16
P ower distribution compa- nies in the national Capital are putting the annual loss at approximately 150 crore due to organised theft of electrici- ty for charging e-rickshaws. Power experts and discom sources said that the organised racket of power theft is being run due to lack of proper charging facilities in the city, especially in areas close to metro stations. As per estimates, there are more than one lakh e-rick- shaws plying on the city roads and only one-fourth of them are registered, despite a subsidy scheme provided to them by the Government. “Considering that most of the e-rickshaws are not regis- tered, the loss due to charging through illegal connections is around 150 crore,” they said. There are three power dis- tribution companies — BYPL and BRPL of BSES, and Tata Power Delhi Dsitribution (TPDDL) — that supply elec- tricity in Delhi. “We are committed to eradicate the menace of power theft and keeping a close watch on the illegal e-charging set-ups in the area of distribution. I appeal to all e-rickshaws own- ers to take legitimate connec- tions and charge their vehicles in a legitimate and safe man- ner,” TPDDL CEO Sanjay Banga told PTI. On an average, an e-rick- shaw consumes around 7-10 units per day. This comes to about 2,500-3,600 units per e- rickshaw per annum. Power theft is at its peak at night due to bulk charging at facilities set up by the racketeers, discom sources said. There are scores of areas across the city where such rackets operate, although police help is sought whenever they are detected, added the sources. Sangam Vihar, Kalkaji, Tughlakabad, Sarai Kale khan, Dakshin Puri, Raghubir Nagar, Tagore Garden, Madipur, Seelampur, Yamuna Vihar, Shastri Park, Karawal Nagar, Mustafabad, Nand Nagri, Karol Bagh, Keekarwala Kesham- puram, Civil Lines are some areas where power theft for e- rickshaw charging is “ram- pant”, discom sources said. “Most of these e-rickshaws are charged in batches as part of an organised illegal net- work controlled by local strongmen. The e-rickshaw owners pay fixed money in the range of 100 to 150 per day to the “parking and charging” mafia. This comes down to 50 per e-rickshaw if charged through a legal connection,” they claimed. In the latest tariff order, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission has fixed the rate of 5.50 per unit for e-rickshaw charging. A TPDDL spokesper- son said illegal charging of e- rickshaws is a “big menace” and results in approximately 40 lakh KWh of power loss every year to the company that sup- plies electricity to north and northwest parts of the city. The company is employing technology to track power theft in its area of distribution and has installed AMR (Automated Meter Reading) based energy systems at distribution trans- formers. T he official mobile phone of an inspector killed in the December mob violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district has been recovered from the residence of the man who allegedly shot him, offi- cials said on Sunday. The recovery comes near- ly two months after the inci- dent in Bulandshahr’s Siana area where on December 3 a mob fought pitched battles with police, apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn outside a village. Inspector Subodh Kumar’s phone with a CUG (closed user group) number was recovered along with five more phones on Saturday from the house of key accused Prashant Natt, a senior police officer said. Natt, who had allegedly shot the inspec- tor during the violence, was arrested on December 18 from Sikandrabad and is languishing in prison. “We had got information from sources that inspector Subodh Kumar’s mobile phone could be kept hidden at Natt’s house and we procured a search warrant from the court to check his place,” Additional Superintendent of Police, City, Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said. “The CUG mobile phone of the inspector was recovered from Natt’s house during the search. Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records,” he told reporters. However, the pistol that was used to open fire on the inspector is still missing, and the Additional SP said a “search is on for it”. Natt, 26, a resident of Chingrawathi village, would work part-time as a driver in Delhi and nearby areas, and other times worked locally as a labourer, police said. During the violence, 20- year-old Chingrawathi resi- dent Sumit Kumar was also killed of gunshot. An FIR was lodged at the Siyana police station against at least 80 people for murder, attempt to murder, rioting, sedition, damaging public property, among other charges.Twenty-seven were named. “So far, 38 accused have been arrested in connection with the violence,” Siyana Circle Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh Raj, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Siyana unit head Shikhar Agarwal, Army jawan Jeetender Malik, and Kalua, who first attacked the inspector, surrounded by five to six men. A separate FIR for cow slaughter was filed on December 3 in which six accused have been arrested. Three of them, Azhar Khan, Mehboob Ali and Nadeem Khan, were on January 14 booked under the National Security Act by the Bulandshahr administration, which said their release may disrupt public order. T he Supreme Court on Sunday cancelled the January 29 hearing of Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case due to non-availability of one of the judges of the five-judge Constitution Bench hearing the matter causing further delay in settling the politically sensitive issue. “The sitting of the Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, stands cancelled as Justice SA Bobde will not be available on January 29,” said a notice issued by the Supreme Court registry. “Take notice that due to non-availability of Justice SA Bobde on January 29, 2019 (Tuesday), sitting of Constitution Bench in Chief Justice’s court, comprising the Chief Justice, Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, stands cancelled. “Therefore, Constitution Bench matter will not be taken up for hearing,” the notice stated. The five-judge Bench was re-constituted on January 25 as Justice UU Lalit, who was a member of the original Bench, had recused himself from hear- ing the matter. When the new Bench was constituted, Justice NV Ramana was also exclud- ed from the re-constituted Bench. No reason was cited for the exclusion of Justice Ramana in the new Constitution Bench. In the fresh Bench, justices Bhushan and Nazeer made a comeback to hear the matter. Both of them were part of an earlier Bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra (now retired). It had on September 27, 2018, refused to refer to a five-judge Constitution Bench the reconsideration of the observation in its 1994 judg- ment that a mosque was not integral to Islam. While Misra and Bhushan had said it has to find out the context in which the five-judge Bench had delivered the 1994 judgment, Justice Nazeer had given a minority verdict dis- agreeing with the two judges. Nazeer had said whether a mosque is integral to Islam has to be decided considering reli- gious belief which requires detailed consideration. On January 10, Justice Lalit had recused himself after expressing disinclination to participate in the hearing any further as he had appeared as a lawyer for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in a related matter “sometime in the year 1997”. A Royal Bengal tigress in Madhya Pradesh’s Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), popular- ly known as Collarwali Baghin, continues to break records as she has yet again given birth — the eighth time — to four cubs. Before this eighth litter, she was already a proud moth- er of 26 cubs. The heartwarming news has come on the eve of an inter- national meet being held in Delhi from Monday where 12 tiger-range countries will dis- cuss the status of target set in 2010 to double global wild tiger population. In 2010, 13 countries had committed to and endorsed the St Petersburg declaration for doubling global wild tiger pop- ulation and the global tiger recovery programme. This is the third such stocktaking after two previous ones in 2012 and 2014, which were held in Delhi and Dhaka, respectively. Globally, between 3,500 and 3,800 tigers are estimated to be in the wild with 2,226 of them in India alone. Collarwali, who lives in the Karmajhiri range in the core area of Pench, had given birth to 26 cubs in seven litters between 2008 and 2017, field director Subhranjan Sen said. Officially called T-15, she is a major tourist attraction at the tiger reserve and has become almost as popular as “Machhli”, the legendary Ranthambore National Park tigress who died last year. The Department of Posts had issued a special cover envelope featuring Collarwali last year. Also called the “Queen of Pench” and “Pench Princess”, Collarwali was born to another famous tigress, “Barimada”, who featured in the documentary Spy in the Jungle. The radio collar that lent her name “Collarwali Baghin” had been fitted on her in 2009, when she was four, for moni- toring her movement. Just four of the reserve’s 50 tigers and tigresses are radio-collared. The collar fitted on the “Collarwali Baghin” worked for about two years, and fell off her neck in August 2016. While India and Nepal have doubled their tiger pop- ulation since the 2010 declara- tion, officials from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) said, most other coun- tries, with the exception of Thailand, are largely strug- gling. T he Chanda Kochhar graft case took a curious turn on Sunday with the CBI claiming that it transferred investigating officer Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra to Ranchi after a “discreet” enquiry against Mishra sug- gested his role in leaking infor- mation about the searches against the accused persons. Following this, the searches were conducted after the charge was given to new investigating officer Mohit Gupta, agency sources said. Mishra was transferred a day after he registered the FIR on January 22 against Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group MD Venugopal Dhoot for graft and criminal conspiracy. Gupta took the charge on January 23 and the searches were con- ducted the next day. CBI officials said after a review some time ago, the pre- liminary enquiry (PE) was sped up and was converted into a regular case. Immediately after the registration of the case, the probe officials proposed searches on the premises of the accused persons, the officials said. However, a discreet enquiry was conducted as it was suspected that there was a possibility of information regarding searches being leaked, agency officials claimed. “A discreet enquiry was conducted and role of the Superintendent of Police and IO in the ICICI loan scam case, Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra, was strongly suspected. Hence he has been transferred pending detailed enquiry in the matter,” a CBI official said. “ICICI Bank case is one of the very important cases that was pending without progress,” claimed an agency official, adding, the role of Mishra and others, if any, in “keeping the PE pending” is also being looked into. Interestingly, the CBI did not issue any formal statement on the controversy surround- ing Mishra’s transfer. The CBI sources sought to justify the transfer blaming Mishra for keeping the pre- liminary enquiry pending without any reasons. But Mishra could have been made a scapegoat for the delay as the question remains unanswered as to why other senior officers in the supervisory loop kept silent over the procrastination in converting the PE into a reg- ular case. Senior officials can- not escape responsibility for the delay in conversion of the pre- liminary enquiry into a regu- lar case as there is an e-office system in place in the agency and every one can see the sta- tus of a particular case at the click of a button, the sources further said. Another question that remains unanswered by the CBI is that if Mishra was sus- pected of leaking the informa- tion then why he was allowed to file the FIR especially when the agency had inputs on his role in delaying the preliminary enquiry. The officials also did not elaborate on the name of offi- cials who cleared the registra- tion of the FIR in the ICICI loan fraud case. The agency had on January 24 conducted searches on the premises of Videocon Group in Mumbai and offices of Nupower Renewables and Supreme Powers in Mumbai and Aurangabad. Nupower Renewables and Supreme Powers are controlled by Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar. The FIR alleged that dur- ing the tenure of Chanda Kochhar as MD of ICICI, six loans worth 1,875 crore were cleared for Videocon Group and its associated companies in which in two cases she herself was on the sanctioning com- mittees. In its FIR, the CBI has also named several top bankers, including the present CEO of ICICI Bank Sandeep Baxi, alleging that they were also members of the sanctioning committees to give loan to Videocon. The role of Chairman of New Development Bank KV Kamath, Goldman Sachs India chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee, Standard Chartered Bank CEO Zarin Daruwala, Tata Capital head Rajiv Sabharwal and Tata Capital senior advisor Homi Khusrokhan need to be inves- tigated, according to the FIR. The names of these bankers figure in the FIR that was registered after a year-long PE. Following reports of the ICICI case FIR, former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley advised the CBI against “investigative adventurism”. BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik left for New Delhi on Sunday on a two-day visit. According to his programme, Patnaik would attend a cru- cial meeting with Central Government officials regarding Central projects in the State at the Odisha Bhawan on Monday. Besides, he would meet some Union Ministers to discuss some important developmental projects pertaining to the State, the source added. The Chief Minister would return here on Tuesday. PNS

English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

�������������������� ����������������������������� ����������� ������������� ������� �� ������������� ��� ��� ������������ ������������������ ����� �� �� ��������� !"���� ����� ���� "������ #��� �� ��������$

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��������������� �������������������$%����������������� �� �"��� !"�� %������ �� &� ��0�# '������� ��� �������� ������ �� ���&� �������������� �� ����� �� 12���� �� ������ 32$

���������������� * 4 # 50�

Power distribution compa-nies in the national Capital

are putting the annual loss atapproximately �150 crore dueto organised theft of electrici-ty for charging e-rickshaws.

Power experts and discomsources said that the organisedracket of power theft is beingrun due to lack of propercharging facilities in the city,especially in areas close tometro stations.

As per estimates, there aremore than one lakh e-rick-shaws plying on the city roadsand only one-fourth of themare registered, despite a subsidyscheme provided to them bythe Government.

“Considering that most ofthe e-rickshaws are not regis-tered, the loss due to chargingthrough illegal connections isaround �150 crore,” they said.

