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  • ˘ ˇˆ˙...2021/01/04  · ums famous for collection of artefacts,” reminiscences Betti. Continued on Page 2 ˚ ’2:(-The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh Cabinet was expanded
12
F ollowing the overnight rain- fall in the national Capital, the farmers protesting and camping at city borders wit- nessed waterlogged tents, soaked firewood and blankets. The continuous rainfall throughout the day also led to waterlogging at agitation venues and water also entered in the tents of the farmers. Heavy rain lashed across the national Capital on Sunday leading to waterlogging in some parts of the city. According to a meteorological department official, the mini- mum temperature in the city settled at 9.9 degrees Celsius, while the maximum settled at 15.8 degrees Celsius. The humidity oscillated between 100 and 82 per cent. The Safdarjung observatory, which provides official figures for the city, recorded 14.8 mm rainfall at 5.30 pm, while the Palam weather station recorded 5.3 mm and Lodhi Road recorded 18.6 mm rainfall. Meanwhile, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) on Sunday said despite extreme cold conditions and heavy downpour, which has made wet and soggy clothes and bedding, the protesting farmers are in high spirits. “Farmers continue to be in high morale and are consoli- dating forces. All four major protest sites are being coordi- nated, more forces are joining in and protests in other places are continuing,” said AIKSCC. Following the rainfall, the farmers on Sunday said they are ready to face any problem, be it heavy downpour or storm, they will not leave this place under any condition until their demands are met. Rainwater also entered into their makeshift camps at Burari ground and the protesters were seen draining the water out and rearranging their belongings to prevent from soaking in water. At Tikri border, Bharatiya Kisan Union Ugrahan leader Sukhdev Singh, said arrange- ments made by farmers to brave the cold weather are not helping much because of rains and subsequent waterlogging. Veerpal Singh, a protesting farmer, said their blankets, clothes and wood are soaked. “Farmers clothes are soaked due to waterlogging caused by rains. Besides, we are facing dif- ficulties to cook food as rain water has also soaked fire- wood. We do have an LPG cylinder but not everyone here has it,” he said. Continued on Page 2 I n a tragic incident, at least 23 people were killed and sev- eral others injured after a roof of a shelter at a cremation ground at Ukhlarsi village in Muradnagar in Ghaziabad dis- trict collapsed on Sunday. The roof collapsed when several people had taken shel- ter at the structure while it rained. Most of them were rel- atives of Yadaram, who was being cremated at that time. Rescue workers sifted through the rubble for hours to ensure that more victims were not trapped there. A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was also sent to the spot in Muradnagar's Ukhlarsi vil- lage. Apart from the 23 dead, 20 others are admitted at different hospitals, officials said on Sunday evening. They added that the num- ber of the injured could be higher as some others were taken away from the site by their relatives. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the loss of lives. He also announced 2 lakh as financial relief for the families of each person killed. Police said they have iden- tified the bodies of 14 deceased persons out of the 23 dead. They have been identified as Omkar (45), Neeraj alias Bunty (40), Joginder (42), Sunil (44), Om Prakash Arya (68), Robin, Pramod (34), Nitin Chauhan (34), Pappu Singh (45), Babu (45), Akshay (48), Vinod (58), Dilip Batra (68) and Mayank (18), all residents of Muradnagar district. The CM directed the Divisional Commissioner of Meerut and Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Meerut zone to sub- mit a report in this connection. The CM also directed officials to give financial assistance of 2 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased. Continued on Page 2 A t a time the “boycott China” chorus has been getting louder, China-based Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company (STEC) has been awarded a contract to construct 5.6 km underground stretch from New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad of the Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit System project. A major controversy had erupted in June last year after the STEC emerged as the low- est bidder for a contract worth Rs 1,126 crore for the con- struction of the 5.6-km tunnel on one of the stretches of the Delhi-Meerut RRTS project amid a standoff between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the country’s first Regional Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS), said the contract was awarded following the set pro- cedure and guidelines. “Approvals have to be taken at various levels for bids that are funded by multilateral agencies. This bid was also awarded fol- lowing the set procedure and guidelines,” the NCRTC said. Now, all the civil work tenders of the 82-km-long Delhi- Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor have been awarded and the construction is going on in full swing to commission the pro- ject in time, an NCRTC spokesperson said. Five national and multina- tional bidders including L&T, Tata Projects Limited took part in the bid. The NCRTC had invited global bids for the first underground civil construction package in November last year and the technical bids for this contract package were opened on March 16. The scope of work includes design and construction of twin tunnels from near New Ashok Nagar DN Ramp to Sahibabad UP Ramp and one underground station at Anand Vihar. The tunneling work has to be completed in 1,095 days after issuance of the letter of acceptance (LoA) by NCRTC. The 82-km-long corridor is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and procurement is governed by the guidelines of the bank and the Government. Continued on Page 2 A lappuzha in Kerala is known as the Venice of the East thanks to the rivers, placid backwaters and lakes dotting the region. The beach along the Arabian Sea and the canals meandering along the city has made it a popular tourist des- tination. Unknown to most people, Alappuzha, the nerve centre of India’s coir industry, is home to the world’s largest collection of artefacts and art works made of ivory, crystal, porcelain and exotic wood. Not only that, the city has the largest private col- lection of Swaroski, Lladro, Capo de monte art works. An initiative by Betty Karunakaran, who could be addressed as Kerala’s cultural czarina, has evolved into a treasure house which out- smarts the best individual col- lection anywhere in the world. The visitors’ diary at Revi Karuna Karan Memorial Museum bears comments sub- stantiating this observation. Connoisseurs of art works and avantgarde artists like Bose Krishnamachari were left spell- bound after watching the museum, conceived, realised and even curated by Betty. This museum is a tribute by Betty to her loving husband late Revi Karuna Karan, the doyen of modern coir industry in India. “His grandfather Krishnan and father Karunakaran were into coir business. Revi took off from where they left,” explained Betty in a tete-a-tete with The Pioneer. Both Krishnan and Karunakaran were regular trav- ellers all over the world as part of the coir business. Karunakaran had his edu- cation in Europe, the UK and the USA and was the first global citizen of Kerala. Revi too had his education from Europe and the USA. “Revi was travelling most of the time to Europe, Africa and the USA as part of the fam- ily business. The number of coir factories owned by the family shot up to nine during his tenure. He was honoured by Air India as the most frequent flyer. I accompanied him in all his business tours. While he was discussing business with his clients, I chose shopping and that too shops and muse- ums famous for collection of artefacts,” reminiscences Betti. Continued on Page 2 T he Shivraj Singh Chouhan- led Madhya Pradesh Cabinet was expanded on Sunday with the induction of two loyalists of BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose exit from the Congress in March last year triggered the fall of the 15-month-old Kamal Nath-led dispensation in the State. Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office to Tulsiram Silawat and Govind Rajput, who returned to the Cabinet after a gap of more than two months. With their induction, the cur- rent strength of the State Cabinet went up to 31. Continued on Page 2 G earing up to launch one of the world’s largest coron- avirus vaccination drive any- time soon, India on Sunday gave final approval for the emergency use of Hyderabad- based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield. Both vac- cines are being produced in the country. India’s approval of the UK- developed AstraZeneca/Oxford University jab follows Britain’s recent approval of the vaccine. India plans to inoculate some 30 crore people on a priority list this year by July 2021 with three crore health workers, doctors, and front carona warriors to be given the free jab. The country’s top drug regulator DCGI in its presser on Sunday said, “Emergency restricted approval has been given for the two vaccine can- didates and that it is paying close attention to the increas- ing cases of the UK’s Covid-19 new strain in the country and was prioritising its threat while conducting clinical trials”. India’s Drugs Controller General VG Somani said the efficacy of the British-devel- oped AstraZeneca/Oxford vac- cine is 70.42 per cent, though he did not give out the efficacy per cent of the jab developed by the Hyderabad-based biotechnolo- gy firm, Bharat Biotech. Somani, however, described the Indian-devel- oped Covaxin vaccine as “safe which provides a robust immune response.” He said the Indian vaccine was approved “in the public inter- est as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains”. Somani also did not take any question from the reporters except saying, “We’ll never approve anything if there is slightest of safety concern. The vaccines are 100 per cent safe. Some side effects like mild fever, pain, and allergy are common for every vaccine. It is absolute rubbish that people may become impotent.” As per the official release, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) met on Friday and Saturday had made its recom- mendations in respect of the accelerated approval process request of the SII, Bharat Biotech International Ltd as well as about phase-III trials of Cadila Healthcare Ltd. India, which has recorded the second-highest number of infections in the world with more than 10.3 million con- firmed cases to date, killing nearly 150,000 held nationwide drills on Saturday to prepare more than 90,000 healthcare workers to administer vaccines across the country. The DCGI said both man- ufacturers had submitted data showing their vaccines were safe to use and shared that SII has presented a recombinant chimpanzee adenovirus vector vaccine (Covishield) encoding the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) gly- coprotein with technology trans- fer from AstraZeneca/Oxford University. Continued on Page 2 A mid concerns raised by various quarters regard- ing the efficacy of the Covaxin indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech that is yet to complete phase 3 trial, the DCGI said it will be used in restricted cases and was approved “in public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, to have more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains”. “We’ll never approve any- thing if there is slightest of safe- ty concern. “The vaccines are 110 per cent safe. Some side effects like mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine. “It is absolute rubbish that people may become impotent,” he said at a Press conference here. However, the doctors and research experts were not con- vinced as they termed it ‘a dangerous step’ given that details of Stage 3 clinical trials were yet not available. They argued that the prob- lem is that the Government in its eagerness to promote ‘vocal for local’ notion has bypassed key parts of the standard drug and vaccine-development pro- tocol and have questioned DCGI’s claims that “it is 110 per cent safe”. Experts also warned that the decision may lead to dis- trust among people regarding vaccines and that it may become difficult for the Union Government to defend it in the international fora. Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director (Institute of Blood Disorder and Bone Marrow Transplant) Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon said that the Government is trying to mod- ify the protocols related to phase three trials. Continued on Page 2 T he grant of approval to Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine for “emergency use” has kicked a major controversy with several senior Congress leaders raising serious concern over the way the approval has been granted. The party has offi- cially lauded the scientists and researchers for the achievement. Senior Congress leaders and former Union Ministers Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Shashi Tharoor sought to know from the Health Minister why mandatory protocols and verification of data “had been dispensed with”. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav had on Saturday termed the anti-Covid vaccine to be rolled out in the country as a “vaccine of the BJP” and said he would not take the shot. On Sunday, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said the Covid-19 vaccination programme is a “sensitive process”, and the Government should not treat it as a “cosmetic” event as it is a matter of lives. Sharma, who heads the Parliamentary panel on Home Affairs which dealt with the issue at length, said the matter of granting authorisation for vaccine use needs to be taken up carefully as no country has dispensed with the mandatory phase 3 trials and verification of data. In its report submitted on December 21 to Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, the commit- tee noted that the CDSCO has given no emergency use autho- risation in the past. Continued on Page 2

