First India-Delhi Edition-2nd December 2022

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‘RESIST HATE’: ACTOR SWARA BHASKER JOINS RAHUL GANDHI

Ujjain: Bollywood entertainer Swara Bhasker on Thursday joined Congress Bharat Jodo Yatra, walked with Rahul Gandhi to resist ‘hate’. Known for her anti-BJP rants, Swara said that energy, commitment and love is just so inspiring! The enthusiasm of common people is commendable. P5

CONTROVERSY

New Delhi: Offering a “total apology” if his remarks on The Kashmir Files had been misinterpreted, Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid has said on Thursday his aim was not to insult the Kashmiri Pandit community or those who had suffered.

BCCI APPOINTS NEW 3-MEMBER PANEL TO PICK SELECTORS

New Delhi: The BCCI on Thursday named a new Cricket Advisory Committee.

The committee includes former Indian players and former national selectors Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape alongside Sulakshana Naik, who remains in 3-member committee. Fresh appointments have come after the board sacked complete selection panel.

WILL STAND AND FIGHT AGAIN: BILKIS BANO ON SC VERDICT

New Delhi: On decision to move SC challenging early release of 11 convicts, Bilkis Bano said, “I will stand and fight again, against what is wrong and for what is right.” She said Guj govt’s decision to grant early release to 11 convicts has “shaken conscience of society”.

BRAWL IN DU DURING PROTEST

FOR GN SAIBABA

New Delhi: Several stu dents were injured after a fight broke out between a Left-affiliated Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch and RSS-affiliated ABVP near Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute on Thursday. The incident took place during a pro test demanding release of professor GN Saibaba.

LET’S SEE AFTER A YEAR: PATEL’S DAUGHTER ON

NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN

Citing Shraddha-Aaftab, VHP delcares war on ‘love jihad’

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Armed with a list of 400 ‘love jihad cases’ compiled from media reports be tween 2009 and 2022, in cluding that of Shrad dha Walkar and Aaftab Poonawala, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Thursday launched a nationwide ‘Jan Jag ran Abhiyan’ (public awareness campaign), claiming that ‘love ji had’ was taking place across the country.

As part of the month-long campaign, the Bajrang Dal – the VHP’s youth wing –will take out ‘Shaurya Yatra’ (valour march) in every block of the country from Thurs day to December 10, VHP joint general sec retary Surendra Jain told reporters at a press conference.

“The Bajrang Dal will take out the Shau rya Yatra across all blocks in the country so that a sense of ‘shau

rya’ is developed among the youth and nobody dares to make our sisters and daugh ters victim of love ji had,” he said.

Meanwhile, Durga

leader said. “Through Durga Vahini, a deter rent force will be cre ated by spreading awareness among the girls,” he said.

Announcing the campaign, Jain said while religious conver sion is a nationwide concern, “love jihad is the most heinous, cruel and inhuman form of religious conversion.”

Jain also released a list of more than 400 cases, registered by po lice in various states.

“They are just tip of the iceberg as they are not even 10 per cent of the total incidents of love jihad,” he claimed.

NEW ANTI-CONVERSION LAW WAS NECESSARY:

U’KHAND CM PUSHKAR DHAMI

Dehradun: A day after the Uttarakhand Assembly passed a more stringent anti-conversion Bill, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday said the new law will be enforced strictly. He said a stricter anti-conversion law was neces sary as Uttarakhand is the land of gods and practices like religious conversion are “detrimental to us”. The new law makes unlawful religious conversion a cognisable and non-bailable offence.

LOVE JIHAD TRUE OF SHRADDHA WALKAR CASE: ASSAM CM HIMANTA SARMA

New Delhi: Reiterating a claim that he made in MCD election rallies in Delhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted on Thursday that “love jihad” is a “reality” and this has been established by the grisly murder of Shrad dha Walkar. In an interview to a TV channel, Sarma said, “There is evidence of love jihad... even in Aaftab’s polygraph test, it is said that he revealed that his actions will take him to jannat (heaven). There are reports on it.”

New Delhi: India took over the presidency of the G20, the forum of the world's largest econ omies, on Thursday.

Prime Minister Naren dra Modi penned a note calling for a “shift in fundamental mindset to benefit humanity as a whole.” “I would like to acknowledge the previ ous G-20 presidencies for delivering signifi cant results. I firmly believe now is the best time to go further still and catalyse a funda mental mindset shift, to benefit humanity as a whole,” he further said.

He added, “Today, the greatest challenges we face - climate change, terrorism, and pandem ics - can be solved not by fighting each other, but only by acting together. India is fastest growing large economy.” P6

India’s G20 Presidency will work to promote this universal sense of one-ness. Hence our theme - ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. Our G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow-travellers in the global South, whose voice often goes unheard.

—Narendra Modi,

System snag hits T2 of Mumbai Airport for 2 hrs, airline services hit

Mumbai: Chaos pre vailed for nearly 2 hours at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) after a computer systems fail ure hit check-ins and other ops for all airlines, here on Thursday. The ‘culprit’ is allegedly said to be ongoing infra dig ging works of Mumbai Metro line in CSMIA vi cinity that reportedly snapped a main cable of a major utility company, the sources said.

It is the “most memorable day” in country’s history. Modi will be setting agenda of world in very challenging times. It’s a unique responsibility because G20 accounts for 80% of global GDP. Its accounts for 78% of global trade. It accounts for 90% of patents and almost 2/3 of the population.

—Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa

56.88% TURNOUT RECORDED

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: The poll ing for the first phase of Gujarast Assembly elections was held Thursday on 89 seats spread across 19 dis tricts in SaurashtraKutch and southern parts of the state. The voting began at 8 am and a total voter turn out of 56.88% was re corded till 5 pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal urged people to come out in large numbers and vote in the first phase of Gujarat elections. As many as 788 candidates are in the fray and Gujarat will witness a threeway contest between BJP, AAP and Cong.

The polling officials sealed the EVMs and the VVPATs as the first phase of Gujarat As sembly elections con cluded on Thursday. P5

MCD ON MIND

The fate of 788 candidates will be decided in 1st phase; barring a few incidents, the polling was largely peaceful across all 89 seats in south Gujarat and SaurashtraKutch regions of the State

Modi’s mega 50-km-long roadshow was held in Ahmedabad. The mega show started from the Naroda Gam and ended at IOC circle in Chan dkheda. It covered 13 seats of Ahmedabad city as well as Gandhinagar.

BJP showcases Modi govt’s flats to slum dwellers

New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Thursday show cased 3,024 EWS flats at Kalkaji as the centre piece of ‘Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makan’ scheme of the Modi govern ment, arranging visits of busloads of slum dwellers of the city, a day before campaigning for the MCD polls ends.

Party’s national vice president and Delhi BJP incharge Baijayant Jay Panda said at Kalkaji, that the Modi government has been

relentlessly engaged in serving the needy peo ple and fulfil its prom ises with them.

“The Kejriwal gov ernment in Delhi, on the other hand, has been indulging in spreading misinforma tion and making false promises for the last eight years,” he charged citing air pollution, dirty water in the Ya muna and poor water supply in the city.

Several senior BJP leaders including na

tional secretary Sunil Deodhar and Delhi unit president Adesh Gupta were also present dur

ing

sec tions (EWS) flats recent

ly handed over to the beneficiaries by PM Narendra Modi.

Delhi BJP secretary

and incharge of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) cell of the party Neeraj Tiwari said more than 10,000 slum dwellers from across the city visited the “good quality flats” being provided to them by the Modi govt.

Last Sunday also, the BJP had arranged a similar visit of slum dwellers from 50 As sembly constituencies to the Kalkaji EWS flats. Deodhar said Delhi BJP has already promised to provide two lakh flats.

Vahini, the VHP’s wom en’s wing, will also car ry out a campaign to make girls aware of the love jihad and alert them against falling in “such traps”, the VHP

Bajrang Dal activists raise slogans during a protest against ‘Love Jihad’, in Jammu. —FILE PHOTO

Bajrang Dal to take out ‘Shaurya Yatra’ across country, Durga Vahini to make girls aware of the ‘trap’

the slum dwellers’ visit to the Kalkaji eco nomically weaker

PM Narendra Modi handing over keys to the EWS flats at Kalkaji, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Nov 2. (Inset): A view of the flats at Kalkaji.

—FILE PHOTO

First India Bureau

Prime Minister

Indonesian President Joko Widodo symbolically handed over the G20 Presidency to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit, in Bali, Indonesia on November 16, 2022. —FILE PHOTO

Amitabh Kant and Vijay Goel at the unveiling of display of G-20 Logo at Mandi House Chowk, in New Delhi on Thursday.

WHENEVER CONGRESS ATTACKED MODI, VOTERS OF GUJARAT GAVE THEM BEFITTING REPLY: SHAH Ahmedabad: Reacting to Congress’ “Ravan” remark against PM Narendra Modi, HM Amit Shah on Thurs day said that the people of Gujarat have always given a reply to Congress through the ballot box whenever they have used inappropriate words against PM Modi.

HM Amit Shah greets the crowd during the roadshow for the second phase of Gujarat Assembly elections, at Sanand in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

SORRY: LAPID ON ‘THE KASHMIR FILES’

SUNANDA CASE: POLICE MOVES HC OVER DISCHARGE OF SHASHI THAROOR

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has moved Delhi High Court seeking revision of an order passed by a trial court last year discharging Congress MP Shashi Tharoor of all charges in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.

LS POLL PLANS

Bharuch: Mumtaz Patel, daughter of late veteran Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Thursday spoke about her decision to not contest ongoing Assembly election. ‘For time being, I will observe, understand. I’ll go among public and after that I’ll come,’ she said.

GOVT LAUNCHES FACIAL RECOGNITION-BASED ENTRY AT AIRPORTS

New Delhi: The govt on Thursday launched DigiYatra - which will allow entry of air passengers based on a facial recognition system at the airports in Delhi, Bangalore and Varanasi. Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia launched it at Delhi’s IGIA. P6

PETROL,

DIESEL PRICES

Sunanda murder: Delhi Police move HC to implicate Tharoor

New Delhi (Agencies):

The Delhi Police on Thursday moved the High Court against the Trial Court order passed on 18 August 2021, discharging Shashi Tharoor in con nection with the Sunan da Pushkar death case.

The Delhi police had accused Tharoor of abetment to suicide and cruelty against Push kar who was found dead in a luxury hotel in Del hi in 2014.

The Delhi Police has knocked on the door of the High Court after the passing of an over 15-month period. Jus tice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued notice to Shashi Tharoor on an application moved by Delhi Police seeking 'condonation of delay' in filing the revision pe tition. The court fixed

the matter for February 7, 2023.

After Tharoor’s coun sel referred to the pro tracted delay, Justice DK Sharma issued a notice to the Congress leader and sought his reply to the police’s ap plication for condona tion of delay.

The police, through additional standing counsel Rupali Bandho padhya, filed the revi sion petition seeking setting aside of the trial court’s 2021 order and for direction to frame charges against Tha roor under section 498A (husband or relative of

Kidnapping accused escapes from custody, hides in elevator shaft

First India Bureau

Gurgaon: An accused in a kidnapping and ex tortion case on Tuesday allegedly escaped from police custody and hid in a society in Gurgaon for over four hours, the police said. He was ar rested after four houts extensive search opera tion by the police and was found hiding on top of an elevator duct at Jalvayu Towers society in Sector 56.