There are three power dis-tribution companies — BYPLand BRPL of BSES, and TataPower Delhi Dsitribution(TPDDL) — that supply elec-tricity in Delhi.

“We are committed toeradicate the menace of powertheft and keeping a close watchon the illegal e-charging set-upsin the area of distribution. Iappeal to all e-rickshaws own-

ers to take legitimate connec-tions and charge their vehiclesin a legitimate and safe man-ner,” TPDDL CEO SanjayBanga told PTI.

On an average, an e-rick-shaw consumes around 7-10units per day. This comes toabout 2,500-3,600 units per e-rickshaw per annum. Powertheft is at its peak at night dueto bulk charging at facilities setup by the racketeers, discomsources said.

There are scores of areasacross the city where suchrackets operate, although policehelp is sought whenever theyare detected, added the sources.

Sangam Vihar, Kalkaji,Tughlakabad, Sarai Kale khan,Dakshin Puri, Raghubir Nagar,Tagore Garden, Madipur,Seelampur, Yamuna Vihar,Shastri Park, Karawal Nagar,Mustafabad, Nand Nagri, KarolBagh, Keekarwala Kesham-puram, Civil Lines are someareas where power theft for e-rickshaw charging is “ram-pant”, discom sources said.

“Most of these e-rickshawsare charged in batches as partof an organised illegal net-work controlled by localstrongmen. The e-rickshawowners pay fixed money in therange of �100 to �150 per dayto the “parking and charging”mafia. This comes down to � 50per e-rickshaw if chargedthrough a legal connection,”they claimed.

In the latest tariff order, theDelhi Electricity RegulatoryCommission has fixed the rateof �5.50 per unit for e-rickshawcharging. A TPDDL spokesper-son said illegal charging of e-rickshaws is a “big menace” andresults in approximately 40lakh KWh of power loss everyyear to the company that sup-plies electricity to north andnorthwest parts of the city.

The company is employingtechnology to track power theftin its area of distribution andhas installed AMR (AutomatedMeter Reading) based energysystems at distribution trans-formers.

����� ' �6�

The official mobile phone ofan inspector killed in the

December mob violence inUttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahrdistrict has been recoveredfrom the residence of the manwho allegedly shot him, offi-cials said on Sunday.

The recovery comes near-ly two months after the inci-dent in Bulandshahr’s Sianaarea where on December 3 amob fought pitched battleswith police, apparently afterright-wing activists wereangered by the discovery ofcow carcasses strewn outside avillage.

Inspector Subodh Kumar’sphone with a CUG (closed usergroup) number was recoveredalong with five more phones onSaturday from the house of keyaccused Prashant Natt, a seniorpolice officer said. Natt, whohad allegedly shot the inspec-tor during the violence, wasarrested on December 18 fromSikandrabad and is languishingin prison.

“We had got informationfrom sources that inspectorSubodh Kumar’s mobile phonecould be kept hidden at Natt’shouse and we procured asearch warrant from the courtto check his place,” Additional

Superintendent of Police, City,Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said.

“The CUG mobile phoneof the inspector was recoveredfrom Natt’s house during thesearch. Some other phoneswere also found and all thephones have been sent to aforensic lab for finding moredetails like their call records,”he told reporters.

However, the pistol thatwas used to open fire on theinspector is still missing, andthe Additional SP said a “searchis on for it”.

Natt, 26, a resident ofChingrawathi village, wouldwork part-time as a driver inDelhi and nearby areas, andother times worked locally as alabourer, police said.

During the violence, 20-year-old Chingrawathi resi-dent Sumit Kumar was alsokilled of gunshot.

An FIR was lodged at theSiyana police station against atleast 80 people for murder,attempt to murder, rioting,

sedition, damaging publicproperty, among othercharges.Twenty-seven werenamed.

“So far, 38 accused havebeen arrested in connectionwith the violence,” Siyana CircleOfficer Raghvendra Mishratold PTI on Sunday.

Those arrested includeBajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unitconvenor Yogesh Raj, BharatiyaJanata Yuva Morcha’s Siyanaunit head Shikhar Agarwal,Army jawan Jeetender Malik,and Kalua, who first attackedthe inspector, surrounded byfive to six men.

A separate FIR for cowslaughter was filed onDecember 3 in which sixaccused have been arrested.

Three of them, AzharKhan, Mehboob Ali andNadeem Khan, were onJanuary 14 booked under theNational Security Act by theBulandshahr administration,which said their release maydisrupt public order.

����� * 4 # 50�

The Supreme Court onSunday cancelled the

January 29 hearing of RamJanambhoomi-Babri Masjidland title dispute case due tonon-availability of one of thejudges of the five-judgeConstitution Bench hearingthe matter causing furtherdelay in settling the politicallysensitive issue.

“The sitting of theConstitution bench, headedby Chief Justice of India (CJI)Ranjan Gogoi, stands cancelledas Justice SA Bobde will not beavailable on January 29,” said anotice issued by the SupremeCourt registry.

“Take notice that due tonon-availability of Justice SABobde on January 29, 2019(Tuesday), sitting ofConstitution Bench in ChiefJustice’s court, comprising theChief Justice, Justices SABobde, DY Chandrachud,Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer,stands cancelled.

“Therefore, ConstitutionBench matter will not be takenup for hearing,” the notice stated.

The five-judge Bench wasre-constituted on January 25 asJustice UU Lalit, who was amember of the original Bench,had recused himself from hear-ing the matter. When the newBench was constituted, JusticeNV Ramana was also exclud-ed from the re-constitutedBench.

No reason was cited for theexclusion of Justice Ramana inthe new Constitution Bench.

In the fresh Bench, justicesBhushan and Nazeer made acomeback to hear the matter.

Both of them were part ofan earlier Bench headed bythen CJI Dipak Misra (nowretired). It had on September27, 2018, refused to refer to afive-judge Constitution Benchthe reconsideration of theobservation in its 1994 judg-ment that a mosque was notintegral to Islam.

While Misra and Bhushanhad said it has to find out thecontext in which the five-judgeBench had delivered the 1994judgment, Justice Nazeer hadgiven a minority verdict dis-agreeing with the two judges.Nazeer had said whether amosque is integral to Islam hasto be decided considering reli-gious belief which requiresdetailed consideration.

On January 10, Justice Lalithad recused himself afterexpressing disinclination toparticipate in the hearing anyfurther as he had appeared asa lawyer for former UttarPradesh Chief Minister KalyanSingh in a related matter“sometime in the year 1997”.

����� * 4 # 50�

ARoyal Bengal tigress inMadhya Pradesh’s Pench

Tiger Reserve (PTR), popular-ly known as Collarwali Baghin,continues to break records asshe has yet again given birth —the eighth time — to fourcubs. Before this eighth litter,she was already a proud moth-er of 26 cubs.

The heartwarming newshas come on the eve of an inter-national meet being held inDelhi from Monday where 12tiger-range countries will dis-cuss the status of target set in2010 to double global wildtiger population.

In 2010, 13 countries hadcommitted to and endorsed theSt Petersburg declaration fordoubling global wild tiger pop-ulation and the global tigerrecovery programme. This isthe third such stocktaking aftertwo previous ones in 2012 and

2014, which were held in Delhiand Dhaka, respectively.

Globally, between 3,500and 3,800 tigers are estimatedto be in the wild with 2,226 ofthem in India alone.

Collarwali, who lives in theKarmajhiri range in the corearea of Pench, had given birthto 26 cubs in seven littersbetween 2008 and 2017, fielddirector Subhranjan Sen said.Officially called T-15, she is amajor tourist attraction at thetiger reserve and has becomealmost as popular as “Machhli”,the legendary RanthamboreNational Park tigress who diedlast year.

The Department of Postshad issued a special coverenvelope featuring Collarwalilast year. Also called the“Queen of Pench” and “PenchPrincess”, Collarwali was bornto another famous tigress,“Barimada”, who featured in thedocumentary Spy in the Jungle.

The radio collar that lenther name “Collarwali Baghin”had been fitted on her in 2009,when she was four, for moni-toring her movement. Just fourof the reserve’s 50 tigers andtigresses are radio-collared.The collar fitted on the“Collarwali Baghin” workedfor about two years, and fell offher neck in August 2016.

While India and Nepalhave doubled their tiger pop-ulation since the 2010 declara-tion, officials from the NationalTiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) said, most other coun-tries, with the exception ofThailand, are largely strug-gling.

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

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

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

���������������� * 4 # 50�

The Chanda Kochhar graftcase took a curious turn on

Sunday with the CBI claimingthat it transferred investigatingofficer Sudhanshu Dhar Mishrato Ranchi after a “discreet”enquiry against Mishra sug-gested his role in leaking infor-mation about the searchesagainst the accused persons.Following this, the searcheswere conducted after the chargewas given to new investigatingofficer Mohit Gupta, agencysources said.

Mishra was transferred aday after he registered the FIRon January 22 against ChandaKochhar, her husband DeepakKochhar and Videocon GroupMD Venugopal Dhoot for graftand criminal conspiracy. Guptatook the charge on January 23and the searches were con-ducted the next day.

CBI officials said after areview some time ago, the pre-liminary enquiry (PE) wassped up and was converted intoa regular case. Immediatelyafter the registration of the case,

the probe officials proposedsearches on the premises of theaccused persons, the officialssaid.

However, a discreetenquiry was conducted as itwas suspected that there was apossibility of information

regarding searches beingleaked, agency officials claimed.

“A discreet enquiry wasconducted and role of theSuperintendent of Police andIO in the ICICI loan scam case,Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra, was

strongly suspected. Hence hehas been transferred pendingdetailed enquiry in the matter,”a CBI official said.

“ICICI Bank case is one ofthe very important cases thatwas pending without progress,”claimed an agency official,adding, the role of Mishra andothers, if any, in “keeping thePE pending” is also beinglooked into.

Interestingly, the CBI didnot issue any formal statementon the controversy surround-ing Mishra’s transfer.

The CBI sources sought tojustify the transfer blamingMishra for keeping the pre-liminary enquiry pendingwithout any reasons. ButMishra could have been madea scapegoat for the delay as thequestion remains unansweredas to why other senior officersin the supervisory loop keptsilent over the procrastinationin converting the PE into a reg-ular case. Senior officials can-not escape responsibility for thedelay in conversion of the pre-liminary enquiry into a regu-lar case as there is an e-office

system in place in the agencyand every one can see the sta-tus of a particular case at theclick of a button, the sourcesfurther said.

Another question thatremains unanswered by theCBI is that if Mishra was sus-pected of leaking the informa-tion then why he was allowedto file the FIR especially whenthe agency had inputs on hisrole in delaying the preliminaryenquiry.

The officials also did notelaborate on the name of offi-cials who cleared the registra-tion of the FIR in the ICICIloan fraud case.

The agency had on January24 conducted searches on thepremises of Videocon Group inMumbai and offices ofNupower Renewables andSupreme Powers in Mumbaiand Aurangabad. NupowerRenewables and SupremePowers are controlled byChanda Kochhar’s husbandDeepak Kochhar.

The FIR alleged that dur-ing the tenure of ChandaKochhar as MD of ICICI, six

loans worth �1,875 crore werecleared for Videocon Groupand its associated companies inwhich in two cases she herselfwas on the sanctioning com-mittees.

In its FIR, the CBI has alsonamed several top bankers,including the present CEO ofICICI Bank Sandeep Baxi,alleging that they were alsomembers of the sanctioningcommittees to give loan toVideocon.

The role of Chairman ofNew Development Bank KVKamath, Goldman Sachs Indiachairman Sonjoy Chatterjee,Standard Chartered Bank CEOZarin Daruwala, Tata Capitalhead Rajiv Sabharwal and TataCapital senior advisor HomiKhusrokhan need to be inves-tigated, according to the FIR.

The names of thesebankers figure in the FIR thatwas registered after a year-longPE.

Following reports of theICICI case FIR, former FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley advisedthe CBI against “investigativeadventurism”.

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��� ���� �������� ���������������������� �!�����"!���!!� BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik left for NewDelhi on Sunday on a two-day visit.

According to his programme, Patnaik would attend a cru-cial meeting with Central Government officials regardingCentral projects in the State at the Odisha Bhawan on Monday.

