6 March 2023

Late goal keeps Arsenal 5 points clear in EPL

Oppn writes to PM on ‘misuse’ of central agencies

HYDERABAD/NEW

DELHI, MAR 5 (PTI): Leaders of nine opposition parties, including chief ministers Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, K Chandrasekhar Rao, have written a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging “blatant misuse” of central agencies against members of the opposition.

The other signatories of the letter are Punjab chief minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann, Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Farooq Abdullah (J&K National Conference), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena, UBT) and Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party. However, there were no representations from Congress, JDS, JD (U), and CPI (M) in the letter.

“The blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition appears to suggest that we have transitioned from being a democracy to an

autocracy… the misuse of central agencies and constitutional offices like that of the Governor - to settle scores outside of the electoral battlefield is strongly condemnable as it does not bode well for our democracy,” the letter said.

Highlighting Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s arrest by the CBI in connection with the irregularities in Delhi Liquor Policy, the leaders said the charges against the AAP leader were “outrightly baseless and smack of a political conspiracy”.

His arrest has enraged people across the country. Sisodia is recognised globally for transforming Delhi’s school education. His arrest will be cited worldwide as an example of a political witch-hunt and further confirm what the world was only suspecting - that India’s democratic values stand threatened under an authoritarian BJP regime, they

alleged. Citing Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and former TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy as examples, they claimed that the investigation agencies go slow on cases against opposition politicians, who join the BJP.

“Since 2014, there has been a marked rise in the number of raids conducted, cases lodged against and arrest of the opposition leaders. Be it Lalu Prasad Yadav (RJD), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Azam Khan (SP), Nawab Malik, Anil Deshmukh (NCP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), central agencies have often sparked suspicion that they were working as extended wings of the Centre,” they said.

It is clear that the agencies have their priorities misplaced. Following the publication of an international forensic financial research report, SBI and LIC have reportedly lost over

Rs 78,000 crore in market capitalisation of their shares due to exposure to a certain firm, they alleged.

Pointing to Governors of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana

and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, the leaders charged these offices with acting in violation of the constitutional provisions and frequently hindering the governance of the state.

BJP slams Opposition

Taking a dig at the opposition parties, Delhi BJP leader RP Singh said that leaders belonging to these parties, such as former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah, are themselves being investigated in various cases. “The truth is, we are trying to make the country free of corruption under PM Modi. For this, the government will probe anyone accused of graft, no matter what post they represent,” he said.

BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi also drew an analogy of Lokmanya Tilak’s ‘Swaraj’ slogan, and said that the Aam Aadmi Party considers “corruption as their birthright” while also seeing it as its “right” to avoid investigations against corruption charges.

Trivedi said that AAP is the same party which levelled allegations of corruption against the same Opposition leaders with whom they are seeking support today.

“This is the same party which used to say that there should be a resignation as soon as allegations of corruption are levelled, and an investigation should be done later. Today they say there should not even be an investigation. Who are they taking support from – those against whom they had levelled allegations of corruption on the Ramlila Maidan?” he said.

Advisory for PM’s visit to Kohima on

DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN):

In view of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of Central dignitaries for the swearing in of the new government at Capital Cultural Hall, Kohima on March 7, the entire Kohima municipal area has been declared a “No Drone Zone” as part of security arrangements.

Accordingly, PRO Kohima police in a notification said that flying of any remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) such as drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), etc, will be restricted. The police warned that violation of the directive would amount to suspension or cancellation of UIN/UAOP of the RPA

Lt Gen Sahi next GOC of 3 Corps

DIMAPUR, MAR

5 (NPN):

Lieutenant General HS Sahi took charge as the GOC 3 Corps based at Rangapahar, Dimapur from outgoing GoC Lt. Gen. RC

Tiwari on Sunday. Lt. Gen

Tiwari was appointed as GOC 3 Corps in March 2022. He will take charge as GOC Uttar Bharat Area, Bareilly (UP).

Lt Gen Sahi, from the Rajput regiment, was earlier posted at the Army Headquarters and also held several prestigious commands including GoC Kilo Force, Jammu & Kashmir.

This is it!

Rio, Sarma meet Amit Shah, JP Nadda in Delhi on govt formation

Spl. Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAR 5

(NPN): For the first time in Nagaland political history, a regional party--NDPP which emerged as the single largest party with 25 members after the recent elections-- but has to rush to Delhi to obtain approval of the BJP high command to form the government. NDPP supremo and outgoing chief minister Neiphiu Rio is taking the help of NEDA convenor and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to hold deliberations with top BJP national leaders on composition of the council of ministers especially over how many cabinet berths will be available for the BJP.

Sources said that team comprising of NDPP members led by Rio and Assam chief minister Himanta called on Union Home min-

issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and would be prosecuted under relevant section of laws.

Traffic advisory: The Kohima Police has also issued a traffic advisory for March 7 for compliance by all concerned. As per the notification, Classic Island to Phoolbari via TCP Gate and Phoolbari to 1st Assam Rifles Main Gate via Ao Church have been declared “No Parking Zones”. The police have cautioned that all obstructing vehicles would be towed as per provisions of Section 201 of Motor Vehicles Act, and towing charges would be recovered from the owners.

Further, all down vehicle traffic from PHQ Junction area will be diverted to Lady Miles Road via Classic Island, all up vehicle traffic from High School junction/Bayavu will be diverted to Kohimas Hospital-Naga Bazar RoadNHAK Junction via Census Point and all vehicles proceeding towards Razhü Point from North PS junction area will be diverted to New Market-Naga Bazar Road. PRO sought cooperation from all citizens during the enforcement of this traffic regulation. Schools to remain shut within Kohima city: Meanwhile, in view of the security measures being undertaken such as restrictions on move-

ister Amit Shah in Delhi on Sunday evening regarding government formation.

The meeting held at Shah’s residence was also attended by BJP national president JP Nadda, NDPP president Chingwang Konyak, NDPP secretary general Abu Metha and NDPP senior vice president Rusemtong Longkumer.

Soon after the meeting, the leaders returned to Nagaland Sunday late night by a chartered flight. Rio is expected to call for a joint

meeting of the BJP and NDPP MLAs by Monday.

The NDPP won 25 seats and BJP won 12 seats in the recent election while the council of ministers is limited to 12 members. According to sources NDPP has informed its pre-poll ally, that it is going to keep eight berths for its members and leave four for the BJP. In the outgoing ministry, BJP was given six cabinet berths which NDPP maintained, was disproportionate to the

March 7 Adenovirus alarm: WB reports over 40 deaths among children

ment of people and vehicles in various parts of Kohima on account of the scheduled arrival of the Prime Minister and dignitaries, all schools located in Kohima city would remain closed on March 7. However, those Schools where students would appear for examinations would function as usual.

Informing this in a notification, principal director School Education Thavaseelan K further said that schools located outside the limits of Kohima may function as usual and heads of schools have been asked to check the traffic advisory issued by the authorities and advise students accordingly.

Post poll violence continues in Nagaland

According to sources, more than 20 farm houses had been burnt down between March 2 and 5, while areca nut plantations were cut down on the night of March 4. With the situation seemingly becoming volatile, one company of 6 NAP was deployed in Tizit on Sunday evening. This is in addition to one platoon each of 11 IR and 13 IR already deployed in the area.

Correspondent

KOHIMA, MAR 5 (NPN):

Even as the State was preparing for formation of the new government, the post-poll violence continues to rock different parts of the State as reports of removal of electric poles, burning of farm houses etc were reported.

In Tizit, burning down and destroying of farms were reported since March 1 at Loakhun village and a residential house was burnt down on the outskirts of Jaboka on March 2, while an attempt was made to burn other houses the same night. A case has been registered and investigation is under process.

In Wokha district, NCP district media cell claimed that supporters of a rival candidate had allegedly cut-off the power supply to Pongitong, Totsu, Tsungza, Khumtsu, Meriyan and L Yanthung had been affected since February 27.

(Cont’d on

DMC given 1 year to shift dumpsite

DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN):

National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) a time of one year to find an alternative site for dumping garbage of which six months being for land acquisition and the remaining six months for shifting dumpsite from its current location near Sunrise Colony, Burma Camp to the new dumpsite by January 31, 2024.

It may be mentioned that the

“Don’t tell me he has decided to limit public interview now that he’s elected?”

and liquid waste management causing harm to the environment.

Hearing a petition, Kolkata-based Eastern Zone Bench of NGT further directed DMC to prepare an Action Plan for Waste Management within a period of three months, i.e., by April 30,2023.

As waste segregation from source was a continuous process and hence no timeline could be given, the tribunal stated but however ruled that the segregation must commence within one month, if not already undertaken by the council.

The tribunal ordered that bio-remediation process must be completed by May 31, 2024 and an affidavit of compliance in this regard should be filed by July 1, 2024. It also ruled that biomining process should be completed by May 31, 2024.

NGT directed DMC to create green belt and buffer zone and completed these within six months, i.e., by September 30 this year, while installation of weigh bridge at the dumpsite should be completed within a period of three months, i.e., by May 31 this year.

(Cont’d on p-8)

KOLKATA, MAR 5

(IANS): The adenovirus menace in West Bengal seems to be assuming alarming proportions as deaths of four more children, admitted in a Kolkata

hospital with its symptoms, were reported in the last six hours, taking the death toll of children to 40 in nine days.

More than 5,200

Acute Respiratory Infec -

tion cases have been reported due to adeno virus. The common symptoms of adenovirus are flu-like including cold, fever, breathing problems, sore throat, pneumonia,

and acute bronchitis. The virus can spread through skin contact, by air through coughing and sneezing, and through an infected person’s stools.

Rio with Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Sarma and others in Delhi. (Twitter)

(L) A house burnt to ashes in the outskirts of Jaboka and (R) an electric pole cut-off at Pongitong village, Wokha.

p-8)

Toolkits distributed to artisans under NHDP

component) in Phase-1 on cane and bamboo crafts during the financial year 2022-23.

The toolkits were dis tributed by Padmashree awardee and national awardee, Neihunuo Sorhie in the presence of director in-charge of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Kohima centre, Dr. Mayonmi Shimray and Sr. assistant director (H), Handicrafts Service Centre (HSC) Kohima, T. Rollee Vareishim.

Regional superior of Jesuits visits Kidima

DIMAPUR: Toolkits of cane and bamboo crafts were distributed to 30 handicrafts artisans in cane and bamboo during an Improved Toolkit Distribution Programme (ITDP)

on March 4 at the Development commissioner (Handicrafts), government of India, Ministry of Textiles, Handicrafts Service Centre Kohima, office.

A press release by the

centre informed that the artisans had undergone two months training under the master craftsperson Clement Kikon (state awardee) in Guru Shishya Hastshilp Prashikshan

Seminar on ‘mental health’ at IVBC

Program(GSHPP) for open (NER) category artisans under National Handicrafts Development Programme (NHDP) Scheme, Skill Development in Handicrafts Sector (Sub

The centre informed that the craftsperson re ceived the toolkits for selfproductions of various items in future for self-sustainability and enhance the supply of cane and bamboo crafts from the state of Nagaland in the national and international markets.

NEWS IN BRIEF

CEC, ABAM, LMLC to hold training: In consonance with its mission objective of “Poverty alleviation and sustainable development” and to inculcate a culture of diligent work and leadership ethics, C-Edge College (CEC) and Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang (ABAM) in collaboration with Life Ministry Learning Centre (LMLC) would be holding four days intensive training under the 11th Nagaland Canaan Farmers School on March 8-11 at LMLC premises.

NSCN (Akato) greets Chakhesangs: NSCN/GPRN (Akato Chophi) has extended warm Tsukhenye festival greetings to the Chakhesang Nagas. In a greeting, NSCN (Akato) said it was optimistic that the Chakhesang brothers and sisters would continue to shine in every aspect and usher peace and tranquillity.

DIMAPUR: Regional su perior of Jesuits, Kohima region, Reverend Father Melvil Pereira SJ along with mission pioneer Fr Raymond D’ Souza SJ on March 3 visited the first established Catholic Church (November 22, 1970) by Jesuits in North East India, St Francis Xavier Church Kidima.

A press release by the church informed that during the visit, Fr Melvil

AHSS inducts Peace Channel, Eco Club

DIMAPUR: A seminar on “mental health” was organised by the youth ministry of Ikishe Village Baptist Church (IVBC) in collaboration with Lapiye Centre for Mental well-being on March 4.

A press release by the church informed that at the seminar, resource persons, psychiatrist SMO, Dimapur District Hospital, Dr. Temsuyanger highlighted on dependency on alcohol, drug pornography, and

mobile, which was earlier known as addiction, a stigmatized vocabulary but now has been termed as dependency.

He also discussed about Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) and its benefits and how the dependents could lead a healthy quality of life at the later stage. Dr Temsuyanger said OST would help the users to give up using the substance with the passage of time.

Dr Temsuyanger also pointed out that phone dependent was included in ICD 11 in the category of mental illness and that people should know how to use it rather than become dependent.

A brief session was also held on demon possession and psychosis. The seminar which has two sessions began and ended with prayer by IVBC associate youth pastor, Inahoto.

NSCN (Akato) condoles: NSCN/GPRN (Akato Chophi) has expressed pain and sorrow at the sudden and unfortunate demise of kilonser and village chief of Sunito Village, Hetovi Yeptho on March 5. In a condolence message, NSCN (Akato) said late Yeptho was a soft spoken, yet a zealous and an honest leader who served in different capacities during his “voluntary service to the nation”. NSCN/GPRN said it has lost a sincere comrade, a cheerful and a noble soul which has caused huge irreparable void. NSCN prayed for solace and comfort for the bereaved family members and rest for the departed soul.

2 NSCN members apprehended

DIMAPUR: Assisi Higher Secondary School (AHSS), Dimapur conducted an induction programme for Peace Club and Eco Club on February 24.

The induction programme was graced by Lieutenant Colonel, Assam Rifle, Transit camp, Dimapur, Ravi Chettri, as the chief guest.

At the programme, oath taking by the members of both Eco and Peace Club were conducted and the significant of the day was highlighted by Yimsanen, a student of 8th standard.

In his brief address, Lt. Col. Ravi encouraged the students to be an agent of peace and maintain healthy competition with each other and consider failure as a stepping stone to success.

Pereira expressed gratitude for the opportunity to offer Eucharist in the church.

Fr Pereira asked the faithful to pray for transformation and conversion of one’s life while calling upon the congregation to obey and listen the Lord in the time of problem, difficulties, pain, and sorrow. He reminded them that they cannot take any worldly materials into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Funeral

Speaking on the occa sion, Parish Priest, Fr Siby John deliberated on how Jesuits plays a vital role in the society.

During the programme, Kidima Catholic Youth presented welcome song while juniors association sang a song. The regional superior along with leaders also visited sister’s convent and other developmental works undertaken by the church.

Funeral Service of Late Er. T. Kirem Amer (Retd) At 2: 00 PM on 06/03/2023 (Monday) At 72Residency Colony, Dimapur

Silently

The two NSCN-K (YA) members arrested by security forces.

DIMAPUR: Acting on a tip-off, security forces in a joint operation with police apprehended a cadre and one over ground worker of NSCN-K (YA) on March 1 at general area Lungwa Jn, Mon Town.

