First india ahmedabad edition-29 august 2020

CORONA
ALERT
AHMEDABAD l SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 273
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COVID-19
UPDATE
GUJARAT
2,978
DEATHS
92,601
CONFIRMED CASES
RAJASTHAN
1,017 DEATHS 77,370 CASES
DELHI
4,389 DEATHS 1,69,412 CASES
WORLD
8,38,490
DEATHS
2,47,89,870
CONFIRMED CASES
INDIA
34,59,295
CONFIRMED CASES
62,691
DEATHS
MAHARASHTRA
23,775 DEATHS 7,47,995 CASES
TAMIL NADU
KARNATAKA
New Delhi: The Su-
preme Court on Friday
said that states and
universities cannot
promote students with-
out holding final year
exams by September
30. Upholding the UGC
decision to hold final
year exams, a bench
headed by Justice
Ashok Bhushan said if
any state feels they
can’t conduct exams by
that date amid the cor-
onavirus pandemic,
they must approach
the UGC for new dates
to hold the exam.
The bench also com-
prising justices RS
Reddy and MR Shah,
saidstatesarerequired
to hold final year ex-
ams as per UGC guide-
lines and for any ex-
emption they will have
to seek permission.
The apex court held
that the State Govern-
ments or State Disas-
ter Management Au-
thority (SDMA) in ex-
ercise of power under
Disaster Management
Act, 2005 has no juris-
diction to take a deci-
sion that the students
of final year/terminal
students should be pro-
moted on the basis of
earlier year assess-
ment and internal as-
sessment. The Final
year/terminal semes-
ters examinations are
important because the
learning process is a
dynamic interaction
where the only way to
figure out what stu-
dents know is to seek
evidence of their
knowledge and to eval-
uate it. Performances
in examination espe-
cially Final year/ter-
minal semester exami-
nation are reflection of
competence of the stu-
dents, SC said.
The UGC had earlier
said that the July 6
guidelines are based
on recommendations
of experts and have
been made after due
deliberation and it is
wrong to claim that it
will not be possible to
conduct the final ex-
aminations in terms of
the guidelines.
The bench noted that
the revised guidelines
and the standard oper-
ating procedure for
conduct of examina-
tions dated July 8,
clearly showed deep
concernwiththehealth
Turn to P6
NOFINALEXAM,NODEGREE:SCSays states, universities cannot promote students without holding final year exams by Sept 30
Aditi Nagar
New Delhi: Congress
president Sonia Gandhi
on Friday urged the
government to listen to
the voices of students
on the issue of conduct-
ing NEET and JEE and
act according to their
wishes. Various Opposi-
tion parties, including
the Congress, have de-
manded that the Nation-
al Eligibility cum En-
trance Test (NEET) and
the Joint Entrance Ex-
amination (JEE) be de-
ferred due to the COV-
ID-19 pandemic and
floods in parts of the
country, even as the Un-
ion government has
made it clear that they
will be held as per sched-
ulewithdueprecautions.
As part of the Con-
gress’ day-long cam-
paignof holdingprotests
and voicing opposition
on social media to hold-
ing of the entrance ex-
aminations, the party
posted Sonia Gandhi’s
message to students and
the government on issue
of conducting exams.
“I feel for you because
you are now facing a
very difficult situation.
The issue of your ex-
ams, of when they
shouldbetakenupisthe
most important issue,
not only for you but for
your family,” Sonia Gan-
dhi said in a video ad-
dressing students.
“You are our future.
We depend on you to
buildabetterIndia,”she
said.
Therefore, if any deci-
sion has to be taken re-
gardingstudents’future,
it is important that it is
“being taken with your
concurrence”, the Con-
gress leader said
“I hope the govern-
ment listens to you, lis-
tens to your voices and
acts upon your wishes.
This is my advice to the
government,” she said in
the nearly minute-long
video posted on the Con-
gress’ Twitter handle
with the hashtag ‘Speak
Up For Student Safety’.
NEET, JEE 2020 ROW
Listen to student voices, act as
per their wishes: Sonia to govt
Universities to set up committees to implement new education policy
Haresh Jhala
Gandhinagar: Almost
a month after the Cen-
tre rolled out National
Education Policy
2020, the state govern-
ment on Friday in-
structed all universi-
ties to constitute com-
mittees to implement
policy at the earliest.
Education Minister
Bhupendrasinh Chu-
dasama stated in a press
release that he had held
a meeting with the vice-
chancellors of universi-
ties across the state via
video conferencing, to
discuss the new educa-
tion policy.
Chudasama has in-
structed all universi-
ties to constitute an
implementation com-
mittee at the earliest
and plan out how to
implement NEP 2020.
He has even advised
universities to set up
a separate committee
to study each chapter
of the new policy and
work out a plan for its
implementation.
He also said that uni-
versities should con-
duct online workshops
to educate and create
awareness among those
implementing the poli-
cy, in order to ensure its
success.
The new education
policy includes a pro-
vision for a common
regulatory body for
higher education. For
this, the Centre plans
to set up a Higher Ed-
ucation Commission
of India (HECI),
which will also over-
see medical and legal
education.
HECI will have four
arms: the National
Higher Education Reg-
ulatory Council for
regulation, the Gener-
al Education Council
for standard-setting,
the Higher Education
Grants Council for
funding, and the Na-
tional Accreditation
Council for accredita-
tion.
There will also be a
National Testing
Agency that expected
to offer high-quality
common aptitude
tests, as well as spe-
cialized common sub-
ject exams in the sci-
ences, humanities,
languages, arts, and
vocational subjects, at
least twice every year,
for use in university
entrance exams.
Turn to P6
Education minister Chudasama
also suggested online workshops
to create awareness among those
implementing NEP 2020
Tokyo: JapanesePrime
Minister Shinzo Abe on
Friday officially an-
nounced his plan to step
down, citing health is-
sues. “In June this year,
I was told that there
were signs of recur-
rence of my chronic
condition called ulcera-
tive colitis, and I did my
best at work. while tak-
ing medicine,” Abe told
a press conference, re-
ported Sputnik.
PM Modi tweeted,
“Pained to hear about
your ill health, my dear
friend @AbeShinzo. In
recent years, with your
wise leadership and per-
sonal commitment, the
India-Japan Turn to P6
FLOODED
MAGIC
CASTLE!
6 oppn-ruled
state mins
move SC
New Delhi: Six Minis-
ters of opposition-ruled
states moved the Su-
preme Court on Friday
seeking review of its or-
der permitting the Cen-
tretoconductNEETand
JEEentranceexamsthis
year amid the persisting
COVID-19 pandemic.
The review plea has
been filed by ministers
from West Bengal
(Moloy Ghatak),
Jharkhand (Ramesh-
war Oraon), Rajasthan
(RaghuSharma),Chhat-
tisgarh (Amarjeet Bha-
gat), Punjab (B S Sidhu)
and Maharashtra (Uday
Ravindra Sawant).
The plea has been
filed through advocate
Sunil Fernandes.
On Aug 17, the top
court had refused to in-
terfere with the conduct
of medical and engi-
neering entrance ex-
ams -- NEET and JEE
scheduled to take place
in September saying
that life must go on
Turn to P6
Cong’s Vasanthakumar, first
MP to die due to Covid-19
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe
resigns due to ill-health Chennai: Tamil Nadu
Congress leader and
Kanyakumari MP
Harikrishnan Vasan-
thakumar passed away
Friday due to Covid-19.
He was 70.
Kumar was undergo-
ing treatment at a pri-
vatehospitalinChennai
since August 10. He was
on ECMO and Ventila-
tor support and moni-
tored by a multidiscipli-
nary team of doctors.
Taking to Twitter,
Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi offered his
condolences. “Sad-
dened by the demise of
Lok Sabha MP Shri H.
Vasanthakumar Ji. His
strides in business and
social service efforts
were noteworthy.
Turn to P6
This spellbinding image of cave Chun-Ya in Yucatan, in Mexico, clicked by Petr Polách represents
hope for our oceans, hope for our travel and dive industries ravaged by coronavirus!
DR. RAMESH POKHRIYAL
NISHANK
@DRRPNISHANK
I heartily welcome the
decision taken by the
Supreme Court with
respect to the final year
exams. Let’s keep politics
away from education and
educate our politics
Shinzo Abe
SONIA: #SPEAKUPFORSTUDENTSAFETY
I feel for you because you are now facing a very
difficult situation. The issue of your exams, of when
they should be taken up is the most important is-
sue, not only for you but for your family. I hope the
government listens to you, listens to your voices
and acts upon your wishes. This is my advice to
the government, she said in the nearly minute-long
video posted on the Congress’ Twitter handle with
the hashtag ‘Speak Up For Student Safety’.
Gujarat University —FILE PHOTO

