08022022 first india new delhi (1)

Haridwar: Delhi Chief
Minister and Aam Aad-
mi Party National Con-
venor Arvind Kejriwal
on Monday promised to
make Uttarakhand an
“international spiritual
capitalforHindus”if the
partyisvotedtopowerin
the Assembly elections.
Kejriwal stated the el-
evation of Uttarakhand
as an international spir-
itual capital will give a
boost to tourism exten-
sively in the state, be-
sides providing employ-
ment opportunities to
thousands of youth. Ad-
dressing media in
Haridwar,Kejriwalsaid,
“We will make Uttara-
khand an international
spiritual capital for Hin-
dus. This will enhance
tourism extensively
. We
hope that it will provide
employment to thou-
sands of youth here.”
Kejriwal also prom-
ised to take steps to fa-
cilitate the travel of pil-
grims to major reli-
gious destinations in
the country. “Darshan
of Ayodhya ji will be fa-
cilitated for people of
Uttarakhand. Muslims
will be facilitated to
have darshan of Ajmer
Sharif,” he said citing
an example of such ini-
tiative in Delhi.
Delhi chief minister
also said that “Mukhy-
amantri Tirth Yatra Yo-
jana” in Delhi has
helped about 40,000 peo-
ple to visit various reli-
gious places in the
country
.
TermingUttarakhand
Assembly polls “histor-
ic”, Kejriwal said that
there can be a major
change. “An honest gov-
ernment can be formed
in the state for the first
time through which cor-
ruption can be eliminat-
ed,” he said. —ANI
Arvind Kejriwal addressing a press conference ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly polls, in Haridwar
on Monday. AAP chief ministerrial candidate for state Ajay Kothiyal also present. —PHOTO BY ANI
“Will make the state int’l spiritual capital for Hindus”
KEJRIWAL IN UTTARAKHAND
AAP National Convenor says the
elevation of Uttarakhand as an
international spiritual capital will
give a boost to tourism
SHAH TO RELEASE PARTY
MANIFESTO FOR UTTAR
PRADESH POLLS TODAY
First India Bureau
Lucknow: The BJP
will release its
manifesto’Sankalp
Patra’forUPpolls2022
onTuesday
.Themani-
festo will be released
by Union Minister
Amit Shah at a cere-
mony to be held in In-
dira Gandhi Pratish-
than. Uttar Pradesh
CM Yogi Adityanath,
BJP’s UP election in-
charge Dharmendra
Pradhan, co in-charge
and Union Minister
Anurag Thakur, UP
BJP chief Swatantra
Dev Singh and other
senior party leaders
and ministers.
The manifesto,
which was to be re-
leased on Sunday was
deferred following
the declaration of na-
tional mourning af-
ter the demise of
singer Lata Man-
geshkar.
NEW DELHI lTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNITITLE NO.DELENG/2021/19840 lVol 1 l Issue No.160
OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD, LUCKNOW & NEW DELHI www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Sensex crashed 1,024 points to end below 58,000-level on
Monday, tracking a heavy sell-off in banking and financial
stocks despite a largely steady trend in global markets.
Sensex ended 1,023.63 points at 57,621.19 and Nifty
tanked 302.70 points to finish at 17,213.60. More on P6
Seven Indian Army personnel have gone missing in
the Kameng sector in Arunachal Pradesh after the
patrolling party was hit by an avalanche. Search and
rescue operations are underway. As per Army, spe-
cialized personnel are assisting in rescue operations.
SENSEX DIVES
1,024 POINTS;
NIFTY TESTS
17,200-MARK
OP UNDERWAY
TO RESCUE 7
CAUGHT IN
AVALANCHE
PM’S REPLY TO DEBATE ON MOTION OF THANKS TO PREZ ADDRESS
‘CONG INSTIGATED MIGRANT
LABOURERS TO BREACH LOCKDOWN’
“The Congress crossed the limit,” PM said. “During
the first wave, when we had lockdown, when WHO was
advising that ‘stay wherever you are’... the Congress at the
Mumbai railway station gave tickets to labours to go and spread
coronavirus,” he said, alleging this was “paap (sin)”
PM Modi hails India’s Covid fight, says the poor
now have ‘pucca’ houses, gas cylinders, bank
accounts, which is a matter of pride for all Indians.
PM lists out states in which Congress is not in power,
blames it on party’s ‘arrogance’
1 2
New Delhi: While re-
plying to the debate on
Motion of Thanks to
the President’s address
in Lok Sabha on Mon-
day, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
launched a blistering
attack on the Congress,
saying that the grand
old party had ‘instigat-
ed’ migrant labourers
to breach lockdown
during the first wave of
the pandemic. He fur-
ther said that Congress
has lost countless elec-
tions but that has not
changed the party’s ego.
“During the first
wave of Covid, you
(Congress) gave free
train tickets to migrant
workers to leave Mum-
bai. At the same time,
the Delhi government
told migrant workers to
leave city and provided
them buses. As a result,
Covid spread rapidly in
Punjab, UP and Uttara-
khand,” he said.
New Delhi: Union
Home Minister Amit
Shah on Monday urged
All India Majlis-e-Itte-
hadul Muslimeen chief
Asaduddin Owaisi to
accept Z category secu-
rity offered by the Cen-
tre after a recent attack
on his convoy
.
“Two persons have
been arrested and po-
lice recovered a car and
two pistols. The forensic
team is probing the inci-
dent and the two men
are being questioned by
the Uttar Pradesh Po-
lice,” he said.
Shahfurthersaidthat
sinceOwaisihasrefused
to accept the security
cover, he requests the
AIMIM MP to accept the
security given to him by
the central government.
“He has been provid-
ed with Z category
CRPF security cover on
an all India basis along
with a bullet proof car
in Delhi,” Shah said.
During pandemic, the
country took a big deci-
sion to save small farm-
ers from difficulties. Peo-
ple who have hatred to-
wards small farmers,
have no right to do poli-
tics in name of farmers..
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
PM: CONG LEADER OF
TUKDE TUKDE GANG
HANDLING INFLATION
PRIMARY AIM: MODI
OWAISI REFUSES
SECURITY, AGAIN
Calling Congress the
‘leader of the tukde tukde
gang’, Modi said, “Con-
gress attempted to hurt Ta-
mil sentiments…I want to
salute Tamil Nadu citizens
who lined the streets for
hours to pay tribute to CDS
Gen Bipin Rawat. Congress
policy is to “divide and
rule”. It has become leader
of ‘tukde tukde gang’.”
In five years of Congress
government, there was
double digit inflation in
country. The government
accepted the inflation was
out of contro. Congress
leaders were insensitive
towards inflation. Handling
inflation was our primary
aim. During they years
2014-2020, the inflation
rate was below 5 per cent.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin
Owaisi on Monday again
refused to accept Z cat-
egory security offered by
the Centre after a recent
attack on his convoy.
“I want to appeal to the
Union home minister that
I don’t want Z security.
My life is not as precious
as that of those 22
people who died during
the CAA Protest in Uttar
Pradesh,” Owaisi said.
This came after Union
home minister Amit Shah
urged him to accept Z
category security.
‘INFO ON BODIES DUMPED IN GANGA
DURING 2ND WAVE NOT AVAILABLE’
WILL RELEASE POSTAGE STAMP ON
LATA MANGESHKAR, SAYS VAISHNAW
New Delhi: There is no information available
about the number of dead bodies found floating
on the Ganga during the peak of the second Covid
wave, the government said in the Rajya Sabha on
Monday. Minister of State for Tribal Affairs and
Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu said, “Information
regarding number of COVID-19 related dead bod-
ies estimated to have been dumped in the river
Ganga is not available.”
The Centre has decided to introduce a postal
stamp to honour singing legend Lata Mangeshkar.
Minister of Railways, Com-
munications and Electronics
& Information Technology
of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw
said that the stamp would
be an appropriate honour
for the ‘Nightingale of India’.
The stamp will be released
as a commemorative
stamp, which will
be printed in
limited quanti-
ties.
Threatstillpersists,
accept‘Z’security:
ShahurgesOwaisi
Nine lose life in
car-truck collision
in Andhra Pradesh
Didi in Lucknow bats for Akhilesh, says
Cong should have joined hands with SP
Channi’s nephew got
`10 crore for sand
mining,transfers: ED
New Delhi: Punjab CM
Charanjit Singh Chan-
ni’s nephew Bhupinder
Singh received Rs 10
crore cash in lieu of fa-
cilitating illegal sand
mining and transfer-
posting of certain offi-
cials, the Enforcement
Directorate has claimed.
The agency arrested
Bhupinder on February
4 and claimed to have re-
covered Rs 10 crore in
cash during searches
preceding the arrest.
The agency on Janu-
ary 18 conducted search-
es at various premises,
including the business
and residential premises
of KudratdeepSinghand
other directors of M/s
Providers Overseas Con-
sultants Pvt. Ltd, a com-
pany
, which ED has al-
leged, is involved in ille-
galsandmining.Bhupin-
der is one of the direc-
tors in the company
.
SC orders
demolition of
Supertech twin
towers within
two weeks
Anantapuram:At least
nine people were killed
following a collision be-
tween a lorry and a car
in Andhra Pradesh on
Sunday. According to
the details, the accident
was reported from
Anantapuram district
in Budagavi village of
the state. Commenting
on the accident, Venka-
ta Swamy, Sub Inspec-
tor of police, Uravakon-
da Police Station said
the car was carrying a
total of nine passengers
including the driver.
PM Narendra Modi
while expressing grief
announced Rs 2 lakh
each for kin of deceased.
First India Bureau
Lucknow: Trinamool
Congress (TMC) chair-
person and West Bengal
chief minister Mamata
Banerjee on Monday
saidanalliancebetween
Congress and the Sama-
jwadi Party (SP) in Ut-
tar Pradesh could have
stopped division in anti-
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) votes in the up-
coming assembly polls.
“It would be good if
the Congress and Sama-
jwadi Party had fought
unitedly. The votes
would not have been
split. We requested
them but they (Con-
gress) did not listen,”
Banerjee said at the
Kolkata airport on
Monday afternoon be-
fore leaving for Luc-
know where she will
campaign for the SP
during her two-day tour
in the run-up to the elec-
tions.
“I am campaigning
for Akhilesh Yadav. He
invited me. I want him
to win. He has the or-
ganizational setup. I
want BJP to lose,” said
Banerjee. The chief
minister said she will
also visit Varanasi to of-
fer prayers at a Shiva
temple and watch the
Ganga aarti.
New Delhi: The Su-
preme Court Monday
directed authorities to
commence the demoli-
tion of the 40-storey
Supertech Emerald
Court project twin tow-
ers in Noida.
A bench comprising
Justices D Y Chandra-
chud and Surya Kant
also directed the Noida
CEO to convene a meet-
ing within 72 hours in
which all the agencies
concerned shall be pre-
sent, news agency PTI
reported.
Shah in RS said
a detailed probe
is underway and
a report is sought
from the UP govt
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav welcomes West Bengal CM Mamata
Banerjee at Lucknow airport on Monday.
SP pitches late-BJP
leader’s wife against
Yogi in Gorakhpur
Samajwadi Party fielded
Subhavati Shukla, wife
of late Upendra Dutt
Shukla, who was BJP’s
state vice-president
against UP CM Yogi
Adityanath.
—PHOTO BY SUMIT KUMAR
CORONA CATASTROPHE
NEW DELHI
RECOV-
ERED
2,120
NEW
CASES
1,151 NEW
DEATHS
15