According to the po lice, one Rajat Yadav, a resident of the same so ciety, and his associate

All the gates and entrances were manned by police teams to ensure that he did not escape. —Police Official

were booked on Novem ber 24 for allegedly kid napping a 12-year-old boy. He was arrested and taken on a two-day re mand by the police to recover the car used in the alleged kidnapping bid. Police said, on Tues day, Yadav was taken to the society to recover the car. “Around 2 pm, a police team took the sus pect to the location and recovered the car. As the suspect was being trans

HC stays Shahdara Bar Assn circular prescribing uniform for law interns

New Delhi (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Thursday stayed the circular issued by the Shahdara Bar Associa tion (SBA) of Karkar dooma Court prescrib ing a new dress code for law interns.

The order came on a plea filed by a secondyear law student chal lenging the circular.

The circular was issued last week, mandating interns to wear white shirt, blue coat and a trouser.

A single bench of Justice Prathiba M Sin gh stayed the SBA cir cular of November 24, asking the Bar Council to convene a meeting of all Bar Associations of Delhi High Court to ar rive at a consensus on what dress should law interns wear. The court has also asked the Bar Council of India to join the meeting.

The bench said, "Con sidering the large num ber of interns, a uni form policy ought to be arrived at with the con sent of all stakeholders.

A consistent uniform should be prescribed because if different As sociations prescribe dif ferent uniforms then the interns will be in convenienced."

STUDENT’S PLEA

husband of a woman subjecting her to cruel ty) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Senior advocate Vi kas Pahwa and lawyer Gaurav Gupta, repre senting Tharoor, claimed the plea was not served to him and

15-MONTH DELAY

Noida (PTI): A non-res ident Indian, who has come from the UK for his daughter’s wedding, al legedly forgot a bag full of jewellery and valua bles worth over Rs 1 crore in a cab, police of ficials said Thursday.

The bag was recov ered within four hours after the Uber cab was traced in the Ghaziabad district by a team from the Bisrakh police sta tion, an official said.

DCW summons company over dues owed to Anjum

New Delhi (ANI): The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Thursday issued sum mons to a real estate company for allegedly breaking a commit ment made to settle the monetary dues of for mer Indian national women's cricket cap tain Anjum Chopra.

was “deliberately” sent to a wrong email id. Pahwa contended the police have filed the re vision petition after a delay of over a year and, before issuing no tice on the main plea, the court should hear him on the plea for con donation of delay.

MOMENT OF PRIDE

ported in a police vehi cle, he pushed away a home guard and ran to wards the society’s parking,” a police offic er said. Two police offi cials chased Yadav, who then hid in the society’s towers, the police said.

“All the gates and en trances were manned by police teams to ensure he did not escape. The accused was finally ar rested after four hours,” said a police officer.

In his petition before the HC, second-year law student Hardik Kapoor said the SBA issued an impugned notice/circu lar on November 24.

It alleged that through the circular, an arbitrary and illegal re striction was imposed on interns with regard to the uniform that they wear while working in courts.

The petition moved through advocates Ujw al Ghai, Shivek Rai Ka poor, Sanchit Saini and Arpit Sharma, stated that according to the said notice/circular, in terns were prohibited and restrained from wearing black coats and black trousers.

According to the po lice, Nikhilesh Kumar Sinha (around 50 years) lives with his family in London and they have come to Greater Noida for his daughter’s wed ding. “When they reached Sarovar Portico hotel, they realised that one of the bags was miss ing and suspected it could have been left in the cab they had taken to reach the hotel,” a police spokesperson said.

Anjum Chopra, in her complaint with the DCW, alleged that she had booked a flat in a project of Shipra Estate Ltd in Ghazi abad's Indirapuram in Uttar Pradesh in 2006 and had made nearly 60 per cent of the total investment till 2013, but she was not hand ed over the property till then.

When she signed a settlement deed with the company in 2020 due to an inordinate de lay, she was promised a refund of her money but even after two years, she has not re ceived her money back.

DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal stated in an official statement: "It is very unfortunate that a former cricket team captain who has rendered her services to the nation and has made India proud on international forums, is being harassed by a private company. She is forced to ask for help for getting her dues set tled. She has been given false assurances for years and now, the com pany has not even up held its commitment made before the com mission. We have is sued summons to the company and shall en sure all possible help to

Anjum Chopra in the matter." In the issued summons, the DCW chairperson has asked the real estate company to explain the reason for their non-upholding of the commitment to Chopra.

The commission has also sought a copy of the cheque from the company to Chopra settling her dues, an of ficial statement read.

It further sought the details of the staff re sponsible for not up holding the commit ment made before the commission and the ac tion taken against them.

The Commission has asked the managing di rector of the company to appear before the Commission on De cember 9 and provide an action taken report. In case, a satisfactory response is not re ceived, the commis sion shall initiate legal proceedings in the matter, it said.

HC restrains circulation of explicit video of judicial officer

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court has restrained sharing and posting of a “sexually explicit” video of a ju dicial officer and a woman that surfaced on November 29 and was circulated on so cial media platforms, saying its circulation would cause irrepara ble harm to the privacy rights of the plaintiff.

In an order late Wednesday night, Jus tice Yashwant Varma allowed a prayer to “conceal” the identity of the aggrieved party, and said an ad interim ex-parte injunction was warranted as the

circulation of the video was in violation of sev eral laws.

The judge noted that the full court of the high court has itself taken cognisance of the incident on its ad ministrative side, and pursuant to a resolu

Body with multiple stab wounds found

New Delhi (PTI): The body of a man with multiple stab wounds was found on a road side in Sadar Bazar, police said on Thurs day. The deceased was identified as Moham mad Shahid, a resident of Nabi Karim area.

Two juveniles have been apprehended for the murder.

Shahid was going home on Wednesday when he got into an ar gument with the two juveniles after he brushed past one of

The man was going home when he brushed past one of the two accused juveniles, who stabbed him

them. The argument escalated and the ac cused stabbed him five times with a knife, the police said, adding that the body was found by a passerby.

tion, its registrar gen eral has conveyed to authorities the need to take appropriate action for blocking the video over all messaging and social media platforms as well as through in ternet service provid ers (ISPs).

Bearing in mind the sex ually explicit nature of the contents of that video... an ad interim ex parte in junction is clearly warranted.

“Bearing in mind the sexually explicit na ture of the contents of that video and taking into consideration the imminent, grave and irreparable harm that is likely to be caused to the privacy rights of the plaintiff an ad in

terim ex parte injunc tion is clearly warrant ed,” the court said in its order. The content, if circulated amongst parties and users of the services provided by the defendant number 1 to 4 (social media plat forms), would also ap pear to, prima facie, violate the legally acceptable terms of use as adopted by the defendants, the court observed.

The court also asked the Centre to ensure that all further steps as warranted in terms of the communication of the registrar general are taken and a compli

ance report is submit ted in these proceed ings. The order was passed on a lawsuit by one of the persons in the video and it sought a permanent injunc tion restraining publi cation and telecast of the “purported video dated March 9, 2022.

The plaintiff was represented by lawyers Ashish Dixit, Amit Sharma and Vandana Sachdeva. The lawsuit was taken up for hear ing on “urgent men tioning and in light of the imminent and ir reparable harm that is likely to be caused to the plaintiff”.

3 girls get trapped inside lift, Ghaziabad residents’ association members booked

First India Bureau

Ghaziabad: The Ghazi abad police on Wednes day booked two mem bers of a housing soci ety’s Apartment Owner Association (AOA) in connection with an in cident in which three girls got stuck inside an elevator of the residen tial complex for around 25 minutes. The inci dent took place on Tuesday in the Asso tech Nest society in Crossings Republik

township.

A case has been reg istered at the Crossings Republik police sta tion.

The video footage showed the distressed children, all aged

around 8 years, at tempting to force open the doors of the lift, po lice said.

An FIR filed by the father of one of the children alleged that the lift faced frequent problems and that mul tiple complaints raised by the residents had been ignored. “Yester day, my daughter and two other girls got stuck in the lift for about 20-25 minutes.

When I reached there, she was very nervous.

All three children were in a bad condition and crying. In such a situa tion, an accident might happen with the elderly or with children due to panic,” the complain ant stated.

The father of the girl alleged that Rs 25 lakh was being spent on lift maintenance. But the repair works had been done improp erly due to collusion between the AOA and the lift maintenance company, he said.

NRI forgets bag with `1 crore jewellery in cab, cops recover it

DCW chief has asked the real estate company to explain the reason for their non-upholding of the commitment to Chopra

Archaeological Survey of India workers project the logo of G20 on to Safdarjung’s tomb, in New Delhi on Thursday. About 100 monuments across India will be lit up from Thursday for a week to mark India’s presidency of G20. —PHOTO BY PTI

—Justice Yashwant Varma, High Court Judge

BJP’s corruption allegations have no takers,

AAP will secure ‘landslide victory’: Sisodia

New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said clearing landfill sites, redevelopment of markets, regularisation of temporary employees and timely payment of salaries will be the top priorities of AAP if it wins the MCD polls.

In an interview to PTI, Sisodia said resi dent welfare associa tions (RWAs) as “mini councillors” will be granted legal status. They will work like a form of ‘Mohalla Sab ha’, the concept of which was obstructed by BJP-ruled municipal corporations, he said.

He claimed that the Kejriwal-led AAP is go ing to secure a “land slide victory” in the polls, as voters can see through the lies being peddled by the BJP.

Talking about the AAP's action plan to clear the three landfill sites in Delhi, Sisodia said it has been pre pared after a proper study in the last five-six

Mobile phones of 3 including AAP MLA stolen during Kejriwal's roadshow

months. At the current pace and technology be ing used by the incum bent civic body, it will take decades to clear them, he said. “We will focus on

DELHI TO GO DRY FOR 3 DAYS DUE TO POLLS

New Delhi: Tipplers are in for an extend ed distress as Delhi will observe dry days from Friday to Sun day during which the sale of alcohol will be prohibited due to the MCD elections, the city excise depart ment has announced.

People are wondering why instead of talking about their work in the MCD in 15 years, they are indulging in releasing videos and level ling false allegations.

managing the solid waste right from the time it is picked up from the homes. Besides, a creative use of sanita tion workers and paying them timely salaries is also a part of our road map. Experts say that solid waste is a gold mine and the govern ment can earn a revenue from it,” Sisodia said.

The deputy CM also rejected the BJP's

claims that the munici pal corporations were deprived of their due funds by the Delhi gov ernment and said that the civic bodies were given more money by the Kejriwal dispensa tion, as compared to what they were given before 2015.

“The BJP leaders had said that they would get funds from the Centre. Why didn't they do it?

The reality is that enough funds were giv en to the BJP-ruled cor porations but with the increase in funds, the level of corruption also increased,” he alleged.

Reiterating Chief Minister Arvind Kejri wal's promise of empow ering RWAs, he said that the resident welfare bod ies will be given status of “mini councillors”.

Asserting that BJP is nowhere in the contest, Sisodia claimed that there is “restlessness” in the saffron party after indications of defeat in their internal surveys.

“It is evident as the BJP has deployed top Union ministers and chief ministers for campaign ing,” he said.

Preventing communal flare-ups focus of Delhi Police for polls

Ganj

Deputy

have

Thousands

Parking space is battleground in city

New Delhi: Trying to park your vehicle with out permission can get you killed in the nation al capital as ‘parking rage‘ is now a huge con cern for the city’s police department.

An argument over car parking led to the roadside murder of a 35-year-old man recent ly. A horrifying video of the crime also went vi ral, showing a man smashing the victim’s head with a brick.

Many have lost their lives because of park ing-related disputes over the last year, ac cording to the police, who receive close to 250 calls daily on their hel pline number about dis putes triggered by fights over car parking spaces.

Multiple incidents of

murder in full public view have been report ed in the past years over parking issues, which has sparked concerns regarding the law-andorder situation in Delhi and NCR.

With vehicles everincreasing, lack of parking space in resi dential areas and busy markets is the prime reason behind fights and disputes related to parking.