A press release by PRO, HQ Inspector General of Assam Rifles (N) informed that the apprehended persons have been handed over to Mon Town police station for further investigation.

Livino S Zhimo, Project Coordinator Peace Channel, who was the resource person of the day, gave a brief description about Peace Channel and the important of peace in school settings in order to promote peace building and conflict transformation through children.

Later, vote of thanks was proposed by Merenaro, a student of 10th standard and the session concluded with a School Anthem.

29.11.1939 – 06.03.2021

Loving Apo, it’s been two years since you left us for your eternal abode, but your love and good deeds showed towards us are still afresh in our hearts. Your memories will always remain in our hearts till we meet again. Loving wife, sons, daughters, grandchildren, In- laws and relatives.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Romans 14.8

" If we live, we live to the lord and if we die, we die to the lord. So then, whether we live or die, we belong to the lord "

Late Nikheto Rochill

16/11/1967 – 24/02/2023

We the family of Lt. Nikheto Rochill wishes to acknowledge the many expressions of sympathy and gestures of kindness shown to us at his sudden demise. Loving wife, children & relatives.

Officials and participants at Ikishe Village Baptist Church.

Dimapur Battalion of Assam Rifles and the villagers at the installation of 13 solar lights at at Bamanpukhri Village, Dimapur under Assam Rifle Civic Action Programme on March 1.

Ministry for PwDs, women launched

who was the special guest at the programme, said that PwDs were not second class citizens in the society, but belong to same status as normal human being. She said it was the society that indirectly and directly maintained distance with PwDs, which has created a huge vacuum for them to explore the possible opportunity.

Nakhro said that inclusion of disabilities in all platforms and education institute will provide them competitive environment in all career aspects. She said churches were powerful platform and can act as a role model, therefore appealed to take the initiative of RMM, and create awareness so that PwDs could be brought under one umbrella and provide them every necessary schemes and opportunity.

BTGC lauds AR’s role on Feb 27 polling day

DIMAPUR: Bhandari

Town GBs Council

(BTGC) has lauded the pivotal role played by the 45th Assam Rifles E.Coy led by Major Rajat Yadav in providing security to the general public on February 27 during the polling day at Bhandari town.

In a press release, head GB B. Longshi Odyuo and secretary GB Wopansao Jami said that BTGC especially appreciated Major Rajat Yadav and his team for tactfully and efficiently control -

ling violence and alleged destroying of electioneering tools and machines at Bhandari town polling station and for any eventualities after post poll. The council stated that efforts of Assam Rifles E. Coy has once again demonstrated that they indeed were truly the “Friends of the Hill People”.

Bhandari Town GBs Council expressed the hope that the Assam Rifles will continue to maintain good relation with the people of Nagaland.

Talks held on importance of research in higher education

Staff Reporter

DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN): Roshni Mantraalay Ministry (RMM) an initiative of Nagamese Baptist Church Kevijau (NBCK) to work for upliftment of women, Person with disabilities (PwDs) and for social well-being was launched at NBCK on Sunday.

The ministry will also be opened to all PwDs irrespective of denomination, race or culture, and weekly regular devotional service will be conducted at 1:30 pm every Sunday. Highlighting on the RMM, pastor, NBCK Lanuakum Ozukum said that the ministry will work for social concerns and to educate people on ways

of preserving a healthy psycho – social – economic wellbeing.

He said under RMM, it will undertake on following four campaigns- Nari Abhiyan an initiative for women up-liftment and self-employment, Prakrti Abhiyan for conserving ecology, Bala Abhiyan for awareness on better parenting and child abuse, Nyay

Mnp CM assures to protect indigenous communities

assured to consider the demands submitted by the locals including widening/ expansion of road, upgradation of UJB School, and construction of Primary Health Centre, among others.

He further said that construction of a Hills Leaders’ Bhavan in Imphal will be completed soon.

Stating that Manipur received highest foreign tourists in the Northeast region, the chief minister encouraged the locals especially the youth to develop their location naturally to attract more tourists.

Correspondent

IMPHAL, MAR 5: Ma -

nipur chief minister, N Biren Singh, on Saturday said that government will protect and work for the upliftment of all indigenous communities in the state.

“The government is here to protect all indigenous communities of the state and that no community should discriminate against or threaten smaller communities for forceful assimilation, Singh said while addressing the inaugural day of the two-day long Berkap-Reiju festival

at Ichum Keirap Kom village in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district.

Berkap-Reiju is a festival of the Kom tribe of Manipur, celebrated to revive and promote the rich cultural heritage of the tribe. Warning against any threat for forceful assimilation of smaller and weaker communities, Singh said every indigenous tribe or community, regardless of their population or size, should be allowed to live freely without any threat.

“My government is fully ready to meet any threat on any community,”

he said and pointed out that government was working under the Prime Minister’s mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’.

He said government was also working for proper representation of minority tribes and communities, and assured his commitment to ensure that government nominees in the Autonomous District Councils in hill districts were from the minority tribes.

He said a budgetary allocation for only minorities has been included in the budget. Singh further

He further encouraged the villagers to ensure that the economically weaker families are receiving the benefits of the government welfare schemes.

MLAs - Haokholet Kipgen, Kh Ibomcha, Th Shanti, CSO leaders, village chiefs and church leaders were among others who attended the function.

Traditional dances and cultural performances were the main highlights of the inaugural function.

On his arrival, the chief minister and the other dignitaries were accorded a warm traditional welcome by the villagers.

Abhiyan justice for people with disabilities (PwD). He informed that the ministry has been named in Hindi for wide exposure so that people from all walks of background in the country could understand and take benefits of the various campaigns under the ministry.

Disability commissioner Deithono Nakhro,

Earlier, the programme was chaired by pastor NBCK Lanuakum Ozukum and invocation by deacon NBCK Toshi Ozukum, Founder of ‘Living Bread Ministry’ S. Aosungkum Ozüküm shared testimonies of his ministry, message and act of inauguration by Rev. Alem Jamir, vote of thanks by deaconess, Nagamese Baptist Church Kevijau Sunita.

DIMAPUR: The Journal and Research committee of Livingstone Foundation International College (LFIC) conducted a talk on the importance of Research in Higher Education on February 23 with Dr. Joseph Longkumer., Asst. Prof. Department of History as the resource person. In his presentation, Dr. Joseph stressed on the importance to pursue research to cope up with the rising trend in the field of artificial intelligence and various technological tools. He highlighted on the essential requirement of professional development programmes for the faculty. Longkumer further said that insufficient financial support, ill equipped library, lack of interest, etc. were some of the lapses faced by most of the faculty in research domain. He therefore encouraged the faculty to pursue further available online courses to learn/upgrade the skills from the conventional ways of conducting research. The programme was attended by all faculty members of the College.

Left Front terms Tripura Assembly results ‘unexpected’ Assam’s ‘Maidams’ clear criteria for UNESCO tag

AGARTALA, MAR 5 (PTI): The Left Front said the Tripura Assembly election result was “unexpected” and claimed that the vote division among the anti-BJP parties helped the saffron party to win the polls with less number of seats.

The Left Front also claimed that around 60 per cent of the people’s mandate was against the BJP in the recently concluded elections as the BJP’s vote share in the election was 39 per cent.

“If one goes by the fiveyear misrule and people’s expression, the result is not corroborative. Around 60 per cent mandate against the BJP reflects the people’s distrust of a particular party”, said Left Front convenor Narayan Kar in a press release on Friday. In the elections, the BJP’s vote share was 39 per cent down from 43.59 per cent in 2018 polls. Its seat strength has also come down to 32 from 36 in the 60-member Assembly.

The CPI(M)’s vote share has also come down from 42.70 per cent to 24 per cent while the Congress has improved its vote share from 1.41 per cent to 8.56 per cent.

SolarfencealongIndia-Bhutanbordermitigatesman-elephantconflict

NAGRIJULI (ASSAM), MAR 5 (PTI): An 18-kmlong sol ar fence erected along the India-Bhutan border helps mitigate humanelephant conflict, protecting over 10,000 people residing in 11 villages in Assam’s Baksa district by keeping away wild pachyderms coming from the Himalayan kingdom.

The barrier, erected on the Indian bank of River Bornadi, which marks the international border, has led to a dip in incidents of wild pachyderms straying into villages and a reduction in deaths due to man-elephant conflict.

“The elephants earlier caused large-scale devastation, destroying our farmlands and food stocks. Around six to seven people used to be trampled to death on average annually by these pachyderms coming from Bhutan in search of food.

“We led our lives in fear and spent sleepless nights when these giants visited the villages. People used to stay indoors after

dusk fearing an encounter with the pachyderms,” Bhim Bahadur Chetri, a resident of Pub Guabari village, told PTI. It became a matter of grave concern and conservationists, wildlife experts and administration, after considerable deliberation, decided to install a solar fence that released weak electric shocks upon contact not leading to the deaths of elephants. The solar fence was erected by bio-diversity organisation ‘Aranyak’ with funding from the Elephant Foundation of India in Feb-

ruary 2021. Besides the forest department, which facilitated the entire process, villagers are also stakeholders in the project.

A forest official said shrinking elephant habitats was the major cause for the pachyderms straying into outlying human settlements for food, leading to their conflict with humans.

Senior office-bearer of Aranyak, Anjan Barua, said that villagers earlier used to erect electrical fences to keep away elephants but these posed a grave threat

to the lives of not only the pachyderms but also humans and their livestock in the area. A scientific study was carried out on the movement of elephants before the commencement of the fencing process, eminent conservation scientist Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar said.

A highly intelligent and gentle creature, elephants need a huge area to migrate for food and water, he said.

“After considerable research and study of the area and the problems, we evolved a strategy to mitigate the issue so that both animals and humans could co-exist,” he said.

“It was decided that local villagers will be involved. Their participation was overwhelming. They also made financial contributions by constructing concrete posts to ensure the longevity of the fence,” Barua pointed out.

Solar lights were installed at various vantage locations across the conflictaffected villages to facilitate elephant sighting from a safe

distance at night, he added.

The villages protected by the solar fence include Dongargaon, Pub Guabari, Hastinapur, Mahendranagar, Bogorikhuti no.1, Orongajuli, Dongargaon, Jaipur, Piplani, Bimalanagar and Bogorikhuti no. 2.

Five fence maintenance committees were formed in these villages and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the stakeholders following which its maintenance was handed over to the villagers.

“The situation has improved considerably over the last two years and now we can reap our crops in peace,” Nirmal Hajong, who operates the solar power unit in Pub Guabari village, said.

Assam’s forests are among the prime habitats of the Asian elephant, an endangered species now living in severe stress due to anthropogenic pressures.

According to the last census conducted in 2017, Assam has 5,719 wild elephants, the second highest in India after Karnataka.

GUWAHATI, MAR 5 (PTI): India’s sole nomination for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site this year, ‘Maidams’ or the burial mounds of Ahom royalty in Assam’s Charaideo district, have met the technical requirements, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The nomination will be next evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, he said.

“With great pride, happy to share a landmark achievement in our endeavour to get World Heritage Site status for Charaideo Maidams. The maidams have met all technical requirements of the UNESCO Secretariat,” Sarma said on Twitter on Friday. He also expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the nomination of ‘Assam’s Pyramids’.

“The nomination will now be evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites. We look forward to the Evaluation Mission’s visit,” the CM added.

The ‘Maidams’ or the mound burial system of the Ahom dynasty in Charaideo was first listed in the

‘Maidams’ represent the late medieval (13th-19th century CE) mound burial tradition of the Tai Ahoms dynasty.

tentative list of UNESCO’s World Heritage site in April 2014, Sarma had said earlier. The ‘Maidams’ will be under the cultural segment as per the categorisation of World Heritage sites. There is currently no World Heritage site in the category of cultural heritage in the northeast out of the 32 listed in the country.

Manas and Kaziranga National Parks, both in Assam, are World Heritage sites under the natural category, of which there are seven in India.

The state Directorate of Archaeology had prepared the dossier to push the case for the Charaideo Maidams which was submitted to the Archaeological

Survey of India, following which the chief minister had written to the Prime Minister.

In 2019-20, the state government made a provision of Rs 25 crore for the protection, conservation and development of the Charaideo Archaeological site.

‘Maidams’ represent the late medieval (13th-19th century CE) mound burial tradition of the Tai Ahoms dynasty which ruled for 600 years in Assam. Out of 386 ‘Maidams’ explored so far, 90 royal burials at Charaideo are the best preserved, representative, and most complete examples of this tradition, the chief minister had said.

AYP symposium suggests electoral reforms in student elections

ITANAGAR, MAR 5 ( AGENCIES): Electoral reforms in student union elections took centre stage on the second day of the twoday state-level symposium organized by the Arunachal Youth parliament.

Speaking during the panel discussion on the topic ‘Student politics and beyond: Unlocking the potential of young people in Arunachal,’ Gumjum Haider, State Information Commissioner, suggested that there should be reforms in student organizations, be it community, district, or state level. There should be some limitations, or criteria, perhaps age, and marital status in student politics, he suggested.

Advocate SD Loda who was also one of the panelists said “We have to unlock our potential, the potential is within us and the key to unlocking it is also within us. We should work towards engaging

ourselves to come out with productive solutions to our problems and it can only be achieved with the help of the government. Government cannot just say become job-generators to youths, there should be specific mechanism and policies built to redress this.”

Speaking on electing of wrong leaders to leadership in student organizations, he said “losing a good leader means losing a generation because we cannot imagine a good society if wrong people are elected to power.”

He also advised the youths to pick up the responsibility of protecting and conserving the environment. Any form of development should be sustainable, in terms of environment, flora, fauna, and the planet’s ecosystem, he added.

The session was moderated by the Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists, Vice-President

Ranju Dodum. In the competition section, the Dera Natung College Itanagar was adjudged as the most disciplined college while Jumli Ninu of Arunachal Law Academy was awarded as the best student speaker of the symposium.

Deithono Nakhro addressing the gathering at the inauguration of RMM on Sunday. (NP)

Manipur CM N Biren Singh at the inauguration of Berkap-Reiju festival.

File photo of a solar fence.

Mukul Sangma complains of life threat; security provided

SHILLONG, MARCH 5 (IANS): Trinamool Congress leader and former Meghalaya Chief Minister claimed that some National People’s Party (NPP) supporters have threatened his life. In a letter to Chief Secretary D.P. Wahlang, Sangma said that certain NPP backers had allegedly threatened to set his home on fire as punishment for the ongoing events surrounding the creation of the state’s government. “Deliberate incitement to spread hatred and do personal harm upon me being aggressively done. People engaged in the criminal conspiracy are inciting to create communal riots and personal harm to me. Just reported to the CS to take action as per law,” he said.

The state government has beefed security outside

New M’laya MLAs to take oath today

SHILLONG, MAR 5

(PTI): A special session of the Meghalaya Assembly has been convened for the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected MLAs and the election of the speaker, a senior official said on Sunday.

The new House, with 59 members, will have its first sitting on Monday, when the pro-tem speaker administers the oath of office to the legislators, the official said.

BJP legislators to meet to build consensus on next Tripura CM

his home as a result. Sangma received the threats as he held talks with Congress and other regional parties barring the NPP to form the next government in Meghalaya.

