16
A full-blown war erupted in the judiciary on Friday after the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against Calcutta High Court judge Justice CS Karnan for failing to turn up before the apex court to face contempt charges despite two notices. Remaining defiant, Justice Karnan hit back at the SC calling its decision “unconstitutional” and alleging that he was being targeted for being a Dalit. He even appealed to the President of India to recall the bailable warrant. Justice Karnan also issued an “order” for registration of a case under the appropriate sec- tions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against Chief Justice of India Justice JS Khehar and six other judges. Incidentally, the SC had withdrawn all judicial and administrative work from Justice Karnan with the initia- tion of contempt proceedings. Justice Karnan goes down in Indian judicial history as the first serving High Court judge against whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the apex court in a contempt case A seven-judge Bench of the apex court comprising Khehar and the next six judges in the order of seniority directed the West Bengal Director General of Police to “personally” serve the warrant on the judge and ensure his presence in the apex court on March 31, when the matter is to be heard next. Soon after, Justice Karnan called a Press conference at his residence in Kolkata and said the apex court had “no locus standi” to issue a bailable war- rant against a sitting judge. “This is intentional and I am being targeted for being a Dalit. The warrant against me is unconstitutional,” he said. The “order” issued by Justice Karnan directed the “CBI to register, investigate and file a report before the appropriate CBI court under Article 226 read with Section 482, CrPC to prevent abuse of process of any court and to secure the ends of justice invok- ing inherent powers of this honourable court.” “I further direct the Secretary-Generals of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to place the entire facts of the case before the Speaker for appro- priate enquiry under the Judges Enquiry Act. “Consequently, I ask the President of India to recall the bailable warrant illegally issued by the Supreme Court on Friday against me and lift the non- work allotment ban of portfo- lio allocation,” he said Justice Karnan has a histo- ry of run-ins with the judicia- ry. He has landed in trouble for writing a series of letters hurl- ing scurrilous charges against his colleagues in Madras High Court where he served for eight years before he was shift- ed to Calcutta in March 2016. He had even threatened to prosecute them under the SC/ST Act. Taking note of these letters, the SC on February 8, 2017 issued notice to Justice Karnan to be present to face Contempt of Court proceedings on February 13. Continued on Page 4 A Gurugram court on Friday convicted 31 employees of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), including 13 on charges of murder, in connec- tion with the violence at the automobile giant’s Manesar plant in Haryana on July 18, 2012 in which a HR general manager of the plant had been burnt alive. Additional District and Sessions Judge RP Goel convicted 13 members of MSIL workers’ union for the murder of Avanish Kumar Dev, while 18 others were pronounced guilty for rioting, trespassing, causing hurt, and other offences under the IPC. However, the court acquit- ted 117 of the 148 employees chargesheeted in the case for the want of substantial proof. The court will pronounce the quan- tum of sentence on March 18. In his 508 pages long order, the court found that the 90 workers had no links with the violence. Defence lawyer Rajender Pathak said, “We have won 50 per cent battle in the case. We also hope the rest of the work- ers will be released soon.” A large contingent of police was deployed at the court on Friday as a precautionary mea- sure. The local administration had clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC to prevent any untoward incident. Over 1,800 police personnel were deployed at half a dozen sensitive locations in Gurugram, including Kamla Nehru Park, where workers were expected to begin their protest if the verdict came against them. Khushi Ram, General Secretary of Mazdoor Sahyog Kendra, Gurugram, said the workers are yet to decide on their future course of action. Khushi Ram is one of the 550 employees who were termi- nated from service after the incident. “We will discuss the verdict with all workers and decide the future course of action,” he said. Violence had erupted at the plant over disciplinary action against an employee during which agitated workers had gone on the rampage, torching a part of the factory, beating Avanish Kumar Dev who sus- tained fractures in hands and legs and then setting the build- ing on fire. Avanish could not move out of the building and was burnt alive. They also beat up and bludgeoned with rods 100 others at the plant. Those wounded included some for- eigners and policemen. The massive plant, which rolled out over five lakh cars a year, was shut down for a month fol- lowing the unrest. The 13 workers found guilty of murder have been identified as Workers Union president Ram Mehar, and members Sandeep Dhillon, Ram Bilas, Sarabjeet Singh, Pawan Kumar, Sohan Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Ajmer Singh, Jiya Lal, Amarjeet, Dhanraj Bhambi, Yogesh Kumar, and Pradeep Gujjar. T he Rajya Sabha on Friday passed by voice vote Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China, amid a walkout by the entire Opposition which demanded deferring of the debate for a detailed discussion next week. Explaining the rationale behind the urgency to get the Bill passed, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the right of the enemy property should vest in the Government of India and not in the heirs of the citizens of the enemy countries. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in March last year. After this, the RS had sent it to a select committee on whose recommendations the Government moved a number of amendments to it. The amendments include that once an enemy property is vested in the custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death. The new Bill ensures that the law of succession does not apply to enemy property and that the custodian shall pre- serve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the Act. Continued on Page 4 T he Election Commission has put in place an elabo- rate infrastructure for making available trends and results of the five Assembly polls on Saturday. According to the EC, the trends will start trickling in from 8 am, and the EC website will provide a comparative analysis with the outcome of the 2012 polls in these States. The EC said its Information Technology solu- tion will capture the number of votes secured by the candidates round-wise during the count- ing. After compilation, the EC will also show constituency- wise, party-wise, and candi- date-wise trends. For the first time, the EC will also provide analytics through an interactive dash- board. It will consist of both data and analysis on its official website www.eci.nic.in on Sunday. “The analysis will be pre- sented in user-friendly, click- able infographics which may be of immense interest to all stakeholders. The users can download data, crosstab, PDF and images for analysing the elections further at their end. It will include comparative ana- lytics between 2012 and 2017,” the poll panel said. “The users will get con- stituency-wise analysis with respect to participation of electors (constituencies with more female electors, con- stituencies by slabs of voter turnout, turnout by poll days) and candidates (gender-wise participants, winners and major competitors). To assess performance of political par- ties, analysis on seats won by them, the percentage vote- share in the States and the pro- file (Age and Social Category) of candidates fielded by them have been included. Candidates have been mapped to their constituencies and the votes polled in their favour,” it said. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s senior Minister Mohammad Azam Khan on Friday trashed all exit polls and predicted 380 seats for his Samajwadi Party. Getting his mathematics wrong, Khan also predicted 80 seats for the Bahujan Samaj Party and 25 for the Bharatiya Janata Party, while ignoring the Congress totally. The total number of Assembly seats, as per Khan’s prediction, works out to 485 while the Assembly has just 403 seats. Talking to reporters in Rampur, he also ruled out any post-poll alliance with the BSP, saying such a sit- uation will not arise as “we are getting 380 seats”. IANS Washington: India’s first lunar probe — the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft — which was consid- ered lost, is still orbiting the Moon, NASA scientists have found by using a new ground- based radar technique. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost com- munication with Chandrayaan-1 on August 29, 2009, almost a year after it was launched on October 22, 2008. Now, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California have successfully locat- ed the spacecraft still circling some 200 kilometres above the lunar surface. “We have been able to detect NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunar orbit with ground-based radar,” said Marina Brozovic, a radar sci- entist at JPL and principal inves- tigator for the test project. “Finding LRO was relatively easy, as we were working with the mission’s navigators and had pre- cise orbit data where it was locat- ed. Finding India’s Chandrayaan- 1 required a bit more detective work because the last contact with the spacecraft was in August of 2009,” said Brozovic. The Chandrayaan-1 space- craft is very small, a cube about 1.5 meters on each side — about half the size of a smart car. Although the interplanetary radar has been used to observe small asteroids several million miles from Earth, researchers were not certain that an object of this smaller size as far away as the Moon could be detected, even with the world’s most powerful radars. Chandrayaan-1 proved the perfect target for demonstrating the capability of this technique. To find a spacecraft 3,80,000 kilometres away, JPL’s team used NASA’s 70-metre antenna at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California to send out a power- ful beam of microwaves directed towards the Moon. Then the radar echoes bounced back from lunar orbit were received by the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Finding a derelict spacecraft at lunar distance that has not been tracked for years is tricky because the Moon is riddled with mascons (regions with higher-than-average gravitational pull) that can dra- matically affect a spacecraft’s orbit over time, and even cause it to have crashed into the Moon. JPL’s orbital calculations indi- cated that Chandrayaan-1 is still circling some 200 kilometres above the lunar surface, but it was generally considered “lost.” Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: 4 ’ %%’(&%)5 $ %3 ˝!#! $#% ˚˙˚˙&’()˚*+*!,+ an “order” for registration of a case under the appropriate sec-tions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention

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Afull-blown war erupted inthe judiciary on Friday

after the Supreme Court issuedan arrest warrant againstCalcutta High Court judgeJustice CS Karnan for failing toturn up before the apex courtto face contempt chargesdespite two notices. Remainingdefiant, Justice Karnan hit backat the SC calling its decision“unconstitutional” and allegingthat he was being targeted forbeing a Dalit. He even appealedto the President of India torecall the bailable warrant.

Justice Karnan also issuedan “order” for registration of a

case under the appropriate sec-tions of the Scheduled Castesand Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act,1989 against Chief Justice ofIndia Justice JS Khehar and sixother judges.

Incidentally, the SC hadwithdrawn all judicial andadministrative work fromJustice Karnan with the initia-tion of contempt proceedings.

Justice Karnan goes downin Indian judicial history as thefirst serving High Court judgeagainst whom an arrest warranthas been issued by the apexcourt in a contempt case

A seven-judge Bench of theapex court comprising Kheharand the next six judges in theorder of seniority directed theWest Bengal Director Generalof Police to “personally” serve

the warrant on the judge andensure his presence in the apexcourt on March 31, when thematter is to be heard next.

Soon after, Justice Karnancalled a Press conference at hisresidence in Kolkata and saidthe apex court had “no locusstandi” to issue a bailable war-rant against a sitting judge.

“This is intentional and Iam being targeted for being aDalit. The warrant against meis unconstitutional,” he said.

The “order” issued byJustice Karnan directed the“CBI to register, investigateand file a report before theappropriate CBI court underArticle 226 read with Section482, CrPC to prevent abuse ofprocess of any court and tosecure the ends of justice invok-ing inherent powers of thishonourable court.”

“I further direct theSecretary-Generals of LokSabha and Rajya Sabha to placethe entire facts of the case

before the Speaker for appro-priate enquiry under the JudgesEnquiry Act.

“Consequently, I ask thePresident of India to recall thebailable warrant illegally issuedby the Supreme Court on Fridayagainst me and lift the non-work allotment ban of portfo-lio allocation,” he said

Justice Karnan has a histo-ry of run-ins with the judicia-ry. He has landed in trouble forwriting a series of letters hurl-ing scurrilous charges againsthis colleagues in Madras HighCourt where he served foreight years before he was shift-ed to Calcutta in March 2016.He had even threatened toprosecute them under theSC/ST Act.

Taking note of these letters,the SC on February 8, 2017issued notice to Justice Karnanto be present to face Contemptof Court proceedings onFebruary 13.

Continued on Page 4

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AGurugram court on Fridayconvicted 31 employees of

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd(MSIL), including 13 oncharges of murder, in connec-tion with the violence at theautomobile giant’s Manesarplant in Haryana on July 18,2012 in which a HR generalmanager of the plant had beenburnt alive. Additional Districtand Sessions Judge RP Goelconvicted 13 members of MSILworkers’ union for the murderof Avanish Kumar Dev, while18 others were pronouncedguilty for rioting, trespassing,causing hurt, and otheroffences under the IPC.

However, the court acquit-ted 117 of the 148 employeeschargesheeted in the case for thewant of substantial proof. Thecourt will pronounce the quan-tum of sentence on March 18. Inhis 508 pages long order, thecourt found that the 90 workershad no links with the violence.

Defence lawyer RajenderPathak said, “We have won 50per cent battle in the case. Wealso hope the rest of the work-ers will be released soon.”

A large contingent of policewas deployed at the court onFriday as a precautionary mea-sure. The local administrationhad clamped prohibitory ordersunder Section 144 CrPC toprevent any untoward incident.

Over 1,800 police personnelwere deployed at half a dozensensitive locations in Gurugram,including Kamla Nehru Park,where workers were expected tobegin their protest if the verdictcame against them.

Khushi Ram, GeneralSecretary of Mazdoor SahyogKendra, Gurugram, said theworkers are yet to decide ontheir future course of action.Khushi Ram is one of the 550employees who were termi-nated from service after theincident. “We will discuss theverdict with all workers anddecide the future course ofaction,” he said.

Violence had erupted at theplant over disciplinary actionagainst an employee duringwhich agitated workers hadgone on the rampage, torchinga part of the factory, beating

Avanish Kumar Dev who sus-tained fractures in hands andlegs and then setting the build-ing on fire. Avanish could notmove out of the building andwas burnt alive. They also beatup and bludgeoned with rods100 others at the plant. Thosewounded included some for-eigners and policemen. Themassive plant, which rolledout over five lakh cars a year,was shut down for a month fol-lowing the unrest.

The 13 workers foundguilty of murder have beenidentified as Workers Unionpresident Ram Mehar, andmembers Sandeep Dhillon,Ram Bilas, Sarabjeet Singh,Pawan Kumar, Sohan Kumar,Pradeep Kumar, Ajmer Singh,Jiya Lal, Amarjeet, DhanrajBhambi, Yogesh Kumar, andPradeep Gujjar.

����������� ��������������������������������������������� ��� ���������������� ������������

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The Rajya Sabha on Fridaypassed by voice vote Enemy

Property (Amendment andValidation) Bill, 2016, to guardagainst claims of succession ortransfer of properties left bypeople who migrated toPakistan and China, amid awalkout by the entireOpposition which demandeddeferring of the debate for adetailed discussion next week.

Explaining the rationalebehind the urgency to get theBill passed, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley said the right ofthe enemy property shouldvest in the Government ofIndia and not in the heirs of the

citizens of the enemy countries.The Bill was passed by the

Lok Sabha in March last year.After this, the RS had sent it toa select committee on whoserecommendations theGovernment moved a numberof amendments to it.

The amendments includethat once an enemy property isvested in the custodian, it shallcontinue to be vested in him asenemy property irrespectiveof whether the enemy, enemysubject or enemy firm hasceased to be an enemy due toreasons such as death.

The new Bill ensures thatthe law of succession does notapply to enemy property andthat the custodian shall pre-serve the enemy property till itis disposed of in accordancewith the Act.

Continued on Page 4

��� � �36�3"(!

The Election Commissionhas put in place an elabo-

rate infrastructure for makingavailable trends and results ofthe five Assembly polls onSaturday. According to the EC,the trends will start trickling infrom 8 am, and the EC websitewill provide a comparativeanalysis with the outcome ofthe 2012 polls in these States.

The EC said itsInformation Technology solu-tion will capture the number ofvotes secured by the candidatesround-wise during the count-ing. After compilation, the ECwill also show constituency-wise, party-wise, and candi-date-wise trends.

For the first time, the ECwill also provide analyticsthrough an interactive dash-board. It will consist of bothdata and analysis on its officialwebsite www.eci.nic.in onSunday.

“The analysis will be pre-sented in user-friendly, click-able infographics which may beof immense interest to all

stakeholders. The users candownload data, crosstab, PDFand images for analysing theelections further at their end. Itwill include comparative ana-lytics between 2012 and 2017,”the poll panel said.

“The users will get con-stituency-wise analysis withrespect to participation ofelectors (constituencies withmore female electors, con-stituencies by slabs of voterturnout, turnout by poll days)and candidates (gender-wiseparticipants, winners andmajor competitors). To assessperformance of political par-ties, analysis on seats won bythem, the percentage vote-

share in the States and the pro-file (Age and Social Category)of candidates fielded by themhave been included.

Candidates have been mappedto their constituencies andthe votes polled in theirfavour,” it said.

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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’ssenior Minister MohammadAzam Khan on Friday trashedall exit polls and predicted 380seats for his Samajwadi Party.

Getting his mathematicswrong, Khan also predicted 80seats for the Bahujan SamajParty and 25 for the BharatiyaJanata Party, while ignoring

the Congress totally. The totalnumber of Assembly seats, asper Khan’s prediction, worksout to 485 while the Assemblyhas just 403 seats. Talking toreporters in Rampur, he alsoruled out any post-poll alliancewith the BSP, saying such a sit-uation will not arise as “we aregetting 380 seats”. IANS

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Washington: India’s first lunarprobe — the Chandrayaan-1spacecraft — which was consid-ered lost, is still orbiting theMoon, NASA scientists havefound by using a new ground-based radar technique.

Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) lost com-munication with Chandrayaan-1on August 29, 2009, almost a yearafter it was launched on October22, 2008.

Now, scientists at NASA’s JetPropulsion Laboratory (JPL) inCalifornia have successfully locat-ed the spacecraft still circlingsome 200 kilometres above thelunar surface.

“We have been able to detectNASA’s Lunar ReconnaissanceOrbiter (LRO) and the IndianSpace Research Organisation’sChandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunarorbit with ground-based radar,”said Marina Brozovic, a radar sci-entist at JPL and principal inves-tigator for the test project.

“Finding LRO was relativelyeasy, as we were working with themission’s navigators and had pre-cise orbit data where it was locat-ed. Finding India’s Chandrayaan-1 required a bit more detectivework because the last contact withthe spacecraft was in August of2009,” said Brozovic.

The Chandrayaan-1 space-craft is very small, a cube about1.5 meters on each side — abouthalf the size of a smart car.

Although the interplanetaryradar has been used to observesmall asteroids several millionmiles from Earth, researcherswere not certain that an object of

this smaller size as far away as theMoon could be detected, even withthe world’s most powerful radars.

Chandrayaan-1 proved theperfect target for demonstratingthe capability of this technique.

To find a spacecraft 3,80,000kilometres away, JPL’s team usedNASA’s 70-metre antenna atNASA’s Goldstone Deep SpaceCommunications Complex inCalifornia to send out a power-ful beam of microwaves directedtowards the Moon.

Then the radar echoesbounced back from lunar orbitwere received by the 100-meterGreen Bank Telescope in WestVirginia.

Finding a derelict spacecraftat lunar distance that has not beentracked for years is tricky becausethe Moon is riddled with mascons(regions with higher-than-averagegravitational pull) that can dra-matically affect a spacecraft’sorbit over time, and even cause itto have crashed into the Moon.

JPL’s orbital calculations indi-cated that Chandrayaan-1 is stillcircling some 200 kilometresabove the lunar surface, but it wasgenerally considered “lost.”

Continued on Page 4

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The Central IndustrialSecurity Force (CISF) is

trying to do away with thepractice of stamping hand bag-gage tag of flyers at all airportsto make air travel more com-fortable, the Director Generalof CISF said on Friday.

Delivering his address onthe occasion of the 48th RaisingDay of the Force here, CISFDirector General OP Singhsaid the Force has already con-ducted a trial in this regard andit has been successful. “We aretrying to do away with thestamping of hand baggage tagof passengers soon at all air-ports that we secure. The forcewants the air travel to be morecomfortable for the fliers,” thechief of the 1.45-lakh person-nel strong force said.

A high-level meeting wasrecently chaired by UnionMinister of State for HomeKiren Rijiju and his counter-part in the Civil AviationMinistry Jayant Sinha in orderto effectively operationalise thenew system at the airports,beginning with a cluster ofseven selected airports.

It is expected that theCentral Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) will implement itat the selected airports of Delhi,Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru,Cochin, Hyderabad andAhmedabad from next month.

A committee, constitutedpost the high-level meeting,comprising senior officialsfrom the Bureau of CivilAviation Security, CISF and air-port operators, has alreadybegun a tour of the airports toplug the “grey” areas at thesesensitive facilities so that thepossibility of any security

breach can be ruled out oncethe procedure of stamping oftag is done away with.

The CISF wants to haveHigh Definition (HD) multi-angle CCTV cameras in securi-ty hold areas, standby cameraswith power backup facility, videoanalytics in CCTV and physicalbarriers by way of deployingacrylic sheets at X-ray baggageclearing levels so that the per-sonnel who clear a baggage at theairports could be “easily identi-fied for the purpose of fixingaccountability” and also ensurefool-proof checking of bags.

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Amost wanted inter-statecriminal of south-west

Delhi, who was planning to killallegedly the AAP MLA fromUttam Nagar Naresh Balyanand a Deputy Superintendentof Panipat jail, has been arrest-ed from Dwarka.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Crime Branch) RamGopal Naik, said the accusedidentified as Sombir aka Filmy, aged 30, was arrested bya team of Crime Branch fromSector 16 A in Dwarka, onMarch 6.

He further said that Filmywas wanted in several crimi-nal cases including a case ofmurder of a property dealer

Bijender in Uttam Nagar areaover a land dispute, inNovember last year, he said.

He was carrying two ille-gal sophisticated pistols of7.65 bore loaded with total 9live cartridges. A Ritz car dri-ven by him was also recoveredby police. A case under appro-priate sections of law was reg-istered and Filmy was formal-ly arrested.

He had also been a shoot-er of ‘Rajesh Nahri gang’ ofHaryana and ‘Manjeet MahalGang’ of NCR and was asso-ciated with Rishiraj akaLambu, a notorious criminalof south-west Delhi.

Presently, he was plan-ning to re-constitute his owngang after the Delhi Police

arrested arrest Manjeet Mahal,he said.

“The accused was plan-ning to kill the sitting MLA ofUttam Nagar Naresh Balyan as the accused suspected thathe is favouring the rival party on a property dispute,and a deputy superintendent of Panipat jail to take revengefrom him,” said the official.

Filmy was apprehendedby Haryana Police in Sonipatfor the first time in a case ofArms Act in 2000, when hewas just 15 years.

In 2004, he along with hisassociates murdered one Moniat Bahadurgarh in Haryana.He was awarded life convictionin the case but filed a petitionbefore Chandigarh High

Court and his punishmentwas reduced; and he wasreleased from jail after sixyears in 2010.

During the imprisonmenthe came in contact with sometop gangsters of Delhi andHaryana. After he came out ofthe jail, he started participat-ing in land grabbing activities,Naik said.

He had absconded toNepal after killing the propertydealer in Uttam Nagar, andhad also spent some time at anashram in Himachal Pradesh.

He was trying to arrangeweapons from Rishi LambuGang in order to execute hisplanning to allegedly kill theMLA and the jail official inPanipat, he added.

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Light showers on Friday inthe national capital and

adjoining areas pulled the mercury down by 4 degreesCelsius, while the maximumtemperature settled at 28.4degrees, season’s average, theMeteorological office here said.It has forecast similar weatherfor Saturday as well.

The weather office saidthe city witnessed intermittentlight rain on Friday afternoonand evening at many places inthe city for the second consec-utive day. On Thursdayevening, light showers saw themercury slide down by 9degrees Celsius.

“Due to light rain, Delhi’stemperature dropped three to

four degrees on Friday,” theIndia MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) official said.