Haresh Jhala
Gandhinagar: Consid-
er this scenario: Cops
conduct drives to crack
down on people step-
ping out without a
mask. The fine for not
wearing a mask in pub-
lic is hiked five-fold,
from Rs200 to Rs1,000.
Malls are sealed be-
cause people did not
practise social distanc-
ing. Guest lists for wed-
dings are rearranged to
meet the 50-person limit
put in place by the au-
thorities.
Now, consider a dif-
ferent scenario: Large
crowds jostle to meet
and greet their lead-
er. He, in turn, ac-
knowledges his sup-
porters with a na-
maste, the occasional
wave and a wide
smile--unencumbered
by a mask.
Only one of these
scenarios seems to
skirt legal consequenc-
es for violating COV-
ID-19. norms. It is not a
coincidence that that it
is the one involving
politicians, giving rise
to questions on wheth-
er protocols, norms,
and regulations are
only meant for the com-
mon man and not for
politicians, especially
those belonging to the
ruling party.
For instance, the
Surat BJP had to can-
cel a mega show in
honour of the then-
brand-new state unit
chief, CR Patil, at the
last minute. A little
while later, Patil was
on a four-day tour of
Saurashtra, where so-
cial distancing and
masks were treated
as mere suggestions
and not as rules.
However, no action
has been taken against
any leaders and local
authorities refuse to
comment on the issue.
The same police and
local authorities are ac-
tive when it suits them.
For instance, last
week, diamond workers
were detained while
protesting an affidavit
submitted by the state
government in the high
court, in which the state
blames the diamond
workers’ “carelessness”
for the spread of the
novel coronavirus in
Surat.
On Friday, Congress
leaders at protests
across the state were
carted off by the cops
for not following COV-
ID-19 norms.
On politicians not
abiding by COVID-19
protocols, High Court
advocate Brijesh Trive-
di sarcastically says,
“The virus is aware that
if it infects politicians
even by mistake, they
will ask for money. So, it
doesn’t dare infect
them. So, politicians
don’t need to follow any
protocols.”
He adds: “High-
ranking police offi-
cials are often obli-
gated to politicians
for their plum posts.
So why would anyone
compromise their
cushy positions just
to show their loyalty
to the Constitution?”
And it isn’t like there
haven’t been com-
plaints.
“An advocate from
Rajkot has written to
the city police commis-
sioner to complain
about the situation. Yet,
there has been no ac-
tion. It is possible that
the matter may come up
as public interest litiga-
tion before the high
court,” said advocate
KR Koshti. He says he
firmly believes that no
one is above the law, but
adds that there should
be immediate action,
since “FIRs against po-
litical leaders will not
serve any purpose”.
“We will take care
during (CR Patil’s) next
planned tour, of North
Gujarat,” said KC Patel,
General Secretary of
BJP. On June 17, the
Gandhinagar Munici-
pal Corporation fined
minister Ishwarsinh
Patel was fined Rs200
for not wearing a mask
while attending cabinet
meetings.
KC Patel is also quick
to indulge in whatabou-
tery by asking, “The
Congress party is also
violating norms, so why
isn’t there any action
against them?”
“If any Congress
leaders violate COV-
ID-19 protocols, police
should take action. We
have no objections,”
said Congress party’s
chief spokesperson
Manish Doshi, adding,
“But the police should
also take action against
BJP leaders who violate
the protocols.”
He also said, “They
can be superspread-
ers. Three leaders
have already been in-
fected after partici-
pating in BJP’s pro-
gramme. Yet, neither
is the party stopping
public programmes
nor are local authori-
ties taking action
against BJP leaders.
When common men
are caught by police
for not wearing masks
in public, and shops
are fined for not main-
taining social distanc-
ing, it isn’t fair to the
common man that po-
litical leaders get
away scot-free.”
NEWSAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
02www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
WHYARETHEPOLICENOTACTINGAGAINSTTHEMFORVIOLATIONOFNCOVPROTOCOL?
ARE POLITICIANS
ABOVE THE LAW?
Law enforcement and local authorities only seem concerned about violations of COVID-19 norms when they are committed by the common citizen and not by politicians, especially by those in power.
Congress holds a parallel
general board meeting at AMC
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The Con-
gress held a parallel
general board meeting
on the premises of the
Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation’s main of-
fices on Friday. The par-
allelmeetingwasmeant
to mock the AMC for
holding its monthly
meeting virtually, after
claiming that normalcy
had returned after the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The Congress par-
ty’s version of the
meeting had a dum-
my mayor, dummy
deputy mayor, and
dummy municipal
commissioner, who
executed the meet-
ing. The Congress
party has been oppos-
ing the AMC’s deci-
sion to continue to
hold meetings online,
even after Unlock
was implemented,
while other cities met
physically with ap-
propriate social dis-
tancing even during
the lockdown period.
Dinesh Sharma, lead-
er of the opposition al-
leged that the BJP is
suppressing the voices
of opposition and not
letting real issues to be
discussed in the general
board meeting. He al-
leged that the topic of
the fire at Shrey Hospi-
tal, in which eight COV-
ID-19 patients were
killed, has been side-
lined. The search com-
mittee is just hogwash
to hide the failure of the
BJP-run AMC, he said.
Party members
held placards and
banners of damaged
roads and cattle
roaming on streets, to
highlight issues im-
portant to them. The
meeting started with
the obituary of for-
mer mayor Praful
Barot, although BJP
leader Amit Shah lat-
er released a video
saying that Congress
had not mentioned
the former mayor.
6.5 km Metro-Link tunnel finished, but
23K km of roads left damaged by rain
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: Even as
the Gujarat govern-
ment directed its roads
and buildings depart-
ment to prioritize re-
pairs and resurfacing
of district and state
highways, construc-
tion of a 6.5km tunnel
under the Sabarmati
river has been com-
pleted. Part of the
Ahmedabad-Gandhi-
nagar Metro-Link Pro-
ject, the tunnel con-
nects Ahmedabad’s
Shahpur and Apparel
Park in Saraspur-
Khokhra area.
On Friday, Deputy
Chief Minister Nitin Pa-
tel told the media that
22,640kmof roadsacross
the state had been af-
fectedduetoheavyrains.
“The roads and building
department has been di-
rected to prioritize the
repair and resurfacing
of these roads at the ear-
liest, to make them mo-
torable again.
Patel further said that
1,022km of these
22,640km roads were
constructed in the last
three years. So, the con-
tractors who made them
bear the liability to re-
pairandresurfacethem.
The state will take up
repair work on roads
that are older than five
years and washed out in
the heavy rains.
Patchwork will be-
gin on 243km of roads
in a short while. Patel
said that, in all,
3,369km of roads need
repairs, resurfacing
and patchwork. The
state is looking to com-
plete all this work be-
fore Navratri.
Meanwhile, Chief
Minister Vijay Rupani
shared the news that the
6.5km underground tun-
nel has been completed
byengineersof theGuja-
rat Metro Rail Corpora-
tionLtd,aspartof Phase
1of theMetro-LinkGan-
dhi Express between
Gandhinagar and
Ahmedabad.
Passing roughly 18m
beneaththelandsurface,
the tunnel used 3.3 lakh
cubic metres of sand,
52,300 cubic metres of
concrete and about 4,000
concrete rings in its con-
struction. The tunnel
alsofeaturesatwinpipe-
line, each of which has a
radius of 5.8m.
It took about about 2
lakh man-days to finish
building this tunnel, Ru-
pani said in a tweet, in
which he also lauded the
engineering that went
into its construction.
In Phase-I, the metro
rail corporation plans
to complete 40km of rail
track connecting
Ahmedabad North to
South and East to West.
In addition, the state
government on Friday
agreed, in principle, to
give grant-in-aid sta-
tus to GMDC Arts and
Commerce College,
situated in Nakhatra-
na in Kutch district.
 State also
agrees in princi-
ple to give grant-
in-aid status to
college in Kutch
The parallel meeting held on Friday at the AMC office building.
Each of the two pipelines in the tunnel has a radius of 5.8 m.
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
—FILE PHOTOS

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The civil
society in Gujarat
made a case for not in-
creasing the legal age
of marriage for wom-
en from 18 to 21 years.
They say that increas-
ing the marriageable
age may prove detri-
mental and makes lit-
tle sense since the ex-
isting law meets glob-
al standards and is
robust in itself.
Renu Khanna, direc-
tor of SAHAJ (Society
forHealthAlternatives),
said that 96 non-govern-
mental organizations
(NGOs) from across the
nation have discussed
this matter. She said
that while the group
commended the govern-
ment for wanting to pri-
oritize the lives and
well-being of young
women, but said there
are other far more effec-
tive ways to do so.
“Poverty, patriarchal
controloveragirl’ssexu-
ality, and the failure of
the education system to
create a viable alterna-
tiveareamongthemajor
determinants of early
marriage. These have to
be recognized and ad-
dressed first,” she said.
“Increasingtheageof
marriage is not a prior-
ity or even a necessity.
We must focus on better
and more accessible
schools, more sensitive
and widely-available
sexual and reproductive
health services, a more
robust nutrition pro-
gramme, laws that pro-
tect, and a system that
recognizes the agency
of young people over
their own lives,” said Se-
jal Dand of Anandi.
They also scrapped
the argument that early
marriages result in
higher Mother Mortali-
ty and Infant Mortality,
by pointing out that
women from the bottom
20% of households were
three times as likely to
be underweight as those
from the top 20% and 1.2
times more likely to be
anaemic, according to
the latest NFHS report.
No need to increase the marriageable age for women, experts say
BIGGER CONCERNS

Commended
govt for prior-
itizing lives and
well-being of
young women,
but said there
are other, more
effective ways
to do so
Brides at a mass marriage ceremony in Ahmedabad. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
1,272 new cases and 14 fatalities take Gujarat’s total tally to 92,601 cases and death toll to 2,978
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: Surat
now has 19,881 posi-
tive cases. And with
the recent average of
more than 200 cases a
day, the numbers
there are likely to
touch the 20,000 mark
on Saturday. With
this, Surat inches
ever closer to
Ahmedabad, which
has reported 31,103
positive cases.
In the past 24 hours,
the state has conducted
75,800 tests, of which
1,272 came back positive.
This too is the highest
numberof positivecases
in a single day. There are
now 15,072 active cases-
-the highest number of
cases since March--with
86 patients on ventilator
support.
Surat recorded the
highest number of new
cases, with 264. Of
these, 172 were from the
city and 92 were from
rural areas. Of the 201
patients being treated
for COVID-19 at the New
Civil Hospital and
SMIMER Hospital, 14
are on ventilator sup-
port, 32 are on BiPAP
machines and 84 are on
oxygen support.
In the past 24 hours,
Vadodara city has test-
ed 2,376 samples, of
which 122 were positive.
There are 1,608 active
cases in the city, with
160 patients on oxygen
support and 54 on Bi-
PAP machines and ven-
tilator support. The
city’s North zone ac-
counts for the highest
number of cases at
1,945, while the South
zone has 1,513. Rural
Vadodara reported 35
fresh cases, taking the
tally there to 1,701.
Congress MLA Har-
shad Ribadiya and his
son Raj have tested posi-
tive for COVID-19. More
cases have come
emerged from Saurash-
tra University, includ-
ing registrar Jatin Soni,
deputy registrar GK
Joshi, and syndicate
member Bhavin Kotha-
ri. With this, Saurash-
tra University has re-
corded 33 cases of COV-
ID-19.
Since the last few
days, Junagadh has
been reporting 20 new
cases every day. The dis-
trict has now seen a to-
tal of 1,601 cases, with
more cases emerging
from rural areas.
Cases also came in
from Ahmedabad (168),
Rajkot (112), Jamnagar
(92), Bhavnagar (65),
Gandhinagar (38),
Panchmahal(30),Amreli
(28) and Junagadh (25).
15K active cases in state, as
+ve cases in Surat near 20K
A’bad building collapse
leaves 1 dead, 2 injured
VMC oppn alleges scam
in purchase of tin sheet
CongprezdetainedduringNSUI’s
protestagainstJEE,NEETexams
Three marine
police boats
non-functional
in Okha
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: A two-
story commercial
complex collapsed in
Ahmedabad in the
early hours of Friday,
killing one person on
the spot. Two others
were rescued from the
rubble, officials said.
Prem Complex, a dec-
ades-oldbuildinghaving
around 10 shops and lo-
cated in the Kubernagar
area of Ahmedabad city,
came crashing down
around 1am, said fire of-
ficer Jayesh Khadia of
Ahmedabad Fire and
EmergencyServices.On
being alerted about
theincident,Khadiaand
his team rushed to the
spotandstartedasearch
and rescue operation
which continued until
about 7.30am.
The fire officers who
rushed to the area said
that it was a ground
plus two-floor commer-
cial building identified
as Prem Market in Ku-
bernagar area. The fire-
men said that they re-
ceived information that
three persons were bur-
ied in the debris. Two of
them were rescued and
admitted to the hospital
while one person had
died on the spot.
The officials said that
an embroidery ma-
chine was installed in
the shop where these
three people were pre-
sent. Officials said it
was unclear if the three
were working on the
machine or if they had
been sleeping when the
building came down.
Deputy Municipal
Commissioner Ketan
Thakkar said that the
incident took place late
in the night and the of-
ficials are checking
their records about the
building.Sources said
that the building had
been modified before
being put to commeri-
cal use.
First India Bureau
Vadodara: The op-
position party has
accused the Va-
dodara Municipal
Corporation of pay-
ing 1.5 times the ac-
tual cost to pur-
chase tin sheets, cit-
ing an emergency
situation. The may-
or refuted any such
claims but said that
the corporation
would conduct an
audit to alleviate
any suspicions.
“In the initial days
of the pandemic, they
might have had to buy
a few sheets at a pre-
mium in an emergen-
cy, but that is no ex-
cuse for consistently
buying these tin
sheets at a premium,”
she said.
The corporation
has purchased 13,500
square feet of tin
sheets in the last few
months.
“This should not
have cost more than
Rs1.50 crore at market
value. However, the
corporation has paid
Rs2.50 crore. The cor-
poration has many
suppliers. If all of
them put in high quo-
tations, the VMC
should have issued
fresh tenders inviting
new bidders. But the
corporation did not do
so because its officers
are hand-in-glove
with suppliers,” Raw-
at alleged.
In response, Va-
dodara’s Mayor Jigee-
sha Sheth said that
there was no clue that
the virus would
spread to the extent
that it has, and hence
there was no question
of advance planning.
The tin sheets were
purchased on emer-
gency basis, she said.
“First, they were
purchased for one
zone, and the excess
were used in other
zones. If there are
any irregularities in
purchasing tin
sheets, the auditing
department will look
into it. These sheets
will also be reused
later by the corpora-
tion for other purpos-
es,” she said.
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad/Surat/
Vadodara: The Con-
gress party’s state
unit chief Amit Chav-
da was among those
detained in
Ahmedabad on Fri-
day, as the party and
its student wing--the
National Students’
Union of India--held
statewide protests
against the NEET (Na-
tional Eligibility cum
Entrance Test) and
JEE (Joint Entrance
Examination) exams.
Congress and NSUI
supporters were also
detained in Vadodara
and Surat, where they
had taken to the street
to oppose the upcom-
ing entrance exams
for medical and engi-
neering courses, re-
spectively.
The NSUI, Congress,
and many others are op-
posing the upcoming
exams and demanding
that they be postponed
due to the COVID-19
pandemic. The Con-
gress has been arguing
that several ministers
and lakhs of citizens
have tested positive for
the virus despite follow-
ing all protocols. The
party’s position is that
the examinations would
put the lives of 26 lakh
students at risk even if
they followed all the
COVID-19 norms.
Chavda said that
more than 26 lakh stu-
dents are preparing for
both these exams.
“There is a need for
the exam, but not at the
cost of lives. Parlia-
ment has been shut for
the last six months,
courts are hearing cas-
es online, and trains
and airlines have been
suspended or are carry-
ing out limited opera-
tions. At such a critical
time, why is the Central
government keen on
conducting exams? The
government must listen
to students points and
postpone this exam,” he
asserted.
First India Bureau
Devbhumi Dwarka:
On July 23, the state
amended the Fisheries
Act to give the marine
police more power to
search and seize boats
for violation fishing
norms. A month later,
a report from Okha
states that the marine
police boats are non-
functional.
Okha Marine Police
Sub-Inspector RM
Mundhva has con-
firmed to the media
that the marine police
have not been able to
conduct regular ocean
patrols for the past few
months since three
speed boats of the Okha
marine police station
are not functional.
The new ordinance
empowered the marine
police to patrol the high
seas. However, members
of the local fisheries as-
sociation and boat own-
ers’ association had told
First India in July about
the limitation of marine
police.Theysaidthatthe
marine police hardly
went out a few nautical
mileswhentheydidven-
ture out to sea.
Two people were rescued in an operation that lasted six hours.
Workers from the local civic body installing tin sheets in a
micro-containment zone in Vadodara.
The state tested 75,800 samples in the past 24 hours. —FILE PHOTO
DAILY DATA
—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
Vadodara Ahmedabad
—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
Vadodara

