The Cabinet on Wednesday ap-proved the ConstitutionAmendment Bill on Goods andServices Tax (GST), clearing theway for its introduction in on-going session of Parliament tobring about long-pending in-direct tax reforms. P 13

Rajkot farmer immolatesself: Amid statewide protestsby cotton farmers demandinghigher minimum support pricefor their produce, a youngfarmer immolated himself inVichhiya of Rajkot district onWednesday. P 5

Sarita gets a year’s ban:Asian Games bronze medalist LSarita Devi heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday as theworld boxing body let her off with only a year’s suspen-sion. P 20

‘Political dissent on cyber-space no offence’: The Cen-tre on Wednesday told the Su-preme Court that mere politicaldissent or criticism through so-cial networking sites could notbe a ground for arrest of theauthor. P 8

RS paralyzed for third day:Proceedings in Rajya Sabhawere washed out for the thirdconsecutive day on Wednesdayas opposition continued topress for PM Narendra Modi'sresponse to concerns over con-versions. P 9

NEWS DIGEST

GST Bill getsCabinet nod

MARKET WATCHSENSEX

BSE : 26,710.13 ▼ 71.31NSE: 8,029.80 ▼ 37.8

Times Classifieds | P 6

WEATHERAhmedabad25.4°/12.5°.............................

Rajkot27.2°/12.3°

Vadodara27.2°/10.5°

BENNETT, COLEMAN & CO. LTD. | ESTABLISHED 1838 | TIMESOFINDIA.COM | EPAPER.TIMESOFINDIA.COM AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014 | PAGES 30 | PRICE .̀ 3.00

2ND TEST: MURALI VIJAY(144), RAHANE (75) POWERINDIA TO 311/4 ON DAY 1 19

Ahmedabad:As many as 10 ex-tra Ahmedabad-Mumbai andAhmedabad-Delhi flights areexpected to be introduced bythree airlines to handle the like-ly spike in VVIP traffic expect-ed ahead of the Vibrant GujaratSummit and Pravasi BharityaDivas events. These additionalflights, which are expected tobegin operations by the lastweek of December, will makescheduled round trips betweenthe city and the two metros.

Sources close to the develop-ment said the additional flightswere being introduced at thestate government’s initiative tokeep air fares down during thetwo events scheduled in Janu-ary 2015.

During a recent meetingwith Pr ime Minister NarendraModi, the state’s finance minis-ter Saurabh Patel and chief sec-retary D J Pandian expressedconcern about the travel prepa-rations for the events. At least5,000 to 7,000 guests are expect-ed to fly into Ahmedabad dailyduring the two events sched-uled next month.

The sources said that Pateland Pandian had told the PMOthat airlines currently runningscheduled flights must not be al-lowed to take advantage of theheavy rush of visitors and startcharging high fares. Following

this, principal secretary to thePM, Nripendra Mishra, report-edly held a meeting with top of-ficials of the Union ministry ofcivil aviation and DGCA, andinstructed them to ensure airservices at regular ticket ratesby introducing special flights.

Vibrant effect: 10extra Mum, Delhiflights from city

Kapil Dave & Piyush Mishra TNN

Gandhinagar: Bill Gates,founder of Microsoft,

philanthropist andinvestor will beone of the topworld businessleaders to attendthe upcomingVibrant Gujarat

Global Investor Summit (VGGIS)2015. Highly placed sources inthe state government said, “We have received confirmationfrom Bill Gate’s office abouthis participation in VGGIS. Adetailed itinerary will bedecided shortly. He is likely tospeak on the scope ofinnovation in developingcountries at the Global CEOconclave.” Officials said thatwhile there was nocommunication from Microsoft about any majorinvestment plan in Gujarat,some token announcementsare possible. P 2

Bill Gates toattend VGGIS

�Continued on P 4

Daily flights to Mumbai and Delhi from Ahmedabad

CURRENT SCHEDULE

Airline A’bad-Mum A’bad-DelNo. of Seats No. of Seatsflights per flight flights per flight

Jet Airways 6 168 2 168

Air India 3 208* 3 150

Indigo 5 180 4 180

Go Air 2 180 NA NA*Air India operates a jumbo and two regular Boeing aircraft for Mumbai hence average seats

Peshawar: Dawood Ibrahim isthe only one left in his class. Lit-erally. Tuesday’s attack on thePeshawar Army Public Schoolwiped out the entire Class IX,leaving Dawood — an under-16national judoka — the sole sur-vivor because he missed schoolafter oversleeping in the morn-ing.

The 15-year-old boy couldhave been in the pile of corpsesin his classroom but for the factthat his alarm clock did notwork after he had attended awedding and went to bed late onMonday, according to a Pakista-ni daily. On Wednesday, Dawoodlaid to rest six of his bestfriends.

