Junior Digest

New York , December 3,2020: A special two-day session will be held at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday with more than 100 world leaders — some 53 heads of state, 39 heads of government and 38 ministers due to make pre-recorded video statements, including India’s Secretary West Vikas Swarup.
Among the leaders slated to address the session are French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and European Union chief Charles Michel. The United States will be represented by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
The President of the UNGA, Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir, will host the assembly’s 31st special session Thursday to Friday in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Following 1.5 million deaths, more than 62 million cases worldwide and one of the largest social and economic crises in living memory, controlling and recovering from COVID-19 is the international community’s top priority,” according to a UNGA press release.
The two-day special session will primarily consist of a general debate on Thursday and interactive dialogues with experts, UN agencies and leading scientists, on Friday.
Serum Institute of India Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla will also address the session through a pre-recorded video on December 4.
President Donald Trump is not listed as a speaker for the session and the United States has reportedly claimed that the United Nations meeting of world leaders on the COVID-19 pandemic was being designed to allow Beijing to spread “propaganda.”

The U.N. General Assembly agreed in October to hold the COVID-19 special session by adopting a resolution with 150 votes in favor. The United States, Israel and Armenia abstained and the remaining members didn’t vote.
Bozkir’s spokesman Brenden Varma said the president thought that the meeting was “already too late” and should have happened in the summer. Varma added the meeting was created as a way to promote multilateralism in a time of crisis.
The point is “to bring countries together, along with U.N. actors, with the private sector, with vaccine developers to work together … to take stock and to identify gaps and challenges,” Varma said.

Sydney, Dec 6,2020: Shikhar Dhawan brilliant 52 and Hardik Pandya quickfire not out 42 off 22 helped India beat Australia by 6 wickets in the 2nd T20I to take 2-0 lead in the 3-match series here on Sunday.

Australia’s skipper Matthew Wade 58 and Steven Smith 46 took the team to 194/5 in 20 overs while India chasing finished off with 195/4 in 19.4 overs winning the game.

Pandya’s six off Daniel Sams in the last ball of last over took the visitors towards series win.

Naples [Italy], December 5,2020: Italian side Napoli’s San Paolo stadium has been renamed after Diego Maradona in memory of the late Argentina legend who led them to their only two Serie A titles during his seven-year run with Napoli from 1984 to 1991.
The Naples city council has unanimously approved a resolution that will change the name of Napoli’s home stadium from Stadio San Paolo to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona,” goal.com reported.
Maradona had passed away on November 25 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 60.
Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris on November 26 had urged Napoli to rename the San Paolo Stadium after legendary footballer Maradona.
“Diego Armando Maradona, the most immense footballer of all time, died. Diego made our people dream, he redeemed Naples with his genius. In 2017 he became our honorary citizen. Diego, Neapolitan and Argentine, you gave us joy and happiness! Naples loves you!,” Magistris had tweeted in Italian.

In another tweet, Magistris had said: “Let’s name the San Paolo Stadium after Diego Armando Maradona !!!”
Maradona is a revered figure in Naples as led the city’s club to two Italian league titles.
“With his immense talent and his magic, he honoured the Napoli shirt for seven years, giving it two historical championships and other prestigious cups, and receiving in exchange from the whole city an eternal and unconditional love,” goal.com quoted a statement from Naples city council as saying.
Maradona captained Argentina to victory at the 1986 FIFA World Cup and was widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time.
Maradona had begun his professional career with Argentinos Juniors at the age of 16 and he went on to become one of the greatest players to ever play the game of football.
He represented Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, and Newell’s Old Boys as a player. Diego was considered the main player in taking Argentina to their second World Cup title in 1986.

Washington DC, December 4,2020: Using data collected at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and orbit analysis from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists have confirmed that Near-Earth Object (NEO) 2020 SO is, in fact, a 1960’s-Era Centaur rocket booster.
The object, discovered in September by astronomers searching for near-Earth asteroids from the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope on Maui, garnered interest in the planetary science community due to its size and unusual orbit and was studied by observatories around the world, according to an official release.
Further analysis of 2020 SO’s orbit revealed the object had come close to Earth a few times over the decades, with one approach in 1966 bringing it close enough to suggest it may have originated from Earth. Comparing this data with the history of previous NASA missions, Paul Chodas, CNEOS director, concluded 2020 SO could be the Centaur upper stage rocket booster from NASA’s ill-fated 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the Moon.

Dhaka, Dec 5,2020: Authorities in Bangladesh on Friday started sending a first group of more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process.

