BHUBANESWAR l tuesday l October 20, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 14 l JEYPORE EDITION Deadline for enGG college admissions pushed t0 Nov 30 Classes for freshers in engineering colleges and technical institutions will begin from Dec 1, the AICTE said on Monday Continuing covid situation blamed Online, offline or blended mode The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said, because of the continuing Covid situation in the country, requests from various state governments, and the fact that premier institutions like IITs and NITs are in the middle of the admission process, it has extended the admission deadline for first-year engineering courses to November 30 ■ ■ Classes may subsequently begin on December 1 through online, offline or blended mode, AICTE secretary Rajive Kumar said Institutions that have already started online classes have been asked to either postpone them or conduct special classes for those who are required to appear for final-year exams Revised Academic calendar for 2020-21 can be viewed at: www.aicte-india.org CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Oz on board, first Quad power play in Malabar drill China put on notice as four-nation initiative gets serious, full naval wargames this year M AYANK SIN G H @ New Delhi IN a major strategic shift, Australia on Monday shunned its reservations against being seen as part of the Quad grouping and decided to send the Royal Australian Navy warships to participate in the Malabar series of naval exercises. Confirming the development, the Ministry of Defence said, “As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the maritime security domain and in the light of increased defence cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy .” Australia was had participated in the 2007 exercise but had withdrawn since then after China raised concerns against this construct. The upcoming exercise will be significant as the all Quad members countries — the US, Japan, Australia and India — will be participating after 12 years. It was first mooted in 2007 and China was always opposed to this grouping. All exercises usually have a ‘harbor phase’ involving personnel interaction. However, this year’s will be ‘non-contact - at sea’ with the personnel on their own ships having no interaction with those of other participating nations. The Union defence ministry said the exercise will strengthen the coordination between the Navies of all the participating countries. The Malabar exercises started in 1992 as a bilateral one between Navies of India and the US. Japan joined in 2015. The annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018, off the coast the Japan in 2019 and will be held in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea this year. Experts welcomed the development. Commodore Anil Jai Singh, a noted defence analyst, said Australia’s participation in the exercise will send an important message to China. “China has opened so many fronts simultaneously and India has been always considerate towards Chinese sensitivities but China never cared,” he added. Chinese soldier ‘strays’ into India, apprehended Indian Army apprehended a Chinese soldier who had “strayed” across the LAC in the Demchok sector of Eastern Ladakh on Monday. The soldier will be returned to the Chinese after completion of formalities Australia’s decision to participate comes in the wake of Beijing’s erecting trade barriers in retaliation to Canberra’s demand for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (Retd), said, “Australia is significant given the time of geopolitical turmoil, it completes some kind of security architecture which might be available which can be put to use by quad for ensuring freedom of navigation and following the international order on maritime issues”. Festive rush Ignoring social distancing, people crowd Unit-II Market Building ahead of Durga Puja in Bhubaneswar on Monday | Express Dist’s having candidates with criminal charges Bhojpur 39 Rohtas 37 With criminal charges Gaya 49 EC guidelines Supporters wave as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar arrives for a campaign rally in a helicopter, ahead of Bihar Assembly polls, at Atri in Gaya district on Monday | PTI 1 Particulars regarding criminal cases to be in bold letters 2 319 Matter in newspapers should be published in at least 12 pt font size 3 Kumar Vikram, Rajesh K u m a r Th a k u r & K a n u S a r d a @ New Delhi/Patna Siddharth Saurav is the Congress candidate from the Bikram seat in the ongoing Bihar elections. He has at least one criminal case against him and his election affidavit says among the charges he faces are of murder filed under Section 302 of the IPC. Raj Kumar Sah, the Lok Janshakti Party’s candidate from the Lalganj seat, has an attempt to murder case against him filed under Section 307 of the IPC. Both the Congress and the LJP should have, as directed by the Election Commission, published their criminal antecedents in newspapers, social media platforms and their party’s websites. But neither party has done so, at least until late on Monday night. The Congress and the LJP are not the only parties that have not complied with the EC’s directive to publicise details of the candidates with a criminal history . Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s party, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, is among the prominent parties that is yet to comply with the order. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) uploaded details of the criminal cases of its candidates late on Sunday night, which was past the deadline for complying with the EC’s order. In a significant verdict on February 13, 2020, the Supreme Court had ruled that all political parties must publish the entire criminal history of candidates along with the reasons for fielding them. “It shall be mandatory for political parties to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, including the nature of the offences and relevant particulars,” the court ruled. Following the apex court verdict, the EC, in an order passed on September 16, 2020, said that “details regarding criminal cases are to be published on three occasions during the campaign period.” The Details to be given for each case in separate rows first round of publicity has to be done “within first 4 days of withdrawal” of nomination papers. The second and third times the parties have to publish details of criminal candidates are “between (the) next 5th8th days and once between (the) 9th day till the last day of campaign,” the EC said. For the first phase of polling on October 28, the first round of publicity should have been done by all political parties by October 16 as the last date of withdrawal of candidates was October 12. But except for the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the BJP most , other prominent parties have not uploaded the details of their criminal candidates.  