First India-Mumbai Edition-19th November 2022

MODI MANTRA ON TACKLING TERRORISM

‘STAND UNITED, ISOLATE PERPETRATORS, CUT FINANCES’

Nations

New Delhi: Prime Min ister Narendra Modi, ad dressing the issue of ter rorism and terror fi nancing, said on Friday that there is an urgent need to tackle the prob lem of terror funding in all its dimensions. The Prime Minister was speaking at the third ‘No Money for Terror’ (NMFT) Ministerial Conference on Counter Terrorism Financing, held in New Delhi. PM Modi said further that the long-term impact of terrorism is particularly hard on the poor and on the local economy, add ing: “Be it tourism or trade, nobody likes an area that is constantly under threat. And due to this, the livelihoods of people are taken away. It is all the more important that we strike at the root of terror financing.” It is well known that terror ist organisations get money through several sources, the Prime Min

ister said, as he spoke at length about the sources in details.

“One source is state support. Certain coun tries support terrorism as part of their foreign

policy. They offer politi cal, ideological and fi nancial support to them,” he said and pointed at the role of technology for terror fi nancing and recruit

allow extremists to misuse system Terrorism should not be linked to any religion: Amit Shah

New Delhi: India recog nises that the threat of terrorism “cannot and should not” be linked to any religion, nationality or group, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday.

INDIA’S FIRST PRIVATE

ROCKET

VIKRAM-S

ment. He said “Chal lenges from dark net, private currencies are emerging. There is a need for understanding of new finance technolo gies.”

Defamation case against Rahul in Thane, courtesy Shinde ‘gang’!

Thane: The police in Maharashtra’s Thane have registered a case of defamation against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his “deroga tory” remarks against freedom fighter VD Sa varkar. The first infor mation report (FIR) or police case against Ra hul Gandhi was regis tered at Thane Nagar police station.

“The case was filed based on the complaint lodged by Vandana Dongre, a functionary of the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The complain ant alleged that Rahul Gandhi hurt the senti ments of citizens.

Addressing a session at the third ‘No Money for Terror Ministerial’ Conference he said ter rorism is, undoubtedly, the most serious threat to global peace and secu rity but financing of ter ror is “more dangerous”. “Terrorists are constant ly finding new ways to carry out violence, radi calise youth and raise financial resources. Ad ditionally, there is an in crease in the use of vir tual assets like crypto currency. We need to

understand the patterns of these darknet activi ties and find their solu tions,” Shah said. The home minister said the transformation of ter rorism from ‘Dynamite to Metaverse’ and ‘AK-47 to Virtual Assets’ is a matter of concern.

BUILT BY SKYROOT AEROSPACE LIFTS OFF FROM SRIHARIKOTA

ndia’s

sector. In a

BJP’s ‘carpet bombing’ in Gujarat as Nadda, Union ministers, 4 CMs attack Rahul, Oppn!

LOCALS FROM SAVARKAR’S VILLAGE PROTEST AGAINST RAGA

Nashik: Residents of Na shik’s Bhagur, the birthplace of VD Savarkar, observed a shutdown in protest over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks. Es tablishments, barring those indulging in essential ser vices, were shut for the day on the call of the BJP, which was supported by Balasa hebanchi Shiv Sena and the MNS. Residents of the area shouted slogans against Gandhi.”Rahul Gandhi keeps insulting Swatantrayaveer Savarkar and he must apologise. We will not allow entry to any member of the Gandhi family into Bhagur till he apologises,” said Prasad Adke, BJP mandal president for Deolali Camp-Bhagur.

Rahul's comments may cause strife in MVA, warns Uddhav-led Sena; Cong says it won't

Mumbai/Shegaon: The Uddhav Thackerayled faction of the Shiv Sena on Friday warned that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “un warranted” comments on Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar can affect the unity of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) al liance.

Earlier in the day, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh defend ed Rahul Gandhi, say ing that he did not tar

get the Hindutva ideo logue but only high lighted a “historical fact”, but also said it would not impact the MVA alliance.

Protests were staged across Maharashtra by the BJP and other right-

wing organizations against Rahul Gandhi.

Sanjay Raut, key leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena, said Jairam Ramesh called him and the two had a long conversation on the issue. Talking to

reporters, Raut said any defamatory re marks against Savarkar were unacceptable to the Shiv Sena. He said Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting good re sponse, and raising im portant issues like un employment and farm ers’ problems. “There was no reason to raise the issue of Veer Sa varkar. This could lead to cracks in the MVA because we idolize Veer Savarkar,” he said. The MVA also includes the Nationalist Cong Party.

Surat: Lashing out at Rahul on remarks against VD Savarkar, JP Nadda said that Congress leader is on road doing Bharat Jodo Yatra to “not to unite India, but to break it”. “yester day, Rahul gave a condemna ble statement against Savarkar. This shows what their thinking is, they have not come out to unite India,” he said.

Anjar:

Mumbai’s measles count up by 7 to 176

Mumbai (PTI): The measles tally in Mum bai rose to 176 on Fri day, up from 169 a day earlier, while the num ber of suspected deaths remained unchanged at eight. A BMC bulletin said the suspected cases of measles stood at 2,860. “The measles out break has occurred at 17 locations in eight civic wards of Mumbai. So far, eight suspected deaths have been re ported. The death com mittee will review all these cases,” it said.

B’luru, Mumbai, Goa IT raids yield `1,300 cr

New Delhi: The Income Tax (IT) department dis covered unaccounted income worth more than Rs 1,300 crore after it searched 50 locations belonging to people who had signed Joint Devel opment Agreements (JDA) with real estate developers in Bengalu ru, Mumbai, and Goa, the CBDT said in a state ment. Additionally, un disclosed cash and gold jewellery worth more than Rs 24 crore has also been seized by the CBDT.

Sanjay Raut

Jairam Ramesh

PM Modi delivers the inaugural address during the third ‘No Money for Terror’ Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism Financing, in New Delhi, on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Three Indian Army soldiers of

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday relieved Uttar Pradesh cadre 2011-batch IAS Abhishek Singh of his duties as a general observer in the Gujarat Assembly elections after he shared photos of his posting on the social media, EC sources said.

Governor Kalraj Mishra on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. During the meeting, Governor Kalraj Mishra apprised PM Narendra Modi about the constitution park being built in Raj Bhawan, Jaipur.

have a right to their own systems but can’t

Financing of terrorism more dangerous than terrorism itself

—Amit Shah, Home Minister

He did not target V D Savarkar but only highlighted a “historical fact’. Rahul had mentioned Savarkar in context of how tribal leader Birsa Munda did not compromise with the British while Savarkar signed a mercy petition, which is a fact.

—Jayram Ramesh, Cong leader

Coming to Maharashtra & saying things about Veer Savarkar won’t be accepted.

Congress leaders in Maharashtra won’t support him (RahulGandhi)

—Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena MP

The prime minister said tactical gains against terrorists will soon be lost without a larger strategy aimed at hurt ing terror finances

—Narendra

Modi, Prime Minister

World needs to unite against all kinds of covert, overt backing of terrorism

TAX COUNTRIES SUPPORTING TERRORISM: PM MODI

New Delhi: PM said cost must be imposed on countries which aid terrorism as part of their foreign policy by providing political, ideological and financial support. Organisations and individuals that try to create sympathy for terrorists must also be isolated, he said, adding, “There can be no ifs and buts interfering in such matters,” Modi said.

RAHUL’S REMARKS ON SAVARKAR

GUV KALRAJ MISHRA CALLS ON PM NARENDRA MODI

first privately built rocketVikram-suborbital (VKS)- was launched by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) on Friday. The rocketdeveloped by Skyroot Aerospace - has been named after Vikram Sarabhai, hailed as the father of India’s space

bid to symbolise a new start, the mission has been named ‘Prarambh’, which literally translates as “begining”.The launch took place from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at around 11.30 am. The rocket was said to have achieved the peak apogee of 89 km while the target was 80 km.

‘INDIAN ECONOMY CROSSED BRITAIN’S UNDER PM MODI’

PM MODI IS ‘KALPAVRIKSHA’, KEJRIWAL ‘BABUL’

Wankaner: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday suggested that construction of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya has became possible only because a BJP-led government under PM Narendra Modi is at the helm at the Centre and asked if the project would not have been feasible under a Congress dispensation. Addressing a rally in Wankaner town of Morbi district, Adityanath said the time has come to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi’s wish of dissolving the Congress and maintained the Opposition party was not capable of protecting the country.

Mandvi: Anurag Thakur took a swipe at the Congress and said that it has ruled the country to “divide people on the basis of caste, religion and area and ruled this country for over 60 years.”

Attacking UPA govt, he said, “Modi-led government allot ted 8500cr for them. Now, tribals are progressing.”

“It is under PM Modi’s leadership that India surpassed Britain’s economy. India will become the world’s third-larg est economy by 2029 at the pace at which the economy is growing currently,” Assam CM Himanta Sarma said. “Britain used to once rule India, today PM Modi has crossed Britain’s economy.

Kutch: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh took a dig at Delhi CM Kejriwal and Congress’ Rahul Gandhi by calling them “babul tree” and “shrub” respectively while calling PM Narendra Modi “kalpavriksha” stating that the people will get whatever they want from him.

Rahul Gandhi with Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson, Tushar Gandhi during the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, in Maharashtra.

MSRTC to hire 5,159 e-buses, convert 5,000 diesel buses to LNG

DA up from 24% to 36%, limit of additional gratuity to heirs of employees who die while in service hiked to ` 7.05 lakh

Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra State Road Transport Cor poration (MSRTC) on Friday decided to hire 5,150 electric buses, buy 2,000 diesel buses and convert 5,000 ve hicles from diesel to LNG, during a meet

ing of the board of directors of the staterun undertaking.

A release from the office of Chief Minis ter Eknath Shinde, who is chairman of MSRTC, said he had approved an in-princi ple plan to take a loan

BHARAT JODO YATRA

from the Asian Devel opment Bank for elec tric buses. In the previ ous meeting of the board, approval was given for hiring 2,000 electric buses, but the CM increased the num ber to 5,150, the release said, adding he had di rected officials to en sure fares of these airconditioned buses are kept low.Since the chas sis for CNG buses are

‘COUNTRY CAN’T PROGRESS WHEN BJP SPREADING FEAR, HATRED, VIOLENCE’

India Bureau

First

Shegaon: Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spreading fear, ha tred and violence in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, said that under these circum stances the country cannot progress.

“The country will never benefit from ha tred; those who experi ence violence in person al life are fearless and will never hurt others or spread ill-will in socie ty,” Gandhi said at a rally organized as part of Bharat Jodo Yatra, which completed 12 days in Maharashtra.

Calling Maharashtra the land that produced national icons, the for mer Congress president said that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr B R Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule and Shahu Maharaj, all had deep roots in the state. Gandhi also ex tolled them saying they taught unity and broth erhood, and that his yatra was taking for ward their ideals. He, however, refrained from mentioning freedom fighter V D Savarkar.

The Congress MP’s previous remarks on Savarkar had garnered criticism from ally Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and rival BJP, as well as had sparked statewide protests.

In his speech, Gandhi accused the BJP of spreading fear, hatred and violence and cau tioned that the country would never progress in an environment that was filled with such animos ity. He also hit out at the BJP for its lack of sym

The coun try will never bene fit from hatred; those who experi ence violence in personal life are fearless and will never hurt others or spread ill-will in society.

MAHATMA’S GREAT-GRANDSON JOINS RAHUL IN AKOLA; CONG TERMS IT ‘HISTORIC’ EVENT

First India Bureau

Shegaon: Tushar Gandhi, the greatgrandson of Mahat ma Gandhi, took part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra here on Friday morning.

Author and activist, Gandhi joined the Con gress’s Kanniyaku mari to Kashmir march at his birthplace. The Congress called his participation in the yatra “historic”.

The party called Ra hul Gandhi and Tushar

Gandhi, the great grandsons of Jawahar lal Nehru and Mahat ma Gandhi, respective ly, carriers of the two late leaders’ legacy.

“The two walking to gether is a message to the rulers that they can put democracy in threat but will not be allowed to finish it off,” the party said.

