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A group of protesters on Saturday entered the pri- vate residence of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and set it on fire amid a massive public protest in the country over the unprecedented economic crisis. The incident came hours after Wickremesinghe offered to resign to make way for an all- party Government, as protests intensified in the country for the resignation of the Government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The protestors entered Wickremesinghe's house and set the place on fire after a tense situation erupted between the protestors and security forces on the ground. Despite tear gas being fired on the protestors to disperse, they entered his house and set the house on fire. Earlier in the day, anti- Government protesters entered the Presidential House in Colombo. The President's whereabouts were unknown and it is believed the 73-year-old leader left the house before the massive mob arrived. The Prime Minister's Media Division said that Wickremesinghe will resign after an all-party government is established and the majority is secured in Parliament. His office said that Wickremesinghe, 73, will continue as Prime Minister until then. Wickremesinghe told Opposition party leaders that he was taking the decision to step down as the island-wide fuel dis- tribution is due to recommence this week, the World Food Programme Director is due to visit the country this week and the debt sustainability report for the International Monetary Fund is due to be finalised shortly. So as to ensure the safety of the citizens, Wickremesinghe said he is agreeable to this recom- mendation by the Opposition party leaders. Wickremesinghe later told the media that he pro- posed to the President to estab- lish an all-party Government. He said when the existing Government resigns, a new Government must be formed and it is not wise for the coun- try to go on without a Government. Continued on Page 6 T he Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set up a three-member delimi- tation committee, headed by State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev, for redrawing of boundaries of the municipal wards so as to expedite the process of holding the civic body polls in the national Capital. According to the official order by Joint Secretary Ashutosh Agnihotri, MHA, the commit- tee shall complete the redraw- ing the boundaries of existing wards in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and submit its report within four months from the date of issue of this order. The delim- itation of municipal wards is necessary as per an Act for holding fresh elections. The e xercise will pave the way for the civic polls in Delhi, which would be the first since the reunification of the three cor- porations. "In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 Section 3, 3A and 5 of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957, the Central Government constitutes a committee to assist the Central Government Continued on Page 6 R escue teams led by the Indian Army and sever- al other agencies on Saturday mounted a massive rescue and relief mission to look for survivors in the Amarnath cave shrine area after it was hit by incessant rains in which several tents were washed away on Friday evening. So far 16 dead bodies have been recovered while over 60 people were safely evacuated and currently receiving treat- ment across different hospitals at the base camps along the yatra route and Srinagar. Many people are missing and 15,000 stranded pilgrims, have been shifted to the lower base camp of Panjtarni, the ITBP said. Continued on Page 6 San Francisco: Elon Musk, the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and the world's richest person, said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter because the social media company had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement. Twitter's Chairman, Bret Taylor, said on the micro-blogging platform Continued on Page 6 New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday said the flash flood near the Amarnath shrine's cave on Friday was the result of a highly localised rain event in the upper reaches of the mountains and not a cloudburst. "This cannot be categorised as a cloudburst. A rain event can be categorised as a cloudburst only if a weather station receives 100 mm of rain in an hour," the IMD said. Continued on Page 6 S amajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Sadhana Gupta passed away at a private hospital in Gurugram on Saturday after a prolonged illness. She was suffering from lung infection and other ail- ments for the past three months. She was undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital, where she breathed her last on Saturday morning, SP sources in Lucknow said. Samajwadi Party in a tweet informed that Sadhana Gupta was the second wife of Mulayam Singh Yadav. His first wife and the mother of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Malti Devi, died in 2003. In a tweet in Hindi, the Samajwadi Party paid a "heart- felt tribute" to Sadhana Gupta. Mulayam Singh Yadav was Continued on Page 6 The Pioneer wishes its read- ers and patron Eid Mubarak. The Press and offices of The Pioneer will remain closed on Sunday, July 10, 2022 on account of Eid-ul- Azha. The next edition of the newspaper will appear on July 12, 2022.

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Agroup of protesters onSaturday entered the pri-vate residence of Sri

Lankan Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe and set it onfire amid a massive publicprotest in the country over theunprecedented economic crisis.The incident came hours afterWickremesinghe offered toresign to make way for an all-party Government, as protestsintensified in the country for theresignation of the Governmentled by President GotabayaRajapaksa.

The protestors enteredWickremesinghe's house andset the place on fire after a tensesituation erupted between theprotestors and security forces onthe ground. Despite tear gasbeing fired on the protestors todisperse, they entered his houseand set the house on fire.

Earlier in the day, anti-Government protesters enteredthe Presidential House inColombo. The President'swhereabouts were unknownand it is believed the 73-year-oldleader left the house before themassive mob arrived.

The Prime Minister's Media

Division said thatWickremesinghe will resignafter an all-party government isestablished and the majority issecured in Parliament. His officesaid that Wickremesinghe, 73,will continue as Prime Ministeruntil then. Wickremesinghe toldOpposition party leaders that hewas taking the decision to stepdown as the island-wide fuel dis-tribution is due to recommencethis week, the World FoodProgramme Director is due tovisit the country this week andthe debt sustainability report forthe International Monetary

Fund is due to be finalisedshortly.

So as to ensure the safety of thecitizens, Wickremesinghe saidhe is agreeable to this recom-mendation by the Oppositionparty leaders. Wickremesinghelater told the media that he pro-posed to the President to estab-lish an all-party Government.

He said when the existingGovernment resigns, a newGovernment must be formedand it is not wise for the coun-try to go on without aGovernment.

Continued on Page 6

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The Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) has set upa three-member delimi-

tation committee, headed byState Election CommissionerVijay Dev, for redrawing ofboundaries of the municipal

wards so as to expedite theprocess of holding the civicbody polls in the nationalCapital.

According to the official orderby Joint Secretary AshutoshAgnihotri, MHA, the commit-tee shall complete the redraw-ing the boundaries of existingwards in the MunicipalCorporation of Delhi (MCD)and submit its report withinfour months from the date ofissue of this order. The delim-itation of municipal wards is

necessary as per an Act forholding fresh elections. The exercise will pave the way forthe civic polls in Delhi, whichwould be the first since thereunification of the three cor-porations.

"In exercise of the powersconferred by Section 3 Section3, 3A and 5 of Delhi MunicipalCorporation Act 1957, the

Central Governmentconstitutes a committee toassist the Central Government

Continued on Page 6

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Rescue teams led by theIndian Army and sever-al other agencies on

Saturday mounted a massiverescue and relief mission tolook for survivors in theAmarnath cave shrine areaafter it was hit by incessantrains in which several tentswere washed away on Fridayevening.

So far 16 dead bodies havebeen recovered while over 60people were safely evacuatedand currently receiving treat-ment across different hospitalsat the base camps along theyatra route and Srinagar. Manypeople are missing and 15,000stranded pilgrims, have beenshifted to the lower base campof Panjtarni, the ITBP said.

Continued on Page 6

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������������ ������ � ��������New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) onSaturday said the flash flood near the Amarnath shrine's cave onFriday was the result of a highly localised rain event in the upperreaches of the mountains and not a cloudburst. "This cannot becategorised as a cloudburst. A rain event can be categorised as acloudburst only if a weather station receives 100 mm of rain in anhour," the IMD said. Continued on Page 6

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Samajwadi Party founderMulayam Singh Yadav's wife

Sadhana Gupta passed away ata private hospital in Gurugramon Saturday after a prolongedillness.

She was suffering fromlung infection and other ail-ments for the past threemonths. She was undergoingtreatment at Medanta Hospital,where she breathed her last onSaturday morning, SP sourcesin Lucknow said.

Samajwadi Party in a tweetinformed that Sadhana Guptawas the second wife ofMulayam Singh Yadav. Hisfirst wife and the mother of SPchief Akhilesh Yadav, MaltiDevi, died in 2003.

In a tweet in Hindi, theSamajwadi Party paid a "heart-felt tribute" to Sadhana Gupta.

Mulayam Singh Yadav wasContinued on Page 6

��� �����The Pioneer wishes its read-ers and patron Eid Mubarak.

The Press and offices ofThe Pioneer will remainclosed on Sunday, July 10,2022 on account of Eid-ul-Azha. The next edition of thenewspaper will appear onJuly 12, 2022.

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I have changed my name fromPritpal Singh Bagga to PritpalSingh. Pritpal Singh S/o DalipSingh R/o 118/345,Kaushalpuri, Kanpur

NOTICE

I have changed my name fromDevendra Mishra to DevendraKumar Mishra. DevendraKumar Mishra S/o JamunaPrasad Mishra R/o 118/348,Kaushalpuri, Kanpur

NOTICE

I lost my property allotment let-ter of PLOT No. 4/892Gomtinagar extention C-type2152 sft,while going from homeSulabh Awas sector 1 to LDAoffice Gomtinagar, kindly informme if found. Ramesh ChandraSrivastava Sulabh Awas sector1, Gomti Nagar Vistar Lucknow

NOTICE

I, Mumtaz Bagam, D.O.B.14.4.1971 D/o Late MushtaqAhamad R/o 467/74, First Floor,Sheeshmahal, Husainabad,Lko. verifies that FarzanaHaider is my home name andfamily member and relativerecognise me by both name.

NOTICE

AUCTION NOTICE

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Notify that my fatherQammaruzzama S/oMohammad Kalim Ansaarihave changed his name fromQammaruzzama toQammaruzzama Ansari for allpurposes. Mohammad HamidS/o Qammaruzzama Ansari644/2160 Barora HusainbariBalaganj, Lucknow.

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Notify that I have changed myname from Amir to AamirSuhail for all purposes. AamirSuhail S/o Naushad Ahmad462/234 Shivali Nagar, GaliNo.3 Ramganj, Husainabad,Lucknow.

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In school records of my sonSwastik Shukla, his date ofbirth written as 12-3-2008whereas his correct date ofbirth is 11-7-2008. Please cor-rect Accordingly. VimleshKumar Shukla E6-211/1Amrapali Scheme, Avas VikasDubagga, Lucknow.

NOTICE

In my military records, my sonUdit Raj's date of birth hasbeen wrongly entered as 09-10-2009, whereas the actualdate of birth is 09-10-2010,which is correct. Name - IshuNarayan Village - Khuntajhal,Post - Sultangarh, District -Fatehpur Ex - ServicemenNo.-14436384 P RANK RECT

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I Service No- 15143154 F,Rank BHM Pradeep Kumar S/oNilendar Kumar, C/o 56 APONew Cantt, Allahabad, herebydeclare that in my servicerecords my wife's name wrong-ly mentioned as ANAMIKAwhile her correct name isANAMIKA KUMARI for allwork, read and written in future.

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I have changed my name fromNazia Nadim to Najia FatimaW/o Mohd Shahid R/o Flat No204 2nd Floor Chandra NagarLal Bangla Kanpur Nagar for allfuture purpose.

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I have changed my name fromIrphan Ahmed to Irfan AhmedS/o Haji Abdul Wahid R/oB-124 world Bank ColonyAhmad Nagar Jajmau KanpurNagar for all future purpose.

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I Service No- JC 286716 KRank Sub. name SIVADOSSKARUTHAIAH R/o- 6/191C,Mancholai Colony,Dhalavoipuram, Virudhunagar,Tamilnadu, hereby declare thatin my service records my wifeARUNADEVI S. DOB wronglymentioned as 11.09.1979,while her correct DOB is07.05.1979 for all work, readand written in future.

NOTICE

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Political challenges are mountingfor Samajwadi Party chief

Akhilesh Yadav following the crush-ing defeat of his party candidates inthe by-polls to Azamgarh andRampur parliamentary constituen-cies followed by the loss of the postof leader of opposition in UPLegislative Council.

The dissension in the SP-ledalliance which saw Suheldev BhartiyaSamaj Party (SBSP) almost movingout of the group ahead of the pres-idential election seems to have fur-ther aggravated the situation forAkhilesh Yadav.

The Samajwadi Party failed toretain the leader of opposition postin the UP Legislative Council afterits tally dropped to less than 10 percent of the strength of the upperHouse.

The party has been steadily los-ing ground to the Bharatiya JanataParty in Uttar Pradesh since the 2014general election. It has lost three elec-tions since then -- assembly polls in2017 and 2022 and the 2019 gener-al election. The SP had managed tocreate the perception that it hademerged as the clear challenger to theruling party in a bi-polar contest in2022, but it was left far behind themagic number.

Earlier this month, the SP dis-solved its national, state and districtexecutive bodies, and various frontalorganisations. The shock defeats toBJP candidates in its strongholds,Rampur and Azamgarh, in the recentLok Sabha bypolls may have forcedthe party's hand: The SP lost theRampur Lok Sabha seat in a straightcontest while the BJP benefited

from a multi-cornered contest inAzamgarh, a seat won by AkhileshYadav in 2019.

Political analysts feel that the cri-sis in the SP goes well beyondorganisational issues and it needs to

be addressed more fundamentally. "The party has found it difficult

to shake off its political opponents'

attack particularly on two counts --one, patronising candidates withcriminal records and, two, leaning ontwo communities, Yadavs andMuslims, and one family, theMulayam Singh Yadav parivar," saidone analyst.

Moreover, the analyst said, evenafter over two decades of experiencein electoral politics and over fiveyears after taking over as theparty president, Akhilesh Yadav is yetto learn the art of electoral politicsof firing the imagination of thepeople and giving a distinct politi-cal identity to his politics and hisparty.

"The Samajwadi Party, under theleadership of Akhilesh Yadav, hasfailed to retain the best traditions ofthe old SP. Mulayam Singh Yadavwas trained in the Lohia school ofagitational politics and workedhis way up while Akhilesh wasdirectly anointed as heir to highoffice and the party," the analystsaid.

SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar,after the Samajwadi Party's defeat inAzamgarh and Rampur, had sarcas-tically commented that "AkhileshYadav should come out of the com-fortable environs of air-conditionedroom and hit the ground," HoweverAkhilesh Yadav, instead of hitting thestreets, hit back at Om PrakashRajbhar by not inviting the SBSPchief for the dinner hosted thisweek in the honour of oppositionpresidential candidate YashwantSinha.

"The SP has raced ahead of allopposition parties in UP, but it willrequire more than cosmetic organ-isational changes to catch up with theBJP," the analyst said.

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Emphasising on preventionbefore treatment, the Uttar

Pradesh government has speededup an awareness drive about theimportance of cleanliness, sanita-tion, and of nutritional food to pre-vent the health challenges causeddue to water-borne diseases andother seasonal vagaries.

The Yogi government hasdirected the officials to ensure reg-ular sanitation and fogging drivesto protect the state from vector-borne diseases such as dengue,malaria, chikungunya and others.

Scaling up preventive mea-sures against water-borne andvector-borne diseases arising outof seasonal vagaries, the healthworkers have been instructed topay door-to-door visits to identi-fy patients with viral fever, vector-borne diseases and those havingother symptoms.

The public has also beenadvised to take all the necessaryprecautions to check the breedingof mosquitoes in and around theirhouses.

Apart from this, in pursuanceof the government's orders, theavailability of pure drinking wateris also being ensured in the affect-ed areas.

The Yogi government, earlier,had stated, "The cooperation oforganisations like the WHO,UNICEF and PATH should betaken in the mission. We have two

successful models of encephalitiscontrol and COVID-19 manage-ment in front of us, which will beuseful for us in the communicabledisease campaign."

Being extra vigilant and care-ful, the government has set upencephalitis care centres at blocklevels, equipped with PICU beds,and trained medical personnel.

"Trained doctors, paramedicalstaff, staff nurses and AES havealso been appointed in the dis-tricts. The number of techniciansin the laboratories is adequate andall are well trained," a governmentspokesman said.

The state government hasestablished inter-departmentalcoordination to ensure all neces-sary arrangements with Medicaland Health, Rural Development,Urban Development, Women andChild Development, Agricultureand Basic and SecondaryEducation departments.

ASHA and Anganwadi work-ers have also been paying door-to-door visits to detect ailing patients.Arrangements have also beenmade for additional beds, doctors,paramedical staff, medicines, andother equipment in hospitals.

According to the Health offi-cials, the government's specialcleanliness campaign to curbthe spread of communicable andvector-borne diseases in thestate has played a major role inbringing down the transmissionlevels.

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Discussions have intensifiedover the selection of the new

state president of the BharatiyaJanata Party as sources claim thatUP's next BJP state chief might befrom Other Backward Class orBrahmin community.

"The name has been finalisedand in all likelihood it will beannounced after the presidentialelection," a senior leader told thisreporter on Saturday.

Ever since Dr Dinesh Sharma

left his position as the leader of theUP Legislative Council, his nameis doing the rounds as next BJPstate president. Apart from him,there are rumours that ShrikantSharma and two other MPs, allBrahmins, could be appointed asnext BJP state president.

At the same time, the possibil-ity of someone from west UPbecoming the president was alsovery high, a senior party leadersaid.

He said names like those ofminister Bhupendra Chaudhary,

Union Minister of State SanjeevBalyan, Union Minister of State BLVerma, and Satish Gautam werealso doing the rounds.

The post of BJP state presidentfell vacant after the present incum-bent Swatantra Dev Singh, who isalso an MLC, became a minister inthe Yogi government.

The selection of the new can-didate for BJP state president'spost is being made keeping an eyeon the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The BJP's performance in 2014,2017, 2019 and 2022 elections in

UP has been spectacular. "The leadership wants to give

reins of the party to such a personwho can perform better in the 2024Lok Sabha elections," the leadersaid.

He said the party was lookingfor a face who would excel in tak-ing the policies of the party to theground level and had good rapportwith the party workers.

"Caste is also a consideration.Everyone is waiting for the newname which will be announcedsoon," he said.

Lucknow (PNS): Adoptingan innovative way to stage aprotest against inflation, AamAadmi Party workers and lead-ers lit a hearth at the road nearSwasthya Bhawan in the city onSaturday and raised anti-gov-ernment slogans.

During the protest, AAPworkers and leaders scuffledand the police as the copstried to disperse the protesters.

The AAP alleged that thepolice misbehaved with partyleader Neelam Yadav andVinay Patel. AAP leader SanjaySingh criticised the stategovernment and the police formisbehaving with NeelamYadav and Patel.

The police detained bothNeelam Yadav and Vinay Pateland other AAP workers at theEco Garden.

Lucknow (PNS): Six persons werekilled and two critically injured when aspeeding pickup truck ran over a group ofpeople sleeping at the roadside outsidetheir houses in Roli Kallyanpur village ofChitrakoot district early Saturday morn-ing.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath hasexpressed condolences to the bereavedfamilies and announced ex gratia of Rs 2lakh each to the kin of the deceased andRs 50,000 for the injured. He has alsoinstructed the local authorities to ensureproper medical care of the injured.

According to police, a few guests had

come to one of the houses of the villageunder Bharatkoop police station to attenda marriage ceremony and were sleeping atthe roadside. Around 6.00 am, a speedingpickup mini truck, being driven by an 18-year-old lad, came from the Banda side andran over the sleeping people before crash-ing into a tree.

While five people died on the spot, thesixth succumbed to his injuries in hospi-tal during treatment.

