First India-Jaipur Edition-25 June 2020

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD

CORONA

26°C - 38°C

ALERT JAIPUR l THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLD

4,81,970

94,36,060 CONFIRMED CASES

DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA 6,739 DEATHS 1,42,900 CASES

TAMIL NADU 866 DEATHS 67,468 CASES

RNI NO. RAJENG/2019/77764 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 19

INDIA

14,906 4,72,947 DEATHS

CONFIRMED CASES

DELHI 2,365 DEATHS 70,390 CASES

India reinforced Ladakh areas, even as both countries work together to resolve issues

Patanjali drug: Raj min warns Baba Ramdev Jaipur: Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma came down heavily on wonder drug by Pantanjali Trust and said that if the drug is found selling in state then Baba Ramdev P2 will be arrested.

India’s Corona count crosses 4.5 lakh New Delhi: India’s COVID-19 cases crossed 4.5 lakh on Wednesday with the highest singleday spike of 15,968 cases in the last 24 hours.

The death count has gone up to P5 14,906.

Army Chief General MM Naravane visited forward areas in Eastern Ladakh and reviewed operational preparedness in Sector. He was accompanied by Lt Gen YK Joshi, Gen Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command & Lt Gen Harinder Singh, GOC Fire and Fury Corps, read a statement.

Despite talks China continues build up!

Leh: Even as India and China continue to talk, the Chinese have continued the build-up all along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) including the Finger area where they have strengthened themselves with more positions and constructions.

The Chinese Army started its build up along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh sector from

—PHOTO BY REUTERS

Inside

ARMY CHIEF VISITS LADAKH

A military chopper hovers in the sky in Leh

Maxar WorldView-3 satellite image shows close up view of LAC border and patrol point 14 in Galwan Valley on Monday.

SC to decide fate of CBSE exams today

May 4 and deployed more than 10,000 troops along with heavy artillery, armoured regiments and defence batteries.

“In the Finger area along the Pangong Tso lake, the Chinese have continued to indulge in heightened military activities like deployment of troops and construction,” a source told the ANI.

New Delhi: A new institution—Indian National Space, Promotion and Authorisation Centre—has been formed which will guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies in a friendly regulatory environment, said Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference after Cabinet meeting, the minister said, “A new institution has been formed.

It will be known as Indian National Space, Promotion and Authorisation Centre. It will guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies in a friendly regulatory environment.” “Indian National Space, Promotion & Authorisation Centre is not a new institution but its role has been extended into ISRO. This is a new turn in the arena of space.

DEATHS

16,009

CONFIRMED CASES

UTTAR PRADESH 596 DEATHS 19,557 CASES

IN-SPACE will look at private space entrepreneurs.

‘1.5K coop banks to go under RBI supervision’ New Delhi: Over 1,500 urban and multistate cooperative banks will be brought under the supervisory power of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday.

“Gover nment banks, including 1,482 urban cooperative banks and 58 multistate cooperative banks, are now being brought under supervisory powers of RBI as they apply to sched-

uled banks will apply for cooperative banks as well,” Javadekar said. The decision to bring 1,540 cooperative banks under RBI’s supervision will give an assurance to more than 8.6 crore depositors, he added.

First India Bureau

WB extends lockdown till July 31

Monsoon enters Rajasthan via Jaisalmer, drenches 16 districts

Hinduja bros in UK HC over letter dispute

Kolkata: Lockdown in West Bengal has been extended till July 31 with certain relaxations, according to the West Bengal Government. The ongoing lockdown was scheduled to end on June 30.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held an allparty meeting at Nabanna in Kolkata over the COVID-19 situation in the state. As per the Union Health Ministry, West Bengal has a total of 14,728 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 580 people have succumbed to the infection.

—ANI

First India Bureau

New Delhi: A final decision regarding the cancellation of pending CBSE Board Exams 2020 is likely to be taken today by the Board, according to sources. Experts believe that given the circumstances, as number of Covid-19 cases are increasing in India, the CBSE has no option but to cancel the July exams.

Board will inform the Supreme Court whether it has decided to scrap the remaining exams of Class 12, scheduled from July 1-15, on Thursday. Meanwhile, a decision on reschedul-

London: The UK-based Hinduja brothers are locked in a legal dispute in the High Court in England over their billionaire family assets, it emerged in a ruling in London.

The case has been brought by Srichand Parmanand Hinduja, 84, described as the “patriarch” of the family, against brothers GP Hinduja, 80, PP Hinduja, 75, and AP Hinduja, 69, and revolves around the “validity and effect” of a letter dated July 2, 2014.

The letter includes statements to the effect that the brothers Turn on P6

ing the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for IITs and the NEET test for medical colleges will be based on the apex court’s verdict for CBSE Board exams.

While engineering entrance exam JEE-Mains is scheduled from July 18-23, medical entrance exam NEET is to be held on July 26.

Jaipur: The southwest monsoon entered Rajasthan on Wednesday and covered over 16 districts of the desert state, according to MeT. The monsoon entered from Jaisalmer in the west and advanced to the east, a MeT Department official said here.

“Conditions are favourable this time and therefore the monsoon has covered over 16 districts of Rajasthan on the first day of its arrival today. The monsoon is likely to be good this time,” he said.

The monsoon is ex-

Birds fly over Ana Sagar lake after monsoon showers at 7 pm in Ajmer on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY NADEEM KHAN

pected to reach Jaipur in the next 24 hours, while it is likely to be completely in Rajasthan in the next 48 hours.

MeT says, state is likely to get around 25 to 30%

‘Corruption won’t end unless there is fear among corrupt’ STATE GOVT WORKING ON A POLICY OF ZERO TOLERANCE TOWARDS CORRUPTION: CM Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that corruption will not end unless there is fear among the corrupt people and thus, the state government is working on a policy of zero tolerance towards corruption.

“The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has

375

IN-SPACe to open up space for private sector

MORE POWER TO ACB

Naresh Sharma

RAJASTHAN

GUJARAT 1,736 DEATHS 29,001 CASES

Show of strength: Indian fighter jets roar over Himalayan region Leh: Indian fighter jets roared over the flashpoint Himalayan region on Wednesday as part of a show of strength following a violent clash between the two armies in Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh.

The two sides publicly declared they would pull back following the clash, which saw 20 Indian soldiers killed in a battle involving rocks and nail-studded batons.

But both have maintained troops around the valley, with India deploying more forces and trying to project military might.

Indian jets regularly took off Wednesday from a military base in Leh and headed towards the mountainous border 240 kilometres (150 miles) away.

There were also checkpoints on main roads and a frenzy of military activity around the main town, which lies at 3,500 metres (11,500 feet).

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an important role in ending corruption.

Therefore, ACB needs to make its functioning more effective and ACB officers should analyze the information they receive and try to get to the bottom of matter,” the Chief Minister said while addressing the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new building of the Directo-

CM Ashok Gehlot launched helpline number 1064 for ACB.

rate of Home Defence and the new building of the Anti-Corruption Department through a

video conference from the Chief Minister’s residence on Wednesday.

He said that officers and employees coming to ACB and Crime Branch should be given good training so that they generate expertise in investigating cases. “In many cases, corrupt officials and employees somehow manage to evade being trapped, hence in such cases, ACB officers should investigate and find out how their property has grown several times more than their in-

come,” Gehlot told the ‘watch-dog’ officials.

He said that ACB officers should go to the bottom of the complaint received to ensure that the complaint is genuine, the complainant should be taken in confidence that the right investigation is being conducted that reaches its logical end. But if the complaint is false, then the complainant should get appropriate punishment, he said.

Turn on P6

more rainfall this year.

Monsoon has covered Jaisalmer, Barmer, Pali, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Banswara, Jhalawar, Kota, Baran, Turn on P6

Indian economy to shrink by 4.5%: IMF Washington: IMF on Wednesday projected a sharp contraction of 4.5 per cent for the Indian economy in 2020, a “historic low,” citing the u n p re c e d e n t e d c o r o n av i r u s pandemic that has nearly stalled all economic activities, but said the country is expected to bounce back in 2021 with a robust six per cent growth rate.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected the global

growth at 4.9 per cent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast.

“We are projecting a sharp contraction in 2020 of -4.5 per cent. Given the unprecedented nature of this crisis, as is the case for almost all countries, this projected contraction is a historic low, Indian-American Gita Gopinath, IMF’s Chief Economist, Turn on P6

NEWS JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

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Dr Sharma slams Patanjali’s claim of drug to cure Corona

Health min lambasted Ramdev & said patients are getting cured in 7 days in a routine First India Bureau Jaipur: Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma came down heavily on the wonder drug by Swami Ramdev of Pantanjali Trust and said that there should be legal action by the central government. He said that if the drug is found selling in the state then Ramdev will be arrested for selling an illegal drug as it has not gone through the process mandated by the central government and ICMR. Dr Sharma lambasted Ramdev and said that patients are getting cured in 7 days in the state in a routine so Ramdev’s claim of his

NOTEWORTHY

Dr Raghu Sharma

drug curing in 7 days is simply marketing.

The Health Minister said that the state government was fighting the coronavirus along with the central government and according to the notification by

Ayush Ministry dated April 21, there are 9 points listed, Ramdev’s drug doesn’t seem to be following any of them.

He discarded the clinical trial of the drug as it wasn’t sanctioned by either the central gov-

ernment or ICMR. Dr Sharma asked, “Who will be held responsible if anybody dies after using this drug?” He said that the most advanced countries were searching for the cure of corona,

WHO doesn’t have a vaccine, ICMR doesn’t have any medicine and this man is claiming a curing medicine without any government permission or clinical trials. Speaking on the role of NIMS he said that the government had used the hospital for institutional quarantine for some time but since the facilities were bad we had shifted from there and in any case how can a hospital run clinical trials without knowing whether the patient is negative or positive which was the case at NIMS so the claim of the clinical trial on 280 patients in NIMS is false.

02

Gadkari launches credit scheme for 2L MSMEs New Delhi: In a bid to provide major push to the Micro, Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (MSME) under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative of the Modi Government to ford the economic slowdown amid Covid-19 pandemic, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday launched the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Sub-ordinate Debt (CGSSD) to provide Rs 20,000 crore of guarantee cover to two lakh MSMEs. The funding scheme to help the distressed MSME sector entails a subdebt facili-

cover worth Rs 20,000 crore will be provided to the promoters who can take debt from the banks to further invest in their stressed MSME units as equity.

“It was being felt that the biggest challenge for stressed MSMEs was in getting capital either in the form of debt or equity.

Therefore, as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat package, on May 13, 2020, Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) had announced this scheme of sub-ordinate debt to the promoters of operational but stressed MSMEs,” an of ficial s t at e m e n t said.

Nitin Gadkari

ty to the promoters of those operational MSMEs that are distressed or non-performing assets (NPAs). It is also called the ‘Distressed Assets Fund — Sub-ordinate Debt for MSMEs’.

