the city, killing 140,000, men, wom-en, and children. Those who survived suffered deadly burns. For over sixty years many chil-dren were born deformed.

Three days later on August 9, a second Atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The re-sults were horrific. President Truman expressed no regrets at the loss of human lives.

I have always wondered if the war in Europe had lasted till August, would President Truman have sanctioned using the Atom bomb on Germany? It is a tantalizing question.

Amar Singh died in Singa-pore on August 1. He was being treated in the Mount Elizabeth Hospital for the last six months for a multiplicity of serious ail-ments. We were intimate friends for a quarter of a cen-tury. He was only sixty-four years of age.

For almost a decade he skillfully played the political game at the highest level. In 2007 he saved Manmohan Singh’s government from be-ing voted out in the Lok Sab-ha during the debate on the nuclear deal. The govern-ment did not have a majority. Samajwadi leader Mulayam Singh Yadav was against In-dia signing the deal. Amar Singh, then a prominent member of the party was very close to Mulayam Singh, said to his leader that “with-out our vote, Manmohan’s government would fall.” He convinced his leader that the BJP must be kept out. Final-ly, Amar Singh got his way and the UPA government sur-vived and the Nuclear Deal was passed on the House.

He did not get a flying start in life. He was brought up in humble circumstances. By the age of thirty-five, he was on the way to becoming a multi-millionaire. His ver-

bal resources were formida-ble. When provoked he could hurl the choicest abuses in Hindi and English. His self-assurances were striking.

He could be erratic, fell out with Mulayam Singh, was expelled from the Sama-jwadi Party. In politics, for a short while, he lost his way. He neglected his health.

He leaves a void in the lives of his many friends. I shall miss his humour, ebullience, and generosity of heart.

Ebrahim Al Kazi (1923-2020) the theatre guru passed away in the Escort hospital on August 4. I only met him briefly twice but was impressed by his remark-able talent. One of his pupils, M.K. Raina wrote, that Al Kazi was, like MF Hussain, Homi Bamba and Uday Shankar were the product of the Nehru era.

He was the director of the National School of Drama from 1962-1972. He directed Girish Karnad’s “Tuglak”, Balwant Gargi’s “Razia Sultan”, Mohan Prakash’s “Ashad Ka Ek Din”. All were hits.

Priyanka Vadra’s comment on the Ayodhya puja surprised me. Newspapers reported what

she is alleged to have said. Lord Ram was part of every Indian and that she hoped that the groundbreaking ceremony would serve as a mark of na-tional unity, brotherhood, and cultural harmony. The senti-ments are laudable but factu-ally questionable. She belongs to a secular family. Lord Ram is by no means a part of every Muslim, Christian or Parsi. I doubt if her great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru and grand-

mother Indira Gandhi would have approved.

From time to time Prime Minister Imran Khan comes up with pronouncements that clearly indicate that the pro-cesses of his mind are atro-phied. His latest anti-Indian ti-rade is to hawk a map of India in which parts of India are shown as parts of Pakistan. A moratorium on truth and de-cency is all too visible in Paki-stan. What has Prime Minister Imran Khan achieved by this cartographic folly? The influ-ence of China on Pakistan is not a secret. Some decades ago Jawaharlal Nehru told Chou En-Lai that maps brought out by China showed parts of India as parts of China. The reply of Chou En-Lai was ingenious. He said to Nehru that these maps were a legacy of the imperialist era and would be soon correct-ed. That “soon” never arrived.

Revised atlases will not be produced in any country (except China) to please Imran Khan. Similarly, taking Kashmir to the UN Security Council frequently makes delegates yawan.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

THE SWIFT RISE AND FALL OF AMAR SINGH

A

Amar Singh could be erratic, fell out with Mulayam Singh, was expelled from the Samajwadi Party. In politics, for a short while, he lost his way. He neglected his health

HE DID NOT GET A FLYING START IN

LIFE. HE WAS BROUGHT UP IN

HUMBLE CIRCUMSTANCES. BY THE AGE OF THIRTY-

FIVE, HE WAS ON THE WAY TO BECOMING A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE

K NATWAR SINGH

The author is Former Minister of External Affairs of India

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good. —Buddha

SpiritualSPEAK

TopTWEET

Dharmendra Pradhan@dpradhanbjpElated to learn that Wg. Cdr. Nikhil Rath of @IAF_MCC has been shortlisted to be a part of the 4 member crew of India’s first manned space mission, Gaganyaan 2022. It is a matter of immense pride that this son of Odisha will be a part of this significant & prestigious mission.

Shashi Tharoor@ShashiTharoorKerala kocals swing into action: What sets Malayalis apart is our spirit &unity, during floods, the pandemic &now the aircrash. When a mishap occurs, people throw themselves into the situation regardless of religion/caste/class. That’s my #KeralaModel!

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Kozhikode: The black boxes from the Air In-dia Express Flight IX-1344 that crash-landed in Kozhikode have been recovered and the precise cause of the mishap will be deter-mined after analysing them, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Sin-gh Puri, who arrived here on Saturday to take stock of the situa-tion said.

“We visited the site of crash and two black boxes have been recov-ered. The precise cause of the mishap will be determined when we analyse data in those black boxes,” he said. He tweeted later to say “Digital Flight Data Re-corder & Cockpit Voice Recorder of the ill-fated aircraft have been re-trieved. AAIB is con-ducting investigations.”

The Aircraft Acci-dent Investigation Bu-

reau (AAIB) is conduct-ing a probe into the Fri-day evening crash land-ing of the Air India flight, inwhic 18 people were killed.

The minister also said that out of 149 peo-ple admitted to hospi-tals, three of them are critical and are on ven-tilators. —ANI

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Kozhikode: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday praised the ‘fast response’ of the local people and offi-cials in being the first to reach the aircraft crash site here to res-cue passengers, brav-ing inclement weather and COVID-19 fears, “which made all the difference.”

The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the tabletop runway at the airport here while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two por-tions on Friday night, killing 18 people and in-

juring many others.Vijayan, who is at

Kozhikode to visit in-jured, tweeted that the fast response of the lo-cal people and the offi-cials made all the differ-

ence. “We have seen this many times...when there is an adversity, the people of Kerala come together to fight it, Vi-jayan said. The Malap-puram District collector

K Gopalakrishnan had said on Friday that 110 passengers were admit-ted to various hospitals in Kozhikode and the others, to hospitals in Malappuram. —PTI

‘People of Kerala unite to fight an adversity’

CM Pinarayi Vijayan visits the Kozhikode Plane crash site, where several passengers got injured & 18 people died. —PHOTO BY ANI

Security personnel stand guard near the mangled remains of an AI Express fl ight, after it skidded off the runway at Karippur.

KERALA PLANE CRASH Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan praised the ‘fast response’ of locals & officials in rescuing the passengers at the site

New Delhi: The family of Co-Pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar, who lost his life when the fateful Air India Ex-press aircraft crash-landed at the Kozhikode airport, mourned his death on Saturday. Tulsi Ram, Father of Captain Akhilesh Kumar said, “Yesterday, we got a call from the authority about the crash landing of the flight. We were told that his condition is serious.” “Later, we were told about his de-mise. His younger brother and brother-in-law have gone to Kera-la,” he said. One of his family members told that Captain Akhilesh Kumar had joined the force in 2017.Mean-while, two special relief flights from Delhi and one from Mumbai have

reached Kozhikode on Saturday for rendering humanitarian assis-tance to all the passen-gers and the family members of the Air In-dia Express crash-land-ing incident. At least 18 people including two pilots have lost their lives in the incident. Meanwhile, Sharma’s wife Megha, who is ex-pecting a child within a fortnight, has not yet been told about her hus-band’s death. —ANI

Co-Pilot Akhilesh’sfamily mourns demise

Air India flight’s Black Box recovered ‘A great son, always ready to help others’

Kozikhode: The CISF has directed its person-nel to go into preventive quarantine after at least two passengers of the Air India Express fl ight that crashed at Kozhikode tested positive for COVID-19, offi cials said on Saturday. One of the 18 passengers, who died when an Air India Express fl ightfrom Dubai crashed landed at the airport, has tested corona positive.

CRASH SURVIVORS, ONE DECEASED PASSENGER TEST+VE

New Delhi: In a first, former J&K Lieutenant Governor Girish Chan-dra Murmu became the first tribal to take charge as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Saturday. He was administered the oath of office by Presi-dent Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

In a tweet, Tribal Af-fairs Minister Arjun Munda lauded the cen-tral government and expressed his gratitude to PM Modi for appoint-ing Murmu as CAG.

Munda said that Murmu’s appointment to such an important post has enhanced the

value of tribal society.“Heartfelt congratu-

lations to former Lieu-tenant Governor of J&K Girish Chandra Murmu on swearing-in

for post of Comptroller and Auditor General,” the minister said in a tweet. Murmu is an 1985 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre. —ANI

‘PM gave due respect to a qualified tribal’

President Ram Nath Kovind administers oath of offi ce to former J&K governor GC Murmu as CAG of India in New Delhi.

Thane/Mumbai: The Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Depart-ment (CID), which is probing the Palghar mob lynching incident, has filed a third charge sheet in the case in a lo-cal court, officials said on Saturday.