INCREASE IN VEHICLES ON DELHI ROADS IN

2020-21

The total number of vehicles in the national capital increased by 3.03% in the year 2020-21 as compared to the previous year, the Delhi Economic Survey 2021-22 reported. The report said that the total number of motor vehicles (excluding electric vehicles) on roads in Delhi as on March 31, 2021, was over 122.50 lakh. Jeeps and cars accounted for 28% of the total registered motorised vehicles, whereas two-wheel ers were about 67%.

gathered

In a notification, Delhi Commissioner (Excise) Krishna Mohan Uppu on Wednesday said, "From 17:30 Hours of December 2 (Friday) to December 4 up to 17:30 Hours (Sun day), the above shall be observed as 'Dry Days'. Also, "from 00:00 Hours to 24:00 Hours on December 7 (Wednesday) (date of counting of votes), will also be observed as a dry day."

New Delhi: Increasing visibility, preventing the chances of commu nal flare-ups and check ing candidates from "luring voters" by ille gal means will be the focus of Delhi Police for civic elections in the na tional capital.

Special Commission er (Law and Order) De pendra Pathak said, "Our policing has fo cussed on the MCD elec tions for the last six to eight weeks. There is a focus on routine polic ing, staying alert and gathering local intelli gence. We are collating the information and analysing and strategis ing the area-wise data...

"We are also analys ing the kind of candi dates and demographic

composition of the area. For instance, if certain areas have more 'jhuggi jhopri' (slum) clusters, they become more sensitive," he said.

Explaining further, he said slum clusters required increased po lice presence as the vot ers might be tempted with liquor and there could be chances of miscreants coming from across the border.

“If it is a communal ly sensitive locality, we need to have informa tion from the field on what is brewing in the area. We are also keep ing a close watch on gambling and the sup ply of liquor and drugs," the senior officer said. Senior officers have been asked to stay in of fice while checking of vehicles has gone up, he said. —PTI

Aaftab’s ‘confessions’ have no legal validity

New Delhi: Aaftab Poonawala's reported confessions about kill ing his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar, in cluding those made be fore a magistrate through video confer ence and in polygraph tests, have no conclu sive legal validity, say legal experts.

Police and other offi cial sources have said Poonawala confessed to the killing and also to dismembering her body into 35 pieces and dumping them in differ ent areas of the city. However, his counsel has denied that he con fessed to the murder.

Several legal experts also questioned Poon awala's confession be fore a magistrate through video confer ence and termed it ob jectionable and unprec edented.

AAFTAB'S NARCO TEST ‘SUCCESSFUL’

New Delhi (PTI): Aaftab Poonawala underwent a narco analysis test for almost two hours at Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini on Thursday, officials said, adding that the narco test was successful and Aaftab’s health condition is absolutely fine.

Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Or der) Sagar Preet Hooda said the process of the narco test was com plete. He said Aaftab reached Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini at 8.40 am and the narco test started around 10 am. After the test, he was kept under observation.

Aaftab is likely to be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory

(FSL) in Rohini on Fri day. According to FSL sources, the answers he gave during his poly graph and narco tests will be analysed. He will be informed about the replies he gave.

Before the narco test, Aaftab underwent a general check-up for blood pressure, pulse

rate, body temperature and heart beat, a senior official said. A consent form with complete details of Poonawala and the team conduct ing his narco test was read out to him as part of the procedure. The procedure was started after he signed it, the official said.

VEHICLES THIS YEAR DE-REGISTERED

The Delhi

has

so far this year (till October 17), as

more than 50 lakh

the official data. The de-registered vehicles include

that are older than a decade (10 years) and petrol vehicles older than 15 years, officials said, adding that this is the highest number of vehicles dereg istered in a year.

"This is an objection able method of appear ance. You do not know under what pressure he was in. He should have been physically present before the magistrate," retired Delhi High Court judge Justice RS Sondhi told PTI.

Criminal lawyer Nis hant Srivastava, found er and managing part

ner of Actus Legal, said it is unprecedented that an accused has made a confession through vid eo conference.

"Since the confession was made through vid eo conferencing, tomor row if the accused al leges that he made the confession because on the other side of the camera, the police had pointed a gun at him, what will the police do?"

Criminal lawyer RV Kini, who represented the prosecution in the case of film producer Neeraj Grover who was murdered and chopped into pieces in 2008, stressed on physical ap pearance before a mag istrate and not video conferencing.

"There are several safeguards in the law so the accused is aware of the consequences of his

confession. There are provisions to ensure he should get time to think over for a day to make a confession," Kini said.

Describing narcoa nalysis and polygraph tests as "useless and a waste of time as they have no legal sanctity", Justice Sondhi said, "What he did after kill ing the girl is merely destruction of evi dence."

Saloni Bhatia & Vinod Tripathi

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia during an election campaign in New Delhi on Thursday. —PHOTO BY PTI

—Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM

n Sisodia says top priority is to find a solution to the garbage problem

Promises timely payment of salaries to sanitation workers

AAP will legalise markets in 70 wards

Anjali Pillay

Senior district-level officers have been asked to stay in office while checking of vehicles has gone up, an officer said.

New Delhi (PTI): The mobile phones of AAP MLA Akhilesh Pati Tri pathi and two others were stolen during a roadshow of Chief Min ister Arvind Kejriwal in north Delhi's Malka

area on Wednes day, police said.

Commission er of Police (north) Sa gar Singh Kalsi said Tripathi, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti's secre tary and Guddi Devi

lodged complaints regarding the theft of their mobiles. Cases have been registered and an investigation is underway, he said.

carrying AAP flags and banners

at Chandrawal road as the chief minis ter held a roadshow in the area ahead of the upcoming municipal elections in Delhi. Many sang and danced to drumbeats.

AAP roadshow for MCD elections at Malka Ganj in New Delhi on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY PTI

First India Bureau

MILLION REGISTERED VEHICLES, 42% ‘INVALID’

LAKH

BY GOVT

Delhi has 13.4 million registered vehicles, but about 5.6 million or 42% of them are “invalid” (without registra tion), according to an analysis by the state transport department released this year (2022). The department undertook the analysis after it de-registered 1,01,639 die sel vehicles between 10 and 15 years old. Such vehicles are even illegal to be parked in public spaces.

transport department

de-registered

vehicles

per

diesel vehicles

Jeevan Prakash Sharma

Police van carrying Aaftab leaves Ambedkar Hospital after his narco analysis test, at Rohini on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

NEW PAK ARMY CHIEFIMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA

The recent statement by Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Army Commander Northern Command on POK that as far as the Indian Army is concerned, it will carry out any order given by the Government of India. Whenever such orders are given, we will always be ready for it,” To this response by Pak Army has been a routine tweet “unwarranted statement of a high-ranking Indian Army officer concerning Azad Jammu and Kashmir is an apt manifestation of Indian Armed Forces’ delusional mindset”

Lieutenant General Asim Munir replaces General Qamar Javed Bajwa as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) who retires after a long tenure of six years. He will also be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Commit tee (CJCSC). He is consid ered an officer with an impeccable reputation within the Pakistani mili tary. The powerful Army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 75-plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded con siderable power in mat ters of security and for eign policy. The COAS is the most powerful man in the military enjoying the key powers including mo bilisation of troops, ap pointments and transfers. The appointment of new Pakistan army chief has come at a time when the country finds itself em

broiled in an intense po litical crisis between ousted PM Imran Khan and the government. While the appointment of a new army chief to suc ceed Qamar Javed Bajwa is expected to bring a de gree of calm to Pakistan’s deeply divided polity, much will depend upon how Munir conducts him self, particularly in deal ing with the polarised political situation.

Lt Gen Munir, a Sword of Honour of the Mangla Officers Training School (OTS) joined the Frontier Force Regiment. He has led the nation’s elite spy agencies- the Inter-Servic es Intelligence that focus es on security and mili tary intelligence. He has served under Bajwa’s di rect command in the of ten-troubled northern ar eas that border Afghani stan, China and India.

Shuja Nawaz, an expert commentator and strate gist on Pakistan and its military, described Asim Munir as a straight arrow to tame Imran Khan and has a reputation of ‘tak ing on corruption’.. Mu nir is the only senior gen

Lieutenant General Asim Munir replaces General Qamar Javed Bajwa as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) who retires after a long tenure of six years. He will also be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC). He is considered an officer with an impeccable reputation within the Pakistani military

stani media as a protégé of his predecessor, Gen eral Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The incoming army chief could potentially play a key role in lowering the political temperature as Pakistan attempts to sur vive an economic crisis and recover from historic floods. His core focus will be on reducing political instability at home, as well as dealing with the economic crisis and the resurgent terror threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban.

hard line on India. He does not have any experi ence at military training academies in US or Brit ain, unlike three of his immediate predecessorsGeneral Kayani, General Sharif and General Ba jwa. It is widely believed that Pakistani military officials who graduate from colleges in the West have a more holistic worldview compared to those who received their training entirely on home soil. Munir, on the other hand, has served and seen close to conservative Saudi Arabia regime. He has been chief of a spy organization ISI, which is intrinsically inimical to wards India and has been at the helm of affairs when the Pulwama attack took place in February 2019 and he was also di rectly involved in return ing the Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Abhinandan Varthaman to India safe and sound. The new Pak Army Chief who is a reli giously oriented man may be more inclined to wards China and Arab Countries than West and this definitely impinges on Indian interests in the region.

eral in the present crop of three-star officers who has headed both Military Intelligence (MI) and In ter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to be employed as Pa kistan’s army chief. How ever, he was removed as ISI chief at the request of former Prime Minister Imran Khan following

warnings about the al leged corruption by his wife and her relatives.

Munir becomes new chief as per established procedure and is to the likings of Bajwa and PM Sharif and against wish es of Imran. As far as loy alty goes, Asim Munir is being projected by Paki

India’s atrocities in Himalayas: J&K under attack

An ethnically di verse Himala yan region of Kashmir has been a subject of a territorial dispute be tween India and Pakistan since the partition in 1947.

Despite both countries claiming full control over the region’s entirety, Kash mir divides into an Indianadministered part and a Pakistan-administered part.

Although India’s fragile relationship with Kashmir is not a new issue, tensions intensified when in 2019, India revoked Article 370, depriving the region of its special status and a certain degree of autonomy attrib uted to it.

Article 370 allowed Kashmir to have its consti tution and to make deci

sions regarding property ownership and permanent residency. As a result, Indi ans from other parts of the country could not pur chase property and settle in Kashmir. Scrapping Kashmir’s special status meant that from that point onwards, the state would have to abide by the Indian Constitution.

Restricted Freedoms

Revoking Kashmir’s special status in 2019 was followed not only by Indian troops pouring into the streets but also by a communications blackout that only ended in 2021 and by restricting the media. These measures, adopted by India in anticipa tion of rather than in re sponse to unrest in Kashmir,

represented a serious viola tion of people’s freedom of expression. And although internet connectivity has been restored now, the cur tailment of people’s funda mental liberties continues.

Militarized Kashmir India-administered Kash mir is one of the world’s most militarized areas. At

any given moment, tens of soldiers patrol the streets of Srinagar, Kashmir’s sum mer capital, and check points can be seen at every corner. “This is the reality of life in a conflict zone. Peo ple from outside the region often see Kashmir as a tour ist paradise, but those who live here feel a sheer amount of pressure,” Viraj said.

Paradox Of Kashmir Currently, Kashmir is expe riencing a period of relative stability and peace, but secu rity challenges persist, so there is a risk that this order will be short-lived. “There has been a security threat in Kashmir since 1990,” Kamal said. “The government has been changing since then, but the army presence has been a constant.”

