meeting called by Prime ... upper and lower for men and women, ... and DMK’s leader of house in the Lok Sabha TR Baalu. The Congress is yet to name Leader of the party in

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Still licking her wounds fromthe electoral defeat at the

hands of the BJP in parliamen-tary elections, West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee has decided againstjoining the NITI Ayog meeting,to be attened by Chief Ministersand chaired by the PrimeMinister.

The TMC chief on Fridaysaid she would not attend themeeting called by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inNew Delhi on June 15. She saidit is “simply useless” to attendthe meet as its agenda is fixedby the Centre without consult-ing the States.

Mamata also demanded acollegium be set up on thelines of Supreme Court toappoint ElectionCommissioners. Hitting out atthe Election Commission forwhat she alleged was its parti-san approach during the LokSabha polls, Mamata said threenominated members of the ECshould not be given the man-date to hold polls.

She appealed to all theOpposition parties to unitedlydemand constitution of a fact-finding committee to unravelalleged EVM tampering andelectoral malpractices. “Thereare numerous evidences ofEVM programming and elec-tion malpractices. We thinkthere should be a fact-findingcommittee to unravel the tam-pering of EVMs, hawala trans-actions. Other Opposition par-

ties should also demand it. I willspeak to the Congress regardingthis demand,” Mamata saidafter a party meeting here.

She has has written a letterto the Prime Minister express-ing her disapproval of the NITIAayog that was formed by theModi Government post 2014.The Aayog had replaced thePlanning Commission.

“I had written to youregarding the dissolution of thePlanning Commission as it hadplayed significant role in work-ing with the States,” she wrote inthe letter iterating that “NITIAayog was formed with nofinancial powers.”

The TMC chief alsoreminded that the institution“lacks the power of supporting

the annual plan of States as thereis no financial power with theNITI Aayog,” adding “it is fruit-less to attend the meeting.”

“The experience of lastfour-and-half years we had withNiti Aayog brings me back tomy earlier suggestion to you thatwe focus on Inter-State Councilconstituted under Article 263 ofthe Constitution, with appro-priate modifications to enableISC to discharge its augmentedrange of functions as the nodalentity of the country,” she said.

Both Modi and Mamatafired relentless salvos at eachother during their two-monthlong election campaign oftenraising personal issues in theelectoral slugfest.

Decrying the Chief

Minister’s decision not to jointhe NITI Aayog meeting, theBengal BJP leadership on Fridaysaid by doing so “she is hidingfacts.”

Attacking Mamata, WestBengal BJP president DilipGhosh said, “The Chief Ministerknows that she will have to givedetailed accounts of the grantsthat her Government receivedfrom the Centre all these years.She also knows that herGovernment will fail in doing sobecause of huge financialembezzlements. So she is notgoing in order to hide herselffrom embarrassment andaction.”

He also said that Mamatawas not able to rise from thepetty regional politics. “Besides,she is mixing politics withdevelopment which is also thereason why she is not going toDelhi. Her anger is against theBJP because she knows that after2021 her empire will crumbledown. This is an expression ofthat anger against staringdefeat,” said Ghosh.

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Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel, who led

his Congress party to a stun-ning victory late last year inassembly polls, will unveil hisvision for development onSaturday at the first-everIntellectuals Meet in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh.

Over a hundred intellec-tuals from Chhattisgarh andoutside are scheduled toassemble at Raipur’s premierhotel, Babylon Inn, to hold around-table discussion on keynational and internationalissues. The mega function willbegin at sharp 10.30 am.

C Uday Bhaskar- India’stop security expert, willaddress intellectuals about thesecurity challenges that thecountry is presently facinginternally and externally.

Country’s leading mediapersonalities Tarun Basu— theformer chief editor andfounder director of India’slargest private news agencyIANS and Chandan Mitra-chief editor of The Pioneernewspaper group, will alsoshare their thoughts withguests.

Sudhindra Bhadoria,national spokesperson of theBSP, will also offer his sugges-tions on how to spur growth inChhattisgarh that has one-fifth of India’s iron ore and coalreserves. Senior Congressleader and former union min-ister Renuka Chowdhury willalso exchange her thoughtson women empowerment.

Brigadier BK Ponwar,Director of Chhattisgarh-basedCounter Terrorism and JungleWarfare College (CTJWC) willmake a brief presentationabout ground reality of leftistmilitancy existing inChhattisgarh’s sprawling Bastarregion since late 1980s.

The concept of theIntellectuals’ Meet has beensolely planned by the Group of

Thinkers (GoT), a group ofpeople comprising journalists,policy makers, bureaucrats,social activists and education-ists of central India.

The GoT has been found-ed by Sujeet Kumar, the jour-nalist who worked with sever-al national and internationalmedia organisations since helaunched his career in jour-nalism in 1998.

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Acombo of yoga and khadi will rock theworld on International Yoga Day on June

21 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi willlead the enthusiasts across the globe in per-forming asanas on khadi yoga mats atRanchi in Jharkhand.

KVIC has received orders for supplying60,000 yoga mats to the Ministry of AYUSHto mark the fifth International Yoga Day.

While the AYUSH Ministry, the nodalagency for conducting the yoga day in thecountry, has purchased 60,000 Yoga mats, theNew Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC)and Khadi institutions have placed an orderfor 2,000 and 400 Khadi Yoga kits respec-tively. KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxenasaid the orders have created additional jobopportunities and extra man-hours in theKhadi sector.

“These purchase orders of around Rs2.50 crore have been given to KVIC for sup-plying 60,000 yoga mats, besides 2,400 yogakits... For the order from Ministry ofAYUSH, 17 Khadi institutions from UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana weregiven the assignments to supply yoga mats,”Saxena said.

The yoga kit included nine items likeupper and lower for men and women,Khadi napkin, yoga mat and a bag. The nap-kin has been stitched by the women of mil-itancy affected families of Jammu & Kashmirliving near Nagrota, he said.

To add to the style quotient, a unique tri-colour Khadi garland (sootmala) has beenincluded in the yoga kit, Saxena said.

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The Centre on Friday reachedout to UPA chairperson

Sonia Gandhi seeking supportfrom the principal Oppositiongrouping as also her party,Congress, for the smooth func-tioning of the ParliamentSession beginning June 17.Parliamentary Affairs MinisterPralhad Joshi accompanied byUnion Ministers NarendraSingh Tomar and Arjun RamMeghwal called on Sonia whowas elected as CongressParliamentary Party chief lastweek by the party leaders.

“Our meeting with SoniaGandhi was very cordial. Wesought her cooperation for thesmooth functioning ofParliament. She said they(Opposition) also need coop-eration from treasury benches.I told her that the Governmenthas always been ready to coop-erate,” Joshi told reporters afterthe meeting at Sonia’s resi-dence. The session, the first ofthe 17th Lok Sabha, will go ontill July 26 and the budget willbe tabled on July 5.

Joshi’s visit to Sonia Gandhi’sresidence is part of theGovernment’s exercise to reachout to the Opposition. The meet-ing lasted around 15 minutes,sources said. Joshi also had metLeader of the Opposition in theRajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azadand DMK’s leader of house in theLok Sabha TR Baalu.

The Congress is yet to

name Leader of the party inLok Sabha as the grand oldparty is still devoid of the sta-tus of Leader of Opposition forsecond time in a row in the LokSabha since the party did notsecured the requisite numbers(55 MPs of a party). In the 2014General elections it got 44while in the latest it got 52.

“We are meeting all theOpposition leaders to requestfor their party’s cooperationand smooth functioning of theParliament,” Tomar said.Others who have made effortsto meet Opposition membersincludes Minister of State VMuraleedharan. The Congresssources said the Governmenthas convened an all-partymeeting in the Parliament onJune 16, a day ahead of the startof the Lok Sabha session, whereit will seek the cooperation ofall political parties to ensure a

smooth session.The first session of the

newly-elected Lok Sabha willbe convened from June 17 toJuly 26 and the new govern-ment led by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will present itsfirst Budget on July 5. The 40-day session will have 30 sittings.

Besides presentation of thebudget, the Government isplanning to convert into law 10new ordinances, including theone to ban the practice ofinstant triple talaq. The ordi-nances were issued inFebruary-March this year bythe previous Government.After the new MPs take oath onthe first two days, the LokSabha Speaker’s election isscheduled for June 19.President Ram Nath Kovindwill address a joint sitting ofboth houses of Parliament onJune 20.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Friday announced that the mon-soon was very likely to set in overKerala in the next 24 hours, aweek after its normal onset date.

But in the North, at least 19people lost their lives leaving 48injured in duststorm and light-ning in Uttar Pradesh, ReliefCommissioner GS Priyadarshisaid on Friday. Severe heatwaveconditions are likely to prevailover Delhi, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh, Vidarbha, and UttarPradesh this weekend. TheNortheast States will receiveheavy rainfall for the nextthree-four days. Large parts ofthe country are also parcheddue to drought in 245 districtslast year. According to theCentral Water Commission,water storage in reservoirs ofmost States of west and southIndia has dipped to less thanthe average of last 10 years.

With southwest monsoonexpected to make its landfallwithin next 24 hours, an orangealert has been issued in Keralaby the State Disaster

Management Authority. Largeparts of the country are parchedbecause of below-normal pre-monsoon rainfall that ended inMay with a 24 per cent deficitover the long period average(LPA). LPA is the average rain-fall received during monsoonmonths in the 1951-2000 peri-ods. People are resorting tospecial puja or ‘Mahayagya’ indifferent parts of the country forbetter monsoon.

The IMD in its bulletin saidthat an offshore trough was“very likely to develop aroundJune 8, off Maharashtra coast toKerala coast. In associationwith these favourable condi-tions, Southwest monsoon isvery likely to set in over Keraladuring next 48 hours”. TheIMD bulletin also informed alow-pressure area was very like-ly to form off the Kerala-

Karnataka coast around June 9,which would gradually movenorth-northwestwards andintensify further. The ClimatePrediction Centre (CPC) of theUS National Weather Serviceattributes the delay to anom-alous easterly winds (due to pre-monsoon activity) in the lowerlevels. These winds need to besouth-westerly to precipitatethe onset of monsoon.

According to the USagency, model guidance sug-gests a weakening of the anom-alous easterlies and the returnto a normal monsoonal flowpattern towards the end of theweek from June 12-18.

The monsoon is delayed bya week, as it usually arrives inthe State on June 1. The delaywill also impact the arrival ofthe monsoon in other parts ofsouth and central India. The

delay has raised anxiety amongfarmers, who depend heavily onrains for irrigating their fields.The delay in monsoon, coupledwith uneven distribution dur-ing the four months of the rainyseason, can adversely impactsummer crops, especiallypaddy, pulses and oilseeds.

Meanwhile, people in dif-ferent parts of the country areresorting to off-beat methods topropitiate rain gods. Amahayagya is being performedin Belwan village of KhizirsaraiBlock in Bihar for better mon-soon. The mahayagya will con-tinue for 10 days. In Bengaluru,special pooja was performed atSomeshwara temple in Halasuruto please the rain God.

The orange alert indicatesvery heavy rainfall in Kollamand Alappuzha districts forJune 9 and inThiruvananthapuram, Kollam,Alappuzha and Ernakulam dis-tricts for June 10 in Kerala.According to the IMD, squallyweather is predicted along andoff the Kerala coast andSouthwest Arabian Sea.Fishermen have been advisednot to venture into the sea.

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About to embark on his firstforeign tour in second

term, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday said his two-day-long visit to Maldives andSri Lanka beginning Saturdayreflects the importance Indiaattaches to its ‘NeighbourhoodFirst’ policy and that it will fur-ther cement bilateral and strate-gic ties with the two countriesin the Indian Ocean.

Modi will first travel to theMaldives, from where he willgo to Sri Lanka on Sunday.

“I am confident that my visitto the Maldives and Sri Lankawill further strengthen our closeand cordial ties with our mar-itime neighbours, in line withour ‘Neighbourhood-FirstPolicy’ and the vision of securi-ty and growth for all in theregion,” the Prime Minister said.

In a pre-departure state-ment, he said his visit to SriLanka is to express India’s sol-idarity with the governmentand the people of the islandnation in the wake of the “ter-rible terrorist attacks” thereon April 21.

“The people of India standfirmly with the people of SriLanka, who suffered great agonyand destruction in the wake ofthe horrific terror attacks onEaster. We fully support SriLanka in the fight against terror,”he said. Sri Lanka was hit by awave of bombings on EasterSunday in which over 250 peo-ple were killed.

About his visit to Maldives,Modi said India considers thecountry as a valued partnerwith whom it shares deepbonds of history and culture.“Our bilateral relations with theMaldives have been greatlystrengthened in the recent past.I am confident that my visit willfurther deepen our multi-faceted partnership,” he said.The Prime Minister visited theMaldives in November toattend President Ibrahim Solih’sswearing-in ceremony.

The relations between Indiaand the Maldives deterioratedafter the then President AbdullaYameen imposed emergency onFebruary 5, last year. However,ties were back on track underSolih’s presidency.

“I also had the opportunity

to attend the inauguration ofPresident Solih in November2018. My visit to the Maldives isreflective of the importance weboth attach to our relationship asmaritime neighbours and long-standing friends,” Modi said.

Foreign Secretary VijayGokhale on Thursday saidboth sides are expected sign anumber of agreements to deep-en cooperation in specific areasduring Modi’s visit. On SriLanka, Modi said India’s tieswith it have gained consider-able momentum in the last fewyears. Sri Lankan PresidentMaithripala Sirisena visitedIndia last week to India Modi’sswearing-in ceremony. “I lookforward to meeting the SriLankan leadership during myvisit,” Modi said.

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With the final list of theNational Register of

Citizens (NRC) getting ready tobe published in less than twomonths, the Centre has set theball rolling for those whosenames are missing to approachthe foreigners tribunals. Thetribunals will deliver their ver-dict within four months ofmissing persons submittingtheir records.

Exercising its powers con-ferred by the Foreigners Act,1946, the Central Governmenthas issued an order saying aperson whose name is not partof the National Register ofCitizens, currently being updat-ed in Assam, can approach anysuch tribunal with a certified

copy of the rejection orderreceived from the NRC author-ities along with the grounds forappeal. The order wasuploaded on the website of theMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) on Thursday night.

“The final order of the tri-bunal shall contain its opinionon the matter whether theAppellant is eligible for inclu-

sion in the NRC or not. It shallalso contain the opinion of thetribunal on the reference of theDistrict Magistrate. The finalorder of the tribunal shall be aconcise statement of facts andconclusion based on whichthe tribunal has arrived at suchan opinion.

“The final order of the tri-bunal containing its opinion

shall be given within a periodof one hundred and twenty daysfrom the date of production ofthe records,” the MHA ordersaid. When the draft NRC waspublished on July 30, 2018,there was a huge controversyover the exclusion of 40.7 lakhpeople from it. The draft NRCincluded the names of 2.9 crorepeople out of the total 3.29 crore

applications. The final NRC, alist of Assam’s residents, will bepublished on July 31.

There were many contro-versies related to the function-ing o f the Tribunals, after itrejected an Indian Army offi-cer’s petition against deletinghis name and considering himas an infiltrator.

