CMYK MONDAY www.thestatesman.com 14 MARCH 2022 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR IS JUSTICE A BLACK WOMAN? TURKMENISTAN VOTE SET TO ESTABLISH POLITICAL DYNASTY P9 WEATHER Partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperature most likely to be around 34 °C and 21 °C respectively. RAINFALL: Nil RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max.89% TEMPERATURE INDIA DECLARE SECOND INNINGS AT 303 WELFARE ECONOMICIS P7 P6 P12 CWC reaffirms faith CCS meet discusses security preparedness in Sonia’s leadership amidst Ukraine crisis Authorises her to undertake comprehensive organisational changes Min. 25% STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE Max: 33.4°C (N) Min: 21.2°C (-1) SUN RISES SUN SETS 05:46 hrs 17:45 hrs MOON RISES MOON SETS --:-- hrs 03:11 hrs Full moon on 18 March THUMBNAILS A section of the crowd on the last day of the Kolkata International Book Fair at the Central Park Mela Ground on Sunday. SNS MHA may review J-K security situation: The K Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of recent attacks on civilians and security personnel, sources said on Sunday. A CRPF jawan Mukthar Ahmad, who was home on leave, was killed by terrorists in Shopian district on Sunday which was the fourth such attack on security personnel in the last three days. NEW DELHI, 13 MARCH he Congress Working Committee (CWC) today reaffirmed its faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, notwithstanding the party's debacle in the Assembly elections in five states. The CWC requested the Congress President to lead from the front, address the organisational weaknesses, effect necessary and comprehensive organisational changes in order to take on the political challenges. The CWC has also decided hold a "Chintan Shivir" soon after the conclusion of the budget session of the Parliament. Party sources also said that Gandhi offered to "step back" from her role but the CWC turned it down. The party analysed the reasons for its defeat in the recently held Assembly polls in five states ~ Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The meeting of the CWC - the party's highest deci- T The party accepts that due to shortcomings in our strategy, we could not effectively expose the misrule of BJP State Governments in four states and overcome the anti-incumbency in the State of Punjab in the short time after effecting a change of leadership. Congress Party represents the hopes of millions of Indians against political authoritarianism prevailing in the country today and the party is fully conscious of its immense responsibility.” The CWC expressed its gratitude to millions of Congress workers and leaders across the five states, Mann to take oath alone on Wednesday INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE Paytm CEO arrested, released on bail for rash driving: Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly ramming into a senior police official's car in February and later was released on bail, a senior official confirmed on Sunday. Delhi Police Spokesperson Suman Nalwa told IANS that the incident took place on February 22 in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar area. Sharma rammed the car of south Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Benita Mary Jaiker, who was, however, not in the vehicle. sion-making body, which was held at the party headquarters in the national capital, lasted nearly five hours. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala briefed the media of the outcomes of the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at a press conference held at the party headquarters. Reading out the statement of the CWC, Venugopal said, "The recent Assembly election results of five states are a cause of serious concern for the Indian National Congress. who worked tirelessly for the party and its candidates, he said. “While humbly accepting the electoral verdict of the latest round of Assembly elections, the Congress party assures its workers and the people of India that it will continue to remain a vigilant and vibrant opposition,” the AICC general secretary said. The Congress Party will be fully prepared to face the electoral challenges in the election going states in 2022 and 2023 as well as in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, he said. The meeting, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was attended by the party's top brass including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Other prominent senior leaders who attended today's meeting include Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijaya Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. CHANDIGARH, 13 MARCH Punjab Chief Minister-designate and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann will take oath alone onWednesday, party sources said on Sunday. The oath ceremony of his cabinet, which may comprise 17 members, will be held later, a source told IANS. Arvind Kejriwal's AAP has won 92 seats in Punjab ~ up from 20 in 2017 with its vote share rising to 42.4 per cent. A day earlier, Mann met Governor Banwarilal Purohit at the Raj Bhawan here and staked claim to form the government. He is set to take oath as the 17th Chief Minister of Punjab at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, on March 16 at 12.30 p.m. Addressing the media outside Raj Bhavan, Mann said: "We also informed the Governor about the place and time of the swearing-in ceremony. I have invited all the people of Punjab to come to Khatkar Kalan for this historic occasion. On March 16, not only us and our ministers, all the people of Punjab will take an oath to make Punjab prosperous again.” In his directive to newly elected party legislators, Mann asked them to spend maximum time in their constituencies, not in capital Chandigarh, and not to hanker for Cabinet berths. India’s Kyiv mission to temporarily shift to Poland STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 13 MARCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on Sunday.  