Mukul Wasnik, Deepender Hooda, Milind Deora, Man ikrao Thakre, Jagtap and Nana Patole also joined the yatra.

not available and in view of the low number of CNG pumps, Shinde also approved the pur chase of 2,000 diesel buses instead of CNG for MSRTC, besides hir ing 180 buses for Pune and Sangli division.

Five thousand buses running on diesel will be converted to operate on liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel, which will be supplied at a

rate 20-25% lower than the prevailing rate of diesel, it said. This work will be done by the supplier company and, initially, the MSRTC will not have to make any investment.

Shinde also gave ap proval for increasing the dearness allow ance of MSRTC em ployees and officials from the current 24% to 34%, apart from the

salary revision pro posal of its officers for a six-year period from 2016-17 to 2021-22.

Further, the limit of additional gratuity to the heirs of employees who died while in ser vice has been in creased from Rs6.15 lakh to Rs7.05 lakh un der the additional gra tuity and employee deposit linked insur ance scheme.

Aaditya slams CM for scrapping road tenders

pathy for farmers and the youth. “Farmers are afraid because of the

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Thackeray, whose party controlled the cash-rich BMC for around 25 years, also at tacked the govern ment over the transfers of civic officials.

“It is tender, transfer and time pass. There is dic tatorship and au tocracy in the BMC and officials are working under pressure,” Thack eray alleged.

Tenders worth more than Rs5,000 crore to concretize Mum bai’s potholed roads were re cently scrapped, he said, adding, “Whoever says that the roads will be without potholes is lying. How are they building roads worth Rs5,000 crore?”

ELECTORAL RIGHTS

Trans persons from Ulhasnagar to get their identity and voice

On Nov 26-27, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation will register members on the electoral list with collector’s Transgender Certificate as proof

First India Bureau

Thane: The Ulhasna gar Municipal Corpo ration (UMC), in an attempt to bring transgenders into mainstream, has planned a special drive to register people from the community on the electoral list.

Speaking to the me dia, UMC Additional Commissioner Jamir Lengrekar said, “The special drive is to ena ble the members of the transgender commu nity to have an impor tant identification doc ument, which will also give them a voice as a citizen. The corpora

For the transgender people, who hardly get any identification document, a voter ID card will provide them with the proof required to gain other important documents. —PHOTO

tion and the NGOs are working together to give the transgender

people their basic needs and rights.”

The UMC has a pop

The special drive is to enable the members of the transgender community to have an important identification document. The corporation and the NGOs are working togeth er to give the transgender people their basic needs and rights.

—Jamir Lengrekar, UMC Additional Commissioner

ulation of around 6.5 lakh, and close to 1,000 are from the transgen

der community. How ever, most of them are not on the electoral list.The civic body will conduct the drive from 11 am to 4 pm on November 26 and 27 at Rotary Midtown, Gol Maidan, Ulhasnagar-1. The transgender peo ple can add their names, photos, or make corrections in the electoral list. The UMC will issue voter ID cards based on their residential proof, but in case there is none, it will accept

the Transgender Cer tificate and ID card is sued by the district collector.

According to Transgender Rights Activist Dr Yoga Nam biar, the transgender community is a mi grant population; hence they face prob lems acquiring any identity card due to the absence of a per manent address. Therefore, getting a voter ID card is abso lutely necessary.

“We expect more

such drives in the fu ture to bring the transgender commu nity into mainstream,” he said adding that the Thane district has pop ulation of around 4,500 from the transgender community, and 1,0001500 of them reside in Ulhasnagar.

For the transgender people, who hardly get any identification doc ument, a voter ID card will provide them with the proof required to gain other important documents.

BY PTI

With a fleet of over 16,000 buses, MSRTC is one of the biggest state-owned transport undertakings in India. —FILE PHOTO

lack of minimum sup port price for their pro duce and crop insurance

payment, while the youth fear the lack of employment opportuni

ties. The BJP is turning this fear into hatred and violence,” he alleged.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is felicitated by a padayatri during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra at Balapur, in Akola on Friday. Maharashtra party president Nana Patole is also seen. A padyatri presents Rahul Gandhi

a painting of himself in Balapur.

—Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader

First India Bureau Mumbai: Shiv Sena - Uddhav Balasaheb Thack eray leader Aadi tya Thackeray slammed the Ma harashtra gov ernment over the functioning of the Brihanmum bai Municipal Corporation (BMC), citing its decision to scrap tenders for con cretization of roads.

BJP workers raise slogans during a protest against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his controversial remarks on VD Savarkar, in Thane on Friday. Similar protests were also seen in Mumbai and Pune where workers were detained. —PHOTOS BY BHUSHAN KYANDE & PTI

Kargil War hero Naik Deepchand (above) and actor-activist Mona Ambegaonkar (below) joined the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra Congress in Buldhana district, on Friday. —PHOTOS BY PTI

Rahul Gandhi with padayatris dressed in traditional attire, at Balapur, in Akola on Thursday. Maharashtra party president Nana Patole is also seen. —PHOTOS BY ANI

Rahul Gandhi and Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandsons of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, respectively, walk together during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. —PHOTO BY PTI

Man pushes girlfriend off water tank, held for attempt to murder

First India Bureau

Mumbai: A 25-yearold man has been ar rested for attempted murder after he pushed his girlfriend off the water tank of a residential building, causing her to fall 18 feet and sustain griev ous injuries, police said on Friday.

The incident oc curred in the wee hours of Sunday, following an argument between the duo who had been sit ting on the water tank located on the terrace of the 15th-floor build ing in suburban Da hisar, where one of his friends lives.

According to the com plaint filed by the wom an’s father, the man was in an inebriated condi tion at the time, and pushed her off the tank in a fit of rage.

BPO employee Priyan gi Singh suffered a major

injury on the spine and underwent a surgery at a hospital here, the offi cial said.

The accused, a resi dent of Borivali (West), is also a BPO staffer, while Singh resided in Malad with her family.

The police have summoned the friend

of the accused to record his statement, the offi cial said.

“We are gathering in formation about the aggregator cabs that the accused hired to first take Priyangi to his Borivli flat after the incident and then to her Malad home around

8 am,” he said.

The police are exam ining the CCTV footage of the building as it is not clear what exactly happened at the time of the incident, he said.

The accused and the victim knew each other since school. They fre quently quarrelled, but

TOXIC TRAITS

The duo frequently quarrelled, but this time it was worse. The incident occurred in the wee hours of Sun day, following an argu ment between them while they were sitting on the water tank lo cated on the terrace of the 15th-floor building in suburban Dahisar.

The police are examin ing the CCTV footage of the building as it is not clear what exactly happened at the time of the incident.

this time it was worse, the official said.

Police have registered a case against the ac cused under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. He was produced in a lo cal court on Thursday, which remanded him to five-day custody, he said.

`16.74 lakh compensation to kin of man killed in bike crash

First India Bureau

Thane: The family of a 21-year-old man killed in a motorcycle accident in 2017 was awarded Rs16.74 lakh as compensa tion by the Motor Ac cident Claims Tribu nal (MACT) here.

MACT member Dhananjay A Desh pande ordered the two respondents—the own er of the offending ve hicle and the insurer New India Assurance Company Ltd—to joint ly pay the claimants at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of filing of the claim.

The matter was de cided ex-parte against the vehicle’s owner, while the insurance company, which con tested the claim, as well as the victim’s father were represented by counsel during the hearing.

Sachin Mane, the de ceased youth, was rid ing pillion on his friend’s motorcycle on

‘Toilet selfie’ contest goes down the drain amid protests

First India Bureau

Nashik: Amid flak from school authori ties, teachers and ed ucationists, the Nag pur Zilla Parishad’s education depart ment has withdrawn a circular asking stu dents to click a selfie with a clean toilet and draw the toilet of their dreams to mark “World Toilet Day” on Saturday, an official confirmed.

According to a circu

lar, issued on November 14 and signed by Nashik ZP’s Education Officer (Primary) BD Kanauj, various compe titions planned for stu dents of Classes IV-X, included “selfie with clean toilet”, drawing “dream toilet” and street plays on cleanli ness and sanitation.

Slamming it as a pub licity stunt, General Secretary of Nashik’s Samata Shikshak Pari shad Vijay Jagtap said, “Many schools don’t have toilets at all, and those that exist are dirty. Who will click a selfie? There must be

ICMR scientist gets death threat on email; investigation launched

Mumbai: The Mumbai police have launched an investigation into a death threat sent via email to a 35-year-old scientist with the In dian Council of Medi cal Research (ICMR).

According to a Powai resident, the sender also attached two videos of beheading two people along with the email and also demanded Rs50,000 from the scien tist. The email was re ceived by the scientist on November 11.

The scientist told the police that he checked

the email around the af ternoon. He then in formed his senior about the email. Later, he lodged an official com plaint in the matter and the police registered a case against an uniden tified suspect.

“On the complaint, an FIR under sections 385, 506 (2) of the IPC and

section 66 of the Infor mation Technology Act was registered by the Bhoiwada police recent ly and an investigation in the matter has been launched in the matter,” an official said.

The content of the email says that the send er was a very dangerous person and that he worked with a Mexican cartel between 2012 and 2015. The sender wrote that he had already had three murder cases on him and that his recent target was a doctor from Muzaffarpur in Bihar who did not pay him Rs50,000.

one toilet for 120 stu dents but this ratio is not being maintained.”

The new order issued by the ZP education de partment on November 17 has dropped the self ie and drawing competi tions, an official said.

World Toilet Day is an annual United Na tions observance since 2013, and aims at ensur ing everyone has access to a toilet connected to a sanitation system that effectively treats and removes human waste.

OFF TO THE MILL!

Many schools don’t have toilets at all, and those that exist are dirty. Who will click a selfie? There must be one toilet for 120 stu dents but this ra tio is not being maintained.

The matter was decided ex-parte against the vehicle’s owner

October 21, 2017, when a vehicle hit them.

The victim sustained injuries in the accident and later died, the tri bunal was told.

Mane, the only earn ing member of the family, had been receiv ing a monthly salary of Rs21,000 at the time of his death, the claimants told the tribunal.

MACT accepted the submissions and awarded the compensa tion of Rs16.74 lakh, which included Rs7.56 lakh towards loss of de pendency, Rs70,000 to wards loss of estate, loss of love and affec tion and funeral ex penses, Rs6.79 lakh to wards hospitalization expenses and Rs1.68 lakh towards medical expenses.

The tribunal also di rected that a sum of Rs75,000 be paid to the brother of the de ceased, Rs1 lakh to his father and the remain ing sum to his mother.

CRUCIAL

5 DIE, 4 INJURED AS CAR RAMS INTO TRUCK FROM BEHIND

Mumbai: Five persons were killed and four oth ers injured after the car they were travelling in rammed into a truck from behind on the MumbaiPune Expressway near Khopoli in Raigad district, police said on Friday. The accident took place close to Dheku village around Thursday midnight. Pre liminary probe indicated that the driver of the car lost control, due to which the vehicle hit the truck. An offence was registered against the driver and further investigation is underway, police said.

READ

7 PEOPLE INJURED AFTER DRUNK DRIVER HITS THEM WITH CAR

Nashik: A 42-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly hitting and injuring seven people while driving his car in an inebriated state in Nashik city, police said on Friday. The accused had allegedly driven his car rashly in different parts of the city on Thursday evening and hit seven persons, two of whom were critically injured, an official said. The accused drove through Upnagar, Wadala, Lekhanagar, Cidco, Mumbai Naka and Chandak Circle areas of the city, he said.

AIDE ARRESTED

Thane: Officials

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Varying spellings at Airoli, Rabale stations cause confusion

Passengers say, booking tickets becomes a struggle due to different spellings for the two Trans-Harbour line stations

First India Bureau

Mumbai: When it is a matter of destination, the name matters a lot. Especially if the destination is the name of a couple of stations on Mumbai’s popular trans-harbour line.

This is the confusion created at local stations

Airoli and Rabale—the first one spelled in three different ways, the sec ond in two.

Airoli station has signboards identifying it as ‘Airoli’ at some places and ‘Diva-Airoli’ at oth ers. The worst is at the automatic ticket vending machines, where it is ‘Airavali’; the local resi dents know it as Airoli.

At Rabale station, too, it’s a similar confusion, although mostly be cause the tickets printed have it in the Hindi script, which reads as Rabada. The signage at the station in English, Hindi and Marathi all show it as Rabale.