CAPITOL
NEW DELHI | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2022
02
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
DELHI’S T1 ARRIVALS TERMINAL
READY FOR OPERATIONS: DIAL
It spans 8,000 square metres, is equipped with 4 new baggage reclaim carousels
New Delhi: Domestic
passengers landing at
the Delhi airport may
soon exit from the new
state-of-the-art arrivals
terminal at Terminal 1
(T1), which is now ready
and likely to become op-
erational soon, the air-
port operator, Delhi In-
ternational Airport
Limited (DIAL) said on
Monday
.
Until now, domestic
departures were taking
place from the T1(D)
building, while arrivals
were happening at
T1(C). The latter will
soon be demolished,
once passengers shift to
the new arrivals termi-
nal, officials said.
The Delhi airport, as
part of Phase 3A of the
airport expansion mas-
ter plan is building a
new terminal 1 which
will integrate both ar-
rival and departures un-
der one single roof, have
a new node
building which houses
retail and F&B outlets
and a pier building
which will comprise of
22 contact stands for air-
lines.
The new arrivals ter-
minalspans8,000square
metres and is equipped
with four new baggage
reclaim carousels, offi-
cials say
. It has also been
built as a green building
as part of the global
Leadership in Energy
and Environmental De-
sign (LEED) green
building standards,
with a daylight concept
incorporated in the
overall structure, which
will use glass-panels to
allow ample sunlight
during the day and re-
duce electricity con-
sumption.
“In addition, lighting
fixtures and equipment
like HVAC and baggage
belts are energy effi-
cient and thus consume
less power. Apart from
these, DIAL has also
used eco-friendly and
human-friendly prod-
ucts in the terminal,”
said a DIAL spokesper-
son. —PTI
OFFICIALS SAY
New Delhi: Two accused, who had allegedly killed
their cousin following a family dispute, have been
arrested, the police said on
Monday. “Both the accused
have been apprehended.
Further investigation is
on”, Deputy Commissioner
of Police (East) Priyanka
Kashyap said. Sunil Kumar, 40, was allegedly mur-
dered by his cousins on Sunday night in east Delhi’s
Ghazipur.
New Delhi: A fire broke out inside a house on the
fourth floor of a building in north Delhi’s Punjabi Basti
area on Monday morning,
police said. The fire depart-
ment said they received a
call about the blaze at 10.32
am after which three fire
tenders were rushed to the
spot. “The fire was brought under control by 11.35 am.
Household articles kept on the fourth floor and the roof
caught fire. It later spread to the roof of the adjacent
house,” Atul Garg, Director of Delhi Fire Service said.
TWO ACCUSED OF MURDERING COUSIN
IN DELHI’S GHAZIPUR ARRESTED
FIRE BREAKS OUT ON 4TH FLOOR OF
BUILDING IN NORTH DELHI
33 DENGUE CASES
IN DELHI, 10 IN
FEB: CIVIC BODY
New Delhi: At least 33
cases of dengue were
reported in Delhi this
year. Ten fresh cases
have been reported in
February. For the Janu-
ary 1-February 5 period,
one case was recorded
in the preceding year
while two cases was
logged in 2020 and one
in 2019, as per report.
CRUCIAL READ
PROPERTY DEALER
THRASHED BY DUO
IN ROAD RAGE
New Delhi: In a sus-
pected case of road
rage, two unidentified
men allegedly dragged
a 61-year-old property
dealer out of his car
and thrashed him,
before robbing him
of his valuables in the
Rohini area of Delhi,
police said on Sunday.
The incident took
place on Friday when
victim Harikesh
Sharma was driving
towards his office.
HC junks PIL seeking removal of
police booths build on footpaths
New Delhi: The Delhi
High Court on Monday
refused to entertain a
Public Interest Litiga-
tion (PIL) sought re-
moval of all police
booths arbitrarily and
unlawfully constructed
on the footpaths/roads
of NCT of Delhi as soon
as possible and make it
usable by the pedestri-
ans.
The bench of Justice
DN Patel and Justice
Jyoti Singh on Monday
refused to entertain the
matter and asked the
petitioner to withdraw
it otherwise cost/fine
can be imposed on the
petitioner. Later, the
counsel appearing for
the petitioner NGO
withdraw the matter.
Petitioner NGO namely
‘Jan Sewa Welfare Soci-
ety’ also sought direc-
tion to Delhi Police to
remove all ACs and Dis-
play Board installed in
the office of Delhi Po-
lice in contravention of
its own circular dated
November 23, 2005 is-
sued by its Headquarter
concerning eligibility
for installation of air
conditioner in the of-
fices of Delhi Police.
Advocate Banke Bi-
hari, who appeared for
the petitioner, stated
that the higher officer
of Delhi Police to make
a report to this Court
regarding arrears of
electricity and water
bills pending payment
against Delhi Police
and to ensure that ar-
rears of water bills and
electric bills are cleared
by the concerned office
of Delhi Police as soon
as possible. —PTI
New Delhi: Liquor ven-
dors in the national
capital are offering dis-
counts ranging 30-40%
on Indian and imported
brands following the
implementation of the
new liquor policy. Re-
ports suggest that liq-
uor vendors have adopt-
ed a competitive pricing
model which was not
possible in the previous
excise regime.
Retailers have now
slashed rates lower
than in Guru-
gram and Noida. A few
in Delhi are selling a
bottle of Chivas Regal
(12 years) for Rs 1,890
while the same is being
sold in Gurugram at Rs
2,150 with a discount of
Rs 150 per bottle on pur-
chase of three bottles.
The MRP of Chivas Re-
gal is 2,920 in Delhi.
Liquor business in
the city was completely
handed over to private
players wherein they
can open 849 vends in 32
zones having an area of
at least 500 square me-
tres following the im-
plementation of the
new policy. The Delhi
government has now
set the maximum retail
price of each liquor
brand and its make, and
retailers are free to
charge anything within
that MRP, but not be-
yond that. —Agencies
Liquor selling at discounted rates, some below MRP
NEW EXCISE POLICY

Liquor business
was completely
handed over to
private players
wherein they can
open 849 vends
in 32 zones
having an area
of at least 500
square metres
Blackmailed by
friends, MBA
student attempts
to kill self
New Delhi: A 26-year-
old MBA student alleg-
edly attempted to com-
mit suicide at his resi-
dence in Delhi’s RK
Puram after his friends
tried to extort money
from him by blackmail-
ing him with photo-
graphs of his private
moments, police said
on Sunday.
The incident came to
light on Saturday
morning when the fam-
ily members of the
man found him lying
unconscious in his
room, they said.
His condition is stat-
ed to be stable now, po-
lice said, adding that a
case under the relevant
sections of the IPC has
been filed but no arrest
has been made.
In a note recovered
by the police, the MBA
student said he is not a
liar and urged the men
in uniform to punish
those who were black-
mailing and harassing
him. —PTI
SDMC forms ‘slum support
groups’ to improve sanitation
New Delhi: SDMC has
set up ‘slum support
groups’ to improve sani-
tation in slums as these
will help in door-to-door
segregated waste collec-
tion, officials said on
Sunday
.
“To improve services
and to ensure other de-
velopment work, SDMC
has formed slum sup-
port groups. With the
help of these groups,
door-to-door segregated
waste collection has
been started,” the civic
body said in a statement.
“People living in
slums are being ap-
pealed to keep their sur-
roundings clean and are
being requested to seg-
regate dry and wet waste
at household level,” it
said.
SDMC is making all
efforts to improve sani-
tation services in slums,
according to SDMC offi-
cials. People can also
register sanitation-relat-
ed complaints on the
‘SDMC 311’ mobile appli-
cation, it said.
SDMC in collabora-
tion with RWAs and
brand ambassadors is
also focusing on segre-
gation of waste at
source, composting of
wet waste and saying no
to single-use plastic, it
said. —PTI
CROSSING THE LIMITS
Students’ Federation of India, AISA and other organisations supporters hold placards and
raise slogans as they protest against the DU Vice-Chancellor demanding reopening of the
Delhi University (DU), at VC Office, North Campus, in New Delhi —PHOTO BY ANI
New Delhi: A Delhi
court has granted regu-
lar bail to two accused
persons, who, as per
the police report,
were involved in 11
criminal cases includ-
ing several Arms Acts
cases.
The Tis Hazari
Court’s Additional Ses-
sions Judge Vishal Sin-
gh in an order passed on
February 2, 2022, said
that considering the
submissions that the
charge sheet has al-
ready been filed, there
is no requirement to
keep both the accused
in judicial custody for
the purpose of investi-
gation.
Both have been in ju-
dicial custody since
May 1, 2021, the court
noted.
Considering the cus-
tody period of the ac-
cused persons and on
the principle of parity
with co-accused, who
have already been
granted bail, the bail
applications are al-
lowed.
Both the accused
Surender and Mahavir
are admitted to bail
subject to furnishing
bail bogs in the sum
of Rs. 25,000 each with
one surety of like
amount. —PTI
Court grants bail to two
accused in 11 cases
—REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
—REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
Terminal 1 will become operational soon. —REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
BACK ON TRACK
Most schools reopen,
some still working out
modalities in Delhi
New Delhi: Most
schools in the national
capital reopened on
Monday for classes 9 to
12 after a prolonged clo-
sure due to the COVID-19
pandemic, while some
private schools were still
working out modalities
like consent of parents
and transport availabil-
ity. Amid the declining
number of COVID-19
cases in the city, the Del-
hi Disaster Management
Authority (DDMA) had
on Friday decided to reo-
pen higher education
institutions and coach-
ing centres along with
schools for classes 9-12
from February 7. It also
decided to reopen
schools for students
from nursery to Class 8
from February 14.
Children were seen
wearing masks as they
returned to schools. At
one private school, stu-
dents’ bags were being
sanitised as part of pre-
cautionary measures
against COVID-19.
Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal shared
on Twitter some photos
of children being wel-
comed at different
schools. “Happy to see
children back in school
again. They also got
frustrated. I pray that
the need to close schools
does not arise again,” he
tweeted in Hindi.
Deputy Chief Minis-
ter Manish Sisodia also
visited a few schools and
interacted with stu-
dents. —PTI
Santishree Pandit appointed first
woman Vice Chancellor of JNU
New Delhi: Santishree
Dhulipudi Pandit will be
the first woman Vice
Chancellor of Jawahar-
lal Nehru University
with the Ministry of Ed-
ucation (MoE) appoint-
ing her to the top post on
Monday.
Pandit is currently a
Political Science profes-
sor at Department of
Politics and Public Ad-
ministration, Savitribai
Phule University in Ma-
harashtra.
The 59-year-old Pandit
is also an alumna of JNU
where she pursued her
MPhil as well as PhD in
International Relations.
“President Ram Nath
Kovind, who is Visitor to
the University, has ap-
proved the appointment
of Santishree Dhulipudi
Pandit as JNU Vice
Chancellor.
Pandit began her
teaching career from
Goa University in 1988
and moved to Pune Uni-
versity in 1993. She has
held administrative posi-
tion in various academic
bodies. She has also been
a member of the Univer-
sity Grants Commission
(UGC), the Indian Coun-
cil of Social Science Re-
search (ICSSR) and Visi-
tor’s nominee to central
universities. —PTI
Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit
SDMC building