According to sources, one social media user on Facebook encouraged people to visit Sangma’s home and throw stones while also burning effigies. A few oth-

ers also wrote in favour of violence. In the 60-member house, the National People’s Party (NPP) won 26 seats, while the BJP got two. The United Democratic Party (UDP) got 11 seats, while the Congress and Trinamool Congress each won five, while the rest were won by regional parties and independents.

The House will be meeting again on March 9 for the election of speaker, commissioner and secretary of the Assembly, Andrew Simons, told PTI.

The BJP-backed NPPled alliance with 32 MLAs has staked claim to form the next government in Meghalaya, under the leadership of Conrad K Sangma.

The NPP won 26 seats in the recently concluded elections, while its ally, the BJP, won only two seats.

AGARTALA, MAR 5 (PTI): BJP’s chief troubleshooter in the Northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma, was believed to have been sent to Tripura to end “factionalism” within the local unit of the party to enable a consensus candidate for the chief minister’s post. While Manik Saha, the outgoing chief minister, is favoured by one section, another, which includes former CM Biplab Deb’s supporters, is believed to have plumbed for Union minister Pratima Bhowmik, according to party sources.

A meeting of the newly elected BJP MLAs to select the legislative party leader will be held but the date is yet to be fixed, a senior party leader said. The BJP has secured a clear majority, winning 32 seats in the 60-member assembly, while its ally IPFT bagged one constituency. The polls were held on February 16 and

Ready for talks with BJP on rights of indigenous people: Tipra Motha chief

AGARTALA, MAR 3

(PTI): The Tipra Motha on Sunday said that it was ready to sit with the BJP for a “face-to-face meeting” to find a “constitutional solution” to Tiprasa people’s problems, a day after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that the party’s concerns should be addressed through dialogue.

Taking to Facebook, former royal scion Pradyot Manikya Debbarman, who helms the regional outfit, also gave assurance that his party will not let down

people who had voted for him. “If we are respectfully invited for talks on constitutional rights - economic, political, language -- we will

participate. We are sons of the soil... We are ready for talks to find a constitutional solution to the problems of indigenous people. And, the talks cannot be about ministerial posts or individual benefits,” he said in a video posted on the networking platform. Debbarman warned that any party that seeks to rule Tripura by ignoring its indigenous people will find it difficult to run the state smoothly in the future. Notably, he did not talk about his party’s demand for Greater Tipraland

in the video, the poll plank that helped the outfit emerge as the second largest part in the state, having clinched 13 ST-reserved seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections. The party, however, failed to bag any of the 22 general seats that it contested. Sarma had on Saturday said that the BJP is ready to work with the Tipra Motha to address the issues raised by the regional party, but the saffron camp is against the division of the northeastern state.

In another post, the Tipra

the results were declared on March 2. Party insiders said Saha is possibly favoured by the central leadership as he has proven non-controversial and is expected to deliver the healing touch needed to pacify tribal areas, which have voted en masse for Tipra Motha over its Greater Tipraland statehood demand. The party leaders will soon meet to finalise the preparations for the oath-taking ceremony on March 8, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J

Motha chairman said, “Majority of the Tiprasa voted for Motha. Majority of the Muslims voted for CPI(M) and majority of the general areas voted for BJP - yet the general area leaders from the opposition blame us for them not getting support of their own communities!”

He asserted that Jitendra Choudhury of the CPI(M), “the party’s CM face”, could manage to win from Sabroom seat as the Tipra Motha hadn’t fielded any candidate from the constituency.

P Nadda are scheduled to participate. Bhoumik, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, has been elected from Dhanpur assembly seat by a comfortable margin.

When Saha was made the CM on March 14 last year after replacing Deb, a group of BJP legislators led by minister Ram Prasad Paul had vented ire during a meeting of the party MLAs. Political analyst and senior journalist Sekhar Dutta opined that Bhoumik may be made the deputy chief minister as a compromise. “One has to understand that BJP fought and won the elections in a difficult situation under Saha’s leadership. Even the Union home minister, during his campaign, had projected Saha as the CM face. Therefore, it is unlikely that the BJP will bring in a new CM replacing Saha. Bhoumik may be made the deputy CM instead,” he said.

NEW

DELHI,

MAR 5

(PTI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reached Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s official residence here on Sunday to discuss government formation in Tripura and Nagaland, sources said. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio also attended the meeting, they said. According to the sources, cabinet structure and government formation will be discussed during the meeting. The BJP returned to power in Tripura and retained power in Meghalaya with alliance partner National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).

BJP mandal president resigns in Tripura

AGARTALA, MAR 5 (PTI): The BJP mandal president of Banamalipur Assembly constituency in West Tripura district, Dipak Kar has resigned amidst allegations of sabotage leading to defeat of state party president Rajib Bhattacharjee in the recently held Assembly elections, a senior party leader said on Sunday. Banamalipur Assembly constituency, considered a stronghold of the saffron party, was held by former Chief Minister

Manipur CM N Biren Singh talks tough on mob violence

Correspondent

IMPHAL, MAR 5: Ma -

nipur chief minister N Biren Si ngh, in a strong warning to mob violence, on Sunday said that strict actions would be initiated against those responsible for the recent violent attack on the police in Thoubal’s Moijing area.

On Friday night, a mob allegedly attacked a police team deputed to apprehend a suspected criminal at Moijing area, injuring at least 10 policemen and damaging eight police vehicles.

Responding to queries from reporters on the sideline of a function at chief minister’s secretariat today, Singh strongly condemned

the violence and obstruction to the police from discharging their official duty terming it “barbaric” and “goondaism”.

Singh said people should not take law into their own hands adding that violence and intimidation have no place in a democracy.

The chief minister said that strict actions will be taken all residents of the village involved in the violence and collective fine will be imposed on the village.

They must compensate the damages to public properties (police vehicles) and be held responsible for causing injuries to the police personnel on official duties, he said.

Obstruction to police in discharging their duties is against the law. They took the law into their hands by attacking the police personnel with stones and other deadly weapons, he said.

As many as 11 people allegedly involved in the violence were arrested.

They have been remanded

Acknowledgement

I am blessed beyond measure to write this letter of acknowledgement to my beloved citizens of Phom from Auching to Ladigarh. Today marks the failure in the 4th Run to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly but I advocate peace and love for the cause of elevating our people in achieving greater goals in all kinds of activities.

I am truly honoured and grateful to all my supporters and well wishers for all the support and contribution during the recently concluded General Election for 14th NLA. Your precious vote and continuous support in kind and material and prayers will always remain in the deepest core of my heart and will be indebted to each one of you. I am committed to work for my people and am reassured to give “My People, My Priority” for the progress and betterment of my beautiful District Longleng, Eastern Nagaland and Naga’s in general.

I thank Almighty God for his unconditional blessings and protection throughout my campaign and also placed my record of gratitude to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the blessing and guidance under the able and visionary leadership of Shri. Narendra Modi Ji, Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri. Amit Shah ji, Hon'ble Home Minister, Shri. J P Nadda Ji, Hon'ble National President, BJP and all rank and files of BJP.

Conveying my heartiest congratulations to Shri. A. Pongshi Phom & Shri. Bangtick Phom and all the successful candidates for their achievement. I wish the best in all future endeavors.

DC-239/23

Hingko & God bless!

S. Pangnyu Phom BJP Candidate 50 A/C Longleng

to police custody after producing in a local court.

“I have instructed the police to identify all those involved in the violence,” the chief minister who is also in-charge of the home department said, adding that those arrested will not be released until the escaped suspected criminal was arrested.

The villagers must hand over the escaped suspect to the police or face the dire consequences, he said.

Such incidents of tak-

ing law into hands will not be allowed under the incumbent government. “We will show them that there is law and no one taking the law into hand will be spared,” he said.

On Friday evening, a combined team of Heingang police station of Imphal East and police commandos attached with the district police rushed to the Muslim-dominated Moijing area of Thoubal district to apprehend a person accused in two

criminal cases.

The team nabbed one Md Sirajuddin, who is wanted in two recent criminal cases - shooting dead one Md Mustakim on February 24 last and an alleged attempt to kill a driver identified as Md Noor Khan on March 2 night along with one of his friends.

The duo escaped while the police were busy taking control of a large number of villagers who blocked their path to foil the arrest.

Bipplab Kumar Deb. Deb had defeated Congress nominee Gopal Chandra Roy by a margin of 12,000 votes in the 2018 Assembly elections.

This time, the BJP candidate Rajib Bhattacharjee lost the elections to Congress candidate Gopal Chandra Roy by a margin of 1,369 votes. Pressure was mounting on the mandal president (Dipak Kar) to resign ever since the defeat of Bhattacharjee amidst allegations of sabotage.

Finally, the mandal president who wanted to contest the election from Banamalipur constituency resigned on Saturday.

“I have heard that Banamalipur Mandal president Dipak Kar has resigned from the post but has not yet received the letter”, Bhattacharjee told PTI Dipak Kar a contractor was once close to the CPI(M). He joined the BJP in 2018 and became mandal president.

The Office of the TGPU (Central) would like to extend our hearty congratulations to Ar. Jwenga Seb JD(U) candidate for emerging with a thumping victory in the recently concluded 14th NLA Election from 12th Tseminyu A/C.

The Union is extremely happy and overwhelmed by the love and support shown to him by people of 12th Tseminyu A/C constituency. The union extends its fullest cooperation and support to the newly elected leader as he ventures to take our district to new heights. We wish him good health, prosperity and success in all his future endeavours.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL TESOPHENYU GROUP PUBLIC UNION (CENTRAL)

k-428/23

I would like to express my heartful gratitude to all the people of 51 Noksen A/C Constituency for the overwhelming support throughout the campaign in the just concluded 14th NLA General Election 2023. I also thank the NDPP Party rank and file from the Central, State and Area unit for the opportunity to share my vision and ideas with the electorate and to be a part of this democratic process. Although the result were not in our favour, I deeply support all the electorates of my constituency for their unwavering support throughout the campaign.

My commitment towards the betterment of our constituency remain firm and shall continue working in days to come. I congratulate Shri Limaonen Chang RPI who has been elected as the new MLA.

All glory and gratitude to God Almighty for His constant love and grace throughout my 38 years of public life and pray that God will continue to guide us as we march forward.

Thank you All

Manik Saha

Pradyot Debbarman

N Biren Singh

Mukul Sangma

Himanta Biswa Sarma

SNIPPETS

Couple kills neighbour in Thane

THANE, MAR 5 (PTI):

A woman was arrested in Thane’s Naya Nagar while her husband was on the run for allegedly killing their neighbour over opposition to placing of slippers near the door, a police official said on Sunday. The couple and victim fought often accusing one another of placing slippers close to each other’s door and one such argument led to fisticuffs on Saturday night, Naya Nagar police station inspector Jilani Sayed said.

Accountant siphons off Rs 2.73 cr from client

MUMBAI, MAR 5

(PTI): A 31-year-old accountant working in a share-trading firm here was arrested for allegedly siphoning off Rs 2.73 cr from a client’s account, police said on Sunday. The Mumbai crime branch arrested the accused from the western suburb of Kandivali on Saturday based on a complaint lodged by his employer at MRA Marg police station an official said. As per the complaint, a person had opened a demat account through the shar-trading company and the accused had helped him with the same, he said.

1 held with e-cigarettes worth Rs 66 lakh

MUMBAI, MAR 5 (PTI): A man was arrested allegedly with e-cigarettes worth Rs 66 lakh after his car was stopped for checking at a police road block in Masjid Bunder area of south Mumbai, an official said on Sunday. Ten boxes, each containing 300 ecigarettes, were found in the car, after which a case was registered at Dongri police station, he added.

Three back-to-back quakes jolt Uttarkashi

UTTARKASHI, MAR 5

(PTI): A 2.5-magnitude earthquake followed by two consecutive tremors shook Uttarkashi in the early hours of Sunday, a district disaster mamagement official said. The epicentre of the first quake, which occurred at 12.45 am, the district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal said. The two other tremors followed soon but were too mild to be recorded locally, he said.

NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (AGENCIES): Attacking the NDA government at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “does not understand the China threat,”ad ding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that “nobody has entered Indian territory” is an invitation to the Chinese that they can do it again, reports ANI.

In a conversation with members of the Indian Journalists’ Association in London, the Wayanad MP also said that he supports Indian foreign policy and doesn’t have a huge disagreement with it with regard to India’s position on the RussiaUkraine war.

“As far as Indian foreign policy is concerned, I support the Indian foreign policy and I am okay with it. I don’t have a huge disagreement with it,” he said when asked a hypothetical question that if China or Pakistan invaded India and since India hadn’t taken a position

Rahul Gandhi

on the Russia-Ukraine war, it could also be ignored by the World if an invasion into India happened. Gandhi said, “With regards to an invasion, we have already been invaded. We have got 2000 square km of our territory that is in the hands of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Prime Minister himself has stated that nobody has entered India, not a single inch of land has been taken and this destroyed our negotiation position because our negotiators are being asked what’s the fuss about.”

“Your Prime Minister says that no land has been taken. So that’s one aspect

Delhi BJP alleges rigging in guest teachers recruitment

of it. The other aspect which I keep saying is India needs to be very, very careful with what the Chinese are doing at the border. The Chinese are acting in a hostile manner, in an aggressive manner and we need to be very very careful and I have been stating that again and again, I don’t think the penny has dropped in the government.

I think there is a risk as you say,” added Rahul Gandhi.

Speaking about Congress’s China policy, Rahul Gandhi said that Congress’s policy was that they would not allow anyone to enter Indian territory.

“The Congress party’s policy on China is very clear, we do not accept anybody entering our territory and pushing us around and bullying us. It doesn’t matter who they are, that’s not acceptable to us and what has happened is that the Chinese entered our territory, killed our soldiers and the prime minister has denied it,” he said.

“That’s the problem.

The idea, we have a relationship with the United States and we have a partnership with them and we have a shred democratic free idea.

I think there is a coercive idea on a planet and there is a democratic idea on a planet and I think a democratic planet needs to be strengthened. But you will not strengthen the democratic idea unless you start to fundamentally think about things like production. The huge amount of inequality that is erupting in the West and India is a threat to the democratic idea. We have to think about that. We have to have a strategy for that and that’s not on the table,” he added.

Asked about Congress leader Rahul’s remarks that S Jaishankar did not know much about foreign policy and needed to learn a little bit more, the External Affairs Minister took a veiled dig and said he is willing to listen to the Wayanad MP if he has “superior knowledge and wisdom” on China.

SFI activists barge into Asianet office: journalists’ bodies flay attack on media

NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (IANS): Delhi BJP chief

Virendra Sachdeva has sought action Manish Sisodia claiming that a “massive rigging took place in recruitment of guest teachers by the Delhi Edcation department”. Sachdeva urged Lt. Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to seek a report from the Education Department on the “massive rigging” and to give orders for action against Sisodia, who was the Education Minister, and departmental officials.

“The Kejriwal government has misused the OBC quota in guest teacher recruitment to recruit AAP

party workers, and educational qualifications were relaxed in hundreds of cases,” the BJP leader alleged. Sachdeva also claimed that the Kejriwal government, by “putting pressure on the officials, appointed many teachers from the general category and other castes as a guest teacher under OBC quota”. “Many guest teachers were given subject exemption, for example a teacher who had done post graduation in Environmental Science but was assigned to teach Biology. Similarly, a PG in Home Science was engaged in teaching English,” he claimed.