According to the scheme, the guarantee

—Agencies

‘IAF helicopters will be used to SHOCKING: OVER 12,800 LOCATIONS control locust swarms in Raj’ INVOLVED IN POWER SUPPLY THEFT Jaipur: BR Kadwa, Deputy Director of State Agriculture Department on Wednesday said that the Centre is planning to use helicopters to control the locust swarms which are entering Rajasthan from Pakistan.

“Locust attack has been ongoing for 1.5 months. Rajasthan is one of the most affected states as some districts - Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Ganganagar - share border with Pakistan from where locusts are entering other districts,” Kadwa said.

“Operations are on to control them. The issue is, we had killed older swarms but new swarms are coming now. The government of India says that Air Force helicopters will also be used to control it. Locusts have made border areas near Pakistan their breeding centres from where they’re coming here and Pakistan is unable to control them,” he added.

The official also said that with the fastapproaching monsoon season, the new swarms can also set up breeding grounds

in the desert areas of the state which could further aggravate the problem.

Meanwhile, teams of Agriculture Department carried out chemical spraying in Phagi panchayat of Jaipur district to control the swarms of locusts, amid locust attack there.

Earlier, aerial spraying of insecticides is being done by drones in Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Nagore and Jodhpur districts of Rajasthan for locust control, said Union Ministry of Agriculture.

—ANI

First India Bureau Jaipur: While the power corridors were fully occupied with the fight against coronavirus and the power hustle, the electric supply thieves were having a ball. The special drive launched by DISCOMS to check power theft has stunned the DISCOM administration.

CM Ashok Gehlot genuinely worried at the distribution losses had instructed DISCOMS to increase the vigilance and check the power theft. The DISCOMS launched a special drive to execute the instructions of CM.

The vigilance teams deployed in the drive were stunned at their discovery. Out of 13,607 locations that the Jaipur DISCOM vigilance teams checked in 22 days it found 95% involved in illegally using the electric supply.

Teams, led by Jaipur DISCOM MD AK Gupta himself, caught 12,869 locations involved in the power supply theft.

The vigilance team has issued notices worth Rs 26 crore of recovery from these consumers and collected a fine of Rs 2.06 crore on the spot.

There have been 1227 cases of compounding while FIRs have been

Health workers submit memo to MP Diya expresses collector after MP ‘insults’ doctor gratitude to Javadekar First India Bureau Sirohi: The ugly and unfortunate incident of MP Devji Patel abusing CMHO Dr Darshan Grover in front of other district officers and Minister Bhanwar Singh Bhati has enraged the medical & health personnel of the district headquarter. MP Devji Patel allegedly used indecent language while talking to CMHO Dr Grover during a meeting chaired by in-

charge minister Bhanwar Singh Bhati.

The enraged health workers demonstrated their anger by submitting a memorandum in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Collector Bhagwati Prasad, which said that abusing a senior officer like Dr Grover was an insult to the corona warriors who were giving their 100% in the ongoing critical times. They said that Dr Grover has been retained by the govern-

ment despite his retirement due to his sincere service record.

MP Patel had made a comment, “This ruffianism would not work here.” The health workers protested against Patel and raised slogans at the Collectorate. The district president of the Doctor’s Association Sanjay Gehlot has also raised strong objections to the MP’s remarks by calling it a discouraging statement for medical personnel.

First India Bureau Jaipur: Rajsamand MP, Diya Kumari, expressed her gratitude to the Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar.

The MP said that the issue of revised notification for setting threshold limits for Kumbhalgarh and Todgarh Sanctuaries, will give a major relief to the tourism and employment sector as well as the marble businessmen

and hoteliers.

The Government of India has issued a State Notification regarding the demarcation of Kumbhalgarh and Todgarh Wildlife Sanctuaries. All the entrepreneurs associated with marble mines and the hotel business will directly benefit from this. Activities related to hotels and other tourism activities can be conducted outside the radius of 1 km and mines outside the radius of 5 km.

STRENGTHENING VIGILANCE

registered in 637 cases.

The vigilance teams checked 1389 places in Jaipur City circle and found theft worth Rs 2.07 crore at 980 places, in Jaipur Rural circle it found theft worth Rs

4.76 crore at 2502 places out of total 2584 checked. Rs 2.69 crore theft was found at 1216 places out the total 131 checked in Alwar rural circle. Rs 1.28 crore theft found at 1638 plac-

Corona effect: Three Railway zonal officers opt for VRS First India Bureau Jaipur: While people in the private sector have been facing redundancy and salary cuts, a contrasting situation has developed in Jaipur zonal office of Railway.

Fear of corona and the administration’s refusal to follow the central government’s guideline has compelled many elderly workers to seek VRS. Three supervisors having serious illness have

applied for VRS in recent days.

Ignoring their pleas and central govern-

Man shot dead at Bhiwadi gym Cong to protest against fuel price hike, Chinese incursions SEARCH BEGINS

First India Bureau

Alwar: Four people came in a car, entered a gym in broad daylight and killed a youth who was exercising, by firing shots at him in Bhiwadi.

The youth Tillu Jat was hit by five bullets, which killed him on the spot.

A man accompanying the deceased was also injured in the firing. He was admitted to the hospital and is undergoing treatment.

The incident took place in the Kotkasim police station area at around

First India Bureau

The deceased youth Tillu Jat

8:30 am. After the incident, Bhiwadi SP Dr Amandeep Singh reached the spot and started the investigation. It was found in the

CCTV footage that 4 people had come to the gym in a blue car and they were not wearing masks. Check posts were set up in the area

for spotting the car. According to the police, the deceased went to exercise in the gym in front of the house with friends at around 8 am.

Jaipur: The Congress Party has decided to undertake mass protest programs aimed at opposing the unprecedented rise in the price of Petrol and Diesel as also opposing the Chinese incursion of our territory by paying homage to the martyrs of Ladakh.

Informing about the programs to be undertaken, PCC Chief Sachin Pilot said that

es out of the total 1648 checked in Dausa circle, Rs 1.28 crore theft found at 646 places out of total 701 checked in Tonk circle, Rs 3.60 crore theft found at 1349 places out of total 1414 checked in Bharatpur circle, Rs 1.39 crore theft found at 584 places out of total 607 checked in Dholpur circle, Rs 1.09 crore theft found at 608 places checked out of total 622 checked in Sawai Madhopur circle, Rs 1.22 crore theft found at 476 places out of total 476 checked in Karauli circle, Rs 1.65 crore theft found at 945 places out of total 949 checked in Kota circle, etc.

Sachin Pilot

on Friday, June 26, the party will pay homage to the martyrs of Ladakh by observing ‘Shaheedon Ko Salaam Divas’ in the state.

They will sit at Shaheed Samaraks or

the statues of Mahatma Gandhi or freedom fighters in their respective locations. In paying homage to the martyrs there will be no sloganeering and silent protesters along with National Flag in the background and placards will light lamps and candles in tribute to the martyrs between 11 am to 12 noon on that day.

A massive online campaign named “Speak up for Our Jawans” also to be held on the same day.

ment’s guideline, the railway administration called these old workers on duty during the lockdown. It was learned that a senior officer was instrumental in giving these old employees field duty.

The central government guidelines clearly stated that employees more than 55 years old or affected by other serious diseases particularly heart, diabetics, and BP patients should not be called to the office.

Drunk-driver kills woman in Ajmer First India Bureau Ajmer: A drunk man could not control his car and smashed into a house in the Alwar Gate police station area in Ajmer on Wednesday. In the accident, an old woman sitting on the main gate of the house was hit and died on the spot. The police have arrested three people, including the driver, and are investigating the case.

RAJASTHAN JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

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03

reports 10 deaths, 382 Jaipur cops recover 1,400 lost Raj new cases in last 24 hours phones and 46 stolen vehicles First India Bureau

Commissioner deployed CIU to recover the phones, 14 vehicle thieves have been arrested Satya Narayan Sharma Jaipur: Making most of peaceful time during lockdown, Jaipur police commissionerate police also recovered more than 1,400 mobile phones worth Rs 2crore.

In just three months, the Jaipur commissionerate police tracked and recovered 1,432 mobile phones. They have even returned 800 phones to their owners. The mobiles range between Rs 10,000 and Rs 80,000.

People were happy to get back their phones.

“People have emotional attachment to their phones as they contain their important personal contacts, information, data and photographs,” Jaipur police commissioner Anand Srivastava said.

According to the police commissioner,

Police force involved with recovery of phones with the mobile phones.

People have emotional attachment to their phones as they contain their important personal contacts, information, data and photographs.

Anand Srivastava, Police commissioner

thanks to corona, the police had nothing much to do as everything was shut. However, instead of sitting idle, he decided to de-

ploy his crime investigating unit (CIU) to better use of searching for lost mobilephones. The focus was on phones lost in last three years.

Meanwhile, amid rising cases of vehicle theft, Jaipur police executed major action with nabbing 14 vehicle thieves from different

gangs and recovered 46 stolen vehicles from their possession. It was a joint operation by Kardhani and Bagru police stations.

DCP Jaipur West Kavendra Singh Sagar informed that these thieves used to steal vehicle from isolated places and sell them on decreased prices. In case, they couldn’t find a buyer for a vehicle, they used to sell its spare parts separately. He said that four dozens motorcycles were recovered from them.

Despite police’s claim of patrolling, the thieves have been stealing vehicles every day in the city. Hence, the police constituted a special team to nab them.

Police have now been looking for people who purchased stolen vehicles from them.

Jaipur: The state reported 10 deaths in preceding 24 hours taking the death toll to 375 so far. Wednesday saw maximum 3 deaths from Bikaner and one each from Bharatpur, Dausa, Sri Ganganagar, Jaipur & Kota. In last 24 hours 382 new cases of corona surfaced taking the state toll to 16009.

Maximum 100 cases were reported from Jaipur followed by 75 from Dholpur, 56 from Bharatpur, 29 from Jodhpur, 18 from Alwar, 12 each from Barmer & Sikar, 11 from Kota, 8 from Rajsamand, 7 from Udaipur, 6 each from Bikaner & Jalore, 5 each from Dausa & Nagaur, 4 from Jhalawar, 3 each from Bhilwara, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Swai Madhopur & Sirohi, 2 each from Baran, Bundi, Dungarpur, Karauli & Pali and one each from Ajmer &

OVER 1 LAKH CHALAN ISSUED SO FAR

Pratapgarh and one from other states.