INDIA
03
New Delhi: PrimeMin-
ister Narendra Modi on
Monday launched a
scathing attack on the
Congress, saying that
the Opposition party
had led a ‘double-brake’
government previously
.
PM Modi asserted that
the previous Congress
dispensation stalled de-
velopment works in Ut-
tarakhand.
“Rishikesh-Karan-
prayag railway line is a
big example of how the
brakes on development
were removed after the
BJP came to power. The
work on this project
was to be started a dec-
ade ago. However, the
preceding government
only put brakes on it.
From 2011 to 2014, they
(Congress) were ruling
at the Centre and State
level, putting in place a
‘double-brake’ govern-
ment,” Prime Minister
said while virtually ad-
dressing voters of Deh-
radun and Haridwar
during ‘Vijay Sankalp
Sabha’ today ahead of
Uttarakhand Assembly
polls.
Prime Minister fur-
ther said that the previ-
ous government in
about 3-4 years had
only spent Rs 4
crore on such a
big project,
which has enor-
mous importance
for the state.
“In 2014, when you
gave me the opportu-
nity to serve you at the
Centre, we removed
the brake. We started
work on the Rishikesh-
Karanprayag railway
line. We used to push
the work from Delhi,
but brakes were ap-
plied from Dehradun.
In 2017, when Uttara-
khand got a double-en-
gine government,
thereafter Rs 5,500
crore have been spent,”
Prime Minister said.
PM Modi also point-
ed out that the work
on the Delhi-Dehra-
dun highway had
started during the
tenure of former
Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee in
2000 when Uttara-
khand was
carved out of
Uttar Pradesh.
“But Con-
gress subse-
quently left the work
languishing on the
grounds that the UP
government hadn’t
provided the neces-
sary clearances. But
the fact is that the
Congress headed gov-
ernment at the Centre
and its allies were in
power in Lucknow.
The project was, how-
ever, completed when
BJP’s double-engine
government came to
power at Centre and
Dehradun,” PM Modi
said. —ANI
POLL BUZZ
 PUNJAB: No MLA's
kin will get chairman-
ship if I remain Punjab
Congress chief: Sidhu
 Sukhbir Badal, SAD
Faridkot candidate
booked for violation
of poll code, COVID
protocols
 Declaration of
Channi as CM face in
Punjab sends good
message across coun-
try: Kharge
 Dev D star Mahie
Gill, actor Hobby
Dhaliwal join BJP
 UP: Congress not
national political party
anymore, only belongs
to brother-sister, says
Nadda
 After poll verdict,
opposition will chant
'Bharat Mata ki Jai, Jai
Shri Ram': UP Dy CM
Keshav Prasad Maurya
Ahmedabad: A special
court is likely to pro-
nounce its judgement on
Tuesday in the case relat-
edtothe2008Ahmedabad
serial bomb blasts that
claimed 56 lives and for
which nearly 80 accused
wereputontrial,asenior
public prosecutor said on
Monday
. The court had
concluded the trial in the
morethan13-year-oldcase
in September last year. At
least56peoplewerekilled
and over 200 injured in 21
bomb blasts that rocked
Ahmedabadwithinaspan
of 70 minutes on July 26,
2008.—PTI
2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case verdict likely today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addresses at the‘Vijay Sankalp Sabha’ for the people of Dehradun and Haridwar,as Uttarakhand
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami listens to, in New Delhi on Monday. —PHOTO BY ANI
about 3-4 years had
only spent Rs 4
mous importance
2000 when Uttara-
khand was
gress subse-
U’KHAND
U’KHAND
CITING DEMOCRACY AT STAKE
2 BJP MLAs in
Tripura resign
from Assembly
Agartala: Two
MLAs from the rul-
ing BJP in Tripura
— Sudip Roy Bar-
man and Ashish
Kumar Saha — re-
signed from the As-
sembly as well as
from the primary
membership of the
party on Monday
saying democracy
is at stake in the
state under the BJP.
Five-term MLA
Roy Barman, who
was dropped from
the post of health
minister in 2019,
and Saha submit-
ted their resigna-
tion papers to
Speaker Ratan
Chakraborty and
said they would
end the “conspira-
cy” to suppress the
voice of the public
under the current
regime.
Their resigna-
tion comes months
after BJP MLA
Ashish Kumar Das
left the party alleg-
ing misrule and
joined the Trina-
mool Congress.
Emerging from
the Assembly this
afternoon, Roy Bar-
man told reporters,
“We have heaved a
sigh of relief that
we resigned, be-
cause this govern-
ment has miserably
failed to deliver,
live up to expecta-
tions. In this gov-
ernment, only one
man’s voice is
heard or his orders
are carried out. No
legislature, no min-
ister can exercise
their authority or
power. —PTI
BJP MLAs Sudip Roy Barman (R) and Ashish Kumar Saha
(L) after submitting their resignation. —PHOTO BY PTI
Rahul to address Cong
rally in U’khand on Feb
10; Priyanka on Feb 12
Dehradun: Congress
leader Rahul Gandhi
will visit Uttarakhand
on February 10 to take
part in the party's poll
campaign for state as-
sembly elections that
are scheduled to take
place on February 14.
Congress general Sec-
retary Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra will also address
apublicrallyinthestate
on February 12.
Speaking to media,
Uttarakhand Congress
general secretary (Or-
ganization) Mathura
Dutt Joshi said, "Rahul
Gandhi will address the
public rally in Srinagar
city and Almora on Feb-
ruary 10. On February
12, Priyanka Gandhi
will address the rally in
Udham Singh Nagar
and Haridwar."
EarlieronFebruary5,
the Wayanad MP visited
Har Ki Pauri in Harid-
war to seek blessing and
offer his prayers. He
also addressed a gather-
ing of farmers at Kich-
ha Mandi of Udham
Singh Nagar in Uttara-
khand.
Uttarakhand is
scheduled for polls on
February 14. The re-
sults will be announced
on March 10. —PTI
Beijing: Amid wide-
spread criticism over
its move to field a PLA
soldier involved in the
border clash with Indi-
an soldiers at the Gal-
wan Valley in 2020 as a
torchbearer for the
Winter Olympics, Chi-
na said on Monday that
his selection met the
“standards” to pick up
participants for the
event and asked the rel-
evant parties to refrain
from making “politi-
cised interpretation”.
China fielded Qi
Fabao, the regimental
commander of the Peo-
ple’s Liberation Army
,
who was injured during
theJune2020clashinthe
GalwanValley
,asatorch-
bearer for the Olympics
Games Torch Relay
,
which led India to diplo-
matically boycott the
openingceremonyof the
games on Friday
. —PTI
China brushes off India’s
anger over Olympic move
GALWAN SOLDIER AS TORCHBEARER
Rahul Gandhi
‘Cong’s ‘double-brake’
govt stalled U’khand devp’
Rishikesh-Karanprayag railway line is a big example of how the brakes
on development were removed after the BJP came to power: Modi

PERSPECTIVE
04
Vol 1 Issue No. 160
RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840
Printed and published by
Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of
First Express Publishers. Printed at
Impressions Printing and Packaging
Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59,
Noida-201301. Published at G-20,
3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New
Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474.
Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra.
Editor: Sharat K Verma
responsible for selection of news
under the PRB Act
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
Lust, anger and greed
are the three gates to
self-destructive hell.
—The Bhagwad Gita
IN-DEPTH
Kiren Rijiju
@KirenRijiju
I’m happy to inform that Income Tax
Appellate Tribunal has reduced the
total numbers of pendency to 53,000
and with the appointment of 21 new
Members of ITAT, the case of income
tax appeals will be handled faster with
the objective of justice at the door
steps of the litigants
Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp
When you go to cast your vote,
remember that you are not only voting
for UP but also for the country.You are
the voter of UP, the development of the
country cannot happen without UP’s
development.- PM
@narendramodi #UP_In_Modi_Yogi
TOP TWEETS
FINALLY RAHUL
BITES THE BULLET,
SHOWS NAVJOT
SIDHU HIS PLACE
ahul Gandhi has fi-
nally bitten the Pun-
jab bullet. On a visit
to the state on Sun-
day, he declared the
incumbent Chief Minister
Charanjit Singh Channi as the
Congress party’s CM face for the
forthcoming Assembly elec-
tions. Before arriving at the de-
cision Congress was uncertain
of Navjot Singh Sidhu’s reac-
tion to the choice. The Punjab
Congress president was eyeing
the nomination for himself and
won’t take the snub lying down.
Rahul Gandhi’s courage must
bepraisedasSidhuhadbeendefi-
ant towards the party leadership
andwasinstrumentalintheoust-
er of Capt. Amarinder Singh.
SidhuwasunhappywhenChanni
wasnamedtosucceedAmarinder
and even publicly criticised the
CM. Sidhu openly displayed his
rebelliousstreakbutavoidedcrit-
icism of the party leadership.
Whatever Sidhu might do next is
now immaterial. At best he may
crossovertotheAamAdmiParty
.
By taming Sidhu the Congress
has put its house in order before
the voting game begins.
R
he UK govern-
ment recently an-
nounced a dra-
matic U-turn on
the COVID vac-
cine mandate for healthcare
workers, originally sched-
uled to take effect on April 1
2022. Health or social care
staff will no longer need to
provide proof of vaccination
to stay employed. The reason,
as health secretary Sajid
Javid made clear, is that “it is
no longer proportionate”.
There are several reasons
why it was the right decision
at this point to scrap the man-
date. Most notably, omicron
causes less severe disease
than other coronavirus vari-
ants; many healthcare work-
ers have already had the vi-
rus (potentially giving them
immunity equivalent to vac-
cine); vaccines are not as ef-
fective at preventing re-infec-
tion of omicron; and less re-
strictive alternatives are
available.
But the question remains:
what does this imply for vac-
cine mandates more gener-
ally? In a Twitter thread, for-
mer UK health secretary Jer-
emy Hunt has expressed
concerns that the U-turn will
make it harder to implement
vaccine mandates in future.
This might be true politically
,
but ethically
, it doesn’t follow.
The ethical principle that
justifies some forms of man-
datory vaccination of health
professionals remains: The
have a fundamental duty to
minimise risk of harm to pa-
tients. One reason provided
for U-turn is fear of critical
staff shortages. But that
would not necessarily apply
if staffing problems in NHS
are addressed. Ethical princi-
ples aren’t relative, but what
course of action they pre-
scribe depends on facts.
While U-turn on COVID vac-
cine mandate was ethically
justified, we shouldn’t rule
out mandates altogether.
(theconversation.com)
IS THIS THE END OF THE
ROAD FOR VAX MANDATES?
There are several
reasons why it was
right decision to scrap
the mandate. Most
notably, omicron causes
less severe disease than
other coronavirus variants;
many healthcare workers
have already had the virus
T
AMILLIONASPIRANTS!
or the last three years, over a
million aspirants have taken
the Civil Services Examina-
tion (CSE) application form
from the Union Public Ser-
vice Commission (UPSC),
and about fifty percent of
them actually sat for the Pre-
liminary qualifying exam.
(Prelims) The vast drop in
numbers is on account of the
limitation on the number of
attempts, and if the prepara-
tion for the Prelims is not up
to the mark, aspirants avoid
taking the exam as it counts
as an attempt whereas filling
of the form is not. While the
general category can take up
to six attempts, aspirants
from the Other Backward
Castes (OBC) can take nine
attempts till they reach thir-
ty-five years of age and there
is no limit to the number of
attempts by Scheduled Caste
and Schedule Tribe candi-
dates till the age of thirty-
seven.
Of these half a million
candidates, just about ten
thousand qualify for the
‘mains’ exam. One fourth
will make it to the interview
stage, and of eight hundred
odd candidates who make it
to the final ‘merit list, less
than one fifth will be offered
a placement in the Indian Ad-
ministrative Service. Based
on their merit and prefer-
ence, candidates opt for the
two All India Services, the
IAS and the IPS, and sixteen
central services including
the Indian Foreign service,
and five group B civil servic-
es (Armed Forces Headquar-
ters Civilian Service, and the
Delhi and Puducherry Civil
and Police services). It may
bementionedthatthe‘mains’
for the third All India ser-
vice, the Indian Forest Ser-
vice is held separately, and
from 2022, the Railway ser-
vices have requested the
UPSC to conduct an examina-
tion for the two hundred odd
vacancies in all the Railway
services. In addition to all
the Group A services selected
through the CSE, officers of
the Forest and Economic Ser-
vice also come together for
the Foundation course which
is held at the LBS National
Academy of Administration.
The Foundation Course:
‘Sheelam Param Bhushan-
am’: Character is the Su-
preme embellishment
This is drawn from Bhar-
trhari Nitisaktam, and the
English translation of the
Shloka reads ‘Affluence is
adorned by goodness, valour
by not boasting, knowledge
by control of the senses,
scholarship by modesty,
wealth by giving to the de-
serving, tapas by the absence
of anger, power by forgive-
ness, and Dharma by truth.
Character is the Supreme
embellishment’
This point is driven home
to all those who enter the por-
tals of this institution as
prior to their selection, each
individual officer trainee has
put in several months, (in
some cases years) of hard
work, and their academic
merit, rigour and commit-
ment have been certified by
the UPSC. Many become lo-
cal celebrities as their ac-
complishment is feted by
families, friends, all educa-
tional institutions they stud-
ied in, and of course the
coaching centres. Their mug-
shots appear in advertise-
ments, and many get thou-
sands of followers on their
social media pages. They
have achieved a major mile-
stone, but is this an end in
itself, or a means to an end?
In this context, it is impor-
tant to drive home the points
in the above verse, especially
- non-boasting, modesty and
sharing- with emphasis on
‘character building.’ Nor-
mally, the course Team as
well as the Director of the
Academy refer to this dictum
in the inaugural program of
a Foundation course.
Officer Trainees are
briefed about the core values
of the Academy: Integrity,
Respect, Professionalism,
collaboration and last but not
the least, service to the un-
derprivileged. Integrity is
much more than financial
integrity – it includes cour-
age of conviction and speak-
ing Truth to Power. In the
context of Public Service,
‘Respect’ stands for embrac-
ing the diversity of language,
religion, caste, gender, age,
region, and socio-economic
status. ‘Professionalism’ is
the key element – for unless
civil servants master the stat-
ute, rules, and procedure,
they would cut a sorry figure.
The Academy also expects
that civil servants will seek
‘Partnerships’ and collabora-
tions with all the three tiers
of governance, civil society,
corporate, academia as well
as the legislative and judicial
arms of the government: the
ultimate objective being to
ensure inclusion- financial,
legal, academic, social, phys-
ical - for most underprivi-
leged persons.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
F
‘You will not have a united
India, if you do not have a
good All India Service that
has the independence to
speak out its mind’ ‘You
have been selected for the
premier service of the
country, assuring you of a
decent livelihood and
security. Remember you
are going to occupy
important positions in the
future. Now it is your duty
to serve the people of our
country to the best of your
ability, Be fair, be polite
and firm, prepare yourself
well for the job in hand,
and complete it
successfully’
Sardar Patel’s address
to the 1948 batch of the IAS
Officer Trainees are
briefed about Academy’s
core values: Integrity,
Respect, Professionalism,
collaboration last but
not the least, service to
the underprivileged.
Integrity is much more
than financial integrity – it
includes courage of
conviction speaking
Truth to Power
SANJEEV CHOPRA
The writer is Distinguished Fellow, USI Delhi
and Historian Policy Analyst. Also former
Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy
of Administration, Mussoorie

To Receive Free Newspaper
PDF Daily
Whatsapp:
http://bit.ly/whatsappdelhi
Telegram:
https://t.me/firstindianewdelhi
Click the above link☝ subscribe us on your
preferred platform.

