First India-Delhi Edition-12th October 2022

CHILD STAR OF INDIA’S OSCAR ENTRY ‘CHHELLO SHOW’ DIES

LOK’ FOR

l MODI INAUGURATES MAHAKALESHWAR TEMPLE CORRIDOR

First India Bureau

l CORRIDOR HAS SHIVA STATUES WITH QR CODE, 108 PILLARS & A LAKE

Ujjain: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Rs 856-crore Mahakaleshwar Temple corridor in Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday even ing. MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia accompanied him. The new ly developed corridor at the temple, which has been named as ‘Mahakal Lok’, measures over 900 metres in length. The corridor has a colon nade of 108 ornate pillars made of intricately carved sandstones, gush ing fountains and a running panel of more than 50 murals depicting stories from ‘Shiv Puran’. More on P5

THE 1ST PHASE OF `856-CRORE TEMPLE CORRIDOR UNVEILED

MAHAKALESHWAR: THE ONLY SOUTH-FACING JYOTIRLINGA

The form of Shiva in Ujjain is that of Mahakal — the Lord of Time and Death. Kaal has two meanings in Sanskrit — ‘time’ and ‘death’. The Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga is among the most eminent of the 12 Jyotirlingas in India.

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Crucial Netaji Amar Rahein!

Former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav cremated with State honours in the UP’s Saifai

Moni Sharma

Sitab Diara: Home Minister Amit Shah is on a tour of Bihar, on Tuesday, Shah launched a stinging attack on former BJP ally Nitish, referring to frequent change of coalition partners by Bihar CM who has, nonetheless, held on to power. P5

INDIA BEAT SA BY 7 WICKETS, WIN SERIES 2-1

New Delhi: Shikhar Dhawan-led India defeated SA by 7 wickets in the 3rd ODI in New Delhi. With this, the Men In Blue wrapped the series 2-1. Chasing a paltry 100 runs, Dhawan and Shubman Gill got India off to a strong start.

SC SNUBS ED PLEA

AGAINST BAIL TO ANIL DESHMUKH

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed ED’s plea, seeking cancellation of the medical bail granted to former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the police bribery and money laundering case. Deshmukh was recently granted bail in PMLA case.

Saifai: Amid a sea of people, including top politicians, across the country, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was cre mated with state hon ours in his native vil lage in Etawah district in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Mulayam, 82, passed away on Monday at Medanta hospital in Gurugram at 8.16 am after a prolonged ill ness. People chanted “Netaji amar rahein” as a vehicle carried the mortal remains of Ya dav for his last rites.

LS Speaker Om Birla, Defence Minister Ra jnath Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhu pesh Baghel, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, exAP CM Chandra Babu Naidu, Bihar Dy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Baba Ramdev, Anil Ambani, Actor Abhishek Bach chan & other dignitar ies paid last respect to the socialist leader. P5

CIC writes to LG over AAP govt’s ‘failure’ to implement RTI Act

New Delhi (PTI): Cen

tral Information Com missioner (CIC) Uday Mahurkar has written to Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena over the “fail ure” of AAP govern ment in implementing the Right to Informa tion Act, sources said on Tuesday.

Following the letter, the LG Secretariat di rected Delhi chief sec retary to take correc tive action at the earli est, they said.

It letter says depart ments like Revenue, PWD, Cooperative,

Health and Power be sides bodies like DSSSB and DSIIDC etc, which directly deal with ordi nary people, either hold back genuine informa tion with ulterior mo

Top leaders attend last rites of Samajwadi Party supremo, UP declares 3-day State mourning

CJI Lalit recommends Justice Chandrachud as his successor

New Delhi: Chief Jus tice of India (CJI) UU Lalit on Tuesday recom mended the name of DY Chandrachud, the sen ior-most judge of SC, to Union govt as his suc cessor. CJI Lalit submit ted his letter of recom mendation after Union govt, on October 7. CJI Lalit, who was sworn in on August 27 this year, is set to retire on Nov 8. Thereafter, on Novem ber 9, Justice Chandra

2023 will feel like recession: IMF warns, cuts India forecast

New Delhi: Interna tional Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut India’s 2022 economic growth forecast to 6.8% - down from a January projec tion of 8.2% and in July estimate of 7.4%. This comes after the World Bank this month down graded India’s project ed GDP for current fis cal to 6.5%. Last month the Reserve Bank of India said it expected a real GDP of 7 per cent.

chud will be sworn-in as India’s 50th CJ. Justice Chandrachud will have a tenure of two years and will demit office on November 10, 2024.

NEW APPOINTMENTS

l Justice Prasann Bhalachandra Varale of the Bombay HC appointed as the CJ of Karnataka High Court l Justice Ali Moham mad Magrey of J&K High Court has been elevated as its CJ l Justice Pankaj Mithal was transferred to Rajasthan HC

Binny files nomination for BCCI Prez, Jay to be Secy

New Delhi: Roger Bin ny, a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team, on Tuesday filed his nomination for the post of president and is likely to get top job un opposed, Board VP said. Binny, 67, is so far the only candidate to have filed nomination for the post and if no more can didate emerges, he will replace as BCCI chief on October 18. Jay Shah, son of HM Amit Shah, will continue as BCCI secy for his 2nd consec utive term. Shah will

LG for reviving ‘Phool Walon Ki Sair’

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has empha sised the need to revive ‘Phool Walon Ki Sair’ -an annual celebration of flower sellers -- to its traditional grandeur, saying it represents the true syncretic culture of Delhi, according to an official statement on Tuesday.

tives, refuse to share legitimate information with appellants seeking information or provide them with misinforma tion with an aim to mis lead, the source said.

Saxena was presented with a traditional ‘pankha’ to mark the be ginning of Phool Walon Ki Sair’ at a function at the Raj Niwas, it said.

The lieutenant gover nor emphasised the need to revive the ‘Phool

Walon Ki Sair’ to its tra ditional grandeur.

“He told the organis

ers that he will person ally take every step to ensure that the festival,

which represented the true syncretic culture of Delhi, is restored to its traditional glory. The fact that the festival cel ebrated Goddess Yog maya and Khwaja Bakh tiar Kaki together rep resented the very es sence of ‘sambhav’ that Prime Minister Naren dra Modi espouses,” Saxena said in the state ment.

The lieutenant gover nor will be presenting a ‘chadar’ of flowers at the Yogmaya Temple and the Dargah of Kh waja Bakhtiar Kaki as part of the festival, the statement added.

also replace Ganguly as India’s representative at ICC Board. The only Congressman in BCCI cabinet is Rajeev Shuk la, who will continue as VP. Sports minister An urag Thakur’s younger brother Arun will now become IPL chairman.

LIGHT RAINFALL LIKELY TODAY IN DELHI

New Delhi: Mercury rose in the capital on Tuesday with the maximum tem perature settling at 28.9 degrees Celsius, even as the weather office fore cast cloudy sky with light rain on Wednesday. The city recorded a relative humidity of 86 per cent at 5:30 PM. The minimum temperature in Delhi on Tuesday had settled at 20.8 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal.

The city recorded a relative humidity of 100 per cent at 8:30 AM, ac cording to data shared by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).The minimum temperature on Monday was 19.2 degrees Celsius.

Phool Waalon Ki Sair organisers Anjuman Sair-e-Gul Faroshan presenting the traditional Pankha to LG VK Saxena at Raj Niwas in New Delhi. —Twitter

Lt Governor VK Saxena has asked the chief secretary to take requisite corrective action against the AAP government in Delhi as per the rules. —FILE PHOTO

AMIT SHAH IN BIHAR: NITISH IS CM AFTER CHANGING SIDES

Roger Binny Jay Shah

Justice DY Chandrachud

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla pays last respect to mortal remains of former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav during funeral at his ancestral village Saifai, in Etawah on Tuesday.

Rajnath Singh, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav at the last rites ceremony of Mulayam Singh Yadav. CM Ashok Gehlot pays homage to SP patriarch Mulayam Singh during the funeral on Tuesday.

Spirituality is contained in every particle and divine energy is being transmitted in every corner of Ujjain. Ujjain has led India’s prosperity, knowledge, dignity and literature for thou sands of years. —Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

SEEKING BLESSINGS! (T) Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets the priests present during the dedication of the Phase I of the Mahakal Lok Project to the Nation, at Shri Mahakal Lok, in Ujjain on Tuesday. (L) Prime Minister Narendra Modi performs Darshan and Pooja at Shree Mahakaleshwar Temple, in Ujjain on Tuesday.

PM Narendra Modi takes a tour of the corridor with Shivraj Chouhan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mahakaleshwar Temple, in Ujjain on Tuesday.

Arvind Kejriwal flags off 50 low-floor CNG buses

These buses will improve connectivity to the rural belts of the national capital, says CM

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday flagged off 50 low-floor CNG-powered cluster buses and said they will improve connectivity to the rural belts of the national capital.

He also flagged off 30 Innova cars and 36 mo torbikes for the enforce ment wing of the Trans port Department.

"These vehicles will be involved in enforcing lane discipline. From April, we started the lane discipline drive," he said at the event.

According to trans port department offi cials, this is the first time motorcycles have been inducted in the en forcement team. This will ensure enforce ment teams can enter narrow lanes where cars cannot.

Kejriwal said there will be 1,800 electric bus

es on the roads of Delhi by 2023, while 80 per cent of the city's fleet will be electric by 2025.

The government has floated a tender for 1,500 electric buses, and by November next year, 1,800 such buses will be playing on Delhi roads, he said.

"We have inducted 50 new low-floor CNG (airconditioned) buses. From many years, peo ple faced inconvenience

80 per cent of the city’s fleet will be electric by 2025, says AAP chief

We have in ducted 50 new low-floor CNG buses. From many years, people faced in convenience since there were no buses. But in the last twothree years, electric, CNG, cluster buses have been inducted —Arvind Kejriwal Delhi CM

Education is our topmost priority: Delhi CM Kejriwal

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said education is the topmost priority of his government, as he asserted that if chil dren will get quality education, they will reach great heights in their career.

He said this while tak ing part in the Mahari shi Valmiki Prakatotsav programme organised in Aliganj and Palika Kunj of his constituency, according to an official statement.

For clean water to residents, 40-yr-old Bhagirathi plant pipeline to be replaced

New Delhi (PTI): Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the 40-year-old wa ter pipeline of the Bha girathi Water Treat ment Plant will be re placed, a move which will help provide clean Ganga water to resi dents of east Delhi.

The move will also help in ensuring roundthe-clock water supply to the region.

since there were no buses. But in the last two-three years, elec tric, CNG, cluster buses have been inducted," he added.

The new buses will be kept at the new Bawana bus depot.

"This will help rural connectivity. There are already 360 cluster bus routes. There will be six new routes for these buses that will serve ru ral areas," he said.

‘Fee structure for education at AIIMS could be modelled along lines of IITs, IIMs’

New Delhi (PTI): The fee structure for medi cal education at AIIMS across India may be re vised and modelled along the lines of IITs and IIMs to augment the revenue generating potential of the premier institute, according to a recommendation made at AIIMS' 'chintan shi vir' held in August.

Improving the health care services at all the AIIMS and identifying an implementable mod el suitable for sustaina ble revenue generation to reduce the depend ence on government funds were among the topics that were deliber ated at the 'shivir'.

The Union health ministry is in the pro cess of finalising a com mittee which will study the feasibility of these recommendations and see the level of increase that can be done, an of ficial source told PTI.

“One of the recom mendations suggested is revising the fee struc ture of courses such as MBBS, post-graduation

and nursing education and adopting the struc ture followed at IITs and IIMs to augment the rev enue generating poten tial of the premier insti tute,” the source said.

Currently, the fees for the MBBS course at AIIMS is around Rs 6,500. The others recom mendations highlight ed are converting a third of general ward beds at all AIIMS into special wards and in creasing the number of private wards besides, constituting a commit tee for revising the charges of AIIMS for non-paying and paying patients for improving revenue generation.