The cumulative district wise tally of the corona positives on Monday is as follows – Ajmer 469, Alwar 386, Banswara 92, Baran 64, Barmer 225, Bharatpur 1432, Bhilwara 242, Bikaner 206, Bundi 12, Chittorgarh 208, Churu 281, Dausa 118, Dholpur

Middle man held for `5L bribe in DIG’s name Guv suggests for an integrated First India Bureau Jaipur: ACB arrested a person taking bribe by misusing the name of Bharatpur range DIG. ACB DG Alok Tripathi informed that Pramod Sharma, resident of Kaman, was frequently seen at the office of Bharatpur range DIG. Trpathi said that the ACB had received a complaint from Chandra Prakash deputed at Udyog Nagar Police Station of Bharatpur that Pramod was demanding

Rs 10 lakh. ACB laid its net after verifying the call and when the final amount of settlement was decided at Rs 5 lakh.

The accused Pramod came to Sodhani Sweets, as was pre decided on Wednesday morning, and left from there along with the complainant with him, ACB sleuths followed Pramod’s car for 8-10 Kms and arrested him when he drove back to Sodhani Sweets with the bribe money.

The accused had been demanding money from

the SHOs posted in Bharatpur range.

Pramod has a luxurious house in Malviya Nagar worth crores with a swimming pool, advanced gym, home theatre and 25-seater cinema hall. He was on friendly terms with the son of Bharatpur DIG. ACB searched his house and found details of transactions of crores, along with about 15 blank cheques and a dozen stamp papers with signatures of people. The transaction of

Rs 9 crore has been revealed, including giving Rs 4 crore and taking Rs 5 crore. The papers of a plot are also recovered.

ADG Saurabh Srivastava and ADG Dinesh MN are monitoring the case.

Meanwhile, Jaipur ACB nabbed Chief District Education Officer Shivram Yadav, with Rs 50,00 cash, which he had demanded through his agent Sitaram Agrawal in lieu of a school center.

ACB trapped the DEO with his agent in Tonk with the cash.

university management system Kashiram Chaudhary Jaipur: Governor Kalraj Mishra stressed upon the need to bring all universities, on a single dash board through an integrated university management system, where all universities would be present on a single portal. He was addressing the vice chancellors of 27 universities via VC. He said that all uni-

Jaipur: SMS Hospital will begin ILI (suspected cases of corona with cough & cold) OPD from today in the Territorial Army building in the SMS campus. Until now it has been functioning from the cottage ward till 2 pm and from in

Kalraj Mishra during the V-C with vice chancellors of 27 varsities.

versity Constitution Parks will have a Constitution Memorial which will depict the 22

First India Bureau Jaipur: Transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas accused PM Modi and central governments of arrogance by hiking petrol and diesel prices for consecutive 18 days.

Khachariyawas said that people are shocked with the hike.

“Costly fuel means high freight rates, which has made everything else expen-

First India Bureau

HAIL THE DIVINE! Moti Dungri Ganesh Temple Mahant Kailsah Sharma anointing the idol of Lord Ganesh with milk in Jaipur on Wednesday.

Poonia attacks govt on law & order situation, syllabus strife First India Bureau

parts of the Constitution highlighting the Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties.

Fuel price hike: Min criticises central govt

SMS hospital to run ILI OPD from Army building

543, Dungarpur 417, Ganganagar 48, Hanumangarh 54, Jaipur 3106, Jaisalmer 98, Jalore 258, Jhalawar 374, Jhunjhunu 321, Jodhpur 2528, Karauli 76, Kota 576, Nagaur 606, Pali 994, Pratapgarh 15, Rajsamand 223, Sawai Madhopur 89, Sikar 489, Sirohi 387, Tonk 200 and Udaipur 670.

sive,” he said. He said that, people have been fighting unemployment, hunger and inflation while PM has shown no concern for them by regularly increasing fuel prices.

He said that international crude prices have been lowest in the history yet instead of lowering petrol and diesel prices; the central government has been increasing excise duty to fill its coffers.

Jaipur: BJP state president Satish Poonia attacked Chief Minister Gehlot over deteriorating law & order situation in the state. Poonia while reacting to the firing incident on Congress MLA Bharosi Lal Jatav said that the Rajasthan Police has created an atmosphere of fear for common people while the criminals are roaming freely.

He took a dig at Rahul Gandhi saying that if he becomes the chief of Congress then it will be an entertainment issue.

He alleged CM Gehlot to be a Gandhi family sycophant referring to his recent appearance in a video conference in front of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.

Reacting to the educational syllabus controversy, Satish Poonia sarcastically cornered the CM by claiming that the valour of Maharana Pratap doesn’t matter for the CM as does the happiness of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Poonia also called it a govt failure to be unable to open religious places despite unlocking for other sectors.

TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT

To curb expense, state govt mulling over light metro! front of the Emergency ward thereafter. SMS Hospital superintendent Dr Rajesh Sharma inspected the Territorial Army building and inspected the arrangements for the new OPD. After making the Charak building corona free the ILI OPD was being run from makeshift places in SMS hospital.

Now as this ILI OPD would function from today, the patients will not have to run pillar to post to get them checked for the critical disease.

Abhishek Srivastav Jaipur: The state government has been seriously mulling the option of operating light metro instead of metro rail, so as to reduce cost in building conventional metro.

Apart from huge expenditure required to construct elevated corridor, the conventional metro’s operational cost is also very high.

A meeting was held at UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal’s residence

on Wednesday, in which Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRC) gave a presentation on the light metro.

Some key benefits of light metro were highlighted which included almost 50% less cost compared to conventional metro. Infrastructure and operational cost of light metro would be around Rs 90 crore per kilometer. Also, as per the central government policy

light metro can be run in ciries like Jaipur.

The light metro train

would operate between Sitapura and Mansarovar. Rajasthan Housing Board’s Pratap Nagar scheme would also be linked to it. Once the route is proposed, UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal himself will go for route inspection.

It would run on the road at a speed of around 25km per hour. It will run like tram, for which there would be separate lane therefore it would not affect road traffic. It will

have shelter platforms.

But, there will be no platforms, screen doors, xray and baggage scanner. Ticket validators will be inside the train.

Along with the discussion on light metro, the already operational metro rail was also up for discussion in the meeting. There was a suggestion to expand its routé to Ajmer Road by 200 feet towards Bypass to provide direct transport link to the city for people in the suburbs around it.

JMC GETS FIVE HOIST SKYLIFT MACHINES Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has purchased 5 hoist skylift machines for quick settlement of road light complaints in Jaipur city. On Wednesday, the self-government minister Shanti Dhariwal gave the green signal to buy these machines at his government residence. The corporation currently has two such machines, which are almost 20 years old. Due to this, they were facing problems in resolving the complaints regarding road light issues. Dhariwal informed that Rs 1.1 crore has been spent on the purchase of these machines. The machine would be used to improve electricity systems in various areas of the city and repair high mask lights on roads and main roads.

PERSPECTIVE JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

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TOUR OF DUTY: HOW RELEVANT?

IN-DEPTH

COVID CAPITAL DELHI IS PROVING SISODIA RIGHT

T

wo days after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Covid-19 situation in the national capital was stable after it added “only 1000 active cases in a week”, Delhi was all set to grab the unenviable honour of becoming the ‘Covid Capital’ of India.

With more than 3788 novel coronavirus positive cases reported in the last 24 hours, Delhi tally breached the 70-000 mark cases. These numbers are almost five times of last month’s tally. Mumbai has around 66, 500 cases after a slowing down of the virus.

Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had warned earlier this month that “till June 15, there will be 44,000 Covid-19 cases and we would need 6,600 beds. We would hit one lakh cases and would require 15,000 beds

by June 30”.

Sisodia did not stop there. Predicting a scary scenario he said, “Till July 15, the cases would surge to 2.5 lakh requiring 33,000 beds and by July 31, the cases will mount to 5.5 lakh and there will be a requirement of 80,000 beds.

Sisodia gave this gloomy timeline while his government and the Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal remained at loggerheads over reserving and state-run and private hospitals only for Delhi residents. The two later differed over L-G’s order mandating every Covid-19 patient to visit a government-run centre for clinical assessment. Sisodia countered that it will only put pressure on government machinery.

“Why should one go to quarantine centre for check-up? Has he made any mistake? At a time when government should help him, we are giving him punishment of standing in long queues,” Sisodia said while requesting Baijal to scrap the order.

To meet the requirement of beds as predicted by Sisodia, a 10,000-bed Covid-19 care centre, the biggest in the country, is being developed at Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). To be manned by Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the centre will be operational by June 26. To begin with the centre will have 200 beds. A report said that the ITBP will act as the nodal agency in charge of the centre’s operations. South Delhi district administration will be its administrative authority.

Informing Kejriwal about the facility, Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted, “Dear Kejriwal Ji, it has already been decided in our meeting 3 days back and MHA has assigned the work of 10,000-bed Covid Care Centre at Radha Swami Beas in Delhi to ITBP. The work is in full swing and a large part of the facility will be operational by 26th Jun.” To fight the pandemic the Delhi government has prepared an eight point ‘Revised Covid Response Plan’ which includes, among other measures, house-to-house screening by July 6.

Mumbai is also starting a Universal Testing Mission, to increase testing. There is also a provision for quarantining asymptomatic cases in Mumbai.

With cases rising, states are mustering resources to face the challenge.

for trophy display’s sake, and focusing on post ToD career options. Soldiering will certainly take a beating.

MAJ GEN C P SINGH, RETD The writer is a scholar soldier accredited with MA, MSc, LLB, MBA, M Phil (Def Mgt) and M Phil (International Strategic Affairs)

T

ToD is about a 3 years tenure with the Army, as officer and jawans. The first batch of 100 officers and 1000 men will be trained to check and validate this concept, once approved.

Continuity of excellence takes a backseat while innovation and “Out of the Box Thinking” is the flavor of this millennium

he Army Chief addressed a press conference on May 19, 2020 introducing the Tour of Duty (ToD) concept for entry into the Army. He mentioned that this scheme is based on feedback that today’s youth wants to experience the adventures and thrills of Army life but do not want to pursue it as a full-time career. Let’s start with a tour of Galwan and see how many want to come for adventure. ToD is about a 3 years tenure with the Army, as officer and jawans. The first batch of 100 officers and 1000 men will be trained to check and validate this concept, once approved. Continuity of excellence takes a backseat while innovation and “Out of the Box Thinking” is the flavor of this millennium.

However, the details available generate more questions than the answers provided.

PERCEIVED ADVANTAGES Let’s examine this ToD concept in the backdrop of 4 advantages of this entry, which are highlighted. These are:YOUTH: Contrary to the raison d’ etre of ToD entry scheme, I am yet to find such youth in this country, who are fully qualified and competent for a regular career in Defence forces but only want to join for 03 years, as an adventure. Today’s youth see this as an offer that leaves them midway, with no option of permanent absorption, irrespective of performance. Presently, they see it as a stop-gap arrangement only.

NATIONALISM: Whenever, we want the acceptability of our “Out of the Box” ideas, we often give it a nationalistic flavor. Training and preparing about 1000 men per year in a population of 130 crores is only a minuscule percentage that will not make a perceptible change in the disciplined behaviour of the citizens. It’s also prudent to highlight that these citizens who volunteer for ToD are already disciplined and law-

BETTER SUGGESTIONS Some of the cost-effective suggestions to reduce training period /costs and having a well trained Auxiliary force for a national emergency are as follows:-

z Reduce training period of NDA

abiding citizens. Disciplining the good citizens will defeat the social purpose of ToD entry.