The 1,642 refugees were boarding seven Bangladeshi naval vessels in the port of Chittagong for the trip to Bhashan Char, according to an official, who could not be named in accordance with local practice.

The island was once regularly submerged by monsoon rains but now has flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques built at a cost of more than USD 112 million by the Bangladesh navy.

Located 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the mainland, the island surfaced only 20 years ago and was never inhabited.

The United Nations has also voiced concern that refugees be allowed to make a free and informed decision about whether to relocate to the island in the Bay of Bengal.

The island’s facilities are built to accommodate 100,000 people, just a fraction of the million Rohingya Muslims who have fled waves of violent persecution in their native Myanmar and are currently living in crowded, squalid refugee camps.

On Thursday, 11 passenger buses carrying refugees left Cox’s Bazar district on the way to the island, where they are expected to arrive after an overnight stopover, a government official involved with the process said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He said a few thousand refugees were in the first batch. Authorities in Cox’s Bazar did not say how the refugees were selected for relocation.

New Delhi, Dec 6,2020: Minister of Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that the government is committed to reduce the burden of cancer in the country by employing latest technologies in the genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Inaugurating the 2nd TCGA 2020 conference virtually, he said “Diverse molecular mechanisms including genetic and lifestyle factors contribute to cancer, posing significant challenges to treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to better understand the underlying factors patient by patient. In this context, it is important that we create indigenous, open-source and comprehensive database of molecular profiles of all cancer prevalent in Indian population population”.

The Union Minister acknowledged the efforts of the consortium comprising of scientists and clinicians from across the world, who have come together to build an Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA).

He also urged them to focus on important issues of uniformity and integrity of specimens representing different parts of India, to make Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA) useful for clinicians throughout India. He said this would set a way forward in making cancer treatment accessible and affordable.

Prof Syed Modasser Ali, Chairman Bangladesh Medical Research Council, Dhaka delivered keynote address. He thanked the organizers for successfully conducting the 2nd Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) 2020 conference today. He promised extended long-term support to achieving the goals under the TCGA programme. He said that TCGA would be a great example for other developing countries.

CSIR DG Prof Shekhar Mande underlined the importance of scientific team building from diverse backgrounds in strategizing a coordinated response.

He noted that establishment of Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA) is a much needed initiative and will add value to India and to the world of science in terms of cancer treatment.

US’s national Cancer Institute Dr Jean Claude Zenklusen US-NCI) delivered Keynote lecture on the Cancer Genome Atlas- A Model for Team Science. Oncologists, Researchers, Scientists, and Academicians from India, USA, UK and Bangladesh are participating in international conference.

TCGA is a landmark cancer genomics program that molecularly characterized over 20,000 primary cancer and matched normal samples spanning 33 cancer types.

This joint effort between the US- National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute began in 2006, bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines and multiple institutions.

Hong Kong , December 5,2020: The US government is just one step away from enacting a law that could ‘kick’ several Chinese firms off Wall Street, which can further escalate tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a Bill that would prevent companies that refuse to open their books to US accounting regulators from trading on US Stock exchanges, which only needs President Donald Trump’s signature to become law, reported CNN.
The Bill states that the companies would be removed from the US exchanges after three years if they did not provide US regulators access to their audit information.
Though the Bill would apply to any foreign country, the focus on China is obvious, as Beijing has resisted such scrutiny. All US-listed public companies would also be required to disclose whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government, including China’s Communist Party.
According to CNN, the bipartisan co-sponsors of the legislation said earlier this year that their goal was to ‘kick deceitful Chinese companies off US exchanges’. The US scrutiny intensified following a scandal involving Luckin Coffee, the Chinese coffee firm that disclosed massive accounting irregularities this spring. It was kicked off at the NASDAQ in June.
Politicians from both parties in the US have criticised China’s lack of transparency in its financial system, saying it could be putting American investors at risk of fraud.

This legislation would give Trump yet another way to put pressure on China before he leaves office in January.
The Trump administration has targeted companies like TikTok and forced Huawei into a fight for survival and banned Americans from investing in some Chinese firms, while several Chinese companies have been preparing contingency plans in light of the heightened scrutiny from the United States, reported CNN.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions have been rising between the two countries over the issue of trade, Hong Kong legislation, origins’ of the virus and Beijing’s rising military aggression.
Amid the escalation, the State Department under Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pursued staunch policy measures against the Chinese government, CNN reported.
On Thursday, the Trump administration has reduced the US visitor visas validity period for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials and their family members from 10 years to one month.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) on the same day blacklisted four more Chinese firms from accessing military tech, labelling them as being controlled by the communist nation’s military.
These moves are among the series of actions taken by the Trump administration, setting a tone for the US President-elect Joe Biden taking office in the month of January.

