First India-Delhi Edition-6th October 2022

G20 PARL SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT IN

PILOT DIES IN ARMY CHOPPER CRASH IN ARUNACHAL

READ Crucial AIIMS BILASPUR TO BE KNOWN AS ‘GREEN HOSPITAL’: PM MODI

New Delhi: An Army pilot died in a Cheetah helicopter crash near Tawang area of Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday morning. “The Cheetah helicopter flying in forward areas near Tawang crashed at around 10:00 AM during a routine sortie. Both the pilots were evacuated to the nearest Military Hospital,” Army said.

3 JeM TERRORISTS

NEUTRALISED IN J&K ENCOUNTER

Shopian: Security forces neutralised three terrorists linked with the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed in an encounter in the Drach area of Shopian, said the police on Wednesday morning. The encounter between security forces and terrorists had broken out last evening. Another encounter broke out early morning in Moolu area of Shopian, which according to ADGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar is in progress.

FIR FILED AGAINST MALLYA IN CHEQUE BOUNCE CASE

Bilaspur (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugu rated the All India Insti tute of Medical Sciences here and said that the hospital will be called the ‘Green Hospital’.

“In last 8 years, we have worked on ensur ing development bene fits reach the remotest parts of the country. AIIMS Bilaspur will not only increase access to affordable healthcare in Himachal but is also ecofriendly and will be known as ‘Green AIIMS’,” he said. Term ing the inauguration of AIIMS a moment of pride in Himachal, PM Modi said that the state has played a crucial role in “Rashtra Raksha” and the hospital will now play a “pivotal role in Jeevan Raksha” adding that Himachal is one of the three states chosen for establishing Bulk Drugs Park that will en sure the access to afford able medicines in India.

Narendra Modi @narendramodi

Many many congratulations to all the countrymen on Vijayadashami, the symbol of victory. I wish that this auspicious occasion brings courage, restraint and positive energy in everyone’s life.

India needs a population control policy applicable to all: Bhagwat

New Delhi: A fresh FIR has been filed against fugitive offender Vijay Mallya by Delhi Police for not appearing before a special court in connection with a cheque bounce case. The hearing was going on in Rouse Avenue Court. The court noted that the accused was skipping the trial and was not willing to appear before it.

201 RAS OFFICERS

RE-SHUFFLED IN RAJASTHAN

Jaipur: In a major administrative reshuffle, 201 Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officers were transferred in Rajasthan on Wednesday. As many as 20 officers of the Tehsildar service became RAS as the Personnel Department issued promotion order. About a third i.e. as many as 67 SDOs have been shuffled.

Nagpur (Agencies): RSS chief Mohan Bhag wat said on Wednesday that India needs a policy for population control “equally applicable to all”, and cited “religionbased imbalance” and “forced conversions” to raise the spectre of the country breaking apart. He cited East Timor, Ko sovo and South Sudan as examples of “new coun tries that emerged be cause of religious com munity-based imbalanc es”. He said this at the annual Dussehra rally of the RSS. “Along with population control, bal ance on religious basis is also a matter of im portance which cannot be ignored,” he stressed in his speech, just weeks after he met some Mus lim leaders in what was seen as RSS’s outreach.

Nagpur (Agencies): Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday strongly advocated for women empowerment in the country, and said that men and women are equal in every aspect and respect, have equal potential and capabilities. In his speech on the customary Vijayadashami celebration here at the RSS headquarters, Bhagwat pointed out that women, who are regarded as “jagat janani (mother of the uni verse)”, but at home they are treated as “slaves”.

New Delhi: A major fire broke out at Gandhi Na gar Market in east delhi on Wednesday evening. Officials said 35 fire tenders and 150 fire fighters were trying to control the blaze. No casualties have been reported so far. The fire started in a shop in the Nehru lane where mainly garments and hosiery outlets are located. The operation was impeded by narrows lanes and the absence of a water source nearby.

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Delhi’s iconic Ramlila at Red Fort grounds saw a starstudded climax on Dussehra with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, former Pres ident Ram Nath Kovind, Delhi LG VK Saxena; CM Arvind Kejriwal, MP Dr Harshvardhan and actor Prabhas join ing in the celebration.

“True to the meaning of Ram Rajya, demonic and destructive forces are losing today,” Dhankhar said.

Shah rules out talks with Pak, says won’t tolerate terrorism

PM GAVE VOICE TO HIMACHALIS, SAYS BJP CHIEF NADDA

Bilaspur: BJP chief JP Nadda on Wednesday said that PM Modi has given a number of schemes to Himachal Pradesh on the occasion of Vijayadashmi.

“On the occasion of Vijayadashmi today, PM Modi is giving the state not only one but a number of schemes. I welcome him on this day on behalf of everyone here,” Nadda said in his address here.

MODI GETS WARM WELCOME AS HE ARRIVES IN KULLU

Kullu: PM Narendra Modi received a warm welcome as he arrived for the International Kullu Dussehra Festival here. He participated in the Dusshera festival here for the first time after becoming the PM. The PM extended greet ings on Dussehra and expressed his happiness to be a part of the Kullu Dussehra Festival.

Baramulla (ANI): Un ion Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednes day ruled out any dia logue with Pakistan and asserted that the Narendra Modi govern ment will wipe out ter rorism from Jammu and Kashmir and make it the most peaceful place in the country.

At a rally here, Shah asked whether terror ism has ever benefited anyone as it has claimed 42,000 lives in J&K since the 1990s.

He also blamed the families of the Abdul lahs (National Confer

Baramulla: In a major announcement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir will “full transparency” as soon as the work of compiling the voters’ list is completed.

ence), Muftis (PDP) and Nehru-Gandhi (Con gress) for the alleged underdevelopment of Jammu and Kashmir as they ruled the erstwhile state most of the time since Independence in 1947. More on P6

Sonia offers Dussehra prayers in K’taka

Mysuru (PTI): Con gress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday offered Dussehra prayers at the Bheemanakolli temple in Begur village of HD Kote Assembly segment in Karnataka.

She prayed to the pre siding deity at the old temple in the village near Nagrahole forest reserve in the morning.

Telangana’s KCR moves to national stage with Bharat Rashtra Samithi

Hyderabad: Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, aspiring for a na tional role ahead of the 2024 election, launched the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a new version of his party on Wenesday. The Telan gana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is now BRS, Rao declared after a meeting

OWAISI WELCOMES

BRS, BJP RAPS KCR

She was accompa nied by village pan chayat members and local MLA Anil Kumar C. Gandhi is here to take part in the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra and will walk with the other yatris in Mandya dis trict, from where it will commence on Thursday after a two-day break for Dussehra.

‘Fact-checker duo from India in race for Nobel

Peace Prize’

of his party. Workers celebrated by bursting crackers.

Hyderabad: The AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has welcomed the decision of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to enter the national politics by changing its name to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) while the BJP has termed it as misadventure by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

New Delhi (Agencies): Fact-checkers Moham med Zubair and Pratik Sinha are among the contenders to win the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, reported Time.

A Time report said the co-founders of factcheck site AltNews, Sinha and Zubair are among the contenders to win the prize based on nominations that were made public.

Zubair was arrested in June this year for a 2018 tweet that was “highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feelings of hatred” as per a Delhi Police First In formation Report (FIR).

The Delhi Police charged him for promoting en mity between different groups on grounds of religion and deliberate acts to outrage religious sentiments.

‘NEED TO EMPOWER WOMEN’, SAYS RSS CHIEF IN HIS VIJAYADASHAMI ADDRESS

J&K POLLS AFTER VOTERS’ LIST COMPILATION: SHAH

A historical photo of Narendra Modi (2nd R) with the then Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal (C) and other leaders during Kullu Dussehra festival in 1998. Modi was the BJP’s in-charge of Himachal Pradesh affairs.

PM Modi with JP Nadda, Anurag Thakur, Himachal Guv Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, CM Jairam Thakur during the ceremony for foundation stone laying of multiple projects, in Bilaspur, on Wednesday.

Union HM Amit Shah along with J&K Lt Guv Manoj Sinha and MoS Jitendra Singh releases a publication during inauguration of various projects at a function at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar, on Wednesday.

Mohan Bhagwat felicitates mountaineer Santosh Yadav during a Vijayadashmi function, in Nagpur, on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi offers prayers at the Bheemanakolli Temple on Dussehra, in Mysuru, on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY PTI

—PHOTO BY PTI

Transfer Altaf Ahmad Shah to AIIMS for treatment: HC

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Highlight ing that the right to have adequate and suit able treatment was part of the fundamental right enshrined in Arti cle 21 of the Constitu tion, the Delhi High Court has ordered the authorities at both RML Hospital and Tihar Jail to shift Kashmiri sepa ratist leader Altaf Ah mad Shah, arrested in a terror funding case in 2018, to All India Insti tute of Medical Scienc es, Delhi, for treatment of his renal cancer.

The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Su dhir Kumar Jain ob served that the medical record of Shah re vealed that he was suf fering from various ail ments, which included, as per his daughter, renal cancer.

The High Court noted that without going into the merits of the case, considering the totality of the circumstances and in the interest of

justice, the petitioner is directed to be shifted to AIIMS, Delhi for appro priate treatment under the judicial custody and direct supervision of the concerned Jail Su perintendent and after following all necessary security measures.

The family of Altaf Shah, who is the son-inlaw of late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, alleged on Tuesday that despite the High Court order, Shah was yet to be shift ed to the hospital.

His daughter Ruwa

DCW notice to divisional comm over acid sale

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi Commission for Women has issued a no tice to the divisional commissioner of the Delhi government seek ing action against those SDMs who have not been implementing rules to regulate the sale of acid. The Su preme Court had given several directions to the Centre as well as state governments to regu late the sale of acid to prevent acid attacks in the country.

To regulate the sale of acid, the Delhi gov ernment had passed an order which empow ered area Sub-Division al Magistrate to impose penalty of up to Rs 50,000 for violations.

"However, it is ex tremely unfortunate that acid continues to be sold openly in the capi tal. In order to ascertain the status of implemen tation of the order in Delhi, notices were is sued by the DCW in Au gust to all District Mag istrates seeking specific information regarding

ACID SOLD OPENLY

Shah posted an update on social media on Tuesday, alleging that even after 27 hours of the High Court order, her father, who was al ready on ventilator, was “not being moved” from RML. Since RML could not treat him for can cer, losing every mo ment for someone on life support was cru cial, she added.

The National Investi gation Agency (NIA) had filed a charge sheet in 2017, accusing vari ous separatist leaders in the valley of acting

Man held for harassing woman after engagement breaks off

New Delhi (PTI): A 26-year-old man was ar rested for allegedly stalking and harassing a woman by posting her morphed pictures from a fake Facebook account in her name after their engagement broke off, police said Wednesday.

The accused was iden tified as Sudheer Kumar alias Tittu, a resident of Etah in UP. He worked in a private company in Ghaziabad, they said.

The matter came to light after the victim lodged a plaint regard ing the fake profile and morphed pictures with obscene descriptions, according to the police.

ILL-EQUIPPED: SHAH’S COUNSEL

Four killed, two injured in LPG cylinder blast in Loni

First India Bureau

in connivance with mil itants for raising, re ceiving and collecting funds domestically as well as abroad through various illegal channels for ‘funding’ separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The accused were charged under various offences of the Indian Penal Code and the Un lawful Activities (Pre vention) Act, 1967.

