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1 ! " " " ! "!#$ " # " $%&& '( ) * " " %& # #' + " $ * ' $* ) , - &( . / ( 0 1 $ 1 $..*2(With tension mounting inUkraine, India mayincrease flights to bring backhome its stranded citizens,including nearly 20,000 stu-dents. At present, very fewflights connect India ongoing tensionbetween ukraine and Russiaand fear of military confronta-tion has led to a sharp increasein airfare and unavailability ofseats. The Indian Embassy inUkraine on Tuesday advised itsstudents to leave the countrydue to uncertainties. Also,Indian citizens were urged torefrain from travelling toUkraine for the time the concerns of theparents, sources said here onWednesday discussions wereon with the civil aviationauthorities and various air-lines on ways to increase thenumber of flights betweenIndia and also said the IndianEmbassy in Kyiv was monitor-ing the developments on aregular basis.))

2 We are awarethat many Indian students arepresently in ukraine and theirfamilies are anxious about theirwards, particularly about get-ting flights to India, sourcessaid. Parents are demandingthat their children should beairlifted and brought home assoon as possible. The control rooms in theEmbassy as well as in theMinistry of External Affairs arebeing set up to respond toqueries of Indian nationals inUkraine and their families inIndia, sources just India, but severalother nations have asked theircitizens in ukraine to return atthe earliest. Some countries fearthat a war in Eastern Europecould result in a massiverefugee Sabha memberPriyanka Chaturvedi (ShivSena) called on theGovernment to facilitate theevacuation of indians , espe-cially students, from ukraine .

3 Indian students are facingdifficulties in leaving the coun-try following the IndianGovernment s advisory toreturn to India booked are being can-celled while many others areunable to afford tickets backhome as the air tickets pricesare soaring, she advisory by the IndianEmbassy on Tuesday said, Inview of the uncertainties of thecurrent situation in ukraine , indian nationals in ukraine ,particularly students whosestay is not essential, may con-sider leaving temporarily. The advisory also urgedIndians to keep the Embassyinformed about the status oftheir presence in ukraine toenable the embassy to reachthem when required .India has so far refrainedfrom commenting on theongoing crisis and pushed fora peaceful resolution of the sit-uation in ukraine through sus-tained diplomatic help to Indiansin ukraine wanting informa-tion and help can get in touchwith the Ministry of ExternalAffairs.

4 It has set up a dedi-cated 24X7control room inIndia s Embassy in ukraine . *3&-$! As the Uttar PradeshAssembly elections enterthe third phase, the battle of theballot has moved to the Yadav-belt . A total of 59 Assemblyconstituencies in 16 districts,spreading from Bundelkhandto the Avadh region will go tothe polls on February 20. Thehottest contest is at Karhalfrom where former ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav is inthe third phase covers fivedistricts from western UP:Firozabad, Mainpuri, EtahKasganj Hathras; six districts ofAvadh region: Kanpur, KanpurDehat Auraiya Kannauj, Etawa,Farrukhabad; and five districtsfrom Bundelkhand region:Jhansi Jalaun LalitpurHamirpur has entered thefray to act as a force multipli-er in the third , in 2017, the BJPnot only swept all the 19 seatsof the Bundelkhand region butalso managed to make a bigdent in the Yadav strongholdwhich the Samajwadi Partyswept in Chief Minister YogiAdityanath to his deputyKeshav Prasad Maurya toUnion Home Minister AmitShah, top BJP leaders havebeen campaigning in the Yadavbastion from where MulayamSingh Yadav and two othermembers of the family havebeen MPs.

5 SP chief Akhileshwill campaign in this region onThursday and address elec-tion meetings at several placesin the Karhal Assembly con-stituency, Mainpuri, Ferozabad,Tundla, Mainpuri and SP won 37 out of the59 seats in this region in the2012 Assembly , politics in this regiontook a new turn when theYadav-dominated regionsvoted heavily for the BJP in2017 elections. The BJP won 49out of 59 seats while the SP onlyhad to settle with 9. TheCongress got one while the BSPdrew a blank from real test of Akhilesh,however, will be in the Yadavbelt. It would be a litmus testfor the BJP, too, whether it canhold on to most of what it hadsecured in 2017. Constituenciesof both Akhilesh (Karhal) andhis uncle Shivpal Yadav(Jaswantnagar) will go to thepolls in this Yadav stronghold,which includes Firozabad,Kasganj, Etah, Mainpuri,Farrukhabad, Kannauj, andAuraiya didn t vote forAkhilesh in 2017.