The Guwahati High Courton Friday ordered the release ofEx-Army officer MohammadSanaullah who was sent to adetention camp after aForeigner Tribunal adjudgedhim a non-citizen. Noticeissued to Central Government,Assam Government, StateCoordinator NRC Assam andothers. Advocate Indira Jaisingappeared for him in the High Court.

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Union Health Minister Dr HarshVardhan on Friday launched a new-

age, hand-held battery-operated device,called ‘Raman 1.0’, for rapid detection ofeconomically driven adulteration in edi-ble oils, fats and ghee.

The equipment, Raman Spectrometer(built by Oak Analytics) can test morethan 250 samples per battery charge, col-lects and stores data on the cloud usinga smart device. This is the first of 19 suchequipment and methods that have beenprovisionally approved by Food Safety andStandard Authority of India (FSSAI) forstrengthening the food testing infra-structure in the country.

The gadget was launched at the first-ever World Food Safety Day celebrationorganised by the FSSAI here. Addressingthe audience, Harsh Vardhan appealed topeople to make the “eat less and eat right”campaign a mass movement to ensureeven one grain of food is not wasted andeveryone has food to eat.

He said health is not only absence ofdisease and infirmity but the presence ofphysical, mental, emotional and spiritu-al well-ness.

The Minister also unveiled a statue of‘Gandhiji on a bicycle’ installed at theFSSAI complex. “As we commemorate the150th birth anniversary of Bapu, the stat-ue symbolises his journey towards goodhealth and shall constantly inspire peo-ple for emulating his good health prac-tices,” he said.

Minister of State for Health AshwiniKumar Choubey said that clean food willresult in a clean body, mind and thoughtsand deeds. For this, people’s awarenessabout safe and healthy food and partici-pation is critical to make an impact onsociety.

The FSSAI also released the first edi-tion of the State Food Safety Index, thatmeasures the performance of the Stateson key parameters of food safety.

Vardhan also felicitated seven lead-ing States/UTs based on the ranking forthe year 2018-2019 for their impressive

performance. These were Chandigarh,Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

States such as Bihar, Delhi, Jammu &Kashmir, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh fol-lowed close behind.

An innovative solution to take foodsafety to schools, called the ‘Food SafetyMagic Box’ was also launched by Vardhan.This do-it-yourself food testing kit com-prises a manual and equipment to checkfor food adulterants, which schoolchildrencan use in their classroom laboratories.

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The Election Commission(EC) has issued a formal

order making it clear that dis-sent views will not be madepart of orders relating to modelcode violation cases, an issuewhich had led to acrimonybetween the top brass of thepoll panel. The office orderwhich was issued on June 4,states that only the majority orunanimous view will be part oforders in such cases.

The EC had rejected with amajority vote election commis-sioner Ashok Lavasa’s demandthat dissent notes should berecorded in its orders on modelcode violations on May 21. The‘full commission’ of the panel,comprising Chief ElectionCommissioner Sunil Arora and

two other members — Lavasaand Sushil Chandra — deliber-ated on the contentious issue,after which the Commissionsaid that dissent notes andminority views would remainpart of records but would not bepart of its order. The officeorder now puts the decision inblack and white.

The order states that whileLavasa has maintained thatminority view should be manda-torily made part of the order andthus be put in public domain,Arora and Chandra are of theview that the final order shouldonly reflect the majority orunanimous view of the panel.

They have maintained thatorders in model code violationcases are executive or admin-istrative in nature, therefore,there is no scope to add a dis-

sent view. Officials said, anydissent view will be recorded inthe files of the Commission andpeople can go through it usingthe Right to Information Act.

Citing the law which statesthat the EC should try to takedecision unanimously to theextent possible, else by way ofmajority, the order said sinceArora and Chandra are againstincluding dissent views inorders relating to model codeviolations, only “final decision”“whether arrived unanimouslyor by way of majority” will bereflected in such orders. Lavasahad dissented on at least five outof 11 clean chits given by theCommission to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and BJP presi-dent Amit Shah on their speech-es during the election campaign.

As his demand to record his

dissent notes in EC’s orders wasnot met, Lavasa recused himselffrom cases relating to relating toviolations of model code ofconduct. In a strongly-wordedletter to Arora on May 4, Lavasais learnt to have said that he isbeing forced to stay away fromthe meetings of the full com-mission since minority deci-sions are not being recorded.

The EC had maintainedthat the dissent notes cannot bemade part of the order as thepoll code violation cases are notquasi judicial in nature and thatthey are not signed by the chiefelection commissioner (CEC)and fellow commissioners.

As per the law governingthe functioning of the EC,efforts should be to have una-nimity but in cases of dissent amajority (2:1) view prevails.

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Former Commissioner ofKolkata Police Rajeev

Kumar on Friday appearedbefore the CBI in connectionwith the multi-crore Saradhachit fund scam.

Kumar, who is presentlythe Additional DirectorGeneral of police in the CrimeInvestigation Department(CID), reached the agency’soffice in the morning to facequestioning by the CBI sleuths,for the first time after theSupreme Court last month lift-ed the protection granted tohim from any coercive actionby the investigative body.

However, Kumar had beeninterrogated in February by the

CBI officials in Shillong underdirections of the SupremeCourt which had asked him tocooperate with the probeagency.

The senior police officerwas heading the SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) ofWest Bengal Police before theCentral Bureau of Investigationtook over the case into theSaradha scam in which thou-sands of gullible small investorswere duped under the lurepromising returns from theinvestments.

The CBI had in May issueda look out notice against Kumarand directed all airports andimmigration authorities to alertit if they spot him in order toprevent him from fleeing the

country.Kumar had earlier evaded

questioning by the CBI afterthe SC lifted the protectionfrom arrest last month andmoved the Calcutta HighCourt seeking quashing of theCBI notice against him.

The Calcutta HC grantedhim protection from coerciveaction till July 10 but asked theIPS officer to cooperate withthe CBI in the probe.

In April, the CBI had toldthe Supreme Court thatKumar’s custodial interrogationwas necessary as he was notcooperating in the probe and was “evasive” and“arrogant” in answering thequestions posed to him duringgrilling.

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New Delhi: FormerKarnataka Minister and min-ing baron Gali JanardhanaReddy, an accused in a multi-crore rupee illegal miningcase, was on Friday allowed bythe Supreme Court to visit hishome town Ballari to see hisailing father-in-law.

A vacation Bench com-prising Justices IndiraBanerjee and Ajay Rastogihowever expressed concernover the delay in framing ofcharges and starting of thetrial in the Rs 35,000 croremining scam.

“We are concerned as towhy charges have not beenframed and trial yet not start-ed,” the bench said whilepulling up the CBI, the pros-ecuting agency in the case.

The Bench, which per-mitted Reddy to attend to hisfather-in-law for two weeksfrom June 8, refused howev-er to consider his requestseeking dilution of the previ-ous condition barring him tovisit Ballari, Karnataka, with-out the court’s prior nod.

Senior advocate S Ganesh,appearing for Reddy, said onseveral occasions he has beenpermitted to visit Ballari andthere was not a single com-plaint that he violated bailconditions.

“This time, his father-in-law had suffered a stroke. Hehad undergone three bypasssurgeries. His medical condi-tion is extremely precariousand he was lying in ICU of ahospital over there,” the lawyersaid. During the brief hearing,the lawyer also said thatdespite the apex court direc-tion of July 2016 to speed upthe trial, it has not even start-ed as the charges are yet to beframed. Additional SolicitorGeneral Madhavi Divan, whoappeared for the probe agency,opposed the plea for relax-ation of restrictions imposedon Reddy on his visit to Ballariand said that he was the mainaccused in the case.

“Why charges were notframed for six years. We areconcerned about the delay,”the Bench asked. The chargescould not be framed becausefew other co-accused havefiled pleas seeking dischargefrom the case and they are still pending, the law offi-cer said, adding that CBIwould like to file a detailedreply in the case. PTI

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | SATURDAY | JUNE 08, 2019

Chandan Mitra Chief Editor of The Pioneer newspaper group (L) was accordedwarm welcome on Friday at Raipur Airport by Sujeet Kumar, Resident Editor, ThePioneer Raipur edition.

(L to R): Country’s leading media personalities Tarun Basu- the former chiefeditor and founder director of India’s largest private news agency IANS along withC Uday Bhaskar- India’s top security expert- arrived at Swami VivekanandaAirport on Friday. The two are in city to take part in the Intellectuals Meet-Changing Chhattisgarh, New Leadership, New Vision to be organized by TheGroup of Thinkers- a group of people comprising journalists, policy makers,bureaucrats, social activists and educationists of central India. They were warmlyreceived by State Head The Pioneer Raipur edition, Madhu Didwania.

STAFF REPORTER nDANTEWADA

Scores of tribal villagers ofBastar region under the

banner of SanyuktaPanchayat Jan SangharshSamiti launched an indefi-nite protest against allot-ment of a iron ore depositof the state-owned NationalMineral DevelopmentCorporation (NMDC) toAdani group’s AdaniEnterprises Limited (AEL).

The villagers assem-bled at the check post ofthe NMDC at the weehours of Friday. However,the production work of theNMDC was unaffected bythe ongoing agitation.

A large contingent ofthe District ReserveGuards was deployed tocontrol the agitated vil-lagers.

The hillock on whichthe NMDC coal block no13 is situated, which has

been allotted to the AEL, isworshipped by the tribalsas nature deity and a largenumber of tribals residingin the block are to be dis-placed because of theAdani group’s project.

Meanwhile, theNMDC has clarified that10 MTPA capacity

Bailadila Iron Ore Deposit-13 at Kirandul, Distt.Dantewada is being devel-oped under a Joint VentureCompany called theNMDC-CMDC Limited(NCL).

In this JV Companyshare holding of theNMDC is 51% only. The

other shareholder having49% share is ChhattisgarhMineral DevelopmentCorporation (State Govt.Undertaking), a NMDCpress release said.

The NCL is the ownerof Deposit No.13 and theMining Lease of Deposit13 is registered with this

Joint venture company.The mining lease will notbe transferred to Adani norto others at any point oftime.

The Land required forthis project will beacquired in the name of JVCompany only and theNCL shall only havethe selling rights of IronOre so produced fromDeposit-13.

Only the Contract ofExcavation and MineDevelopment is awarded toM/S. Adani EnterprisesLimited to work as MineDeveloper-Cum-Operator(MDO), the release said.

The work was awardedto Adani by inviting opentenders through transpar-ent e-tendering portal ofMSTC (A Govt. IndiaEnterprises).

Total Ten (10) Bidderspurchased the TenderDocument and four bidswere received by the due

date. Three bidders quali-fied and one offer wasrejected as bidder was notmeeting the qualifyingrequirements. Price bids ofall the three qualified bid-ders were opened and itwas followed by reverse

e-bidding process last-ing for six hours. Out ofthree bidders, M/S. AdaniEnterprises Limited havequoted lowest price andthey have been declared asthe lowest bidder.

Thus, the work hasbeen awarded to M/s.Adani Enterprises Ltd. onlowest offer basis by fol-lowing proper transparenttender procedure.

Awarded cost pertonne of Adani is found tobe very economical ascompared to similarlydeveloped mines.

Any propaganda inthis regard is condemned,V.S. Prabhakar, CEO, NCLsaid in the release.

Tribal villagers protest before NMDCagainst iron block allotment to Adani’s AELThe production work of the NMDC was unaffected by the ongoing agitation

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh culture andarchaeology department began

the excavation work at villageReeva near Lakholi village ofRaipur district.

The archaeological site is situ-ated on Rajim-Sirpur Path.

Culture and archaeologydepartment’s director Anil Sahusaid the site has been selected afterprimary survey. Remains of first

and second century are expected tobe found at the site. The excavationis being done under PadmashreeDr Arun Kumar Sharma.

Sharma said that it wasbelieved that a settlement, datingback to Maurya period, was thereand that during Somvanshi rulersthe ‘vihar’ and temples were con-structed. Archaeology Deputydirector J. R. Bhagat said based onthe bricks obtained from the sitethe dating has been done.

STAFF REPORTER nDURG

Six engineering stu-dents from Bhilai, tak-

ing assistance from gov-ernment incubation cen-tre began a startup com-pany TECHB with a smallinvestment three yearsago.

Today using theirtechnical innovation theyhave turned the companyinto a major success storywith an annual turnoverof Rs 6 crore.

Now, they have gener-ated employment for 60engineers and technicians

along with sales staffwhile around 15 engi-

neers are doing intern-ship.

Company directorAbhishek Ambust saidwhile studying in collegewith the help of internetthey had made a 3-Dprinter model. It was dis-played at IIT Kharagpurand Kanpur. It was highlyappreciated, which moti-vated them to make it forcommercial use.

Industries depart-ment of the state govern-ment provided platformat Incubation Centre forstart-up company, whichfacilitated in meeting theclients. Now the companyhas units at Bhilai andDelhi.

COO ManishAgrawal said the printershave been purchased byISRO and DRDO as theyrequire metals which arelight in weight. The prod-ucts are made as perrequirement of compa-nies.

Production directorVikas Choudhary saidnow supply to foreigncountries has begun. Theorder from Ethiopia hasbeen received.

Abhishek said nowtheir focus is on researchon products which canhave market in future.Example, such pro-

grammes where by sittingat home or office one canswitch off or on the fan-lights, which is mainlyrelated to artificial intelli-gence. The six directorsare looking after differentwings. Anup Sinha looksafter Delhi operation andsales, while Rinku Sahuoversees the accounts. Hesaid industries depart-ment extended assistanceby allocating stalls in dif-ferent events.

Assistant managerDistrict Industries CentreTushar Tripathi said thesuccess of the startup ismotivating other youths.

C’garh engineers turn collegeproject into business model

Excavation beginsat archaeologicalsite in Reeva

STAFF REPORTER nDHAMTARI

Under Suraji YojanaNarva Garva Ghurva

Badi (NGGB) ofChhattisgarh government,Gauthans (cowsheds) arebeing constructed all overthe state.

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel has termed these cowsheds part of ancient ruraltradition of the region andsaid that proper manage-ment of these sheds willstrengthen rural economy.

Baghel was addressing agathering while inaugurat-ing a model cowshed at vil-lage Hanchalpur in Kurud

block of Dhamtari district.On this occasion he opinedthat these cowsheds woulddevelop better breed of cattleand will strengthen the eco-nomic condition of farmersand women self help groups.

In Hanchalpur a model

cowshed for 940 cattle hasbeen constructed on 9 acresof land. Under the Narvadevelopment, a stop damworth Rs 50 Lakh has alsobeen constructed near thecowshed in Demar Nullahwhich will quench the thirst

of the cattle. The water avail-able in the stop dam can alsobe used for daily chore andfor irrigation purpose, hesaid.

On this occasion Baghelalso talked to woman selfhelp groups about cow urine,cow dung, pesticide pre-pared from Neem and biofertilizer and advised thewomen present to becomeself dependent by associat-ing with these products.

Baghel also conducted aChaupal’ under a Neem treein the village and opined thatthe biggest problem in han-dling cattle was arrangementof fodder and drinking waterfor them. The cow sheds will

provide villagers a place likeday care for their cattle, hesaid.