On getting information about theaccident, Chitrakoot's District MagistrateShubhrant Kumar Shukla andSuperintendent of Police Atul Verma also

visited the spot.The vehicle involved in the accident

was seized and its driver was arrested.The deceased were identified as

Rajendra (31), Somdutt (25), NareshKumar (35), Ramroop (25), Rohit (19) andBhanu (22).

The agitated villagers later staged aprotest on the highway, demanding com-pensation for the families of the victims.

The district magistrate of Chitrakootsaid that apart from compensation, the kinof the victims would also be given bene-fits under various government schemes,including insurance.

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Highlighting the remarkable contribution ofthe Yogi Adityanath government towards

revenue generation and job creation, Stamp andRegistration Minister Ravindra Jaiswal said thatin the financial year 2021-22, Uttar Pradeshrecorded more than 32.3 lakh registrations onPRERNA, the citizen services platform of Stampand Registration department.

"With PRERNA (Property Evaluation andRegistration Application) the department hasseen unparalleled growth in terms of revenue gen-eration and job creations over the years," the min-ister said.

He said in the year 2021 alone, thedepartment had raised over Rs 18,926 crore rev-enue, taking the eMarket value above Rs 2.28 lakhcrore.

"Additionally, the platform has been usedfor the generation of 60 types of deeds, 372self-regulatory organisations (SROs) andgeneration of more than 4.5 lakh marriage cer-tificates.

The platform has also recorded more than1.67 crore document generations, 3.52 lakh dig-ital non-encumbrance certificates (NECs) gen-eration and more than 35 lakh deeds registration,"the minister said.

Among the citizen services, the platformoffers features like online filing of registrationapplication, online deed generation, online cap-turing of photograph and thumb impression,online payment of registration fees, onlineappointment system and SMS online query onregistered deeds, etc.

Some of its services also include marketvalue assistance, computation of stamp duty,registration fees/fines, endorsement and print-ing of photograph and thumb impression, gen-eration of encumbrance certificate, scanning ofregistered documents, and generation of indexregisters.

Some of the other major functions of thePRERNA of Stamp and Registration departmentinclude collection of stamp duty, preservation ofregistered documents, issuance of certifiedcopies of registered documents and valuation ofimmovable properties.

"The department is integrated with multiplegovernment departments including Revenueand civil courts, Nivesh Mitra, land records, nagarnigam/urban local bodies, electricity department,Jal Sansthan, DARPAN, eDistrict and stock hold-ing," he said.

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Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party(Lohia) president and Samajwadi

Party MLA Shivpal Singh Yadavexpressed his frustration with thestyle of function of his nephewAkhilesh Yadav, saying Akhilesh was"immature".

He said Akhilesh Yadav hadinflicted huge damage to theSamajwadi Party.

Shivpal Yadav's remarks againstthe Samajwadi Party chief came aday after the PSPL president attend-ed a dinner hosted by Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath in honour ofNational Democratic Alliance pres-idential candidate DroupadiMurmu.

"I was invited by the chief min-ister on Friday so I attended the din-ner. We met Droupadi Murmu andwe have decided that we will vote forher," Shivpal Yadav said even as hisnephew was supporting the oppo-sition candidate for the presidentialelections, Yashwant Sinha.

The 67-year-old leader also didnot hesitate from taking a fresh digat his nephew. "It seems that becauseof political immaturity, theSamajwadi Party is getting weaker.A lot of people are leaving. If oursuggestions had been heeded, theSamajwadi Party would have beenin a better position," he said.

Shivpal Yadav had contestedthe UP assembly election fromJaswantnagar and won the seatamid assumptions that his differ-ences with Akhilesh Yadav hadbeen settled. The two leaders hadbitter fallout over control of the partybefore the 2017 assembly elections.

Weeks after the 2022 assemblyelection results were declared, theyagain seemed to be at loggerheadswhen it was alleged that ShivpalYadav was not invited to a key partymeeting. In April, Akhilesh wasslammed by his uncle over a remarkabout reported meetings with theBJP leaders.

"It's an irresponsible comment.I contested the election on the sym-bol of the Samajwadi Party. If theythink they need to take a decisionimmediately then they can expel me

from the legislature party," ShivpalYadav had said.

Meanwhile, there has been buzzabout the growing proximitybetween Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and Shivpal Yadav. InMay, the UP chief minister had laud-ed Shivpal Yadav in the UP assem-bly:

"Whenever there was a discus-sion about samajwad (socialism), itwas about Dr Ram Manohar Lohiaor Jayaprakash Narayan. But whenI see writings on Dr Lohia, now I seeShivpal Singh Yadav. People shouldread about Dr Ram Manohar Lohia.Your (Shivpal) style of work givesyou identity. But samajwad hasbeen made a mirage," the chief min-ister had said.

The presidential elections arescheduled for July 18.

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To ensure peaceful celebration of Eid-ul-Azha, the state administration has deployed

152 companies of Provincial ArmedConstabulary and 11 companies of paramilitaryforces across the state. Additional DirectorGeneral of Police (Law and Order) PrashantKumar said that prayers for Bakrid would beoffered at 28,260 mosques and eidgahs. He saidthe deployment of police would remain for threedays across the state and for one more day inMau district where the festival is celebrated forfour days. "Keeping in view the sensitivity of this

festival, meetings of 3,010 peace committeeshave been held at police stations of all districtsof UP. As many as 3,407 meetings have beenheld by the administration with imams and reli-gious leaders. They were apprised of the guide-lines issued by the government on Bakrid. It hasbeen made clear that no sacrifice should bemade in the open space and the banned animalsshould not be sacrificed," Kumar said.

The ADG said that 2,167 places had beenidentified as communally sensitive in the stateas some incidents were reported from there inthe past. He said that 1,539 quick response teams(QRTs) had been deployed on standby for quick

action. The Uttar Pradesh Police headquartersand district social media cell are keeping vigilat social media like Twitter, WhatsApp,Facebook, Instagram to check posts vitiating thecommunal atmosphere.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath will inaugu-

rate Lulu Mall, one of thebiggest international shoppingand leisure destinations inLucknow on Sunday. However,the mall will be opened for thegeneral public at 10 am onMonday.

Addressing mediapersonson Saturday, regional directorof Lulu Group in Uttar PradeshJayakumar Gangadharan, “Weare excited to open the doors ofthe first truly global shoppingand leisure destination inLucknow. This mall will alsohouse our own internationallypopular largest indoor enter-tainment center, Funtura, and‘Lulu Hypermarket’. The pres-ence of some of India’s biggestretail brands combined with a

state-of-the-art food court andengaging entertainment outletswill make the mall a family des-tination for residents ofLucknow and beyond.”

He said this is their fifthproject in India and the first in

north India. He said they areopening the mall in Lucknowbecause they already had busi-ness ventures in the state cap-ital. “We got full support fromthe state government and theadministration,” he said.

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Technology has been mak-ing strides and even Eid-ul-

Azha is not untouched by it.The online sale of goats for sac-rifice has increased this Eid-ul-Azha (Bakrid) which will becelebrated on Sunday.

Arun Kutti, manager ofPashubazar in Lucknow whichsells goals online, said their salehas increased by 35 per cent.

Apart from the conve-nience one faces while order-ing online, the other factorwhich made people opt for wasthe strict directions for goatmarkets. Kutti said they foundcustomers after Covid brokeout and people opted for onlinepurchase of goats.

“They had the customerexperience which they likedand they decided to comeback. Besides, we assure cus-tomers good quality goats as wemake the goats undergo healthcheck-up,” he said.

He added that they haveinstalled cameras on the cagesand live demonstrations can begiven to customers who have achance to select the goats as pertheir choice,” he said.

He added that earlier theyused to send photographs butnow they have also startedvideography. “Amongst the cus-tomers are single women, doc-tors and lawyers. They go foronline purchase because oftheir busy schedule. We haveour own goat farm and the costranges from Rs 7,000 to Rs40,000. We also act as commu-nicators between farmers andcustomers,” he said.

He pointed out that live-stock are largely traded throughphysical haat and mandis inIndia lacking basic infrastruc-ture. “These livestock markets

are largely managed by traders.The markets are characterisedby the dominance of smalltraders and aggregators whocollect the goats from farmersand supply them to big tradersand meat shops. The systemhas worked for centuries andhas its own merits but thechanging the context of tech-nology, production resources,cost of production, and migra-tion, a system change interven-tion needs time,” he said.

He pointed out that in thepresent process of mandi-basedlivestock marketing wherephysical aggregation happens ata point, farmers have to travel3-20 km with their livestock,which requires expenses of Rs100-1,000 for small and largelivestock respectively.

“As farmers normally haveone or two saleable livestock atone point of time, cost per unitgets significant besides indirectcost wage loss or other engage-ments jeopardised. Besides,there is the probability of live-

stock not getting sold and insuch cases, farmers have to bearcost of taking the animals backto village. This also forces thefarmers to sell their livestock atlower rates, especially whencompetition in the market isless. Traders also create a nexusto exploit farmers as traders arefrom the same area and aremore often known to eachother. This happens more insmall mandis where outsidetraders hardly visit,” heexplained.

“The other way out forfarmers is to sell goats to localtraders who transport them insomewhat aggregated form.They keep a small enclosure tokeep such livestock and man-age feed and care and transportin bulk to identified mandis ona particular day. In the process,the traders have a high cost ofacquisition,” he pointed out.

He said 70% of haats areorganised in filthy premisesand there are high chances ofspread of diseases.

�������,�.��*�.��� .���Lucknow (PNS): LucknowUniversity’s MeritoriousStudents’ Council, in collabo-ration with the department ofGround and Garden, con-ducted a training camp onplantation, nursery and bon-sai making. Director of thedepartment of Ground andGarden Prof SN Pandey inter-acted with the students andexplained the importance andunique role of plants in a bal-anced ecosystem and humanlife. The students were givenan idea about identification ofdifferent plants and environ-mental factors of their growthand survival.

He talked about the histo-ry and significance of VanMahotsav and encouraged thestudents to participate in activ-ities that benefit the ecosystem.

���������������������*�������������-Lucknow (PNS): The depart-ment of Psychology, LucknowUniversity, took forward thefourth phase of Mission Shakti,an initiative by the governmentof Uttar Pradesh, by dedicatingan event to it with the theme‘Shades of womanhood: A men-tal health perspective’.

The event was held underthe patronage of LU Vice-Chancellor Prof AK Rai. Thechief guest was Dr MadhurimaLall, who is also the convenor ofthe Mission Shakti programme.Ex-paratrooper and head of anNGO, Preeti M Shah was alsothe chief guest. The highlights ofthe event were splash of colours,open mic and walk of woman-hood. The splash of coloursrequired the participants tomaterialise their message cre-atively on the papers.

Lucknow (PNS): GeneralManager, North EasternRailway (NER), Ashok KumarMishra chaired a review meet-ing at the office of DRM, NER(Lucknow Division), onSaturday. Senior officials,including DRM (NER) MonicaAgnihotri took part in themeeting. The DRM (NER)apprised the GM and otherparticipants of infrastructure,passenger amenities, freightand passenger revenue, under-going projects in the depart-ment and other issues througha powerpoint presentation.

The GM directed the offi-cials concerned to increase theloading in goods sheds,increase operation of cracktrains and increase/upgrade

the facilities being provided totraders dealing goods freight-ing. Asking the officials to givepriority to the safety aspect, theGM stressed on the need to pri-oritise the works related totrack maintenance, rollingstock, signaling and electricity.

He also stressed on theneed to increase the speed oftrains and punctuality. Mishraasked the officials to speed upthe work related to news pro-jects on priority and ensuretimely completion of track-doubling work between Sitapurand Burhwal and laying ofthird line between Burhwaland Gonda train stations. TheGM later met the representa-tives/office-bearers of NERMazdoor Union.

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Aman thrashed his wifeunder the influence of

liquor and later ended his life,possibly in repentance, inMohanlalganj police stationarea on Friday night. As perreports, Bajrang Prasad ofNagram lived with his wifeSunita and their children at hisin-laws’ house in Fatte Kheralocality in Mohanlalganj.

On Friday night, he pickedup a fight with Sunita after hereturned home in a drunkenstate around 8 pm.

Bajrang thrashed his wifein a fit of rage but she did notconfront him and left the roomto save herself. Bajrang left forsome place and returned homelate night. He then hangedhimself from the ceiling.

After a while, Sunita foundBajrang hanging from the ceil-ing with a saree tied around hisneck. As she raised an alarm,neighbours reached the sceneand rushed Bajrang to a hospi-tal where he was pronounced‘brought dead’.

Police said the body hadbeen sent for autopsy andinvestigation was underway.“Bajrang, who was a labourer,was in a habit of consumingliquor for the past few years. Heand wife and children hadbeen living his in-laws’ housefor last six years,” the policesaid. They suspected thatBajrang ended his life in remorse.

Meanwhile, a man wasarrested for abetment after hiswife committed suicide inThakurganj police station areaon Saturday. The accused, iden-tified as Mohammed Nadeemof Khadra, was arrested fromKudiaghat trisection inThakurganj. He confessed tohis crime. Police said Nadeemhad tortured his wife for dowrywhich forced her to end her liferecently. “Nadeem had beenharassing his wife for dowry fora long time and his wife tookthe extreme step after the tor-ture became unbearable. It wasestablished in the police inves-tigation and he was arrested,”the police said.

�������4�����������‘Vibrant Vidisha-2022’, the

11th consecutive edition ofthe annual painting competi-tion for children, was organisedon Saturday by ‘Vidisha Trust’,an organisation co-founded byAshok and Vandana Bhargavain the loving memory of theirdaughter Vidisha, whose smil-ing visage spread love, laugh-ter and happiness among allthose who came to be associ-ated with her. More than 600children, along with their par-ents, came up with eye-catch-ing images that showcasedtheir imaginative skills andtalent with the brush dipped invarious hues. The participatingchildren created a visual depic-tion of their inherent desiresand aspirations for the futurewhile the parents came upwith vivid portrayals of howthey perceived their children asadults. The event was titled‘Double Dhamaka’ for the mul-

tiple modes of entertainmentand participation it offered.Medals and trophies were givenaway to the winners.

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To keep the pharmaceuti-cal education and translation-al R&D aligned with the recenttrends around the world,‘Scientific Advisory Board’ ofthe Institute of PharmaceuticalSciences has been constitutedwith globally acclaimed per-sonalities from national andinternational prestigious cen-tres of excellence, academicinstitutions and pharmaceuti-cal industries. The board isapproved by Vice-Chancellor ofLucknow University Prof AlokKumar Rai. LU spokespersonsaid the board would promotestudents and faculty for trans-lation R&D in pharmaceuticalfield, enhance scientific acu-men of students and faculty,

create global footprint of theinstitute, and provide a plat-form for global recognition ofstudents.

��� �����Group Commander, NCC

Group HQ, Lucknow,Brigadier Ravi Kapoor visitedthe NCC camp conducted by64 UP Bn NCC at AMCCentre and College inCantonment. CampCommandant andCommanding Officer of 64 UPBattalion, NCC, Col GauravKarki briefed him on varioustraining activities and admin-istrative arrangements. BrigKapoor visited the newly-installed ‘Small ArmsSimulator Room’ where he sawcadets undergoing training infiring. He also interacted withcadets undergoing training inmap reading, field-craft battle-craft, personality developmentand communications skills.

Lucknow (PNS): The CentralInstitute for SubtropicalHorticulture in Lucknow hasdeveloped a microbial consor-tium consisting of certainmicro-organisms with a poten-tial to accelerate the compost-ing rate. CISH acting directorNeelima Garg said that sincethe government is banningburning of organic residue,the product will be useful infast degradation of complexorganic substrates. “Moreover,as the government is promot-ing organic agriculture, theproduct will prove to be usefulin improving soil health bymaking nutrients available toplants,” she said.

“Food processing waste isproduced in large quantitiesaround the world and contains

high levels of lignocellulose.Although some value-addedproducts are extracted fromprocessing waste, the vastmajority of waste is currentlyunutilised and discarded inthe open. This waste undergoesviolent chemical reactions,releasing toxic gases into theenvironment. This leads tohazards such as environmentaldegradation, pollution, soilpollution and pollution. Thepace of composting dependsupon the type of soil, soil con-ditions and types of microflo-ra present in the soil,” she said.

However, she pointed outthat it could be increased byadding useful microbes to thesoil in the form of a compostbooster. “To tackle this issue ofmanaging the processing waste,

the consortium developed byCISH can convert the wasteinto compost within onemonth,” Garg said.

She said that this noveltechnology has been commer-cialised to M/s. Ranaji Biotech(India) Pvt Ltd, Kanpur, onJuly 2. “The technology is aconsortium of microbes (bac-teria and fungi) which aid thedecomposition rate and thecompost obtained through thismethod is rich in NPK contentcompared to traditional way ofcompost preparation,” she said.

She added that there is a lotof demand as processing wastemanagement is a big issue.CISH is also receiving requestsfor the licence of this technol-ogy from firms in various partsof the country.

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Even though novel coron-avirus cases have come

down in the city, genomesequencing and surveillance ofthe dreaded virus continues inLucknow district. Giving thisinformation, DistrictSurveillance Officer Dr MilindWardhan said that this wasbeing done to monitor the newsub variants of Omicron whichwere emerging in other statesof the country.

He said the new sub-vari-ant BA.2.74 was not present inLucknow district. “The onlysub-variant of Omicron whichwe detected in the third wavein Lucknow district was BA 2.1and 2.2,” he said.

Dr Wardhan said that theywere sending all the samples inLucknow district for genomesequencing as they were less-er in numbers with the posi-tivity rate coming downalready. “Genome sequencingis being done so that if thereis a new variant we may knowabout it and take the rightaction. The variants which weare getting now are thosewhich have lesser symptomsbut if we get a variant whereaction needs to be taken wewill know about it throughgenome sequencing,” he said.

Meanwhile, COVID-19expert Piyali Bhattacharya saidthat as per reports, 69 cases ofnew novel coronavirus varianthad been found in 10 states ofIndia. “An Israeli scientist haswarned that coronavirus isnot ready to leave the worldeven after almost two and ahalf years. The medical com-munity and pandemic watch-ers are now in a panic over theIsraeli scientist's warning.Israeli scientist Dr ShayFleshon has claimed that thesub-variant BA.2.75 of coron-avirus has been found in 10states of India,” Bhattacharyasaid.

Organised MedicineAcademic Guild secretary DrIshwar Gilada said that in theongoing COVID-19 pandem-ic, Omicron, currently themost prevalent variant of coro-navirus globally, had new subvariants BA.2.74, BA.2.75 andBA.2.76.

“Of these three, BA.2.75

has shown a wider presencethan the other two. CurrentlyBA.2.38 is more common andalmost 80 per cent of theinfections are with this subvariant. Ten per cent are BA.2and the remaining are BA.4,BA.5, BA.2.75 etc. BA.2.75has been seen in 10 Indianstates and that too the stateswide apart from each other,with Maharashtra dominatingwith 27, followed by WestBengal with 13, Karnataka 10,MP 7. Other states includingDelhi have 1-2 cases each. Ithas been also seen in sevenother countries -- Australia,New Zealand, Japan in Asiaand the Pacific; UK andGermany in Europe and USA,Canada in North America,” hesaid.