JOB VACANCY

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Ministry of Labour & Employment (D.G.E)

OFFICE OF THE SUB REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT OFFICER National Career Service Centre for SC/STs Director of Employment, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Building High School Road, Kohima 797 001 Email: cgc.kohima@gmail.com

FREE & STIPENDIARY TRAINING FOR SC/ST STUDENTS Office of the Sub-Regional Employment Officer, National Career Service Centre for SC/ST, Govt. of India, Min. of Labour & Employment, Kohima invites application for Free and Stipendiary courses from eligible SC/ST job seekers to undertake training in the following courses. Stipend amount of Rs. 1000/-p.m. will be paid to the trainees. Sl. No Name of the

4

5

6

Desirous SC/ST job seekers can submit their application along with self attested HSLC & HSSLC mark sheets, SC/ST Certificate, Aadhar Card & bank account details to the office of the undersigned. Last date of submission of application is 30.04.2023. The courses are likely to commence from 1 st July 2023.

Candidate would be considered for only one course.

Online Registration : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSedHOqCfBY--

Mixp0F22IEx71AiSOiBoBovlHaG8O1RQiBa9w/viewform?usp=sf_link

COACHING INSTITUTION

Applications are invited from the recognized Coaching institutions in Kohima for imparting Coaching to SC/ST job seekers in General English, General Awareness, Training in Shorthand and Typing on Computer so as to equip them to compete in various competitive examinations for group “C” level and equivalent post conducted by the Staff Selection Commission and other Recruiting Agencies. Details information regarding type of institution, location, faculty, infrastructure, detail scheme can be availed from the office of the Sub-Regional Employment Officer, National Career Service Centre for SC/ST Kohima, Nagaland (Contact No. 0370-2260019) on or before 20th March 2023. (R.S. SIIPUNI POU) Sub-Regional Employment Officer National Career Service Centre for SC/ST Kohima, Nagaland DC-236/23

NEW DELHI, MAR 5

(PTI): The Congress on Sunday said that the intricacies of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in his Cambridge University lecture were lost on the BJP and noted that he had defined key differences between a state-controlled corporation system of China and the pressing need for democratic nations like India to ramp up production mechanisms.

The opposition party’s reaction came after the BJP accused Gandhi of maligning India on foreign soil

while praising China.

Tagging a short video of Gandhi’s remarks at the university, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, “Rahul Gandhi clearly defines in his Cambridge lecture the key differences between a state-controlled corporation

NEW DELHI,

MAR

5 (AGENCIES): A day after a group of SFI activists allegedly barged into the Kochi office of Asianet News and intimidated channel staff over a news report, journalists’ bodies condemned the incident and called it yet another example of growing attacks against media and scribes.

Barging into media offices is “illegal” and should be considered as “an attack on press freedom”, the Press Club of India, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Delhi Union of Journalists and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists said in a joint statement.

“We expect the Kerala government to take strict action against those who attacked Asianet,” they said.

A group of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists allegedly trespassed into the office of Malayalam news channel Asianet News in Kochi on Friday and

intimidated the staff over a report about the sexual assault of a girl, according to Kerala Police.

A case was later registered against 30 SFI activists, the students’ wing of the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the channel.

Condemning the incident, the journalists’ bodies said, “We protest the attack on the TV channel Asianet News’ office in Kochi by the activists of the Students Federation of India.”

“This is yet another example of the growing attacks against media organisations and journalists in the country.” The journalists’ bodies said Asianet News had used “a mock video” to bring out the issue of drug and sexual abuse of a young girl in Kerala.

“Stamping such a programme as fake news suggests ignorance of the professional ways used by news organisations to protect the identity of victims of sexual assault,” they said.”

Intricacies of Rahul’s remarks were lost on BJP: Cong

system as there is in China and the pressing need for democratic nations like India to ramp up production mechanisms – the intricacies of which are lost on the BJP.”

“Whereas PM Modi simply gushes over his ‘close friendship’ with the Chinese,” Ramesh said, tagging a video montage of Modi talking about ties with China.

Gandhi’s remarks at the university that Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, in-

cluding himself, are under surveillance, has triggered a political slugfest with the BJP accusing him of denigrating India and asking if Gandhi was working as an agent on the payroll of an agency to bring down the country. It accused Gandhi of dissuading investors from investing in India at a time when the world is seeing the country as a “bright spot” and foreign firms are leaving China to do business here.

The Congress hit back by citing instances of Prime

Minister Narendra Modi raking up internal politics abroad and said the ruling party’s statements either stem from ignorance or from “completely contrived politics” both of which have no place in a democracy. Referencing to a decline in manufacturing in democratic countries such as India and the US in recent years as production shifted to China, Gandhi had said the shift had produced mass inequality and anger which needed urgent attention and dialogue.

Apology

I, yanthungo N. Ngullie, of Mungya Village, Wokha do tender my sincerest apology to both Shri Senchumo NSN Lotha (JDU) 37 A/C candidate and Shri. Mhonlumo Kikon (BJP) 40 A/C Candidate for calling them names and tarnishing their images on my social media story. I was not in the proper sense of mind and let my emotions take the better of me. I do ask forgiveness and apologize on my behalf to both the leaders as well as the party workers of both candidates. I hope and pray that they would forgive me for my bitterness as well as my foolishness.

Dp-868/23

yanthungo N. Ngullie

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

School of Agricultural Sciences & Rural Development

[Erstwhile College of Agriculture: NEHU] Medziphema – 797 106, Nagaland

No: pres/AASASRD/07/2023/01

Date: 5th March, 2023

FELICITATION

The Alumni Association of NU: SASRD, Medziphema, Nagaland takes great pleasure and extend our heartiest congratulations to the following Alumni’s of SASRD for having being successfully elected to the

14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly-

1) Shri. Metsubo Jamir

2) Shri. G. Ikuto Zhimomi

3) Shri. Moatoshi Longkumer

4) Shri. A. Pangjung Jamir.

We are extremely delighted on your glorious achievement and wish you all success and glory in your quest to bring development and prosperity to our people and our land.

Sd/- Sd/Prof. L. Tongpang Longkumer C. Peter Yanthan president General Secretary

SFI allegedly forcibly entered the news channel office with banners displaying ‘fake news’.

Virendra Sachdeva and Manish Sisodia

Jairam Ramesh

A saffron ride

After the din and dust of the hectic electioneering in Nagaland and Meghalay have settled, the political map that appear in both states, offer an interesting contrast that belie numerical logic. After results were declared on March 2, both states project the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)as having the potential to rise to the level as that of other national parties such as Congress and NPP.

As per the results on March 2, the BJP received a vote share of 9.33 % to win two seats out of all 60 seats it contested. In Nagaland, the BJP contested 20 seats in a pre-poll alliance with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and won 12 with a vote share of 18.81%. While the BJP’s strike rate in Nagaland was an impressive 60, it was just 3.33 in Meghalaya. As per records, the BJP made its foray into electoral politics to Meghalaya in 1998 where it contested 28 seats and won three with a vote share of 5.01%. In Nagaland, the BJP made its maiden entry into state elections in 1987 when it contested two seats and drew a blank with a vote share of 0.19% only. Over the decades, the BJP has been consistent with its commitment to penetrate the two Christian majority states where Hindus have a considerable presence. However, despite that being so, the BJP has not been as successful as in Nagaland, despite Meghalaya having 11.53 % Hindus out of the state’s total population. In Nagaland the percentage of Hindus is almost half at around 8.75% of the state’s entire population. The success of the BJP in Nagaland rather than Meghalaya can be gauged by the fact that the vote share in Meghalaya is around 4.65% throughout six elections from 1998 to 2023. In Nagaland, the BJP’s vote share in seven general elections from 1987 to 2023 is higher at 7.94%. The performance of the BJP in Nagaland reached its peak during the recent election when it obtained a vote share of 18.81 % which is higher than the 15.3% it polled in the 2018 election. The BJP is going to try to make some serious inroad into Mizoram, the only Christian majority state where the doors to the party has not fully opened as in Nagaland. For the BJP, the repeat win of 12 seats in Nagaland consecutively in 2018 and 2023 is a big booster which will enable it to seriously consider going it alone in the next coming assembly election. The BJP has been able to send its party member from Nagaland to the Rajya Sabha. It is certain that BJP will also ensure that its party member will contest and win the 2024 Lok Sabha election as part of BJP’s 400+ goal. The BJP has understood what drives the pulse of the voters in Nagaland and Manipur as its successes in tribal areas amplify this claim. It may not however, find the going so easy in Meghalaya and far more difficult in Mizoram, both Christian majority states. However, it does not mean it will stop trying. Unlike any other party, the BJP has a clear agenda and is committed and determined to achieve the goals while it is unlikely that the opposition parties can ever unite, even in the next decades.

DailyDevotion Is He Really My Lord?

…so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus… —Acts 20:24

Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing. The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful to it— to consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry. Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord. To do this we must have close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior. And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16 — “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

“Do you love Me?” Then, “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17). He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God. If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is not the same as the call— the need is the opportunity to exercise the call. The call is to be faithful to the ministry you received when you were in true fellowship with Him. This does not imply that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you. It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other areas.

Quotes

BJP for vote not core, economy or not Modi charms

The recent elections testify that economy, ecology and electorate are not on the same page. Inflation, slower growth, jobs, Himalayan ruinous development from Kashmir to Nagaland, opposition chant of mis-governance, or even Rs 10 lakh crore loss due to Adani collapse are given a go by.

Tripura’s two lakh government servants and voters are happy to have deferred 12 percent DA rise, shortly before the polls and forgets excesses.

Nagaland votes for hurriedly cooped up Jan 14 commitment by the BJP government of resolution by NSCN(IM) and Naga National Political Groups, comprising seven rebel groups, pending since 2015, for the rights of Nagas. There is hope. Parallel taxation or extortion by socalled rebels may come to an end. Despite not making much gain in Meghalaya, the BJP still emerges as the winner in the northeast as it gives up core “Hindutva of no beef” for winning tribal and Christian trust. The poll results prove that the BJP’s constant developmental focus on the northeast and shrewd poll strategy have established it as the dominant party in the re-

gion. This is in contrast to Left-Congress alliance in Tripura engineered against what they alleged coercive, violent politics against their cadre. It is adaptive politics! Performance or lack of it or inability to deliver growth does not harm the ruling party, neither stupendous debt of Rs 172 lakh crore nor high debt servicing matter. Indians are used to low Nehruvian Hindu growth of 3 percent. Vast majority over 60 percent or 81 crore are satisfied with food grain doles, that gives them an income of about Rs 15000 a month. Are subsidies bartered for votes? Good politics at people’s cost.

People forget high GST, toll and petrol road cess, high-cost economy, slowdown, slowing exports. RBI concern about stability, increasing interest rates to check inflation, which in real terms remains unchecked, is not a poll issue. Stupendously rising wheat prices or low onion prices to farmers affect none. Are people fatigued with the issues or they might have got so accustomed to the unresolved phenomenon. Banking failures or recent losses due to Adani, Nirav Modi or such collapses do not rattle anyone despite banks’ losses.

Bank of Baroda chief as also bank staff are happy as they get a five-day week as per agreement between Indian Banks Association and United Forum of Bank Employees. And no one even refers to the SBI raising $ 1 billion “landmark” syndicated social loan, called environment, social and governance loan, in the Asia Pacific market and its impact.

States bordering China have least concern about increasing imports to China and abysmal shrinking of exports or increasing Chinese belligerence. The G 20 is giving the country good international exposure but the visiting dignitaries are promising little. They are discussing more the western and Russian differences over NATO issues and crib over India’s trade with Russia. Indian voters even do not discuss that the benefit of cheap oil imports from Russia being credited to two large private refineries and not to the people in general.

The G20 programmes are matters of glitter. India has emerged as the largest social welfare state. In 2022-23, the central government has allocated Rs 2,06.831 crore for food

subsidy out of which Rs 1,45,920 (71 percent) crore is for providing food subsidy to FCI. The subsidy has been cut to Rs 197,350 crore or by Rs 89,844 crore in 2023-24. The MNREGA size increases four times since 2004. The demand grows despite budgetary allocation cut now. The country has 53 million people as unemployed.

gress, TMC or anyone is more interested in projecting themselves as “true Hindu” than projecting an alternative economy that could charm the people.

Most malls do not have even 50 percent occupancy and many large ones have closed down.

Restaurants, hotel, travel and tourism remain in crisis as people do not have extra money to spend.

Sarkar

Total subsidies for 2022-23 are Rs 532,447 lakh crore, much of it goes to corporate. These are neither discussed nor are issues. As per statistics 8.3 percent are unemployed. India’s capacity to give its people work has been in trouble for a long time more so after the planned decline of the PSUs. Systematic maligning of the efficient PSUs by the private lobby has caused immense loss to the people. Air India is sold for a song. Now the government itself is supporting it for a purchase of $ 80 billion purchases of 400 US Boeing and EU Air bus planes. Corporate intransigence is not part of the political debate.

The opposition is so splintered and family and raise core issues so feebly it goes unheard. The Con-

They youth are so hit by economic distress that they do not have the energy to discuss core issues. Politics is more about empowering themselves and getting personal benefits. The core issues are not anywhere in discussion, be it the failure of telecom companies or sacking by large IT companies on one or the other pretext. Recruitment scams are routine. Political corruptions are accepted. Nobody wants to know how Bengal’s TMC gets Rs 500 crore donations only next to BJP.

So manufacturing contracting by 11 percent in December 2022, third in a year, causing substantial job and wealth loss, remains concern of experts. Real gross value added manufacturing growth is 0.4 percent vis a vis 10 percent in construction with government’s infra push, says Citibank chief India economist Samiran Chakravborti.

Nobody even discusses the problem of infra push, fancy roads, stations, malls with not so high utilization.

The NSO assumption of 7 percent GDP growth implies far lower growth if December 2022 figures are any indication. Nomura economist Aurodeep Nandi and Sonal Varma say global financial conditions can impair growth drivers –exports, investment, and discretionary consumption and check growth to 5.3 percent in 2023-24. Indian society feels the pinch. But an Economic Times March 2022 survey sums up and is valid after a year. It predicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s secure position and winnings at the hustings. “Unlike voters in many countries of the world, India is among top populations who believe the country is headed in the right direction. A whopping 77 percent of those surveyed in India felt positive about the country, second only to Saudi Arabia, a monarchy. In the US and Britain, the majority feel the countries are headed in the wrong direction”.

The disease infecting Nagaland

For the last ten years, Nagaland has been suffering from a serious disease and if left untreated, runs the risk of it becoming malignant and untreatable. Everybody knows about the disease but nobody is, actually, talking about the disease. When nobody seriously talks about the disease, how can it be cured? What must people of Nagaland do to cure this recurring disease? This cure can only happen by exposing and analysing the disease.

So what is the disease? The disease is called the ‘oppositionless government’. Nagaland got infected with this deadly disease in 2013, and since then, it has been the root cause of all the problems in the state. The only beneficiary of this disease, at the expense of public welfare, was the Chief Minister and his flock of power crazy legislators.

