First India-Jaipur Edition-22 August 2020

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD

CORONA

25°C - 31°C

ALERT JAIPUR l SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLD

7,99,640 2,30,09,844 CONFIRMED CASES

DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA 21,698 DEATHS 6,57,449 CASES

TAMIL NADU 6,340 DEATHS 3,67,430 CASES

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RNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 76

INDIA

55,922 29,72,302 DEATHS

KARNATAKA 4,522 DEATHS 2,64,546 CASES

CONFIRMED CASES

RAJASTHAN

933

DEATHS

DELHI 4,270 DEATHS 1,58,604 CASES

CONFIRMED CASES

GUJARAT 2,867 DEATHS 84,466 CASES

GANPATI BAPPA MORIYA —PHOTO BY SANTOSH SHARMA

9 LIVES LOST, 8 HURT IN FIRE AT TELANGANA HYDEL POWER STN

67,954

Smoke from the fire at the station chokes only exit point leading to deaths

Fire broke out at Left Bank Power House in Srisailam, in Telangana, late last night on Thursday killing 9 people

Hyderabad: Nine people including seven employees of Telangana state power generation corporation (TSGenco) were killed and eight others injured—three of them seriously—in a major fire mishap at the Srisailam Left Bank Hydel Power Station (SLBHP) late on Thursday night, officials said.

The SLBHP is on the Telangana side of the Srisailam reservoir on Krishna river-- a joint irrigation project between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The power house was constructed inside a two-km long tunnel under the Nallamala hill range adjacent to the reservoir.

Though the authorities initially said there were 30 employees inside the power plant when the accident occurred at 10.30 pm, an official statement from TSGenco said there were only 17 employees inside.

“Eight of them managed to come out of the

NARENDRA MODI @NARENDRAMODI Fire at the Srisailam hydroelectric plant is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I hope those injured recover at the earliest.

AMIT SHAH@AMITSHAH Deeply anguished to learn about the loss of lives due to tragic fire accident at the Srisailam hydroelectric plant in Telangana. My deepest condolences are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover at the earliest. station with injuries, nine others remained trapped inside as they were trying their best to put out the fire and save the power plant from being burnt completely,” the statement said.

The deceased employees of TSGenco were identified as deputy engineer Srinivas Goud, assistant engineers Venkat Rao, Mohan Kumar and Uzma Fathima, plant attendant Rambabu, junior attendant Kiran and Sundar Kumar. Two other employ-

ees of Amaron Batteries, Hyderabad – Vinesh Kumar and Mahesh Kumar-- were also trapped inside the power plant and were among those found dead.

“All of them tried to come out of the escape tunnel, but they did not succeed due to the thick plumes of smoke that engulfed the entire tunnel,” the statement said. Telangana power minister G Jagadeeshwar Reddy, agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy, Turn to P6

Ganesh Chaturthi will be celebrated on Saturday amidst strict corona protocols. On Friday, Sinjara was celebrated with deep abiding faith & simplicity at the famous Moti Dungari Ganesh Temple in Jaipur, where Mahant Kailash Sharma offered henna to Lord Ganesha.

New norm! Gloves, masks for voters Govt: JEE, NEET on as admit and more for Bihar polling booths cards out; exams on Sept 1 & 6 EC also issued norms concerning campaigning New Delhi: Voters will be provided with gloves to press the EVM button and COVID-19 patients in quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour of the polling day, according to broad guidelines issued by the EC on Friday for holding elections during the coronavirus pandemic.

The gloves will most likely be disposable.

Ex- Fin Secy Kumar is Election Commissioner

A separate set of guidelines would be issued for voters who are residing in areas notified as “containment zone”, the Election Commission said.

The commission has

recommended mandatory sanitisation of polling stations, preferably a day before the polls.

Thermal scanners would be placed at the entry point of every polling station.

Turn to P6

Former Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar has been appointed Election Commissioner, the Law Ministry said in notification on Friday night. Kumar will take charge the day Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa leaves his office on August 31.

Lavasa is joining Asian Development Bank as its vice president.

New Delhi: The Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for admission to IITs and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) - for admission to medical courses - will go ahead as scheduled, government sources said on Friday, days after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by students to defer the exams due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Admit cards for the JEE (Main) exam have already been issued by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and around 6.5 lakh students (of the nearly 8.6 lakh who had registered)

have downloaded them, the sources added.

The JEE (Main) exam is scheduled to be held between September 1 and September 6. The NEET exam has been pencilled in for September 13.

Amid growing demand for the postpone-

ment of the examinations by students, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Friday said that he has conveyed to education minister that NEET, JEE and other similar exams should be conducted after Diwali. Turn to P6

RS bypoll on Sept 11 for Singh’s seat New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Friday announced that it has decided to hold on September 11 by-elections to the Council of States from Uttar Pradesh to fill up a casual vacancy following the demise of Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh.

According to the Commission, elections will be held between 9 am and 4 pm on September 11, and counting of votes will begin at 5 pm on the same day. The issue of notification will take place on August 25 and the last day for making the nominations is September 1, Turn to P6

CM TO DEDICATE 25 RHB PROJECTS TO THE PEOPLE TODAY  14 housing schemes, 4 Mukhyamantri Jan Awaas Yojna projects and 7 other projects will be inaugurated  Big boon for Jaipur as foundation stone for City Park and Coaching Hub to be laid today  Quality control App “RHB Aware” and booklet will be released

Shivendra Parmar Jaipur: Rajasthan Housing Board Commissioner Pawan Arora said on Friday that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will lay foundation stone for 25 projects including City Park at Mansarovar and Coaching Hub at Pratap Nagar of Jaipur at 11.30 am on Saturday. He said that the Mukhyamantri will also inaugurate the plantation program by handing over a pair of Kalpavriksh to the Commissioner for planting at City Park at Mansarovar.

Along with this, Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal Turn to P6

14 RESIDENTIAL SCHEMES WILL BE LAUNCHED ACROSS STATE

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will inaugurate various projects of Rajasthan Housing Board on Saturday.

1. Vatika Residential Scheme, Sanganer, Jaipur 2. Mahla Residential Scheme, Ajmer Road, Jaipur 3. Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Residential Scheme, Nasriabad (Ajmer) 4. Niwai Residential Scheme, Niwai (Tonk) 5. Mukhyamantri State Employees Housing Scheme, Pratap Nagar, Jaipur 6. Weekend Home Registration Scheme-2020, Nayala, Jaipur 7. Patel Nagar Extension-Part 2

Residential Scheme, Bhilwara 8. Shahpura Residential Scheme, Bhilwara 9. Shastri Nagar Residential Scheme, Bhilwara 10. Atal Nagar Housing Scheme, Bhinder, Udaipur 11. Dwarkapuri Yojna, Savina II-Udaipur, 12. South Extension Housing Scheme - Udaipur 13. Mahatma Gandhi Sambal Residential Scheme, Badli, Jodhpur 14. Manpur Housing Scheme, Aburod City, District Sirohi

4 MUKHYAMANTRI JAN AWAAS YOJNA WILL BE LAUNCHED 1. Mukhyamantri Jan Awaas Yojana, Sector-3, Pratap Nagar, Jaipur 2. Mukhyamantri Jan Awaas Yojana, Sector-28, Pratap Nagar, Jaipur 3. Mukhyamantri Jan Awaas Yojana, Sector-7 (GH.3), Indira Gandhi Nagar, Jaipur 4. Mukhyamantri Jan Awaas Yojana, Sector-7 (GH4), Indira Gandhi Nagar, Jaipur

RAJASTHAN JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

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Corona times! Jaipur Junction facing loss of `12 L per month

Poonia gives pep talk to party men Aishwary Pradhan

Revenue generated from sale of platform tickets has come to zero in the railway stations across Raj Kashiram Chaudhary Jaipur: Jaipur railway division under northwestern railway is keen on not allowing visitors on railway platforms despite financial losses incurred due to ban on the sale of platform tickets.

Only passengers are allowed to enter the platforms in view of the spread of coronavirus.

Jaipur railway station is facing a loss of nearly 12 lakh per month and the revenue generated from the sale of platform tickets has come to zero on other railway stations.

At some of the railway stations in the country, the price of platform tickets has been increased to Rs. 50 from Rs.10 which has sparked a controversy. The

JUNCTION @ LOSS

B

Jaipur Junction

Jaipur division has already restricted entry of visitors to platforms instead of taking the controversial step of increasing the ticket price.

However, a senior of-

ficial of the railways said that the railway board is working on a plan for the entry of visitors and a detailed guideline would be issued soon.

Before lockdown, nearly 1.20 lakh platform tickets were sold monthly at Jaipur railway station. Now there is a restriction on sale, the station is facing a

loss of Rs. 12 lakh per months.

Other stations including Gandhi Nagar, Durgapura, Alwar, Bandikui, Rewari, Phulera too are facing

losses because visitors are not allowed on platforms.

NWR’s CPRO Abhay Sharma said that the entry of visitors was restricted on platforms in view of coronavirus spread which will continue till further orders by the railway board.

He said that social distancing norms would not be followed if the platforms are crowded.

Busy day for Dangi in Sirohi Pilot, Vishvendra meet to chalk out strategy after becoming RS MP! First India Bureau

Sirohi: Rajya Sabha MP Niraj Dangi is on tour of the district.

This is Dangi’s first tour after being elected to the upper house.

People are welcoming Niraj Dangi at all places he is visiting.

People are also apprising him of their problems by submitting him memorandums.

Newly elected Rajya Sabha MP too is trying to find quick solutions to the problems brought to his notice. Niraj Dangi held a detailed meeting with senior district officers at the circuit house.

Dangi told district collector Bhagwati Prasad to see that the

Jaipur: In the 10 days after coming to Jaipur from Delhi, many leaders and activists are meeting Sachin Pilot at his residence daily.

On Friday, activists from many parts of the state came to meet Pilot on which he said, “I have met people and activists from different parts of the state and I am overwhelmed by spending time with everyone.”

A large number of people from Tonk, Dausa, Ajmer, Pali, Karauli, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Udaipur had gathered at his residence since Friday morning.

MBC candidates also

Neeraj Dangi along with his supporters in Sirohi on Friday.

state govt’s agenda of development of the area is his priority.

He asked SP Puja Awana to control rising crime by strict monitoring. He instructed CEO of Jila parishad Bhagirath Vishnoi to

strengthen the Panchayati Raj by providing employment to jobless through schemes like MGNREGA. Dangi also stressed on making health facilities available for fighting Covid-19.