Dr Gilada said that withthe BA.2.75 sub variant, themost important issue was thatit had nine mutations, ofwhich five were in the N ter-minal domain of the spike pro-tein and that was responsiblefor the virus attaching to thehost cells. “These are newmutations and therefore haveimmune escape both to theimmunity acquired throughnatural infection as well as thevaccination. Hence it becomesa point of concern. However,so long as it does not end upcreating oxygen demand andbed demand and more deaths,there is nothing much toworry. We need to continuevigilance with continuedgenome sequencing and pro-duce a new generation of vac-cines that can provide protec-tion against all the strainsprevalent now and possiblevariants in near future,” hesaid. As of now no strict man-dates are required to be rein-troduced. Masking indoorsand in crowded public placesshould remain the norm fornow, he added.

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Atout attempting to getblood from Balrampur

Hospital by producing fakepapers was nabbed on Saturday.As per reports, a man whointroduced himself as RaviMishra reached the blood bankof the hospital to get a bloodbag around 10:30 pm on Friday.He produced a fake recom-mendation letter in the name ofa doctor who did not exist andwas also bearing the name of apatient. The staff guessed foulplay quizzed the man whofumbled. The guards presentthere caught hold of him andquizzed him. The hospital staffsaid the details by Ravi werefound to be fake during inter-nal inquiry. “He told the nameof Raju for whom he visited theblood bank and confessed thathe had sold blood bags for Rs1,500-5,000 in the past,” thehospital administration said,adding they suspected that theaccused could be a member ofa gang.

Meanwhile, two unidenti-fied miscreants stole a mobilephone and Rs 13,000 in cashfrom a paan masala shop atKuda crossing under Dubaggapolice station area on Friday.Shop-owner Sanjeev Rawat ofBarawan Kala locality said themiscreants reached his shopwhile pretending to be cus-tomers and demanded a ciga-rette. “I gave them a cigaretteafter which they left the shop.A little later, I found my mobilephone and cash missing. Idialled my number fromanother phone and one of thethem asked me to meet inDashhari village. When I wentto the place, they were not thereand the mobile phone had alsobeen switched off,” he said.

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Taking cognisance of thestunt biking menace in the

old city area, the west zone ofLucknow police commission-erate carried out a drive andseized 17 superbikes andslapped fine on 80 offenders inChowk police station area onFriday night.

The drive was led by DCP,West, Dr S Chinappa. The

police will continue to carryout such drives in the time tocome. Earlier, photos of stuntbikers close to the RumiDarwaza police outpost wentviral on social media a couple of days back. However,as the Chowk police lookedthe other way, senior officers, including the com-missioner of police, directedthe DCP to crack down onstunt bikers.

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District Magistrate Visakh GAiyer while inspecting

Allen Forest after it had beendeveloped into an Eco Park,spread over 2.50 hectare of landsaid this had especially beendeveloped for the morningwalkers who will now beexposed to clean environmentwith natural greenery. He saidon account of the thick forestand greenery there will beabundant oxygen and this willbe highly beneficial for morn-ing walkers. He said morningwalk was one way to keepphysically and mentally healthyand thus it was decided todevelop Allen Forest into anEco Park.

He said Allen Foresthoused hundreds of varieties oftrees and the thick foliagemade this area clean andhygienic. He said the adminis-tration had put the name of thetrees both in English and Hindiso that visitors can be benefit-ed. He said this will soon beopened for the common peo-ple for morning walk and jog-ging. He mooted that a tokenmoney needed to be charged

from visitors which shall beutilised for maintenance. Hesaid it will be opened for thepublic from 5.00 am to 9.30pm.

He said the Kanpur NagarNigam (KNN) had been direct-ed to ensure proper arrange-ments and basic needs for thevisitors. He also directed thatthe Eco Park need to be opened

at the earliest. He said theforemost thing required wasseating arrangements for thevisitors and to remove all thefallen trees and dry leaves tomake to clean and neat. He saidit had also been decided to con-struct a pathway all round anddevelop it on a natural basis.

District Forest Officer(DFO) Arvind Kumar said this

Eco Park is especially withambitions of high nature con-servation and environmentalprotection. They are parkswhich use ecological landscapefeatures that will serve as avehicle for reconnection andfor developing the system’sunderstanding necessary forcreative and resilient problem-solving. He said it will not alone

be preservation but also aboutrestoring nature conservationand a largescale transformationof both social and environmen-tal landscapes.

He said we live in a worldwhere biodiversity, environ-mental justice, climate change,habitat protection and sustain-able economic developmentwere both social and environ-mental needs. He said therewere four categories of urbanparks (pleasure grounds,reform parks, recreation facil-ities and open spaces) whichmay look “natural” sweepinggreen lawns that required hugeinputs of water, fertiliser, pes-ticides, fuel and labour. He saidlandscapes had ecological valueand ecological design reducedresource inputs and waste out-puts.

He said eco parks allow usto see and interact with the eco-logical riches that formal parkshide.

He said ecological andsocial concerns were in increas-ing conflation modelling newexpressions of human relation-ship to nature provides solutionsto both ecological and socialproblems and concerns.

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President of KanpurOrthopaedic Association,

Dr AK Agarwal while address-ing presspersons regardingarthroscopy course on Saturdaysaid national conference will beheld on Sunday where foreigndelegates will also participate.He said the objective of theconference was to create aware-ness regarding the paradigmshift in treating damaged lig-ments especially related tosports injury. He said in thecurrent era rehabilitation aftersports injury had become adomain for specialists and itsevolution had necessarilybrought together the sportsphysiotherapist, sports physi-cian, and orthopedic surgeon.

He said the changing pro-file of sports related injurywas a matter of concern. Hesaid elite sportspersons hadsome protection, but the aver-age athlete was often left to fendfor oneself. He said key factorsin successful sports injury reha-bilitation protocols were theapplication of modern rehabil-itation protocols under appro-

priate supervision, appropriateand well timed surgical inter-ventions and judicious andneed based use of pharmaceu-tical agents.

He said prominent sur-geons like Dr Anant Joshi,Mumbai, BCCI sports injurysurgeon, Dr Sunder Rajan andmany more will take part. Hesaid five workstations werearriving from abroad andsurgery will be carried outhere.

He said in India, sportsphysicians were increasinglyjoining specialist rehabilita-tion teams and they can help

with medication, nutritionalsupplements and specialisedtests primary aimed at the safereturn to sports and minimis-ing reinjury on return to sport.

This involved rehabilitationin stages and current method-ology clearly demarcated acuteand chronic phases of injury.Close coordination with train-ers and coaches is mandatoryand all need to understand thatthe reconditioning phase iscrucial; skill assessment beforeprogression has now become aspecialised domain and needsto be introduced at all levels ofthe sport.

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Kanpur DevelopmentAuthority (KDA) organ-

ised 'Manchitra SamadhanDiwas' aimed at disposing ofthe layouts of people, especial-ly belonging to lower and mid-dle income group. As many as16 layouts were approved in thecamp organised on the firstfloor of its premises. Applicantswho had already applied forapproval of their layouts onlineon OBPAS software were calledfor submitting other requisitedocuments like NOC relatingto land ownership, debrischarges etc. After verification oftheir documents and complet-ing other formalities, theapproved layouts were handedover to them. All the salesincharge/land bank incharge,architect, representative ofKanpur Nagar Nigam, officialsof the building departmentconcerned and employees werepresent at the camp to ensurequick disposal of the problems.Vice-Chairman Arvind Singh

has directed the officers/employees to simplify theprocess by establishing directcontact and communicationwith the masses and facilitatequick disposal of their applica-tions relating to approval of lay-outs.

Meanwhile, KDA Vice-Chairman Arvind Singh hand-ed over appointment letter tofive dependents of deceasedappointed on compassionategrounds. Three of them wereappointed as second gradeclerk while two as gardeners.

They were informed abouttheir duties and responsibilitiesto be discharged with loyaltyand honesty in the organisa-tion. Apart from the appoint-ment letters, V-C also giftedthem sweets and extendedgreetings.

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The first “Mr Smart” as a pilot project,was launched in Bidhnoo block and

the objective was rope in a major supportof male members in family planning. Thegovernment wanted to highlight as to whyfamily planning was confined for women.Medical Superintendent, Bidhnoo, Dr SPYadav, said the whole show was beingsponsored by the government in aneffort ensure more participation of menin family planning. He said the messagethat vasectomy was quite easy as com-pared to tubectomy had to be promotedin the right earnest in Uttar Pradesh.

He said reproductive health issueswere an inclusive concern for both menand women. In order to improve mater-nal health, strengthening male participa-tion in family planning is an importantpublic health initiative. He said men arestill the main decision-makers, especial-ly in the rural community.

There is little concrete evidence of theextent of male participation in familyplanning and its barriers in rural settings.He said the objective to select Mr Smart

was an effort to motivate men and to takepride to become Mr Smart of their village.

He said the overall effort was toreduce population with the help of maleparticipation. He said in general, ascompared to the national recommenda-tion, the level of male participation in

family planning utilisation was low. Inorder to improve male participation infamily planning, improving male knowl-edge and attitudes towards family plan-ning was essential and thus the UP gov-ernment had decided to cover more vil-lages as well.

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The NSS unit of MahilaMahavidyalaya, Kidwai

Nagar, organised tree planationdrive in the college campusunder the ‘Yuwa Van’ campaignof the state administration hereon Saturday. Speaking on theoccasion, Principal Dr AnjuChaudhary said the stateadministration had selectedher college to set up ‘yuwa van’under which shady and fruittrees were planted. After sometime these saplings will grow astrees to provide clean andhealthy atmosphere.Programme Officer of the NSSunit Dr Saba Yunus informedthat saplings were planted inthe name of each volunteer tomake them responsible for theproper growth and care of theplant. During the drive asmany as 20 saplings were plant-ed. Dr Namrita Tewari and allother faculty members coordi-nated for the event.

PRESS MEET: As a part ofApollo’s initiative of providing

advanced care to the childrenin Kanpur and surroundingareas, experts fromIndraprastha Apollo Hospital,New Delhi, conducted a pressmeet with healthcare fraterni-ty of Kanpur in Apollo Spectra.It was addressed by DrAshutosh Marwah, SeniorConsultant, PaediatricCardiologist on Saturday.

Dr Marwah said Apollohospitals strive to be a trustedcompanion of a patient’s med-ical journey from diagnosis totreatment to recovery. He saidit was aimed to reach out topatients to minimise the needto travel. He said the objectiveof the press meet was to helppeople of the area to channelisetheir efforts in the right direc-

tion with minimum hassles.He said it was endeavoured tocreate awareness about congen-ital heart disease and availabletreatment options so that eachchild will be able to live a nor-mal life.

He said this will also pro-vide patients an advantage of atimely diagnosis and an earlytreatment.

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Hurt by the behaviour of ajudge of Allahabad High

Court, the office-bearers of theAllahabad High Court BarAssociation have decided toboycott his courtroom on July11 i.e. on Monday. The BarAssociation has unanimouslytaken this decision in theemergency general meetingheld in the Library Hall. Notonly this, the Bar Associationhas also complained to theChief Justice about the behav-ior of the judge with thelawyers in the court.

Radhakant Ojha, Presidentand Senior Advocate, HighCourt Bar Association GeneralSecretary Satyadhir SinghJadaun and Senior VicePresident Manoj KumarMishra, in a written applicationto the Chief Justice ofAllahabad High Court RajeshBindal, have said that the Bar

Association is getting com-plaints of advocates against ajudge continuously. Manytimes the Chief Justice hasbeen informed orally by theHigh Court Bar Associationregarding the behavior of thejudge in the Court. But thereis no change in the behavior ofthe judge.

Radhakant Ojha allegedthat it has become common forthe judge to use abusive lan-guage with the advocates, dis-miss the case without hearing.The Bar Association has madea complaint to the Chief Justiceof the judge for not showingany change in the behavior andworking style of the judgeeven after repeated complaints.He said that being hurt by thedogma of the judge, the asso-ciation has decided to boycotthis courtroom on Monday,July 11. Ashutosh Tripathi,Joint Secretary Press, HighCourt Bar Association has

given this information.Meanwhile, the Allahabad

High Court has accepted thebail application of Shiba,accused in the case of kidnap-ping of a minor Hindu girl inGautam Budh Nagar policestation Ecotech (3). The courtsaid that there are sufficientgrounds to release the petition-er on bail. This order wasgiven by Justice Ajit Singhwhile allowing the bail appli-cation of Shiba.

The mother alleged thather 14-year-old daughter wasabducted by her associateincluding the petitioner. It wasargued on behalf of the peti-tioner that she is innocentand she has been deliberatelyimplicated. The co-accusedhas been granted bail.Considering the facts and cir-cumstances, the court grantedbail to the petitioner with con-ditions and ordered for herrelease.

�#������������������� ��� ����$���Prayagraj (PNS): Two mem-bers of a racket involved inmanufacturing and sellingadulterated spurious liquorwere arrested by a team ofAspur Devsara police inPratapgarh district.

The police seized 65 bot-tles of adulterated liquor, 1 kgurea, Rs 720 cash, fake wrap-pers and QR codes from thespot. The arrested persons wereidentified as Munna aliasDhirendra Singh andSheshnath Harijan, residents ofPratapgarh and Jaunpur,respectively. Acting upon aspecific tip off, a joint team ofAspur Devsara police andexcise department on Saturdayconducted a raid at a house invillage Gauramafi and arrestedtwo persons red-handed whilepreparing adulterated coun-try-made liquor. ��� ����!�����������������������������,�����2�+�+�&��������!����$�����������!

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Member Finance, RailwayBoard, New Delhi Mohit

Sinha visited North CentralRailway. Member Finance helda meeting at NCRHeadquarters and addressedthe General Manager and allPHODs/CHODs.

He briefed the ZonalRailway on the flagship projectsof the Railways dealing withinfrastructure developmentand the need for all units tocomplete these projects on pri-ority. Projects such asGatishakti, StationDevelopment, High Densitycorridors, etc. pertaining to thedivision were discussed duringthe meeting. Speaking on theoccasion GM/NCR PramodKumar briefed the Memberfinance about the NCR’sachievements and said we arecontrolling the expenditurejudicially. He also informed,

that we have adequate funds formajor infrastructure projects.

Mohit Sinha also reviewedthe performance of PrayagrajDivision and interacted withthe Divisional RailwayManager and his officers dur-ing his visit. He addressed theofficers of the division andemphasized that in future, offi-cers must develop profession-alism to manage contracts on

a large scale. He stressed theneed for officers to continuous-ly upgrade their skills andcompetence and the need todevelop professional outlook inall aspects of working.

Thereafter he conducted areview meeting with the allAccounts Officers of NorthCentral Railway and CORE,Prayagraj in the office of thePrincipal Financial Advisor.

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In a shocking incident, twominors who were taking a

bath in the Ganga drownedhere late on Friday evening.Water Police and NDRF start-ed the search operation forboth of them. The body of oneyouth was recovered severalhours later while the search ison for the other one. The acci-dent took place at ChhatwaGanga Ghat of Sirsa located atMeja in Yamunapar.

Harsh Patel 12 - year - oldson of Suresh Patel , resident ofRamnagar , Meja inYamunapar , and SukhdevPatel's 12 - year - old son AlokPatel were students of classsixth . Both were good friends.On Friday, Harsh and AlokChhatwa along with their otherfriends went to take bath atGanga Ghat .Harsh and Alokdrowned in Ganga while tak-ing a bath. The relatives werenot aware of the children going

to the Ganga Ghat, and the rel-atives of both the missing chil-dren kept searching for theirchildren throughout the night. On Saturday morning , it wasreported that both of them hadgone to take bath in the Gangeswith their friends in theevening and drowned there .The family members of bothwere shocked by this informa-tion .

Suresh Singh informed thepolice about the incident.Police reached Chhatwa GangaGhat and took the help of JalPolice. The water police recov-ered Alok Singh's body fromthe Ganges river a few hourslater. Police sent the body forpost mortem. Harsh is beingsearched.

Meja SHO DhirendraSingh said that the NDRF teamhas been called to find the stu-dent Harsh. He is beingsearched in the Ganga. Hisbody could not be fished out tillthe last report came in.

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In view of the holy month ofShrawan beginning from July

14, police administrationclaimed to have made elaboratearrangements for the kan-wariyas who would visitDashashwamedh ghat(Daraganj) and Sangam to takeGanga water and start theirjourney to Padila Mahadeo inTharwai and Kashi Vishwanathtemple in Varanasi to offerjalabhishek.

“Elaborate arrangementshave been made for kanwarias,who would start visiting Gangaghats and Sangam to take holywater to offer jalabhishek atprominent Lord Shiva temples,”said IG, Prayagraj range, Dr.Rakesh Singh adding “Trafficdiversion will also be imple-mented for their convenience.”He also added that mobilemedical health vans and police

bandobast have also been madeon route between Prayagrajand Varanasi.

Joint teams of police anddistrict administration wouldbe monitoring the route roundthe clock and offering imme-diate assistance when needed.Besides, adequate securityarrangements have also beenmade at city- based templeswhere cops would be main-taining a strict vigil and watchto ensure the safety and secu-rity of devotees. Here, theentire city has been divided intoseven zones and 18 sectors.

As part of the yatra, kan-wariyas (devotees of LordShiva) from different parts ofthe state collect water from theGanga river at Sangam, andDaraganj ghat to offerJalabhishek at famous LordShiva temples including KashiVishwanath in Varanasi, PadilaMahadeo in Tharwai,

Mankameshwar in Prayagrajand back home.“As Kanwaryatra is scheduled to be heldfrom July 14 to July 27 this yearafter a gap of two years due tothe Covid pandemic, we areanticipating a huge influx ofkanwariyas this year owing tothe two-year break,” said theIG. He however, said “ Over1,500 police and paramilitarypersonnel including 3Additional SPs, 7 Deputy SPs,150 sub-inspectors, 200 headconstables, 1,000 constablesalong with five companies ofPAC, teams of NDRF \ SDRFwill be deployed to prevent anyuntoward incident during theyatra. He further said seniorpolice and district authoritieshave discussed the traffic diver-sion plan for the yatra inadvance. Under the plan, a twolane highway of Prayagraj –Varanasi will be reserved forkanwariyas and adequate secu-

rity cover will be provided tothem. Besides, 24 boats alongwith a team of 20 swimmerswill be deployed at prominentghats of the city to ensure thesafety of kanwariyas at ghats.Moreover, a special trafficdiversion plan will be imple-mented at Bajha area in Handiapolice circle where vehiculartraffic and kanwariyas will beseparated through separatelanes. IG, meanwhile,said thereare a total of 28 resting \ camp-ing points on the route toVaranasi and adequate civicfacilities including medical,toilet, sanitation etc will begiven to devotees of Lord Shiva.Besides, there would be deploy-ment of adequate ambulanceson the route and teams ofmedical and para medical staffhave already been assignedduties. District authorities willalso be checking cleanlinessand power arrangements.