Another recommen dation also highlighted creating a mechanism for identification of ben eficiaries of AB-PMJAY, state government scheme and any other government-linked scheme towards con tributing to the revenue kitty, they said.

Cross subsidisation model can also be pilot ed wherein the poor get the services free of cost those who opt for paid service are treated ac cording to their entitle ment, the recommenda tions stated adding an cillary service and sup port services can be tapped for additional revenue generation.

Later, in a tweet in Hindi, Kejriwal said, "Today 50 new CNG buses and 66 new vehi cles for road safety and bus lane enforcement were flagged off from the Rajghat depot. As many as 7,320 buses are on the roads of Delhi now, the highest-ever. By 2025, more than 10,000 buses will be in service of the people of Delhi, 80 per cent them will be electric buses."

"Maharishi Valmiki and Babasaheb Ambed kar gave utmost impor tance to quality educa tion of children. Educa tion is our topmost prior ity in Delhi; if children will get quality educa tion, they will reach great heights in their career, their families will prosper and the country will progress. If children remain uneducated, their family lags behind and remains poor," Kejri wal said.

He urged people to pay utmost attention to the education of children.

HIGH ON WIN

“The Delhi govern ment has decided to re place the 40-year-old wa ter pipeline of Bhagi rathi Plant. With the re placement of this 20-kmlong pipeline, as many as 130 MGD of clean Ganga water will be sup plied to lakhs of people in east Delhi. It will prove to be a milestone towards providing 24x7 water to the people of Delhi,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Delhi govern ment has been taking various decisions to im prove the water supply across the city and also to clean River Yamuna.

Earlier this month, Delhi Deputy Chief Min ister Manish Sisodia had approved the construc tion of a new filter house at the Nangloi Water Treatment Plant (WTP) at a cost of Rs 59.7 crore to ensure round-theclock water supply to the national capital.

With the new filter house having advanced

technology, the Nangloi WTP will be able to treat 10-15 per cent more water during the peak summer season and meet the increased demand. Kejriwal on Monday said 85 million gallons of sewage from Keshopur and Najaf garh will be cleaned be fore it flows into the Najafgarh drain.

2 juveniles among four held for killing man

New Delhi (PTI): Two men have been arrested and two juveniles ap prehended for allegedly killing a 23-year-old per son in south Delhi's Neb Sarai area, police said on Tuesday.

The accused have been identified as Ajay (20) and Aamir (18), both residents of Sangam Vihar here, they said.

The deceased had thrashed one of the ju veniles earlier follow ing which the four at tacked him to take re

venge, police said.

The police received information about the stabbing incident on Sunday. The injured, Faraz, a resident of Sangam Vihar, was tak en to AIIMS where he was declared brought dead, police said.

During inquiry, a friend of Faraz said that Ajay, Aamir the and two juveniles stopped them on Sun day after which one of the juvenile confronted him, a senior police of ficer said.

Guards down but no order yet on unmasking

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Covid is still an in-thing, with the country recording close to 2,000 new cases and eight deaths in the last 24 hours, yet the no-mask rule has been naively adopted by the general populace in public plac es of Delhi. This despite the fact that the `500 pen alty on not wearing mask has still not been officially withdrawn.

The administration has also stopped impos

ing challans for the vio lation since October 1.

Witnessing a sharp de cline in Covid cases, the Delhi Disaster Manage

ABPSYMPOSIUM 2022

ment Authority (DDMA) in its last Covid review meeting had decided to discontinue the fine. As a result, malls, markets,

eateries, parks are all full of unmasked crowds, paving the ground for a possible spike in cases.

An official said though

an official order was not out yet, the order on mask fines expired on September 30. Subse quently, enforcement teams have also been re duced. “Awareness cam paigns on the impor tance of wearing masks and Covid-appropriate behaviour are being con ducted, but mask fines have been discontinued. If cases do increase, we will increase the number of enforcement teams to control the spread,” said another official.

WADA symposium looks to address doping menace, strengthen measures

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Third WADA edition is witnessing 200plus participants from 56 countries and experts from different national anti-doping organisations

New Delhi (PTI): A three-day symposium by WADA got underway here on Wednesday with an aim to strengthen In dia’s anti-doping meas ures and make the coun try, a regional leader in the field.

The third edition of the meet is witnessing 200-plus participants from 56 countries, WADA Officials, repre sentatives and experts from different national anti-doping organisa tions, Athlete Passport

Management Units and WADA accredited labo ratories.

The National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) is in the process

INDIA 3RD IN DOPING VIOLATIONS

founding factors affect ing the steroidal mod ule, evolving strategic testing for the ABP etc and will help WADA to work towards the detec tion and eradication of doping in sports through APMUs. The first two editions of the sympo sium were held in Qatar (2015) and Rome (2018).

of setting up an APMU in India as the symposi um aims to “create the necessary expertise in the country and will help the Indian Sports

by strengthening the Anti-doping programme of India and also enable us to become a regional leader in anti-doping,” state a PIB release.

The main topic of dis cussion in this sympo sium will be recent trends, successes and challenges with the ABP, managing con

Indian athletes’ suc cess story in the recent past has coincided with the rise of doping men ace in the country as well. Recently, the build-

up to the Common wealth Games in Bir mingham, saw five ath letes, including two from the para disci pline, test positive for banned substances as their names were then struck off the list. Ac cording to a 2021 WADA report, India (152) ranked third in terms of doping violations re ported in 2019 with bodybuilding, weight lifting and athletics adding mostly to the country’s infamy.

WTP

Indian bowler Kuldeep Yadav with teammate Ishan Kishan celebrates the wicket of Bjorn Fortuin during the 3rd ODI cricket match between India and South Africa, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, Tuesday. India won the decider by 7 wickets. —PHOTO BY PTI

CM Arvind Kejriwal flagging off the

CNG buses in

SC notice to ED on Satyendar

Jain’s plea against HC order

WHAT DELHI HC HAD SAID

Religious event row: Delhi Police question ex-minister Rajendra Pal Gautam

New Delhi (PTI): For mer AAP minister Ra jendra Pal Gautam on Tuesday appeared be fore the Delhi Police for questioning over his presence at a religious conversion event where Hindu deities were alleg edly denounced, offi cials said.

New Delhi: The Su preme Court on Tues day issued notice to the Enforcement Directo rate (ED) regarding Satyendar Jain's plea challenging the Delhi High Court upholding the trial Court order al lowing the agency's peti tion to transfer his case to another judge.

A bench headed by Justice MR Shah asked the ED to file a response on Satyendar Jain's plea and listed the matter for hearing on October 31. Satyendar Jain had challenged the Delhi HC order which upheld the trial court order of transferring his bail

plea to another judge. He was represented by Sen ior Advocate Kapil Sibal. The Delhi high court had dismissed the plea of Delhi minister Saty endar Jain challenging the Principal District and Sessions Court or der allowing ED petition to transfer his case to another judge.

On September 23, 2022, Principal District and Sessions Court judge transferred Saty endar Jain's money laundering case from

High Court seeks police reply to Sushil Ansal’s plea

New Delhi (Agen cies): The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response of the Delhi police on a plea by real estate ty coon Sushil Ansal seeking to set aside his conviction and sentence for tamper ing with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar cine ma fire case.

Sushil Ansal has already completed his jail term in this case pertaining to the fire incident on June 13, 1997 that left 59 dead.

Justice Purushain dra Kumar Kaurav issued notice to the Delhi Police on the 83-year-old Ansal's pe tition and listed the matter for further hearing on December 13. The HC issued bailable warrant against Ansal's then employee PP Batra, who was also convict ed in the evidence tampering case, as neither he nor any

Sushil Ansal has already completed his jail term in Uphaar fire incident case that left 59 dead

lawyer on his behalf was present in the court during the hear ing on the victims' plea. The HC was hearing two separate pleas - one by Ansal challenging his con viction and sentence and another by the AVUT seeking en hancement of the punishment awarded to the convicts in evi dence tampering case.

one court to another.

Delhi High Court while passing the order observed that the facts showed that the En forcement Directorate (ED) did not merely har bour an apprehension of bias but had also acted upon it by rushing to the High Court and therefore the apprehen sion cannot be said to be flimsy or not reasona ble.ED had moved an application before the Principal District and Sessions Judge of Rouse

Avenue Court urging the transfer of Satyen dar Jain's money laun dering proceedings to another Judge.

The ED petition sought the transfer of Delhi Cabinet Minister Satyendar Jain's matter to Special Judge Geetan jali Goel after raising certain contentions re lated to the bail argu ments being examined by the court.

The central agency on June 6 claimed to have seized ` 2.85 crore

in cash and 133 gold coins weighing 1.80 kg from Satyendra Jain's aides during its daylong raid conducted at various places across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). During these raids, the agency also seized vari ous incriminating doc uments and digital re cords. The money-laun dering investigation was initiated on the basis of a FIR regis tered by the CBI on Au gust 24, 2017.

Excise policy likely to be delayed as committee seeks more time

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi government’s new excise policy is likely to be delayed as a high-lev el committee formed to frame its broad outlines has sought more time to submit its report, offi cials have said.

The committee con stituted in August in cludes principal secre tary finance, principal secretary revenue, ex cise commissioner and an expert member.

The Excise Policy 2021-22 was withdrawn in July after a CBI probe was recommended by

Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena into alleged ir regularities in its imple mentation.

Announcing the with drawal of the Excise Policy 2021-22, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had said a new policy will be framed within six

New excise policy (202223) of Delhi government will be framed within six months

months. The committee formed to give recom mendations for the ex cise policy 2022-23 was stipulated to submit its report within one month. However, it could not do so due to various reasons, the of ficials said.

He has joined the in vestigation at the Pahar ganj Police Station, said a senior police officer. "I received the notice today (Tuesday) and will coop erate with the police," Gautam said. "We are those who follow Baba saheb Ambedkar and the Indian Constitu tion," he said in a tweet in Hindi. The develop ment comes a day after he was interrogated by police at his residence regarding his presence at the religious conver sion event. Later, he was issued a formal notice to appear before officials at the Paharganj Police Station on Tuesday.

According to the no tice, on October 5, Gau tam attended a pro gramme at the Ambed kar Bhawan where "cer tain words were uttered publicly, which has infu riated public at large".

“Written complaints have been received in this regard... During the enquiry, presence of your good self is very much essential to decide the further course of ac tion as per law," the no tice read."Accordingly, you are here by request ed to appear in person at police station Pahar Ganj without fail, other wise it will be presumed that you have nothing to say or explain anything on your part and matter would be decided as per law,” it added.

After being ques tioned by police on Mon

32-year-old woman gang-raped in Delhi hotel room, three arrested

New Delhi (PTI): A 32-year-old woman was allegedly raped by three men inside a hotel room in northwest Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar, police said on Wednesday.

The accused -- Ajay (39), Tara Chand (34) and Naresh (38) -- all na tives of Rajashan’s Al war, have been arrested, they said.

Deputy Commission er of Police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said a PCR call regarding the incident was received at Adarsh Nagar police sta tion on Sunday.

The woman in her statement said she was invited by her acquaint ance Ajay to a hotel room on Sunday where two of his friends were

VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES

also present, the DCP said. They offered a spiked cold drink to the woman and she became unconscious after drink ing it. Following this, the trio allegedly raped the woman, she said.

Based on the victim’s statement and medicolegal case (MLC) report, a case was registered under section 376 D (gan

grape), 377 (unnatural offences) and 328 (Caus ing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code at Adarsh Nagar police sta tion, the DCP said.

The police said a crime team collected samples from the hotel and further investiga tion is underway.