Jaipur: BJP state president Satish Poonia on Friday motivated the BJP Yuva Morcha office bearers and workers to work hard with dedication while citing his own example. He said that the party workers should remain prepared for struggle in the coming days.

“I am not from a rich family. I was born in a simple family, got associated with the BJP ideology and have come to this place. I too have travelled in roadways buses, have slept on railway platforms,” Poonia said.

Poonia said that there are 10,000 wards out of 52,000 where hard work has to be done.

The Morcha office bearers and workers from all over the state were present in the programme. Poonia has appointed BJP Yuva Morcha’s state president

Satish Poonia

Ashok Saini in his executive committee as the secretary and the Morcha workers led by Saini thanked Poonia for this. They also congratulated the state president for being nominated as one of the best MLAs by a magazine.

Lokesh Joshi, Hemant Lamba, Rajesh Gurjar, JP Yadav, Yogendra Singh Rajpurohit, Deeksha Khandelwal and other youth leaders were present in the programme which was held in a newly constructed conference hall in a plot adjacent to his residence here.

LENDING A HELPING HAND!

Sachin Pilot

paid him a visit.

During the day, Mukesh Bhakar and Ramnivas Gawadia also met Sachin Pilot at his residence.

Meanwhile, Vishvendra Singh also met Pilot and held discussion on important issues.

The two leaders also brainstormed on the future strategy.

Dr. Mahesh Joshi, chief Whip of Congress, visited three areas of Indira Kitchen and gave money to the people eating there. During his visited he was welcomed by many supporters.

NO SCHOOL, NO FEE —PHOTO BY SANTOSH SHARMA

First India Bureau

Cops arrested 2 dozen people for stone pelting Satyanarayan Sharma Jaipur: In a bizarre and alarming incident a police team was attacked late Thursday night near Jahlana slum. The police said that as per daily routine a police team was preparing for night barricading at the Royalty crossing when two persons passed in ine-

STORY SO FAR..

briated state. When the police tried to question them for roaming about so late in the

night in an intoxicated state, both got violent.

The police tried to take them to the nearest PS

but a mob from nearby Jhalana slum gathered and started abusing the police. Soon they resorted to stone pelting on the police. Extra policemen were rushed to the spot for controlling the situation. Police have arrested around two dozen people in the connection and a heavy police force has been deputed

at the spot. There have been continuous complaints regarding suspicious characters residing in the Jhalana slum. Some experts are of the view that if a detailed surprise raid is conducted in the slum then police might get its hands on many wanted criminals from the state & small criminal hubs in the slum.

Parents demonstrating against school fees at Statue Circle in Jaipur.

RSRTC resumes bus service on 300 routes

UNVEILING CEREMONY

Soni unveils RAS Assn’s souvenir ‘Pratidhwani’

Naveen Sharma

AN APPLAUD

First India Bureau

Jaipur: The Commissioner of Information and Public Relations department Mahendra Soni on Friday unveiled a souvenir of RAS Association here.

In the souvenir titled as ‘Pratidhwani’, several RAS officers have shared their work related experience through articles published in the souvenir, Soni said.

The ceremony was held at RAS club which was attended by presi-

S

Jaipur: Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) will operate more than 300 buses from August 24 in view of increasing demand from passengers. Navin Jain, CMD, RSRTC said that there has been a constant demand from people to operate more buses and therefore the decision to increase the number of buses was taken.

Express bus services will be operated on

Gaurav Bajad, Sukhveer Saini, Sunil Bhati, Mahendra Parakh, Shaaheen Ali, Mahendra Soni, Anil Agarwal, Ajay Aswal & Jasveer Singh.

dent Shahin Ali, general secretary Sunil Bhati

and others. The magazine also includes the

implementation of important schemes and

02

programs of the government which will

prove beneficial general public.

for

Jaipur-Udaipur, JaipurHisampur, Jaipur-Kakri, Jaipur-Malpura, JaipurDeeg, Jaipur-Kumher, Jaipur-Boli, Jaipur-Karauli, Jaipur-Kotputali, Ja i p u r- K h a rk h a d i , Jaipur -Dholpur, JaipurPatan, Deluxe bus services will be operated on Jaipur-Udaipur (AC Sleeper), Jaipur-Dholpur (AC Sleeper), Jaipur-Patan via Jhalawar (Semi Deluxe Sleeper), Jaipur -Ladnu (Semi Deluxe), JaipurBharatpur.

RAJASTHAN JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

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State reports 12 deaths, 1,335 cases on Friday; 175 from Jodh

03

Sagar padosi yojana for a safer neighbourhood

Corona positive tally in Raj so far stands at 67,954 and the death toll has reached 933 Jaipur: Call it fatigue on part of the health officials due to unending war against Covid-19 since march or sudden fury of the virus, it is adding coronavirus positives cases at a steady pace every day in the state.

On Friday 1,335 new cases surfaced and 12 deaths were also reported due to the pandemic.

The state total of corona positives so far stands at 67,954 and the death toll has reached 933.

Maximum 175 cases were reported from Jodhpur followed by 173 from Sikar, 151 from Jaipur, 96 from Barmer, 87 from Nagaur, 73 from Jhalawar, 67 from Bharatpur, 65 from Jhunjhunu, 56 from Pali, 49 from Ajmer, 38 from Alwar, 37 from Kota, 28 from Udaipur, 27 from Dholpur, 26 from Bikaner, 21 from Sirohi, 19 from Rajsamand, 17 from Bhilwara, 15 each from Bundi & Ganganagar, 13 from Churu, 11 from Karauli, 10 from Jaisalmer, 9 each from Banswara & Dungarpur, 8 each from Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh &

—FILE PHOTO

First India Bureau

First India Bureau

Tonk, 7 from Baran, 6 from Sawai Madhopur, 5 from Dausa, 4 from Hanumangarh and 2 from Jalore.

Total number of active cases in the state is 14525. Meanwhile 52496 patients have recovered from the corona infection.

Meanwhile the district administration has imposed curfew in selected areas of Jaipur. Marked areas under Harmada, Karni Vihar, Bhankrota and Vishwakarma police station areas have been put under curfew until further orders.

LOCKDOWN IN BARAN Baran district administration has announced a week long lockdown to contain the corona spread. The lockdown will be effective from 22 August to 27 August. All commercial establishments except the essential services will remain closed for one week.

There will be police deputed at all main crossings and the persons found infringing the guidelines will be acted upon as per applicable laws.

NORMS DURING FESTIVAL Sawai Madhopur administration and police are taking extra measures to contain Covid-19 in the times of festivities. Collector Nannu Mal Pahadia has cancelled the Trinetra Ganesh fair held every year on Ganesh Chaturthi. Additional collector Bhawani Singh Panwar said that the district administration has written letters to neighboring states and districts to stop the devotees coming to Trinetra temple at their borders and not allow them further.

Head constable of Home Guards takes bribe to assign duties First India Bureau Sirohi: ACB has nabbed a head constable of Home Guards who was involved in corrupt practices in the name of assigning duties to Home Guards for a long time.

ASP Narayan Singh Rajpurohit told that Head Constable Bhuramram, in charge of assigning duties, had fixed Rs 2,000 per home guard for assigning duties. There are 90 Home guards at Abu road Home Guard Center. ACB arrested Bhuramram with cash Rs 12,000 collected from 6 home guards It is suspected that apart from Bhuraram his higher ups too may be involved in the racket.

EC ask DEOs to report on coronavirus situation Jaipur: State Election Commission after deferring the elections to 129 local bodies till October 20 has now written to all district collectors who are de facto District Election Officers to send a weekly updated report on corona status in their respective districts, to check the feasibility of elections before October 20.

The Commission has asked DEOs to submit a report detailing the name of the local body, total number of infected patients, number of recovered patients, number of active cases and death toll. It has given specific dates for submission of the report. Joint Director Ashok Jangid has been appointed the nodal officer for the purpose with an instruction to appoint a district level nodal officer.

Nirbhaya squad under Additional DCP Suneeta Meena during an corona awareness rally.

First India Bureau Jaipur: Under the leadership of CM Ashok Gehlot, the Nirbhaya Squad headed by Suneeta Meena, Additional DCP, is reaching out to people with Alert Neighbour initiative or Sagar Padosi Yojna.

With prime focus to serve elderly, women and kids, the squad is knocking doors in the city beat wise with the help of local police stations to make people aware of the initiative.

“Your neighbour is important, this message is being given to people by meeting them personally and households are

being told the importance of neighbour’s alertness,” said Meena.

Adding further, “People should look after each other’s residences in their absence. Inform police about any illegal activity or anyone in your surrounding area involved in white collar crime. We will make sure that your identity is kept confidential.”

The officer shared important details about verification of tenants and househelps and emphasised on getting licence and renewal process of weapons done.

People are asked to inform about any domestic violence incident.

“We motivate people to be alert with their surrounding residences.

We tell them to inform us if they spot any case of domestic violence so that help can reach on time. Our aim is to bring public and police together. The first drive of this campaign is making people aware of it and this will be followed by a second and third drive which will see a bit strictness towards such cases,” she said.

The squad has resolved nearly 200-250 cases of such kind and now plans to document all the work so that force is rewarded for excellence in field work.

GANESH CHATURTHI TODAY

ACB has also arrested a medical store owner who was acting as a middleman.

Patwari caught with `4,000 bribe Udaipur. ACB team caught a patwari red handed, accepting a bribe of Rs 4,000. The arrested patwari Jitendra Pareek deputed in Kanod tehsil had demanded the bribe in lieu of name change in records of the agricultural land of the complainant. Complainant wanted the land to be transferred in his wife’s name. ACB verified the complaint and trapped him.

Bribe to give better facility in prison Hanumangarh: ACB team caught a compounder Jugal Kishore in central jail accepting a bribe of Rs 34,000. ASP Ganesh Nath said that the compounder had asked for the bribe of Rs 40,000 in lieu of providing better facilities inside jail to the brother of the complainant.

ASP caught the compounder red handed accepting the balance amount of Rs 34,000.

Bank manager held with `10K bribe Sri Ganganagar: ACB team arrested a bank manager and one of his associates accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a farmer. ASP Rajendra Dhidhariya said that complainant Ramandeep Singh is a farmer and holds 12 bigha land in village 12K. He applied to the bank to create a Kisan Credit Card limit based on his land and release loan. The bank manager Vijaypal Bhati then demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 on which he filed a complaint.