ARMY: The Army training establishments are designed for a limited turnover of soldiers and officers retiring every year.

The exodus of trained human resources will be a heavy wasteful expenditure. Training such a large number of officers and men in limited time to well-set standards will also be a challenge. No great advantage accrues from it for the Army.

FINANCIAL GAINS: Whenever we want a scheme to pass through the filters of bureaucracy, we prove that it will amount to savings to the exchequer. War is a costly affair and having a competent force of deterrence cannot be weighed in financial gains.

POSSIBLE PITFALLS

z Defence forces have always

maintained exacting selection criteria. By ToD entry, we are agreeing to dilute our standards of intake and training.

Such a type of human resource will destroy the core competencies of the Army. z The existing Short Service Commission was started with a similar aim. However, the tenure was recently increased from 5 years to 10-14 years, with a justification that it’s not cost-effective to release them after 05 years. Now, we have taken a full circle and say that we can release them after 03 years. In that case, compromising the quality of intake or standards of training are

Defence forces have always maintained exacting selection criteria. By ToD entry, we are agreeing to dilute our standards of intake and training

detrimental to the war preparedness of the Army. z My other fear is that as the schemes become old, dull and lackluster, demand for more and more privileges and concessions like options for permanent service/ extensions/ ex-servicemen status/ECHS/ CSD facilities will be raised from time to time by the ToD soldiers. z There is no incentive to perform better during these 3 years like permanent commission or promotion and hence they will lack motivation. z In the Army career, the first 3 years are very crucial for having a strong foundation. No courses or advanced training will be provided to these officers and men. This is not good for competence and skill enhancement in the Army. z The person on ToD will also be looking at these three years for enhancement of his qualifications, getting awards

The pandemic must transform global agriculture

T

he COVID-19 pandemic should spur us to redefine how we feed humanity. The world now has a unique opportunity to adopt long-term measures to promote healthier diets, encourage farmers to produce a wider range of food, and strengthen collaboration among the public-health, food, and agriculture sectors. And agricultural research can play a vital role in transforming food systems and making them more sustainable and resilient.

The need for change is clear. For starters, unhealthy diets are one of the leading risk factors related to COVID-19 fatalities. The SARS-CoV-2 virus disproportionately affects people who are overweight, diabetic, or suffer from cardiovas

04

cular disease – all of which are linked to poor diets.

This crisis has also exposed the extreme fragility of the global food system. Social-distancing and lockdown measures to curb the virus’s spread have significantly reduced people’s incomes and thus global food demand. The resulting decline in food prices between January and May 2020 has profoundly affected the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers around the world.

Moreover, closures of restaurants and schools, logistical disruptions, and shortages of migrant labor to harvest crops have resulted in huge amounts of wasted agricultural output. Many farmers are increasingly uncertain about starting a new crop cycle, although some highly competitive

producers have prospered: for example, Brazil’s soybean exports to China reached a record high in the first five months of 2020.

But, given the food system’s fragility, any additional supply contraction or export restrictions could rapidly reverse recent price trends. Food prices could rise significantly, further undermining global food security.

Indeed, the Food and Ag-

riculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that at least 14.4 million people in the 101 net food-importing countries could become undernourished as a result of the economic crisis triggered by COVID-19. In an extreme scenario – a reduction of ten percentage points in global real GDP growth in 2020 – that total rises to 80.3 million.

In the short term, therefore, governments

must not only provide financial support to individuals and firms affected by the pandemic, but also act to prevent a food crisis. Rather than interrupting trade, policymakers should facilitate it, and improve coordination and information exchange between food producers and buyers, especially at the local level.

Longer-term measures must include promoting healthier eating. In the last 60 years, global diets have become more homogeneous and increasingly dominated by staple foods that are high in energy and low in micronutrients. Three crops – rice, maize, and wheat – provide more than 50% of the calories that humans gain from plants.

People in general, but mainly the poorest, do not consume enough nutrientrich food such as fruits,

nuts, seeds, and whole grains. And about 11 million people die each year as a result of unhealthy diets.

Identifying varieties of nutritious crops that can be reintroduced into diets is a top priority. For example, quinoa, fonio (a highly nutritious cereal for which there is growing demand), and African Bambara groundnut contain higher-quality proteins than most major cereals and can grow in harsh environments.

Further research could result in higher yields and lower prices, enabling such products to become more widely available. Governments and donors can help by allocating more funding for local producers of these and many other orphan crops.

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and ACC to 3 yrs which is more than adequate. z Increase service period of physically fit officers and men by two years. z Augment Territorial Army and resuscitate NCC, as national service. z Create a reserve force of welltrained retiring persons for 2-4 yrs after retirement, who can be recalled in case of a national emergency. z Work out inverse induction from CAPF and PMF for limited tenure with the Army.

ARMY’S OPERATIONAL PREPAREDNESS In war, there are no runners up. Either you are a winner or you are not there. For that moment of reckoning, we select the best man and machine for warfighting. It’s the man behind the machine that matters the most. They lead from the front setting a personal example of bravery, courage, and competence. Professionalism, Leadership, camaraderie, regimentation, and battle experience are developed over a period of time and with a short tenure of 3 years, these battle winning factors will certainly be compromised.

In the Army, we are preparing hardcore, battle-worthy, and time-tested soldiers, where no compromise is made with the safety and security of the Nation. India has 15000 Km of disturbed borders and strained relations with our neighbours like Pakistan and China. Adventures to experiment with the DNA of the Army and its operational readiness can be best avoided. We all are answerable to history and 130 crore Indians. Certainly, both will not excuse those who experiment with national security.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

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TWEET Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp Creation of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre(IN-SPACe) will provide a level playing field for private sector participation, encourage investments and unlock India’s immense potential in the space sector.

Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal Govt under PM @NarendraModi ji approves declaration of Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an International Airport. Located in vicinity of several Buddhist Cultural Sites, it will promote tourism, improve connectivity & boost development in the region.

Spiritual SPEAK

Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely relies on what you think. —Buddha

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05

COVID-19 UPDATE

‘LOCKDOWN HAS HURT EDUCATION OF 247 MN SCHOOL KIDS IN INDIA’ A report prepared by UNICEF has revealed that COVID-19 pandemic in India and lockdown has impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education

Mumbai: The rupee on Wednesday erased its initial gains and provisionally settled lower by 6 paise at 75.72 against the US dollar, tracking volatile domestic equities amid strong US dollar.

Forex traders said factors like weak domestic equities, rising corona cases and IndiaChina border tension weighed on investor sentiment. The rupee opened at 75.61 against US dollar, but lost ground and closed at 75.72, registering a fall of 6 paise over its previous close. It had settled at 75.66 against greenback on Tuesday. During the 4-hour trading session rupee witnessed an intra-day high of 75.59 and a low of 75.76.

Manish Sisodia urges HM Amit Shah to revoke LG’s order New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said he has written to Home Minister Amit Shah to revoke Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s order under which every COVID-19 patient is required to visit a quarantine centre for assessment.

“I would request Amit Shah to intervene like he had earlier and reverse the five days compulsory quarantine orders given by the LG. Similarly, this order too should be re-

voked otherwise there will be chaos in Delhi,” Sisodia told ANI here.

The Deputy CM, who also holds the additional charge of health ministry in the national capital, said that he had previously written to Baijal to change the rule but has not yet received any response.

“Every day three to four thousand cases are being found in Delhi.

Yesterday four thousand new patients were found. Yesterday, I had mentioned that I had

written to LG for changing his order under which every COVID-19 patient is required to visit a quarantine centre for assessment. This has created pressure on the hospital and administration’s facilities. The situation is such that people are being taken to quarantine centres in buses,” Sisodia said.

“Today I have written to Home Minister Amit Shah on the same issue, and asked him to put a stop to this practice,” he added.

—ANI

Medics uses Rapid Antigen Kits to conduct testing at an MCD Primary school, Turkman Gate, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

4,56,183 were found positive. In an effort to ramp up testing capacity, ICMR has approved a total of 1000 COVID-19 testing labs in

both public (730) and private sector (270).

This includes RT-PCR labs (557); TrueNat Labs (363) and CBNAAT Labs (80). —ANI

US, EUROPEAN AIRLINE CARRIERS WANT INDIA TO OPEN INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL New Delhi: India is likely to allow carriers from select European countries and the United States to launch flight connectivity in and out of India on the lines of Vande Bharat Mission. This will allow carriers to bring in Indian passengers and also fly out from India with passengers, thus, providing more options to stranded Indians —ANI during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PPE KIT: GOVT EASES MANUFACTURING NORMS

4 MORE ITBP MEN TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

New Delhi: The government has relaxed norms of having in-house testing for 3 kinds of PPEs to promote the supply of quality gears during the ongoing pandemic, according to an official order. The norms have been relaxed for filter half masks, surgical face masks and eye protectors by BIS. Earlier, license to manufacture these products was given to those having in-house testing facilities. This norm has been relaxed and manufacturers are now required to test the samples for specified requirements in labs of BIS licensees who have inhouse testing facilities, it added.

New Delhi: Four more personnel of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, officials said on Wednesday. There are a total of 65 active cases, out of which 18 are in Delhi, according to an ITBP bulletin. The condition of all admitted is stable. The highest single-day spike of 15,968 cases and 465 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, and India’s COVID-19 count reached 4,56,183 on Wednesday. According to the latest update by the Health Ministry 14,476 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far.

World’s first yoga FM assures timely Cabinet approves setting action in woman up of `15,000 crore AHIDF university outside India launched in US banker attack case New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that she will closely follow the matter where a female banker was assaulted within bank premises in Surat.

The female staff of Canara Bank was attacked by a police constable, on Monday evening, as seen in a short video that went viral on social media.

Taking to Twitter, the finance minister articulated that she had spoken to the Commissioner of Police, Surat City, RB Brahmbhatt, and concerned officials to ensure timely action in the matter. She added that Brahmbhatt had assured her of the suspen-

ODISHA POLICE URGES PEOPLE TO AVOID VISITING PURI Puri: A day after the start of the annual Jagannath Yatra here, Odisha Police on Wednesday appealed to people to avoid going to Puri as the “darshan” of the deities is not permitted. “In view of curfew in part of Puri, all are requested to avoid going to Puri today. It is again reiterated that Darshan of Trinity for devotees is

New Delhi: In a matter of hours after Yoga guru Ramdev launched a product called ‘Coronil’, a potential ‘cure’ for COVID-19, the Ayush Ministry of Uttarakhand clarified that the license issued to the company was for the production of immunity booster kits and fever medicine, and not to find a cure for coronavirus. “Divya Pharmacy did not apply for license of any kind of medicine related to Corona nor were they given any license in this regard.