The High Court on Monday had permitted

either the son or daugh ter of Shah to meet him once in a day for one hour in the hospital, subject to proper verifi cation and as per the rules and regulations of AIIMS.

Representing Shah, Senior Advocate Tri deep Pais apprised the High Court that the charge sheet has al ready been filed in the case and trial is pend ing before a special NIA court.

Ghaziabad: Four peo ple were killed and two seriously injured in a LPG cylinder blast here in Nithaura village on Wednesday. The inci dent occurred in Babul Garden colony under Loni Police Station, of ficials said.

The impact of the blast was so intense that the 2-storey build ing in which the inci dent occured, collpased, killing 10-month-old Inayat, Saniya (15), Shabnoor (21) and Ru kaiya (24).

Delhi woman arrested for duping people of over `1 cr in kitty scheme

acid sale in their dis trict," the panel said. Information was sought regarding the number of inspections conducted by the SDMs, number of penalties imposed along with the amount collected, the panel said.

She alleged the ac cused was sending re quests and morphed pic tures to her family mem bers as well. The ac cused even posted her mobile number on the profile and portrayed her as a sex worker, a police officer said.

New Delhi (ANI): The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police have arrested a woman for allegedly duping her neighbours of over Rs 1 crore by running a kitty and inducing them to invest money to get high returns in a short peri od of time.

society. It has been al leged that the accused had duped more than 25 people by inducing them to get high returns in a shorter period of time.

“At 10 o'clock an inti mation was received that a cooking gas cyl inder had exploded in Loni and a building col lapsed with many peo ple buried in it. Imme

diately, cops reached the spot and rescue work was started. Six people were rescued, of which four died and two people are gravely injured,” police said.

Former driver murders 86-yr-old woman, held

New Delhi (PTI): An 86-year-old woman was allegedly stabbed to death by her ex-driver who had entered her house in outer Delhi’s Rani Bagh area for rob bing it, police said on Wednesday.

Accused Gopal man aged to rob Rs 3,20,000 after killing the senior citizen and fled from the spot. The incident took place on Tuesday around 7:16 pm, they said. The man was fired from his duty just a few days ago, police said.

The woman was bru tally assaulted. Her family rushed her to Maya Muni Ram Hospi tal in Pitampura where doctors declared her brought dead, a senior police officer said.

The accused has been identified as Sarla Garg (52), a resident of Delhi's Dwarka who used to op erate kitty parties in her

BYSTANDER EFFECT

A case was registered against the accused on complaints of 28 people under sections 406, 420, 120(B) and 34 of the IPC.

From the enquiry of the crime scene, it was found that a room on the balcony side had blood on its wall and blood-stained artificial teeth, a pair of ladies chappal and eyeglasses were lying on the floor, he said.

The mobile crime

team of the outer dis trict was called on the spot, which inspected the spot and picked up the exhibits.

Statement of her son was recorded and sub sequently, a case was registered, he added. The CCTV cameras and all the routes of the culprits were analysed and the accused was ap prehended from his rented room in Pitam pura village, police said.

Why people watch murder and public humiliation without helping

lll

In murder, people want to disassociate with it for its violent nature, but in case of a rape or woman walking naked they feel she deserves it and don’t want to be involved, say experts

New Delhi (PTI): A young man is killed on a busy weekend evening in a Delhi colony, scores of people watching pas sively or walking on as he is knifed by three.

Far from bustling Sunder Nagri, a young woman from a village in Moradabad, is allegedly gangraped, stripped and walks 2km naked and bleeding, her trauma captured in a grainy video that goes viral.

Both incidents hap pened exactly a month apart. While 21-year-old Manish was stabbed to

death following old ri valry on the evening of October 1, the young woman was sexually as saulted on September 1 though the video emerged later. The dis parate stories from two

distinct societal worlds are strung together by a disturbing thread -- why did no one come forward to save Manish, or stop to shield the woman, and help her get home?

It’s called bystander

effect, said Manoj Shar ma, clinical psycholo gist at the National In stitute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS). It renders onlookers unable to as sess the incident and

act appropriately.

“Bystander effect or bystander apathy states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present. Be cause there are other

observers, individuals do not feel as much pres sure to take action. The responsibility to act is thought to be shared among all of those pre sent,” Sharma told PTI.

“When other observ ers fail to react, indi viduals often take this as a signal that a re sponse is not needed or not appropriate.”

During such mo ments, he added, people often look to others in the group to determine what is appropriate.

“When they see no one else is reacting, it sends

a signal that perhaps no action is needed.”

Those who clicked videos of the woman in Moradabad or witnessed Manish being killed are a cruel rewind to the nu merous times people watched the humiliation of others a woman being paraded in Delhi earlier this year, the many women branded witch es, stripped and made to walk through villages and the sight of passersby looking on as attack ers garland their vic tims with shoes and show them off.

THE PASSIVE WATCHER GAZE

separatist leader reportedly suffering from renal cancer, though NIA disputes

Altaf Shah with daughter Ruwa.

Rescue work underway after an LPG cylinder exploded in a house at Loni, in Ghaziabad, Wednesday.

—PHOTOS BY PTI

Family members and relatives mourn after the blast.

RSS volunteers take part in ‘Path Sanchalan’ on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami festival, in Gurugram on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

DCW

RAVANA

Last Covid care centres to be dismantled as cases decline

Two facilities in Burari, and one in Chhatarpur to be dismantled

New Delhi (PTI): Au thorities in Delhi have stressed on the need to keep a continued vigil against coronavirus in view of the festival sea son, even as they gave nod to dismantle three remaining Covid care centres in the city and vacate the land.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority, in its meeting held on September 22, dis cussed the COVID-19 situation in the nation al capital.

Delhi LG V K Saxena, who is the chairman of the DDMA, said Delhi could do a little better on the vaccination front.

Out of a total of 1.33 crore beneficiaries eligi ble for the precaution doses, it was found that only 31.49 lakh (24 per cent) had taken them till September 20, according to the data shared dur ing the meeting.

In view of the upcom ing festivals, Saxena said there is a need for a continued and strict vigil. This will be a crit ical period as people may ignore COVID-ap propriate behaviour during festivals, he said.

"It is important to ad here to COVID-appro priate behaviour and to

DDMA Chairman LG Vinai Saxena cautions against letting guard down

Concern over only 31L vaccinations among 1.33-cr beneficiaries

BA.2 VARIANT IN 90 PC SAMPLES

GENOME-SEQUENCED IN JULY-AUG

4 suffocate to death inside sewer of Faridabad hospital

Faridabad (PTI): Four sanitation workers died of suffocation after in haling toxic gases while cleaning the under ground sewer of a Faridabad hospital on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

create a mass aware ness among the people to follow the same," he said, according to the minutes of the meeting.

The DDMA also gave its nod to dismantle the Covid care centres erected on the proper ties of Radha Soami

New Delhi (PTI):

In its meeting held last month, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had emphasised not lowering guard against COVID-19 in view of the upcom ing festivals even as it decided to do away with wearing face masks after September 30.

According to the min utes of the meeting held on September 22, and ac cessed by PTI, a notifica tion revoking the Rs 500 fine on not wearing masks is expected to be issued

Metro fails 3rd deadline to pay Reliance Infra

New Delhi (ANI): Del hi Metro Rail Corpora tion (DMRC) has once again failed to honour the Delhi High Court order directing it to pay a Rs 4,500 crore arbitral award to the Reliance Infrastructure subsidi ary’s Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) within four weeks.

In the last six months, this is the third con tempt of the High Court order by DMRC.

The Delhi High Court, in its last order dated September 6, 2022, had directed DMRC to pay the entire amount of Arbitral Award of Rs 4,500 crore due to

DAMEPL in four weeks’ time i.e. by 4 October, yet it failed to comply with the order of the court as it did not make any payment to DAME PL as the deadline end ed Tuesday.

Legal team of DAME PL said that it has been almost 13 months now that it has been strug gling to get its dues from DMRC.

Satsang, Chhattarpur, Swan Kirpal, Burari, and Sant Nirankari, Burari and vacate their land.

It was also decided that the medical equip ment would be trans ferred to the hospitals where it was needed.

New Delhi: Over 90 per cent of the COVID-19 samples genome-sequenced in Delhi in July and August were detected with the BA.2 variant of the virus, according to official data. Total 1,271 sam ples were sequenced in July and 1,133 of those were detected with the BA.2 variant. No sample was detected with the BA.4 variant, while 138 were detected with the BA.5 variant of the virus, the data showed. In August, 2,064 samples were analysed and 1,865 per cent of those were detected with the BA.2 variant, while 199 had the BA.5 variant, ac cording to the minutes of the September 22 DDMA meeting issued by Special CEO Sushil Singh. The capital saw a surge in the number of Covid cases in August, with experts attributing it to people dropping their guard and not following Covidappropriate behaviour. Over the last few weeks, the number of daily cases has fallen below 100. Delhi on Wednesday reported 96 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 1.42 per cent.

OFFICIALS NOT ON SAME PAGE ON REVOCATION OF MASK MANDATE

by the health department on Wednesday. The deci sion to revoke the mask mandate was anything but unanimous and differ ences abound, as per the minutes of the meeting issued by Sushil Singh, special CEO, disaster management.

Chief Secretary of Delhi Naresh Kumar had in the meeting said the current situation was comfort able but the guard against coronavirus could not be

lowered as the variants keep coming up.

The health ministry has advised caution in view of multiple festivals -- from September 26 to December 31 and likely mass gatherings across the country.

Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul had in the meet ing emphasised that sur veillance was still needed as the virus is still present and its mutations and variants have emerged

from time to time.

Dr Rajendra Singh, member NDMA, came up with a suggestion that wearing of masks be con tinued up to November 15 in view of the coming festivals. The Delhi Police Commissioner sought clarity and complete set of instructions on the enforcement of mask mandate.

Rohit, his brother Ravi, Vishal and Ravi Goldar, residents of Sanjay Camp in Delhi’s Dakshinpuri, had come to the QRG Hospital in Faridabad Sector 16 for sewer cleaning through an agency named San tosh Allied Service, they said.

“The four had entered the manhole without any safety equipment to clean. During this, they suffocated after inhal

ing poisonous gases and fell unconscious. When they cried for help, their colleagues and hospital staff reached the spot.

All four were taken out and admitted to the hos pital,” ACP, Central, Mohinder Verma said.

“Soon after, the doc tors declared all four dead. We are investigat ing the matter,” he add ed. The police have kept the bodies at the mortu

2 PFI members booked under UAPA arrested

New Delhi (PTI):The Delhi Police on Wednes day arrested two mem bers of the banned Pop ular Front of India (PFI) who were booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, officials said. A senior police officer said the two accused -Israr Ali Khan and Mohd Samoon, alleged to be PFI activists -- were arrested from their houses in Khajuri Khas and Chand Bagh. Khan practices as a Vadiya while Samoon is a Unani doctor, police said, adding noth have been associated with the

PFI for about seveneight years.

The arrests come a day after an FIR was regis tered against the two under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between differ ent groups), along with sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act at Khajuri Khas po lice station.

ary of Badshah Khan Hospital. Their families have been informed, the official said.

The police said the victims used to come to the hospital every month for work.