Commuters have been left wondering whether the spelling Airavali and Rabada have to do with the local term. Accord ing to one person, if Ai roli and Rabale are local terms, then the station

signage should specifi cally include them. “Like Sion is called Shiv in lo cal language, the station announcements should specify so,” he said.

This has caused in convenience to commut ers. “We have com plained to the railways so many times, but no one is listening. The dif ferent names cause problems in ticketing,” said Manish N Koparkar of Navi Mumbai Prava si Sangh (trans-har bour) said.

25-YEAR-OLD MAN STABBED TO DEATH BY 3 COLLEAGUES

Palghar: A 25-year-old man was allegedly beat en and stabbed to death by three of his colleagues over a petty dispute in Vasai of Palghar district, police said on Friday.

The incident took place in Kaman area of Vasai on Thursday evening, an official from Valiv police station said. The victim, a resident of West Bengal, and three of his col leagues had quarrelled over a petty dispute. In a fit of rage, the trio beat up the victim and one of them stabbed him to death, the official said.

MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR KILLING 15-YR-OLD DAUGHTER

Latur: A court in Latur district has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his 15-yearold daughter. District and session court judge Surekha Kosamkar on Thursday convicted Su dhir Bandgar (40) under section 302 (murder) and other relevant provi sions of the Indian Penal Code. The accused was sentenced to life impris onment and a fine of Rs10,000 was imposed on him. The girl had sus tained a head injury and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital.

TWO CHILDREN DROWN IN SEA NEAR WORLI KOLIWADA AREA, THREE RESCUED

Mumbai: Two children drowned and three were rescued after they ventured into the sea in Worli area of central Mumbai on Friday, a civic official said. The incident took place near Worli Koliwada, a fisher men’s colony, around 3.30 pm when a group of five children ventured into the sea while playing, the of ficial said. The fire brigade received a call around 3.40 pm and immediately rushed to the spot. However, the locals had rescued the children by then, he said.

PRIVATE FIRM OWNER,

FOR CGST FRAUD IN NAVI MUMBAI

of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) in Navi Mumbai have arrested a company owner and his aide for allegedly availing and passing on fake input tax credit to the tune of Rs20.96 crore, an official said on Friday. The CGST officials arrested the proprietor of two companies Storage Miles and Catbus. The total amount of bogus invoices involved is to the tune of Rs117 crore, he said.

Airoli station has signboards identifying it as ‘Airoli’ at some places and ‘Diva-Airoli’ at others. —FILE PHOTO

The woman was seriously injured in the 18ft fall, man was reportedly drunk at the time

The accused and his victim have known each other since they were in school.

Many rural schools lack hygienic washrooms. —FILE PHOTO

Bullock carts loaded with sugarcane on their way to Krishna Co-operative sugar factory during the sugarcane crushing season, in Karad, on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI

First India Bureau

—Vijay Jagtap, General Secretary, Nashik Samata Shikshak Parishad

SUSTAINABLE POLITICS: THE RISE OF GREEN PARTIES

PRIVATE SECTOR’S SUCCESSFUL SPACE DEBUT WITH PRARAMBH

Green political parties reflect a broader social movement seeking to reorient civilization in what supporters say is a more sustainable & way of socio-economics. The environmental concerns began with opposition to nuclear power but have expanded to include climate change, pollution& industrial agriculture

The agitation towards the mas sive environmental damage has grown up fast in the last few decades. It has reached now beyond the personal stakes and political parties are taking growing responsi bility across continents. In European countries, it is a sigh of relief that certain po litical parties have taken cli mate change and the environ ment to the core agenda. This has incarnated in the percep tion of green political parties and attempts to encode the future of politics. What is af ter all a green party? Green political parties reflect a broader social movement seeking to reorient civiliza tion in what supporters say is a more sustainable and hu man direction and way of socio-economics. The envi ronmental concerns began with opposition to nuclear power but have expanded to include climate change, pol lution, and industrial agri culture. Apart from climate, these so-called green parties encompass some grass root issues such as socio-econom ic challenges, democracy, non-violence, and ecological sustainability.

However new this idea seems to us, it has its roots in the wave of social movement in industrial societies begin ning in the 1960s. The student movement of 1968 in Europe

broke with the earlier forms of class-based worker organ izing, preferring instead rad ical critiques of industrial civilization itself and the utopian vision of life in har mony with the environment. The first green party was formed in Australia. The UK ‘s people’s party was the first in Europe warning the col lapse of ecological wrap-up. “It was not until the 1980s that the first green party went mainstream- in West Germany a stronghold of green politics. The west Ger man greens contested nation wide in 1980 and then in 1983 became a full-fledged politi cal force by entering parlia ment with twenty-seven seats. By the 1990s, green were contesting, and often winning seats at local, state, and national level across Eu rope”. The beginning of the 21st century witnessed an increasing breakthrough into the European main stream. Latvia`s Emsis be came the first-ever prime minister from a green party in 2004, and greens entered governments in Belgium, France, Italy, and elsewhere.

By 2022, with mainstream parties continuing to lose popularity and climate change getting hold of the voter’s attention, green par ties were in national govern ments in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Luxembourg. If we move our attention to Asia, the Middle East, and a huge con tinent Africa, we find not so big of a favorite pie in green politics. However, naturally, rich Africans seem they have less of a foothold in the green

The first green party was formed in Australia. The UK ‘s people’s party was the first in Europe warning collapse of ecological wrap-up. “It was not until the 1980s that the first green party went mainstream- in West Germany a stronghold of green politics. The west German greens in 1983 became a full-fledged political force by entering parliament with 27 seats

concept of political theory. “Africa has seen a range of environmental activism, in cluding the Green Belt Move ment, led by Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, but few electoral gains. Rwanda is the only Af rican country with greens in parliament.

The nuclear disaster in Ja pan has led to some awaken ing in commotion. It led to a force in the political arena but remains not so popular. In Middle east, the green per ception is fragmented and has not seen the rising popu larity of green political ideol ogy to its peak. In India green thinking has made some in roads as Indian politics seems to be on the threshold of green politics with energy policies and environmental safety issues gaining popu larity. India as the leading technological giant and one

of the largest growing econo mies across the globe carries a huge influence on world politics and is very impres sionable. Green future poli tics has gained the support of hundreds of political par ties from all over the world, revealing the evolving ideol ogy and expansion from local environmental groups to de cision-makers. The gap be tween the urban class ideol ogy and worker class real-life issues, which was seen ini tially as a massive challenge seems to be bridged everyday brick by brick. “Climate and environmental protection is a question of equitability be tween present and future generations.” In this, we as voters and citizens have a special responsibility: How we act today determines the conditions governing the life of tomorrow’s generation. It’s not only cutting down the emission waste from cars or lessening the vehicle sounds, maybe promoting kids to bik ing. This is something funda mental that every child de serves. That’s why not only to bequeath to future genera tions modern, environmen tally sensitive technologies: not only energy use from re newable energy sources, and recycling and energy-saving systems, but also systems providing environment-safe mobility instead of gridlock in all arenas of life. These are the outcomes that will guar antee the life quality of a safe future in the long term. This is a task that transcends the borders of any country alone and functions across borders.

RAHUL STOKES

Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is not drawing the media attention which it might de serve, but his remark against RSS ideologue Vinayak Sa varkar for seeking apology from the British government during the Maharashtra leg of his yatra has certainly caught the attention of both his allies and rivals. At a time when Hindutva is the domi nant word and its strong in fluence is all pervasive, at tacking Savarkar in Maha rashtra requires some cour age. Or is it foolhardy on Ra hul Gandhi’s part as the Congress is part of Uddhav Shiv Sena-led MVA alliance along with Nationalist Con gress Party? Uddhav Thack eray and his party’s leader

Attacks on Congress party’s offices in different parts of state go to show how sensitive an issue Savarkar is. If questioning Savarkar’s loyalty to the nation could fetch votes then the Congress wouldn’t have been ousted from power

Sanjay Raut have both dis tanced themselves from Ra hul’s remark and categori cally stated that their party has only love & immense re spect for Savarkar. At one of his press confer ences Rahul said that he wasn’t sure of votes which

his yatra will fetch for Con gress but with his comment on Savarkar won’t help par ty’s cause, which is almost non-existent in Maharash tra. Attacks on Congress of fices in different parts of state go to show how sensi tive an issue Savarkar is. Moreover, Rahul Gandhi must realise that whipping a dead horse won’t make it run. If questioning Sa varkar’s loyalty to nation could fetch votes then the Congress wouldn’t have been ousted from power. Rahul has given BJP a chance to hit back at him. BJP reminded Rahul of Indira Gandhi who said that “Veer Savarkar’s daring defiance of the Brit ish Government has its own importance in the annals of our freedom movement”.

tep aside Elon Musk, a private start-up Skyroot Aerospace made a historic de but when it success fully launched the country’s first privately made rocket named Vikram-S after founder of India’s space programme Vikram Sarabhai into space on Friday. It is a milestone for the private sector marking its entry into the commercial space pro gramme. Of course Vikram-S is much smaller than Elon Musk’s Falcon but then Skyroot Aero space is only four-year old and the government passed laws to reform the space sector only in 2020 allowing the private sector to use ISRO’s infrastructure. That came as a big boost to pri vate players and culminated in Friday’s launch of Prarambh.

Vikram-S mission was aptly named “Prarambh”, the Begin ning, to demonstrate the techno logical capability of Skyroot.

The fledgling private sector’s space programme faces the con straint of funds and may need foreign direct investment. Be sides, it will also need the gov ernment’s support by way of cuts in import duty, incentives in taxes and domestic manufac ture of space equipment.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

MAHENG/2022/14652

Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Dangat Media Pvt Ltd, No.22, Dighe MIDC, Vishnu Nagar, TTC Industrial Area, Dighe, Navi Mumbai-400701. Published at Plot No. 3 Scheme C of Manglorean Garden Home, CHS Limited, Survey No. 5, 6C (Part) Ville Parle East, Mumbai 400057. Phone 022-46031417.

Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh

Editor: Anita Hada

Chandra

Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Rajnath Singh @rajnathsingh

Congratulations to Team ISRO and other stakeholders on the successful launch of India’s first privately developed rocket, Vikram-S. This success is a landmark achievement in the history of India’s space programme. The Nation is proud of its scientists.

Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal

Sky is the limit for Indian Startups!First ever private rocket launch of Vikram-S by Skyroot is truly a historic achievement for India led by PM @ NarendraModi ji.

A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return

The

Bhagavad Gita

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

DR JYOTI JOSHI

The writer is a soft skill, yoga trainer, business coach and English language instructor in Germany, Europe

WAS RAM TEMPLE OR ARTICLE 370 REMOVAL POSSIBLE UNDER CONG: YOGI

Wankaner (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Fri day suggested that con struction of a grand Ram Temple in Ayod hya has became possi ble only because a Bharatiya Janata Par ty-led government un der Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at the helm at the Centre and asked if the project would not have been feasible under a Con gress dispensation.

At a rally here in sup port of BJP candidate Jitu Somani, Adity anath said the time has come to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi’s wish of dis solving the Congress

and said the Opposition party was not capable of protecting the country. The UP CM said the now-abolished Article 370 of the Constitution

Kutch (ANI): Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday took a dig at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by calling them “babul tree” and “shrub” respectively and said that the former would give only thorns while the latter would “destroy the crop”. He also called PM Narendra Modi “kalpavriksha” stating that the people will get whatever they want from him. Chouhan was addressing an election rally here. “Narendra Modi is a ‘kalpavriksha’, you’ll get whatever you want. Kejriwal is a babul tree, you’ll get only thorns. Rahul Gandhi is a shrub that will destroy the crops,” he said.