In a related develop-ment, the CID also filed a charge sheet against two minor accused in the case in a juvenile court at Bhiwandi in Thane district.

As many as 154 peo-ple have been arrested and 11 juveniles de-tained in connection with the incident.

Palghar lynching: Maha CID files 3rd charge sheet New Delhi: Congress

leader Rahul Gandhi on the 78th anniversary of the Quit India move-ment said, Mahatma Gandhi’s slogan of “do or die” will have to be given a new meaning -- “fight against injustice, don’t be afraid”.

The Quit India Move-ment was launched by Mahatma Gandhi at the Bombay session of the

All-India Congress Com-mittee on August 8, 1942, demanding an end to the British rule in India.

“Gandhi ji’s slogan of ‘do or die’ will have to be given a new mean-ing on the 78th anniver-sary of the Quit India Movement. ‘Fight against injustice, do not be afraid!’” Rahul Gan-dhi said in a tweet in Hindi. —PTI

Fight against injustice: RaGa

‘SOUTH WEST MONSOON TO HIT COASTAL MAHA AGAIN FROM AUG 10’Mumbai: The south west monsoon will become active again in the coastal areas of Maharashtra on August 10 and will remain so for the next seven days, the IMD said on Saturday. Heavy rains and gale had lashed Mumbai and neighbouring districts on Wednesday. The intensity of rain reduced gradually in the last two

days. “The IMD observa-tions revealed that south west monsoon is likely to become active on west coast from 10-11 August including Mumbai. The situation is likely to con-tinue for a week,” said KS Hosalikar, dy director gen-eral, India Meteorological Department’s Mumbai centre, while informing about the weather.

RS 100 CR DEFAMATION SUIT AGAINST BJP MP DUBEYRanchi: Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren has fi led a Rs 100 crores defamation suit in Ranchi Civil Court against BJP MP Dr Nishikant Dubey for tarnishing his image through social media. The defamation suit was fi led against Dubey on August 4. Along with the MP, Twitter Communi-cations India Private Limited and Facebook India Online Services Private Limited have been made the parties as respondents 1& 2. The plaintiff (Hemant Soren) has claimed damages in sum of Rs 100 crores against each of the respondents.

J&K: LeT TERROR FINANCING NETWORK BUSTED, 6 HELDJammu: With the arrest of six accused, police have busted a LeT terror fi nancing network in Jammu, Mukesh Singh, IG Police, Jammu said. “We got information that a terror fi nancing net-work is operating in Jammu. Special Operations Group (SOG), Jammu, called up Mudasir Farooq Bhat, resident of Doda, for interrogation and subsequently arrested him after his confession about links with Lashkar-e-Toiba fi nancing net-work,” The Inspector General od Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh said.

BJP PROPOSES CELLS TO LINK ALL SECTIONS OF SOCIETYNew Delhi: The BJP is engaged in making inroads into all sections of the society, right from intellectuals to fi sher-men. The saffron party has made preparations to reconstitute 17 cells to achieve this feat. A directive has been issued by the party for the formation of these cells at the earliest along with

new working committees across the states. BJP national president JP Nadda has asked all the state unit presidents to form 12 central cells and fi ve cells at the local level along with the state, dis-trict & divisional working committees. National gen-eral secretary Arun Singh has issued a letter to unit presidents & ministers.

ARJUN MUNDA@MundaArjun

I express gratitude from the heart to Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi Ji. Appoint-ment of senior IAS offi cer GC Murmu Ji to important post like CAG has enhanced the value of tribal society. Prime Minister gave due respect to a qualifi ed tribal of-fi cer.

VADRA SPEAK

RAHUL GANDHI @RahulGandhi

ASHA workers take health protection to

homes across the country. They are truly health warriors, but today they are forced to go on strike for their own rights.

AIR INDIA CMD VISITS SITE, TAKES STOCK OF SITUATION

Yesterday, the fast response of local people and offi-

cials made all the difference. They braved bad weather and COVID fears to rescue their fellow beings. The long queues of people who want-ed to donate blood was just one example.

—Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala CM

Nagpur: “He was a great son and always the first one to help oth-ers in need. He sacri-ficed his life for the country,” said Neela Sathe, the mother of late captain DV Sathe, who was flying the Air India flight that crash-landed at Kozhikode airport on Friday, claiming 18 lives.

Indian Army Retired Colonel Vasant Sathe and his wife Neela lost both their sons in line of duty. The couple is originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Speaking to ANI, Neela broke into tears and said, “He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. His teach-ers still appreci-ate him. During

the Ahmedabad floods, he saved the children of soldiers by lifting them in his arms. I wish God would have called us in-stead of him.” —ANI

DGCA ISSUED NOTICE TO KOZHIKODE AIRPORT IN 2019 OVER SAFETY LAPSESNew Delhi: Aviation regulator DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found “various critical safety lapses” in different places, including the runway and apron, offi cials said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation pointed to cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits among other lapses in its show-cause notice. On July 11 last year, Kozhikode airport director K Srinivasa Rao was issued a show-cause notice, stated another DGCA offi cial.

Late DV Sathe

Captain Akhilesh Kumar

Neela Sathe

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‘REDUCE MORTALITY TO LESS THAN 1% MARK’New Delhi: Expressing concern that grocery shops & other vendors can be potential spread-ers of coronavirus in-fection to a large num-ber of people, the Union Health Ministry has advised states and UTs to take up testing of such people to ensure early detection of cases which can lead to reduc-tion in mortality rate. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, also stressed on the need for operationalising ambu-lance transport system with quick medical fa-cility. He underlined that the refusal rate of ambulances must be monitored on a daily basis and brought down to zero.

With the COVID-19 pandemic now spread-ing to newer areas in the country, Bhushan said there are likely to be scattered cases, “The fo-cus at the same time should be to save lives at all cost. While we have so far done better than many other countries. Our aim should be to further reduce mortali-ty and ensure that it does not cross the 1% mark,” he further add-ed. He pointed out that early detection of cases

through aggressive test-ing, prompt isolation or admission in a health-care facility and ensur-ing proper clinical man-agement are major com-ponents of mortality reduction. “Early detec-tion of cases is crucial element to ensure that the case fatality is re-duced. In addition, gro-cery shops, vegetable and other vendors, etc. can be potential spread-ers of infection to a large number of people. Testing in such areas and of such people should be proactively done as per ICMR guide-lines,” he underscored. He asked States and UTs to undertake weekly death audits. —ANI

New Delhi: 196 doctors have died across the country due to corona-virus, IMA said on Sat-urday, requesting PM to intervene in the matter. In a letter, IMA has re-quested PM to give at-tention to the issue for the safety of doctors who are losing lives in the fight against the COVID. While number of them are general practitioners, since a significant proportion of the population con-sult general practition-ers due to fever and its related symptoms. “IMA represents over

3.5 lakh doctors spread across the country pro-viding next door afford-able healthcare, so it is pertinent to mention that COVID doesn’t dif-ferentiate between govt & pvt sector. IMA thus requests the govt of In-dia to pay adequate at-tention to the safety and welfare of doctors dur-ing the pandemic,” said Dr Rajan, national pres-ident of IMA. “The mortality rate among the doctors due to COV-ID has reached an alarming proportion,” said Dr RV Asokan, hon sec gen, IMA.—ANI

EARLY DETECTION OF CASES IS CRUCIAL ELEMENT TO ENSURE THAT CASE FATALITY IS REDUCED, SAID HEALTH SECY, RAJESH BHUSHAN

Parliament in covid times: Govt to consider proposal

New Delhi: The gov-ernment is considering the proposal for a physi-cal Parliament Mon-soon session despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariates have giv-en some suggestions to the government for the physical session follow-ing which the Centre will soon take the final decision regarding it.

It is also being con-sidered that the Parlia-ment session should be held from the Central Hall in two sessions daily; the first session dedicated to Lok Sabha for 4 hrs and the second

session dedicated to Ra-jya Sabha for 4 hrs. The committee has already started physical meet-ing in Parliament House and several par-liamentary committee meetings are scheduled to be held in the upcom-ing days in the Parlia-ment including Ethics Committee of Rajya Sabha.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Monsoon session of Parliament has already been de-layed and it is likely to begin from the last week of August or the first week of Septem-ber. —ANI

196 docs die due to Covid-19, IMA seeks PM to intervene

New Delhi: The sub-missions were made by KK Singh, Sushant’s fa-ther, in a counter-affida-vit filed before the Su-preme Court on Rhea’s plea in the matter.

The petition filed by actor for case from Pat-na to Mumbai has be-come ‘infructuous’ since the case was transferred to CBI.

“Also, the prayer is not maintainable since there is no case which could be transferred un-der 406 CRPC,” Singh said in his counter-affi-davit. It also mentioned that Rhea requested HM Amit Shah for a CBI inquiry earlier, which is already in process, then the peti-tioner should not have any grievance in this regard. Singh feels it is political attempt to thwart their powers, undermine the federal structure of the Con-stitution.

