16
I n a reminder to dark days of militancy in Punjab, three people were killed while over a dozen were injured in a grenade attack during a reli- gious congregation at Rana Sansi in Amritsar district at a time when the State was on high alert after terror inputs since Thursday. The Punjab Police has described it as a “terrorist act” and is probing all “possible angles”. By the evening, the police have arrested two sus- pects from Bathinda, and seized live cartridges from them. Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has decided to investigate the inci- dent that took place at Nirankari Bhawan in Adliwal village. The NIA has registered a case into the incident and its team, com- prising senior officers, left from Chandigarh in the evening, and was expected to reach Raja Sansi late at night to further investigate the matter. The blast came at a time when the police have sounded high alert across Punjab, espe- cially in Amritsar after the terrorist-outfit Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGH) chief Zakir Musa was reportedly spotted in the holy city along with a few other men on Friday. Security was beefed up across the State since Thursday after four persons snatched an SUV at gunpoint near Madhopur in Pathankot dis- trict last week, followed by an intelligence input claiming that a group of six to seven Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM) terrorists were reportedly in the State, possibly in Ferozepur area. Sunday’s blast attack at Nirankaris — considered to be a subsidiary of Sikhism but fol- lowing their own living Guru and religious text - harked back about four decades back. In 1978, 13 Sikhs and three Nirankaris were killed in Amritsar following a violent clash between the two groups — an incident considered to be the starting of the Sikh mili- tancy in Punjab. As per initial inputs, two youth, aged between 25 and 30, with their faces covered, forcibly entered the Nirankari Bhawan and lobbed the grenade amidst the crowd when the congrega- tion was on. Continued on Page 4 F ollowing report by intelli- gence agencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has prepared a list of several sus- pected organisations and indi- viduals, who are backing and providing assistance to Rohingya immigrants. The organisations men- tioned in the list include Working Group on Alternative Strategies, Crown Newsing, Community Mobilisation, Choton Das of Bondi Mukti Committee, Kolkatta, Md Saleel of Kerala Muslim Culture Centre and Amnesty International, India. The list also named a former Ambassador, top lawyers, civil society members and a profes- sor of a renowned university. The document accessed by The Pioneer also gives state- wise data of Rohingya immi- grants. “There are 1,234 illegal Rohingya immigrants in the national Capital. Of them 163 are untraceable. Demographic details of 894 have been cap- tured”, the document said. As per the document, there are 6,523 illegal Rohingyas in Jammu and Kashmir. Of them, 6,461 are in Jammu and 62 in Kashmir. There are 264 Rohingyas in Uttar Pradesh, 26 in Assam, 102 in Tamil Nadu, 60 in Karnataka, 16 in Kerala, and one in Maharashtra. H aving accepted the rec- ommendations made by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) on the socio-eco- nomic status of the Marathas, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday announced that his Government would grant reservations to Marathas in jobs and education under a new Socio-Economic Backward Class (SEBC) cate- gory. Talking to mediapersons here on the eve of the start of the Winter Session of Maharashtra Legislature, Fadnavis said, “We have accept- ed the recommendations made by the MSBCC. We have decid- ed to accord reservations to the Maratha community under a new SEBC category. The reservations to be granted to Marathas will be independent of the existing reservations for the OBC cat- egory.” The Chief Minister said the State Government had consti- tuted a Cabinet Sub- Committee to take statutory steps to implement its decision. Fadnavis said the MSBCC had made three recommenda- tions in its submission to the Maharashtra Government on November 15. “The MSBCC has recom- mended that Marathas be given reservations on the basis their socio-economic backwardness under extraordinary situations. As per the guidelines of the Supreme Court (which has pegged the cap on reservations at 50 per cent), we have an extraordinary situation on hand. Based on the commis- sion’s recommendations, we have decided to create a new SEBC category under which we intend to accord reservations to Marathas without affecting the reservations already given under the OBC category,” the Chief Minister said. Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said there is no need for the State Government to seek the permission of the Central Backward Class Commission to grant reserva- tions to Marathas in jobs and education. Official sources said the Maharashtra Government would introduce a Bill in the Winter Session of the State Legislature to create SEBC cat- egory and accord 16 per cent reservations to Maratha com- munity in addition to the exist- ing 52 per cent reservations in the State. When the law is enacted, the reservations will go up to 68 per cent in Maharashtra. According to sources, the Maharashtra Government is contemplating to take the route adopted by the Tamil Nadu Government under late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, which achieved its objective of increasing reservations to 69 per cent by passing the Tamil Nadu Act of 1994 and adding the 1994 Act to the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. Article 31B of the Constitution stipulates that the legislations in the Ninth Schedule cannot be challenged in courts. F ourteen passengers died and 14 were injured when the bus in which they were travelling fell into a deep gorge near Janakichatti in Uttarkashi district at about 12:30 pm on Sunday. According to the Uttarkashi district emergency operation centre, the accident took place on the Naugaon- Damta-Vikasnagar Road in Badkot tehsil involving a pri- vate bus bearing registration number UK 07 PA 1127. The bus fell off the road down about 250 metres into the Yamuna riverside. The District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and other officials reached the site with six ambulances and doc- tors to undertake the rescue operation. Fourteen people were reported dead on the spot. Of the 14 injured, six are in seri- ous condition and were airlift- ed by helicopter. Three were admitted in AIIMS Rishikesh and three were admitted in Jolly Grant hospital. The remaining eight injured were transported by ambulance to Dehradun. A fter delay of nine years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate much awaited 6,400 crore Kundli- Manesar-Palwal (KMP), also known as Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), at Sultanpur village Gurugram on November 19. Also, Modi will inaugurate the 3.2 km-long Escorts Mujesar-Ballabgarh section of Delhi Metro’s Violet Line and lay foundation stone of Vishwakarma Skill University, Dudhola Palwal. Haryana Chief Minister Manoharlal Khattar, along with his Cabinet Ministers, will also be present on the occasion. The Expressway will not only ease burden of heavy traf- fic using Delhi as transit point but also provide high-speed link between northern Haryana and southern districts. It will facilitate uninter- rupted high-speed link for traffic, especially commercial traffic, from Haryana to the neighbouring States. The expressway will act as a Delhi bypass for traffic com- ing from north of Delhi on NH-1 and going to south of Delhi on NH2 and to the west along NH-8. Once the KMP Expressway is fully operational, vehicles going from North India to the Western and Southern parts of the country would be able to do so without entering into Delhi. According to officials, 6,400 crore had been spent on the expressway project and 3,846 acre was acquired at a cost of 2,788 crore. The design speed of the expressway is 120 kmph for light vehicles and 100 kmph for heavy ones. L et’s try and understand what a man-eater is. Big cats are shy by nature and avoid human interaction as much as they can. So we are not a part of their menu. Maybe a lot of readers do not know that our ability to stand upright helps us a lot. To other animals, our stance looks very aggressive. That’s why they always try and keep away from humans. So, if healthy tigers kill humans, they do not become man-eaters straight away. It means that humans have also become a part of their menu, their food habit. So, unless wounded, in which case men, women and children become easy kills because of their lack of speed, strength and size, there are technically no com- plete man-eaters. There are only easy or dif- ficult preys for the cats. There used to be a lot many man- eaters in olden days, mainly because a whole lot of novice hunters would just shoot and injure the cat and then not have the patience to track it and fin- ish it off. After the wound healed, the cat would live, but with a disability, which proved to be a hindrance while hunt- ing. So if one thinks rationally, then most of the renowned man-eaters of our country owed their popularity, in most cases, to some screw head who thought he or she was good enough to kill a big cat. “HAAN MAIN TEZAAB HUN JUDGE SAHAB…MAIN TEZAAB HUN. PAR MUJHE TEZAAB BANAYA KISNE?”. Obviously, those idiots. They were the ones responsible for all those deaths and killings and they should have been tried for murder. When hunting got banned in our country, the number of man-eaters came down to almost a zilch. Do we see a connection there? There is an interesting story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was spotted in Moradabad. When the Corbett authorities were informed about it, they under- standably laughed it off. After all, Moradabad was far away. It was only when a forest ranger called to inform them that the tigress was actually present in the area and he had seen the tigress himself, did the author- ities rush a team to look into the matter. The tigress had found home in the sugarcane planta- tions. It was a perfect hideout for a cat, which is a loner by nature. It had killed 6 -7 odd people by then. When har- vesting started and it started losing cover, the cat had to move. So the Tigress started moving back towards Corbett. The officers of Corbett had instructed the team to only monitor the cat and not harm it in anyway. The big cat came all the way back to Corbett, through connected forest area and eloped. No more human killings. It travelled more than 200 kms through its round trip. That is how much tigers and tigresses move at times in order to gain territory. No other big cat clocks in such distances. I know I am not going to write anything, which will turn out to be an eye opener. But I started this piece so that I could understand the whole sit- uation better. The controversies surrounding Avni’s death are a plenty. I’ve been reading dif- ferent takes and points of view of politicians and activists on the incident and have tried to reach a logical conclusion of my own. But first, lets give the cred- it where its due. The fact that we still have around 2500 odd Tigers left in the wild is a trib- ute to all the wildlife conser- vationists and villagers who live in areas in and around the for- est. I completely understand that to kill a rogue animal at times becomes a social exi- gency. As many conservation- ists have pointed out in recent days, the whole Tiger project has depended very heavily on the support of the locals, and the forest department can’t afford to lose them to the other side of the fence. You can’t have a man-eater continue its killing spree because of it national status. Though we hardly ever cared about its status. If we did, there would be a lot many of them alive today. But with the forest cover receding alarm- ingly, the clashes between man and beast are only going to increase. The remaining forest cover in India cannot accom- modate more than 4000 Tigers in all. So if we want them liv- ing, it can only happen, I reit- erate, with the help of the locals who live around those forest areas. So understanding their fears and problems is of utmost importance. But was killing Avni still the only option? The men, who were put on the job to capture her, have called it a failed operation because they could not save the Tigress. That they had to kill her in self- defence is a question, which will be debated for a long time. As an after thought, why were private hunters assigned for the job? I am not questioning their credentials. They might be good hunters with loads of experi- ence. But, a project, which started in 1972, and has seen crores flow into it, does not have its own professionals to tackle these situations? The team, which eliminated T1 was in an open jeep at 11 at night, trying to locate a big cat who, they knew had turned rogue. That they flouted the rule, that an animal can’t be tranquilized at night is only one part of the story. Mostly, night patrols are done in a covered vehicle for personal safety. A gunshot to the body was not the only option. Had the hunter fired a shot in the air, the cat would have stopped the charge or changed its course. I would not believe that Avni was so used to gunshots being fired at her that she was not scared of them either. Of course they had to kill her in self-defence. I am pushed to believe that their motive was clear. They did not want the cat alive. The fact that this Tigress was being traced for the last two years and that she man- aged to elude her captors for so long does not really go down my throat either. I feel that NO Tiger can stay hidden for that long if the authorities and the forest department completely dedicate themselves to the task of capturing it. But even if it did, I think things could have been done differently to safe- guard the villagers and the Tigress, who has left behind two vulnerable cubs. It is the kids who have made the situ- ation more complicated. So, if they are not found in time, in effect, the hunters might end up killing 3 Tigers instead of one. Plus, is there a guarantee that no other Tiger will ever come there and turn on humans? If no, then how many of these endangered cats are we going to kill? I know that wildlife dilettantes like me can be easily shut up. Give us a few technical jargons and throw some laws at us and we would not have an answer. But here, it is pure common sense, which is being presented. Coming back to Avni’s case, I feel the authorities delayed the process. My point is that 2 years back when she made her first human kill, she must have been alone, without cubs. Her human interaction should have been curtailed then. Her capture should have been taken more seriously. I feel she was allowed to remain in those surroundings for far too long. Had she been cap- tured and relocated then, the problem would not have snow- balled. And once she had cubs, she was understandably not going to move much. Any mother will stay at a place where food is found in abundance. As I understand, Avni was a healthy Tigress who killed humans only if the opportunity presented itself. Come to think of it, ‘Sharmilee’, the Tigress who is known as “The Legend of Corbett”, raised her four kids to adulthood. This was unprecedented. Her kids remained with her till they were almost three years old, which is a rarity. We have been witness to the fact that at times she made as many as three kills in a day to feed her kids. Continued on Page 4

ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

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Page 1: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

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In a reminder to dark days ofmilitancy in Punjab, three

people were killed while over adozen were injured in agrenade attack during a reli-gious congregation at RanaSansi in Amritsar district at atime when the State was onhigh alert after terror inputssince Thursday.

The Punjab Police hasdescribed it as a “terrorist act”and is probing all “possibleangles”. By the evening, thepolice have arrested two sus-pects from Bathinda, and seizedlive cartridges from them.

Meanwhile, the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA) hasdecided to investigate the inci-dent that took place at NirankariBhawan in Adliwal village. TheNIA has registered a case intothe incident and its team, com-prising senior officers, left fromChandigarh in the evening, andwas expected to reach RajaSansi late at night to further

investigate the matter.The blast came at a time

when the police have soundedhigh alert across Punjab, espe-cially in Amritsar after theterrorist-outfit AnsarGhazwatul Hind (AGH) chiefZakir Musa was reportedlyspotted in the holy city alongwith a few other men on Friday.

Security was beefed upacross the State since Thursdayafter four persons snatched anSUV at gunpoint nearMadhopur in Pathankot dis-trict last week, followed by anintelligence input claiming thata group of six to seven Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terroristswere reportedly in the State,possibly in Ferozepur area.

Sunday’s blast attack atNirankaris — considered to bea subsidiary of Sikhism but fol-lowing their own living Guruand religious text - harkedback about four decades back.In 1978, 13 Sikhs and threeNirankaris were killed inAmritsar following a violentclash between the two groups— an incident considered to bethe starting of the Sikh mili-tancy in Punjab.

As per initial inputs, twoyouth, aged between 25 and 30,with their faces covered, forciblyentered the Nirankari Bhawanand lobbed the grenade amidstthe crowd when the congrega-tion was on.

Continued on Page 4

�������(������ �-.� -/,%

Following report by intelli-gence agencies, the Ministry

of Home Affairs (MHA) hasprepared a list of several sus-pected organisations and indi-viduals, who are backing andproviding assistance toRohingya immigrants.

The organisations men-tioned in the list includeWorking Group on AlternativeStrategies, Crown Newsing,Community Mobilisation,Choton Das of Bondi MuktiCommittee, Kolkatta, MdSaleel of Kerala Muslim CultureCentre and AmnestyInternational, India. The listalso named a formerAmbassador, top lawyers, civilsociety members and a profes-sor of a renowned university.

The document accessedby The Pioneer also gives state-

wise data of Rohingya immi-grants. “There are 1,234 illegalRohingya immigrants in thenational Capital. Of them 163are untraceable. Demographicdetails of 894 have been cap-tured”, the document said.

As per the document, thereare 6,523 illegal Rohingyas inJammu and Kashmir. Of them,6,461 are in Jammu and 62 inKashmir.

There are 264 Rohingyas inUttar Pradesh, 26 in Assam,102 in Tamil Nadu, 60 inKarnataka, 16 in Kerala, andone in Maharashtra.

������������� 010$�%

Having accepted the rec-ommendations made by

the Maharashtra StateBackward Class Commission(MSBCC) on the socio-eco-nomic status of the Marathas,Maharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis on Sundayannounced that hisGovernment would grantreservations to Marathas injobs and education under anew Socio-EconomicBackward Class (SEBC) cate-gory.

Talking to mediapersonshere on the eve of the start ofthe Winter Session ofMaharashtra Legislature,Fadnavis said, “We have accept-ed the recommendations madeby the MSBCC. We have decid-ed to accord reservations to theMaratha community under anew SEBC category.

The reservations to be

granted to Marathas will beindependent of the existingreservations for the OBC cat-egory.”

The Chief Minister said theState Government had consti-tuted a Cabinet Sub-Committee to take statutorysteps to implement its decision.

Fadnavis said the MSBCChad made three recommenda-tions in its submission to theMaharashtra Government onNovember 15.

“The MSBCC has recom-

mended that Marathas be givenreservations on the basis theirsocio-economic backwardnessunder extraordinary situations.As per the guidelines of theSupreme Court (which haspegged the cap on reservationsat 50 per cent), we have anextraordinary situation onhand. Based on the commis-sion’s recommendations, wehave decided to create a newSEBC category under which weintend to accord reservations toMarathas without affecting thereservations already givenunder the OBC category,” theChief Minister said.

Replying to a question, theChief Minister said there is noneed for the State Governmentto seek the permission of theCentral Backward ClassCommission to grant reserva-tions to Marathas in jobs andeducation.

Official sources said theMaharashtra Government

would introduce a Bill in theWinter Session of the StateLegislature to create SEBC cat-egory and accord 16 per centreservations to Maratha com-munity in addition to the exist-ing 52 per cent reservations inthe State. When the law isenacted, the reservations willgo up to 68 per cent inMaharashtra.

According to sources, theMaharashtra Government iscontemplating to take the routeadopted by the Tamil NaduGovernment under late ChiefMinister Jayalalithaa, whichachieved its objective ofincreasing reservations to 69per cent by passing the TamilNadu Act of 1994 and addingthe 1994 Act to the NinthSchedule of the Constitution.

Article 31B of theConstitution stipulates that thelegislations in the NinthSchedule cannot be challengedin courts.

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Fourteen passengers diedand 14 were injured when

the bus in which they weretravelling fell into a deep gorgenear Janakichatti in Uttarkashidistrict at about 12:30 pm onSunday. According to theUttarkashi district emergencyoperation centre, the accidenttook place on the Naugaon-Damta-Vikasnagar Road inBadkot tehsil involving a pri-vate bus bearing registrationnumber UK 07 PA 1127.

The bus fell off the roaddown about 250 metres into the

Yamuna riverside. The District Magistrate,

Superintendent of Police andother officials reached the sitewith six ambulances and doc-tors to undertake the rescueoperation.

Fourteen people werereported dead on the spot. Ofthe 14 injured, six are in seri-ous condition and were airlift-ed by helicopter.

Three were admitted inAIIMS Rishikesh and threewere admitted in Jolly Granthospital. The remaining eightinjured were transported byambulance to Dehradun.

�������(������ �-.� -/,%

After delay of nine years,Prime Minister Narendra

Modi will inaugurate muchawaited �6,400 crore Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP), alsoknown as Western PeripheralExpressway (WPE), atSultanpur village Gurugramon November 19.

Also, Modi will inauguratethe 3.2 km-long EscortsMujesar-Ballabgarh section ofDelhi Metro’s Violet Line andlay foundation stone ofVishwakarma Skill University,Dudhola Palwal. HaryanaChief Minister ManoharlalKhattar, along with his CabinetMinisters, will also be presenton the occasion.

The Expressway will notonly ease burden of heavy traf-fic using Delhi as transit pointbut also provide high-speedlink between northern Haryanaand southern districts.

It will facilitate uninter-rupted high-speed link for traffic, especially commercial traffic, from Haryana to the

neighbouring States. The expressway will act as

a Delhi bypass for traffic com-ing from north of Delhi onNH-1 and going to south ofDelhi on NH2 and to the westalong NH-8.

Once the KMP Expresswayis fully operational, vehiclesgoing from North India to theWestern and Southern parts ofthe country would be able to doso without entering into Delhi.

According to officials,�6,400 crore had been spent onthe expressway project and3,846 acre was acquired at acost of �2,788 crore.

The design speed of theexpressway is 120 kmph forlight vehicles and 100 kmph forheavy ones.

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Let’s try and understand whata man-eater is. Big cats are

shy by nature and avoid humaninteraction as much as theycan. So we are not a part oftheir menu.

Maybe a lot of readers donot know that our ability tostand upright helps us a lot. Toother animals, our stance looksvery aggressive. That’s whythey always try and keep awayfrom humans.

So, if healthy tigers killhumans, they do not becomeman-eaters straight away. Itmeans that humans have alsobecome a part of their menu,their food habit. So, unlesswounded, in which case men,women and children becomeeasy kills because of their lackof speed, strength and size,there are technically no com-plete man-eaters.

There are only easy or dif-ficult preys for the cats. Thereused to be a lot many man-eaters in olden days, mainlybecause a whole lot of novicehunters would just shoot andinjure the cat and then not havethe patience to track it and fin-

ish it off. After the woundhealed, the cat would live, butwith a disability, which provedto be a hindrance while hunt-ing.

So if one thinks rationally,then most of the renownedman-eaters of our countryowed their popularity, in mostcases, to some screw head whothought he or she was goodenough to kill a big cat.“HAAN MAIN TEZAABHUN JUDGESAHAB…MAIN TEZAABHUN. PAR MUJHE TEZAABBANAYA KISNE?”. Obviously,those idiots. They were theones responsible for all thosedeaths and killings and theyshould have been tried formurder. When hunting gotbanned in our country, thenumber of man-eaters camedown to almost a zilch. Do wesee a connection there?

There is an interestingstory of a female tigress, whichleft the confines of CorbettNational Park and was spottedin Moradabad. When theCorbett authorities wereinformed about it, they under-standably laughed it off. Afterall, Moradabad was far away. Itwas only when a forest rangercalled to inform them that thetigress was actually present inthe area and he had seen thetigress himself, did the author-ities rush a team to look intothe matter.

The tigress had foundhome in the sugarcane planta-tions. It was a perfect hideoutfor a cat, which is a loner by

nature. It had killed 6 -7 oddpeople by then. When har-vesting started and it startedlosing cover, the cat had tomove. So the Tigress startedmoving back towards Corbett.The officers of Corbett hadinstructed the team to onlymonitor the cat and not harmit in anyway. The big cat cameall the way back to Corbett,through connected forest areaand eloped. No more humankillings. It travelled more than200 kms through its round trip.That is how much tigers andtigresses move at times in orderto gain territory. No other bigcat clocks in such distances.

I know I am not going towrite anything, which will turnout to be an eye opener. But Istarted this piece so that Icould understand the whole sit-uation better. The controversiessurrounding Avni’s death are aplenty. I’ve been reading dif-ferent takes and points of viewof politicians and activists onthe incident and have tried toreach a logical conclusion ofmy own.

But first, lets give the cred-it where its due. The fact thatwe still have around 2500 oddTigers left in the wild is a trib-ute to all the wildlife conser-vationists and villagers who livein areas in and around the for-est. I completely understandthat to kill a rogue animal attimes becomes a social exi-gency. As many conservation-ists have pointed out in recentdays, the whole Tiger projecthas depended very heavily on

the support of the locals, andthe forest department can’tafford to lose them to theother side of the fence.

You can’t have a man-eatercontinue its killing spreebecause of it national status.Though we hardly ever caredabout its status. If we did,there would be a lot many ofthem alive today. But with theforest cover receding alarm-ingly, the clashes between manand beast are only going toincrease. The remaining forestcover in India cannot accom-modate more than 4000 Tigersin all. So if we want them liv-ing, it can only happen, I reit-erate, with the help of thelocals who live around thoseforest areas.

So understanding theirfears and problems is of utmostimportance. But was killingAvni still the only option? Themen, who were put on the jobto capture her, have called it afailed operation because theycould not save the Tigress.That they had to kill her in self-defence is a question, whichwill be debated for a long time.As an after thought, why wereprivate hunters assigned for thejob? I am not questioning theircredentials.

They might be goodhunters with loads of experi-ence. But, a project, whichstarted in 1972, and has seencrores flow into it, does nothave its own professionals totackle these situations? Theteam, which eliminated T1was in an open jeep at 11 at

night, trying to locate a big catwho, they knew had turnedrogue. That they flouted therule, that an animal can’t betranquilized at night is only onepart of the story. Mostly, nightpatrols are done in a coveredvehicle for personal safety.

A gunshot to the body wasnot the only option. Had thehunter fired a shot in the air,the cat would have stopped thecharge or changed its course. Iwould not believe that Avni wasso used to gunshots being firedat her that she was not scaredof them either. Of course theyhad to kill her in self-defence.

I am pushed to believethat their motive was clear.They did not want the catalive. The fact that this Tigresswas being traced for the lasttwo years and that she man-aged to elude her captors for solong does not really go downmy throat either. I feel that NOTiger can stay hidden for thatlong if the authorities and theforest department completelydedicate themselves to the taskof capturing it. But even if itdid, I think things could havebeen done differently to safe-guard the villagers and theTigress, who has left behindtwo vulnerable cubs. It is thekids who have made the situ-ation more complicated.

So, if they are not found intime, in effect, the huntersmight end up killing 3 Tigersinstead of one. Plus, is there aguarantee that no other Tigerwill ever come there and turnon humans? If no, then how

many of these endangered catsare we going to kill? I know thatwildlife dilettantes like me canbe easily shut up. Give us a fewtechnical jargons and throwsome laws at us and we wouldnot have an answer. But here,it is pure common sense, whichis being presented.

Coming back to Avni’scase, I feel the authoritiesdelayed the process. My pointis that 2 years back when shemade her first human kill, shemust have been alone, withoutcubs. Her human interactionshould have been curtailedthen. Her capture should havebeen taken more seriously. Ifeel she was allowed to remainin those surroundings for fartoo long. Had she been cap-tured and relocated then, theproblem would not have snow-balled. And once she had cubs,she was understandably notgoing to move much.

Any mother will stay at aplace where food is found inabundance. As I understand,Avni was a healthy Tigresswho killed humans only if theopportunity presented itself.Come to think of it, ‘Sharmilee’,the Tigress who is known as“The Legend of Corbett”, raisedher four kids to adulthood.

This was unprecedented.Her kids remained with her tillthey were almost three yearsold, which is a rarity. We havebeen witness to the fact that attimes she made as many asthree kills in a day to feed herkids.

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

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Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur

on Sunday participated in six-day International Renuka Fairbeing organised in Sirmaurdistrict.

He paid obeisance to theprincipal deity Lord Parshuramand participated in the procession. He also carriedpalanquin of the deity andworshipped at the temple ofRenuka Mata and performedreligious ceremonies.

The decades old annualRenuka fair besides being his-toric also has a religious impor-tance. It marks the reunion ofLord Parshuram with hismother Mata Renuka once ayear on the eve of ‘Dashmi’ andthe people of the district takea holy dip in the religiousRenuka lake on ‘PrabodhiniEkadashi’.

As per tradition, the palan-quin of Lord Parshuram isbrought to Renuka from theancient temple in Jamu Koti vil-lage and it departs after the per-formance of religious cere-monies, including a dip in theRenuka lake.

On the occasion, the ChiefMinister said that HimachalPradesh was a rich repositoryof diverse culture and tradition.The fairs and festivals cele-brated here not only symbolis-es rich culture and diverse tra-dition of the state but also pro-vide healthy entertainment tothe local people as well as thetourists, he said.

Thakur said even people ofthe state were known for theirlove and regard for their tradi-tional customs and culture.

The devotees dressed incolourful traditional attiredanced to the tune of tradi-

tional songs and divinemelodies to celebrate the festi-val of the main deity makingthe atmosphere mystic andblissful.

Thakur also inauguratedthe exhibition put up by vari-ous government departments,boards, corporations andNGOs showcasing the devel-opment activities of their

respective organisations anddepartments.

It is believed that if anyChief Minister or Governormisses the fair, he tends to losehis post before the next year’sfair.

Temple priests of LordParshuram say they have a listof Chief Ministers andGovernors who did not par-ticipate in the fair and lost theirposts within a few months.

In the closing ceremony ofthe fair in 2009, then governor,the late Prabha Rau did notparticipate. Within a fewmonths she was transferred toRajasthan.

Likewise, former ChiefMinister and Congress leaderVirbhadra Singh could notparticipate in the inauguralceremony of the fair inNovember 2007 due to someengagements. His party lostpower in less than a monthafter that. The week-longRenuka fair will concludeNovember 23 with devoteestaking a holy dip in the RenukaLake, some 35 km from districtheadquarters Nahan.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Sunday

said that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is coming toHaryana on November 19 andhe would dedicate three pro-jects to the people of the State.

