First India-Delhi Edition-25th September 2022

NSE PHONE TAPPING

CASE: CBI ARRESTS TOP COP

LOCALS TORCH RESORT, BJP EXPELS ACCUSED’S FATHER

Mumbai: The CBI has taken four-day custody of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey. This devp comes in connection with illegal phone tapping of NSE employees by his IT firm, officials said on Saturday. Alleged fraud against Pandey relates to manipulation of the stock market through the electronic contrivances.

MEA’S ADVISORY AGAINST FRAUD IT JOBS ABROAD

New Delhi: India on Saturday issued an advisory warning its nationals about fake jobs on media following case of over 100 workers being lured to Myanmar by dubious firms. have far rescued Indian who were taken to a remote part of Myanmar on the pretext of lucrative IT jobs.

EYES ON 2024 POLLS: NITISH AND LALU TO MEET SONIA TODAY

Police recovers body of the receptionist from the Cheela canal where she was dumped

A SIT formed to probe into the case: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami

Naxalism finished in Bihar, Jharkhand regions: Shah

HM inaugurates 5 Border Out Posts of SSB in Kishanganj, lauds SSB for role in fight Kishanganj (ANI): Lauding the role of the Sashastra Seema Bal in the battle against Naxal ism, Union Home Minis ter Amit Shah on Satur day said owing to their “tough fight”, Naxalism has been finished in Bi har and Jharkhand re gions. Shah also inaugu rated 5 Border Out Posts of SSB in Kishanganj.

New Delhi: In an effort to unite Opposition parties ahead of the 2024 LS polls, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad will be meeting Cong president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Sunday. Earlier in the month, Nitish met Rahul, signalling that he is not in favour of keeping Cong out of an anti-BJP Oppn formation.

CHILD PORN: CBI RAIDS 56 PLACES

IN 20 STATES Delhi: the of and of ‘Operation Meghchakra’. The name of op comes from the agency cracking down on ‘cloud servers’.

Dehradun: The BJP on Saturday expelled Vi nod Arya, the father of Pulkit Arya, who is the main accused in a re ceptionist’s murder in Pauri district here. Vi nod Arya is a former minister and member of national executive of the BJP OBC Morcha. Pulkit's brother Ankit Arya has also been ex pelled from the party with immediate effect. He was earlier removed also from the post of Deputy Chairman of the Uttarakhand Other Backward Classes Com mission.

Meanwhile, anger is mounting as locals set fire to the Vantara re sort, which was owned by Pulkit. Cops on Sat urday recovered body.

KILLED FOR DENYING ‘SPECIAL SERVICES’ TO GUESTS, SAYS DGP Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said that the 19-year-old receptionist was being pressured by Pulkit Arya, the resort owner, to provide “special services” to guests. As per reports, the victim had told her friend that the owner and the managers of the resort where she worked were mounting pressure on her to have sex with guests visiting the resort.

MY GOVT WILL ENSURE HARSHEST PUNISHMENT TO CULPRITS: DHAMI

“The body of daughter Ankita was recovered this morning. My heart is deeply pained by this heartbreak ing incident,” Uttarakhand CM Dhami tweeted on Saturday.”In order to ensure the harshest punishment for the culprits, an SIT has been formed under the leadership of DIG of Police P Renuka Devi ji and ordered an in-depth investigation of this serious matter,” Dhami wrote.

“SSB jawans have fought a tough fight against Naxalism ram pant in the northeast. As a result, Naxalism is on the brink of ending in Bihar and Jharkhand regions, we can even say it is finished here,” he said. “The responsi bility increases if it’s an open border. However friendly may relations be, even if neighbouring nations have no ill inten tions, there are a few ele ments in society who use open borders for un authorised earning – be it smuggling or infiltra tion,” Shah added.

AAP alleges scam by MCD

New Delhi: The AAP on Saturday alleged a scam in garbage pro cessing at a landfill site by the city’s civic body, saying tenders were awarded for it at an “in flated rate” in 2020, a charge denied by the BJP-controlled MCD.

AAP leader Vikas Goel said the civic body unnecessarily paid Rs 2,850 extra per tonne.

‘Deendayal first to favour nuclear test’

New Delhi (PTI): De fence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday as serted that the Indian Army has the capabili ty to give a befitting re ply to any power look ing at the country with evil intentions and when it engages with China now, it does so on an equal footing.

Singh made these re

marks at an event to re lease a five-volume book on Deendayal Upadhyay in the pres ence of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

When China conduct ed the first nuclear test in 1964, Deendayal Upadhyay was the first one who spoke in favour of India conducting its nuclear test, Singh said.

When India carried out its first nuclear tests in 1998 in Ra

jasthan under the lead ership of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the idea was not to use the weapon against any country but to maintain a deterrent, he said.

“Because of that de terrence, when India’s army engages with Chi na today, it does so on an equal footing,” he said.

LG orders FIR against DJB, pvt bank officials over `20-crore ‘embezzlement’

First India Bureau

New Delhi: In yet an other salvo meant to ex pose corruption under the Kejriwal-led AAP government, Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has now ordered the lodging of an FIR against officials of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), a bank and a private company for al legedly embezzling Rs 20 crore in water bills.

DJB vice chairman and senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj wel

comed the move, saying Deputy CM Manish Siso dia had also recommend ed a probe into the mat

ter after it was brought to his notice by the then chief executive officer.

“We welcome all such

Union Bank and some of those of the DJB. All should be dealt with strictly. We do not have any problem,” Bharad waj told reporters.

Sitting in Del hi, one thinks you have the easiest duty as we’ve friendly relations with both nations (Nepal and Bhutan). But when one comes to the border, we realise that you have the toughest duty as it’s an open border.

PM Modi to launch 5G in Oct first week

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 5G services in India at an event in the first week of October, the govern ment’s National Broad band Mission tweeted on Saturday.

“Taking India’s digi tal transformation & connectivity to new heights, Hon’ble PM, @ narendramodi, will roll out 5G services in India; at India Mobile Con gress; Asia’s largest technology exhibition,” it said. The government has given a target of 80 per cent coverage of 5G telecom services in the country in the short timeframe, Union Min ister for Communica tions, Electronics & In formation Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had last week said.

MODI SOUNDS POLL

BUGLE IN HIMACHAL

New Delhi: Sounding the poll bugle in Himachal Pradesh, PM Modi said on Saturday that country had suffered in past due to unstable coalition govts at Centre and also in states & said India’s credibil ity in the world has increased. All credits goes to awakened citizens, youths. More on P5

Experts have said 5G technology will greatly benefit India. It is likely to benefit the Indian economy by ` 36.4 tril lion ($455 billion) be tween 2023 and 2040, a recent report by a glob al industry body repre senting mobile network operators estimated.

Obfuscates misdeeds in his own country: Ind to Pak PM's rant

New York (ANI): India replies against remarks made by Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif on mi norities in India & issue of Kashmir at 77 session of UNGA debate. Indian diplomat Mijito Vinito reminded Pakistan to introspect before level ling false allegations against India. He told that instead of making claims over J&K, Islam abad should stop “crossborder terrorism”. “He has done so to obfuscate misdeeds in his own country & to justify ac tions against India that world considers unac ceptable,” he said.

Tharoor to ‘challenge’ Gehlot, but latter is sure of victory!

First India Bureau

THAROOR COLLECTS NOMINATION FORM

NOMINATIONS FOR CONG PREZ BEGINS

probes. In this matter, allegations are against some officials of the central government’s

The LG has sought an action-taken report on the matter within 15 days, , sources at LG of fice said on Saturday. The matter had first come to light in 2019 with the al legation that Rs 20 crore collected in water bills from consumers was not deposited in the bank ac count of DJB. More on P8

Jaipur: The Election of Cong president has be come interesting now as another senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will also contest polls of the Congress President against Rajasthan CM Gehlot. Although Ge hlot’s victory in election is certain but now elec tion of Congress Presi dent became interesting.

If Gehlot and Tharoor contest, then northsouth factor can be seen in polls. However, there

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Satur day collected the form to run for the post of party president, making him the first leader to officially enter the contest. P6

Nominations for the Con gress president began on Saturday and the nomination papers can be filed til Sep tember 30 with results to be announced on October 19.

are speculations that Tharoor will withdraw at the last minute. Tha roor’s agenda was ensur ing Rahul’s nomination for presidency which has not happened. Mean while, all Congress MLAs of Rajasthan can go to Delhi on Sept 28 to show their support to Gehlot as he may file his nomination on Sept 28.

Sachin Pilot reached Delhi on Sat urday and will meet state in-charge Ajay Maken today. He may meet party high com mand also.

‘WE WELCOME SUCH PROBES’

DJB vice chairman Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “We welcome all such probes. Allega tions are against some officials of the central government’s Union Bank and some of those of the DJB. All should be dealt with strictly.”

Saurabh Bharadwaj

UTTARAKHAND

Moni Sharma

(T) Vanatara resort, owned by BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya being demolished, in Rishikesh on Saturday. (R) Flames & smoke billows out from resort, after it was set on fire by locals.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah interacting with the SSB’s personnel, in Fatehpur on Saturday.

CENTRE GIVES TOP PRIORITY TO BRACE BORDER INFRA: HM HM Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that the government gives top priority to strengthen the country’s borders, a reason why expenditure on infra structure development in these areas has gone up considerably under the current regime.

—Amit Shah, Home Minister

Mijito Vinito at UNGA debate.

PM Narendra Modi addresses Yuva Vijay Sankalp Rally in HP’s Mandi, via VC, on Saturday.

FAMILY

POWER HAS GONE INTO THE HEADS OF BJP LEADERS: AAP shameful, chief spokesperson Saur Bharadwaj when party’s at

PROBLEMS, RAIN FOR 3RD DAY

Covid primary cause of death in 70 patients in Aug in Delhi

n In 53% of deaths, cause ‘co-morbidities’

n From March to Sept, most deaths in August

New Delhi (PTI): Over 53 per cent of the Covidrelated deaths reported in August in Delhi was of people who had suc cumbed due to co-mor bodities or other causes but the coronavirus in fection was "incidental", according to official data. As per the data shared by authorities, in cases of 70 fatalities in the month of August, Covid was found as the "primary cause".

In 84 deaths in Au gust, coronavirus infec tion finding was "inci dental", it said.

The data on Covid-

linked fatalities was shared in form of a graph, with month-wise data on deaths spanning March to September.

Delhi Disaster Man agement Authority met here to review the Covid situation in the capital and conduct an assess ment of the dedicated resources deployed at hospitals to tackle the

Coin removed from throat, boy doing well

New Delhi (PTI): An 8-year-old suffering from recurrent cough ing and drooling trig gered by a tear in his food pipe after he swal lowed a coin made a complete recovery and has started attending school after a compli cated procedure.

The coin had been stuck in the boy’s throat for three days before he was brought to HCMCT Manipal Hospitals in Delhi’s Dwarka. The child was suffering

from recurrent cough and drooling.