Look at the NPF party today. It has become a pale shadow of its former formidable self only because of its participation in an oppositionless government. Had the members of the NPF party remained firm as an opposition party for the sake of the people, it would

have been standing tall today, with all the other political parties pivoting towards it, and benefitting from the anti-incumbency wave in the state. The short-sighted and narrow vested interest minded NPF party members failed to understand that in a democratic system of government, there has to be an opposition party not just to preserve the sanctity of the assembly but to vociferously highlight the shortcomings of the government, and, in doing so, pave for itself the road to power. There is absolutely no reason to justify an oppositionless all party government in Nagaland today, even more so when the solution to the Naga political issue remains an agenda.

There can be no meaningful change in the state unless there is holistic planning - a roadmap, and there can be no roadmap in any oppositionless government since the primary agenda of every member of the oppositionless government will, naturally, be self interest.

It is a no-brainer to not understand that a Chief Minister will be open to forging unholy alliances, and, even better, an oppositionless government

to safeguard and secure his chair as has happened in Nagaland since 2013. Since there was no opposition, for 10 long years the personal opinion of the Chief Minister became the state policy in all matters including the Naga political issue. The oppositionless state government had consistently maintained that development of the state has been hindered because of the unresolved political issue.

Let us be very clear here. Despite the unresolved political issue, the development in Nagaland from 1963 onwards till the dawn of the new century was stable and consistent along with the rest of the country. Nagaland actually developed at a faster pace than the rest of the north east hill states. Unlike today, during those years, Nagaland received funds only for basic requirements and infrastructural development. The Naga political issue remained unresolved but there was peace and progress. People did not have the ‘fear psychosis’ and were happy in looking and moving forward along with the rest of the country.

Stepping into the 21st century, the unresolved Naga political issue was

brought to the forefront and ‘Unity’ became the state motto. People of Nagaland actually took the ‘Unity’ motto at face value and got thoroughly fooled because ‘unity’ only became an excuse - a tool - to form an unholy and undemocratic ‘all party’ or ‘oppositionless government’ in the name of ‘solution’ to the Naga political issue.

The nature of the ‘oppositionless government’ was abused to strengthen the ‘equi-closeness policy’ thereby indirectly legitimising the formation of more and more splinter Naga political groups and compounding the misery of the common people. No wonder, meaningful development by the state government never happened as all resources were wasted pandering to the vested personal interests of 60 ruling legislators of the oppositionless government.

Thus, without any opposition voice in the state assembly, all the voices of reason from the outside by concerned citizens and civil society organisations became hollow and meaningless. Can the people of Nagaland afford to go back to square one and welcome yet another ‘all party, op-

positionless government’?

Thank God for small mercies and all thanks to the Eastern Naga people for saving Nagaland by denying the ruling dispensation an obscene majority by giving only 9 out of the 20 seats to the NDPP-BJP alliance. The idea of the ruling alliance to literally put all its eggs in the Eastern Nagaland basket with the intention of forming a brute majority government if not an oppositionless government has been stalled atleast for the moment. The NDPP-BJP alliance, however, might take undue advantage of the desire and willingness of all the other parties to join the NDPPBJP led government to form yet another oppositionless, all party government. This eventuality will be nothing short of a tragedy for the people of Nagaland because, in the first place, a democratic government without an opposition is not ‘Unity’, but simply, ‘a creating of the correct environment’ for the making of a dictator. People of Nagaland have already experienced, first hand, the much vaulted ‘peace’ and ‘unity’ as advocated by the NDPP-BJP led oppositionless government since 2013.

It bankrupted the government, robbed the people of their dignity, morality, employment, investment and livelihoods. So much possibilities of gainful employment to thousands of unemployed youths in the micro, small and medium enter prises had been negated due to the most unfavorable investment environment in Nagaland and which the oppositionless all party government led by NDPP-BJP had justified it all as for ‘peace’. This is not the brand of ‘peace’ and ‘unity’ which the people had bargained for.

People of Nagaland have voted for a strong opposition in the assembly and the mandate of the people should be respected. Deputy Chief Minister, Y Patton, had publicly stated, in the presence of Union minister, John Barla, and BJP national spokesperson, Nalin Kholi, that there was no room for any other political party except the NDPP-BJP arrangement which will form the government. Dy. CM Patton might let political exigency allow him to eat his own words but it will only do him and his BJP party well to respect the mandate of the people.

Benito Z Swu

Takeaways from 14th NLA election Reader’s Post

Going through the electioneering process of Nagaland for the 14 NLA,2023 here I would like to list down some takeaways from a layman’s perspective.

1. History has been written

Since 1964 for the first time in history the Nagaland Legislative assembly will have two women elected representatives. The slogan of gender equality can now see the light of the day. If all is well, then as per the directive of the honourable Supreme court and the assurance given by the Chief Minister, Nagaland will soon conduct the infamous municipal election in which one hope to see more women councillors. It is Naga’s humble prayer that the two elected torch bearer in the Assembly will walk the talk.

The popular adage “ Old wine in the new bottle “, has at least changed in this 2023 NLA election. Though the bottle (political party) is the same, we can see many new wine (Candidates) winning this election. This sends the message loud and clear that our people are hungry for changes. As you have contested on the manifesto of change, here again it’s our Naga people’s humble prayer that you will not let the people’s hope down. Almost fifty percent i.e 29 new candidates winning this time speaks volumes of how the people wanted change. We are eagerly waiting -Towards A State of Excellence.

3. Money still matters Going through the interviews of some political parties, it is clear that money indeed plays a pivotal role in the electoral process. As the

father of Nagaland AZ Phizo remarked “ Nagas will never surrender in the Battle field, but many Nagas will fall when money is shot through the barrel of the gun”. Ofcourse many will say that the loser will make different excuses, but we can’t deny the fact that only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. And also on the ground I personally have come across/ heard about many people receiving money from different agents of political parties. We have betrayed the clarion call of the churches for clean and fair election so also our faith in Christ. Is Nagaland for Christ a Shame for we Christians???

4. Keyboard warriors I have witnessed and followed many common platforms for different political parties of different constituencies and was in awe to see so

many positive comments for some candidates. Sorry but I am using some names as prove-

1. GB Kahuto 2. Er. Thomas 3. Meshenlo Kath and 4. Akavi Zhimomi. Just see how much vote they could muster? To me personally, had all those keyboardist cast their genuine votes than at least one or two of them would have been elected today. Don’t this justify our point no 2 - Money does matters?

In conclusion, as per my layman’s observations we have two positive take away from this election. Let us prayer fully try to uphold it and take further necessary steps for more improvements. And for the last two negative take away let’s ask for God’s grace and mercy so that we may have His divine intervention to give us courage to overcome our weaknesses. Amen

Ashi Aier, Midland

The mockery of Indian Panchsheel

Sir,

The famous mouthpiece of the panchsheel of India’s foreign policy became a mere farcical statement only and crusading of Indian non-aligned movement met a humiliating defeat when she abstained from U.N resolution voting against Russia of its illegal invasion of Ukraine six times in a row. This must be condemned by one and all. We extend our deepest condolences and sympathy towards the killing and suffering of the innocent people of Ukraine at this horrible time also the loss of many Russian soldiers who are being killed due to its leader Vladimir Putin’s wrong calculation in invading the full fledged sovereign country of Ukraine. So the U.N resolution against Russia to withdraw its military forces from the war zone in Ukraine is inevitable and must be honoured at all cost as a humanitarian efforts to end the war and to safeguard world peace at this juncture.

Kudengoyi, Upper Agri Kohima

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”

~ Will Rogers

2. New wine in the old bottle

Shivaji

SNIPPETS

Ex-Army man kills wife in Rajathan

JAIPUR, MAR 5 (PTI):

An ex-serviceman in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district allegedly beat his wife to death following a quarrel, police said on Sunday. The accused, identified as Vijendra Jat, is absconding, they said. On Saturday night, Vijendra thrashed his wife Saroj Devi (42) with a stick when she was in the kitchen, SHO Kotwali Surendra Singh said. The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared her dead, he said.

Minor girl raped in hookah bar

KANPUR, MAR 5 (IANS): Minor daughter of a doctor couple was raped in a Hookah Bar under Barra police station circle in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur. The father of the girl has lodged an FIR against eight people including three named accused. The doctor told the police that his 16-year-old daughter had been called by one Vinay Thakur to the MG Cafe (Hookah Bar) in Karrahi on Friday where he gave her soft drink spiked with sedatives. The young man raped the girl and then took her to a deserted place where his friends also attempted to rape her.

Abandoned newborn in plastic bag run over by vehicles

BENGALURU, MAR 5 (IANS): A shocking incident of a newborn wrapped in a plastic bag being run over by several vehicles came to light in Bengaluru on Sunday. The incident took place in Pampa Layout of Amruthahalli locality of Bengaluru. According to police, the baby, aged four to five months, was wrapped in a plastic cover and thrown into a BBMP garbage truck. The bag containing the baby fell down from the truck and the vehicles plying on the road ran over it. The police said that since the body was disfigured, they have not been able to determine whether it is a boy or a girl.

It is suspected that the culprits abandoned the baby to conceal the birth.

4kg gold seized during search in aircraft

NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (IANS): The Customs Officials on Sunday said that they seized around four kg gold bars worth Rs 1,95,72,400 after searching an aircraft at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) following a tip-off. The official further said that during the search they recovered a grey colour pouch found affixed with adhesive tape below the sink installed in the washroom.

Indian student urinates on co-passenger; banned for life

NEW DELHI, MAR 5

(AGENCIES): An Indian passenger on an American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi allegedly urinated on a fellow passenger while drunk on Saturday. The accused has been identified as 21-yearold Arya Vohra, a student at a US university, and has been banned by the airline, reports ANI.

According to a statement by American Airlines, flight AA292 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Indira Gandhi International Airport was met by local law enforcement upon arrival due to a disruptive customer. The flight landed safely at 9:50 pm.

The airline stated that they will not allow the passenger on board in the future. “Upon aircraft arrival, the Purser informed that the passenger was heavily intoxicated, and was not adhering to crew instruc-

Adenovirus alarm: 36 children die in last 9 days in WB

KOLKATA, MAR 5 (IANS): Adenovirus menace seems to be taking an alarming shape in West Bengal with the death of 36 children in the last nine days as per the records of the state health department.

The latest two deaths were reported on early Sunday morning from the BC Roy Children’s Hospital in Kolkata. The two victims have been identified as Atifa Khatun (18 months) and Aarman Gazi (4 years).

It is learnt that Khatun, hailing from a family residing under the Nadial police station in Metiabruz area was admitted to the said hospital on February 26 with typical Adenovirus symptoms like fever, cough and breathing problems. Despite treatment she did not show any signs of recovery and on early Sunday morning she died.

Similarly, the state health department sources said that Aarman Gazi, hailing from a family under Minakhan police station in Basirhat sub-division in North 24 Parganas district, got admitted to the same hospital last week with similar symptoms. He too died early Sunday at around 5 a.m. Already, the state health department has issued an advisory for doctors, especially paediatricians to take special care of children being admitted with flu-like symptoms, especially children of two-years of age or below since they are most vulnerable to being affected by Adenovirus.

The common symptoms of Adenovirus are flulike, cold, fever, breathing problems, sore throat, pneumonia and acute bronchitis.

TN migrant attack: Bihar officials ok with safety steps

tions on board. He was repeatedly arguing with the operating crew, was not willing to be seated and continuously endangering the safety of the crew and aircraft. After disturbing the safety of fellow passengers, finally urinated on pax seated on 15G,” American Airlines said, according to news agency ANI.

The American Airlines pilot contacted Delhi ATC before landing regarding an unruly passenger on board and sought security. It was informed to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for necessary action. “After the landing of

the aircraft, CISF personnel took him out from the aircraft and the said passenger misbehaved with CISF personnel too,” an airport official told ANI.

The airport police have taken note of the incident and are taking legal action against the passenger. “We have received a complaint of urination on a co-passenger from American Airlines against one person Arya Vohra who is a student in the USA and resident of Defence Colony, Delhi. We are taking necessary legal action,” a senior Delhi Police official said.

COIMBATORE, MAR 5 (PTI): A day after holding talks with Tamil Nadu government authorities over the brewing migrant workers issue in Chennai, the official delegation from Bihar visited knitwear hub Tirupur on Sunday to check on the safety of workers from the northern state after fake videos claiming attacks on the workforce had led to panic among them.

Led by Bihar Rural Development Secretary D Balamurugan, the four-member team expressed satisfaction over the steps taken by Tamil Nadu government and the Tirupur district administration to ensure safety and protection of the workers.

They discussed the issue with the officials including District Collector S Vineeth and Police Commissioner Praveen Kumar, representatives of textile industry and contractors who bring in workers from other states, Mr Balamurugan said.

OFFICE OF THE NAGA PEOPLE'S FRONT PHEK DIVISION, PHEK: NAGALAND

F EL ici TAT i ON

The NPF Phek d ivision extends our heartiest congratulations to Shri. Kuzholuzo Nienu who won from 19th Phek AC in the recently concluded State General Election to the 14th NLA & also congratulate Shri. Achumbemo Kikon for his victory.

The division salutes both the leaders for securing the mandate of the electorates in their respective constituencies and acknowledges both of them for keeping the morale and spirit of the party alive. And also wishes them the best in their future endeavours as they continue to bear the torch of the party.

The division appreciates and thanks all the rank and file of the NPF throughout Nagaland for their hard work and the people for reposing their faith in the party and its candidates.

Sd- SdCepfuzu Churah Avi Movi President Gen. Secy (Adm) NPF Phek division NPF Phek division

CHIZAMI VILLAGE COUNCIL

Phek District : Nagaland

“Seso Are Bojü”

Estd : 1972

BHUBANESWAR, MAR 5 (PTI): Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said attempts were being made to tell the world that the Indian judiciary and democracy were in crisis. Inaugurating a conference of the Centre’s counsels in the Eastern states, Rijiju on Saturday said the wisdom of judges was beyond public scrutiny.

“Indian judiciary cannot be questioned, especially the wisdom of judges cannot be put into public scrutiny,” he said.

“At times, calibrated attempts are being made from both inside and outside the country to tell the world that the Indian judiciary is in crisis. A message is being sent to the world that Indian democracy is in crisis. It is a deliberate attempt by some groups to malign the image of the country,” he added. No campaign with ulterior motives can succeed in defaming India and its democratic setup, Rijiju said.

Kiren Rijiju

The US may stake claim to be the oldest democracy, but India truly is the “mother of democracy”, he said.

Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on Indian democracy at Cambridge University

Rijiju’s comments came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a lecture at Cambridge University alleged that Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance.

Gandhi listed five key aspects of the alleged attack on Indian democracy -- capture and control of media and judiciary; surveillance and intimidation; coercion

by federal law enforcement agencies; attacks on minorities, Dalits, and tribals; and shutting down of dissent.

Noting that it was unfortunate that judges were being abused on social media, Rijiju said this was happening as some people were not aware of how the Indian judiciary functions.

“It is not a good sign when the judiciary is subjected to some kind of criticism. The judiciary must be far away from public criticism,” he said, adding that the problem lies with the same group, which wants to force the judiciary to play the role of the opposition party.