“This would be PM Modi’s11th visit to the state, in the lastfour years,” said the ChiefMinister who visited Sultanpurto review preparations for thePM’s rally to be held inGurugram.

On the occasion, he alsoissued necessary directions tothe concerned officers andofficials regarding preparationsof the rally.

While interacting withmedia persons in Gurugram, theChief Minister said that thePrime Minister would inauguratethe long pending project Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)Expressway on November 19. Onthe occasion, he would also inau-gurate Ballabhgarh Metro Line inFaridabad and lay the foundation

stone of country’s first SkillUniversity namely HaryanaVishwakarma Skill University invillage Dudhola, Palwal.

He said that the construc-tion work of KMP expresswayhad started in the year 2006 butthe previous government couldnot complete it till the year2014 and thus, the contractwith concessionaire was can-celled in 2014.

Later, according to theSupreme Court orders, workon the project was startedagain. It is a matter of greatdelight that the KMP express-way which was to be complet-ed by February 2019, had beencompleted four months earlier.The Prime Minister woulddedicate the Expressway to thepeople of the state, ManoharLal said.

He also said that the PrimeMinister would also inaugurateMujesar to Ballabhgarh MetroLine, which would facilitatetravel for the people of Delhiand Faridabad.

In reply to a question

regarding allegations of formerChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda on works done bythe present Government, hesaid that we all know what theCongress Government had

done during its regime. He said that only Hooda or

the previous concessionairecan tell why and how the workof KMP Expressway gotdelayed. The investigation is on

in the case. The reason isworth knowing as from 2006 to2009 only work of putting thesoil was done. Due to years-long delay in KMP expresswayproject, the cost of the project

has also increased and its onusgoes to former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda, headded.

Manohar Lal also said thatin this area, this would be firstsuch big rally which has neverhappened in past. There wouldbe thousands of people in thePM’s rally, he added.

In reply to another ques-tion regarding a statement offalse rape cases filed by women,Manohar Lal said that hisstatement is being distorted.

“What I have said, today Iam saying it on record thatwhen such rape cases are exam-ined and studied, it has beenfound that in 80 per cent inci-dences in such cases areacquaintances. Now in suchcases, I have never said any-thing like, who and what does.But there is a need for gener-ating awareness in the society,politics should not be done init. Because if there is somethingbad in society then we allshould together need to dealwith it,” he added.

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The famous Bada Osa andPanchuka (last five days of

holy month of Kartik) fair ofLord Dhabaleswar nearMancheswar village ofAthagarh block would beobserved with much pompand gaiety this year.

A preparatory meeting washeld recently in the templepremises, presided over byCuttack DM Arvind Agarwalin presence of all line depart-ment staffers, members ofservitor society of the templeand mediapersons. The meet-ing declared that this yearPanchuka would be observedfrom November 19 to 23 andBada Osa of the Lord would beperformed on November 21 atthe shrine.

In the dawn of November22, the famous Gaja Bhoga andTarana (liquid cake made ofrice powder, sugar and requiredspices) Prasad of the Lord willbe distributed among the devo-tees.

The Lord will be decorat-ed in Badasinghara Besha onthe day of Bada Osa and will begiven darshan to the devotees.As lakhs of devotees throng theshrine during Panchuka, theadministration has taken cer-tain precautionary measures tomake the fair hurdle free.

Last year over five lakhdevotees had thronged theshrine during Panchuka andthis year the administrationexpects more than the numberof the last year. As the templeis situated in an island in riverMahanadi, the devotees canreach the shrine either in

waterways from Bidanasi sideof Cuttack or through country’slongest suspension bridge con-nected from Mancheswar vil-lage to the shrine. But this yearthe administration has decid-ed to stop boat service from theBidanasi side. So the servicewill be available from theMancheswar only.

The administration hasdecided Rs 20 as freight chargeof boats to and fro for everypasserby through waterway toreach the shrine and Rs 2 forpassing the suspension bridge.Small country boats would notbe allowed at any cost in theferry ghats. Life jackets topassersby through boats will bemandatory. Fire brigade staffand ODRAF teams would bedeployed at the ferry ghat toassist the boatmen in theirwork to avoid any untowardincidents.

At least 56 sections of

police force will be deployed forsmooth conduct of the fair, saidSP (Rural) Madhab ChandraSahoo.

The Dhabaleswar SevaSanstha will organise Bhajanaprogrammes in every eveningof Panchuka in the shrine.Temporary first aid centresand information centres will beopened. Besides, uninterrupt-ed power supply with genera-tor facility, safe drinking water,sanitation of the shrine wouldbe ensured.

Approach roads to theshrine would be repaired by theWorks department ahead of thefair. Several NGOs and NSSand Red Cross volunteers havegiven consent to assist in thelaw and order of the fair.

DM Agarwal inaugurateda website on the Lord,www.dhabaleswar.org, fromwhich all information can begleamed.

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Strongly condemning the grenade attackon a religious congregation in Amritsar

that left three people dead and manyinjured, Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Sunday vowed that hewill not let the “forces of terror” destroy thehard-earned peace in the State.

Making an appeal to the people “not topanic and remain calm”, the Chief Ministertweeted, “We will not let the forces of ter-ror destroy our hard-earned peace.”

“I appeal to the people of Punjab tomaintain peace in wake of Amritsar bombblast. I urge them not to panic and toremain calm. We will not let the forces ofterror destroy our hard earned peace,” hetweeted.

Capt Amarinder did not rule out a ter-ror angle. “The possibility of involvementof ISI-based Khalistani or Kashmiri terrorgroups could not be ruled out. Police teamshave been rushed to raid suspected hide-outs of the assailants and multiple teamsare investigating various angles to crack thecase,” he said. Capt Amarinder stated thatthe State Government was on top ofthings and would get to the bottom of theincident soon and ensure that the culpritsare apprehended and brought to book.

Nobody will be allowed to get away withtrying to disturb the peace and harmonyof the state, he warned.

Soon after the attack, the ChiefMinister reviewed the law and order situ-ation in the state and asked the state HomeSecretary, Director General of Police,Director Generals of law and order andintelligence, to rush to Raja Sansi inAmritsar to supervise the ongoing probeinto the grenade attack. Reviewing the lawand order situation following the blast, CaptAmarinder directed the Police to imme-diately enhance security arrangements atall sensitive places in the wake of the explo-sion — the first such indiscriminate attackon innocent people in recent past.

On the Chief Minister's directions, thesecurity has been beefed up at all centresof Nirankari Bhawan in the state, said thespokesperson adding that immediately, theforensic teams rushed to the spot and allangles were being investigated on the ChiefMinister’s directions. Condemning theincident, Capt Amarinder also announceda compensation of Rs five lakh for the kinof those killed and free treatment to theinjured.

“Strongly condemn the bomb blast atNirankari Bhawan in Amritsar...My heartgoes out to the victims of the Amritsar

bomb blast and their families... My govt willgive Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each of the deadand free treatment to the injured. Haveasked the district administration to extendall help," the Chief Minister said in a tweet.

The Chief Minister said that prelimi-nary investigations had, so far, revealed thattwo men, one of them with a flowingbeard, with covered faces, allegedly forcedtheir way into the hall by brandishing a pis-tol. They detained the sewadar, lobbed thegrenade into the prayer room, and fled ona motorcycle. A crater, which is three-inchin diameter was formed by the impact ofthe explosion, and was being examined bythe forensic team, he said adding that thesafety valve of the grenade has also beenfound and was being examined.

Meanwhile, appealing to the people, hesaid: “Let us remain calm...theGovernment would ensure there is nochaos in the wake of the incident.”

“Though the state had been hit by aseries of cases of targeted attacks since2015-16, this is the first attempt, in a longtime, to disturb the peace in the statethrough indiscriminate killings,” said theChief Minister, adding that it strengthenedthe belief that Pakistan was continuingwith its nefarious activities to disturb thestate’s peace.

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The battle ground inChhattisgarh is all set for

second and final phase ofpolling on November 20.

In the second phase, a totalof 1079 candidates are in thefray where 53,85983 electorswould be exercising their fran-chise to elect 72 candidates.

Out of the State’s totalnumber of electors, 77,46,628are male while 76,38415 arefemale and 940 are third gen-ders.

To ensure full voting in 72constituencies, a total of 19,296polling centres have been estab-lished.

The maximum number ofelectors in second phase ofpolling are at Kasdol at 3,33,472while Manendragarh Assemblyconstituency has least numberof electors at 1,31,283.

A total of 493 candidatesare in the fray as Independentcandidates. Raipur (South)constituency has maximum of46 candidates in the fray whilethe minimum number of can-didates in the fray are atBindranavagarh at six.

Out of the 72 Assemblyconstituencies, in 11 con-stituencies, the total number of

candidates is more than 20. Inthe second phase, 119 womencandidates are in the fray withmaximum number of womencandidates in Raipur (South)constituency where there areeight candidates.

In 18 assembly con-stituencies, there are no womencandidates in the fray.

The counting for first andsecond phase of polling wouldbe held on December 11. Asper information, around 650battalions of para-military forcehave been deployed in 72assembly constituencies forpeaceful conduct of polling.

The distribution of pollingmaterials and polling team movement to respectivepolling booths will begin from November 19 early morn-ing.

The first phase of pollingwas held on November 12 for18 Assembly constituencies ininsurgency-hit Bastar divisionand Rajnandgaon district.

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Chhattisgarh unit ofCongress party on Sunday

released 103-point chargesheetagainst the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party Government ofthe State.

The chargesheet wasreleased by Chhattisgarh In-charge of All India CongressCommittee, P.L. Punia andparty’s National SpokespersonJaiveer Shergil l at StateCongress office Rajiv Bhawanon Sunday.

The points in thechargesheet as per the party

includes-failure in povertyalleviation, farmers’ suicide,failure in tackling unemploy-ment, atrocities against tribals,botched up eye surgery, ster-ilization deaths, issue of Jal-Jungle-Jameen, closure ofGovernment schools amongothers.

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Bharatiya Janata Party’s starcampaigner and Union

Home Minister Rajnath Singhon Sunday had to travel by roadto Dharamjaigarh about 270kilometres from Raipur afterthe helicopter he was travellingin, developed a technical snag.

He had reached Lailunga toaddress a public rally and wasto fly to Dharamjaigarh. Afterwaiting for an hour, he left forDharamjaigarh by road.

Singh’s public meeting wasdelayed by two hours and hispoll campaign ended at 5 pm

sharp as was the case with allthe party’s other star cam-paigners who were ensuring toreach public meeting venues ontime.

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Trains passing through theTatanagar railway station

under Chakradharpur divisionof South Eastern Railway (SER)would be partially affected forthe next one week due to dis-mantling work of the old aban-doned road overbridge.

Tatangar station directorHK Balmuchu said that theyhave got the approval for car-rying out a rail block for a briefperiod - ranging between oneto three hours daily fromtomorrow so that the disman-tling work could be carried outsmoothly. "As per the plans thetemporary block would be car-ried out for the dismantlingwork of the old bridge. A teamof railway's engineering wingfrom SER's Kolkata basedheadquarters had also inspect-ed the station and the aban-doned bridge on Saturday. Therail block which will lastbetween one to three hours

depending on the situationwould partially affect move-ment of trains," he said.

According to Balmuchu,all railway departments atTatanagar railway station hasbeen instructed to co-operateand to ensure that trains run-ning via Tatanagar are notmuch delayed.

Movement on the oldbridge was stopped after theconstruction of the new secondroad bridge parallel to it. Fortwo decades now passengersare using the new road over-bridge to reach the railway sta-tion.

The old abandoned roadoverbridge is being dismantledto pave way for a new foot-bridge. The A1-categoryTatanagar railway station cur-rently has a single foot over-bridge towards the Howrahend. The new foot overbridgewould be constructed oppositeto it at the Chakradharpurend.

Tatanagar railway stationwitnesses a daily traffic of over90- mail, express and passen-ger trains which either origi-nate from Tatanagar of go viathat station. The daily passen-ger footfall is close to 50,000.

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Around 150 women policepersonnel from across the

country are expected to par-ticipate in the Eighth NationalConference of Women inPolice (NCWP) starting atJudicial Academy in Ranchi onMonday.

The two-day conferencebeing organized by Bureau ofPolice Research andDevelopment (BPR&D) in col-laboration with Jharkhandpolice would address the issuesof women in uniform and cre-ate an enabling atmospherefor them to maximize theirprofessional skills.

Addressing the media per-

sons on Sunday IG BPR& DSampat Meena said that amongthe issues to be taken up in themeet include special training

needs of women police, role ofwomen police in smart city andsafe city, gender neutral workplaces, preventing sexual

harassment in duty, skillenhancement, empoweredworking space, role of womenin community oriented polic-ing and training needs forwomen personnel.

The IG stated action takenreport on the previous nation-al meets would also be sub-mitted on the first day of themeeting.

IG Priya Dubey who isorganising secretary of themeet in Jharkhand informedthat NCWP would prepare areport on recommendationsof the conference addingregional conferences and con-sultative worskshops would beheld for their implementation.IG (Operation) Ashis Batra

and other police officers werealso present media briefing.

It may be stated here thatNCWP has been continuouslyworking on strengthening andmonitoring of mechanism todeal with sexual harassment inall the police organizations bysuggesting active ways andmeans. Sincere efforts havebeen made for issues related togender sensitization for allpolice ranks.

It has also taken steps forexclusive infrastructure devel-opment for women police likerest room, toilets and crècheand also for ensuring equalopportunities for women incareer planning and other wel-fare measures.

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Due to the para-teacher'sstrike study work at

around 755 schools in theGarhwa district have beenaffected since Friday. The strikealso affecting study of at least40000 students from rural andsemi-urban areas of the district.Claiming this district presidentof Jharkhand Para SikshakMahasangh Suryadeo Tiwarisaid, "Study at around 755schools in the Garhwa districthave been stalled from Friday,due to our strike, affecting atleast 40 thousands studentsfrom rural and semi-urbanareas of the district".

While president claimedthat the "all 3416 para-teachersare on strike.At least 755schools have remained lockedsince September 16.

We don’t want to disturbthe education of the students

but the government has left uswith no other option,” saidMani Shanker Pandey, presi-dent of the Bargarh block ofJharkhand Para SikshakMahasangh.

However, the DistrictEducation officer confirmingthe news and said that he hasinstructed to the SchoolManagement committees tooperate school through alter-nate arrangements, so that thestudies can run smoothly. The

DSE informed that 238 parateachers are out of the strikeand remained present inschools on Saturday.

Other hand para teachersof Bhadariya block burnt effi-gy of Chief Minister RaghubarDas at block headquarter onSaturday. The para-teacherswent on strike demanding reg-ularisation of services and lathicharge on para teachers duringagitation at Ranchi, onSeptember 15.

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Over 6,000 fitness enthusi-asts participated in the

fifth edition of the JamshedpurRun-a-thon on Sunday. TataSteel CEO and ManagingDirector TV Narendran alsocompleted his 10 km run.

Senior superintendent ofpolice Anoop Birtharay; city SPPrabhat Kumar; Tata Steel for-mer managing director J.J. Iranialso enthusiastically partici-pated.

At the end of the marathontoday, the 10 km men's cate-gory was won by HarmanjotSingh while the female catego-ry was won by Puja Mondal. In7 km, Shrvan Kumar won themen's category and VijayLaxmi won the female catego-ry. Seken Purty won the fivekm category in men's catego-

ry while Itishree Mohanta wonthe female category.

The winner of the 10-km(male) finished the race in 32mins 04 secs whereas the win-ner of 10-km (female) fin-ished the race in 37 mins 54secs. The 7-km (male) winnerfinished the race in 22 mins 57secs whereas the winner of 7-km (female) finished the racein 26 mins 48 secs. The 5 km(male) and 5-km (female) win-ners finished the race in 17mins 11 secs and 20 mins 50secs respectively.

The 10-km and 7-kmraces were open to all (IndianNationals only), while the 5-kmrun was for under-16 boysand girls. The 10-km race is theinternationally approved dis-tance for road races byInternational Association ofAthletics Federations (IAAF).

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They do not have the celebri-ty statuses but their buoy-

ancy is not lesser than any cel-ebrated person. ManagingDirectors, CEOs, bureaucrats,celebrities, politicians, etc havebeen featuring into press con-ferences but in the first of itskind attempt, the childreporters’ here gracefully intro-duced the members of jour-nalism fraternity about theirupcoming event.

Making the world realisetheir potential, the confidenceof little chaps during the pressmeet on Sunday astonishedeveryone present there whensome of the lot gathered at theRanchi Press Club to shareinformation about Jharkhand

Children’s Film Festival, theinnovative attempt to sensitisethe public of all walks of lifeabout the neglected issuesaffecting the well-being of oneof the vulnerable groups of thesociety.

The event which is ‘For thechildren, By the children, Of thechildren’ will be organised onNovember 19 and 20 at Central University of Jharkhand(CUJ) in association withUNICEF, a regional Hindi Dailyand CUJ to mark theInternational Children Day cel-ebrated across 193 countries onNovember 20.

“With the support ofChildren’s Film Society of India– the nodal organisation ofGovernment of India (GoI)that produces children’s filmsand various TV programs invarious Indian languages, theevent is being jointly organ-ised,” said Child Reporter fromGovernment Middle School -Pirra, Surbhi Lohra.

Further Lohra said thatthe ongoing ‘Child RightsWeek’ is being utilised inorganising a series of activities.“Recently, from November 15to 17, an adolescent submitwas organised to discuss aboutthe issues ranging from puberty, hygiene etc,” Lohraadded.

Another, Child Reporter,Abhinandan Kumar ofGovernment Middle School –Bodya, spoke about the shortYou-Tube series being pre-pared by the children.

“Around 10 You-tube serieswill be prepared by us. So far,group of children like us havebeen successful in making fourshort You-tube series titled‘Adhikaron Ki Baat, BalPatrakaaro kay saath’.”

According to Kumar, ChildReporters’ have interviewedRanchi DC Rai MahimapatRay, Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta,UNICEF Jharkhand ChiefMadhulika Jonathan including

MLA Kunal Sarangi focusingon four issues – Education,Malnutrition, Child Labourand Child Marriage.

Interestingly, ChildReporters with UNICEF andAlok Bharti support hadrecently launched their own 10episode YouTube series.

The series ‘Adhikaron kiBaat Bal Patrakaron kay Saath’

is featured on the private RadioFM channel and has 444,000subscribers.

Meanwhile, the senior per-sons from different organisa-tions kept their views about theupcoming event. MadhulikaJonathan shared the basicdetails about the global move-ment and the rules of UnitedNations Convention on the

Rights of the Child (UNCRC)charter framed in 1992 whichhighlights about the needs ofchildren worldwide and how tonurture their aspirations.

Dr. Dev Vrat Singh, Dean– Centre for MassCommunication (CUJ) threwlight on the criteria underwhich children filmshave been selected for thisparticular event. “Contestantsof as many as 11 States haveparticipated in ‘All India ShortFilm Making Contest -- 2018’.During the two-day film fest 41short films will be screened,”added Singh.

As per the organisers, dur-ing the film festival childrenand mass communication stu-dents from variouscolleges/universities will beable to interact with eminentfilm makers such as nationalawardees Batul Mukhtiar,Professor Shilpa Ranade who isan acclaimed animator andfilmmaker, Meghnath, to name

a few.Some of the films that will

be screened during the festivalinclude Kaphal (winner of BestChildren’s Film at the 61stNational Film Award in 2014),Professor Shilpa Ranade’sGoopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya(winner of the18thInternational Children’s Filmfestival award and AmolGupte’s critically acclaimed

Stanley ka Dubba among oth-ers.

The officials furtherinformed that during the filmfestival, a panel discussion onthe ‘Representation and par-ticipation of children in themedia’ is also planned besidesthe workshops for mass com-munication students and chil-dren from Governmentschools.

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Speculation surroundingRanchi University

Students’ Union (RUSU)polls are likely to get clear onMonday. The much awaiteddecision of the State biggestuniversity – RanchiUniversity (RU) to conductthe third student union pollis pending before the varsi-ty administration.

RU Vice-Chancellor (VC),Dr Ramesh Kumar Pandeyhad recently issued the instruc-tions to all college principalsand Heads of Post Graduation(PG) departments to submitthe final electoral rolls by 12PM on November 19 to RUDean Student Welfare (DSW).

“The clarity about theupcoming students’ poll will becleared in a day or two.Attempts are being made toconduct the students’ unionpoll by December 2018 end.After getting the final electorallists from all constituent col-leges including PGDepartments, the universitywill release the election notifi-cation soon,” said RU Officer(PR), Dr Prakash Kumar Jha.

Notably, a few months back

postponement clouds was hov-ering over the upcoming stu-dent union poll scheduled inSeptember 2018. Earlier, theRU VC had proposed to con-duct the students’ election dur-ing the Durga Puja (DP) holi-days. However, after much dis-cussions and brainstorming,the representatives of the dif-ferent student union groupshad opposed the decision of theuniversity citing different rea-sons.

The members of differentstudent unions have then unan-imously stated that in anattempt to somehow completethe process of conducting thepoll, the university in hastewants to carry out the electionduring DP holidays.

Members of AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad

(ABVP), NationalStudents Union of India(NSUI), Adivasi ChhatraSangh (ACS), JharkhandChhatra Morcha (JCM),All Jharkhand StudentsUnion (AJSU),Jharkhand ChhatraVikash Morcha (JCVM)had registered theirobjections during themeeting.

Meanwhile, following theguidelines of LyngdohCommittee recommendations,every university must com-plete the process of conductingstudents’ election soon after thecompletion of admissionprocess, however, this year,due to online admissionprocess, RU yet again failed toconduct the poll on scheduledtime.

According to the previousrecords, over 2 lakh studentsparticipate in the students’union election covering 16constituent colleges of RU.Also, during the meeting, thestudent union leaders hadurged to the RU VC to ensurethe participation of all affiliat-ed including minority institu-tions in the student union poll– 2018.

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Amahout Mahendra Singhdied reportedly after falling

from an elephant in Birsa zoo-logical park in Ranchi onSunday sending shock wavesamong the officials and staffs ofthe centre.

Dr Ajay Kumar of the zooinformed that like any otherday Singh arrived at the zoo ataround 8 am and started shift-ing the elephant named ‘Ramu’in order to clean up the area.Singh who was sitting on theelephant suddenly fell downand started crying for help.

The other staffs, however,fled away from the spot fearingthat the elephant may havebecome violent.

The senior officials visitedthe spot after receiving infor-mation recovered Singh’s body.

The management statedthat there was no eye witness tonarrate the circumstances lead-ing to the death.

It stated that reason for the

death could be ascertainedonly after autopsy saying thatthere was no external injurymark on the body.

The management said thebody would have been crushedhad the elephant trampled thevictim.

Reports, however, indicat-ed that the elephant wasangered by presence of two per-sons near him adding that theMahout fell when the tuskertried to chase them.

Dr Kumar said that at pre-sent it seems that Singh either

died after sustaining internalinjury due to a fall from 10 feethigh elephant or he might havesuffered a heart attack. He saidelephant was calm after theincident and moved aroundwhen signaled. He was also tak-ing normal food includingbananas and sugarcane.

Meanwhile family of themahout was awaiting thearrival of Singh’s son before giv-ing permission for carrying outthe autopsy of the body.

It may be stated here thatdeceased was working in theBirsa zoo since 1992 and wasconsidered expert in handlingthe elephants.

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Governor Draupadi Murmuwhile addressing the alum-

ni function of the prestigiousNetarhat Vidyalaya organisedat Khelgaon on Sunday assert-ed that the creation of anynation is totally dependent onthe quality of education beingimparted in schools.

The Governor expressedher contentment to see the stu-dents of Netarhat Vidyalayatogether and said that she hascome to know that every year,the members of Netarhat OldBoys Association (NOBA)dutifully participates in thealumni meet.

Further, the Governorshared the State’s Governmentplan to start schools on thelines of the reputed NetarhatVidyalaya in other districtstoo.

The Governor on the occa-sion requested the alumni tocome forward and support thedecision of the State

Government so that qualityeducation can be impartedamong several others as well.

The Governor on the occa-sion asked the alumni to brain-storm on other factors likeretention rate in class 11 and12, number of students quali-fying different competitionexams etc.

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Tatanagar Railway Stationwill soon get equipped

with hi-tech luggage scanner.From next week a passengersentering into Tatanagar stationwill have to get one's luggageput on a luggage scanner at theentrance. Luggage scanner,which was a long-standingnecessity for a A-One catago-ry station like Tatanagar, isfinally being installed.

A final survey was jointlyconducted today by officials ofRailway Protection Force(RPF), Tatanagar station man-agement and the companywhich will provide and com-mission the machine beinginstalled.

According to informationthe electronic gadget will beinstalled within the next fiveto six days time.

The luggage scanner willbe installed just beside theEnquiry counter outside theentrance to the Platform No 1.An official of a Noida-basedcompany, VehantTechnologies Pvt Ltd which isproviding and installing theluggage scanner said that it isa 5.5 metre-long and onemetre wide machine having anoverhead monitor.

The deck where the lug-gage scanning will be carriedout is 3.5 metre long and theremaining two metres will berollers -- one metre on eitherside.

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Jharkhand has been selected as the ‘Focus State’ in the 49thInternational Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa

from November 20 to 28. The event will be organized atManquinja Palace in Inox, Panaji. Over 212 films from morethan 68 countries will be screened during the fest.

The event of November 24 will be celebrated as ‘JharkhandDay’. Films shot at Jharkhand which includes -- A Death in theGunj, Ranchi Diary, Begum Jaan will be screened along withother films. Besides, the cultural activities, a separate stall willbe decked up to promote the film policy of Jharkhand duringthe festival.

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Page 4: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

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Will tigers be re-introducedin Palamu Tiger Reserve

(PTR) which is struggling forits status and past glory in thewant of any trace of the big catsince long, barring an uncon-firmed citing of a ‘touring’animal reported in April thisyear?

Since PTR is fearing toenter into the league of oncefamous tiger adobes of thecountry such as Paana andSariska, the management istoiling hard to make sure thatregeneration can return infuture.

AK Mishra, DeputyDirector North division of PTRsaid, “There is no cub here inPTR over the last ten years orso. This is a matter of seriousconcern. Male tiger comes hereand walks away. Mating anddelivery is just a big miss here.PTR needs copulation andbirth of cubs.”

Panna and Sariska had toface similar situation where

cubs were invisible for a longperiod of time under the per-mission of NTCA (NationalTiger Conservation Authority)reintroduced male tiger andfemale tigress and now thesereserves have cubs.

Mishra informed that ateam of three junior researchfellows (JRFs) of Wild LifeInstitute of India (WII),Dehradun is at the PTR at pre-sent. “The team is conductingstudy in the PTR for reintro-duction of male and femaletigers from somewhere elsehere for the population of cubs.It is a fruitful exercise andSariska and Panna reserveshave brightened this hope,”added he

The fellows are beingassisted by a whole team ofPTR like tiger trackers, forestguards, foresters etc to carry onthis feasibility study. WII wasdoing this job here in May andJune but left in panic after theMaoists assaulted two forestguards and issued threats andwarnings to not to enter into

the forest reserve without theirpermission.

Sources said the studywork by WII is to studywhether the PTR’s habitat, preybase, safety and security of wildlife, fire danger, presence of biodiversity etc are conducive forreintroducing tigers here. Theteam is collecting samples ofscat of carnivores in a patch of25 square kilometer each of thismore than 1,100 square kilo-

meter of PTR to buttress itsstudy for bring in tigers herefrom outside. The study workwill cover both South andnorth divisions.