Upon diagnosis, doc tors found he was suf fering from a rare and complicated condition called esophageal perfo ration (a tear in the food pipe). It caused a leak in his lungs, leading to pleural effusion and bronchial pneumonia, the hospital said.

Dr Sufla Saxena, sen ior consultant paediat ric gastroenterologist and hepatologist, per formed the procedure.

coronavirus pandemic.

Maximum number of Covid-related deaths in Delhi have taken place in the month of August in the last few months.

Four deaths in August were attributed to in "other" category, which includes burn, trauma etc. In March, in cases of 17 fatalities, COV ID-19 was found as the

"primary cause" while in 13 deaths, the corona virus infection was found to be "incidental".

In June, in cases of 14 fatalities, Covid was found as the "primary cause" while in 35 deaths, the coronavirus infection was found to be "incidental", while two fatalities were at tributed to other factors.

Delhi had recorded 40 deaths due to COVID-19 till August 10. The city had recorded two deaths on August 1, three on August 2, five on August 3, four on August 4, two on August 5, one on Au gust 6, two on August 7, six on August 8, seven on August 9 and eight on August 10, as per of ficial figures.

Parapet collapse at Hindu Rao Hospital triggers blame game

New Delhi (PTI): A portion of a parapet of a building in MCD-run Hindu Rao Hospital collapsed on Friday, triggering a blame game between the AAP and the BJP-controlled civic body.

AAP accused MCD of "tinkering with the lives" of innocent peo ple, while the latter claimed it has "not re ceived timely grants" from the AAP-led Delhi government for last two years for maintenance of infrastructure of health institutions.

“A portion of a para pet above the first floor of a building Hindu Rao Hospital collapsed to day,” a senior civic offi cial said. A car was damaged after a portion of the debris fell on it.

The AAP alleged BJP was doing nothing dur ing its 15-year reign at MCD but "corrup tion" and "maladminis tration".

STUDY HURDLE

First India Bureau

New Delhi: A man was arrested for allegedly duping women by prom ising them double re turns on their invest ment, the police said on Saturday.

Praveen alias Rohit Sehrawat, 38, from Sonipat district (Hary ana), used to befriend his targets on social me dia, they said.

A victim alleged that she received a friend re quest on social media

Who would have taken responsibil ity had there been a loss of life and property in this accident?

“Who would have taken responsibility had there been a loss of life and property in this accident?” AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak asked.

MCD in a statement

Man conned women on social media, held

from Praveen, who in troduced himself as a Grade-1 officer in Delhi Metro and an invest ment banker. Over a pe riod of time, and after small investments ini tially, he convinced her to invest Rs 10 lakh. Be lieving him, the woman sent Rs 15 lakh to his various accounts after which he remained cut off from her, police said.

Finally, a suspect was zeroed in and arrested following a raid in Kan gra district.

—Municipal Corp of Del, official statement

—Durgesh Pathak, AAP MLA MCD has not received timely grants from Delhi government under the capital head for last two years.

said, “The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has not received timely grants from Delhi gov ernment under the capital head for last two years.”

Nepalese held for aiding cyber thugs

New Delhi (PTI): A 29-yr-old Nepalese na tional was arrested for allegedly conniving with cyber frauds to con people, police said.

Suresh Chaudhary alias Abhinash Tamang of Nepal, would “open and sell” his bank ac counts to these fraud sters for money. The fraudsters would then use the same account details asking people to transfer money while duping them, they said.

Students claim Jamia denied admission to PhD after selection

lll

In Mathematics department only 2 of 15 selected candidates got admission. In Mass Comm, of 19 selected candidates, only 10 were granted admission

Vishu

New Delhi: Several students have allegedly been denied admission in various PhD pro grammes at Jamia Mil lia Islamia citing the non-availability of su pervisors despite their names being mentioned in the list of selected candidates.

However, the admin istration has claimed no students have been denied admission every name men

tioned allotted

The students have that there are 80

dates across pro grammes have seats spite having all the doc

written as well as the interview rounds.

The problem has been reported in sev eral departments, in

cluding the Depart ment of Mathematics, Department of Mass Communication, De partment of Geogra

phy, and Department of Psychology.

The students said their names appeared in the list of the select ed candidates for the PhD programmes which is still up on the website.

However, when they reached their respected dean’s offices, they were told that they are not selected.

“Our whole year has been wasted. Many of us left our jobs when we saw the list. Now we are

knocking on the doors of officials. They are not listening to us,” a PhD student, who did not wish to be named, said. The 26-year-old student wants to pursue PhD from the Geogra phy Department of the university.

The candidate left his full-time job in Ra jasthan and shifted to Delhi when he got to know that he has been selected for PhD pro gramme at Jamia Mil lia Islamia.

(L to R) Commuters wade through the waterlogged Delhi-Gurugram E’way on Saturday; vehicles ply with their headlights on during rains in New Delhi on Saturday; a woman being helped to cross a waterlogged road at Gurugram. Rains lashed Delhi for the third consecutive day on Saturday with the incessant downpour worsening the woes due to waterlogging, while the weatherman predicted more showers over the next two days. The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, gauged 6 mm of rainfall after 8.30 am on Saturday. The maximum temperature settled at 27.2 degrees Celsius, seven notches below normal. The minimum temperature settled at 22.6 degrees Celsius, one notch above normal.

PHOTOS BY ANI /PTI

Visitors at the Taj Mahal during a rainy day in Agra on Saturday.

—PHOTO BY PTI

PFI pushed youth to join LeT, ISIS’

Rajnish Singh

New Delhi: Popular Front of India (PFI), its office bearers, members and affiliates in Kerala encouraged vulnerable youths to join terrorist organisations including LeT, ISIS or Daesh and Al-Qaida and also con spired to establish Is lamic rule in India by committing a terrorist act, reveals NIA remand copy submitted before a special court in Kerala.

The Central agency also accused PFI mem bers operating from Kerala to conspire to indulge in "unlawful ac tivities by creating en mity between members of different religions and groups, prejudicial to maintenance of har mony, with the inten tion to disrupt public tranquillity and cause disaffection against In dia". The revelations came in an application for judicial remand of accused Karamana Moulavi, national in charge of PFI's Educa tion Wing, and others. The case is being inves tigated by the NIA's Kochi branch.

"The brief facts of the case is that PFI, its office bearers, members and affiliates in Kerala have conspired to indulge in Unlawful Activities, by

creating enmity be tween members of dif ferent religions and groups, prejudicial to maintenance of harmo ny, with an intention to disrupt public tranquil lity and cause disaffec tion against India, prop agating alternative jus tice delivery system justifying the use of criminal force causing alarm and fear amongst

the general public, en courages vulnerable youths to join terrorist organisation including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Islam ic State of Iraq and Syr ia (ISIS)/Daesh and AlQaida and also con spired to establish Is lamic rule in India by committing a terrorist act as a part of violent jihad," reads the remand copy.

—ANI

‘3 leaders of criminal syndicates held for conspiring terror attacks’

New Delhi (PTI) : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Saturday that three leaders of criminal syndicates were arrest ed for hatching con spiracies to commit ter rorist acts in Delhi and other parts of India.

Neeraj Sehrawat ali as ‘Neeraj Bawana’ of Delhi, Kaushal alias ‘Naresh Chaoudhary’ of Gurugram, Hary ana, and Bhupinder Singh alias ‘Bhupi Rana’ of Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar in Punjab were arrested

on Friday, a spokesper son of the NIA said.

The official said the case relates to involve ment of criminal gangs in different kinds of criminal activities, in cluding killings, to ter

rorise the people to ex tort money for running and promoting their criminal syndicates and activities.

NIA said the case was initially registered by the Delhi Police Spe cial Cell on August 7 against eight accused and other unidentified persons following in puts that members of a criminal syndicate or gangs based in India and abroad had hatched a conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts in Delhi and other parts of the country.

AIBA SEEKS BAN ON PFI

New Delhi (ANI): The All India Bar Association (AIBA) has sought a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) in the face of its involvement in terror activities after law-enforcement agencies conducted searches against it at multiple locations across 15 states.

Adish C Aggarwala, Senior Ad vocate and Chairman AIBA, stated, “This is the right time to ban this organization as nobody should be allowed to be involved in activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India. It is clear that PFI, its leaders and members were involved in violent protests in different parts of the country against CAA, forced conversions, the radicalisation of Muslim youths, money laundering and links with banned groups” It is under these circumstances that NIA has identified terror networks and busted the whole infra. The concerted raids by NIA at 93 locations across 15 states displayed the extensive terror network spun by PFI, the statement said.

‘OPERATION OCTOPUS’

The largest-ever crackdown conducted against the Popular Front of India (PFI) members across 15 states was code-named "Operation Octopus", sources said. Joint teams of NIA and ED arrested over 106 PFI members in multiple raids on September 22. The states include Andhra Pradesh (4 places), Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), K’taka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), UP (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), As sam, MP, Maharashtra, Goa, Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.

Special court allows ED 7-day custodial probe of Delhi PFI leaders

New Delhi (ANI): A Special Court of Delhi has allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for 7-day custodial interrogation of Perwez Ahmad (President, PFI Delhi), Md. Ilias (Gen eral Secretary PFI Delhi) and Abdul Muqeet (Office Secretary, PFI, Delhi) in relation to their involvement in the offence of money laundering in the guise of cash donations.

The three persons are required to be con fronted with the statements and the tendered/ recovered documents in this case. Forensic examination of mo bile phones seized from their premises is also required to be done in their pres ence, ED stated. ED on Friday while seeking remand for three of fice bearers of the Delhi Unit of PFI stat ed that Perwez Ah mad, President, Delhi PFI since 2018, was part of a criminal conspiracy. He admitted to having looked after the collection of funds in Delhi. Investigation revealed that statements of individuals, projected as contributors, re vealed these transactions were bogus. Hence, cash from suspicious sources was nothing but proceeds of crime generated out of criminal conspiracy.

The non-cooperative and evasive attitude of Perwez along with his attempts to avoid joining the probe in light of the fresh evidence viz. the statement of so-called donors and the evidence seized from various locations during searches, create further suspicion about his activities.

PM’s Patna visit: PFI held training camp to cause disturbance

New Delhi (ANI): In a major breakthrough linked to the largestever action against the Popular Front of India (PFI), the Central in vestigating agencies have found inputs against the outfit for “organizing a training camp with an intent to cause disturbance dur ing PM Modi’s visit in Bihar’s capital Patna on July 12 this year”.

Besides, during the course of the investigation, the agencies have found details of

numerous bank ac counts of PFI. The rev elation came in two separate remand cop ies of the Enforcement Directorate-- one sub mitted before a special

judge in Lucknow against Mohd Sha feeque Payeth, resident of Kozhikode (Kerala), and the other against Perwez Ahmed before a special court in Del hi. Both Payeth and Ahmed were arrested from Kerala and Delhi respectively on Sep tember 22 during a first-ever largest search operation con ducted by a joint team of ED and NIA and state police forc es, arresting 106 PFI members from 15 states.

Gangster Sube Singh Gujjar’s illegally built house demolished in Manesar

Gurugram (ANI): An illegally built house of Gangster Sube Singh Gujjar was demolished by the Municipal Cor poration in Manesar on Thursday.

