YK MYK WITH RESISTANCE MOUNTING IN UKRAINE, PUTIN MAY EXPAND WAR OPINION Rs. 5 RANCHI WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—12, ISSUE—2 (RNI NO: JHAENG / 2012 / 44137) AT A GLANCE HOTEL STAFF STABBED TO DEATH IN DHANBAD DHANBAD: A female employee working at a hotel here was stabbed to death by her colleague on Tuesday, the police said. The victim has been identified as Lakkhi Devi, who worked at Remsan Hotel located at Bank More Shastri Nagar here. The body of the victim was recovered from the hotel room, the police added. It is being said that one Prem Kumar, who is an employee at the same hotel, has murdered the victim. PK Singh, incharge of Bank More police station, who reached the spot after getting information about the incident, took complete information about Prem Kumar from Vinay Singh, the owner of the hotel. The main accused in the case is on the run. Meanwhile the police is investing the incident from all angles. —Suresh Nikhar CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 43,107,689 TOTAL DEATHS: 524,103 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 517,883,701 TOTAL DEATHS: 6,278,435 BUSINESS Morning India ED interrogates SL issues shoot-on-sight orders as protests intensify Pooja Singhal for around 9 hrs SANJAY SAHAY RANCHI: Enforcement directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted interrogation of mining secretary Pooja Singhal for around nine hours in connection with Mnrega scam, money laundering and seizure of cash and document during raids carried out last Friday and Saturday. The ED had seized an amount totaling Rs 19.31 crore during raids conducted at the premises and offices of the mining secretary, her relatives and Singh. Singhal along with her husband Abhishek Jha arrived at the ED office at around 11 am. The security around the office was increased for the occasion. It may be mentioned here that Singhal was the deputy commissioner of Khunti district when the MNREGA scam worth Rs 18 crore took place. A junior engineer Ram Binod Sinha had told ED that he used to give five percent of slush money from Mnrega schemes for managing the deputy commissioner (DC) office. He, however, did not mention that he gave money directly to the DC. Singhal is also at centre of other controversies. She had allegedly received Rs 1.43 crore more than her known source of income while she was DC of Khunti, Chatra and Palamu districts. MEANWHILE an interlocutory application (IA) has been filed with the Jharkhand High Court demanding enhanced protection for the officers and the office of ED while claiming that the powerful officer and politicians are involved in the investigation. The applicant has also sought assigning the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation for better investigation in the case. The IA has been filed in the public interest litigation filed in connection with the Mnrega scam earlier. INDIAN RAILWAYS LAUNCH 'BABY BERTH' FOR INFANTS NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways introduced a separate 'Baby Berth' (seats for newly-born children) in trains on Mothers's Day on February 8 where the infants will now be able to sleep alongside their mother. The lower berths already reserved for women have been placed next to baby berths so that young children can travel with their mother without any inconvenience. At present these new berths meant for young children have been installed in some trains on a trial basis. According to official information, two berths have been added in the Lucknow Mail going from Lucknow to New Delhi. The Railways will not charge any extra fare for the seat meant for infants. Santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma dies at 83 MUMBAI: Santoor virtuoso Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, who took the stringed instrument to the global stage and successfully straddled the worlds of classical and film music, died here on Tuesday following a heart attack. He was 83. Sharma, one of India's most well known classical musicians, died between 8 and 8.30 am at his Pali Hill residence here, his secretary Dinesh told PTI. He had been active till the end and was due to perform in Bhopal next week. He was also suffering from renal ailments. "He had a severe heart attack in the morning... He was active and was to perform in Bhopal next week. He was on regular dialysis but was still active," a family source said. Sharma, one half of the famous 'Shiv-Hari' composer duo along with flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia, is survived by his wife Manorama and sons Rahul, also a santoor player, Rohit. The ShivHari duo composed music for an array of films such as "Silsila", "Lamhe", INDIA’S COAL OUTPUT UP 29 PER CENT IN APRIL, SAYS GOVT "Chandni" and "Darr". A Padma Vibhushan recipient, Sharma was born in Jammu in 1938 and is believed to be the first musician to have played Indian classical music on the santoor, a folk instrument from Jammu and Kashmir. Describing his father as his 'guruji', Rahul said the end was peaceful. "He is not with us anymore but his music lives on. He went away peacefully. He has given the entire world his music, peace through his music and what he did for santoor... it's now known across the world. COLOMBO: Sri Lanka tri forces have been ordered to shoot all those who plunder public property or cause personal harm, local media reported on Tuesday as large-scale protests continue to take place across the island nation. The comes nationwide protests against