Besides, he would meet some Union Ministers to discuss someimportant developmental projects pertaining to the State, thesource added.

The Chief Minister would return here on Tuesday. PNS

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Amid a political debate overChief Minister Naveen

Patnaik’s sister Gita Mehtahumbly declining to acceptPadma Shri award, questionsare being raised over lack ofpolitical foresight on part of theBJP leadership.

Though the UnionGovernment recommendednames of former PresidentPranab Mukherjee, lateAssamese singer BhupenHazarika and late social activistand RSS veteran NanajiDeshmukh for the covetedBharat Ratna, it clearly ignoredlegendary leader Biju Patnaik.

The highest civilian awardis denied to Biju ignoring hisworth and stature. The denialof the honour to Biju is most-ly seen due to political reasonsas Congress ruled the countrymost of the time.

When BJP formed theGovernment with majority in2014, the people of Odishawere expecting that Biju willcertainly get the honor, hedeserved since long.

However, the senior

Patnaik, also a noted freedomfighter, once again became avictim of injustice despite con-tributing to the security of thecountry during Chinese aggres-sion in 1962 and war withPakistan in 1965.

Everybody in Indian poli-tics knows that Biju had amajor role for which JammuKashmir is now part of India.Bijubabu carried VK KrishnaMenon to Kashmir in his planeand convinced Raja Hari Singhto keep Jammu and Kashmirwith India. Biju follower formerMinister Damodor Rout hadsaid this when the OdishaLegislative Assembly in 2015passed a resolution for givingBharat Ratna to Biju.

When Pakistan along with

some other nations announcedwar against India in 1965, thethen Prime Minister LalBahadur Sastri sought Biju'shelp to ensure that Indonesiannaval warship do not come tothe rescue of the enemy coun-try and Patnaik used his per-sonal relation with PresidentSukarno and stoppedIndonesia's warship moment.

The list of Biju’s contribu-tion is long. However, the BJPGovernment preferred toignore the veteran freedomfighter.

Had the BJP Governmentrecommended name of Biju forthis year’s Bharat Ratna, thepeoples’ mood towards theparty could have been totallydifferent in this election year as

people love Biju.However, the people at the

helm failed to read the people’smood in Odisha and quietlyignored their loving leader.

On the other hand, it islearnt that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had a 90-minute discussion with GitaMehta and her husband beforerecommending her name forPadma Shri Award.

Mehta, the worthy daugh-ter of Biju, humbly declined toaccept the award citing politi-cal reasons.

Now it is debated in thepolitical circles that the purposeof recommending Gita’s namehas been defeated. Had it beenthe case of Biju, the people ofOdisha would have been veryhappy.

Meanwhile, formerMinister and close aide, DilipRay has criticised the CentralGovernment for denyingBharat Ratna to Biju.

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Delhi Chief Minister andnational convener of Aam

Aadmi Party (AAP) ArvindKejriwal is scheduled to visithere on January 31 and addressa public meeting at LowerPMG. The meeting would beorganised by the SamajikaNyaya Abhijan.

AAP Rajya Sabha memberSanjay Singh, former UnionMinister Srikant Jena, formerMLA Krushsna ChandraSagaria, Dalit leader AkshayaKumar Mallick and DehiprasadPrusty would remain present atthe meeting.

This wasinformed byAAP State con-v e n e rS h a s h i k a n tMishra andgeneral secretary SoumyaRanjan Swain on Sunday.

Kejriwal is also scheduledto meet intellectuals and otherparty activists on the day.

With the general andAssembly elections ahead inOdisha, Kejriwal’s visit and hisviews on the performances ofthe Central and StateGovernments would hold sig-nificance in Odisha in view ofthe political developments hav-ing started to gather pace withthe recent visits of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andCongress president RahulGandhi.

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Apoliceman was suspendedfor handing over his AK-

47 rifle to an unidentified girlat the State-level Republic Dayparade at the Mahatma GandhiMarg here on Saturday.

A Constable of the 6thBattalion, Cuttack, BhagyadharNayak was placed under sus-pension for violating the policeservice code of conduct, asenior official said.

The matter came to lightafter a video of the Constablegiving the AK-47 rifle to a girlwent viral on social mediaplatforms.

The Constable wasdeployed for Republic Day cel-ebrations here and incidenttook place at around 9.30 am atthe Mahatma Gandhi Marg.

In the video clip, the con-stable was seen giving his gunto the girl, whose face was cov-ered with a black stole, andexchanged words before shereturned the weapon to the cop.The girl was seen checking thegun for a few seconds.

Soon after the video wentviral, Twin City Police

Commissioner SatyajitMohanty has ordered a probeand subsequently action wastaken against the cop in theevening.

However, it is yet to beascertained under which cir-cumstances the policeConstable had handed overhis service weapon to the girl.

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An Odia jawan wasmartyred during

an encounter betweenmilitants and securi-ty forces in Baramulladistrict of Jammu &Kashmir on theRepublic Day.

The deceased was identi-fied as Hemanta Panda ofAtharanga village underBegunia block in Khordha dis-trict. Panda had joined theIndian Army two years ago.The mortal remains of Pandais expected to reach his native

village on Sunday.A pall of gloom

has descended onmartyr’s village soonafter his death.Earlier in the day,two militants of theJaish-e-Muhammad(JeM) outfit werekilled in a gunfight

with security forces in Jammu& Kashmir’s Srinagar district,police sources said.

Both were killed inKhonmoh area on the outskirtsof Srinagar city. They hadplanned to disrupt the RepublicDay functions being held here,the sources said.

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An international luxurycruise liner carrying 120

passengers anchored at theParadip Port here on theRepublic Day on Saturday,adding to the development ofOdisha Tourism.

Sources said the luxurycruise liner ‘MV SilverDiscover’ docked at the ParadipPort after a gap of around 10years. The ship with visitorsfrom countries like the US, theUK, Australia and South Africaarrived at the Port at around 8am on the day. After the arrival,the port authorities gave arousing welcome to the visitorsin traditional way. PPTChairman Rinkesh Roy said

the cruise liner would boostand inspire tourism in theState.

The cruise liner would takethe visitors to the ancientBuddhist heritage sites at

Ratnagiri, Udayagiri andLalitagiri in Jajpur district,sources added.

The Tourism Departmenthas made all arrangements forcomfortable stay and move-

ment of the international guestsand to provide comprehensiveinformation to them on the his-torical, cultural and religiousheritage of the Buddhist sites,said an official.

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The Mada Mukti YuvaBahini (MMYB) organised

a bike rally here on Sundaydemanding total prohibition inthe State. It gave a memoran-dum to Excise Minister SashiBhusan Behera demanding thatan announcement for an anti-liquor law be made before theelection code of conduct comesinto effect, failing which theMMYB would campaignagainst the Minister in hisconstituency if he contests inthe ensuing elections.

The MMYB held the rallyto mark its first anniversarywith participation of its volun-teers from across the State.

Speaking on the occasion,MMYB convener SatyabrataPrusty said liquor is destroyingthousands of families. TheGovernment’s claim that it gets

revenue from liquor sale isabsolutely fallacious. Rather, itis losing revenue manifold.

He further said, “A welfareGovernment must not resort torevenue of liquor to runadministration.”

Among others present onthe occasion were Tarakant

Nayak, Bipin Kumar Routray,Lalatendu Patra, Priti Nayak,Rajesh Deo, Saumya RanjanMohanty, Akshaya Routray,Samash Sarangi, Abhijit Patra,Malay Tripathy, Kanhu CharanBehura and members of theMilita Odisha Nisha NibaranaAbhiyan (MONNA).

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The Institute of CostAccountants of India

(ICAI), Bhubaneswar Chapterin association with TaxResearch Department, ICAIorganised a seminar on “Insightto the Assessment of IncomeTax” here on Sunday to markits golden jubilee year.

Gujarat Principal ChiefCommissioner of Income TaxAjai Das Mehrotra attended as

chief guest and spoke on vari-ous amendments, notificationsof the Central Board of DirectTaxation (CBDT). OPGC LtdFinance and Taxation HeadNiranjan Swain also spoke.Among others, Chapter chair-man Damodar Mishra, Councilmember Niranjan Mishra,Professional DevelopmentCommittee Chairman MukeshChaubey, ManagingCommittee member UttamKumar Nayak were present.

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The second National ChilikaBird Festival kick-started at

Mangalajodi , Chilika to pro-mote ecotourism and preservebirds. The two-day festivalincludes photo exhibitions,seminars and visit to theNalabana Island.

The event began with welcome speech byCommissioner-cum-Secretary,Odisha Tourism Vishal K Dev.

Additional Chief Secretary,Forest and Environment SureshMohapatra said, “We areextremely happy to have partic-ipants from all over the coun-try. This year we have around1 million migratory birds pre-sent in Chilika. We are recog-nising the efforts by the localsin preserving Chilika lake andwant to empower them byhelping them with livelihood inform of sustainable tourism.”

Minister Tourism andCulture Ashok Panda inaugu-

rated the photo exhibition. Theother dignitaries were MPPrasanna Kumar Patasani,Khurdha MLA Rajendra KumarSahoo, Khurdha CollectorNirmal Chandra Mishra andTourism Director RP Singh.

Chilika Development

Authority also released its book‘Fish and Shellfish Diversityand Its SustainableManagement in Chilika Lake.’Around 145 bird watchers fromall over India joined the event.

Among others, co-founderof Asian Birds Fair Andrew

Sebastian, Deputy Director ofBombay Natural HistoryScience B Sivananinthaperumal,Wildlife researcher TuhinansuKar and Additional ChiefExecutive, Chilika DevelopmentAuthority, Samrat Gowda,spoke.

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The Odisha Government haslaunched the most needed

GAINS (Generating Advancesin Incomes and Nutritionthrough Sweet Potato) Phase IIproject in Odisha that willsupport resource poor house-holds in four districts toachieve better nutrition andincome through sweet potato.

The project is supportedunder RKVY scheme and isimplemented by theInternational Potato Centrehaving its centre inBhubaneswar.

The project was launchedby Principal SecretaryAgriculture Saurabh Garg inpresence of Director of Financeof International Potato Center,Lima, Peru, Luis Felipe Mendesin Bhubaneswar.

The launching programmestarted in a unique way bywatering a sweet potato plantby Dr Garg. The Governmentof Odisha and InternationalPotato Center have joinedhands to boost farmer’s incomeand to enhance nutrition in thecommunities of districts ofAngul, Keonjhar, Rayagadaand Gajapathi districts.

Project Manager of GAINSPhase II Dr Sreekanth Attalurihas said that the project willintroduce new varieties ofsweet potato, strengthen theseed system and improve the

market linkages in Odisha.The project will cover 1,683hectares in three years whichwill help thousands of farmersin the four districts.

The workshop discussedthe potential uses of sweetpotato for food, marketing ofprocessed products, animalfeed, medicinal and nutrition-al values that can improvehealth.

It was mentioned that theproducts like sweet potatoflour, puree, chips, noodlesand starch can be preparedwith the help of interestedprocessing sector entrepre-neurs.

Success stories of GAINSPhase I was presented in theform of video during the work-shop. The meeting was chairedby Director of HorticultureBijay Ketan Upadhyaya.

Dr Upadhyaya summedup the entire programme to theaudience present.

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The district administrationhas drawn a plan for the

Road Safety Week to beobserved from February 4. Ina meeting with the regionaltransport officials and otherstakeholders, the administra-tion maintained that besidesawareness and enforcementmeasures for the cause of traf-fic rules and safety of riders,eviction would be carried outduring the period.

The road dividers whichare cut by the local residentsand shopkeepers for their con-venience would be restored tosafety by the PWD.

In the first day of the week,

while there would be checkingmainly for the seat belt and hel-mets, on the second day theroadside encroachments wouldbe cleared. The eviction wouldbe carried out in and aroundprominent patches, mainlyfrom the market areas andintersection pockets of thetown. On the day, appropriateroad safety signs would beinstalled in the required patch-es such as schools and hospi-tals etc.

On the third day the vehi-cles would be checked for tech-nical fitness, speed governor,besides the commercial vehi-cles would be checked.