The four-storey build ing was seen coming crashing down on the land. The alleged house owner is Sube Singh Gu jjar, a gangster who is presently lodged in Bhondsi jail, police said.

The property was val ued at Rs 4 crore and was demolished as part of a first-of-its-kind drive to raze down ille gal properties of gang sters, in accordance with orders from the state government, a po

lice official informed.

Gujjar is a close aide of gangster Kaushal who was arrested from the Indira Gandhi In ternational (IGI) Air port on May 1, 2021. He was wanted in more than 42 criminal cases, including murder, at tempt to murder and extortion in Guru gram, Delhi, Palwal, Nuh and Rewari.

A Rs 7.60 lakh bounty was also declared for information leading to his arrest. Kaushal and Gujjar parted ways fol lowing a financial dis pute. Gujjar allegedly started targeting Kaushal's extortion racket and took over his gang after he was arrested.

Gujjar was declared a proclaimed offender by a district court in April 2018. In April 2018, Guj jar was declared a pro claimed offender by a district court.

Members of Vishva Hindu Parishad protest against the British government over violence against Hindus in UK’s Leicester, in New Delhi on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Gujjar was arrested from the Delhi airport by a joint team of STF Gurgaon and STF Sonepat on May 2, 2021.

Popular Front of India Delhi unit head Parvez at the office of the Enforcement Directorate, after he was produced before Patiala House court, in New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI

‘

PFI members Yahiya Thangal, Karamana Asharaf Maulavi and PK Usman in NIA custody in Kochi on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Members of PFI arrested by ATS and police in Meerut on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Neeraj Bawana

Perwez withheld disclosure of true facts and deliberately lied and tried to mislead the investigating officer

‘BID TO CREATE HATRED AGAINST STATE’

LETTERS FROM INDIRA GANDHI TODAY’S COLUMN NATWAR SINGH PRODUCES TWO OF THE MANY LETTERS FORMER PRIME MINISTER INDIRA GANDHI WROTE TO HIM

K NATWAR SINGH

One has learnt to expect all kinds of unethical action from our opposition but I must admit that I was deeply shocked at the manner in which some of them including those in the Cong(O) seemed to view the prospect claiming that his disappearance from the scene would clear the way for Opposition unity

Jammu, 14 April 1975

Dear Natwar, Your letter of the 10th arrived only yesterday and I have just read it in the plane on the flight to Jammu. I have not been to Jammu for a long time and since this particular visit was decided upon, new and complex problems have arisen on the political scene. Knowing the Shiekh’s autocratic nature, I had envisaged such a situation, though not so soon. Now we can only try to set it right and hope for the best.

In the meanwhile, we have given in to a part of Morarji’s demandabout the Gujarat elections. It seemed such a silly point for which to fast or for us to hold our, since the difference in dates was only three months. However, our difficulties are acute and varied enough without having a dead Morarji haunting the scene. One has learnt to expect all kinds of unethical action from our opposition but I must admit that I was deeply shocked at the manner in which some of them including those in the Cong(O) seemed to view the prospect claiming that his disappearance from the scene would clear the way for opposition unity.

It is hard going for Mother Teresa. But I figured that it was better for me to support a really worthwhile candidate, even if the chance of success is slim.

I am glad you have reminded me about Dame Sybil Thorndike. Some time ago I had proposed that some way should be found to honour women around the world who have shown sympathy towards India. I do not know whether the Ministry has moved in the matter.The prospect of seeing a play is indeed tempting but I do not know whether it will be possible to stop over in London.

With good wishes

Shri K Natwar Singh Deputy High Commssioner, India House Aldwych, London WC-2

Yours Sincerely, [Indira Gandhi]

Dear Natwar, Thank you for sending the Peter Jay’s remarks. He also wrote to me. My comment on that letter: “a bouquet from an unexpected quarter!”.

Malraux was pleased with his Indian visit and I was told by the French Ambassador that he was sorry to leave. I have glanced at Tara’s review of Bhatia’s book. To me it seemed a rather pitiable self-portrait-so full of hatred and pettiness-of the reviewer.

PS: This top portion was dictated long ago but I thought I would add to it. Hence the delay. In the meantime your letter of the 27 December has come with Pam Cullen. I was sorry to hear about her father. What a time to have to leave England. Lord Louis is, as you know, incorrigible. He is friends with all the wrong sort of people and presumably believes what they tell him about me and about India. Krishna Menon had something to say about this just a few days before he died.

I am glad Prince Charles is breaking journey here but it will be difficult to do anything interesting in just one day as I suppose the protocol part cannot be entirely ignored. We are all stunned by LN Mishra’s murder. As the National Herald rightly says, although LNM cannot be compared with Gandhiji in any way, there is no doubt that it was the atmosphere of hatred, calumny and violence, spread under the wings of JP that was responsible for this dastardly act.

As you may have seen from the newspapers, we have had a torrent of VVIPs and international conferences-the brightest star being Gina Lolobrigida who interviewed me. I believe she has also interviewed Wilson, Kissinger, McNamara and Fidel Castro who had urged her to meet me. With good wishes for 1975.

Yours Sincerely [Indira Gandhi]

MOHAN BHAGWAT’S RAPPROCHEMENT BID

Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh su premo Mohan Bhagwat’s out reach to Muslim intellectuals and clerics is be ing seen as a positive step to narrow down the widening gulf between the two commu nities. Bhagwat’s conversa tion with Muslim intellectuals was especially frank. The RSS Sarsanghchaalak was in formed of Muslims’ concerns over their vilification and be ing referred to as Pakistani, jihadist and terrorist and the need to restrain those who at tack and lynch Muslims on the suspicion of transporting beef and spew hate against the community members. Bhag wat raised the issue of cow slaughter and Muslims calling

IN-DEPTH

ROGER FEDERER BIDS ADIEU, LEAVES TENNIS LOVERS & NADAL TEARY-EYED

journalist Shahid Siddiqui, who is also a national vicepresident of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and businessman Saeed Shervani. The RSS said that the meeting was part of Sangh’s Samvad (dialogue) process. Bhagwat’s first-ever visit to a Delhi mosque for a meeting with Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, the chief imam of the All-India Imam Organisation

Bhagwat’s conversation with Muslim intellectuals was especially frank. The RSS Sarsanghchaalak was informed of Muslims’ concerns over their vilification and being referred to as Pakistani, jihadist and terrorist and the need to restrain those who attack and lynch Muslims on the suspicion of transporting beef and spew hate against the community members

was also part of that process.

Intellectuals described the move as a great initiative, while Ilyasi preferred to call Bhagwat rashtra-pita. Bhag wat also advised Hindus to stop looking for a shivling in every mosque. Will those who gave hate speeches at the Dharm sansad in Haridwar last year follow Bhagwat’s line when they meet at Sangam

city next year? As for shiv lings, will the Hindus drop their claims on Qutub Minar and Taj Mahal? Most impor tantly, will Bhagwat’s land mark visit to the mosque sof ten hate-mongers among Hin dus? To ensure that Bhagwat’s efforts do not go to waste the Hindus and Muslims must keep up the process of dia logue for the country’s good.

Roger Federer has long been admired for his top class ten nis and sportsman ship. He is also re garded as a good human being and for his family values. That he commanded respect for these qualities is to state the obvious. His friendship with his on court rival Rafa Nadal has become more famous than that between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. Both sets of players fought tooth and nail on court but off court they have remained best of friends. An overwhelmed Nadal failed to hold back his tears as he said that a part of him was leaving with Federer.

Federer’s emotional side was on display at London’s O2 Arena where he signed off as one of the world’s greatest athletes. As he “tied his tennis shoes one more time” Federer said he was happy not sad but kept breaking down, intermittently wiping his tears. “It’s been a perfect jour ney, I’d do it all over again,” the Swiss star told a 17,000 strong crowd.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Bible

l Vol 2 l Issue No.27

l RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840

Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Impressions Printing and Packaging Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59, Noida-201301. Published at G-20, 3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474.

Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra

Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp

PM Shri @narendramodi ji’s pathbreaking policies are ushering in growth and good governance and empowering citizens. Today, #StartUpIndia, #MakeIndia, #DigitalIndia, #NEP2020 and other tech-driven interventions are contributing in the #MakingOfANewIndia.

Dr. S. Jaishankar @DrSJaishankar

At #UNGA, India normally speaks to the world. This morning, at India@75 event, the world spoke about India. Thank @un_pga, @AminaJMohammed and colleague FM of Armenia, Antigua &Barbuda, Guyana, Jamaica, Tanzania, Maldives, Gambia, Timor-Leste, Cyprus and Yemen for participating.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

TOP TWEETS

Hindus “kafirs”, non-believ ers. The intellectuals report edly agreed that it was wrong. Hijab and Gyanvapi contro versies were also discussed.

The five intellectuals---the former chief election commis sioner SY Quraishi, former Lt-Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jang, former vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Zameer Uddin Shah, senior

Prime Minister House New Delhi 4th January 1975

The author Minister of External Affairs India

Oppn leaders to share stage today

New Delhi (PTI): Sev eral prominent opposi tion leaders including NCP's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and NC leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by INLD in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.

RJD leader and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, CPM's Sitaram Yechury and BJP's Birender Singh will also attend the rally to mark the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister and INLD founder Devi Lal.

The coming together of so many regional sa traps is seen as part of

efforts to forge opposi tion unity. Nitish Ku mar and RJD president Lalu Prasad are also likely to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi after the rally.

"It will be a historic meeting that will mark the consolidation of like-minded forces against the ruling BJP

Eden Gardens stand for Jhulan

Kolkata (PTI): The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) is plan ning to name a stand at the Eden Gardens after legendary India seamer Jhulan Goswami.

Hailing from West Bengal’s Chakdaha town in Nadia district, the 39-year-old Jhulan brought the curtains down on her glorious, two-decade career with the third and final ODI against England at Lord’s on Saturday.

“We are planning to name a stand after Jhu lan Goswami at Eden Gardens. We will ap proach the army for the necessary permission. We are also planning a special felicitation for her on the annual day,” CAB President Avishek Dalmiya said.

TN: PETROL BOMB

HURLED AT RSS

LEADER’S HOUSE

Chennai: A petrol bomb was hurled at the house of an RSS leader near Tambaram near Chen nai in the early hours of Saturday, said the police. No person was injured or no major property damage took place. “Petrol bomb hurled on RSS functionary Seetharaman’s residence at Chitlapakkam in Tambaram near Chennai. Efforts under way to nab two unidentified people who threw petrol bomb,” as per the police.

in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," JD(U) leader KC Tyagi has said.

Birender Singh's equation with the BJP leadership has soured for some time even though his son Brijen dra Singh is a Lok Sab ha member of the party from Hisar in Haryana.

HC stays demolition of historic Sultan Palace

Patna (PTI): The Patna High Court has sought a reply from the Bihar government on its deci sion to dismantle the historic Sultan Palace to build a five-star hotel, even as it stayed the proposed demolition of the iconic 100-year-old landmark in the heart of the city. The stay on the demo lition of the Palace, built in 1922 by barris ter Sir Sultan Ahmed, was granted by the court during an online hearing on Friday.

