16
F oreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to his South Block office on Wednesday to express India’s outrage over the killing and barbaric act of mutilation of the bodies of two Indian soldiers. The Foreign Secretary handed out a demarche to Basit and told him to convey the Pakistan Government that India has sufficient evidence to prove two soldiers were mutilated by the Pakistan Army regulars and now it wants Islamabad to take action against its Army com- manders for the act. “The Foreign Secretary told the Pakistani High Commissioner that India con- siders the mutilation of its sol- diers a strong act of provoca- tion. This was against any civil- isational norms,” said Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay. India also conveyed that a cov- ering fire was provided by the Pakistan Army to enable its BAT (Border Action Team) enter Indian side and carry out the barbaric act of mutilation. Pakistan has denied its Army carried out such an attack. Baglay said that blood sam- ples of Indian soldiers collect- ed from the place of incident and trail of blood leading to Pakistani side showed the killers returned to their terri- tory after carrying out the attack. The blood trail was indicative of the fact that the Pakistani soldiers carried muti- lated body part of Indian sol- diers with them, he added. “The blood samples col- lected from the site in Krishna Ghati sector along the LoC matches with the blood of the two Indian security personnel. The blood trail shows that the perpetrators who entered the Indian side from PoK, returned from where they came from. This information was shared with the Pakistani High Commission and he was told Indian side has enough evi- dence. We have demanded immediate action against Pakistani soldiers and com- mander who crossed LoC in Krishna Ghati sector,” Baglay added. Basit, it is learnt, defended the Pakistan Army and denied that Pakistani soldiers were involved in any such activity but added that he will convey the content of the demarche to his Government. Meanwhile, given the tense situation on the India-Pakistan borders, the 50 Pakistani schoolchildren, who were vis- iting India on a student exchange programme, were sent back to Lahore. The Pakistani students were invit- ed by an Indian NGO and they landed in New Delhi on the day the barbaric incident took place on the LoC following which the MEA advised the NGO to send back the children as the prevailing conditions were not conducive. A day after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi insisted that not a single Aadhaar card was duplicated out of the total database of 113 crore, the Government on Wednesday suffered a loss of face in the Supreme Court when the peti- tioners showed the Supreme Court how till September 1, 2016, more than 1.69 lakh Aadhaar cards were cancelled on complaints of duplication. Rohatgi on Tuesday sub- mitted that duplication of Aadhaar cards is non-exis- tent. He stated it was impossi- ble to duplicate biometrics received under the Aadhaar programme and the Centre did not come across even a single instance to show Aadhaar can be duplicated. Countering him on Wednesday, senior advocate Shyam Divan produced a copy of response under the Right to Information Act received by the petitioners. It contained a query whether the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the authority controlling Aadhaar services, received any complaint of duplication of Aadhaar cards. The RTI applicant sought details of number of cards can- celled due to duplication. Diwan was appearing for two petitioners — retired Army Major General SG Vombatkere and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Bezwada Wilsonwho — want- ed that the Government should not be allowed to mandatorily link Aadhaar with PAN. Divan produced a copy of the RTI response to the court. It said, “A total of 1,69,563 Aadhaar cards as on September 1, 2016 were cancelled on com- plaints of duplication.” This came as a big blow to the Centre’s claim to vouch for Aadhaar being foolproof. Diwan also questioned the A-G’s second submission that the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016 made it mandatory for citizens to pre- pare their UID cards. He read out from the Act itself that state clearly that making an Aadhaar card is voluntary and left to the discretion of the citizen. He fur- ther established his argument by producing material from the UIDAI website, advertisements issued in print media, all stat- ing that the Aadhaar service is voluntary and not mandatory. “The language of Act is completely different from the submission by the A-G. I can- not imagine the Centre to have an argument contrary to what the Act says. If it was manda- tory, the Act should have penal consequences for persons who do not have Aadhaar. Continued on Page 4 T he Narendra Modi and the Yogi Governments have got down to sort out the con- tentious land acquisition issues involving 1,800 hectares in Uttar Pradesh. The acquisition bottleneck has impacted construction of around 50 national highway (NH) projects, many of which come under VVIP constituen- cies, like that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi, UP Chief Minister Yo g i Adityanath’s Gorakhpur, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh’s Azamgarh, and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s Lucknow. A sharp mismatch in circle rates of the land falling within these constituencies with adjoining ones is the main reasons for the delay in land acquisition despite the Centre earmarking 6,400 crore as compensation to the displaced. Both the Centre and State Governments have already held one meeting in this regard and the second one is scheduled next week to pave the way for the construction of NH stretch- es including Varanasi- Gorakhpur, Lucknow Ring Road, and Varanasi Ring Road among others. A senior Road Ministry official said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has written to UP CM to expedite the pending projects and disburse to farm- ers the pending compensation against the acquisition. On his part, the UP CM has acted swiftly to remove the hurdles. “The CM immediately sum- moned all the Administrative Heads (Collectors) of the dis- tricts where works remain stuck and directed to sort out the problem within a month’s time. They have also been allowed to change the land use wherever possible with State gazette noti- fications. We are hopeful that in another fortnight problem areas will be resolved and work will begin on NHs in the state, “ said the official. Pointing out the problem the Centre faces in the dis- bursement of compensation, the official said circle rates in Azamgarh, represented by Continued on Page 4 G overnment-owned muse- ums located at 44 excava- tion sites across the country are struggling for survival for want of staff. Caretakers of many of these museums have sent an SOS to the Centre to urgently fill vacant posts and ensure ade- quate security to protect the artefacts. If not, they will be left with no option but to close down these institutions housing priceless antiquities. These museums, super- vised by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the Union Culture Ministry, are set up at various excavation sites, showcasing a wide range of antiquities like sculptures, doc- uments, rare photographs and materials recovered from the excavation venues. Some of them, like the Swatantrata Senani Museum in Red Fort in Delhi, give a glimpse of major phases of India’s struggle for freedom. However, acute shortage of staff is plaguing almost all site museums. At least 45 per cent of the posts have been lying vacant for years, sources said. In some, lower division officials are holding senior posts as well. For example, a museum opened in Piparwaha in Uttar Pradesh in 2015 is functioning without any sanctioned staff. The situation of five museums in Delhi, one in Old Fort and other four in Red Fort, is not very different. This is in contravention of the ASI’s guidelines, according to which the minimum required staff for each museum is an Assistant Superintendent Archeologist, financial and administrative head, two Assistant Archeologists, an education officer of the muse- um, two lower division clerks, one assistant storekeeper, per- manent museum attendants and security personnel as per requirement and a computer operator. Unable to fill the posts because of ban on regular recruitment as well as apathy, the ASI has now asked the Continued on Page 4 I ndia, which has the world’s largest youth population, is neglecting its old. In a country with an aged population (over 60 years) of 104 million, there are just around 300 Government-run old age homes covering 648 districts that take care of around 13,000 elderly. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 mandates an old age home in each district and provides penal provisions for children and relatives who abandon senior citizens. Shockingly, India does not spend even 0.91 per cent of its GDP on its elderly. After delving into these sta- tistics, a Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, observed, “We accept it is an enormous problem and we must find a solution.” The court was dealing with two separate PILs filed by for- mer Minister and senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar and a lawyer Sanjeeb Panigrahi. Kumar gave statistics that suggest that only 29.8 million among the elderly draw a pen- sion from the Central Government, leaving a large chunk vulnerable. According to him, 40 per cent of the elderly live below the poverty line. Under the 2007 Act, a pension of 200 is to be paid to each elderly between the age of 60 and 79. The Act further mandates an old age home in each district of the country. However, the ground real- ity is very different. Kumar sup- plied data which showed that out of 684 districts, the Social Welfare Department had set up 296 homes, of which only 136 receive Government funding. “Instead of assistance increas- ing, the trend is declining over the years. Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee reports indicate that old age homes in the country cover only 13,000 elderly,” he said. Statistics compiled by HelpAge India Director Mathew Cherian, who is assist- ing the court as amicus curiae, suggested that India does not spend even 0.91 per cent of its GDP on its elderly at a time when developing countries like Brazil spend 4.5 per cent of the GDP on them. Even a small country like Nepal has set apart four per cent of its GDP for the elderly. He said that a pension of 200 was a “mockery” as this was hardly realistic or enough to sustain a person. Cherian proposed to fix a monthly pension under the Act at 1,000 or 2,000. If a pension of 2,000 per month is fixed, it will cost 1.81 per cent of the GDP while a pension of 1,000 will cost 0.91 per cent of the GDP. Although the Centre indi- cated several schemes intro- duced by the present and past Governments to show its con- cern for the elderly, the Bench directed the Government to consider the proposals of the amicus curiae. In addition, the court indi- cated that it will focus on establishment of old age homes and will monitor implementation of a dozen- odd social welfare schemes aimed for the aged. T he Government on Wednesday initiated the much-awaited process for resolv- ing the burgeoning bad loan cri- sis plaguing the banking sector. The Union Cabinet meet- ing chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved an ordinance to amend Banking Regulation Act to resolve the NPA crisis. Also, the Cabinet initiated the process for the dis- investment of ITDC properties and its approval for the decla- ration of Vijayawada Airport as International Airport. Briefing media persons after the Cabinet meeting, Arun Jaitley remained tightlipped on the details of banking sector ordinance on the NPA. He said the Cabinet has given its mechanism for reso- lution of stressed assets of banks details of which will be announced after the President’s approval. “An important decision has been taken in this regard and it is waiting for the President’s nod,” Jaitley said, without elab- orating. The Indian banking indus- try has been saddled with Continued on Page 4 T he portals of the fabled Kedarnath shrine was thrown open on Wednesday accompanied by the ceremoni- al rituals a little before the Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid obeisance to the deity and offered prayers at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, one of the twelve Jyotirlings, believed to have been built by the Pandavas and much later revived by Adi Shankaracharya. Earlier, PM Modi was wel- comed by the Governor Dr KK Paul and Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat after the special IAF aircraft with the PM on board landed at Jollygrant airport at around 8 am. The PM's Kedarnath shrine trip was advanced to the early morning against the backdrop of the Met depart- ment having forecast rain later in the day. PM accompanied by the Governor and the CM flew to Kedarnath by MI-17 heli- copter. Among others who welcomed him at Kedarpuri were Uttarakhand BJP in- charge Shyam Jaju, State Assembly Speaker Premchand Aggarawal, Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj, Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat and State BJP president Ajay Bhatt. As Modi alighted from the chop- per he waved to the pilgrims who were found waiting to see the opening of the portals of the celebrated shrine and also to have a glance of the PM. As Modi reached the Kedarnath premises he was given a book- let that contains detailed infor- mation about the shrine. As per the custom going on for ages, Lord Shiva leaves Kedarnath and is installed in the temple at Ukhimath in November as the winter sets in. Preceding the opening of the portals, the palanquin with the idol of the Lord in it left Ukhimath and reached His summer abode at Kedarnath on Wednesday morning a little before the dig- nitaries arrived. As per the time fixed by the priests, the shrine was thrown open to the pilgrims at 8.53 am amidst the ceremonial tune played by the Army band. PM Modi arrived at around 9 am and was the first to perform Rudrabhishek at the sanctum sanctorum -offering of water and flower- to Lord Shiva. The ritual continued for around half an hour. Thereafter, he was felicitated with a replica of Kedarnath Continued on Page 4

˙3 ˙ ˆ ˆ 23 4 /56 /1 4 ˛ ˝ # $!˙ˆ%ˆ&˛˙’& ()˙%&!* +, ’˙’˛%˙˝ not a single Aadhaar card was duplicated out of the total database of 113 crore, the Government on

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Foreign Secretary SJaishankar on Wednesday

summoned Pakistan HighCommissioner Abdul Basit tohis South Block office onWednesday to express India’soutrage over the killing andbarbaric act of mutilation of thebodies of two Indian soldiers.The Foreign Secretary handedout a demarche to Basit andtold him to convey the PakistanGovernment that India hassufficient evidence to prove twosoldiers were mutilated by thePakistan Army regulars andnow it wants Islamabad to takeaction against its Army com-manders for the act.

“The Foreign Secretarytold the Pakistani HighCommissioner that India con-siders the mutilation of its sol-diers a strong act of provoca-tion. This was against any civil-isational norms,” said Ministryof External AffairsSpokesperson Gopal Baglay.India also conveyed that a cov-ering fire was provided by thePakistan Army to enable itsBAT (Border Action Team)enter Indian side and carry outthe barbaric act of mutilation.Pakistan has denied its Armycarried out such an attack.

Baglay said that blood sam-ples of Indian soldiers collect-

ed from the place of incidentand trail of blood leading toPakistani side showed thekillers returned to their terri-tory after carrying out theattack. The blood trail wasindicative of the fact that thePakistani soldiers carried muti-lated body part of Indian sol-diers with them, he added.

“The blood samples col-lected from the site in KrishnaGhati sector along the LoCmatches with the blood of thetwo Indian security personnel.The blood trail shows that theperpetrators who entered theIndian side from PoK, returnedfrom where they came from.This information was sharedwith the Pakistani HighCommission and he was toldIndian side has enough evi-dence. We have demandedimmediate action againstPakistani soldiers and com-mander who crossed LoC inKrishna Ghati sector,” Baglayadded.

Basit, it is learnt, defendedthe Pakistan Army and deniedthat Pakistani soldiers wereinvolved in any such activitybut added that he will conveythe content of the demarche tohis Government.

Meanwhile, given the tensesituation on the India-Pakistanborders, the 50 Pakistanischoolchildren, who were vis-

iting India on a studentexchange programme, weresent back to Lahore. ThePakistani students were invit-ed by an Indian NGO and theylanded in New Delhi on the daythe barbaric incident took placeon the LoC following which theMEA advised the NGO tosend back the children as theprevailing conditions were notconducive.

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Aday after Attorney GeneralMukul Rohatgi insisted

that not a single Aadhaar cardwas duplicated out of the totaldatabase of 113 crore, theGovernment on Wednesdaysuffered a loss of face in theSupreme Court when the peti-tioners showed the SupremeCourt how till September 1,2016, more than 1.69 lakhAadhaar cards were cancelledon complaints of duplication.

Rohatgi on Tuesday sub-mitted that duplication ofAadhaar cards is non-exis-tent. He stated it was impossi-ble to duplicate biometricsreceived under the Aadhaarprogramme and the Centre didnot come across even a singleinstance to show Aadhaar canbe duplicated.

Countering him onWednesday, senior advocateShyam Divan produced a copyof response under the Right toInformation Act received bythe petitioners. It contained aquery whether the UniqueIdentification Authority of

India (UIDAI), the authoritycontrolling Aadhaar services,received any complaint ofduplication of Aadhaar cards.The RTI applicant soughtdetails of number of cards can-celled due to duplication.

Diwan was appearing fortwo petitioners — retired ArmyMajor General SG Vombatkereand Ramon Magsaysay awardeeBezwada Wilsonwho — want-ed that the Government shouldnot be allowed to mandatorilylink Aadhaar with PAN.

Divan produced a copy ofthe RTI response to the court.It said, “A total of 1,69,563Aadhaar cards as on September1, 2016 were cancelled on com-plaints of duplication.” Thiscame as a big blow to theCentre’s claim to vouch forAadhaar being foolproof.

Diwan also questioned theA-G’s second submission that

the Aadhaar (Targeted Deliveryof Financial and OtherSubsidies, Benefits andServices) Act 2016 made itmandatory for citizens to pre-pare their UID cards. He readout from the Act itself that stateclearly that making an Aadhaarcard is voluntary and left to thediscretion of the citizen. He fur-ther established his argumentby producing material from theUIDAI website, advertisementsissued in print media, all stat-ing that the Aadhaar service isvoluntary and not mandatory.

“The language of Act iscompletely different from thesubmission by the A-G. I can-not imagine the Centre to havean argument contrary to whatthe Act says. If it was manda-tory, the Act should have penalconsequences for persons whodo not have Aadhaar.

Continued on Page 4

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The Narendra Modi and theYogi Governments have

got down to sort out the con-tentious land acquisition issuesinvolving 1,800 hectares inUttar Pradesh.

The acquisition bottleneckhas impacted construction ofaround 50 national highway(NH) projects, many of whichcome under VVIP constituen-cies, like that of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s Varanasi, UPChief Minister YogiAdityanath’s Gorakhpur,Samajwadi Party supremo

Mulayam Singh’s Azamgarh,and Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh’s Lucknow.

A sharp mismatch in circlerates of the land falling withinthese constituencies withadjoining ones is the mainreasons for the delay in landacquisition despite the Centreearmarking �6,400 crore ascompensation to the displaced.

Both the Centre and StateGovernments have already heldone meeting in this regard andthe second one is schedulednext week to pave the way forthe construction of NH stretch-es including Varanasi-Gorakhpur, Lucknow RingRoad, and Varanasi Ring Roadamong others.

A senior Road Ministryofficial said Union MinisterNitin Gadkari has written to UPCM to expedite the pending

projects and disburse to farm-ers the pending compensationagainst the acquisition. On hispart, the UP CM has actedswiftly to remove the hurdles.

“The CM immediately sum-moned all the AdministrativeHeads (Collectors) of the dis-tricts where works remain stuckand directed to sort out theproblem within a month’s time.They have also been allowed tochange the land use whereverpossible with State gazette noti-fications. We are hopeful that inanother fortnight problem areaswill be resolved and work willbegin on NHs in the state, “ saidthe official.

Pointing out the problemthe Centre faces in the dis-bursement of compensation,the official said circle rates inAzamgarh, represented by

Continued on Page 4

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Government-owned muse-ums located at 44 excava-

tion sites across the country arestruggling for survival for wantof staff. Caretakers of many ofthese museums have sent anSOS to the Centre to urgently fillvacant posts and ensure ade-quate security to protect theartefacts. If not, they will be leftwith no option but to closedown these institutions housingpriceless antiquities.

These museums, super-vised by the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI) under theUnion Culture Ministry, are setup at various excavation sites,showcasing a wide range ofantiquities like sculptures, doc-uments, rare photographs andmaterials recovered from theexcavation venues.

Some of them, like theSwatantrata Senani Museum inRed Fort in Delhi, give aglimpse of major phases ofIndia’s struggle for freedom.

However, acute shortage ofstaff is plaguing almost all sitemuseums. At least 45 per centof the posts have been lyingvacant for years, sources said. Insome, lower division officials are

holding senior posts as well.For example, a museum

opened in Piparwaha in UttarPradesh in 2015 is functioningwithout any sanctioned staff.The situation of five museumsin Delhi, one in Old Fort andother four in Red Fort, is notvery different.

This is in contravention ofthe ASI’s guidelines, accordingto which the minimumrequired staff for each museumis an Assistant SuperintendentArcheologist, financial andadministrative head, two

Assistant Archeologists, aneducation officer of the muse-um, two lower division clerks,one assistant storekeeper, per-manent museum attendantsand security personnel as perrequirement and a computeroperator.

Unable to fill the postsbecause of ban on regularrecruitment as well as apathy,the ASI has now asked the

Continued on Page 4

��������$����./��0/12�

India, which has the world’slargest youth population, is

neglecting its old. In a countrywith an aged population (over60 years) of 104 million, thereare just around 300Government-run old agehomes covering 648 districtsthat take care of around 13,000elderly. The Maintenance andWelfare of Parents and SeniorCitizens Act 2007 mandates anold age home in each districtand provides penal provisionsfor children and relatives whoabandon senior citizens.

Shockingly, India does notspend even 0.91 per cent of itsGDP on its elderly.

After delving into these sta-tistics, a Bench of JusticesMadan B Lokur and DeepakGupta, observed, “We accept itis an enormous problem andwe must find a solution.”

The court was dealing withtwo separate PILs filed by for-mer Minister and seniorCongress leader AshwaniKumar and a lawyer SanjeebPanigrahi.

Kumar gave statistics thatsuggest that only 29.8 millionamong the elderly draw a pen-sion from the CentralGovernment, leaving a large

chunk vulnerable. According to him, 40 per

cent of the elderly live belowthe poverty line. Under the2007 Act, a pension of �200 isto be paid to each elderlybetween the age of 60 and 79.The Act further mandates anold age home in each district ofthe country.

However, the ground real-ity is very different. Kumar sup-plied data which showed that

out of 684 districts, the SocialWelfare Department had set up296 homes, of which only 136receive Government funding.“Instead of assistance increas-ing, the trend is declining overthe years. Even theParliamentary StandingCommittee reports indicatethat old age homes in thecountry cover only 13,000elderly,” he said.

Statistics compiled by

HelpAge India DirectorMathew Cherian, who is assist-ing the court as amicus curiae,suggested that India does notspend even 0.91 per cent of itsGDP on its elderly at a timewhen developing countries likeBrazil spend 4.5 per cent of theGDP on them.

Even a small country likeNepal has set apart four percent of its GDP for the elderly.

He said that a pension of�200 was a “mockery” as thiswas hardly realistic or enoughto sustain a person.

Cherian proposed to fix amonthly pension under theAct at �1,000 or �2,000.

If a pension of �2,000 permonth is fixed, it will cost 1.81per cent of the GDP while apension of �1,000 will cost 0.91per cent of the GDP.

Although the Centre indi-cated several schemes intro-duced by the present and pastGovernments to show its con-cern for the elderly, the Benchdirected the Government toconsider the proposals of theamicus curiae.

In addition, the court indi-cated that it will focus onestablishment of old agehomes and will monitorimplementation of a dozen-odd social welfare schemesaimed for the aged.

�������������������� ���!���������� ./��0/12�

The Government onWednesday initiated the

much-awaited process for resolv-ing the burgeoning bad loan cri-sis plaguing the banking sector.

The Union Cabinet meet-ing chaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi approved anordinance to amend BankingRegulation Act to resolve theNPA crisis. Also, the Cabinetinitiated the process for the dis-investment of ITDC propertiesand its approval for the decla-ration of Vijayawada Airport asInternational Airport.

Briefing media personsafter the Cabinet meeting, ArunJaitley remained tightlipped onthe details of banking sectorordinance on the NPA.

He said the Cabinet hasgiven its mechanism for reso-lution of stressed assets ofbanks details of which will beannounced after the President’sapproval.

“An important decision hasbeen taken in this regard andit is waiting for the President’snod,” Jaitley said, without elab-orating.

The Indian banking indus-try has been saddled with

Continued on Page 4

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The portals of the fabledKedarnath shrine was

thrown open on Wednesdayaccompanied by the ceremoni-al rituals a little before the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi paidobeisance to the deity andoffered prayers at the sanctumsanctorum of the temple, one ofthe twelve Jyotirlings, believed tohave been built by the Pandavasand much later revived by AdiShankaracharya.

Earlier, PM Modi was wel-comed by the Governor Dr KKPaul and Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat afterthe special IAF aircraft with thePM on board landed atJollygrant airport at around 8am. The PM's Kedarnathshrine trip was advanced to theearly morning against thebackdrop of the Met depart-ment having forecast rain laterin the day. PM accompanied by

the Governor and the CM flewto Kedarnath by MI-17 heli-copter. Among others whowelcomed him at Kedarpuriwere Uttarakhand BJP in-charge Shyam Jaju, StateAssembly Speaker Premchand

Aggarawal, Tourism MinisterSatpal Maharaj, KedarnathMLA Manoj Rawat and StateBJP president Ajay Bhatt. AsModi alighted from the chop-per he waved to the pilgrimswho were found waiting to see

the opening of the portals ofthe celebrated shrine and alsoto have a glance of the PM. AsModi reached the Kedarnathpremises he was given a book-let that contains detailed infor-mation about the shrine.

As per the custom goingon for ages, Lord Shiva leavesKedarnath and is installed inthe temple at Ukhimath inNovember as the winter setsin. Preceding the opening ofthe portals, the palanquinwith the idol of the Lord in itleft Ukhimath and reachedHis summer abode atKedarnath on Wednesdaymorning a little before the dig-nitaries arrived.

As per the time fixed by thepriests, the shrine was thrownopen to the pilgrims at 8.53 amamidst the ceremonial tuneplayed by the Army band.

PM Modi arrived ataround 9 am and was the firstto perform Rudrabhishek at thesanctum sanctorum -offeringof water and flower- to LordShiva. The ritual continuedfor around half an hour.Thereafter, he was felicitatedwith a replica of Kedarnath

Continued on Page 4

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The Uttarakhand VidhyalayiShiksha Parishad (UVSP)

has completed the process ofevaluation of answer sheets ofthe class X and XII boardexamination. The UVSP alsoknown as Uttarakhand Boardis now gearing itself to releasethe result of these examina-tions in last week of May.

The result of Uttarakhandboard and marks obtained bythe students assumes signifi-cance this year as following acourt order, the practice ofaward of bonus marks to thestudents of Uttarakhand boardin the admissions in the col-leges has been done awaywith.

The Secretary of theUVSP, Manoj Simalti said thatthe evaluation process startedon April 17 and culminated onMay 02. He said that theprocess of award of marks is

undergoing at present and allefforts are being made toensure that the results arereleased by last week of thismonth.

He further stated thatutmost emphasis was laid onquality of assessment and theentire process of evaluationwas closely monitored byboard officials.

The answer sheets of thestudents were evaluated in 30centres located across the stateand 6000 teachers weredeployed in the process ofevaluation.

The evaluators were strict-ly asked to follow the methodof step wise evaluation inaward of marks. This step wiseprocess of evaluation ofanswer sheets is consideredbest form of evaluation as thestudents get marks for varioussteps they took while attempt-ing the question.

It is worth mentioning

here that the evaluators ofUttarakhand are consideredstingy is award of marks. Ananalysis of results of differentboards clearly shows that thestudents passing out fromUttarakhand board lag behindothers in terms of marks theysecure. This ensures that thestudents of Uttarakhand boardface difficulty in securingadmission in colleges,Universities and other acade-mic courses.

