28122022_ First India New Delhi.pdf

INSIDE
STORIES
Three law students
have been arrested for the
death of a Zomato food
delivery executive who
was killed in Noida after
his motorcycle was hit by
the official car of an Uttar
Pradesh judge, Noida
Police said Tuesday. All
three accused are friends
of the judge’s son. P2
A 40-year-old man was
arrested on Tuesday for
allegedly kidnapping and
sexually assaulting a
four-year-old girl in north
Delhi’s Bhalswa Dairy
area, police said. The girl
was kidnapped while she
was playing outside her
home and was found the
next morning with signs
of sexual assualt. P2
‘APOLOGISE FOR HURTING HINDU SENTIMENT’
BJP incensed as Khurshid likens Rahul to Ram
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Slamming
Congress leaders for
their show of “syco-
phancy”, the BJP on
Sunday said that the
feelings of Hindus had
been hurt by Salman
Khurshid likening Ra-
hul Gandhi to Lord Ram
and describing him as a
“yogi doing tapasya”.
Khurshid, a former
Cabinet minister, told
reporters in Moradabad
on Monday, “Rahul
Gandhi is superhuman.
While we are freezing
in the cold and wearing
jackets, he is going out
in T-shirt (for the
Bharat Jodo Yatra). He
is like a yogi, he has
called himself so, doing
his tapasya (penance)
with focus.”
Drawing a parallel
with Lord Ram and his
brother Bharat, Khurs-
hid said, “Lord Ram’s
‘khadau’ goes very far.
Sometimes when Ram
ji is not able to reach,
Bharat takes his ‘kha-
dau’ and goes to places.
Like that, we have
carried the ‘khadau’ in
Uttar Pradesh.”
Reacting to Khurs-
hid’s statement, BJP
spokesman Harish-
chandra Srivastava
said they reflect noth-
ing but sycophancy.
“Khurshid saheb needs
to think thousands of
times before comparing
Rahul Gandhi with the
‘mahapurush’ who is
followed by the entire
world. He is a barrister
but his statement is a
symbol of sycophancy,”
Srivastava said.
BJP spokesperson
Gaurav Bhatia targeted
the Congress at a press
conference while an-
other party spokesper-
son, Shehzad Poona-
walla, said Congress
leaders put “parivaar
ki bhakti” above “bhag-
waan and rashtra ki
bhakti”.
Rahul Gandhi pays tribute to Pt Jawaharlal Nehru at Shanti Van, in
New Delhi on Monday. —PHOTO BY PTI
BJP challenges AAP
with Mayor surprise
New Delhi (PTI): The
BJP on Tuesday decid-
ed to field its Shalimar
Bagh councillor Rekha
Gupta as its Delhi May-
or candidate to chal-
lenge AAP’s Shelly
Oberoi in the January 6
elections.
The BJP has also
named Kamal Bagri as
deputy mayor candi-
date as well as Ka-
maljeet Sehrawat, Ga-
jendra Daral and Pan-
kaj Luthra for standing
committee member
posts, said Delhi BJP
media cell head Harish
Khurana.
Some party leaders
claimed that an intense
contest could be wit-
nessed for mayor as
well as deputy mayor
since the anti-defection
law does not apply to
the MCD and floor
crossing is possible.
BJP candidate Rekha Gupta
files her nomination for Mayor
on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY PTI
FRIGID WINDS
BARREL THROUGH
DELHI @16KMPH
New Delhi: The Safdarjung
weather station on Tuesday
logged a minimum tem-
perature of 5.6 Celsius and
a maximum of 17.2 degrees
Celsius, three notches below
normal. The minimum
temperature was colder than
in Dharamsala (6.2 degrees
Celsius), Dehradun (7 de-
grees Celsius), and Nainital
(7.2 degrees Celsius). With
winds clocked at 16 kilome-
tres per hour on Tuesday,
the wind chill factor was
also high. Meteorologists
attributed the chill to frigid
north westerly winds. P3
—PHOTO BY PTI
MAXIMUM NEWS WIDER REACH!
074
CHANNEL NO
COVID-19 PAN-INDIA MOCK-DRILL
INDIA BATTLE READY FOR
‘CHINA WAVE’!
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya urges people to wear
masks and follow the guidelines related to Covid-19 and be alert
First India Bureau
New Delhi: Mock drills
were held at several
places in India on Tues-
day to check prepared-
ness to deal with any
potential surge in Cov-
id-19 infections. Amid
Covid-19 surge in China
and elsewhere, States
and UTs swung into ac-
tion, with directives be-
ing issued to check
availability of oxygen
and prices of essential
drugs. As a part of
govt’s measure to rein
in Covid-19 infection in
case of a possible up-
surge in aftermath of
the global rise in cases.
The way Covid-19 is making an upsurge across
the world, Centre is working to not let the
disease spread in the country. PM Modi has
directed that we have to be alert and ready. Elaborate dis-
cussions have taken place with IMA health ministers of
all States and mock drills was conducted in the country
—Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Health Minister
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviews Covid mock
drill conducted at Safdarjung Hospital, in New Delhi on Tuesday.
A health worker collects the sample for testing during a mock drill for Covid-19 preparedness at CV
Raman General Government hospital in Indiranagar, Bengaluru on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY PTI
COVID-19: INDIA IN A DAY
157
NEW COVID
CASES
3,421
ACTIVE
CASES
HIGHLIGHTS
ACROSS THE GLOBE
l New Covid rules in schools
after the winter vacations
l Covid mock drills held in
govt hospitals in Rajasthan
l China to reopen borders
for int’l travellers from Jan 8
l Covid an excuse to stop
Bharat Jodo Yatra,
says KC Venugopal
l 4 passengers
found Covid positive
at Bengaluru airport
l 3-year-old boy
tests Covid positive
BHARAT BIO’S NASAL
VACCINE DEBUTS ON CoWIN
B
harat Biotech’s iNCOVACC, the first intrana-
sal Covid-19 vaccine approved for mix-and
match booster inoculation, is priced at Rs
800 per dose for private market and at Rs 325
for large-volume government procurement. The
vaccine is available on the government’s CoWIN
website and it will be in the market by the
fourth week of January, said the Hyderabad-
based company. Health Ministry sources said
that no decision has been taken on whether
to procure the nasal vaccine for the national
Covid-19 vaccination drive.
This is the
price set for
per dose at govt hospitals
`325 For private
markets, will
be available from late Jan
`800
No decision yet on whether to procure the nasal
vaccine for the national Covid-19 vaccination drive
Maharashtra Assembly
passes resolution on
border row with K’taka
HailstormwreakshavocinAssam,
hitsover500homesin37villages
First India Bureau
Nagpur: Maharashtra
Legislative Assembly
on Tuesday unanimous-
ly passed the resolution
on the border dispute
with Karnataka. The
resolution sought to le-
gally pursue the inclu-
sion of 865 Marathi-
speaking villages in
Karnataka into the
state. As per the resolu-
tion, the Maharashtra
government will stand
behind the Marathi peo-
ple in border areas and
will go for a legal fight
in the SC to ensure that
these areas become a
part of Maha. CM Shin-
de tabled the resolution
over Maharashtra-Kar-
nataka border row.
First India Bureau
Dibrugarh: Severe hail-
storm wreaked havoc in
severalplacesinAssam’s
Dibrugarh district. Ac-
cording to reports, over
500 houses have been
damaged in the district
duetothehailstorm.The
video of the hailstorm
lashing the Moran area
in Dibrugarh is doing
rounds on social media.
The hailstorm lashed
Moran, Tingkhang, La-
howal, Lekai, Naharka-
tia and other areas on
Monday late night and
Tuesday early morning,
A senior official said.
There has been no re-
port of any casualty
.
The state
government will
legally pursue
in the Supreme Court the
case to include (in Maha-
rashtra) each and every
inch of land in Belgaum,
Karwar Bidar, Nipani,
Bhalki cities and the 865
Marathi-speaking villages
in Karnataka.
—Eknath Shinde,
Maharashtra CM
CM Himanta B Sarma
asks officials to make
a detailed assessment
of the damages caused
l Winter storm kills 60
across US, over 15k flights
cancelled; Buffalo worst hit
l Heavy snow in Japan
leaves at least 17 dead and
dozens injuredworst hit
A pavement is covered in hailstones after hailstorm lashes the
Moran area, in Dibrugarh district on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI
Yogi says may
move SC after
HC setback on
ULB polls in UP
First India Bureau
Lucknow: UP CM Yogi
Adityanath on Tuesday
said the state govern-
ment will set up a com-
mission to decide on the
issueof OBCreservation
in the urban local body
elections.
CM’s state-
ment comes
after the
L u c k n o w
bench of Al-
lahabad HC rejected the
State govt’s draft notifi-
cation on the civic polls
and ordered holding the
elections without reser-
vation for the OBCs.
Adityanath said if re-
quired, the government
may also approach the
Supreme Court against
the High Court order. P8
BSE SENSEX 60,927.43 361.01 | NSE NIFTY 18,132.30 117.70 www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, NEW DELHI MUMBAI
BOMBAY HC
REFUSES ANY
INTERIM RELIEF
TO KOCHHARS
Mumbai: Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak
approached the Bombay HC alleging illegal arrest
by CBI in Videocon case. While they sought urgent
hearing for interim relief of release, the vacation
bench said to approach regular court on January 2.
PM MODI’S BRO
PRAHLAD MODI,
FAMILY INJURED
IN CAR CRASH
Mysuru: Prahlad Modi, brother of PM Modi, met
with an accident in Mysuru while traveling with his
family on Tuesday. The local police informed that
the members of the family have suffered minor
injuries and are admitted to the nearest hospital.
New Delhi: 180-billion ($2.2 billion) incentive aims to reduce the production
cost of green hydrogen by a fifth over the next five years, said a senior
government official and an industry manager working in renewable energy.
It would do this in part by increasing the scale of the industry, they said.
INDIA PLANS $2 BN INCENTIVE FOR GREEN HYDROGEN
Rayagada: Vladimir Bidenov
died due to a stroke and
was cremated. His friend,
Pavel Antov, was said to be
depressed after Vladimir’s
death and he too died on
December 25, police said.
Amid mystery surrounding
deaths of two Russian
tourists within a week in
the same hotel in Odisha’s
Rayagada, DGP said CID has
been asked to help in probe.
Mumbai: The Bombay HC
on Tuesday, refused to
extend its stay on an order
granting bail to former
Maharashtra HM Anil
Deshmukh, paving a way
for him to walk out of jail on
Wednesday. Currently, the
former minister is lodged
in Arthur Road jail in a
corruption case registered
by the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI).
READ
Crucial
Crucial
2ND
RUSSIAN DIES IN A
WEEK IN ODISHA, DGP
ORDERS CID PROBE
EX-MAHA MINISTER
ANIL TO BE RELEASED
FROM JAIL TODAY
NEW DELHI l WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2022 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 119

CAPITOL
NEW DELHI | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2022
02
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Noida (PTI): Three law
students have been ar-
rested for the death of a
food delivery executive
who was killed after his
motorcycle was hit by
the official car of an Ut-
tar Pradesh judge, Noi-
da Police said Tuesday
.
The men, aged be-
tween 20 and 22 years,
are friends with the son
of a family court judge
posted in Gautam Bud-
dh Nagar and had taken
the car without his or
his family’s permis-
sion, police said.
The Toyota Corolla
car bore a “district
judge” sticker and is
registered in the name
of Registrar, Allahabad
High Court. It was offi-
cially being used by
Manjeet Singh Sheo-
ran, Principal Judge,
Family Court, Gautam
Buddh Nagar, accord-
ing to a police officer.
Those held in the
case have been identi-
fied as Suyash Mishra,
Harshvardhan, and Ru-
bal all three law stu-
dents at a college in
Noida Sector 62 and
friends of the judge’s
son Vaibhav Sheoran,
the official said.
“Suyash Mishra, the
key accused, who was
driving the judge’s offi-
cial car at the time of
the incident has been
arrested,” Additional
Deputy Commissioner
of Police (Noida) Ashu-
tosh Dwivedi told PTI.
Mishra, a native of
Gwalior district, was
arrested from his cur-
rent residence in Shakti
Khand area of adjoin-
ing Ghaziabad district.
While Mishra has
been charged with rash
driving and causing
death by negligence, the
other two have been
booked for causing
breach of trust (by tak-
ing the judge’s car with-
out permission), the
police said.