The move has brought much-needed relief to heritage lovers and a large cross-sec tion of the citizenry which had been de manding the authori ties to roll back the deci sion, and instead re store the palace.

Tyagi, a veteran so cialist leader, has been working actively to en sure the participation of opposition leaders.

For the Indian Na tional Lok Dal (INLD), the rally is seen as a show of strength by the party which is fighting for survival in Haryana following a split after

its patriarch Om Prakash Chautala's el der son Ajay Chautala formed Jannayak Ja nata Party, a BJP ally.

Lok Sabha member and Rashtriya Lok tantrik Party's Hanu man Beniwal, a former BJP ally from Ra jasthan, will also attend the rally besides former

GLORY TO THE DEVI

Haryana minister Venod Sharma. INLD leader and for mer Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala has also sent invitations to several other regional bigwigs, including Mamata Banerjee, K Chandrashekar Rao, Chandrababu Naidu, and Akhilesh Yadav.

India-Bhutan border gates reopened

Rangia/ Guwahati (PTI): India-Bhutan border gates in Assam and West Bengal have been reopened for tour ists after a hiatus of twoand-a-half years, an of ficial said on Saturday.

The gates, which were closed since the outbreak of COVID-19, have been reopened on Friday with some new rules, including a sus tainable development fee, he said.

Bhutan's Consul Gen eral at Guwahati Jigme Thinley Namgyal de clared the reopening of international border gates at Samdrup-Jong khar in Tamulpur dis trict, Dadgiri and Gele phu in Chirang, Nam lang and Panbang in Baksa and Samrang in Udalguri district.

Members of the IndoBhutan friendship As sociation were present at the occasion.

The gates will remain open from 9 am to 5 pm.

WITH EYE ON POLLS, JAMMU MAYOR & DEPUTY RESIGN

Jammu (PTI): In a sud den development, Jam mu Municipal Corpora tion (JMC) mayor Chan der Mohan Gupta and his deputy Purnima Sharma on Saturday submitted their resig nations to focus on strengthening the BJP to have the “first Dogra chief minister” in the Union Territory.

INDIA’S DEFENCE

VETERANS HONOURED

AT CANADA EVENT

Vancouver: The Consulate General of India in Vancou ver felicitated veterans of the Indian armed forces in the city of Calgary in Cana da’s Alberta province during an event held as part of the ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Ma hotsav, a government-led campaign to celebrate 75 years of independence. The ‘Varishth Yoddha’ event was organised with an aim to recognise the armed forces veterans over 75 years of age for their service.

21-HOUR HARYANA HIGHWAY BLOCKADE ENDS AFTER FARMERS’ DEMANDS MET

Chandigarh: Haryana farmers who had blocked a key national highway for over 21 hours demanding early procurement of paddy have lifted the blockade after the state government relented. The protest had caused huge traffic disruptions on National Highway 44 around Kurukshetra. The state has now said it will start moving all paddy stored in grain markets, though official purchase docu ments will be processed on October 1.

SIA FILES CHARGE

SHEET AGAINST EXJ&K MINISTER

Jammu/Srinagar: The State Investigation Agency of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday filed a charge sheet in a court in Jammu against former minister Jatinder Singh, alias Babu Singh, and two others in a terror-funding case. The agency also conducted searches at multiple loca tions across Kashmir Valley as part of an investigation into financing of terrorist activities through proceeds of drug smuggling.

21 TMC LEADERS IN STILL TOUCH WITH ME, SAYS MITHUN

Kolkata: Actor-turned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mithun Chakraborty once again claimed that 21 MLAs of the ruling Trinamool Con gress are ‘in direct touch’ with him. Addressing a press conference at BJP office in Kolkata, Mithun Chakraborty said, “21 TMC MLAs are still in touch with me, I said this earlier and again I am saying, I stand by my point. Just wait for the time”.

The resignations came following a meet ing of BJP corporators and senior leaders chaired by party’s J&K unit president Ravinder Raina here.

Gupta said they de cided to resign keeping

in mind the next As sembly elections and the target of 50-plus seats set by the party to have the “first Dogra chief minister”.

In West Bengal, the border gate at Jaigaon in Alipurduar district was thrown open for re sumption of people's movement.

Several visitors and businessmen gathered at the gates during the reopening celebrations, and people from both the countries ex changed greetings.

“Every BJP worker has to work hard to cre ate history by having the first Dogra chief minister,” he told re porters after putting up his papers.

Assembly elections will be held after the fi nal electoral roll is pub lished, scheduled on November 25. J&K has been without an Assem bly since 2018.

Prime Minister of Bhutan Lotay Tshering was present on the occa sion at Phuentsholing, across the border in Alipurduar district.

NDA govt brought stability, says PM Modi

New Delhi (ANI): Drawing a comparison between the NDA and UPA governments, Prime Minister Naren dra Modi on Saturday said that NDA is a stable government and brought stability to policymak ing and governance.

“For decades, there were coalition govern ments and an atmos phere of uncertainty if they can perform or not. Due to that, people in the world were scep tical about the country.

In 2014, a stable govern ment was elected which brought stability to

policymaking and gov ernance,” said Modi while virtually address ing the Yuva Vijay Sankalp Rally at Paddle ground in Mandi. Talk ing about the recent As

sembly elections, Modi stated that even in Uttar Pradesh and Uttara khand, govts used to change every five years but people elected the BJP government again

jects undertaken by the BJP government in the state, he said, “We have allocated Rs 14,000 crore for national highways in Himachal Pradesh and approved the pro posal to add the Hatti community to the list of STs in the state.

The Bhutan govern ment had earlier an nounced reopening of its borders for trade, commerce and official transit from September 23, provided that the COVID-19 situation does not change for the worse, he said.

Militants shoot at 2 non-local labourers in J&K’s Pulwama

in recent Assembly elections in both states.

Now, people are un derstanding the impor tance of a stable gov ernment, he added. Talking about pro

SETTING A NEW RECORD

“We also brought the facility of ropeway along with developing villages near the border areas,” he added.

Lauding Himachal Pradesh, Modi said that the way the tourism sec tor of Himachal Pradesh is expanding, it’s quite encouraging.

Srinagar (PTI): Two non-local labourers were shot at and injured by terrorists in Pulwa ma district of J&K on Saturday. The police said the two were shift ed to hospital where their condition is stated to be stable. They were identified as Shamshad and Faizan Qasri, resi dents of Batya Zila, Bi har. Four non locals have been killed so far this year, while there have been few incidents in which terrorists at tacked non locals.

New Delhi (Agencies):

A record number of peo ple in India went to the movies on Friday in honour of National Cin ema Day. Thanks to heavily discounted tick ets, an estimated 6.5 mil lion moviegoers attend ed their local multiplex to purchase tickets for just ₹ 75, making Septem ber 23 the highest-at tended date of the year for theatres, according to the Multiplex Associ ation of India (MAI). In a press note, the MAI

stated, “The one-day ini tiative has seen a mas sive response from the Indian moviegoers, with shows starting as early as 6:00am due to an un precedented demand for movie tickets.”

“Audiences of all ages came together and the country’s cinema operators reported house-full shows throughout the day, marking 23 September the highest attendance of the year,” it added.

The statement fur

ther also informed that more than 4,000 screens across the country par ticipated in the initia

Mukta A2, Movie Time, Wave, M2K and Delite and many others.

minds of the Indian au diences.

Meanwhile, due to state regulations with respect to cinemas and ticket pricing, in states, including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, some cin emas were reportedly not able to participate in the National Cinema Day celebrations. How ever, participating thea tres in all states, includ ing the aforementioned list, made special offers to mark the occasion. Cinema Day attracts moviegoers

tive including cinema chains like PVR, INOX, Cinepolis, Carnival, Mi raj, Citypride, ASIAN,

The National Cinema Day celebrated the suc cessful reopening of cinemas after COV ID-19, and is a “thank you” to the moviegoers who made this happen, the MAI said. It also added that this massive success of the initiative reinforces the fact that the appeal of the cine ma experience is uni versal, enduring and deep-rooted in the

Farooq Abdullah Nitish Kumar

Lalu Prasad Yadav

Sitaram Yechury

Sharad Pawar

PM Narendra Modi met the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, in New Delhi on September 14.

Devotees carry an idol of Goddess Durga to a pandal ahead of Navratri festival at Lalbaug in Mumbai on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Mohan Gupta & Purnima Sharma

BHARAT JODO YATRA

CONG RESUMES YATRA ON 16 TH DAY FROM THRISSUR IN KERALA

Party workers and people came out in large numbers to support Rahul Gandhi

Thrissur (ANI): The Congress has resumed its Bharat Jodo Yatra, after a day's break, from Perambra junction in the Thrissur district of Kerala on Saturday.

Workers and people of Thrissur came out in large numbers to sup port Rahul Gandhi and all the Padyatris as the Bharat Jodo Yatra re sumes after a break.

The yatra began from Perambra junction, reached Amballur junc tion for their morning break. The yatra will then resume at 5 pm from Talore Bypass junc tion after which the par ty leaders, workers, and supporters are sched uled to take an evening break at Swaraj Round road at Vadakkumathan South Gate at 7 pm.

‘CONG WON'T RETAIN KERALA LS SEATS’

Thrissur: The Congress will not be able to retain the Lok Sabha seats it had won during the 2019 Par liamentary elections in the state as MPs including, Rahul Gandhi, have ‘failed’ to resist the BJP in the national polity, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has said.

‘RaGa WALKING TO J&K FROM KERALA’: A JOHN CUSACK ENDORSEMENT

Thrissur (Agencies): The Congress’s mass contact programme – the Bharat Jodo Yatra – has caught the attention of a Hollywood star. Weeks after the foot march, which aims to cover over 3,500 km across the country, was kicked off, John Cusack – in a tweet – wrote: “Indian parliament member Rahul Gandhi is walking to Kashmir from Kerala.” Cusack – who has starred in multiple Hol lywood blockbusters, including Serendipity”, “High Fidel ity”, “Con Air” and “2012” – noticed the march that Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders have been undertaking to strengthen the grassroot stronghold ahead of several state elections. The grand old party’s spokesperson, Jairam Ramesh, shared John Cusack’s post on his Twitter feed. Rahul Gandhi started the march from Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the country’s mainland, and he has been covering southern states presently. Ever since the yatra started, a war of words has also been going on between the BJP and the Congress.

Tactic to increase Rahul Gandhi’s stature?

New Delhi: With almost everyday one or the oth er Congress leader stressing that Rahul should lead the party and the Gandhi scion declining to take the mantle, the real ques tion is that when Rahul Gandhi has decided that he will not contest the election of Congress President, then why is the proposal of his name being passed by the state committees of Con

gress? Why State Con gress Committee meet ings are being called in every state and a resolu tion is being passed to make Rahul the President? It is also surprising that the head of the party's com munication de partment, Jairam Ramesh, has said in a

press conference that the resolutions being passed by the states are not binding. That is, the party high com mand is not bound to ac cept them, yet proposals are being sent from the states and about a dozen states have already for warded such pro posals to the high com mand.