INDIA
05
Moni Sharma
New Delhi: The lead-
ers who went from Con-
gress to BJP after de-
fecting have started
‘learning’ lessons. A
strong lesson has been
learned in Manipur, the
impact of which will be
visible across the coun-
try
. In Manipur, 28 Con-
gress MLAs had won in
the last assembly elec-
tions, out of which 16
switched sides to the
BJP. This time in the as-
sembly elections, BJP
has given tickets to only
10 of them and as a re-
sult the six people
whose tickets have been
cut are getting restless.
Congress is also not giv-
ing them any value.
Keep in mind that in the
states where the gov-
ernment was formed
due to the defection of
the Congress and by-
elections were held on
the seats of the defect-
ing MLAs, the defecting
MLAs were taken care
of, but in other places it
did not happen.
This is the reason
that even in Goa, lead-
ers who left Congress
and joined BJP are re-
turning home. They
had already felt that
BJP would not give tick-
et, so they turned to
Congress or Trinamool
Congress. This has also
been proved from Ma-
nipur. Therefore, it is
not a mere coincidence
that in the states where
the Congress base is
still strong, the home-
coming of the defecting
MLAs and leaders has
started. An informed
Congress leader says
that the developments
in Manipur and Goa
have taught a lesson to
the Congress leaders
and they will think a
hundred times before
joining the BJP.
This is proof of the
lesson learned by the
Congress leaders that
many of them, from Ut-
tarakhand, have re-
turned ‘home’. Al-
though Kishor Upad-
hyay, a former party
president, went to the
BJP in the meantime
and the family of for-
mer Chief Minister Vi-
jay Bahuguna is still in
the BJP, but Harak Sin-
gh Rawat returned
home. Before Rawat,
Yashpal Arya also left
the ministerial post and
returned to the Con-
gress. Yashpal and his
MLA son both returned
to the Congress.
On the other hand, in
a big development in
Jharkhand, two former
Congress presidents
have returned back to
the party
.
Former state presi-
dent of Congress Sukh-
dev Bhagat had
switched to the BJP just
before the 2019 assem-
bly elections. In April-
May, he contested the
Lok Sabha elections
from the Congress but
switched to the BJP be-
fore the December as-
sembly elections. Sukh-
dev Bhagat, a former
Jharkhand Public Ser-
vice officer, is a strong
leader and his wife is
also the mayor of Lo-
hardaga.
Along with him, an-
other former president
Pradeep Balmuchu has
also returned to the
Congress. However, it is
possible that the big
faces of the party may
defect and achieve
something for them-
selves, but the way BJP
is cutting tickets, a
large number of Con-
gress MLAs and other
leaders have learned a
big lesson.
BJP’S LESSON TO CONGRESS LEADERS
New Delhi: The Centre
on Monday told the Su-
preme Court that Aad-
haar card is not manda-
tory for registration on
CoWIN portal for Cov-
id-19 vaccination.
A Bench of Justices
DY Chandrachud and
Surya Kant was in-
formed by the Ministry
of Health and Family
Welfare that one of the
nineidentitydocuments
including passport,
driving licence, PAN
card, voter’s card, ration
card can be produced.
The SC took note of
the submission and dis-
posed of a plea filed by
SiddharthshankarShar-
ma who claimed that
Aadhaarwasbeingman-
datorily insisted upon
for administering vacci-
nation on CoWIN portal.
“Counsel for Union
submits that about 87
lakh people without ID
cards have been vacci-
nated. The grievance of
the petitioner that he
was denied vaccination
for non production of
Aadhaar card has also
been dealt in the
affidavit. —PTI
New Delhi: The Nation-
al Investigation Agency
(NIA) on Monday filed a
caseagainstunderworld
don Dawood Ibrahim
and others under vari-
ous sections of the Un-
lawful Activities Pre-
vention Act.
Now the elite probe
agency will look into
the cases pertaining to
the D-company
.
Sources have con-
firmed that the Union
home ministry has giv-
en them approval to
start a thorough probe.
An NIA official told
IANS that the names of
Dawood Ibrahim and
his aides have been
mentioned in the FIR
filed by the NIA.
The official said for
quite a long time Da-
wood had been spread-
ing terror activities
across India. He has
also pumped money
through Hawala chan-
nels to financially help
those who are working
at his behest to create
unrest across India.
The agencies have
been keeping a close eye
on the activities of the
D-company and have
found that in the past
they have recruited peo-
ple across India to cre-
ate riot-like situations.
They are promoting
anti-national activities
and are also trying to
create rifts between dif-
ferent religious groups.
Earlier, a lot of in-
formation was shared
with us regarding the
involvement of Dawood
in a lot of anti-national
activities that took
place across In-
dia. He is re-
cruiting peo-
ple in India
and is finan-
cially and lo-
gistically help-
ing them to
create a
r i o t -
like situation. Different
social media platforms
are being used by them
to communicate. We in-
tercepted a few of them
and came to know that
a deep-rooted conspira-
cy was being hatched.
Now on the basis of the
materials we have
lodged an FIR against
Dawood and D-compa-
ny
, said the NIA official
wishing anonymity
.
NIA Public Relations
Officer Sanjukta only
confirmed that a case
was lodged against the
D-company
.
—Agencies
New Delhi: Russia has
rubbished a Russian
media report describ-
ing Kashmir as another
Palestine in the making
and reaffirmed its posi-
tion that it is a bilateral
matter between India
and Pakistan. The as-
sertion came days after
Redfish digital media
outlet tweeted a trailer
of a new documentary
on Kashmir.
“The Russian official
position on the issue of
Kashmir and Russia’s
principled stance on
non-interference in bi-
lateral disputes remain
unchanged,” the Rus-
sian embassy said.
“The solution should
be found between India
and Pakistan only, and
it should be based on the
achieved agreements,
including the Simla
Agreement of 1972 and
the Lahore Declaration
of 1999,” it said.
The embassy also
said that the “mislead-
ing label of the chan-
nel” on Twitter as ‘Rus-
sia state-affiliated me-
dia’ does not make it
automatically related to
any state support. —PTI
Nagpur: RSS chief Mo-
han Bhagwat on Sun-
day said he had gone
with a lot of prepara-
tion on 'ghar wapsi' is-
sue to meet former pres-
ident Pranab Mukher-
jee for inviting him as
the chief guest for
Sangh's programme in
Nagpur in 2018.
At that time, there
was chaos in Parlia-
ment on the issue of
'ghar wapsi' (home-
coming of converts)
and he was ready to
answer any queries
asked by Mukherjee
during the meeting,
Bhagwat said.
Bhagwat said when
he went there to meet
Mukherjee, no need
arose to give him an-
swers on the issue as
the latter himself told
him that 30 per cent of
the country's communi-
ties would have got cut
off from the nation had
you (RSS) not done ghar
wapsi work. —PTI
New Delhi: Rajya Sab-
ha Chairman M Ven-
kaiah Naidu on Monday
said India is struck si-
lent in the passing away
of iconic singer Lata
Mangeshkar in the 75th
year of Independence,
and adjourned the pro-
ceedings of the House
for an hour as a mark of
respect to her.
Naidu mentioned
that the singer passed
away on February 6 at
the age of 92.
A recipient of many
awards including the
Bharat Ratna and Dada-
saheb Phalke Award,
'the Nightingale' and
'the Melody Queen' re-
corded over 25,000 songs
in 36 Indian languages
in her career spanning
more than seven dec-
ades,hesaidreadingout
an obituary reference.
Aadhaar not mandatory for
vaccination, Centre tells SC
Govtinformed87Lpeoplewithoutanyidentitycardatallhavebeenvaccinated
A healthcare worker inoculates a saint with Covid-19 vaccine in Surat. —PHOTO BY ANI
Former President Pranab
Mukherjee with RSS chief
Mohan Bhagwat at the event
in Nagpur. —FILE PHOTO
Russian Prez Vladimir Putin
INDIA LOGS 83,876 FRESH COVID-19 CASES
New Delhi: India on
Monday reported
83,876 fresh Covid-19
cases that took its total
tally to 4,22,72,014, ac-
cording to Union Health
Ministry data. The death
toll climbed to 5,02,874
with 895 more fatalities,
the data updated at 8
am stated. The number
of active cases in the
country declined further
to 11,08,938, compris-
ing 2.62 per cent of the
total infections. The
national recovery rate
improved to 96.19 per
cent, the ministry said.
A reduction of 1,16,073
cases has been
recorded in the active
Covid-19 caseload in a
span of 24 hours. —PTI
INTENSIFIED
MISSION
INDRADHANUSH
4.0 LAUNCHED
New Delhi: Union
health minister
Mansukh Man-
daviya launched the
Intensified Mission
Indradhanush 4.0
on Monday. On
the occasion, the
health minister said,
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
wants the vaccina-
tion coverage to be
90 per cent. States
and the Centre
have to put collec-
tive efforts into it.
Mandaviya informed
that a total of 170
crore Covid-19
vaccine doses have
been administered
already throughout
the country.
NIA files UAPA case against
Dawood Ibrahim, D-company
New Delhi: The Su-
preme Court Monday
slammed Tripura Police
for sending notices to
people for social media
posts over alleged com-
munal violence in the
state despite its interim
restraining order. A
Bench of Justices DY
Chandrachud and Surya
Kant warned the coun-
sel for the state that if
Tripura Police does not
refrain from harassing
people, it will summon
the Home Secretary.
The SC was hearing
a plea filed by scribe
Samiullah Shabbir
Khan against a notice
issued by Tripura Police
seeking his appearance
under Section 41A of
the Code of Criminal
Procedure. —PTI
TRIPURA VIOLENCE: SC SLAMS
POLICE FOR SENDING NOTICES
IN THE COURTYARD
New Delhi: The Supreme Court refused to
interfere with the Delhi High Court verdict
which had dismissed a plea by Swami Chakra-
pani, who claims to be the national president
of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, seeking to
direct the poll panel to recognise the list of
office bearers and allow them to participate
in Assembly polls. “You are fighting amongst
yourselves, what can be done,” a Bench
comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and JK
Maheshwari observed while hearing. —PTI
New Delhi: An amendment Bill to remove Bhogta caste
from the list of Scheduled Castes (SC) and include
certain communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes
(ST) for Jharkhand was introduced in the Rajya Sabha
on Monday. The Constitution (SC and ST) order
(Amendment) Bill, 2022 was moved for introduction in
the Upper House by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun
Munda and the same was adopted with voice votes.
The Bill aims to remove Bhogta caste from SC list
for Jharkhand and include certain communities in ST
and help beneficiaries to tap better the reservation in
education and government jobs. —PTI SC REFUSES TO INTERFERE WITH HC
VERDICT ON CHAKRAPANI’S PLEA
BILL IN RAJYA SABHA TO REMOVE
BHOGTA CASTE FROM SC LIST
Went prepared to
invite Pranab for RSS
event, says Bhagwat
CRUCIAL READ
Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay
Raut on Monday said that he will
welcome raids by the ED but warned
the probe agency’s officials that
they will suffer if they “lie to achieve
political goals”. “Let them (ED)
conduct raids. I will welcome them.
Just don't lie, else they will suffer. If
an agency lies to achieve a politi-
cal goal, it will have to pay. From
officials to ministers, everyone has
gone to jail,” Raut said. —ANI
Guwahati: Assam CM Himanta
Biswa Sarma on Monday said that
762 Personal Security Officers
(PSOs) who were attached to politi-
cians and important personalities
in the State have been withdrawn
in the recent past. On the advice of
the Security Advisory Committee,
set up to review threat perceptions,
people belonging to different politi-
cal parties have given up their PSOs
without objection, Sarma said. —PTI
ED WILL SUFFER IF IT LIES,
SAYS SHIV SENA’S SANJAY
762 PSOs FOR POLITICIANS,
VIPs WITHDRAWN: HIMANTA
Kashmir a bilateral issue,affirms Russia
BUDGET SESSION OF PARLIAMENT
RS pays glowing tributes to Lata
Venkaiah Naidu reads out the
name of Lata Mangeshkar as
a tribute to her in the Upper
House. —PHOTO BY ANI
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS FAILED TO PROVIDE
BLUEPRINT FOR FUTURE, SAYS ANAND SHARMA
New Delhi: Congress
leader Anand Sharma on
Monday during the debate
on the motion of thanks
to the President's address
slammed the Centre for
failing to provide a blue-
print for the future and
not addressing the prob-
lems faced by the country.
It is expected from the
President's address that
the real state of the coun-
try is presented before the
parliament. Achievements
of the government are
acknowledged and the
country is made aware of
the challenges. Blueprint
of the future is presented.
It failed to do so, Sharma
said in Rajya Sabha. This
is not sarcasm but who-
ever wrote it, did injustice
to the President, he said.
This challenges the intel-
ligence of the people and
negates the difficult situ-
ation before the country,
he added. —ANI
THE ISSUE
Dawood Ibrahim