“It is rather unfortu-nate that Singh has suf-ficient proof and belief that it is due to the peti-tioners continued crim-inal actions has caused the death of his only son,” the affidavit said. The development comes after Rhea approached the SC seeking direc-tions to transfer the case, registered against her in Bihar’s Patna for abettment of suicide, to Mumbai. CBI registered a case against Rhea & others in connection with Rajput, who was dead June 14. —ANI

Amid poaching...“There were strong speculations in the state that some of the lawmakers close to Raje will turn rebel and will give trust vote to the Ge-hlot government. These speculations were heat-ed only after there was silence from Raje over a month, and unexpected-ly she had a meeting with Rajnath Singh,” said a senior leader from Jaipur.

In 360 degree turn to ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, now the BJP is shielding their MLAs and nearly 20 lawmakers have reached Gujarat al-

ready by Saturday and more are likely to join.

However, those who reached here at the Por-bandar airport in-formed the media that they are here to stay for two days only and are expected to visit Som-nath temple. “Since the last one month, there is trouble in the Congress party itself. They do lack the majority. But they are pressurising the BJP MLAs, some are already facing charges from the SOG. We are under express pressure. To get some mental relief we are here to get blessings from Somnathbaba.

Some more will join us. We are here to save our-selves from the Gehlot government. We are go-ing to stay only for two to three days,” said one of the six MLAs who reached to Porbander via a private charter.

BSP MLAs...Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, are al-ready pending before the Supreme Court. “It is important to also note that there is an ur-gent need to clarify the law in respect of the scope and purport of Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule, to en-sure that there are no

conflicting judgments, involving substantial questions of interpreta-tion of the Constitu-tion, by an interpreta-tion by this court,” the plea said.

Meanwhile, 10 out of 15 Congress MLAs had defected to BJP in Goa legislative assembly in July 2019. A petition was filed before the Speaker of Goa assem-bly requesting him to disqualify the MLAs. Goa PCC President Gi-rish Chodankar ap-proached the Supreme court when the speak-er did not decide the matter and has re-quested the SC for the

early disposal of the petition pending be-fore the Speaker.

It submitted that sub-paragraph (1) of Para-graph 4 contemplates that a 13 member of the house will not attract disqualification under Paragraph 2, if his orig-inal political party merges with another political party.

“All the six persons, beiThe High Court had, on July 30, heard the application seeking a stay on the order an-nouncing the merger and issued notices to the Speaker, Secretary of the Legislative As-sembly and six BSP

MLAs in the state ask-ing them to file their reply before the next date of hearing.

India, China’s...India and China have held five rounds of Lieutenant General-lev-el talks between them for disengagement from the eastern Ladakh sec-tor but not much suc-cess has been achieved in that direction.

The Chinese are sit-ting near the Finger 5 and Gogra post in East-ern Ladakh and are re-fusing to disengage completely from there.

The Chinese have created a similar build

up all along the LAC opposite Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh but the Chi-nese troops there are in-depth areas. In the Ladakh sector, the De-fence Ministry has now admitted that the Chi-nese troops have trans-gressed into Indian territory at multiple locations. The Chinese had started the conflict with India on May 5 when they marched into the Galwan Valley in very high numbers and tried to change the status quo on the LAC but the Indian forces managed to handle the

situation well. —ANI

India’s Covid...cross the five lakh mark on Saturday. The state now has 5,03,084 con-firmed cases, including 1,47,048 active cases and 17,367 deaths, according to the state health de-partment.

Tamil Nadu, the sec-ond-worst affected by the pandemic reported 5,883 positive cases and 118 deaths, according to the state health de-partment. The total number of cases now stand at 2,90,907 in the state, including 53,481 active cases, and 4,808 deaths. —ANI

FROM PG 1

It is a political attempt to thwart our powers: Sushant Singh’s father to SC

Haryana CM ML Khattar meets Sushant Singh Rajput’s fatherFaridabad: Haryana CM Manohar Khattar met Sushant’s father KK Singh on Saturday. His brother-in-law, OP Singh, is the Pol Comm of Faridabad. “The grievance of the peti-

tioner (Rhea Chakraborty) that the Patna police would in-vestigate the present case in an unfair and discriminatory manner does not subsist,” the affidavit said. —ANI

RHEA’S PAGE TITLED ‘GRATITUDE LIST’ ‘BMC obstructing the probe in the case,’ Bihar SPPatna: Patna SP Vinay Tiwari arrived at Patna Airport from Mumbai on Friday after he was quarantined in Mum-bai. He, along with oth-er officers went Mum-bai to investigate the Sushant Singh’s death case. He had accused BMC obstructing the probe in the Sushant’s death case by quaran-tining only him & not four others with him. He further said, “A thorough investigation is our constitutional right and the behavior of the authorities in Maharashtra hindered the investigation. Now that the case is with CBI, we will be sharing our findings with them & not other depart-ments,” he said. —ANI

CM Yogi inaugurates level 1 Corona hospital

Mild Corona to cure in 9 days, say scientists

Gautam Buddh Nagar: UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Sat-urday inaugurated a 400-bedded COV-ID-19 hospital in Sector 39 of Noida. During the event, UP CM said, “Today, a COVID-19 dedi-cated level 1 hospi-tal has been launched,the virus fight continues and it is the biggest challenge because of Delhi. Second such hospital will be opening in Gon-da in next 12 days. We will now have to focus on level 2 & 3 hospital “Section 144 has been im-posed in Noida, ahead of CM Yogi’s visit on Saturday. People are not al-lowed to fly drones. 15 gazetted officers & 700 constables who are on duty are re-quired to undergo COVID-19 testing,” Ranvijay,ADCP —ANI

New Delhi: Scien-tists have assessed respiratory sam-ples from 35 COV-ID-19 pa-t i e n t s , a n d f o u n d that contagious cor-onavirus was “rare-ly detectable” be-yond eight days af-ter onset of illness, an advance that can help develop better self-isolation and quarantining pro-tocols to curb the spread of the pan-demic. Diseases, analysed 68 respira-tory specimens from 35 COVID-19 patients, of whom 32 had mild disease, and found that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was rarely detectable be-yond eight days af-ter onset of illness. The doctors ex-plained that SARS-CoV-2 does not mean virus. —PTI

Workers sanitise the Parliament house as a precautionary measure against covid. —PHOTO BY PTI

New Delhi: Rudrendra Tandon, Foreign Service officer of batch 1994, have been appointed as India’s next Ambassa-dor to Afghanistan, Min-istry of External Affairs (MEA) announced.Tandon is currently serving as the Ambassa-dor of India to ASEAN. The MEA, said Tandon is expected to take as-signment soon. —ANI

Rudrendra is India’s next ambassador to Afghanistan

Rudrendra Tandon. —FILE PHOTO

AirAsia flight aborted due to bird-hit, all safe Ranchi: “AirAsia air-craft operating from Ranchi to Mumbai as flight i5-632 encoun-tered a bird hit during scheduled departure. The pilot aborted take-off and the aircraft is currently being inspect-ed,” the spokesperson said. An airport official said, all the passengers on board are safe. —ANI

Flood in Assam improves as water receeds Guwahati: The flood in Assam maintained a falling trend on Satur-day with the waters ebbing from two dis-tricts and remaining in only four affecting 6435 persons, an ASDMA bulletin said.

No death due to the natural calamity was reported from any where in the state dur-ing the day. The flood

waters receded from Chirang and Kamrup Metropolitan districts and remained in Dhe-maji, Baksa, Kokrajhar and Morigaon districts, according to the daily flood report of Assam State Disaster Man-agement Authority (ASDMA). The deluge had impacted 12528 people in six districts on Friday. —ANI

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020

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

A TIMELINE OFAIR ACCIDENTS

IN INDIA

WHILE THE KOZHIKODE PLANE CRASH IS ONE OF THE DEADLIEST IN A DECADE IN INDIA, THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF

MISHAPS AND RUNWAY ACCIDENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN THE PAST YEAR

SOME OF THE MAJOR PLANE CRASHES IN INDIA IN THE PAST MAY 2010: Air India Express Flight 812, a Boe-

ing 737-800, fl ying on the Dubai-Mangalore route overshot the runway on landing at the Mangalore International Airport killing 158 pas-sengers on board.

JULY 2000: Alliance Air Flight 7412 crashed in a residential estate of Patna after the pilot lost con-trol of the aircraft and stalled. Casualty included 55 people aboard, along with 5 on the ground.

NOVEMBER 1996: Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 collided mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907, all 349 people on board both fl ights were killed, making it the deadliest mid-air col-lision in history. It is also known as the Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision.

APRIL 1993: Indian Airlines Flight 491 crashes into a truck at the end of the runway while taking off from Aurangabad due to pilot error and the failure of the aviation administration to control highway traffi c. 55 people died.

JULY 1991: Indian Airlines Flight 257 crashed on a descent into Imphal due to pilot error killing all 69 occupants.

FEB 1990: Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashed on its fi nal approach to Bangalore airport, killing 92 people. The cause was pilot error.

JUNE 1982: Air India Flight 403 crashed at the Sahar International Airport in Mumbai due to bad weather. Two crew members and 15 passengers lost their lives.

JAN 1978: Air India Flight 855 crashed off the coast of Bandra after the captain became spatially disoriented following the failure of one of the fl ight instruments in the cockpit. All 213 aboard were killed.

At least 18 peo-ple were killed and scores in-

jured when an Air In-dia Express flight from Dubai with 191 onboard overshot the tabletop runway while landing at Kerala’s Kozhikode airport on Friday. The plane fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two. The pilot-in-command, Captain

Deepak Sathe, and his co-pilot Akhilesh Ku-mar, were among the 18 reported dead as of the time of publishing of this report.