Corona pandemic has put a stop on all kinds of festivities most of all religious ones. A devotee seen using digital media to express their devotion outside Moti Dungari Ganesh Temple on Friday, on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi which will be celebrated today.

—PHOTO BY SANTOSH SHARMA

17 lower courts shift Despite heavy showers, Raj records less rainfall this year to ex-HC building MONSOON ALERT

First India Bureau Jaipur: The south west monsoon continued to lash parts of Rajasthan where Sirohi, Bharatpur and Hanumangarh districts received good rainfall.

Sangaria in Hanumangarh recorded 122 mm in six hours. Maximum of 5 cm rainfall was recorded in Sawai Madhopur till 8.30 am on Thursday whereas Jaipur received 4 cm and Rajgarh and Sardarshahar in Churu received 3 cm each.

The department has issued heavy rainfall warning in the state in the next two days. The

department has issued yellow alert for 13 districts including Ajmer, Bhilwara, Bundi, Baran and Banswara districts.

Hanumangarh district headquarters, Sangaria, Pilibanga and nearby areas also recorded good rains while the sole hill station of the state, Mount Abu in Sirohi, is also witnessing good rains. During the last 24 hours, Abu recorded 13 mm rains and the weather is quite pleasant there.

Tourists are enjoying the monsoon season in Abu. The water level in Nakki lake in Abu has increased to 11.70 feet.

However, the rainfall

Dark clouds hover over above Ajmeri gate area.

in Sirohi district is 21 percent less than normal rainfall till August 20.

During the monsoon season this year, the state has recorded 10

—PHOTO BY SANTOSH SHARMA

per cent less than normal rainfall.

From June 1 to Au-

gust 20, the rainfall deficit is 0.3 per cent in western and 14 per cent in eastern. Western Rajasthan recorded 0.3 per cent less than normal rains and eastern Rajasthan received -14 per cent rains.

The district with minimum rainfall this year is Hanumangarh, followed by Banswara while Churu, Jaipur, Nagaur and Sikar have recorded 40, 26, 22 and 24 per cent more than normal rainfall.

On Thursday, the sky was overcast in Jaipur.

The district administration is alert after heavy rainfall occurred on August 14.

First India Bureau Jodhpur: 17 lower courts including the District and Sessions Court have shifted to the old heritage building of Rajasthan High Court. Administrative judge of HC Justice Sangeet Raj Lodha was present on the occasion with other judges.

The HC judges went to courts and chambers where they, not very long ago, heard cases and delivered historic verdicts. It is noteworthy that the Jodhpur bench of Rajasthan High Court has shifted to a new building at Jhalamand.

The heritage building originally housed the Chief Court from 1935 to 1949. When Jodhpur was allotted a High Court bench, the historical building was taken over by the HC administration.

Senior Judge Sandeep Mehta, Justice Vijay Vishnoi, kustice Arun Bhansali, Justice PS Bhati, Justice Dinesh Mehta, Justice Manoj Kumar Garg, justice Devendra Kachchwah, Justice Rameshwar Vyas, Justice Kumari Prabha Sharma, and DJ & Sessions Judge Ravindra Kumar Joshi were present on the occasion.

PERSPECTIVE JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

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IN-DEPTH

GOOD GOING ON COVID-19 FRONT

O

n a day when the total number of Covid-19 cases zoomed past 29 lakh with a single day spike of 68,898 cases, came the news of how successful India has been in its fight against the novel coronavirus with whatever treatment is available. With all vaccine candidates for Covid-19 still in the final stage of trial, India’s recovery rate of over 74 per cent is praiseworthy as it helps remove any panic about the pandemic. Bringing cheer to health authorities, the highest single day increase in positive cases was matched by an almost equally high number of recoveries---62,282---in a day. The total recoveries have climbed to 21.5 lakh and the “active caseload” of the country stands at 6.92 lakh.

This can be described as a success story of coordinated efforts of doctors, efficient patient management in hospitals and the technical guidance provided to medics through technical guidance from AIIMS, New Delhi. Home quarantine under medical supervision helped reduce the burden on hospitals and saved patients the trauma of hospitalization and on their medical bills. The strategy has helped keep the case fatality rate of 1.89 per cent below the global average although 54,849 deaths is not a small number.

For a country of 1.3 billion people there’s still a case for stepping up testing even though over 8 lakh samples were tested on Thursday. More tests may mean more positive cases but that should not be worrisome as the healthcare system is now geared up for the challenge. This does not mean that people can lower their guard.

DEVOTION: BEING IN THE LAP OF THE DIVINE SADHGURU, ISHA FOUNDATION Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service

T

POLLS IN THE TIMES OF CORONAVIRUS

his land, this nation, this ancient civilization has been a source of tremendous talent and genius in the past. This talent and genius were essentially born not of study but of devotion. The greatest scientists, doctors, and mathematicians were all devotees par excellence, because, in devotion, you become inclusive. In inclusion, nothing is beyond you.

To be a devotee means to arrive at a different dimension of perception and intelligence, to drop the petty, and to invite the possibility of the Divine. A devotee does not sit on a diamond-studded throne, nor aspire for one.

The only aspiration is to be in the lap of the Divine. This aspiration is not a desire to go somewhere. Only by changing one’s fundamental perception of all creation will one arrive upon the lap of the Divine.

C has begun consultations with political parties in preparation for the Bihar assembly elections which are likely to be held in October-November. As the pandemic is expected to be still around, the political parties have come up with interesting demands, including the one which seeks return of the ballot paper.

Since 2014 political parties have complained against manipulation of electronic voting machines (EVMs) by the BJP. The Election Commission and courts have consistently dismissed these allegations as no party/individual has been able to prove that EVMs can be tinkered with. The pandemic has given the opposition a chance to demand once again that instead of EVMs ballot papers should be used for voting. They argue that with hundreds of voters touching the EVM buttons, there is a strong risk of the virus spreading among them.

The other demands are also pandemic related.

One of them is insurance cover for voters just in case they catch the virus while voting. The other is for redefining “bribe” which should exclude free distribution of Covid-19 prevention kits.

The BJP has come up with the tricky demand of not allowing virtual poll campaign from jail. This is aimed at keeping Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav out of the poll fray as the former CM continues to wield substantial influence on a large segment of voters.

A TOOL TO BREAK LIMITATIONS Devotion is a tremendous tool to break all limitations within oneself. Whether it is psychological, emotional, or karmic restrictions – if there is a flood of devotion, it will carry one across all these boundaries effortlessly. With regular sadhana, it would need an enormous amount of work to remove these boundaries. But with sadhana that is done in a state of enormous devotion, you can ride the flood over all the boundaries that you have created within yourself. This includes the prisons of perception that have come up over a period of time.

Let us say you see nicely arranged flowers, it is common for human curiosity and intelligence to want to know who did this. If you see a work of art, you would like to know who did it. But incredibly, very few people, as they are engaged in life,

E

To be a devotee means to arrive at a different dimension of perception and intelligence, to drop the petty, and to invite the possibility of the Divine. A devotee does not sit on a diamondstudded throne, nor aspire for one

with a masterpiece of creation right here in the form of the human system, ask the question, “Who is the Creator?” And of course, people have readymade answers. Devotion is not a readymade answer. Devotion is a device to get there.

Devotion is not a deduction that one makes. Devotion is a way to rise beyond all deductions. Devotion is a way to create a flood that will carry you beyond all limitations and restrictions inexperience.

If you have given yourself in these twenty-one days, you have not only purified yourself but all spaces around you.

The nation and the world will immensely benefit from this.

And devotion is not a twentyone-day chore. You must continue to overflow with it on a daily basis. It is not something that you do, it is something that you live. It is like your breath. If the Grace of Bhairavi, if her footprint is established in your heart, you never have to worry about victory or failure, prosperity or poverty, life or death. For one who manages to land in the lap of the Divine, all these things are trivial and of no consequence.

ONLY BY CHANGING ONE’S FUNDAMENTAL PERCEPTION OF ALL CREATION WILL ONE ARRIVE UPON THE LAP OF THE DIVINE

RE-ESTABLISHING DEVOTION May this process that you havestarted truly overwhelm you because if the phenomenon of creationand the source of creation do not overwhelm you, you are not even fitto be a rock. If this does not overwhelm you, what does? Thegovernment symbol of Tamil Nadu is a temple. They chose this symbolbecause this land has been so steeped in devotion that wherever youwent, it always felt like a temple. Devotion was the main piece ofpeople’s lives here.

It is once again time tore-establish this. Otherwise, devoid of devotion, we will become likeany other creature. Then we will wonder why we are

Digital finance is the key to post-pandemic development

W

e are experiencing the sharpest decline in per capita income since 1870,” United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres pointed out in a recent speech, warning that the COVID-19 crisis has put 70-100 million people at risk of being pushed into extreme poverty. Preventing that outcome will require concerted and comprehensive action to reboot and rebuild the global economy in a sustainable, inclusive way.

Technology – in particular, new digital-finance tools – can play an important role in this process.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital services – from telemedicine to remote work to online learning – have been a lifeline for the millions of people subjected to lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders.

“

‘

04

Digital finance has been essential to facilitate many of these processes, enabling people to pay for goods and services, receive compensation for their work, access social-assistance payments, and secure financial support, such as bank loans, for their distressed businesses.

Even before the pandemic, the need to harness the power of digital finance for the good of the planet and its citizens was increasingly being recognized. Indeed, that was the central goal of the UNSG’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals, on which I have served for the last 18 months.

The task force includes government ministers, tech entrepreneurs, CEOs of banks and investment institutions, civil-society representatives, officials of multilateral institutions,

and intellectual leaders.

But our forthcoming final report, “People’s Money: Harnessing Digitalization to Finance a Sustainable Future,” focuses on the needs of ordinary people.

The financial system, the report concludes, must

serve individual citizens, as savers, investors, borrowers, and taxpayers. It must leverage digital technology to put people back in the driver’s seat of their finances, so that they can invest in themselves and their families, communi-

ties, countries, and the planet. Governments, regulators, and financial institutions should support and facilitate the disruptions that will get us there.

There are already useful models of such disruption.

Africa – especially my coun-

try, Kenya – has led the way in embracing financial technology, beginning with mobile money. Kenya’s MPesa – a mobile phone-based money-transfer, payments, and micro-financing service – has been a powerful force for expanding financial inclusion. Since 2006, the share of Kenya’s population with access to financial services has surged from 26% to more than 82%.