Distancing itself from the entire episode, the hospital manage ment said the agency engaged for sewer clean ing services was respon sible for the incident.

Sunder Nagri murder: Six accused in police custody

New Delhi (ANI): A Delhi Court on Wednes day granted one-day custody of six accused to Delhi Police for inter rogation over the mur der of a youth Manish in Sunder Nagri area. Manish was stabbed multiple times.

Investigation officer (IO) informed the court that Sajid is the brother of accused Mohsin. He met Mohsin and Shakir in jail. Thereafter, he prepared Faizan, Bilal and Alam and provided them weapons.

BJP, AAP burn effigies attacking each other

New Delhi (PTI): Both the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) burnt effigies of Ra vana at various loca tions here in a symbol ic protest against each others’ scams and failures.

The effigies burnt by AAP leaders and work ers were not made of garbage as announced by AAP's MCD poll incharge Durgesh Pathak.

'Ravana made of BJP's garbage' was written on all the effi gies burnt during the protest, the party said.

The party changed its plan to burn Ravana's effigies made of gar bage in view of the ban on their open burning in the capital, accord

ing to party sources.

All three erstwhile municipal corporations were ruled by the BJP till they were unified

and renamed as the Mu nicipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in May.

"We got the feedback yesterday itself. That's

This was a symbolic protest against the issue of garbage mismanagement in Delhi by BJP-ruled MCD.

—Durgesh Pathak, AAP MCD poll in-charge

Participation of people in AAP’s protest indicated they want Delhi to be free from the garbage and BJP rule in MCD.

—Atishi, AAP MLA

this year, to mark the victory of good over evil.

why smaller effigies were used for a sym bolic protest with a writing on them 'BJP Ke Koode Ka Ravan' so that they do not cause air pollution," a source in the party said.

In a statement, the AAP said party leaders and workers held pro test against the malad ministration of the BJP

and burnt the "symbol ic effigies" of 'BJP Ke Koode Ka Ravan' at 3,500 places on the eve of Dussehra.

An immediate reac tion from the MCD or the BJP to AAP's charge was not available. Effi gies of demon king Ra vana are burnt on Dussehra festival, which falls on October 5

"People across Delhi came together to burn Ravana's symbolic effi gy. This was a symbolic protest against the is sue of garbage misman agement in Delhi by BJP-ruled MCD," Pathak said. AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha said the protest was a wake up call for the BJP.

"BJP-ruled MCD has turned Delhi into a city of garbage during its 15 year reign," he charged.

AAP MLA Atishi said participation of the peo ple in the party's protest indicated they want Delhi to be free from "the garbage and the BJP rule in the MCD".

Some images of the demon king as imagined in the effigies burnt on the occasion of Dussehra. From left: The Ravana at Red Fort ground in Delhi; the Ravana at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan; and the Ravana burning at Chandigarh.

File photo of Delhi govt’s Covid care centre at Radha Soami Satsang Beas Chhatarpur.

Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta with party leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and supporters demonstrate by burning an effigy over the alleged corruption charges against Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY ANI

INDIA WINS SERIES WITH PROTEAS BUT BOWLING WORRIES DEEPEN

SIDDHAARTH MAHAN

The writer is a

who

India ended their prepara tions for the upcoming T20 World Cup by winning the series against South Africa 2-1. But the loss in the final match has left more ques tions unanswered than Team India would have liked. The balance of the squad is a huge problem still and despite nu merous changes and combi nations, Indian bowling re mains a major worry. India had clinched the series with an emphatic victory in the second match but their hopes of ending on a high and scor ing a clean sweep were dashed as the Proteas won by 49 runs in the last game.

poor bowling which failed to defend substantial totals.

It was felt that Bumrah and Harshal Patel’s inclusion in the playing 11 after the Asia Cup would infuse a muchneeded boost to the bowling department, but that has not materialized as the series against the Aussies and the Proteas have shown. The two games that Bumrah did play, he returned with figures of 23 for 1 and 50 for none. Thereaf ter his back injury flared up again, forcing him to bow out of the World Cup team.

It was another pathetic show by the bowlers in the final game against the Pro teas as India was set a stiff target of 228. Barring Ash win, none of the bowlers could restrict the African batters and all pacers had an economy rate of over 11.

Significantly, Team India has played most of its T20 games this year without Bumrah who is so special that nobody even comes close to him. In the absence of ‘Boom Boom’, one hopes the World Cup will inspire other bowlers to step up & perform with greater purpose & responsibility

nings that South Africa, cour tesy David Miller’s outstand ing century, fell short by only 16 runs. At one point they were 70 for 3 in the first ten overs.

Indian bowlers leaked 151 runs in the last ten overs without picking a single wicket!

TELANGANA CM’S AMBITIOUS MOVE TO TAKE POLITICAL CENTRE-STAGE

It was another pathetic show by the bowlers in the final game against the Proteas as India was set a stiff target of 228. Barring Ashwin, none of the bowlers could restrict the African batters and all pacers had an economy rate of over 11. Quinton De Kock and Rilee Rossouw carted the Indian bowlers all over the park. Rilee was magnificent

Before the Asia Cup, it was felt that Indian bowling was more or less settled and the batters needed to get back in form. The aggressive batting approach adopted after the loss in the last year’s World Cup turned around fortunes of some of the struggling batsmen in the team. But it’s the flop show by the bowlers that has been instrumental in some of the recent losses. The shock exit from the Asia Cup where India lost to Paki stan and Sri Lanka in crunch games, was also the result of

FREEBIES: EC CHANGES MIND

Quinton De Kock and Rilee Rossouw carted the Indian bowlers all over the park. Ri lee, especially, was magnifi cent as he hit a century in just 48 balls. It wasn’t just them but David Miller too joined in the fun as he hit 3 sixes of Deepak Chahar in the final over to end the in nings with an imposing total.

India had rested Rahul and Kohli for the game which meant the batting was slight ly thin and there was a long ish tail. Dinesh Karthik was promoted to number 4 ahead of Suyakumar Yadav after India were down 2 wickets early in the powerplay. While

India did maintain a steady run rate, they lost too many wickets too quickly. Eventu ally Karthik was the highest scorer with 46 runs which included 4 fours and 4 sixes. India was down to 120 for 8 but some lower order resist ance saw them reach 178. Eventually, they were bun dled out with 9 balls remain ing, losing by 49 runs.

Suryakumar was awarded the Man of the Series for his 2 brilliant fifties. Currently, In dian batting is firing all guns blazing and with Kohli back in form, it is a formidable line-up in Australian conditions which suit the batsmen more. Even in the second game in this series, India got away with a win only due to the fact that they posted a massive total of 237. While it was expected to be an easy win, bowlers were so tardy at the backend of the in

In the post-match inter view, Rohit Sharma men tioned the worry he has about the bowling unit. Team India leaves early for the World Cup as they will get time to prepare for the condi tions better. While Jadeja’s absence has been well-filled by Axar Patel, India would hope that the same happens quickly with the vacant spot left by Bumrah. The mis match between the batting and bowling departments has meant that every single time India bats, they have to score heavily as a cushion for their bowlers, which is near ly impossible.

Significantly, Team India has played most of its T20 games this year without Bumrah who is so special that nobody even comes close to him. In the absence of ‘Boom Boom’, one hopes the World Cup will inspire other bowlers to step up and per form with greater purpose and responsibility. Despite recent losses, India do have the players to win the T20 World Cup but for that to hap pen the bowlers will need to fire at their very best!

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Centre and opposi tion-ruled States are headed to wards a conflict over freebies or revadis as described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The opposition has flagged the issue as a threat to feder alism and interference in their domain. After the gov ernment drummed up the is sue in view of deteriorating economies of some states, the matter reached the Supreme Court. On August 3, the Su preme Court asked the Cen tre, Niti Aayog, the Finance Commission and the Reserve Bank of India to come up with “constructive sugges tions” on the “serious” issue.

On August 10 the apex court suggested that it will form a committee to tackle

The EC welcomed the suggestion but said that it will not be a part of the committee as it was a “constitutional authority”. In a sudden U-turn the Election Commission has asked political parties about how they will finance their poll promises, how much expenditure will be incurred and who will be the beneficiary

the issue. The Election Com mission welcomed the sug gestion but said that it will not be a part of the committee as it was a “constitutional au thority”. In a sudden U-turn the Election Commission has asked political parties about how they will finance their poll promises, how much ex

penditure will be incurred and who will be the benefi ciary. Union finance secretary or the state chief secretary’s information on budget esti mates. To incorporate the de tailed information the EC proposes to change the Model Code of Conduct to get rid of hollow poll promises.

The DMK, Shiv Sena and Congress have challenged the EC move saying that the EC was overstepping its au thority to end democracy in the country. The DMK called it an assault on the directive principles of state policies and argued that the EC’s role was limited to conducting free and fair elections.

The EC move will cripple a political party’s freedom to make promises and leave them hugely disadvantaged.

That K. Chandrashek har Rao (KCR) of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi is nurturing national ambitions was never in doubt. Over the past several months he was busy meeting several opposition lead ers across the political spectrum for consensus on a political alter native to the ruling alliance led by the BJP. His national alterna tive plan has the backing of Ja nata Dal-Secular leader HD Ku maraswamy, the former chief minister of Karnataka. The Con gress does not figure in KCR’s anti-BJP plans as he did not find the grand old party strong enough to lead an alliance against the ruling dispensation.

To realise his political ambi tion KCR announced the forma tion of a new national party--the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) --- on Wednesday. It needs the approval of the Election Commission to be formally reg istered as a national party.

It is a major announcement that should, over the next few months, give a clearer picture of opposition unity. The Congress and Trinamool Congress could be the main stumbling blocks.

TOP TWEETS

Amit Shah @AmitShah

Chaired a meeting to review the security situation of J&K in Srinagar. People of J&K is witnessing a new era of peace, progress and prosperity under the leadership of PM @narendramodi Ji. I applaud the relentless & coordinated efforts of our security forces to curb terrorism.

Rajnath Singh @rajnathsingh

Celebrated Vijaya Dashmi with the Indian Army and ITBP personnel at Auli Military Station in Uttarakhand today. Lauded their contribution in providing a secure environment in the country which enables growth and prosperity.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

Always speak if you are right and don’t blame others. Bhagavad Gita

To

CM DHAMI CONDUCTS AERIAL SURVEY OF RESCUE OPERATIONS

Uttarkashi (ANI): A day after four mountain eers lost their lives in the avalanche in Ut tarkashi with several still missing, the survi vors narrated their hor rific experiences on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Uttara khand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami conducted an aerial in spection of the rescue and relief operation be ing carried out to find the mountaineering trainees who were hit by an avalanche. In a tragic accident on Tuesday, four mountaineers lost their lives in the ava lanche at Draupadi’s Danda-II mountain peak. 14 have been res cued so far.

The mountaineers, who were rescued reached Matli where they are being provided with first aid treatment. These people were evac uated via chopper to the 12th Battalion ITBP in Matli, Uttarkashi. “Deep Singh (Guj), Rohit Bhatt), Suraj Singh (UK), Sunil Lalwani (Mumbai), Anil Kumar (Raj), Manish Agarwal (Delhi), Kanchan Singh (Chamoli) and Ankit Singh were amongst who have been rescued,” Police said.