The Uttarakhand boardexamination got started onMarch 17 and concluded onApril 10. A total of 153813 stu-dents were enrolled in class Xexaminations while 133417students were listed for classXII examination this year. TheUVSP officials informed thatabout 4000 students wereabsent in class X examinationwhile 2000 students failed toappear in class XII examina-tion this year.

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It is May once again and timefor the queen of hills to gear

up well for the summer touristseason that has been support-ing the economy of this hilltown for decades.

As compared to lastmonth, there is much moreactivity here as tourists, spe-cially honeymoon couples,some college students andsome business families fromsmall towns, are beginning topour in. Repairs are underwayat some hotels and restaurants.In fact, finishing touches arebeing given to all things possi-

ble.Every shopkeeper is trying

to put up the best for the forth-coming tourist season. Thereis an air of expectation andexcitement all over the town.At the beginning of summereach year, there is a resurgenceof hope in the city. Even if theprevious year has been lean,the next year brings the hopeback. And many a time, thehope is fulfilled well.

At the “Garhwal Terrace”

of Garhwal Mandal VikasNigam, things are really look-ing up. It is well-turned outand already has quite a fewrooms full. There is a varietyof dishes available. The loca-tion is an added advantagewith the cool breeze blowingin from the windows over-looking the valley.

New style garments are ondisplay at all the readymadegarments shops. Mussooriehas always had an edge when

it comes to garments, espe-cially woollens. The latestdesigns and styles are availableand if one wishes a coat orjacket to be made to order, onecan get it within a few hours.Foreign tourists avail thisfacility frequently. The latestfashion can be seen on theMall, summer and winter.

Many families from placeslike Bijnore, Najibabad andLucknow are in Mussooriethese days besides some

Maharashtrian and Gujaratifolk.

Students of collegeswhere exams are over are alsotaking a refreshing break.Seen at every corner are younghoneymooners enjoying cof-fee or ice-cream, busy clickingselfies. Mussoorie has alwaysbeen a favourite honeymoondestination and has hotelsknown as ‘Honeymoon Inn’and “The Perfect Hideout”.

Softy ice-cream is still

quite popular and new stalls offruit juices and ice creams cannow be seen on the MallRoad. At the GreenRestaurant, new furniture is inplace. Green has been a verypopular place for tourists aswell as locals for the pastmany decades. By May 15, thetown begins to get crowdedand remains so till mid-July.Rains no longer deter touristsas they once used to.

The new Nirulas on MallRoad, opposite the old Rialtocinema, is an added attraction,especially for the youngtourists. Right next is the CaféCoffee Day. Gradual changeshave changed the overall lookof the hill station down theyears. However, there areenough of the old spots andplaces to make the old timetourists comfortable andhappy.

The Cambridge BookDepot, Chick Chocolate,Madras Café, Tavern InderSweets, Lakshmi Sweets andmany other shops have beenthere for long and people havebeen visiting them on everytrip to Mussoorie down thedecades. The wind is cold andrefreshing, the town is spread-ing its arms to welcome visi-tors. So, have you packed yourbags to go up to this amazinghill station which is so acces-sible and so alluring? It is andalways has been loved by peo-ple as the nicest place in thehills in northern India.

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On the demand of increas-ing salary, the staff mem-

bers of the famed RaphaelRyder Cheshire Home hereare on a path of agitation. Theagitated members of the staffare on path of confrontationwith the management fromlast three days and are camp-ing at entrance of the institu-tion. The staff members arealleging that the managementhas increased the salary ofDirector and Principal by morethan 30 percent but the otherstaff members were left highand dry.

Naresh Gurung, one ofstaff members said that major-ity of staff members working as

gardener, driver, laundry menand ward boys are drawing lessthan Rs 7000 as monthly salary.He further informed that thenursing staff, matron and labtechnicians are working onsalaries ranging from Rs 8000to Rs 10000 per month.Gurung said that one of a classIV worker of the institute isserving from last 35 years buthe is getting a salary of only Rs7372 per month. “We had ear-lier raised the issue of lowsalary with the managementbut we were told that organi-sation is serving the poor andmentally ill and the financialhealth of the institution is notvery good. But when wenoticed that funds are beingwasted on unimportant things

we decided to start an agitation.The government of India hasalso set up a minimum wage ofRs 15000 per month,’’ he said.

The members of the staffhave submitted memorandumto the director of the institutein which a demand to increaseminimum salary to Rs 15000 ismade. When contacted, theDirector of the institute, ArunBhatnagar said that the staffmembers have submitted amemorandum and the chair-man has constituted a com-mittee to look in the matter. Hesaid that the organisation is nota business house and surviveson donations. The Directoradded that the staff membersare getting free accommoda-tion facility and other benefits.

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Aone day workshop on CNCprogramming was organ-

ised by the mechanical engi-neering department ofHimalayan School ofEngineering and Technology(HSET) recently.

Assistant Professor,Faculty of MechanicalEngineering Department,Sandeep Kumar delivered twolectures on CNC Programmingfor CNC Lathe and CNCMilling Machines. The lec-tures were followed by practi-

cal demonstration on thesetechniques.

The Head of Department(HOD) of mechanical engi-neering, Dr H S Payal said thatin future such type of work-shops will be conducted by theDepartment in different areas.He also emphasized how CNCprogramming is useful in man-ufacturing industries.

Students from variousinstitutes and colleges ofUttrakhand and HSET partic-ipated in workshop and gotinformed about CNCProgramming.

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The administration of DAVPG College has cancelled

the admissions of eight morestudents and lodged FIRagainst them. These studentshad used fake certificates ofsporting events and managedto get admission by securingadditional marks for thesecertificates. The college hascancelled 26 admissions in theLLB course this year so far.

The Principal of the col-lege, Dr Devendra Bhasin saidthat on the complaint thatsome students have managedto get admissions on the basisof the fake certificates, anenquiry headed by DeanStudent welfare, Dr JeevanMehta was constituted. Thiscommittee found that thedocuments submitted by 18students are fake when the itapproached the universitiesfor verification, he added.

In the second phase thecommittee started scrutiny ofthe documents submitted bythe students for admission in

sports quota. Bhasin said thatthe committee took help ofsports-persons and otherknowledgeable personalitiesand found eight certificatesfictitious. Interestingly the

committee found out thatfour students had downloadedthe format of sports certifi-cates available on internetand made certificates. Bhasininformed that the college hasalso cancelled the admissionof four students in B.Sc. fourthsemester. He said that fromnext year the documents ofthe students would be certi-fied at the time of admissionitself.

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Fire erupted in three resi-dences- all made of woods-

on Shivaji Marg near KanwaliRoad under Lakshman Chowkpolice post area on Wednesday,triggering panic among thelocals. The three wood houseswere all reduced to ashes in theblaze that the fire tenders took

long to put out. However, thelocals alleged that the fire offi-cers reached the spot close tohalf an hour later after the firebroke out. Though no casual-ty was reported householditems worth around three lakhsare learnt to have been reducedto ashes. The cause of the firewas being ascertained, policesaid.

It is learnt that the housesgutted belonged to Ashok,Awtar Singh and JagirChandra. The flame was firstseen at the house of Ashokaround 11 am. Neighboursrushed as the flame keptspreading to the nearby hous-es. Children found stranded inthe houses were brought out tosafer places.

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The newly appointed districtmagistrate of Pauri, Sushil

Kumar has stressed on facili-tating speedy developmentalworks while preventing cor-ruption in the official func-tioning. After assuming chargeof the district magistrate,Kumar started the monitoringof each department while alsoissuing directions for ascer-taining the welfare of the mass-es. The district magistrateinstructed the chief medicalofficer to depute doctors tothose hospitals where doctorshad not been appointed. Heissued this instruction whilemonitoring the medical andfamily wefare facility in thePauri district on Wednesday.

Kumar instructed theCMO to initiate action forquashing the bonds of those

doctors who had been appoint-ed on the basis of the bond butwere not present for their des-ignated work. He directed thata letter be submitted to thedirector of health for theappointment of a lab technicianand X-ray technician.Arrangement should be madeto provide generic cheap med-icines to patients in the gov-ernment hospitals. He furthersaid that the drive against theuse of tobacco should be con-ducted in schools, colleges,offices and other institutionsfrom May 15 to 31. The CMODr Manish Agrawal said thatonly 65 doctors are working inthe district against the sanc-tioned posts of 263.There arefive community heath centres,10 primary health centres, 22additional primary health cen-tres and 242 mother child wel-fare centres in the district,

officials stated.Monitoging law and order

along with traffic situation inthe district, the ditrict magis-trate directed the additionalregional transport officer toconduct a joint drive involvingthe police and revenue depart-ment against violation of traf-fic regulations like overloading,speeding and drunken dri-ving. Senior superintendent ofpolice Mukhtar Mohsin saidthat there are 11 police stationsand 25 police reporting posts inthe district. For maintainingthe law and order the regularpolice has 22 percent areaunder its jurisdiction whilethe revenue police has 78 per-cent area under its jurisdic-tion.The proposal to establisha police station in Thalisainand fire station at Srinagar hasbeen sent to government, heinformed.

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The GVK- EMRI 108 emer-gency ambulance service

has geared itself to meet anyexigency during the CharDham Yatra this season. Theservice has deployed 48ambulances on the Yatra routethis year. The service alreadyhas 40 ambulances on theroute and it has pressed intoservice eight more ambu-lances on important points ofthe char dham yatra to ensurequick response in case of anyemergency.

The state head of the ser-vice, Manish Tinku said thateight additional ambulancesare deployed at Badrinathand Pandukeshwar inChamoli district, Vasukedar,Phata and Soneprayag inRudraprayag district, Harshil(Gangotri), Brahmkhal inUttarakashi and Kandikhalof Tehri distr ict . Heinformed that apart fromBadrinath and Pandukeshwar,additional ambulances havealready been deployed at sixplaces and ambulances at

remaining two places. He said that lakhs of

devotees visit Char Dhamsevery year and the incidenceslike road accidents, respira-tory and high blood pressure

problems show a markedincrease during this periodwhich need immediate emer-gency response . Tinku saidthat the 108 is committedtowards providing prompt

emergency service to thedevotees during the yatra.

Tinku further said that108 service has provided ‘First responder training’ to150 policemen and State

Disaster Response Force(SDRF) personnel and para-medical staff of state healthdepartment. These personnelwould be deployed at differ-ent places on the Yatra route.

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While inauguratingPatanjali Herbal Garden

and Research Institute inHaridwar on Wednesday, thePrime Minister Narendra Modivowed to do everything topromote the rich heritage ofYogic Science and Ayurvedabequeathed to the ancientnation by the sages and seers.“It is regrettable that this lumi-nous legacy handed out by thepeerless wisdom of this hoaryland has remained ignored foryears,” he said in an obliquecriticism of the Congressregime that remained saddledin the seat of power for long.He also stressed on preventivehealthcare with stress onutmost hygiene as a means tokeep the diseases at bay. ThePM also visited Patanjali YogBhawan where he wasbestowed with ‘Rashtra RishiSamman’ by the Yoga GuruRamdev. The citation that was

in Sanskrit was read by the stu-dents of Acharyakulum and

later Acharya Balkrishna trans-lated it.

Addressing the gatheringof volunteers who came from

Haryana, Punjab and evensome parts of southern Indiaand Uttar Pradesh, includingmembers of Yuva Bharat andPatanjali Kisan Samiti, Modisaid that he was surprised bythe lengthy citation extollinghim.

“But I can hardly forgeteven for a moment the enor-mous expectations that thepeople of India have from me.The citation is a reminder tome of the huge task lyingahead of me. I am nothing savefor the strength that the bless-ing of 125 crore people of thecountry endows me with,” hesaid. The citation mentionedhis achievements as the PM,including surgical strikes,observance of InternationalYoga Day at the behest ofUNO, Swach Bharat, onenessof Bharat campaign and initia-tives to help India carve aprominent place for herself onthe global platform of devel-opment.

Speaking volumes of thedizzying heights the Indiancivilization in myriad arenastouched after civilizationdawned on this ancient land,the PM said that the previousregimes that ruled most partsof independent India’s historyremained indifferent to thebest that India produced. “Butthe time has come when wemust surge forward while bas-ing our onward march on thegreat works done by our ances-tors,” he said. He further saidthat Baba Ramdev and AcharyaBalkrishna have played exem-plary roles in resurrecting theancient science and yoga meantfor the benefit of the whole ofhumanity transcending thenational borders. “This is noth-ing short of revolution in thecountry,” he said. Modi men-tioned that although this washis first visit to Patanjali YogPeeth after assuming charge asthe PM he had visited manytimes in the past.

While sharing his feelings,Baba Ramdev said that the PMwas baffled with his abrupt exitfrom the domain of active pol-itics following the 2014 regimechange in the country. “I toldhim that my activities in poli-tics were no longer requiredafter the reins of the countrywere handed over to the com-petent hands,” the yoga gurusaid.

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In view of the scheduledDehradun visit of the

President to attend convocationceremony of Indira GandhiNational Forest Academy onthe Forest Research Institute(FRI) campus on May 5, thedistrict police has drafted atraffic plan, diverting someroutes to spare the commutersinconvenience during theVVIP visit. Zero- zone wouldbe enforced along the routesthe cavalcades of the VVIPwould use 10 minutes beforethe President arrives at GTCHelipad.

As per the traffic diversionplan, no vehicle would beallowed from Vijay ColonyBridge to Annexe crossing.The movement of vehicleswould be stopped from pro-ceeding to Circuit HouseChowki to New Cantt Houseto CSD Canteen Crossing. Novehicle would be allowed either

from Doon School crossingand Tel Bhawan crossing mov-ing towards GTC helipad.Vehicles would be prevented200 metres away from DakraBazaar Gate MahindraGround. Vehicles would not be

allowed from MH Dakra cross-ing to move towards CSDCanteen Crossing.

No vehicle would beallowed from TapkeshwarMandir crossing to move in thedirection of Cantt crossing.The movement of vehicles

would be stopped from DakraBazaar Garhi Cantt SurajTower to Cantt Crossing. Thesame applies to vehicles com-ing from Nimbuwala RoadGurang Traders to CanttCrossing and those comingfrom Ambedkar Stadium toKaulagarh Chowk. While themovement of vehicles wouldbe stopped from movingthrough FRI back gate toKaulagarh no vehicle would beallowed to move from BallupurFlyover Kishan Nagar to FRI.No vehicles would be allowedfrom Wadia Institute toBallupur. The traffic move-ment of vehicles fromPanditwari to FRI would berestricted. Heavy vehicles com-ing from Haridwar would bestopped at Laltappar and theywould not be allowed to movefrom ISBT towards the city.Heavy vehicles coming fromVikasnagar would be divertedtoo at Sahaspur, said SP TrafficDS Gunjyal.

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The Meteorological centrehas issued warning of hail

lashing isolated places, espe-cially in Uttarkashi,Rudraprayag, Chamoli,Bageshwar and Pithoragarhdistricts during the next 24hours. The weather forecast forUttarakhand on Thursday islight to moderate rain/thundershower/snow at a few places inUttarakhand. Snowfall is like-ly to occur at places with height3500 m and above.Meteorological centre directorBikram Singh said that theweather forecast for Dehradunon Thursday is partly to gen-erally cloudy sky. Thundercloud development / light rainis likely to occur in some areastowards afternoon/ evening.The maximum and minimumtemperatures are likely to bearound 34 ºC and 20 ºC respec-tively in Dehradun onThursday.

The sky remaining cloudythroughout Wednesday in

Dehradun, the maximum tem-perature settled at 34.3ºC (nor-mal) and the minimum at19.4ºC (normal). It was 26.3ºC(three degree above the nor-mal) and 12.3ºC (one degreeabove the normal) inMukteshwar and 36.9ºC (onedegree above the normal) and16.8ºC (two degree below thenormal) in Pantnagar. In Tehridistrict, maximum temperaturewas reported as 22.8 degreeCelsius while the minimumwas 15.5 degree Celsius onWednesday. Highest maximumtemperature 36.9°C wasrecorded at Pantnagar while thelowest minimum temperature12.3°C was recorded atMukteshwar on Wednesday.Very light to light rain/thundershower/snow is likely to occurat isolated places especially inhigher reaches of Uttarkashi,Rudraprayag. Chamoli andPithoragarh districts on onMay 5 and May 6 while the cli-mate would remain dry in therest of Uttarakhand during thetime.

Haridwar: PM NarendraModi exhorted the people topledge not to spread dirt in thesurroundings. “By keepingcleanliness, one can do morethan a doctor can do,” he said.While speaking of the reasonsbehind the science ofAyurveda having not reachedout to the common man, he

said it was mainly because ofthe time that the process took.“But now the herbs havereached every householdthanks to the pains taken by thePatanjali-run institutions,” hesaid, adding that the success ofPatanjali was a major boost tothe holistic health care of thecountry.

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Expressing happiness atPrime Minister Narendra

Modi visiting Uttarakhand, theformer Chief Minister HarishRawat also expressed disap-pointment averring that theKedarnath MLA Manoj Rawathad been ignored in the wel-coming of the Prime Ministerat Kedarnath on Wednesday.

Welcoming the prime min-ister on his arrival inUttarakhand, the former ChiefMinister of the state said thathe had made considerableattempt during the past twoyears to get the Prime Ministerto visit Kedarnath. Rawat saidthat it was the discretion of theState Government that it did

not ask the Prime Minister ofthe nation for anything regard-ing the State. “However thestate government ignored theKedarnath MLA Manoj Rawatin the reception of the PrimeMinister as per the protocol.This amounts to insulting notjust the people of Kedarnathbut also the State ofUttarakhand. I am deeply dis-appointed that the KedarnathMLA Manoj Rawat wasdeprived of welcoming thePrime Minister. If the stateGovernment would have giventhe local MLA an opportunityto welcome the prime ministerto his constituency, such anissue could have been avoided,”said the previous ChiefMinister of Uttarakhand.

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In a significant step towardsmeeting its own power

requirement and subsequent-ly reducing dependence on thecentral pool or other states,Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut NigamLimited (UJVNL) hasachieved record power gener-ation in the first month-Aprilof new financial year 2017-18.

UJVNL managing direc-tor SN Verma said thatUJVNL has set a new recordin electricity generation lastmonth, despite unfavourableconditions. This had beenmade possible by the effectivemonitoring and efficientoperation and maintenance ofpower houses, he said. Heattributed the achievement tothe staff of UJVNL. He saidthat in April, corporation’sprojects at Dakrani, Dhalipurand Kulhal were shut downfollowing repair works atShakti Canal and Bairajs.Despite this, UJVNL has

achieved 347.439 million unitpower generation against settarget of 314.983 million unit.UJVNL has achieved 32.456million unit more than afore-said set target, he said, addingthat the corporation’sManeribhali-II , Cheela,Ramganga, Khatima,Mohammadpur and Pathripower grids have generatedmore power than the targetset. In addition to this, thecorporation’s Maneribhali-IIand Pathri power grid havegenerated maximum power inApril. Verma said thatManeribhali-II power gridhas generated 89.78 millionunit in April, a record formany years. Maneribhali-IIpower grid had generated78.72 million unit in April2013 that was a record brokenthis April by more generation.The corporation’s PathriPower grid had generated10.734 million unit in April2016 while 11.316 millionunit in April 2017, he added.

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Comptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG)’s report,

tabled on the last day of the spe-cial session of the state Assembly,has laid bare the shocking factthat the State Government hadnot cared to collect the data ofthe children belonging to theweaker sections of the societyregarding their right to freeeducation up to a certain level ofstudies.

The report criticised theState Government for failing tohave a comprehensive planningto rightly execute the right toeducation (RTE) act whichmakes elementary education afundamental right of all childrenin the age- group of 6-14 year.It provides that every child ofthis age- group would have aright to free and compulsoryeducation in a neighbourhoodschools till the time he or shecompletes elementary educa-tion. As per the CAG report, thefailure of the state governmentin collecting detailed data of thechildren from the unprivilegedfamilies resulted in an inordinate

delay in the reimbursement ofexpenses to the schools con-cerned from the end of the gov-ernment, thus impairing theirability to continue educationdespite being admitted underRTE. Besides, � 0.45 crore wasdisbursed without verification ofattendance and Rs 0.19 crore wasdisbursed to ineligible schoolsinstead of depositing theamounts directly into the bankaccounts of the beneficiary chil-dren. This aside, as the CAGreport pointed out, �7.07 crorewas left unutilised for two years.

The failure to implement theRTE Act in the state resulted inpoor retention rate, imbalancedpupil- teacher ratio and belowpar learning level, the reportsaid, adding that there was adelay too in providing therequired infrastructure with 77percent of the construction ofthe new schools, 27 percent ofthe construction of the addi-tional class room/principalrooms and 26 percent of thereconstruction of schoolsremaining either incomplete orun-started.

The report further pointed

out that the performance auditof implementation of theschemes meant for Uttarkahandpolice had brought out weaknessin the part of planning as well asshortage of weapons, vehicles,equipment and manpowerwhich affected the operationalactivities of the department.

The land revenue depart-ment failed to maintain anydatabase of recoveries of out-standing loans and other gov-ernment dues, according tothe report. Lack of a coordi-nated database of both districtand tehsil levels had under-mined recovery efforts with thepace of recovery remaining at24 percent on the average in theyear 2013-14 to 2015-16.

Higher education depart-ment had not exercised due dili-gence to ensure compliancewith extant guidelines whileissuing letter of intent to spon-soring bodies for establishmentof private universities, thereport said, adding that the fullcompliance with the guide-lines was made in only one outof 11 private universities locat-ed across the state. It also point-

ed out that the notification forestablishment of PatanjaliUniversity was accorded beforethe endowment fund was estab-lished. Besides, PWD had notobeyed the government instruc-tion regarding survey beforepreparation of estimates relat-ing to improvement of roads toenable plying of volvo buses onthe Dehradun- Mussoorie road,resulting in non- completion ofthe project despite an expendi-ture of �14.57 crore havingbeen incurred. The state gov-ernment had made excessiveuse of bituminous macadam forwidening and strengthening ofNew Tehri –Ghansali-Tilwaramotor road, resulting in extraexpenditure to the tune of �2.81 crore involving PWD. Thereport also came down heavilyon the medical health and fam-ily welfare department forreleasing excessive fund toEMRI with �18.85 crore lyingunused with the private oper-ator GVK EMRI till March2016. The department hadnot cared to recover operationcost of � 6.34 crore from theoperator.

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The people of Dehradunreeled under long spells of

power cuts on Wednesday withthe volume of power generat-ed in the State having dippedas compared to normal days.Uttarakhand PowerCorporation Limited directorand spokesperson PC Dhyanisaid that following shortfall inthe volume of water, the powergeneration at UJVNL’s hydro-power projects was reportedlower than normal days onWednesday, resulting in powerdeficit across the state.However, UPCL official saidthat no power cut has beenreported from any part of the

state expect for two hours inthe rural areas of Haridwar andUdham Singh Nagar districts,SIDCUL and non- continuousindustrial units of Garhwaland Kumaon on Wednesday.

The reality was differentas people of some of the local-ities suffered from power out-ages continuing for hours onWednesday.

Irregular power supply wasreported from several placeslike Tapovan, SahastradharaRoad, Kewal Vihar, Jogiwala,Aamwala, Dalanwala, OldSurvey Road and Karanpur inthe city. Things turned moregrim as water supply was dis-rupted in the aforesaid areaswith the power cuts dragging

for hours. Ramesh, resident of Vani

Vihar, said that despite worksbeing done to improve thepower situation from time totime, nothing positive washappening on the ground.“The state government mustdo something to rid us of thefrequent power outrages,” hesaid.

Praveen Rana, also fromVani Vihar, echoed the samesentiment, saying that irregu-lar power supply was com-pounding their summer woes.“My locality reeled under pro-tracted spells of power outageson Tuesday and Wednesday.Water supply was disruptedtoo,” he complained.

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Bus service to Keylong valleyhas resumed after a gap of

five months. The HimachalPradesh Road TransportCorporation (HRTC) onWednesday resumed its ser-vices on Manali-Keylong Roadvia the Rohtang Pass.

The buses left for Keylongfrom Kullu via Manali for thefirst time since bus serviceswere suspended after heavysnowfall in mid-November.Border Road Organisation(BRO) had thrown open theManali-Keylong highway onApril 28 for vehicular traffic afterclearing the snow from theroad.

The resumption of service isa big relief for the people ofLahaul-Spiti, who had been dis-connected from the road net-work to outer world for the fivemonths, and had to rely on theisolated Helicopter service forcommuting out of the valley.The bus from Keylong left at 6

AM while the bus bound fromKullu started at 4 in the morn-ing. A senior functionary ofHRTC said the service timingshave been planned in a way thatthe buses did not cross eachother at narrow points on thehighway.

Though the highway is stillsurrounded by snow piles onboth sides, some of which arehigher than 18 feet but the roadhas been cleared completely forthe time being. The resumptionof vehicular traffic on the roadis expected to relieve the farm-ing community in the tribal dis-trict particularly the potato andpeas growers, who will now beable to send their produce toother States. Though the high-er reaches of Rohtang valley havestill been getting light to mod-erate snowfall intermittently butthe region of the highway hasremained clear of snow and thevehicular traffic movement hascontinued hassle free. Theweatherman has also predictedminor or no snowfall in the val-ley for next few days.

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Police public schools will beset up in all the sub-divi-

sions of Haryana to provide thebest education facilities for thechildren of police personnel inthe State, Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar said onWednesday.

Presiding over a meeting ofthe Haryana Police HousingCorporation here, he directedthe officials to explore the pos-sibility of construction of hous-es for poor people under thehousing for all scheme.