Chouhan slammed Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on freedom fighter Savarkar and said

LAWYER WITHOUT A BRIEF COPY IS LIKE SACHIN SANS BAT: CJI

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday remarked that a lawyer appearing in court without carrying a copy of his brief is like Sachin Tendulkar without his bat on the cricket pitch. CJI Chandrachud said, “A lawyer without a brief is Sachin Tendulkar without his bat.” The CJI also com mented to the lawyer that it looks bad that the lawyer is wearing a gown and band but doesn’t have a copy of the brief. The court passed this remark as it noted that a lawyer was arguing his case without any copy of the brief.

was the root cause of terrorism in J&K. He targeted the Con gress and sought to know if a Ram Temple and abrogation of Arti

GUJARAT RIOT-FREE DUE TO PM MODI, BJP, SAYS UNION MINISTER ANURAG THAKUR

Mandvi (Agencies): Kicking off campaign in Gujarat, Union In formation & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday said that if the state is riot-free today it is because of BJP and PM Modi. “If Gujarat is riot-free today then it’s because of BJP and PM Modi. The more Gujarat progresses, the more India will progress. If Gujarat wins, then India will progress,” Thakur said. Thakur took a swipe at the Congress and said that it has ruled the country to “divide” people. “Congress only divided the country on the basis of caste, religion and area and ruled this country for over 60 years,” Thakur said. He further took a pot-shot at the former UPA government saying that it didn’t pay attention to the Tribal communities of the country.

DEVENDRA FADNAVIS COMPARES AAP LEADERS TO ‘DANCERS AT WEDDINGS’

Bhavnagar (Agencies):

cle 370, which provided special status to J&K, would have been possi ble if the main Opposi tion party had been in power at the Centre.

Gujarat’s Bhavnagar, Fadnavis

ing an

“In every marriage,

come uninvited

What is the politics of Congress-AAP in poll-bound Gujarat?

that the country will never forgive him for “in sulting” him. “Rahul Gandhi insulted Veer Sa varkar yesterday. The man who was sentenced to punishment equalling two lifetimes, the one who sacrificed everything for the country. You insult such a freedom fighter, this country will never forgive you,” Chouhan said.

Surat (ANI): Lashing out at Rahul Gandhi over his re marks against VD Savarkar, BJP chief JP Nadda on Fri day said that the Congress leader is out on the road do ing Bharat Jodo Yatra to “not to unite India, but to break it”. “Just yesterday, Rahul Gandhi gave a condemnable statement against freedom fighter Veer Savarkar. This shows what their thinking is, they have not come out to unite India, they have come out to break it,” Nadda said

Letter threatens blasts if

Kolkata: A court at Tufanganj in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar on Friday issued an arrest warrant against BJP MP and Union Minister of State John Barla, in connection with a case of violation of model code of conduct during the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. According to public prosecutor Sanjay Burman, on April 4, 2019, a motor cycle rally was taken out at the premises of the block development office (BDO) in Tufanganj violating the model code of conduct. Barla, who was the BJP candidate from Alipurduar, was present at the rally.

GUJARAT: MAN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPING AND MURDERING MINOR

Vadodara: A special POCSO court in Gujarat’s Vadodara has sentenced a man to death for raping and murder ing a minor girl in 2019. Special Judge JA Thakkar on Thursday awarded capital punishment and also slapped a fine of Rs 1.30 lakh on Sanjay Baria. The Judge observed, “Sanjay Baria raped and strangulated the girl, who was just a little older to his daughter. It was a heni ous crime but Baria has no remorse for the offence he has committed, that is why this case is rarest of rare.”

On May 17, 2019, Sanjay kidnapped the eight-year-old girl from the slums of the Goraj village in Vadodara. He took her to bushes, raped and strangulated her and fled the crime scene. When the parents started search ing for the missing girl and were unable to trace her, the police were informed, and the next morning, the victim’s body was found from bushes.

SELECTION PROCESS FOR CIVIL JUDGES:

NOTICE TO MP GOVT

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the Madhya Pradesh govt to a plea challenging the selection process for appointment of civil judges. The court was hearing a petition challeng ing the minimum 40 per cent marks allotted for the interview conducted as part of the selection process for appointment to the post of civil judge conducted by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. A bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy issued notices to the state government and the registrar of the high court on the plea.

New Delhi: Justice Poon am A Bamba of the Delhi High Court has declined to transfer from Tihar Jail to Srinagar Jail a Jaish-eMohammad (JeM) militant, who is serving life term in a UAPA case, considering the law and order reper cussions expressed by the authorities after evaluating the security risk. Sixty-sixyear-old JeM militant Abdul Majeed Baba sought trans fer to his native state jail, Srinagar Central Jail, from Central Jail of Tihar in Delhi pleading his ill health and that his family members were unable to meet him frequently in Delhi.

Hyderabad (Agencies): Telangana CM K Chan drasekhar Rao’s daugh ter and TRS MLC K Kavitha on Friday warned BJP MP D Arvind that if he contin ues to make personal comments against her she will slap her with chappal (footwear). Re acting strongly to cer tain remarks made by him, Kavitha said Arvind had stooped to a new low. “What do you think of yourself? If you make baseless com ments again, I will slap you with chappal in Ni zamabad crossroads,” she warned Arvind, who represents Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency. The MLC apparently vented her anger over Arvind’s derogatory re mark made on Thursday. Meanwhile TRS activ ists on Friday ransacked the house of BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind’s house here over his al leged derogatory re marks against Kavitha.

Yatris” stay at Indore stadium

at an election rally here. He accused Gandhi of standing with those who protested against the hanging of Afzal Guru, the mastermind of the Parliament attack, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2016. “Congress always works to break the country. Rahul Gandhi even went to Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and stood with those who protested against the hanging of Afzal Guru, mastermind of the Parlia ment attack,” he alleged.

New Delhi: The Con gress party in Guja rat is constantly clar ifying that it has nothing to do with the Aam Aadmi Par ty and inform the voters that it is nei ther with AAP now nor will it ever go ahead. In fact, in the past, former Con gress President and former Union Minis ter Bharat Singh Solanki has said that if the Aam Aadmi Party gives its sup port, the Congress will have no objec tion. However, he added that he has said this in his per sonal capacity and has not given the opinion of the Con gress. But after this, continuous clarifica tion was given by the Congress. Many Con gress leaders also criticized Solanki and said that he was the state president at the time of the last election and Con gress could not win the election because of the defeat of 15 candidates selected by him.

Actually Congress is worried about re peating the history of Delhi. Congress also won eight seats in Delhi in 2013, but the result of forming the government by supporting AAP has been that the Con gress came down to zero in the 2015 elec tions and has re mained at zero since then. Congress feels that even the core vote of the Congress can go towards AAP if it shows any close ness to it. That is why Congress leaders are refusing to coordi nate. But the Aam Aadmi Party has kept a strategic si lence on this. In a program of a media group, Arvind Kejri wal was asked if he would take the side of the Congress if needed, but Kejriwal avoided answering the question. rather he asked to be wished good luck so that AAP can form gov ernment. In this way, he has indicated co ordination with the Congress. Now Con gress has to answer this.

Odisha BJP launches indefinite protest over farmers’ issues

Bhubaneswar (Agen cies): Ahead of Padam pur bypoll, the BJP on Friday launched an in definite dharna “satya graha” in front of the Odisha Assembly to protest “anti-farmer policies” of BJD govt.

The party has launched this dharana over several issues of farmers including farm

assistance, crop insur ance, supply of fertilis ers and Kalia money distribution.

The BJP leaders al leged that the state gov ernment’s potato mis sion and onion mission have completely failed. But despite that, there is no policy in place to help farmers recover losses, they said.

ACCOUNTANTS’ MEET!

They said the farmers are getting Rs 4,000 un der the Kalia scheme in stead of Rs 10,000 as promised in 2019 polls. Due to irregularities in opening of mandis, the farmers are forced to sell their paddy at Rs 1,250 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 2,040 per quin tal, said BJP general secy Prithiviraj Harichanda.

Indore (PTI): A shop in Madhya Pradesh’s In dore has received a let ter threatening that bomb blasts would be carried out in the city if the participants of the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi make a scheduled overnight stay at a local stadium on November 28, prompting the police to launch investigation, an official said on Friday.

Police have regis tered a case against an unidentified person in

this connection, he said, adding that they suspect that it was a hoax threat.

Talking to PTI, In dore Commissioner of Police H C Mishra said, “A sweet-snacks shop in Juni area of the city has received a letter on Thursday evening, which says that if the participants of the Ra hul Gandhi-led yatra stay at the Khalsa sta dium, bomb blasts could be carried out in the city.”

AAP’s ‘strategic weapon’ used for ‘tactical’ gains!

Sharat K Verma

New Delhi: There was a time when the Left, lib eral intellectuals of the country used to allege that the RSS and BJP were rumour mongering factories. On the other hand, the Sangh and BJP alleged that the Left, lib eral intellectuals create narratives according to their ideology and prop agate and establish them. But now the Aam Aadmi Party has left eve ryone behind in this

work. Like those who engage in ‘yellow jour nalism’, AAP leaders say anything about any par ty or leader. They would hold a press conference and make a big claim and publicize it in social media, but later these claims turn out to be completely wrong.

The latest issue is the resignation of all the dis trict presidents of Delhi BJP. AAP’s chief and na tional spokesperson Sau rabh Bhardwaj said at a press conference that

because of AAP, there is such panic within the BJP that all its district presidents have re signed. After this state

ment, the BJP was shocked because the res ignation of any district president had not reached the party presi dent. The reality is that no BJP district president has resigned. Similarly, recently, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak claimed that BJP was denying tickets to all its former councillors. The fact is that the party has fielded nine former mayors and 52 former councillors.

Earlier, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal him

self had spread various rumours about Gujarat!

He started saying from June-July that fearing AAP, BJP is going to hold elections ahead of time. But the reality is that elections are being held on time. Kejriwal and his party leaders have said many times that fearing AAP, BJP is going to replace Gujarat State President CR Patil.

The reality is that even now the BJP is contest ing elections under the command of CR Patil.

The funny thing is that many AAP leaders sometimes become journalists and tell journalists only that they have got such and such news and claim it to have been learnt from sources. Sometimes they become psepholo gists and tell that in their survey it has come to know that such and such thing is happen ing. Sometimes they be come astrologers and claim that a certain work is going to happen.

Mahesh Sharma

Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Friday took a jibe at Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party and compared it to dancers at a wedding. While address

election rally in

said,

dancers

and leave. Similarly, for the Gujarat elections, Aam Aadmi Party has come without any invitation. Kejriwal is the biggest liar,” Fadnavius said. Apart from Kejriwal, Fadnavis also took a pod shot at Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and spoke about the Centre’s vaccination drive.

TOP BJP LEADERS, INCLUDING ITS NATIONAL PRESIDENT JP NADDA, CMS OF MP, UTTAR PRADESH, ASSAM, UNION MINISTERS HOLD RALLIES IN MANY AREAS OF POLL-BOUND GUJ

PM IS ‘KALPAVRIKSHA’, KEJRI ‘BABUL TREE’, RaGa ‘SHRUB’: MP CM

ARREST WARRANT AGAINST UNION MINISTER BARLA HC REFUSES TO SHIFT JeM MILITANT FROM TIHAR TO J&K JAIL

NADDA RAPS RAHUL GANDHI OVER HIS REMARKS ON SAVARKAR

UP CM Yogi Adityanath at a rally for Gujarat polls, at Wankaner, in Morbi on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI

“Bharat Jodo

Will slap with chappal, Kavitha warns BJP MP

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greets at a public rally during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, in Shegaon on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla with outgoing IFAC President Alan Johnson during the inauguration of the 21st World Congress of Accountants, at Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, on Friday.

—PHOTO BY PTI

CASE

AAFTAB ACCOMPANIED SHRADDHA TO HOSP: DOC

Mumbai: The doctor who treated the Mum bai girl, Shraddha, for acute shoulder and back pain in the year 2020, on Friday said that the accused Aftab accompanied her when she was brought to the hospital.

She was admitted to Ozone Multispecialty Hospital of Nalasopara area in 2020 for acute back and shoulder pain.

“Shraddha was brought to the hospital on December 3, 2020, and was admitted for four days. She had com plained of severe back and shoulder pain with radiculopathy. She however did not reveal the cause of the inju ries,” Dr Shiv Prasad Shinde who treated Shraddha at Ozone Multispecialty Hospi tal of Nalasopara told

US Secretary of Navy on India visit, to inspect IAC Vikrant

New Delhi : US Secre tary of Navy Carlos Del Toro is on a five day of ficial visit to India Nov 17-21, officials said on Friday. Officials said that Del Toro is sched uled to visit Indian Na vy’s Southern Naval Command at Kochi, wherein he would inter act with its chief and visit India’s first indig enous Aircraft Carrier, INS Vikrant at Cochin.