The minister maintained it is because of the Constitution that the government is of the view that the appointment of judges cannot be done by judicial orders. The opinion of the executive and the judiciary may differ at times as everybody cannot have the same observation, he said.

Ref No: Nil

Date: 04/03/2023

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Chizami Village Council heartily congratulates Shri K. G. KENYE for his success in the recent 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly elections from the 17 Chizami Assembly Constituency as NDPP candidate.

The Village Council expresses its heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the electorates of the 17 Chizami Assembly Constituency and all wellwishers from far and near, for their valuable support and sacrificial services in electing Shri K.G. KENYE as our mandated representative.

The CVC duly acknowledge all the ranks and files of the NDPP under the 17 Chizami A/C and parent body for their dedicated and sacrificial services in ensuring the success of Shri K. G. Kenye.

The Chizami Village Council also extends its gratitude to the NDPP President Shri Chingwang Konyak and the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Nagaland Shri Neiphiu Rio for their full support and reposing their faith in Shri K. G. Kenye. We hope and pray that the new government under the dynamic leadership of Shri Neiphiu Rio will see more sustainable development, peace and prosperity in 17 Chizami A/C and Nagaland as a whole.

The Chizami Village Council also thanks all the Churches, Prayer Centres and believers from across places for their steadfast prayers all throughout the electioneering period.

Above all, we give all glory and honour to God for the success of Shri K. G. Kenye. We hope and pray that our Almighty God will forgive all our shortcomings and continue to lead him and bless our constituency through his leadership.

The Chizami Village Council wishes Shri K. G. Kenye, the very best and pray that under his able leadership the Chizami Constituency will develop and prosper in the coming years. With the blessings of the people and by the grace of God, make our constituency and our State proud.

Long Live 17 Chizami A/C !

CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE

The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) Wokha Region conveys its heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and all ranks and files of NDPP Central leaders of Nagaland led by Mr. Chingwang Konyak, President NDPP Nagaland and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio under whose able leadership, Nagaland has come this far for all round development, peace, prosperity and towards excellence.

While congratulating the Central leaders and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Nagaland, the NDPP Wokha Region has honour to congratulate Mr. Mhathung Yanthan, the lone NDPP successful candidate from Wokha District/Region who has been elected to represent the people of 39 Sanis A/C for the second consecutive term basing on his capabilities and efficiencies with thumping victory by a margin of 9513 votes against the rival, Senkathung Jami, RJD Candidate.

The NDPP Wokha Region also extend their happiness and gratitude to all the supporters and well wishers towards the NDPP Nagaland for their supports and solidarity for the betterment and achievements for the people of Nagas in general.

Further, the NDPP Wokha Region express its gratitude to all the NDPP Party workers of 39 Sanis A/C and supporters of Mr. Mhathung Yanthan, the elected NDPP Candidate from 39 Sanis A/C who is oriented for infrastructure developments and people's livelihood. May your expectations and aspirations for the development of the 39 Sanis A/C in particular and Nagaland in general be fulfilled through your co-operation and tolerance.

"FACTA NON VERBA"

Long Live NDPP & BJP Alliance In Nagaland.

‘Deliberate attempt to malign image of India’: Rijiju on Rahul’s remark

India is ‘close’ to Hindu rate of growth: Rajan

NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (PTI): Sounding a note of caution, former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that India is “dangerously close” to the Hindu rate of growth in view of subdued private sector investment, high interest rates and slowing global growth. Rajan said that sequential slowdown in the quarterly growth, as revealed by the latest estimate of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) last month, was worrying. Hindu rate of growth is a term describing low Indian economic growth rates from the 1950s to the 1980s, which averaged around 4 per cent.

The term was coined by Raj Krishna, an Indian economist, in 1978 to describe the slow growth. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter (October-December) of the current fiscal slowed to 4.4 per cent from 6.3 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) and 13.2 per cent in the first quarter (April-June). The growth in the third quarter of the previous financial year was 5.2 per cent. “Of course,

the optimists will point to the upward revisions in past GDP numbers, but I am worried about the sequential slowdown. With the private sector unwilling to invest, the RBI still hiking rates, and global growth likely to slow later in the year, I am not sure where we find additional growth momentum,” Rajan said in an email interview to PTI.

Recently, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran had attributed the subdued quarterly growth to the upward revision of estimates of national income for the past years. The key question is what Indian growth will be in fiscal 2023-24, Rajan said, adding “I am worried that earlier we would be lucky if we hit 5 per cent growth. The latest OctoberDecember Indian GDP

numbers (4.4 per cent on year ago and 1 per cent relative to the previous quarter) suggest slowing growth from the heady numbers in the first half of the year.

“My fears were not misplaced. The RBI projects an even lower 4.2 per cent for the last quarter of this fiscal. At this point, the average annual growth of the October-December quarter relative to the similar pre-pandemic quarter 3 years ago is 3.7 per cent.

“This is dangerously close to our old Hindu rate of growth! We must do better.” The government, he said, was doing its bit on infrastructure investment but its manufacturing thrust is yet to pay dividends.

The bright spot is services, he said, adding “it seems less central to government efforts.” On a query regarding the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Rajan said any scheme in which the government pours money will create jobs and any scheme which elevates tariffs on output while offering bonuses for final units produced in India will create production in India, and exports. “A sensible

Rio, Sarma meet Amit Shah, JP Nadda...

DMC given 1 year to shift dumpsite

(From p-1)

evaluation would ask how many jobs are being created and at what price per job.

By the government’s own statistics, 15 per cent of the proposed investment has come in but only 3 per cent of the predicted jobs have been created. This does not sound like success, at least not yet,” Rajan said. Furthermore, even if the scheme fully meets the government’s expectations over the next few years, it will create only 0.6 crore jobs, a small dent in the jobs India needs over the same period, the former RBI Governor said. “Similarly, government spokespersons point to the rise in cell phone exports as evidence that the scheme is working. But if we are subsidising every cell phone that is exported, this is an obvious outcome. The key question is how much value added is done in India. It turns (out to be) very little so far,” he said. Rajan said cell phone parts imports have also gone up, so net exports in the cell phone sector, the relevant measure that no one in government talks about, is pretty much where it was when the scheme started.

(From p-1) number of seats vis-à-vis NDPP.

Also, what has led both Rio and Himanta to air dash to Delhi has been the inability of the BJP to resolve the issue of who will be the leader of BJP Legislature Party (BLP). There are two contenders besides Y. Patton and whoever is named as leader will also be the coalition’s next deputy chief minister with the crucial home portfolio. However, it was disclosed by some sources, this may not necessarily be followed in the new council of ministers. There has been a suggestion that the home portfolio be given to another cabinet minister and not necessarily to the deputy CM.

Modi, Shah and Nadda to attend swearing-in

Meanwhile, BJP sources also informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda will be attending the swearing-in ceremony of NDPP-BJP leg government headed by chief minister Neiphiu Rio on March 7.

Modi, Shah and Nadda will also attend the swearing-in ceremonies of the chief ministers of Meghalaya and Tripura on March 7 and 8 respectively.

NVCO urges new govt to give up VIP culture

DIMAPUR, MAR 5 (NPN): With the new dispensation all set to take over the reins of governance two days from now, Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO) has spelt out its wish list.

Accordingly, while welcoming the new NNDP-BJP government, NVCO president Kezhokhoto Savi in a press release urged the ruling coalition to continue its earlier cabinet decision of doing away with VIP culture in Nagaland.

He also appealed to the new government, especially ministers, advisers and others, not to deduct any amount by way of percentage/ commission or in the name of party fund from developmental project fund in order to complete development projects like roads, bridges, buildings, etc, in time and ensure quality. Also, to avoid unnecessary extraction of money from State exchequer, he called for stopping the earlier practice of ex-cadre to be

associated with CMO by appointing several non-government employees who enjoyed monthly salary on the pay scale of commissioner & secretary, secretary, joint secretary and deputy secretary.

Savi also insisted that there should not be any appointment of non-legislators as advisers in the rank of cabinet or ministers of state. He said the new dispensation should also not re-consider the blanket ban on taxes on highways from where the State government had removed all police check-gates and pay counters, barring the inter-state gates. Admitting that the recentlyheld Assembly election was expensive where money power had won as every candidate had allegedly spent huge money to buy votes, while in some instances the voters had demanded money, Savi urged watchdog organisations and RTI activists to be on the watchout and not to compromise with corruption

as it was likely going to be more. He also requested them to find out how many personal secretaries (PS) were required by each minister or adviser as in some cases the PS had become richer than ministers, advisers and MLAs.

He asserted, “We are to strengthen Lokayukta in Nagaland and not to appoint corrupt and political party-affiliated candidate as member.” Calling out incidences of alleged persecution and violence against Christian community members in the country, the NVCO president claimed that no State, including Nagaland, was secure in the hands of these cruel people as churches were continuously being burned and destroyed. He alleged that many missionaries, pastors and church workers were hiding in jungles, especially in the mainland. Hence, in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of central BJP leaders’ likely visit to

the State to attend the swearing-in ceremony on March 7, Savi urged them to have mercy on the Christian community.

He pointed out that there were several legal provisions for taking action in cases of forceful conversion under Indian Penal Code. He declared that Nagaland was a Christian State and people of the State would remain strong with their faith.

Appreciating Dimapur Naga Students’ Union (DNSU) for raising concern over massive fund drives and donations, Savi suggested the student bodies a slogan “work and earn” so as not to solely depend on fund drives and donations from business community. He urged the government to ban fund raising activities, including selling of food items, calendar, lottery & buffet tickets, etc, at exorbitant rates, which he termed “daylight robbery” that also led to price rise.

Similarly, construction of a concrete slab for waste processing (segregation process) should also be completed by May 31 this year, along with construction of linear drainage inside the periphery of the dumpsite to protect water and soil environment.

NGT ordered DMC to construct effluent treatment plant (ETP) by May 31, 2024. But, since construction of ETP would require budget sanction, the tribunal directed chief secretaryto expedite the matter and ensure sanction of funds in this regard.

The chief secretary was also ordered to ensure sanction of funds for construction of faecal sludge

treatment plant (FSTP) with higher capacity by May 31, 2024. The tribunal directed that the present dumpsite be fenced completely with additional fence on the sides facing Dhansiri river to ensure there was no contamination of solid and liquid wastes from the dump site in any manner of the river water. It also ordered installation of CCTV cameras within May 31 this year for monitoring the dumpsite for any fire or untoward incident. To ensure effective compliance of all remedial measures suggested by Committee, NGT further directed the chief secretary to constitute a committee that would include principal secretary of Urban Development Department and Municipal

Affairs Department, DMC municipal commissioner, Nagaland State Pollution Control Board chairman/ member secretary and any other member whom he might consider necessary in his wisdom to include in the committee for proper and complete execution of the above directions. The chief secretary would be chairman of the committee that would conduct quarterly review of the remedial measures suggested by the committee and ensure compliance of the directions highlighted above. The tribunal ruled that a comprehensive affidavit of compliance in this regard should be filed by the committee on or before July 1, 2024.

Post poll violence continues in Nagaland

(From p-1)

NCP alleged that light poles at Pongitong village were allegedly cut-off by the supports of the rival party. Mon NDPP, BJP demand plump portfolios for district: Meanwhile, Mon district units of BJP and NDPP have demanded allocation of Home, Health & Family Welfare and Roads & Bridges to MLAs from the district. In a letter to Neiphiu Rio, NDPP Mon region president Khoiwang Wangsa and general secretary M

Phongwang, and BJP Mon district president Nyawang and general secretary K Suzanne Konyak reminded the chief minister of their firm support to the alliance during the Assembly election and urged him to allot the three portfolios to MLAs from Mon district. Meanwhile, the NDPP president Chingwang Konyak on Sunday suspended Khoiwang Wangsa and M Phongwang Konyak from the party for “acting in contravention of the party’s directive and for indisciplinary conduct”.

Adenovirus alarm: WB reports over 40 deaths...

(From p-1)

So far, there are no approved medicines or any specific treatment-line to treat the virus.

By Sunday morning, the deaths of two children-18 months and 4 years-were reported from the B.C. Roy Children’s Hospital. However, by 4 p.m., four more child deaths had been reported from the same hospital, taking the number

Per capita income doubles in India

NE W DELHI, MAR 5 (PTI): India’s per capita income in nominal terms doubled to Rs 1,72,000 since 2014-15 when the Narendra Modi-led NDA came to power but uneven income distribution remains a challenge. As per the NSO, the annual per capita (net national income) at current prices is estimated at Rs 1,72,000 in 2022-23, up from Rs 86,647 in 2014-15, suggesting an increase of about 99 per cent. In real terms (constant prices), the per capita income has increased by about 35 per cent from Rs 72,805 in 201415 to Rs 98,118 in 2022-23.

of deaths to six in the day.

Hospital sources confirmed these four deaths of children admitted to the hospital in the period between 10.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. but their identities are yet to be disclosed.

All the children reported to have died in the last 13 hours were under treatment with typical adenovirus symptoms like fever, cough and breathing

problems and treatment failed to result in any sign of recovery.

Already, the state Health Department has issued an advisory for doctors, especially paediatricians, to take special care of children being admitted with flu-like symptoms, especially children aged two years or below since they are most vulnerable to being affected by Adenovirus.

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2 killed, 3 injured in bomb blast in Pak

ISLAMABAD, MAR 5

(IANS): Two people were killed and three others injured when a bomb went off in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, police sources said. The incident happened in Banu district where an explosive-laden motorbike exploded when the vehicle of a member of a pro-government peace militia passed by it, sources from the counter-terrorism department of police told Xinhua. The sources added that the bomb was detonated by a remotecontrolled device by unknown terrorists who are being hunted in the area, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Nigerian troops rescue

14 kidnapped civilians

LAGOS, MAR 5 (IANS): Nigerian troops have rescued 14 people who were being held hostage by bandits in the northern state of Kaduna, an official said.

The rescue mission was carried out recently by Nigerian troops who embarked on an operation targetted at a hideout of the bandits in the Chikun local government area of the state, said Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan in a statement on Saturday. The troops overpowered the bandits and killed one of them while others fled in disarray, said Aruwan, adding that all the rescued were safe and will be examined further before being reunited with their families. The commissioner did not reveal the exact date of the operation, saying the hideout of the bandits has been destroyed by troops in the course of the battle, Xinhua news agency reported.

6 killed in explosion at oxygen plant in B’desh

DHAKA, MAR 5 (IANS): At least six people were killed and more than 30 were injured in an explosion at an oxygen plant in Kadam Rasul (Keshabpur) area of Chittagong’s Sitakunda upazila in Bangladesh, police said. Tofazzel Ahmed, Officer-in-charge of Sitakunda police station, confirmed the number of the deaths and the number of injuries while talking to IANS.

Prez Xi begins new 5-yr term

BEIJING, MAR 5 (PTI): China on Sunday set a five per cent growth target for 2023 as the country’s rubber-stamp Parliament commenced its annual session which also heralded a new era for Xi Jinping’s presidency as he began an unprecedented third five-year term. Premier Li Keqiang, 67, the No 2 ranked leader after Xi and is widely regarded as far less powerful than his predecessors, signed off his 10-year stint by presenting his last work report to the National People’s Cong ress (NPC) in which China, the world’s second-largest economy, set a five per cent growth target for 2023, lowest in decades.