SOURCE: FAIR OBSERVER

Implications for India. For India, the appoint ment of Asim Munir as Pakistan’s new army chief will not make much difference in near future as he is likely to follow his predecessor’s line on India. However, in the long run a hardliner Mu nir, keen to restore public support for the military, and knowing how the ar my’s legitimacy has often been advanced by pitch ing itself as Pakistan’s protector from the threat of India, could well recog nise the benefits of the Pakistani State resuming its sharp rhetoric and

The recent statement by Lt Gen Upendra Dwive di, Army Commander Northern Command on POK that as far as the In dian Army is concerned, it will carry out any order given by the Government of India. Whenever such orders are given, we will always be ready for it,” To this response by Pak Army has been a routine tweet “unwarranted statement of a high-rank ing Indian Army officer concerning Azad Jammu and Kashmir is an apt manifestation of Indian Armed Forces’ delusional mindset.”

India can only afford to remain watchful and cau tious because it has always been the “religiously ori ented” generals that have hurt India the most. Can the new army chief of Pa kistan reverse this trend? Let’s wait and watch!

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

No work stains a man who is pure, who is in harmony, who is master of his life, whose soul is one with the soul of all.

Bhagavad Gita

Jagat Prakash Nadda @JPNadda Greetings to the people of Nagaland on the special occasion of their Statehood Day. Not only is Nagaland abundant in natural beauty, but also in its culture. The Naga culture & its values are truly benevolent. I pray for the prosperity of the state & all its people.

TOP TWEETS

Smriti Z Irani @smritiirani From a 2 road network to a 9 road robust network. Here’s an informative video on road revolution in Gujarat which eventually resulted into planning and implementation of PM Gati Shakti Masterplan.

For the last three decades, Indian-controlled Kashmir has been characterized by unrest due to a separatist insurgency opposing Indian rule

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

COL RAJESH BHUKAR

The author is a Post Graduate in International Studies, Alumni of Defense Services Staff College, Wellington and College of Combat, Mhow

Ex-Pak PM Imran Khan

Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif

Lt Gen Asim Munir

DOUBLE ENGINE GOVT MEANS DOUBLE EFFORTS, DOUBLE RESULTS: PM MODI

At ‘Vijay

Himmatnagar (ANI): PM Narendra Modi, who is on a poll visit to Gujarat, on Thursday said the double-engine government of BJP means “double benefits, double efforts and dou ble results” for the de velopment in the state.

Addressing BJP’s ‘Vi jay Sankalp Sammelan’ here, PM Modi said, “Today there is trust for the BJP in the hearts and minds of the people of Gujarat. Himmatna gar shares a strong bond with BJP. Support from people is at an alltime high.” Slamming Congress on the issue of corruption, the Prime Minister said during Congress rule their leaders were not both ered about the welfare of the people and were busy with self-interest.

“When the Congress government was in power, pulses and oil seeds worth Rs 600 crore were bought in eight years. But the BJP government has bought pulses and oilseeds worth Rs 60,000 from the farmers in eight years. During Congress rule, there were 4 crore fake ration cards. We stopped all this. A dou ble-engine government means double benefits, double efforts, and dou ble results.”

Whenever Congress attacked Modi, voters of Gujarat gave befitting reply, says Amit Shah

Ahmedabad (ANI):

Reacting to Congress' “Ravan” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the people of Guja rat have always given a reply to Congress through the ballot box whenever they have used inappropriate words against PM Modi. While holding a road show in Sanand in Ahmedabad, the Home Minister told ANI, “Whenever Congress has used inappropriate words against PM Modi,

J&K DELIMITATION

PANEL: VERDICT RESERVED BY SC

New Delhi: The apex court has reserved its judgment on a plea challenging govt’s decision to constitute the delimitation com mission for redrawing the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory of J&K. A bench reserved the judgement after hearing all the parties.

APEX COURT SETS ASIDE ‘ONEROUS’ BAIL CONDITIONS

New Delhi: The Su preme Court Thursday termed as “onerous” and quashed some of the bail conditions im posed by the Telangana High Court in a cheating case like asking the ac cused, one living in Viet nam, to appear twice a week at a police station, besides providing bank and property details.

then the people of Guja rat have given a reply through the ballot box. This time also the peo ple of the state will give a reply.” Shah’s road

India will resume work in stalled Afghanistan projects: Taliban

show is being held when polling for the first phase in 89 of the 182 constituencies is under way in the state.

He said when Naren

dra Modi was Chief Minister of the State, he had solved several basic problems of the people.

“Under the tenure of CM Modi, various prob lems were solved in Gu jarat. Gujarat used to face the problem of wa ter scarcity, but a perma nent solution was found by Narendra Modi by building check damns, bringing ‘Naramada Yo jna’ and ‘Sujalam Su falam Yojana’. Electric ity is being supplied for 24 hours and health ser vices have been upgrad ed across the State,” Shah told ANI.

Karnataka-Maha border row is a conspiracy: Cong

The

3 ACCUSED IN TRS MLAS ‘POACHING’ CASE GET BAIL

Hyderabad: The High Court on Thursday granted bail to three accused arrested in the case of alleged con spiracy to poach four TRS MLAs. The court allowed the bail petitions of Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Sim hayaji Swamy on certain conditions. They were told to furnish personal bonds of Rs 3 lakh each.

‘NOTHING WRONG IN GIVING PENSION TO MINS’ STAFF’

Kochi: The Kerala High Court said that there was nothing wrong in giving pension to the personal staff of the ministers in the state, but added that there should be a mechanism to see that there was a limit to the number of personal staff. The court was hearing a petition filed by the An ti-Corruption People’s Movement.

Kabul (PTI): The Tali ban dispensation in Af ghanistan has said that India will resume work in at least 20 stalled pro jects in several provinc es across the war-torn country. In June, India re-established its diplo matic presence in Kabul by deploying a “techni cal team” in its embassy in the Afghan capital.

India withdrew its offi cials from the embassy after the Taliban seized power in August 2021, following concerns over their security.

Shamsher Singh

New Delhi: As soon as the Bharat Jodo Yatra reached the Hindi heart land, difficulties started cropping up with the yatra. On the one hand, the Yatra, under the lead ership of Rahul Gandhi, has started getting more coverage and journalists have started arriving, on the other hand contro versies have also started. Think, before this the yatra passed through six states and almost all of them have large Muslim population. BJP does Hindu, Muslim and Pa kistan politics in these states also. But there was no controversy over the slogan of Pakistan Zindabad. It did not hap pen even in Owaisi’s state Hyderabad. But as

soon as the yatra reached Madhya Pradesh, a vid eo went viral, regarding which the BJP alleged that slogans of Pakistan Zindabad were raised during the yatra. The CM also announced to conduct an inquiry into it and take strict action.

Similarly, the yatra reached MP and a case

BJP

BIGWIGS CAST VOTES IN PHASE 1 POLLS

Gandhinagar (ANI): BJP bigwigs cast their votes in the first phase of polling in the Gujarat Assembly election in their respective constit uencies on Thursday. The polling is underway in 89 constituencies spread across 19 dis tricts of Kutch, Saurash tra and South Gujarat. Exuding confidence in the BJP’s victory in the ongoing elections, Union minister Darsha na Jardosh said they will form government in the state with an absolute majority.

BJP WILL FORM GOVT IN GUJ FOR 7TH TIME: RUPANI

Rajkot (ANI): Former CM Vijay Rupani and his wife Anjali Rupani cast their votes at a polling station in Rajkot in the first phase of State polls on Thursday. The former chief minister said that he is confident that BJP is going to form the govt in Gujarat for the sev enth time. “BJP will win all four seats of Rajkot. BJP candidates have done good campaign ing. I appeal to people to cast their votes. Voting is necessary to safeguard democracy. I am confident that BJP is going to form Govt in Gujarat for the seventh time,” said Rupani.

Kalaburgi: As ten sion arises out of border dispute with Maharashtra, the Karnataka Congress has dubbed the situa tion a “conspiracy”.

Karnataka Con gress President DK Shivakumar said that there are attempts to spoil the peace in the state ahead of the elec tions.(Assembly elec tions will be tentative ly held in May 2023)

“Our CM Bommai is making it a big is sue to hide slurs on the ruling BJP gov ernment in the state.There is a conspira cy behind this,” Shi vakumar explained.

The bor der dispute has been re

solved already. “The region within our borders is ours, the area lying in their ter ritory is theirs. Who ever is on our side is our people,” he said. It is not appropriate on part of anyone be longing to any party in Maharashtra to dis turb peace in the pre text of border dispute, Shivakumar stated.

“We have built Su varna Soudha in Bel agavi.No one should indulge in disturbing peace,” he said. Maha rashtra govt has sub mitted a petition in 2004 to the Su preme Court claiming its rights over Belagavi city and 865 vil lages in four Karnataka dis

After months, Rahul’s ‘Yatra’ witnesses first real challenge as it enters Hindi heartland!

of rape was registered against Umang Singhar, a former minister of the state and a strong leader of the organisa tion. He is a strong trib al leader of the state. Despite the yatra being completely organized, it has happened for the first time in MP that some vehicles involved

VANDE BHARAT TRAINS

in the yatra started go ing in one direction and some in the other direc tion. It happened in MP itself that Rahul got down from the car and got stuck in the crowd.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra got down from the car, went into the crowd and pulled Rahul back. In MP, Priyanka joined the

yatra for the first time and she was faced with a barrage of questions on social media. Rahul went to temples in other states as well, but when he meditated at Omka reshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Union Minis ter Smriti Irani taunted him by tweeting an in verted photo.

BHEL among 5 bidders for `58,000 crore deal

New Delhi (PTI): Staterun Bharat Heavy Elec tricals Ltd (BHEL) has formed a consortium with Titagarh Wagons and is among five enti ties which have bid for the mega Rs 58,000 crore contract to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat trains and maintaining them for the next 35 years.

Other players in the fray include French railway major Alstom; Medha-Stadler consor tium between Swiss railway rolling stock

manufacturer Stadler Rail and Hyderabadbased Media Servo Drives; Siemens along with BEML, and Rus sian rolling stock man ufacturer Transmash holding (TMH) along with an Indian firm.

Officials said while Rs 26,000 crore is the up front payment on the delivery of the trains, Rs 32,000 crore will be paid to the winning bid der over a period of 35 years for the mainte nance of these trains.

next 45 days.

According to the ten der document, the suc cessful bidder has to produce a prototype of

the sleeper class for Vande Bharat trains within 24 months.

The Indian Railways is targeting to roll out the first sleeper version of Vande Bharat train by the first quarter of 2024.

Till now, the railways has awarded contracts for manufacture of 102 Vande Bharat trains which are all chair car.

The Vande Bharat trains are expected to be a big upgrade from the premium Rajdhani Ex press service. The sleep

er class-version of these trains will be run on the routes to cover overnight rail journey like New Delhi-Patna, New DelhiLucknow and others.

After four years of in tensive work and plan ning, country’s first and the second Vande Bharat trains as electric multiple units at semihigh speed, were flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 on the New Delhi-Vara nasi and New DelhiKatra in J&K routes.

The Indian Railways is now evaluating tech nical bids for the con tract. The financial bids will be opened in the

Shillong: The special NIA court in Shillong has issued summons to leaders of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to appear before it on January 4 next year.

summons was issued to HNLC leaders Bobby Marwein, Marius Rynjah and Sainkupar Nongtraw and were published in local newspapers. The NIA had filed charge sheet against the four HNLC leaders in connection with a blast that took place in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills on Decem ber 12, 2020. As the four accused did not appear in the court on Thursday, the court issued the summons.