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    Following the overnight rain-fall in the national Capital,the farmers protesting andcamping at city borders wit-nessed waterlogged tents,soaked firewood and blankets.The continuous rainfallthroughout the day also led towaterlogging at agitationvenues and water also enteredin the tents of the farmers.

    Heavy rain lashed acrossthe national Capital on Sundayleading to waterlogging insome parts of the city.According to a meteorologicaldepartment official, the mini-mum temperature in the citysettled at 9.9 degrees Celsius,while the maximum settled at15.8 degrees Celsius. Thehumidity oscillated between100 and 82 per cent. TheSafdarjung observatory, whichprovides official figures for thecity, recorded 14.8 mm rainfallat 5.30 pm, while the Palamweather station recorded 5.3mm and Lodhi Road recorded18.6 mm rainfall.

    Meanwhile, the All IndiaKisan Sangharsh CoordinationCommittee (AIKSCC) onSunday said despite extremecold conditions and heavydownpour, which has made wetand soggy clothes and bedding,

    the protesting farmers are in highspirits. “Farmers continue to bein high morale and are consoli-dating forces. All four majorprotest sites are being coordi-nated, more forces are joining inand protests in other places arecontinuing,” said AIKSCC.

    Following the rainfall, thefarmers on Sunday said theyare ready to face any problem,be it heavy downpour or storm,they will not leave this placeunder any condition until theirdemands are met.

    Rainwater also entered intotheir makeshift camps at Burariground and the protesters wereseen draining the water out andrearranging their belongings to

    prevent from soaking in water.At Tikri border, Bharatiya

    Kisan Union Ugrahan leaderSukhdev Singh, said arrange-ments made by farmers tobrave the cold weather are nothelping much because of rainsand subsequent waterlogging.

    Veerpal Singh, a protestingfarmer, said their blankets,clothes and wood are soaked.“Farmers clothes are soakeddue to waterlogging caused byrains. Besides, we are facing dif-ficulties to cook food as rainwater has also soaked fire-wood. We do have an LPGcylinder but not everyone herehas it,” he said.

    Continued on Page 2

    �����������2�43�'�,5678�,+���8

    In a tragic incident, at least 23people were killed and sev-eral others injured after a roofof a shelter at a cremationground at Ukhlarsi village inMuradnagar in Ghaziabad dis-trict collapsed on Sunday.

    The roof collapsed whenseveral people had taken shel-ter at the structure while itrained. Most of them were rel-atives of Yadaram, who wasbeing cremated at that time.

    Rescue workers siftedthrough the rubble for hours toensure that more victims werenot trapped there.

    A National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) wasalso sent to the spot in Muradnagar's Ukhlarsi vil-lage.

    Apart from the 23 dead, 20others are admitted at differenthospitals, officials said onSunday evening.

    They added that the num-ber of the injured could behigher as some others weretaken away from the site bytheir relatives.

    Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanathexpressed grief over the loss oflives. He also announced �2lakh as financial relief for thefamilies of each person killed.

    Police said they have iden-tified the bodies of 14 deceasedpersons out of the 23 dead.They have been identified asOmkar (45), Neeraj alias Bunty(40), Joginder (42), Sunil (44),Om Prakash Arya (68), Robin,Pramod (34), Nitin Chauhan(34), Pappu Singh (45), Babu(45), Akshay (48), Vinod (58),Dilip Batra (68) and Mayank(18), all residents ofMuradnagar district.

    The CM directed theDivisional Commissioner ofMeerut and AdditionalDirector General of Police(ADGP) Meerut zone to sub-mit a report in this connection.The CM also directed officialsto give financial assistance of �2lakh to the kin of each of thedeceased.

    Continued on Page 2

    ��� +01�,0-23

    At a time the “boycott China”chorus has been gettinglouder, China-based ShanghaiTunnel Engineering Company(STEC) has been awarded acontract to construct 5.6 kmunderground stretch from NewAshok Nagar to Sahibabad ofthe Delhi-Meerut Rapid RailTransit System project.

    A major controversy haderupted in June last year afterthe STEC emerged as the low-est bidder for a contract worthRs 1,126 crore for the con-struction of the 5.6-km tunnelon one of the stretches of theDelhi-Meerut RRTS projectamid a standoff between Indiaand China along the Line ofActual Control (LAC) inLadakh. The National CapitalRegion Transport Corporation(NCRTC), which is executingthe country’s first RegionalRapid Rail Transit System(RRTS), said the contract wasawarded following the set pro-cedure and guidelines.

    “Approvals have to be takenat various levels for bids that arefunded by multilateral agencies.This bid was also awarded fol-lowing the set procedure andguidelines,” the NCRTC said.Now, all the civil work tendersof the 82-km-long Delhi-

    Ghaziabad-Meerut corridorhave been awarded and theconstruction is going on in fullswing to commission the pro-ject in time, an NCRTCspokesperson said.

    Five national and multina-tional bidders including L&T,Tata Projects Limited took partin the bid. The NCRTC hadinvited global bids for the firstunderground civil constructionpackage in November last yearand the technical bids for thiscontract package were openedon March 16.

    The scope of work includesdesign and construction oftwin tunnels from near NewAshok Nagar DN Ramp toSahibabad UP Ramp and oneunderground station at AnandVihar. The tunneling work hasto be completed in 1,095 daysafter issuance of the letter ofacceptance (LoA) by NCRTC.

    The 82-km-long corridor isbeing funded by the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) andprocurement is governed by theguidelines of the bank and theGovernment.

    Continued on Page 2

    �'!������������ 9:*23

    Alappuzha in Kerala isknown as the Venice of theEast thanks to the rivers, placidbackwaters and lakes dottingthe region. The beach along theArabian Sea and the canalsmeandering along the city hasmade it a popular tourist des-tination.

    Unknown to most people,Alappuzha, the nerve centre ofIndia’s coir industry, is home tothe world’s largest collection ofartefacts and art works made ofivory, crystal, porcelain andexotic wood. Not only that, thecity has the largest private col-lection of Swaroski, Lladro,Capo de monte art works.

    An initiative by BettyKarunakaran, who could beaddressed as Kerala’s culturalczarina, has evolved into a

    treasure house which out-smarts the best individual col-lection anywhere in the world.

    The visitors’ diary at ReviKaruna Karan MemorialMuseum bears comments sub-stantiating this observation.Connoisseurs of art works andavantgarde artists like BoseKrishnamachari were left spell-bound after watching themuseum, conceived, realisedand even curated by Betty.

    This museum is a tributeby Betty to her loving husbandlate Revi Karuna Karan, thedoyen of modern coir industryin India. “His grandfatherKrishnan and fatherKarunakaran were into coirbusiness. Revi took off fromwhere they left,” explainedBetty in a tete-a-tete with ThePioneer.

    Both Krishnan and

    Karunakaran were regular trav-ellers all over the world as partof the coir business.

    Karunakaran had his edu-cation in Europe, the UK andthe USA and was the firstglobal citizen of Kerala. Revitoo had his education fromEurope and the USA.

    “Revi was travelling mostof the time to Europe, Africaand the USA as part of the fam-ily business. The number ofcoir factories owned by thefamily shot up to nine duringhis tenure. He was honoured byAir India as the most frequentflyer. I accompanied him in allhis business tours. While hewas discussing business withhis clients, I chose shoppingand that too shops and muse-ums famous for collection ofartefacts,” reminiscences Betti.