In fact, this is being done to establish Rahul Gandhi as the supreme leader of the party and strengthen his moral authority. Any person may become the presi dent but the biggest leader will be Rahul. It will be said on behalf of the Congress that all the state commit tees wanted to make Rahul the president but he rejected taking the post. There will be pressure on whoever is the new president.

THAROOR COLLECTS NOMINATION FORM

New Delhi (ANI): Filing of nominations for Congress presi dent began on Sat urday with a contest between Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor on the cards. Tharoor collected the form to run for the post of party president, making him the first leader to officially enter the race. The nominations will be filed till September 30 and results declaring the new Congress chief will be an nounced on October 19. This will be the first time in 25 years that Congress will see a non-Gandhi chief after Sonia Gandhi replaced Sitaraman Kesri as party chief in 1998. The last time the party had a non-Gandhi chief was in 1997 when Sitaram Kesri defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pi lot Chairman of Cen tral Election Authority Madhusudan Mistri will be available in Congress headquar ters in the national capital to take the nomination papers as returning of ficer of the

—PHOTOS BY ANI

Mathura (ANI): Actorturned-politician Hema Malini on Saturday re acted to the specula tions that actor Kanga na Ranaut could contest elections from Mathura, which is Hema’s parlia mentary constituency.

“Good, it is good...You want only film stars in Mathura. Tomorrow, even Rakhi Sawant will become,” she said. Re cently, Kangana Ranaut had visited the famed Thakur Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan.

A crowd of devotees and locals were seen

running towards her as she got down from the car heading towards the Banke Bihari temple. Tight security had to be arranged to make Kan gana's exit from the temple possible.

Punjab guv tells CM Mann his advisers not briefing him properly

Chandigarh: Amid the ongoing confrontation between Punjab Gover nor Banwarlilal Purohit and the AAP govt, Puro hit on Saturday hit back at CM Bhagwant Mann, schooled him about the Vidhan Sabha rules.

In a letter to Mann, Purohit said, “After reading your statements in today’s newspapers, it appears to me that per haps you are ‘too much’ angry with me. I think your legal advisors are not briefing you ade quately. Perhaps your

opinion about me will definitely change after reading the provisions of Article 167 and 168 of the Constitution, which I’m quoting for your ready reference.” Bhagwant Mann with Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

CJI Lalit says lawyers must be rational, fact-finding

Patna (PTI): Lawyers must be rational in thinking and fact-find ing in nature, Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit said on Saturday. Addressing a seminar organised by the Bar Council of In dia in Patna, CJI Lalit said the objective of ad vocates should be up holding the rule of law.

“Lawyers must keep in mind that their objec tive and motto should

be upholding the rule of law. Advocates have a wonderful quality of convincing the mind of the public. They must be rational in thinking and fact-finding in na ture,” he said.

KEJRIWAL AND MANN TO VISIT

GUJARAT TODAY

New Delhi: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counter part Bhagwant Mann will visit Ahmedabad on Sunday and hold interactions with the youth, sanitation workers and tempo rary employees of the Gujarat government. Kejriwal posted a tweet on Saturday about his Gujarat visit.

New Delhi: The ED has provisionally attached immovable assets worth Rs 16 crore for money laundering in connec tion with a case against Mandeep Industries, Ra jkot. ED said Mandeep Industries is a partner ship concern of Ashish B Talaviya, Kishorbhai Haribhai Vaishnani, Ramjibhai H Gajera, Kalpesh P Talaviya and Bhavesh Talaviya.

IN THE COURTYARD

EX HARYANA ADG GETS BAIL IN CHEATING CASE

New Delhi (ANI): The Delhi High Court recently granted anticipa tory bail to Ex Additional Direc tor General of Police (Law and order) in a cheating case. He is an accused in a case registered at Police station Inder Puri, Delhi. The case was registered in 2016 against a private company and its directors and its employees.

SPL COURT REJECTS BAIL OF MURUGA MUTT HEAD

Bengaluru (Agencies): A special court in Karnataka has rejected the bail plea of Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru, the head of the Murugara jendra Mutt in the Chitradurga district of the state, who is an accused in a sexual assault case involving two minor students. The court rejected the bail petition of the religious leader on Friday, a day after it turned down a similar plea of a hostel warden, ac cused of abetting the crime.

President Murmu presents National Service Scheme Awards for 2020-21

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu pre sented the National Ser vice Scheme Awards for the year 2020-2021 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday. Union Minis ter of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur and Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports Nisith Pramanik attended the awards cer emony. Secretary, Youth Affairs Sanjay Kumar and Secretary, Sports, \ Sujata Chaturvedi and

senior officers of the Ministry and other dig nitaries were also pre sent on the occasion.

Ministry of Youth Af

nize and reward out standing contributions towards voluntary com munity service made by the Universities/ +2

Council, Programme Officers/NSS Units and NSS Volunteers, with a view to further pro mote NSS in the coun try. At Present, NSS has about 40 lakh volun teers on its rolls spread over the country.

The NSS is a Central ly Sector Scheme which was launched in the year 1969 with the primary objective of developing the person ality and character of the student youth through voluntary community service.

PM’S PHILOSOPHY OF ‘SABKA SATH, SABKA VIKAS’ INSPIRED BY GANDHIAN THOUGHT: VP DHANKHAR

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government's phi losophy of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Prayas’ is a Gandhian thought and it rises above “all politics”, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Satur day. He also described as "a very dangerous trend" the belief among a section of the people that only the philosophy they believed in was right, adding Ma hatma Gandhi listened to every point of view.

CJI UU Lalit

PROUD MOMENT

(Clockwise from left): Union HM Amit Shah visits Budhi Kali temple in Kishanganj; Shah interacting with SSB’s personnel, in Fatehpur; Shah observes Pillar No. 151 and 152 and reviews various activities during his visit to Fatehpur BOP on the IndoNepal border, in Kishanganj on Saturday.

` cr properties of Rajkot firm by

First India Bureau

fairs & Sports, Depart ment of Youth Affairs confers every year the National Service Scheme Award to recog

President Droupadi Murmu and Union Minister Anurag Thakur with the NSS awards recipients.

VP Jagdeep Dhankhar paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Ashram, in New Delhi on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Hema downplays poll query over Kangana Hema Malini, in Mathura on Saturday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Congress leader Pawan Khera (c) addresses media on Bharat Jodo Yatra in Thrissur, on Saturday.

MP Shashi Tharoor

Sharat K Verma

Rahul Gandhi

Mumbai: Blackstone Inc will sell a stake worth up to $400 million in Embas sy Office Parks REIT, In dia’s biggest real estate in vestment trust, via Indian stock exchange block deals, three sources famil iar with the matter told Reuters. Abu Dhabi’s sov ereign wealth fund, one of the world’s largest, is like ly to pick up at least half of the stake that Blackstone is to sell, one of the sourc es said. Shares in the Em bassy REIT closed at Rs 354.42 on Friday, giving it a market capitalisation of $4.15 billion.

—PTI

DELHI HIGH COURT SLAPS ` 1 L PENALTY ON FLIPKART

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed e-commerce firm Flipkart to deposit Rs 1 lakh pen alty within one week in the court’s registry for al lowing the sale of a substandard pressure cooker on its platform, accord ing to a release. Last month, the Central Con sumer Protection Author ity (CCPA) had imposed a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 on Flipkart. The authority had directed Flipkart to notify buyers of all 598 pressure cookers sold on its platform, recall the pressure cookers and re imburse money to the consumers.

GOODS EXPORTS TO CHINA, EU FALL ON DEMAND SLOWDOWN

New Delhi: India’s engi neering goods exports to China nosedived over 70% in August 2022 to US$ 173.7 million as compared to US$ 619.5 million in the same month last year. As per Engineering Export Promotion Council analy sis, engineering exports to the European Union (EU) fell 27.3% year on year to US$ 1.47 billion. The 15% export duty on steel contin ued to weigh on engineer ing exports as India’s iron and steel exports dropped by 62.2% in August 2022 on Y-O-Y basis.

‘

Rupee held up very well against dollar’

Pune (PTI): Finance Min ister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the rupee has “held back very well” when compared to other currencies against the US Dollar. The Reserve Bank and the Finance Ministry are keeping a very close watch over the develop ments, the finance minis ter told reporters after the domestic currency sunk to a lifetime low against the greenback.

“If any one currency which has held its own and did not get into fluctuation or volatility as much as other currencies it is the Indian rupee. We have held back very well,” she told reporters here on the final day of her three-day visit to Pune district which is a stronghold of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. She also asked a reporter to do a study on how the other currencies are behaving against the US dollar in the latest round of depreciation.

According to experts, the latest round of deprecia tion is triggered by adverse global developments start ing with the geopolitical tensions triggered by the

OTHER STORIES

INDIA IS ON TRACK TO ATTRACT $100 BILLION FDI THIS FISCAL, SAYS GOVERNMENT

New Delhi (PTI): India is on track to attract USD 100 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in the current fiscal on account of eco nomic reforms and ease of doing business, the government said on Saturday. In 2021-22, the country received the “highest ever” foreign inflows of USD 83.6 billion. “This FDI has come from 101 countries, and invested across 31 union territories and states and 57 sectors in the country. On the back of economic reforms and Ease of Doing Business in recent years, India is on track to attract USD 100 billion FDI in the current FY (financial year,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement. It said that to attract foreign investments, the government has put in place a liberal and transpar ent policy wherein most sectors are open to FDI under the automatic route. The reform measures include liberalization of guidelines and regulations, in order to reduce unnecessary compliance burden, bring down cost and enhance the ease of doing business in India, it added. FDI equity inflows in India dipped by 6 per cent to USD 16.6 billion during April-June period of the current fiscal.

Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. The war pushed up com modity prices, leading to a record surge in inflation in the developed world, which

INDIA’S FOREX RESERVES CAN COVER IMPORTS FOR 8.4 MONTHS, SAYS MORGAN STANLEY

New Delhi: Global brokerage house Morgan Stanley has said India’s Spot forex (FX) reserves of $551 billion, as of September 9, can cover imports of only 8.4 months.Both oil and non-oil exports, the re port said, have declined in recent months likely due to weaker global demand and domestic factors such as the imposition of windfall taxes on the export of petrol/ jet fuel at the beginning of July. “On the other hand, relatively resilient domestic growth has kept imports elevated, leading to record high merchandise trade deficits in recent months. Our cur rent account deficit forecast is 3.2% of GDP in 2022, and we forecast a BoP deficit above $60bn in 2022,” it added. —PTI

BPCL SIGNS MOU WITH BRAZILIAN OIL FIRM TO DIVERSIFY OIL SOURCING

New Delhi: India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp said it has signed a preliminary agreement with Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras to help it diversify its crude oil sourcing. Indian state refiners rarely buy Brazilian oil. The Memorandum of Understand ing (MoU) was signed by BPCL Chairman Arun Kumar Singh and Petrobras CEO Caio Paes de Andrade, BPCL said in a statement on Saturday. —PTI

INDIA AGREES TO WORK ON GLOBAL ISSUES LIKE FOOD, ENERGY SECURITY

New Delhi: India and the Carib bean Community (CARICOM) nations have agreed to work together on global issues such as food and energy security and combating climate change, as they held discussions on deepening political engagement and increasing cooperation in the context of post-pandemic economic recovery. The 4th India-CARICOM Foreign Minis ters’ Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. —PTI

have resulted in steep rate hikes by the US Fed. This has resulted in a flight of capital back to the US, hence resulting in curren cy depreciation episodes.