25 PEOPLE DEAD IN BUS

ACCIDENT

CM reaches Simdi village with MoS Def Ajay Bhatt

8 OF 29 TRAINEE MOUNTAINEERS RESCUED BY ITBP

New Delhi (ANI):

Def min performs Shastra Puja in Auli

Chamoli (Uttara khand) (ANI): Un ion Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday ex pressed confidence in the armed forces of the country and said that they are the “pride of the na tion”.

Pauri Garhwal:

Twenty Five people were killed in the Pauri Garhwal bus accident that took place on Tuesday night in the Birokhal area of Dhumakot in Uttarakhand, informed Deputy General of Police Ashok Kumar.Police and SDRF rescued 21 people overnight and the injured have been admitted to nearby hospitals, he added.

EAM Jaishankar begins his visit to New Zealand, Australia

New Delhi (ANI): Ex ternal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar kicked-off his official visit to New Zealand and Australia from Wednesday.

He will be in New Zea land and Australia from Wedesday. It is to be noted that the visit will be Jaishankar’s first visit to New Zealand.

According to the Minis try of External Affairs, the EAM will partici pate in an event on Thursday in Auckland along with Prime Minis ter of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern to fe licitate members of the Indian community for their exceptional achievements. Both leaders will re lease India@75 postage stamps to commemo rate and showcase Aza di Ka Amrit Mahotsavin

New Zealand. Jais hankar will also launch the book ‘Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery’. Also, a book showcasing Prime Minister Naren dra Modi’s special bond with the Sikh commu nity ‘Heartfelt - The Legacy of Faith’ will be released. He will have a bilateral meeting with Nanaia Mahuta, MoF Affairs of New Zealand in Auckland to discuss and review the entire gamut of our relations, added the release.

Pauri Garhwal (Utta rakhand) (ANI): Utta rakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday reached Simdi village in Bi rokhal of the Dhumakot area of Pauri, where as many as 25 people were killed and 21 others were injured in a tragic bus accident.

Ministry of Defence Ajay Bhatt was also pre sent with CM Dhami.

Police and SDRF had rescued these 21 people overnight and admitted the injured persons to nearby hospitals, Depu ty General of Police Ashok Kumar informed.

The Uttarakhand Police on Tuesday informed

Punjab Police bust drone-based arms smuggling module

Chandigarh (Agen cies): Punjab Police on Wednesday busted a drone-based arms/am munition smuggling module with the arrest of its two members in cluding a prisoner.

Those arrested have been identified as Jaskaran Singh of Bhikhiwind in Tarn Taran, currently lodged at Sub Jail Goin dwal Sahib, and Rattan bir Singh of Khem karan in Tarn Taran, out on bail.

The Punjab police on Wednesday have also recovered 10 foreignmade pistols including five .30 bore (made in China) and five 9mm (made in USA Beretta) along with 8 spare mag azines recovered from both of them, besides a mobile phone con cealed by Jaskaran in his barrack.

about the bus carrying a wedding procession of 45 to 50 people fell into a gorge near Simdi village in Pauri Garhwal.

“Twenty five people were found dead in the Pauri Garwhal bus ac cident that took place last night in the Bi rokhal area of Dhu makot. Police and SDRF rescued 21 people over night; the injured have been admitted to nearby hospitals,” DGP Ashok Kumar said.

Eight of the 29 train ee mountaineers, who were trapped in the Uttarkhand ava lanche on Tuesday, have been rescued and taken to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Hospital for treatment, the ITBP said. “Eight moun taineers were imme diately rescued by the team. However, there has been no clarity on deaths,” Vivek Pandey, ITBP’s PRO told ANI, add ing that the group was on a mission to reach Draupadi’s Danda-2 mountain peak, located at 18,000 feet when an avalanche at around 8 am. The ITBP, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Re sponse Force along with local police started the rescue operation as soon as they received the information about the incident.

“We are confident that our country is safe in the hands of our armed forces.

The jawans of our armed forces and paramilitary forces are the pride of our country,” Rajnath Singh said after per forming ‘Shastra Puja’ in the presence of Army Chief Gen eral Manoj Pande at the Auli Military Sta tion in Uttarakhand.

He further said that India is the only country where “Shaastra” as well as “Shastra” are wor shipped.

Singh’s remarks came while he was interacting with the Army jawans de ployed at the forward post located on the China border in Utta rakhand. He was also seen with the latest weapons and ma chines used by the Army in the forward areas.

‘Our rally is not political’

Badrinath (ANI): Union Defence Minis

ter Rajnath Singh on Wednesday offered prayers at Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand on the occasion of Dussehra. Singh is on a two-day visit to Uttarakhand from Tuesday to cel ebrate the festival of Vijayadashmi with the Jawans of the Indian Army. On the occa sion of the victory of good over evil, Singh performed ‘Shastra Puja’ at the Auli Mili tary Station in Uttara khand in the presence of Army Chief General Manoj Pande. He was also seen with the latest weapons and machines used by the Army in the forward

areas. He expressed confidence in the armed forces of the country and said that they are the “pride of the nation”. “We are confident that our country is safe in the hands of our armed forces. The jawans of our armed forces and paramilitary forces are the pride of our country. India is the only country where ‘shaastra’ (ethology) as well as ‘shastra’ (weapon) both are worshipped,” he said. Singh’s remarks came while he was interacting with the Army jawans de ployed at the forward post located on the China border in Ut tarakhand.

Nagpur (ANI): Maha rashtra BJP leader and former minister Pan kaja Munde on Wednes day said that she would like to hear both Shiv Sena factions in their respective Dussehra ral lies and extended good wishes to them.

Talking to the media, Pankaja Munde said that her party’s rally is not political but for the common people of soci ety. Notably, the Dusseh ra rallies of Eknath Shinde-led Sena and Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena are to be held to day at different venues in Maharashtra after a months-long tug of war over the rally. The Bom bay High Court ruled in favour of the Thacker ay-led Sena faction and

ELECTION PROMISES

allowed them to hold the Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park on Sep tember 23.

The tussle between the Shinde-led faction and former Chief Min ister Uddhav Thacker ay-led faction was on for weeks and the decision came only after multi ple brawls came to the fore. “We talk about the subjects on which our supporters and unprivi leged people expect from us. Our rally is not a political rally, but I

would like to hear both factions. Let’s see on which issues they are going to talk,” Pankaja Munde said.

Pankaja said that our rally is to be held, our rally is not for the po litical but for the com mon society. Pankaja, talking about the real ‘Sena’ said that she would not speak any thing about it. “I will not say anything about this as I consider my self too small to com ment on it.”

EC wants parties to give info on financial viability

lll

In a letter to all recognised national and state political parties, the EC asked them to submit their views on the proposals by

New Delhi (ANI): The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tues day wrote to the politi cal parties for provid ing authentic informa tion to the voters to as sess the financial via bility of their election promises.

“It cannot overlook inadequate disclosures on election promises and consequential un desirable impact on fi nancial sustainability as empty Election promises so made have

far-reaching ramifica tions,” said ECI. ECI prescribes a standard ized disclosure profor ma, facilitating compa rability, with minute

details broadly captur ing standard parame ters as used by FC, RBI, FRBM, CAG and in Budgets. Election Com mission aimed to in

form voters about the financial feasibility of election promises in the manifesto and also whether sustainable within the financial space of the State/Un ion. While the existing guidelines under MCC require the political parties and candidates to explain the rationale for promises made therein as well as the possible ways and means to finance such promises, the ECI has observed that the decla

rations are quite rou tine, ambiguous and do not provide adequate information to voters to exercise informed choice in an election.

EC in its meeting led by CEC Rajiv Kumar and attended by EC Anup Chandra Pandey decided that ECI cannot remain a mute specta tor and overlook the un desirable impact of some of the promises and offers, on the con duct of free and fair elections.

CENTRE EASES

GUIDELINES FOR FM RADIO EXPANSION

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader on Wednesday said that a section of the J&K mainstream politicians was creating confusion on the real demand of the people of UT relating to its autonomy within the Constitution of India. “I feel deeply surprised that certain J&K mainstream leaders are creating confusion on the basic issue of the people regarding autonomy within the Constitution of India.

New Delhi (Agencies): The government announced the removal of the threeyear window period of restructuring of FM radio permissions within the same management group during the licence period of 15 years. The decision to amend the Policy Guidelines on Expansion of FM Radio Broadcasting Services through Private Agencies was taken at the meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by PM last week.

OMAR ASKS WHY PM MODI INVITED PAGD LEADERS

Srinagar (PTI): National Conference leader Omar Abdullah hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his remarks that the ‘Gupkar model’ gave stones and guns to the youth of Kashmir, asking if so, why had the PM invited leaders of PAGD (People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration) for meetings? In Baramulla, Shah had said the ‘Gupkar model’ gave the country the Pulwama attack.

INDIAN NAVY’S TRAINING SQUADRON COMPRISING NAVAL SHIP IN KUWAIT Kuwait City (ANI): In an opportunity to expose trainees to the military and maritime linkages of India with Kuwait, the ships of the First Training Squadron comprising Indian Naval Ship Tir, Sujata and Coast Guard Ship Sarathi arrived at Port Al-Shuwaikh, Kuwait. The ships arrived at the port and are deployed in the Persian Gulf as part of their training deployment. The naval ships were accorded a warm welcome by senior officers of the Kuwaiti Naval forces, Border Guard and the Embassy of India officials.

‘ADIPURUSH’ NOW FACES POLITICAL FLAK TOO

ISSUE IS THE DEMAND FOR RESTORATION OF J&K’S AUTONOMY: SOZ

Lucknow (Agencies): Om Raut’s magnum opus ‘Adipurush’ is now attracting political flak. Uttar Pradesh deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said that no one will be allowed to play with the sentiments of millions of Hindus.He said that a number of saints had objected to the portrayal of gods in ‘Adipurush’ and their demand to ban the film was justified.

BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj said that the film makes a mockery of Hindu deities.

Srinagar (Agencies):

BJP’s Pankaja Munde on Dussehra rallies of two Shiv Sena factions

Maharashtra BJP leader and former minister Pankaja Munde.S Jaishankar

Defence Minister Rajnath addressing media Uttarakhand’s Auli district on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY PTI

SINGH OFFERS PRAYERS AT BADRINATH DHAM IN U’KHAND

ELECTIONS TO BE HELD IN J-K AFTER VOTERS’ LIST COMPILATION: SHAH

J&K (ANI): In a major announcement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that elections will be held in J&K will “full transparency” as soon as work of compiling the voters’ list is com pleted. Shah said that manner in which delim itation has been done in region, representatives of the people’s choice will be elected.

Assembly polls to elect the govt in the UT are due since the abro gation of Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019. The Centre while abrogating the special status of the region, had said that the status of state will be given to J&K at the appropriate time and the elections will be held after delim itation. The orders of the Delimitation Com mission were effective from May 20 with the Centre choosing the day for the move using pow ers of the J &KReorgani sation Act, 2019.

As per the final De limitation Order, out of the 90 (ACs) in J&K, 43 will be part of the Jam mu region & 47 for the Kashmir region keep ing in view provisions of Section 9(1)(a) of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 60(2)(b) of J&K Reorganization Act, 2019.

