02122020-TT-01.qxd 12/1/2020 11:14 PM Page 1 13 chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | vol.140 no.333 | 12 pages | ~5.00 | regd.no.chd/0006/2018-2020 established in 1881  haryana IRAN ADVANCES BILL TO STOP N-PLANT INSPECTION WORLD /thetribunechd INDICES HIT CLOSING HIGHS ON RECOVERY HOPES, VACCINE BOOST BUSINESS JAISHANKAR BACKS OZ IN TIFF WITH CHINA BACK PAGE /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com wednesday, december 2,2020 Talks inconclusive, next round tomorrow JJP toughens stance, seeks early resolution Farmers reject Centre’s offer to set up expert panel | Adamant on rollback of ‘black laws’ Sushil Manav Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service DIALOGUE THE WAY OUT Proposed to constitute a committee but unions suggested they will attend further round of discussions to resolve the matter amicably. Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 1 The much-anticipated third round of talks between farmer outfits, including 32 from Punjab, and Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal and Som Parkash ended inconclusively today with farmer leaders rejecting the Centre’s proposal to form a fivemember committee to look into their objections and redress their concerns. The unions told the government that “such committees had led to no results in the past” and “the time for committees was over and now they wanted a concrete decision”. Though according to an official statement, Agriculture Minister Tomar proposed to constitute an expert committee “to put forth the issues of farmers so as to resolve them with mutual consent, but the representatives of farmer unions suggested that all representatives would attend further round of discussions with the government to resolve the matter amicably”. Various issues related to “farm reform Acts were discussed in a cordial atmosphere,” officials said. However, Punjab unions said they rejected the offer of tea during the talks and instead asked the ministers to join them for continued on back page ❝ NS Tomar AGRICULTURE MINISTER OPEN HEARTS, NOT JUST DOORS, SAYS CONGRESS New Delhi: Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government should either suspend the three farm laws or announce legal guarantee for the MSP regime. “Please talk to all farmer outfits… Opening doors is not sufficient, open your hearts too,” he said. TNS DEJECTED! Farmer leaders outside Vigyan Bhawan after holding talks with Union ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday. MANAS RANJAN BHUI Demands unmet, farmers to intensify agitation Parvesh Sharma Tribune News Service Sangrur, December 1 After the failure of their talks with Union ministers today, farmer leaders have decided to harden their stance and intensify their agitation in the coming days. “Helplessness was writ large on the face of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. The ministers BITTU HINTS AT PRESENCE OF KHALISTANIS From some Khalistani elements to protesters who sat at Shaheen Bagh, all kinds of people have penetrated the farmers’ agitation, it is getting out of hands… Home Minister Amit Shah should intervene and take control of the situation. Ravneet Singh Bittu, LUDHIANA MP ❝ did not have proper answers to our questions. Tomar kept insisting on a small committee, but we rejected that pro- posal,” said BKU (Ugrahan) chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan on the phone. “We made it clear that we will end our protest only after a complete rollback of black laws. Now it’s their choice,” he said. BKU leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said the Centre would have to resolve the issue as the protest was gaining strength by the day. “Non-farming organisations should also join our protest. We have started mobilising urban support for it,” said social activist Dr AS Mann. SPORTSPERSONS TO RETURN AWARDS Chandigarh: Several former sportspersons, including Padma Shri wrestler Kartar Singh and Arjuna awardees Sajjan Singh Cheema (basketball) and Rajbir Kaur (hockey), have decided to return their awards to protest the use of “brute force” on farmers en route to Delhi. PTI Chandigarh, December 1 With the imbroglio between farmers and the Central government continuing in the Capital, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), BJP’s ally in Haryana, has toughened its stance and sought an early resolution of the issue, giving jitters to the one-year-old ML Khattar government. Even as the farmer leaders were holding talks with the Union ministers, Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala’s younger brother and JJP leader Digvijay Chautala said the party’s future course would depend on the outcome of the meeting. The 90-member Haryana Assembly has 40 BJP MLAs and the support of 10 JJP legislators is crucial for its survival. Meham Independent MLA Balraj Kundu has already spoken against the government on the issue while Dadri Independent MLA Sombir Sangwan withdrew support to the govern- Ludhiana, December 1 Senior BJP leader and former Punjab Health Minister Satpal Gosain passed away at a hospital here