Harshvardhan and
Rubal were apprehend-
ed from their residence
in Ghaziabad and have
been booked.
Friends of Noida judge’s son
held over hit-and-run death
n All three law
students at a pvt
Noida college
n Zomato food
delivery agent
died in the crash
They had not informed the judge’s family
about taking their car. En route, while
Mishra drove it, the other two fell asleep.
—Pramod Kumar, Sector 113 PS in-charge
Aditi Singh
Shikha Verma
New Delhi: A high-
profile political tussle
over controlling the
Shiv Sena and a bitt-
ter turf war between
the Delhi government
and the Lieutenant
Governor played out
in the Delhi High
Court in 2022, while it
had under the lens the
privacy policy of
WhatsApp and deliv-
ered landmark ver-
dicts including the
one upholding the
right of women to ter-
minate pregnancy
.
It also dealt with
important commer-
cial matters, includ-
ing staying the prohi-
bition on automatic
levy of service charge
on food bills by restau-
rants, and those in-
volving Chinese
smartphone maker
Vivo. The feud be-
tween the US-based e-
commerce giant Ama-
zon and Future group
also hogged the lime-
light. The high court
welcomedanewChief
Justice in Justice Sat-
ish Chandra Sharma
and got 18 more judges
this year. —PTI
New Delhi (PTI): Del-
hi Chief Secretary Nar-
esh Kumar has asked
the office of Deputy
Chief Minister Manish
Sisodia to provide “de-
tails of orders and
files” based on which
the latter had alleged
that important policy
matters were being di-
rectly forwarded to
Lieutenant Governor
VK Saxena, official
sources said.
Sisodia on Friday
wrote to Saxena, alleg-
ing that the LG Secre-
tariat had “in recent
past resorted to the
practice of calling for
files from various de-
partments through
their respective secre-
taries, the chief secre-
tary and transacting
business thereon, such
as approving the issu-
ance of notifications,
etc., completely bypass-
ing the minister as also
the Cabinet”.
The same day the
deputy chief minister
issued an order to the
chief secretary, secre-
taries and heads of de-
partments, blaming
them for sending “cer-
tain files pertaining to
important policy deci-
sions...directly to the
LG secretariat without
routing the same/put-
ting it up to me as the
minister in charge of
the department”.
He had also alleged
that it had come to his
notice that “the LG has
given direct orders/di-
rections and approvals
to officers bypassing the
council of ministers”.
An official source
said Kumar has written
to the secretary to the
deputy chief minister,
requesting him to pro-
vide by January 2 the
“details of files and or-
ders” based on which
Sisodia made the alle-
gations.
Chief Secretary asks Sisodia’s office to provide details
‘FILES SENT DIRECTLY TO LG’
lll
A copy of the
CS’s letter has
been marked to
several officials
with instructions
to provide
details of all
such cases
referred to by
Sisodia
The LG Secre-
tariat has in
recent past re-
sorted to calling for
files from various de-
partments through
their respective secre-
taries and the CS.
—Manish Sisodia,
in letter to LG Saxena
New Delhi (ANI): A
court here recently
stayed the show cause
notice issued to a Sta-
tion House Officer
(SHO) of Delhi Police
for non-compliance
with a magistrate court
order asking for the reg-
istration of an FIR.
Earlier a Magistrate
Court on August 25 di-
rected the SHO to regis-
ter the FIR in a death
case, but he failed to
comply with the order.
Thereafter the court is-
sued a show cause no-
tice to the SHO and In-
vestigation Officer. Ad-
ditional Sessions Judge
Satish Kumar of Rohini
Court stayed the De-
cember 16 order on the
show cause notice to
the SHO.
The Court has also
stayed the order of Au-
gust 25, 2022, ordering
the registration of FIR
in a complaint case.
Now the matter has
been listed for Jan 16.
Advocate Rishabh
Jain, counsel for the
SHO, submitted that
“the order passed by the
magistrate court to get
an FIR registered in the
case where the deceased
died because of a heart
problem, will create a
wrong precedent and
therefore both orders
passed by the trial court
may be stayed.”
The Magistrate
Court on Dec ember 16
had said, “Instead of
obeying orders passed
by this court they are
misleading this court
and their inaction in
registration of FIR in
terms of order of Au-
gust 25, 2022, depicts
that they have no re-
gard towards the sanc-
tity of judicial institu-
tion and they are trying
to protect the accused.”
“From the conduct of
the SHO concerned it
appears that he is delib-
erately not registering
the FIR and the conduct
of the SHO and IO is
nothing but creating
hindrances in the judi-
cial process,” the court
had remarked.
Court stays show cause notice to
SHO for non-registration of FIR
New Delhi (PTI): A
40-year-old man was ar-
rested on Tuesday for
allegedly kidnapping
and sexually assaulting
a four-year-old girl in
north Delhi's Bhalswa
Dairy area, police said.
The girl had gone
missing last Wednesday
evening while she was
playing outside her
home. Her parents
lodged a complaint at
the Bhalswa Dairy po-
lice station.
Around 7 am the next
day, the girl was found
near a park. She was
taken to a hospital,
where doctors disclosed
that she was a victim of
sexual assault.
A video surfaced on
social media in which
the accused could be
seen purportedly tak-
ing the girl somewhere.
Deputy Commission-
er of Police (Outer
North) Devesh Kumar
Mahla said accused
Anil Pathak was arrest-
ed from the Bhalswa
Dairy area.
He said police re-
ceived information that
Pathak had been spot-
ted in the locality, but
before a team could
pick him up, local peo-
ple identified him and
beat him up.
The accused claimed
that he had gone out of
the national capital af-
ter the incident. The
claims are being veri-
fied and further investi-
gation in the case is un-
derway, a senior police
officer said.
WOMEN IN FORM
BSF's all-women daredevil motorcycle team 'Seema Bhawani' attempts a Limca Book
Record on the Kartavya Path, in New Delhi on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY PTI
New Delhi (PTI): ETO Motors on Tuesday said
the company has partnered with Delhi Metro Rail
Corporation (DMRC) to deploy women-driven elec-
tric auto rickshaws at metro stations in the capital.
ETO Motors said the first set of 36 e-autos was
flagged off from Azadpur metro station on Tues-
day in presence of officials of the company and
the DMRC. ETO Motors will add 100 more e-autos
and develop parking and charging hubs at Kalka-
ji, Uttam Nagar, Dwarka and Majlis Park metro
stations, it said.
Fleet of e-autos, all
driven by women, now
at Azadpur metro stn
One of the e-autos at Azadpur metro station. —PHOTO BY ANI
40-yr-old man held
for kidnap, sexual
assault of 4-year-old
The arrested
man, Anil
Pathak, is a
daily wager who
lived with his
wife and kids in
the Bhalswa
Dairy area
In 2022, HC took up case of
woman’s right to her body
The court
holds that
the ‘ultimate
decision’ ought to
recognise the choice
of the mother as also
the possibility of a
dignified life of the
unborn child.
—Justice Pratibha Singh
RIGHT TO TERMINATE PREGNANCY
While the world debated the US Supreme Court
overturning of the constitutional right to abor-
tion, the Delhi High Court in 2022 said the
ultimate decision in matters of abortion ought to
recognise a woman's choice to give birth and the
possibility of dignified life of the unborn child.
In a significant ruling which allowed a 26-year-old
to undergo medical termination of her 33-week
pregnancy as the foetus was suffering from cer-
ebral abnormalities, the high court emphasised
that the choice of a woman was recognised by
Indian law. It also allowed the termination of over
30-week pregnancy due to a rare chromosomal
disorder in the foetus in one case, while permit-
ting a 16-year-old rape survivor to undergo abor-
tion at 28 weeks of pregnancy in another.
MARITAL RAPE
While deciding on whether to criminalise marital
rape, a hot button issue, one of the judges of the di-
vision bench favoured striking down the exception
given to husbands in the law and said it would be
tragic if a married woman's call for justice is not
heard even after 162 years since the enactment of
the IPC. The other judge, however, said the excep-
tion under the rape law is not unconstitutional and
was based on an intelligible differentia.
2020 RIOTS
Several cases of the
riots of February 2020
continued to demand
the high court's time.
It denied bail to former
JNU student Umar
Khalid in a related UAPA case and dismissed a
plea by some CPI(M) leaders for registration of
an FIR against BJP's Anurag Thakur and Parvesh
Verma for their alleged hate speeches. Congress
leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi opposed
a plea for lodging FIRs against them over alleged
hate speeches.
FUTURE VS AMAZON
While dealing with
commercial and busi-
ness disputes, the
high court dismissed a
plea by a Future Group
company seeking
termination of arbitral proceedings initiated against
it by Amazon.
DEFAMATORY
POSTS
It also restrained Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) and
its leaders from making
“defamatory” statements
against Delhi Lieutenant
Governor Vinai Kumar
Saxena. It directed Con-
gress’ Jairam Ramesh,
Pawan Khera and Netta
D’Souza to take down
social media posts on al-
legations levelled against
Union minister Smriti
Irani and her daughter
relating to ownership of a
bar in Goa.
VACATING OF
OFFICIAL
BUNGALOWS
The high court paved
the way for vacation of
sprawling official bunga-
lows in possession of MP
Chirag Paswan, former
Janata Dal (United)
president Sharad Yadav
and ex-MP Subramanian
Swamy, and stayed the
Lokapal proceedings
against JMM chief Shibu
Soren.
WHATSAPP
PRIVACY
Significantly, the high
court held that What-
sApp's 2021 privacy
policy places its users
in a take it or leave it
situation, virtually forcing
them into an agreement
by providing a mirage.
WHO COMMANDS
THE SHIV SENA?
The dispute between two
rival factions of the Shiv
Sena reached the high
court which dis-
missed former Maha-
rashtra chief minister
Uddhav Thackeray's
challenge to an Elec-
tion Commission
interim order
freezing the
party's name
and election
symbol.

New Delhi (PTI): Parts
of the national capital
reeled under a cold
wave as dense fog blot-
ted out the sun on Tues-
day morning, lowering
visibility to just 50 me-
tres and affecting road
and train traffic.
At 5.6 degrees Celsi-
us, Delhi’s minimum
temperature was less
than that of Dharamsa-
la (6.2 degrees Celsius),
Dehradun (7 degrees
Celsius), and Nainital
(7.2 degrees Celsius).
With a high windchill
factor—a measure of
the rate of heat loss
from skin that is ex-
posed to the air—Delhi
clockedatopwindspeed
of 16 kilometres per
hour on Tuesday
.
Safdarjung weather
station logged a mini-
mum temperature of 5.6
degrees Celsius—a
notch below normal.
Themaximumtempera-
ture settled at 17.2 de-
grees Celsius, three
notches below normal.
Fifteen trains to and
from Delhi were report-
ed running late while
two were rescheduled, a
spokesperson said.
Meteorologists attrib-
uted below-normal tem-
peraturestofrigidnorth
westerly winds barrel-
ling through the plains
and reduced sunshine
due to foggy weather.
Mahesh Palawat, vice
president, Skymet
Weather, said a western
disturbance led to a
fresh spell of snowfall
in the mountains on De-
cember 25-26 and cold
northwesterly winds
are now sweeping
through the plains after
its retreat. He said the
wind chill factor was
also high.
Palawat said cold-
wave conditions in
northwest India would
abate from Wednesday
due to a fresh western
disturbance. However,
the relief is likely to be
short lived.
CAPITOL
03
Under cloak of fog, wind chill seeps in
People walk amid dense fog on a cold winter morning at Kartavya
Path, India Gate, in New Delhi on Tuesday.
People stand around a bonfire to warm themselves on a cold winter day, at Kashmiri Gate in Delhi
on Tuesday. —PHOTOS BY ANI
THREE KILLED
IN ACCIDENT ON
LUCKNOW-AGRA
EXPRESSWAY
Kannauj (PTI): Three
persons, including a
panchayat executive
officer, were killed
when their car col-
lided with a truck
due to dense fog on
the Lucknow-Agra
Expressway in Tal-
gram police station
limits, police said
on Tuesday. Sudhir
Singh, executive of-
ficer of Lavad Nagar
panchayat in Meerut
district, Nagar Pan-
chayat clerk Aslam
and driver Tanuj
Thakur were return-
ing from Lucknow
when the accident
occurred, Additional
Superintendent of
Police Dr Arvind
Kumar said. The
trio was admitted to
Government Medical
College, Tirwa, where
they succumbed to
their injuries, he said.