As soon as the work of compiling the voters’ list is completed, elections will be held in J&K with full transparency. Earlier the delimitation was done in such a way that only the representatives from the three families would be elected, no matter what you do. The delimitation that Election Commis sion has done, your own representatives will win the elections and rule. —Amit Shah, Union Home Minister

JAMMU AND KASHMIR VISIT: SHAH CHAIRS HIGH-LEVEL MEETING IN SRINAGAR

Jammu and Kashmir (ANI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a security review meeting here, on Wednesday directed to strengthen the security grid to ensure zero fear of terrorists and separatists. The Minister also reviewed the working of the security grid and progress made on various items of the security agenda in previous meetings to reduce the incidents of terrorism and the stranglehold of the separatist networks over the system. Shah’s direction came during the security review meeting earlier in the day.

History made in Amit Shah’s rally in Rajouri during J-K visit

Jammu and Kashmir (ANI): History was made on Tuesday when Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a huge public rally in J&K’s Rajouri, the first by any home minister on such a large scale since 1991 in the Pir Panjal re gion.Shah is on a threeday visit to Jammu and Kashmir, where he had an eventful day on Tues

day. According to a re port, nearly 60,000 peo ple from the border dis tricts of Poonch and Rajouri districts partici pated in the public meet ing, which was the Shah’s first visit to the Pir Panjal region as a Home Minister.

“So far, no public rally has been held in this re gion on such a large scale. In 1991, the then

Union Home Minister Shankar Rao Chauhan held a rally in Mendhar in which thirty thou sand people, mostly hill tribes, participated,” said the report.

History was made when Shah announced that the Pahari tribes, who have been strug gling for more than five decades, will be given Schedule Tribe status.

Amit Shah chaired a high-level security meeting on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir. Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha was also at the meeting, which was attended by senior police, paramilitary and intelligence officers of the union territory and the Centre. Shah took a review of antimilitancy operations in the UT and directed the security agencies to show zero tolerance towards terrorism while ensuring that innocent people are protected.

GUPKAR LAID OUT ‘RED CARPET’ FOR PAK TERRORISTS

Launching an unsparing attack on former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minis ters Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday accused the ‘Gupkar alliance’ of “laying a red carpet” for Pakistani terrorists into the country. His remarks came while address ing a public meeting in Baramulla.

NO TALKS WITH PAK: SHAH IN KASHMIR

Amit Shah said assembly polls will be held with “full transparency” in Jammu and Kashmir after the EC publishes the revised electoral rolls and asserted that the Modi govt will wipe out terrorism from the Union territory. Ad dressing a public rally in Baramulla district of north Kashmir, Shah lashed out at those advocating dialogue with Pakistan.

SHAH PAUSES SPEECH AFTER HEARING ‘AZAAN’ FROM NEARBY MOSQUE

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday briefly stopped his speech during a rally in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir as ‘Azaan’ or Muslim call to prayer was going on from a nearby mosque. After a brief moment, he said the call for prayer has now stopped and asked if he would continue his speech.“Should I start or not? Say it loudly, should I start,” he asked and then went on with his speech.

Tharoor wins hearts, but Kharge to take the votes

Thiruvananthapuram:

Demand for smaller allies amid alleged rift in Bihar

Bihar: Smaller constitu ents of the ruling ‘Maha gathbandhan’ or grand alliance in Bihar sought to step up the demand for the early formation of a coordination committee amid a perceived rift be tween the JD(U) and the RJD, two largest parties of the coalition. None theless, smaller allies, especially the Left par ties, feel that it was high time that a “coordination committee” was put in place, an absence of which is often blamed for the disintegration of the NDA in the state.

Shashi Tharoor seems to have won the hearts many, but those do not find a place in the voters list and that’s where Ma likarjuna Kharge, who has now got the tag of the being the ‘official’ candidate will help him. The moment Tharoor’s name surfaced as a like ly candidate, those who are aligned to the Gan dhi family smelt a rat and then things took a different turn. The high light is that two Keralites are doing their very best to see that an other Keralite does not walk away with the hon ours, when votes are counted after the Octo ber 17 polling day. Sources said that calls are now going to all to see that there should be no doubt whom they should vote for.

IN THE COURTYARD

SOME ASKED RAHUL GANDHI TO REQUEST ME TO BACK OUT, SAYS SHASHI THAROOR

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was asked by some party leaders to seek withdrawal of Shashi Tha roor’s candidature, the Thiruvananthapuram MP, who has made an aggressive bid to its top post, claimed here on Tuesday. Tharoor, who is in Kerala as part of the poll campaign, told reporters here that Gandhi said he will not ask the former to withdraw as a contest would benefit the grand old party.

“He reminded me that he has been saying so for the past 10 years that there should be a contest for the party chief’s post.

“He also told me that some persons have asked him to request me to withdraw my candidature,” he said.

Congress eyes revival in Uttar Pradesh through BSP votebank

Mahesh Sharma

New Delhi: The Con gress party is eyeing the vote bank of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. In fact, it is tra ditionally the vote of the Congress, which has gone to the BSP and is now splitting away from the BSP because BSP chief Mayawati is not very active in politics and is working as a reluctant politician. In the last as sembly elections, there was no feeling that the party was contesting. As a result, a big party like BSP could win one seat out of 403 assembly seats. Just think, a party which has 10 MPs in the LS won one assembly seat.

However, the vote that brought power to the BSP was the vote of Dal its, Brahmins and Mus lims which has tradi tionally been a Congress vote. But due to the weakening of the BSP, some part of the Dalit vote has gone to the BJP, the Muslims are now al most completely with the Samajwadi Party and the Brahmins com

pletely with the BJP. Congress has to get these three ‘votes’ back. The party has created such an equation through the new state president and six provincial presi dents, which will help in getting this vote.

The Cong has made an aggressive Dalit leader Brijlal Khabri, who was in the BSP, the state pres ident of the party. Along with him, Muslim leader Nasimuddin Siddiqui, who was in the BSP, has been made the provin cial president of the Western Zone. Former minister Nakul Dubey, who was one of the Brahmin faces of BSP, has been made the presi dent of Awadh zone.

PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT

Priyanka to start Cong poll campaign in Himachal

New

explain as to why they should not be proceeded with under the coercive arm of the law.

New Delhi: The SC has said that granting compassionate employment is intended to enable the family to tide over the sudden crisis by providing a source of livelihood and should not be considered as a right. The apex court’s remark came while setting aside a Bombay HC order which directed to appoint the respondent woman, who was married and youngest daughter of the deceased, on compassionate ground in the Water Resources Department in Maha. The top court observed that the respondent woman cannot be said to be dependent on the deceased employee, i.e., her mother.

New Delhi: Rajya Sab ha MP Kapil Sibal took a dig at the EC proposing a change in the model code to ask political parties to provide au thentic in formation to voters on the financial viability of their poll promises, saying maybe the poll watchdog itself needs a model code of conduct. The EC has asked parties to submit their views on the pro posals by Oct 19.

New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Pri yanka Gandhi Vadra will start the election campaign from Solan in Himachal Pradesh from October 10 and will ad dress a rally in the state. Priyanka is likely to hold the fort of the Cong in the state since Rahul Gandhi is leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress is eyeing a comeback in the hill state and this will be the first election in the state which will be without Virbhadra Singh.

Birla reaches Jakarta to attend 8th Summit

Jakarta (ANI): Lok Sabha Speaker Om Bir la on Wednesday reached Jakarta to at tend the 8th G20 Parlia mentary Speakers’ Summit.

Birla is leading the Indian delegation of the P-20 conference (or ganization of the par liaments of G-20) to Ja karta comprising Rajya Sabha Deputy Chair man Harivansh, Secre tary-General of Rajya Sabha PC Mody, and other officials. He was

OM BIRLA VISITED GARUDA WISNU KENCANA CULTURAL PARK (GWK) IN BALI

welcomed by the Indian Ambassador to Indone sia, Manoj Bharti.

Speaker Birla and Indi an parliamentary party welcomed the P-20 sum mit being held in Indo nesia.

The organization of the parliaments of G-20 countries is P-20. It rep resents 80 per cent of the world’s GDP and 75 per cent of trade. It also represents two-thirds of the world’s population.

Amit Shah addresses a public rally, in Baramulla district on Wednesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

DON’T TOUCH INNOCENTS, DON’T SPARE THE GUILTY: SHAH TO J&K SECURITY

THREE FAMILIES MADE J&K ‘TERRORIST SPOT’ WE MADE IT ‘TOURIST SPOT’: SHAH

Om Birla visited the Garuda Vishnu Kencana Cul tural Park (GWK) in Bali. The colossal Garuda Vishnu Kencana statue located in the Garuda Vishnu Kencana Cultural Park is a splendid example of architecture and engineering. This statue is based on Indian mythology. He also briefed about the concept of the statue.

Amit Shah along with Manoj Sinha greets the people gathered for a public rally, in Baramulla district on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday that Mufti & Co and Abdullah & Sons had made Kash mir a ‘terrorist spot’ while Modiji has made it a ‘tourist hotspot’. Shah addressed a large public rally in Baram ulla town, his first public meeting in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. He started his speech with a glowing tribute to the son of soil, Maqbool Sherwani who was martyred fighting the tribal invaders in 1947.

‘EC itself needs a model code of conduct’

AUCTION

PLANS

BLOCKS

New Delhi: The govern ment plans to auction 22 mineral blocks in Maha rashtra, UP and Goa in November and December. The mines to be auc tioned include six iron ore blocks, three blocks each of limestone and gold, two blocks of bauxite, one block each of copper, phosphorite and glauco nite. The notice inviting tenders for the blocks were floated in Septem ber. While the mines in Maharashtra will be auc tioned next month, those in UP and Goa will be put on sale in Dec.

OYO VALUATION DIPS IN PVT MKT AFTER REPORTED MARKDOWN

WTO sees slowdown in global trade in 2023

Geneva (Agencies): The World Trade Organisation is predicting global trade volumes will grow a lack luster 1% next year as cri ses and challenges weigh on markets, including high energy prices, rising inter est rates and uncertainties about Chinese manufactur ing output amid the linger ing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Geneva-based trade body said Wednesday that the amount of goods shipped between countries are expected to rise 3.5% this year, up from the 3% that WTO anticipated in its first forecast for the year in April. In 2023, the predic tion is for such trade vol umes to grow just 1%, down from the 3.4% expect ed previously. “The risks are certainly to the down side” next year, WTO Di rector-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told report ers at its headquarters.

TOP TALKING POINTS

z The Geneva-based trade body said that the amount of goods shipped between countries are expected to rise 3.5% this year, up from the 3% that WTO anticipated in its first forecast for the year in April

sought alternative sources, WTO economists say.

z The WTO laid out several factors weighing on trade, including higher energy prices resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine

z In 2023, the prediction is for such trade volumes to grow just 1%, down from the 3.4% expected previously

Sugar exports up 57% to record 109.8 lakh tonnes in 2021-22

New Delhi (PTI): India’s sugar exports rose 57% to 109.8 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 marketing year end ed September, resulting in foreign currency inflow worth about Rs 40,000 crore into the country, the gov ernment on Wednesday said.

Sugarcane arrears to farmers stood at only Rs 6,000 crore at the end of 2021-22 marketing year (Oc tober-September) as mills have already paid Rs 1.12 lakh crore to farmers out to total payable amount of Rs 1.18 lakh crore.