NIA SPECIAL COURT ISSUES SUMMONS TO 4 LEADERS OF OUTLAWED HNLC

Sankalp Sammelan’, PM said, ‘Today there is trust for BJP in people’s hearts and minds’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being presented with a memento during a public meeting for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections, at Kalol, in Panchmahal on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Amit Shah at a BJP rally in Gandhinagar. —PHOTO BY ANI

Actress Swara Bhaskar joins Rahul Gandhi during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, in Ujjain on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

CONG’S BJY RESUMES FROM UJJAIN

PARTY FUMES AS KERALA YOUTH CONGRESS CHIEF SEEN IN QATAR Thiruvananthapuram (Agencies): Outrage against state Youth Congress president Shafi Parambil, who flew to Qatar to watch the World Cup, is growing as several party workers lan guish in the Kerala jails after a series of political protests against the government were led by him. Shafi Parambil, who is also a three-time legislator has taken off to Qatar to watch the ongoing World Cup, while numerous Youth Congress activists are cooling their heels in jails after being arrested for various protests, which was initiated and led by him.

DK Shivakumar

Vice Prez Dhankhar arrives in Nagaland to inaugurate Hornbill Festival

Kisama (ANI): The 23rd Edition of the Hornbill Festival began at Naga Heritage Vil lage, Kisama on Thurs day with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar as the Chief Guest.

The Vice President of India in his greet ings expressed that he was thrilled, excited and captivated by the energy of the Naga youth. He said Naga culture and the memo ries of his stay in Na galand would be em bedded in his heart even in the days ahead.

He praised the rich

Naga songs, dances, crafts, cuisines etc and expressed his happiness over the vibrant Naga culture and traditions.

Jagdeep Dhankhar said, “India is a land of culture and said that the place “Kisama”, where the Annual Hornbill festival takes place, could become the culture of cultures. Na galand has been en dowed with scenic beauty and the pattern of its landscaping is captivating because of which he said the State has a great potential in the tourism industry.

The Nagas being very hospitable, love and af fectionate to their guests and outsiders could boost the tourism industry in a big way.”

He also mentioned the rich horticulture produce of the State like Kiwi, Pineapple, Coffee, etc.

Dhankhar also con

INDIA TAKING OVER G20 PRESIDENCY

A watershed moment in India’s history: PM’s aide

New Delhi (PTI): The prime minister’s princi pal secretary PK Mishra on Thursday described India taking over the G-20 presidency as a “watershed moment” and said it is our respon sibility to showcase the country in “the most rightful ways befitting her stature and glory”.

Holding the meeting at 56 different locations in the country will en sure that the pan-India nature of event is truly showcased, he said, add ing that every state gov ernment, Union territo ry and citizen is a stake holder in the process of India’s presidency.

“India has as much uniqueness as it has di versity. We have a re sponsibility to bring out the best traditions

of India before the world,” Mishra said in his address at the Uni

Vizhinjam port protest: Police book bishop

Thiruvananthapuram

(ANI): DThe Kerala Po lice on Thursday booked the convenor of the Fishermen’s protest outside the Vizhinjam seaport here.

The Vizhinjam Police have booked father The odacious D’Cruz under the relevant sections of the IPC for allegedly promoting enmity be tween different groups on the ground of reli gion, and provocation with the intent to cause a riot with his comment against state Minister V Abdurahiman. Accord ing to the First Informa tion Report, father

Five CoBRA commandos injured in gunfight

Chaibasa (Jharkhand): Five commandos of a battalion of CRPF’s jun gle warfare unit CoBRA were on Thursday in jured in a gun-battle with activists of the banned CPI (Maoist) in Jharkhand’s West Sing hbhum district, police said. Three jawans suf fered bullet injuries while two others had splinter injuries, SP Ashutosh Shekhar told PTI. They have been air lifted to a hospital in Ranchi and their condi tion is stated to be stable.

D’Cruz had made cer tain statements that were intended to create communal tension be tween the Christian and Muslim communities through his statement against the minister. On Tuesday, Minister Ab durahiman had termed the protest against Ada ni’s port project as “an ti-national”.

versity Connect: En gaging Young Minds programme.

Mangaluru blast: Shariq recovers, cops start grilling

Bengaluru: The police have begun questioning terror suspect Moham mad Shariq in connec tion with the Mangalu ru blast case following his recovery from criti cal burn injuries. Man galuru city Police Com missioner N Shashiku mar stated on Thursday that the police had be gun the process of ques tioning Shariq. Shariq had suffered more than 40 per cent burn inju ries following the explo sion of an improvised explosive device (IED) inside a pressure cook er on November 19.

New Delhi: As India as sumes presidency of G20 on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi penned a blog to share his insights on this momentous occa sion. Prime Minister Of fice tweeted: “As India assumes G20 Presiden cy, PM @narendramodi penned an insightful blog.” “India’s G20 Pres idency to work towards for benefitting humani ty as a whole.” “One Earth, One Family, One Future.” “The greatest challenges the world faces today, can only be solved, by acting togeth er. “India is a microcosm of the world,” he said in a series of tweets.

gratulated the State Government for elect ing the first Naga wom an MP to Rajya Sabha, Phangnon Konyak, which he said is an ex

ample of exemplifying women’s empower ment.He also appreci ated the State for hav ing the lowest crime rate against women in the Country.

Host of the Hornbill Festival, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiph iu Rio stated that the Hornbill Festival exem plifies the Naga Way of Life, celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the Naga people along with the rest of the northeastern states, showcasing the unity and oneness under a spirit of solidarity.

BSF celebrates Foundation Day

He added that it is aimed at protecting, preserving and pro moting the culture and heritage of the people while creating oppor tunities for economic growth and employ ment generation.

Rio said that the Hornbill festival is a symbol of Brand Naga land and the emerging Naga Soft Power. The cultural ambassadors representing the tribes of Nagaland and from the different states of the northeast and even the mainland are the heart and soul of the

Hornbill Festival, he added.

The Nagaland Chief Minister said that the people of Nagaland as pire for genuine peace, and are hopeful that with the successful conclusion of the peace process, Nagas will be able to play a contribu tory role in the interest of humanity on the global stage.

Rio also welcomed and extended his ap preciation to all the tourists for visiting the State and hopes that they will be ambassa dors of Nagaland.

CRUCIAL READ

HARYANA APPROVES DRAFT OF UNLAWFUL CONVERSION OF RELIGION RULES

New Delhi: The BSF celebrated its 58th Foun dation Day on Thursday. The para-military force seized more than 26,000 kilograms of drugs from the border areas till Oc tober 31 this year. Large caches of arms and am munition have also been seized this year. The BSF guards the 6386.36 km borders that the country shares with Bangladesh and Pakistan. Apart from infiltration at these borders, the force has been launching continu ous campaigns to pre vent smuggling of drugs and weapons in the bor der areas.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday greeted BSF personnel and their families on the occasion of BSF’s Raising Day. In a tweet, the Prime Minister said: “Raising Day greet ings to all @BSF_India personnel and their families. This is a force with an outstanding track record of protecting India and serving our nation with utmost diligence. I also appreciate the noble work of BSF during chal lenging situations like natural disasters.”

Cyclonic circulation likely in South Andaman Sea: IMD

New Delhi (ANI): A low-pressure area is likely to form over the Southeast Bay of Ben gal and the adjoining Andaman Sea that is likely to turn into a de pression, the IMD said. Due to the easterly wave, scattered moder ate rainfall is very like ly over Karnataka, Ker ala, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep during the next 4-5 days, the re lease added. The IMD said a cyclonic circula tion is likely to emerge into South Andaman Sea around December 4.

FIFA WORLD CUP

Argentina defeat Poland; move ahead

Doha [Qatar] (ANI): A goal each from Mac Al lister and Julian Alva rez sent Argentina at the top of the Group C table and into the round of 16 as they outper formed Poland in every department to win by 2-0 in their final group stage match here.

With this, Argentina end their group-stage campaign with six points and two wins and a loss. Poland qualifies for the round of 16 as well despite being equal

with Mexico in terms of points (4 points) due to their superior goal dif ference. Starting off the match in an all-blue jer

sey, Argentina earned their first corner of the match. But it was guarded well by the Pol ish defence.

Robert Lewandowski gets in a decent cross from the right and Krys tian Bielik’s shot from the edge of the box got blocked. Even Messi made a couple of at tempts at the goal in the opening 10 minutes but goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny made saves both times.

Argentina was ex tremely aggressive in their pursuit of opening goal and kept making chances for themselves in the first 20 minutes.

They also enjoyed a great deal of ball posses sion. Poland were try ing their level best to attack but every attempt of theirs was thwarted by Argentinians.

Marcos Acuna and Messi were the stars for Argentina in first 30 minutes of match with their aggressive game play. In 32nd minute, An gel Di Maria tried to hit Poland with a curling corner but the goalkeep er managed to avert the danger with one hand.

Chennai: The oppo sition AIADMK has stepped up pressure on the Tamil Nadu gov ernment to order a CBI probe into the alleged seizure of ‘cocaine’ worth Rs 336 crore at Vadalai in Ramanatha puram district. Leader of the Opposition K Palaniswami had charged that a DMK councillor was involved in the “multi-crore deal” in which cocaine was seized on November 27.

Kolkata: The Kolkata Police on Thursday arrested three Ban gladeshi nationals for allegedly raping a local woman at a hotel in central Kolkata. The ac cused have been iden tified as Mohammad Russel (37), Moham mad Kaiser Chowdhury (36) and Abdullah Al Mijan (37), all residents of Bangladesh. As per records, they came to Kolkata for a treatment, a police official said.

Bareilly: Two Muslim girls have converted to marry Hindu boys, here. The wedding was solemnised as per Hin du rituals by a pandit at the Agast Muni Ashram located in Madinath. Af ter converting to Hindu ism, Iram Zaidi became Swati and Shahnaz became Suman. Iram Zaidi married Adesh Kumar while Shahnaz married Ajay. Both these girls said that they have great faith in Hinduism.

New Delhi: A BSF jawan, who inadvertent ly crossed over to the Pakistani side on Thurs day in Punjab, has been handed over to the In dian authorities, a force spokesperson said. The jawan was undertak ing zero line checking along the India-Pakistan international border (IB) near BSF post G G Base in Abohar sector. The jawan crossed over to the other side inadver tently due to dense fog.

New Delhi: Sanjay Malhotra took charge as Secre tary in the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance on Thursday, while Sanjay Kumar took charge as Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, in Shashtri Bhawan. Malhotra is a 1990-batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre. He is an IIT-Kanpur alumnus and has a master's degree from Princeton University. Kumar, a 1990-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, was former Secretary, Department of Youth Affairs.

SANJAY MALHOTRA NEW REVENUE SECY, SANJAY KUMAR NEW EDU SECY

PAK HANDS OVER BSF JAWAN WHO CROSSED BORDER

Chandigarh: The Haryana Cabinet on Thursday accorded approval to the draft of the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Rules of 2022. In order to achieve the objectives and to carry out the provisions of the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2022, it is necessary to provide the procedure for the implementation of the provisions of the Act. For this purpose, the requisite forms are required to be prescribed apart from the other related procedural provisions.

A picture of PM Narendra Modi is shared as India commences its G20 presidency, on Thursday. —PHOTO BY ANI

The IMD forecast about cyclonic ciculation came on Thursday.

‘PM MODI WILL SET AGENDA FOR WORLD’

BSF personnel rehearse for the Raising Day function.

SHOWERS IN TN FROM TODAY, SAYS IMD

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar meets Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton at Raj Bhavan in Kohima, on Thursday. —PHOTO BY PTI

BRIEFS

GST revenue up 11% to `1.46 L Cr in Nov

New Delhi: The collec tions from Goods and Ser vices Tax (GST) goes up by 11% to about ` 1.46 lakh crore in November on in creased consumer spend ing and better compliance.