Haryana Director-Generalof Police, B S Sandhu, said 10such police schools, built by thecorporation, are being run atMadhuban, Ambala, Hisar,Kurukshetra, Panipat, Rewari,Sunaria, Bhondsi, Sonipat andPanchkula. Presently, 11,500students are studying in theseschools.

Such schools will be builtin the remaining district police

lines by the end of April nextyear, Sandhu said.

As many as 1,560 housesfor police personnel are beingbuilt by the Haryana PoliceHousing Corporation in thefirst phase and construction of1,500 more houses will beundertaken in the secondphase, the officer said. Apartfrom new police stations, thebuilding for the NationalInstitute of Fashion Technology

in Panchkula will be construct-ed by the corporation at a cost of�100 crore.

It has so far constructedover 8,000 houses, 114 policestations, 13 police posts and150 other non-residentialbuildings, Sandhu said.

A cleanliness drive in allpolice complexes is being con-ducted by the corporationevery month under the‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’.

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From Page 1museum heads to out-

source the services to meet theneeds to ensure accountability incase of theft or other untowardincidents.

However, unhappy with thestate of affairs, many of the offi-cers in-charge of museumsaround the country have raiseda red flag about the security ofthe antiquities and other his-torical items.

Sources conceded that theMinistry is regularly getting let-ters from the heads of museumsfrom across the country seekingsecurity and permanent staff.“They have expressed fear thatabsence of adequate staff mightlead to some untoward incidentand in case that happens theyshould not be held accountable,”the sources said. The latest is aSOS from the in-charge of theArchaeological Museum in

Fatehpur Sikri in Agra which hasa precious Jain Saraswati statue.

The ASI has been forward-ing the letters to the CultureMinistry for its consideration.“To cope with the situation, wehave advised them to outsourcethe security personnel for takingcare of the museums instead ofdeploying casual labourers onmuster rolls.”This is not thefirst time that questions havebeen raised about the security ofthe artifacts kept in the sitemuseums. In 2013, the CAG hadnoted that during its inspection,it found that 131 antiquities werestolen from various monu-ments/sites and 37 antiquitiesfrom site museums. The CAGhad also asked the Ministry totake an initiative in developmentof a comprehensive securitypolicy for museums with uni-form standards for all muse-ums under its control.

From Page 1There is nothing in the Act

to this effect,” he added. He con-cluded that the submission ofthe A-G cannot be accepted andsince an instrument of state willnever play fraud with the peo-ple by misrepresenting infor-mation, it must be held that

Aadhaar is a voluntary scheme.Senior advocate Arvind

Datar, appearing for the secondpetitioner, CPI leader BinoyViswam, said that the questionbefore the court concerns civilliberties and the arguments byA-G present a “frightening”scenario. According to him, the

Centre lacked the competenceto enact Section 139AA ofIncome Tax Act, requiringAadhaar linkage with PAN andfiling of income tax returnsfrom July 1, 2017. He submit-ted that when Aadhaar Act isvoluntary, IT Act cannot makeAadhaar mandatory.

From Page 1Mulayam Singh, was high-

er than the adjoining districts likeGhazipur, represented by UnionMinister Manoj Sinha, andother districts like Jaunpur,Mau, and Varanasi.

The other projects whichare stuck include all the NHs

leading to Lucknow fromMeerut, Mathura, Agra,Aligarh, Moradabad, andBareilly.

Among the others, affectedprojects are Lucknow RingRoad, and 42 kilometerVaranasi Ring Road under theNHDP programme. The listgoes also covers portions of 180kms Delhi Agra, Agra - Etawah,Ghaziabad- Aligarh,Moradabad-Barielly andBareilly-Sitapur of the NH-24.Tolls will be charged on thesehighways after the commis-sioning.

In his last meeting with theNHAI officials, Adityanathpointed out that hisGovernment has given top pri-ority to maintaining the exist-ing roads as well as construct-ing new roads and promisedthem support to improve thecondition of roads in the stateas soon as possible.

Directing to make all theroads of State potholes free byJune 15, Adityanath encouragedthe NHAI) officials to ensureproper maintenance of all roadswithin its jurisdiction.

From Page 1stressed loans worth

about Rs 14 lakh crore. Thisis around 9.5 per cent of thetotal loans in the system. Amajor portion of these loansinvolve the infrastructure sec-tor including power, steel,roads, and textiles.

Jaitley said the declarationof Vijayawada Airport asInternational Airport is asper the provisions of theAndhra PradeshReorganisation Act.

The proposal will add toimproved connectivity to theState Capital of AndhraPradesh. It will provide widerchoice of services at compet-itive costs to the air-trav-ellers and give a boost todomestic and internationaltourism and socio-economicdevelopment of AndhraPradesh by bringing in inter-national passengers and cargotraffic, said Jaitley.

Announcing the details of

disinvestment of the hotels,Jait ley said the IndianTourism DevelopmentCorporation (ITDC) wouldoffload its 50 per cent equityin Ashok Bhopal andBrahmaputra AshokGuwahati in favour of thestate governments of MadhyaPradesh and Assam, respec-tively. In case of AshokBharatpur, the ITDC, which ismanaging the hotel, will handover the management controlto the Rajasthan Government.The States, he added, willhave the option to upgradeand operate the hotels byinvolving private companiesor to utilise the properties asper their requirements.

Jaitley also said the AssamGovernment may developAshok Brahmputra hotel atGuwahati as a guest house asthere are many private hotelsin the State capital. Shares ofITDC closed at Rs 690.10apiece on BSE, up 2.4 per

cent.The Cabinet a lso

“approved important propos-als relating to modificationsin the 7th CPC (Central PayCommission) recommenda-tions on pay and pensionarybenefits in the course of theirimplementation.”

Earlier, in June, 2016, theCabinet had approved imple-mentation of the recommen-dations with an additionalfinancial outgo of Rs 84,933crore for 2016-17 (includingarrears for 2 months of 2015-16). “The benefit of the pro-posed modifications will beavailable with effect fromJanuary 1, 2016, i.e., the dateof implementation of 7th CPCrecommendations. With theincrease approved by theCabinet, the annual pensionbill alone of the CentralGovernment is likely to beRs.1,76,071 crore,” said astatement issued by theGovernment.

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From Page 1constructed by Badrinath

Kedarnath Temple Committee(BKTC ) by its chief executiveofficer BD Singh.

After the rituals at the shrinewere over the state tourism min-ister Satpal Maharaj offered thePM a Garhwali cap and shawlwhich PM accepted with foldedhands. However, a little later, hewarmly patted the CM whowas also present on the occasionon his back. The media personspresent there were left curious asto the messages lying in the dif-ferent gestures that the PMshowed to two stalwarts of thestate. "It is indeed intriguing asto why the PM refused to letMaharaj place the cap and theshawl on his person and a fewmoments later, he showedwarmth for the CM," said amedia person, found trying hardto read the message, if any, in thevarying gestures.

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The stand-off between theKhalsa College’s students

and its management over thealleged suicide by a studentallegedly due to faculty pres-sure, ended on Wednesday. Asthe management agreed tosome of the demands of thestudents, the week-long protestwas called off at Tuesday mid-night.

The call for cancelling theprotest came a day after thePunjab and Haryana High Courthad prohibited protest within500 yards radius of the KhalsaCollege. On Wednesday morning,a meeting was held between thestudents and the management. Itwas decided in the meeting thatthe management would accept afew demands of the students.

It was agreed that thePrincipal, head of the depart-ment (HOD) and the Registrar,against whom the case has been

registered and currently “onleave”, will not interfere in thefunctioning of the college. Intheir place, only the new actingappointees will take decisions.

Acting principal, registrarand HOD (Agriculture) havebeen appointed in lieu of theearlier incumbent.

The college spokespersonsaid that the students demand-ed that they should be sus-pended. “We have decided toconduct a thorough inquiry inthe matter and based on theoutcome and the evidence,decisions will be taken other-wise it would be violation ofrules,” said the spokesperson.

It was assured that all effortswill be made to complete theinquiry by the managementwithin ten days’ period. At thesame time, it was decided thatthe College management and thefaculty would not adopt vindic-tive attitude towards the students.The management has given a

categorical assurance that no stu-dent who has participated in theagitation will be allowed to vic-timized in any manner.

It was also decided that thestudents roll numbers will begiven to the detained students,who will attend extra classes.

Besides, the evaluation ofthe answer sheets of thedetained students will be donefrom outside the College andthere will be no vindictive atti-tude adopted against theprotesting students. The stu-dents can even see their andanybody else’s answer sheets bypaying some fees. Besides, theexamination, which were sched-uled to start from Tuesday andhad been postponed due to agi-tation, will soon be conducted assoon as possible, possibly with-in a week’s time. It was decidedspecial measures will be takento address security concernsraised by girls student living inhostels.

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Haryana's minority-domi-nated Mewat district has

the lowest immunisation rateamong the children under theage of 6 years, which is a mat-ter of concern for the authori-ties who are now trying to ropein the Muslim clerics to addressthe situation.

The immunisation ratehere is 13 per cent, much lowerthan the State average of 62.2per cent, according to theNational Family Health Survey.

Officials say the rate ofimmunisation in Mewat is lowmainly because of rumourswhich started spreading morethan 3 months back that thevaccines being administeredunder the CentralGovernment's Indradhanushprogramme would have sterlis-ing effect on the children.

With an aim of addressingthe situation, top officials of thedistrict and National HealthMission (NHM) today held aninteraction with the AccreditedSocial Health Activists (ASHAs)and the clerics, who agreed torender their help by negatingthe rumours.

Maulana Yahya Kareemi,president of Al-aman IslamicCentre, Mewat, said he wouldspeak about the "misinforma-tion" related to the immuni-sation during the prayers at themosque, including on Fridayswhen the number of devoteesswells.

The Indradanush pro-gramme is aimed at guardingchildren against diseases likepolio, BCG, pentavalent(diptheria, tetanus, whoopingcough, hepatitis b,haemophilus, influenza type-B)rubella-measles.

Officials said the immuni-sation rate had risen to 30 percent but it started sliding post-February after a video wentviral on social media, claimingthat the injections being admin-

istered would make the childrensterile and check the populationof the minority community.

"As of now, no such injec-tion or tablet has been invent-ed which could render childrensterile," asserted Mewat DeputyCommissioner Mani RamSharma, while rubbishing therumours.

He told the gathering,which included several clerics,that the region has several peo-ple affected by polio as theminority community hadskipped the polio vaccinationdrive 15 years back, again dueto unfound apprehensions.

"I see 15-20 physically dis-abled youngsters coming tosee me at my office every dayto seek assistance in the form ofemployment or finances," theIPS officer said.

"We can tell only you (theASHAs and religious leaders),but it is for you to spread theword among the stakeholdersand raise awareness at grass-roots level," Sharma said.

Director of the NationalHealth Mission in HaryanaAmaneet P Kumar said twoproblems have plagued Mewat:immunisation and institution-al deliveries.

Kumar, an IAS officer, alsorejected the rumours and said,"They are wrong. We shouldhave faith in science."

On their part, the ASHAworkers highlighted the rea-sons, like vehement denial bysome people, for the low immu-nisation rate.

"People hurl strong wordsat us, they shut their doors at usbut we still make an effort to goback to such houses to ensurethat no child is left out," said 48-year-old Rehmani, ASHA atKaredi village in Nagina block.

Raziya, ASHA coordinatorat Mewat, highlighted the insuf-ficient number of ASHAs andAuxiliary Nurse Midwifery (vil-lage level health workers) in thedistrict.

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���� 72".0�-"42

The Haryana State Goodsand Services Tax Bill will be

presented in the Assembly onThursday in a special one-daysession of the House.

Hoping that the Bill willbe passed unanimously, StateFinance Minis ter C aptAbhimanyu on Wednesdaysaid the Goods and ServicesTax (GST) will be imple-mented in the entire countryfrom July 1 bringing a revo-lutionary change.

He said the GST will bringa uniform tax regime afterincorporating different taxesin the Centre and the Statesand thus prevent tax evasion.

With the implementationof the GST, tax on consumergoods will be reduced whichwill benefit consumers. Apartfrom this, it will build up con-fidence among the entrepre-neurs on the country’s econ-omy and also attract largescale foreign investment, theMinister said.

Among other importantlegislative agenda to be takenup during the special sessioninclude, the GurugramUniversity Bill, the GurugramMetropolitan Authority Bill,and the Har yanaAdministrative Tribunal Bill.

The Har yana StateUniversity of HorticultureSciences (Amendment) Billand Chaudhary Ranbir Singh

University (Amendment andValidation) Bill, will also bepresented in the Assembly.

As per the recommenda-tion of the GST council allStates are required to pass thebill before July 1 when theuniform tax regime comesinto effect throughout thecountry.

The GST, which willreplace a plethora of Centraland State taxes, is a con-sumption based tax levied onsale, manufacture and con-sumption on goods and ser-vices at national level.

Under it, C-GST will belevied by the Centre, S-GSTby the States and I-GST oninter-State supply of goodsand services.

Different indirect taxeslike the Central Excise Duty,the Central Sales Tax andService Tax are to be mergedwith C-GST while S-GST willsubsume State Sales Tax, VAT,Luxur y Tax andEntertainment Tax.

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Following a thoroughenquiry into alleged illegal

felling of trees in forest land inMirzapur and Siswan villages,the Punjab Forest Departmenton Wednesday claimed thatthe concerned areas don’t fallunder the forests.

“The concerned areashave been included in the listof residential and agricultur-al areas notified as per PunjabLand Preser vation Act(PLPA), 1900, by the UnionForests and EnvironmentMinistry,” said the spokesper-son after the Principal ChiefConservator of Forests sub-mitted his report followinginquiry.

Spokesperson said thatowners of the land in questionhave felled the trees out of thede-listed areas belonging tothem after getting identifica-tion done in the presence offorest department officialsfrom officials of the RevenueDepartment based on therecord of the revenue depart-ment in accordance with theareas de-listed from PLPA bythe State Government.

It was also made clearthat the de-listed area ofMirzapur and Siswan doesn’tfall under jurisdiction of for-est department; so, the treeswere not felled from the areasnotified under forest depart-ment or PLPA. Spokespersonadded that the ChiefConservator of Forests (Hills)conducts checks at regularintervals to ensure there is noillegal felling. Besides this,impartial probe is conductedon receipt of any complaintand action taken in accor-dance with the law.

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An Indian lawyer elected tothe United Nations Intern-

ational Law Commission (ILC)has become the youngestmember ever to be madethe Chairman of the Draf-ting Committee of ILC.

Thirty five-year oldAniruddha Rajput, whowas elected to the Geneva-based ILC in January 2017,has earned this unique dis-tinction, which is being con-ferred for the first time ever to anewly elected member of ILC.

The ILC usually chooses anexperienced person who couldeither be a senior or a reelectedmember. “Appointing a newlyelected member only goes toshow the confidence the ILC hasreposed in the Indian member,”

those in the know of things said.He will serve a period of fiveyears in the Committee.

The Drafting Committee ofthe ILC is tasked with develop-

ment of internationallaw and its codification.Rajput was selected asChairman from amongthe 34 elected membersof the UN body.

Rajput, a practic-ing lawyer in theSupreme Court of

India prior to his internation-al posting, is an alumnus of theLondon School of Economicsand Political Science. He wasa member of an expert groupappointed by the Law Com-mission of India to study andcomment upon the ModelBilateral Investment Treaty2015 of India.

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Attempting to pitch a com-mon candidate for the

upcoming Presidential pollsby forging a grand alliance ofthe Opposition, Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi and vicepresident Rahul Gandhi onWednesday called up manyOpposition leaders to discussthe issue.

While Sonia rang up BiharChief Minister Nitish Kumar,Samajwadi Party patriachMulayam Singh Yadav RJDchief Lalu Prasad and NationalConference working presidentOmar Abdullah about the pos-sibility of putting up a jointcandidate for the upcomingpresidential election, Rahulcalled up former UP CM andSP chief Akhilesh Yadav withwhom he had an alliance forthe Assembly elections in theState.

AICC sources said thatSonia is also likely to meetother Opposition leaders likeWest Bengal Chief Minister

and Trinamool Congress leaderMamata Banerjee, BSP supre-mo Mayawati besides DMK’sM K Stalin in the next few daysand there-after call on all theOpposition leaders if the part-ners agreed.

She has already been hold-ing discussions over telephonewith Mulayam and Lalu on aunited opposition taking on theBJP in the presidential elec-tions, due in July to replacePranab Mukherjee.

She has been at the fore-front of evolving a consensusamong Opposition parties fora joint candidate “acceptable to

all”. The Congress chief earliermet a number of leadersincluding Nitish, JD (U)’sSharad Yadav, NCP’s SharadPawar and Left leaders SitaramYechury and D Raja.

Sources said the oppositionis trying to put up a united faceand jointly fight the presiden-

tial poll even though the num-bers have tilted in favour of theNDA after the Uttar PradeshAssembly election results.Parleys are also being heldamong leaders of other oppo-sition parties.

Congress leaders have beensaying that the party wouldtake a “conscious, concertedand balanced call” on a jointopposition presidential candi-date after consultation withall opposition leaders. Therehas been a sudden flurry ofactivity by the opposition toforge a strong alliance to takeon the Narendra Modi-led BJPafter its recent winning streakin several states.

The BJP currently has gov-ernments in 13 states and is ajunior partner in the rulingalliances in Jammu andKashmir and Andhra Pradesh.Some feel that the united faceof the opposition for contestingthe presidential elections maywell turn out to be a precursorto an anti-NDA front ahead ofthe 2019 Lok Sabha election.

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The Army on Wednesdaysuccessfully test-fired the

advanced version of Brahmossupersonic cruise missile,known as “steep dive and topattack”, in the Andaman andNicobar Islands. The missilehit a land-based target with anaccuracy of less than one metre.The Navy had tested the landversion of the Brahmos twoweeks back. The Brahmos iscapable of hitting a target atmore than 290kms.

South Western Command’sStrike One Corps successfullycarried out the firing of theadvanced Brahmos Block IIIland attack cruise missile sys-tem in the Andamans on twoconsecutive days includingTuesday and Wednesday, offi-cials said here. The successivelaunches reinforced theweapon’s precision strike capa-bility.

The latest tests were carriedout in full operational land-to-land configurations fromMobile AutonomousLaunchers (MAL) at its full-range. Meeting all flight para-meters in a copybook mannerwhile conducting high leveland complex manoeuvers, themulti-role missile successfullyhit the land-based target withdesired precision, in both thetrials demonstrating its accu-racy of less than one metre,they said.

In plain terms, its meansthat the missile can take out atarget in a built up area with-out minimum collateral dam-age, officials said adding therange of the missile can beincreased from 290 km afterIndia joined the MissileTechnology ControlRegime(MTCR) group. Itenables India to have super-sonic missiles of more than 290km and the range can now go

beyond 450 km. The Navy recently tested

the land attack version of themissile and it hit a dummy onthe land after launched from a

ship in the Bay of Bengal. Sofar, the Navy had anti-shipBrahmos missiles and the lat-est capability the increased thecapabilities of the Navy.

Meanwhile, the Army testwas the fifth consecutive timewhen the Block-III version ofBrahmos, jointly manufacturedby India and Rusia, was suc-cessfully launched and hit theland-based target in “top-attack” mode, an incrediblefeat not achieved by any otherweapon system of its genre,officials said.

At present, the Army hasfour regiments of Brahmosmissiles since induction intoservice in 2007.

India now has land, sea andsub-sea versions of Brahmoswhile tests are on to have the airversion of the missile. It will befitted on to the frontline fight-er jet SU-30.

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Accusing the Trinamool Congress ofabducting and forcing party mem-

bership on a Dalit couple which hadrecently welcomed BJP president AmitShah and dined with him at Naxalbari, theBJP on Wednesday condemned thealleged incident saying “this is a textbookcase of revenge politics.”

The party said the politics of pressureand violence would be counter-produc-tive for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Addressing a Press conference here,senior BJP leader and Union MinisterRavishankar Prasad alleged that Raju andGita Mahalis were “abducted” and “forcedto join the TMC”. Stating that Gita hadlast week welcomed the party presidentand expressed happiness that a man of“such stature” visited them. “There waspressure on the couple to join the TMC”,he alleged.

Prasad said it is worrisome thatBengal had earlier faced the left front vio-lence and now it is the violence unleashedin the state by the TMC and wondered

whether Benerjee could stop the marchof “democratic process”. The BJP leadersaid such tactics would be “counter-pro-ductive” for the TMC. In a dig he said actsof “violence and pressure are obviouslyresult of frustration” by the TMC onaccount of investigations into Sharda andNarada scams. “Investigations will notstop”, Prasad said.

He said “abduction of tribal mem-bers” will not stop BJP’s expansion inBengal. He accused Benerjee of “politicsof appeasement” favouring a particularsegment of the society. Also accusing“misuse of police” by the TMC govern-ment, Prasad said “this politics is notgoing to last”.

The BJP leader said “abduction andforcible induction” of tribal members intothe TMC “is a text book case of revengepolitics”.

Asked about Pakistan’s forces killingIndian soldiers and the Indian response,Prasad said army has already said thatsuitable response will be given at the timeof “our choice” and “ we need to trustarmy’s courage and valour”.

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Union Sports Minister VijayGoel on Wednesday said until

and unless Pakistan stops support-ing cross-border terrorism therecannot be any bilateral sporting tiesbetween the two neighbouringcountries. Goel’s statement came inthe backdrop of India denyingvisas to the strife-torn nation’ssquash and wrestling teams, whichwere scheduled to participate inAsian Championships.

“Terrorism and sports can’t goalong and Pakistan should under-stand that. The relation betweenIndia and Pakistan can be cordialonly after Pakistan stops sponsoringcross border terrorism,” Goel said.

“India takes these things veryseriously. We are not at a loss, ourdecision to stop bilateral sportingties with Pakistan will forcePakistani people to put pressure on

their government to act againstterrorism. The entire world knowsPakistan is sponsoring terrorism,”the Youth Affairs Minister on thesidelines of the announcement ofNational Youth Awards.

Pakistan Wrestling Federationhas claimed that its national teamwas denied visa by the Indian HighCommission for the upcomingAsian Championship scheduled tobe held in New Delhi from May 10-14. The development comes a fewdays after the Pakistan SquashFederation claimed that the Indian

High Commission had not issuedvisas for the Asian Individual SquashChampionship in Chennai. LastDecember, Pakistan Junior hockeyteam was also not issued visas for theFIH Junior World Cup in Lucknow.

Talking about the FIFAUnder-17 World Cup, to be heldin the country later this year,Goel said he is personally keepinga track of the preparations at dif-ferent venues for the mega-event.“After my people gave me reportthat things are not going well withregard to preparation (of FIFAWorld Cup) I myself decided tovisit different venues. I met theSports Minister and Chief Ministerof Kerala recently. I will visitKolkata on May 5,” he said.

“I have instructed all the stake-holders that everything need to bein order by the deadline of May 15.I am confident that everything willbe in place,” the minister said.

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In the next two years, databaseof almost all health establish-

ments — approximately 30 lakh— whether it is in private orGovernment sector or be it allo-pathic or Indian traditional med-ical system spread across thecountry will be available onlinewith interactive maps.

Aiming to improve healthoutcomes and create health data-base, the Union Health Ministrywill soon roll out a two-year-longmassive exercise to map all pub-lic and private healthcare estab-lishments at the district level inthe country. This is the first everhealthcare establishment census,using paperless technology.

To begin with, the NationalHealth Resource Repository

(NHRR) pilot project under theaegis of Central Bureau HealthIntelligence (CBHI) of the HealthMinistry’s DGHS has already ini-tiated in Hamirpur, Rangareddy,Sikkim, Rajkot and Jodhpur forsix months in collaboration withthe World Health Organisation(WHO) to be later spread outacross the country in phasedmanner.

A senior Health Ministryofficial elaborated that the pro-ject will create a web-based andgeo-mapping enabled single plat-form of all the health resourcesboth government and privatewhich inter-alia includes, hos-pitals, diagnostic labs, doctorsand pharmacies etc.

She said that it will compriseof the data on health infrastruc-ture, human resource and the

availability and type of medicalfacilities such as allopathy,ayurveda, unani, siddha andhomeopathy (excluding yoga,

naturopathy and SOWA-RIGPA), in each health estab-lishment in the country.

The importance of healthmapping lies in the productionof interactive and publishedmaps that would link the geog-raphy of communities with otherdimensions such as availabilityand accessibility of health ser-vices, or disease prevention andcontrol services particularly inrural areas, added an officialfrom the WHO.

In this regard, the CBHI hasinked a pact with the IndianSatellite Research Organisation(ISRO)/National RemoteSensing Centre (NRSC) fordesign and development of geo-web portal and mobile app toaddress geo- tagging, geo visu-alization and spatial analysis of

all health care setups to placehealthcare assets of the countryon Bhuvan platform.

The NRSC has a well-demonstrated platform “BhuvanGeoportal” to support such pro-grams. Bhuvan is an open sourceWebGIS platform that hasdiverse capabilities of usingonline GIS facilities for devel-opmental planning and moni-toring of national level projects.This platform has already host-ed customised GIS softwaresolutions and large amount ofdata for many government pro-grammes/projects that are oper-ationally used.

Approximately 25 lakhEnumeration Blocks (EB) acrossthe country based on Census2011, will be covered during theexercise.

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Two years and five monthsafter the Supreme Court

awarded death penalty to arapist-cum-murderer of a four-year-old girl in Maharashtra, athree judge Bench of the apexcourt, in review, has dismissedhis petition demanding life sen-tence, after being convinced thatthe act was so “barbaric” that itdeserved death.