In 2021-22 marketing year, the food ministry said that “India has emerged as the world’s largest produc er and consumer of sugar as well as the world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar”.

CURRENCIES

New Delhi: Valuation of IPO-bound OYO in the private market has dipped to around $6.5 billion fol lowing reports of a mark down of valuation of the hospitality and travel-tech firm by SoftBank in its private books. Nearly 12.3 lakh shares of the compa ny were sold in the pri vate market as compared to over 1.6 lakh shares sold in previous week. The sell-off followed re ports that its largest in vestor SoftBank has cut the valuation of hospitali ty platform by 20%.

FINMIN MODIFIES ECLGS TO HELP AVIATION SECTOR

This year, the higher pre dicted increase in trade volumes stems from better data that arrived in the middle of the year, contrib uting to a clearer forecast, and a boom in trade vol umes from oil- and gas-pro ducing countries in the Middle East as supplies from Russia were shunned and consuming countries

OTHER STORIES

The WTO laid out sev eral factors weighing on trade, including higher en ergy prices resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine, which prompted a number of countries — including European Union members that are big consumers of Russian oil and gas — to slap economic sanctions on Moscow.

“Today, the global econo my faces a multipronged

COMMERCE MINISTRY SAYS NO EXPORT BAN ON RICE AND TRADERS CAN SHIP THE COMMODITY

New Delhi: The commerce ministry clarified that there is no export ban on rice and traders can ship the commodity after paying 20 per cent duty. On September 8, the government banned exports of broken rice. In a trade notice, the directorate gen eral of foreign trade said it has received representations regarding rice (5% and 25% broken) where irrevocable letter of credit has been issued before September 8 is also being stopped at the ports. “It is clarified in respect of normal rice that rice (5% and 25%) is already exempted as it is not broken rice but normal rice with permissible limits of broken rice as per standards. However, it will carry 20% duty,” it said.

—PTI

crisis,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “Monetary tightening is weighing on growth across much of the world, includ ing in the United States. In Europe, high energy prices are squeezing households and businesses. And in China, COVID-19 outbreaks continue to disrupt produc tion and ordinary econom ic life.” “Low-income devel oping countries in particu lar face serious risks from food insecurity and debt distress,” she added.

India Inc’s foreign commercial borrowings rise by 4.6% in Aug

Mumbai (PTI): India Inc’s foreign commercial bor rowings in August this year rose by nearly 4.6% to $2.98 billion, according to the RBI data.

A record of more than 5,000 lakh tonnes sugar cane was produced in the country during 2021-22, out of which about 3,574 lakh tonnes were crushed by sugar mills to produce about 394 lakh tones of sugar (sucrose).

FTA with India won’t be ‘free-for-all deal’, says UK minister

New Delhi: The finance ministry has modified the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) by raising loan limit under the scheme to `1,500 crore from `400 crore to help the COVIDhit industry tide over li quidity stress. Recognis ing that an efficient and strong civil aviation sec tor is vital for the eco nomic development of the country, the Department of Financial Services has modified the ECLGS on Tuesday to enhance the maximum loan amount eligibility for airlines, an official statement issued on Wednesday said.

FITCH AFFIRMS ‘BBB-’ TO BANK OF BARODA, STATE BANK OF INDIA

RUPAY CREDIT CARD USE ON UPI FREE FOR SOME PAYMENTS

New Delhi: There will be no charge for RuPay credit card use on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for transactions up to `2,000 in line with the

Direction, a recent

circular said.

credit card on-boarding on the

the

and UPI PIN setting process

include and be construed

customer

card

24 STATES, UTs ROLL OUT NEW BH-SERIES FOR VEHICLE REGISTRATION

In August 2021, the Indi an businesses borrowed $2.85 billion in the form of external commercial bor rowings.

London (PTI): The free trade agreement (FTA) be ing negotiated with India won’t be a “free for all deal” but something that is good for both countries and not a particular sector, the UK government cautioned as a Diwali deadline set at the prime ministerial level for the pact approaches.

UK Secretary of State for International Trade Kemi Badenoch was addressing concerns around access for the country’s services sec tor into the Indian market.

The senior Cabinet min ister also indicated that the Diwali timeline set by for mer Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not “arbi trary” and could be met with further aspects cov ered beyond that deadline.

“We want something comprehensive, but it has to be right for both coun tries,” said Badenoch.

Mid-course changes in gas pricing to delay investments: Reliance

WHAT RIL SAID TO GOVT PANEL

z RIL has informed govt panel that any ‘retrograde’ move to artificially cap rates will add to fiscal policy instability, delays investment

z The senior Cabinet minister also indicated that the Diwali timeline set by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not “arbitrary” and could be met with further aspects covered beyond that deadline

“The Prime Minister has a deadline, which the previ ous Prime Minister had. That was quite a long dead line, so it’s not arbitrary, it wasn’t set last week. But doing a trade deal is not a simple and easy thing. So, what we want to do is some thing that lifts both coun tries. It may not be every thing the services sector wants, we may not get eve rything, we are not doing a unilateral, free-for-all deal,” she said.

City gas volume growth to more than halve to 8-10 percent

Mumbai (PTI): With the cost of natural gas increas ing by a steep 40% from this month on top of a steeper 110% hike during April-September, volume growth is seen more than halving to 8-10% this fiscal from the earlier forecast of around 25%, says a report.

New Delhi: Global rating agency Fitch assigned a stable outlook to public sector lenders State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) while af firming their ‘BBB-’ rat ing. The probability of ex traordinary state support is the highest for SBI among Indian banks due to its high systemic im portance as the largest Indian bank, the state’s 56.9% controlling owner ship, and its broader poli cy role than peers, Fitch said in a statement.

circular

New Delhi: To ensure seamless movement of personal vehicles across India, 24 states and UTs have rolled out the new Bharat Series (BH-series) for vehicle registration, according to the minutes of the annual meeting of the Transport Development Council. “Since policy incep tion, more than 20,000 vehicles have been registered in 24 different States and UTs,” the minutes of the meeting said on Wednesday.

Of the total borrowings in August this year, over $2.47 billion was through the automatic route of rais ing funds from foreign sources. While more than $502.79 million was raised by way of issuing rupee de nominated bonds (RDBs) or masala bonds.

Among the major bor rowers include mortgage lender HDFC Ltd $1.1 bil lion for the purpose of sublending; FS India Solar Ventures $500 million for a new project.

New Delhi (PTI): Billion aire Mukesh Ambani’s Re liance Industries has told a government-appointed panel reviewing gas pric ing that any ‘retrograde’ move to artificially cap rates will add to fiscal poli cy instability, delays invest ment and dent India’s at tempt to become Atmanirb har in fuel production.

In a submission to the committee headed by Kirit Parikh, which has been asked by the Oil Ministry to look at setting a ‘fair price to consumers’, the

30% growth in e-commerce platforms sales

New Delhi (PTI): E-com merce platforms during the first week of festive season are estimated to have regis tered 30% growth year-onyear, inventory and ware house management tech firm EasyEcom said on Wednesday.

EasyEcom said that ecommerce volume will grow more in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns compared to Tier-1 cities, with non-met ros driving nearly 80% of the total e-commerce sales along with Tier-2 towns adding about 60% to the fig ure. “The first week of the festive sales across e-com

merce platforms in India will exceed the gross mer chandise value on non-sale days by five times, project ing a figure which will be around 1.3 times up from

VOL GROWTH IN TIER-2 & 3 TOWNS

z EasyEcom said e-comm volume will grow more in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns compared to Tier-1 cities, with non-metros driving nearly 80% of the total e-commerce sales along with Tier-2 towns adding about 60% to the figure

firm detailed how the eco nomics of its about-to-start field in the KG-D6 block, where billions of dollars have been spent to recover reserves lying several kilo metres below the seabed, will be impacted under dif ferent prices.

The mid-course changes through price caps not just go against pricing and mar keting freedom contracts and government policy promises to companies but also add to uncertainty to a fiscal regime which would impact investments.

Rating agency Crisil sees industrial consumers switching to other cheaper fuels leading to a demand compression of 10-12% this fiscal, while piped cooking gas demand may fall to 8-10% from an earlier pro jection of 20-25% as prices since the beginning of this fiscal skyrocketed by 150%.

IPOs worth more than `1 lakh cr set to hit D-Street

New Delhi (FIB): After 14 IPOs in the first half of 2022 financial year, 71 new IPOs are ready to hit Dalal Street soon. Emcure Phar maceuticals, Navi Technol ogies, Bikaji Food, and Mo bikwik are among the prominent names set to hit the primary market.

last year,” EasyECom said on Wednesday.

The company said that its analysis is based on data captured by its software-asa-service platform which

focuses on omnichannel inventory & warehouse management and reconcili ations.

The company has seen a 14% growth in prod uct lines on e-commerce.

Presently, 71 companies proposing to raise `1,05,000 crore have Sebi approval. Another 43 companies looking to raise about ` 70,000 crore are awaiting approval from the market regulator.

Out of these 114 companies, 10 are NATCs, looking to raise roughly

` 35,000 crore. Pranav Hal dea, Managing Director, Prime Database Group, said IPO activity would be impacted by the volatility in the secondary market, mainly because of reces sionary fears and rising interest rates.

RSS not a danger to minorities: Mohan Bhagwat

1 2

Nagpur (ANI): Rash triya Swayamsevak

Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday said that it is “neither the nature of the Sangh nor Hindus” to endan ger the minorities while also adding that the RSS resolves to stand on the side of brotherhood.

Notably, opposition parties including Con gress have accused RSS of trying to divide soci ety and making people fight against each other. Addressing the occa sion of the Vijayadash mi festival here, where mountaineer Santosh Yadav was the chief guest, Bhagwat said, “Scare-mongering is done among minorities that there is a danger to

them because of us or Hindus. This has not happened in the past, nor will it happen in the future. This is neither the nature of Sangh nor of the Hindus.”

He said that “neither threatens nor gets threatened” is the kind of Hindu society that is needed. “Self-defence and defence of our own become a duty for eve ryone against those who spread hatred, commit injustice and atrocity, and engage in acts of hooliganism and enmity towards society.

‘Neither threatens nor gets threatened’, this kind of Hindu soci ety is the need of the present times. This is not anti-anybody. Sangh

13 Indians trapped in fake IT job racket rescued from Myanmar

resolves to stand on the side of brotherhood, amity, and peace,” he said. “The second type of obstacle that hinders our Sanatana Dharma is created by forces who are inimical to Bharat’s unity and progress. They spread fake narra tives, encourage anar chy, engage in criminal acts, foment terror, con flict and social unrest,” Bhagwat added.

The RSS chief also said that people should raise their voices against wrongs, “but by acting within the frame work of the law”.

He also laid emphasis on women’s empower ment and said a society cannot progress with out women.

(Above) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat pays floral tribute to the statue of RSS founder KB Hedgewar during the Vijaya Dashami festival at Hedgewar Smruti Temple, in Nagpur.

(Right) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat performs Shastra Puja on Wednesday.

Curtains down on Durga Puja festival in W Bengal

First India Bureau

Kolkata: The fiveday-long Durga Puja festival in West Ben gal came to a close on Wednesday with the immersion of idols on ‘Vijayadashami’ at various river ghats across the state.