BIZ BUZZ 06
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
New Delhi: ICRA on
Monday revised down-
wards the FY2022
growth outlook for as-
sets under management
of NBFC-MFIs to 12-
14% but expects it to
improve to 18-22% in
the financial year 2022-
23. The agency said it
expects the long-term
outlook for non-bank-
ing financial compa-
nies-microfinance insti-
tutions to remain ro-
bust, driven by the fact
that the growth in dis-
bursements is expected
to have continued in Q3
FY2022, after the reviv-
al in Q2 FY2022.
“The same is likely to
be continued go-
ing forward,
supported by
healthy de-
mand in
the in-
d u s -
t r y ,
i n -
creas-
i n g
lev-
el of economic activity
and increasing vaccina-
tion in the country,” the
agency said.
The steady increase
in the disbursements in
the industry from
the second quar-
ter of the finan-
cial year 2021-22
provides hope for
better growth
prospects in the
current fi-
n a n c i a l
year. —PTI
New Delhi: India’s
gross domestic prod-
uct (GDP) is projected
to grow at 9.2% to
`147.5 lakh crore in
2021-22, Minister of
State for Finance Pan-
kaj Chaudhary said on
Monday. In a written
reply to a query in the
Lok Sabha, Chaud-
hary said the govern-
ment has implement-
ed several major re-
forms in recent years
to boost investment
and GDP growth.
“As per the first ad-
vance and first revised
estimates of GDP re-
leased by the National
Statistical Office
(NSO), the size of real
GDP has been in-
creased from `105.3
lakh crore in 2014-15
to `135.6 lakh core
in 2020-21 and es-
timated to be
`147.5 lakh crore
in 2021-22,” he said.
In FY 2020-
21, he said
that as a
major part of its poli-
cy response to the pan-
demic, the govern-
ment while providing
a safety net to the vul-
nerable sections of the
society implemented
several structural re-
forms to strengthen
private sector invest-
ment.
These include the
change in the defini-
tion of MSMEs, new
PSU policy, commer-
cialisation of coal
mining, higher FDI
limits in defence and
space sector, develop-
ment of the Land
Bank and Industrial
Information System.
—PTI
New Delhi: Reliance
Industries Ltd is seek-
ing a minimum of $14
for selling natural gas
being produced from
coal seams in a block
in Madhya Pradesh as
it looks to cash in on
the recent spike in en-
ergy prices globally.
Reliance sought bids
from users for the sale
of 0.65 million stand-
ard cubic meters per
day of gas from its
coal-bed methane
(CBM) block SP-
(West)-CBM-2001/1 for
a one-year period be-
ginning April 1, 2022,
according to a Notice
Inviting Offer (NIO)
published by the firm.
Bids have been
sought at a premium
over the base of
14% of the Brent
crude oil price.
“A Bidder
shall be re-
quired to
quote the var-
iable denoted
as ‘V’ in $ per
million Brit-
ish ther-
mal unit terms as a
positive number pur-
suant to the gas price
formula” of “14% x
Dated Brent + V
,” the
NIO said.
The starting ticker
for ‘V’ has been kept at
$1 per mmBtu, which
means bidders will
have to quote at least
$1 plus 14% of dated
Brent crude oil to buy
the CBM gas.
Brent crude oil is
currently trading
above $92.5 per barrel
and at this price, the
floor rate for Reliance
gas comes to $13 per
mmBtu. Adding ‘V’ of
$ 1, the minimum
price comes to $14 per
mmBtu. The sale price
will be higher of the
bid price or
the govern-
ment-ap-
p r o v e d
rate for
domes-
tic gas,
NIO said.
—PTI
New Delhi: To fur-
ther simplify and
provide greater clar-
ity, Sebi has come
out with a new for-
mat for disclosures
in abridged prospec-
tus, whereby critical
information will be
provided in the front
page of the offer doc-
ument.
A company will
have to disclose
about name of the
promoter, details of
offer to public --
types of issue, fresh
issue and offer for
sale component, to-
tal issue size -- and
share reservations
details on the front
page of the abridged
prospectus.
Also, the company
is required to make
disclosure about de-
tails of OFS by pro-
moter, promoter
group and other
shareholders. The
company will have to
disclose about price
band and minimum
bid lot under the re-
vised format. —PTI
New Delhi: Moody’s
Investors Service on
Monday said the ac-
quisition of NINL
by Tata Steel arm is
credit positive be-
cause it will increase
the subsidiary’s
long-steel produc-
tion capacity and its
reserves of iron ore.
Last month, Tata
Steel had announced
winning the bid for
acquiring 93.71%
stake in Odisha-
based NINL for
`12,100 crore.
While the ac-
quired operations
are substantially
smaller than TSL’s
current global capac-
ity of 32.5 MTPA, it is
credit positive be-
cause it will increase
TSL’s long-steel
product capacity and
increase its reserves
of iron ore.
—PTI
Mumbai: Equity
benchmark Sensex
crashed 1,024 points to
end below the
58,000-level on Monday,
tracking a heavy sell-
off in b a n k i n g
and fi-
nan-
cial stocks despite a
largely steady trend in
global markets. Con-
cerns over unabated
foreign capital out-
flows also affected the
market sentiment,
traders said.
Benchmark indices
started the session
weak as investors re-
mained cautious assets
ahead of RBI’s policy
meet. However, the sell-
ing pressure deepened
in the afternoon trade,
they added.
The 30-share
Sensex ended
1,023.63 points low-
er at 57,621.19.
Similarly, the Nif-
ty slumped 302.70
points to 17,213.60.
HDFC Bank was the
top loser in the Sensex
pack, shedding over
3.5%, followed by Bajaj
Finance, LT, HDFC,
Bajaj Finserv, HDFC
and Kotak Bank.
On the other hand,
PowerGrid, NTPC,
Tata Steel, SBI and Ul-
tratech Cement were
the gainers, rising up
to 1.88%. Of the Sensex
constituents, 25 shares
closed lower while five
were in the green. —PTI
New Delhi: The
much-awaited
initial public
offering
(IPO) of in-
surance behe-
moth LIC may be
launched with a discount for its
policyholders as the company
looks to file its draft red herring
prospectus (DRHP) this week.
LIC is likely to offer a discount
of 5% to its policyholders in
the upcoming public offering,
according to sources. —PTI
LIC policyholders may
get 5% discount in IPO
The
much-awaited
surance behe-
moth LIC may be
New Delhi: Pas-
senger vehicle
retail sales
declined 10%
YoY in Jan
2022, as the
companies con-
tinued to suffer production loss
amid semiconductor shortage,
automobile dealers’ body FADA
said on Monday. The passenger
vehicle (PV) sales dropped to
2,58,329 units last month, down
10.12% from 2,87,424 units in
January 2021. —PTI
PV retail sales drop 10%
in January: FADA
Pas-
Pas-
companies con-
companies con-
New Delhi: The I-T department
on Monday said around 6.17
crore I-T returns and about 19
lakh tax audit reports have been
filed on the new I-T
e-filing portal. Out
of 6.17 crore
ITRs filed for the
assessment year
2021-22, 2.97
crore of these are
ITR-1, 56 lakh is ITR-2, 81.6 lakh
is ITR-3, 1.65 crore is ITR-4, 10.9
lakh is ITR-5, 4.84 lakh is ITR-6
and 1.32 lakh is ITR-7. —PTI
Around 6.17 crore ITRs
filed on new I-T portal
New Delhi: The Na-
tional Company Law
Appellate Tribunal
(NCLAT) will hear e-
commerce major Am-
azon’s interim plea
on February 14, seek-
ing a stay over the
order passed by fair
trade regulator CCI
that had suspended
the over two-year-old
approval for its deal
with Future Coupons
Pvt Ltd (FCPL). A
three-member bench
on Monday directed
to list Amazon’s plea
on Feb 14 to pass an
interim order and
stay the operations
of the order passed
by the Competition
Commission of India
in Dec 2021 till it fi-
nally decides the mat-
ter. “The registry is
directed to list on
February 14 for hear-
ing,” said the NCLAT
bench.
The appellate tri-
bunal also directed to
list the appeals filed
by the Confederation
of All India Traders
(CAIT) and All India
Consumer Product
Distributors Federa-
tion on the same date.
In December, the
CCI had suspended
the Amazon-FCPL
deal saying that the
US e-commerce ma-
jor had suppressed
information while
seeking clearances
for the transaction
back then.
In a 57-page order,
the CCI had said the
approval for the Am-
azon-Future Coupons
deal “shall remain in
abeyance”. —PTI
NCLAT TO HEAR AMAZON’S
PLEA ON FUTURE ORDER
RIL seeks $14 for
gas from CBM block
‘GDPestimatedat
`147.5LcrinFY22’
Sebi releases
new disclosure
format for
abridged
prospectus
New Delhi: Shares of
HDFC Group compa-
nies witnessed heavy
selling pressure in
trades on Monday. All
the four listed firms,
Housing Development
Finance Corporation,
HDFC
Bank, HDFC Asset
Management Compa-
ny and HDFC Life In-
surance Company
were underperform-
ing the market by fall-
ing in the range of 3%
to 4%. Among the indi-
vidual stocks,
HDFC Life hit
a 52-week low
of `600.15, down
4%, it slipped
below its previ-
ous 52-week low
of `615.80 hit on Jan
31, 2021. —Agencies
HDFC at 6-month low;
HDFC Life hits 52-week low
NINL acquisition
by Tata Steel to
strengthen
long-steel
output: Moody’s
Hotels clock 100.3% YoY
RevPar growth in Q4, 2021
High-rises supply share
dips in top 7 cities
FAITH seeks commercial
flights ops in full strength
New Delhi: Hotels end-
ed 2021 on a positive
note. A high occupancy
during the Christmas
and New Year holidays
helped India’s hospital-
ity sector clock a Reve-
nue Per Availa-
ble Room (Rev-
PAR) growth of 100.3%
YoY in Q4, 2021, accord-
ing to JLL’s Hotel Mo-
mentum India. It also
rose 41.9% quarter-on-
quarter. The hospitalu-
ty industry is currently
on a positive upward
trajectory with travel-
ler confidence
backed by im-
proved vacci-
nation rates
and ease of
travel curbs.
—PTI
New Delhi: Vertical
growth, one of the most
defining characteris-
tics of Indian urbanisa-
tion in over a decade,
has become Indian real
estate’s latest Covid-19
‘casualty’.
Latest ANAROCK re-
search reveals that
among new projects
launched since 2019, the
share of high-rises had
shrunk to 52% in 2021
against 63% in the pre-
Covid year. Of 1,178 pro-
jects launched in the
top 7 cities in 2021, close
to 614 were high-rises
of G+10 floors or more.
In 2019, over 603 of 960
projects were high-ris-
es. Newly-
launched projects
include apart-
ments, villas and
row houses, and
i n d e p e n d e n t
floors. —Agencies
New Delhi: Tourism
and hospitality indus-
try body FAITH on
Monday called for al-
lowing operations of
commercial flights in
full strength to and fro
from India to enable
tourist arrival in the
country and help the
sector recover from the
impact of the Covid-19.
A lot of countries
have now opened or
have announced open-
ing up their borders to
fully vaccinated travel-
lers. The industry body
said it has asked Minis-
try of Tourism to take
up with Ministry of
Health for the same and
announce the opening
up of borders and “re-
sumption of full com-
mercial flights.” —PTI
MFIs’ AUM to grow at 18-22% in FY23
SENSEX NOSEDIVES 1,024 PTS; NIFTY ENDS AT 17,214
New Delhi: Shares of One97 Com-
munications tumbled over 7% after
it reported widening of consolidat-
ed loss to `778.5 crore in the Dec
2021 quarter. It declined 5.69% to
`898.95 on the BSE. and tumbled
7.55% to `881.30 on NSE. The
digital payments and financial
services company had registered
a loss of `535.5 crore in the same
period a year ago. —PTI
Mumbai: Investors’ wealth has
tumbled by over `5.82 lakh crore
in three days of market decline.
In three days, the benchmark has
tanked 1,937.14 points. Amid the
weak sentiment, the market capital-
isation of Bombau Stock Exhange
(BSE)-listed companies tumbled
`5,82,272.23 crore in three days to
stand at `2,64,82,633.52 crore.
—PTI
Paytm shares tumble over
7% post Q3 earnings
Equity investors lose over
`5.82 lakh cr in 3 sessions
Mukesh Ambani
A three-member bench directed to list Amazon’s
plea on Feb 14 to pass an interim order and stay
the operations of the order passed by the CCI last
year till it finally decides the matter
filed on the new I-T
e-filing portal. Out
crore of these are