G Vol 1 G Issue No. 273 G RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad.
Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
In whom there is no sympathy
for living beings: know him as
an outcast. —Buddha
Spiritual
SPEAK
Top
TWEET
Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp
The landmark judgement on
#Ayodhya that paved the way for
the construction of a grand Ram
Mandir or recording highest-
ever benchmarks of Parliament
productivity, #Modi2.0 has
been full of bold decisions and
historic achievements
Mallikarjun Kharge
@kharge
Govt’s decision to conduct
#JEE_NEET examinations during
an epidemic is illogical. It will put
the lives of lakhs of students at
risk & could be disastrous. The
Govt should re-evaluate their
decision on risking the students
lives to satisfy their egos.
#SpeakUpForStudentSafety
he Ujjain Kumbh Mela will be
celebrated from 22 April. It is
called the Simhastha Kumbha
and is very significant because
it is the twelfth of the twelve-
year solar cycles. The earth and
moon journey in cycles and
your life too is cyclical. Either
these can remain cycles of
bondage or, we can use them for
transcendence.Therearecycles
of various durations, the long-
est being of 144 years. Every 144
years, a distinctive situation
happens in the solar system,
and thus we have the Maha-
kumbha Mela once in 144 years.
In yoga, we see the solar sys-
tem as the potter’s wheel out of
which we have been churned.
The relationship between the
solar system and the body is
recognized and a lot of prac-
tices are designed to be in sync
with this. For example, within
the human system, there are
72,000 energy channels in the
body, which meet in 114 places
in significant ways. These plac-
es are called chakras. Of these
114, two are outside the physi-
cal body. With another four,
there is nothing much you can
do. So there are only 108 which
you can practically work with.
108 has manifested in the hu-
mansystembecauseitissignifi-
cant in the making of the solar
system. The distance between
the sun and earth is 108 times
the diameter of the sun. The di-
ameter of the sun is 108 times
the diameter of the earth. The
distance between the earth and
the moon is 108 times the diam-
eter of the moon. The human
system is also in sync with this.
15,000 years ago when Adiyo-
gi, the first yogi, was transmit-
ting yoga to his seven disciples,
the Saptarishis, or seven cele-
bratedsagesof India,hecharted
out how a human being has
evolved. Yoga does not mean
standing on your head, twisting
your body, or holding your
breath. Yogaisthescienceof in-
ner evolution. Adiyogi explored
every nut and bolt of creation
andbroughtforthyogaasatech-
nologywithwhicheveryhuman
being can evolve himself.
At one point, the Saptarishis
asked, “Can’t a human being
evolve further?” Adiyogi said,
“Unlesstherearedrasticchang-
es in the solar system, your
physical body cannot evolve
further; the physical laws will
not permit that.” It is very un-
canny that today, modern neu-
roscientists are saying some-
thing very similar. When people
ask, “Can’t we have a bigger
brain than what we have so that
we can do more things?” They
are saying, “The human brain
cannot evolve any further, not
because of neurological princi-
ples but because of physical
laws. We can only learn to use it
better, but we cannot evolve it
further because the only way
we can do that is to pack more
neurons in it. If we do that, clar-
itywillgoaway.”Manychildren
are born like this – they have
phenomenal intelligence but
they have no clarity. Over a pe-
riod of time, natural cycles will
kill some of the neurons and
bring them down to a balanced
state. If they don’t come down,
they will be not normal.
The other way for the brain to
evolve is for the neuronal size to
increase, in which case the
brain’s power consumption will
besohighthatthephysicalbody
cannot sustain it. In a restful
state, twenty percent of your en-
ergy is consumed in your brain.
If you increase the size of the
neurons, the volume of energy
that it will consume will be so
high that the physical body can-
not sustain it. This is because of
thephysicallaws,notbecauseof
neurologicalprinciples.Adiyogi
said this 15,000 years ago.
In yoga, we evolved a whole
system of practices as to how
to stay in sync with the solar
system so that your physical
health, your mental balance,
and your spiritual wellbeing is
not even an issue. It is some-
thing that naturally gets han-
dled once you fall in sync with
the whole system. Today we
ignore everything and try to
live. You can’t be well that way.
We have strived to produce
societies and a world with all
kinds of conveniences. But we
have not invested enough in the
inner wellbeing of a human be-
ing. We need infrastructure
which delivers inner possibili-
ties without fanciful belief sys-
tems; infrastructure where a
human being can turn inward
and explore himself. I am talk-
ing about inner exploration as
an experience, not a psycholog-
ical analysis. So it is essential
that we as individuals, as fami-
lies,ascommunities,asnations,
as humanity as a whole, invest
in developing a human being
into a much bigger possibility
than the way he is right now.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
T
SADHGURU, ISHA FOUNDATION
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential
people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic,
visionary and a New York Times bestselling
author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma
Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017,
the highest annual civilian award, accorded for
exceptional and distinguished service
IN SYNC WITH
THE COSMOS
In yoga, we
evolved a whole
system of
practices as to
how to stay in
sync with the
solar system so
that your
physical health,
your mental
balance, and
your spiritual
wellbeing is not
even an issue
THE OTHER WAY FOR THE BRAIN TO EVOLVE IS FOR THE
NEURONAL SIZE TO INCREASE, IN WHICH CASE THE BRAIN’S
POWER CONSUMPTION WILL BE SO HIGH THAT THE PHYSICAL
BODY CANNOT SUSTAIN IT. IN A RESTFUL STATE, TWENTY
PERCENT OF YOUR ENERGY IS CONSUMED IN YOUR BRAIN. IF
YOU INCREASE THE SIZE OF THE NEURONS, THE VOLUME OF
ENERGY THAT IT WILL CONSUME WILL BE SO HIGH THAT THE
PHYSICAL BODY CANNOT SUSTAIN IT
PARLIAMENT GEARS
UP FOR SESSION
arliament’s Monsoon Session is sched-
uled to be held from September 14 to Oc-
tober 1 under the shadow of the pandem-
ic. Protocols are being put in place, in-
cluding testing of all MPs and staff 72
hoursbeforethestartof thesession. Arrangements
for tests inside the House are also being made.
Speaker Om Birla met officials of the health minis-
try and others involved with tackling Covid-19 and
said, “All are to be tested is the first protocol.” Provi-
sions are being made for RT-PCR tests inside parlia-
ment every seven days. The protocol of social dis-
tancing will also be in place with members being
adjustedingalleries.TheSpeakersaidtheQuestion
Hour and the Zero Hours will be conducted and that
he was discussing modalities with all the parties.
How stormy will the session be? The Opposition
is expected to raise issues like the downward slide
in the economy, non-payment of GST compensa-
tion to states, and the Covid-19 situation which, it
says, the government has mishandled. The JEE
(Main) and NEET examinations will be over by the
time the session is convened, just in case the Su-
preme Court junks the review petition filed by six
states. Any adverse fallout on students in view of
the pandemic will give the Opposition a handle to
attack the government.
It will be interesting to see if members will
charge into the well forgetting social-distancing
protocol if they do not get a chance to be heard.
Hopefully, MPs will demonstrate maturity like
their counterparts in some state legislatures did.
They can always walk out and raise slogans.
P
IN-DEPTH
SONIA STRIKES BACK,
G23 BIDES TIME
ho said that the Grand Old Party’s cen-
tral leadership was comatose or lacked
the gumption to check dissidence? Well,
the party bosses have just shown signs of
life after a stirring letter from 23 senior
leaders demanding change in leadership and trans-
parent elections to party posts. In a strong message
to the Group of 23, which includes Ghulam Nabi
Azad, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma,
Manish Tiwari, and Jitin Prasada, Sonia Gandhi
reorganized the party’s parliamentary groups.
AnandpurSahibMPManishTiwarifoundhimself
sidelined as the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sab-
ha. Gaurav Gogoi, a two-time MP from Assam, has
beenpreferredoverhim.LudhianaMPRavneetSingh
Bittu is the new Whip. In the Rajya Sabha, KC Venu-
gopal will now be part of a five-member decision-
making group. Besides Azad and Anand Sharma the
Rajya Sabha group will also have Jairam Ramesh as
Chief Whip and Ahmed Patel, a Sonia loyalist. A
similar group in the Lok Sabha will comprise Adhir
RanjanChowdhary,Gogoi,andChief WhipK.Suresh.
Bittu and Manickkam Tagore will be the two Whips.
Thechangesgiveanideaof howthingswillshape
up in case Sonia Gandhi decides to demit office in
six months’ time. The LS group has loyalists of Ra-
hul Gandhi. In the RS, the loyalty of Azad and
Anand Sharma to the Gandhis may now be suspect
but Venugopal, Ahmed Patel, and Ramesh can be
counted upon. In nutshell, Sonia has removed im-
pediments that may come up in Rahul’s path to
presidentship. However, wait for G23’s next move.
W
ith some com-
munities in re-
booted lock-
down condi-
tions and
movement restricted
everywhere else, no one
is posting pictures of
their sourdough. Zoom
cocktail parties have lost
their novelty, Netflix can
only release so many
new series. The news
seems worse every day,
yet we compulsively
scroll through it.
We get distracted by so-
cial media, yet have a pile
of books unread. We keep
meaning to go outside but
somehow never find the
time. We’re bored, listless,
afraid and uncertain.
WHAT IS THIS
FEELING?
John Cassian, a monk
and theologian wrote in
the early 5th century
about an ancient Greek
emotion called acedia. A
mind “seized” by this
emotion is “horrified at
where he is, disgusted
with his room … It does
not allow him to stay
still in his cell or to de-
vote any effort to read-
ing”. He feels:
such bodily listlessness
and yawning hunger as
though he were worn by a
long journey or a prolonged
fast … Next he glances
about and sighs that no one
is coming to see him. Con-
stantlyinandoutof hiscell,
he looks at the sun as if it
were too slow in setting.
This sounds eerily fa-
miliar. Yet, the name that
so aptly describes our
current state was lost to
time and translation.
MORE THAN
A LABEL
Reviving the language of
acedia is important to our
experience in two ways.
First, it distinguishes the
complex of emotions
brought on by enforced iso-
lation,constantuncertainty
andthebarrageof badnews
from clinical terms like “de-
pression” or “anxiety”.
Saying, “I’m feeling
acedia” could legitimise
feelings of listlessness
and anxiety as valid
emotions in our current
context without induc-
ing guilt that others have
things worse.
Second, and more impor-
tantly, the feelings associ-
ated with physical isola-
tion are exacerbated by
emotional isolation – that
terrible sense that this
thing I feel is mine alone.
When an experience can be
named, it can be communi-
cated and even shared.
Learning to express
new or previously unrec-
ognised constellations
of feelings, sensations,
and thoughts, builds an
emotional repertoire,
which assists in emo-
tional regulation. Nam-
ing and expressing expe-
riences allows us to
claim some agency in
dealing with them.
As we, like Cassian’s de-
sert monks, struggle
through our own “long,
dark teatime of the soul”,
we can name this experi-
ence, which is now part of
our emotional repertoire..
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION
Acedia: The lost name for the emotion we’re all feeling
W