He will also meet In dian Navy chief, Admi ral R. Hari Kumar, and high-ranking govern ment officials in New Delhi. India and the US have traditionally main tained close and friend ly relations, and the de fence relationship be tween the two countries has been one of mutual trust and confidence

In addition, both countries have conclud ed certain foundational agreements, including the Defence Framework Agreement, signed in 2015, which lays a blue print for collaboration between the defence es tablishments of both countries, the Logistics Exchange Memoran dum of Agreement (LE MOA) signed in 2016, which is a foundational agreement facilitating reciprocal logistics sup port between the armed forces of both countries.

ANI. He said, “Shrad dha had come with Aftab for treatment.”

“We did not find any external injury marks on her body, and Aftab was with her at the time of admission,” said Shinde.

Earlier, a photo of Shraddha with minor bruises on her nose

and near her right eye was also shared by her friends with local me dia in Mumbai. They claimed that she was hospitalised after the assault by Aftab.

“She used to com plain about Aftab and his addiction. He would often fight with her and beat her too,”

Punjab gives nod to old pension scheme

Chandigarh (ANI): The Punjab cabinet has approved the restora tion of Old Pension Scheme. The decision has been taken in a cab inet meeting on Friday. An official notification would be put out subse quently. Faced with sev eral demands from gov ernment employees, the Punjab government took the decision to re store the Old Pension Scheme.

Under the old pen sion scheme, a govern ment employee is enti tled to a monthly pen sion after retirement. The monthly pension is typically half of the

last drawn salary of the person.

Under the new pen sion scheme, employ ees contribute a por tion of their salaries to the pension fund. Based on that, they are entitled to a one-time lump sum amount on superannuation.

WORLD TOILET DAY

claimed Shraddha’s friend Rahul Rai while speaking to ANI.Aftab is accused of stran gling his live-in part ner Shraddha Walker and chopping her body into 35 pieces. The ac cused was allegedly high on marijuana when he committed the crime, sources said.

POLICE VISIT OFFICE OF AAFTAB

New Delhi: A Delhi Police team probing the killing of Shradha Walkar visited the office of a private firm in Gurugram where the accused Aaftab Amin Poonawala used to work, offi cials said on Friday. Following a search, the police were seen carrying a plastic bag contain ing items recovered from bushes in the vicinity of the office. However, the officials did not reveal the contents of the bag. The accused used to work at the private firm after he and Walkar shifted from Mumbai.

AFTAB INTRODUCED WALKAR AS HIS WIFE WHILE RENTING FLAT: POLICE

Mumbai: Aaftab Poon awala, accused of brutally killing his live-in partner Shradha Walkar, intro duced her as his wife when they were looking for a rented accommoda tion near Mumbai, police said on Friday. The couple were looking for a flat on rent in Vasai, and most of the times Poonawala introduced Walkar as his wife though they were

not married, said a local police official.They rented a one-room flat in a build ing in Naigaon (East) in 2019, claiming to be a married couple. The rent agreement was made in Poonawala’s name. No police verification of tenant was done, which is mandatory in many areas in Maha, as the housing society had not been reg istered, the official said.

MUMBAI DOCTORS SAYS WALKAR SPOKE TO HIM ABOUT DEPRESSION

Mumbai: A Mumbaibased doctor claimed on Friday that Shraddha Walkar had consulted him last year about her depression as well as her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala’s violent behaviour. Dr Pranav Kabra, who runs a multi-

CEC reaches Kathmandu as int’l observer for Nepal polls

Kathmandu (PTI): In dia’s Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Friday reached here as an in ternational observer for Sunday’s general elections in Nepal.

Kumar, 62, is leading a four-member delega tion, including two of ficials from the Election Commission of India.

Nepal is scheduled to hold elections on No vember 20 to elect 275 members of the federal Parliament and 550 seats of the seven Pro vincial Assemblies.

Upon their arrival, Shaligram Sharma

DDWS to organise ‘Swachhta Run’ across rural India today

New Delhi: The De partment of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti, under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) is organiz ing ‘Swachhta Run’ across rural India, to mark the World Toilet Day today. States & UTs have been directed to conduct the “Swachhta Run” at the Gram Pan chayat (GP) level in volving local heroes, Swachhagrahis’, ASHA

workers, volunteers, youth, school children, and local folk artists etc. It was suggested to engage the local elected representatives/sports persons/celebrities/lo cal influencers to flag off the “Run” to en

thuse the local populace for participation. Un dertaking ‘Swachhta Pledge’ by all partici pants at the start of the “Run”; display of ban ners, posters, slogans and other outdoor IEC materials of SBM(G) Phase II along the route, starting and ending the “Run” at a site of his torical significance.

DDWS with NIC devel oped a dedicated e-mod ule to monitor the ac tivities.

INDIAN COAST GUARD MEET

Poudel, Joint Secretary at the Election Commis sion of Nepal, wel comed Kumar and other members of the delega tion at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

He will join other in ternational delegates to observe the election.

SCHEDULED ELECTION

speciality hospital in sub urban Malad, told PTI that he received a call from a woman who identified her self as Shraddha Walkar in February 2021.“She told me about her depression, and the anger manage ment and violence issues of her boyfriend,” he said.

Maharashtra: A friend of Mumbai woman Shraddha Walker, who was brutally murdered by her live-in partner in Delhi this year, in May, claimed on Friday that he had helped her file a police complaint against accused Aftab Amin Poonawala. Speak ing to ANI, Rahul Rai, who identified himself as a friend of Shraddha Walker, said, “In 2020, we (him and other friends) helped her file a first informa tion report (FIR) af ter she reached out to us for help saying Aftab beat her. We took her home.”

CRUCIAL READ

Chandigarh: Close on the heels of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann directing a review of all the existing arms licenses to check gun culture, DGP Punjab Gaurav Yadav, on Friday, ordered mandatory inspection of the shops, premises and stocks of all the gun houses on a quarterly basis across the state. The DGP said rule 20.14 of Punjab Police Rules, 1934 authorises gazetted officers of police to inspect the shops, premises, and stocks of all licensed manufac turers and dealers under the Arms Act every quarter.

Kumar will visit polling stations in Kathmandu and surrounding areas before wrapping up his five-day visit on Novem ber 22.Kumar, who is here at the invitation of Dinesh Kumar Thapali ya, CEC of Nepal Elec tion.

MEA driver arrested for espionage: Sources

New Delhi (PTI) : Del hi Police’s Crime Branch team has arrest ed a driver working in the MEA on charges of espionage for allegedly leaking confidential de tails to a Pakistan-based person, sources said on Friday. According to a source, the arrest was made on Friday from the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan here. The sus pect allegedly used to pass “confidential and sensitive” information related to national secu rity to a person based in

Pakistan. The source said the driver was hon ey-trapped by an ISI per son who pretended to be a woman when he spoke with him.

Police, however, re fused to share any de tails of the case citing concerns over national security.

ICG conducts National Maritime Search & Rescue NMSAR

Gujarat: The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in a series of Annual Mari time Search and Rescue (M-SAR) Meetings, con ducted its 20th National Maritime Search and Rescue (NMSAR) Board meeting at Kevadia in the Narmada district of Gujarat on Friday.

The apex level meet ing was chaired by Di rector General VS Pathania, President’s Tatrakshak Medal (PTM), Tatrakshak Medal (TM), Director General Indian Coast

Guard and the Chair man of the National Maritime Search and Rescue Board.

The Chairman in his inaugural address high lighted various initia tives undertaken by the Indian Coast Guard in coordination with other stakeholders and re source agencies for strengthening the MSAR services under the aegis of the Board.

“The NMSAR Board comprising 31 members from various central ministries and agencies,

members of armed forc es, and all Coastal States and Union Territories meets annually to dis

cuss the policy issues. In the meeting, guidelines and procedures are for mulated, to assess the

efficacy of the NMS and Rescue Plans and ser vices for the mariners and the fishermen, in the vast 4.6 million sq km of the Indian Search and Rescue Region (ISRR),” read an official statement.

During the meeting, Director General VS Pathania launched the ‘National Maritime Search and Rescue Plan2022’ which serves as the policy document for all the participating agen cies and stakeholders for directing an inte

grated and coordinated approach towards the functioning of the MSAR system. The policy document is aimed to wards the capacity and capability building of SAR services in India.

The Search and Res cue Aid Tool-Integrated (SARAT-I) software ver sion 1.0 which has been developed jointly by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was also launched.

FIRE BREAKS OUT IN NAVJEEVAN EXPRESS IN AP

Andhra Pradesh: Fire broke out in the pantry car of Train No 12655, Navjeevan Express bound for Chennai from Ahmedabad when the train reached Gudur rail way station in Tirupati district on Friday. Rail way officials promptly stopped the train at Gudur Junction railway station & brought the fire under control.

CBI NABS INDIAN RAILWAYS OFFICIAL FOR TAKING BRIBE

New Delhi: The CBI on Friday arrested a Principal Chief Engineer of Rail Wheel Factory in Bengaluru for demand ing and accepting bribe. The arrested accused has been identified as G.K.Jalan, Principal Chief Engineer of Rail Wheel Factory. It has been alleged that the accused demanded Rs.1,00,000 as a bribe.

LOVE JIHAD ACCUSED HELD AFTER ENCOUNTER

Lucknow: Sufiyan, the accused in the love ji had case, was arrested on Friday following a brief encounter with the police. Sufiyan re ceived a bullet injury in the leg when the police opened fire to stop him from fleeing.The encounter took place in Dubagga area in Lucknow and ACP D.K. Singh led the team.

Madhya Pradesh: The caretaker of a mosque in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa has been booked on the charge of converting a Hindu youth, the police said on Friday.A case under var ious sections of Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act and Indian Penal Code has been registered against Alim Ameenudin Qadri.

Indian Coast Guard meeting in Gujarat on Friday.

Guwahati: An FIR has been lodged against a private madrasa in Assam’s Cachar district for allegedly “teaching jihadi ideology”, an official said on Friday. Sahab Uddin Khan, a resident of the Sonai area, said that his son Sain, a student at the Swadhin Bazar Islamia Madrasa, was assaulted by the teachers.He ac cused head teacher Abul Hussain Laskar and secretary Dilwar Hussain Mazumdar of beating and locking his son within the madrasa premises. Khan also accused Laskar of trying to incite anti-racist to his son.

Jammu: Police on Friday arrested two drug peddlers and recovered 800 kilograms of poppy in J&K’s Udhampur district, officials said. A police team conducting routine checks of the vehicle on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway intercepted an oil tanker at Jakhani, they said. . Two inter-state smug glers, who were smuggling the consignment of poppy straw outside the union territory, were also arrested, they said.

PUNJAB DGP ORDERS QUARTERLY INSPECTION OF GUN HOUSES

FIR LODGED AGAINST ASSAM MADRASA FOR ‘TEACHING JIHADI IDEOLOGY’

800 KG OF POPPY SEIZED IN JAMMU, TWO SMUGGLERS ARRESTED

Bhagwant Mann

Rajiv Kumar

Shraddha Walkar was admitted to Ozone Multispecialty Hospital of Nalasopara area in 2020.

FRIEND HAD HELPED HER FILE AN FIR

BRIEFS

ONLY 11% TECH INVESTMENT IN DEEP TECH STARTUPS

Working quickly on UK-India FTA: Sunak

Bengaluru: India’s deep tech startups need higher seed and early stage fund ing to grow faster as only 11% of technology-related funds reach this ecosys tem as of now, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) president De bjani Ghosh said on Friday.

Deep tech or deep technol ogy startups are enterpris es that work in the area of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, ro botics, quantum, block chain, Internet of Things, drones and AR. —PTI

WHEAT SOWING UP 15% TO 101.49 LAKH HECTARE SO FAR

UNDER DATA PROTECTION BILL

`500 cr penalty proposed for each data breach

New Delhi: Area sown to wheat has risen by 15% to 101.49 lakh hectares while pulses acreage has declined in the current rabi season so far com pared to the year-ago pe riod. Acc to sowing data, wheat has been sown in 101.49 lakh hectares till November 18 of this rabi season as against 88.46 lakh hectares. However, the area sown to pulses remained lower at 73.25 lakh hectares so far this rabi season as against 76.08 lakh hectares in the year-ago period. —PTI

SEBI PLANS TO INTRODUCE NEW SCORES SYSTEM

New Delhi (PTI): The gov ernment has raised the penalty amount to up to Rs 500 crore for violating pro visions under the proposed draft Digital Personal Pro tection Bill 2022 issued.