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Governor Anandiben Patel, UnionEducation Minister Dharmendra

Pradhan and Union Ministers of State forEducation Annpurna and Dr SubhasSarkar paid heartfelt tribute to formerJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Onthe last day of the three-day AkhilBharatiya Shiksha Samagam at RudrakshConvention Centre here on Saturday,they offered floral tribute to the portraitof Shinzo Abe who was assassinated inJapan a day ago. Rudraksha is a gift ofShinzo Abe to the city as during his visitto Varanasi in 2015, he along with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi had laid the foun-dation stone for this centre where eveninternational, national and state level con-ferences are also being organised today.Besides, outside the Rudraksh centre, theactivists of Pranam Vande MataramSamiti also paid homage to Shinzo Abeby observing two-minute silence. Chiefspeaker of the programme was memberof UP State SC/ST Commission ManojSonkar while it was led by Anup Jaiswal.The condolence meeting was conductedby Dinesh Kalra while the vote of thankswas proposed by Satish Verma.Addressing the programme, the speakerssaid Shinzo Abe had a deep attachmentto India like a true friend and a strongpartner who always supported India onthe international stage. “The RudrakshConvention Centre is a symbol of India-Japan friendship,” said Anup Jaiswal.Among others present were Mangalesh

Jaiswal, Chhedi Lal Verma, corporatorShankar Sahu, Sindhu Sonkar, RajeshDubey, Pradeep Jaiswal, Kanhaiya Seth,Dhirendra Sharma, Ajay Singh, NirbhayGupta, Bachha and Ramsharan Bind.Apart from this, rich tribute was also paidto Shinzo Abe on the banks of Ganga byperforming Ganga aarti at the sameplace where in 2015 former Japanese PMsat to watch the Ganga aarti programmeat Dashashwamedh Ghat under the aus-pices of Namami Gange. Regional con-venor of Namami Gange (Kashi area)Rajesh Shukla said Shinzo Abe was alwaysa well wisher of India and had a specialrelationship with Kashi. According tohim, by offering Ganga aarti, the NamamiGange activists prayed to the Almighty for

salvation of the departed soul. “Shinzo Abewas a close friend of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and was a great globalstatesman and administrator. Under hisleadership, Japan had provided �186 crorefor the Rudraksh InternationalCooperation and Conventional Centrebecause he had a special relationship withIndia and Banaras,” said Shukla. He saidAbe had made a huge contribution inimproving Indo-Japanese relations and hiscontribution to the development of Kashicannot be forgotten. Prominent amongthose present were Sushma Jaiswal, SunitaDevi, Alok Mishra, Pankaj Gupta, DeepakGupta, Ashutosh Bhadauria, ShashwatBajpai, Santosh Yadav and SeemaKushwaha.

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General Secretary of North CentralZone Insurance Employees’

Federation (NCZIEF) Rajiv Nigam criti-cised the unilateral decision of the centralgovernment to bring the Initial PublicOffering (IPO) of Life InsuranceCorporation (LIC) in an undemocraticmanner which has damaged the image ofLIC. He was addressing the meeting of theexecutive committee of NCZIEF (UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand) organised underthe auspices of Varanasi Division InsuranceEmployees’ Association (VDIEA) at LIC’sdivisional office, Bhelupur, here onSaturday. Welcoming the representativesof 12 divisional units of NCZIEF, he saidthat the LIC has given �30,000 crore so farbut 3.5 per cent of LIC’s shares were dis-invested through IPO for �21,000 croreonly. “Due to the pressure of capitalistsglobally, LIC is being disinvested and thegovernment is working in the interest ofshareholders, while the interest of 30 crore

policy holders of LIC also needs to be pro-tected,” he said. “We continued the cam-paign against LIC’s IPO for a long time andthrough letters to MPs and MLAs, we didthe work of conveying our point to the par-liament, but the present governmentignored the views of a large section of thecountry’s people and launched the IPO ata wrong time (Russia-Ukraine war),” hesaid, adding that the policies of the gov-ernment are constantly attacking theworking class. “In 2016, this governmenttook the wrong decision of demonetisation.That decision dealt a tremendous blow tothe country’s economy. The federal struc-ture of the country suffered due to imma-ture implementation of GST. The decisionon the issue of petroleum and LPG wastaken by the government in the interest ofthe corporate world, which has caused infla-tion to reach the peak today. The power hasspoiled the communal harmony among thepeople of the country by tying up with themedia,” he blamed. The inaugural functionwas presided over by Sanjeev Sharma. In the

beginning, a tribute was paid to formerJapanese premier Shinzo Abe by observingtwo minutes of silence. Then a folk song waspresented by the artistes of Prerna KalaManch. In this two-day meeting, seniorunion leaders of LIC from Varanasi,Lucknow, Allahabad, Meerut, Dehradun,Aligarh, Kanpur, Haldwani, Agra, Faizabad,Bareilly and Gorakhpur are taking part. Inthis executive meeting, the discussions willmainly be held on LIC’s IPO and new salaryagreement and the decisions to be taken herewill be presented in the meeting of All IndiaInsurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA)to be held in Raipur from July 24 to July 26.The main speakers were general secretaryRajiv Nigam (Kanpur), president SanjeevSharma (Meerut), zonal women coordina-tor Geeta Shant (Bareilly), Rupesh Pandey(Gorakhpur), DK Pandey (Haldwani),Nandlal Sharma (Dehradun), SantoshVishwakarma (Allahabad), Alok Tiwari(Lucknow) and Lalit Sharma (Aligarh).VDIEA President Narayan Chatterjee andmany others were also present.

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Union Education Minister DharmendraPradhan called upon the education-

ists to make the country a knowledge-based economy in the 21st century and ourspecial attention should be to pay atten-tion to technology and skill developmentin order to prepare students according totoday’s needs. He was addressing theconcluding session of the three-day AkhilBharatiya Shiksha Samagam at RudrakshConvention Centre here on Saturday.Governor Anandiben Patel and manyother dignitaries were also present. Heexpressed hope that the conference wouldprove to be a milestone in the awakeningof the country as National Education Policy(NEP-2020) has inspired all of us to workin the spirit of ‘Student First’ keeping theinterests of the students paramount. “It isthe responsibility of universities to preparenot only job seekers but also job creatorskeeping in mind the current scenario asNEP 2020 gives special direction to uni-versities for this,” he said. “The NEP hasbeen made keeping in mind the needs ofthe 21st century and the bright future ofIndia. It is providing us today an oppor-tunity to change the colonial education sys-tem imposed for the purpose of econom-ic exploitation. There is a lot of intelligenceand talent in our students. We have to pre-pare the education system according totheir merit. We have to follow the policy

focussing the students first,” he said.“We’ve to make universities multi-dimen-sional and multi-disciplinary according tothe concepts of NEP 2020 and in this orderspecial importance will have to be givento the education of skill development,” hesaid, adding that as all languages of thecountry are national languages so we arecommitted to provide modern educationin Indian languages. He said we got theguidance of the Prime Minister on manyother important topics like what should bethe roadmap of land-to-lab and lab-to-land, solutions to the problems of the soci-ety by universities. “For a long time, workwas done to end our culture, guru-shishyatradition and education system. From thedestruction of Taxila in the 5th century tothe destruction of the knowledge systemby Macaulay in the 19th century, Indian

thoughts, languages and values hadreceived a big jolt,” he said, adding that byseeing the enthusiasm of all the scholars,policy makers and educationists in this con-ference, a new energy and new confidencehas been awakened in the mind. Accordingto him, this Shiksha Samagam was a veryimportant link towards establishing Indiaas a knowledge based superpower. “Multi-modal education, Academic Bank ofCredits, Multiple Entry-Exit, SkillDevelopment will prove to be a milestonein the direction of students first. We haveto implement them in the right spirit,” hesaid, adding that it is the responsibility ofall of us to give direction to the future.Speaking on the occasion, GovernorAnandiben Patel said that for the imple-mentation of NEP 2020 and the develop-ment of the nation and society, all the uni-versities of the country should have to worktogether coming together on one platform.Congratulating the participants for theirvaluable suggestions in all the sessions ofthis Shiksha Samagam, she said that in theinaugural ceremony, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had appealed to the uni-versities to develop India as a hub ofresearch and innovation and work on solu-tions for climate change, technology creationfor waste-to-wealth and promoting circu-lar economy. The concluding session wasalso attended by several dignitaries, includ-ing Union Ministers of State for EducationAnnpurna and Dr Subhas Sarkar.

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Afive-member committeeunder the chairmanship

of district magistrate (DM)will make an evaluation of theland to be acquired for theambitious Ropeway Project inthe city. The committee willalso seek objections regardingthe land acquisition andaddress them. It is expectedthat the bidding process for theland requirement will be com-pleted in a week.

The notification about theland for the Ropeway Project,an ambitious project of theVaranasi DevelopmentAuthority (VDA) had beenissued and Principal Secretary,Housing Nitin RameshGokaran had reviewed theprogress of the project throughvideo conferencing on Friday.He took stock of informationabout the progress in landacquisition and utility shiftingto implement the project anddirected the authorities con-

cerned to tell about any hin-drance on the way at the gov-ernment level so that it couldbe sorted out at the earliest. Afive-member committee hasbeen constituted under thechairmanship of DistrictMagistrate Kaushal RajSharma. The committee willalso make an evaluation ofland. Vice-President of VDA,ADM (F&R), SDM, secretaryof VDA and sub-registrar willbe its members. There is a needof 16,000 sq m land to executethe project as the electricitycables and poles, pipes ofdrinking water, sewage pipesand telephone cables andpoles are to be shifted. TheVDA has made a proposal of�106 crore and �30 crore forland acquisition and utilityshifting respectively. Therewill be 30 towers and 22 cabletrolly cars with the capacity of10 kg each. It is expected thatthe bidding process for theland requirement would becompleted in a week.

G R A T I T U D EEXPRESSED: Former vice-president of VaranasiCantonment Board ShailendraSingh has shot off a letter toPrime Minister NarendraModi expressing his gratitudefor his announcement that theshops in the night marketwould be allotted to the streetvendors of the city. TheVaranasi Smart City has devel-oped a night market under theflyover from Chowkaghat toLahartara with a cost of aroundRs 10 crore. The flyover alsocovers the important areas ofVaranasi Cantt railway junc-tion and interstate bus stand.Ex-president of VaranasiCantonment Board Singh hadbeen fighting for the last manydays against the decision takenby the implementing agency tohire a private agency to allot theshops in this night marketspread in around 1.9 km underthe aforementioned flyover. Hemet the divisional commis-sioner, municipal commission-

er and other authorities andsubmitted memorandumsagainst it and demanded thatthe shops in the night marketshould be allotted to the localstreet vendors. He even sub-mitted a memorandum in theparliamentary office of the PMand wrote a letter to ChiefMinister regarding his demand.He along with street vendorsalso demonstrated against thedecision. During his visit to hisparliamentary constituency onJuly 7 PM Narendra Modiinaugurated the night marketwith other projects andannounced that street vendorswould get shops in this marketwhich would be an attractionfor tourists of the country andabroad besides visitors to comefrom various parts of the coun-try. “The announcement of thePM is praiseworthy as he lis-tened to the voice of the streetvendors,” Singh said andexpressed his gratitude to thePM for caring for the job ofstreet vendors.

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The wives of two freedom fighterswere honoured by the Railway

Protection Force (RPF) under theAzadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav here onFriday to commemorate the 75thanniversary of Independence.Divisional Railway Manager (DRM)of Varanasi Division of NorthEastern Railway (NER) RamashrayPandey honoured 84-year-oldSaraswati Devi, wife of freedomfighter Shyama Charan Mishra bypresenting a bouquet, memento andshawl in his office. Late Shyama CharanMishra had collaborated with NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose in the freedommovement as a member of the IndianNational Army (Azad Hind Fauj). SeniorDivisional Security Commissioner (SDSC)Dr Abhishek and other RPF officers werealso present. Along with this, 102-year-oldKanta Devi, wife of freedom fighterShyamlal Sharma, was honoured byAssistant Security Commissioner

(Varanasi) MK Gautam, along with RPFpersonnel, after reaching her residencebecause she is unable to go anywhere dueto old age. Freedom fighter late ShyamlalSharma played the role of aide of martyrChandrashekhar Azad in the freedommovement. Besides, the Azadi Ka AmritMahotsav is being celebrated with full gai-ety by the RPF at various stations of VaranasiDivision of NER. The RPF personnel led byAssistant Security Commissioner

(RPF/Chhapra) organised a ‘Runfor Unity’ of about eight kilome-tres with full enthusiasm and pas-sion in Chhapra city. They awak-ened the people towards patrio-tism, explaining the importance offreedom and narrated the heroicstories of freedom struggle. Atotal of 55 RPF/RPSF officers andpersonnel participated. Elsewhere,in Ghazipur, the RPF personnelplanted saplings and launched acleanliness drive in the stationpremises and their barrack. Theyalso appealed to passengers and

railway employees to cooperate in protect-ing the environment. The RPF personnel alsolaunched a cleanliness drive in stationpremises, including platforms at Ballia.They along with railway employees andpassengers took a pledge to keep the envi-ronment clean. Similarly, in Azamgarh,the RPF personnel narrated the stories offreedom struggle among students ofChildren Senior Secondary School. The pro-gramme was attended by about 200 children.

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Sainik Sammelan and crimemeeting was organised at

Police Lines on Friday. First ofall Sainik Sammelan was heldin which grievances of stafffrom all branches of police wereheard and officials concernedwere directed to dispose ofmatters on merit but withoutinordinate delay. The crimemeeting was jointly held by SPSantosh Kumar Mishra andADM (F&R) Shiv PratapShukla during which all pointsrelated to crime control werereviewed and COs were direct-ed to take personal interest inthe matters related to IGRS,public grievances and women’shelp desk and ensure satisfac-tory disposal. The SOs weredirected to hold chaupals in vil-

lages under Mission Shaktiwith the goal of making womenaware of all necessary helplinesand making them feel fearless,self-confident and self-reliant.Directions were issued to takeaction in crime against womenon priority.

Besides, directions wereissued to dispose of cases ofcharacter certificates, armslicences, passports withoutharassment and within time.The cops were directed toserve court summons on pri-ority. Regarding pendingchargesheets the SP took aserious view and asked to sub-mit them as soon as possible.On the issue of law and orderdirections were issued to keepa close watch on different typesof mafia, top 10 category crim-inals, historysheeters etc.

ARRESTED: Under tyejoint operation of GRP andNarcotics department twoaccused were arrested and 30kg of Ganja was recovered atVindhyachal railway stationon Friday. The narcoticsdepartment had inputs aboutthe transportation of ganja andits team came to Vindhyachalrailway station and sought thehelp from SHO GRP MirzapurHar Sharan Singh Yadav. As perthe plan, the team was waitingfor the train and when it camethe team kept a close watch onthe said bogie as per the inputs.Thereafter the team recoveredthe ganja, nabbed the accusedand sent them to jail. Theaccused were identified asSangam Lal Bind, a resident ofTilai Babura village andRamesh Singh, a resident of

Babura village.CHILDREN CURED: PO

ICDS Vani Verma said withinfour months of treatment atnutritional rehabilitation cen-tre (NRC) out of 220 mal-nourished children 80 havebeen released after becomingnormal. She said through 2,268Aanganbadi centres thedepartment was active to knowabout such children and getthem admitted in NRC. Shesaid under the supervision ofDr Pankaj and his team chil-dren got rid of condition ofmalnutrition and were living anormal life. She said out of 243children 168 had been curedlast year. The PO has appealedto people to avail the facilitiesbeing provided by Anganwadicentres in the interest of mal-nourished children.

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Member (Finance) ofRailway Board Mohit

Sinha visited BanarasLocomotive Works (BLW) hereon Saturday. While holding ameeting with senior officers ofBLW and North EasternRailway (NER) at the Hall ofFame, Sinha discussed varioustechnical aspects related tofinancial matters and prob-lems faced in the financial sec-tor. He also discussed theirsolutions in detail. The RBmember assured to removethe problems in the iPass sys-tem operated mainly foronline bill passing and tomake further improvementsin it. Later, Sinha visitedBLW workshop areas andinspected various shops likeLoco Frame Shop, LocoAssembly Shop, New BlockShop etc where he observedthe works related to produc-tion of electric locomotives.The BLW off icials gavedetailed information aboutproduction activities, con-struction facilities, ongoingprojects in BLW as well asissues of other technical sub-jects to the RB member.

In the meeting, PrincipalChief Electrical Engineer(PCEE) of BLW Rajesh KumarRai welcomed him by present-ing the loco model as amemento. The RB memberhad in-depth talks withPrincipal Chief MechanicalEngineer (PCME) Amitabh,Principal Financial Advisor(PFA) Yogesh KumarSrivastava, Chief Electrical

Engineer (CEE/Planning)Anant Sadashiv (all fromBLW), Divisional RailwayManager Ramashray Pandey,ADRMs NER GyaneshTripathi and Rahul Srivastava(all from NER). The meetingwas also attended by seniorofficials of the Finance depart-ments of BLW and NER.During his stay in BLW, Sinhaalso held a brief meeting with

Joint Secretary of BLWEmployees CouncilDharmendra Singh, membersBD Dubey and Navin Sinhaand general secretary of theOBC Association Hari ShankarYadav and others. He discussedin detail demands of employ-ees. Both the organisationsalso submitted their memo-randums to the RB member insupport of their demands.

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Atop police official onSaturday acknowledged

possible security lapses thatallowed an assassin to fire hisgun into former JapanesePrime Minister Shinzo Abewhile he was addressing acampaign rally, raising ques-tions how could the attackerget so close behind him.

Abe was shot in the west-ern city of Nara on Friday andairlifted to a hospital but diedof blood loss. Police arrestedthe attacker, a former memberof Japan's navy, at the scene.Police confiscated his home-made gun and several otherswere later found at his apart-ment.

The attacker, TetsuyaYamagami, told investigatorshe acted because he believedrumors that Abe was connect-ed to an organization that heresents, police said. Japanese

media reported that the manhad developed hatred towarda religious group that hismother was obsessed aboutand that caused his familyfinancial problems. Thereports did not specify thegroup.

On Saturday, a blackhearse carrying Abe's bodyand accompanied by his wife,Akie, arrived at his home inTokyo's upscale residential areaof Shibuya. Many mourners,including top party officials,waited for his remains andlowered their heads as thevehicle passed.

Nara prefectural policechief Tomoaki Onizuka saidAbe's assassination was his"greatest regret" in a 27-yearcareer.

"I cannot deny there wereproblems with our security,"Onizuka said. "Whether it wasa setup, emergency response,or ability of individuals, we still

have to find out. Overall, therewas a problem and we willreview it from every perspec-tive."

Abe's assassination aheadof Sunday's parliamentary elec-tion shocked the nation andraised questions over whethersecurity for the former primeminister was adequate.

Some observers whowatched videos of the attacknoted a lack of attention in theopen space behind Abe as hespoke.

A former Kyoto prefectur-al police investigator,Fumikazu Higuchi, said thefootage suggested security wassparse at the event and insuf-ficient for a former primeminister.