Hospitals asked to reserve 10-15 pc beds for patients

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The city logged 937 dengue cases this year till Septemberend and 321 more cases were reported in the first five days of October, taking the tally to 1,258

New Delhi (PTI) Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tues day said all the city hos pitals have been asked by the government to reserve 10-15 per cent beds for patients of vec tor-borne diseases and also to ensure that no such patient is denied admission due to a lack of beds.

Seeing the low occu pancy rate of the COV ID-19 beds in the last few weeks, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has also asked the hospitals to

use the vacant beds to accommodate dengue patients, Sisodia was quoted as saying in a statement.

The city logged 937 dengue cases this year till September-end and

321 more cases were re ported in the first five days of October, taking the tally to 1,258, accord ing to a report released by the Municipal Corpo ration of Delhi (MCD) on Monday.

“The government has put all the hospitals across the national cap ital on alert and is keep ing an eye on the situa tion. Hospitals have been directed to reserve 10-15 per cent of their

beds for vector-borne disease patients and en sure that no patient is denied admission due to lack of beds,” the statement said.

Sisodia said the pre sent weather condi tions are conducive for the transmission of vector-borne diseases.

He said the number of dengue cases has seen a sharp rise in the last two weeks but there is no need to panic as all arrangements have been put in place to pro vide treatment to the patients at hospitals.

Delhi riots: BJP MLA denies involvement

New Delhi: Several purported videos of the 'Virat Hindu Sab ha' organised by VHP and other outfits on Sunday have come to the fore including one in which BJP MLA from Loni in Ghazi abad Nand Kishor Gurjar said that he will not desist from killing "jihadis" if they murder any Hindus.

There were some reports that suggested that Gurjar at the event talked about his al leged involvement in the February 2020 North east Delhi riots. The MLA, however, denied that he entered Delhi during the riots.

"What have I to do with riots in Delhi? I did not go there. I said at the event that I was ready with 25,000 people at Loni so no riots took place here even as riots happened in Delhi," Gurjar told PTI over phone.

The Sunday event, organised against the killing of a Hindu youth Manish from Sundar Nagari in Northeast Delhi earlier this month, has sparked controversy for alleged hate speeches by participants. A video of the event shared on social media showed Gurjar deliv ering a speech in his firebrand style.

day, Gautam said, “They asked me about the na ture of the programme and how it was organ ised... I follow the law and if I have committed any crime, you can reg ister a case and arrest me. If I have not, you can interrogate me.”

“I will feed sweets to the complainant if I am

arrested,” he had said. Gautam had resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on Sunday due to the controversy over him at tending the event.The BJP has used the issue to attack AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the elec tion campaigning in Gu jarat and accused him of being "anti-Hindu”.

New Delhi (PTI) The All India Students’ As sociation (AISA) has written an open letter to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, accusing his government of ‘fail ing’ to abide by B R Ambedkar’s ideolo gies and remaining silent on the issues of minorities.

In the letter, the Left-affiliated stu dents’ body said Ra jendra Pal Gautam’s resignation as a min ister in Kejriwal’s cabinet due to a con troversy over his presence at a reli gious conversion event comes off as a “betrayal of what Ambedkar stood for”.

“For a party that

calls itself ‘AAP’, the ideology of Ambed kar should not strike such fear as it did with you. Rajendra Pal Gautam’s resigna tion comes off as nothing but an utter betrayal of what Ambedkar stood for,” the letter said.

Satyendar

—Manish Sisodia Deputy Chief Minister

Former Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam appears for questioning at Paharganj police station in New Delhi, Tuesday,

Nand Kishor Gurjar

AAP INJUSTICE

—PHOTO

PTI

PHOTO

Durga Puja Carnival’s glory eclipsed by Mominpur flashpoint?

tors this time as well, as be cause they belong to a certain community, this time too this may flare up and start to spread across the state result ing in loss of lives and prop erty; both Public & Private.

The State Government has already meekly surrendered in front of the wrath of the goons, who have taken over the Ekbalpur Police Station, he added. If morning shows the day, then the day definite ly is gloomy. Kindly find an nexed video of the incident as well as some footage of the vandalism, he stated.

Meanwhile, a war of words broke out between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Opposition BJP on Monday over clashes between two groups in the KhidderporeMominpur area of Kolkata, that left several people injured.

The saffron camp claimed that law and order has wors ened in West Bengal, draw ing a sharp retort from the ruling TMC which accused the BJP of trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar, who tried to visit the area, was stopped and ar rested on Monday.

ROBIN ROY

ven as West Bengal was show casing its Durga Puja Carni val live to the entire world on Saturday especially after Bengal’s biggest festival had obtained the UNESCO’s In ternational Cultural Herit age tag, a few hours after that yet another unfortunate inci dent put the police in a spot and was a matter of concern.

CONTROVERSY

OVER FLAG DISPLAY

the crisis. No sooner did the incident happen than the Leader of Opposition, Suv endu Adhikari, wrote to Un ion Home Minister Amit Shah requesting “urgent de ployment of Central forces in the wake of Mominpur vio lence and ransacking of Ek balpur police station to con tain law and order situation.

“I have written to Hon’ble Union Home Minister Shri @ Amit Shah Ji & Hon’ble Gov ernor Shri La Ganesan Ji re questing them to urgently deploy Central Forces in the wake of Mominpur violence & ransacking of Ekbalpur Police Station before the Law and Order situation of WB gets out of hand,” tweeted BJP leader.

The West Bengal government has been targeted by the Opposition party over the violence in the state, especially after the declaration of the 2021 Assembly election results. This year, the theme of a Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata depicted the post-poll violence that claimed at least 16 lives

According to reports, there was communal tension in Mo minpur since late Saturday. A dispute reportedly started over the display of communal flags on the occasion of Miladun-Nabi. Violence erupted on Sunday. Incidents of vandal ism, stone pelting and bomb throwing were reported. Sev eral vehicles were damaged.

A large number of police personnel were deployed late at night and the Ekbalpur po lice station area was cordoned off. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) has also been deployed.

The proactive Opposition BJP in West Bengal took al most no time in plunging into

INDIA CANNOT BE PUSHED AROUND

“I am compelled to write this letter to you at this hour because the gravity of the situation has prompted this urgency.

The Hindu commu nity has come under attack in the Khidderpore Momin pur area of Kolkata on the eve of Lakshmi Puja. Many shops and bikes belonging to Hindus have been vandalised by hooligans and anti socials. The onslaught has similari ties to the Panchla violence which happened in June in the Uluberia area of the How rah district. At that time the violence spread across West Bengal, especially in the Na dia and Murshidabad dis

Even as West Bengal was showcasing its Durga Puja Carnival live to the entire world on Saturday especially after Bengal’s biggest festival had obtained the UNESCO’s International Cultural Heritage tag, a few hours after that yet another unfortunate incident put the police in a spot and was a matter of concern

tricts,” the letter read.

Adhikari wrote he appre hended that as the West Ben gal Government is reluctant to act against the perpetra

Police said clashes broke out between two groups in the Khidderpore-Mominpur area on Sunday evening over some local issues, in which several people were injured.

The agitators also staged a protest outside the Ekbalpur police station.

Personnel of the police in cluding those of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) were de ployed in the area. Majumdar, who wanted to visit the area, was stopped at the Chin grighata area in north Kolka ta and was asked to go back as Prohibitory Orders under Section 144 of the CrPC had been imposed in the area.

“Sukanta Majumdar was later arrested and taken to Lalbazar police headquar ters,” a senior police official said. Hitting out at the saf fron camp for allegedly try ing to vitiate the atmosphere of the state, senior TMC lead er Sougata Roy said the po lice had taken all the steps needed to bring the situation under control.

“The miscreants have been arrested. What will Sukanta Majumdar do by going there apart from giving hate speeches? The BJP is trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state. The BJP should stop politicising every inci dent,” Roy said.

SPREADING HATE: IS THE LAW UNABLE TO STOP MAKERS OF HATE SPEECHES

ndia’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has emerged as one of the most outspo ken foreign ministers India has had. His recent statement defending India’s substantial inventory of Russia-made weapons and pointing out the long-standing relationship be tween the two countries is one such brutal truth he has told the West in recent months.

On a visit to Australia, Jais hankar told a journalist that for decades the Western coun tries did not supply weapons to India and opted for a neigh bouring dictator instead. It is a fact that the western powers cannot deny no matter how much commonality they see in India’s and their own de mocracies. The US-Pakistan F-16 refurbishment deal is a

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has emerged as one of the most outspoken foreign ministers India has had. His recent statement defending India’s substantial inventory of Russia-made weapons and pointing out long-standing relationship between 2 countries is one such brutal truth he has told West in recent months

recent case in point where Washington has ignored In dia’s concerns in the hope that Islamabad will distance itself from China.

India’s ties with the West are continuously coming un der strain for one reason or

another but mostly because it is holding its ground in buying oil and weaponry from Russia and refusing to toe the western alliance’s line of isolating Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The West is also not amused with India as it has not criticised Moscow for either attacking Ukraine or for the referen dum it carried out in three Ukrainian states.

Also, New Delhi has justifi ably issued a demarche to be conveyed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over an up coming Khalistan referen dum in Canada and ques tioned Trudeau’s double standards. Trudeau, who criticised Russia for the refer endum in Ukraine, has so far not said a word on the Khal istani move which may pose a threat to India’s integrity.

Delhi MP Parvesh Ver ma’s alleged call for the boycott of a com munity is an attempt to keep the commu nal pot boiling. At a meeting or ganised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at Delhi’s Dilshad Gar den called for the financial boy cott of a community. Although the community was not named, the reference was obvious as it was to protest the murder of a Hindu youth in which members of another community have been arrested. A case has been registered against the organiz ers of the event but those who made hate speeches have not been named. The silence of sen ior BJP leaders over the provoca tive speeches and also on the public flogging of Muslims in Gujarat is not just intriguing but is also dangerous as was said by the former Supreme Court judge, Justice Rohinton Mistry.

Several sections of the IPC and the CrPC prohibit hate speeches but the law enforcement agencies have been found wanting when it comes to an unbiased execution of those provisions.

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Bible

To give a fillip to #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao, a component of Skilling in NTL has been introduced as part of the program. Through this initiative, girls will be given skill training in non-traditional vocations thereby making them torchbearers of Women-Led #AatmaNirbharBharat.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

Nitin Gadkari @nitin_gadkari

Today our dream has come true...! Launched India’s first Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) which would run on 100% petrol as well as 20 to 100% blended ethanol and electric powertain.

Smriti Z Irani @smritiirani

TWEETS

To

Top leaders pay respects at Mulayam Singh Yadav’s cremation

Saifai (PTI): Defence Minister Rajnath Sin gh, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were among those who joined thousands of people at the funeral of Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday.

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattis garh counterpart Bhu pesh Baghel, Telanga na CM K Chandrashek ar Rao and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren,

former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Telugu Desam Party chief N Chan drababu Naidu, and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav were among the leaders

from various states who paid their tributes to the socialist leader.

NCP leader Praful Patel, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Kar at and the Left party’s Sitaram Yechury were

among the others who paid their respects at the Saifai Mela Ground.

UP Deputy CMs Kes hav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were seen offering their condolences to

Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav. Minister Jitin Prasada, too, took part in the funeral rites. Businessman Anil Ambani, Yadav’s broth er and Pragatisheel Sa majwadi Party (Lohia) founder Shivpal Yadav, senior UP Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, NCP leader Supriya Sule, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, and senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh were pre sent as Mulayam was to consigned to flames.

‘

India a young nation with a great innovative spirit’ “Disciples sacrificed JP’s ideology, sided with Cong”

Unicorn startups in India almost doubled since 2021: PM Modi

New Delhi (ANI): High lighting the role of tal ent, PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India is a young nation with a great innovative spirit and its number of uni corn startups has almost doubled since 2021.