At 264%, India logs fastest growth in Int’l IoT module market

New Delhi (Agencies): In dia was the fastest growing Internet of Things (IoT) module market with more than 264 per cent growth in the second quarter this year, a report showed.

Although growing on a lower base, the growth in IoT modules in India was driven by smart meters, telematics, point of sale (POS) and automotive ap plications, according to Counterpoint Research.

Global cellular IoT mod ule shipments grew 20 per cent (year-over-year) in Q2 2022. “The IoT module mar ket is going through a criti cal phase where the Chi nese brands have become bigger, making it very dif ficult for international brands to grow in silos,” said senior research ana lyst Soumen Mandal. The global cellular IoT module market continued to recover despite a tighter supply chain, Covid-19 lock downs in China and macro economic headwinds.

Byju’s clears $230 mn dues to Blackstone for Aakash acquisition

New Delhi (PTI): Edtech firm Byju’s has cleared $230 million payment that was due to private equity invest ment firm Blackstone for acquiring a majority stake in test preparatory firm Aakash Educational Ser vices, according to sources privy to the development. Byju’s had acquired Aakash in April for about $950 mil lion. “Byju’s paid $230 mil lion to Blackstone for ac quiring a stake in Aakash,” the source told PTI.

While it cleared pay ments that were due to the founder of Aakash in July, the payment of Blackstone was deferred based on a mutual agreement. Found ers of Aakash and Black stone continue to hold a minority stake in the firm. Acquisition of Aakash has been positive for Byju’s business. Payment to Blackstone and non-closure of $800 million funding

Economist who predicted 2008 crisis warns of ‘Long and Ugly’ recession

Washington (Agencies): Economist Nouriel Roubi ni, who correctly predicted the 2008 financial crisis, sees a “long and ugly” re cession in the US and glob ally occurring at the end of 2022 that could last all of 2023 and a sharp correction in the S&P 500. “Even in a plain vanilla recession, the S&P 500 can fall by 30%,” said Roubini, chairman and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, in an interview Monday. In “a real hard landing,” which he expects, it could fall 40%.

Roubini whose presci ence on the housing bubble crash of 2007 to 2008 earned him the nickname Dr. Doom, said that those ex pecting a shallow US reces sion should be looking at the large debt ratios of cor porations & governments. As rates rise and debt ser vicing costs increase,

HIGH RATES OF INFLATION

z Roubini also warns that recession will drag global markets down because of debt levels worldwide

z His warning comes after all major economies is seeing high rates of inflation

OVER 1 IN 2 SENIOR BUSINESS EXECUTIVES

SEE RECESSION LOOMING, SAYS IDC SURVEY

New Delhi (Agencies): More than one in two senior business execu tives globally (59%) believe there will be a recession in the coming year, according to an IDC survey. Moreover, nearly 30 per cent of those who believe a recession will occur also believe that we are cur rently in a recession, with another 26 per cent expecting a recession to begin in the second half of 2022, according to the survey of almost 900 C-Suite level executives. Nearly 44 per cent of Asia/Pacific re spondents believe the recession will begin in the second half of 2022.

“many zombie institu tions, zombie households, corporates, banks, shadow banks and zombie coun tries are going to die,” he said. Roubini, who has warned through bull and

BYJU’S LOSSES WIDENED IN FY21

z Byju’s booked a loss of Rs 4,588 crore for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, 19 times more than the preceding fiscal

z The losses in the 2020-21 fiscal widened from Rs 231.69 crore in 2019-20. Revenues during FY21 dropped to Rs 2,428 crore from Rs 2,511 cr in FY20

z Byju’s said the losses widened in FY21 mainly on account of deferment of some revenue and losses incurred from WhiteHat Jr

round due to non-payment of committed investment from Sumeru Ventures and Oxshott have been two main issues that raised questions on Byju’s busi ness performance.

Amazon sees record Prime sign-ups, 68% from small-town

New Delhi (PTI): E-com merce firm Amazon India on Saturday said it has re corded a two-fold jump in its customer base from tier 2 and 3 cities during the first 36 hours of its festive season sale. Tier 2 and 3 cit ies accounted for 75% of the total customer base of the e-commerce major dur ing its ‘Great Indian Festi val’ sale, an Amazon India spokesperson told PTI. “75% of customers came from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. We saw 2 times more cus tomers from Tier 2 & 3 cit ies compared to last year,” the spokesperson said.

bear markets that global debt levels will drag down stocks, said that achieving a 2% inflation rate without a hard landing is going to be “mission impossible” for the Federal Reserve.

Bhadohi (UP) (PTI) Car pet traders of Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi district, popularly known as “kalin nagri” for its exquisite weaving skills, are gearing up for a four-day interna tional carpet fair to be held from October 15-18.

Weavers, exporters and all other stakeholders, anx iously waiting for a revival of the industry after Covid pandemic, are expecting to book a handful of overseas shipment orders during the fair to be held in this town for the first time.

Organised by the Car pet Export Promotion

Council under the Union textile ministry, the bian nual fair was earlier held either at New Delhi or Varanasi. The fair is scheduled to be held at Bhadohi, less than 50 kilo metres from Varanasi, from October 15-18, offi cials said. Carpet Export Promotion Council chair man Umar Hameed told PTI that the council has sent invitations to 350 im porters of 60 countries.

“Almost 300 importers have already registered for attending the fair. The im porters who are coming are primarily from countries,

including America, Aus tralia, Brazil, Belgium, Ger many and Italy,” he said.

General Manager of the

350 IMPORTERS FROM 60 NATIONS

z The chairman of the Rug Export Promotion Council, Umar Hameed, told that the council had sent out invitations to 350 importers from 60 countries

z Almost 300 importers have registered for the fair from countries including America, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Germany and Italy

“Foreign importers will be able to reach the fair spot in 30 minutes after landing at Varanasi air port,” Mahboob said. Su perintendent of Police Anil Kumar said preparations for the fair are in full swing and all aspects of the event are being looked into.

Talking about the handwoven carpets made in Bhadohi, Ahmed said, “The technique of carpet making came from Iran. The carpets made here cannot be copied and the cost is also less, which are the reasons behind its popularity.” to carpet fair from Oct

All India Carpet Manufac turers’ Union Aslam Mah boob said that the state gov ernment has taken several

steps to facilitate the car pet fair in Bhadohi, which is well-connected with the Varanasi airport.

New Delhi: Sanjai Kumar has taken charge as the Chairman & Managing Di rector of RailTel Corpora tion of India Limited, a PSU which provided broadband, VPN and other communi cation services for Indian Railways.Earlier, Kumar was the Director (Network Planning & Marketing/ NPM) with an additional charge of Director (Project, Operations & Maintenance/ POM) in RailTel. He is an officer of the Indian Rail way Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) and has around 30 years.

SANJAI APPOINTED AS NEW CHAIRMAN & MD OF RAILTEL

BLACKSTONE TO SELL $400 MN STAKE IN REIT EMBASSY

Weaver prepares carpet at a workshop, ahead of International Carpet Fair scheduled to be held in mid-October, in Bhadohi.

MURMURS OF MODI CABINET SHUFFLE ON CARDS!

E ver since the rise of Narendra Modi on the national stage of Indian politics, he has changed the face of politics to a great ex tant. It is said that poli tics is a game of uncer tainties, you can find the meaning of this story in many big deci sions of Modi. No one is aware of what Modi is going to do next, but if a few voices of po litical background are reconciled properly, then its echoes tell that something big is going to happen in the Cen tre. A major

and many new and fresh faces may get a chance. Some minis ters shown the way out of the cabinet may also get Governorship, while some may be ab sorbed in the organiza tion and some may be put on hold. Especially those ministers or leaders are going to be blamed, due to which the central govern ment has been tar nished in the last few days or those leaders who have given an op portunity to political rivals to corner the government. Sources also suggest that some leaders of the Eknath Shinde faction of Ma harashtra may also

perspective of Bihar, some changes can be made in the central government. An unex pected decision of the Modi government may also come out regard ing Madhya Pradesh. Purushottam Rupala may be vacated for Gu jarat elections. Howev er, till the last moment, who all would be re moved and who will be given a spot, only spec ulations can be made on this. In fact, only two people know about what will happen, the same two people, who together make up the face of the central gov ernment!

DOES BHAGWAT WANT TO CHANGE SANGH’S NARRATIVE?

Before Thursday, hardly any politi cal analyst would have had any idea that in this era of ‘Hindut va’ in the coun try, one day suddenly RSS chief

Mohan Bhagwat will reach Gol Masjid on Kasturba Gandhi Marg. It should be not ed that Maulana Ilyasi of Gol Masjid is also the head of the All In dia Imam Association. Bhagwat went to the Mosque and went to the madrasa and met the children, talked to them openly. A day be fore this, the Sangh chief also met five eminent Muslim intel lectuals and had an open dialogue with them. Some Sangh thinkers are consider ing this innovative ef

fort of Bhagwat as an initiative to create na tional integration. If sources are to be be lieved, the Maulana of Gol Masjid, Dr Umer Ahmed Ilyasi was try ing to meet Bhagwat for a long time. Re cently, in this se quence, a senior offi cial of the Sangh had reached Gol Masjid to meet Ilyasi, but the matter of this meeting was kept strictly con fidential. When Bhag wat came, Dr Ilyasi bestowed him with the title of father of the nation and sage

of the nation. Bhag wat became uncom fortable, even inter rupted Ilyasi for this, but Ilyasi knew the biggest ‘epicentre’ of today’s politics? It is believed that both the Sangh and the BJP are divided in taking the Muslim community along. The line of the new BJP strategists is very clear that now there will be politics of Hindu interests only. Sources reveal that Ramlal played an important role in changing the attitude of the Sangh chief to wards the Muslim community. Ramlal, who was the BJP’s na tional organization minister for 13 con secutive years, after some allegations, in July 2019, the Sangh called back this pracharak to its fold and was made All In dia Sampark Pra mukh. Gradually Ramlal be came

What is the ‘DJB scam’

Cash collected in water bills deposited not in DJB’s account but someone else’s

New Delhi: On the DJB issue, a source said, “In this blatant case of cor ruption, cash amount ing to over Rs 20 crores collected as water bills from individuals went to a bank account of a third party rather than DJB’s bank account for several years.”

Instead of recovering the money and punish ing the guilty, DJB al legedly extended the contract of the compa ny that was working as the bank’s collection agent by a year and also raised the service fee paid to them, apart from relaxing the terms of contract, sources claimed. The DJB had appointed the bank to collect water bills on its behalf through an or der in June 2012 for three years.