"It is necessary to investi-gate why security allowedYamagami to freely move andgo behind Mr. Abe," Higuchitold a Nippon TV talk show.

Experts also said Abe was

more vulnerable standing onthe ground level, instead ofatop a campaign vehicle, whichis usually the case but wasreportedly unavailable due tohis hastily arranged visit toNara.

"Looks like police weremainly focusing on frontward,while paying little attention towhat's behind Mr. Abe, andnobody stopped the suspectapproaching him," saidMitsuru Fukuda, a crisis man-agement professor at NihonUniversity. "Clearly there wereproblems."

Fukuda said that electioncampaigns provide a chancefor voters and politicians tointeract because "political ter-rorism" was extremely rare inpostwar Japan. But Abe's assas-sination could prompt strictersecurity at crowded events likecampaigns, sports games andothers.

During a parliamentary

debate in 2015, Abe resistedsuggestions by an oppositionlawmaker to beef up his secu-rity, insisting that "Japan is asafe country."

In videos circulating onsocial media, the 41-year-oldYamagami can be seen stand-ing only a few meters (yards)behind Abe across a busystreet, and continuously glanc-ing around.

A few minutes after Abestood at the podium and start-ed his speech - as a local partycandidate and their supportersstood and waved to the crowd- Yamagami can be seen takinghis gun out of a bag, walkingtoward Abe and firing the firstshot, which released a cloud ofsmoke, but the projectileapparently missed Abe.

As Abe turned to seewhere the noise came from, asecond shot went off. That bul-let apparently hit Abe's leftarm, missing a bulletproof

briefcase raised by a securityguard who stood behind him.

Abe fell to the ground,with his left arm tucked in asif to cover his chest. Campaignorganizers shouted throughloudspeakers asking for med-ical experts to provide first-aidto Abe. His heart and breath-ing had stopped by the time hewas airlifted to a hospital,where he later pronounceddead.

Police on Saturday saidautopsy results showed that abullet that entered Abe's upperleft arm damaged arteriesbeneath both collar bones,causing fatal massive bleeding.

According to the Asahinewspaper, Yamagami was acontract worker at a ware-house in Kyoto, operating aforklift. He was described as aquiet person who did not min-gle with colleagues. A next-door neighbor at his apartmenttold Asahi he never met

Yamagami, though he recalledhearing noises like a saw beingused several times late at nightover the past month. Japan isparticularly known for its strictgun laws.

With a population of 125million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year,eight of then gang-related.Even though he was out ofoffice, Abe was still highlyinfluential in the governingLiberal Democratic Party andheaded its largest faction. Buthis ultra-nationalist viewsmade him a divisive figure tomany.

Abe stepped down twoyears ago blaming a recurrenceof the ulcerative colitis he'd hadsince he was a teenager. He saidhe regretted leave many of hisgoals unfinished, especiallyhis failure to resolve the issueof Japanese abducted yearsago by North Korea, a territo-rial dispute with Russia, and a

revision of Japan's war-renouncing constitution.

That ultra-nationalismriled the Koreas and China,and his push to create what hesaw as a more normal defenseposture angered manyJapanese liberals. Abe failed toachieve his cherished goal offormally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitutionbecause of poor public support.

Loyalists said his legacywas a stronger U.S.-Japan rela-tionship that was meant to bol-ster Japan's defense capability.Abe divided the public byforcing his defense goals andother contentious issuesthrough parliament.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping,who early on had a frostyrelationship with Abe, sent acondolence message toJapanese Prime MinisterFumio Kishida on Saturday, aday after most other worldleaders issued their statements.

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New York: The leaders of India,Australia and the US - coun-tries that make up the Quadwith Japan - have expressedshock at the assassination ofShinzo Abe and recalled theformer Japanese PrimeMinister's formative role inthe founding of the grouping aswell as his tireless work toadvance a shared vision for afree and open Indo-Pacificregion.

Abe, Japan's longest-serv-ing prime minister, died in hos-pital on Friday morning afterbeing shot while speaking at apolitical campaign event inNara in western Japan. The 67-year-old Japanese leader's assas-sination has profoundlyshocked a country where guncrime is very rare.

"We, the leaders ofAustralia, India, and the UnitedStates, are shocked at the trag-ic assassination of formerJapanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe," US President JoeBiden, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and AustralianPrime Minister AnthonyAlbanese said in a joint state-ment released by the WhiteHouse on Friday.

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Russian forces are managingto "raise true hell" in

Ukraine's eastern industrialheartland despite reports ofthem taking an operationalpause, a regional governor saidon Saturday, while the govern-ment in Kyiv urged people inRussian-occupied southernareas to evacuate "by all possi-ble means" ahead of aUkrainian offensive.

Deadly Russian shellingwas reported in Ukraine's eastand south. The governor ofLuhansk, Serhyi Haidai, saidRussia launched over 20artillery, mortar and rocketstrikes in the provinceovernight and its forces werepressing toward the borderwith neighbouring Donetsk.

"We are trying to containthe Russians' armed formationsalong the entire front line,"Haidai wrote on Telegram.

Last week, Russia capturedthe last major stronghold ofUkrainian resistance inLuhansk, the city ofLysychansk. Analysts predict-ed Moscow's troops likelywould take time to rearm andregroup. But "so far, there hasbeen no operational pause

announced by the enemy. He isstill attacking and shelling ourlands with the same intensity asbefore", Haidai said.

In a later post, he claimedthe bombardment of Luhanskwas suspended becauseUkrainian forces had destroyedammunition depots and bar-racks used by the Russians.

Ukraine's deputy primeminister, Iryna Vereshchuk,appealed to residents ofRussian-held territories in thesouth to evacuate so the occu-pying forces could not usethem as human shields duringa Ukrainian counteroffensive.

"You need to search for away to leave, because ourarmed forces are coming to de-occupy," she said. "There will bea massive fight. I don't want toscare anyone. Everyone under-stands all of this anyway."

Speaking at a news con-ference late Friday, Vereshchuksaid a civilian evacuation effortwas underway for parts of theKherson and Zaporizhzhiaregions. She declined to givedetails, citing safety consider-ations.

It was not clear how civil-ians were expected to safelyleave Russian-controlled areaswhile missile strikes and

artillery shelling continue insurrounding areas, or whetherthey would be allowed todepart or even hear the gov-ernment's appeal. The war'sdeath toll continued to rise.

Five people were killedand eight more wounded inRussian shelling Friday ofSiversk and Semyhirya inDonetsk province, its governor,Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote on hisTelegram channel on Saturdaymorning. In the city ofSloviansk, named as a likelynext target of Russia's offensive,rescuers said they pulled a 40-year-old man from the rubbleof a building destroyed byshelling on Saturday morning.Kyrylenko had said multiplepeople were under the debris.

Russian missiles killed twopeople and wounded threeothers on Saturday morning inthe southern city of Kryvyi Rih,according to regional authori-ties. "They deliberately target-ed residential areas," ValentynReznichenko, the governor ofthe eastern Dnipropetrovskregion, asserted on Telegram.

Kryvyi Rih's mayor,Oleksandr Vilkul, asserted in aFacebook post that clustermunitions had been used, andhe urged residents not to

approach unfamiliar objectsin the streets. In northeastUkraine, a Russian rocket strikeon Ukraine's second-largestcity, Kharkiv, injured sevenpeople on Saturday morning,and three of them were hospi-talised, including a child, theregional governor, OlehSyniehubov, wrote onTelegram. The city has beentargeted throughout the war,including several times in thepast week. As survivorValentina Mirgorodksayadabbed at a cut on her cheek,first responders warily inspect-ed a downtown residentialbuilding shattered in Saturday'sstrike. "I don't know,"Mirgorodksaya said. "I justdon't know."

Mykolayiv MayorOleksandr Senkevych reportedin a Telegram post that sixRussian missiles were fired athis city in southern Ukraine,near the Black Sea, but causedno casualties.

Russian defence officialsclaimed on Saturday that theirforces destroyed a hangar hous-ing US howitzers in Ukraine,near the Donetsk provincetown of Chasiv Yar. There wasno immediate response fromUkraine.

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President Joe Biden onFriday condemned the

"extreme" Supreme Courtmajority that ended a consti-tutional right to abortion anddelivered an impassioned pleafor Americans upset by thedecision to "vote, vote, votevote" in November. Undermounting pressure from fellowDemocrats to be more forcefulin response to the ruling, hesigned an executive order to tryto protect access to the proce-dure.

The actions Biden out-lined are intended to head offsome potential penalties thatwomen seeking abortion mayface after the ruling, but hisorder cannot restore access toabortion in the more than adozen states where strict lim-its or total bans have gone intoeffect.

About a dozen more statesare set to impose additionalrestrictions. Biden acknowl-edged the limitations facing hisoffice, saying it would requirean act of Congress to restorenationwide access to the way it

was before the June 24 decision."The fastest way to restore

Roe is to pass a national law,"Biden said. "The challenge is goout and vote. For God's sakethere is an election inNovember!"

Biden's action formalizedinstructions to theDepartments of Justice andHealth and Human Services topush back on efforts to limit theability of women to access fed-erally approved abortion med-ication or to travel across statelines to access clinical abortionservices.

He was joined by VicePresident Kamala Harris, HHSsecretary Xavier Becerra andDeputy Attorney General LisaMonaco in the Roosevelt Roomas he signed the order.

His executive order alsodirects agencies to work to edu-cate medical providers andinsurers about how and whenthey are required to share priv-ileged patient information withauthorities - an effort to protectwomen who seek or obtainabortion services. He is alsoasking the Federal TradeCommission to take steps to

protect the privacy of thoseseeking information aboutreproductive care online andestablish a task force to coor-dinate federal efforts to safe-guard access to abortion. Bidenis also directing his staff to lineup volunteer lawyers to providewomen and providers with probono legal assistance to helpthem navigate new state restric-tions.

The order comes as Bidenhas faced criticism from somein his own party for not actingwith more urgency to protectwomen's access to abortion.The court's decision in thecase known as Dobbs v. JacksonWomen's Health Organizationoverturned the landmark 1973Roe v. Wade ruling. Since thedecision, Biden has stressedthat his ability to protect abor-tion rights by executive actionis limited without congres-sional action, and stressed thatDemocrats do not have thevotes in the current Congressto do so.

"We need two additionalpro-choice senators and a pro-choice house to codify Roe," hesaid.

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���@��&�5�������������G��D���Wickremesinghe was appointed the Prime Minister after anti-Government protests forcedthe resignation of then prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the elder brother of PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa, in May. Wickremesinghe's offer to resign came after it was decid-ed at the all-party leaders' meeting that the President and the Prime Minister should resignimmediately. The meeting was held at Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena's official res-idence. The Leader of the Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya Sajith Premadasa did not participate in the partly leaders' meeting as he is currently in a private hospitalin Colombo due to a sudden illness. It is said that the majority of the party leaders haverequested in the meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs that the Speaker shouldbecome the Acting President and work to form an all-party Government under his lead-ership. Former President and Leader of Sri Lanka Freedom Party Maithripala Sirisenawas also of the opinion that the President and the Prime Minister should immediatelyresign from their positions. The former President in a statement through video call saidhis party is of the opinion that these activities should be done to preserve the peace andthe Constitution. A group of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) lawmak-ers meanwhile in a letter have requested the President to resign immediately consider-ing the current situation.though, a

-��������7=H7I@D��6 ��� -�������D� �� �,A BSF spokesperson in Delhi said, "Sixteen bodies have been shifted to Baltal".

Even after deploying sophisticated surveillance equipment the rescue workers andthe teams of the NDRF, SDRF and the Indian Army could not find any trace of themissing people. Unconfirmed reports said at least 40 people were still reported miss-ing from the cave shrine area. Accumulation of slush and debris of boulders is vastlyhampering the rescue operations on ground zero amid fears of heavy downpour inthe region. In Srinagar, National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah onSaturday said the Government should order an inquiry to ascertain how tents and com-munity kitchens were set up in a highly-vulnerable area close to the Amarnath caveshrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas, which was hit by flash floods on Friday. "Weare hopeful that the Government will form an inquiry commission to know how ithappened and why it happened," Abdullah told reporters after meeting Yashwant Sinha,the joint Opposition candidate for the July 18 presidential polls, here.Meanwhile, the Amarnath Yatra remained suspended from both the Baltal and Pahalgamroutes on Saturday and the entire yatra track was cleared off to ensure safety of thepilgrims. Surprisingly, a fresh batch of over 6,000 pilgrims were flagged off from theJammu-based Yatri Niwas early on Saturday morning. To boost the morale of theIndian Army jawans, already working tirelessly since Friday evening, Chinar CorpsCommander Lt.-Gen. Amardeep Singh Aujla along with GOC Kilo Force, Major-GeneralSanjiv Singh Salaria arrived in the cave shrine to personally review rescue operationson Saturday.

An integrated command centre has been set up under the charge of the DivisionalCommissioner of Kashmir while helpline numbers have been established in Anantnagin South Kashmir, Srinagar and in Delhi for families of pilgrims to know about thewellbeing of their kin. An Army official said an infantry battalion led by a colonel alongwith Quick Reaction Teams, an additional company from the Rashtriya Rifles Sectorand a team from Special Forces had reached the shrine with specialised rescue equip-ment to undertake the operation. "Through the night, the senior Army officers of theinfantry battalion and Rashtriya Rifles oversaw and coordinated rescue operations.Medical resources at the cave and at Nilgrar were activated and additional resourcesdeployed," he said. Nine surveillance detachments with hand-held thermal imagers,night-vision devices and other gadgets were deployed for the search operations, theofficial said Large number of pilgrims who returned overnight from the holy cave areathanked jawans of the different security agencies for rushing timely help and deploy-ing adequate manpower to guide them during the night so that they can cover the dis-tance on foot without facing any hardships.After the Amarnath cave shrine area was hit by gushing waters rolling down the moun-tainside due to the incessant rain in the upper reaches, the shrine board authoritiesmade public announcements directing the pilgrims present in the area to immediatelyshift to the safer places. As the security personnel themselves launched rescue oper-ations to save precious lives those deployed along the yatra route were directed to facil-itate pilgrims to reach base camps along the yatra route. Thanking soldiers of the Indianarmy, NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, CRPF,,BSF and Jammu and Kashmir police jawans the pil-grims said, if these uniformed men were not present there and launched the timely

operations the toll could have been much higher. Additional Director General of theJammu and Kashmir Police, Vijay Kumar, also reached the holy cave shrine on Saturdaymorning to supervise the rescue operations. He said the rescuers were clearing the debristo look for survivors as the administration was cross-checking the data of pilgrims toget the exact number of casualties. Every pilgrim has been provided with a RadioFrequency Identification card this time because of terror threats. A Border SecurityForce (BSF) spokesperson said doctors and medical staff of the paramilitary force treat-ed patients who were critically injured in the floods. "They have been rescued to loweraltitude Neelgrath base camp," he said. A small BSF team is also deployed at the Neelgrathhelipad to assist the pilgrims coming from the holy cave. About 150 yatris stayed atthe BSF camp created in Panjtarni on Friday night and 15 patients were airlifted toBaltal on Saturday morning, he said. According to an army official, mountain rescueteams and lookout patrols with high-tech equipment and sniffer dogs have been deployedfor the search and rescue operation. "Air rescue operations started Saturday morningto safely evacuate injured pilgrims by Army helicopters. The military medical teamsare receiving patients and casualties at the Nilagrar helipad for onward evacuation,"an official said.An Mi-17 chopper of the BSF's air wing was also pressed into service. The Jammuand Kashmir administration has also deployed advanced light helicopters for rescueoperations. The ITBP has expanded its route opening and protection parties from thelower part of the holy cave up to Panjtarni, a spokesperson of the force said.LieutenantGovernor Manoj Sinha Saturday visited SKIMS hospital in Srinagar to enquire aboutthe health of pilgrims who were injured in yesterday's unfortunate incident at ShriAmarnathji holy cave. Prof. Parvaiz A. Koul, Director SKIMS briefed the Lt Governoron the health facilities being extended to the injured pilgrims for their treatment.It was informed that seven pilgrims who were injured are under-going treatment atthe Hospital and being monitored by senior health staff Later, the Lt Governor alsovisited PCR, Srinagar where he was briefed about the status of sending the mortal remainsof deceased pilgrims to their respective hometowns.

-����-�������������������6��J ��“It was initially reported as a cloudburst, but the IMD said that the 31 mm of rain-

fall between 4.30 P.M. and 6.30 P.M. on Friday is quite low to be categorised as a cloud-burst. "The flash floods could have been triggered due to rainfall in the higher reach-es of the mountains near the Amarnath cave shrine," IMD Director-General DrMrutyunjay Mohapatra said.

The IMD has an automatic weather station near the Amarnath cave shrine, whichprovides weather forecasts during the pilgrimage. But, the surrounding mountainousareas do not have any such station due to inaccessibility. According to an explainer bythe IMD on its website, "It is very difficult to predict cloudbursts due to its very smallscale in space and time. To monitor or nowcast (forecasting a few hours lead time)the cloudburst, we need to have a dense radar network over the cloudburst-prone areasor one needs to have very high resolution weather forecasting models to resolve thescale of the cloudburst." "Cloudbursts do occur at plains, however, mountainous regionsare more prone to cloud bursts due to orography," said weather experts. However, ifthe Doppler radar at Banihal which was announced more than two years ago was func-tional it could have helped avert the tragedy.

A Doppler radar is an important tool that gives the India Meteorological Department(IMD) a more accurate assessment of the clouds and rainfall in the given range of theradar, 100 km in case at Banihal. At Banihal, this Doppler radar is an X-band radarto be installed at a high point to get clearer access to the atmospheric changes in thehilly terrain. The location is under the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment(DGRE), that too at a high altitude, away from any village. The IMD, meanwhile, issueda red alert in parts of Maharashtra on Saturday, including Raigad, Ratnagiri, Pune andKolhapur. According to the Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai and its suburbswill receive moderate rain.

����D��5� -��������,�&��&�������Din Delhi at the time of his wife's death, the party sources said, adding that the

body was being brought to Lucknow. Akhilesh Yadav is overseeing the arrangementsand the details of the last rites will be finalised soon, they added. Senior party lead-ers and workers started arriving at the SP patron's house soon after the news of SadhanaGupta's death broke. In a tweet, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath andDeputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya extended their condolences toMulayam Singh Yadav and his family. Rashtriya Lok Dal national spokesman Anil Dubey

expressed grief over the death of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav's wife Sadhana Gupta.

� ���6��D������@�����K������that the Board planned to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. "TheTwitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreedupon with Mr. Musk...," he wrote. The possible unraveling of the deal is just the lat-est twist in a saga between Musk and one of the most influential social media plat-forms. Much of the drama has played out on Twitter, with Musk saying that the com-pany was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech. On Friday,shares of Twitter fell 5 per cent to $36.81, well below the $54.20 that Musk had offeredto pay. Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, climbed 2.5 per cent to $752.29. In a letter to theSecurities and Exchange Commission, Musk said Twitter has "not complied with itscontractual obligations" surrounding the deal, namely giving Musk enough informa-tion to "make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accountson Twitter's platform." Musk's flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in lateMarch.