Washington, Dec 6: US President Donald Trump has reiterated the futility of US rejoining the Paris climate agreement, saying that doing so would give an advantage to Russia and China.

While speaking at a rally in Valdosta, Georgia on Saturday Trump said the US would have had to contribute astronomical sums of money if it remained a part of the agreement

“The Paris Environmental Accord. I said, I’m gonna get killed in this one. But we would’ve paid trillions and trillions of dollars. Russia has a big advantage over us, they go back to old days when the air was very dirty, that was their standard. China doesn’t kick in until 2030, we kick in immediately, and the money that wouldn’t have cost us,”

Trump claimed that if the US were to re-enter the Paris climate accord, 20 percent of US factories would have to shut down.

In 2017, Trump announced that the US was exiting the UN-brokered Paris climate agreement, a move that officially took effect on November 4 this year. Joe Biden has promised to recommit the US to the pact.

In November, former US Secretary of State and newly-appointed Biden administration climate envoy, John Kerry, pointed out that the international community must raise its ambition in fighting global environmental problems because the Paris Agreement alone cannot end the crisis.

Dec 04,2020:Over 1.5 million people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 with one death reported every nine seconds on a weekly average, as vaccinations are set to begin in December in a handful of developed nations.
Half a million deaths occurred in just the last two months, indicating that the severity of the pandemic is far from over. Nearly 65 million people globally have been infected by the disease and the worst affected country, United States, is currently battling a third wave of coronavirus infections.

In the last week alone, more than 10,000 people in the world died on average every single day, which has been steadily rising each passing week. Many countries across the world are now fighting second and third waves even greater than the first, forcing new restrictions on everyday life.
The novel coronavirus caused more deaths in the past year than tuberculosis in 2019 and nearly four times the number of deaths due to malaria, according to the World Health Organisation.
Robert Redfield, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned on Wednesday that the pandemic will pose the country’s grimmest health crisis yet over the next few months, before vaccines become widely available.

“I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation,” Redfield told a livestream presentation hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

The United States continues to lead in terms of fatalities, with over 273,000 deaths alone. North America and Latin American regions combined have more than 50% of all coronavirus deaths that have been reported.
The Latin American region, the worst-affected globally in terms of fatalities, recently surpassed over 450,000 deaths.

VACCINE HOPES

On Wednesday, Britain became the first country to approve the vaccine candidate developed by Germany’s BioNTech and Pfizer Inc, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin a crucial mass inoculation programme.
However, supplies are expected to be very limited in the early stages which means that every country beginning the drive will have to prioritise based on risk factors.

U.S. health regulators are expected to approve distribution and administration of the vaccine in mid-December.

Africa aims to have 60% of its population vaccinated against COVID-19 within the next two to three years, the African Union’s disease control group said on Thursday. The continent of 1.3 billion people has recorded more than 2.2 million confirmed coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally.

New Delhi, Dec 4,2020: Farmers’ organisations on Thursday claimed that the Centre has indicated amendments to all three new farm laws.

The fourth round of talks between the Centre and 40 representatives of the farmers’ unions, who are protesting on the Delhi borders against the new farm laws, was held at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi. After the meeting, the leaders of the farmers’ organisations told reporters that the Government has assured to amend the new farm laws.

The farmers are demanding withdrawal of these three new farm laws.

Farmer leaders said they would continue the agitation till their demands were met.

Today’s meeting was attended by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Commerce and Industry, Railways, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal; Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash and 40 farmer leaders.

After the meeting, Mr Tomar said that the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and both the sides put forward their arguments.

He said that farmers’ organisations have raised several points that the Government will consider that. The system of minimum support price on crops will continue.

The fourth round of talks between the government and agitating farmers concluded this evening without any final result after nearly eight hours of brain-storming.

It was decided that the next round of talks will be held on December 5.

The talks which began at 1230 hrs, continued till 2000 Hrs. However, both sides did not reach any conclusive decision.

The farmers were adamant and said the government would have to accept their demands and they would continue with the agitation till their demands are met.

Earlier in the day, during the meeting, the farmer leaders rejected the government’s food. During the meeting when it was time for lunch, the farmers brought the ‘langar’ from the Gurudwara and sat on the ground and had food.