While addressing the United Nations World Geospatial International Congress virtually, the PM said, “India is one of the top startup hubs in the world with the num ber of unicorn startups having almost doubled since 2021— a testimony to India’s young talent.”

The theme of the sec ond UNWGIC is “Geo Enabling the Global Vil lage—No one must be left behind.” Welcoming International delegates, the Prime Minister

Jamkandorna (Gujarat)(PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Congress has outsourced the contract of abusing him. Addressing a rally in Jam kandorna town of Rajkot district in Gujarat ahead of the state Assembly polls due this year-end, Modi warned BJP workers and supporters to be aware of the Congress

said, “the people of In dia are happy to host you on this historic oc casion as we build our

which, he said, has stopped abusing him and is “working silently” to capture rural votes. “In the last 20 years, those who were against Gujarat left no stone unturned to defame the state. They hurled choicest abuses against me, including calling me maut ka saudagar,” the prime minister said.

future together.” Ex pressing his happiness at the conference hap pening in Hyderabad,

In a veiled attack on Bihar CM, Shah says Nitish switched alliance 5 times to remain in power

Sitab Diara (PTI): Un ion Home Minister Amit Shah in an apparent dig at the Mahagathband han government in Bi har on Tuesday said that those who claim them selves to be disciples of Jayaprakash Narayan have sacrificed his ideol ogy to sit in the “lap” of Congress for power.

At a rally here at the birthplace of the hero of anti-Emergency move ment, popularly known as JP, here after unveil ing a 15-feet high statue of JP, Shah also targeted CM Nitish Kumar.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has reserved its order on a plea filed by actor Salman Khan against a Mumbai court order refusing to issue him an interim relief in a defamation case filed by him against his Panvel farmhouse neighbour Ketan Kakkar. Sessions Court had earlier refused to pass a restraining order against his neighbour’s post which Sal man had moved the Bombay High Court. On Tuesday, the High Court, after hearing the matter, reserved its order.

A

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued a bailable warrant against one convict in Uphar evi dence tampering case for his non-appearance. The court on Sep 5 had issued notice to him on petition moved by the Associa tion of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy against the trial court’s judgment reducing his sentence in the case.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted the pleas seeking ‘Talaq-eHasan’ and all other forms of “unilateral extrajudicial divorce” to be declared unconstitutional. ‘Talaq-eHasan’ is a form of divorce among Muslims by which a man can dissolve marriage by pronouncing the word ‘talaq’ once every month over a 3-month period.

New Delhi: BJP legislator Vikram Saini and 11 others were sentenced on Tuesday to two years imprisonment in a Muzaffarnagar riots case by a special MP/MLA court which convicted them of rioting and other offences. The court acquitted 15 other accused in the case for lack of evidence. The BJP MLA and 26 others were facing trial for their al leged role in the violence at Kawal village when a crowd was returning after the cremation of two Jat youths.

New Delhi: Observing that an accused going to court is “fundamental to the criminal system”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea which said production of undertrial prisoners before court on every date should not be ordered as a “matter of routine”, while raising the issue of safety. A bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit said as an idea it is good but the practical application would create a lot of difficulty.

the PM said that the city is known for its culture and cuisine, its hospital ity and hi-tech vision.”

Oh My God! Hanuman told to remove temple in 10 days

Dhanbad (Agencies):

Describing a temple as an encroachment, the Railways has sent a no tice to Lord Hanuman in Dhanbad city of Jharkhand. In the no tice, Lord Hanuman has been asked to remove the temple within 10 days and hand over the vacated land to the Rail ways section engineer.

This notice has been pasted on the wall of the temple located near the waste dam of the city. Directly addressed to Hanuman ji, the no

tice says that “you have illegally occupied the railway land. This is a legal offence. If this place is not vacated within 10 days, legal ac tion will be taken against you.” The last line of the notice says that “consider it very necessary”.

“JP fought for ideolo gy and no power. But those who do politics in his name have changed sides five times for pow er and are sitting in the lap of the same Con gress against which he fought. He (Nitish) is power hungry and for power, he sacrificed JP’s ideologies,” Shah said.

Birla on 2-day visit to Surat from today

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will be on a two-day visit to Surat from Wednesday. During this he will par ticipate in various pro grammes in Surat. Ac cording to the informa tion received from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Birla will leave New Del hi at 5.35 am on Wednes day and will reach Surat by air at 7.25 am. He will participate in the pro gramme organized at Bhagwan Mahaveer University at 12 noon.

Patna (PTI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday sought to make light of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Sitab Diyara, the village where Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan was born, on his 120th birth an niversary. “Whoever may come and go, it does not affect me (koi aae ya jaae humko koi fark nahin padta hai),” was Kumar’s curt reply to journalists’ queries whether he thought that Shah’s visit was an attempt to appropri ate the legacy of ‘JP’. The JD(U) leader also said he will be in Nagaland later in the day to attend a function held there in honour of the legendary socialist leader.

Nadda calls for support from all for Himachal’s development

Bilaspur (ANI): BJP National President JP Nadda asked everyone including the Opposi tion Congress to come forward and extend sup port for the development of Himachal Pradesh.

Addressing a rally here, Nadda said, “Do not look for BJP, Con gress (while voting), see who is concerned for you. BJP is concerned for you. I would even ask Congress persons to come and support us. We are given the chance for (state’s) develop ment, let us do, strength en us. If I make roads, universities -will only people from BJP use them?,” BJP national president said.

Al Huda Trust terror funding: NIA raids 18 places in J&K, arrests 1

New Delhi (ANI): The NIA on Tuesday con ducted searches at 18 locations in J&K and ar rested one person in a case related to suspect funding activities of Al Huda Educational Trust (AHET).

The agency carries out searches in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Srina gar, Bandipora, Shopi an, Pulwama and Bud gam districts of Jammu and Kashmir and ar rested Md. Ameer Shamshi is a resident of

CONG PRESIDENTIAL POLL

the Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir.

Shamshi is the Chair person (Nizam-e-ala) of AHET and acts on the directions of the Chief Patron of the Trust, said the NIA in a statement.

J&K SEPARATIST LEADER ALTAF AHMAD SHAH DIES

New Delhi: Jailed Kash miri separatist leader and son-in-law of late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. He was shifted to AIIMS from Tihar jail for treatment a few days ago. Altaf Shah, 66, died of cancer in the early hours of Tuesday. In a tweet, Altaf Shah’s daughter said he breathed his last at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi “as a prisoner”.

Will Kharge be covertly controlled via a remote?

Sharat K Verma

New Delhi: When for mer Congress President Rahul Gandhi held a press conference during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, in response to a ques tion, he said that both Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are con testing the Congress President’s election, and are strong leaders and the one who wins among them can not be gov erned through remote control. It may be true in

the case of Shashi Tha roor that if he wins, he will not be able to use the remote control. But he will not win, because Mallikarjun Kharge is unofficially the official candidate of the NehruGandhi family. So it is certain that Kharge will win the election of the President and Tha roor will not be able to get even 10 per cent of the votes.

Now the question is, will Kharge not be oper ated with a remote con

trol? The day Rahul Gandhi said that Kharge and Tharoor cannot be

KHARGE TO WORK AS RaGa WISHES?

When Kharge is contest ing because no one from the Gandhi family is fighting, then what can be expected of him to make his own deci sions? Kharge is a senior leader who came from grassroots and has a lot of experience and yet he will run the party the way Rahul would like it to be.

election of the presi dent because no one from the Gandhi family

is contesting the elec tion. Think, when he is ready to fight because no one from the Gandhi family is fighting, then what can be expected of him to make his own de cisions?

Kharge is a sen ior leader who came from the grassroots and has a lot of experience and yet he will run the party the way Rahul Gandhi would like it to be. But it is a good thing that Rahul Gandhi is po sitioning an ‘independ ent’ president for him.

controlled with remote control, Kharge said that he is contesting the

Mallikarjun Kharge addressing a press conference, in Kolkata.

UPHAAR TRAGEDY:

MAN

HC RESERVES ORDER ON SALMAN’S PLEA AGAINST CIVIL COURT IN DEFAMATION CASE

MUZAFFARNAGAR RIOTS: BJP LEGISLATOR VIKRAM SAINI SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS

SC JUNKS PLEA SEEKING PRODUCTION OF UNDERTRIALS

‘KOI AAYE YA JAAYE HUMKO FARAK NAHI PADTA HAI’: NITISH KUMAR ON AMIT SHAH

CONG HAS OUTSOURCED CONTRACT OF ABUSING ME: MODI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being felicitated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters during a public rally, at Jamkandorana, in Rajkot on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Amit Shah unveils the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan on his 120th birth anniversary, as UP CM Yogi Adityanath and others look on, at his ancestral village ‘Sitab Diara’, in Saran on Tuesday.

BJP president JP Nadda being felicitated in Bilaspur, on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Police personnel accord gun salute before torching the fire of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s mortal remains at his ancestral village Saifai, in Etawah on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Kamal Nath

Hemant SorenMallikarjun Kharge Baba Ramdev

—FILE PHOTO

MONTH

YATRA

Cong sheds inertia, eyes pole position in Opposition space

Jairam, one of the key drivers of the exercise, sees the yatra as a psychological boost

Hiriyur/Siddapura (K’taka) (PTI): One month into the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Con gress is looking at some visible gains, with the party donning a re vived, aggressive look.

Currently in power on its own in just two states -- Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan -- the Congress has embarked on the marathon 3,570 km journey eyeing po litical and electoral re vival, riding on the en thusiasm of former party president Rahul Gandhi.

Party leaders are up beat as the yatra has entered its 34th day. They list three clear positive outcomes an activated Congress which has hit the ground running leaving the past inertia behind, an interactive top brass which is directly engag ing the people, and a mobilised organisation which was dormant.

AICC general secre tary Jairam Ramesh, one of the key drivers of the exercise, sees the

New Delhi: The Con gress countered the claims of Prime Minis ter Narendra Modi that the issue of J&K was not resolved by India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru. Even though PM Modi did not take the name of Nehru, the Congress said he

yatra as a psychological boost. “I think what the yatra has done is show to the Congress party

CRUCIAL READ

3 ARRESTED FOR SUSPECTED HUMAN SACRIFICE

Kochi (PTI): The Two women were allegedly sacrificed as part of black magic to bring prosperity to a village of Pathanamthitta district of Kerala and three people, including a couple, suspected to be involved in the crime, were taken into custody, police said.

The two women, who had earned their daily bread selling lottery tickets, were allegedly sacrificed.

MUSLIMS OPPOSE ‘SHIVLING’ CARBON DATING PLEA

New Delhi (Agencies): The Gyanvapi Masjid committee opposed the plea filed by the Hindu side demanding carbon dating of the structure they claimed to be a Shivling found inside the Gyanvapi Mosques wazukhana or reservoir. The court will now take the matter for hearing on Oct 14. The petitioners claimed that the “Shivling” found in the wazookhana or reservoir.

16 DALITS TORTURED, LOCKED UP IN K’TAKA, PREGNANT WOMAN LOSES BABY

Chikkamagaluru (Agencies): Jagadeesha Gowda, a staunch BJP supporter in Karnataka’s Chikkamaga luru district, has been ac cused of keeping 16 Dalit people locked up for days in his coffee plantation. The victims say they were tortured. One of them, a pregnant woman, lost her baby after he assaulted her, the police said. A police case has been registered and the woman is under going treatment at the district hospital. A case has been registered under the law against atrocities on Dalits naming Jagadeesha Gowda and his son Tilak Gowda, the police said.

should check the facts first. The party blamed Maharaja Hari Singh, the then ruler of the J&K for not acceding to India soon after Independence, but took the decision only after invaders from Pakistan tried to take over the place.

that we can do it. We are on the roads, on the streets, we are fighting the BJP. We are taking

Pakistan minister denies any move to resume rail & air link with India

Lahore (PTI): Paki stan’s Railways and Aviation Minister Kha waja Saad Rafique said on Tuesday that no pro posal is under consid eration to resume air and rail link between Pakistan and India.