    Continued on Page 2

    ��� '2:(�-

    The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya PradeshCabinet was expanded onSunday with the induction oftwo loyalists of BJP leaderJyotiraditya Scindia, whose exitfrom the Congress in Marchlast year triggered the fall of the15-month-old Kamal Nath-leddispensation in the State.

    Governor Anandiben Pateladministered the oath of officeto Tulsiram Silawat andGovind Rajput, who returnedto the Cabinet after a gap ofmore than two months.With their induction, the cur-rent strength of the StateCabinet went up to 31.

    Continued on Page 2

    ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� +01�,0-23

    Gearing up to launch one ofthe world’s largest coron-avirus vaccination drive any-time soon, India on Sundaygave final approval for theemergency use of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxinand the Serum Institute ofIndia’s Covishield. Both vac-cines are being produced in thecountry.

    India’s approval of the UK-developed AstraZeneca/OxfordUniversity jab follows Britain’srecent approval of the vaccine.India plans to inoculate some30 crore people on a priority listthis year by July 2021 with threecrore health workers, doctors,and front carona warriors to begiven the free jab.

    The country’s top drugregulator DCGI in its presseron Sunday said, “Emergencyrestricted approval has beengiven for the two vaccine can-didates and that it is payingclose attention to the increas-ing cases of the UK’s Covid-19new strain in the country andwas prioritising its threat whileconducting clinical trials”.

    India’s Drugs ControllerGeneral VG Somani said the

    efficacy of the British-devel-oped AstraZeneca/Oxford vac-cine is 70.42 per cent, though hedid not give out the efficacy percent of the jab developed by theHyderabad-based biotechnolo-gy firm, Bharat Biotech.

    Somani, however,described the Indian-devel-oped Covaxin vaccine as “safewhich provides a robustimmune response.” He saidthe Indian vaccine wasapproved “in the public inter-est as an abundant precaution,in clinical trial mode, to havemore options for vaccinations,especially in case of infection bymutant strains”.

    Somani also did not takeany question from the reportersexcept saying, “We’ll neverapprove anything if there isslightest of safety concern. Thevaccines are 100 per cent safe.Some side effects like mildfever, pain, and allergy arecommon for every vaccine. Itis absolute rubbish that peoplemay become impotent.”

    As per the official release,the Subject Expert Committee(SEC) met on Friday andSaturday had made its recom-mendations in respect of theaccelerated approval process

    request of the SII, BharatBiotech International Ltd aswell as about phase-III trials ofCadila Healthcare Ltd.

    India, which has recordedthe second-highest number ofinfections in the world withmore than 10.3 million con-firmed cases to date, killingnearly 150,000 held nationwidedrills on Saturday to preparemore than 90,000 healthcareworkers to administer vaccines

    across the country.The DCGI said both man-

    ufacturers had submitted datashowing their vaccines weresafe to use and shared that SIIhas presented a recombinantchimpanzee adenovirus vectorvaccine (Covishield) encodingthe SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) gly-coprotein with technology trans-fer from AstraZeneca/OxfordUniversity.

    Continued on Page 2

    ������("���� +01�,0-23

    Amid concerns raised byvarious quarters regard-ing the efficacy of the Covaxinindigenously developed byBharat Biotech that is yet tocomplete phase 3 trial, theDCGI said it will be used inrestricted cases and wasapproved “in public interest asan abundant precaution, inclinical trial mode, to havemore options for vaccinations,especially in case of infection bymutant strains”.

    “We’ll never approve any-thing if there is slightest of safe-ty concern.

    “The vaccines are 110 percent safe. Some side effects likemild fever, pain and allergy arecommon for every vaccine.

    “It is absolute rubbish thatpeople may become impotent,”he said at a Press conferencehere.

    However, the doctors andresearch experts were not con-

    vinced as they termed it ‘adangerous step’ given thatdetails of Stage 3 clinical trialswere yet not available.

    They argued that the prob-lem is that the Government inits eagerness to promote ‘vocalfor local’ notion has bypassedkey parts of the standard drugand vaccine-development pro-tocol and have questionedDCGI’s claims that “it is 110per cent safe”.

    Experts also warned thatthe decision may lead to dis-trust among people regardingvaccines and that it maybecome difficult for the UnionGovernment to defend it in theinternational fora.

    Dr Rahul Bhargava,Director (Institute of BloodDisorder and Bone MarrowTransplant) Fortis Hospital,Gurgaon said that theGovernment is trying to mod-ify the protocols related tophase three trials.

    Continued on Page 2

    ��� +01�,0-23

    The grant of approval toBharat Biotech’s Covid-19vaccine for “emergency use”has kicked a major controversywith several senior Congressleaders raising serious concernover the way the approval hasbeen granted. The party has offi-cially lauded the scientists andresearchers for the achievement.

    Senior Congress leadersand former Union MinistersAnand Sharma, Jairam Rameshand Shashi Tharoor sought toknow from the Health Ministerwhy mandatory protocols andverification of data “had beendispensed with”.

    Samajwadi Party leaderAkhilesh Yadav had onSaturday termed the anti-Covidvaccine to be rolled out in thecountry as a “vaccine of theBJP” and said he would not

    take the shot. On Sunday, theformer Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister said the Covid-19vaccination programme is a“sensitive process”, and theGovernment should not treat itas a “cosmetic” event as it is amatter of lives.

    Sharma, who heads theParliamentary panel on HomeAffairs which dealt with theissue at length, said the matterof granting authorisation forvaccine use needs to be takenup carefully as no country hasdispensed with the mandatoryphase 3 trials and verificationof data.

    In its report submitted onDecember 21 to Rajya Sabhachairman and Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu, the commit-tee noted that the CDSCO hasgiven no emergency use autho-risation in the past.

    Continued on Page 2

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    Citing the corona healthbulletin, Delhi HealthMinister Satyendar Jain onSunday said for the first time,positive cases were less than500, and the positivity ratewas on a continuous decline.

    According to the Minister,the outbreak contained butadvisable to wear a mask andfollow all precautions.

    On the protocol that will befollowed for vaccine for whichDGCI has give approval, hesaid that in the first phase,healthcare and frontline work-ers, people over 50 plus age orwith co-morbidity will beinjected.

    “In the first phase, 500-600

    covid centres will be madewhich will be further escalatedto 1000,” he said, adding, “evenafter de-escalation of covid

    beds, there will still 10,500-11,000 available. As far as theshutting down of covid centresis concerned, the Delhi

    Government is treading verycautiously and is not makingdecisions in a haste.”

    Delhi has reported 494positive cases and the positiv-ity rate was 0.73 percent. “Forthe first time in the last 7 anda half months, the number ofcases has gone below 500. After17 May 2020, this is the lowestnumber of cases. Positivity ratehas fallen to 0.73 percentimplying that in every 1000tests conducted, 7 positivecases are detected. Testing isstill being conducted on a largescale.”

    “We have just been madeaware that the vaccines devel-oped by Bharat Biotech andSerum Institute of India havebeen given approval. Delhi

    Government is making all thearrangements. The protocolwill be that health care andfrontline workers, people over50 years of age or with co-mor-bidity will be injected in thefirst phase of the roll-out. Delhihas 3 lac healthcare workers,and 6lac frontline workers.The vaccine will be first rolledout to these 9 lac people,” Jainadded.

    A dry run had conductedin three different types of cen-tres- government hospital, pri-vate hospital and governmentdispensary situated in Delhi.

    “Storage facilities have beenmade. Ultimately, 1000 centreswill be made. In the first phase,we will make 500-600 centres,”Jain said.

    �������������� +01�,0-23

    Delhi Government’s Housepanel on Sunday sum-moned three commissioners ofthe three municipal corpora-

    tions after receiving complaintson rising levels of dust and airpollution in different parts inDelhi.

    Mechanical sweeping ofroads have been recommend-

    ed to control dust pollutionmajor factor in polluting air,expressing concerns on this theEnvironment Committee ofthe Delhi Legislative Assembly’schairperson Atishi said that

    dust is the major contributor toDelhi's pollution, Delhi peopleare unable to breathe yet MCDis not doing mechanical sweep-ing.

    “Committee has receivedseveral complaints from dif-ferent parts of the city regard-ing rising levels of dust andensuing air pollution caused bythe manual sweeping of roadsbeing carried out by the respec-tive corporations, she added.

    All three MCD - North,South and West commission-ers have been asked to file areport, on the implementationof NGT orders and TERI rec-ommendations, use of MRSmachines, and steps taken toeliminate manual sweeping ofroads in Delhi.

    Atishi had said that theMCDs must submit a completereport on the use of MRSmachines in the city and anyother recent steps taken by theMCDs to improve their efficacyor eliminate manual sweeping.

    On receiving continuous

    complaints from across Delhiregarding rising levels of dustdue to manual sweeping, theCommittee sought clarifica-tion from MCD commission-ers on the non-adoption ofmechanical sweeping despiteNGT orders.

    Atishi also said that theEnvironment Committee hasreceived several complaintsfrom different parts of the cityregarding rising levels of dustand ensuing air pollutioncaused by the manual sweepingof roads being carried out bythe respective corporations.

