YK MYK END OF AN ERA FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA’S OIL AND GAS SECTOR OPINION Rs. 3 KOLKATA THURSDAY, 30 DEC, 2021 PG- 8, YEAR— 8, ISSUE—219 (RNI NO: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) AT A GLANCE ABHISHEK OFFERS PRAYERS IN GOA SANQUELIM (GOA): Trinamool Congress (TMC) National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday visited Shri Rudreshwar Temple in Goa's Sanquelim and offered prayers "for the peace and welfare of the people of the state". "National General Secretary Shri @abhishekaitc offered prayers for all Goans at the historic Shri Rudreshwar temple in Sanquelim. He prayed for the progress and prosperity of Goa and as we step into the new year, we are certain that Goa will see a New Dawn rise!," tweeted the official account of TMC. In a video message attached to the tweet, Banerjee said that he prayed for the prosperity of the Goans. "I got the opportunity to visit Shri Rudreshwar Temple. We prayed for the peace and welfare of the people of Goa. We pray for the coming year to be good for all and full of happiness and prosperity," he said. Meanwhile, Goa is slated to go to the Assembly polls next year. PM MODI'S PLANNED VISIT TO UAE POSTPONED NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the first half of next month has been postponed, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday. The prime minister was scheduled to visit the strategically important Gulf nation around January 6, they said. The people cited above said the visit has been postponed in view of the rising cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant and that it could take place in February. ICC RANKINGS: ASHWIN HOLDS ON TO SECOND SPOT NATION Morning India CM lambasts land department; vows to break unholy nexus of officials MI NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA: The Chief Minister again expressed her displeasure over the work of the Land Department of her government. She instructed the office workers to finish the work quickly without leaving it for a later date. Mamata Banerjee lashed out and said, 'Land Department is a dove nest. It has to be broken.' The Chief Minister went on a three-day visit to Gangasagar on Tuesday. She attended an administrative meeting in South 24 Parganas on Wednesday. Mamata Banerjee spoke to the police and administration officials, including the DM, BDO, Municipal Chairman and Chairman of Zilla Parisad, district police as well as with administrative officials. She listens to everyone's complaints. She also inaugurated several government projects. Shaktipada Mandal, Chairman of Baruipur Municipality's administrative board, complained to the CM about the work of the Land Department at the same administrative meeting. He claimed that the Land Department in the area was not working properly. As a result, ordinary people are facing problems. Mamata Banerjee was furious when she heard this allegation. She Complaint seeks NHRC intervention over freezing of Missionaries of Charity bank accounts MI NEWS SERVICE Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee conducts administrative review meeting in South 24 Parganas on Wednesday made the Land Department official present at the meeting stand up. After that, the Chief Minister expressed her displeasure over the work of the department. At the public meeting, Mamata Banerjee said, "The land office has become a dove nest (a cor- rupt place). It has to be demolished. It will be demolished by our officers." She also directed the officials of the department to complete the work expeditiously. This is not the first time. In fact, the Chief Minister has expressed her dissatisfaction with the work of the Department from an administrative meeting in Howrah. She said, "There is a problem with land department in Howrah district. The officials of the district Land Department are delaying the work. The Chief Minister angrily retorted, 'On whose orders the work has been stopped? Who are these great leaders?" Mamata Banerjee alleged that though some retired officers were kept to make use of their experience, they did not work for two years. NOW, CONTROVERSY DOGS 'PRITHVIRAJ' JAIPUR: The Gujjars in Rajasthan have threatened to stop the screening of Bollywood flick 'Prithviraj' starring Akshay Kumar if the movie continues using the term 'Rajput' for Prithviraj Chauhan. The community claimed that Prithviraj was from the Gurjar community and was not a Rajput. CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 34,808,886 TOTAL DEATHS: 480,592 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 283,374,722 TOTAL DEATHS: 5,434,143 4,903 new post office branches to open in 90 Maoist-hit dists An elephant at Alipore Zoo greets a baby girl. AFTER S-400 MISSILES AND AK-203 RIFLES Russia offers India Armata tank tech NEW DELHI: Taking the MilitaryTechnical Cooperation (MTC) between the two countries to a new high, Russia has offered India "new areas of work", including developing together new armoured vehicles based on the T-14 Armata tank platform. The negotiations to create exclusive equipment based on the Indian military's specifications took place during the meeting of the InterGovernmental Commission on Military and Military-Technical Cooperation held in New Delhi on December 6. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu had cochaired the discussions which were held just a few hours before the 21st India–Russia Annual Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The Indian partners were offered new areas of work, including the creation of armoured vehicles based on the customer's specifications on the Armata platform, especially given that the Indian military is planning to expand work on the creation of a new main battle tank," Valeria Reshetnikova, the Press Secretary of Russia's Military- Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), told Russian state-owned domestic news agency RIA Novosti in an interview on Tuesday. Reshetnikova said that the Russian weapons, including new models, are of great interest among buyers of military products which is confirmed by the volume of contracts being concluded with several partner countries, amounting to billions of US dollars. Ninth grader makes touchless sanitiser device MI NEWS SERVICE HOOGHLY: Doctors or health workers have to come in contact with many people every day