Silenced by grief, he is, dis-turbingly, displaying no emo-

tions. He isn’t talking to anyone.He isn’t talking at all,” said hiselder brother Sufyan Ibrahim.“He is a judoka and is tough buthe is showing no emotion at all

right now. He just attended fu-nerals the entire day. No onefrom his class survived; everysingle one of them was killed,”Sufyan said.

At least 142 people, includ-ing 132 children and the schoolprincipal, were killed in the at-tack by the Pakistani Taliban,the same murderous group

which have attacked dozens ofschools in the region and madean attempt on Malala Yousafzai.

15-yr-old overslept, missed school.Is now only survivor from Class IX

TNN & AGENCIES

New Delhi: The last-minutecancellation of nearly 400flights since Tuesday by cash-strapped SpiceJet has sent spotfares soaring and upset the va-cation plan of hundreds oftravellers who had flocked tothe troubled airline on itspromise of cheap fares. Insteadof reaching their holiday desti-nations passengers are nowchasing the airline for a refundand making alternate travelplans. Delhi-based Shalini Dha-wan had bought tickets for Del-hi-Mumbai-Goa-Delhi sectorfor her family in the first weekof January but now she has tocancel her trip. TNN P 2, 12 & 17

SpiceJet sendsholiday plans

crashing

The US on Wednesday an-nounced a “historic”thaw in ties with Cuba,

saying it would re-establish fulldiplomatic ties with Havana af-ter 53 years and ease long-stand-ing trade and travel sanctions.Pope Francis and the Vaticanplayed a key role in the talks be-tween Washington and Havana,the US said.

Washington will re-establishan embassy in Havana “in thecoming months”, an official saidin Washington after a prisonerexchange between the two coun-tries. President Obama and Cu-ban counterpart Raul Castrospoke on Tuesday. AGENCIES P15

US and Cubaresume ties

after 53 years

Mumbai: The Directorate ofRevenue Intelligence (DRI) hasunearthed a scam involvingcompanies inflating value ofcoal imports from Indonesiafor their power plants thus si-phoning money abroad. Initialestimates by the agency peggedthe overvaluation at Rs 29,000crore between 2011 and 2014.

DRI has raided more than80 shipping companies, inter-mediaries and laboratories inMaharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat,Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,Odisha, West Bengal and Kera-

la, among other states, insearch of documents that showthe real value of the imports.

The agency has searched al-most all laboratories testingcoal in India to obtain reportsfor verification of the calorificvalue of the imported coal.

The overvaluation also hasan impact on tariff paid by con-sumers here as power compa-nies could have a higher tarifffixation based on inflated rates.In other words, the power tariffwould be less — possibly by Re 1per unit — if the value of im-ported coal value was not inflat-ed. DRI is also probing somepublic sector companies thatindulged in overvaluation.

Power cos inflate coal importprices, `̀29k-cr scam unearthed

C.Unnikrishnan@timesgroup.com

➤ Companies shipped coal from Indonesia but routed invoices through an intermediary in Hong Kong, Singapore or Dubai➤ The inflated amount would be sent to the intermediary who would pass on the actual reduced value to the Indonesian coal supplier➤ The excess amount would be diverted to tax havens

MONEY TRAIL

Pak discovers thereis no good TalibanIn a rare show of unity,

Pakistan’s political partieson Wednesday pledged to“continue the war againstterrorism till the last terroristis eliminated” and to nolonger draw any distinctionbetween good Taliban andbad Taliban. The governmentalso decided to lift themoratorium on deathsentence which was in forcesince 2010 to facilitate talkswith the Pak Taliban. P 15

5-yr-old girl killedon 1st day at schoolThe Pakistani Taliban

claimed it had asked thegunmen not to target “smallchildren” but the killersspared none. Among thosekilled was a five-year-old girlwho had gone to school forthe first time on Tuesday and a14-year-old who was shot ninetimes. Most of the studentswere shot in the head frompoint blank range and some ofthe bodies were reportedlymutilated.

Dawood Ibrahim is in shock afterburying six of his closest friends

�Continued on P 15

�Continued on P 8

* INCLUSIVE OF AHMEDABAD TIMES (FOR AHMEDABAD AND GANDHINAGAR CITIES ONLY)

Day After, Tragic Stories Emerge As Peshawar Picks Up The Pieces

OBAMAS ON RACISM: OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR AVALET, SHOP STAFF 15

GAUTAM ADANI-LED ADANI GROUP, POSCO TIE UP FOR NEW TERMINAL IN OZ TO EXPORT COAL 17

Intelligence agencies havesounded an alert regarding

Pakistan-based terrormastermind and 26/11 plannerHafiz Saeed’s designs tounleash attacks in India. Thewarning, generated by the multiagency centre (MAC) onTuesday, flags the possibility ofSaeed’s outfits, LeT or JuD,targeting two hotel lobbies inthe national capital as well asan unspecified location on theDelhi-Agra highway.

Two Delhi hotelson terror radar