PTR has spent Rs 44 lakhfor this feasibility survey cumstudy. Sources said such a studyneeds to be highly meticulousand precise and PTR will fightfor this reintroduction of tigershere on the pattern of the tigerreserves.

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Jamshedpur has a new fashionpoint for college and school

going girls and women now atBistupur, in the heart of the city.Situated at R Road and spreadacross 3000 square feet latestaddition to the fashion showrooms was inaugurated amidstaugust gathering on Sunday.On the occasion, Shanti DeviSanghi inaugurated the show-room.

The proprietor Sunil Bajajand Rashmi Moonka have

started this venture to cater tothe needs of all section ofwomen at a very affordableprice with a wide range tochoose from.

The first store Balaji Sareewas started at Ranchi in 1995.

The showroom has a goodstock of modern and tradi-tional dresses from variousStates, exclusively designed byfashion designers.

According to Rashmi, hertarget customers are mainlystudents, teachers, housewivesand working women for which

the stocks she has kept variesbetween Rs 500.00 to Rs6,000.00 , which can be afford-able by these target groups.

“My store brings you anexceptional quality clothes forladies with current fashiontrends, latest designer’s outfitsand movement, featuring allthe everlasting Indian traditional and modern ethniccollections which includes awide range of Indian designeroutfits and traditional sarees,salwar kameez, casual, Kurti,“said Rashmi.

Committed to the wants ofwomen across the city, theshowroom is a value-addedstore with the most importantdictum of offering cost-effective access to theextensive range.

She further says “Our cloths are simple, yetstylish.

They give a strikingly indi-vidual look to the wearer. Mostof our designs have unconven-tional styling, which is yetvibrant, colourful and com-fortably contemporary”.

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Amajor accident was avert-ed on Sunday when a key-

man on duty stopped theDelhi-Hawrah, Delhi-Sialdah,rajdhani express,Kalaka mail and Ganga-Damodar express betweenNeta Subash chandra Boserailway station, Gomoh andParasnath stations underDhanbad division of Easterncentre Railway after he spot-ted a fracture on the track,nearKhesmi railway gate, ChiefYard master BC Mandal said.

A prompt action on iden-tifying a fracture on the downtrack by the on-duty keyman,led the driver of the train tostop it between Neta Subashchandra Bose railway stationand Parasnath stations around

3.30 am today, said PWI,Inspector P Sasha of NetaSubash Chandra Bose railwaystation. On being informedabout the fault on the track, themaintenance team rushed tothe spot and repaired it, he said.

The train left for its desti-nation at around 8.15 am,Sasha said while appreciatingthe prompt action of Mandal,who had busted fire-crackersand shown red signal to stopthe train.

Owing to the fog prevailingearly morning, ECR has alreadylaunched patrolling in allimportant and identified sec-tion of the division.

Besides, the railways havealso undertaken an initiative toidentify and repair identifiedfaults on track on a day-to-daybasis, Shaha added.

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sAt around 10 am Sunday,families of Rajmohan

Chandravanshi and SurendraChaudhary entered into a ver-bal spate over land. The con-frontation soon turned nasty asthe exchange of words wasreplaced with lathi attack. Thequarrel between the two soonjoined by family members fromboth the parties who attackedwith sticks.

The reason behind theclash is an old land disputebetween the two members ofthe same family who claimtheir ownership over a piece ofland. In the connection a caseis pending before the CircleOfficer, Meral.

The victims were identifiedas Rajmohan Chanwanshi,Santosh Chandravanshi, ManojChandravanshi,, Rakhendra

Chandravanshi, Sunita Devi,Usha Devi, SurendraChaudhary, Sunil Chaudhary,Ram Lakhan Chowdhary,Jitendra Choudhary, DevantiDevi , Bideshi Chaudhari andKameswar Chaudhary. Injuredare being treated at PHC, Meraland stated to be out of danger.

Both the groups involvedin the clash have lodged FIRagainst each other in Meralpolice station.

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From Page 1So going by that rate, in order to

feed her two growing kids, Avniwould have had to make at least onekill every day, or every second day, tokeep the kids and herself alive. But shewas not killing as many humans. Wasshe? Somewhere I feel that Avni’s fatewas pre decided and the politicalauthorities somewhere had the con-fidence that all the agitations that haveensued after her murder would walkinto cold boxes or die a slow naturaldeath. Though, whether we let thathappen or not is completely in ourhands. Her kids are secondary man-eaters right now. Tiger Cubs do notstart hunting till the age of two gen-erally. So to say that they have alreadyturned into man-eaters would not beaccurate. They might kill a few smallanimals but killing humans does notlook probable at the moment.

So to find them and raise themshould be our primary concern. Avery keen eye will have to be kept onthem. They can be rehabilitated intothe wild with some work. It has beendone before, it can be done again.With the Tiger population alreadydwindling, we should try and savethem at least. Considering the highmortality rate of Tiger cubs, they arestill at a very vulnerable age.

So what do we do now? The con-fidence that I am left with on our judi-cial system compels me to say, “Letbygones be bygones”. I am a realist andhence I know that justice in India at

times is so feeble that the perpetratorsof this crime might never ever betaken to task. Even if Avni finds jus-tice in afterlife, what will we doabout the killing of the Tigress in U.P.?

A 100 people have been bookedfor killing it. A tractor was run overit and once the cat was dead, peoplewere busy collecting the spoils of theirheroics. They started pulling teeth andnails out of its body. Let me take youthrough some brutalities we humansare capable of. A man-eater leopardin Uttarakhand was caught and put ina cage. In a few hours people from far-flung areas came to see the killer cat.The public outrage was such that peo-ple threw kerosene on the cat andburnt it alive in the cage. I hope deathcame quickly to Avni.

Well…the man who shot hersays that she did die peacefully. I’ll takehis word for it. They say that “they donot do this for money or publicity andthat they invested their time and ener-gy in helping mankind”… Sir you have‘helped’ enough! Even if Nawab Sahibmade this statement in sheer frustra-tion and against the barrage of alle-gations he has had to face, I think itwas completely misplaced. I wouldassume that mankind was too thrilledat the prospect of hunting a Tigerdown.

Humans are considered to be themost intelligent of all animals but weseldom put that skill on display. Ourdesire for immediate gains makes usblind towards losses of future. We do

not always use our superior mentalcapabilities to protect or conserve.

Conservationists and activists areoften seen as evolved snobs or pseu-do intellectuals. We have made our-selves believe that this earth belongsto us and us alone. No other livingbeing has any right over it. AlbertEinstein had once said that if a beingas small, and in most cases, as irri-tating as a housefly went extinct, thewhole world will come to an end in3 years.

Every animal or a living being hasa role to play in this world. Our care-lessness can cost the coming genera-tions a lot. We as humans only try andleave our kids with as much moneyand property as we can. Such is thematerialistic mindset of people today.Not once do we think about leaving abetter world and an environment forthem to live in.

So move on. Think of saving thecubs. Personally, I do not ever tell myson stories where the big cats or biganimals are portrayed as villains. I havenever taken him to a zoo to show himwhat a Tiger or a Lion looks like. If hehas to see them, he has to see them inthe wild, where they belong, in all theirsplendour. I just hope and pray that hedoes not have to show pictures clickedby his father, to his son, and tell himthat son…this is what our national ani-mal, THE TIGER looked like.

(Varun Badola is a TV actor anda writer. He is also into wild life con-servation)

�&��3#����'������444From Page 1

“Out of 250 people who were pre-sent in the religious congregation,three died, and 15-20 were injured,”said the State IG (Border) Surinder PalSingh Parmar. All victims were sectfollowers from nearby villages whohad gathered for the Sunday weeklyreligious meeting. SP Harpal Singhsaid that earlier, religious congrega-tion used to be held at a house inLopoke village which were stopped bySatkar committee - a radical Sikhorganisation.

The State’s all top police officials,including the State police chief SureshArora along with DGP Law andOrder and Intelligence, rushed to thesite immediately and camped thereuntil the area is properly scanned. Dogsquads have also been deployed to col-lect the evidence.

The Police have also launched amassive search operation to nab thesuspects, with Special Weapons andTactics team also deployed. Thepolice had also sealed Punjab’s borderwith Rajasthan. Stating that the attackappears to be a “terrorist act”, the StateDGP Suresh Arora said: “It appears tohave a terror angle. Because it isagainst a group (of people) and it is notagainst any individual. There is no rea-son to throw a hand grenade on agroup of people, so we will take it as a

terrorist act. Till proven otherwise,prima facie we will take it as that.”

“There was no issue with thisgroup as such…There was no specif-ic input on Nirankari Bhavan,” he said,while adding that the security acrossthe State has been beefed up, espe-cially around all Nirankari buildings.

Arora told The Pioneer that it wastoo early to say if it is a joint actionby Kashmiri and Sikh militants. Healso maintained that it was too earlyto compare it with the 1978 situationwhen the Nirankaris were targeted.

Condemning the incident andappealing the people to maintainpeace, Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh announced a com-pensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kinof deceased.

He also directed the civic hospi-tal to provide free treatment to thoseinjured in the attack.

Soon after the attack, CaptAmarinder chaired a high-level meet-ing to review the law and order situ-ation in the State. Meanwhile, UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singh alsospoke to Capt Amarinder assuring“strong action” against those respon-sible for the grenade attack. Callingthe Sunday attack a “reprehensible actof violence”, the Union Ministerexpressed deep anguish over thedeath of innocents.

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In a fierce attack on theCongress, BJP president Amit

Shah on Sunday described it as“private limited company” ofthe Nehru-Gandhi family.

Soon after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at an electionrally in Chhattisgarh dared theCongress to appoint a head fromoutside the family. Shah issued astatement saying the Congresshad become more of a familyenterprise aimed at dynastic ser-vice than a political party aimedat public service, and that no per-son outside the family had anyright over it.

Taking a dig at the Congressleaders, including PChidambaram who had named

several party presidents hailingfrom outside the Gandhi family,he said Modi’s challenge had ruf-fled several feathers with “manycourtiers going out of the way toprove their loyalty”.

At a poll rally inChhattisgarh on Friday, Modihad said if the Congress appoint-ed someone not from the Gandhifamily as its president for at leastfive years, then he would believethat Jawaharlal Nehru hadindeed put in place a truly demo-cratic system in the Oppositionparty. The Prime Ministerrepeated his words at anotherpoll rally in the State on Sunday.

“The Prime Minister is right.The Congress (Indira) since itsinception in 1978 has been led byfour members of one family for

most of the years, thus makingit more of a family enterpriseaimed at dynastic service ratherthan a political party aimed atpublic service,” Shah said.

“The Congress is Nehru-Gandhi family’s private limitedcompany over which nobodyoutside the family has any right,”he added.

Shah was referring to thesplit in the Congress in 1978 fol-lowing its loss in the 1977 par-liamentary polls, with the IndiraGandhi-led faction recognised asthe Congress(I). As she returnedto power in 1980, her faction was later recognised by theElection Commission (EC) as thereal Congress.

Two Congress chiefs, whowere not from the Nehru-

Gandhi family, were treated inthe “most shabby” manner possible in the recent past, Shah alleged.

While PV Narasimha Rao’sbody, after his demise, was neverallowed inside the Congressoffice, Sitaram Kesri, a toweringleader, was “roughed up by goonsloyal to we know who”, he added.

Modi, at a rally inChhattisgarh on Sunday, alsoalleged that Kesri was notallowed to complete his term asthe Congress chief and was forced to make way forSonia Gandhi.

The BJP chief cited theexamples of several “non-fami-ly” Congress presidents to backhis claim. “Going further back intime, the likes of Babu Jagjivan

Ram, S Nijalingappa, K Kamarajwere humiliated by one family.Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, thoughsenior, was not allowed to bepresident by one family. U NDhebar was asked to step asideas Congress president for Mrs.Indira Gandhi,” he said.

Shah claimed that AcharyaKripalani, a stalwart who workedclosely with Mahatma Gandhiand Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was“humiliated” by the Congressleadership through the 1950s and1960s. “His crime — he movedthe first motion of no-confidenceagainst the Nehru Government,”he said. Following Modi’s chal-lenge, Chidambaram had hitback by listing out the names ofCongress presidents from outsidethe Nehru-Gandhi family.

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Ahead of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)Board meeting, Congress leader P

Chidambaram on Sunday alleged that theCentral Government was determined to“capture” the central bank to gain controlover its �9 lakh crore reserves.

In a series of tweets, the formerFinance Minister also claimed that theGovernment and the RBI were headingtowards a “confrontation” in the Monday’sboard meeting of the bank.

“Government is determined to ‘cap-ture’ RBI in order to gain control over thereserves. The other so-called disagree-ments are only a smokescreen (sic),” hesaid on Twitter.

Chidambaram said, “Nowhere inthe world is the central bank a board-managed company. To suggest that pri-vate business persons will direct theGovernor is a preposterous idea.”

“November 19 will be a day of reck-oning for central bank independence andthe Indian economy,” he tweeted.

The RBI has a massive �9.59 lakhcrore reserves and the Government, ifreports are to be believed, wants the cen-tral bank to part with a third of that fund— an issue which along with easing of

norms for weak banks and raising liq-uidity has brought the two at loggerheadsin the recent weeks.

The Government on November 9 hadsaid it was discussing an “appropriate” sizeof capital reserves that the central bankmust maintain but denied seeking a mas-sive capital transfer from the RBI.

Economic Affairs Secretary SubhashChandra Garg had also clarified that theGovernment wasn’t in any dire needs offunds and that there was no proposal toask the RBI to transfer �3.6 lakh crore.

“There is no proposal to ask RBI totransfer �3.6 or �1 lakh crore, as specu-lated,” he had said.

“The Government’s FD (fiscal deficit)in FY 2013-14 was 5.1 per cent. From2014-15 onwards, the Government hassucceeded in bringing it down substan-tially. We will end the FY 2018-19 withFD of 3.3 per cent. The Government hasactually foregone �70,000 crore of bud-geted market borrowing this year.”

Garg said the only proposal “underdiscussion is to fix appropriate econom-ic capital framework of RBI”.

Economic capital framework refers tothe risk capital required by the central bank while taking into accountdifferent risks.

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Accusing the BJP leader-ship of being “misogy-

nist”, the Congress on Sundaydemanded an apology fromHaryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar forreportedly claiming that mostrape cases were “fake” andtook place among people who knew eachother well.

“Misogyny has become a buzzwordfor BJP leadership. Humiliating India’swomen has become a characteristic styleof BJP leaders. The Talibani thoughtprocess of the BJP leadership particular-ly Khattar has been exposed,” Congress spokesperson Randeep SinghSurjewala said.

After courting controversy over hisremarks on rape incidents, Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sundayclarified that his statement had been twist-ed and asserted there should not be anypolitics on the issue.

“(My) statement has been twisted. Ihad said which is on record and I willagain State it that during investigation insuch cases, it was revealed that about 80per cent of incidents took place betweenknown…But there is a need to bring

awareness in the society.There should not be anypolitics on this issue,”Khattar said.

On the other hand,Surjewala blamed theBharatiya Janata Party forHarayana becoming acrime hub and rising inci-dents of crimes against

women, particularly rape and molestation. Asking Khattar to apologise for his

derogatory remarks, Surjewala alsodemanded that Prime Minister NarendraModi breaks his silence on BJP leadersoften making sexist remarks.

Addressing a rally in Kalka town ofPanchkula district, Khattar on Fridayreportedly said that 80-90 per cent of therape and molestation incidents took placeamongst people who knew each other well.

“They roam around together for sometime and if one day they get into somequarrel, they file an FIR claiming that theyhave been raped.” In the run-up to the 2014Lok Sabha polls, Khattar had made anoth-er sexist remark asking women to “runaround naked if they wanted freedom”.

He also came under fire from DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwal whoindicted his Haryana counterpart for“justifying rape”.

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Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik onSunday sought to defend his

Government for failing to bring the alter-native medicine system in the ambit of theworld’s largest national medical insurancescheme under the Ayushman Bharat —Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY)launched by Prime Minister NarendraModi recently, saying nitty-gritty’s werebeing discussed.

He said, “My Ministry is in touch withthe Union Health Ministry and Niti Aoyogto ensure that the medical insurance coveris given to the patients seeking alternatemedical system AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yogaand Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha andHomoeopathy). We hope this will happensoon,” said the Minister on the sidelines ofan event held here to mark the firstNaturopathy Day.

Surprisingly, while the Government hasbeen patting its back for promoting holis-tic alternative healthcare like never before,the PMJAY scheme which was launchedwith much fanfare by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi a few months ago does notprovide insurance coverage to the alterna-tive medicine system AYUSH.

Earlier, after inaugurating the firstNaturopathy Day Programme, Naik said hisMinistry is introducing several schemes toexpand the naturopathy treatment which iscost effective and side-effect-free system.

Work on building natural clinics isalready in progress in Pune, Goa, Delhi,Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala and AndhraPradesh, the Minister said as he pointed outthat the health challenges including risingnon-communicable diseases we are facingtoday is because we have forgotten our tra-ditional system of medicine.

Jaiprakash Aggarwal of InternationalNaturopathy Organisation, which hadorganised the event in collaboration with theMinistry, explained that all the treatmentsgiven under Naturopathy are based onPancha Mahabhootas theory and elimina-tion of morbid matter is the best remedy inall disease conditions.

The Chairman of the Surya Foundationalso favoured taking the system to each andevery household.

Naturopathy experts such as Dr YogeshGupta and Shallu Gupta, both from Delhi-based Ojas Nature Cure and Yoga Centrecalled for regulation and standardisation ofthe sector which is gaining popularity notonly amongst Indians but foreigners tooowing to its several benefits.

Dr Navdeep Joshi, naturotherapist fromNavyoga Kendra, Delhi too agreed saying,that people are now accepting the efficacyof these sciences as panacea for psychoso-matic ailments and lifestyle disorders.

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New Delhi: The NationalIntegration Week will beobserved across the countrybeginning November 25 with anaim to foster and reinforce thespirit of communal harmony.

The Government willorganise meetings and seminarsduring the ‘Qaumi Ekta Week’(National Integration Week) toemphasise on themes of secu-larism, anti-communalism andnon-violence.

Besides, November 20 willbe observed as “Welfare ofMinorities Day” when fraternalprocessions will be taken out inriot-prone towns, according toan official release.

November 21 will beobserved as “LinguisticHarmony Day” when special lit-erary functions and ‘KaviSammelans’ will be organised toenable people of each region toappreciate the linguistic heritageof other parts of India.

The release said November

22 will be observed as “WeakerSections Day”. Meetings andrallies will be organised to high-light programmes under variousGovernments which helpSCs/STs and weaker sectionswith particular emphasis on thedistribution of surplus land tolandless labourers.

November 23 will beobserved as “Cultural UnityDay” and cultural functionswill be organised to present theIndian tradition of unity indiversity and for promoting cul-tural conservation and integra-tion, it said. November 24 willbe observed as “Women’s Day”when role of women in Indiansociety and in development ofnation-building will be high-lighted. November 25 will beobserved as “Conservation Day”when several meetings and func-tions will be organised toemphasise the growing need forawareness and action to con-serve the environment. PTI

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Jaipur: Former Congress MLAMamta Sharma on Sundayjoined the ruling BJP inRajasthan after her son wasdenied a ticket by the Congressin the upcoming StateAssembly polls.

Sharma met Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje here andannounced her joining the party.

“I had demanded a ticketfor my son from the Congress,but he was denied the samedespite the fact that he has doneso much work for the party. Iwas hurt at the party’s style offunctioning and therefore,decided to join the BJP,” she toldreporters after meeting Raje.

The former Congress MLAsaid the Chief Minister haspromised her a ticket fromPipalda constituency of Kota.

PTI

- 2+����)����6��2���'7�� ��������������!(� New Delhi: A total of 34 judges

have been appointed to sixHigh Courts in the country,with Allahabad getting 28,according to the Law Ministry.

Despite fresh appointmentsmade on Saturday, the 24 highcourts of the country face acombined shortage of over 430judges. The total approvedstrength is 1,079.

While 28 judges wereappointed to the AllahabadHigh Court, the Gauhati HighCourt got two new faces.

Delhi, Meghalaya, Orissa and Madras High Courtgot one judge each, separatenotifications issued by theMinistry said.

Out of the 34 judgesappointed, 17 were lawyersand the rest were judicial officers.

The collegium of theAllahabad High Court hadrecommended 33 names

for judgeship. But the Supreme Court

collegium found 17 names fitfor the job. Out of these 17, theGovernment notified theappointment of 15 andreturned two to collegium forreconsideration. PTI

New Delhi: India’s ‘SwachchhBharat’ campaign is a goodexample of how countries canmake safe sanitation servicesaccessible to all, the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)said on Sunday.

Under the ‘SwaachhBharat’ programme, householdsanitation coverage increased at a rate of 13 per cent annual-ly between 2016 and 2018,WHO said.

Everyone should haveaccess to safe sanitation facilitiesincluding hygienic toilets thatare connected to quality sewagesystems, WHO said, addingthat for many people in itsSouth-East Asia region, asacross the world, access to theseservices remains a problem.

WHO Regional Directorfor South-East Asia Dr PoonamKhetrapal Singh said 900 mil-lion people region-wide lackbasic sanitation and more than500 million practise open defe-cation. Singh said in recentyears, member States havemade significant progress andregion-wide urban coverageof basic sanitation is now closeto 70 per cent. In a majority ofcountries, rural coverage

exceeds 50 per cent and theshare of the region’s populationpractising open defecation hasbeen reduced from more than50 per cent to less than 30 percent, while several memberStates have achieved more than90 per cent coverage of basicsanitation services.

These advances are to becommended and they mustalso be built on, she said,adding that the return on everydollar invested in safe sanita-tion is estimated to be nearlysix times increased productiv-ity and fewer premature deaths.

“All people everywhereshould have access to safe sani-tation services, including hygien-ic toilets that are connected toquality sewage systems.

“For many people acrossthe WHO South-East AsiaRegion, as across the world,access to these services never-theless remains a problem, with900 million region-wide lackingbasic sanitation, and more than500 million practising opendefecation,” Singh said.

“This leads to increasedhuman-feces contact and trans-mission of a range of diseases,from cholera to typhoid and

hepatitis A and E to tape-worm,” she said on the eve ofWorld Toilet Day.

WHO’s South-East AsiaRegion comprises Bangladesh,Bhutan, Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea, India,Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar,Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailandand Timor-Leste.

As outlined in WHO’srecently launched Guidelineson Sanitation and Health, thereare several ways member statescan sustain their many gains,accelerate progress and makesafe sanitation services acces-sible to all, she said.

“First, health authoritiesshould work across sectors toensure all communities haveaccess to toilets that adequate-ly contain excreta. Of keyimportance is targeting com-munities in hard-to-reach areas,as well as those living infor-mally in cities or urban zones.

“India’s Swaachh Bharatcampaign is a good example ofhow this can be done to rapideffect and on a large scale, withhousehold sanitation coverageincreasing at a rate of 13 percent annually between 2016and 2018,” Singh said. PTI

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Aizawl: Amid rising electioncampaign heat in Mizoram, theState’s BJP unit chief J V Hulnahas claimed that Chief MinisterLal Thanhawla of Congresswanted to join the saffronparty along with some otherparty MLAs before the pollprocess started, a claim dis-missed by the ruling partyleaders as a “joke”.

The Mizoram BJP presi-dent also claimed that most ofthe elected Congress MLAswill join his party after the pollresults for the State are out onDecember 11. The elections arescheduled to be held onNovember 28 for 40 Assemblyseats of the State, where theCongress has been in powersince 2008.

The BJP has never won anassembly election in this smallhill state with a population ofjust about 10 lakh people,including nearly 7.68 lakh vot-ers, but it is seen by the saffron

party as the “final frontier” inthe North-East as it is in powerin all other states of the region— either by winning polls orjoining ruling alliances.

The BJP president AmitShah recently declared thatMizoram, a Christian-majori-ty state, will celebrateChristmas this Decemberunder the BJP rule.

“Lal Thanhawla himself,before this election, and hisfollowers contacted the cen-tral leadership (of BJP) tomerge the whole Congress inthe state, just l ike theArunachal Pradesh. Theywere in contact with them,”Hluna told PTI.

“They did not contact me,they contacted our leaders inDelhi. From them, I learntthat Lal Thanhawla was willingto join BJP,” he added.

In September 2016, theCongress lost its governmentin Arunachal Pradesh when 43of its MLAs led by ChiefMinister Pema Khandu defect-ed wholesale and merged withthe People’s Party ofArunachal, just two monthsafter it had regained power fol-

lowing the Supreme Court’sjudgement.

A senior leader of theprincipal opposition party inMizoram, Mizo National Front(MNF), also made similarallegations against the chiefminister and said that thedeal fell through as theCongress leader’s “demands”were rejected by the BJP’scentral leaders.

Thanhawla, a nine-timeMLA, could not be contactedfor his reactions despite repeat-ed attempts, but a senior min-ister of his Cabinet termed theallegations as the “funniestjokes ever known”.

On condition of anonymi-ty, an MNF leader, who is alsocontesting the MizoramAssembly elections from a con-stituency in the capital city,claimed that Thanhawla hadcontacted a senior centralleader of the BJP and hadsought the Chief Minister’spost for his daughter and theGovernor’s post for himself inreturn of joining the BJP withparty MLAs.

“But these demands wererejected outright,” he said. PTI

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New Delhi: Chief of Air StaffBS Dhanoa has stronglypitched for institutionalisedstructure for joint planningamong the Indian Air Force,Navy and Army so that thecountry wins any war in futurein the “shortest possible” time.

The IAF chief said all thethree services will have toadopt a coherent approach toeffectively deal with all possi-ble security threats facing thecountry, asserting that his forcestrongly stands for “jointness”.

“No single service can winthe war solely on its own inher-ent organic capabilities giventhe variety of threats whichnations are capable of inflictingupon each other,” he said.

“Thus, it is imperative thatthe three services promotejoint planning and exploit thestrengths of sister services tohelp win a war in the shortestpossible time. India by itself isone theatre,” he told PTI in aninterview.

There have been delibera-tions within the governmentand the three forces on whetherIndia should go for integratedtheatre commands where all

the manpower and assets of thethree services will be under thecommand of one officer. TheUS as well as several westerncountries follow this model.

There were voices withinthe defence establishment whowere in favour of setting up atleast two theatre commands -- one in western sector for deal-ing with Pakistan and other ineastern sector for dealing withany eventuality along the fron-tier with China.

Official sources said gov-ernment is already seriouslyconsidering setting up of aDefence Cyber Agency, aDefence Space Agency and aSpecial Operations Divisioncomprising the assets of thethree services.

Giving a serious consider-ation to joint planning amongthe three forces, the govern-ment, in April formed aDefence Planning Committee

(DPC) headed by NationalSecurity Advisor (NSA) AjitDoval to prepare a nationalsecurity strategy with a focuson ensuring convergenceamong the Army, the IAF andthe Navy. PTI

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Striking the iron while it ishot, Bengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee has decidedto take the battle to the saffroncamp in Assam. Agenda:Continued struggle againstalleged “biased implementa-tion” of National Register forCitizens in that State “pushinglakhs of Bengalis on the vergeof denationalisation” andrecent killings in Tinsukia dis-trict.

The Chief Minister hasdecided to launch a “sustainedand intensified campaign” inthat State leading the battlepersonally. Her Assam cam-paign is likely to commence inthe month of January after theJanuary 16 grand rally atBrigade Parade Ground inKolkata where the TMC chiefhas invited all the anti-BJPoutfits.

TMC-led protests againstthe “discriminatory imple-mentation of NRC” and killingof Bengali people in Assam,has already found support inthat State.

