BHUBANESWAR l friday l december 18, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION Now, you can win medals in yogasana at national level After granting it recognition last month, sports ministry has formally categorised yogasana as a competitive sport Groundwork over, competitions next Classification of medal events The initiative taken by sports and AYUSH ministries seeks to encourage yoga, spread awareness about its benefits and help improve physical and mental wellbeing of the people. A National Yogasana Sport Federation of India has been established for preservation and development of yoga as a competitive sport. An automated scoring system has been developed. ■ ■ To be included in Khelo India Games. A total of 51 medals have been proposed in four events and seven categories at nationals Events proposed include traditional yogasana, artistic yogasana (single and pair), rhythmic yogasana (pair, free flow/group yogasana), individual championship and team championship 2021 First national championship proposed for the sport 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 Put farm laws on ice, suggests SC K a n u S a r d a @ New Delhi Asking the Centre whether it could put in abeyance its three farm sector reform laws till negotiations with the agitators are on, the Supreme Court on Thursday said farmers have a constitutional right to continue their protest as long as their dissent does not lead to any kind of violence. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde asked Attorney General K K Venugopal whether the government could give an assurance to keep the implementation of the farm laws on hold. While Venugopal said he will have to seek instructions as he was not sure if this was a viable solution, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that it was not possible to put the implementation of the laws on hold.Refusing to order the eviction of farmers from Delhi’s borders, the court said: “A protest is constitutional as long as it does not cause violence or destroy life. It can continue while the committee we propose can hold deliberations. We are likely to propose names like P Sainath for the committee.” CJI Bobde added, “We are also Indian, we are familiar with the plight of farmers and are sympathetic to their cause. You (farmers) have to only alter the way the protest is going.” The Punjab government, represented by P Chidambaram, supported the proposal to form a committee. The bench gave liberty to all parties to approach the court during winter vacaP7 tions.  CM moves Centre for Abhay Pathak’s compulsory retirement E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Farmers protesting at the Singhu border in Delhi on Thursday | Shekhar Yadav Four-member committee Ready for talks: Tikait The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmers unions, decided to form a fourmember internal committee to deal with all issues arising from the Supreme Court’s intervention in the protest under the leadership of Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of BKU (Rajewal) Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait said, “We are ready for dialogue. If the government takes two steps back, the farmers will follow suit. We respect everything that the Supreme Court has stated. Whatever panel is formed, sensible people should be on it” Motivated campaign, ready to fight it out: BJP E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi With the government staying firm on the farm laws, Union ministers Amit Shah, Narendra Singh Tomar and Piyush Goyal went into a huddle with the BJP national general secretaries at the party headquarters, with indications emerging that it is gearing up for the political challenge thrown up by the farmers protesting at the Capital’s doorstep. Minutes after the meeting concluded, Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, released a hardhitting letter addressed to the farmers, singling out “conspirators for fuelling anarchy”. The meeting also came in the midst of the outreach by BJP leaders across the country to explain their position on the contentious farm sector reform laws and the steps taken by the government for the benefits of the farmers. “There is clarity that certain elements who have consistently been at loggerheads with the Narendra Modi government are fanning the farmers’ protests for vested interests. The BJP will effectively respond to the motivated campaign,” said a senior BJP functionary . Unions to consult four top lawyers Farmer unions said they will first consult four top Supreme Court lawyers — Prashant Bhushan, Colin Gonsalves, Dushyant Dave and H S Phoolka — before taking a call on the SC impleading them in the case and forming of an impartial committee to resolve the matter express read Shah to formally induct Suvendu at Bengal rally FM hints at aggressive privatisation, spending Welfare schemes galore but migration continues Maoists kill contractor in broad daylight Kolkata: In the rising political temperature of West Bengal, ruling Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari will share the stage with Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday, paving the way for his formal entry into the saffron camp, according to sources. BJP sources said the Union Home Minister would not participate in a local party event in Midnapore | P8 New Delhi: Asserting that the government will not shy away from taking strong decisions, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the Centre will move ahead with its aggressive divestment policy and continue to roll out strong reforms | P10 Bhubaneswar: A host of social security and livelihood programmes, notwithstanding, a recent study revealed that almost one in every five households in Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi district had a migrant worker and members of one in every 10 households had to skip a regular meal for more than one day in a week | P2 Malkangiri: Days after DGP Abhay’s assertion that Odisha Police is determined to eliminate Maoist menace from Mayurbhanj district, the Maoists killed a contractor in broad daylight at the remote Jandraguda village within Mathili police limits bordering Chhattisgarh on Thursday morning | P4 HC unearths fake medical certificate racket for bail pleas E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Cuttack Even as the courts are taking a liberal approach to grant bail with the intention of decongesting jails in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, some bail seekers seem to have found novel methods to cheat their way to release. In such an instance, the Orissa High Court has stumbled upon a racket involved in preparing forged medical certificates for obtaining interim bail. The racket came to light after a State counsel raised doubt over the authenticity of the medical documents submitted with interim bail applications filed by four persons, who were arrested in Phulbani town of Kandhamal district in a drugs case. The four persons, Satya Bagarti, Sriram Kanhar, Saroj Nag and Chandramani Kanhar were accused in a case of ganja smuggling registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The interim bail applica- tions were filed on grounds that the wives of the petitioners were suffering from multiple types of diseases. While the affidavits along with the interim bail applications were sworn by one Gumesh Mallik in the case of Chandramani, Satya and Saroj mentioned that he is their relative. In the case of Sriram, his wife Manasi Kanhar had sworn the affidavit. Their pleas were made on the basis of medical certificates issued by one Dr SK Bhoi, an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, SCB Medical College Hospital. However, as the State counsel raised suspicion, the Single Judge Bench of Justice SK Sahoo had directed the DCP Cuttack to get the matter enquired and furnish a report regarding the authenticity of such documents. On inquiry by the police it was ascertained that there is no doctor in any rank working in the department as Dr SK Bhoi. CONTINUED ON: P5 Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday recommended the Centre for compulsory retirement of suspended IFS officer Abhay Kant Pathak, who has been arrested by the Vigilance on graft charges. This is for the first time that an All India Services cadre officer has been recommended by the Odisha government for compulsory retirement on g rounds of corruption. The State Vigilance had arrested Abhay Kant Pathak and his son Akash Pathak on November 27 for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. “The State Vigilance department had arrested Abhay Kant Pathak and his son Akash Pathak on evidence of amassing ill-gotten wealth of more than `20 crore as recovered till now. Both father and son are now lodged in jail,” the Chief Minister said.   “Abhay Kant Pathak was making cash deposits of his ill-gotten wealth in his son Akash Pathak’s bank accounts and further helping his son fraudulently posing as the MD of Tata Motors,” the Chief Minister said in the letter to the Centre. Akash has been arrested for duping youths by impersonating as the Managing Director of Tata Motors (passenger division). He had allegedly taken huge sums from them to provide jobs. A Didi fumes as MHA transfers Bengal officers P r o n a b M o n d a l @ Kolkata Ignoring the West Bengal government’s objections, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday issued transfer orders of three IPS officers of Bengal cadre, who were responsible for BJP chief J P Nadda’s security during his visit to the state last week. The three officers — Rajeev Mishra (IG, South Bengal), Praveen Tripathi (DIG, Presidency Range) and Bholanath Pandey (SP, Diamond Harbour) — have been transferred to Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Seema Suraksha Bal and Pol i c e Re s e a r c h B u r e a u , respectively . The Mamata Banerjee government has been maintaining it will not relieve the officers for central deputation. Reacting to Thursday’s transfer order, a furious Mamata termed it “completely unacceptable” and “a colourable exercise of power and blatant misuse of emergency provision of IPS Cadre Rule 1954”. Hitting out at the MHA, she tweeted, “This move, particularly before the elections, is against the basic tenets of the federal structure. We wouldn’t allow this brazen attempt by the Centre to control the State machinery by proxy!” case has also been lodged against Akash by the Crime Branch on charges of forgery, cheating and duping unemployed youths by taking huge cash from them to give them jobs in Tata Motors. In this case, FIR was lodged by Tata Motors. The Chief Minister said Abhay Kant Pathak was using luxury cars like Mercedes, BMW from the “ill gotten wealth”. During the lockdown period, Abhay Kant and his son were flying across India in charter planes and staying in luxurious five-star and seven star hotels. Both father and son were using private security guards/bouncers to show off their wealth, he wrote in the letter. The Crime Branch had also arrested Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy on December 4 for allegedly collecting money on behalf of Akash on the false promise of providing them jobs in Tata Company. He was expelled from the BJD on November 29 for ‘anti-people activities.’ The woman behind revolutionary vaccine Hungarain-born scientist Katalin Kariko’s pioneering work could be what saves the world from a 100-year pandemic | P12 Covid shots should work for multiple strains A research has suggested that only those vaccines which are able to provide protection against multiple variants of the virus can bring the pandemic to an end | P7