The following day, the dri-vers and helpers engaged intransporting students to theschools , colleges and educa-tional institutions would beimparted training and safetyawareness. Besides on the day,there would be several compe-titions including essay, drawing,

cartoon and quiz among thestudents.

The district administra-tion has decided to felicitatethose persons who provedGood Samaritan by ferryingthe accident victims to hospi-tals and those who donatedblood to save life. Besideschecking and enforcementwould be done for overloadingand rash driving etc

On the concluding day,there would be checking of allvehicles for documents, main-ly the driving licences, insur-ance papers and fitness.Besides, there would be Rangolicompetitions.

The meeting while washeld under the chairmanship ofdistrict Collector RameshChandra Rout, SP B JugalKishore , the RTO officialsand representatives, bus , truck,auto rickshaw unions and roadsafety committee memberswere present.

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More than a couple ofmonths after the tran-

quilisation of Royal BengalTigress Sundari, the ForestDepartment has decided thattwo trained elephants wouldguard the big cat.

Elephants Mahendra andRajkumar are being broughtfrom Similipal to Satkosia forthe purpose, reports said.

“No decision for Sundari’srelease from enclosure hasbeen taken yet. The two ele-phants are being brought toSatkosia from Similipal forgeneral security as per theNTCA protocol,” said PCCF(Wildlife), Sandip Tripathy.

There was a dispute earli-er over relocation of the ele-phants as the locals of Similipalopposed it. However, the issuewas resolved by the ForestDepartment after holding talks

with the villagers.Notably, the tigress has

been relocated from MadhyaPradesh’s Bandhavgarh TigerReserve to the Satkosia wildlifesanctuary in Angul district onJune 28 last year as part of apilot inter-State transfer projectto increase the big cat popula-tion in Odisha. Sundari wastranquilised on November 6last after it allegedly killed anelderly man on October 21 lastyear at Tainsi village under theSatkosia Forest Division.

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A50-year-old man has beendetained by police for

allegedly raping a five-year-oldgirl in the Bantala area ofAngul district.

According to reports, theaccused, identified as ArtatranaBehera, lured the victim withchocolate while she was play-ing with her friends. He thentook the girl to an under-con-struction house and allegedlyraped her there.

The man was in an inebri-ated state when he committedthe crime, reports added. Afterthe matter came to the fore, vil-lagers nabbed Behera andhanded him over to the Bantalapolice.

A case in this regard wasregistered at the Bantala policestation and investigation isunderway. The accused and thevictim were sent for medicalexamination.

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In another shameful incident,a Class-VII student was

allegedly raped by a collegegoing youth of her localityunder the Belghar police sta-tion in Kandhamal district.

The matter came to thefore after the family membersof the girl filed an FIR withpolice on Saturday.

The family members alsoalleged that the youth hadthreatened them of dire con-sequences if they lodge a policecomplaint.

Meanwhile, the accusedhas gone underground and amanhunt has been launched tonab him, police said after reg-istering a case in connectionwith the incident.

According to the com-plaint, the girl was raped inDecember 2018 when she hadcome home from her residen-tial school during vacations.

Sources said the youth hadalso threatened the girl not todisclose the incident to anybody.Out of fear, the girl returned toher hostel without revealingthe incident to her parents.

Later, school authoritiessent the girl back after she fellsick. Subsequently, the familymembers lodged the policecomplaint after she informedthe incident to them.

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Notorious criminal BabulMahananda was arrested

following an encounter by theTitilagarh police in the districton Saturday. Babul, who sus-tained bullet injuries on his leg,was rushed to the VSS MedicalCollege Hospital in Burla in acritical condition.

Acting on a tipoff regard-ing the movement of Babul, apolice team rushed to the spotand tried to intercept him.

However, after spotting thecops, Babul opened fire with acountry-made gun in a bid toflee from the spot.

However, in the retaliato-ry firing Babul was injured.Police have seized a gun andsome bullets from his posses-sion. According to police, Babulwas involved in the recent lootof � 3 lakh from a businessmanat Saintala. Over 12 criminalcases are pending against himin Titlagarh and different otherpolice stations in the district.

“The police team man-aged to nab Babul after chasinghim. During the encounter,he suffered bullet injuries onhis right leg and feet” saidTitlagarh SDPO SarojMohapatra.

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In a gruesome incident, bod-ies of a woman and her four

kids were recovered from adeep well at Indupur under theKoira police station inSundargarh district late onSaturday night. On Sunday,police arrested three brothersand detained three others,including a sorcerer, in thisconnection. It is alleged that thewoman and her kids werekilled on suspicion of practic-ing black magic.

According to sources,Tangru Munda of Indupur hadmarried Mangli Munda(30) afew years back. Tangru passedaway one year ago. They havetwo daughters and a son, allbelow age of 12 years. Afterdeath of Tangru, his youngerbrother Sudam had been livingwith Mangli as her husband.Sudam and Mangli have a 10-month- old daughter. Sudamis a truck driver by profession.

On Friday afternoon whenhe returned from work, Sudamdid not find Mangri and her

four children in the house. Buthe noticed blood stains in hishouse. He went to Koira policestation and lodged a complaintabout missing of his familymembers. The Koira policereached the spot with a scien-tific team and searched for themissing five. After a day’ssearch, they located the bodiesin an abandoned 20 ft deep wellnear the house on Saturday. Thebodies were recovered with thehelp of a fire brigade in the pres-ence of DIG Kabita Jalan andRourkela SP Uma Shankar Das.Post-mortem was conducted onthe bodies on Sunday.

During investigation,police could come to know thata local man named Budramwas practising sorcery. Adaughtger of Sudam’s neigh-bouring couple Debra andSumi Munda fell ill some rea-son. They had taken theirdaughter to Budram, but latershe died.

After few days, anotherdaughter of Debra and Sumifell ill. This time Budram toldthem that Mangli and her chil-

dren are witches and they areresponsible for the death and illhealth of their daughters.Thereafter, three brothers ofSumi Munda, identified asKisri alias Raju, Salu andDagam, planned to kill Mangliand her children. On Thursdaynight at around 9 pm, whenMangli’s husband Sudam wasnot present at home, theyforcibly entered into Mangli’shouse by breaking open thedoor and hacked Mangli andher four children to death withan axe. They then threw thefive bodies in the well.

Police soon detained sixpersons, including Budramand admitted Debra’s ailingdaugther in the Koira hospital.Later on Sunday afternoon,police arrested Raju, Salu andDagam, the three brothers ofSumi Munda. Police are nowinterrogating the three others.Police have also seized the axeused in the murder.

“We suspect some morepersons are involved in thismurder case. We will nab oth-ers soon,” said the Rourkela SP.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik launched distribu-

tion of assistances to farmers ofGanjam district under theKALIA scheme at a massiverally held at Rangelilunda onSunday. Besides, he laid foun-dation-stone for 48 develop-ment projects worth Rs 716crore and inaugurated 231 newprojects at different places.More than 1 lakh farmers from22 blocks attended the farmers’convention.

The Chief Minister saidfarmers would get Rs 5,000 forKharif crop and Rs 5,000 forRabi crop. “The KALIA schemewill certainly help farmers toimprove their agriculturalactivities and livelihood andshow a new path to the entire

nation,” said Patnaik. Besides,farmers can take loans withoutany interest so that their repay-ment could be much smootherand hassle free, he said

Farmers, including smalland marginal farmers, share-croppers and farming labour-ers, will get benefit from thescheme.

Among others, threeMinisters from the district,BJD district president andGopalpur MLA Dr PradeepKumar Panigrahi and StatePlanning Board member RamaChandra Panda and a host ofsenior Government officers,including CooperationSecretary Kishan Kumar, RDC,district Collector, DIG and theSP, were present.

Political observers consid-er the CM visit very crucial forthe BJD ahead of general elec-tions. Fifty platoons of securi-ty personnel were deployed toprevent any untoward inci-dent.

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Over one lakh farmers ofBaleswar district have

received Rs 5,000 each direct-ly in their bank accounts afterthe launch of the KrushakAssistance for Livelihood andIncome Augmentation(KALIA) scheme.

The direct cash transferunder the KALIA scheme, afarmer centric flagship pro-gramme of the Naveen PatnaikGovernment, kicked off in Purion December 25.

Sources said in the first

phase, the State Governmentwhile released the amount infavour of around 12 lakh farm-ers, the highest number ofbeneficiaries was fromBaleswar district.

“Around Rs 662 crore wasdisbursed among more than 12lakh farmers across the Statein the first phase, out of whichabout one lakh farmers arefrom Baleswar district. This isthe first phase of disburse-ment and the second phasewould follow after some days.The promises made by theState Government for the causeof peasants are fulfilled. I thankChief Minister Naveen Patnaikfor the noble initiative,” said

Baleswar MP RK Jena.Overwhelmed by the direct

cash credit into his account,Chitanya Majhi , a marginalfarmer of Narharipur pan-chayat under Remuna block,said, “Around 1.20 pm, Rs5,000 was credited into myaccount. I got the informationthrough mobile message. Ican’t believe but it is true. Ithank CM Naveen Patnaik forthe initiative.” Similarly,Labodhar Jena of Maharajpur, Sambhunath Barik of Boithaand many others across the dis-trict, besides expressing hap-piness over the direct cashtransfer, also reposed faith onthe State Government.

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The Kanpur irrigation pro-ject over the Baitarani river

in Keonjhar district which hadbeen delayed for nearly oneand a half years due to agita-tion of the affected people indemand of proper compensa-tion and rehabilitation mightbe delayed further if thedemands of the land ousteesare not met.

This has come to light onThursday last when peopleincluding women vehementlyopposed the entry ofAdditional Tehsildar BarbilAbhishek Panda to the projectarea for starting the work.

He was accompanied by

Government officials besidesChampua IIC Sumeet Sorenand two platoons of policeforce. Six JCP machines hadbeen deployed to level groundin Murusuan panchayat underJoda block to start the project.

The agitating villagerscomplained that most of theaffected families have not been

paid their displaced package(DP) for rehabilitation andresettlement of the displaced.

Former Joda blockChairman, Congress leaderand also a native of Murusuanpanchayat Purna Chandra Naiksaid 15 to 17 families out oftotal 76 families ofDhobakuchda village have not

received their DP so far.And for the rest families

who have moved out to stay inShankarpur RR colony andNaradpur and Angulia, thetwo cluster villages developedby the villagers by purchasingthe land, there is no school foreducation of the children. Theschool building which started

two years back is not completetill now.

Similarly, the people arefacing a lot of difficulties forlack traditional infrastructurelike pond and funeral groundfor common use.

However, some days back,when Purna, himself a RPDSmember along with otheraffected people, had raisedthese issues before Sub-Collector, Champua ParulPatwari, she told that all thecommunity infrastructuredevelopment will be done afterthe people move out of the pro-ject area.

After the villagers protest-ed, the officials returned but itis demanded that theGovernment should make aproper plan for early comple-tion the of the dream project ofthe district.

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Page 4: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

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The India Navy along withthe Coast Guard success-

fully conducted a coastalDefence exercise titled ‘SeaVigil’ in close coordinationwith all maritime stakeholders,including the fishing andcoastal communities, fromJanuary 22 to 23.

The exercise underwentalong the entire 7,516.6 kmcoastline and ExclusiveEconomic Zone in the countrywith over 30 ships and aircraftof the Navy and Coast Guardas well as 85 patrol boatsmanned by various securityagencies.

During the exercise, allcoastal police stations, controlrooms, fishing harbours, land-ing centres and other opera-tional centres were activatedand security was beefed up atall vital installations. Audit of

the International Ship and PortFacility Security (ISPS) codewas also carried out by theports.

The exercise, facilitated by

different Union Ministries,State Governments, UnionTerritories and other agencies,covered the entire coast ofIndia.

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The BJP on Sunday said theKALIA Yojna is not meant

to protect interest of farmersrather it has been announced touse State funds for meeting BJDelection expenditure.

“The State Governmentcould not make a list of smalland marginal farmers, land-less labourers and share-

croppers even as five yearshave passed. A question israised as to how theGovernment identi f ied farmers and included themunder the KALIA scheme.There are lakhs of share-croppers in the State.