A three-judge Bench of theSupreme Court reiterated thedeath sentence on the convict,Vasanta Sampat Dupare, who iscurrently 55-year-old. He wassentenced to the gallows onNovember 26, 2014 by the apexcourt following which he filed areview petition. This petition waslisted in open court following thedecision of the apex court tomandatorily list all death reviewpetitions in open court.

The convict got a chance topresent the court with all miti-gating circumstances that couldsave him from death and com-mute his sentence to life term.But the bench of Justices Dipak

Misra, Rohington F Narimanand UU Lalit was not convinced.It said, “We find that the aggra-vating circumstances namelythe extreme depravity and thebarbaric manner in which thecrime was committed and thefact that the victim was a help-less girl of four years clearly out-weigh the mitigating circum-stances now brought on record.”

Dupare was a neighbour tothe victim and was a married

man. He lured the victim withchocolates, raped her and stonedher to death with heavy stones.The crushing injuries sustainedby the victim was gruesome asthe stones used by her murder-er weighed about 8.5 kg and 7.5kg respectively.

For the convict, senior advo-cate Anup Bhambani arguedthat since the order by the SCsentencing him to the gallows,the petitioner had completedBachelors PreparatoryProgramme offered by the IndiraGandhi National OpenUniversity enabling him to pre-pare for Bachelor level study.Besides, he also completed theGandhi Vichar Pariksha andparticipated in drawing compe-tition organised sometime inJanuary 2016. In addition, the jailrecord of the convict was with-out any blemish. An effort wasmade to show that there is a“possibility of the accused beingreformed and rehabilitated”.

The bench had a tough taskweighing mercy against propo-rtionate punishment for the cri-me. It was convinced that allaggravating and mitigating cir-cumstances was discussed bythe court in its November 2014decision and later develop-ments did not erase the bru-tality of the crime.

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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Wednesday

said that the Centre is work-ing on a mega concept tominimize the cost of logisticsto maximize exports and helpbuild a better economy.

He said that India has, forthe first time, started planningfor an integrated, multi-modal transport system. Hesaid there is an urgent needfor integrated transport plan-ning to bring down the logis-tics cost in the country.

Gadkari said all the trans-port partners like road,Railways, aviation, inlandwaterways among others willwork out to find the best pos-sible logistics and it is expect-ed that partners will enter intoagreement worth business ofabout �2-lakh crore. Gadkariwas speaking after inaugu-rating an exhibition of IndiaIntegrated Transport &Logistics Summit (IITLS)2017.

He mentioned that thesummit will bring together allstakeholders concerned withthe logistics sector to plansuch a development.

The IITLS is envisaged asa platform for all stakehold-ers in transport and logisticssectors to come together andinitiate collaborative part-nerships to realize the variousgreenfield and brownfieldopportunities in logisticparks, freight corridors and ITsolutions. The Ministry ofRoad Transport andHighways (MoRTH) hadundertaken a study, calledthe Logist ics Ef f iciencyEnhancement Programme(LEEP), which has identifiedfour key solution themes toimprove the state of logisticsin India.

These are freight corridorupgradation, logistics parkdevelopment, seamless inter-state movement and elec-tronic toll collection systems.Taken together, these initia-tives are expected to reduceIndia’s logistics costs andbring them closer to theaccepted global benchmarksfrom the current high levels of13-14 per cent of the GDP.

The Ministry plans todevelop 35 Mult imodalLogistics Parks (MMLPs) inIndia which will, cater to 50per cent of the freight move-

ment, enable 10 per centreduction in transportationcosts and 12 per cent reduc-tion in C02 emissions. Landparcels have been identifiedand pre-feasibility studies ini-tiated on six of these loca-tions. The Government isalso working to formulate a

uniform policy for the devel-opment of MMLPs.

Cit ing an example,Gadkari said that Sikkim hasbest varieties and species ofbeautiful flowers but reachingDelhi or Mumbai is a huge logistical problem andexporting them further is

more. “If logistical solutions

come then cost of trans-portation will also comedown and in a well coordi-nated scheme these will reachon time without much hassle.A logistics park will also bedeveloped,” he said.

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Following reports of angrychilli farmers dumping their

produce in all major marketyards and in some places set-ting the produce afire on roadsin protest against sharp fall inprices, the Ministry ofAgriculture has decided toprocure red chillies underMarket Intervention Scheme(MIS) from Andhra Pradeshand Telangana. The politics onred chilli has become a hottopic for the Opposition partiesin Andhra and Telangana totake on the ruling parties.

The announcement byUnion Agriculture MinisterRadhamohan Singh came onWednesday amid the continu-

ing protests by the farmers aswell as the Opposition partiesin Khammam and Warangaldistricts.

Union Minister MVenkaiah Naidu on Wednesdaymet Radhamohan Singh inDelhi and briefed him aboutthe woes of the chilli farmersdue to the drastic fall in theprocurement of chilli from thefarmers.

“The Market InterventionPrice (MIP) will be �5,000 perquintal of red chilli with the

overhead expenses of �1,250per quintal or actual whichev-er is less. The overhead expens-es include purchase tax, manditax, godown charges, packingmaterial, loading/unloading,commission, transportation,grading, packaging /stitchingcharges etc,” a Ministry sourcesaid.

“The losses, if any, will beshared on 50:50 basis betweenthe Central Government andState Governments. However,the loss is restricted up to 25

per cent of the procurementcost (maximum limit of loss tobe shared between Central andState Governments) includingthe permissible overheads,” asource added.

Angry farmers were onthe roads setting the chillistocks on fire at different placesin Khammam and Warangaldistricts over the last one weekafter the chilli prices crashedfrom �12,000 per quintal to

�4,000 per quintal due to theglut of the produce.

In Mulugu town ofJayashankar Bhupalapally dis-trict, farmers observed a strikedemanding a price of �12,000pet quintal.

The procurement of chilliwas continuing amid tightsecurity in the chilli marketyards at different places in view of the violent incidentin Khammam market yard lastweek.

The Opposition Congressand the Left parties have takenup the issue of the farmers andorganised blockades of roadsdemanding the succour forthe farmers. They also laid asiege to Khammam district by

organising blockades at all theentry points to protest againstthe arrest of the farmers. Theywere angry that the StateGovernment was not allowingCongress leaders to visit thefamilies of farmers arrested inconnection with violence inKhammam.

Chilli farmers were deject-ed and angry with the StateGovernment for not coming totheir rescue. “It was on theadvice of the State Governmentthat instead of cotton we wentfor the pulses and chilli cropthis year. But now theGovernment has failed toensure a remunerative price forchilli,” said a farmer in Mulugu.

In Warangal market yard,the market committee secre-tary Azmeera Raju said that thetraders were buying chilli at aslightly higher price rangingfrom �5,000 to �5,800 indicatingan improvement in the situation.

The State Government offi-cials were hoping that theCentre’s new announcementwas likely to ease the situationfurther.

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In a stinging criticism ofCongress president Sonia

Gandhi’s leadership, formerGoa Congress president JohnFernandes has demanded thatthe sick and ailing presidentshould step down and handover the baton of leadership ofthe party to her son and partyvice-president Rahul Gandhi atthe earliest.

Fernandes, who was theState president of the partyfrom 2013-14, as well as two-time Rajya Sabha MP fromGoa, also said that with SoniaGandhi physically unwell,Prime Minister NarendraModi’s plan of making IndiaCongress-mukt would not taketime.

“If Sonia Gandhi is sick,then she should not make (the)

Congress sick and she shouldnot help Modi to makeCongress-mukt bharat,"Fernandes told reporters inPanaji on Wednesday.

The former State Congressleader’s comments come at atime when several party lead-ers have criticised the centralleadership of the party overrecent poll debacles.

Fernandes also criticisedthe functioning of the Congressparty, pointing out that a ses-sion of the All India CongressCommittee had not been con-

vened for three years, after thethumping defeat of the party inthe 2014 general polls.

The session, he said, wascrucial for the Congress toplan its strategies going ahead,claiming that the Congress didhave an ability to bounce back.

“The Congress should notbe sick. The Congress canbounce back, if there are work-ers like me and we worktogether. Congress will comeback because people wantCongress. And Goa election isan indicator,” he said.

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BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modigot support of his party in his

fight against the RJD supremoLalu Prasad’s alleged corruptpractices. At the State executivemeeting at Kishanganj, BiharBJP president Nityanand Raiannounced to launch a “Polkhol” (expose) campaign againstLalu and his family across theState from May 15.

He also said that the partyworkers would visit every nookand corner of Bihar to tell thepeople about the “corrupt”practices of Lalu and exertpressure on the Nitish-ledGovernment to act.

For almost a month, SushilModi took up cudgels to exposehis bête noire and came outwith the “documentary evi-dence” about the benami landsand other properties, which hesaid had been registered in thenames of Lalu’s sons anddaughters on the pretext of gift

by senior politicians who part-ed with their properties inprime locations in hope of get-ting party tickets and ministe-rial berths. However, no otherleader of BJP so far had comeout to extend moral support toSushil Modi even as RJD lead-ers too brought out “evidence”against him and his familymembers for amassing hugewealth while in power.

Rai also took a swipe atChief Minister Nitish Kumarfor compromising with hisprinciples and allowing Lalufamily to raise huge propertiesby hook or by crook. SushilModi was jubilant and said hehad started his exposure cam-paign with the blessings of thecentral leadership.

On the other hand, Laluhas failed to elicit supportfrom other parties of the grandalliance of which the RJD is themajor partner. Nitish is main-taining a stoic silence over theissue.

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Keeping an eye on theupcoming Assembly polls,

the Gujarat Congress onWednesday kick-start‘Navsarjan Kinaro BachaoAbhiyan — Boat Yatra’ (Savecoast campaign Boat March)from coastal town Mandvi inKutch district with a view toraising issues related to fisher-men.

Gujarat Pradesh CongressCommittee (GPCC) presidentBharatsinh Solanki flagged offthe boat march from Mandviport. The 10 days long cam-paign would cover 1600 kmlong Gujarat coast. During thecampaign functions will beheld at 30 port towns of theState. The boat march initiat-ed from Mandvi will end atUmargaon on May 12th.

Apart from Solanki, topGPCC leaders including for-mer GPCC presidents ArjunModhvadia and SiddharthPatel, Leader of OppositionShankersinh Vaghela, formerUnion Minister TusharChaudhary, senior Congress

leaders Shaktisinh Gohil,Madhusudan Mistry, GauravPandya among others will trav-el by boats along the coast atdifferent point of time andaddress public meetings.

Just couple of days after theconclusion of ‘Navsarjan AdivasiAdhikar Jan Sabha’ targeted toraise issues related to tribalpeople, the Congress party inpoll bound Gujarat came inaction with yet another cam-paign to reach at large popula-tion of fishermen community.

The way tribal campaignended with the public meetingof All India CongressCommittee (AICC) vice-pres-ident’s huge public meeting atDediyapada in tribal domi-nated Narmada district, GPCCleaders are planning to bringnational leaders to make theboat march successful.

Already AICC PresidentSonia Gandhi’s political advisorAhmed Patel has consented toattend closing ceremony of thecampaign at Umargaon. Patelis Member of Parliament inRajya Sabha and belonged toBharuch town in SouthGujarat.

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Giving a small snatch ofhow they rubbed out the

Left and the Congress fromBengal, the ruling TrinamoolCongress on Wednesday liter-ally “snatched away” a poortribal couple from saffron foldbarely eight days after theymerrily hosted BJP presidentAmit Shah over lunch on April25 while he was visitingNaxalbari off Siliguri in NorthBengal to augment his party’sbooth-level connect.

Following intense pressureand threat of life and propertyfor hosting the BJP president,Raju Mahali and his wife Geetaon Wednesday joined theTrinamool Congress in thepresence of State MinisterGautam Deb, who allegedlyplanned the drama, locals said.

“I like Didi’s developmen-tal work and so I joined theTrinamool Congress,” said a

glum Geeta who had quitegleefully cooked for Shah andserved him the lunch on April25. When asked as to whethershe belonged to any partybefore Wednesday she said shedid not belong to any outfit.

When asked about the rea-son for abruptly joining theTrinamool, Geeta who is nei-ther an orator nor an organis-er parroted what she said ear-lier but added she had “neverliked any party” when asked toexplain why she had not joinedthe Trinamool earlier.

The couple and their twochildren had gone missing forthe past couple of days, thus,forcing the local BJP to gheraothe local police station and reg-ister a “missing diary” after thestation house officer refused toregister any formal complaint.

Curiously the couple onceagain disappeared onWednesday evening followingincreased media activity and

reports of the national leader-ship of the BJP taking cogni-sance of the alleged coerciveswitch-over.

Reacting to theWednesday’s event State BJPpresident Dilip Ghosh theforced takeover would “onlymake us more determined”adding the incident makesclear to the people of Bengalhow afraid the TrinamoolCongress has become of a ris-ing BJP.”

He added the Wednesday’sreports including the videoclippings of the switchover hadbeen sent to the national lead-ership. A team of State BJPleaders would also meet theGovernor to inform him aboutthe incident, Ghosh said.

While the political punditssaid by forcing Mahalis to jointhe ruling party a nervousTrinamool had only played inthe BJP’s hands, the saffronleadership planned a prolonged

protest movement.Facing criticism Deb how-

ever said “it is the fundamen-tal right of the people to jointhe party he wants. So Mahalishave done no wrong by joiningthe TMC, neither has anyoneforced them to join us.”

Former State BJP presidentRahul Sinha said “the Mahalismay have been forced to jointhe TMC physically but intheir hearts they continue to bewith us,” alleging the BJP work-ers of Chetla underBhawanipore constituency ofMamata Banerjee were simi-larly being threatened by theTrinamool Congress for host-ing on April 26.

“We want the ChiefMinister to give a statement onthe Wednesday’s incident”Sinha said even as she spitvenom on the BJP from a pub-lic meeting at South Dinajpursaying the “BJP only spreadshatred to win elections.”

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In what is being seen as anindication of the shape of

things to come before the 2019general election, the KeralaCongress(M) of tainted formerMinister KM Mani, formerly amajor constituent of theCongress-led Opposition UDF,wrested power in the KottayamDistrict Panchayat onWednesday by allying with theCPI(M) in order to defeat theCongress.

A stunned State Congressleadership reacted furiouslycalling Mani a betrayer. Itdecided to abandon all discus-sions meant for bringing theKC(M) back to the UDF.However, Mani, whose party ispresently sitting as an inde-pendent bloc in the Assembly,said that the KC(M) had notheld any talks with the CPI(M)and that there was no plan toally with it in the State level.

The CPI(M)’s Kottayamdistrict leadership said the newalliance in the Kottayam

District Panchayat was strictlya local matter while the CPI,second biggest constituent ofthe CPI(M)-led ruling LDF,said there was no need tobring in new partners to thefront. Also, there are sharp dif-ferences within the KC(M)over the development in theKottayam civic body.

However, observers feelthat the CPI(M)-KC(M)alliance in Kottayam can wellbe the beginning of a newfriendship which may ulti-mately see the entry of Mani’sparty to the LDF before thegeneral elections of 2019. Theysay that the CPI(M), with thenew friendship, may be hopingto improve its position in cen-tral Kerala, where the KC(M)has immense influence.

Mani, hunted by the LDF,especially the CPI(M), overthe charge that he had takenbribe from bar owners, hadresigned as Finance minister inthe then UDF government inNovember, 2015. The KC(M),a party that draws its strengthfrom the Catholic Church, leftthe UDF of which it was partfor over three decades lastAugust. The party has sixmembers in the State Assembly.

Despite the protests the

CPI(M) had held against Maniacross the State over the barbribery scandal, a section in theparty has always been in favourof roping in the KC(M) to theLeft fold. However, this sectionhas not been able so far to makeovert attempts in this directionopenly because of the opposi-tion from within the CPI(M)itself and the CPI.

“The CPI(M) may nowmake more explicit efforts towoo the KC(M) consideringthe differences it has with theCPI over a host of issues,” saida senior editor of a pro-Leftnewspaper. He said theKottayam development couldprove to be a setback for thealleged efforts of the BJP towoo the KC(M) in view of the2019 elections.

In the election held onWednesday in the KottayamDistrict Panchayat, ZakhariasKuthiraveli of the KC(M)became president by defeatingSunny Pambady of theCongress with the support ofthe CPI(M). The election wasnecessitated by the resigna-tion of Congress’s Joshi Philipas president after he was elect-ed as the Congress’s districtpresident in Kottayam.

Zakharias won the election

by bagging 12 votes whereasSunny could get only eightvotes. In the 22-member coun-cil, the Congress has eightmembers, the KC(M) andCPI(M) six each and the CPIand Janapaksham one membereach. While the CPI abstainedfrom voting, the Janapakshammember cast an invalid vote.

As per an understandingreached at on April 3, theCongress and the KC(M)together were to electCongress’s Sunny Pambady asthe district panchayat presidentin Kottayam. While theCongress accused KC(M) ofviolating this pact, Mani saidthat this was a natural reactionby the members of his partywho were “hurt by the contin-uous violation of the pact bythe Congress”.

Former Chief MinisterOommen Chandy, Oppositionleader Ramesh Chennithala,State Congress’s acting presi-dent MM Hassan and otherstermed the KC(M)’s move inKottayam as an act of betrayaland opportunism. “Mani hascommitted an act of extremepolitical treachery,” saidChandy while Chennithalasaid, “There will never be acompromise with Mani.”

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Partyseems to be on the verge of asplit with senior party leaderShivpal Yadav reiterating hisresolve to float a new politicaloutfit named ‘SecularSamajwadi Party’ on June 15.

Shivpal also lashed out at hiscousin Ram Gopal Yadav callinghim ‘Shakuni’ — a villainy char-acter of the epic ‘Mahabharata’.On April 30, Ram Gopal hadtermed Shivpal as an ‘ignorantperson’ by charging him of notreading the party’s constitutionand talking ‘nonsense’.

Speaking to the media atEtawah on Wednesday, Shivpalsaid, “I have given three-monthtime to Akhilesh to honour hispromise of handing over theparty reins to Netaji (MulayamSingh Yadav). If he fails, I willfloat a new political party by

June 15.’’ He also rubbished charges

against him saying, “I may ormay not have read the consti-tution of the party but I knowone thing for sure. None otherthan ‘Shakuni’ has drafted thedocument. ‘Shakuni’ has readthe constitution of the party, Ihave read Bhagwad Gita and‘Shakuni’ should also read Gita.’’

Shivpal added, “The SPcontested the last Assembly pollin alliance with the Congressunder the leadership ofAkhilesh against the wishes ofNetaji. There the SP faced theworst-ever poll rout. The SPhad suffered a similar routunder Akhilesh in 2014 LokSabha poll, when he was theChief Minister and the partycould win only five seats,’’ headded. PNS

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In order to make better co-ordination between the Uttar

Pradesh Government and peo-ple, the Yogi AdityanathGovernment has deputed 31Ministers, who will sit in partyoffice for two hours on routinebasis so that they can hear thegrievances of party workers andcommon people.

The system was kicked offon May 1 when AgricultureMinister Surya Pratap Shahi satfor two hours from 10 am to 12noon and interacted with partyworkers. However, no suchinteraction was held onTuesday due to State WorkingCommittee meeting .

On Wednesday, LabourMinister Swamy PrasadMaurya held a Janata Durbar atparty office where he had aninteraction with party workers.

He also met common peopleand resolved their problemsthere and then.

State party general secre-tary Vijay Bahadur Pathak saidthat the aim is to have bettercoordination between the partyand the Government.

“When a Minister will sitdaily at the party office severalproblems of the party cadre andworkers will be solved. Besides

the Ministers would also get afirst hand report of the groundreality on the Government’sachievement from the partyworkers,” he said.

Pathak said even the com-mon man on street can meetMinisters in party office. TheGovernment launched the pro-gramme as it is not possible forall party workers and people tomeet Ministers in Secretariatbecause of strict securitynorms. “Here they can meetMinisters and can have theirproblems solved,” he said.

A roster has been pre-pared as which Minister will siton which day.

According to the pro-gramme, all the 22 CabinetMinisters would sit one-by-onefrom first day of the monthwhile from 23 to last day of themonth, nine other Minister ofState would do the duty.

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In a major operation, the CBIhas arrested Mumbai-based

Commissioner of Income-TaxBB Rajendra Prasad, ManagingDirector of Essar Group ofCompanies Pradip Mittal andfour others in an allegedbribery case and recoveredfrom �1.5 crore from a mid-dleman.

Acting on a tip-off, the CBIlaid a trap and caught red-handed Prasad who hadallegedly received a part of thebribe amount of �19.34 lakhfrom a real estate agent basedin Mumbai identified asVishakapatnam-based realestate agent Suresh Kumar Jain.Both Prasad and Jain werearrested subsequently.

During the investigation,the CBI officials recoveredanother �1.50 crore that hadearlier been received by Jainallegedly on behalf of Prasadwas also recovered. Four oth-ers were arrested in connectionwith the alleged bribery case.

The four others arrestedwere identified as Mittal,Managing Director of EssarGroup of Companies, VipinBajpai, Accounts Officer inEssar Group, Shreyas Parikh,Chartered Accountant for M/sGK Choksi and Mumbai-basedManish Jain, who is a relativeof middle man Suresh Jain.

While Prasad and SureshJain were arrested fromVisakhapatnam,four others,including Mittal, were arrestedfrom Mumbai.

The case against Prasad, anIRS Officer of 1992 batch whoworks as a Commissioner ofIncome Tax(Appeals-30),Mumbai, is that he had recent-ly passed an order in an appealmatter favouring a private Trustwhose trustee is a private com-pany based in Mumbai.

For giving this favourableorder, Prasad allegedlydemanded a bribe amount of�2 crore and wanted the money

to be delivered to the relative ofJain who in turn after collect-ing the money transferred it toVisakhapatnam-based realestate agent Suresh Jain. Prasadhad visited Visakhapatnam onleave and allegedly demandedthe Real Estate Trade Agent todeliver part of the money at hisresidence in Visakhapatnam.

Searches were conductedin Mumbai andVisakhapatnam includingoffices and residence of accusedwhich led to recovery of severalproperty documents, detailsof Bank accounts, three lockersand several incriminating doc-uments.

The arrested persons,including the Income-TaxCommissioner, Mumbai, wereon Wednesday producedbefore a designated Courtwhich remanded in the CBI’scustody till May 8. The fourpersons who were arrested inMumbai were taken toVishkapatnam on a transitremand for further investiga-tions.

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Aday after Hindu Vahini activists bat-tered Ghulam Mohammad (59) to

death for his alleged role in facilitatingthe escape of an inter-faith couple inPahasu village of Bulandshahr, thepolice arrested three activists of the out-fit on Wednesday.

While none of the arrested werenamed in the FIR, leaders of the Hinduoutfit cried foul charging the police offraming them to defuse tension in the area.

However, SSP Bulandshahr, MunirajG said that the police have arrested threeaccused in the incident and investigationwas underway.

A total of six people were named inthe FIR lodged by the deceased’s son. Thetop cop said that the motive behind theattack could only be ascertained after theprime accused Gajendra Singh wasarrested.

“We are trying to verify if GhulamMohammad’s murder has any connectionto the case of abduction of a girl lodgedagainst Yusuf of Sohi village. Yusuf has no

relation with Mohammad. So far, thepolice have not found any evidence indi-cating the involvement of any saffronleaders in the attack,” DIG (MeerutRange) KS Emmanuel said on Wednesdaygiving a clean chit to the Hindu outfit.

On April 27, Yusuf (22) of Sohi vil-lage eloped with an 18-year-old Hindugirl from neighbouring Fazalpur village.There were reports thatGhulamMohammad helped the inter-faith cou-ple to elope.

On Tuesday, some people appre-hended Mohammad in a mango orchardand battered him to death for his refusalto part with information about the girland Yusuf. Ghulam’s son Yaseen allegedthat while moving towards the orchardto meet his father, he saw Gajendra Singhof his vollage and six others leaving theorchard on motorcycles. He said thatlater he found his father lying injuredthere and took him to a hospital with thehelp of locals, where doctors declaredhim dead on arrival.

Later, Yaseen’s elder brother Wakeelgot an FIR lodged accusing GajendraSingh and six unidentified personsfrom the Hindu outfit of killing theirfather. Additional forces have beendeployed at Sohi, which has a dominantHindu population.

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Both the domestic and inter-national terminals of the

Mumbai airport wore a carni-val-like look on Wednesday, asenthusiastic passengers par-ticipated in interactive gamesand activities like tarot cardreading, karaoke and instantphoto booth organised by theGVK Mumbai InternationalAirport Limited (MIAL) tocelebrate the 11th Passengers’day.

Jugglers, stilt walkers, livestatue artists and street magi-cians regaled the passengers asthey waited at different loca-tions at both terminals forboarding their respectiveflights. A live guitarist was

among the performers at thetwo terminals.

The MIAL, which admin-isters the Chhatrapati ShivajiInternational Airport (CSIA),organised the celebrations aspart of its initiative to create atradition of appreciationtowards passengers.

With over 46 internation-al airlines in operation, the air-port sees close to 12.4 millioninternational passengers in ayear and over 45 million pas-sengers annually. Handling900-odd flight movements ona single runway every day, theMumbai International Airportis considered a key gateway toIndia, offering travellers con-nectivity to various destinationsacross the globe.

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Tamil Nadu, reeling underone of the worst draughts

to hit the State in recent times,is in for the ‘Agni Nakshathram’season from Thursday. As thename itself indicates, it is goingto be hot and humid dayswhich will see the mercurycrossing the 40-degree Celsiusmark for the next one month.