Government agencies, too, have embraced online payments – a development that has boosted public confidence in digital financial services. Today, more than 90% of payments on Kenya’s centralized e-government platform (eCitizen) involve mobile money. Government- and central bankenabled innovation and a learning-by-doing approach have played a major role in driving this progress.

here. Because ifyou just eat, sleep, reproduce, and die one day, somewhere along theway, if you have a working brain, the question will come, “Why thehell am I here? What is the nature of my existence?”

BECOMING NATURALLY BLISSFUL Devotion is a powerful tool.It is a bulldozer that crushes all resistance within you. Withdevotion, everything gets unified.

The idea of the twenty-onedaysadhana is to make devotion a part of your life, every moment of yourlife. If in one place, you act devotional, and in the rest of theplaces, you are not, it simply means that you are pretentious. If itis real, if you are like that every moment of your life, witheverything in the world – that is devotion.

A heart that is devoid ofdevotion is a barren heart. It needs too much work and stimulation tomake it blissful. A heart that is filled with devotion is fertile.

Itwill naturally be blissful. We need a wave of devotion. If you aresoaked in devotion, blissfulness will simply happen. Please make ithappen for yourself and to as many people around you as possible.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Top

TWEET Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank @DrRPNishank With the new reforms in #NEP2020, we will work towards the overall development of teachers & provide them with opportunities to enhance their leadership and management skills.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal @HarsimratBadal_ Pained by the loss of lives in the tragic fire accident at #Srisailam hydroelectric plant in Telangana. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. I wish speedy recovery to those injured. #SrisailamFireAccident

Spiritual SPEAK

It is better to travel well than to arrive. —Buddha

SOURCE: PROJECT SYNDICATE

Vol 2 Issue No. 76 RNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, D.B. Corp Limited, Shivdaspura, Tonk Road, Jaipur.

Published at 304, 3rd Floor, City Mall, Bhagwan Das Road, C-Scheme, Jaipur-302001, Rajasthan. Phone 0141-4920504. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

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06

COVID 19: With such high level of recoveries, India’s Rate has soared past 74% ensuring more and more patients are recovering

Highest-ever single day recoveries of 62,282 New Delhi: India has touched another peak of the highest recoveries of COVID-19 cases in a single day as 62,282 patients have recovered and been discharged in the past 24 hours, said the Union health ministry on Friday.

With more patients recovering and being discharged from the hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have crossed the 21.5 lakhmark till Friday (21,58,946). “The gap between recovered patients and active COVID-19 cases has increased and reached 1,466,918 so far. As a higher number of patient recover, their percentage rate continues to steeply rise along with the steady decline in percentage active coronavirus cases,” stated the Union Health Ministry in a press statement.

With such high level of recoveries, India’s Recovery Rate has soared past 74 per cent (74.28 per cent as on August 21) ensuring more and more patients are recovering. This is bolstered by 33 states and Union Territories reporting re-

Nine security ‘Mukherjee remains of Lalu haemodynamically stable’ guards test positive

The testing lab network in the country is being continuously strengthened, which as on today consists of 1,504 labs in the country; 978 labs in the government sector and 526 private labs. These include: Real-Time RT PCR labs: 772, TrueNat labs: 614 and CBNAAT based testing labs: 118. covery rate more than 50 per cent, it said.

The current active cases (692,028) compose the actual caseload of the country. “It is 23.82 per cent of the total positive cases today, registering a further drop in the last 24 hours. They are under active medical supervision,” said the health ministry adding that India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is maintained below the global average. It is on a

continuous positive slide and currently stands at 1.89 per cent.

The current active cases (692,028) compose the actual caseload of the country. It is 23.82 per cent of the total positive cases today, registering a further drop in the last 24 hours. They are under active medical supervision. About 805,985 samples were tested in the last 24 hours for identification of the disease.

—ANI

New Delhi: There was no change in the condition of former president Pranab Mukherjee and he remains haemodynamically stable and on ventilatory support, the hospital said on Friday.

Doctors attending to him said his vital parameters are being maintained. According to the doctors, a patient is haemodynamically stable when the blood circulation parameters – blood pressure, heart and pulse rate, are stable and normal.

Mukherjee was admitted to the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital in Delhi Can-

Pranab Mukherjee

tonment on August 10 and was operated for removal of a clot in the brain.

The family of the former president has been visiting him at the hospital. His son Abhijit Mukherjee had said that his father’s condition is stable and his vital parameters are under control.

—PTI

Patna (Bihar): Nine security personnel deployed for the security of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav have tested positive for COVID-19.

“Nine security personnel deployed for Lalu Prasad’s security, have tested positive for COVID-19. The security personnel have been removed from their duties,” Dr Umesh Prasad, physician of RJD chief said. “The Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) has requested concerned authorities to deploy nine new security personnel,” he added.

—ANI

DILIP KUMAR’S BROTHER ASLAM KHAN DIES AFTER TESTING POSITIVE New Delhi: Actor Dilip Kumar’s youngest brother Aslam Khan, 88, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, has died, the actor’s family friend Faisal Farooqui confirmed on Twitter (which was retweeted by Dilip Kumar). He tweeted, “Dilip Saab’s youngest

brother, Aslam Khan, passed away this morning at Lilavati Hospital... We are from God and to Him we return.”

Dr Jalil Parkar, who oversaw Aslam Khan’s treatment, also told news agency PTI, “Mr Aslam passed away due to COVID-19.

He had pneumonia

with diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. He had multiple organ failure. He died in the early hours of Friday.” Dilip Kumar’s two brothers, Ehsaan Khan, 90, and Aslam Khan were admitted on August 15 after they complained of breathlessness. —PTI

Mumbai: SC allows Jain temples to stay open for Paryushan

Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Jain temples at Dadar, Byculla and Chembur in Mumbai to be opened for worshippers for the last two days of the Paryushan festival on August 22 and 23 while observing Centre’s SOP on opening religious places.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said this concession cannot be applied to any other temple or for Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations which involve large congregations.

“We must make it clear that the order, in this case, does not extend to any other trust

or any other temples.

Our order is not intended to apply in any other case, particularly which involves large congregations of people which by their very nature cannot be controlled.

We accordingly permit the petitioners to perform their prayers at temples of Dadar, Byculla and Chembur for the remaining days of Paryushan,” the bench said in its order.

During the hearing, CJI Bobde also criticised the Maharashtra Government for allowing the opening of malls and other economic activity but not temples. —Agencies

‘Modi govt devoted to take ED records statement of Sushant’s sister CBI MOVES TO BANDRA POLICE STATION financial inclusion to last mile’ SSR DEATH CASE Vaishali New Delhi: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday praised the work of Modi government since it came in power in 2014.

“With focus from providing banking to ‘every household’ to providing banking to ‘every unbanked adult’, #ModiGovt is committed to take financial inclusion to the last mile. Jan Dhan has benefitted more than 1.5 crore poor people in Odisha covering more than 74 lakh households,” he said in a tweet.

Further, minister said, “Benefits worth Rs 60,865 crore have been transferred directly to beneficiary accounts in Odisha for over 65 GOI schemes, like #PMUY, #PMAY, #PMKisan, #PMVVY. #DBT has been a winwin for both the govt. and the beneficiaries.”

“Launched in 2014,

Dharmendra Pradhan

DHARMENDRA PRADHAN @DPRADHANBJP With focus from providing banking to ‘every household’ to providing banking to ‘every unbanked adult’, #ModiGovt is committed to take financial inclusion to the last mile. Jan Dhan has benefitted more than 1.5 crore poor people in Odisha covering more than 74 lakh households.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is recording the statement of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s sister Priyanka, informed the ED officials on Friday.

Priyanka is a nominee in Rajput’s bank account, the officials said.

The ED had previously recorded the statement of KK Singh, father of Sushant Singh Rajput,

Sushant and Priyanka

in the national capital on Monday in connection with a case related to the death of the actor, sources said. According to sources, Singh was

Rohit Sharma among 5 to receive Khel Ratna Award

world’s largest financial inclusion initiative, #JanDhan has provided access to financial services and channelled government benefits to more than 40 crore beneficiaries across the country as on August, 2020,” he said.

“Since being elected

in 2014, Hon. PM Shri @ narendramodi’s govt. has accorded top-most priority to meaningful financial inclusion with a vision to provide banking to the unbanked, funding the unfunded and serving unserved and underserved areas,” he added.

New Delhi: Opening batsman Rohit Sharma will be conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award while ace sprinter Dutee Chand will receive Arjuna Award on August 29 at the National Sports Awards ceremony.

Apart from Rohit,

on this occasion.

Foundation stone laying of 7 schemes 1. Coaching Hub, Pratap Nagar, Jaipur 2. Foundation stone of City Park, Mansarovar, Jaipur 3. Mahatma Gandhi Sambal Residential Scheme, Badli, Jodhpur 4. Jodhpur Chowpatty, Jodhpur 5. Kota Chowpatty, Kota 6. Community Center, Sector-3 Pratap Nagar, Jaipur 7. Community Center, Sector-26 Pratap Nagar, Jaipur

managing director D Prabhakar Rao rushed to the spot along with other senior officials.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has ordered a comprehensive probe by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) into the fire accident at SLBP. He appointed CID additional director general Govind Singh as inquiry officer to probe into the cause of the accident and submit a report to the government.

The chief minister expressed deep shock over the loss of nine lives in the mishap and said despite best ef-

forts, those trapped inside could not be rescued. Describing the accident as the most tragic, he conveyed his condolences to members of the bereaved families. He wished speedy recovery to those critically injured in the accident.

Jagadeeshwar Reddy, who supervised the rescue operations, said the fire possibly erupted due to a short circuit in one of the electric panels of the power house and it spread to other parts. “Thick smoke engulfed the tunnel, making it difficult for the rescue teams to reach

Mariyappan T, Manika Batra, Vinesh and Rani will also be conferred with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.

Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy, Ishant Sharma and Manu Bhaker are among the 27 athletes who will be conferred with Arjuna Award.

—Agencies

the place,” the minister said.

Fire extinguishers could not control the fire and ambulances could not reach the area.

Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were pressed into service. Rescue teams from Singareni Collieries also joined the rescue operations.

According to TSGenco authorities, the power plant is located inside the tunnel at about 1.2 km from the entrance and the only way to reach the plant was

asked about the missing funds from Sushant’s bank accounts.

The agency had on July 31 registered an ECIR in the case after a

FIR was filed by KK Singh, against Rhea Chakraborty in Bihar on July 28.

On August 19, while holding that the FIR

registered in Patna over the death of Bollywood actor was legitimate, the Supreme Court directed the CBI to investigate the case.