While the crash is one of the deadliest in India in a decade, the country has seen a number of mishaps and runway accidents in the past year, be-sides a few deadly ones previously.

JUNE 2020: Operations at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) were suspended for nearly four hours after FedEx fl ight 5033, arriving from Bengaluru, veered off the runway amid heavy rains trig-gered by Cyclone Nisarga.

FEB 2020: Over 100 passengers and crew of GoAir fl ight G8 802 from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru had to be evacuated at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, after the right engine of the aircraft caught fi re during take-off after a bird-hit.

FEB 2020: Air India aircraft’s fuselage was dam-aged when its pilot decided to immediately lift the plane to avoid hitting a person and a jeep that had suddenly come on the Pune airport runway during takeoff.

DEC 2019: A GoAir plane, operating a Pune-Delhi fl ight, returned to Pune airport 20 minutes after takoff after a bird-hit. The aircraft was carrying 172 passengers.

DEC 2019: IndiGo’s A320neo aircraft fl ying from Udaipur to Bangalore was turned back from the runway after the air traffi c control (ATC) spotted a spark and smoke in the tailpipe of the plane.

DEC 2019: A major accident was averted even as the SpiceJet fl ight SG 3568, which took off from Surat, failed to deploy the nose gear at Goa’s Dabolim International Airport. The runway controller immediately alerted the ATC tower, which informed the incoming aircraft to abort the landing and make a second attempt.

NOV 2019: A GoAir aircraft from Nagpur, veered off the runway at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru due to bad weather condi-tions. DGCA suspended pilots for landing the aircraft even as they lost the “visual reference” 50 feet before touchdown.

AUGUST 2019: A New Delhi-bound IndiGo fl ight failed to take off from Nagpur airport due to a “technical fault”. Flight 6E 636 from Nagpur to Delhi returned to the taxiway from the runway after the pilot was alerted about the serious error in the aircraft. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was among the 159 passengers on board.

JULY 2019: Air India Express fl ight from Dubai veered off the taxiway after landing at the Man-galore International Airport. The Boeing 737 got stuck in the soft ground near the taxiway and all passengers and crew on board were safely deboarded.

JULY 2019: A SpiceJet domestic fl ight overshot the runway while landing at the Surat Internation-al Airport due to heavy rains and poor visibility.

JULY 2019: Air India Express fl ight from Saudi Arabia suffers a “tail tip”, the rear part of the plane touched the surface while landing at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala.

MAY 2019: A major mishap was averted at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport when an Indian Air Force aircraft overshot the main runway, resulting in the runway shutting down for 16 hours.

APRIL 2019: SpiceJet aircraft skids off the runway on landing at the regional Shirdi airport, leading to halting of operations. The aircraft touched down some 30-40 meters away from the landing spot and veered off the runway.

The Air India Express fl ight that skidded off a runway while landing at the airport in Kozhikode on Saturday. The special evacuation fl ight bringing people home to India who had been trapped abroad because of the coronavirus skidded off the runway and split in two while landing in heavy rain killing more than a dozen people and injuring dozens more.—PHOTOS BY PTI

SOURCE: AGENCIES CONCEPT: DIVYA HEMNANI DESIGN: ABHISHEK GUPTA

THIS IS HOW MIFFED UMA WAS PACIFIED

Uma Bharti, who had given herself

wholeheartedly to the Ram temple movement, was waiting for a sacred date like August 5, for a long time. But when that auspicious mo-ment arrived, she was left waiting for the call, so a miffed Bharti de-clared that she will re-main on the banks of Saryu River of Ayodhya i.e. at Ram Ki Paidi till the time when PM Modi leaves the Ram Janma-bhoomi temple after laying the foundation stone. This was because by then she was not sent an invita-tion to the foun-dation stone p r o g r a m . Only ANI and Doordarshan were allowed to go to the ven-ue, while the rest of the me-dia was stationed at Ram Ki Pai-

di, some 30 km from the venue. Uma also has an old relationship with the media, so ‘Champat Rai’ felt that the media should not ask her any-thing else, and therefore Uma was invited in a hurry and was given a place to sit in the foun-dation stone laying pro-gram. Interestingly, questions were raised on those who sat in the front row. The questions were asked about what they had to do with the temple movement, for example, nobody knew anything about the con-tribution of Baba Ram-dev, sitting in the first line, Mahamandalesh-

war Awadheshananda Giri or Swami Chidan-anda. Mahendra Pan-dey, the only minister in the Modi govern-ment who was also in-volved in ‘Karseva’, also went to jail because of the temple movement, but he was not even in-vited. Vinay Katiyar’s age has not yet crossed 75, he too was not called. Acharya Dharmendra, who would create a charged atmosphere with his oratory skills, much like Sadvi Ri-tambhara, was also seen sitting in the 5th or 6th row. Sri-Sri Ravi Shankar, who spoke of mediation on the Ram temple, was out of the picture, so those indi-viduals occupied the

stage, backstage and ceremony, who

had nothing to do with the

Ram tem-ple in the

past.

ANAND IN ‘ANAND’

Anand Kumar of Bihar, famous for

his ‘Super Thirty’, based on which a mov-ie was made which was extremely suc-cessful, is now explor-ing his new role in the Bihar assembly elec-tions. At one time Anand used to be in close proximity of BJP-Sangh, and in 2018, BJP also prom-ised to give him Rajya Sabha seat, but by then there was a big contro-versy about Super Thirty.

It is said that Anand claimed that 26 out of the 30 students select-ed in the IIT, were his but, later it was found that the number of correct students com-ing to the IITs was only 3. Hrithik Roshan, the hero of that film, had also tweeted and called the 26 successful chil-dren to Mumbai to give

them a party, but when the

s i t u a t i o n got compli-cated, the actor also had to de-

lete that tweet. See-ing the con-tradiction,

the BJP backed away from its promise, and that is when Anand be-came close to Nitish Kumar. Nitish pro-posed to make Anand a MLC, but Anand did not agree to anything other than Rajya Sab-ha, so disputes started between the two. Now Anand wants his younger brother Pranab Kumar to con-test the upcoming as-sembly elections from Aurangabad or Alwar on RJD ticket. Anand Kumar is a Chandra-vanshi Kahar by caste which has a large vote bank in both these constituencies. Ac-cording to sources, recently, Anand Ku-mar has approached a major Hollywood di-rector to make a film on his life in Holly-

wood too and he is willing to invest some money in this film.

‘MIRACULOUS’ ANAR

Anar Patel, the dar-ling daughter of

Anandi Ben Patel - Gov-ernor of big states like UP and MP, has always loved to make headlines. If sources are to be be-lieved, she may contest from her mother’s tradi-tional seat Patan or Ghatlodia in the upcom-ing Gujarat Assembly elections, 2022. It is said that these days Anar is spending more and more time in working on the grassroots. If sources are to be believed, Chhat-tisgarh’s Congress CM Bhupesh Baghel was so impressed with Anar’s work that he has invited her to Raipur and asked her to cooperate in build-ing a film city. Years back, Anar, together with Vandana Agarw-al, formed the institu-tion of ‘Gramshree’, a period when the state was in the hands of her mother. Anar’s organiza-tion strives to keep lo-cal crafts-menship

alive and their organi-zation also undertakes to preserve the legacy of traditional crafts and arts. When Anandi-ben Patel bid goodbye to active politics, she wanted her traditional Ghatlodia seat to be given to Anar. The seat now comes under Gan-dhinagar constituency and in 2017 polls, seat was given to Bhupendra Patel, who was elected MLA. So, this time Anar may consider Pa-tan seat for herself. The author is a journal-

ist and political com-mentator and views ex-

pressed are his personal

FIRST INDIA SUNDAY SPECIALBY TRIDIB RAMAN

Anar PatelAnand KumarUma Bharti

Surround yourself with the dreamers, and the doers, the believers, and thinkers, but most

of all surround people who believe in you.

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

AHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia082NDFRONT

Massive inferno engulfs Chem unit in Valsad, no casualtiesMASSIVE FIRE BREAKS OUT AT A CHEMICAL FACTORY IN GUJARAT’S VALSADValsad: A major fire was reported at a phar-maceutical company located in the third phase of Vapi GIDC in Valsad district due to a blast in the chemical solvent drums stored in the manufacturing unit on Saturday noon. No casualty was report-ed and about 12 fire tenders from Vapi no-tified area, Sarigam industrial area, Vals-ad Nagarpalika, Um-bergaon industrial estate, and the union territory of Daman and Dadra Nagar Haveli (DNH) were rushed to the spot to take the fire under control. The fire erupt-ed at about 1.15 pm and was brought under con-trol within two hours.

DN Vaghela, fire of-ficer of Vapi GIDC told TOI, “We have successfully taken the fire under con-trol. The cooling ac-tivity has been start-

ed. We have checked the entire premises and could not find anyone injured or dead”

Vaghela added. “Manufacturing activ-

ity in the other facto-ries located in the close vicinity of the affected company was asked to shut with im-mediate effect”

Sources in the fire

department of Vapi GIDC said there was a blast in the solvent drums of Shakti Bio-sciences private lim-ited, a pharmaceuti-cal company located in the third phase of Vapi GIDC. While the exact reason behind the blast is yet to be ascertained, but there was heavy smoke coming out from the factory that was visi-

ble from a long dis-tance.