He said that the suddenrainfall was due to the westerndisturbance — a storm system

originating from the CaspianSea and moving across theAfghanistan-Pakistan region,which cause rain and snowfallin the Indian subcontinent'snorth-west region.

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Rajya Sabha MPSubramanian Swamy on

Friday said, “Our ancestorswere Hindus and that has beenscientifically proven”. Swamywas speaking in a seminarheld at Delhi University’sFaculty of Law on “Freedom ofSpeech under Constitution ofIndia”.

Also present at the seminarwere former Chief Justice ofPatna High Court, Justice IqbalAhmed Ansari, AgriculturalMinister of Haryana, OPDhankhar and Supreme Courtof India advocate, MonikaArora.

Swamy addressed the gath-ering on Fundamental Rightsof Speech in the wake of thescrapped journal ‘Critique’ forcarrying an article whichslammed Ramjas College.

The MP also said thatpeaceful way of debate is theultimate way for every issue.“Mosque is that space for read-ing the holy Quran which canbe shifted to any place accord-ingly with proper consent ofmasses but the common beliefshold that temple is where Godsor Goddesses reside. RamMandir in Ayodhya is consid-ered as the Lord Ram’s birth-place and it is quite impossibleto budge to anywhere else.”

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According to environmen-talists and physicians,

monster of air pollution is thesecond largest cause of deathsin Delhi and National CapitalRegion (NCR).

In a seminar organised atInstitute of Management andTechnology (IMT), the speak-ers stressed the need to curb themenace of air pollution as itcauses severe and adverseimpact on people’s health.

Professor Raj Kumar Head,Department of PulmonaryMedicines at National Centreof Allergy, Asthma, andImmunology at Vallabh BhaiPatel Chest Institute said Delhiand its surroundings are dense-ly polluted.

The particulate matter(PM) 10 and PM 2.5 pass thecritical limits especially duringwinters. The PM contains thehazardous elements of carbonmonoxide, O3, SO2, Nox andlead.

The children and old per-sons are vulnerable to its effect.

Its effects surface after 24 hoursof exposure, Professor RajKumar said.

Indoor air pollution hasalso been found to be the mosthazardous to humans whichare largely ignored. In fact it hasbeen found that the indoor airpollution is the second largestcontributory for human deaths,Dr Kumar added.

With the ongoing state ofaffairs, Delhi has been con-verted into the Asthma capital.Prof Raj Kumar suggested thatno carpet should be used in theNCR. All carpets contain pestsand one cannot disinfect itdespite dense cleaning.

Dr Archna Sharma,Managing Director of GaneshHospital and Gynaecologistwho was the co-sponsor of theseminar said during first threemonths of pregnancy, indoor air pollution affects theunborn child as there is lack ofoxygen through mother’sbreath. She demanded that“environment” as a subjectshould be inducted in medicaleducation.

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Aformer Joint Director in theMunicipal Corporation

(MCD), two former public servants and a property dealerhave been sent to four years injail by a Delhi court in a case offraudulent allotment of plotsmeant for slum dwellers.

The court awarded impris-onment to the four convicts, say-ing that no lenient view can betaken against them as they joint-ly worked to deprive the ownersof their rights to possess plotsagainst their shanties.

The court convicted retiredJoint Director of MCD’s JJ Slumdepartment and head of lockcommittee Kundan Lal, 66, and

members of the committee RamCharan Kamal and ShankarSahni and property dealer RSSandhu for the offences ofattempt to cheat, forgery, usingforged documents as genuineand criminal conspiracy underthe IPC and under provisions ofPrevention of Corruption Act.

“Considering the nature ofoffence, no lenient view can betaken against the convicts...Lal,Kamal and Sahni held anextremely powerful position andthey were to charter the courseof destiny of deserving poor JJdwellers by allotting plots tothem,” Special Judge HemaniMalhotra said.

According to the Anti-Corruption Branch, it received a

complaint in April 2011 allegingthat officials of MCD’s Slum andJJ department, including Lal,Kamal and Sahni, were indulgingin malpractices with the help ofproperty dealers. It alleged thatthe property dealer Sandhu wasmaking forged ration cards,identity cards purported to havebeen issued by the Delhi admin-istration and MCDs and weregetting the names of non-existentpersons mentioned in the surveylist of shanties to get them allot-ted alternative plots here fromthe JJ Department.

A list of 28 non-existentslum dwellers in whose namesplots were allotted at Bhalswahere was also attached with thecomplaint.

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In an excellent attempt tobring thousands of words

together in the form of a dic-tionary in two universal lan-guages English and Hindi,Delhi University Professor,Abhai Maurya has launched his1900 word “ParableInternational English-HindiDictionary”. The dictionarywas inaugurated on Friday byDelhi University ViceChancellor, Yogesh Tyagi at thevarsity's Sri Guru TeghBahadur Khalsa College.

The dictionary has beenprepared and produced as aone man work.

"I have been closely watch-ing the preparation of thismonumental work. At times, Ifelt skeptical about its comple-

tion but Professor Maurya didthe wonder and did it sowell…I would recommend thisvery useful dictionary to individuals as well as institu-tions, for it would enhance thelevel of knowledge an indi-vidual or an institution main-tains as a proudpossession,"saod the former

vice chancellor of KurukshetraUniversity, Professor Bhim SDahiya.

Beside, former AssociateProfessor of English, DUAnand Prakash, Editor JansattaMukesh Bhardwaj, Media per-sonality Vinod Dua, DeanFaculty of Arts, Mohan, Collegeprincipal Jaswinder Singh.

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Delhi Police arrested twoalleged drug traffickers

and two kilograms of highgrade heroin estimated to beworth �8 crore, brought toDelhi from Afghanistan andPakistan. Proceeds of sale ofdrugs totalling �20 lakh indenomination of �2,000 wasalso recovered from theaccused, he said.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice, Special Cell, SanjivKumar, said the accused drugtraffickers identified asGurnam Singh and DilbaghSingh, were arrested by aSpecial Cell team near SinghuBorder, after a high speedchase beginning from Dwarkaon Thursday.

“The arrested accused arepart of an international drugcartel that spreads fromAfghanistan, Pakistan to Indiaand also involved some

African nationals," he said.Two kgs of high grade

heroin worth �8 crores in theinternational market wasrecovered from the accused.

Special Cell sleuths ofNorthern range were gatheringinformation about the cartel forlast 3-4 months. Finally, theygot information on Thursdaythat a big consignment ofdrugs would exchange handsnear petrol pump AmrahiVillage extention in Dwarka.

The police also received atip that the drug traffickerswill drive an i-20 car bearinga Haryana registration num-ber. Following this, a trap waslaid at the designated spot.However, the accused after aquick exchange of the con-signment sped away sensingpolice presence. Teams ofpolice tailed the car and afterhigh speed chase interceptedit near Singhu Border andoverpowered them after ascuffle, Yadav said.

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Page 3: 4 ’ %%’(&%)5 $ %3 ˝!#! $#% ˚˙˚˙&’()˚*+*!,+ an “order” for registration of a case under the appropriate sec-tions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention

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Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain on Friday

announced that the Delhi Government will providefree treatment to all accidentvictims in the national Capital.

“If there is any accidentcase within Delhi and the victim is admitted to any hos-pital, including privatesones...then the DelhiGovernment will bear theentire cost of the treatment.The victim does not have to payanything,” said Jain.

He was speaking at theinauguration of new ventilatormachines at the DelhiGovernment’s Lok Nayak JaiPrakash Narayan Hospital.

The Government also saidthat a total of 125 new ventila-tor machines have been pro-vided to several DelhiGovernment hospitals as partof improvement in medicaltreatment in these hospitals.

Jain also said that the AamAadmi Party (AAP)Government will increase theMohalla clinics from the exist-ing 110 to 1,000 in the next sixmonths, so that the burden onthe Delhi Government hospi-tals gets reduced.

According to Jain, DelhiGovernment hospitals in thelast one year has witnessed a total of four crore patients in the Out Patient Departments(OPDs), and is increasingrapidly.

The Arvind Kejriwal-ledGovernment was also willing toincrease the number of poly-clinics from 23 to 150 in thecoming months.

A polyclinic is a clinic thatprovides both general and specialist examination and treatment to outpatients and isusually independent of a

hospital.On the occasion, Jain also

extended help to those Delhipatients who were compelled toundergo surgeries at the city’sprivate hospitals due to the longwait in Delhi Government hos-pitals.

Jain said, “If the waitingtime for a patient’s surgery inthe Delhi Government’s hos-pital is beyond one monththen we will get the surgerydone in the private hospitals ofDelhi and bear all the costrequired for the treatment,”said Jain.

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The University GrantsCommission (UGC) has

given two months time to var-sities to upload informationabout PhD scholars on theirwebsites, failing which theirnames will be made public. Thecommission had last yeardirected the universities tomaintain data of PhD studentsin a prescribed proforma andupload them on their websites.

The UGC has again sent acommunication to varsities tocomplete the task within twomonths. “The Commission hasdecided to request all the uni-versities to upload data regard-ing PhD on their websites onthe parameters mentioned inthe proforma within twomonths and send a link to us,”said the letter. However, a justa handful of universities haveconducted the exercise pre-scribed by the commission.

“It has further been decid-ed that the commission willmaintain a list of defaultinguniversities on its website ifsome universities fail to under-take the exercise,” it added.

The details sought in the

proforma prescribed by theUGC include name of thesupervisor, Aadhaar number ofthe student, mode of PhD,research topic, likely date ofcompletion; and details of fel-lowship availed, if any.

In the last two years, thestudents of Central universitiesmainly Hyderabad CentralUniversity and JawaharlalNehru University have openlygone out against the CentralGovernment accusing it of sev-eral “biases” such as “witchhunting” of students and “med-dling” with the academic cul-ture of the country.

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The North Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NMC) on

Friday launched India’s largest‘Waste-to-Energy’ plant. The project, built at a cost of�650 crore and spread acrossaround 100 acres at Narela-Bawana, will use 2,000 tonnesof waste daily to generate 24mega watt of energy and 1,300mega watt of refused derivedfuel (RDF).

The project has been devel-oped on public private part-nership modeled by RamkyGroup, a Hyderabad-basedwaste management company,in collaboration with the NorthCorporation.

Venkaiah Naidu, UnionMinister for UrbanDevelopment while inaugu-rating the project at CivicCenter, said that that solidwaste management is one of thebiggest challenges in the coun-

try. He said that the SwachchhBharat Mission cannot be suc-

cessful until there is proper sci-entific solid waste manage-

ment. Union Science andTechnology Minister Harsh

Vardhan, who was also presenton the occasion, said tonnes ofsewer and solid waste everydayis generated in the country andits disposal was a challenge.

“Narela-Bawana Plant is aright step in facing the chal-lenge,” said Harsh Vardhan.

The power generatedwould be sold to distributioncompanies for a price fixed byelectricity regulator.

“The capacity would beexpanded further to processabout 4,000 metric tonneswaste from present strength of1,300 MT waste. The disposalof 55 million produced solidwastes and 38 billion sewerwastes is a challenge and theNarela-Bawana Plant is a stepin that direction,” North MayorSanjeev Nayyar said.

“The plant offers India’sfirst centralised and integratedfacility for scientific processingof municipal solid waste. Itboasts of composting facility,

RDF facility, waste-to-energyplant and engineered landfillsite at one place. The initiativeis scientific and environment-friendly solution for disposal ofwaste. It would not only dis-pose of piles of waste but alsoconvert it into electricity, saida senior north corporationofficial.

“The civic agency willbecome the first corporation inDelhi to generate revenue fromthe project. The decision hasbeen taken on the directions ofNational Green Tribunal,” hesaid

However, Corporation offi-cial also maintained that thetendering for the integratedmunicipal solid waste to ener-gy plant at Narela-Bawana wasdone in 2009. It included door-to-door garbage collection andcomposting it, segregation ofRDF to generate electricity atthe landfill sites and establish-ment of waste to energy plant.

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The Central Board of SchoolEducation (CBSE) is remod-

eling its assessment scheme asresult of which the studentsappearing for Class X Boardexamination would have to studysix subjects instead of the presentfive, from next year.

Presently, the Class X stu-dents have to study five subjects— two languages, social science,mathematics and science.Students also have a choice ofstudying a vocational subject asan “additional” course. However,from the 2017-18 academic year,it will be compulsory to study avocational subject.

In another major decision,the CBSE has decided to do awaywith seven Academic Electivesand 34 vocational subjects forClass XII because of low enroll-ment numbers.

The CBSE has remodeled itsassessment scheme for Class XBoard examination for schoolsoffering vocational subject ascompulsory subject under theNational Skills QualificationsFramework (NSQF).

“If a candidate fails to passin any one of the three electivesubjects — science, social sci-ence, mathematics, then it will bereplaced by the vocational sub-ject (offered as sixth additionalsubject),” a CBSE circular said.

“The Board exam result willbe computed accordingly.However, if a candidate desiresto reappear for the failed subjectthey can appear in the com-partment examination," it added.

Students will have 13 optionsto choose for the sixth subject —Dynamics of Retailing,Information Technology,Security, Automobile

Technology, Introduction toFinancial Market, Introductionto Tourism, Beauty and Wellness,Basic Agriculture, FoodProduction, Front OfficeOperations, Banking andInsurance, Marketing and Sales,and Health Care Services.

According to the circular, themaximum marks will be 100.Out of the total 100 marks, theBoard exam will be of 50 marks,and 50 marks are allocated tointernal assessment/practicalexamination. A candidate willhave to score 33 per cent marksin both board exam and practi-cal exam to pass the subject.

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Delhi Government in anextensive meeting on

Friday with a delegation ofJapan discussed to explore thepossibility in finding variousways and means to control airand water pollution and solidwaste management.

Environment Minister,Government of Delhi, ImranHussain, on Friday met theJapanese delegation headed byVice-Minister for GlobalEnvironmental Affairs,Ministry of the Environment,Japan, Shigemoto Kajihara.

The Japanese delegationinformed that it has low costtechnology to effectively con-trol and treat waste water inrural/ sparsely inhabited areas.“It was informed that the tech-nology called Johkasou is capa-ble of treating both night soil(black water) and domesticwaste water (grey water) iseasy to install, requires compactspace and discharges treatedwater suitable to sound watercycles and maintaining consis-tent review flow volume. Thistechnology works on de-cen-tralised waste water treatmentcapable of being adopted andimplemented in isolated clus-ters,” said a statement of the

Government here. Besides, Chief, Ministry of

the Environment of Japan,Hiroko YOKOTA, Chief,Ministry of the Environment ofJapan, Kosuke INOUE andEnvironment Attaché, Embassyof Japan, Sho Miura. The meet-ing was also attended by seniorofficers of EnvironmentDepartment and Delhi PollutionControl Committee (DPCC).

While appreciating thetechnology proposed by theJapanese delegation, Hussaintold the delegation about theheavy population density ofDelhi and it being a “land-locked, having only one river,surrounded by satellite townshousing high rise buildings inplace of green cover, typicalweather conditions dependent

upon the winds speed anddirection etc.”

Hussian underlined thatbecause of such typical condi-tions affecting air pollution,Delhi Government is lookingfor solutions to effectively con-trol air pollution which is ofprimary concern.

Hussain asked the delega-tion to suggest effective waysand technologies for combatingair pollution in Delhi, keepingin view the typical weather anddemographic conditions of thecity. As far as Johkasou tech-nology was concerned, the del-egation was asked to approachDelhi Urban ShelterImprovement Board (DUSIB)and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) forconsidering the feasibility ofadoption of such technology.

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The One Stop Centres (OSCs)set up for rape survivors at

11 hospitals in the national cap-ital do not have a single coun-selor to provide the victims themuch needed psychologicalassistance, a CAG report said onFriday.

As per the Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG) reporttabled on Friday in the Delhi

Assembly, 3,822 cases werereported in these centres from2015 out of which 1,219 werecases of sexual assault (32 percent) till August 2016.

“Yet no counselor was post-ed in any of the OSCs in whoseabsence the basic objective ofcreation of OSCs for providingpsychological assistance to rapevictims remained largely unat-tended,” the report stated.

The audit revealed thatdespite clear directions on

recruitment of staff for properfunctioning of OSCs, hospitalsdid not initiate steps for recruit-ment of required staff.

Also poor planning andexecution caused delay in time-ly completion of health projects,upgradation of health care facil-ities and “denial of the intend-ed benefits” to needy patients inthe capital city, the report noted.

According to the report,the Directorate of HealthServices (DHS) took possessionof 77,558.35 sqm of land during2007-16 for setting up of 30 newhealth care facilities at a cost of�14.26 crore. “But none of theseplots were utilised as of August2016,” the report said.

The Government hasincurred an additional expen-diture of �3.28 crore on the con-

struction of boundary walls,entry gates, fencing and deploy-ing security on these sites.

“No headway could beachieved in 11 other projects ofnew hospitals with proposed bedcapacity of 2,575 though exe-cuting agencies had been decid-ed. DHS had incurred expendi-ture of �17.06 crore on theseprojects towards land cost,boundary walls and security,” thereport stated.

It also pointed out that theMaternal and Child Health(MCH) and Diabetes,Endocrine and Metabloic(DEM) blocks of Guru TegBahadur hospital constructed ata cost of �72.07 crore remainedunderutilised even after 2-4years of completion due toshortage of staff and delay in

procurement of requisite equip-ment.

Besides, the Rajiv GandhiSuper-Specialty hospital andJanakpuri Super-Specialty hos-pital remained underutilisedeven after 4 to 8 years of com-pletion due to non-recruitmentof staff and lack of equipment.The audit also revealed acuteshortage of staff in several hos-pitals as far as senior residents,junior residents, paramedicalstaff, staff nurses and technicalstaff are concerned.

“The shortage ranged from15 to 91 per cent impacting thefunctioning of the hospitals,” thereport said. “The audit revealedthat despite clear directions onrecruitment pf staff for properfunctioning of OSC, hospitalsdid not initiate steps for recruit-

ment of required staff,” it added.The report also highlighted

the issue of inadequate staff inforensic medicine departmentsand mortuaries of some hospi-tals.

The audit pointed out lackof coordination between theexecuting agencies and DHS formonitoring of projects and rec-ommended creation of a sepa-rate wing in the department ofhealth for coordi-nation withvarious agen-cies and syn-chronisationof plannedactivitiesfor cre-ation ofm e d i c a lfacilities.

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Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) leader and ex-Delhi

University Students’ Union (DUSU)vice-president Sunny Dedha has been booked for assaulting a member of National Students Unionof India (NSUI) and his friend at the Law Faculty of the DelhiUniversity.

Pradeep Vijayaran, a third-yearlaw student, who contested 2015DUSU polls as a candidate of NSUI,Congress’s students’ wing, said theincident happened last evening whenhe and his friend Vineet were studying at Law Centre-I of Campusof Law College of the varsity. Healleged that Dedha, along with his 7-8 friends, hit him and Vineet.

Dedha rubbished the charges say-ing that the complainant, Pradeep, wasin an inebriated state and picked afight when he objected to him mak-ing “indecent” remarks.

A case under Sections 323 (vol-untarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful

restraint) and 34 (acts done by sever-al persons in furtherance of commonintention) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) has been registered at MauriceNagar police station, said a seniorpolice officer.

Pradeep has said in his com-plaint that it all started after he object-ed to a youth urinating in the unionroom. He said that the youth did notstop but “7-8 men later thrashed me”.He also alleged that one of the allegedattackers was Sunny Dedha.

Further, he alleged that he was hiton the head with a steel chair causinginjury. His friend Vineet who tried tointervene was also beaten up by thegroup, he said.

Police reached the spot after get-ting information and took Pradeep toBara Hindu Rao hospital where he wastreated for the injury.

Dedha, when contacted, said,“Pradeep was drunk and when Ipassed by he made some indecentremarks. When I objected to it, hepicked a fight and now am beingblamed”.��������#� ������������������������������ ���������� � &�����������������#����

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From Page 1The amendments are

aimed at plugging the loop-holes in the Act to ensure thatthe enemy properties thathave been vested in the cus-todian remain so and do notrevert to the enemy subject orfirm. The Bill also prohibitscivil courts and other author-ities from entertaining dis-putes related to enemy prop-erty.

Explaining the rationalebehind the urgency to get theBill passed Finance Ministerand Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said the

Ordinance ef fect ing theamendments in the Act wouldlapse on March 14, 2017.

Elaborating on the mea-sure, he said it was a princi-ple that the Governmentshould not allow commercialinterests or properties of anenemy countr y or its citizens. Jaitley said the rightof the enemy property shouldvest in the Government ofIndia and not in the heirs ofthe citizens of the enemycountries.

Home Minister RajnathSingh, who was supposed toreply to the debate on the Bill,

observed that the Leader of the House has a lreadyexplained about it in detailand there was no need for hisexplanation.

After the amended Billwas passed by a voice vote bythe RS, it was returned to theLS for final passage just beforeit was adjourned for the day.Earlier, when the Bill wastaken up in the Upper Housefor consideration and passage,Congress leader JairamRamesh demanded that itshould be taken up the nextday since many senior mem-bers, including the Leader of

Opposition, were not presentin the House for a variety ofreasons.

Ramesh’s views wereechoed by other membersincluding Javed Ali Khan (SP)and Sukhendu Shekhar Roy(AITC) who also sought tak-ing up the Bill for discussionnext week.

However, the Govern-ment decided to take up theBill for discussion and latergot it passed by a voice voteafter the entire Opposition,angered over theGovernment’s insistence,walked out of the House.

From Page 1While he failed to appear

before the court, a letter writ-ten by him was widely circu-lated on the social media plat-forms where he claimed he wasnot being given “appropriate”time to respond.

On Friday, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgiinformed a seven-judge SCBench that Justice Karnan hasbeen served with the notice toappear but has chosen not to do

so. The next course of actionavailable under the SupremeCourt Rules is to issue bailablewarrants followed by non-bail-able warrants, Rohatgi sub-mitted.

The Bench of the CJI,Justices Dipak Misra, JChelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi,Madan B Lokur, PinakiChandra Ghose, and KurianJoseph said, “Despite service,wherein the personal presenceof Justice CS Karnan in thiscourt was imperative, he hasneither entered appearance inperson, nor through a coun-

sel…In view of the above, weare left with no other alterna-tive but to seek the presence ofJustice CS Karnan by issuingbailable warrants…orderedaccordingly.”

The court asked the judgeto furnish a personal bond of�10,000 to the satisfaction ofthe arresting officer.

The Bench told Rohatgi ofa fax received from JusticeKarnan on March 8 seeking ameeting with all the judges onthe Bench to discuss certainallegations against some ofthem.

Rohatgi produced a copy ofan unsigned order issued byJustice Karnan admitting apetition seeking probe intoallegations of large sums ofmoney paid to kin of twoSupreme Court judges asrecorded in a diary recoveredfrom former ArunachalPradesh CM Kalikho Pul fol-lowing his alleged suicide.Calcutta High Court Registrar-General had confirmed to theA-G that he heard about suchan order but had not receivedany formal communication ofthe same.