—ANI

Gadkari launches Harit Path app to monitor plantations New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday launched Harit Path, a mobile app to monitor plantations through geo-tagging and web-based GIS-enabled monitoring tools.

“The app has been

Nitin Gadkari

developed by the NHAI to monitor location, growth, species details, maintenance activities, targets, achievements of each of its field units for each and every plant under all plantation projects,” said a release of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. —ANI

FROM PG 1 CM to... and Board President Bhaskar A Sawant ill hand over Rudraksha plant to RHB Commissioner Arora for planting at City Park.

“Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will also lay the foundation stone of 14 housing schemes of Rajasthan Housing Board, 4 Mukhyamantri Jan Awas Projects along with 7 projects at CMR. Along with this, the ‘RHB alert’ app for quality control will also be launched and a booklet will be released. Moreover, Rana Sanga Market at Pratap Nagar Jaipur will also be inaugurated

9 lives...

TSGenco chairman and

through the tunnel.

New norm! ...

Polling or paramedical staff will conduct thermal screening of voters at the entry point of a polling station, it said.

“There shall be maximum 1,000 electors instead of 1,500 electors in a polling station,” the guidelines said.

A group of five people, including candidates but excluding security personnel, is allowed to take part in door-to-door campaigning.

For roadshows, the commission said, convoys of vehicles should

be broken after every five vehicles instead of 10 (excluding security vehicles).

Public gatherings and rallies can be held subject to adherence to COVID-19 guidelines.

The district election officer should identify in advance dedicated grounds for public gatherings with clearly marked entry and exit points.

Govt: JEE...

Taking to twitter the BJP MP said, “I have just spoken to the Minister of Education suggesting that NEET and other exams be con-

ducted after Deepavali.

The SC order the other day is not a bar since the Hon’ble Court has left the date to the government. I am sending an urgent letter to the PM just now.”

RS bypoll... the Election Commission said in a press note today. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on September 2 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is September 4.

Rajya Sabha MP and former SP leader Amar Singh, had passed away on August 1.

NEWS JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

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MOOLAH MATTERS l The Airport Authority of India may have to bear a financial loss of Rs. 8-10 crore every month due to the privatisation of Jaipur International Airport l The AAI earned revenue of Rs. 18.67 crore from Jaipur Airport in December 2018 during which 4,45,431 domestic and 52,450 international passengers travelled from the airport

Privatisation at Breakneck speed 5 YRS, `50,000 CR SLUMP

l Under the bid, Adani Group will pay Rs 174 per domestic and Rs 348 per international passenger.

While the AAI earned Rs. 18.67 crore before privatisation, Adani’s handling would have been Rs. 9.58 crore, a loss of 9.09 crore to the AAI. Similar is the case with Lucknow and Guwahati

07

IN A NUTSHELL

EXPERTS ARE OF THE VIEW THAT AIRPORT AUTHORITY OF INDIA WILL SUFFER HUMONGOUS LOSSES DURING THE NEXT 5 DECADES DUE TO PRIVATISATION OF SIX AIRPORTS IN THE COUNTRY INCLUDING JAIPUR, WRITES KASHIRAM CHAUDHARY

CARGO INCOME TO DIVERT l At present, the airport administration is generating income from cargo movement as well

 The Union Cabinet approved a proposal for leasing out airports at Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram through PPP model for a period of 50 years

l Cargo movement is suffering under heavy losses during corona pandemic l The company has been given rights to increase the commercial and cargo movement, but it is not bound to share the revenue with the airport authority as it will in its own pocket

 Adani Enterprises had won the rights to run six airports including these three -- the other three being Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore -- after a competitive bidding process in February 2019

WHAT’S THE HURRY l Sources said that the tendering process was done in a hurry but there was a delay in approval.

The decision to hand over six airports to private company was done in just two months but it took nearly one and a half years to give final approval

 In July 2019, the Union Cabinet had approved the proposal for leasing out Ahmedabad, Mangalore and Lucknow airports to Adani Enterprises

l The AAI also did not fix the minimum per passenger fees in RFP. The companies submitted rates from Rs 36 to 174 which shows the companies failed to do a proper assessment or estimate. There is also no clarity over the fate of the AAI employees

 Currently, all these six airports are owned and managed by the government-run Airport Authority of India (AAI)  The employees may switch to the company or get themselves transferred to other airports under AAI

l Steps taken in such haste has raised questions over the whole process

HOW WILL

IT WORK

Raj Govt bans suffixes for pvt firms, old cos. to change names First India Bureau Jaipur: Rajasthan government has banned using terms like detective, investigation, surveillance, intelligence, interrogation, labour supplier in private companies’ names.

Using the terms give the impression that they are government establishments and now the companies with these terms will no longer be issued licenses to operate in Rajasthan.

Even the older firms having such terms in their names will have to drop them, a senior official said.

The state government has recently issued a notification to amend the Rajasthan Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Rules on August 17.

The rules have been amended accordingly.

DG home Guard Rajiv Dasot said that the private security firms and training institutes will have to drop these misnomers from their names.

AIRPORT

building will be operated by private company, which will also handle medical arrangements & fire systems

COMPANY will

operate all shops inside the building and parking

CISF will continue to manage the security of the airport and runway

Jaipur’s safe, advanced ‘Sarv Wave’ in race to clinch Centre’s Zoom challenge First India Bureau Jaipur: India’s alternative to Zoom is here and after the Zoom challenge announced by the government in April, now the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology announced an innovation challenge for the same and it has now declared the winners of the same.

The jury selected the products developed by four applicants as potential products and decided to offer a developmental contract to be supported by Rs 25 lakh each for further maturing their product within a period of three months.

Sarv Wave created by Jaipur-based Sarv Webs Pvt. Ltd is also among the selected. First India spoke with the founder, Director Ramesh Choudhary (in pic).

Excerpts,

Sarv is already well established with more than 1 lac clientele.

When the pandemic started we thought about adding Video Conferencing solution to our unified platform. But we also found that the government of India has started this initiative of Video Conferencing Innovation Challenge. We prepared the documents, roadmap & shared with government & they shortlisted us out of around 2000 companies.  How can the private sector access this App? Does

one have to pay for it?

Just login into Sarv. com & create conferences. The application is at present in beta phase & hence we have decided to not open it commercially until the application becomes completely stable in all prospects. You can use it free of cost, no limits for users & conferences yet. We have decided to convert it from beta to regular phase only when we complete testing with a particular number of conferences each with a range of participants. 

What is the USP

of Sarv Wave?

A completely made in India Solution made by Indians. SarvWave is 3 times more efficient from all others like Zoom, GoogleMeet, CiscoWebex in terms of features, internet data consumption and scalability.  How do you compare your App with Zoom?

Data consumed is 3 times lesser than zoom (this is tested & reviewed properly). No screen sharing required for presentation & whiteboard. Multiple streaming platforms including youtube, facebook, instagram, twitch & 100+ more. Share external video without any extra bandwidth requirement.  How will user data be protected?

We have implemented 2 types of securities to make sure data is always safe of each user. Audit of the Database is done.

The setup in done on Indian servers only and data will be stored only after user permission.

 How did you come to be a part of the Zoom Challenge and how was the experience?

AAI will continue to operate Air traffic control at all airports

‘Saloon at home’ service providers, actresses served notices for advts Ravi Sharma Jaipur: Sen Kalakar Mandal Udaipur President Ashok Paliwal has served legal notices to wax strip manufacturing company Veet, online service provider company UrbanClap, actresses Sara Ali Khan and Kriti Sanon, who are there in the companies’ commercial advertisements, for defamation and presenting saloon industry in a bad light.

Paliwal said that the ads are against the interest of the industry in which the saloons have been called as ‘risky’.

Paliwal has demanded to withdraw the contents and tender an apology.

“In Veet advertisement, Sara says to a friend that going to saloon is risky. Also, ‘bye bye saloon’ is said at the end of the advertisement whereas in the ad of UrbanClap, Kriti too says that the beautician and saloon will come to home, its 21st century,” Paliwal elaborated.

ENGLISH, VINGLISH!

Y

ou must have heard about firebrand male politicians in Rajasthan, a frankly in today’s scenario, these are dime a dozen.

However, have you ever heard about a ‘firebrand female MLA’?

If not, then let us tell you about an incident that occurred recently when the Congress and supporting MLAs that were ‘housed’ in Jaisalmer hotel were returning back to Jaipur. So, this ‘well

educated and well versed’ MLA, who has a ‘divine’ name boarded the flight back to Jaipur on which several legislators had already taken their respective seats.

‘Madam’ was ‘confronted’ by a tribal MLA who was apparently sitting on a seat she wanted to sit in. Well, this blew her lid and she gave a good ‘lasting’ to the tribal leader in English. Realising that the woman was creating an unnecessary scene, the MLA got up from the seat and quickly sat in one

of the back seats. Meanwhile, the ‘firebrand’ MLA kept herself ‘saved’ from the eyes of other MLAs, hiding her eyes under her branded sunglasses!

—First India News

ROOMING ABOUT!

O

PRIVATE

company will coordinate with airlines and will do all works related with ground handling at apron

nly two days back, the state government transferred ACS Home Rohit Kumar Singh to the position of ACS Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. While the bureaucrat is expected to move to

Off the

RECORD

DELHI CHALO! IAS’S DREAM, GOVERNMENT ENVY?

F

inally, IAS Praveen Gupta has become successful in getting a ‘ticket’ for New Delhi.

Gupta’s application for a deputation in central government has been approved by the Chief Minister and a NOC has thus been issued by the Department of Personnel. Notably, this has been a long time coming since after one and a half years, the approval has been given. After the change of government in Rajasthan, Gupta was sent ‘out’ of the state capital Jaipur and was posted as member, Board of Revenue at Ajmer. It was then that in the changed ‘environment’ Gupta made up his mind to leave for Delhi and applied in the DoP for a NOC, however, the file reached CMO and stayed there for this long. In its 14th March 2020 column, First India had published the situation around Gupta and it was said that his

the office designated for his new post, it appears that the babu has taken a charm to the Home department’s room. Word is that Rohit is unwilling to go out of this room which is reserved for the ‘chief babu’ of Home department. Now, the DOP is faced with a difficult scenario on how to make the senior IAS understand the norm and the word is that the final call on this issue will be taken on Chief Secretary’s level.