New Delhi: State-owned CIL on Thursday said it produced 412.6 million tonnes of coal in the April-November period of the current fiscal and ex pressed confidence that it will surpass the the out put target set for the cur rent financial year. The PSU had produced 353.4 MT in the April-November period of the last financial year. Coal India Ltd (CIL) which accounts for over 80% of domestic coal output is eyeing a pro duction of 700 million tonnes (MT) in the cur rent financial year. —PTI

INDIA’S ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION GROWS 14% IN NOV

This is the ninth month in a row that the revenues have remained above the `1.4 lakh crore mark. How ever, the collection in No vember was the lowest since August.

In October, GST collec tions had touched the sec ond-highest level of ` 1.52 lakh crore on festive spend ing. The gross GST reve nue collected in the month

of November 2022 is ` 1,45,867 crore of which Central GST is ` 25,681 crore, State GST is `32,651 crore, Integrated GST is ` 77,103 crore (including ` 38,635 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is ` 10,433 crore (including `817 crore collected on im port of goods).

“The revenues for the month of November 2022 are 11% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which it self was ` 1,31,526 crore,” the Finance Ministry said.

KPMG Partner Indirect Tax Abhishek Jain said continuing festive procure ments, year-end reconcilia

Markets continue to be on record-making spree

Mumbai (PTI): Bench mark indices rallied for the eighth day running on Thursday, ending at fresh record closing highs, amid firm global market trends and continuous foreign fund inflows.

Sensex climbed 184.54 points or 0.29% to settle at 63,284.19, its fresh record closing high.

The broader NSE Nifty advanced 54.15 points or 0.29% to end at 18,812.50, its new record closing high.

tions of input tax credits, credit notes, etc. would have played a significant role in the GST revenue up tick. NA Shah Associates, Partner, Indirect Tax, Par

COLLECTION BREAKDOWN

z The gross GST revenue collected in the month of Nov is `1,45,867 crore of which Central GST is `5,681 crore, State GST is `32,651 cr, Integrated GST is `77,103 crore (including `38,635 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is `10,433 crore (including `817 crore on import of goods)

defaulters, fake invoice in stances etc,” Mehta said.

During November, reve nues from the import of goods were 20% higher and the revenues from the do mestic transactions (in cluding import of services) are 8% higher than the rev enues from these sources during the same month last year.

“There

real estate and vehicle mar kets. Overall, there is sub stantial spending by con sumers. Further, the au thorities have been crack ing down on tax evaders,

Revenues from GST touched a record of about `1.68 lakh crore in April. In May, the collection was about ` 1.41L crore, June (`1.45L crore), July (`1.49L crore), August (` 1.44L crore), Sept (`1.48L crore), October (`1.52L crore) and Nov (`1.46L crore).

India’s manufacturing PMI hits 3-month high in November 2022

New Delhi: India’s power consumption logged a double-digit growth of 13.6% to 112.81 billion units in November 2022 compared to the year-ago period, according to the government data. The ro bust growth of power consumption in the month mainly indicates an increase in economic activities. Farmers use electricity to run tube wells for irrigation for new crops. In November last year, power con sumption was 99.32 billion units (BU).

Buying in IT counters also added to the momen tum. The 30-share BSE

Among the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys, HCL Tech nologies, and Larsen & Toubro were the major winners.

ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Power Grid and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the laggards on Thursday.

INDIAN RUPEE GAINS 8 PAISE ON THURSDAY TO CLOSE AT 81.22 AGAINST US DOLLAR

Mumbai (PTI): The rupee appreciated by 8 paise to close at 81.22 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday on broad dollar weak ness after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the pace of interest rate hikes may slow. Forex traders said foreign fund inflows and a rally in domestic equities boosted investor sentiments. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 81.08 and touched an intra-day high of 80.98 and a low of 81.32 against the greenback. The local unit finally settled at 81.22, registering a rise of 8 paise over its previous close.

New Delhi (PTI): The complete electrification of India’s entire fleet of two and three-wheelers, the largest in the world, will require financing to the tune of $285 billion (nearly Rs 23 lakh crore), accord ing to a new white paper.

Published in collabora tion with NITI Aayog, the World Economic Forum (WEF) paper said the lastmile and urban delivery fleets are leading the adop tion of electric two-and three-wheelers in India and are likely the first seg ments to transition com pletely to electric.

But driver-cum-owners are hesitant to make the transition to electric.

New Delhi (PTI): Manu facturing activities in In dia touched a three-month high in November as new orders and exports expand ed boosted by demand resil ience and substantial eas ing of cost pressure, ac cording to a monthly sur vey released on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufac turing Purchasing Manag ers’ Index (PMI) stood at 55.7 in November, up from 55.3 in October, signalling the strongest improvement in operating conditions in three months. The Novem ber PMI data pointed to an improvement in overall op erating conditions for the 17th straight month.

“It was business as usual for goods producers, who lifted production volumes to the greatest extent in three months amid impres sive evidence of demand resilience. New orders and exports expanded marked ly in the latest month,” Pol

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS

z The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing PMI stood at 55.7 in Nov, up from 55.3 in Oct, signalling the strongest improvement in operating conditions in three months

lyanna De Lima, Econom ics Associate Director at S&P Global said. Moreover, firms were strongly confident towards growth prospects, with op timism driving another

z The November Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data pointed to an improvement in overall operating conditions for the 17th straight month

z In November new orders & exports expanded boosted by demand resilience and substantial easing of cost

round of job creation and restocking initiatives. Buying levels expanded at a marked and accelerat ed rate as firms also sought to benefit from relatively mild price pressures.

New Delhi: Installation of open access solar capaci ty in India increased by 91% to 596 megawatt (MW) during the JulySeptember period, ac cording to Mercom Re search India. India added 312 MW of solar open ac cess capacity in the same period a year ago, the re search firm said in a re port on Thursday. Solar power through open ac cess is an arrangement where a power producer establishes a solar power plant to supply green en ergy to consumers. In the first nine months (9M) of 2022, India added about 1.9 gigawatts (GW) of open access solar. —PTI

Data centres in India attract investment of $10 bn

DATA CENTRES ARE

LIKELY TO DOUBLE

In its report ‘Data Centre: Scaling up in Green age’, the consultant projected that In dia’s data centre stock is likely to double to about 20 mn sq feet by 2025 from its current capacity of 10.3 mn sq feet.

New Delhi (PTI): Data centres have received in vestments of $10 billion (about Rs 81,247 crore) since 2020 as demand for such facilities has risen amid sharp growth in data consumption, according to property consultant Colliers India.

In its report ‘Data Cen tre: Scaling up in Green age’, the consultant pro jected that India’s data centre stock is likely to double to about 20 million

square feet by 2025 from its current capacity of 10.3 million square feet.

India currently has about 770 MW data centre capacity across the top seven cities — Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata.

“The growth of data centres in India is led by massive explosion of data consumption through dig itisation, increased cloud adoption, etc, over the last

AGRI SEC HELPED BUILD THE MOMENTUM

New Delhi: Car makers have logged the best-ever November sales as de mand for personal trans port continued to remain strong even after the end of the high-selling festive season, driving towards record sales in 2022.

Leading automakers Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra saw doubledigit growth in dispatches to dealers last month, making it the best-ever November for the passen ger vehicle industry.

two years. At the same time, data centre opera tors are enthused by the incentives such as subsi dised land, stamp duty exemption, etc provided by several states,” the statement said.

Mumbai accounts for the largest share of data centres at 49%, benefiting from the presence of a landing station and sub marine cable connectivity.

Delhi-NCR has about 17% of the total.

Petrol, diesel sales see double-digit growth

New Delhi: Petrol and die sel sales in India saw a dou ble-digit year-on-year growth in November as in creased demand from the agriculture sector helped build on the momentum generated by the festive sea son, preliminary industry data showed on Thursday.

Petrol sales soared 11.7%to 2.66 million tonnes in November, as compared to 2.38 million tonnes of consumption in the same month last year.

Sales were 10.7% higher than in COVID-marred

November 2020.

Month-on-month, the de mand was up 1.3% on the high-base festive season created in October.

Diesel, the most used fuel in the country, posted a 27.6% rise in sales in No vember to 7.32 million tonnes, as compared to the same month last year.

Consumption was up 17.4% over Nov 2020 and 9.4% higher than 2019.

The fuel has seen a rise in sales month-on-month since September. It rose by a massive 17.1% when com pared with 6.25 million tonnes of sales in October 2022. Petrol and diesel sales were highest since June.

Sources said diesel de mand has been surging on pick up in the agriculture season. Use of the fuel in irrigation pumps and trucking has helped build the momentum generated from the festive season de mand push in October.

OTHER STORIES

WINDFALL PROFIT TAX ON CRUDE OIL HALVED, LEVY ON EXPORT OF DIESEL SLASHED TOO

New Delhi: The government on Thursday slashed to less than half the windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil and also reduced the levy on diesel. The revised tax rates become effective from December 2, 2022. The tax on crude oil produced by firms such as state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Cor poration (ONGC) has been reduced to `4,900 per tonne from the existing ` 10,200 per tonne, as per a government notification issued on Thursday.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RISES TO THREE-MONTH HIGH AT 8 PER CENT IN NOVEMBER: CMIE

Mumbai: The country’s unemployment rate rose to a three-month high at 8% during November, according to data by the CMIE. The unemployment rate in urban India was higher at 8.96%, while in rural areas, it was at 7.55%, the CMIE data showed on Thursday. In October this year, the urban joblessness was at 7.21% and the rural unemployment rate was at 8.04%. Haryana continued to have the highest unemployment rate in the country at 30.6%.

OPEN ACCESS SOLAR CAPACITY UP BY 91% TO 596 MW IN Q2

MARUTI, HYUNDAI, TaMo POST DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH IN NOV

First India Bureu

ag Mehta said the major factors for the increase in collections are the festive and wedding seasons.

has also been a major increase in sales for

‘Electrification of India’s 2/3 wheeler fleet needs $285 bn’

First India Bureau

HIGH COURT SEEKS ED’S STAND ON SATYENDAR JAIN’S BAIL PETITION

First India Bureau

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thurs day asked the Enforce ment Directorate (ED) to respond to a bail plea of AAP minister Saty endar Jain, arrested in connection with a mon ey-laundering case.

Justice Dinesh Ku mar Sharma issued no tice on Jain's bail plea and granted two weeks' time to the investigat ing agency to file its status report.

Senior advocate N Hariharan, represent ing the minister, said there are no "proceeds of crime" in the case and it is based only on a "notional basis".

After Zoheb Hossain, appearing for the ED, submitted that he would require some time to file a response to Jain’s plea, Hariharan re quested that the matter be listed next week, cit ing the period that Jain has been in jail.

Jain has sought bail in relation to the ED's case registered on September 30, 2017, under the Pre vention of Money Laun dering Act (PMLA), and said in his plea that he is neither in a position to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence nor he is a flight risk.

Further, as the charge sheet has already been filed, there is no re quirement to continue his incarceration in the present case, he has as

‘A CONSPIRACY BY NORTH INDIANS’:

ANDHRA MP

New Delhi (ANI): The YSR Cong Party MP Ma gunta Srinivasulu Reddy said that he doesn't have any role in the Delhi liquor scam. "I have nothing to do with the liquor scam. This is a conspiracy by north Indians," he said. The leader was respond ing to reports that his name was mentioned in the remand report of the ED in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam and claimed that he does not know how his name is included probe.

serted. Jain has chal lenged the trial court's Nov 17 order by which his bail plea was dis missed on grounds that he was prima facie in

Green laws violation: Mika Singh’s farmhouse sealed

Gurugram (ANI):

Three farmhouses in cluding one of singer Mika Singh has been sealed because of green laws violation, said Dis trict Town Planner (enforcement) Amit Madholia. Madholia said that the three farmhous es situated in Rojka Gu jar village, near Dam dama Lake in the Ara valli region, have been sealed. "Three farm houses constructed in

Rojka Gujar village, near Damdama Lake in Ara valli region, have been sealed for green laws vio lation. We have got to know that one of these farmhouses belongs to Amreek Singh aka Mika, the singer," he said.