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INDIAAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
‘WHY SHOULD GOVT FORCE
ANYTHING ON YOU?’
New Delhi: The safety
of NEET-JEE aspirants
should not be compro-
mised due to the “fail-
ures of the govern-
ment”, Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi said, hit-
ting out a the centre
over its decision to hold
the medical & engineer-
ing entrance exams in
September amid the
coronavirus pandemic.
“NEET-JEE aspirants’
safety should not compro-
mised due to the failures
of the government. The
government must listen to
allstakeholdersandarrive
at a consensus,” Mr Gan-
dhi tweeted, along with a
videoof hismessagetothe
student community as
well as the government.
“You’re the future of
this country. You are the
students and you are go-
ing to take this country to
new heights...” Congress
MP said, targeting the
government over its han-
dling of Covid crisis.
“What I don’t under-
stand is why you should
be held responsible and
why further pain should
be imposed on you... So
why should the govern-
ment force anything on
you? It’s important that
the government listens to
the students,” he said in
the video.
NEET-JEE aspirants’
safetyshouldnotcompro-
mised due to the failures
of the Govt.
The crucial exams - the
Joint Entrance Exam
(JEE) & the National Eli-
gibility cum Entrance
Test (NEET) are to be
held in September. While
the JEE is scheduled
fromSeptember1to6,the
NEET exam is to be held
on September 13. The SC
had last week rejected a
petition by 11 students
from 11 states asking for
the exams to be deferred,
saying: “Life cannot be
stopped... Are students
ready to waste one whole
year?”
Congress & various
opposition parties have
demandedthattheexams
be deferred due to the
pandemic and floods in
parts of country, even as
centre has made it clear
that they will be held as
per schedule with due
precautions. —ANI
Begusarai: Union
Minister Giriraj Singh
on Friday, said, “He
is following the theory
of Hitler’s minister
Goebbels. during
COVID-19, when the
world accepted Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi as a manage-
ment guru Rahul
Gandhi is asking when
the vaccine will come.
It is not a child’s play,
there is a protocol for
coronavirus vaccine.
Three companies
are working. Despite
working during COV-
ID-19, Rahul Gandhi
is trying to discourage
people and it is not in
the national interest.”
—ANI
RAGA TRYING TO
DISCOURAGE
PEOPLE, SAYS
GIRIRAJ SINGH
RAHUL GANDHI ON NEET, JEE
CONG AND VARIOUS OPPN PARTIES HAVE DEMANDED THAT THE TWO
EXAMS BE DEFERRED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC & FLOODS IN COUNTRY
COVID-19
NO EXCUSE,
SAYS SC
New Delhi: SC refused to
entertain a petition seeking
postponement of the Bihar
Assembly elections due to
the coronavirus pandemic.
A bench headed by Justice
Ashok Bhushan and
comprising Justices R S
Reddy and MR Shah left
it to the Election Commis-
sion decide the schedule.
The apex court was
hearing a petition filed by
one Avinash Thakur, who
sought direction to the
Chief Election Commis-
sioner to postpone the
election till the state was
free of Covid-19. The
petitioner had argued that
Representation of People
Act allowed deferment in
extraordinary situations.
SC said this was not the
ground for postponement.
adding that the petition
was premature, as EC was
yet to announce the poll
schedule. —PTI
New Delhi: Delhi HC
dismissed a plea by
Mehul Choksi, the un-
cle of diamantaire
Nirav Modi, seeking a
preview of a series to
be aired by video
streaming platform
Netflix next month.
The series, ‘Bad Boy
Billionaires’, focusses
on the fraud commit-
ted by many high-pro-
file business tycoons
in India. The poster
released by Netflix
shows Choksi’s neph-
ew Nirav Modi, Sub-
rata Roy of the Sahara
Group, chairperson of
the now-defunct King-
fisher Airlines , Vijay
Mallya, and Ramalin-
ga Raju, the former
chairperson and CEO
of Satyam Computer
Services.
HC said Choksi can
file a civil suit as what
is being alleged as an
infringement by him
is a private right and
can be exercised in a
civil suit. It also re-
fused to grant him a
preview stating that
there are no regula-
tions to control con-
tent being streamed on
OTT platforms. —PTI
Choksi’s plea seeking preview
of Netflix series dismissed
IN THE COURTYARD
RAHUL GANDHI @RAHULGANDHI
NEET-JEE aspirants’ safety should not
compromised due to the failures of the Govt.
Govt must listen to all stakeholders and arrive at a
consensus.#SpeakUpForStudentSafety
New Delhi: The Su-
preme Court sought the
Centre’s response on a
PIL seeking directions
for framing of guide-
lines identifying minor-
ities at the state level as
the Hindus are in a mi-
nority in 10 states and
are not able to avail the
benefits of schemes
meant for minorities.
A bench of Justices
Sanjay Kishan Kaul,
Ajay Rastogi and Anir-
uddha Bose issued no-
tices to the Ministries
of Home Affairs, Law
and Justice, and Minor-
ity Affairs and sought
replies in six weeks.
Appearing for the pe-
titioner, senior advo-
cate Vikas Singh said
Hindus are in minority
in 10 states but have not
been declared so.
The PIL, filed by BJP
leader and advocate
Ashwini Kumar Upad-
hyay, said it has also
challenged the validity
of Section 2(f) of the
National Commission
for Minority Education
Institution Act 2004, for
giving unbridled power
to the Centre and being
manifestly arbitrary, ir-
rational and offending.
The plea, filed
through advocate
Ashwani Kumar Dubey,
said denial of benefits
to the “real” minorities
and arbitrary and un-
reasonable disburse-
ments under schemes
meant for them to the
absolute majority, in-
fringes upon the funda-
mental right under the
Constitution.
“Direct and declare
that followers of Juda-
ism, Bahaism & Hindu-
ism, who are minorities
in Laddakh, Mizoram,
Lakshdweep, Kashmir,
Nagaland, Meghalaya,
Arunachal Pradesh,
Punjab and Manipur,
canestablish&adminis-
ter educational institu-
tions of their choice in
spirit of the TMA Pai
Ruling,” the plea said.
The apex court in
TMA Pai Foundation
case held that the state
is well within its rights
to introduce a regulato-
ry regime in the nation-
al interest to provide
minority educational
institutions with well-
qualified teachers in or-
der for them to achieve
excellence in education.
The plea said that mi-
norities whether based
on religion or language
shall have the right to
establish-administer
educational institutions
of their choice.
“Rational basis of de-
claring certain religions
as minority by Central
government as they
have less population in
the States is contra-
vened when benefits of
schemes for minority
are acquired by those
religious minorities in
states where they are in
majority & those reli-
gious communities who
are actually minorities
are not been given equal
status.” —PTI
BSP ANNOUNCES 8 CANDIDATES
FOR MADHYA PRADESH BYPOLLS
Bhopal: The Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) has
announced names of
eight candidates for
the by-elections to 27
Assembly constituencies
in Madhya Pradesh. The
list of candidates for eight
seats, which are in Gwali-
or-Chambal region, was
finalised by party presi-
dent and former UP CM
Mayawati, party sources
said. Party has fielded ex-
MLA Soneram Kushwaha
from Joura, Ram Prakash
Rajoria from Morena,
Yogesh Meghsingh
Narwaria from Mehgaon,
Kailash Kushwaha from
Pohri, Bhanu Pratapsingh
Sakhwar from Ambah,
Jaswant Patwari from
Ambah, Santosh Gaud
from Dabra Rajendra
Jatav from Pohri.
CURRENT SITUATION IN LADAKH
AS SEVERE AS 1962: SHIV SENA
Mumbai: Shiv Sena said that current situation in
Ladakh is as severe as that of 1962, apparently
referring to India-China war, but asserted that
Indian Army will not allow the history to repeat.
In its mouthpiece Saamana, the party said, “To-
day’s India is not that of 1962. It is much more
powerful than that. Despite acknowledging this,
Chinese infiltration & land grabbing activities
have not reduced. Indian Army will not allow to
repeat the history of 1962. The situation in Lada-
kh currently is as severe as that of 1962.”
HEAVY RAIN DAMAGES HOUSES
IN U’KHAND’S DHARCHULA
Uttarakhand: Heavy rain and land slides caused
extensive damage in Uttrakhand’s Dharchula
district. Many houses have been badly damaged.
Residents have requested the local administration
to allow them to look for their belongings that
are still under the rubble. The debris of damaged
houses has blocked roads creating problems for
the locals to move from one place to another. We
had made it a priority to keep people safe, then
save their properties and clear blocked roads,”
said Anil Kumar Shukla, SDM of Dharchula.
LEFT TARGETS CENTRE OVER ‘ACT
OF GOD’ REMARK ON GST REVENUE
New Delhi: The CPI(M)
hit out at the government
over the shortfall in GST
revenues and claimed
it was “blaming the
heavens” after its “crony-
ism, incompetence and
callousness” destroyed
the economy. The Centre
on Thursday placed
before the GST Council
two options for borrow-
ing by states to meet the
shortfall in GST reve-
nues pegged at 2.35
lakh crore in the current
fiscal. Briefing reporters
after the 41st meeting of
the GST Council, Union
Finance Minister Nirma-
la Sitharaman said the
economy has been hit by
the COVID-19 pandemic,
which is an ‘’Act of God’’,
and it will see a contrac-
tion in the current fiscal.
SC notice to Centre on
PIL for identifying
minorities at state level
BHIMA KOREGAON CASE
Bombay HC rejects bail
plea of Sudha Bharadwaj
Mumbai: The Bom-
bay HC dismissed the
bail plea by Sudha
Bharadwaj, one of the
activists arrested in
the Bhima Koregaon
case, filed on medical
grounds in view of the
Covid-19 outbreak in
prisons. The court
said the state will con-
tinue providing medi-
cal aid in prison for
ailments. Bhardwaj is
lodged in Mumbai’s
Byculla Women’s Jail.
Bharadwaj had filed
an appeal before the
Bombay HC against
special NIA court’s re-
jection of her interim
bail plea on medical
grounds.—Agencies
POSTPONEMENT
OF BIHAR POLLS
Fodder Scam: Hearing on Lalu’s bail plea deferred
Ranchi: The
Jharkhand High
Court on Friday de-
ferred for September
11 hearing on the bail
plea of former Bihar
Chief Minister and
RJD supremo Lalu Ya-
dav in connection
with a case related to
the fodder scam.
Lalu Yadav is cur-
rently undergoing
medical treatment at
the Rajendra Institute
of Medical Sciences
(RIMS)inJharkhand’s
Ranchi. He has been
in the hospital for sev-
eral months now. Ya-
dav, who has been in
prison since Decem-
ber 2017, was sen-
tenced to seven years
of imprisonment in
2018 under the IPC
and seven years under
the Prevention of Cor-
ruption Act in connec-
tion with the fodder
scam case.
Notably, both the
sentences are being
served consecutively.
The case pertains to
fraudulent withdraw-
al of Rs 3.5 crore from
Dumka treasury by
Animal Husbandry
Department officials
between 1991 1996
when Lalu served as
the State’s Chief Min-
ister. —ANI
BPR&D’s role vital in
strengthening India’s
internal security: Shah
New Delhi: TheBureau
of Police Research and
Development (BPR&D)
has played an important
role in strengthening In-
dia’s internal security,
Union Home Minister
Amit Shah said, while
congratulating the or-
ganisation on its Golden
Jubilee Anniversary on
Friday.
“Greetings to the Bu-
reau of Police Research
and Development on its
Golden Jubilee Anni-
versary. The BPR&D
has played a vital role
in strengthening In-
dia’s internal security
through research and
development. I salute
BPR&D’s continuous
quest for a robust and
modern police system
in the country,” Shah
tweeted. Sharing de-
tails about the organi-
sation, the BPR&D ear-
lier said, “The Bureau
of Police Research and
Development was
raised on August 28,
1970, through a resolu-
tion of MHA, with a
mandate to promote ex-
cellence in policing,
promote systematic
study of police prob-
lems etc. —ANI
J&K: MHA
NOTIFIES RULES
OF TRANSACTION
“In exercise of the pow-
ers conferred by Section
55 of the Jammu and
Kashmir Reorganization
Act, 2019, read with the
Proclamation, dated 31st
October 2019 issued
under section 73 of the
said Act, the President
hereby makes the follow-
ing rules,” MHA said in a
notification.

INDIAAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
New Delhi: After 60,177
patients recovered in
the last 24 hours, India’s
COVID-19recoveriesare
nearing 26 lakh and
there are only 22 per
cent active cases in the
country, the MOHFW
informed on Friday.
“With more patients
recovering and being
discharged from home
isolation (in case of
mild and moderate cas-
es) and hospitals (se-
vere and critical cases),
India’s COVID-19 recov-
eries are nearing 26
lakh. 60,177 have recov-
ered in the last 24 hours.
With these national fig-
ures, the Recovery Rate
has touched 76.28 per
cent,” read a release by
the Ministry. “The num-
ber of recoveries is
nearly 3.5 times the ac-
tive cases, which com-
prise 21.90 per cent of
the total cases,” it said.
The gap between re-
coveries and active cas-
es now increased to
18,41,925.
The Union Health
Ministry said that the
early focus on surveil-
lance and contact trac-
ing through house-to-
house survey was con-
tinuously strengthened
with an increase in test-
ing for ensuring early
identification of posi-
tive cases.
“This has ensured
prompt isolation of the
confirmed positive cas-
es either in supervised
home care for the mild
and moderate cases,
and hospitalisation in
case of those who are
exhibiting critical
symptoms,” it said.—ANI
INDIA’SRECOVERIESNEAR26LAKH
Recovery rate rises to 76.28% The Case Fatality Rate has dropped at 1.82%
India witnessed a record single-day spike of 77,266 cases in the last 24 hours
COVID-19 infected patients interact with health workers inside a ward at the CWG Village sports
complex, temporarily converted into a Covid care centre, in New Delhi.
Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty arrives at the DRDO guest house in Mumbai on Friday.
New Delhi: A current
India limited-overs
cricketer is among
multiple members of
the Chennai Super
Kings contingent who
have tested positive for
COVID-19, forcing the
franchise to extend its
quarantine period in
Dubai ahead of the IPL.
An league source re-
vealed that all COV-
ID-19 positive results
came during day 1, 3
and 6 of testing after
the contingent’s land-
ing in Dubai. The IPL is
due to begin on Septem-
ber 19. “Yes, a right-
arm medium fast bowl-
er, who has recently
played for India, along
with a few staff mem-
bers have tested posi-
tive for COVID-19,” a
senior IPL source told
PTI on conditions of
anonymity. —PTI
Covid hits IPL:
India bowler,
staff of CSK
test positive
Mumbai: Actor Rhea
Chakraborty was on
Friday questioned by
the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) for
the first time since it
took over the probe into
the death of Sushant
Singh Rajput.
Chakraborty was
summoned by the cen-
tral agency to appear
before its probe team on
Friday around 10.30am.
Chakraborty, Rajput’s
girlfriend, left her resi-
dence around 10am to
reach the DRDO guest
house in suburban San-
tacruz, where the probe
team is stationed, news
agency PTI reported.
Chakraborty reached
the DRDO guesthouse
in Mumbai’s Santacruz
East area along with
her brother Shovik
where she will be ques-
tioned by the central
agency.
BeforeChakraborty’s
arrival, Rajput’s friend
and flatmate Siddharth
Pithani and manager
Samual Miranda had
reached the DRDO
guest house to join the
investigation.
The CBI team, which
is in the city since the
last eight days to inves-
tigate the case, on
Thursday recorded Sho-
vik’s statement for
more than eight hours.
Chakraborty’s father
has also been ques-
tioned by several inves-
tigators. —PTI
Vaishali
New Delhi: More than
40.35 crore people ben-
efited from the Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yoja-
na which was launched
six years ago as a na-
tional mission for fi-
nancial inclusion, Fi-
nance Minister Nirma-
la Sitharaman said on
Friday.
The Jan Dhan Yojana,
which was announced
by PM Modi in his Inde-
pendence Day address
in 2014, was launched
on August 28, in the
same year. The PMJDY
has been the foundation
stone for Modi govern-
ment’s people-centric
economic initiatives.
PMJDY has brought unbanked
into banking system: Anurag
KAUN BANEGA TRAI CHAIRMAN
Rita Teotia Name of Rita Teotia is also in cir-
culation in the corridors of power for the post
of Chairman of the TRAI. 1981 batch Gujarat
cadre IAS officer Teotia who had been additional
Secretary in the Telocom Ministry is presently
Chairperson of FSSAI.
HAS SOMEONE STALLED EXTENSION
OF CBDT CHAIRMAN MODY ?
Still, order of extension in service to CBDT Chair-
man P C Mody is awaited. Though P C Mody is
ahead yet name of S K Gupta has also cropped up.
VACANCY OF CHAIRMAN, PESB
ARISING ON SEPT 1
A vacancy of Chairman, Public Enterprises Se-
lection Board (PESB) is arising on September 1,
2020 with the incumbent Rajiv Kumar joining as
Election Commissioner.
NARESH KUMAR LIKELY
TO MOVE TO DELHI
The name of Naresh Kumar is doing the rounds
for the post of CS, Delhi if Vijay Dev move to GoI.
He is a 1987 batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer and
presently posted as CS, Arunachal Pradesh.
WHO WILL BE NEW CEO OF SANSAD TV?
Formality of the merger of the Lok Sabha TV and
the Rajya Sabha TV is over. Now a search of new
CEO of the Sansad TV has begun.
NINE IPS OFFICERS RETIRING IN AUGUST
As many as nine IPS officers of various cadres
and batches are retiring in August, 2020. They
include: J Prabhakar Rao of AP; S Nithiyanan-
dam of UT; N Shankar Reddy of Kerala; Rajendra
Kumar of MP; Jitendra Debbarma of Tripura;
Jawahar Lal Tripathi and R P Pandey of UP; Sashi-
kant Pujari and Tamal Basu of West Bengal.
WILL TAJ HASAN JOIN GOI?
Rumours are high that Taj Hasan, Spl Commis-
sioner in Delhi Police, is likely to go on deputation
to government of India. He is an AGMUT cadre
IPS officer.
WHO WILL BE NEW CHANDIGARH
POLICE CHIEF ?
Lobbying has started to grab the post of Police
Chief, Chandigarh, which is ADG level. It is said
that Niraj Thakur and Satyendra Garg are report-
edly in the race for the prestigious post. Both
are AGMUT cadre IPS officers. Garg is presently
posted as JS in MHA while Thakur is working with
the Delhi Police.
DEPUTATION TENURE OF RAJU
BHARGAVA AS IG, CRPF EXTENDED
The deputation tenure of Raju Bhargava working
as IG, CRPF, has been extended upto Novem-
ber 1, 2020. He is a 1995 batch IPS officer of
Gujarat cadre.
NEW NAMES OF SIX JUDICIAL OFFICERS
RECOMMENDED FOR MP HC ?
Six new names of six Judicial officers are
believed to have been recommended for the eleva-
tion in MP High Court. They are Mssrs- Anil Ver-
ma, principal registrar Indore. Sunita Yadav dis-
trict judge Datia Satyendra Singh, PS law. Arun
Sharma, district judge chattarpur. Deepak kumar
Agrawal, District judge Gwalior and Rajendra
kumar Verma, district judge Bhopal.
WILL U K SINGH BE NEW
SECRETARY, LOK SABHA
SECRETARIAT?
Utpal Kumar Singh, former Chief Secretary of
Uttarakhand, is being appointed as Secretary, Lok
Sabha Secretariat? He is a 1986 batch retired IAS
officer of Uttarakhand cadre.
POWERGallery
Universities
asked...
The state is hopeful that
new educational policy
will play a great role in
the personality develop-
ment of students in the
future.
NEP 2020 also includes
provisions for a 360-de-
gree integrated report
card that will include
marks achieved by stu-
dents as well as a grade
for their skills and other
aspects.Thepolicyisalso
expectedtogivefinancial
autonomy to 45,000 col-
leges affiliated with vari-
ous universities.
No final...
of all stakeholders that
is students as well as the
exam functionaries and
hence challenge to the
Guidelines on the
ground of it being viola-
tive of Article 21 is re-
pelled. The bench, while
disposing of a batch of
petitions filed by stu-
dents, private organisa-
tions and Shiv Sena’s
youth wing Yuva Sena’,
framed seven issues and
saidthattheJuly6guide-
lines of the UGC cannot
be ignored by terming it
as non-statutory or advi-
sory in nature.—PTI
6 oppn-ruled...
and students can’t lose
a precious year due to
the pandemic.
The apex court had
dismissed a plea by one
Sayantan Biswas seek-
ing direction to Nation-
al Testing Agency
(NTA), which conducts
both the NEET and JEE
exams, to postpone
them and said that
there was absolutely”
no merit in the plea.
Japan’s PM...
partnership has be-
come deeper and
stronger than ever be-
fore. I wish and pray for
your speedy recovery.”
Abe said that he
would step down be-
cause his worsened con-
dition and treatment
could threaten the deci-
sion-making process.
“In politics, getting
results is the most im-
portantthing.Facingill-
ness and treatment and
being in poor physical
form, I could not let my-
self make mistakes in
important political deci-
sions and fail to achieve
results,” he said further.
“I have decided that I
should not continue to
hold the position of the
prime minister, as I can
no longer firmly carry
outthemandategivento
me by the people. I’ve
decided to resign as
Prime Minister,” said
Abe. The resignation
will trigger a leadership
race in the ruling Lib-
eral Democratic Party
(LDP) - most likely in
two or three weeks - and
the winner must be for-
mally elected in parlia-
ment. The new party
leader will hold the post
for the rest of Abe’s
term. Whoever wins the
party poll is likely to
keep Abe’s reflationary
“Abenomics” policies as
Japan struggles with
the impact of the novel
coronavirus, but may
have trouble emulating
the political longevity
that may be Abe’s big-
gest legacy. —ANI
Cong’s
Vasanthakumar...
During my interactions
with him, I always saw
his passion towards Ta-
mil Nadu’s progress.
Condolences to his fam-
ily and supporters,” he
said. Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi tweeted,
“The news of Kanyaku-
mari MP, Shri H Vasan-
thakumar’s untimely
demise due to Covid-19
has come as a shock. His
commitment to the con-
gress ideology of serv-
ing the people will re-
main in our hearts for-
ever. Heartfelt condo-
lences to his friends and
family members.” Ku-
mar was a multifaceted
personality. He was a
philanthropist, cultural
promoter, and writer.
FROM PG 1
New Delhi: Former
president Pranab
Mukherjee con-
tinued to be in a
deep coma and on
ventilator support.
But he is haemo-
dynamically stable,
the Army Hospital,
Delhi Cantonment
said here on Friday.
“Former president
Pranab Mukherjee is
under intensive care
and is being treated
for lung infection and
renal dysfunction.
He continues to be
in deep coma and on
ventilator support. He
is haemodynamically
stable,” it said. The
former President had
tested positive for
COVID-19 and under-
gone surgery for a
brain clot at R&R on
August 10.
‘PRANAB STILL IN
DEEP COMA’
CBIgrillsRheaChakraborty
SUSHANT SINGH DEATH CASE
‘CBI SHOULD ARREST RHEA IMMEDIATELY’
PUNJAB CM GOES INTO SELF-QUARANTINE
By arrangement with : http://
whispersinthecorridors.com
Under the leadership of PM Modi,
PMJDY has brought the unbanked
into the banking system, ex-
panded the financial architecture
of India and brought financial
inclusion to over 40 crore account
holders and a majority of the ben-
eficiaries are women and most of
the accounts are from rural India.
—Anurag Thakur, MoS, Finance
PM Modi hails achievements of
‘PMJDY’ as it completes 6 years
New Delhi: The Prad-
han Mantri Jan Dhan
Yojana that was
launched with an am-
bitious aim of bank-
ing the unbanked
completed six years
on Friday, said Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi.
Taking to Twitter,
Prime Minister Modi
wrote, “Today, six
years ago, the Prad-
han Mantri Jan Dhan
Yojana was launched
with an ambitious
aim of banking the
unbanked. This initi-
ative has been a game-
changer, serving as
the foundation for
many poverty allevia-
tion initiatives, bene-
fitting crores of peo-
ple. #6YearsOfJanDh-
anYojana.” The Prime
Minister added that
the high number of
beneficiaries of this
scheme are from rural
areas and are women.
“Thanks to the
Pradhan Mantri Jan
Dhan Yojana, the fu-
ture of several fami-
lies has become se-
cure. A high propor-
tion of beneficiaries
are from rural areas
and are women. I also
applaud all those who
have worked tireless-
ly to make PM-JDY a
success,” he wrote in
another tweet. —ANI
PM Narendra Modi
New Delhi: Defence
Minister Rajnath Singh
will formally induct the
five Rafale fighter air-
craft into the IAF on
September 10 at the Am-
bala air base in Hary-
ana in a ceremony for
which French Defence
Minister Florence Parly
would also be invited.
Defence sources said
that the induction cere-
mony would be held af-
ter the return of the De-
fence Minister from
Russia where he is
scheduled to attend the
meeting of the Defence
Ministers of the mem-
ber countries of the
Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation from Sep-
tember 4 to 6. Rafale air-
craft induction ceremo-
ny would be held on
September 10 with De-
fence Minister as the
Chief Guest.TheFrench
Defence Minister is also
being sent an invite to
attend the event.
Rajnath to induct
Rafale jet on Sept 10