Sources said that the fire could have erupted due to a short circuit in the manufacturing plant of the company. After the short cir-cuit incident, the staff workers rushed out of the company. The company had re-started operations with less than 15% staff post-lockdown.

Flames and smoke at the site of the blast.

Optimism allows us to

evolve our ideas, to improve

our situation, and to hope

for a better tomorrow.

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

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

082NDFRONT

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Even as

private schools are up in

arms against the Guja-

rat Government over

the fees for the lockdown

period and parents are

finding it difficult to pay

up while also educating

their children, two pres-

tigious private schools

in Ahmedabad seem to

have taken the situation

in their stride.

Udgam School for

Children and Zebar

School for Children,

both affiliated to the

CBSE, have secured

all their teaching and

non-teaching staff un-

der complete health

insurance, including

Covid-19 treatment.

The insurance cover is

only one among a few

initiatives taken by

the school manage-

ments.“ P r i v a t e l y - h e l d

schools in Gujarat are

facing multiple chal-

lenges. Recently the

schools were pushed

back with the State Gov-

ernment’s recent GR

against levying tuition

fees till the classes re-

sume normally. But de-

spite the limited funds

and lower collection, we

demonstrated our re-

sponsibility towards

our staff members who

are ensuring that no stu-

dent is deprived of edu-

cation,” Manan Choksi,

Executive Director of

Udgam and Zebar said.

He said the schools’

management had cov-

ered 700 teaching and

non-teaching staff of

both the schools with a

health insurance of Rs 3

lakh and Rs 10 lakh life

insurance on an indi-

vidual basis.

This, when several

schools went on a cost-

cutting spree like salary

cuts, delay in disburse-

ment of salary, laying

off, and freezing new

recruitment, among

other things.

He said unlike sev-

eral schools, Udgam

and Zebar have been

paying 100 per cent sal-

ary to all the teaching

and even non-teaching

staff since the first na-

tionwide lockdown.

He said Udgam and

Zebar management had

anticipated that many

parents would not be

able to pay the fees and

“so we had provided a

relaxation to the parents

to pay the fees in month-

ly instalments.”

Two A’bad schools insure entire staff against Covid-19 pandemic COMPASSIONATE MANAGEMENT

Udgam and Zebar schools

took health and life insurance

cover for their 700-member

staff on individual basis

—File Photo

The blast in Lebanon has raised concerns about chemical industry-heavy States like Gujarat’s handling of such chemicals

Shishir Awasthi

Ahmedabad: The huge

explosion of 2,750 tonnes

of ammonium nitrate in

Lebanon capital Beirut

may look geographically

far away, but scratch the

surface and Gujarat,

with a large number of

hazardous chemical in-

dustries, may well be

waiting for a big tragedy

to happen.

According to a re-

search by eminent envi-

ronment magazine

Down To Earth, the

cause of at least three

recent accidents was

negligence. It refers to

a recent explosion at an

industrial estate in Gu-

jarat’s Dahej and two

gas leaks in chemical

and pharma factories

in Visakhapatnam. The

research also stressed

that several other acci-

dents go unnoticed.

In fact, it says the Bei-

rut explosion has raised

concerns over India’s use

of the chemical com-

pound and the policy

mechanisms that regu-

late such use. And all

States, including the

leading ones like Guja-

rat, with a concentration

of chemical and pharma-

ceutical industry fall in

this category.

India imports around

3 lakh tonne ammonium

nitrate every year. A

small portion of this is

used to make explosives

for mines, while the rest

is used by fertiliser units.

There were, however, re-

ports of theft of the

chemical in the past for

illegal mining.

Ammonium nitrate

does not typically deto-

nate on its own and re-

quires another ignition

source. Experts, howev-

er, point out that even a

small amount can be

dangerous.

Early reports blamed

the Beirut blast on neg-

ligence while storing

the chemical and weld-

ing activity near the

storage site caused the

explosion. The ammo-

nium nitrate stored in

the warehouse was

confiscated from a car-

go ship in 2014.

The question of

whether India is pre-

pared to deal with the

storage, handling, trans-

port and manufacture of

ammonium nitrate, thus,

crops up. The country’s

emergency prepared-

ness around any poten-

tial accidents involving

the chemical compound

is another concern.

A string of industrial

accidents occurred after

the lockdown to curb the

spread of the novel coro-

navirus disease (COV-

ID-19) was lifted.

The DTH has pointed

out that the Ammonium

Nitrate Rules, 2012, for

the regulation of the

chemical rules are com-

prehensive but “the big-

gest problem with the

rules, however, are the

lack of a deterrence

mechanism or any penal

provision.”

A string of industrial

accidents occurred after

the lockdown to curb the

spread of the novel coro-

navirus disease (COV-

ID-19) was lifted.

Gujarat has lessons to learn from Beirut

Gujarat has hundreds of hazardous chemical industries which have been witnessing accidents

because of negligence.

PREVENTIVE

ACTION?

No move to name

Surat airport after

Morarji: Centre

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Days after

Rajya Sabha member

Subramanian Swamy

wrote to Prime Minis-

ter Narendra Modi

urging him to name

the Surat Interna-

tional Airport after

the late Prime Minis-

ter Bharat Ratna

Morarji Desai, the

Union Civil Ministry

has stated that there

is no such proposal

from the State Gov-

ernment as of now.

Replying to Swamy’s

letter to the PM, Union

Civil Aviation Minister

Hardeep S Puri stated

that appropriate action

on naming and renam-

ing of airports could be

taken after a resolution

proposing the same was

passed in the State As-

sembly.

Puri stated, “As a

practice, the request for

naming and renaming

of airports are consid-

ered based on recom-

mendations of the re-

spective State Govern-

ment supported by a

resolution in the State

Legislative Assembly.”

“No such proposal

has been received

from the Government

of Gujarat so far. The

Ministry of Civil Avi-

ation will take appro-

priate action, as and

when a proposal is re-

ceived from the State

Government in this

regard,” he added.

Surat was the Lok

Sabha constituency of

the 7th Prime Minister

Morarji Desai, who has

been an MP from here

for 5 terms. He be-

longed to Valsad in

South Gujarat.

ROBOT NURSES ARE HERE!

The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Friday deployed 3 Robot Nurses at Smimer Hospital to serve the patients at the Covid-19 ward. The demonstration

of the robot nurses was held in the presence of Surat Mayor Dr. Jagdish Patel, SMC Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani and GIDC MD M.Thennarasan.

First India Bureau

Vadodara: Vadodara

Special Operation

Group on Friday raid-

ed an LPG agency

owned by the son of

BJP’s sitting MLA

from Sayajiganj Jiten-

dra Sukhadia and ar-

rested three employees

while illegally refilling

gas cylinders.

This is the second

time that employees

of the Happy Home

Gas Service run by

Hiren Sukhadia, the

legislator’s son, were

arrested for alleged-

ly illegal activity.

Earlier in September

last, the Civil Sup-

plies Department had

arrested two staffers

illegally refilling cyl-

inders.

An official said the

Special Operation

Group had received a

tip-off of illegal gas

cylinders being re-

filled in Jalaramnagar

of Karelibaug area.

The SOG team then

carried out a search

and found three em-

ployees refilling gas

cylinders. The team

found a weighing ma-

chine, refilling pipe

and other equipment

used for refilling.

The SOG team ar-

rested Jignesh Mali,

Hemant Mali and Vi-

pul Bharvad in this

connection.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Frus-

trated over losing his

job, a youth vented

his anger at innocent

people on Friday

evening when he

killed two women

and a 7-year-old girl

of a family in Keliya

Vasna village in the

Dholka taluka of

Ahmedabad district.

Local residents

caught him and

handed him over to

police.According to Dhol-

ka police, one Raju

Patel went violent

and killed two wom-

en, Jashodaben and

Sumitraben, and a

7-year-old girl Jiya

with a scythe. De-

ceased Sumitraben’s

husband Vijay Patel,

who works at a fac-

tory in Changodar,

was not at home.

As the women

screamed for help,

the neighbours

rushed towards

Jayesh Patel’s resi-

dence when Raju was

seen running out of

the house and with a

blood-stained scythe

in his hand. He was

soon caught and

handed over to the

police. Locals said

Raju was depressed

as he had lost his job

after the lockdown.

Raids on MLA

son’s gas agency, 3 held

refilling cylinders

Depressed

youth kills two

women, a girl

in A’bad districtCM Rupani’s hometown Rajkot

is now the latest Covid-19 worry

First India Bureau

Rajkot: With the in-

creasing number of

Covid -19 positive cases

in Chief Minister Vi-

jay Rupani’s home-

town Rajkot, Gujarat’s

Principal Secretary

(Health) Jayanti Ravi

visited the city the

third time on Friday.

Rajkot reported a to-

tal of 1628 positive cases

with 743 active cases on

Friday. Jayanti Ravi

stated that currently

Rajkot was showing a

rising trend similar to

the situation which was

in Ahmedabad and Su-

rat earlier but would

gradually stabilise.

