sambalpur l tuesday l january 11, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION victory for Djokovic BUT ISSUE YET TO BE RESOLVED World No 1 wins legal battle to stay in Australia. However, country’s immigration minister could still deport him NOVAK potentially able to play at oz open In an emergency court hearing on Monday, the judge made the ruling in favour of Djokovic — who was in detention since his arrival on January 6 — on Covid-19 health grounds, potentially clearing the way for him to take part in the Australian Open. The Serbian player’s lawyers argued that since he recently recovered from Covid-19, he didn’t need to be inoculated ■ NINE BIGGEST VICTORY IN HIS CAREER: MOTHER ■ Djokovic’s mother Dijana (left) was elate. After the court’s verdict, she said: “This is the biggest victory in his career, bigger than all his grand slams.” In a Twitter post after the court verdict, Djokovic said that he’s eager to take part in the Australian Open | P11 NO OF oZ OPEN TITLES Djokovic HAS POCKETED, MOST IN MEN’S SINGLES CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI SC panel to investigate PM’s security breach ‘Deploy medical students; no test for asymptomatic’ Asymptomatic persons, contacts of Covid patients, unless identified high risk should not be tested based on age or comorbidities, should not be tested for the infection. While the adviThough the current rate of sory is aimed at conserving hospitalisation of Covid pa- resources, it also means that tients is just 5-10% as against the count of frech cases 20-23% during the second could significantly go under wave, the Centre on Monday the radar. urged states to augment huBhushan’s letter acknowlman resources by edged that various eng aging retired states have initiated medical professionsteps for setting up als or MBBS stujumbo health facilidents as was done ties, including field last year. hospitals and tempoThey can be used rary hospitals. But for teleconsultation both infrastructure as well as providing and human resourctraining to commues have their limitanity volunteers in tions, he said. basic care and man- Medical students Therefore, it is can be used for agement at Covid important to conCare Centres, Union teleconsultation serve healthcare as well as health secretary workers by staggerproviding Rajesh Bhushan ing their deploytraining to said in a letter to all ment wherever poscommunity states. BSc nursing sible and by volunteers in students of third restricting elective basic care and management at and fourth year, too, procedures in the Covid Care can be deployed, he hospitals, he said. Centres suggested. As for the private Later in the day, sector, he said: “It Rajesh Bhusan, the Indian Council must also be enUnion Health of Medical Research sured that charges... secretary issued an advisory are reasonable and saying asymptomatthere is a mechaic individuals and contacts nism to monitor and initiate of Covid-positive patients, action in cases of over-chargP7 unless identified as high risk ing.”  S u m i S u k a n ya D u t ta @ New Delhi Jab-o-meter Take your shot Jan 9 29,60,975 doses Jan 10 82,76,158 doses Total: 1,52,78,35,951 NATIONWIDE jan 9 jan 10 odisha Fresh cases 1,59,632 1,79,723 Fresh cases Recoveries 40,863 46,569 Recoveries Deaths 327 146 Deaths Senior citizens queue up outside the Unit-4 UPHC to get the booster dose of Covid vaccine in Bhubaneswar on Monday | Express Odisha orders 5 lakh OmiSure kits to detect Omicron cases E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar As 28 new Omicron cases on Monday pushed the tally of the infectious Covid variant beyond 100 in Odisha, the State government placed order for five lakh OmiSure RT-PCR testing kits from Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (Tata MD) to detect the strain without having to go through the time consuming process of genome sequencing. Odisha is the first State in the country to order OmiSure kits developed by the firm in partnership with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Sources said Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd (OSMCL)  has placed an order for the kits that “specifically identifies Omicron without the need for sequencing.” The indigenously developed kit that received Drugs Control- Jan 9 Jan 10 4,714 4,829 386 414 0 0 Now, you can apply for State govt job till 53 years based on category E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar The State government on Monday decided to enhance the base upper age limit of all government jobs from 32 years to 38 years to give ample chance to candidates to participate in recruitment examinations. The decision was taken at the meeting of the State Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The relaxation in the upper age limit will only be available for three calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023. Age relaxation will also be implemented for different categories of candidates. While the upper age limit to apply for government jobs for general category will be 38, it will be 43 years for those belonging to ST, SC and SEBC catego- ries and 48 years for persons with disabilities. The upper age limit for jobs will be 43 years for all women candidates. For persons with disabilities candidates of ST, SC and SEBC categories, the upper age limit has been fixed at 53 years. Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said that it has come to the notice of the government that recruitment process is delayed due to unavoidable reasons. As a result, the age of applicants gets over and they do not get chance to participate in the recruitment process. The upper age limit for entry into government service is governed under the provisions of the Odisha Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Rules, 1989. The Cabinet also approved a proposal to provide government land measuring 618.665 acre in Aragul mouza, 70.570 acre in Kholadwar mouza, 91.340 acre in Kansapada mouza and 57.510 Kodapada mouza under Jatni tehsil and 78.57 acre under Delanga tehsil of Puri district for establishment of Indian Institute of Technology free of premium and other incident charges subject to payment of `100 per acre per annum towards ground rent and cess at 75 per cent of ground rent. The Cabinet also approved tender proposals of mega piped water supply schemes for Samakhunta, Kaptipada and Baripada block of Mayurbhanj district, Banki, Dampada Baranga of Cuttack district and Jujumora, Maneswar Naktideula, Rairakhol blocks of Sambalpur district worth over `1,500 crore. Experts have predicted the current wave to peak in Maharashtra, Delhi and other states in next 15-20 days, it could also be the same for Odisha where cases surged in the last one week Dr Bijay Mohapatra, Health director ler General of India (DCGI) approval last week is expected to