The construction ofcowsheds will also preventgrazing of crop by cattle andthere will be no need forfarmers to put up fencing intheir field to save the crop,he added.

Baghel also distributedsaplings of vegetables andfruit bearing trees to thefarmers on this occasion.District Collector RAJATBansal and Zila PanchayatChief Executive OfficerVijay Dayaram were presenton the occasion. Theyapprised the CM about theprogress of the Suraji Yojana.

‘Gauthans’ will be developed as daycare centres for cattle: Baghel STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Health andFamily Welfare and

Medical Education MinisterT. S. Singhdeo called on hiscounterpart in the centralgovernment Harsh Vardhanat New Delhi on Friday andurged him to withdraw theMedical Council of India(MCI)’s decision to denyadmission in AmbikapurMedical College for the year2019-20.

The MCI denied permis-sion for the admission under10A of the MCI Act, 1956 forthe academic year 2019-20,citing various deficiencies.Ambikapur Medical Collegehas at present 100 seats.

Singhdeo briefing Union

Health and Family WelfareMinister said the state govern-ment is making all efforts toaddress the deficiencies point-ed out by the MCI in its verifi-cation assessments report.

Recruitment of facultymembers, resident doctors,staff nurses and non-teachingstaff and introduction ofinternet, library and otherfacilities have been done after

election model code of con-duct was lifted. A new med-ical college building willcome up within a year.

State Health minister alsopointed out that tribal popu-lation that reside withinaround 300 km radius of thecollege depend on this terti-ary health centre and state isalready facing acute shortageof doctors.

State govt urges Centre to reconsiderzero-year at Ambikapur Medical College


Chhattisgarh forest, housing andenvironment minister

Mohammed Akbar has directed theChhattisgarh EnvironmentConservation Board (CECB)’s regionalofficers to issue notice to all the indus-tries if they fail to achieve the set plan-tation target.

The industries have been asked toachieve the target in upcoming mon-soon season, failing which industrieswill face stern action.

Minister was reviewing plantationstatus with CECB regional officials ofRaipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Korba,Raigarh, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur onFriday at Paryavas Bhawan, AtalNagar, Raipur. The officials made pres-entation on the status.

Akbar said care must be taken toensure that planted saplings grow intotrees. Plantation helps to balance the

environment so it is responsibility ofregional officials to find a solution toindustrial pollution, he said, addingthis is possible only through massiveplantation in industrial areas.

Board member secretary R. P.Tiwari said Board provides environ-mental clearances to industries onconditions that plantation is done. Inmining areas as per mining plan plan-tation is carried out.

Minister directed all regional offi-cers to achieve target within the speci-fied period. They should also person-ally review the ground status and incase any shortcomings is found, neces-sary action be taken, he added.

Industries to face action ifplantation target not achieved


Recalling the martyrdom of GuruArjan Dev, Chhattisgarh Chief

Minister Bhupesh Baghel said Guruhad shown the path of renunciationand sacrifice.

Baghel was addressing the dedica-tion ceremony of ‘Shri Guru TeghBahadur Sikh Museum’ on Friday, atShyam Nagar based Gururnanak NagarGurudwara to mark the ‘ShaheediDiwas of Guru Arjan Devji’.

“The martyrdom will motivate allfor centuries to come,” the CM said,adding the museum will introduce the“glorious and motivating history” tothe upcoming generation.

He paid obeisance before ‘GuruGranth Sahib’. Baghel said the dream oflate Dilip Singh Chawla and lateAjinder Singh Chawla to establish the

museum on history of Sikh communityhas been fulfilled. Manjeet KaurChawla and his family members hadcontributed for the museum. Now, itwill be one of the landmarks for anyvisitor visiting the capital city, Raipur.

Chief Minister said Sikh communi-ty is a dynamic community by heart..

The museum has portraits of allSikh Gurus and details of their history.There is a replica of ‘Golden Temple’ ofAmritsar and all the Sikh pilgrimagecentres, with information on display.The museum also houses a librarywhere different books related to historyof Sikh community are available.

Gyani Sukhjinder Singh fromAmritsar, Gurudwara GururnanakNagar Managing Committee presidentPreetpal Singh Chandok along withother office bearers were present on theoccasion.

Baghel inaugurates Shri Guru

Tegh Bahadur Sikh Museum

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As national outrage esca-lated over the brutal mur-

der of a two-year-old girlwhose mutilated body wasfound in a garbage dump nearher house in Tappal townshipin Aligarh on June 2, the UttarPradesh Government onFriday constituted a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) toprobe the horrific crime andsuspended five policemen,including an SHO, for allegeddelay in registering the caseafter the girl was reportedmissing since May 30.

Officials said the accusedpersons will be tried under theNational Security Act (NSA)in a fast track court. Twoarrested accused — Zahid andAslam — have confessed tokilling the toddler after herfather failed to return �10,000he had borrowed from them,police said in a statement.

Replying to questions fromreporters in Lucknow, ADG(Law and Order) Anand Kumarsaid, “The case will be fasttracked. POCSO will also beincluded in the FIR. As of nowsexual assault is not ruled out.”

The girl’s father,Banwarilal Sharma, hadthreatened to go on fast untodeath, demanding the arrest ofthe family members of theaccused who, he said, “collud-ed” in the crime. However,Aligarh SSP Akash Kulhari onFriday met Sharma and per-suaded him against sitting onfast and assured justice in afast-track court. Proceedingshave begun to charge Zahidand Aslam under the NSA, theSSP said.

The National Commission

for Protection of Child Rightshas sought a report from theSSP and issued directions onexamining the report.

The authorities swung intoaction only after the horrificincident drew widespread con-demnation and outrage.Hashtags with the child’s namewere trending on Twitter withan estimated 56,000 tweetson the brutal case that shookthe nation.

While Congress presidentRahul Gandhi asked the UPPolice to “act swiftly to bringthe killers to justice”, partygeneral secretary PriyankaGandhi condemned the inci-dent, calling it an “inhuman,unspeakable crime”.

“The horrific murder of a

little girl in Aligarh has shockedand disturbed me. How can anyhuman being treat a child withsuch brutality? This terriblecrime must not go unpun-ished. The UP Police must actswiftly to bring the killers tojustice,” tweeted Rahul.

“The brutal murder inAligarh is yet another inhu-man, unspeakable crimeagainst an innocent child. Icannot even begin to imaginethe pain her parents mustfeel. What has become of us?”Priyanka tweeted.

Bollywood celebrities toocame together to demand cap-ital punishment for the cul-prits. Akshay Kumar,Abhishek Bachchan, JavedAkhtar and Sunny Leone are

among those who expressedtheir anguish at the brutalkilling of the child.

BSP supremo Mayawatidescribed the brutal killing as“highly shameful and sad inci-dent.”The Uttar PradeshGovernment should take strictaction immediately to establishthe rule of law in the State andput the guilty behind bars,” shesaid in a statement in Lucknow.

A six-member SIT hasbeen formed to investigatethe case and a female inspec-tor had been appointed tocarry forward the probe, hesaid. Security measures havebeen tightened as a precau-tionary step after tensionmounted there after recoveryof the body.

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In a sensational decision,Andhra Pradesh Chief

Minister and YSRCP chief YSJagan Mohan Reddy on Fridayannounced the induction offive Deputy Chief Ministers,one each from SC, ST, back-ward, minority and Kapucommunities.

Jagan, who took charge asCM on May 30, will form hisfull-fledged Cabinet with 25Ministers on Saturday.

With this Jagan created arecord of sorts, as appointingfive Deputy CMs is the highest-ever number in any State in thecountry and no CM in thecountry had made such anexperiment earlier.

Jagan said he will reviewhis Cabinet after 30 monthsand new ones will get theopportunity then.

Almost 50 per cent of theCabinet will be filled with SC,ST, backward and minority

legislators.The oath-taking ceremony

of newly inducted CabinetMinisters will be held atVijayawada on Saturday.

Governor ESL Narasimhanwill administer oath of officeand secrecy to the newlyinducted Cabinet Ministers.

He said the entire countryis looking at Andhra Pradeshwhich would provide a cleanand efficient administrationto the people.

Jagan sprang a surprise onhis party MLAs and MLCs,when he addressed the legisla-ture party meeting at his partyoffice in Amarvati on Friday.

He announced that he wouldform a full-fledged Cabinetwith 25 Ministers on Saturdayand five of them would be DyCMs, as the MLAs and MLCslistened to him with a shock.

“The five Deputy CMswould be from SC, ST, BC,minorities and Kapu commu-nities so as to give a balance toall groups and do social justice,”he said.

Former AP CM NChandrababu Naidu appoint-ed two Deputy CMs during histerm from 2014 to 2019.

Telangana CM KChandrasekhar Rao alsoappointed two Deputy CMs inhis first term from 2014 to 2018but he avoided appointingDeputy CMs after he assumedoffice for second term inDecember 2018.

Jagan met the Governor onFriday and submitted his list ofCabinet Ministers, who will besworn in on Saturday.

Appointing five DeputyCMs is being seen as Jagan’sgesture to reward these com-munities for throwing theirweight behind the YSRCP,enabling it to storm to powerwith a landslide victory lastmonth.

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Asevere dust storm and light-ning in various parts of

Uttar Pradesh claimed at least 26lives and left 57 people injuredas houses and walls collapsedand trees were uprooted,prompting authorities to launchlarge-scale relief operations onFriday.

Mainpuri district bore theworst brunt of the vagaries ofnature late on Thursday night assix people died there in separatecases of wall collapse and light-ning, the state relief commis-sioner said.

Forty-one people wereinjured in the district anduprooted trees blocked vehicu-lar movement on the state high-ways, leading to massive jams fora considerable amount of time.

Police said most of theinjuries occurred when peoplesleeping inside their mud hous-es were caught unawares by thethunderstorm, which wasaccompanied by rain, leading towall collapse.

People were also injuredwhen signboards and hoardingsgot snapped at several places, andfell on them, the police said.

“While six people died inMainpuri, three each died inEtah and Kasganj, two each inFarrukhabad and Barabanki,and one each in Moradabad,Badaun, Pilibhit, Mathura,Kannauj, Sambhal, Ghaziabad,Amroha, Badaun and Mahobain incidents related to dust stormand lightning,” data released bythe state relief commissionersaid.

An official press note saiddifferent parts of the state wit-nessed dust storms late onThursday evening, resulting inwall collapse and uprooting oftrees. Thirty-one cattle died and16 houses were also damaged inthe incidents, officials said.Massive power cuts were report-ed from various parts of the State,including Lucknow, as electric-ity lines got snapped in the gale.

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The joint teams of securityforces eliminated four

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) ter-rorists, including two policedeserters, in an overnight oper-ation in Litter area of SouthKashmir’s Pulwama district onFriday morning.

The operation startedhours after National SecurityAdviser Ajit Doval chaired ahigh-level security reviewmeeting on Kashmir and tookstock of the prevailing situationahead of beginning ofAmarnath Yatra from July 1.

The security forces facedtough resistance from the localresidents on ground zero whilecarrying out the operation.

According to reports, alarge number of local resi-dents stepped out of theirhouses and moved towardsthe encounter site to disrupt theanti-terrorist operations during

the night. The local police andparamilitary troops weredeployed in outer cordon toprevent civilians from comingcloser to the encounter site andsuffer collateral damage.

The two Special PoliceOfficers (SPOs) who werekilled in the encouter haddeserted Pulwama police linesand ran away with their auto-matic weapons barely 24 hoursago.

Meanwhile, two policemenalso received injuries after ter-rorists lobbed a grenade atSopore police station on Fridayafternoon. The area was imme-diately cordoned off by thesecurity forces to track downthe terrorists.

According to initialreports, the grenade explodedoutside the gate of the policestation, causing splinter injuriesto two policemen. The injuredcops were shifted to districthospital in Sopore for medicaltreatment.

Sharing details of thePulwama encounter, the policespokesman said, a cordon andsearch operation was launchedby security forces at Panjran inLitter area of District Pulwamalate on Thursday evening afterreceiving credible inputs aboutthe presence of terrorists in thearea.

“During the search opera-tion, the hiding terrorists firedon the search party. The firewas retaliated leading to anencounter. In the ensuingencounter, two listed terroristsand two SPOs who had recent-ly deserted and become mem-bers of the proscribed terroristorganisation JeM were killed,”police spokesman said.

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Taking a firm stand, theICC on Friday denied

Mahendra Singh Dhoni per-mission to wear the daggerinsignia on his wicket-keepinggloves during the World Cupdespite BCCI’s assertion that itwas not a military symbol.

The Indian cricket board(BCCI) had sought permissionfor the star batsman from theworld governing body, whicheventually cited regulations indenying the permission.

“The ICC has responded tothe BCCI to confirm the logodisplayed by MS Dhoni in theprevious match is not permit-ted to be worn on his wicket-keeping gloves at the ICC Men’sCricket World Cup 2019,” anICC statement said.

“The regulations for ICCevents do not permit any indi-vidual message or logo to bedisplayed on any items of cloth-ing or equipment. In additionto this, the logo also breachesthe regulations in relation to

what is permitted on wicket-keeper gloves.”

During India’s openingWorld Cup game against SouthAfrica in Southampton,Dhoni’s green keeping gloveshad a dagger logo embossed,which looked more like anArmy insignia.

The rule-book allows foronly one sponsor’s logo on thewicket-keeping gloves. InDhoni’s case, he already sportsan SG logo on his gloves.

Dhoni is an HonoraryLieutenant Colonel in theParachute Regiment of theTerritorial Army and dagger ispart of their emblem.

Committee ofAdministrator (CoA) chiefVinod Rai had argued thatwearing the dagger insigniadoes not breach any rule.

“As per ICC regulations,players can’t sport any com-mercial, religious or militarylogo. There was nothing com-mercial or religious in thisregard as we all know. And itis not the paramilitary regi-mental dagger that is embossedin his gloves. So Dhoni is notin breach of ICC regulations,”Rai said.

Rai’s comment came afterthe ICC “requested the BCCI”to ask Dhoni to remove thesign from the gloves, citingrules which forbid display ofmessages “which relate to polit-ical, religious or racial activities

or causes.”The CoA’s defence was

based on the fact that the para-regimental dagger logo hasword ‘Balidan’ (sacrifice)inscribed on it, which is not thecase with the logo sported byDhoni.

Dhoni also got supportfrom Sports Minister KirenRijiju, who had urged the BCCIto resolve the matter.

“... The issue is connectedwith the sentiments of thecountry, the interest of thenation has to be kept in mind.I urge the BCCI to? take a fairstep in the Mahendra SinghDhoni? case,” Rijiju wrote onhis twitter handle. Varioussportspersons such as SureshRaina and decorated wrestlerYogeshwar Dutt also backedthe former captain.

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Unwilling to implementmuch-hyped Central

Government’s health scheme -Ayushman Bharat, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onFriday wrote a letter to UnionHealth Minister Harshvardhanand said the DelhiGovernment’s own health

scheme is 10 times better andhas bigger scope for the peo-ple in the national Capital.

Kejriwal wrote to theMinister in response to theUnion Government’s letter tothe Delhi Government toimplement Ayushman Bharat.