07
NEWS
BJPrestoredhonourofwomeninUP:Modi
Attacking opposition parties, PM Narendra Modi said that assault on women was very common during previous governments in UP
New Delhi: Launching
a scathing attack on the
opposition, PM Naren-
dra Modi on Monday
said that assault on
women was very com-
mon during the previ-
ous governments in Ut-
tar Pradesh and pointed
out that the BJP re-
stored the true honour
of women in the state.
Addressing the Jan
Chaupal rally virtually,
he said, “Earlier, moles-
tation of women was
very common. The situ-
ation was so bad that
after incidents of chain
snatching, people were
thankful that they were
still alive. CM Yogi Adi-
tyanath’s government
freed women from that
fear. We gave women
their true honour.”
Discussing the law
and order situation in
the state, PM Modi also
stated that the crimi-
nals who went to jail
under the leadership of
CM Yogi Adityanath are
waiting for the elec-
tions so that the ruling
government can be
changed and they can
come out of prison.
“During CM Yogi’s
tenure, criminals them-
selves ran to jails and
demanded that they be
locked up. They have
been waiting for these
elections for years.
They have just one
hope, that the elections
come soon and there is
a change of govern-
ment so that they can
come out of jail,” he
added. “They are hop-
ing for the old ‘mafia
raj’ government to
come back. These crim-
inals want reimburse-
ment from the people of
UP for their dacoity and
loot business which is
shut for the last five
years,” PM asserted.
The PM also said that
the previous govern-
ments followed a model
of creating trouble for
every community and
then covered every-
thing in the name of
sympathy
. —ANI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during virtual rally. (R) People listen to PM’s address. —PHOTO BY ANI
UTTAR PRADESH BJP CANDIDATES’
LIST: WIVES OUT, HUSBANDS IN
First India Bureau
Lucknow: The ruling
Bharatiya Janata Par-
ty (BJP) has denied
tickets to wives of two
party leaders but has
nominated their hus-
bands for the ongoing
Uttar Pradesh Assem-
bly elections.
In the ninth list of
candidates released
late on Sunday even-
ing, Bharatiya Janata
Party State Vice-Pres-
ident, Daya Shankar
Singh has been named
as a party candidate
from the Ballia As-
sembly constituency
.
His wife and cabi-
net minister, Swati
Singh, has already
been denied ticket
from the Sarojini Na-
gar Assembly constit-
uency in Lucknow.
In Amethi, Sanjay
Sinh has been named
a BJP candidate while
his first wife and sit-
ting Member of Legis-
lative Assembly
(MLA), Garima Singh
has been denied a
ticket.
Overall, the BJP
has replaced at least
15 of its sitting MLAs
in the Assembly con-
stituencies of eastern
UP, going to the polls
in the sixth and sev-
enth phase. There are
seven women in the
candidate list.
BJP supporters celebrate while listening to PM’s virtual address.
EFFORTS MADE FOR UP’S DEVELOPMENT
Congress govt amended Panchayat
Land Rules and enacted a black law
Activists allege under new law panchayat lands could be leased for 33 yrs
Kulwant Bawa
Mohali: The present
Congress government
had amended the Pan-
chayat Land Rules and
enacted a black law un-
der which village pan-
chayat lands could be
leased for a period of 33
years or more. It may be
recalled that earlier
Panchayat land could
be leased for only two
years and 33% of which
was reserved for the
Dalit community
.
At a press conference
held at Mohali Press
Club here on Monday,
Punjab Against Corrup-
tion President Satnam
Singh Dao, Kisan Union
(Lakhowal) Block Presi-
dent Gurnam Singh
Dao and representa-
tives of various villages
made serious allega-
tions against the gov-
ernment.
Crores of rupees
worth of alleged pan-
chayat lands are being
squandered and minis-
ters like Balbir Singh
Sidhu and others are
being benefited by col-
luding with the land
mafia.
He said that now that
the Punjab Assembly
elections were in full
swing, the Punjab gov-
ernment had secretly
set up a jail on more
than 140 kanals (about
17 acres) of land at vil-
lage Kurra near Mohali
Airport on the lines of
land mafia.
First India Bureau
New Delhi: The Sainik
School Society is in the
process of developing
an automated system
for providing online
counselling to students
seeking admission into
100 new Sainik Schools.
“Marching ahead
with the government’s
aim of setting up 100
new Sainik Schools
throughout the country
,
the Sainik School Soci-
ety (SSS) is in the pro-
cess of developing an
automated system for
the conduct of e-coun-
selling,” the defence
ministry said.
It said the e-counsel-
ling will be less expen-
sive and user-friendly
for all the stakeholders
-- schools and students.
“It will be applicable
to the new schools be-
ing set up as part of the
government’s vision to
provide an opportunity
for students through-
out the country to move
in tune with National
Education Policy along
with following the
Sainik School curricu-
lum,” the ministry
said.
“This automated sys-
tem for e-Counselling
will ensure complete
transparency in the ad-
mission process,” it
added.
The ministry said the
students will be asked
to register through a
link provided at the
web portal “http://
www.sainikschool.
ncog.gov.in and verify
their details. The stu-
dents will have the op-
tion to select up to 10
schools as the choice of
allocation. Subsequent-
ly, the allocation of
schools to the students
will be carried out by
the system based on
their rank and choice
of the schools.
Sainik Schools introduce e-counselling for admission
GOING DIGITAL

According to
defence
ministry, the
SSS is in the
process of
developing an
automated
system for the
conduct of
e-counselling
Sainik School students —REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE
Union Minister Vaishnaw
flags off NITI Aayog’s
Fintech Open Summit
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Niti Aay-
og on Monday
launched a three-
week-long virtual
summit ‘Fintech
Open’ from February
7–28 to showcase the
importanceof thefin-
tech industry
.
The summit was
inauguratedbyUnion
MinisterforRailways,
Communications,
and Electronics and
IT Ashwini Vaishnaw
inthepresenceof Niti
AayogViceChairman
Rajiv Kumar.
A first-of-its-kind
initiative, Fintech
Open will bring to-
gether regulators, fin-
tech professionals
and enthusiasts, in-
dustry leaders, the
start-up community
,
and developers to col-
laborate, exchange
ideas and innovate.
Flagging off the
event, Vaishnaw said
under the leadership
of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, the
Government was cre-
ating open platforms,
such as Cowin and
UPI, for healthcare,
logistics and other
sectors.
Anopenplatformis
created using public
investment, wherein
numerous private en-
trepreneurs,start-ups
and developers can
join to create new so-
lutions. For example,
today
, 270 banks are
connected with the
UPI and many entre-
preneurs and start-
ups have provided so-
lutions that have
helped increase the
country’s fintech
adoption rate —
which is the highest
globally at 87%.
Niti Aayog Vice
Chairman Rajiv Ku-
mar said India was
witnessingincreasing
digitisation with peo-
ple getting greater
and easier access to
financial services.
Punjab Against Corruption activists at the press conference.
Polling booths in Ludhiana to have masks, sanitizers
Mahesh Kumar
Ludhiana: The dis-
trict administration
would make elaborate
arrangements of
masks, gloves, thermal
scanning, sanitizers,
PPE kits, face shields,
and others in all 2979
polling booths of Lu-
dhiana.
Additional Deputy
Commissioner(Jagraon)-
cum-Nodal officer Dr
Nayan Jassal said that
as per directions of
ECI, the administra-
tion is committed to
hold free, fair, trans-
parent and safe elec-
tions.
She said that Ludhi-
ana has 2979 polling
booths in all 14 assem-
bly segments of the
district where Covid
safety measures would
be put in place to en-
sure safety of the vot-
ers and polling staff.
She said that voters
will have to wear a
mandatory mask,
maintain social dis-
tance besides thermal
screening would be en-
sured at the entrance
of all polling booths
for which ANMs,
ASHAs and Angan-
wari workers have
been deputed as booth
Covid control nodal of-
ficers. She said that the
voters would be given
gloves for one hand
which they will use for
signing and pressing
the button of the vot-
ing machine.
Additional Deputy
Commissioner said
that those recording
high temperatures or
having suspicious
symptoms would be
asked to come and vote
in the last hour on poll-
ing day (Feb 20). She
said that the safety of
voters and polling per-
sonnel is our prime
concern and elaborate
arrangements for the
Bio-medical waste
management of the
waste generated in all
these polling booths
have been done.
She added that one
yellow and red bins
have been given to
each polling booth
where this waste
would be dumped and
later this bio-waste
would be disposed of
scientifically by the
private company fol-
lowing collection from
all booths to collection
centers of each con-
stituency
.
Workers unload containers in Ludhiana on Monday.
SCENIC VIEW
A scenic view of Rashtrapati Bhavan with its reflection on water on a sunny winter evening, in New Delhi on Monday.
—PHOTO BY ANI
Union Minister Ashwini
Vaishnaw