—First India News

Praveen Gupta

future could be in the doldrums. Now, it is believed that he would be given the position of joint secretary in any ministry in New Delhi and with time he could be empanelled in the rank of Additional Secretary. Notably, two more IAS - Shikhar Agarwal and Naresh Pal Gangwar - have also applied for approval to ‘shift’ to Delhi, while two other IAS - Sidharth Mahajan and Krishna Kunal - have already received a call from Delhi but the state government is not relieving them. Interestingly, contrary to the work, Siddharth Mahajan has been given additional responsibilities.

-Rajendra Chhabra

To succeed, your team must not only share your vision but live it and be as hungry for it as you are.

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

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08

RAPID ANTIGEN TEST RESULTS NOT CREDIBLE, CENTRE SHOULDN’T WASTE MONEY ON THEM: RAGHU

Yogesh Sharma & Naresh Sharma

Jaipur: State Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Friday said that the Centre should not waste money on rapid antigen tests for coronavirus as their results are not credible.

He said that the state government had requested for these test kits from ICMR but it did not get them. Therefore, 200 kits were taken from a private hospital and their testing was done to find out the accuracy of the results, he said.

Opening a debate on COVID-19 management and economic impact of lockdown in the state assembly which resumed a week after a trust vote was passed, the minister said that the accuracy level of the tests kits, manufactured by a South Korean company, was 51 per cent.

The Rajashtan Assembly on Friday witnessed uproar during the debate, leading to repeated adjournment of the proceedings.

“The antigen tests are being used in many cities, including Delhi.

Although we did not get the antigen test kit from ICMR and managed tests from a private hospital, their results were not found credible. We have informed ICMR about it,” Sharma said.

“Rajasthan has been a pioneer in the prevention of COVID-19. We

Shanti Dhariwal during the Assembly session on Friday.

Pratap Singh Khachariyawas got furious over remarks by BJP MLAs.

Dr Raghu Sharma replying on the debate.

Kalicharan Saraf engaged in an heated argument on Friday.

Uproar in House over Saraf’s comments Jaipur: The assembly was adjourned thrice due to an uproar over BJP MLA Kalicharan Saraf’s comments regarding the arrangements for distribution of ration during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

After the health minister, Saraf spoke on the issue and targeted the

have done about 20 lakh RT-PCR tests,” he said, referring to the more reliable method which requires a longer waiting period. The minister added that the rapid testing kits obtained earlier from China did not produce credible results, and the state govern-

state government over arrangements of food packets and distribution of ration during the lockdown.

The comments led to an uproar in the House and heated arguments.

The house was adjourned for half an hour. When the house reassembled, the uproar continued and the chairperson Rajendra

ment had informed the Centre about this.

He claimed there were similar problems with the accuracy of the kits bought later from South Korea and said the Centre should not “waste” money on them.

The minister said that the state has developed a capacity of con-

Pareek adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

Immediately after the house reassembled, Pareek announced another adjournment till 2 pm.

When the house reassembled, Speaker CP Joshi requested the members to hold a constructive debate instead of making personal comments.

The speaker expunged

ducting 46,000 RT-PCR tests per day in 22 districts and there 286 dedicated coronavirus care centers have been set up. “PM Modi lauded Rajasthan and CM Ashok Gehlot’s efforts.

The Chief Minister has conducted twenty one hours of meeting in one day to fight Corona. Our

the comments which led to the uproar. Then the debate continued.

The assembly session began on August 14 and a trust vote was passed by voice vote. After a week-long gap, the session resumed on Friday during which the debate on COVID-19 management and impact of lockdown was held.

Bhilwara model has been successful and much talked about everywhere,” he said.

“We are doing excellent in other parameters too, including the recovery rate which is more than 76 per cent. Plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients has started in Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodh-

pur, Kota, and Udaipur.

Soon it will be started in Ajmer as well. A total of 211 critical patients have been given plasma therapy, for which no money is being charged, and all of them have recovered,” he said.

Replying on the debate, health minister Sharma said that BJP MLA Kalicharan saraf has levied baseless allegations that N95 masks worth 11 crore rupees have been purchased. “Such allegations should not be made. If any MLA has any complaint we will get it investigated. We are recruiting two thousand doctors in the next few days because our priority is to save lives,” he said and rapped the BJP leaders on bringing a communal angle to the debate.

“The BJP named Tablighi Jamaat. I appeal to you never to make this pandemic a communal issue. Central government gave us 1,300 ventilators which helped in strengthening the medical infrastructure. When lockdown was initiated it gave a setback to the economy too. Rajasthan’s revenue has decreased steadily and the current situation is also bad, the centre is no where to be seen,” he said. Raghu went on to say that the government expenses are being controlled and the works which are important and of priority will be conducted first.

Govt bias, need to work together: LoP First India Bureau Jaipur: While it was a fiery Gulab Chand Kataria who tried to take on the Congress MLAs, the cool and calm politician that Kataria is, was also visible, when being at his tactful best, the LoP registered his discontent on state government’s behaviour towards the centre even though Centre has been helping state.

“Laying charges and counter-charges will not work. We will have to fight it off collectively. If state government continues to say that they did not get anything, then we can also accuse them of not helping out.

The Central government has given Rs 1,881 crore to state, but they have never mentioned it till

now,” Kataria said.

He went on to say that for first time in his lifetime has he witnessed Central government has announced a Rs 20 lakh crore package suomoto. Kataria qustioned tests being done in private hospitals and said that even though state may have fixed the price of tests, yet these tests are not reliable. “When the number of corona positive was in hundreds, sanitization machines were seen everywhere, but now neither do we see these machines nor any sanitization work is going on. We will have to change our mindset to fight off this pandemic. Why such irresponsible behaviour is being seen on governments part?,”he questioned.

‘FILE CASE AGAINST JAMAAT MEMBERS’ BJP MLA Madan Dilawar held the state government and Tablighi Jamaat members responsible for corona infection in Rajasthan. He said that a case for treason should be carried out against them. “The Tablighi members were not stopped in Rajasthan. I kept on saying that they should be stopped and case should be registered, but the government registered a case against me instead,” he said. Dilawar also raised the issue of not following the social distancing protocol

by Congress MLAs during their 34 day stint in hotels.

Meanwhile, Vasudev Devnani suggested to hold lockdown on Saturday and Sunday.

DGI Sinha, DI Yadav construct web To witness this glorious moment is to unearth hidden treasure of Raj a feeling of bliss for everyone: Raje Dr Anita

Jaipur: Sumant Sinha DG (Investigation), Rajasthan has chosen his ambush to handle the new tax recovery battle being initiated by CBDT. Where entire scrutiny and appellate system is going faceless, the only tigers which will be visible on file would be the Investigation Officers. Sinha and Rajeshwar Yadav (DI, Invetigation) have very cautiously handpicked the team to become face of the faceless era. Sinha has spread the web across state

Dr Anita New Delhi: It was the birthday of Rajya Sabha member and AICC Treasurer, the Congress Stalwart leader, Ahmed Patel on Friday.

Wishes poured in on social media and calls throughout the day. Patel celebrated it with simplicity with his family.

Among the first to wish him was Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who took

Sumant Sinha

with Devangi, Rajesh and Chandra Prakash controlling Jaipur, Mehul - Udaipur, Surendra - Kota, Kavita - Ajmer, Shankar- Jodhpur, Prateek- Bikaner. Sitesh and Ayushi will be assisting Sinha and Yadav directly in managing everyone. Another important officer GP

Rajeshwar Yadav

Sharma has been assigned to Pr.CIT Piyush Jain who shall assist Jain in making assessments of treasure unearthed by Yadav’s team.

It is imperative to mention that CDBT has planned to drastically reduce the number of scrutiny cases and has

made all assessments and appeals to be conducted faceless. The honest tax payers are now expected not to be troubled at all, whereas those crossing the tax net but absconding would be unearthed and punished. Accordingly special powers have been vested in the Investigation Wing and TDS Wing to take the baton of collection and recovery of tax. With this the role of Sinha and his team shall be very important in Rajasthan.

Probably with this team Sinha has set the theme“honest rest and dishonest beware!”

Aditi Nagar & Aishwary Pradhan

Jaipur: For the construction of Ram temple, former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje worshiped a 1kg silver brick which was sent by Former General Secretary of BJP Khetri city division Gajendra Pareek to Ayodhya. Talking to twitter, Raje said, “Construction of a divine and magnificent Ram temple in Ayodhya was the dream of crores of countrymen, which is now coming true after hundreds of years. To witness this glorious moment is a feeling of

Vasundhara Raje worshipped the silver brick along with Gajendra Pareek.

bliss for everyone.”

“Former General Secretary of BJP, Khetri

City Division, Mr Gajendra Pareek Ji sent a 1 kg silver brick for the con-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AHMED BHAI! Congress’ mastermind strategist and backroom boy turns 71! to Twitter, as did Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and a host of other leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Dr C P Joshi, Ajay Maken, Sachin Pilot, Avinash Pande, Mukul Wasnik, Raj Babbar, Javed Ansari, Raghu Sharma, Go-

vind Singh Dotasara, Mahesh Joshi and almost all ministers of Rajasthan government. The list was endless.

This is Patel’s second stint as AICC treasurer, his earlier was from 1996 to 2000.

A Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, he is

Ahmed Patel

the indispensable ‘Old Guard’ of Gandhis and also the ‘link’ between the old and new generation Congress leaders.

Patel is affectionately called Babubhai by his friends and family in Piraman, his native village near Bharuch, from where he has

thrice been a Lok Sabha member. He is a much loved man in Gujarat among the Congress cadre and people.

Pirzada, a Cong leader says that Patel is popular as his public life has been clean and he is actively involved in various charitable institutions. Patel, who

struction of Ayodhya Ram temple in memory of his brother and ancestral deities. I am glad that I too was able to worship it before it was sent to Ayodhya,” she added.

Meanwhile, many MLAs met Vasundhara Raje. During the day, MLA Chhagan Singh Rajpurohit, Joram Ram Kumawat, Sandeep Sharma, Kalpana Raje, Manju Baghmar, Mansingh Kinsaria met Raje at her residence.

Other delegations also paid her a visit, whereas many others met the former CM in the assembly. Notably, Raje stayed in the assembly for around 90 minutes.

enjoys an equal respect and credibility across all political platforms, is known for forging very critical political alliances for the Congress party, especially on the eve of elections.

He is also considered as one of the best executors to implement his mentor and Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s mandate to the Congress Chief Ministers and other relevant party functionaries.