The act of identifyingfarmers at gram panchayatlevel is not legal. Hence theKALIA scheme is full of flaws

and meant to betray farmers. Itwill open flood gates of cor-ruptions,” said BJP seniorleader BishwabhushanHarichandan. Stating that theBJP would prepare a poll man-ifesto with focus on State’sdevelopment, he urged com-mon people to keep theirdemands on the website,http://bjpodishasankalppa-tra.com.

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Mi c r o f i n a n c ec o m p a n y

Saggraha has playedan important role inthe woman empow-erment in Odisha byproviding easyaccess to financialservices and impact-ing over 2.5 lakh lives.

The company which pro-vides micro-credit services inover 41 districts of six Statesincluding Odisha has helpedmany local women entrepre-neurs to improve their eco-nomic status and realise theirdreams to improve their qual-ity of life.

Pinku Sahu a resident ofMohana in Gajapati district,who husband has been a dailywage labourer, was facing

severe financial hardships.Later she approached theSaggraha and discussed herproblem and after few days, shewas provided with a loan of Rs26,000 to open her own grocerystore.

Currently, she is earning anaverage daily profit of Rs 400per day and has also expand-ed her store to accommodatethe stationary products to caterto the needs of school goingkids.

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As many as 20 students of theDAV Public School,

Chandrasekharpur, highest forany individual school of theState, have qualified the firstround of the National TalentSearch Examination (NTSE),whose results published onFriday. The first round exami-nations were conducted by theSCERT where total 131 studentsfrom the State have qualified forthe final round, which would beheld in May 2019 and would beconducted by the NCERT. Themeritorious students woulddirectly take admissions in theleading educational institutionsof the country with handsomeamount of scholarship. Theschool authorities congratulat-ed the meritorious studentsand in-charge teacher DrSarbadaman Singh for theremarkable success

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The Odisha Junior Teachers’Association on Sunday said

it would take to the streets soonahead of the elections to press forits two demands, regurlarisationof junior teachers (contractual)with an increased salary and

regualrisation of all SikshaSahayaks appointed in the 2012,at the earliest.A meeting heldunder chairmanship of associ-ation president Malay KumarJena decided that its memberswould submit memorandumsto MLAs and MPs in theirrespective areas by February 2.If demands are not met soon,all the junior teachers (con-tractual) would boycott teach-ing and nonteaching assign-

ments and take to the streets topress for fulfillment of theirdemands. Among others, sec-retary general BibekanandaBehera, working presidentsSumant Kumar Pal, RajendraKumar Nayak and JyotiprakashSahoo and vice-presidentsPradeep Moharana andSoubhagya Mishra, medialconvenor Shashwat Joshi werepresent. Advisor JyotiranjanDas proposed a vote of thanks.

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On the occasion of the 70thRepublic Day celebration

at the Mahanadi CoalfieldsLimited (MCL) here onSaturday, MCL DirectorTechnical (Operation) JP Singh accorded a pay loadoperator Mohan Mandal withBravery Award for saving life ofhis fellow worker on December26, 2018.

On December 26, the mineworkers at quarry-4 coal faceshouted for help as one of thepay loaders accidentally hadslid into the water sump.Hearing the crowd, Mandalrushed to the spot and hefound that one pay loader wasalmost drowned into the freez-ing water.

Without giving it a second

thought, he immediatelyjumped into the water to res-cue the operator (ManojBiswal) who was stuck in the

cabin and struggling to find hisway out, Mandal then reachedout to Manoj and pulled himout of the water.

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As many as 29 girl studentsfled from the hostel of a

Government residential schoolat Antaraba under Mohanablock in Gajapati district onSaturday night.

Though the exact reasonbehind the incident is yet to beascertained, it is being sus-pected that the students wereunhappy with the schoolauthorities over their prob-lems.

“The students left a lettermentioning that the teachers ofthe school were not cooperat-ing with them following whichthey were compelled to leavethe hostel,” said the District

Welfare Officer (DWO).After the incident, under

the instructions of GajapatiCollector Anup Shah, theschool authorities, DWO andlocal police have launched asearch operation to trace themissing girls.

School HeadmasterManoj Rath said, “We had vis-ited the houses of two studentsbut they were not there. Wehave launched a search oper-ation.”

Rath added that the stu-dents had earlier expressedtheir resentment over someissues with their teacher whichwas resolved then and thistime too they probably left thehostel for the same reason.

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One person died and anoth-er sustained burn injuries

when a flag hoisting pole camein contact with a high tension11 KV electric wire on Saturdayevening here.

The incident took place atthe DNK parade ground wherethe local administration con-ducted the sub-divisional levelRepublic Day mceremony. Thelocal Tehsildar who was thepresident of Republic Day cer-emony unfurled the nationalflag and took the guard ofhounour.

However, one Kalu Harijan(37), a laborer, while loweringthe flag with support of anoth-er suddenly came in contactwith dangling 11 KV live wire.Both sustained critical injuryand were shifted to the CHC,Umarkote, where the doctorsdeclared Harijan as broughtdead. On being informed, thepolice reached the spot, recov-ered the body and sent it forautopsy. Local denizens blamedthe administration for themishap and alleged there wasa lapse on the part of the localadministration for which dueclearance was not taken fromthe Southco while installing theflag pole below a dangling 11KV live wire in the paradeground.

“No interest was shown to

shift the electric pole from theparade ground prior to thefunction where thousands ofpeople congregate every year.Further due formalities werenot adhered to by the officialsas per the Flag Code,” saidMuna Padhy a local denizen.

It is a astonishing how alabourer in the absence of any

officials on the spot wasengaged to lower the nationalflag which contravenes thePrevention of Insults toNational Honour Act, 1971,said a local lawyer. Meanwhile,local MLA Subash Gondexpressed condolences to thebereaved family and assured todo the needful.

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The Kalinga Institute ofSocial Sciences (KISS) held

a guardians’ meet on its premis-es on Sunday.

During the meet aroundtwo lakh parents and guardiansof around 27,000 children whoare currently studying at theinstitute joined. They camefrom various parts of the coun-try besides from some otherStates like Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, and Assam.

On the occasion, KIIT andKISS founder Dr AchyutaSamanta felicitated the office

bearers of all district KISSAdivasi Parents’ Association.“We are working for the tribaldevelopment for 27 years andwould continue to do so,” saidDr Samanta while addressing ahuge crowd at the KISS meet-ing venue.

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The primary teachersand contractual junior

teachers have threatenedto gherao the BEO officesand Collectorates fromFebruary 1 and 2 respec-tively and begin agitationfrom February 7 if theirdemands were not ful-filled before the AssemblySession. At a State-levelconvention held here onSunday, their union dis-cussed various problems afflict-ing the primary education in theState and came up with their

demands like Rs 2,800 grade pay,calculation of six years of SikshaSahayak in service period, 25 per

cent increment inJTC Salary, 10 percent incrementannually andimplementation ofthe old pensionscheme.

Educationistand teacher leaderProf SurendraKumar Jena,OSSTA generalsecretary PrakashChandra Mohanty,OPTA general sec-

retary Bibhu Prasad Sahoo andPrabeen Kumar Das amongother were present.

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BJP Binjharpur ZillaParishad Members Mamina

Mallick and Sraban KumarJena along with their many supporters joined theruling BJD under the leader-ship of MLA Pramila Mallickon Sunday.

BJD supremo and ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik wel-comed Mamina Mallick,Sraban Jena and their sup-porters at the Naveen Niwas

here.“I am happy that they

joined our party. Their joiningwould be helpful for furtherstrengthening of the party inJajpur district,” said Patnaik.

MLA Mallick said thatattracted by the welfare policiesand strong leadership of theChief Minister, many BJP lead-ers and their supporters ofBinjharpur have joined theBJD. “In the coming days wewould work together for theparty,” she added.

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Veteran artist of the erst-while Annapurna Theatre

Ramachandra Pratihari diedof sudden heart attack here onSunday. He was 87.

Pratihari belonged to theservitor community of theJaganath Temple and waspopular as Hati Pratihari.Since his childhood, he waspassionate for acting andbegan his career at the Janata Theatre and laterjoined the popular

Annapurna Theatre of Puri.

Later on, he joined the sil-ver screen and carried for-ward his carrier with muchpopularity among the viewers.Among the Odia movies inwhich he acted were NuaBohu and Nilamadhab.

He also performed inopera. For his contribution toarts, he was conferred withthe prestigious Jayadev Awardbesides being felicitated byGovernment and privateforums.

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The Khordha districta d m i n i s t r a t i o n

observed the NationalVoter’s Day here recent-ly. On the occasion, arangoli competition wasorganised to encouragenew voters to cast their votes.

District Collector NirmalChandra Mishra inauguratedthe programme and Sub-Collector Saroj Kumar Sahucoordinated the programme.

It might be mentioned thatthe local media was notinformed about the pro-gramme; and when contacted,

the DIPRO said they did nothave any information about theevent.

The local mediamen alsoexpressed their concern overthe matter and said that themedia plays an important rolein creating awareness amongpeople but yet it is neglectedhere.

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The Rashtriya SwadhinMorcha on Sunday

announced names of 30 MLAand seven MP candidates forthe upcoming general elec-tions in the State.

Announcing the names at a Press conference,Morcha presidentPurnachandra Mahant said hisparty would field candidates forall Assembly and Parliamentaryseats.

The party will make unem-

ployment, various scams andfarmer problems as main pollplanks. Among others, Morchanational president MohanSundar Meher, general secre-tary Sanjay Kumar Sahoo,

Manini Devi, Dipak KumarSahoo and Natabar Beherawere present. Mahant hasrequested interested candidatesto contact WhatsAp number9437713956.

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Page 5: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Sunday predicts that cold waveconditions will be continuedover the three days in Delhi andNCR, north and northwestparts of the country, with thenight temperature expected todrop to 4 degrees Celsius byMonday.

According to IMD, thenational Capital may getrain/drizzle between January 30and February 1.

The night temperatures inmost parts of north-west Indiawill likely fall by about 2degrees Celsius, according topredictions. In Delhi, the min-imum temperature is recorded5.2 degrees Celsius four notch-es below the season’s average.The maximum temperature inDelhi could rise by a degree ortwo by mid-week.

Meanwhile Drass inJammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh

region was recorded ofminus 28.7 degreesCelsius temperature onSunday, Leh recordedminus 15.5 degreesCelsius and Kargil minus20.7 as the night’s lowesttemperatures. Keylong inHimachal Pradesh wit-nessed minus 17 degreeCelsius.

“After good rainfallactivities many parts ofNorth India, dry weatherhas taken over during the last24 hours as the present Westerndisturbance is only affecting thehills. The cold wave could con-tinue well into the week till30th, when widespread rainsare predicted across Punjab,Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi,West Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan,” the IMD said.

“ Thereafter, an activeWestern Disturbance willapproach the WesternHimalayas due to which rain-fall activities expected how

many parts of Punjab, twoparts of Haryana and isolatedpockets of Delhi and NCR,” itsaid. The minimum tempera-ture dropped to six degreesCelsius in the national capitalon Saturday, three notchesbelow the season’s average.

Skymet Weather has pre-dicted that the entire North-western India will remainunder the grip of a cold wavefor at least three days.

“The western disturbance,which caused rain in Delhi and

other parts of north-west India recently,has moved eastward.The winds are nownortherly or north-westerly. They arecoming from colderregions in the hills,which have receivedwidespread snowfall.This is why cold waveconditions will prevailover the northernplains including

Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan andDelhi in the next 3-4 days,” theIMD said. The night chill,however, is not expected to lastlong, as the minimum tem-perature is expected to shoot upin the second half of nextweek. A fresh western distur-bance is likely to cause wide-spread rain and snow overwestern Himalayan region andthundershowers over someparts in the plains of northwestand central India between

January 30 and February 2,according to the IMD’s weath-er bulletin.

IMD also said that El Ninoneutral conditions are current-ly prevailing over equatorialPacific Ocean. The patterns ofconvection and winds are most-ly near average over the tropi-cal Pacific. The latest numeri-cal forecast products available,indicate that EL Nino neutralconditions are likely to contin-ue. Besides, neutral IndianOcean Dipole (IOD) conditionsare observed over Indian Oceanand majority of the forecastsindicate that the neutral IODconditions are likely to contin-ue during the coming months.