the government have intensified over the past few days resulting in an increase in incidents of clashes with the security forces deployed at protest sites. "The Ministry of Defence has ordered the tri-forces to open fire on anyone looting public property or causing harm to others," Army Spokesman told Daily Mirror. Protests have been identified in the country have people have resorted to burning houses of ministers and MP. Anti-government protesters also set on fire the official residences of Sri Lanka's Moratuwa Mayor Saman Lal Fernando and the MPs Sanath Nishantha, Ramesh Pathirana, Mahipala Herath, Thissa Kuttiarachchi and Nimal Lanza. A large number of protesters were out on the streets and attacked the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MPs. Even some Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) offices were set ablaze, Daily Mirror reported. Former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and some of his family members have been shifted to Trincomalee Naval Base, a day after he resigned following vio- EX-PM, FAMILY TAKE REFUGE AT NAVAL BASE In the wake of the widespread violence in Sri Lanka that left five people dead, ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family on Tuesday took refuge at a naval base in Trincomalee after leaving Colombo under heavy security. Rajapaksa, his wife Shiranthi, and their youngest son Rohitha and his family, left the Prime Minister's official residence. PG 9 lent protests that led to a nationwide curfew. Helicopters were seen leaving the capital city today with VVIPs and some speculated that they were members of the Rajapaksa family, Colombo Gazette reported. Earlier today, a group of protestors attacked s senior police officer in the Western Province on Tuesday in Colombo. Police said that the Senior DIG come under attack near Beira Lake in Colombo. They said the group had also caused damage to the DIG's vehicle. 4 INDIANS HONOURED WITH PULITZER PRIZE Slain photojournalist Danish Siddiqui is among four Indians honoured with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize 2022 in the feature photography category. Siddiqui and his colleagues Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo and Amit Dave from the Reuters news agency won the award, announced on Monday, for “images of Covid’s toll in India that balanced intimacy and devastation, while offering viewers a heightened sense of place”, according to The Pulitzer Prizes website. Their work was moved from the breaking news photography category by the judges. Siddiqui, 38, was on assignment in Afghanistan last year when he died. The award-winning journalist was killed in July last while covering clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar city. This is for the second time that Siddiqui has won the Pulitzer Prize. He was honoured with the prestigious award in 2018 as part of the Reuters team for their coverage of the Rohingya crisis. He had extensively covered the Afghanistan conflict, the Hong Kong protests and other major events in Asia, Middle East, and Europe. Siddiqui graduated with a degree in Economics from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. ‘TAKING DIFFERENT STANDS DOES NOT HELP’ SC to Centre on identification of minorities NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the issue of identification of minorities, including Hindus, at the state level needs a resolution and observed that taking different stands doesn't help. In supersession of its earlier stand, the Centre had on Monday told the apex court that the power to notify minorities is vested with the Union government and any decision in this regard will be taken after discussion with states and other stakeholders. A bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh on Tuesday said these are matters which require resolution and everything cannot be adjudicated. What I am unable to understand is Union of India is not able to decide what to do. All this thought should have been given before. This creates uncertainty and all this comes into public domain before we put our eyes on it. This creates another problem," the bench said. As the hearing commenced, a junior counsel sought pass over saying that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was busy in some other court. Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for the petitioner, referred to the affidavit filed by the Centre. The bench then observed, If the Centre wants to consult states, we will have to take a call. Solution can't be that everything is so complex, we will do so. This cannot be answer from the Government of India. You decide what you want to do. If you want to consult them do it. Who is stopping you from doing so? These are matters which require resolution. Taking different stands doesn't help. If Consultation is required, it should have been done before the affidavit was filed. Let the Solicitor General come here, the bench said. The matter will taken up again after some time. The apex court had earlier granted four weeks to the Centre to respond to a plea, which has sought directions for framing of guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level, contending that Hindus are a minority in 10 states. In an affidavit filed in response to a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Ministry of Minority Affairs said the central government has notified six communities as minority under section 2C of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. MORE ON PG 7