help the State government in fighting the super mutant strain of novel coronavirus effectively as it is claimed to be capable of producing results in just four hours. Omicron tally jumped to 102 in Odisha after detection of the infectious Covid strain from all 28 samples sequenced at Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar . Director of Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra said the new infections include eight locals and 20 with travel history. He said 18 are foreign returnees from Oman, Abu Dhabi, Ethiopia, Dubai and Switzerland, while two had travelled within India. The local cases include four from Jagatsinghpur, two from Cuttack and one each from Khurda and Kendrapara. On the other hand, the State logged 4,829 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the active caseload to 20,560. There, however, was no fatality recorded during this period. The daily positivity rate also declined marginally to 6.5 per cent from 6.72 per cent on the previous day due to an increasing number of tests. Health Services Director Dr Bijay Mohapatra said as experts have predicted the current wave to reach peak in Maharashtra and a few other states in next 15 to 20 days, it could also be the same for Odisha where cases surged in the last one week. SEC to announce rural polls soon E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Even as the BJP and Congress have demanded that panchayat elections be deferred by at least three months till the Covid pandemic subsides, the State Election Commission (SEC) is set to issue detailed guidelines for holding the polls soon. SEC Aditya Prasad Padhi on Monday hinted that the panchayat elections are likely to be announced in a day or two. He met Governor Ganeshi Lal at the Raj Bhavan to brief him about preparations and also reviewed the law and order situation at a high-level meeting with DGP SK Bansal and Additional Chief Secretary in the Home department Sanjeev Chopra. Meanwhile, the Opposition political parties demanded postponement of the polls for the third wave of the pandemic and lack of reservation for ST and OBC candidates. The demands were placed at the all-party meeting called by the SEC. The ruling BJD, however, insisted on holding the elections on CONTINUED ON: P5 time.  outrage Actor’s nasty tweet lands him in trouble E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Snarky social media posts, especially if they are double entendres, can land you in serious trouble. Actor Siddharth finds himself at the receiving end after his nasty tweet against badminton ace Saina Nehwal’s post condemning the recent lapse in security when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Punjab. The National Commission for Women on Monday came down on him like a ton of bricks by taking suo motu cognisance of the mat- Agency and the Registrar General of the Punjab and HaryaTHE Supreme Court on Mon- na HC in the committee. day said it would set up a highThe order came after the level committee headed by a Punjab government demanded retired SC judge to probe the an independent probe, saying security lapse during Prime the state would not get a fair Minister Narendra Modi’s hearing in any probe carvisit to Punjab last week. ried out by the Centre. A three-judge bench During the hearing, headed by Chief JusPunjab Advocate Gentice N V Ramana also eral D S Patwalia took ordered the inquiry strong exception to committees of the Censeven showcause notictre and the Punjab es issued to the SSP government to stop Lawyers get concerned, chief sectheir investigations threat calls retary and senior offiinto the January 5 secials of the state askcurity lapse. “We are Many SC lawyers ing them to explain on Monday got taking the PM’s secuwhy action should not an anonymous rity breach very seribe taken. call, taking ously,” the bench reThe bench asked marked, while hearing responsibility for how notices could be the plea of ‘Lawyers blocking the PM’s issued when it had on way in Punjab Voice’ seeking a thorJanuary 7 put on hold ough investigation and warning SC inquiries by the Cenjudges against into the breach in Motre and state. Solicitor di’s security in Punjab hearing the case General Tushar Meto ensure there is no hta clarified the showsuch incident in the future. cause notices were issued beWhile a detailed order is yet fore the SC order. to be passed, the bench said it “If you have already made proposes to include the Direc- up your mind, then what is the tor General of Police in Chan- need for having an inquiry? digarh, the ADGP (security) in There is a lapse and it has to be Punjab, an Inspector General found out who are responsible of the National Investigation for it,” the bench told Mehta. KANU SAR DA @ New Delhi ter and wrote to Twitter asking it to block his account. Parallelly it , wrote to the Maharashtra Police directing it to register an FIR against him under relevant sections, saying his remarks were lewd, inappropriate and misogynist. It all began on Wednesday last, when Modi’s convoy was blocked by protesting far mers in Punjab. Saina, who is also a member of the BJP, tweeted: “No nation can claim itself to be safe if the security of its own PM gets compromised. I condemn, in the strongest words possible, the cowardly attack on PM Modi by anarchists. #BharatStandsWithModi #PMModi.” Siddharth’s’s acidic comment came a day later: “Subtle cock champion of the world... Thank God we have protectors of India. Folded hands. Shame on you #Rihanna.” His tweet on Thursday started getting amplified on Monday with several politicians and members of the film fraternity condemning it. Saina’s husband Parupalli Kashyap said, “This is upsetting for us. Express ur opinion but choose better words man.” But Siddharth kept defending the indefensible. “COCK & BULL” That’s the reference. Reading otherwise is unfair and leading! Nothing disrespectful was intended, said or insinuated. Period,” he tweeted on Monday . His troubles may have just begun. express read Budget session of Parl likely to be staggered New Delhi: In view of the spike in Covid-19 cases, the Budget session of Parliament, slated to begin on January 31, may be staggered like the Monsoon session in 2020. On Monday, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla deliberated on ways to deal with the challenge. Already, 400 P7 staff have tested positive  Common cold to protect against Covid London: People with higher levels of T cells from common cold coronaviruses are less likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the strain that causes COVID-19, according to a new UK study led by Indian-origin researchers on Monday. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications and led by Imperial College London researchers, claims to provide the first evidence of a protective role for T cells.