The license was issued only for immunity booster kits and fever medicine. But now that it has come to the attention of the AYUSH department, a notice will be issued to Divya Pharmacy,” Dr YS Rawat said.

—Agencies

New Delhi: India conducted over 2 lakh COVID-19 tests, the highest in a single day, officials from the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Wednesday as the total number of positive coronavirus in country rose up to 4.6 lakh.

In the past 24 hours, about 2,15,195 samples were tested on June 23 in the country with a total of 73,52,911 samples that have been tested till date, said the official. Out of the samples tested a total

NOT allowed,” tweeted Odisha Director General of Police (DGP) Abhay.

Puri district administration has relaxed the curfew imposed from 9 pm on June 22 to 2 pm on June 24 to stop the entry of people and vehicles into the district during the Rath Yatra. Some restrictions are still in force in a few areas.

Nirmala Sitharaman

sion of accused constable with immediate effect. She further stated that nothing should threaten the safety and dignity of bank employees. “Will be closely following this matter. Wish to assure that the safety of all members of staff in banks is of importance for us,” Sitharaman tweeted. —Agencies

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) amounting to Rs 15,000 crore. “Union Cabinet approves establishment of Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund. Government will provide 3 per cent interest subvention to eligible beneficiaries,” Union Minister Giriraj Singh said. Centre had earlier approved the Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) worth Rs 10,000 crore for incentivizing investment by cooperative sector for development of dairy infrastructure.

However, the MSMEs and private companies also need to be promoted

SIDDHIVINAYAK TRUST TO SPONSOR KALE’S CHILDREN EDU Mumbai: Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust on Wednesday announced that it will sponsor the education of children of CRPF jawan Sunil Kale, who was killed in an encounter with terrorists in Pulwama on June 23. Kale, Head Constable of 182nd Battalion Central Reserve Police Force personnel from Solapur, Maharashtra succumbed to the bullet injury in Jammu and Kashmir in Pulwama encounter. On Tuesday, two terrorists were gunned down by the security forces in Pulwama’s Bandzoo area, police said.

—Pic for representational purpose only

Rupee settles 6 paise lower against dollar

Ayush Ministry issues notice to Patanjali

—Pic for representational purpose only

New Delhi: A report prepared by UNICEF has revealed that COVID-19 pandemic in India and lockdown has impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education, besides 28 million children who were undergoing pre-school education in Anganwadi centres.

According to the report, at least 600 million South Asian children have been threatened by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

Pointing out the revelations in India’s perspective on education and learning of a child, the UN report said, “In India, school closures have impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education. It has impacted about 28 million children who were attending preschool education in Anganwadi centres.

This is in addition to more than six million girls and boys who were already out of school prior to the COVID-19 crisis.”

“In India, around 20 million children under five years of age are suffering from wasting,” said the UN report.

—ANI

Over 2L COVID-19 tests done in last 24 hours, says ICMR

and incentivized for their participation in processing and value addition infrastructure in the animal husbandry sector, read a statement.

The AHIDF would incentive infrastructure investments in dairy, meat processing and animal feed plants. The eligible beneficiaries under the scheme would

be Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), MSMEs, Section 8 Companies, private companies and individual entrepreneur with only 10 per cent margin money contribution by them.

The balance 90 per cent would be the loan component to be made available to them by scheduled banks.

—PTI

TELANGANA TO OBSERVE YEAR-LONG CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS OF PV Hyderabad: Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday said that the state is set to observe year-long centenary celebrations of late former PM PV Narasimha Rao from June 28. “K Chandrashekar Rao declared that to recall and remember the greatest services rendered by former PM PV Narasimha Rao as a

multi-faced personality in several fields, it was decided to organise his centenary celebrations on behalf of state for one year,” read a CMO statement. It added, “He announced that on June 28, the birthday of PV Narasimha Rao, the main programme would be organised at PV Gnana Bhoomi in Hyderabad.”

New York: As part of the 6th International Yoga Day commemorations, the world’s first yoga university outside India has been launched in Los Angeles, offering programmes that combine scientific principles and modern research approaches to the ancient Indian practice.

The Vivekananda Yoga University (VaYU) was jointly launched on Tuesday by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on External Affairs PP Chaudhary during a virtual event held at the Consulate General of India in New York.

Eminent Indian yoga guru Dr HR Nagendra, Chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA), is the first Chairman of VaYU. Addressing the virtual launch, Muraleedharan said Swami Vivekananda gave the message of universal brotherhood from the US and through the first of its kind yoga university outside India, the message of yoga will be broadcast from America to the world.

The event was jointly hosted by the Consulate General and Jaipur Foot USA Chairperson and founding director of VaYU Prem Bhandari.

—PTI

MP CM TO EXPAND CABINET; TO MEET BJP HIGH COMMAND TODAY Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is slated to meet BJP high command in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the expansion of state Cabinet. This decision to expand the state Cabinet comes at the time when the country is grappling with the rising coronavirus cases in the country. According to the country’s health ministry, there are 12,261 COVID-19 cases in the state with 525 fatalities.

India’s COVID-19 count is 4,56,183 cases and 14,476 people have died due to the virus.

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INDIA-CHINA BORDER STANDOFF

Naravane commends soldiers in Ladakh Ladakh: Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Wednesday awarded commendation cards to the soldiers, who fought with the Chinese troops in face-offs in the Eastern Ladakh sector, Army sources said.

Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in violent faceoffs in Pangong Tso lake, Finger area and Galwan river valley Army, they added. Earlier in the day, Army Chief visited the forward locations in the Eastern Ladakh area as he is on a two-day visit to Ladakh to review the on-ground situation and the progress in talks with the Chinese military following the Galwan valley clash, which claimed lives of 20 Indian Army personnel.

He also interacted with troops on the ground. The Army

Country is in safe hands: CM Khandu

Army Chief General MM Naravane meets Army Chief commended troops for their high morale and exhorted them, as he visited forward areas in Eastern Ladakh and reviewed the operational situation on the ground on Wednesday.

Chief on Tuesday departed for Leh to review the on-ground situation and the progress in talks with the Chinese military. He had interacted with Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, during his two-day visit to Eastern Ladakh.

The Northern Army Commander and Leh Corps Commander were also present during the interaction.

General Naravane visited an Army hospital and interacted with gallant Indian Army soldiers who were in-

Pradhan to dedicate Indian Oil’s Centre Delhi: Diesel costlier than petrol for the first time New Delhi: Diesel prices were hiked by for the 18th straight day on Wednesday, while petrol rates were left unchanged in Delhi. This is the first time that diesel will cost more than petrol. The prices were increased by 48 paise. A litre of diesel in Delhi will now cost Rs 79.88 which is more than petrol price (Rs 79.76 per litre). The rates are effective from 6 am (June 24), according to state-run Indian Oil Corporation.

The price of petrol has been hiked by a cumulative Rs 8.50 per litre, diesel by Rs 10.48 a litre in the national capital, respectively over the past 18 days.

According to reports, domestic rates of auto fuels are likely to cross the Rs 80 per litre mark soon, in line with rising international oil prices.

In other states, the fuel will also rise but diesel will continue to be cheaper due to lower taxes imposed by state governments.

Bhubaneshwar: In order to facilitate and support development of polymer industry in Odisha and eastern part of the country, a Product Application and Development Centre (PADC) has been set up by the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) at Paradip with a capex of Rs 43 crore.

Built on 5 acres near IOCLs refinery and pharmaceutical complex, the PADC will be inaugurated jointly by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patanaik and Union Petroleum and Steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan through a virtual platform on Thursday.

Dharmendra Pradhan

The technical centre, the sixth of its kind in the country and second such technical establishment in the east. In line with ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ scheme, PADC will be working on development of newer grades from Paradip and curtail polymer imports through substitution. —ANI

jured in the clash in Galwan valley on June 15 and are undergoing treatment.

The Army chief had on Monday discussed the security situation with the top Army commanders in Delhi, officials said. —ANI

CBI questions ex-Manipur CM Ibobi over graft Imphal: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team has reached the residence of Congress leader and former Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh to question him in connection with an alleged misappropriation case on Wednesday.

The team led by Joint Director NM Singh had reached Imphal on Tuesday for questioning Singh and the other accused.

Further details are awaited. —ANI

New Delhi: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday said he interacted with the brave soldiers at Bum La post on ‘Indo-Tibet border’ and stressed that the country is in safe hands when it comes to borders.

“The valour of the Indian Army is what we counted ever since our Independence. Had an opportunity to interact with the brave jawans today at Bumla post on Indo-Tibet border. Their josh is at the highest level. We are in safe hands when it comes to our borders ..!!” the Chief Minister tweeted. Khandu’s statement comes amid the border dispute between India and China,

RECEIVES PRAISE

which peaked with the Galwan valley clash in Eastern Ladakh that claimed lives of 20 Indian Army personnel. It is to note that Bum La Pass is situated in Arunachal at the Indo-China border.

Interestingly, Khandu mentioned that Bum La post is situated on the Indo-Tibet border. —ANI

Rahul Gandhi

tioned, “coronavirus is not the only rising curve”. The graph showed a steady rise in the daily COVID-19 cas-

es and prices of petrol and diesel after the lockdown.

The Congress has been attacking the BJPled NDA government for increasing the petrol and diesel prices everyday for the past 18 days after the lockdown restrictions were relaxed. The country on Wednesday also saw the highest single-day jump of 15,968 COVID-19 cases and 465 fatalities, taking the infection tally to 4,56,183. —ANI

in such a way that the Home Guard jawans can work more efficiently. He said that the demands related to home guards have been made by the Department of Home Defense, they will be looked into and action will be taken in this regard.

On this occasion, the Chief Minister inaugurated the newly constructed building of the Anti-Corruption Bureau through the VC from the Chief Minister’s residence and also launched the helpline for ACB numbering - 1064.

Making the first call

after the launch of the help line, the Chief Minister asked the officer on duty that ACB officers should try to resolve the complaint made on this help line promptly. Gehlot, virtually, laid the foundation stone of Directorate of Home Defense and also observed the model of the proposed building.

Director General, ACB Alok Tripathi said that during the tenure of the present government, ACB registered 550 cases of corruption, conducted 380 traps and investigated

30 cases of disproportionate assets and In this period, 160 people have been produced before court so far. He said that with the modern resources and technical support in the new building, the functioning of ACB will be further improved.

JP Nadda

Government,” Nadda tweeted while hitting out at Congress.

“A rejected and rejected dynasty is not equal to the entire opposition.

One dynasty’s interests are not India’s interests.

Today, the nation is united and supportive of our armed forces.