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����������BBBFrom Page 1

However, with Chandr-ayaan-1, the radar teamutilised the fact that thisspacecraft is in polar orbitaround the Moon, so it wouldalways cross above the lunarpoles on each orbit.

On July 2 last year, theteam pointed Goldstone andGreen Bank at a location about160 kilometres above theMoon’s north pole and waitedto see if the lost spacecraftcrossed the radar beam. PTI

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Bengaluru: A student fromArunachal Pradesh has beenallegedly beaten and forced tolick his house owner’s shoes forusing excessive water, a toppolice official said on Friday.

“A student from ArunachalPradesh was beaten and thepolice is investigating into thestudent’s claim that he wasforced to lick his house owner’sshoes for using excessive water,”DCP (South East)MBBoralingaiagh said.

The house owner has beenidentified as Hemanth Kumar,he said, adding, a case hasbeen regisitered following acomplaint from Higio Guntey,a fourth-semester student of Christ University,Boralingaiah said.

The incident took place onMarch 6 and the case was reg-istered on Thursday, he said.

Kumar has surrendered andthe police are investigating thecase, Boralingaiah said. PTI

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Leading milk supplierMother Dairy on Friday

announced up to �3 per litreincrease in milk prices fromSaturday in Delhi-NCR andother cities, citing significantrise in procurement rates.

Mother Dairy, a majorplayer in Delhi-NCR with salesof about 30 lakh litres per day,had last increased the prices of

poly pack in July 2016 and thatof token milk in May 2014.

As per the new rates, fullcream milk will cost �52 perlitre against �49 earlier, whiletoned milk is priced at �42compared with �39 per litre.The price of double toned milkhas been raised to �38 from �35per litre. However, consumerswill have to pay �26 for a half-litre pack of full cream milkagainst the existing �25. The

rate of tonned milk has beenincreased to �21 from the ear-lier �20 for a half-litre pouch.The half-litre double tonedmilk pack will cost �19 against�18 earlier. In case of tokenmilk, the prices have beenincreased to �38 from �36 perlitre. Cow milk will be sold at�42 per litre from �40.

“Our milk procurementprice has increased by 5-6 per kgin last one year. Therefore, we are

forced to hike the consu-mer price,” Mother Dairy man-aging Director S Nagarajan said.

“Ninety per cent of oursales are in half-litre packswhere the effective increase is�2 per litre,” he said.

Mother Dairy has alsodecided to increase milk pricesin Mumbai, Chennai and UP(East) where the company hasa small presence, with total vol-ume of only 5 lakh litres a day.

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The Trump administrationwants to build a deeper

relationship with India, theWhite House has said, express-ing confidence that the twocountries will continue togrow their ties.

“I think we are, as talkedabout during the campaignand the transition, establishinga deeper relationship withPrime Minister Modi and US-India businesses,” White HousePress Secretary Sean Spicertold reporters on Thursday athis daily news conference.

“And I think as we moveforward in terms of our foreignpolicy, we’ll have furtherupdates on that. Trump spokevery clearly and frequentlyabout the relationship that wehave and hope to continue togrow with India,” Spicer said.

Spicer also condemned the

killing of a 32-year-old Indianengineer Srinivas Kuchibhotlaand another injured in analleged hate crime in Kansas.

“...Whether it’s the eventthat happened in Kansas City,other events, the attacks onJewish community centres thatcontinue to plague us -- I guesswe saw another report thismorning, some unfortunateactivity.

“We have got to continue tocall it out. We’ve got to contin-ue to root it out. We’ve got to

continue to engage lawenforcement,” he said.

Spicer urged Americans tostand up for the principlesthat unite them while asking allto be outraged and disgusted bysuch incidents.

“The president spoke soeloquently about during hisjoint address. He made it veryclear that while certain policiesmay divide us as individuals,there are certain principlesthat can unite us,” Spicer said.

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Fifty-three Indian fisher-men were on Friday

released from a Sri Lankanjail, days after the two coun-tries decided to release fish-ermen in each other’s custodyto defuse tension followingthe killing of an Indian fish-erman al legedly by theLankan navy.

“Fifty three fishermenhave been released from Jaffnajail while 32 others are still in

custody in Vuvuniya jail,”Fishery ministry officials said.

Sri Lanka had earlierinformed the Indian HighCommission in Colombo thatit wil l release al l 85 Indian fishermen in theircustody, Exter-nal AffairsMinistr y Spoke-spersonGopal Baglay said.

Sri Lanka and India onWednesday agreed to release fishermen held in eachother’s custody after a high-level discussion.

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Egyptian Eman Ahmed, theworld’s heaviest woman,

has lost 120 kg since beingadmitted to a hospital here forweight-loss surgery, a doctorsaid on Friday.

The 36-year-old, whoweighed 500 kg when she cameto Mumbai last month, under-went a surgery at SaifeeHospital. A team of doctorsperformed a laparoscopicsleeve gastrectomy on Ahmedon March 7 to help her loseweight.

Bariatric surgeon MuffazalLakdawala, who is treatingAhmed, said the weight loss tillnow has been mostly due toreduction in the water contentin her body.

“Water content in her bodyhas been reduced. She has lost120 kg so far. Now, the chal-lenging part is to bring downfats in her body and we aregradually upgrading her treat-ment as per the requirement,”Lakdawala said on Friday.

Fat reduction generallytakes more time. Medication

and food intakes are also beingchanged from time-to-time,he said.

Asked about the effect of somuch weight loss on her bodyand muscles, he said, “We arewell aware of impact on thebody of a patient when a lot ofweight is reduced in a shortperiod of time.”

“The treatment is pro-gressing keeping all suchaspects in mind. The hospitalis also offering her physio-therapy because her bones andmuscles have not developedsufficiently because of immo-bility,” the doctor said.

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National Security AdvisorAjit Doval on Friday tele-

phoned Nepal Prime MinisterPrachanda and condoled thedeath of a Nepalese man inalleged firing by the SashastraSeema Bal and promised aprobe into the incident that hassparked anger here.

Doval, who made thephone call to Prachanda onbehalf of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, said Indianauthorities have initiated aprobe into the killing ofGovinda Gautam.

The Government of Nepalis being requested throughdiplomatic channels to sharepost-mortem and forensicreports to facilitate the process.

Doval conveyed Modi’sgrief over the death andexpressed condolences to thebereaved family, a statementissued by the Nepalese PrimeMinister’s Secretariat said.

Prachanda, expressingNepal’s readiness to provide therequired support for the inves-tigation, said the Kanchanpurincident was “very serious”.

He expressed hope that

the guilty would be bookedafter necessary investigation.

The deceased has beendeclared as a martyr by theNepal government.

In Kathmandu, Charge d’Affaires at Indian EmbassyVinay Kumar on Friday calledon Nepal’s Foreign SecretaryShanker Das Bairagi and con-doled the death. During themeeting, Bairagi handed overa “diplomatic note” to Kumar,drawing India’s attentiontoward the fatal incident, TheHimalayan Times reported.

Kumar informed Bairagithat an enquiry has been initi-ated by India into the incident.District authorities shouldmaintain close and regular con-tacts and ensure law and orderin the area, the envoy said.

India has sought fromNepal the post-mortem andforensic reports of the Nepalesenational allegedly killed in fir-ing by the Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB) along the border yester-day, an incident that triggeredprotests in Nepal. NepalGovernment has declaredGautam as a martyr, accordingto Deputy PM and HomeMinister Bimalendra Nidhi.

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After acknowledging Jawah-arlal Nehru University as

the best university of the coun-try, the Centre has identifiedthe Aligarh Muslim University(AMU) and AllahabadUniversity among others as“non-performers.”

HRD Ministry had askedthe UGC to inspect all theidentified universities to tracktheir performance and find away out to resolve the issues.JNU was adjudged the best uni-versity early this week byPresident Pranab Mukherjeeduring the Visitor’s Award inthe presence of HRD Minister

Prakash Javadekar. “At least 11 universities

have been identified as underperformers including AMU,Allahabad University,Pondicherry University,Central Universities of Jammu,Jharkhand and Rajasthan andBR Ambedkar University,Lucknow,” a senior HRDMinistry official said.

Other defaulter universitiesidentified by the Ministryinclude Hemwati NandanBahuguna Garhwal University,Dr Hari Singh Gour University,Tripura University andMahatma Gandhi Antaras-htriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya.

“There are more such uni-

versities which have not beenperforming upto the mark andthe process to identify them ison. UGC has been asked tostrictly monitor their perfor-mance,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the RajyaSabha, Left parties alleged thatthe Centre’s interventionthrough right wing groups hadled to an increase in attacks onacademic freedom in Indianuniversities thus deterioratingthe performance of many var-sities.

Raising the issue duringZero Hour, CPI member DRaja drew the attention of theHouse on the recent happen-ings in Delhi University and

earlier in JNU, HyderabadUniversity and other institu-tions of higher learning.

Left members accusedright-wing forces of “issuingcertificates of nationalism” andasked the government as towho gave them this authority.

Associating himself withthe issue, Sitaram Yechury ofthe CPI(M) said they wouldnot allow this to happen in thename of nationalism.“Organisations are taking uponthemselves to decide what isright and what is wrong,”Yechury said, adding that theHouse must condemn this andlet law of the land to take itsown course.

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The Centre told the SupremeCourt on Friday that hold-

ing of demonetised currencynotes of �500 and �1,000 is“illegal” and any deposit of suchcurrency till March 31 is per-mitted only to persons whowere abroad from November 8to December 31, 2016 or armedforces personnel serving atdistant outposts.

The submission has dent-ed hopes of a set of PIL peti-tioners who submitted thatever since November 8, whendemonetisation scheme wasannounced, an impression wasgiven that all citizens who missout on the December 30 dead-line to deposit their old cur-rency will get time till March 31to do so at offices of ReserveBank of India (RBI).

Having issued notice onthe petition, the Bench of ChiefJustice JS Khehar, Justices DYChandrachud and SanjayKishan Kaul told AttorneyGeneral Mukul Rohatgi thatthe intention behind enter-taining the PIL was to make theCentre “alive” to the reality. “Itis not our intention to do any-thing but to make you (Centre)alive to the situation at hand,”the Bench said.

Rohatgi submitted thatunder the Specified Bank Notes(Cessation of Liabilities)Ordinance 2016, it is illegal tohold the old currency. Puttingthe issue in perspective, thebench explained, “They (peti-tioners) are only saying thatright from the beginning, therewas a window being providedfor deposit of their money.That window was undecided inthe Ordinance.”

Rohatgi said, “We are notgoing to allow their demand.Our call is final.”

The Bench posted the mat-ter for further hearing onMarch 21.

Meanwhile, petitionersinformed the Bench that thedeadline to deposit the demon-etised currency will expire onMarch 31. The Bench said,“Don’t you not think that wecan extend the deadline.”

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The Supreme Court onFriday dismissed a petition

that demanded withdrawal ofPadma Vibhushan conferredon late industrialist DhirubhaiAmbani.

The petition filed by alawyer PC Srivastava allegedthat regulations permit theAward to be given posthu-

mously only to persons whohave died recently and notlater than one year. The DelhiHigh Court having rejected thepetition, Srivastava approachedthe apex court and questionedAmbani's contribution to thecountry.

The bench of Chief JusticeJS Khehar, Justices DYChandrachud and SanjayKishan Kaul said, “Neither you

nor we can decide who is to begiven Padma Vibhushan…Butof his kind, was he not thebiggest industrialist of thiscountry.”

The petitioner stated thatin 2003, an attempt was madeby the then Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi (as hethen was) to confer BharatRatna on Ambani. The peti-tioner was given an audience by

then President APJ AbdulKalam who decided against it.The Bench added, “Till he isconvicted of any crime how canwe stop anyone.”

Padma Vibhushan, the sec-ond highest civilian award,was bestowed on DhirubhaiAmbani posthumously last yearfor his “exceptional and dis-tinguished” service to trade andindustry.

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The Supreme Court onFriday dismissed a petition

seeking a CBI probe into therole of journalists in influenc-ing the AgustaWestland heli-copter deal.

The petition filed by asenior journalist claimed thatjournalists were ‘purchased’ topublish positive news about theItalian company Finmeccanica,whose subsidiary is AugustaWestland. He suggested thatthe CBI had information aboutpayments of �50 crore receivedby journalists and theEnforcement Directorate evenquizzed one of the journalistswho got an all-expenses paidtrip to Italy with his wife, cour-tesy the Italian firm.

The court found the peti-tion to be vague as there was noevidence to show how mediawas managed in the deal. Thepetitioner showed a Media

Management Agreementsigned by the Italian companywith an alleged middlemanChristian Michel under whichthese payments were made.

The bench of JusticesDipak Misra, AM Khanwilkarand MM Shantanagoudar said,“As we perceive, this is a dis-guised driven idea to curtailfreedom and independence ofmedia. Nobody from the mediais mentioned in the agree-ment. It is an attack on media."

Another petition by SwarajAbhiyan, led by advocatePrashant Bhushan, alleged cor-ruption against ChhattisgarhCM and his son in theAgustaWestland helicopterpurchase of 2007. AttorneyGeneral Mukul Rohatgi saidthe organisation members hadfloated a political party SwarajIndia and cannot fight a polit-ical battle through PIL. Thematter will be heard on April 19.

����� �36�3"(!

The Centre on Friday dis-favoured in the Rajya Sabha

passing of any law to declarecountries as ‘Sponsor ofTerrorism’ after which a privatemember's bill brought withPakistan in mind was with-drawn.

The ‘Declaration ofCountries as Sponsor ofTerrorism Bill’, moved byIndependent member RajeevChandrashekhar, got supportfrom several members cuttingacross party lines but the gov-ernment said there was noneed for such a legislation.

The bill provided for declar-ing any country as State-spon-sor of terrorism and withdraw-ing of economic and trade rela-tions with such a country. It alsoprovided for creating legal, eco-nomic and travel sanctions forcitizens of such a country andfor matters connected therewithor incidental thereto.

After a debate, Minister ofState for Home Gangaram Ahirsaid, “The existing laws alreadyhave sufficient provisions for

dealing with citizens of a ter-rorist country.” Ahir askedChandrasekhar to withdrawthe bill which the Independentmember did.

Nominated member KTSTulsi said, “I am not opposed tothe bill but I have my doubtswhile SP MP Javed Ali Khansaid, “Though I support the bill,it should also include Israel inthe list as it is sponsoring ter-rorism in the Middle East.”

Supporting the Bill, YSRCPmember Vijay Sai Reddy saidPakistan has dual policy on ter-rorism - bad terrorist and goodterrorist. Congress memberAbhishek Singhvi suggestedsome changes in the bill, say-ing some actionable pointsshould be included in it whilenominated member SwapanDasgupta said everybodyknows what Pakistan is. “Thebill is wonderful but it offersnothing,” Dasgupta added.

BJP member SubramanianSwamy suggested that Indiashould again intervene inPakistan like it had done ear-lier in East Pakistan which ledto creation of Bangladesh.

����� �36�3"(!

The Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG)

has pulled up the Border RoadsOrganisation (BRO) for inor-dinate delays in building strate-gic roads facing China andpointed out several deficiencieslike faulty construction, defec-tive alignment and impropercontract management.

This criticism came in thebackdrop of China last weekinaugurating the second airportin Tibet close to India therebyensuring logistical support toits defence forces deployed onthe Line of Actual Control(LAC). Moreover, China hasbuilt nearly 5,000 km of railnetwork in the Tibetan plateaulinking it with mainlandbesides all weather roads rightup to LAC. In comparison,Indian soldiers even now haveto walk for three to four daysfrom the nearest road head totheir posts on the LAC.

The watchdog in itsPerformance Audit reporttabled in Parliament on Fridayalso slammed the Army for noteffectively maintaining inven-tory of weapons includingradars and battle tanks besides

non-availability of criticalspares leading to deviationsanctions.

Expressing concern overdelay in building roads, theCAG said the government hadidentified 73 strategicallyimportant roads as India ChinaBorder Roads (ICBRS). Out ofthese 73 roads, the BRO wasentrusted with building 61roads having a total length of3,409.27 km with estimatedcosts of �� 4,644 crore. Theseroads were to be ready by 2012but only 15 roads were com-pleted by the deadline year, theCAG noted.

Moreover, out of balance46 roads, only seven roadswere completed by March lastyear extending the probabledate of completion of remain-ing roads up to 2012. Thus 22roads were completed up toMarch 2016 despite incurringan expenditure of �4,536 croreagainst estimated cost of�4,644 crore for 61 roads, theCAG said.

It noticed numerousinstances of defective con-struction of roads on accountof unsuitable design or speci-fications, steep gradient, defec-tive alignment, turning prob-

lems for vehicles, impropercontract management, poorriding conditions, inadequatedrainage facilities and non-connectivity or roads. This notonly resulted in delay but also an expenditure of �63.20crore on account of correctiveaction. Moreover, non-com-pletion and faulty specificationsof works have a serious bearingon the operational capability of the armed forces in strate-gically sensitive areas, thereport said.

As regards poor mainte-nance of weapons systems, theCAG pulled up the Army forfailing to come up with anylong-term perspective plan forcreation of infrastructure fornewly- inducted military sys-tems.

Citing examples of delaysin maintenance of key weaponplatforms, it said against thenorm of 153 days, it took thearmy 1,512 days for the over-hauling of BMP InfantryCombat Vehicles. Similarly, forT-72 tanks, the delay ranged upto 836 days against the norm of144 days. Overhaul of radarand its variants also experi-enced delays up to 921 days, thereport said.

����� �36�3"(!

India has sought from Nepalthe post-mortem and foren-

sic reports of a Nepalesenational allegedly killed in fir-ing by the Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB) along the border onThursday, an incident that trig-gered protests in Nepal.

Officials of the two borderdistricts, Kanchanpur of Nepal

and Lakhimpur Kheri in India,met after the incident andagreed to maintain peace andorder, External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Gopal Baglaysaid.

“Following reports of thedeath of a Nepali national onThursday on the India-Nepalborder, allegedly in a firingincident, the SSB has initiatedan inquiry into the matter.

“The Government of Nepalis being requested throughdiplomatic channels to sharepost-mortem and forensicreports to facilitate the process,”Baglay said.

According to reports, aNepalese man was killed onThursday when the Indianborder guards allegedly openedfire following a dispute overconstruction of a culvert on

Sano Khola river along thefrontier in Uttar Pradesh. TheIndian embassy in Kathmanduhas denied any firing by SSBpersonnel deployed on theIndian side of the border.

Baglay also said that offi-cials of the two border districtshave met in the backdrop of the prevailing situation andagreed to maintain peace andorder.

����� �36�3"(!

In line of fire of MPs over thepoor quality of food on

trains, Railway Minister SureshPrabhu on Friday said that the Railway Ministry has comeup with a new catering policywhich will end such prevailingproblems within the catering services.

Prabhu admitted that thepresent food service wasimproper due to the nexus ofcontractors.

Responding to concernsby members of the Rajya Sabha,Prabhu said that under the new policy, Indian RailwayCatering and Tourism Corp-oration (IRCTC) would run thebest mechanised kitchens,while a tender is being pre-pared as per which reputedprofessionals will cater to thepassengers in the trains.

“The food that was beingserved by private contractorswas not living up to the expec-tation of the people, that is whythere was a need to change thepolicy,” Prabhu said in RajyaSabha during the QuestionHour.

He also said efforts havebeen made that people getethnic food, reflecting thediverse cuisine of the country.

He said so far a total fine of�9,55,000 has been imposedand �83,000 has already beenrecovered by the railway fromfood contractors during thisperiod against 104 complaints.“There were many complaints.I have issued orders and can,with satisfaction, say that wehave terminated the contract ofAmbuj Hotel and Real EstatePvt Ltd, the company that wasworking,” Prabhu said.

One of the members saidthat food in trains was beingstored next to the toilets.

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Chief justices were appoint-ed to the High Courts of

Kerala, Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh and Jharkhand onFriday.

Official sources in the LawMinistry said Justice NavnitiPrasad, a judge in the PatnaHigh Court has been appoint-ed Chief Justice of the KeralaHigh Court.

Justice T B Radhakrishnan,acting Chief Justice of theKerala High Court has beensent as Chief Justice of theChhattisgarh High Court.

Acting Chief Justice of thePatna High Court HemantGupta has been made ChiefJustice of the Madhya PradeshHigh Court.

Acting Chief Justice of theJharkhand High Court P KMohanty has been made ‘reg-ular’ chief justice there, thesources said.

The government told theRajya Sabha on Friday that 201proposals by the collegium forappointment of judges in thehigh courts are at “variousstages of processing.”

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The fate of 251 candidatescontesting the State

Legislative Assembly polls willbe known on Saturday, whenpoll officials in Goa begincounting of the 10 lakh oddvotes logged in around 2,500EVMs. Chief Electoral OfficerKunal said counting will beginaround 8 am.

“Counting of postal ballotswould begin by 8 am and theEVMs will be taken up forcounting from 8.30 pmonwards,” Kunal said.

While the BJP has fielded36 candidates, the Congress iscontesting from 37 seats, theAAP from 39 seats, the MGP-GSM-SS alliance from 25 seatsand the Nationalist CongressParty from 18 seats. Anotherregional party, Goa Forwardhas fielded four candidates.

Goa recorded 83 per centvoting when the state went topolls on February 4, matchingthe previous voting record in 2012.

New Delhi: After lowering ofthe cap on anonymous dona-tions to political parties to�2,000 from �20,000 per per-son, the Election Commissionis looking at cashless fundingas the ultimate goal to stem theuse of black money in elections.

In an interview to PTI,Chief Election CommissionerNasim Zaidi also warned thatif parties try to sidestep pro-posed changes in election andincome tax laws by takingadvantage of any loophole,they will be dealt with accord-ingly. “We may consult them onhow to evolve a system.Cashless donations would bethe ultimate. But whether wewill be able to reach there, is thequestion. Ultimately the wholesociety is saying funding topolitical parties should be cash-less. That is the ultimate desir-able,” Zaidi said.

The Commission has notstarted correspondence withpolitical parties on the issue so

far as “many other factors willhave to be kept in mind”, thehead of the country’s pollwatchdog said.

Zaidi’s pitch came as

experts suggested that effortsshould be made to make dona-tions to political parties total-ly cashless to usher in moretransparency. PTI

����� �36�3"(!

Responding to members’complaints in the Lok

Sabha that seniors in Armywere ill treating their subordi-nates or jawans who pointedthe finger at the ‘Sahayak’ sys-tem, Union Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar Friday saidArmy has been told to work outways to address grievances of soldiers.

Opposition members KCVenugopal (Congress) and NKPremchandran (RSP) raisedthe issue of alleged maltreatingof soldiers and death of aJawan from Kovalam, Kerala,under “doubtful circumstances”in Maharashtra.

Jawan Roy Mathew wasfound dead under mysteriouscircumstances in an abandonedbarrack in Deolali Cantonment,Nasik, on March 3.