Interestingly, rebuttingVardhan, Kejriwal presentedthe details of the coverage,

inclusion and exclusion pointsin tabular format comparingthe Delhi Government’sscheme with the AyushmanBharat.

“I am happy to tell youthat Ayushman Bharat hasalready been implemented inDelhi a long time back. TheDelhi Government’s healthscheme is 10 ten times bigger

and comprehensive thanAyushman Bharat,” Kejriwalsaid.

In his two-page letter inHindi, Kejriwal said despiteAyushman Bharat being inplace in Haryana and UttarPradesh, lakhs of patients fromthese two States come to Delhievery day to get medical treatment.

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Prime Minister Theresa Maywill formally resign as the

leader of the UK’s rulingConservative Party on Friday,paving the way for a keen con-test to decide a new British pre-mier who will take charge of theBrexit negotiations.

May, who had steppeddown amid mounting pressureover her repeatedly defeatedBrexit deal, will continue asacting Prime Minister until theparty has elected her successor,who will then take charge as thepremier.

The formal Tory votingprocess will be triggered onMonday morning, with a newleader expected to be in place bynext month.

“It is, and will alwaysremain, a matter of deep regretto me that I have not been ableto deliver Brexit,” May said in heremotional speech on the steps ofDowning Street on May 23.

“It will be for my successorto seek a way forward that hon-ours the result of the referen-dum. To succeed, he or she willhave to find consensus in par-liament where I have not. Sucha consensus can only be reachedif those on all sides of the debateare willing to compromise,” shesaid, indicating the tough roadahead for any new leader whosteps into her shoes now.

May, who has been Prime

Minister for nearly three yearssince she took over from DavidCameron in the wake of the June2016 Brexit referendum, will for-mally resign in a letter to the1922 Committee of ToryBackbench MPs.

It will be business as usualfor her for some weeks while theinfluential Committee goesthrough the leadership contest.

There are so far 11 hopefuls,including frontrunner BorisJohnson with other key con-tenders being seen as UK foreignsecretary Jeremy Hunt and UKenvironment secretary MichaelGove.

The leadership candidatesneed eight MPs to back them.Conservative Party MPs willthen vote for their preferred can-didates in a series of secret bal-lots held on June 13, 18, 19 and20.

Charles Walker of theConservative backbench 1922Committee, which sets the rulesof the contest, said: “We are aim-ing to have two people by

Thursday 20 June.”The final two will be put to

a vote of members of the widerConservative Party, with a win-ner expected to be announced inthe week of July 22.

Contenders have alreadybeen conducting their hustingsas they lay out their credentialsfor the top job. How they planto deal with Britain’s exit fromthe European Union (EU) willbe at the heart of all their bids,with many backing a no-dealexit as others warn against suchan extreme step.

The UK was originallymeant to leave the EuropeanUnion on March 29. That wasthen pushed back to April 12and eventually October 31 afterTheresa May failed to get MPsto approve her deal. Sheannounced her resignation, say-ing she had done everything shecould to try to persuade MPs tosupport the withdrawal deal.

The deadline for nomina-tions for a new leader is 5pm onJune 10, so more names are like-ly to emerge by next week.

The 1922 Committee willthen announce the final list ofcandidates at 5.30pm onMonday.

The Tory party decided tochange the rules of leadershipelection to speed things up aftercriticism at the number of peo-ple coming forward for the job.Previously, candidates neededjust two nominations.

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Former Foreign Minister BorisJohnson, the frontrunner to

replace Theresa May as Britain’sPrime Minister, on Friday wonhis bid to block a lawsuit accus-ing him of knowingly lyingduring the Brexit referendumcampaign.

The decision removes ahurdle for Johnson in his lead-ership bid, with his lawyers per-suading a London court that theprivate prosecution was “polit-ically motivated and vexatious”.

They asked the High Courtto throw out a judge’s decisionlast month to allow a summonsordering Johnson to appear incourt over allegations of mis-conduct in public office, arguingthe decision had “erred in law”.

“We are quashing the deci-sion of the district judge to issuethe summonses,” MichaelSupperstone, one of two HighCourt judges hearing the case,said following a hearing Friday,at which Johnson was not pre-sent.

The case, brought by busi-nessman Marcus Ball in acrowd-funded initiative, con-cerned Johnson’s claim thatBritain sends 350 millionpounds ( USD 440 million, 400million euros) a week to theEuropean Union.

While this was Britain’sgross contribution, the net fig-ure accounts for a budget rebate

from the EU as well as paymentsto Britain’s public sector from theEU budget, and is substantiallyless.

The official Leave campaign emblazoned the controversial figure on the sideof its touring bus during the2016 EU referendum, whileJohnson and other Brexiteersrepeatedly trumpeted it cam-paigning.

Ball, 29, who has crowd-funded more than $300,000through an online campaign tobring the case, told reportersahead of the hearing he believedin “the merits of it”. In a writtenruling on May 29 district judgeMargot Coleman had agreedthat was there was a proper caseto issue a summons. But AdrianDarbishire, Johnson’s lawyer,asked the High Court Friday tothrow out the prosection

because it was political in nature.“The only rational conclusionwhich could be reached was thatthe prosecution was politicallymotivated and, therefore, vexa-tious,” he said. The two-judgepanel agreed.

“It was the conclusion of thecourt that we were persuaded byMr Darbishire,” said judge AnneRafferty.

“This quashes the sum-mons,” she said on revealingtheir ruling.

Johnson on Mondaylaunched his campaign to suc-ceed May as Conservative leader.She steps down Friday and for-mally triggers the race for a suc-cessor -- currently being con-tested by 11 MPs, includingJohnson -- but will remainprime minister until a newleader is chosen, likely in lateJuly.

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Anti-EU populist NigelFarage’s new Brexit Party

failed to win its first seat inBritain’s parliament as it lost outto the main opposition LabourParty in a crunch by-election,results on Friday showed.

The poll in the easternEnglish city of Peterboroughwas triggered after the sittingMP, Fiona Onasanya, wasdumped by voters after beingjailed for lying over a speedingoffence.

The Brexit Party’s candidateMike Greene, a local entrepre-neur, came in second with near-ly 29 percent of the vote, behindLabour’s Lisa Forbes, who wonaround 31 percent. The rulingConservatives came third with21 percent, while the LiberalDemocrats won 12 percent.

Friday’s result is a setbackfor the Brexit Party — foundedby eurosceptic figureheadFarage only a few months ago — which came out on topin the European elections inMay with 31.6 percent of votescast.

It had been seeking to cap-italise on that momentum aswell as voter disillusionmentwith the main Conservativeand Labour parties, who havehistorically shared thePeterborough seat.

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Russia and the United Stateson Friday accused each

other of dangerous manoeuvresafter their naval ships cameclose to collision in the EastChina Sea.

On Friday morning,Russia’s Pacific Fleet said thatthe USS Chancellorsville guided-missile cruiser sud-denly cut across the course ofits Admiral Vinogradov anti-submarine ship, passing infront of it at a distance of just50 metres (164 feet).

The Russian ship had tocarry out an emergencymanoeuvre to avoid collision,the navy said, adding that it hadsent a message of protest to theUS cruiser’s commanders.

Admiral ViktorKravchenko, Russia’s formernavy chief of staff, accused theUS of “hooliganism” in com-ments to Interfax news agency.

In a later statement, the US

seventh fleet attributed theincident to an “unsafe”manoeuvre by the Russian ship,which it said had acceleratedfrom behind to sail within 50to 100 feet of the Chan-cellorsville, “putting the safetyof her crew and ship at risk.” “We consider Russia’s actionsduring this interaction asunsafe and unprofessional,” theUS navy said.

Russia and the US regularlyaccuse each other of carryingout dangerous naval or aerialmanoeuvres.

In June 2016, Moscow andWashington traded accusationsafter their naval ships sailedclosely past each other in theeastern Mediterranean.

A month later, the USaccused Russia of “aggressive”and “erratic” moves by one ofits warships in the same waters.

The two countries alsoregularly complain over eachother’s military planes flyingtoo close to their airspace.

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Iran has chosen to “step backand recalculate” after making

preparations for an apparentattack against US Forces in thePersian Gulf region, but it is tooearly to conclude the threat isgone, the top commander ofAmerican forces in the Mideastsaid.

In an interview with threereporters accompanying him tothe Gulf, Gen. Frank McKenziesaid he remains concerned byIran’s potential for aggressionand he would not rule outrequesting additional U.S.Forces to bolster defensesagainst Iranian missiles orother weapons.

“I don’t actually believethe threat has diminished,”McKenzie said Thursday. “Ibelieve the threat is very real.”McKenzie, the head of U.S.Central Command, and othermilitary officials are trying tostrike a balance between per-suading Iran that the U.S. Isprepared to retaliate for anIranian attack on Americans,thus deterring conflict, andpushing so much military mus-cle into the Gulf that Iranthinks the U.S. Plans an attack,in which case it might feel com-pelled to strike preemptivelyand thus spark war.

Tensions between the U.S.And Iran have worsened sincePresident Donald Trump with-drew from a 2015 nuclearagreement between Iran andseveral world powers and rein-stated sanctions on Tehran.

Last month, in response towhat American officials char-acterized as an imminentthreat, the U.S. Announced itwould rush an aircraft carrierand other assets to the region.

The US also blamed Iranfor last month’s attacks on oiltankers in a United ArabEmirates port.

On Thursday, UnitedNations ambassadors from theEmirates, Saudi Arabia andNorway told U.N. SecurityCouncil members that investi-gators believe those attackswere led by a foreign state usingdivers on speed boats whoplanted mines on the vessels.They did not name Iran.

Earlier, the Saudi ambas-sador to the U.N., Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, said Saudi Arabiaalso blames Iran for the sabo-tage.

Iran has consistently dis-missed allegations that it wasinvolved in the recent attackson the oil tankers or waspreparing to attack Americantroops in the region. InBaghdad, McKenzie toldreporters from The AssociatedPress and two other mediaorganizations that U.S.Redeployments to the Gulfhave “caused the Iranians toback up a little bit, but I’m notsure they are strategically back-ing down.” The general said theU.S. Is showing enough force to“establish deterrence” without“needlessly” provoking its long-time adversary. He said he isconfident in the moves he hasmade.

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Aquestion that did not receiveadequate attention on June 5,the World Environment Day, isabout what people described inthe media as “climate refugees.”

The United Nations High Commissionerfor Refugees (UNHCR), doubtless, feelsthat the term’s use can create confusion asit is not recognised in international law.According to Climate change and disasterdisplacement, which is on its website, arefugee under international law is a per-son who has crossed an international bor-der “owing to well-founded fear of beingpersecuted for reasons of race, religion,nationality, membership of a particularsocial group or political opinion” (1951Convention relating to the Status ofRefugees). In certain cases, its definitionmay include people fleeing “events serious-ly disturbing public order.” (1969 OAUConvention; 1984 Cartagena Declaration).The criteria for defining refugees, therefore,may not apply to victims of climate changewhich — as well as their consequent dis-placements — occurs within their coun-tries.” It feels it is more accurate to refer tothem as “persons displaced in the contextof disasters and climate change.”

This definitional issue apart, theUNHCR recognises the extremely seriousimplications of climate change, particular-ly in respect of people displaced by it. TheGlobal Compact on Refugees, overwhelm-ingly adopted by the UN General Assemblyin December, 2018, categorically stated,“Climate, environmental degradation andnatural disasters increasingly interact withthe drivers of refugee movements.” This ishardly surprising given the numbersinvolved. According to the report,Migration and Climate Change, preparedby Oli Brown for the Switzerland-basedInternational Organisation for Migration,it was widely reported in the mid-1990sthat up to 25 million people had beenforced to flee their homes and lands dueto serious environmental pressures, includ-ing pollution, land degradation, droughtsand natural disasters. Since then, variousanalysts have mentioned various numbers— the most widely repeated being 200 mil-lion by 2050. That the last figure is credi-ble becomes clear from the InternalDisplacement Monitoring Centre’s state-ment that there were 18.8 million disaster-related displacements in 2017.

Obviously, human displacements ofsuch magnitude would pose massive prob-lems. The displaced have to be housed, pro-vided with livelihoods and rehabilitated.Peace has to be maintained between themand the local people who would be inclinedto view them as unwelcome outsiders com-peting with them for resources at a timeof globally widespread economic distress,declining living standards and shrinkingliving space which, in turn, would be con-sequences of climate change.

The corporate world isworried. A report by BradPlumer in The New York Timesof June 4, cites a new analysisof corporate disclosures byCDP (formerly the CarbonDisclosures Project), a UnitedKingdom-based non-profitorganisation that works glob-ally with companies to publiclydisclose the risks and opportu-nities that climate change couldcreate for their businesses.According to the report, manyof the world’s biggest corpora-tions from Silicon Valley tech-nological outfits to largeEuropean banks, are bracing todeal with the impact of climatechange on their finances andoperations in the next fiveyears. According to CDP,extreme weather conditionscould disrupt supply chains;stricter climate-related regula-tions could hurt the values ofcoal, oil and gas investments.According to Plumer, theworld’s largest companies haveestimated that at least $250 bil-lion of assets, including build-ings in high-risk flood zonesand power plants, would haveto be shut down in response tostricter pollution rules or mayhave to be written off or retiredearly as global warming pro-ceeds. According to him, early

estimates indicate that tril-lions of dollars may be at stake.

Reduction in the profitsand financial viability of cor-porations will affect the lives oftheir employees and share-holders as well as consumers oftheir products and services.The impact will be world-wide since international econ-omy is now increasingly linkedand private enterprise-based.The impact of all this, mostsevere in itself, will be com-pounded by a fall in agricultur-al production as a result ofglobal warming. Living stan-dards will decline.

What climate change por-tends for India is an example.According to a World Bankreport last year, titled, SouthAsia’s Hotspots: The Impact ofTemperature and PrecipitationChanges on living Standards,unchecked climate changecausing higher temperaturesand poor monsoon rainfallwould diminish the living stan-dards of half of India’s popula-tion, particularly farmers incentral India.

The report notes that by2050, Chhattisgarh andMadhya Pradesh will be the toptwo climate hotspot States inthe country, which are likely toexperience a decline of more

than nine per cent in their liv-ing standards, followed byRajasthan, Uttar Pradesh andMaharashtra. Further, it statesthat nearly half of South Asia’spopulation, including India’s,now lives in vulnerable areasthat will suffer from decliningliving standards attributableto falling agricultural yields,lower labour productivity orrelated health impacts.Actually, things are worse. Astudy in the journalEnvironmental Research Lettershas it that heatwave conditionslasting up to eight monthsmay become the norm for theGangetic plains by the 2070s ifthe emission of greenhousegases is not reduced to limit theglobal temperature increase totwo degrees. According to apaper by MassachusettsInstitute of Technology pub-lished in the journal ScienceAdvances, vast areas in India,Pakistan and Bangladeshwould become too hot forhuman survival by 2100.