    Atishi said, "TheCommittee received severalcomplaints from different partsof the city regarding risinglevels of dust and ensuing airpollution caused by the man-ual sweeping of roads beingcarried out by the respectivecorporations. The panel hadasked three MCD commis-sioners to submit detailed stepstaken by the MCDs to stop dustpollution in Delhi."

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    Bharatiya Kisan Union(BKU) leader, RakeshTikait, who reached theprotesting site in Gurugram onSunday to support the farmersongoing stir in the nationalCapital while addressing thepeople at the protesting site saidthat the farmers agitation will

    not end till the governmentrolls back the new agriculturelaws.

    Tikait alleged that the newfarm laws have been made forthe benefit of the capitalists. Hesaid that till the demands of thefarmers are not accepted, thefarmers will stay in Delhi andkeep protesting against theselaws. He said that soonRajasthan farmers will reach

    the Delhi border. The SamyuktKisan Morcha, Gurugramshould help them in all possi-ble ways.

    On this, President ofUnited Front Gurugram,Chaudhary Santokh Singh,assured that all possible helpwill be given to all the farmerswho come from Rajasthan.

    Bharatiya Kisan UnionGeneral Secretary, YudhveerSingh, who was also present atthe protest site, said that thegovernment is misleading thefarmers. He said that the gov-ernment should abolish thethree laws.

    In a joint statement,Santokh Singh said that despitethe bitter cold, hundreds ofworkers from several workers'organizations have been sittingon a dharna in support of thedemands of the farmers.

    Singh said their support tothe farmer's brother will con-tinue till the roll back of thenew agriculture laws.

    Gurugram : The Gurugrampolice have arrested a vehiclelifter and claimed to havesolved around two dozen casesof vehicle theft which the cul-prit along with his accomplicehad committed multiple loca-tions in Gurugram.

    Police said on Sunday, thestolen vehicles have alreadybeen recovered from the pos-session of the culprits.

    The arrested accused hasbeen identified as Wasim a res-ident of Nuh district.

    "Two dozens of stolenmotorcycles have been recov-ered from the possession of thearrested accused. The accusedwas arrested from Bhondsiarea in Gurugram, by theGurugram police following asecret input," said SubhashBoken, spokesperson of theGurugram police.

    In connection with thecrime, a complaint of vehicletheft was filed by Suresh thecomplainant, a resident ofJamalpur in Gurugram at

    Bilaspur police station onNovember 4, 2020.

    During police question-ing, the kingpin, Wasim con-fessed to vehicle theft incidents.Which he along with accom-plices committed at multiplelocations of Gurugram.

    "He was a habitual offend-er. On his direction the othergang members had executedthe crime in the city. Theaccused will be taken on policeremand for further question-ing. Further investigation ison," said Boken.

    ��������������+01�,0-23

    A27-year-old man was beat-en to death by a group ofpeople in west Delhi's RaghubirNagar. The incident occurredon the intervening night ofSaturday-Sunday.

    The deceased has beenidentified as Satender, a resi-dent of Janta Colony in ShivajiVihar.

    According to DeepakPurohit, the AdditionalCommissioner of Police of theWest district, Satender alongwith his friends Nitin andManish had an altercation withVicky on the intervening nightof Saturday and Sunday.

    “Later, Vicky and his asso-ciates assaulted the victim.Satender was rushed to GuruGobind Singh GovernmentHospital, where he wasdeclared brought dead by doc-tors,” said the DeputyCommissioner of Police .

    “A case has been regis-tered and the motive behindthe incident is being ascer-tained,” said the DeputyCommissioner of Police.

    �������������� +01�,0-23

    The Member of Parliament(MP) from East Delhi,Guatam Gambhir on Sundayclaimed that the height of theGhazipur landfill site hasreduced by 12 metres due tosustained efforts made in thelast one year.

    The landfill site wheregarbage from East DelhiMunicipal Corporation(EDMC) areas is dumped, wassaturated since 2002 and had attained a height of 65metres.

    “The EDMC has deployed15 trommels to process thelegacy waste by excavating thedump.Then it is transported totrommels for segregation.Machinery including excava-tors, trucks, loaders weredeployed 24X7 to dig the wasteand transport it to trommels forsegregation,” said an EDMCofficial.

    According to Gambhir,since day one of becomingEast Delhi MP, his top most

    priority has been to ensure asubstantial reduction in theGhazipur landfill which is asource of pollution and miseryfor the people of the con-stituency.

    “Multiple meetings withvarious authorities, use ofcrores of rupees from my MPLAD fund and tremendousefforts put in by EDMC, havefinally helped reduce the heightof the landfill at the top by 12metres,” said Gambhir.

    “After almost one and ahalf years we are finally wit-nessing the initial results of ourhard labour and the garbagemountain is reducing. I wouldlike to tell East Delhi peoplethat this is just the beginningand we will not give up till wecompletely remove this gigan-tic dump,” said Gambhir.

    “Arrangements were madeto transport the inert materialafter processing to NTPCBadarpur for its biodiversitypark while the refuse derivativefuel (RDF) is sent to a waste toenergy plant,” he said.

    �������������� +01�,0-23

    Targeting the Bhartiya JanataParty ( BJP ) ruled munic-ipal corporations, the AamAadmi Party ( AAP ) seniorleader Durgesh Pathak saidthat the MCDs are involved incorruption in the waste segre-gation process and have paid0Rs 1450 more per ton to privatecontractors for segregation andlifting of road track materialfrom the waste.

    “MCD used to pay thismoney from its own pockets,without forming any process orany calculation for this Rs3250 per ton. They took out atender when an objection wasraised by MCD officials inApril 2020. When the tenderprocess was completed the ratethat came about was Rs 1800per ton. Which means theywere paying about Rs 1450 perton for the process and did ascam worth crores of rupees,”headded.

    Demanding investigation,he further said that mayors,councilors and BJP leadershave a very important role toplay in this corruption andstrict action must be taken

    against them. “The NDMC mayor claims

    that they do not have the auditreport, but he knows that themayor has the report but isavoiding answering questions,”the AAP leader said,” adding ,”An audit report of Bhalswalandfill has come and the entireaudit report prepared by theMCD officials is a proof of cor-ruption of the BJP.”

    “On Saturday,we told youthat the MCD rented 50 clean-ing machines at a rent of Rs 180crores for a period of 5 years,and the same machines can bebought at an amount of Rs 8.5crores. The BJP had no answeron this, instead they said thatthey haven't received any auditreport. Mayor sir, if you do nothave the audit report I will sendit to you even though I knowthat you have it because I havegot the audit report from youroffice itself."

    "The same audit report hasanother big corruption ordeal.After the process of the wastesegregation in the machines,the MCD pays money to pri-vate contractors to lift andsells all the stones and roadtrack material found in the

    waste on a ton per truck basis.They paid Rs 3250 per ton ofroad track material to send itahead. MCD used to pay thismoney from its own pockets,without forming any process orany calculation for this Rs3250 per ton.

    When the MCD officialsraised an objection, they tookout a tender for this process.When the tender process wascompleted the rate that cameabout was Rs. 1800 per ton.Which means that they werepaying Rs 3250 per ton fromtheir pockets instead of Rs1800 per ton, they were payingabout Rs 1450 more per ton forwaste segregation.

    They sold thousands oftonnes of waste and paid Rs1450 more per ton for wastesegregation. If you calculate,this is a scam worth crores ofrupees, and this is the moneythat could have been used forpaying salaries to MCDemployees. They decided alongwith the contactors without dueprocess and kept on paying Rs3250 per ton and reduced it toRs 1800 per to. when MCDofficials raised objections "Pathak added.

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    New Delhi: The new housingscheme of the DDA waslaunched on Saturday with1,354 flats on offer, the costli-est ones being worth Rs 2.14 crin the high-income group cat-egory.

    Maximum number of flats– 757 – have been offered in theMIG category, the official said.

    The scheme is completelyonline, done through the newlydeveloped AWAAS softwareof the Delhi DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) from pro-cessing of application to pos-session of flats, a senior officialsaid.

    The scheme was virtuallylaunched by DelhiDevelopment Authority ViceChairman Anurag Jain.

    Under the scheme, over1,350 flats are on offer for var-ious categories at locationssuch as Dwarka, Jasola,Manglapuri, Vasant Kunj andRohini, they said.

    HIG, LIG and EWS/Jantacategories, the number of flatson offer are 254, 52 and 291respectively, according to theinformation shared in thebrochure of the scheme.

    HIG flats are available in 3BHK and 2 BHK categories;while MIG ones are in 2 BHKcategory.

    In 3 BHK category of HIG,215 flats are on offer in Jasola,Pocket 9B in the price range ofRs 1.97 cr to 2.14 cr, thebrochure said.

    In the same category, 13flats are on offer in Vasant Kunjin the price range of Rs 1.43 crto Rs 1.72 cr, it said.

    MIG flats are located inDwarka, Vasant Kunj, andRohini, while EWS ones inMangalagiri, officials said.

    The scheme was approvedrecently during an online meet-ing of the authority, the high-est decision-making body ofthe DDA, chaired by Delhi Lt

    Governor and DDA ChairmanAnil Baijal.

    The applications under thescheme can be sent tillFebruary 16, the DDA said.