New Delhi (ANI):
Delhi Police's Special
cell has arrested four
persons and appre-
hended a Juvenile
wanted in the killing
of a murder accused
outside the court in
Rajasthan's Nagaur
earlier this year.
Deepak Kumar ali-
as Deepti, the 32-year-
old kingpin of the
'Deepti gang' was
wanted in the murder
of Sandeep Sethi, who
was killed outside the
court complex in Na-
gaur, Police said on
Monday. After the in-
cident, Deepak Ku-
mar was declared as a
Proclaimed Offend-
er in three different
criminal cases regis-
tered against him in
Haryana.
Following his ar-
rest, four more people
including a Juvenile
were arrested in con-
nection with the mur-
der and eight fire-
arms, 28 live cartridg-
es and two spare mag-
azines were recov-
ered, Delhi Police
Special Cell said.
According to Delhi
Police Special cell on
September 19, Sand-
eep Sethi also known
as Sandeep Bishnoi
was shot dead while
four other persons
suffered injuries in an
attack by unidentified
armed assailants out-
side the District Court
in Nagaur.
Police added that
the victim, who had a
long history of crime
himself, was facing
trial in multiple crim-
inal cases and had
come to Nagaur court
for the hearing in one
of his cases.
Gangster wanted for murder
in Nagaur held in Delhi
Gurugram (PTI):
The body of a member
of the Badhda block
samiti of Charkhi
Dadri district was
found hanging at a
guest house located in
sector 31 here, police
said on Tuesday
.
He was identified as
Ashok Kumar (40),
winning candidate of
ward number 1 of the
Badhda block samiti.
The body was found
in a washroom of the
guest house on Mon-
day night, police said.
The cause of death
is yet to ascertained
and the matter is un-
der investigation, Sec-
tor 40 police station
SHO Satish Kumar
said, adding that no
suicide note was
found.
Man found dead
at Gurugram
guest house
Covid: Govt hospitals conduct mock drills
New Delhi (PTI): Mock
drills were conducted at
some of the hospitals in
Delhi on Tuesday to as-
sess their prepared-
ness, including availa-
bility of beds and man-
power, to deal with any
increase in the number
of COVID-19 cases.
Deputy Chief Minis-
ter Manish Sisodia,
who also holds the
health portfolio, visited
the Delhi government-
run Lok Nayak Jai
Prakash Narayan
(LNJP) Hospital around
noon to assess the drill.
“The Delhi govern-
ment is prepared for
any kind of emergency
.
At LNJP, there are 2,000
beds and 450 of them
are dedicated to COV-
ID-19. If a need arises,
we can dedicate all 2,000
beds for COVID-19... we
can also increase this
number by using near-
by banquet halls and
add an additional 500
beds for COVID-19, so
there would no short-
age,” Sisodia told re-
porters at the hospital.
A senior official said
Sisodia spent 30-40 min-
utes to inspect the pre-
paredness.
The exercise comes
in the wake of the Cen-
tre issuing an advisory
to this effect on Monday
amid a spurt in COV-
ID-19 cases in some
countries.
“Now, we have new
cylinders which were
bought during the pre-
vious Covid wave, and
we even have tankers
for transportation. The
Delhi government and
our health department
are fully prepared for
any situation,” Sisodia
told reporters.
LNJP Medical Direc-
tor Suresh Kumar said
there was no reason to
panic, but people must
be vigilant, follow Cov-
id guidelines and take
the booster dose of the
vaccines.“In the mock
drill, we saw our re-
sponse time and it was
perfect,” he said.
Besides the LNJP, the
drill is taking place at
other government-run
facilities in the national
capital and some of the
private hospitals are ex-
pected to take up the
exercise later in the day
.
The mock drill will
assess bed availability,
manpower, referral re-
sources, testing capaci-
ty, medical logistics,
telemedicine services
and medical oxygen
availability, among oth-
er aspects.
Apollo Hospital in
south Delhi's Sarita Vi-
har is among the pri-
vate hospitals where
the drill will be held.
Deputy CM and Health Minister Manish Sisodia being briefed
by LNJP MD Dr Suresh Kumar at LNJP Hospital in New Delhi
on Tuesday. —PHOTO B Y ANI
Compared to
previous
times, oxygen
availability has in-
creased 10 times. Five
PSA plants have been
set up. Ventilators are
also present. Today, a
mock drill was con-
ducted, how patients
can be attended to and
shifted within 5 mins.
—Manish Sisodia,
Deputy CM and Health Minister
New Delhi (PTI): Un-
ion Health Minister
Mansukh Mandaviya
on Tuesday reviewed
the Covid response
mock drill at the Cen-
tre-run Safdarjung Hos-
pital here to check its
readiness to deal with
any increase in the
number of cases.
“I reviewed the Covid
response mock drill at
Safdarjung Hospital.
This mock drill was
necessary to know how
prepared our hospitals
are,” the minister said.
“Covid cases are ris-
ing all over the world
and India might wit-
ness a spike in cases
too. Hence it is impor-
tant that the entire Cov-
id infrastructure in
terms of equipment,
processes and human
resources are at a state
of operational readi-
ness,” he stated.
Clinical readiness at
hospitals is crucial,
Mandaviya said while
noting that government
as well as private hospi-
tals are undertaking
mock drills.
Cautioning against
complacency, he urged
everyone to follow Cov-
id Appropriate Behav-
iour. He also asked peo-
ple to refrain from shar-
ing unverified informa-
tion and ensure high
level of preparedness.
The minister visited
the 44-bedded Covid
centre at the hospital,
the triage and testing
area which has been
created by the hospital
along with a Severe
Acute Respiratory In-
fection ward in the
makeshift facility
which already existed.
Dr BL Sherwal, the
Medical Superinten-
dent of the Safdarjung
Hospital, said, “All
symptomatic patients
shall be screened, as-
sessed and tested right
there in the Covid cen-
tre.The report shall be
made available within
one to two hours follow-
ing which the decision
on admission or dis-
charge shall be taken.
Till that time the pa-
tient can be monitored.
All beds have oxygen
facilities.”
Dr Neeraj Gupta, a
professor in the Depart-
ment of Pulmonary,
Critical care and Sleep
medicine at Safdarjung
Hospital, said of the 44
beds, six beds are
equipped with a ventila-
tor with monitors.
Mandaviya reviews drill at Safdarjung Hospital
Delhi Disaster Manage-
mentAuthority(DDMA)
on Tuesday withdrew
its earlier order direct-
ing teachers to be de-
ployed at the Indira
Gandhi International
AirporttoenforceCovid
protocols, officials said.
The new order said
teachers and other
teaching staff, who were
to be deployed, are ex-
empted from airport
duty for the period De-
cember 31 to January 15.
“In case required,
civil defence volunteers
from district west may
be deputed on call out
duty basis,” the order is-
sued by the district mag-
istrate (west) stated.
The order on deploy-
ment was withdrawn
after the DDMA faced
criticism from teachers.
At least 85 teachers from
various schools were to
be deployed, it had said.
DDMA withdraws
order on Covid
duty of teachers
at Delhi airport
Union Minister of Health Mansukh Mandaviya reviews the
COVID-19 mock drill at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi on
Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI
DELHI’S MINIMUM TEMP BELOW THAT OF NAINITAL, DHARAMSALA
New Delhi (PTI): Lieu-
tenant Governor VK
Saxena has transferred
Delhi Urban Shelter Im-
provement Board
(DUSIB) CEO K Mahesh
and is “contemplating
further action” against
him for alleged derelic-
tion of duty
.
The move comes after
the LG on December 23
paid a surprise visit to
the shelter homes at
ISBT and found lack of
accommodation and
toilet facilities there.
Mahesh has been
moved to Union Terri-
tory Civil Services as
special director, a state-
ment from LG office
said on Tuesday
.
“Even as Garima
Gupta, Secretary (So-
cial Welfare), was given
charge of DUSIB, fur-
ther action is contem-
plated against Mahesh.
While all the shelter
homes at ISBT and Ha-
numan Mandir area
had a total capacity of
only about 600 beds,
there were thousands
who were forced to
sleep on the pavements
in bitter cold,” the state-
ment said.
LG Saxena transfers DUSIB CEO
over ‘irregularities’ in night shelters
Homeless people wrapped in woollens sleep inside a shelter home on a cold winter morning, in New
Delhi on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY PTI
FOUR FROM
MYANMAR
ADMITTED
Four international
travellers from
Myanmar, who tested
positive for Covid
at the Delhi airport,
are admitted at the
Safdarjung Hospital
and their samples
have been sent for
genome sequencing
“They were asymp-
tomatic. They will be
discharged once they
test negative,” Dr
Sherwal informed.
CRIME BRANCH
Gurugram (PTI): Five people of a gang
were arrested from a hotel room here for al-
legedly duping HDFC credit card holders by
sending them decoy messages to redeem bo-
nus points, police said on Monday
.
Ten mobile phones and a tab were recov-
ered from their possession, they said.
The accused were identified as Sandeep
Saini, Mukesh, Sunil Saini, Pritam, and Su-
shil and they were arrested from a hotel lo-
catedonMehrauli-GurugramroadonSatur-
day night, police said.
Thegangoperateditsfraudbusinessfrom
the rooms of 3 and 5-star hotels, said police.
“During interrogation, the accused re-
vealed that they had created a fake website
similar to the website of HDFC Bank and
were targeting HDFC credit card holders
only,” said Preet Pal Singh Sangwan, ACP,
Crime.
“They would send a link to customers re-
deem bonus points. When the target would
clickonthelinkandsubmitthedetailsasked
there, the accused would siphon the money
from their cards to their account and would
withdraw it from some ATM,” he said.
Credit card frauds held
from hotel in Gurugram

PERSPECTIVE
04
SPIRITUAL SPEAK
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for
darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet
for bitter. —Bible
Anurag Thakur @ianuragthakur
Get ready for the biggest hockey
event of the year 2023! The
#HockeyMensWorldCup2023 is
coming to Steel City, Rourkela,
Odisha and we are pumped to host
the best teams in the world. Let’s
cheer @TheHockeyIndia and make
this a tournament to remember! RourkelaMC
TOP TWEETS
Kiren Rijiju @KirenRijiju
India has a robust Parliamentary
Democracy. Our Govt will always
function as per the spirit of the
Constitution of India. Nobody can
accuse our Govt of undermining
the independence of Judiciary.
YOGI PROPOSES, HC DISPOSES
n a setback to
reservation pol-
itics, the Alla-
habad High
Court has de-
railed the Uttar Pradesh
government’s quota poli-
tics by rejecting reserva-
tion of Other Backward
Classes (OBC) in urban lo-
cal body elections. The
high court ordered the
State Election Commis-
sion to notify the elections
without further delay
. The
term of several munici-
palities has already ended
while that of others will
end by December 31, 2022.
To garner support of
the OBCs the government
had come up with a draft
notification on December
5 reserving mayoral seats
in Aligarh, Mathura- Vrin-
davan, Meerut and Praya-
graj for OBC candidates.
In the case of Mathura-
Vrindavan and Aligarh
the seats were reserved for
OBC women. The draft
policy provided for OBC
reservation on 54 chair-
persons’ seats in 200 mu-
nicipal councils. In the 545
nagar panchayats 147 seats
were reserved for OBC
candidates.
A clutch of PILs chal-
lenged the draft notifica-
tion for violating the triple
test formula set by the Su-
preme Court for OBC res-
ervations. The triple test
formula mandates setting
up of a commission for an
empirical inquiry into the
nature and implications of
backwardness within the
state local bodies; specify-
ing the proportion of res-
ervation required… and it
should not exceed 50 per-
cent of total seats reserved
for SCs, STs and OBCs.
The UP government told
the high court that the sur-
vey of OBCs conducted in
2017 can be considered as
the basis of the proposed
reservation.Notconvinced,
the court quashed the noti-
fication, upsetting Yogi
Government’s plans. Apna
Dal was unhappy with the
court’s order. Samajwadi
Party called it a BJP gov-
ernment’s conspiracy
.
I
In a setback to reservation politics, the Allahabad
HC has derailed the UP government’s quota
politics by rejecting reservation of OBC in
urban local body elections. The HC ordered
the State Election Commission to notify the
elections without further delay
l Vol 2 l Issue No.119 l RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840 Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Impressions Printing and Packaging Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59, Noida-201301.
Published at G-20, 3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474. Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
PULLING THE PLUG ON
LIFE…TOO EARLY
ampant suicides and especially
the recent spate of suicides in
the country and at the cine
world has shocked and numbed
the nation. Even the Union gov-
ernment informed Parliament
on Tuesday that 115 daily wage
earners and 63 women died by
suicide every day in 2021.
A total of 42,004 daily wage
earners and 23,179 housewives
died by suicide in 2021, said Un-
ion Minister of State for Home
Affairs Nityanand Rai in re-
sponse to a question in Lok Sab-
ha. Citing data from the Nation-
al Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB), Rai present the follow-
ing numbers for suicides in In-
dia in 2021:
l Self-employed: 20,231
l Salaried: 15,870
l Unemployed: 13,714
l Students: 13,089
l Business: 12,055
l Private sector: 11,431
l Farming: 10,881
(5,563 labourers+ 5,318 farmers)
Men were the overwhelming
victims of suicide, as per the
NCRB Crime in India 2021 re-
port. Of the 1,64,033 persons
who died by suicide last year,
1,18,970 were men and 45,026
were women. The suicide data
for 2021 is in line with that of
2020 as daily wage earners, self-
employed persons, and the un-
employed had topped the sui-
cide victims that year as well.
Officials last year had said that
pandemic-induced economic
hardships were a driving factor.
As per the World Health Or-
ganisation, globally, close to
8,00,000 people die by suicide
every year; that’s one person
every 40 seconds. For each sui-
cide, there are more than 20 sui-
cide attempts. The global body
goes on to say suicide is an
emerging and serious public
health issue in India. However,
it is preventable with timely,
evidence-based and often low-
cost interventions. The suicide
mortality rate per 1,00,000 popu-
lation in 2016 was 16.5, while the
global average was 10.5 per 100
000. The most vulnerable are
the 15-29 year old’s, the elderly,
and persons with special needs
– as per WHO.
Classes for five days a week,
weekend offs and not more than
two internal tests in a week cho-
rus for these demands is grow-
ing among JEE and NEET aspir-
ants recently after three stu-
dents died by suicide this month
allegedly due to academic stress.
Often bogged down with the
fast-paced curriculum and the
programme structure, students
say they are always racing
against time and even a day’s
break can push them behind
thousands of other students.
However, the recent cases of
student suicides have brought
back the focus on fixing the
schedule to make it more stu-
dent-friendly
. After the cases of
three students dying by suicide
last week came to light, the dis-
trict administration issued fresh
directions to ensure that there is
a stress-free environment for
students and that at least one
weekly off is granted to them.
Students, however, feel that it
isn’t enough. Of the three stu-
dents who died by suicide last
week, NEET aspirant Ankush
Anand (18) from and JEE aspir-
ant Ujjwal Kumar (17) both from
Bihar were found hanging from
ceiling fans in their respective
rooms at their paying guest (PG)
accommodation on December
12, according to police.
The third student, Pranav
Verma (17), a National Eligibil-
ity cum Entrance Test (NEET)
aspirant from Madhya Pradesh,
allegedly consumed a poisonous
substance in his hostel on De-
cember 11. No student suicide
was reported in 2021 when the
coaching centres here were shut
down due to the COVID-19 pan-
demic and students attended
online classes from their homes.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
However, the recent cases of
student suicides have
brought back the focus on
fixing the schedule to make it
more student-friendly. After
the cases of three students
dying by suicide last week
came to light, the district
administration issued fresh
directions to ensure that
there is a stress-free
environment for students
and that at least one weekly
off is granted to them
R
ROBIN ROY
The writer is Senior Journalist and
former Managing Editor, First India
As per the World Health
Organisation, globally,
close to 8,00,000 people
die by suicide every
year; that’s one person
every 40 seconds. For
each suicide, there are more
than 20 suicide attempts. The
global body goes on to say
suicide is serious public
health issue in India
TINSEL TOWN TRAUMA
THE DISTURBING NEWS OF SUICIDES FROM THE TELEVISION AND
BOLLYWOOD WORLD KEEP POURING IN RELENTLESSLY
TUNISHA SHARMA
TV actor was
found hanging
on the sets of a
serial in Mum-
bai last week,
one more in-
stance of a
showbiz aspirant allegedly tak-
ing the extreme step. The death
of the 21-year-old “Ali Baba:
Dastaan-E-Kabul” actor has ar-
rest of her co-star Sheezan
Khan for abetment to suicide.
Here are some similar deaths
in the entertainment industry
that shocked us all:
VAISHALI THAKKAR
On October 16
this year, the
Yeh Rishta Kya
Kehlata Hai ac-
tor was found
dead in her In-
dore home. Po-
lice officials claimed they have
enough evidence against Th-
akkar’s former boyfriend Ra-
hul Navlani, filed an abetment
of suicide case. Asif Basra
Known for starring in movies
such as Jab We Met, Once Upon
a Time in Mumbaai and Kai Po
Che!, Basra was found hanging
in a pvt property in Nov 2020 in
Dharamshala. He was 53. He
was last seen in “The Family
Man-2” and “Sooryavanshi”.
SAMIR SHARMA
He was found
hanging from
the fan of his
kitchen on Au-
gust 6, 2020 in
the Mumbai
suburb Malad
where he lived alone. His cred-
its include hit TV shows Kyun-
ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi
and Left Right Left.
SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT
The death of the
C h h i c h h o r e
star, who was
found hanging
in his Bandra
home on June
14, 2020, contin-
ues to cast long shadows over
the industry
.
KUSHAL PUNJABI
Tuesday will be
the third death
anniversary of
a c t o r - m o d e l
Kushal Punjabi,
who was hang-
ing in his Ban-
dra apartment on December 27,
2019. Known for films such as
Kaal, Lakshya as well as reality
show Fear Factor, actor left be-
hind a suicide note in which he
said nobody should be held re-
sponsible for his death.
PRATYUSHA BANNERJEE
She became a
h o u s e h o l d
name through
Balika Vadhu
was found hang-
ing in her Mum-
bai apartment
on April 1, 2016. She was 24.
Her boyfriend Rahul Raj is ac-
cused of abetting her suicide.
PREKSHA MEHTA
“Crime Patrol” actor was found
dead in her home in Indore.
The 29-year-old, who hanged
herself, left a suicide note.
JIAH KHAN
British American actor, known
for films such as Nishabd and
Ghajini, was found hanging at
her Mumbai residence on June
3, 2013 by her mother Rabiya
Khan. She was 25. Her death
was deemed suicide and recon-
firmed as a suicide in 2016. Her
boyfriend Rahul Raj is accused
of abetting her suicide.
KULJEET RANDHAWA
In 2006, model-turned televi-
sion actor, 25, known for star-
ring in the high-school drama
Hip Hip Hurray!, suspense se-
rial Kohinoor and crime thrill-
er drama Special Squad, alleg-
edly died by suicide by hanging
herself in her room in Juhu.

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INDIA
06
New Delhi (Agencies):
The northern parts of
the country will wit-
ness fresh cold wave
conditions from Decem-
ber 31 onwards, the In-
dia Meteorological De-
partment (IMD) said on
Tuesday
.
RK Jenamani, senior
scientist at the India
Meteorological Depart-
ment, said cold days
and severe cold days are
mainly over south Har-
yana and western Uttar
Pradesh.
“The cold to severe
cold wave is expected to
continue over Punjab,
Haryana, north Ra-
jasthan and Delhi.
Dense to very dense fog
will continue to prevail
in the belt. From De-
cember 28, there will be
improvement due to
western disturbance
and on December 29,
fresh snowfall is expect-
ed in Jammu Kash-
mir, Leh and some parts
of Himachal Pradesh,”
said Jenamani.
Cold wave conditions likely to continue in Jan: MeT
CHILL SETS IN
lll
The weather
office said that a
layer of dense
fog and
moderate icy
cold winds from
the North were
responsible for
this steep fall in
the temperature
A street is covered in snow after hailstorm in Sivasagar district.
EC starts process for
delimitation of LS
VS seats in Assam
New Delhi (ANI):
The Election Com-
mission of India on
Tuesday said it has
initiated the process
for delimitation of
Assembly (Vidhan
Sabha) and Parlia-
mentary (Lok Sabha)
Constituencies in As-
sam.
The process of de-
limitation was in
pursuance of the re-
quest received from
the Union Ministry
of Law and Justice.
Delimitation falls un-
der Section 8A of the
Re Representation of
the People Act, 1950.
“The Commission
led by Chief Election
Commissioner Shri
Rajiv Kumar and
Election Commis-
sioners Shri Anup
Chandra Pandey and
Shri Arun Goel has
directed the Chief
Electoral Officer of
Assam to take up the
matter with State
Government to issue
complete ban on cre-
ation of new admin-
istrative units w.e.f.
1st January 2023 till
the completion of de-
limitation exercise
in the State,” an offi-
cial statement said.
Census figures of
2001 will be used for
the purpose of read-
justment of Constit-
uencies in the state.
Kin,friendsbidfinalgoodbyetoTunisha
Mumbai (ANI): The
last rites of Actor Tuni-
sha Sharma, who died
allegedly by suicide on
the sets of a TV serial,
were performed on
Tuesday at Mira Road
cremation ground in
Mumbai.
Tunisha’s mother
Vanita Sharma broke
down when her last
rites were being per-
formed, and she was
seen inconsolable.
Actors- Kanwar
Dhillon, Reem Shaikh,
Ashnoor Kaur, Avneet
Kaur, Siddharth Nigam,
Abhishek Nigam,
Shivin Narang, Vishal
Jethwa and others at-
tended the cremation of
the late actor.
TV actor Tunisha
Sharma was found dead
on the sets of her ongo-
ing TV show Alibaba -
Dastaan-e-Kabul on Sat-
urday. A day later, her
ex-boyfriend and co-star
from the show, Sheezan
Khan was arrested on
charges of abetment to
suicide. If reports are to
be believed, Khan and
Tunisha broke up 15
days ago.
Mortal remains of Tunisha Sharma before her cremation. Tunisha’s mother Vanita Sharma mourns actor’s death.
SHEEZAN’S MOTHER, SISTER
ATTEND TUNISHA’S FUNERAL
SHEEZAN KHAN BREAKS DOWN
DURING INTERROGATION
Mumbai: Tunisha Sharma’s co-star
Sheezan Khan’s mother and sister
also came to the cremation ground
to pay their last respects. Sheezan,
who worked with Tunisha in ‘Ali Baba
Dastaan-E-Kabul’, was arrested on Sun-
day on charges of abetment of suicide.
Mumbai: Actor Sheezan Khan,
arrested for allegedly abetting the
suicide of Tunisha, on Tuesday broke
down during his interrogation and has
denied allegations that he had been
dating several girls while he was in a
relationship with the deceased actor.
4 KILLED, 1 INJURED
IN FIRE ACCIDENT AT
AP PHARMA UNIT
Visakhapatnam: Four
workers died and another
suffered severe burn
injuries following a fire that
broke out at a pharmaceu-
tical firm located inside
Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma
City in Anakapalle district
of Andhra Pradesh, police
said on Tuesday. Anakapal-
le Superintendent of Police
Gowthami Sali confirmed
the fire accident that hap-
pened at Unit-III of Laurus
Labs Limited on Monday
night.
ASSAM POLICE
RESCUE CATTLE FROM
TRUCK IN BISWANATH
Guwahati: At least 28
cattle heads were rescued
by Assam police from a
12-wheeler truck at Jorabat
junction under Basistha
PS in East Guwahati Police
District. The accused were
trying to smuggle the cattle
heads into Byrnihat, which
were brought from Bezera,
Kamrup. One Md Rajmul
Ali, a local of the Sipajhar
region, was arrested in
connection to this.
BIHAR: MISCREANTS
HYPNOTIZE WOMAN,
ROB JEWELLERY
Patna: Two unidentified
men hypnotized a woman
and made off with her
jewellery in Kankarbagh,
police said on Tuesday.
The incident took place
when Ranju Prasad wife
of a retired professor was
going to a doctor’s clinic
for a medical check-up.
As she reached the Shivaji
Park three-wheeler stand,
a man approached and
offered her a camphor,
which appeared to be a
part of prasad.
Leopard on run injures
13 in Assam’s Jorhat
Jorhat (PTI): Atleast13
people, including chil-
dren and forest officials,
were injured in an at-
tack by a leopard prowl-
ing in Jorhat district of
Assam on Monday
.
The leopard was spot-
ted around the campus
of the Rain Forest Re-
search Institute (RFRI)
in Chenijan area of the
district since early
morning. The residents
informed the foresters
about the leopard.
As many as 10 resi-
dents of the campus,
including women and
children, and three for-
est personnel were at-
tacked in the last 24
hour by the big cat,
which later fled the spot.
In a horrifying video,
widely circulated on so-
cial media, the leopard
can be seen jumping
over a barbed wire fence
and pouncing on a car
before running away
from the area.
A forest official told
PTI that they tried to
tranquilise the leopard
several times, but in
vain. He said that ef-
forts are underway to
track and capture it.
The leopard attacking a car in
Jorhat district of Assam.
UP: 118 IAS officers to get Spl Secy ranks
Ahtesham Siddiqui
Lucknow: The Yogi
Government of Uttar
Pradesh is going to give
the gift of promotion to
118 IAS officers in the
new year in which 9 IAS
officers will be promot-
ed from Special Secre-
tary rank to Secretary
rank from January 1.
There is a huge short-
age of secretary rank
officers in the bureau-
cracy of UP due to
which one officer has
dual responsibility.
Also some officers have
been given the responsi-
bility of secretary be-
fore time.
In the IAS service,
there is a system of giv-
ing super time pay scale
on continuous service
of 16 years. IAS Sheetal
Verma — Director of
Census Operation/ Di-
rector of Citizen Regis-
tration News Delhi - is
the first name among
those who will become
Secretary from Special
Secretary in UP.
Another important
name in this connec-
tion is that of IAS Alok
Tiwari, Private Secre-
tary to Defense Minis-
ter of the country, Ra-
jnath Singh, who will
become secretary after
getting promotion on
January 1. Alok Tiwari,
who was DM of Kan-
nauj, Mathura and Kan-
pur, is considered a
very honest and hard-
working officer and is
currently posted in
New Delhi.
IAS Alok Tiwari IAS Suhas LY
BSF soldier killed for objecting
againstdaughter’sobscenevideo
Ahmedabad (ANI): As
many as seven persons
have been arrested for
allegedly lynching a
BSF personnel in Guja-
rat for protesting
against an obscene vid-
eo of his daughter. The
soldier, Melaji Vaghela
(45), was allegedly at-
tacked with sharp weap-
ons and sticks by the
family members of the
boy whom he ap-
proached for uploading
the video of his minor
daughter online. DSP of
Nadiad VR Bajpai said
that Vaghela, his son
and relatives went to the
house of one of the ac-
cused Shailash Yadav to
speak with him and his
family over the video.
BSF REACHES OUT
TO FAMILY OF
‘LYNCHED’ TROOPER
Ahmedabad: The BSF has
reached out to the family
of its trooper Melajibhai
Vaghela who was mur-
dered in Kheda district
last week when he went
to reprimand a youth who
allegedly uploaded videos
of his minor daughter
online. The BSF said it is
providing all help to them,
including immediate
financial assistance.
COLD WAVE INTENSIFIES IN KASHMIR
Srinagar: Coldwave condi-
tions gripped Kashmir
as the mercury fell by a
couple of degrees across
the Valley to push the
minimum temperature fur-
ther below freezing point,
officials said on Tuesday.
The minimum tempera-
ture on Monday night fell
by one to two degrees
compared to the previous
night. The intense cold
led to water supply lines
freezing in several areas.
The interiors of Dal Lake
and several other water
bodies in the Valley also
froze, the officials said.
The minimum tempera-
ture in Srinagar settled at
minus 4.8 degrees Celsius
— down from minus 3.5
degrees on Sunday.
K’taka CM Bommai calls
on Amit Shah in Delhi
New Delhi (ANI):
Ahead of the Karnataka
assembly elections
scheduled next year, CM
BasavarajBommaimeet
Union Minister Amit
Shah in Delhi.
The meeting took
placeatShah’sresidence
in which BJP chief JP
Nadda was also present.
The meeting went on for
over four hours, accord-
ing to the sources. “The
meeting was to discuss
the upcoming assembly
elections in Karnataka,
Cabinet expansion and
2024 Lok sabha elections
also,” the sources said.
They further said that
former ministers KS Es-
hwarappa and Ramesh
Jarkiholi are also likely
to be reinducted into the
cabinet.
“With pressure
mounting from former
ministersKSEshwarap-
pa and Ramesh Jarki-
holi, who have demand-
ed that they be reinduct-
ed into the cabinet, the
issue is likely to come
up for discussion when
Bommai meets senior
BJP leaders in Delhi,”
sources said.
K’taka govt’s advisory on new virus
Bengaluru (PTI): The
BF.7 variant of COV-
ID-19 is highly trans-
missible but it does not
have much virulence
(severity of a disease),
Karnataka Health Min-
ister K Sudhakar said
on Tuesday
.
He urged elderly
, chil-
dren and pregnant
women to follow COVID
precautions and remain
vigilant. He further
said that the virulence
is slightly high among
the elderly population
and those with co-mor-
bidities, citing reports
from other countries.
“BF.7 is a sub-variant
of Omicron, but the
only difference between
other variants and this
is that the rate of its
spread is high, but does
not have much viru-
lence,” he told media.
“That’s the reason in
the guidelines, we have
given importance to
them (old and co-mor-
bid) and have advised
them to avoid places or
activities where a large
crowd gathers and wear
masks if unavoidable.
Similar is the case with
pregnant women and
children,” he added.
So far, four cases of
the BF.7 variant have
been reported in India
– two from Gujarat and
two from Odisha.
In view of spurt in
COVID-19 cases globally
,
Karnataka govt ramped
up its preventive meas-
ures, making use of
masks at cinema thea-
tres and educational in-
stitutions mandatory
.
State’s Health Minister advises that children, elderly people, pregnant women must remain cautious
ANDHRA CM HOLDS MEETING TO CHECK
PREPAREDNESS OF VILLAGE CLINICS
Amaravati (ANI): CM YS
Jagan Mohan Reddy on
Monday held a review
meeting on the prevail-
ing Covid situation and
decided to write a letter
to the Centre seeking
to reduce the gap for
administering a ‘precau-
tionary dose’ from the
existing nine months to
six months, CMO said
in a statement. The CM
directed the Medical and
Health Department to fill
the existing vacancies of
doctors and para-medical
posts by January 26
besides providing ac-
commodation and other
necessary facilities to
staff members working in
the Department in agency
areas. CM held a review
meeting on the Covid
new variant BF 7 chal-
lenge, on the construc-
tion of village clinics.
4 FLYERS FOUND
COVID+ IN B’LURU
FREE TREATMENT FOR BF.7 VARIANT INFECTED PATIENTS IN K’TALA
Bengaluru: 4 passengers
who came to Bangalore
Airport have tested posi-
tive. Four of 200 individuals
who underwent testing,
found Corona positive.
Their sample has been sent
for genome sequencing.
The Central govt works
with state govt. Amidst the
surging cases of Covid-19
cases in China, wearing
masks will not be made
mandatory in India.
Bengaluru: The state
govt has announced free
treatment for people
with confirmed cases of
the new SARS-CoV-2
variant - BF.7. “All the
suspected Covid cases will
be admitted and isolated
at Bowring Hospital in
Bengaluru and Wenlock
Hospital in Mangaluru for
both observation as well
as treatment purposes. All
the confirmed cases with
new variants will be pro-
vided with free treatment
at these two hospitals,”
revenue minister R Ashoka
said. This apart, a high-
level committee has been
constituted in every district
to visit every hospital and
supervise preparedness.
A health worker puts up a poster for Covid-19 test at CV Raman
Govt hospital in Bengaluru, on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY PTI
BF.7 COVID VARIANT
NEWS DIGEST

Domestic tourism bounces back to pre-Covid times
New Delhi (ANI): A de-
mand for domestic air
travel and hotel bookings
which has increased more
than pre-Covid times has
given a great sense of re-
lief to the domestic tour-
ism sector as the demand
for these services has now
crossed the pre-pandemic-
period.
On December 26, around
4,23,000 domestic passen-
gers travelled in the coun-
try that breached the pre-
Covid high of 4,20,000. On
December 24, the number
of domestic travellers who
took to flight was 4,35,500.
Experts in the tourism
industry said that the
surge in domestic travel
had been witnessed be-
cause of various restric-
tions and procedures on
international travel as
many countries are still
coping with Covid.
Vipul Prakash, COO,
MakeMyTrip, said, “Do-
mestic leisure traffic has
recovered more than 100%
of pre-pandemic levels and
remains strong. We are ob-
serving solid trends for the
upcoming new year-end
weekend. Goa, Jaipur,
Shimla, Udaipur, and
Manali lead the pack of the
most booked destinations
on the platform. We have
also observed a robust up-
tick for Wayanad, Mysore,
Ooty, Coorg, Gangtok, Deh-
radun, Agra, Dharamsha-
la, and Darjeeling. People
are opting for longer dura-
tion stays in premium
properties, indicating a
higher propensity to spend
as they seek luxury-led ex-
periences.”
HOTEL BOOKINGS SPIKE 100%
PREFERRED
DESTINATIONS
z Goa, Jaipur, Shimla,
Udaipur, and Manali lead the
pack of the most booked
destinations on MakeMyTrip
platform
z On the international front,
the best-selling packages
for the new year celebrations
include Spectacular Krabi
and Phuket Getaway
business
BRIEFS
New Delhi: Gold price
rose `173 to `55,074 per
10 grams in the national
capital on Tuesday amid
gains in precious metal
internationally, according
to HDFC Securities. The
yellow metal had ended at
`54,901 per 10 grams in
the previous trade. Silver
also zoomed `926 to
`70,205 per kilogram.
“Gold price continue to
trade higher, helped by a
softer dollar,” Navneet
Damani, Senior VP –
Commodity Research at
Motilal Oswal Financial
Services, said. —PTI
GOLD RATE SEES AN
INCREASE OF `173;
SILVER ZOOMS `926
New Delhi: The industry
size of airbags, a key
safety feature in vehicles,
is expected to grow to up
to `7,000 crore by
FY2027 in India, from the
current levels of around
`2,500 crore, according
to ratings agency Icra.
The growth in the airbag
industry, which is one of
the fastest growing auto
component segments, is
expected to be fuelled by
the increase in content
per vehicle arising from
higher regulatory require-
ments and voluntary in-
crease in the number of
airbags per vehicle for en-
hancing safety, Icra said
in a statement. —PTI
AIRBAG INDUSTRY TO
GROW TO ` 7K CR IN
INDIA BY FY27: ICRA
New Delhi: Digital ad
spending in India is likely
to reach $21 billion by
2028, a report showed on
Tuesday. This can be at-
tributed to surge in mo-
bile and Internet usage.
Notedly, growth in UGC
will empower individual
creators and influencers
to build their digital iden-
tity, which brands can
leverage for digital ads.
This strong ecosystem of
2.5 to 3 mn creators is
expected to drive market-
ing spending of $2.8 bn-
$3.5 bn by 2028. —FIB
INDIA’S DIGITAL AD
SPENDING TO REACH
$21 BILLION BY 2028
New Delhi: Hindustan
Power Exchange (HPX)
on Tuesday said it has
reached the milestone of
one billion units of power
traded within six months
of its launch. With more
than 360 market partici-
pants, HPX has also raced
to register participants
comprising 80% buy vol-
ume of overall DAM; 90%
sell volume of Green DAM
and 70% buy of RTM.
HPX — promoted by PTC
India, BSE and ICICI Bank
— has reached the mile-
stone of 1 bn units of
power traded within six
months of launch. —PTI
HPX CROSSES 1 BN
UNITS POWER
TRADING-MARK
07
Commodity Price Change % Chg
GOLD 55,074.00 173.00 0.31 (Per 10g)
SILVER 70,205.00 926.00 1.31 (Per 1kg)
COMMODITIES
Currency Price Change % Chg
USDINR 82.85 0.20 0.24
GBPINR 100.25 0.26 0.26
CURRENCIES
*Rates till the edition went to print.
RELIGARE FINVEST LTD
ON TRACK TO RESTART
ITS BUSINESS
New Delhi: Debt-ridden Religare
Finvest Ltd (RFL) is hopeful of
restarting its business opera-
tion in the New
Year following
the company’s
proposal of
`2,300 crore
OTS finding favour from most
of the lenders. Once the OTS
process is completed, RFL will
come out of the CAP imposed
by the RBI in January 2018 due
to its weak financial health. 14
out of 16 lenders have signed
the OTS agreement and the
remaining two are expected to
sign in a day or two. —PTI
INDIA EMERGES AS TOP
INVESTMENT
DESTINATION: REPORT
New Delhi: India emerged as
one of the leading investment
destinations for billionaires
across the
world, as
per the UBS
Billionaire Am-
bitions Report
2022. Billionaires around globe
are looking to put more of their
money in India due to the strong
growth of the region’s economy,
according to the report. Among
sectors, the billionaires favour
energy, possibly due to today’s
supply constraints and the ac-
celerating secular transition to
renewables. —FIB
OTHER STORIES
POWER MINISTRY, DRDO INK PCT FOR EARLY
WARNING SYSTEM FOR HYDRO PROJECTS
New Delhi: The Power Ministry on Tuesday signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with the Defence Research and Development Or-
ganization (DRDO) for the implementation of an early warning system
for vulnerable hydro projects or power
stations. The ministry and the DRDO will
jointly work towards developing suitable
mitigation measures against avalanches,
landslides, glaciers, glacial lakes and other
geo-hazards, an official release said. The
expertise of the DRDO will also be utilized
in developing comprehensive Early Warning System for vulnerable
hydro projects/ power stations in hilly regions. —PTI
FinMin REPORT
India’stotal debtrises
to`147 lakh cr in Q2
First India Bureau
New Delhi: The total lia-
bilities of the government
increased to `147.19 lakh
crore at September-end
from `145.72 lakh crore at
the end of June this fiscal
year, according to the latest
data on public debt.
In percentage terms, it
reflects a quarter-on-quar-
ter increase of 1% in sec-
ond quarter of 2022-23.
Public debt accounted for
89.1% of total gross liabili-
ties at September-end 2022,
up from 88.3% as on June
30, the quarterly report on
public debt management
released by the finance
ministry on Tuesday said.
Nearly 29.6% of the out-
standing dated securities
had a residual maturity of
less than 5 years, it said.
During the second quar-
ter, it said, the central gov-
ernment raised `4,06,000
crore through dated securi-
ties, as against notified
amount of `4,22,000 crore
in the borrowing calendar,
while repayments were at
`92,371.15 crore.
The weighted average
yield of primary issuances
hardened to 7.33% in Q2
FY23 from 7.23% in Q1
FY23, it said, adding, the
weighted average maturity
of new issuances of dated
securities was lower at
15.62 years in Q2 as com-
pared to 15.69 years in Q1.
During July-September
2022, the central govern-
ment did not raise any
amount through Cash
Management Bills.
The Reserve Bank did
not conduct Open Market
operations for government
securities during the quar-
ter. The net daily average
liquidity absorption by
RBI under Liquidity Ad-
justment Facility (LAF)
including Marginal Stand-
ing Facility and Special
Liquidity Facility was at
`1,28,323.37 crore during
the quarter, it said.
The yields on govern-
ment securities in second-
ary market hardened in
short-end curve due to
near-term inflation and li-
quidity concern though
softening of yield was ob-
served for the longer ten-
ure securities during the
second quarter, it said.
DATA IN
NUMBERS
z The total liabilities of the
government increased
to `147.19 lakh crore
at September-end from
`145.72 lakh crore at the
end of June this fiscal year
z Public debt accounted
for 89.1% of total gross
liabilities at Sept-end 2022,
up from 88.3% as on June
30, the quarterly report said
India-Australia FTA to
help increase apparel
exports: Trade Council
New Delhi (PTI): Customs
duty advantage under the
India-Australia free trade
agreement will help Indian
apparel exporters get
greater market access in
that country as compared
to their competitors, AEPC
said on Tuesday
. The agree-
ment is coming into force
from December 29.
Apparel Export Promo-
tion Council (AEPC) Vice
Chairman Sudhir Sekhri
said Australia is the largest
importer of garments in
the southern hemisphere.
While China’s share in
import of apparel into Aus-
tralia is more than 70%,
India’s share is less than
5%. “With the India-Aus-
tralia ECTA (Economic Co-
operationandTradeAgree-
ment ) getting operational-
ised, India will have a
slight duty advantage over
Vietnam and Indonesia for
imports in the Australian
market,” he said.
India’s ready-made gar-
ment exports to Australia
have seen a growth of an
average of 11.84% over the
last 5 years, which is “pure-
ly on account of China Plus
One strategy adopted by
most countries,” he added.
INDIA-AUS
TRADE PACT
z Customs duty advantage
under the India-Australia free
trade agreement will help
Indian apparel exporters get
greater market access in that
country as compared to their
competitors, APEC said
z India’s ready-made garment
exports to Australia have seen
a growth of an average of
11.84 per cent over the last
five years
z AEPC Vice Chairman Sudhir
Sekhri said Australia is the
largest importer of garments in
the southern hemisphere
Startups will
likely attract
significant FDI
in 2023: DPIIT
country’s startups will
attract significant for-
eign direct invest-
ments (FDI) in 2023 on
account of steps being
taken by the govern-
ment to strengthen the
ecosystem for budding
entrepreneurs, a top
government official
has said.
Secretary in DPIIT
Anurag Jain said In-
dia has the third larg-
est startup ecosystem
in the world and the
way startups here are
performing; soon the
country will become a
top ecosystem globally
.
“Number of recog-
nized startups is in-
creasing significantly,
the FFS and Startup
India Seed Fund
Scheme are doing
good. Startups too will
attract significant FDI
in 2023,” Jain said.
Presently, India has
one of the most liber-
alized FDI policies
wherein very few
sectors require govt
approval, he said.
Fair work conditions: Ola, Uber, 3 others score nil
New Delhi (PTI): Five dig-
ital platforms -- cab aggre-
gators Ola and Uber, gro-
cery delivery app Dunzo,
pharmacy platform
PharmEasy and Amazon
Flex — have the lowest
scores in a rating of digital
platforms on the basis of
providing fair working con-
ditions for gig workers.
The rating of 12 digital
platforms was done by a
Fairwork India team in as-
sociation with the Oxford
University. Fairwork eval-
uates the work conditions
of digital labour plat-
forms internation-
ally
.
Fairwork In-
dia Ratings
2022 Re-
p o r t ,
which as-
sessed plat-
forms against five princi-
ples: Fair Pay, Fair Condi-
tions, Fair Contracts, Fair
Management, and Fair
Re p re s e n t at i o n ,
found that Ama-
zon Flex,
D u n z o ,
O l a ,
P h a r m -
Easy and Uber
scored zero out of 10
points.
“This year, no platform
scored more than seven out
of the maximum of ten
points, and none scored all
the first points across the
five principles,” the report
said. The Fairwork India
Ratings 2022 evaluated 12
platforms, including Ama-
zon Flex, bigbasket, Dunzo,
Flipkart, Ola, PharmEasy,
Porter, Swiggy
, Uber, Urban
Company
, Zepto Zomato.
MARKETS CLIMB FOR SECOND
DAY ON FIRM GLOBAL CUES
Mumbai (PTI): Equity
benchmarks Sensex and
Nifty closed with gains on
Tuesday, following a firm
trend in the global markets.
Extending its previous
day’s rally
, the 30-share BSE
Sensexjumped361.01points
or0.60%tosettleat60,927.43.
During the day, it rallied
420.26 points or 0.69 % to
60,986.68. The broader NSE
Nifty climbed 117.70 points
or 0.65% to end at 18,132.30.
From the Sensex pack,
Tata Steel, Tata Motors,
Larsen Toubro, Asian
Paints, Wipro, Bajaj Fi-
nance, ICICI Bank, Tech
Mahindra and Titan were
the major winners.
Hindustan Unilever, ITC,
Mahindra Mahindra and
Nestle were the laggards.
` FALLS 20 PAISE TO
CLOSE AT 82.85
AGAINST US DOLLAR
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee
declined 20 paise to close at
82.85 (provisional) against the
US dollar on Tuesday. The rupee
opened lower at 82.71 against
the greenback and witnessed
an intraday high of 82.69 and a
low of 82.87. It finally settled at
82.85, down 20 paise over its
previous close of 82.65.
India’s housing
sale hits all-time
high in 2022
New Delhi (FIB): India’s
housing sales recorded an
all-time high in 2022
breaching the previous
high of 2014 on the back of
strong demand for resi-
dential properties despite
a hike in mortgage rates,
according to a report by
Anarock.
In 2022, the housing sales
were nearly 3.65 lakh units
across seven major cities.
The prices of residential
properties have risen in the
range of 4-7% which can be
attributed to surge in the
input costs and demand
comeback post-Covid, said
the report. Anarock said
that the housing sales rose
54% this year to 3,64,900
units across the seven cit-
ies -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai
Metropolitan Region,
Chennai, Kolkata, B’luru,
Hyderabad and Pune.

08
2NDFRONT
BJP CALLS GANDHIS
‘THE KATTAR
PAAPIPARIVAR’
‘THEY GRAB LAND AND HAND IT OVER TO THEIR SON-IN-LAW’
New Delhi (ANI):
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) on Tuesday called
the Gandhi family a
“Kattar Paapi Parivar”
of India while accusing
their son-in-law Robert
Vadra of land grabbing
in Rajasthan.
In a press conference,
BJP leader Gaurav Bha-
tia claimed that the Con-
gress government in
Rajasthan between 2008-
13,grabbed125bighasof
land from farmers. Ac-
cusing the Gandhi fam-
ilyof beingembroiledin
corruption and helping
Robert Vadra in grab-
bing land from farmers
in Rajasthan, Bhatia
used the phrase “Kattar
Paapi Parivar”, which
wouldmeana“hardcore
corrupt family
.”
“There is a ‘Kattar
Paapi Parivar’ in India.
Their work is to grab
the land of farmers and
hand it over to their son-
in-law Robert Vadra.
During the Congress
government in Ra-
jasthan from 2008-13, 125
bighas of land were
bought from farmers
and allotted to two peo-
ple Hariram and Na-
tharam,” said Bhatia.
He said that when the
BJP government came
to power in Rajasthan,
an FIR was registered.
“When the police and
ED investigated the
case, it was found that
both these persons do
not exist and are ficti-
tious,” he said. Bhatia
said that the land in
question was later sold
toSkylineHospitalityin
which Robert Vadra and
his mother arepartners.
“Corrupt Gandhi
family thinks, it is be-
yond the reach of law
but no one can escape
PM Modi’s honesty and
probe agency’s dedica-
tion,” he said. The BJP
leader also claimed that
even when the Congress
government was in Har-
yana, the land of the
farmers was grabbed.
Gaurav Bhatia had ear-
lier highlighted the cor-
ruption charges against
the Gandhi family in the
National Herald Money
laundering case.
While referring to the
corruption probe
against Sonia Gandhi
and Rahul, both former
Cong presidents, in Na-
tional Herald case, he
said, “They are the most
corruptfamilyinIndian
politics. Three members
of the family are out on
bail in corruption cases.
It is a serious matter of
concern for a govern-
ment with zero toler-
ance for corruption.”
BJP spokesperson claims that Robert Vadra
grabbed 125 bighas of land from farmers in Raj
Rahul Gandhi pays homage at his father Rajiv Gandhi’s samadhi,
Veer Bhumi, in New Delhi on Monday. —PHOTO BY PTI
Meerut (PTI): Talking to
reporters here on Monday,
Khurshid, who is the state
coordinator of the Bharat
jodo Yatra, said, “Rahul Gan-
dhi is superhuman. While
we are freezing
in the cold
and wearing
jackets, he
is going out
in T-shirt. He is like a yogi, he
has called himself so, doing his
‘tapasya’ (penance) with focus.”
Drawing a parallel with Lord Ram
and his brother Bharat, Khurs-
hid said, “Lord Ram’s ‘khadau’
(wooden slipper) goes very far.
Sometimes when Ram ji is not
able to reach, Bharat takes his
‘khadau’ and goes to places. Like
that, we have carried the ‘khadau’
in Uttar Pradesh. Now that ‘kha-
dau’ has reached Uttar Pradesh.
Ram ji will also come, this is our
belief.”
To a question related to former
prime minister Atal Bihari Vaj-
payee, Khurshid said, “We respect
him that’s why our leader Rahul
Gandhi went to his samadhi. The
actions of other BJP leaders are
not worthy of respect.”