Even as the Tamil NaduGovernment led by EdappadiPalaniswamy is immersed insalvaging the reputation ofthe AIADMK deputy generalsecretary TTV Dinakaran whohas been sent to Tihar Jail inNew Delhi in connection withthe criminal case of attempt-ing to bribe ElectionCommission of India officials,more than two million farm-ers spread across the State areleft to face their own fates.

“The State Governmenthas failed to take up policy ini-tiatives which could haveaddressed some of our burn-ing issues. But noGovernments during the lastfive decades has done anythingto resolve the crisis faced by us,namely water and cattle,” saidRV Giri, president,Consortium of IndianFarmers’ Associations (CIFA).

Farmer leaders likeKattumannarkoil Kannan andArpathi Kalyanam, usuallyreticent in their criticism of the

government, came out open-ly on the eve of ‘Agni Naksha-thram’ season and lambastedthe authorities for their con-secutive failures in keeping thepromises they had made to thefarmers.

The farming communityis upset over the possibility ofyet another crop failure in2017. Farm lands in theCauvery Delta , described asthe Rice Bowl of Tamil Naduwear the look of deserts due tosevere shortage of water.

“Tamil Nadu is a rain sur-plus State which records 99 cmrainfall every year. The fiveDelta districts record morethan 100 cm every year. Butthe Governments failed todesilt the water tanks andbuild barrages and check-dams across rivers anddrainage rivers in the State,”pointed out Kannan, vice-president, Cauvery DeltaFarmers Welfare Association.

He pointed out that hadthe tanks in the State beendesilted and the series ofcheck-dams and barrages beenconstructed, Tamil Nadu neednot have fought with neigh-bouring States like Karnataka,Kerala and Andhra Pradeshover water.

Giri said the StateGovernment has not yet com-pleted the linking of intrastate rivers like Pennayar,Velayar, Kollidam and a num-ber of other rivers.

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Chief Minister Yogi AdityaNath said that the crisis of

credibility is the biggest chal-lenge before the elected repre-sentatives. Elected representa-tives are with the people in theirhours of crisis yet they are seenas enjoying immunity from thenorms of accountability.

Yogi was addressing a two-day orientation programmefor MLAs elected to theAssembly for the first time onWednesday. Of the totalstrength of 403 as many as 238MLAs are first timers and BJPaccounts for 203.

“Whether it’s incident offire, flood, water logging or anyuntoward incident or natural

calamity, elected representa-tives are first to reach the trou-bled spot, some time evenbefore district officers. Yet theyare seen as unaccountable to

the people,’’ said Yogi.“It could be for three rea-

sons. One, many of us are notserious about attending theproceedings of the House reg-

ularly and remain absent, two,instead of following rules ofbusiness for the conduct of pro-ceedings, we prefer to disturbthe House by shouting ortrooping to the well and final-ly, many elected representativesface corruption charges andone rotten fish spoils the dignity of the august institu-tion,’’ added the Chief Minister.

“As on date, every retiredbureaucrats and generals desireto be elected to the Parliamentand Assemblies. It’s a beautifulinstitution which is the back-bone of democratic polity.Besides the opportunity toraise public issues, it givesample chance to shape anddevelop your overall personal-ity,’’ argued the CM.

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While unidentified militants loot-ed five more service rifles from

police guards in South Kashmir, theJammu & Kashmir police announceda cash reward of �10 lakh for informa-tion about a top-ranking HizbulMujahideen terrorist suspected to beinvolved in killing of seven personsincluding five policemen and two pri-vate bank guards in Kulgam onMonday.

Shortly after the attack, Inspectorgeneral of Police (Kashmir range)Javed Gilani had claimed that HizbulMujahideen terrorist Umar Majid, a res-ident of Kulgam area, was behind theattack on a bank van that led to thekilling of seven people. The militantslooted four INSAS rifles from the slainpersonnel.

Posters of Majid were pasted onseveral walls in Sothern district head-quarters of Kulgam announcing thecash reward that may lead the securi-ty agencies to nab him, police said.

The police said 22-year-old Majid,who hails from Sooch village of Kulgamdistrict, was identified by cops with thehelp of some locals. The driver of thebank van has also identified the attack-er, police said. Sources said Majid hasbeen spoted in several videos of mili-

tants making rounds on internet. He iswanted by the police in several militantactivities.

Meanwhile, in another incident ofweapon looting, terrorists snatchedfive rifles from police guards posted atthe Shopian district court complex insouth Kashmir. The militants attackedthe guard room of the court complexaround 9 pm and snatched five self-loading rifles (SLRs) from the police-men posted there. All the five police-men were suspended for the allegeddereliction of duty as they offered noresistance when the terrorists lootedtheir weapons, they said. Following thesnatching incident, an alert was sound-ed in the district.

Meanwhile, terrorists onWednesday targeted two banks insouth Kashmir's Pulwama district with-in a span of two hours and decampedwith several lakh rupees. In first inci-dent, gunmen looted a bank inWahibugh village of Pulwama district.The police sources said that threemasked men carrying guns bargedinside the Ellaquai Dehati BankWahibugh and looted around �5 lakh.The gunmen also entered JammuKashmir Bank branch in NehamaKakapor area and looted cash at gunpoint. Reports said that gunmen loot-ed �1,30,000.

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Having undergone a weight-reduction procedure at

Saifee Hospital here for the pasttwo-and-a-half months, theonce world’s heaviest womanfrom Egypt Eman AhmedAbdelaty will fly on an EgyptSpecial Airbus 300 to AbuDhabi on Thursday.

36-year-old Eman, whohad been flown to Mumbai byan Egypt Air fully-equippedcargo flight from Alexandria onFebruary 11 to undergoweight-reduction procedure atthe Saifee hospital here, willtravel in a customised aircraftto Abu Dhabi, where she will beadmitted to Burjeel Hospital forrehabilitation and furtherweight loss treatment.

Informed sources said thatEman would be taken in a spe-cial ambulance from the Saifeehospital to the ChhatrapatiShivaji International Airport(CSIS).

Unlike what had happenedupon arrival in Mumbai onFebruary 112 when had beenlifted by a crane to a waitingspecially modified truck sta-tioned outside the airport andtaken to the hospital, Eman willnot require a lift to put herinside the special aircraft thatwill take her to Abu Dhabi.

Sources said that a team ofnine doctors , nurses and para-medics would accompanyEman and her sister duringtheir journey to Abu Dhabi.

On their part, doctors fromSaifee hospital attending onEman – who weighed 500 kilo-grams when she arrived inMumbai in February this year-- had claimed last week thatshe had lost over 300 kgs.However, Eman’s sister hadcontested the hospital’s claimand called the doctors as liars.

According to sources, SaifeeHospital’s COO received anemail communication from VPSBurjeel Hospital on Wednesday,saying that Eman is “stable, ingood health and fit to fly”.

The team of doctors attend-ing on Eman briefed thepatient’s relatives and the doc-tors’ team from VPS BurjeelHospital about Eman's currentmedical status. “Eman will betransferred from Saifee Hospitaltomorrow morning at 10.30am,” a statement from the Saifeehospital said on Wednesday.

Eman has had a successfultreatment at the Saifee hospitalwhere, doctors attending onher, said that her weight gotreduced from an estimated 500kilograms to 176 kilograms.

Eman, who underwenttreatment of obesity along witha myriad of related ailmentssuch as renal malfunction, res-piratory distress, secondarycardiac problems, paralysis,fluid retention, sleep apnea andhypothyroidism, underwentfirst bariatric surgery on March7 – a procedure that reducedher stomach size by 75 per cent.

Eman is expected to under-go one more bariatric surgery atthe VPS Burjeel Hospital, whereshe would undergo neurologi-cal and physiological rehabili-tation for the next few months.

A spokesperson from VPSHealthcare said that her treat-ment will be covered free ofcost under corporate socialresponsibility and “on groundsof humanity”.

It may be recalled thatExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj had inDecember last year helpedEman to get medical visa tocome to India for treatment.

Responding swiftly to atweet put out by the country’sleading bariatric surgeon DrMuffazal Lakdawala of SaifeeHospital seeking her help to getmedical visa to come India,Swaraj had tweeted: “Thanksfor bringing this to my notice.We will definitely help her”.

A couple of hours later, DrLakdawala had tweeted sayingthat the Indian Embassy inCairo had granted a visa toAhmed. “Embassy in Cairocalled Visa granted.Thank youso much for this promptresponse,impressed Appreciatethe help @SushmaSwaraj@CODSIndia01”, he tweeted.

Dr Lakdawala said that ateam of obesity experts fromHarvard, London, Washingtonand Melbourne would beinvolved in the treatment plan..

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Alocal panchayat in Mathuraissued a bizarre ‘fatwa’ by

imposing a fine of �21,000 ongirls if they were seen usingmobile phones in public places.

What is more, the pan-chayat also hailed ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath for hismove to close down illegalslaughterhouses in the State.They then issued another fatwasaying that anyone foundinvolved in cow slaughter orsmuggling, would be fined �2lakh in cash besides legal action.

The panchayat was calledrecently to take measures inorder to check rising crime in

the area. The panchayat inMadura hamlet of Mathuraheaded by pradhan MohamedGaffar lauded the role of Yogisaying that after he became theCM, action against slaughter-houses were taken and manywere also closed down.

Lauding Yogi’s move, Gaffarannounced that whoever wasfound involved in cow slaugh-ter or cow smuggling/theft,would be fined �2 lakh.

The panchayat alsoannounced that any one foundselling liquor in the villagewould be fined �1.11 lakh.

Hailing Yogi’s crackdownon roadside Romeos to checkeve-teasing, the panchayat

ruled that to stop such harass-ment, they would impose fineof �21,000 on girls if they werefound using mobile phoneson roads and public places.

Interestingly, the panchay-at did not stop here and issuedanother diktat to check gam-bling in the area and announcedthat if any one was found gam-bling, he would be fined �1 lakhand shop owners selling playingcards would be fined �5,100.

The congregation alsodecided to help the local policein checking crime and trap oncriminals and anti-socials inthe area. For this, it was decid-ed to form separate committeesfor each of crime soon.

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The Dalai Lama, Beijing’sbête noire, was recentlyawarded the ProfessorML Sondhi Prize forInternational Politics

2016. Sondhi, a renowned academ-ic, a Jan Sangh politician as well asa visionary diplomat, was probablythe first to advocate normal rela-tions with Israel, at a time whenIndia was still living in a dream-world of non-alignment with theHebrew state.

During the function, theTibetan spiritual leader, in a veiledthreat to Beijing, stated that Chinawill have to think of Tibet in caseof a conflict with India, as handlingboth simultaneously (India andTibet) would not be an ‘easy’ taskfor Beijing. At the same time, theDalai Lama played down the pos-sibility of a military conflict.

He, however, added that sinceIndia has become a military power,the only option for China was ‘com-promise’: “India is not a smallcountry. It is gaining military power.So the only thing is compromise.The Chinese have to think about thesituation inside Tibet when it comesto conflict with India.”

This raises an important issue:The significance of the ‘Tibet fac-tor’ in the history of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict; the highly-unstablesituation on the plateau in themonths which preceded theChinese attack in the NEFA andLadakh played a restraining role forthe People’s Liberation Army (PLA)in October 19622 — particularly the70,000-character petition of thePanchen Lama addressed toPremier Zhou Enlai and anotherhigh official, Xi Zhongxun,President Xi Jinping’s father.

At the beginning of the 1960s,resentment was at its peak in Tibet.In January 1962, during a speech atan important party forum, MaoZedong brought up the issue of thePanchen Lama and the situation inTibet. The young Tibetan Lama,who had been made Chairman ofthe Preparatory Committee for theTibet Autonomous Region whenthe Dalai Lama left for India in1959, had started to criticise theCommunist Party’s policy in Tibet.

The Tibetan issue was tobecame a crucial factor whichimpeded longer military operationsagainst India at the end of 1962. Inthe 70,000-character petition,(dubbed by Mao as a “poisonousarrow”), the Panchen Lama listedseveral problems on the plateau.

In the summer of 1962, whenthe PLA started to work on thedetails of the military operations, itsoon realised that the campaigncould not be sustained for a long

time. It was, therefore, decided toterminate the war ‘with a unilater-al Chinese halt, ceasefire, and with-drawal’. Historian Shi Bo believesthat in view of “practical difficultiesassociated with China’s domestic sit-uation”, the PLA, after achieving itsmilitary objectives, had to “quick-ly disengage and end the fighting asquickly as possible”. China’s ‘domes-tic situation’ is referring to the powerstruggle within the Party (XiZhongxun would be purged in July)and the situation in Tibet. With dis-content brewing on the Roof of theWorld, the supply lines to thePeople’s Liberation Army (PLA)had been greatly weakened.

Tibet’s instability appears clear-ly in the 70,000-character petitionsent by the Panchen Lama to ZhouEnlai who requested Xi Zhongxunand Li Weihan, responsible of theUnited Front Work Departmentdealing with ‘minorities’, GeneralZhang Jingwu, the Representativeof the Central Committee in Tibetand General Zhang Guohua, theCommander of the Chinese forcesduring the 1962 war, to read andstudy the Panchen Lama’s petition.

Interestingly, when thePanchen Lama died in 1989, Xi

Zhongxun wrote in The People’sDaily that the Tibet experts found“most of the comments and sugges-tions [of the Panchen Lama were]good; they could be implemented,but some had gone too far”. Indeed,he had gone ‘too far’ for the com-munist leadership.

He had criticised the handlingof the 1959 ‘rebellion’ (‘uprising’ forthe Tibetans). Xi Sr commented:“[It] was counter-revolutionary innature, being against the party, themotherland, the people, democra-cy and socialism. Its crimes werevery grave. Thus, it was entirely cor-rect, essential, necessary and appro-priate for the party to adopt the pol-icy of suppressing the rebellion.”

In separate chapters entitled,‘Democratic Reforms’; ‘Productionin Agriculture and AnimalHerding’; ‘Surviving of the People’;‘Nationalities’ Policy’; ‘Dictatorshipof the Party’; and finally, ‘Freedomof Religion’, the Panchen had men-tioned the deep grievances of theTibetan population. He paid aheavy price for having dared towrite what everyone knew; hespent the years from 1964 to 1978in solitary confinement and reha-bilitation camps.

Few analysts have pointed outthat a longer war would have beendifficult to sustain in the atmos-phere of ‘rebellion’ prevalent on theRoof of the World at that time.Though openly siding with the‘reformists’ camp led by Lui Shaoqiand Deng Xiaoping, the PanchenLama was also warning the com-munist leadership of the resentmentof the so-called nationalities.

Some new historical docu-ments regarding the 70,000 charac-ters’ letter have recently appeared inEnglish on a blog, War in Tibet. Thetranscripts make fascinating read-ing. In the Summary of a Meetingbetween Comrade Xi Zhongxun,Comrade Li Weihan and Panchenheld on June 21, 1962, in The GreatHall of the People in Beijing,Jaazharlal Nehru and India are sev-eral times mentioned. At one point,Xi Zhongxun intervenes and recallshis encounters with the ‘Master’, thePanchen Lama: “We held severalmeetings here just for you to ventyour anger and figure out ways tosolve problems.... if you are angry,let it out. If you have disagreement,speak out. Problems should besolved through consultation anddiscussion.” But the Panchen Lama’sanger venting would take him to jailfor 14 years.

About the restive situation inTibet, Xi speaks of Nehru: “Thisrequires that we do our work bet-ter under the leadership of the[Tibet] Work Committee [imple-menting the ‘reforms’], and con-struct our motherland better. Nehruis laughing now, but don’t let himhave the last laugh."

At another point, during thethree-day discussions, Xi Zhongxunmentions other implications of thePanchen Lama’s letter: “Tibet is thefront line of national defence, andthere is struggle against enemies aswell.” He adds: “This is the jointwork of Nehru and Dalai. If theymessed up Nepal, how can they notwant to mess up Tibet? What’s theirpurpose? They just want to over-throw the current leadership inTibet and restore the old order.…Things are difficult in Tibet, butsolutions and hope do exist, and ourfuture is bright.”

Though the situation is relative-ly stable in Tibet today (it is not thecase in Xinjiang), it would certain-ly be an important factor in case ofChinese adventurism. Indian plan-ners should take note of this cru-cial strategic issue and in-depthstudies should be undertaken on thesituation in Tibet in the eventuali-ty of a Sino-Indian conflict.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations and an author)�

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Sir — It is distressing thatPakistani forces have killed twoIndian soldiers and mutilatedtheir bodies along the Line of Control. This is an inhu-man act. Even when war prison-ers are to be treated with digni-ty, the Pakistani action deservesto be condemned in unequivocal terms.

But this is not the first timethat the Pakistan Army hasindulged in such barbaric acts. In2013, Lance Naik Hemraj andLance Naik Sudhakar Singh werekilled and their bodies wereapparently found mutilated. Intwo other incidents Pakistan actedin the same manner. India mustnot be mute spectators to suchacts. We must take severe actionto teach Islamabad a good lesson.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

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Sir — The beheading and mutila-tion of Indian soldiers by thePakistan Army and its non-stateaffiliates is not a new phenomenon.Nonetheless, no words will sufficeto condemn the barbaric mutila-tion of bodies of soldiers killed in

action. The Pakistan Army deniesany involvement in the atrocity, butthe fact remains that it carried outheavy shelling to provide cover forthose who perpetrated the act tocross over the Line of Control(LoC) from Pakistan.

Even their Press, which isalways belligerent when con-cerned with the Kashmir issue,is silent. The silence of theworld nations to the beheadingof two soldiers is proof that, ulti-mately, India has to diligentlypursue its strategic interests vis-à-vis Pakistan, and there is lit-tle likelihood of other countriestotally isolating or persuadingPakistan to back off from its evildesigns on India.

National honour cannot besecured by following a policy ofa head for a head, as some peo-ple have urged. Let the guns dothe talking. The pain must be feltacross the LoC.

KS JayatheerthaBengaluru

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Real heroes of the nation”(May 2). Gabriel García Márquez,the renowned Colombian Nobellaureate, in his magnum opus,One Hundred Years Of Solitude,

had said, “Nobody cares for yourtears, but whosoever cares forthem, will not make you weep.”

Cricketer Gautam Gambhirhas veritably substantiated thissaying when he vowed that hisfoundation would bear the entireeducational expenses of thosechildren whose parents fell tothe Maoists bullets in Sukma.Someone has rightly said thateven the birds and animals feeltheir agony, a true human beingis that who shares others’grief and contributes to mitigating them.

One should not pay attentionto the verbal attacks of NationalConference president FarooqAbdullah and his son OmarAbdullah, who do not let go anyopportunity to defame our Armyand eulogise the stone-pelters.

The pseudo-secularists arereticent over the Sukma massacreand the decapitation of our twosoldiers on the Line of Control,but the same bevy had goneberserk and went on an award-returning spree over the allegedintolerance in the country whenthe Modi Government took overwith a thumping majority.

Sagar SinghDelhi

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Countries across the globeare experiencing extremeweather events that are

resulting in catastrophic impactsto humans and infrastructure,both of which are extremely sus-ceptible to climate variability.The primary cause of thesetragedies is undoubtedly relatedto global climate change. Reliableand efficient infrastructure thatis climate change resilient under-pins the sustainable economicand social development of thecities.Over the past few decades,infrastructure investment hasbeen growing by leaps andbounds, according to the NewClimate Economy report, it isestimated that worldwide invest-ments in infrastructure willincrease from $3.4 trillion peryear currently to about six tril-lion dollars per year by 2030.This phenomenal investmentby developed and emergingeconomies alike, is expected togive a boost to the existing sys-

tems besides giving a robust pushfor economic growth.

The growing threat of cli-mate change, however poses aserious threat to the ambitiousplans of infrastructure develop-ment. In many growingeconomies such as India, evolv-ing infrastructure can be partic-ularly climate-sensitive and,therefore, highly vulnerable tothe destruction that occurs dueto natural disasters.

As these events cut acrosssocio-economic sectors andadministrative jurisdictions, theycan jeopardise developmentobjectives in distant places.Public infrastructure tends to bemultifunctional in nature andserves a range of diverse stake-holders spread over a wide geo-graphic area. It directly or indi-rectly provides critical services tothe area it covers. Interruptionsin services due to climate eventscan cause negative economicimpacts over a large territory.

The resultant breakdown of ser-vices in turn ends up impedinga country’s ability to pursuedevelopment goals.

India too has been at thereceiving end of climate changeimpacts in the form of extremeweather events such as rapid sea-level rises, changes in tempera-tures, rainfall and other unset-tling climactic events. The rapid-ly developing civic infrastructurein India has been dealt a majorblow by these extreme climateevents many a times.

However, the authorities areyet to fathom the importance ofinfrastructure that can with-stand the vagaries of climatechange. As a result, most ofIndian infrastructure has littleresilience built into them forstanding up to climate change,instead the focus is always on thetimely completion of the projectwithin the stipulated budget.

Unless India expedites thedevelopment of climate resilient

infrastructure on a fast trackbasis the current design thresh-olds for safe and efficient oper-ation of infrastructure may bebreached more frequently, orprojects may have to functionwithin tighter margins between‘normal’ operation and criticalthresholds, resulting in decreasedefficiency of equipment andmore frequent periods ofrestricted operation. This couldlead to reduced asset lifetimes,higher running costs and capi-tal expenditures, loss of income,and increased risk of environ-mental damage.

As a concrete step towardsclimate proof infrastructure, theurban authorities directly con-nected to planning and imple-mentating of infrastructuredevelopment and must establisha department for climate changeadaptation and strategic riskmanagement. The departmentcomprising of a group of special-ists can address risk mitigation

and assist in implementingIndia’s strategy for climate-resilient public infrastructure.The resiliency of public and pri-vate infrastructure safeguardsimportant progress and invest-ments made in the pursuit ofdevelopment and avoids theloss of human life in the face ofclimate change. TheGovernment on its part mustprovide the critical support ofdevising development plans thatare people-centered and incor-porate climate change adapta-tion strategies to protect the wel-fare of the communities.

The climate resilient infra-structure is a multidimensionalissue that requires convergencebetween the need to develop andthe economic and social infra-structure of the country and thenecessity to protect the country’secosystems. The restoration ofecosystems and their capacity toregulate the impacts of climatechange will reduce risks and slow

down the deterioration of infra-structure as well as increase thepossibility of new investments.Efficient and climate resilienturban infrastructure systemscan ensure uninterrupted deliv-ery of energy, mobility, water,sanitation and information dur-ing challenging climate relatedsituations. In order to achievethis, India must find path break-ing ways of how to plan, design,build and manage its cities undermore challenging conditions.

Climate change is a trans-boundary issue. India can set aglobal infrastructure benchmarkby evolving new strategies thatnot only integrates managementof risks but also effectivelyenhances the ability to respondto climate change. This alone canensure the functionality of theinfrastructure even in the face oftoughest challenge meted out byclimate change.

(The writer is an environ-mental journalist)

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Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath’s decision,which has also been laudedand followed up by the AamAadmi Party (AAP)

Government in New Delhi, to slash downthe number of school holidays owing tothe birth and death anniversaries of emi-nent personalities, has put the spotlighton a larger issue — do we really need somany public holidays, particularly theState-based ones? It has pressed upon theneed to re-evaluate our existing sched-ule of public holidays, consider axingsome and re-thinking on others so thatsuch significant events represent moreabout who we are today as a nation.

Indeed, our country has needlesslybeen saddled with a long list of holidaysthat not only has been an impediment tothe children’s learning process, but hascome to cost the economy as well. It is aknown fact that India has the largest num-ber of public holidays, which is followedby other Asian giants like Malaysia,China and Hong Kong. A 2014 Mercerreport identified India and Colombia asthe leading countries in terms of numberof public holidays. On similar lines, in2015, a travel portal, Hotels.com, placedIndia on the top of the list — with a totalof 21 public holidays in a year. The man-days lost in the country due to holidayswas estimated by a study in 2000 at swhopping �27 billion. The loss figuretoday would be many times more

Technically, our country observespublic holidays in different patterns.First, we have national holidays (likeRepublic Day, Independence Day andGandhi Jayanti etc). Second, there are hol-idays owing to the country’s multi-cultur-al fabric, which covers big festivals of allmajor religions. However, such holidaysvary from State to State as States have their

own list which is issued at the beginningof every year. Third, we the have conceptof restricted holidays, whereinGovernment offices work, but employeesare free to take the day off if they so desire.

The case of the States granting holi-days is most intriguing, as they have beenglued to this sentiment in the most bla-tant manner. Take for example, UttarPradesh, which alone observes 42 publicholidays, out of which, at least 17 are relat-ed to the birth anniversaries of eminentpersonalities. Successive Governmentsmust be blamed for the institutionalisedimposition of holidays in recognition ofreligious festivals and the presumed his-torical significance of a leader.

Culturally, India is one of the mostdiverse countries in the world. There areso many religious groups (which meansthat there are many number of holidayson religious and linguistic lines); thereare so many prominent personalities(and it’s a huge country); and there areso many eminent political icons, (somenational, some regional) — while someare important for ethnic reasons, othersare for social and economic reasons, notto forget political reasons as well.

Calculations would reveal — after allthe privileges of sick and casual leaves, allSaturdays and Sundays, and an addition-al acknowledgement of eminent peopleby the State Government, given that theyare all important people — that the coun-try fully or partially remains shut foralmost half the year, if not more.

For a moment, even if we agree thatsuch holidays must be given, what pur-pose do they actually achieve in terms ofpaying tributes to the person on whomholidays are declared? The answer wouldnot be too far to fetch. In this age, suchsymbolicism means nothing, but is takenfor granted. Instead of gathering and

reflecting on the importance, we tend tospend it on frivolous activities. Even if onewere to undertake a survey, to get an esti-mate of the actual business done on suchdays — in schools, colleges and officesacross the country — the outcome wouldnot be surprising at all. It’s difficult to artic-ulate them properly.