According to sources theChief Minister has formed a16-member committee whichwill lead the campaign againstattacks on the minorities,mainly the Bengalis in Assamand the allegedly discrimina-

tory NRC regime.Seasoned Trinamool

Congress Firhad Hakim hasbeen asked to coordinate themovement in Assam. Hakim aBengal Minister is likely to callupon the Muslim leaders too tojoin Banerjee’s campaign. “Ourcampaign in Assam is notdirected against any particularcommunity but against theGovernment’s initiative to driveout the minorities including theBengalis, Biharis, UP wallasand Muslims. This cannot betolerated and a sustained move-ment has to be built up in thatState. The TMC will lead themovement there,” Banerjee isknown to have told her partydelegates who had recentlycome from Assam.

Following the ChiefMinister’s directives TMC lead-ership in Assam has startedtaking measures to build up amovement in Barak Valley and

Brahmaputra Valley, sourcessaid. “We will go to the peoplewith the message that the TMCis by the side of all the tor-mented people in Assam.”

The Assam unit of theparty is planning to holdMamata Banerjee’s rallies atGoalpara, Dhubri, Barpeta,Nalbari, Kamrup(rural),sources said adding the firstsuch rally could be organizedat Khanapara in Guwahati.

TMC’s Assam ambitions isfurther underscored by its deci-sion to contest the panchayatelections in that State. Theparty is likely to field candi-dates from at least 9-10 districtswhere the Bengalis have size-able population.

“The TMC has goodprospects in Assam. We wantto good in that State.

We have been able to findsome base their too. But thegains can further be cementedif our leader Mamata Banerjeeaddresses a few rallies in thatState,” an Assam TMC leaderhas said.

Meanwhile, Telugu DesamParty chief and AndhraPradesh Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu is likely tomeet his Bengal counterpart onMonday noon, sources saidadding he is likely to inviteBanerjee to the all-party meet-ing in Delhi.

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The death toll due to thesevere cyclone Gaja that

devastated several districts inTamil Nadu two days ago hasrisen to 45 and it damaged1,17,624 houses, Chief MinisterK Palaniswami said on Sunday.

Opposition leaders havecriticised what they say was theGovernment's apathy in reach-ing out relief materials likefood, drinking water and othermaterials to the cyclone affect-ed areas.

In Pudukottai district,people complained about notgetting relief materials andprotested on the roads. Theyalso set fire to five governmentvehicles.

Speaking to reporters atSalem, about 350 km fromhere, Palaniswami said 45 per-sons have died in the cycloneand the loss of livestock was putat 735.

He added that 88,102hectare of crop and 39,938electricity poles were damagedin the cyclone.

The central governmenthas been asked to depute ateam from the NationalDisaster Management to assessthe destruction.

To a query about droppingrelief materials by helicopters,Palaniswami said removal oftrees from the roads would be

completed fully on Sunday.Palaniswami said he would

visit the affected areas onMonday.

DMK President M.K.Stalin in a letter to the partycadres wondered whetherPalaniswami's heart was madeof iron as he appeared to bemore interested with inaugu-rating projects rather than visiting the cyclone bat-tered areas.

Stalin, who toured theareas, accused the governmentof failing to provide sufficientfood, clothing and drinkingwater for the people at the reliefcentres.

He said had only the gov-

ernment carried out the dredg-ing of canals and other waterbodies, much of the damagecould have been averted andseveral trees could have beensaved.

Stalin said coconut treesin about 7,000 hectares in sev-eral districts have been damaged.

PMK founder S. Ramadosssaid it was a shame that theAIADMK government was notproviding even food for thecyclone affected people.

He said that various dis-tricts in the Cauvery deltaregion like Thanjavur,Nagapattinam and Thiruvarurhad been severely affected.

Guwahati: About 3.5 lakh peo-ple, out of the total 40 lakh,who were excluded in the draftNational Register of Citizens(NRC), have claimed that theyare Indian nationals, twomonths after the window opensfor claims and objections in theSupreme Court-monitoredexercise, sources said Sunday.

Besides, less than 100 appli-cations have been received bythe authorities challenging theinclusion of the names of sus-pected illegal immigrants in theNRC, a list of Assam's residents.

So far, about 3.5 lakh peo-ple have submitted applica-tions for inclusion of theirnames in the NRC and theyhave submitted relevant docu-ments claiming that they areIndian citizens, a source privyto the development said.

The issue of low turnout inthe claims and objections peri-od was also discussed atSaturday's high-level meetingin New Delhi attended byHome Minister Rajnath Singh,BJP president Amit Shah,Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal, UnionHome Secretary Rajiv Gauba,Director of Intelligence BureauRajiv Jain, among others.

The Supreme Court hasalso finalised a set of standardoperating procedure (SOP) fordisposal of claims and objectionsin the updation of the NRC.

The draft NRC was pub-

lished on July 30 and includedthe names of 2.9 crore people outof the total applications of 3.29crore. There has been a hugecontroversy over exclusion of 40lakh people from the draft NRC.

Following a directive of theSupreme Court, the process offiling claims and objections tothe draft NRC began onSeptember 25 and it will cometo an end on December 15.

Initially, the apex courthad allowed the claimants torely on any of the 10 docu-ments -- land documents, per-manent residential certificateissued from outside the state,passport, Life InsuranceCorporation of India policy,any licence or certificate issuedby any government authority.

Document showing serviceor employment under theGovernment or public sectorundertaking, bank or post officeaccounts, birth certificates issuedby a competent authority, educa-tional certificate issued by boardsor universities and records orprocesses pertaining to court pro-vided they are part of processingin a judicial or revenue court.

However, on November 1,the court allowed five addition-al documents to reply upon forinclusion of names in theNRC.The additional papers are-- 1951 NRC, electoral roll up toMarch 24, 1971, citizenship cer-tificate, refugee registration cer-tificate and ration card. PTI

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Kargil town was the coldestin Jammu and Kashmir at

minus 9 degree Celsius onSunday while the minimumtemperature across the regionwas around the freezing point,the weather office said.

According to a MetDepartment official, the min-imum temperatures in Leh,Gulmarg, Pahalgam and

Srinagar were minus 5.1degrees, minus 4.5, minus 1.1and 1.6, respectively.

"Dry weather conditionswere likely to continue in Jammuand Kashmir during the nextfour days," the official said.

In the Jammu region,Jammu city recorded 11.1degrees Celsius, Katra 10.4.Batote 6.3, Bannihal 4.0 andBhaderwah 2.8 as the night'slowest temperatures.

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Srinagar: Braving extremelyadverse weather conditions,the Border Roads Organisation(BRO), under Project Himank,is carving out the world's firstglaciated motorable road.

"The BRO is laying themotorable roads by cutting theworld's highest glaciers whichare here in eastern Ladakh inJammu and Kashmir," an offi-cial of the BRO said.

Being constructed at analtitude of over 17,800 feet, theroad from Sasoma to Saser Lawill be a vital link paved in aregion which is mostly cut-offduring the severe wintermonths.

Saser La, also known asSaser Pass, is a high mountainpass which lies in theKarakoram range. It is locatedon the ancient summer caravanroute from Leh in Ladakh toYarkand in the Tarim Basin.

"As the temperature in theregion falls to minus 50 degreesCelsius during winter and hov-ers around 12 degrees Celsius

during peak summer, work insuch condition is a herculeantask.

"Besides, the biting coldand bone chilling winds, thereare dangers of unseen crevass-es and avalanches. Further, theglaciers shift constantly whenthe snow melts, adding to thedifficulty in construction," hesaid.

The months when con-struction works can be takenup are few, forcing officials tobe ready with plans and strate-gies in advance to achieve tar-gets.

"The short working periodneeds to be utilised to themaximum, thus requiringeffective management of man-power and resources. Planningof work starts four to fivemonths prior to the workingseason," he said.

The official said meticulousplanning and hard work of theBRO officers has been extreme-ly essential for the successfulcompletion of the tasks. PTI

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Patna: Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar has said a slew offacilities inaugurated by theState Government in ValmikiNagar of Bihar's WestChamparan district would pro-mote eco-tourism in the area.

The Water Resourcesdepartment has transferred200 acres to Environment,Forest and Climate ChangeDepartment for developingeco-tourism in Valmiki NagarTiger Reserve (VTR), the ChiefMinister said on Sunday.

There should be a conven-tion centre here in ValmikiNagar where people can holdprogrammes and also enjoy thenatural beauty of the place,Kumar said.

He said he has plans tohold a cabinet meeting here,the timing for which would bedecided later. The ChiefMinister told reporters that alot has been done for the devel-opment of tourism in ValmikiNagar area such as construct-ing 'cottages' which are runningat full capacity throughout theyear and can be booked online.

With the promotion ofeco-tourism at VTR, peoplewill become more aware aboutthe forest and the issue ofenvironment, he said. About45,000 tourists had visited theVTR till mid-November in 2018itself, Kumar said.

"I hope that the number of

tourists will cross over one lakhafter the development of ecotourism in the area," the chiefminister said.

"People have an attractionfor VTR as it is a unique placewhich is surrounded by moun-tain on one end, while riverGandak is flowing on the otherside with the greenery of jungle.

"There can not be anyother better place than VTR.There is huge potential for ecotourism in Valmiki Nagar forwhich the state government isworking hard to promote it,"the Chief Minister said.

Various options of eco-tourism, including jungle safariand trekking, are already avail-able at VTR. Eco-huts havebeen inaugurated in the areaand old watch towers havebeen given a facelift.

The total number of tigersstood at eight in VTR when hetook over the reins of the Statefor the first time in November2005 and at present, the num-ber of tigers has increased tomore than 35. Stating that thegreen cover area of Bihar wasnine per cent after its division,Kumar said it has increased to15 per cent with theGovernment's massive planta-tion drive during which 22.50crore saplings were planted.

"We have set a target of 17per cent of green cover in theState," he added. PTI

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Rashtriya Lok Samata Partychief Upendra Kushwaha

made a sharp attack on Sundayapparently against BJP leaderSushil Kumar Modi by callinghim a "pichhlaggu" (camp fol-lower) of Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar.

Without naming Modi,Kushwaha in a series of tweetssaid some people are "publicityhungry, opportunist and pro-power by nature". He describedModi as a "loudspeaker" and"blood-sucking mosquito" whichspreads diseases around it.

Kushwaha's remarks coulddeepen the differences withinthe National DemocraticAlliance, which is struggling tofind a seat-sharing arrange-ment for the 2019 general elec-tion. The RLSP chief has saidthe number of seats offered tohis party was "not respectable"and the matter should beresolved by November 30.

On Saturday, shortly afterKushwaha set the deadline, Modiin a tweet responded to him, say-ing the NDA will "not be brow-beaten" and seats will be allottedbased on "ground realities".

The JD(U) and the BJP lastmonth announced they willcontest equal number of seats,but did not say what theirshare would be.

Ram Vilas Paswan's LokJanshakti Party, the fourth part-ner in the alliance, has said itexpects to contest a "respectable

number" of seats in the state.During the 2014 election,

the RLSP, which Kushwahaformed in 2013 after breakingout from the JD(U), contestedand won three seats. The LJPcontested seven seats then.Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats.

"There are people who are'rajnitik pichhlaggu' (camp fol-lower in politics). Such peopleare publicity hungry, oppor-tunist and pro-power by nature.The utility of such people aremerely confined to work asloudspeaker for alliance part-ner or its leader. Such peoplethrive in the party by suckingblood and spreading malariaand dengue in their own party,"Kushwaha tweeted in Hindi.

By "loudspeaker", the RLSPchief apparently referred toModi's denial that ChiefMinister Kumar called him"neech" (lowly person).

During a programme onNovember 4 when Kumar wasasked about the seat-sharing

issue with Kushwaha, he hadsaid, "Itna neeche baat ko nahi lejaiye" (do not take the debate tosuch a low level). The RLSP chiefconstrued that the chief minis-ter called him a lowly person.

Also on Sunday, Kushwahaasked Deputy Chief MinisterModi to say "something" on theSrijan scam as Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has sought toprovide a corruption-freeGovernment. In another tweet,he said, "You have rightly saidthat our PM Sri @narendramo-di ji made every effort to providecorruption-free Government.Please say something on Srijanscam too."

Srijan scam, detected lastyear, is being probed by theCBI. The government fundsworth about Rs 1,000 crorewere allegedly transferred tothe accounts of Srijan MahilaVikash Samilti, Bhagalpur.

Kushwaha recently metRJD leader Tejashwi Yadav andSharad Yadav.

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The Bihar Police on Sundayconcluded its two-day

operation to attach propertiesof former State Minister ManjuVerma, who's evading arrest inan Arms Act case filed by theCBI while probing theMuzaffarpur shelter homescandal.

The exercise to attachVerma's property in Arjuntolavillage on Sunday was led bySub-Divisional Police Officer(SDPO) Suryadeo Kumar.

Police attached 16 articleson Sunday, while 109 articleswere seized on Saturday, theSDPO said.

Armed with a court order,a police team led bySuperintendent of PoliceAwakash Kumar had initiatedthe process of attachingVerma's property in Arjuntolavillage here on Saturday.

Police had handed over alist of the seized articles toVerma's brother-in-law,Hemant Verma, on Saturday.

"The operation to attachthe property of Manju Vermain the Arjuntola area ended onSunday," the SDPO said.

Police had removed thegrill, doors, door frames of ahouse belonging to her whilecarrying out the attachment

process on Saturday.All articles inside the house

were seized during the two-dayoperation- initiated under sec-tions 82 and 83 of the CriminalProcedure Code.

Verma had stepped downas the minister for social wel-fare in August, followingreports that her husband,Chandrashekhar Verma, hadclose links with Brajesh Thakur,the prime accused in theMuzaffarpur shelter homescandal.

Over 30 girls were alleged-ly raped at the shelter home.

A few days later, the CBIraided Verma's Patna residencebesides her in-laws' home inArjuntola village from where acache of ammunition wasseized. A case was then regis-tered against her.

She moved an applicationfor anticipatory bail before aBegusarai court which wasturned down and a similar pleawas rejected by the Patna HighCourt.Her husband surren-dered before a Begusarai courton October 29.

The Supreme Court had onNovember 12 rapped the BiharPolice for failing to arrest theformer minister and directedthe DGP to appear before it inperson on November 27 if shewas not nabbed by then.

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The Goa Government hasvirtually become non-func-

tional and Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar is being self-centred in not letting go of thetop post despite suffering frompancreatic cancer, former StateRSS chief Subhash Velingkarsaid on Sunday.

"People are being taken forgranted. Had this happened inBihar and Uttar Pradesh, peo-ple would have stripped thepoliticians naked and takenthem on a procession,"Velingkar, who formallyentered politics by joiningGoa Suraksha Manch nearhere, he said.

Velingkar has served asthe state RSS chief for morethan two decades and is con-sidered responsible for thepolitical grooming of the StateBJP's top leaders, includingManohar Parrikar, UnionMinister of State for AYUSHShripad Naik, and former ChiefMinister Laxmikant Parsekar.

He was, however, sackedfrom the RSS in 2016, after hetook on Parrikar, accusing thelatter of going back on the prin-ciples of both the Sangh as wellas the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Velingkar accusedParrikar of being self-cen-tered in allowing his adminis-tration to "virtually shut down"on account of his illness, whileholding on to more than twodozen portfolios.

"The Government is func-tioning in a way noGovernment ought to functionat all. The CM is taking treat-ment. He does not have thecourage to come and face thepeople. The Opposition hasbeen demanding that they wantto meet the CM, but he has notbeen able to meet them.Therefore, the departmentsand portfolios are not gettingany justice," Velingkar said.

Velingkar also said that theState was heading for a mid-term poll along with the LokSabha elections next yearbecause the Government wasalready beset with infighting dueto Parrikar's inability to attendto office and take decisions.

This State of indecisionwould lead to the disintegrationof the coalition of BJP,Maharashtrawadi GomantakParty, Goa Forward and fourindependent MLAs, he said.

"Along with the Congress,the BJP too will be demolishedin the next elections and Goawill see the rise of a new lead-ership," Velingkar said.

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Page 7: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

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ACRPF Jawan was killed ina militant attack in Jammu

and Kashmir's Pulwama dis-trict on Sunday, police said.

Militants lobbed a grenadeand fired on a CRPF camp inKakapora area of the district insouth Kashmir Sunday evening,a police official said, adding theattack was successfully repulsedby the security forces.

However, in the attack, aCRPF jawan identified as HeadConstable Chandrika Prasadsustained injuries, the officialsaid. Prasad was shifted to anearby hospital where he suc-cumbed to injuries.

The official said as themilitants were trying to flee thearea after the attack, securityforces immediately cordonedoff the area and initiatedsearches.

"Consequently, exchangeof fire between security forcesand terrorists took place till thelast report was received," hesaid, adding further detailswere awaited.

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Two terrorists belonging tothe Al-Badar outfit were

Sunday killed in an encounterwith security forces in Shopiandistrict of Jammu andKashmir, police said.

Based on a credible inputabout the presence of militants,a cordon and search operationwas launched by securityforces at the crack of dawn inRebban area of Zainapora inthe south Kashmir district, apolice spokesman said.

He said as the search oper-ation was going on, the searchparty was fired upon by thehiding militants.

The fire was retaliatedleading to an encounter in

which two militants werekilled, the spokesman said.

He said the slain ultrashave been identified as NawazAhmad Wagay, a resident ofRebban Zainapora and YawarWani, a resident of BatnoorLitter Pulwama.

"They were affiliated withproscribed terror outfit Al-Badar. Both the killed terror-ists were involved in a series ofterror attacks on securityestablishments and many othercivilian atrocities in the area,"the spokesman said.

Arms and ammunitionwere recovered from the site ofencounter.

No collateral damage tookplace during the encounter, hesaid.

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Acalm atmosphere at theLord Ayyappa shrine in

Sabarimala marked the secondday of the two month-longannual pilgrimage season, evenas the rest of Kerala witnessedprotests against the arrest of BJPGeneral Secretary K Surendranwhile on his way to the temple.

Travancore DevaswomBoard, which manages theshrine, will file a petition in theSupreme Court Monday seek-ing more time to implementthe court's Sept 28 verdictallowing women of all ages tooffer worship at the shrine,board president APadmakumar said.

So far, no women in the10-50 age group has soughtpolice protection to trek theholy hills, though over 500 oddyoung women have madeonline bookings for darshan.

Facing flak over inade-quate facilities and severerestrictions for devotees at the

temple complex, Padmakumaralso said no unnecessary curbswould be there and the "smallissues" being faced now shouldbe seen as "starting troubles".

Briefing reporters atThiruvananthapuram after ameeting with DGP LoknathBehara and M V Jayarajan, thePrivate Secretary to ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, hesaid the devotees would beallowed to perform the"Neyyabhishekam" ritual from03.15 AM to 1230 PMdaily.

"The police, board or gov-ernment will not take any stepcausing hardships to the pil-grims", but police would takeaction against those coming toSabarimala with an intention toprotest, he said.

More parking facilities andbio-toilets will be provided atNilackal and Pamba, he said.

Meanwhile, the StateHuman Rights Commissionobserved there was gross viola-tion of human rights of thedevotees and directed authori-

ties to ensure all necessary basicfacilities for them and sought areport within two weeks.

The temple had openedFriday evening for the 64-dayannual pilgrimage season asthe stand-off continued overentry of menstrual age womeninto the shrine.

So far, more pilgrims havearrived from other states thanfrom within Kerala. On thesecond day of the Malayalammonth 'Vrischikom', the pil-grims offered prayers at theshrine early Sunday.

Though the devotees wererelieved to get more time for'darshan' due to less crowd,many were unhappy at notbeing allowed to spend somemore time at the "sannidhanam"(the main temple complex).

Meanwhile, BJP workersblocked traffic on the nationalhighways for over an hour acrossthe state protesting against thearrest and remand of Surendran.In vatakara, a KSRTC bus wasstoned, police said.

Surendran, who was takeninto preventive custody as hetried to proceed to the LordAyappa temple, was Sundayproduced before a magistrateand remanded to 14-day judi-cial custody after he wascharged with non-bailableoffences.

Condemning the mannerin which Surendran was arrest-ed, Union Minister AlphonsKannamthanam said it was"despicable" and described thepolice action as "condemnable".

"There is need to take apath of consensus on mattersrelating to Sabarimala, he saidin a Facebook post.

Implementing thingswhich were against people'sinterest had no place in democ-racy, he said adding the peo-ple's verdict was for five yearsnot life long, he said. CPI(M)state secretary KodiyeriBalakrishnan alleged the BJP's"agenda" was to create violence.

The Congress, whichdeputed a three-member del-

egation to Sabarimala, accusedthe CPI(M)-led state govern-ment of creating a 'terror-likeatmosphere' in the name ofsecurity of the hill shrine.

The delegation comprisingformer state ministersT h i r u v a n c h o o rRadhakrishnan, Adoor Prakashand V S Sivakumar took stockof the situaion in the templecomplex. Prakash slammed thestate government and the boardfor not making required facil-ities for devotees at Sabarimala.

Spearheading a campaignagainst the Kerala governmentover the Sabarimala issue, BJPstate unit chief P S SreedharanPillai alleged the state govern-ment was making the Ayyappashrine "a centre of dispute todestroy its uniqueness".

Condemning the policeaction against "peacefully agi-tating" devotees, he said BJPwill extend all possible assis-tance to the protesters to pro-tect the hill shrine from the"hidden agenda of atheists".

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Aworker of a right-wingHindu outfit has been

arrested in connection with thealleged attack on a CPMleader's son and his journalistdaughter-in law during a shut-down called by the outfits inKerala on Saturday, police said.

Julius Nikithas and wifeSaniyo Manomi, working witha leading Malayalam news chan-nel, were attacked at Kuttiady asthey were going to a hospital ina car to visit a patient.

Police Sunday said that aworker of a right wing outfithas been arrested in connectionwith the attack and a searchwas on to nab nine others.

Nikithas, son of party dis-trict secretary P Mohanan, suf-fered head injuries andManomi was also injured.

The couple have beenadmitted to the governmentmedical college hospital here.

The CPM had alleged thatthey were attacked by activistsbelonging to the Sangh Parivar.Right-wing Hindu outfits hadobserved a dawn-to-dusk har-

tal in Kerala Saturday inprotest against the "preventivedetention" of Hindu AikyaVedi state president P Sasikala,who was on a pilgrimage tothe Sabarimala Lord Ayyappatemple.

Sasikala was taken intopreventive custody Saturdayafter she allegedly defied direc-tions not to spend the nightnear the temple complex.

Police had decided not toallow devotees enter the tem-ple premises when it was closedfor the night.

Sasikala, who was on a fastat the Ranni police station,protesting her detention, waslater produced before the sub-divisional magistrate, who isalso the Thiruvalla RevenueDivisonal officer (RDO), andgranted bail.

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Kochi: Spearheading a cam-paign against the Kerala gov-ernment over the Sabarimalaissue, BJP state unit chief P SSreedharan Pillai Sundayalleged that the CPI(M)-leddispensation was making theLord Ayyappa shrine "a centreof dispute to destroy itsuniqueness".

Condemning the policeaction against "peacefully agi-tating" devotees, he said theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)will extend all possible assis-tance to the protesters toprotect the hill shrine fromthe "hidden agenda of atheists".

Pillai said the BJP andSangh Parivar will expandthe ongoing agitation againstthe state government's "hastymove" to implement theSupreme Court verdict, per-mitting entry of women of allage groups into the temple, toother parts of the country.

"What is going in Kerala(over Sabarimala) is a fightbetween devotees and athe-ists," he told PTI.

"BJP workers will contin-ue to join the devotees' protestif any woman in the menstru-al age group tries to enter thetemple. The devotees have sofar succeeded in preventingsuch women from breakingthe custom," he said. PTI

Thiruvananthapuram: UnionMinister of IT K.J. Alphons willon Monday visit the templetown of Sabarimala to study thefacilities meant for the pilgrims.

Alphons told IANS that hewill reach the Pamba basecamp at 9 a.m.

"I had visited the templetown two months back andfound out that it was in a pret-ty bad shape due to the floods.I had suggested that a lot ofthings had to be done to make

it fit for a smooth pilgrimage,"he said.

He said he had come toknow that the facilities were notup to the mark.

The bureaucrat-turned-politician's visit comes at atime when the Kerala unit ofthe BJP observed Sunday as aprotest day by blocking high-ways across the state followingthe arrest and remand of itssenior leader K. Surendran.

IANS

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The Opposition Congressand NCP on Sunday set an

aggressive tone for the wintersession of the MaharashtraLegislature beginning here onMonday, by rooting for reser-vations to Muslims, Dhangars,Lingayats and other socio-eco-nomic backward communitiesalong the lines of Marathas anda compensation of Rs 50,000per hectare to drought-affect-ed farmers in the state.

On a day when chief min-ister Devendra Fadnavisannounced that his govern-ment would grant reservationsto Marathas in jobs and edu-cation under a new Socio-Economic Backward Class(SEBC) category, theOpposition parties gave fore-taste of their belligerent moodby boycotting the customarytea hosted by Fadnavis on theeve of the winter session of theState Legislature.

Addressing a news confer-ence after a joint meeting of thegroup leaders of variousOpposition parties held a dayahead of the start of the win-ter session of the StateLegislature, leader of theOpposition in the StateAssembly RadhakrishnaVikhe-Patil dubbed the BJP-Shiv Sena government in thestate as the “Thug ofMaharashtra” which had failedto fulfil all its promises duringthe last four years of its rule.

“The chief minister hasasked the Maratha communi-ty to prepare themselves forcelebrations on December 1(over grant of reservations).While we are for the state gov-ernment according reserva-tions, what about the reserva-tions for Muslims, Dhangars,Lingayats and other socio-econ0mic backward commu-nities?,” Vikhe-Patil asked.

Charging that theMaharashtra government hadput pressure on theMaharashtra State BackwardClass Commission (MSBCC)to come out with its report ongranting reservations toMaratha community, Vikhe-Patil said: “We would like thestate government to clarify asto how it would accord reser-vations to Marathas withoutdisturbing the existing reser-vations to other communities.We want the state governmentto table the MSBCC’s report onthe first day of the winter ses-sion of the State Legislaturetomorrow”.

Vikhe-Patil accused theDevendra Fadnavis govern-ment of having gone back on itspromise of according reserva-tions to Dhangar community.“A study report submitted tothe State government by theTata Institute of Social Sciences(TISS) on socio-economic sta-tus of the Dhangar communi-ty is gathering dust,” he said.

Slamming the state gov-ernment for its failure to rem-edy the drought situation in thestate, Vikhe-Patil said: “Thoughthe state government declareddrought in many parts of thestate, it has not come reliefmeasures or financial assis-tance for the affected farmers.We demand that the farmers begiven 50,000 per hectare ofcompensation and horticul-turists be given Rs 1 lakh perhectare. In addition, the state

government should waive 100per cent crop loans taken byfarmers during Kharif season”.

Leader of the Oppositionin the State Legislative CouncilDhananjay Munde of the NCP,who addressed the news con-ference with Vikhe-Patil, alsodemanded a compensation ofRs 50,000 per hectare to thedrought-affected farmers.

Munde came down heavi-ly on the ruling Shiv Sena forraising the Ram Mandir issueat this stage. “Through anannouncement by Shiv Senapresident Uddhav Thackeraythat he would go to Ayodhyaon November 25 to press forthe construction of RamMandir, the Sena is runningaway from its responsibility ofbeing the ruling party. Whatwas holding the Shiv Senafrom constructing Ram Mandirduring the last four years?,”Munde asked.

Charging Fadnavis andUddhav Thackeray as “Thugsof Maharashtra”, Munde said:“Fadnavis and UddhavThackeray have cheated thepeople of Maharashtra duringthe last four years. Theydeserve to be named as Thugsof Maharashtra”.