She said various ef-

forts had been initiated

to bring down the graph

of cases. These include

making intensive use of

Dhanvantari and San-

jeevani Raths for door-

to-door visits to identify

primary symptoms. In-

creasing the number of

tests by almost four

times, stress on plasma

donors and seeking

help from additional

ayurvedic doctors.

Jayanti Ravi told re-

porters that as many as

340 medical teams were

currently active in the

entire Rajkot district.

Rajkot has now report-

ed the highest positivity

rate of 18% and exten-

sive efforts are being

made to strengthen the

health activities in the

district to reduce the

rate to 7 % and below.

The Health Depart-

ment is also gearing

up for the forthcom-

ing Janmashtami fes-

tival, which is cele-

brated in a big way in

the city.

Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has urged PM Narendra

Modi to name Surat airport after late PM Morarji Desai.State Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi made her third

visit to Rajkot to oversee Covid-19 work.

YOU READ IT FIRST IN FIRST INDIA (AUGUST 8, 2020)

CBDT bats on Sumant Sinha for handling Rajasthan’s Investigation Turbulence!

Suspected Pakistani intruder shot dead near Gujarat Border

BSF ON ALERT: SHOOTS INTRUDER

Kutch: The Border Se-curity Force on Satur-day shot dead a sus-pected Pakistani in-truder who was trying to sneak across the International Border, close to Gujarat and Rajasthan border. A night patrol party of the BSF spotted a man who first crossed over the IB and then climbed over the fence on the intervening night of August 7 and 8, 2020. According to BSF officials, the in-truder was chal-lenged and fired upon after he crossed over the border fence. “It was dark and the forces fired in self-defense. You never know if the intruder trying to cross over is carrying arms,” said a senior BSF official. The intruder who hid

behind a bush after running away was lat-er found dead on the Indian side when the BSF personnel searched the area. The incident happened just 2 Kms from the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, ” said an of-ficial from Gandhi-nagar headquarters of BSF.

RAID, SEIZE, ARREST: GAMBLE PAYS OFF!Gandhinagar: Gan-dhinagar LCB -One woman, reportedly a BJP worker, and five men nabbed in a raid at a gambling den in Sargasan on Thursday.

During the raid, police seized Rs 51,960 cash, 306 plas-tic coins of various denominations, four mobile phones, and a car worth Rs 4 lakh, a report said.

The accused, identi-fied as Heenaben Sureshbhai Patel, own-er of bungalow no.13, Shanti Villa, Sargasan,

allegedly invited peo-ple to gamble at her place. Police found five men in the alleged gambling den.

Along with the woman, Jagdish Ran-chodbhai Patel (39), a

resident of Patel Vaas, Vavol, Gandhi-nagar; Jignesh Narhariprasad Bhatt (42), a resident of Bhatt no Madh, near water tank, Vavol, Gandhinagar; Ankit Bababhai Patel (31), a resident of Valru Vaas, Unava, Gandhi-nagar; Krunal Pareshbhai Patel (30), a resident of Panch-vati Residency, behind ST Workshop, Kalol, Gandhinagar and Sarfraz Ismalibhai Fakir (30) were ar-rested for gambling.

Vaishali

Jaipur: CBDT Chairman P C Modi’s close counterpart Su-mant Sinha an Indian Reve-nue Service (IRS) of 1987 batch has been appointed as Director General of Income Tax- Investigations at Jaipur on August 7, Friday.

Mahendra Singh, DGIT, In-vestigations, Rajasthan re-tired on 30th June and since then Neena Nigam has been holding the additional charge of the same.

The appointment of Sinha has come when the state is fully heated up with the politi-

cal melodrama compounded with frequent search and sei-zure operations. Recently there has been a complete re-vamp of the entire team of Investigation Wing across In-dia, specially in Rajasthan where most diligent officers of the department have been trusted for important assign-ments. Appointment of Sinha, who has held important posts in past like Director Investiga-tion (Mumbai), Chief Com-missioner-1, Ahmedabad, looks like a cherry on the cake. It seems that Pramod Chandra Mody, who is likely to gain ex-tension of his term as the

Chairman of CBDT has some-thing serious targets due to which such a splendid team has been appointed in Ra-jasthan. With the department cutting down the seriousness on the scrutiny norms and re-ducing the number of cases being taken under scrutiny, it looks like the pace of investi-gation operations would in-crease now. Sinha, known as an honest, diligent and com-mitted officer, is being wel-comed in Jaipur with open hands and hearts.

So, now Team Sumant Sinha - Rajeshwar Yadav will ensure proper pace in Rajasthan!Sumant Sinha

BSF personnel. —FILE PHOTO

Woman BJP worker, five men

caught gambling; Rs 51,960 cash,

car seized

ho would have ever thought face masks would become one of the most essential items in our day-to-day life, right? Well, looking at the cur-

rent COVID-19 situation, it is safe to say that this ‘ mandatory fashion of masks’ isn’t going away anytime soon and every-one has got to learn to live with it.

In order to make sure you are safe even while wearing a mask, there are a few things to keep in mind, like washing your hands before touching the mask, making sure the ex-terior side does not touch your face and the mask is

extremely secure among other things. While wearing

the mask the entire day, make sure to not pull it down to the areas that are exposed- you are eventually going to place it again on your face and it isn’t going to keep you safe in any way then. There are various kinds of masks that people use which fall into the category of reusable and non-reusable. For the ones that are reusable, make sure to clean them regularly with hot water and dry them on medium or high heat- this would maintain the essence of ‘security’ and keep it hygienic. City First got in touch with a few of its readers from Ra-jasthan and Gujarat to know the importance of a face mask and how they can be maintained.

Juhi Tolani from Rajasthan stated, “Wearing a mask sends a visual re-minder to others to maintain distance.

It will eventually help us pre-vent spreading the virus to oth-ers during the period when we might not yet be aware that we have an infection. It is extreme-ly necessary to wash it regu-larly for good hygiene. A mask, along with frequent handwash-ing and physical distancing measures, like staying at least 6 feet apart, reduces that risk.

“Cloth face coverings should fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face. Be secured with ties or ear loops. Make sure to include multiple

layers of fabric. It is very es-sential to keep chang-

ing your mask every day. Washing it regu-

larly is the safest thing for your

safety, but for others also. It must be sani-tized after eve-ry use too,” said Dhaval Raj Singh C h a u h a n f r o m Gujarat.

AHMEDABAD, SUNDAYAUGUST 9, 2020

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 09

MASK-ERA THE

Face masks have become the most essential part of our lives; City First brings you a few tips to maintain the washable masks which are most popular now, so

that they last for a longer period of time!

WNEHAL NAYARnehal.nayar@firstindia.co.in

CANCER JUNE 22 - JULY 23

Your wheels will start to turn as you start refl ecting on the ways you’re relating to others and collaborating with colleagues. You might realize that working with different groups or making new friendships would be more fulfi lling. No need to make your moves just yet. This is simply a key time for refl ection. And on August 16, when the confi dent sun is in your second house of income you could be called on to step into the spotlight on the job. You’ll be fi red up and ready to make an impression on higher-ups.

CAPRICORNDEC 23 - JAN 20

You might fi nd the time is right to buckle down and have a deep, meaningful heart-to-heart with someone special or carve out time to be there for a loved one in need on August 12 . You can bring your wisdom and knowledge from the past to the table and fi nd an emotionally gratifying way forward for everyone involved. You might want to rethink how you’re expressing yourself creatively. If carving out more time to play and have fun in your work

and your life feels necessary, you might want to switch up your priorities.

10ETC

AHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

SARA ALI KHAN’S BIRTHDAY FALLS ON 12 AUGUST.IT WILL BE A GOOD YEAR FOR GROUP CONNECTIONS OR NEW

IDEAS, BELIEFS AND DREAMS FOR HER. SHE WILL HAVE A REAL CHANCE OF BEING WITH–OR MEETING–SOMEONE WITH WHOM

SHE CONNECT ON A SOUL LEVEL. SHE WILL LEARN TO BE PATIENT.

AUGUST 9 TO AUGUST 15

LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

You’ll be feeling centered in your feelings and capable of hashing out any kind of tough situation with loved ones on August 12 . If you’ve been meaning to have what you anticipate to be a challenging heart-to-heart, this could be a benefi cial day to initiate that conversation. By putting it a little extra work and tender care, you could reach a healing resolution. If a particular brand doesn’t feel necessarily reciprocal, it could be time to reassess whether it’s worth your investment of time and energy.

SCORPIOOCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

You could be compelled to refl ect on relationships that are no longer serving you and fulfi lling you emotionally. If you feel limited and repressed in any way, it might be time to walk away. You can tackle everyday to-dos while vying for a promotion, more responsibility, or another type of career advancement on August 16. That’s thanks to go-getter Mars, your co-ruling planet. Your confi dence and get-up-and-go energy are on another level, and colleagues and higher-ups are sure to be impressed and eager to work with you.

SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22

You could be aggravated if it feels like your plays for joy and creativity are quashed by the powers that be on August 13. If you’ve been gunning to take the reins on a creative project or feeling like your artistic impulses have been repressed, you might feel like acting out in defense of your needs. This moment could be a test, nudging you to fi gure out how you can achieve your goals in a more measured way. You might feel like your voice and efforts to make it heard are fi nally being recognized and rewarded.