today, hours after being admitted there following breathing issues. He was 85. Survived by his wife, a son and two daughters, Gosain had slipped inside a washroom at his house about two months ago. He was briefly hospitalised and his condition had been deteriorating since, though he was brought home. He remained the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker twice from 2000 to 2002 and 2007 to 2011. — TNS IN BRIEF BrahMos tested 4th time in a week NEW DELHI: The Navy on Tues- day test-fired a BrahMos missile from a warship, hitting the target at sea with pinpoint accuracy. It was the missile’s fourth launch in a week. “All the launches have precisely hit the target. Never has such a feat been accomplished by any other weapon,” a spokesperson said. PTI HP Cabinet calls off D’sala session SHIMLA: The Himachal Cabinet on Tuesday called off the Vidhan Sabha’s winter session that was scheduled to be held in Dharamsala from December 7-11. The decision was taken in view of the sudden spike in Covid cases in the state even as the announcement has left the opposition Congress fuming. INSIDE Never spoke of vaccinating all: Centre New Delhi, December 1 The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Chanda Kochhar’s petition challenging a Bombay High Court order dismissing a plea against her termination as the managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank. “Sorry, we are not inclined to interfere with the HC order. This falls within the realm of private banks,” said a Bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul. Kochhar had challenged the March 5 order of the High Court that dismissed her plea against termination as managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank, while noting that the dispute arose from a contract of personal service. “I (Kochhar) was the MD of ICICI bank but the bank recalled my earlier resignation and converted it into ter- Aditi Tandon Says aim is to snap transmission chain by inoculating high-risk groups CHANDA KOCHHAR CAN’T INTERFERE Sorry, we are not inclined to interfere with the High Court order. This falls within the realm of private banks and employees. ❝ Supreme Court Bench mination. This was wrong as it was against the norms,” senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted on behalf of Kochhar. — TNS New Delhi, December 1 Amid hectic planning for the rollout of a potential Covid-19 vaccine in India, the government today said it had never spoken of inoculating the entire country against the virus. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and ICMR chief Balram Bhargava, both members of the National Taskforce on Covid-19 Vaccine Administration, today said the purpose of vaccination was to break the chain of viral transmission and the same could be done by inoculating a critical mass of people. “There has never been any talk of inoculating the entire country,” Bhushan said. Adding to the issue, ICMR chief Bhargava noted, “The purpose of vaccination is breaking the chain of Covid Two HPdepts report mismatch of over 1 crore boxes in apple sales Subhash Rajta Tribune News Service Shimla, December 1 There's a staggering difference of 1.12 crore in the data of the Horticulture Department and the HP State Agricultural Marketing Board as regards the number of apple boxes sold this season. While the marketing board says 2.73 crore boxes were sold, the Horticulture Department puts the number at 1.61 crore. Horticulture Department Director JP Sharma said, "We are in the middle of sorting it out. Efforts are on to ascertain whether we have missed some boxes or the marketing board has counted these twice." On the face of it, the num- GETTING FACTS STRAIGHT VARYING FIGURES ■ 2.73 CRORE is the number of sold apple boxes, as per the marketing board ■ 1.61 CRORE is the number put forth by the Horticulture Department ber put out by the marketing board seems more credible because it collects data from six barriers, as against the three put up by the Horticulture Department. "We have crosschecked our data and there's no question of any double counting or any other error," said marketing board MD Naresh Thakur. In case the Horticulture Department's data proves wrong, it will bring into question the data released by it in the past too. The growers are also stunned at this mindboggling variance in the numbers put out by the two government agencies. Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Growers' Association president Harish Chauhan says, "The numbers released by the Horticulture Department form the basis for various plans and policies. Any glitch in these numbers will confuse both policymakers and farmers." There ❝ talk ofhas never been any inoculating the entire country. It is important to get factual information about these things. Rajesh Bhushan, HEALTH SECY COVID-19CASES INDIA PUNJAB, HP, HRY SEE HIGHEST SPIKE IN NOV LOWER COVID TEST COST, CENTRE TELLS STATES Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are among five states to report the highest spike in active cases between November 1 and December 1, the other two being Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Centre has written to states to lower the cost of Covid testing citing how the cost of RTPCR kits had declined from nearly ~1,800 per kit in March to ~100 currently. are repeatedly assuring that the MSP will stay, there is no harm in adding that line in the laws. Ajay Chautala, JJP ment today. The Congress has 31 MLAs in the House. Claiming to be a “party of farmers”, the JJP has been under pressure from its support base ever since the farmers began their agitation against the new farm laws. The party’s MLA from Barwala, Jogi Ram Sihag, who had earlier refused the offer of chairmanship of Haryana Housing Board, has already criticised the Khattar government. Earlier, JJP national president Ajay Chautala suggested that the Centre continued on back page New Delhi: The MEA has called “unwarranted” and “illinformed” the comments by Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, on the farmers’ stir made during a virtual interaction to mark Gurpurb. “Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest. We believe in the importance of dialogue and that's why we’ve reached out through multiple means directly to the Indian authorities to highlight our concerns,” he said. TNS SC rejects Chanda plea against ouster as CEO Senior BJP leader Gosain no more ❝ When PM Modi and Union Agriculture Minister TRUDEAU SPEAKS ‘IN SUPPORT’, MEA HITS BACK Shaheen Bagh’s Bilkis Dadi turned away from Singhu border Bhim Army chief joins farmers at Delhi-Ghazipur border Tribune News Service WHY NOT A WRITTEN ASSURANCE ON MSP? COUNT 94,62,809 TOTAL RECOVERED DEATHS RECOVERED 88,89,585 FRESH FATALITIES 482 TOTAL DEATHS 1,37,621 WORLD 6,38,24,424 4,41,87,918 14,78,311 BSF SI killed in ceasefire violation by Pak in Poonch Jammu, December 1 A BSF Sub-Inspector was killed on Tuesday in a ceasefire violation by the Pakistan army along the LoC in Poonch district of J&K. In November, 15 persons, including nine security personnel, were killed in multiple ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in various sectors. The latest casualty took place on a day Paotinsat Guite when the BSF was celebrating its Raising Day. Hailing from Maphoukuki village in Imphal, SubInspector Paotinsat Guite attained martyrdom while bravely retaliating to the enemy fire at Tarkundi area of Mendhar in Poonch district, the BSF said. — PTI transmission. We may not have to vaccinate all the people if we can break that chain by inoculating a critical mass of people. But even after that, masks would have to be worn.” The government also made it clear today that the ongoing vaccine trials in India were safe. Bhushan said an adverse Delhi SCO meet sent ‘positive signals’: China Court orders framing of charges against Hooda in Manesar scam Beijing, December 1 China said on Tuesday that the virtual meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) hosted by India had sent “many positive signals” with leaders reaching consensus on several issues. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday attended the virtual meeting of the eight-member bloc, which was also addressed by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. Asked how China viewed the SCO meet, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here that the meeting was about implementing the outcomes reached at the recent SCO Summit. — PTI event reported during the Serum Institute’s Covid vaccine trial in October was unrelated to the vaccine and continued on back page Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 1 The CBI Special Court, Haryana, today ordered framing of charges against former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and 32 others, including former IAS officers ML Tayal, Chattar Singh and SS Dhillon, in the multi-crore Manesar land scam. The scam pertains to purchase of land from farmers at meagre rates and then earning huge profits by getting it released in connivance with bureaucrats and politicians. CBI Special Judge Jagdeep Singh also summoned present Home Secretary Rajeev Rajeev Arora, Home Secy, summoned 4 MORE ADDL ACCUSED ■ DR Dhingra, former IAS officer ■ Surjit Singh, former HSIIDC Chief Town Planner ■ Dhare Singh, former TCP Dept Chief Town Planner ■ Kulwant Singh Lamba, for- mer Dy Spdt of TCP Dept Arora, along with former IAS officer DR Dhingra, former Chief Town Planner (CTP) of Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) Surjit Singh, former CTP in Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department Dhare Singh, and former Deputy Superintendent of TCP Department Kulwant Singh Lamba, as additional accused in the case. There is prima facie evidence of their involvement in a criminal conspiracy and cheating, ruled the court. “For Arora, who was the HSIIDC Managing Director at the time of the alleged scam, the CBI has been instructed to submit prosecution sanction obtained from the state government. Dhingra was the Director, Industries, when scam dealings were being conducted,” said SPS Parmar, counsel for Hooda. The court also dismissed discharge applications of continued on back page