Take, for example, AmbedkarJayanti, which is celebrated on April 14every year. Most people, including stu-dents and also some of our leaders, wouldopine that BR Ambedkar was an inde-fatigable defender of the rights of theScheduled Castes. However, none ofthem would really know that econom-ics was his forte and closest to his heart.He had strong and clear views on howthe economy of the country should be.On this, he also stood quite in deviationto Jawaharlal Nehru’s socialist concept.

Similarly, we have holidays on GuruNanak Jayanti, which is a gazetted hol-iday. A survey across the country, wherea national holiday is observed andwherever it is not a restricted holiday,would reveal that people know about thisday. But how many would know aboutGuru Nanak? Or about how many Sikhgurus were there?

It, therefore, makes sense, as ChiefMinister Adityanath has said, to bringstudents to school on such days for atleast an hour or two, and teach themabout the importance of the observationand about the leader’s contribution tosociety, the State and the country. It is afact that none of these eminent peoplewould have liked that they should beremembered through holidays like we dotoday. Instead, they would have wantedto be remembered through a reinforcedwork culture. While Yogi Adityanath hasmade the first move, the trend must notend here. His policy should be extend-

ed to offices too. A calendar, bloated withholidays, has given birth to an irrespon-sible work culture, which has renderedthe governance process unproductive.

A lot of these holidays were decidedupon by our leaders, keeping in mind theirpolitical interests. For example, in UttarPradesh, previous Governments of theSamajwadi Party and the Bahujan SamajParty must be blamed for having declarednumerous jayantis on select politicalleaders for votes. The case of former ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav stands out, as healone declared about a dozen holidaysduring his stint to appease various castesand communities for votes. To win overthe Scheduled Caste sentiment, hedeclared December 6 as the deathanniversary of BR Ambedkar. To humourthe Rajputs, he announced April 17, whichis the birth-day of former Prime MinisterChandrashekhar, as a holiday. To furtherconsolidate the Thakur vote base, hedeclared May 9, the birthday of Rajputwarrior Maharana Pratap, as a holiday. Allof these, only with the hope that peoplewho belonged to these communities,would rally behind him. The AdityanathGovernment’s decision should, therefore,bring an end to the politicisation of suchholidays on caste lines.

Finally, there are many stalwartswho don’t have their birth or deathanniversaries observed or observed withthe same vigour as that of others. Howmany of us really celebrate, for example,the birth anniversary of Shaheed BhagatSingh? Or that of Netaji Subhas ChandraBose or that of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patelor Lal Bahadur Shastri? Observanceshould be such that it is bipartisan and notdriven by political considerations — andby keeping institutions open.

(The writer is Senior Assistant Editor,The Pioneer)

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In a bizarre case of loan set-tlement with a couple of

public sector banks, debt-rid-den Daman-based packagingf irm R adha MadhavCorporation Ltd has comeunder the scanner of marketregulator Securities andExchange Board of India(Sebi) for violating its debt-settlement norms.

The case came to thenotice of market regulatorwhen the packaging firmannounced the settlement ofits debt of State Bank ofIndia (SBI) of over �225crore through a Delhi-basedAsset Reconstruct ionCompany (ARC) in 2015 for�45 crore.

"As far as Radha Madhavcase is concerned, it hascome to our notice in whichtwo public sector lenders -SBI and Bank of Baroda(B oB) - are repor tedlyinvolved in the loan settle-ment case. The regulator hasalready started a probe intothis matter and we will take

all possible action againstthose who are found guilty inthis regard," a senior Sebiofficial told The Pioneer,requesting anonymity.

On the other hand, thepackaging firm claimed thatit had a total of �408 crore asdebt in which the SBI portionhas already been settled withthe company and the remain-ing portion of BoB is stillunder discussion, leaving theresidual debt of �10-15 croreonly in the book.

"We had a total of �408crore as debt and we arehighly optimistic that we willbe debt-free soon. The SBI

portion has already been set-tled at �45 crore and theremaining portion of BoB isstill under discussion insome other deal. With thesedeals we should have onlyresidual debt of �10-15 crorein the book," said RadhaMadhav Managing Director& Chief Executive MiteshAgarwal.

When contacted to theconcerned senior officials ofboth the banks for the break-ups of the firm's debt, theydeclined to offer any state-ment on this matter.However, one of the officialssaid, "The matter is report-

edly with the Sebi now andwe are not able to commenton this."

However, the company'sannouncement on the loansettlement was made to boththe stock exchanges and thefirm wrote back �103 croreon account of impairment nolonger required as income inMarch 2015. This entire exer-cise was done with State-runpublic sector lender SBI onthe premise that the net real-isable value of the plants ofthe firm is �45 crore, whileBoB was involved in someother loan settlement deal toease the firm's debt pressure.

As per the company'snote circulated to the mediarecently, where it had claimedthat the value of its assets was�550 crore. But the ManagingDirector went on saying onrecord that SBI was settled at�45 crore and the firm is sell-ing its Rudrapur plant at �54crore to Jindal Poly in orderto settle its debt for whichBoB is reportedly involved inthis deal, while Jindal Polyout-r ight ly denied theauthenticity in this matter.

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������" Japanese auto majorHonda has unseated Bajaj Autoto become second largest bikes-maker for the time in April, andhas also moved within strikingdistance to overtake Hero as thecountry's largest twowheelercompany.

"Driven by a 34 per cent risein overall volumes, we havebecome the No 2 motorcycle-maker in the country in April,unseating the incumbent by awide margin (over 21,330 units).We sold 1,83,266 bikes in themonth, up 22 per cent from1,50,711 units we had sold a yearago," Honda Motorcycle &Scooter India senior vice-pres-ident, sales & marketing, YSGuleria told the news agency onWednesday.

As against this, Bajaj Autosaw its domestic sales plunge 19per cent to 1,61,930 units inApril. With this, the Japanesetwowheeler major leads thePune-headquartered companyby a wide margin of 21,336 units,while it has narrowed the gap ithas with the market leaderHeromotorCorp to just 12,377units, making it within a strik-ing distance from the numerouno crown.

The Japanese companybegan fiscal 2018 on a high notewith a 34 per cent spike in salestaking its volumes to a recordhigh of 5,78,929 units, its best-ever monthly sales. As againstthis HeromotorCorp saw itssales decline by 3.5 per cent to

5,91,306 units in the month.Even last in fiscal 2017,

HMSI lead the market growthselling more than 5 millionunits, and has closed the yearwith double-digits growth whilethe industry managed to remainin the green. HMSI contributedaround half the incrementalvolume in the year.

The April volume jumpwas led by a massive 40 per centrise in its flagship scooter Activawhich crossed for the first time3.5 lakh monthly sales at3,68,618.

When asked weather HMSIis hopeful of maintaining thelead in the bikes category goingforward, Guleria said, "our pre-sent capacity allows us to sellonly 1.5-1.8 lakh bikes a monthand we are confident of fullyutilising that capacity.

"Having began fiscal 2018year on a high, we are lookingforward to meet the target setfor the year -- 20 per cent vol-ume growth at 6 million unitsover 5 million units in fiscal2017".

Asked if Honda will con-tinue to narrow the gap with themarket leader in overall vol-umes and overtake it soonerthan later to be the largesttwowheeler company in the

country, Guleria said, "we arelimited by our capacity nowwhich is at 5.8 million. We couldspeak about higher volumesonly after we open our newassembly line (11th one) inJuly in Karnataka."

"HMSI will be adding 0.6million units at its Karnatakaplant by July, investing over Rs1,000 crores. With this theKarnataka facility will be largestfor the company with 2.4 millionunits annual capacity. Hondaalready runs the world's largestscooters only plant (1.2 millionunits) at Vithalapur in Gujaratwhich was commissioned inFebruary and June 2016.

"Currently our focus is onmeeting the huge demand forscooters as the waiting periodhas shot up to over 30,000 unitsnow. We can't also add ananother shift as all the 10 assem-bly lines are running at fullcapacity with two shifts for longnow," Guleria said.

It can be noted that Herohas much larger installed capac-ity with around 7.8 millionunits per annum. Even afterHMSI opens its 11th assemblyline in July, its gap with Hero willstill be 1.4 million a year.

Guleria said the bike vol-umes were driven by the 125-cc Shine, which contributedclose to 55 per cent of the Aprilbikes volume. The over adecade-old Shine with its twovariants has been its warhorsefor long now. ���

��%�����"The Government hasdecided to set up inter-ministe-rial panels to examine financialwoes of telecom and power com-panies and recommend solu-tions, Communications MinisterManoj Sinha said onWednesdaday. While intensecompetition in the telecom sec-tor has squeezed margins ofsome companies and raised fearsof defaults on loans taken frombanks, the power segment facesa situation where distributioncompanies are unable to pay tothe electricity producers.

"An inter ministerial grouphas been created to examine sys-temic issues of viability andrepayment capacity and furnishrecommendation for resolutionof stressed assets at the earliest.It is for telecom and power,"Sinha told the news agency in aninterview.

According to a Governmentsource, similar panels will beformed for some other sectorsalso.

The Reserve Bank lastmonth asked banks to reviewimmediately their exposure to thetelecom sector, which has a debtof �4.6 lakh crore, and makehigher provisions to firewalltheir business against any futurestress.

Emphasising that theGovernment is well aware of con-cerns of the telecom sector, Sinha

assured that an "appropriateaction will be taken at an appro-priate time".

He said that a meeting washeld under the chairmanship ofCabinet Secretary to discuss con-cerns of both the sectors.

"... The policy reforms andstrategic intervention identifiedby the inter ministerial group willbe examined and processed expe-ditiously," Sinha said.

The telecom companies havebeen bleeding due to the pressureon revenue and profitability in the

wake of competition intensifiedby the entry of Reliance Jio.

The minister today said thatthe customers have benefitedfrom competition in the sector.

"Whenever a new entrantcomes, this kind of situation iscreated, but it settles down in ayear or two," he said.

Jio's entry, he noted, has notonly reduced the tariffs butchanged the traffic pattern fromvoice to data.

The ministry wants compe-tition in the sector and also to

ensure strong financial health ofthe industry, he asserted.

Citing the data explosion inthe country over the past quar-ters, the minister said that theIndian market was large enoughto ensure growth for all operators.

"Everybody is trying toincrease their footprint," he said.

To a query on Internet com-panies struggling in the wake oflow tariffs, he quipped, "If con-sumer is getting data for �20,should the Government inter-vene and say provide it for �100!"

Earlier this year, the TelecomCommission in a letter to theTelecom Regulatory Authority ofIndia (Trai) warned of a loandefault by operators. It asked thetelecom regulator to revisit its tar-iff orders and free promotionaloffers of firms like Reliance Jio.

The then Telecom SecretaryJS Deepak, who headed theTelecom Commission at thatpoint, had flagged the "seriousimpact" of promotional offers onthe financial health of the sectorand the capability of the compa-nies to meet their contractualcommitments, including pay-ment of instalments for spectrumpurchased and repayment ofloans. Trai, however, stronglydefended its stance and retortedthat its policies were aimed atpromoting competition andlower tariffs that benefited con-sumers. ���

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��% �����" Telecom regulatorTrai will seek the industry's viewon timing of the next spectrumauction too, as part of its consul-tation process on sale of airwaves,Chairman RS Sharma has said.

This implies that the telecomindustry will get a chance to giveits opinion on the timeframe,especially because it has so faropposed an immediate sale ofspectrum. Citing the weak finan-cials of telcos, COAI has insteadfavoured a late 2018 or early 2019timeline.

"We will be carrying out aconsultative process as always toknow the views of all the stake-holders, and it will include not

only views about reserve prices- which Trai will be ultimately rec-ommending - but also viewsabout the timing and otherissues," Sharma told the newsagency in an interview.

Trai will then firm up its rec-ommendation to theGovernment.

At this point, for Trai, to saywhether or not time is suitable foran auction will be "premature", hepointed out.

The upcoming consultationwill put "all the issues on thetable", and after going through theconsultation process, Trai willfinalise its own recommendationto the Government. ���

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������"Largest private sector lenderICICI Bank on Wednesday report-ed a five-times jump in March quar-ter net at �2,082.75 crore, but the assetquality woes which had dented itsbottomline year-ago, continued topersist.

On a standalone basis, profitsoared to �2,024.64 crore from�701.89 crore in the year-ago peri-od but was down from �2,441 crorein the December quarter.

The bottomline was helpedmassively by dipping into a special-ly made provision in the past and thebank used �1,528 crore of themoney during the reporting quar-ter, managing director and chief exec-utive Chanda Kochhar told reportersduring an earnings concall.

She said the entire �5,100 croreset aside in the past to protect the bot-tomlines has been completely utilisedby the March quarter.

Total slippages for the reportingquarter was over �11,000 crore,including a �5,378 crore to a cementcompany which is bound to beacquired soon, while the bank wroteoff a high �5,386 crore of assets as pera laid down policy and recovery andupgrades were at �1,400 crore.

Kochhar said a part of the loanwill be upgraded once the cement

company's (JP Cements, which hasbeen acquired by the Birla's ledUltraTech Cement and is pendingregulatory approvals) sale is com-pleted.

Its 'drilldown' account list,which included low-rated accountsfrom five stressed sectors, has comemassively narrowed to �19,000crore from �44,000 crore at the start

of the fiscal, she said, adding �20,000crore of this went down as NPAs asof March.

The gross non-performingassets ratio shot up to 7.89 per centfrom 5.21 per cent in the year-agoperiod and 7.20 per cent in theDecember quarter. The total provi-sions went down to �2,898.22 crorefrom �3,326.21 crore in the year- agoperiod and provision coverage ratiodipped to 53.6 per cent from 61 percent in the year-ago period.

However, Kochhar said NPAadditions in fiscal 2018 will be"significantly lower" and the bankalso expects resolutions of thealready classified assets which canresult in write-backs on NPAsduring the year.

"We are watching the progressand it depends on the externalenvironment. You also need tounderstand that it is five sectors.Work on resolution is on but wewill have to watch it on a case-by-case basis," she said.

She said RBI's supervisionfound �5,105 crore divergences infiscal 2016, where the bank hadn'tclassified certain accounts as NPAs,but 40 per cent of them were recog-nised as NPAs in the first quarter offiscal 2017 itself.

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The Indian economy willgrow 7.4 per cent this fis-

cal and 7.6 per cent in thenext as the bankruptcy andGST laws will help create abetter business friendly envi-ronment, the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB)said on Wednesday.

Ahead of its 50th annualmeeting to be attended byfinance minister and centralbank governors of membernations, the multilateralagency's Chief EconomistYasuyuki Sawada said thereforms like the Goods andServices Tax (GST) and thenew bankruptcy law willmake it easier to do businessin India.

"India's growth rate ispicking up, 7.4 per cent thisyear and next year 7.6 percent," he told a media briefing.

The growth rate com-

pares to 7.1 per cent of theprevious fiscal.

"Over 7 per cent growthrate is high if we compare itto other emerging marketeconomies and also China.Behind this is cyclical factor,improved terms of trade. TheIndian government adoptednew bankruptcy law thatimproved the businessenabling environment. That isthe a short-term and medi-um-term factor behind thegross acceleration in India,"Sawada said.

On the impact of demon-etisation of old 500 and 1,000rupee notes that took out 86per cent of the currency incirculation, he said the moveobviously generated short-term decline in cash-basedtransactions and consumersentiment.

"But according to out dataanalysis so far, this possiblenegative impact of demoneti-

sation was only short-livedand we still see a medium-term growth acceleration ofthe Indian economy," theADB chief economist said.

ADB, he said, had notstudied if the demonetisa-tion had any consequences onblack money.

"But overall, as far as wemonitored growth rate trendand macro-economic indica-tor, the demonetisation seemsto have generated only ashort-lived impact," Sawadasaid.

The GST, the biggest indi-rect tax reform since inde-pendence, together with thenew bankruptcy law are bigpositives for India, he said.

The bankruptcy law andthe GST will help in creatinga better business enablingenvironment, which seems tobe a factor behind this grossacceleration of India, headded.

Asked about the impact ofrupee appreciation onexports, Sawada said, "You arethinking (that) the apprecia-

tion of rupee India will loseinternational competitivenessbut actually export prices ismarket environment is anoth-er factor behind determinantsof export. Medium shifting ofindustry and comparativeadvantage that's also behindexport pattern."

Stating that rupee appre-ciation cannot be spoken inisolation, he said the overallexport performance of Indiaso far seems to be quite posi-tive.

"I'm not sure but probablyyou shouldn't be too muchpessimistic about exchangerate," the ADB chief econo-mist said.

The rupee strengthened to64.2 against the US dollarand has been gaining strengthas compared to other emerg-ing economy currencies.

The rupee has appreciat-ed by over 5 per cent againstthe US dollar since January.

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Bullish on India, Apple CEOTim Cook has said that the

US tech giant was bolstering itspresence in India's "underpen-etrated" market to tap the hugegrowth opportunities in thefast-growing economy amidstimproving 4G network infra-structure.

"We set a new March quar-ter record for India, where rev-enue grew by strong double dig-its. We continue to strengthenour local presence across theentire ecosystem, and we're veryoptimistic about our future inthis remarkable country with itsvery large, young, and tech-savvy population, fast-growingeconomy, and improving 4Gnetwork infrastructure," Cooksaid in the second quarter resultsearnings call yesterday.

Cook, 56, was askedwhether the California-basedcompany is underpenetrated inIndia and if it needs to work with

the Government to have Apple-owned stores or productiongiven the great opportunity inthe country.

"We think it's a great oppor-tunity too, and so we're bring-ing all the things that we broughtto bear in other markets thatwe've eventually done well in,and that's from channel to storesto our ecosystem and so forth,”he said.

Apple’s senior vice presidentof worldwide marketing PhilSchiller was in India opening adeveloper centre last quarter.

"And so there are a ton ofthings going on there (India).And we agree that we are under-

penetrated there. Our growthrates are good, really good bymost people's expectations,maybe not mine as much,” hesaid.

Cook, who visited Indialast year and met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, said the iPhonemaker is putting a "lot of ener-gy" in India, just like Apple hasin other geographies that even-tually wound up producingmore.

"So I'm very excited aboutit,” he said.

Cook emphasised that the4G network investment beganrolling in in a significant waytoward the last quarter of lastyear in India, which is the thirdlargest smartphone market inthe world today behind Chinaand the US.

"But they are moving fast.They're moving at a speed thatI have not seen in any othercountry in the world once theywere started, and it is trulyimpressive,” he said.

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��%�����"The Cabinet onWednesday approved pro-mulgation of an ordinance toamend the BankingRegulation Act for resolutionof the NPA crisis facing pub-lic sector banks, top sourcessaid.

PSBs are saddled withnon-performing assets or badloans to the tune of a stagger-ing �6 lakh crore.

Without giving details,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid the Cabinet has takensome important decisions inrespect of the banking sector.

"There is a conventionthat when some proposal isreferred to the President, thendetails of it cannot be disclosedtill it is approved. As soon asapproval comes, details will beshared," he said. ���

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The Government onWednesday approved a

proposal of Twin StarTechnologies, promoted bybillionaire Anil Agarwal's fam-ily, envisaging investment of upto �9,000 crore from aMauritius-based company.

The foreign investment islikely to generate direct andindirect employment oppor-tunities for over 30,000 people.

The decision was taken bythe Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs headed byPrime Minister NarendraModi.

As per the proposal, TwinStar Technologies will get for-eign investment up to �9,000crore (by on or before March2025) from Twin StarOverseas, Mauritius.

"The investment will bethrough a combination ofequity, compulsorily convert-ible debentures, compulsori-ly convertible preferenceshares and other FDl compli-ant instruments...," an officialrelease said.

The proposed investmentis for undertaking down-stream investment in NRIbillionaire Anil Agarwal-ledTwin Star DisplayTechnologies and other Indianoperating companies engagedin activities eligible for receiv-ing FDl on the automaticroute.

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The Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved a new policy that

envisages �10 lakh croreinvestment to create morecapacity in the steel sector.“The Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved the National SteelPolicy 2017,” a source privy tothe development said.

The development assumessignificance as the steel sectoris reeling under weak demandand rising raw material prices.The policy aims at increasingsupply of domestic cokingcoal to cut dependence onimports by half and produc-tion of 300 million tonnes ofthe alloy by 2030-31.

The ministry had earliersaid the policy is a steptowards steering the industryto achieve its future potentialand strategy to deal with var-ious impediments like highinput cost, availability of rawmaterials, dependency onimports, financial stress etc, itadded.

The policy also looks atincreasing per capita steel con-sumption to 160 kg by 2030-

31 and encouraging the indus-try to be a world leader onenergy and raw material-effi-cient steel production by 2030-

31 in a safe and sustainablemanner. The proposed policylooks to ‘develop and imple-ment quality standards for

domestic steel products’.In 2015, India was the

only large economy in theworld where steel demandcontinued to show a positivegrowth at 5.3 per cent asagainst China's (-)5.4 per centand Japan's (-) 7 per cent.India’s growing urban infra-structure and manufacturingsectors indicate that demand islikely to remain robust inyears ahead.

Despite the current chal-lenges, Indian steel industrystill has significant potentialfor growth, underscored by thefact that the per capita steelconsumption in the country at61 kg is much lower than theglobal average of 208 kg.

Crude steel production in2015-16 stood at 89.77 milliontonnes. However, today, thesteel industry in India faceschallenging external condi-tions in the shape of slow eco-nomic growth and idle capac-ity globally.

With weak global eco-nomic prospects, the industrywill have to strongly dependon growth of domestic con-sumption to surge ahead.

MUMBAI: With higher loangrowth rate of 23 per cent overalmost the past five years andlow delinquency rates of under1 per cent, the affordable hous-ing segment offers stronggrowth opportunities forlenders, says a report.

A study by credit informa-tion company Cibil onWednesday said loans meant foraffordable housing (home loansf under �10 lakh ticket size) hasshown a robust 23 per centCAGR over the past five years,while the delinquency rate hasbeen firmly under control ataround 1 per cent. In 2016, theaffordable housing loan bookstood at �30,400 crore extend-ed to around 7.5 lakh borrowers.

“The golden lining is that therehave been low delinquency rateson affordable housing loansover the past five years. Thesetrends indicate a very growthpotential for lender,” the reportsaid. The study said the averageticket size in the segment hasbeen coming down from around�4.8 lakh in 2009-10 to nearly�4.1 lakh now, possibly sug-gesting the lenders’ success on

the financial inclusion drive.“Looking at the average ticketsize, we expect to witness moreand more small banks andmicro-lenders getting in afford-able housing lending in thecoming years,” Cibil chief oper-ating officer HarshalaChandorkar said.

“The possible reason forthe steady growth in the afford-able housing loan segment is theincrease in lending towards thebottom of the pyramid. In con-sideration of the rise in homeprices, this could be seen as a sig-nificant development indica-tor,” she added.

The study found thatMaharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhraare the top five states with high-est number of affordable homeloans in the last five years, con-tributing around 60 per cent ofthe total such accountsopened.Maharashtra holds thetop spot with the highest num-ber of accounts (over 6.53 lakh)followed by MP (5.60 lakh),Gujarat (3.13 lakh), TN (2.65lakh) and Andhra with 2.28lakh such accounts. PTI

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American software giantAdobe on Wednesday said 30

per cent of its R&D staff work inIndia, making a fundamentalcontribution to each of its prod-uct and hinted that the countrywill continue to be the innovationhub for it.

“A lot of our intellectualproperty gets created out of India.We have over 30 per cent of ourR&D staff sitting out of India. Wealso have got the global servicesdelivery centre in this country,”Adobe India country headKulmeet Bawa told reportershere. The company employs4,200 people across three centresin Noida and Bengaluru, whichtogether employ a fourth of itsglobal workforce. “Virtually everysingle product that we deliver,there is some fundamental workthat is being done here in India,”global chairman and chief exec-utive Shantanu Narayen said.

“We have always said we aregoing to do very fundamental and

deep-rooted technology workand it continues to be there,”Narayen added in the commentsthat come amid increased con-cern on the rising protectionisttendencies in the US under afterDonald Trump’s election asPresident.

The Mumbai-born globalhead of Adobe also said India istaking a leap in various productsand leading the way for theworld. Bawa said the companylooks at India more as an inno-vation hub, rather than as a mar-ket for its product.From a busi-ness perspective, where there's aperception of its products beingvery expensive, Bawa said Adobeworks with all the top companies.

Narayen acknowledged that thereis ‘absolute piracy’ in the Indianmarket which it has been com-bating and added that there issizeable traction on the creativeside as well.

He said globally, Adobelooks at ‘experience cloud’ whichis targeted at companies under-going a digital transformation asthe biggest growth engine goingahead. Bawa said for them,focus will be on serving retailsegment, where the line betweenoffline and online is blurringwith the arrival of omnichannelsand financial institutions wherenewer entities like the pay-ments banks and small financebanks are driven digitally.

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NEW DELHI: The Cabinet onWednesday approved a policyfor providing preference todomestically manufacturediron and steel products in pro-curement by theGovernment and its agen-cies. The developmentassumes significance as itis likely to raise domesticsteel consumption, as thecountry’s per capita steelusage at 61 kg is muchlower than the global averageof 208 kg.“The Cabinet on Wednesday

approved a policy for provid-ing preference to domestical-ly manufactured iron and steelproducts in procurements bythe Government and its agen-cies,” a source privy to thedevelopment said.

The policy aims at giving

priority to domestically pro-duced steel and value additiondone in India, the source said.The Government had earliersaid it was mulling making

domestic steel use bind-ing for Governmentprojects.

“Talks are going onwith the ministries con-cerned for introductionof policy to make itmandatory to use India-

made steel for all infrastructureand construction projects of theGovernment,” Steel MinisterChaudhary Birender Singh hadearlier said.