READY TO FACE ANY INQUIRY: TRS MLC KAVITHA ON DELHI LIQUOR SCAM CASE

JAIN ‘MISUSED’ OFFICIAL POSITION TO MEET WITH COACCUSED: LGAPPOINTED PANEL

involving

Party (AAP). Kavitha said she and her party leaders are ready to face any inquiry. She was reacting to the allegations as her name figured in a remand report by the Enforce ment Directorate on one of the accused-Amit Arora- in the Delhi liquor scam case. “We will face any kind of inquiry. If the agencies come and ask us questions we will certainly answer. But tar nishing leaders’ images by giving selective leaks to the media, people will refute it,” Kavitha said.

New Delhi (PTI): An inquiry committee constituted by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has found that jailed Delhi minister Satyendar Jain “misused” his official position and met with co-accused in a money laundering case in which he was arrested in his Tihar Jail cell, official sources said on Wednes day. The report by the committee, comprising principal secretaries of the Delhi government’s Home, Law and Vigilance departments, has noted “collusion” on part of then Director-General (Pris ons) Sandeep Goel with Jain, they said. Jain was arrested by the Enforce ment Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case on May 31. No immediate reac tion was available from the AAP or Goel over the findings of the report. The committee has also rec ommended “departmental proceedings” against Goel for “extending VIP treatment” to Jain.

WARMER WINTER LIKELY IN NORTHWEST, SAYS MET

New Delhi (PTI): Many parts of northwest In dia may see a warmer winter season primari ly due to likely subdued activity of western dis turbances, the Met of fice said on Thursday.

India Meteorological Department head Mrut yunjay Mohapatra said there could be varia tions in the temperature on a day-to-day basis and the impact on the wheat crop depends on the dy namic behaviour of the weather and the stages of the plant life cycle.

Wheat is sensitive to high temperature dur ing reproductive stages as compared to vegeta tive stages. "During the

There will be less cloudiness and higher day temperatures. There could be pene tration of easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal & it will lead to an increase in the mini mum temp but will not necessarily yield rain fall.

upcoming winter season (December 2022 to Feb ruary 2023), below nor mal minimum tempera tures are most likely over many parts of pen insular India and some parts of central India, and isolated parts of northwest India.

"Normal to above normal minimum tem peratures are most like ly over many parts of northwest India and most parts of northeast

India," the IMD said. Mohapatra attributed the higher-than-normal temperature in many parts of northwest In dia due to likely sub dued WD activity and the penetration of east erly winds. "The WD activity will be subdued. Hence, there will be less cloudiness and higher day temperatures. There could be penetra tion of easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal.

volved in concealing the proceeds of crime.

"He is already in jail for more than 4 months now. He is already on bail in the CBI case no

allegation that he mis used the bail granted in the CBI case. Hence, the applicant is entitled to regular bail pending trial," the plea argued.

ANTI-BRAHMIN SLOGANS ON JNU WALLS SPARK CONTROVERSY

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Controver sy erupted at the Jawa harlal Nehru University over walls being defaced with anti-Brahmin slo gans. The walls and doors of the School of International Studies- II building have been painted with objection able slogans. The stu dents’ union of the BJP - the ABVP - alleged that

the vandalism was sup ported by the Left-lean ing students and de

Govt rolls out facial recognition system at Delhi’s IGI airport

New Delhi (PTI): Civil aviation minister Jyoti raditya Scindia on Thursday launched DigiYatra which allows entry of air passengers based on a facial recog nition system at the air port in the national capital. With DigiYatra, it will be a paperless en try for passengers at airports and the passen ger data can be automat ically processed based on a facial recognition system at various checkpoints, including security check areas.

manded action from the JNU administration against those involved.

GENDER JUSTICE

Apart from Delhi, DigiYatra is being launched at Varanasi and Bangalore airports on Thursday. For avail ing of the service, a pas senger has to register their details on Digi

Yatra app using Aad haar-based validation and a self-image cap ture. In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned and the cre dentials are shared with the airport.

RBI LAUNCHES RETAIL DIGITAL RUPEE IN FOUR CITIES

New Delhi (PTI): The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday launched the first pilot project for retail digital rupee in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar. The re tail digital rupee (e`-R) project has started in a closed user group with the participation of four lenders — State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank — as well as cus tomers and merchants.

The launch comes a month after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started a pilot in the digital rupee — whole sale on November 1. In the second phase of re tail digital rupee pro ject, nine more cities and four more banks will be included.

Women’s representation in judiciary far short of Constitutional ideal

New Delhi: For the third time in history, the Supreme Court set up an all-woman bench on Thursday compris ing Justices Hima Kohli and Bela M Trivedi. While the news gives us a glimpse of hope, we have a long way to go when it comes to the ap pointment of women judges in the courts of the country, especially in high courts and the Supreme Court.

In the last 70 years, no significant attempt has been made to provide adequate representa tion for women in the

High Courts or Su preme Court. In 1980, Justice M Fathima Bee vi became the first woman judge to be ap pointed to the apex court, 40 years after its establishment. So far, only 11 women judges could reach up to the top court, with no wom en CJI till now. Just 83 of the 680 judges in the high courts are women. Only 30 per cent of sub ordinate judges are fe male. Women are out numbering men in law schools and are increas ingly joining the corpo rate sector, but their underrepresentation in top decision-making in

stitutions is deplorable. The situation of women lawyers in the country is also not good. Of 1.7 million advocates regis tered, only 15 per cent are women.

Ayush Jaiswal, Assis tant Professor, NLIU, says “Out of 27 judges

of the SC, only 3 are women; this itself high lights the dispropor tionate gender ratio. In fact, gender diversity at the very grassroots lev els of legal education and profession is not satisfactory. Therefore, we must introduce cer

WOMEN JUDGES

tain policy changes that encourage women to opt for law as a career.”

Once things improve at the elementary level, gender diversity is sure to follow in the entire legal sector including the judiciary, he says.

Senior advocate Sud

ha Shrivastava says, “The judiciary needs to be more diverse as di versification brings positive institutional changes. To bring about a change, patriarchal mindsets and gender stereotypes need to be set aside first. There is no dearth of qualified women, and yet women continue to battle for better representation in the higher judiciary.”

“We should realise the need of giving ade quate representation to women. The top court should also have reser vation for women such as in the subordinate judiciary,” she added.

New Delhi (PTI):

chud on

The two-judge bench is currently sitting in Court number 11 of the top court. The bench has 32 mat ters listed before it, starting with 10 transfer petitions involving matrimonial disputes and 10 bail matters. The first all-woman bench was set up in 2013 with Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Ranjana Prakash Desai, followed by a bench of Justices R Banumathi and Indira Banerjee in 2018.

There are three women judges in the top court at present including Justice Kohli, BV Nagarathna, and Trivedi. Justice Nagarathna is set to become the first woman Chief Justice in 2027.

Justice Sharma issued notice on Jain’s bail plea and gave 2 weeks to ED to file its status report

No ‘proceeds of crime’ in the case and it is based only on ‘notional basis’: Jain’s advocate

AAP leader Satyendar Jain, who was arrested by the ED on May 30, is currently in judicial custody.

A warmer winter is predicted from December to February in northwest India. —FILE PHOTO

First India Bureau

New Delhi: The Enforce ment Directorate has named Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and TRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha in a court filing related to the Delhi liq uor policy

—Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Head, India Meteorological Dept

Abhilasha Saksena

Justice Hima Kohli (left) and Justice Bela M Trivedi

Chief Justice of India DY Chandra

Thursday constituted an all-woman bench comprising Justices Hima Kohli and Bela M Trivedi to hear transfer petitions involving matrimonial disputes and bail matters. This is the third occasion in the his tory of the apex court that an all-woman bench has been constituted.

ALL-WOMAN BENCH TO HEAR MATRIMONIAL TRANSFER CASES, BAIL MATTERS IN SC

—REPRESENTATIONAL

—PHOTO

BY PTI

www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/ thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09

Khushi Vijay has been walking catwalks for a few years now, one of those rare models who has set a huge bench mark in the fashion and glamour industry with her charisma. When asked about her initial journey, Khushi shared, “My journey has been a roller coaster ride emotionally, mentally as well as physically. I lost my parents at an early age and things haven’t been easy for me as a child but with the support of my siblings, I could manage to channelise my energy in the right direction. I am a keen Yoga practitioner and have a huge soft corner for animals.” She further added, “Keeping the same in mind, I dream big to have an NGO of my own and serve society for a greater cause.”

Talking about her challeng es and achievements, the beau ty exclaimed, “I faced several rejections initially but that also made me more strong and more experienced. I kept striv ing hard to ful fil dreams.

Watched several YouTube tuto rials and groomed myself and one day, I bagged my first beau ty pageant award, Miss Pride of Rajasthan 1st runner up. The platform that transformed my life completely was Elite Miss Rajasthan. Under the mentorship of Gaurav Gaur, I could not just get better in my field but also developed a huge potential to do better in the fashion and modelling indus try.” She further added, “I also won Miss Photogenic Award. Not only this, I was also select ed as the top 30 finalists of First India Queen and I am glad my talent was appreciated here. I wouldn’t say any drastic change followed, but yes, per sonally and professionally, I

Khushi Vijayvargiya doesn’t just contain multitudes, she displays them, boldly. City First caught up with supermodel Khushi Vijayvargiya, one of the top 30 finalists of Elite Miss Rajasthan 2022!

UTTKARSHA SHEKHAR uttkarsha.shekhar@firstindia.co.in

THE binding art soul OF

MITALI DUSAD mitalidusad01@gmail.com

Acting as spaces for quiet contemplation and crea tive stimulation, art cafes offer delicious food with a side of unique sculptures and modern art paintings. They also serve as a place for budding artists to pre sent their work to a larger group of people, outside of the con fines of dedicated white-wall galler ies and limited audiences. Get a taste of something wildly different from your neighbourhood coffee shop and head to Kamal Talai, located in C-Scheme, Jaipur.

A charming, welcoming cafe that serves up delicious food and showcases beautiful art work, Kamal Talai has had quite a history. The space was restored and turned into a gal lery cafe. Featured here are artwork by Pratibha Goyal, a 65 years old lady hailing from the Pink City who caught up with her passion after 30 years during pandemic. The space is vibrant without be ing loud and relaxing with out being a snooze fest.

Shilpa Shara, owner, Ka mal Talai, during the launch said, “We’re also planning to host art workshops and exhibitions quite regularly. With artwork that’s pleas ing to the eyes and food that satiates cravings, we look for ward to a soul rejuvenating time with a delightful spot to spend an after noon. “ She further added, “The spot is also a meeting point for many art ists and art aficionados.

Reportedly the city’s one of the most unique art galleries, the space gets its name from KAMAL (Lotus), a flower that symbolises strength, purity, new beginnings, beauty & charm while TA LAI (The Pond), a home to the Lotus. It resonates with Lord Krishna’s Raas & Krida around the pond of Lotus at the banks of river Yamuna. Drawing an inspiration from the artistic hues of a Lotus life, a fusion of the world charm with today’s contemporaries , ‘Kamal Talai, the cafe gallery’, is a home grown & a humble endeavour to celebrate all that is reminisces of. Each painting is handmade by a house of skilled artist, Pratibha. No two piec es are identical, which only adds to its originality and allure.