The air and land link between the two coun tries were suspended following India’s move to revoke the special sta tus of Jammu and Kash mir in 2019. The train –Samjhauta Express –and Lahore-Delhi bus service were also sus pended. “Currently, no proposal to resume air and rail traffic between Pakistan and India is under consideration at the moment,” the minis ter said in a reply to a question during a me dia talk. Before the rela tions soared between the two countries, Paki stan International Air lines (PIA) had been operating two weekly flights to New Delhi from Lahore.

New Delhi (ANI): National Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairper son Priyank Kanoongo on Tuesday said that Con gress is making children involved in Bharat Jodo Yatra as it has lost the trust of elders. He alleged that the Jawahar Bal Manch, created in 2021.

the battle to their camps,” Ramesh said.

Digvijaya urges Lalu to participate in Bharat Jodo Yatra

New Delhi (PTI): Sen ior Congress leader Dig vijaya Singh on Tues day urged RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav to participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra for a day for some time, say ing this would send out a good message.

Singh was respond ing to the former Bihar CM’s remarks at the RJD’s national conven tion when he had ex horted all Opposition parties, including “big party” Congress, to come together to take on the BJP in the 2024 gen eral elections. Sharing a video of the remarks, Singh said in a tweet in Hindi, “Thank you Lalu ji. There is one suggestion. If you join the Bharat Jodo Yatra for a day for some time.”

ED raids premises of officials, biz men in C’garh

Raipur (PTI): The En forcement Directorate (ED) raided the premis es of senior officials, businessmen and politi cians of the ruling Con gress at different loca tions in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, sources said.

Chief Minister Bhu pesh Baghel termed it as an “act of intimida tion”. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not able to fight directly, hence it is try ing to fight through the ED, Income Tax (I-T) department and the De partment of Revenue Intelligence, Baghel told reporters here.

According to sources, separate teams of the ED conducted raids in state capital Raipur, Raigarh, Mahasamund, Korba and other dis tricts. The raids cov ered premises of a dis trict collector, some senior officials, busi nessman and politi cians, the sources said. Baghel said, “The BJP is not able to fight di rectly, so is trying to fight through the ED, IT and DRI. I have already said that they will come

not the

EAM lauds Indo-Australia defence ties

Canberra (ANI): Ex ternal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tues day spent an instructive morning with the Aus tralian Armed Forces as the defense and secu rity ties contribute sig nificantly to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“Spent an instructive morning with the Aus tralian Armed Forces. Our defense and secu rity collaboration con tributes significantly to a free and open IndoPacific,” Jaishankar said in a tweet. Yester day, Jaishankar met Australian Deputy PM Richard Marles in Can berra and gifted a signed bat from Virat Kohli, in a special ges ture to show the com mon thread of cricket

MEETING WITH DEF MIN MARLES

During his meeting with Marles, who is the Defence Minister of Australia, Jais hankar exchanged views on regional and global security.

Jaishankar reached Canberra on Monday after a successful visit to New Zealand.

that binds both coun tries together. “A pleas ure to host @DrSJais hankar here in Canber ra. There are many things which bind us, including our love of cricket. He surprised me with a signed bat from cricket legend @ imVkohli,” Marles said.

‘Health and edu are twins, need to nurture them’

New Delhi (PTI): Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday described health and education as twins and underlined the need to nurture the two for the country’s present and future well-being.

He said healthcare is one of the most impor tant pillars of nationbuilding and called for collective effort and greater public- private partnership to ensure its infrastructure ex pansion in the country.

Addressing an event, he noted that Indian healthcare demands are of a great scale and di

versity. Dhankhar called for greater col laboration between all stakeholders to achieve

EC allots ‘two swords & a shield’ as poll symbol to Shinde faction

New Delhi (PTI): The Election Commission on Tuesday allotted ‘two swords and a shield’ as the poll symbol to the Eknath Shinde-led fac tion of the Shiv Sena. The Shinde faction, which is now named as ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’, will be able to use the symbol for the And heri East assembly by poll, should it decide to

contest the election scheduled for Novem ber 3.

In a letter to Maha rashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the

Commission said it has decided to declare ‘Do Talwarein aur Ek Dhal (Two Swords & Shield)’ to be a free symbol and allot it to the candidate set up, if any, by the Shinde-led group in the current byelection.

The Shinde faction had suggested ‘peepal tree’, ‘sword and shield’, and ‘sun’ as its choice of poll symbols.

UP chief secy greeted by 24 trainee IAS officers

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Secre tary Durga Shankar Mishra was greeted by 24 trainee officers of 2021 batch of Indian Ad ministrative Service and Indian Forest Ser vice (IFS) 2018 and 2019 batch.

On this occasion the Chief Secretary got the introduction of all the trainee officers. Most of the trainee officers were from the engineer ing stream. The Chief Secretary said that an

engineer is a solution finder. In any difficult situation an engineer finds a solution to that situation. Explaining

the difference between civil service and engi neer, he said that an en gineer is a ‘machine based solution’ and a

civil service officer is a ‘human based solu tion’.

He said that it must be seen in their deci

sions that they will not create any obstacle in the unity and integrity of the country. Apart from this, during the service, efforts should be made to bring change and ease in the life of the common man. It is the responsi bility of the system to create a positive envi ronment so that they do not have to struggle for the benefits they get from the government.

The 16 trainee IAS that met CS are Jagriti Awasthi, Ankita Jain, Sarthak Agarwal,

Shashwat Tripurari, Krishan Kumar Singh, Divya Mishra, Prakhar Kumar Singh, Jagat Sai Rallapalli, Mrinali Avi nash Joshi, Dr. Pooja Gupta, Dhrav Khadia, Kriti Raj, Shahid Ahmed, Kandarkar Ka malkishore Deshmukh, Harshita Singh and Himanshu Gupta.

Along with this, 8 IFS officers Prakhar Gupta, Sitanshu Pandey, Gau tam Rai, Vikas Yadav, Vikas Nayak, Jagdish R, Saurish Sahai and Dobriya Chintan Prab hubhai were present!

the “collective dream of universal healthcare”.

Referring to the gov ernment’s initiative in positioning India as a global hub for medical and wellness tourism through the ‘Heal in India’ initiative, the vice president called for redoubling efforts to utilise India’s poten tial to become a prime health tourism desti nation.

Recalling India’s expe rience with the Covid pandemic, Dhankhar

paid tributes to the healthcare workers and scientists for their con tributions and said In dia has not only vacci nated its citizens in a short period, but also exported vaccines to many nations. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the healthcare sector, In dia has registered a sig nificant decline in health indicators such as the ‘Infant Mortality Rate’ since 1990 and is on course to achieving the SDGs targets, he said.

STUBBLE BURNING

Haryana govt working on plan to buy paddy straw at MSP: Khattar

Chandigarh (PTI):

The Haryana govern ment is working on a plan to buy paddy straw at minimum support price in a bid to find a permanent solution to the issue of stubble burning, Chief Minister Mano har Lal Khattar said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a meeting chaired by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav on crop residue manage

ment and air pollu tion control in the Delhi-NCR region.

“Working in the di rection of finding a permanent solution for stubble manage ment, the state gov ernment is also mak ing a plan to buy pad dy straw at MSP. This will direct ly benefit the farmers along with giving them an option of earning additional in come,” Khattar said, as per an official state ment issued here.

Ahtesham Siddiqui

Rahul Gandhi waves to the supporters during the yatra, as Karnataka party chief DK Shivakumar and party leader KC Venugopal look on, at Harthikote, in Chitradurga on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

PATEL WAS NOT AVERSE TO J&K JOINING PAK: AICC GENERAL SECY

CONG ON BACCHE JODO CAMPAIGN...

EAM S Jaishankar spends time with the Australian Armed Forces as the defense and security ties in Canberra on Tuesday.

VP Jagdeep Dhankhar with Dr Sangeeta Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals, at an event in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar attends a meeting virtually held by Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav on air pollution in New Delhi. —PHOTO BY ANI

Trainee IAS officers posing with Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra.

—PHOTO

ANI

RUPEE RISES 5 PAISE TO CLOSE AT 82.35 AGAINST US DOLLAR

Startup sector sees 80% drop in Q3 funding

New Delhi (Agencies):

New Delhi: The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled 5 paise higher at 82.35 (provi sional) against the US dollar on Tuesday. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 82.35 against the green back. It witnessed an in tra-day high of 82.32 and a low of 82.41 dur ing the session. It finally ended at 82.35, up 5 paise from its previous close. On Monday, the rupee slipped 10 paise to finish at a fresh life time low of 82.40. —PTI

RELIANCE JIO

TOUCHES 600 MBPS 5G SPEED IN DELHI

The funding in Indian start ups nosedived a massive 80 per cent (year-on-year) in the third quarter (July-Sep tember period) this year, with the late-stage funding seeing the biggest fall, a re port showed on Tuesday.

Indian startups raised $3 billion in Q3, which was also 57 per cent lower as compared to the previous quarter (Q2) this year.

The average ticket size also witnessed a drop across all funding stages, with the late stage seeing the biggest fall of over 70 per cent, from $142 million in Q3 2021 to $42 million in Q3 2022.

This indicated that in vestors are not willing to make large investments

until economic conditions stabilise, reports market intelligence platform

Tracxn.

“India is currently expe riencing a funding slow down which is expected to continue for the next 12-18 months and the effects of

Nitin Gadkari launches Toyota’s pilot project on flex fuel-strong hybrid EV

Mumbai: Reliance Jio re corded almost 600 Mbps median download speed on its 5G network in Delhi while India’s overall 5G speed hit 500 Mbps as the country rolled out 5G services, a report showed on Tuesday. According to Ookla’s ‘Speedtest Intelli gence’ report, telecom operators have been test ing their networks and they witnessed a wide range of 5G download speeds -- from low dou ble-digit (16.27 Mbps) to 809.94 Mbps.

JSW ENERGY TO DEVELOP HYDEL PROJECT IN HP

New Delhi: Union minis ter Nitin Gadkari on Tues day launched Japanese car maker Toyota’s first-of-itskind pilot project on flex fuel-strong hybrid electric vehicle (FFV-SHEV) that can run on 100 per cent ethanol. During the launch, the Toyota Corolla Altis FFV-SHEV, which has been imported from Toyota Bra zil for the pilot project, was unveiled.

TO POWER EVAGE ELECTRIC VANS WITH ITS BATTERIES

the funding slowdown are expected to intensify going forward,” said Neha Singh, Co-Founder of Tracxn.

Executives across the world anticipate a reces sion in the near future and are making preparations to cut costs.

FUNDING SLOWDOWN

z Genomics sector saw maximum investor interest in Q3, receiving over $231 million in funding, which is higher than the total funding received in 2021.

z The 5 firms that raised funding rounds of over $100 million in the quarter were EarlySalary, 5ire, InsuranceDekho, OneCard, and BookMyShow, with the most active investors being Better Capital, Venture Catalysts and Surge.

z 109 startups closing their first funding round, three startups turning unicorns, 39 getting acquired, and two filing for their IPOs.

GEOSPATIAL ECONOMY TO CROSS ` 63,000

CRORE BY 2025: UNION MIN JITENDRA SINGH

New Delhi: India’s geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025, grow ing at a rate of 12.8%, and will provide employment to over 10 lakh people mainly through geospatial startups, said Union minister of state for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Tuesday. Addressing the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Con gress, the minister said in the current boom of technology-led startups, there are around 250 geospatial startups in India. To provide a fillip, the Indian government has provisioned for a Geospatial Incubator. Singh added that national organisa tions like Survey of India, Geo logical Survey of India, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping

Organisation, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Informatics Centre implemented several GIS-based pilot projects across a range of domains like waste resource management, forestry, urban planning, etc. to demonstrate the applications of Geospatial Technology. The minister said geospatial technology and Geographic Information System (GIS) is going to make a significant impact in the way India has been adopting this technology & moving ahead.