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09

JAIPUR, SATURDAY AUGUST 22, 2020

Jacqueline Fernandez

LOOK-ALIKES’ VIDEO PODCAST

... with Amanda Cerny

B

ollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez and her lookalike Amanda Cerny have been roped in to do a video podcast together. Jacqueline Fernandez, one of the most influential celebrities from

India, has amassed an online following of well over 90 million on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Amanda Cerny is one of the most popular social media stars with over 45 million followers across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Launching later this summer, ‘Feels Good’, with Amanda and Jacqueline, brings together these two “lost sisters” from different sides of the world to give weekly inspiring news story updates from around the globe, along with reviews and unexpected guests.

Conversations will revolve around about dating, wellness and culture, while delivering to audiences all that ‘Feels Good’. “We love what we do and to have a new platform to curate insightful conversations about wellness, culture, dating, inspiring news stories

along with the occasional unexpected guest and all that…well… Feels Good,” Jacqueline and Amanda said in a joint statement. The announcement that a deal has been inked with the two celebrities was made by podcast platform PodcastOne. —Agency

B’TOWN

Queen OWN ‘YOGA FILTER’ Still from her post

A

ctor and yoga enthusiast Shilpa Shetty Kundra on Friday launched her very own Instagram yoga filter, which directs the user to perform a yoga asana in a fun way every time they use it.

Shilpa who has always been an advocate of staying fit with yoga, took o Instagram to announce the ‘SSK Yoga’ filter and urged people to try the filter and perform the asanas. “It’s HERE!!! The new ‘SSK Yoga’ filter is here and I’m thrilled to share it with all of you. Every chance & every opportunity that we get to invest our time & energies into our well-being, should be grabbed; and when it can be done in a fun way, then it’s enjoyed even better,” she wrote in the caption.

—ANI

K

Twitter

angana Ranaut made her Twitter debut on Friday, her legion of fans made sure to give a warm welcome for the diva by making #BollywoodQueenOnTwitter trend on the micro-blogging site.

From recalling some of her remarks made on public platforms to her journey in the entertainment industry, thousands of the ‘Queen’ actor’s followers left no stone unturned to mark the day. One of her admirers wrote, “No one can stand front of Kangna, She is Fire and Brave Girl Most welcome Qween.”

While another user tweeted, “You are a true queen & loved by so many! I’m so happy that you joined Twitter”.

Reciprocating the love of her fans, Ranaut herself tweeted on how “heartwarming” it to see the hashtag of ‘BollywoodQueenOnTwitter’ trend. The 33-year-old actor took the audience by surprise by announcing her Twitter debut through a video message, where she talked about her social media debut and the reason behind joining it.

—ANI

Akshay Kumar

RASHMI ROCKET S Kangana Ranaut

Shilpa Shetty Kundra

A

... in ‘Rashmi Rocket’

INTO THE WILD

kshay Kumar will be featuring in a highly anticipated episode of wildlife adventure show ‘Into The Wild with Bear Grylls.’

“You thinking I mad... but mad only going into the wild,” wrote the ‘Mission Mangal’ actor as he shared an intriguing glimpse of the show. The video first shows a crocodile, the host of the show - 46-year-old Grylls, and Akshay Kumar in a river.

...with Bear Grylls

The clip, which has thrilling background music, also shows Grylls and Akshay Kumar swinging on ropes over a river with crocodiles snapping beneath them. It concludes with dates of the special episode.

The special show will premiere on September 11 on Dis-

covery Plus App and September 14 on Discovery Channel.

Grylls also posted a motion poster of the upcoming special on Instagram and noted, “Life is an adventure that is best lived boldly, and there are few better (madder ) adventure buddies than the legendary @akshaykumar #KhiladiOnDiscovery #IntoTheWildwithBearGrylls @discoveryplusindia @ discoverychannelin.”

—ANI

Taapsee Pannu

ports drama ‘Rashmi Rocket’ starring the fierce Taapsee Pannu commences shoot this November. Beginning in the salt pans of Kutch, Rashmi Rocket is about a young girl from a village, blessed with a gift - SPEED. She’s an incredibly fast runner. The village fondly knows her as ‘Rocket’. When she gets a chance to showcase her talent professionally, she excels but also realizes that the race to the finish line is peppered with many hurdles, and what seems like an athletic contest turns into her personal battle for respect, honour, and even her very identity.

Taking to their social media, RSVP movies posted, “Getting back on track, one lap at a time! #RashmiRocket to start shooting this November. #FridaysWithRSVP” I have been involved in this project from the very inception stage so that makes this one really special. Just before the pandemic I was already 3 months into my training period to transform into a physique closest to that of a sprinter.

This has been a long break but with the kind of subject it is I am excited to restart the journey from scratch again starting with my training.” says Taapsee.

—Agency

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JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

10

That Resides Within ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rahul Gaur is a marketing professional living in Gurgaon, who nourishes his soul with the written word.

Tweets from @rahuljigaur.

RAHUL GAUR

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

FA CE OF TH ED AY

R

am has been a huge part of my religiosity for as long as I remember - elders praying daily, fasting and reciting SunderkaanD and AkhanD Ramcharitmanas PaaThs and religiously watching Ramayan over TV. The individual journey of my knowing Ram has continuously evolved over time, starting with comics, turning later to gems like Narendra Kohli’s fabulous book series that brought Ram to me in an unprecedented and forceful way. “Manas Ka Hans” about Baba Tulsidas followed.

Hostel days too included Hanuman Chalisa and an occasional SunderkaanD PaaThs. Curiosity made me delve into some iconoclastic essays in various publications (re: Delhi Press’ Sarita) castigating Ram’s conduct, Dalit and feminist viewpoints perhaps.

Distilling these experiences, I realize, my relationship with Ram was never limited to a ritual-bound litany. It bloomed as a genuine love for him - a wise, brave, genteel, compassionate, graceful and just deity of a man. Yes he could falter.

ing in the evening wind. In the whole of Ramcharitmanas, this is one of those rare instances where Ram is genuinely angry, his compassionate self resurfacing the moment Saagar apologizes.

In the journey to Ram Mandir, this image was cherry picked and turned in to a permanent leitmotif, a sly symbolism to garb political aspirations in social and religious tones. The jubilant war cry – “Jai Shree Ram!”, hitherto But his basic decency and honorable intentions never left him. The Ram that I hold in high esteem is one who resides within me; is my nij-satya. I do not look for any miracles. It inspires me to be a better human being, it is my Ram. Simplistic, but works for me.

Watching the euphoria around Ayodhya and Ram Janmsthan Temple, I wish I could be happier about His shiny new abode and the glory it entails. But I look back at the rough and bloody road we have

taken to get here and I am caught in conflicting emotions.

Three decades back, competing political parties prodded the dangerous reptile of religious sectarianism out of their bag of tricks, in the name of correcting five centuries old historical wrongs. A phantom of “majority victimhood” was raised. Subjects of a modern day secular democracy fought their battles like in a medieval war, extracting their revenge of ’victimhood” from the “others” burying the law of the

YOUR DAY Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

land under the debris of a torn down building. It was as far away from Ram Rajya as possible.

In the long stasis after, the fault-lines grew harder, the political costs higher. Slowly, middle ground for compassion and co-existence shrunk. In place of karunavataram Ram, we found him in Saagar Sandhaan pose - a bare chested sinewy figure staring in the distance with resolute anger, his bow primed up for some action, his dhoti and his hair flutter-

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

Someone really dear will show great sign of improvement in health condition. Something mystic will happen today and all your worries will vanish away. Its alright if are not able to meet everyone’s expectations, you can never satisfy everyone.

You have a good health thats because you don’t take your lifestyles easily and you are very particular about your eating habits. A job done well on professional front will bring a lot of appreciation for you. You love your spouse more than you can express.

You have a very progressive mindset and people are often jealous of the strong ones so do not bother to give explanation to anyone for who you are. You will easily manage to impress the one who could be your potential future life partner.

If you are thinking about devoting your time to spirituality then now is the time to give you all.

Adopting healthy lifestyle is the only option left with you now. You should value money and not spend it on useless things, control your temptation to buy things.

MAR 21 - APR 20

APR 21 - MAY 20

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

JUNE 22 - JULY 23

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

You will help someone recover from the heart break and this person will never forget how you helped him/her when it was needed.

You are right about things most of the time and your spouse has to agree in the end. Your expectations sometimes disappoints you, so be realistic.

Do not pretend to be someone that you are not, just to please someone who his out of your reach.

Do not compromise on your virtues no matter how much someone may try to instigate you. You sometimes get angry on pity matters so please work on your temperament.

Love those who deserve to be loved and discard the ones who are not true to you. You should not waste your time in convincing people about how right or wrong your methods are, just do your job confidently and leave the rest in the hands of God. You are mostly full of life.

Do not over exercise in temptation to see the results as early as possible, certain things take time so have patience. Getting too much into other people’s matter can go wrong for you only so avoid acting smart. You are very mature for your age.

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

AUG 24 - SEP 23

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

To stay true to yourself is the mantra of your life. You always do things if once you have decided to do so. You have to search for a stable job even if you have to compromise a bit on salary for now. Take care of your parents as they may need you. You may have to help your sibling.

Life has many colours and sometimes you have to open your eyes to visualise its beauty. Look around and you shall realise that you have far more than many people, search for reasons to be happy not to be full of complaints. You are a lovely host and people miss meeting you.

You are very professional when it comes to your office related work but at the same time you are very demanding too. You have a habit of pointing out mistakes on people’s faces. Good news is on the way and you academic results will play a very important role in it.

You are shy by nature and may sometime feel very awkward in a large gathering. You are a champion in some kind of sports.

You like to be independent and you cannot work under someone. You have a deep intuition power which never disappoints you.

NOV 23 - DEC 22

JYOTI GURJAR, Model

heard only during staging of Ramlilas began being used as a greeting and in some cases unfortunately to intimidate, humiliate and sneer.

As we have now come to this pass, it feels like something sublime from within me has been snatched out and turned in to an ugly commodity of politics. Though unsure about how much of my Ram I would find in all the grandeur at Ayodhya, I still have my faith intact. People around me have mostly moved on, relieved that a bitter chapter has been firmly shut. That gives me hope that new bridges can (will!) be built. Best wishes to all of us with what else but a chaupai from Ramcharit Manas – Sab nar karahin paraspar preeti / Chalahin swadharm nirat shruti neeti

DEC 23 - JAN 20

JAN 21 - FEB 19

FEB20 - MARCH 20

ETC

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JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

11

ANPATI BAPPA MORYA! Throwback to the time when B-town celebs took to their social media handles to wish their fans a happy ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’; the celebrations are going to be low-key this year!