When asked about the future plans regarding the cafe, Shilpa confidently said, “We look forward to hosting to many discussions and exhibitions and slowly emerge as the local go-to for good vibes. I have strong faith in art and truly wish to promote it in every possible way. The best part here is, the

cafe boasts of being a para dise for those who love art and wish to enjoy it with a cuppa. One can not only enjoy, but even buy the art work on display and all the funds received will go for charity.”

On being asked as to how this idea popped up, the dynamic lady said, “I am a big believer in exposure, espe cially if it is art, in whatever form it may take. For an artist early in his/ her career, showing in a non-gallery venue like a restaurant or café can be a good way for the artists to begin to get their feet wet. I would certainly rather have their work out where peo ple can see it than collecting dust in the corner of their studios. At least if the work is showing, they got a shot at someone seeing it and becoming familiar with their art and name.”

Kamal Talai was inaugurated on November 25 and a welcome party continued on the next day too. Vari ous who’s who of the Pink City graced the evening. Mouth watering delica cies were served with a cozy evening ambiance. Visitors appreciated the artwork and congratulated Shilpa for the new venture.

From quaint spaces within restored heritage buildings to bustling contemporary creative centres, Rajasthan is home to several art galleries that double up as cafes. And whether you are drawn to antiques or prefer modern art paintings, you’re bound to enjoy the experience of dining at these one-of-a-kind spaces. City First caught up with Shilpa Shara, founder and owner, Kamal Talai, cafe & gallery, located in the heart of Pink City!

The beautiful interiors of Kamal Talai, cafe and gallery

Siddharth Lodha, Amit Gupta, Siddharth Jain, Avnish Bhatnagar, Pranay Shara, Arihant Murdia, Anuj Modi and Ankit Pareek

Ritu Bhatia, Pallavi Murdia and Ritu Singh

Kapil Bhagia, Kunal Kuchhal, Yash Tholia, Shilpa Shara, Apra Kuchhal and Puja Sharma

riyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas never fail to shell out couple goals. From sharing love-filled pictures together, to dropping adorable comments on each other’s posts- Nick and Pri yanka always leave their fans swoon ing over them.

Priyanka and Nick, who tied the knot four years ago in a grand ceremony at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Rajasthan, celebrated their wedding anniver sary on Thursday .

Wishes from their family members, fans and friends have been pour ing in on social media.

Priyanka’s bestie Ta manna Dutt also wished the couple by sharing an unseen picture, and it is just so adorable!

walks in ALL GLORY

ver since Sam Ba hadur was an nounced fans have been waiting with bat ed breaths for the re lease of this film. Vicky Kaushal will be seen in and as Sam Bahadur and this Meghna Gulzar film will also star Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra in pivotal roles. On Thursday he took to his Instagram handle to share the first look of the film. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, starring Vicky Kaushal, Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Shaikh and produced by Ronnie Screwva la, the film will release in theatres on December 1, 2023.

RAY OF Sunshine

Sonam Kapoor is currently enjoying a new phase of her life. In August this year, Sonam and her hus band Anand Ahuja wel comed a baby boy to their family. The couple has named their son

tional outfit on Thursday. In the pictures, she is looking like a ray of sun shine in a yellow Anarka li outfit. The actress sure ly looks beautiful and her post-pregnancy glow is adding extra charm to her look. was seen flashing

GOLD MOVIE REVIEW: ORIGINAL YET TIMID

CITY FIRST

Gold, the new outing from the two film old prodigy direc tor Alphonse Puthren has been in the talks for a long time due to a delay in the release. The film which marks Al phonse's return to direct ing after a seven-year hia tus is a mixed bag, that floats around groping for the authentic design of his earlier films. Gold is about a simpleton mobile shop owner Joshi, nick named Danger Joshi ( by the film's makers), an easy-going guy living with his home-bound mother, who spends her time, be tween cooking meals and feasting her son and visi tors with great food.

The mother's character is stretched out to be noth ing more than a carica ture, as during the latter hour she genuinely feels bad for not treating a group of ruffians who

relatively high point in his life when we meet him, on the verge of a marriage proposal and getting his new car to impress the bride's family. However, the central thematic

about it. Alphonse Puthren, like in his earlier films is masterful with his use of cinematic time and bypassing narrative fluid ity with his idiosyncratic inserts and transition shots.

DIRECTOR

Alphonse Puthren CAST & CREW Prithviraj Sukumaran,Nayantharai

were trying to encroach on their priced posses sion, a bolero pickup van that has crashed into their home by some weird event gone wrong. Joshi is at a

GOLD RATING:

McGuffin, the random bo lero van ( or rather the package within) parked at the front way of his home triggers intrigue as no one seems to know anything

The filmmaking is ex quisite at places, with definite callbacks to his earlier successful visual stylings. However, the writing is aimless by de sign and oftentimes seems to be choked and punctu ated for his pulsating quirky sensibilities. Al phonse's acute judgement of cinematic pacing and innovative edit structure is awe-inspiring at a craft level but the plot progres sion is minimal and scath ingly escapes any sort of narrative engagement.

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra

Vicky Kaushal

Shehnaaz Gill

Sonam Kapoor

SUPERGIRL MANNAT!

MANNAT KHANNA, A FITNESS ENTHUSIAST, SHARES HER JOURNEY WITH CITY FIRST!

‘ESSENCE OF LIFE’

CITY FIRST

ESSENCE OF LIFE’ is a fresh collection of work by young artist Tanisha Bakshi that features her entire series of works dedicated to the notion of motherhood organ ised at Bikaner House, New Delhi from Novem ber 19 to 23. The pow erful bond between mother and child, irrespective of their social rank, class or caste is univer sal. Yet she ties it into the specificity of the Indian context and brings to light the beau ty and tenderness of the maternal bond through her paintings rendered in a hyper-re alistic style and ap proach.

Her solo exhibition is set to premiere in the national capital and it will showcase works presented by Tanisha from her earlier as well as recent works.

The series entails over 25 exclusive Paint

ings and Artworks in various mediums like oil, charcoal works, readymade material and installation where she has experimented with a variety of sur faces culled from the

domestic maternal space.

Her experiments use a saree, shawl, old bed sheet, carpet and other readymade materials as the surface is loaded with emotional ener

gies in the portrayal of soul and spirit and each painting carries a story to narrate. According to her, “Every scratch, every hole and every wrinkle in a mother’s cloth has a memory” and this truly reflects in her collection of ‘ Es sence of Life.

The most astounding artwork is the self-por trait “Pratibimb” on the carpet of size 5ftx5ft.

According to her, “We must keep discovering, experimenting and growing. Life is all about growth. Don’t worry about whether what you do is right or wrong or the end result, because there is no such thing as failure or suc cess. Just keep on striv ing for growth. If you wish to do something with every ounce of your being, and you act on that thought, you can do anything. But if you have given up on yourself, even if some thing is handed to you on a platter, nothing will come out of it,” said Tanisha.

cityfirstdel@gmail.com

Tell us something about yourself.

I am a model, a danc er, a certified Zumba instructor, a fitness enthusiast, founder and faculty at Oomph dance centre.

Where do you see yourself after the next 20 years?

I am kind of a person who lives in the pre sent. I work to make my present the best (expecting it to pos itively mould my future though). I am not too sure about the next 20 years but I will live life to inspire others and get inspired and motivated too.

How did your journey begin? It all started after I finished with my 12th boards. Having topped I was, expect ing to move out of my city for further stud ies, but due to the un safe environment for girls especially, my parents were too inse cure to send me away

from them. All this led to a build-up of frustration which I would vent out through my dance.

Eventually to over come this sadness I gave direction to my passion and that’s how Oomph dance centre hap pened. Also at that same time Miss India campus princess hap pened, which to my good fortune I won, and then there was no looking back.

What were some of the battles you fought and are still fighting in your journey?

A few mislead people Judging my character based on my dress sense, and my profes

sion, was and is still a battle that I face every day. The only differ ence is initially it use to affect me a lot but today it drives me to work harder.

Talk to us about your achievements? I was a good student academically and in extracurricular ac tivities.

I turned my passion for dance into my pro fession by setting up the Oomph dance cen tre where I have trained people from the age of 5 to 60. I have taken dance workshops in Mum bai and Delhi, Ludhi ana and Chandigarh, in universities n cor porates. I have been a part of dance India dance then I was crowned as Miss India campus princess. Thereafter I won Times fresh face Chandigarh and was a national winner Miss happy skin. I have been fortunate to have worked with mu sic legends like Mika Singh, and Gurnazar Chatta, designers like Ritu Kumar, and Nar endra Kumar and Ramp trainers like Alesia Raut.

I have also been for tunate to have worked n trained with inspi rations, like Mandira Bedi, and ace photog raphers like Dabbo Ratnani, film director Fawad Samji and Par zaan Dastur.

Singer-Songwriter

some insights about his latest release Na daniya in this exclusive in terview with City First

Tell me something about your dropped modernage pop funk record ti tled Nadaniya. Nadaniya is one of the most upbeat songs I have put out

to date; it is inspired by a lot of global pop funk disco and dance music genres, earlier I have always put out some chilled, soft and soulful songs, but I just felt like I wanted to showcase the other side of my person ality, and also that we are out of these very difficult two years that everyone had, so I wanted to give a lit tle bit of an energetic lift to the mood around me, and that is why I made Nadani ya.

It was one of the very first few melodic ideas I had re corded on my phone (in voice notes) and I just want ed to write music by living in the moment because there are so many distrac tions around us and we have our phones and just so

many things that stop us from truly doing something that we want to or we hesi tate at the moment and our heart is telling us to do it

but we still kind of don’t listen to our heart, and the song exactly talks about that and it’s telling the lis teners to live free.

you feel about this, give some insights.

It’s a very special song first ly because this was my first independent song that was made in lockdown and re leased in the lockdown. My sister shot the music video on my home terrace and it was quite special.

Secondly, the song was launched by the legend ary Amitabh Bachchan so I couldn’t have asked for a better launch for that. I was just so happy and grateful and it was just like an out-of-the-world experi ence for me. I’m thankful for all the love that the au dience gave me and even from a fellow artist in the music industry. Honestly, to date, it’s one of my favour ites music.

The music video captures Siddhant and Sana in their natural element, powerfully bringing the emotions of the song to life. A perfect blend of modern-age love, de scribe your experience working with them.

It was a great experi ence shooting this song. I hadn’t met Sana before the shoot, but we just connected, and it was very chill. The music video was shot in lots of different parts of LA. We squeezed the shoot into two days. Sana was so good to work with and thoroughly en joyed the whole process of the shoot with her. I am glad that she also connect ed with the song as much as I did.

did

Famous Pop Artist

Siddhant Bhosle shared

Your first indie single ‘Din Aur Raatein’ was released by Veteran Am itabh Bachchan on his Twitter handle how

MITALI DUSAD cityfirstdel@gmail.com

The official Twitter handle of Police Families Welfare Society shared glimpses of an educational event, in which Kanika guided the children regarding choosing the right career and options. PFWS member Ritu Arora also shared her thoughts with the children and their parents. During the event, Education Committee Head Dr Kulwinder Hooda talked about focusing on the goals of life.

Tanisha Bakshi with her self portrait Pratibimb

Adwaita, Sunit Tandon, Tanisha, Jatin Dass and Maneka Gandhi

Ananda Moy Banerji

Sunil Tandon

Sandeep Marwah

Mohammed Asif

Uma Nair and Georgina

Nand Kishore Malhotra and Vijender Sharma

Siddhant Bhosle

Mannat Khanna