The result will be massexodus from these areas, whichwill be a part of a massiveworldwide migration from allsuch places, perhaps eventual-ly involving the stated 200million people. Coping withthe phenomenon will not be

easy. Given its global scale, ini-tiatives by individual coun-tries will have to be synchro-nised with planning, action andassistance at the internationallevel under the aegis of theUNHCR, which has prolongedand extensive experience inreceiving, evaluating, docu-menting, sheltering and even-tually rehabilitating/resettlingrefugees.

The UNHCR has alreadygeared itself up to address dis-placement-related issues. It hasbeen actively assisting the TaskForce on Displacement estab-lished by the UN to assistcountries to cope with displace-ments linked to climate change.It has also contributed to thedrawing up of the recommen-dations for integratedapproaches to avert, minimiseand address displacement relat-ed to the adverse effects of cli-mate change. These are just twoexamples. The UNHCR, how-ever, requires greatly increasedresources and vastly expandedadministrative infrastructureto deliver on what is going tobe perhaps the greatest chal-lenges ever facing humanity.All countries should try toensure that it has both.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Govt puts Rajnath back in toppanels” (June 7). It was a very badshow of the Modi Government tonotify Home Minister Amit Shahin all eight Cabinet Committees(CC) while Defence MinisterRajnath Singh was notified in onlytwo CCs until the morning.However, Singh was included infour more CCs by the eveningafter the matter made headlines.In the last Government, Singh waspart of the committees on bothpolitical and parliamentary affairs.An impression has been createdthat Shah is number two in theCabinet after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. It is also unclearas to what prompted PrimeMinister Modi to shift Singhfrom the position of HomeMinister he had held in the ear-lier Cabinet. It may be recalledthat Singh, as president of the BJP,had played an important role ingetting Narendra Modi declaredas the BJP’s prime ministerial can-didate in September 2013 in spiteof party patriarch LK Advani’sopposition.

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Now or never for SA” (June 7).The Proteas are now down withthree consecutive defeats forthe first time in the history of theWorld Cup tournament. SkipperFaf du Plessis has been endeav-ouring for a win but his team’sefforts seems to be incongruousto the level of the World Cupand to the challenging Englishconditions.

Against team India, therewere numerous instances ofmisfieldings from the Proteas,which may have been one of thereasons why they lost. Althoughthe Proteas have never lifted theWorld Cup trophy, the team hasbeen acclaimed world over forconferring gems to the interna-tional cricket. Jacques Kallis,Jonty Rhodes and AB de Villiersare paragons to that. The Proteasmust remember these legendaryplayers of their nation and per-form well in their next tourna-ment.

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On March 19, Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath complet-ed two years in office. As theModel Code of Conduct was inplace at that time, he held a Press

conference at party office. He declared that theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is targetting over50 per cent votes in the Lok Sabha elections.“If the party can achieve that target, theSamajwadi Party (SP)-Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance willhave no impact and the BJP will win 74 seats,”he had said.

On May 23, when the Lok Sabha resultswere announced, his one prediction came to betrue. The BJP got over 50 per cent of the votesand caste alliance in Uttar Pradesh was deci-mated. But Yogi missed the second predictionby just nine seats. The BJP and its allies got 64out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats from UttarPradesh but it was enough for the BJP to crossthe halfway mark comfortably.

What worked wonders for the party wasPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s persona andthe magic of people-oriented schemes launchedby the Union Government. The BJP, at the partylevel, ensured that the beneficiaries know thatit was Prime Minister Modi, who had giventhem these benefits. This strategy worked. Anti-incumbency of candidates was blown away byModi’s charisma. At many places, people werenot happy with their party candidates becauseof non-performance. Still, they voted for Modias leaders in their meetings specifically point-ed out that their one vote will strengthen Modi’shands at the Centre.

The common refrain for the voters was forthe Union Government — they would vote forModi because they wanted a strongGovernment at the Centre. The beneficiaries,who availed the benefit of these schemes, choseModi over others because they reaped the har-vest. On the other hand, those who did not availthe benefits voted for Modi in the belief thatthey will get houses, latrines, free gas or elec-tric connections in the next term.

This scenario is a testing time for YogiAdityanath. Uttar Pradesh will go to polls toelect its Government in 2022 and by that time,the State Government will have to leave its markon the people. Yogi is no Modi. If people votedfor Modi, it was because they wanted to see himas the country’s next Prime Minister. There isno guarantee that they will vote for Yogi withthe same intensity and re-elect him as the ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh.

Therefore, the biggest challenge for YogiAdityanath is to improve the delivery systemand present his Government as pro-active andhimself as a Chief Minister whose word holdcommand. He should ensure his orders are fol-lowed to the ‘T’ and reviews of the schemes aredone regularly.

The last 25 months’ rule of YogiGovernment has been a mix of positives andnegatives. It goes without saying that law andorder situation has improved. Improvement ininfrastructure sector, too, is palpable. The fre-quency of power outages has gone down.Greenfield Expressways like the Purvanchal

Expressway and the BundelkhandExpressway are destined to transformthe impoverished eastern UttarPradesh and the rugged Bundelkhandregions. The Defence corridor isexpected to bring an employmentboom in that area.

However, the biggest bane of thisGovernment is its failure to check cor-ruption in its working. Despite theBJP’s commitment of giving a corrup-tion-free Government, the realityleaves much to be desired.Departmental postings are not entire-ly merit based. Merit is being sacri-ficed on the altar of avarice.

The second biggest letdown forthe Yogi Government is its bureaucra-cy. It has failed to match the pace ofthe Chief Minister. The Chief Ministeris working 16-18 hours a day but theState bureaucracy looks jaded. Thisresults in the failure to implement cru-cial projects. The Yogi Government isalso drawing flak for making bigannouncements but failing to fulfillthem within the stipulated time-frame. In a democracy, political mas-ters take decisions as per their elec-tion manifesto but it is the bureaucracy which gives shape tothose directives.

Take the case of the Government’sdecision to ban plastic, polythene andthermocol. The Chief Minister hadannounced on July 15, 2018, that UttarPradesh would be plastic and poly-thene-free. Yogi even signed a ordersaying that thermocol would also bebanned in Uttar Pradesh from

October 2, 2018. The State bureaucra-cy was entrusted with the job toensure that plastic glasses and poly-thene bags should not be available inthe open market. Orders were issuedto seal factories where such plasticbags are manufactured. TheGovernment had also said that alter-native arrangement should be madeavailable to the people.

But the bureaucracy failed in thistask. Once the initial euphoria fizzledout, plastic and polythene made acomeback in the open market. Afterthe High Court pulled the StateGovernment, it became active againin May and on June 3, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath held another roundof meeting with officials and askedthem to implement the ban in letterand spirit. He even reminded the offi-cials that swachchhata (cleanliness) isthe dream project of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and it should beimplemented in totality. Thus, the banbecame a butt of joke among the hoipolloi.

Same is true with theGovernment’s several other announce-ments like making roads across UttarPradesh gaddha-mukt (pothole-free),distributing of books, sweaters andshoes among the school children inState-run schools, checking bootleg-ging and ensuring payment of agricul-tural dues to farmers for producingsugarcane, wheat, paddy and potatowhose Minimum Support Price (MSP)is announced by the StateGovernment.

The need of the hour for the YogiGovernment is to take strict action,akin to administrative encounters,against its babus like suspension andeven giving the lax officers a sack.

As police encounters helped inbringing law and order under control,administrative encounters will help inweeding out non-performing offi-cers. The Chief Minister once tried this by offering VRS to thosewho have failed to perform. But it didnot have the desired result .Government officers from BlockDevelopment Officer (BDO) andLekhpal to District Magistrate andfrom Seenchpal and Seench Inspectorsto doctors in State-run hospitals,whose public interface is high, shouldbe made accountable.

Government’s performancedepends on public perception. Thepublic mood is that during BSP chiefMayawati’s regime, the administrationwas at its best. Even officers vouch thatthey feared to attend Mayawati’sreview meeting because heads werebound to roll.

The time has come for Yogi tosend the right signal to the masses.The Chief Minister is going to start areview meeting at the divisional levelfrom June 15. This is the apt time tosend the right signals. He must takeaction against corrupt and non-per-forming Ministers and officers so thatthe message can spread across that thisBJP Government means business.

(The writer is Executive Director[News] with The Pioneer, Lucknow)

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal’s recent announce-ment that proposes free rides for

women in Delhi metro trains and DTCbuses along all routes has become atopic of heated discussion. Kejriwalexplained that women, who do notrequire the subsidy, need not avail it soas to benefit those who need it. Whilethe motive behind such generosity isbeing doubted, the scheme itself rais-es a few questions.

The economic effect of such amove is dubious — it is expected to costthe State �700 crore ($101 million). If,as expected, the proposed schemeleads to a spurt in ridership, it is mostlikely that the Government will have topump in more funds to provide for the

increase in capacity as well as the main-tenance of the metro trains. Economicconsiderations, unfortunately, cannotbe wished away. More importantly, itseems that the Government has failedto dovetail women empowerment andgender neutrality.

For one, the link between freemetro travel for women and their safe-ty seems unclear. The logic that freetravel will ensure women’s safety is notunfounded, but whether this policy isthe appropriate means to achieve thetarget of increased presence of womenin public spaces is uncertain. The issueof women’s security is a greater prob-lem outside metro complexes — withrespect to transit to and fro from themetro stations. Last mile connectivityis essential, particularly after it gets dark.

In addition to all compartments ofmetro trains having specific seats allo-cated for women, senior and different-ly-abled citizens, the first coach of everymetro train is reserved for women. Thissystem, in contrast to the current pro-posal, is in the right direction, given theinfamy that rampant molestation ofwomen in Delhi buses has garneredover the last decades and is also in

accordance with the needs of women. The CISF patrolling of metro sta-

tions, too, is conducted during latehours and specific teams are deployedto ensure that men do not enter thewomen's coach. In fact, the metro hasbecome the safest mode of public trans-port available to the women of Delhi-NCR in a long time. Thus, increasingavailability and accessibility of othermeans of safe public transport, includ-ing making streets of Delhi safer forwalking and cycling, would bear morefruit in encouraging women to step outof their homes.

It is also difficult to understand thereasoning behind granting free travelto ‘women’ only. Does it rest on thegross generalisation that women arefinancially inferior to men? If not, thenwhy not make travelling free for seniorcitizens or students? The schemeshould function across the board andshould be in consonance with econom-ic considerations. The lack of reason-ing could result in a contrary effect. Itcould also increase resentment amongthose who are already opposed to pos-itive discrimination for women by sim-ply being viewed as gender bias. Public

and work spaces have traditionally beendesigned for men; making it women-friendly has required changes — start-ing with separate washrooms in placesof work — that might have been seenas “painful” and a waste of money tothe existing dispensation.

Only recently, in a personal inter-action, a senior gentleman showedopen displeasure at some leading Delhiuniversity colleges being exclusively forwomen. When people are unable to seeaffirmative action as a means to erasehistorical biases from a long-termperspective, how will they react to blan-ket free rides for women in public trans-port systems? More importantly, doesit really serve a long-term purpose?

This policy is not the first of its kindthat has been introduced to ostensiblyempower women and has the poten-tial to backfire. The Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Act of 2017, since itsintroduction, has come under scruti-ny for, inter alia, increasing the dura-tion of maternity leave from 12 weeksto 26 weeks. The aforesaid provision hasbeen critiqued on the basis of itspotential to backfire by discouragingemployers from hiring women. A

woman employee can be perceived asa greater burden compared to a maleemployee with similar qualificationsand capability; often even in compar-ison with a male employee of lesserqualifications and competence.

While the Act is a step forward inrecognising the needs of women, it isalso important to do so while redefin-ing gender stereotypes. Although bio-logical restrictions may impede a manfrom carrying, giving birth to andbreastfeeding a child, he is certainlycapable of staying at home to take careof his child, as a woman does. The pol-icy enables the perpetuation of a men-tality that women are to stay at homeand tend to their children, while a man’sobligations are restricted to being thesole breadwinner of the family.

Such misguided moves are beingrecognised for what they are, as seenfrom Zomato’s announcement thismonth that it is providing 26 weeks ofpaternity leave to new fathers. Veryrecently, JP Morgan, a leadingAmerican bank, paid a historic settle-ment of $5 million to Derek Rotondoand other male employees for its fail-ure to comply with policies which per-

mit men and women equal access toparental leave. Such strides will, hope-fully, establish a precedent so as toencourage other employers to putmen and women at an equal playingfield at workplace.

While the motive behind such poli-cies aimed at inclusion of women maybe well placed, the manner of realisingthese intentions seems to be amiss.These measures come off as blatantlypopulist with a lack of consideration forlong-term implications. Certain meansof positive discrimination are necessaryto enable women to step out of theirhomes, work in the organised econo-my and compete at par with men, dueto the historically disadvantaged posi-tion of women. Hence, policies aimedat them should be well-thought so thatthey can be clearly distinguished fromtokenistic moves, lacking clarity inimplementation and fulfilment ofresults.

(S Veena Iyer is Assistant Professor(Finance), Management DevelopmentInstitute, Gurgaon and AradhanaParmeshwar is a student pursuing Lawat the West Bengal National Universityof Juridical Sciences)

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The rupee on Friday fell by18 paise to close at 69.46

against the US currency onstrengthening of the green-back in overseas markets andrising crude oil prices.

Forex traders said thatweakened Asian currenciesalso added to the pressure onthe domestic unit.

However, gains in domes-tic equities supported the rupeeand capped its losses to someextent, they added.

At the interbank foreignexchange (forex) market, thedomestic currency openedhigher at 69.23 per dollar, butlost ground during the day tofall to 69.52. The rupee finallysettled at 69.46, down 18 paiseover its previous close.

The rupee had settled at69.28 against the US dollarThursday.

The local currency on aweekly basis gained 24 paise.

“Rupee has declinedagainst the dollar followingrecovery in crude oil prices andlower Asian currencies against

US dollar,” said V K Sharma,Head-PCG & Capital MarketStrategy, HDFC Securities.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, climbed1.62 per cent to $62.67 per bar-rel.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, rose 0.02 per cent to97.06, ahead of the US payrolldata.

Meanwhile, the 10-yeargovernment bond yield was at6.97 per cent on Friday.

“The yield on benchmark10 year bonds rises 4 bps to

6.97 per cent, headingfor a fourth straightweekly drop afterRBI’s “accommoda-tive” stance from“neutral” and cut 25bps interest rate,”Sharma said.

Foreign institu-tional investors (FIIs)remained net sellersin the capital mar-kets, pulling out�478.84 crore Friday,the provisional data

showed.Equity benchmarks had a

highly volatile trade Friday.The BSE gauge settled 86.18points, or 0.22 per cent, up at39,615.90. The broader NSENifty rose 26.90 points, or 0.23per cent, to settle at 11,870.65.

Meanwhile, FinancialBenchmark India Private Ltd(FBIL) set the reference rate forthe rupee/dollar at 69.3205and for rupee/euro at 77.8192.The reference rate forrupee/British pound was fixedat 87.8744 and for rupee/100Japanese yen at 64.12.

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The BSE benchmark Sensexended 86 points higher

after a highly volatile sessionFriday tracking mixed domes-tic and global cues.