at these vulnerable and contagious times of Coronavirus. Hands have to be disinfected with sanitiser every time they meet them. But the sanitiser is kept in containers, the upper part of which is not disinfected in most cases. Momentary negligence is likely to be transmitted from there. This problem has been solved by Abhigyan Kishore Das, a ninth grader from Chinsurah, Hooghly. Abhigyan Kishore Das got the patent from the Central government by making 'Touch Free Portable Hand Sanitiser Machine'. The use of sanitiser to prevent Coronavirus has become necessary lately. In this situation, the student of Hooghly Collegiate School has made state-of-the-art sanitiser drainage device. He claimed that the device does not need to be touched. From a young age, he used to love making things for the people to use. This time, he claimed the rights by making 'Touch Free Automated Hand Sanitiser Portable and Magnetic Machine'. He said, "doctors or health workers repeatedly sanitise hands. But many times inadvertently spread the infection from the outer side of the sanitiser bottle. My device will fix this problem. Not only doctors and health workers, but also ordinary people can use this device to keep the infection at bay." Light in weight is what is making the device easy to use. At the same time, the price of the device will be within the reach of everyone. NEW DELHI: A complaint has been moved in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking its intervention over the controversy regarding the freezing of the bank accounts of Mother Teresa's charity organization - Missionaries of Charity - by the central government. Activist A Rajarajan in the complaint stated that "the Missionaries of Charity an NGO inter alia running homes for abandoned children, sick and Leprosy patients headquartered in Kolkata stopped utilizing its funds maintained in its bank accounts after the Ministry of Home, Foreigners Division, FCRA wing rejected its renewal for registration to receive foreign funds under FCRA 2010." "The acts of ministry or the missionary should not infringe on the right to life of the home inmates since the matter involves the right to life seeks urgent intervention of this commission," stated the complaint copy. However, the Missionaries of Charity has issued recently issued a statement and clarified that "We would like to clarify that the FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity has been neither suspended nor canceled. Further, there is no freeze ordered by the Ministry of Home Affairs on any of our bank accounts." "We have been informed that our FCRA renewal application has not been approved. Therefore as a measure to ensure there is no lapse, we have asked our centers not to operate any of the FC accounts until the matter is resolved," said the Missionaries of Charity statement. Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday said that it had refused to renew the FCRA license of Missionaries of Charity (MoC) on December 25 after it received adverse inputs while adding that it did not freeze any accounts of MoC. In a statement, the MHA said that the renewal application under the FCRA for the renewal of FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity was refused on December 25, 2021, for not meeting the eligibility conditions under FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR) 2011. No request/revision application has been received from Missionaries of Charity for review of this refusal of renewal, the ministry said. The MHA said that considering the MoC's renewal application, some adverse inputs were noticed. In consideration of these inputs on record, the renewal application of MoC was not approved, it added. "The FCRA registration of MoC was valid up to December 31, 2021. MHA did not freeze any accounts of MoC. State Bank of India has informed that MoC itself sent a request to SBI to freeze its accounts," the MHA said. Abhigyan won the award for displaying the device at the International Science Festival in 2020. He also plans to market this device commercially in the coming days. His mother Priyanka is happy with her son's achievement. "We did not expect the boy's invention to be so quickly approved and adopted," she said. "We want the government or any other organisation to take initiative in the proper implementation of the device. We have done our best. I would be even happier if this device is used by the society as a whole." NEW DELHI: The Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is working expeditiously on a plan to open 4,903 new branches of post offices in 90 Left Wing Extremism affected districts in the country. In a statement, the Department of Posts said that in the first phase, so far 1,789 branches have been opened and the remaining 3,114 new post office branches will also be started by the end of March, 2022. The government has already sanctioned posts of Gramin Dak Sevak, Postmaster and Assistant Postmaster for these 3,114 new post offices to be opened in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. The concerned circles have been directed to make these post offices operational by the end of March, 2022. Listing the achievements during the year 2021, the postal department said that the Postman mobile app has already been launched for 1.43 lakh post offices including 98,454 in rural areas. A record number of 47.5 crore real time delivery status queries of speed post were recorded from January to October, 2021 through this app. Along with this, the postal department also installed GPS system in about 1,263 working mail motor service vehicles across the country. Exhorting people to connect through social media, the department said that India Post is one of the first departments of the government to start its own social media accounts. So far, the department has more than 308,400 followers on Facebook, 323,800 on Twitter, 9800 on Instagram and 204900 on Ku. Videos related to the Department of Posts and its various schemes are being uploaded continuously on YouTube as well. The department is also working expeditiously to redress the grievances of the people through social media. The social media cell of the department now works for 16 hours instead of 8 and according to government data, in the year 2021 from January 1 to November 15, a total of 2,39,133 complaints were registered through social media.