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
In a country that has
revered sporting super-
stars like Sachin Ten-
dulkar,ViratKohli,and
Balbir Singh Sr. among
others, hockey player
Major Dhyan Chand
has reserved a special
place for himself. Born
in Allahabad (Praya-
graj) in Uttar Pradesh
on August 29, 1905, as
DhyanSingh,heroseto
prominence in the pre-
independence period.
Star of the Indian
hockey team that domi-
nated the sport in the
years before World War
II, Dhyan Singh played
an important role
in helping India com-
plete their first hat-
trick of Olympic gold
medalswithwinsatthe
1928, 1932 and 1936
Summer Olympics.
Starting his hockey ca-
reer with the regimen-
tal team of the British
Indian Army, a young
Dhyan Singh was a spe-
cial talent. But what
made him stand out
was his dedication to
his craft.
With most of the day
spent in regimental du-
ties, Dhyan Singh
would practice his
hockey in the night un-
der the moonlight, a
reason that earned
him the name Dhyan
Chand (Chand means
moon in Hindi).
He would rise
through the ranks in
the coming years, help-
ing his teams with
the various inter-
Army match-
es, and soon
be called up for the In-
dian hockey team for
the 1928 Olympics.
There would be no
lookingbackfromthere
as Dhyan Chand went
on to rule the world of
hockeywithhisdelight-
ful stick work and un-
derstanding of the
game that earned him
the moniker of 'Hockey
Wizard' and 'The Magi-
cian'.
The hockey legend’s
career spanned from
1926 to 1948 and ended
as one of the greatest
hockey players of all
timeafterhavingrepre-
sented India 185 match-
es and scored over 400
goals during this peri-
od. While he retired as
a Major in the Punjab
Regiment of the Indian
Army in 1956, the Indi-
angovernmentwenton
to confer the Padma
Bhushan-third-highest
civilian award - the
same year.
CELEBRATED ON THE BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF HOCKEY WIZARD DHYAN CHAND, THE NATIONAL
SPORTS DAY IS ALSO A TIMELY REMINDER FOR THE NEED FOR SPORTING ACTIVITIES IN LIFE
NATIONAL SPORTS DAY
MORE THAN JUST A DAY OF
CELEBRATION IN INDIA
T
he National Sports in In-
dia is celebrated on Au-
gust 29. It was included
in the list of celebratory
days in India for the first time in
2012. It is celebrated to commem-
orate the birth anniversary of
hockey legend Dhyan Chand
Singh. States like Haryana, Pun-
jab, and Karnataka, among oth-
ers, organise various sporting
events and seminars aimed at
spreading awareness about the
importance of physical ac-
tivities and sports in life.
Over the years, the
government has
also used this day as a platform to
launch various sports schemes,
including the Khelo India move-
ment, which was announced by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
in 2018. But there’s more. The
National Sports Day is also an
occasion that sees the nation
honour its sporting heroes with
recognitions like the Rajiv Gan-
dhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award,
Dhyan Chand Award, and the
Dronacharya Award. At a spe-
cial ceremony held at the Rash-
trapati Bhavan, the President of
India takes this day to confer
these awards.
Awarded by the central gov-
ernment, the National Sports
Awards is a recognition of an ath-
lete’s contribution to their discipline.
The highest sporting honour, the Rajiv
Gandhi Khel Ratna, is reserved for the out-
standing performer, usually handed out to the
Olympic medallist in an Olympic year, and the
Arjuna Award recognises the achievements of the
athletes in the seasons gone by.
The Dronacharya Award, meanwhile, is conferred on
the best coaches in the country, including foreign coaches
who have contributed to the development of the sport in India.
And the Dhyan Chand Award recognises the lifetime contribution
of an athlete in his field. While the Individual National Sports Fed-
erations (NSF) and the athletes are free to file nominations for the
awards, an award committee constituted by the sports ministry takes it
upon itself to recommend potential awardees to the government.
Constituted in 1991, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was first awarded to India’s
first-ever Grand Master and a five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand.
The Arjuna Award is the oldest among all with the first award being handed out in
1961, while the Dronacharya Award came into being in 1985. The Dhyan Chand award
is the latest with the first recipients, Shahuraj Birajdar (boxing), Ashok Diwan (hockey),
and Aparna Ghosh (basketball), receiving their awards in 2002.
NATIONAL
SPORTS AWARDS
WHO IS DHYAN CHAND?
DHYAN CHAND (STANDING SECOND FROM LEFT) WITH THE INDIAN HOCKEY TEAM AT THE 1936
BERLIN OLYMPICS. PHOTO: OLYMPIC ARCHIVES.
SOURCE:WEB
CONCEPT:DIVYAHEMNANI
DESIGN:CPSHARMA

