Indian tamasha at capitol Hill About 20-25 people of Indian origin were part of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol building on Thursday But the one who caught the eye was Vinson Palathingal, who was seen waving the Tricolour (pic). He hails from Kerala SAMBALPUR l saturday l january 09, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 14 l CITY EDITION day after riots Pressure UP to remove Trump from Oval office E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Amid buzz on the bumbling US President Donald Trump weighing options to grant himself an unprecedented pardon, pressure kept building up on his immediate removal from office, a day after the maverick’s supporters staged a failed coup by storming the Capitol Hill after his instigation. It now transpires that Trump later tweeted a video calling for peace and asking the mob to stand down only after White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned he would face criminal charges for inciting riots if he doesn’t do so. The Department of Justice is already preparing to go after the mob and all those who played a role in the riots, including Trump. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saw Trump’s incitement as sedition and demanded his immediate removal from office, Senate twitter Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pressed for invoking the 25th Amendment — which allows the Vice President to take over if the President is incapacitated — while also threatening to introduce a second impeachment motion. But Vice President Mike Pence declined the proposal. Trump has less than two weeks to complete his term as Joe Biden is scheduled to take his oath of office as the next President on Janu- ary 20. But with Trump’s aides describing him as psychologically fragile, and one Republican likening him to mad King George, there were concerns over letting an unstable person stay at the helm even for a brief period. Be that as it may Trump will not , to be present at Biden’s swearing-in ceremony. “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” he tweeted. The thought of self-pardon aparently crossed his mind when he offered clemency to a whole bunch of people in his inner circle, including his relatives. While there is no clarity on what he wants to legally firewall himself against, his dodgy income tax statements, a recent phone call he made to rig the ballot count in Georgia and Thursday’s incendiary speech to his supporters that led to the riots could qualify for criminal prosecution. P11 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 Focus shifts to Schools reopen, many fail to comply with SOP SC as talks fail E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Our district level nodal officers are visiting different schools to check whether they are complying with the safety norms or not. Those found violating the SOP will face action @ Bhubaneswar Negotiations with farmers inconclusive; next meet on Jan 15; apex court hearing on Jan 11 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi / Chandigarh The eighth round of talks between protesting farmers and the Centre on Friday could not end the stalemate as both sides stuck to their stated positions. They agreed to meet on January 15 to continue the talks. According to sources, the Centre made it clear that it will not repeal the laws but is ready to make amendments. The government also claimed many farmer organisations have supported the laws. The agitating farmers were told the Supreme Court will decide how to break the deadlock, sources said. The SC is likely to hear the case relating to the farm protest on January 11. The meeting at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi ended in less than two hours. Following Centre’s statement, some farmer leaders lost their cool and told the ministers that they will fight till their demands are met. The union leaders also did not take break for lunch or tea while the ministers took frequent breaks to discuss the situation. Some farmer leaders flashed placards bill wapsi toh ghar wapsi (repeal the laws and we’ll go home) and jitenge ya marenge (we will win or die). ‘Govt tries to tire out farmers’ The Congress on Friday alleged the Centre is trying to tire out the farmers and said repealing the farm laws is the only solution | P7 ‘Solution unlikely in next meet’ Farmers’ union leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said he doesn’t expect any breakthrough in the January 15 meeting. “We told the govt as you are not repealing the laws and not ready to talk, face the agitation,” he said While Agriculture Minister Narendra S i n g h To m a r e x pressed hope that there will be some breakthrough in the next meeting, most union leaders said they have no such hopes. Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab (Rajewal Group) president Balbir Singh Rajewal said, “We knew there will be no decision in this meeting as the government has been adamant, but still we came for the talks. We will attend the January 15 meeting too, as we don’t want the government to claim that we are running away from talks”. After remaining shut for more than nine months, schools across Odisha reopened partially only for Class , X and XII students, on Friday . The atmosphere at the schools was both of excitement and apprehension. While students, who came to the schools, were excited to be attending their first class of the session physically there was a , palpable sense of fear among the parents and guardians over the preparations by the institutions and steps taken to ensure safety of their wards. Many students also didn’t turn up for classes on the first day. Average attendance in schools across the State remained between 30 and 70 per cent. Even as the State government had issued detailed guidelines and standard operating procedure (SOP) on conduct of classes, seating of students and mandatory mask wearing along with sanitisa- Samir Ranjan Dash, School and Mass Education Minister Students being screened before entering into Capital High School as classes commenced in Bhubaneswar on Friday | Express tion, many schools seemed to follow the rules while many did not. Schools were disinfected prior to commencement of classes. Students and staff were also screened with thermal guns to check their body temperature and asked to sanitise hands at the entrance before stepping into the campus at many places. There were, however, blatant violations of the SOP in many schools where the number of students allowed to sit in a classroom exceeded the permissible limit of 20-25 and AIMPLB moves HC against letting off BJP gheraoes DGP office Advani, others in Babri demolition case demanding Jena’s arrest N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow Two Ayodhya residents on Friday moved a revision petition in the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court challenging the special CBI court’s acquittal of all 32 accused persons, including former deputy prime minister L K Advani, in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The special CBI judge S K Yadav had delivered the order on September 30, 2020 — his last day in office. The plea states the trial court committed an error by not convicting the accused persons despite ample evidence against them. “The judge did not appreciate the evidence of conspiracy in the right perspective,” the petitioners alleged. The petition was filed by Haji Mahboob (74) and Sayyad Akhlaq Ahmad (81) on behalf of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. The duo was also party to the Ayodhya title suit in the Supreme Court. They urged the high court to summon the records from the trial court, hold all the 32 accused guilty and extend pun- ishment to them by setting aside the CBI court order. Other than Advani, the special CBI court had also exonerated Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara, and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Representing the two petitioners, lawyer and convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani said the revision petition was filed because the CBI did not file any appeal so far to challenge the verdict. Pangs of poverty Man hangs self after selling 4-month-old son E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Malkangiri safe prayers Staff of the Jama Masjid, Unit-4, hand out masks and screen entrants before Friday prayers in Bhubaneswar | Irfana Unable to bear the brunt of poverty a 40-year-old daily wager , reportedly sold off his fourmonth-old baby boy before committing suicide in the tribaldominated Malkangiri district. The shocking incident was reported from Mathili police limits on Friday . The deceased was identified as Samnath Khilla, a daily wage earner of Saptadhara village. Sources said Samnath’s family comprised wife Kuni and five children including a daughter. Since the last several days, he was struggling to eke out a living and hence finding it hard to sustain his family . Samnath reportedly sold off his infant son Raja for `4,000 to an acquaintance to feed the rest of his family members. However, he was overtaken by guilt for his act and in a state of despair, hanged himself from the ceiling of the verandah of his house. Later on the day Kuni lodged , a complaint with police over her husband’s extreme step. She said she is unaware of her son Raja’s whereabouts as Samnath sold him off without her knowledge. “I have become helpless now. I urge the government to help me sustain my family,” Kuni said. Mathili IIC Raghunath Majhi said an unnatural death case has been registered basing on Kuni’s complaint. Investigation is on to ascertain the cause of Samnath’s death. Efforts are underway to trace the four-monthold baby he added. , Contacted, block development officer (BDO) of Khairput Hruda Ranjan Sahu said he was aware of the incident. It is believed that the man sold his baby outside Khairput block. Inquiry is on and a clear picture about the incident will emerge on Saturday the BDO added. , Deadly Attraction @ Bhubaneswar The lure of sex and money has cost a 26-year-old man dearly An . Uttar Pradesh native, who works as a technician in Bhubaneswar, has allegedly been duped of `94,000 on the promise of working with an escort service provider and serve high profile clients in the city and other parts of the country . The man received a telephone call at 10 am on Thursday with the caller identifying himself as a staff of an escort service provider. Initially, he took it to be a prank but the caller attracted his interest by saying as a male escort he will be provided at least 10 meetings in a month and paid minimum `15,000 for each. During their around 20 minute-long conversation, the caller put forth details of the deal and said the firm will take 50 per cent cut for each meeting. He sent the victim an audio clip to brief him about the joining procedure and their modus op- erandi like the client receiving and dropping, hotel expenses, etc. He would just have to make some payments for health insurance and other benefits. The caller also sent his visiting card to the victim on WhatsApp which had a bank account number and IFSC code. “I disconnected the call after listening to his offer. However, when I opened my Google Pay app on Friday morning to make some purchases, I found insufficient balance in my account,” said the victim of the con. Mohanty said. The DGP, however, assured that a DIG rank officer would Intensifying its protest be entrusted with the probe against the murder of two par- and the investigation will be ty workers, the BJP on Friday completed in 10 days, Mogheraoed the office of the DGP hanty said, adding, the protest demanding immediate arrest will be intensified further if of Mahanga MLA and Law police f ailed to deliver Minister Pratap Jena, who is justice. among the 13 accused named “The Minister should be in the FIR. brought under the purview of Hundreds of party workers the investigation. He should led by State co-inbe removed from the charg e Vijay Pal Cabinet and interroSingh Tomar took gated,” he said. out a rally from Meanwhile, a deleMatamath to Buxi gation of the Odisha The Minister should brought Bazar and staged Pradesh Congress demonstration in under the purview Committee led by of the front of the DGP ofpresident Niranjan investigation. He fice. They also enPatnaik visited Nrushould be gaged in a scuffle tang village and met removed from the with the police while the family of the two Cabinet and trying to make their deceased BJP leadinterrogated way in. ers. Patnaik said that Samir Mohanty, A delegation of the deceased KulamState BJP president leaders, however, met ani Baral was with DGP Abhay and held Congress for the last discussion with him for four 40 years and joined BJP only hours seeking arrest of all in 2018. persons including the Law Baral exposed corrupt pracMinister. They raised ques- tices of the BJD including the tions over the inaction of the local party representatives police in initiating action which led to his murder, Patagainst Jena even though naik stated and alleged that some of the accused have al- the government is trying to ready been arrested. protect culprits and cover up “The discussion was not the incident. He also demandfruitful. We demanded inter- ed the immediate resignation rogation of all the accused of Chief Minister Naveen Patnamed in the FIR, but the DGP naik over deteriorating law expressed his helplessness,” and order situation in the BJP State president Samir State. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Cuttack express read Youth falls prey to ‘male escort’ con, loses `94k E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e teachers were seen taking classes with masks pulled down below the chin. Social distancing norms were openly flouted in Rama Devi Higher Secondary School in the city where 35 to 40 students sat next to one another without maintaining the stipu- lated six feet physical distance. There was also little enforcement in the school to check whether the students and teachers were wearing masks properly. Similar lapses were also found in some other schools in the Capital city as well as other parts of the State on the first day . The government, meanwhile, warned of action against any lapses in compliance to the SOP. “Our district level nodal officers are visiting different schools to check whether they are complying with the safety norms or not. Those found violating the SOP will face action,” said School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan CONTINUED ON: P5 Dash. He checked his payment history and found out that the money was deducted from his account in about six transactions. The man recalled that he had received a call last month and the caller had identified himself as a staff of an e-commerce company . “I had ordered a product online and had received it but the caller said that due to some technical reasons they were not able to dispatch the item. He asked me to provide my account number to refund the money and I had shared a dormant account’s number knowing that it was a fake call,” he said. The victim suspects that the cyber fraud collected the details of his current bank account and kept him busy by engaging him in a long conversation as he did not even receive any message from his bank about the transactions from his account. Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar DCP Umashankar Dash said that they have received the complaint and launched an investigation into the matter. Tipplers make merry, cops turn a blind eye Bhubaneswar: Consumption of alcohol in public places has turned out to be a menace. With Covid restrictions gone, Bhubaneswar Police seems to have gone easy on the violators many of whom are found creating nuisance near residential areas under intoxication. Although PCR patrols are supposed to keep a watch on such problems, they are turning a blind eye making things worse for the public, women in particular | P2 Enumeration for phase-II vaccination Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has started enumeration of beneficiaries for the second phase of Covid19 vaccination in the State. The frontline Covid warriors other than the healthcare workers will be covered during the phase. Armed forces, State and Central police forces, home guards, personnel of Civil Defence Organisation, disaster management volunteers, prison staff and municipal workers will be included | P3
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