Farooq faces ED’s heat in cricket scam F aya z W a n i @ Srinagar Bihar parties flout SC fiat Continued on: P9 Four days after six mainstream Opposition parties launched a Peoples Alliance to unitedly fight for the restoration of special powers under Article 370 to J&K, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday grilled National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah for over seven hours in connection with the 2015 J&K Cricket Association scam. While most parties described the ED action as political vendetta, Abdullah asserted he was clean and that the fight for Article 370’s restoration will continue with or without him. In 2015, the CBI had registered a first information report into the alleged `113 crore scam when he was heading the state cricket association. Abdullah’s son Omar tweeted, “This is nothing less than political vendetta coming days after the formation of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration”. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “ED’s sudden summon to Farooq displays the extent of Government of India’s nervousness about mainstream parties in J&K fighting as one unit. Also reeks of political vendetta...” express read Naveen launches Mo Bidyut portal, app Curbs on cremation at Swargadwar lifted Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday launched an electricity consumer service portal Mo Bidyut and its mobile app to provide efficient, time-bound and transparent online service to the people of the State. Launching the portal and app through video conference, the Chief Minister said this will benefit more than 89 lakh electricity consumers of the State. Announcing that electricity services will now come under Mo Sarkar, he said people now need not run to various offices for new connections, bill payment or grievance redressal | P4 Puri: The district administration lifted restrictions on cremation of bodies from outside Puri at Swargadwar here on Monday. The decision was taken in view of the dip in number of Covid-19 cases in Puri. Besides, people from outside the district and State will also be allowed to immerse ashes in Mahodadhi (sea). Puri Collector Balwant Singh said since the number of positive cases has decreased considerably, people of other districts and states can perform last rites of their near and dear ones at Swargadwar and immerse ashes in Mahodadhi | P5 HC relaxes idol height norm for nine puja mandaps in Cuttack E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Cuttack The Orissa High Court on Monday allowed nine puja committees in Cuttack city to go ahead with more than 4 ft tall idols for Dussehra. The division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice BR Sarangi granted the permission after Advocate General submitted details on the status of idols at the nine puja mandaps. The order will only be applicable for the nine puja mandaps in Cuttack, the bench clarified, adding that immersion of these idols will be done by the local administration. The nine puja mandaps where idols had remained incomplete, include Sikharpur (5’.2’’), Nuabazaar ( 5’.2’’), College Square (4’.9’’), Alisha Bazaar (6’), Balu Bazaar (5’), Mangalabag (7’), Upper Telenga Bazaar (8’), Firingi Bazaar (8’) and Kazi Bazaar (5’). On September 17, Commissioner of Police Sudhanshu Sarangi had directed puja committees in Cuttack to restrict the height of the idols to 4 ft as per the State Government’s guidelines issued on September 10. But, puja committees of Balu Bazaar and eight other localities, who had by then started making their idols with heights of more than 4 ft, challenged the CP’s order and sought the court’s intervention. The Government had maintained before the court that the purpose of the guidelines to restrict the size of the idols to 4 ft was that they could be immersed by using trolley or autorickshaw, with not more than five people, so that Covid-19 guidelines may be complied with. Transporting the idol for immersion by way of chassis/tractor would lead to congregation of people for darshan of the deity the Gov, ernment had contended. Rourkela-born Pranav behind WFP’s Nobel glory Rourkela erupted in joy when the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was announced the Nobel Peace Prize winner this year. For, the Steel city has a big connect with the contribution that won WFP the most prestigious award in the world. It is the birthplace of Pranav Khaitan, member of the WFP’s Advisory Council and leader of its artificial intelligence (AI) operations, who is credited with bringing in tech-innovations that made the programme more effective and inclusive. The WFP has thanked Pranav for his leadership Total candidates in Phase I 1,066 Buxar 23 eradicating hunger p r a s a n j e e t s a r k a r @ Rourkela BIHAR in pioneering the use of AI to revolutionize humanitarian operations which helped lifting hundreds of millions of people out of hunger. Talking to TNIE on phone, Pranav said,”I feel very happy and fortunate to have got the opportunity to serve WFP for betterment of humanity I thank my parents, . relatives and teachers for shaping my life for what I am today .” Pranav was born in the city, but his family is settled in Kolkata. His father Pawan Khaitan is a chartered accountant. His mother Usha belongs to Rourkela and had come home when Pranav was due. His younger brother Paras is dual Pranav with Mark Zuckerberg degree holder in engineering and business administration from IITKharagpur. Pranav, however, came back to Rourkela to complete his graduation in computer science and engineering from the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) in 2009 and later did his Masters from Stanford University , USA. He talked of the great memories of the time spent at the NITR campus with wonderful friends. “In the US, I greatly miss the aloo dum and dahibara sold on bicycles in Sector areas and gupchup on carts,” he said. Father Pawan did not hide his pride in speaking P7 about his son. October 2020, Bhubaneswar Today’s edition includes 68-page Devi magazine