Closing Bell: Sensex, Nifty crash 1.5%

Bengaluru: Indian eq uity benchmarks crashed over 1.5 per cent on Tues day, marking the third straight day of losses, tak ing cues from global stocks heading towards 2-year lows on anxiety over quickly rising interest rates, an escalation in the Ukraine crisis, and China stepping up pandemic preparations weighing on sentiment.

The BSE Sensex index tumbled 843.79 points to end at 57,147.32, and the broader NSE Nifty index fell 257.45 points to close at 16,983.55.

3RD STRAIGHT DAY OF LOSSES

z The NSE Nifty not only dipped below 17,000-mark, but below its psychological 200DMA (Daily Moving Average) placed at 16,986, yet again. The Nifty 50 finally settled at 16,984 - down 258 points

z The Sensex ended with a heavy loss of 844 points at 57,147. BSE benchmark index has now shed 1,075 points in last 3 straight trading sessions.

z Apart from the BSE IT index, which declined 2%, the Consumer Durables, Metal & Realty were the major losers

IT, REALTY, METALS

WERE WORST HIT

New Delhi: JSW Energy on Tuesday said its arm JSW Neo Energy has re ceived a letter of intent from the Himachal Pradesh government for developing the 126 MW Chhatru hydro power plant. “JSW Neo Energy Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JSW Ener gy Limited, has received a Letter of Intent (LoI) from the Government of Himachal Pradesh for al lotment of 126 MW Chhatru Hydro Electric Power Plant (HEP) on BOOT basis, with an op erational life of 40 years,” the company said in a statement. —PTI

NISSAN TO SELL ITS RUSSIA ASSETS TO RUSSIAN GOVT

Speaking on the occa sion, Union Road Trans port minister Nitin Gad kari said pollution is a big concern in India and the transport sector is contrib uting to pollution.

“Therefore, there is a need to encourage use of electric vehicles and vehi cles that run on biofuels like ethanol and metha nol,” he added.

Besides Gadkari, union ministers Mahendra Nath Pandey, Bhupinder Yadav and senior officials of Toy ota Kirloskar Motor were present at the event.

New Delhi: Toshiba India on Tuesday signed a deal with In dian EV startup EVage to supply its SCiB rechargeable lithium-ion cells to power the next 10,000 EVage electric commercial vehi cles. With this agreement, EVage has become the first company in the world to use Toshiba’s SCiB technology for delivery vans. EVage is a key supplier of electric vans to global companies like Amazon and India’s largest logistics company, Delhivery, among others.

BYD REVEALS ATTO THREE ELECTRIC SUV

New Delhi: Warren Buffetbacked Chinese electric carmaker BYD unveiled its first passenger car in India, an elec tric sport-utility vehicle (SUV), marking its entry into the main stream market amid a broader global expansion. BYD, which already sells electric buses and electric vehicles (EVs) for corporate fleets in India. Book ings for the BYD Atto 3 electric SUV are open in the country. Deliveries, the company says, will begin in January 2023.

DRASTIC FALL IN TOFFEE SALES

IndusInd Bank, Nestle India, Tata Steel, Tech Ma hindra, Infosys, Dr. Red dy’s, Titan, and Reliance Industries were the major laggards in the 30-share

Sensex pack. Axis Bank and Asian Paints, on the other hand, saw gains.

Following a fourth con secutive decrease in US stocks, shares fell in Asia,

India, UAE offer numerous prospects for investments

New Delhi (PTI): Com merce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday cochaired the 10th meeting of the UAE-India joint task force on investments in Mumbai, along with Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Discussions took place on ways of enhancing bilat eral investments in key sec tors like food security, man ufacturing, infrastructure, energy & technology. The momentum between India and the UAE is exceptional,

with numerous prospects for collaboration & rising investments in vital fields like technology and infra structure, Union Minister Goyal has said. The two delegations reviewed the status of the negotiations of the India-UAE Bilateral Investment Treaty.

How UPI spelling doom for candy business

First India Bureau

Moscow: Japanese au tomaker Nissan will sell its Russian assets -- in cluding a factory in Saint Petersburg -- to the Rus sian government, the min istry of industry and trade in Moscow said on Tues day. The announcement comes after Nissan sus pended production at the plant in Russia’s second city in March, shortly after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine. No financial de tails of the transaction were provided by either side on Tuesday.

New Delhi: Remember the time when you used to ask for the remaining change amount from the shopkeep er and got candies instead at a shop. This gesture by shopkeepers was often frus trating. But now, this prac tice of giving away candies instead of the remaining change account became prevalent at all shops.

Abhishek Patil, growth leader in Cred and Dunzo and founder at GrowthX, said that with the increas ing usage of UPI, there is no scope for chuttas. Before

UPIs CROSSED MILESTONE

and the dollar rose sharply amid ongoing worries that rising interest rates and geopolitical threats will hamper global economic growth.

Among individual stocks, Infosys was down 2.5 per cent. Shares of Tata Con sultancy Services (TCS) declined up to 2 per cent after the company clocked 8 per cent net profit in Q2FY23. Among other IT stocks, Tech Mahindra too shed 2.5 per cent. HCL Technologies and Wipro too declined 2 per cent each ahead of their Q2 re sults. IndusInd Bank, down 3.7 per cent, was the major per centage loser among the Sensex 30. Nestle India, Tata Steel, Dr.Reddy’s, Titan, Reliance Industries, Maruti, and Hindustan Unilever were the other major losers along with the Consumer durables, realty indices were - down 2-3 per cent each.

OIL FALLS OVER 2% ON GLOBAL RECESSION & CHINA COVID FEARS

New Delhi (PTI): Oil slid more than 2% on Tuesday, extending losses of nearly 2 per cent in the previous session, as re cession fears and a flare-up in COVID-19 cases in China raised concern over global demand. World Bank President David Malpass & IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned of a growing risk of global reces sion and said that inflation remains a continuing problem.

INDIA A KEY AVIATION MARKET; AIR TRAVEL DEMAND TO BE ROBUST

New Delhi: India is a key avia tion market for the Asia Pacific region as well as the rest of the world and is expected to see robust air travel demand, global airlines’ grouping IATA said on Tuesday amid the country’s domestic air passenger traffic inching to wards pre-COVID levels. After being hit by the pandemic, the Indian aviation sector is on the recovery path and airlines are also ramping up their staff.

NPCI JOINS HANDS WITH WORLDLINE TO FACILITATE UPI PAYMENTS IN EUROPE

New Delhi (PTI): Those visiting Europe will be able to make pay ments through UPI as the NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has entered into a partnership with European payment services facilitator Worldline. NIPL is the global arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The partnership between NIPL and Worldline is aimed at ex panding acceptance of Indian payment means across Europe, as per joint release issued on Tuesday. Under the partnership, Worldline’s QR code-based mecha nism will allow merchants’ Point-of-Sale (PoS) systems in Europe to accept UPI payments from Indians using their mobile phones.

TELECOM DEPT TO MEET MOBILE HANDSET MAKERS

New Delhi: With 5G services having been launched in the country, the government has convened a meeting of handset man ufacturers and telecom ser vice providers on Wednesday to ensure a smooth transition towards the new technology.

JSW CEMENT TO INVEST OVER RS 3,200 CRORE IN NEW PLANTS

thereby

Though 5G has been unveiled, mobile handsets in India are not yet compatible with the new technology and their soft wares need to be upgraded.

New Delhi: JSW Cement is planning to invest over Rs 3,200 crore to establish an in tegrated green field cement manufacturing facility in Mad hya Pradesh and a split grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh. The combined cement capacity of these units will be 5 million tonnes per annum.

The announcement comes a day after the company picked up India Cements’ Madhya Pradesh unit for Rs 477 crore.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari drives India’s first Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) during its launch, in New Delhi on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Kashmiri separatist Altaf Shah dies ‘as a prisoner’

Srinagar (Agencies):

Jailed Kashmiri separa

tist Altaf Ahmad Shah has died at All India In stitute of Medical Sci ences in Delhi. He was in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for last five years after be ing arrested on charges of funding terrorism.

After initially being ad mitted to RML Hospital in Delhi, he’d been shift ed to AIIMS a few days ago on court orders af ter her family said he had renal cancer.

“Abu breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner,” tweeted his daughter Ruwa Shah. She tweeted the Quranic verse recited at the time of bad news, in Arabic: “Inna lillahi wa inna il ayhi raji’un (‘Surely, we belong to Allah and ver ily to Him do we re turn’).” Altaf Shah, 66, was a son-in- law and close aide of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, one of Kashmir’s top separa tists, who died on Sep tember 1 last year.

The family has al leged that Altaf Shah was not given the medi cal help he needed for cancer. He was shifted to AIIMS only after the family went to the Delhi High Court. Altaf Shah had been arrested as part of a major crack

‘CRIMINALS FELICITATED BUT NO BAIL FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS EVEN IN SICKNESS’

Srinagar (PTI): PDP

chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said while criminals and rap ists are released and felicitated, political prisoners or those against whom there are no solid cases are not released on bail even on health grounds.Her remarks came after separatist leader Altaf Shah, the son-in-law of late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, died of cancer at the AIIMS early Tuesday, days after he was taken

down on separatists by the National Investiga tion Agency. He’s the third separatist to have died in jail in the last

Danish Ambassador Swain calls on UP CM Adityanath

to the hospital from the Tihar Jail on the orders of the Delhi High Court.“This is not just about Altaf Shah whose family is waiting for his dead body since morning at AIIMS.

Eighty-year-old Stan Swamy did not get bail and died in jail. There are others like Siddique Kappan, activists, politi cal prisoners, who are languishing in jails and are not well, especially people from J-K and separatists,” Mehbooba told reporters.

two years. In May last year, Mohammad Ashraf Khan ‘Sehrai’, who was jailed in Jam mu, died at a hospital.

DEATH

Death toll in Durga Puja pandal fire in UP’s Bhadohi climbs to 14

Bhadohi (PTI): The death toll in the fire in cident at a Durga Puja Pandal here reached 14 on Tuesday with two more people succumb ing to burn injuries at a Varanasi hospital, a senior official said. Dis trict Magistrate Gaurang Rathi said Shi vangi Gautam (18) and Nitya (1) died during treatment in Varanasi.

CANAL ROW

Haryana CM ML Khattar to meet his Punjab counterpart

Lucknow: Denmark’s Ambassador to India

Freddy Swain on Mon day called on Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adity anth and expressed his country’s desire to con nect with the ‘Namami Gange Project’ in Vara nasi and other districts, the statement said.

Adityanath informed the Ambassador about the ‘UP Global Investors Summit’ to be held in 2023 and said it will be a good opportunity for Danish entrepreneurs,

it said. Swain appreci ated the investmentfriendly environment created in UP under the leadership of Adity anath and congratulat ed him for the achieve ments of the state in various fields.

He said Denmark would actively partici pate in the ‘UP Global Investors Summit’ and expressed the desire of his country to connect with ‘Namami Gange Project’ in Varanasi & other districts, it said.

He was chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist outfit found ed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Earlier, a Jamaat-e-Islami separa tist booked under the Public Safety Act died in a jail in UP.

Over the past few days, Altaf Shah’s daughter Ruwa Shah had posted a series of tweets about her fa ther’s deteriorating con dition. She had appealed to Prime Minister Nar endra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to release him on health grounds, so that he could “die a free man”.

“Priyal (16) and Priti (16), who were injured in the fire, died on Sun day,” Rathi said, adding that 10 other people lost their lives in the fire that broke out on Octo ber 2 in Nathua village due to overheating of a halogen light.

