SAMBALPUR l Saturday l january 23, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION Sebi penalises HDFC Bank for violating its order Sebi has directed HDFC Bank to deposit `158.68 crore along with interest in an escrow account and pay `1 crore penalty Lender invoked pledged shares To sort out outage issue in 3 months The action comes after a probe by the Securities and Exchange Board of India found the lender unilaterally invoked securities pledged by stock broking firm BRH Wealth Kreators to the extent of `158.68 crore. This violated an interim order by Sebi restraining BRH from accessing the securities market and buying or selling in securities, directly or indirectly ■ ■ Meanwhile, HDFC Bank has submitted a detailed plan of action to RBI to address repeated service disruption issues due to outage The action plan will take 10-12 weeks for implementation. Last month, RBI had temporarily barred the bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards | P10 2% Bank’s shares FELL `30.25 apiece TO `1,443.65 ON the B.S.E. ON FRIDAY 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 Best offer rejected, talks slip below freezing point Both sides meet for just 20-25 mins; no fresh date for dialogue set; govt asks unions to give final response to proposals today E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi/Chandigarh After protesting farmers rejected the government offer to keep the three farm laws in abeyance, differences between the two sides widened with the Centre saying it had nothing more to offer and blaming the farmers for the failed talks on Friday . No date was set for the next meeting, indicating there was no common ground. Sources said agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar expressed unhappiness at the farmers sharing with the media their decision to reject the g o ve r n m e n t ’s o f f e r o n Thursday . Tomar said the farmers did not have their own welfare in mind even as they were threatening to intensify their stir. “The talks remained inconclusive as farmers’ welfare was not at the heart of the talks from the unions’ side. It’s sad,” he said. Tomar urged the farmers to reconsider the proposal as it was in the interest of farmers and the country, and Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar (R) and Piyush Goyal during talks with farmer unions, in New Delhi on Friday | Pti threw the ball in their court. “The unions said they only want the repeal of the laws despite the Centre seeking alternative suggestions. We asked them to reconsider our proposal and convey their decision tomorrow,” he said. “The government has made it clear that the three laws will not be repealed and that it had made its best offer. They told Threat to leaders At least three farmers leaders were allegedly threatened over the phone or through social media while one of them accused the police of damaging his car’s windscreen us to reconsider their proposal,” Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said. The farmers said although they were at the venue for five hours, the two sides were face-to-face for less than an hour. “The meeting actually happened for only 20-25 minutes. The Centre kept saying we should accept their proposal,” said Shiv Kumar Kakkaji Sharma of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh. With the talks deadlocked, farmers are now preparing for the tractor rally on Republic Day. “We informed the police that it is for the government to ensure the rally is peaceful,” P7 Rajewal said.  Sparks fly in CWC meet over leadership, but party shifts poll calendar to June RIC H A S H A R M A @ New Delhi The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Friday decided not to hold presidential elections in a hurry, despite the growing dissent among a section of senior leaders over the delay in addressing leadership issues and organisational polls. Election to the post of party president will now be held in June, said AICC general secretary K C Venugopal. According to sources, the decision to delay party polls was taken keeping in mind the upcom- express read IAS officers adopt govt schools in Odisha Bhubaneswar: Odisha government’s ‘Mo School’ campaign has received a bureaucratic booster dose with IAS officers coming forward to adopt schools for their holistic development | P3 Grand celebration of Netaji’s birth anniv Cuttack: The stage is set for a grand celebration of the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at his birth place Janakinath Bhawan at Odia Bazar here | P2 ing assembly elections. The meeting witnessed heated moments with some leaders questioning the party’s reluctance to hold organisational polls. Several leaders, including those who wrote to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi about leadership vacuum, demanded organisational elections be held immediately but they were told that presidential elections will happen first. This group senior leaders like included Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidamabaram, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik. However, another group comprising Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, and former defence minister A K Antony were of the view that presidential elections should happen after the assembly polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry are over. Sources said there were heated exchanges between Azad, Anand Sharma and Gehlot over the demand for organisational elec- tions. Gehlot reportedly said the BJP doesn’t talk about internal elections like in the Congress and that the first priority is to fight the state elections. He also said the all of them are here because of the party to which Anand Sharma responded he has also worked for over 40 years for the party . In May, Sonia will complete two years as interim chief of the Congress after Rahul Gandhi decided to step down following the debacle in Lok Sabha elections in P7 2019.  Paperless Odisha budget to go mobile E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar In a first in the country, Odisha is all set to provide the common man full access to the State Budget 2021-22 document even as it is presented in the Assembly from this year. Anyone with a smartphone can access the Odisha Budget for 2021-22 through the National E-Vidhan Application (NeVA). The application will have to be downloaded in the phone and by clicking Odisha Assembly tab, one can access the budget as it is presented by the Finance Minister. Announcing this, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro said that Odisha will be the first state in the country to present the budget on digital mode. He said that members will be provided with pen drives having budget speech and other details. They also can read the speech on their I-Pads. He said that the entire budget proceedings will be paperless from this year and no budget book would be printed this time. Question and answers in the Assembly will also go paperless, he said. As per the new procedures, the legislators will ask questions online and get the replies from respective ministers on NeVA app in their mobile phones, he said and added that upgradation of Assembly to e-Vidhan Sabha will be made at an estimated cost of `8.56 crore. While the Centre will bear 60 per cent of the cost, the State government will finance the rest 40 per cent. As a green initiative, printing of budget documents was almost done away with introduction of e-budget during presentation of the 2020-21 budgCONTINUED ON: P5 et last year.