He also firmly warned of “escalating” external attempts to “suppress, and contain” China.

“The term of this government is about to come to a close,” said Li, as he began his 39-page address to NPC, the national legislature, outlining the decade-old achievement of his administration which included seismic changes in China and its relations with the world.

The NPC during the session will herald new official appointments at the top expected to be packed with Xi’s loyalists many of whom were elected along with him at the last October’s once-in-a-five-year Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).

The session formally heralded the beginning of the ‘unprecedented” third five-year term for Xi.

The Congress, besides electing Xi, 69, for an unprecedented third term also chose most of his loyalists for key bodies consolidating his power at all levels.

Li, an economist and a contender for the post of General Secretary of the CPC in 2012 along with Xi, settled for a number two

position after his mentor and former president Hu Jintao backed Xi at the last minute, enabling him to emerge as the most powerful leader heading the party, the military and the Presidency.

As Xi became more powerful, Li mostly confined himself to managing the economy, unlike his predecessors who enjoyed more power in running the government.

Li is widely expected to be succeeded by Li Qiang, a Xi loyalist and the former party boss of Shanghai, to head the new administration to grapple with China’s external and internal challenges under Xi’s leadership.

In his last work report, Li who last year announced his retirement from politics, set a five per cent GDP target for this year after China last year logged a three per cent growth rate, the country’s second lowest in 50 years, besides the target to generate 12 million jobs.

Li said during the past 10 years China’s GDP registered an annual growth rate of 6.2 per cent. Foreign exchange re -

serves remained stable at over USD trillion. These figures show that China’s economic strength has increased significantly, he said.

Besides highlighting a host achievement under Xi’s leadership in the last 10 years, including eradicating absolute poverty, Li also cautioned about problems China faces, including “prominent imbalances and inadequacies in its development”.

“Today, many difficulties and challenges still confront us. Uncertainties in the external environment are on the rise. Global inflation remains high, global economic and trade growth is losing steam, and external attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating,” he said, apparently referring to Beijing’s growing rivalry with the US and European Union.

“At home, the foundation for stable growth needs to be consolidated, insufficient demand remains a pronounced problem, and the expectations of private investors and businesses are unstable”, he said.

Egyptian president and visiting Iraqi PM seek to deepen ties

CAIRO, MAR 5 (AP):

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi held talks Sunday with Iraq’s prime minister in Cairo as the two countries seek to deepen ties and reinforce a regional alliance with Jordan.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani landed in the Egyptian capital and was greeted at the airport by his counterpart, Mustafa Madbouly.

Al-Sudani and Madbouly inspected an honor guard and bands played the national anthems of the two countries. The Iraqi premier then met with el-Sissi at the presidential palace. Their talks focused on economic cooperation and security ties between the two countries, according to Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy.

Fahmy said in a statement that the two leaders also discussed regional issues, including their cooperation with Jordan. The statement did not elaborate. Foreign and trade ministers from both countries attended the talks,

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sissi in Cairo, Sunday. (Reuters) Fahmy said.

The trip marked alSudani’s first to Cairo since his Cabinet was approved by the Iraqi parliament in October, ending a yearlong political stalemate. Al-Sudani’s predecessor, former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, had forged a close relationship with el-Sissi and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

El-Sissi traveled to Baghdad in June 2021, becoming the first Egyptian head of state to visit Iraq since the 1990s, when ties

TEL AVIV, MAR 5 (AP):

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remarks by a key Cabinet ally calling for a Palestinian town to be erased were inappropriate in a Twitter thread early Sunday, after the United States demanded that he reject the statement. In the thread, posted in English shortly after midnight, Netanyahu did not appear to condemn the remarks outright and implied that the ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, misspoke.

Netanyahu thanked Smotrich for later walking the comments back and “making clear that his choice of words” was “inappropriate.” The bulk of the thread urged the international community to seek condemnations from the Palestinians over attacks against Israelis.

It appeared to be his first public response to Smotrich’s remarks since they were made on Wednesday. Netanyahu’s Twitter thread underlines how the

Israeli leader has had to balance the ideologies of the far-right members of his government with the expectations of Israel’s chief ally, the United States. Smotrich is the head of one of several ultranationalist parties that help make up Netanyahu’s government, Israel’s most right-wing ever. Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank last week rampaged through the Palestinian town of Hawara, where earlier in the day two Israeli brothers were killed in a Palestinian shooting attack. Later in the week, Smotrich said the town should be erased — by Israeli forces and not by private citizens. Smotrich later

backtracked, saying he didn’t mean for the Hawara to be erased but for Israel to operate surgically within it against Palestinian militants. Still, his earlier comments sparked an international outcry. The U.S. called them repugnant and urged Netanyahu to “publicly and clearly reject and disavow them.” The United Nations and Middle East powerhouses Egypt and Saudi Arabia also condemned Smotrich’s remarks.

In a Hebrew tweet posted around the same time as his English thread, Netanyahu said even foreign diplomats make mistakes, an apparent reference to a report by Israeli Channel 12 that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides made disparaging remarks about Smotrich ahead of his visit to Washington this week, saying he would “throw him off the plane,” if he could. The U.S. Embassy denied the ambassador had made the remarks.

A NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this time to convey my sincere acknowledgement to everyone in 52 A/C Longkhim-Chare for electing me as your constituency representative. Thank you for putting your faith in me for which I assure you of my utmost dedication in my service towards you all.

I would like to sincerely thank all the Mandal Office Bearers and BJP Karyakartas of 52 A/C Longkhim-Chare for your tireless efforts from the very beginning till the final lap. This Victory belongs to all of us. I look forward to your continued support as we begin a new chapter together.

I would also like to thank everyone who has worked in different capacities and also those who have made contributions in different ways towards my journey in this election. I am overwhelmed with your love and support. Thank you for making my uphill challenge of contesting in this election as your very own. I am hopeful that with your relentless support we will be able to achieve our common vision and goals for our people. Above all, I thank our Almighty God to whom belongs all the glory and honour for blessing me with the best supporters. Thank you.

Sincerely

between the two countries were severed after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Egypt, Iraq and Jordan have intensified their ties, with their leaders holding five summits since 2019, most recently at the Dead Sea in Jordan in December to discuss implementing strategic projects. Those include building gas pipelines between Iraq and Egypt through Jordan, and an industrial city on the Iraq-Jordan border, Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram daily reported Sunday.

Imran dodges arrest after Police show up at his residence

LAHORE, MAR 5 (PTI):

A team of Islamabad police on Sunday reached Lahore residence of ousted prime minister Imran Khan to arrest him in the Toshakhana case, but returned after assurance from his legal team that he will appear before the court on March 7.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said there is no mention of “arrest” in the warrants as an Islamabad sessions court has asked him to appear before it on March 7 in the Toshakhana case.

The 70-year-old cricketer-turned politician, who has been recovering from a gunshot injury from an assassination attempt in Wazirabad last year, has thrice skipped indictment hearings

in the case. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profit. The court issued a nonbailable arrest warrant against Khan last week and adjourned the hearing till March 7 for his repeated failure to appear before the

court. Meanwhile, Lahore police have closed the main road leading to the Zaman Park residence of Khan by placing containers. Riot police and water cannons are currently present near Khan’s residence. His party fears that police may raid Khan’s house anytime. However, it said the party workers will foil any such attempt.

Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar said in a statement that Punjab police would cooperate with Islamabad police to implement the court’s order regarding Khan’s case. He, however, did not say that police are going to arrest Khan. “Punjab police will help Islamabad police in implementing the court’s order,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s

Message of gratitude

special assistant on interior Attaullah Tarar told reporters that the Islamabad police went to Khan’s residence to deliver a notice to him to appear before a court in the Toshakhana case on March 7 when he will be indicted in the case.

“Today Imran Khan locked himself in a room in Zaman Park. Khan’s chief of staff Shibli Faraz said he wasn’t at home when the Islamabad police came to deliver a court’s notice. But Khan later appeared from his house addressing the party workers,” Tarar said. A large number of PTI workers reached the Zaman Park following the news of his possible arrest. “Arrest of Imran Khan is our red line and we will not allow this,” PTI senior leader Shafqat Mahmood said.

With deep appreciation, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all my supporters, NPF Central office, NPF Tuensang Division, Women, Youth, A/C party workers, Parent body, Women wing, Youth wing, Advisers, all village unit party workers, helpers in the kitchen, friends from within and outside the constituency, my beloved family members and not forgetting the prayer warriors, who supported me during this recently concluded Assembly General Election 2023.

I am truly humbled for all your unwavering love and contribution throughout this tough phase to which I cannot be able to repay you all individually. Although, we could not achieve success, I assure myself to continue to work towards creating positive changes in our constituency through my active participation and cooperations

My heartfelt congratulations to Shri. Imtichoba for emerging victoriously who became the new Hon’ble MLA of the constituency. I am confident and I truly hope that, being young and energetic leader could bring many more changes to the constituency people. Keeping in mind the ground ZERO position of the constituency in all fronts as you shoulder the responsibilities without any distinction.

I am truly inspired by your sacrifices and dedications. Looking forward to earn more love and support in the near future.

Thank you and God bless you all.

(H. ZUNGKUM CHANG) NPF Candidate. 54th A/C Tuensang Sadar-II.

Xi Jinping

Imran Khan

Benjamin Netanyahu

Remarks to erase Palestinian town ‘inappropriate’: Netanyahu

Lana Del Rey threatens to pull out of Glastonbury music festival

Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey appears to have threatened to walk away from her headline slot at Glastonbury this year, as a backlash against the music festival continues to rage. The 37-year-old singer is due to take to The Other Stage on the Saturday afternoon of the festival - which is to take place in 2023 over the weekend of June 21 through June 25, reports Mirror.co.uk.

Recently, the festival organisers unveiled the line-ups, confirming that Sir Elton John will headline the event alongside Arctic Monkeys and Guns N Roses. The line-up announcement caused furore among music fans as the top billing stars were slammed for lacking diversity - as those performers are all white males.

Chris Rock unleashes on Will Smith and wife Jada a year after Oscars slap

As per Mirror.co.uk, it seems Lana has also taken umbrage with the announcement - as her own headline slot was buried deep within the announcement on the seventh line of names. Taking to social media, Lana threw shade at the Glastonbury announcement - and appeared to threaten to pull out of performing.

She wrote: “Well, I’m actually headlining the 2nd stage. But since there was no consideration for announcing that we’ll see.”

And to make things worse, a source has told The Sun on Sunday about the upset: “Lana is disappointed. She was proud to be doing a headline slot, but on the announcement graphic her name is buried among lesser-known artists.”

(IANS)

Adam Levine loves chaos that being father of 3 children brings with it

Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine is embracing being a father of three. The singer appeared on iHeartRadio’s ‘On-Air With Ryan Seacrest’ this week, where he gave an update on his life after welcoming a third daughter with wife Behati Prinsloo in late January, reports ‘People’ magazine.

“It’s zone defence as they say,” Levine told host Ryan Seacrest of parenting three children, which, alongside their newborn, includes daughters Dusty Rose, 6, and Gio Grace, 5.

“It goes from man to man to zone. It’s like this and that. Here we go. Boom, boom, boom. It’s awesome.

I love the chaos. I embrace the chaos.”

With an expanding family, Levine said he’s also leaning into the suburban dad cliche of wanting a minivan. “I pushed harder for the minivan,” he said, quoted by ‘People’.

“I see a minivan as you just bought a whole new thing. You can make a minivan whatever you want it. It doesn’t have to be your mom’s Chrysler Town & Country. It can be this spectacular spaceship and fun.”

The singer also said he’s preparing to pull double duty as his band Maroon 5 prepares for a Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM and as they work on a new project.

“We are working on something that is unbelievably cool,” Adam told Seacrest, 48.

“I’m most excited about this thing than I’ve

been in a long time. It’s definitely music. a We’re right in the middle of it, but just now I think it’s one of the coolest things we’ve done and very different.” (IANS)

Ayear after he was slapped on stage at the Academy Awards, Chris Rock hammered Will Smith and his wife in a comedy special streamed live around the world, joking that he enjoyed seeing the actor beaten in his latest film.

Live on Netflix (NFLX.O) on Saturday from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, Rock said he had been watching slavery drama “Emancipation” just to see Smith “get whooped,” cheering “hit him again” and “you missed a spot.”

In March 2022, Smith walked on to the Oscars stage and slapped Rock’s face after the comedian made a joke about the appearance of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The “King Richard” star returned to his seat in the audience and later won best actor.

Rock had been mostly silent about the incident

until the end of his hourlong special, when he accused Will Smith of “selective outrage,” also the name

of his special.

The comedian said Pinkett Smith had stirred tension among the three, in

part by calling for a boycott of the Oscars in 2016 when Rock was the host. Pinkett Smith said she was protesting the fact that Will Smith and other Black actors were not nominated.

Rock, who also is Black, joked about Pinkett Smith at the Oscars that year and again last year.

“She starts it. I finish it,” Rock said.

Rock also brought up marital problems the Smiths have publicly discussed. Pinkett Smith admitted to an affair that she called an “entanglement” in 2020.

“I didn’t have any entanglements,” Rock said. “She hurt him way more than he hurt me.”

Representatives for the Smiths did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Will Smith issued a statement of apology to Rock and to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the group that

awards the Oscars, the day after slapping Rock. The academy banned Smith from attending the Oscars for 10 years.

The comedy special was the first event streamed live on Netflix, which is testing the technology as it considers expanding into other real-time programming.

Netflix agreed to pay $40 million for two Rock comedy specials under a deal reached in 2016, according to a person familiar with the matter. Saturday’s special was the second of the two.

Rock spent most of the show riffing on topics ranging from Britain’s royal family to the Kardashians, abortion and his dating life. He concluded by saying why he did not fight back when Smith hit him.

“I got parents, and you know what my parents taught me?” he said. “Don’t fight in front of white people.” (IANS)

Twitter to roll out individual DM replies, encryption

Twitter Boss Elon Musk has said that the company is seeking to enable responding to individual direct messages (DM), use any reaction emoji, and encryption on the platform later this month.

“Aiming to roll out ability to reply to individual DMs, use any reaction emoji & encryption later this month,” he tweeted. Several users expressed their thoughts on Musk’s post.

“Great updates that will help conversations flow more smoothly. Particularly looking forward to variety of reaction emo-

MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE

I extend my sincere gratitude to all the electorates of the 16th Pfutsero Assembly Constituency who have given me unwavering support and cooperation for the last 15 years. Together, we put up a good fight in the 14th General Election of Nagaland Legislative Assembly although the result was not in our favor this time. This unfavorable turn of event should not dampen our spirit in any way. I urge one and all to join me in renewing and strengthening our commitments to serve the people of our constituency in particular and the people of Nagaland in general. I congratulate all the elected members of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (2023) and it is my humble appeal to all the candidates to work tirelessly for the upliftment of our state. I thank God for his favor and blessings upon me throughout my life as a public leader. Thank you.

NEIBA KRONU

16th Pfutsero A/C, NDPP

dc-238/23

ji’s... it’s the little things,” a user commented. “Excellent. Chat encryption is especially a must-have,” another user said.