While replying to queries,Parrikar did not make anycomment on the death of theJawan in Maharashtra butwas quick to add that Armyhad been told to work on howto appropriately address thegrievances of soldiers.

The Defence Minister saidit would be a “prejudice” tomake any comment on thedeath of Mathew at Deolalicantonment at Nasik as policehas registered a case and wasconducting an investigationinto the incident.

“It was an isolated incident.An independent police probe isgoing on. I don’t want to makeany comment on it as it wouldbe a prejudice to say anythingat this stage,” he said duringQuestion Hour.

The jawan was figured in asting operation by a news web-site where he criticised the‘sahayak’ (orderly) system inwhich a jawan is expected toserve a commissioned officer.

As for the grievances ofsoldiers, Parrikar said the Armyhas been told to work out a sys-tem to address the complaintsof the jawans appropriately.

“We are in consultationwith all concerned and anappropriate mechanism wouldbe worked out soon,” he said.

����� �36�3"(!

In an effort to ensure that big-time economic offenders

cannot flee and “hide in othercountries”, the Government isworking to have agreementswith the maximum number ofnations in this regard, UnionFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyinformed Lok Sabha Friday.

The response of theFinance Minister came whenTMC member Saugata Royasked what Government aswhat was it doing to preventthe flight of high profile peo-ple like the erstwhile owner ofKingfisher Airlines and ex-IPL head abroad and confis-cate their properties.

Jaitley without takingnames, said �8,040 crore worthof assets has already beenattached by various enforce-ment agencies.

He was also asked whetherthey took up the issue with theUK Government during hisrecent trip to London.

Jaitley said the extraditionprocess takes a lot of timethough some countries extendhelp in sending back such peo-ple fast by deporting them.

In an effort to ensure that such people “cannot hide”

in other countries, theGovernment is working on hav-ing agreements with maximumnumber of nations, he said.

Jaitley said the FinanceMinistry was examiningwhether a new law will berequired or prevailing statuteswill have to be amended toconfiscate the properties ofthose who commit financialcrimes in India and hideabroad. This was part of his lat-est Budget speech also.

On recovering blackmoney, he said in last threeyears this Government hastaken more steps than anyother Government in the past.

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ASpecial Court on Fridaydirected the State CID

(Crime) to attach the movableand immovable propertiesworth Rs 135.17 crore belong-ing to suspended NCP MLARamesh Kadam who is cur-rently behind bars on chargesof embezzling to the tune of Rs300 crore in a State-run cor-poration that provides financesto members of the OtherBackward Class community.

Allowing an applicationfiled by the State CID (Crime)

investigating the case, SpecialCourt Judge A D Tankiwaleordered the department officialsto attach as many as 54 movableand immovable properties andmore than 20 bank valued total-ly at Rs 1,35,16,82,608.

Kadam was arrested bythe State CID from a five-starhotel in Pune in August lastyear. After his arrest, thedepartment had moved thecourt for attachment of his var-ious movable and immovableproperties.

The charge against Kadamis that he as the President of theLokshahir Annabhau SatheDevelopment Corporation(LASDC) between August,2012 and December, 2014 hadin collusion with the officials ofthe corporation and otheraccused persons misappropri-ated funds to the tune of Rs 300crore belonging to the LASDC,

which is meant for the welfareof Matang community.

Kadam and other accusedhave also been charged withusing forged documents asgenuine and used the ill-gottenmoney for his own purposes.

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) had also reg-istered a criminal complaintagainst Kadm and others underthe provisions of thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) inSeptember 2015 based on anFIR registered earlier by theState CID in the same case. TheED has charged Kadam andothers with laundering theproceeds of crime through fic-titious entities created by themfor this specific purpose andfurther integrated the sameinto movable and immovableproperties in their personaland company’s name.

Mumbai: After 47 long years,the Brihan Mumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) has man-aged to reclaim a 1.5 km stretchof prime public road in a con-gested area which wasencroached upon by a privatehousing society, an official saidhere on Friday.

According to DeputyMunicipal CommissionerVasant Prabhu, the 1.5 km X 18mt thoroughfare in questionwas a development plan roadwhich the Scindia Society hadcaptured by erecting an illegalwall, way back in 1969!

It was a vital link joining oneof the most-congested roads, theAndheri-Kurla Road with ProfNS Phadke Marg, parallel to theWestern Express Highway.

Accordingly, owing to thedispute with the society for 47years, the BMC could not openthe road and ease traffic con-gestion in that area.

However, in the past fourdays, the BMC aggressivelyentered the vicinity with ateam of 60 workers, a policeteam, JCBs, dumpers and othermaterial to demolish the wall,an illegal security cabin, an illegal entry point, an unau-thorized compound and several other unauthorisedstructures encroaching on the public property, said K-East Assistant MunicipalCommissioner DK Jain.

The BMC took completepossession of the road. Thecivic body has undertaken

repairs, renovation and resur-facing of the entire stretch ona war-footing.

The BMC has also shiftedall the public utilities like

Mahanagar Gas Ltd andReliance Energy lines on thatroad and it will be thrown openfor public use and road trafficfrom Saturday morning on,

Jain assured.The BMC has alleged that

the society had resorted to grab-bing the road with an eye on theadditional Floor Space Indexthat could have benefited it, butlocals wonder how it could take47 years for the civic body to ini-tiate action in the matter.

The BMC has also decid-ed to throw the rule book -albeit, belatedly - at the societyand has initiated appropriateaction for illegally encroachingupon the public property fornearly five decades.

Jain said reopening of theroad will directly benefit thou-sands of people living in 40other housing societies in thevicinity and ease the traffic con-gestion in the locality. IANS

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The entire Rajya Sabha onFriday appreciated the

stand taken by slain terroristSaifullah’s father and extendedsympathy to him in this hourof grief. Saifullah was killed inan encounter with the UPpolice in Lucknow onThursday last and his fatherMohammad Sartaj later refusedto accept his son’s body sayinghe had acted against the nation.

Showering praise, HomeMinister Rajnath Singh said inthe Rajya Sabha the entirehouse and nation is “proud” ofSartaj’s statements.

This drew applause fromthe members cutting acrossparty lines and they expressedtheir sentiments by thumpingtheir desks. Singh also saidIndia’s unique culture com-prising various religions did notendorse terrorism and vio-lence and the entire country isproud of Sartaj.

Giving details of thesequence of events, the HomeMinister informed the Houseeight suspects were arrested sofar in connection with theblast on a train in MadhyaPradesh and the subsequentanti-terror operations leadingto the killing of Saifullah inLucknow. Singh had given astatement about the encounterin the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Among other issues to fig-ure in the House, a section ofAIADMK members demandeda central probe b y the CBI ora judicial inquiry into the cir-cumstances leading to the deathof party leader J Jayalalithaa.Some MPs, including V

Maitreyan repeatedly stormedinto the well raising slogans anddisplaying placards.

The Lok Sabha also saw abrief adjournment for ten min-utes during Question Hour onthe issue when six AIADMKmembers rushed into the wellraising slogans seeking a CBIprobe. They later staged a walkout when their demand for anadjournment motion to discussthe issue was turned down bythe Chair.

In the Rajya Sabha, theissue was raised by Maitreyanand his party colleague VijilaSathyananth repeatedly inter-jected forcing DeputyChairman PJ Kurien to warnher of disciplinary action.Maitreya’s speech could not beheard due to din.

Recent disturbance inDelhi University also came upwith the Opposition allegingincreased attacks on freedom of

expression and thought in theuniversities. Raising the mat-ter, D Raja(CPI) said someright wing forces were trying toimpose their idea of nationaland anti-national adding thefuture of the country was indanger. The entire Oppositionbacked his contention andSitaram Yechury(CPM) saidthe House should condemnthese acts and let the law of theland takes its course.

The plight of Tamil fisher-men in the backdrop of the SriLankan Navy reportedly killinga 21-year-old fisherman lastweek also figured in the House.Drawing the attention of themembers to this issue,Kanimozhi (DMK) said theCentre was not taking adequatesteps to address it in the rightearnest. Some other membersassociated with her and urgedthe Government to send astrong message to the Sri

Lankan Government. Responding to their con-

cerns, Minister of State forexternal affairs MJ Akbar saidthe issue was taken up with theSri Lankan government. Indianconcerns were conveyed byVice-President Hamid Ansarito Sri Lankan PresidentMaithripala Srisena on the side-lines of a summit in Indonesiarecently, he said adding theLankan government promisedfull investigation. In the LokSabha, the issue was raised byJ Jayavardhan (AIADMK) whodemanded that Sri LankanHigh Commissioner to Indiashould be summoned by theMinistry of External Affairs tolodge a protest.

Madhusudan Mistry(Congress) raised the issue ofarrest of fishermen by Pakistan and Akbar said a fullstatement will be made as soonas possible.

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From this Holi, Bengal MLAswill be richer by �5,000. The

State Legislators have giventhemselves a salary hike of�5,000. Now the MLAs willdraw �21,500 instead of�16,500, sources said.

The move though wel-comed by all other parties wasrejected by the Left FrontMLAs who unanimously toldthe Assembly that they will notaccept the hike.

However, the Congresswhich had of late working incollaboration with the Leftaccepted the salary hike.

Earlier the State Cabinettook the decision of salary hike.

Chennai: Madras High Courton Friday directed the TamilNadu Assembly Secretary tofurnish to DMK leader M KStalin a copy of video recordingof House proceedings onFebruray 18 when the motionof confidence moved by ChiefMinister K Palaniswami waspassed after stormy scenes.

A Bench of acting ChiefJustice Huluvadi G Rameshand Justice M Sundar issued thedirective during the hearing ofthe PIL by Stalin, Leader of theOpposition in the Assembly,challenging the trust vote ongrounds that it was adopted in“contravention” of rules.

The court had in the pre-vious hearing directed theAssembly Secretary to submitthe video footage of theFebruary 18 House proceed-ings. Palaniswami had wonthe trust vote 122-11 in the234-member Assembly aidedby the eviction of DMK andwalkout by its allies, amidstormy scenes.

The Assembly Secretaryfiled his counter affidavit andsaid the petitioner had “mis-construed” the motion of con-fidence as no confidencemotion. PTI

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The Karnataka High Courton Friday re-issued a bail-

able arrest warrant againstliquor baron Vijay Mallya forallegedly violating an under-taking by him andhis firms not totransfer their equityshares in UnitedBreweries HoldingsLimited (UBHL) toBritish spirits com-pany Diageo Plc.

A Divisionbench, comprisingJustices BS Patil andBV Nagarnathnaextended the return-able date of the warrant to June1 and raised the bail amount to�50 lakh for executing the bond.

The next hearing has beenposted for June 1.

On January 27, a divisionbench comprising JusticesJayant Patel and AravindKumar had issued a bailablewarrant, which was returnableby February 17 on executing abond of Rs one lakh afterMallya failed to personallyappear before it despite his

counsel communicating thecourt’s two orders in this regard.

The banks which lended tothe fugitive businessman hadaccused him of violating theundertaking given by him and

his companies,including the nowdefunct KingfisherAirlines not to trans-fer their equityshares in UBL afterthe Debt RecoveryTribunal (DRT)restrained StandardChartered Bank,with which theshares had beenpledged, from hand-

ing over the same to Diageo Plc.On December 2 last, Justice

Vineet Kothari of the HighCourt had rejected Mallya’sapplication for recalling its ordersummoning him for allegedlyviolating the undertaking.

DRT, in its order last year,had restrained StandardChartered Bank from trans-ferring to Diageo Plc or anyoneelse the equity shares of UBLpledged by Mallya and his sonSiddharth with the bank.

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The Bombay High Courthas directed the

Maharashtra Government toconduct an enquiry into therecovery of 19 aborted foetus-es in Sangli district recently.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice Manjula Chellur whilehearing a PIL on Thursdayordered the StateGovernment’s public healthdepartment to hold an inquiry.

It also asked the StateGovernment to submit a report.

The Bench was hearing aPIL filed by Atul Bhosale, a Puneresident, alleging that nursing

homes in the city were not reg-istered and that fake degrees wereobtained by medical practioners.

However, during the hearingof the petition, the High Courtextended the scope of the PIL tocover entire Maharashtra.

The bench took cognisanceof media reports about 19 abort-ed foetuses having been foundnear a stream recently at a villagein Maharashtra’s Sangli districtand asked the State Governmentwhy it has not enacted a law toregulate nursing homes.

The court also asked theMaharashtra Government toconduct random checks at nurs-ing homes and find out how

many of those had obtained per-mission to operate. In the Sanglicase, a 26-year-old woman fromMhaisal village died following anabortion allegedly performedby a homeopath at his hospital.

The bench said given theseriousness of the matter, theGovernment should act immediately.

The State Government filedan affidavit, saying the Centrehad enacted the ClinicalEstablishment Act, 2010, whichwas adopted by ArunachalPradesh, Himachal Pradesh,Sikkim and the Union territories.Such a law was, however, yet tobe enacted in Maharashtra.

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Muzaffarnagar: The Muzaffarnagar district authorities havebanned victory processions to maintain law and order after theresults of the UP Assembly polls are announced tomorrow.

Such processions, after the poll results are announced, havebeen banned as a precautionary measures to maintain law andorder, District Magistrate DK Singh said on Friday. He said strictaction would be taken against those who are found violating theorders. All educational institutions have also been asked to remainclosed on Saturday in view of the results. PTI

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The Budget Session ofTelangana Legislature

began on Friday with GovernorESL Narasimhan assuring theState will not face any powercut during the ensuing summerseason though the demandwas likely to touch an all timehigh of 9,500 to 10,000 MW.

Delivering the customaryopening address to the jointSession of both the Houses, theGovernor said the Governmentwas working to replace powerholidays with ‘power every dayand anytime”.

The address, which wasboycotted by the mainOpposition Congress, largelyfocused on highlighting variousdevelopment and welfare mea-sures of the State Government.Narasimhan spoke at lengthabout the efforts to maintainregular power supply and makeTelangana a power surplusState as the power sector had avery important role to play inthe progress and prosperity inthe state.

He pointed out that thoughlast month the demand forpower had touched an all timehigh of 9,000 MW the govern-ment had succeeded in ensuringuninterrupted power supply. Hepointed out that the power gen-eration capacity at the time offormation of Telangana in June2014 was 6574 MW, theGovernment had added gener-ation capacity of 4,190 MW dur-ing the last two and a half yearsand another 4190 MW will beadded during the current year.The total power availability inthe State will reach 16,306 MWby the end of next three years,he added.

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Telangana Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao, who is

going to celebrate third anniver-sary of his rule in a couple ofmonth, has exuded confidencethat his Telangana Rashtra Samiti(TRS) party will retainthe power in 2019.

At a mid-termreview with the party’slegislators inHyderabad a confidentKCR quoted the find-ings of his own internalsurvey to declare thatthe TRS will win 101 to106 seats in the 119 memberState Assembly on the basis ofits good performance and sup-port of the people.

He counted 19.5 per centeconomic growth rate ofTelangana making the Statefastest growing in the country,among the big achievements ofhis Government.

He also gave the legislatorsfindings of another survey ontheir performance and popu-larity rating which gave the topposition to the Chief Minister.According to the survey theChief Minister had a popular-ity rating of 96.7 per cent in his

Gajwel constituency up fromthe earlier rating of 75 per cent.T Harish Rao, the IrrigationMinister came second with 82 per cent in his con-stituency of Siddipet.

However KCR’s son and akey Minister K Taraka Rama

Rao had only 60 per centsupport in his Sricillaconstituency.

While noting thatthe TRS had becomevery strong and consol-idated its position onthe basis of theGovernment perfor-mance, the Chief

Minister warned the legislatorsto pull up their socks and con-tinue their good work.

In view of the BudgetSession of the State Assemblyhe asked all the legislators to bepresent in the House and comehalf an hour before the com-mencement of the Sessionevery day and acquaint them-selves of the issues and prob-lems and highlight the achieve-ments of the Government onthe floor of the House.

He warned that the legis-lators with poor performancewill not be given tickets in thenext elections.

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The political atmosphere inTamil Nadu underwent a

drastic change within hours ofthe announcement by theElection Commission of Indiathat the bypoll for the RK NagarAssembly constituency will beheld on April 12. The seat fellvacant following the untimelydemise last December of JJayalalithaa, former ChiefMinister and the boss of theAIADMK. What makes thebypoll different is the absence oftwo stalwarts who had domi-nated Tamil Nadu politics dur-ing the last three decades. MKarunanidhi, the 94-year-oldDMK chief is ailing and will notbe seen in future electoral battles.

In normal circumstances, abypoll in an Assembly con-stituency in Tamil Nadu will nothave evoked any interest becauseof the past precedence. The rul-

ing dispensation wins the elec-tion irrespective of the mood ofthe people. The AIADMK’sdream run began with the 2011Assembly elections when itobliterated the DMK. TheAIADMK scored a trailblazer inthe 2014 Lok Sabha electionwhich it swept by winning 37out of the 39 seats.

The party returned topower in the 2016 Assemblyelection in spite of a stronganti-incumbency factor. It wasall because of the one-woman-army by name Jayalalithaa whowalked all over Karunanidhiand his clan.

The death of Jayalalithaa not

only orphaned the AIADMK butthe party is facing an unprece-dented crisis. VK Sasikala, whowas appointed as GeneralSecretary of the party by the gen-eral council of the party has beenimprisoned since February 15following the Supreme Courtupholding the Bangalore SpecialCourt’s verdict in the dispro-portionate asset case.

The AIADMK is almostsplit vertically with one factionled by former Chief Minister OPanneerselvam openly chal-lenging the appointment ofSasikala as general secretaryand demanding CBI probeinto the medical treatment

given to Jayalalityhaa after shewas admitted to the ApolloHospital on September 22,2016 in a critical condition.

The AIADMK which hadwon 134 seats in the 2016Assembly election is left withjust 122 seats as ten membershave decided to cast their lotswith Panneerselvam.

The Election Commissionis soon expected to pronounceits views on the election ofSasikala as the general secretaryof the AIADMK. Whether thefaction led by Sasikala would beallotted the Two Leaves, theofficial symbol of the party depends on the decision

of the ECI.There will be three candi-

dates fighting against eachother for the legacy ofJayalalithaa. While thePanneerselvan faction and theSasikala faction would fieldtheir own candidates, DeepaPatrick, niece of late Jayalalithaaand leader of the MAD Partytoo has announced her deci-sion to contest the by-poll. Arecharged DMK under theleadership of M K Stalin will gofor a win to upset the applecartof Edappadi Palaniswamy, thechief minister and close confi-dante of Sasikala.

The stance of other partieslike the MDMK, DMDK,PMK, the Communists and theVCK is not known. It is certainthat these parties too wouldjoin the race as a defeat for thecandidate put up by theSasikala faction could lead tomajor changes in Tamil Nadu’spolitical landscape.

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In yet another incident of bru-tal sexual atrocity towards

children in Kerala, a five-year-old girl and her nine-year-oldbrother were allegedly sub-jected to sexual assault by a rel-ative at Malayankeezhu inThiruvananthapuram districteven as the police arrested twomore men in the cases per-taining to the mysterious deathof two siblings, who hadreportedly been abused sexu-ally, in Walayar, Palakkad.

The Nedumangad police inThiruvananthapuram onFriday arrested Vinod ofKallikkad, who was working inthe construction field, for sex-ually assaulting the five-year-old girl and her brother inMalayankeezhu. Vinod, a rel-ative of the children’s mother,had abused them several timesin the past three months, thepolice said.

Vinod had enough free-dom in the children’s housedue to the relationshipbetween them and he hadcashed in on this to exploitthem sexually, police said. Hewas in the habit of visitingtheir house to enquire aboutthe treatment of the boy, a can-cer patient, and he used toabuse the small girl sexually onoccasions when the mothertook the boy to the hospital.

It was the boy who haddisclosed Vinod’s atrocitytowards them to the motherand she informed the boy’steacher, who in turn alertedthe Childline authorities. Thepolice have slapped on theaccused separate cases underprovisions of the Protection ofChildren from SexualOffences (Pocso) Act forassaulting the girl and thebrother.

In another incident, a 70-year-old man was arrested atChorode, Vadakara in

Kozhikode district for sexual-ly abusing a 13-year-old dif-ferently abled girl. The police,who arrested the elderly manon the basis of a complaintfrom the parents of the girl,slapped provisions of Pocso Acton him.

According to the police, theman, a neighbour of the victim,had tried to molest the girl ear-lier also and her relatives hadwarned him against makingany such attempt. He was takeninto custody on Thursdayevening for assaulting and mis-behaving with the girl theother day.

Meanwhile, former chiefminister VS Achuthanandanon Friday demanded measuresto ensure punishment for thepolice officials who hadallegedly tried to protect theaccused in the case pertainingto the death of two siblings,who had reportedly been sub-jected to sexual assault, atAttappallam near Walayar inPalakkad.

Terming the deaths of thetwo girls, who were sisters aged12 and nine, as cases of “brutalmurder”, Achuthanandan saidwhile visiting their parents attheir house, “The police had notdone anything to bring the cul-prits to the justice. They havebeen trying to derive benefits byconniving with the accused inseveral cases,” he said.

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In a sad commentary on thestate of environment and

audacity of a sort, more than 17huge trees were allegedly poi-soned and leafy canopy of 13trees has been cut in an IT cor-ridor to make way for a visibil-ity of a hoarding of an I Phoneadvertisement and a shop.

This unmindful act hascome into severe criticisms byconcerned people of Bengaluru.It is alleged that an ad agencyin its attempt to improve thevisibility of a life size hoardingof the I phone advertisement inthe prominent IT corridor in

south-east Bengaluru poisonedtrees and chopped of canopiesof the trees.

According to officials ofForest Cell at the BengaluruCorporation, have lodged an

FIR against the outdoor agency,that has put up the ad on behalfof the mobile phone maker,under the KarnatakaPreservation of Trees Act forcausing damage to the envi-

ronment. If proven, culprits can be fined and jailed for threemonths.

According to officials theyhave discovered the damage tothe trees a week back, and haveissued notices to the agencieswhich have put up the bill-board. According to DeputyConservator of Forests AppuRao the billboard put up wasillegal as the agency has notobtained the licence.

He said, “The billboarditself is illegal, as the agency hadnot obtained any license fromthe department. We will file achargesheet once the investi-gation is done.”

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In a totally unexpected move,Kerala’s Congress president

VM Sudheeran on Fridayannounced his decision to stepdown from the position citinghealth reasons, leaving topparty leaders literally stunned.The 69-year-old leader hasbeen occupying the position forover three years.

Announcing the decisionat a Press conference inThiruvananthapuram, Sud-heeran said he would fax theletter of resignation to partypresident Sonia Gandhi later inthe day. The Congress highcommand was unlikely toreject the resignation, sourcessaid. Sudheeran had recentlysuffered a fall during a pro-gramme in Kozhikode anddoctors had advised rest.