That's when Twitter has said he contacted members of its Board - including co-founder Jack Dorsey - and told them he was buying up shares of the company andinterested in either joining the Board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor.Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had became the company'slargest shareholder after acquiring a 9 per cent stake worth about $3 billion.

At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, Twitter CEOParag Agrawal tweeted that Musk will not be joining the Board after all. His bid tobuy the company came together quickly after that. Musk had agreed to buy Twitterfor $54.20 per share, inserting a "420" marijuana reference into his offer price. He soldroughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase, then strength-ened his commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors includ-ing Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

&������6��6�������6 ���-��� � &���6��in carrying out the delimitation of wards and other incidental functions related to it.The committee shall complete the above-mentioned exercise and submit its report with-in four months from the date of issue of this order," the MHA said in its order.

The other members of the panel are Pankaj Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministryof Housing and Urban Affairs and Randhir Sahay, Additional Commissioner MCD.Former Secretary Lok Sabha and Delhi Assembly, SK Sharma, said a change in num-ber and boundaries of wards is a lengthy and complicated process. "The committeewill decide reservation of wards for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.The delimitation committee will first submit a draft based on its recommended num-ber of wards and their boundaries after which it will be put in public domain to seeksuggestions and objections from all stakeholders," he added. Sharma further said theprospective candidates, MLAs, MPs and RWAs usually put up several objections andsuggestions to add and remove colonies from their wards depending on their own con-siderations. Their objection and revision in boundaries takes more time. "Normally,such delimitation commissions/committees were given 6-12 months' time. After it iscompleted, the draft report has to be notified by the Centre and then the process ofrotation of wards and other poll exercises will start. It is likely to take about a year toconduct the municipal election in Delhi," Sharma added. The MCD polls, originallyscheduled for April, were put off hours before the election schedule was to be announced.The election was called off as the BJP-led Central Government wanted to unify theMCDs and also conduct delimitation to decrease the number of wards.

While unifying the MCD and passing the Municipal Corporation (Amendment)Bill, 2022, the Centre had said it will go for delimitation as the number of wards fromthe present 272 need to be fixed to not more than 250. Around 1397.3 square kilo-metres of area comes under MCD which is divided into 12 administrative zones and272 municipal wards. The reunified MCD had formally come into existence on May22 with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as the newcivic body's special officer and commissioner, respectively. The last delimitation exer-cise for municipal wards in Delhi was done in January 2017. The overall process processtook around 16 months. The delimitation commission will then start the exercise toreorganise the municipal wards in accordance with the population of the respectiveAssembly segments. The erstwhile MCD, established in 1958, was trifurcated in 2012during Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the Chief Minister. It was recently reunified by merg-ing three civic bodies - North, South and East Delhi municipal corporations or NDMC,SDMC and EDMC.

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Star Indian compound archerAbhishek Verma shocked world

champion Mike Schloesser to storminto the semi-final of the WorldGames here.

The two were locked 149-149after a five-setter duel and the tie-breaker also was a stalemate withboth shooting perfect 10s, but theIndian edged out the world numberone shooting closer to centre to makethe last-four on Friday.

India also remained in the frayin the mixed compound sectionwhere Verma and Jyothi SurekhaVennam will play for bronze medalagainst Mexico later on Saturday.

The World Games is a multi-sport event with only compound sec-tion in archery.

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Star Indian shuttler HSPrannoy's rampaging run at

the Malaysia Masters Super 500tournament hit a roadblock ashe slipped to a narrow three-game loss against Hong Kong'sNG Ka Long Angus in a mis-take-filled men's singles semi-final here on Saturday.

It was heartbreak once againin the semifinals for the Indianas he squandered a one-gameadvantage to go down 21-17 9-21 17-21 against NG Ka Long

after battling for an hour andfour minutes at the AxiataArena here.

Heading into the matchwith a 4-4 career record,Prannoy, who had defeated NgKa Long in the last three meet-ings, picked the good side afterwinning the toss.

It seemed to come back tohaunt him as he looked in firmcontrol in the first game butstruggled with his length anddrowned in a pool of unforcederrors after changing ends.

After a nervy start in the

opening game, Prannoymarched ahead to a 5-3 leadwith two exquisite cross courtjump smashes.

The Indian didn't try to playat a breathtaking pace but rather

focussed on constructing therallies and punishing the weakreturns with a pitch-perfectplacement. He had a four-pointcushion at the break.

Ng Ka Long tried to use hissmashes to gather points but hewas guilty of missing some easychances as Prannoy maintainedhis four-point lead till 17-13.

Prannoy then gave twopoints away with a couple ofmiscued shots before prevailingin a parallel exchange and soongrabbed four game point oppor-tunities. He missed the first one

before closing out the openinggame with another perfectplacement at the baseline.

However, after the changeof sides, Prannoy struggled tocontrol the shuttle in driftyconditions while Ng Ka Longshowed better execution to keepa firm grip on the rallies. Theresult was a six-point advantageat the mid-game interval.

With errors piling up,Prannoy soon fell far behindand the Indian decided to let goof the second game to save hisenergy for the decider.

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Ace Indian 200m runnerDhanalakshmi Sekar is

yet to complete her US visaformalities, which was thereason why her name was notthere in the list of Indian par-ticipants released by theinternational track and fieldgoverning body for theupcoming World AthleticsChampionships in Eugene,

USA.Dhanalakshmi was on

June 30 named in the 22-member Indian team for theJuly 15-24 WorldChampionships in Eugene,USA. Bur now, it could bedifficult for her to take partin the showpiece as she iseven yet to complete visa for-malities. "My visa is yet to bedone. My first visa appoint-ment got cancelled, so tryingto get it done," she told PTIfrom Thiruvananthapuram

where she is currently train-ing.

The Tamil Nadu athletecould not breach the auto-matic qualification standardof 22.80s but made the cut forthe World Championshipsthrough world rankings.

On June 26, she had runher personal best time of22.89s to win 200m gold atthe Qosanov MemorialAthletics Meet in Almaty.

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Reigning Asian championVishwanath Suresh and Rohit

Chamoli extended their impressiverun to enter the men's quarterfinalsby registering emphatic wins at theYouth National BoxingChampionships here.

While Vishwanath, representingServices Sports Control Board(SSCB), thrashed Chandigarh'sSushant Kapoor by 5-0 in the 48kgcategory, 2021 Asian junior champi-on Rohit of Chandigarh out-punchedBhupendra Kumar of Uttar Pradeshby similar margin in the 51 kg last-16 contest.

Jadumani Mandengbam (51kg)was the other SSCB boxer to progressinto the men's quarterfinals. He beatManipur's Edipak Laishram Singh byunanimous decision.

For Chandigarh, besides Rohit,Parineeta Sheoran also advanced tothe last-8 stage from women's sectionafter securing an easy 5-0 win over

Andhra Pradesh's Vyashnavi Nethalain the 48 kg category.

Meanwhile, six pugilists fromMaharashtra, including four women,made their way into the quarterfinalson the third day of the event.

Aarya Bartakke began the day forMaharashtra with a thrilling 3-2 win

against UP's Anamika Yadav in anintensely fought women's 57 kg pre-quarterfinal.

Vaishnavi Waghmare (60kg),Aditi Sharma (66kg) and SanaGonsalves (70kg), on the other hand,claimed comfortable wins.

Aditi beat Delhi's Khushi Sharmaby 5-0 margin while Vaishnavi andSana notched up wins by RefereeStopping Contest (RSC) verdictagainst Chhattisgarh's Garima Sharmaand Punjab's Darshpreet Kaur respec-tively.

In the men's section, UmerShaikh (48kg) and Usman Ansari(51kg) progressed into the quarterfi-nals from Maharashtra with contrast-ing wins.

Yamini Kanwar (48kg) and Sunita(52kg) were among the five womenpugilists from Rajasthan who madetheir way into the quarter-finals.

While Yamini got the better ofMaharashtra's Janhavi Churi by 3-2margin, Sunita won by 4-1 againstGujarat's Sanjana Choudhary.

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Arecord 152-run stand for the sec-ond wicket between captain

Dimuth Karunaratne and KusalMendis helped Sri Lanka fight back inthe second test against Australia as thehosts finished day two on 184 for twoon Saturday, trailing by 180 runs.

After a batting collapse and 10-wicket loss in the first test, Sri Lankaneeded to show resolve on a tracknotorious for spin domination.

Karunaratne and Mendis laid thefoundation for a competitive total afteropener Pathum Nissanka (6) depart-ed cheaply having been spectacular-ly caught by Cameron Green at gullyoff Mitchell Starc.

The sweep shot had proved to be

Sri Lanka's downfall in the first testand on Saturday sweeps were few asthe two batsmen banked on theirstrengths.

Karunaratne drove the spinnerswell and was often on the front footduring his knock of 86 that produced10 boundaries. He reached his 30thtest fifty by stepping out to leg-spin-ner Mitchell Swepson and smashinghim for the mid-wicket boundary.

The partnership was broken whenthe left-hander attempted to playSwepson across and was plumb infront. The 152-run stand is a recordfor Sri Lanka for the second wicketagainst Australia improving on the143-run partnership between KumarSangakkara and Marvan Atapattu in2007 in Hobart.

Mendis was more comfortableagainst pace pulling and flicking withconfidence as he reached his 14th testhalf-century. He was unbeaten on 84having faced 152 deliveries and hitnine fours. Angelo Mathews was notout on 6. He had to withdraw from thefirst test after testing positive forCOVID-19. Steve Smith and MarnusLabuschagne had hit hundreds inAustralia's first innings to help themto 364 all out. The overnight pair ofSmith and Alex Carey added 77 runsfor the sixth wicket but there was notmuch resistance from rest of the bat-ters.

Australia resumed from 298 forfive and Sri Lanka's spinners did wellto claim the last five wickets for 66runs as left-arm spinner Prabath

Jayasuriya claimed six for 118. Hebecame the sixth Sri Lankan to takefive wickets or more in an innings ondebut.Jayasuriya was a late a replace-ment in the Sri Lankan side after it wasforced to bring in additions with sev-eral players testing positive forCOVID-19.

Smith finished unbeaten on 145having batted for more than six hoursin which he faced 272 deliveries andhit 16 fours. He had posted his 28thtest hundred on day one and wasrarely troubled by the spinners.

Australia has retained the Warne-Murali Trophy following its big win inthe first test. If they wrap up the series2-0, the Australians will further con-solidate their position as the world'sNo. 1 team.

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Suchitra Ramesh, one of the regu-lars on the Hero Women's Pro Golf

Tour in India, rounded off the weekwith a tied 35th place finish at theTrust Golf Links Series here.

She shot six-over 79 in a roundthat saw her hit a tough patch with adouble and four more bogeys on theback nine at the Par-73 Ramside HallGolf Club.

Suchitra, who is trying to play herway into the Ladies European Tour

through the LET Access Series shotrounds of 76-77-79.

Thailand's Chanettee Wannasaencarded a final round of level-par 73to win the title by three shots.

The 18-year-old started her roundwith a birdie on the first hole afterwhich she added two more anddropped three strokes on the frontnine to make the turn in 37 shots.

The Thai talent had one morebogey on the 11th hole and swiftlyerased that with a birdie on the 12thto finish the round at even-par andsecure her maiden win in Europe.Germany's Chiara Noja claimed thesolo third place shooting a finalround of two-over 75 and regainingthe top spot on the LETAS Order ofMerit.

The low amateur of the tourna-ment was England's Jessica Hall whofinished at a total of two-under, shar-ing fourth place with Wales' JordanRyan. Australia's Stefanie Hall,Sweden's Sara Kjellker, andScotland's Tara Mactaggart all endedup a further shot back to tie the sixthspot.

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Star Indian wrestler BajrangPunia has received his UK

visa for the upcomingCommonwealth Games, whichwill allow him leave for theUnited States for a training stintthere ahead of the BirminghamCWG, the Sports Authority ofIndia (SAI) said on Saturday.

Since, he will go for theCWG directly from his trainingbase in the United States, itwould have been difficult forBajrang to complete the UK visaformalities later. Now that he hasgot his UK visa, Bajrang cantrain in the US without any anx-iety.

The 28-year-old TokyoOlympics bronze medallist wassupposed to travel to theMichigan University in the USlast month for training ahead ofthe Birmingham CWG but wasforced to stay back in India dueto a delay in getting his UK visa.

"The Sports Ministry,through the Ministry of ExternalAffairs, got in touch with theBritish High Commission toseek the UK Visa for Bajrang,which has now been obtained,"

a SAI media release said.The CWG will be held in

Birmingham from July 28 toAugust 8.

On several occasions, theMEA has helped the SportsMinistry in obtaining visa of ath-letes travelling abroad for com-petition and training ahead ofthe CWG.

Bajrang, who won gold inthe 2018 CommonwealthGames, and fellow wrestlerDeepak Punia will now leave forUS this weekend from India.They will train at the MichiganUniversity until July 30, follow-ing which both will leave forBirmingham.

The Sports Ministry's TargetOlympic Podium Scheme(TOPS) has facilitated the expo-sure trip. The training stint in theUSA will be helpful for thepreparation of the CWG andother upcoming major compe-titions like the Wrestling WorldChampionship, scheduled inSeptember in Belgrade.

A total of 111 foreign expo-sures in various sports havebeen funded by the SportsMinistry after Tokyo Olympicsin the lead up to CWG.

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Rohit Sharma's inspirationalleadership and an aggressivebrand new approach saw India

completely outclass England by 49runs in the second T20 Internationalto seal the three-match series with anunassailable 2-0 lead here onSaturday.

Batting first, India once againshowed a start-to-finish aggressiveintent while reaching 170 for eightriding on new 'batting all-rounder'Ravindra Jadeja (46 not out off 29balls) after a sudden collapse duringthe middle-phase on a track full ofpace and bounce.

With the ball, BhuvneshwarKumar's (3/15) new found rhythm inthe powerplay overs was superblycomplemented by the skilful duo ofJasprit Bumrah (2/10) and YuzevndraChahal (2/10) as England inningsimploded for a meagre 121 in 17overs. If India's batting has been verygood in both the games, the bowlinghas simply been outstanding withcomplete domination in the power-plays. Since he got full-time captain-cy, the Indian team is yet to lose amatch under him. There has beenthree clean sweeps -- New Zealand(3-0), West Indies (3-0), Sri Lanka (3-0) and a fourth against England in thecurrent one looks imminent.

With three months left for theWorld T20, the playing XI onSaturday gave a glimpse of what could

be the batting order and its philoso-phy going forward.

Rishabh Pant's (26 off 15 balls)elevation as an opener alongsideskipper Rohit (31 off 20 balls) is a wel-come move where the team at leastwouldn't be erring in the side of cau-tion in the powerplay overs.

In between the duo, they hitseven fours and three sixes in the firstsix overs, an approach that was miss-ing during last T20 World Cup.

The strategy is to not stop play-ing the shots even if wickets fall at oneend and Virat Kohli (1 off 3 balls) didfeel the peer pressure and the mis-timed skier showed his desperation.

But the most impressive aspectcame to fore from 89 for five, as Indiastill managed to reach 170, courtesyJadeja, who didn't have a great timein T20 cricket having had a torridtime in CSK during IPL, where he lostform and fractured relationships.

With strong indications that hewill leave CSK next year, Jadejaseemed to be playing with a free mindand it was evident that even as wick-ets fell at the other end, there was noletting up in his strokeplay as thescoreboard had a competitive feel toit. A good Indian white ball team hasalways had Bhuvneshwar as animportant component in the set-up.

In the first game, it was abanana inswinger that castled rivalcaptain Jos Buttler and on Saturday,a classical outswinger first up sawJason Roy edging it to the slip cordon.

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Former captain Mithali Rajfeels the Indian women's

cricket team has a great chanceto finish on the podium in theupcoming CommonwealthGames, provided it has its tac-tics and strategies in place.

Women's cricket will makeits debut in the BirminghamCWG after a men's tournamentwas held at the 1998 edition inKuala Lumpur.

India are placed in GroupA and will take on Australia intheir first group stage game on

July 29. Pakistan and Barbadosare the other two teams in thegroup.

"I think before any bigevent, preparation is veryimportant. If you prepare welland because it's a T20 formatand Commonwealth Games, ifyou have your tactics andstrategies in place we have agreat chance to finish on thepodium," Mithali said here.

The iconic former captainannounced her retirement lastmonth.

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Elena Rybakina beat Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 inthe Wimbledon final on Saturday to become

the first tennis player from Kazakhstan to win aGrand Slam singles championship.

Rybakina is a 23-year-old who was born inMoscow and has represented Kazakhstan since2018, when that country offered her funding tosupport her tennis career. The switch has been atopic of conversation during Wimbledon, becauseThe All England Club barred all players who rep-resent Russia or Belarus from entering the tour-nament because of the war in Ukraine.

This was the first women's title match since1962 at the All England Club between two play-ers who were making their debuts in a major final.

Rybakina is ranked No. 23. Since the WTAcomputer rankings began in 1975, just onewoman ranked lower than Rybakina wonWimbledon - Venus Williams in 2007 at No. 31,although she previously had been No. 1 andalready won three of her five career trophies at theAll England Club.

Rybakina used her big serve and powerfulforehand to overcome Jabeur's mix of spins andslices at Centre Court on Saturday. Rybakinaended Jabeur's 12-match winning streak, whichcame entirely on grass courts.

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�You have been associat-ed with DID since the begin-ning and have mentorednumerous contestants of dif-ferent age groups. How hasyour association with co-judges and contestants been?

In the period of time,one best line that I can say

is "they became my fam-ily". My co-judges,Geeta Kapoor andTerence Lewis, andmy family Dharmesh,Raghav, Puneet,Salman, Prince, every-one is still in touchand is still working

with me. They areworking and we get

together when there is afestival or some other occa-

sion. It's been a long associa-tion. We are all very close andare there for one another.

�What do you thinkabout DID Super Moms?

Moms are outstanding!Each and every one of them.For me, all mothers are win-ners because they handlework, house, kids all alone. Idon't know how do they do it,but they are amazing.

�Since your televisiondebut in 2009, how has thedance landscape evolved

over the years?I think it has evolved to a

level which I had neverthought of. So fast and soamazing! We had two groupsfrom our show that went on tobecome world champions."Kings United" won the Worldof Dance and "TheUnbeatable" won America'sGot Talent. I'm very proud tosee dance evolve. It's the bestthing for me.

�Amongst the bunch ofsuper talented dancers andchoreographers, how toughis it to decide a winner?

That's the toughest job.But here, we put it on voting.It's the audience who picksthe best. Everyone is so amaz-ing, fantastic and it becomesvery hard to decide one win-ner.

�Which dance form isopted by the majority oflearners in India and why?

I think hip-hop is the onethat everyone is inclinedtowards.

�Coming from a non-film family, how difficultwas it to make a mark in theindustry?

A totally different back-ground and then getting intodancing, it was a very tough

thing. My father, brother andeven my neighbours wereagainst what I was doing. So,convincing all of them took alot of hard work actually.Once I came to Mumbai, Iproved myself and there wasno going back. Thankfully,now everything is sorted andI see that people want theirchildren to be dancers. Thatchange is what makes mehappy.