This is the time for unity and solidarity. —ANI

‘Opportunity in disaster’ for PM Modi: Digvijaya slams Centre The Congress leaders Bhopal: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh along started their march from Roshanpura inwith his party tersection to MP leaders on CM Shivraj SinWednesday took gh Chouhan’s out a cycle residence. “As march to protest Modi ji says, opagainst the conportunity in distinuous surge in aster, for them fuel prices and Digvijaya Singh (Centre) corona alleged that the hike is an “opportunity disaster is an opportuin a disaster” for PM nity to earn the money,” Singh said. —ANI Narendra Modi.

Hinduja bros... appoint each other as their executors, and that assets held in any single brother’s name belong to all four. A related second letter, dated July 1, 2014, is also linked to the dispute.

Presiding over a private hearing in the

Chancery Division of the High Court, Justice Falk also partially ruled against a privacy order in the case and agreed for SP Hinduja’s daughter, Vinoo, to act on her father’s behalf as his “litigation friend” and safeguard her father’s interests due to his ill health as a result of a form of dementia. —PTI

Indian economy... told PTI as she released the World Economic Outlook Update here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated,

As many as 26 IAS officers of various cadres and batches are retiring in June, 2020. They are: Kapa Kholie of AGMUT; Nilam Sawhney, K Damayanthi and M Rama Rao of Andhra Pradesh; Rajiv Kumar Bora and Manjula Saikia Bhuyan of Assam-Meghalaya; Manjoor Ali of Bihar; PL Solanki of Gujarat; Farooq Ahamd Lone of J&K; NS Prasanna Kumar, VP Ikkeri and Dr SB Bommanahalli of Karnataka; Prem Chand Meena and Ravi Dafaria of MP; Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra and Sarat Chandra Nayak of Odisha; Dipinder Singh of Punjab; Kiran Soni Gupta and Chandra Shekhar Mutha of Rajasthan; K Balachandran and V Anbuselvan of Tamil Nadu; Dinesh Chandra and Kanak Tripathi of UP; Swarup Kumar Paul and Debabrata Chhattaraj of WB. Due to Lockdown, govt has given extension to those officers whose tenure was to complete from March 25 to May 31. Their term has been extended till June 30. According to sources, govt is likely to issue fresh transfer orders in bulk before June 30.

DGP OF MIZORAM LIKELY TO RETURN TO DELHI POLICE

1988 batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer SBK Singh, DGP, Mizoram is likely to join Delhi police.

BENIWAL LIKELY TO JOIN DELHI POLICE

1989 batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer Sanjay Beniwal, DGP, Chandigarh is likely to join Delhi Police.

VIKRAM MISRI DOING MEDIA RELATIONS AT HIS LEVEL TOO

India’s Ambassador to China Vikram Misri is doing media relations at his own level also to explain India’s official position on Border issue with China .

It is learnt that Atanu Chakraborty who retired as Economic Affairs Secretary, is unlikely to land a post retirement sinecure. Is he following Hasmukh Adhia, who is practicing spiritualism, somewhere remote in South India?

FROM PG 1 ‘Corruption won’t...

The Chief Minister also appreciated the contribution of Home Guards in the war against Corona infection and said that the Home Guard ‘jawans’ have contributed well in maintaining law and order with police during lockdown.

“There is still a long way to go in the fight against Corona and the role of the homeguards will be important in this fight,” he said. Gehlot instructed the Additional Chief Secretary Home Rajeeva Swarup that arrangements should be made

26 IAS OFFICERS RETIRING IN JUNE

DO ALL FINANCE SECRETARIES FROM GUJARAT TAKE SANYAS?

Rahul takes swipe at Centre over hike in fuel price New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a swipe at the Modi government over the increase in fuel prices and the mounting COVID-19 cases in the country, saying it has “unlocked” the coronavirus pandemic and petrol-diesel prices.

“The Modi government has ‘unlocked’ the corona pandemic and prices of petrol-diesel,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. Gandhi also tagged a graph cap-

POWER Gallery

MAJOR TRANSFERS BEFORE JUNE 30?

Nadda attacks Cong on Indo-China issue New Delhi: BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda on Wednesday launched a veiled attack on the Congress’ first family and its scion, stating that a “rejected and ejected dynasty” is not equal to the entire Opposition and relaunch of “the scion” for “nth time” can wait as it is a time for unity and solidarity.

“One ‘royal’ dynasty and their ‘loyal’ courtiers have grand delusions of the Opposition being about one dynasty. A dynast throws tantrums and his courtiers peddle that fake narrative. Latest one relates to the Opposition asking questions to the

06

and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast. In 2021, global growth is projected at 5.4 per cent, the report said. For the first time, all regions are projected to experience negative growth in 2020. —PTI

Monsoon enters...

Bundi, Bhilwara and some parts of Ajmer.

These areas received rainfall on Wednesday.

The department has predicted light to heavy rains in Udaipur, Bharatpur, Kota, Jaipur and Ajmer divisions during the next 24 hours.

ANIL KISHORE TO JOIN IN SHANGHAI NEXT MONTH

Anil Kishore, who was CRO and Deputy MD of SBI, will join formally New Development Bank of BRICS countries as V-P on July 7. Marcos Prado Troyjo, who served as Brazil’s Economy Minister will join as the new president of the Shanghai-based bank.

NOTIFICATION OF P P SENGUPTA FOR MD & CEO OF IOB AWAITED

Notification of PP Sengupta for MD & CEO of Indian Overseas Bank is still awaited. He is supposed to take over on July 1.

13 NAMES PROPOSED FOR ELEVATION AS JUDGE IN MP HC

A total of 13 names are believed to have been recommended for elevation as Judge in MP HC. They are- Arun Sharma, District Judge Chattarpur, Anil Verma, Principal Registrar, Indore, Rahasbihari Gupta, District judge Sheopur, Shamboo Singh Raghuvanshi, District Judge, Damoh, Satyendra Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary, Law and Legislative Affairs, Rakesh Kumar Singh, District Judge, Shahdol. Among advocates- Purushaindra Kaurav, Shashank Shekhar, Pranay Verma, Nidhi Patankar, Ragvendra Dixit, Manoj Dwivedi and Vivek Sharan.

LEGAL LUMINARIES TO REPRESENT J’KHAND GOVT IN PATNA HC

Legal luminaries Fali S Nariman, Salman Khursheid, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sunil Kumar, K V Vishwanathan, Jaideep Gupta, RS Cheema, Chandra Udai Singh, Guru Krishna Kumar and Dhruv Mukherjee will represent Jharkhand Govt in Patna HC. IN J&K, TWO SECRETARIATS BECOMES A REALITY

J&K has been divided into two Secretariats.

According to official orders, Srinagar Secretariat will have 19 departments while 18 departments to work from Jammu.

HANDICRAFT & HANDLOOM DEPARTMENTS IN J&K MERGED

The J&K Administration has merged the Handicraft and Handloom departments into a single department. Vikas Gupta has been posted as the first Director of Handloom and Handicrafts.

K SRINIVASAN RETURNS TO PARENT CADRE

2005 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre K Srinivasan, who was on inter-cadre deputation to Tamil Nadu, has been given premature repatriation. He is a ASHWANI KUMAR APPOINTED AS MD, MPCL, MUMBAI

Ashwani Kumar has been posted as Managing Director, MPCL, Mumbai in Maharashtra. He is a 1987 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.

Appearances are important, initially. They won’t tide you over for long but they do help in getting a foot in the door. What you do with it, is entirely another matter.

2ND FRONT

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

POSTAL REG NO. JPC/010/2019-21

JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

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Teen attempts to shoot Jatav during public hearing, detained First India Bureau Jaipur: The dangers to public representatives have been long heard in Rajasthan but on Wednesday, the ‘fiction’ became fact when a teenager tried to shoot down Congress legislator from Hindaun City Bharosi Lal Jatav while the politico was busy holding the Jansunwai (public hearing) at his residence. It was purely due to the boy’s inexperience at handling fire-

arm and perhaps due to Jatav’s luck, that even though the ‘assailant’ tried to fire the pistol thrice, he could not do so as the magazine dislodged from the weapon.

Though the boy fled from the scene, he was nabbed two hours later with a wound on his finger, sustained while he was checking the pistol for not firing. After hearing about the incident, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot spoke

The shooter (right) of Bharosi Lal Jatav (left) caught on CCTV at MLA’s house.

to Jatav and inquired about his well being as his security has been

beefed up as well.

The whole incident was recorded in the

CCTV installed at the MLA’s residence.

According to the po-

GEETANJALI MEDICAL COLLEGE CBI ENQUIRY

APPLICANT MOVES COURT ALLEGING CONTEMPT BY CBI AND MCI OFFICIALS! Nizam Kantaliya

Jaipur: The officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the Medical Council of India (MCI) could be rapped by the special CBI court in the matter related to forgery admission records of the Geetanjali Medical College at Udaipur.

While the special CBI court has directed the CBI to conduct preliminary enquiry in the matter, the petitioner in the matter moved another application before special judge, CBI Jodhpur - Pooran Kumar Sharma

JP Agarwal

Geetanjali Hospital

alleging that the CBI and CVO of MCI “seem to have violated the direction of Supreme Court.”

The petitioner - Rajendra Singh Shekhawat - has moved the application citing Su-

preme Court’s verdict that maximum time permissible to CBI or by other agency for conducting preliminary enquiry for the purpose of registering FIR, after lodging

Patel goes on to blast govt on petrol prices

Vaishali

Dr Anita

Ahmed Patel

them calling Manmohan Singh Government as “anti-people and antipoor.” Patel, who is Political Adviser to Cong chief Sonia Gandhi and AICC Treasurer, has tweeted videos under his theme “Kathni aur karni mein farq (mismatch between preaching and practice).”

“He tried to fire thrice.

Meanwhile the magazine fell out and he quickly picked it up and ran away. The MLA and his supporters then alerted the cops who checked the CCTV footage and started a search for the youth who was found and detained two hours later in a field. The weapon and cartridges have been seized,” officials said.

Considering the lifethreatening attempt on Jatav, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot or-

dered his security to be beefed up. “Attempts are being made to find the reason by the teenager’s actions.

All angles including if there was any enmity between the MLA and the teenager’s family, is being investigated.

He will be questioned as to his actions too,” officials said.

A health check up of Jatav was also conducted where all the blood pressure, sugar and other stats were reported normal.

Start MGNREGA for urban unemployed: Gehlot to Puri Naresh Sharma Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has written a letter to Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep S Puri requesting him to initiate an employment guarantee scheme for the urban areas on the lines of MGNREGA. Gehlot said that Corona pandemic has affected the employment of a large number of individuals and to give these people relief, the Centre should bring forth an employment scheme for a limited time.

The Chief Minister also requested the Union Minister to release Rs 788 crore pending towards various cen-

CM Ashok Gehlot

trally sponsored schemes while also asking to make more financial allotment under various schemes as also to increase the time of these schemes.

“The Centre should mull on extending the swachh Bharat Mission for next two financial years so that states are given budged under the mis-

sion till 31st March 2022.