As per officials, among those killed, Jaya Devi (45), Naveen (10), Seema Bind (25), Harshwardhan (8) and Priyal were of the same family. The other people who died are Ankush Soni (12), Arti Devi (48), Shivpujan (70), Ram Mu rat (65), Manju Devi (40) and Ashok Yadav(35).

At least 68 people in jured in the fire are un dergoing treatment at seven hospitals in Bhadohi, Varanasi and Prayagraj, and the con dition of some of them are stated to be serious, the DM said.

Chandigarh (PTI):

Haryana Chief Minis ter Manohar Lal Khattar and his Pun jab counterpart Bhag want Mann will meet to discuss the SutlejYamuna Link (SYL) canal issue on Octo ber 14.

The discussion be tween the two chief ministers has been scheduled after the Supreme Court had recently nudged them to meet and try to find an amicable solution.

We will definitely try to find a way to resolve the issue, Khattar told report ers here on Tuesday. Last month, he had said water from the SYL was crucial for Haryana.

“On one hand, we are not getting this

DU forms committee to resolve seat allocation, admission-related issues

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi University on Tuesday constituted a nine-mem ber committee to resolve issues related to seat al location and admission to undergraduate and postgraduate pro grammes. In a notifica tion, Registrar Vikas Gupta said the commit tee, headed by Prof Ran jeet Behra of the De partment of Sanskrit, has been formed for the smooth conduct of the admission process at the Delhi University (DU).

The varsity began the admission process for undergraduate courses for the academic year 2022-23 last month.

Admission through the Common Seat Allo cation System is being conducted in three phases -- submission of

the CSAS-2022 applica tion form, selection of programmes and filling of preferences, and seat

allocation & admission.

for admission to Under graduate and Postgrad uate programmes has been constituted with the faculty members for the Academic Session 2022-23 for smooth con duct of admission pro cess of the University,” the notification said.

Besides Behra, the committee also includes Bhupesh Rathore, Law Centre-II; Ruchika Ram akrishnan, Shyam Lal College; Manju Kumari Saroj, Gargi College; Jasmeet Kaur, Mata Sundri College; M. Khy othonglo Humtsoe, Cluster Innovation Centre; Renu Yadav, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College; Laishram Rajender Ku mar Singh, ACBR; and Mahender Kumar-Mee na, Shivaji College.

Wadali Brothers, Prahlad Tipania to perform in Dehradun

MULTIPLE ARTISTS

New Delhi (PTI): Lead ing Indian singers Suresh Wadkar, Wadali Brothers, Prahlad Singh Tipania, and Osman Mir are among the artists performing at the ongo ing 26th edition of ‘Vira sat Arts and Heritage Festival’ in Dehradun.

The 15-day festival, or ganised by the Rural En trepreneurship for Art and Cultural Heritage (REACH), opened on Oc tober 9. Known as ‘AfroAsia’s biggest heritage & folklife’ gala, Virasat Arts and Heritage Festi

val is touted to be a plat form for people to close ly experience art, cul ture and music by the renowned classical mu sic and dance maestros and master craftsmen.

“Each passing year, at Virasat we work to wards introducing and promoting the best of the traditional artwork and cultural treasures that adorned many re gions of the nation.

“We are convinced that Virasat 2022 will be as successful as the past years as it promises to

enchant you and take you on yet another memorable musical and cultural adventure,” said RK Singh, founder and general secretary

of REACH, in a state ment. The one-stopshop for multicultural activities, the festival besides folk music and Bollywood-style perfor

festival, art exhibition, musicals, food and her itage walk denotes a tra ditional value attached to the Indian heritage,” said the organisers.

OFFICIALLEVEL TALKS

The counsel for Punjab had last month told a bench headed by Justice S K Kaul that the state gov ernment was very keen to resolve the issue amicably.

Though officiallevel talks between the two states are on, the Centre has been insisting on meetings between the two chief ministers.

water, while on the other, Delhi is de manding more water from us. Fixing a deadline to resolve this issue at the earli est has become very

essential,” he had said.In Punjab, oppo sition parties had re cently asked Mann to stand up for the state’s cause over the issue.

Water sharing from the SYL canal has been a bone of con tention between the two states for several decades. Punjab has been demanding a re assessment of the Ravi-Beas river wa ters’ volume while Haryana has been seeking completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre-feet of the river waters.

The Centre had on September 6 in formed the Supreme Court that the Punjab government was “not cooperating” in re solving the dispute.

Stubble burning: Over 700 farm fires recorded in Punjab

mances will also show case a crafts village and an art fair. It will also host heritage walks and serve multiple cuisine foods to the visitors.

“Each element of the

Other artists partici pating in the festival in clude Aswini Bhide, Kumresh, Deboshri Bh attacharya, Nirbhay Saxena, Richa Sharma and Sujata Nair. The cul tural extravaganza will conclude at BR Ambed kar Stadium with a per formance of Delhibased Jazz group ‘Level Nine’ on October 23.

Chandigarh: Punjab has recorded more than 700 farm fires since Sep tember 15 despite the state authorities mak ing several efforts to curb stubble burning.

As per data from the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, the state witnessed four farm fire incidents -two in Amritsar and one each in Ludhiana and Kapurthala -- today.

From September 15 till October 10, 2022, a total of 718 farm fires were recorded, accord ing to the data. During the same period in 2020 and 2021, the state had witnessed 244 and 150 farm fires, respectively.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons be hind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in Delhi in October and November. As the win dow for rabi crop wheat is very short after pad dy harvest, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off crop residue. Punjab gener ates around 180 lakh

tonnes of paddy straw annually.

Farm fires have con tinued in Punjab de spite the state govern ment assuring more crop residue manage ment machines and launching massive awareness programmes against stubble burn ing. Stubble burning incidents are expected to rise in the coming days as paddy harvest ing got delayed by at least ten days due to rains last month.

Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal

PHOTO

Stubble burning incidents are expected to rise as paddy harvesting got delayed due to rains last month.

Kashmiri separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah with his daughter, journalist Ruwa Shah.

“A Central Admission Grievance Redressal Committee (CAGRC)

BEYOND THE TREND: RUFFLES

SKIRTS,

FLOUNCE FASHION

one of the most historically signifi cant summer fads.

decorative frill of lace or gathered ornamenta tion of fabric adds the beautiful charm of clothing, often used to trim or beautify the wrist or neck. These beautiful frills of shirts and dresses are commonly called Ruffles, these ruffle fashions are often inspired by vin tage fashion mostly from the 20’s dressing sense. When Britishers used to carry these frills in full fashion and ele gance. One such example is Henry VIII, when he wore beautiful lace ruffles with

In the 15th century, ruffles first seemed at the drawstring neck lines of full chemis es. They later ex panded into the independently built ruff of the 16th cen tury. Bloat ed, fluffy ruffles may seem feminine, thing from tory can be traced back to the 15th century, when soldiers in Ger many would cut the sleeves of their uniforms to create a ruf fled effect that would later come to repre sent their re turn from bat tle. Later, Kings, indigenous women from Oaxaca, presi dents, and later fa mous people like Jerry Seinfeld and Rihanna adopted the detailing of this clothing style and donned the fashion world. Ruf fles are melodramat ic, bridging costume design and high fashion to become

In today’s fashion world, this beautiful modulation of clothes is called flounce. This specific kind of fabric manipulation produces a comparable appearance while using less volume. The word was first known as fronce or frounce, because of this preparation technique. By cutting a curved ribbon of textile and hooking the inner or shorter edge to the garment, a wavy look can be created without gathers or pleats. These beautiful wave stripes can be deepened by different tech niques and at different parts of the attire.

The Human Spirit

the human spirit within us and are the one factor that will sepa rate us, from the rest of this, there is absolutely no doubt. For it is truly the stuff we’re made of on the inside, that will be our making or our undoing.

e are told and taught, that there is nothing greater than the pow er of the Human Spirit. We tend to dis miss this as yet an other ‘lecture’ from the grown-ups. Yet, every now and again, when we encounter an incident that defies all log ic, it quells any doubts or ques tions, that it is indeed, the allconquering human spirit, that is one of the world’s great saviours.

Only recently, the world was amazed when a group of Thai school students along with their soccer coach were found alive inside a cave inundated by a flood, a full nine days after be ing trapped within! How did they survive? How did they find the courage and the gumption to defy the odds that were so heavily stacked against them? Was it an indefinable higher power? Was it destiny? Luck? Or their sheer will to live? I sus pect it was the last option.

Not unlike Phoenix who rose from the Ashes, the Human Spirit, self-belief and unwaver ing faith in oneself, make an individual the best possible ver sion of himself or herself. In life, countless circumstances from the time we are young stu dents through to when we’re elderly will test this reserve of

Let us take a prevalent sce nario that we face as students – bullying. When that tall, enor mous, insurmountable lad rags us, pokes fun at us, humiliates us, and reduces us to a tiny in significant spec; it is the human spirit within us that comes to the fore and makes us stand up to this unsavoury denuncia tion. It is our absolute sense of self-preservation, our most pri mal need for respect, that makes us disregard various other seemingly overpowering factors and gives us strength, courage, conviction and the guts to stand our ground.

Each time we are in a situa tion where it seems like failure is inevitable – from a modest lit tle speech we have to deliver at

school to our important exami nations, to that first splash as a non-swimmer in the apparently oceanic pool, to the first day at college as a ‘fresher’; ALL of it, and how we cope, handle, and emerge victorious, comes down to the human spirit that resides within us.

So how do we know it's there?

Running through our veins. Lurking in our systems. Selfbelief. The knowledge that the worst outcome of most situa tions will be ‘no’, nothing worse. That if we don’t believe that it is within our grasp, we would have never tried and live to re gret it. Faith that at the most unexpected, inopportune, and

desperate of times, it is this in tangible power inside us that will come to our aid. Save us, secure us, resurrect us.

Students today are faced with insurmountable challenges.

The pressures of incredibly un realistic marks and grades. The peer expectations of being ‘cool’ and relevant. The societal sup

positions of vocational, sexual, and various other ‘traditional’ lines are to be followed. This kind of environment has made it extremely difficult for young students to undertake any kind of truthful self-discovery, and follow through with the conver sion of those unearthed pas sions into lifelong pursuits. I would hedge my bets with that same ‘will’ & human spirit be ing the only recourse and anti dote to the myriad of burdens that distract and dissuade young children from finding and following their real calling.

In simple terms, when the hu man spirit manifests in a young ster as courage, conviction and confidence; only then can that individual combat the barrage of predetermined, forecasted and anticipated choices that are often consciously, and almost regularly unconsciously, thrust upon a young individual. Selfbelief and strong will then, are essentials for young students to embody.

That is the ONLY thing that the twelve young kids captured in that deadly cave had to hold on to. Else, how do you explain their survival?

ARIES

MAR 21 - APR 20

You are very generous by nature and also you are the backbone of your family. Today is a favourable day for business. You may postpone your study plans. You are very fortunate to have a great friend circle. Be careful of the words that come out of your mouth.

LEO

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

You love to live close to your family. Best day to buy gold and silver or any precious metal for investment sake. You are a child at heart and never let this child die. You have a big heart and you always help someone if you can. Video gathering is possible as you miss your circle.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV 23 - DEC 22

Your spouse is someone who can do anything for your happiness. You are opportunist and this will make you successful one day. There may be delays in property possession and it won’t effect you. You are happy spending whole day at home. Help your mothers at home today.

TAURUS

APR 21 - MAY 20

You need a break from day to tensions and the way to cope up

VIRGO

AUG

CAPRICORN

Scrumptious

GEMINI

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

Your spouse may make you spend more than you expected. Fantastic day for investing money in stock market as you can make fortune. You need help on academic front and you should not shy away from asking. You miss your parents a lot and somewhere fear to loose them.