    The applicant will have tovisit DDA only for the purposeof execution deed.

    Eligible allottees may availbenefits under credit-linked

    subsidy scheme under PMAY(Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana)- Housing for All(Urban) the DDA said.

    Since, a number of con-cessions are being offeredunder the EWS category, theallottees in this category willnot be permitted to sell ortransfer or otherwise part with

    the possession of the flat in anymanner for a period of fiveyears from the delivery of pos-session, it said.

    The last DDA HousingScheme was launched in March2019, offering nearly 18,000flats under four categories —488 (HIG), 1,555 (MIG), 8,383(LIG) and 7,496 (EWS).

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    �������������� +01�,0-23

    The Delhi Government hasset up Tamil academy topromote Tamil language andculture. On Sunday, DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiaappointed Ex-MCD councillorand current member of DelhiTamil Sangam N. Raja as theVice-Chairman of the academy.

    The newly set-up academywill soon be allocated an officespace with all the necessaryinfrastructure. “Delhi is a cul-turally rich city where peoplefrom all parts of the countrylive and work. It is this diver-sity that forms Delhi's vibrantand cosmopolitan culture.Delhi has a large population ofpeople from Tamil Nadu andwe want to present a platformto the people of Delhi to get thetaste of the art and culture ofTamil Nadu. I am glad thatmany notable people like thenewly elected Vice Chairman

    N. Raja came forward andjoined hands with us to estab-lish this academy," said DeputyCM Sisodia who also holds thecharge of the Art, Culture andLanguage Department.

    On the occasion, Raja said,“The Tamil language and cul-ture have a long tradition in thehistory of Indian culture as wellas in Delhi. With the formationof this academy, we will kick-start a new journey of pre-serving the language in Delhiand promote it too.”

    The Department of Art,Culture and Language of theDelhi govt has decided that thenew academy will introducevarious awards to promote andreward the good works of peo-ple in Tamil language and cul-ture.

    The government will alsoprovide language coursesthrough this academy. TheDelhi government will alsocelebrate and organise cultur-

    al festivals for the people ofTamil Nadu.

    Raja has a longstandinginvolvement in preserving andpromoting the Tamil languageand culture.

    He has been actively pro-moting the language throughthe Delhi Tamil Sangam, ofwhich he is a current member.

    The Delhi Tamil Sangamfrequently organises music, lit-erary and dance events to pro-mote the culture of TamilNadu, and has provided thestage to several buddingBharatnatyam dancers as wellas its exponents, which is theclassical dance form of thestate. Raja is also a member ofthe Malai Mandir Trust, andhas held the position of MCDcouncillor of ward no 64 twice,from 2007 to 2018.

    He also holds the positionof General Secretary of theAdarsh Navyuvak RamlilaCommittee.

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    Aday before the final roundof talks between the Centreand the protesting farmersover the controversial farmlaws, Congress president SoniaGandhi on Sunday launched ascathing attack on the ModiGovernment saying that for thefirst time since independencesuch an “arrogant”Government has come topower which cannot see thesufferings of the “annadatas”.

    Demanding that the newfarm laws be immediately with-drawn unconditionally, Soniasaid Governments and theirleaders who ignore public sen-timents in a democracy cannotgovern for long and it is nowquite clear that the protestingfarmers will not bow in the faceof the Centre’s policy of “tireand pushover”.

    The Congress has beenseeking the repeal of the threenew farm laws, alleging thatthey will ruin farming and thefarmers while the party is sup-porting the farmers’ agitationagainst the legislations.

    “There is still time, theModi Government shouldleave the arrogance of powerand immediately withdraw thethree black laws uncondition-ally to end the agitation of thefarmers who are dying in thecold and rain. This isRajdharma and a true tribute tothe farmers who have lost their lives,” Sonia Gandhisaid.

    The Modi Governmentshould remember that democ-racy means protecting theinterests of the people and thefarmers-workers, she said.“Along with the people of thecountry, I am also disturbedseeing the condition of the‘annadatas’ who have been agi-tating for 39 days at the bordersof Delhi in the bitter cold andrain in support of theirdemands,” she said.

    In the wake of theGovernment’s apathy, so far,more than 50 farmers have losttheir lives with some even tak-

    ing the step of committingsuicide due to theGovernment’s neglect, men-tioned Sonia. “But neither theheartless Modi Governmentrelented nor the Prime Ministeror any other Minister uttered aword of consolation till today.I pay my respects to all thedeceased farmer brothers andpray to the Lord to give theirfamilies the strength to bearthis sorrow,” the Congress pres-ident said.

    “Since independence, thisis the first such arrogantGovernment that has come topower in the history of thecountry that, leave alone peo-ple, cannot even see the suf-ferings and struggles of ‘anna-datas’,” she said further.

    It seems that ensuring prof-its for a handful of industrial-ists has become the main agen-da of this Government, Soniaalleged. The Government haspresented these laws as majoragriculture sector reformsaimed at helping farmers andincreasing their income, but theprotesting unions fear that thenew legislations will leave themat the mercy of big corporatesby weakening the MSP andmandi systems.

    The grand old party alsoaccused the Centre of showingapathy as the FoodCorporation of India’s

    Chhattisgarh unit was not lift-ing the rice stocks and askedwhether the procurement was“halted” because theGovernment’s “suit-bootfriends” were not involved inmanaging storage in the State.At a AICC Press conferenceCongress spokesperson GouravVallabh said that despite a pre-intimation by the FCI to pro-cure 60 lakh metric tonnes ofrice under the central pool forthe kharif season, Chhattisgarhhas not received a final consent.

    The ChhattisgarhGovernment started procure-ment on December 1, and hasprocured 47 lakh tonnes from12 lakh farmers so far, but theState is yet to receive a consentfrom the Government of India,despite several requests, hesaid. This would impact closeto 21.52 lakh farmers, Vallabhsaid.

    “This is a clear case ofcomplete apathy towards farm-ers who are fighting for theirrights and to save their digni-ty but the Government seemsto be occupied in filling thepockets of their friends. If theGovernment is not willing toprocure the volumes pre-inti-mated by them, even when theprotests are ongoing, what canwe expect from theGovernment once all this set-tles down?” he said.

    ��� +01�,0-23

    Stating that the “road to aCovid-free nation is open”,Prime Minister Narendra Modicongratulated the nation andthanked the scientific andhealthcare community onSunday after the DrugsController General of India(DCGI) officially approvedOxford-AstraZeneca andBharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vac-cines for emergency use. For itspart, the BJP described theOpposition’s criticism anddoubts over the vaccine asunwarranted and “politicallymotivated”.

    Taking to Twitter, Modisaid the announcement marksa “decisive turning point” inIndia’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. He said everyIndian would be proud thatboth the vaccines are “made inIndia”.

    “A decisive turning point tostrengthen a spirited fight!DCGI granting approval tovaccines of Serum Institute ofIndia and Bharat Biotech accel-erates the road to a healthier

    and Covid-free nation.Congratulations India.Congratulations to our hard-working scientists and innova-tors,” said the Prime Minister.

    “It would make everyIndian proud that the two vac-cines that have been givenemergency use approval aremade in India! This shows theeagerness of our scientific com-

    munity to fulfil the dream of anAatmanirbhar Bharat, at theroot of which is care and com-passion,” he said.

    Soon after the DCGI’s go-ahead, Congress MP ShashiTharoor called the vaccineapproval as “pre-mature” andclaimed more trials were need-ed before giving them thegreen signal.

    BJP leader and its IT Cellhead Amit Malviya describedthe criticism as unwarrantedsaying vaccines have under-gone all required trials.

    He said the ModiGovernment had been takingall the right steps for Covid-19containment and excellentlymanaged the crisis with one ofthe lowest death rates in theworld. “We did better than thedeveloped countries includingAmerica,” he said.

    Union Minister GirirajSingh also hit back at theOpposition saying it is politi-cally motivated and the criti-cism of the vaccine is made for

    “other reasons”.Samajwadi party leader

    Akhilesh Yadav had onSaturday said he would not takethe “BJP vaccine” which did notgo down well within theOpposition ranks itself with thelikes of NC leader OmarAbdullah coming out in sup-port of the vaccine.

    While the BSP too wasquick to support the vaccines,its supremo went public inwelcoming the DCGI nod andcongratulating the scientificfraternity. She urged theGovernment to make the vac-cines available to the poor freeof cost.

    On Sunday in a damagecontrol exercise Yadav said theruling party should not makea “spectacle” out of Covid-19vaccination and should launchthe inoculation drive only aftermaking solid arrangements inadvance.

    Taking to Twitter, Yadavalso asked the Government toannounce the dates on whicheconomically weaker sectionsof the population will be vac-cinated.

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    To make J&K a power surplusregion in the country,Memorandums of Understanding(MoUs) were signed for implemen-tation of much awaited Mega HydroPower projects, including 850 MWRatle HEP and 930 MW Kirthai-IIHEP, besides execution of longpending Sawalkot HEP (1856 MW),Uri-I (Stage-II) (240 MW) andDulhasti (Stage-II) (258 MW) onSunday.