13 Indian citizens who were rescued have

First India Bureau

New Delhi: India said on Wednesday that 13 more of its nationals had been rescued from Myanmar after falling prey to an international job racket. External Af fairs Ministry spokes person Arindam Bagchi said the Indians have reached Tamil Nadu safely on Wednesday.

The external affairs ministry issued an ad visory on September 24 warning Indian citi zens about fake job of fers floated on social media platforms after more than 100 workers were lured to Myanmar by dubious IT firms.

It was reported last month that, 32 Indian nationals were rescued from a remote part of Myanmar, where they were being forced to work in harsh condi

tions by firms engaged in digital scamming and forged crypto activities.

“We have been active ly pursuing the case of Indians being trapped in fake job rackets in My anmar. Thanks to the efforts of @IndiainMy anmar & @IndiainThai land, around 32 Indians had already been res cued,” Bagchi tweeted.

“Some more Indian citizens have been res cued from their fake employers and are in the custody of Myan mar authorities for il legal entry into that country,” Bagchi said.

“Instances of similar job rackets have also come to light in Laos and Cambodia. Our Em bassies in Vientiane, Phnom Penh and Bang kok have been helping in repatriating people from there,” he added.

Amid the beating of drums and chanting of mantras, organis ers of most house holds and community pujas were seen lead ing colourful proces sions to the ghats.

People exchanged sweets and greetings and offered prayers to the goddess before

Women apply vermillion on the face of each other as they participate in ‘Sindoor Khela’ on the last day of Durga Puja festival celebrations, in Kolkata on Wednesday.

bidding her farewell for the year. Women also participated in the traditional ‘Sin dur Khela’ (smearing vermilion on each other’s faces). At Ba bughat, which wit

nesses the highest number of idol im mersions saw devo tees queuing up since 11 am, & chanting of Asche bochor abar hobe’ (till next year) adding to the fervour.

‘INDIA’S STAND ON UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR SHOWS WE ARE BEING HEARD’

Nagpur (PTI): Mohan Bhagwat said the way India helped crisis-hit Sri Lanka and its stand during the Ukraine-Rus sia conflict showed the nation was being heard and that it was becoming more and more self-reliant on the national security front. Bhagwat said for a populous country like India, it is a natural expectation that economic & devel opment policymaking should be employment-oriented, but he also emphasised encouraging enterprise-oriented actions. “The government is to be commended for its clear enunciations. However, it is required that we all perform our responsibilities in word & deed in this direc tion. To advance on the Atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) path, it is important to understand the fundamental tenets and ideas that define us as a nation,” Bhagwat said.

WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF GOOD AND EVIL FOR RSS? ASKS KARAT

New Delhi (ANI): Communist Party of India (Marxist) senior leader and Polit bureau member Brinda Karat on Wednesday slammed RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remark to call for empowering women and treating them with equality on the occasion of Vijayadashmi. She ques tioned, “What is the definition of good and evil for the RSS?” Brinda Karat said that today, on the occasion of Vijaya dashami, people across the country will celebrate the victory of good over evil, “what is the definition of good in our country today? What is the definition of evil? for RSS”, she questioned.

Late Bipin Rawat’s village gets road connectivity, healthcare

New Delhi (PTI): The ancestral village of In dia’s first Chief of De fence Staff, the late Bi pin Rawat, in Uttara khand’s Pauri Garhwal district is emerging on the country’s develop ment map with the building of roads, healthcare, & vocation al education facilities.

A Maharashtra-based NGO, Dr. Harivanshrai Bachchan Prabodhan Pratishthan (HBPP), is spearheading efforts to carry out development activities in the Saina village, which lacked road connectivity and was accessible only through a narrow path way until recently.

The HBPP, with the

support of the Uttara khand government, has also helped in the con struction of public toi lets, building water tanks for irrigation purposes, and piped wa ter supply to house holds, HBPP founder Nivrutti Yadav said.

The state government has also approved build

‘Mulayam remains critical, being given life-saving drugs’

India Bureau

Lucknow/Gurugram:

According to the hospi tal authorities, the founder of Samajwadi Party, Mulayam Singh Yadav, is still critical and is being adminis tered life-saving drugs.

In a press release, the Samajwadi Party said,

“According to the hospi tal authorities, Mulay am Singh Yadav is still critical and on life-sav ing drugs, he is being treated in the ICU of

Medanta Hospital, Gu rugram, by a compre hensive team of spe

cialists.” The SP patron has been under treat ment at Medanta since

INLD supremo OP Chautala admitted to Medanta hospital Gurugram (PTI): Former Haryana Chief Minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala has been admitted to the Medanta Hospital here with a fever and stomach infection, sources said on Wednesday. They said Chautala was admitted last night and his condition is stable now.

August 22. He had also been admitted to the facility in July, sources

said. Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar visited the hospital.

When reporters asked him about the health condition of the former defence minis ter, he said, “There is some improvement. But we cannot say that he is out of the ‘risk zone’. We will know more in a day or two,” he said.

Khattar also met Mu layam Singh Yadav’s son & former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

ing a panchayat office, installing solar lights in the village, he said. Ya dav said he was now pursuing converting the first CDS’s ances tral home into a memo rial dedicated to the decorated military of ficer, and building a statue of General Raw at in the village.

Lakhimpur Kheri (PTI): Villagers in Ja munabad claimed that a tiger mauled a 25-yearold man to death in Gola forest range, caus ing resentment among the locals who staged a protest on Wednesday demanding the admin istration to check the movement of wild ani mals in the area.

Yadunath, who worked as a watchman at a seed farm on daily wages, was killed while he had gone to a nearby field to relieve himself after his night duty on Tuesday, a senior forest department official said, adding his partial ly eaten body was recov ered from the field.

It is, however, not yet known whether the ani mal was a tiger or a leop ard, as per official. The angry villagers held a sit-in on the Gola-Lakh impur road demanding that the administration initiate some measure to check the movement of wild animals.

Says ‘neither the nature of the Sangh nor of Hindus’ to harm minorities

RSS chief says forces inimical to Bharat’s unity do scare-mongering

Late General Bipin Rawat

—PHOTO BY ANI

‘Tiger’ mauls 25-yr-old man to death in Lakhimpur Kheri forest

Manohar Lal Khattar meets Akhilesh Yadav at Medanta hospital in Gurugram on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY ANI

KAVITA CHAUHAN cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

GLiva Miss Diva 2nd Runner up 2018 and Miss Suprana tional India 2018, as the showstopper of the se quence. The costumes showcased ‘Exclusive IAM, which glorifies the extrava

UDAIPUR COUTURE SHOW 2022

fashion from the streets of Italy to our pink city, so I decided to revise the fash ion statement and tried cre ating the amalgamation of Jaipuri ethnic with Italian fashion and that’s how ‘Ex clusive IAM’ was born.”

While sharing her vision the designer further said “Via my creation, we strive to curate the most delin quent fashion trends, which are intricately de signed in traditional and contemporary styles, keep ing sustainability in mind. My collection includes elaborate Anarkalis, Sa rees, Suits, Sharara and a mix of traditional and con temporary Gowns.” De signers from different cor ners of the country show cased their collections dur ing the fashion event.

Gaurav Gaur, the direc tor of the Show said he was overjoyed with the aston ishing designs showcased in Couture Show.

The glorious royal fashion show titled, Udaipur Couture Show 2022 presented by First India and Bharat 24 took place at Ramee Royal Resort, Udaipur on Monday, September 5. City First brings to you glimpses of pure fashion from the mega show!

—PHOTOS BY SUNIL SHARMA

COMMUNICATIONIts Essence in Our Lives

smoothing your way in your re lationships with others. Poor communication skills, on the other hand, can sour relation ships from business to person al, and make your life signifi cantly harder.

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION

CLARITY

Language is the me dium of communica tion; hence it should be clear and under standable. The words used should be simple and unam biguous making the message clear

ADEQUACY & CONSISTENCY

Devarshi Narada is con sidered as the first communicator or Journalist of Hindu mythology and since time immemorial com munication has been an essential aspect of human lives. Swami Vivekananda rep resents the high noon of a Hin du revival and conveyed it glob ally with his excellent commu nication skills. From cave paintings, hieroglyphs and car rier pigeons, to e-mails, voicemails and hologram conferenc es, the manner in which hu manity has shared, debated and listened to ideas has undergone drastic changes at a fast paceand continues to do so at an even faster pace now with tech nological improvements and the presence of social media in day to day life. Communication - the human Connection is the key to personal and career suc cess. The new global and di verse workplace requires excel lent communication skills and there is really no escape from this. Communication is most important, both for the spiritu al world and for the material world- whether we are trying to establish a connection with Cosmic-consciousness or with different relationships in the world, personal or professional.

World famous writer Antho ny Robbins said ‘The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ulti mately deter mines the qual ity of our life.

Well, what an appropriate summing up of an

otherwise vast topic of Commu nication which in simple terms means an act of transferring information from one per son to another and one place to other. It can also be seen as a process that links the individual, the groups, and the organiza tions. The process of com munication is what allows us to interact with other people; without it, we would be unable to share knowledge or experiences with anything outside of ourselves. Common forms of communication include speaking, writing, gestures, touch and broadcasting and these take shape of Intraper sonal, Inter-Personal, Group and Mass Communication.

The contribution of the in ternet and WWW has impact ed many, many communica tion technologies that later on contribute to various kinds of users. Starting with the intro duction of the e-mail, this per mitted the business to eradi cate the use of traditional post mail saving money on paper and post services in favour of sending electron ically converted data from one computer to another in just a few seconds.

Cell phones have evolved from landline devices to small, pocket-sized apparatus es that incorporate endless pos sibilities of not just communi

cating, but also socializing, sharing media, etc. Good com munication skills can im prove the way that you operate through life,

Principles of Communica tion: Lack of effective commu nication renders an individual or an organization handi capped. Adhering to these prin ciples shall make communica tion effective, minimize human relations problems and increase overall efficiency. These are Clarity, Adequacy, Attention, Timeliness, Consistency, Inte grated Network, Economy of Effort and Feedback.

Importance of Communica tion. An effective communica tion system creates a positive environment and sharing one’s thoughts, ideas and feelings enables us to make our lives fuller and happier. Better com munication is a trusted genera tor among people and provides more opportunities for indi viduals to progress and grow. Admirable communication skills earn

The information to be communicated should be complete and adequate in all respect. It must be con sistent with the objectives, plans, policies and proce dures for achieving the aims/goals both for an indi vidual as well as an Organi sation.

INTEGRATION

The communication must aim at the Integration of all efforts to lead a better life by an individual and achieve ment of corporate objectives for an organisation.

ECONOMY

The system of communica

people's love and respect and help establish a good reputa tion in society. A person's suc cess in his life is at times re lated more to his mastery of communication skills than work skills.

What Impedes Communica tion? There are some factors that impede communica Personal factors like Lack of knowledge of the subject or language, Phys iological Barriers like Ill Health, Pain, Mood, Ener gy Level / Fatigue, Body Language, Environ mental Noise, Atti tudes and other dis tractions. And Ex ternal factors like Cultural Barri ers, Legal Obli gations, Privacy Laws and Social Taboos, Code of Conduct of Or ganisations, Confidentiality and Lack of Trust. It would be pertinent to note that in con flicts 10 % is the dif ference of opinion and 90 % is tone and delivery.

tion must be used efficiently, and timely i.e. at the appro priate time and when it is necessary to save on costs.