�Your father wanted youto join the Indian Air Force;how did you convince himabout choosing a career indancing?

I convinced my motherand my sisters, they were withme and that’s how I won. Ihave four sisters and with mymother, it’s five against one.

�We have been blessedwith best dancers, be it inclassical or western and youyourself have set an examplefor many. Who is your inspi-ration and why?

My inspiration since thebeginning is only one person,Michael Jackson. In India, it isPrabhu Deva. I think he isIndia's best dancer.Individually, he is the god ofdance in India. He got the rev-olution and inspired so many

to become backgrounddancers, choreographers anddirectors. I have alsopromised him, no matter whatfilm I do, I have to have youin that film. He is my luckycharm.

�You have been inclinedtoward dance forms like bal-let, acrobatics, mid-air danc-ing, contemporary,Bollywood and hip-hop.Have you ever tried yourhand at classical form?

Yes, I keep trying classicalform in my films and showsas well. I did a whole filmaround the classical WestBengal dance form calledChhau. We have to push ouraudience to like classicalmore so that we can get moredancers in Indian culture.

� Which is yourfavourite dance form andwhy?

I can't pinpoint myfavourite dance form becauseI love dancing and any formof dancing is my favourite. Ilove Hindi film industry.People say it's Bollywoodstyle. It's not Bollywoodstyle, it's a mix of everydance form in the world andit comes together here. That'sthe form I like.

Plan Your Day

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Without forgetting thegin revolution of yes-

teryears, Greater Than, amodern Indian craft Gindecided to remove a glitch inhistory — WilliamHogarth's art work, GinLane.

It is a misleading pieceof art created at a time whengin was the most populardrink of choice in London.Brimming with death, dis-ease and disgust, Hogarth’swork aimed to point out theevils of drinking gin.

271 years later, with ginonce again rising as thepopular choice around theworld, Nao Spirits wanted totake a shot at reimaginingGin Lane through fresh eyes.

At the event on July 2,artists Priyesh Trivedi, PriyaKuriyan, Shweta Sharma,Jasjyot Singh Hans, Saswata& Susruta Mukherjee (Bob& Bobby) displayed theirunique, modern interpreta-tions of Gin Lane while fol-lowing the basic structure

Hogarth had created in1751.

“This collaborationbetween the artists andGreater Than is our attemptat correcting what we feel iswrong and to make gin reatertogether,” says AparajitaNinan, Co-Founder andCreative Head for Nao Spirits.

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Sadhana app is Om Swami’sbrainchild. He, who is amonk, entrepreneur andauthor, created this novel appalong with a team of digital

and content creators from around theworld to revive the holy vedas andrestore the rich traditional roots of ourancient culture via technology. Theapp offers a unique state-of-the-artdigital platform for vedic worship toconnect seekers of spiritual truthwith the roots of Sanatana Dharma.

According to Om Swami: “Thevedic ideology is not a few thousandbut a mere hundred years away fromextinction. If we don’t revive thevedas, they will perish one day. In theguise of being liberal, we are not evenexposing our youth and children tothe beauty and teachings of the vedas.”

Sadhana app was launched inearly March this year and since thenhas grown exponentially to touchmore than 1.5 lakh lives across theworld. It is an inner anchor ofstrength, a coping mechanism, a pil-lar of hope and faith for people. Thespiritual discipline of sadhana buildsan unshakeable inner foundation ofpeace and bliss within its practition-er. It has been hailed a boon by manyusers who were waiting for spiritualguidance and now have a way to expe-

rience the ancient vedic way of life,complimenting and enhancing thequality of their modern lives.

There are many seekers across theworld who are oblivious to the truepower of vedic traditions and are des-perately looking for this knowledge.They are confused and unable to findauthentic, clear guidance in one trust-worthy place on how and where tostart and what to do. The app bridgesthat knowledge gap and stands strongas a one-stop vedic hub for spiritualseekers.

For many others who are unableto step out of the house to offerprayers at a temple physically whetherdue to illness or old age or busyness,they are easily able to connect to theirdeity of their choice in a pure andmost powerful way and experience themagical transformation in their lives.The temple has come to people intheir own homes, on their smart-phones, just a tap away.

Sacred serviceIt is not just an app, it is a hum-

ble offering in the service of SanatanaDharma and the society. It has beenkept not for profit because it is a sacredservice and a mission dedicated toreviving the timeless vedas and to pre-serve a cultural legacy for the futuregenerations of the nation.

“We at Vedic Sadhana Foundationwanted to keep it free and removed allbarriers of entry to the knowledge thatcan uplift the consciousness of anindividual and the world at large inunprecedented ways. This preciouswisdom has been passed down by ourancestors and we wanted to ensurethat anyone who wishes to connect tothis knowledge can easily access it ina most easy and exciting way,absolutely free of cost via the latesttechnology on the Sadhana app.There are no advertisements, paywallor restrictions either,” says PriyankaAnand, CEO, Vedic SadhanaFoundation.

ForesightIt is currently the fastest growing

and most comprehensive vedic app inthe world and it is being built up ona grand scale to be the one-stop, mostauthentic spiritual hub for every-thing related to the knowledge andwisdom given in the vedas.

“We want to take it across theworld to every truth seeker and aHindu, who is searching for thisknowledge to connect them back tothe roots of Sanatana Dharma andpreserve this splendorous legacy forfuture generations,” Anand says.

“We are building and enablingeven more powerful features and

developing first-of-its-kind worshipmodules over the next few years toreally recreate the glory, divine powerand opulence of the vedic era. Withthe most cutting edge technology andsophisticated AI, we are movingtowards the latest in virtual reality andthe most immersive experience of vir-tual worship,” she adds.

Their aim is to be at the forefrontof innovation and perfectly merge themost ancient secrets of this world withmodern technology to ensure aninspiring and authentic way of expe-riencing the immeasurable benefits ofliving life the vedic way.

It is a faith tech product made inIndia with an aim to make it global,make it a brand of national pride andcultural significance.

Remembering rootsThe powerful vedic traditions of

mantra chanting, sacred fire offeringsand daily prayer rituals are no longertied to visiting the temple or beingdependent on a temple priest.

“As people turn to technology toreconnect with religion, our organi-sation is playing an important role inbridging that gap with the app. Itempowers people to learn and expe-rience the power of turning inwardsand performing vedic ritual worshipto their deity with the purest chants

and offerings,” says Anand.“We believe that it’s indeed pos-

sible to discover your highest potential,inner peace and harmony through thepower of daily spiritual practices donethe vedic way,” she says.

A user takes a magnificent virtualjourney through the mysticalHimalayan land of Siddhashram toexperience the guided path of the vedasin immersive, sacred 3D templesthrough five core vedic rituals ofmantra jaap, nitya puja, abhishekam,yajna and sadhanas, which are allpotent practices for spiritual evolution.

“Our social media handles and blogon (sadhana.app) compliment the appto share rare stories, discourses, guid-ance and authentic knowledge straightfrom the scriptures to bring the truthto seekers in a most relevant and prac-tical manner and eventually offer an in-depth base of scriptural knowledge.One can also explore the benefits ofchanting specific mantras on the appitself, which helps the user understandthe basis of its power,” Anand says.

The average engagement time onthe app for people is approximately 30mins daily. People start their day withthe virtual altar on the app connectingto the divine source of wisdom for spir-itual upliftment. Users experience thepeace, the power, pristine clarity ofmind and simple beauty of living likeour ancestors once did.

Current scenarioMajority of the users of Sadhana

app (65 per cent) at this point are mil-lennials and zoomers , falling betweenthe age groups of 18-34, who take to vir-tual worship more easily.

Anand says: “There comes a pointin life when you realise how futile it isto run after external means of trying tofind lasting happiness. We distractourselves from the restlessness andinner void most of us feel. We try to fillit with shiny attractions of the world,be it food, drugs, alcohol, social media,sex, relationships or work, and yet noth-ing seems to be enough for long. We areback to square one. It's primarilybecause we’ve lost our connection toour roots and the inner source of divin-ity, the fountain of bliss where we areall completely fulfilled.

She adds: “The devoted practice ofsadhana in time brings you back hometo yourself. You never feel lost or alone.Doing these practices on the app is alife-transforming master key to accessthe timeless wisdom of the vedas.”

“You can become powerful beyondimagination and live your best life forabsolutely anything is possible with sad-hana,” Anand exclaims.

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The �34,615 crore DHFLscam, undoubtedly thebiggest banking sector bankloot, has flagged a seriousneed for a rethink on the

regulatory mechanism governing bank-ing operations in the country.

In the absence of a full-proofmechanism, the Mumbai-based privatelender allegedly cheated a consortiumof 17 banks led by the public sector,Union Bank of India.

A time-bound investigation into themega fraud that resulted in a whoppingloss of over �34,600 crore to the pub-lic exchequer is a sine qua non to instilla sense of trust in the public in gener-al and the market investors in partic-ular.

The mega loan fraud by DHFL hasunderscores the urgency for trans-parency in loan sanctions and disbur-sal by both private as well as public sec-tor lenders.

The DHFL availed �42,871.42crore in 2010, but the fraud could onlybe detected in 2019. This speaks volumeabout the absence of a regulatorycheck and balance mechanism.

The then DHFL promoter andCMD Kapil Wadhawan and the thendirector Sudhakar Shetty along withother accused persons entered into acriminal conspiracy to cheat the con-sortium of 17 banks led by the UnionBank of India. The Wadhawan gangconvinced the consortium of banks tosanction huge loans aggregating to42,871.42 crore and siphoned off a sig-nificant portion of the said funds by fal-sifying the books of the DHFL and dis-honestly defaulted on repayment of thelegitimate dues of the said consortiumbanks, thereby causing a wrongful lossof �34,615 crore to the consortiumlenders, the CBI has alleged in its FIRregistered on June 20, 2022.

Besides, DHFL and its then CMDKapil Wadhawan, the CBI has named11 other individuals and entities includ-

ing DHFL director Dheeraj Wadhawanand Sudhakar Shetty besides shellcompanies like Amaryllis Realtors LLP,Gulmarg Realtors LLP, SkylarkBuildcon Pvt Ltd., Darshan DevelopersPvt Ltd., Sigtia Constructions Pvt.Ltd.,Creatoz Builders Pvt. Ltd.,Township Developers Pvt. Ltd., ShishirRealty Pvt. Ltd and Subblink RealEstate Pvt. Ltd. These entities wereallegedly used for diversion of loanfunds and subsequently siphoned off bythe accused promoters of DHFL.

The fraud by DHFL was commit-ted despite a consortium of lenders ofDHFL was formed under the leadershipof Union Bank of India on July 24, 2010with 29 member banks. The memberbanks agreed for joint documentationof the facilities, pooling of securities forthe aggregate facilities sanctioned by theDHFL Consortium Lenders to theborrower company.

If this was not enough, it is a mat-ter of record that DHFL was availingcredit facilities from the complainantbank Union Bank of India since 1984.The loan facilities availed by DHFLwere renewed/reviewed /enhancedfrom time to time by the complainantbank as well as by e-Corporation Bankand e-Andhra Bank, which have sincebeen amalgamated with the UnionBank of India.

The borrowers defaulted on theloans sanctioned by the DHFLConsortium Lenders and their accountswith consortium lenders have been clas-sified as Non Performing Assets. Theaccounts have also been declared asfraud by each of the consortiumlenders.

The loans by the consortium bankswere sanctioned by the ManagementCommittees of the DHFL ConsortiumBanks based all over the countryincluding New Delhi, Mumbai,Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune,Chennai, Hyderabad, Mangalore, andBengaluru without raising any red flag

at any level. This is only a pointer to thegovernance failure on part of the banks.

The entire loan amount was sanc-tioned relying on misrepresented doc-uments and falsified accounts by thepromoters of the DHFL.

The DHFL defaulted in its debtrepayment obligations to the consor-tium lenders from May 2019 onwardsfollowed by a sharp correction in theshare price of DHFL after concernssurfaced about the financial health ofthe private lender.

On the queries raised by the consor-tium lenders, the DHFL directors and offi-cers claimed that the fall in share price wason account of the sale of commercialpapers by one of its investors,

As early as January 2019, mediareports appeared wherein serious alle-gations of fraud by way of diversion,round-tripping, and siphoning of fundswere made against DHFL and promot-ers/directors. Following this, a meetingof Consortium Lenders was held onFebruary 1, 2019, wherein a CoreCommittee of the seven largest lenderscomprising SBI, BoB, BoI, CanaraBank, Central Bank of India, SyndicateBank, and Union Bank of India (leadbank and complainant bank) wasformed. Consultancy firm KPMG wasthen appointed as Auditor to conducta Special Review Audit of DHFL fromApril 1, 2015, to March 31, 2019.

In the meantime, DHFL and itsdirectors continued to maintain thatthey were planning to distress thecompany through various means likesecuritization of a pool of housingloans, project loans, divestment ofpromoters' stake in the company, andother Group companies and bringingin a strategic investor. DHFL CMDKapil Wadhawan continued to maintainthat DHFL held strong liquidity equat-ed to six months of cash and wouldremain in cash surplus even after con-sidering all repayment obligations forthe financial year 2018-19. However,

having falsely assured the lenders thatadequate steps were being taken to de-stress the company and maintain thatthe company had adequate liquidity,DHFL delayed its interest repaymentobligations Towards Term Loans in May2019, which continued thereafter, lead-ing to the account turning into NPA.

Based on early warning signalslike delay and default in payments tobanks/market borrowings, invocationof Bank Guarantees, the resignation ofkey personnel, adverse market reports,downgrading of external rating to thedefault category, reporting of RFA(Red Flagged Account) by other banks,the complainant bank classified theaccount of DHFL as RFA on October18, 2019, and a Look Out Circular wasissued against Kapil and DheerajWadhawan.

Subsequently, in view of cash flowconstraints resulting in non-servicinginterest and installments, the accountof DHFL was classified as a substandardcategory (NPA) by the Union Bank onOctober 31, 2019, as per bank RBIguidelines.

Following a notification datedNovember 18, 2019, by the Ministry ofCorporate Affairs allowing cases ofNBFCs with asset size of �500 crore andabove to be sent to the NationalCompany Law Tribunal for proceedingsunder the Insolvency and BankruptcyCode, 2016.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)then issued a Press release onNovember 20, 2019, superseding theBoard of DHFL and appointed RSubramaniakumar as the Administratorof DHFL under the RBI Act to takecontrol of the Company.

The NCLT, through an order onJune 7, 2021, approved a ResolutionPlan through which the consortiumbanks recovered a meager �5,977.93crore and NCDs of 7,186.74 crore.

During the Special ReviewAudit/Forensic Audit, KPMG observed

that large amounts were disbursed asloans and advances by the borrowercompany to several interconnectedentities and individuals with com-monalities to DHFL Promoter Entities,which were used for the purchase ofshares/debentures.

According to the KPMG review,most of the transactions of such enti-ties/individuals were like investmentsin land/properties.

The Forensic Audit also revealedsignificant financial irregularities,diversion of funds through relatedparties, fabrication of books to showfraudulent non-existent retail loans,round-tripping of funds, and utilizationof diverted funds for creation of assetsby Kapil Wadhawan, DheerajWadhawan, and their associates.

The DHFL and its promoters dis-bursed an amount of �14,000 crore asProject Finance but reflected the sameas retail loans in their books, accord-ing to the Forensic Audit. This led tothe creation of an inflated retial loansportfolio whereby 1,81,664 false andNon Existent Retail Loans aggregatingto �14,095.08 crore (outstanding as on31.03.2019) were created. These loans,referred to as “Bandra Books” weremaintained in a separate database inFoxpro Software, against which loanswere shown as disbursed by DHFL andwere subsequently merged with OLPL(Other Large Projects) Loans.

The Bandra Books were primarilymaintained by Jayesh Khona, the thenSenior VP of Special Projects, DHFLwho was assisted by Snageeta Amin andPriya Naik.

The details of such non-existentretail loans using dummy names weremaintained in a separate accountingsystem (Foxpro Software) and werethen transferred to the main account-ing software of DHFL (Synergy) byPriya Naik and Sangeeta Amin.

(The writer is a special correspondent of The Pioneer)

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Family doctor as a breedis fast becoming extinct.It is unfortunate because

the medicine as seen andpracticed by specialists andsuper specialists, is increasing-ly becoming myopic with atubular vision; and the impli-cations are profound,” says DrRajesh Malhotra, Head of theJPN Trauma Centre, AIIMS,Delhi. Dr Sumit Anand, ChiefMedical Officer (CMO) atMunicipal Corporation ofDelhi (MCD), agrees. “Theaspirations for high socialstatus and prestige, and thedemand of patients, who earnwell and enjoy better lifestylesin urban areas, for medicalspecialists has triggered thedrive in the medical fraterni-ty for specialization and superspecialization. As there is lit-tle motivation for young bud-ding doctors to become fam-ily doctors as GeneralPhysicians, the concept of thefamily doctor is fading intooblivion.”

Both the experts, joinedby many others from the fra-ternity, concur that unlikethe healthcare super special-ists, family doctors usuallyshare a long and therapeuticrelationship with theirpatients. They are trustedmore by their patients thanother healthcare providers, asthey are familiar with case his-tory of their patients and pro-vide comprehensive care fortreating various ailments forall the age groups in a family.

“Providing comprehensivecare for most specialities topatients of all age groups is thehallmark of family medicine”,says Dr Nita Radhakrishnan,Associate Professor ofPediatric Hematology-Oncology at Post GraduateInstitute of Child Health,Noida

Family medicine practi-tioners serve as an entry pointfor individualized healthcarefor most health problems.

They enjoy a distinct sta-tus in developed countrieswhere patients can’t approacha specialist without the rec-ommendation of a familyphysician. Unfortunately, thisis not the case in India wherea fast flourishing culture ofcorporate hospitals is making

Family Physicians irrelevant.The Coronavirus pandemic,however, steered a shift in thistrend with the focus againzooming on family physiciansfor providing healthcare at thegrassroots level. “FamilyPhysicians counseled patientsabout the role of preventivemedicine, the importance ofvaccination, and the usage ofvarious preventive care mea-sures to limit the spread ofinfection. They were also pro-viding domiciliary care to theCovid patients and to all thosewho were exposed to Covidpatients and were kept in iso-lation at home”, says DrMalhotra while bringinghome the point.

“Family doctor is not anew concept in India.Historically, family doctorsused to be generalist practi-

tioners who would act notonly as health managers tofamilies but also as theirfriend, philosopher, protector,and guide,” says Dr. RamanKumar, President of theAcademy of Family Physiciansof India (AFPI). AFPI hasbeen pushing for revival offamily physicians and popu-larising family medicine as aclinical specialty.

Family medicine is recog-nized in many developedcountries where training isprovided through organizedresidency programs. Thisshould happen in India aswell.