The country's steel produc-tion and consumption are likelyto be higher in 2017-18, backedby an increase in infrastructureallocation in the Budget, a reporthad earlier said. PNS

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyhas cancelled his attendance

at the Asian Development Bank’sannual meeting here because ofpressing domestic engagementsback home. Jaitley, who alsoholds the additional charge ofdefence minister, is howeverscheduled to travel to Tokyo thisweekend seeking Japaneseinvestment into India.

He was scheduled to attendADB's 50th annual meeting herefrom May 4-7. Official sourcessaid Jaitley will not be attendingthe meet, but did not give any rea-sons for the same. It is understoodthat the move may be linked to themutilation of bodies of two Indiansoldiers by Pakistani troops. An‘outraged’ India today summonedPakistani High CommissionerAbdul Basit and demanded actionagainst those responsible for theact. Economic Affairs SecretaryShaktikanta Das will fill in forJaitley for the ADB event.

Finance ministers and cen-tral bank governors of membernations are slated to attend theannual meet that is being heldunder the theme 'BuildingTogether the Prosperity of Asia'with focus on the region's grow-ing need for infrastructure as acritical component for achiev-ing sustainable and inclusivedevelopment.

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The GMR-Megawide consortium which is cur-rently operating the Mactan Cebu international

airport in the Philippines, is in race for the Davaoairport in the Far Eastern nation. The Davao air-port, also known as the Francisco Bangoy inter-national airport, is the third busiest airport in thePacific island nation and is located at Catitipan inDavao City in the Mindanao province.

According to the Philippines government, theGMR-Megawide consortium has emerged as a pre-qualified bidder for the 40.57 billion pesos(around $810 million) airport project. Accordingto prequalification bid document, the contract isfor developing and running the operations as wellas maintenance of the existing airport facilities. Italso includes expansion/construction of new pas-senger terminal, along with all associated infra-structure, facilities and equipment as per applic-able standards. The winning bidder will also haveto enhance/develop operations and maintain thelandside facilities (new and existing terminals) andairside facilities (including apron, runway and taxi-

way) to meet the growing demand. However, airtraffic control and air navigation services are notpart of the project, the Philippines government saidin the scope of the project. GMR officials were notimmediately available for comments.

The Davao airport, which has been opera-tional for more than 15 years now, handled over3.5 million passengers in 2016, and has been grow-ing at 10 per cent CAGR, it said. The GMR-Megawide combine currently manages the MactanCebu international airport in the Philippines since2013. In December 2013 GMR Infrastructure inpartnership with Megawide ConstructionCorporation of the Philippines emerged as thehighest bidder after offering a bid premium of 14.4billion pesos or around $320 million.

NEW DELHI: The decision onthe slots issue at Delhi airport islikely to be taken this monthseven as the possible solutions are‘difficult’ ones, says a top CivilAviation Ministry official.Differences have been persistingbetween domestic airlines andDIAL operator of the IndiraGandhi International Airport(IGIA) here -- over the propos-al to shift operations of some car-riers to terminal 2 (T2).

Discussions have beengoing on between the ministry,airlines and airport operator tofind a way out. “The solutionswhich are possible are difficultsolutions. Our objective is tominimise the difficulties topassengers as well as the oper-ational inconvenience to theairlines,” Civil AviationSecretary RN Choubey toldPTI in an interview.

“We are working on solutionsto see how we can mesh all thesethings,” he said. Earlier this year,Delhi airport operator had askedno- frills carriers -- IndiGo,SpiceJet and GoAir -- to shiftsome of their operations to T2from terminal 1D. Stating that theslots issue is a little difficult one,Choubey said one possible solu-tion would be to say that all flightsarriving and departing for or froma particular city, would land andtake off from T2.

But the difficulty would befor a flight coming to the nation-al capital and then flying toanother city. Such a situation

would create operational prob-lems, he noted. On when a deci-sion is likely on the slots issue, thecivil aviation secretary expressedhope that it would be taken thismonth. “I would say that we hopeto take a decision on it thismonth. A decision will say fromwhen it will be effective,” Choubeysaid.

During a recent meeting,the airlines had told the ministryand DIAL that since there wereno extra facilities like additionalparking bays or slots created bythe private airport operator, itwould not be possible for them torelocate even partial operations toT2 till the end of summer sched-ule. There are two operational ter-minals at the airport here -- T1and T3 -- while T2 constructionis over but flights are yet to startoperating from there. PTI

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Mortgage firm DHFL onWednesday said it plans to

raise up to �22,000 crore throughissuance of non convertible deben-tures (NCDs) on private placementbasis to fund business growth in thecurrent fiscal. The board of direc-tor has approved issuance of secu-rities "on private placement--nonconvertible secured/unsecureddebentures up to an amount�20,000 crore, non convertiblesubordinated unsecured deben-tures up to an amount of �1,000crore, non convertible perpetualunsecured debentures up to anamount of �1,000 crore,” DHFL saidin a statement.

Dewan Housing FinanceCorporation Ltd (DHFL) will seekshareholders’ approval for the samein its annual general meetingscheduled on July 21. Asked as towhether the company will floatNCDs linked to retail inflation,DHFL Chairman and MD KapilWadhawan said, it depends on mar-ket conditions and the requirementof the company. Last fiscal, themortgage firm had raised �14,000crore through a retail bond sale,which offered interest rates linkedto consumer price-based inflation.

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NEW DELHI: An estimated$770 billion in black moneyentered India while $165 billionexited the country during 2005-2014, US-based think tankGlobal Financial Integrity (GFI)has said in its latest report.During 2014 alone, the inflow ofblack money was about $101 bil-lion while the outflow was $23billion, it said.

Titled ‘Illicit Financial Flowsto and from DevelopingCountries: 2005-2014’, the reportreleased Monday is the firstglobal study to place equalemphasis on illicit outflows andinflows.The findings assume sig-nificance as India has no officialassessment on the quantum ofblack money in the country andabroad.

The illicit financial inflow of$770 billion was 14 per cent ofIndia’s total trade of $5,500,744million ($5,500 billion), GFIsaid. It pegged the inflow of blackmoney at three per cent (about$65 billion) of the country’s totaltrade during the 10-year period.The volume of global illicit flowsis staggering, ranging between $2

trillion and $3.5 trillion in 2014,the report said. “Estimated illic-it outflows from developingcountries to the advanced worldalone sum up to $620 billion in2014 in the most conservativecalculation and illicit inflowsfrom the advanced countriesinto the developing world totalledmore than $2.5 trillion."

From Asia, the study esti-mated financial inflows to devel-oping countries from a mini-mum of $686 billion to a maxi-mum of $1,229 billion.

One dominant channel forillicit financial flow (IFF) movingin and out of the developingworld is trade mis- invoicing, itsaid, adding that trade mis-invoicing accounted for at least66 per cent of measurable IFF

outflows and 97 per cent ofmeasurable inflows in 2014.

Trade mis-invoicing is aform of trade-based money laun-dering made possible by the factthat trading partners write theirown trade documents or arrangeto have the documents preparedin a third country (typically a taxhaven), a method known as re-invoicing.

“Fraudulent manipulationof the price, quantity, or qualityof a good or service on aninvoice allows criminals, corruptgovernment officials, and com-mercial tax evaders to shift vastamounts of money across inter-national borders quickly, easily,and nearly always undetected,”the report said.

Illicit financial flows fromdeveloping and emergingeconomies kept pace at nearly$one trillion in 2014.Suggesting steps to check black-money, the financial watchdogsaid governments should estab-lish public registries of verifiedbeneficial ownership informa-tion on all legal entities tocheck black money. PTI

NEW DELHI: An IT servicesarm of Reliance Industries andbusiness software provider SAPhave signed an agreement tojointly launch ‘Saral GST’ solu-tion to serve taxpayers under thegoods and services tax (GST)regime. “Reliance Corporate ITPark Limited (RCITPL) a sub-sidiary of Reliance IndustriesLimited today announced thatit has signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withSAP SE to launch ‘SARAL GST’solution for taxpayers in theGST regime,” both the compa-nies said in a statement.

The Saral GST platform willenable taxpayers to be GST com-pliant and access the govern-ment's GST system. The GST is tobe rolled out from July 1, 2017.“SARAL GST represents theextension of the two-decade part-nership between SAP andReliance to help tax payers trans-form into a secure digital enter-prise with end-to-end support,”Reliance GST Initiatives HeadRajkumar N Pugalia said. SARALGST will leverage the expertise ofRCITPL as GST suvidha provider(GSP) and SAP as ApplicationService Provider (ASP). PNS

NEW YORK: American technol-ogy giant Cisco has said it will pay$610 million in cash to acquire anetworking start-up led by anIndian-origin software industryveteran. Cisco will buy Viptela, a pri-vately held software-defined widearea network (SD-WAN) compa-ny based in San Jose, a move thatwill expand its portfolio.

Viptela CEO Praveen Akkiraju,a University of Madras and HarvardBusiness School alumnus, said thethe firm’s fabric, as it relates to SD-WAN and cloud networking, ‘fits inas an important piece of Cisco’sEnterprise Networking strategywhich is driving an industry-widetransition to a software centric archi-tecture and business model.’. PTI

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Aleading American mediahouse has refused to air an

ad made by President DonaldTrump’s team on his first 100days in office because of itslabeling of several prominentnews anchors as “fake news,” aterm often used by him todescribe the media coveragecritical of him.

The CNN refused to runthe ad that highlights Trump’saccomplishment during hisfirst 100 days in office, towhich the narrator in the videosays: “You wouldn’t know itfrom watching the news.”

The ad then featuresimages of CNN anchor WolfBlitzer, MSNBC anchor RachelMaddow, and others alongwith the graphic reading “fakenews.”

In a statement, CNN said itrequested that the advertiser

remove the false graphic thatthe mainstream media is “fakenews.”

“The mainstream mediais not fake news, and thereforethe ad is false and per policywill be accepted only if thatgraphic is deleted,” it said.

The Trump campaign laterblasted the CNN in a pressrelease, titled, “Fake NewsStation Refuses to Run AdHighlighting The President’sFirst 100 Days.”

“It is absolutely shameful tosee the media blocking the pos-itive message that PresidentTrump is trying to share withthe country,” said MichaelGlassner, campaign’s executivedirector, in the Press release.

“It’s clear that CNN is try-ing to silence our voice andcensor our free speech becauseit doesn’t fit their narrative.”

The release further says the“CNN takes issue with the ad’smessage calling out the main-stream media for peddling fakenews and not reporting on thefact that President Trump ismaking America great again.”

It says the ad entitled ‘First100 Days’ highlights thePresident’s first 100 days inoffice; exhibiting clear vision,resolute leadership, and anuncompromising dedicationto the American people, just ashe promised throughout hiscampaign.

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Hillary Clinton has blamedFBI director James Comey

and Russian interference forher defeat in the last year’sPresidential elections, sayingthey “scared off ” voters anddeprived her of an otherwiseexpected victory.

The former DemocraticPresidential nominee, speakingduring a charity luncheon, saidshe takes “personal responsi-bility” for her loss to DonaldTrump in the Presidential race.

In her most detailed com-ments about her defeat sincethe shock result last year,Clinton blamed Russian inter-

ference in the US election andthe release of a letter by Comeypertaining to the investigationinto her emails just before thepolls, saying such factorsdeprived her of an otherwiseexpected victory.

“If the election had been onOctober 27th, I’d be yourPresident. And it wasn’t, it wason October 28th and there wasjust a lot of funny business goingon around that,” Clinton toldCNN in an interview at Womenfor Women InternationalForum in New York.

“It wasn’t a perfect cam-paign. There is no such thing.But I was on the way to winninguntil the combination of Jim

Comey’s letter on October 28thand Russian WikiLeaks raiseddoubts in the minds of peoplewho were inclined to vote forme, but got scared off,” she said.

“The evidence for thatintervening event is, com-pelling, persuasive,” she said.

Clinton, 69, highlightedRussia’s role in hacking into her

campaign’s internal emails andsubsequently coordinatingtheir release on WikiLeaks.

“Ask yourself this, within anhour or two of the HollywoodAccess tape being made public,the Russian theft of JohnPodesta’s emails hit WikiLeaks.What a coincidence. So I meanyou just can’t make this stuff up,”Clinton said.

“He (Russian PresidentVladimir Putin) certainly inter-fered in our election,” Clintonsaid. “And it’s clear he interferedto hurt me and help my oppo-nent.”

Asked whether she was avictim of misogyny, she said,“Yes, I do think it played a role.

Misogyny is very much a partof the landscape politically,socially and economically.”

Hours later, Trump attackedClinton on Twitter, saying sheused the “phony” Russian hack-ing story as a justification for herloss in the November 8 presi-dential elections.

“FBI Director Comey wasthe best thing that ever hap-pened to Hillary Clinton in thathe gave her a free pass for manybad deeds!” Trump tweeted.

“The phony......Trump/Russia story was anexcuse used by the Democratsas justification for losing theelection,” he said in anothertweet.

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has said FBIDirector James Comey was the“best thing” that ever happenedto his Democratic presidentialrival Hillary Clinton ahead ofthe last year’s general elections.

Trump’s remarks camehours after Clinton said in aninterview that Comey,Wikileaks and Russian hackerswere responsible for her defeat.

He said the Democratshad used the “phony” Russianhacking story as a justificationfor their loss in the November8 Presidential elections.

“FBI Director Comey wasthe best thing that ever hap-pened to Hillary Clinton in thathe gave her a free pass for manybad deeds!” Trump, 70, said ina late night tweet.

“The phony......Trump/Russia story was anexcuse used by the Democratsas justification for losing the

election,” he said in anothertweet.

“Perhaps Trump just ran agreat campaign?” he tweeted.

Clinton, 69, has blamed theFBI for her loss at the hands ofTrump, claiming the decision torevive the probe into her emailaccounts stopped her momen-tum towards a historic win.

She has said that her cam-paign was winning untilComey wrote a letter to theCongressional leadership thatthey have reopened the inves-tigations into the email scandal.

Two days before the elec-tions, the FBI again sent a let-ter to the Congressional lead-ership that it did not find any-thing new in the investigationthat was primarily screening ofsome 6,50,000 emails that itfound in a laptop of one of heraide Huma Abedin, which sheshared with her estranged hus-band Anthony Weiner. PTI

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Brussels: The EuropeanUnion’s chief Brexit negotiatorinsisted Wednesday thatBritain’s accounts must be set-tled before any talks on itsfuture trade relationship withthe EU can take place, as hewarned that time is runningout to seal a deal by 2019.

Unveiling the EuropeanCommission’s negotiatingmandate on Britain’s departure,Michel Barnier said he was nothostile to Britain and the blocdid not want to punish it forleaving — but “we have to set-tle the account, not more notless.”

The amount London owesthe EU has become one of themost contentious subjects in

the Brexit process, with somereports estimating it couldclimb to as much as 100 billioneuros (109 billion dollars) — afigure that Britain has flatlyrejected paying.

It’s the first time a memberhas ever left the EU, so thesenegotiations are taking theEuropeans into unchartedwaters. The process is unprece-dented and complicated, andcombined with fresh delayscaused by snap elections inBritain, has ratcheted tensionsbetween Prime MinisterTheresa May’s Governmentand the 27 nations that willremain in the EU.

Barnier underlined thatBritain and its EU partners had

together agreed the bloc’s 2014-2020 budget, and that Britainmust pay up its share of con-tributions.

“Engagements were under-taken and they have to behonored. It’s a question ofresponsibility,” he said.

Barnier did not specifyhow much Britain should pay,but his negotiating mandatesaid it should cover budget pay-ments, the cost of endingBritain’s membership of any EUinstitution including banks,and the bill for relocating anyEU agencies on its territory.London must also pay in eurosrather than pounds, meaningthat it should bear the curren-cy exchange costs. AP

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Washington: President DonaldTrump is personally committedto resolving the long-runningIsraeli-Palestinian conflict andwill never compromise on thesafety and security of the JewishState, US Vice President MikePence has said.

He said Trump’s “tirelessleadership” has helped in mak-ing progress towards attainingthe peace in the region.

“The President has per-sonally committed to resolvingthe Israeli and Palestinian con-flict. Even now, we’re makingvaluable progress toward thenoble goal of peace,” Pence saidat a White House event to markthe Israeli Independence Day.

“Thanks to the President’stireless leadership, momentum

is building and goodwill isgrowing. While there willundoubtedly have to be com-promises, you can rest assuredPresident Donald Trump willnever compromise the safetyand security of the Jewish Stateof Israel — not now, not ever,”he said on Tuesday.

Pence said Trump hadmade it clear that Americastands alongside Israel asfriends and as allies and togeth-er they will confront thosewho threaten their people.

“Since the moment oftheir nation’s birth, there’shardly been a day when thepeople of Israel have not livedwithout war or the fear of war,or the grim reality of terror,”he said. PTI

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump and his Russiancounterpart Vladimir Putinhad a “very good” telephonictalk about ending the war inSyria and resolving the “verydangerous” situation in NorthKorea, the White House hassaid.

In their first conversationsince the US launched missilesagainst an air base in Syria out-raging Russia, the two leadersalso discussed at length work-ing together to eradicate ter-rorism throughout the MiddleEast and spoke about how bestto resolve the “very dangerous”situation in North Korea. PTI

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Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected thenominees forwarded by the central bank and the securities andexchange commission to be part of a joint investigation team thatwill probe Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his sons’ alleged cor-ruption in the Panama Papers case.

“We want honest and professional officials to be membersof the JIT (joint investigation team),” Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan,who heads a three-member special bench that held its first hear-ing today to implement the court’s decision to oversee the for-mation and functioning of the six-member JIT. Khan said theofficials nominated by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) andSecurities and Exchange Commission Pakistan (SECP) did notmeet the court’s criteria for a transparent investigation. PTI

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The British Parliament'sHouse of Commons was

officially dissolved onWednesday with all businesscoming to an end ahead of theJune 8 snap general electionannounced by PM Theresa May.

May met with QueenElizabeth II at BuckinghamPalace and marked the dissolu-tion of the 650-member Houseof Commons or the lower house.

Her meeting with the 91-year-old monarch marked theformal start of campaigning forthe election even though allpolitical parties have alreadybegun canvassing.

May is also set to make abrief announcement outsideher official Downing Streetresidence later on Wednesdayfollowing her palace audiencewith the queen.

“The dissolution ofParliament took place onWednesday 3 May 2017. Allbusiness in the House ofCommons has come to an endand there are no MPs. Everyseat in the Commons is vacantuntil after the general electionon 8 June 2017,” the BritishParliament said in a statementon its website.

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Kabul: A powerful blast tar-geting an armoured NATOconvoy in Kabul killed at leasteight people and wounded 28on Wednesday, including threecoalition members, officialssaid in an attack claimed by theIslamic State group.

The explosion, which cameduring morning rush hour ona busy road near the USembassy and NATO head-quarters, killed “mostly” civil-ians, an interior ministryspokesman told AFP withoutgiving a breakdown.

NATO said three coalitionservice members had received“non-life threatening wounds”

in the attack.“(They) are in stable condi-

tion, and are currently beingtreated at coalition medical facil-ities,” a spokesman for USForces-Afghanistan said, withoutconfirming their nationalities.

IS claimed responsibilityfor the blast via its Amaq pro-paganda agency, saying theeight dead were all Americansoldiers. The militants areknown to exaggerate theirclaims.

The attack comes threeweeks after the US dropped itslargest non-nuclear bomb onthe jihadist group’s hideous ineastern Afghanistan. AFP

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The Sri Lankan Army chiefon Wednesday met his

Pakistani counterpart andthanked him for the “incessantsupport” to the island nation’sfight against terrorism.

Chief of the Sri LankanArmy Lt Gen AWJC De Silvacalled upon the Chief of ArmyStaff General Qamar JavedBajwa at the GeneralHeadquarters in Rawalpindi,the Army said.

“The visiting Generalthanked Pakistan Army forincessant support to SriLankan’s fight against terror-ism,” the Army said in a statement.

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Indian man has been arrestedin Nepal for allegedly smug-gling 15 human skulls, policesaid on Wednesday. BhagirathSingh of West Bengal’s Khoribariwas paid �1,000 by an uniden-tified person to smuggle the cra-nial bones across the border.

The human skulls mighthave been smuggled for per-forming tantric rituals, SPSailesh Thapa said.

Singh was caught by policeduring a security check nearKakarbhitta customs office inJhapa district on Monday, about450 kms east of Kathmandu.

He will be booked underthe Public Offence Act asNepal’s law does not specifypossession of human body pa-rts as an offence. PTI

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Beijing: Amid spiralling ten-sions in the Korean peninsula,China on Wednesday urged allsides to exercise restraint andavoid any action that mayaggravate tensions.

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Geng Shuangexpressed serious concern overthe continuation of militaryexercises by the US and SouthKorean troops that are simu-lating drills near the border toattack North Korean targets.

Reacting to reports of twoUS bombers from Guam mili-tary base joining target practice,he said, “We (have) noted themilitary exercise is continuing.We reiterated the current situa-tion in the Korean Peninsula isdelicate and complicated.” PTI

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Anew report shows the US Government asked that the namesof close to 2,000 Americans be revealed after their infor-

mation was swept up in National Security Agency surveillanceprograms last year.

The report released on Tuesday says the identities of US cit-izens and legal permanent residents were found in 3,914 intel-ligence reports the NSA distributed last year.

The report comes amid President Donald Trump’s claim thatthe Obama White House acted inappropriately in asking intel-ligence analysts to disclose names. Trump has said PresidentBarack Obama’s former national security adviser may have com-mitted a crime.

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Ganesh Haloi’s simplegouache on paper worksexpress layers of this

timeless struggle. The process ofcreation too is a struggle to com-pose the space, colour, form andnarration. But for Haloi it hasalways been colour and its space,trying to create a dialogue for eachtone that he lays on the surface,giving it its own individuality andconstructing layers of differenttonalities and textures over it.

It is important here to quotea passage from the artist’s diarywhere he identifies each colourwith his own life’s experience —a symbolic representation of hispractice.

“Black is my faith,Blue is the wideness,Green is the field,Red is my seed,White is the wildness,Yellow is the sunshine,I am composite of these

colours,Which ultimately leads me

to an unknown destiny...”

�Can you talk a little about yourformative years as an artist?

I was born in Jamalpur,Mymensingh, now in Bangladesh,in 1936, and moved to Kolkataafter the Partition in 1950. I grad-uated from the GovernmentCollege of Art and Craft inKolkata in 1956 and joined theArchaeological Survey of Indiathe next year to make copies of theAjanta murals. My body of workduring my formative years incollege, 1951-56 has a stream ofconsciousness quality. I tried tocarry the outside world indoors asI painted from multiple memories.Memory has always proven cru-cial to me and enables me to func-tion during periods of anxiety, tor-ment and pensiveness. My read-ings and childhood found a wayinto my works too. In the mid-50s,my work echoed the sentiments ofwriters and poets at the time inKolkata, notably Jibanananda Das,Tarashankar and ManikBandopadhyay. Moreover, I wasinterested in exploring the art ofthe past, Ajanta, Persian, Indianminiatures, early Bengal oil paint-ings and the neo-Bengal school,Buddhist philosophy, the historyof early India and the affinities itmight share with my contempo-raries. Today I find that I was ableto carry on a sort of running dia-logue with many sources of inspi-ration.

� If you can share an experienceof yours during the partition?

Like many of my generation,

I too suffered the anguish ofbeing uprooted from my place ofbirth. My elder brother took thedecision that we had to move toKolkata and we lived in refugeecamps. Being a displaced personis the biggest tragedy.

�When was that moment whenyou believed you would be anartist for life?

From a very young age.My house in Jamalpur was onthe banks of the mighty riverBrahmaputra and all aroundme was water and marshyland. I used to hear sounds likedub dub, sun sun and wonderwhere these sounds were com-ing from. Perhaps that’s how Iwas drawn to abstraction. Inschool, when I was in 6th stan-dard, I had a drawing teacherGafoor Miyan. He wouldmake one of us recite aTagore poem and oneto draw on the black-board out of imagina-

tion while the poem was beingrecited. So writing, drawing,sketching has been part of mesince my childhood.

� If you weren’t an artist,what profession would youhave pursued?

I don’t know. I would havegot lost perhaps.

�Who and what inspiresyour work and style? Fromwhere do you find the inspi-ration?

From memories ofmy childhood — ofmarshy lands, greenfields, water bodies.

And then, after sevenyears at Ajanta, I came back to

Kolkata in 1963 to join the art col-lege as a lecturer. It was a time ofself introspection. The urge was tocreate a new language, a new wayof seeing, expressing a visuallandscape. What inspired me wasthe cut edged rock face in Ajantavalley amidst the ranges ofSahayadri that is both autumnaland silent. The geometric forms ofthe Sahayadri hills ultimatelyseeped into my work. Then, achance visit to an exhibition ofBritish sculptors taking place in thecity in 1967, gave me some visualclues. The works of KennethArmitage, Robert Adams, BernardMeadows, all young sculptorsdelighted me. Their use of thejagged surface had a stream of con-sciousness in them that made meprepared for my all importantencounter with my language andquickened my memory to thelandscapes of my mind.

�Since there are various artistscreating abstract form of art,what makes one piece stand outfrom the other?

For me abstraction becomes afigure of speech that opens theunconscious mind and allows thetruth to emerge and to re-estab-lish a lost contact with the primor-dial past.

�There are thousands of accom-plished artists. What does ittake to develop your particularif not unique niche in thatworld?

Being true to oneself.

�How would you describe yourphilosophy and mission as anartist?

Art is an act of pursuance toreach the ultimate, but not theultimate itself.