Thousands of farmers who are protesting for the past one week on the borders of the National Capital on Wednesday reiterated their demand of withdrawal of new farm laws. Their unions had said that farmers will go back only after their demands are met.

Farmers’ organisations had also called on the Government to call a special session of Parliament to repeal the new farm laws and to give legal status to the minimum support price of crops.

New Delhi [India], December 5,2020: Replacement of single-use plastic items is important and India has practically achieved replacement and is adopting alternative methods, said Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Environment on Friday.
“Replacement of single-use plastic items is important and India has practically achieved replacement and is adopting alternative methods,” said Javadekar.
He further stated that India has already banned single-use plastic and categories have also been made.
“There have been people’s awareness movements built around this too and the ban has achieved tremendous success and will be taken to the logical end,” he added.
In a virtual meeting with Patricia Espinoza, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, said that today many countries are pushing the climate change agendas to 2050. Taking actions today is more important than long term rosy targets, Javadekar tweeted.
“I welcome the proposal of India and France putting in joint efforts towards climate change and sustainability, particularly towards preventing the use of single-use plastic,” he added.

NEW YORK ,Dec 5,2020:Next year is shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe and rich countries must not trample poor countries in a “stampede for vaccines” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, top U.N. officials told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke during a special meeting on COVID-19, which emerged in China late last year and has so far infected 65 million globally.

The pandemic, measures taken by countries to try to stop its spread and the economic impact have fueled a 40% increase in the number of people needing humanitarian help, the United Nations said earlier this week. It has appealed for $35 billion in aid funding.

“2021 is literally going to be catastrophic based on what we’re seeing at this stage of the game,” said Beasley, adding that for a dozen countries, famine is “knocking on the door.”

He said 2021 was likely to be “the worst humanitarian crisis year since the beginning of the United Nations” 75 years ago and “we’re not going to be able to fund everything … so we have to prioritize, as I say, the icebergs in front of the Titanic.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his top officials have also called for COVID-19 vaccines to be made available to all and for rich countries to help developing countries combat and recover from the pandemic.

Tedros appealed for an immediate injection of $4.3 billion into a world vaccine-sharing program.

“We simply cannot accept a world in which the poor and marginalized are trampled by the rich and powerful in the stampede for vaccines,” Tedros told the General Assembly. “This is a global crisis and the solutions must be shared equitably as global public goods.”

GENEVA ,Dec 05,2020: World Health Organization officials on Friday warned governments and citizens not to drop their guard over the COVID pandemic now a vaccination was close, saying healthcare systems could still buckle under pressure.
Britain approved Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, raising hopes that the tide could soon turn against a virus that has killed nearly 1.5 million people globally, hammered the world economy and upended normal life for billions.

“Progress on vaccines gives us all a lift and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, WHO is concerned that there is a growing perception that the COVID-19 pandemic is over,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a Geneva news conference.

Tedros said the pandemic still had a long way to run and that decisions made by citizens and governments would determine its course in the short run and when the pandemic would ultimately end.

“We know it’s been a hard year and people are tired, but in hospitals that are running at or over capacity it’s the hardest it can possibly be,” he said.

“The truth is that at present, many places are witnessing very high transmission of the COVID-19 virus, which is putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and health workers.”

The virus emerged in Wuhan, China, a year ago since when more than 65 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1.5 million have died.

Two promising vaccines could soon receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and some 20 million Americans could be vaccinated this year, helping stem the tide of the virus in the world’s worst hit country.

However, the WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan also cautioned on Friday against complacency in the wake of vaccine roll-out, saying that although they were a major part of the battle against COVID-19, vaccines would not on their own end the pandemic.

“Vaccines do not equal zero COVID,” he said.

Ryan said some countries would have to sustain very strong control measures for some time into the future or they would risk a “blow up” in cases, and a yo-yoing of the pandemic.

“We are in a pivotal moment in some countries. There are health systems in some countries at the point of collapse,” he said, without referring to specific countries.
COVAX ROLLOUT

The WHO has backed the COVAX global vaccines programme which seeks to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines and to date has seen 189 countries join.

The WHO’s chief scientist said she hoped half a billion vaccine doses would be available for distribution by the COVAX scheme in the first quarter of 2021, with an initial plan to vaccinate the 20% of populations at highest risk, including health workers and people aged over 65.

“The goal is to get at least 2 billion doses by end of 2021 which will be enough to vaccinate 20% of the populations of countries that are part of COVAX,” chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told the news conference.

This would be enough to “bring to an end the acute phase of the pandemic” by reducing mortality and the impact on health systems, she said.

COVAX is co-led by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). The United States has not signed up to the scheme, having secured bilateral deals.

Islamabad, Dec 6,2020: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that he is willing to give up his political office rather than to give an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) to the opposition.

Khan made the comments during an interview given to a local news channel, Dawn reported.

He added that he will leave the office of prime minister but will never betray the country by giving relief to the opposition.

Khan further said that the opposition parties have been blackmailing the government since day one to grant them amnesty and said that the NRO given to the opposition by former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf has had disastrous effects upon the country, leading to an increase in debt liabilities.

“Our biggest problem is that we have debt and there is a deficit between what we earn and what we spend,” Khan said in the interview.

With regards the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) upcoming rally in Lahore on December 13, Khan said that the government has decided to not grant them permission for staging the demonstration, even as he said that the government would not stop the opposition from participating in the rally.

He said that the reason for not giving the opposition permission to hold their rally was to safeguard the health of the Pakistani society in general especially in view of the rise in the number of COVID cases.

He maintained that the government had cancelled its own rallies and public gatherings after the country witnessed an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

Rome, Italy,Dec05,2020: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has said Saudi Arabia would only normalise ties with Israel within a plan that would deliver a sovereign state to Palestinians, quashing speculation that the kingdom may soon become the latest Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.

“What we need to make [normalisation of ties with Israel] happen is a peace deal that delivers a Palestinian state with dignity and with a workable sovereignty that Palestinians can accept,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said on Friday.

Prince Faisal was addressing an online talk at Med2020, a yearly international forum held every year in Italy’s capital Rome bringing together world leaders.

He said Saudi Arabia envisaged normalisation of ties with Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borderlines.

“That deal would have to be negotiated, but what is important now is to bring back Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table to work towards a fair deal,” Prince Faisal said.

The so-called Abraham Accords were signed in September to normalise ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.

The agreements, brokered by US President Donald Trump’s administration, included a freeze by Israel on planned annexation of Palestinian land.

Palestinian officials condemned the normalisation as “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people”.

Prince Faisal said a normalisation of ties with Israel has long been part of Saudi Arabia’s vision.

“It was first put on the table in Fez in 1982 by then Crown Prince Fahad,” he said.

“We still have that same vision, whereby Israel becomes a normal part of the region, where it has fully normal relations with the neighbours. What we need to make it happen is to deliver a [Palestinian] state.”

The two-state solution closely reflects the Arab Peace Initiative, which was proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002. The initiative called for normalised relations between Israel and other Arab states in exchange for a full withdrawal by Israel from lands it occupied in the 1967 war, including the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The initiative was re-endorsed over the years by the Arab League but never implemented, as Israel continued its occupation and settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Qatar’s position

Just a few hours earlier, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also delivered Qatar’s take on the Abraham Accords to the Med2020 platform, saying Qatar did not consider them as helping the Palestinian cause.

Al Thani said the Palestinian issue would have to be at the core of any normalisation agreement between Qatar and Israel.

“If there are chances for peace, based on a just resolution of the Palestinian issue, establishing a [Palestinian] sovereign independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to the Arab Peace Initiative, Qatar will go along with other countries in the region,” said the minister.

“Right now, I don’t see that the normalisation of ties between Qatar and Israel is going to add value to the Palestinian issue.”

Al Thani said Qatar had a “working relationship” with Israel aimed at facilitating the delivery of aid and development support to the Palestinian people.

“For the time being this relationship is sufficient to benefit our brothers in Palestine.”

New Delhi, Dec 4,2020: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday requested the Centre to listen to the farmers, who are protesting on the borders of the National Capital against the new farm laws, with an open mind and quickly resolve the standoff.

In a tweet after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Punjab Chief Minister said, ‘Today I met Union Home Minister @AmitShah Ji and reiterated the need to protect MSP & continue with the APMC based mandi system. Requested him to listen to the farmers with an open mind & quickly resolve the standoff.’

The Punjab Chief Minister told reporters that although he and his government are not involved in any way for mediation and the issue has to be resolved on behalf of the Central Government and the farmers.

Thousands of farmers who are protesting for the past one week on the borders of the National Capital on Wednesday reiterated their demand of withdrawal of new farm laws. Their unions had said that farmers will go back only after their demands are met.

Farmers’ organisations had also called on the Government to call a special session of Parliament to repeal the new farm laws and to give legal status to the minimum support price of crops.