    The MoUs were signed betweenPower Development Department(PDD), J&K; National HydroelectricPower Corporation (NHPC) Ltd.and J&K Power DevelopmentCorporation , in the presence of RajKumar Singh, Union Minister ofState (Independent Charge) forMinistry of Power, New &Renewable Energy and Ministry ofSkill Development &Entrepreneurship; Manoj Sinha,Lieutenant Governor of J&K.

    With the signing of these MoUs,J&K is expected to attract invest-ments worth Rs 35,000 crore in the

    power sector to ensure the region’senergy security and 24-hour powersupply to the people of J&K.

    The numerous hydro resourcesof Jammu & Kashmir are capable ofgenerating 14,867 MW power butthe potential had not been fullyexploited, and only 3504 MW powerwas being generated till now.

    The works started now willensure that another 3498 MWpower is generated in the nextthree to fouryears.

    As per the provisions of theseMoUs, the projects will be handedover back to Jammu and Kashmirafter 40 years of commercial oper-ation which was not in case of ear-lier projects allotted to NHPCLimited

    The occasion also witnessedinauguration of as many as 19important projects of PDD aimed atgreater generation, efficient trans-mission and better distribution ofpower supply in J&K during theMega inauguration ceremony.

    Speaking on the occasion, theUnion Minister of State

    (Independent Charge) for Ministryof Power, New & Renewable Energy,Raj Kumar Singh assured extendingevery support of the GoI to the J&KGovernment for various reforms inthe power sector.

    Hydro electric potential suc-cessfully ushered the era of devel-opment in various states includingSikkim & Himachal Pradesh. J&Kshould replicate the model.According to the national average,electricity in rural areas is 20 hrs andin urban areas is 22-23 hrs. J&K toowill reach the milestone if the paceof development is kept the same, headded.

    Locals will be trained and givenemployment in NHPC ventures;

    besides NHPC will see for develop-ment of small hydro projects also, hemaintained. “We have to do our bitof duty to see electricity reachingevery household 24x7”, said theUnion MoS.

    During his address, the LtGovernor, Manoj Sinha observedthat the MoUs signed today wouldattract investments worth Rs 35,000crore for Jammu & Kashmir powersector and ensure the region’s ener-gy security and 24-hour power sup-ply to the people of J&K.

    “J&K is taking a quantum leapfrom being power deficit to becom-ing power surplus in the next fouryears. For uninterrupted powersupply, this is the most significant

    move by the J&K gov-ernment”, said the LtGovernor.

    Out of the twoagreements, the NHPCwould work in associa-tion with the adminis-tration at the first andthe languishingSawalkot project wouldbe handed over to

    NHPC for completion under thesecond.

    The project has been perpetu-ally postponed since its conceptionin 1984 and was expected to gener-ate 1856 MW power, he added.

    SN Sahai, Union SecretaryPower; BVR Subrahmanyam, ChiefSecretary; Abhay Kumar Singh,Principal Secretary Power andInformation Department RohitKansal, Chairman & ManagingDirector, NHPC; Suresh Kumar,Chairman Chenab Valley PowerProjects Limited (CVPPL); A.K.Choudhary, Managing Director,CVPPL; Raja Yaqoob Farooq,Managing Director, JKPDC werepresent on the occasion.

    ��'������'���� 9:-9���

    Mamata Banerjee’s biggest dreadand alleged “vote cutter of BJP,”is at last in Kolkata. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sundaycommenced his political inning inBengal with a visit to largest Muslimcongregation of the State FurfuraSharif where he met the order’sdeputy chief Pir Zada Abbas Siddiquibefore expressing his desire to contestAssembly elections in Bengal.

    Emerging from a meeting withSiddiqui the AIMIM chief said hisparty would not only concentrate onMalda and Murshidabad, the twoMuslim-majority districts of the Statebut also other regions, particularlythose where the minorities have adecisive presence.

    This is Owaisi’s first visit toBengal following after he announcedhis plans to contest elections in thestate.

    Often dismissed by the ChiefMinister as “BJP’s vote cuttingmachine,” Owaisi said “we are apolitical party and have every right tocontest elections anywhere in India…we also have rights to form coalitionsfor that purpose and no one can stopus from doing so.”

    When asked to comment onBanerjee’s recent allegations that hewas not a “vote cutter of BJP,” and his

    flowing would only be limited to theUrdu-speaking minority, the AIMIMleader said, “I am here to meetSiddiqui sahib who is elder to us inexperience and I am ready to form analliance with him in order to work fora common purpose.”

    Rejecting the Chief Minister’scharges he said, “I challenge theTrinamool Congress chief to provideanswers to my open questions …whatwas she doing when Gujarat wasburning … she should also answer asto how the BJP could win 18 seatsfrom Bengal in the parliamentaryelections though we were not in thefray then.”

    On his party’s alleged negativerole in the Bihar elections he said“empirical evidence shows that inseats where we fought 9 were won bythe Gatbandhan, 6 were won by theNDA and we won 5 seats … so howour party could impact the voting pat-tern the way that is being suggested.”

    On the issues his party would liketo focus on he said “we will raise awhole lot of issues including underdevelopment of Bengal, politicalempowerment, political partnership(read with the minorities), commu-nal peace etc.”

    AIMIM State secretary ZameerulHasan said “Owaisi wanted to keepthe meeting a secret as we were appre-hensive that the TMC governmentwould stop him from exiting the air-

    port. However that fortunately did nothappen. From Kolkata airport, hewent straight to Hooghly to meetAbbas Siddiqui.”

    In real terms Bengal has morethan 28 percent Muslim votes thatinfluences the voting pattern of morethan 100 out of 294 seats. AIMIM’spresence in Bengal may not augur wellfor the ruling Trinamool Congresswhich has for the past one decadebeen thriving primarily on the minor-ity votes.

    In the changed polarized cir-cumstances where the differencebetween the BJP and the TMC interms of vote percentage is mere 2percent the Hyderabad outfit’s pres-ence could spell disaster for the rul-ing outfit experts say.

    However, TMC leader SougatoRoy once again iterated that “AIMIMwill not be able to do much harm tothe TMC as its presence will be con-fined to a limited Urudu-speakingsection.” But when reminded that hewas holding meeting with theFurufura Sharif Roy said “the Muslimsof Bengal know what MamataBanerjee has done for them … theywill remain with her instead of join-ing Owaisi who has come to add tothe divisive politics that is beingplayed by the BJP… I call upon all theMuslims to unite reject his party andunite behind TMC and MamataBanerjee.”

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    BCCI president SouravGanguly who on Saturdayunderwent angioplasty aftersuffering a mild heart attackduring a workout session at hisBehala residence was doingfine on Sunday and would notrequire any by-pass surgery,doctors visiting him said.

    Three arteries of Gangulysuffering from myocardialinfarction was more than 90percent blocked. While angio-plasty was done in one arterya decision would be taken onthe two others on Monday,doctors said.

    Ganguly’s elder brotherand former cricketer Snehashissaid that renowned cardiologistDr Devi Sethi had been con-tacted and he might come toKolkata on Monday followingwhich a decision would betaken.

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    Ajoint team of security forcesin Poonch on Sunday recov-ered a third consignment ofarms, ammunition and grenadesafter busting a terror modulewith the arrest of three overground workers from Dabbi areaof Mendhar in Poonch.

    The recovery includes onepistol, three pistol magazines,thirty five bullets and five handgrenades, police said. This terrormodule is a part of the “Jammuand Kashmir Gazanvi Force”which is being operated fromPOJK

    According to police, “theJammu and Kashmir GazanviForce apart from terror activitiesis now also attempting to targetreligious places with an aim totrigger communal tension in theJammu region”. The total recov-ery made so far include 13grenades, 03 pistols, 05 pistol maga-zines, 105 pistol bullets, 04 Pakistanmade balloons, 01 flag of Tehreek ulMajahideen Jammu and Kashmir and18 posters of J&K Gazanavi Force.

    According to a spokesman of theJammu and Kashmir police, “theJammu and Kashmir police in Poonchdistrict along-with Army have made a

    third consecutive recovery of arms,ammunition and grenades after therecent busting of a terror module andarrest of three terrorist associates inMendhar area”.

    Earlier, on December 28 last year,three terrorist associates were arrestedin Balakote area near LoC where sixhand grenades were recovered from

    their possession.The trio were identified as

    Mustafa Khan son of Yasir Khanresident of Galuta, MohammadYaseen son of Walayat Khan andRayees Ahmed son ofMohammad Iqbal, both residentsof Dabbi Balakote.

    During sustained interroga-tion of the trio, some more vitalclues were developed after whichthe Police team and Armylaunched an operation in Dabbivillage located ahead of LoCfence in Balakote from whereanother consignment of arms,ammunition and grenades wererecovered.

    In the first recovery of sixhand grenades that was madefrom the arrested three persons,it was revealed that grenadeswere to be lobbed on religiousplaces in Ari and Mendhar townarea of Poonch district.

    The second recovery wasmade from Dabi village wherein twopistols, seventy bullets and two grenadeswere recovered.

    “ The handlers from across used todrop the consignment in hidden patch-es near the LoC and these arrested ter-rorist associates then used to pick it upfor further carriage in hinterland”,police spokesman added.

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    The Union Territory ofJammu & Kashmir waspainted 'White' after a freshspell of snowfall on Sunday.