“Due to the accident, I am

unable to carry out full-timepolitical work and doctors havesaid the treatment would berun for a long time. In such asituation, it is inappropriate forme to continue as president ofthe Kerala Pradesh CongressCommittee. I expect the highcommand to make alternatearrangements,” Sudheeran told

newsmen.“Considering the present

situation in the party, the PCCchief cannot stay away from hiswork even for a day. But I can’tdo that considering my healthcondition. There is the optionto take leave but my con-science does not allow me to dothat,” said Sudheeran, a formerminister, adding he had not dis-cussed the matter with seniorleaders.

The Congress presidenthad appointed Sudheeran, seenas a group-neutral leader, as thePCC chief on February 10,2014 entrusting him with thetask of putting an end to theprotracted war between therival groups led OommenChandy, former chief minister,and Ramesh Chennithala,Opposition Leader. She hadappointed him rejecting theobjections raised by both the

factions. Though Sudheeran has

asserted that he took the deci-sion on health grounds,observers are of the view thatthere is indeed a very crucialpolitical side to it. “In Kerala’sCongress politics, such devel-opments do not occur in a vac-uum. In my opinion, therewas indeed pressure behind thedecision,” said a senior jour-nalist with a pro-Congressnewspaper.

“Sudheeran had not toldme anything about this. I hadmet him a few days ago at hishouse but it was not an occa-sion for discussing politics,”said Chandy while Chennithalasaid, “The resignation wastotally unexpected. He toldme about it just minutes beforehe announced it. I toldOommen Chandy about it andhe was surprised too.”

Gandhinagar: Pakistaniauthorities have apprehendedaround 750 fishermen in thepast two years till December2016 said Gujarat’s FisheriesMinister Babu Bokhiria in theState Assembly.

“Pakistani authorities havein two years till December2016 apprehended 747 Gujarat-based fishermen and released858 fishermen in the sameperiod,” said Bokhiria.

The Minister was replyingto a question by BJP legislatorfrom Bharuch, Dushyant Patel.When Congress legislatorPunja Vansh raised concernover recent incidents of appre-hension by Pakistan Marine

Security Agency (PMSA) frominternational maritime bound-ary line (IMBL), he said theGovernment records suggestthat only 10 fishermen onboard two boats were appre-hended on March 1.

He added the StateGovernment has made 23 writ-ten representations to theCentre to intervene and helpwith the release of these fish-ermen. He also informed theHouse that in its bid to preventsuch incidents, the state has ini-tiated multiple steps, includingawareness drives and financialassistance to fishermen to buyGPS devices and Distress AlertTransmitters (DAT). PNS

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Lucknow: Director General ofPolice Uttar Pradesh JaveedAhmed on Friday felicitated theanti-terrorist squad (ATS) offi-cials and the commandos whogunned down suspected ter-rorist Saifullah in Lucknow.

The DGP felicitated theofficials of the ATS and othersat a function in the State capi-tal and lauded them for carry-ing out the operation success-fully, a police release issuedhere said.

Meanwhile, InspectorGeneral (ATS) Aseem Arunalso honoured the locals whoprovided immense support tohis team in conducting the operation which lasted for13 hours.

Six locals includingLuvkush, Mohd Amir, MohdSayeed, Mohd Salim, MohdAbdul Salam and Mohd Javedwere felicitated at a programmeat IG ATS’ office here.

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Page 8: 4 ’ %%’(&%)5 $ %3 ˝!#! $#% ˚˙˚˙&’()˚*+*!,+ an “order” for registration of a case under the appropriate sec-tions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention

We’ve come a longway since theladies at theFord factory inD a g e n h a m

went on strike and won the fightfor equal pay in 1970. Only 40years later, we boast the narrow-est gender pay gap on record,more women on boards and themost gender diverse Parliamentin history. We have a lot to beproud of in our fight towardsgender equality.

But the reality is that thereare still women across the coun-try who are being held back sim-ply because of their gender. Theglass ceiling hasn’t been cracked.Key to tackling this is closing thegender pay gap. It might be at arecord low, but it’s still 18.1 percent too high.

That’s why, four weeks fromnow, Britain is introducingrequirements for all largeemployers to publish the genderpay gap and bonus pay gap fortheir own organisations. Thiswill help drive the culturechange needed to smash rightthrough that glass ceiling andconsign it to history. But this isonly the beginning.

It’s important that employ-ers publish their gender pay gap— but they also need to act uponit. That’s why last week’s Budgetannouncement, on InternationalWomen’s Day, of five millionpounds to increase returnshipsfor mothers is so key.

We know that the genderpay gap is caused by lots of fac-tors. But we also know thatwomen are much more likelythan men to take time out ofwork to start a family, lookafter children and that there’s alack of well-paid, quality part-time work available if theychoose not to go back to workfull-time.

I love being a mother and acareer woman. But I wouldn’thave been able to carry onworking while raising my twoboys had I not had help from myfamily — especially my mum;her support meant I didn’t haveto choose. I know that manywomen feel unable to pick upwhere they left off in theircareers after a break, eitherbecause of practical barriers,like childcare or because ofworkplace cultures that suggesta break means you’ve fallenbehind your peers. We simplycannot afford to lose talentedwomen from the workplace inthis way.

With this new money, the

Government will be able towork with the Women’s BusinessCouncil, business groups andpublic sector organisations onhow to best increase the numberof returnships.

Some employers are alreadydoing fantastic work in thisarea, running schemes to helpwomen to return to work. FromBarclays’ Alumni Network toVodafone’s new ReConnect pro-gramme, there is a lot we canlearn from them to ensure thattalent continues to flourish.

After all, there is so muchpotential that is currently beingundervalued. The Institute ofFiscal Studies found that womenwho take time out of work earnless when they return. They saythat, on average, women receivetwo per cent less for every yearthey spend out of work. Thisjumps up to four per cent less forwomen with at least A-levelqualifications.

This not only hurts women,it hurts the British economy. Infact, McKinsey research esti-mates that bridging the gendergap in work could add £150 bil-

lion to our annual gross domes-tic product in 2025.

Being a mother should neverbe a barrier to succeeding inyour career. If I’d have pressedpause on my career 14 years ago,when I had my first child, Iwouldn’t be in the privilegedposition I am in today. We haveto challenge the assumptionthat women have to put theirlives on hold to have a familyand ensure they have the ade-quate support to come back towork. This isn’t only fair, itmakes economic sense. After all,these are women with years ofwork experience and talent. Itshouldn’t go to waste.

That’s why we are also sup-porting working parents with upto 330 hours of childcare fromSeptember. It’s why we’ve madeit easier for both parents to taketime off work when they have a baby and why everyonenow has the right to request flex-ible working.

The recent Budgetannouncements build on theGovernment’s strong record sup-porting women and includes £20

million for organisations thattackle domestic violence andabuse. The Chancellor alsoannounced a f ive mill ionpounds fund to mark the 2018centenary of the ground break-ing legislation that gave womenthe right to vote.

This money will supportprojects to celebrate the 100years that have passed since theRepresentation of the PeopleAct, and will educate youngpeople about its significance.

In four weeks time, we willhit another major milestone inour fight to eliminate the genderpay gap. But our journey doesnot end with simply publishingdata. We are committed to work-ing hard to ensure that everyone,regardless of gender, back-ground or parental status, canfulfil their potential.

We have come a long waybut we cannot afford to be com-placent. We will continue topush at the glass ceiling until weburst right through it and allowevery woman to reach her fullpotential in the workplace.

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Flashback to motivated protest”(March 9) by Shreya Kedia. Allcoveted institutes in the countryneed to be governed by peoplelike Gajendra Chauhan, whomay not be excellent in the saidfield of affairs, but have an hon-est desire and tenacity toimprove the institute with pro-fessional excellence.

DK Chakraborty Via email

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Flashback to motivated protest”(March 9) by Shreya Kedia.Despite massive uproar againstthe appointment of GajendraChauhan as the Chairman of theFilm and Television Institute ofIndia, the television actor broughtmany reforms in the institute,which needs to be commended.

Importantly, Chauhan optedfor a good, non-corrupt staffand administration. His reformsand appointments were opposedby many communist Left liberalsbut nothing deterred him.

Premolal Via web

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Mea maxima culpa!”(March 8). It is obvious thatthere is much to be done tochange our laws on rape. WhileSections 375 and 376 of theIndian Penal Code are the majorlaws dealing with rape, theyhave failed to match the interna-tional standards of addressingthe crime. Making tougher lawswill only be as effective as itsimplementation. Violentassaults, rapes and murders ofwomen are symptomatic of adeep societal dysfunction.

Any new law on rape shouldinclude the conduct of thedefence lawyer and bar unethical questions against therape victim. If an FIR is registered against a person in arape case, he should be automat-ically disqualified from con-testing elections.

Before the dignity of morewomen is sacrificed, we need tohave a real change for the bet-ter democracy, greater freedom,full transparency, strict lawenforcement, and mandatorypunishment for heinous crimesagainst women.

Vinod C Dixit Ahmedabad

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Sir — The Ganga and theYamuna, both bountiful andcalm rivers, wend their waythrough the massive land ofUttar Pradesh. But sadly, theirmajesty and depth has beenemulated neither by theBharatiya Janata Party nor theCongress-Samajwadi Party com-bine in these raucous months ofelection campaigning. The resul-tant political currents throughthe State have been vapid, shal-low and turbulent.

While the parties might wellend up eroding each other’svote banks, that should bringback the silent and submergedSaraswati into the equation.

The Bahujan Samaj Party, onthe other hand, has been con-spicuous in its subdued andmeasured f low of electionrhetoric. Not long back, it hadfruitfully surfaced to be of availto the State.

Patience and prudence mayyet prevail over unseemly hubrisand we will not have to waitmuch longer to know.

R Narayanan Ghaziabad

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The sixth anniversary of the 2011 uprisingin Bahrain witnessed a spate of violent

protests across the tiny Gulf State last month.Wary of widespread outrage against the rul-ing elite, the Government announced a banon the main Opposition party, Wa’ad or theNational Democratic Action Society, a sec-ular group. The Ministry of Justice filed a law-suit seeking to dissolve the party on the chargethat it is undermining the security of thenation. The Ministry release said that theWa’ad perpetrated “serious violations tar-geting the principle of respecting the rule oflaw, supporting terrorism and sanctioningviolence by glorifying people convicted forterrorism cases”. This is nothing but a repe-tition of what the Government did last yearwhen it banned the then biggest Oppositionparty, al-Wefaq. The dissolution of al-Wefaqwas a serious concern among the westernallies and the human rights organisations asit was seen as a disturbing signal for the qui-etly grown symptoms of democratic dissentin the country for long. The Bahraini author-ities accused the party of creating “a new gen-eration that carries the spirit of hatred” andof maintaining links with “sectarian andextremist political parties that adopt terror-ism”. In the same year, the Government alsorevoked the citizenship of top Shia clericSheikh Isa Qassim for prompting protests byhis followers. The declaration by the author-ities says that Qassim is creating a sectarianatmosphere and forming groups that followforeign religious ideologies and political enti-ties. It was an apparent reference to the Shiapower Iran and its growing interference in thecountry’s politics. Along with this, last weeksaw the Upper House of Bahrain Parliamentapproving a constitutional amendment whichwill allow the authorities to run the countryunder an undeclared state of martial law. Thiswill simply empower the Government to forcecivilians to face the infamous military courtsif the cases involve the military. It is highlylikely that the Opposition protesters, humanrights activists, and opinion makers would allbe easily coming under the rubric of the newlaw. All these incidents show that the BahrainGovernment is taking all possible steps to pre-vent elements which can disturb the rulingelite either on the pretext of spreading dis-sent, hatred and or on the acute charges ofbringing home terrorism.

When the Tahrir Square in Egypt raisedthe banner of revolt in 2011, the human rightactivists and the majority of the Shias did thesame in Bahrain. They all had given a call fora protest as their long-standing grievances anddiscriminatory treatment by the regime werewaiting for an opportunity to burst out. And,the historic Arab Spring had offered the rarechance to the Kingdom’s much neglected Shiasto speak their minds. Bahrain is a country withan indigenous Shia majority population, butthe country has been ruled by a Sunni royalfamily, known as al-Khalifas.

Interestingly along with the Shias, theminority Sunnis too marched on the streetsagainst the Government. All the protesterscould rather identify them not as “Shias” or“Sunnis”, but as “Bahrainis”. It was an unusu-al feature of the 2011 uprising in Bahrain.

This highlighted the growing frustration ofthe people against the ruling dynasty. Thecurrent king, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, hasbeen known for constantly curtailing fun-damental human rights like rights of expres-sion, association and peaceful Assembly inthe country. Global human rights groupsobserve that torture and abuses are widelypracticed in the notorious jails of Bahrain.

When the authorities put a ban on theOpposition party, it claimed that the secu-rity agencies have uncovered a terrorist celloperating from 50 or more locations acrossthe country. These are reasons behind theGovernment decisions to steer clear of allorganisations, groups and activists whocould probably have the force or may gar-ner external support to unseat the royalty.

Indeed the situation in Bahrain hasbecome a cause of concern for its western alliesand for the rest of the Gulf nations which arealso encountering such conflicts in the past.When the al-Wefaq and Qassim saga unfold-ed, a bipartisan group of American Senatorsin July 2016 brought it to the notice of thenSecretary of State John Kerry about themounting repression of the BahrainiGovernment on civil society activists andpeaceful political opponents. Further, all of

them raised the point that if the events taketurn in this fashion, it could possibly createregional unrest, spark more violence andincrease meddling of Iran like countries inBahrain. Even around the same time, a USState Department report sent to the Congressshowed that Bahrain had failed to implementpolitical and human rights reforms prescribedby an independent commission in the wakeof the 2011 protests in the country.

Bahrain is home to American Navy’sFifth Fleet. This provides the country anadded advantage. However, the price ofmaintaining the American safety-valve is alsoa huge burden on Bahrain. Why the coun-try needs to remain as an American pro-tectorate? Just because its royal family wantsto remain in power. Bahrain crushed the2011 unrest with full assistance from its larg-er neighbours such as Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates. Moreover, Bahrainbeing a constitutional monarchy, its citizenshave no right to change their Governmentor their existing political system. Whetherits citizens can herald a new political systemor not, it is very clear that the powerful andinfluential al-Khalifa royals are going to stayput at the helm. With the coming of DonaldTrump, it seems his administration is going

to maintain the status quo with Bahrainrather more effectively. Though Secretary ofState Rex Tillerson in his Senate confirma-tion testimony professed that “our values areour interests when it comes to humanrights”, in one of his crucial acts to deal withBahrain, the strategic Persian Gulf State, heabandoned that stance. The internationalhuman rights community is all in doubt thatTrump establishment may have alreadyapproved a massive multi-billion dollar saleof Lockheed Martin fighter planes toBahrain, even without putting any condi-tions. Unfortunately this will reverse anObama Administration’s demand that theBahraini Government should initiate somebasic reforms in exchange for the jets. In fact,Bob Corker, the Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee Chairman said last month:“This type of conditionality would beunprecedented and counterproductive tomaintaining security cooperation and ulti-mately addressing human rights issues.There are more effective ways to seekchanges in partner policies.” Also, he reject-ed that the previous regime had attachedhuman rights conditions on the sale of F-16sto Bahrain. This makes it very clear thatTrump can’t simply say no to Bahrain as it

hosts the most important strategic Americanbase in the heart of the West Asia. This willembolden the al-Khalifa family to rein in onany future unrest in the State. But many law-makers in the Congress and human rightsactivists feel that America has the obligationto ask its partners and allies to uphold humanrights and rule of law. However, conventionalmilitary wisdom from most military expertsand planners in the Defense Department isthat “losing Fifth Fleet Headquarters inBahrain is unlikely” and “the Saudis and theUnited States would never allow it”. In viewof all these, the successive military plannersin America have ensured that al-Khalifaregime remains intact, and the security sce-nario stays stable so that Washington canretain its prestigious geopolitically importantfleet there. But many say that security situ-ation may change in the tiny nation.

The lost in the middle are millions ofordinary people, sadly without any voice.They are hardly represented by any party orleadership. They include Shias, Sunnis andmostly migrant Asians. Their only desire isto see a Bahrain which can be more friend-ly and safe both for business and work. Moreimportantly, all of them who are facing end-less sufferings in their personal and publiclife simply want a corruption-free system.What really happening to them is that theyare sandwiched between the too violent Shiahardliners, who are encouraged by Iran, andthe Sunni radicals, who want to crush themmercilessly. What can be observed clearly isthat there is no strong appetite for an all-outrevolution among the majority Shias, but astrong call for reform movement is appar-ent across all sections of people. Delaying itmay help create more tensions both in thepolitical spectrum and in public space. TheBahraini royals should not put to test thepatience of its populace.

The island nation may see much morethan what is happening now. Its tiny Sunniruling elite will find it extremely difficult torun the State. It has been possible so farbecause of the support from its long-time ally,the US and the other powerful Sunni-ledGovernments in the region. Simply accus-ing Iran for fomenting sectarian violence willnot help the Bahraini Government to main-tain the status quo any longer. The time hascome to respect the basic human rights andallow political Opposition to have their sayin the country. By targeting the Shia com-munity and various other activists, theroyal family is only exacerbating the tensionin the region. It must remember that oncepeople come on the roads, they will simplyuncover the real face of the Government. Sofar many of the authoritarian rulers in theregion have fallen in the line, like that ofHosni Mubarak, Gaddafi, Ben Ali, as a resultof the massive force unleashed by the ArabSpring. No one knows when the time willcome for the royalties of the region. But then,small nations, like Bahrain, must treadcarefully while dealing with political activismand civil society groups.

(The writer is an expert on international affairs)

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Arctic is becoming a major flashpoint forglobal politics despite the fact that the

price of hydrocarbon is not so high in theinternational market and the United Statesis exploring its own domestic reserves.However to an utter surprise, the way bothWashington and Moscow (Arctic littoralstates) are deploying troops and their strate-gic weapons, there is a speculation thatArctic’s strategic map is going to be volatilein near future.

One may recall that just before demittingoffice, then US President Barrack Obama,understanding the geopolitical complexity,put forth the Washington’s strategic policytowards the Arctic. The Department ofDefense in a report titled, “On Strategy toProtect United States National SecurityInterests in the Arctic Region OUSD (Policy)”published in December 2016, charted out thestrategy the US is going to adopt towards thispart of the world. The strategy report outlinedto “Enhance the capability of US forces todefend the homeland and exercise sover-eignty”. Further the report emphasised on“freedom of the seas (Northern Sea routes)in the Arctic”. Some of these references aremore akin to then US President JimmyCarter’s famous speech which he outlined inthe context of energy-rich West Asia in the1980. By spelling out these policies, thenObama Administration wanted to pursue anaggressive foreign policy aimed at encirclingRussia in this resources-rich region.

Just a few days before the enunciation ofthe OUSD policy, Russia in its Foreign PolicyConcept published in November 2016 high-lighted that “Russia will be firm in counter-ing any attempts to introduce elements ofpolitical or military confrontation in theArctic, and, in general, politicise internationalcooperation in the region”. Russia’s ForeignPolicy Concept as outlined in 2016 is a con-tinuation of “Russian Federation’s Policy forthe Arctic to 2020” adopted in 2009 wherespecial emphasis was laid on harnessing“strategic raw materials”.

Though both the superpowers — the USand Russia — are deploying troops, theadvantage Russia is having in this region isthe possession of icebreakers. As has beenreported by various newspapers, Russia hasaround 40 icebreakers and the US possess-es only 2. Because of asymmetric possessionof icebreakers, Washington Times in a recentreport quoting a high official stated that the

US is “losing the battle” in the Arcticregion. In fact the “OUSD” policy paper hasalso outlined the complex problem forAmerica in the region in the near future.

What brings the Arctic region into theforefront of global geopolitical map?

As per a study by Energy InformationAdministration (EIA) there are around “22per cent of oil and gas” unexplored in thispart of the world. The biggest beneficiariesof energy of the Arctic region are littoralstates like Canada, the US, Sweden, Norway,and Russia. This is in addition to the gold,zinc, etc. For instance the International ArcticForum, a body supported by the RussianGeographical Society, in an recent report stat-ed that “more than 80 per cent of oil andmajor chunk of Russian gas” are producedin this part of the world. This report signi-fies the Russia’s strategic concern in Arctic.

Both the US and Canada are derivingmajor chunk of energy from Arctic territo-ries. Along with resources, the importanceof this region is growing because of theNorthern Sea Route. Analysts are arguingthis sea route is going to connect “Europe and

Asia Pacific” by reducing the distance.However because of proximity with Arctic,Russia is claiming greater suzerainty over theroute which is being resented by the US. Infact, the OUSD report stated that “Russia’sclaim over Northern Sea Route” is “incon-sistent with international law”. The race fordominance of Arctic is gaining more promi-nence as is evident from Moscow’s militaryexercises in this region recently. This is beingresented by other littoral Arctic states, par-ticularly by the US. Looking at the proactiveforeign policy, Washington is pursuingunder President Donald Trump, one expectsconflict of interests between these twoArctic states. The rivalry between the US andRussia over Arctic can be traced back to thepages of history. It was in the latter part of19th century when the grabbing for resource-rich colonies was at its height, the US, stillnot a great power, purchased Alaska fromTsarist Russia through signing of a treatyknown as “Convention Ceding Alaskabetween Russia and the United States” wayback in “1867 by paying $7.2 million”. As hasbeen argued by Russian historiographers,

Russia’s interest in this landmass can betraced back to 16th century. Some of thesefacts were succinctly brought out by RogerHoward in an interesting book titled, TheArctic Gold Rush, published in 2009. Chinathough not an Arctic littoral state is tryingto reap benefits from the resources lyingbeneath in this region. For example grow-ing Russian-Chinese bonhomie is also pro-viding an added impetus to the latter inindulging in “resource war”. Already Chinahas made an inroad into the Far Eastern andSiberian energy sectors of Russia. In addi-tion to the energy resources, Beijing is alsomooting for having a stake in the NorthernSea route. This policy planners perceive willgive teething to its “maritime Silk RoadStrategy”. Beijing has also got an observer sta-tus in the Arctic Council. China is also send-ing regular expedition to this region tostrengthen its connectivity. Beijing’s involve-ment in this region is making the situationmuch murkier. Sensing their mutual prox-imity other littoral states perceive there isgoing to be Moscow-Beijing collaborationover Arctic.

One interesting aspect of Arctic geopol-itics is that climate change is also proving tobe “boon and bane” for the Arctic states.Because of faster melting of ice what one wit-nesses is that littoral states are expectinggreater exploration of mineral resources. Soanalysts are of the opinion that climatechange is contributing to the “scramble forresources”. This in turn is fostering greatermilitarisation in this part of the world. EvenArctic Council at its various summit meet-ings highlighted this issue.