It would be prudent that during Covid-19 pandemic, the mission can help in keeping the people aware of health protocols like washing hands and how to fight the virus,” he said.

Gehlot also demanded that the pending amount of Rs 662 crore under the Amrit Mission be released soon and the mission’s time be increased to 31st March 2022. “The central government’s pending amount of 126 crore rupees towards state under PM Awas Yojna (urban) should also be released soon, so that the desired progress in the project can be achieved,” Gehlot asked in his letter.

Singh’s retirement poses ‘who next’ at Investigation Wing!

FUEL FRACAS

New Delhi: Continuing his tirade against Modi Govt over recent frequent hikes in fuel prices, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Wednesday fished out more news videos of BJP leaders castigating the former UPA Govt on the same issue when they were in the opposition.

The videos show interviews and bytes of BJP leaders–Nirmala Sitharaman, Venkaiah Naidu, Ravi Shanker Prasad and Smriti Irani–over rise in petrol prices, with all of

of report, is six weeks.

The complainant has thus alleged that he made the complaint to CBI on 10th February 2020 and till now not even the preliminary enquiry has been completed, as a result the FIR has not been registered.

Shekhawat also alleged that CBI has also not disclosed when it wrote to

the CVO of MCI for enquiry in the matter and demanded that the court take suitable action.

Interestingly, in one Lalita Kumari’s judgement, the Apex Court has given judgement that if its directions are not complied with, contempt proceedings may be initiated against erring officials and persons and thus the CBI sleuths and CVO could face ‘heat’.

Will the special judge, CBI court justice Puran Kumar Sharma take cognizance of this report and initiate contempt proceedings against chief vigilance officer, MCI?

lice, “the youth has been identified as a NEET student who is a native of Akorasi village. He is studying in Jaipur but due to lockdown he had shifted to his village. On Wednesday the MLA was engrossed in the Jansunwai when the youth reached the hall where the public hearing was organised, pulled out a pistol that he was carrying around his waist and pointed at Jatav,” officials said. However, the boy could not fire.

Avinash Pande @avinashpandeinc I pay tribute to former Chairman of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, Rajasthani language poet and writer, Late Smt. Lakshmi Kumari Chundavat ji on her birth anniversary.

Jaipur: Coming June 30 may prove to be the end of an era for a seasoned and soft-spoken 1986 batch IRS officer Mahendra Singh, presently working as DG Income Tax (Investigation). After a 34 year long outstanding and brilliant service career in various positions across the country, Singh will hang his boots.

Interestingly, in spite of being in a dry department like Income Tax, Singh has a passion in wildlife photography and he has published several articles on nature and environment.

According to sources, at the moment there are three contenders for Mahendra Singh’s vacant slot. The front runner is MP - Chhatisgarh DG Investigation Rajesh Tuteja, who had recently raided Chattisgarh CM’s premises and enjoys the reputation and goodwill and feared and daredevil officer.

The second contender is Jodhpur Principal Chief Commissioner Shishir Jha, who was recently brought from Assam to Jodhpur. The third contender may be Jaipur Principal Chief Commissioner Neena Nigam. The formal orders are likely to be issued by CBDT between

Mahendra Singh

Rajesh Tuteja

July 1 and 15. But if the present CBDT Chairman PC Modi fails to get further extension, then the selection of new incumbent may take some more time.

Sometime back, when DG Investigation Jaipur SK Gupta was shifted to Mumbai, his charge was even given to someone

Shishir Jha

at Ahmedabad but this possibility is completely ruled out at the moment.

Some people feel that as a matter of administrative proprietary and the traditional prevailing practice in various government departments, the charge of a senior officer is nor-

mally given to the next available seniormost officer and accordingly Mahendra Singh’s charge should go to his deputy and a dynamic young hand - Rajeshwar Yadav, but it is not likely to happen this time.

However, irrespective of the fact that whosoever holds the charge, Yadav will be calling the shots and an overall reshuffle of Investigation Wing is also on cards. There will be one more vacancy in investigation wing with the present additional commissioner Prithvi Meena proceeding on one year study leave from July 1.

HOUSING FOR ALL

RHB generates revenue of `34 crore by selling 257 houses Shivendra Parmar Jaipur: The Rajasthan Housing Board seems to have struck the ‘mantra’ for drawing customers towards its schemes. The fact that every week customers are making a beeline for the RHB’s projects, is a testament that the Board has kindled hope in people to own a house by just paying 10 per cent of the sale price, while the remaining is paid through 156 EMIs across 13 years.

The “Wednesday Auc-

tion” as the sale scheme is being called, has achieved yet another major feat as 257 houses were sold in the state, resulting in a revenue of Rs 34 crores. Due to availability of

Board’s housing schemes at reasonable price, at prime location and having all the basic facilities like water, electricity, road and parking, the RHB has become a head-turner!

“Jaipur Circle (I) sold 28 houses worth Rs 5.85 crore while Jaipur Circle (II) sold 52 houses worth Rs 6.20 crore and in Jaipur Circle III, 30 houses worth Rs 5.81 crore were sold. Similarly, 12 houses totalling

Rs 1.37 crore in Jodhpur circle (I), 4 houses worth Rs 52 lakh in Jodhpur circle (II) have been sold along with 35 houses worth Rs 4 crore in Udaipur circle, 16 worth Rs 1 crore 10 thousand in Bikaner circle, 19 houses worth Rs 2.85 crore in Kota circle and 61 houses worth Rs 6.89 crore in Alwar circle were sold on Wednesday,” said Pawan Arora, Commissioner- RHB. Arora further added that under the Wednesday Auction

Festival, bids/auction offer can be submitted at all the offices of the Housing Board.

“These proposals are opened online every Wednesday at 4.30 pm and the successful bidder is allotted the house. The rules related to this scheme, terms, list of available houses, reserve rate, percentage of discount and the process of giving online offer can be seen on the website of Housing Board,” the RHB Commissioner said.

RHB’S GIFT OF PROMOTION TO OFFICIALS

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JAIPUR, THURSDAY JUNE 25, 2020

N O I H S A F E Y ! . . .

F F U WE H C I H W N FASHIO U O Y S VENTS G E N I N R O B I H T S S EGA FA CITY FIR M R O P M E RA LIFE Y L I A D N I SEE ON TH LY BUT RARE

KARISHMA GWALANI

karishma.gwalani@firstindia.co.in

D

o you ever wonder why designers create outrageous outfits in fashion shows? You look at the modelperfect features, perfect gait, but wait, what? She is wearing a nest?

One with the real twigs and dried grass on her head. I have been pondering like most of you have, that who would buy that? Why do designers make and display them on the priciest models and runways around the world?

A runway show costs a lot, but since it is a gateway to show eye-opening stuff, to draw attention to a designer’s creative madness with their outrageous creations, and then make their name recognizable when they do sell more wearable creations, it’s worth the money.

You certainly can’t scroll through your Instagram feed for a very long time without coming across a pair of chunky sneakers, loosefitting baggy jeans, a bucket hat or the recent revivals.

The fashion world seems to be throwing away the rulebook out the window and experimenting with hideous trends. The wave of unconventional designs has been on the rise for a few years

now, and the ugly clothing trends are no longer niche, they have officially gone mainstream now. And again, not all ramp creations are unwearable in our normal, dull existence. Many creations are technically fit to be bought straight out of the ramp.

Crazy need not be the norm, and it isn’t?

If you look online for unconventionality in fashion, you’ll be stunned by what you’ll find such as plastic in hair, yes, human hair, tea bags, wires and the list is infinite. It all takes imagination.

And I think art mustn’t be practical.

It should be rebellious, out of accepted laws and notions. If you can create ‘not normal’ and ‘normal’, always choose ‘not normal’. As they say, what starts as crazy today, would be normal tomorrow (remember the flying thing called the aeroplane?)

The strange, the unconventional, the surprising, the never-before-seen-isn’t that what seekers are hunting for, season after season? Whatever the reason behind the trends maybe, if this fashion sense is giving everyone the license to express their individuality, we’re all for it!

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JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

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‘JUNGLE JUNGLE BAAT CHALI HAI’

Hyper-real digital animation meets old-fashioned storytelling in this faithful remake, which loses the songs but brings new, ingenious twists on the original

W

The Incredible Journey (1963) – it almost feels like something I could have watched as a kid on TV. Yet also, weirdly, there’s a touch of Mel Gibson’s jungle nightmare Apocalypto (2006).

Perhaps most strikingly of all, it re-imports into the story elements of the Disney classic The Lion King (1994) which The Jungle Book influenced in the first place: there’s a special rock for the animals to gather round, a stampede scene and an evil feline with a facial disfigurement.

Newcomer Neel Sethi plays Mowgli himself; Ben Kingsley voices Bagheera the panther; Idris Elba is the evil tiger Shere Khan; Scarlett Johansson is the hissing snake mesmerist Kaa; Christopher Walken is the voice of King Louie the firehungry ape and inevitably – but pleasingly, and very amusingly – Bill Murray is an outstanding vocal turn as the notorious ursine slacker and pleasure-seeker Baloo the bear who teaches Mowgli the importance of kicking back and enjoying

FA CE OF TH ED AY

hat on earth is the point of remaking Walt Disney’s great and possibly greatest masterpiece, the glorious animated musical from 1967, based on Kipling’s tales, all about the “man cub” Mowgli, brought up by wolves in the Indian jungle – famously the last film to get Disney’s personal touch? A remake which furthermore leaves old-fashioned animation behind, departing for the live-action uncanny valley of hyperreal CGI, which heretically loses most of the songs and which also abandons the original’s final, unforgettably exotic glimpse of a real-life human girl?

Well, no point really … other than simply to create a terrifically enjoyable piece of old-fashioned storytelling and a beautiful-looking film: spectacular, exciting, funny and fun. It handsomely revives the spirit of Disney’s original film, while also having something of oldschool family movies about animals like

the bare necessities of life.

I’ve never seen digital rendering of talking animals look so persuasive and this film also creates witty and ingenious twists on the story we all know, including a new plot development concerning wolf-leader Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) and Shere Khan – and even creates a backstory for Mowgli which explains how he got that modesty-preserving loincloth of his.

It’s not a musical and yet the deployment of two famous songs – The Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You – feels easy and natural. Actually, the film emphatically revives Kipling’s poem The Law of the Jungle with its collective all-for-one ethic: “The strength of the pack is the wolf/ And the strength of the wolf is the pack.” Baloo prefers songs to poems and calls that one “propaganda”.

Interestingly, where the first film finally sticks to a never-thetwain-shall-meet attitude to humans’ long-term cohabitation with animals, this one posits the idea of living together happily (though that size of loincloth can’t last for ever). As I said, this sacrifices the original’s bittersweet acknowledgment that Mowgli must one day grow up and look for romance.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/

YOUR DAY Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

Stay calm, think matters through thoroughly and move forward with kindness and compassion.

Sensitive issues are likely to arise if you don’t choose your words wisely.