    In Kashmir valley, thetourist hotspots of Gulmargand Pahalgam along withSrinagar and other districtheadquarters including NorthKashmir district of Kupwarawitnessed moderate to heavysnowfall resulting in groundingof almost all the flights.

    The traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highwayalso remained suspended fol-lowing heavy accumulation ofsnow near Jawahar Tunnelarea. Deputy Commissioner,Ramban in a tweet said, “ dueto heavy snowfall and shootingstones at several locations traf-fic remains suspended. Publicis advised to avoid travel on the

    highway”.In Srinagar, barring one, all

    incoming and outgoing flightswere cancelled due to poor vis-ibility and accumulation ofsnow on the runway followinglight to moderate snowfallsince early this morning,” asenior airport official said.

    In Jammu region, the caveshrine of Mata Vaishno Devi,tourist resorts of Patnitop andhilly districts of Doda, Kishtwarand Ramban also witnessedsnowfall.

    The Met department hadalready forecasted widespreadsnowfall in many areas of thevalley on Sunday and Mondaywith heavy snowfall at isolatedplaces.

    A Met departmentspokesperson said a freshWestern Disturbance (WD),which originated from theArabian Sea and approached

    the region through Afghanistanand Pakistan, has hit the regionon Saturday night.He saidunder the influence of theWD, light to moderate rain andsnow is expected at most placesin Kashmir and Zojila area ofLadakh for three days fromSunday. “Weather is expectedto improve from Thursdayonwards,” he added.

    Meanwhile, Medium level(Yellow alert) avalanche warn-ing for upper reaches ofPoonch & Kishtwar districtsand Low level (yellow alert)avalanche warning for upperreaches of Rajouri, Ramban,Doda, Anantnag, Kulgam,Baramulla, Kupwara,Bandipora & Kargil districtswas issued by the DisasterManagement Department.

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    Having failed repeatedly in itsattempt to regain the powerwhich it lost to the DMK in 1967,the Tamil Nadu CongressCommittee has devised a strategyto address the discontentmentamong the leaders and cadre of theparty in the State. Saturday saw theAll India Congress Committeeappointing 344 office bearers tothe TNCC to navigate the GrandOld Party in the upcoming elec-tion to the Legislative Assembly.

    Since the leader of the alliance,the DMK, had made it known thatit would contest at least 200assembly seats out of the 234 atstake, it is not known how muchthe Congress would be allocatedduring the seat sharing exercise.

    “The defeats suffered by theCongress in the Bihar assemblyelection has weakened the party’sbargaining power. The chances ofthe Congress getting even the 40seats it was allocated during the2016 election look bleak,” saidKolahala Srenivasan, author and

    political commentator.There are strong parties like

    the CPI(M), CPI, VCK, MuslimLeague and fringe groups in theDMK-led front which would notsettle for anything less than twodigit figures.

    “The Congress HighCommand saw the writing on thewall and appointed each andeverybody in the party some-thing or other. So all are con-tended,” said Sam Rajappa, veter-an scribe and commentator.

    According to the list releasedby the AICC General secretary KC Venugopal, the TNCC wouldhave 32 vice-presidents to assistthe president, 57 general secre-taries, 104 secretaries, 56 electioncommittee members, five ex-offi-cio members and 32 district com-mittee presidents. In addition tothis, all former TNCC presidentswho are alive have been honoredwith designations. This include KS Alagiri, EVKS Elangovan, K VThangabalu, SThirunavakkarassar, MKrishnaswamy, R Prabhu, EMS

    Natchiappan and RubyManoharan.

    Kumari Ananthan (88) is thefather of Telangana Governor DrTamilisai Sounderarajan andbrother of late H Vasanthkumar,the Kanyakumari MP who suc-cumbed to Covid-19 recently.

    Karti Chidambaram MP andson of Congress strongman PChidambaram, having failed tomake it to the list gave vent to hisfeelings through the social mediaquestioning the viability of such ajumbo list.

    “This jumbo committeeserves no purpose. None willhave any authority , which meansno accountability,” Karti posted inhis social media page.

    But Rajappa observed thatthe Congress High Commandcould have included some morenames in the list so that therewould not be any kind of discon-tentment in the party. “They maynot be able to enjoy the fruits ofpower as the DMK would neverallow them anywhere near the cor-ridors of power,” he said.

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    The DMK had the last laughwhen reigning superstarRajinikanth declared last Mondaythat he would not launch his polit-ical outfit as he had told his fans ear-lier in December 2020. OnDecember 3, 2020, the actor accom-panied by his close friendTamilaruvi Manian and newlyappointed coordinatorArjunamurthy announced from theforefront of his Poes Garden resi-dence that ‘it will be now or never’.Everything associated with TamilNadu will change and we will see anew Tamil Nadu,” the actor had saidon that Monday noon.

    But within four weeks he madea volte-face and said that doctorshad advised him not to go aheadwith the formation of politicalparty. Rajinikanth was acting in“Annaatthe”, his latest venture, theshooting of which was progressingat Hyderabad when his blood pres-sure started showing big fluctuationand was admitted to a corporatehospital. He was discharged afterthree days and the doctors advisedhim complete bed rest.

    The climax of Mission-R start-ed unfurling the momentRajinikanth returned to Chennai

    amidst expectations by his fansthat the important announcementwould come at any time now. OnSunday December 27, 2020, theRajini Fans Association issued arelease asking his fans and follow-ers not to be carried away by reportsthat the actor may dump his polit-ical plans. By Monday noon, theannouncement was out about theactor making a final bow before hispolitical fans.

    The movie Annaatthe is beingproduced by Kalanidhi Maran, thegrand nephew of former DMKpresident and chief minister late MKarunanidhi. Arjunamurthy, whojoined Rajini’s political bandwagonwas a close associate of late‘Murasoli’ Maran, nephew of lateKarunanidhi and father of Maranbrothers, Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi.Arjunamurthy, who was a hithertoentity in Tamil Nadu shot intofame when he joined the BJP’sintellectual cell and later cast his lotwith Rajini. This is the sameArjunamurthy, who had beendemanding that “Murasoli” Maranshould be honoured with NobelPrize for Peace.

    Dayanidhi, the younger of theMaran brothers, who is also a for-mer union minister, had deniedreports linking Murthy to his late

    father. “There is a false news pub-lished in media that Arjunamurthywas an associate or advisor to mylate father Murasoli Maran. This iscompletely untrue. No such personhad been an advisor to my father.”But Dayanidhi’s denial had to betaken with a pinch of salt as he hadissued a legal notice to New IndianExpress and S Gurumurthy for dis-closing reports about the function-ing of an illegal telephone exchangefrom the former’s private residencein Chennai while he was the unionminister for communications. Ithas been more than ten years anda Chennai court is hearing the ille-gal telephone exchange case.

    And third, Soundarya,Rajinikant’s second daughter ismarried into the family of a DMKleader late SS Ponmudi. Soundary’ssecond husband Visagan, a busi-nessman is the son of SSVanangamudi, younger brother ofPonmudi, who was close to M KStalin, the DMK chief. One of thereasons cited for Rajinikanth exit-ing the political arena before mak-ing the entry is said to be familypressure.

    Tamilaruvi Manian, describedas Rajinikant’s Man Friday, refusedto be drawn into any discussion onthe topic.

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    The Covid-19 daily death tally inMumbai plummeted to threeon Sunday, even as the deaths inMaharashtra dropped to 35 and thestate logged 3,282 infections.

    A day after the country’s com-mercial capital recorded sevendeaths, the number of deaths slidfurther to three, while the metrop-olis logged 581 new infections asagainst 593 infected cases registeredon Saturday.

    With 3 fresh infections, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbai rose from11,132 to 11,135, while the totalinfections climbed from 2,94,660 to2,95,241.

    Similarly, with 35 fresh deathsin the states, the total number ofdeaths in the state went up from49,631 to 49,666. With 3,282 freshinfections, the total number ofinfected cases climbed from19,38,854 to 19,42,136.

    As 2064 patients were dis-charged from the hospitals acrossthe state after full recovery, the totalnumber of people discharged from

    the hospitals since the second weekof March this year went up to18,36,999. The recovery rate in thestate dropped marginally from94.64 per cent to 94.59 per cent.

    Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” total cases in the staterose from 53,137 to 564,317. Thefatality rate in the state stood at 2.56per cent.

    Pune district, which continuedto be the worst-affected city-districtin Maharashtra, saw the total num-ber of cases increase from 3,73,727to 3,74,272, while the total numberof deaths in Pune went up from7767 to 7,770.

    Thane district remained in thethird spot --after Pune and Mumbai– after the total number of infec-tions rose from 2,55,248 to2,55,678, while the total deathsclimbed from 5590 to 5593.

    Of the 1,29,58,502 samplessent to laboratories, 19,42,136 havetested positive (14.99per cent) forCOVID-19 until Sunday. Currently,2,47,972 people are in home quar-antine while 2,969 people are ininstitutional quarantine.

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    Amaravati: The number ofactive Covid-19 cases inAndhra Pradesh fell to the3,000 level even as the stateadded 232 fresh cases and saw352 recoveries and four deathsin 24 hours ending 9 am onSunday.

