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K arnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy staved off what seemed an imminent defeat on the trust motion on Thursday in the State Assembly after Speaker KR Ramesh adjourned the House till Friday, defying Governor Vajubhai Vala’s call to complete the process by the end of the day. The Governor has written a letter to Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, asking him to prove majority on the floor of the House by 1.30 pm on Friday. Rocked by a spate of resig- nations of its MLAs, the Congress-JD(S) alliance Government lacked the num- ber in the House for the pas- sage of the motion and fielded one after another lawmaker to deliver lengthy speeches and delay the inevitable. Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s ruling that the MLAs cannot be forced to attend the House proceedings, as many as 20 lawmakers skipped the trust vote debate, making it amply clear that the Kumaraswamy Government was not going to survive the motion. But the ruling dispen- sation decided to buy time to explore any last minute possi- bility to win back the rebel MLAs. As part of this strategy, it went for a marathon debate, which will continue on Friday. BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa declared his party members would stay put in the House itself overnight and even till the time the trust vote was decid- ed. “We will stay until the trust vote is decided,” Yeddyurappa said after the BJP, exasperated over the delay in taking up the voting, and also rushed a delegation to the Governor to ask Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to conclude the trust vote process by the end of the day itself. Acting swiftly, Vala asked the Speaker to complete the process of Vote of Confidence moved by the end of the day. The drama unfolded right from the word go as the Chief Minister moved a one-line motion, saying the House expressed confidence in the 14- month-old Ministry headed by him. The House that barely focussed on the debate on the motion saw three adjourn- ments, acrimony and repeated disruptions by belligerent slo- gan shouting Congress mem- bers before the proceedings were wound up for the day. As many as 16 MLAs — 13 from the Congress and three from the JD(S) — had resigned, while Independent MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh have withdrawn their support to the coalition Government, putting the Kumaraswamy-led Government in jitters. One Congress member Ramalinga Reddy retracted, saying he would support the Government. The ruling com- bine’s strength is 117 — Congress 78, JD(S) 37, BSP 1, and nominated 1, besides the Speaker. With the support of the two Independents, the Opposition BJP has 107 MLAs in the 225-member House, including the nominated MLA and the Speaker. If the resignations of 15 MLAs (12 from Congress and 3 from JDS) are accepted, the ruling coalition’s tally will plummet to 101, (excluding the Speaker) reducing the 14 month-old Kumaraswamy Government to a minority. BJP leaders said they were mulling moving the Supreme Court in the light of Thursday’s developments. The Congress-JD(S) alliance may have brought time, but there was a slim chance of the survival of the Government. Even as the Congress leaders were trying to win back the rebel MLAs, another party MLA Shreemant Patil skipped the House pro- ceedings amid report that he has been admitted in a Mumbai hospital. At one point, Congress members carrying pictures of Patil rushed towards the Well of the House shouting slogans “down down BJP” and “down down operation kamal (lotus)” to bring down the Government. BSP MLA Mahesh, on whose support the coalition was counting, too did not show up, amid reports he was keep- ing away as he has not received any directions from the party leader Mayawati on the stand to be taken on the trust vote. Seeking the trust vote, Kumaraswamy said the rebel MLAs had cast doubts about the coalition Government across the country and “we have to tell the truth.” “The entire nation is watching the developments unfolding in Karnataka,” he said. As soon as the motion was moved, Yeddyurappa said the trust vote process should be completed in a single day. “The Leader of Opposition seems to be in a hurry,” Kumaraswamy taunted Yeddyurappa. As the Chief Minister sought the trust vote, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah pressed for deferring the confidence motion till the Assembly Speaker decided on the issue of whip in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on the political crisis in the State. Siddaramaiah said the 15 rebel MLAs were influenced by the apex court order that they can abstain from attending the Assembly proceedings and asked the Speaker to give a rul- ing on the fate of whip issued by him as CLP leader. I ncome-Tax Department has attached a “benami” com- mercial plot measuring seven acres and worth 400 crore belonging to BSP chief Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar and his wife in Noida Sector 94. The IT Department has applied Section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, under which the department can attach an asset if it estimates the asset to be benami. The attached plot bearing number 2A in Sector 94 Noida is located in the vicinity of pro- posed five star hotel and other such luxury infrastructure. Anand and his wife, Vichiter Lata, allegedly used six companies for transactions relating to the acquisition of the attached plot, sources said. The benami transactions were effected through a host of companies, including Vision Town Planners Private Limited, BPTP International Trade Center Pvt Ltd, Euro Asia Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sunny Cast and Forge Pvt Ltd, Karishma industries Pvt Ltd and Add-Fin Capital Services India Pvt Ltd, sources said. The provisional order for the attachment of the plot “beneficially owned” by Anand and his wife was issued on July 16. Benami properties refer to the instances wherein the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property is registered. During probe, the Department detected a “com- plex web of shareholding” by at least six firms, including dummy companies, who were the “benamidars” or the enti- ties in whose name the “bena- mi” property was registered. I ndia’s ambitious second mis- sion to the Moon Chandrayaan-2 will now lift off at 2.43 pm on July 22, space agency ISRO said on Thursday, three days after the launch was aborted due to a technical snag in its GSLV-Mk-III rocket. Chandrayaan-2, which will be launched on board the most powerful GSLV-Mk-III rocket dubbed ‘Baahubali, is ready “to take a billion dreams to the Moon”, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Twitter. On July 15, the launch was called off 56 minutes and 24 seconds before the scheduled blast off at 1.55 am from the spaceport in Sriharikota fol- lowing a technical problem in the rocket. G ood news for the people residing in unathorised colonies of the national Capital as soon they will have owner- ship rights after the Centre has given nod to a proposal of the Delhi Government to regu- larise 1,797 illegal colonies. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday directed the officers to prepare large scale registry of homes. Kejriwal said, “Congratulations to the people living in unau- thorised colonies. You will soon be owners of your hous- es. The Centre is willing to give its approval to the Delhi Government’s proposal sent by us in November 2015. The preparations to begin registry have started. I would like to thank the Central Government on behalf of the people of Delhi.” It may be noted that Delhi Cabinet had cleared the pro- posal to regularise colonies on November 2, 2015 and sent it to the Centre on tend days after. According to Delhi Government official, the Centre has now sent a com- munication to the Delhi Government stating its in- principle approval for regular- isation of unathorised colonies. P Rajagopal, (73), owner of Saravana Bhavan Group of restaurants, breathed his last on Thursday morning at a Chennai hospital where he was undergoing treatment for a series of ailments. The restau- rateur, an accused in the mur- der case of a woman whom he wanted to possess as his third wife, was serving life-term in Chennai’s Puzhal Prison since early this month following the Supreme Court’s refusal to quash the Madras High Court order sentencing him and oth- ers to life for the murder com- mitted by them in 2001. A Chennai court had wit- nessed many dramatic scenes as the apex court refused Rajagopal’s plea to extend his bail to avail medical care in a private hospital in the city. He was brought to the court in an ambulance and was fitted with oxygen masks and a series of tubes to his nostrils and all over the body. The judge refused to entertain Rajagopal’s plea and sent him to jail with a directive to the authorities that medical aid be made available to him in the event of any emergency. Later the Madras High Court, hearing a petition moved by the son of Rajagopal, asked the prison authorities to admit him to Government Stanley Medical College from where he was taken to a cor- porate hospital as his condition worsened. The charge against Rajagopal and others was that they murdered Prince Santhakumar, one of the employees of the Saravana Bhavan eateries, because the latter refused to leave his wife Jeeva Jyothi whom Rajagopal wanted to take as his third wife. It was reported that Rajagopal had been advised by his astrologers to marry Jyothi as she would bring him pros- perity and eternal bliss. Jyothi was against the marriage as the hotelier was old enough to be her “grandfather”. Her father who himself was an employee of Rajagopal married her off to save her from the prowling eyes of his employer. I mages of a fully grown tiger “relaxing” on a bed inside a house-cum-shop in flooded Kaziranga National Park on Thursday created a buzz on social media, bringing under spotlight the plight of animals in Assam battling a deluge. The pictures of the Royal Bengal Tiger on the bed at a shop at Harmoti near Bagori range of the World Heritage Site along NH 37 on Thursday were widely shared on social media after the Wildlife Trust of India posted it on Twitter. “The tiger has entered a house and is relaxing on a bed. #AssamFloods bring in unusu- al guests!” “#JustIn our vet @samshulwildvet is making plans with #AssamForestDepartment @kaziranga_ to tranquilise the #tiger”, the WTI said. “Our vet @samshulwildvet is on a mission to tranquilise this #tiger to get him out of bed!” the organisation, which is cooperating with the State’s forest department in the mas- sive efforts to save wildlife during the flood, tweeted. Locals said the tiger entered the shop of Rafikul Islam around 7 am and was noticed relaxing on his bed. Over 95 per cent of the Park is submerged, rendering animals shelterless and forcing them to look for refuge in human habitations. KNP Bagori Range Officer Pankaj Bora, however, said the tiger was not being disturbed and only its movement was being monitored. Forest offi- cials are waiting for the animal to leave on its own. As the animal refused to leave the safe haven for sever- al hours, foresters burst fire- crackers, forcing it out into the jungle. Several famed one-horned rhinoceros and other animals have reportedly died in the floods that have engulfed vast swathes in Assam’s 29 out of 33 districts. C hild artiste Shivlekh Singh, who acted in ‘Sarural Simar Ka’ TV show along with others, was killed while his parents and another person were injured after their car collided with a truck in Dharsiwa on Thursday afternoon, police said. The accident took place around 3 pm under Dharsiwa police station area on the out- skirts of the capital, Additional Superintendent of Police Prafull Thakur said. The 14-year-old child artiste’s mother Lekhna Singh and father Shivendra Singh and another person Naveen Singh were injured in the inci- dent, he added. As per preliminary infor- mation, the victims were com- ing towards Raipur from Bilaspur in their car, when their vehicle hit the rear part of a truck which was coming from opposite direction in Dharsiwa area, he said, adding Shivlekh died on the spot. The three injured were admitted to a private hospital here, he added. A case has been registered in this connection, the ASP said adding that efforts were on to trace the truck driver who escaped from the spot, leaving behind his vehicle. Shivlekh was coming to Raipur for media interviews on Thursday, a family friend Dhirendra Kumar Sharma said. According to Sharma he had arranged the child artiste’s interview with some newspa- pers and news channels in Raipur. Shivlekh, a native of Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh, was staying in Mumbai along with his family from last 10 years and had acted in TV serials ‘Sankatmochan Hanuman’ and ‘Sasural Simar Ka’, Sharma said. Of the injured, his mother was said to be in critical con- dition as she had sustained grievous head injuries, he added. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

ˆ ˘ - The Pioneer€¦ · in Assam battling a deluge. The pictures of the Royal Bengal Tiger on the bed at a ... during the flood, tweeted. Locals said the tiger entered the shop

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Karnataka Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy staved

off what seemed an imminentdefeat on the trust motion onThursday in the State Assemblyafter Speaker KR Rameshadjourned the House till Friday,defying Governor VajubhaiVala’s call to complete theprocess by the end of the day.

The Governor has writtena letter to Chief Minister HDKumaraswamy, asking him toprove majority on the floor ofthe House by 1.30 pm onFriday.

Rocked by a spate of resig-nations of its MLAs, theCongress-JD(S) allianceGovernment lacked the num-ber in the House for the pas-sage of the motion and fieldedone after another lawmaker todeliver lengthy speeches anddelay the inevitable.

Emboldened by theSupreme Court’s ruling that theMLAs cannot be forced toattend the House proceedings,as many as 20 lawmakersskipped the trust vote debate,making it amply clear that theKumaraswamy Governmentwas not going to survive themotion. But the ruling dispen-sation decided to buy time toexplore any last minute possi-bility to win back the rebelMLAs. As part of this strategy,it went for a marathon debate,which will continue on Friday.

BJP leader BS Yeddyurappadeclared his party memberswould stay put in the Houseitself overnight and even till the

time the trust vote was decid-ed.

“We will stay until thetrust vote is decided,”Yeddyurappa said after the BJP,exasperated over the delay intaking up the voting, and alsorushed a delegation to theGovernor to ask Speaker KRRamesh Kumar to conclude thetrust vote process by the end ofthe day itself.

Acting swiftly, Vala askedthe Speaker to complete theprocess of Vote of Confidencemoved by the end of the day.

The drama unfolded rightfrom the word go as the ChiefMinister moved a one-linemotion, saying the Houseexpressed confidence in the 14-month-old Ministry headedby him.

The House that barelyfocussed on the debate on themotion saw three adjourn-

ments, acrimony and repeateddisruptions by belligerent slo-gan shouting Congress mem-bers before the proceedingswere wound up for the day.

As many as 16 MLAs — 13from the Congress and threefrom the JD(S) — had resigned,while Independent MLAs RShankar and H Nagesh havewithdrawn their support tothe coalition Government,putting the Kumaraswamy-ledGovernment in jitters.

One Congress memberRamalinga Reddy retracted,saying he would support theGovernment. The ruling com-bine’s strength is 117 —

Congress 78, JD(S) 37, BSP 1,and nominated 1, besides theSpeaker.

With the support of thetwo Independents, theOpposition BJP has 107 MLAsin the 225-member House,including the nominated MLAand the Speaker.

If the resignations of 15MLAs (12 from Congress and3 from JDS) are accepted, theruling coalition’s tally willplummet to 101, (excluding theSpeaker) reducing the 14month-old KumaraswamyGovernment to a minority.

BJP leaders said they weremulling moving the Supreme

Court in the light of Thursday’sdevelopments.

The Congress-JD(S)alliance may have broughttime, but there was a slimchance of the survival of theGovernment. Even as theCongress leaders were trying towin back the rebel MLAs,another party MLA ShreemantPatil skipped the House pro-ceedings amid report that hehas been admitted in a Mumbaihospital.

At one point, Congressmembers carrying pictures ofPatil rushed towards the Wellof the House shouting slogans“down down BJP” and “down

down operation kamal (lotus)”to bring down theGovernment.

BSP MLA Mahesh, onwhose support the coalitionwas counting, too did not showup, amid reports he was keep-ing away as he has not receivedany directions from the partyleader Mayawati on the standto be taken on the trust vote.

Seeking the trust vote,Kumaraswamy said the rebelMLAs had cast doubts aboutthe coalition Governmentacross the country and “wehave to tell the truth.”

“The entire nation iswatching the developmentsunfolding in Karnataka,” hesaid.

As soon as the motion wasmoved, Yeddyurappa said thetrust vote process should becompleted in a single day.

“The Leader of Oppositionseems to be in a hurry,”Kumaraswamy tauntedYeddyurappa. As the ChiefMinister sought the trust vote,Congress Legislature Partyleader Siddaramaiah pressedfor deferring the confidencemotion till the Assembly Speaker decided onthe issue of whip in the wakeof the Supreme Court verdicton the political crisis in theState.

Siddaramaiah said the 15rebel MLAs were influenced bythe apex court order that theycan abstain from attending theAssembly proceedings andasked the Speaker to give a rul-ing on the fate of whip issuedby him as CLP leader.

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Income-Tax Department hasattached a “benami” com-

mercial plot measuring sevenacres and worth �400 crorebelonging to BSP chiefMayawati’s brother AnandKumar and his wife in NoidaSector 94.

The IT Department hasapplied Section 24(3) of theProhibition of Benami PropertyTransactions Act, 1988, underwhich the department canattach an asset if it estimates theasset to be benami.

The attached plot bearingnumber 2A in Sector 94 Noidais located in the vicinity of pro-posed five star hotel and othersuch luxury infrastructure.

Anand and his wife,Vichiter Lata, allegedly used sixcompanies for transactionsrelating to the acquisition of theattached plot, sources said.

The benami transactionswere effected through a host ofcompanies, including VisionTown Planners Private Limited,BPTP International TradeCenter Pvt Ltd, Euro Asia

Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sunny Castand Forge Pvt Ltd, Karishmaindustries Pvt Ltd and Add-FinCapital Services India Pvt Ltd,sources said. The provisionalorder for the attachment of theplot “beneficially owned” byAnand and his wife was issuedon July 16.

Benami properties refer tothe instances wherein the realbeneficiary is not the one inwhose name the property isregistered.

During probe, theDepartment detected a “com-plex web of shareholding” by atleast six firms, includingdummy companies, who werethe “benamidars” or the enti-ties in whose name the “bena-mi” property was registered.

���� �43�� /(/

India’s ambitious second mis-sion to the Moon

Chandrayaan-2 will now lift offat 2.43 pm on July 22, spaceagency ISRO said on Thursday,three days after the launch wasaborted due to a technical snagin its GSLV-Mk-III rocket.

Chandrayaan-2, which willbe launched on board the mostpowerful GSLV-Mk-III rocketdubbed ‘Baahubali, is ready “totake a billion dreams to theMoon”, the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation said onTwitter.

On July 15, the launch wascalled off 56 minutes and 24seconds before the scheduledblast off at 1.55 am from thespaceport in Sriharikota fol-lowing a technical problem inthe rocket.

����������� 345��4 0&

Good news for the peopleresiding in unathorised

colonies of the national Capitalas soon they will have owner-ship rights after the Centre hasgiven nod to a proposal of theDelhi Government to regu-larise 1,797 illegal colonies.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal on Thursdaydirected the officers to preparelarge scale registry of homes.Kejriwal said, “Congratulationsto the people living in unau-thorised colonies. You willsoon be owners of your hous-es. The Centre is willing to giveits approval to the DelhiGovernment’s proposal sentby us in November 2015. Thepreparations to begin registryhave started. I would like to

thank the Central Governmenton behalf of the people ofDelhi.”

It may be noted that DelhiCabinet had cleared the pro-posal to regularise colonies onNovember 2, 2015 and sent itto the Centre on tend days after.According to DelhiGovernment official, theCentre has now sent a com-munication to the DelhiGovernment stating its in-principle approval for regular-isation of unathorised colonies.

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PRajagopal, (73), owner ofSaravana Bhavan Group of

restaurants, breathed his last onThursday morning at aChennai hospital where he wasundergoing treatment for aseries of ailments. The restau-rateur, an accused in the mur-der case of a woman whom hewanted to possess as his thirdwife, was serving life-term inChennai’s Puzhal Prison sinceearly this month following theSupreme Court’s refusal toquash the Madras High Courtorder sentencing him and oth-ers to life for the murder com-mitted by them in 2001.

A Chennai court had wit-nessed many dramatic scenesas the apex court refusedRajagopal’s plea to extend hisbail to avail medical care in aprivate hospital in the city. Hewas brought to the court in anambulance and was fitted with

oxygen masks and a series oftubes to his nostrils and all overthe body. The judge refused toentertain Rajagopal’s plea andsent him to jail with a directiveto the authorities that medicalaid be made available to him inthe event of any emergency.

Later the Madras HighCourt, hearing a petitionmoved by the son of Rajagopal,

asked the prison authorities toadmit him to GovernmentStanley Medical College fromwhere he was taken to a cor-porate hospital as his conditionworsened.

The charge againstRajagopal and others was thatthey murdered PrinceSanthakumar, one of theemployees of the SaravanaBhavan eateries, because thelatter refused to leave his wife Jeeva Jyothi whomRajagopal wanted to take as histhird wife.

It was reported thatRajagopal had been advised byhis astrologers to marry Jyothias she would bring him pros-perity and eternal bliss. Jyothiwas against the marriage as thehotelier was old enough to beher “grandfather”. Her fatherwho himself was an employeeof Rajagopal married her off tosave her from the prowling eyesof his employer.

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Images of a fully grown tiger“relaxing” on a bed inside a

house-cum-shop in floodedKaziranga National Park onThursday created a buzz onsocial media, bringing underspotlight the plight of animalsin Assam battling a deluge.

The pictures of the RoyalBengal Tiger on the bed at ashop at Harmoti near Bagorirange of the World HeritageSite along NH 37 on Thursdaywere widely shared on socialmedia after the Wildlife Trustof India posted it on Twitter.

“The tiger has entered ahouse and is relaxing on a bed.#AssamFloods bring in unusu-al guests!” “#JustIn our vet@samshulwildvet is makingplans with#AssamForestDepartment@kaziranga_ to tranquilise the#tiger”, the WTI said.

“Our vet @samshulwildvetis on a mission to tranquilisethis #tiger to get him out ofbed!” the organisation, whichis cooperating with the State’sforest department in the mas-sive efforts to save wildlifeduring the flood, tweeted.

Locals said the tigerentered the shop of RafikulIslam around 7 am and wasnoticed relaxing on his bed.

Over 95 per cent of the

Park is submerged, renderinganimals shelterless and forcingthem to look for refuge inhuman habitations.

KNP Bagori Range OfficerPankaj Bora, however, said thetiger was not being disturbedand only its movement wasbeing monitored. Forest offi-cials are waiting for the animalto leave on its own.

As the animal refused toleave the safe haven for sever-al hours, foresters burst fire-crackers, forcing it out into thejungle.

Several famed one-hornedrhinoceros and other animalshave reportedly died in thefloods that have engulfed vastswathes in Assam’s 29 out of 33districts.

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Child artiste Shivlekh Singh,who acted in ‘Sarural Simar

Ka’ TV show along with others,was killed while his parents andanother person were injuredafter their car collided with atruck in Dharsiwa on Thursdayafternoon, police said.

The accident took placearound 3 pm under Dharsiwapolice station area on the out-skirts of the capital, AdditionalSuperintendent of PolicePrafull Thakur said.

The 14-year-old childartiste’s mother Lekhna Singhand father Shivendra Singhand another person NaveenSingh were injured in the inci-dent, he added.

As per preliminary infor-mation, the victims were com-ing towards Raipur fromBilaspur in their car, whentheir vehicle hit the rear part ofa truck which was coming

from opposite direction inDharsiwa area, he said, addingShivlekh died on the spot.

The three injured wereadmitted to a private hospitalhere, he added.

A case has been registeredin this connection, the ASP saidadding that efforts were on totrace the truck driver whoescaped from the spot, leavingbehind his vehicle.

Shivlekh was coming toRaipur for media interviews onThursday, a family friendDhirendra Kumar Sharma said.

According to Sharma he

had arranged the child artiste’sinterview with some newspa-pers and news channels inRaipur.

Shivlekh, a native ofJanjgir-Champa district inChhattisgarh, was staying inMumbai along with his familyfrom last 10 years and hadacted in TV serials‘Sankatmochan Hanuman’ and‘Sasural Simar Ka’, Sharma said.

Of the injured, his motherwas said to be in critical con-dition as she had sustainedgrievous head injuries, he added.

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The high-level committee ofChief Ministers (CMs) on

Transformation of Agricultureon Thursday deliberated,among others, the utility of theEssential Commodity Act(ECA), 1955.

The Centre, which is of theview that the ECA, in its pre-sent form, is deterring invest-ment in agricultural marketingas it imposes stocking limits,saw support coming fromOpposition quarters with ChiefMinister of Madhya PradeshKamal Nath favouring scrap-ping the legislation.

Nath’s Gujarat counterpartVijay Rupani underlined theneed for reforms in the agri-culture market mechanismsand relaxing the norms in thelegislation for the benefit ofsmall traders and farmers.

While Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath senthis views in writing, ArunachalPradesh CM Pema Khundustressed on the need for doingaway with the middlemenmenace in the state where localfarm and horticulture pro-duces are bought at throwawayprices but sold at higher pricesoutside the State.

The committee is expectedto look at a policy directive inthis regard so that investorshave enough confidence aboutthe provisions of the Act.

The committee alsoemphasised the need to useappropriate technology plat-forms such as satellites anddrones from sowing to mar-keting and contract farming to

maximise the output and toreach out small and marginalfarmers.

At its first meeting, organ-ised by the Niti AAyog, theChief Ministers also discussedthe reforms in AgricultureMarketing ProduceCommittees (APMCs) andcontract farming and called forradical reforms to transformagriculture with massivethrusts on private investments,technological innovation androbust marketing across thecountry to boost farmers’income.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis,who was also the convener ofthe committee, said the com-mittee has finalised Terms ofReference (ToR), and Stateshave been asked to give theirfeedback by August 7. Thenext meeting of the committeewill be on August 16. TheMaharashtra Chief Ministerfurther added the terms ofreference also include makingsure that more farmers in theStates get institutional loans.

Agriculture being the Statesubject, the committee has

deliberated upon ways toincentivise States to fully imple-ment the major reforms inagriculture introduced in thepast including some key legis-lations to attract private invest-ments in the sector at its firstmeeting.

According to Fadnavis, thecommittee will come up witha background paper and acomprehensive agriculture pol-icy to transform the sectorafter taking all states on board.“The policy will focus on waysto enhance investment credit inthe sector,” he added.

At the meeting, Fadnavissaid though the credit disbur-sal for the farm sector mayexceed Rs 13 lakh crore in2019-20, the agriculturalinvestment credit is still too low.

Chief ministers ofHaryana, Arunachal Pradeshand Gujarat, Union Minister ofAgriculture and RuralDevelopment Narendra SinghTomar, Niti Aayog memberRamesh Chand and Niti AayogChief Executive OfficerAmitabh Kant attended themeeting.

���� 345��4 0&

With the Oppositiondemanding reversal of

several tax proposals in theUnion Budget, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon Thursday said the propos-als are aimed at improving theease of living and reducing painof the citizens.

The Minister did not relaxthe tax proposals with regardsto Foreign Portfolio Investors,TDS on cash withdrawal aboveRs 1 crore from banks and hikein customs duty on newsprintas was being demanded by theOpposition.

While replying to discus-sion on the Finance Bill, 2019,Sitharaman said Budget pro-posals will promote Make inIndia and digital payment. TheBill was later passed by theLower House by voice vote.

With regard to simplifica-tion of tax laws, the Ministryhas already set up a task forceto finalise a new Direct TaxCode (DTC), she said.

The Minister, however, did

not say anything on proposal toincrease customs duty to 10 percent on newsprint. Severalmembers have asked theGovernment to reduce hike incustoms duty on newsprintsaying it would badly hurt thesmall and medium newspapers.

Referring to imposition of2 per cent TDS on cash with-drawal beyond Rs 1 crore, shesaid the tax could be adjustedagainst the liability of theassessees and hence there will beno additional burden on them.

On the proposal to hike taxliability on individuals earningmore than Rs 2 crore, she saidit will not impact FPIs provid-ed they organised themselves ascompany.

Charging that budgetdeficits are underestimated and“Fiscal honesty” is being under-mined, the Congress onThursday said in the Lok Sabhathat several amendments tolaws that are not related tofinance are being proposedthrough the Finance Bill andthere was no road map forachieving the high-sounding

targets. Initiating the discussion

on the Finance Bill, 2019,Leader of Congress in the LokSabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury said there is noroadmap for achieving the tar-get of USD 5 trillion economyand asserted that it was the suc-cessive congress regimes whichbuilt up Indian economy brick-by-brick after it had virtuallybled under the colonial rule.“You should not see the past asa cancelled cheque... Youshould look at from where westarted,” he said and remarkedthat before Independence, thecountry’s growth was less thanone per cent.

Chowdhury also attackedBJP for making high-soundingpromises even as unemploy-ment rate, he said was the high-est in the country. “The coun-try is gasping for employ-ment... (the employment fig-ures) are heart wrenching,”Chowdhury said, emphasiz-ing the need for concertedefforts to build the economy.

The Congress leader said

“Fiscal honesty” is being under-mined and deficits are under-played.

Referring to mismatch incertain figures mentioned inthe Economic Survey and theBudget, Chowdhury said thesanctity of regular Budgetnumbers have been called intoquestion.

Before Chowdhury spoke,NK Pemchandran (RSP) point-ed out that the budget which ismainly the tax statement of thegovernment has included sev-eral issues not related to thefinance bill. In this respect hequoted the rulings of previousspeakers including that ofSumitra Mahajan.

Premachandran objectedto the Finance Bill having theprovisions to amend a numberof laws, including Benami Act,Sebi Act and PMLA Act, andurged Speaker Om Birla to dis-allow it. A Finance Bill can onlyhave taxation proposals,Premachandran said, soon afterthe finance minister stood upto move the bill for considera-tion and passage. He also

accused the Government ofbypassing Parliament to avoiddiscussion and scrutiny foramending existing laws byincluding them in the bill.

Sitharaman said rules andconstitutional provisions citedby Premchandran do not ruleout non-taxation proposals forinclusion in the Finance Bill butonly say that it should be doneonly when imperative.

���� 345��4 0&

Parliament on Thursdaypassed a Bill to set up an

independent and autonomousregime for institutionaliseddomestic and international arbi-tration in India. The New DelhiInternational Arbitration Centre(NDIAC) Bill, 2019, which seeksto replace an ordinance issuedin March this year by the pre-vious Government, was passedby Rajy Sabha. Lok Sabha hadpassed the Bill on July 10.

The Bill provides for settingup an independent andautonomous regime for institu-tionalised domestic and inter-national arbitration and toacquire and transfer undertak-ings of International Centre for

Alternative Dispute Resolutionto the New Delhi InternationalArbitration Centre with effectfrom March 2 this year.

The Upper House alsopassed the amendment in theArbitration and Conciliation(Amendment) Bill Act, 2019that seeks to make changes inthe existing law of 1996. It willnow go to Lok Sabha. The Billwas earlier cleared by LS inAugust 2018 but could not bepassed by RS. The Bill lapsed fol-lowing the dissolution of the16th Lok Sabha.

Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad moved both the Billsincluding one that seeks tomake changes in the existing lawof 1996. The amendment billwill facilitate in achieving the

goal of improving, institutionalarbitration by establishing anindependent body to lay downstandards, make arbitrationprocess more friendly and cost-effective, and ensure timely dis-posal of cases. It provides for set-ting up of an independent body— Arbitration Council of India— to frame arbitral institutionand accredit arbitrators by lay-ing down norms.

While the TMC stated awalkout to protest the proposedchanges in arbitration laws,terming them “draconian”, theCongress alleged that the pro-posed Arbitration Councilwould be a “sarkari” Council andaccused the Government ofmaking a “brazen” attempt totake over the process.

New Delhi: In a setback tosocialite Sheetal AtulyaMafatlal, the Supreme Courtdismissed her plea challengingthe Bombay High Court orderwhich had directed her prose-cution for allegedly filing a falsecase regarding theft of 31 paint-ings. A Bench of Justices AshokBhushan and Navin Sinha washearing the case in which ini-tially in 2011, Sheetal’s stepdaughter had lodged a com-plaint with the police that 48paintings were taken awayfrom their home allegedly byher step-mother.

Acting on her complaint,the trial court had ordered reg-istration of FIR and during theinvestigation, it was found thatSheetal had kept 31 paintings ina flat of her friend. PTI

New Delhi: The ongoingSession of the 17th Lok Sabhahas been the most productivein the last 20 years, with thelower house registering 128 percent productivity till Tuesday,according to think tank PRSLegislative Research.

Lok Sabha members dis-cussed the General Budget for17 hours, demands for grantsfor Railways for 13 hours,demands for grants for Roadand Transport for 7.44 hours,Speaker Om Birla informed theHouse Thursday.

He said members dis-cussed demands for grants forthe ministries of RuralDevelopment and Agriculturefor 10.36 hours, and issuesrelated to Sports and YouthAffairs Ministry for 4.14 hours.

PTI

���� 345��4 0&�

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has attached assets worth

Rs 200 crore under the provisionsof Prevention of Money LaunderingAct, 2002 (PMLA) in a PonziScheme case. The attached assetsinclude lands, flats, factories, hotels,amusement park, tea estate, officespaces, shops, registered in thename of sixteen different companiesof ponzi firm Basil InternationalLimited (BIL) in Assam, WestBengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, UttarPradesh, Tripura, Maharashtraalong with balances lying in thebank accounts of the company.

ED had initiated investigationunder PMLA on the basis of theCharge-sheet filed by CBI againstBIL and others for cheating com-mon public by propagating & sell-ing illegal schemes and by promis-ing huge and unsustainable returns(Ponzi Scheme), the agency said.

Investigation under the provi-sions of PMLA revealed that thefunds were fraudulently collected byselling illegal schemes through chain

of agents located in Assam, WestBengal, Tripura, Odisha, Jharkhandand several other states. Theseschemes were sold not only in thename of BIL, but also in the name ofmany other companies like VamshiChemicals Limited, NixcilPharmaceuticals and Specialties Ltd.and Basil Express Ltd. among others,the agency said. The investigationalso revealed that the funds collect-ed through the schemes were illegallydiverted by creating a web of shellcompanies. More than 60 private andpublic limited shell companies havebeen identified so far in the case.

Scrutiny of the accounts main-tained by these companies led to trailthe proceeds of crime. 103 immov-able properties including lands,flats, factories, hotels, amusementpark, tea estate, office spaces, shops,registered in the name of sixteen dif-ferent companies. Apart from theimmovable properties, balanceamounts of Rs 1.77 crore lying in 15accounts maintained in the name ofBIL and other associate companieshave also been attached underPMLA, 2002, the agency added.

���� 73�73

Embattled liquor tycoonVijay Mallya’s appeal in the

UK High Court against hisextradition order has been list-ed for a three-day hearing from February 11 nextyear, the UK court said onThursday.

The 63-year-old formerKingfisher Airlines boss hadwon a reprieve earlier thismonth when a two-judge panelat the Royal Courts of Justicein London granted him per-mission to appeal against theextradition order of a lowercourt to face fraud and moneylaundering charges amount-ing to an alleged Rs 9,000crore in India.

“The appeal hearing hasbeen listed on 11 February2020 with a time estimate ofthree days,” a UK High Courtofficial said. At a hearing onJuly 2, Justices George Leggattand Andrew Popplewell con-cluded that “arguments can bereasonably made” on someaspects of the prima facie casepresented by the Crown

Prosecution Service (CPS), on behalf of the IndianGovernment.

The ruling on the basis ofthat material by ChiefMagistrate Emma Arbuthnotin her extradition order ofDecember 2018, which wassigned off by UK home secre-tary Sajid Javid earlier thisyear, is therefore now set for afull appeal hearing in the high-er court.

“By far the most substan-tial ground is that the seniorDistrict Judge was wrong toconclude that the governmenthad established a prima faciecase,” noted Judge Leggatt.

Mallya’s counsel, ClareMontgomery, had successfullycontested the basis on whichJudge Arbuthnot had arrived atcertain conclusions.

She claimed the judge hadbeen “plain wrong” in accept-ing some of the Indian author-ities’ assertions that Mallyahad fraudulent intentions whenhe sought some of the loans forhis now-defunct KingfisherAirlines, that he made misrep-resentations to the banks to

seek the loans and had nointentions to pay them back.

Montgomery also ques-tioned the admissibility ofsome of the evidence pro-duced during the extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates’Court in London.

The High Court judgesaccepted the broad argumentsand directed her to submit adraft for the appeal to proceedto a full hearing, a time-framefor which has now been set forFebruary next year.

Mallya had said he felt“vindicated” by the ruling andrepeated his offer to pay back the money owed tothe Indian banks.

“I still want the banks totake all their money, do whatthey have to do and leave mein peace,” he said.

He has repeated this offerof settlement in subsequentTwitter interventions, mostrecently telling social mediacritics to “ask your Banks whythey are not taking 100 per centof the money I have beenoffering”.

���� 345��4 0&

The Government has issuednotices to popular Chinese

social media apps TikTok andHelo along with a set of 24questions regarding the allegedmisuse of their platforms for“anti-national activities” inIndia, official sources said.

The Centre has warnedthese apps that they mightface a ban if they do not sub-mit appropriate responses byJuly 22, the sources added.

The action from theMinistry of Electronics andIT (Meity) follows a complaintby the RSS-affiliated SwadeshiJagran Manch, which had writ-ten to the Prime Minister alleg-ing that these platforms arebeing used for anti-nationaland illegal activities.

When contacted, TikTokand Helo in a joint statement

said India is one of theirstrongest markets and theywill fully collaborate with theGovernment to meet theirobligations.

Meity has sought replyfrom TikTok and Helo on alle-gation that these platformshave become “a hub of anti-national activities”, and hassought assurance that the dataof Indian users are not beingtransferred and will not betransferred in future “to anyother foreign Government orany third party or private enti-ty”, according to sources.

Meity has also soughtresponse on the initiativesbeing taken to check fake newsand steps being taken to becompliant under Indian laws.The IT ministry has askedHelo to reply on allegations thatit paid a huge sum for putting11,000 morphed political adson other social media sites.

Flagging concerns aroundthe violation of child privacynorms, the ministry has soughtexplanation on why the mini-mum entry age has been fixed

at 13 years since a personbelow 18 is considered a childin India.

Meity also asked TikTokand Helo about excessive datacollected by them, number andkind of information sought bylaw enforcement agencies,employees and offices they havein India, details of charges andoutcome of investigation by theUK Information Commissionagainst TikTok, and if minorsare prevented from watchingcontent with “risk warning tag”,

the sources said.TikTok and Helo are

owned by China-based internetfirm ByteDance. In their jointstatement, TikTok and Helosaid they are grateful for theimmense support given byIndia’s growing digital com-munity. “Our continued suc-cess in India will not be possi-ble without the support of ourlocal community. We take ourresponsibilities to this com-munity seriously and welcomethis opportunity to fully col-laborate with the Governmentto meet and exceed our oblig-ations,” the statement said.

India is one of the strongestmarkets for TikTok and Helo,it said. “In line with our com-mitment to India, we are invest-ing USD 1 billion dollars inIndia over the next three years,with a strategic focus on devel-oping technology infrastruc-ture, establishing local part-nerships and supporting ini-tiatives such as the Skill IndiaProgram which we are proud tobe assisting with already,” thestatement added.

���� 345��4 0&

The Government onThursday admitted in the

Rajya Sabha that there hasbeen a data leak of unemploy-ment figures and said effortswere being made to ascertainwho was behind it.

Replying to queries duringQuestion Hour, Minister ofState for Planning and StatisticsRao Inderjit Singh termed theissue as “serious” and said datapertaining to unemploymentfigures was leaked ahead of itsannouncement in May this year.

He also informed membersthat the Government haschanged the methodology forascertaining unemploymentrates as a periodic survey isnow being held every yearbased on quarterly data, againstthe five-year surveys earlier.

“It is right that there was adata leak. Our survey result wasto come out on May 30, 2019, butbefore that the data was leaked.We have taken this very seriously.Maybe someone has an agendabehind it and the data was

leaked. We are making efforts toascertain who was behind theleak,” the Minister told members.

He said employment andunemployment rate surveysused to be held once in fiveyears. “This Governmentdeemed it fit to carry out a peri-odic survey every year,” hesaid. Singh said some changeswere also made in the method-ology and technology was usedand that is why there is a dif-ference in previous surveysdone by NSSO.

He said the 2.2 unemploy-ment rate would have beensame as brought out by theNSSO earlier if it was made outfor five years, but this hasincreased both in rural and

urban areas as the methodolo-gy has changed.

“The new model for labouremployment and unemploy-ment is different from earlymethods and you cannot com-pare apples with oranges.

“The new method now is ayearly method taking intoaccount quarterly surveys. Theonly comparability that canhappen is when the next yeardata comes. At present, it wascompared to 6.1 per cent and theyearly data cannot be comparedwith the 5-year figure,” he said.

The Minister said theGovernment takes unemploy-ment very “very seriously” andto alleviate the unemploymentscenario, the Government has

taken a number of steps.Listing out some examples,

he said the Prime Minister’semployment generation pro-gramme itself has catered toemployment of 14.3 lakh tillNovember 30, 2018, the DeenDayal Gramin Kaushal Yojnahas helped 4.73 lakh people getjobs, MNREGA over past 3.5 to4 has helped 972.99 personemployment days.

“Taking into account theseriousness of the matter, theGovernment has set up a cabi-net committee on employmentand skill development to ensurethat more people get jobs,” hesaid. In his written reply, theminister said, this Ministry haslaunched a new regularEmployment-Unemploymentsurvey, namely, Periodic LabourForce Survey (PLFS) during2017-18 with certain changes insurvey methodology, data col-lection mechanism and sam-pling design vis-a-vis the earli-er quinquennial (once in everyfive years) Employment and Unemployment surveys of NSSO.

New Delhi: A day after Mumbai attacks mastermindHafiz Saeed was arrested by Pakistan, India Thursdaysaid similar “drama” has taken place at least eight timessince 2001, and the genuineness of the action will dependon whether he is tried for his terrorist activities.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson RaveeshKumar said India hoped that Saeed will genuinely bebrought to justice this time. “This is not the first timethat Hafiz Saeed has been arrested or detained. Thisdrama has taken place at least eight times since 2001.The question is whether this time it would be more thana cosmetic exercise and whether Saeed will be tried andsentenced for his terrorist activities,” he said at a week-ly media briefing.

He said Saeed must be punished as he is a designatedterrorist, and listed by the United Nations SanctionsCommittee under the UN Security Council Resolution1267. “Effective action mandated internationally againstHafiz Saeed and his terrorist organisations is an oblig-ation on part of all UN member states, includingPakistan,” said Kumar.

Saeed also carries a reward of USD 10 million underUS law. “Pakistan’s sincerity to take action against ter-rorist and terror groups will be judged on the basis oftheir ability to demonstrate verifiable, credible and irre-versible actions against terrorists and to disrupt and dis-mantle terror groups operating from their soil,” the MEAspokesperson said. He said India has long been main-taining that the UN Security Council provisions per-taining to listing and proscription of known terrorist enti-ties and individuals must be effectively and sincerelyenforced by all member states. PTI

Dhaka: In the first-ever move-ment of its kind, a cargo shipcarrying 1,000 tonnes of stonesfrom Bhutan has arrived inBangladesh via India.

At a ceremony held atNarayanganj on the outskirts ofDhaka on Thursday, IndianHigh Commissioner toBangladesh Riva Ganguly Das,Ambassador of Bhutan toBangladesh Sonam T. Rabgyealong with Vice Chairman ofBangladeshi leading businessconglomerate BashundharaGroup Safwan Sobhan receivedthe first-ever consignmentthrough the Indo-BangladeshProtocol Route.

The ship, MV AAI of theInland Waterways Authority ofIndia, was digitally flagged off byIndian Minister of State forShipping Mansukh Mandaviyaon July 12, said the Indian HighCommission in Dhaka in astatement cited by Xinhua newsagency. The ship sailed fromDhubri in Assam and travelledto Narayanganj in Bangladeshover the Brahmaputra River.Dhubri was declared a port ofcall in October 2018, the reportsaid. IANS

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | FRIDAY | JULY 19, 2019

Sarva Adivasi Samaj on Thursday felicitated Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel at Central Hall of Chhattisgarh State Assemblyfor his initiatives for the welfare of the tribal community.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Indira Gandhi AgricultureUniversity (IGAU), Raipur is

now among the top ten agri-culture varsities in the country,officials said here on Thursday.

In the 2018-19 rankingreleased by the Indian Councilof Agricultural Research(ICAR), IGAU bagged thetenth place. Earlier, in 2016-17IGAU was at 17th place whilein 2017-18 it had reached the12th place.

ICAR ranks the agricultureuniversities on the basis ofworks done by a university inthe field of agriculture

education, research and itsexpansion.

Notably, currently thereare 72 agriculture universitiesacross India.

In 2000 IGAU had onlyfour colleges with 300 seats.Today there are 40 governmentand private collages affiliatedto the university with 2200seats available for students. Inthe coming session new agri-culture collages will be startedin Mahasamund, Gariaband,Kurud, Korba, Jashpur,Chhuikhadan, Saja and Marra(Patan), officials said.

As per IGAU officials, in

2003 the university had only100, post graduate and PhDseats which has been increasedto 591 now. IGAU had signed amemorandum of understand-ing (MoU) with 58 nationalresearch institutes to facilitateresearch scholars.

The students doingresearch in these institutionsare provided scholarship of`5,000 and `10,000.Chhattisgarh is the first state tooffer this kind of scholarship.

Currently about 400 stu-dents from 20 different statesare perusing different coursesin the university.

IGAU among top-10agriculture universities

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

On the occasion of birth anniversary ofGandhian thinker, freedom fighter and

leader of Chhattisgarh state formation move-ment Dr Khubchand Baghel, a seminar on hispersonality and literary works will be held atconference hall of local Mahant GhasidasMemorial Museum premise on Friday at 1pm.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will be thechief guest of the programme. Culture ministerAmarjeet Bhagat will preside over the programmeand Mayor, Raipur Municipal CorporationPramod Dubey will be the special guest.

According to the information received fromDirector, Culture and Archaeology Department,Vice-Chancellor Ravishankar University Dr KLVerma, and senior litterateurs Ramesh Nayyar,Lalit Surjan, Padeshiram Verma will expresstheir thoughts and views on Dr Baghel's personaand literary works.

In this programme, a rare collection ofunpublished manuscripts of Dr KhubchandBaghel will be released.

On the occasion, an episode of the play writ-ten by him- 'Karam Chhad-ha' will also bestaged. A photo exhibition based on Dr Baghel'slife will also be organized.

Seminar on Dr. Khubchand Baghel today

STAFF REPORTER n KORBA

Atribal woman and her three-month old baby were trampled

to death by a group of wild elephantsin Kapu rage of Raigarh district, for-est officials said here on Thursday.

With this incident, nine peoplewere killed in past three months inman-elephant conflict in Raigarhalone. The deceased include fivewomen, mostly from financiallyweaker section.

“The incident happened onWednesday night when a group of 14elephants attacked the house ofMansingh Sidar at Surpara villagenear Vijay Nagar town,” DivisionalForest Officer (DFO) DharamjaigarhPranay Mishra said.

While other family membersmanaged to run away, Mansingh’swife Vimla (28), who was carryingher infant daughter Khusbu wascaught by the heard that killed both,

the DFO informed. Soon after the incident forest

department officials reached the spotand the bodies were sent for post-mortem. The family members of thedeceased were provided immediateassistance of Rs 50,000.

Notably, according to forest min-ister currently there are about 220

wild elephants roaming in differentforest of Chhattisgarh.

The forest ranges, particularly innorthern Chhattisgarh, have seenbitter human-wild elephant conflictfor past three four decades.According to forest officials between2013 and 2019, 309 people have losttheir lives in the conflict.

Woman and her three-month-oldbaby killed by rouge tusker

CM recallsYati Yatanlal’scontributionRAIPUR: Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel commemorated the contribu-tion of Saint and Freedom FighterYati Yatanlal on his birth anniversary.

Baghel said that Yatanlal was notonly a great saint but also a coura-geous warrior. ``His life is a strikingexample of sacrifice, dedication andservice. In year 1934 when Raipurdistrict was struck with plague, heused to travel from village to villageto provide aid in treatment and pre-vention of the disease’’, Baghel wasquoted in an official press statement.

He further said that Yatanlalplayed an important role in banningof intoxicants and caste-based dis-crimination in state.

``He used to openly opposesocial evils. Yatanlal was activelyinvolved in works of social reforma-tion. His life story inspired us to pro-mote social harmony and fraternityin Chhattisgarh state,’’ the chief min-ister further stated.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minis-ter and BJP national vice president

Shivraj Singh Chouhan launching ascathing attack on Congress onThursday claimed that it had failed todeliver promises made during the 2018assembly elections.

While talking to media persons hereat party’s state headquarters EkatmaParisar, Chouhan lamenting on the pres-ent state of affairs of the Congress said itwas reaping whatever sins it had sown.

Citing that the then Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi had declared in pollcampaign that the chief ministers ofCongress-ruled states would immedi-ately be changed if they did not meet theexpectations of people and failed to ful-fill the promises of farm loan waiverwithin 10 days, the BJP leader saud he(Rahul) should now apologize to thepeople of Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan for non fulfill-ment of this promises.

Shivraj also accused thatChhattisgarh Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel of indulging in politics of

vengeance in the state, and claimed thatthe state’s rtuling dispensation was tor-turing its political rivals.

He further thanked the people ofChhattisgarh for showing trust on BJPin recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.Commenting on results of the LokSabha polls he said “delighted with theimpressive victory, but we have notstopped working and are nowadays busyin strengthening the organisation.”

Congress failed to fulfillAssly poll promises: Shivraj

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Environment ministerMohammed Akbar on

Thursday assured the assemblythat the government would con-duct a probe into the allegation ofencroachment of irrigation canalsin Naya Raipur.

The assurance came afterCongress MLA Dhanendra Sahuraised the issue through a callattention motion in the monsoonsession of Chhattisgarh assembly.

Dhanendra Sahu pointed outthat Atal Nagar Development

Authority (ANDA), Nava Raipurafter giving shape to city hadacquired the irrigation canals.Through these canals, the waterwas being supplied to theacquired villages under NRDAfor filling the ponds andirrigation purposes. But nowthese canals were being filled upthrough illegal encroachment byland mafia and NRDA, thusblocking the flow of water.

Minister Mohammed Akbarin his reply initially claimed thatno such encroachment had takenplace. But Sahu insisted that thevillagers were not allowed todraw waters from them and theponds were not getting waterfrom the canals. He pointed outthat these canals could be main-tained and repaired as they couldbecome helpful in future to keepthe flow of water in the new capi-tal city. He sought a probe intothe encroachment on which min-ister agreed and said stern actionwould be taken against thoseinvolved, if found guilty.

Akbar assures probe intocanal encroachments

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh stateassembly was again on

the boil on the issue of serv-ing eggs in state-run schoolswith eight BJP memberstrooping into the well amidverbal duals betweenOpposition and treasurybenches, prompting SpeakerCharandas Mahantadjourned the House for theday.

Through a call attentionmotion, Leader of theOpposition DharamlalKaushik, BJP membersBrijmohan Agrawal,Shivratan Sharma, JCC (J)member Dharamjeet Singhand others raised the issue ofdistribution of eggs inanganwadi centres and in

mid-day meal in schools.They sought a clear cut

policy or order from the gov-ernment over the con-tentious issue.

With the treasurybenches claiming that the

BJP government had listedegg in the menu of anganba-di centres when it was inpower. The BJP tried todefend itself saying it did notimplement it.

Amid heated exchanges,

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel intervened statingthat school education minis-ter Dr Premsai Singh Tekamwould give a statement in thesecond half.

The minister in his state-ment said as per earlieramendment of the order, eggswould be separately cookedand served to school children.The view of parents associa-tion would be taken for distri-bution of the non-vegetarianfood, he said. In case the asso-ciation took an unanimousdecision against the distribu-tion of egg in the school thenit would be delivered at home, the minister said.

He pointed out that inaround 13 states, includingin some BJP-ruled states,eggs were being served.

Assembly continues to witnessangry exchanges over eggs

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Opposition members staged awalk out on the monsoon

session of Chhattisgarh assemblyon Thursday claiming the benefitof farm loan waivers was notreaching farmers.

Raising the issue through acall attention motion moved byBJP members BrijmohanAgrawal, Ajay Chandrakar andformer chief minister and JCC (J)patron Ajit Jogi, the member saidone farmer Mohan Ram Nirala ofCharaidand of Jashpur districthad committed suicide as theloan he had taken through KisanCredit Card was not waived off.They alleged that mainly smalland medium farmers were unableto take loan as banks were

denying it. They demanded thatloan waiver be extended todefaulting farmers also as perpromise made to them.

Cooperative minister DrPremsai Singh Tekam listing outthe steps taken by state govern-ment, said within three days afterformation of the government,decision of loan waiver was taken.First the cooperative banks weregiven priority and it was furtherextended to the nationalisedbanks, he said.

Then defaulters were alsoconsidered and one-time settle-ment choice had already beengiven, the minister informed theHouse. When opposition mem-bers wanted clear cut time-sched-uled for loan waiver implementa-tion, Chief Minister Bhupesh

Baghel said state government wascommitted to loan waiver. Hepointed out that as there werelarge numbers of nationalisedbanks and that they have theirown process, it was taking time,but regular interaction was under-way. “The process is taking time.For the first time, the farmers areloan free in the state,” he added.

Ajit Jogi wanted to knowwhether the government wouldwaive off loans taken from privatebanks and local money-lendersand also long term loans.

The minister replied that thedecision of loan waiver was takenfor short-term loans as promised.

Not satisfied with the reply,the opposition members walkedout of the House.

STAFF REPORTER nDHAMTARI

An under trial prisonerwho had escaped

from Dhamtari districtjail on Thursday morningwas later nabbed by apolice team in injuredcondition from a nearbyvillage.

Superintendent ofPolice Dhamtari, BalajiRao Somawar informedThe Pioneer that prisonerItwari Singh hails fromAbhanpur village ofRaipur district.

“The prisoner was ininjured condition and oneof his legs was brokenduring his escape from

the jail. He has been hos-pitalized for the treat-ment”, the official furtherinformed.

Three of the JailPraharis of the district jailwere suspended for dere-liction of duties and a

probe into the incidentwas ordered, he said.

Police also registereda case under section 224of IPC against the prison-er and is further investi-gating into the matter, headded.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Former minister and BJPMLA Ajay Chandrakar ten-

dered an apology for makingcaste-specific comment aboutSchool Education Minister DrPremsai Singh during questionhour in the monsoon sessionof Chhattisgarh assembly onThursday.

When minister was reply-ing to supplementary querieson Right to Education, AjayChandrakar mentioned acaste-specific word, whichtriggered strong protest fromtreasury members.

Food and civil suppliesminister Amarjeet Bhagat,Brihaspati Singh and othersraised objection to thecomment and sought Chair’s

intervention to get anapology from the member.

Amid the continuing ver-bal duel, Speaker CharandasMahant asked former chiefminister Ajit Jogi to give his“expert opinion” on the issue.Ajit Jogi said the use of suchcaste-specific comment byany member was demeaning.

He said by tendering anapology the member wouldhelp raise his stature and itwould not belittle him, Jogisaid. He said on the heat ofthe moment, it could happen.

As several CongressMLAs continued to seekapology, Ajay Chandrakarsaid for the first time in 20years of his public life he wastendering an apology on theissue.

Opposition walks out ofAssly over farm loan issue

Under trial prisoner who escapedfrom Dhamtari Jail nabbed

Ajay Chandrakar apologisesfor caste-specific comment

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Cracking down against theillegal sex determination

tests, the Punjab HealthDepartment has arrested 60offenders and sealed 14machines in less than sevenmonths across the State forviolating the Pre-Conceptionand Pre-Natal DiagnosticTechniques Act.

Disclosing this, the stateHealth and Family WelfareMinister Balbir Singh Sidhu onThursday said that during thisdrive conducted fromNovember 2018 to June 2019,the health teams have unearthedillegal operations in some of theultrasound and scanning centresand 18 FIRs have been regis-tered whereas 60 culprits havebeen arrested and 14 ultra-sound machines were sealed.

He said that the HealthDepartment has furtherwidened its scope of its activi-ties to nab the offenders who aresecretly conducting sex deter-minations tests. “Working inthis direction, the PunjabGovernment has inkedMemorandum ofUnderstanding with an espi-onage agency which has con-

ducted 19 sting operations tillnow,” he said.

The Minister said thatHealth Department has alsoappealed the public to supportthe government in nabbingsuch anti-social elements. “Rs50,000 reward has also beenannounced for the informerwho would give information ofsuch sex determination testsbeing carried out at any scan-ning center,” he said.He said thatif FIR is registered against anyerring ultrasound and scan-ning centre, the decoy patientwould also be rewarded with Rsone lakh.

Sidhu said that in order tostrike a fair balance in sex ratio,the Health Department would

soon made it imperative for anypregnant mother to show herMother and Child SecurityCard (Vaccination Card)whether she is going in privatecenter or in government hospi-tal for ultrasound test.

He said that after this reg-istration, a pregnant motherwould be eligible for undergo-ing ultrasound test in govern-ment or in private hospital.

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Aday after elevating threeIPS officers to the DGP-

rank, the Punjab Governmenton Thursday conducted amajor reshuffle exercise trans-ferring 26 IPS, and five PPSofficers including HarpreetSingh Sidhu who was givenback the charge of theGovernment’s Special TaskForce (STF) on drugs.

Additional DirectorGeneral of Police (ADGP)Sidhu, who was holding thepost of special principal sec-retary to Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh, is once againheading the significant anti-drug wing a year after he was

removed from the post fol-lowing reports of a tusslebetween him and the thenDGP Suresh Arora.

He would replace STFhead Gurpreet Kaur Deo, whohas been given the charge ofADGP (Crime).

After coming to power in2017, the Chief Minister hadset up the STF to combat drugmenace in Punjab. He hadespecially brought Sidhu, whowas at that time on central dep-utation in the Naxal-hitChhattisgarh, to head the STF.

Earlier in the day, Deo wasrelieved from the additionalcharge of the Litigation Wing.But later in the evening, she

was also divested of the chargeof STF chief and was posted asADGP Crime.

The State Government alsoshifted eight SeniorSuperintendents of Police(SSPs) including PPS officerSandeep Goel and IPS officerDhruv Dahiya.

Goel, whose speech in apolice-public interaction eventadmitting flaws in the policedepartment went viral, hasbeen shifted from Ferozepur toLudhiana (Rural) as the districtpolice chief.

Dahiya, who has beenposted as Tarn Taran SSP, hasbeen shifted from FatehgarhSahib after his team claimed tohave recovered Rs 16 crorefrom a Jalandhar priest.

The government has alsogiven new postings to thethree newly-promoted DGPs— Prabodh Kumar has beenposted as special DGP andBureau of Investigation direc-tor, Rohit Choudhary will bespecial DGP (Policy andRules), and Iqbal Preet SinghSahota has been elevated asspecial DGP (ArmedBattalions, Jalandhar).

ADGP Praveen KumarSinha has been posted as offi-ciating ADGP (Prisons) afterChaudhary has been movedout of Prisons Departmentfollowing his promotion toDGP level. Notably, there havebeen one after another inci-dents of violence in the statejails.

Sinha, who will now beheading Prisons department, isheading the SIT probing the Rs16-crore cash scandal involv-ing a Jalandhar priest.

He had arrested two policeconstables from Kerala afterthey ran off with nearly Rsseven crore recovered from thepriest.

Besides, Vivek Sheel Sonihas been posted Ferozepur

SSP, while Kuldeep Singh hasbeen given the charge ofMohali SSP.

IPS officers Deepak Hilory,and Gaurav Garg have beenposted as SSPs of Pathankotand Hoshiarpur, respectively.PPS officers Bhupinder Singhand Narinder Bhargav havebeen posted as SSPs of Fazilkaand Mansa, respectively.

Senior IPS officer ADGPGaurav Yadav has been givenadditional charge of theLitigation Wing.

Senior IPS officer IshwarSingh has been posted asADGP (Law and Order), whileJitendra Kumar Jain will alsohold additional charge of theDirector State Crime RecordsBureau Punjab.

ADGP Shashi PrabhaDwivedi has been given addi-tional charge of the WomenAffairs, while ADGP RNDhoke will look after the addi-tional charge of the ADGPSecurity and the CommunityAffairs and NRI, Punjab.

B Chandra Sekhar hasbeen posted as inspector-gen-eral (IG) Crime (Bureau ofInvestigation), while PramodBan has been posted as IGInformation Technology andTelecommunications.

G Nageswara Rao has beengiven the charge of IG STF,while Balkar Singh has beenposted as IG SpecialInvestigations. LK Yadav hasbeen given the charge of IG-cum-Director VigilanceBureau and Mohnish Chawlahas been posted as IG-cum-Director Economic OffenceWing (EOW).

Shive Kumar Verma hasbeen posted as IG Crime andJaskaran Singh has been givenadditional charge of IGDisaster Management, Punjab.IPS officer Gurpreet SinghToor has been posted as DIGSTF, the spokesperson said.

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Ordering immediate sus-pension of an Assistant

Food Supply Officer and threeinspectors of the Departmentof Food Supply, the State’sFood, Civil Supplies andConsumer Affairs MinisterBharat Bhushan Ashu onThursday made it clear that theDepartment maintains ‘no con-donation stance over malprac-tices’.

He said that the Food andCivil Supplies Departmentdeals with distribution of foodgrains to the economicallyweaker households. “Anyattempt of pilferage or diver-sion in the food grains for poorcannot be overlooked. It is notjust dereliction in duty but it isgrossly unethical,” said Ashu.

Ashu said that SumitKumar, posted as Food andCivil Supplies inspector atGurdaspur, Jagtar Singh atHoshiarpur, Khushwant Singhinspector at Ludhiana andJaswinder Singh, AFSO,Ludhiana, have been sus-pended over “fabricating glar-ing deficiency in distribution offood grains”.

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Recognising the gravity ofthe crime, the Punjab and

Haryana High Court onThursday heard on prioritypetitions of the victim's fami-ly and the six convicts in thebrutal rape and murder of aneight-year-old girl in Kathua inJammu and Kashmir.

The pleas —one moved bythe victim father's seekingdeath penalty for the heinousact and another by the sixconvicts challenging their con-viction -- were listed for hear-ing jointly along with the pleaof one of the convicts seeking

suspension of his sentence.After hearing the case

briefly, the bench led by JusticeRajiv Sharma made it clear thatthe court would deliver justice.

"If we don't hear it, the casewill hang," he observed.

His assertions came whensenior advocate R.S. Cheema,appearing for the state ofJammu and Kashmir, told thecourt that an appeal was yet tobe filed by the state and all theissues could be taken uptogether. Appearing for one ofthe accused, another senioradvocate J.S. Bedi also soughttime to argue the case, citingvoluminous records.

Refusing to grant a longdate, the bench fixed the nexthearing in the case for August7. Simultaneously, the courtissued notice to the accusedand the state of Jammu andKashmir. The victim's fatherhas sought an enhancement ofthe life sentence awarded tothree of the convicts who weresentenced to life imprison-ment by a trial court inPathankot in Punjab on June10.

The special court had con-victed six of the eight accusedin the crime and pronounceda life imprisonment to three -- temple priest and mastermind

Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuriaand Parvesh Kumar.Investigating officer Raj Duttaand Special Police OfficerSurinder Kumar were also sen-tenced to five years in jail fordestroying crucial evidence inthe case.

Sanji Ram's son Vishal wasacquitted due to lack of evi-dence, but the fate of his minornephew, also among theaccused, will be decided by ajuvenile court.

According to thechargesheet, the girl, whobelonged to a Muslim nomadictribe, was kidnapped and heldcaptive at a village temple inKathua district on January 10,2018.The 15-page chargesheetsaid the eight-year-old girl wasstarved, sedated and repeated-ly raped in captivity over sev-eral days before being blud-geoned to death.

Her mutilated body wasfound in a forest on January 17.Three days later, one of theaccused -- reportedly a juvenile-- was arrested by the police,the chargesheet said. Theabduction, rape and killing ofthe child was part of a careful-ly planned strategy to removethe minority nomadic com-munity from the area, it added.

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After their 29 years old sonRavi Kapoor was declared

brain dead, Kapoor familyfrom Derabassi was left with adecision that no one wants tomake. Should Ravi become anorgan donor?

“In the midst of their grief,they said yes to organ donation.They were able to look beyondtheir own pain, so that no otherparent would have to feel thedepth of loss that they wereexperiencing,” said Prof. VipinKoushal, nodal officer, ROTTO(NORTH) PGIMER whilebriefing about the latest case ofdeceased organ donation herein PGIMER.

Prof. Koushal said,“Through their selflessness andmagnanimity, they turned theirgravest tragedy into a precious‘gift of life’ and ‘gift of sight’ forfive others here in PGIMERwith the transplantation ofliver, kidneys and corneas.”

Ravi Kapoor had sufferedprofound head injuries in afreak accident after his scoot-er was hit by a stray animal onthe intervening night of July 13and 14 on the outskirts ofDerabassi. Immediately, thefamily and friends rushed fatal-ly injured Ravi to local Civil

Hospital from where he wastaken to Govt. Medical College,Sector 32 here.

Ravi’s condition being pre-carious, he was referred toPGIMER and was admittedhere on the morning of July 14.However, the inevitable had tohappen as Ravi could not beretrieved from his critical con-dition and was declared brain-dead on July 17 after duly fol-lowing the protocols of THOA,Prof Koushal said.

Even in this darkest hourand amid his own grief, thefather Kuldeep Kapoor alongwith other family membersshowed exceptional courageby consenting to donate theorgans of his young son whenthe option of organ donationwas flagged to him by theTransplant coordinator on dutyin PGIMER, he said.

“Our tragedy is too grue-some for words. We don’t wantto focus on Ravi being gone orhow he died. We want to focuson the positive, and that’s whatorgan donation has taught us todo. It seems Ravi’s life had apurpose. His mortal journeyhas ended because others wereto live because of him throughorgan donation,” said KuldeepKapoor after he signed fororgan donation of his deceased

son.“Despite being no more,

his legacy is living on by help-ing five others continue withtheir lives, and their parentsand all the lives that are beingtouched as a result”, added thegrieving but proud father of thedonor Ravi Kapoor.

Following the family’s deci-sion for organ donation, thetransplant surgeons retrievedliver and kidneys from thedonor, which on transplanta-tion, gave second chance at lifeto three terminally ill organfailure patients. Two othercorneal blind patients will gettheir eye sight restored with thetransplantation of retrievedcorneas of the donor. Thisway, five lives have beenimpacted with this 15thdeceased organ donation of2019 here in PGIMER, Prof.Koushal added.

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Punjab Government hasdecided to extend reservation

for sportspersons and children orgrandchildren of the Sikh riotvictims to its quota in privatemedical colleges for the under-graduate MBBS courses.

“These micro reservationsalready exist in GovernmentMedical Colleges, and the gov-ernment, as per its amendednotification of July 11, 2019, hasextended the same now to theGovernment quota of 50 percentto private colleges also,” submit-ted the state Advocate-GeneralAtul Nandu before the Punjaband Haryana High Court onThursday.

Appearing on behalf of thestate earlier, the AG submittedthat through its revised notifi-cation of July 11, it had amend-ed its previous notification datedJune 6, 2019.

Nanda later scotchedrumours in a section of themedia that it had taken a standin the court against similar reser-vation in private colleges forwards of army personnel whohad died in action. The issue ofsuch reservation never arose inthe Court and there was no ques-

tion, hence, of the StateGovernment taking any suchstand, he categorically stated.

Earlier, the Court asked thestate as to whether such microreservation could also be appliedby the Court to the balance 50percent management quota insuch private colleges.

The Court was informedthat although this issue wasbeyond the scope of the presentpetition, the State would notadopt an adversarial approachwhen it came to any welfare mea-sure. The same could be dis-cussed and decided after thecourt had the opportunity toperuse the various ConstitutionBench judgments in this regard,especially that of PA Inamdar,said the AG.

The case has been adjournedfor Friday, July 19. Meanwhile,Capt has made it clear that hisGovernment was keen to provideany welfare measure, as needed,in the interest of the state.

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Punjab Tourism and CulturalAffairs Minister Charanjit

Singh Channi on Thursdayurged the Union Tourism andCulture Minister Prahlad SinghPatel to release Rs 100 crore forthe celebrations of the 550thprakash purab of Guru NanakDev, besides awarding her-itage status for Dera BabaNanak and Batala.

Channi, who called uponPatel at his office in TransportBhawan at New Delhi, said thatthe devotees from all parts ofIndia and abroad as well thosewho respect the philosophy ofthe Great Guru are eagerlyawaiting to be a part of thesegrand celebrations.

“Keeping this in view, theUnion Government shouldrelease these funds on prioritybasis so that all the arrange-ments are made well inadvance,” Channi also extend-ed an invitation to the UnionTourism and Culture Ministerfor the celebrations by theState Government.

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Iran’s paramilitaryRevolutionary Guard forces

seized a foreign oil tankeraccused of smuggling oil, Iran’sstate TV reported on Thursday.The vessel appears to be aUnited Arab Emirates-basedtanker that had disappeared offtrackers in Iranian territorialwaters over the weekend.

The seizure was the latestin a series of dramatic devel-opments as tensions mountbetween the United States andIran over the unravellingnuclear deal between Tehranand world powers.

The Panamanian-flaggedoil tanker MT Riah stoppedtransmitting its location earlySunday near Qeshm Island,which has a RevolutionaryGuard base on it, according todata listed on tracking siteMaritime Traffic.

Iran’s state television didnot identify the seized vessel ornationalities of the crew, butsaid it was intercepted onSunday. It said the oil tankerhad 12 foreign crew members

on board and was involved insmuggling some 1 million liters(264,000 gallons) of fuel fromIranian smugglers to foreigncustomers.

The report said the oiltanker was intercepted south ofIran’s Larak Island in the Straitof Hormuz. Larak is a smallerisland just southeast of thelarger Qeshm Island.

Crude prices, which hadbeen falling since last week,ticked higher almost immediately after reports of theincident.

The seizure of the shipdoes not immediately appear todirectly target any one partic-ular country and shows theRevolutionary Guard crack-ing down on illegal smugglingof Iranian oil.

If the MT Riah was indeedthe ship seized, the movedirectly singles out UAE-boundand based vessels. The 58-meter (190-foot) Riah typical-ly made trips from Dubai andSharjah on the UAE’s westcoast before going through thestrait and heading to Fujairahon the UAE’s east coast.

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Going after four Democraticcongresswomen one by

one, a combative PresidentDonald Trump turned his cam-paign rally into an extendeddissection of the liberal viewsof the women of color, derid-ing them for what he paintedas extreme positions and sug-gesting they just get out.

“Tonight I have a suggestionfor the hate-filled extremistswho are constantly trying to tearour country down,” Trump toldthe crowd in North Carolina, aswing state he won in 2016 andwants to claim again in 2020.“They never have anythinggood to say. That’s why I say,‘Hey if you don’t like it, let ‘emleave, let ‘em leave.’”

Eager to rile up his base

with the some of the same kindof rhetoric he targeted atminorities and women in 2016,Trump declared Wednesdaynight, “I think in some casesthey hate our country.”

Trump’s jabs were aimed atthe self-described “squad” offour freshmen Democrats whohave garnered attention sincetheir arrival in January fortheir outspoken liberal viewsand distaste for Trump: Reps.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ofNew York, Ilhan Omar ofMinnesota, Ayanna Pressleyof Massachusetts and RashidaTlaib of Michigan. All wereborn in the U.S. except forOmar, who came to the U.S. asa child after fleeing Somaliawith her family.

Taking the legislators onone at a time, Trump tickedthrough a laundry list of whathe deemed offensive commentsby each woman, mangling andmisconstruing many facts

along the way.Omar came under the

harshest criticism as Trumpplayed to voters’ grievances,drawing a chant from thecrowd of “Send her back! Sendher back!”

She responded Wednesdaynight with a series of tweets,including one quoting MayaAngelou’s defiant poem, “StillI Rise,” with the words “Youmay shoot me with yourwords... But still, like air, I’llrise.” “I am where I belong, atthe people’s house and you’rejust gonna have to deal!” shewrote in another.

Trump set off a firestormSunday when he tweeted thatthe four should “go back” totheir home countries — thoughthree were born in the UnitedStates. Trump has accusedthem of “spewing some of themost vile, hateful and disgust-ing things ever said by a politi-cian.”

He expanded on his criti-cisms in Greenville.

Among his complaintsagainst Tlaib, Trump correctlyreported that she had referredto the president by the “F-word,” adding, “That’s not nice,even for me.” Trump himselfhad unloaded a vulgarity ear-lier in his speech, denouncingthe Russia probe of his cam-paign and administration as“bulls.” As for Ocasio-Cortez,Trump fumbled over her nameand declared, “I don’t havetime to go with three differentnames.” He then referred to heras just “Cortez” as he chal-lenged her complaints aboutdire conditions at migrantdetention centers at the border.

In a lighter moment,Trump wondered if Pressleywas related to Elvis Presley,then pivoted to more seriouspoints, claiming she thoughtpeople of color should “thinkthe same.”

Brussels: Britain is due toleave the EU in 15 weeks withor without an agreement onfuture ties and officials fromboth sides are trading insultsinspired by a 1970s WWII sit-com. In a BBC documentary tobe screened on Thursday, EUCommission vice presidentFrans Timmermans recallsBritish negotiators behavinglike characters in “Dad’s Army”.

The beloved British seriesfeatures a World War II HomeGuard unit of mainly elderly

volunteers and their madcapadventures as they await aGerman invasion that nevercame. Timmermans, recallingBrexit talks with British min-isters, said, “It’s like LanceCorporal Jones, you know?‘Don’t panic, don’t panic,’ run-ning around like idiots.”

On Thursday, Britain’sjunior Brexit minister MartinCallanan was asked about thecomments as he arrived inBrussels for talks with other EUGovernments. AFP

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Aman screaming “You die!”burst into an animation

studio in Kyoto, doused it witha flammable liquid and set it onfire Thursday, killing 33 peoplein an attack that shocked animefans across Japan and beyond.

Thirty-six others wereinjured, some of them critical-ly. The suspect was hurt andtaken to a hospital. Police iden-tified him only a 41-year-oldman who was not a companyemployee. They gave no imme-diate details on the motive.

Most of the victims wereemployees at Kyoto Animation,which does work on featurefilms and TV productions butis best known for its mega-hitstories featuring high schoolgirls. The stories are so popu-lar that some of the placesdepicted have become pil-grimage sites for fans.

The blaze started in thethree-story building in Japan’sancient capital after the attack-

er sprayed an unidentified liq-uid accelerant, police and fireofficials said.

Japanese media reportedthe fire might have been setnear the front door, forcingpeople to find other ways out.

Firefighters found 33 bod-

ies, 20 of them on the thirdfloor and some on the stairs tothe roof, where they apparent-ly collapsed while trying to getout, Kyoto fire official KazuhiroHayashi said. Two were founddead on the first floor, 11 oth-ers on the second floor, he said.

A witness who saw theattacker being approached bypolice told Japanese networksthat the man admitted spread-ing gasoline and setting the firewith a lighter. She told NHKpublic television that the manhad burns on his arms and legsand that he was angrily com-plaining that something of hishad been “stolen,” possibly bythe company.

NHK footage also showedsharp knives police had col-lected from the scene, thoughit was not clear if they belongedto the attacker. Survivors saidhe was screaming “You die!” ashe dumped the liquid, accord-ing to Japanese media. Theysaid some of the survivors gotsplashed with the liquid.

Kyoto Animation, betterknown as KyoAni, was found-ed in 1981 as an animation andcomic book production studio,and its hits include “Lucky Star” of 2008, “K-On!”in 2011 and “Haruhi Suzumiya”in 2009.

Washington: The US Housevoted to block USD 8.1 billionin arms sales to Saudi Arabiaand other allies, a rebuke ofDonald Trump that will likelylead to a veto by the president.

Lawmakers, many ofwhom are outraged with thekingdom over Riyadh’s role inthe murder of Saudi journalistJamal Khashoggi last year,approved three resolutions thatwould prevent the controversialsales announced under emer-gency measures earlier thisyear by Trump. The resolutionsblocking the sales have alreadycleared the US Senate, andnow go to the White House,where Trump is expected to

issue a veto, the third of hispresidency.

While the House blockedthe sales with a comfortablemajority, it was about 50 votesshy of the two-thirds needed tooverride Trump’s veto.

Trump is seeking 22 sepa-rate sales of aircraft supportmaintenance, precision-guidedmunitions and other weaponsand equipment to Saudi Arabia,the United Arab Emirates andJordan at a moment of height-ened tensions in the MiddleEast. Critics say the arms saleswould aggravate the devastat-ing war in Yemen, where SaudiArabia is leading a US-backedcoalition in a battle against the

London: Boris Johnson, thefrontrunner to be Britain’s nextPrime Minister, suggested theEU would bear some respon-sibility if he took his countryout of the bloc without adivorce deal. The formerLondon mayor has based hiscampaign to replace TheresaMay on a promise to deliverBrexit as planned on October31, with or without an agree-ment with Brussels.

In a final campaign eventin London ahead of theannouncement of the winnernext week, Johnson said that hewould seek to negotiate newexit terms with the EuropeanUnion over the summer.

But he said that if the EUrefused to be flexible or com-promise on the existing with-

drawal agreement, “if theywon’t change a dot or acomma... Then obviously wehave no choice but to get readyto come out on different terms”.

EU leaders have repeated-ly said they will not renegoti-ate the divorce text they struckwith May last year, even thoughit has been rejected by Britishlawmakers three times.

But Johnson and his rival,Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt,insist they will try, notably byremoving the controversial“backstop” plan to keep openthe border with Ireland.

They have threatened towalk away if they fail — toughtalk that caused the pound tofall Wednesday to its lowestlevel against the US dollar inmore than two years. AFP

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Iranian-supported Huthirebels, and which the UN saidhas triggered the world’s worsthumanitarian crisis. AFP

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The US-China vitriol has shift-ed back from the trade tablesto its more familiar turf of theSouth China Sea, where Chinahas provocatively tested anti-

ship missiles from the man-made struc-tures around the intensely contestedSpratly Islands. This area has been hotlycounter-claimed in parts by Vietnam,Philippines and Taiwan; whereas theChinese have brazenly appropriated sov-ereignty over the entire 1.3 millionsquare miles of the South China Sea.

The restive waters of the region haveseen shadow-boxing of global powerswith the US attempting a “balance” withplatforms like the Quadrilateral SecurityDialogue or Quad — potentially poolingstrategic concerns and resources of majorregional powers (US, Japan, India andAustralia) that cannot be coerced likesome others, who are directly affected bythe Chinese belligerence and assertions.This latest escalation has all the hallmarksof a typical Chinese incitement withBeijing reneging on its earlier pledgemade by President Xi Jinping in 2015 thatit would not militarise these outposts.

To rub its symbolism, the Chinesepublicly announced the military exercis-es and missile-testing as an intrinsic partof the agenda, knowing fully well the reac-tion that it would elicit in the wary neigh-bourhood.

The primary stake for the Chinese inthe ongoing war of attrition is to fructi-fy its hegemonic ambitions, which, there-fore, manifest in its trade wars with theUS; unleashing of the gargantuan infra-structural inter-linkages via the Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI); carrot and stick pol-icy of dominating its neighbours andindeed, keeping the kettle boiling for Indiawith “Doklam” or its more ambitious“String of Pearls” approach. It either bul-lies or buys subservience with impunity.For example, the Philippines succumbedto its willful subservience despite havingwon the case of maritime claims againstthe Chinese in the International Court ofJustice, Hague. In the melee, the chess-board of international diplomacy is rifewith moves and counter-moves to check-mate each other, with the brutal play ofrealpolitik overruling any sense of states-manship or morality. To cite an example,the deliberate veto-roadblocks that Beijingcreated in favour of Pakistan while delay-ing the designation of Jaish-e-Mohammadchief Masood Azhar as an “internationalterrorist” in the United Nations.

At the heart of this patented Chinesedefiance is its famed economic juggernautthat is fuelling its ambitions, power andstratagem to continuously push ahead.The Chinese “economic miracle” is pred-icated on the free flow of materials to-and-fro from the mainland, including thesurvival-linked energy resources that

sustain its hyper factories.This explains the Chineserestlessness and militarybuild-up to keep their seawaysfree from any potential block-ade. Beyond flexing its mili-tary muscle, China has alsoinvested in a mammoth baseof approximately 500 millionbarrels of Strategic PetroleumReserves (SPR) as an emer-gency contingency, should theseaways ever get disrupted,deliberately or otherwise.While the Chinese Navy doesnot possess a “Blue WaterNavy” as yet, it has worked onthe idea of “Pearl Ports” inplaces beyond its arc-of-dom-inance in the South ChinaSeas like Sri Lanka, theMaldives to even Bangladeshand Myanmar. The doomsdayscenario of a seaway “block-ade” (even temporary) canbe fatal for the regime and ithas led the Chinese to puntanother $60 billion in theChina Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) as a possi-ble alternative.

However, amid this calcu-lus of geo-strategic manoeu-vres lies the most vulnerable“choke point” from a Chineseperspective, ie, the ultra-nar-row and practically-unavoid-able Malacca Straits that opens

at the lower tip of the Indiansovereign waters, afforded bythe outpost of Andaman andNicobar Islands, 1,200 kmaway from the Indian main-land. Just 1.5 km wide at itsnarrowest point, this strait isamong the busiest sea trafficin the world with over1,00,000 vessels transiting ayear, positioning an invaluablejugular grip for India. Unlikethe tensions of disputes andthe domineering reach of theChinese military in SouthChina Seas — the watersaround Malacca Straits areundisputed and beyond thedominance zone of theChinese. The Chinese areextremely vulnerable and theyhave tried “investing” inMalaysia, taken unwarrantedinterest in Coco Islands on thenorthern tip of Andaman andNicobar Islands and even“leased” a port in Sri Lanka for99 years. Yet, no major break-through has been achieved bythe Chinese and the jugular ofMalacca Straits exists.

This jugular, among theother scale strengths of India,underlies the strategic logic ofthe US “pivot” against theChinese. In a symbolic ode tothe Indian dimension andinevitability, the US renamed

its unified command for theregion to “United States Indo-Pacific Command (USIN-DOPACOM)” to recognisethe specificity of the Indiantheatre. It is this commandwhich is at the forefront ofcountering the Chinesemachinations and shadow-boxing with its own countermoves.

So far the military movesof the South China Sea havenot been extended to areasproximate to the Andamanand Nicobar Islands, thoughIndia, too, holds a defensiveTri-Services command of itsown here. The Government islooking into adding “firepow-er” by way of infrastructureand wherewithal, given thestrategic stakes and potentiallevers in its vicinity. So whilethe US-Chinese tensions maynot be resonating in our back-yard just as yet, the stakehold-ers, military commands andconcerns of the South ChinaSea tensions have their con-ceptual epicentre and jugularin an area that is looming inthe shadows of Indian territo-rial waters.

(The writer, a military veter-an, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands andPuducherry)

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Sir — The Indian Railways send-ing water wagons to Chennai res-idents is commendable. TheGovernment should now exten-sively involve citizens in the effortto conserve water. Meticulousplanning, including initiatingsteps for rainwater harvesting, willhelp satisfy every citizen’s need forwater.

Efforts to conserve water atthe micro-level and public aware-ness programmes should increasemanifold. Rainwater harvestingand building dams are someoptions that can help conservewater. Also, charges on watershould be increased to deter peo-ple from wasting it. Chennai’sacute water crisis is a wake-up call to all citizens to use waterjudiciously. The Governmentcould also involve multiple agen-cies to bring efficiency and inno-vation in water conservation. Aneffort should be made to reachout to international water agen-cies to understand and adoptsmarter ways to conserve waterand help citizens consume waterin a judicious manner.

Varun DambalBengaluru

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Sir — It’s shocking that the clos-ing doors of a Metro trapped aman’s hand as he was trying to getin, dragging him almost 60metres along Kolkata’s Park Streetstation to his death. One is forcedto ask how could the train start

if the gap between the doors wasmore than the standard tolerancelimit of 15 millimetres — whichmust have been the case if a per-son’s hand was stuck betweenthem.

A month ago, an inherentfault in one of the new rakesdelivered by the Integral CoachFactory in Perambur – the very

kind which the deceased, SajalKumar Kanjilal, tried to board —developed a snag, throwing thecity’s lifeline out of gear for overfour hours.

It is intriguing that IntegralCoach Factory (ICF) rakes areoperated only in Kolkata. TheMetro authorities must ensurethat the rakes that are piled are

of the highest quality. A life hasbeen lost and responsibility forit needs to be appropriated. Wasthe motorman at fault or was ita technical glitch? Either way,Metro Railways must get to thebottom of this and make suresuch an incident does not occuragain.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — The return of the greatdeluge in Assam due to floodsyet again proves the fact that theGovernment has not learnt anylessons from past devastationand losses. It is known thatAssam is susceptible to damageby flood waters every year. Thetopography of the State is suchthat it is extremely difficult totackle the floods. While imme-diate measures should focus onrescue, relief and rehabilitation,the Government should devoteextra focus, given its scale andrecurrence.

SwapnilVia email

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It’s being called the “new McCarthyism”.This spike in media censorship and relent-less demonisation of those considered to be

enemies because they hold different points ofview. It’s gone global. But first, a bit aboutMcCarthyism. The old one.

At the end of World War II, the then USPresident Harry Truman signed an executiveorder, which required all civil service employ-ees to be screened for loyalty. The orderrequired that federal Government employees beinvestigated whether they had had any past linkswith “‘un-American” organisations and whichcould undermine the loyalty of a Governmentemployee towards the US’ interests. Between1949 and 1955, various committees were formedto root out “the enemy within.”

In a 2014 essay, “Creating the IdealisedNemesis,” author and literary critic AlexanderChirila writes that, between 1920 and the begin-ning of World War II, the US had largely followedan isolationist path by refusing to play any majorrole in international politics. However, after itdecided to join the war in 1941, the isolationist pol-icy was abandoned. By the end of the war in 1945,the US had become a major international power.But so did its erstwhile war ally, the Soviet Union.

Chirila wrote that the shift from voluntary iso-lationism to active international interventionismtriggered a suspicious mindset within America’sbody-politic. This resulted in certain policies andnarratives that were constructed by segregatingwhat was “patriotic Americanism” from what was-n’t. So anything that allegedly wasn’t “patriotic”became “communist” and, thus, “dangerous.”

Interestingly, though Truman’s executiveorder was signed in this environment, it was alsolobbied for by those, who believed that during theunprecedented four terms of former President FDRoosevelt (1933-45), “communists” within the UShad already “infiltrated” the American state andGovernment.

Most large businesses had explainedRoosevelt’s economic policies as being “social-ist.” When Truman became President in 1945,a firebrand senator from Wisconsin, JosephMcCarthy, claimed that the federal Governmentwas crawling with socialists and communists,who were working against domestic and inter-national US interests. In 1950, McCarthy bran-dished a list in which he claimed were names of205 state employees who were or had been mem-bers of communist organisations.

Committees sprang up within Governmentagencies and in various private companies to iden-tify possible communists “working to weakenAmerica.” The hysteria spilled over and evenHollywood script-writers, actors and directors sus-pected of having communist links and sympathieswere reined in. E Schrecker, in his 1998 book, ManyAre the Crimes, writes that the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI) doubled the number of its agentsto help the Government investigate possible “com-munist saboteurs” in various fields.

Dozens of state workers, artists and others wereinvestigated and demonised. Many lost their jobsand could not find any other means of income. Thehysteria was also used by lobbies, who were againstpublic health services. According to an essay in the1994 anthology, Psychiatry in Transition, these lob-bies claimed that forced vaccination, mental care

services and the fluoridation of water were “plansof communist world Government.”

The hysteria began to subside after McCarthylooked more and more like a demented, egotisti-cal demagogue and when the Government ofDwight Eisenhower (1952-61) realised that thecommotion was doing more damage than good tothe American image. McCarthy was increasinglydiscredited by certain journalists and he died in1957 due to alcoholism. But his name became asso-ciated with a tendency that makes unabashed andreckless accusations of treason and unpatriotic actswithout offering any convincing evidence. This ten-dency became known as McCarthyism.

Till the end of the Cold War in 1989,McCarthyism was often seen as a demagogic, right-wing tendency, even though deadlier purges of thisnature took place in the Soviet Union, China andin Cambodia against so-called “counter-revolution-aries.” Recently, the social psychologist Lee Jussimand controversial clinical psychologist ProfessorJordan Peterson have been turning the idea ofMcCarthyism on its head by explaining “newMcCarthyism” as the liberal-left version of oldMcCarthyism.

In an essay for Psychology Today, Jussim citesthe findings of an elaborate 2014 research, whichsay that there has been “a rising tide of leftist intol-erance” on American campuses. It has resulted inharassment, even violence, directed at speakers fromnon-left backgrounds. Speakers who present per-spectives challenging “leftist sacred cows” such asaffirmative action, diversity programmes andfeminism have been subject to aggressive, intoler-ant, “proto-authoritarian” tactics, according to him.

The report concluded that “students andteachers who refuse to hear opposing viewpointswill be less likely to learn critical thinking skills andless able to defend their own beliefs once off-cam-pus.” Professor Peterson blames post-modernismfor the intolerance exhibited by the liberals and newleftists. He describes post-modernists as “cultural

Marxist conspiracy theorists”, who emerged in the1970s after Marxism failed to win the class war. Headds that post-modernists readjusted Marxism’score axiom of class struggle to other frameworksof perceived group power struggles: Race, sex andethnicity among other things.

Whereas post-modernism had already disin-tegrated by the 1990s into meaning nothing morethan empty intellectual kitsch, Peterson says it wenton to create subjects such as sociology, anthropol-ogy, gender and ethnic studies, which he believesuse “unscientific methods” to reach conclusions thathave more to do with peddling ideologies than intel-ligence. He says these create “cult-like behaviour”,which can explain the manner in which the so-called neo-leftists have been reacting to opposingpoints of view. Peterson’s own views have often beencriticised as conspiracy theories.

But in an environment where the far-rightis going mainstream in various countries, it can’tbe effectively challenged by the kind of liberal-left Peterson is critiquing. Simply because, itseems, more than anything else causes beingchampioned by the new liberal-left are a way tojust appease individual existential crises — thatold post-modernist trap. Thus, the reactionarybehaviour and thin-skinned responses, which arecoming from a disposition of misplaced arro-gance, self-righteousness, and an assortment ofintellectual and emotional insecurities.

The response (to the far-right) wouldrequire a more informed (and less reactive)retort which should involve making pragmat-ic alliances. But such alliances cannot be madewhen the new liberal-left too spirals into actsof demonisation and reckless accusations. Infact, Peterson believes that it is this which hasgiven birth to dangerous reactions in theshape of the rise of the far-right and the discred-iting of once-powerful ideas such as democra-cy and socialism.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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So much has been said and writ-ten about India’s “demographicdividend” that we have collective-

ly failed to take note of a looming age-ing crisis and its potential conse-quences. As our largely “under 35”population ages, the strength of whathas been touted as India’s “demograph-ic dividend” would gradually turn intoa disadvantage over the next twodecades. According to a 2017 reportby the United Nations PopulationFund (UNFPA), around 12.5 percent of India’s population will be 60years and older by 2030; by 2050 thiswill increase to one-fifth of the pop-ulation. With declining fertility, reduc-tion in mortality and increasing sur-vival at older ages, the shift in the age

structure from young to old is expected to be enormous over the nextfew decades.

Unfortunately, there is a hugedenial of the fact that we are witness-ing a shift towards an ageing popula-tion. The lack of focus on this shiftimplies that we are completely unpre-pared to meet the situation with littleemphasis on improving our elderlycare structure, health structure orbuilding a social support system toaddress this shift.

An inverted pyramidIn many parts of the world,

declining fertility, coupled with an age-ing crisis, has turned the populationstructure into an inverted pyramid. InNorway, Finland and Iceland, birthrates dropped to historic lows in 2017.“Norway needs more children! I don’tthink I need to tell anyone how thisis done”, Norway’s Prime Minister wasquoted as saying earlier this year in acheeky yet desperate appeal that high-lights the ageing problem in that coun-try. In Japan, the population is expect-ed to shrink 16 per cent by 2045 com-pared to 2015. China, which con-trolled its birth rates by imposing a

one-child norm for decades, is alsofacing a similar crisis.

With one of the fastest-growingabove 60 populations in the world,India will be sailing in the same boatin a few years from now. A top-heavypopulation structure implies that alarge elderly population has to dependupon incomes generated by a dwin-dling younger workforce. With ahuge paucity of caregivers expected toarise, it also implies the need for cre-ating avenues of social andGovernment support for the elderly.

Planning for the demographic

transitionAt the policy level, India has

shown recognition of the looming cri-sis. India’s National Policy on OlderPersons (NPOP) was drafted way backin 1999, which envisaged state supportto ensure financial and food security,health care, shelter and other needs ofolder persons. The landmarkMaintenance and Welfare of Parentsand Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, soughtto make it a legal obligation for chil-dren and heirs to provide maintenanceto senior citizens.

Unfortunately, there is little prepa-

ration visible on the ground. Ourhealthcare system is grossly unpre-pared. With an increasingly ageingpopulation, there will not just be a risein physical ailments but also anincrease in the incidence of mentaland neurological conditions such asdepression, dementia and Alzheimeramong other things. This will requirea significant institutional as well associetal preparedness. Most hospitalsour country do not even have dedi-cated geriatric wards while prepared-ness in terms of nursing staff to carefor the elderly is also highly inade-quate.

In terms of preventive healthcare,we as a society are not even focussingon measures to start educating thepeople to prepare for older age byadopting healthy lifestyles and gooddietary habits that will keep themhealthier and fitter for a longer peri-od of time.

Ensuring dignity and comfortfor the elderly

According to estimates by theUNFPA report, only about one-thirdof the older men and women in Indiareceive income from employers or

social pensions. A study published inBMC Geriatrics journal found thatabout 17.93 per cent of the elderly menand 26.21 per cent of elderly womenexperience some form of disability inthree activities of daily living needed fora better quality of life. In India, it is nor-mative for families to take care of theneeds of older people. However, we areincreasingly witnessing the phenom-enon of elderly parents living alone aschildren have to move out, sometimesabroad to pursue their own lives.

Institutional preparedness is need-ed to address these issues if we wantour young citizens of today to lead dig-nified and comfortable lives tomorrow.Apart from developing schemes toensure income security for the elder-ly and building an ecosystem of care-givers, we also need to create mech-anisms that can improve quality of life.The Government must not onlylaunch its own preparatory mecha-nisms but also encourage start ups tocreate technologically-powered solu-tions for the elderly.

(The writer is director and creativestrategist of an advertising and consult-ing agency)

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Gandhinagar: In a major blowto the Congress in Gujarat, for-mer party legislators AlpeshThakor and Dhavalsinh Zalajoined the BJP on Thursday.

Thakor and Zala hadresigned as MLAs on July 5,apparently after voting againstCongress candidates in theRajya Sabha bypolls.

A prominent OBC leaderof Gujarat, Thakor describedthe BJP as a party of "disci-plined workers" and said it wasdifficult for him to work for hiscommunity when he was in theCongress.

"I was feeling suffocated inthe Congress as I could notwork for development of thepoor people of my communi-ty. In that party (the Congress),no work can be done due toinfighting and attitude of itsleaders, said Thakor.

He praised the leadershipof Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, who isalso the BJP chief.

The 43-year-old ex-MLAfrom Radhanpur in Patan dis-

trict said the BJP is a "disci-plined party" where the voiceof its workers is heard.

Thakor and Zala joined theruling party at a function heldin its headquarters here in thepresence of Gujarat BJP presi-dent Jitu Vaghani.

Zala, a close associate ofThakor, was the MLA fromBayad in Sabarkantha district.In the past, Zala had said hewas not feeling comfortable inthe Opposition party.

Thakor had joined theCongress in 2017 just ahead ofthe assembly polls that year.The opposition party fieldedthe OBC leader fromRadhanpur in the December2017 assembly polls and heemerged victorious from theseat.

During the 2017 assemblypoll campaign, Thakor hadshared the dais with Congressleader Rahul Gandhi on mul-tiple occasions. PTI

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Solapur: Some Congress andNCP MLAs will resign andjoin the BJP within a week or10 days, the saffron party'snewly-appointed Maharashtraunit chief Chandrakant Patilclaimed on Thursday.

The NCP was quick to hitback at Patil over his claim,saying he was making such astatement to create confusionin the opposition camp aheadof the Assembly polls.

"There will be resigna-tions of lot many Congress,NCP MLAs this week," Patiltold reporters at the govern-ment rest house here.

The BJP leader, however,refrained from naming theopposition legislators who arelikely to switch over to the rul-ing party.

"The fun part of it will bemissing if I reveal the names.The fun of life lies in theuncertainty. So, let it remainthat way," he said cryptically.

On Wednesday also, Patilsaid one should not be sur-prised if any of the fiveMaharashtra working presi-

dents of the Congress joinedthe BJP in the coming days.

The Congress lastSaturday appointed BalasahebThorat as its state unit presi-dent.

It also appointed NitinRaut, Basawaraj M Patil,Vishwajeet Kadam, YashomatiChandrakant Thakur andMuzaffer Hussain as its work-ing presidents for the state.

NCP chief spokespersonNawab Malik said Patil's com-ments implied the ruling partylacked enough candidates tofight the state Assembly polls,due in September-October,and therefore, the attempt tocreate confusion.

Malik exuded confidencethat no one from the NCP wasgoing to switch over to the BJP.

"They want to create con-fusion among the oppositionrank and file. Their claims sug-gest they do not have candi-dates and hence, are trying toimport candidates from otherparties. No one from the NCPis going to defect (to the BJP),"Malik said. PTI

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Karachi-based underworlddon Dawood Ibrahim

Kaskar’s nephew MohammedRizwan Iqbal Hasan ShaikhIbrahim (Kaskar) and two of hisaccomplices have been arrestedby the Mumbai police in con-nection with extortion-cum-organised crime.

Rizwan Ibrahim aliasKaskar (30) was arrested at theChhatrapati Shivaji MaharajInternational Airport here onWednesday night, while he wastrying to flee to Dubai in theUnited Arab Emirates (UAE)with his wife.

Based on the informationprovided by Rizwan Kaskar,the police arrested two of hisaides Ahmedraja AfrozWadharia (24) and AshfakRafique Towelwala (34) in con-nection with the same extor-tion-cum-organised crime case.

All the three arrested gang-sters were allegedly involved inorganised crime. Initial investi-gations have revealed that thethree gangsters had handedextortion threats to several busi-nessmen in the city.

The three arrested gangsters

were on Thursday producedbefore a city court, whichremanded them in police cus-tody till July 22.

Rizwan Kaskar’s arrest is afallout of arrest and interroga-tion of Dawood’s gang memberFahim Machmach, in an extor-tion case.

Machmach was arrested atthe city international airportwhen he returned from Dubaion July 15. “During the inter-rogation, Machmach told usthat it was he who introducedAhmedraja Wadharia to RizwanKaskar and also to the membersof the Chhota Shakeel gang,” a

senior police official said.Machmach’s arrest came in

connection with a disputebetween traders dealing withimport goods. In one of thetaped telephonic concerned,Machmach handed out a threatto the complainant in June2019 in an earlier case and toldthe latter not to seek moneyfrom Ashfak Towelwala.

On Wednesday, the policewent to search Rizwan Kaskar’sresidence on Wednesday after-noon. In an effort to avoid hisarrest, Rizwan Kaskar and hiswife attempted to fly to Dubai,only to be arrested at the airport.

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Bengaluru: The Congress onThursday alleged in theKarnataka Assembly its MLAShreemant Patil, who suddenlydisappeared after being withthem at a resort and wentincommunicado, had been 'kid-napped' as part of efforts to 'top-ple' the coalition Government.

As the assembly debated theconfidence motion moved byChief Minister HDKumaraswamy, senior MinisterDK Shivakumar alleged Patilwas kidnapped and admitted toa hospital in Mumbai.

Patil's photographs emergedshowing him lying on a bed inahospital and undergoing ECGrelated tests.

Raising the issue,Shivakumar said "With foldedhands I am requesting theSpeaker of the house, my partyMLAs have been kidnapped.Ihave got a call from the familymembers. I want you to bringthem back sir. We want policeprotection."

The Congress MLAs said inunison that the lawmakers wereliving in fear and Patil was kid-napped, kept in a room, taken bya special flight and then admit-ted to a hospital.

Shivakumar said they wouldproduce documents to show thatPatil was forcibly admitted to thehospital to skip Assembly.

"I have documentary evi-dence. He is being held in a hos-pital... Patil traveled withLakshman Savadi (former BJPMLA) in the flight," he alleged.

Congress state presidentDinesh Gundu Rao alleged Patilwas with him till Wednesday,attended a meetingand was ingood health. However, sudden-ly he disappeared from theresort, where his party MLAswere staying. Rao said, "Whenwe tried to check where he hadgone, we could not find him. Hewas in good health but see thedrama of the BJP."

The remark led to panda-monium with BJP shouting himdown amid acrimoniousexchanges between the trea-

sury benches and the opposition.Intervening, Kumaraswamy

said "In the case of Patil, youmust explain, who sent his pho-tos on WhatsApp, who travelledwith him in the flight. Thespeaker has the responsibility tosafeguard the MLAs since num-bers matter in the vote."

C T Ravi of the BJP told theCongress members Patil was intheir 'custody' only and theywere making the allegationagainst his party as they lackednumbers.

"They don't have the num-bers. They are playing thisgame."

The Speaker then asked"Should I blindfold myself andsay I have no relation with it?Where are we heading?"

He told the House that hegot a letter, not written on theletterhead, purportedly by Patilsaying he had developed chestpain and had been hospitalised.

"Evidence before me is thatit is not natural.... I am dis-turbed," the speaker said anddirected Home Minister M BPatil to get in touch with theMLA's family and enquireabout his condition and reportback to him. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: Withthe southwest monsoon set tointensify in Kerala over the nextfew days, the IndiaMeteorological Department hassounded a red alert in Idukki,Pathanamthitta and Kottayamdistricts of the State.

The alarm has been sound-ed for Idukki district from July18 to 20, Pathanamthitta andKottayam districts for July 19.

The red alert has beengiven from July 19 as heavy tovery heavy rainfall would occurin Ernakulam district.

The red alert is a call toimmediately take preventivesteps to evacuate people fromvulnerable areas to sheltercamps and provide others withemergency kits.

The districts are likely toreceive extremely heavy rainfallupwards of 20 cm, an IMD offi-cial told PTI.

The officials said,Alappuzha district receivedheavy rainfall on July 17 with 6cm of rain.

Other districts are predict-ed to get isolated heavy to veryheavy rainfall on these days,though a red alert has not beenissued for them. PTI

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Siliguri (WB): The BSF hasrejected the claims of the BorderGuard Bangladesh that killing ofsmugglers is on the rise alongthe India-Bangladesh frontier,saying it is "completely incor-rect".

The Border Security Force(BSF) maintains that it fires onlywhen a situation turns "ugly"and the lives of its troops are indanger.

The BGB has accused theBSF of killing and torturingsmugglers along the border, anallegation rejected by the BSF.

The BSF implemented thenon-lethal strategy along theIndia-Bangladesh border in2011 which has led to a sharpdecline in the number of smug-glers getting killed along theborder, BSF Deputy InspectorGeneral (DIG) Mridul Sonowaltold PTI in Siliguri.

The usage of pump actiongun and three types of grenadesis one of the many key stepstaken by the BSF to reduce thedeath of smugglers, he said.

Asked about the claim ofBangladesh that the number ofkillings is going up, Sonowaltermed the allegation as "com-pletely incorrect".

"The non-lethal strategyhas been very effective along theborder. The allegations are base-less," the DIG said.

Recently, Bangladesh HomeMinister Asaduzzaman Khan,while speaking in Parliament inDhaka, accused the BSF of hav-ing killed 294 civilians along theborder in the past 10 years.

The issue of smugglerkillings came up during the DG-level talks between the twocountries.

During the 48th bi-annualDirector General-level talksbetween the BSF and the BGB

in Dhaka last month, it wasmutually decided to enhancecooperation to better checkcrime and smuggling of cattleand narcotics across the 4,096-km frontier.

In the meeting, the BSF andthe BGB decided to undertakejoint efforts to reduce incidentsof border killing.

Smuggling of cattle, drugsand narcotics, leather, arms andammunition has been a majorchallenge for the BSF and theBGB — the border guardingforces of the two countries.

According to the BSF, under

the non-lethal strategy, it has 12-bore pump action gun andthree types of hand grenades —stun, chilli and dye.

These weapons scare awaythe smugglers and criminalstrying to sneak into the Indianterritory as well as thoseattempting to cross over toBangladesh, DeputyCommandant of the BSFKunwar Singh Mahto said.

"The pump action gun is avery effective weapon in tack-ling the smugglers as it hardlymisses the target. The pellets hitthe target up to 24 metres,"Mahto said.

The three hand grenadescome handy when it comes toscaring away the smugglers ina large number. Stun grenadehas the ability to suddenlyfrighten the person while chilligrenade, as the name suggests,produces chilli smoke whichdeters the person from movingahead.

"Dye grenade paints blackcolour on the clothes and bodyof the smugglers in close range.It leads to the arrest of the smug-gler as the colour cannot bewashed away for 48 hours," theofficer said. PTI

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Kolkata: Ishrat Jahan, a peti-tioner in the triple talaq case inthe Supreme Court, has filed apolice complaint alleging she was threatened and verballyabused by relatives and community members forattending a Hanuman Chalisarecital in a hijab.

In her complaint atGolabari police station inHowrah, she accused herbrother-in-law and her land-lord of hurling abuses andintimidating her for takingpart in the religious function inher residential area on Tuesdaylast.

Jahan claimed she wasreturning home from her son'sschool on Wednesday whenhundreds of local residents inGolabari area surrounded andintimidated her for attendingthe recital.

"We have started aninquiry into the complaint andnecessary action will be taken,"an officer at the Golabari policestation said.

Jahan has said her life wasin danger and sought protec-tion from the police, the offi-cer said.

"I wish to say that we are

living in a secular country andit is our democratic right totake part in any holy festival,"she wrote in her complaint tothe police, a copy of which iswith PTI.

"I did my duty as a goodcitizen of my country. I am asecular person. However, I amfacing life threats from my

family members due to thesame," she wrote.

Jahan also claimed herbrother in-law and landlordhave threatened to throw herout of her residence.

"My brother in-law andlandlord started threateningme to leave my home and saidget her out of the house. They

also abused me severely andthreatened to kill me," thecomplaint said.

Talking about the sordidepisode on TV channelsThursday, Jahan defended herparticipation in a communityprogramme of another faith inher area, who she said alsoshare pleasantries on religiousoccasions of the Muslim com-munity.

"It (Hanuman Chalisarecital) was not a party eventbut a programme of a com-munity... I do not see anythingwrong in participating in it aspeople of other faiths also joinus in our religious occasions,"she said.

She alleged the purposebehind her harassment was todrive her away from homeand the locality as she chal-lenged the misuse of instant

triple talaq in the apex court.She challenged the

"dharam ke thekedar" (self-styled custodian of religion),saying "why do not they cometo the help of thousands of vic-tims of the triple talaq, fight-ing for justice in Howrahcourt?".

Mother to a 14-year-olddaughter and eight-year-oldson, Jahan is one of the fivepetitioners in the case againstinstant triple talaq. The prac-tice of instant triple talaq wasstruck down by the SupremeCourt on August 22, 2017.

She moved the apex courtafter her husband divorced herover the phone from Dubai byuttering the word 'talaq' thriceconsecutively in 2014.

Jahan received support fromthe Bharatiya Janata Party, whichshe joined last year. PTI

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu SchoolEducation Minister KASengottayan on Thursday toldthe Assembly that there wereno students in 45 schools in thestate and asserted that theGovernment, however, has nointention to shut any of them.

Replying to DMK legislatorThangam Thennarasu, whowanted the State to continue torun 1,248 schools since thesewere intended to be convertedinto libraries by theGovernment (in view of report-ed poor enrolments), theMinister said it was not the case.

Thennarasu, a formerMinister also said libraries setup in over 12,000 village pan-chayats (during the DMKregime), under AnnaMarumalarchi Thittam wereallegedly dysfunctional andwanted them to be revampedand put into effective use.

The Minister said sincethere were no students in 45schools, it is being planned touse them as libraries —as atemporary measure— andefforts will continue to bemade to enhance enrolments inState-run schools. PTI

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Chennai: In a major relief toMDMK chief Vaiko, theMadras High Court onThursday suspended the one-year sentence awarded to himby a lower court in a 2009 sedi-tion case.

Justice PD Audikesavalu,before whom the appeal filedby Vaiko came up, suspendedthe sentence imposed by aspecial court on July 5.

Counsel for Vaiko arguedthat there was no audio orvideo evidence produced by theprosecution to prove the chargeof sedition under Indian PenalCode section 124 A and even

the witnesses produced wereonly police personnel and nopublic witnesses were pro-duced.

Public prosecutor ANatarajan submitted that Vaikohimself has admitted to mak-ing such speech.

Refusing to restrain Vaikofrom giving such speechesagainst the sovereignty of theState, as sought by the publicprosecutor, the court insteadasked the counsel for Vaiko toadvise his client to be respon-sible while making publicspeeches pending disposal ofthe appeal.

In his petition, Vaiko saidthe special court for trial ofMPs and MLAs had erred in itsinterpretation of 124 A (sedi-tion) with regard to the wordshe had spoken in support of thebanned LTTE.

What he had spoken "mustbe judged objectively and fromstandards reasonable to strongminded, firm and courageousmen and not those of weak andvacillating minds," he said.

Vaiko, a Rajya Sabha mem-ber, submitted that the trialcourt erroneously rested itsconclusion based on inadmis-sible evidence. PTI

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In another 'mass migration' tothe BJP, 12 Bengali actors,

including Parno Mittra, joinedthe party here on Thursday inpresence of the party's WestBengal unit head Dilip Ghosh.

Rishi Kaushik, Kanchana

Moitra, Rupanjana Mitra andBiswajit Ganguly are among thefilm and TV stars who joinedthe BJP at its headquartershere.

Political leaders and knownpersonalities have flocked theBJP before and after its LokSabha victory including sitting

MPs from Trinamool ,Samajwadi PArty and TeluguDesam party.

Improving from two LokSabha seats, the BJP had won18 of 42 LS seats in WestBengal.

Leaders from the CPI (M)and the Congress too have

recently moved to the BJP. BJP has wrested number

two status in West Bengal fromthe CPI (M). Leaders from CPI(M) and the Congress too haverecently moved to the BJP.

"It is high time somethingwas done to correct the socio-political degeneration thatBengal has suffered over thepast a few years," one of theactors said, adding he would dowhatever his party wanted himto do.

Another popular actor saidshe was "inspired by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi'swork" while a third actor quitemeaningfully said, "after thedecline of the Left Front anddecimation of Leftist culture inBengal it seems things can beturned around by the BJP onlythough they stand diametri-cally opposite pole ideologi-cally."

Welcoming the actors,Ghosh said "the people fromvarious walks of life are joiningthe BJP because they areinspired by the work and lead-ership of the Prime Minister."��%�������%���� *7 *���

Popular leader, Salt Lake-New Town Mayor and

Trinamool MLA Sabyasachion Thursday resigned from hismayoral post roundly criticis-ing Chief Minister MamataBanerjee for shunning the pathof popular struggle.

Dutta, one of the manyMukul Roy loyalists in the TMCalso joined the anti-GovernmentState primary teachers' move-ment addressing a mass meetingin Kolkata where he said "I havealways been inspired by MamataBanerjee's fighting ways"reminding "she always used tostand by the farmers and work-

ers when she was the oppositionleader." However he rued "todaythings have changed and we donot see her in that combativerole."

Dutta who for all practicalpurposes resigned from hispost in the wake of an alien-ation he suffered in the Boardwith most councilors siding

with the party leadership, toldthe media after his resignationthat he "could not continue inthe wake of corruption andlarge-scale land grab which Itried to stop but couldn't."

On whether he would nowjoin the BJP he said, "time willonly tell," but still he was amember of the TMC.

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Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra on

Thursday wrote to Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathto curtail the State police deploy-ment during her and UPAChairperson Sonia Gandhi'svisit to the State and urged theGovernment to focus more onproviding security to the com-mon man.

She said in the letter thatlarge number of cavalcade pro-vided to them causes a lot ofinconvenience to the citizens.She, however, appreciated theCM for his concerns in provid-ing the security. Priyanka men-tioned a couple of instanceswhen traffic had to be stoppedin the areas she and her moth-er Sonia visited and requestedthe State administration toignore such heavy security. Shestated that such things arewastages of state resources. BothPriyanka and Sonia are SPG pro-tectee.

Congress on Thursday alsodemanded that a judicial inquirybe conducted by a SupremeCourt judge into the killing of 10people, including three women,from the Gond tribe over a landdispute in Sonbhadra district ofUttar Pradesh. CLP leader AjaySingh 'Lallu' and other partyleaders visited the crime scene,and said Priyanka will soon visitthe Ghorawal area to meet thevictims' families.

In a different tweet, callingNelson Mandela her inspirationand guide, Priyanka said theanti-apartheid icon told her thatshe ought to be in politics longbefore anyone else did. His lifewas a testament to truth, loveand freedom, Priyanka Gandhisaid.

"To me, he was UncleNelson (who told me I ought tobe in politics long before anyoneelse did!). He will always be myinspiration and my guide," shetweeted.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday allowed'Koshish', a field action projectof Tata Institute of SocialSciences (TISS), to interactwith the victims of theMuzaffarpur shelter home sex-ual assault case and their fam-ilies to prepare a rehabilitationplan for them.

Several girls were sexual-ly assaulted at an NGO-runshelter home in Muzaffarpur,Bihar, and the issue had cometo light following a report bythe TISS which had conduct-ed a social audit.

The apex court was told bythe Centre that they wouldfinalise within 4-6 monthsthe child protection policyaimed at curbing the inci-dents of sexual abuse of chil-dren. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday agreed toreconstitute a bench for hearingcases on alleged extra-judicialkillings by the Army, the AssamRifles and the Manipur Policein the insurgency-hit State.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi said it willtry to reconstitute the bench asJustice M B Lokur who washearing the matter has retiredin December last year.

Senior advocate CollinGonsalves, appearing for someof the petitioners, said since theretirement of Justice Lokur thematter has not been heard.

He said he had mentionedthe matter before a bench ofJustice U U Lalit who used tohear the case along with JusticeLokur but he was asked to men-tion it before the bench ofChief Justice.

"We will try to reconstitutethe bench," the CJI-led benchsaid.

The apex court had in 2017ordered CBI probe into thealleged 1,528 extra-judicialkillings in Manipur from 2000to 2012 by security forces andpolice. PTI

New Delhi: The mediationprocess to amicably resolvethe politically sensitive RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjidland dispute at Ayodhya willcontinue as the SupremeCourt Thursday sought fromthe panel concerned its “out-come” report by August 1.

The outcome of the medi-ation process undertaken bythe three-member panel,headed by former apex courtjudge F M I Kalifulla follow-ing the March 8 order, wouldbe considered by a five judgeConstitution bench headedby Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoion August 2 to decide thefuture course of action.

"We request the mediationpanel to inform the court theoutcome of the mediationproceedings as on July 31 byAugust 1 to enable us to pro-ceed further in the matter interms of the present direc-tions," said the bench, alsocomprising Justices S ABobde, D Y Chandrachud,Ashok Bhushan and S ANazeer.

The bench, which peruseda report about the progress ofmediation process till July 18,said that its contents willremain confidential as per itsearlier order.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday allowedRajeev Saxena, an approver ina money laundering case relat-ed to the �3,600-croreAgustaWestland chopper scam,to appear before a medicalboard of AIIMS to get exam-ined for blood cancer andother ailments.

A bench of justices AshokBhushan and Navin Sinhasought the report of the med-ical board, to be constituted bythe director of All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), within a week afterexamining Saxena.

"Counsel for the respon-dent (Rajeev Saxena) under-takes that the respondent willappear before the Board ofDoctors to be constituted bythe Director, All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS)on August 2, 2019. Let thereport be sent to this Courtwithin a week thereafter," thebench said.

It listed the matter for fur-ther hearing on August 26,2019.

On June 26, the apex courthad stayed a Delhi High Courtorder permitting Saxena to goabroad for treatment of blood

cancer and other ailments.It had sought response

from Saxena on an appeal filedby the Enforcement Directorate(ED) challenging the June 10Delhi High Court order per-mitting him to visit the UnitedArab Emirates, the UnitedKingdom and Europe fromJune 25 to July 24.

Saxena, a director ofDubai-based firms UHYSaxena and Matrix Holdings,was one of the accused namedin the charge sheet filed by theED in the AgustaWestlandscam. Later, he turned approverin the case.

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Ho m eMinister

Amit Shah willhead a recon-stituted groupof Ministers(GoM) on AirIndia disin-vestment andR o a dT r a n s p o r tMinister NitinGadkari hasbeen droppedfrom the panel,sources said.

The panel, which is towork out modalities for sale ofAir India, will now have fourministers — Shah, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,Commerce and RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal andCivil Aviation MinisterHardeep Singh Puri.

When the panel, namedAir India Specific AlternativeMechanism (AISAM), was firstconstituted in June 2017, it hadfive members and was headedby the then Finance MinisterArun Jaitley.

The other four were thethen Civil Aviation MinisterAshok Gajapathi Raju, RailwayMinister Suresh Prabhu, Powerand Coal Minister PiyushGoyal and Road TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari.

According to the sources,the GoM was reconstitutedafter the Modi-2.0 government

came to power and Gadkari isno longer part of the panel.

“The AISAM has beenreconstituted. It is now a four-member panel, against fivemembers earlier,” a source toldPTI.

In its first term, the Modigovernment invited bids frominvestors in 2018 to buy out theGovernment’s 76 per cent stakein Air India, along with man-agement control. However, theprocess failed as investors didnot put in their bids. Followingthat, transaction advisor EYprepared a report citing prob-able reasons that led to failureof the sale process.

The reasons cited includethe government retaining 24per cent stake and corre-sponding rights, high debt,volatile crude oil prices, fluc-tuations in exchange rate,changes in macro environmentand restriction on bidding by

individuals.The Department of

Investment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) hasalready prepared a fresh pro-posal for Air India sale, incor-porating issues like crude oilprices and exchange ratevolatility, and other issuesflagged by EY last year.

The government, thesources said, could this timearound sell its entire 100 percent stake in Air India as it aimsto conclude the sale process byDecember 2019.

However, a final call on thequantum of stake to be offeredto investors and the right timefor floating the expression ofinterest would be decided bythe newly constituted AISAM,a source said. The AISAMwould be meeting soon, mostprobably after the conclusion ofthe ongoing Parliament sessionon July 26.

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Former auto titanCarlos Ghosn, cur-

rently under house arrestin Tokyo, is suing Nissanand Mitsubishi in aDutch court for“improper termination”of his contract, Frenchnewspaper Le Figaroreported Wednesday.

Ghosn is accusingthe Japanese manufac-turers of breaching his contractas an employee of NMBV, theirjoint subsidiary based in theNetherlands, and seeking up to15 million euros ($16.8 million)in damages, it said.

The big-spending formerchief of both Renault and itsJapanese partner Nissan isawaiting trial in Japan oncharges of financial miscon-duct. He was kept behind barsfor over 100 days before beinggranted bail and sacked fromall his management roles.

Ghosn is accused of under-reporting millions of dollars inincome at Nissan and of ofusing company funds for per-sonal expenses — charges hedenies.

His lawyers argue thatwhile Ghosn resigned fromRenault-Nissan BV (RNBV), hehad not done so from NMBVand “the breach of contract”was unwarranted, Le Figarosaid.

Nissan and Mitsubishiargue that Ghosn’s contractwas invalid as it would not havebeen submitted to NMBV’sboard, according to the daily.

NMBV had thankedGhosn after a meeting of hisboard of directors on March 12,the same day as the announce-ment of its dissolution. Ghosn’sspokesperson and his lawyerboth declined to commentwhen contacted by AFP.

Le Figaro said the manu-facturers were seeking to recov-er some 7.82 million eurospaid to Ghosn by NMBVbetween April and November2018. Renault announced inearly June it was consideringtaking action against its formerboss after it identified 11 mil-lion euros of “questionableexpenses” linked to Ghosn atRNBV.

The 65-year-old Ghosnwas arrested in Japan inNovember as he stepped off hisprivate jet at Tokyo airport.

His dramatic downfallstunned the business worldand laid bare tensions in thealliance between Renault,Nissan and their smallerJapanese partner Mitsubishi.

Ghosn has not beencharged in connection with hisactivities at NMBV.

���� 345��4 0&

The Government hasmerged the Council of

Trade Development andPromotion with the Board ofTrade to bring greater coher-ence in consultation processwith all stakeholders for pro-moting exports and imports.

According to a notificationof the directorate general offoreign trade (DGFT), thenew forum will remain asBoard of Trade and will workwith ten terms of references.

The new board would pro-vide a platform to states andunion territories for articulat-ing their perspectives on tradepolicy and help states to devel-op and pursue export strate-gies in line with the nationalforeign trade policy.

It would also reviewexport performances of vari-ous sectors, identify con-straints and suggest industryspecific measures to optimiseexport earnings and to exam-ine existing institutionalframework for imports andexports.

“To bring greater coher-ence in consultation process,it has been decided to mergeCouncil of Trade Developmentand Promotion (CTDP) withthe Board of Trade and thenew forum will remain asBoard of Trade,” DGFT said.

The board will be chairedby commerce and industryminister. Its members willinclude minister of state forcommerce and industry andstate ministers who are incharge of trade.

���� 345��4 0&

The Government has soughtexplanations from

InterGlobe Aviation on allega-tions of corporate governancelapses raised by co-founderand promoter RakeshGangwal.

In a filing to the stockexchanges, the company onThursday said it received acommunication on Wednesdayfrom the Ministry of CorporateAffairs (MCA) regarding thecomplaint.

The Registrar of Companies(RoC), National CapitalTerritory of Delhi & Haryanahas sought “certain informa-tion/explanations” in relation toGangwal’s complaint.

“The company willrespond to MCA within theprescribed period,” the filingsaid. Explanations have beensought under Section 206(4) ofthe Companies Act, 2013.

Section 26 provides powersfor the Ministry to call forinformation, inspect books andconduct inquiries.

The Ministry’s communi-cation comes less than 10 daysafter Gangwal flagged con-cerns about corporate gover-nance lapses at InterGlobeAviation, especially certainrelated party transactionsentered into by co-founderRahul Bhatia’s InterGlobeEnterprises (IGE) Group.

���� 345��4 0&

FMC Corporation was pre-sented the Corporate

Leadership Award 2019 by theMinister of Agriculture andFarmers’ Welfare, NarendraSingh Tomar at a ceremonyheld in New Delhi.

The annual award, con-ferred by the Agriculture Todaygroup, was presided over by ahigh-level committee headedby the Governor of Kerala,Palanisamy Sathasivam. Raju

Kapoor, Director of Public andIndustry Affairs, received theaward on behalf of FMC India.

The Corporate LeadershipAward recognizes FMC for itssubstantial contributiontowards a sustainable future forIndian agriculture, and fordelivering a market-leadingportfolio of innovative cropprotection technologies toIndian farmers, supported byits global R&D capabilities andmanufacturing presence inIndia.

New Delhi: Padmini Singla, an IAS officer of AGMU cadre (2002batch) has taken over as Chairperson and Managing Directorof Delhi Transco Limited.

Singla is Post Graduate in Commerce from Delhi School ofEconomics. Besides, she has done Executive Masters in UrbanGovernance from EPFL Switzerland.

Singla has worked in various capacities in Delhi, Andamanand Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and Arunachal Pradesh. InDelhi, her prominent postings include as Director of Education,Additional Secretary to Lieutenant Governor and DeputyCommissioner (Civil Lines) in MCD. PNS

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The central Governmentshould link grants and allo-

cations made by the FinanceCommission to states withreforms in the agriculture sec-tor, said Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis.

A proposal to this effectwas discussed at the first meet-ing of a ‘High-PoweredCommittee of Chief Ministersfor Transformation of IndianAgriculture’ on Thursday.

Briefing the reportersabout the meeting, Fadnavis,who is also the convenor of thehigh-powered committee, saidthere should be greater coor-dination between the min-istries of agriculture and com-merce, as the former dealswith production, while the lat-ter with marketing.

“Grants of the central gov-ernment and fund allocation ofthe Finance Commissionshould be linked with the agri-culture reforms undertaken instates,” he said while addingthat it is essential to ensuresimultaneous reforms in states.

Fadnavis further saidunless all states come on board,the country will not witnessmajor transformation in theagriculture sector.

Among other things, somecommittee members also ques-tioned the utility of the

Essential Commodity Act(ECA), 1955, in the food sec-tor.

“Chief Minister of MadhyaPradesh Kamal Nath was infavour of scrapping theEssential Commodity Act(ECA), 1955,” he said.

Fadnavis said that thoughthe credit disbursal for thefarm sector may exceed Rs 13lakh crore in 2019-20, the agri-cultural investment credit isstill too low.

The Maharashtra chiefminister further added thatthe terms of reference (ToR) ofthe committee also includesmaking sure that more farmersin the states get institutionalloans.

“Targeting of subsidies formaximising benefits is alsoToR of the committee,” he said.The committee also pitched forpromoting contract farmingin states.

It also discussed ways topromote the food processingindustry.

“There is a need for boost-ing private investment in theagriculture sector and pro-moting contract farming,” hesaid. Fadnavis said the com-mittee has finalised ToR, andstates have been asked to givetheir feedback by August 7.

The next meeting of thecommittee will be on August 16.

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Expending its operationsthroughout the world, GoAir

has announced that it will com-mence its maiden flights to andfrom Delhi – Abu Dhabi withfares starting at �7,098; Mumbai— Abu Dhabi fares starting at�6,599 and Mumbai — Muscatfares starting at �7,100.

On July 25, 2019 GoAirwill commence maiden flightsto and from Delhi – Bangkokwith fares starting at �8,197 andKannur — Dubai fares startingat �6,200. On 1st August 2019GoAir will commence its maid-en flights to and from Mumbai– Bangkok with fares startingat �8,498.

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Riyad Mahrez and SadioMane will renew theirPremier League rivalry

for a second time in Egypt,with Africa Cup of Nationsimmortality awaiting the vic-tor of Friday’s final betweenAlgeria and Senegal.

Algerian star Mahrez waspart of the Manchester Cityteam that edged out Mane’sLiverpool for the English titlelast season, grabbing a pivotalgoal on the final day of thecampaign.

Liverpool standout Mane,

however, is attempting to ful-fil his “wildest dream” as oneof just a handful of Africans towin both the UEFAChampions League and Cupof Nations.

For the marquee name ina Senegalese side ranked topof the continent, and a sur-prising 46 places aboveAlgeria, the ride to the finalfor Mane and the TerangaLions has encountered itsshare of roadbumps.

Two missed Mane spot-kicks, a group stage loss toAlgeria, and the loss of goal-

keeper Edouard Mendy to abroken finger have testedSenegal's resolve in their questfor the Holy Grail of Africanfootball.

Coach Aliou Cisse is on amission for personal redemp-tion. He was the skipper of theside beaten on penalties in the2002 final, with his missedkick handing the title toCameroon.

“Having lost that final, Istill have it on my mind,” saidformer Paris Saint-Germainand Birmingham City mid-fielder Cisse.

“What motivated me tobecome a coach was to be ableto take Senegal to the final.My players told me theywould do better than my gen-eration.”

A maiden Cup of Nationsfor his country is a prize forwhich Mane readily admittedhe would trade in last month’sChampions League title.

“I’m ready to even swap aChampions League for a Cupof Nations. Going to Dakarwith the trophy would beextraordinary. It would be mywildest dream,” Mane told

France Football ahead of thecompetition.

Standing in the way, how-ever, is an Algerian outfit thathas undergone a remarkabletransformation since thearrival of Djamel Belmadi ascoach a year ago.

The Desert Foxes failedmiserably in World Cup qual-ifying, but the steely Belmadihas healed divisions in thesquad to lead them to thebrink of a first Cup of Nationstriumph since 1990.

G����������#�����@“To the Algerian people, I

want to say I’m not a politi-cian, not a miracle worker ora wizard, but that we will fightlike we have fought to thispoint,” Belmadi said after thesemi-final win over Nigeria.

Algeria are the leadingscorers in Egypt with 12 goals,including Mahrez’s spectacu-lar last-gasp free-kick againstNigeria, and haven’t trailed atall in the tournament.

“Algeria are so well organ-ised, so compact, so‘Guardiolaesque’ in the waythey recover the ball,” opinedexperienced internationalcoach Claude Le Roy.

“Perhaps it is the influenceof Mahrez.”

The Algeria captain hasbeen in fine form for hiscountry here, brimming withconfidence after helping Cityto the domestic treble.

“We are very happy to bein the final of the Africa Cupof Nations because it is some-thing very special,” saidMahrez.

“It was our goal to do it forthe people and for our fami-lies. We know they are behindus all the way. It’s my dreamto win the Cup of Nations.”

“It’s going to be anotherbattle against Senegal,” headded.

“We’ve been very good inthis competit ion. The(Nigeria) match has given usmore confidence for the finaland we’re capable of winningit.”

Their hopes will boostedby the absence of Senegal’sdefensive rock KalidouKoulibaly, whose yellow cardin the semi-final victory overTunisia cruelly ruled theNapoli star out of the final.

“It hurts to not be able toplay. But I will be beside mybrothers to write history,”tweeted Koulibaly, the corner-stone of a defence breachedjust once so far.

�*�� 76��3�4 46�

Young striker Edward Nketiahscored the winner just two min-

utes from time as a youthful Arsenalside beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in apre-season friendly in California onWednesday.

The Gunners finished off a rapidpassing sequence in the 88th minutethat culminated with teenagerTyreece John-Jules slipping the ballto the 20-year-old Nketiah whoscored via his knee.

Arsenal won their secondstraight game on their US tour, butthe Bundesliga champions gave thema stiffer test than the Major SoccerLeague's Colorado Rapids who theyrouted 3-0 on Monday.

The fifth-placed finishers in theEnglish Premier League last yearopened the scoring courtesy of a 49thminute own goal in a front of a crowdof 26,700 in Carson. Louis Poznanskifailed to deal with a ball on the farside of the box and in trying to clear

ended up kicking into his own net.Robert Lewandowski equalised

with a superb header in the 71stminute for Bayern, who completedthe German double last season.

Former Arsenal midfielder SergeGnabry sent a high ball into the boxand Lewandowski leapt highest toredirect into the top corner to makeit 1-1.

Unai Emery’s side came throughtheir second fixture in America ingood form, despite the saga sur-rounding unsettled captain LaurentKoscielny who decided to boycotttheir US tour to try to force a trans-fer.

Thomas Mueller had the bestchance for a wasteful Bayern but hisfirst-half effort was kept out in spec-tacular style by Arsenal goalkeeperBernd Leno.

David Alaba crossed the ball tothe centre of the box where thecharging Mueller split the defence toshoot but Leno kicked out his rightleg to make a stunning save.

���� 345��4 0&�

Stop fighting children, I amready for a bout,” Indian

boxing ace Vijender Singh, freshfrom his 11th straight pro win,challenged British star AmirKhan here on Thursday.

Khan, the British boxer ofPakistan origin, has expressed adesire to lock horns withOlympic Bronze-medallistVijender a number of times butthe bout has not materialised yet.

During the announcementof his last bout, Khan had alsoclaimed that Vijender was scaredof him. Replying to his chal-lenge, the Haryana-boxer said itwas Khan who picked juniors tofight against.

“I am ready to fight withAmir. He picked a junior boxerto fight. Neeraj Goyat is wayjunior to me. I had said beforeand I am saying it again I amready to fight whenever he tellsme to. He should stop fightingkids,” Vijender said on the side-lines of a felicitation event organ-ised by Platinum Heavy Duty

Cement.A bout between the two

prolific boxers may, however, bea long shot as Khan competes inthe welterweight category(63.5kg-66.7kg) while Vijendercontests in the super mid-dleweight division (73kg-76kg)but the Indian was quick tocome up with a solution for theproblem.

“I can reduce my weight alittle and he can increase it andwe can agree on a mid point. Hehas done it before.”

Vijender, who is still unbeat-en in the professional arena, pre-vailed in his US debut againstMike Snider with a TechnicalKnockout to notch his 11thconsecutive victory in the circuit.

Talking about his US debutand the bout, Vijender saidAmerica is the Mecca of boxing.

“America is so big, everyopponent has some strength.They say everything starts andends from the US. One of thebest boxers work there.

“I had no idea about Mikebefore the bout. On the last day,

my coach showed a video of himand how he fights. Earlier, I felthe is not such a good boxer butwhen his first punch connectedme, I was shaken I felt yes nowI am in the league.”

Talking about his futureplans, Vijender said his team isworking on scheduling twobouts in the next 6-7 monthswhere he might get a shot atprestigious titles.

“We plan to have two morefights. One around October-September and next in January-February. We are trying to workaround the venue and opponent.The top boxers in US have abusy schedule,” he said.

“America is a very maturemarket in boxing. Now thefights are going to get tougherand bigger. International orintercontinental titles might becoming up in 2020,” Vijender’spromoter Neerav Tomar said.

Asked if he regrets his trystwith politics owing to the lossfrom Delhi’s South Delhi con-stituency in the Lok Sabha elec-tions earlier this year, the multi-

faceted boxer said he is open toaccepting all opportunities lifeprovides him.

“Galat faisale ko bhi jo sahikarde usko Vijender Singh kehtehain,” he said.

“I never say no to any-thing. Life teaches you some-thing everyday. I saw it as anopportunity to work for the peo-ple. I am thinking I will go to themoon, I never say no to any-thing. But I will never leave box-ing because this is my identity.”

The boxer also spoke aboutstarting his own Boxing Club.

“I want boxing to becomepopular in the entire country soI am going to start a ‘Boxing Clubby Vijender Singh’. The youthgets easily distracted by drugs,crime etc so I think this is theright way to keep them ontrack.

“We will be starting fromDelhi where there will be 150young boxers and we will teachthem the sport and provide allthe equipment. I will visit theclub once a month,” Vijendersaid.

��� � 345��4 0&

Pistol ace Heena Sidhu on Thursdaysaid India is a "big" enough nation

to put up a "united front" against the2022 Commonwealth Games organ-isers' move to exclude shooting fromits roster.

The Indian Olympic Association(IOA) last month threatened to boy-cott the 2022 CWG in Birmingham ifshooting is not included, somethingthe National Rifle Association ofIndia (NRAI) also talked about lastyear.

Heena though added that nothingshould be done at the cost of athletes'participation.

Asked if pulling out is an option,she said, "I think it has happenedbefore. We have backed out in thepast. India is a big nation and we canthrow our weight behind this," shesaid.

"Other sportspersons should notsuffer. They need to participate, butat the same time, I think we shouldput up an united front," Heena said.

She disagreed with the organisingcommittee's decision and expressedconcerns over the sport's future dueto lack of interest among people.

Heena, the first pistol shooterfrom India to win a gold medal inWorld Cup Finals, though calledshooting a "flourishing sport" in thecountry.

Birmingham, in the UnitedKingdom, will be hosting the 2022edition of the Commonwealth Games.

"It's not right. The reasons theygave, of not having legacy in shoot-ing and problems with range, are notconvincing," Heena said.

"They (local organising commit-tee) could have build a makeshiftrange.

"Shooting has not been consid-ered and women's T20 cricket isthere. This, they said, was donekeeping in mind gender equality.Then why not men's cricket also," sheasked.

She is relieved that the sport is

part of the Olympic programme atleast till the 2028 Games in LosAngeles.

"The ISSF (International ShootingSport Federation) and NRAI(National Rifle Association of India)is making a lot of effort for the sport'ssustenance.

"The ISSF, NRAI, IOA (IndianOlympic Association) and the min-istry also tried hard (to ensure shoot-ing's presence at 2022 CWG), but Idon't think the decision will bechanged now," Heena said.

Asked what makes her worry, the29-year-old said, "One, there is notenough spectators in a lot of coun-tries. And in the time, people prob-ably prefer to avoid dealing with gunsand ammunition because of the for-malities and protocols involved."

She meant that the world is notthe most safest place at the moment,and a person flying with guns andammunition is not a great sight forfellow passengers at airports.

Winner of multiple Gold medal-lists at various international tourna-ments, Heena is glad to be nominat-ed for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel RatnaAward.

"This is a very good news. I haveproved myself in all these years. I amthankful to the NRAI for nominatingme," she said.

Currently enjoying a break aftera rigorous training and tournamentschedule, Heena said she will comeback fresh, as she renews her quest tosecure a quota place for the 2020Tokyo Olympic Games.

���� �43�� /(/�

Men’s captain ManpreetSingh on Thursday said

the next three months will becrucial for Indian hockeyahead of the final round ofTokyo Olympic Qualifiers inNovember.

“The next three monthsare critical for us and whatev-er we are doing is with focuson sealing our OlympicQualification in November,”Manpreet said on the sidelinesof the on-going nationalcamp.

The team will first travelto Japan for the Olympic testevent starting August 17where India will play againstNew Zealand, Malaysia andhosts Japan followed by thetour of world championBelgium in September.

“Our main priority rightnow is to qualify for theOlympics but at the sametime we don’t want to comeunder pressure and be worriedabout who our opponent isgoing to be. Our focus rightnow is to work on our short-comings and improve collec-tively as a team.”

Manpreet also said new

coach Graham Reid has agood understanding of Indianhockey and continues toencourage India’s counter-attacking play.

“The good thing workingunder Graham Reid is that hehas closely followed India’sperformance over the yearsand he understands our gamewell so in that sense he isn'tchanging our style.

“He continues to rein-force that our attack andcounter-attacks are our biggeststrengths but the focus of ourtraining is to ensure we aredefending and finishing wellwith continued emphasis onspeed and fitness,” Manpreetsaid.

Though the team has beenmarred with injuries includingexperienced midfielderChinglensana Singh’s anklefracture, for ward LalitUpadhyay’s back strain,Manpreet believes there areenough options in the coregroup who can soak up thepressure of internationalhockey.

“These players are missedin the team and we are hope-ful they will be fully fit by theOlympic qualifiers.”

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New Zealand pacer TrentBoult’s plans of getting

over the gut-wrenching WorldCup loss to England includewalking his dog along thebeach but he concedes thatlosing the trophy on bound-ary-count will be hard toswallow for at least a couple ofyears.

Boult, who claimed 17wickets in the showpiece andwas among the star perform-ers for the runner-ups, land-ed back in the country amidquestions on how the BlackCaps are coping after losingtheir second successive WorldCup final.

"Well, I'm gonna go homefor the first time in about fourmonths. Probably gonna walkmy dog along the beach andtry and put it aside. I'm surehe won't be too angry at me,"Boult told reporters.

"...It's not gonna be some-thing that disappears in thenext couple of days. It's prob-ably something that's gonna behard to swallow for the nextcouple of years," he said.

In the pulsating match onSunday, being called the great-est World Cup final by many,the Kiwis tied the regulation50 overs and the super overbut went down on inferiorboundary count.

Boult said he has beenstruggling to forget the 49thover in which he took a catchof Ben Stokes off JimmyNeesham but ended up step-ping on the boundary to letthe advantage slip.

"I suppose it's just natur-al to nitpick and pull apart agame like that," he said.

"...You just wonder thoselittle kind of things that wentyour way, or didn't go yourway or whatever, it could'vebeen a totally different game.Yeah, of course, I'm living thelast over throughout my minda lot.

"Somehow we were hitfor six along the ground whichhas never been happenedbefore. And then, yeah, cou-ple of run outs, to bowl themout and to see the scores leveland to lose was a pretty uniquesituation," he recalled.

Does he feel cheated? Theanswer is a firm "no."

Asked if he would he doanything differently, Boultsaid he doesn't envisionanother team coming as close

to winning or losing the Cuplike his side did.

"It was an amazing stage tobe on. Obviously saw what itmeant for the Englishmen toget across the line. It couldhave been us. Unfortunately itwasn't. No one is probablygoing to get closer to winningthe World Cup or losing theWorld Cup as us," said the 29-year-old.

Exuding humility like hiscaptain Kane Williamson,Boult said he felt apologetictowards fans who were root-ing for the quintessential "niceguys" of the game.

"You see a lot of disap-pointment in cricketing fansaround the world, not justKiwis but a lot of supportersthat wanted us to win. It's ashame to let everyone downreally.

"It's hard to know thatafter playing 15 hours… A lotof Kiwis out there were saying'we felt for you' kind of thing.Yeah don't really know toomuch more to say really.Obviously we're all hurtingand yeah sorry for lettingeveryone down," he said.

Recalling the 2015 final, inwhich the Black Caps wereoutplayed by Australia, Boultthat loss hurts less comparedto the heartbreak at Lord's.

"Yeah, the final in 2015was a no show in my opinion.We were outplayed from kindathe first couple of overs.Definitely didn't hurt as muchas the other day did," he said.

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The Indian men’s and women’steams sailed into the semifinals of

the 21st Commonwealth Table TennisChampionships after convincing vic-tories over their respective opponents,here on Thursday.

The Indian women’s team defeat-ed Wales, Malaysia and Nigeria byidentical 3-0 margin to enter the last-four from Group F of the Super Eightround.

The Indian men too have enteredthe semifinals after defeating SriLanka and Malaysia by 3-0 margin.The Indian male paddlers, however,have a formality to complete as theyplay their last Group F match againstWales.

Anthony Amalraj had an easyouting against Sri Lankan KrishanWickramaratha, cleaning him upwith a 3-0 verdict in the opener. Hestruggled a bit against MalaysianFeng Chee Leong but the Indian over-came the initial hiccups to beat him3-1.

G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkarcompeted against Sri Lanka whileAchanta Sharath Kamal and HarmeetDesai were pitted against Malaysia.

India’s coaches Australian BrettClarke and Soumyadeep Roy gaveample opportunities to all the playersbefore Friday’s semifinal and finals.

In the women’s team, Archana

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Dutch central defenderMatthijs de Ligt, one of the

most coveted young players inworld football, signed onThursday for Juventus from Ajaxfor a fee of 75 million euros ($84.2million) plus add ons.

The 19-year-old agreed afive-year contract with the Italianchampions.

Juventus said in a statementthe fee would be paid over fivefinancial years, with “additionalcosts” of 10.5 million euros.

The combined fee makes DeLigt the world's most expensivedefender, surpassing the 84 mil-lion euros Liverpool paid to signhis Netherlands teammate VirgilVan Dijk from Southampton in2018.

De Ligt is Juventus’ thirdmost expensive signing after the105 million euros they paid to buy

Cristiano Ronaldo from RealMadrid in 2018 and the 90-mil-lion-euro transfer of GonzaloHiguain from Napoli in 2016.

De Ligt had also been linkedwith Manchester United,Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain after his impressiveperformances for a young Ajaxside that reached the ChampionsLeague semi-finals last season.

His Ajax teammate, 22-year-old midfielder Frenkie de Jong,has already joined Barcelona.

In a deal hammered out byhis powerful Italian-born Dutchagent Mino Raiola, De Ligt willearn a basic annual salary of 7.5million euros that could reach 12million euros with bonuses,according to reports in Italy.

“The sporting project proveddecisive” in De Ligt’s decision tochoose Juventus. “For a defend-er, Italy is always an ideal place.”The Turin-based club, now

coached by former Chelsea men-tor Maurizio Sarri, were keen tobring new blood into an ageingdefence that features 34-year-oldGiorgio Chiellini and LeonardoBonucci, 32.

De Ligt played 117 games forAjax in all competitions, scoring13 goals. He scored the winner inTurin as Ajax eliminated Juventusin the Champions League quar-ter-finals.

De Ligt has played 17 timesfor the Netherlands, forming aformidable central defensive part-nership with Van Dijk.

He took over the captain’sarmband at Ajax in March 2018,making him the club’s youngestever captain.

De Ligt said Ronaldo hadurged him to join Juventus afterthe two faced each other fortheir countries in the NationsLeague final in June won byPortugal.

Netherlands coach RonaldKoeman says De Ligt “willbecome one of the best defend-ers in the world in a short time”.

De Ligt is the latest big-money summer transfer follow-ing the 120-million-euro dealthat took France striker AntoineGriezmann from Atletico Madridto Barcelona and the 126 millioneuros that Atletico splashed outon 19-year-old forward Joao Felixfrom Benfica.

After a disappointing 2018-2019 season, Real Madrid havestrengthened with the acquisitionof Belgian playmaker EdenHazard from Chelsea for an ini-tial 100 million euros, with anoth-er 34 million euros in potentialadd-ons.

Premier League championsManchester City bought Spaininternational Rodri for a clubrecord 70 million euros (£63million).

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Top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu fought hard

to progress to thewomen’s singles quarter-finals but it was curtainsfor Kidambi Srikanth inthe men’s singles event ofthe Indonesia Open, hereon Thursday.

Sindhu, seeded fifth,had to dig deep into herreservoir of experience asshe slugged it out for 62minutes to beat unseed-ed Mia Blichfeldt ofDenmark 21-14, 17-21,21-11 in a second-roundencounter.

But later in the day,eight seed Srikanth wasstunned by NG Ka LongAngus of Hong Kong 17-21, 19-21 in a 39-minutesecond round contest.

Sindhu recorded herthird win over the worldNo 13 Dane this year. TheIndian had earlier defeat-ed Blichfeldt in straightgames in the IndianOpen and the SingaporeOpen.

Sindhu will next facethird seeded JapaneseNozomi Okuhara in thelast-eight round of theBWF World Tour Super1000 tournament.

The start was farfrom impressive forSindhu as Blichfeldt tooka 6-3 lead before theIndian got her act togeth-er to draw level.

From that point,Sindhu raised her gamegradually and relied onher long reach and

smashes to pocket thefirst game 21-14.

The second gamewitnessed a tough fightbetween the two shuttlersbut Blichfeldt made astrong comeback to takea 9-5 and then a 10-7lead.

Sindhu then pocket-ed three straight points tolevel the scores at 10-10.

But the Dane meantbusiness as she took fulladvantage of the Indian'sunforced errors to clinchthe second game anddraw parity in the match.

The decider, howev-er, turned out to be a one-sided affair as Sindhu gother composure back andran away with the gameafter some initial resis-tance from Blichfeldt.

However, it was cur-tains for India in themen’s doubles event afterthe pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and ChiragShetty lost 15-21, 14-21 totop-seeded local hopesMarcus Fernaldi Gideonand Kevin SanjayaSukamuljo in the secondround

It was disappoint-ment for India in themixed doubles as wellafter the pair of PranaavJerry Chopra and N SikkiReddy lost 14-21, 11-21to top seeds Zheng Si Weiand Huang Ya Qiong ofChina.

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Olympic Gold medallist Carolina Marinhas said that she does not know if she

will participate in the upcoming bad-minton World Cup in Switzerland inAugust.

The Spaniard said that her goal, afterrecovering from a knee injury, is to win theTokyo 2020 Olympic Games, reports Efenews.

“I still cannot say whether I'm goingto the World Cup or not, as long as we donot get close to the date, I cannot say any-thing,” she added on Wednesday at theNational Sports Council in Madrid.

“Our goal is the Tokyo Olympics, sowe do not want to take any risks going tothe World Cup or not.

“If we go, we will be there giving every-thing and if not, then we will start the tour-naments circuit in September.”

Marin had ruptured the anterior cru-ciate ligament in her right knee while com-peting in the Indonesian Masters final onJanuary 26 and has since been sidelinedfrom competition.

She is optimistic about her recovery,and said: “I find myself with very good sen-sations, I am going through this period veryquickly because the knee is responding verywell, the requirement in training day by dayis increasing so I am very happy.”

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The national selectionpanel’s meeting to picksquads for the West

Indies tour has been pushed toSunday amid intense focuson skipper Virat Kohli’s avail-ability and veteran MahendraSingh Dhoni’s future.

The meeting was sched-uled for Friday but was post-poned following Committee ofAdministrators’ (CoA) direc-tive that the chairman of thepanel, instead of BCCI secre-tary, will convene it.

“There are some legalmodalities that need to befollowed due to the rulechange and it took some time.Also the BCCI’s cricket oper-ations team needs to apprisethe chairman of the availabil-ity of the captain for the meet-ing. The fitness reports of theplayers will be available onSaturday evening,” a seniorBCCI functionary said.

The 38-year old Dhoni,whose finishing abilities withthe bat has been on the wane,would be the centre of discus-sion amid speculation thatthe Jharkhand player is con-templating retirement eventhough he hasn’t spoken aboutit till now.

Dhoni’s selection or omis-sion would be an indicator ofthings to come in the future.India are set to play T20s, asmany ODIs and two Tests in afull-f ledged tour to theCaribbean islands, startingAugust 3.

Considering next year’sT20 World Cup to be held inAustralia, the selectors mightopt for the young RishabhPant, who is seen as heirapparent to Dhoni.

Dhoni was dropped fromthe T20 series against WestIndies and Australia lastOctober and there is a strongchance that he won't beincluded this time around too.

Pant was recently called upas replacement for an injuredopener Shikhar Dhawan in theWorld Cup, from where Indiawere ousted in the semifinal

stage.Another issue that would

surely be debated is the avail-ability of Kohli, who has beenon the road for a while.

There is a school ofthought that the skipper couldbe rested considering the longdomestic season ahead, whichbegins in September, and inthis scenario Rohit Sharmacould be handed captaincyfor the shorter formats.

However, with the twoTests being part of the ICCTest Championship, Kohlicould be included in the Testsquad. As i m i l a r

approachcould betaken for pacer JaspritBumrah.

The MSK Prasad-ledpanel would also work onrestructuring the middle-order as it was one of the pri-mary reasons for India’s exitfrom the World Cup semi-final. Stabilising the numberfour spot is the need of thehour going ahead.

It is expected that pickingthe middle-order could lead tothe biggest debate as the panelhas a few choices amongKarnataka’s Mayank Agarwaland Manish Pandey andMumbai’s Shreyas Iyer, whohas been knocking the doorsafter scoring heavily indomestic cricket.

Pandey scored a match-winning 100 for India Aagainst the West Indies A inan unofficial third ODI andafter Ambati Rayudu’s suddenretirement and Vijay Shankar’sfailure to nail the numberfour spot, the focus will be onthe trio.

Also, the selectors mayconsider the talented youngPunjab batsman ShubhmanGill and Mumbai’s PrithviShaw. But Shaw’s hip injurycould come in the way of himbeing considered.

A determined Gill hasbeen among the runs in theWest Indies tour for India A.

Gill and Shreyas could makethe cut.

It could also be end of theroad for the experiencedDinesh Karthik andMaharashtra all-rounderKedar Jadhav, who failed toperform in the World Cup.

If Dhawan, who was ruledout of the World Cup owing toa thumb fracture, is deemedfit, he would, in all probabil-ity, open with Rohit.

Other regulars, includingK L Rahul, Hardik Pandya,Kuldeep Yadav and YuzvendraChahal, could retain theirplaces in the limited-overssquads.

Teenage leg-spinner RahulChahar could be among therookies who are at least dis-cussed given the good run heis having with the A team inthe West Indies right now. The19-year-old is a cousin ofDeepak Chahar, a fairly estab-lished first-class name whohas played an ODI and a T20for India.

Among the new faces,Delhi speedster Navdeep Sainicould make the team as he hasimpressed in the ongoingIndia A tour of West Indiesand even picked a fifer.

The selectors could alsolook at the likes of KhaleelAhmed, Deepak Chahar, andAvesh Khan apart from regu-lar pacers Mohammed Shamiand Bhuvneshwar Kumar,who could be retained.

Khaleel being a left-armpacer adds variety to theattack.

The choice of wicket-keep-ers for the Tests would bewatched with interest as Pantdid the job in the last seriesIndia played in Australia.

With a f it-againWriddiman Saha, who is con-sidered the best in the country,it remains to be seen if theselectors bring him back orlook to the future in Pant.

The T20 Internationals arescheduled from August 3 to 6,while the ODIs will take placefrom August 8 to 14. The two-Test series will be played fromAugust 22 to September 3.

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Sam Curran believes England’shistoric World Cup triumph

will inspire the Ashes team asattention turns towards theirattempt to regain the urn.

Sunday's dramatic end tothe 50-over tournament hasovershadowed the build-up tothe five-Test showdown againstAustralia, which gets under wayon August 1 at Edgbaston.

Curran feels the Ashesremains the pinnacle of thecricketing calendar but said theTest team would be galvanisedby the World Cup, irrespectiveof whether they featured or notin the one-day triumph.

“I don’t think I'm alone insaying that it’s probably thegreatest cricket match ever andfor that to be the World Cupfinal was incredible,” said the 21-year-old all-rounder.

"That will provide a buzz foreveryone across English cricketgoing into the Ashes.

"Days like Sunday get every-one, whether they were involvedor not, more excited and desper-ate to do well so I'm sure it willrub off as we head into the Testpart of the summer.

"The Ashes are the biggestthing you can play in as anEngland cricketer, that's whatI've always felt. Hopefully we can

be lifting the urn at the Oval inSeptember."

Curran, whose older broth-er Tom was an unused squadmember during the World Cup,has been drafted into England'sgroups for the one-off Testagainst Ireland next week and apre-Ashes training camp.

The left armer was EnglandLions' standout performeragainst an Australian XI earlierthis week, taking six for 95 andcontributing a pair of half-cen-turies in a drawn first-classmatch at Canterbury.

Curran enjoyed a break-through summer last year, beingnamed England player of theTest series against India after starcontributions with both bat andball, leading to a bumper pay dayin the Indian Premier League.

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����#������� '��������������� �������was the common factor in all thethree matches while the two coach-es rotated other players, includingManika Batra, Madhurika Patkar,Sutirtha Mukherjee and AyhikaMukherjee.

Besides India, England menand women, too, made it to thesemifinals by notching up two winseach.

England men beat Singapore 3-2 and Australia 3-1. The women, onthe other hand, beat Australia 3-1and then trounced Sri Lanka 3-0.

Meanwhile, Sathiyan, Manikaare rated as top seeds in the individ-ual events.

But only one of the two Indiansin men's singles fray, Sathiyan andManav Thakkar, would progress tothe medal round as they were drawnin the same quarter.

The other three Indians werelucky to find themselves evenly dis-tributed into the other quarters.

All the Indian male playerswere among the top eight seeds(based on their ITTF July ranking),while only three women — Manika,Archana and Patkar — were seed-ed and got first-round byes in themain draw.

The remaining two — Sutirthaand Ayhika — will have to make itto the main draw through qualifiers.

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