Skymet Weather Serviceshas also predicted a similarweather pattern over the north-west plains. The weatherdepartment declares a coldwave if the temperature dropsto 4 degrees Celsius or belowand such a situation continuesfor at least two days.

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Indian Railways has namedthe indigenously manufac-

tured semi-fast Train 18 as‘Vande Bharat Express’, whichwill run between the nationalcapital and Varanasi. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi islikely to flag off this fully air-conditioned train soon, whichwill connect his Lok Sabha con-stituency with Delhi.

Announcing the decision,Railway Minister Piyush Goyalsaid, “Train 18 will now beknown as Vande Bharat Express.It’s a train built completely inIndia by Indian engineers, in aspan of 18 months. It’ll ply fromDelhi to Varanasi. It is an exam-ple that it’s possible to makeworld-class trains under Makein India,” Goyal said on Sunday.

The 16-coach train, built in18 months at a cost of Rs 97crore by the Integral CoachFactory (IVF), Chennai, isregarded as a successor to the30-year-old Shatabdi Express.It’s also the first locomotive-lesstrain in the country.

Addressing the media, theminister said , ‘It was namedTrain 18 during its initial days and now it has been givena new name after taking suggestions from the generalpublic”.

The train will be fully air-

conditioned and will stop atKanpur and Allahabad andwill have two executive chaircars, the minister said addingthat it will have superior qual-ity of air suspension for com-fortable journey of the passen-gers, Goyal said.

“It is completely made inIndia and various names weresuggested by the general pub-lic but we have decided to nameit Vande Bharat Express. A gifton the occasion of RepublicDay to the people. Will requestthe Prime Minister to flag itoff,” the minister said.

The Railway Minister alsosaid that he has requested theRailway Board to scale up itsproduction to reduce its over-all cost and once the countrywill have surplus production, itwill be exported as well.

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Corporate honchos fromacross the world under the

banner of InternationalChamber of Commerce (ICC),world’s largest business organ-isation, will pledge their sup-port to the Global Appeal 2019against Leprosy soon here tohelp create much-neededawareness about the cripplingdisease to ensure its logical end.

The Global Appeal hasbeen initiated by YoheiSasakawa, WHO GoodwillAmbassador for leprosy andChairman of the NipponFoundation. He has beenawarded the Gandhi PeacePrize for 2018 in recognition ofhis work towards the eradica-tion of the disease worldwideincluding India where hisorganisation in India,Sasakawa-India LeprosyFoundation (SILF) has beenfocusing on providing treat-

ment and social and econom-ic upliftment of the sectoracross the country.

Though leprosy is curable,it continue to be mired withstigma and discrimination,restricting the people from thesector to come forward to availtimely medical treatment andadequate rehabilitation. Nowonder, despite various efforts,India remain home to nearlyhalf of the total 2 lakh leprosypeople in the world.

It is expected that with

involvement of over 45 millionmember firms associated withthe ICC in around 100 nationswill hold series of sensitizationand awareness workshopsamong their employees to endthe disease, which if not treat-ed in time can leave the patientnot only disabled.

In the past too, Globalappeal has been announced inpartnership with various partners including theInternational Bar Associationwhich endorsed the pledge to

end stigma and discriminationagainst people affected by lep-rosy.

Incidentally, India whichhas several discriminatory lawsagainst persons affected bysector, it was just in 2016 andthen recently repealed a few ofthem after much hue and cryfrom the sector and activists.

“In 2016, for example, itrepealed the draconian colo-nial-era Lepers Act, while ear-lier this month it repealed a lawallowing leprosy as legitimategrounds for divorce. Both ini-tiatives are to be commended,”WHO regional director forSouth-East Asia PoonamKhetrapal Singh too notedrecently in her statement.

“Community based eco-nomic rehabilitation, preven-tion of discrimination throughawareness particularly amongschool kids and people in gen-eral is necessary to not onlytake care of those who have

been affected and ostracisedbut also of their children whosuffer stigma even when theydon’t have the disease,” saidVineeta Shanker, ExecutiveDirector SILF.

Previous partners haveincluded human rights groups,religious and faith leaders,business chiefs, and universitychancellors, informed TehseenZaidi, CommunicationManager from the SILF.

As per the official figuresavailable till March 2018, about0.9 lakh leprosy cases werereported, as compared to 0.86lakh cases in 2016-17 and 0.88lakh cases in 2015-16.

Also, some States andUnion territories are nowreporting a higher prevalencerate — Odisha (1.38), Bihar(1.18) and Lakshadweep (2.25).Currently, India’s overall lep-rosy prevalence rate is 0.70 per10,000 population, up from0.66 previously.

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The BJP will ‘press through’Citizenship Amendment

Bill in the coming Budget Session which was blocked inthe Rajya Sabha in the last winter session by the Congressand other Opposition parties, hoping that the Billmay give it ‘good dividends’ inWest Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabhapoll.

The BJP which is facing anuphill task in the 2019 LokSabha polls, particularly inUttar Pradesh, expects Eastern India could offset itspossible reverses in the Hindiheartland.

“ Citizenship bill is ourcommitment to the people andwe will have it passed..”, said asenior BJP leader and referredto party’s major campaign ofupto 130 public rallies in nexttwo months including two of

Prime Minister Narendra Modion February two and Februaryeight in West Bengal . A thirdpublic rally of the PrimeMinister is also planned in theState.

The Citizenship Bill waspassed in the Lok Sabha in theParliament’s winter session ofParliament, but was stalled inthe Rajya Sabha.

The Congress had staged awalk out in the Lok Sabhaprotesting non-inclusion ofMuslims in the category of per-secuted minorities. The Billincludes the Hindus, Jains,Christians, Sikhs, Buddhistsand Parsis who would be givenIndian citizenship if they pro-vide evidence of prosecutionin Bangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan and completed sixyears of residence in India.

Voting on it is expected inthe Rajya Sabha during thebudget session beginning

January 31. The Bill has appar-ently alienated a section ofpeople from in Assam ,Mizoram, Nagaland,Arunachal Pradesh , Tripura,Meghalaya and Manipur whofear that passage of the Billcould lead to large scale migra-tion from Bangladesh andaffect the rights, demographyand identity of indigenouspopulations.

Defending the controversial citizenship bill,Assam’s Finance Minister andSenior BJP leader HimantaBiswa Sarma said its imple-mentation is a must for thestate to ensure it does not facea Kashmir-like situation in thefuture.

The Bill has unleashedprotests across much of theNortheast and prompted theAsom Gana Parishad to walk ofthe BJP-led government inAssam last month.

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Ahead of the Lok Sabhaelections due this sum-

mer, Prime Minister NarendraModi Sunday said casting voteis a sacred duty and those whodo not use the democraticright should feel the “pain” ofnot exercising their franchise.

In his monthly ‘Mann kiBaat’ radio address, he alsohailed the role of the ElectionCommission for its “meticu-lous organising abilities “ inholding polls.

He pointed out that thoseborn in the 21st century willcast their vote for the first timein the Lok Sabha polls.

“They face the opportuni-ty to shoulder responsibilitiespertaining to the country. Theyhave embarked upon the jour-ney of being partners in nationbuilding. The time has comefor a confluence of individualdreams and the nation’s dream,”he said.

He urged the youth to reg-ister themselves as voters, ifthey are eligible. “All of usmust realise that being a voter,earning the right to vote is animportant rite of passage in

one’s life, it’s one of its achieve-ments. Simultaneously, the sen-timent that voting is our sacredduty, should grow within usnaturally. For any reason, if oneis not able to vote, it shouldpain one,” he said.

He said those who areunable to vote should feel sad-dened to witness any wrongtaking place in the country. “Ihad not cast my vote ... Thatday I did not go and vote ...And as a result, my country hasborne the brunt,” he saidexplaining the feeling.

The prime minister said,people have to realise theimportance of this responsi-bility. “This must be our lean-ing; this should be our dispo-sition. This inclination shouldbe ingrained within us like asanskaar (encultration),” hesaid.

He urged eminent person-alities to come forward andjointly contribute in cam-paigning for spreading aware-ness on voter registration andcasting vote.

“I sincerely hope that largenumber of eligible young peo-ple will get themselves regis-tered as voters, thus forging a

partnership in the quest tofurther strengthen our democ-racy,” he said.

Modi pointed out that onJanuary 25, 1950, the ElectionCommission came into being,a day before India became arepublic.

He said, the scale at whichelections are held in India is amatter of great awe for theworld. He also said it is natur-al for every citizen to feelproud of the ElectionCommission and its meticu-lous organising abilities.

He said the country leavesno stone unturned to ensurethat every citizen of India whois a registered voter, rightfullyavails of the opportunity to casthis vote.

Modi highlighted howpolling personnel fan out toremotest corners to enable vot-ers exercise their franchise.

“These facts are bound toinstil a sense of pride, of thecommitment of the ElectionCommission. Caring for thatlone voter, for ensuring that heor she enjoys full opportunityto exercise the right to vote ...This is the beauty of ourdemocracy,” he said.

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The Union Cabinet is expect-ed to soon approve a relief

package for farmers grapplingwith falling prices of theircrops and to tackle distress inthe farm sector, according tosources.

The likely relief package isseen as an attempt to assuagethe farming community’s dis-content ahead of the generalelections.

“...The agriculture min-istry’s proposal on addressingincome deficit syndrome ofsmall and marginal farmers ison the agenda (at the Cabinetmeeting),” a source said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinethas deferred its meeting whichwas scheduled for Monday, asper sources.

The agriculture ministry

has recommended severaloptions to provide both shortand long-term solutions toaddress agrarian distress.However, a final call will betaken in the Cabinet meeting asa huge cost is involved, theysaid.

One of the options pro-posed is waiving interest oncrop loans for farmers who payon time, costing an additionalRs 15,000 crore to the exche-quer.

There is also a proposal tocompletely waive premium fortaking insurance policy forfood crops. The Centre is alsoevaluating the scheme followedby the Telangana and Odishagovernments wherein a fixedamount is transferred directlyinto the bank account of farm-ers, the sources further said.

Agriculture Minister

Radha Mohan Singh hadrecently indicated that the gov-ernment would announce anagriculture package before the2019-20 budget. The NDAgovernment will present aninterim budget on February 1.

Experts said the govern-ment has less time to imple-ment any new scheme. Themeasure has to be such that itcan be implemented faster toreap the political gains duringthe elections.

It may be noted that thecentral government has takenfarmers’ issues seriously afterthe ruling BJP was defeated inMadhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Chhattisgarh in the recentstate polls, where rural distresswas a key factor.

Farmers are in distressowing to fall in prices of mostcrops in view of bumper crop.

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The National Green Tribunalhas directed the Railways to

identify and develop at least 36stations as “eco-smart stations”within two weeks.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice AdarshKumar Goel asked the publictransporter that ‘Polluter Pays’principle may be invoked byregulatory authorities, includ-ing the Railways, for compli-ance of Solid Waste and PlasticWaste Management Rules,2016.

The tribunal also askedthe railway administration toget water and energy auditsconducted within threemonths, initially at the 36 iden-tified major stations, to reducethe use of energy and water.

After the 36 stations areidentified, an action plan maybe prepared within a monthand furnished to the tribunalvia e-mail, the NGT said.

“The 36 stations may bedeveloped as model stations,can be replicated in phases andmay be called ‘eco-smart sta-tions’. Such stations may beidentified within two weeks

and notified on the website. “For the said 36 stations,

nodal officers may be identifiedand notified. Report of com-pliance may be filed after threemonths by e-mail,” the benchsaid.

The NGT said the Railwaysis free to recover the cost ofrestoration from the pollutersfor the damage caused to theenvironment.

“The action plans mayhave verifiable indicators andprogress may be reviewed withreference to such indicators,periodically.

“The railway stations iden-tified as major railway stationsmay have their own websites toreceive grievances and sug-

gestions, particularly withregard to cleanliness andhygiene issues,” the bench said.

The Railways may coordi-nate with the urban local bod-ies concerned for solid andplastic waste management andmay also consider banning theuse of plastic on the stations, itsaid.

The NGT had earlierdirected the railways to submitan action plan for maintainingcleanliness on platforms andtracks and had asked theComptroller and AuditorGeneral to conduct a perfor-mance audit at regular inter-vals.