RAHUL GANDHI A ‘YOGI DOING TAPASYA’: KHURSHID
Services under NCT of Delhi
fall under Centre, says HC
New Delhi (PTI): Dis-
missing a petition chal-
lenging the termina-
tion of a person from
the post of Secretary of
the Delhi Legislative
Assembly, the Delhi
High Court has said
that services under the
National Capital Terri-
tory of Delhi are neces-
sarily the services of
the Centre.
Justice Chandra Dha-
ri Singh observed that
there was evidently no
State Public Service
Commission in Delhi
and under the Constitu-
tion, a post can be cre-
ated in the city legisla-
tive assembly with the
approval of the Lieuten-
ant Governor (LG) who
is the competent author-
ity for this purpose.
“The services under
the NCT of Delhi are
necessarily the servic-
es of the Union and
they are expressly cov-
ered only by Entry 70 of
List I (of the Constitu-
tion). The Legislative
Assembly of NCT of
Delhi has no legislative
competence to legislate
in respect of any sub-
jects covered under En-
tries 1, 2 and 18 of State
List and Entry 70 of the
Union List,” said the
court in its order dated
December 23.
“In view of Section 41
of the Government of
National Capital Terri-
tory of Delhi Act, 1991,
the Lt. Governor is re-
quired to act in his dis-
cretion in respect of
these matters and not
on the aid and advice of
the Council of Minis-
ters,” the court stated.
Delhi High Court has ruled that Delhi being a UT, services in Delhi
government come under the control of the central government.
‘VITIATED BY FRAUD AND VOID AB INITIO’
z The court held that
the appointments to the
position of Secretary, DLA
fall outside the purview of
the office of Speaker, Delhi
Legislative Assembly as
the appropriate appointing
authority was the LG and
the appointment of the
petitioner was ‘vitiated by
fraud and is void ab initio’.
z It further observed
that in the instant case,
there was also no consul-
tation with the UPSC at
the time of appointment
by way of absorption of
the petitioner to the post
of joint secretary and
then promotion to the
post of secretary, which
was contrary to law.
z “As such, it is clear that the National Capital Terri-
tory of Delhi does not have its own State Public Ser-
vices. Hence, it is well established that the matters
connected with ‘Services’, especially as applicable
in the instant matter to the position of Secretary, DLA
are relatable to Entry 41 of List-II of the Constitution
and fall outside the purview of the Legislative
Assembly of NCT of Delhi,” the court said.
z “The facts reveal that
the deputation of the
petitioner was made on the
non-existent post of OSD,
after completion of proba-
tion period as OSD, he was
immediately absorbed on
the post of Joint Secretary
and immediately within
a year, he was given the
charge of Secretary with all
upgradation in pay scales.
Nowhere the approval was
taken from competent
authority for such deputa-
tion as OSD, absorption to
Joint Secy and promotion
to Secy, the appointment
was vitiated by fraud and is
void ab initio,” it said.
z The court observed
that Article 187 of the
Constitution, which per-
tains to the appointment
of separate secretarial
staff, cannot be made
applicable to the NCT of
Delhi which is not a State
but is a Union Territory
under the Constitution.
z Dismissing the
petition, the court said
the appointment of the
petitioner “is in the teeth
of law and cannot be
saved” and the “termi-
nation cannot be termed
as illegal”.
Noida (PTI): The Noi-
da Authority has issued
a notice to real estate
developer DLF to pay Rs
235 crore as compensa-
tion to the previous
owner of the land on
which the Mall of India
has been built, a senior
official said.
The DLF, however,
said it was yet to receive
the communication.
The development
comes in the backdrop
of a Supreme Court or-
der on May 5 in which it
had directed the Noida
Authority to ensure
payment of compensa-
tion for the land to its
previous owner Veera-
na Redyy
.
“Yes,” Noida Author-
ity CEO Ritu Mahesh-
wari told PTI, confirm-
ing that the notice has
been issued. Another
senior official said that
the notice was issued to
DLF on December 23
and the amount has to
be remitted in 15 days.
When contacted, a
DLF spokesperson said
in a statement: “We
have not received any
notice. Once we get it,
we will review it.”
The DLF Mall of In-
dia is located in Sector
18, Noida’s commercial
hub. The land where
the mall has been built
was acquired by the
Noida Authority, which
functions under the UP
government’s Industri-
al Development Minis-
try, in 2005 from Reddy
and was later auctioned
to DLF.
A major part of the
compensation to Reddy
remains unpaid and the
case reached the Su-
preme Court, according
to an official.
Noida Authority issues
`235 cr notice to DLF
over land compensation
Ministry of Home Af-
fairs (MHA) has given
its consent to change the
names of 2 places in Ut-
tar Pradesh following
recommendations from
thestategovernment,of-
ficials said on Tuesday
.
The ‘no-objection’ cer-
tificates were issued by
the ministry for chang-
ing the name of the mu-
nicipal council ‘Munde-
ra Baazar’ in Gorakh-
pur district to ‘Chauri-
Chaura’ and that of
‘Telia Afghan’ village in
Deoria district to ‘Telia
Shukla’, an official said.
The MHA considers
proposals for name
change as per existing
guidelines, in consulta-
tions with the agencies
concerned. It gives a
‘no-objection’ certifi-
cate to change the name
after taking consent
from the Ministry of
Railways, Department
of Posts, the Survey
of India, official said.
For changing the
name of a village or city
,
an executive order is
needed. Renaming a
staterequiresanamend-
ment of the Constitu-
tion with a simple ma-
jority in Parliament, the
official added.
MHA gives NOC for
name change of two
places in Uttar Pradesh
MP in 2022: New home for cheetahs, makeover for Mahakal
Manish Shrivastava
Bhopal: Madhya
Pradesh was in global
spotlight in 2022 when it
became home to eight
Namibian cheetahs,
while a mega corridor
came up near Ujjain’s
Mahakaleshwar Tem-
ple and the Congress’
Bharat Jodo Yatra
passed through the state
during the year, which
also saw an alleged se-
rial killer targeting se-
curity guards in sleep.
On a positive front,
Indore maintained its
numero uno position as
the cleanest city in the
country in 2022.
The most important
event for the state in the
year was the airlifting
of eight African chee-
tahs from Namibia and
their release in the
Kuno National Park
(KNP), their new home
in Sheopur district, re-
kindling hopes of re-
vival of an animal spe-
cies declared extinct in
India 70 years ago.
The spotted cats, the
world’s fastest land ani-
mal, were brought in a
special aircraft from
Windhoek in Namibia
to Gwalior and moved
to KNP. The wild cats -
five females and 3 males
are in the 30-66 months
age group and are
named Freddy, Alton,
Savannah, Sasha,
Obaan, Asha, Cibili and
Saisa. —PTI
MAHAKAL LOK CORRIDOR PROJECT WORTH `
856 CR IS LIKELY TO BOOST LOCAL ECONOMY
z The development of
the Mahakal Lok corridor
in the temple town of Uj-
jain was also an impor-
tant event in 2022. The
project is likely to sub-
stantially increase pilgrim
footfalls in the religious
town and give a fillip to
the local economy.
z PM Modi on Oct 11 in-
augurated the 900 meter-
long Mahakal Lok corridor
built in the Mahakaleshwar
Temple premises in Ujjain.
z The total cost of the
Mahakal Lok project is
Rs 856 crore with Rs 351
crore spent in the first
phase, an official said.
A cheetah in Kuno National Park The Mahakal Lok Corridor
Lucknow (PTI): The
Allahabad High Court
on Tuesday quashed the
Uttar Pradesh govern-
ment's draft notifica-
tion on urban local
body elections and or-
dered it to hold the polls
without reservation for
the Other Backward
Classes.
The Lucknow bench
of the high court or-
dered that the state gov-
ernment should notify
the polls immediately
as the term of several
municipalities would
end by January 31.
Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath said the
elections will be an-
nounced only after
finding a way out to
provide the OBC reser-
vation. If necessary, the
state government will
approach the Supreme
Court, he said. Soon af-
ter the verdict, Adity-
anath said the state gov-
ernment will set up a
commission on urban
body elections and pro-
vide reservation to the
OBC on the basis of the
triple test.
“Only after this, the
urban body general
elections will be con-
ducted. If necessary
, the
state government will
also appeal to the Su-
preme Court after con-
sidering all legal as-
pects regarding the de-
cision of the High
Court”, an official
spokesperson said,
quoting the CM.
HC quashes UP govt’s OBC quota
Samajwadi Party
president Akhilesh
Yadav questioned the
“anti-reservation BJP” for
“showing sympathy” on
OBC reservation in the
urban body elections.
“Today, the BJP has taken
away the reservation
rights of the backward
people, tomorrow the
BJP will also take away
the reservation given by
Babasaheb (Ambedkar) to
Dalits,” he tweeted.
Bahujan Samaj Party pres-
ident Mayawati tweeted
that the HC decision “re-
vealed the anti-OBC and
anti-reservation thinking
and mentality of the BJP
and its government”.
OPPOSITION REACTION
With its culture
wildlife getting
richer, Madhya
Pradesh attained
global spotlight
Laughter elevates our mood,
promotes creativity and gives
us more energy-so make it a
part of your daily life.
—Dr Jagdeesh Chandra,
CEO Editor-in-Chief, First India

www.firstindia.co.in I https://firstindia.co.in/epapers/delhi I twitter.com/
thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
NEW DELHI, WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 28, 2022
K Rowling
once said “We
do not need
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change the
world; we car-
ry all the pow-
er we need inside our-
selves already
. We have
the power to imagine
better.” And to be hon-
est we all need a touch
of magicandasprinkle
of glitter in our life to
get through those
dreary days and what
better way to do this
than through fashion!
Unicorns are the sym-
bol of freedom, magic,
joy, and innocence the
enchanted animal of
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tobelievethatanything
is possible. They in-
spire imagination and
creativity and it’s just
impossible to be sad
when you think of the
sparkly
, glittery beauty
.
Unicorn-inspired
fashion is conquering
the world with its cute-
ness and comfort level.
Unicorn-shaped hood-
ies and unicorn tricol-
ours inspired colours
in nail paints, bags and
dresses are not only
ruling the fashion
world by living rent-
free in our brains. Here
are some Unicorn-in-
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J
HOLOGRAPHIC MINI SKIRT
The holographic effect is
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and later reconstructed. This
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if you are looking to get on
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pants with a scrunched-up bottom are a cool
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go for some shine from head to toe.

10
ETC
henever I ap-
pear to give in-
terviews, lec-
tures and dis-
courses among
enlightened peo-
ple eager and
willing to craft a different
world to live in, they al-
most always throw a pen-
etrating question: what is
the hope for wilderness in
Rajasthan? Here, I answer
that question in some de-
tail for a wider audience.
The answer is also a nar-
ration of the hope I carry
in my heart and mind. A
hope that has the promise
to bring smiles to the face
of people! A hope that har-
bours dream of bringing
back a biodiverse land-
scape on the face of the
Earth. The answer is also
a warning to the entire
humanity in Rajasthan
that there is no second
chance for failure in plac-
es like Sariska.
We as a human society
have encroached upon a
majority of wilderness
and forests of Rajasthan:
to grow our food, to live
our lives, and to do things
that we ought not to do, yet
we do. Our domination of
nature for a long time has
resulted in the extinction
crisis that is a testament to
human impacts on forests
and wilderness. So, what is
hope? The only hope I cher-
ish is that we shall be able
to retain a biodiverse eco-
logical system in Ra-
jasthan. Indeed, we must
begin to learn how to coex-
ist with and leave space for,
other species such as, for
example, leopards of
Jhalana and Amagarh or
an array of desert animals
in Tal Chhapar. That calls
forcontinuinginvestments
in rewilding that we have
initiated, and that has
emerged as a robust inter-
vention for returning wil-
derness to biodiversity
whose home we have al-
tered beyond measure.
Why an emphasis on Sa-
riska? Indeed, Sariska ex-
emplifies reserves that lost
their tiger population in
the recent past. Human
greed coupled with the fail-
ure of scientists and prac-
titioners made Panna and
Sariska bereft of tigers.