ANI STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 13 MARCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to review India’s security preparedness and the prevailing global scenario in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The meeting was attended, among others, by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. The PM was briefed on the latest developments and different aspects of India’s security preparedness in the border areas as well as in the maritime and air domain. He was also briefed on the latest developments in Ukraine, including the details of “Operation Ganga”, launched to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine. Modi directed that all possible efforts should be Modi directed that all efforts should be made to bring back the mortal remains of Naveen Shekharappa, who died in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city which has seen heavy shelling. made to bring back the mortal remains of Naveen Shekharappa, who recently died in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city which has witnessed heavy shelling by Russia. Prime Minister Modi has chaired several highlevel meetings ever since Russia launched a military action against Ukraine on February 24 and India began a massive evacuation mission named 'Operation Ganga' to airlift stranded Indian nationals, including students. So far, the government has brought back over 20,000 Indians from the war-torn country, through Ukraine’s neighbouring countries. As Russia intensified its military campaign in Ukraine, India today decided to temporarily relocate its embassy in the war-torn country to neighbouring Poland. “In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country, it has been decided that the Indian Embassy in Ukraine will be temporarily relocated to Poland. The situation will be reassessed in the light of further developments,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. The announcement came hours after Russia’s renewed push to take control of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The Indian mission had been working with skeleton staff in Ukraine after Russia invaded the country last month. The decision to temporarily relocate the embassy to a neighbouring country was expected as India has almost completed its “Operation Ganga”, launched to evacuate stranded Indians from the embattled country. Yogi meets PM Modi, other Airbase strike brings war closer to NATO border leaders on ministry formation ASSOCIATED PRESS KYIV, 13 MARCH STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 13 MARCH Yogi Adityanath, who led the BJP to a resounding win in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior party leaders to discuss the formation of a new ministry in the state. During the two-hour meeting between the PM and Adityanath, Modi congratulated him on the party’s triumph in the state. In a tweet, the PM said; “I met Yogi Adityanath today. I congratulated him on his historic win. He has worked hard in the last five years to fulfil people's aspirations. I am confident in the years to come he would take his state to new heights.” Second part of Budget session to resume today Earlier, Adityanath met Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP general secretary BL Santhosh. He also met Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and BJP president J P Nadda also. The BJP emerged a clear winner in the most populous state for the second time in the row, leaving the arch-rival Samajwadi Party way behind. The Chief Minister-elect Yogi Adityanath has already submitted his resignation to UP Governor Anandiben Patel. According to reports, he is likely to be sworn in as the CM of Uttar Pradesh for the second time, after Holi. He will be the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the last 37 years to retain the post after completing a full fiveyear term. After the BJP won the elections on 10 March, Yogi held a meeting with his ministerial colleagues at the party office in Lucknow. Adityanath had successfully neutralised the Opposition campaign in the elections and won hands down on the plank of providing security and improving law and order in the state. Waves of Russian missiles pounded a military training base in western Ukraine on Sunday, killing 35 people in an attack on a facility that served as a crucial hub for cooperation between Ukraine and the NATO countries supporting it in its defense against Moscow’s grinding assault. More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the sprawling facility, which lies not far from the border with NATO member Poland and that has long been used to train Ukrainian military personnel, often with instructors from the U.S. and other countries in the western alliance. Poland is also a transit route for Western military aid to Ukraine, and the strikes followed Moscow’s threats to is much higher. Millions more have fled their homes amid the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II. Despite its superior firepower, Russia has struggled in its advance across Ukraine, in the face of stiffer than expected resistance, bolstered by Western weapons support. Instead, Russian forces have besieged several cities and pummeled them with strikes, sion. The base has hosted international NATO drills and a senior NATO official, Admiral Rob Bauer, previously hailed it as embodying “the spirit of military cooperation” between Ukraine and international forces. As such, the site is a potent symbol Russia’s longstanding concerns that the 30-member Western military alliance is a threat to Moscow by operating so close to its territory. NATO denies that it poses any threat, but Russia has repeatedly demanded Ukraine