The green panel had saidthere was an urgent need forthe railways to put in place aneffective implementation andmonitoring mechanism withprovisions of fixing account-ability of individuals in respectof solid waste disposal, litteringof solid and plastic wastes,defecation etc.

The NGT was hearing apetition filed by lawyers SaloniSingh and Arush Pathaniaseeking steps to check pollutionon railway properties, particu-larly on tracks.

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APakistani delegationarrived in India on Sunday

to visit the Chenab river basinin Jammu and Kashmir forinspection, as mandated underthe Indus Water Treaty, sourcessaid. Pakistan’s IndusCommissioner SyedMohammad Mehar Ali Shaharrived in Amritsar along withhis two advisers, sources said.

“This tour is an obligationimposed on both the countriesby the Indus Waters Treaty1960 between India andPakistan. Under the treaty,both the commissioners aremandated to inspect sites andworks on both the sides ofIndus basin in a block of fiveyears,” a senior official said.

Since signing of the treaty, a total of 118 such tourson both the sides have been

undertaken.The last tours of the com-

mission in Pakistan and Indiawere held in July 2013 andSeptember 2014, respectively.No tour could be held in thecurrent five years block, whichends in March 2020.

This tour will be followedby a visit of India’s IndusCommissioner to Pakistan at amutually convenient date, theofficial added.

This tour was originallyscheduled in October 2018 butwas postponed because of localbodies and panchayat polls inJammu and Kashmir.

Under the Indus WaterTreaty, waters flowing in threeIndus tributaries -- the Sutlej,the Beas and the Ravi -- havebeen allotted to India, while theChenab, the Jhelum and theIndus waters have been allottedto Pakistan.

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Youths from across thecountry gathered here on

Sunday to urge Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to launch aPradhan Mantri CHEAT FundYojna for job aspiring youthswho cannot afford the high costof buying a leaked paper.

The meet, in which over 60youth representatives fromacross the country participat-ed, was organised at Delhi’sConstitution Club by Yuva-Hallabol to highlight the frus-tration and disappointmentamong the educated unem-ployed youth.

Yuva-Hallabol is a nation-wide movement against unem-ployment that includes aspi-rants to the SSC, UPSC, stateagencies, railways, police andteachers.

Yuva-Hallabol, in its letterto Modi, mentioned: “Today,we write to you with a lot ofpain and hope. We want toserve the nation too. We areeducated and skilled. There areover 24 lakh vacancies in gov-ernment sectors. Yet we are not

able to secure a job.”“One of the major reasons

we are not getting a job is thewide-spread corruption andirregularity in recruitmentexams. Just over the past year,more than two dozen exampapers have leaked,” the letterread.

“Please announce andlaunch a Pradhan MantriCHEAT Fund Yojna, PMCFYfor the job aspiring youth whocannot afford the high costs ofbuying a leaked paper. It wouldbe very helpful if you imple-ment this welfare scheme withimmediate effect,” it said.

“We will apply for a loan tobuy leaked papers and securethe jobs. Once we get a job, wegive you 100 per cent guarantee that we repay all themoney loaned by theGovernment,” Yuva-Hallabolsaid in the letter.

Yuva-Hallabol leaderAnupam told IANS: “...the edu-cated unemployment rate hasreached 16 per cent, the unem-ployed youth are ready toexpose the failures and hollowclaims of this Government.”

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Page 6: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

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In a clear indication of theclout enjoyed by MNS chief

Raj Thackeray in Maharashtrapolitics, several prominent per-sonalities from various walks oflife, including leaders of vari-ous political parties, film andsports personalities and indus-trialists, attended the weddingof his son Amit with fashiondesigner Mitali Borude held ata five-star hotel here on Sunday.

At the held in the famousfamily held after a gap of 28years, all the members ofThackeray family - includingShiv Sena president UddhavThackeray, his wife Rashmi,son Aditya, his estranged elderbrother Jaidev Thackeray andsister-in-law Smita Thackeraymade it to the power-packed

wedding.Raj and his wife Sharmila,

were seen warmly welcomingguests at the wedding.

Maharashtra Governor ChVidyasagar Rao and chief min-ister Devendra Fadnavis rep-resented the state governmentat the wedding. Fadnavis’ wifeAmruta accompanied the chiefminister at the wedding.

Senior Congress leaderSushil Kumar Shinde attendedthe wedding with his familymembers. NCP chief SharadPawar, his daughter SupriyaSule, nephew and formerdeputy chief minister AjitPawar and his family membersmade it to the wedding.

Union Minister and seniorBJP leader Nitin Gadkarigraced the wedding and blessedthe couple, while Maharashtra

Pankaja Munde came to thewedding with her family.

Congress leader AhmedPatel, who is close to both SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi,apparently made it to the wed-ding on behalf of two Gandhis.

Legendary cricketer andBharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkarand his wife Anjali attractedquite a bit of attention at thewedding. Renowned singerAsha Bhosale, with whom RajThackeray enjoys an excellentrapport, made it to the weddingand blessed the couple.Yesteryear actress Sulochanawas also spotted at the wedding.

Industrialist and philan-thropist Ratan Tata and actorAamir Khan were other attrac-tions at the wedding.

Bollywood actor and latechief minister Vilasrao

Deshmukh’s son Ritesh and hiselder brother Amit Deshmukhattended the wedding.

Shivaji Historian BabaPurandare, who enjoys goodrelations with the MNS chief,also made it to the wedding.

Amit and Mitali, both child-

hood friends, were engaged onDecember 11,2018, which hap-pens to be the wedding anniver-sary of Raj and Sharmila. RajThackeray’s daughter Urvashiand to be daughter-in-law Mitalihad launched their own fashionlabel, ‘The Rack’, a few years ago.

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Close on the heels ofbequeathing Bharat Ratna

on former President PranabMukherjee, the BJP on Sundayset about redeeming its politi-cal proceeds telling the Bengalipopulace how the Congress,Trinamool Congress and ilksignored “one of the greatestson’s of Bengal in recent times.”

Addressing a rally atHowrah, Bihar Deputy ChiefMinister Sushil Modi said theformer President was anothervictim of its dynastic politics.

As Mukherjee would not fitinto the dynastic schemes ofJanpath’s schemes he was notonly ignored for the PrimeMinisterial chair but also neverconsidered for the Bharat Ratna— a gross Governmental errorthat was rectified by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whoconferred India’s topmost hon-our on the “highly qualified sonof Bengal,” Sushil Modi said.

“Bengal has been on theforefront of everything. Noregion in India had producedso many great men as Bengaldid. Notwithstanding it wasignored perennially to theextent that it is counted amongone of the most backwardStates today,” the Bihar BJPleader said, adding the saffronoutfit would put Bengal on thedevelopmental tracks if it wasvoted to power.

Apparently wary ofpromising high sounding noth-

ings (read jumlas) like it hap-pened ahead of 2014 generalelections a more circumspectDy Chief Minister promised hisaudience, “Within a decade ofcoming to power we will showwhat development means tothe people of this State. We willcompletely change Bengalwithin ten years of voting topower in this State.”

On the chances of winningthe elections in TrinamoolCongress-ruled State the lesserModi said Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee’s days werenumbered as her regime wouldsoon come crashing like it hap-pened to late Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi after the close ofinfamous Emergency.

“After clampingEmergency Indira Gandhithough that she would sweepthe parliamentary elections.But soon she could realize herfolly and her empire camecrashing down. A similar fateis awaiting Mamata Banerjeewhose despotic and oppressiverule would be uprooted by theBJP with the help of the peo-ple of Bengal — have faith onthe pro-saffron wind blowingin this State,” he said.

Comparing Banerjee’sregime with the one ran by for-mer Bihar Chief Minister LalooYadav, the Dy Chief Minister ofthat State said “like it happenedduring Laloo Yadav’s Bihar —when no booth was left uncap-tured and no election wentunrigged — elections are ren-dered into a farce in your State.”

In Bihar ruled by NitishKumar not a single death “noreven an injury occurs even dur-ing rural polls. But in TMC’sBengal we heard how one hun-dred people died during lastyear’s panchayat elections andhow most of the booths werecaptured,” he said adding “thepeople would throw the TMCout if they get a chance to voteand this time round suchchance was going to be creat-ed for them.”

Muzaffarnagar: The UttarPradesh Government hasdecided to withdraw 18 casesrelated to the Muzaffarnagarriots and asked the districtauthorities to approach thecourt, sources said on Sunday.

UP’s special secretary oflaw JJ Singh has directedMuzaffarnagar district magis-trate Rajeev Sharma to with-draw the cases, they said.

On the directive fromLucknow, the district authori-ties have started preparing toapproach the court for per-mission to withdraw the cases.The cases were filed underrelevant sections of the IndianPenal Code, including 147(rioting), 148 (rioting, armedwith deadly weapon) and 397(attempt to cause death), thesources said.

The directive came after the

State Government sought detailsof 125 cases filed in relation tothe Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.

Additional district magis-trate Amit Kumar told PTI that

the State Government hadsought the details to review thepossibility of withdrawing the125 cases pending in courts.

Several leaders of the rul-

ing BJP, including MPs SanjeevBalyan and Bharatendra Singh,MLAs Sangeet Som and UmeshMalik, have been named inthese 125 cases. Minister in the

State Government Suresh Ranaand Hindutva leader SadhviPrachi are also accused in casesrelated to the Muzaffarnagarriots.

However, the cases asked towithdraw do not include thenames of these BJP leaders.

Communal clashes inMuzaffarnagar and adjoiningareas in August and September2013 had claimed 60 lives anddisplaced over 40,000 people.The State Government hadformed an SIT to probe the riotcases. The SIT has filed chargesheets in 175 cases.

Police had registered casesagainst 6,869 people and arrest-ed 1,480 people in connectionwith the riots.

According to the SIT, 418accused have been acquitted in54 cases due to lack of evidence.

PTI

Mangaluru: A quarrel overdigging a drainage pit adjacentto the compound of a house ledto the murder of two persons in Udupi district,police said on Sunday.

The incident took place on Saturday.

The two had intervened tosettle a dispute over the digging near their friendLohiths house by his neighbourHarish Reddy who was arowdy, police said.

When Lohith objected to

the digging, Reddy allegedlythreatened him and continuedthe work, they said.

It was then the victimsintervened — Yatish, a per-sonnel assistant to a localCongress party leader RakeshMalli, and Bharath, an auto-rickshaw driver, the police said.

This angered Reddy somuch that his accomplicesfatally attacked Yatish andBharat, they said.

A case has been registeredand an investigation on. PTI

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Lucknow: The Congress head-quarters at Mall Avenue inLucknow, Uttar Pradesh, wherethe partys high profile office-bearers Priyanka Vadra andJyotiraditya Scindia will havetheir offices to run the UttarPradesh campaign is beingpainted in fresh white.

The sprawling double-storeyed building is being

dressed up for the new occu-pants as the mood turns upbeatamong party loyalists.

A new ‘war room’ is beingconstructed and a conferencehall for workers to meet lead-ers in private is also being built.There are 12 computer termi-nals. Surrounded by high-risesthat have cropped up in thepast few years, the stateCongress headquarters for longhas been a sad reflection of theparty’s decline in the state.There is now hope among thecadres that things couldchange.

Anil Kumar Sharma, assis-tant permanent secretary

(Organisation) who pedals over14-km to reach the office dailypoints to the repairs that aretaking place in the building.“Similar repairs” were under-way in the Uttar PradeshCongress Committee (UPCC)set up by Priyanka Vadra.

There is some aggressioncreeping back as well. “In thewar between falsehood, liesand truth, Priyanka will cer-tainly lead the Congress to vic-tory in the forthcoming LokSabha elections,” says Sharma.

For that to happen thephysical repairs of the stateparty headquarters as well asthat of the party will need to

take place.The NSUI office on the

campus lies neglected.Inaugurated in 1986, the officenext to a bust of Indira Gandhihas a rusted lock at its gate,which rarely opens now, says a party man. Empty pack-ets of chips are littered around.People dump garbage in frontof it.