The draft personal data protection bill, issued in 2019, had proposed a pen alty of Rs 15 crore or 4% of the global turnover of an entity. “The purpose of this Bill is to provide for the processing of digital per sonal data in a manner that recognises the right of in dividuals to protect their personal data, the need to process personal data for lawful purposes and for

other incidental purpos es,” an explanatory note of the draft bill said.

The proposed bill comes in place of the Data Protec tion Bill, which was with drawn by the government in August this year.

The draft proposes to set up a Data Protection Board of India, which will carry on functions as per the pro visions of the bill.

New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the UK govern ment remains committed to working “as quickly as possible” towards a suc cessful conclusion to the ongoing free trade agree ment (FTA) talks with In dia, as the majority of the substantive negotiation conversations were com pleted at the end of last month.

The British Indian leader updated Parliament that he reviewed progress on the FTA during his first meet ing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since tak ing charge at 10 Downing Street. He was questioned by Opposition Labour Party

Some foreign Cos keen to bring hyperloop tech to India: Niti member

New Delhi (PTI): Some foreign companies have shown interest to bring hy perloop technology for ul tra-high-speed travel in In dia, but discussions are at a very early stage, Niti Aayog Member VK Saras wat said on Friday.

“We have also interacted with some of the compa nies which are foreign com panies, which are already developing this (hyperloop) technology.

“They have shown some interest in bringing this technology (to India). The discussion is in a very ear ly stage,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

MARKETS SLIP FOR 2ND DAY; CLOSE FLAT FOR THE WEEK

New Delhi: Capital mar kets regulator Sebi is planning to overhaul the existing investors com plaint system SCORES by introducing a newer ver sion of its website and mobile application fea tures. In this regard, the Sebi has invited expres sions of interest from in terested parties to replace the old system with a new version. SCORES (SEBI Complaints Re dressal System) is an on line platform designed to help investors lodge their complaints pertaining to the securities market, mainly against listed companies and registered intermediaries. —PTI

Mumbai (PTI): Market benchmarks ended lower for the second straight ses sion on Friday, paring their initial gains amid a mixed trend in the global equities.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 87.12 points or 0.14% to settle at 61,663.48.

During the day, it fell 413.17 points or 0.66% to 61,337.43.

The broader NSE Nifty dipped 36.25 points or 0.20% to end at 18,307.65 .

From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, In dusInd Bank, NTPC, Bhar ti Airtel, ITC and UltraT ech Cement were among the laggards.

PAYTM SHARES END OVER 1% HIGHER

New Delhi (PTI): Shares of One97 Communications, Paytm’s parent firm, on Friday ended over 1% higher, a day after falling sharply. In morning trade, the stock had declined over 2% after SoftBank divested 4.5% stake in the firm for Rs 1,631 crore through an open market transac tion. The stock dipped 2.23% to Rs 527.50 during the day on the BSE. But it recovered all the lost ground and ended at Rs 546.30 apiece, higher by 1.25%.

RUPEE SLIPS 6 PAISE TO CLOSE AT 81.70/$

Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 6 paise to close at 81.70 (pro visional) against the US dollar on Friday amid a lacklustre trend in do mestic equities and firming crude oil prices. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened up at 81.59 and later erased all its early gains. During the session, it witnessed a high of 81.52 and a low of 81.78. The domestic unit finally settled at 81.70 against the American currency, registering a fall of 6 paise over its previous close of 81.64.

AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENTARY PANEL RECOMMENDS RATIFICATION OF AI-ECTA

New Delhi (PTI): An Australian parliamentary committee on treaties has recommended to its government to ratify the trade pact with India, which was inked on April 2 this year. The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agree ment (AI-ECTA) needs ratification by the Australian parliament before its implementation. In India, such pacts are approved by the Union Cabinet. “The Joint Standing Committee on Trea ties has recommended the Australian Government ratifies the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA),” according to a release of the Australian Parliament issued on Friday. Committee Chair Josh Wilson MP said that this ‘early harvest’ agreement with India paves the way for further trade, market access, investment and regulation that requires global cooperation.

Conservative Party MPs on the timeline for the completion of the agree ment with India.

“I discussed the free

cessful conclusion to the negotiations,” said Sunak.

“Without negotiating all these things in public, I am pleased that the majority of the substantive negotia tion conversations were concluded by the end of October. We will now work at pace with the Indian teams to try to resolve the issues and come to a mutu ally satisfactory conclu sion,” he said.

trade agreement with In dia, and both the Prime Minister of India and I com mitted our teams to work ing as quickly as possible to see if we can bring a suc

More broadly, he reiter ated the UK government’s stance since the Diwali deadline for the FTA was missed, that he would not “sacrifice quality for speed” because it is impor tant to take the time to get trade deals right.

Economy on course to acheive 7% growth in FY’23: RBI article

Mumbai (PTI): With head line inflation beginning to show signs of easing, the domestic macroeconomic outlook appears to be resil ient and on a course for about 7% GDP growth in the current fiscal, an RBI article said on Friday.

The article published also said the outlook for the global economy remains clouded with downside risks. Global financial con ditions have been tighten ing and deteriorating mar ket liquidity is amplifying financial price movements.

Markets are now pricing in moderate increases in policy rates and risk-on ap petite has returned. In In

Visa processing to reach prepandemic level in

FY23: US

Washington (PTI): The US visa processing is re bounding faster than pro jected and is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels in Fiscal Year 2023, the State Department has said.

“The Department of State is successfully lower ing visa interview wait times worldwide. We have doubled our hiring of US Foreign Service personnel to do this important work, visa processing is rebound ing faster than projected, and in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 we expect to reach pre-pan demic visa processing lev els,” it said in a media note on Thursday.

dia, supply responses in the economy are gaining strength, it noted.

“With headline inflation beginning to show signs of easing, the domestic mac roeconomic outlook can best be characterised as re silient but sensitive to for midable global headwinds,” the article said.

OTHER STORIES

FM SITHARAMAN URGES AIIB TO SCALE UP INVESTMENT IN R-E

New Delhi: FM Sitharaman on Friday asked the AIIB to scale up investment in renewal energy and smart technol ogies. “While appreciating AIIB’s growing portfolio in India, FM Smt.@ nsitharaman suggested that @ AIIB_Official should scale-up #investments and mobilise private finance in India’s key priority areas including #RenewableEnergy, #Energy Efficiency and climate #Smart Technologies,” the finance ministry said in a tweet. —PTI

z The outlook for the global economy remains clouded with downside risks. Global financial conditions have been tightening and deteriorating market liquidity is amplifying financial price movements

BLACKSTONE-BACKED NEXUS FILES FOR $500 MILLION IPO

New Delhi: Blackstonesponsored Nexus Select Trust has filed the draft paper with market regula tor Sebi to launch India’s first public issue of retail REIT to raise around $500 mn (about `4,000 crore), sources said. As per the sources, Nexus Select Trust has on Thursday filed the DRHP with the Sebi and is looking to hit the capital market with India’s first retail REIT public issue in the first half of the 2023 calendar year. —PTI

MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA EXPECTS TO END CURRENT FISCAL WITH 3,700 SALES OUTLETS

5G services available across Delhi NCR

New Delhi (FIB): Telecom major Jio on Friday said that it has started to pro vide 5G coverage across Delhi NCR

New Delhi: The maximum tenure of CEO and MD of public sector banks has been increased to 10 years, a move that will help the government re tain the best talent in the banking sector. The term for the appointment has been extended to 10 years, from the earlier 5 years, subject to superan nuation age of 60 years. Earlier, the MD of a PSU bank was eligible for a maximum tenure of 5 years or 60 years which ever was earlier. —PTI

The company said that its 5G service is available across Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and other major NCR locations where it is delivering data speed of up to 1 gigabit per second.

“Covering the majority of the National Capital and NCR region is a matter of pride for us. Jio is expand ing its True-5G reach at a rapid pace and has already rolled out a large portion of

the planned True-5G net work in this area. It is the only operator to be present across the Delhi-NCR re gion with True-5G services.

“The reason Jio engi neers are working round

the clock to deliver True-5G to every Indian is because of the transformational power of this technology and the exponential bene fits it can deliver to every citizen,” Jio official said.

AIRTEL LAUNCHES 5G PLUS SERVICE AT LOHEGAON AIRPORT Pune (PTI): Bharti Airtel has deployed Airtel 5G Plus service here at Lohegaon Airport, mak ing it the first airport in the state to provide ultrafast 5G services. The telecom service provider stated in a release that custom ers flying in and out of Pune can enjoy high-speed Airtel 5G Plus across the airport terminal. All customers with 5G smart phones will enjoy the high-speed Airtel 5G Plus on their existing data plans. There is no need to change the SIM as the existing Airtel 4G SIM is 5G enabled, it said. Airtel recently announced the advent of 5G at the new airport Terminal in Bengaluru.

New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India expects its sales network to touch the 3,700-mark by the end of this fiscal amid a push to ramp up production capacity at its Manesarbased plant by 1 lakh units to cater to enhanced demand, according to a senior company official. The country’s largest carmaker on Friday crossed the 3,500 car sales outlets mark, more than doubling it from 1,300 dealerships a decade ago. “We are likely to touch the 3,700 outlets mark by March-end,” MSI Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, said. —PTI

CENTRE REFUTES ANY SHORTAGE OF KEY FERTILISERS

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday said there is adequate availability of key fertilisers, including urea and DAP, across the country for the ongoing rabi season. “There have been some media reports claiming short age of fertilizers in Trichy, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Such reports are beyond the facts. It is clarified that there is more than adequate availability of fertilizers in the country to meet the needs of the ongoing rabi (winter) season, it said. —PTI

‘POWER FROM COAL, GAS FORMS BASE LOAD AT PRESENT’

New Delhi: Union Minister R K Singh on Friday said electric ity generated from coal and gas forms the base load as round-theclock supply of renewable energy is not viable at present due to expensive storage. The power minister also said eventually coal and gas-based energy will be phased out.

“Battery storage cost is Rs 10 per KWh. Solar power is Rs 2.30 KWh. You cannot have round-the-clock without storage...,” he said.

GOVT RAISES

TENURE OF PSU BANKS’ CEO

Leader Keir Starmer and his own

ACC TO LATEST RBI ARTICLE

JIO’S CAPITAL MOVE

HC stays criminal proceedings against Chahal

HC grants bail to Elgar case accused Anand Teltumbde

First India Bureau

First India Bureau

Mumbai: The Bom bay High Court on Friday stayed crimi nal proceedings ini tiated against Bri hanmumbai Munici pal Corporation (BMC) Commission er Iqbal Chahal for alleged discrimina tory orders passed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A single bench of Justice Amit Borkar noted that prima facie no offence was made out as alleged in the complaint filed against the civic chief in De cember 2021.

The complainant, Ambar Koiri, had al leged that the orders passed for imposing re strictions during the COVID-19 pandemic discriminated between vaccinated and unvac cinated citizens.

Earlier this month, a magistrate’s court had issued process (sum

THE CONTENTION

In the complaint, Koiri sought action against the trio for commission of offences of willful disregard and defiance of the guidelines issued by the National Authority under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, with ulterior motive to give wrongful benefit to the vaccine companies. It further claimed that when vaccinated persons were also at risk of getting infected and spread ing COVID-19, then there was no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.

mons) against Chahal. Summons was also issued against former Chief Secretary Sitar am Kunte and former Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani under relevant provisions of the Dis aster Management Act. BMC Commissioner Chahal challenged this before the high court.

Justice Borkar, while staying the pro ceeding against Cha hal, said that even if the allegations made in the complaint are taken at face value, they do not constitute any offence.

“If the order of issu ance of process (by the magistrate) is perused, no material is showed

against the petitioner (Chahal) that he know ingly disobeyed any or der of law or caused injury to any person,” said the court.

In the complaint, the petitioner sought ac tion against the trio for commission of offences of willful disregard and defiance of the guide lines issued by the Na tional Authority under the Disaster Manage ment Act, 2005, with ul terior motive to give wrongful benefit to the vaccine companies.