It was further extend ed in 2016, 2017 and then again in 2019 even after

the fraud was detected.

“The bank in turn had in total violation of the terms of contract and in the knowledge of DJB officials, engaged a private company for the collection of cash and cheques and deposition of the same in DJB’s bank account.

“It was noticed while extending the contract of the bank beyond Oc tober 10, 2019 that grave irregularities had oc curred regarding de layed and non-deposi tion of cash during the period of contract from July 2012 to October 10, 2019,” the source said.

LG SAXENA’S LATEST IN A STRING OF PROBES ORDERED

The LG has directed the chief secretary to have an FIR lodged in the matter against the DJB and bank officials after identifying them as well as the private entities in volved, sources said. He also asked the officials to ensure the recovery of funds at the earliest, they said. After taking charge as Delhi LG in May this year, Saxena has ordered a string of inquiries related to matters of alleged corruption in different departments of the Delhi government. The LG has given nod for Anti Corruption Branch(ACB) probes into alleged irregularities in the construc tion of seven temporary hospitals during COVID and the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools.

He also recommended CBI probes into alleged irregulari ties in the excise policy of the government and forwarded a complaint of corruption into DTC bus procurement to be linked with an ongoing investigation by the agency. Saxena also recommended the suspension of several Revenue department officials for alleged sale of govern ment land in North and South Delhi to private parties.

Patna (PTI): RJD pres ident Lalu Prasad on Saturday predicted a wipe-out for the formi dable BJP, displaying his characteristic swag ger that remains dimin ished in the face of old age, failing health and legal troubles.

“Don’t worry, the BJP will be wiped out (safa ya ho jaega)”, was the septuagenarian’s terse reply when journalists drew his attention to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s fulmina tions at a rally in Purnea on Friday.

Prasad, whom sen tences in fodder scam cases and numerous ail ments have kept away from active politics, spoke at the airport here before boarding a flight for Delhi.

In the national capi tal, he is expected to be joined on Sunday by arch-rival turned ally Nitish Kumar, in meet ing Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Kumar is also sched uled to attend a rally in Haryana, along with his deputy and son Tejashwi Yadav.

1984 convict seeks liver, kidney transplant

New Delhi (ANI): A life convict in a case re lated to the 1984 antiSikh riots has sought the suspension of his sentence for transplant liver and kidney trans plants. The appellant was convicted and sen tenced to life imprison ment by the trial court in 2018.

The division bench

of Justices Mukta Gup ta and Anish Dayal di rected the jail authori ties to file a medical re port of the appellant Naresh Sehrawat on the next date of hearing on October 11.

The trial court on No vember 20, 2018, award ed the life sentence to the appellant Naresh. Another co-accused Yashpal was awarded the death sentence. It was the first death sen

one of the most impor tant advisors of the Sangh chief.

IS BHARAT JODO YATRA MERELY A PLOY TO ‘BRAND’ RAHUL?

T he entire focus of Congress’ ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ has shifted to Rahul Gandhi. Some Congressmen are say ing, albeit in mur murs, that this ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ has be come Gandhi’s ‘Dandi Yatra’ because during Dandi Yatra, Gandhi remained visible and here in Bharat Jodo Yatra, only Rahul is visible. Ramkumar Shukla had taken Gan dhiji to Champaran for the Dandi March, but he was nowhere to be seen even after being present throughout the journey. Similarly, Prashant Kishor had

the original idea of Ra hul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, people like Dig vijay Singh and Yo gendra Yadav worked day and night to make it happen, but today they are out of sight.

For example, Digvijay Singh was involved in the yatra with his jour nalist wife Amrita Sin gh. Amrita followed Rahul’s footsteps throughout the week, but Rahul did not give her any importance and did not even speak to her to enquire how she was keeping.

Hence, angered with Rahul’s antics, Amrita left the journey mid way. She was in pain that no one recog nized her. So what is the use of walking about on roads only?

Even ‘leaders’ like Kanhaiya are not be ing given any due rec ognition, but due to his familiarity in the me dia, Kanhaiya has kept himself busy in the journey.

tence awarded by the trial court in the antiSikh riots cases.

The sentences were pronounced in the Tihar jail due to secu rity reasons. They were convicted on November 14, 2018. This case per tains to riots and the killing of 2 Sikhs in the Mahipalpur area of Delhi. The judgement of the trial court has been challenged in the High Court.

New Delhi (ANI): Su preme Court judge Jus tice DY Chandrachud while speaking at an event on Saturday said that despite laws man dating disability-friend ly infrastructure, pub lic transport, govt and private buildings, hos pitals, libraries, parks and many other spaces continued to be inacces sible for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

Justice Chandrachud also remarked that some entities do not even pretend to comply with such laws, while others comply with them only with a view of getting their building and occupancy permits.

Justice Chandrachud pointed out that he has noticed that some ramps are so steep that an able-bodied person cannot walk down with out falling over, let alone a person who uses a wheelchair. “This is just the tip of an enor mous iceberg of prob lems with the imple mentation of disabili ties-friendly policies,” he said.

DCW SEEKS DETAILS OF STEPS TAKEN FOR LGBTQI+

New Delhi: Delhi Commis sion for Women (DCW) has sent a notice to the Delhi Government and sought details of steps taken for the welfare of LGBTQI+ persons in the state. The DCW has asked the Social Welfare de partment to inform whether the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020 have been notified in Delhi and whether a Transgender Welfare Board has been set up. “We have taken suo-moto cognisance of issues faced by LGBTQI+ persons,” DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said.

Justice Chandrachud also spoke about the movie titled ‘Margarita with a Straw’, where the character Laila is a young student who has cerebral palsy. “When we do justice to the disa bled, we do justice not out of pity but justice in recognising their rights under the law and the constitution,” he said.

Cash amounting to over `20 crores collected as water bills from individuals went to a private bank account of a third party rather than DJB’s bank account for several years, a source in DJB said.

BJP will be wiped out’: Lalu before leaving for New Delhi

ALL THE BEST!

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani pins a badge to umpire Gayathri Venugopalan while meeting with Lady Umpires and officials of the Legends League cricket, at her residence in New Delhi on Saturday. —PHOTO BY PTI

‘Despite laws, many buildings remain inaccessible to PwDs’

This is just the tip of an enormous iceberg of problems with the implementation of disabilities-friendly policies.

—Justice Chandrachud, Supreme Court judge

PM Narendra Modi Mohan Bhagwat

Dr Umer Ahmed Ilyasi

Rahul Gandhi

Prashant Kishor

n Korean culture, taking care of your looks is just as im portant as being your best self in every circumstance. In contrast to the heavy makeup that was typi cal in other regions of Asia, such as Japan and China, women from middle-class families did not go far from looking natural while using light amounts of natural and spontaneous makeup.

Based on tradition, Kore ans have for many years cre ated clear, glowing, and natu ral-looking skin that has made K-Beauty products bet ter and more well-liked than ever. Making your own face mask allows you to create natural Korean cosmetics that you can use at home.

The modern cotton pads used in Korean face masks are soaked and infused with elements that are natural and effective at rejuvenating the skin. With these compo nents, moisture adheres to your skin to keep it supple. In Korea, healthy skin has al

ways been exalted as the ideal.

People frequently applied lard to their skin during the winter to soften and prevent frostbites.

As it demonstrates quali ties of modesty and caution, which together make up in ner beauty, having healthy, soft, and natural skin was seen to be the most attractive feature. These components assist your skin to retain moisture so that it stays soft and hydrated throughout the day.

All types of skin can ben efit from the natural, excel lent, and reasonably priced face masks offered by Sapla ya. Thanks to the Korean his tory of employing natural,

distinctive, and harsh-free substances passed down over many years, Korean beauty products have considerably milder compositions.

Sea Salt and rice were combined to make a gentle cleanser for enhancing the complexion of ladies. Addi tionally, it aids in skin toning for the firm and supple skin.

Ginseng has a wealth of anti-ageing and antioxidant qualities that can be used for a number of cosmetic pur poses to seem younger and healthier.

Green Tea ingredients for beauty products due to its cleansing qualities and ability to relax the body, green tea has sev eral medicinal benefits THE IN THE

aulo Coelho was born in Rio De Janei ro, Brazil, on August 24, 1947.

He was a re bellious teenager. His introversion and oppo sition made his par ents put him in a men tal institution. He es caped three times be fore being released at the age of 20. In 1986 Coelho walked the 500+ mile road of San tiago de Compostela, in NW Spain. It proved to be a turning point in his life. On the path, he had a spiritual awak ening, which led him to write 'The Pilgrim age' book. Before be coming a full-time au thor, he worked as a theatre director and actor, lyricist and jour nalist. He has written over 25 books and re ceived numerous awards. In 1996, he founded The Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides aid to children and elderly people with financial problems. In 2007, Coe lho was named a Mes senger of Peace to the United Nations.

'The Valkyries' book is a classic master work of spiritual ten sion and realization by Paulo Coelho. It asks the question most cen tral to all literature and all of humanity's quest for understand ing. "Why is it that we destroy the things we love most?" In a twist ed tale, Coelho has laid bare his innermost thoughts and has shared some of his life secrets, encouraging everyone to believe in their dreams - if they ever want them to come true. It's a novel based on three F's: For getting your past, For giving your sins & Ful filling your dreams.

Beneath this novel's compelling story and shimmering elegance lie a bedrock of wis dom about following one's heart.

THE VALKYRIES: AN ENCOUNTER WITH ANGELS

tense than Coelho's. The Valkyries tell him, "You need, not just courage, but the cour age of a woman".

Chris is a strong per sonality, incredibly forgiving, and willing to accept her hus band's flaws. She knows that their mar riage is crumbling, yet she was there for him, sharing his journey. Herein lies Coelho's greatness. The work is almost indistinguish able from the man himself. Penning this autobiographical book must have required unparalleled courage and self-awareness- re vealing his vulnerable life details and past in discretions! It's an al together different reading experiencelike reading a diary, exposed to everyone's judgment.

ARIES

MAR 21 - APR 20

Using your initiative at work will be much appreciated. You may get a chance to pursue old hobby. Health tips from an expert will enable you to get closer to your fitness goals. Your generous behavior would enable to enjoy some lovely moments with family. Overall a good day for you.

TAURUS

APR 21 - MAY 20

Despite hectic schedule you will manage to find time for family. Seek the opinion of your family before finalizing a property deal. Your bold initiatives on romantic front bring back passion and spark in romantic relationship. Overall health seems to remain fine.

GEMINI

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

Following a health diet will be a good idea. Luck favours you today on the professional front. Focussing on health now will help you in keeping physically fit. Clarity of mind and retentive power will help you forge ahead on the academic front. Frustration on the romantic front is possible.

CANCER

JUNE 22 - JULY 23

LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

Distant relatives may drop in for a surprise visit at your place. On the professional front, recognition for good work would motivate you to work harder. Those who are aaiting for an affirmation on romantic front are likely to get lucky today, as partner will respond positively.