FEEDBACK

The confirmation of the re ceipt of the message in its right perspective from its re ceiver fulfils the object of communication.

COMMUNICATION NETWORK Communication networks streamline processes and re sult in effective communica tion.

ATTENTION

Draw the attention of the re ceiver to ensure response and prompt action for success.

Essentials of Effective Com munication: Be Trustworthy and Honest, Avoid Rushing Through, Flexibility and Adapt ability, Stay in the Moment, Pay Attention to Non-Verbal Cues, Pick the Right Medium. Listen ing, Clarity and Concision, Con fidence, Empathy & Respect, and must Follow up and take Feedback.

Great communicators can in fluence change, whether politi cal, cultural or business. From Winston Churchill to Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs to Martin Luther King, Vivekananda to Mahatma Gandhi history is full of individuals who, through their words and deeds, have shifted public opinion and be haviour. Barack Obama, Ste phen Colbert, and the “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffet are all hailed as great communica tors who have impacted the lives of millions. Narendra Modi uses a mix of message and style which has made him one of the most successful political communicators of modern In dian politics, agree observers, be they, critics or sympathizers. It is his connection and effective communication with the mass es that have made him a worldlevel leader and statesman.

ARIES

MAR 21 - APR 20

Driving down with lover to a happening place is indicated today. A vacation you only dreamed about is likely to become a reality soon . Healthy eating will help prevent digestive ailments. Money will be no constraint in buying what you like. Overall a good day.

LEO

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

Wrong decisions may prove heavy on your finances. A family youngster may become a pillar of strength for you. Chance of going on a vacation with family is indicated and will be lots of fun. Your balanced approach will help resolve a property matter amicably.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV 23 - DEC 22

Your stars favour a bright beautiful day . A setback you have recently experienced can make you come out stronger. Tax advisor will be a big help in saving taxes, so don’t hesitate to contact one.It is difficult for the relationship of friends turned lovers to fall apart, so relax.

TAURUS

APR 21 - MAY 20

Something you have implemented at work is likely to profit the company and get you noticed. You are likely to celebrate the achievement of a family youngster in a grand way. Shifting into your very own house may soon become a reality.

VIRGO

-

GEMINI

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

Try what you may, making your mark in a totally different field will be difficult. Some of you will fight an infection successfully. Helpful nature of a relative is likely to ease your job. Some of you may undertake an overseas journey. Good returns are foreseen.

LIBRA

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

Money coming from various streams will keep you

state of mind. A new fitness regime that you have adopted promises to keep you

of health.

the

an old

be

the top of the mind of some

CAPRICORN

DEC 23 - JAN 20

Previous investments are likely to give you good returns. Some of you may decide to follow in the footsteps of celebrities and visit the very same exotic destination that they had been to. No amount of excuses will dispel lover’s

about your tendency to stray the path.

You are likely to find the day most auspicious. Your knowledge about your line of work will be roundly appreciated and get you the thumbs up from higher ups. Friends and family may get together to give you a surprise and make your day. You may leave little time for romance.

AQUARIUS

JAN 21 - FEB 19

Keep on doing whatever you are doing to remain healthy. Some of you will have to curb your splurging ways.

Family life will cruise along smoothly with much love and bonhomie. Don’t speed up on the road. Chance of moving to a new location on transfer is likely for some.

CANCER

JUNE 22 - JULY 23

Good earning opportunities come to you. Help from co-workers in a time consuming task will be forthcoming on the work front. Support of family will encourage

SCORPIO

You

PISCES

FEB20

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

Deepika donned a mini dress N

obody loves a mini dress more than Deepika Padukone. Nobody wears one as she does. Mini dresses are probably the word that you may barely hear right now given the festive outfits that are big on style duty by consuming all the limelight. But the Pathaan actress who is now in Paris is thinking of cargo pants and mini dress es. She's safe in the knowledge that glam our is ubiquitous and mini dresses can be feasibly worn even in autumn. Aware of what tips and tricks are? She's got them

right. Deepika's sleeveless dress is made with warm woollen fabric. The exact reason why you need to approve of it instantly. Also tex tured and highlighted with silver and gold threadwork. The close-neck ensemble with two frilled tiers was clubbed with black leather boots that reached almost knee-high. She also carried a Petite Malle V mini handbag worth Rs. 7,72,250.25 which was designed from cowhide-leather trim and sheepskinleather lining. Totally gaga over the colour shots of yellow moth er of pearl and brown together, looks classy.

‘I am true to who I am’

Nora Fatehi is one of the most-loved actresses in Bol lywood. Be it her acting skills or her dancing skills, she always manages to set our screens on fire. The Bollywood star does it again with another gamechanging move that puts India on the world map. Nora now joins the ranks of Jennifer Lopez and Sha kira as she will perform at the FIFA World Cup 2022, making her the only actor to represent India and particularly South East Asia on the FIFA World Stage in December.

After record-breaking artists like Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, Nora Fatehi is the next to feature in the FIFA music video that will see her both singing and perform ing the FIFA anthem this year. The song has been produced by RedOne, one of the most influential record producers in history, who also worked on FIFA anthems like Sha kira’s Waka Waka and La La La. As another milestone in her career, Nora will also perform at the clos ing ceremony of the FIFA World Cup and interestingly, she will also sing in Hindi!

Pretty in Pink

sn't it true it takes mere seconds to fall in love with an ethnic outfit? As these continue to evoke festive spirit in us, let's take a look at a stunning outfit. If heavily bead ed and sequin embroi dery isn't the dress ing-up deal you need, shift your focus to this no-frills attire. There's nothing contentious just chic business out here in this guide. The Good Luck Jerry ac tress, Janhvi Kapoor's latest look gave the young celebrity and us sweet

throwback memories from Dhadak days. Janhvi's outfit is ethnic to the core but it's also pink and lovely with a blast of flower power to hold. Summer is out but our minds are still so invested in floral and all of its functionality whether in our backyards or our ensembles.

Artfully blessed with colours that our sweet and stunning to the eyes, it was formed with natural fibres and the brand's signature, pure mulmul cotton. Janhvi's sleeveless kurta had a peplum-style silhouette with a needlework scalloped hem, cut work embroidery, and a neckline designed with lace that appeared in floral patterns.

LIVE, LOVE & DESSERT

hen it comes to desserts, the love for it knows no bounds. Be it chocolate cake, muffin, or sim ply a brownie, and more, desserts share a separate fan base al together. Ardent dessert lovers can have it any given time of the day.

Malaika Arora is one such ce lebrity who has confessed her love for desserts many times. It looks like Arjun Ka poor follows

suit. Arjun Kapoor shared a story on his Instagram page in which we can spot Malaika gushing over a plateful of colourful des sert while Arjun Kapoor is enjoying a cup of coffee along with a cookie. Ac cording to the location tag on the picture, it seems like they both are vacationing in London. This year, this popular B-town couple also went to Paris for a vacation and as true foodies, they made sure to binge on al most everything. We cannot wait to see more of Malaika's foodie adventure, featuring Arjun Kapoor, and much more de licious desserts.

‘Perfection is boring’

gold cape gown created by Gauri and Nainika. At the event, Alia Bhatt delivered an impressive speech, in which she thanked her parents

Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan, sister

Shaheen Bhatt, and husband Ranbir Ka poor, for their constant support. The Brah mastra actress also gushed about her ‘little one’ who was constantly kicking during her acceptance speech.

Later, Alia Bhatt took to her official Ins tagram page and shared her TIME Award moments, with a heartfelt caption. On a thought-provoking note, the talented actress opened up about the importance of accepting the flaws, that make us, us. “There are so many rules that knowingly or unknowingly we think in order to be liked, to be loved, to be good, we have to be completely devoid of fault - an impossible, mythical being that could only really exist in the pages of a fairytale,” reads Alia Bhatt’s note.

Arjun’s

Katrina

Malaika

Deepika Padukone

Janhvi

Kapoor

POPSICLES

CITY FIRST

Asolo art exhibition, POPSICLES was organised by Surita Tandon at Leela Palace, New Delhi re cently. The artist Surita Tandon is an established young popular Pop art artist in India. The art work displayed at the palace re flects a range of acrylic and mixed me dia, different media including sand, metal, crystals and beads. Her POPART canvases hold a kaleidoscope of colours.

The cutting edge of the show will be the use of wicker and Coke bottle installa

tions in the frames of all her artworks. This collection is influenced by the ele ments of Pop art found in the busy lanes of Cuba, Brazil, Miami, New York and Barcelona.

The event was graced by the presence of Kuchipudi Dancer Shallu Jindal, In dustrialist Naveen Jindal, Aruna Os wal, Sonal Jindal, Parvathi Reddy, Di vya Chauhan, Fashion Designer Man dira Wirk, Fashion Designer Namrata Joshipura, Ruchita Bansal, Anupam Bansal, Payal Kapoor, Anu Knat Dubey, Neeva Jain and Somya Khurana. cityfirstdel@gmail.com

Liberty Shoess’ new Brand

City First

I ndian footwear gi ant Liberty Shoes ropes in Ayushmann Khurrana & Rakul Preet Singh as Brand Ambassadors for its athleisure brand Leap7X. The brand’s new campaign, ‘Sitaare Aise Hi Nahi Bante Mehnat Karni Padti Hai AM To PM’, talks about the power of perseverance on an eve ryday basis in order to achieve one’s dreams.

“I have grown up wearing Liberty Shoes, and I’m proud to be as

A step towards better future

CITY FIRST

School of Open Learning (SOL) adopted the four-year undergraduate pro gram like the rest of DU colleges and add ed four new degree courses in the under graduate program on Tuesday.

The courses include Bache lor of Business AdministrationFinancial Invest ment Analysis (BBAFIA), Bachelor of Management Studies(BMS), Bach elor in Library and Information Science (BLiSc) and BA Eco nomics (honours).

The additions in

the postgraduate pro grams are Master of Business Adminis tration (MBA) and Master of Library and Information Sci ence (MLiSc).

DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh also launched the new ses sion for the distance learning school on Monday. He an nounced that the new courses be ing launched would be job-ori ented and based on professional curricu la.

All the new cours es being introduced in this session have been approved by the Bureau of Distance Education and the All India Council for Technical Education.

sociated with this legacy brand. I absolutely loved Leap7X’s collection as they are apt for AM To PM style and comfort. I’m sure this cam paign will reso nate with everyone.” said Ayush umann Khurrana on the asso ciation.

Rakul Preet Singh added,” I can totally relate with the message of this cam paign. Also, I feel that this campaign is going to be thought-provok ing for today’s youth.”

The official Twitter handle of Police Families Welfare Society shared glimpses from the Clean India Campaign organised by the Delhi Police families at PFWS welfare centres on Sunday.

Anupam Bansal with the Liberty management team

Neeva Jain

Namrata Joshipura

Somya Khurana Aruna Oswal and Sonal Jindal Divya Chauhan

Mandira Wirk

Payal Kapoor and Anu Knat Dubey

Shallu Jindal, Naveen Jindal and Surita Tandon

Ruchita Bansal and Anupam Bansal

Sonal Jindal and Parvathi Reddy

(L-R) Sanjay Tandon and Simone Tandon

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN