Odisha receives 4.08 lakh doses The wait for Covid-19 vaccine finally ended as Odisha on Tuesday received its first consignment of OxfordAstraZeneca joint venture Covishield from the Serum Institute of India (SII).As many as 4.08 lakh doses of vaccines in 34 packets landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport here from Pune in a special SpiceJet flight at around 3:30 pm | p3 BHUBANESWAR l wednesday l january 13, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION 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 Govt quietly accepts CJI’s formulation in contrast to its stiff opposition on Monday; no-show by three senior advocates on the farmers’ side; tractor rally on R-Day will be peaceful, say unions SC sets up panel, pauses farm laws K A N U S A R D A @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an “extraordinary order” to stay the implementation of the three disputed farm laws and set up a panel of four agriculture experts to talk to all stakeholders and report back to the court within two months. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde stayed till further orders the Farmers (Empower ment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Act; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act. “We are of the view that the constitution of a committee of experts in the field of agriculture to negotiate between the farmers’ bodies and the Government of India may create a congenial atmosphere and improve the trust and confidence of the farmers... a stay of implementation of all the three farm laws for the present may assuage the hurt feelings of the farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table with confidence and good faith,” the 11-page order by the three-judge bench read. The court’s order comes a day after pulling up the Centre for its poor handling of far mers’ agitation. The bench also said that while the court doesn’t want to stifle a peaceful protest, “the extraordinary order of stay of implementation of the farm laws will be perceived as an achievement” and will encourage the agitating farmers to end their protest. Unlike on Monday, the Centre represented by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta did not oppose the staying of the laws or formation of a committee. The SC rejected the submission by advocate M L Sharma, one of the petitioners questioning the laws, that the farmers are unwilling to appear before the panel. “If you want to agitate indefinitely, you can. Every person who is genuinely interested in solving the problem is expected to go before the committee. The committee will not punish you or pass any orders. It will submit a report to us,” it said. The bench said it will protect farmers’ land only if they participate in the proceedings before the panel. “We are concerned about the validity of the laws and also about protecting the life and property of citizens affected by protests,” it said. The bench turned down farmers’ demand that the Prime Minister should approach them to hold negotiations and said, “We cannot ask the Prime Minister... he is not a party here.” The bench was surprised to learn that none of the three senior counsel appeared for the farmer unions Tuesday . “Where is (Dushyant) Dave? Yesterday he said he will get back today with the views of farmers unions. They have not logged in P7 also,” the CJI remarked.  meet The Four Wise Men Who: Bhupinder Singh Mann is the national president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann) and All India Kisan Coordination Committee View: Was among a group that met minister Tomar and backed the new laws, but with some amendments; wants MSP ensured Who: Dr Pramod Kumar Joshi is an agricultural economist and director (South Asia) for International Food Policy Research Institute View: Votary of legalising MSP; on contract farming; feels it’s not govt’s job to buy/sell produce; market should determine prices Who: Ashok Gulati is an agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices View: Supports farm reforms. Has urged govt to address concerns on contract farming and assurance that MSP and APMC systems will continue Who: Anil Ghanwat is the president of Shetkari Sanghatana, a Maharashtra-based organisation founded by Sharad Joshi View: Has sided with the govt but agrees it did not hold proper discussions with farmers’ organisations before bringing the laws Unions to stay away, see govt ploy H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Terming the four-member expert committee set up by the Supreme Court on Tuesday as progovernment and pro-agri reform laws, farmer leaders refused to appear before it and decided to continue their protests. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of around 40 protesting farmer unions, following the SC order. Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab (Rajewal) said, “The committee members are pro-government and thus not dependa- ble. We never asked the court to form a committee; the government is behind all this.” Calling it a government ploy, Rajewal said, “our only demand is repealing the farm laws.” He, however, said the farmer unions will attend the ninth round of talks with the government on January 15 “as we do not want to give them any excuse”. He also assured that the proposed tractor march on January 26 will be peaceful. The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee said: “We had already said that we will not accept any committee formed by the SC for mediation.” +ve Saina barred in morning, back in play at night an m o l g u r un g @ Chennai IN what was supposed to be a return to action for some of the elite Indian shuttlers, it turned out to be a controversial drama-filled day, both on and off the court. Saina Nehwal tested positive for coronavirus, so did HS Prannoy It . looked like their Thailand Open campaign would end even before take off. In fact, Saina, who was supposed to play on Tuesday, was forced to sit out. But after both of them cleared their IgG antibody tests, they were cleared to participate from Wednesday . “Nehwal, Prannoy and Jansen tested positive on the PCR test but their antibody IgG was positive. A positive antibody test means a person has been infected with COVID-19 virus at some point in the past. It does not mean they are currently infected,” said a BWF statement. Kidambi Srikanth, after his nasal swab test, posted a picture of his bloodied nose on social media. He termed it ‘unacceptable’. It looked like doom and gloom for Indians at one point with BWF, putting them in the ‘high risk’ category. On the court, PV Sindhu fluffed her chance P11 after going one game up.  Naveen announces matric exam fee waiver E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Test turns bloody mess for Srikanth The batch of three pictures that Kidambi Srikanth posted on Tuesday was disturbing to say the least. A close shot of him with a bloodied nose and a couple of pictures that showed him holding tissues showing the amount of blood he had lost. It had happened after he was administered the nasal swab test. express read ‘Odisha neglected in Netaji’s anniv panel’ , OPCC chief writes to PM Cuttack/Bhubaneswar: Even as a 85-member panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been formed for commemoration of the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose this year, discontentment is brewing in Odisha over the low representation of the State, the birthplace of the legendary freedom fighter, in the committee | P2 Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday directed complete waiver of examination fees for the matriculation examination to be conducted by the Board of Secondary Education this year. The Chief Minister decided to waive the examination fees in greater interest of the students in the pandemic-affected year. The State government will bear `27 crore for the waiver, a CMO release stated. More than six lakh students will be benefited by the move. Each student is charged `420 towards examination fee. Stating that Covid-19 pandemic has affected education in the 2020-21 academic year, the Chief Minister hoped that the examination fee waiver will not deprive any student from appearing the matriculation examination due to monetary problems. The Chief Minister said that classes have started to give an opportunity to the students to clear their doubts and prepare for examination. The matriculation examination will start on May 3 and conclude on May 15. Classes for Class X and XII students will be conducted for a period of 100 days till April 28, 2021.