There are only two types of
people in this world, those who
want to embrace peace and those
who don’t.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India
AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
08
2NDFRONT
A concerned Chief Secretary Anil Mukim asks labour dept to ensure compliance with safety norms
Darshan Desai
Gandhinagar: In an
arguably unusual de-
velopment, the Guja-
rat Government that
is known for being
more friendly to in-
dustrial growth and
less to labour welfare,
took cognizance of in-
dustrial accidents in
the State at the high-
est level with Chief
Secretary Anil
Mukim holding a re-
view of the scenario
here on Friday.
The numbers reflect
the picture: As many as
130 workers were killed
in industrial accidents
in Gujarat from Janu-
ary to July 2020 and 74
of them died after the
Covid-19-induced lock-
down was lifted in a
phased manner. Ac-
cording to the Directo-
rate of Industrial Safe-
ty and Health (DISH),
the State reported 89
industrial accidents up
to July this year and 51
among them occurred
after the lockdown was
lifted.
The State Govern-
ment has taken a seri-
ous note of the indus-
trial accidents and
directed the officials
concerned to ensure
compliance with safe-
ty requirements by
factories. Chief Sec-
retary Anil Mukim
convened a meeting
with the State Labour
and Employment De-
partment, headed by
ACS Vipul Mittra,
and reviewed the
safety requirements
in factories.
He sought minute de-
tails about the on-site
and off-site emergency
plans for manufactur-
ing, storing and import-
ing hazardous chemi-
cals, preparedness and
response in the case of
chemical accidents.
Labour activists told
First India that the gov-
ernment might be look-
ing at the workers’ safe-
ty but if the State was
serious, it should have
qualified industrial hy-
gienists while it boasted
of having 4 hygiene
laboratories.
“Why is the govern-
ment not speaking of
the workers’ health and
working conditions,”
asked Jagdish Patel, di-
rector of Vadodara-
based People’s Training
and Research Centre.
He pointed out, “More
than 30% of the posts of
inspectors have been
vacant for a long time.”
At the meeting, Vipul
Mittra said, “Industrial
accidents can be avoid-
ed if all safety meas-
ures are followed. The
number of accidents
have come down be-
cause of our efforts.”
Mukim also re-
viewed compliance of
provisions related to
site approval by Petro-
leum and Explosives
Safety Organization
(PESO) during ap-
praisal of projects
while granting envi-
ronmental clearances.
After 130 deaths in 7 months, Guj
‘serious’ about industrial accidents
The Gujarat Government has taken a serious note of industrial accidents in the State.
BELATED AND LOPSIDED APPROACH?
NIA searches home
of alleged ISI agent
in Kutch district
First India Bureau
Bhuj: The National
Investigation Agency
(NIA) on Thursday
conducted searches
at the house of one
Razak Sumarbhai
Kumbhar in Mun-
dra’s in Kutch dis-
trict in connection
with a case relating
to ISI agents, officials
said on Friday.
The NIA had re-
cently arrested an ISI
agent for allegedly
sending photographs
of sensitive and stra-
tegically important
installations and in-
formation of the
movement of the
armed forces to sus-
pected handlers of
Pakistan’s ISI.
He was identified
as Mohammad
Rashid from Chan-
doli district in Uttar
Pradesh. During the
investigation, it was
revealed that Rashid
was in contact with
ISI handlers in Paki-
stan and had visited
the neighbouring
country twice.
He reportedly
transmitted photo-
graphs of some stra-
tegically important
installations in India
and also shared in-
formation about the
movement of the
armed forces with
ISI handlers in Paki-
stan.
It was also found
that Razak had trans-
ferred Rs 5,000
through Paytm to
one Rizwan, who in
turn handed it over
to Rashid. The trans-
action, officials
claim, was on in-
structions by ISI for
the information sup-
plied.
During the search-
es at the house of Ra-
jak Kumbhar, the
NIA officials claimed
to have found several
incriminating docu-
ments.
Received ED notice? Beware,
this may be by fraudsters
First India Bureau
New Delhi: The En-
forcement Directorate
(ED) has asked the po-
lice in Karnataka, Ma-
harashtra, West Ben-
gal, Haryana, Gujarat
and Delhi to be on the
lookout for a gang that
specialises in cheating
and harassing people
by issuing notices to
banks and traders in
the guise of financial
probe agencies.
The agency is also in
touch with the police of
other States too to gath-
er details about such
crimes. In a written
communication to the
Director-Generalsof Po-
lice of many States, the
ED has asked them to be
on the alert.
The Delhi Crime
Branch earlier this
week arrested five such
persons.
VADODARA’S GUJARAT FLYING
CLUB TO TRAIN DRONE PILOTS
First India Bureau
Vadodara: Vadodara-
based Gujarat Flying
Club has received ap-
proval from the Direc-
tor General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA) to con-
duct remote pilot train-
ing using Remotely Pi-
loted Aircraft Systems
(RPAS) or drones.
This takes the total
number of drone train-
ing schools in the coun-
try to 12. According to
Amber Dubey, Joint
Secretary, Ministry of
Civil Aviation, drone
training institutes will
bring in standardisa-
tion and better quality
control in the fast-grow-
ing drone ecosystem.
Dubey said, “With
the addition of Gujarat
Flying Club, Vadodara
in the DGCA approved
drone training list, the
number of approved
drone schools has
reached twelve.”
The approval is sub-
ject to conditions and
limitations applicable
to the Gujarat Flying
Club for conducting the
remote pilot training at
its premises in Va-
dodara using Remotely
Piloted Aircraft Sys-
tems.
First India Bureau
Vadodara: Even as
some 3,000-odd lan-
guages from the total
7,000 in the world are
facing extinction, lin-
guisticsexpertGanesh
N Devy of Vadodara
claims the situation in
India is alarming with
at least 197 languages
being “endangered”
and the number is the
highest in the world.
And this is not the en-
tire picture. Devy, who
has documented 780 liv-
ing languages, goes to
the extent of saying that
“400of themareatarisk
of dying.”
Devy, who is the
founder-director of the
Bhasa Research and
Publication Centre, Va-
dodara, and Adivasi
AcademyatTejgadh,in
Gujarat, says, “India
may have lost 220 lan-
guages since 1961.
There were 1,100 lan-
guages since 1961,
based on the Census
number of 1,652 moth-
ertongues.Another150
languagescouldvanish
in the next 50 years.”
Gujarat’s Sidi and
Bhili,KoroinArunachal
Pradesh, Sidi and Dima-
sa in Assam are facing
extinction. There are
five tribal languages
inching towards extinc-
tion in India and the
most threatened is Ma-
jhiinSikkim.According
to a research conducted
by People’s Linguistic
Survey of India, there
are just four people who
currently speak Majhi
andallof thembelongto
the same family.
Until recently, UNE-
SCO has put Asur,
Birhor and Korwa in its
listof theworld’sendan-
gered languages with
Birhor being catego-
rised as ‘Critically En-
dangered’, with just
2,000 speakers left.
According to UNE-
SCO, any language spo-
ken by less than 10,000
people is potentially en-
dangered. In India, after
the 1971 census, the gov-
ernment decided not to
include any language
spoken by less than
10,000 people.
From 1971 onwards,
the Census has been
counting only those
languages with more
than 10,000 speakers.
This has led to a de-
cline in the list of lan-
guages to 108 in the
1971Census,asagainst
1,652 a decade ago.
With Gujarat’s Sidi & Bhili, 200-plus languages face extinction
STEPPING INTO OBLIVION

Researchers
say the world
over 3,000
languages are
“endangered”
and India re-
ports the high-
est number
Scores of tribal languages in India, including in Gujarat, are facing extinction.
‘Dhaman-3 is our befitting
reply to those defaming us’
Masuma Bharmal Jariwala
Rajkot: Gujarat firm
Jyoti CNC, which court-
ed controversy over its
Dhaman brand ventila-
tors made in the home-
town of Gujarat Chief
Minister Vijay Rupani,
on Friday claimed that
the equipment’s latest
version, Dhaman-3, had
cleared all the tests and
parameters of techni-
cal committee of the
Union Health Ministry.
Not only the clear-
ances, Jyoti’s CMD Par-
akramsinh Jadeja told
reporters in Rajkot that
his company had also
procured an order for
5,000 Dhaman-3 ma-
chines from the Direc-
tor-General of Health
Services (DGHS).
Responding to ques-
tions related to an RTI
application about rejec-
tion of Dhaman-3 ma-
chines, Jadeja said,
“The RTI was replied
by the government on
July 20 when Dhaman-3
was still under evalua-
tion. We got the approv-
al on August 8.”
He asserted that,
“There is a lobby of im-
porters which is trying
to defame make-in-In-
dia products as well as
the company. So far, we
have supplied around
1,200 Dhaman-1 ma-
chines across India and
already given 862 to
Government of Guja-
rat. We have also re-
ceived orders and in-
quiries from abroad.”
Jadeja said the ‘Made
in Rajkot’ product,
which his company
manufactured taking
the shortage of ventila-
tors during the Cov-
id-19 crisis as a chal-
lenge, suffered a set-
back after a letter by an
Ahmedabad civil hospi-
tal doctor. He said this
was “misinterpreted as
though the Dhaman
ventilator was faulty.”
“The expert team of
150 who directlyed
work under the super-
vision of a team of doc-
tors were upset with
these reports. But we
took up the challenge
and gave a befitting re-
ply through Dha-
man-3,” he added.
Jyoti CNC’s CMD Parakramsinh Jadeja
with team of doctors addressing the media
on the launch of Dhaman-3 ventilators
made by his company.
GOING TECH-SAVVY
Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Choudhary
attends a call from the National Emergency Number for
Police: 100 at the state-of-art City Control Room.
In the corona era, there are
problems of transportation,
accommodation and other prob-
lems faced by the candidates
who appear in the #JEE_NEET
examination. Floods are also
a problem. Examiners of rural
background also face problems.
In view of all these problems, the
government should postpone the
examination.
#SpeakUpForStudentSafety
I offer my heartfelt condolences
to the family, friends and loved
ones of Lok Sabha MP Shri. H
Vasanthakumar Ji. My prayers
are with his family.
@ahmedpatel

AHMEDABAD, SATURDAY
AUGUST 29, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
t is often said, in jest,
that India unitedly
worships two things-
one is Cricket and the
other is Bollywood, so,
naturally we start the
list of Bollywood
sports-orientedmovieswith‘MS
Dhoni- The Untold Story’. With
Dhoni declaring his retirement
and also the heartache where
Sushant is concerned, this mov-
ie is a must-watch again!
The movie shows the story be-
hind the MS Dhoni we see today
– the efforts he put in for years
and his journey from the goal-
keeperof aschoolteamtoaTick-
et Collector to the World Cup
winning captain. Sushant Singh
Rajput did a brilliant job of play-
ing the former captain’s role.
My favourite biopic remains
‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’! Coming
from an Army background fam-
ily, I closely connected with
Farhan Akhtar (one of his best
roles)andthearmycompetition
and camaraderie scenes. The
movie tugs at heartstrings
throughout and one identifies
with Milkha, his slip ups and
thenthehardworktoriseagain,
the innocence, the sister’s love
for her brother, the partition
scenes, win against Pakistan–
everything makes Bhaag
Milkha Bhaag a classic to be
watched again… and again!
‘Dangal’ is another favourite.
Replete with messages on gen-
der equality, dreams and sports,
Aamir Khan Turn to P10
JEE JAAN SE!ON NATIONAL SPORTS DAY, CITY FIRST BOWLS A FAST ONE AS WE PLAY THE
FIELD WITH A FEW BEST OF BOLLYWOOD SPORTS ORIENTED MOVIES!
ANITA HADA
anita.hada@firstindianews.com
LOVE FOR INDIA
It’s not about logic, its emotions and
love for India! It’s about seeing the
Tricolour flying and standing
with head held high as the strains
of the National Anthem flow in our
veins. Jai Hind!
t is often said, in jest,
that India unitedly
worships two things-
one is Cricket and the
other is Bollywood, so,
naturally we start the
list of Bollywood
sports-orientedmovieswith‘MS
Dhoni- The Untold Story’. With
FIELD WITH A FEW BEST OF BOLLYWOOD SPORTS ORIENTED MOVIES!
anita.hada@firstindianews.com
I
Farhan Akhtar in ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’
as Milkha Singh; (inset) Milkha Singh
(Top) Still from ‘Dangal’;
(Left) Members of the Phogat
family who were the
inspiration for the film
(Top) Mahendra Singh
Dhoni; (Right) Poster of
‘MS Dhoni- The Untold
Story’ starring late
Sushant Singh Rajput
(Top) Mahendra Singh
Mary Kom;
(below) Priyanka Chopra Jonas
in and as ‘Mary Kom’

10
ETCAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
excels as Mahavir Singh
Phogat and we fall in love
all over again with our
stars Geeta and Babita. For
me, a movie which is about
so much more than wres-
tling, likewise ‘Mary Kom’!
The story of the 6-time
World Champion and
Olympic Bronze medallist,
her fight against poverty,
gender discrimination, her
hiatus and return after the
delivery of twins- Priyan-
ka Chopra Jonas had to
strive hard to fill these
boots!
Another one is Irrfan
Khan as ‘Paan Singh
Tomar’, a soldier in the In-
dian Army, gold medalwin-
ner in the steeplechase at
the National Games, 7-time
National champion in the
1950s and a circumstantial
dacoit eventually shot dead
by Police after a few years
of laying low and running
away from them, gave one
of the finest performances
and rightfully won the Na-
tional Award for the ‘Best
Actor’. Budhia Sin-
gh, is neither
very glam
nor popu-
lar but it is the story of
painful reality and a must
watch.
Fictional movies focus-
ing on sports are also fun to
watch, I quite liked ‘Iqbal’
which never got the appre-
ciation it deserved. ‘Sul-
tan’, ‘Patiala House’, the
latest ‘Gold’ are all worth
watching as was ‘Jo
JeetaWohiSikandar’-
the cycling movie!
But ‘Lagaan’ and
‘Chak De! India’ top
the fictional list, no
two questions
about it! The rush
of the win does
not fade, the last
crucial seconds
of both the
m a t c h e s ,
though I know
the outcome,
are still nail
biting.
FROMPG9
(Top) Budhia Singh;
(Right) Poster of the film
‘Budhia Singh - Born to Run’
(Inset) Paan Singh Tomar;
Late Irrfan Khan as and in
‘Paan Singh Tomar’
Stills from ‘Lagaan’
‘Patiala House’ ‘Sultan’ ‘Gold’
‘Chak De! India’

ETCwww.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020
11
A
ugust2020isindeed
KatyPerry’smonth
as not only did she
welcome her first
child with Orlando Bloom, a
baby girl who they gave the
sweetnameDaisyDoveBloom,but
the 35-year-old singer also dropped
herhighly-awaitedalbumSmileonFri-
day. It’s indeed been a roller coaster ride
forPerry,thesepastfewmonths,butithasn’t
stopped the Daisies singer from shining
through both per-
sonallyandprofes-
sionally.
Katy Perry is
having the time of
her life. After de-
livering her baby
Daisy Dove Bloom
on Thursday, Perry
has launched her
sixth album, Smile, on
Friday. The “Roar”
singer took to Twitter
and shared, “It’s here!
It’s here!!! I finally got
back my smile! Hope
this record puts one on your face #SMILE is
out everywhere now! Love you guys so much!
Enjoy (sent from my hospital bed lol)”
Katy Perry released the first single of the
album, “Daisies”, in May, and it is only fitting
that she has named her daughter Daisy too.
—Agency
R
andeep Hooda has under-
gone a leg surgery at the
Breach Candy Hospital in
Mumbai, as he was admit-
ted to the hospital on Wednesday.
The actor’s father, Ranbir Hooda
stated that Randeep is recovering
and will be discharged soon.
“Thank you all for your concern.
Randeep had a leg surgery yester-
day, he’s recovering and will be
discharged soon. He’s COVID 19
negative and the surgery went
well, so we will be able to take him
home soon,” his father said.
—Agency
F
ilmmaker Anubhav Sinha
and actor Manoj Bajpayee
are all set to collaborate for
something “exciting” after a
long gap of 25 years. “And a very
exciting collaboration after 25
years with a friend whom I know
right from my theatre days @an-
ubhavsinhaa bas thoda intezaar,”
Bajpayee wrote in the caption.
Further details of the collaboration
have not yet been revealed. —ANI
S
haring
a post-
er of
her up-
coming patri-
otic film
‘Tejas,’ actor
K a n g a n a
Ranaut on Fri-
day announced
that the film is all
set to go on the floors
in December this
year.
The ‘Queen’ actor
took to Twitter to
share the poster that
sees her wearing an
Air Force uniform as
she stands beside the
fighter aircraft Tejas.
“#Tejas to take-off this
December! Proud to be
part of this exhilarat-
ing story that is an ode
to our brave airforce
pilots! Jai Hind #Fri-
d a y s W i t h R S V P @
sarveshmewara1 @
RonnieScrewvala @rs-
vpmovies @nona-
bains,” she tweeted
along with the picture.
Kangana Ranaut is
all set to portray the
role of an Air Force pi-
lot. The Indian Air
Force was the first of
the country’s defence
forces to induct women
into combat roles in
2016.
The film takes inspi-
ration from this land-
mark event. The first
look of the film was
released earlier in Feb-
ruary which featured
the ‘Tanu Weds Manu’
actor donning the Air
Force uniform.
Helmed by Sarvesh
Mewara and bank-
rolled by Ronnie
Screwvala, the film is
scheduled to release in
April 2021.
—ANI
‘TEJAS’B
LACKPINK has offi-
cially crossed the
second step in their
three-part 2020
comeback and it’s as epic
as you would expect.
This time, the quartet
collaborated with
none other Selena
Gomez with the re-
sult being Ice
Cream. We’re sure
BLINKS and Se-
lenators would
agree that we’ve
got the summer
anthem of 2020
in our hands and
specifically it’s
the colourful, vi-
brant MV that we
just can’t get over.
While Ice
Cream is climbing
up the iTunes
charts all around
the world, the
music video is
already break-
ing records.
According to
reports, Ice
Cream MV crossed
10 million views on
YouTube in under
three hours which led to
BLACKPINK setting a
new YouTube record for the
fastest 10 million views for a
music video by a Korean girl
group. The previous record
was also held by BLACKPINK
itself for their pre-release sin-
gle How You Like That (3
hours 40 minutes). Moreover,
in four hours, BLACKPINK
has already crossed 22 mil-
lion views and 3.6 million
likes. It’s indeed a crazy
achievement by the lovely la-
dies! —Agency
NEW RECORD
to go on floors
in December
RANDEEP
UNDERGOES
SURGERY
... her post
Anubhav Sinha and Manoj Bajpayee
... her post
Collaboration
after 25 years‘See you in
COLLEGE’
B
ollywood actor Sunny Leone’s
name was mischievously seen top-
ping the admission merit list of
Kolkata’s Asutosh college for BA
Honours in English. The name appeared
with an application ID 9513008704 and
roll number 2077776666 with the year of
passing being 2020 from the West Bengal
Council of Higher Secondary Education.
What was more surprising was that
the name had a perfect score of 400 (best
of 4) in Class 12. As the screenshot of
the merit list went viral, the actress took
to Twitter and shared, “See you all in
college next semester!!! Hope you are in
my class ;).” —Agency
Katy Perry
NEW ALBUM
OUT
Kangana Ranaut
Selena Gomez
Sunny Leone

12
CITY BUZZAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Q1. I got married 6
months ago in an ar-
ranged marriage. The
girl remained very
docile and passive
with hardly any inter-
action with me. I
thought she was tak-
ing time to settle
down. A week ago, ac-
cidentally while try-
ing to set up e-banking
on her phone I found
romantic texts sent to
another man. On ask-
ing, she said that she
has blocked him now
and it is her past but
still she keeps on tex-
ting and deleting mes-
sages when I ask.
What do I do?
Ans. I am sorry. It is
quite clear that the girl
was in a relationship
before marriage and is
still stuck, for no fault
of yours, your life is
now in a fix. First, tell
your parents and in-
form her parents. Sec-
ondly, talk to her frank-
ly and seek counselling
if necessary. If she is
willing to put it behind
her then you should
take a step forward and
rebuild. There is hardly
a person who has not
had a relationship or
two before marriage
nowadays but the past
has to remain in the
past. On the other hand,
if she is not willing to
let go of that man and
her past, best is to file
for divorce. Do involve
the family of both sides
in all decisions. You
will need the support.
Q2. I am 16 years old
and for the past year I
started wearing tight-
fitting clothes and
now I like to show a
bit of cleavage and
legs too. My mother
has noticed and calls
it ‘trashy’ behaviour?
Please guide me on
what to do?
Ans. No, love it’s not
trashy at all. Your moth-
er like any other loving
mom doesn’t want you
to draw undue attention
which you will if you
are young and show
skin in India. As for
you, your body is show-
ing change and you are
revelling in it. Your
new-found sexuality is
asking for both approv-
al and revalidation
which is natural. What
you should do, is keep it
to the minimum. Grow
up a little more, gain
some more confidence
and learn that attention
on just the body is tem-
porary, it’s thinking,
brains and confidence
that is the real appeal.
Experiment delicately
with your looks and
with Mom’s approval.
Have any questions?
Mail them to quequeen-
firstindia@gmail.com;
don’t worry, your name
will not be disclosed!
QUE...
QUEen
CITY FIRST
he inaugural ses-
sion of IWN
Women Leader-
ship Summit 2020
organised by CII
Indian Women
Network (CII-
IWN) took place on Friday
at Jaipur on the virtual
platform. “Women need to
open out their wings and
shine in all their glory.
The world has always
needed them. It acknowl-
edges them now.” said
Rolee Agarwal, Commis-
sioner Income Tax, Gov-
ernment of India.
Rolee also added I have
a different theory about
the bureaucracy that
women have always bring
change and they have al-
ways been behind the
scenes earlier. They are
coming in the forefront
now although numbers
are still very low I feel that
we are growing and very
optimistic that we are well
versed and on the right
mark. The selection of
women candidates in
UPSC is still very low;
only 1 candidate out of
10,000 candidates is select-
ed in this world’s
toughest exam. We
need to work 30%
extra to be on par
with others to bal-
ance both work and
family life.
While welcoming the
participants and speakers
Kiran Poddar, Chairwom-
an, IWN Rajasthan said
that women leaders
emphasize team-
work and authentic
communication as a
key to success. For
most women leaders,
leadership is not meant
only for accomplishing or-
ganizational goals but for
transforming their follow-
ers into better people.
More diverse teams have
better long-term perfor-
mance.
Setting the context of
the summit, Rhea Singhal,
Chairwoman, CII-IWN
NorthernRegion&Found-
er & CEO, Ecoware high-
lighted the importance of
Women Entrepreneur-
ship. According to her
Women, entrepreneurs
play a pivotal role in In-
dia’s economy. They in-
spire other women to start
businesses, create more
jobs for women and in-
spire the next generation.
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
T
WHAT’S HAPPENING!
RAJASTHAN: The crew-audition for the movie ‘Sangharsh’ took
place at Varsha Associates Office at Nivaru Road, Jaipur. MSK Pankaj,
Vandana Lakhera, Ram Singh Tidoki and Babulal Saini were the
jury for the same. During the audition, 30 artists participated and
showcased their talent.
RAJASTHAN: Shia Muslims offering
prayers in Ajmer on Friday during the
Muharram festival.
RAJASTHAN: The 9th Principal and Teachers
Awards 2020 jointly organised by Simply
Jaipur, Thar Sarvodaya Sansthan and
Rajasthan Foundation will be broadcasted via
social media on Zoon Live, Facebook Live and
YouTube Live on 5 September at 6.00 pm. The
event will be telecasted worldwide where,
Life Management Guru, Pandit Vijayshankar
Mehta will grace the event as the Guest of
Honour. During the event, he will deliver a
lecture on ‘Shiksha - Sanskar Tricon’.
GUJARAT:
Commuters
seen during
the rain
shower in
Ahmedabad
on Friday.
—PHOTO
BY HANIF
SINDHI
HAPPY B’DAY!
IAS Shivangi Swarankar
(top) and IAS Rajendra
Bhatt celebrated their
birthdays on 28 August,
Friday. We wish them all
the best!
RAJASTHAN:
During the
Muharram
Festival,
Nawaz Welfare
Society
organised a
blood donation
camp in Ajmer
on Friday.
RAJASTHAN: State Employees Joint Federation paid a tribute to former State
President of Rajasthan State Employees Joint Federation and skilled sports
administrator Hanuman Singh ji on his 69th birth anniversary on Friday@Jaipur.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: RISE & SHINE
During the session Rhea Singhal Rolee Agarwal
T
he struggles of
migrant labour-
ers in India were
written down as
the lyrics to a song.
Film ‘Lipstick Under
My Burkha’ and ‘Gan-
gajal’ fame Actor, Direc-
tor, Producer and Writ-
er, Jagat Singh com-
posed the music album,
‘Bharat Ke Bahubal’
which has re-
ceived over 2 mil-
lion views on
YouTube.
Produced by
JSW Group, this
song was released on
Independence Day and
has been widely loved
by people across the
country in a very short
period. Eminent sing-
ers, Sonu Nigam and
Neha Karode have giv-
en their magical voice
to this song. Sonu Nig-
am was the first choice
to sing this song, his
song like, ‘Sandeshe
aate hain’ can stir souls
even today.
“We chose Sonu Nig-
am to sing this song as
he can internalize the
lyrics and generate love
for the nation through
this song. When Sonu
read the lyrics of the
song, he was deeply
moved and decided to
sing it,” Jagat said.
While talking about
his recent song ‘Bharat
Ke Bahubal’, Jagat
shared, “Life has al-
ways taught me to stay
prepared for any chal-
lenge and opportunity
that may come. While
struggling in Mumbai, I
took every work that
came my way and fin-
ished it as completing a
challenge. While trying
my luck in acting, I also
got the chance to ex-
plore the song. When I
was writing this song, I
remembered the la-
bourers and workers
who are the foundation
of India and without
whom, the operation of
any country can get dis-
rupted. During the
COVID-19 crisis, I felt
the struggle of those
who faced tremendous
difficulties to even
reach their homes.
Keeping the plight of
these real workforces of
our country, I have com-
posed this song. This
song teaches us that we
should respect all these
workers and feel that
they are the most im-
portant part of our soci-
ety.”
‘BHARAT KE
BAHUBAL’
KARISHMA
GWALANI
Karishma.gwalani
@firstindia.co.in
Niraj K Pawan celebrated his
birthday with simplicity, with his
family on 27 August, Thursday.
He and his wife Monica are
involved in a lot of charity work,
and on this day also they did
their bit for the betterment of the
society.
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY!
Jagat Singh
Niraj and Monica

First india ahmedabad edition-29 august 2020

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