YK MYK IN PUNJAB, ON FEB 20 POLL, IT IS CONGRESS VERSUS AAM AADMI PARTY AUSTRALIAN OPEN: ANDY MURRAY WINS FIRST MATCH SINCE 2017 OPINION SPORTS Morning India Rs. 5 RANCHI WEDNESDAY, 19 JAN, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—11, ISSUE—250 (RNI NO: JHAENG / 2012 / 44137) AT A GLANCE TATA MOTORS TO RAISE PASSENGER VEHICLE PRICES GOVT WILL USE SC VERDICT TO FIGHT DEVAS 'FRAUD' INTERNATIONALLY: FM TERROR FUNDING CASE HC reject plea of Adhunik Power MD MUMBAI: Automobile manufacturer Tata Motors will marginally increase the price of its passenger vehicles from Wednesday (January 19). According to the company, there will be an average increase of 0.9 per cent, depending on the variant and model. "At the same time, the company has also taken a reduction of up to Rs 10,000 on specific variants, in response to feedback from customers. "While the company is absorbing a significant portion of the increased costs, the steep rise in overall input costs has compelled it to pass on some proportion through this minimal price hike." Additionally, the company has decided to offer 'price protection' on Tata cars booked on or before January 18. AAP NAMES BHAGWANT MANN AS PUNJAB CM CANDIDATE NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday declared Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann as its chief ministerial candidate in the Punjab Assembly polls. Announcing Mann's candidature, AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: "Some people have put forward my name for CM's face, 93.3 per cent favoured Mann as Chief Minister's candidate, while three per cent preferred Navjot Singh Sidhu." Last week, Kejriwal had announced that the party will elect the Chief Ministerial candidate based on people's suggestions. The party had issued a mobile number and conducted a phone-in poll. Earlier also the AAP chief had said he wanted the party's state unit chief Mann as the chief ministerial candidate. CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 37,618,271 TOTAL DEATHS: 486,784 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 331,992,333 TOTAL DEATHS: 5,565,942 SANJAY SAHAY RANCHI: Jharkhand High Court (HC) on Tuesday dismissed the petition filed by the former managing director of Adhunik Power Mahesh Agrawal and others challenging the order of the lower court in a terror funding case. The order was passed by a division bench headed by chief justice Dr Ravi Ranjan. The case is related to funding the Tritya Sammelan Prastuti Committee members by companies engaged in mining and loading of coal in Amrapali project in Tandwa in Chatra district. Advocate Indrajit Sinha who appeared on behalf of the accused persons said that after the HC decision they could approach the Supreme Court. It may be noted here that National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating the case, had filed a supplementary chargesheet in the special NIA court in Ranchi including the names of the accused persons including Mahesh Agrawal Students standing in queues show their ID cards as they wait to receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination drive for children aged 15 to 18 years, at Baranagar Narendranath Vidyamandir, in Kolkata on Tuesday. ANI and transporters Amit Agrawal and Vinit Agrawal. After the special court took cognisance of the chargesheet the accused persons filed a petition before the HC seeking quashing of the order. During the argument the NIA claimed that it had enough evidence against the accused persons in the case. The accused persons said that they were victims. Earlier, the court had kept its order reserved after completion of the argument. Entries invited for ACJ journalism awards 2021 CHENNAI: The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) here has invited entries for ACJ journalism awards for 2021 under the categories of investigative and social impact journalism. The ACJ award for investigative journalism is for work, in public interest, that exposes wrongdoings. Work in this domain covers a wide variety of journalistic investigation, an ACJ press release said. It includes abuse of public office, environmental degradation, human rights violation, financial fraud, corporate mismanagement, gender violence, political apathy, war crimes. Over 1.47L kids orphaned due to Covid since April 2020: NCPCR NEW DELHI: Since April 1, 2020, 1,47,492 children have lost their parents due to Covid-19 or other reason, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) data showed. After including 10,094 orphans in need of care and protection, a total of 1,36,910 children lost their parents, 488 were abandoned, pushing the total to 1,47,492, the Commission informed Supreme Court on the basis of data uploaded by states and union territories on its 'Baal Swaraj Portal-COVID care' up to January 11. The commission further said that out of 1,47,492 children, there are 76,508 boys, 70,980 girls and four transgender. It said that the maximum number of children are between the age group of eight to 13 years (59,010), followed by children in the age group of 14 to 15 years (22,763) and age group of 16 to 18 years (22,626) and four to seven years (26,080). "Maximum of the children are with their single parent -1,25,205, RAJNATH ENDS TABLEAU POLITICS Writes to Mamata and Stalin clarifying rejections NEW DELHI: Putting an end to politics of tableau ahead of the Republic day parade, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Tamil Nadu counterpart M.K. Stalin explaining the reasons for rejection of their states' tableaux. Politics of tableau heated up after the Centre rejected the proposals of Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu tableaux in the Republic Day parade. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention after the Centre rejected her state's Republic Day tableaux on Subhas Chandra Bose. In his letter to both the leaders, Rajnath Singh stated that of the 29 proposals from states and union territories, 12 were accepted. Singh said: "I would like to bring to your kind attention that there exists a well established system for selection of tableaux for participation in the Republic Day Parade, as per which Ministry of Defence invites proposals for tableaux from all States/UTs and C e n t r a l Ministries/Departments." The minister said that tableaux proposals received from various States/UTs and C e n t r a l Ministries/Departments are evaluated in a series of meetings of the Expert Committee comprising eminent persons in the field of art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography etc. "The Expert Committee examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and its visual impact before making its recommendations. As per the time slot allotted for tableaux in overall duration of the parade, short listing of tableaux is done by the Expert Committee." He told Banerjee that West Bengal tableaux were part of 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021 parades. He also said that the government has celebrated 2018 Republic Day in honour of Subhas Chandra Bose and this year also the Republic Day celebrations will begin from January 23 marking his 125th birth anniversary. To Stalin, Singh explained, "The tableaux from the State Government of Tamil Nadu was considered in the first three rounds of meetings. After the third round of meeting, the tableaux could not make it to the final list of 12 selected for participation in the RDP-2022." INDIA'S NEW COVID CASES CONTINUE TO DECLINE FOR 2ND STRAIGHT DAY NEW DELHI: India witnessed a substantial decrease in fresh Covid cases, reporting 2,38,018 new infections in the last 24 hours, and a total of 310 deaths, said the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday. With the addition of the new deaths, the toll has reached 4,86,761. On Monday, the country had reported 2,58,089 new cases and 385 deaths. while 11,272 children are with family members, followed by 8,450 with guardians," it said. In the backdrop of the pandemic, the Supreme Court on Monday directed all district magistrates INDIA POST PAYMENTS BANK CUSTOMER BASE CROSSES 5 CRORE MARK NEW DELHI: India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) said on Tuesday its customer base has crossed the 5 crore mark within three years of commencement of operations, making it one of the fastest growing digital payments bank in the country. "IPPB opened up these five crore accounts in digital and paperless mode through its 1.36 lakh Post Offices, out of which 1.20 lakh are in rural areas with the help of about 1.47 lakhs doorstep banking service providers," the Ministry of Communications said in a statement. Out of the total 5 crore account holders, around 48 per cent are women. About 98 per cent of accounts of women were opened at the doorsteps. MORE ON PG 9 (DMs) to engage with District Legal Service Authority (DLSA), and voluntary organizations to rehabilitate children in street situations. A bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.V. Nagarathna said: "we direct all DMs to involve DLSA and voluntary organisations in the identification of children on streets without any further delay". The bench added that immediate steps are required to provide shelter to children in street situations by the central government and state governments. It emphasized that children should be shifted to shelter homes and also directed the DMs to upload the information at all stages on the web portal of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The bench further added that state governments and union territories (UTs) should engage with authorities concerned to identify and rehabilitate children, without any further delay. NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Government of India will use the Supreme Court's verdict to fight against Devas in Antrix deal "fraud" internationally. Addressing a press conference a day after the Supreme Court of India's ordered winding up of Devas Multimedia, Sitharaman said the government would soon appoint an arbitrator in AntrixDevas case and fight it in every court internationally to save Indian taxpayers' money. She said the satellite deal between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix and Bengaluru-based startup Devas Multimedia signed in 2005 under the Congress-party led government was a fraud on the people of India and has caused huge damage to the exchequer. Referring to the international arbitration tribunals orders to Antrix to pay to Devas shareholders Rs 1.2 billion as penalty, Sitharaman said Prime Minister Narendra Modi government would fight against all such orders