They are an example of a
disaster that protected ar-
eas can suffer regardless
of the world’s best conser-
vation legislation. Sariska
and Panna are among the
most studied tiger reserves
in India. Notwithstanding
the production of a large
amount of scientific
knowledge, it could not
save the tiger from local
extinction. Sariska has
also been an example
where scientists and prac-
titioners remained en-
gaged all through its life
since it was declared as a
Tiger Reserve. Yet, they
could not see the impend-
ing disaster that befell the
reserve. The reasons are
simple. Ignoring the flawed
conclusions from faulty re-
search, predator depletion
in Panna and Sariska was
solely human‐induced. Af-
ter the reintroduction of
tigers in Panna and Saris-
ka, there has been an ap-
preciable increase in re-
search. Nevertheless, sci-
entists must note that the
knowledge they produce
now must become immedi-
ately usable on the ground.
The luxury of doing sci-
ence for its own sake—to
satisfy curiosity alone—is
not available.
Sariska also provides a
management warning. Ru-
mours abound that there
may be a lobby that doesn’t
like Sariska to flourish, for
they have invested hugely
in money-spinner tourism
infrastructure near anoth-
er tiger reserve. Thus goes
the conspiracy theory that
the mafia may have
sponsored local exter-
mination. Be that as it
may, gossips continue to
proliferate. There seems
no lesson here except that
managers should continu-
ously and carefully en-
hance the management
effectiveness of all the ti-
ger reserves, including Sa-
riska, in Rajasthan.
What about the villages
inside? People and parks
can co-exist, but prerequi-
sites under which such re-
lationships sustain are
non-existent in Sariska. As
long as a large number of
villages continue to live
and exploit already severe-
ly-stressed ecosystems
deep inside the forests,
wildlife has no chance of
long-term survival. There
were 29 villages inside. Out
of these, just 3 could be re-
located—albeit partially—
over more than a decade.
Recently, efforts of the
team Sariska led by Field
Director Roop Narayan
Meena has succeeded in
relocating 3 villages—Dab-
li, Panidhal, and Loj—just
within two years. In addi-
tion, parts of Haripura and
Sukola have also been shift-
ed. Next in the process are
Nathusar, Deori and Bera.
This a remarkable feat giv-
en that Sariska has a defi-
cit of about 60 per cent of
staff currently. As the re-
cruitment has already hap-
pened, we are in the pro-
cess of filling these posts
over the next 6 months to
two years depending upon
the training period.
There are other indica-
tors of success evident in
Sariska. After the first
spell of reintroduction of
tigers starting in 2008
through 2013, nine adult
tigers were re-established.
To cut the story short, Sa-
riska now has 25 tigers,
the highest number in the
known history of the tiger
reserve. One-third of this
number has grown during
the last two years, includ-
ing a new reintroduction
in 2022. Yet, I must restate
here that Sariska has no
second chance for failure.
If it fails again, it fails
permanently
. And, if it did
fail ever, then a very large
number of people living
on the arc of Delhi-Jaipur
would certainly become
impoverished of ecosys-
tem services including
biodiversity conservation,
ground-water recharge,
clean water and clean air.
There would also be a loss
of the enchanting experi-
ence of wilderness avail-
able at the accessible door-
step. Indeed, if Sariska
goes, the entire landscape
continuum from Sariska
in the National Capital
Region through Jamua-
Ramgarh, Nahargarh,
Amagarh and Jhalana
would lose an opportunity
of rewilding in near fu-
ture. That would be a mon-
umental loss to the ecolo-
gy, economy and society of
Rajasthan.
Why does this landscape
matters in the contempo-
rary world? It is not just a
regenerating and rewild-
ing multifunctional land-
scape that has come back
from the brink of devasta-
tion, it is also an example
of ongoing rewilding in
tropical dry forests amidst
global defaunation. This
landscape is an example of
evident success. There is
hope, as noted earlier be-
cause we never had as
many tigers in the record-
ed history of Sariska as we
have today
. They are breed-
ing and living well! There
is hope because villagers
have started moving out of
Sariska! There is hope be-
cause team Sariska has
shown exemplary perfor-
mance. At least some vil-
lages are slowly realizing
that life outside Sariska
can be more meaningful
and more fulfilling. My
cherished dream is that Sa-
riska will continue moving
on a path towards sustain-
ability, where conserva-
tion and livelihoods would
flourish side by side in
times and life ahead.
What investment should
be envisioned over the UN
Decade on Ecosystem Res-
toration? The most impor-
tant investment has to be
in rewilding the entire
landscape starting Sariska
through Jamua
Ramgarh, Nahargarh,
Amagarh and Jhalana. As
we celebrate the 50th year
of project Tiger in India,
we must invest in the res-
toration and rewilding of
the flora and fauna to
their full potential. As Ra-
jasthan celebrate the dec-
laration of its fourth Ti-
ger Reserve—Ramgarh
Vishdhari—and prepares
for the fifth one in Dhol-
pur, we must not forget
our failure in Mukundra
where all reintroduced ti-
gers were decimated. We
have now started rebuild-
ing the Mukundara popu-
lation. But it will require
another decade to reach a
respectable place in the
conservation arena.
A long-term extensive
implementation to restore
and rewild forests of Ra-
jasthan is underway
. Some
of the recent examples are.
As noted earlier, include
Jhalana, Amagarh, Tal
Chhapar (examples of
passive rewilding), Ram-
garh Vishdhari Tiger Re-
serve, Dholpur (examples
of passive active rewild-
ing), and the new reintro-
duction of a tiger at
Mukundara Tiger Re-
serve—an area that has a
complex history of initial
failure of rewilding. It
must be cautioned here
that all these initiatives
will succeed only if ade-
quate and appropriate in-
vestments are made con-
tinuously over the long
term. Rewilding is not an
event; it is a very long-term
process that can take up to
120 years or more!
Environmental igno-
rance is the mother of eco-
nomic and social disas-
ter. Thus, robust rewilding
would not just entail
trophic levels, corridors
and well-functioning eco-
systems. It would also ne-
cessitate environmentally
literate politicians and
bureaucrats, who must
learn new lessons of con-
servation. There is no fu-
ture for humanity without
wilderness. Attempt to
grow the economy and so-
ciety would never succeed
in the long term without a
vibrant wilderness
around. We hope Ra-
jasthan will continue to
succeed brilliantly in con-
servation endeavours.
DR DEEP NARAYAN PANDEY IS IN THE INDIAN FOREST SERVICE;
WAS AWARDED THE HIGHEST NATIONAL HONOUR IN FORESTRY—
THE IPVM AWARD FOR THE YEAR 1994 AND; THE DHANVANTARI
AWARD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AYURVEDA, GOVERNMENT OF
RAJASTHAN FOR HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO AYURVEDA. HE HAS
MORE THAN 38 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS. THE VIEWS
EXPRESSED HERE ARE PERSONAL AND DRIVEN BY THE
PRINCIPLE OF THE GLOBAL COMMON GOOD. THEY DO NOT IN
ANY WAY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE INSTITUTION OR
SERVICE TO WHICH THE AUTHOR BELONGS.
W
DR DEEP NARAYAN PANDEY
PCCF (HoFF), Rajasthan
All photographs by Pushp Deep Pandey
THERE IS NO SECOND
THERE IS NO SECOND
CHANCE FOR SARISKA
CHANCE FOR SARISKA
Tiger at Sariska captured by Dr Deep Narayan Pandey
Tiger Cubs Ranthambore June 2022 captured by Dr Deep Narayan Pandey

“OUT OF TIME”
- THE WEEKND
The Weeknd’s
strange “Out
Of Time”
video, which
also stars
Jung Hoyeon
from Squid
Game, begins
innocently
enough with
the singer and
model enjoying a
wonderful night out
singing karaoke.
Then, things start
to get strange:
reality starts to
warp around him,
the dinner table
filled with blood,
and all of a sudden,
Abel is laying on an
operating table with
Jim Carrey serving
as his doctor.
Horror turns in
music videos have
become sort of a
given, but Clique
pulls this one off
flawlessly.
“ESTILAZO”-
MARSHMELLO
TOKISCHA
One of 2022’s most
surprising, greatest
collaborations featured
a strain of Marshmello’s
instantly engrossing
EDM beat together
with Tokischa’s witty
and astute rap-sung
dissertations on
sexuality. Lyrically,
the song promotes
homosexuality,
promiscuity, and, to
put it simply, being a
dog, which Tokischa
refers to as “suciedad
divinidad,” or heavenly
dirty language. When
the two first met in
2021, it seemed the
musical gods had this
one perfectly planned
out. Emcleen Lumzila
Caraballoe.
SHUT DOWN- BLACKPINK
Blackpink, a South Korean girl
group, released Shut Down
on September 16, 2022, as the
second single from their second
studio album, Born Pink, via YG
Entertainment and Interscope
Records. The song was written by
Teddy, Danny Chung, and Vince, and
it was produced by Teddy and 24. It
is categorised as a hip-hop track with
strings. Commercially successful,
Hip-hop-based Shut Down has
strings and a bass that won’t quit.
“DREAMERS”
– JUNGKOOK
OF BTS
South Korean
singer Jungkook,
a member of the
boy band BTS,
released the song
“Dreamers”
in 2022. This
is a pretty
straightforward
song in that
its intent is
to serve as a
shoutout to the
type of people
whom Jungkook
refers to as
“dreamers”. As
put forth, these
are the likes of
those who are not
afraid to pursue
their passions.
“SHINIGAMI
EYES” - GRIMES
Grimes transforms a
Death Note-inspired
song into a surreal
CGI acid trip with
metallic archer
angels, a laser tunnel,
and a cameo from
Jennie of Blackpink
in her music video
for Shinigami Eyes.
It's a technological
masterpiece, just
like everything else
Grimes touches,
and it only goes
to illustrate how
much weirder
the Grimes
universe
can go.
“ANIMAL FARM” - BIBI
In her immensely graphic extravaganza
Animal Farm, Korean artist Bibi
transforms into Lucy Liu from
Kill Bill Vol. In the video she
murders every single person
who attends a wealthy
businessman's dinner party, and
then some, so hers is roughly 10
times gorier. There are some references
to Carrie, as seen by the way she emerges
at the conclusion while fully nude and
covered in red paint to play a guitar solo
outside in the rain. The video turns out to be
a visually appealing production
because of the manner it
was shot.
ETC
11
IN 2022, NEW MUSIC WAS DESPERATELY
NEEDED, IN RETROSPECT THIS WAS
ANTICIPATED. BELOW, WE HONOUR 9 OF THE
FINEST MUSIC VIDEOS FROM THIS YEAR
MRIDULA SHARMA
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
t seems like
music vid-
eos become
larger, bet-
ter, and cra-
zier with
each pass-
ing year. You may
put it down to
technological ad-
vancements like
CGI did, after all,
assist create a lot
of amazing visu-
als this year, such
as Grimes' glitter-
ing Shinigami
Eyes but in 2022,
a sizable number
of videos also
managed to push
the boundaries of
real-life altera-
tions. Flash mobs
were revived by
Lil Uzi Vert's Just
Wanna Rock
while being
pushed to the lim-
it, while Kendrick
Lamar's We Cry
Together expert-
ly captured the
nuances of
toxic relation-
ships with ex-
quisite chore-
ography
. A mu-
sic video now-
adays is more
about ambi-
tious artistic
e n d e a v o u r
than song
promotion.
I
“THAT THAT” - PSY
With the anticipated release
of his first single and music
video in years, “That That,” Psy
attempted a second “Gangnam
Style.” The music video was
still a visual feast, even though
it didn’t quite pull it off. This
time, it had a Western theme,
complete with fringe cowboy
hats.Psy usually makes
hilarious and enjoyable music
videos and “That That,” is no
exception. When That That’s
production leans into its Zumba
groove and joyous brass stabs,
it is at its finest.
“USED TO KNOW
ME” - CHARLI XCX
Charli XCX’s Crash came
with a slate of great
music videos, but “Used
To Know Me” stood out
for its ambitious styling
and wealth of cultural
touchpoints. In the just
under three-minute
visual directed by Alex
Lill, Charli switches
through a series of
tableaus ranging from
sexy nun to glam
aerobics instructor
to campy Vegas girl
to Sofia Coppola’s
Marie Antoinette. Each
one is brought to
life meticulously and
ends up being wholly
convincing.
“NO ONE DIES FROM
LOVE” - TOVE LO
Tove Lo has always been
a master of images, but
her most bizarre and
aesthetically spectacular
video to date is “No One
Dies From Love.” The retro-
futuristic AI soap opera
boasts gorgeous buildings,
technicolour-drenched
imagery, and an endearing
robot lead.
BE T
SONGS
OF 2022
THE

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