COVID-19
UPDATE
WORLD
5,760,851
TOTAL DEATHS
315,424,278
TOTAL RECOVERED
75,602,731
ACTIVE CASES
396,787,860
TOTAL CASES
INDIA
502,905
TOTAL DEATHS
40,660,202
TOTAL RECOVERED
1,108,907
ACTIVE CASES
42,272,014
TOTAL CASES
Power greedy Sr Badal is
contesting elections: Mann
08
2NDFRONT
Mahesh Kumar
Lambi/Gidderbaha/
Malout: Aam Aadmi
Party’s (AAP) Punjab
CMcandidateBhagwant
Mann on Monday
launched a scathing at-
tack on the Badal family
inLambi,thestronghold
of AkaliDalandParkash
Singh Badal.
Mann said in Punjab
the direction of wind has
changed. The political in-
ning of the Badal family
is about to end for good.
Duetothegreedof power,
Sr. Badal is asking people
for another chance to
serve when he himself
needsthehelpof fourpeo-
ple to get on stage. Mann
said that at the age of 94,
when people pray and
stayhomewiththeirfam-
ilies, Parkash Singh Bad-
al is begging for votes for
his son Sukhbir Badal.
Mann recited the line
of famous Punjabi poet
Surjit Patar for Parkash
Badal and said, “Pippal
de pattya kahdi khar-
khar lai hai, patt jhad
gaye... rutt naveyan di
aai hai.” He said that
this is the time for Pun-
jab. It belongs to the
youth and the new gen-
eration of Punjab. Only
youth will decide the fu-
ture of Punjab. But in-
stead of giving a chance
to the newcomers,
Parkash Badal is con-
testing the last three
electionssayingthatitis
his last one. Mann said
that the family of AAP
candidate Gurmeet Sin-
gh Khudian has faced
many atrocities of the
Badal family during
their 10 years of regime.
But the Khudian family
has always stood by the
people. This time the
people of Lambi will
teach the Badal family a
lesson for all their atroc-
ities and corruption.
Mann campaigned in
favor of AAP candidates
of Lambi, Gidderbaha
and Malout assembly
constituencies. During
this, he appealed to the
people to support AAP
candidate Gurmeet Sin-
ghKhudianfromLambi,
Preetpal Sharma candi-
date from Gidderbaha
and Dr Baljit Kaur for
Malout seat.
Kumar Prabodh
Patna: In a shocking de-
velopment, nearly 100
police stations and out-
posts have gone “miss-
ing” in Bihar.
The shocking revela-
tion came to light when
the staffers of a private
company–thatwasgiven
contract to install CCTV
cameras at police sta-
tions in Bihar– visited
the locations for their
work recently
.
The staffers of Tata
Advanced Systems Lim-
ited(TASL)wereshocked
when they couldn’t find
buildings of police sta-
tionoranypoliceoutpost
at the specified locations
in28districtsforinstalla-
tion of CCTV camera.
Left with no option,
they submitted a report
to the state police head-
quarters stating therein
that they have failed to
trace 62 police stations
and 37 police outposts in
28outof the40policedis-
tricts in Bihar. CCTV
cameras are being in-
stalled in all notified po-
licestationsunderCrime
and Criminal Tracking
Network and System
(CCTNS) of the centre.
The report submitted by
TASL prompted the po-
lice headquarters to ini-
tiate the process of phys-
ical verification of the
police stations and out-
posts that were ‘missing’
despite their names in-
cluded in the list. There
are 925 police stations
and 250 outposts in the
state.
First India Bureau
Chandigarh: Haryana
Chief Minister Mano-
har Lal Khattar said
that the players of Har-
yana are now bringing
laurels to the country
and the state in cricket
through tremendous
performance in the Un-
der-19 ICC World Cup
2022. Haryana has been
recognized as a sports
hub at the international
level because of our
players who have made
their indelible mark in
national and interna-
tional sports events.
Chief Minister Khat-
tar congratulated the
entire team on India’s
spectacular victory in
the Under-19 ICC World
Cup 2022 between India
and England. It is note-
worthy that India won
the Under-19 World Cup
title by defeating Eng-
land in the final match.
In this team there are
three players from Har-
yana, Nishant Sindhu
of Rohtak, Dinesh Bana
of Hisar and Garv Sang-
wan of Bhiwani.
Rohtak’s Nishant
played a brilliant role in
securing victory for the
Indian team by scoring
a half-century without
losing a wicket.
The Chief Minister
said that the govern-
ment is continuously
working towards en-
couraging the sport-
spersons. Haryana is
the only state in the
whole country that
gives the highest prize
money to their sport-
spersons on winning
medals and also sup-
ports them throughout
their training. Now the
other states are looking
forward towards Hary-
ana and delegation
from other states are
coming for understand-
ing our sports policy
and initiative.
Chief Minister Khat-
tar said that the Central
Government under the
leadership of Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi is also making
constant efforts to pro-
mote sports at the na-
tional level.
Finance Minister tells pvt sector to build investment capacities
New Delhi: Union Fi-
nance Minister Nir-
mala Sitharaman on
Monday called upon
the private sector com-
panies to build invest-
ment capacities at a
time major economic
agencies have project-
ed India to be the fast-
est growing economy
for the next two years.
At a post-Budget in-
teraction with indus-
try leaders organised
by industry chamber
PHD Chamber of Com-
merce and Industry,
Sitharaman said, “This
is the opportune time
for private investments
to come in, expand
your capacities, build
new capacities. The
corporate tax rate has
been reduced much be-
fore the pandemic. I
would honestly appeal
to you, do not let this
opportunity go away.
Not just us but globally
too, the assessment by
normally very discern-
ing investors, financial
sector observers is that
India will be the fastest
growing economy this
year and the next year.
And if India shall be
the fastest growing
large economy, I am
sure it will also be be-
cause you have come
forward. Because India
as a team–government
and the private–will
have to work together.
It just can’t be only the
government doing it.”
The FM said that In-
dia is at a stage where
despite the pandemic,
it has to go on a two
track path. “One is the
rail which is going to
have a multi-modal ap-
proach and guided by
the spirit of PM Gati
Shakti where 21st cen-
tury infrastructure
will be built. Under-
standing the length
and breadth of this
country, economic cor-
ridors are going to be
built, logistics hubs are
going to be built so that
you are going to have
inter-connectivity with
all of them,” the Fi-
name Minister added.
She said the other
track involves new op-
portunities such as the
startups, the sunrise
sectors, and the transi-
tion towards clean en-
ergy for sustainable
growth. “We need to
have such infrastruc-
ture in sunrise sectors
which will help us to
give that traction for
our aspirations,” she
added. —Agencies
Jagdeesh
Chandra
greets Lok
Sabha
Speaker Om
Birla during a
courtesy visit
at the latter’s
residence in
New Delhi.
COURTESY MEET!
Nirmala Sitharaman being felicitated by PHD Chamber prez Pradeep Multani (L) PHD Chamber
Senior VP Saket Dalmia at a post-Budget interactive session, at PHDCCI, in New Delhi on Monday.
Haryana players’ role in U-19 WC victory hailed
Authorities fail to trace nearly
100 police stations in Bihar
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann addressing people during party’s election campaign at a village
near Lambi constituency, on Monday.
SUKHBIR’S PROMISE OF QUOTA
FOR GOVT SCHOOL STUDENTS
FULL OF LIES, SAYS MANN
WILL NAVJOT SIDHU STAND
WITH THE MAFIA NOW?,
QUESTIONS AAP
DRUG-FREE PUNJAB
POSSIBLE THROUGH
INNOVATIVE WAYS: DR KANG
Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
Punjab Chief Ministerial Candidate
and Member of Parliament Bhagwant
Mann has termed the announcements
made by Shiromani Akali Dal Badal
President Sukhbir Singh Badal regard-
ing reservation in jobs for government
schools’ students and revitalizing
government schools, as deception
and full of lies. Mann said that it is not
hidden from anyone that it was the
Badal government that promoted the
privatization of education by destroying
government schools and the govern-
ment education system in the state. In
a statement issued on Monday, Mann
said that Sukhbir Badal can see the
future of Shiromani Akali Dal and their
candidates in upcoming elections and
it is clear that it’s not a pretty picture.
Chandigarh: AAP Punjab senior leader
Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday
raised questions about PPCC President
Navjot Singh Sidhu’s stand on mafia
now and asked will Sidhu stand with
mafia, campaign for them and ask the
people of Punjab to vote for mafia? He
added that everyone knows Sidhu is
friend of no one but power and that’s
how he has managed to be the part
of ruling parties in Punjab. Cheema
said that Navjot Sidhu never stood by
the people of Punjab. In a statement
issued on Monday, Cheema said,
“From 2004 to 2016 Navjot Sidhu was
a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party
and Punjab has the government of
SAD-BJP alliance in the state. Since
2017 he has been an MLA and minister
of the ruling Congress party.
Dakha: AAP candidate from this con-
stituency Dr KNS Kang and his team of
supporters and volunteers from AAP
are aggressively taking the campaign
ahead in Dakha. Mullanpur residents
on Monday gave a warm welcome to
him. He also visited several villages
where residents discussed their prob-
lems out of which drug-addiction and
unemployment again topped the list.
Dr Kang has been ensuring people in
his constituency on a regular basis that
a problem free, especially a Drug-free
Punjab is possible.“The main problem
is unemployment which is driving
the youth towards drug addiction. It
cannot be eradicated in a day but if the
youth is engaged in skill development
then taking Punjab out of this situation
is possible,” Dr Kang said.
Shocking revelation
came to light during
an ispection recently
Only the presence of ‘Justice’ can
ensure ‘True Peace’ within
ourselves and the world.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO Editor-in-Chief, First India
First India Bureau
Jaipur: The country’s
leading private sector
company Reliance In-
dustries Limited will
make one of the biggest
investments ever in the
renewableenergysector
in Rajasthan.
The company will
sign a letter of intent
for investing Rs 1 lakh
crore in the state on
February 8. This is the
biggest ever project in
the field of renewable
energy. According to
the letter of intent, the
company will produce
20,000 MW of solar pow-
er. For this, the compa-
ny will need one lakh
acres of land.
Keeping in view the
potentialof solarenergy
in Western Rajasthan,
Reliance has expressed
its intention to set up
projects in Jalore, Jais-
almer,Jodhpur,Bikaner,
and Barmer.
SolarEnergy:RILtosignLOI
worth`1LcrtoinvestinRajtoday
Anant Ambani, Director,
Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd.

or those who
swear by the
charisma of
fashion, any
discussion on
the topic is in-
c o m p l e t e
without the men-
tion of Mohit Falod.
This famous Jaipur
based designer’s
success story has
humble beginnings.
Today
, Mohit Falod is rec-
ognised as the man who rede-
fined the realm of fashion by
incorporating just the right
amount of boldness into eve-
ry design to make it stand
out from the crowd.
Being responsible
for the success
of some of the
most loved
a n d
ex-
clusive collections, Falod con-
tinues to rule the industry
with his very own fashion la-
bel.
Centred on the belief of cre-
ating unique styles that tend
to become a reflection of your
personality, every design sold
under the label of Mohit Fal-
od is a display of sheer crea-
tive brilliance.
For the past two and a half
decades, Falod has keenly fo-
cused on his handcrafted crea-
tions while maintaining their
lightness and focusing on the
ease of wear for brides
grooms on their special day.
Never compromising on the
garment’s movement and flu-
idity, he has found ways to
work with traditional and
modern techniques to fabri-
cate these veritable pieces of
art in motion.
Talking about his collec-
tion, Mohit said, “The regalia
collection is purely inspired
by nature and the Rajputana
array. We have experimented
with a wide range of jewels,
including polkas and semi-
precious stones. There has
been a beautiful utilisation of
real gold and silver gotas
and threads, semi-pre-
cious stones, polkis,
and turquoise with an inter-
play of fabrics.” He further
added, “I can’t be more excit-
ed for the grand show to be
held in Dubai. Each attire has
been meticulously made to
make one feel like a regal In-
dian bride. It’s an amalgama-
tion of history, nature, cus-
toms, and monarchy that
makes the person feel both
real and mystical.”
Falod has also dropped a
few hints through his recent
collaboration with Badshah
regarding how grand this col-
lection is going to
be!
NEW DELHI, TUESDAY
FEBRUARY 8, 2022
09
FIRST INDIA FASHION CONNECT SEASON 11, TO BE HELD ON MARCH 12 AT OAKS
IBN BATUTA GATE HOTEL, DUBAI, WILL BE WITNESSING THE GRAND LAUNCH OF
MOHIT FALOD’S UPCOMING COLLECTION FOR SPRING/SUMMER ’22 WHICH IS
SAID TO BE ONE OF HIS MOST ELITE EXPENSIVE COLLECTIONS TILL DATE!
HEAD TURNER
COLLECTION
MITALI DUSAD
mitalidusad01@gmail.com
F Mohit Falod with his wife Anjula
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Prajakta Koli Badshah