drop its ambitions of joining the alliance as a prerequisite for ending the war. Lviv governor Maksym Kozytskyi said most of the Russian missiles fired Sunday “were shot down because the air defense system worked.” Those that got through killed at least 35 people and wounded 134, he said. (See Pg 10) Suicides, fratricide on the rise among CAPF men INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 13 MARCH NEW DELHI, 13 MARCH The second part of the Budget session of Parliament will resume on Monday and will last until April 8, 2022. The House will sit from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. during the scheduled 19 sittings whereas it sat from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m. during the first part of the Budget session due to Covid-19 protocols during the first part of the Budget session. The Rajya Sabha is likely to get over 64 hours to transact the legislative business besides taking up the issues of public importance during this part of the session. The second part of the Budget session is resuming after a 30-day recess. IANS target those shipments. An attack so close to the border was heavy with symbolism in a conflict that has revived old Cold War rivalries that gave birth to NATO and threatened to rewrite the current global security order. Since Russia’s invasion more than two weeks ago, at least 596 civilians have been killed, according to the UN, though it believes the true toll hitting two dozen medical facilities and leading to a series of humanitarian crises. Many civilians have been caught in the barrage, and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said Sunday that at least 85 children have been killed. An American journalist was killed and another wounded when their car was fired upon at a Russian checkpoint Sunday, police said. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is sending his national security adviser to Rome to meet Monday with a Chinese official amid concerns that country is amplifying Russian disinformation, and Pope Francis called for peace. The attacked training base nearYavoriv is less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Polish border and appears to be the westernmost target struck during Russia’s 18-day inva- Amid rising incidents of suicides and fratricide, the Central government needs to initiate measures to check these incidents and the security personnel need to be de-stressed by taking steps to ensures adequate leave to them with a healthy camaraderie between senior and junior levels across the forces. Recently, in back-to-back incidents of fratricide this month, the BSF lost seven of its personnel. On March 6, five BSF jawans were killed in an incident of fratricide in Khasa in Punjab's Amritsar where a constable, identified as Satteppa S.K., fired at five of his colleagues in the camp, which is located 20 km from the Attari-Wagah border. Next day on March 7, a BSF constable shot dead a colleague before shooting himself with his service rifle inWest Bengal's Murshidabad. According to official data, a total of 193 suicides have been reported in the force since 2018, with 52 incidents being registered in 2021 alone while 23 security personnel were killed in 15 incidents of fratricide since 2018. Analysing the possible causes of the incidents of suicide and fratricide in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), former BSF DG Prakash Singh told IANS that the personnel seem to be under tremendous stress because of the pressure of their duties. Also the fact that they remain posted in hard areas for a long time and sometimes do not get adequate leave. “Earlier, the BSF formation was of only six companies, subsequently the government of India decided to increase the strength to seven companies and said that the seventh company will always be on training. The BSF officers also agreed that the seventh company will always remain on training, now I found that the seventh company is also deployed. Once the entire strength of the battalion is deployed, no company will be going for training, rest and recuperation and it is duty, duty and duty round the year except when the security personnel go on leave and sometimes this leave is also CMYK not sanctioned adequately," Singh added. Soon after the fratricidal incident in which four CRPF jawans were killed and three injured in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh in November 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which has administrative control over all the CAPFs, directed them to initiate welfare measures like a "get-together" like ‘Chaupal' or open informal meetings of the officers and the juniors across all ranks and file to know the reasons behind their stress and strain and to find solutions to their problems. The postings in hard areas for longer periods often led to a rise in the dissatisfaction level among the personnel. Away from their families for long periods, family related issues and education of the children are the main reasons for their frustration especially in the lower ranks, an official of the force said. He said that the government has been providing facilities such as better schools and accommodation for families in the battalion headquarters even if the jawan is posted in the border areas or away from the family but the number is less. Regarding transfer postings in the CAPFs, the MHA asked all the forces to develop software based transfer postings in 2020. Some forces have adopted the software aided transfer posting wherein a security personnel is given a relatively easy duty after a tenure of a hard posting. This has been enabled in some forces but others are still to implement it. 4,29,90,991 38,069 3,116 5,559 5,15,850 UNION HEALTH MINISTRY FIGURES AS OF 8.00 A.M. SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022 BENGAL REGISTERED 69 FRESH COVID CASES AND 1 DEATH