Choose self-improvement over trying to change others. A little love will go a long way.

Consider others when making decisions. Discuss your plans with loved ones before you begin something new. A healthy, positive attitude will encourage others to pitch in and help instead of standing in your way, be open and positive to reach your goals.

Pick up information that will help you keep your skills updated. The more you have to offer, the easier it will be to maintain a healthy income. A positive attitude will encourage higher expectations.

Personal improvements will pay off and love life will improve.

Channel your energy into something creative. Use your skills to work effectively with the changes that are going on around you. The decisions you make now will reflect how well you do as you move forward. Be open to suggestions.

MAR 21 - APR 20

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

JUNE 22 - JULY 23

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

Do what makes you happy.

Taking care of the people you love and doing something that makes you feel good about the way you look or the type of person you are will help you move in a direction that offers a stable future. A good day overall for you.

Don’t take chances when it comes to your job, health or money. Look for a definite route to follow, and you’ll discover an opportunity into which you can parlay your strengths, skills and knowledge that will make you happy. Keep your eye on the goal.

Stick to a plan that is simple, doable, practical and within your financial means, and you will find a path that is stimulating as well as rewarding. Refuse to let negative influences bombard you. Stay focused on your goal. Surround yourself with people who care.

Learn as you go. Your intuition is on target.

Broaden your spectrum, and visualize how you see things unfolding. Embrace the future with optimism and the flexibility to adapt to whatever comes your way.

Your love life will sort itself out today, just be open and positive.

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

AUG 24 - SEP 23

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Anger won’t solve a sensitive situation, but honesty and integrity will.

Listen with an open mind to what others say, but don’t buy into someone’s ideals and be discerning.

Take the path that feels comfortable and true to your beliefs. Personal gain is within reach.

Discussions are vital if you want to make a change that affects others. Get everyone on board by offering incentives. If you pump up people, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish.Be sincere and open.

Home improvements will bring promising results.

Spend more time on personal achievements and positive domestic changes.

Refuse to let emotional matters stand between you and what you want to happen. Discipline will be your saving grace when faced with a challenge and victory will be yours.

Romance is in the stars.

You’ll come up with a good plan that will encourage you to make lucrative decisions. A change regarding how you earn your living will entice you. Reconnecting with someone you have enjoyed working with will lead to an opportunity which will change your life.

NOV 23 - DEC 22

SHRADDHHA SHARMA, Model

APR 21 - MAY 20

DEC 23 - JAN 20

JAN 21 - FEB 19

FEB20 - MARCH 20

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JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

11

Sobering up

M

iley Cyrus is known not only for her hit songs but also because of being very vocal about her opinions and personal life. The ‘Can’t Be Tamed’ fame singer has recently made some revelations in one of her exclusive interviews that surely deserve your attention. Miley has revealed that she has been sober for the past six months after her vocal cord surgery that took place in November last year. She also reveals that she took this decision initially because of her surgery.

However, the ‘Wrecking Ball’ singer then relates it to her family history of mental health challenges and addiction issues. Miley reveals that she had been thinking about her mother who was adopted and that she had inherited some of the feelings from the latter.

—Agency

Loud and clear!

Anushka Sharma

Painting the

B

SKY RED

A

s her horror production venture‘Bulbbul’ - arrives on Netflix today, actor Anushka Sharma posted a scenic picture of herself with red-painted sky in the background.

Sharma took to Instagram to post the picture in which she is seen sitting at a pretty corner of her house under a cloudy sky. “The sky is painting the whole town red. Are you ready for what’s coming? #Bulbbul releases today, only on @netflix_ in,” she wrote in the caption. The post was soon flooded with comments from the fans of the ‘Sultan’ actor. The Indian Netflix original features several actors like Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose, and Avinash Tiwary in pivotal roles. Helmed by Anvita Dutt, the periodic horror drama has been bankrolled

by Anushka Sharma’s production house, Clean Slate Films.

—ANI

A

Miley Cyrus

...her post

ctor Kartik Aaryan on Tuesday shared an adorable picture with his pets and took a stand against the controversial dog meat festival in Yulin city of Guangxi Zhuang, an autonomous region in mainland China.

The ‘Love Aaj Kal’ actor put out a picture on Instagram wherein he raised his voice against the consumption of dog meat. In the picture, Aaryan is seen holding his two pet dogs in his arms as

RAISING VOICE

ritney Spears took to her Instagram handle to wish the LGBTQ community on the occasion of Pride Month.

“To all my friends in the LGBTQ community: Happy Pride Month. You guys bring so much hard passion and articulate everything you do. Because of you, I’ve had the best nights of my life,” Britney said. “I love you so much it hurts,” she added and was suddenly interrupted by beau Sam Asghari to which she had a hilarious response.

As her boyfriend Sam Asghari spoke out loudly in between her speech, Britney yelled, “Baby, be quiet!” and made a gesture throwing her hands up.

Dressed in a stylish ruffled outfit, Britney Spears looked as fresh as a daisy. The ‘Baby One More Time’ singer did not stay annoyed with her boyfriend for more than a minute. As evident with her caption, Britney was all hearts and kisses for Sam as she wrote.

—Agency

ma, and Bhumi Pednekar hit like in appreciation of Aaryan’s effort to stop the controversial festival.

The post garnered more than four lakh likes within just an hour from the time it was originally posted.

Meanwhile, in spite of the government’s drive to discourage consumption of wildlife and pets for meat due to health reasons, the controversial dog meat festival has kicked off in mainland China.

—ANI

...her po

Britney Spears

st

UPDATE ON SAROJ KHAN

Kartik Aaryan’s post

he smiles while looking into the camera. Along with the picture, the ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ star noted, “Har saal Dil Todte hain yeh Yulin Festival waale (every year these Yulin Festival people break my

heart) #StopYulin #YulinKMKB.” (along with a broken heart emoji).

With the post hitting photo-sharing platform, fans and celebrity followers including Anushka Shar-

Saroj Khan

G

HELPFUL BHUMI A

Bhumi Pednekar

ctor Bhumi Pednekar supported migrant labourers travelling long distances amid the coronavirus pandemic, in a rather unique way- by donating footwear to them.

The gut-wrenching images of migrants walking barefoot on the roads made the ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ actor take the plunge to help them. Pednekar joined hands with a footwear company and a volunteer-based non-government organisation - The Robin Hood Army - to help the underprivileged with footwear. The actor helped over 1000 migrant labourers in and around Ghaziabad in Murad Nagar, Govindpuram, Vijay Nagar, and distributed footwear among men and women across age-groups.

—ANI

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoor turns 46 today, 25 June. City First wishes her all the best!

Karisma Kapoor

iving an update on the health of veteran choreographer Saroj Khan, filmmaker Kunal Kohli on Wednesday said that the dance maestro is doing better and does not have Covid.

Kohli said that he spoke to Khan’s son and inquired about her health condition.

The ‘Hum Tum’ director took to Twitter to share the update with Khan’s well wishers “Spoke to #RajuKhan just now. Son of #SarojKhan, He said Masterji is doing better & is recuperating. She was taken to the hospital as she felt breathless,” he tweeted.

“No covid. She’s better. He thanked everyone.

—ANI

CITY BUZZ www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

JAIPUR | THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

—PHOTO BY SUMAN SARKAR

—PHOTO BY NANDAN DAVE

GHIR AAYE BADRA THE MUCH-AWAITED MONSOON ARRIVES IN RAJASTHAN (LEFT) & GUJARAT!

DADIMA

Happy Birthday

Ke Nuskhe

M My Dadi has always made a special kadha everytime anyone in my family got sick. This super simple recipe has been in my family for generations.

I remember when my brother shifted to Bangalore, and got sick, my Dani used to video call and teach him how to make the kada. I suppose the most powerful ingredient was the multiplying love from each generation that it was passed on from.

iraya Vadra, daughter of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Robert Vadra turned 18 on Wednesday.

Robert Vadra took to Facebook to wish a Happy Birthday to his daughter, the Apple of his eye. He shared candid photos of the father-daughter duo which gives a peek into the special relationship they both share. Towards the end of the post, the ‘protective father’ came to the fore as he said, “will make sure, the boys stay away”, with sweet emoticons!

He wrote, “Happy happy 18th Birthday, to my darling daughter Miraya. Years go by too quick, from a baby to an adult. But you will always be my baby. I love you and can only wish the best for you. Too many beautiful memories, and soo much more to create. I have always loved your daredevil spirit, and simply the spirit to live life. Smile away my beauty and the world awaits you ahead.... Your Pa, always behind you to support you. (will make sure, the boys stay away).”

—Vaishali

—PRIYAMVADA VIJAY CITY FIRST, RAJASTHAN & GUJARAT

T

ell me how many of us have these titbits of traditional knowledge stored away which we swear by. Be it popping a mixture of black saltbaking soda- ajwain for a stomach ache or drinking turmeric milk for a sore throatthese remedies have been handed over through generations. Unlike the family jewels they are shared often and used even more often.

These come under the umbrella of traditional medicine. Traditional medicine, as defined by the World Health Organization, is the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and ex-

periences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement, or treatment of physical and mental illness. Some traditional medicine systems are supported by huge volumes of literature and records of the theoretical concepts and practical skills; others pass down from generation to generation through verbal teaching. To date, in some parts of the world, the majority of the population continue to rely on their own traditional medicine to meet their primary health care needs.

City first reaches out to its readers for their ‘Dadima Ka Nuskha’ which are sworn by! cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

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Whenever I used to come home crying with a scraped knee, my Dadi used to tell my mom to soak a ball of cotton in ghee after heating it and apply it lightly over the wound. This home remedy has been in my family since ages and all the wounds I sustained over the years have been healed by it.

—KUNIKA SHARMA

Priyanka and Robert Vadra with Raihan and Miraya

I remember all the times when I developed ulcers in my mouth, my Dadi always use to treat them with a magical nuskha (home remedy). She used to make me a paste of half a teaspoon of honey and ghee each to be spread evenly on the ulcer pores.

This concoction would heal my ulcers overnight.

—VAIBHAV SINGH THAKUR

WHAT’S HAPPENING!

RAJASTHAN: Youth Congress leader Sagar Sharma on his tour of Kekri, Ajmer for the past two weeks plus, visited the gram panchayats of Goyala, Baghera, Sawar, Kaleda and Krishna Gopal on Wednesday. He met the people and listened to their day to day problems.

GUJARAT: The founder of the Hope organization, Jignesh Gandhi was felicitated for his constant social work during the pandemic, at Surat Collector’s Office, on Wednesday.

RAJASTHAN: JECRC University organised an online Botathon, ‘Bot Making Contest’, to inspire students, developers, and IT professionals to create software bots and engage in new Robotic Process Automation career paths. More than 128 teams registered in the contest, where 14 best BOTS were awarded cash prizes worth Rs 1.21 Lacs during the grand finale.