�Share how you conceptualisedand then went about creatinggouache on board and on paper.

When I was in college, onceon Buddha Jayanti, I happened togo to Bodh Gaya and there it cameto me that I should go to Ajanta.When I came back to college,there was a notice which said ‘fourartists are needed to make repro-ductions of Ajanta murals’. Andarse jo chaaho zaroor milta hai. Sowhen I went to Ajanta, thepainters (Nizami) were mostly

making watercolours and I wasdrawn to this medium. But youcan’t get the depth that I wantedin simple watercolours so I start-ed mixing white with watercolors.That led me to gouache, which isopaque and earthy, just like oursoil. Just like miniatures, creatinggouache is a very personalprocess, you have to sit on thefloor, or at a table, so the art comesright into your personal space. Ihave always loved working withNepali paper.

�What makes abstract art differ-ent from any other art form?

Abstraction is not as simpleas the mere application of brush-work, texture or colours. It is cre-ated through a rigorous mentaldebate that reflects multiple expe-riences. Abstract work plays withthe viewer’s imagination. Wemake the world beautiful withabstraction.

�Let’s take Composition andComposition III. Talk to usabout your inspirations hereand what you hope people see instudying the pieces.

My sculptures have the samestory as my paintings. These havebeen made in bronze, and peopleare free to interpret what they like,just as they would do for mypaintings

�Sculptor and painter. Are thepassions equal?

Yes!

�What do you hope is yourlegacy as an artist?

What remains forever iswhat touches your heart. Therehave been many artists but few areremembered for eternity. I hopeto have touched some hearts.

�What is your expectation fromthis exhibit?

It is a global platform, and Ifeel previleged that curatorNatasha Ginwala and AdamSzymczyk (the chief Curator ofDocumenta) have chosen mywork for this edition.

�Advice for artists trying to getestablished?

Jab kalsi bhar jaati hai aur jabusmein se paani girne lagta hai,usko art kehte hain, kum se kuchnahin hota… zyada se hota hai..that is why struggle is importantand so is hard work.

Akar Prakar represents veter-an abstractionist Ganesh Haloi’snew works in a two-city exhibitionin Europe till September, 2017

Music is the voice of the humanspirit and it is only few

among the crowd who manages topull the right string with their raagsand rasas. Sairam Iyer has charmedpeople in India and across theglobe with his incredible skill ofeffortlessly switching betweenmale and female voices and hasreceived accolades from musicalheavyweights like Naushad,Laxmikant Pyarelal and KalyanjiAnandji.

Anil Biswas referred to him asthe Eighth Wonder of the World.His ability to reproduce on stage,the magical voices of his idols, isundeniably impressive. In amaz-ing solo performances, he can

comfortably match the scintillat-ing heights of Asha Bhosle with theunique flamboyance of the lateKishore Kumar. Sairam has gracedmore than 1500 stage shows theworld over, majorly in India, US,South America, Canada, WestAsia, West Indies and Far East. Healso had the honour of perform-ing in presence of pop divaMadonna in Los Angeles in1998.

Sairam began his vocalcareer recreating the top

Bollywood female playbacksingers of the time. He hassince moved into the play-

back arena and has theunique distinction of

being the only male play-

back that can performplayback for a femaleactress as well.“Mastering dual-voicetechnique is initiallypretty tough and it isonly after several yearsof devoted retrainingand fierce determina-tion that I am what Iam today.

“The difficult partcame when I grew upand my voice startedmaturing into a manlyone. I was neither ableto do justice with either-male orfemale songs. With hours of prac-tice, I rediscovered my earlierability to sing in a female voice, but

I believe this is agod gift,” heexplained.

Coming froma family of artistes,Sairam considersLata Mangeshkaras his true mentor

“My family hasalways encouragedme in my artisticpursuit. My fatherKVS Mani was atalented singer,dancer and actorand even my

brothers used to sing well. I havelearned classical music from emi-nent teachers like the late PanditRamesh Nadkarni and Pandit Shri

Dhruva Ghosh at the SangeetMahabharati Institution.

“The melody queen LataMangeshkar has been my greatestmentor, even though I have justmet her fleetingly and haven’teven had a chance to have a sin-gle musical discussion with her buther songs have always inspiredme,” said he.

Sairam has done good amountof charity works for the earthquakevictims and in the tsunami hitareas. He is involved in social workand as a professional singercontributes a lot to the industryand to the people he belongs to.Sairam was recently in the cap-ital to promote Prime Minister’skey project Beti Bachao-BetiPadhao-Beti Khilao.

“The event is not about per-forming and walking away it’smore about interaction withpeople and spreading aware-ness among people that girlsare the origin of human raceand are nature’s precious gift andshould be educated to strengthenthe nation,” Sairam said.

About his future plansand collaboration theartiste mentioned, “I amlooking forward to collab-orate with Mahesh Ragvanwhere I give my voice to someof the most lovable retro songs andalbum is expected to be released incoming months.”

The designer khaki-coloured trench coat gown with a 20feet long train sported by Priyanka Chopra at the Met

Gala 2017 in New York has been trolled as a chapati, as theterrains of Egypt and as a promoter of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. But theactress has taken the criticism in her stride, giving adrumroll. Priyanka chose a customised Ralph Lauren for herdebut at the fashion fiesta, where even actress DeepikaPadukone walked the red carpet in a Tommy Hilfigercreation. But Priyanka’s look — accentuated by heavymake-up— grabbed more eyeballs.

The actress took to social media, and replied toall trolls by saying: “*Drumroll* to your creativity!I’ve picked a few of my favourites! Good to knowthat the dress serves more purposes than just fash-ion. Hope to continue to stir your creative juices.”

“This is why I love the Met Gala you literally canpush the envelope for fashionanywhere! Until nexttime...ROFL,” she added.

Priyanka chose a couple ofmemes on her dress to supporther post. The actress was herselfproud of the dress she chose —especially because she couldchange its look in minutes for

the gala itself and its after-party.��&�

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The recent field inspec-tion,Swachh Survekshan-

2017 of 17,500 locations con-firm that the Swacch Bharatbuzz is making a difference onground.

The largest ever samplesurvey of over 18 lakh citizenshas revealed that sanitation incities and towns of the coun-try has substantiallyimproved during the last oneyear.

Results of the survey haveconfirmed that the effortsbeing made under SwachhBharat mission have made apositive impact on the clean-liness situation in urban areas.

Besides, 421 assessors ofquality council of India havephysically inspected 17,500locations in 434 cities andtowns. 2,680 residential loca-tions, 2,680 commercial loca-tions and 2,582 commercialand public toilets wereinspected in these cities andtowns for on the spot thirdparty assessment of groundlevel assessment of sanita-tion.

Minister of UrbanDevelopment M.VenkaiahNaidu tweeted saying :“Survey results are very

encouraging. Revealed majorimprovement in cleanliness inlast one year. Swachh Bharatbuzz is reflecting on ground.Swachh Rankings of 434 citiesand towns will be announcedon Thursday this week. Morethan rankings, citizen’s per-ception and field reports aremore exciting.”

A total of over 37 lakh cit-izens responded with theirfeedback under the two monthlong survey. After a careful ver-ification of the responses anddeletion of multiple responses,Quality Council of India thatconducted the survey havetaken in to consideration over18 lakh responses.

Commerce and Industry MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, on Monday,

May 1, has said that India should take leadin making quality products available to theworld at an affordable price.

Inaugurating the 4th NationalStandards Conclave organised by theDepartment of Commerce in associationwith CII, BIS, EIC, FSSAI, APEDA andNABCB she emphasised while standardsas signifying quality are important butthey also need to be affordable for man-ufacturers to comply and consumers tobuy.

She also said that the Prime Minister’s

Zero Effect Zero Defect idea aims at exact-ly this. She cited The Mangalyan launchcosting and world-class quality is a primeexample of quality with affordability.

The Minister appreciated that a ‘stan-dards strategy document’ is going to bethe possible outcome of this conclave,however, she emphasised that long-termstrategy should not lose sight of imme-diate challenges. stating that any nation-al strategy for standards should be able tofactor in technology to disseminate anychange in import requirements in foreigncountries so that our exporters are wellprepared to overcome those barriers.

The ministry of skill development has invit-ed comments and suggestions of the public

on the Sharada Prasad committee constituted toreview, rationalise and optimise the functioningof Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) by 10th of thismonth. The report has already been submittedto the ministry recently. The same has also beenput up in public domain on April 25 for engag-ing the stake holders for rationalisation and opti-misation of the functioning of the Sector SkillCouncil.

The report is in three volumes. Volume oneis the main report which deals with the major

challenges facing the vocational education andtraining system of the country and convergence,synergy and rationalisation of sector skill coun-cils. Volume two contains appendices arrangedchapter-wise. Volume three has maps of nation-al classification of occupations, 2015 withnational industrial classification, 2008.

The Ministry is now in the process of exam-ining the report and the recommendations madetherein.

Presently, the National Skill DevelopmentCorporation (NSDC) has approved formation of40 SSCs in different sectors.

On the occasion ofInternational Labour Day

the Northeast Frontier RailwayWomen’s WelfareOrganisation(NFRWWO) onMonday felicitated 26 group Drailway employees from all divi-sions for rendering outstandingservice for the organisation. The

felicitated employees are all fieldlevel workers who were hon-oured for their outstanding per-formances despite of odds toensure safe and smooth move-ment of trains. The felicitationwas done by Sunita Singh,President NFRWWO. In heraddress she underscored the

very important role of all fieldlevel employees whose dedicat-ed service was behind the suc-cessful performance of the rail-ways which touched everyone’slives. She also congratulated theaward winning employees andurged them to continue theirgood work for the organisation.

To commemorate the runningof the first train in the coun-

try between Boribunder andThane, Indian Railways celebratethe Railway Week every yearduring April. This year IndianRailways celebrates its 62ndRailway Week. RK Kulshrestha,General Manager, NorthernRailway presided over the vale-dictor y ceremony held atNorthern Railway Headquarters,Baroda House, New Delhi. VedPal, Additional GeneralManager, all the principal headsof the various departments,other senior railway officialsand railway employees ofNorthern Railway, Members ofUnions Associations andFederations, President, NorthernRailway Women WelfareOrganisation. (NRWWO) MansiKulshrestha and other Membersof NRWWO were present on theoccasion.

The ceremony started withfacilitation of 241 railwayemployees (Officers & Staff)for their meritorious services byRK Kulshrestha, GeneralManager, Northern Railway.Four group awards and 44 run-ning shields were presented bygeneral manager, based on per-formance-oriented parameters.

Delhi and Ambala divisionsjointly have been awarded withGeneral Manager’s ExcellenceShield.

Ambala Division wasdeclared the best and was award-ed the shield for its overall per-formance. Firozpur Division hasbeen awarded for its most eco-nomical functioning

Speaking on the occasion,the general manager laudedofficers and staff for variousachievements of the zone incore functional areas.

Pointing out to the runningof the first semi-high-speedtrain on Indian Railways, theGatimaan Express, he stated

that this was symbolic of futureof high speed travel in the coun-try.

The introduction of theNewly Developed DeenDayaluCoach on the Kuruskshetra-Mathura Pilgrim Express andHumsafar train with enhancedfeatures between Gorakhpurand AnandVihar T reiterate theRailway's commitment to createnew trends in rail travel throughenhanced coach comfort andnew measures to ensure coachcleanliness and thereby endeav-or to deliver better travel expe-rience.

Drawing attention toRailway Minister’s directives atthe recent All India RailwayWeek Celebrations at NayaRaipur, General Manager,Northern Railway stated thatutmost priority be given toSafety, Punctuality andCleanliness.

SwacchtaAbhiyaans need tobe carried out at all railway sta-tions, in trains and at work-places. Kulshrestha also exhort-ed Railway staff to express theirsolidarity and dynamismthrough team spirit to propel thezone to achieve still greaterheights in the financial yearahead.

During this (April 16 toApril 30) period,Ministry of Culture

initiated various Swachhataactivities. Creating perma-nent mechanism of cleanli-ness for all organisationsunder Ministry of Cultureand spreading awarenessthrough various culturalactivities by involving all itsorganisations are a few ofthem .

The Ministry spreadawareness through music,dance and drama by its acad-emies and maintainingcleanliness at all ASI pro-tected monuments, etc.

The ministry dedicated atotal of 275 effort hours forcleanliness and awareness. Atotal of 82 activities and

events were organised bythe ministry and its organi-sations during the SwachhataPakhwada.

The ministry alsoannounced that it is consid-ering to provide space atGandhi Smriti and DarshanSamiti (GSDS), Rajghat tohost Rashtriya SwachhataKendra to be set up byMinistry of Drinking Waterand Sanitation under visionof Prime Minister duringthe centenary year of Bapuji’sChamparan Satyagraha.

National archives ofIndia organisedSwachhagraha- Bapu koKaryanjali, a mission andexhibition to commemoratecentenary year ofChamparan Satyagraha.

To create awareness onSwachhata, Ministry ofCulture has developed ‘e-guide (Audio-Visual)’ app.

A two day festival -Vimal Yatra was organised bySangeet Natak Akademithrough cultural and devo-tional performances.

Special exhibition titled‘SUNO- Broom Sticks’ wasorganised by the IndianMuseum to highlight impor-tance of broom sticks.

The seven zonal cultur-al centres of ministry organ-ised various competitionssuch as essay writing, postermaking, painting, rangolimaking amongst studentsfor Swachhta awareness.

Indira Gandhi RashtriyaManav Sanghralaya organ-

ised series of activities suchas painting competition, lec-tures and seminars

The National Gallery ofModern Art participated ina heritage walk and cleanli-ness drive on World ArtDay and World HeritageDay. They also organisedposter making competitionfor school students.

Allahabad Museumorganised series of activitiessuch as seminar on wastemanagement, debate com-petition on hygiene forschool children and nukkadnatak at prominent places forSwachhata awareness. Italso became the secondmuseum after SalarjungMuseum to go for solar pow-ered clean energy.

South Western Command’s Corps‘Strike One’ successfully carried out

the firing of the advanced BrahmosBlock-III missile system in theAndaman and Nicobar Islands on theMay 3 for the second consecutiveday. The successive launches reinforcethe formidable weapon’s precisionstrike capability. The long-range tac-tical weapon was successfully testedfrom the same location on the May2. These successful firings of thesupersonic cruise missile were carriedout in full operational land-to-landconfigurations from MobileAutonomous Launchers (MAL) at itsfull-range.

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In a move to encourage and motivate railway employees,special felicitation programmes are being organised

throughout Indian Railways in the first week of May 2017.In Delhi , the main function was held on May 1 at StateEntry Railway Club where 78 railways employees with atleast 25 years of serviceand unblemished servicewere felicitated by theChief Guest RashmiMital, President RailwayWomen’s Welfare CentralOrganisation (RWWCO)in the presence of MansiKulshrestha, PresidentNorthern RailwayWomen’s WelfareOrganisation and Sonia Singh.President NRWWO, DelhiDivision This unique initiative of felicitating Railwayemployees was taken by RWWCO which is the apex bodyof the chain of women’s welfare organisations spread overall Indian Railways engaged in the task of welfare ofRailwaymen and their families through various need-basedsocio-welfare activities.

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Ministry of Power on April 28 organised the 53rdMeeting of the Executive Committee of Power Sports

Control Board at Hotel Lalit, New Delhi. Representativesfrom PFC, BBMB, PGCIL,NHPC,THDC, REC, MOP,CEA,NEEPCO and SJVNL attended the meeting. On this occa-sion, D Ravi, Director(Commercial), PFC and PK Bhargava,Executive Director(HR), PFC presented shields to the PowerPSUs for organising Inter CPSU sports tournament duringthe FY 2016-17.

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The well known social activist Soumen Koley was con-ferred with coveted BCR Awards at a glittering func-

tion organised at Muktdhara Auditorium, Delhi.The National Vice President of BJP, Shyam Jaju was the

chief guest of the occasion. Koley is a well known social activist, mainly active in

West Bengalarea. Hissocial ser-vice organi-sation isa c t i v e l yengaged inuplifting thesocial ande c o n o m i cstatus ofdowntrodden class in the area by engaging then in varioustypes of employments as well as market oriented skills andcrafts. He is the recipient of several awards for his remark-able contribution in the field of social service in the past.

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Rising Pune Supergiantdished out a tidy bowlingperformance to restrict

Kolkata Knight Riders to 155for eight in their return-legIPL T20 f ixture here onWednesday.

Put in to bat, KKR foundthe going tough at their back-yard and suffered their worststart of the season to be strug-gling at 55 for four inside 10overs.

Their top four, Sunil Narine(0), Gautam Gambhir (24),Sheldon Jackson (10) and YusufPathan (4) were all back indugout midway into theirinnings.

Unadkat returned withexcellent figures of 4-1-28-2,while 17-year-old WashingtonSundar too was impressive inhis 2/18 from two overs.

The duo of Manish Pandey(37 off 32) and Colin deGrandhomme (36 off 19)revived KKR innings with a 48-

run fifth wicket partnershipoff 30 balls.

Having conceded just sixruns in his opening spell of twoovers, Unadkat returned to dis-miss Grandhomme in the 17thover in which he conceded onerun as KKR struggled to getgoing.

It was thanks toSuryakumar Yadav, who wasplaying in place of an injuredRobin Uthappa, KKR were ableto cross the 150-run mark afterthe aggressive batsman smashed

30 off 16 balls.Pune had the best start of

the tournament with Jaydevbowling a wicket-maiden offSunil Narine.

After being beaten in thefirst five deliveries, Narine final-ly got a connection in the lastball of the over only to findUnadkat in the way.

Pune captain Steven Smithshowed full faith on youngsterWashington, bringing the off-spinner in the fourth over withKKR yet to break free.

It was a gamble that paid offas Washington struck withSheldon Jackson out hit-wick-et, a first for KKR in 10 seasons.

Gambhir took charge onWashington with back to backfour and six but in his nextattempt the KKR skipper holedout to Rahane at deep mid-wicket, leaving his team at 41for three in Powerplay.

This was the worst start forKKR as there was more in storewhen Imran Tahir trapped asloppy Yusuf Pathan (4) LBW in

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After an uplifting win overSunrisers Hyderabad on

Tuesday, Delhi Daredevils willbe keen to carry the momentumforward against Suresh Raina ledGujarat Lions on Thursday.

Both teams have producedunderwhelming performancesthis season. Delhi are currentlysixth in the points table whileGujarat are seventh. While thepossibility of making the play-offs looks unlikely, both sideswould like to garner as manywins as possible in their remain-ing matches. Daredevils, withjust three wins in nine matchesthis season, have been disap-pointing. They went into thetournament with a side that washeavy in the bowling depart-ment.

But the leader of tha attack

and also the team, Zaheer Khanis unlikely to be available forThursday's match due to hishamstring injury.

As the wicket in Kotla haspossessed good pace andbounce this season, Rabada andCummins could both be useful.But Morris has been among thewickets and may retain hisplace. But Delhi's main problemhas been their batting. Theteam chose to place its faith intalented youngsters instead ofbig names. Initially the strategyseemed to work but later on, theabsence of a proven performerwas keenly felt. While the likesof Sanju Samson and RishabhPant have played good knocks,they have failed to convert theminto big scores. The likes ofShreyas Iyer and Karun Nairhaven't delivered and experi-enced Angelo Matthews is yet to

contribute substantially. CoreyAnderson can play usefulcameos but he needs a goodplatform to provide a surge atthe end.

On the other hand, GujaratLions have also not risen to theoccasion this season. Theirsquad is exactly opposed innature to Delhi with manyunheralded bowlers and lot ofdangerous batsmen.

However, Lions have strug-gled on account of concedingtoo many runs. Andrew Tye wasone bowler doing well but he hasbeen ruled out due to a shoul-der injury. Experienced Indianbowlers Praveen Kumar andRavindra Jadeja have not deliv-ered. James Faulkner is the soleproven commodity in the bowl-ing attack but he too is yet toshow his best.

The batting has performed

a little better but has problems.McCullum has been the mostdependable batsmen and Rainahas played couple of goodinnings. But others have beenfairly inconsistent. There hasbeen a lack of collective teameffort with most finding form injust one odd match and nottogether consistently.

If the Kotla wicket contin-ues to have good pace andbounce like in the first threematches, then it would be excit-ing to see the contest betweenDelhi's pace bowlers andGujarat's big hitters.

Bowlers like Rabada andCummins would like the truebounce of the pitch while big hit-ters like McCullum and Finchwould enjoy the ball coming onto the bat. This contest couldvery well decide the fate of the match.

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Gujarat Lions' teenage batting sensation IshanKishan is happy to open the innings for the Suresh

Raina-led side, even though he knows that nothingis assured in cricket.

"I am hitting the ball well at the moment," saida poised Kishan. "But how things will go on a day, younever know. Nothing is sure in cricket. But if askedto open again, I will focus on getting my team a goodstart," he added

This edition of the Indian Premier League hasseen the likes of Nitish Rana (Mumbai Indians),Rishabh Pant (Delhi Daredevils) and T Natarajan(Kings XI Punjab) announce their arrival at the bigstage as potential stars-in-the-making. Along the lines,Gujarat have one of their own in 18-year-old Ishan,who also captained India to the Final of under-19World Cup in 2016.

The flamboyant batsman, who started batting atNo 6, is now promoted to open ahead of AustralianAaron Finch. He justified the faith showed in him byskipper Raina with two good knocks in back-to-backmatches - 31 off 24 balls and 48 off 35 balls - and rar-ing to go for a biginnings against DelhiDaredevils here onThursday. Kishan,despite at this youngage, is smart enough tokeep his feet on theground and wasrespectful of his oppo-nent.

"Delhi are in sim-ilar situation as us, it isa do-or-die situationfor both of us. We arein a situation where wecan't lose anymore. Butwe have a positivementality and we will fight till the end," he said whileon his visit to the Made Easy Cricket Academy, hereon Wednesday.

After being promoted to top order, it gave Kishanthe opportunity to partner with Kiwi great BrendonMcCullum. Being a keeper-batsman himself, theteenager feels he is lucky to learn tricks of the game fromthe experienced New Zealander.

"It's a very good experience for me (to open withMcCullum). I get to learn a lot from him, having some-one like him at the other end takes pressure off me."

While he enjoys playing alongside the Kiwi star, heidolises his Jharkhand team-mate Mahendra SinghDhoni.

"Dhoni has always been my idol. And after shar-ing a dressing room with him (in Ranji) I idolise himeven more. He always gives me valuable suggestionslike not to change my style and work on my aggressionas well as asked me to slowly pace my innings," he said.

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Striker Mandeep Singh scored a brillianthat-trick to hand India a fighting 4-3 vic-

tory over lower-ranked Japan in a roundrobin match of the 26th Azlan Shah Cuphockey tournament, here on Wednesday.

Having squandered the early lead pro-vided by a penalty corner conversion fromRupinderpal Singh, India were trailingwhen Mandeep got into his goal-scoring actin the second half.

It needed two goals from Mandeep inthe last 10 minutes to help India avoid a stun-ning loss.

Neutralising India's early lead throughKazuma Murata's fine deflection in the 10thminute, Japan led twice in the game withgoals coming from Heita Yoshihara (43rd)and Genki Mitani (45th), but they could notovercome Mandeep's brilliance.

Mandeep got into the goal-scoring actwith a fine touch on a through ball from

Harmanpreet Singh in the 45th minute.He then came back to tap in a square ball

from Sardar Singh in the 51st minute andthen ensured three points for India by cap-italising on a diagonal ball from Rupinderpalin the 58th minute.

The win gave India a chance of makingthe second successive Final in the SultanAzlan Shah Cup after having finished run-ners-up behind Australia last year.

���'�������$��$��$����India captain and goalkeeper PR

Sreejesh was on Wednesday ruled out of theongoing Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tour-nament due to a knee injury he sustained inthe match against defending championsAustralia. Sreejesh has a painful right kneedue to a ligament injury that generally takestwo to three months to heal.

"Sreejesh has been told that his injurywill take 2-3 months to heal," coach RoelantOltmans said after the 4-3 win over Japan.

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Another impressive performance byCristiano Ronaldo has left Real

Madrid on the verge of anotherChampions League Final.

Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to reach400 goals with Madrid and lead thedefending champions to a commanding3-0 win over city rival Atletico Madridin the first leg of their Champions Leaguesemifinal on Tuesday.

He scored with a header in the 10thminute, with a strike into the top cornerin the 73rd and a close-range shot in the86th to give Madrid a comfortable leadgoing into next week's second leg atAtletico's Vicente Calderon Stadium.

"We played a great match," Madridcoach Zinedine Zidane said. "It's not easyto score three times against such a dif-ficult opponent and keep a clean sheet."

The result left Atletico close to yetanother disappointing elimination

against the crosstown rival, followingdefeats in the Champions League in thelast three seasons.

"We're going to try and do some-thing practically impossible next week,"Atletico coach Diego Simeone said."We're Atletico Madrid and maybe, justmaybe, we can do it."

Madrid, which is looking to reach itsthird Final in four seasons, was in con-trol from the start at the SantiagoBernabeu Stadium and took advantageof Ronaldo's impressive form. He hadscored five in the two legs of the quar-terfinals against Bayern Munich, includ-ing a hat trick in the second leg at theBernabeu. "The team was amazing, it wasa complete match," said Ronaldo, whoreached the 400-goal milestone in his389th game with Madrid. "We playedwell from start to finish."

Ronaldo now has 103 goals in theChampions League, not counting one hescored in the qualifiers, which is threemore than Atletico has scored since thenew format was created in 1992.

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his second over.Just when they were looking

down the barrel, Pandey played a per-fect fiddle Grandhomme as the duoscored at brisk pace to notch up 55runs between 10 to 15 overs.

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