internationally to save the taxpayers money. Under an agreement signed in 2005, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix was required to build, launch and operate two satellites and leash out 90 per cent of the satellite transponder capacity to Devas Multimedia Private Limited, which planned to use it to offer hybrid satellite and terrestrial communication services in India. The deal was cancelled in 2011 on the ground that the auction of the broadband spectrum was mired in fraud and that the government needed the S-band satellite spectrum for national security and other social purposes. ‘BRAZEN ACT OF CORRUPTION’, FM BLASTS CONG-LED UPA FOR ANTRIXDEVAS DEAL NATION 'DECISION DANGER TO DEMOCRACY' Apex court grills Maha on 12 BJP MLAs suspension NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday continued to grill the Maharashtra government on the resolution passed by the state Assembly on July 5, 2021 to suspend 12 BJP MLAs for a period of one year for their alleged misconduct and misbehaviour in the House. A bench, headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar, shot a volley of questions at senior advocate C.A. Sundaram, on the rationality of suspending the MLAs beyond the session of the House, as he argued regarding the limited scope for judicial review over the business within the Assembly. Justice Khanwilkar told Sundaram that the suspension of the MLAs should not be greater than the session of the House, and anything other than this would be irrational. "Your decision of 1 year is irrational because of the deprivation of the constituency being unrepresented for more than 6 months...," noted the bench. Justice Ravikumar said: "Another is danger to democracy.....Suppose there is a slender lead of the ruling party (in the Assembly), and 15 or 20 people are suspended, what will be the fate of democracy?" The bench queried Sundaram: "suspension up to what period and for what purpose?" Justice Maheshwari said the House meets in sessions and the rationale is, when a new session begins, new business begins. "A particular session, he may be suspended but beyond that time, the rationality question comes". The bench remarked that with a change of session, there is a completely new session and even if the action is punitive, it is for the whole session and not beyond the session. It emphasised that the constituency of the elected representative cannot be left unrepresented for a long time. Curious case of ‘kidnapping’ of lady doctor in Latehar M FAIYAZ AHMAD DALTONGANJ: If you think sensation and drama is a perfect ingredient to a television crime story, this 'kidnapping' incident of a lady doctor in Latehar district proves the point why it is. A government lady doctor identified as Neelima Kumari, and posted in the community health centre at Chandwa in Latehar district, has filed a complaint with the local police that she was kidnapped and later released. Her narration of the alleged kidnapping looks at first hand a story or tale not built or even spun properly. The Officer in charge of the Chandwa police station who is inspector of police Ashutosh Kumar said that the doctor Kumari posted in the community health centre at Chandwa lodged a written complaint with this police station in the evening of January 16 that she was kidnapped on January 12 which itself widens the eyes much. She could not explain the 4day delay in any satisfactory manner as now lodging a complaint for a lady with the police station has been made far easier sources said. And who kidnapped her about which she wrote a man introducing himself as a WHO doctor kidnapped her and took her in a car on January 12 night first to Ranchi where the two reportedly dined together in a restaurant and then she was taken down to Ramgarh and again she was brought back to Chandwa on January 13. Sources quipped was this a winter night outing by consent or any kidnapping of a new brand? A kidnapper acted like a sincere companion! Police officer said on January 13 this lady doctor went to a bank in Chandwa and on withdrew a sum of rupees 2.50 lakh. The kidnapper was with her again said the police officer referring to the CCTV footage of the camera installed in the bank. Police officer said CCTV footage does not show the money so withdrawn has exchanged hands either. Police officer said the lady doctor gave an altogether a different version to her medical officer in charge of the community health centre at Chandwa Dr N K Pandey that she was going to Ranchi as there her mother had a fall and she would not be on duty at the centre on January 13. Police officer said a lady doctor just sits and goes away at night in a car with a man who poses to be a WHO officer. Should a doctor not know that a WHO doctor has no authority as such to ask any doc- tor except through the civil surgeon concerned and here this fake WHO doctor scares her and she succumbs to his intimidation citing allegations and complaints against her. Does a kidnapper take his victim to a restaurant for dinner? Here the lady doctor told police she was taken down to a restaurant in Ranchi at night on January 12. Police officer said the alleged kidnapper remained with his victim all through which itself is most suspicious. Police are investigating the case which is not only worrisome but bizarre too.