“Family medicine hasbeen incorporated in thefoundation course of Bachelorof Medicine, Bachelor ofSurger y (MBBS) and isplanned to be adopted in all

medical institutes in India;however, the MBBS syllabusmakes no mention of it. Inmedical schools in India, fullyfunctioning family medicinedepartments should be estab-lished on an urgent scale. It isnecessary to take the requiredmeasures to introduce thesubject at the undergraduatelevel of the MBBS programand to generalize it acrossIndia,” rues Kumar.

A review article ‘Need ofthe Hour: Family Medicinespublished in a journal ofMedical Sciences recom-mends that the number ofmedical schools in India offer-ing postgraduate residencytraining in family medicineshould be increased to meetthe current health needs ofcommunities.

“Of the 54,000 new doc-

tors who will graduate thisyear, at least 44,000 willbecome specialists after theexpansion in the number ofpost-graduate seats,” says DrRaman Kumar.

He has written to theMedical Council of India(MCI) after he found that its’new 890-page MBBS curricu-lum made no mention ofterms like General Practice orFamily Medicine or FamilyPhysicians, leaving studentslittle choice than the optionfor specialist and tertiary levelhospitalist care.”

According to Dr Kumar,MBBS students get all of theirtraining at tertiary hospitals,which deprives them of valu-able working experience inclinics and primary healthcentres.

Even as political and eco-

nomic factors are likely tokeep pushing the governmenttowards raising the total num-ber of post-graduate seats,the family physicians wouldstill be scarce as MBBS stu-dents continue to opt for spe-cialisation in the medical field.

Despite their contribu-tion in managing a wide rangeof health problems, eitherdirectly or through referral toother specialists,family physi-cians in India continue toface an identity crisis .Irrespective of their role inoptimizing the cost-effective-ness of the healthcare systemby treating general health-care ailments and guidingtheir patients towards spe-cialised care in cases of acuteailments, Family Physiciansare becoming outdated inIndia.

Doctors feel that thiscould be addressed if theGovernment pushes for for-mation of Departments forfamily medicine in medicalcolleges across India, and thestudy material for family med-icine is included in the MBBScurriculum. Besides increas-ing the number of medicalcolleges offering residencyprogrammes in family medi-cine, public healthcare insti-tutions and organizations alsoneed to be educated andupdated on the subject.

There is a requirement fordeveloping a comprehensivecurriculum for family medi-cine to address the currenthealth needs of communi-ties. The healthcare systemshould focus more on prima-ry care and family medicine toprovide affordable, accessi-ble, and quality healthcare topeople.

India is experiencing arapid annual increase in itspopulation, the chunk ofwhich lives in rural locations.Access to affordable, qualityhealthcare has been a chal-lenge in rural India.

Family medicine has beenrecognised and integrated intothe primary healthcare systemin varied contexts around theworld. Canada, Australia,Nor way, Brazil , LatinAmerica, Nigeria, Ghana,Ethiopia, South Africa, China,Russia, Nepal and severalother countries have priori-tised family medicinethroughout the health system.,Dr V Sreenivas, Director,Academics, Academy ofFamily Physicians of Indiasays as per a media report

Indian policymakersshould see that the stateinvests significantly in fami-ly-doctor centric primaryhealthcare, preventive publichealth, social developmentprogrammes, opening of newhealthcare facilities, safe uni-versal health coverage, invest-ment in public health and pri-mary care research and infra-structure development,including large scale reformsin public health. They shouldput in serious effort to createa pandemic-free world forour future generations, hesays.

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/%"��&%�"����#�!��'�#���%����%:# �����#����Afew years ago, many

Indians woke up to thesight of a respected Hollywoodstar on the front pages ofnewspapers and on huge bill-boards across their cities, pro-moting a brand that most of usknow stands for a variety ofsmokeless tobacco productslike gutka and pan masala.

No doubt cultural nuanceswere missed since the actorlater clarified that he wasunaware of the implications ofhis act and that as an advocateof cancer awareness, after los-ing two family members to thedisease, he would never pro-mote anything tobacco related.More recently (and culturallycloser), some stars fromBollywood and Tollywoodwere in the news for dissociat-ing themselves from tobaccoproducts’ promotions.Increased knowledge about thedeadly effects of tobacco aside,we can also attribute theseacts to an increased awarenessabout surrogate advertising.One may wonder why thesepublic announcements bymembers of our entertainmentindustry are so deserving of ourattention. Let us consider a fewwell-known facts available inthe public domain.

India has 266.8 milliontobacco users, the secondlargest consumer base in theworld, which includes bothsmoking and smokeless tobac-co users. According to WHO,12 per cent of the world’s

smokers are found in India.These statistics throw light onthe magnitude of health-relat-ed challenges that tobaccousage is causing directly andindirectly. In fact, about 1.2million deaths per year areattributed to second-handsmoke. Non-smokers exposedto this are at an increased riskof developing heart disease by25-30 per cent and stroke by20-30 per cent. The costs con-tinue to pile up. Treatments forcancer, heart diseases andstroke are quite expensive,adding to the distress for theeconomically weaker sectionsof society. At the national level,the economic cost attributed totobacco use from all recordeddeaths between 2017-2018 forpersons over 35 was a stagger-ing �1,773.4 billion.

The Indian governmenthas instituted various laws tocurb tobacco usage, includingrequiring larger graphic warn-ings on packs, prohibiting theirsale near educational institu-tions or to minors, mandatingDesignated Smoking Areas(DSA) for certain places, ban-ning smoking in public spaces,fining those who spit outchewed tobacco and banningthe direct or indirect adver-tisements of tobacco or tobac-co-related products. While theyaddress key challenges, a lotmore ground needs to be cov-ered. One area in need ofimmediate increased attentionis surrogate advertising and the

role of celebrity endorsements.Manufacturers use brand

extensions to build associationsand to advertise, as we haveseen with the “mouth freshen-ers” advertisements. These areusually sold under the samebrand name and with very lit-tle differentiation. Consumers,especially young people, aresubliminally lured and con-vinced to make a positive asso-ciation between the two.Meanwhile, well-known per-sonalities are misled intobelieving that their endorse-

ment is for a tobacco-free sis-ter product so their consciencecan rest as there is no law beingbroken.

Even though strict ban hasbeen laid down by the govern-ment on direct or indirectmeans of tobacco advertising,brand extension promotionsare a loophole-exploiting prac-tice that circumvents the law.However, despite the ambigu-ity, most of us can agree thatthe practice is decidedly uneth-ical. Overlooking this aspectwould be an unfortunate nega-

tion of one’s social responsi-bilities, especially by publicrole models with massive influ-ence and reach, who therefore,need to be more accountable.

A simple endorsement canundo years of efforts andinvestments by governments intrying to control tobacco useprevalence intended to savinglives and families from theburden of deadly diseases. Onemay reasonably ask how a fewactors can make millions ofIndians overcome their habits?Popular culture and those at

the top of it continue to have astrong sway over individualbehaviours and choices, espe-cially when you consider thatmore than 50 per cent of smok-ers start using tobacco beforethe age of ten and that the one-third of the youth experimentwith tobacco as a result ofTobacco Advertising,Promotion and Sponsorship(TAPS).

We need to continue fight-ing against tobacco as it is stillentrenched in our lives espe-cially through popular culture.Tobacco is the only consumerproduct in the world to killevery second user according toWHO.

As a cancer surgeon, Ihave seen first-hand the impactit has not just on patients butalso their families. Theimmense pain of avoidabledeaths is compounded by thefinancial burdens and otherchallenges that come with it.Tobacco products are still beingsold near educational institu-tions even as DSA norms areflouted elsewhere. While sur-rogate advertisements contin-ue to thrive and prevail, ourmovies and online streamingchannels blatantly show theusage of tobacco products.Creative expression and free-dom of speech should also beseen in conjunction with theright to life and good health. Ifwe don’t address the tobaccouse, we could be staring atdeath tolls more than that of

Covid-19 each year.During Covid-19 peak, we

rose to the occasion displayingstrong social, collective andindividual responsibilities thatprioritised community health.Public role models from all sec-tors and walks used their plat-forms and influence to helpfurther these goals. The pan-demic is not entirely out of ourlives and yet we see a sustainedmomentum for prevention andaddressing the pandemic.Meanwhile, the much oldertobacco epidemic, which wors-ens Covid-19 and other ill-nesses, continues unabated. Inlight of this, it is essential thatwe keep the spirit of collectiveaction alive.

Our country has a signifi-cant youth population. Withglobal flashpoints like climatechange, our young peoplealready worry about the worldthey are to inherit. The costs oftobacco are an avoidable drainon resources that should beinstead engaged in improvingthis world. Role models shouldnot underestimate their con-tributions here. I hope to seethem leading from the frontand using their voice to leavebehind a richer legacy — oneof a tobacco-free and smoke-free India as the future of ourcountry.

(The writer is professor andsurgeon, Department of HeadNeck Surgery, Tata MemorialCentre, Mumbai)

The UK Prime Minister,Boris Johnson, a diehard

Eurosceptic, is facing thetoughest test in his politicalcareer. He has been delivered abody blow by the spate of res-ignations of the senior minis-ters, following which he yield-ed to their demands and quitas the leader of theConservative Party, which bydefault makes him lose the pre-miership.

However, giving the polit-ical situation a twist, he wantsto cling on to the post of thePrime Minister till his partyelects a new leader: a cumber-some process which may takearound three months. Theinsistence has aggravated theresentment against Johnson inthe party. Conservative Partyleaders want his earliest depar-ture from the 10 DowningStreet.

Johnson announced hisdecision after a bitter stand-offwith his Cabinet. In fact, dur-ing the same meeting, newChancellor Nadhim Zahawiasked him to leave the PrimeMinister office. Meanwhile,Labour leader Keir Starmer hassaid his party will initiate a voteof confidence if Johnson refus-es to go early. Starmer said, “Heneeds to go: he can’t cling on inthis way. His own party hasnow decided that he is unfit tobe Prime Minister; they can’tnow inflict him on the coun-try for the next few months.”

It is a clear indication thatJohnson now must understandhis limits. And in case a noconfidence vote is held inParliament and theConservatives lose, the partywill get 14 days to elect a newleader and prove majorityagain. If the Conservative Partyfails to do so, a fresh nationalelection will be held. This, byno stretch of imagination, is agood proposition for theConservative Party. There areonly two possible ways for theparty : either bear with the long process of elect-ing a new leader or replaceJohnson with a care-takerPrime Minister.

Johnson came to power inJuly 2019. He is a rare leaderwho always prefers an argu-ment of “no ifs, no buts”. He hasremained as the cheerleader ofBrexit, and he has finally madeit when two earlier BritishPrime Ministers miserablyfailed. Both David Cameronand Theresa May had to quitthe Prime Minister office pri-marily because of issues cen-

tered around the great Brexitdebate. Brexit, which saw anation intricately divided alongfault lines, has made deepimpact on the political dis-course in the country.

Cameron opened the tin-derbox and May got into it, butclever Johnson took the fullbenefit of the divided Britonsto occupy the 10 DowningStreet. However, while high-lighting the Brexit conundrum,it would be misleading to brandJohnson as an isolationist. Hissole concern was to bring fortha Great Britain out of theBrussel’s bureaucracy andestablish a new British identi-ty in global politics.

This week Johnsonencountered a severe batteringat Prime Minister’s Questionsbefore a parliamentary com-

mittee of senior lawmakers inParliament. Afterwards a del-egation of Cabinet membersarrived at the 10 DowningStreet, the official residence ofthe British Prime Minister,asking him to step down. Thebruising appearance of Johnsonafter facing the parliamentarycommittee was more than apointer at his incapacity anduncomfortable times that he iswading through in public life.

This Wednesday night hefired close ally and seniorCabinet Minister MichaelGove, who had, as sources say,asked the Prime Minister tostep down.

Another key ally andHome Secretary Priti Patelconfided in Johnson that thegeneral opinion of theConservative Party was that he

had to go. Amid all the high-profile resignations, his parlia-mentary private secretaryJames Doddridge said thatJohnson is “fighting on becausehe believes he can win”. Itseems that he may continueoccupying the office to see whothe next leader would be.

With his immediate resig-nation, a new debate comes upfor selecting the next leader ofthe Conservative Party. Thefrontrunners for the PrimeMinister’s post are recentlyresigned Treasury chief RishiSunak, his successor in that jobNadhim Zahawi, ForeignSecretary Liz Truss, AttorneyGeneral Suella Braverman andDefence Secretary Ben Wallace.For the first time it so happensthat the UK, an imperial powerthat once occupied India for

more than two hundred years,has seen two contenders for thetop job from that part of theworld only: Rishi Sunak andSuella Braverman.

By this time different sug-gestions are emerging fromvarious quarters. One of theideas is that Johnson shouldquit now and call for a care-taker government under cur-rent Deputy Prime MinisterDominic Raab or Theresa May,Johnson’s predecessor. FormerBritish Prime Minister JohnMajor said it would be unwiseand unsustainable for Johnsonto remain in the office for alength of time when a newleader is chosen.

Sir Graham Brady in a let-ter to the chairman of the1922 Committee of theConservative backbenchers

wrote: “The proposal for thePrime Minister to remain inoffice for up to three monthshaving lost the support of hisCabinet, his Government andthe parliamentary party isunwise and may be unsus-tainable.”

Major suggested thatJohnson could resign as PrimeMinister and Raab could takeover as acting Prime Ministertill a new leader is elected.Another idea he gave was thatthe Conservative lawmakerscould elect a new leader to beinstalled as Prime Ministerand then the party memberscould later endorse his candi-dature. These are all probableconstitutional routes availablefor now. It’s Johnson whoshould immediately decide thefuture course of action in no

time. All are getting impatientwith him, including the EUthat is awaiting his departureexpecting a new constructivedialogue to settle all the com-plicated issues with the post-Brexit Britain.

Why all these resignations?All the Ministers of JohnsonGovernment have one seriousrefrain that Jo has failed torebuild the country. With themassive mandate that hereceived from his people, allwere expecting that he wouldbe bringing a kind of MeijiRevolution to restore the glory,status and position of the coun-try in the global power calculus.

Why people are unhappywith Johnson? Many feel thathe has squandered a revolu-tionary mandate for reform. Hehas been ignoring what the UKis demanding from his gov-ernment. Therefore, there is nojustification for him to contin-ue in any public office. Some ofthe sharpest criticisms thrownat him say that all the accusa-tions against him such as hisconstant lies and torpedoing ofthe Westminster customswould have meant nothing if hehad delivered to the public.Above all, he is found by manyas purely incompetent. Theway he has spoiled the massivemandate for his petty failingswould remain in public mem-ory for long. The liberal in theUK is presenting him as onewho has broken the hallowedtraditions of the Westminster.Some call him quasi-fascist. Itis the continued failings forwhich he is highly condemned.

Even after repeated callsfrom trusted aides and col-leagues, Johnson insisted thathe had a “colossal mandate tokeep going” from the voters. So,the beleaguered Prime Ministeris on his job. He is not ready tolisten to his colleagues whohave already left their offices.

Despite resignations of topministers and calls to leaveoffice, Johnson is clinging on topower. This time he may havefew options to survive.

(Dr Makhan Saikia hastaught political science andinternational relations for overa decade in institutions ofnational and internationalrepute after specialisation inglobalisation and governancefrom Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Mumbai. He is thechief editor of the Journal ofGlobal Studies, an internation-al research journal)

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What will be the implication ofRahu’s placement in the 8thhouse of a Virgo lagna born

person – major health issues; vulnerableto imprisonment; short longevity? Pleaseoffer your guidance, as I am thoroughlyconfused.” A USA based person havingsome exposure to astrology, worriedabout this particular placement in hisson’s chart, made a desperate call. “Noneof the three probabilities you are lookinginto will come into play.” I answered.

No single planet can cause good orbad result by itself. It is always in associ-ation with other planets, its nakshatraand its sub-lord placement that can besuggestive of some development in anybody’s chart. Please give up the notionthat planets like Rahu, Ketu, Saturn, andMars have to necessarily offer evil result.It will vary from person-to-persondepending on their placement. Theycould offer beneficial results also, if theyare in dignity, and also form favourablealliance with other helpful planets.About Rahu and Ketu in particular, letme make it clear that they are just imagi-nary points in the cosmos. So, unlikeother 7 planets, no natural significationis accorded to them. They, however,

acquire the characteristics of planetsconjunct, aspecting them or the lord ofsign they are posited. So, they just act asrepresentative of the concerned planets.In applied terms, they reflect the signifi-cance of the influencing planets in muchstronger terms than the planets them-selves. Rahu in this chart being positedin Aries sign will represent Mars, itslord. Ketu conjunct Moon represents thelatter.

Explaining further, in so far aslongevity is concerned, nakshatra sub-lords of the lagna and 8th cusps need tobe analysed. In this horoscope, lagnasub-lord is Venus tenanted in the 10thhouse, which occupies the nakshatraowned by Mercury, the lagna lord posit-ed in the 11th house. The 8th sub-lord isJupiter tenanted in the 12th house,which occupies the nakshatra owned bySun posited in the 12th house it owns. Ifever the sub-lords strongly signify amaraka or a badhaka house, then onlylife could be short. 10th, 11th and 12thhouse are neither maraka nor a badhaka.Going by traditional astrology, you cansay that Venus and Jupiter, respectivelybeing 2nd and 7th lords, become mara-ka. In terms of KP system, however,

which is nakshatra based method devel-oped following a long drawn research,the planets are to offer result of the lordof the nakshatra, where they are tenant-ed. So, to sum up, by both the accounts,he is promised of a long life.

Health issues are to be seen from the6th cusp, especially its sub-lord. In thischart, 6th sub-lord is Mercury, the lagnalord tenanted in the 11th house. 11thhouse being 6th from 6th becomes con-traindicative of 6th house matters, andso ensures quick recovery in case of ail-ment. Rahu is no way associated withMercury, and so, it won’t cause anyhealth concern. This is not to suggestthat he may never fall sick. But at thesame time, quick recovery is alsopromised, and therefore, no majorhealth concern in sight.

For imprisonment, the 12th househas to be seen, especially the cusp sub-lord and the planets placed there. IfRahu be posited in the 12th house, itmakes you vulnerable to imprisonment.Also, if the 12th sub-lord has associa-tion with Rahu, makes one susceptibleto imprisonment. But at the same time,they should also have linkage to the 3rdand 8th houses. In this particular case

Mars, Sun, and Jupiter occupy the 12thhouse. Rahu does represent Mars. ButRahu dasha in which he was born, isalready over. It rather helped you securea foreign assignment. For, cusp-wiseRahu occupies the 7th house, whichbeing 11th from father signifying 9thhouse indicated fulfilment of yourdesire. Rahu extends its influence overthe 8th house also, which being 12thfrom 9th facilitated movement to analtogether new environment. He is notexpected to see Mars dasha in his lifetime. The 12th sub-lord in this chart isSaturn. It occupies the nakshatra ownedby Jupiter the 10th lord posited in the12th house. It indicates serving abroad.So, there is no scope for imprisonmenteither. Hope, this explains your concern.

Here, I take the opportunity toinform you of a thumb rule of astrology– Never analyse the charts of your ownkith and kin. For, it carries equal proba-bility of having either a positive or nega-tive bias, and so, you may not be able toobjectively figure out future trends.

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