After swinging over 400points, the BSE gauge settled86.18 points, or 0.22 per cent,up at 39,615.90. The index hitan intra-day high of 39,703.10and a low of 39,279.47.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty rose 26.90 points, or0.23 per cent, to settle at11,870.65. During the day, theindex touched a high of11,897.50 and a low of11,769.50.

During the week, theSensex fell 98.30 points and thebroader Nifty lost 52.15 points.

Top gainers in the Sensexpack Friday included IndusIndBank, Bajaj Finance, M&M,SBI, ICICI Bank and Vedanta,rising up to 1.90 per cent.

On the other hand, YesBank, PowerGrid, SunPharma, Coal India, BajajAuto, ONGC and RIL wereamong the top losers, droppingup to 2.37 per cent.

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Russian leaderV l a d i m i r

Putin on Fridayrenewed calls torevisit the role ofthe US dollar inglobal trade anda c c u s e dWashington ofseeking to domi-nate the world.

Speaking atan economicforum alongsideChinese PresidentXi Jinping, theRussian presidentcalled for deep reform, claim-ing that trust in the dollar hadbeen on the decline.

Changes in the globaleconomy “call for the adapta-tion of international financialorganisations (and) rethinkingthe role of the dollar which...Has turned into an instrumentof pressure by the country ofissue on the rest of the world,”Putin said.

The Kremlin chief —whose country has chafedunder numerous rounds of US

sanctions — has repeatedlyslammed the global financialsystem established byWashington in the aftermath ofWorld War II.

In a speech at a plenary ses-sion, Putin accusedWashington of seeking to“extend its jurisdiction to thewhole world.” “But this modelnot only contradicts the logicof normal international com-munication. The main thing is,it does not serve the interestsof the future.”

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Automotive TyreManufacturers’ Association

(ATMA) recently held tyresafety training for CommercialDrivers linked to Indian OilCorporation Limited (IOCL).The tyre safety drive at IOCLcomes in the wake of similarexercises held at different cam-puses of Honda Cars, Infosys,ISRPL and Pipapav Port etc inrecent times. The �60000 croreTyre Industry represented byATMA has sharpened focus onTyre Safety as a part of overall

Road safety exercise of MoRTH,Government of India.

Over 250 commercial dri-vers and helpers (cleaners)linked to IOCL supply chainparticipated in the trainingprogramme at the Tikri Kalan(Delhi) terminal of Indian Oiland benefitted from the inter-active session with experts.

During the training thetrainees were trained on sever-al aspects including tyre and itsstructure, tyre markings andsteps to maintain tyres in theinterest of safety and prolong-ing tyre life.

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1�� M�10�"�New Delhi: NMDC, clearing the air over Dantewada mine case,said that “the work was awarded to Adani by inviting open ten-ders through Transparent e-Tendering portal of MSTC (A Govt.India Enterprises)”.

In a press release, the State-owned entreprise further addedthat “Total Ten (10) Bidders purchased the Tender Documentand four (4) Bids were received by the due date. Three (3) Biddersqualified and one offer was rejected as bidder was not meetingthe qualifying requirements. Price bids of all three qualified bid-ders were opened and it was followed by reverse e-bidding processlasting for Six (6) Hours. Out of three bidders, M/S AdaniEnterprises Limited have quoted lowest price and they have beendeclared as the lowest bidder. Out of three bidders, M/S AdaniEnterprises Limited have quoted lowest price and they have beendeclared as the lowest bidder. Thus, the work has been award-ed to M/s Adani Enterprises Ltd. on lowest offer basis by followingproper transparent tender procedure”. PNS

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Describing India as a “val-ued supporter” of South-

South cooperation, UN chiefAntonio Guterres has praisedthe India-UN DevelopmentPartnership Fund for “cham-pioning greater prosperity” forall through its myriad projectsbenefitting the least developed,landlocked and small islandnations.

India has also been at theforefront of our efforts toreform the UN DevelopmentSystem, the UN SecretaryGeneral said.

“India is a valued support-er of South-South cooperation.The India-UN DevelopmentPartnership Fund is a welcomecontribution that is champi-oning greater prosperity andopportunity for all,” Guterressaid in his message.

The message was read outon the occasion of the com-memoration of the secondanniversary of the India-UNDevelopment PartnershipFund here Thursday organisedby the Permanent Mission ofIndia to the UN together withthe UN Office for South-SouthCooperation (UNOSSC).

Guterres said with its focuson ‘Least Developed Countries’,‘Landlocked DevelopingCountries’ and ‘Small Island

Developing States’, the Fundembodies the core promise ofthe 2030 Agenda to leave noone behind and reach thosefurthest behind first.

He commended India forits “strong commitment tointernational cooperation,shared prosperity and thevision of ‘One UN’ as theworld strives to advance the2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment.”

The Fund was establishedin June 2017 to work withdeveloping countries by pro-viding assistance to projectsthat aim to implement theSustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs), as per theirrequest. It is a dedicatedfacility within the UN Fundfor S outh-S outhCooperation.

It is managed by theUNOSSC and implemented incollaboration with the UN sys-tem. In the last two years, theFund has developed a portfo-lio of 36 projects in partnershipwith 37 developing countriesand 21 of these projects areunder implementation withmany nearing completion.

The Government of Indiahas committed a total of USD150 million for this Fund overthe next decade to support pro-jects that are in alignment withthe 2030 Agenda.

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The ruling JD(U) in Bihar onFriday asserted that the

NDA in the State was “intact”,dismissing speculation of a riftwithin the alliance in the wakeof the party’s decision to “stayout” of the Narendra ModiGovernment.

The JD(U) is “firmly” inthe alliance and speculationabout instability are “baseless”,the party’s national generalsecretary Ram Chandra PrasadSingh told reporters in Bihar’sSheikhpura district.

Following the swearing-inceremony of the ModiGovernment, Bihar ChiefMinister and JD(U) presidentNitish Kumar had declined tobe part of the BJP-led NDAgovernment at the Centre inprotest against the “symbolicrepresentation” of one minis-terial berth offered to it, butrefuted suggestions of any dif-ference with its ally.

Singh, who is the party’sleader in the Rajya Sabha, said,“The NDA is intact.Speculation about any politicalinstability are baseless. TheJD(U) is firmly in the alliance.”

He was responding toqueries about the conjecture,triggered by Kumar’s stand and

following developments likeleaders of the opposition ‘maha-gathbandhan’ softening theirstance towards the JD(U) chiefsensing a rift within NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA).

The NDA, comprising BJP,JD(U) and LJP, won 39 out of40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar inthe recent general elections, thebest performance by any polit-ical formation in the last fewdecades.Kumar’s party bagged16 seats.

Kumar had initially indi-cated that he was looking for-ward to his party joining thenew Modi Government andSingh’s name was believed to beamong the ones which theJD(U) president was expectedto push forward. This, howev-er, did not materialise andthough the Bihar chief minis-ter attended the swearing-inceremony, he made it clear thatthe BJP was insistent on allallies agreeing for a “symbolicrepresentation” in the UnionCabinet and that this was unac-ceptable to him.

The JD(U) president hadsaid,”The unanimous view (ofJD(U) leaders) is that weshould stay out of the ministry.Everybody felt there should beproportional representation inan alliance Government.”

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Returning to his fiery-self inattacking Prime Minister

Narendra Modi post the LokSabha polls debacle, RahulGandhi on Friday Accusedhim and the BJP of spreading“hatred and intolerance” andsaid the Congress will contin-ue to fight them.

Holding a massive road-show in Wayanad Lok Sabhaconstituency amid heavy rains tothank voters for electing him, theCongress chief said his party willemerge as a strong Oppositionand defend the poor.

“Modi might have so muchmoney. He might have mediaby his side.... He might haverich friends with him but theCongress party will continue tofight against the intolerancecreated by the BJP,” said Rahul,who travelled in a special openvehicle along with State leaders.

“The hatred and intoler-ance created by the BJP andModi will be dealt by theCongress party with love and

affection,” Rahul said in his firstpublic function after the drub-bing in Lok Saha polls where itbagged 52 seats.

Rahul, who also contestedfrom his pocket borough ofAmethi in Uttar Pradesh andlost to Union Minister SmritiIrani, had offered to resign butit was rejected by the CongressWorking Committee.

Thousands, includingwomen and children, bravedthe downpour to catch aglimpse of the leader whoarrived on a three-day tourconstituency after he was votedto the Lok Sabha with a mar-gin of about 4.31 lakh votes.

The people patiently wait-ed for hours for Rahul oneither side of the water-loggedroads and on the terrace andbalconies of nearby buildings towelcome their new MP.

As the vehicle carrying theCongress President inched itsway through the crowded road,frenzied party workers dancedwaving tri-colour flags andposters with the pictures of

their party chief, chanting “weare with you”. Beating drums,they also greeted him shouting“Rahul, Rahul.”

The green flags of theIndian Union Muslim League(IUML), a coalition partner ofthe opposition Congress-ledUDF, could also be seen flut-tering in the crowd.

A heavy security blanket bythe SPG, anti-Naxal squad andthe Kerala police was in placefor the VVIP visit. The securi-ty personnel were on theirtoes as Kalikavu, where theroadshow moved in thebylanes, is considered to be anaxal-infested area.

Rahul, accompanied byState Congress leadersMullappally Ramachandran,Opposition leader RameshChennithala, MLA A P AnilKumar, among others, wasseen waving at the crowd fromthe vehicle. “I will fight for thepeople of Wayanad. I will takeup the issues of Wayanad insideand outside Parliament. I willwork for the constituency, workwith you, listen to you,” Rahultold the crowd.

He said even though he isa Congress man, he will workbeyond politics, and for peoplefrom all walks of life.

Rahul said since he is anMP of Kerala, he will raise

issues not only of Wayanad butalso of the people of the entirestate in and outside Parliament.

The Congress and its allieswon 19 out of 20 seats in Kerala,the only State besides Punjab and Tamil Nadu whereit has done well in this LokSabha election.

The Congress presidentarrived at Kozhikode airport inthe afternoon and was sched-uled to participate in at least 15public receptions across the

constituency, spread over inthe districts of Wayanad,Malappuram and Kozhikode, inthe next two days.

Scores of party workersand leaders were at the airportto receive Rahul. The Congresschief had a meeting with seniorUDF leaders, includingRamesh Chennithala and PKKunhalikutty.

A senior Congress leaderfrom the constituency told PTIthat Rahul’s visit will be a

morale booster for the partyworkers to fight the Assemblybypolls.

“He will also take part inroad shows at Nilambur andEranad,” senior Congress leaderand Wandoor MLA AP AnilKumar said. Rahul will beaccorded receptions atKalpetta, Kambalkadu,Panamaram, Mananthavadi,Pulpally and Sultan Batheriand will also attend a roadshowin Kozhikode Assembly con-stituency on June 9, beforeleaving for Delhi.

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To ensure that Nipah virusdoes not spread its tenta-

cles, Kerala Health Minister KKShailaja on Friday met UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan to discuss the statusand the administration’s pre-paredness for containment andmanagement of the potential-ly deadly infection.

Vardhan, who is regularlyreviewing the public healthmeasures put in place in Kerala,assured her of all support fromthe Centre.

Talking to reporters,Shailaja said the condition of a21-year-old college student,who was diagnosed with Nipahinfection, is stable and a totalof 314 people who were intouch with the infected personhave been kept under obser-vation.

“There have been no newcases,” she said.

The Nipah virus hadclaimed 17 lives in the State inMay last year. The UnionHealth Ministry has alreadydeployed a six-member teamcomprising an epidemiologistand ICMR experts to conductcontact tracing for early detec-tion of suspects and review ofisolation facilities.

Meanwhile, blood andserum samples of all seven

suspected patients who wereadmitted to a quarantine facil-ity at the Government MedicalCollege in Kerala’s Ernakulamdistrict have tested negative forthe virus.

A designated control roomhas been established at thedistrict collector’s office and anisolation ward established at theGovernment Medical College,Ernakulam, while isolationfacilities have also been ensuredat medical colleges at Calicut,Thrissur and Kottayam.

All healthcare facilitieshave been asked to ensure highindex of suspicion in caseswith similar symptoms andalso ensure availability of isolation and emergencymanagement facilities before

referral.According to the World

Health Organisation, Nipahvirus is a newly emerging dis-ease that can be transmittedfrom its reservoir (naturalwildlife host), the flying foxes(fruit bats), to both animals andhumans.

Symptoms range fromasymptomatic infection, acuterespiratory infection andencephalitis.

Infected people initiallydevelop influenza-like symp-toms of fever, headache, vom-iting and sore throat. This canbe followed by dizziness,drowsiness, altered conscious-ness, and neurological signs that indicate acuteencephalitis.

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In a shocking incident, a citycricketer-cum-coach was

hacked to death by threeunidentified assailants atBhandup in north-eastMumbai late on Thursdaynight.

Rakesh Ambadas Pawarwas waylaid and attacked bythree men with choppers nearMahavir petrol pump on theLal Bahadur Shastri Road atBhandup, when he was goingon his scooter along with hisfemale friend. The incidenttook place between 2345 hrs to00.30 hrs.

“The victim had sufferedgruesome injuries on his face,head and was lying in a pool ofblood, “ a senior police officialsaid. Pawar was rushed by the

petrol pump employees to theMulund General hospital,where he was pronounced deadon admission.

Pawar, who was in hismid-thirties, is survived is sur-vived by wife and two children.A district level cricketer, Pawarused to coach to budding crick-eters from Bhandup, Mulund,both north-eastern suburbs ofMumbai and Thane, a satellitecity of Mumbai.

Preliminary investigationshave revealed that Pawar’s mur-der might have stemmed out ofpersonal enmity.

Having registered a casemurder, the Bhandup police arescanning the CCTV footage ofthe petrol pump to ascertainthe identity of the threeassailants behind the incident.

The investigators haverecorded the statement ofPawar’s female friend.

The police have reason tosuspect that Pawar might havebeen killed at the behest of aninfluential family fromBhandup, with which thedeceased had personal enmity.

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Four years ago, defeat byBangladesh sent England crash-

ing out of the World Cup and leftEoin Morgan wondering if his cap-taincy was over before it had everreally begun.

Much has changed since thenhowever, as Morgan has helpedEngland become the No 1 ODIside in the world and favourites toclaim the 2019 World Cup onhome soil this summer.

The journey to claim theirmaiden World Cup crown hasmade a topsy-turvy start however,an impressive win over SouthAfrica followed by a narrow loss toPakistan.

Game three turns attentions toa drizzly Cardiff and a rematchwith Bangladesh — who also beatEngland in the 2011 edition of the

tournament.But it is going to take a lot

more than the Trent Bridge defeatby Pakistan to derail England thistime around — according to theirskipper.

"All we have talked about issticking to what we do well," hesaid.

"Even before the tournament,we talked about losing games,how we would react and what wewould counter that with.

"It goes back to focusing onourselves and our strengths andhow we can get the best out of our-selves."

Cardiff has proved seamer-friendly so far in this year's WorldCup, New Zealand's bowlersexploiting the conditions well todown Sri Lanka before the latterdid the same to see offAfghanistan.

Liam Plunkett looks likely toreturn to the England side there-fore, and Morgan insists his sidehave not missed a step despite thePakistan defeat.

"We didn't deserve to win thegame. But we played some reallygood cricket, two guys scored ahundred and we nearly chaseddown 350," he added.

"We lacked a bit in the field.And that still remains the case.Hopefully we put in a bettershowing in the field.

"But defeat presents a hugeopportunity to learn more aboutyour game and improve.

"Games where we have beendefeated heavily have been theones where we learned the most.

"We still managed to stay inthe game, we remained in a head-space where we still believed inwinning the game.

"That shows a lot more to our-selves, probably more than to oursupporters, they don't see that allthe time. They see an exciting

team the majority of the time. Butwhen we lose we see our charac-ter, the other side of our game."

And after seeing off SouthAfrica and pushing New Zealandall the way, Bangladesh are a seri-ous threat that Morgan is notgoing to underestimate.

"It is going to be a difficultgame. They are a good side and Ithink people underestimate them.We certainly don't," he added.

"They are a side that hasplayed a lot of cricket, their seniorplayers especially have played a lotof games, more so than our seniorplayers so they are a threat.Hopefully we can play well andovercome them.

"I remember them makingtheir earliest impression, againstAustralia in 2005.

"Since then they have beenexposed to a lot more cricket andhave become a better side.

"We were beaten by a betterteam in 2015. They deserved towin that night."

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England will face theside who kick-startedtheir transformationinto a major threat in

one-day internationals whenthe tournament hosts contin-ue their World Cup campaignagainst Bangladesh in Cardiffon Saturday.

The Tigers condemnedEoin Morgan's men to a first-round exit at the 2015 editionwith a 15-run victory inAdelaide.

At that point there was nolonger any way of hidingEngland's white-ball woes and,with a home World Cup upnext, then England and WalesCricket Board directorAndrew Strauss was deter-mined the national side's lim-ited overs form had toimprove.

To that end, Peter Mooreswas sacked as coach, withStrauss bringing in experi-enced Australian TrevorBayliss as his replacement.

Since that debacle 'DownUnder', England have risen toto the top of the one-dayinternational rankings.

But having started theirquest to win a first men'sWorld Cup with a 104-runthrashing of South Africa atthe Oval, they head into thisweekend's clash on the back ofa surprise 14-run defeat byPakistan.

That match saw Englandlose their cool, with openingbatsman Jason Roy and fastbowler Jofra Archer both finedfor lapses in their conduct onthe field.

Meanwhile if Englandwere annoyed by some ofPakistan's 'verbals', there weretimes when the large contin-gent of fans for the sub-con-tinental side — a commonsight even when England areat home — also had an effect.

England all-rounder ChrisWoakes, usually the mostmild-mannered of cricketers,put his finger to his lips in abid to 'silence' Pakistan sup-porters after taking a catch onthe boundary.

It could well be a similarstory at Sophia Gardens onSaturday, particularly as sev-eral players on both sides whofeatured in England's ill-tem-pered 2016 win overBangladesh in Dhaka are like-ly to be involved again.

England fast bowler LiamPlunkett, who could berecalled after missing thePakistan defeat, said his team-mates knew how to maintaintheir composure.

K��;��%��C"Pakistan are pretty good

like that, they can get niggly.When they're on top they'regood at doing it," said the 34-year-old.

"Similarly Bangladesh and

India, they're good at doingthat, good at appealing quitea lot. It's just the way they playtheir cricket.

"But we've played in bigcompetitions, guys haveplayed around the world - atIPL (Indian Premier League)and Big Bash in front of bigcrowds — it shouldn't be toomuch for the players."Bangladesh also head into theweekend following a defeatafter losing out by two wick-ets in a tense contest with NewZealand.

But Plunkett said the dayswhen the Tigers were rankoutsiders away from the sub-continent had gone.

"There's no real shockdefeats in this competition," heinsisted.

"We've already seenBangladesh beat South Africaand that's not a shock defeat.

"They're a strong squad. Iremember when they beatEngland way back when (inBristol, 2010) and it was ashock defeat.

"I don't think them beat-ing teams like South Africa islike that anymore."

Adil Rashid bowled fivecostly overs against Pakistanand, given the leg-spinner'songoing shoulder injury,England may decide to leavehim out on Saturday.

For Bangladesh, a matchat Sophia Gardens sees themback at the scene of one oftheir greatest triumphs — a2005 ODI win over Australia,then as now world champions,

that is arguably the biggestupset in the history of interna-tional cricket.

Mashrafe Mortaza, whoplayed in that stunning five-wicket success, is nowBangladesh's captain.

He took heart from howBangladesh had nearly defend-ed a target of 245 against NewZealand, saying the team werein good spirits as they pre-pared to face England.

"I think they (England) areone of the biggest side in thistournament. It's not going tobe easy, we knew that," saidMashrafe.

"But again, if we can playour best possible cricket, younever know."

L ��England: Eoin Morgan (c),Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, JonnyBairstow, Jos Buttler (wk),Tom Curran, Liam Dawson,Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid,Joe Root, Jason Roy, BenStokes, James Vince, ChrisWoakes, Mark Wood.Bangladesh: MashrafeMortaza (capt), Abu Jayed,Liton Das (wk),Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan,Mohammad Mithun (wk),Mohammad Saifuddin,Mosaddek Hossain,Mushfiqur Rahim (wk),Mustafizur Rahman, RubelHossain, Sabbir Rahman,Shakib Al Hasan, SoumyaSarkar, Tamim Iqbal

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�Against England, do you think thosewill work for Bangladesh?

Well, you cannot confirm, but yes, wehave to take the positives, which might helpin tomorrow's match. There is a possibil-ity to win against New Zealand, but again,I said that we need to deliver in the righttime, which is maybe equal last match. Isaid at Oval 244 is always difficult todefend, but we were very close and hope-fully the positive stuff we will take andmove to tomorrow.�People are saying that this Englandteam is the best, and here is the WorldCup on their home soil and maybe thatcreates some pressure for them whichmight help you in this game.

Obviously this is one of the best teamEngland have ever produced, especially inthe World Cup. I think still they are in theright way winning matches, and they arein good touch, which I feel. I’m not muchbeliever in the question you have asked,which is I know we have to play at our best.You know, the area they have been verystrong, we have to keep them quiet.

If it’s we can make it happen, today’smatch, it might help us. On the other hand,obviously I know there was a little bit ofpressure that the people that are expectingthat England will take the trophy this time,which is a kind of pressure. But I thinkEngland players knows how to handle thispressure.�You have beaten England in the last twoWorld Cups, so how realistic is a hat trickhere, do you think?

I don’t think so it’s going to help us alot because, you know, even if we lost, it’snot going to help us. So it’s a new, freshmatch. Both teams started from the firstball, so it’s very important for both teamsstarting well. I would say yes, we have beenbeating them the last two World Cup. Itdoesn’t mean that we will make it happenagain the way it did. There is the chances,and for that, we have to play at our best.�Do you think there are chances forchanges in terms of performance?

The plan is to change according to con-ditions, and I don’t think so much changeis going to help team much. But it depends,you know, if it’s keep — if it’s raining likethis, we have to think about it. If not, thenobviously, there is the management, as well.They will think about it. If someone willcome with different plans, we will thinkabout it.� In the first two England games, we’veseen spin bowlers take the wickets ofEngland openers in the power plays. Isthat a tactic you’re going to employ today?

All spinners all over the world, theyplayed a big role, which is one of our biggeststrengths. We know that Shakib is — allover the world, he is one of the biggeststrengths for us. Miraz is doing well for along time. I mean, the last two years, he'sdoing so well for us with the new ball.

Yes, it was been tactics, which we haveseen even England, against England, SouthAfrica started. So most of the team, youknow, taking this sort of tactics. But it'sdepended how much you can be success oryou cannot be success. But you have to beconfident enough with your tactics.

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England have already experienced twocontrasting results in the early stage of

the World Cup: their convincing victoryagainst South Africa was followed by awake-up call against Pakistan. Plunkett,who missed out against Pakistan onMonday, believes his team will come backstrongly when they take on Bangladesh inCardiff.

"Maybe there were a few nerves at TrentBridge," Plunkett said. "We were not at ourbest and we let ourselves down in the field.We have had a couple of days off. Hopefullywe can start again fresh."

Against Pakistan at Trent Bridge,England had to deal with a crowd that wasvocal in their support for Sarfaraz Ahmed'smen. Against Bangladesh, they can againexpect a good section of the crowd to sup-port their opponents. Plunkett backed theplayers to dig into their experience of play-ing in big tournaments across the worldand not succumb to mental games.

"Pakistan are pretty good like that —they can get niggly. Similarly Bangladesh,India, they're good at doing that, [like]appealing quite a lot. It's just the way theylike to play their cricket. "

But we've played in big competitions,guys have played around the world — atthe Indian Premier League and Big Bashin front of big crowds — so it shouldn't betoo much. It's just about getting involvedin the game, taking out the crowd and theother team to just try and do your job."

Bangladesh, who ended England'sWorld Cup campaign in 2015, announcedthemselves with a resounding win in theiropening game against South Africa.Plunkett believed the result wasn't a shock,adding that their opponents on Saturdayhave a strong set of players.

"We saw Bangladesh beat South Africaand it wasn't a shock defeat," Plunkett said."I remember when they beat England wayback when and it was a shock defeat. Butthere are no real shock defeats in this com-petition. They're a strong squad."

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Ross Taylor insists NewZealand are ready for atrial by spin againstAfghanistan on

Saturday as they look to keeptheir winning momentum goingin the World Cup.

The Kiwis edged outBangladesh by two wickets onWednesday, with Taylor hitting82 in his team's tense chase at theOval to record their secondstraight win in as any matches.

New Zealand, who werefinalists in the 2015 edition, haverelied on their paceman to getfavourable results, but Taylorbelieves tackling spin will be keyagainst the Asian minnows atTaunton.

"I think against Afghanistan,they have a lot of spin there, sosomething to factor in," saidTaylor, who has recorded three40 plus scores in his last fourODI innings.

"But two from two, that waswhat we wanted to do and wewere able to do it." While Taylorand skipper Kane Williamsongot the runs during their 105-run partnership in London, itwas their pace attack led by MattHenry that ran through theBangladesh batting.

Henry claimed four wicketsto take his tally to seven in twogames.

He is well supported byTrent Boult and LockieFerguson, who can clock speedsup to 96 mph.

Taylor beloves thatFerguson, with his express pace,is the key man for the BlackCaps.

"Lockie, he just gives youthat X-factor. Obviously ourfastest bowler. He is going to bea key factor for us if we're goingto feature in this tournament,"said Taylor.

"I think he's creating pres-sure for the guy at the other end(to take wickets)," he added.

Ferguson's pace partnerHenry said that Afghanistan area "dangerous side" and NewZealand will treat them with"utmost respect".

Afghanistan, who are play-ing just their second 50-overWorld Cup, have lost their twogames in the tournament so farbut not without a fight.

Leg-spinner Rashid Khanleads the charge withMohammed Nabi, who returnedfigures of 4-30 with his off spinin their previous loss against SriLanka.

But it's their batting that haslet them down as they were dis-missed for 152 in their revisedchase of 187 in a rain-hit gameCardiff on Tuesday.

"We need some improve-ment in the batting, we needmore partnerships," Afghanistanskipper Gulbadin Naib saidafter the Sri Lanka loss.

Afghanistan medium-pace

bowler Mirwais Ashraf, who waspart of the team's campaign inthe previous World Cup, said thesenior batsmen need to step upor give way to youngsters.

"We've seen the same thingsplay out in both of the matchesso far. There have been too manymistakes and some players aren'tbatting very responsibly," hesaid.

"I think it's time to give achance to some of the otherseamers and batsmen in thesquad now as we look to turnthings around, starting with thegame against New Zealand."

SQUADAfghanistan: Sarfaraz

Ahmed (c, wk), Asif Ali, HasanAli, Shaheen Afridi,Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam,Mohammad Hafeez,Mohammad Hasnain, Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan, ShoaibMalik, Wahab Riaz, Haris Sohail,Imad Wasim, FakharZamanGulbadin Naib (c), NoorAli Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai,Rahmat Shah (wk), AsgharAfghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi,Najibullah Zadran, SamiullahShinwari, Mohammad Nabi,Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran,Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan,Mujeeb ur Rahman, Ikram AliKhil.

New Zealand: KaneWilliamson (capt), Tom Blundell(wk), Trent Boult, Colin deGrandhomme, Lockie Ferguson,Martin Guptill, Matt Henry,Tom Latham, Colin Munro,Jimmy Neesham, HenryNicholls, Mitchell Santner, IshSodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.

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New Zealand pace spearheadTrent Boult has attributedthe low-scoring thrillers

at the ongoing World Cup to the"glossier" Kookaburra balls whichoffers more swing, making thecontest between bat and ball even.

"The balls are actually differ-ent for this tournament. They'vegot a different gloss on them,they're painted differently, sothere's definitely been a little bitmore swing," said Boult, who tookhis 150th ODI wicket againstBangladesh at The Oval onWednesday.

"Conditions have been goodbut I believe there should be thatlittle period at the start of thegame where it's an even battle ofbat versus ball, so it's nice to seethe ball moving like it is at themoment."

Boult got his World Cuppreparation off to a fine start bypicking four wickets in a warm-up game against India.

"The white balls have beenquite prominent, you can see thequarter seams and everythingwith the ball, but it's fully coverednow. It's nice to hold in the handand it's moving a little bit, so I'mvery happy."

The use of two new balls foreach innings has robbed pacersthe chance to go for reverse swingdue to the lack of sufficient wearand tear.

"I'd love to see (just) one ballin ODI cricket to be honest," saidBoult, who snapped four for 33against India in the warm-upgame.

"I think any reverse swing atthe end can really help any deathbowler, the margin for errorbecomes slightly bigger and thehitting zone is a little bit smaller.

"I'm not sure where it's goingto get to but the invention of slow-er balls and knuckle balls and twobouncers and all that carry on hasgiven a couple of cards up thesleeves."

New Zealand will faceAfghanistan on Saturday andBoult said his team will treat theiropponents with respect.

"There's a lot of respect for theAfghanistanis who we are comingup against. They've got somequality players, some experiencedplayers. I've never played atTaunton but I hear it's quite asmall ground so we will have tobe on the button," Boult said.

"We are looking forward tothat challenge and then there aresome very big games to come inthe tournament. To be 2 and 0with a little bit of momentumbehind us is a good position."

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�You had a setback yesterday withMohammad Shahzad being ruled out.He's quite an influential player on yourteam. What's the mood like now withouthim being available?

Obviously it's a big loss of our side. So,Shahzad is one of — a great player forAfghanistan. He did a lot of -- I'm alsoupset of him — he, the last two, three weekshe's struggling, his knee. So he's not feel-ing well also in the matches. He can't mov-ing on the right time.

So I also kept him, last two weeks, justI checked with my doctor, with my physio.So I gave the time to him. So if he recov-er on the time, maybe it's good for the team.But unfortunately it's a bad luck of Shahzad.

So I'm really upset of him. So we losthim. But it's cricket. So first it's important,as a team, is also coming of Afghanistan,so what's important for Afghanistan. Sohope he will recover soon so he will comeback on the team. But the new guy's com-ing, Ikram Ali Khil, under-19 guy. He's verywell. He's a young guy and I hope he willdo well.

�Apart from Shahzad's batting and hiskeeping, what will you miss obviouslybeing with the team for such a long time,got a lot of experience and seems to be apretty lively character on the team as well?What will you miss in the dressingroom?

Yes, Shahzad is very energetic. Also inthe dressing room he's very funny. Also heentertains every time the team members.So we miss a lot of things of him especial-ly in the ground even. But obviouslywhen you look for your country, it's moreimportant for your country, so what's thebest for the country. So we should go forthat.

So I think Shahzad is one of the bestplayers in Afghanistan now still, but his lastfour, eight, six years, but we miss a lot ofthings of him. I'm really upset for him, buthis injury, so we cannot say if he recoveron the time. So he's taking a lot of time. SoI'm really upset for him.

�How important is the job betweenRashid Khan and Kane Williamson heregiven they both played at SunrisersHyderabad?

It's very difficult, the last two seasons,between Rashid and Kane Williamson play-ing together in Sunrisers. But Rashid is notlike the other bowlers. It's totally different.He was, the last four years, with thenational team, but even then nobodyknows how he bowled in the nets. So it'svery difficult to pick him. I think it's notonly for Kane, also it is difficult for ourplayers, too. It's difficult for our batsmenand we're playing against him in the nets.Rashid is very different, quick and fast.Didn't give you time to pick him. So I thinkit's very difficult. So I hope Rashid will bedo best before he did.

�Now you've played the team that wonlast time and you're going to play the teamthat also reached the final the runners up.How different has this experience and thiscampaign been for the squad comparedto your trip to Australia and New Zealandin 2015?

It's totally different now. We played in2015 World Cup is our first World Cup forAfghanistan. So it's totally different. Andhigh stage. Beginning of cricket. We justthink the times, it's a big honour forAfghanistan who is participating in thiskind of events.

And now in this workup, it's totallychanged everything. Now we improveday-by-day. Our ticket is going day-by-dayup. So here we're not just to participate inthe World Cup or — so we we're here fordoing something different and we show tothe world so Afghanistan is not like 2015team. I think. Afghanistan team is totallydifferent.

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Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa wason Friday reprimanded for breaching

Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct dur-ing their World Cup tie against the WestIndies. Zampawas found to havebreached Article2.3 of the ICCCode of Conductfor Players andPlayer SupportPersonnel, whichrelates to usingaudible obsceni-ties in an interna-tional match, astatement said.Zampa was notonly handed a for-mal warning butone demerit pointwas also added tohis disciplinaryrecord. The inci-dent occurred atthe end of the 29th over of the West Indiesinnings when Zampa was heard using anaudible obscenity by the umpires. "Zampaadmitted the offence and accepted the sanc-tion proposed by Jeff Crowe of the EmiratesElite Panel of ICC Match Referees and, assuch, there was no need for a formal hear-ing," the statement read. "On-field umpiresMarais Erasmus and Chris Gaffaney, thirdumpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge and fourthofficial S Ravi levelled the charges." IANS

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Considering where they wereearlier on in the day at 79for 5 in their innings, it was

a remarkable turnaround fromAustralia to get the victory againstthe West Indies.

They struggled early onagainst some very good pacebowling and that's an area theywill need to work on, but any timeyou can pinch a victory like thatit is a pretty good result.

There was also an unlikelyhero with the bat in NathanCoulter-Nile. It was a phenome-nal performance from him tomake 92 — let alone to do it fromjust 60 balls.

It’s a pretty special perfor-mance from him to get his side to288, while Steve Smith was alsovery good and held it togetherwith those partnerships with AlexCarey and then Coulter-Nile.

That gave Australia some-thing to bowl at when, halfwaythrough the innings, you arequestioning what’s gone wrongand all the negatives that can per-vade a dressing room.

For them to be on a highgoing out to bowl, having dodged

a bullet to a certain degree with anunlikely hero in Coulter-Nile,was a huge shift in the momentumof the match.

I am surprised Andre Russelland Jason Holder didn’t bowl outtheir overs, but it was a great per-formance from Coulter-Nile andthe spring in the step was evidentin the field early on.

I also thought Mitchell Starcbowled really well to take his fivewickets. When he’s got his rhythm

and his form is good, he’s definite-ly the best around — I think thatis without question.

The way he starts, he swingsthe ball early, and then later on hegoes around the wicket and makesit hard for tail-enders to get bat onball with his pace and the angle hebowls.

It was a tremendous perfor-mance from him. Pat Cumminsalso bowled well, although theothers struggled a bit so there areareas for improvement from theAussies.

But it's all about winningthose close games and gettingthrough, that's what they are play-ing for really, it doesn’t matter ifyou win all nine games if you havea shocker in the semi-final.

If you can win games withoutplaying your best, obviously youwant to build to your best, that'swhat a time like this is about andIndia next up will be a big stum-bling block.

I think they got out of jail a lit-tle bit the other day, the SouthAfricans played pretty well butthey are just not scoring enoughruns, and then Rohit Sharma

kept it all together for the Indians.India have got some vulnera-

bilities, but they also have someworld-class performers in Sharma,Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah andthe rest — it's a pretty handy side!

That’s a tough hurdle forAustralia but once they’ve playeda couple of decent teams, they willhave a better idea of where they areat with regards to the rest of thetournament.

All the sides are basicallyshowing they can beat each other,that’s the main thing that’s comeout of these early games, there’s noobvious runaway—looking teamat the moment.

I think that is how most of usexpected it to be at this point —that there would be a lot of teamsyou expect to do well and thenthere would be a few surprisepackages.

West Indies will clearly be oneof those sides to keep an eye on,they look really dangerous, butAustralia are progressing nicely sofar and will be happy with theirstart to the tournament.

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Carlos Brathwaite said the WestIndies were on the wrong end of too

much poor umpiring following a 15-rundefeat by champions Australia asMichael Holding slammed an "atro-cious" display by the match officials.

West Indies opener Chris Gayle andcaptain Jason Holder were both twicegiven out on the field at Trent Bridge onThursday but, on both sets of occasions,saw their decision to review vindicat-ed by the third umpire.

The mood of theCaribbean side was nothelped when standingumpire Chris Gaffaneymissed a Mitchell Starcno-ball the deliverybefore the left-armquick dismissed Gaylefor 21.

Had the NewZealand official called ano-ball, the next deliverywould have been a free hitfrom which the veteran openercould not have been dismissed.

Brathwaite accepted Gaffaney andSri Lanka's Ruchira Palliyaguruge weredoing their best, but he made noattempt to hide his annoyance after theWest Indies fell short chasing a targetof 289.

"I don't know if I'll be fined for say-ing it but I just think that the umpiringwas a bit frustrating," Brathwaite toldreporters.

K�$��$�E"Even when we were bowling we

thought a few balls close to head heightwere called wides.

"And obviously three decisions...Asfar as I can remember being dodgy, itwas frustrating and sent ripples throughthe dressing room," the all-rounderadded.

"To lose Chris in a chase of 280, whocan probably get 180 of them himselfobviously, broke the start that we want-ed to have.

"But the umpires do their job, theytry to do it to the best of their ability,we as players go out there to do our jobas well, so there was no confrontationbetween the players and the umpires."

Gaffaney raised his finger twice inthree balls to gove Gayle whilePalliyaguruge was two-times over-ruledby replays after raising his finger againstHolder.

Brathwaite made it clear the deci-sions had not been the key reason whythe West Indies had lost, but said theywere part of a concerning pattern.

"I just think I'd like that for WestIndies, we don't have to use all ourreviews and that some of the otherteams get a chance to use theirs because,

every time we get hit on ourpad, the finger goes up," he

said."When we hit the

opposition on theirpad, the finger staysdown. So we have touse our reviews andit's always missingand then we have to

use our reviews whenwe're batting as well

and it's always clipping."I'm not a technology

person, I don't know whythat happens, I can just say what I haveseen happen over the past few years."

K��EMeanwhile Holding, commentating

on television, was scathing about the"weak" officiating on show atNottinghamshire's headquarters.

"The umpiring in this game hasbeen atrocious," said Holding, one ofcricket's all-time leading fast bowlers.

The 65-year-old Jamaican addedGaffaney and Palliyaguruge had cavedinto pressure created by prolongedAustralia appeals.

"For one, even when I was playingand you were not as strict as they arenow, you were allowed one appeal,"recalled Holding, who infamouslykicked down the stumps during a1979/80 Test in Dunedin after hisappeal to have New Zealand's JohnParker caught behind was rejected byumpire Fred Goodall.

"You don't appeal two, three, fourtimes to the umpire. They are beingintimidated which means they are weak.

"This has been an atrocious bit ofumpiring by both (Gaffaney andPalliyaguruge)."

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Wicket-keeper Shai Hopeadmitted the manner of West

Indies' defeat to Australia was ahard pill to swallow after his sideenjoyed a commanding positionfor majority of the game at TrentBridge.

Australia, who were reeling at79/5, recovered from the battingcollapse to post 288 all out on theback of a match-winning knock byNathan Coulter-Nile (92) and avaluable anchoring role by SteveSmith (73).

A brilliant bowling spell byleft-arm pacer Mitchell Starc (5/46)was sufficient to ensure a 15-runvictory for Australia - despiteHope's composed knock of 68.

"This is going to be a tough pillto swallow having basically beendominating the game for themajority of it and then not beingable to cross the line," Hope said.

"Regardless of what happenswe have to play cricket on the day.

We always play the best we possi-bly can and the better team will winon the day," he added.

It was ultimately scant conso-lation but both Hope and outfield-er Sheldon Cottrell grasped stun-ning catches during the game.

Hope delighted the crowdwhen he flew to his left to scoopup a one-handed grab thatremoved Usman Khawaja for 13off the bowling of Andre Russell.

But the 25-year-old admits hewas bettered by Cottrell's effort tofinally dismiss Smith - as hecaught the ball one-handed whiletip-toeing along the boundaryrope, then flicked the ball back inthe air as he crossed the ropebefore stepping back on to the fieldcomplete the catch.

"Easily (the better catch), that

was an amazing effort. At first Iwasn't sure if he had it but then Irealised it was a proper catch."

"For mine, it was just one ofthose things. I just had to go - Ididn't really have much time tothink. Andre bowled a prettydecent delivery and I just saw thewhite thing and tried to catch it."

The West Indies' seam quar-tet of Russell, Cottrell, CarlosBrathwaite and Oshane Thomascaused havoc with aggressive,short-pitched bowling with thenew ball before Australia recov-ered and Hope insists the team willcontinue with the tactic.

"Most definitely, as long as youget wickets with the new ball youalways put teams under pressure,"he said.

"It was just unfortunate wecouldn't drive home and get thetail in a bit earlier. But that's howcricket plays and we knowAustralia are a quality side. They'veshown us that they can build,"Hope said.

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England managerGareth Southgate

promised his sidewould learn from anerror-strewn perfor-mance as theNetherlands progressedto the final of theNations League bycoming from behind tobeat the Three Lions 3-1 on Thursday.

Defeat meansEngland's long wait fora trophy since 1966goes on and the Dutchthoroughly deservedtheir place in Sunday'sfinal against Portugal.

Marcus Rashford'spenalty gave England afirst-half lead againstthe run of play, butMatthijs de Ligt madeamends for his error inleading to the spot-kickto level 17 minutesfrom time.

England con-tributed to their owndownfall in extra-time

with a comedy of errorsfor both goals. JohnStones and RossBarkley were at fault asKyle Walker's own goaland Quincy Promes'ssimple f inish sentHolland into the final.

Southgate's menwere attempting tobuild on the success ofreaching a first WorldCup semi-final for 28

years, but their displayshowed much work isstill to be done if theyare to end their trophydrought on next sum-mer at Euro 2020 withthe semi-finals andfinal to be played onhome soil at Wembley.

"I think it's a reallyimportant game for usto reflect on," saidSouthgate.

"The next few dayswill be painful havinggot to this stage, but wewill be stronger for theexperience."

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Defending championRafael Nadal powered

past Roger Federer in theFrench Open semi-finals onFriday, to move within onevictory of a record-extend-ing 12th Roland Garros titleafter handing his oldest rivalhis worst Grand Slamdefeat in 11 years.

The 33-year-old produced amasterful perfor-mance to get pastFederer 6-3, 6-4,6-2 in the last four onCourt Philippe Chatrierand set up a final clash witheither world number oneNovak Djokovic or Austrianfourth seed Dominic Thiemon Sunday.

It will be Nadal’s 12thappearance in the champi-onship match, which he hasnever lost before.

"It's incredible to playwith Roger here," saidNadal.

"Congratulations to him

— to be at his level at 37, it'sincredible. I say thank youto the Parisian fans, becauseit's magnificent for me to bein another final.

"It's always a pleasure toplay with him. It's always adifficult match against him."

The third seed now hasan stunning 92-2 win-loss

record on the Paris clay,having beaten

Federer for the sixthtime in as manyFrench Open meet-ings despite diffi-

cult, windy condi-tions.Nadal also leads his

overall head-to-head againstFederer 24-15, and 14-2 onclay after ending a run offive straights losses to the37-year-old.

A tally of just ninegames meant it wasFederer's heaviest defeat ina Grand Slam match sincemanaging only four againstNadal in their famouslyone-sided 2008 RolandGarros final.

Nadal made only 19unforced errors, crushing 33winners as Federer struck25, although that amountcould easily have been dou-

bled against any opponentother than the 11-timechampion.

The defeat leavesFederer still waiting for a

first victory over Nadal onclay since 2009 in Madrid.

��%�� $9��$�A topsy-turvy start saw

the Spaniard race through thefirst three games before

Federer broke back asthe wind played havocwith the players' servesfrom one end.

But Nadal grabbeda 4-2 advantage in a

marathon sixth game asFederer, looking to become

the oldest Grand Slam final-ist since Ken Rosewall at the1974 US Open, dumped aforehand into the net.

The crowd were roaringon Federer as he saved a setpoint, but gasped in appreci-ation of a rasping Nadal back-hand winner which clinchedthe opening set.

The Swiss turned on thestyle to take the first twogames of the second set, onlyto be broken straight back asNadal curled a trademarkforehand up the line.

Federer was throwing

everything he had at Nadal,but the indomitable left-han-der was simply too strong.

The key moments cametowards the end of the secondset, when second seed Nadalmanaged to hold under severepressure to level at 4-4, beforeputting the pedal down tobreak despite having trailed40-0.

The defending championconfidently served out the setto love to move one stepcloser to the final, where hewill look to lift the trophy fora third successive year.

Federer's chances wereslipping away quickly, and hereceived a warning after angri-ly hitting the ball into theupper reaches of PhilippeChatrier after a flick off the netchord helped Nadal break ingame three of the third set.

Another break inFederer's next service gameeffectively signalled the end ofthe contest, and Nadalwrapped up an impressive vic-tory as his rival fired a returnlong.

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meeting called by Prime ... upper and lower for men and women, ... and DMK’s leader of house in the Lok Sabha TR Baalu. The Congress is yet to name Leader of the party in