CMYK Rs. 3 KOLKATA SATURDAY, 7 MAY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—8, ISSUE—342 (RNI NO.: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) Morning India 'Begged my brother to spare his life....', wife of man killed in Hyderabad narrates incident MI News Service, Vikarabad: Narrating Children pick up packets of snacks from a hawker's trolly at New Market in Kolkata. PIC: PRABIR BHATTACHARYA. Hangzhou Asian Games 2022 postponed MI News Service, Tashkent: The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Friday postponed the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, scheduled between September 10 to 25, following "detailed discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC)". The OCA took the decision at its Executive Board meeting currently underway in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where its director general, Husain Al Musallam, and acting president, Randhir Singh, were present. The fresh dates for the quadrennial continental showpiece will be announced in "due course", said the statement. The decision has come after several provinces of China reported a spurt in Covid19 cases. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games too were postponed by a year because of Covid-19 and held last year. "Following detailed discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC), the OCA Execu- tive Board (EB) today decided to postpone the 19th Asian Games, which were scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China, from 10 to 25 September 2022. The new dates of the 19th Asian Games will be agreed between the OCA, the COC and the HAGOC (Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee) and announced in the near future," said the OCA statement. Media reports had been speculating about the postponement of the Asian Games for the last fortnight, and the de- Centre releases Rs 7,183.42 crore to 14 states as revenue deficit grant MI News Service, New Delhi: The central government on Friday released Rs 7,183.42 crore as revenue deficit grant to 14 states including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Punjab, Assam and Kerala.The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance released the money. This is the 2nd monthly instalment of Post Devolution Revenue Deficit (PDRD) grant to states. The grant has been released as per the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, the Union Ministry of Finance said in a statement. The States which have been recommended Post Devolution Revenue Deficit grant by the Fifteenth Finance Commission during 2022-23 are: Andhra Indian Army to get two new regiments of Akash Prime air defence missile CMYK Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. The Fifteenth Finance Commission has recommended a total Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant of Rs 86,201 crore to 14 states for the financial year 202223. The recommended grant will be released by the Department of Expenditure to the recommended states in 12 equated monthly instalments. With this release, the total amount of Revenue Deficit Grants released to the States in 2022-23 has gone up to Rs 14,366.84 crore. The Post Devolution Revenue Deficit grants are Continue PG 3 MI News Service, New Delhi: The In- dian Army will receive a major 'Make in India' solution to boost its ability to shoot down enemy aircraft and drones as it has proposed to buy two new regiments of the Akash Prime missile air defence missiles systems. The proposal is at an advanced stage before the government ❑ cision did not come as a surprise, given the prevailing pandemic situation in China and other Asian countries. "HAGOC has been very well prepared to deliver the Games on time despite global challenges. However, the above decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games. The name and the emblem of the 19th Asian Games will remain unchanged, and the OCA believes ❑ Continue PG 3 the plight of her helplessness during the assault on Nagaraju, the man who was attacked with an iron rod that resulted in his demise, wife Ashrin Sulthana on Friday said that she begged her brother to spare her husband's life, however, he did not listen and killed him. Her brother Syed Mobin Ahmed is accused in the matter along with Mohammed Masood Ahmed. Speaking to media , Sulthana said, "My brother was against my marriage. My husband told my brother earlier that he will become Muslim and will marry me. But my brother didn't approve. Even before the marriage, my brother had beaten me because I wanted to marry him." Elaborating on the time of the incident, Ashrin Sulthana said that she initially did not know her brother was one of the attackers until she saw his face. "We were going home when my brother along with another person come on a motorcycle and pushed my husband (Nagaraju) & started beating him. In the beginning, I didn't know it was my brother who was attacking him. They kept on beating him on his head, he was bleeding a lot. I sought help from people around me, but nobody came forward to help. I saw the face of my brother. I begged him to leave my husband and stop beating him, but he did not listen to me. Nagaraju was wearing his helmet, but due to the assault, it was damaged and so was his head," she said. ❑ Continue PG 3 Man beaten to death for using loudspeaker at a Gujarat's temple MI News Service, Gujarat: A 40-year-old man was beaten to death allegedly for playing loudspeaker at a temple in Mudarda village of Mehsana in Gujarat. The Police have arrested six persons and they have been charged with murder, rioting and assault. Mehsana Police said Jaswantji Thakor died after being beaten for use of loudspeaker at a small 'Mataji' temple built near their house in Mehsana taluka. He died during treatment at the hospital. The Police said that according to complaint received by them, Jaswantji Thakor and his elder brother Ajitji Thakor were playing devotional music in the temple in the evening. They said a villager Sadaji Ravaji Thakor came and raised objection about the use of loudspeaker. He was told by the brothers that the volume of speaker was low but he got angry and called his aides. The complaint said that Sadaji Thakor and his aides beat up the two brothers with sticks. and will help in further strengthening the air defence of the country against aerial attacks from both the Chinese and the Pakistani sides, sources told. The development is coming at a time when the Indian Army's Western and South Western commands carried out around a dozen test firings of the existing ver- sion of the Akash missiles in the force. The results have been found outstanding despite the fact that the missiles used for the test firings had been deployed in an operational role during the recent conflicts, the sources said. ❑ Continue PG 3 Rahul Gandhi slams Centre over WHO report on 'excess' COVID deaths MI News Service, New Delhi: A day after India objected to the use of mathematical models by the World Health Organisation (WHO) claiming 4.7 million "excess" COVID deaths in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a jibe at the government stating "Science does not lie, Modi does". According to the WHO report, more than 4.7 million people in India are thought to have died because of COVID19. "47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the Govt. Science doesn't LIE. Modi does," tweeted Rahul Gandhi. The Congress leader demanded Rs 4 lakh mandatory compensation for the one losing their lives during the pandemic. "Respect families who've lost loved ones. Support them with the mandated Rs4 lakh compensation," Gandhi added in his tweet. New estimates from the WHO show that the full death toll associated directly or indirectly with the COVID-19 pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 was approximately 14.9 million Trinamool-BJP spar over political affiliation of a dead youth (range 13.3 million to 16.6 million). Meanwhile, India has strongly objected to the use of mathematical models by the WHO for projecting excess mortality estimates concerning coronavirus and has said that authentic data is available. Refererring to excess mortality estimates, the Health Ministry said in a statement that the validity and robustness of the models used and methodology of data collection are questionable. Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Balram Bhargava on Thursday said the country has systemic data pool and it does not need to rely on "modelling, extrapolations and press reports" for ascertaining COVID-related death. Speaking to media, Dr Bhargava said, "When we had COVID deaths occurring, we did not have a definition of deaths. Even WHO did not have one. If one gets positive today and dies after two weeks, will it be COVID death? Or the dies after two months or six months - will it be COVID death?" MI News Kolkata: Hours after the body of a youth was found hanging in an abandoned room near the railway yard in North Kolkata's Cossipore on Friday, claims and counter- claims began between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP over his political affiliation. While the BJP leadership claimed that the victim was an active member of its youth wing, BJP Yuva Morcha, Trinamool Congress leadership said that the victim was earlier associated with the BJP Continue PG 3 ❑