bhubaneswar l sunday l january 10, 2021 l `8.00 l PAGES 26 l late CITY EDITION Indonesia plane with 62 aboard feared crashed Pontianak-bound domestic carrier loses contact four minutes after take off from Jakarta on Saturday around 1 pm (IST) Suspected debris found in sea, search on Teams have been dispatched to search the waters north of Jakarta. However, rescuers said suspected debris had been found in the sea. According to Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya, the Boeing 737-500 run by budget airline Sriwijaya Air had 62, including 12 crew, people on board. No radio beacon signal has been detected, officials said 2018 Plunged 10,000 feet in one minute ■ ■ Tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed said that the flight “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta” The 26-year-old plane was of the 737 Classic series, not to be confused with 737 MAX that was grounded over safety concerns A lion air boeing 737 max flight had crashed in indonesia, killing 189 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 Twitter Kicks out Don permanently US President Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter due to the “risk of further incitement of violence”, the social media giant has announced, days after his supporters stormed the US Capitol and caused the deaths of four civilians and a police officer. The unprecedented move by the California-based social media platform comes after Trump tweeted that he would not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden GOP senator asks Prez to resign Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has said President Donald Trump should resign, making her the first Republican senator to say he should leave office as backlash grows against his goading of violent supporters who stormed the Capitol. “I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski said. In an interview to a newspaper, Murkowski also threatened to leave the Republican party if it doesn’t cut ties with Trump Dems all geared up to impeach Trump for the second time Express News Service Outgoing US President Donald Trump, accused of inciting his supporters to mount a violent insurrection on Capitol Hill — in which five people died — is all set to become the only US President to be impeached twice, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying she would move forward with impeachment if Trump did not resign immediately . “If he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Cong ressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment,” Pelosi said. According to reports, nearly 160 House Democrats have signed on the bill, which congressmen Ted Lieu of California and David Cicilline of Rhode Island began drafting while they were sheltering in a place during Wednesday’s chaos at the Capitol. If the process goes ahead, it would be the second time the House has pursued impeachment against Trump. In December 2019, the lower chamber impeached him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But the Senate acquitted him on both the charges in February 2020. No US president has ever been impeached twice. However, the first shot Vaccination starts on Jan 16, 3-cr frontliners to get jab first E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The vaccination drive against Covid-19 will begin on January 16, the Centre announced on Saturday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the preparedness for the exercise. “After the detailed review, it was decided that in view of the forthcoming festivals, including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc., the Covid-19 vaccination will start from January 16,” said the Union Ministry of Health in a statement. The Drug Controller General of India had granted restricted emergency use or ac- celerated approval for two vaccines — Covidshield and Covaxin — which, according to him, had established safety and immunogenicity An es. timated three crore healthcare and frontline workers would be the first to get the jab, followed by the above 50-year age, and the under-50 age group with comorbidities. The second group n u m b e r s around 27 crore. The exercise is underpinned by the principles of people’s participation, utilising the experience of elections and universal immunisation programme, no compromise of existing healthcare services, said the ministry . Nearly 97 lakh beneficiaries are registered on the Co-Win vaccine delivery management system, touted as the crucial technological tool to drive the exercise. Around 2,360 trained vaccine administrators, over 61,000 programme managers, two lakh vaccinators, and 3.7 lakh vaccination team members will carry out the P9 exercise.  Day after school reopening 26 teachers, two students test positive E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Berhampur prospect of an impeachment conviction seems remote because of Trump’s Republican broad support in the Senate. President-elect Joe Biden said impeachment was for Congress to decide, but added in the same breath that he has felt Trump was not fit to serve. The White House dismissed the impeachment as a politically motivated move. Meanwhile, CNN has reported that there would be fresh violence ahead of Biden’s inauguration on January 20.  P11, 12 express read Sailors stuck in China to return on January 14 New Delhi: Minister of state for shipping Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday announced that the 23 Indian sailors stuck onboard MV Jag Anand in China will return to India on January 14. The minister also announced that that the vessel is set towards Chiba in Japan | P9 State budget may touch `1.75L crore Bhubaneswar: Despite the State government’s assessment that Odisha’s economy will contract by around 9 per cent in 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the budget for 2021-22 is likely to be bigger than the previous year. The budget for 2021-22 is expected to be around `1.75 lakh crore | P3 WITH THIS ISSUE India’s Bread Revolution PLUS 12 PAGES The worst fears of parents after sending their wards to schools that reopened on Friday has come true with 26 teachers testing positive for Covid-19 in Gajapati district on Saturday. Two students too have been found Covid-19 positive. As many as 21 of the infected teachers are from Mohana block and the rest were tested at the Covid Centre of the district headquarters hospital. Gajapati chief district medical officer (CDMO) Dr Pradeep Patra said 31 persons including 26 teachers and two students tested positive in the last 36 hours. He said the infected persons were asymptomatic and as per the SOP they will be kept in isolation. T he CDMO stressed the need to remain vigilant and appealed people not to panic. As many as 172 high schools and 28 junior colleges were reopened in the State after nine months on Friday. Students and teachers are required to undergo rapid antigen testing as part of the protocol. School and Mass Education 31 persons including 26 teachers and two students tested positive in the last 36 hours. The tests had been carried out prior to reopening of schools and none had attended classes Dr Pradeep Patra, CDMO Gajapati department officials, however, said that the tests had been carried out prior to reopening of schools and none had attended classes. The nodal officer and other field staff of the department in Gajapati district have been asked to keep a close eye on safety of students and staff on the campuses. School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash also reiterated that as per reports those tested positive had not attended classes. Besides, he said that no student is being forced to come to school and attend classes in physical mode. “In fact, 15 per cent schools are yet to reopen as there was no student turnout, he said. “Parents’ consent has been mandated for students to attend classes. Those who are not willing to come to school are being encouraged for online education. The average turn- out of students in schools across the State remained around 60 per cent on Saturday,” the Minister said. Meanwhile, the development has once again fuelled a sense of fear among parents. Many demanded that all teachers and staff should be tested for Covid immediately so that their status can be known and appropriate steps taken. “This is a serious situation which cannot be dealt with lightly It is not only the health . of students but the family members are at stake too. Every step should be taken to ensure safety of all - from students to teachers and staff,” said a parent Jyotshna Sahoo. Where did Athagarh cases vanish? E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Cuttack district administration on Friday declared Khanduali village under Athagarh block as a containment zone after 16 villagers tested positive for Covid-19. On Saturday, the Health and Family Welfare department in its daily release indicated that only six persons have tested positive for coronavirus in the district on January 8, the day when the village was declared a containment zone. Of the number, five belonged to Cuttack city and only one from the d i s t r i c t . W h e re d i d t h e Athagarh cases vanish? The number of cases on January 7, officially released by the department, was five including two each in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) area and Athagarh. The previous day on January 6, it was 12, including six from CMC and five from Athagarh and 11 on January 5 comprising five from CMC and one from Athagarh. While there is absolutely no co-relation between the cases shared by the district administration and the Health department, it has exposed a serious number fudging by the Health department. Health experts alleged that the State government seems to have adopted a new strategy to create an impression that the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths are on the decline. “Reduce the number of testing, fudge figures and declare some of those who have underlying diseases and die of Covid as non-Covid deaths. This has become the strategy to show that the situation is under control,” they claimed. Allegations of data manipulation have been raised from the time the pandemic began to spread in the State around August. At one point, the government was even forced to stop announcing the number of fatalities due to other underlying CONTINUED ON: P7 diseases. 10 babies die in fire at maha hospital E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai wintry catch A fisherman throws a net to catch fish in snow covered Dal Lake after a fresh snowfall in Srinagar on Saturday | PTI A fire broke out at the Sick Newborn Care Unit of the Bhandara district general hospital, leaving ten infants dead on Saturday early morning. The fire brigade rescued seven children from the blaze suspected to have been sparked by an electrical short circuit. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray ordered a high-level sixmember committee to probe into the mishap, besides announcing an ex gratia of `5 lakh each to the parents of the deceased children. Pointing towards the negligence of the hospital authorities, the disconsolate parents alleged that no staff was present when the fire broke out around midnight. A reply to a query under RTI Act in 2018 had revealed that the hospital was ill-equipped to deal with fire accidents, and had pointed towards a lack of safety equipment on the premises. Further, no fire audit has been done at the hospital since 2018. Soon after the mishap, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar ordered fire audits at all government hospitals across the state. Condoling with the parents, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Heart-wrenching tragedy in Bhandara, Maharashtra, where we have lost precious young lives. My thoughts are with all the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover as early as possible”. The health minister said of the ten children, seven had died due to suffocation, while P10 three were burnt.  Signal, Telegram in race to replace Bumrah, Siraj ‘racially abused’; team lodges complaint WhatsApp as messaging platform india-australia series Ven k ata K r i s h n a B @ Chennai Racial abuse reared its ugly head on Saturday when India team management lodged an official complaint against abuses, alle g edly racial, hurled at two of its players during the third Test against Australia in Sydney. The matter was taken up with International Cricket Council match referee David Boon and security officials at the Sydney Cricket Ground. According to team sources, it involved pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were allegedly subjected to racial abuse during the Sydney Test | AFP who pointed out they were “racially abused” by a section of the crowd. It is learnt that some spectators started hurling abusive words at Bumrah and Siraj while they were fielding in the boundary. As the day progressed cuss words apparently turned racial. It is learnt that Siraj was allegdely subject to even monkey word, which led the pacer to inform stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The matter was brought to the notice of the on-field umpires Paul Reifel and Paul Wilson, and Boon. According to a member of the Indian team, Boon and the SCG security officials have already spoken to the players and are set to review the video footage to identify the fans. No Brisbane, BCCI requests CA It is learnt that the BCCI has requested Cricket Australia to shift the fourth and final Test from Brisbane. The BCCI apparently cited the UK variant of the coronavirus as the reason for not travelling to Brisbane and requested Sydney be the venue. BISMAH MALIK @ Bengaluru with WhatsApp’s new privacy policy receiving flak from all over, rival platforms Signal and Telegram have reported a sudden spike in downloads. The ‘quit WhatsApp’ call got momentum after the richest person in the world, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, tweeted suggesting everybody switch to Signal. In the frenzy that followed, Signal’s registration systems reportedly crashed as it could not handle the surge of new users coming on board. The new privacy policy, which will kick in from February 8, re- quires users to agree to let owner Facebook and its subsidiaries collect sensitive data. According to data sourced from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, downloads for Signal and Telegram in India jumped 55% and 14%, respectively, on a week-on-week basis, in the first week of January In . contrast, the growth for WhatsApp has remained flat between December 26 and Januray 6. However, WhatsApp still remains the leader with 430 million users in India against Telegram’s 45 million and Signal’s 1-2 million users, according to Counterpoint research. The Facebook-owned app recorded 2.4 million downloads in India, while Telegram had 1.6 million and Signal 17,000 between January1 and 6. On Saturday, WhatsApp clarified its latest update does not change its datasharing practices with Facebook. WhatsApp head Will Cathcart issued a series of tweets to claim the company’s updated policy is transparent. He added the new policy doesn’t include sharing private chats with Facebook.