25092020-TT-01.qxd 9/24/2020 11:35 PM Page 1 13 chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | jammu | srinagar | vol.140 no.266 | 12 pages | ~5.00 | regd.no.chd/0006/2018-2020 established in 1881  haryana TRUMP REFUSES TO COMMIT TO PEACEFUL POWER SHIFT WORLD /thetribunechd SENSEX DIVES 1,115 POINTS AMID GLOBAL SELLOFF, RECOVERY WOES BUSINESS SAARC MUST DEAL WITH TERROR, SAYS JAISHANKAR BACK PAGE /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com friday, september 25,2020 Farmers’ bandh today, Tomar blames Cong Capt counters him Members of various farmer organisations block a railway track in Nabha on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO New Delhi, September 24 A day before the countrywide farmers’ protest, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today accused the Congress of “lying and misleading” while inviting the farmers to “any discussion on the three Bills.” Several farmers and farm workers, including the AllIndia Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, have given a call for a ‘Bharat Bandh’ tomorrow. Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers’ Movements (ICCFM) convener Yudhvir Singh termed the legislations “undemocratic and anti-farmer”. The ICCFM is a non-partisan alliance representing 12 farmer organisations. “The new laws will empower agribusiness and increase corporate control of our food system, leaving farmers and Continued on Back Page WHY DIDN’T UPA MAKE MSP RULE? ❝ The government has done what the Congress had promised in Punjab and in its 2019 Lok Sabha manifesto. Why did you (Cong-led UPA) not make a rule on the MSP? NS Tomar, UNION AGRI MINISTER PUNJAB BRACES FOR DAYLONG STIR MARKETS TO REMAIN SHUT TILL 4 PM 31 farmer unions, backed by 50 agriculture-related organisations, have called for Punjab bandh on Friday. All political parties — barring the BJP — have supported the bandh against 3 Bills. Train services in the state have been suspended. Unions have announced closure of markets and industrial hubs from sunrise till 4 pm. Traffic to be allowed only for emergency duties. SAD TO HOLD 3-HOUR DHARNA ACROSS STATE Shiromani Akali Dal to hold dharnas across the state from 11 AM TO 2 PM TODAY MCI goes, NMC takes charge Chinese agencies Border forces to trying to disrupt be off internal security duties New medical regulator notified I Pvt edu to get cheaper Naga peace pact uate education, medical assessment and ethics and medical registration. The development means that from tomorrow all provisions of the NMC Act 2019 will roll out, including fee regulation on 50 per cent seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities; end of inspection for college renewals. Final year MBBS exam will now serve three purposes — licentiate exam for MBBS passouts to issue them a licence to practice medicine; entrance exam for postgraduate medical education and entrance exam for foreign medical graduates. Called the National Exit Test, this final year MBBS exam will finally replace the existing National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for PG and Foreign Medical Graduates Test. New Delhi, September 24 To further strengthen the security grid in frontier areas, the government has initiated a plan to gradually withdraw the border-guarding forces (BSF ITBP and , SSB) from some internal security duties. Officials said such a proposal was first mooted at a meeting of the chiefs of border-guarding forces last year, which was chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Officials said the Ministry of Home Affairs was trying to work out a plan according to which the burden of internal security duties, including during elections, would be largely borne by the CRPF . Sources said the plan would be first experimented during the Bihar poll and bypolls in some states where the CRPF and police would be deployed in 70:30 ratio. — TNS Aditi Tandon No transport fee for students: HC For 6th day, recoveries Flexi exams in Hry, part surpass daily caseload of student-centric move CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana HC on Thursday said that transport fee would not be charged from students as they were not going to school. A Division Bench also stayed payment of annual charges up to 50 per cent. The appellants had challenged the order dated July 27 passed by a single Judge. INSIDE 4 die in Dera Bassi building collapse DERA BASSI: Four persons died after a double-storeyed under-construction commercial building collapsed at Meera Milli Mohalla near Ramlila Ground here on Thursday morning. The deceased were identified as Gopi Chand (60), Raju (46), Ramesh Sardara (45) and Hardev Singh (72). — TNS Posters to ‘name & shame’ harassers LUCKNOW: The UP authorities will put up posters carrying pictures of those accused of sexual harassment and other crimes against women at prominent road crossings in the state. The directions were issued by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to check crime against women, an official spokesperson said. — PTI Tribune News Service New Delhi, September 24 India’s new medical education regulator, National Medical Commission (NMC), will come into force from tomorrow with the Centre today abolishing the 87-year-old Medical Council of India, which was marred by corruption in its later years. The Centre on Thursday night notified the 33-member NMC, saying it will come into force from September 25. With the notification, the MCI board of governors stands dissolved. The board was appointed four years ago to run the MCI affairs while the council was dissolved in 2010. Today, the MCI has been abolished. The notification names Suresh Chandra Sharma, ENT HoD, AIIMS, New Delhi, as the chairperson of the NMC New Delhi, September 24 The Centre dispelled doubts that low testing was resulting in daily new recoveries surpassing daily new cases. It said the trend of higher daily discharge of patients was holding despite sustained and large levels of testing. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the conclusion by some people that higher recoveries were due to low tests was “baseless”. He said India’s trend of higher recoveries than new cases on a daily basis sustained for a sixth day today despite a high-level of testing. India has conducted 6.4 crore Covid-19 tests as of today. — TNS NEW GUIDELINES ■ MBBS final year exam to serve as entrance test for PG and foreign medical graduates; PGI’s Jagat Ram among 11 full-time NMC members ■ The NMC will make guidelines for a new cadre of nonMBBS mid-level health service providers such as nursing practitioners and pharmacists with limited rights to dispense medicines which will have four autonomous boards to regulate undergraduate, postgrad- COVID-19CASES INDIA COUNT 57,32,518 TOTAL RECOVERED DEATHS RECOVERED 46,74,987 FRESH FATALITIES 1,129 TOTAL DEATHS 91,149 WORLD 3,21,96,665 2,37,51,134 9,83,609 N-SCIENTIST SUCCUMBS Kolkata: Veteran atomic scientist and former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr Sekhar Basu succumbed to Covid19 early on Thursday at a private hospital here. He was also had a kidney ailment. PTI New Delhi, September 24 The Chinese intelligence agencies have been working overtime in north-eastern states to influence rebel leaders to further deepen “internal” unrest and delay the peace process in the region, sources say. Intelligence Bureau inputs on the Chinese design have been shared with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Centre has directed top IB officials to engage Naga insurgent group NSCN (I-M)’s general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah. NSCN (I-M) chairman Q Tuccu, vice-president Tongmeth Wangnao and 13 others are also in Delhi and have joined Muivah in the talks with IB officials. Differences among the outfit’s ranks became visible when Tuccu and his team chose to stay at separate locations, although accommodation had been arranged at one place. — TNS Sushil Manav Tribune News Service Chandigarh, September 24 Haryana plans to introduce flexi mode of examinations at the university level which will allow students to take a test when they are ready for it. Under this method, on demand examination (ODE) —- a unique question paper having a defined number of items —- will be generated randomly by the computer (on the day of the exam) out of the already developed question bank. The question paper will be unique for each student. A pilot project will be conducted in four universities —- Chaudhary Bansi 4 varsities to conduct pilot project Lal University, Bhiwani; Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University, Jind; Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar; and Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Palwal —- to enable final year students to clear their backlog, if any. Prof BK Kuthiala, Chairperson of the Haryana State Higher Education Council, said the basic idea behind the flexi mode of examination was the need to develop Continued on Back Page Cricketer Dean Jones dies of cardiac arrest Mumbai, September 24 Dean Jones, the former Australian batsman who became famous as a popular commentator after his cricket career, died after a cardiac arrest here today at age 59. Jones was in Mumbai as part of the commentary team for the Indian Premier League, currently underway in the UAE. He was staying at a city hotel and was in a biosecure bubble, along with the other commentators and television He was in Mumbai as part of the IPL commentary team crew. According to an IPL source, Jones suffered a heart attack around noon and was gone in a matter of seconds. “Deano was standing in the hotel lobby and he suddenly collapsed. Brett Lee was standing by his side. Brett tried to revive him by applying CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) but he didn’t respond,” said the source. He was taken to a hospital in Girgaon, where he was pronounced dead on arrival Jones, who is survived by his wife and two daughters, played 52 Tests and 164 ODIs and was part of the Australian team that won the 1987 World Cup under Allan Border. Jones was the Man of the Match in the famous Continued on page 11 SECURITY TIGHTENED Heavy police deployment on all highways, additional forces rushed to districts. ❝ He has clearly not read the Punjab Congress’ Chandigarh, September 24 Expressing shock at Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s “atrocious lies”, Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh said the BJP leader had thrown all propriety to the winds, spreading disinformation against the Congress in general and against him in particular. On Tomar asking why he (Capt Amarinder) had mentioned in his poll manifesto that the “APMC will be changed’, the CM said it was obvious that the minister had not read the Punjab Congress’ 2017 manifesto that clearly read that “updation of the APMC Act will be done to ensure direct access of farmers Continued on Back Page CONG TO CHALLENGE FARM BILLS IN COURT STIR TO HIT SUPPLIES, SAYS RAILWAYS New Delhi: Terming the farm Bills unconstitutional, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said it would legally challenge the legislations if approved by the President. TNS New Delhi: The Railways said the ‘rail roko’ agitation in Punjab over the farm Bills would severely impact the loading of foodgrain and other essential goods. PTI 2017 manifesto that said ‘updation’ of the APMC Act will be done to ensure farmers’ direct access to markets Capt Amarinder Singh, PUNJAB CM Lawyer, CRPF officer gunned down in J-K Compartment exam result by Oct 10: CBSE Srinagar, September 24 A top lawyer and a CRPF officer were shot dead in two attacks in Kashmir today. Advocate Babar Qadri was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Srinagar in the evening, officials said. Qadri, who used to appear in debates on Kashmir on some TV channels, was fired upon by suspected militants from a point-blank range in the Halwal area. “He was taken to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead,” an official said. Soon after the incident, a hunt was launched to trace the attackers. Earlier this morning, a CRPF officer was killed in a militant attack in New Delhi, September 24 Ending uncertainty over the future of around two lakh students appearing in Class XII compartment examinations, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday informed the Supreme Court (SC) that it would declare the result by October 10, giving enough time to them to apply for college admissions. The University Grants Commission (UGC), which was earlier restrained from releasing its academic calendar, informed a Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar that the process for admission to bachelor courses would end by October 31. — TNS Hunt launched to trace killers; second attack in 24 hours Budgam district, the police said. This was the second militant attack in Budgam in less than 24 hours. On Wednesday evening, a Block Development Council chairman, Bhupinder Singh, was shot dead by militants here. The militants attacked a CRPF deployment at Badipora, Chadoora, leaving CRPF ASI Badole Naresh Umrao, 49, hailing from Maharastra, critically wounded. He later succumbed to injuries. — TNS