    The State COVID-19 chartnow has 8,83,082 confirmedpositives, 8,72,897 recoveriesand 7,115 deaths so far, ahealth department bulletinsaid.

    The active caseload was3,070, it said.

    Six districts reported lessthan 10 fresh coronavirus caseseach in a day and three morebelow 20.

    The current hotspot dis-tricts of Chittoor and Krishnareported 56 and 40 new infec-tions, followed by WestGodavari 31 and Guntur 27.

    Chittoor, Guntur, WestGodavari districts also report-ed one more COVID-19 fatal-ity each, along withVisakhapatnam.

    Prakasam, Srikakulam,Kurnool districts have less than100 active cases each whileVizianagaram has the lowest(36).

    Three more districts havean active caseload of below 200each.

    Only Krishna district has510 active cases, the highest inthe state, followed by Guntur475. PTI

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  • The stakeholders of schooleducation are anxiouslywaiting to see what theUnion Budget of 2021has in store for the stratum. Sincewe have got a new NationalEducation Policy in July 2020(NEP 2020), it is expected thatfunds will be allocated for theestablishment of a statutory bodyby the name of School EducationCommission (SEC) for streamlin-ing the schooling sector, and thatthere will be rational disburse-ment of the budget pie. The NEPmay not be able to bring aboutany positive difference in theabsence of a professional body forrunning schools across the nation.It is expected that Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman willconsult educationists from thehigher and school education fieldsseparately and then reach a deci-sion rationally.

    There are nearly 33 crore chil-dren in schools and approxi-mately 8 crore students engagedin higher education in India.The school education consists of12 years of education whereashigher education consists of threeyears of undergraduate and twoyears of master’s programme.Besides, a few select students optfor the research degree pro-gramme. Higher education, thus,consists of at least three to fiveyears of studies. Once the recom-mendations of the NEP 2020 areimplemented, the total period ofschooling — after the three yearsof pre-school are added — willconsist of 15 years and the dura-tion of higher education willshrink to just four years.

    Similarly, there are nearly 1crore teachers engaged in schoolsand, after the three years of pre-schooling are added, nearly 18lakh new teachers will be addedto the total number of existingteachers. The number of teachersin higher education, however, ismuch less. To decide the normsand standards of higher educa-tion in the country, we have aUniversity Grants Commission(UGC) but we rarely realise thatthere is no such organisationwhich decides the norms andstandards for education inschools. To put it simply, schooleducation is for the masseswhereas higher education islargely for the elite.The Schooling Network

    We have been examining thevarious education boards forassessing and certifying learnersfor the secondary and senior sec-ondary levels. The Central

    Government has two boards —the Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) for generalstudents and the NationalInstitute of Open Schooling(NIOS) for non-formal learn-ers. Most States in India havetheir own examination boardfor assessing and certifyinglearners in their State. Themandate of the boards is toconduct examinations and cer-tify the students taking thetests. These boards are notacademic bodies which havethe domain knowledge todesign and develop curriculumor textbooks. The CBSE alsoassesses learners for admis-sion to technical institutes.Some State examination boardsas well as private institutesconduct entrance tests foradmission to technical col-leges of their respective States.

    It is apparent that theseboards are established to con-duct examinations but they arenot organisations with the aca-demic domain knowledgewhich can help them decideabout the academic contentand the norms of these exami-nations. To decide on the con-tent and pedagogy, we have theNational Council forEducational Research andTraining (NCERT) which is an“autonomous” but subordinatebody of the Ministry ofEducation (MOE). The NCERTworks under the direct supervi-sion of the Education Ministry.Since it may not be prudent tocomment on the functioning

    of the NCERT, suffice it to saythat we have not been able toproduce children who feelproud of our country and wishto serve this great nation.

    According to a recentreport, most board topping stu-dents are settled abroad. Thefirst desire and dream of everyschool pass out, it seems, is tomigrate to a developed country.The design of curriculum andthe curriculum framework, oneof the major responsibilities of the NCERT, is definitelyunder question. Similarly, theresearch on schooling, anothermajor responsibility of theNCERT, is questionable.

    None of these organisa-tions is a “statutory” body, sothe norms designed by theseare not mandatory for enforce-ment by the rule of law. Weneed a statutory body (createdby an Act of Parliament) todecide on the regulations relat-ed to schools.The Government SchoolNetwork

    It may not be incorrect tosay that overall, the Governmentschools have not performedwell, with the exception of theKendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) andthe Jawahar NavodayaVidyalayas (JNVs). From timeto time, a few Governmentschools in some States showpromise but, with the passage oftime, they again plunge intomediocrity as the administratoris transferred out. The firstchoice of most parents invari-ably is a private school for the

    education of their children. The Governments make theirown norms and implementthem through their own schoolsbut they have failed to competewith the private schools. Theexpenditure per child in anaverage Government school ismuch higher than per childstudying in private schools;however, the learning outcomeis quite the opposite.

    In other words, theGovernment has not provideda level playing field for allschools. There should be anexternal agency which shoulddecide on the norms and stan-dards and force theGovernment as well as privateschool managements to adhereto the regulations. The systemof the Government being boththe regulator and the player hasresulted in the failure of thepublic school system. Thecountries with the best per-forming schools — likeFinland, Sweden and Norway— have least Government con-trol. The school regulators inthe best performing countriesare completely autonomous.Budget Disbursement

    The Budget allocated foreducation is bifurcated intotwo parts: One for higher edu-cation, which goes to the UGCfor disbursement to universitiesand institutes of higher educa-tion; and the Budget allocatedfor school education is dis-bursed by the Ministries ofCentral and State Governments.

    We are all aware that a

    major reason behind establish-ing the UGC was rational dis-bursement of the “grants”. Ifthe disbursement of grantsneeds rationalisation in high-er education, then why is it notthe case in school education?Some States have raised theissue of disbursement of fundsfor school education, which isdone through the ProgrammeImplementation Committee(PIC) of the Ministry ofEducation, Government ofIndia, and called it “arbitraryand politically motivated”. Wehave often brushed thisdemand under the carpet butwe need to seriously thinkabout it if we need good edu-cation to reach down to thelast child.Prayer to Finance Minister

    It is not suggested that theGovernment’s control shouldbe completely withdrawn butthere must be autonomy indeveloping regulations, normsand standards, which can beenforced upon theGovernment and privateschools alike.

    In a recent judgment, the Allahabad High Court(Writ — Case No. — 19287 of2020) has pronounced a ver-dict against the decision of the CBSE not to permit changein name, saying: “…the Rulesas framed by the CBSE do nothave any statutory flavour and cannot be considered to bethe ‘law’ as required for plac-ing reasonable restrictions onthe rights enshrined underArticle (19)(1)(a), in terms ofArticle (19)(2) of theConstitution of India.”

    Therefore, autonomy fromthe Government’s interferenceis required but, at the sametime, there should be regula-tions in place which give free-dom to the teachers and prin-cipals of private schools towork in an “exploitation-free”environment. The teachers andprincipals in a large number ofprivately managed schools (andsome Government schools aswell) work under severeexploitative conditions. Thiswill end only if there is a statu-tory body to regulate theschooling system. This may notsuit the political party in powerbut this is urgently and desper-ately required to build a strongnation. It is expected that theUnion Finance Minister willconsider allocating a separateBudget for the establishment ofthe School EducationCommission in the upcomingbudget and mark a landmarkchange towards formulating aBharat-centric education.

    (The author teaches at the School of Education,IGNOU. The views expressedare personal.)

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    Finance is one field where we have witnessed sig-nificant innovations in recent decades and thishas transformed our society in many ways. Oneof the most promising innovations in the field offinancial inclusion is the Business Correspondentmodel in which they serve as retail agents for banksfor providing services at locations other than a bankbranch or ATM. India has traditionally been anunder-banked country, with a financial system thatdoesn’t work for the poor and hard-to-serve popu-lations. One key reason for this is that most trans-actions are conducted in cash. Brick-and-mortar out-lets make cash-based services difficult and expen-sive. Even State-owned banks have balked at reach-ing rural and poorer parts of India.

    Even though, there has been a huge uptake ofdigital banking in recent years, cash remains a cru-cial part of most people’s lives. The very small depositsand loans of lower-income customers make themunprofitable for banks which use traditional conven-tional models. Moreover, the cost of openingbranches or setting up ATMs in remote locationstends to be high. Many rural dwellers still live toofar from bank branches to make accounts viable forthem. Also, rural customers usually deposit and bor-row small amounts, making the business they bringto banks less lucrative. The main problem is Indianbanks and other financial service providers haven’tfound a way to serve poor customers located in far-flung areas and still make a profit. For years, India’sbanking system struggled to reach these individu-als with products that can significantly improve theirfinancial lives and integrate them into the mainstreamfinancial system. Now, alternative distributionapproaches are emerging. The global revolution indigital payments has created new opportunities toconnect poor and rural households with affordable,convenient and reliable financial tools.

    One such approach — the BusinessCorrespondent or agent model — has shownpromise by bringing a network of tech-enabled bank-ing agents into underserved communities. Agent net-works, a distribution channel that relies on individ-ual entrepreneurs under a franchise-like model, isan effective way to provide banking se


Emilio Betti

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