Munde also hit out at thechief minister for its failure toact against the 16 ministers inhis Cabinet facing allegations ofcorruption. “ We will not resttill the state government doesnot act against these 16 minis-ters,” he said. '��� ������ ��"�������������� ��������,������������������&� ����� � �����(���������( �"� )*+

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Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya

said that the poor and thedowntrodden were gettingtheir share in the BharatiyaJanata Party governmentbecause it was implementingthe pro-people policies of theNarendra Modi government inletter and spirit.

"India has progressed intrue sense in the last four-and-a-half years. The country hadsuffered because of the partisanpolicies of the previous gov-ernment. Their policies were solopsided that the chasmbetween the poor and the richincreased. It was BJP whichtried to bridge that chasm,"Maurya said while speaking atLoktantra Senani AabhaarSammelan held here onSunday.

The loktantra senanis areleaders who were jailed duringthe Emergency.

Maurya said the Congresshad ruled the country for themaximum time afterIndependence but it had notshown respect for leaders otherthan the Gandhi family.

"Everyone knows whathappened to Sardar Patel andSubhas Chandra Bose. Evenleaders like Atal BihariVajpayee, Sharad Pawar andRaj Narain were looked downupon by the Congress govern-ment. It is only Narendra Modiwho broke the barriers of polit-ical lines and gave respectwhich was due to the leaders,"the Deputy Chief Minister said.

"The world now knows

about Sardar Patel and theStatue of Unity. This is the truerespect the BJP government hasgiven to the leaders," he added.

Maurya said, in UttarPradesh, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath was giving respectto the leaders of various polit-ical parties.

He said the Congressstooped low when it arrested aleader like Jayprakash Narayanduring Emergency. "Then peo-ple like you revolted against thethen government and courtedarrest. It is history that all jailsacross the country were full butthere was no ebb in your enthu-siasm," he said.

"Leaders have taken lessonsfrom your sacrifice and havenot stepped into the shoes ofdictator," he added.

BJP MLC Yashwant Singhalso addressed the loktantrasenanis.

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After Bahujan Samaj Party,Samajwadi Party chief

Akhilesh Yadav on Sundaystruck a blow to the prospectsof a 'mahagathbandhan' (grandalliance) of opposition partiesfor the 2019 Lok Sabha polls bylaunching a fierce attack onCongress, hinting that if thegrand old party restricted thesuccess of samajwadis, the SPwould break the friendship.

Akhilesh Yadav on Sundaycampaigned in MadhyaPradesh.

"I want to tell the Congressthat when they will be theweakest, the Samajwadi Partywill be their dearest friend. Butthe Congress leaders don'twant 'cycle' to succeed. Hence,

we have decided that if you tryto stop the 'cycle', we will takeyour hands off the cycle andgive the control to some otherparty," Yadav said at a rally atDamoh in Madhya Pradesh.

Bharatiya Janata Party andCongress are two sides of thesame coin. Both the parties areresponsible for the loot of pub-lic sector banks by big businessand industrial houses. Thesetwo parties are behind the Rafalescam — first the Congress playedthe tricks and now the BJP isexploiting it for its narrow polit-ical gains," Akhilesh charged.

Cycle is the political sym-bol of Samajwadi Party.

Akhilesh dropped stronghints that his party may not allywith the Congress in the 2019Lok Sabha elections, saying

this would deal a huge blow tothe Rahul Gandhi-led party asthey had been rallying for agrand coalition to stop theBJP juggernaut in the country.

Apparently miffed with theCongress for refusing to shareseats with SP and BSP in

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarhand Rajasthan, Akhilesh hadon Saturday attacked theCongress while campaigning inChhattisgarh. He had accusedthe grand old party of scuttlingSamajwadi Party's prospectsin the poll-bound state.

Hinting that SP might notenter into a tie-up with Congressfor the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,Yadav said, "Humne bhi tay karliya hai ki cycle ko rokoge toaapka haath handle se hata diyajayega... Control aur kisi kehaath chala jaayega (We havedecided we will remove yourhands from the cycle handle ifyou try to stop the cycle and thecontrol will go in the hand ofsomeone else)."

Without directly takingthe name of any political party,the SP chief used their symbols(hand of the Congress andcycle of SP) to hint at the grow-ing rift between the two parties.

Yadav's statement cameduring a rally in Durg inMadhya Pradesh while cam-paigning for SP and its alliance

partner Gondwana GantantraParty.

The former Chief Ministerhad earlier also slammed theCongress for wasting time in"calculations" in the poll-boundstates of Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan. "Whenthe alliance did not happen, wewent with GGP... It is difficult tounderstand what the Congressis calculating and trying to do,but one thing becomes obvious...they want to stop SP from surg-ing ahead," he had said.

Akhilesh said that therewas no difference in the poli-cies of the BJP and Congress.His anti-Congress statementscome barely 20 months afterthe two parties entered into analliance for UP assembly elec-tions in March 2017.

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Page 8: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

The news from Punjab is ominous.Media reports quoting intelli-gence sources and a string of ter-ror related incidents that have hitthe State in the recent past indi-

cate the possibility of a revival of Pakistansponsored violence in the border state. Delhipolice is also on alert after inputs stated thata group of six-seven Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) terrorists are reportedly in Punjab,possibly in Ferozpur area and are planningto move towards Delhi.

Meanwhile, the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) says a common link has beenfound to all the recent six killings of Hinduleaders in Punjab. The anti-terror probeagency has revealed that these killings werepart of a larger conspiracy hatched byPakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI), to foment communal trou-ble and in turn revive Khalistani movementin the State.

Interrogation of the Jalandhar blastaccused has established that a nexus ofKashmiri and Khalistani militant organ-isations is trying to revive militancy inPunjab on the directions of Pakistan’s ISI.Intelligence agencies fear that Khalistanmilitants are getting consignments of ille-gal weapons, including AK 56, magazines,pistols and RDX from Pakistan as the samecannot be sourced from Jammu.

Whatsoever is happening today in theborder state, is a mere repeat of all thatshook the country in 1980s, resulting inunfortunate ‘Operation Blue Star’ by theIndian Army at the sacred Golden Templein Amritsar, subsequent dastardly assas-sination of the then Prime Minister IndiraGandhi at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards, followed by the horrible killings ofinnocent Sikhs in Delhi and several otherparts of the country.

The hands of the ISI were obvious increating this bloody mess, which posed aserious threat to the unity and integrity ofthe country. But how did a section of Sikhcommunity (known for its valour andpatriotism) get so alienated from theIndian mainstream that it became a will-ing partner in ISI’s plans to dismemberIndia? This unfortunate chain of events hasits origins in British stratagem of “divideand rule”, employed by them to perpetu-ate their control over India in the wake ofthe first war of Independence by Indiansin 1857. The wily colonial masters under-lined six fault lines in Indian society, didthe necessary academic exercise to backtheir divisive plans and worked simulta-neously on all of them.

The easiest to work on was the Hindu-Muslim fault line. The two communitieshave mostly been at war against each otherfor over 600 years. Their alliance during1857 uprising was nascent and limited. TheBritish wisely picked up Syed Ahmad Khan(please see my column of October 23, 2017

and October 22, 2018 in thispaper) to carry forward theirdivisive agenda among theMuslim of the sub-continent.

The British obviouslyfound it impossible to getsomeone in the patriotic com-munity of Sikhs to play thetreacherous role that Sir Syedwas happily doing among theMuslims. So, they found some-one from within their ranks.He was one Max ArthurMacauliffe, born on September10, 1841, in Newcastle West,Ireland. He got into the covet-ed Imperial Civil Service (ICS)in 1862 and was quickly post-ed to Punjab in 1864.

Macauliffe soon convertedto Sikhism and with the help ofBhai Kahn Singh Nabha, under-took the task of translatingSikh scriptures, including theholy Guru Granth Sahib. In1897, Bhai wrote a pamphlet“Hum Hindu Nahi”, the verybasis of the present dayKhalistan movement, whichhas since largely been hijackedby the ISI and Islamic zealots.

A white man converting toSikh faith, was a major develop-ment in Punjab. His high pro-file in the British colonial set upnaturally gave Macauliffe, nowa ‘devoted’ Sikh, an esteemedposition in the Sikh communi-ty. He undoubtedly pioneeredthe exercise of creating a dividebetween Hindus and Sikhs.

In an introduction toMacauliffe’s celebrated work,“The Sikhs, Their Religion,Gurus, Sacred, Writings andAuthors”, noted historian andauthor, Sardar KhushwantSingh wrote: “It has been sug-gested that the BritishGovernment of the day hadsinister motives in commis-sioning Macauliffe to under-

take this work. That Sikhswere fast relapsing back intothe Hindu fold was recordedby Lord Dalhousie soon afterhe annexed the SikhKingdom. He and otherBritish administrators felt thatit would serve their interestsbetter if the Khalsa Sikhswere encouraged to retaintheir distinct and separateidentity.”

The technique adopted byboth, Sir Syed and Macauliffe,to achieve their dubious objec-tive had lot in common. Bothinvoked ‘divine’ injunctions toalienate the targeted communi-ty from the main stream andconvert it into an ally of theBritish masters. Here is a sam-ple from Macauliffe’s work (TheSikhs, Vol 1).

“One day, as Guru TegBahadur was in the top story ofhis prison, the EmperorAurangzeb thought he saw himlooking towards the south in thedirection of the Imperialzenana. He was sent for the nextday, and charged with this gravebreach of Oriental etiquetteand propriety.” The Gurureplied, “Emperor Aurangzeb, Iwas on the top story of myprison. But I was not looking atthy private apartments or at thyqueens. I was looking in thedirector of the Europeans whoare coming from beyond theseas to tear down thy pardasand destroy thine empire.”

The follow-up of action onthe divisive and motivated “aca-demic” exercise by the colonialpower was calibrated and swift.On May 1, 1905, the then man-ager of Golden Temple issuedorders banning the practice ofworshiping of Hindu deities onthe banks of the holy tank byBrahmins. The statues of Hindu

Gods and Goddesses werethrown out. Those who spear-headed this divisive agendatermed themselves as “TatKhalsa” or the “neo Sikhs”. Thetrend of eviction of Hindupractices and symbols fromthe Golden Temple was subse-quently followed in rest ofGurudwaras of Punjab.

The population of Sikhs,according to 1901 Census,was a little over a million. Priorto 1911 Census, the CensusCommissioner of Punjabissued special instructive to theenumerators, to try to recordSikhs, separately from theHindus. The result was that thenumber of Sikhs in the Statemoved up by 300 times, overthree million, in just a decade.

In the British IndianArmy, a separate Khalsa regi-ment was created wherein thesoldier were required toobserve all the five kakars, soas to underline the distinctionbetween the Khalsa and otherfollowers of Sikh Gurus.

In the following decades,(even after Independence)this divisive mindset andpractices have continuedunabated. The neo-Sikhs,completely different from theones who follow the Gurus inletter and spirit, dominatethe public discourse and polit-ical life of Punjab. No wonderPakistan makes use of this gapin our polity.

Every Sikh can decide forhimself/herself —whethers/he wants to follow in thefootsteps of great Gurus andbe inspired by their messageand life, or, walk on the pathlaid by the British.

(The writer is a politicalcommentator and a formerBJP Rajya Sabha MP)

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Sir — A senior pilot of a Delhi-London Air India flight wasfound in an inebriated state beforetakeoff. He failed the pre-flightbreath analysis test for alcohol forthe second time. The passengerswere stranded in the airportbecause of the delay.

The pilots, for all practicalpurposes, are not expected to con-sume spirits 12 hours beforecommandeering a passenger air-craft. After his present folly, theDirectorate General of CivilAviation was quick to bar himfrom entering the cockpit forthree years. Alcohol limits are a lotstricter in India than some coun-tries abroad.

Around 58 Air India pilotswere apprehended for reportingdrunk to duty in the last decade.Alcohol can cause giddiness, agi-tation, delirium, lack of coordina-tion and clouding of conscious-ness — not a single symptom issafe for the pilot or the passengers.

An eagle’s eye should be kepton the chronic alcoholics.Random checks should be inorder.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

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Sir — Congress leader ShashiTharoor’s latest remark creditingJawaharlal Nehru for creatingdemocratic institutions thatenabled a ‘chaiwala’ to become thePrime Minister of the country isnot only laughable but absurd as well.

Narendra Modi is the consti-

tutionally elected Prime Ministerof the country. The Constitutionis the creation of the ConstituentAssembly and institutions arecreation of the Constitution, leastof Nehru.

Tharoor should have gonethrough the history of his party.In 1946, in the process of nomi-nations for the post of the presi-dent of Congress and thereby thefirst Prime Minister of India, 12

out of 15 Pradesh CongressCommittees, the only legal bod-ies having power to nominate andelect president of the party as perthe party constitution then, nom-inated Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.The remaining three did notnominate Nehru or anyone else.Despite that, Gandhi managedNehru’s nomination by a fewmembers of the WorkingCommittee and Patel withdrew

his nomination in favour ofNehru. Thus, Nehru was electedas the Congress president byGandhi’s choice. Initially, as firstPrime Minister of India, Nehruwas neither the choice of theCongressmen nor elected by thepeople of the country.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — November 17 was theInternational Day of Peace.When interest of one person orgroup clashes with that of theothers, there is a possibility ofviolence. If a grave situation isnot dealt in a calm manner andpeople immediately resort toviolence, it may have seriousrepercussions and it may evenwipe out the entire mankind. “Aneye for an eye only ends up mak-ing the whole world blind,” saidMahatma Gandhi, who also said“the day the power of love over-rules the love of power, theworld will know peace.”

TS KarthikChennai

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Page 9: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

How odd! Turkish President,Recep Tayyip Erdogan sendsan audio recording of the

murder of journalist, Jamal Khashoggiin the Saudi Arabian consulate inIstanbul to the Governments of allTurkey’s major NATO allies, and theonly one that gets it is Canada. Whathappened to the copies that PresidentErdogan sent to the United States,France, the United Kingdom andGermany? Lost in the mail-room, nodoubt, or maybe just lying unopenedon somebody’s desk. Or perhaps theTurks just didn’t put enough stampson the packages.

“We gave them the tapes,” saidErdogan on November 10. “They’vealso listened to the conversation, theyknow it.” But still not a word out of

Washington or London acknowledg-ing that they have heard the record-ings, and French Foreign Minister,Jean-Yves Le Drian denied that Francehad received a copy. When asked ifthat meant Erdogan was lying, LeDrian replied: “It means that he has apolitical game to play in these circum-stances.” Like most Western politiciansand diplomats, he is desperate to avoidcalling out Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler,Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman, as a murderer. The French hasa highly profitable commercial rela-tionship with the oil-rich kingdom,mostly selling it arms, and they don’twant to acknowledge the evidence onthe recording (which may directlyimplicate the Crown Prince) becauseit could jeopardise that trade.

Erdogan was furious when theFrench foreign minister issued hisdenial, and his communications direc-tor insisted that a representative ofFrench intelligence had listened to therecording as long ago as 24 October.But it was all just “he said/she said”stuff until Canadian Prime Minister,Justin Trudeau, blew the game wide

open on Monday. Yes, Trudeau said,Canadian intelligence has the record-ing, and he is well-aware of what is onit. In fact, Canadian intelligence agen-cies have been working very closelywith Turkey on the murder investiga-tion, and Canada is “in discussionswith our like-minded allies as to thenext steps with regard Saudi Arabia.”

Why did Trudeau come clean?One popular theory is the nothing-left-to-lose hypothesis. Last August, thetempestuous Crown Prince killed allfuture trade deals with Canada, pulledthousands of Saudi Arabian foreign

students out of Canadian universities,and generally showered curses on thecountry after Canadian officials calledfor the release of detained Saudicampaigners for civil rights andwomen’s rights.

Canada’s bridges to Saudi Arabiahave already been burned, and accord-ing to this theory, Trudeau felt free tosay the truth. But he’s not really free:Canada still has a $13 billion contractto build armoured vehicles for SaudiArabia that the Saudis might cancel,and this is a real contract, not one ofTrump’s fantasy arms sales. Maybe

Trudeau is just braver than the others,but his purpose is clear. He waitedmore than three weeks after getting therecording for the “like-minded allies”to agree to a joint policy towards themurderous prince — nobody believesKhashoggi could have been killedwithout Mohammed bin Salman’sconsent — and then he spilled thebeans. Of course, all the major NATOGovernments have the recordings.They have had them for at least threeweeks. They were just dithering overwhat to do about them, and Trudeaudecided it was time to give them apush. Good for him, but what exact-ly can they do about Mohammed binSalman’s crime?

It almost certainly wasMohammed bin Salman, who orderedthe killing. Since his elderly father,King Salman, gave him free rein to runthe country less than three years ago,he has become a one-man regime.Nothing happens without hisapproval, least of the murder of a high-profile critic in a foreign country bya 15-strong Saudi hit squad, includ-ing several members of his personal

security team.No Western leader (except perhaps

Donald Trump) will be seen in publicwith Mohammed bin Salman anymore; foreign investment in SaudiArabia this year is the lowest in sever-al decades, and the price of oil is fallingagain. So, he has to go if it’s still possi-ble for anybody in Saudi Arabia toremove him from power. But that’s thebig question. The Saudi royal family isno longer a tight and united body thatcan just decide Mohammed bin Salmanhas to go and make it stick. It’s a sprawl-ing array of people, many of whomscarcely know each other, and withoutthe agreement of King Salman, anysmaller group within the family thatorganised a coup against the CrownPrince, would almost certainly fail.

So, he may go on for while despitethe disaster of his military interven-tion in Yemen, his pointless, fruitlessblockade of Qatar and even this uglymurder. He wouldn’t be the only killerin power. But the bloom is definitelyoff this particular rose.

(The writer is an independent journalist)

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If any person chose to think of me, then Ishould like them to say: “This was the manwith all his mind and heart, loved India andthe Indian people. And they in turn, wereindulgent to him and gave of their love most

abundantly and extravagantly.” —Jawaharlal Nehru

India is an ancient civilisation privileged to wit-ness a rare cultural synthesis and fusion. Toknow India, one has to travel across the coun-try to understand the unity in diversity. Yet inan era of hate and distrust, the national iconsare targeted for an immediate political polari-sation. It is a shame that figures like MahatmaGandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Abdul KalamAzad are disgraced in public debate withoutvalid reasons. It is a fashion in contemporarypolitical debates to abuse Gandhi and Nehru bydistorting historical facts to secure facile victo-ries on public platforms and television debates.

Likewise, the other side targets the right-wing leadership of Syama Prasad Mookherjee,Deendayal Upadhyaya, KB Hedgewar withoutrealising that all of them have contributed theirrespective best to attain the freedom for ourcountry. We are doing a great disservice to ourgreat nation by disgracing our national heroeseither way. The nation that doesn’t worship itsheroes leads to a path of utter disaster.

Jawaharlal Nehru was one among the fewfreedom fighters of India who sacrificed his lifefor the cause of the motherland. He was one ofthe fortunate leaders who brought the indepen-dence struggle to a successful termination.Among Gandhi’s great lieutenants in the strug-gle for freedom, no doubt, Nehru had a promi-nent place. Jawaharlal Nehru, as one of the mostdistinguished leaders of Third World solidari-ty, reached out to the rest of the colonised worldand forged a joint front against colonialism andreinvented imperialism.

Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 inan affluent family of Allahabad. His fatherMotilal Nehru followed his education withextreme passion. Young Nehru was sent toHarrow school, and then to CambridgeUniversity in England to obtain a degree in nat-ural sciences. After spending two years at theInner Temple, London, he qualified as a barris-ter. During his stay in London, he studied sub-jects like literature, politics, economics and his-tory. He got attracted to the ideas of liberalism,socialism and nationalism. He was, by tempera-ment and experience, a cosmopolitan. His fre-quent visits to Europe, his deep familiarity withthe past and his understanding of the contem-porary ideologies of the day, from liberalism toFabian socialism, to communist international-ism, had convinced him that the future of Indiawas incomplete without the liberation of othercolonies.

History fascinated Nehru. It gave him aninsightful command over the past, a keen andimmediate sense of the present and a rare fore-sight to think and plan for the future of all.Nehru was a historian of repute; he felt thatmany historical writings were uncritical descrip-tions of events and people. He was equally drawnto science and firmly believed that scientific

temper and scientific approach toproblems would liberate India fromeconomic misery and social injustice.Indeed amazing was his intellectualblend in science and history, idealismand realism, literature and politics, therevolution of Marx and the non-vio-lence of Gandhi, all of which wereintegrated in his unique personality.As Norman Cousins observed Nehru“was not one man but a procession ofmen.”

After completing his education inEngland, Nehru came back to India in1912 and joined the Allahabad HighCourt Bar. Young Jawaharlal Nehruhad the option of leading a comfort-able life by inheriting the flourishinglegal practice of his father but he optedfor the journey of the freedom strug-gle, which eventually marked hisentry into Indian politics. IndianNational Congress already had a splitdue to the conflict between the mod-erates and the extremists. TheCongress was yet to have a mass base.With the “divide and rule” policy ofthe British Government, the MuslimLeague was already formed. He metGandhiji in the Lucknow session ofthe National Congress in December1916 and was tremendously influ-enced by his towering personality.

Nehru was shocked with theJallianwala Bagh massacre of April1919; the event changed the life for-ever. When the non-cooperationmovement was launched in December1920, he participated in it and wasarrested for his active role in the satya-graha. In 1923, he was appointed asthe General Secretary of the Congress.As the official delegate of the IndianNational Congress in 1927, he partic-ipated in the Congress of OppressedNationalities in Brussels. Nehruutilised this opportunity to impressupon other countries about India’snon-violent struggle against the impe-rial British Government and became

the global ambassador of peace. In1928, the Congress rejected co-oper-ation with the Simon Commission andNehru participated in the hartals inprotest of the Commission alongwith Subhas Chandra Bose andSrinivas Iyenger. Nehru put forwardthe demand that complete indepen-dence should be the goal of theCongress Party as opposed to the ideaof Dominion status. He became thepresident of the Indian NationalCongress in Lahore and the historicindependence resolution was passedon the midnight of December 31,1929. He was re-elected as presidentof the National Congress in 1936, 1937and 1946. Nehru participated in theCivil Disobedience Movement atAllahabad and was imprisoned tillJanuary 1931.

Nehru severely opposed the“Communal Award” of the BritishGovernment, which provided separateelectorate to Sikhs, Muslims,Europeans and other oppressed class-es. When Gandhiji started his fast tilldeath against the communal award, itcreated a deep impression on Nehru.The Government of India Act 1935was far away from the demands of theCongress. Nehru termed it as “a char-ter of slavery and oppression.” Yet theCongress decided to participate in theelection, which was announced as theprovision of the Act. Under Nehru’sleadership, the Congress securedabsolute majority in six provinces andformed coalition Governments intwo others out of the total 11provinces and it established Nehru’sleadership in the entire country.

With the failure of the CrippsMission, Mahatma Gandhi urged forthe right of self-determination toIndia. Gandhiji was determined tostart satyagraha. The Quit IndiaResolution was moved by him and onAugust 8, 1942, at the Bombay sessionof the Congress, it was adopted. He

was arrested and imprisoned for threeyears. After the war when Nehru wasreleased, he became a leading figureof the Congress in various negotia-tions with the British Government.Being invited by Lord Wavell to formthe Government, he headed the firstIndian (interim) Government of India.In the same year, elections to theConstituent Assembly was also held.Lord Mountbatten was deputed as theViceroy of India and completed thetransfer of power. Despite the oppo-sition of Gandhi, Nehru and otherCongress leaders, India was parti-tioned under the “two nation” theo-ry of Jinnah.

On August 15, 1947, a free Indiawas born. Nehru was elected as thefirst Prime Minister of independentIndia. He was the first Indian PrimeMinister to hoist the National Flag andmake his iconic speech “Tryst withDestiny” from the ramparts of the LalQuila (Red Fort). The time had cometo implement his ideas and build ahealthy nation. Nehru’s stint as PrimeMinister of India is characterised byhis secular and liberal approach. Hecarried out his vision to carry theyoung India towards the road oftechnological and scientific excel-lence with great zeal. He implement-ed a number of socio-economicreforms and paved the way for rapidindustrialisation.

Nehru continued to be the PrimeMinister of independent India till hisdeath on May 27, 1964. He was thechief framer of domestic and interna-tional policies during his term asPrime Minister (1947-1964). It wasunder Nehru’s supervision that Indialaunched its first Five-Year Plan in1951. He had laid the foundation ofdemocracy, secularism, planning andsocialism.

(To be continued in these columnson Tuesday. The writer is Editor-in-Chief, Opinion Express Group)

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The Comptrol ler andAuditor General (CAG) of

India is conducting perfor-mance audit of GST and islikely to finalise its reportsoon.

The performance auditreport on implementation ofGoods and Services Tax(GST) could be tabled inParliament as early as in theforthcoming Winter sessionbeginning December 11,according to sources,

The CAG is auditing thefunctioning of the new indi-rect tax regime since itsimplementation on July 1,2017.

The audit aspect wouldinclude registration, refund,input tax credit, transitioncredit mechanism, ease of pay-ment of taxes and the impacton the economic activity, thesources told.

The CAG team hasalready visited the GSTCommissionerates in majorstates to get clarity on thefunctioning of the new indi-rect tax system and its effi-

ciency and effectiveness, thesources said.

As part of the perfor-mance audit, the CAG looksat programmes, systems andactivities to check if they arein accordance with the prin-ciples of economy andwhether there is any scope forfurther improvement.

The performance auditwill not take into account rev-enue collections. Its focuswould primarily be on theimplementation aspect ofGST, which has subsumed 17local taxes.

Tagged as the biggest taxreform since Independence,GST has faced some teethingproblems in the initial months

of its implementation with theGST Network unable to takeload of last minute monthlyreturn filing rush.

Also, there were hiccupswith respect to refunds to beclaimed by exporters as wellas excessive transitional cred-it claims.

The monthly average rev-enue collection from GST inthe previous fiscal (July 2017-March 2018) was �89,885crore. In current fiscal, thecollections stood at �1.03 lakhcrore in April, �94,016 crorein May, �95,610 crore in June,�96,483 crore in July, �93,960crore in August, �94,442 crorein September and �1 lakhcrore in October.

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The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) net sold $18.662 bil-

lion of the greenback in thespot market, during the firstseven months of the currentfinancial year, according toRBI data.

In the same period lastyear, RBI was a net purchaserof the greenback, as it hadbought $16.301 billion.

In September, 2018, RBIsold $31 million of the US cur-rency in the spot market on anet basis, as per the latest RBIdata.

In the reporting month, thecentral bank purchased USD1.012 billion, while selling$1.043 billion in the spot mar-ket.

In August, and July, it hadsold $2.323 billion and 1.87 bil-lion, respectively, on a net

basis.The apex bank said that In

April, May and June, it had, onnet basis, sold $2.483 billion,$5.767 billion and $6.184 bil-lion of the US currency, respec-tively.

In September 2017, RBIhad net bought $1.259 billionof dollar, after it purchased$3.788 billion and $2.529 bil-lion in the spot market.

RBI maintains that itsintervention in the foreignexchange market is to curbvolatility in the rupee and notto target a level of the domes-tic currency.

The central bank has beenvery active in the past fewmonths in the spot market tosave the rupee which got bat-tered against the US dollar.

The domestic currency fellto a historic low of �74.1against the dollar in October.

In FY18, the apex bank hadnet purchased $33.689 billionof US dollars from the spotmarket. It had bought $52.068billion from the spot market,while selling $18.379 billion.

In FY17, RBI had bought$12.351 billion of the US dol-lars on a net basis.

In the forward dollar mar-ket, the outstanding net for-ward sales at the end ofSeptember was $1.358 billion,compared with a purchase of$5.730 billion in August,according to RBI data.

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The ongoing rift with theGovernment is set to play

out at the RBI’s crucial boardmeeting Monday, with theFinance on Ministry nomi-nees and some independentdirectors expected to take onGovernor Urjit Patel and histeam over issues ranging fromMSME credit to the centralbank’s reserves, though bothsides are in favour of reachinga common ground.

While there have beenreports and demands fromsome quarters for the Governorto step down, sources saidPatel is unlikely to yield underpressure and will rather mounta strong defence of the centralbank’s policies regarding strin-gent NPA recognition norms aswell as measures taken to easecredit supply to MSMEs.

Patel and his four deputies,who all are members of theRBI’s 18-member centralboard, will present a unitedfront, while a few independentdirectors too are expected tosupport the central bank’s mis-sion to clean up bank balancesheets, sources said.

The central board, headedby the RBI Governor, is expect-ed to discuss issues mentionedin the agenda circulated to theboard members in advance.

Off-agenda items can alsobe raised in the meeting, withthe chair’s permission.

The RBI’s central boardcurrently has 18 members,though the provision is that itcan go up to 21.

The members includeGovernor Urjit Patel and his

four deputies as ‘full-time offi-cial directors’, while the rest 13have been nominated by thegovernment, including twoFinance Ministry officials --Economic Affairs Secretaryand Financial ServicesSecretary.

Sources said the govern-ment and Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) are looking toreach at an agreeable solutionwith respect to relaxation of thePrompt Corrective Action(PCA) framework and easingof lending norms for theMSME sector.

If not in this board meet-ing, the issue of relaxation ofPCA framework would reach aresolution in the next fewweeks, they added.

As a result of the relaxation,some banks may come out ofthe PCA framework by the endof this fiscal.

Of the 21 State-ownedbanks, 11 are under the PCAframework, which imposeslending and other restrictionson weak lenders.

These are Allahabad Bank,United Bank of India,Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank,UCO Bank, Bank of India,Central Bank of India, IndianOverseas Bank, Oriental Bankof Commerce, Dena Bank andBank of Maharashtra.

The PCA framework kicksin when banks breach any ofthe three key regulatory triggerpoints -- namely capital to riskweighted assets ratio, net non-performing assets (NPA) andreturn on assets (RoA).

Globally, PCA kicks inonly when banks slip on a sin-gle parameter of capital ade-

quacy ratio, and the govern-ment is in favour of this prac-tice being adopted for thedomestic banking sector aswell.

The RBI is also expected toconsider a special dispensationfor micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs) and non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) which have been fac-ing liquidity issues.

The government feels thatthe MSME sector — whichemploys about 12 crore peopleand plays a critical role in theeconomy — needs some sup-port after being impacted bydemonetisation and imple-mentation of the Goods andServices Tax (GST).

However, the central bankhas been averse to the gov-ernment’s demand as it con-siders the sectors to be vul-nerable.

Meanwhile, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley onSaturday said that growth mustnot be throttled by limitingcredit availability and liquidi-ty.

It is necessary that thegrowth process does not sufferdue to the cleaning up of thebanking system from the “col-lectively committed sins” dur-ing 2008-14 when the regula-tory mechanisms also over-looked high debt accumulation,he said.

Amid growing tensionswith the central bank, theFinance Ministry had soughtdiscussions under the never-used-before Section 7 of theRBI Act which empowers thegovernment to issue directionsto the RBI Governor.

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Vice PresidentV e n k a i a h

Naidu on Sundaylaunched KreaUniversity in NewDelhi. Based in SriCity (nearC h e n n a i ) ,theUniversity offersBA (Hons) & BSc(Hons) degrees in ahost of disciplinesranging from eco-nomics to comput-er science. TheUniversity has opened itsadmissions process for the firstcohort of undergraduate stu-dents who commence classes inAugust 2019. The newly inau-gurated university is backed bysome of the best academics inthe world and the top indus-trialists in India.

Speaking on the occasion,the Chief Guest Vice Presidentof India, M Venkaiah Naidusaid, “Happy to know that thecore of this University’s phi-losophy lies in a pioneeringparadigm of InterwovenLearning, weaving together

thought and action.Institutions like the KreaUniversity, with sights set firm-ly on the achievement of bril-liance and distinction at theglobal platform, will doubtless-ly serve us in good stead in ourquest for fast track progressand all round development”.Wishing Krea University allsuccess. I hope that it willinspire many such universitiesto invigorate our thinking andlay building blocks of a newparadigm that sets us on thepath to becoming a worldleader in higher learning, the

celebrated ‘Vishwaguru’ yetagain .

Krea University claims tobring a fundamentally differentapproach to higher education— Interwoven Learning —which brings together thoughtwith action, arts with sciences,and the learnings of the pastwith preparedness for thefuture. In a world whereemployees are expected to re-skill themselves six times overthe span of their career, Kreaaims to produce graduates whoremain resilient, agile andimpactful.

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Petrol price Sunday was cutby 20 paise a litre and diesel

by 18 paise, the 29th straightdaily reduction in rates that haswiped away all of the massiveprice increase in petrol wit-nessed in two months sincemid-August that had triggereda political uproar.

Petrol price in Delhi wascut to �76.71 a litre from�76.91 on Saturday, accordingto a price notification issued bystate-owned fuel retailers.

Diesel is being now sold at�71.56 per litre as compared to�71.74 on Saturday.

With this, the reduction inrates in the last one monthtotals �7.29 per litre for petroland �3.89 a litre for diesel.

Rates have been on thedecline since October 18. Thishas wiped out all of the pricehike on petrol in two monthsbeginning August 16 and morethan half on diesel.

The reduction in dieselrates has been slower due tomoderate fall in its bench-mark international prices,according to oil company pricenotifications.

Petrol price had touched arecord high of �84 per litre inDelhi and �91.34 in Mumbaion October 4. Diesel on thatday had peaked to an all-timehigh of �75.45 a litre in Delhi

and �80.10 in Mumbai. Prices had started to climb

from August 16. Petrol in Delhiwas priced at �77.14 per litreand in Mumbai it cost �84.58on August 15. Diesel on thatday was priced at �68.72 perlitre in Delhi and at �72.96 inMumbai.

Petrol in Mumbai Sundaycost �82.28 per litre and dieselwas priced at �74.97.

Between August 16 andOctober 4, petrol price washiked by �6.86 per litre anddiesel by �6.73.

On that day, theGovernment decided to cutexcise duty on petrol and diesel

by �1.50 per litre each and askedstate-owned fuel retailers tosubsidise prices by another �1a litre by reducing their margins.Many states includingMaharashtra matched that witha reduction in local sales tax orVAT.

Subsequent to this, thepetrol price came down to�81.50 per litre in Delhi anddiesel to �72.95 a litre onOctober 5. In Mumbai rates fellto �86.97 per litre for petrol and�77.45 in case of diesel.

As the international oilprices continued to rise, priceof petrol and diesel in Delhiincreased to �82.83 and �75.69

on October 17. In Mumbai,rates touched �88.29 a litre forpetrol and �79.35 for diesel.

But since then, internation-al oil prices have been falling andrupee has also appreciated, result-ing in decline in retail rates.

Industry source said as perthe assessment, the retail pricesof petrol and diesel may reigneasy in the next few days.

The retail selling price ofpetrol and diesel is dependenton the international prices ofbenchmark fuel and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate. Thisis because a large proportion ofcountry’s requirement is metthrough imports.

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Asia’s oldest bourse BSE hasdecided to snap ties with

S&P Dow Jones, which man-ages and operates benchmarkSensex, and plans to developindices through its own in-house development team,exchange’s officials said.

The two entities hadannounced a joint venture —Asia Index — in 2013 to pro-vide an array of indicesenabling global and domesticinvestors to participate in SouthAsia’s vibrant economies.

The deal with BSE cameafter the expiry of the licensingarrangement between IndiaIndex Services & Products(IISL), a joint venture of NSEand S&P-owned Crisil.

The exchange officials saidthat BSE will not renew itsagreement with S&P DowJones Indices LLC whichexpires on December 31, 2018and it is looking to developindices through its own team.

“Basically, we had donethis tie-up five years back, butthe joint venture could not domuch in terms of expanding inthe foreign jurisdiction, theusage of the indexes and all,”BSE Managing Director andChief Executive Ashishkumar

Chauhan told investors in aconference call.

“And that is why we havedecided to not renew it, butoverall the impact on profits oron the revenues will be minus-cule,” he added.

Rival bourse NationalStock Exchange’s indices aremanaged and operated by NSEIndices, an arm of NSE.

S&P Dow Jones IndicesLLC, a subsidiary of TheMcGraw-Hill Companies, isthe world’s largest globalresource for index-based con-cepts, data and research.

BSE is Asia’s oldest stockexchange and home to theiconic Sensex index — a lead-ing indicator of Indian equitymarket performance.

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Drawing flak from the tele-com department over gaps

in maintenance of BharatNetinfrastructure, BSNL haspromised to take action againsterring officers, but assertedthat its maintenance responsi-bility pertains to only the opti-cal fibre portion, sources said.

The telecom PSU has alsosounded out Department ofTelecom (DoT) about �617crore of dues pending fromBharat Broadband NetworkLtd (BBNL), as operation andmaintenance payment forBharatNet project.

When contacted, BSNLChairman and ManagingDirector Anupam Shrivastavarefused to comment on thematter.

But sources aware of thematter said the company haswritten to DoT pointing out thatwhile the onus of preventive andcorrective maintenance of theoptical fibre portion connectinggram panchayats is with BSNL,the responsibility of remainingnetwork elements lay with otheragencies.

Responding to concernsraised by the Telecom Secretaryon BharatNet project, BSNLhas also suggested that mech-anism be worked out at the ear-liest that allocates faults per-taining to only the optical fibre

portion, to the telecom corpo-ration.

BSNL has claimed thatBBNL has not taken steps toput in place such a mechanismdespite the state-owned tele-com service provider repeat-edly insisting on the same.

Earlier this month, thetelecom department reported-ly pulled up BSNL and BBNLover underutilisation ofBharatNet infrastructure aswell as deficiencies in mainte-nance of the project that seeksto connect 2.5 lakh gram pan-chayats through high-speedbroadband by March 2019.

Absence of a mechanism tosegregate the faults in the net-work makes it difficult to ini-tiate action against officials, assome of the problems may turnout to be beyond their area ofresponsibility, BSNL has said.

In the same breath, BSNLhas assured DoT that it willtake disciplinary action againstthe officials lacking in dis-charge of duties.Sources saidBSNL CMD has also instruct-ed Director (enterprise) to lookinto the outstanding issues instreamlining operations andmaintenance of BharatNet.

BSNL has also pointed outthat states would need to takeequal responsibility of ensuringutilisation of the massive ruralbroadband infrastructure thatis being put in place.

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The Centre should stick tothe fiscal deficit target for

2018-19 and continue withthe reforms undertaken duringthe over four years of theNarendra Modi-ledGovernment, former NitiAayog Vice Chairman ArvindPanagariya said Sunday.

The present Government,Panagariya said, has made ahuge progress in implementingreforms including some diffi-cult structural ones such as theGoods and Services Tax (GST)and Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC) thatprevious Governments haddifficulty in introducing.

“Government should notshift its goal posts as far as fis-cal deficit target is concerned.Fiscal consolidation has beena key achievement of the gov-ernment and it has played acentral role in macroeconom-ic stability that has charac-terised the economy during thelast four years,” the eminenteconomist told.

The Government aims tostrictly maintain 3.3 per centfiscal deficit target for 2018-19

fiscal.The NDA government

came to power in May 2014and the next general electionswill be held before May 15,2019.

“At this stage any reformsthat require legislative changesuch as the Higher EducationCommission Bill will have towait till the elections.

But reforms that can bedone through changes in rulesand regulations can stillprogress. Lateral entry intocivil service is one such reform.Privatisation of listed PSUsand closure of sick PSUs areother such reforms,”Panagariya noted.

What matters most is thetop leadership, he said, addingthat if the top leadershipbelieves in reforms, you cancount on their implementation.

Panagariya, who is cur-rently a professor of IndianPolitical Economy at ColumbiaUniversity pointed out that inthe last four years, growth hasaveraged 7.3 per cent com-pared with 5.9 per cent duringthe last two years under theUPA.

The former Niti Aayog

vice chairman also opined thatunder the previous UPAGovernment, CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi effec-tively led the government andshe had no interest in imple-menting structural reforms.

Replying to a query ongovernment’s move to raiseimport duties on a host ofproducts with an aim to con-tain current account deficit(CAD), Panagariya said,“Sadly, bureaucrats in theDepartment of Revenue andMinistry of Commerce havenot understood the impor-tance of openness to trade. Ifthey had, they would also bebetter able to explain it topoliticians they serve.”

Stating that “we have for-gotten the lessons of our ownexperience and returned tothe road we had left manyyears ago”, he said “let us hopewe will soon do course cor-rection”.

Recently, the governmentWednesday raised importduties on 19 items, includingjet fuel and air conditioners, asit looks to check the wideningcurrent account deficit result-ing from high crude oil prices.

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NTPC has invited expres-sion of interest (EoI) for

construction of fly ash-basedgeopolymer concrete roads atits plants to demonstrate use ofthis technology, a companyofficial said.

“NTPC has invited playersto construct fly ash-basedgeopolymer concrete roads.About 1,100 tonne of fly ash isused per km of geopolymerroad,” the official told PTI.

Earlier, the company hassuccessfully completed similarproject at Dadri station as perIndian Roads Congress (IRC)specifications & accreditation.Moreover, 1.2-km double lanestretch are being constructed atRamagundam and Farakka sta-tions. These projects are beingdeveloped by NETRA, theR&D wing of NTPC.

NETRA has also devel-oped geopolymer concretespun / hume pipes, tetra pods,tiles and is working on other

applications as well.Geopolymer concrete, an

eco-friendly constructionmaterial, is a 100 per centreplacement of cement andhas a great potential as a binderas it sets to a material and gainsstrength more rapidly thanPortland cement.

Geopolymer concrete hasemerged as an important engi-neering material in recent timesbecause of its utility in devel-oping ecologically sound andsustainable construction mate-rials.

Concrete demand isexpected to grow to 18 billiontonne per year globally by2050. Portland cement is notonly energy intensive but alsoresponsible for large scaleemission of CO2, the officialadded.

During 2017-18, 32.23 mil-lion tonne of ash, which is53.45 per cent of the ash gen-erated, was utilised for variousproductive purposes by thecompany.

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Page 12: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

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Chico (California): NorthernCalifornia crews battling thecountry’s deadliest wildfire in acentury were bracing for strongwinds, with gusts up to 50 milesper hour, creating the potentialto erode gains they have madein containing a disaster that haskilled at least 76 and levelled atown.

Even as hundreds ofsearchers sift through the rub-ble in the town of Paradiselooking for the dead, nearly1,300 people remain unac-counted for more than a weekafter the fire sparked in ButteCounty, Sheriff Kory Honeaannounced Saturday night.

Authorities stressed that thelong roster does not mean theybelieve all those people aremissing.

Honea pleaded with fireevacuees Saturday to review thelist of those reported as unreach-able by family and friends andcall if they are safe. Deputieshave located hundreds of peopleto date, but the overall numberkeeps growing because they areadding more names, includingthose from the disaster's chaot-ic early hours, Honea said.

"It's really very important foryou to take a look at the list andcall us if you're on the list," hesaid. The remains of five morepeople were found Saturday,including four in the decimatedtown of Paradise and one innearby Concow, bringing thenumber of dead to 76. Honeasaid among the dead was Lolene

Rios, 56, whose son Jed tearful-ly told KXTV in Sacramentothat his mother "had endlessamount of love for me".

President Donald Trumptoured the area Saturday, joinedby California's outgoing andincoming Governors, bothDemocrats who have tradedsharp barbs with the Republicanadministration.

He also visited SouthernCalifornia, where firefighterswere making progress on awildfire that tore through com-munities west of Los Angelesfrom Thousand Oaks to Malibu,killing three people.

The president pledged thefull support of the federalGovernment. Gov. Jerry Brownand Governor-elect GavinNewsom thanked him for com-ing out. "We've never seen any-thing like this in California,we've never seen anything likethis yet. It's like total devasta-tion," Trump said as he stoodamid the ruins of Paradise.

Rain was forecast for mid-week, which could help fire-fighters but also complicate thesearch for remains.

Northern California's CampFire has destroyed nearly 10,000homes and torched 233 square

miles (603 square kilometres). Itis 55 per cent contained.

The fire zone in NorthernCalifornia is to some extentTrump country, and thatenthusiasm was on display asdozens of people cheered andwaved flags as his motorcadewent by.

Kevin Cory, a wildfireevacuee who lost his home inParadise, praised Trump forcoming to a State that is oftenat odds with the White House.

"I think that California'sbeen really horrible to him andthe fights. I mean they're suinghim," he said. "It's back and

forth between the State and thefeds. It's not right."

But for the most part, sur-vivors, some who had barelyescaped and no longer hadhomes, were too busy packingup what little they had left orseeking help to pay much atten-tion to the president's visit.

Michelle Mack Couch, 49,waited in line to get into aFederal EmergencyManagement Agency centerin the city of Chico. She need-ed a walker for her elderlymother and tags for her car.

"Let's hope he gets us somehelp," said Couch, who votedfor Trump and whose rentalhome burned down last week.But as far as taking time out towatch the president, she saidwryly, "We don't have a TVanymore." Honea expressedhope that Trump's visit wouldhelp with recovery, saying thetour by the Republican presi-dent and California'sDemocratic leaders "signals aspirit of cooperation here thatultimately benefit this com-munity and get us on a pathtoward recovery".

In Southern California,Trump also met briefly at anairport hangar with familiesand first responders touched bythe shooting at the BorderlineBar & Grill in Thousand Oaksmore than a week ago.

Trump called the shootingat a country music bar, whichleft 12 dead, "a horrible, horri-ble event." AP

COLOMBO: An all-partymeeting called by Sri Lanka'sPresident Maithripala Sirisenafailed to make any break-through on Sunday to end theraging political crisis set off byhis controversial decision toremove Prime Minister RanilWickremesinghe last month.The crisis erupted whenPresident Sirisena suddenlyannounced on October 26 thathe had sacked Prime MinisterWickremesinghe and installedex-strongman MahindaRajapaksa in his place.

Sirisena later dissolvedParliament, almost 20 monthsbefore its term was to end, andordered snap election. TheSupreme Court on Tuesdayoverturned President Sirisena'sdecision to dissolve Parliamentand halted the preparations forsnap polls on January 5.

The crisis talks came afterSri Lanka's parliament wit-nessed unprecedented violenceas lawmakers threw furnitureand chilli powder at each other.The lawmakers on Fridayapproved a second vote of noconfidence against Rajapaksabut Sirisena refused to acceptit, saying his advice was not fol-lowed.

Sirisena on Sunday calledan all-party meeting whichended without making break-through, Wickremsinghe'sUnited National Party (UNP)

said.This was the first time

that Sirisena, Wickremsingheand Rajapaksa met face toface since the crisis erupted onOctober 26.

Wickremesinghe hasmaintained that his sacking bySirisena was unconstitutionaland illegal and he was still thePrime Minister.

"We placed our cards onthe table. We told Rajapaskathat if the Speaker's rulings arewrong, they can move amotion to challenge it and getit passed. Response fromPresident Sirisena was nil,"Lakshman Kiriella, a seniorUNP leader, said after talkswhich lasted for over 2 hours.

"We told President we havethe majority. We are in a posi-tion to present the affidavits wesigned," Ajith P Perera, anoth-er UNP leader said.

The JVP or the People'sLiberation Front stayed awayfrom Sunday's meeting. Theparty, in a letter to Sirisena,said that he was the creator ofthe crisis so he should end it.The party said it had no reasonto attend the meeting.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya,who on Wednesdayannounced there is no PrimeMinister or Government fol-lowing a no-confidencemotion against disputed PrimeMinister Rajapaksa, also boy-

cotted the meeting. Sirisenaand Jayasuriya are at logger-heads ever since Jayasuriyadecided to summon parlia-ment on November 14 despiteSirisena's dissolution of theAssembly to hold fresh elec-tions.

The chaos on Friday inParliament forced the SpeakerJayasuriya to summon policeinside the House. Jayasuriya,using a microphone, conduct-ed the proceedings whilestanding on the floor ofParliament, which for thesecond time passed a no-con-fidence motion againstRajapaksa and his Governmentby a voice vote. Jayasuriya firstoffered to take the vote byname, but was unable to do sobecause of the commotion andopted for a voice vote. He thenadjourned the house untilMonday.

After the second voteagainst Rajapakse,Wickremesinghe demandedthat his Government berestored, but there has been noresponse from Sirisena yet.

Wickremesinghe's partymeanwhile asked Facebook tosafeguard the identity of itssupporters on the social mediaplatform, fearing informationsharing with what it calls thecountry's "illegal" Governmentcan lead to a crackdownagainst the users. PTI

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Port Moresby: Leaders from 21Asia-Pacific nations failed onSunday to bridge gaping divi-sions at a summit overshad-owed by a war of words overthe US and China as they viefor influence in the region.

For the first time in the his-tory of the APEC grouping,leaders were unable to agree ona formal written declarationamid sharp differences overtrade policy."The leaders agreedthat instead of a traditionalleaders' declaration, they wouldleave it to the hands of PNG asthe chair to issue a chair state-ment on behalf of all the mem-bers," said Zhang Xiaolong, aspokesman from the Chineseforeign ministry.

Canada's Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau admitted therewere "different visions on par-ticular elements with regard totrade that prevented full con-sensus on a communique doc-ument."

The annual gathering, heldfor the first time in Papua NewGuinea, was overshadowed byspeeches from ChinesePresident Xi Jinping and USVice-President Mike Pence,which appeared to representcompeting bids for regionalleadership.

Pence warned smallercountries not to be seduced byChina's massive Belt-and-Roadinfrastructure programme,which sees Beijing offer moneyto poorer countries for con-struction and developmentprojects. The "opaque" loanscome with strings attachedand build up "staggering debt",Pence charged, mocking theinitiative as a "constrictingbelt" and a "one-way road".

He urged nations insteadto stick with the United States,which doesn't "drown our part-ners in a sea of debt" or "coerce,corrupt or compromise your

independence".In a speech to business

leaders just minutes beforePence, Xi insisted the initiativewas not a "trap" and there wasno "hidden agenda" amid crit-icism that it amounts to"chequebook diplomacy" inthe region. Xi also lashed outat "America First" trade pro-tectionism, saying it was a"short-sighted approach" thatwas "doomed to failure".

The feisty barbs on agleaming white cruise shipmoored in Port Moresby setthe scene for a potentiallyfiery meeting between Xi andUS President Donald Trump atthe G20 summit in Argentinaat the end of this month.

But Xi and Pence, whoboth wore shiny, red shirts pro-vided by the Pacific island didhold talks on Saturday night atthe leaders' gala dinner.

Pence told reporters onSunday: "I spoke to PresidentXi twice during the course ofthis conference. We had a can-did conversation." He told himthat the US is interested in abetter relationship with China"but there has to be change" inBeijing's trade policies.

With fears that a tradewar between the two rivalscould cripple the Pacific Rimeconomy, some attendeesvoiced concern about thegrowing rivalry for influence inthe region.

"Business leaders do notwant to speak out, but behindthe scenes here, they are talk-ing over dinner saying 'howhas this happened'?" saidDenis O'Brien, the billionairechairman of Digicel."It's avery forced situation, onecountry is trying to force allthe other countries to changetariffs agreed over years,"O'Brien told AFP. Trump andRussian President Vladimir

Putin- both decided to skipthe gathering, leaving thespotlight on Xi who arrivedtwo days early to open aChinese-funded school androad in Papua New Guinea'sdirt-poor capital PortMoresby.

Xi has been the star of theshow, front and centre at offi-cial photos whereas Pencehas kept a lower profile, onlydeciding at the last minute tostay overnight in PortMoresby -- shelving originalplans to fly in and out fromCairns in Australia.

As if to counter Chineselargesse, the US, Australia,New Zealand and Japan onSunday announced a projectto boost electricity capacity inPapua New Guinea.

The project aims to raisethe percentage of the PNGpopulation with access to elec-tricity from 13 per cent to 70per cent.

And as the US and Chinavie for influence in the region,the statement dangled theprospect of similar projects forcountries that "support prin-ciples and values which helpmaintain and promote a free,open, prosperous and rules-based region."

With the official businessof the summit relatively low-key, much of the focus hasbeen on the unlikely venue ofPort Moresby, which is host-ing its first international eventof this scale.

The city is on lockdownwith hundreds of police andmilitary patrolling the streetsof the notoriously crime-rid-den capital.Warships are sta-tioned just off the coast toprovide security for the lead-ers, and delegates and mediahave been housed in enor-mous cruise ships due to adearth of hotel rooms. AFP

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DHAKA: Bangladesh's formerPrime Minister Khaleda Zia onSunday challenged the seven-year sentence handed out to herin a corruption case for embez-zling millions from a charita-ble trust in her late husband'sname, claiming that she hasbeen convicted "illegally andunjustly".

The BangladeshNationalist Party (BNP) chiefchallenged the trial court'sdecision four days after receiv-ing the full text of the verdictannounced on October 29.

The 638-page decision andthe 700-page appeal petitionalso include a petition for bail,said her lawyer Kayser Kamalafter submitting the petition tothe High Court on Sunday, thebdnews reported.

“The BNP chairperson hasbeen convicted illegally andunjustly,” he was quoted assaying by the daily.

“We have appealed for hersentence to be dismissed andfor her release.

A High Court bench willbe formed to decide on theappeal.”

The trial court in its verdictin the Zia Charitable Trust graftcase found the former primeminister guilty under thePrevention of Corruption Act1947 and sentenced her toseven years in prison and finedher Tk 1 million. Zia, 73, hasbeen in custody since February8, when she was sentenced tofive years in prison in anothercase related to embezzlement offunds of an orphanage namedafter her husband late presidentZiaur Rahman.

The latest sentence, whichcomes ahead of general elec-tions in December, is related tothe Zia Charitable Trust.

According to the case, Ziaand three others abused their

power and collected USD

375,000 for the trust fromunknown sources.

The Zia Charitable Trustgraft case was filed by theAnti-Corruption Commissionin 2011.

The judge granted thethree other suspects in thecase the same sentence forabetting corrupt activity underthe Penal Code.

The court order alsoallowed the government toseize the 70 decimals of landbought in the name of the ZiaCharitable Trust. PTI

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New York: A 61-year oldIndian-origin man in NewJersey was shot dead by a 16-year old boy, who is facingcharges in connection to themurder, prosecutors said.

Sunil Edla was shot todeath Thursday evening out-side his apartment in Ventnorcity, Atlantic CountyProsecutor Damon Tyner saidin a statement.

Ventnor City PoliceDepartment was informed onthe night of November 15about the shooting. Policelocated Edla on the sidewalk,with gunshot wounds. Edlahad succumbed to his injuriesby the time the police arrived.Edla's vehicle, a 2002 SubaruForester, was missing from thescene. The vehicle was subse-quently found by Atlantic CityPolice Officers in a differentarea. After the vehicle waslocated by the officers, the sus-pect was subsequently trackedwith the assistance of theAtlantic City surveillance cen-ter.

Further investigation bythe Atlantic CountyProsecutor's Office, VentnorCity Police Department andthe Atlantic City PoliceDepartment led to the identi-fication and arrest of the sus-

pect, a juvenile male, on themorning of November 16.

Preliminar y autopsyshowed the cause of death tobe multiple gunshot woundsand the manner of deathhomicide. The suspect wascharged via JuvenileComplaint with murder, rob-bery, carjacking, unlawfulpossession of a handgun. Heis being held at theHarborf ields JuvenileDetention Center in EggHarbor City."I'm just speech-less right now They couldhave just taken the car and lethim go," Edla's son MorrisonEdla said in a report inNBCPhiladelphia.Com.

A report in the Press ofAtlantic City said Edla, afather of two and grandfather,was a 30-year resident ofAtlantic County and workedin Atlantic City's hospitalityindustry. He was planning totravel to India to visit family."He (Edla) was humble. Henever argued. I helped himwhen he came to US in 1987.I was very close to him," hiscousin Raj Casula said.

"Everyone was calling himand talking to him because hewas leaving for India so soon,"said Casula. Edla had planneda two-month trip to India to

visit his mother for her 95thbirthday and celebrateChristmas with family.

Family fr iend DaveNethagani said Edla was akind man and active in thecommunity. Edla was bestknown for playing piano dur-ing church services at ChelseaCommunity PresbyterianChurch in Atlantic City.

A neighbour said thekiller ambushed Edla and shothim dead right after thegrandfather had brought achild into his house.Surveillance video showed theteen riding up to Edla's home.The boy dropped his bikeand hid as he waited for Edlato exit the house. J u s tbefore 8 p.M. Thursday, fam-ily members said, Edla wasleaving his home to work theovernight shift at the NorthCarolina Avenue

Rodeway Inn in AtlanticCity. According to family, hestarted his car then went backin the house briefly. Afterwalking back down the sec-ond-floor apartment stairs,he was shot on the sidewalkand left for dead.Ventnorpolice Chief Doug Biagi saidan officer has been posted inthe neighborhood "just toease anybody's fears." PTI

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The Taliban have held threedays of talks with US envoy

Zalmay Khalilzad in the Gulfstate of Qatar, where theAfghan insurgent group has apolitical office, a Taliban offi-cial and another individualclose to the group said Sunday.

The talks are aimed atrenewing the Afghan peaceprocess and eventually windingdown America's longest war.

Seventeen years after theUS-led invasion that endedTaliban rule, the militants con-trol nearly half of Afghanistanand carry out near-daily attackson local security forces andgovernment officials.

The two individuals saidKhairullah Khairkhwah, theformer Taliban governor ofHerat, and Mohammed Fazl, aformer Taliban military chief,attended the marathon talks.

The two individuals spokeon condition of anonymitybecause they were not autho-rised to discuss the sensitivenegotiations.

US officials could notimmediately be reached forcomment. The StateDepartment has refused tocomment on reported talks

with the Taliban.A third individual with

knowledge of the discussionssaid the Taliban pressed for apostponement of next year'spresidential elections and theestablishment of an interimgovernment under a neutralleadership.

Abdul Sattar Sirat, an eth-nic Tajik and Islamic scholar,was suggested as a candidate tolead an interim administration.

The individual, who alsospoke on condition ofanonymity because of the sen-sitivity of the talks, saidKhalilzad wants to reach a set-tlement within six months, atimescale the Taliban said wastoo short.

Khalilzad also proposed acease-fire, which the Talibanrejected, the individual said,adding that there was no agree-ment on the release of prison-ers, opening the Taliban officeor lifting a Taliban travel ban.

Khairkhwah and Fazl wereamong five senior Talibanmembers released from theUS prison at Guantanamo Bayin 2014 in exchange for US SgtBowe Bergdahl, who was cap-tured by the Taliban after walk-ing off his base in Afghanistanin 2009.

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US President DonaldTrump said on Sunday he

has been fully briefed on anaudio recording related to thebrutal killing of the dissidentSaudi journalist JamalKhashoggi, but was advisedagainst listening to those "suf-fering" tapes.

Khashoggi, 59, who wrotefor The Washington Post, waskilled last month inside theSaudi Consulate in Istanbulwhere he had gone to collectpapers related to his marriage.

Turkish investigators saythey have audio recording ofhis killings, which it has sharedwith key partners including theUS.

In an interview with ChrisWallace of Fox News, whichwas aired on Sunday, Trumpfor the first time acknowl-

edged that he has been briefedon the audio recording of theKhashoggi's murder.

Trump said he hasn't lis-tened to it, as he was advisednot to hear the "suffering tape",according to the news channel.

A day earlier, Trump spokewith the CIA chief on theagency's assessment of thekilling of Khashoggi.

He expects a full report onit by Tuesday.

In the interview, Trumpdefended his policy on SaudiArabia, saying "We have put onvery heavy sanctions, massivesanctions on a large group ofpeople from Saudi Arabia. Butat the same time, we do have anally and I want to stick with anally that in many ways has beenvery good."

He also said it "takes two totango" to resolve the conflict inYemen, where Iranian-backed

insurgents are facing off againstSaudi-backed forces, notingthat "I want Saudi to stop, butI want Iran to stop also".

A day earlier he toldreporters in California that it(Khashoggi's murder) was ahorrible thing that took place.

"It's a horrible thing thattook place, the killing of a jour-nalist...It should never havehappened," Trump toldreporters travelling with him toCalifornia.

Asked about the reportsthat the CIA had assessedinvolvement by the SaudiCrown Prince, the Presidentsaid, "they haven't assessedanything yet. It's too early.That was a very a prematurereport."

"We'll be having a very fullreport over the next two days,probably Monday or Tuesday,"the US President said.

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Defiant British PrimeMinister Theresa May on

Sunday warned herConservative Party rebel MPsthat overthrowing her as leaderwould only make negotiationprocess with the EuropeanUnion tough over the future ofBritain's relationship with thebloc after Brexit.

Britain is facing a politicalcrisis after this week'sannouncement about theWithdrawal Agreement struckwith the 28-member EuropeanUnion. Two Cabinet ministersand several junior governmentmembers have quit the MayCabinet and some of her partyMPs have submitted letters ofno-confidence.

May could face a no-con-fidence vote if at least 15 percent of her party lawmakers -

meaning 48 MPs - submit let-ters saying she has lost theirsupport.

According to reports, theparty's influential 1922Committee is edging closer tothe 48-MP mark that is need-ed to trigger a leadership con-test.

But May vowed to fight onfor what she believes is the bestdeal possible.

"Politics is a tough busi-ness and I've been in it for along time," she said during antelevision interview on Sunday,adding that the next sevendays "are going to be critical"for the future of the UK andthat she will be travelling toBrussels to meet with EU lead-ers before an emergencyEuropean Council summit onNovember 25.

Asked whether Sir GrahamBrady, Chair of the backbench

1922 Committee, had hit the48-letter mark from her partyMPs needed to trigger a no-confidence vote in her leader-ship, she replied: "As far as Iknow, no - it has not."

"It is not going to make thenegotiations any easier and itwon't change the parliamentaryarithmetic," she said.

The 585-page withdrawalagreement deal betweenLondon and the EU, which waspublished alongside a shorterdocument setting out what theUK and EU's future relation-ship could look like, triggeredresignations from the Cabinetincluding that of her BrexitSecretary Dominic Raab.

Writing in 'The SundayTimes', the former ministerlaunched an attack on the BritishPM's handling of the negotia-tions and called on her to standup to bullies in the EU.

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Dubai: Imran Khan held talkswith the crown prince of AbuDhabi on Sunday and dis-cussed matters of bilateral,regional and mutual interest,amid reports that the UAE isready to extend financial assis-tance to Pakistan to minimisethe cash-strapped country'sdependence on an IMF bailoutpackage. PTI

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Page 13: ˆ˙ ˚ ˜ ! ˘ ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛ · Chandigarh in the evening, and ... the 3.2 km-long Escorts ... story of a female tigress, which left the confines of Corbett National Park and was

She is all of 12 and is known global-ly as girl wonder for receiving the

2017 Discovery Education 3M YoungScientist Challenge. What catapultedGitanjali Rao to the high table was herinvention, Tethys, a low-cost technol-ogy for testing lead in water.

What inspired her to make it? “Iwas originally inspired by the FlintWater Crisis which I had been intro-duced through a STEM lab and bywatching news. After I learned aboutFlint, a town in the US, I continued toresearch and follow it for the next cou-ple of years. When I saw my parentstesting for lead in our water, I imme-diately realised that using test stripwould take quite a few tries to get accu-rate results and I really wanted to dosomething to change this not only formy parents but for the residents of Flintand places like Flint around the world,”she said.

The Indian American girl has cre-ated a sensor-based device that is fasterthan current technologies available inthe market and is cheaper.

“After my testing and developinga method for gathering data for ana-lytics, I intend to partner with the USEnvironmental Protection Agency to

crowd source water quality data. The idea isto not only test local water sources but tryto use the data from various sources to pro-duce a heat map that shows the contamina-tion levels in a region in a single view. It canalso help in developing in prediction mod-els of the spread in future. Parallelly, I intendto create about 30-50 reproducible prototypeswhich can be used for field-testing startingwith Flint,” Rao said.

For developing the project, she workedwith a mentor, Dr. Shafer, who helped herwith her experimentation plans and madesure she wasn’t immediately rushing to thenext steps. “On the first Skype call, I was abit nervous to talk to someone so knowledge-able who was an accomplished scientist, butas soon as I started talking to her, she mademe very comfortable. I learnt to be diligentand persistent from her. She listened careful-ly when I narrated my failures to her and pro-vided me with alternate paths to keep mov-ing ahead. She taught me to reach out andask for help,” said the pre-teen. She added thatshe earlier hesitated in asking questions buthaving met Dr. Shafer she’s learnt to reach outto college professors and high school teach-ers for either space to perform her tests orask questions related to her research.

She looks up to her parents, who haveencouraged her to pursue her ideas withabandon and provide the necessary resourcesto make them a reality but on the scientificfront she looks up to not younger and newerscientists but Marie Curie. “She didn’t just dis-cover two new elements, but also per-formed life-threatening tests and put othersbefore herself. That is what a true role modelmeans to me,” said she.

Her age is no benchmark to judge herintelligence as concerns like the wage gapamong men and women already weigh heav-ily on her mind. For this too, the young prob-lem solver has a solution. “I wrote a samplebill for the Colorado legislature, proposingthat the wage gender gap be closed by giv-ing women the opportunity to stand up anddiscuss their wages without repercussionsfrom an employer. It is important to say whatyou believe. If your male co-worker, who isdoing the same job as you, for the sameamount of time, is getting a higher salary, thenspeaking up and talking about it is impor-tant. We normally don’t do that or aren’tallowed by company policies. I believe thatwomen shouldn’t be prevented to talk to theiremployer about their salary and share it open-ly with coworkers. This can help us close thewage gap once and for all,” said Rao.

She has a wise head resting on her smallshoulders as she understands the immedia-cy of the environmental disaster facing us.She has a message for young girls where shesays, “I would like to let them know that eachone of us can observe around us and under-stand the social or environmental problems— and find a way to solve them. Do not beafraid to try as failure is part of the learningprocess. Solving problems does not alwayshave to be about science. If you are worriedabout marine pollution, create posters tobring awareness and share it. If you think yourcommunity needs more recycling bins,approach lawmakers or other influential peo-ple by writing or meeting them. There aremany ways to solve problems, and technol-ogy is just one aspect,” she said.

The young scientist will be in India for the10th edition of TEDxGateway on December2 2018 at Dome — NSCI, Worli, Mumbai.

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While digital solutions likeArtificial Intelligence (AI)

are transforming lives, thesealso raises concerns, rangingfrom security to human rightsabuses, says an expert. According to Eleonore Pauwels,Research Fellow on EmergingCyber technologies at UnitedNations University (UNU), AIis transforming our lives, fromreshaping our intimate and net-worked interactions to monitor-ing our bodies, moods andemotions, both in visible andinvisible ways. “The all-encompassing captureand optimisation of our person-al information — the quirksthat help define who we are andtrace the shape of our lives —will increasingly be used forvarious purposes without ourdirect knowledge or consent,”Pauwels was quoted as saying tothe UN News.Thus, how to protect indepen-dent human thought in anincreasingly algorithm-driven

world goes beyond the philo-sophical and is now an urgentand pressing dilemma, shestressed.Importantly, the evolution of AIis happening in parallel withtechnical advances in otherfields, such as genomics, epi-

demiology and neuroscience. “That means that not only isyour coffee maker sendinginformation to cloud comput-ers, but so are wearable sensorslike Fitbits; intelligent implantsinside and outside our bodies;brain-computer interfaces, and

even portable DNA sequencers,”Pauwels said.As a result, while the AI revo-lution presents great promise,on the other hand there is alsoa great peril, especially when itcomes to ownership and controlof our most intimate data. It is because besides analysingour shopping patterns and dat-ing preferences, computer codescan also read our genes, cellsand vital signs. The digital representation ofour characteristic data couldhelp create the world's largestprecision medicine dataset or itcould render everyone morevulnerable to exploitation andintrusions than ever before,Pauwels said.“These reflections exhibit anentanglement of ethical andpolicy challenges that needs tobe mapped, unveiled, andanalysed to nurture an inclusiveforesight discussion on theglobal governance of AI,”Pauwels said.I+'$(

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��� �!"���#Set in the chaotic,vibrant ChandniChowk, Delhi, the showcaptures the relation-ship between a father(Rishi Kapoor) attempt-ing to reconnect with

his estranged son(Anirudh Tanwar)

through social mediaassuming the online per-sona of a young woman.The film is an emotionalroller-coaster, interspers-ing grief and the pressureof family expectationswith humour, compas-sion and love.Starring Amyra Dastur,and Aparshakti Khurranaamong others, the film isslated to release on Netflixon November 30.

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Remember the practically-perfectnanny with unique magical skills

who would turn an ordinary task intoa fantastic adventure?

Starring Emily Blunt, Disney’sMary Poppins (1964) is back as MaryPoppins Returns. In this new musicaland sequel, Mary Poppins is back tohelp the next generation of theBanks family find the joy and won-der missing in their lives follow-ing a personal loss. The enig-matic nanny is joined by herfriend Jack, played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, an optimisticstreet lamplighter who helpsbring light — and life — tothe streets of London.

Directed by Rob Marshall,screenplay is by David Magee andthe story by Magee & Marshall andJohn DeLuca, the film is basedupon the Mary Poppins Stories by PLTravers.

“I was incrediblyhonoured to beapproached byDisney about direct-ing a sequel,” saidRob. “This is abrand new originalfilm musical fromtop to bottom,which is very rare,and it is a wonderfulopportunity to cre-ate something specif-ically for the screen,”he added.

The film also

stars Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks,Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks, JulieWalters as the Banks’ housekeeperEllen, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Salehand introducing Joel Dawson as theBanks’ children, with Colin Firth asFidelity Fiduciary Bank’s WilliamWeatherall Wilkins, and Meryl Streepas Mary’s eccentric cousin, Topsy. Dick

Van Dyke is Mr. Dawes Jr., theretired chairman ofthe bank now run byFirth’s character.

“Mary Poppinswas the first film Isaw as a child and itopened my mind upto movies and to thelove of musicals,adventure and fanta-

sy in film,” said Rob.“But this film isn’t

just for children... it’sfor the child in all ofus,” he added.

Produced byJohn DeLuca, RobMarshall, andMarc Platt, withC a l l u mM c D o u g a l lserving ase x e c u t i v eproducer, thefilm is set torelease inIndian cin-ema onJanuary 4,2019.

How often do you see two soul-stirring beings — one throughhis wisdom and words, the

other through his voice and music —collaborate and narrate some untoldtales? When mystic and yogi Sadhguruand singer Mohit Chauhan cametogether on one stage at Kathakar, a sto-rytelling festival — a rare sight, theyheld the audience in their thrall.

It is the contact between the story-teller and the listener that brings a storyalive, especially when the audiencespans across all age groups. It was muchmore than just telling stories when theduo held centrestage.

Surrounded by two to three largeincense burners placed before thestage, the place encapsulated a spiritu-al vibe as the fragrance of camphorspread all around the venue. The fireinvoked the setting of a temple or apious holy ritual and the atmospheretoo acquired spiritual overtones. Sowhen the number of seats fell short, theremaining audience found space on thefloor and sat cross-legged in the pad-masana position. All eyes and ears weredirected at the stage listening to thekissey, kahaniyaan and conversationsbetween the two mystics.

Narrating his story of how hedreamt about mountains every now andthen, Sadhguru’s search for his dreamsbegan when he first trekked across thehills in South and North India, includingthe Himalayas, but couldn’t find what hewas looking for. “It was only when Itrekked back to the South and I reachedYelagiri hills in Coimbatore that I could

find what I had been dreaming of,” saidSadhguru on the first day of festival.

So what is it that he wanted to con-vey through the story? asked Mohit. “Stopputting logic to everything, it is all aboutattention,” laughed Sadhguru.

He pointed towards today’s technol-ogy-driven world and how children are

moving away from storytelling and read-ing books, to just devoting themselves togadgets which are eventually distractingthem from paying attention to academics.He said, “I don’t think we need to blameit on technology. Long ago, when technol-ogy was not so advanced, we lost the artof storytelling and even the process of

learning. Earlier, we read books andpapers to gain knowledge. Today if theyare browsing the internet for stories,what is the harm? But the problem is thatthey are not focussing on one story,rather multiple stories and hence do notknow even one of them.”

But the story that Sadhguru narrated

was universal and not meant just for chil-dren. It began with his childhood whenSadhguru saw a calculator for the firsttime. He almost cried that despite the factthat the calculator could do a maths prob-lem easily and quickly, his teacher torturedhim in the maths class everyday. Sadhgurusaid, “The idea of education has destroyeda more holistic and dialectical impressionof life. That was an evidence that educa-tion in the coming times would becomecompletely meaningless. A simple gadgetwill able to do the things better than some-body who calls himself an intellectual.”

He continued with stories about life,human race and aspirations and the ses-sion ended with Sadhguru and Mohit’s col-laboration of the holy song, ShankarSankat Harna.

It did not only seem like a spiritual ses-sion rather an experience worth cherish-ing and narrating forward.

Sadhguru also talked about a widevariety of stories from his life as a maver-ick child, as an adventurous teenager pur-suing biking and trekking and finally, asa spiritual seeker. As a four-year-old, hedecided to study the life of insects, so hewould store tadpoles and different speciesof insects in the penicillin bottles belong-ing to his physician father. The other storywas about his grandmother, who died atthe age of 113. She was famous for her typ-ically unfeminine uproarious laughter,“which would shake the whole street.”

The podium was surrounded bystalls of books by Sadhguru, RachnaRawat Bisht and other writers who toldtales at the three-day festival that endedyesterday.

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$"%!"�&�$ ��!"��'&!#%�After accidentally crashing Santa’s sleigh, a broth-er and sister pull an all-nighter to save Christmaswith a savvy, straight-talking St. Nick.The show follows Kate (Darby Camp) andTeddy (Judah Lewis), two siblings whose plan isto catch Santa Claus on camera. Their efforts turninto an exciting and unexpected journey that mostcan only dream about. As their wild night unfolds,the two work together with Santa and his loyalElves to save Christmas. The film, also starringKurt Russell, releases on Netflix on November 22.

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Most of us dread conflicts in ourlife because it makes us

uncomfortable and stressful. As aresult, we learn to avoid, suppressor withdraw from conflict or evenact as though it doesn’t exist. Ourpresent society, though advanced insome respects, is suffering deeplyfrom many serious problems andconflicts that are social, economic,political, religious, cultural, ethnicand more.

In fact, conflicts appear at alllevels of our society from the interpersonal level to international leveland seem to be un-ending. As aresult, some people think that theseare inescapable and are a part of life.However, there are others whohave an undying hope and a highupsurge of enthusiasm in theirmind, for they feel that conflicts candefinitely be resolved and that thesewill end one day. They think thatfighting and finishing these con-flicts is a sport and winning themis equivalent to being successfulin life.

In fact, many religions andphilosophies declare this as theirvery aim or goal. But one finds thatin spite of all the efforts by suchpeople over long periods of time,the final resolution of conflictseludes us and the remedies appliedare worse than the disease in manycases. There is, therefore, a com-pelling cause to introspect why, inspite of all the sincerity and theefforts — at least in the earliestphase of every religion, or social ser-vice institution, or political or eco-nomic school of thought — the con-flicts have increased in number,become more aggravated and gotbadly inter-twined.

A deep analysis of the situation,considered from the point of sys-tems and methods applied, wouldreveal that some of the factors thathave brought forth the present tocomplex and almost irresolublestate, are: religions, philosophies,social theories, psychological con-cepts about human nature andmore. These have in-built conflictsin their own system or schools ofthought and these are not merely ofacademic interest but are fraughtwith serious consequences whenapplied to human conditions. Since,they have failed to resolve conflictsin their own doctrines, findings,beliefs, objectives and theories andpractices, how can they resolveconflicts in the outer world?

It is a known fact that all reli-gions, philosophies, social, econom-ic and political theories and psycho-logical systems are based on a par-ticular interpretation or understand-ing of history. This itself is untenableor erroneous and so these systemscannot trace and understand correct-ly the historical roots of the problemsor conflicts. In that case, how canthen they eradicate conflicts? If theyhad understood the genesis andpathology correctly, they shouldhave been able to resolve or reduce conflicts.

Similarly all religions philoso-phies are based on some presump-tions which themselves have notbeen validated by rational or prac-tical proof. These presumptions orpresuppositions are themselves inconflict with those of other religionsand philosophies. So, instead ofsolving, they further add to the con-flicts.

It needs to be understood thatevery confrontation can be ended,narrowed or reduced by appealingto a value but if that value is notaccepted on good reason and faithby those systems or methodologies,the conflicts cannot be ended. Forexample, if a system of thought doesnot invariably adopt non-violencein its methods and instead is basedon the belief that violence is justi-fied to end violence and to establishpeace, how can it establish an orderof non-violence? People expect thestate to end many conflicts but if thestate is itself an instrument of coer-cion and violence, then how can itbe the means to end them?

Moreover, one important thingis that all conflicts ensue fromimproper or incorrect relationswith one's own self and also withothers. They are also due to clash ofego or self-interests. So, if theseproblems of ego and selfishness arenot solved, how can the dispute atother levels and in other forms beresolved? The system and method,applied as solution, should be suchas do not give rise to another prob-lem, even if they solve one or someof the problems. Otherwise, itwould only mean replacing existingproblems with newer ones.

Moreover, all problems andconflicts have to be dealt withtogether and simultaneously, elsethey will remain because they are sointermingled and interconnectedthat many will remain if even oneof them exists. It is in this contextthat we should understand theimportance of true spiritual knowl-edge imparted by the SupremeBeing. Such an endeavour, underSupreme's direct and indirect guid-ance alone can and will end all con-flicts forever which in turn can and will usher in the proverbialGolden Age.

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Phishing attacks, which are the primarydelivery mechanisms for malware/ran-

somware, are on a noticeable rise and do notseem to go away anytime soon. In May 2017,the Wannacry ransomware attack infectedmore than 2,00,000 computers across 150countries. Such attacks have spared no one— from hospitals to banks to big enterpris-es, the world has been hit hard.

With cyber security issues increasing dayby day, safety concerns amongst internetusers are also soaring. But worry not, we’veput together seven simple cyber safety tipsthat will help you greatly reduce yourchances of falling prey to cybercriminals.

)�%�$"�$% �&##��-�#�� &'(0�%�)&$�(�&'Punctuated with plenty of typos, exclama-tion marks, highlights and impersonal greet-ings such as “Dear Client/Customer” aresome of the most easily spottable signs ofphishing emails. One thing that you shouldalways keep in mind is that no company orbank would ever ask for your personally iden-

tifiable information (PII) via email. Thisinformation includes your name, governmentidentification numbers, credentials andother such details.

Targeted phishing, wherein the emailsender appears to be a known friend or col-league, are sent by attackers to easily tricktheir targets. A thumb rule of safety here isto check the sender's email extension.Furthermore, emails that seem to be too goodto be true must be deleted immediately.

$�%�$,&#%�$$�!" %'$��&$"�+��&!&�'File attachments laden with malware arecommonly used in phishing attacks.Cybercriminals often rename Word docu-ments, PDF documents and more. in sucha way that they appear legitimate to the vic-tim. Clicking and downloading maliciousfiles can infect your system and compromiseyour sensitive information such as your inter-net banking password. It is, therefore, impor-tant to stay careful whenever you receive afile, check the sender details and if you find

anything fishy, it is best to delete it.

"�1%��%!+�&$*���)+!$�')+�)�$%&$�%(+#��#*In order to mitigate your exposure to phish-ing emails, a software with anti-phishing,anti-spam and anti-malware capabilitiescan prove to be an indispensable tool. Suchsoftware can fight against the most complexcyber threats by scanning your system in real-time. Ensure using a reputable internet secu-rity software and keep it up-to-date.

$�-%/�!-2+�A ransomware attack locks your data anddemand ransom for its release. So what couldbe the biggest weapon to defeat ransomware?Certainly, an active and reliable data back-up strategy! Regular backup provides easyrestoration and helps you start from whereyou left. Ensure that whatsoever backupmedium you use, it is not reachable from theinfected machine. +�)�$%*�+���,$���%When it is time to update software on your

computer, you must do it, no matter if it isas frequent as every other day. These updatescan significantly reduce the possibility of ran-somware attacks. It would be best if youenable automatic software updates on yoursystem.

��*�$$%'$&�'$��"��$%'%)#&'-�Cyber attackers often trick online users toclick on shortened links over social media,emails and other websites. A study found that78 per cent of people were aware of the risksassociated with unknown links in emails andyet they click anyway. URL shortening ser-vices such as Bitly are used to create theselinks that look like legitimate ones but divertto malicious websites. It is always a goodpractice to hover your mouse over the weblink in order to see whether it redirects to thecorrect URL or not.

,�%%�$+,,!� %��$�!��$Most of the download sites that let you to getstuff for free could cost you the other wayaround. Free stuff such as music files are oftenlaced with adware, spyware and other typesof malware that can cause severe damage toyour data and privacy. Prefer opting for reli-able sources for downloading content evenif it means paying a little.

"�$���$�#%�1%*�+1+#'%��/#%Whether it’s an airport or a restaurant, freeWiFi hotspots are convenient, but you canbe easily attacked. Since there are several usersconnected to a WiFi hotspot at once, thechances of losing sensitive information arehigh.

It is shocking to see that the annual num-ber of ransomware attacks worldwide fromthe year 2014 to 2017 is 184 million. Clearlywith time, cyber-attacks are getting more andmore sophisticated which makes cyberawareness vital for online users. Be aware andbe safe.

(The author is the founder of a technol-ogy company.)

Indian games have becomealmost extinct since socialmedia and video games have

taken over the attention spans ofchildren. Board games likeSnakes and Ladders, strategygames like Chess or even cardgames like Patience that helpeddevelop a child’s brain by testingmemory and cognitive skills havebecome a novelty.

There are several reasonswhy the board games are makinga comeback as opposed to theones played on a screen. Theseare believed to be beneficial forthe brain. They stimulate the hip-pocampus and prefrontal cortex,which are responsible for com-plex thought and memory forma-tion. Board games help the brainretain and build cognitive asso-ciations well into old age too. Ithas been known for preventingcognitive decline, which is asso-ciated with dementia andAlzheimer’s.

A good place to pick themup is an exhibition called Jack &

Jill, the wonder years festivalwhich has multiple stalls andactivities for the little ones. Whilethere is the usual clutter ofclothes and the usual toys, therewere four stalls that stood apartamidst the din at the the NationalRailway Museum where the exhi-bition is being held. There wereof course the usual families,

school children and hassledteachers who stood and sataround waiting for their chanceto get on the toy trains that takeyou around the venue for a joyride. Huge trains and little chil-dren waited patiently side by sidefor the driver to start the ride.Even while the main attraction ofthe museum are obviously thetrain models stationed every-where but there were other trea-sures to be found too.

At Nazariya a design studioone couldn’t help but notice sev-eral unique items. A coir tree cre-ated by artist Harikrishna Paridafrom Chandpur, Odisha, diarieswith Gond and Patachitra artfrom Madhya Pradesh and WestBengal respectively. There werethe mandatory jewellery anddiaries made by masters of hand-icrafts across India. But whatcaught our eye were games likethe Aadu Puli Aatam which inTamil means The Lambs andTigers.

A strategic, two-player (or

two team) leopard hunt gamethat is played in South India, it ismeant for children above eight.One player controls three tigersand the other player up to 15lambs/goats. The tigers ‘hunt’the goats while the goats attemptto block the tigers’ movements.The chequered lines across thered and yellow cloth board andthe stone pieces made for aninteresting way to spend anevening.

Another game called thePallankuzhi, which apparentlySita used to play, reminded oneof an African tribal game calledthe Mancala. The wooden boardwith bowls and tiny glass pebblesdoes not end until one player hasno pebbles to continue with.The start-up also brought withthem the miniature version of theChaupad called Ashtachema andthere were also small diariesdecorated with Kalighat paintingsand miniature Phads fromRajasthan. The studio alsobrought with them rare art formslike the Kaavi, from the Konkancoast which only exists in twotemples in Goa currently andBidri art from Karnataka whichis made in the village of Bidar.

But not just old Indiangames, more contemporary onesbut indigenously developed toocould be seen here. Sphero’s stallwas dotted with robots that stoodabout 15 cm tall. But don’t go ontheir diminutive size, for they canteach coding and programming.

The pottery and science stalls— each appealing to different fac-ulties of the brain — Murti ArtsAcademy and Wonderlab, heldsmall workshops because theybelieve that the only way toteach children and engage themis by showing them how it isdone. Children observe andabsorb before they get engaged ina creative pursuit.

Multiple children of all sizes,some pulling their pants up dur-ing a small dance workshop witha choreographer while proudparents milled around takingpictures could also be seen.

“A great event for the kids, aunique one that lets them enjoyand learn at the same time, as thechildren today have forgottenwhat outdoor fun is, the expo willinspire them to have fun andlearn away from technology andgadgets,” said Ashwani Lohani,chairman and MD RailwayBoard.

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Five-time champion M C Mary Kompunched her way into the 48kg quar-terfinals while another veteran Sarita

Devi made an early exit after losing a hard-fought 60kg bout in the AIBA Women'sWorld Championships here on Sunday.

Chasing a historic sixth Gold and firstmedal since 2010, the 35-year-old MaryKom registered a convincing 5-0 win overAigerim Kessenayeva of Kazakhstan in heropening bout of the tournament.

The 36-year-old Sarita, who won aGold in the 2006 edition when it was alsoheld in the Capital city, lost to 2016 WorldChamponships Silver medallist KellieHarrington of Ireland in a split 3-2 verdict.

Sarita, who got a standing countagainst her opponent in the third round,later said the decision was wrong. She,however, said that she will accept the deci-sion as she does not want another ban.

The Manipuri was handed a one yearban by the world body AIBA for refusingto accept her Bronze medal in protest dur-ing the victory ceremony at the 2014 AsianGames.

Besides Mary Kom, three otherIndians — Manisha Moun (54kg), LovlinaBorgohain (69kg) and Kachari Bhagyabati(81kg) — also made it to the quarterfinals

with 5-0, 5-0 and 4-1 wins on points intheir respective pre-quarterfinal bouts.

Five Indianstook the field onSunday and onlySarita lost herbout. They arenow just one step away from clinching amedal.

Mary Kom began with a watchfulapproach in the first round but she got toher rhythm with a left-right combinationon her opponent in the second round.There were no many clear punches fromboth sides but the Manipuri, a mother ofthree, was clearly the better boxer with allthe five judges giving their nod.

Four judges gave 30-27 each while oneawarded 29-28 in favour of the Indian.

"It was a tough fight and there was abit of pressure as it was my first bout of thetournament. I have been handling the pres-sure of expectation from the people of mycountry for the last 16 years and I amhappy to face this pressure," said theOlympic Bronze medallist.

Mary Kom next face Wu Yu of Chinain the quarterfinal on Tuesday.

"I think she is an intelligent boxer andfast also. I have to think about which tech-nique I have to use," she said.

A win on Teusday will assure Mary

Kom of at least a Bronze medal which willbe her first since 2010.

Sarita and Harrington traded a lot ofpunches in their lightweight pre-quarter-final bout which was a fast and intenseaffair.

The veteran Indian, who also com-peted in the inaugural WorldChampionships in 2001, expressed surprisewhen the Irishwoman was declared thewinner.

"I am not happy with the decision (ofthe judges). The decision has gone 'ulta'(opposite), I thought I had the upperhandin all the three rounds. But what do I do,I was banned for one year after the 2014Asian Games controversy. So, I cannot sayanything now," she said after her bout.

"I don't know why these things hap-pen to me only."

About the standing count against herin the third round, she said, "It was not a

standing count. My opponent was a south-paw and her legs got entangled in betweenmine and I slipped and fell."

The day began on a happy note forIndia with Manisha sending reigningworld champion Dina Zhalaman ofKazakhstan packing with yet anotherauthoritative win in 54kg to place herselfjust a step away from grabbing a maidenmedal.

The 20-year-old Manisha won a 5-0unanimous verdict against her more expe-

rienced rival in a pre-quarterfinal bout inher maiden World Championships.

This was the second win of theHaryana girl against Zhalaman as she haddefeated the Kazakh boxer in the SilesianWomen's Boxing championship in Polandearlier this year.

In the quarterfinals, Manisha faces topseed and 2016 World ChampionshipsSilver medallist Stoyka Petrova of Bulgaria.

"For me, once I am inside the ring itdoes not matter whether my opponent isa world champion or a silver medallist. So,my approach will be the same in my nextbout also," she said.

"Today, like on my first bout, I playedfrom a distance but I played faster andmore aggressive. It was a good bout."

Borgohain, an Asian ChampionshipsBronze medallist last year, had a tougherfight against 2014 World ChampionshipsGold medallist Atheyna Bylon od Panama.It was a physical and aggressive fight andboth the boxers fell on the floor on morethan one occasion.

The 21-year-old Assamese next facesScott Kaye Frances of Australia in thequarterfinals on Tuesday.

For Bhagyabati, it was even tougheragainst a taller opponent Irina-NicolettaSchonberger of Germany. But the Indianalso turned out winner in her debut WorldChampionships bout.

She now faces Paola Jessica Caicedoof Columbia in the quarterfinals onTuesday.

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The preparations are done and itis time to deliver in the tour-

nament that matters the most aftera mediocre year, Indian hockeyteam vice-captain ChinglensanaSingh Kangujam said on Sundayahead of the World Cup.

The mega event beginsNovember 28 and will conclude onDecember 16 at the city's KalingaStadium.

"The past three months in par-ticular has been very challengingfor us with the training intensify-ing as it's important for us to peakat the World Cup. The team isaware that this year could have beenmuch better for us in terms ofresults but now is the time to doaway with the bitterness of the pastperformances by doing well at theprestigious event," saidChinglensana.

Playing in the midfield along-side skipper Manpreet Singh andyoungsters Sumit and NilakantaSharma, Chinglensana exuded con-fidence about his team's prospects.

"Every single player has workedtremendously hard and it is time toconvert all that into good results. I

believe the World Cup will be a bat-tle of mental strength as much as itis going to be about fitness andteam strategies.

"It is an advantage that almosteveryone in the team has the expe-rience of playing top-quality match-es in the Kalinga Stadium duringthe Hockey India League and areaware of the atmosphere the fanscreate here.

"It's also a plus point to have theJunior World Cup winners whohave experienced 20,000 peoplecheering for them during the 2016Junior World Cup in Lucknow,"added the Manipur-born player.

Chinglensana, who has so farplayed 199 internationals, is slatedto complete a milestone on theopening day of India's campaignagainst South Africa.

"Yes, if everything goes right, Iwill be playing my milestone matchin front of our home crowd andthere is no better feeling than com-pleting 200 matches for India infront of the fantastic Bhubaneswarcrowd.”

“It is one of my favourite venuesin the world. I am looking forwardto it and we are all eager to make apositive start," he said.

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Son Wan-ho won his first tournament in twoyears on Sunday after the 30-year-old

snatched the Hong Kong Open from Japan'sKenta Nishimoto, whose teammate NozomiOkuhara triumphed in the women's finals.

The Korean sixth seed, who stunnedJapanese world number one Kento Momota inthe semis, yielded 12 points in a row in the firstgame before finding his form after the first breakto win 14-21, 21-17, 21-13 in 89 minutes.

Nishimoto kept up the energy but Sonpulled away at 13-12 in the decider after theJapanese player knocked two shots into the net.

Son has now won five of the pair's sevenencounters this year for his first tournament vic-tory since his December 2016 homeground win.

"I feel very happy... in the second game I feltmy opponent was very tired, so I needed to workthen to get through the tough part (of thematch)," he said.

In the women'sfinals, Okuhara said hervictory over a deter-mined RatchanokIntanon was a massiveconfidence boost aheadof the Tokyo Olympics.

Both players werehungry for the win,drawing level 13 timesin the second gamebefore the sixth-rankedOkuhara beat the Thai,a former world champi-on, 21-19, 24-22 in 64minutes.

"This match is very important forme," she told reporters.

Okuhara said she would spend thenext year working to secure her placeat next year's Olympics alongside worldnumber two Akane Yamaguchi, who Intanonbeat in three games in the quarter-finals.

"I and Akane will get a gold medal," she said."Of course."

Sunday was Okuhara's last tournamentbefore next month's World Tour finals in

China.Intanon had won four of

their previous five match-upsand the respect between theplayers was palpable, withOkuhara sharing a longembrace in her opponent'scourt at the end of play.

"I feel like my perfor-mance at the moment is quitegood," Intanon said.

"It was a tough game forme. It's not easy to beat herbut I tried my best.

"She is a strong woman, she always playslong rallies and I tried to hold her and fight tothe end."

In the women's doubles, top-ranked YukiFukushima and Sayaka Hirota beat Korean chal-lengers Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan 21-18,21-17.

Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won21-18, 21-14 in 46 minutes over their second-ranked Chinese opponents in the mixed dou-bles finals.

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Defending champion P V Sindhu hasdecided to skip the Syed Modi

International World Tour Super 300 tournament tofocus on next month's BWF World Tour Final in China.

The 23-year-old Indian is placed fifth in the 'Raceto Guangzhou' ranking to qualify for the $ 1,500,000World Tour Final, which will be held in the Chinesecity for the first time from December 12-16.

"Sindhu has written to Badminton Association ofIndia (BAI) asking them to allow her to skip the SyedModi tournament so that she can concentrate on theWorld Tour Finals in December," Sindhu's father P VRamana said.

"She has also informed the organisers and nation-al coach P Gopichand."

Olympic Silver medallist Sindhu has continued hersensational form this season, claiming Silver medalsat major events such as the Commonwealth Games,World Championship and Asian Games.

She also reached the finals of the India Open andThailand Open, besides producing her best perfor-mance at the All England Open Championships witha semifinal finish.

The World Tour Final, which showcases the elitetop eight players, will be Sindhu's 18th tournament thisyear.

"It is a prestigious tournament and she will needto be at her peak to win a medal. So at least 20 daysof training would be required to be in good shape," saidRamana.

This will be Sindhu's third appearance at the year-ending event. She had qualified in the 2016 edition,losing in the semifinals.

Last year, Sindhu had reached the finals, losing toJapan's Akane Yamaguchi at Dubai.

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No Cristiano Ronaldo, no problem. Portugal drew withItaly 0-0 on Saturday to pick up the point they need-

ed to qualify for the UEFA Nations League finals and con-firm them as host of the first Final Four in June.

Ronaldo is taking a break from the national team andwasn't present at San Siro, just as he wasn't in Portugal'sfirst two Nations League matches — both of which theywon.

Poland hasalready beenassured of fin-ishing last in thegroup and willbe relegated toLeague B andItaly will finishsecond.

However, ayear after Italianfootball's dark-est moment, there are positive signs for the Azzurri. Italydominated and had the better of the chances in front ofa packed home crowd in Milan.

The Azzurri almost took the lead as early as the fifthminute. Lorenzo Insigne unleashed a scorcher from dis-tance which Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio did well tobeat away, and Ciro Immobile fired the rebound over frompoint-blank range.

Leonardo Bonucci's every touch was booed by the SanSiro crowd — made up mainly of AC Milan and InterMilan fans - and the Juventus defender was jeered loud-ly after he sent a header narrowly wide of the left post.

There was a lot of good interplay from the hosts withcrisp, efficient passing in the best performance seen byan Italy side in a long time.

It was a far cry from Italy's last match at San Siro, whenthey drew with Sweden 0-0 last November and failed toqualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades.The fans are also starting to fall back in love with theAzzurri, with 73,000 spectators at San Siro.

On Sunday, England overcame a goal deficit in last15 minutes to beat Croatia 2-1 in the last group A4 matchto pip 2010 World Champions Spain to advance into nextround of UEFA Nations League competition.

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India's Lakshya Sen settled for aBronze medal in the World Junior

Badminton Championship after suf-fering a narrow defeat to top seedKunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in themen's singles semifinals here.

The 17-year-old from Almora,who had clinched the Asian Junior titlethis year, fought hard before goingdown 22-20, 16-21, 13-21 to Vitidsarnin a match that went on for an hour and11 minutes on Saturday.

"I could not get into my usualrhythm, though I managed to win thefirst game. But he (Kunlavut) was toostrong in the second. I could not playto my strong points and my opponenthad all answers to my strokes," said theworld junior No 3 shuttler.

Lakshya, who was the last Indianhope in the tournament, began well andin what was a touch-and-go openinggame, the Indian seized the opportu-nity past midway and sealed theextended game in his favour.

But the Thai came back strongly inthe second game to level 1-1 and keephis chances alive.

The Indian, who lacked convictionafter losing the second game, wasunable to gather himself in the decideras the Thai ran up a good lead andmaintained it throughout to secure aplace in the final.

Earlier this year, Lakshya gainswide recognition after winning theAsian Junior BadmintonChampionship, becoming the firstIndian after PV Sindhu to win thatprestigious tournament.

Saina Nehwal is the only Indian tohave won a Gold in the tournamentduring the 2008 Pune edition.

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The Indian football team went down 1-2to Jordan in an international football

friendly, an improved second-half perfor-mance failing to salvage a draw for the vis-itors here.

This was a climbdown for StephenConstantine's men weeks after holdingWorld Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi'shigher-ranked China to a goalless stalemate.

The 97th ranked India, though, werewithout their talismanic striker Sunil Chhetri,who was ruled out of the game due to aninjury.

The journey to the Jordan capital fromNew Delhi was also far from smooth for theIndian players, many of whom were leftstranded at Kuwait City airport as flash floodsin this part of the world disturbed the flightschedule.

Goalkeeper cum captain Amer Shafi onSaturday put Jordan ahead with a free goalin the 25th minute.

Thanks to the howler from India custo-dian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who failed toread the bounce of his counterpart's shotfrom the other end of the pitch, Jordan led1-0 at the break.

Ehsan Haddad consolidated Jordan'sposition and made it 2-0 with his 58th minute

strike.Coming on as a substitute for

Jackiechand Singh, debutant Nishu Kumarpulled one back for the visitors when hefound the net from a close range in the 61stminute. That was only his second touch ofthe game.

While he goofed up to concede thegame's first goal at the King AbdullahInternational Stadium, Gurpreet also saveda penalty in the 10th minute.

India's number one goalkeeper dived tohis right to deny Baniatiyeh.

While India upped their game after thebreak, the first half action was eventful, as itincluded a missed penalty, one booking anda howler by India captain Sandhu. The gameagainst the 112th ranked Jordan was in prepa-ration for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

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India are yet to shed their "poortravellers" tag but head coach RaviShastri feels that it's unfair to pick

on one particular side when most ofthe nations have fared poorly on awaytours.

India have lost two away Test seriesin 2018, against South Africa (1-2) andEngland (1-4). This was after bothtours were seen as best chance for ViratKohli's men to set the poor overseasrecord straight.

Asked how important it is for Indiato win the series in Australia, Shastrisaid:"You have got to learn from yourmistakes. When you go overseas andwhen you look at teams that travelaround now, there aren't too manysides (that travel well).

"Australia did for some time in the90's and during the turn of century.South Africa did it for a while andother than these two, in the last five-six years, you tell me which team hastravelled well. Why pick on India?"questioned Shastri.

Questioned whether he or skipperKohli has spoken to the team as to whythey lost in South Africa and England,Shastri said that it was all about"seizing big moments".

"We have spoken about seizingthe big moments. If you look at theTest matches, the scoreline reallydoesn't tell you the real story. Therewere some real tight Test matchesand we lost some big momentsbadly, which cost us the series at theend of it.

"It could have been an hour ina session over four days whether itwas SA or England. Either as a bats-man or a bowler and see what hap-pens after that," the coach said in histeam's defence.

Shastri refused to believe thatAustralian team has lost its aura afterwhat all happened during the past fewmonths.

"I don't think so. I think once youhave a sporting culture in you, you willalways have that. I have always believedthat no team is weak at home. Wemight have three or four players not

playing when a team comes to IndiaGod forbid but if anyone thinks it'sa weak team, you will be surprised.

"Similarly, we are taking no pris-oners and we want to go out and putour best foot forward, focussing onour game rather than focussing out-side," he sounded cautious.

He is confident that his pacerswill enjoy bowling on Australianpitches.

"I think they (pacers) shouldenjoy bowling on these pitches if it'slike the pitches we have seen in the

past. It's important to stay fit as a unit."Shastri broadly dropped a hint that

injured Hardik Pandya's absence robsthem a chance to play an extra bowler.Even former Australian batsman Mike

Hussey recently spoke about howPandya's absence can hurt India.

"One player we will miss is HardikPandya, who has had an injury. Hegave us that balance as a bowler as wellas batsman, which allowed us to playthat extra bowler. Even now we havegot to think twice. Hopefully, he willget fit soon and if fast bowlers do well,we might not miss him then," the for-mer all-rounder said.

Asked if this is the best chance forIndia's fast bowlers, Shastri said it willdepend on if they can maintain "sus-tained intensity" for a long period oftime.

"It doesn't matter what line-upthey play as long as they are consistent.In the past, we have had one or two

bowlers doing well in spells, but bowl-ing as a unit for three, four or fivehours with sustained intensity, if thatcomes into play, no matter which bat-ting line-up you are playing against,you will be tested," he added.

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New Zealand A's last-wicket pair frustrated India A attackwith a 83-run stand as the home team kept the first innings

lead down to just nine runs after third day's play in the first'Unofficial Test' on Sunday.

In reply to India A's 467 for eight, New Zealand A declaredtheir first innings at 458 for nine after being reduced to 375for nine at one stage.

New Zealand A's No 10 batsman Seth Rance (69) and No11 Blair Tickner (30) played out the next one hour to negatechances of a substantial lead for the visitors.

At stumps, India A reached 35 for no loss in their sec-ond innings with the young Prithvi Shaw (33 batting, 26 balls)hitting seven boundaries in the company of veteran MuraliVijay (2 batting, 22 balls). India's overall lead currently is 44runs.

The Indian bowlers started off well in the third morningas New Zealand A were reduced to 211 for five from 176 forone within the first hour of play.

Tim Seifert (20) edged one to Parthiv Patel off MohammedSiraj (1/104 in 29 overs). Centurion Hamish Rutherford (114,181 balls) was cleaned up by Deepak Chahar (2/51 in 12.4overs), who didn't complete his 13th over.

Left-handed opener Rutherford, who has played 17 Testsfor New Zealand, hit 17 boundaries and a six. Chahar alsogot rid of Rachin Ravindra (0) while Navdeep Saini (2/88 in25 overs) trapped Glenn Phillips (16) leg-before.

However, the Indian bowlers couldn't press home the ini-tial advantage with the second new ball as Doug Bracewell(48) and Dane Cleaver (53) added 65 runs for the sixth wick-et before off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham (3/107 in 42 overs)castled him.

Cleaver and Kyle Jamieson (30) added another 53 to takethe team past the 300-run mark. Jamieson and Cleaver werethen dismissed in quick succession as New Zealand A werereduced to 346 for eight. Theo van Weorkom (11) added 29with Rance before the final flourish from the last pair.

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India captain HarmanpreetKaur said that her team is

bound to perform well becauseof the quality in the side whichwas proved during their thump-ing 48-run win against Australiain the f inal group leagueencounter of the ICC Women'sWorld T20.

India were already in semi-finals after winning their firstthree matches but didn't let theintensity down against the for-midable 'Southern Stars' in aninconsequential last groupleague encounter.

"When you have a goodteam, you have to perform well,"Harmanpreet said at the end ofthe match on Saturday.

After a below-par fieldingperformance against Pakistan,Indian women were excellentagainst Australia.

"I am very happy with the

(performance from the) girls.We worked very hard and today,we fielded well. I am proud ofthe girls. Hope the sort of part-

nership I had with Smriti (68 in7 overs) can keep coming."

Opener Smriti Mandhana,who finally converted a start, got

83 off 55 balls andthanked VedaKrishnamurthy for insist-ing on a DRS when shethought the she was gone.

"First three matches I gotstarts but couldn't convert it. SoI just wanted to score big today,"said Mandhana, adding, "Vedainsisted on the review, andthanks to her we got 20-30 runsextra."

Harmanpreet's deputy alsoechoed her skipper's sentimentsthat both bowling and fieldingwere top notch against theAussies.

"The way we bowled andfielded today was the best of thefour games, but batting-wisethe performance against NewZealand was better."

Team's youngest memberJemimah Rodrigues said thatendeavour will be to keep up themomentum in the upcomingsemi-finals on Novermber 23.

"I think it's important notjust because it's Australia, but forourselves and our team, becausewe've got the momentum,"Rodrigues was quoted as sayingby ICC website.

"So we need to keep that

momentum, keep doing thethings, don't focus mainly on theresults. So I think it plays a hugeimpact on our team and I thinkwe look forward to it, but not getcarried away and try to do evenbetter in the semi-finals,"Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues said thatHarmanpreet's epic 171 dringlast year's ODI World Cup alsocame up for discussion duringthe team meeting on the eve ofthe Australia match.

"Yes, (that knock) was defi-nitely discussed (before thematch)," revealed Rodrigues."In our meetings. It's alwaysgood to remember the goodstuff we've done. And it plays animpact and motivates eachother. So we have spoken aboutthat.

India will now face Group Arunners up in the second semi-final on Thursday to book berthfor Saturday’s final.

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Captain Joe Root set his sights ontaking England to the top of the

world rankings after his spin trio fin-ished off Sri Lanka in the second Teston Sunday to seal the series with amatch to spare.

England needed just 30 minuteson the fifth day to take the final threeSri Lanka wickets. Jack Leach got lastman Malinda Pushpakumara caughtand bowled to claim his first five-wick-et Test haul.

Moeen Ali took four wickets andAdil Rashid one as England's threefrontline spinners accounted for thewhole innings, as well as 18 of SriLanka's 20 wickets in the game over-all.

Root's 124 in England's secondinnings also played a key role in the57-run victory and earned him theman-of-the-match award.

Celebrating England's firstaway series win since beating SouthAfrica in 2015-16 and his first awaytriumph as captain, Root seesEngland — who are currentlyranked third in the world — chal-lenging India for the top Test teamspot.

"It was a brilliant Test match,"said Root, whose team had totwice fight back after their top orderbatsmen gave away cheap wickets.

"It ebbed and flowed throughout,like against India in the summer, andit's pleasing to see another close gamego our way.

"We said we'd come out here andplay bold cricket, and be courageous.It's easy to talk a good game but we'vebacked it up," Root said.

"We have to keep looking toimprove. The team has grown in thelast 18 months but we are not the fin-

ished article. We want to get to num-ber one in the world and that meansperforming in all conditions aroundthe world."

Sri Lanka needed 301 in their sec-ond innings to register an upset winbut managed just 243 at the Pallekeleground.

They started the day needing 75more runs and with three wickets inhand had an outside chance.

After Niroshan Dickwella wascaught by Ben Stokes off Moeen Ali for

35 — the first wicket of themorning — Sri Lanka's hopeswere all but extinguished.

Moeen then struck No10 batsman Suranga Lakmalon the pad next ball for astrong lbw appeal which wasturned down. He bowledLakmal his very next deliv-ery.

Pushpakumara lastedonly eight balls before chip-ping the ball back to Leach

and the game was over.Lakmal insisted his side had been

"unlucky". But England's triumphfollowed a crushing 211-run win inthe first Test in Galle, and was set upby masterful performances fromLeach, Ali and Rashid.

The spinners were dominant forboth sides, as Sri Lanka's DilruwanPerera took seven wickets in thegame and Akila Dananjaya — whonow goes off for an investigation intohis bowling action — eight.

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Hasan Ali and Yasir Shah took five wick-ets each against New Zealand on

Sunday as Pakistan regained control of thefirst test on day three.

New Zealand's lower order couldn't cap-italize on patient half centuries from B.J.Watling (59) and Henry Nicholls' (55), los-ing its last six wickets for just 29 runs to getbowled out for 249. It gave New Zealand anoverall lead of 175 runs after it conceded aslender 74-run first innings lead.

Pakistan started off its chase aggressivelyand was 37-0 at stumps with Imam-ul-Haqunbeaten on 25 with four boundaries andMohammad Hafeez not out on 8.

Watling and Nicholls defied Pakistan fornearly 51 overs and raised a 112-run fifth-wicket stand before Shah (5-110) claimed four wickets inthree overs and Hasan (5-45)wrapped up the tail quickly.

Shah triggered the col-lapse when Nicholls was caught behindbefore Colin de Grandhomme (3) andWatling were both trapped lbw by the leg-spinner in his next over.

Neil Wagner was undone by Shah's sharpturning delivery that knocked back the left-hander's off stump before Hasan returnedand dismissed Ish Sodhi (18) and Trent Boultinside three deliveries to wrap up theinnings quickly.

Watling faced 145 balls and Nichollsnegotiated 171 deliveries in their skillful dis-play of batting against spinners and fastbowlers. The pair came together after Hasanstruck twice before lunch with New Zealandjust 34 runs ahead.

They batted resolutely throughout themiddle session with Nicholls surviving anlbw appeal on 44 off Shah when Pakistanopted for an ultimately unsuccessfully tele-vision referral before the left-hander raised

his fifty just before tea.Watling completed his fifty soon after the

interval with a crisp driven boundary to mid-wicket off Hasan before Shah returned andwrecked New Zealand's hopes of building asubstantial lead.

Earlier, Hasan's twinblows in five deliveries top-pled New Zealand's top orderas Pakistan reduced the vis-itors to 108-4.

Hasan used reverse swing with perfec-tion by nipping Ross Taylor (19) plumb legbefore wicket. Four balls later Jeet Raval's (46)resistance finally ended when he edged theright-arm fast bowler behind.

Left-handed Raval was aggressive againstShah when New Zealand resumed on 56-1and quickly wiped off the first innings deficit.

Kane Williamson (37) added 10 to hisovernight score of 27 before Shah bowled theNew Zealand skipper off a delivery thatmoved enough and tipped the off stump bailto break the 86-run second wicket stand.

Taylor was also dominant against Shahby smashing three fours in the leg-spinner'sone over that included two meticulous cutsand one over mid-wicket.

But Hasan's twin strikes in his fourthover pegged back Kiwi's progress. Nichollsand Watling kept Pakistan at bay until Shahwrecked the lower order after tea.

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