SCORPIO

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Your efforts on the professional front will be recognised. Opting for some healthy choices when it comes to food will ensure you remain in perfect health. You will feel much happy and contented on the family front. Today you will enjoy the trust of senior management.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV 23 - DEC 22

You will succeed in resolving problems with family members, normalizing ties. Despite your misgivings, you retain good health. You will do much to bring peace and harmony at home. You will remain much in demand on social front. Some of you can get romantically involved.

CAPRICORN

DEC 23 - JAN 20

The enchanting true story of 'The Valkyries' begins in Rio de Jane rio when author, Paulo Coelho, gives his mys terious master, J, the only manuscript of his book 'The Alchemist'. Haunted by a devastat ing curse, Coelho con fesses to J, "I've seen my dreams fall apart just when I seemed about to achieve

them". In response, J gives him the daunting task to find and speak to his Guardian Angel. "The curse can be bro ken if you complete the task". This book is a compelling ac count of this 40-day quest in the searing heat of the Mojave De sert, September 5, to October 17, 1988.

There, Paulo and his wife Chris, encounter the Valkyries, warrior women dressed in leather, travelling the desert on motorcycles, spreading the word of angels. Coelho nar rates his spiritual journey and experi ences gained in this journey as he continu ously fights his inner demons. Led by a wom an- Valhalla, the

Valkyries adopt Coel ho when they realize he is of their 'Tradi tion' and guide him towards 'his angel'. Valhalla also tests his fidelity and his dedica tion to his wife. Chris, who never really be lieved in her husband's magic, begins to feel her consciousness ex panding, engaging in her own spiritual jour ney, which is more in

'The Valkyries' clearly pre sents the man that ex ists beyond the Magus, preparing us for be ings 'away from perfec tion'. The true seeker knows that "regardless of our faults and de fects, the spiritual path is stronger". If we look beyond our weak nesses, we find The Truth- "Love, Victory & the glory of God. We are responsible for everything that hap pens in this world. We are the Warriors of Light. The day will come, when the strength of our Love and our Will, will change everyone's des tiny. Then, those who knock at the gates of Paradise will see them open, those who ask will receive, and those who weep will be con soled. The Angels guide and protect us. God is Love, Generos ity and Forgiveness."

"At once a modernday adventure, a meta physical battle with self-doubts and fear. A true story of two peo ple striving to under stand one another, and a supernatural encoun ter with angels. The Valkyries is ultimately a story about forgiving our past and believing in our future."

Your intuition will save you from a tricky spot today. Yoga would help in raising energy levels and improve your metabolism. You will manage to achieve your aim through travel. This is a great time on the academic front, when you mange to render your best. Overall a great ahead.

LEO

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

Family will be most supportive, when it really matters for you. Some of you may add to your list of properties by booking a new one. It is good day to confess your love as stars appear favourable for positive reply. A long drive is likely to help you get over mental tiredness.

VIRGO

AUG 24 - SEP 23

Happiness in the domestic sphere will only come with a changed mind set. Some of you are likely to become a part of an overseas official trip. Better to consult an expert in financial matters before making an investment. Harsh words may create a rift in your romantic relationship; be careful.

AQUARIUS

JAN 21 - FEB 19

A friend or colleague may motivate you to take up a healthy activity. Parents may appear more than happy with what you deliver. Plans for overseas travel are likely to materialise. You are likely to get clearance or approval for your construction plans. You find things moving in the way you want them.

PISCES

FEB20 - MARCH 20

Avoid raising controversial issues at home to maintain harmony. Successful implementation of new ideas and projects would add to your prestige on the professional front. It is a wonderful day to build new connections. Your relationship requires you to be tactful.

FACEOFTHEDAY

Gifting something to your beloved is likely to make the day memorable for both of you. Matrimonial match for siblings will bring happiness for entire family. You will get a good price for your property. Those awaiting results are assured of succeeding with flying colours. Saurabbh Sachdeva

MOULI ROY, Model

Paulo Coelho

n a world of style, mu sic and romance how can Dev Anand not be necessary?

Dharam dev’s own list Pishori

mal Anand (26 Septem

ber 1923 – 3 December

2011 left his mark on cinema as an Indian actor, writer, director and producer through a career that spanned over six decades. Dev Anand will be remembered for his charm, the hairstyle cop ied across, his sloping rambling

walk, dialogue delivery and per haps most of all for his spirit and the joie de reverie!

Dev sahab was not a master of the fight sequences, fighting with droll humour in most cases with rolling punches similar to his style on-screen but he was the master of romance and woo ing his co-stars and the songs are legendary which still tug at the heartstrings.

We all have our list of favour ite songs of Dev Anand and what better way to spend the weekend than tuning in to these romantic songs on your music app as you soak in the raindrops into your very soul?

My all-time favourite remains Din Dhal jaaye from Guide, for me, it is the epitome of love which tears the lovers apart… love is not enough, is it? It is the perfect song to listen to, on loop as you unravel the mysteries of

your own love story. Chhod do Aanchal from Paying Guest with Nutan is another one close to my heart as is Dheere Dheere chal from Love Marriage with Mala Sinha. Another classic is Abhi na jao chhod ke with Sadhana from the classic movie Hum Dono, which is a forever love song for the parting lovers. Tujhe Jeevan Ki Dor from Asli Naqli again with Sadhana is so hummable and so is the lilt ing Likha Hai Teri Aankhon Mein from Teen Deviyan with Nanda.

Gaata Rahe Mera Dil an other one from Guide with Waheeda is as evergreen as the stars themselves. Just watch Dev Anand wooing the beau ties and you cannot but fall in love with him and with the idea of love…just a little.

Pyaar zaruri hai aur Dev Anand bhi!

RAISING THE BAR HIGH...

Conception and Creativity @ PARAM

CITY FIRST

A5-day exhibition titled PARAM: Exhibition of Supreme Con ception and Creativity will be organised on Oc tober 6 at The Stainless Gallery in New Delhi.

A handsome mix of senior, mid-career and rising artists’ works have been collect ed with a discerning eye and the common thread of intricacy and finesse which runs through each of the included works.

Sumit P Thakur, di rector at Divine Art Gal lery, said, “I have tried and included works in different mediums from pen and ink to oil, acryl ic and tribal art in mixed media, to give a wide choice to viewers.”

EMBRACE FLAWS WITH CONFIDENCE

CITY FIRST

Under the leader ship of Rachna Sharma, founder of Phuro Innova tions and co-chair of Harvard Alumni Entre preneurs India, an evening with an event titled Political Peace Dialogue – SAARC was organised recently for supporting World Peace Day at Kiran Nadar Mu seum of Art at Saket in New Delhi.

The event witnessed the presence of emi nent personalities and Phuro members such as Annurag Batra, chair man and editor-in-chief, BW Businessworld Group and Parvin Da bas, actor and director.

Pursuit of Political Peace: SAARC

Self-confidence is important to your physical and mental health.

When you believe in yourself you’re more likely to try new things, make good lifestyle choices and foster healthy relationships.

Describe yourself for us.

My name is Gargi Bhadu and I hail from Jaipur lat er I moved to Delhi for my studies. I am enthusiasti cally inquisitive by na ture. I am both a trained classical dancer as well as a professional ath lete. I believe fash ion shows have been the way to express my self.

How did your journey begin?

It began the day I realized my passion i.e. modelling.

and physiologically healthy. Confidence and comfort are important to excel in life.

Talk to us about your achievements.

I was one of the finalists in 2021 Miss Rajasthan. My biggest achieve ment is that I still have the will, the deter mination and the courage to be come the person I want to be.

Where do you see yourself after 20 years from now?

Sheran Fernando, a business leader, rekin dled hope for Sri Lanka with his thoughtful speech on Compelling Business Opportunities in Sri Lanka and the need to de-escalate the tensions with political peace dialogue.

Souraabh M Shaw, MD at MAKS Group, em phasized the need for Economic Interdepend ence in South Asia as a key parameter for re gional growth and de

velopment.

Rachna Sharma and Ashish Kumar Singh, editor at Foreign Af fairs, ABP News dis cussed the Trade-offs in Governments while

choosing Political Peace Dialogue which is deep-rooted in the history of the political philosophy of West phalia in international relations operating in

ANNUAL CHEF AWARDS

CITY FIRST

The wait for India’s biggest and most cherished culi nary award is over. The Indian Culi nary Forum (ICF) shall be presenting the 19th edition of the muchawaited annual Chef Awards on October 14 as part of the celebra tions of International Chefs Day. The annual Chef Awards func tion will be held at Hotel Pride Plaza, Aerocity in New Del hi. ICF will be honour ing the achievements of 17 outstanding culinary artisans by conferring them with awards.

“The cherished Indi an Chef Awards have become the Indian culi nary industry’s most valued testament for talent and skill recogni tion,” chef Davinder Kumar, president of ICF said. The event has three segments includ ing Culinary Competi tions, Knowledge Sum mit and the Chef Awards. The ICF culi nary competition will

be held at Banarsidass Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management and Institute of Bakery & Culinary Arts, New Delhi where over 150 professional chefs will showcase their culi

nary skills in 11 differ ent categories. WACScertified noted chef Dayashankar Sharma is the chairperson of this year’s jury while well-known chef Sireesh Saxena is the

organising secretary, he added.

“ICF empowers tal ents with latest culi nary knowledge and skills which not only help in career develop ment but also help the country by spreading the footprint of Indian cuisine around the world,” chef Vivek Sag gar, general secretary of ICF, said. Six special award categories in clude Lifetime Achieve ment Award, Golden Hat, Silver Hat, Aca demic Silver Hat, Pas try Chef of the Year and Lady Chef of the Year, he added.

this region of SAARC. Samir Shah, MD of a Venture Fund, Peak Ventures, shed light on the Future of South Asia: Energy-Efficient Economy.

“PROTECTION OF THE IMAGE IS ESSENTIAL IN THE GLAMOUR WORLD,” SAYS GARGI BHADU DURING CHAT WITH CITY FIRST

MRIDULA

Winners of Indian Culinary Forum 18th Annual Chef Awards

Souraabh M Shaw and Rachna Sharma Rachna Sharma

Parvin Dabas, Rachna Sharma and Souraabh M Shaw

First India, The Fashion Connect set the bar high with the completion of its very successful previous seasons and this time, the prestigious single day fashion event will be held on September 25 at Fairmont, Jaipur. Famous fashion designer, Manish Malhotra landed in the royal city where he was greeted by Rishee Miglani, Youth Icon along with Rajiv Kapoor, General Manager Fairmont Jaipur at Fairmont, Jaipur on Saturday. The entire city is waiting to witness the mega-star of the fashion industry and his avantgarde creations, which are synonymous with all things glitz and glamour.

—PHOTOS BY MANOJ

KESHARWANI

Artworks

—PHOTOS BY SHAZID CHAUHAN

Lokesh Sharma, Rishee Miglani and Manish Malhotra

Rajiv Kapoor, Nishi Bhayani, Hitesh Bhayani, Manish Malhotra, Rishee Miglani and Lokesh Sharma