Koiri, in his plea, stated that the accused (Kunte, Chahal and Ka kani) had conspired with each other and vio lated the fundamental rights of many citizens, including him.

Bail for disgraced cop Sachin Waze in Anil Deshmukh-related PMLA case

Mumbai: A special court in Mumbai granted bail to dis missed police officer Sachin Waze in an al leged money laun dering case linked to former state minis ter Anil Deshmukh, on Friday.

Waze, however, will not walk out of jail as he is an accused in oth er cases including the bomb scare incident near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s resi dence Antilia and the subsequent murder of Thane-based business man Mansukh Hiren.

This was Waze’s sec

ond application for bail under Section 88 of the Code of Criminal Pro cedure (CrPC), which deals with cases where an applicant is remand ed in judicial custody without having been ar rested earlier under the

Former police officer cooperated with ED investigation, says court; hasn’t decided if he can turn approver in case yet

stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The special judge for PMLA cases, RN Rokade, allowed Waze’s bail application.

Though the Enforce ment Directorate (ED) had named Waze as an accused, he was never formally arrested in this case, he said.

Waze, in his bail plea

filed through advo cates Sajal Yadav and Harsh Gangurde, stat ed that he was not ar rested under the PMLA and hence, the rigour of the Act (under which it is difficult to get bail) will not be ap plicable to him.

While granting Waze bail, the court noted that he had not been ar rested by the ED. He co operated with the probe and the ED did not ob ject to his plea seeking grant of pardon in the case, the court said.

It also considered the fact that Deshmukh has been granted bail by the high court in the same court.

First India Bureau Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to direct three city-based businessmen to va cate premises oc cupied by them in south Mumbai’s Al-Sabah Court building. It noted that tenancy agreements of the premises, which is owned by the royal family of Kuwait, were not “forged or fabricated.”

The royal family of Kuwait, had al leged Sanjay Pu namiya, Amish Shaikh and Mahesh Soni had “illegally and forcibly” occu pied the premises in their building. A suit was filed in 2014, which is still pend ing hearing.

They also filed an application seeking interim orders ask ing the trio to va cate the premises and pay compensa tion for illegal pos session since 2013.

Mumbai: The Bom bay High Court on Friday granted bail to scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde, ar rested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. It noted that prima facie the only case made out against him relates to alleged association with a terror outfit and support given to it, for which the max imum punishment is 10 years in jail.

A division bench comprising Justices AS Gadkari and MN Jad hav said Teltumbde has already spent more than two years in jail.

The high court, how ever, stayed its order for a week so that the Na tional Investigation Agency (NIA), the pros ecuting agency in the case, can approach the Supreme Court. This means that Teltumbde will not be able to walk out of jail till then.

Teltumbde, 73, has been lodged at the Talo ja prison in Navi Mum bai since his arrest in the case in April 2020. The high court grant

TAKING TO THE SKIES

Says his alleged association with terror outfit may only lead to sentence of 10 years, if convicted; stays order for 7 days

ed bail to him on a sure ty of one lakh rupees.

The bench, while pro nouncing its order, said prima facie only offenc es under Section 38 (as sociation with a terror ist organization) and 39 (support given to a ter rorist organization) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA)

are made out against Teltumbde by the NIA.

“The maximum pun ishment in those offenc es is 10 years of impris onment, and the appli cant (Teltumbde) has already been incarcer ated for more than two years in prison,” said the court.

Teltumbde had moved the high court last year after a special court re fused to grant him bail.

In his plea, Teltumb de had claimed that he was never present at the December 31, 2017 Elgar Parishad event held in Pune city or made any provocative speeches.

LAUGHTER DOSE

Memes, films & satire: Mumbai police shares its sense of humour

First India Bureau

Mumbai: A ubiqui tous khaki uniform with the police force logo is not typically associated with wit or humour. But Mum bai police are break ing this stereotype, with memes, movies and satire.

It’s a young team that is leading the effort with quirky yet inform ative messages.

A GIF of a song from Shah Rukh Khan’s block buster movie ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’

was a popular tweet on the Mumbai police’s Twitter feed recently. It was captioned ‘Fraud sters savings le Jayenge,’ and warned Mumbai kars not to share their OTPs with anyone.

Similarly, to com memorate World Men tal Health Day, Mumbai police used an image of a WhatsApp inbox with the message, ‘How are you?’ And answer that as “I am fine. All good.” The goal was to get peo ple to talk about their mental health.

Since 2016 such

I always knew it had to be the Mumbai police to begin with, since the work they do is signifi cant. In times of crisis, it is the journalists and police who are out.

tweets have become the highlight of Mumbai police’s social media ac counts, particularly its Twitter handle.

More than two lakh tweets, 4,000-odd videos and photos, and 4.9 mil lion followers have made Mumbai police one of the most sought-after

Twitter handles among the public service han dles, The Print reported.

And it’s 40-year-old Sun chika Pandey, a former crime reporter, who is at the helm of this hugely successful initiative.

“I always knew it had to be the Mumbai police to begin with, since the

work they do is signifi cant. In times of crisis, it’s the journalists and police who are out,” says Pandey—founder of Think Hat Media that handles Mumbai police’s social media account.

Pandey was working as a crime reporter with a television news chan nel before she ventured into the world of social media, which was still a relatively new medium at the time. “We decided to use satire and respon sible humour, as we call it, for our messaging,” Pandey adds.

The Surya Kiran team of the Indian Air Force performs during a rehearsal for Air Fest 2022, in Nagpur, on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Screenshots of tweets posted by the social media team of Mumbai police on Twitter.

—Sunchika Pandey, Founder, Think Hat Media

Mumbai civic chief, two others stand accused of passing unfavourable orders during nCoV pandemic

Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal visits Dharavi at the peak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. —FILE PHOTO

Teltumbde has spent more than two years in jail. —FILE PHOTO

First India Bureau

Sachin Waze

HC refuses to ask 3 bizmen to vacate Mumbai bldg

Her Potential Is

MRIDULA SHARMA cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

When you culti vate a deep sense of faith in your abili ties and an in domitable spirit, noth ing can stop you from succeeding in your pursuits and living with great rewards, the quote has been proved by this dazzling beauty from Haryana who is also a finalist of the First India Queen stood tall against every hardship she has faced in her journey.

The 21 years old, Kalpana Yadav is cur rently pursuing her bachelor’s degree from Delhi University. She is also a national-level archer, athlete and cer tified yoga trainer. Ac cording to Kalpana, her father is the inspi ration behind her be ing independent in to day’s world.

“Being brought up in a boarding school taught me accountabil ity and self-contain ment. Becoming a role model came naturally to me after losing my mother at 17. There are ample opportunities in life, the thing is we need to find our call ing. I am grateful to the First India Queen for giving me this oppor

tunity and also ex tremely thankful to the Jagdeesh Chandra Sir for finding me worthy enough to be in the show.” Talking about self-acceptance beauty said, “Some challenges are physical attributes of a person that needs to be accepted by one because we need to un derstand that we all are unique. At the end of the day, acceptance is something we all should cherish. Per sonality is super essen tial to make a mark in modelling and that is our part to leave a mark in society on the way we speak, the way we carry our selves, and how people respect us.” expressed Kalpana.

While stating her achievements Kalpana shared “I have been an athlete there are a lot of rewarding moments in my life, But a re warding moment in the modelling/pageant field is When I won Runway 1. Miss Guru gram 1 st runner up and Miss body fit title.

And lastly, I believe taking small steps

“At the end of the day, acceptance is Something we all should cherish” expressed Kalpana Yadav, One of the finalists of First India Queen during a chit-chat session with City First

Of all the mod ern-age dis eases and ail ments that plague socie ty, arguably the worst, most unattended epi demic is that of Smart phone Addiction. Let us be under no mis conceptions here, and call a spade, a spade. It is, very much, an ad diction. What consti tutes an addiction? Is it not when there is tangible irritability and annoyance when the concerned sub stance is denied to the subject? I find that for too many young kids nowadays, denial or taking away their re spective cell phones leads to anger and ir rational outbursts! It is a most worrisome phenomenon that is multiplying steadily, and we need to under stand it, curb it, and correct it!

ROOT CAUSE

Most of us parents, perhaps tired from our hectic jobs, suffering the pitfalls of living nuclear, are happy to entertain our toddlers with cell phones/ screen content/vide os, just to get that ten or fifteen minutes of much-needed peace. At the time, it hardly seemed like anything was wrong. At the time, it rarely feels like a compromise or

the setting up of a wrong precedent that could later have poten tially catastrophic consequences.

It is however in suc cumbing to these tem porary lures wherein we lay the seeds of fur ther and serious addic tion. Children absorb things unconsciously, and subconsciously, and by exposing them to a regular cycle of screen time, we are al ready conditioning their minds and sys tems to receive that daily ‘dose’ of phone, akin to that certain amount of nicotine, or any addictive sub stance for that matter!

NIP IT IN THE BUD!

The wisest course of action, which I appre ciate is easier said than done, is for us parents to NOT give our toddlers this screen time, to begin with. To engage, dis tract, and entertain them through alterna tive means such as n Garden Play n Kinesthetic Activi ties n Story Time

By NOT setting up the habit, there will be NO expectation. Where there is no ex pectation, there is no habit formation or any negatives such as dis appointment or frus tration, then associat ed with NOT receiving that ‘daily dose’ of the screen.

NEVER TOO LATE!

In case you have not managed to ‘nip it in the bud’ and have un fortunately and inad vertently created a situation where your child is now a young kid, a student at school, seeking his or her regularly and

SMARTPHONE ADDICTION IN KIDS!

alarmingly increasing screen time; it is still NOT too late. There are ways of dealing with addiction even at this stage.

SET THE RIGHT EXAMPLE

Children watch their parents carefully and not only do they learn/ imbibe/follow by ob servation, but they are also increasingly prone to pointing out the points of hypocri sy in our behaviour, contradictions be tween our own actions and what we preach and expect of our chil dren. If we are seen to be on our smartphones half the day, we cannot

not qualifying that statement any further.

It’s all well and good to say, distract your smartphone-addicted child. But with what?

I find the best and most effective distrac tions come by way of ‘interests.

If the distraction is not enjoyable, the child will relapse into the habit. So the dis traction must be de signed to be engaging. And one sure-shot way of ensuring that is for that activity to relate directly to the child’s interests. For exam ple, if the child loves Photography, enrol them in a Photogra phy Workshop!

either scenario, the parent making time and investing it in the child will serve as the best possible solution. It will make the child loved and special. And, a parent and child spending time together will also cre ate opportunities for the child to discover interests (through the course of parent-child interaction, spending time chatting, travel ling, doing things to gether). Smartphone addiction is a serious problem with dire consequences ranging from:

n Loss of Innocence n Loss of Academic Interest

ARIES

MAR 21 - APR 20

Your innovative ideas on the professional front are likely to be well received.

Good health will keep you fit and energetic.

Spirituality will have a special allure for you. You are likely to expand your social circle. You are likely to get immense fulfillment in your current romantic relationship.

TAURUS

APR 21 - MAY 20

You succeed in putting an ambitious project on the tracks and cross all hurdles in making it a success.

Homemakers can exceed budget in doing up their homes. An old friend or a relative is likely to pay you a visit. Love beckons and promises to give immense joy and fulfillment.

GEMINI

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

A job switch needs to be considered taking all aspects into consideration. It is one of those days when you will feel satisfied with whatever you do on the social front. Those seeking love may not get lucky, but persistence will pay. A friend or relative can touch a sensitive nerve and get you all upset.

CANCER

JUNE 22 - JULY 23 You will put in extra efforts to complete a task. Your academic aspirations may take some time to get realised.

A contentious property issue may not show any signs of getting sorted out amicably, so have a backup plan ready. Financial worries evaporate as new avenues of earning open up.

LEO

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

LIBRA

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

Homemakers will get a chance to implement their ideas. You are likely to be recognised for your efforts on the professional front. Chance of a raise is possible for some. Timely and correct decision will help you in saving a lot of money. You will be able to de-stress yourself completely today.

SCORPIO

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Speculation may not be profitable and you can very well burn your fingers, so take precautions. A major purchase may make a dent in your savings, but will help in keeping up with the flow. Some of you may get hard pressed to find a good match for someone eligible in the family.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV 23 - DEC 22

A profitable day for entrepreneurs is envisaged. You may be played upon for spending on someone else’s needs and desires.