TAURUSAPR 21 - MAY 20

You’ll want to put your nose to the grindstone to explore and broaden your horizons in a way that expands your mind and sets the stage for career advancement on August 12 when the emotional moon in your sign forms a harmonizing trine for higher learning and adventure. Consider taking a new online course or revisit old courses of study that you enjoyed tremendously. If it’s time to shift your personal goals in a whole new direction, this period is ripe for mulling over what that might look like and action steps to take in the future.

ARIESMAR 21 - APR 20

On August 10, communicator Mercury in your fi fth house of self-expression and fun forms a tense square to game-changer Uranus in your second house of income, and it might be tough to focus on work when you want to get out and enjoy time with loved ones, friends, or a signifi cant other. You’re extra-excitable and want to take life by the horns. The emotional moon gives you an extra burst of patience and stick-to-activeness to complete tasks that would otherwise frustrate you. You could come so centered that others gravitate to you for advice, and higher-ups applaud your strength and clear judgment.

GEMINI MAY 21 - JUNE 21

Doing some soul searching about how you might want to switch gears with how you’re healing old wounds from August 15 to January 14. You might fi nd that it’s easier to fi nd a sense of calm mentally and can turn your focus to deep-rooted goals for spiritual growth. Working with friends or associates comes naturally on August 16. You’ll be a shining, beaming, self-assured star who everyone wants to learn and discuss particulars with. Head up brainstorms and take calculated risks. As long as you have the facts at hand, you’ll be right on track.

VIRGO AUG 24 - SEP 23

You might want to reassess how you’re fi nding opportunities to continually learn and foster personal growth from August 15 to January 14. Meditating on this could lead you down a new path that allows you to switch up your perspective on the world. You’ll also do well to be open to ideas from other people and sources than you usually rely on. You might be

feeling especially self-assured in your deepest, most burning desires and

emotions. Figuring out what you want and how you want to express that to

your lover or someone special can be downright enlivening.

LEOJULY 24 -

AUGUST 23

You might feel fired up about a work project but also somewhat

wired and overly excitable on August 10. It wouldn’t be

surprising if you struggle to figure out exactly what you want to say,

as this nervous tension is rushing through your veins, making it

hard to concentrate. If you feel like you’re getting unnecessarily worked up, make sure to take

a step back from the task at hand and take a moment to breathe. Taking action comes even more organically than usual, as does speaking your mind and taking the initiative on any mental, intellectual work.

PISCES FEB20 - MARCH 20

Your sensitivity and work ethic make you the perfect referee for any

confl icts that might be happening with colleagues or friends... And

then, it could feel easier than usual to fi nd small, effective ways to be

even more productive, balance your home and work, and pursue your

most winning moneymaking ideas on August 16 when the confi dent sun

in your sixth house of daily routine forms a positive trine to go-getter Mars

in your second house of income. You’ll be fi red up and motivated, while also feeling mentally sharp and compelled to

discuss your exciting game plans. Go for it!

AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 19

You might be in the beginning stages of changing your perspective on how you’re relating to family and

what constitutes a home. If you’re feeling like major changes are afoot, take a deep breath and dive into a journaling exercise or therapy session. Allowing

yourself to explore your options without the pressure of having to make a shift right now can be freeing. Connecting with a colleague, close friend, or signifi cant other on a major joint project can happen easily and make for a particularly productive moment.

refl ecting on the ways you’re relating to others and collaborating with colleagues. You might realize that working with different groups or making new friendships would be more fulfi lling. No need to make your moves just yet. This is simply a key time for refl ection. And on August 16, when the confi dent sun is in your second house of income you could be called on to step into the spotlight on the job. You’ll be fi red up and ready to make an

You might fi nd the time is right to buckle down and have a deep, meaningful heart-to-heart with someone special or carve out time to be there for a loved one in need on August 12 . You can bring your wisdom and knowledge from the past to the table and fi nd an emotionally gratifying way forward for everyone involved. You might want to rethink how you’re expressing yourself creatively. If carving out more time to play and have fun in your work

and your life feels necessary, you might want to switch up your priorities.

colleagues and higher-ups are sure to be impressed and eager to work with you.

You could be aggravated if it feels like your plays for joy and creativity are quashed by the powers that be on August 13. If you’ve been gunning to take the reins on a creative project or feeling like your artistic impulses have been repressed, you might feel like acting out in defense of your needs. This moment could be a test, nudging you to fi gure out how you can achieve your goals in a more measured way. You might feel like your voice and efforts to make it heard are fi nally being recognized and rewarded.

is ripe for mulling over what that might look like and

Doing some soul searching about how you might want to switch gears with how you’re healing old wounds from August 15 to January 14. You might fi nd that it’s easier to fi nd a sense of calm mentally and can turn your focus to deep-rooted goals for spiritual growth. Working with friends or associates comes naturally on August 16. You’ll be a shining, beaming, self-assured star who everyone wants to learn and discuss particulars with. Head up brainstorms and take calculated risks. As long as you have the facts at hand, you’ll be right on track.

feeling especially self-assured in your deepest, most burning desires and

emotions. Figuring out what you want and how you want to express that to

your lover or someone special can be

You might feel fired up about a

on August 16 when the confi dent sun in your sixth house of daily routine

forms a positive trine to go-getter Mars in your second house of income. You’ll be fi red up and motivated, while also feeling mentally sharp and compelled to

discuss your exciting game plans. Go for it!

WEEKLYHOROSCOPE

CORONA NEGATIVEI

t’s been almost a month since Abhishek Bachchan was diag-nosed with COVID 19 along with his father Amitabh Bach-

chan. Soon after the diagnosis, the father-son duo was admitted

to Nanavati hospital in Mum-bai. While Amitabh has

been discharged a couple of days ago, all eyes were on Abhishek who contin-ues to be in the hospital battling the deadly vi-rus. But now the Bach-chan and Abhishek’s massive fan following can finally take a sigh of relief as the Man-marizyan actor has been tested negative for COVID 19.

Junior Bachchan shared the happy

news on Instagram as he revealed that he will be discharged soon from the hospital. Abhishek also expressed his excitement about being able to go home. Furthermore, the Guru star expressed his gratitude towards fans and the doctors helping him beat the highly transmissible virus. —Agency

Jake Paul‘s home in the Calabasas neigh-borhood of Califor-nia is currently be-

ing searched by the FBI and they have issued a warrant to do so. The 23-year-old YouTuber’s home is in the middle of

the search though it is unclear why authori-

ties are searching his property at this time. It is reported

that Paul was not home during this morn-ing’s FBI search.

This is not the first time Jake has found

himself in hot water. Most recently, he defended

himself for partying amid the Coronavirus pandemic. He

denied being part of the looting that was occurring earlier during the pandemic.

Post the search, Jake‘s attorney, Richard Schonfeld said: “We under-

stand that a search warrant was executed at Jake‘s Calabasas home on Friday morning while Jake was out-of-state.” —Agency

ETCwww.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia AHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020

11

ella Hadid took to Instagram yesterday to express her dis-pleasure with the New York Police Department for not wearing masks. The supermod-el appeared to be enjoying some fresh air in the Big Apple when she came across some

members of the New York Po-lice Department. When Bella noticed that they weren’t wear-ing masks or face coverings, the 23-year-old decided to docu-ment the moment on Insta-gram Stories. “U guys look goofy,” she wrote on one slide

while sharing a photo of three officers.

Soon after, Bella captured more officers meeting outside without proper face coverings. “Hi @NYPD masks are for all of our safety, not just urs….:),” she wrote in her post. —Agency

Bella Slams NYPDB

South star Rana Daggu-bati tied the knot with la-

dylove Miheeka Ba-jaj on August 8. While wishes have been pouring in for the couple from across the world, Akshay Kumar also wished his Baby co-star Rana ahead of his big day. Kh-iladi Kumar took to social media to share beautiful photos of Rana and Miheeka and penned a sweet wish for the couple. Rana and Miheeka have been sharing photos from their pre-wedding ceremonies and this morning too, the Baahubali star shared a stunning click from a function ahead of the wedding.

Akshay and Rana have worked together in two films including Baby and Housefull 4. On Rana’s big day, Akshay did not forget to wish the Baahubali star. Rana and Miheeka’s wed-ding ceremony took place on Saturday evening. The couple has invited only close family and friends amid the COVID 19 crisis. —Agency

WEDDING BELLS FOR RANA

outh star Rana Daggu-

2 YEARS AND IT GROWS!

Next month, Justin Bieber and Hailey Bald-win will be celebrating their second wed-ding anniversary. You would assume by now that the honeymoon phase must have

been long over but for these lovebirds, the quaran-tine period has gotten them much closer than ever before. From spending quality time at home to eventually going on road trips and catching up with their famous friends, thanks to Instagram, fans of the pair have gotten an inside look at what they’ve been up to these past few months.