Of late India is also showing keenness toenter into this region in a grandeur manner.Though, not a full member of Arctic body,India obtained an observer status in 2013 likeChina, Japan and South Korea. Unlike,China, however, India does not have muchgeopolitical interests in the Arctic region. Onthe other hand in collaboration with Arcticlittoral states like Sweden, Norway, theIndian Government has launched scientificexplorations in this region. As reported, NewDelhi has established a scientific research cen-tre known as “Himadri”. Similarly a newdepartment has been established for study-ing this region known as National Centre forAntarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR).India is also pursuing its energy diplomacyin the Siberian and Far Eastern part of Russiawith greater intensity located nearer toArctic. With greater cooperation in thedomain of energy not only with Russia butalso with Canada, the US will benefit NewDelhi in the longer run. The Northern SeaRoute in future may also provide an addedthrust to the maritime diplomacy of India infuture. Though Arctic is assuming strategicsignificance in recent years for India, longback Indian scholar Lokmanya BalGangadhar Tilak in an interesting book,Arctic Home in the Vedas, published in 1903,dwells on common “geo-cultural complex”between India and the Arctic.

Over the years Arctic region is facing com-plex problems ranging from climatic changes,social issues, conflict over resources. Some ofthese problems propelling the littoral states topursue both “cooperative” and “competitive”geopolitics. Though “cooperative geopoli-tics” is the desired goal “competitive geopol-itics” is the routine norms of Arctic.

(The writer is Assistant Professor, CRCAS,School of International Studies, JawaharlalNehru University)

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Tax tr ibunal ITAT asupheld levy of �10,247

crore capital gains tax onUK’s Cairn Energy Plc buthas held that interest cannotbe charged on it as thedemand was raised using ret-rospective tax legislation.

ITAT, in an order datedMarch 9, 2017, held thatCairn Energy was liable topay the tax on share transferit did through an internalreorganisation of its Indiabusiness in 2006, prior to get-ting Cairn India listed onstock exchanges.

The tribunal also saidthat Cairn India should havewithheld tax on capital gainsmade by its parent company.It was parallely sent a demandnotice by the Income Taxdepartment for not doing so.

Cairn Energ y hadapproached ITAT after it wasslapped with an tax assess-ment order of �10,247 crorein January 2014. Later, it alsoinitiated international arbi-trat ion against the taxdemand, which is still pend-ing.

The I-T department had

raised a total tax demand of�29,047 crore on CairnEnergy, including �18,800crore in backdated interest.

A similar tax demandwas also raised on CairnIndia, the Indian subsidiaryof Cairn Energy which theBritish firm sold to AnilAgarwal’s Vedanta Group in2011.

In its plea before theITAT, Cairn Energy had saidthat the assessing officer had“erred” in raising tax demandby invoking the retrospectiveamendment to Section 9 ofthe Act introduced in theFinance Act, 2012, which was

not on the statute when theIndia-United Kingdom TaxTreaty entered into force.

“It is therefore submittedthat the taxability of theAppellant should have beendetermined under the provi-sions of section 9(l)(i) the Actwhich were applicable whenthe India - United KingdomTax Treaty was entered intoforce,” Cairn Energy said.

The ITAT said the provi-sions of DTAA where it sim-ply provides that particularincome would be chargeableto tax in accordance with theprovisions of domestic laws,such article in DTAA also

cannot the limit the bound-aries of domestic tax laws.

“In view of this, we donot find any force in theargument of the assessee anddismiss ... The appeal,” ITATsaid.

With regard to interestpayment, it opined thatassessee cannot be burdenedwith interest u/s 234A and234B of the Act on tax liabil-ity arising out of retrospectiveamendment w.E.F. April 1,1962, in the provision of sec-tion 9(1) of the Income TaxAct.

“We have carefully con-sidered the rival contentions.In the present case the inter-est has been charged on thetax payable by the assesseewhich has arisen because ofretrospective amendmentmade by The Finance Act,2012.

“Therefore, it is correcton the part of the assessee tosubmit that it could not havevisualise its liability for pay-ment of advance in the yearof transaction therefore, therecannot be any interestpayable by the assessee u/s234A and 234B of the Act,”the ITAT ruled.

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Caution remained thebuzz word at Dalal

Street as Sensex on Fridaydecided to buy time andwait for the final judge-ment on Saturday. The 30-share Sensex settled high-er by 17.10 points, or 0.06per cent, at 28,946.23. Ithad gained 27.19 points inthe previous session whilethe broad-based Niftyended up 7.55 points, or0.08 per cent, at 8,934.55.

Though there is noclear theme, the findingspoint to an edge for the BJPin the politically-sensitiveUttar Pradesh. Counting ofvotes for five states will betaken up on Saturday.

On the macro front,investors are tracking theindex of industrial pro-duction (IIP) for Januaryscheduled for today.Chances of higher US bor-rowing costs kept investorson their toes too.

Exit polls last eveningshowed the BJP emergingas the single-largest partyin Uttar Pradesh and Goaand likely to formGovernment inUttarakhand, lifting thekey indices.

��4�������Embattled liquortycoon Vijay Mallya on Fridayaccused the Government ofholding him guilty without a“fair” trial as he faces heat inthe Supreme Court over loandefault.

A day after the SupremeCourt asked Mallya about hisassets and transfer of $40 mil-lion to his children, he took tothe twitter to clarify his posi-tion.

He also offered to negoti-ate with banks to pay one timesettlement charge on his�9,000 crore loan default.

“I have humbly obeyedevery single Court Orderwithout exception. Seems as ifGovernment is bent uponholding me guilty withoutfair trial,” he said in one of thetweets.

The court had yester-day reserved orders on twopleas of lending banks seekingcontempt action and a direc-tion to him to deposit $40 mil-lion he had received fromoffshore firm Diageo respec-tively.

“The allegations againstme by the Attorney Generalbefore the HonourableSupreme Court only provethe att itude of theGovernment against me,”

Mallya said in another tweet.Attorney General Mukul

Rohatgi and senior advocateShyam Divan, appearing forthe banks, had yesterday con-tended that unless Mallyadeposits $40 million beforethis court, he does not deserveto be heard and, moreover, heneeded to appear personally asthe contempt notice hasalready been issued.

“Public Sector Banks havepolicies for One TimeSettlements. Hundreds of bor-rowers have settled. Whyshould this be denied to us?,”he said in a tweet as he soughtnegotiations with banks topay a one-time settlementcharge on �9,000-crore loandefault.

He said his offer for set-tlement have been rejected bythe lenders without consider-ation.

“Our substantial offerbefore the Hon’ble SupremeCourt was rejected by Bankswithout consideration. Amready to talk settlement on fairbasis,” he said. “Wish theHon’ble Supreme Court wouldintervene and put an end to allthis by directing Banks and usto negotiate and settle. We areready.”

Last month, the IndianGovernment handed over tothe UK an extradit ionrequest for the businessman,who is facing cases of loandefault and other financialirregularities. ����

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The impact of note ban and theconsquent cash crunch for

months seems to be almost overas overall automobile sales in Indiarose marginally in February sig-nalling revival in the auto indus-try.

With demonetisation impactsteadily waning, overall salesacross categories rose 0.94 per centto 17,19,699 units in Februarycompared to 17,03,736 in thesame month last year.

In December 2016, the over-all automobile sales growth hadtouched a 16-year-low at 12,21,929units, down 18.66 per cent, from15,02,314 units in December2015.

In January, the auto salesacross categories had registered adecline of 4.71 per cent to16,20,045 units, from 17,00,141 inJanuary 2016.

“We are now witnessingsteady recovery in the industry.Impact of demonetisation issteadily waning and we expect theimpact to gradually fade away inthe next 1-2 months,” SIAMDirector General Vishnu Mathurtold reporters here.

According to data released by

the Society of Indian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM), domesticpassenger vehicle sales rose 9.01per cent to 2,55,359 units inFebruary, from 2,34,244 a yearago.

“As dealers stocked up inven-tory in January itself, Februarysales are slightly on the lower side,”Mathur said.

He, however, added thatrecovery is happening in bothurban and rural areas and theindustry is on the path to achieveclose to a double-digit growth inthe segment in the current fiscal.

Domestic car sales also tickedup to 1,72,623 units as against

1,64,559 in February last year, up4.9 per cent.

During February, marketleader Maruti Suzuki India saw itscar sales rise by 1.59 per cent to88,541 units as against 87,149 inthe same month last year. Thecompany’s utility vehicle salesjumped over two-fold to 17,863units as against 8,484 in Februarylast year.

Rival Hyundai Motor Indiareported an increase of 2.17 percent in its domestic car sales at33,149 units compared with32,442 in the year-ago period. Itsutility vehicles sales came in at9,178 units as against 8,274 last

year, up 10.92 per cent.Utility vehicle major

Mahindra and Mahindra saw itssales in the utility category decline13.63 per cent to 19,529 units lastmonth. Its car sales were at 97units compared with 217 lastyear, down 55.29 per cent, as perthe SIAM data.

Total two-wheeler sales inFebruary declined marginally to13,62,045 units compared to13,62,177 in the year-earliermonth.

The figure for motorcycleslast month read 8,32,697 units asagainst 8,59,582 a year earlier,down 3.13 per cent. “There is

revival happening in motorcyclesales as well.The demonetisa-tion impact that was witnessed inDecember and January is nowtapering off,” Mathur said.

Motorcycle sales were down22 per cent in December and 6per cent in January.

Hero MotoCorp saw its bikesales at 4,50,222 units last monthas against 4,48,772 in February2016. Rival Bajaj Auto’s motor-cycle sales stood at 1,42,287 units,down 5.85 per cent year on year.

According to SIAM, HondaMotorcycle and Scooter India(HMSI) saw its bike sales decline1.58 per cent to 1,20,170 units.

Total scooter sales last monthgrew 3.7 per cent to 4,52,295units.

Segment leader HMSI saw itsscooter sales rise by 8.99 per centto 2,49,952 units over the corre-sponding month last year.

Hero MotoCorp’s scootersales came in at 61,732 units com-pared to 88,156 in February2016, down 29.97 per cent.

Chennai-based TVS Motor’sscooter sales rose 2.85 per cent to66,666 units, from 64,815 a yearago. Sales of commercial vehiclesmoved up 7.34 per cent to 66,939units in February, SIAM said.

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Shrugging off the note banimpact, country’s industrial

production rose by 2.7 per centyear-on-year (Y-o-Y) in Januarythis year, mainly due to betterperformance by the capitalgoods segment - a barometer ofinvestment activities. Accordingto the Government data, threeindices of industrial productionfor mining, manufacturing andelectricity sectors also showedpositive growth in the samemonth.

But, India Inc says industryis still sensing a hint of uncer-tainty on the economic growthfront even though the industrialoutput rose 2.7 per cent inJanuary and urged the govern-ment to pursue reforms tostimulate investments.

“The manufacturinggrowth, though positive inJanuary, remains fragile and acause for concern. The sectormay see a revival in the comingmonths as a result of measurestaken in budget and otherareas,” Ficci President PankajPatel said.

He said it is important tocontinue the reform momen-tum to boost investor confi-

dence and stimulate invest-ments.

The factory output, mea-sured in terms of Index ofIndustrial Production (IIP),had contracted by 0.1 per centin December on account of cashcrunch following demonetisa-tion of high-value currencynotes. The industry output hadexpanded by 5.53 per cent inNovember. The capital goodssegment grew by 10.7 per centin January against a contractionof 21.6 per cent in the samemonth of last financial year.

The basic goods categoryexpanded by 5.3 per centagainst 1.9 per cent growth inJanuary 2016. On the otherhand, the intermediate goodscategory contracted by 2.3 percent. Despite quickening ofremonetisation process the con-sumer goods segment con-tracted by 1 per cent in January.It comes over a 0.1 per centdecline in January 2016. In theconsumer goods segment,durable items expanded by 2.9per cent, but non-durable con-tracted by 3.2 per cent. IIP as awhole had contracted by 1.6 percent in January 2016.

On cumulative basis, IIPduring April-January 2016-17

showed an expansion of 0.6 percent, which was lower than 2.7per cent reported in the year-ago period. The indices ofindustrial production for min-ing, manufacturing and elec-tricity sectors posted growthrates of 5.3 per cent, 2.3 per centand 3.9 per cent respectively inJanuary 2017.

The cumulative growth inthese three sectors duringApril-January 2016-17 was 1.4per cent, (-) 0.2 per cent and 5.0per cent, respectively. In total,nine out of the 22 industrygroups in the manufacturingsector have shown positivegrowth during January 2017 onannual basis.

The industry group elec-trical machinery and apparatushas shown the highest growthof 42.4 per cent followed by 21.8per cent in ‘radio, TV andcommunication equipment andapparatus’ and 12.4 percent inbasic metals. On the otherhand, the industry group office,accounting and computingmachinery has shown the high-est negative growth of 16 percent followed by 14.8 per centin food products and beveragesand 13.4 per cent in othertransport equipment.

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$�������������������������������4�����K�� ������������������ ������:�������3<�� ��������&��������������������%������������ ���� � �%���� ���� ��������,� ����P������4��������,�<���� �,�"�����������(���������:�������3<�!�����38�������6���� ��K�&���2 ������� �������)���� �����:�������3<2 ��)�� ���� ����%���������������������������������� ������������ �%������� ����,��������%�����������������'��'�� ������� ��������=���������������������������%�� ����'����%����������� ��� E�

��4� ������ Reliance Jio andPaytm have apologised for their“inadvertent mistake” in usingPrime Minister Narendra Modi’sphotograph in their advertise-ments without permission, theGovernment on Fridayinformed Parliament.

The Ministry of ConsumerAffairs had sent notices to boththe companies under theEmblems and Names(Prevention of Improper Use)Act of 1950, which bars use ofPrime Minister’s name and pic-ture for commercial use.

“Clarifications were soughtby the Department of ConsumerAffairs from Paytm and RelianceJio wherein they have apologisedfor their inadvertent mistake,”Minister of State for ConsumerAffairs C R Chaudhary said ina written reply to the RajyaSabha.

The two companies usedthe photograph of the PrimeMinister in their respective fullpage advertisements contra-vening the ‘prior permission’stipulated under the Act, he said.

Based on the department’srequest, the Information andBroadcasting Ministry hasissued an advisory to printmedium to check-up the per-mission from competent author-

ity before issuing any advertise-ment wherein the emblem andnames specified under the Actare mentioned, he added.

Responding to a querywhether there is any mechanismto approve use of PrimeMinister’s photo by private firmsor if the government plans tointroduce one, the minister saida committee is in place to exam-ine such proposals.

The Section 3 of the Actprovides that no person shall useor continue to use any name oremblem for the purpose of anytrade, business, calling or pro-fession without the previouspermission of the CentralGovernment.

The law provides that “anyperson who contravenes theprovisions of Section 3 shall bepunishable with fine, whichmay exceed to �500”.

In September last year,Reliance Jio had through itsadvertisements, dedicated theReliance Jio 4G service to theModi government’s flagshipDigital India project. Full-page“Reliance Jio: Digital Life” adver-tisements were published with aphotograph of the PrimeMinister, dressed in a blue jack-et, triggering a political contro-versy. ����

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��4� ������ China’s Alibaba-backed Paytm on Friday citedthe outcry on social media as areason for rolling back 2 per centcharge that it levied on moneyloaded in the wallet using cred-it cards.

“I will react faster. I won’t sayI will do anything different butI will react faster. Yesterday, werolled 2 per cent charges foradding money to credit card ona Paytm wallet. Last night it was

rolled back. In less than 24hours,” Paytm founder and CEOVijay Shekhar Sharma said at a‘Knowledge Factory’ event.

He was talking about a pos-sible action plan of Paytm in caseit faces a social media backlashlike Maggi crisis in 2016 that ledNestle India destroy around38,500 tonnes of the noodles.

“I want to give you the rea-son for roll back. Obviously, a lotof people were gaming. You

know what the bankers weregaming was my problem. I wantto tell bankers you have a prob-lem for common consumers. Iam giving you money any whichway you can use,” Sharma said.

He said people in Indiaare gullible which is a bigproblem for any company tobuild business.

“People get into the quickconcerns and outrage on thembut at the same point of time

you have to react for certainpeople in a larger sense soyour system have to bechanged. I just felt bad that wewere really not charging peo-ple because we were givingmoney back, except we want-ed to reduce that moneymethod. It was net net foundout that we should let these(credit card gamers) guysblock. . .Hack with you,”Sharma said. ����

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The Comptroller and AuditorGeneral of India (CAG) has

pulled up national carrier AirIndia for the inordinate delay in theprocess of leasing narrow bodyplanes for replacing its vintageA320 aircraft. The inordinate delaydefeated the objective of reducingmaintenance costs by way ofinducting new planes in theirplace, according to the CAG reporttabled in Parliament on Friday.

The Company took morethan three years (May 2010-August 2013)) to float the globaltender after recommendation ofthe consultant and 5 years toinduct the aircraft. Global networkconsultant SH&E had in May2010 observed that the 1989-1994vintage Airbus A-320 planes withV2500-A1 engines were ‘uneco-nomical’ and needed to be phasedout ‘urgently’ as maintenancecost of these aircraft was $4 mil-lion per year per aircraft.

“The SH&E recommendedimmediate leasing of 10 A-320s orB-737s to replace these classic air-craft. During July 2010, the Boardconsidered and approved the rec-ommendation of the network con-sultant for dry leasing of 10 new A-320 aircraft in March 2010,” thereport said. As per the report, theAir India Board was apprised thatturnaround plan (TAP) envisagedaggressive fleet induction.

“However, the same wouldinvolve incremental lease chargewhich was risky keeping in view thefinancial position of Air India.Therefore, pending Governmentapproval for financial Restructuring

Plan and financial constraints of AirIndia, aircraft induction had notprogressed,” it noted.

In May, 2013, the Boardapproved the fleet renewal plan,envisaging leasing of 19 A320units as replacement capacity tomaintain network and authorisedmanagement to issue Request forProposal for the same. Accordingto CAG, China Aircraft LeasingCompany (CALC) was the solequalified bidder, which submittedits bids through e-mail which wasin contravention of the generalterms and conditions of tender.

“However, CALC was given achance to furnish bids as per ten-der requirements and tender clos-ing dates were extended twice.Audit noticed that two of the othershortlisted bidders (Bank of Chinaand AWAS, Singapore) had with-drawn their bids,” it said. Air Indiaexecuted a lease agreement withCALC for inducting five A-320 air-craft in June 2014. The companyhas also signed a lease agreementfor 14 A-320 aircraft in March 2016delivery of which has already com-menced from last month.

“Though the consultantpointed out urgent need for the air-craft, Air India could induct onlyfive aircraft till March 2016, (aftera delay of five years),” the CAG said.Air India in its reply informed theCAG that “though concertedefforts were made to replace the oldclassic fleet, no suitable aircraft wasavailable in the market for whichthe deal could be concluded.

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NEW DELHI: In a surprise move, Reliance Capital’s longserving CEO Sam Ghosh will leave the company on March31, after spending 9 years at the financial services arm ofAnil Ambani-led business conglomerate. Ghosh had joinedthe firm in April 2008 as Group CEO of Reliance Capital,while he was elevated to the board in May 2015. The company, which ispresent across insurance, mutual fund and a host of other financial ser-vices sectors, said in a regulatory filing that Ghosh will be completing histerm of office on March 31, 2017, and the appointment of a new CEOwill be announced in due course. “During this entire period (of 9 years),Ghosh has served Reliance Capital with great passion and commitment,and contributed towards building up a strong portfolio of businesses acrossasset management, life and general insurance, commercial and housingfinance, broking and distribution among others,” the co said. PTI

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Niger has begun the trialsbehind closed doors of

about 1,000 suspected fightersfrom the Boko Haram jehadistmovement, officials said onFriday.

Chief prosecutor ChaibouSamna told AFP that the trials,on charges of terrorist links,had begun on March 2.

Those facing trial are fromseveral countries, includingNiger and Mali, Samna said, aswell as neighbouring Nigeriawhere Boko Haram’s deadlyinsurgency began in 2009before spreading abroad.

Some of the suspects were“captured during combat” insouthern Niger across the bor-der from Boko Haram’s strong-hold in Nigeria, a securitysource said.Berlin: Pope Francis has said in

an interview that the churchmay consider ordaining mar-ried men who could potential-ly then work in remote areasfaced with a shortage of priests.

“We must think aboutwhether viri probati are a pos-sibility,” Francis said referringto older, married men who arealready involved in churchbusiness.

“Then we have to decidewhat tasks they can take on, forexample in remote communi-ties,” he added in the interview,published yesterday, withGerman weekly Die Zeit. AFP

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The world’s chemical watch-dog on Friday condemned

the use of the deadly VX nerveagent in the assassination ofNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother last month.

The Organisation for theProhibition of ChemicalWeapons (OPCW) said itsexecutive council “unequivo-cally condemned the use of anychemical weapon by anyoneunder any circumstances.”

The council, made up from40 member states, called “forthose responsible for the use ofchemical weapons to be heldaccountable.”

United Nations: A new UNreport on measures for protec-tion from sexual exploitation andabuse by peacekeepers has saidaction against one such allegationis pending with India which hasappointed a focal point to han-dle future paternity claims relat-ed to sexual abuse.

UN Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres yesterdayreleased a report on ‘SpecialMeasures for Protection from

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse:A New Approach for consider-ation by the General Assembly’.

During his first week inoffice in January 2017, theSecretary-General had estab-lished a diverse Task Force todevelop as a matter of urgencya strategy to achieve visible andmeasurable improvements inthe way the Organisation pre-vents and responds to sexualexploitation and abuse. PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan’sParliament is to adopt a Billlegalising trials before mili-tary courts for another two years.

Prime Minister NawazSharif ’s Government is expect-ed to fast-track the draft beforelawmakers later on Friday amidindications that the NationalAssembly would unanimouslyback the constitutional amendment.

The amendment authoris-es the Army to try any suspecton terrorism-related charges. Asimilar amendment adopted in2015 allowed military courts tocarry out trials of militant sus-pects under a two-year mandate. AP

Saddles Brook: A woman tryingto cross the tracks in front of anoncoming train was saved by adriver who sprinted from his carand pulled her out of the way,authorities said.

Jon Mango was waiting ata Saddle Brook railroad cross-ing when he saw a woman withtwo canes trying to cross onWednesday, police said. Mangojumped out of his car andguided the woman away fromthe tracks. AP

Seoul: South Korean PresidentPark Geun-Hye was fired by thecountry’s top court on Friday,as it upheld her impeachmentby Parliament over a wide-ranging corruption scandal.

The unanimous decisionbrought months of politicalturmoil — that saw millions ofpeople take to the streets — toa climax and triggers a newpresidential election which is tobe held within 60 days.

It also means Park, thecountry’s first female presi-dent, also becomes its firstleader to be removed byimpeachment. She is obliged toleave the Blue House and losesher executive immunity fromprosecution.

Park’s actions “seriouslyimpaired the spirit of repre-sentative democracy and the

rule of law,” constitutional courtchief justice Lee Jung-Mi said.“President Park Geun-Hye...Has been dismissed.”

Rival groups of supportersand opponents watched as theverdict was read out on televi-sion. Park was found to havebroken the law by allowing herfriend Choi Soon-Sil to med-dle in State affairs, andbreached rules on public ser-vants’ activities.