10
ETC
rom the clas-
sic rose pet-
als spelling
out “will you
be mine?” to
popping the
question in
front of all your fam-
ily and friends, there
are a million ways to
propose to the love of
your life. Everyone
knows that every
couple — and every
relationship — is
unique, so what
works for one couple
may not work for an-
other, which is why
choosing one that is
right for you and
your person may
take some time.
That’s where our col-
lection of unique
marriage proposal
ideas comes in handy
.
We’ve divided some
of our favour-
ite ideas
into three
c a t e g o -
ries on
this page:
p r iv a t e ,
public, and
destination.
Pop the question
WITH PIZZAZ!!
Proposing can be
an overwhelming
experience.
Especially when
you are trying to be
creative, romantic,
and original. While
getting to the
question you’ve
been dying to ask
can be frightening.
We’ve scoured the
internet to find the
BEST, most
creative, most
original, and most
romantic proposals
out there!
DEVANSHI MUDGAL
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
HOT AIR BALLOON
PROPOSAL
When you’re in love
it’s like floating on
air! Why not propose
while on a romantic
hot air balloon trip if
you’re seeking a
unique and unforget-
table method to ask
them? You’ll both be
able to float! You can
make the occasion
much more romantic
and intimate by book-
ing an exclusive bal-
loon as well!
COSPLAY
PROPOSALS
Think about it:
you’re in cosplay,
and you have your
person with you.
You want this per-
son to be your be-
loved valentine
and you can’t wait
to ask them. Why
not just propose to
them as your fa-
vourite charac-
ters? Though it
may seem far-
fetched and weird
but trust us when
we say that it is su-
per romantic and
fun!
ROLLERCOASTER
PROPOSAL
This proposal is a
literal rollercoast-
er of emotion!! You
can Have your
friends hold up
boards with your
words written on
them. Naturally,
even the proposal
speech can have a
metaphor linking
roller coasters to
life: And though you
can go by yourself,
it’s a lot more fun to
go with another per-
son.
PROPOSAL FLIPBOOK
Turn your story into a cartoon flipbook and
pop the question at the end as an adorable little
twist! This is such a unique idea, and some-
what of a dying art. It will most definitely be
a present your partner will keep forever! If
you’re an artist, you can make the flipbook
yourself! Show your partner how much they
mean to you through the magic of art!
MOVIE
THEMED
PROPOSAL
This is for all
the movie lov-
ers out there.
Alter your
person’s fa-
vourite movie
by adding ex-
tra scenes.
Make it cute by adding proposal scenes and your
cute moments together in the trailer!! It will be a
huge surprise! Literally!
SCAVENGER HUNT
PROPOSAL
For all you puzzle heads, surprise
your sweetheart with a fun ending
to a scavenger hunt! Make them
feel special while also teasing
their brain! You can hide little
clues and presents all over the
beach! You can create a personal-
ised puzzle. On that only you and
your partner understand.
F

ETC
11
As we celebrate
Propose Day today,
a perfect day for
singles to confess
their love to their
crush and to
propose with
fascinating flowers
and attractive
presents. It is also
special for couples
who, on a romantic
date, can take their
beloved and recall
the day and time
when their
romantic journey
began! City First
spoke to a few
lovebirds of every
age to know how
they plan on
making their
partners or ‘to be
better half’ feel
special!
I’m planning to pro-
pose to my girl with
a large bouquet of
red roses. We both share a
moment that involved red
roses and now it’s some-
thing a little more special
for us. I truly fall in love
with her each day. She is
wonderful and I can’t wait
to see the look on her face!
—ASHU SAINI, RAJ
MITALI DUSAD
mitalidusad01@gmail.com
hat is love?
That’s a question
that we have all
grappled with
within our lives
at some point or
the other. It excites phi-
losophers, who dive into
its deep complexities
and hope to describe
our abstract longing for
a particular person.
Love has a powerful ef-
fect on us, one that we
cannot deny. If love
could be dictated or cho-
sen; if it could be con-
tained in a few words or
a mathematical equa-
tion, it would lose its
special place. And yet
we try. Our phones are
cluttered with numer-
ous dating apps and
their algorithms, all
trying to capture love.
But it is notoriously dif-
ficult to find.
As comes February,
people look forward to
Valentine’s Day with
anticipation. The day is
difficult to ignore, irre-
spective of whether you
are a romantic or a cyn-
ic. However, every day
of the week leading up
to Feb 14 also holds a lot
of significance. The
week starts on Febru-
ary 7 and ends on Febru-
ary 14. It starts with
Rose Day, followed by
Propose Day, Chocolate
Day
, Teddy Day
, Promise
Day, Hug Day, Kiss Day,
and culminates in Val-
entine’s Day.
Proposal Day is cele-
brated by lovers on Feb
8 every year. On this day
,
couples or budding lov-
ers express their feeling
and affection for each
other. Most of you have
been waiting for this
day to say your heart
out to your potential
boyfriend or girlfriend.
This day signifies prom-
ise and togetherness
and gives you a chance
to ask your partner for
their presence in your
life, forever.
W
LOVEISIN
THEAIR!
Each day is special
when you are with
the right person. I
have been married to my
wife, Anita for more than
25 years. And it wouldn’t
be a lie if I say that I still
feel it’s our honeymoon pe-
riod. On this propose day,
I would cherish our old
times and proudly express
what she means to me.
—SHAILESH TAMBI, RAJ
I’m gonna propose
to my cursh through
an adorable motor-
cycle themed party.
He loves bikes and I have
booked us a cafe. It’s all
motocycle themed and all
the gifts and games and
all that will be motocycle
themed as well. I hope he
understands how much he
means to me.
—SAKSHI SHARMA, UP
How beautiful will it
be to take Isha who I
adore a lot, on a ro-
mantic date. I’m planning
to take her to the beach.
I would love to propose
at such a lovely evening
under the sky filled with
brilliant colours, to cherish
the moment and kiss her
as the sunsets. A day worth
remembering.
—ASHWANI SEKHAR, DELHI
—ASHU SAINI, RAJ
On Propose Day I will
take my sweetheart
on a bike ride. We
will sit with our friends
near a camp fire and then
I will get on one knee and
propose to her! She won’t
even see it coming. It’s
going to be super cute and
I’m confident I’ll sweep her
off her feet! The day would
be so memorable.
—RAHUL CHOUDHARY, RAJ
On Propose Day I will
Ashu and Aarti Saini Anita and Shailesh Tambi

12
CITY BUZZ
GET VACCINATED
STAY MASKED
CITY FIRST
T
he 7th Edition of
Ahmedabad In-
ternational Lit-
erature Festival
started with inspira-
tional and information-
al speeches from distin-
guished speakers in a
virtual mode on Satur-
day
. At the start, after
welcoming the guests
and audience, Founder
Director Umashanker
Yadav informed, “Physi-
cal gathering will be
planned and the dates
announced as soon as
the ground situation be-
comes normal, till then
and even after the of-
fline gathering, the On-
line Sessions will con-
tinue throughout the
year mainly on week-
ends.
The focus will be to in-
vite the speakers of far
away and remote rural
areas in this season said,
Umashanker Yadav.”
FormerDeputyDirector-
General of Akashvani
(AIR), Laxmi Shanker
Bajpai, highlighted the
valueof literatureinour
lives. In his address,
AlokRanjan,IAS(Retd.)
former Chief Secretary
of UP advised authors
and writers to bring out
the honest stories of the
people and society to
make them more ap-
pealing and realis-
tic.
He also empha-
sised the broad-mind-
edness of writers and
readers to give space to
conflicting and contra-
dicting views as well, for
the sake of creative free-
dom.
Kusuma Choppra,
Senior Journalist and
author of many books
talked about the power
of women characters in
her novels and how she
has been boldly and fear-
lessly portraying and
writing about the issues
of women in the various
news papers and
magazines during
herjournalismdays.
Dr SK Nanda, IAS (
Retd.)formerAddition-
al Chief Secretary Guja-
rat talked about the im-
portance of literature
and natural ways of life
to overcome various dif-
ficultiesof thedaytoday
life, particularly during
the pandemic.
IMPORTANCEOFGOODLITERATURE!
During the session
CITY FIRST
New Delhi: Senior Citizens
Welfare Association, Mayur
Vihar Phase 3 on Saturday
sought blessings from the
Goddess of wisdom for all
the devotees present during
the occasion on Sunday
. Dev-
otees sang a melodious hymn
‘Vaar De Veenavadini Vaar
De’ and celebrated the day by
applying Gulal to each other.
On this occasion, the gen-
eral secretary, Santosh Ku-
mar informed that they al-
ways worship Goddess Saras-
wati in a Vedic manner.
Apart from our country,
Vasant Panchami is or-
ganised in many major
countries like Bangla-
desh, Nepal, Mauritius etc.
And enlightened all devotees
present there.
President Desh Kumar
Singh expressed his disap-
pointment that some of our
festivals in NCR are being
forgotten by people, which is
not suitable for the cultural
heritage of India.
Ramveer Sharma, former
principal of Kendriya Vidya-
laya said that along with the
birthday of Goddess Saras-
wati, this day is also the born
day of eminent poet
Suryakant Nirala. This festi-
val is celebrated with great
pomp in Bengal, Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh. People
wear yellow clothes and
paint each other yellow.
After worshipping in the
association, people applied
Vasanti sandalwood to each
other. On this occasion, Sat-
ish Vij, Secretary Satya
Prakash Pokhriyal, former
General Secretary Rajni Mo-
han Mahajan, Amarender
Chaudhary, Dev Kant
Mishra, BS Negi and Arvind
Kumar Prasad presented
their views prominently
.
During the event
A STEP TOWARDS
SUSTAINABILITY!
CITY FIRST
A
s theAravalli
Biodiversity
Park in Gur-
ugram was
declared as India’s
first ‘Other Effective
area-based Conser-
vation Measures’
(OECM) site, author-
ities in Delhi de-
clared the Capital
may soon get a simi-
lar tag for the Ara-
valli Biodiversity
Park in Vasant
Kunj. Senior of-
ficials said they
have already fin-
ished the examina-
tion of the biodiver-
sity park in Delhi
and similar recogni-
tion will be sought
for Delhi’s other six
biodiversity parks,
including the Yamu-
na biodiversity park
in north Delhi, in ad-
dition to green areas
such as Sanjay Van.
Issued by the Inter-
national Union for
Conservation of Na-
ture (IUCN), and
OECM tag conferred
upon areas of rich
biodiversity, outside
of protected areas
like national parks
and sanctuaries, for
effective in-situ con-
servation. Chairman
of the National Bio-
diversity Authority,
VB Mathur, told that
Delhi’s seven biodi-
versity parks – Ara-
valli, Yamuna, Tu-
ghlakabad, Neela
Hauz, Tilpath
Valley, Kamla
Nehru and Ka-
lindi biodiversity
parks are being
looked at as possible
additions to the list.
“WebegantheOECM
recognition process
with the Gurugram
park. The Delhi Ara-
valli biodiversity
park could be next.
To create an ‘Aravalli
cluster’ in which bio-
diversity is notified
as an OECM and can
therefore be protect-
ed better.”
he World Univer-
sity of Design pre-
sented the ‘Crit-
ics’ChoiceAward’
for 2022 to Indian
Kathak Dancer
Shovana Narayan
on Basant Panchami with
the celebration of Goddess
Saraswati Puja on Satur-
day, at Nirmal Primary
School Hall, Near India
Gate, New Delhi.
The World University of
Design has ensured to em-
power and encourage the
diverse range of perform-
ing artists in the country,
across different languages,
regions, cultures and gen-
res. The institute aims at
honouring the outstanding
artistic contribution of es-
tablished artists; it also
provides opportunities to
recognise new tal-
ent by showcasing
their work in pre-
mier performance
spaces. On being
felicitated with
the award Indian
Kathak Dancer
Shovana Narayan shared,
“The award from the World
University of Design to me
is in recognition of our
rich ancient temple dance,
Kathak, of which I am a
small stream carrying for-
ward the tradition.
Throughout my life, I
have been dedicated to
Kathak which is my life,
my soul. It is an art form
that spreads universal
love, understanding and
happiness. I am humbled
and grateful to the World
University of Design
who, in recogni-
tion of their
dedicated
service to
classical
dance and
humanity, has decided to
honour me with this
award.” Dr Sanjay Gupta,
Vice-Chancellor said,
“Performing artists have
suffered during the
pandemic due to the
wide-ranging restric-
tions. Even as things
have improved in
many states, per-
formingartsareyet
to make a recov-
ery
. The Critics
ChoicePerform-
ing Art Award
is an effort by
the perform-
ingartsschool
of WUDtoen-
courage the
artists to
come out of
their shells.
UTTKARSHA SHEKHAR
uttkarsha.shekhar@firstindia.co.in
T
A JOURNEY OF ART!
Shovana Narayan with Dr Sanjay Gupta
With the decrease in
Covid cases in the
country’s capital, the
Delhi government
allowed public and
private schools
to resume all the
classes from Monday
while adhering to
strict pandemic
protocols. Most
schools conducted
activities along
with happiness and
mindfulness sessions
to ease students
into the school
environment.
AGLIMPSEOFHAPPINESS!
—PHOTS BY
SHAZID CHAUHAN
Aravali Biodiversity Park
HUES OF
WISDOM!
Shovana Nasrayan

08022022 first india new delhi (1)

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to 08022022 first india new delhi (1)

Similar to 08022022 first india new delhi (1) (20)

More from FIRST INDIA

More from FIRST INDIA (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (6)

08022022 first india new delhi (1)