SAMBALPUR l thursday l november 05, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION NGT widens the ambit of cracker pollution cases The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday issued notices to 18 states, expanding the ambit of such cases beyond the NCR Notices sent to tn, andhra, telangana May prohibit crackers in some cities The green panel has sought response from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Notices were already issued to Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh ■ ■ A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel noted that Odisha and Rajasthan have already issued a notification prohibiting the sale and use of firecrackers The tribunal said it may prohibit the use of firecrackers in cities where air quality is generally beyond permissible limits Nov 7-30 dELHI, rAJASTHAN, hARYANA AND u.p. TOLD TO BAN CRACKERS IN THIS PERIOD 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 JOE BIDEN 238 DONALD TRUMP Electoral college votes Electoral college votes 70,024,012 votes 67,306,775 votes Key questions 213 Who all are in the race? While Donald Trump and Joe Biden are fighting presidential polls, polling has also happened for 35 Senate, 11 gubernatorial and 435 congressional seats Who is ahead in the popular vote count? U.S. race Too tight to call 270 TO WIN Biden is. By over 1.5% Why are popular votes not the barometer of victory? Trump prematurely claims victory, wants to stop all voting, threatens to approach SC; Biden projected to win more popular votes than any president in American history; four Indian American Democrats re-elected to the House E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e The race for the White House between Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden was on the razor’s edge on Tuesday with the nervous president prematurely claiming victory, demanding a halt to all voting and threatening to go to the Supreme Court. Trump’s diatribe was tied to the understanding that most of the mail-in ballots would go to Biden. “We won’t rest until every vote is counted,” Biden shot back, adding it is for the voters to decide the outcome and not the contestants. His campaign said their legal teams were on stand-by to resist Trump’s attempt to go to the court to stop tabulating the ballots. With millions of votes still to be counted, the battle had essentially boiling down to a handful of swing states. While Trump won Florida — closing his challenger’s path to an early victory — and was leading in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Biden managed to flip Arizona, a state that has supported a Democratic presidential candidate only once in the last 72 years. Biden was also leading in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Officials in Pennsylvania said they expect all votes to be counted by Friday The Biden . camp believes that will give them an edge, while the Trump campaign fears that there could be electoral malpractice during the counting of votes. Trump himself articulated the fear, calling the election “a fraud on the American public”. “This is a major fraud on our nation. We want law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court,” he said. The delay in counting the postal ballots means the final outcome may not be known for Ivermectin prophylaxis lowers Covid risk: study H e m a n t K u m a r R o u t @ Bhubaneswar In a significant finding, two-dose Ivermectin prophylaxis has led to 73 per cent reduction in Covid-19 infection among healthcare workers (HCWs), who are more likely to contract the virus given their nature of job. The findings of the study conducted by AIIMS-Bhubaneswar between September 20 and October 19 is set to give a new dimension to the ongoing research on prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV2. Ivermectin is one among several potential drugs explored for its therapeutic and preventive role in Covid-19 infection. The study conducted by 12 physicians of AIIMS-BBSR aimed at exploring the association between Ivermectin prophylaxis and development of Covid-19 infection. It was conducted on two sets of HCWs. While one set was administered with two doses of Ivermectin in a gap of 72 hours, the other P5 took different prophylaxis. JOE BIDEN How does electoral college work? Each state has a fixed number of electoral votes. The party that wins a state pockets all its electoral votes. So, the trick lies in winning states with large electoral votes. In 2016, Trump secured 304 electoral votes as against Hillary’s 227 It’s 270 as the total electoral vote count is 538 Why is the counting getting delayed? Because mass postal ballots were allowed due to Covid. While states like Florida counted them as they arrived before election day, others chose to begin counting only after all votes had been polled. The volume of postal ballots is huge. In some states, only mail-in ballots were allowed People gather in Black Lives Matter Plaza near White House in Washington on Tuesday, on Election Day | AP days, if not weeks. Amid the cliff-hanger, there was something to cheer about as all four Democratic IndianAmerican lawmakers — Dr Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi — were re-elected to House of Representatives. Also called the Samosa caucus, the informal grouping of Indian-American lawmakers could have at least one more member as physician Dr Hiral Tipirneni was leading against Republican incumbent David Huge outrage as Arnab arrested in 2018 case of abetting suicide E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai THE Maharashtra Police on Wednesday arrested Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, Anvay Naik, in Raigad in 2018. Goswami was produced before the magistrate court in Alibaug where he alleged the police physically assaulted him. Following this, the court ordered a medical examination on him at the civil hospital. Goswami, along with two others, has been booked under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), and 34 of the IPC. Earlier, there was high drama at Goswami’s residence in Mumbai when Raigad police turned up to arrest him. The journalist fired a volley of questions at the police team and reportedly argued with them. Following this, he was forcibly taken into custody . Later, the Mumbai police also registered an FIR against Arnab, his wife and son on charges of obstructing and intimidating a police officer on duty . According to police, the latest action is in response to a complaint by Naik’s wife Akshata demanding inquiry and action against Goswami. She had raised the complaint in 2018 but the case was closed under the previous BJP-led government. According to the complaint, Naik carried out interior design work for Republic TV’s studio in Mumbai for `5.40 crore. However, the money was not allegedly paid. The arrest evoked sharp criticism from journalists and political circles. Home minister Amit Shah tweeted, “Congress and its allies have shamed democracy once again. Blatant misuse of state power against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the fourth pillar of democracy It reminds us . of the Emergency This attack on the free press must be . P7 and WILL BE OPPOSED.”  Arnab Goswami arrives in a police van to be produced in Alibaug court | Pti Extremely distressing: Editors’ guild The Editors Guild of India condemned the arrest, calling it “extremely distressing”. It also urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to ensure that Goswami is treated fairly and state power is not used against critical reporting by the media SC closes erring spouses’ escape route to bypass paying alimony in a big relief to women, the Supreme Court has issued detailed guidelines tightening the rules regarding maintenance in matrimonial cases. Now, both spouses will have to disclose their income and assets from the date the maintenance application is filed. Also, those who fail to pay maintenance could be arrested and jailed. “Maintenance laws have been enacted as a measure of social justice to provide recourse to dependant wives and children for their financial support, so as to prevent them from falling into destitution and vagrancy the judgment read. A bench ,” IN PROGRESS What is the half-way mark? Maintenance K a n u S a r d a @ New Delhi DONALD TRUMP Because the US president is elected by an electoral college, not the majority vote count. Trump in 2016 was declared elected as he had more electoral college votes than challenger Hillary, who won more popular votes than him of justices Indu Malhotra and Subash Reddy also laid down several criteria that must be considered while calculating the quantum of maintenance. The court had taken up the issue while hearing a case where a plea for maintenance filed by a woman had remained pending for more than seven years in various courts, while the husband had stopped paying even interim maintenance for the wife and child. Guidelines stated that detailed affidavits disclosing all sources of income, assets and liabilities must be filed by both parties - the claimant must file all de- tails along with the application for maintenance, while the respondent must file their details within four weeks. The Delhi High Court is already implementing these set of measures as and when the maintenance petition is filed. The court also took note of that in many cases, husbands refuse to pay alimony amount by disposing of assets and claiming reduced income. “If false statements and misrepresentations are made, the Court may consider initiation of perjury proceedings and for contempt of Court,” said the bench.  Continued on: P7  Schweikert from the sixth Congressional district of Arizona. Also, filmmaker Mira Nair’s son Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the election for New York State Assembly . As for the House of Representatives, Democrats ap- peared to extend control over it for two more years but with a shrunken majority, as at least seven incumbents lost their seats. The race for Senate control was tight though analysts expected Republicans to edge Full coverage: P9 ahead.  Why is Trump hassled by postal ballots? Because most of them are Democrat leaning. The majority of in-person votes went to Trump What about the House of Representatives and Senate races? The House appears set to stay with Democrats. But its drive to capture the Senate may fall short