“Park’s breaching of theconstitution and the lawsbetrayed the trust of the peo-ple,” said Lee, describing heractions as “a serious and unac-ceptable violation of the laws”.

The president “completelyconcealed Choi’s meddling instate affairs and denied it when-ever suspicions over the actemerged. AFP

Mosul: Iraqi forces advancedon the Islamic State group inwest Mosul as the United Statesnearly doubled its troops tohelp defeat the jehadists intheir Syrian stronghold Raqa.

The US-led coalition fight-ing ISIS said the United Stateswas deploying another 400troops against the jehadists intheir self-proclaimed capitalin Syria, joining 500 already onthe ground.

“They are temporaryforces,” coalition spokesmanUS Colonel John Dorrian told

reporters in Baghdad, addingthe long-term authorised levelof American troops in Syriawould remain at 500.

The announcement cameas the State Department saidthe United States would host ameeting of the 68 members ofthe coalition fighting ISIS onMarch 22.

The American militarybuildup comes amid calls byPresident Donald Trump fornew plans to accelerate the paceof the war against the SunniMuslim extremists. AFP

Dhaka: A 65-year-oldBangladeshi Christian manwas on Friday attacked andcritically injured by a group ofyouths while he was guardinga Catholic church and policehave detained three suspects.

Gilbert Costa was attackedby youths while he was guard-ing the Saint Rita Church atMathurapur, Pabna district,some 175 kilometres fromDhaka.

Police suspects the attackwas the result of a family feud.

“Some men came to thechurch around 4 am and askedfor its keys. When Gilbertrefused, they started hackinghim with sharp weapons,” saidMartin Dominic Rozario, amember of the church man-agement committee.

The attackers fled whenlocal shopkeepers came to hisrescue, he added. PTI

Guatemala City: Guatemala’spresident called for a restruc-turing of his country’s youthshelter system following a firethat killed 35 girls at an over-crowded Government facility forchildren, while grieving familiesbegan receiving the bodies oftheir loved ones.

The shelter held some 800children and mixed victims ofabuse with offenders. Officialssaid blaze began when youths setfire to mattresses to protestabuses at the Virgin of theAssumption Safe House. AP

Islamabad: The Islamic Statemilitants in Pakistan are dodg-ing authorities by using a mes-senger app to communicateinstead of calling each other toavoid detection, media report-ed on Friday.

The militants have beenusing the Telegram messengerapp and not the traditional com-munication channels like mobilephones to avoid detection and sofar their strategy has provedmore than successful, a policeofficial was quoted as saying byThe Express Tribune. PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan’sParliament has finally passed themuch-awaited landmark Bill toregulate marriages of minorityHindus in the country.

Pakistan’s Hindus were setto get an exclusive personal lawto regulate marriages after theNational Assembly unani-mously adopted the HinduMarriage Bill, 2017, onThursday.

The law was passed after alengthy process of enactment.

It was the second time thatthe National Assembly passedthe Bill. It passed the Bill inSeptember last year but had topass it again as its version of Billwas changed by the Senatewhen it adopted the Bill inFebruary.

As per rules, the same textshould be passed by the two

Houses of the Parliamentbefore it is sent to the Presidentfor his signatures and promul-gation for implementation.

Dawn News reported thatthe Senate included an amend-ment to the draft approved bythe National Assembly inSeptember.

The final text approved byboth houses includes the ShadiParath — a document similarto ‘Nikahnama’ in Muslims.

The Shadi Parath will berequired to be signed by a pun-dit and will be registered withthe relevant Governmentdepartment.

The simple document haseight columns starting withthe date of marriage and fol-lowed by the name of theunion council, tehsil, townand district. PTI

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Seeking a “radical reset” of tieswith Pakistan for having

“aided and abetted enemies ofthe United States for years”, asenior Republican lawmakerhas introduced a Bill in theHouse of Representatives topush for declaring Islamabad a“State sponsor of terrorism”.

Sponsored by CongressmanTed Poe, the Bill requires thePresident to issue a report with-in 90 days on whether Pakistanhas provided support for inter-national terrorism. And within30 days after that, the Secretaryof State must submit a follow-up report containing “either a

determination that Pakistan isa State sponsor of terrorism ora detailed justification as to whyit does not meet the legal crite-ria for such a designation”.

Poe, who heads the HouseSubcommittee on Terrorism,termed Pakistan an “untrust-worthy ally”, noting: “From har-bouring Osama bin Laden to itscosy relationship with theHaqqani network, there is morethan enough evidence to deter-mine whose side Pakistan is onin the War on Terror. And it’snot America’s.”

“It is time we stop payingPakistan for its betrayal and des-ignate it for what it is: a StateSponsor of Terrorism,” he said,alluding to the billions of dol-lars doled out by Washington toIslamabad over the years.

The Congressman fromTexas was unsparing on theUnited States itself, comment-ing that for decades, successiveadministrations have “acqui-esced in a toxic relationship withPakistan, putting up with this

nominal ally whose military andsecurity leaders play a lethaldouble game” that has involvedproduction of nuclear weaponsand export of Islamist terrorism.

“Successive US adminis-trations haven’t found a way outof this, playing instead the the-atre of “shared interests” withIslamabad, even when Pakistan’slinks with insurgents imperilAmerican lives in Afghanistanwhile feeding wider instabilityin central Asia,” Poe noted in aseparate article, written alongwith former senior Defenceofficial James Clad in theNational Interest magazine.

The article went on to saythat Congressional testimonyand expert analysis from with-in the administration and out-side have over the years rein-forced the view that Pakistanhas become “a quasi-adver-sary” that receives billions ofdollars from the US “in a strangehostage-like arrangement inwhich we pay Islamabad to dowhat it should be doing anyway

to protect its own domesticsecurity and buttress Afghanstability”.

In all this, efforts bySenators and Representativesover the years to attach condi-tionality to aid packages forPakistan have also failed withthe authorities in Islamabaddiverting the aid to other pur-poses, Poe and Clad said, stress-ing: “Something must change inour dealings with a terrorist-supporting, irresponsiblenuclear-weapons State, and itmust change soon. Acquiescingin the current trends is not anoption.”

Asking Washington to setthe “limits of its indulgence”towards Pakistan, Poe and Cladcommented: “Don’t let the nextcrisis in South or Southwest Asiadeflect our focus. Don’t rush toshore up Pakistan’s balance ofpayments via the IMF or otherintermediaries, as we’ve done inthe past. Let China pay that, ifthe Pakistanis wish to mortgagetheir future in that way.”

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Although President DonaldTrump’s new executive order

to temporarily bar nationalsfrom six predominantly Muslimnations is regarded as a legally-fortified document compared toits earlier version, six Democrats-run States have announced theirresolve to mount a fresh legalchallenge.

A day after Hawaii filed alawsuit on the grounds thatTrump’s travel ban would hurtthe State’s economy that is heav-ily dependent on tourism, themajor States of Washington,New York, Massachusetts,Minnesota and Oregon all joinedhands, asserting that it remainsvery much “a Muslim ban”.

Washington State’s AttorneyGeneral Bob Ferguson said inSeattle on Thursday that hisoffice would file a motion ask-ing Judge James Robart to reaf-firm that his earlier order stay-ing the earlier Trump ban wouldapply to the new version as wellthat is scheduled to come intoforce on March 16.

“It’s my expectation that wewill continue to prevail, and cer-tainly my expectation that thepresident will continue to respectthe decision of the court,”Ferguson told reporters, makingit clear that Washington wouldcontinue to argue that the trav-el ban continues to targetMuslims. New York’s AttorneyGeneral Eric Schneidermancalled the new executive order “aMuslim ban by another name”.

The Trump administration,however, believes the new trav-el ban order will stand up to legalscrutiny. “We feel very confidentwith how that was crafted andthe input that was given,” WhiteHouse Press Secretary SeanSpicer said.

The new travel ban orderbars nationals of Iran, Libya,Somalia, Sudan, Syria andYemen from visiting the US for90 days. It leaves out Iraq fromthe earlier list. The order alsoexempts green card holders andexisting visa holders.

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China has operationalised itsfirst stealth aircraft and

tested it in the rugged Tibetregion for its endurance inhigh altitude, a developmentthat will have major implica-tions for India.

A video footage from state-run CCTV Channel 7 on Fridayshowed J-20 fighters joining thePeople’s Liberation Army AirForce (PLAAF) with Y-20transport planes and H-6Kbombers.

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Abuja: President MuhammaduBuhari on Friday returned toNigeria after nearly twomonths' medical leave inBritain but did little to quellfears about the state of hishealth by saying he would notstart work again immediately.

The 74-year-old, who hasbeen in London since mid-January, said that although hefelt better, he still requiredrest. AFP

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Abbas-Mustan are known fortheir twin aspects, a twist intheir tale and new faces. Once

commanding the thriller space,adapting Hollywood inspirationswith commensurate ease and styling,they have eased out in a market thathas varied content. But now they areback in what they call the “roman-tic thriller” space with Machine star-ring their homeboy and debutanteMustafa, Abbas’ son and Mustan’snephew.

“Mustafa learnt film-makingfrom the New York Film Academy.He and my younger brother’s sonhave learnt everything from there.Mustafa used to make short films andwanted to become a director. Andhence he joined us as an assistantdirector,” said Mustan Burmawalla,who along with his brother, had quitthe family business and signed upwith their film-editor uncle in thepioneering days of the industry tolearn the craft of film-making.

Father Abbas intervened andsaid with a smile, “We were in NewYork shooting for Players and want-ed an Indian guy to play a cameo. Hewas assisting us there and did it. AndI guess that’s the point we allrealised there was a per-former in him too.”

Uncle Mustancouldn’t stoppraising hisnephew andadded, “Heused to readscripts and it isduring thesesessions thatyou get toknow thepotential of aperson as anactor. You have toenact, intone andread. While we werecasting for Machine, wewanted the lead actor to be fresh. Weweren’t even thinking about Mustafathen but my younger brother’s son,who was in New York with him, sug-gested we cast Mustafa. Still wewere not very sure and took a weekto internalise the idea. We thenasked him to read the script. Onlyafter a professional assessment werewe sure about him. I asked him if hewould act in the film. He didn’t sayanything but hugged me. He told us

that he had always wanted to act inthis film because the character ismulti-layered. He had no idea aboutwhat he was supposed to be in frontof the camera though. After takingsuggestions from his friends, hecame to Delhi for six months andlearnt acting from NSD’s NKSharma.”

This director-duo is usuallynot expressive but were effusiveabout Mustafa. Given their trackrecord of delivering blockbusterswith unknown stars, they should besure. But then they would not wantto appear as indulging in nepotismand insisted that they had indeedsubjected their son and nephew tostringent tests. “Mr Sharmagroomed him really well. When weasked Mustafa about his new-foundconfidence, he said, ‘they havetaught me how to talk to people,how to act in front of the cameraand everything else about express-ing yourself.’ We were really sur-prised and proud. Then he prepareda 15-minute show reel where he didaction, romance and danced. Onlyafter that did we take the final call.Personally Mustafa loves action. Butthere wasn’t much scope for that inthe film. It has romance, twists anda lot of thrills,” said father Abbas.

Asked about the film, Mustanshared, “This story has a lot ofshades. We have gone back to ourcore strengths with this one. Wehave tried to keep the audience onthe edge of their seats.”

Abbas added, “You know whatworks for the Indian audience?Emotions and with this film you willget all of it. We were not sure aboutthe title of the film but we decidedon Machine while writing the screen-play. It has nothing to do withmachinery or a robot. If you see theposters, you will find a heart. But intoday’s world, the heart works likea machine.” The duo says they wrotethe script inspired by one of the mes-sages of Swami Vivekananda. “Ifthere is a clash between the heart andbrain, listen to your heart,” they said.

With their last film, Kis KiskoPyaar Karoon, they launched come-dian Kapil Sharma as a hero. Thoughthe plotline wasn’t wound tight, thefilm did quite well. We hope thereturn to their root formula does thetrick this time round.

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Arecreated iconic song is agood sales pitch these days.

Particularly if the actors are all rawand fresh. So it is that debutanteMustafa and starlet Kiara Advanientered the RSVP lounge at RoyalPlaza Hotel dancing on Mohra’ssuperhit song Tu Cheez Badi HaiMast Mast, which has beenrehashed in their film. Before tak-ing any questions, they madesure that everybody presentdanced to their heart’s content.

The film depicts the story ofracing enthusiasts Sarah (KiaraAdvani) and Ransh (Mustafa)and how they pace their love inbetween. About his debut, Mustafasaid, “For me this film is verymemorable because it’s my first. Ihave enjoyed every single momentof the shoot. My character, Ransh,is very mysterious and layered. Igot to understand his mindbecause I was there for six to sevenmonths when the screenplay wasbeing written. I was there from thefirst dialogue to the last. So I knewthe character in and out by thetime shooting began.”

Kiara seemed over-excited asshe interrupted and said, “It’s hisdebut film but it also felt like thisis my first film. People got to knowme through MS Dhoni: TheUntold Story where I playedSakshi. There are people whostill call me Dhoni’s wife and it’svery cute. It feels great to beknown by a character and I hopenow people also identify with mycharacter Sarah, which is some-thing different from what I havedone so far. Sarah is super roman-tic. If she loves someone, she willgo all out. The twists and turns inthe story will see her emerging asa powerful character.”

For Mustafa, films have beenin his blood. “I am a big Bollywoodbuff and I watch every film thatreleases every Friday. I just have to.I never intended to act as I hadalways wanted to direct and call theshots. But reading scripts as an AD,I would enact the characters andeasily get inside their heads. That’show acting came to me, this filmcame to me.”

Kiara said her approach toreading the script was different

though. She perceived it not onlyas an actor but also as an audience.And gave her nod. “I feel I am a lit-tle emotional about this film. Weshot it in Georgia for about twomonths and everybody becamefamily. Every time we came back toMumbai we had a little patch workor a song shoot. We shot Tu CheezBadi Hai Mast Mast very recently.Now that promotions are on, we arehappy to have met each otheragain. This film is close to my heartand soon it will become everybodyelse’s film. And I think I am goingto miss everyone. I will missMustafa. I mean I will meet Mustafavery often but I will miss shootingwith him and the crew as co-work-ers every day. This project has beensomething else.”

Asked about the challengesthat she faced getting into the skinof her character, Kiara told us, “Mycharacter Sarah is very similar towho I am, be it in body languageand thought process. Before theshoots, I would call up Abbas-Mustan sir and ask if we should domore workshops or readings. But

they would reassure me saying theywanted me to be extremely fresh,spontaneous and unrehearsed. Iwould, of course, read and re-readthe script and make the lines myown. By the time we reachedGeorgia, the film was easy for meto process.

But it was physically demand-ing. “Being an Abbas-Mustan film,there are stunts and we are racingcars. We used to spend hourswatching race car videos, noticinghow the drivers sat in the formulacar, the steering of which washeavy and how they maintained thehead balance given the helmetand momentum. We trained a bitwith a foreign crew. But in the endwe got to drive a race car.”

What is that one thing that theactors want the audience to takeaway from the film? Kiara summedup it up, saying,“I hope everyonecomes out thoroughly entertained.It is a full family entertainer; girlswill love the film because of theromance, the boys will love itbecause of the thrills.”

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Some people have the abil-ity to light up any conver-

sation with their passion andwit. Disha Shrivastava is sucha person. The 37-year-oldmother of two boys, Disharode from India Gate toWagah border to create aware-ness about mental health. Sheherself has overcome depres-sion by taking up sports as anoutlet for negative energy andis aiming to reach out to mostpeople on this.

“I run my own socialenterprise where I work withunder privileged children pro-viding them life skill sessionsand redoing the curriculum interms of holistic development.

“Taking up this cause wasa little personal too because Iwent through a lot of depres-sion in the past and then Iwrote a blog on this topicwhich got a tremendousresponse mainly from women.They generally don’t talkabout all this.

“Mental health anddepression are a part of lifebecause there is uncalled forcompetition everywhere. Iwanted to be more vocal andI wanted more people to burnout that energy and put it intoa positive direction. Sportsand endurance activities aremy outlet,” she told us.

Initially, Disha wasn’t sureabout completing her feat. “Iwanted to ride from India gateto Gateway of India initially

but then it was a long routeand with my family, my chil-dren and the household work,I couldn’t give that much oftime. So I decided to ride fromIndia gate to Wagah borderbecause these two are veryprominent landmarks.”

Wagah Border, which is32km from Amritsar, is theonly open border crossingIndia and Pakistan. It is main-ly famous for the Wagah bor-der ceremony, also known as‘lowering of the flags’.

The customary traditionis conducted by the securityforces of India and Pakistanand takes place every eveningbefore sunset .

“We met a lot of cyclist atKarnal, Kurukshetra,Ludhiana, Jalandhar andAmritsar. They all appreciat-ed the cause,” she said.

She is an enthusiasticcyclist, a marathon runner,trekker, a dancer and a home-maker. About the challengesshe faced, Disha quipped,“Women get trapped in thefamily affairs regardless ofwhether they are working or

not. There is a guilt factor any-way. My main motive was toget women out of this trap.

“I had a suicidal tenden-cy when I was depressed andthat was pretty alarming. I hadno support then. My hus-band used to work till late. Hewas there but we barely got thetime to talk. He didn’t under-stand this too.

“Once I was driving withmy child in the car and sud-denly I felt that he isn’t thereand went all the way backhome and realised he was sit-ting next to me.

If I was crossing the road,I wasn’t able to. I would juststand there. There was a lot ofinsecurity and mental block-age and people used to holdmy hand and help me cross.There was no one who I couldshare all of this with. Peopleused to find it funny andstrange. But I wasn’t fine so Istarted reading a lot about itand to divert my mind Idecided to enroll myself in adance class which I had leftlong back.

Then I joined a running

group in my housing societyand then finally came tocycling. All these thingstogether and along with myextensive workout helped meto come out of it. It took threeand a half years but nowthings are in place,” sheshared.

Cycling has been a trans-formative experience for her.Her family once viewed theactivity as an oddity, but herpassion and the positive atten-tion that it has garnered isnow a source of pride.

About the hardships shefaced while riding, Disha said,“The first day was pretty good,we did 170 kilometers in sixhours but the second day wasvery rough. We were not ableto ride because of the strongheadwinds. But this ride wasmainly mind over matter forme, so I decided that I have todo it.”

For Disha, this is anintrospective journey. “Beinga mother and housekeeper,cycling for me is aboutdetaching myself entirely andtaking it one turn at a time.”

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In every religion there is love; yet lovehas no religion.

—Rumi

Ask Muzaffar Ali about theplace of sufism in his life andhe says, “A true revolution

can only be brought about by poet-ry. The oneness of sufism can endstrife. The strife within us. All thatis required are meaningful words.”Painter, poet, designer, film-maker,artist, music lover, revivalist andsocial worker — Ali may wear allthese labels with refreshing non-chalance but can simplify philoso-phy with the ease of a teacher.

The three-day event, Jahan-e-Khusrau, initiated by Ali under theaegis of Rumi Foundation seeks torevive the Sufiyana kalams of yore.The idea of the festival came into hismind while he was in Kashmir. “Itwas in the Valley that I realised thatpeople there were losing touch withthis soulful form of music due to allthe tension and animosity. It waswhile going through the KashmiriSufiyana community that I realisedthe beauty of these kalams,” he says.

In this edition, Ali says hewants to reach out to a youngerdemographic. “This year, our aim isto take Sufi music closer to theyounger generation more than theseasoned audience. I have faith inthe youth of this nation as they arethe true change makers and whatbetter transformative tool there isthan poetry,” adds Ali.

Born into an aristocratic fami-ly along the Yamuna plains, he sayshe was brought up steeped in therich and eclectic culture of theGanga-Yamuna region. “For me,being part of a culture, being root-ed to it, being impacted by the prob-lems of the region where I comefrom, the whole cultural metamor-phosis that was taking place as I wasgaining consciousness, that some-how became a very important part

of who I was to become later in life,”he says.

Music is again one of the essen-tial parts of his life and Ali feels thatits “synthetic” rendition is takingaway from its purity. “I’m not say-ing that the music today is bad butit is not organic. The music is in thenature itself. The sound of water, airand birds. Also music to me is aboutsoul comfort. The inspiration forcreating music is not taken fromnature anymore, it has become allelectronic,” he explains. Ali adds thatelectronic music is not something hecan listen to for a long time butsounds of nature or the musicinspired by it, he can listen to for-ever.

Ali is also active in Dwar PeRozi, an organisation to providesustenance to the people ofKotwara, the village he was bornand raised in. Shares he, “My fatherwas very passionate about people.He fought elections in 1937 andduring those times, he spoke abouttopics like casteism, communalism,hydel power, family planning. Hislast words to me were ‘nobodyshould ever starve in Kotwara’.”However, the organisation was not

only set up for fulfilling his father’slast wish but also stemmed out ofhis deeply-felt humanistic con-cerns. “I personally feel peopleshouldn’t be displaced. It disturbsthe cultural cycle of a place, espe-cially in the case of villages. It waswith this conviction that I madeGaman (his first film). It had a two-pronged approach of assessing theimpact of migration on themigrants and second on the peopleand city where they are migratingto,” says Ali.

For a man who shares the wis-dom of his experiences and paintsthe canvas of life with generousstrokes of lyrical and visual beau-ty, it is quite ironic that Ali’s senseof oneness comes from a “humananguish of helplessness and separa-tion”. Seene mein jalan aankhonmein toofan sa kyon hai. Is shahrmein har shaqs pareshaan sa kyonhai. Dil hai to dharakne ka bahaanakoi dhoondhe. Pathhar ki tarahbehi o bejaan sa kyon hai.(Anguished and turbulent…in souland sight. Is the man of this city. Athrobbing heart seeks reasons tobeat….Why is it hard like astone…lifeless, listless.)

As Indian artistes continue taking theinternational music scene by storm,

Mumbai-based singer Akasa Singh wasrecently roped in by Latin pop singerRicky Martin for the Indian version ofhis 2016 hit Vente Pa Ca. Sharing herexperience of the collaboration, shesays, “It was unbelievable. I’m still com-ing to grips with the fact that I have asong with him. I grew up listening to hismusic (and more than that to admiringhim and his good looks). Singing withhim felt like a dream.”

From Raw Star, a singing realityshow, to going international, Singh saysit has been a roller coaster ride for her.“I got my first break while I was doingRaw Star. When Himesh Reshammiya,who was a mentor in the show, heard mefor the first time, he promised that hewould record a track with me. After theshow was over, Himeshji asked me tocome to the studio and record the song,Kheech Meri Photo. So it all happened onthat one fine day,” she chuckles. Singhwas also the only girl to make it to thetop five in the music reality show.

She feels that talent shows are pro-ducing great singers and exposing them

on a marketable platform. “But thenagain, since there are number of musicreality shows, a participant shouldchoose which one they want to go for. Iwas lucky to be part of a show that hadsuch a different concept and allowed meto portray many facets of my singing andperforming talent. However, there is noarguing about the fact that a reality showprovides an artiste a national platform.That’s a lot of exposure which is alwaysgreat,” adds the singer.