6 The SP got only 6 out of 30seats from this region while BJPwon 23. In 2012, the SP hadwon 25 seats from here whileBJP won just one seat. ) ) &2 $ (4 52It s the battle of spouses inPunjab. At least two womencandidates, who apparentlyfiled nomination papers ascovering candidates, are now infray against their husbands forFebruary 20 did Surinder KaurBains and Dhanwant Kaur hadrealised that while supportingtheir husbands in their ballotbattle, they would virtuallyend up being their Kaur Bains, wifeof two-time MLA from AtamNagar constituency and LokInsaaf Party s chief SimarjitSingh Bains is in fray fromAtam Nagar as an independentcandidate; while DhanwantKaur, wife of SAD(A) candidatefrom Kotkapura Jaskaran SinghKahan Singh Wala, will also becontesting her first electionagainst her Surinder andDhanwant had filed nomina-tion papers as covering or sub-stitute candidates from theirbetter halves, but failed towithdraw the same.

7 Now as perrules, both are in fray againsttheir husbands as indepen-dent candidates. In fact, theElection Commission has alsoallotted them election symbols. It could be possiblebecause there are differentrules for recognised parties,and the registered but unrecog-nised parties regarding theircovering candidates. the can-didates of the recognised par-ties, made a proposal withtheir nomination papers statingthat in case my candidature isaccepted, the nomination of mycovering candidate be rejected,and the same butthere are different rules for reg-istered but unrecognised par-ties. They have to apply forwithdrawal of nomination, anelection official told ThePioneer. $..*2(Crash helmets and safetyvests have now been mademandatory for children belowthe age of four years on motor-cycles.)

8 The speed of such two-wheelers should not exceedmore than 40 kmph. TheMinistry of Road Transportand Highways on Wednesdaynotified new rules to make theuse of safety harnesses for children below fouryears, a safety harness has to beused for attaching the child tothe driver of the motorcycle, theMoRTH said in a statement. Safety harness is a vest tobe worn by the child, whichshall be adjustable, with a pairof straps attached to the vest andforming shoulder loops to beworn by the driver. This way, theupper torso of the child issecurely attached to the feature by which this isachieved is by attaching thestraps to the back of the vest andcrossing the straps over thevest so that two large crossing-over loops are formed that passbetween the legs of the passen-ger and child sits on the seat ofthe two-wheeler, explained asenior MoRTH official.

9 *3&-$! Exhorting people to vote forthe BJP in a large number,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Wednesday said the BJP inUttar Pradesh means controlover dangaraj, mafia raaj, gun-daraj, and freedom to celebrateall the festivals with an electionrally in Sitapur, Modi said hav-ing the BJP in UP means pro-tection of daughters andwomen from eve-teasers. TheBJP in UP means progress andit also means implementationof Centre s schemes at a doublespeed because it would be adouble engine Government, hesaid. The PM added that dueto the double engineGovernment, the State is mov-ing ahead on the path of devel-opment at a fast on the workbeing done by the YogiGovernment, Modi said everygrain of the poor s ration,which the mafia used to lootearlier, is reaching the poor shouse today.

10 During this entire coronaperiod, I remained focused onone thing that such a dayshould not come in the houseof a poor, when the family hadto sleep empty stomach. Wewere alive to this situation. TheGovernment has spent crore to ensure that foodreaches every house, it was SantRavidas s birthday onWednesday, he invoked thephilanthropic spirit of SantRavidas when he said SantRavidas wanted that thereshould be such a rule in whicheveryone gets food. Let every-one live in equal harmony. With this thinking, crores ofpeople of UP are being givenfree ration for almost two yearsand people in Sitapur too gotthe same, he a jibe at RahulGandhi and Priyanka Gandhiwho paid an obeisance at thetemple of Sant Ravidas inVaranasi, where he was born,the PM said when electionscome some leader go toRavidas Temple, organise lan-gar and take photographs andget that published.