During a virtual panel session, the couple spoke candidly about their quarantine period. “Well, we didn’t make any babies, so that’s that,” Baldwin quipped, talking about the various celebrity cou-ples who have either welcomed or will welcome a baby into the world while on quarantine mode. “We’re still pretty newly married. I mean, we’ll cel-ebrate two years in September. We’ve just been en-joying our time together and getting to know each other deeper. We’ve been road tripping... just stay-ing social distancing,” Bieber added. —Agency

Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday will come together on the screen for the

first time in Ali Abbas Zafar’s Khaali Peeli and while before the pandemic, the two were shooting in Mumbai for the film, however, the film’s shooting was stalled. Now while shootings are resuming with Akshay Kumar re-cently jetting off to the UK to shoot for Bell Bottom, and on Saturday, it is being reported that Anan-ya and Ishaan will soon start shooting for Khaali Peeli. That’s right!

As per reports, while the patchwork of the Ali Abbas Za-far production will be done in Mumbai by the month-end, it is being said that the makers are eyeing Au-gust 20 to commence the shoot of the film. The director Maqbool Khan wants to film the remaining por-tions by August 20, 2020, and for the remaining shoot, re-ports suggest that the makers are look-ing for an indoor stu-dio for a two-day shoot. The film might witness an OTT re-lease, and when producer Ali Abbas Zafar was asked about the same, he had said that right now, they are fo-cused on completing the film and after that, “it will be wait-and-watch.” —Agency

KHAALI PEELIAB CHALI

FBI RAID

Bella Hadid

Ananya Pandey Jake Paul

Justin and Hailey Bieber

Abhishek Bachchan

...her post

12CITY BUZZ

AHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

VRTIKA JAINTV ARTISTE & YOUTUBER

Indori Style Bhutte Ka Kees

n Milk - 1 Cup

n Grated Fresh Coconut- 4tsp

n Desi Ghee- 2Tbsp

n Coriander - 1/4th Bowl

n Chopped Green Chilli - 2 TSP

n Grated Ginger - 1 TSP

n Hing - a pinch

n Cumin seeds -1/2 TSP

n Half Teaspoon Mustard seeds

n Half Teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

n 1/4 TSP red chilli powder.

n 1 TSP sugar

n Salt - according to taste.

n 4 Corn very fresh and soft

n Grate the corn, by slightly rotating it. ( Or use sweet corn kernels)

n Turn on the flame and heat the pan, add clarified butter (ghee ), or oil to the pan.

n Add asafoetida (hing pow-der ), cumin seeds, and mustard seeds.

n Add ginger paste, green chilly, turmeric powder, and grated corn paste.

n Stir fry all the ingredients

properly, until the colour changes slightly.. almost for 5 mins.

n Now add red chilli powder, milk, sugar.

n When the mixture starts boiling, close it with a lid and simmer it for 5-6 mins. add salt and mix it.

n In the end, add saltn Every 2 mins, stir it.n Add lemon juice, garnish

with fresh coriander and grated fresh coconut.

Enjoy this hot bhutta kees in this rainy season. (Use non-stick pan)

PROCEDURE

EVENTS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

WE WILL MISS YOU!

Jagdeesh Chandra with Dr Ranju Ramavat, Member AICC at his residence on Saturday evening during a courtesy meet.

COURTESY MEET!

CITY FIRST

Indian-Americans have welcomed India’s decision to restore the Overseas Citizens of India card ben-

efits, including the visa free travel to the country, which were suspended win view of the coronavirus pandemic. The OCI card, which allows lifelong visa free travel to In-dia with certain limitations to people of Indian-origin, was suspended by the Indian government on April 11 amidst a nationwide lock-down and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 out-break. The sudden deci-sion had created chaos and anxiety among the hundreds and thou-sands of Indian-origin people. A large number of them had taken to the social media platforms like Twitter to vent out their anger. The travel restrictions on those having OCI cards were subse-quently relaxed, which so far have been mainly in the emergency categories, those travelling for work or minors with OCI card holders whose parents are Indian citizens.

On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs notified to re-store the full travel privileges for OCI card holders for hav-ing passports of the US, the UK, Germany and France. India has created an air bub-ble (bilateral air travel ar-rangements) with all these countries. “We welcome the decision of the Indian gov-

ernment on the OCI card holders from the US, the UK, Germany and France. This

was long due. This deci-sion and creation of an air bubble with these countries would end unnecessary harass-

ment of thousands of Indian-origin people from these countries,” social activ-ist Prem Bhandari said.

Bhandari, who has been taking up the cause of OCI card holders for the years, said that abruptly banning OCI card holders, even due to a pandemic, resulted in a lot of heartburn among the Indi-an-origin people.

Over the past few months, Bhandari, who heads Jaipur Foot USA, has been leading efforts on behalf of the Indi-an-American OCI card hold-ers to lift travel restrictions. Bhandari conveyed his heart-felt gratitude to Foreign Sec-retary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla.

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Great news for OCI CARD HOLDERS!

CITY FIRST, GUJARAT

Well, the entire paint-ing work started because due to monsoon the walls

in the living room got damped and little paint particles start-ed to come out. This soon turned out to be a nightmare for her dad, brother, and her-self as her mom kept nagging about it. She was worried that soon the entire house wall will get consumed by the damp-ness. And with this co-rona times getting the entire 3 BHK home painted sounded like a big budget problem to her dad. Finally, Pooja Parekh and his brother Abhishek Parekh decided to take things in their hands and they went to buy damp controller, primer, and paint. They saw it in movies, many times how people

abroad paint their homes, of-fices and they knew other

people can, they too can paint it. Pooja says, it was definitely a tough job for beginners like us

but once we started, it turned out to be a lot more fun. In this corona time, our silver lining and the happy face of our mom is what we will cherish. She expressed, “now, that is Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Lockdown story of a “Wall”

CITY FIRST

he widespread adoption of tech-nology has seen changes in the beauty sector as well. This digiti-sation is not only

in terms of product inno-vation but can also be seen in technological processes that have helped attract and retain customers. Many online beauty retail-ers have taken the lead by disrupting traditional business models with ad-vanced technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This includes fea-tures like virtual try-on, skin analysis, digital cata-logues, chatbots, and much more. Jaipur’s Riti-ka Sharma, CEO of House of Beauty, currently Bos-ton based in the US, has recently launched a new e-commerce platform, Boddess.com. In an exclu-sive conversation with City First, Ritika Sharma shed light on how ad-vanced technologies like AR and AI are bringing about a wave of digital transformation in the beauty industry and en-hancing the modern con-sumers’ beauty purchas-es.

While talking about the impact of AI/AR technologies on the cos-metics industry, Ritika said, “The opportuni-ties for technology in beauty are abun-dant in the future. From Virtual try on, digital cata-logues, 3D printed to make up tools, custom-

ized beauty products to 3D face masks and voice-

based technology are all in the pipeline across the beauty sector.”

On the technolo-gies of Boddess.com,

she said, “The ‘Boddess Virtual Pro’ was designed

to help customers try on products when shopping online. Our in-house AR and Virtual Reality (VR)‘Skin Diagnostic and Make-Up Try-on Tool ’is an advanced and trust-worthy tool that lets cus-tomers analyze their skin, and find products that

suit them while trying them on digitally. Apart from this, ‘Boddess Edit’ is an exclusive platform that offers access to celeb-rity makeup, hair and skin experts for custom-ers to engage with and learn more about new sk-incare recipes and tips.”

“We are now meeting our customers where they are, with our ‘Bod-dess Beauty Mobile App’. In addition to being a one-stop-shop for all your on-line shopping needs, the app also utilizes the latest in cutting edge machine learning and AR/VR technologies to provide a personalized experience to each user. Boddess AR/VR works easily on a phone because of the phone’s camera quality and configuration, mak-ing it more accessible to all users,” Ritika shared while talking about con-sumer needs.

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

T

Rohit Shah, 46 years old, the husband of Manjula Shah of First India News, passed away on Friday evening. The cremation was held on Saturday morning. Jagdeesh Chandra consoled the family members in this hour of grief. By profession, Rohit was a cameraperson who had worked in ETV, HBC, and First India news, a creative and talented man he used to shoot Rajasthani films and music videos. Rohit Shah is survived by his wife Manjula, son Divyansh, parents MK Shah and Radha Shah, and mother-in-law Saroj Devi. His brother in law Dinesh Nama and the entire Gotharwal family is grief-stricken. His brother Amit Shah and wife Nisha along with sisters and brothers-in-law, Shital-Rohin, Purnima-Ankit, and Ruchi-Rakesh said that the light has gone with the passing away of Rohit at such a young age.

The oldest organisation of India, Pracheen Kala Kendra which is promoting Art and Culture since 1956 have started an online meeting (Bhaitak) for promoting classical art during this pandemic situation. In the 10th episode of the ongoing web bhaitak, Pt. Girindra Talegaonka performed various vocal recitals. The session was live on the Facebook page of Pracheen Kala Kendra.

RAJASTHAN: PCC General Secretary and RCA President Vaibhav Gehlot congratulated RCA Vice President Amin Pathan on his 24th wedding anniversary on Friday. Secretary Mahendra Sharma; Joint Secretary Mahendra Nahar and Executive Member Devaram Chaudhary also joined in the celebration.

DIGITISING THE BEAUTY BUSINESS

Ritika Sharma

Prem Bhandari

Pooja Parekh

Rohit Shah

(From left) IAS Ram Prakash, IAS Bhanwar Lal Mehra and IPS Arshad Ali celebrated their birthdays on 8 August, Saturday. We wish them all the best!