Homemakers are likely to enjoy the day in the company of neighbors and friends. Fatigue threatens in a long journey, but adequate breaks will keep you going.

CAPRICORN

DEC 23 - JAN 20

Money coming from various sources will keep you in a happy state of mind.

A new fitness regime that you have adopted promises to keep you in the pink of health. Getting an old furniture upholstered may be at the top of the mind of some homemakers. Overall health remains satisfactory.

AQUARIUS

JAN 21 - FEB 19

possibly expect our children to give up theirs. One might think that we need our phones for work, and that justifies our us age. Think from the child’s perspective. They cannot discern that intellectually. So at least in front of them, make the right decision. Lead by ex ample, first and fore most, and DO NOT be seen on the phone yourself.

SET UP THE RIGHT DISTRACTION

People will be quick to suggest ‘distractions’,

GIVE TIME:

There are two aspects to this. In the first place, smartphone addiction is caused in many cases due to lack of time on the parents’ part, which prevents them from being involved with their children. Sec ond, it isn’t always possible to create the ‘distractions’ I re ferred to earlier, be cause in some cases, children don’t have any interests (at least not ones they are con sciously aware of), aside from their smartphones! In

n Loss of Social Inter est n Inability to Commu nicate n Introvertedness n Secret/Dual

Life

As parents and car egivers, we need to make a concerted ef fort and come up with creative solutions to the problem. There is no one-size-fits-all so lution, only general suggestions, with tai lor-made details, that can be tried, because every individual is dif ferent. What’s impor tant is that we are aware, and we make the effort.

Support from the family may seem most encouraging for those aiming an academic pursuit. Sticking to workout routine may benefit you on the health front. Meeting relatives at a marriage or party cannot be ruled out. A passion-filled evening is foreseen, as romantic front brightens.

VIRGO

AUG 24 - SEP 23

Those not in a stable job can expect permanency.

You will manage to ignore distractions and interruptions at work to complete a pending task in time. Job prospects for those freshly out of professional institutes are set to brighten up soon. Health will be satisfactory.

YOUR DAY

Something concerning property will work out in your favour. A lot of time may be wasted in socialising, but you will love every moment of it. You will succeed in surmounting the odds to get a stalled job back on the tracks. A romantic outing is on the cards and promises much fun.

PISCES

FACEOFTHEDAY

FEB20 - MARCH 20 You are likely to spend an enjoyable time with a close relation today. Satisfaction is foreseen for the image conscious people trying to achieve perfect figure and physique. Your efforts on the academic front will keep you in contention. Your helping hand to someone in need will be appreciated.

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

KARTIK BAJORIA (The author is a Jaipur-based Communication Skills Educator & Writer)

FAMILY TIME

ON THE BEACH

Shahid Kapoor is often seen treating fans with cool self ies on Instagram. He also keeps sharing lovely memo ries with his wife Mira Rajput, and kids, Misha and Zain. In a picture, the Kabir Singh actor is seen look ing at Mira, Misha and Zain from a distance as they spend time on the beach. Mira is seen playing with Misha and making sand cas tles while Zain is seen enjoying the serene sunset view. Shahid, on the other hand, captured this beauti ful moment while sitting at a dis tance. Sharing the adorable pic ture with fans, he wrote, “Life!” He shared the picture with AP Dhil lion’s song Wo Noor playing in the backdrop. Soon after he

GOVINDA COMING SOON..

icky Kaushal took to his Instagram account and announced that Govinda Naam Mera is set to stream on Disney+ Hot star from 16th December 2022. The new poster shows him as Govinda Wagh mare, and sharing the same, Vicky wrote, “Govinda naam mera, naachna kaam mera. Aa raha hun jald, apni ka haani le kar! #GovindaNaam Mera streaming from 16th Dec, only on Disney+ Hot

star!” Karan Johar

two ad ditional character posters featur ing Kiara Advani and Bhumi Ped nekar. The poster introduces Bhumi as ‘Govinda ki hotty wife,’ while Kiara as ‘Govinda ki naughty girl friend.’ Karan wrote, “Hero, his wife & his girlfriend - what could possi bly go wrong, right? A LOT it seems! Get ready for some murder, mystery, madness & masala!”

Sara Ali Khan enjoys a crazy fanbase all across the nation. Her fans al ways keep an eye on her upcoming project and its up date. While it is usual for Sara's fans to shower their immense love on her for almost every thing, they have now got her new look with Vicky Kaushal from Laxman Utekar's film, which has created more antici pation for the fresh pairing on screen. As Sara Ali Khan is com ing on the screen for the first time with Vicky Kaushal in Lax

arineeti took to social media on Thursday and shared that she used a hair dryer to keep her self warm in the cold region while shooting for her film 'Uunchai'. She called her hair dryer her saviour. Parineeti also dropped a video in which she is seen blowing hot air into her boots and using a hair dryer to keep her feet warm. The actress' hack has impressed many.

Speaking of 'Uunchai', the film is helmed by Sooraj Barjatya. It is the story of three friends (Anupam Kher, Amitabh Bachchan and Boman Irani) who

go on to climb Mt Ever est to fulfil the wish of their late friend, played by Danny Denzongpa. Parineeti essays the role of a trek leader in the film.

Hrithik & Saba to move in together

Asource close to Hrithik Roshan revealed that the Bang Bang actor and his girlfriend Saba Azad have been planning to move in to gether for quite some time now. It is reported that these two will be moving in together into an apartment in a building called Man nat in Mumbai. Appar ently, the top two floors of the building are be ing renovated and the couple will shift there very soon. Hrithik has spent nearly Rs 100

crore on the two apart ments, which are spread over three floors. The Greek God of Bollywood pur chased the two apart ments for Rs 97.50 crore, which are located near the Juhu-Versova link road. His apartments give an amazing view of the Arabian Sea and they are spread over 38,000 sq ft. For the du plex, located on the 15th and 16th floor, the actor paid Rs 67.50 crore. And on the other apartment, he spent nearly Rs 30 crore.

iddharth

starrer

Majnu will di rectly release

shared

Malhotra and Rashmika Man danna

Mission

on OTT. The movie will be released on Netflix on January 18 next year. For the unversed, Mission Majnu will narrate a story based on India's RAW op eration in Pakistan. As per a report, the streaming platform is expected to make an announcement regarding the same in the coming days. Quoting a source in the report, the portal said, “The makers have decided to release the film on January 18 on Netflix. The platform will make an official an nouncement soon.”

Parineeti Chopra

Kiara Advani

Saba Azad

Mira Rajput

Sara Ali Khan

Rashmika Mandanna

movie

Poster of the movie

Ira Khan and Nupur Shikhare get engaged

ADITI CHAVAN cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Ira Khan is a star kid that has never been a part of the main stream Bollywood culture. Yet she has had a massive fan following for her theatre work. She has also been appreciated time and again for her outspoken ways where she has opened up about her mental illness as well. Ira also never shied away from sharing about her love life and revealing some cosy bits from her relation ship with a gym trainer, Nu pur Shikhare. The 25-yearold recently was proposed to by her long-time boyfriend romantically. Now, the two have finally made things official as they got engaged to each oth er in front of family and friends on November 18.

Ira looked absolutely beautiful in a red strapless gown and could be seen smil ingly widely as she linked arms with her fiancé. Nupur donned a classic black tuxe do and posed with everyone happily. The close-knitted af fair was attended by Nupur and Ira’s close friends and family and some of Aamir’s industry friends as well. The guest list included Akshara Haasan, Gulshan Devaiah, Vijay Verma, Ashutosh Gowariker, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Imran Khan.

Nupur Shikhare proposed to Ira in September in a very Bollywood way when he got down on one knee at one of his cycling events in Italy. Ira was seen standing aside with the onlookers when Nupur came to her. After sharing a kiss, he immediately went down on a knee and asked her to marry him on the mic. A shy Ira im mediately replied with a yes! The video was shared by her on her Instagram account with the caption, “Popeye: She said yes Ira: Hehe I said yes.”

The couple fell in love when Ira decided to take up fitness during the lock down. She had just gotten out of a serious re lationship with musician Mishaal Kripalani. Nupur who was Aamir Khan’s per sonal trainer then started training Ira as well. They both bonded during that time and eventually fell in love. They made their relationship offi cial in 2021 and now it seems that their love has proven itself to be stronger and deep er. Congratulations to the adorable couple!

Neha Bhasin's Star Studded Birthday Bash!

ASHISH TIWARI cityfirst.mumbai@firstindia.co.in

Singer Neha Bhasin of Bigg Boss 15 fame cel ebrated her 40th birth day by throwing a starstudded bash for her industry friends on Thursday. She cut a stiletto-themed cake and danced on a table at the party. The singer caught every one's attention with her siz zling, hot avatar. Neha was seen in yet another head-turn ing look donning an embel lished silver co-ord set consist ing of a bralette and a seer trail that came with a thighhigh slit. She dished out major fashion goals with her latest look. Neha left everyone stunned with her killer moves at her birthday bash

Known for her 'bindaas An daz,' Neha Bhasin was seen ringing in her birthday with her friends in the most joyous way

Also present at her birthday bash were Rashami Desai, Umar Riaz, Rajiv Adatia, Zee shan Khan, Nishant Bhatt, Himesh Reshammiya, and others.

Hospital. Vishal moved back to liv ing in Bay View in the third week of October at Juhu Versova Link Road which was previously oc cupied by Sussanne Khan. A source told ETimes, “Nushrratt indeed came into Vishal's flat on rent on November 4. Her parents also stay with her. They seem happy in Vishal's flat. Vishal's flat was done up by Vishal and his wife Re kha very well; they really have great taste in decor.”

Ever since the announcement of a film on our three-time Prime Minister was announced, it piqued the audi ence's interest to know who will be playing the role of Atal Bihari Vajpay ee, a leader par ex cellence. With Pan kaj Tripathi joining hands with the mak ers of this film, the excitement within the audienc es has raised a notch higher. The film will be helmed by three times National Award winner Ravi Jadhav, one of the renowned directors of the Marathi film Industry and writ ten by Utkarsh Naithani.

‘Main

Rehna Chahi ye- ATAL’ revolves around the journey of Atal Bihari Vaj payee, an honoura ble leader of India and one of the cofounders and a sen ior leader of the Bhartiya Janta Par ty (BJP).

Speaking about playing Atalji, Pankaj Tripathi ex pressed, “It's my honour to portray such a humane poli tician on screen. He was not just a politi cian but so much more, he was an ex cellent writer and a renowned poet. Get ting to be in his shoes is nothing but a privilege for an ac tor like me.”

Ayushmann Khur rana is known for his selection of niche films that leave an impact on the audience. Today, the ac tor is one of the leading stars of Hindi cinema with a major fan fol lowing. While Ayushmann is al ways one to speak his mind, he also has never been shy to admit his failures and shy away from facing the truth. Recently, he opened up about the fail ures of his last three films, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, Anek and Doctor G.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui which stars him opposite Vaani Ka poor is a quirky love story of a trans woman. While the film had re ceived positive reviews upon its on line release, it failed to garner an audi ence in the thea tres. Addressing this issue, Ayush mann revealed that because the country is homophobic, films like Chandi garh Kare Aashiqui fail to do well.

ly moved into it. Nushr ratt is currently living in Vishal and Rekha Bharadwaj’s flat on

rent. Before this, she resided at Windsor Apartments, opposite Mumbai's Cooper

Rahoon Ya Na Rahoon Yeh Desh

Nushrratt Bharuccha

Ayushmann Khurrana

Vishal Bharadwaj and Nushrratt Bharuccha

Pankaj Tripathi

Vijay Verma

Imran Khan

Ashutosh and Sunita Gowariker

Aamir Khan with his mother

Gulshan Devaiah and Akshara Haasan

Azaad Khan and Kiran Rao

Neha Bhasin with Umar Riaz

Rajiv Adatia, Rashami Desai, Neha Bhasin and Umar Raiz

Neha bhasin with DSP and friends

Neha Bhasin with Rashami Desai

Neha Bhasin with Nishant Bhat

Amit Gupta, Rashami Desai, Neha Bhasin, Sajid and Friends

Ira Khan and Nupur Shikhare