LIBRA

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

Visit a doctor if you have any doubts about your health. Don’t attack stress even if you don’t have any. Let go of things that are not in your control. You want to have your own house and you will work hard to make your dream come true. Overall a good day.

AQUARIUS

what

JAN 21 - FEB 19 You will feel amorous towards your wife. This is the best time try something new with life give yourself a new purpose. Work on your limitations, there can be no better time than this. You have more opposite sex friends than the same and you may be judged sometimes but don’t care.

CANCER

-

JUNE

care about you lover but somehow hesitate in expressing that care. Don’t make friends for money and status rather make friends who will stick with

forever. On social front, you may have to spend some extra money in buying gifts for someone for some specific occasion.

SCORPIO

PISCES

FEB20

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

TOP 5 ICONIC SONGS OF THE ‘SHAHENSHAH’

Amitabh Bachchan is celebrating his 80th birthday. The entire nation along with Bollywood celebrities have joined the celebration and are sharing wishes for the actor on social media. It is well known that Amitabh Bachchan is known for his performance. We have seen many unforgettable performances in his decade-long career. But his films and songs were equally popular. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, here are 5 iconic songs of the superstar.

DEKHA EK KHAWAB

TOH FROM SILSILA

Right from song to film, everything was very popular at that time. It stars Rekha, Jaya Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role. Well, after this film Amitabh and Rekha never shared the screen again. But their song Dekha Ek Khawab Toh is still very popular.

KHAIKE PAN BANARASWALA FROM DON

The song neither film needs an introduction. It is an extremely popular film that still makes fans go gaga. Released in 1978, the film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Pran in lead roles. Amitabh Bachchan has been seen in a double role. The song is sung by Kishore Kumar. In Mumbai, many cinema halls are replaying Amitabh Bachchan’s films to celebrate his birthday. Videos of fans dancing to his Don songs have gone viral.

KE PAG GHUNGAROO BAANDH FROM NAMAK HALAAL

Released in 1982, it stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Smita Patil, Parveen Babi, Waheeda Rehman, Om Prakash, Ranjeet and Satyen Kappu in pivotal roles. The film song Ke Pag Ghunga roo Baandh was extremely popular. Kishore Kumar has once again sung this song for Amitabh Bachchan.

RANG BARSE FROM SILSILA

Holi is incomplete with this song. The lyrics were by poet Harivansh Rai Bach chan and is believed to be based on a traditional bhajan by 15th-century mystic poet 'Meera.' The song was featured in a film sequence showing a Holi celebration with the film's cast.

MERE AANGNE MEIN FROM LAAWARIS

Laawaris became popular for song "Mere Angene Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai". The lyrics pay tribute to every type of wife, be they fat, tall, short, dark, or fair-skinned. Laawaris starred Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, and Amjad Khan in lead roles.

MANTRA’

Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon is one of the most versatile actresses in the Bollywood film industry.

In 2021, she rose to fame after her film Mimi became a massive hit at the box office, wherein she received several accolades for being the Best Actress of the year. Hoping to continue that streak of momentum, Kriti will next be seen in the film Adipu rush alongside actors Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan in the lead roles.

Just like many others, Kriti Sanon too acknowledges the root cause of the problems re

Sparts, the actress oozed a massive royal vibe. Our obsession with the hot picks of the season has made us overlook gowns. These are very much a part of the glamourous fashion system still proves Shrad dha Kapoor. Gowns can show you how to lean into a pretty Autumn. So here's what to begin with. It's Shraddha-approved, we know we don't have to go the extra mile to describe the A-Z attributes of a gown. Ask for glamour and length,

SARA-VICKY'S FUN MODE ON

Sara Ali Khan is loved by the au dience for both her onscreen performances, as well as her offscreen personality.

Sara often keeps her followers entertained on social media with her signature ‘knockknock’ jokes and posts with hilarious rhyming captions. The Atrangi Re actress’s interviews also have an equally big fan following. Interest ingly, Sara Ali Khan has now once again penned down some rhyming lines for her followers, and this time, her inspi ration is her co-star, Vicky Kaushal.

Recently, Sara met Vicky, who is her costar in the upcoming Laxman Utekar directo rial, on the flight. She shared a picture with

you and your lovely height @vickykaush al09. While I sit with my seat belt tight I wish I could be like @Ab hishek_As_It_Is who is always right. Now time for Udaan at an Uuchi height,” reads Sara Ali Khan’s Instagram story.

Girl's day out!

ctress Kareena Ka poor Khan is cur rently busy shoot ing for her next film. She recently jetted off to London with her son Jeh Ali Khan. Amid her shooting schedules, the actress was seen having a gala time with her girl gang. Lovebirds Arjun Ka poor and Malaika Arora are also in London cur rently as the former is busy shooting for his film

took to Instagram and offered a glimpse of her outing with the girls. She shared the picture with girls and wrote, "Sundays done right… girlfriends and my babies! Missed my @therealkarismaka poor and @amuaro raofficial." The girls took over the streets of London in style!

and style

atrina's file diaries are too secured with pant suits. Stripes, sequins, you name it and there's an example out there. Straight out of her today's OOTD hand book, we saw the 39-year-old in a co-ordinated pantsuit. She's been the girl with a soft spot for floral prints, all col ours, all kinds. And now, it is your turn to meet a new attire. It's nev er been easier to colour up and revisit a peak boss-edgy

While the rest of the world continues to squeeze in sarees for events from morning to night, you shift your style's gear and

try a pantsuit for a party, lunch, or meeting. This outfit is such a star with red, pink, green, and black hues looking like a pretty pleaser. And as Katrina weighed in with this reference, we're go ing for it, for the print, for the fit, and for the entire appeal.

Ami Patel chose an Alice + Ol ivia by Stacey Bendet for Katri na which featured a Breann slim-cut, long-fitted, and singlebreasted blazer with shoulder pads, lapels, and pockets.

Kriti Sanon

Kareena Kapoor

Natasha’s post...

Katrina Kaif

Shraddha Kapoor

Sara Ali Khan

Her story...

Amitabh Bachchan

CITY FIRST

he much-awaited grand finale of TISKA Miss & Mrs was organised by Swati Dixit and Prashant Choudhary at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Gurgaon on Sunday. Divas from various states across the country partici pated in the glamorous event and set the ramp on fire with their talent.

The esteemed jury panel in cluded renowned celebrity Aditi Govitrikar, Prashant Chaudhary, Sachin

Khurana, Rohit Dhingra, Am bika Magotra, Anjali Sahni, Payal Singh and Swarina Singh.

GO FORTH BE FABULOUS & T

The organisers of the show Prashant Chaudhary and Swati Dixit told that the main aim to organise the event was to pro vide a platform to the beau ties where they can show case their talents and create an identity for themselves. Dr Manasa Marya bagged the winner title in the Miss category. In the Mrs Platinum category, Parul S Ghanghas bagged the winner title whereas Shalini Nair was crowned the winner title in the Mrs Gold category.

RAAHEIN: DIGITAL MUSIC PLATFORM

CITY FIRST

Shefali Khanna organised RAAHEIN showcasing her ideas, concepts and thoughts on the live platform through her soul-fitted experience at Sthal Marg, Block C, Defence Colony on Tuesday. Raahein is a digital music platform for artists who are look ing for opportunities to show their talent.

The esteemed guests who witnessed the event were Shovana Narayan, Aarti Zaveri, Gunjan Goela, Madhvi Advani, Deepmala Mohan, and Yousuf Khan Nizami (Nizami brothers).

It was a medium to create a connection be tween heirlooms and

lineage to make a mean ingful global cultural experiential exchange. It was a new perspective beyond body fitted to soul fitted.

Shefali Khanna with her creative thinkers Shahbaz Ali and Master Naeem Noor presented beautiful stoles to the esteemed guests with their names designed on them. Sufi and folk artisans were on a jour ney of gaining a new

experiential space for creators, musicians, and artisans. The music and instruments were so mesmerizing that the evening was phenome nal and peaceful. She fali is indebted to giving a stage to all those art ists who have suffered during the pandemic and letting them come to an international plat form with the beauty of Indian Music and Tra ditional Culture.

100 Years of Bollywood Music

CITY FIRST

G unjan Founda tion celebrated 100 years of Bollywood Mu sic at Kamani Audito rium, Copernicus Marg on Tuesday. Su shma Singhvi, found er of Gunjan Founda tion welcomed the guests and talked about the achieve ments of the organisa tion. Richa Anirudh was the host of the show. The show wit

nessed the golden year’s songs of the Artist K.L. Saigal fol lowed by mesmerising dance performances. The audience was en thralled by the perfor mances of several eminent singers in cluding Jitendra Ab hyankar, Chaitanya Kulkarni, Kunal Phadke, Abhishek Havaragi, Upendra In glikar, Sagar Khambe, Tejas Deodhar, Riya Desai, Aishwarya Kale, Deepika Datar

and Krisha Pandit. The show was graced by the presence of Jour nalist Nalini Singh, Padmashri Shovana Narayan, Padmashri Indian Broadcasting Journalist and Writer Alok Mehta, the host of the show, radio jour nalist at 92.7 Big FM Richa Anirudh, Pho tographer Avinash Pasricha and his wife Santosh, Art Collector Rama Thakur.

Sushma Singhvi, Founder of Gunjan

Foundation said," Foundation is the combined effort of all the dreams of our students to leave a mark in society. Their dreams are our hopes to make every section of our society contrib ute equally to our na tion. We encourage the underprivileged children to be self-de pendent and to be able to empower them selves with the light of education for a better future.”

The Creative Concourse

CITY FIRST

The creative Con course’ an art Exhibition was organised by Treasure Art Gallery and Empowerment Ind recently in the city. The beautiful and dynamic showcases of the art works were exhibited by artists from Costa Rica, Guatemala, India, Malaysia, Srilanka, and Thailand. The ex hibition was a part of the Project “Artists for Cultural diversity”, conceptualized by Em powerment Ind. “We are very delighted at the opportunity to in troduce the amazing artists of these fellow nations along with our own exemplary artists. It’s indeed a pleasure to showcase these ideas which are a revolution in their own way”, said Tina Chandroji, Direc

tor of Treasure Art Gallery.

The Dignitaries pre sent to cherish these moments together and enhance the beauty of the exhibition were Amizal Fadzli Rajali, Pattarat Hongtong Am bassador Guatemala, Thomas Gomez Escobe do, Milinda Moragoda Ambassador DG ICCR and Kumar Tuhin.

Jagdeesh Chandra was greeted by the entertainment team of the Bharat24 channel at Hotel Taj Mansingh, New Delhi on Tuesday. Kshama Tripathi, Manit Aggarwal, Ankit Singh Tomar and Poonam Adhikari were also present on the occasion.

Dr Aishwarya, Lopa Mudra, Dr Nayya Saini, Parul Ghanghas, Manasa Maria, Shalini Nair, Rishika Mistry, Nisha Tiwari, Dr Simran Shivhare, Prashant and Swati

Prashant and Swati Shubham and Ritika Jain

Payal Singh Anjali

Swarina Singh Sachin Khurana Kirti

Aditi Govitrikar

Anuja, Priya and Aakanksha

Shefali Khanna

Madhvi, Shovana and Herbert Shefali, Gunjan and Girish

Sonal Bedi Lipika Sud

Noman Husain and Jamal Husain

Jagdeesh Chandra with (L-R) Poonam Adhikari, Ankit Singh Tomar, Manit Aggarwal and Kshama Tripathi

Nalini Singh

Shovana Narayan and Sushma Singhvi

Avinash Pasricha and Santosh

Kumar Vikas Saxena and Pattratt Hongtong

Tina Chandroji and Thomas Gomez Escobedo Asit Kumar Pattnaik and Niren Sen Gupta

Suresh Goyal

Jagdish Chandra and Shobha Broota

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN