First India Gujarat For Gujarat Samachar Epaper 17 March 2020 edition

1. AHMEDABAD l TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 110 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. —FILE PHOTO LANKAN PREZ THANKS PM MODI FOR SAARC CONFERENCE, PROMISES COLOMBO’S SUPPORT PM lauds medical workers’ contributions people globally . The conference wit- nessed PM Modi pro- posing the creation of a COVID-19 emergen- cy fund based on vol- untary contributions from all the countries, with India making an initial offer of USD 10 million for the fund. During the confer- ence, Rajapaksa had rec- ommended that SAARC leaders work together to help the economy tide over the difficult period. “He also mended the establish- ment of a SAARC min- isterial-level group to share best practises and coordinate re- gional matters combating COVID-19,” as per a statement by the Ministry of Exter- nal Affairs. Colombo: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Mon- day thanked PM Nar- endra Modi for con- ducting the “fruitful and constructive” video conference with leaders of the SAARC nations, and prom- ised his country’s “fullest support” to combat the coronavi- rus pandemic. “I thank PM @naren- dramodi for his initia- tive to combat #COV- ID19 with cooperation among #SAARCNa- tions. The discussion was fruitful and con- structive with many great ideas being shared and initiated. #LKA will extend the fullest sup- port and thank the mem- ber nations for their solidarity,” Rajapaksa Gotabaya Rajapaksa @GotabayaR I thank PM @narendramodi for his initiative to combat #COVID19 with cooperation among #SAARCNations. The discussion was fruitful and constructive with many great ideas being shared and initiated. responsible employer and citizen is first. Safe- ty first. Prevention is better.” To this PM Modi re- plied with a tweet, “A wise call. Avoiding non- essential travel and minimising social out- ings are welcome steps. #IndiaFightsCorona” Another user He- mant Rathi wrote, “Su- per-impressed! The lo- cal PHC health official visited to check on my health as I had re- turned from Singapore recently on 07-March. The forms we fill at im- migration are being used #coronavirus Thank you for being so pro-active!” New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi on lauded the efforts of doctors, nurses, mu- nicipal workers and other citizens in fight- ing the coronavirus pandemic. He took to Twitter, sharing the experi- ences of people and replying “Many people are highlighting different aspects of how India is combating COV- ID-19. This is certain- ly boosting the mo- rale of all those doc- tors, nurses, munici- pal workers, airport staff and all other remarkable people at Narendra Monday tweeted. Participants from all eight SAARC nations -- India, Paki- stan, Nepal, Afghani- stan, Sri Lanka, Bangla- desh, the Maldives, and Bhutan -- held a video conference to exchange their views and share experiences in fighting the pandemic that has killed more than 6000 to them. recom- —FILE PHOTO Prime Minister Narendra Modi. celled all my meetings. Employees work from home. Office is locked down. All business trav- el suspended. Being a Modi shared people’s experiences and replied to them individually . A user handle @mug- likar_ tweeted, “Can- the forefront of fight- ing COVID-19. #Indi- aFightsCorona,” PM tweeted. In a series of tweets, on —ANI —ANI World’s biggest 25K MW solar park to come up in Kutch: Govt Haresh Jhala touched 1.56 crore. Over the past 56 years, the govt had provided seven lakh agricultural connec- tions in the state. In contrast, the present govt has given 1.25 lakh agriculture con- nections in just the last two years, Patel said. Although each agricultural connec- tion costs the govt Rs1.50 lakh, it charg- es farmers only Rs 15,000, he also said, adding, that the state govt has spent Rs 1,800 crore on agri- culture connections. 22,000 MW by the end of 2022. Decades back, the state’s installed power production was just 6,776 MW. With the govt’s initiatives to push private firms to start production and its decision to encourage renewable energy, that capacity now stands at 29,452 MW, the minister said. This means the state’s power-produc- tion capacity has in- creased by 475%. Earli- er, there were 1.09 lakh transformers in the state; now there are 16 lakh. Even the power connection number has proposal, energy minis- ter Saurabh Patel said in the House that once all the districts are con- nected, the state will be the country’s first to be connected with a gas grid. Patel also informed the House that state is planning to set up a 25,000 MW capacity solar park on 80,000 hectares of land in Kutch. The govern- ment-promoted solar rooftop project too has received whelming from citizens, he said, adding that the state ASSEMBLY VISITORS’ GALLERIES CLOSED State Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi has decided to close visitors galleries till March 29th. State assembly offi ce will not be issuing visitors passes to watch the assembly ses- sion from March 17th. This decision is part of precautionary measures to avoid the spread of COVID-19. As of Monday night, 96 people have been tested for infection. Of these, 87 have tested negative, while nine are awaiting results. Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupa- ni’s government has decided that all the districts will be con- nected with a gas grid. The work to achieve this is already under progress. So far, 18 lakh households have been provided with a piped-gas connection, meaning crore citi- zens are getting piped- gas connections at their doorsteps. While discussing the energy and petroleum department’s capacity —FILE PHOTO Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. er through renewable energy . It currently pro- duces 8,738 MW solar energy and aims to achieve its target of minister also said. The state govern- ment has promised the Centre that it will pro- duce 1.75 lakh MW pow- of these applicants are functional, the state will produce 500MW power from rooftop so- lar panels alone, the has received 1.25 lakh applications seeking permission to install rooftop solar panels. Once the solar panels an response over- budget

2. TALKING POINT 02 AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia Foreign tourists hit hurdles in Kerala due to CORONAVIRUS SCARE Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran described overseas visitors as “our friends” and ‘guests” and called for a change of mindset of some people who allegedly treat them as carriers of coronavirus. “Tourism industry contributes 10 % of Kerala’s GDP. During the last fiscal, the total revenue collected from the tourism sector alone stands at Rs 45,000 crores,” he added acts and ask people not to see every for- eigner as a COVID-19 carrier. With two people, including a UK na- tional, testing posi- tive for coronavirus on Sunday , the num- ber of those affected in the state has risen to 21 as the govern- ment began a “break the chain” initiative to prevent spread of the virus. It has also launched intensified medical check up at border areas for peo- ple entering the state by rail and road. Amid the stepped up preventive meas- ures, several cases of foreigners being ‘denied’ travel in public transport sys- tems and stay in ho- tels have been re- ported in the past few days from vari- ous parts of the state, a major attrac- tion for travellers with its picturesque locales and enchant- ing backwaters. C a u t i o n i n g against such acts, Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakam- pally Surendran de- scribed overseas visitors as “our friends” and ‘guests” and called for a change of mindset of some people who allegedly treat them as carriers of coro- navirus. On Sunday , au- thorities were forced to shift two foreign nationals to a quar- antine facility at a government hospi- tal in nearby Pala after their co-passen- gers in a state-owned transport corpora- tion bus raised an alarm. The two from Spain were travel- ling in the bus when police stopped it at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district af- ter co- passengers said they could not travel with them due he added. to the coronavirus threat, according to official sources. The tourists were then taken to a gov- ernment hospital for check-up by the po- lice. Though the two were advised to re- main in quarantine for 14 days, they were allegedly de- nied stay in a hotel or lodge in the area. Police later shift- ed them to the quar- antine facility set up in the general hospi- tal in Pala, the sourc- es said. A foreign tourist visiting scenic Wag- amon hill station bordering Kottayam and Idukki district allegedly slept in the cemetery church after he was denied lodging facil- ity due to the COV- ID-19 pandemic. People the church for at- tending the Sunday morning mass re- portedly saw the tourist coming out of the cemetery . However, he could not be traced despite a search launched, said. Speaking function in Varkala in Thiruvanan- thapuram district, the Minister said foreign tourists are “our guests” and they are flocking to the state thanks to the global marketing campaign launched by the Tourism de- partment. Noting that the tourism was the backbone of Kerala’s economy , Surendran said the arrival of the tour- ists to the state was necessary for the state’s growth. “Tourism indus- try contributes 10 % of Kerala’s GDP . During the last fis- cal, the total revenue collected from the tourism sector alone stands at Rs 45,000 crores. It is 24% higher than the pre- vious year. The sec- tor also provides jobs for 15 lakh peo- ple, directly or indi- rectly”, he said. “The tendency of seeing the foreign tourists as coronavi- rus carriers must change. They are not our enemies.They are our friends. For us, they are our guests. So our mindset towards them should change.”, DIVYA HEMNANI W coronavirus, foreign tourists God’s Own Country are finding it diffi- cult to get accommo- dation and move around, prompting the government to disapprove of such ith Kerala on alert high for visiting Indian firms struggling to deal with work from home scenario Instead of halting ops, businesses can choose to shift towards remote working methods of a visiting W employees to work from remote locations via video conferencing and collaboration seamlessly - especially in the case of tech gi- ants like Google or Mi- crosoft -- workers from the non-IT companies and small and medium enterprises (SMBs) are the worst-hit in India as most of them have little or no clue about how these messaging and collaboration tools work amid the coronavirus pandemic. Small companies - from corporate to edu- cation verticals- are scrambling to get their act together as new cor- onavirus threat has reached their premises, prompting them to send employees home who have age-old laptops, poor network and con- nectivity with no UPS backups and knowledge about how to handle group chat and collaboration software like Zoom, Google Hang- outs Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Flock etc. Instead of halting op- erations, however, busi- nesses can choose to shift towards remote working methods with hile it makes per- fect sense for IT the long run, in case any such global emergency arises in the future. According to a latest report by Gartner, 54 per- cent of HR leaders have should re- look at the digital ful- filment of market demand. “The value of digi- tal channels, products and operations is imme- diately obvious to com- panies everywhere right now. This is a wake-up call for organisations that have placed too much focus on daily op- erational needs at the expense of investing in digital business and long-term resilience,” warned Shen. The IT apex body Nasscom has asked the government to relax norms for a month to allow home for technology and back-office employees as a measure to deal with the spread of COVID-19 in India. According to reports, India has approximately 1,000 co-working loca- tions (as of September 2019) and is the second- largest market for the co-working industry af- ter China. should re- look at the digital ful- filment of market demand. “The value of digi- tal channels, products tools being police Indian retail reels under coronavirus concerns at a industry’s industry work-from- teaching staff on how to use the latest digital software to connect and work, say industry experts. The training will take some time and may ham- per productivity in the short run but is a win- win situation for the non-tech companies in non-IT cited that poor technol- ogy and/or infrastruc- ture for remote working is the biggest barrier to effective remote work- ing. Sandy Shen, Senior Director Gartner, says that with COVID-19 disrupting the business landscape, CIOs little Bengaluru: Amid the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country, the order of closure of malls and multiplexes across many top cities by the respective state gov- ernments to prevent people congregating for any reason, has caused the organised retail scene there to come to a grinding halt, according to a property consultant. Ahmedabad, Bangaluru, Chennai, Delhi/NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune have 126 malls sprawling over more than 61 million sq. ft. area, and more than 100 malls have multiplexes attached, property consultant Anarock Retail said. “Wherever it has been mandated, there will therefore be a high number of establish- ments that need to shut down for opera- tions. Even short-term closures will have signifi cant fi nancial implications,” Anarock Retail’s MD & CEO, Anuj Kejriwal said in a statement. “However, what mat- ters more is that these establishments attract massive footfalls. In a health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, shutting them down can be a major step forward in terms of harm prevention,” Ke- jriwal, however, added. Analyst, Design: Abhishek Gupta

3. AHMEDABAD l TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 l Pages 14 l 3.00 20°C - 35°C OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD RNI NO. GUJ ENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 110 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia Life Life BEYOND CORONA! Countries close borders, cities shut restaurants, citizens hoard supplies, schools close more classrooms and hundreds of millions of people shut doors on one another as authorities continue to take more drastic steps to slow the spread of coronavirus. But the World has battled even worse crises in the past and emerged victorious. So, the need of the hour is to take precautions, stay safe and healthy, and get back to the beautiful World that awaits each one of you with all the endurance and charm. ANNOYED GUV, DEFIANT CM Amidst raging ‘letter war’, Governor Lalji Tandon asks CM Kamal Nath to seek floor test today No fliers from EU, Turkey, UK to be allowed into India New Delhi:Further in- tensifying the lock- down induced by the global spread of the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID 2019), the Centre Monday re- quested all airlines not to board India-bound passengers from the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and United Kingdom. This follows the sus- pension of all visas, and effectively means that even Indians currently in these countries may have trouble getting back home. The government also announced compulsory quarantine for a mini- mum of 14 days for pas- sengers coming from/ transiting UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait. Both moves come into effect from the midnight of March 18 till March 31. Number of corona- virus patients in India have gone up to 114 with Odisha reporting its first case. Mean- while, the Congress has demanded that PM Modi should talk to CMs and health ministers of all the states. YES BANK MONEY LAUNDERING PROBE Anil Ambani summoned by Enforcement Directorate serve Bank of India im- posed a moratorium and capped withdrawal by users at Rs 50,000 a month after the bank’s financial health severe- ly deteriorated. Other Group officials will also be called in for questioning week, sources said. Meanwhile, Anil Am- bani filed an adjourn- ment application and sought more time to ap- pear before the Enforce- ment Directorate (ED) in connection Mumbai: probe agency Enforce- ment Directorate has issued a fresh summon to Reliance Group chief Anil Ambani in connection with an al- leged money launder- ing case involving the crisis-hit Yes Bank, of- ficials have said. Anil Ambani, who was told to appear be- fore the probe agency’s officials in Mumbai on Monday, requested for more time citing health reasons. Accepting his request, the Enforce- Central Bhopal: Pradesh Governor La- lji Tandon on Monday issued a fresh direc- tive to beleaguered Chief Minister Ka- mal Nath to hold a floor test in the as- sembly on Tuesday as a ‘letter war’ raged between the two con- stitutional function- aries amid political turmoil in the state. The governor said failure to hold a floor test will mean the chief minister does not enjoy majority in the house. Tandon’s fresh direc- tive came two days after he first asked Nath to face a floor test on Mon- day, the day when the budget session of the Assembly commenced. However, the as- sembly was journed till March 26 after the state govern- ment raised concerns over the coronavirus threat without taking up the confidence mo- tion as demanded by the BJP . The 15-month-old Nath government, whose stability has come Madhya Reliance Anil Ambani this ment Directorate has told him to appear be- fore its officials on Thursday at 11 am. He will be questioned in connection loans given by Yes Bank, on which the Re- with Turn on P5 Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon along with Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others arrives during the budget session of state assembly in Bhopal on Monday. Prez nominates ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi To Rajya Sabha Kamal Nath meets Guv, says govt in majority; rules out floor test B h o p a l : M a d h y a Pradesh Chief Minis- ter Kamal Nath met Governor Lalji Tandon at Raj Bhavan on Monday night and later claimed his gov- ernment enjoys ma- jority, ruling out holding a floor test in the assembly. Nath also dared the opposition BJP to table of a floor test. Desperate Congress RS candidates wooing MLAs after five have quit Congress suspends five MLAs who quit the party through India, clause (3) of that arti- cle, the President is pleased to nominate Shri Ranjan Gogoi to the Council of States to fill the vacancy caused due to the re- tirement of one of the nomi- nated mem- ber.” Turn on P5 read with New Delhi: Presi- dent Ram Nath Ko- vind on Monday nominated former Chief Justice of In- dia Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha. A government noti- fication of the same read “in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of Article 80 of the Constitution of “Those who claim that we dont have a ma- jority should move a no- confidence against my government to get the floor test done, Nath told reporters af- ter the meeting. Nath’s with the governor at Raj Bhavan lasted for over half-an-hour. a no- confidence motion against his 15-month- old Congress govern- ment if they wanted to test its strength in the house. I met the Governor and thanked him for his address on the opening day of the budget ses- sion. We are in a major- ity today so no question ad- motion meeting Turn on P5 Turn on P5 Gargi Raval received a call from Shaktisinh Gohil to sup- port him in the election. The blue-eyed boy of Congress is known to be close to party veteran Ahmed Patel but does not enjoy the best of rapport with the legisla- tors. Similar is the case of Bharatsinh Solanki, against whom there have been complaints that he is arrogant. “I am in the party for many years, I have nev- er ever received a call from him (Shaktisinh Gohil). See also on P10 From Sunday night, the two candidates have started calling the par- ty’s MLAs with desper- ate appeals to support them. Now, the Congress has 68 MLAs left, all of whom have fled to Jaipur and are likely to be there till March 25. The party had a meet- ing with their MLAs on Monday night to chalk out the future strategy . At least four Con- gress MLAs told First India on the condition of anonymity that for the first time they have Gandhinagar:In a case of closing the doors af- ter the horses have bolted the stable, Con- gress party’s two heav- yweight Rajya Sabha candidates, Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki, on Monday launched an unprece- dented among the party’s leg- islators hours after the resignation of the par- ty’s one more MLA, taking the number of resignations the last 36 hours to five. First India News MLAs have submitted their resignation, Guja- rat Congress President Amit Chavda suspend- ed them from the pri- mary membership of the party . They are Soma Patel (Limdi), Mangal Gavit (Dangs), Pravin Maru (Gadhada), JV Kakadia (Dhari) and Pradyu- mansinh (Kutch). These MLAs are likely to join the BJP with a promise My husband received a call from Bharatsinh Solanki and he told us to worship the rising Sun. Party (BJP) will decide whether to give us a ticket on not. But we were motivated and advised by Solanki to resign from Congress. Paresh Dhanani and Solanki both had called. —Kokilaben Kakadia, wife of JV Kakadia, Dhari MLA As MLA of Abdasa, I have resigned as no work has been done in my constituency. I put conditions regarding Narmada water for farmers and Nakhtrana bypass. I resigned for the betterment of my area —Pradyumansinh Jadeja, Abdasa MLA Gandhinagar:In a des- perate attempt to hold its flock together as well as teach the trai- tors a lesson, the Guja- rat Congress has sus- pended its five MLAs, who have resigned days before the March 26 Rajya Sabha elec- tions, for six years. Soon after State As- sembly Speaker Rajen- dra Trivedi officially announced that five reach-out I am not going to BJP at present. I had differences in the party. I had asked time from Rahul Gandhi, it has been two months and he has not given me time. —Pravin Maru, Gadhada MLA Jadeja during Turn on P5 Turn on P5

4. GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 NRI’s caretaker flees with `25.27 lakh cash 04 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia Most government hospitals lack sanitation inspectors Tasked with ensuring hygiene, posts vacant in Civil Hospitals lie vacantexcept Vadodara First India news Ahmedabad: A US- based NRI has regis- tered a complaint at the Gujarat University police station after the caretaker of his prop- erty, who was entrust- ed with Rs22 lakh in cash, allegedly fled with the money. The complainant, who is a resident of Naranpura, says he hired Abid Khan Sin- dhi, a resident of Shi- rohi, Rajasthan, as a caretaker in 2012, and had also given him the key to his house. In his complaint, Ka- pil Patel says he was to give Rs22 lakh to his friend Ashok to book a house in Gandhinagar back in 2015. However, stances demanded that he had to return to the US on short notice. So, he gave the cash to Abid, and instructed him to pass it on to Ashok. Kapil lives in New Jersey with his par- ents. When Kapil’s fa- Vipul Rajput WHY IT MATTERS The Ahmedabad: health department has asked the public to pay extra attention to clean- liness to keep COVID-19 at bay . Yet, there are no regular sanitary inspec- tors, in charge of ensur- ing proper cleanliness across the hospital, at most of the state-run hospitals across Gujarat. This has raised ques- tions on how the govern- ment plans to keep a check on hygiene in hos- pitals, which already see a high influx of people on a daily basis. A list issued by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), Gandhinagar, dated January 1, says that the post of a regu- lar sanitary inspector is vacant in Civil Hospi- tals in Ahmedabad, Ra- jkot, Bhavnagar, Jamna- gar and Surat. Only Vadodara’s Civil STATE UNITS PRODUCE LESS THAN PVT FIRMS Gujarat University police station. —FILE PHOTO THE GIST Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO within a few months for unknown reasons.” He alleges a bigger scam, where third-party employers use their in- fluence to have regular sanitary shifted to medical col- leges, leaving hospitals in the hands of contract employees who scam the government by sign- ing the contractors’ in- flated bills. a sanitary inspector placed here on deputa- tion from the district panchayat who per- forms the duties.” He does not explain further. The DMER official adds that the post of regular sanitary inspec- tor was filled at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospi- tal two years ago, but “he was transferred to BJ Medical Senior citizen duped of `49K by online ad First India News cording to sources, Vid- hyarthi and his wife they stumbled upon an ad for Gopi Dining Hall on Facebook, which an- nounced a ‘Buy one, get two free’ scheme on Gu- jarati thalis on Febru- ary 29. Looking to order food online, Vidhyarthi called the number men- tioned and was directed by an unknown person on the line to download an application named Lenren SMS through the link sent to him. He which he then entered from the district pan- chayat has been posted as a sanitary inspector, which is totally wrong. In the government hos- pitals of Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Bhavnagar, the third-party employ- ees also sign all govern- ment documents as the sanitary inspector.” Dr GH Rathod, Super- intendent of the Civil Hospital, says, “We have Hospital has a regular sanitary inspector. The others depend on con- tract employees and oth- ers, who are not neces- sarily equipped to carry out the task. For instance, DMER official who did not want to be named for fear of professional blow-back, told First In- dia, “At present, a ma- laria health turned to the city to speak to Abid, who said he had purchased two trucks using the Rs22 lakh. After Kapil asked him for the pa- perwork for the trucks, he allegedly fled. Kapil also told police that he had withdrawn Rs3.27 lakh from his mother’s bank account. ther came back to Ahmedabad in 2016 and inquired about the Rs22 lakh, Abid told him that he used the money to pay off a debt. He promised to pay back the money but did not return it to them even a year later. In January last year, Kapil himself circum- inspectors one College worker re- account. This alerted him to the fraud and he immediately requested his bank to block his ac- count. through six different transactions, a total of Rs49,000 was drawn from his bank account. Vidhyarthi ap- proached cybercrime police to report the fraud and submitted an application. A com- plaint has also been reg- istered at the Vastrapur police station, and an investigation is on. Ahmedabad: There’s a popular saying that goes, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” However, the promise of a free meal can be very alluring. One such promise has cost a sen- ior citizen dearly . Sureshkumar Vidh- yarthi, 67, alleges that he has been cheated of Rs49,000, through an online advertisement on social networking website Facebook. Ac- First India News However, The Gandhinagar: state boasts a lot about its power production capacity but its own budget papers tell a dif- ferent story. According to the state budget pa- pers, the contribution of public-sector power companies to the total production has fallen from 40.79% in 2009-10 to 20.9% in 2018-19. Meanwhile, private-sec- tor firms account for 45.77% of the state’s power production. In his analysis, direc- tor of Pathey Budget Centre, Mahendra Jeth- malani has stated that, in 2009-10, state public- sector firm Gujarat En- ergy Corporation Ltd had produced 28,507 million units. This ac- counted for 40.79% of the total production that year. Against that, private players contrib- uted 40.13% and Central contribution (national grid and national pub- lic-sector units) was 19.02%. The state’s public sec- tor contribution fell to 21.42% in 2017-18 and further to 20.09% in 2018-19. On the other hand, with- Vastrapur police station. —FILE PHOTO was then asked to de- posit an amount of Rs10, following which, he received an OTP into the application. Soon after, Rs19,000 was debited through three different transac- tions from Sureshbhai’s —FILE PHOTO BREAKDOWN OF POWER PRODUCTION 1988 crash survivor dies TAKE A BEAT Year State public- Private sector units Central contribution fi rms 2009-10 40.79% 40.13% 19.02% First India News 2017-18 21.42% 48.83% 29.65% One of the two survi- vors of the 1988 Indian Airlines plane crash was found dead at his Prahladnagar dence here on Monday . The body of Ashok Agarwal (61) was found on March 8 in a decom- posed condition inside his flat, where he lived alone, police said. His neighbours informed the police about the death. Agarwal had lost his wife and 11-month- old daughter in the plane crash which cost 133 people their lives on October 10, 1988. 2018-19 20.09% 45.77% 34.13% ed Rs 1,480.73 crore in 2018-19 for agriculture power connections, a figure that Rs1,443.15 crore the fol- lowing year. The latest budget has an allocation of just Rs1,000 crore for 2020-21. However, it is to be noted that the state has made a provision of Rs 500 crore to set up the infrastructure required to supply power to the agriculture sector dur- ing the day . the Centre’s contribu- tion rose to 29.65% in 2017-18 and further to 34.13% in 2018-19. Pri- vate-sector tion grew to 48.83% in 2017-18 before dropping to 45.77% in 2018-19, Pathey’s analysis says. In addition, the analy- sis says the govern- ment’s budgetary allo- cations do not stand by its claims that agricul- ture is a priority. The government had invest- resi- fell to contribu- The sun sets behind a bird as it alights on a branch on a break from fl ying in Vadala village outside Ahmedabad city. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI GUP SHUP GAME OF WORDS E everything that happens there seems to be related to it. During Monday’s discussion on fi nancial aid to gaushalas, Opposition party's deputy leader Shailesh Parmar questioned whether the aid was actually reaching the cows or were the oxen gobbling it all up. He also subtly indicated that he hoped that the fund was not being used for horse-trading. Very prompt response from the treasury bench greeted his statement, from the state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama who said, “You know very well which ox eats all this fodder.” Well, that was about as subtle as an ox, sorry, bull ox in a china shop, wasn’t it? FULL OF HOT AIR O food cooked on an earthen Chulha? We didn’t either. That is, not until we visited the ongoing budget session of the state assembly on Monday. Vibhavari Dave, minister of state for Women and Child Development, chose to answer a question on the number of gas connections at anganwadis, by listing the benefi ts of cooking gas including, yes, its “nutritional superiority”. Too bad she forgot that it reduces air pollution. We would have given her props for originality, but she just had to recite the differences between the rule of Congress and BJP! KUCH CORONA N think of Corona (not the beer brand!). People with common cold or cough are thronging government hospitals to get themselves checked for the virus. Yes, taking precautions is good. But a well- known government hospital is facing some problems regarding its casebook stock. OPD patients at this hospital are being given details of their case history on pieces of plain paper. The fact that a hospital has run through its entire supply of casebooks is very surprising. This has given fodder to gossip that due to the Corona panic, the number of OPD patients has shot up so much that the hospital has used up its stock of casebooks. We hope this virus is eradicated soon! ver since the day horse-trading commenced in the state assembly, k, we admit a cooking gas connection comes with a lot of benefi ts. But did you know that food cooked on a gas stove is better and more nutritious than owadays, if anyone starts coughing or sneezing, people immediately BUGGED? Or is it the grapevine... . First India begins a column that brings to you gossips or tete-e-tete from the corridors of power HOPE TURNS SOUR A was quicker to pick up the taunt than other Congress MLAs. Apparently, the taunt hit closer to home than anyone expected. On Monday, Patel told the House how pained she was by the seemingly tame moniker. She went on to say that none of the party leaders had helped her while she was in the Congress, and that she was forced to join the BJP because she had lost hope. Given that she’s the only Congress turncoat who won the by-election, maybe hope did turn sour? sha thagari nivdi’, meaning hope turns sour, was popular one-liner in the house when then Congress MLA Asha Patel defected to the BJP last year. No one

5. GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 05 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia First India News CONG WALKS OUT OVER COVID-19 RMC CRACKS DOWN ON SPITTING IN PUBLIC PLACES First India News mediately informed the solid waste man- agement department and the person was caught red-handed and fined for Rs500 on the spot. The three others were also caught on CCTV foot- age. RMC’s environ- ment engineer Nilesh Parmar said, “Usual- ly, the fine is Rs250 but, today, according to the new order, the fine was increased to Rs500.” —PHOTOS BY NANDAN DAVE Volunteers from Hoonf Charitable Trust are seen distributing masks near Shyamal Crossroads at Ahmedabad’s Satellite area as part of a COVID-19 awareness drive on Monday morning. ZOOS, SANCTUARIES CLOSED UNTIL MARCH 29 First India News Their demand for suspension is more due to Gandhinagar: Opposi- tion Congress MLAs staged a walkout in the Gujarat Assembly on Monday after the speak- er refused to accept their demand to postpone the ongoing budget session due to the COVID-19. The ruling BJP had opposed the demand claiming the Congress was running scared due to five of its MLAs quit- ting ahead of the March 26 Rajya Sabha polls. Congress MLA from Ahmedabad’s Danilim- da, Shailesh Parmar, re- quested Speaker Rajen- dra Trivedi to postpone the budget scheduled to end on March 31 and resume it when the virus scare dies down. Backing Parmar’s de- ban on visitors to Sakkarabaug logical Park in Juna- gadh, Sardar Patel Zoological Park in Kevadiya, Devaliya Safari Park and Am- bardi Safari Park in Gir will remain in place until March 29. All permissions granted shooting search have also been suspended for the du- ration of the ban, the notice said. ‘todona’ (translating to ‘breaking up’, and a play on the word coro- na with reference to the quitting of MLAs) scare because of the upcoming Rajya Sab- ha election. —Vijay Rupani, CM Zoo- Rajkot: Taking pre- cautionary measures against the spread of Corona Virus, the Ra- jkot Municipal Cor- poration (RMC) on Monday fined four people for spitting in public places. One person was caught by RMC com- missioner Udit Agar- wal, who was moni- toring CCTV feeds in his chamber. He im- In Gandhinagar: keeping with the gov- ernment’s closure of establishments with high footfall to curb the potential spread of COVID-19, the principal chief con- servator of forests and wildlife on Mon- day announced the closing of several zoos and sanctuaries in the state effective immediately. for and film re- CM said. After their de- mand was rejected, Con- gress legislators dulged in sloganeering and walked out of the Assembly, with several BJP MLAs mockingly waving them goodbye. The speaker quipped that the Con- gress legislators would be back (in the Assem- bly) tomorrow. in- The ple of the state. If we run away scared, then what will happen to the citi- zens? This is why , as pub- lic representatives, we should not be scared, but care about people,” the from five of its MLAs resigning ahead of the RS polls, and, therefore, was making the post- ponement demand. “We should stay back here and worry about the peo- send the wrong message to people amid fears sur- rounding the coronavi- rus threat. claimed the Congress was more concerned about the crisis rising already announced the closure of schools, col- leges, cinema halls and other places attracting high footfalls. He also cited the ex- ample of neighbouring Maharashtra where the budget session ended ahead of schedule. However, Chief Min- ister Vijay Rupani op- posed the demand say- ing such a move would mand, Leader of Opposi- tion Paresh Dhanani said the session could be postponed as discus- sions on the budget had been completed, adding that the government had session, then Rupani FROM PG 1 Congress suspends... to get assembly elec- tion tickets in 2020 or chairmanship of some plum government un- dertaking. Amit Chavda’s sus- pension letter stated that, “Rajya Sabha election is round the corner, and at that time you have re- signed as a legislator which is unforgivable defiance of the party. For this, you are being suspended with imme- diate effect.” Speaker informed the Assembly that Patel, Jadeja, Maru, and Ka- kadia submitted their resignation on Satur- day evening Gavit resigned on Sun- day. Later, Maru claimed he is not going to join the BJP, while Jadeja said the ruling party has accepted his condi- tions for his constitu- ency. Kakadia’s wife Kokilaben went to the extent of alleging that Bharatsinh had called her husband and motivated him to join the BJP . According to reports, Kokilaben has also been suspend- ed from the party . Cha- vda refuted all the alle- gations and told report- ers that those who have defected are looking for reasons. ment saying the alle- gations were part of a “conspiracy”. An in- house committee had given a clean chit to Gogoi. Justice Gogoi is also known for his no-nonsense proach, boldness and fearlessness, and also leading a bench which monitored and en- sured that NRC exer- cise in Assam, his na- tive state, is completed within the set time- frame. of Congress. Other also claimed that Gohil and Solanki hardly re- mained in touch with them. “Many of our leaders do not even know all the elected members in the assem- bly . Even Amit Chavda (State Congress Presi- dent) doesn’t know the names of all MLAs till now. Gohil now wants our votes,” asserted an- other legislator. “Solanki listens to us but he is too manip- ulative to be trusted,” the MLA said, and add- ed that they would still implement what the party asks them to do but this is also the right time the leader- ship starts communi- cating with their own legislators. while, according to the party sources, leaders are closely watching Bharat Thakor, Lalit Kagthara and Amrish Der who they fear may indulge in cross-voting against Solanki and Gohil. moned Ambani in con- nection with the probe against Kapoor and his family members. legislators Prez nominates... ap- Ranjan Gogoi retired from the Court on November 17, 2019. Justice Gogoi’s tenure in the apex court will be best re- membered for heading the five-judge Constitu- tion Bench that deliv- ered a unanimous ver- dict in Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case as well as the time he had addressed an unprecedented press conference along with three other brother judges in 2018. Sworn on October 3, 2018, as the 46th Chief Justice of India, Jus- tice Gogoi also headed a bench which, by a 3:2 majority verdict, re- ferred the pleas seek- ing review of the apex court’s historic 2018 judgement women and girls of all ages to enter Sabari- mala temple. Justice Gogoi was also part of the bench that twice dismissed pleas seeking probe into the Rafale deal. Last year, he had also faced allegations of sexual harassment. In her 28-page original complaint, the woman had alleged that on Oc- tober 10 and October 11, 2018, the CJI had made sexual advances in his home office, where she was posted, and touched her inap- propriately. Soon after the allegations were made public, a bench led by CJI Gogoi had issued a signed state- Supreme the Ram Annoyed guv... under doubt due to res- ignation by a section of Congress MLAs, point- ed out that legislature sessions in several oth- er states had been trun- cated due to the corona- virus outbreak. Earlier in the day, Nath wrote a letter to the Governor, stating that holding the floor test on Monday would have been “undemo- cratic and unconstitu- tional” in a situation where his MLAs have been held “hostage”. Apparently annoyed over the tone of Nath’s missive, dashed off another let- ter to the Congress chief minister, request- ing him to take up trust vote on Tuesday and prove his majority in the house. The Nath govern- ment has been teeter- ing on the brink of a collapse ever since 22 Congress rebel MLAs resigned. Thanks for the reply to my letter dated March 14. But I am hurt that the tone and tenor of it is not conducive to democratic values, the governor letter stated. The while Mean- the MLAs allowing Solanki Kamal Nath... The chief minister called on the governor after the latter shot off a fresh letter on Mon- day, directing the Nath government to hold a floor test on Tuesday . The 15-month-old Nath government’s sta- bility has come under doubt due to resigna- tion by 22 rebel Con- gress MLAs. Tandon Desperate Congress... Even in the past, he hardly responded to our calls. His arro- gance is well known and he still acts like a royal prince. This must not be accepted, but we tolerated it for our par- ty,” said a senior MLA Anil Ambani... with the ongoing money laundering probe relat- ed to Yes Bank co-found- er Rana Kapoor. The ED had sum-

6. PERSPECTIVE STARS IN A CONSTELLATION Extracts from an address to officers attending Mid-career Training Programme at LBSNAA 06 AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia IN-DEPTH FATE OF NATH GOVT HANGS BY A THREAD adhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath must have breathed easy after Speaker NP Prajapati adjourned the assembly till March 26. But whether he’ll be able to sleep easy is difficult to say as his government is not out of the woods. Governor Lalji Tandon, being an appointee of BJP, is expected to play a par- tisan role in favour of the Opposition. On Monday , Budget session’s opening day , Tandon left the House after urging legislators to follow Constitution and maintain dignity of the House. BJP immediately began demanding floor test but parliamentary affairs minister cited coronavirus threat and Speaker promptly adjourned House ignoring Tandon’s directive that Nath seeks trust vote by raising of hands. With 106 BJP members present in the House, government, having lost support of 22 Scindia loyalists, clearly lacked numbers. Later, BJP led its flock to Raj Bhawan to prove its strength and demanded immediate floor test which Nath wanted postponed. In a letter to Lalji Tandon, Nath said, “Some of my MLAs are being held hostage by BJP un- der the supervision of Karnataka police…to carry out a floor test in these circumstances is unconstitutional.” Governor did not buy his “baseless and meaningless” argument and directed him once again to seek a trust vote by the end of the day on Tuesday . After weaning away Scindia, BJP is not ready to let go of this chance to once again wrest control of power in MP. Seeing Nath escape the test, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan filed a petition in SC seeking direc- tion for a test of majority within 12 hours. Constitutionally , within precincts of House ,Speaker is supreme and is free to run House the way he wants but for how long can he defy the governor who is empowered under Article 175 to advise or instruct the Speaker and the government? There is no clarity on this in Con- stitution. Karnataka, where a similar situation played out last year, could provide a clue. After 16 Congress and JD(S) legislators re- signed the Speaker, citing the rule book, said that MLAs had to personally hand over their letters to him or his office. In MP , 22 Congress legislators have resigned. The Speaker has ac- cepted six resignations and has asked to meet the remaining 16 before accepting their letters hoping to win back some of them. On Tuesday , all eyes will be on SC which had rejected the NCP , Shiv Sena and Congress’s demand in Ma- harashtra for a direction to Devendra Fadnavis government to seek an immediate composite floor test. But after his oath-taking the court ordered an immediate floor test. After the gov- ernor’s report, a similar direction could be is- sued to Kamal Nath. It has to be seen what line of argument the Congress takes to counter the re-run of Operation Kamal. The governor too can spoil Kamal Nath’s party by declaring his government to be in minority . It will all depend on Congress trouble-shooters who are leaving no stone unturned to avert the inevitable. DR SANJEEV CHOPRA M The author is an IAS & Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Mussoorie and Honorary Curator, Valley of Words: Literature and Arts Festival, Dehradun W e are living in the day and age of coronavirus, and all our conver- sations are centered around this. All of us are learning to cope with this. In India, we have tak- en quite a pro- active stand, and we have been able to stem the contagion, which seems to have taken its toll in China, Japan, Korea, Italy , Spain and Iran. This should also make us reflect on the challenges of governance today – the term ‘act of god’ is no longer acceptable in the govern- ance lexicon. Whether it is a Tsu- nami or an earthquake, or an ethnic clash, our stakeholders – both in the immediate neighbor- hood and the international com- munity expect us to take preven- tive and curative action. What- ever be the cause or reason – it could be a rogue virus or a per- ceived sense of wrong in the re- cent or the hoary past – the fact is that as the permanent execu- tive, we are expected to resolve these issues. And how do we tackle issues as complex as these… by working together, and understanding the interconnect- edness. And by realizing, now, more than ever before that a lit- tle humility and a little less cer- titude would make it easier for us to cope with the uncertainty which engulfs us today . Let me at this stage also share my world- view, which is on record in an essay which I wrote two decades ago part of my course work on devel- opment discourses in India at Cornell University during my Fellowship year. This is the ongoing debate between the Malthusians and the Pro- metheans, and this dilemma is recorded in myths and fa- bles of almost all the folklore. The Malthusians have always been like the prophets of doom – the world will never be able to cope with the crisis – whether of food production, but we must give space and scope to others as well – and real- ize that we cannot be lone stars in the firmament. Again, insti- tutions, like nations do not flounder because of challeng- es or pressures from others. They fail because they lose confidence in themselves – or lose the will to govern and cease to take hold of the eco- system. We create our eco -systems, and when we are in the forefront of anticipating change , we will take control over it. If the country needs domain expertise in different areas of governance and de- velopment interventions, we have to be in the forefront of this change. We have to be the change we anticipate. We in the IAS have an advantage over the rest. We talk to the political executive directly , and we must be able to give them ideas which work, for we have to work together with the political leadership respecting each other’s pro- fessional space. And within the space that we have, why can’t we create excellence as a habit. It’s not easy , for the devil lies in the detail, but we must try to do our best, even as we realize that we are mor- tals, and some things can al- ways go wrong. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL or of climate change, or of impending wars . The Pro- metheans, on the other hand believe that there are virtu- ally no limits to a human be- ings ability to do anything – including stealing fire from the gods, thereby setting the stage for human settlements to extend – both temporally and spatially . In a way , Yuval Noah Harari avers to this de- bate in his writings, and one also noted that he is also mov- ing away from ‘absolute cat- egories’ to living with appre- hension about the range of possibilities and probabili- ties. I for one have been on the side of the Prometheans – I have believed that human be- ings have the ability to handle complexity , and though pro- gress is never linear, it is more in the nature of an evo- lutionary cycle. The question is: How does this happen, and whether or not we have a role in this. My proposi- tion is that we have a role, and a dominant role, because my read- ing of history is that it happens because when individuals and institutions are clear in what they wish to achieve, they can do it? The problem is that we often flounder, and harbor self-doubt about ourselves. If we believe we have a role as individuals then listen carefully - if not try doz- ing off! Well, as individuals, we I have used the word ‘constellation’ for we have to retain our identity even as we work in unison! we must shine, but we must give space and scope to others as well – and realize that we cannot be lone stars in the firmament are blessed to belong to the insti- tution of the IAS which gives us a tremendous opportunity to make a positive change, provid- ed, we believe in ourselves and our institution. I must say that when I heard your presentations yesterday , I was convinced that here is a group of people who are not just bright stars in them- selves, but also make a great con- stellation. I have used the word ‘constellation’ for we have to re- tain our identity even as we work in unison! we must shine, And within the space that we have, why can’t we create excellence as a habit. It’s not easy, for the devil lies in the detail, but we must try to do our best THE PANDEMIC STRESS TEST T tines, and social distanc- ing. Most developed coun- tries should be well-posi- tioned to implement such measures; yet, Italy has been overwhelmed by the epidemic, and the US re- sponse has not exactly in- spired confidence. Looking ahead, unless the coronavirus is eradi- cated globally, it could al- ways return, or even be- come a seasonal disrup- tion. If an effective treat- ment is not discovered soon (Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir current- ly shows some promise), all countries will face a choice between walling them- selves off entirely and pushing for a global effort to eradicate the virus. Giv- en that the former is an impossibility, the latter seems the natural choice. FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO WWW.PROJECTSYNDICATE.ORG have hitherto been so sup- portive of growth. The parade of horrible possibilities could go on. The more fundamental point to remember is that the world economy never fully recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis, nor were the underlying problems that produced that disaster ever fully ad- dressed. On the contrary, governments, businesses, and households around the world have piled on more debt, and policymakers have undermined trust in the global trading and in- vestment system. But even though the world started with a weak hand, our response to the COVID-19 crisis could be far better than it has been. The immediate task is to limit the spread of the vi- rus through widespread testing, rigorous quaran- of basic pharmaceutical chemicals in China dis- rupts the production of generic drugs in India, which in turn reduces drug shipments to the United States. The second shock is to demand: as people and governments take steps to slow the spread of the coro- navirus, spending in res- taurants, shopping malls, and tourist destinations collapses. But there is also the po- tential for indirect after- shocks, such as the re- cent plunge in oil prices following Russia and Saudi Arabia’s failure to agree on coordinated output cuts. As these and other shocks propagate, already stressed small- and medium-size businesses could be forced to shut down, leading to layoffs, lost consumer con- fidence, and further reduc- tions in consumption and he coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by surprise and will now expose economic underlying weaknesses wherever they lie. But the crisis also re- minds us that we live in a deeply interconnected world. If the pandemic has any silver lining, it is the possibility of a much-need- ed reset in public dialogue that focuses attention on the most vulnerable in so- ciety, on the need for global cooperation, and on the im- portance of professional leadership and expertise. Apart from the direct im- pact on public health, a cri- sis of this magnitude can trigger at least two direct kinds of economic shock. The first is a shock to pro- duction, owing to disrupt- ed global supply chains. Suspending the production aggregate demand. Moreover, downgrades to, or defaults by , highly lev- eraged entities (shale-ener- gy producers in the US; commodity-dependent de- veloping countries) could lead to wider losses in the global financial system. That would curtail liquidi- ty and credit, and trigger a dramatic tightening of the financial conditions that But even though the world started with a weak hand, our response to the COVID-19 crisis could be far better than it has TOP TWEET Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp Welcome the British Government’s decision to turn the Ambedkar House in London as Dr. Ambedkar Museum. Sincere gratitude to Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi ji for his relentless efforts in preserving the legacy of Babasaheb, one of the founding fathers of India. been G Vol 1 G Issue No. 110 GRNI 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, Resident Editor : Darshan Desai, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

7. INDIA AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 07 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia MP POLITICAL CRISISSpeaker NP Prajapati adjourned the House just after the Governor Lalji Tandon finished his customary address GOVERNOR ASKS MLAS TO UPHOLD DEMOCRATIC IDEALS BJP legislators led by Chouhan meet Guv Shah meets PM Modi over political turmoil New Delhi: After the Congress-led Kamal Nath gov- ernment in Madhya Pradesh on Monday got a breather as the state Assembly was adjourned March 26, Home Minister Amit Shah held discussion with PM Narendra Modi over the po- litical turmoil in the state. Shah and Prime Minister Modi met inside PM’’s Parlia- ment House office on Monday and dis- cussed the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat apart from political ments in Madhya Pradesh. Minister Narender Singh Tomar and Dharmendra Prad- han, both handling Madhya developments, will also hold meeting with Amit Shah at his Parliament House Office. Bhopal: The BJP MLAs on Monday met Gover- nor Lalji Tandon at the Raj Bhawan. The BJP delegation was led by former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. “Appropriate action will be taken. Be as- sured that no one will violate your rights,” the Governor MLAs here. Following this, BJP leader Chou- han said that the Con- gress government lacks majority as it has just 92 MLAs while the BJP has 106. “The Chief Minister is running away from the trust vote as he knows that the govern- ment lacks the majority . BJP has the majority and we have appealed the Governor to issue order for conducting the floor test at the ear- liest,” Chouhan told re- porters here. “Congress has 92 MLAs while BJP's 106 MLAs are here and, therefore, it is clear that we have the majority. till told the BJP MLAs shows a victory sign as they coming out after meeting Guv Lalji Tandon at Raj Bhawan in Bhopal on Monday. ‘SPEAKER HAS TO DECIDE ON FLOOR TEST’ —PHOTO BY PTI BJP MLAs meets Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon, at Governor House in Bhopal on Monday. Eariler on Monday, the MLAs of both the Congress and the BJP arrived at the Madhya Pradesh Legislative As- sembly for the budget session amid uncertain- ty over holding of a floor test. Many legisla- tors were seen wearing protecting masks in view of the novel coro- navirus scare. The Rajya Sabha elec- tions will be held on March 26. Bhopal: Amidst uproar in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the house was adjourned March 26. Speaker NP Prajapati adjourned the house just after the gov- ernor finished his cus- tomary address. Gover- nor Lalji in his address asked the MLAs to up- hold democratic ideals. He also told the govern- ment to hold a floor test on Monday itself. Meanwhile, the oppo- GOVT IS IN MINORITY: MIN TOMAR develop- till Union Pradesh pealed to Members: “All must follow the rules under the Constitution so that dignity of Mad- hya Pradesh remains protected.” This unstable govern- ment cannot even be saved on the pretext of coronavirus,” Shivraj added. In his address, Guv Lalji Tandon ap- tam Mishra demanded floor as Chief Minister Kamal Nath maintained that in the current po- litical situation it is very difficult to do so. sition BJP has said that it will move the court if the floor test in Madhya Pradesh Assembly is not held on Monday. BJP’s chief whip Narot- Parliament starts thermal screening of visitors amid coronavirus scare J&K MP meets Modi, demands release of Mehboba, Abdullah VHP holds Ram Navmi’s Shobha Yatras in Ayodhya leased soon. The MP has also said that he hopes “the po- litical process in Jam- mu and Kashmir starts soon”. Laway hailed the Prime Minister for tak- ing the initiative on the issue of COVID-19 and said that he has done good work. On the question of Pakistan raising Kash- mir issue during the video conferencing with Prime Minister modi over coronavi- rus, Laway said, “We should not take Paki- stan seriously.” New Delhi: After the release of former Jam- mu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdul- lah, Member of Parlia- ment Nazeer Ahmed Laway, who was ex- pelled from the PDP, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday and demanded that party chief and for- mer Chief Minister Me- hboba Mufti be released along with Omar Ab- dullah. After the meeting speaking to IANS, La- way said, “There are two Chief Ministers Ayodhya: The VHP had decided not to take out 'Shobha Yatras' and 'Rath Yatras' during the Ram Navmi period from March 25 to April 8 in Ayodhya. This decision has been taken in view of the coronavirus scare because these events at- tract thousands of devo- tees. A senior VHP lead- er said that during the scheduled 'Shri Ram Mahotsav', the VHP will now focus on smaller programmes that will be held in a controlled envi- ronment. New Delhi: Amid COV- ID-19 scare, security at Parliament has started thermal screening of visitors at all its en- trances on Monday. With coronavirus being declared a pandemic by the World Health Or- ganisation, the issue also dominated discus- sion among MPs on Monday . As the Rajya Sabha discussed precautions required to contain the spread of COVID-19, the members of both Hous- es believe that a strin- gent screening process is required at every place of gathering, in- cluding Parliament. Ram Gopal Yadav, Ra- jya Sabha MP of Sama- jwadi Party suggested that thermal screen- ing should be started at each of the Parlia- ment gates to ensure that no infected person can enter the premises even as the number of those infected by the virus crossed the fig- ure of 100. BJD's Sas- mit Patra called for precautions at ATMs and domestic airports and establishment of more testing facilities for the deadly virus. and many youths who are under detention and I have demanded that all of them should be released.” He said that the Prime Minister has assured him of more af- firmative action and the detainees will be re- Thermal screening of visitors being conducted at the entrance of Parliament House, in New Delhi. Siddhivinayak temple to close over coronavirus Mumabi: Siddhivinay- ak temple will remain shut to devotees from this evening till further notice to check the spread of coronavirus, the temple authorities have announced. Mean- while, the Tourism Min- istry has decided to close all museum and ASI monuments till March 31. “Keeping in view the outbreak of deadly virus, we have decided to close all mu- seum and ASI monu- ment till March 31,” said Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel. GOVT UNWILLING TO CURTAIL PARL SESSION FORCES SPENT `26.12 CR IN LEGAL EXPENSES New Delhi: India’s armed forces spent Rs 26.12 crore in legal expenses in the fi nancial year 2019-20 up to February 2020, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament on Monday. “A total of Rs 26,12,30,810 has been spent for legal expenses by Army, Navy and Air Force for the year 2019-20 (up to February, 2020),” Singh said in the Rajya Sabha, replying to the query of a member of the House. COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS : RULES CANNOT BE RELAXED FOR JOURNALISTS, SAYS CJI New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde on Monday said that rules for preventing overcrowding in the courts to avoid the spread of coronavirus cannot be relaxed for journalists alone on the basis of profession. “Can’t make an exception on the basis of profession,” CJI Bobde said while asking journalists to share information and notes and sug- gesting that a system can be put in place to facilitate daily media briefi ng by Secretary-General. On the eve of fi rst death anniversary of Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Tarun Vijay and Shripad Naik released a book on the life and times of the former Union minister, on Monday. —PHOTO BY PTI NO DECISION TO DISCONTINUE PRINTING OF RS 2,000 BANKNOTES New Delhi: The govern- ment on Monday said no decision has been taken to discontinue printing of Rs 2,000 banknotes, and state-owned SBI and Indi- an Bank are reconfi guring ATMs for Rs 500 and Rs 200 notes. “No indent was placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2,000 denomination notes for 2019-20. However, there is ‘PUNJAB GOVT TO PROVIDE 1 LAKH JOBS IN NEXT TWO YEARS’ Chandigarh: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Monday announced his government will provide one lakh jobs to the state’s youth in various state departments in the next two years. Singh made the announcement while addressing media here on the occasion of completion of three years of his gov- ernment. “For the youth of ‘PROUD TO SEE INDIA TAKING LEAD ROLE’ ON COVID-19 New Delhi: Ambassador of Kazakhstan to India Yerlan Alimbayev on Monday said that he is proud to see New Delhi taking a lead role in enhancing efforts to fi ght corona pandemic and assured his country’s full cooperation to combat the deadly infection. “It was a good idea actually. We watched the conference yesterday. I am very proud to see that India is taking the lead role and all the steps that were proposed by PM Modi are very useful and timely, which we support. We are ready to cooperate and work jointly,” the ambassador told. BISHOP FRANCO’S PLEA IN RAPE CASE DISMISSED Kottayam: A trial court in Kottayam, Kerala, has dismissed a discharge petition fi led by Bishop Fran- co Mulakkal, in connection with the case of alleged rape of a nun in which he is the prime accused. In his plea fi led before the Additional District and Sessions Court I, Mulakkal had claimed that prima facie there was no case to frame charges against him. Dismissing the plea, the trial court said the bishop should stand for trial in the rape case. The bishop’s lawyer said an appeal would be fi led in the HC against the trial court order. no decision to discontinue the printing of Rs 2,000 banknotes,” MoS Anurag Singh Thakur said in LS. The minister was replying to a question whether the govt has stopped printing of new Rs 2,000 currency notes and if the public sector banks have issued any circular to stop circu- lation of Rs 2,000 notes through ATMs. the state, we will provide one lakh government jobs over the next two years,” he said. Singh added that “These jobs will be fi lled up through a transparent and merit based system of selection.” The jobs will be offered in several government departments, including health, educa- tion and police, the chief minister said.

8. INDIA AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 08 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia POWERGallery IN THE COURTYARD NO REMEDY LEFT: SC DECLINES PLEA NIRBHAYA CASE THREE STRONG PROBABLES EMERGE FOR POST OF RBI DY. GOV RBI Executive Directors Dr Deepak Kumar Mohanty, M Rajeshwar Rao and S C Murmu are three strong probables for the post of RBI Deputy Governor. SC rejects anticipatory bail pleas of Navlakha, Teltumbde New Delhi: The Su- preme Court Monday refused to entertain the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four death- row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya and murder case, seek- ing restoration of legal remedies alleging that his earlier counsel mis- led and forced him to sign the papers. A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah heard submissions of lawyer M L Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, and reject- ed the plea by terming it as “not maintainable” in view of the fact that both the review and the curative pleas in the case have been dis- missed. The apex court had on July 9, 2018 dis- missed the review plea of Mukesh against its judgement; later, his cu- rative and mercy pleas were rejected by the top court and President Ram Nath Kovind re- spectively . On March 5, a trial court issued fresh war- rants with March 20, 5.30 am, as the date for the execution of the con- victs Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31). Mukesh in his fresh plea had sought the CBI probe into “criminal conspiracy” New Delhi: The Su- preme Court on Mon- day rejected a plea seek- ing an extension of an- ticipatory bail granted to social activists Gau- tam Navlakha Anand Teltumbde, two accused in Bhima Kore- gaon violence case. A bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice MR Shah gave three weeks PRAVEEN GUPTA TO BE MEMBER SEBI? MD in the SBI Praveen Gupta is likely to be ap- pointed Member of the SEBI. One post of Member SEBI is falling vacant on April 4. gang-rape KAUN BANEGA CHAIRMAN SAIL? Anirban Dasgupta The name of Anirban Dasgupta, Director (Projects and Business Planning), SAIL, is being bandied around as next Chairperson, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) falling vacant on January 1, 2021. and to Teltumbde and Nav- lakha to surrender and asked them to surren- der their passports im- mediately as well. Asha Devi along with her husband speaks to media at the Supreme Court, in New Delhi on Monday. TENURE OF VIVEK JOHRI AS DGP OF MP FIXED FOR TWO YEARS The tenure of Vivek Johri as DGP of Madhya Pradesh has been fi xed for a period of two years. A notifi cation has been issued in this respect. He is 1984 batch IPS offi cer. 3 Nirbhaya convicts approach ICJ HAVE BEEN DYING FOR 7 YEARS: MOTHER SC dismisses Vodafone’s plea against OTSC A murder case sought the President’s permission for euthanasia, Asha Devi, the mother of the vic- tim, on Monday, appealed for justice saying she has also been suffering for the past seven years. “I would also want to appeal to the President to help me get justice for my daughter as well. People know me and my children by the name of Nirbhaya. I have also been dying for the last seven years,” Asha Devi told ANI. She said that she had to cope with people’s taunts about how she created a drama in these last seven years. day after the family members of the four death row convicts in Nirbhya gangrape and New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Vodafone against the levy of one-time spectrum charges (OTSC). Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Vodafone, told a bench of Justice Arun M ishra and Justice MR Shah that the charges are related to the adjusted gross rev- enue (AGR). The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sought to levy a one-time spectrum charge on telecom service providers. SIX NEW ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBERS IN CAT Six former bureaucrats have been appointed Administrative Members of the CAT. They are Amarendra Kumar Dubey, Tarun Shridhar, K V Eapen and Rakesh Kumar Gupta all former IAS offi cers. Sushil Kumar Sinha former IPA offi cer and Anand Mathur former IRPS offi cer will also be Member. New Delhi: Three of the four death row con- victs in the Nirbhaya gangrape proached the Interna- tional Court of Justice (ICJ), seeking a stay on the execution of their death sentence. The three convicts who approached the ICJ are Akshay Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma. The Interna- tional Court of Justice, sometimes called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. This comes as the four convicts in the 2012 case - Vinay, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh -- are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am on March 20. case ap- BASEER AHMAD KHAN IS NEW ADVISOR TO J&K LG Baseer Ahmad Khan, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and an IAS offi cer of 2000 batch has been appointed as fourth Advisor to Lieutenant Gover- nor Girish Chandra Murmu. Singh, Special court frames charges against Yasin Malik, six others da Grover) and other advocate who appeared in the sessions court, high court and the Su- preme Court in the peti- tioner's death warrant case. The court took strong note of the state- ment and said the cura- tive plea was not heard in an open court and such plea was between the court and the con- vict only . and “fraud” hatched by the Centre, the Delhi government and advo- cate Vrinda Grover, who is the amicus curiae in the case. It said: “Petitioner (Mukesh) is victim of criminal and fraud played and hatched jointly by the R-1 (Ministry of Home Affairs), R-2 (Delhi gov- ernment) and R-3 (Vrin- matter for further hear- ing on March 30. Charges were framed under several relevant sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), Ter- rorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act of the RPC. Jammu: A special court in Jammu on Monday framed charges against Yasin Malik and six oth- ers in connection with a case related to the kill- ing of IAF officer Squad- ron Leader Ravi Khanna and three others in 1990. The court slated the P R JAISHANKAR RECOMMENDED FOR MD VACANCY IN IIFCL Banks Board Bureau has recommended PR Jais- hankar for the vacancy of MD in IIFCL. conspiracy THAKKAR RECOMMENDED FOR 1ST DMD VACANCY IN EXIM BANK The Banks Board Bureau has recommended Lekhan Thakkar for the fi rst vacancy of Deputy Managing Director in EXIM Bank. alleged Governor promulgates ordinance to recover damages in UP My parliamentary right was hurt by LS Speaker: Rahul ‘Unsatisfied with govt response on bank defaulters’ MRS HARSHA BANGARI RECOMMENDED FOR 2ND DMD VACANCY IN EXIM BANK The Banks Board Bureau has recommended Mrs Harsha Bangari for the second vacancy of Deputy Managing Director in EXIM Bank. S K BANSAL RECOMMENDED FOR DMD VACANCY IN IFCI The Banks Board Bureau has recommended Sunil Kumar Bansal for the vacancy of Deputy Managing Director in IFCI Ltd. “As an MP, my rights were compromised. But the question is why the government is saving those wilful defaulters,” Gandhi said inside the Parliament premises. During the Question Hour, Gandhi had asked supplementary tion when Question No 305 regarding “Wilful defaulters” was read. Gandhi said, “The In- dian economy is going through a very difficult period. Our banking system is practically not working any more. Banks are failing. And I think more banks are going to fail as a result of the current global situation. Meanwhile, treasury benches created ruckus and the Speaker gave chance to another MP to raise other question and Gandhi could not get a chance to put his point properly . New Delhi: Former Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday ac- cused Lok Sabha Speak- er Om Birla of “hurt- ing” his parliamentary rights by restricting him to ask question from the government about the top 50 wilful bank defaulters. Gandhi launched the allegation against Birla following the Question Hour in which he raised a supplementary ques- tion on wilful default- ers. Speaking to the me- dia after the Question Hour, Gandhi said there is a process that supple- mentary question can be asked by a parlia- mentarian and that was exactly he did. However, when he came out to speak to the media he said: “I asked the question about 500 wilful defaulters. I am hurt that my parlia- mentary right to ask a New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday expressed dis- satisfaction with MoS for Finance Anurag Thakur’s response in the Lok Sabha on wilful bank defaulters. “I had asked a simple question about names of 500 wilful de- faulters. But I was not given a clear answer. What hurt me was that the Speaker did not al- low me to ask a supple- mentary question which is my right as a member of Parliament,” Rahul told reporters at the Par- liament. Gandhi had asked the names of wil- ful defaulters and meas- ures taken to recover loans advanced to them. “Why is the govt de- fending the wilful de- faulters? Why is it not revealing their names in the Parliament?” he added. Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Anandiben Patel has promulgated an ordi- nance to recover dam- age to public and pri- vate properties in any violent protest or dem- onstration. 'The Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damage to Public and Property Ordinance, 2020' was promulgated by Patel on Sunday . With this Ordinance, a person participating in a protest, political rally, strike, or shut- down has to give com- pensation in case of damage to public or pri- vate property caused by him or her. The Ordi- nance also covers the incidents of riots. On Friday, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet had passed the Ordinance. The decision was taken Governor JUSTICE RAHUL CHATURVEDI APPOINTED PERMANENT JUDGE OF ALLAHABAD HC Justice Rahul Chaturvedi, Additional Judge of the Allahabad High Court has been appointed as Permanent Judge of the Allahabad High Court. ques- the WILFUL DEFAULTERS Anandiben Patel JUSTICE IRSHAD ALI APPOINTED AS PERMANENT JUDGE OF ALLAHABAD HC Justice Irshad Ali, Additional Judge of the Alla- habad HC has been appointed as permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court. Private YOGI SEEKS TIME SHAILENDRA K. SHUKLA RESIGNS AS CHAIRMAN OF CHHATTISGARH STATE POWER COMPANIES Shailendra Kumar Shukla has resigned as Chair- man of Chhattisgarh State Power Companies. SOMNATH GHOSH APPOINTED AS JOINT SECRETARY, DEFENCE Somnath Ghosh has been appointed as Joint Sec- retary, Department of Defence for an overall period of three years. He is a 1997 batch IFS offi cer. in a cabinet meeting headed by Chief Minis- ter Yogi Adityanath. supplementary tion was restricted by the Speaker.” ques- WB GUV EXPRESSES CONFIDENCE IN SEC FOR PEACEFUL CIVIC POLLS Kolkata: West Ben- gal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday exuded confi dence that the State Election Com- mission (SEC) would take measures to ensure fair and peaceful civic polls. “Post my interaction with State Election Commis- sioner and my subse- quent communication to him, I am confi dent SEC PRESIDENT KOVIND’S VISIT TO JABALPUR POSTPONED New Delhi: The sched- uled visit of President Ramnath Kovind to the convoca- tion ceremony of Jabalpur’s Rani Durgavati Vishwavidya- laya has been postponed due to “unavoidable circumstances”. “Due to unavoidable circumstanc- LIC’S NPAS STOOD AT RS 1453.11 CR AS ON DEC 31, 2019 New Delhi: Minister of State (MoS) Finance, Anurag Thakur on Monday said that as reported by the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), its Non Performing Assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 1453.11 crore as on December 31, 2019. The MoS Finance replied to a series of questions that whether the LIC has NPAs of approximately Rs 30,000 crore or even more than that; if so, the amount outstanding on various companies out of the said NPAs at present, company-wise; the time when the LIC had provided the said amount to the said companies. TAHIR HUSSAIN ARRESTED FOR IB STAFFER’S MURDER New Delhi: Suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain was on Monday arrested in connection with murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer, Ankit Sharma, during the recent violence in the national capital. “He has been arrested,” a Delhi Police offi cial told. The police have sought his custody for fi ve days in connection with the case. He is also accused for involvement in in- stigating the violence. The police had registered a criminal case against him on a complaint fi led by deceased IB staffer’’s father. would take appropriate call on dates of civic elections taking note of totality of circumstances and the contemporaneous situation,” said Dhankha. In the letter, Dhankar stated, “This is further to the meeting with the un- dersigned on February 27, 2020 as regards ensuring upcoming civic polls to be peaceful, orderly and fair.” es the visit of Honourable President to Madhya Pradesh (Jabal- pur) scheduled on March 20 and March 21 stands postponed,” said a letter from Rashtra- pati Bhavan to Vice-Chancellor of Rani Durgavati Vish- wavidyalaya.

9. SPORTS AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 09 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia ‘Never let amputated leg become an obstacle on court’ 2011, I participated in an inter- company badminton champi- onship and won a gold medal,” she added. Eight years later, she creat- ed history. In August 2019 in Basel, she defeated defending champion Parul Parma to win gold at the World Para-bad- minton Championships. However, for Manasi the bronze medal she won at the 2018 Asian Para Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia is the one she loves the most. “Manasi also said that she owes a lot to Pullela Gop- ichand, under whom she has been training since 2018 at his academy in Hyderabad. Manasi is currently fo- cussed on qualifying for the mixed doubles category of To- kyo Paralympics. her outlook towards life. “The turning point of my life was when I met with an accident back in 2011, which led to the amputation of my leg. After the accident, I had to relearn everything -- from walking to conducting daily chores and activities on my own,” she said. While she studied and pur- sued a career in software en- gineering, she was always in- clined towards sports and had been coaching for badminton as a hobby since the age of 10. “Playing sport teaches you an important life lesson; that you must always accept defeat and always tread onwards. This learning was always deep- seated in my conscience and helped me through the initial phase. Post my accident, in post recovery, Manasi, who had just started her career as an engineer, got a prosthetic leg. Any other person would have lost all her confidence, but that was not the case with Manasi. In fact, the accident went a long way in changing New Delhi: It was on Decem- ber 2 in 2011 that Manasi Joshi met with an accident and had her left leg amputated. After spending days in hospital and Manasi Joshi —Agencies Indian paddler Sharath clinches Oman Open Muscat: Ace Indian paddler Sharath Kamal thrashed Portugal’s Marcos Freitas to clinch the 2020 IITF Challenger Plus Oman Open here on Sunday. Fourth-seeded Shar- ath made a sensational comeback after being one game down to reg- ister 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11- 9, 3-11, 17-15 win, in a thrilling six-set final. This was Sharath’s first-ever IITF title since winning the Egypt Open in 2010. “#TOPSAthlete@ sharathkamal1 won —ANI Viktor Axelsen wins All England title London: Viktor Axels- en became the first Dane to win the All Eng- land title for 21 years when he beat Taiwan’s top seed Chou Tien- chen with ease in Bir- mingham on Sunday . In the women’s singles fi- nal Tzu-ying toppled world number 1 Chen Yufei to secure a hat- trick of titles at event. Axelsen was in scintil- lating form to win, mak- ing up for his loss in last year’s final. CM Amarinder announces `5 lakh prize for Simranjit Kaur from Ludhiana secures her spot in the coming Olympics the ITTF Oman Open table tennis event after beating top seed Mar- cos Freitas 4-2 (6-11, 11- 8, 12-10, 11-9, 3-11, 17- 15). This is his first- ever ITTF title since winning the Egypt Open in 2010,” SAI me- dia tweeted. Earlier, Sharath de- feated Russia’s Kirill Skachkov men’s singles final. The ace Indian paddler won the thrilling seven set semi-finals that lasted for one hour and eight minutes. This was Sharath’s first-ever IITF title since winning the Egypt Open in 2010 to enter —Agencies ‘Don’t lose spirit, keep focussing on training’ New Delhi: With the coronavirus outbreak bringing all sports ac- tivities to a halt in the country , Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday urged the athletes to not lose spirit and keep working hard to stay battle ready for competi- tions. The COVID-19 pan- demic, which has claimed over 6,000 lives and infected close to 160,000 people world- wide, has led to the can- cellation or postpone- ment of all sporting events across the globe. “Due to coronavirus, sporting events and competitions are post- poned temporarily but I appeal all our athletes not to lose the spirit, keep practicing and fo- cus on your training,” Rohit asks people to be smart and proactive while combating corona proud and wished her the best of luck for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He assured that the State govern- ment would extend all possible support and cooperation to her in the future as well. Also, Sodhi as- sured that the Sports Department would provide a suitable Government job as per her eligibility . After securing a berth in the quadren- nial event, Kaur be- came the first-ever Punjabi woman box- er to have qualified for the Olympics.—ANI tle smart, a little pro- active, knowing our surroundings and as and when we get any symptoms your nearest medical authorities.” The coronavirus outbreak has claimed over 6,000 lives and has infected close to 160,000 people world over. Various state gov- ernments country have ordered closures of schools, malls, cinema halls in a bid to avoid gather- ings while also ask- ing people to practice social distancing.—PTI Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Cap- tain Amarinder Sin- gh on Monday an- nounced Rs 5 lakh prize for boxer Sim- ranjit Kaur, who re- cently booked her spot in the 2020 To- kyo Olympics. Disclosing this, a spokesperson CMO said that Sports Minister Rana Gur- mit Singh Sodhi ac- companied by Sim- ranjit Kaur and her family members met Captain Amarinder Singh this morning. CM said she had re- ally made Punjab and every Punjabi New Delhi: Opener Rohit Sharma on Monday advised peo- ple to be smart and proactive in their fight against spread of COVID-19. The 32-year-old batsman posted a vid- eo message on his of- ficial Twitter handle. “Last few weeks have been tough for all of us and the world has come to a stand- still which is very sad to see,” said Rohit. “The only way we can come to normal- cy is by all of us com- ing together. We can do this by being a lit- inform the Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju Rijiju wrote on his twit- ter handle. The government last week imposed travel re- strictions to control the spread of the virus, while the Sports Minis- try also urged all nation- al federations to follow the Health Ministry’s advisory and avoid large gatherings in sports events. of in the —PTI FIGHTING CORONA Hockey India announces new dates for National Championships New Delhi: Hockey In- dia on Monday an- nounced the new dates for the National Cham- pionships for Sub Junior and Junior categories which were scheduled to be held from April 10. The decision of post- poning the champion- ships was taken by the Hockey India Executive Board amid coronavi- rus fears in India. “Keeping in mind the safety of players, HI has taken a decision to post- pone the annual Nation-  THE NEW DATES FOR THE 10TH HOCKEY INDIA NATIONAL C’SHIP 2020 The decision was taken by the Hockey India Executive Board following growing concerns around COVID-19 situation in the Junior Women (B Div): Ranchi, Jharkhand, India which was scheduled for April 10 to April 20, will now be held from April 29 to May 09, 2020 Junior Men (B Div): Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India which was scheduled for April 15 to April 26 will now be held from May 14 to May 21, 2020 Sub Junior Women (B Div): Hisar, Haryana, India which was scheduled for April 13 to April 24 will now be held from May 03 to May 14, 2020 Junior Men (A Div): Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India which was scheduled for April 10 to April 17 will now be held from May 19 to May 30, 2020 Junior Women (A Div): Ranchi, Jharkhand, India which was scheduled for April 18 to April 28 will now be held from May 07 to May 17, 2020 Sub Junior Women (A Div): Hisar, Haryana, India which was scheduled for April 22 to May 3 will now be held from May 12 to May 23, 2020 Sub Junior Men (B Div): Imphal, Manipur, India which was scheduled for April 26 to May 3 will now be held from May 28 to June 04, 2020 Sub Junior Men (A Div): Imphal, Manipur, India which was scheduled for May 7 to May 17 will now be held from June 03 to June 13, 2020. ment. “Although we have announced the new dates for these Na- tional Championships, HI will continue to mon- itor and evaluate the Covid19 situation in In- dia and we will be pre- pared for any scenario,” he added. al Championships for Junior, Sub-Junior Men and Women categories,” said President MM Ah- mad in an official state- country —ANI

10. Confidence will stand you in good stead always, I feel its better to be overconfident than lack in confidence and never achieve the full potential. 2NDFRONT —Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India 10 AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 Centre released `1k cr for Tigers www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia DECODING BJP STRATEGY IN RESIGNATIONS OF CONG MLAS LONG TERM PLAN First India News Rs 4.98 crore, Rs 5.59 crore and Rs 21.42 crore in the year 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 re- spectively under DWH Scheme for Gujarat, which inter-alia in- clude conservation of Asiatic Lions. In the same three years, for Project Tiger Centre released Rs 342.25 crore, Rs 345 crore and Rs 323.17 respectively. Parimal wanted to know about the steps being taken by the Forest Department for conservation of Asi- atic Lions, budget allo- cated and released by Government for conser- vation of the Asiatic Lions vis-a-vis Tigers in the last three years. New Delhi: Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme - ‘Develop- ment of Wildlife Habi- tats’ (CSS-DWH), the Central Government has released a total of Rs 1010.42 crore for ‘Project Tiger’ and Rs 32 crore for Asiatic Li- ons in the last three years. Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Babul Supriyo, pro- vided the information in Rajya Sabha on March 16, 2020 while replying to a question raised by MP Shri Parimal Nathwani. According statement of the Minis- ter, the Center released J V Kakadia Soma Patel Pradyumansinh Jadeja Pravin Maru Mangal Gavit Haresh Jhala Gujarat has 7.5 per Dalit population, 27 per cent OBCs and 14 per cent tribals, while there are 14 per cent Patidars and 4.5 per cent are Ra- jputs. Excluding Soma Patel, none of these leaders could be termed caste leaders but their influence could be use- ful to woo voters. And this is what the BJP is looking for. The BJP has also changed its strategy with the turncoats. Earlier, immediately after a Congress MLA resigned from the upcoming elections to convince voters that these sections were un- happy and disappointed with the Congress and so their leaders re- signed as MLAs. The district, J V Kakadia, Patidar MLA from Dha- ri in Amreli district. Pradyumansinh Jade- ja, a Rajput MLA from Abdasa constituency in Kutch District and Mangal Gavit, a tribal MLA from Dangs and Ahwa. According to sources, they were selected with a long-term strategy aiming at upon all sections of the society. A Patel and a Rajput from the upper caste, OBC, Dalit and a tribal. This caste com- bination will be used in dominated areas, was very poor. From the five resignations so far, three are from Saurashtra. wants to recover the lost ground and so it had earlier pulled in two OBC leaders Kun- varji Bavalia Jawahar Chavda from Rajkot and Junagadh respectively , and later D h r a n g a d h a r a ’s Patidar MLA Sabari- ya Parsottam Ukab- hai had resigned and got elected from the same seat on a BJP ticket. Gandhinagar: resignations of five Congress legislators are not merely a num- ber that may suit the ruling BJP , but each of them has been carefully ‘selected’ as part of a long term strategy. Those who resigned are Pravin Maru, a Dalit MLA from Gadhada constituency of Botad district, Soma Patel, a Koli Patel (OBC) MLA from Limdbdi constitu- ency in Surendranagar The BJP the party and joined the BJP , he was accom- modated in the State Cabinet. But now, the party will take its own time to give them any sops. Learning from last by-election results of Radhanpur and Tharad, the BJP will now field party workers or its own candidates who had lost the 2017 assem- bly elections. GUJ: HOUSE SEES UPROAR OVER HORSETRADING ANALYSIS Nathwani and State is to witness elec- tions to the local body elections this year and assembly polls in 2022. During the last as- sembly elections, the BJP’s performance in Saurashtra especially in Patidar- touching to the region, First India News Ahmedabad: House was in a disar- ray right from the start on Monday , with allegations and coun- ter-allegations over horsetrading flying thick and fast be- tween MLAs of the Congress and BJP . It began when Pravin Maru—who along with four other MLAs has re- signed from the Con- gress party—asked a question. This led to comments on “marketa- ble goods” from his for- mer partymen, leading to a fracas, which saw ministers Chief Minister Vijay Ru- pani become agitated. Speaker Rajendra Trivedi eventually had the session’s dis- cussions from the record. Con- gress president Amit Chavda directly ac- cused the BJP of horse- trading, saying they had spent Rs65 crore to The Siddharth Bhai Patel Rajendra Trivedi SAFE HAVEN Amid fears of horse-trading ahead of the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, 22 Gujarat Congress MLAs were moved to Rajasthan state capital, Jaipur on Monday. on March 14”. When the Congress MLAs accused the BJP of offering defectors ministerial posts and even cash, BJP veteran and education minister Bhupendrasinh Chu- dasama demanded they prove their allegations, only to come up against deputy leader Shailesh Parmar who said, “We don’t need to go any- where to show that BJP is offering ministerial posts. We have Kunvarji Bavalia and Javahar Chavda in the House,” referring to the two ministers who had de- fected earlier. “buy” MLAs. “The CM says they don’t allow corruption but I’ve read in a newspaper that the horsetrading was done at the CM’s house for Rs65 crore. Where did that money from?” he asked. Rupani countered with, “The Congress cannot take care of their own MLAs and are blaming us.” Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani en- tered the fray claiming that the “weighted” the defec- tors and paid them ac- cordingly in a deal that was “done at midnight Arjun Modhwadia Lalit kagathara —PHOTOS BY NANDAN DAVE come including removed BJP had Rajiv Satav Amit Chavda Paresh Dhanani Shailesh Parmar Hypothesis flies faster than truth as it has more wings, especially in politics First India News the party. When Lead- er of Opposition Paresh Dhanani was asked about Kagatha- ra’s meeting with BJP MLAs, Dhanani said my colleague is test- ing the depth of the water. When Kagathara was asked about the same, he said, “it was a power- ful magnet test, how can you speculate that I will be crossing fence, it is possible that be- cause of me, someone from the other party might get attracted with my magnet power and cross over this side.” and rest of MLAs were busy in question hour discussions, Congress MLA from Rajkot Rural Lalit Kagathara was found sitting with BJP state unit president and MLA Jitubhai Vaghani, when the conversation between the two ran for long, Speaker Rajendra Trivedi had to interfere and ask Kagathra to take his seat. After a few min- utes, Kagathara was seen sitting with BJP MLA from Asha Patel, the two had a discussion on some issue for few minutes. Before Asha CHAI PE CHARCHA Gandhinagar: In poli- tics, all don’t pay results, but they do lead to politi- cal speculations, es- pecially when the po- litical environment is charged and horse trading is at its peak. After the resignation of five MLAs, now the meet- ings between MLAs of two different par- ties are seen with sus- picion and is specu- lated that something is cooking. While the assembly session was going on meetings Congress and BJP MLA from Dhrangadhra Sabari- ya Parshottam. These meetings ig- nited the speculations that Kagathara might be the next Congress MLA to resign from Patel met the Con- gress MLA, she had a discussion with Min- ister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja. After meeting Asha Patel, Kagathra also met his friend Unjha

11. www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia EK SINGER SUTARIA ew would be aware that Tara Sutaria is also a singer. The bud- ding actress gets a chance to showcase her vo- cal skills in Mohit Suris upcoming ‘Ek Villain 2’, and is sure excited about the fact. “I think I am going to be singing in this film, which is something I have been looking forward to. I am finally getting an op- portunity to do so, and I am excited,” said Tara about ‘Ek Villain 2’. The actress, who was seen in ‘Student Of The Year 2’ and ‘Marjaavaan’, has been a professional singer since she was seven, and has sung in operas and musical com- petitions. 11 AHMEDABAD, TUESDAY MARCH 17, 2020 F ‘Ek Villain 2’ stars John Abraham, Aditya Roy Kapur and Disha Pa- tani along with Tara. She is has paired opposite ‘Malang’ star Aditya Roy Kapur in the film and re- portedly plays a singer in the film, which is sched- uled to go on floors in mid 2020. ‘Ek Villain 2’ is slated to hit the theatres next year on January 8. Could the ongoing coronavirus pandemic jeopardise the film’s shoot? “I am very new to the industry so I don’t know about the effects per say so, I wouldn’t want to talk about it. Having said that, I think our industry is a very strong and tough in- dustry. We will come through, no matter what the situation is and I feel we are going to come back with a bang,” declared Tara. —IANS Tara Sutaria PHOTOGRAPH TURNS ONE! SARA PLAYS TOUR GUIDE S blissful city of Vara- nasi on Sunday took to Instagram to give her Instafam a tour of the narrow yet splendid lanes of the city . The actor shared a video of herself on Instagram where she is seen giving a tour of the Vishwanath lane of Banaras. The video starts with Sara checking out scarves from a local shop in Banaras and she then turns a guide for her Insta- fam. As the video pro- ceeds, the chirpy ac- tor is seen giving a description of differ- ent parts of a small lane of the temple city of Banaras. Khan starts the tour of the lane by ara Ali Khan who is currently spending her lei- sure time in the Still from her Instagram post A Siddiqui for ‘Photo- graph’ on Sunday cele- brated one year of the movie’s release. The 28-year-old actor took to Instagram snippets of the movie and captioned the post with a dialogue from the movie. “Jab maine woh apni photo dekhi, toh mujhe laga ki koi aur hee hai.. woh ladki mujhse zyada khush lag rahi thi aur zyada sund- ar bhi.. #1yearofphoto- graph,” the caption read. as she begins shopping for her favourite acces- sory. Sara is seen slaying make-up wearing a print- ed orange-col- oured cotton suit set in the video. many colourful ban- gles,” and the video con- tinues with her exploring the street. S h e ends the video in the ban- gle shop describing a small road- side stall of bangles by saying, “Namaste dar- shako hum pahunch gaye hain Banaras ki Vishwanath gali mei. Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain yahaan bhinn tarah ki chudi- yaa mil rahi hain.. yes Directed by Ritesh Batra, the movie was screened at the 19th New York Indian Film Festival last year. The movie served as a ‘Cen- trepiece’ screening on May 10. Prior to this, the film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival between 23 January to 3 February last year, in the US. Set in Dharavi, Mum- bai Nawaz essayed the character of a photog- rapher and Sanya Mal- hotra played the role of an introvert college girl in the movie. ctor Sanya Mal- hotra teamed up with Nawazuddin who the no look bhinn —ANI to share Sara Ali Khan THODA AWARE KARO-NA J Twitter fam to adopt social distancing to stop the highly contagious virus from spreading. “While all of us have the “luxury” to be house arrested and wait- ing for news-please spare a thought for the doctors and medical staff around the world who are risking their lives, away from their families, to save us! Exactly like our soldiers do at a war,” read Chopra’s letter. “THANK YOU guys. We will NEVER , EVER be able to repay you. Guys let’s be responsible.. By socialising/partying/ continuing life as it was, we are putting everyone at risk. Let’s learn from what happened in other countries.. Lets stop now! We don’t wanna regret later...” she further wrote. This comes three days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced coronavirus as a global pandemic. oining other big stars in raising awareness about the novel coronavirus, actor Parineeti Chopra on Sunday urged her —ANI Sanya Malhotra —ANI Parineeti Chopra

12. HOLLYWOOD 12 AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia NOT SO EXCITING GULAB JAMUN RMILD REACTION M jamun’ and she says she is very excited for that. Teigen, who is married to musician John Leg- end, took to Twitter and asked her fans and followers for tips. “Tomorrow I will be making my first gulab jamun, very ex- cited for that. So. Yeah. that’s pretty exciting. If u have tips let me know, if you don’t know what it is just google it I don’t care,” Teigen tweeted. The tweet currently has 18K likes. Indian-American actor Kal Penn replied to Teigen’s tweet. He said: “Oooooh this is odel Chrissy Teigen is all set to try her hands in making the Indian dessert ‘gulab It’s in my country and it’s going to be in so many different countries right now, so please say what is right and raise awareness.” Chiara also shared an additional message about how many people are comparing coronavirus to the flu and admitted she thinks that’s a mistake. “Most days, especially from foreigners, so many bad comments and so many jokes about coronavi- rus saying, ‘It’s just a f*cking flu.’ And guys, I can assure you, it’s not just a f*cking flu,” she said. “It might be for some people, but for so many others, it gives so many complications. If so many people get sick at the same time, like it’s happening in It- aly , the hospital will collapse because we don’t have enough intensive care units and breathing ma- chines to help everybody – even young people that have complications.” Chiara’s videos about the coronavirus come af- ter Kendall posted screenshots of infographics on her instagram, about the virus from the website Information Is Beautiful. The graphics suggest that most cases of coronavirus are mild and that the people who have it will recover. Although Kendall’s posts were most likely trying to ecently, Kendall Jenner posted about the mildness of the coronavirus is being called out by Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni, 32. Chiara shared some Instagram videos to her own story on 12 March and talked about how she thinks the 24-year-old mod- el along with other celebrities need to not “underestimate the problem and spread the wrong message” about the virus cases, which have been rapidly spreading throughout many countries, including her country of Italy . “For people who have such a huge voice, like Kendall Jenner, please don’t underestimate the problem,” Chiara said about the spreading of coronavirus in her Insta- gram video. “This is like a serious problem. tite. Only tip: some people put a cashew or almond in the middle of which ru- ins don’t do that.” each, help eliminate unneces- sary fear in people, the World Health Or- ganization declared coronavirus it, has the —IANS as a pan- demic. —IANS Kendall Jenner Embrace the nerves It’s Positive! Q played Camille Montes in the 2008 film, said she was diagnosed after feeling ill for almost a week with fever and fatigue. She is now facing days in isolation and posted a picture of her locked window on In- stagram on Sunday night as she revealed she was “locked up at home”. The actress added: “Fever and fatigue are my main symp- toms. Take care of yourself and do take this seriously!” Kurylenko starred opposite Daniel Craig in ‘Quantum of Solace’ as secret agent. —IANS uantum of Solace actress Olga Kurylenko has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, she has revealed. The 40-year-old, who S testants on ‘The Voice UK’, Goulding said: “Every time I’ve gone out on stage without nerves, I haven’t done a g ood performance. So embrace the nerves.” Meanwhile, Goulding previously shared that her pop career can feel frivolous compared to her climate change activism but her influence is tied to the success of her music. “One of my motivations to have a bigger platform as a singer is so that I have more people to reach. Climate change has got to a critical point where we all need to be very active; we need to compensate for what’s go- ing on in certain political situations. I know that ‘celebrities shouldn’t get in- volved in politics’, but it’s something we have to act on now. I feel frustrated that I’m the only one speaking out about something so important - no one else is,” she said. inger Ellie Goulding says she performs better when she’s nervous. Mentoring one of the con- —IANS Ellie Goulding Olga Kurylenko Chrissy Teigen FACE OF THE DAY YOUR DAY Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva ARIES MAR 21 - APR 20 TAURUS APR 21 - MA Y 20 GEMINI MA Y 21 - JUNE 21 CANCER JUNE 22 - JUL Y 23 You will laugh a lot today and will makes other happy too. On professional front, your communication skills will play a key role in how much attention you get and if you get noticed by your seniors or not. Your physical strength is improving as you are working hard on it. You must not stop yourself from doing that you really love to do as a part time hobby. You will achieve your academic goals because of your hard work and your sincerity will never disappoint you. Have faith in yourself when it comes to dealing with love matters. You will be comfortable the whole day long no matter where you are. You will get recognition in your academic institution for doing something incredible. You will get compelled by your friends to go on a short trip with them, and eventually have a lot of fun. Your fi tness level is improving day by day as you are really exerting. You will get unexpected support from your sibling in completing your work. Your parents really go out of way to do something for you and now its your time to make them feel special. LEO JUL Y 24 - AUGUST 23 Your lifestyle speaks about your fi nancial status and its improving just like your bank balance. Avoid any arguments with someone on road or in public. You will acquire a new property for the sole purpose of business. Choose the right person when it comes to marriage. VIRGO AUG 24 - SEP 23 LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22 You have managed to make yourself momentarily secure and you are in good position to spend. You may move into a new house sooner than you expected. Do your calculations well and in advance for the expenses in your new business. Your lover will do something really special for you. SCORPIO OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22 Today is your day and its your month, profi ts start accusing in your new venture. On professional front, you will the promotion that you have been waiting for a long time. Someone close to you will get married soon. Someone close will boost your image on the social front. Government offi cers can expect some free time today, with everything going on at present. You will do a lot of investment in property and trust your intuition in matters like these. A temporary separation from partner for work purpose should not effect you. SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22 You are blessed with good health and physique and you take good care of yourself. You must be really wise with words when you dealing in sensitive matters. You will get a lot of encouragement from your colleagues in offi ce for your higher endeavours. You may travel a lot today. CAPRICORN DEC 23 - JAN 20 Things look bright for you on the professional front as you will be assigned the responsibility of some prestigious assignment. You will have lots of fun and will enjoy the company of your family and its extended members. You will spend a lot today on accessories and clothes. AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 19 PISCES FEB20 - MARCH 20 Money will come to you from unexpected sources as you are attracting it with all the positivity. You must remain active in your offi ce today as there may be some important sessions arranged everyone where you need to pay attention. A family reunion is on cards. You will feel extremely energetic today as you are sleeping on time and waking up on time. You will take the right decisions today as far as your fi nances are concerned. You will remain occupied in offi ce whole day long to fi nish work on time. You will be in such demand for entertainment. PRIYANKA SHARMA, Fashion Infl uencer

13. ETC AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 202013 www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia FANS LOVE JACKIE acqueline Fernan- dez prefers to start her week the yoga way. The B-Town hottie on Monday morning shared a couple of videos on Instagram where she per- forms yoga, even as relax- ing music plays in the background. Of course, Jackie looks hot and fit as ever in short pink frock! Jacqueline captioned one of the videos, “Stretch. Keep that spine healthy and happy! Yoga poses are my fav, anytime, any- where!” In another video, Boss 13’ fame. Stills from her Instagram post J she can be seen deep breathing. “Make sure you put on some good relaxing music and breathe!!!” she captioned it. Fans are in love with Jac- queline’s fitness fetish and her comment box is natu- rally flooded with red hearts and fire emojis. Fans also appreciated her ‘sexy’ figure. On the work front, Jac- queline’s latest release is a music video of the T-Series single ‘Mere Angane Mein’, where she features along- side Asim Riaz of ‘Bigg —IANS Jacqueline Fernandez MERI PAANCH GIRLFRIENDS! A wife Neha Dhupia over her comments on the youth based reality show ‘Roadies Revolu- tion’. Angad took to In- stagram, where he shared a string of pho- tographs of himself along with Neha and said that it was his ‘five girlfriends’. “Sun MERI baat.. here are my 5 girl- friends! Ukhad lo jo ukhad na hai! @nehad- hupia #itsmychoice,” he captioned the imag- COVID-19 = CLEANING B of the COVID-19 pandemic. She took to her Instagram handle and shared a photo- graph of her wardrobe and said that she is busy cleaning it. “Productivity in the time of COVID-19!?? #cleaning #ward- robe,” she captioned the image. On the film front, Deepika will next be seen in Kabir Khan’s ‘’83’. She will be seen sharing screen space with her husband and actor Ranveer Singh. ‘’83’, narrates the story of In- dia’s first-ever World Cup cricket victory in 1983. Ran- veer plays the team’s captain Ka- pil Dev while Deepika es- says Kapil’s wife Romi. —IANS es. The controversy started after a recent episode of the ongoing season of ‘MTV Road- ies Revolution’, where- in Neha, who is a gang leader, reprimanded a male contestant for slapping a girl for alleg- edly cheating on him with five other boys. She also defended the girl saying as far as cheating goes, ‘it’s her choice’. Neha’s atti- tude, however, did not find favour with neti- zens, with many users alleging she was a ‘fake feminist’. ctor Bedi has come out in support of his actress- Angad ollywood actress Deepika Padukone is utilising her time at home for pro- ductivity in the times Angad Bedi with Neha Dhupia —IANS I brated his birthday with his friends and family on Sunday, and it indeed was the fun bash that we got to witness. With groovy tracks that get us foot tap- ping to cake cutting, the rappers’s birth- day was a close knit affair. This marks as a double cele- bration for Yo Yo Honey Singh as his recent track ‘LOCA’ marked itself as another party anthem and a hit this year. —Agency TWO IN ONE! n a double celebra- tion, Bollywood’s rap sensation Yo Yo Honey Singh cele- MUJHE ‘HIT’ DO! P and ‘Aankh Marey’, singer Neha Kakkar says she would only try her hands into acting only when she is “absolutely” sure that the film she would be star- ring in will become a “big hit”. Asked if she ever plans to star in a Bollywood film, Neha said, “Till now, singers who have tried their hands in doing films have not been successful. So, if in case I do it, I should be abso- lutely sure that the film be- comes a big hit, then only I will do it otherwise I won’t.” Neha says she wouldn’t just feature in a flick for the sake of it. “I wouldn’t just do films for the sake of doing it. When I feel that yes this film will be a hit then only I will do it,” she said. opular for her foot-tapping numbers like ‘Garmi’, ‘O Saki Saki’, ‘Dilbar’, ‘Ek Toh Kum Zindagani’, ... her Instagram post Deepika Padukone Neha Kakkar —IANS

14. CITY BUZZ AHMEDABAD | TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020 14 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia The End of Holi community in Ahmedabad celebrated Ger Utsav at the Kankaria Football Ground here on Sunday. Unusually, the festivities saw a number of women participate in what is traditionally considered to be a male-dominated event, marking the end of Holi- Dhuleti celebrations. —City First —PHOTOS BY HANIF SINDHI Members of the Rajasthani Manganiyar Baiya STEPS TOWARDS THE FUTURE SWATI JANGID swati.jangid@firstindia.co.in Bhandari, Chief of Pediatric and Pallia- tive at the Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Cent- er, argues that even though India has a young population it’s time the starts planning for 20 years from now when it would have the world largest aged population. Among other major recommendations by the two doctors in- clude establishing a cancer hotline, adopt- ing precision medi- cine, screening and early detection, setting up regional cancer pal- liative centres, and setting up task forces for specific diseases that have alarmingly very high rates of in- cidence like breast cancer and cervical cancer. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in CITY FIRST T an internationally ac- claimed oncologist, who is known for suc- cessfully curing sev- eral Indian personali- ties and Bhandari, geriatrics and specialist in pain medicine, known for their pioneering re- search and treatment of cancer patients, are seeking to arrest what they describe as ‘tsu- nami’ of the deadly disease that has now engulfed through a massive ef- fort of early detection and health education. “There are 1,300 deaths per day in India due to cancer. We have approximately 1.2 mil- lion new cancer cases every year in India. U al family of village folk music. He started his music journey from his village in house of pa- trons, to the all the corners of world. He is known for remem- bering hundreds of folk songs, bhajans, sindhi sufiana, and much more, and has extensively travelled within India and abroad as cultural ambassador to various countries like Rus- sia, Japan, America, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Swit- zerland, Iran, Iraq, Austral- ia, China, Pakistan, Spain, and so on. He is an approved artiste of All India Radio, Doordarshan, and ICCR. He has travelled more than 50 countries for his musical performances, and has re- ceived many awards for the same. This year, Khan’s name was announced for Padma Shri Award, which is a pride for our country. He always works on passing-on his oral tradition to stad Anwar Khan Sahab, an eminent folk vocalist of Rajasthan born in 1960, is from a tradition- wo eminent In- dian-American doctors, tatreyudu Nori, Dat- country Dr Dattatreyudu Nori Dr Rekha Bhandari and service to the country are cause for celebration. Among its previous recipients includes several US presidents including Donald Trump and Nobel Prize winners. “Make cancer a noti- fiable disease,” Nori said referring to his series of recommenda- tions to the Indian gov- ernment, Bhandari is working on using new tools of information technolo- gies like block-chain and artificial intelli- gence for early detec- tion of cancer in India. This indicates lower rates of early detection and poor treatment outcomes.” said Nori. Nori and Bhandari said that early detec- tion and health education is key to addressing the public health chal- lenge posed by cancer. Both the doctors are recipient of the pres- tigious Ellis Island Medal of Honour, the highest civilian award in the US for immi- grants. It is given an- nually to individuals whose accomplish- ments in their field Rekha massive precision India while the next generation through many workshops held at differ- ent places, and also wishes that the next generation of the folk musicians of western Ra- jasthan should go for proper education, to reach at the pin- nacle of their life.