Singh’s success story is one whichstarted from social media after sheuploaded the video in which she sang acover of a Bollywood song. “It is becauseof social media that fan bases havebecome stronger and bigger. I can sharemy daily life and my music with people.There’s also so much interaction andfeedback. If it wasn’t for social media, Iwouldn’t be where I’m right now,” shesays.

As a parting tip to aspiring singers,she says, “Be as original as you can. Donot change your voice or the way yousing just because you think that itsounds better. Nothing sounds betterthan the original.”

Does beauty only have to dowith how things look? Is it

merely prettiness? Is it entire-ly subjective? Or does it serveany function? These questionsare answered by Shakti Mairain his new book The PromiseOf Beauty & Why It Matters.When asked what beautymeans to him, Shakti smiles,“It’s a very simple question toask but the answer is not quitesimple. Beauty is both a subjec-tive experience and also a stateof being.”

Besides his writings onthe meaning, experience andhistory of beauty, the book alsopivots around a series of con-versations with 18 eminentthinkers on the difficult butenthralling notion. “Scientistsexplore whether there is anevolutionary purpose to it.Philosophers examine its rela-tionship to truth and goodness.Artists speak of beauty and itsrejection. Brain-mind expertsconsider whether the experi-ence of it strengthens certainneural pathways connectedwith the qualities of balance,harmony, rhythm and pro-portion. Activists probe howbeauty works in the context ofsocial systems. What emergesis a deeper understanding ofbeauty and how it is a key toour world: a radical new wayof evaluating problems andfinding solutions, from thepersonal to the political, theindividual to the universal,”says Shakti, who is also apainter and sculptor.

The book comprises awide-range of investigationsinto the nature of beauty.Shakti says at the end of hisconversations with the 18 emi-nent thinkers, he would alwaysspring a question to describetheir beauty experience. “It

ranged from a Japanese anthro-pologist Keibo Oiwa, whochose to speak about the expe-rience of watching his motherdeal with her impending death.Another person recounted thebirth of her grandchild. Therewere also few people who sawit through art. One of themost beautiful descriptions ofthe experience of beauty in thebook is by an architect, who

described experience of goingdown a stepwell in Gujaratmany years ago.” Adding abouthis experience of beauty, hesays, “For me the most pro-found of all is actually the stateof a meditative mind.”

If our instinct for beauty isinnate, Shakti asks, to whatextent can it be further trainedand developed? Are ideas ofbeauty cultural constructs orare some things universallybeautiful? Do the poor live dis-tant from questions of beautyor are they more deeply invest-ed in their fewer resources ofbeauty than the better-off?When we experience some-thing beautiful, what exactly isgoing on in the brain? Canthere be an economics rootedin respect for beauty? Arebeauty, truth and goodnessinextricably linked, as in theSanskrit phrase Satyam,Shivam, Sundaram, or caneach of these exist without theother? Shakti’s interlocutorsare clearly provoked anddelighted by these questions.

Recounting one of his dayswhen he was penning down histhoughts, he shares, “I was ata publishing house in UK andI was very excited because ofthe book they had on newreleases board was calledHolistic Beauty and I thoughtthis would be defining beautyin a deeper and broader way.But when I spoke to the pub-lisher, it actually turned out tobe a book on natural andorganic skin care and cosmet-ic product.” Shakti Maira, whois as good with words as withwood and paint, further adds,“The concept of beauty haslimited itself. Rather it hasbecome more superficial.People connect beauty only tocosmetic and skin.”

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Australia's premier pacerMitchell Starc was on Fridayruled out of the remaining

two Tests against India with astress fracture in his right foot,dealing a major blow to the team'sfortunes.

Starc was handy with both batand ball in the opening two Tests,picking up five wickets besidesscoring a crucial half century on arank turner in Pune.

"Mitchell experienced somepain in his right foot during thesecond Test in Bangalore whichunfortunately had not subsided afew days after the Test as we hadhoped," said team physiotherapistDavid Beakley.

"We made the decision to scanhis foot in Bangalore this morningand unfortunately it has revealed astress fracture.

"Subsequently, this meansMitchell will be unavailable for theremainder of the Qantas Tour ofIndia and will return home toAustralia to start his rehabilitation,"Beakley added.

Starc is another player added tothe injury list after all-rounderMitchell Marsh was ruled out of theseries with a shoulder injury.

Starc's replacement has notbeen named yet though JacksonBird is the reserve fast bowler in theAustralian squad.

"The National Selection Panelwill confirm a replacement playerin due course," said CricketAustralia in a statement.

The four-match series has beenfiercely contested so far with Indiawinning the second Test inBengaluru to draw level at 1-1.

The third Test in Ranchi beginson March 16.

H�����4������������F��4�������Former Australia cap-tain Michael Clarke feels that fastbowler Mitchell Starc's absencedue to injury will have a huge bear-ing on the final outcome of thefour-Test series against India.

"It will have a huge impact.Mitchell Starc is that X-factor forthe Australian team. I think he willcertainly be missed. Who theybring is I am not sure but it makes

the game even tougher forAustralia," Clarke told reporters onthe sidelines of a CRY event forunderprivileged kids here.

However Clarke is confidentthat Australia can still win theseries from here on.

"But Australia will still beconfident that they can win inthese conditions. They won inPune and now can be confidentthay can still win in Ranchi."

While he didn't take anyspecific questions of the DRScontroversy, Clarke termed ViratKohli's aggression as one of hisgreatest strengths.

He finds no reason why Indiacaptain shouldn't continue to play

hard on the field in order toachieve success for his side."Virat's aggression is one of his

greatest strenghts. That's the wayhe likes to play, that's the way he

had success and I am sure that'sthe way he will continue toplay," Clarke said.

Another Australian legendSteve Waugh is a fan of Kohli'saggression, but feels theIndian captain needs to tonedown a bit while on the field.

Asked Clarke aboutWaugh's comments, he said:

"Everybody have their own opin-ion. I think at the moment Virat isgonna do whatever he can to helpIndia have success. They had an

azaming summer. They playedsome unbelievable cricket andAustralia know India is alwaystough in the backyard. Virat enjoysthat challenge. He knows how thisIndian team play their best, hencethey have been rewarded in the pastfew months."

Clarke said the ongoing seriesis no different from any other"competitive" India-Australia rub-ber.

"It's a fantastic series. Testcricket between India and Australiais always competitive and I lovethat.

"I am really happy that thisseries is being so competitive.Whether the series is being playedin Australia or India, we always seegood competitive cricket and thisseries is no different," he said.

Clarke was also full of praise forAustralian spin duo of NathanLyon and Steve O'Keefe, who lefttheir mark in the first two Tests.

"The way Nathan Lyon andO'Keefe bowled has been excep-tional. They have really enjoyedthese conditions. They deserve a lotof credit for their preparation.They trained really hard, spent a lotof time speaking to people abouthow best to bowl in India. I thinktogether they have done a won-derful job," he said.

�I�������������������������������� Cricket Australia onFriday confirmed that Trevor Hohns,Greg Chappell and Mark Waughhave all been appointed to therevamped National Selection Panel.

The change in structure sees athree-person panel confirmed forTest and One-Day Internationalcricket and a two-person panel forT20 International selection.

The panel for Test and ODIcricket will be made up of TrevorHohns, who has been appointed full-time National Selector, and will besupported by National TalentManager Greg Chappell in a part-timeselector role, focussing on youthdevelopment for the Test and ODIsides. Darren Lehmann will maintainhis position as team head coach on thepanel. Hohns' is contracted untilFebruary 2020, with Chappell andWaugh's appointment ending onAugust 2018.

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Committee of Administrators(COA) member Diana Edulji

believes that the BCCI did the rightthing by calling truce on the 'DRSControversy' as it would have"shifted focus" from India's win inBengaluru.

"The matter was discussed bythe COSA members in Bengaluru.We were in Bengaluru for theawards function where the matterwas discussed with CEO RahulJohri and coach Anil Kumble.Vikram (Limaye) joined us viavideo conference. We believe thatfor the best interest of the game, theseries should go on without anyhiccups," Edulji said on Friday.

Edulji said that one should nothave a feeling that the BCCI didnot stand by their captain ViratKohli.

"Yes, we firmly stand by ourcaptain Virat Kohli and that's whythe statement was issued support-ing our captain. We have completefaith in our captain and it's not thecase that BCCI did not stand withthe skipper."

Asked if BCCI could have fur-ther pressed charges against SteveSmith and Peter Handscomb,Edulji said: "We thought we havehad a great Test match and no onewants the focus to be shifted fromcricket. We are hopeful that before

Virat and Smith go out for the tossin Ranchi, they will sit across thetable and amicably sort out the dif-ferences."

According to sources in Indiancricket Board, Cricket AustraliaChief Executive James Sutherlandrequested Johri to not presscharges, reminding him of the cor-dial bilateral relations they sharedthrough the years.

"Sutherland had admitted thatit was a mistake on part of SteveSmith but requested BCCI CEO tomove on. He reminded him of howCricket Australia has been a part-ner of BCCI over the years. Howboth countries have benefittedfrom the bilateral series. He saidhow Australian cricketers havealways been released for IPL duties.The likes of David Warner, ShaneWatson, Steve Smith have all beentop draws in the cash-rich league,"a source privy to developmentssaid. However, claims by anAustralian daily about Kohli'salleged misbehaviour after beingadjudged leg before in the secondinnings of the second Test, has notgone down well with the Indianteam.

It was learnt that Anil Kumbledid speak to Chris Broad but it wasonly after the match referee hadtold the India chief coach that hewas available for a meeting duringa particular time of play.

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Board of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI) decided to with-

draw the complaint against SteveSmith and Peter Handscomb onthe controversial Decision ReviewSystem (DRS) call in theBengaluru Test match, therebyputting an end to the war ofwords between the two camps.

Hours after BCCI lodged anofficial complaint withInternational Cricket Board (ICC),CEO of BCCI Rahul Johri andCEO of Cricket Australia (CA)James Sutherland met at the BCCIheadquarters in Mumbai lateThursday and decided to restorefocus on the ongoing Test series.It was also decided that the twocaptains would meet in Ranchi tosolve the issue.

"BCCI and CA have resolvedto restore focus on the ongoingseries amidst the increased atten-tion towards issues which haveemanated during the course of the2nd Test match in Bangalore," saida joint statement issued by both theboards.

"CEO of BCCI Mr Rahul Johriand CEO of Cricket Australia MrJames Sutherland met at the BCCIheadquarters in Mumbai todayand, in discussing the matters at

length, agreed on the importanceof bringing back the focus to thegame and the much anticipatednext Test match in Ranchi," itadded.

"Subsequently, BCCI will with-draw the complaint filed withICC with an expectation that thetwo captains will meet prior to theRanchi Test and commit to leadtheir teams by example and play

the rest of the series, in the rightspirit, demonstrating that the play-ers from both teams are trueambassadors for their respectivecountries," it read.

On the matter, Sutherland said,"A series between India andAustralia is bound to generateconsiderable excitement for fans inboth the countries. On the field thetwo teams are fierce competitors

who represent their countries withpride. As we have seen this week inBangalore, with so much at stake,tensions can bubble over. We arehalf way through what has alreadybeen a riveting series - and there isstill much to look forward to."

"In discussing the relevantissues in depth, we have agreedthat it is in the best interests of thegame to put these differencesaside and clear the way for thefocus to be on the cricket, and theremaining matches of the series,"he added.

Johri said, "India has alwayscherished a contest with Australiaand over the years, the perfor-mances of both, the teams and theplayers, are testimony to the levelof competitiveness that existsbetween these two teams. Whilehaving responded officially to onesuch incident which happened inthe last Test, together, we believethat the focus of the teams and thejoy they provide to the fans, shouldnot be diluted and it is imperativeto ensure that the rest of theseries, which promises a greatcricketing contest, not be com-promised."

The series is evenly poised at1-1 after two matches. The thirdTest will be played in Ranchi onMarch 16.

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Captain Virat Kohli remained unchanged at third tobe the best-placed Indian batsman in the latest ICC

ODI rankings issued here on Friday.Rohit Sharma (12th) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni

(13th) follow Kohli, both of them also remaining staticon their previous positions. Opener Shikhar Dhawan,however, dropped a rung to be 15th.

Among the bowlers, Akshar Patel was the best-placedIndian at the 11th position.

South Africa's AB de Villiers has regained the topspot in the rankings for ODI batsmen after leading thelist of run-scorersin the recent seriesagainst NewZealand which hisside won 3-2, ICCsaid in a state-ment.

De Villiers's262 runs in theseries, including ahighest of 85 inthe third ODI atWellington, have helped him overtake Australia open-er David Warner at the top of the ladder, reclaiming thetop spot within two months of losing it to India captainVirat Kohli.

De Villiers is on 875 points, four points ahead ofWarner and 23 clear of Kohli in the rankings releasedtoday that take into account performances in 15 ODIsincluding West Indies' 3-0 loss to England, Afghanistan's3-2 win over Zimbabwe and Ireland's 2-0 verdict overthe United Arab Emirates.

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South Africa led New Zealand by five runs with nine second-inningswickets in hand at stumps Friday as the meandering third day of

the first cricket test became dramatic when a fire alarm forced theevacuation of the stadium.

Kane Williamson's 16th test century helped New Zealand to 341in reply to South Africa's first innings of 308 — a slight but signifi-cant lead of 33 runs in a match which has been in the balance sincethe first day.

And South Africa lost opener Stephen Cook before reaching 38-1 at stumps Friday.

A day played in bitterly cold conditions came to life less than anhour before scheduled stumps when a fire alarm began to blare atthe University Oval. First the main grandstand was evacuated, thenwhen fire trucks arrived, the decision was made that the whole sta-dium should be cleared.

Players left the field - South Africa was then 14-1 - and the instruc-tion went out that the stadium should be cleared; television com-mentators were forced to down microphones mid-sentence as thedemanded evacuation was strictly enforced.

Play was delayed by 20 minutes and stumps were pushed backby that margin until players and fans returned when no sign of firewas found. The day had a final, downbeat ending when the umpires

called players from the field for bad light after 18 overs when Elgarwas 12 not out and Hashim Amla 23.

A day on which two closely-matched teams competed for anysmall advantage and on which Williamson's 130 and Keshav Maharaj's5-94 were highlights needed that injection of external drama to riseabove the humdrum.

South Africa took 122.4 overs to assemble is 308 as it batted firston winning the toss and as Dean Elgar anchored its innings with 140- his highest test score, compiled in just under seven hours.

New Zealand then needed 114.3 overs to achieve its small first-innings lead and, again, the effort revolved around one significantinnings - Williamson's effort - which occupied 6 hours, 20 minutes.

Two South Africa-born players were critical to New Zealandachieving a first-innings lead. Wicketkeeper B.J. Watling made 50 -his 13th half century in tests and his third in seven test innings againstSouth Africa - and Neil Wagner blasted 32 to push New Zealandbeyond the Proteas' total.

New Zealand had gone to tea at 304-8, still four runs behind SouthAfrica. Wagner went on the offensive at the start of the final session- the first sign of aggressive batting in the match - and hit 4, 6, 4 fromVernon Philander on his way to 32 from as many deliveries with fivefours and two sixes. Then Ross Taylor, who retired hurt on 8 aftersuffering a calf injury Thursday, returned to the crease unexpected-ly and added a further 7 runs before ending with an unusual not outagainst his name. He put on 17 runs in his last wicket partnershipwith Wagner to give New Zealand a small lead.

"It's just a small tear so it was nice to contribute in some sort ofway and get a bit of a lead but it's obviously still frustrating," Taylorsaid. "It's nice to get a bit of momentum into our innings and we obvi-ously batted very well, led by Kane."

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Alegendary former leg-spinner, India coach AnilKumble went to the extent of bowling left-arm spin

to help Cheteshwar Pujara overcome the challengesposed by Steve O'Keefe in the ongoing Test seriesagainst Australia.

Pujara, who fell to left-arm spinner O'Keefe andpremier pacer Mitchell Starc in the Pune Test, strucka gritty 92 in the second innings to set up a series-levelling win for India in Bengaluru.

He worked hard on his game following the Punedebacle and got the help of Kumble and fielding coachR Sridhar. O'Keefe had proved to be unplayable inPune, ending with career-best figures of 12 for 70.

In his bid to simulate what Indian batsmen willbe up against, Kumble went to the extent of bowlingleft-arm spinners to Pujara in practice.

"As theyhave a left-arm spinner,Anil bhai wastr ying toreplicate that,coming fromcorner of thecrease andangling intothe right han-der and try tospin it fromthere," Pujaratold bcci.tvahead of thethird Testb e g i n n i n ghere March16. "So I wasjust trying toget used tothat angle aswell. Sridharwas comingin from overthe stumps,banging inshort and justtaking the ballaway. It wasreally usefule s p e c i a l l ySridhar, hewas reallyaccurate. Aniltried his besteven thoughhe is a right-arm bowler but he tried bowling left-armspin and still was decent enough for practice."

The spin great even managed to beat Pujara. "Yeshe did. He knew where to bowl, the ball pitched onthe rough and I stepped out only to get beaten," saidthe batsman.

What did he do to tackle Starc, who now happensto be out of the India tour with a foot fracture?

"Basically getting used to the angle which Starcuses when he comes over the wicket, he tries to takethe ball away from the batsman," added Pujara.

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Manchester United preserved itsunbeaten record in Russia but had

to settle for 1-1 at Rostov in the first legof their Europa League last-16 tie onThursday.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan's away goalgave United, which has never won theEuropa League, the advantage ahead of thesecond leg, particularly with Rostov cap-tain Aleksandr Gatskan and full-backTimofei Kalachev ruled out of the gamenext week due to bookings.

Rostov coach Ivan Daniliants saiddefender Vladimir Granat was also outafter breaking his collarbone.

United coach Jose Mourinho com-plained about the quality of the pitchbefore the game, but his side had the ben-efit of a strong wind for the first half.

The visitors largely frustrated Rostov,playing for the first time at this stage ofEuropean competition, albeit withoutcreating many opportunities as bothsides slugged it out in midfield.

Mkhitaryan made the breakthroughwith the first real chance 10 minutes beforethe interval, when Zlatan Ibrahimovic didwell to cut the ball back from the bylineto set him up.

Rostov improved drastically in thesecond half, and Aleksandr Bukharovequalised minutes after the restart, takingKalachev's long pass on his chest with hisfirst touch and dispatching it past SergioRomero with his next.

������������Despite leading, Roma fell to its first

away defeat in European fixtures this sea-son as Lyon responded to a poor first halfby making a statement in the second.

Mouctar Diakhaby gave Lyon anearly lead, but his stumble allowedMohamed Salah to race clear and equal-ize. Federico Fazio headed the visitors'

ahead again. Corentin Tolisso equalizedafter the break when he linked up bril-liantly with Alexandre Lacazette to con-found the Roma defense, and Lyon sub-stitute Nabil Fekir eluded three defendersto score with a quarter-hour remaining.Lacazette wrapped it up to the fans' delightin injury time with a brilliant strike to thetop left corner.

������ ���%6%����� ���A mistake from Olympiakos 'keep-

er Nicola Leali, when he kicked the ball

straight to Vincent Aboubakar, cost hisside dearly as the Besiktas forwardscored to cancel out Esteban Cambiasso'sfirst-half goal.

$����(6��$�� �Genk raced into a 4-1 halftime lead

at Belgian rival Gent, before KalifaCoulibaly pulled one back to give thehome side hope of a comeback.

It would have been on had JeremyPerbet converted a subsequent penalty buthis effort was weak and Genk goalkeep-

er Mathew Ryan saved. Perbet had alreadyhit the crossbar from two meters in thethird minute.

Mbwana Samatta's second of thenight wrapped it up for Genk.

The home side's miserable eveningwas compounded when Anderson Esitiwas sent off late with his second yellowcard.

���� ���4�4����H$�����'Gladbach captain Lars Stindl picked

out Jonas Hofmann with a brilliant pass

for the visitors to take an early lead atSchalke, only for the home side to equal-ize through Guido Burgstaller.

�����+�$��(6%� ������Daniel Wass' free kick finally reward-

ed Celta Vigo for its endeavor early in thesecond half, only for winter signingViktor Claesson to equalize minutes laterwith his fourth goal in five games forKrasnodar. Claudio Beauvue headed thewinner in the final minute for Celta, theonly Spanish representative remaining.

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Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu failed to over-come World No 1 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of

Chinese Taipei and crashed out of the All EnglandChampionship with a straight-game loss in the quar-terfinals of the Super Series premier event here onFriday. World No 5 Sindhu, who had beaten Tai Tzuen route to her Rio Games silver, was erratic andcouldn't break the defence of the Chinese Taipei shut-tler, to go down 14-21, 10-21 in 34 minutes at theBarclaycard Arena. With this win, Tai Tzu enteredher third successive semifinals of the prestigious tour-nament.

In the first game, Sindhu opened up a 10-7 leadbut Tai Tzu fought back with her deceptive cross courtreturns to not only draw level but also take the leadwith another acute angled stroke on Sindhu's back-

hand. Tai Tzu engaged in a fiercerally but it ended with Sindhu hit-ting the net. A sharp drop shotfrom back of court helped Sindhuto draw parity. But the ChineseTaipei player managed to surge toa 17-12 lead with the Indian hittingwide and long and at the nets.

Sindhu tried to change thepace but Tai Tzu was always a stepahead and she eventually earnedthe bragging rights when theIndian lost a video referral.

After the change of ends, TaiTzu once again opened up a nar-row 6-2 lead with Sindhu's strokesgoing to the net. The ChineseTaipei player's movement and

accuracy, timing and varietyof strokes made her a difficultcustomer to tame. The resultwas Tai Tzu soon marched toa 8-3 lead. She followed herstrokes well and was also fastin approaching the net. Sheplayed with soft hands at thenets and caught up the Indianat the fore court to gatherpoints. Another video referralwent Tai Tzu's way and shereached the match point witha cross court smash, whichSindhu sent to the net and theChinese Taipei girl came upwith another razor-sharpsmash to seal the match.

����$� ��������������������One Olympic badminton singles champion was

knocked out in the All England Open second roundand the other almost joined him on Thursday. ChenLong, ranked third, ought to have wiped the floor ofTanongsak Saensomboonsuk, whom he'd beaten intheir previous 11 matches. But Tanongsak bossed theirmatch, forcing error-prone Chen to play catch up inboth games. With two-time All England championChen breathing down his neck, Tanongsak held hisnerve to win the last two points for 21-16, 21-19.

Carolina Marin broke China's 16-year hold onthe women's Olympic singles, but China's latest won-der, 19-year-old leftie He Bingjiao, was two pointsfrom eliminating the Spaniard at 21-15, 19-17. Marinrallied by taking the last four points of the secondgame. Marin prevailed 15-21, 21-19, 21-10.LIVE ON STAR SPORTS FROM 5:30PM.

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