Last year, the Bollywood fraternity celebrated the festival by bringing idols of Ganesha home. Celebs like Kangana Ranaut, Sonam Kapoor, Kartik Aaryan, along with many more took to their social media handles to wish fans on this auspicious day with special photos and videos!

Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Neeta Lulla

Vivek Oberoi with his family

Tusshar, Jeetendra, Ekta and Laksshya

Sonali Bendre

Kartik Aryan

Kriti Sanon

Larissa D’Souza Sudeep Nagarkar

AMAZING

JEALOUS TAYLOR

I

CHEERLEADER!

Still from the video

J

ennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox indulged in a game of pool recently.

The Friends stars, who are often seen spending time together, decided to hit the pool table this time around and boy, Jennifer showed the world that she is all of us when she picked up the cue stick. Snippets of the hilarious session were shared on social media and it left fans in splits. The video starts with Courteney showing off her winning streak while Jen miserably failing, The hilarious video was shared by both the stars on their respective Instagram accounts. Courteney shared the video with the caption, “I may have had a good night...but could my friend BE any cuter?”

—Agency

Mallika Sherawat

Jennifer Aniston

t’s been more than a decade since Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez became everyone’s best friend goals.

Through thick and thin and countless other things, these besties have been by each other’s side cheering on their accomplishments. When Gomez launched her cooking show Selena + Chef, a sweet surprise cameo by Swift was a Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez must and that’s what we got. In the latest episode of Selena + Chef, Selena FaceTimed Taylor when she was getting a cooking lesson from Roy Choi. An excited Gomez showed off her latest food creation to Swift and when asked what it was, Choi revealed they were making Korean barbecue Texas breakfast taco. An ecstatic Taylor told Selena, “If you don’t send me the recipe, we’re going to have words. I wanna be served that.” After Gomez introduced the 30-year-old singer as her best friend, Swift gushed, “I’m very jealous of your whole setup.”

Selena during the show —Agency

Karan Tacker with his family

PREGNANCY CRAVINGS

F

or most of us, 2020 is a tragic history lesson we’d like to erase from our minds but for Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik, it’s going to a year to remember. The ex-couple who patched up their relationship towards the beginning of 2020 will soon be entering parenthood as they are set to welcome their first child in September. Moreover, if reports are to be believed then ZiGi is going to be blessed with a baby girl.

As the 25-year-old supermodel is nearing her due date, Hadid has been updating Instagram with beautiful selfies and aesthetic posts much to the admiration of her 56.3 million followers.

Currently, the couple is back in New York but it seems as though the model is missing her time in Pennsylvania judging by the stunning images. Besides sharing pictures of the scenery surrounding their farmhouse, Hadid also posted some delicious food snaps ranging from cinnamon buns, strawberries, avocado rolls and arugula Caprese salads.

We wonder if these tasty food items were an array of Gigi’s pregnancy cravings!

Gigi Hadid —Agency

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12

JAIPUR | SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2020

SAWAI PADMANABH PAYS FLORAL TRIBUTE CITY FIRST

P QUE...

QUEen Q1) My parents believe a lot in Astrology. Can Astrology and Astrologers accurately predict the future?

Ans. An interesting question, which has been plaguing mankind for centuries. Frankly, it is purely a matter of faith. Science has debunked Astrology as a pseudo-science while the believers swear by it. In some ways, astrology may seem scientific. It uses scientific knowledge about heavenly bodies, as well as scientific sounding tools, like star charts.

Some people use astrology to generate expectations about future events and people’s personalities, much as scientific ideas generate expectations. And some claim that astrology is supported by evidence — the experiences of people who feel that astrology has worked for them.

Personally, if your parents believe a lot in it, I am sure they have a hundred ways to guide you too towards it. You will ultimately have to find your own path and belief system. My advice, read up with an open mind and try to keep your counsel without alienating your parents. There is no harm in keeping the family peace by falling in with their plans where minor things are concerned, on the other hand changing your entire life pattern simply on the basis of some astrological prediction does not really make sense.

Q2) Due to the financial crisis, my family is pressuring me for money but due to the cost-cutting of the organisations, I’m unable to get the desired amount. What should I do?

Ans. Ans. The situation is critical and most of us are in this situation.

Look closely at your finances and see if you can spare some more amount for the family.

Can you add something to your kitty by taking up something on the side, a side job, something temporary for a few months? Be a little innovative and look for alternates, think out of the box. Also, sit down and discuss frankly with your family. I wouldn’t advise taking a loan as things are going to limp back to normal and no need to add extra stress to your life right now.

Have any questions?

Mail them to quequeenfirstindia@gmail.com; don’t worry, your name will not be disclosed!

admanabh Singh of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur on Friday paid a floral tribute to the statue of Late Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II, on the occasion of his 110th birth anniversary.

Senior officials of the City palace were also present on the occasion at the Ram Niwas Bagh.

In the afternoon, floral tributes were also paid to the photo of Late Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II at the Sarvatobhadra Chowk in City Palace. Executive Trustee, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Trust, Rama Dutt was present on the occasion. It is to be noted that owing to the current pandemic the ceremonies were kept low key. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

THE ARTIST WITHIN

FACEBOOK POST!

Immense Satisfaction

SHOBHA KHINVASARA cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

... his post

B

ringing out the artist in you is extremely essential to maintain the inner peace. Dr Shobha Khinvasara, a management academician, whose love for painting has sustained over the years. She is a self taught artist who has dabbled in many mediums and the binding force of all her artistic output has been her creative flow of thoughts. She is also a spontaneous poet and her paintings are a tangible form of her creative expression.

Talking about art, she said, “I

R believe in the power of the Heart and I believe in the power of the art. So when heart and art combine, the power is tremendous.

Whereas, mind thinks, heart creates. Thoughts are thoughts unless you create them either through words or through art of any form to give them a meaning. I chose colours. I paint with

my Heart. Each of my themes is a creation of some idea that I generate by observation, interaction and understanding life.

When I create something new, I live the moments with utmost satisfaction and happiness. It is that happiness which reflects in my paintings. And this is what I aim for- to make everyone happy with my art.”

obert Vadra took to Facebook to share that he fed around 2000 people outside his office in memory of his late fatherin-law and former PM Rajiv Gandhi. He wrote, “I fed almost 2000 people, outside my office in memory of my late Father in law, Rajiv ji’s Birth anniversary. It just gives me soo much satisfaction to see the smile on the face of the children, women and elderly people who ate and took food home for their

Robert Vadra families. Next month will repeat a treat for the people who are in need.”

—Vaishali

WHAT’S HAPPENING! UTTAR PRADESH: Congressmen led by National Secretary, AICC, Vivek Bansal conducted thermal screening of children, old and young people along with the distribution of masks, Ayurvedic decoction and sanitization in Aligarh.

During the program, Congress officials also shared the necessary information about the prevention of corona.

Best Day for

New Beginnings

HAPPY B’DAY!

RAJASTHAN: A meeting for the ‘Swabhiman Mukti Divas -69’ was held in Jaipur which was attended by former State Minister Gopal Kesavat, Advocate Gopal Singh Rajbohra, Advocate Narendra Gajua, Advocate Kuldeep Singh Malawat, Dr Harish Jangam, Senior Congress leader Babulal Rana, IT Convenor, Lalit Saini and Satyendra Kumar Malawat, among others. Gopal Keshavat shared that CM Ashok Gehlot, PCC Chief Govind Singh Dotsara along with prominent congressman from each district is invited in the program which will take place on 31 August 2020.

MAHESH BANG

A

ccording to Vastu science, every Hindu home and all communities who follow Hinduism anywhere in the world should have a small statue of Lord Ganesha above the entrance of the main door of their house. A special shelf or small stand should be specially made for this deity above the door. In simple words, before you open your front door to enter your house, you should face Lord Ganesh situated above the door. This will protect you by preventing evil forces and obstacles from entering your home. It will also deflect negative energy and bring prosperity to your home. It removes the Vastu defects caused by an incorrectly positioned entrance door. It is believed that Lord Ganesha is always accompanied by his two wives, Riddhi (prosperity) and Siddhi (knowledge) so it is good to write Riddhi on the right side of Ganesha and Siddhi on the left.

All the writings alongside Ganesha should be done in red or orange.

Mahesh Bang

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

 Do not look at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi as this is considered inauspicious.  Do not keep three Ganeshas at your home, any other number is fine.  Avoid abstract paintings of Ganesha as they are not recommended as per Vastu.  One should take care that Ganesha is in full figurine and not just the trunk or upper half as you get nowadays.  Try not to install Ganesha with the trunk to his right.  It is believed that Lord Ganesha was born during midday, so it is best to worship during this time. However, the entire day is auspicious.  Lord Ganesh is easily pleased and showers his blessing’s on those who offer him twenty one ‘Durva’ grass.

IPS Priti Chandra (from top), IAS Abhay Kumar, IAS Indrajeet Yadav and IAS Abhishek Surana celebrated their birthdays on 21 August, Friday. We wish them all the best!

RAJASTHAN: The 1101 Foundation Day of ancient Sati Mata was celebrated with pomp in the village of Kesidda in Tonk district which was inaugurated by Sidra Sarpanch, Ram Sahay Meena and State President of Congress ST Morcha, Shankarlal Byadwal. During the occasion, Rajasthani religious hymns were sung. The villagers prepared the offering at their homes to protect themselves from COVID-19.

RAJASTHAN: The official Instagram account of JECRC University has got 10,000 followers. A team of dedicated students works for all the social media platforms of the university. The team representative, Karthik Saini, shared that JECRC University is the first private university of Rajasthan to get a huge number of followers. Also, the Facebook handle of the university has more than 1 lakh followers.

Vice-Chairman, Arpit Agarwal congratulated the team for the excellent efforts.

GUJARAT: Reflection of colours brightened up the roads as commuters passed by during rainfall in Ahmedabad on Thursday night.

— PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

GUJARAT: Girls were seen playing in the old city area in Ahmedabad on Friday, after a really long time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

—PHOTO

BY HANIF SINDHI

GUJARAT: Two women were shopping for Kevda Flowers for Kevda Trij fast in Ahmedabad on Friday. Kevda Trij is a ceremony observed mainly in Gujarat on the third day of the Shukla Paksha Bhadravo session, where married and unmarried women observe a fast, sing and offer Kevda flower to Goddess Parvati and God Shiva. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI