16
S howing an upward trend in economy, Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew 7.1 per cent in February this year, mainly driven by robust per- formance of the manufacturing sector coupled with higher off- take of capital goods and con- sumer durables. Similarly, the annual retail inflation eased for the third straight month in March to 4.28 per cent due to cooling down of food as well as vegetable prices. While on month-on- month basis, the factory output declined from 7.4 per cent in January to 7.1 per cent in February, the current figure showed a positive trend on annual basis. The IIP stood at a mere 1.2 per cent same peri- od last year. As per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday, retail inflation eased to a five-month low in March, but remained above medium-term target of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), support- ing views that monetary poli- cy is likely to remain unchanged at the next review in early June. It was 4.44 per cent in February 2018. Last week, RBI lowered its April- September retail inflation pro- jection to 4.7 per cent to 5.1 per cent, from a previous range of 5.1 per cent to 5.6 per cent released in February. As far as industry output is concerned, the Government’s revised data showed that IIP recorded a growth of 8.54 per cent in November, 7.1 per cent in December and 7.4 per cent in January. “During April-February, IIP growth has slowed to 4.3 per cent from 4.7 per cent in the same period last fiscal,” it said. However, experts believe that this growth trend gives confidence that the industrial recovery is broadening. “Higher growth was boosted by the low base affect. Nonetheless, this is the first instance of four consecutive months of IIP growth of more than 7.1 per cent in the 2011- 12 base data. The recovery was led by manufacturing, up 8.7 per cent in February 2018, once again four consecutive months of over 8.5 per cent increase in the manufacturing IIP in the new base data,” said Dr Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist and Dr Sunil Sinha, Principal Economist, India Ratings and Research. The data further said man- ufacturing sector, which con- stitutes over 77 per cent of the index, grew at 8.7 per cent in February as compared to almost flat growth of 0.7 per cent in the same month a year ago. “Similarly, capital goods output rose by a robust 20 per cent in the month under review as against a contraction of 2.4 per cent earlier,” it added. Also, consumer durables too grew at 7.9 per cent as against a contraction of 4.6 per cent in February 2017. Electricity generation also grew by 4.5 per cent compared to 1.2 per cent. However, mining out- put declined by 0.3 per cent against a growth 4.6 per cent earlier, it added. As far as retail inflation is concerned, it slowed to 4.28 per cent in March, giving a positive boost to common man as it showed easing of food prices including vegetables. As per the CSO data, inflation in the veg- etables segment cooled to 11.7 per cent in March from 17.57 per cent in the previous month. “The rate of price rise in the protein rich items like eggs, milk and other products too moderated in March as against the previous month. However, inflation in fruits basket was higher,” it said. Overall, it added, inflation in the food basket was 2.81 per cent, lower than 3.26 per cent in February. The data further revealed that inflation in the fuel and light segment also came in lower at 5.73 per cent month-on-month basis. Continued on Page 4 T he Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday that its recent judgement inserting safe- guards in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has “diluted” the law as no police officer will now take cognisance of any complaint filed by a member of SC/ST community. The Centre in its written submissions filed in court sought the recall of the March 20 judgement and said that by legislating upon such a “sensi- tive” issue, the court had trans- gressed into Parliament’s domain. The Centre also said the prevailing anger and unease among SC/ST community had created a sense of disharmony and commotion in the country. “The case dealing with an issue of very sensitive nature has caused a lot of commotion in the country and is also creating anger, unease and a sense of disharmony,” the Centre said. The statements formed part of the written submissions filed by Attorney General KK Venugopal ahead of the hear- ing of the Centre’s review peti- tion. On the earlier date, the Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and UU Lalit had refused to stay its judgement but allowed the Centre to file its submissions. In a hard-hitting criticism of the SC order, the A-G said that the verdict in essence compelled the authorities to act contrary to the provisions of the Atrocities Act and the Criminal Procedure Code. Attacking the logic given by the two-judge Bench that the courts can legislate where no law exists, the Centre’s sub- missions said that such a bland statement was wholly falla- cious as the executive, judicia- ry and legislature live under a written Constitution where separation of powers forms part of its basic structure which is inviolable. Referring to the judge- ment that required police offi- cers to seek sanction from appointing authority or SSP before arresting a public ser- vant or non-public servant as the case may be, the Centre said that on the pretext of filling gaps in law for protecting inno- cent persons against frivolous cases, the court through judi- cial legislation amended the Atrocities Act and CrPC there- by defeating the salutary pro- visions of the Act. Continued on Page 4 D escribing the erstwhile Chief Minister Manik Sarkar as ‘Dhritarashtra’ and other CPM leaders as ‘Dushasan’, Tripura’s first BJP Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said he is asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe Chit fund scam as also other crimes of rape and murders committed during the CPM regime. Alleging that the CPM cadres fixed the posting and promotions of all the State officials, the Chief Minister said within 45 days a new pol- icy would be in place for trans- parent transfer and posting. Deb pointed out that he had already effected transfers of 63 officials “without consulting anyone, including deputy-Chief Minister, Ministers or any other BJP leader. Settled in office after replacing a well-entrenched 25-year Left rule, the CM told The Pioneer that he had to deal with a bureaucracy which was steeped in ‘Red’. There are officials who enjoyed CPM patronage and would never get transferred from their comfort zones, he said. “I have transferred 63 offi- cials on the basis of intelligence reports without consulting deputy-CM, Ministers or any party leaders, said the youthful CM. He said under the pro- posed policy, transfer would be automatic after a fix period “Under previous Government CPM-backed offi- cials would carry on until their death,” he quipped. Accusing the Manik Sarkar regime of ideological high- handedness, Deb said as a State BJP president his securi- ty was removed and cadres did not allow BJP leaders to enter tribal areas. “I asked Rajnathji and got CRPF escorts that facilitated interaction with people in vil- lages and thereafter 56 Central Ministers travelled to villages and liberated people from the fear of the Left cadres and they voted us,” he said. “There are 47,000 ‘Panna Pramukhs’ (voter list in-charge in polling stations) of BJP in Tripura and all of them have now identity cards”, said the Chief Minister showing BJP’s preparedness against the alleged ‘Kauravsena’ of Sarkar during the election campaign. Charging the previous Manik Sarkar Government with seeing everything from the prism of the Left ideology, Deb said under the CPM regime children from Class 9th to 12th standards did not study emperor Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi or Indian History in Tripura as NCRT syllabus was removed. “Children studied leader of former Soviet Union V I Lenin. Now we would introduce NCRT history,” he said. He scoffed at CMP gener- al secretary Sitaram Yechuri who, he said, accused BJP of ‘saffronisation’ and asked “What they themselves did in Tripura?” “We established National flag in Chief Minister’s room, it was not there during Manik Sarkar’s regime”, the Chief Minister said. Asked why not one protested, the Chief Minister said “none dared as he was a dictator”. Asked whether the statute of Lenin’s pulled down last month after BJP’s victory in the polls will be restored, Deb said, “ Main koi shilpkar nahin hoon, main tab sarkar main nahintha...” On another question whether former Chief Minister Sarkar faced corruption charges on personal count, he replied in negative. On creating jobs and employment, he said 1,16,333 skilled work-force would be prepared by 2020 out of which 37,000 will be trained within Tripura and thereafter be given employment. Deb said he would encour- age self-employment with bank offering loan from 1 lakh to 1 crore without guarantee if banks are ensured of debt ser- vicing. “Government job is no indication of wellness of econ- omy”, he said. Tourism would be one of the top priorities with Government encouraging reli- gious tourism by building roads leading to famous temples and tourist spots. The two-lane roads on way to Mata Tripura Sundari Mandir is being con- verted into four-lanes. The Government would showcase tribal bamboo hand- icraft, products of agriculture and horticulture on both sides of the road and encourage economy of 20 tribal commu- nities endowed with enormous talent, Deb said. He said in his State Hindu, Muslim and Christians all visit Mata Tripurari temple. The Government would encourage religious and spiri- tual tourism in the State by cre- ating high-class roads and infrastructure around them, he said. I n a nation-wide protest fast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday led the party leaders and workers in regis- tering their anger against what they called Congress party’s attempt at killing democracy and creating hurdles in the way of country’s progress by derail- ing the Budget Session of the Parliament session. The Prime Minister held the day-long fast while attend- ing his official function includ- ing a visit to Tamil Nadu to open the Defence Expo at Kanchipuram near Chennai. Shah staged a sit-in protest at Hubli in Karnataka and blamed Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his party for indulging in the politics of negativity and conspiracy. Shah and BJP Ministers, MPs, and workers in all the States held protest ‘Loktantra Bachao Upvaas-Dharna’ that begun from 10 am and ended at 5 pm at different venues across the country. The Congress and the BJP have traded charges against each other for turning the sec- ond part of the Budget Session a washout. While the BJP accused the Congress of bringing politics to a new low by crippling the Parliament proceedings, the Congress countered saying it was the ruling party which did not want to face the tough questions posed by the Opposition. Continued on Page 4 A s the Allahabad High Court came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh Government on Thursday on the Unnao rape incident, ask- ing it whether it proposes to arrest accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the Yogi Adityanath Government late on Thursday decided to hand over the twin cases of rape and the custodial death of the vic- tim’s father to the CBI. Facing heat and growing outrage over the alleged involvement of the MLA in the rape of an 18-year-old girl, the State Government also decid- ed to register an FIR against the legislator and the other accused. The Unnao police earlier in the day registered the case against Sengar under various sections of the IPC and provi- sions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the Makhi police station area. Under POCSO, an accused has to be arrested immediate- ly after a case been filed. The FIR has been registered under Sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her into marriage), 363 (kid- napping) and 506 (criminal intimidation). In a dramatic move Wednesday late night devel- opment, Sengar made a sur- prise appearance outside the Lucknow SSP’s residence, trig- gering speculation that he might surrender, but left the place without handing himself over to the police. He said, “I am a disciplined BJP worker. I am innocent. I am being impli- cated.” Till the premier investi- gating agency takes over, the local police would continue with the probe, but a decision on whether the accused MLA from the ruling party would be arrested would be taken by the CBI, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said. “An FIR be lodged under appropriate sections consid- ering the allegations of rape levied on Sengar and others and the investigation be hand- ed over to CBI,” the Principal Secretary (Information) said in a statement. The Government has also recommended a CBI probe into the death of the vic- tim’s father. “Investigation in to cross cases pertaining to incidents leading to the death of the victim’s father be also handed over to the CBI,” the statement read. The decisions were taken after the Special Investigation Team constituted under Additional Director General of Police (Lucknow zone) to look into the matter submitted its report to the Government. BJP MLA from Bairia in Ballia district Surendra Singh made a shocking remark while defending Sengar. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Police Crime Branch on Thursday claimed to have unearthed the conspiracy behind the leak of Class X Maths paper conduct- ed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) with the arrest of three people, including a woman based in Punjab’s Ferozepur district. “The arrested accused in the Class X Maths paper leak have been identified as Sheru Ram (35), the Branch Manager and Om Prakash (58), the head cashier. The woman is Manju Bala (name changed),” said Alok Kumar, Joint CP (Crime) of the Delhi Police. Detailed report on P2 T he senior most judge of Supreme Court Justice J Chelameswar on Thursday refused to list a matter filed by former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan that questioned the Chief Justice of India’s s power to allocate matters as the mas- ter of roster. Recalling how on an earli- er occasion his order to list a petition questioning the role of the CJI in a medical college scam was reversed within 24 hours by a Constitution Bench formed by the CJI, Justice Chelameswar told advocate Prashant Bhushan, “Please understand my difficulty…I don’t want one more reversal of my order in the next 24 hours.” With almost two months to go before retirement, Justice Chelameswar candidly told Bhushan that any move by him will unnecessarily create doubts as “there seems to be a relentless campaign going on that I want to grab power.” While mentioning his mat- ter before Justice Chelameswar, Bhushan apprehended that his case was deliberately not being listed as he had named Chief Justice of India and asked the SC Registry not to list the case before the CJI. Just a day ago, Bhushan submitted, a Bench headed by the CJI had dismissed a simi- lar petition filed by a lawyer asserting yet again that the CJI alone has the power to allocate matters and constitute Benches. Though Justice Chelameswar refused, he urged Bhushan to approach the CJI. Continued on Page 4 I n a major initiative to boost Indian air defence, the Indian military aviation giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has announced a tie-up with Boeing and Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) for manufacturing the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India and pursuing the joint devel- opment of future technolo- gies. Boeing India President Pratyush Kumar, HAL Chairman and Managing Director T Suvarna Raju and Mahindra Defence Systems Chairman SP Shukla exchanged a ‘Memorandum of Agreement for ‘Make in India fighter’ at the ongoing ‘DefExpo’ near here. In a Press statement, the HAL said ‘the partnership will transform India’s aerospace and defence ecosystem, further building on its ‘Make in India’ successes. “HAL has always been at the forefront of development in India’s aerospace sector. This partnership with Boeing and Mahindra Defence Systems will create an opportunity to develop capabilities of the aero- space industry and strengthen indigenous platforms in India thereby contributing to the Make-in-India activities”, said T. Suvarna Raju. “Boeing is happy to team up with HAL, India’s leading company that manufactures combat fighters along with India’s company that manu- factures small commercial air- planes, Mahindra. This part- nership brings the best of Indian public and private enter- prises together with the world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing, to accelerate a con- temporary 21st century ecosys- tem for aerospace & defense manufacturing in India,” said Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India. Continued on Page 4

0’(1 ’) ˝˜˜ !˜˝˙#˙˝$%˜$˛ to common man as it ... protein rich items like eggs, ... regime children from Class 9th to 12th standards did not study emperor Ashoka,

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Page 1: 0’(1 ’) ˝˜˜ !˜˝˙#˙˝$%˜$˛ to common man as it ... protein rich items like eggs, ... regime children from Class 9th to 12th standards did not study emperor Ashoka,

����� ��������

Showing an upward trend ineconomy, Index of Industrial

Production (IIP) grew 7.1 percent in February this year,mainly driven by robust per-formance of the manufacturingsector coupled with higher off-take of capital goods and con-sumer durables. Similarly, theannual retail inflation eased forthe third straight month inMarch to 4.28 per cent due tocooling down of food as well asvegetable prices.

While on month-on-month basis, the factory outputdeclined from 7.4 per cent inJanuary to 7.1 per cent inFebruary, the current figureshowed a positive trend onannual basis. The IIP stood ata mere 1.2 per cent same peri-od last year.

As per data released by theCentral Statistics Office (CSO)on Thursday, retail inflationeased to a five-month low in

March, but remained abovemedium-term target of ReserveBank of India (RBI), support-ing views that monetary poli-cy is likely to remainunchanged at the next reviewin early June. It was 4.44 percent in February 2018. Lastweek, RBI lowered its April-September retail inflation pro-jection to 4.7 per cent to 5.1 percent, from a previous range of5.1 per cent to 5.6 per centreleased in February.

As far as industry output isconcerned, the Government’srevised data showed that IIPrecorded a growth of 8.54 percent in November, 7.1 per centin December and 7.4 per centin January.

“During April-February,IIP growth has slowed to 4.3per cent from 4.7 per cent inthe same period last fiscal,” itsaid.

However, experts believethat this growth trend givesconfidence that the industrial

recovery is broadening.“Higher growth was boosted bythe low base affect.Nonetheless, this is the firstinstance of four consecutivemonths of IIP growth of morethan 7.1 per cent in the 2011-12 base data. The recoverywas led by manufacturing, up8.7 per cent in February 2018,once again four consecutivemonths of over 8.5 per centincrease in the manufacturingIIP in the new base data,” saidDr Devendra Kumar Pant,Chief Economist and Dr Sunil

Sinha, Principal Economist,India Ratings and Research.

The data further said man-ufacturing sector, which con-stitutes over 77 per cent of theindex, grew at 8.7 per cent inFebruary as compared toalmost flat growth of 0.7 percent in the same month a yearago. “Similarly, capital goodsoutput rose by a robust 20 percent in the month under reviewas against a contraction of 2.4per cent earlier,” it added.

Also, consumer durablestoo grew at 7.9 per cent as

against a contraction of 4.6 percent in February 2017.Electricity generation also grewby 4.5 per cent compared to 1.2per cent. However, mining out-put declined by 0.3 per centagainst a growth 4.6 per centearlier, it added.

As far as retail inflation isconcerned, it slowed to 4.28 percent in March, giving a positiveboost to common man as itshowed easing of food pricesincluding vegetables. As per theCSO data, inflation in the veg-etables segment cooled to 11.7per cent in March from 17.57per cent in the previous month.“The rate of price rise in theprotein rich items like eggs,milk and other products toomoderated in March as againstthe previous month. However,inflation in fruits basket washigher,” it said.

Overall, it added, inflationin the food basket was 2.81 percent, lower than 3.26 per centin February. The data furtherrevealed that inflation in thefuel and light segment alsocame in lower at 5.73 per centmonth-on-month basis.

Continued on Page 4

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��������������������

The Centre told the SupremeCourt on Thursday that its

recent judgement inserting safe-guards in the SC/ST (Preventionof Atrocities) Act has “diluted”the law as no police officer willnow take cognisance of anycomplaint filed by a member ofSC/ST community.

The Centre in its writtensubmissions filed in courtsought the recall of the March20 judgement and said that bylegislating upon such a “sensi-tive” issue, the court had trans-gressed into Parliament’sdomain. The Centre also saidthe prevailing anger and unease

among SC/ST community hadcreated a sense of disharmonyand commotion in the country.

“The case dealing with anissue of very sensitive nature hascaused a lot of commotion inthe country and is also creatinganger, unease and a sense ofdisharmony,” the Centre said.

The statements formedpart of the written submissionsfiled by Attorney General KKVenugopal ahead of the hear-ing of the Centre’s review peti-tion. On the earlier date, theBench of Justices Adarsh KGoel and UU Lalit had refusedto stay its judgement butallowed the Centre to file itssubmissions.

In a hard-hitting criticismof the SC order, the A-G saidthat the verdict in essencecompelled the authorities to actcontrary to the provisions ofthe Atrocities Act and theCriminal Procedure Code.

Attacking the logic givenby the two-judge Bench thatthe courts can legislate whereno law exists, the Centre’s sub-

missions said that such a blandstatement was wholly falla-cious as the executive, judicia-ry and legislature live under awritten Constitution whereseparation of powers formspart of its basic structure whichis inviolable.

Referring to the judge-ment that required police offi-cers to seek sanction fromappointing authority or SSPbefore arresting a public ser-vant or non-public servant asthe case may be, the Centre saidthat on the pretext of fillinggaps in law for protecting inno-cent persons against frivolouscases, the court through judi-cial legislation amended theAtrocities Act and CrPC there-by defeating the salutary pro-visions of the Act.

Continued on Page 4

���������������� �� ��

Describing the erstwhileChief Minister Manik

Sarkar as ‘Dhritarashtra’ andother CPM leaders as‘Dushasan’, Tripura’s first BJPChief Minister Biplab KumarDeb said he is asking theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) to probe Chit fund scamas also other crimes of rape andmurders committed during theCPM regime.

Alleging that the CPMcadres fixed the posting andpromotions of all the Stateofficials, the Chief Ministersaid within 45 days a new pol-icy would be in place for trans-parent transfer and posting.Deb pointed out that he hadalready effected transfers of 63officials “without consultinganyone, including deputy-ChiefMinister, Ministers or any otherBJP leader.

Settled in office after

replacing a well-entrenched25-year Left rule, the CM toldThe Pioneer that he had to dealwith a bureaucracy which wassteeped in ‘Red’.

There are officials whoenjoyed CPM patronage andwould never get transferredfrom their comfort zones, hesaid.

“I have transferred 63 offi-cials on the basis of intelligencereports without consultingdeputy-CM, Ministers or anyparty leaders, said the youthfulCM. He said under the pro-posed policy, transfer would beautomatic after a fix period

“Under previousGovernment CPM-backed offi-cials would carry on until theirdeath,” he quipped.

Accusing the Manik Sarkarregime of ideological high-handedness, Deb said as aState BJP president his securi-ty was removed and cadres didnot allow BJP leaders to enter

tribal areas. “I asked Rajnathji and got

CRPF escorts that facilitatedinteraction with people in vil-lages and thereafter 56 Central

Ministers travelled to villagesand liberated people from thefear of the Left cadres and theyvoted us,” he said.

“There are 47,000 ‘PannaPramukhs’ (voter list in-chargein polling stations) of BJP inTripura and all of them havenow identity cards”, said theChief Minister showing BJP’spreparedness against thealleged ‘Kauravsena’ of Sarkarduring the election campaign.

Charging the previousManik Sarkar Governmentwith seeing everything fromthe prism of the Left ideology,

Deb said under the CPMregime children from Class9th to 12th standards did notstudy emperor Ashoka,Mahatma Gandhi or IndianHistory in Tripura as NCRTsyllabus was removed.

“Children studied leader offormer Soviet Union V I Lenin.Now we would introduceNCRT history,” he said.

He scoffed at CMP gener-al secretary Sitaram Yechuriwho, he said, accused BJP of‘saffronisation’ and asked“What they themselves did inTripura?”

“We established Nationalflag in Chief Minister’s room,it was not there during ManikSarkar’s regime”, the ChiefMinister said. Asked why notone protested, the ChiefMinister said “none dared as hewas a dictator”.

Asked whether the statuteof Lenin’s pulled down lastmonth after BJP’s victory in the

polls will be restored, Debsaid, “ Main koi shilpkar nahinhoon, main tab sarkar mainnahintha...”

On another questionwhether former Chief MinisterSarkar faced corruption chargeson personal count, he repliedin negative.

On creating jobs andemployment, he said 1,16,333

skilled work-force would beprepared by 2020 out of which37,000 will be trained withinTripura and thereafter be givenemployment.

Deb said he would encour-age self-employment with bankoffering loan from �1 lakh to�1 crore without guarantee ifbanks are ensured of debt ser-vicing. “Government job is no

indication of wellness of econ-omy”, he said.

Tourism would be one ofthe top priorities withGovernment encouraging reli-gious tourism by building roadsleading to famous temples andtourist spots. The two-laneroads on way to Mata TripuraSundari Mandir is being con-verted into four-lanes.

The Government wouldshowcase tribal bamboo hand-icraft, products of agricultureand horticulture on both sidesof the road and encourageeconomy of 20 tribal commu-nities endowed with enormoustalent, Deb said.

He said in his State Hindu,Muslim and Christians all visitMata Tripurari temple. TheGovernment would encourage religious and spiri-tual tourism in the State by cre-ating high-class roads andinfrastructure around them,he said.

����� ���������

In a nation-wide protest fast,Prime Minister Narendra

Modi and BJP president AmitShah on Thursday led the partyleaders and workers in regis-tering their anger against whatthey called Congress party’sattempt at killing democracyand creating hurdles in the wayof country’s progress by derail-ing the Budget Session of theParliament session.

The Prime Minister heldthe day-long fast while attend-ing his official function includ-ing a visit to Tamil Nadu toopen the Defence Expo atKanchipuram near Chennai.Shah staged a sit-in protest atHubli in Karnataka and blamedCongress president RahulGandhi and his party for

indulging in the politics ofnegativity and conspiracy.

Shah and BJP Ministers,MPs, and workers in all theStates held protest ‘LoktantraBachao Upvaas-Dharna’ thatbegun from 10 am and endedat 5 pm at different venuesacross the country.

The Congress and the BJPhave traded charges againsteach other for turning the sec-ond part of the Budget Sessiona washout.

While the BJP accused theCongress of bringing politics toa new low by crippling theParliament proceedings, theCongress countered saying itwas the ruling party which didnot want to face the toughquestions posed by theOpposition.

Continued on Page 4

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As the Allahabad HighCourt came down heavily

on the Uttar PradeshGovernment on Thursday onthe Unnao rape incident, ask-ing it whether it proposes toarrest accused BJP MLAKuldeep Singh Sengar, the YogiAdityanath Government lateon Thursday decided to handover the twin cases of rape andthe custodial death of the vic-tim’s father to the CBI.

Facing heat and growing

outrage over the allegedinvolvement of the MLA in therape of an 18-year-old girl, theState Government also decid-ed to register an FIR against thelegislator and the otheraccused.

The Unnao police earlier inthe day registered the caseagainst Sengar under varioussections of the IPC and provi-sions of the Prevention ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act in the Makhipolice station area.

Under POCSO, an accusedhas to be arrested immediate-ly after a case been filed.The FIR has been registeredunder Sections 376 (rape), 366(kidnapping, abducting orinducing a woman to compelher into marriage), 363 (kid-napping) and 506 (criminalintimidation).

In a dramatic move

Wednesday late night devel-opment, Sengar made a sur-prise appearance outside the

Lucknow SSP’s residence, trig-gering speculation that hemight surrender, but left theplace without handing himselfover to the police. He said, “Iam a disciplined BJP worker. Iam innocent. I am being impli-cated.”

Till the premier investi-

gating agency takes over, thelocal police would continuewith the probe, but a decision

on whether the accused MLA from the ruling partywould be arrested would betaken by the CBI, PrincipalSecretary (Home) ArvindKumar said.

“An FIR be lodged underappropriate sections consid-ering the allegations of rape

levied on Sengar and othersand the investigation be hand-ed over to CBI,” the PrincipalSecretary (Information) said ina statement. The Governmenthas also recommended a CBIprobe into the death of the vic-tim’s father.

“Investigation in to crosscases pertaining to incidentsleading to the death of the victim’s father be also handedover to the CBI,” the statementread.

The decisions were takenafter the Special InvestigationTeam constituted underAdditional Director General ofPolice (Lucknow zone) to lookinto the matter submitted itsreport to the Government.

BJP MLA from Bairia inBallia district Surendra Singhmade a shocking remark whiledefending Sengar.

Continued on Page 4

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The Delhi Police CrimeBranch on Thursday

claimed to have unearthed theconspiracy behind the leak ofClass X Maths paper conduct-ed by the Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)with the arrest of three people,including a woman based inPunjab’s Ferozepur district.

“The arrested accused inthe Class X Maths paper leakhave been identified as SheruRam (35), the Branch Managerand Om Prakash (58), the headcashier. The woman is ManjuBala (name changed),” saidAlok Kumar, Joint CP (Crime)of the Delhi Police.

Detailed report on P2

����� ��������

The senior most judge ofSupreme Court Justice J

Chelameswar on Thursdayrefused to list a matter filed byformer Law Minister ShantiBhushan that questioned theChief Justice of India’s s powerto allocate matters as the mas-ter of roster.

Recalling how on an earli-er occasion his order to list apetition questioning the role ofthe CJI in a medical collegescam was reversed within 24hours by a Constitution Benchformed by the CJI, JusticeChelameswar told advocatePrashant Bhushan, “Pleaseunderstand my difficulty…Idon’t want one more reversal ofmy order in the next 24 hours.”

With almost two months togo before retirement, JusticeChelameswar candidly toldBhushan that any move byhim will unnecessarily createdoubts as “there seems to be arelentless campaign going onthat I want to grab power.”

While mentioning his mat-ter before Justice Chelameswar,Bhushan apprehended that hiscase was deliberately not beinglisted as he had named ChiefJustice of India and asked theSC Registry not to list the casebefore the CJI.

Just a day ago, Bhushansubmitted, a Bench headed bythe CJI had dismissed a simi-lar petition filed by a lawyerasserting yet again that the CJIalone has the power to allocatematters and constitute Benches.Though Justice Chelameswarrefused, he urged Bhushan toapproach the CJI.

Continued on Page 4

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In a major initiative to boostIndian air defence, the Indian

military aviation giantHindustan AeronauticsLimited (HAL) has announceda tie-up with Boeing andMahindra Defence Systems(MDS) for manufacturing theF/A-18 Super Hornet in Indiaand pursuing the joint devel-opment of future technolo-gies.

Boeing India PresidentPratyush Kumar, HALChairman and ManagingDirector T Suvarna Raju andMahindra Defence SystemsChairman SP Shukla

exchanged a ‘Memorandum ofAgreement for ‘Make in Indiafighter’ at the ongoing‘DefExpo’ near here.

In a Press statement, theHAL said ‘the partnership willtransform India’s aerospaceand defence ecosystem, furtherbuilding on its ‘Make in India’successes.

“HAL has always been atthe forefront of development inIndia’s aerospace sector. Thispartnership with Boeing andMahindra Defence Systemswill create an opportunity todevelop capabilities of the aero-space industry and strengthenindigenous platforms in Indiathereby contributing to the

Make-in-India activities”, saidT. Suvarna Raju.

“Boeing is happy to teamup with HAL, India’s leadingcompany that manufacturescombat fighters along withIndia’s company that manu-factures small commercial air-planes, Mahindra. This part-nership brings the best ofIndian public and private enter-prises together with the world’slargest aerospace company,Boeing, to accelerate a con-temporary 21st century ecosys-tem for aerospace & defensemanufacturing in India,” saidPratyush Kumar, President,Boeing India.

Continued on Page 4

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������������ �

Regional transport office inDehradun is issuing licens-

es to the applicants withoutconducting proper driving test.This is because the departmenthas no space for taking the dri-ving test. The department offi-cers say that they are helpless,though they know that thecasual manner in which thedriving licenses are being givenare at least partly responsiblefor the accident spree takingnearly daily toll on lives.Besides, driving tests are beingconducted on the bustlingRajpur Road, the transportofficers say.

A senior transport officerfurther said that the shortageof Government-recognisedtraining institutes for drivingin Dehradun and other partsof the State is another seriousproblem.

“ There is one such train-ing institute -Institute of dri-ving and Traffic Research-atJhajra in Dehradun. With noother option left, the region-al transport office is giving

hundreds of licenses dailysans proper examination ofthe driving skill of the appli-cants,” he said.

Dwelling on the absenceof space left with the depart-ment for taking driving tests,Dehradun regional transportofficer Arvind Kumar Pandeysaid that they are perforcetaking the mandatory drivingtests on Rajpur Road.

“We know that thingsshould not be done in such acavalier fashion, particularlyagainst the backdrop of spi-

ralling road accidents. Weare, however, helpless. Wehave sent a proposal to thestate administration for pro-

viding us with the space fortaking proper driving tests.But it has been gatheringdust,” he lamented.

Another transport officersaid that most of the driversof commercial vehicles aresemi- literate. “They take upthe driving profession afterthey fail to land in any otherjob. We can easily under-stand the predicament of the

passengers with such peoplebeing behind the wheels,” hesaid.

He further pointed outthe paucity of employees andresources the departmenthas been grappling with forlong. “It is turning increas-ingly difficult for us toenforce the Motor VehicleAct as effectively as weshould, given the weakness-es we are beset with. A teamcomprising five employeesare enforcing traffic regula-tion in the city. Two suchteams are working inRishikesh and Vikasnagar.There are just two checkposts in the city, one atKulha l and another atAsharodi,” he added.

Pandey said that they aretrying to give their best forthe work they are entrustedwith despite the limitationsthey are grappling with.

“We are not found want-ing as far as commitment isconcerned. But we hope thatadministration would comeforward to improve thingsfor us,” he said.

����� ������ �

While Dehradun experi-enced a sunny day wide-

spread rainfall was reported atmany places in Uttarakhand on

Thursday. The meteorologicalcentre director Bikram Singhsaid that the climate would turndry from Friday and it wouldremain so for the next few days.However, it would rain again

as a fresh western disturbancewould affect the WesternHimalayan region from April15.

While the maximum tem-perature settled at 31.0 degree

Celsius them i n i m u mhovered at15.2 degreeCelsius in thecity on theday. The high-est maximumtemperatureof the state29.0°C wasrecorded atP a n t n a g a rwhile the low-est minimumtemperature7.0°C wasrecorded inNainital. Theweather fore-cast forDehradun onFriday ismainly clearsky. The max-imum andm i n i m u mtemperaturesare likely tobe around 32degree Celsiusand 18 degreeC e l s i u s

respectively in the city onFriday.

As per the chart sent by the

weather department, inPantnagar, the maximum andminimum temperatures wererecorded at 32.6 degree Celsiusand 15.7 degree Celsius, respec-tively. In Mukteshwar, the max-imum and minimum temper-atures were recorded at 16.6degree Celsius and 7.5 degreeCelsius. In New Tehri, themaximum and minimum tem-peratures recorded were 18.6degree Celsius and 8.6 degree

Celsius respectively.According to a Met official,

light to moderate rainfall/thun-

derstorm occurred at manyplaces in Uttarakhand. By8.30 am on Thursday, 60 mmrainfall was reported in Nainitalwhile 50 mm in Haldwani, 50mm in Banbasa, 20 mm inMukteshwar and, Garud; 10mm in Bhatwari, Barkot,Dehradun, Dharchula,Uttarkashi, Gangolihat, Tehri,Pithoragarh, Ramnagar,Rudraprayag and Almora.

����� �� �

Acting on the Centre’sinstruction, the Pauri dis-

trict administration is nowgearing up for the Gram SwarajAbhiyan which would be heldin all the gram panchayats ofthe district from April 14 toMay 5 to mark the birthanniversary of BabasahebBhimrao Ambedkar, the prin-cipal architect of theConstitution, which falls onApril 14. The district magis-trate of Pauri, Sushil Kumar hasentrusted the task of organisingthe multi-phased event with thedistrict heads of severaldepartments like agriculture,education and health whilechairing a meeting onThursday.

He further mentioned thatPauri Zila Panchayat would befelicitated by the PrimeMinister for excellent work ithas done at the district level.“The programmes to be organ-ised on the occasion would bedirectly monitored by theCentre,” DM said, adding thatthe Centre’s observers mightmake unannounced inspec-tion of the gram sabhas to seewhether the programmesmarked for the occasion arebeing help in the appropriatemanner or not.

DM said that the social wel-fare department would conducta commemorative programmeacross the district on April 14to mark the birth anniversaryof Babasaheb and on April 18,a programme would be held atNeelkanth under Yamkeshwarblock under the Swach BharatMission which would bepresided over by the DM.

On April 20, LPG gasconnection would be distrib-uted among some peopleunder Ujjwala Yojana while on

April 24, a programme wouldbe held in Paubo block by thePanchayat Raj department andseminars would be organised

from gram panchayat to the dis-trict level on the themes ofwomen empowerment, womenhealth, vaccination and socialdevelopment.

On April 28, a programmewould be held in Nainidandablock during which some peo-ple would be benefited underPradhan Mantri Awas Yojanaand Pradhan Mantri SobhagyaYojana and on April 30,Ayushmann Bharat Diwaswould be observed.

DM further said that onMay 2, the agriculture depart-ment would organise KisanKalyan Diwas and on May 5, aprogramme would be organisedunder National RuralLivelihood Mission.

����� ������ �

Uttarakhand Governmentis committed to promote

folk culture of the State, said theChief Minister Trivendra SinghRawat while releasing ‘NamanUttarakhand’ a collection offolk songs at his residence onThursday. The collection ofsongs has been composed bythe Jaunsar Bhabar SanskritikLok Kala Manch.

The CM said that theancient culture and traditionsof Uttarakhand would have tobe preserved and everyoneshould contribute in this direc-tion.

Appreciating the collec-tion of songs, the CM said thatthe songs compiled by NandlalBharti, based on ‘Puranic’ artswhich are becoming extinct,will inspire youth towards ourancient heritage and customs.

He said that it is necessaryto revive old folk songs, dancesand musical instruments toconserve and enhance thisunique heritage ofUttarakhand.

Rawat added that peoplehave understood and promot-ed the importance of folk cul-ture and folk art and a sense ofbelonging can be observedamong people for art and cul-

ture. He announced the stategovernment has decided to setup a cultural village in which,the culture, costumes, glimpsesof different styles, food andheritage will all be available atone place.

Lyricist and Director NandLal Bharati informed that thefolk songs based on ‘Puranic’arts which were getting extincthave been compiled in this pre-sentation.

In ‘Naman Uttarkhand’ aneffort to express the traditions,culture, lifestyle, faith-beliefand customs of Uttarakhandthrough songs has been made,he added.

����� �� ��

The judicial magistrate courtSrinagar has sent the third

accused Sarfaraj alias Saru , res-ident of Subash NagarMuzzafarnagar (UP), in Anishmurder case to judicial custodyin the Muzaffarnagar jail onThursday. Earlier onWednesday, the Srinagar policehad brought Sarfaraj toSrinagar. SHO Srinagar policekotwali N S Bisht said that theaccused has been sent on judi-

cial custody to Muzaffarnagarjail and he would be brought toSrinagar any day after April 24after completing the court for-malities.

Notably, a body of anunidentified person had beenfound wrapped in a plastic bagon GI&TI Road on January 29night. Police later had claimedto have cracked the case withthe arrest of three accused. Themotive of the murder had beenstated to be one of homosexu-ality and black mailing.Thebody had been identified asthat of one Anish, resident ofKila Manglour in districtHaridwar, after the crushedface of the body was recon-structed through computergraphics.

����� ������ �

Aday after the sub -divi-sional magistrate (civil)

Pratyush Singh was allegedlycornered and manhandled byan alleged land grabber and hisassociates at Bagriyal in Rajpurarea, the superintendent ofpolice (City) PK Rai said onThursday that the SDM hadgone to remove the encroach-ment on a panchayat landwithout informing the police.“We acted after we wereinformed and those allegedlyinvolved in the attack on theSDM have been sent toSuddhowala jail after they werepresented in the court,” hesaid. Earlier, acting on thecomplaint received fromHumuk Chandra Pal, revenuesub-inspector, Tehsil (civil) acase under sections148/332/353/504/506/307 ofIPC and appropriate sections of7 criminal law amendmentAct has been registered againstChiranjeev Kumar Sharma,Raju Sharma, Rinji Sharma,Priya Sharma, Vishal, NavedAhmed, Shahnawaz, F

Choudhary, Salman and someother unidentified persons inRajpur police station onThursday.

SP said that local policehad not been informed bySDM that he was going toremove illegal construction ongovernment lands at Bagriyalvillage. “ The attackers hadtorn SDM’s cloth. He sustainedinjuries on several parts of hisbody. SDM’s medical exami-nation was conducted onThursday,” he added.

Sources said that on thedirection of DM, SDM hadgone to remove the encroachedlands based on complaintreceived from a high profileperson.

Sources said that land grab-ber had encroached aroundtwo and half bigha land ofgram sabha, Bagriyal. The dis-trict administration hadreceived complaint regardingthe same a few days ago. SDMhad inspected the area onWednesday evening and foundthat the land was illegallyencroached and a dairy wasoperating from there. When

SDM tried to enquire about theland, a person namedChiranjeev Sharma was foundat encroached land and heasked SDM to show his iden-tity card. SDM said that on thedirection of DM, he hadreached here to free theencroached the land. ThenSharma shouted and some per-sons started reaching the placewith sticks and bamboos. Theyhad cornered SDM. Later SDMwas manhandled by them andtore SDM’s cloth. One of themhit SDM with stick but a villageLakshman Singh Rawat isreported to intervene and stickhot Lakshman Singh Rawatwho fell on the ground. Somevillagers helped SDM to comeout from the crowd. Lekhpalhad registered a complaintagainst Chiranjeev Sharma, hisbrother Rajveev Sharma andhalf dozen other persons in theRajpur Police Station onThursday. Police acted swiftlyafter being informed aboutSDM was attacked by somepersons. ADM Arvind Pandeyand SP City PK Rai rushed tothe spot and arrested Chranjeev

and other six persons from thevillage. Illegal construction atgram panchayat land wasdestroyed with the help JCB.Rajpur police station officerArvind Singh said that a pistol,knife, sticks, bamboos havebeen received from Sharma’shouse after raid was conduct-ed by the police. Sharma hadnot procured license of theseized pistol. It should be men-tioned here that team led byTehsildar MC Ramola andNayab Tehsildar Jaspal Ranahad reached the same placearound three days ago to freethe encroached gram sabhaland. Sharma brothers hadmanhandled with the teammembers and he had escapedfrom the spot. Sources said thatland grabber Sharma brothersare reported to be native ofAssam and he had construct-ed building illegal few years agoand administration wasinformed by the local resi-dents but nothing had hap-pened. It has been suspectedthat with the help of revenuepolice, the accused had con-structed building.

����� ������ �

The animal husbandrydepartment should empha-

sise on increasing the incomeof cattle rearers in the State. TheMinister of State for childdevelopment, animal hus-bandry and pasture develop-ment Rekha Arya said thiswhile undertaking a meeting ofthe department at VidhanSabha on Thursday. TheMinister directed the officers torecruit ten women para vets inall nine mountainous districtsof the state.

She said the officials tofocus on doubling the incomeof farmers and stressed onimproving the breeds of ani-mals. She urged the officers toprovide training and loans tothe farmers through coopera-tive to increase their income.

She said that these women‘Para Vets’ would help inimproving the breed of the ani-mals. Arya said that there arewomen veterinary doctors in theanimal husbandry departmentbut all ‘Para Vets’ in the depart-ment are males. She said thatnow there is need to trainwomen as ‘Para Vets’ to provideveterinary services in the vil-lages.

The Minister also empha-sised that the goat meat from

Uttarakhand should be brand-ed as natural Himalayan meatwhich would help in boosting itssales. She added said that a planhas been made in this regard by

the department. The Minister said people

interested in animal husbandryshould form small cooperativesocieties to augment theirincome. Arya added thatwomen should be given priori-

ty in this area. She directed thatthe proposal to establish a cen-tre for improvement in Sahiwalbreed of cow at Katarpur inHardwar district should be for-warded. Arya said that the pro-posal of opening two slaughter-houses each in Kumaon andGarhwal divisions are also onanvil.

Arya said that Animal fairsand exhibitions after the mon-soons should be held in differ-ent parts of the state where sem-inars, display of Agri-productsand felicitation of farmersengaged in improving the breedsof the animals would be organ-ised. The meeting was attendedby the Secretary AnimalHusbandry R MeenakshiSundaram, Director Animalhusbandry K Joshi, ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO) Sheepdevelopment Board AvinashAnand and other officers.

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������������ �

On the call given by thePrime Minister (PM)

Narendra Modi, large numberof BJP workers and leaders saton a fast in different areas of theState on Thursday. In protestagainst Congress party’s ploy todisrupt parliament, PM Modihad given a call to the BJP lead-ers to observe a day’s fast. Inprovisional State capital here,the BJP leaders and workers satin groups and observed fast inmany areas.

The Lok Sabha MP fromTehri Parliamentary constituen-cy, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah ledthe party leaders in observing thefast at Gandhi Park on the day.Launching a blistering attack onthe Congress party for playingdivisive politics, she said that the

party which is habituated to stayin power has unleashed anatmosphere of confusion and fearin the country. She claimed bythat some people are working ona heinous plan to disturb peaceby engaging in politics of violenceand provocation. The BJP MPsaid the opposition has deployedevery trick in its bag to opposethe ‘politics of performance’ pur-sued by the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi but it has failedmiserably.

She said that the last sessionof parliament got completelywasted due to persistent protestsby the members of Congressparty. Many important billswhich the Government intend-ed to introduce during the sessiongot stalled due to disrupting tac-tics deployed by the Congressparty, she said. The Mahanagar

President of BJP Anil Goyal saidthat the BJP has decided toexpose anti development and antidemocratic face of the Congress.He said that the Congress neverhad faith in the democracy andit is the party which had imposedemergency in the country, gaggedthe media and was involved inmassacre of Sikhs.

On the advice ofCambridge AnalyticaCompany, the Congress isengaged in a conspiracy tosow seeds of hatred and vio-lence in the Indian society. TheBJP leaders charged theCongress party to engage inthis heinous politics on theadvice of international agencieswhich it has hired with an eyeon the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions.

The Union Minister of

State for textiles, Ajay Tamtaobserved fast along with largenumber of supporters at PantPark in Almora on the day. Hesaid that the Congress party istrying to fiddle with the man-date given by the people of thecountry. Tamta said that theUnion government is doingevery possible effort to providethe benefit of the developmentschemes to the common peo-ple but the Congress party istrying to stall the develop-ment of the Country.

In a statement the State BJPPresident Ajay Bhatt claimedthat the Fast observed byParty MPs and leaders was suc-cessful in Uttarakhand. Hesaid that the party MPsobserved fastagainst the dirtypolitics of Congress in theirconstituencies.

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Chief secretary Utpal KumarSingh has now directed

that the debris resulting fromexcavations for roads under theall-weather road project shouldbe disposed of properly as perthe regulations. He directed theexecuting agencies that underno circumstances should themuck be dumped in river area.The chief secretary said thiswhile chairing a meeting toreview progress in the ambi-tious all-weather road projecthere on Thursday.

Interacting with the districtmagistrates concerned, Singhsought details about the workpackages being undertaken withan approved sum of about Rs11,700 crore. These include the140 kilometre Rishikesh-Rudraprayag stretch, 160 kilo-metre Rudraprayag-Manastretch, 144 kilometreRishikesh-Dharasu, 124 kilo-metre Dharasu-Gangotri, 95kilometre Dharasu-Yamunotri,

76 kilometre Rudraprayag-Gaurikund and 150 kilometreTanakpur-Pithoragarh stretch.

He directed the executingagencies to ensure that as per theconditions stated in the tender,the muck disposal should beensured at the designateddumping zones. He also direct-ed the district magistrates toconsistently monitor this.Addressing officials of the agen-cies including national highwayPublic Works Department,Border Roads Organisation, hesaid that work underway in 22of the 37 approved projectsshould be completed on a war-footing. He also said that a dateshould be fixed for securing theapproval for the remainingworks under the all-weatherroad project. During the meet-ing, the additional chief secre-tary Om Prakash informed thatunder the project 80 per centland transfer and 81 per centforest land transfer has beencompleted. Works on 632 kilo-metres of the total 889 kilome-

tres in the project have beenapproved. The forest depart-ment was directed to undertakenecessary action regarding the94 kilometre stretch of the roadin the Bhagirathi eco-sensitivezone.

The chief secretary alsodiscussed in detail the problemsbeing faced in utility shiftingand directed officials of theUttarakhand PowerCorporation Limited, PeyjalNigam and other officials con-

cerned to complete the task ofutility shifting on a war-footingto ensure that pilgrims andtourists do not face inconve-nience in accessing these facil-ities.

He further said that theGovernment of India has grant-ed approval to 13 more packagesunder the project for which thetender process is underway. Amonitoring committee has beenformed for cases related to theeco-sensitive zone. Executingagency officials were directed topresent the affected cases to themonitoring committee.Reviewing the shifting of powerlines, he said that remaininglines and electricity poles shouldbe shifted by April 20. On thesubject of potable water, the JalSansthan general manager SKSharma informed that tempo-rary water supply lines havebeen facilitated according to thesite requirement in areas under24 potable water schemesaffected by the project.

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Afew days after a VishwaHindu Parishad func-

tionary attempted self-immo-lation in front of Jwalapurpolice station, demanding thedistrict administration to shutall the meat shops running inthe holy city, the district foodsafety department, municipalcorporation and Tehsil in ajoint operation raided a num-ber of meat shops located inJwalapur on Thursday.

The team slapped noticeson the owners of nine of themfor running them withoutlicenses and asked them torespond within seven days,

failing which legal actionwould be taken.

The team reached Bakramarket around noon andfound four shops running inviolation of the laid-downnorms. “We have asked themto explain why the documentssubmitted by them are incom-plete.

If they fail to explain sat-isfactorily within a week theshops would be sealed off,”said district food safety officerRajendra Pal.

Mukhya Nagar Adhikari,Praveen Kumar said that theyare not renewing the licensesof the shops which are runningin violation of the rules.

“Besides, we have stopped giv-ing fresh licenses for the timebeing.”

However, the meat traderssaid that the administration issitting on their applicationseeking places to sell meatfrom.

One of them Rafaq Alisaid that the municipal cor-poration has made it a habit togive them a short shrift. “Everyyear we face the same problem.Raids happen but no solutionevolves,” he grumbled.

Sources said that whilejust 12 people have been givenlicense to run the meat shopsnearly 150 shops are operatingin the district sans license.

Dehradun:A team ofCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) Dehradun branch hasarrested a customs inspectorAK Sharma and constable LKhan on Thursday on charge ofaccepting a bribe of �4,000from a jeep driver PremKishore, resident of Khatima,Udham Singh Nagar. Theaccused had allegedly soughtthe bribe against releasing thejeep which was seized fromIndo Nepal Border area nearKhatima for transporting buf-faloes. The accused would beproduced in the court inDehradun on Friday, said a CBIofficer A Kaushik. A senior CBIofficer said that anotherCustoms officer was also

involved in the case and hewould be arrested soon.

Notably, a local team ofCustoms had stopped thevehicle as it was found loadedwith buffaloes near Indo-Nepal border area in Khatima.Customs officials had seizedthe vehicle and unloaded thebuffaloes. Driver Prem Kishorehad registered a complaint atDehradun CBI branch, sayingthat some Customs officershad asked him to give bribe tohave the vehicle released. Hehad said that the Customs offi-cers when approached sought� 10K as bribe. As per the com-plaint, the amount had beenbrought down to � 4K throughnegotiation.

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The categorisation process ofwork places on the basis of

accessibility is being keenlywatched by thousands ofemployees of different depart-ments of state government.After implementation of newtransfer act, the categorisationof workplace into easy to access(sugam) and hard to access(Durgam) areas would play amajor role in determining theplace of posting.

On Thursday, the Statehealth directorate released thelist of Sugam and Durgamareas. All the areas barringChakrata and Kalsi ( excludingblock headquarters) of

Dehradun were put in theSugam category. Similarly allareas of Haridwar and UdhamSingh Nagar district wereincluded in Sugam. The healthdirectorate also categorised allareas of Rudraprayag, Chamoli,Bageshwar and Pithoragarhdistricts in Sugam categories.The Public Works Department(PWD) has also completed theprocess of categorisation. Ithas put entire area of Dehradundistrict barring Chakrata inSugam category while all areasof Nainital, Udham SinghNagar and Haridwar districtshave been put in Sugam cate-gory. The department has putall areas of Chamoli andRudraprayag districts inDurgam categories. All areas of

Tehri district barringNarendranagar and all areasexcluding Kotdwar, Dugaddaand Srinagar of Pauri districtwould be in Durgam category.On Thursday, the Secretariatadministration also releasedits categorisation according towhich the secretariat would bein Sugam category.

The office ofCommissioner state taxationhas categorised all areas barringits head office, Lakshmi Roadoffice, Asharodi check postand Railway station inDehradun into Durgam cate-gory. All areas of Pauri,Rudraprayag, Chamoli,Pithoragarh, Almora,Bageshwar and Uttarkashi dis-tricts would be in the Durgam

categories.Recently in a review meet-

ing the Chief Secretary (CS) ofUttarakhand Utpal KumarSingh directed all departments’heads to compulsorily uploadthe information about cate-gorisation of work places basedon accessible and hard to accessareas on departmental websitesbefore April 15.

In the meeting the CSdirected secretaries, to manda-torily ensure uploading of listson the websites of their depart-ment about available vacan-cies, eligible personnel fortransfer and categorisationsof work places based on theaccessible and hard to accessareas. The state administrationhas also directed the depart-

ments to form transfer com-mittees to ensure properimplementation of theTransfer Act- 2017.

It is worth mentioninghere that as per act the processof categorisation of workplaceshad to be completed by March31 whereas the process of for-mation of transfer committeeshad to be completed by 1April. As per the Act, identi-fication of employees for com-pulsory transfer from easy toaccess to hard to access areasand vice versa had to be pre-pared by April 15.

The employees of differentdepartments are goingthrough the details of the actand categorisation so that theycan apply for the transfers.

����� ������ �

The Speaker of Lok Sabha,Sumitra Mahajan partici-

pated in Ganga Arti ceremonyat Rishikesh during her two daystay at Rishikesh. The Speakerwas on a personal visit to theholy town located on the banksof Ganga where she stayed atParmarth Niketan.

The president of ParmarthNiketan, Chidanand Saraswatiaccompanied the speaker dur-ing the Ganga Arti. Mahajanalso took the pledge to protectenvironment along with otherdevotees. Heaping praises onthe Speaker, Chidanand saidthat her life is an example forothers to follow.

“By coming to ourHimalayan state, which is theorigin of the sacred NationalRiver Ganga, she has shown thecrucial importance of protect-ing our sacred river bodies andpilgrimage sites situated innature. It is time when leadersof all faiths, political leaders,

parliamentarians and every cit-izen work together, hand inhand and heart in heart, toensure a Clean and GreenIndia, Clean and Green Gangafor all,’’ he said.

Mahajan was here to

attend the Shrimad BhagawatKatha by Govind Giri at theParmarth Ganga Ghat.

The speaker was gifted asapling of Rudraksha byChidanand. She in turn sym-bolical ly of fered 75

Rudraksha plants to theyoung Parmarth Gurukul stu-dents and asked them to plantthem in the upcoming mon-soon season. IncidentallyThursday was 75th birthdayof speaker

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Leaders on the hunger strikespree in Haridwar on

Thursday, while veteranCongress leader and formerChief Minister Harish Rawatsat on a day- long fasting atJiapota village senior BJPleader, MP from Haridwarand former Chief MinisterRamesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’along with Cabinet MinisterMadan Kaushik and other BJPMLAs did the same at the dis-trict collectorate in the city.

However, the two leaders ofthe rival parties latched to twodifferent issues to embark onthe fasting. While HarishRawat made social justice thepropelling issue, ‘Nishank’ saidthat the disruptive mindset ofthe Opposition Congressshown during the recentlyheld Assembly session atGairsain had forced him to gowithout food for a day.

Harish Rawat said thatthe weaker section of the soci-ety is at the receiving end ofthe Government machinery

out to suppress them. “Theyare being looked down uponas no welfare scheme is beingtaken up by the newGovernment. They are beingsuppressed and subjected toatrocities in the BJP –ruledStates, including Uttarakhand.I have taken up the day-longfast to articulate the anger ofthe weaker section against theGovernment which is indif-ferent to their interests,” hesaid.

Ramesh Pokhariyal‘Nishank’ said that the

Congress lawmakers hadstopped the Assembly duringthe budget session from trans-acting important businessbearing on development of thestate. “This is an unhealthytrend for the participatorydemocracy. This is destructivetoo as it resulted in wastage ofa huge sum spent for con-ducting the session. This muststop and the people’s interestsand development must beallowed to gain precedenceover the sectarian politics,” theformer Chief Minister said.

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Regarding issues being facedin online booking for

Corbett national park, a groupof Corbett Gypsy drivers asso-ciation and those involved intourism business submitted an11-point memorandum to theCorbett director in chargeParag Madhukar Dhakate onThursday. Acknowledging var-ious demands, he assuredaction in the near future on theissues. A meeting will be organ-ised soon to find a solution tothe other issues, he assured.Following this, the Gypsy dri-vers and others suspendedtheir agitation for two days.

For some days now, issues

are being faced in online book-ing on the Corbett websitedue to which the Gypsy driversand businessmen had protest-ed at the Corbett gate andstalled the operation of Gypsyjeeps in the national park forone day. Meeting Dhakate,they complained about theOne

Time Password (OTP) sys-tem used for online permitbooking. Dhakate said that theOTP would be received on themobile phone of only oneapplicant for permit booking.When the delegation spoke ofshifting the portal host fromNIC, he said that attemptswere on at the state adminis-tration level for this.

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Aspot bellied eagle owl stray-ing away from the jungle

into a human settlement whileunder attack from kites andcrows was rescued by localsnake expert ChandrasenKashyap and handed over tothe Corbett tiger reserve offi-cials. It is considered to be agreat work.

Locals had informedKashyap in the morningabout an owl on an electrici-ty pole in Bambagher locali-ty.

He found the owl underattack from kites and crows.Using a ladder to climb theelectricity pole, he was able tocapture the owl and take ithome where he administeredsome treatment to the bird.

Later, in the afternoon,he handed over the owl toCorbett director in chargeParag Madhukar Dhakate inthe presence of deputy direc-tor Amit Verma and divi-sional forest officer NehaVerma. Dhakate said that theowl would be released into thejungle.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Thursday

said that the Gurugram city hasbeen divided into four zones forundertaking developmentalworks in a phased manner.

The Chief Minister was pre-siding over the meeting ofIndustrialists and Real EstateDevelopers at Gurugram. Asmany as 61 complaints related toreal estate were taken up in themeeting of which maximum were resolved on the spot.

He said that the constitutionof Gurugram MetropolitanDevelopment Authority was abig decision to ensure all rounddevelopment of the city.

Such a provision would bemade applicable in Faridabadalso only if residents of Faridabaddemand so, he added.

The Chief Minister said thatthe zoning system has benefitedthe Gurugram city.

There was a total collapse ofsystem in Gurugram during thetenure of previous government.Now, the same has beenimproved by the present StateGovernment by introducing thiszoning system, said he.

Manohar Lal said that thenumber of changes has beenmade in policies and rules dur-ing last three years. Various pro-jects which were lying halted fora long period had been restart-ed by the present StateGovernment and these are underthe final stages of completion, hesaid.

Giving example of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)Expressway, the Chief Ministersaid that the matter was lyingpending with the SupremeCourt. After the StateGovernment followed the mat-ter with the court, the construc-tion work resumed.

The Prime Minister

Narendra Modi would inaugu-rate KMP after its completion innext one-and-a-half month.Similarly, the difficulties beingfaced in the construction ofDwarka Expressway were alsoresolved, he said.

He said that a separateauthority was being constitutedfor Kundli-Manesar-Palwal

Expressway. While addressing the repre-

sentatives of real estate industry,the Chief Minister said thatsuch meetings would be organ-ised from time to time to redress the grievances ofindustrialists.

He said that the StateGovernment is of the view thatlarge number of industries wouldcome to Gurugram bringinghuge investment and thus creat-ing number of employmentopportunities for all.

Talking about ease of doingbusiness, Manohar Lal said thatHaryana has now become num-ber one state in terms of ease ofdoing business and now thesecond step would be investorfeedback.

Among those present on thisoccasion included MLAs UmeshAggarwal, Tejpal Tanwar, ChiefSecretary, DS Dhesi and othersenior officers.

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In a decision which would goa long way in promoting anti

tobacco campaign, HaryanaGovernment on Thursday decid-ed that every health institutionin the state would nowhave a transparentdrop box at theentrance gate to enablethe staff and visitors topark their tobacco andrelated products before enteringthe premises.

The tobacco product wouldhave to be dropped in boxinstalled at the entrance and canbe taken back while leaving.

Besides, drivers and con-ductors of Haryana Roadwaysbuses would be imparted train-ing and made conscious of the

need to stop and check smokingin buses.

A decision to this effect wastaken at the State LevelCoordination Meeting andOrientation Workshop underthe National Tobacco Control

Programme (NTCP)chaired by theAdditional ChiefSecretary, HealthDepartment, Amit Jha,here.

It was also decided that signboards would be put up at pub-lic places and in roadways busestelling people that smoking isprohibited.

These sign boards wouldcarry number and address of theauthorities concerned so thatany complaint could be lodgedwith them.

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Gaining the first-hand knowl-edge about every aspect of

mining in Telanagana alongwith his team of officials, PunjabCabinet Minister Navjot SinghSidhu on Thursday said that thestate’s proposed mining policywould ensure availability of sandto the people of Punjab on rea-sonable prices

Sidhu said that the state hasan immense potential withregard to the mining sector and“the implementation of a com-prehensive and effective miningpolicy can act as the gamechanger for the state’s economybesides ensuring the availabilityof sand at reasonable prices to thepeople of state”.

Heading the Cabinet sub-committee on mining, the LocalGovernment Minister Sidhu ison three-day visit to Telanganaand Andhra Pradesh to have

complete knowledge of theirsuccessful mining model.

The delegation visited themining spots witnessing themining being done at Puskupallivillage in JaiyashankarBhupalpalli district at the banksof Godavari river which isaround 200 km from Hyderabad.

The delegation also saw thetransportation of sand, blockadeto prevent illegal mining, check-ing system of unregistered vehi-cles, authorized spots where thevehicles carrying sand areweighed, place where the sandtaken out from the mining nearthe river is stored and the processof carrying sand to the con-sumers through commercialvehicles.

The delegation also had alook at the coding system doneon the receipt issued throughcomputerized system from thestorage place.

“After having a look atTelangana model and given the

more number of rivers in Punjabvis-à-vis Telangana, I havebecome supremely confidentthat the aspect of mining whichis the weakest spot of Punjab canbecome its strongest supportpillar,” he said.

Sidhu said that Telanganahas transformed the sand quar-ries into goldmines by the dintof its effective and compre-hensive policy. “This proposedmining policy for Punjab canact as a boon for the state andmy hopes have been buoyed bythis visit which has cleared allthe misconceptions arising inthe sub committee meetings,”he added.

He added that Telanganahas sand prices under controlto a large extent. Telanganaearned Rs 10.5 crore in 2014-15 from mining and incomehas increased to Rs 368.33crore in 2015-16, Rs 456.45crore in 2016-17 and Rs 678.35crore in 2017-18.

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From Page 1Again on Section 18 of the Act that refused

anticipatory bail to an accused, the court’s direc-tion which said that such a provision will applyonly where a genuine case is made out was heldto fall foul of a 1995 decision of the apex courtwhich upheld the constitutional validity ofSection 18 of the Act.

Even the direction by the court asking the

DSP to enquire whether or not to file an FIRcontradicted an earlier Constitution Benchdecision that makes registration of FIR com-pulsory for cognisable offences. “This judgementhas diluted for the reasons stated, the provisionsof the Atrocities Act read with the CrPC, result-ing in great damage to the country. It is essen-tial that the conclusions drawn be reviewed andrecalled.”

From Page 1A little while later, Bhushan

appeared before a Bench head-ed by CJI and mentioned thepetition for urgent listing.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud askedBhushan whether the Registryhad cleared all defects in thepetition to which Bhushanreplied in the affirmative. TheCJI assured Bhushan that hewill look into the matter.

From Page 1“Despite the positive news

on the food inflation front, webelieve that inflationary pres-sures remain tilted to theupside and are likely to hoveraround the 5 per cent mark inFY 2018-19. Expected risksmay arise from fiscal slippage,higher input costs and MSPhikes while financial sectorvolatility with respect to thenormalization policy in theUS may cause further ten-sion,” Anis Chakravarty, leadeconomist, Deloitte India.

From Page 1Future production with

Indian partners will involvemaximising indigenous contentand producing the F/A-18 inIndia thereby creating a 21st cen-tury aerospace ecosystem.

“We are excited about theopportunities that this partner-ship will provide for us to con-tribute further to ‘Make in India’for defence,” said SP Shukla,Group President, Aerospace &Defence Sector and Chairman,Mahindra Defence Systems.

The Super Hornet Make inIndia proposal is to build anentirely new and state-of-the-artproduction facility that can beutilised for other programmeslike India’s Advanced MediumCombat Aircraft (AMCA) pro-gramme.

This partnership is intend-ed to bring HAL, Boeing andMDS global scale and supplychain, its best-in-industry pre-cision manufacturing processesas well as the unrivalled experi-ence designing and optimisingaerospace production facilities toboth expand India’s aerospaceecosystem and help realise theMake in India vision.

The plan addresses the infra-structure, personnel trainingand operational tools and tech-niques required to produce anext generation fighter aircraft inIndia.

In addition, Boeing willwork closely with India industryto ensure they have the very lat-est technologies, applying lessonslearned from the current SuperHornet production line

From Page 1The BJP president under-

took a hunger strike alongwith party’s chief ministerialcandidate BS Yeddyurappa andother MPs. “I want to ask@RahulGandhi and#SoniaGandhi - why are youtaking salary & perks from#Parliament when you did notallow it to function? Please giveanswer to people of India,”Parliamentary Affairs MinisterAnanth Kumar tweeted.

“The Modi Governmentwants to make laws for the peo-ple but the Congress isn’t lettingus do so by continuously dis-rupting the Parliament ses-sions,” said Union HumanResource DevelopmentMinister Prakash Javadekar.Both the Ministers took part inprotest fast in Karnataka.

In the national Capital,

?BJP?MPs observed the day-long fast over parliamentarydisruptions at HanumanMandir in Connaught Place.

Union Minister HarshVardhan, who represents theChandani Chowk constituen-cy, East Delhi MPMaheishGirri, New Delhi MPMeenakshi Lekhi, West DelhiMP Pravesh Verma, North-West Delhi MP Udit Raj, SouthDelhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri andNorth-East Delhi MP ManojTiwari are among the leaderswho participated in the fast thatended at 4 pm.

Union Minister PiyushGoyal observed the day-longfast in Maharashtra’s Thane.Goyal said, “The way in whichthe Congress and otherOpposition parties did not letthe Budget Session run, is con-demnable to say the least.”

From Page 1He said, “Tell me who will

rape a mother of three? He isbeing falsely implicated.”

In the Supreme Court, abench of Chief Justice DipakMisra and Justices A M Kh-anwilkar and D YChandrachud said it wouldhear a plea next week for a CBIprobe. The plea also allegedthat the woman’s father was tor-tured and killed in police cus-tody at the behest of the “rul-ing party” in the State.

A separate inquiry reporthas been submitted by DIG(Prison) Love Kumar on theconduct of the Unnao jail offi-cials during the detention of thevictim’s father, said an official

statement issued tonight.The district magistrate of

Unnao has also submitted areport to the State Governmenton lapses on part of the districthospital. Based on the SITreport submitted by ADGLucknow Zone Rajeev Krishna,the BJP-led State Governmenthas decided to suspend D KDwivedi, CMS and PrashantUpadhyay, EMO.

“Disciplinary proceedingshave been initiated againstthree doctors namely ManojKumar (orthosurgeon), G PSachan (surgeon) and GauravAgrawal (EMO) for laxity ingiving proper medical care tothe victim’s father, both prior tojudicial custody and on refer-

ral from jail to the district hos-pital while in judicial custody,”said the statement.

“Circle Officer Safipur,Kunwar Bahadur Singh hasbeen suspended for negligencein handling the repeated com-plaints given by the victim,” itsaid.

The State Government hasalso ordered to provide ade-quate security to the victim andher family.

An 18-year-old womanhad created flutters after sheaccused the BJP MLA of rap-ing her. She tried to immolateherself in front of the CM’s res-idence, seeking justice. Herfather was arrested and laterdied in custody.

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In view of what recently hap-pened in Haridwar district

during Bharat Bandh called bythe Dalit community against thealleged dilution of SC/ST Act ,the state director general ofpolice Anil K Raturi hasinstructed the district policechiefs to make elaborate securi-ty arrangements in their respec-tive districts for AmbedkarJayanti slated on April 14.

Haridwar SSP KrishanKumar VK said on Thursdaythat the intelligence staffers havebeen put on alert and addition-al police forces, including com-panies of paramilitary forces likeProvincial Armed Constabulary,have been deployed at sensitiveplaces both in the rural andurban areas of the district. Policestation officers are learnt tohave deployed police personnelto conduct patrolling at thesensitive places.

Police are especially alertabout places where statues ofAmbedkar and other eminentleaders are standing in view ofthe recent incidents of statuevandalism.

Besides, cyber police teammembers have been directed tomonitor the social networkingsites to stop inflammatory mes-sages from being circulated.Furthermore, Garhwal RangeDIG Pushpak Jyoti directed therange police chiefs to take nec-essary steps to ensure thatAmbedkar Jayanti passes offpeacefully in the Range areas.

Meanwhile, state BahujanSamaj Party chief ChoudharyCharan Singh said that theywould celebrate AmbedkarJayanti by organising seminarsat BSP state party headquartersand the district party officesacross the state.

“We would enlighten theparticipants, particularly theparty members, aboutAmbedkar’s life and his struggle,his role in drafting the IndianConstitution and also about hismonumental role for the upliftof the Scheduled Caste people,”he said, adding that he hadrecently met the administrativeofficers in Haridwar and askedthem to make fool- proofarrangements for peaceful cel-ebration of Ambedkar Jayanti inthe district.

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A41-year-old man has beenarrested by the Cyber cell of

the Special Cell for cheating twowomen in Delhi. The man usedto create fake profiles on matri-monial websites and then cheatwomen on the pretext of mar-rying them. In one such case, hecheated a woman of � 6 lakhs.

According to the police, theaccused has been identified asAnurag Mendiratta. “He had cre-ated fake profile on matrimoni-al websites such as Jeevansathiand Bharat matrimony. Once hewon their trust, he used them

financially, emotionally and inone case, even sexually exploit-ed a woman,” said Anyesh Roy,DCP, Cyber Cell.

Anurag created a profileusing pseudo name Sidharth. Inthe case reported to the CyberCell, the accused had intro-duced himself as SiddharthWalia and cheated the victim ofRs 6 lakhs on the pretext that heneeded money to treat his fatherin United Kingdom, who is suf-fering cancer.

He claimed to be workingwith a reputed media house inMumbai. Once he becameacquainted with the victimthrough social media and phone

calls, he met her family. “Whenhe won the trust of the com-plainant, he concocted a storythat he needs money for hisfather's cancer treatment. As hehad faced problem in fund trans-fers, he asked the complainantto deposit money in the bankaccount, details of which hegave to her.Once he took themoney, he severed all contactswith the woman. When the girlcame to meet his family inMumbai, she found that she hasbeen cheated,” said Roy.

Based on the sustainedefforts made the sleuths of theCyber Cell, Anurag was tracedto Dwarka and was arrested.

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The Ministry of ExternalAffairs on Thursday said

India has raised all issues ofconcerns with China duringthe ongoing official level talksbetween the two countries overits Nuclear Supplier's Group(NSG) membership.

The two countries onTuesday held the fifth round ofthe India-China Disarmamentand Non-ProliferationDialogue in Beijing. The dia-logue was established to workout a mechanism for consensusover the issue of new NSGmembership for countries likeIndia that are not signatory toNon-Proliferation Treaty(NPT). China has been block-ing India's membership on thegrounds that India has notsigned NPT which is an essen-tial requirement for NSG mem-bership.

The meeting on Tuesdaysaw two sides “exchangingviews on various topics ofmutual interest, including,developments related to disar-mament and non-proliferationat multilateral forums, nuclearissues, role of science and tech-nology in the context of inter-national security and disarma-ment as well as outer space.Both sides underlined the

importance of the bilateral dia-logue as an important mecha-nism between the two coun-tries for consultations onimportant issues,” the Indianembassy in Beijing said in astatement.

Foreign Affairs ministerSushma Swaraj is expected toraise this raise again with hercounterpart when she visitsChina for the FM meeting ofthe Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) from April21-24. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will be travel-ling to Chinese Qingdao inJune for the SCO summit.Swaraj's visit also comes in thebackdrop of efforts being madeby India and China to moveforward after last year's militarystand-off in Doklam, which stillremains an area of monitoringand strategic significance forNew Delhi amidst China build-ing infrastructure for its troopsthere.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will be on a two-

nation tour to Sweden andUnited Kingdom from April16-21 during which apart frombilateral talks with his coun-terparts, he will also participatein the first India-Nordic coun-tries summit in Stockholm(April 16-17) and theCommonwealth Heads ofGovernment Meeting(CHOGM) in London (April19-20).

In Sweden, the PM has anumber of meetings lined up,including an audience withKing Carl XVI Gustaf, King ofSweden and consultations withPrime Minister Stefan Lofven.Modi will also address a gath-ering of select Swedish businessleaders and meet the Indiancommunity in Stockholm.

Sweden is India's impor-tant partner in trade, technol-ogy and investment. Over 170Swedish companies haveinvested $1.4 billion in Indiasince 2000 while about 70Indian companies have invest-ed in Sweden. India-Swedenannual bilateral trade stands ataround $1.8 billion.

India and Sweden will co-host the India-Nordic Summitin Stockholm on April 17. TheIndia-Nordic Summit will seeparticipation of the Prime

Ministers of India and of all theNordic countries — Denmark,Finland, Iceland, Norway andSweden.

India's trade with theNordic countries totalledaround $5.3 billion in 2016-17,with Cumulative ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) toIndia at $2.5 billion. “TheNordic countries have global-ly recognized strengths in cleantechnologies, environmentalsolutions, port modernization,food processing, health, agri-culture infrastructure, skilldevelopment and innovationwhich are also the focus areasof India's development. Thesecomplementarities and theunique strengths of India andthe Nordic countries hold thepotential to further boost tradeand investment from both

sides,” said SubrataBhattacharjee, Joint SecretaryCentral Europe Division inMinistry of External Affairs.On the sidelines of the India-Nordic Summit, Modi will alsohave separate bilateral meetingswith his counterparts fromDenmark, Finland, Iceland andNorway.

Modi will reach UnitedKingdom on April 17 for abilateral visit and CHOGM.“The forthcoming visit of thePM to the UK will focus onenhancing India-UK tech part-nership. The visit will see anumber of deliverables in thearea of skill development,healthcare, cyber security,innovation, traditional medi-cine, and education. The India-UK CEOs Forum will alsotake place during this visit. UK

will formally convey theirreadiness to join theInternational Solar Alliance,”the MEA officials said.

“India and the UK share amodern partnership bound bystrong historical ties,” theyadded

In 2004, the bilateral rela-tionship was upgraded to astrategic partnership. UK isamong India's major tradingpartners. The merchandisetrade between the two coun-tries in 2017 reached $13 bil-lion, and trade in services is

around $7.2 billion. India con-tinued to be the third largestinvestor in the UK andemerged as the second largestinternational job creator withIndian companies having cre-ated over 110,000 jobs in theUK.

Modi will attend theCHOGM in London fromApril 19-20. The Meetings ofthe Commonwealth Heads ofGovernment usually take placeevery two years and serve toshape the organisation's agen-da for the next two years.

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The Government onThursday said it is still

awaiting a response from HongKong with regard to handingover of diamond trader NiravModi. According to Ministry ofExternal Affairs spokespersonRaveesh Kumar, authorities inHong Kong have informedIndia that India's request isunder their consideration.

“Minister of State, VKSingh has already submitted awritten reply to this question inParliament. At this stage I canonly share that we haverequested the Hong Kongauthorities to surrender NiravModi based on the agreementfor the surrender of fugitiveoffenders signed between Indiaand Hong Kong in 1997. OurMission in Hong Kong hasinformed that the Departmentof Justice of Hong Kong are stillexamining our request forProvisional Order of Arrest ofNirav Modi. We are awaiting

response from the Hong Kongauthorities,” Raveesh said.

Fugitive in the multi-crorePNB Scam, Modi is believed tobe hiding in Hong Kong.Earlier this week, China saidthat it was up to Hong Kong'slocal administration to take acall on India's request forModi's repatriation.

Asked whether the MEAhas taken up the case of MehulChoksi with the US, also want-ed in the PNB fraud case along

with Modi, Raveesh said theMEA comes into the pictureonly after the location of anyfugitive is ascertained.

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India on Thursday stronglyopposed the use of chemical

weapons in Syria saying such aconduct is unacceptable andperpetrators of such abhor-rent acts must be held account-able.

“We have seen reportsabout the alleged use of chem-ical weapons in Douma, SyrianArab Republic. Any use ofchemical weapons anywhere, atany time, by anybody, underany circumstances is in com-plete disregard of humanity,and is reprehensible and con-trary to the provisions of theChemical WeaponsConvention as well as accept-ed international norms. Theperpetrators of such abhor-rent acts must be held account-able,” Ministry of ExternalAffairs spokesperson RaveeshKumar said.

According to mediareports, several people includ-ing children, died during acleansing up operation by the

Syrian Government which usedaircrafts to drop bombs filledwith toxic chemicals on Doumaon Saturday. The city was ear-lier held by rebels. However,Syrian government, that hasmilitary support from Russia,has denied any chemical attack.

On the recent diplomaticspat between United Kingdomand Russia over the chemical

poisoning of a former Russianspy Sergei Skripal and his

daughter in Salisbury, UK, theMEA said India is awaiting theconclusion of investigations.

“India is against the use ofchemical weapons anywhere, atany time, by anybody, underany circumstances. We hopethat this issue is resolved inaccordance with the provisionsof the Chemical WeaponsConvention so as to reach evi-dence based conclusions. India,as all other countries, awaits theoutcome of the investigation,”Raveesh said.

On Thursday, internation-al watchdog - Organisation forthe Prohibition of ChemicalWeapons confirmed thatSkripal and his daughter Yuliawere poisoned with a “highpurity” nerve agent, Novichok.The findings provide a supportto British Prime MinisterTheresa May's claim of Russiabeing directly responsible forthe attack. UK Secretary ofState Boris Johnson claimedthat only Russia has the“means, motive and record” tohave carried out the attack.

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The Congress on Thursdayattacked Prime Minister

Narendra Modi for his allegedsilence over the Unnao rapecase and questioned why theaccused BJP MLA is yet to bearrested. The party also dubbedas “farcical,” the ongoing fast bythe Prime Minister against thenon-functioning of Parliament.

Congress leader Kapil Sibalalso alleged that Modi was“not serious” about the crimeagainst women across thecountry. Sibal also asked thePrime Minister to observe fastover rape incidents and regis-ter his protest against UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath over the Unnaorape case.

Sibal, referring to NationalCrime Record Bureau (NCRB)report for 2016, also said thatthe BJP-ruled States have thehighest crime rate againstwomen.

“The victim did not namehim (the MLA) because shewas afraid. Why then was henot arrested? We charge hewould never be arrested,” saidSibal.

The former UnionMinister added that once thecase is transferred to the CBI,the investigation agency wouldtake its own time to conductthe probe and the MLA con-cerned would go “abscond-ing” meanwhile.

“After some months, theCBI would give a report that hehad no role. Some peoplewould again threaten the fam-ily (of the victim). We are see-

ing what's happening in thecountry,” he said.

Sibal also referred to thereports on the AdityanathGovernment's decision to with-draw a rape and kidnappingcase against former Unionminister SwamiChinmayananda.

“The Chief Minister wantsto withdraw a case against arape accused former Minister,this is their mindset, the PrimeMinister is silent,” Sibal saidwithout namingChinmayanand.

Alleging Modi to be “notserious” over such incidents,Sibal cited NCRB statistics tosuggest that the BJP-ruledMaharashtra, Madhya Pradeshand Uttar Pradesh reportedhighest crime against womenin 2016.

On the issue of fast by BP,Congress spokesman RandeepSurjewala asked when wouldthe Prime Minister talk of “JanKi Baat” (people's talk), insteadof “jumlas and rhetoric” man-aging headlies. “Post rhetoric,jumlas, diversions, headlinemanagement, TV studio war-fare; Will PM/BJP answer whenwill they start 'Jan Ki Baat'?,” hesaid on Twitter.

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The PunjabG o v e r n m e n t

struck a huge blow toits own Minister andnoted cricketer NavjotSingh Sidhu by seekinghis conviction and sen-tencing in a 30-year-oldroad rage case which resultedin the death of a Patiala resi-dent. The stand of the PunjabGovernment has also exposedthe deep fissures within theparty over the inclusion ofSidhu into the Congress fold.Sidhu had quit the BharatiyaJanata Party to join theCongress just before the Statewent to polls.

Appearing before theSupreme Court, the PunjabGovernment opened its argu-ments on Thursday contestingthe appeal filed by Sidhu andhis co-accused Rupinder SinghSandhu challenging the orderpassed by the Punjab andHaryana High Court whichconvicted them both and sen-tenced them to undergo threeyears in prison.

Supporting the victim, thecounsel for Punjab told abench of Justices JChelameswar and SanjayKishan Kaul that the Punjaband Haryana High Court wasright in convicting its MinisterNavjot Singh Sidhu and hedeserved to suffer the three-year imprisonment for thecrime. The counsel agreedwith the finding of the High

Court that the victimGurnam Singh died

due to the impactof the fist blowby Sidhu. Theincident was ofDecember 27,1988 and fol-

lowing the inci-dent, a trial court

had acquitted Sidhuand his friend finding no

evidence against them.

Contrary to the trial courtconclusion, the StateGovernment argued that it waswrong to suggest that the vic-tim died due to cardiac arrestand not due to brain hemor-rhage due to the impact of theblow.

“There is no evidence thatsuggests that the cause of deathwas cardiac arrest and notbrain hemorrhage. The trialcourt verdict was rightly setaside by the High Court.Accused (Sidhu) had givenfeisty blow to deceasedGurnam Singh leading to hisdeath due to brain hemor-rhage,” argued the State.

The HC had pronouncedSidhu guilty under culpablehomicide not amounting tomurder IPC Section 304 Part IIIPC after taking an opinionfrom a Board of Doctors whoheld the cause of death to bebrain hemorrhage.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi may have been all

praise for their role in boost-ing his pet project 'SwachchBharat Mission' (SBM) at agrand event here on Tuesdaybut the Swachchagrahis(ambassadors of cleanliness) invarious States are runningfrom pillar to post —many ofthem for the last two years toget their wages for the task.

To draw attention of thePrime Minister to theirdemands, a section of swach-hagrahis which had come toattend the concluding cere-mony of ChamparanSatyagraha centenary celebra-tions here created ruckus dur-ing Modi's speech. Many ruedthat they were not paid stipendfor working under the Chalo

Champaran Campaign, a partof the Swachh Bharat Missionof the Centre while otherssaid that they are still waitingfor payment for their worksince they joined the schemelaunched in 2016.

Swachhagrahis is a dedi-cated, trained and properlyincentivized sanitation work-force at the village level com-prising 'foot soldiers' or'Swachhata Doots' engaged insensitizing the villagers aboutthe importance of cleanlinessand hazards of poor hygiene.

They said that while theyhad been doing their job seri-ously, going door to door tosensitise people about thecleanliness, the officials havebeen just making fall promis-es regarding payment.

Hailing from States likeBihar, Madhya Pradesh, UttarPradesh and Maharashtra

besides Tamil Nadu, they saidthat they were unemployedhence had took up the job ofswachchagrahis in the hopethat they will get some liveli-hood to feed their families.

When asked, UnionWater and SanitationMinistr y Secretar yParameswaran Iyer said thatit is an incentive that theStates have to pay. “If they arenot being paid, we will soonissue a circular to all theStates, asking them to maketimely and adequate paymentto the Swachchagrahis as theyplay an important role in oursanitation drive,” he said.

At the event, Modi hadappreciated the role of theSwachchh Bharat Mission vol-unteers and said that as manyas 350 districts across thecountry are now open defeca-tion free (ODF).

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The Election Commission(EC), in an affidavit to the

Supreme Court, has asked foran amendment in theConstitution seeking protectionfor the ElectionCommissioners from removalat the behest of the ChiefElection Commissioner andrule-making powers to “remaininsulated from political pres-sure”.

The EC also made it clearthat it has been sending theproposal to the Centre foramendments to this effect since1998 and seeking that the rule-making power, which as pre-sent rests with the Centre, begiven to it. The Commissionhas responded to the SupremeCourt in a PIL filed by AshwiniKumar Upadhyay for moreautonomy and independence

to the EC.EC stated that it had been

pressing for the rule-makingauthority to be conferred onitself on the lines of the SC toempower it to make election-related rules as well as the codeof conduct.

“The presentConstitutional guarantee isinadequate and requires anamendment to provide thesame protection and safeguardin the matter of removability ofElection Commissioners as isavailable to the Chief ElectionCommissioner,” reads the ECaffidavit.

“According to Article324(5), the CEC enjoys thesame protection as an SC judgewho can be removed after amotion is passed in either ofthe two Houses of theParliament and is subject to thePresidential assent,” it said.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has intensified

its efforts to prevent the propa-gation over the social media ofmessages aimed at wooingKeralites into the global terrorforce, Islamic State (ISIS).

As part of the crackdown,the investigation agency hasreportedly instructed the author-ities of the social media platform‘Telegram’ to remove groupsthat are specialising in propaga-tion of Islamic State ideology.The agency’s efforts were trig-gered allegedly by the appearancein a section of the media somevoice messages about the recruit-ment of youths into the ISIS.

The NIA has learned thatmessages are being circulatedextensively over the social mediawith the objective of recruitingmore youths into the ISIS fromKerala, which had become animportant centre for sourcingmanpower for the terror groupa long time back. Telegram isperhaps the most preferred plat-

form for propagating such mes-sages, according to sleuths.

As per reports, the NIA hadsucceeded in getting at leastthree such Telegram App groupsspecialising in propagatingIslamic State ideology taken offthe cyberspace last year. The NIAturned its attention to the mat-ter now as such messages hadstarted coming out of ISIS cen-ters abroad recently after a longlull.

However, the Telegram mes-sages that had reached Keralarecently had not containedexplosively provocative contents

but the NIA has brought thegroups under surveillance espe-cially because the messages con-tained matters pertaining toISIS-related cases that cameunder the agency’s ongoinginvestigations, a Kerala TV chan-nel quoted a top NIA official assaying.

The most important terrorcase the NIA is looking intoKerala is the one related to thedisappearance of 22 personsincluding women and childrenfrom Kasaragod and Palakkaddistricts in May-June, 2016, whohad allegedly joined the ISIS in

Afghanistan. The case was reg-istered by the Kerala Police andthe NIA took over the probelater. A Special NIA Court hadon March 24 sentenced YasmeenMohammed Zahid, a 30-year-old woman of Bihar origin, toseven years’ rigorous imprison-ment in the case relating to therecruitment of 15 personsincluding Abdul RashidAbdullah from Padanna,Kasaragod, allegedly the group’scoordinator and second husbandof the woman.

“It is almost impossible foragencies to lay their hands on theroots of such social media col-lectives as the people behindthem are based in places that areentirely out of reach for them. Allthat the agencies can do is to takedown the particular pages butthey can come up with anothercollective,” said a former KeralaPolice official who was with itscyber wing.

This is not the first timeefforts by the ISIS to lure Keralayouths into it with campaignsthrough social media platforms

had caught the attention of theinvestigating and Intelligenceagencies. They had in July lastyear found out that some of thepeople belonging to the group of22 were managing a WhatsAppcollective intended at spreadingthe ideology of Jihad.

The admin of one of theWhatsApp groups the agencieshad identified then, “Message toKerala”, was one Abu Isa, pre-sumably the same Isa fromYakkara, Palakkad, a Christianyouth who converted to Islamwho had gone to Afghanistanwith his wife Fatima, a Hindugirl who had embraced Islam.

Investigators had learnedas back as in October, 2016 thatAnsarul Khilafa-Kerala, a mod-ule of the ISIS, had been runninga Facebook page with similarobjective. They had also learnedthat the page was being main-tained by Manseed ofThalassery, who was arrested onOctober 2, 2016 along withfour others from Kanakamala,Kannur while they were holdinga secret meeting.

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BJP president Amit Shah,who is on a two-day visit to

poll bound Karnataka, hasprotested in front of DC’s officeat Dharwad in North Karnatakaon Thursday and blastedCongress and its presidentRahul Gandhi for playing divi-sive politics. BJP chief blamedCongress for the washout of thesecond half of the BudgetSession of Parliament, and saidparty which lacks "internaldemocracy" cannot protectdemocracy in the country.

Accusing the Congress andits president Rahul Gandhi ofpromoting "divisive politics"in the name of caste and reli-gion, he said the people ofKarnataka will see throughtheir tactics and give them abefitting reply in the upcomingpolls.

"The Congress does notbelieve in democracy. Rahulbaba, don't preach us ondemocracy. You have forgottenthat your grandmother (IndiraGandhi) imposed Emergencyand muzzled people's voices”. "Itis you who put democracy inshackles at your home. Nehruji,Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi,Sonia Gandhi and now RahulGandhi... I don't know who willbe the next Gandhi”... He saidcharging the Congress.

The BJP chief also accusedthe Congress of promoting

divisive politics in their lust forpower. "It has been theCongress nature to promotedivisive politics in the name ofcaste and religion. The peopleof this country understand allthese tactics.

Amit Shah joined thenationwide protest call given byPrime Minister Modi againstdisruption of Parliament bythe Congress. He said,“Congress knew very well thatthey cannot debate in any of theHouse so they did not let theParliament function.”

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With a view to strengthenorganisational structure

of the party Gujarat Congresson Thursday kick-start 45-daylong ‘Samvad Yatra’ (DialogueTour) from the pilgrimageAmbaji in North Gujarat. TheYatra will cover 33 districts andeight biggest cities –Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat,Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagarand Junagadh during the peri-od.

The newly appointedGujarat Congress presidentAmit Chavda and Leader ofOpposition Paresh Dhananiflagged off Samvad Yatra andcovered Banaskantha and Patandistricts in North Gujarat.

Apart from meeting local partyworkers, the top Congress lead-ers in the State would also high-light problems being faced bythe people under the BJP ruledGovernment that include burn-ing problem of drinking waterscarcity. They would also meetpeople and give assurance toraise their issues with the StateGovernment.

In lines with their topleader Rahul Gandhi, theGujarat Congress leadershipwould kick-start all phases of‘Samvad Yatra’ from a pilgrim-age or a temple. According toa Congress leader ‘SoftHindutva’ paid rich dividend inthe 2017 Assembly polls as theparty improved its tally from 60seats to 77 out of 182 total seats.

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Telangana Congress party, inthe dog-house since its

defeat in 2014, was finally get-ting its act together and hasadopted an offensive posture totake on the ruling TelanganaRashtra Samiti in the nextyear’s Assembly elections.

The State CongressCommittee president N UttamKumar Reddy, bolstered by thesuccess of his ongoing BusYatra has come up with a newstrategy to corner the rulingparty.

The plan, apart from field-ing strong and winnable can-didates in the strongholds of theTRS including the constituen-cies of the Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao and his sonK Taraka Rama Rao, includesexploring the possibility oftying up with Telugu Desamparty, an unthinkable proposi-tion for both the parties till therecent past.

When asked about the pos-sibility, Uttam Kumar Reddysaid, “There is no hard and fastrule that the Congress party cannot forge an alliance with theTDP? We are not averse to joinhands with the TDP in the nextelections”. Thoug the Congressand Telugu Desam have alwaysbeen a bitter opponent andanti-Congressism was the raisond’etre of TDP since its formationin 1982, both the parties were indesperate situation since the for-mation of Telangana state andlooking for a desperate solution.

While Congress was in afight back mode to reclaim itsprime position, the TDP was ina still bad shape reduced to onlytwo members in the stateassembly. However in terms ofmass base, the party still has asignificant vote share of nearly20% and the Congress realisesthat if it joins hands with theTDP it can give a tough chal-lenge to the TRS. Congress hadpolled 25% votes against TRS’35% in 2014.

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The Asom Gana Parishad(AGP) on Thursday said the

party is not going to accept theCentral Government’s move topass the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016 andthat the regional party will notaccept any move to grant citi-zenship to Hindu Bangladeshisin Assam.

AGP president Atul Borasaid this on Friday while inter-acting with the newsmen andadded that the regional party,which is a partner of the rulingBJP led alliance Government inAssam, had already informedthe party’s stand to the CentralGovernment.

“There cannot be any com-promise on the issue ofCitizenship (Amendment) Bill2016. We are not going toaccept any move to grant citi-zenship to any individual whohas entered Assam after March24, 1971. The historical AssamAccord signed in 1985 hasmade it clear and the spirit of

the Accord must be respected atany cost,” said Bora, who is alsothe state Agriculture Minister.

“Under no circumstancewe are going to acceptBangladeshi citizens, who hadentered Assam after March 24,1971,” said Bora terming theAmendment bill as un-consti-tutional. He reiterated that theparty will oppose the Bill toothand nail.

It may be mentioned herethat the AGP, Bodoland Peoples’Front (BPF) and the BJP formedan alliance before the Assamelections in 2016. Two yearsafter the alliance, the AGP andBJP are, however, set to fight theforthcoming panchayat pollsin the state separately.

Asked about the party’salliance with the BJP in nextyear’s Lok Sabha polls, the AGPpresident only said that theAGP is a partner of the BJP ledNDA Government at the Centreand the BJP led Government inAssam and that the party is notgoing to be a part of any thirdfront.

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The ruling Shiv Sena onThursday opened a new

front against the ruling BJP, asit vehemently opposed India'slargest oil refinery and petro-leum products complex atNanar in Ratnagiri district incoastal Konkan region, a pro-ject that threatens to be anissue in the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls.

The Sena’s opposition tothe Nanar refinery projectcame a day after an Indian con-sortium comprising Indian OilCorporation (IOC), BharatPetroleum Corporation Ltd(BPCL) and HindustanPetroleum Corporation Ltd(BPCL) signed aMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withSaudi Arabian Oil Co (SaudiAramco) for setting an oilrefinery and petroleum prod-ucts complex at Nanar inRajapur taluka of Ratnagiri dis-trict.

“Despite the assurance byChief Minister DevendraFadnavis that the Nanar pro-

ject would not be thrust on thepeople of Ratnagiri district,the Centre has precisely donethat. Come what may, we willnot let the oil refinery projectto come up at Nanar,” ShivSena president UddhavThackeray said in a statementissued here.

In his elaboration, Uddhavrecalled that Fadnavis had cat-egorically said that if there wasopposition to the “environ-mentally hazardous” oil refin-ery project from the local peo-ple, the project would not beset up at Nanar.

“Through its decision tolocate the refinery project atNanar in Ratnagiri district,the Modi Government hasbetrayed the confidence of thelocal people who have beenopposing the project for quitesome time. That only goes toprove that the chief minister’sassurance to people has novalue at all. If the Centrechooses to go ahead with theproject by ignoring theOpposition from the local peo-ple, we will not let project tofructify at any time in future,”

Uddhav said.“The Shiv Sena’s stand has

been: Don’t destroy ecologi-cally-sensitive Konkan regionin general and in particularMangoes and bamboos grownthere, all in the name of devel-opment. We have broachedthis issue with the chief min-ister. He has accepted ourpoint of view,” the Sena presi-dent said.

“In fact, Fadnavis shouldhave told the Centre in clearcut terms that Nanar refinerywas an anti-people project andit should not be set up atNanar. The chief minister mayhave now changed his earlier,but we are sticking to ourstand: we will not allow therefinery project to come up atNanar,” Uddhav said.

When completed the Rs 3-trillion Nanar refinery will bethe largest single location refin-ery complex in the world witha capacity of 60 million tonnes.

In fact, the Nanar refineryproject is the second majorproject that the Shiv Sena hasopposed the coastal Konkanregion.

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Efforts by the DMK-ledOpposition parties to play

spoilsport during the whirl-wind tour of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to Chennai onThursday to show their resent-ment over the failure of theCentre to constitute the CauveryManagement Board did notcreate much impact because ofthe security blanket thrownover the city by the Tamil NaduPolice and central intelligenceagencies. Nearly 3,000 activistsbelonging to various outfitshave been taken into preventivecustody by the State Police tomake the Prime Minister's visita hassle-free event.

The DMK had threatenedto wave black flags at the PrimeMinister during his visit toChennai to inaugurate theDefence Expo 2018 whichbegan in a city suburb onWednesday.

Prime Minister Modi wholanded at Chennai InternationalAirport by a special aircraft onThursday morning took off by

an IAF helicopter to the venueof the Defence Expo 2018 beingheld at the East Coast Road. TheDMK had hoisted black flagsatop the residence of partypresident M Karunanidhi atGopalapuram, the party head-quarters at Teynampet and theimposing residence of partyworking president M K Stalin.

Karunanidhi, who is ailingfor the last two years, was madeto wear a black shirt for the dayby his third wife Rajathi Ammaland the video was circulatedamong the TV channels.Likewise Stalin who is under-taking a walkathon in theCauvery Delta districtsdemanding the constitution ofthe Cauvery ManagementBoard, staged a demonstrationwearing black shirts andtrousers.

Some of the public places inChennai had been “decorated”with black flags. It is doubtfulwhether these incidents caughtthe attention of the PrimeMinister. There are reports thatthe Tamil chauvinist groupshad the tacit support of theAIADMK government to stage

black flag demonstration againstthe Prime Minister. “ChiefMinister EdappadyPalaniswamy did not want theDMK to get the full credit forthe protests against the Centreover the delay in constituting theCMB. It is to be noted thatPalaniswamy submitted amemorandum to the PrimeMinister on Thursday pleadingfor the early constitution of theCMB,’ said an intelligence offi-cial.

Prime Minister Modi, afterthe inauguration of the DefenceExpo, watched the demonstra-tion by some of the state-of-the-art battle tanks, armoured per-sonnel carriers, air crafts andnaval vessels. Later he arrived inthe specially built helipad in theIIT Madras campus and attend-ed a function held at AdyarCancer Centre.

Some of the Tamil chau-vinist activists tried innovativeways to bring to the attention ofthe Prime Minister the “BlackWelcome” they had planned forhim. One of the groups evenflew hydrogen filled balloons inthe city skylines.

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Suspected terrorists hurled agrenade towards a police sta-

tion in south Kashmir’s Pulwamatown as normal life came to ahalt in Kashmir valley onThursday in protest against thekilling of four unarmed protest-ers during a gunfight betweensecurity forces and terrorists insouth Kashmir’s Kulgam districta day ago. A soldier died and twoothers were wounded in the gun-fight with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)militants who fled away whenthe encounter site was stormedby protesters.

Police sources said that twopolicemen were injured in agrenade attack by unidentifiedterrorists on police station inPulwama. The grenade explod-ed outside the police stationpremises. They said the law andorder situation remained undercontrol and there were noattempts to breach the pro-hibitory orders.

The shutdown call wasgiven by Joint ResistanceLeadership (JRL) comprisingprominent separatist leadersSyed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz UmerFarooq and Muhammad YasinMalik whose movement hasbeen barred by the authorities.

Four civilians were killed in

‘crossfire’ between security forcesand terrorists in Khudwani vil-lage near Wanpoh in Kulgamdistrict during a counterinsur-gency operation launched bysecurity forces on the basis ofspecific input regarding presenceof terrorists in a residentialhouse. The locals alleged that thecivilians were killed to avengethe killing of a soldier by ter-rorists who managed to fleefrom the encounter site. Peoplein large numbers stormed theencounter site after announce-ments were made from localmosques to help terroristsescape.

All shops, business estab-lishments, educational institu-

tions, banks and post officesremained closed and publictransport was off the roads.Prohibitory restrictions wereimposed in areas under sevenpolice stations in Srinagar cityand various sensitive areas inKulgam.

Heavy contingents of policeand the Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) were deployedacross the Kashmir Valley.Concertina wires and barri-cades have been placed at allentry and exit points in Srinagarcity.

Despite shutdown, a largenumber of tourists were seen vis-iting Mughal gardens acrossthe Boulevard Road in Srinagar.

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In a development unprece-dented in the electoral his-

tory of India and stridentlyrepresentative of MamataBanerjee Government’s inabil-ity to even hold a peacefulpanchayat election, theCalcutta High Court onThursday intervened in thepoll process and stalled thepanchayat election proceduretill April 16 when the StateElection Commission largelydismissed by the Oppositionas a tool in the hands of adespotic Chief Minister will berequired to submit an action-taken-report against electoralmalpractices.

The import of the termelectoral malpractices herewould also include, the num-ber of candidates who couldnot file their nominations onaccount a sudden withdrawalby the Commission of its cir-cular extending the nomina-tion date by a day in responseto a Supreme Court orderdwelling on a petition filed bythe BJP against large-scaleviolence by Trinamool cadresstopping Opposition partiesfrom filing nominations,experts said.

Though the Apex Courtand the High Court had whileadjudicating on earlier peti-tions — seeking judicial inter-vention to prevent violence-induced rigging at the nomi-

nation stage and deploymentof central force — haddeclined to interfere in the pollprocess directing the pollpanel to take adequate mea-sures, on Thursday a lividhigher judiciary apparentlytook cognizance of the flip-flop by the Commission anddirected stalling of the processtill Monday and asked it to filea detailed report on actions ithad taken to ensure free andfare elections.

While the immediateimplication of the order whichTrinamool Congress MP andsenior counsel KalyanBanerjee said would be chal-lenged in a Division Benchwould entail instant restrictionon the process of scrutiny andwithdrawal of nomination itsfar reaching impact couldmean the postponement of theelection process: putting there-by question mark on bothElection CommissionerAmrendra Kumar Singh andthe State Government’s abili-ties to ensure democratic envi-ronment by conducting freeand fare elections, expertssaid.

The Opposition partieslike the BJP and CPI(M) hadon Wednesday moved theHigh Court seeking its inter-vention after the SEC onTuesday morning withdrewits 10-hour-old circular passedon Monday extending thedeadline for filing of nomina-

tion by a day following large-scale complaints of violenceduring and hindrance in filingof nominations by opposition

candidates. “The order onlyvindicates our stance thatdemocratic is under siege inBengal where the Government

and the ruling party does noteven allow to hold thepanchyayat elections,” saidMukul Roy BJP leader.

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As he joined the BJP’s day-long fast against the

“washout” of the Parliamentproceedings during the recentBudget session, MaharashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis on Thursdaycharged that the Oppositionhad “ insulted” theConstitution by not makinguse of Parliament to addressthe issues of common man.

After participating in theday-long fast organised atBJP’s Vile Parle office innorth-west Mumbai, Fadnavistweeted: “Ye public hai,sabjanti hai! Frustrated@INCIndia has to accept thatpeople of India have rejectedthem & brought worst lossever! Taking out your frus-trations & anger on people bystalling the Parliament func-

tioning is ABSOLUTELYUNACCEPTABLE!”

“When the Governmentis ready for discussion onever y single issue andParliament is the place wherewe need to address issues ofcommon man, why isOpposition today is justhappy with insulting oursupreme constitution?,” theChief Minister asked.

“We are working hard tobring last man of the society

into mainstream. While goingon fast, Opposition mustexplain what have they donewith Bharat Ratna DrBabasaheb Ambedkar ? Andfor so many years in powerwhat have they done for up-liftment of the poor & thedeprived?,” Fadnavis asked.

“Today Central and StateGovernments are workingwith many schemes and ini-tiatives for providing hugeemployment and entrepre-neurship opportunities andalso for development of ruralroads, providing cooking gasconnections and lot more !, “the chief minister said.

Apart from Fadnavis, BJPMPs Poonam Mahajan,Paresh Rawal, city BJP presi-dent Ashish Shelar and otherparty leaders partifcipated inthe fast organised at the BJP’sVile Parle Unit.

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Three days after photos ofDelhi Congress leaders hav-

ing ‘Chhole Bhature’ duringtheir fast, the ruling BJP founditself in an embarrassing situa-tion on Thursday, as two of itsMLAs from Pune were caughton camera eating snacks whentheir entire party was in themidst of a day-long fast led byPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two fasting BJP MLAs—identified as Bhimrao Tapkirfrom Khadakwasla constituen-cy and Sanjay Bhegade alias Balafrom Maval constituency —were seen eating sandwiches —during an official meeting calledby Guaradian Minister to reviewthe review of StateGovernment's 'Jalyukt Shivar'scheme and the preparations forthe Kharif season, at Pune’s oldCouncil Hall.

A video of the meeting,which was recorded at 1 pm,showed Tapkir and Bhegade sit-ting next to each other and eat-ing sandwiches from the platesserved to them.. Before long, thevideo went viral on televisionchannel and social media.

When contacted, the twoMLAs admitted that they hadinadvertently eaten a bit ofsnacks served to them as part ofthe protocol for the electedrepresentatives and officialsattending the meeting.

Quickly latching onto theissue served to his party on aplatter by the BJP, MaharashtraCongress President AshokChavan said that the “drama offasting will not work anymore”as the people were no longerbelieved the “false promises” bythe Narendra ModiGovernment.

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Upping the ante on dis-tressed farmer Shankar

Bhaurao Chayare’s suicide atYavatmal in Vidarbha region,the Opposition Congress onThursday demanded that acriminal case be registeredagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavisfor abetting the suicide byChayare.

On a day when Chayare’sfamily members finally relent-ed, took his body from theYavatmal Government hospi-tal and performed the finalrites in their native village ofRajurwadi, former ChiefMinister and MaharashtraPradesh Congress Committee

(MPCC) president AshokChavan said: “Chayare’s fam-ily has demanded that a crim-inal case be registered againstPrime Minister Modi. Wesupport the stand taken byChayare’s family. We wouldalso want the police register acriminal case against bothModi and Chief MinisterFadnavis for abettingChayare’s suicide”.

Chayare’s elder daughterJaishri had gone to a localpolice station on Tuesday andmade an application seekingregistration of a case againstPrime Minister Modi on theground that her father had inhis suicide note squarely heldthe Modi Governmentresponsible for her father’sdeath.

Slamming the ChiefMinister for not visitingChayare’s family, Chavansaid: “ The Chief Minister hasnot visited the family. Nor hasthe Yavatmal GuardianMinister has bothered to visitthe affected family for the pasttwo days. Instead, the StateGovernment has chosen todepute local social activistsKishore Tiwari to visit thefamily and hand over a cashcompensation to the family”.On Wednesday, Chayare’sfamily members rejected acompensation of �100,000offered to them on behalf ofthe Maharashtra Governmentby Vasantrao Naik ShetiSwavalamban (VNSM)Mission Chairman KishoreTiwari.

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Page 8: 0’(1 ’) ˝˜˜ !˜˝˙#˙˝$%˜$˛ to common man as it ... protein rich items like eggs, ... regime children from Class 9th to 12th standards did not study emperor Ashoka,

Freedom of the Press has not beenexplicitly provided for in theConstitution of India. Instead, the

freedom of the Press is derived from thefreedom of speech and expression whichhas been enshrined in Article 19 of ourConstitution. Under this Article, each andevery citizen has been guaranteed theright to exercise his/her right to freespeech, subject to certain reasonablerestrictions that have been prescribedunder the Constitution.

In this week’s column, I will attemptto look back on how this Government wentabout in an ill-advised and hurried man-ner to tackle the issue of fake news and inreality ended up attacking the right to free-dom of speech and expression. I will alsotry to examine how such moves are char-acteristic of an insincere Government andlastly examine how this Government ispart of the problem of fake news.

How not to solve a problem: As stat-ed above, free speech is a fundamentalright that has been provided by ourConstitution. Typically this right can onlybe curtailed in certain prescribed situa-tions, including, inter alia measures toensure public order and maintaining thesovereignty and integrity of India. It mustbe remembered, however, that the curtail-ment of this right to free speech can andshould only be taken with great care anddeliberation. In the case of tackling ‘fakenews’, it is clear that the problem of shar-ing of mass misinformation either inten-tionally or recklessly must be curtailed.

While this problem of ‘fake news’ isa significant and complicated problemthat requires a deft touch and thoroughdeliberations, the manner in which SmritiIrani and the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting (MIB) has gone aboutattempting to tackle it would be laughableif it were not so terrifying. The notifica-tion issued by the MIB provided no def-inition of what would be considered asfake news and alarmingly mandated thatthe accreditations of a journalist be sus-pended as soon as an accusation is madeagainst the him/her. Therefore, instead ofacting with great care and deliberation,the Government adopted all the deftnessof a sledgehammer.

While tackling the problem of ‘fakenews’, the priority of any responsibleGovernment must be to first ensure thatfreedom of speech is not undulyrestrained. The notification passed by theMIB seemed to go out of its way to ensurethe opposite. The obvious fear behindsuch a move is that it could work to sup-press free speech by characterising anypiece of news that is not in favour of theparty at power to be fake news.

This Government has always foundcriticism of its policies and its rhetoric

difficult. This was another example of its‘touchiness’ towards bad news. The movewas so ill-conceived that the only surprisewas how long it took to roll back thishowler by the Government. Mild criticsof this notification have said that it misses the forest for the trees but in reality, the Government missed the for-est because it was too busy cutting downthe trees.

An insincere Government: The deci-sion of the Government to roll back theMIB’s proposed move has been taken bysome as another indicator of an indeci-sive Government. However, in reality, itis similar to its moves in the past thatlends credence to the argument that it is,in fact, another indicator of an insincereGovernment.

I had stated in my previous columnsabout the various jumlas of thisGovernment, including its attempts tomodernise India through the ‘SmartCities Initiative’ or to help tackle the issuesrelated to waste management and ourdirty cities through the Swachh BharatAbhiyan. In relation to both, while theclaims are tall and lofty, the actual factsmake for grim reading.

This attempt to ‘tackle’ fake news isanother such empty initiative. The reasonthat I doubt this Government’s resolve totackle the problem is because it is aston-ishing that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)can claim to tackle the issue of fake newswhile also supporting a proponent of it.

In the case of Postcard News, thepolice in Bengaluru arrested its co-

founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde forallegedly spreading false informationthrough a social media post. It wasreported that Hegde claimed that a youngMuslim had assaulted a Jain monk. Inreality, the police state that the monk hadbeen injured in a road accident.

In fact, Postcard News has a history ofmaking dubious claims and one wouldthink that this kind of false, maliciousrumour is the exact kind of misinforma-tion that the Government should target.

One would expect the BJP to distanceitself from such outlets, instead, howev-er, a number of BJP leaders came out insupport of Mahesh Hegde, includingUnion Minister Anant kumar Hegdewho tweeted his support for him.Therefore, you can understand my scep-ticism about this Government’s intentionswhen it states that it aims to tackle theproblem of ‘fake news’.

Practise what you preach: PrimeMinister Narendra Modi recently claimedat a rally in Motihari, Bihar, that the Statehad build 8,50,000 toilets in a week inApril and congratulated the StateGovernment on this achievement. Thisimplies that 84 toilets were built every 61.5seconds. It is this kind of information thatis part of the problem of fake news. ThisGovernment is known to be fast and loosewith facts, figures and statistics.

I have previously written about thevarious jumlas of the Modi Governmentwhere the primary motive seems to dis-tract us with glittering statistics andmarketing campaigns about various

schemes and programmes that seem toogood to be true. It is only when you spendfive minutes looking into the claim thatyou realise it indeed is too good to be true.

It is this kind of Olympian-level ofgymnastic flexibility with the truth thatseems to be a hallmark of the BJP and theGovernment. There is so much informa-tion that is being peddled by the BJP andthe Government either directly or throughits support of proponents of fake news.The fact is that there has always been someamount of misinformation that has exist-ed. However, with the advent of socialmedia channels and free messaging appli-cations like Whatsapp, this misinforma-tion is being spread at a viral rate.

The obligation of any responsibleGovernment is then to first look inwardand ensure that it is not part of the prob-lem. This can be done by minimising mis-information and lack of transparencywithin its ranks.

Instead, what we have is aGovernment that made an ill-advisedattempt to target journalists who arerequired to keep the Government inpower, in check.

One would hope that in the comingdays, weeks and months, the BJPGovernment takes a serious look withinrather than without to tackle the spreadof any misinformation. However, I ammore inclined to believe that any suchannouncement is likely to be fake news.

(The writer, Jharkhand PCC president,is a former MP and IPS officer. Viewsexpressed are personal)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Dream of a sustainable India”(April 12) by VK Bahuguna. Kudosto the writer who has put forth somedoable solutions to the vital issuesthat the country is faced with. Indiatoday faces serious issues of land andsoil degradation, pollution, water cri-sis, droughts and floods, loss of bio-diversity, climate change and glob-al warming — all of these stemmingfrom an environmental degradation.A majority of these problems havetheir roots in the incessant removalof our green cover.

Unchecked growth of popula-tion, enormous infrastructure andagricultural development and build-ing of hydroelectric projects, com-pletely unconcerned with the con-sequences have led to the removalof forests with impunity.Unfortunately, our leaders and peo-ple at large are unaware of the sce-nario this country is going to face innot too distant future.

How otherwise do we explainour misplaced priorities, unduedelays in critical decision-makingand unspent budgetary allocationsin urgent executions in the country?At the end of the day, it is up to thepolitical leadership of the country tomake India sustainable. It is time wesave environmental decay frombecoming an existential emergency.

Prakash C DixitRishikesh

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Sir — It is an irony that politiciansacross party lines have colouredthemselves in particular colours,with the Bahujan Samaj Party

(BSP) choosing blue and reserv-ing saffron for the BJP.

The BSP, being guilty ofcolouring the complete State ofUttar Pradesh in blue during itsregime, is amongst the opposi-tion parties who are accusing theBJP Government to paint theState in saffron.

Such colouring of institu-tions and buildings according tothe taste of ruling political par-ties is unnecessary burden on theState exchequers funded by hard-earned money of taxpayers. Itwill be better if some specificcolours are selected for big citieswith consensus of the rulingand the opposition parties.

Madhu Agrawal Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Hubris is the opponent”(April 11). There is no safety forour girls/women under thedemocratic Government in ourcountry. So many cases of rapesare reported everyday and theculprits are freed after theirarrests because our politicianshave failed to introduce stringi-est laws to handle and punishthe rapists. Leaders might beafraid of introducing stringiestlaw of ‘death sentence to therapist’ because most of therapes are committed by theirnear and dear ones who takeadvantage of theirposition/power.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Page 9: 0’(1 ’) ˝˜˜ !˜˝˙#˙˝$%˜$˛ to common man as it ... protein rich items like eggs, ... regime children from Class 9th to 12th standards did not study emperor Ashoka,

This article is a continuation ofthe previous column,“Welcome, China’s President

for life” (April 2) exploring theIndia-China relationship under thechanged conditions of engagement.From the point of view of India, thisis an extremely favourable situation.

This is so not only because of themere practical fact of political stabil-ity that Chinese President Xi Jinping’sleadership will usher in the years tocome, but also because China’srenewed focus on cultural revivalmakes it look towards India as its nat-ural ally in the new transformationthat is taking place the world overand in which Asiatic resurgence, ledby the restoration of close-knit cul-tural and political cooperation, is the

vision that dominates China’s inter-nal apolitical circles.

This puts in perspective theChinese Foreign Minister, WangYi’s, recent comment: “The Chinesedragon and Indian elephant mustnot fight each other but dancewith each other. If China and Indiaare united, one plus one is not equalto two but eleven. Despite sometests and difficulties, China-Indiarelationship continues to grow.”

This was further confirmed byChinese Foreign AffairsSpokesperson, Lu Kang’s statementthat Wang Yi’s comments represent-ed China’s “basic position” on itsrelationship with India.

It is unfortunate that only theIndian Government welcomedChina’s comments, while a major-ity of public ‘analysts’ either dis-missed them or treated them withsuspicion, as usual.

For how long can India contin-ue to harbour a selfish, Western-inspired foreign policy of ‘balanceof powers’ by striking utilitarianrelationships with nations to bal-

ance out competing interests andcontain rivals?

It is commendable that China isnot even reacting to India’s plans to‘contain’ it in the Indian Ocean byallying with Japan, the US andAustralia, or trying to forge a Beltand Road Initiative (BRI) replicathrough the Asia-Africa EconomicCorridor or the trade route withIran and Afghanistan — all beingdone, like Doklam, to ostensibly putChina in its place.

Despite these irritants spawnedby a seemingly inconsistent Indianpolicy on China, the latter, on itspart, is trying not to leave any stoneunturned to accommodate India.From offering to rename the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor toagreeing to grey-list Pakistan in theterror-funding list, China is tryingits best to accommodate Indiawhile ensuring that its businessinterests in Pakistan are not disturbed.

India has not yet fully graspedthe positive role China’s interven-tion in Pakistan will play in the

near future. China’s foreign economic pol-

icy seemingly entails making poor-er nations indebted to itself without being a brutal creditor, likethe World Bank or the InternationalMonetary Fund — this enablesChina to control these countries aswell as achieve its purposes of positive cultural indoctrination inthem.

Pakistan is nothing more thanone such country. What China didin Sri Lanka and Africa, it is doingin Pakistan. Recent reports, inSwarajya magazine claim thatChina has been secretly holdingtalks with the Baloch separatistswithout involving Pakistan in orderto protect its business interests inthe region — this shows how muchof an ‘equal’ ally Pakistan really is.

Leaked documents of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor alsoshow that China has been interest-ed in controlling the Pakistanimedia and other cultural centresand conduct sur vei l lance inPakistani cities — obviously, de-

radicalising Pakistan would serve tocounter the Muslim separatist threatfaced by China in its XinjiangProvince.

Despite China treating Pakistanas nothing more than a convenientstrategic ground, India cannot seemto grasp this. It continues to wantChina to treat Pakistan and Indiaequally — what a travesty of equal-ity that would be!

Despite India’s insistence, thefact that China treats India withutmost respect and as its own equalin power and cultural history, hasbeen India’s luck for decades. ButIndia wants to be treated likePakistan — a classic instance of howforeign policy stumbles.

The reason why China holdsIndia in high regard despite constantpolitical tensions between the twocountries is mainly because of India’sstatus as a cultural powerhouse andits ancient lineage. This is set to accel-erate under Xi’s leadership.

If Xi Jinping remains around fora long time and if India-China rela-tions get back to their true spirit, the

vision of Asiatic political resurgencemay not seem that distant a dream.On its part, India needs to work outthat textbook implementation oftheories like the ‘balance of power’— spawned by a West-dominateddiscipline of international relations— by forging unfruitful allianceslike the Quad, simply egg on Chinawithout doing much to actuallycontain it.

Perhaps, we should take a leafout of China’s book and attempt toevolve a foreign policy informedmore by our own historical and cul-tural traditions and visionary innature, based on political states-manship and not mechanicalbureaucratic wisdom.

While the Narendra ModiGovernment has widened the over-all foreign policy, a selfish, narrow,academical and West-dominatedapproach seems to be restricting theplay of the full potential of India-China partnership.

(The writer is with the Institutefor Peace and Conflict Studies andwrites for The Resurgent India Trust)

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The recently concludedAustralia-South AfricaTest series was, even if youleave out the hopelesslyone-sided fourth Test, not

only one of the most controversial inrecent memory but also one of themost competitive. A strong androbust South African team at homewere taking on an Australian sideblessed with their innate never-say-die approach and it sure made forsome enthralling cricket.

The high standards maintainedby both sides, at least for the firstthree games, definitely offered apolite reminder to those who believeTest cricket is dying. It’s very muchalive and the sheer competitivenesson display was a fair enough reflection of that.

This Australia-South Africaseries was being played a year afteranother enthralling four-Test seriescloser to home between India andAustralia. Despite the Aussies bat-tling gallantly, the Indians at homeproved to be far too strong after los-ing the opening Test match.

It isn’t just the competitive spir-it that binds both these series togeth-

er, there is another common factor.As many as three players KagisoRabada, Patrick Cummins andMitchell Starc, all fast bowlers, wereruled out through injury from theongoing Indian Premier League(IPL) that started a few days post thecompletion of the Australia-SouthAfrica series. This is in addition toSteve Smith and David Warner whoare not playing this season’s IPL afterbeing handed a one-year ban byCricket Australia, for their role in theball-tampering scandal that tookplace during the third Test match inCape Town.

This is not the first time thoughthat we are seeing players puttingtheir bodies on the line to play Testcricket even if it means aggravatingan injury that could rule them out ofthe cash-rich IPL. Last year saw threepremier Indian cricketers KL Rahul,Ravichandran Ashwin and MuraliVijay miss the entire IPL season, arare occurrence in the tournament’sdecade-long history as Indian play-ers are always the major draw.

More than just the physical tollthat such heavy schedules involvingTest cricket can take on one’s bodyis also the mental side of things. Starcand Cummins were both involved inthe Ashes, a special series for anyAustralian cricketer, a couple ofmonths prior to their duel againstSouth Africa. Rabada, on the otherhand, was involved in a highly com-petitive series against India right

through January. With such lucrative contracts on

offer, the players could easily havetried to preserve their bodies for theIPL. Starc was bought by KolkataKnight Riders for �9.4 crore, one ofthe highest for an overseas player.Cummins too was on a handsomecontract of �5.4 crore with theMumbai Indians and Rabada wasbought for �4.2 crore by DelhiDaredevils.

Yet with so much riding ontheir performances, and the seriesattracting interest even from outsidetheir own countries, it would havebeen silly to imagine these cricketerssaving themselves. Given their work-loads and also the fact that they arefast bowlers, it was only inevitablethat something had to give.

It was effectively a repeat of lastyear when the three Indians, whohad played non-stop fromSeptember, had to pull out throughinjury from the IPL. In one of thecases, Murali Vijay had played theTest series against Australia with awrist injury, probably in the knowl-edge that the IPL would have to besacrificed as a result.

While injuries to anyone, letalone sportspeople are terribly unfor-tunate, for a format that manybelieve is losing out to the riches ofTwenty20, it is heartening to seemany top cricketers giving their alland keeping the value of Test crick-et alive. The problem does arise of

course in the scenario where someof the world’s best Test cricketers arealso premier Twenty20 cricketers.

The best example of this is thegreat AB de Villiers or even ViratKohli, but even amongst the namesmentioned above, Mitchell Starc is aquality T20 bowler while KL Rahulhas shown the ability to combine thedifferent needs and requirements ofbeing a good Test cricketer and atop-drawer T20 player, one of thereasons why he attracted a bid of �11crores at the recent IPL auction.

Despite some well-contestedseries’ in the recent past, is it fair tosay that Test cricket isn’t really in thepink of health? Well the trend has-n’t hit Indian shores as yet, butEngland, Australia and New Zealandare all seeing the rise of players whoare giving up their first-class careersso as to focus on 50-over and T20cricket.

In the West Indies, many of theirpremier cricketers do not play Testcricket and were recently left out ofthe squad that played the 2019 ODIWorld Cup qualifiers, and insteadplayed in Pakistan’s Twenty20 com-petition. It’s an unfortunate sce-nario but perhaps the reality oftoday’s cricket world has to beembraced. One does genuinely hopethat the balancing act between Testcricket and cash-rich Twenty20leagues can be found.

(The writer is a sports manage-ment professional)

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In a setting of volatile environ-ment, it is pertinent for theinvestors to keep in mind fivebasic investing guidelines beforethey put in hard-earned moneyin multiple asset classes, writesNimesh Shah

Indian equity markets off latehave seen some volatile times

owing to various developmentson the global as well as localfront and it is likely to contin-ue to remain volatile this yeartoo. This is stark contrast to thestead rally that the markets hadwitnessed over the last twoyears. Therefore, for manyinvestors who have enteredthe equity space in the saidtimeframe, this volatility can bequite unnerving.

Asset Allocation: It is aknown fact that one of the keypointers for long-term wealthcreation is following asset allo-cation. It is seen that investorsbased on their personal basis

very often tend to go overboardon a certain asset class. Basedon one’s risk appetite and underthe guidance of a financialadvisor one should determinean asset allocation plan andadhered to it.

Go For BalancedAdvantage Category ofSchemes: Since the uncertain-ty in the market is high, it isadvisable to opt for schemeswhich spread investmentsacross multiple asset classes –namely debt and equity. Andone of the easiest ways toachieve such an allocation is toinvest in balanced advantagecategory of schemes. In such ascheme, the fund managerbased on market valuationallocates funds between the twoasset classes. In effect, suchfunds invest in equities whenmarkets are declining and bookprofits when markets are rising.And, in case of a market cor-rection, the debt componentrenders a cushion effect to the

portfolio.Large Caps Over Mid &

Small Caps: For those investorswho are looking for investinginto pure equity funds; wewould recommend them toconsider large-cap funds. Thisis because even after the cor-rection seen on the Sensexfrom its 52-week high of 36,444(Jan 29, 2018) to 33,597 (Apr 5,2018), mid and small-cappockets continues to be an

expensive one while large-capsare reasonable priced. Theother aspect being that as themarket moves into the lastphase of the bull-run, histori-cally, large-caps tend to per-form better.

Include Debt Funds ToYour Portfolio: Last year,investors had started ques-tioning the returns from theirdebt portfolios as equity mar-kets continued to deliver size-

able gains even in the shortterm and many times, thesewere equivalent to what debtinvestments were generatingover a year’s time. However, itis still an important asset classto have in one’s investmentportfolio. For those investorslooking to make fresh invest-ments, one can consider ultrashort-term fund, short-termfund, credit risk fund ordynamically managed bondfund.

And Finally, Stay Put:Many-a-times, during marketvolatility, investors tend to stoptheir monthly SIPs. In haste,investors tend to forget theseinvestments made are for thelong-term and short-termvolatility should not deter themfrom their long-term invest-ments. Continue with one’sSIP and stay invested.

(The writer is MD & CEO,ICICI Prudential AssetManagement Company Ltd)

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Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan on Thursday said

the government has not askedstate-owned oil firms to deferraising the retail price of petroland diesel ahead of elections inKarnataka.

Incidentally, oil firms afterkeeping rates unchanged for aday, today cut petrol price by 4paisa per litre and by 3 paisa incase of diesel despite firminginternational oil rates.

The prices at petrol pumpsof state-owned fuel retailerslike Indian Oil Corp (IOC)were cut by 1-3 paisa every dayin the first fortnight ofDecember last year and ratesstarted moving up immediate-ly after polling for assembly elec-tions in Gujarat concluded on

December 14, leading to spec-ulation that government mayhave asked oil companies tohold on to the prices.

“There is no such direction(to hold price hike),” Pradhantold reporters here.

He said government hasfreed fuel pricing in a bid tobring competition and there isno going back on it.

“It is well planned strategyof government that oil compa-nies are fixing the fuel prices onthe basis of international oilprices. If we dont bring com-petitor in the long term, thenthere would be no solution.Government has given free-dom to oil companies,” he said.

Pradhan said oil companiesheads had on Wednesday stat-ed that they have not got anydirection from the government.

“There are no directions fromgovernment to them,” he said.The government reportedly hadinformally directed state-ownedfuel retailers not to raise petroland diesel prices in the run-upto the December 2017 assemblyelections in Gujarat. By someaccounts, as much as 45 paisaincrease warranted in petrol anddiesel rates was not passed on.

This time around IOC,Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd(HPCL) and Bharat PetroleumCorp Ltd (BPCL) have report-edly been asked to absorb up toRe 1 a litre hike.

“No, we haven’t heard fromthe government anything (ondropping daily price revision),”IOC Chairman Sanjiv Singh hadstated yesterday.

HPCL Chairman andManaging Director M K Surana

too said the company is notaware of any directive to oilcompanies not to pass on therise in international oil prices.

The government had inJune 2010 freed petrol pricefrom its control and the dieselrates were deregulated inOctober 2014. Prices have sincethen moved more or less in tan-dem with international ratesbarring a few exceptions like theperiod before a crucial election.

State-owned oil companiesin June last year dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rateson 1st and 16th of every monthand instead adopted a dynam-ic daily price revision to instant-ly reflect changes in cost.

Incidentally, oil companiesdid not change rates at theirpumps yesterday. Today, petrolprice was cut by 4 paisa to Rs

73.94 a litre, while diesel ratewas cut by 3 paisa to Rs 64.93.

After hitting a low of USD27.1 per barrel in 2016, Brentcrude is currently tradingaround USD 70 level.

Finance SecretaryHasmukh Adhia had last weekruled out any immediate reduction in excise duty tocushion the increases war-ranted from rise in interna-tional oil price.

The BJP-led governmenthad raised excise duty ninetimes between November 2014and January 2016 to shore upfinances as global oil pricesfell, but then cut the tax justonce in October last year by Rs2 a litre.

The government hadbetween November 2014 andJanuary 2016 raised excise duty,

taking away gains arising fromplummeting global oil prices.

In all, duty on petrol ratewas hiked by Rs 11.77 per litreand that on diesel by 13.47 a litrein those 15 months that helpedgovernment’s excise mop upmore than double to Rs 2,42,000crore in 2016-17 from Rs 99,000crore in 2014-15.

The central governmenthad cut excise duty by Rs 2 perlitre in October 2017, whenpetrol price reached Rs 70.88per litre in Delhi and diesel Rs59.14. Because of the reductionin excise duty, diesel prices hadon October 4, 2017 come downto Rs 56.89 per litre and petrolto Rs 68.38 per litre.

However, a global rally incrude prices pushed domesticfuel prices far higher than thoselevels.

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Government needs to re-lookcertain provisions of the

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code(IBC) as a situation might emergewhere there is only one buyer fora stressed asset, Kotak MahindraBank Vice Chairman and MDUday Kotak said on Thursday.

The president-designate ofCII also said that one of thebiggest challenges facing theIndian industry relates to ethics,values and governance.

Addressing the media, hesaid that “quite a few areas needto be looked at” with regard toIBC. Referring to Section 29A ofthe IBC which prohibits pro-moters from buying back theirown stressed assets, Kotak said:“The challenge is not at this stagebut as we go into the future, as wego into smaller companies whereyou may not get even one bid.How are we going to handle thatsituation. “Are we going to forcethose companies into liquidationwhere probably in some of thosesituations the only buyer may bethe promoter at some price.”

The choice is between thecost of liquidation versus whethera promoter of a smaller compa-ny should be allowed to bid forthe stressed asset, he said. “I thinkthat is one area which down theroad will be an issue which willneed to be addressed”.

Kotak said the rules of bid-ding should be like a prospectuswhere it should be clearly statedwhat is the basis on which thebids will be evaluated.

“There are a lot of thesethings, there is grapevine, thereare rumours and all that. So weneed to put a very rigorousprocess in place of how bids willbe evaluated. Will it be a standardprocess for all or for each of thecompanies the resolution pro-fessional puts down the rules ofbidding clearly,” he said.

On the 270-day moratoriumfor restructuring a company afterits case is admitted by theNational Company Law Tribunal(NCLT), Kotak said many com-panies are now close to 270 daysin April. “Will the courts allowmore than 270 days. In that caseis it a valid approach by the courtsor will it be challenged in theSupreme Court, that is anotherbig test which will happen by theend of April/early May. This 270days in the first round is going tobe tested for some of the com-panies,” he added.

Against the backdrop of aspate of scams which have cometo light recently in the bankingsector, Kotak said he is a firmbeliever that corporate gover-nance is in place across all sectorsincluding the financial sector andis undergoing a process of evo-lution

“We will navigate throughthis and hopefully down theline we will see significantlyimproved standards of gover-nance as we go forward. Yes, weare running through challengescurrently but I am pretty clearthat they will get better,” he said.

On the ICICI Bank contro-versy involving its CEO ChandaKochhar in the over Rs 3,000crore loan to Videocon, Kotaksaid the Board, regulator and theshareholders will be in a betterposition to comment.

Asked about the role of RBI,he said: “I think essentially thefunction of a regulator, is broad-ly three categories: regulation,supervision and enforcementand as long as the regulatorlooks at these three both indi-vidually and holistically, I thinkthat is how they should be look-ing at.” He said as far as enforce-ment is concerned the regulator(RBI) has raised issues about thepower of the regulator versus thesignificant shareholder if it hap-pens to be the state (Indian gov-

ernment) terming it a matter ofdebate.

However, Kotak said: “Wehave regulators which have beenworking very efficiently, in cap-ital markets, in securities markets,and the insurance sector.”

He highlighted that one ofthe biggest challenges at presentis ethics, values and governance.“This is something which is at apremium. We need to move theIndian society to a much betterlevel of governance as we go intothe future.” Kotak observed thatthe MSME sector is one areawhich has seen the pain of someof the bold reforms, and needs tobe hand-holded.

CII President Rakesh Bhartisaid arbitration was “very veryfrustrating” and the industrybody was engaging with the rel-evant ministries on this issue.

“The fear probably bureau-crats have is that if they don’tappeal, they may be hauled uptomorrow for not having donethat... I believe that once arbitra-tion has happened because bothparties agreed to, then that awardneeds to be implemented and thisis something where the courtsalso need to take a very judiciousand a positive view.

He said it needs to beensured that the arbitrationmechanism becomes morerobust, transparent and imple-mented efficiently and effective-ly, adding that all foreign com-panies coming in will have faithin such a fair mechanism.

Mittal also stressed thatIndian industry needs to ensurethat they abide by the law.

He also called for broad-bas-ing of GST by bringing alcohol,petroleum, electricity and realestate under its ambit.

Besides, he said the corporatetax rate needs to be reduced fur-ther to 18 per cent from 25 percent at present which covers 99per cent of the companies.

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Aparliamentary panel willgrill finance ministry offi-

cials on April 17 amid risingNPAs, incidents of fraud andgovernance lapses in the bank-ing sector.

The Standing Committeeon Finance, chaired by seniorCongress leader M VeerappaMoily, had last met on March9 in the aftermath of the overRs 13,000 crore fraud in PunjabNational Bank.

It had then asked the min-istry to institute a comprehen-sive enquiry encompassing sys-temic elements in the case andsubmit its report within amonth.

“The Standing Committeeis scheduled to meet financeministry officials on April 17

and challenges in the bankingsector, including NPAs andstressed assets, would be dis-cussed,” an official said.

As per RBI’s FinancialStability Report, gross non-per-forming asset (NPA) ratio ofpublic sector banks was at 13.5per cent at the end ofSeptember, 2017, 1 percentagepoints higher than six monthsago.

The government had inFebruary announced a Rs 2.11lakh crore recapitalisation planfor PSU banks to revive thebanking sector.

The meeting assumes sig-nificance since the sector isdealing with governance issuesalso at two private sector banks— ICICI and Axis.

S&P Global Ratings hadearlier in the day said that the

recent issues in private sectorbanks reiterate the need toimprove risk management, andmaintain strong governancepractices.

Chanda Kochhar, the man-aging director and CEO of thecountry’s leading private sectorlender ICICI Bank, is current-ly under investigation for analleged conflict of interest asso-ciated with the bank’s loan tothe Videocon group in 2012.

Recently, the board of pri-vate sector lender Axis Bankhas sought RBI nod for thereappointment of managingdirector and CEO ShikhaSharma for six months endingDecember 31, 2018. This isafter the central bank declinedan earlier proposal to give hera three-year term ending June30, 2021.

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Swedish home furnishings chain IKEA on said it has signed amemorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat gov-

ernment to set up its stores in the state with an expected invest-ment of up to Rs 3,000 crore in the long term.

IKEA, which received government approval in 2013 for itsRs 10,500-crore proposal to open retail stores under 100 per centFDI, has earlier signed MoUs with Karnataka, Telangana,Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to open retail stores.

The company plans to open 25 stores by 2025 in nine Indiancities.

The MoU with Gujarat government stands for mutual com-mitment from both parties and intends to provide clarity on work-ing methods and ensure a legally and ethically compliant, cor-ruption free business environment, IKEA said in a statement.

“Gujarat is a prioritised state for IKEA due to its open pro-gressive policies and positive investment climate,” IKEA IndiaCountry Property & Expansion Manager David McCausland said.

IKEA will soon set up its retail stores and other touch pointsin Gujarat to bring good quality and affordable home furnish-ings for the many people in Gujarat, he added.

Ahmedabad and Surat are the priority cities for now andIKEA has started scouting for suitable real estate, the companysaid.

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Crisis-hit Jaiprakash Associateshas deposited Rs 100 crore as

per the direction of the SupremeCourt in the case related todelays in delivery of flats by itssubsidiary, according to sources.On March 21, the apex court hadasked the company to deposit Rs200 crore in two instalments. Theflagship company of the Jaypeegroup has now deposited a totalof Rs 650 crore in the registry ofthe Supreme Court.

The bench headed by ChiefJustice Deepak Misra had direct-ed the company to deposit Rs 100crore by April 16 and the rest byMay 10. The Supreme Court hadasked it to submit a project-wisechart of home buyers seekingrefund so that the amount can bedispersed on pro-rata basis.

“At present we are concernedwith the refund and will take later

the issue raised by home buyerswho want delivery of flats,” thetop court had said.

Jaiprakash Associates hadinformed that only 8 per cent of31,000 home buyers have optedfor refund and rest want the pos-session of flats. JaiprakashAssociates subsidiary companyJaypee Infratech is developingvarious projects in Noida andGreater Noida.

Thousands of home buyersare stuck after the NationalCompany Law Tribunal (NCLT)had last year admitted the IDBI’sbank plea to initiate insolvencyproceedings against the debt rid-den Jaypee Infratech.

Jaypee Group is targeting tocomplete the construction ofpending 24,000 flats in Noida by2020 at a cost of about Rs 8,000crore and deliver it to home buy-ers.

Of the Rs 8,000 crore need-

ed to complete the flats, Rs 6,000crore would come from homebuyers while another Rs 2,000-2,500 crore needs to be infused,Jaypee adviser Ajit Kumar hadsaid earlier this year.

In 2007, Jaypee group start-ed the development of 32,000flats and plots in its townshipWish Town at Noida, of whichnearly 8,000 units have beendelivered so far.

Of the total flats/plots, JaypeeInfratech, which has alreadygone into insolvency, began workon 28,000 units while the remain-ing 4,000 units were withJaiprakash Associates.

The group is facing hugeprotest from home buyers due todelays in delivery of real estateprojects. Jaypee Infratech, whichis into road construction and realestate business, has constructedthe Yamuna Expressway, con-necting Delhi and Agra.

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India, China, Japan and Koreahave agreed to boost coop-

eration in the energy sector inview of their consumption ofhydrocarbons, primarily inbusiness to business segment,Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan said on Thursday.

Speaking at the concludingconference of InternationalEnergy Forum (IEF) he said,cooperation among oil-con-suming nations is warranted inview of oil-producing countriescharging Asian premium fromIndia, China and others forsupplying petroleum.

When asked about Indiajoining hands with China toresolve the Asian premiumissue he said: “We haveassigned this responsibility toIOC Chairman Sanjiv Singhand from their side Chairmanof China National PetroleumCorporation will work on theissue. More cooperation isexpected.”

“In some areas both of us(India and China) are workingtogether. In some parts ofAfrica, CNPC and OVL(ONGC Videsh Ltd) are naturalpartners,” he said.

Li Fanrong, DeputyAdministrator, National EnergyAdministration, China said thetwo nations can work togeth-er in energy sector as consumeras well as energy producer. Thenext IEF will be held in China.

About reported govern-ment direction to oil market-ing companies for not hikingfuel prices, Pradhan said, thereis no such direction.

On Wednesday, SaudiAramco, the world’s largest oil

producer entered into an agree-ment to pick up 50 per centstake in a planned USD 44-bil-lion refinery-cum-petrochem-ical project in Maharashtra.

On Shiv Sena’s oppositionto the deal, the minister saidsaid the deal is in the favour ofthe people of Maharashtra asthe investment will boost state’seconomy, job creation andindustrialisation.

Pradhan informed thatmore than 1,300 representativesparticipated in the IEF. Asmany as 53 representativesfrom different countries attend-ed the forum and 38 ministersmarked their presence.

On the occasion, ForeignMinister Sushma Swaraj saidIndia has deployed USD 8 bil-lion on gas infrastructureacross the country and share ofnatural gas in the energy mixwill increase from 6.5 per centnow to 15 per cent by 2020.

She also said LPG pene-tration in the country hasincreased from 66 per cent in2014 to 80 per cent in 2018, butIndia would be a responsibleconsumer despite the fact thatits per capita consumption isabout one tenth of the devel-oping nations.

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Benchmark Sensex tickedhigher for the sixthstraight session to close

above 34,000-mark onThursday, fuelled by a robustrally in IT shares, even as glob-al markets remained skittish ongeopolitical concerns.

The BSE IT index was thestar performer on Thursday,spurting 3.18 per cent, as a weakrupee boosted the appeal of soft-ware exporters. Index heavy-weights TCS, Infosys as well asWipro ended with smart gains.

The 30-share BSE Sensexadvanced 160 points to end at34,101.13, while the broaderNSE Nifty rose 41.50 points to10,458.65.

Globally, investor sentimentwas tense on concerns of the USand Russia heading for a show-down in Syria.

However, domestic mar-kets brushed off the negativecues on the back of fresh capi-tal inflows by foreign fundsand unabated buying by domes-tic institutional investors (DIIs),while quiet optimism prevailedahead of the earnings season,brokers said.

The 30-share Sensexresumed higher and advanced to34,177.44, but soon slipped onprofit-taking to touch a low of33,924.28. It finally ended 160.69points, or 0.47 per cent, higherat 34,101.13.

This is its highest closingsince February 28, when it had

closed at 34,184.04.The gauge has now gained

1,082.06 points in six sessions.The NSE 50-share index,

after moving between 10,469.90and 10,395.25, finally conclud-ed at 10,458.65, up 41.50 points,or 0.40 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) bought shares worth�362.30 crore on net basis, whiledomestic institutional investors(DIIs) bought equities to thetune of �111.82 crore onWednesday, provisional datashowed.

“The market gained somemomentum led by rally in ITstocks ahead of Q4 earningsexpectation. Global market istrading in a negative bias due togeopolitical tensions in MiddleEast. March CPI inflation wasexpected to decline further to 4.2per cent. However, rise in oilprice and weakening rupee maycast cloud over the inflation tra-jectory and market sentiment,”said Vinod Nair, head ofresearch at Geojit FinancialServices.

Meanwhile, Moody’sInvestors Service on Thursdaysaid the pick-up in economicgrowth in India was positive forasset-backed securities (ABS), asit supported the ability of bor-rowers to earn income andrepay their loans.

Moody’s expects that theIndian economy to grow at 7.6per cent in 2018 compared to 6.2per cent in 2017.

TCS was the biggest gainer

in the Sensex pack, surging 4.04per cent, followed by Infosys at3.41 per cent. Other IT counterslike Wipro, HCL Technology andTech Mahindra gained up to 4.47per cent.

Other Sensex gainers wereAxis Bank 1.63 per cent, ICICIBank 0.83 per cent, Tata Motors0.77 per cent, Asian Paints 0.75per cent, HDFC 0.68 per cent,HUL 0.57 per cent, NTPC 0.50per cent, L&T 0.46 per cent,HDFC Bank 0.46 per cent,Kotak Bank 0.38 per cent, BajajAuto 0.32 per cent, HeroMotoCorp 0.22 per cent andM&M 0.16 per cent.

However, broader marketsdeclined. The BSE small-capindex fell 0.27 per cent and mid-cap shed 0.13 per cent on prof-it booking. Losers included DrReddy’s 1.97 per cent, Tata Steel1.51 per cent, SBI 1.17 per cent,Sun Pharma 1.12 per cent,Adani Ports 1.11 per cent andMaruti Suzuki 1.07 per cent.

Sector-wise, IT rose 3.18 percent, Teck 2.49 per cent, Bankex0.35 per cent and Capital Goods0.19 per cent.

Realty, Metal, Healthcare,Power and PSU ended in thenegative zone, falling up to 1.82per cent.

IDBI Bank shares fell 1.04per cent after the Reserve Bankimposed a penalty of �3 crore onthe lender for flouting NPAreporting norms.

Oil markets remained tenseon concerns of a military esca-lation in Syria, but prices were

some way off Wednesday’s 2014highs as bulging American sup-plies weighed.

Brent crude futures were atUSD 72.42 per barrel, up 0.50per cent from their last close andUS WTI crude futures were atUSD 67.20 a barrel, up 0.57 percent.

Both Brent and WTI crudehit 2014 highs of USD 73.09 andUSD 67.45 per barrel onWednesday, respectively, afterSaudi Arabia said it interceptedmissiles over Riyadh and USPresident Donald Trumpwarned Russia of imminentmilitary action in Syria.

Oil stocks ended in the red,with Oil India falling 1.34 percent, IGL 1.31 per cent, CastrolInd 1.10 per cent, Gail 0.34 percent, ONGC 0.17 per cent andRIL 0.16 per cent.

Asian and European mar-kets declined after Syria tensionsand hawkish statements fromthe US Federal Reserve dentedinvestors’ sentiment.

US stocks declinedovernight, as worries aboutgeopolitical developmentsdeflated the buying mood onWall Street.

In the Asian region, HongKong’s Hang Seng fell 0.21 percent, Shanghai Composite Indexdeclined 0.87 per cent andJapan’s Nikkei ended 0.12 percent lower.

In Europe, Paris CAC fell0.03 per cent, while Frankfurt’sDAX traded flat. London’s FTSEtoo shed 0.02 per cent.

New Delhi (PTI): Promoter group enti-ties of Dish TV have made an offer to buyan additional 26 per cent equity stake frompublic shareholders of the direct-to-home(DTH) player for �3,701 crore.

In a public announcement made to theshareholders, Dish TV promoter entitiesWorld Crest Advisors LLP, together withVeena Investments Pvt Ltd and DirectMedia Distribution Venture Pvt Ltd,announced an offer to acquire shares ofDish TV at a price of �74 per share.

The offer is being made to all the share-holders of Dish TV to acquire up to 50.01crore (50,01,87,979) shares of the compa-ny that form 26 per cent of the emergingshare capital, payable in cash.

The open offer price is about 3 per centlower than the current price of Dish TV at�76 on the BSE.

Last month, after over a year of snag,the merger of direct-to-home operatorsDish TV India and Videocon d2h was concluded.

New Delhi (PTI): JSW Steel ledconsortium has won the bid to acquirebankrupt Monnet Ispat and EnergyLtd (MIEL) in an insolvency auction.

The committee of creditors (CoC)of Monnet Ispat and Energy, which isundergoing insolvency proceedings,had on Tuesday approved the resolu-tion plan submitted by the only bid-der Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Steel along withAION Capital.

“The consortium has beendeclared as the successful resolutionapplicant by the Committee ofCreditors of MIEL on April 10, 2018,and has received a Letter of Intent(LoI) dated April 12, 2018,” JSW Steelsaid in a statement.

JSW Steel Limited and AIONInvestments Private II Limited (AION)had submitted a bid for MIEL underthe corporate insolvency resolutionprocess of the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code 2016.

“The consortium has accepted theterms of the LoI. The closure of thetransaction shall be subject to obtain-ing necessary regulatory approvals,including from the National CompanyLaw Tribunal and the CompetitionCommission of India,” JSW Steel said.

JSW Steel is a part of the diversi-fied USD 12 billion JSW Group,which has presence in steel, energy,infrastructure, cement, ventures andsports.

JSW Steel is the leading integrat-ed steel company in India with aninstalled steel-making capacity of 18MTPA. JSW Steel’s plant at Vijayanagarin Karnataka is the largest single loca-tion steel producing facility in thecountry with a capacity of 12 MTPA.

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US-based retail giant Walmart is in dis-cussion with Flipkart to buy stake in the

e-commerce company, a deal that is expect-ed to value the Indian firm at about USD20 billion, sources close to the developmentsaid.

According to the sources, Walmart is intalks to buy shares from Flipkart and itsinvestors. The contours of the deal, whichis yet to reach a conclusive stage, are stillbeing worked out.

The sources declined to be identifiedas the matters are private.

The deal, which is likely to be carriedout in tranches, will include purchase of pri-mary and secondary shares, one of thesources said.

Another person said early investors likeTiger Global could look at a complete exitfrom the e-commerce company post thetransaction. Flipkart declined to comment,while a response could not be elicited fromTiger Global.

Last year, SoftBank Vision Fund hadpumped in an estimated USD 2.5 billionin Flipkart. The Bengaluru-based firm hadalso raised funds from eBay, TencentHoldings and Microsoft Corp last year. The deal, if it goes through, wouldunlock the booming Indian e-commercemarket for the world’s largest offline retail-er. For Flipkart, it would provide more arse-nal to go up against rival, Amazon in theIndian market.

Amazon and Flipkart are locked in anintense battle for leadership in the Indianmarket and have pumped in billions of dol-lars towards marketing and setting upinfrastructure in the country.

There have been reports of Flipkartbeing in discussion with the rival for a pos-sible acquisition, though there has been noformal announcement on that.

Industry watchers said a deal betweenWalmart and Flipkart was more likely sinceFlipkart-Amazon joining forces would facescrutiny by the competition watchdog, CCIin India.

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Britain’s leading spy chiefon Thursday revealed that

the UK’s first major cyberattackwas against the dreaded IslamicState which hindered the ter-rorist group’s ability to coordi-nate attacks and suppressedtheir propaganda.

Jeremy Fleming, director-general of the UK’sGovernment CommunicationsHeadquarters (GCHQ), told aconference in Manchester thatthe surveillance agency hadconducted a “major offensivecyber-campaign” last yearagainst the ISIS.

“In 2017, there were timeswhen (ISIS) found it almostimpossible to spread their hateonline, to use their normalchannels to spread theirrhetoric, or trust their publi-cations,” Fleming said duringthe CyberUK event organisedby the UK’s National CyberSecurity Centre.

“This is the first time theUK has systematically and per-sistently degraded an adver-sary’s online efforts as part ofa wider military campaign.Did it work? I think it did…This campaign shows how tar-geted and effective offensivecyber can be,” he said.

In his first public speechsince taking charge of GCHQin March 2017, the formerMI5 agent also attacked Russiaover “unacceptable cyber-behaviour” and warned that thedeadly nerve agent attack onformer Russian spy SergeiSkripal and his daughter Yulialast month demonstrates reck-lessness on the part of theRussian State.

“It demonstrates how reck-less Russia is prepared to be,how little the Kremlin cares ofthe rules-based order, howcomfortable they are at puttingordinary lives at risk… They’reblurring the boundaries

between criminal and stateactivity,” he said.

“The robust response fromthe UK and from the interna-tional community shows theKremlin that illegal acts haveconsequences. And it lookslike our expertise on Russia willbe in increasing demand,” headded.

Under his leadership,GCHQ, often referred to as theUK’s listening post, has alsoannounced plans to open a newfacility in Manchester nextyear as part of wider measuresto expand its network of sitesto combat threats that thecountry faces in a digital age.

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Taliban militants launched apre-dawn raid on a district

Government compound inAfghanistan on Thursday, killingat least seven people includingthe local Governor, officialssaid. Six policemen also diedand 10 intelligence officerswere wounded in the attack onthe Khwaja Omari districtheadquarters in the southeast-ern province of Ghazni, theprovincial Governor’s spok-esman Aref Noori told AFP.

The militants used a ladderto climb into the compound inthe early hours of Thursday,deputy provincial police chiefRamazan Ali Mohsini told AFP.

Mohsini put the death tollat 13, including the Governor,

police and intelligence offi-cers, adding scores of Talibanfighters were also killed but thatcould not be immediately con-firmed.

Afghan officials often giveconflicting casualty figuresimmediately after an attack.

“The attack is over and thedistrict is under the control ofAfghan security forces afterreinforcement forces rushedto the scene following theTaliban attack,” Mohsini added.

The Taliban claimedresponsibility for the raid in aWhatsApp message to jour-nalists, saying “more than 20policemen” were killed andseveral others wounded. “Ourmujahideen have confiscatedweapons and ammunition,”

Taliban spokesman

Zabihullah Mujahid said.“In the attack three

mujahideen were martyred andfour others were wounded.”The attack was one of thedeadliest by the Taliban in

several weeks and comes as themilitants prepare to launchtheir annual spring offensive,which marks the beginning of the traditional fighting season.

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French President EmmanuelMacron said on Thursday

that he would respond to“proof” that the regime of SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad hadused chemical weapons, “at atime of our choosing.”

“We have proof that chem-ical weapons were used last

week, at least chlorine, and thatthey were used by the regimeof Bashar al-Assad,” Macronsaid during an interview onFrance’s TF1 television.

Macron added that he wasin daily contact with USPresident Donald Trump andthat they would decide ontheir response “at a time of ourchoosing, when we judge it to

be the most useful and themost effective.” The Frenchleader, who had made the useof chemical weapons in Syria a“red line”, said one of his aimsin Syria was to “remove theregime’s chemical attack capa-bilities”.

But he repeated that hewanted to also avoid “an esca-lation”.

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Police say a woman and herchild have died after being

stabbed by her ex-husband ata busy subway station in cen-tral Hamburg.

The knife attack happenedon Thursday morning at theJungfernstieg station inGermany’s second-biggest city.Parts of the train lines weretemporarily shut down aspolice responded.

The assailant, who was thechild’s father, was arrested.None of those involved wasidentified, and it wasn’t clearwhat triggered the attack.

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An American militaryattache at the US embassy

in Islamabad, who is chargedwith causing the death of aPakistani national and injuringanother in a road accident,enjoys diplomatic immunityand cannot be arrested ordetained, the US said today.

“The individual involved isan accredited diplomat,” a USState Department spokespersonsaid, responding to a questionon defence air attache Col

Joseph Emanuel Hall who wasdriving a US embassy LandCruiser that hit a motorcycle inIslamabad on Saturday, killingthe motorcyclist on the spot andinjuring the pillion rider.

The US official was notarrested owing to their diplo-matic immunity, however, thepolice took custody of thevehicle. Islamabad Police hasurged Pakistan’s interior min-istry not to allow Hall to leavethe country.

“In accordance with theVienna Convention onDiplomatic Relations, the indi-vidual, like all diplomats, isimmune from the criminal,civil and administrative juris-diction of Pakistan and cannotbe arrested, detained, or bannedfrom leaving the country,” thespokesperson said. “For thesafety and security of thoseinvolved, we cannot disclosethe diplomat’s current location.We are in close contact with the

appropriate Pakistani officials,”the spokesperson said, addingthat the US embassy is cooper-ating with the investigation.

Meanwhile, Voice ofAmerica reported that the UShas not imposed any restrictionon the travel of Pakistani diplo-mats in the country. The StateDepartment has confirmed viaemail that there are “no restric-tions on travel for Pakistanidiplomats in the United States”,despite reports that they willsoon be subjected to new trav-el restrictions, VOA reported.

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The Cambridge Analyticascandal in which personal

data of over 87 millionFacebook users, including500,000 Indians, was compro-mised, has not hit the socialmedia platform in a significantway in terms of people deacti-vating their accounts, companyCEO Mark Zuckerberg has said.

Zuckerberg, 33, also the

founder of Facebook, acknowl-edged this during a Cong-res-sional hearing on Wednesday, hissecond in two days, on issuesrelated on data privacy andsecurity in the aftermath of theCambridge Analytica scandal.

“Yes,” Zuckerberg saidwhen Congresswoman DanaLouise DeGette asked whetherFacebook has witnessed nosignificant increase in usersdeactivating their accounts.

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Dwayne Johnson headlines theaction adventure Rampage as

a primatologist who keeps peopleat a distance but shares anunshakeable bond with George,the extraordinarily intelligent,incredibly rare albino silverbackgorilla who has been in his caresince he rescued the youngorphan from poachers. But arogue genetic experiment goneawry mutates this gentle ape intoa raging creature of enormoussize. To make matters worse, it’ssoon discovered there are othersimilarly altered animals. As thesenewly created alpha predatorstear across North America,destroying everything in theirpath, Davis teams up with dis-credited geneticist Kate Caldwell(Naomi Harris) to secure an anti-dote, fighting his way through anever-changing battlefield, not onlyto halt a global catastrophe but tosave the fearsome creature thatwas once his friend. The film,which will be shown in English,Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, is set tohit theatres today.

�How does “big meets bigger”define this movie?

Rampage is a big movie — bigin scale, big in action and big inheart. It’s epic in every way. Wehave not only a gigantic andamazing albino gorilla, we alsohave a super-sized mutated greywolf and a massive crocodile. Wedestroy a major city. So what fanscan count on is big, intense actionthat really pushes the envelopeand creates a non-stop ride of fun

and chaos.

� I heard that your dog, Hobbs,was an inspiration for the emo-tional connection your charac-ter Davis makes with George.How did that come into play?

One of the anchors in themovie, amid all the action anddestruction, is the bond betweenDavis and George. I based a lot ofthat on the relationship I havewith my little Frenchie bulldog,Hobbs, aka Bruce Wee. I’ve beenan animal lover since childhood,and have had pets since I canremember, but my connectionwith Hobbs is special. It’ veryrough and tumble, and we have agreat time together — like Davishas with George.

It’s important to me to balancethe film’s action with heart. WithSan Andreas, the heart came frommy character protecting his fam-ily. In Rampage, it’s about Davissaving his best friend, George.That emotional connection makesthe film more special.

�This is your third collabora-tion with director Brad Peyton.How has your working rela-tionship evolved over the years?

I really enjoy working withBrad. He’s a real guy from asmall, working class town inCanada, and he’s all about thework and making sure it’s asgood as it can be. We don’t leaveuntil we get the shot he needs. OnRampage, our motto was, “How is

this going to be different?” Andhe always figured out a way tomake a scene or moment differ-ent from anything we’ve donebefore.

Brad loves movies, especial-ly big movies like Jurassic Parkand the Indiana Jones films, andthose inform his sensibilities. Heprepares like a champion athlet-ic coach. Everything is painstak-ingly detailed. The devil lies in thedetails and so does success.

�When we visited the set ofRampage, you were inside ahuge C-17 transport plane, andgigantic machines that created ahundred miles per hour winds.What was it like to film thosescenes?

In the sequence, the C-17 isgoing down. To simulate that, theC-17 was put on a gimbal, whichhad to simulate a plane on fire andgoing down. Much of the time Iwas in a harness and attached towires and was hanging upsidedown. Those scenes were verycomplicated and intensebecause they required a lotof movements from many

different directions and frommany different department heads.So, the days were very long butwhen you’re making a movie likeRampage, you better strap in and

pack your lunch, because it’sgoing to be a day-long adven-ture.

�Humour also plays a keyrole in the film. Why wasthat important?

Humour is a criticalelement in Rampage. TheRampage video game had avery simple storyline: threemonsters destroy a city. But

at the same time, the mon-sters would do things that

would make the gamers laugh.For example, somebody would

be taking a shower, and a mon-ster would reach in the building,pull the naked victim out of theshower and eat him or her. Wedon’t have “naked eating” inRampage, because that would bea whole different movie that oneday we may make, but not today.We do have fun moments wherethe audience can take a momentto breathe and laugh. It’s impor-tant to bring the audiences alongon an epic, action-packed journeybut sometimes you also have to letthem have some fun. There’s thatold saying, and it’s very true, thattoday’s headlines are going to betomorrow’s punchlines. There’s alot of destruction of all kinds ofthings going on out there but it’sstill important to find just a littlebit of humour in the crazy stuffthat life hands us.

Can you reinterpret amaster? Going by con-temporary artist Vivan

Sundaram, you can. Evenadorn the classic with a con-temporary liveability. In onefluid stroke, Sundaram, alongwith theatre practitioners,writers and artists, decided toreinterpret the works of leg-endary sculptor-painterRamkinkar Baij, using differ-ent media, installations andartforms.

Breaking the purist walls,Sundaram conceived this pro-ject, called 409 Ramkinkars,as his take on the life andworks of Baij. The process ofreinterpretation was capturedby documentary filmmakerRV Ramani in a short filmcalled From Santhal Family toMill Re-call, a spin on Baij’sbest known works, SanthalFamily and Mill Call. The1938 Santhal Family featuresa tribal family — parents, achild, their dog and theirworldly possessions. Mill Call,created in 1956, depicts thecore of an industrial urban-scape, showcasing a familysetting out for work.Sundaram captures this spanof the dispossessed, as depict-ed by Baij, through both per-formance and static arts. Asthe film opens, the wail of awoman signifies the gush ofsuppressed voices who con-form for survival in society.

Theatre directorsAnuradha Kapur, SantanuBose, Aditee Biswas andDeepan Sivaraman conceptu-alised a promenade theatrewith skits inspired by Baij’sworks — sculptures andpaintings — particularly fig-ures. They involved 30 profes-sional actors, associates andtechnicians. Belinder Dhanoawrote the script. Vivan guid-ed the actors. The journeybegins with the audiencelooking at the artworks whichcome to life as the actorsenact their scenes and con-texts. There is a freefall ofemotions — despair, free-dom, sadness and power —each embodied by a charac-ter who bounces off the other,depicting a chaos called life.A sudden blackout afterepisodes and fragments keepsyou on the edge of your seat,a space that Sundaram feltwas required for audienceimagination to fill out thespaces outlined by Baij’s fig-ures.

A filmmaker with aunique style, who createsindependent, impressionis-tic documentaries, Ramaniwas a photo journalist. Whenthe director saw one of theartists perform the characterof Radha Rani for the firsttime, he had never imaginedthe intensity of the voiceartist could enliven the char-acter and bring her closer toour understanding of the

original sketch. This is one ofthe reasons why he was excit-ed by the rehearsals than afinale act. “I wanted to diveinto the process of character-isation and create a cinemat-ic experience,” he told us.According to the filmmaker,Sundaram brought out thevarious dimensions of Baijbeyond just the linear inter-pretations. Editing andadding the subtitles was themost challenging part.

Since the documentary ofthis nature was a nouvelleexperiment, Ramani never

expected it to be selected at afestival. What came as a big-ger surprise was winning anaward for the same. “I neverexpected either of the two butit is always nice to have ascreening at festivals. Even iften people come to watch thefilm, I am happy.”

As a director, he is fasci-nated by the sense of connec-tion. “The idea of expressionis quite interesting. It can existin any context. I feel connect-ed when films are trying todiscover ways to say some-thing, break codes or strug-gle to walk a new path. I feelartists consciously do thesethings and I love to be in thatatmosphere. So I take a lot ofexpressions from them andtry to incorporate it while Iam making my films.”

The film had varioustransitional scenes fromrehearsals to the final perfor-mance where the actors arepreparing for their roles anddiscovering various nuancesto improve their portrayal.“The off-stage and on-stagemoments lent vibrancy. Ibelieve the characters are dis-closing their layers at every

moment and I eagerly lookfor it.”

Essentially, Ramaniworks from the zone of a cin-ematographer and hence,documentaries come natural-ly to him. “I do not like todepend on too many people.Mostly, I am a one-man armythough sometimes, I do takethe help of two or three indi-viduals. I love to shoot andfilm before I develop my nar-rative,” he said.

Asked if he prefers doc-umentaries over fiction, hewas of the opinion that “nat-ural situations are moretempting for me. In fiction,everything is staged and well-planned, which gets boringfor me.”

Ramani visitedShantiniketan where Baijlived a greater part of his lifeand which is a treasure troveof his sculptures. He thenfamiliarised himself withSundaram’s works. The film,in his words, is about “oneartist looking at another artist,and me looking at both andconsciously reinterpretingboth with my cinematogra-phy. It is an artistic process.”

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Audi’s new A5 is possibly the best-looking Audi that isn’t called the R8.

As the rest of the Volkswagen groupmoves towards straight lines, the A5 isvisible proof that Audi is moving awayfrom them. But as good-looking as theA5 Sportback is, the three-door A5 issexier. When the engineers in Germanychopped the roof off, my god, this caris amazing to look at. I might not be con-vinced by the need for a convertible ofany sort in India but I could actually stareat this car for a long, long time.

But other than the roof not beingaround, the A5 Cabriolet is mechanical-ly the same as the standard A5. If youwant an Audi on steroids, you have togo the slightly manic S5 and full-oninsane RS5 that just dropped at a mere�1.1 crore, which weirdly is not bad valuefor a 444 horsepower car. The A5

Cabriolet is a much more reasonable�67.5 lakh but that is a princely summore than the standard Sportback at �54lakh. That said, what a car to look at. But,you just wish Audi had given this thetwo-litre petrol in the group’s stable.

The problem with any Cabriolet, nomatter how good-looking, is that Indianweather conditions are pretty woeful forputting the roof down. Sure, in Delhiwinters, the temperatures in the day areperfect but with the dust around, youshould have frequent user card at yoursalon, because you will need a shampoo,and if you’re a guy taking your girlfriendout, remember shampoos and blow-driesaren’t cheap.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the AudiA5 is a great buy as a mid-sized luxurycar because of its looks. This is arefreshing smart look for Audis. I alsoget the attractiveness of driving with theroof down. On a bright, clear day it canbe great fun. But these are designed fornice days in Southern Europe and theUnited States. The weird thing thoughis, as a proportion of sales, the UnitedKingdom with its notorious strangeweather leads in sales. However, one candoubt that will ever be the case in India.But as a statement car, you really can’tgo wrong.

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Artistic director Thierry Fremaux saysthe Cannes Film Festival will never be

the same after Hollywood’s sexual scan-dal following the exposure of producerHarvey Weinstein. Fremaux on Thursdaydiscussed his first Cannes Film Festivalwithout Weinstein, describing it as an“earthquake” moment for the industry.

“The world will never be the sameagain, the Cannes Film Festival will neverbe the same again,” Fremaux said, addingthat the movement sparked by the allega-tions against Weinstein had also causedan internal evaluation by the festival itself.

“We will discuss our own practiceswith the festival team. We will discussequality of salary, we want to question ourown process about the parity of thejuries,” he added.

At a press conference following theannouncement of the film festival’s offi-cial selection, Fremaux answered ques-tions about the lack of women in the line-up, offering his usual reply that the festi-val has to deal with the titles that are beingsubmitted.

“But there are three female moviemakers in competition,” he said, point-ing to Nadine Labaki, Alice Rohrwacherand Eva Husson, but adding that there“may be four” following late additionsthat are expected. Fremaux also com-pared Husson’s film Girls of the Sun,about a battalion of female Kurdishtroops and starring Golshifteh Farahaniand Julie Delpy, to Black Panther inbreaking new cultural ground.

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Page 14: 0’(1 ’) ˝˜˜ !˜˝˙#˙˝$%˜$˛ to common man as it ... protein rich items like eggs, ... regime children from Class 9th to 12th standards did not study emperor Ashoka,

Ihad landed in Haridwar inApril 1980 at the Ardha

Kumbh Mela on the advice ofa photographer in Delhi with-out knowing what to expect.He had mentioned that a fes-tival was being celebrated there,but I had no idea what type offestival it was and what amaz-ing crowds it would attract. Hehad sent me into spiritual Indiaand I am eternally grateful forthat.

A few days after reachingHaridwar I met an impressiveyogi.

I sat on the bank of theGanges behind the TouristBungalow (now AlaknandaHotel) and saw on the otherside of the broad riverbed awooden hut on poles, whichwas constructed on the sandybeach. An American, whom Iknew from the TouristBungalow, waded through theGanges straight towards me."Would you like to see anextraordinary man? If yes, Ihelp you cross the Ganges", heoffered. "Over there, in that hut,

Devraha Baba is presently stay-ing. He is supposed to be morethan 300 years old and enlight-ened. He is one of those whoknow what life is all about. Andit is always worthwhile to meetsuch people."

Of course I was interestedand we crossed the Gangestogether. The river hadappeared peaceful and calmfrom the bank, yet the currentwas amazingly strong and thestones on the ground wereslippery. I was glad that mycompanion was over two metertall, and gave the impressionthat there was nothing to fear.

Devraha Baba had watchedus coming because he scoldedus, when we reached him. Itwas far too dangerous to crossthe river. We should take thebridge, which was two kilome-tres upstream. A sadhu withmatted hair piled high up onhis head, translated this for us.

Baba waved us closer andasked me where I came from.He benignly nodded his heada few times. Then he mur-mured a Sanskrit mantra andasked us to repeat it line by line.Except for 'KrishnaVasudevaya' I didn't under-

stand a word.Then he instructed the

sadhu to give us sugar candies,so many, as we just managed tohold with both our hands.

With difficulty we wrappedthem into a shawl, includingthose, which had landed in thesand. Then Baba gave us hisblessing and sent us away. He

turned to others, who hadcome by car and carried a bas-ket full of fruits to him.

Back in my room in theTourist Bungalow I noticed

that I liked Baba. In fact, I likedhim very much. My heartjumped with joy at the thoughtthat I would see him again thenext day - almost as if I was in

love, which seemed inexplica-ble.

From then on I went everymorning to him. Sometimes Iwalked over the bridge, some-times I waded through theriver with the tall Americanand sometimes I got a lift by acar. On one of those lifts anelderly gentleman told me thathis grandfather took him toDevraha Baba ever since hewas a small boy. And his grand-father had assured him that,when he himself was a smallboy, Baba looked already like avery old man.

Baba sat usually on the nar-row wooden balcony that wassupported by poles. One couldonly see his head with theunkempt, long hair and theaged bluish eyes. His armswere hanging down from thebalustrade and he often raisedhis hand to give generously hisblessings.

Occasionally he was notthere. Then he was either in thesmall room behind the balconyor took a bath in the Ganges,and all of us, who had come forhis darshan, were sitting in theburning sand, occasionally dip-ping a handkerchief into the

river and placing it on ourheads to cool down. Sometimeswe waited for half an hour andnot a single tree nearby to giveshade. Most people quietlychanted "Siya Ram, Jai SiyaRam". They could chant thosenames hundred, thousand andprobably even million timeswithout feeling tired.

Why did we wait so meek-ly? I couldn't find an explana-tion. Yet I also didn't want toleave, even though my mindplayed up at times and resist-ed the waiting, when the dis-comfort became too evident. Iasked myself, why I took uponmyself the heat, the waiting, thehot sand, just to see an oldman? I wondered whether theothers also faced such rebel-lious thoughts. Nobody left.

Then, when all of a suddenthe door opened and Babaappeared on the veranda, awhisper went through thecrowd and it surged towardshim. The atmosphere was sud-denly charged. The heat andthe waiting were forgotten. Heradiated strength, confidenceand above all kindness andlove, when he, like a father fig-ure, compassionately inquiredabout the problems of his devo-tees or brushed them aside,whatever he felt was moreappropriate.

(To be continued...)

(The writer is a Germanpsychologist and author whowrites in German and English.)

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From "Swami Vivekananda'sFootprint on Uttarakhand

Himalayas"Bhagawati Saraswati

love of pilgrimage charac-terises the Hindi monk. As

the proverb has it, "A wonder-ing monk and flowing water donot become dirty, by notremaining in one place forlong. Moreover, who does notaspire to visit the places of pil-grimage, made more holy bythe visits of the sages as well asothers?"

In the second week ofApril 1890, Vivekananda wascompelled to go down fromVaranasi to the BaranagarMath in Calcutta. He cast outfrom his ardent wish to settledown for a time in the holy city,practicing meditation and spir-itual disciplines, when he heardthe passing away of BalaramBose...At the Math with hisbrother monks, he was his oldbuoyant self. He fired theirhearts and minds ablaze withhis luminous explanations ofthe teachings of the Master (SriRamakrishna) and theU p a n i s h a d s . . . T h o u g hVivekananda devoted a fewmonths to the training of hisyounger brothers/disciples, yetnow and then he felt intense-ly spurred by the desire toescape, to lose himself inTapasya in the immensity of

the Himalayas. He felt the call,no doubt, of the great missionthat awaited him, but its exactcontours and the form it wouldtake were still shrouded inmist. How and when the mis-sion would begin and whenGod would command him toembark upon it were uncertain.

In the meantime,Akhandanananda hadreturned to the Math and nar-rated about the splendours ofthe journey to the shrines ofKedarnath and Badrinath, andabout his adventures in themountains. This was sufficientfor Swamiji. He said to him,"You are my man. You havefaith! Come, let us be offtogether."In his letter to SwamiSaradananda on July 6 1890, hewrote, "I intend shortly, assoon as I get a portion of myfare, to go up to Almora andthence to some place inGarhwal on the Ganga, whereI can settle down for a longmeditation...I am longing for aflight to Himalayas." ToSaradananda, he again wroteon July 15, "I have my ownplans for the future and theyshall be a secret."

Prior to his long journey,he first went to the HolyMother with Akhandananandato ask for her blessings. He toldher, "Mother, I shall not returnuntil I have attained the high-est Gyana." Before leaving theMath, Swamiji told his broth-er/disciples, "I shall not returnuntil I acquire such realizationthat my very touch will trans-form a man." To carry out thegigantic work of the Lord,Swamiji needed preparationin solitude.

In the middle of July 1890,Vivekananda, free from allworries and responsibilities,

doubtless with a rare joy surg-ing in his heart, set out on hislong wanderings to theHimalayas. His intention wasnot to hurry there by rail, butto travel on foot along theGanga, begging his food andsleeping under the trees, notharbouring any thought fortomorrow. So with divinemusic in their hearts and coun-tenances radiating peace anddispassion, the two sanyasinstrudged on day after day.Though poorly clad, with onlystaffs and kamandalu in theirhands, the sight of the twowanderers did not go unno-ticed or unremembered by thevillagers along the way. As forVivekananda, it was impossi-ble for him to remain incon-spicuous anywhere. His pre-eminent characteristic, asRoman Rolland pointed out,"was his kingliness. He was aborn king and nobody evercame near him, in India or inAmerica, without payinghomage to his majesty. Therewas a certain dignity and graceabout him which set him apartfrom all others."

According to Vivekananda,it was here in Uttarakhand thatthe eternal truth of the Vedashad their first inspiration. Thisis the land of dreams of ourforefathers in which was bornParvati, the Mother of India, hesaid. It was the earnest desireof Vivekananda that thereshould be in the silent and sub-lime retreats of the Himalayassome monasteries. "Thesemountains are associated withthe best memories of our race.If these Himalayas are takenaway from the history of reli-gious India there would be verylittle left behind. Here, there-fore, must be one of those cen-

tres, not merely of activity butmore of calmness of medita-tion and of peace."

Vivekananda as a wander-ing monk on his way toKumaon came to a place calledKakrighat on the confluence ofKosi and Sual rivers in the year1890 and meditated under aPeepal tree. Regaining con-sciousness, he toldAkhandanananda, "I have justpassed through one of thegreat moments of my life. Hereunder this Peepal tree, one ofthe greatest problems of mythshas been solved. I have foundthe oneness of the macrocosmwith the microcosm. In themicrocosm of the body every-thing that is in the macrocosmexists. I have seen the wholeuniverse in an atom.

For the whole day, theSwami was in a high state ofmind and discussed his realiza-tion with his companion. Thefragments of what he wrote inBengali then read: "The micro-cosm and the macrocosm arebuilt on the same plane. Just asthe individual soul is encasedin the living body so is the uni-versal soul in the living Prakriti(Nature).They are the one andthey are the same. And it isonly by the mental abstractionthat one can distinguish them."

This realization reflected inthe lectures he later deliveredin the West under the title'Cosmos, Microcosm andMacrocosm.'

(To be continued...)

(The writer is the membersecretary NFSA Commission/Additional CommissionerConsumer Protection/ MemberResearch Committee, RTICommission)

Suchismita Sengupta Pandey

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Maria Wirth

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��������=)���������'Neurology and psychology both explain

that the way to ensure experiences arewired deeply into our consciousness is toreally experience them the first time. Whatdoes it smell like? Look like? Feel like? Themoments we remember forever, themoments engraved upon our awareness aremoments of great emotional and sensualcontent. We can still see, hear, smell thatmoment decades later. I fear that we are los-ing the opportunity to encode preciousmoments of our lives into our consciousnessbecause we are not even consciously presentthe first time around. If we live all the beau-tiful, positive moments with selfie stick inhand, jostling to get the right angle, won-dering about when we'll post the photo online, stuck in our thinking-minds, that ren-ders traumatic moments as the only onesengraved on our psyche.

Selfies have become disastrous not onlyto the opportunity of fully experiencing ourlives, but they have also become downrightdangerous.

According to various studies, there havebeen nearly three hundred selfie-deaths since2104. These are people who fell from cliffs,drowned in rivers and oceans, were electro-cuted or mauled by a wild animal - all whileattempting to take a selfie.

Where did this obsession come from? Ibelieve it is because we all have a deep long-ing to exist, but not just to exist in theory.We have a deep yearning to exist tangibly,palpably, to belong to our own life and to theworld around us. By continually taking ourown photos and then sharing them (becauseof course no selfie is ever complete until it'sbeen posted and shared) it is an attempt Ibelieve to prove to ourselves that we reallyexist, in some very irrefutable way. Thedilemma is that rather than simply revelingin the two-dimensional proof of our multi-dimensional existence, we rely on specificfeedback from others. Our sense of belong-ing, of connection and value is determinedby how the rest of the world engages withour selfie. The selfie revolution is not mere-ly one that is entertaining or giving a newform to self-expression. It is redefining howwe understand our place in the world. Notenough likes, shares or comments is not sim-ply a low response on social media. It is afundamental statement about the verynature of our existence and belonging onEarth. I don't exist until you like the fact thatI exist. I don't belong until you commentpositively on my belonging. The risk here fordepression and misery is obvious and wor-

risome.As soon as the internet reached main-

stream India about 15-20 years ago, my Gurubegan cautioning people, "connecting to theinternet is no problem. Go ahead, connect.But please remember to stay connected alsoto the innernet." It is the innernet that actu-ally gives us the awareness of who we are andour place in this divine world.

Taking beautiful photos of ourselves inbeautiful surroundings (or not so beautifulsurroundings) is fine, of course. There isnothing inherently wrong with a camerabeing able to flip around and shoot towardsus. But can we use it as a vehicle to cele-brate that which already exists rather thana vehicle for proving or deepening that exis-tence. I exist, fully and completely withinmyself, and I happen to be in a beautiful spot(or a not so beautiful spot but one I deemnonetheless photographically interesting). Itake this photo to celebrate my existence. Imay, in my celebration, share it on line toinvite others to also celebrate. But thedegree to which others become involved inmy celebration of my own experience shouldnot impact me. After all, it is I who am cel-ebrating me. If you would also like to joinin that celebration, you are most welcome.But a party of one is also fine…

Art is tangible celebration of creation.Sometimes we celebrate that which is beau-tiful, bountiful and fruitful. Sometimes wecelebrate that which is decrepit, barren andmiserable. Either way we, the artists, deepdive into the experience of creation - thelight and the dark, the textures and sensa-tions, the infinite range of color and formand sound - and the pearl with which weemerge from our dive is what we present tothe world as art. If selfies are the new formof art, so be it. But let's remember then whatit is - diving INTO creation and emergingwith an image. It is that deep dive, thedrenched connection to creation that birthsthe image, not the image which births ourexistence.

Thus let us shift the twenty-first centu-ry Descartean concept of "I post a selfietherefore I am," to "I am, I celebrate my am-ness, therefore I take, or don't take, a self-ie."

(To be continued...)

(The writer is the president of DivineShakti Foundation, Rishikesh. She leftAmerica in 1996 and settled in Rishikesh.Views expressed here are personal )

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Royal Challengers Bengaluruare hoping to get their cam-

paign back on track after an open-ing game defeat, as they lockhorns with Kings XI Punjab in theIndian Premier League (IPL) hereon Friday.

Royal Challenger Bengalurufinished second best in a cliffhang-er to Kolkata Knight Riders afterSunil Narine snatched victorywith a 17-ball fifty.

RCB will be expecting somefireworks from BrendonMcCullum and AB de Villiers,who blasted a 27-ball 43 and a 23-ball 44, respectively, in the firstgame.

McCullum's confidence will behigh as he has completed 9,000T20 runs in the last match.

Skipper Virat Kohli, surpris-ingly, played second fiddle byscoring 31 off 33 balls, and hewould like to have a better outingagainst Kings XI Punjab.

Other top-notch batsmen likeQuinton de Kock, Sarfaraz Khanand Chris Woakes, who did not getmany runs under their belts,would be keen to contribute.

Assisted by India's 2011 WorldCup winning duo of Gary Kirstenand Ashish Nehra as batting andbowling coaches, Kohli couldthink of letting Corey Andersonhave a go at the bowling, given thesmall size of Chinnaswamy sta-dium.

In the bowling depart-ment, Umesh Yadav andWoakes would like to contin-ue their form as they sharedfive wickets between them.

Much was expect-ed from the spin duoof YuzvendraChahal andW a s h i n g t o nSundar but theydid not weave anymagic, claimingjust one wicketfor 77 runs in56 balls.

The in-form NewZ e a l a n dq u i c k i eT i mS o u t h e emight get achance tos w i n g

his arms, considering his reputa-tion as one of the best new-ballbowlers in international cricket.

Kings XI Punjab are cominginto the match with their tails up,having started the season on aresounding note, beating DelhiDaredevils by six wickets.

Local player KL Rahul, whoscripted victory with the fastest-ever fifty in the Indian PremierLeague, will be seeking to repeathis show, and he is playing athome.

Rahul had smashed six bound-aries and four sixes in his 16-ball-51.

Karun Nair, who scored a 33-ball fifty, also would be keen tocontinue the good work.

Yuvraj Singh, who looked apale shadow of his old self in thelast match where he got 12 off 22balls, would be keen to regain histouch.

David Miller and MarcusStoinis would also like to contin-ue steering the team to victory indeath overs, as they did in the lastmatch by scoring an unbeaten 24

and 23, respectively.Chris Gayle could

open the innings as heknows the conditionswell here, the venuewhere he smashed an

incredible 175 in the 2013edition.

Aaron Finch,who was unavail-able for the lastmatch, also mayget a chance.

Kings XIPunjab's bowlersdid a fine job by

restricting DelhiDaredevils with 17-year-old spinnerMujeeb-ur-Rahmanmaking his InidanPremier League debutwith a bang. TheBangladesh teenagerpicked up two wicketsalong with MohitSharma.

����� 0�� �

Delhi Daredevils captain GautamGambhir says the revised target dur-

ing the rain-hit Indian Premier League(IPL) match against Rajasthan Royals wasa difficult one to chase.

Chasing 70 runs in six overs via theDuckworth-Lewis Method in a rain-trun-cated clash last night, Delhi Daredevils suf-fered a 10-run defeat against their hosts,Rajasthan Royals.

Earlier, Rajasthan Royals rode AjinkyaRahane's 45 to score 153/5 when the skiesopened up in the 17th over.

"We were very much in the game. Itwas a beautiful wicket to bat on, then 150-odd for 5 in 18 overs, we thought we couldcontain them to 170 and it was chaseable,especially with dew coming in later on,"Gambhir said after the match.

"We were very much happy with the

first innings. But then in six overs, 71 wastough.

“We had to go from ball one. Obviouslywith these sort of games, things could goeither way. Just two overs of Powerplay, it'svery difficult," the southpaw added.

"If it was a 20-over game, it would'vebeen much easier to chase."

Sanju Samson, who was adjudgedMan of the Match for for his quick 22-ball37, expressed pleasure on his team's firstwin in the tournament.

"Feels really amazing. We wanted a winbadly at our home ground and it feels goodto get our first win of the season," the 23-year-old said.

"I think it's about the preparation, wehad about four camps before the IndianPremier League had started and an excel-lent support staff who have given us a lotof freedom," Samson said in a post matchinterview.

���� ,�����

Just when it looked like Juventuswould pull off another stunning

Champions League comeback,Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up onceagain.

Ronaldo converted a penaltykick deep into injury time to sendReal Madrid through to the semi-finals for the eighth straight seasondespite a 3-1 home loss to Juventuson Wednesday. The goal wasenough to give the two-timedefending champions a 4-3 aggre-gate win and avoid nerve-rackingextra time after the Italian side haderased a seemingly insurmountabledeficit from the first leg.

"It was a match in which wesuffered," Ronaldo said. "It showsthat nothing is a given in football,you have to fight until the end. Wedidn't play well, we have to admit.But in the end we deserved toadvance."

A day after seeing Spanishrival Barcelona blow a three-goaladvantage against Roma in Italy,Madrid nearly did the same. ButJuventus' heroics came up justshort after substitute LucasVazquez appeared to be pushedfrom behind inside the area in thethird and final minute of stoppagetime.

Veteran Juventus goalkeeperGianluigi Buffon, in what waslikely his last Champions Leaguegame, was then sent off for furi-ously complaining after the penal-ty decision.

"Life goes on," Buffon said. "I'mhappy and proud of how we played,we made the impossible possible.It's a shame it ends like this."

Madrid won the first leg 3-0 inTurin last week, when Ronaldoscored with a spectacular bicyclekick for his second goal of thematch.

That deficit made Wednesday'sreturn leg seem like an impossibletask for Juventus but they got offto the perfect start when Mario

Mandzukic opened the scoring witha header two minutes into thematch. He added to the lead withanother header before halftime, andBlaise Matuidi scored the third earlyin the second half after a blunder byMadrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

But Ronaldo, in his 150thChampions League appearance, thennetted his 120th goal in the compe-tition by converting the penaltywith a firm shot into the top corner.He celebrated by taking off his shirtand running toward the euphoricMadrid crowd.

Ronaldo has scored 21 goals inhis last 11 matches in all competi-tions, and has netted in 11 straightChampions League matches.

The penalty came as Vazquezwas in position to score in front ofthe goal after Ronaldo headed downa cross into the area. Juventus play-ers stormed toward English refereeMichael Oliver, who apparently hadhelp from his behind-the-goal assis-tant to make the call.

The penalty was taken eightminutes into stoppage time as it tooka while for Oliver to clear theJuventus players who were protest-ing against the decision.

Juventus coach MassimilianoAllegri said he had a brief encounterin the tunnel with Madrid captainSergio Ramos, who didn't playbecause of a suspension.

����� ���� �

Skipper Mithali Raj led fromthe front with an unbeaten

74 as India Women outclassedEngland by eight wickets in thethird and f inal One DayInternational here and clinchedthe series 2-1.

After India spinnersrestricted England to a modest201/9, opener SmritiMandhana (53 retired hurt),Mithali and Deepti Sharma (54not out) ensured that the hostscrossed the line with 4.4 oversto spare.

India had won the firstmatch by one wicket whileEngland had levelled the seriesafter they defeated the hosts byeight wickets in the secondgame.

But India eves today dishedout a clinical performance withboth the bat and ball.

For England, wicket-keep-

er Amy Jones (94) top scoredbut she failed to find partners.Indian spinners wreaked havocon English batters, as theyshared six wickets, while vet-eran pacer Jhulan Goswami

(2-39) too chipped in.Off-spinner Deepti Sharma

(2-35), left-arm orthodoxbowler Rajeshwari Gayakwad(2-32) and leg spinner PoonamYadav (2-47) were among the

wickets.Skipper Heather Knight

chipped in with 36 runs, but itwas Jones, with seven fours anda six in her knock, who ensuredthat England went beyond the200-run mark.

While chasing, Mandhanagave a brisk start and comple-mented Raj. After the left-handed Mandhana was retiredhurt, Deepti Sharma joinedthe captain and the two tookIndia home.

But Mithali was the cyno-sure of eyes at the VidarbhaCricket Association Stadiumhere as she punished Englishbowlers, hitting nine bound-aries.

After losing the T20 tri-series, which also involvedAustralia apart from England,and the ODI series to theSouthern Stars, India finallyfound the winning momen-tum against England.

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Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowlers onceagain put up a stellar show as theyrestricted a star-studded Mumbai

Indians to 147 for 8 in their Indian PremierLeague encounter at the Rajiv GandhiInternational Cricket Stadium here onThursday.

The much-vaunted Mumbai Indiansbatting line-up flattered to deceive as thelikes of Evin Lewis (29), Suryakumar Yadav(28) and Kieron Pollard (28) got out aftergetting set which put brakes on their scor-ing rate.

The lower middle-order caved in badlyas hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad looked aspotent an attack even without their premierIndia bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Such was the dominance of theHyderabad bowlers that the back 10 of theMumbai Indian innings fetched them only69 runs with. Only 36 of those came off inthe last five overs.

Sandeep Sharma (2/25 in 4 overs)

proved to be a like-for-like replacement withhis incisive swing bowling while SiddarthKaul (2/29 in 4 overs) was once againimpressive.

A lot of credit will got to Rashid Khan,who stifled the scoring during the middleovers with brilliant figures of 1 for 13 in 4overs.

The 19-year-old Afghan teenagerbowled flat and fast with a mix of googliesand flippers. He bowled as many as 18 dotballs.

Skipper Rohit Sharma (11) was out try-

ing to whip a delivery from Billy Stanlake(2/42) that grew big on him and the catchwas taken at square leg by Shakib AlHasan.

Ishan Kishan (9)'s maverick approachdidn't pay dividends as he failed to makemost of a dropped catch by SandeepSharma as Siddharth Kaul had him caughtat third man.

The normally dangerous Evin Lewis (29,17 balls) started off well but tried to hit Kaulacross the line only to find the off-stumpknocked back.

The normally dependable KrunalPandya closed his face to a Shakib Al Hasan(1/34 in 4 overs) delivery to offer a simplecatch to Kane Williamson.

Billy Stanlake hurried Kieron Pollardinto ballooning one to Shikhar Dhawan atsweeper cover.

Sandeep Sharma then dismissed firstSuryakumar Yadav and then PradeepSangwan off successive balls to ensure thatvisitors Mumbai Indians don't cross the 150-run mark.

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Discus throwers Seema Puniaand Navjeet Kaur Dhillon on

Thursday opened India's medalaccount in athletics at the 21stCommonwealth Games, clinching aSilver and Bronze respectively here.

Punia came up with a besteffort of 60.41m, which she did inher opening attempt to win herfourth successive CWG medal whileDhillon clinched her maiden medalwith her final throw of 57.43m.

The 34-year-old Punia had59.57m in her second throw andfouled her third and fifth attemptswhile coming up with a 58.54m inbetween. She had a final throw of58.90m. The 23-year-old Dhillon, aformer World Junior

Championships bronze medallist,was at fourth place after the penul-timate round behind SositinaHakeai of New Zealand but her finalround throw gave her a Bronze inher maiden CWG appearance.

Punia, who was possibly com-peting in her final CWG, was,though, well below her best. She hasa season's best of 61.05m which shedid while winning the gold in theFederation Cup NationalChampionships last month. Shehas a personal best of 64.84m whichshe achieved long time back in 2004.

"We were training without acoach, what else could we do. But Ithink I could have thrown three tofour metre farther. I am not veryhappy because I was ready for agood throw but could not do it. I

could have gone for64-65m," Punia said .

Former worldchampion AustralianDani Stevens won theGold with a Games

record best throw of 68.26m whichshe came up in her fourth attempt.

Earlier, Arpinder Singh and AV Rakesh Babu made the men'striple jump final while NayanaJames and Neena Varakil came upwith disappointing performances tofinish at the bottom of the heap inthe women's long jump finals.

Arpinder, a bronze-medallistfrom the 2014 CommonwealthGames, topped his group and fin-ished second overall in the qualify-ing round with an effort of 16.39m.He has a personal best of 17.17m.

The Indian finished behindDominica's Yordanys Garcia whowas the only one to enter the finalafter achieving the automatic quali-fying mark of 16.75m. The otherIndian in fray, Rakesh Babu qualified12th with an effort of 15.98m. Thefinal round will be held on April 14.

In women's long jump final,Neena and Nayana finished 10thand last in a 12-woman field withdisappointing performances. Neenahad a best effort of 6.19m whileNayana came up with a 6.14m.

Neena has a personal best of6.66m while Nayana's personal bestis 6.55m. Meanwhile, heptathletePurnima Hembram was lying at sev-enth with 2565 points after threeevents of 100m hurdles, high jumpand shot put.

����� ��������

Their quest for Gold didn’t takeoff as planned when the

Indian men’s hockey team drew2-2 against arch-rivals Pakistan intheir opening Pool B match lastweek. Despite a 4-3 win againstWales and 2-1 win againstMalaysia in the following match-es, the team didn’t look danger-ous enough to be considered asGold medal contenders. However,they managed to turn tables intheir encounter against England,where India scored two successivegoals in the final 1.36 minutesthrough Varun Kumar’s 3-3equalizer and Mandeep Singh’s 4-3 winner in the 60th minutewhich was brilliantly set up byskipper Manpreet Singh.

It was their ‘winning men-tality’ that saw the team through.

It is this winning attitude that

the team wants tocarry into theirsemifinal matchagainst NewZealand, who hada good outing inPool A with big wins againstCanada (6-2), South Africa (6-0),Scotland (5-2) and a narrow 1-2loss against Australia. “AgainstNew Zealand too, we don’t wantto focus too much on what theybring to the table, but we want tofocus on our own strengths andensure we fight till the last whis-tle,” asserted Manpreet.

���������Indian women's team failed

to capitalise on two goal-scoringchances in the dying minutes tolose the semifinal 0-1 to tripledefending champions Australia.India will now clash with Englandfor a Bronze medal on Saturday.

����� ��������

Indian badminton star KidambiSrikanth on Thursday became

World No 1 in the BadmintonWorld Federation (BWF) rank-ings, replacing Denmark's ViktorAxelsen. Srikanth moved to thetop of rankings with 76,895 pointsin men's singles category to dis-place current world championAxelsen, who lost at least 1,660points because he could notdefend his Malaysian Open title.

The Malaysian Open washeld from April 4-9 last year buthas now been moved to June 26to July 1 on account of the ongo-ing Commonwealth Games. The25-year-old Srikanth bagged the

mixed team gold in the ongoingGold Coast Games and continuesto feature in the men's singles for-mat in that event.

Srikanth becomes only thesecond Indian after Saina Nehwal,

who achieved thefeat in 2015, to topthe rankings andthe first Indianmale to do so.

"This is a hugeachievement for Srikanth as wellas for Indian badminton,"Gopichand told media inAustralia.

"There has been a lot of talkabout our women doing well, butnow we will have a men's No 1.This will help Srikanth become

more relaxed. Whatever happensfrom here, he will always knowthat he was ranked as the best inthe world — that he has accom-plished that goal. It will help himfocus more on winning tourna-ments."

Srikanth, who burst onto thescene with victory in the ThailandOpen in 2013, secured the WorldNo 2 ranking in November lastyear but missed out on the chanceto claim the top spot after suffer-ing an injury.

The Indian shuttler won fourSuper Series titles — Indonesia,Australia, Denmark, and France— last year, becoming only thefourth in the world to achieve thefeat.

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The seasoned TejaswiniSawant brought her years of

experience into play en route toclaiming the Silver medal in thewomen's 50m rifle prone eventof the 21st CommonwealthGames here on Thursday.

Tejaswini shot 102.1, 102.4,103.3, 102.8, 103.7, 104.6 for acumulative score of 618.9 over

six series toclaim her sixCWG medal.Young AnjumMoudgil, theother Indian

shooter in the fray, finished alowly 16th with 602.2.

Singapore's rifle ace MartinaLindsay Veloso won the Goldmedal, while Seonaid Mcintoshof Scotland bagged the Bronze.

She maintained her posi-tion at the end of the fifth seriesand managed a final-seriesscore of 104.6.

������(������� ��������$

Double Olympic-medallistSushil Kumar (74kg) andRahul Aware claimed

contrasting Gold medals even asdefending champion BabitaPhogat (53kg) settled for a silveron the opening day of the 21stCommonwealth Games’wrestling competition here onThursday.

Sushil took a minute and 20seconds to defeat Johannes Bothaof South Africa on technicalsuperiority to claim his third suc-cessive CWG Gold medal.

Aware, on the other hand,prevailed 15-7 over Canada'sSteven Takahashi in an excitingcontest during which the Indianwas troubled by a groin niggle butchose to carry on with more thana minute left on the clock.

Aware's triumph openedIndia's Gold medal account in thethree-day wrestling competitionat the Games.

“I have been waiting for thismedal for 10 years. I can'tdescribe how it feels to claim it.I missed out on 2010, even in2014, the team was sent withouttrials. So, I am very happy that Icould finally fulfil this dream,”said the 26-year-old Aware, who

is also the reigningCommonwealth championshipsGold-medallist. “I dedicate this tomy guru who passed away in2012, I am happy that all theefforts I put in got the result Iwanted,” he added.

However, Babita settled forsilver after being outmaneouvredby Canada’s Diana Weicker in thesummit clash. Babita, whoclaimed a silver in the 2010 edi-tion before a gold in Glasgow,

failed to breakthrough her rival'sdefences, goingdown 2-5 in thecontest. “I thinkmy weakness

today was my attack, I shouldhave been more aggressive but Igave my 100 per cent. I am sat-isfied with the intensity I put inbut obviously I could not get theresult I wanted,” she said. “I hada bit of a problem in my knees toobut injuries are a wrestler's orna-ments. We live niggles, there isnothing there,” she added.

While Babita's bout lackedspark, Aware’s showdown withTakahashi was thoroughly engag-ing. The Indian trailed 6-7 at onestage but claimed points on take-down to recover and keep imselfahead.

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