Additionally, a user praised Musk’s efforts in implementing the new features and also asked if he could also bring the “unsend” feature for direct messages.

“That’s great. Could you also look into possibly implementing an “unsend” feature for DMs?”.

In February, Musk

said that the micro-blogging platform will provide users with the ability to

adjust the algorithm to their “closer match” in the “coming months”.

Meanwhile, the micro-blogging platform has announced that the users will get a “heads up” if a Community Note shows on a Tweet they have replied to, liked or retweeted.

The company tweeted from its @CommunityNotes account: “Starting today, you’ll get a heads up if a Community Note starts showing on a Tweet you’ve replied to, Liked or Retweeted. This helps give people extra context that they might otherwise miss.” (IANS)

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MAKE AN INFORMED AND WISE DECISION

ASK THESE QUESTIONS AT ANY COACHING CENTRE

1. Date Of Inception

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How many hours of classes in total do they deliver in a course? It’s only NICSE which specifically mentions & delivers most extensive courses in Nagaland of 300 hrs, 500 hrs, 650 hrs, & 800 hrs of classes in 4 different courses. No other centre mentions with clarity

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8. SPECIFIC QUESTION FOR SOME FRANCHISE CENTRES: Do they have civil service courses outside Nagaland? If not, then 27+ years of experience in CS, is FAKE Ask for evidence, not alone testimonial, for 3 claimed selections in NPSC 2021-22 Testimonials can be created by ANYONE with NICSE students or few NICSE ex-teachers but evidences can’t. LIES & FAKE RESULTS PROMOTED EVERYDAY IN ADS, DON’T BECOME TRUTH.

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Will Smith hits Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, March 27, 2022. (Reuters)

La Liga: Atletico thrash Sevilla to move up third

MADRID, MAR 5 (IANS):

Atletico Madrid thrashed

Sevilla 6-1 to move into third place in La Liga above Real Sociedad on Saturday night.

The game saw Diego Simeone overtake Luis Aragones as the coach who has sat in the Atletico dugout for most matches in the club’s history and the players gave the Argentinean an appropriate homage in his 613th match.

Memphis Depay scored twice in the 23rd and 26th minute to put Atletico 2-0 up, before Youssef EnNesyri gave Sevilla hope in the 39th minute, a Xinhua report said.

Those hopes were quickly banished as Antoine Griezmann netted Atletico’s third in the 53rd minute, before Yannick Carrasco added a fourth in the 69th

minute. Substitute Alvaro Morata then rounded off the route with goals in the 76th and 92nd minute to once again leave Sevilla deep in a battle against relegation. Real Sociedad were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Cadiz on Friday night in a match where the visitors produced a solid defensive display to frustrate the home side, who have failed to win any of their last three matches.

Villarreal brought Almeria back down to earth following last weekend’s 1-0 win at home to Barcelona, with Gerard Moreno and Jose Luis Morales both scoring in the second half to give Quique Setien’s side three vital points and leave Almeria on the verge of the relegation zone.

Getafe produced a

magnificent first half to lead Girona 3-0 with two goals from Enes Unal and one from Borja Mayoral. However, they were on the back foot after the break after goals from Valentin Castellanos and Miguel Gutierrez, but managed to cling on for a 3-2 win that lifted them out of the bottom three.

Lucas Boye’s 88th minute goal for Elche stunned Mallorca and gave bottom of the table Elche their second win of the season. Mallorca thought they had leveled in the 95th minute through Vedat Muriqi, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review.

IMTICHOBA

Republican Party of India (A)

54 A/C Tuensang Sadar-II

Mess Age O f g r ATIT ude

I feel truly honoured and humbled to express my sincere gratitude to the people of 54 A/c Tuensang Sadar-II for your selfless support throughout this journey of our struggle. I thank you for your faith and commitment in this fight and for shouldering the burden and the task responsibly by each individual incessantly.

I would also like to sincerely thank all the wellwishers far and near for the support you have given me, without your help and efforts it would not have been possible.

I am well determined and committed to work for the betterment of our constituency as well as to address the prevailing circumstances we are facing in our societies.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly light, who does not change like the shifting shadow” James 1: 17 dp-871/23

FELICITATION

Chekiye Ghami Kiphimi Küqhakulu would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to Shri S. TOIHO YEPTHO on being elected to the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly from 33 AC Suruhuto. We are proud of your tremendous success and for bringing laurels to Chekiye Village.

The CGKK offers our sincere prayers and best wishes in your future endeavors. May God continue to bless and guide you in your new undertakings.

Congratulations on your well-deserved achievements.

dp-869/23

Best regards, CGKK Executive Members

Monterrey Open: Garcia to face Vekic in final MONTERREY (MEXICO),

Jones submits Gane to claim UFC heavyweight crown

MAR 5 (IANS):

World No.5 Caroline Garcia advanced to her second final of the season by defeating No.4 seed Belgian Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-4 in the Monterrey Open semifinal, setting up a summit clash with Croatian Donna Vekic, who advanced to her first final of 2023 with a win over Chinese Zhu Lin, here.

Bidding to capture her 12th WTA Tour title, Garcia will look to level her head-to-head record against Vekic. The Croatian has won five of their nine duels, with their last meeting coming at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The Frenchwoman came into Saturday’s match with a 4-2 lead in the head-to-head over Mertens, with her last win coming last summer en route to the Cincinnati title.

Garcia played her attacking game with confidence to keep the Belgian at bay, firing 33 winners to just 14 unforced errors in the match. Mertens countered with 17 winners to 15 unforced errors, but struggled to withstand Garcia’s relentless pressure.

The 29-year-old has enjoyed a flawless march towards her second Monterrey final, eight years after she made her first.

LAS VEGAS, MAR 5 (AGENCIES): Jon Jones scor ed a sensational firstround submission win over top-ranked Ciryl Gane to claim the vacant UFC heavyweight title at UFC 285 on Saturday, re-staking his claim to be the greatest fighter of all time after an emphatic return to the octagon.

Former light heavyweight champion Jones, who last fought in 2020, moved up a division for his heavyweight debut against Gane and needed less than three minutes to become the eighth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two divisions.

American Jones, 35, scored a takedown a minute into the opening round and snatched a guillotine choke that trapped Gane against the cage, with the Frenchman tapping out to end the

Jon Jones celebrates after defeating Ciryl Gane in a UFC 285 mixed martial arts heavyweight title bout in Las Vegas. (AP)

fight at the 2:04 mark. Jones won the belt relinquished by Francis Ngannou, who exited the UFC as a free agent in January. In the co-main event, Mexico’s Alexa Grasso won

the women’s flyweight title after pulling off a stunning upset to dethrone eighttimes defending champion Valentina Shevchenko with a fourth-round submission. An errant spinning kick

from Shevchenko paved the way for Grasso to expertly take her back and lock in a rear naked choke to finish the bout, ending one of the most dominant title reigns in UFC history.

Tokyo Marathon: Ethiopian runners claim 5 out of 6

TOKYO, MAR 5 (IANS):

Et hiopian runners stole the highlights of the 2023 Tokyo Marathon here on Sunday, winning five out of six podium places.

Deso Gelmisa, who broke the Paris Marathon record last year, outsprinted compatriot Mohamed Esa by one second to win the men’s race in 2:05:22. Their teammate Tsegaya Getachew finished third in 2:05:25. Canada’s Cam

Ethiopian runners at the podium.

Levins, who was fifth in 2:05:22, beating the 21-year-old North Ameri-

can record by two seconds. The previous mark was set by Khalid Khannouchi of

the United S tates in the 2002 London Marathon, a Xinhua report said. The Ethiopians also took the second and third places in the women’s race, which was won by Kenya’s Rosemary Wanjiru in 2:16:28. Tsehay Gemechu finished second in 2:16:56 and Ashete Bekere was third in 2:19:11. Worknesh Edesa, also of Ethiopia, finished fourth in 2:20:13.

PHILIPPIANS 4:13

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me

GRATITUDE

I am humbly honoured and grateful to the people of 23 Impur Assembly constituency for electing me as their representative. I thank each and everyone in placing your confidence in me. I will strive to represent the interests and concerns of the constituency with integrity, honesty and transparency. I understand the enormous responsibility that comes with this position, and I am committed to working collaboratively with all members of the constituency to achieve our shared goals.

my sincere gratefulness also goes to all well-wishers for continuously encouraging me to face the challenges of election so far, campaign organisers, prayer groups, supporters who has reached out to all voters with the slogan" Nagaland - Towards a State of Excellence". It is the support and utmost loyalty of many people throughout my 3 (three) unsuccessful attempts since the year 2008 that has kept me standing till today and because of this trust and faith, I am elected. I cherish your perseverance in supporting me all these years. It is not only my success but your success too.

I am also grateful to Hon'ble chief minister, Shri. Neiphiu Rio, Shri. chingwang konyak, president Ndpp, ranks and file of Ndpp, Officials of mokokchung Region and 23 Impur A/c, for the tremendous support that has been given to me.

Thank you once again and God Bless All of You.

(SHRI. T. N. mANNEN)

With Suohu congratulate Dr Tseilhoutuo (Dr agaland Legislative Assembly from A ess and God s blessings in all his endeavours

k-430/23

Acknowledgement

With conclusion of 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly Election 2023, I take the privilege to express my outpouring gratitude to the so many sources which has come together to give me victory. Firstly, I thank our Almighty God for His ever-present grace and blessings under whose abiding love I am enabled. Secondly, I am thankful to the NDPP party veterans and leaders for trusting me with its prestigious ticket, and I would express my utmost gratitude to my party workers, advisors, patriots, well-wishers, the voting citizens and family members of 45 Tehok Assembly Constituency, Mon District for supporting my electoral campaign and decisively electing me to leadership through your undivided support and encouragement and voting. In-spite of all the anticipated and unexpected challenges in the electioneering system which was both exciting and stressful, the victory was possible because of your given-out commitment and unreserved trust. I would assure the citizen of my uncompromised commitment towards development, prosperity and unbiased service to all the villages and areas under the constituency and also the Government and State of Nagaland. May the God of all times enable me and the party to be a blessing for the people at its best.

(C.L. JOHN)

mkc-78/23

Match in action between Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad.

Late goal keeps Arsenal 5 points clear in EPL

LONDON, MAR 5 (IANS): Arsenal retained their five point lead at the top of the Premier League in dramatic fashion following a second half fightback and a late winning goal at home over Bournemouth.

The Gunners kicked off the match after their lead was narrowed to just two points with Manchester City winning 2-0 at home over Newcastle United in the Saturday’s early kick-off.

Phil Foden, who seems to be firmly back in favor at the Etihad Stadium, put Pep Guardiola’s men in front after 15 minutes, before Bernardo Silva scored City’s second in the 67th minute with a neat finish shortly after coming on as a substitute, a Xinhua report said.

Arsenal got off to a dreadful start when Phillip Billing put Bournemouth ahead in the first 10 seconds of their match.

Arsenal’s Thomas Partey celebrates scoring his side’s first goal during the English Premier League match between Arsenal and Bournemouth in London. (AP/PTI)

The home side controlled around 80 percent of the goal, but failed to score before halftime and fell 2-0 behind to Marco Senesi’s

header from a corner in the 57th minute. Arsenal were quickly back into the game with Thomas Partey’s tap-in,

Alex De Minaur clinches biggest career title with Acapulco win

ACAPULCO (MEXICO), MAR 5 (IANS): Alex de Minaur has rallied from one set down to claim his first ATP 500 title, capping a brilliant run with a come-frombehind 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory against American Tommy Paul in the Mexican Open final, here.

The eighth-seeded Australian produced his best under pressure, saving six of the eight break points he faced in Saturday’s twohour and 27-minute championship match. His effort against Paul earned him the seventh and biggest title of his career.

This was De Minaur’s second three-set battle in as

unbeaten, so I’ll definitely cherish this going into Indian Wells and Miami,” De Minaur was quoted as saying by ATP Tour.

With a win, De Minaur joined Nick Kyrgios (a fourtime champion in Acapulco) as the only two Australian players to win an ATP 500-level singles title in the past 15 years.

many days, having navigated past world No.10 Holger Rune in Friday’s semifinals.

“It feels great, it feels amazing. I know the hard work that’s put in to be here and it’s good to see the results. It’s not always that you win the tournament and you get to finish a week

The performance in Acapulco also propelled De Minaur back inside the world’s top 20 (at a projected world No.18). On the other hand, just over a month since his run to the Australian Open semifinals, Paul is also set to return to the Top-20.

and Ben White’s finish from Reiss Nelson’s cross made it 2-2 by the 70th minute. Arsenal threw everything at the visitors, but

Spanish Para-Badminton Intl: Pramod settles for silver in singles, bronze in mixed doubles

it wasn’t until the seventh minute of injury time that Nelson scored the winner with a curling shot into the far corner of the net to spark scenes of wild celebration among Arsenal fans.

The defeat leaves Bournemouth bottom of the table after Southampton claimed a 1-0 home win over Leicester City, who have now lost their last four games in all competitions.

Tottenham Spur’s difficult week got worse after Adama Traore’s late goal condemned them to a 1-0 defeat away to Wolverhampton, just four days after they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Sheffield United.

Wesley Fofana’s 53rd minute header gave Chelsea a 1-0 win at home over Leeds United to ease some pressure on Graham Potter and leave Leeds just a point above the bottom three.

Kylian Mbappe becomes PSG’s all-time top scorer

PARIS, MAR 5 (IANS):

Kylian Mbappe became Paris Saint-Germain’s alltime top scorer when he scored his record 201st goal for the club in an entertaining 4-2 win over Nantes in Ligue 1, here.

The 24-year-old celebrated his landmark feat in ecstatic fashion and was handed a trophy by the club after the game in an on-field presentation on Saturday. Mbappe got his 201st goal in 247 games since signing for PSG from AS Monaco in August 2017 as he overtook the capital side’s previous record marksman, Edinson Cavani. Mbappe, who was the top scorer at the recent World Cup in Qatar, scored his record-

breaking goal while wearing the captain’s armband after skipper Marquinhos had earlier come off injured.

Since joining PSG in 2017, Mbappe has won four Ligue 1 titles and topped the division’s scoring charts for each of the past four seasons.

NEW DELHI, MAR 5 (IANS): Ace shuttler

Pramod Bhagat had to settle for silver in the singles SL3 category when he went down to England’s Daniel Bethell in the finals at the Spanish Para-Badminton International Toledo 2023. The finals lasted 58 minutes, Pramod Bhagat looked a little out of touch in the first set but made a strong comeback in the second. But his efforts were in-

Pramod Bhagat

sufficient to push the match into the third set. The final score read 6-21 and 18-21. In the mixed doubles

semi-final, Pramod Bhagat and Manisha Ramdass who competed in XD - SL 3 - SU 5 went down fighting to France’s Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel in the semifinals and had to settle for a bronze. The final score read 17-21 and 13-21. In Men’s doubles, Pramod Bhagat and Sukant Kadam who competed in MD - SU 5 went down to the Indian pair of Deep Ranjan Bisoyee and Manoj Sarkar in the Quarterfinals.

Kylian Mbappe

Alex de Minaur