UPCC spokesmanVirendra Madan downplaysplans for renovation andmakeover and says it has noth-ing to do with Priyanka Vadra’sappointment as general secre-tary in charge of eastern UttarPradesh. IANS

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Patna: Independent legislatorand criminal-turned-politicianAnant Singh, popularly knownas Bahubali, on Sunday joinedthe Congress roadshow in sup-port of party president RahulGandhi’s rally in February.

Anant Singh, who is facingseveral criminal cases, was seenalong with Rajya Sabha MP andformer Union Minister AkhileshSingh and hundreds of otherparty members in the road showto mobilise people for Gandhi’srally on February 3 here.

The Congress is busyorganising an anti-BJP rally -‘Jan Aakansha’ - at GandhiMaidan here. This is the firsttime in 28 years that theCongress is holding a massiverally in the state on its own.

Confirming Anant Singh’spresence at the road show,Akhilesh Singh told the media:“He is a strong and popularleader, it will help the party gar-ner support for the rally.”

Both Akhilesh Singh and

Anant Singh belong to theBhumihar caste, which is wide-ly seen as the vote bank of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inBihar for over two and a halfdecades.

Anant Singh, independentlegislator from MokamaAssembly constituency ofBihar, is known for his muscleand money power. He saidthat he would contest theupcoming Lok Sabha pollsfrom Munger parliamentaryconstituency as a Congresscandidate.

Akhilesh Singh said it is notyet decided who will contestfrom where as talks are ongo-ing with allies regarding aGrand Alliance. In 2015, AnantSingh resigned from the rulingJanata Dal-United and con-tested and won the Assemblypolls from behind bars. In thepast, he has been arrested sev-eral times for serious crimes likekidnapping and murder. Atpresent he is out on bail. PTI

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Guwahati: Assam ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowalon Sunday said the CitizenshipBill was a national policy andonce it becomes an act, theburden of new citizens wouldbe borne by the entire country.

Attempts are being made toconfuse people but the StateGovernment which has cometo power with a popular man-date would do nothing to harmthe interests of the local people,Sonowal said.

Speaking at the foundationstone laying ceremony of theNalbari Medical College andHospital at Borigaon, Sonowalsaid the bill can never threat-en the existence of the indige-nous people of Assam whichhas a legacy of great personal-ities like Srimanta Sankardev,Azan Lachit Borphukan, BaghHazarika and other.

The Chief Minister alsourged the All Assam StudentsUnion (AASU) to extend full

cooperation in successfulimplementation of Clause 6 ofthe Assam Accord for ensuringconstitutional, administrativeand legislative safeguard for theindigenous people.

He asked the intelligentsiato present the true picture ofthe bill before the people of thestate, while criticising the pre-vious Congress Governmentfor neglecting development inthe region as well as the inter-ests of the local people.

The previous CongressGovernments imposed IMDTAct in the State to protect ille-

gal immigrants and made nosignificant efforts to update theNRC, Sonowal said.

The NRC updation processreceived a major shot in thearm with the NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)government under the leader-ship of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi coming topower at the Centre, he said.

After the final publicationof the NRC, people of Statewould get a clear picture about the genuine citizens andillegal immigrants, Sonowaladded. PTI

=��������>��!�(���������������������1 -����3����Guwahati: Krishak MuktiSangram Samiti Leader AkhilGogoi on Sunday said if prop-er respect is not shown to theAssamese people and theCitizenship Amendment Billis passed, then “we must havethe courage to tell theGovernment that we may con-sider not staying with India”.

Addressing a protest rallyagainst the proposed legisla-tion at Panitola in Assam’sTinsukia district, Gogoi said,“If the Government gives usthe respect we deserve, we arewith the nation but if the sen-timents of the indigenousAssamese are ignored andthe bill is passed, then eachAssamese must have thecourage to say that they willnot be a part of India.”

The proposed legislationseeks to provide Indian citi-zenship to non-Muslims fromBangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan, and many par-ties and organisations haveclaimed that it will have anadverse impact on the demog-raphy of the sensitive borderState. They said the provisionsof the bill will nullify the 1985Assam Accord, which pro-vides for deportation of allillegal migrants, irrespective ofreligion, who had entered thestate after March 1971.

Gogoi, who has beenspearheading the agitation by70 organisations against thebill, said, “We want to make itclear that if the need and sit-uation arises, Assam must beable to say that they are pre-pared not to stay with India ...if the Government respects us,we will stay with India or wewill quit.” PTI

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Manipur Chief Minister N Biren has con-vened an all-party meeting on Monday on

the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill,2016. Manipur is one of the northeastern stateswhich has been seeing various agitations inprotest against the passing of this Bill onJanuary 8 by the Lok Sabha.

The Janata Dal (United) has alreadyannounced that it will not take part in the meet-ing. JD (U) state president Hankhanpao said theChief Minister had refused to summon an emer-gency session of the state assembly to hold athreadbare discussion on the bill.

“We fail to understand that anything use-ful will emerge from the all parties’ meeting.”

On Sunday, the Manipur People’s Party alsoannounced that it will refrain from participat-ing in the meeting on Monday.

A statement from the MPP said that it had

made its position on the issue clear to the pub-lic and there is nothing to be discussed now.

“The BJP led government should havesummoned the emergency session. We shall notparticipate in the meeting since the chief min-ister is whimsically sweeping the people in anydirection”, it said.

A sit-in protest were staged in many partsof the state on Sunday. An effigy of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi was burned at a mar-ket in Khetriga in Imphal East district.

The North East India Development Partylaunched a signature campaign from Sunday.Functionaries of the party said that the campaignwhich will cover the entire state will continuetill the Bill is scrapped.

Chief Minister N. Biren said: “Now that theunion home minister has assured that the inter-est of the indigenous peoples of the NE regionshall be protected people should call off the agi-tations.”

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Ahmedabad: Crocodiles fromtwo ponds near the Statue ofUnity in Gujarat’s Narmada dis-trict are being relocated for thesafety of tourists visiting theSardar Patel memorial, officialssaid on Sunday while dismissingreports that the move is linked toseaplane service.

As many 20 cages have beenset up along the banks of the twoponds, officially known as Dyke3 and 4, to trap the crocodiles, anofficial informed.

These dykes are artificialwater bodies created to stabilisethe water released from the SardarSarovar Dam before it reaches theentry point of the main Narmadacanal, the official explained.

Aradhana Sahu, Conservatorof Forests, (Vadodara WildlifeCircle) said that 12 crocodiles havebeen caught so far, though she

added there was no specific targetfor the number of these reptilesthat need to be captured.

“The area around the Statue ofUnity near Kevadiya village isattracting huge number of tourists.Since there are crocodiles in theseponds, there exists a threat to thetourists. We have begun theprocess of relocating the reptileselsewhere,” Sahu said.

“We have not set any specifictarget of the number of crocodilesto be caught and relocated. Tillnow, we have shifted 12 crocodiles.

They were caught from Dyke3 and Dyke 4, which are close tothe Tent City. As per a rough esti-mate, there will be around 300crocodiles in that area,” she said.

A field officer overseeing theoperation said 20 cages, withmeat and fish as bait, have beeninstalled near the two ponds.

“As soon as the crocodilecomes out to eat the food kept inthe cage, they get caught inside.We have kept all the capturedcrocodiles in our rescue centre.They will be released in the mainreservoir of the Sardar SarovarDam in the near future,” saidIdrish Topiya, AssistantConservator of Forests.

However, both Sahu andTopiya denied reports that thecrocodiles were being removedfrom the dykes to make way for aproposed seaplane service to caterto SoU tourists.

“I want to make it clear thatwe have not made any plan yet toshift all the crocodiles of that area.The seaplane service is not in thepicture yet. We have not receivedany intimation about it. We aredoing this just for the safety oftourists,” Sahu emphasised. PTI

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday exhorted

the electorate of Tamil Nadu toreject the forces of negativityand not to be carried away bythose who sow the seeds of sus-picion and doubts in the mindsof the people.

Addressing a rally of BJPworkers from ten Lok Sabhaconstituencies in SouthernTamil Nadu at Madurai onSunday, the Prime Ministerpaid rich tributes and homagesto former Chief Minister late JJayalalithaa with whom he hadenjoyed a good rapport. Thosewho expected some hints fromthe Prime Minister about thepossible alliance partners of theBJP in the upcoming LokSabha elections were in for dis-appointment as he chose not tomention anything about theelection. Modi chose to limithis speech to the achievementsmade by the NDA Governmentduring the last four and halfyears and abstained fromattacking any of his rivals.

He said Tamil Nadu hasbeen benefited by theSwachchh Bharat scheme hehad launched in 2014. “We hadconstructed nine crore toiletsout of which 47 lakh were builtin Tamil Nadu. Our mission isto have at least one medical col-lege in every three Lok Sabhaconstituencies,” said Modi.

The Prime Minister hadsome good news for the peoplein southern Tamil Nadu.“Chennai will be soon con-

nected to Madurai with thehigh speed Train-18, designedand built at Perambur nearChennai. Many countries haveshown keen interest in buyingsuch trains from India. TamilNadu stands to benefit from themass production of Train 18 asthousands of jobs would begenerated as India gies aheadwith the project,” said thePrime Minister.

He said a �25,100 croreproject is on the anvil to con-nect the nation with the holycity of Rameswaram andDhanushkodi, the land’s end byrail and road.

“The Government hassanctioned the proposal tobuild new rail bridge connect-

ing Rameswaram with the hin-terland. This will bring back theold days when we had rail con-nectivity between Chennai andDhanushkodi,” the PrimeMinister added.

The only political point hementioned was about the MahaGhatbandhan (though he didnot name it or the main play-ers) which was on the anvil.“People who were looting thecounty have come together toremove the security guard sothat the crimes committed bythem would not come to light.But so long as the securityguard is there, they won’t suc-ceed in their mission. All thosewho were part of the lootingand corrupt practices would be

brought before the court of jus-tice to stand trial,” said Modi.

There were nearly 50,000people who had gathered to lis-ten to the Prime Ministerdespite the scorching sunlight.

“We are disappointedbecause the Prime Ministerdid not give any hint aboutelectoral alliances,” said one ofthe party leaders.

Earlier, the Prime Ministerlaid the foundation stone for astate-of-the-art All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) at Thoppur in the dis-trict. The new AIIMS featuringa 750 bed super speciality hos-pital , a medical college with100 MBBS seats and a nursingcollege with 60 seats will cater

to the needs of the people in thesouthern districts of TamilNadu, said the Prime Ministerin his brief speech after the lay-ing of the foundation stone.

Modi also inaugurated onSunday the super specialityblocks built at the medical col-leges at Thanjavur, Tirunelveliand Madurai under thePradhan Mantri SwasthyaSuraksha Yojana (PMSSY) .

He also inaugurated 12post office based passport seva kendras across the regionas part of the UnionGovernment’s plans to bringgovernance to the doorsteps ofthe people in the region.

The Prime Minister beganhis speech by paying homagesto former Chief Minister late JJayalalithaa who was in theforefront demanding the set-ting up of an AIIMS like insti-tution in the State.

“The AIIMS at Madurai ispart of our vision of Ek BharatSreshta Bharat vision. The insti-tution is expected to serve theentire population of TamilNadu by making accessible tothem world class health care ataffordable rates. We havelaunched Ayushman Bharatscheme targeting 10 crore fam-ilies in whih each family wouldbe provided �5 lakh per year tomeet the expenses they incurduring hospitalisation of thefamily members. I have beentold that 89,000 people havebeen benefited because of thisprogramme and �200 crorehas been reimbursed underthis scheme till date,” said thePrime Minister.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi tore into the

Opposition, especially theCongress and the Communists,whom he described as bereft ofany ideas or programmes forthe progress of the country.

“They have only one agen-da and that is to abuseNarendra Modi from themoment they wake up in themorning till they go to bed inthe night. Let them do so. Letthem abuse me, but they shouldnot spread falsehoods on farm-ers, youth and the poor peopleof the country,” said Modi whileaddressing the Bharatiya YuvaMarcha rally held at Thrissur inKerala on Sunday.

He lambasted the Congressfor lowering the prestige ofIndian Constitution anddemocracy. “Recently we saw aCongress leader addressing apress meet held at London toquestion the Electronic VotingMachines and the ElectionCommission of India. Thequestioned the ethos of Indiandemocracy. Is this how theyrespect the democracy?” askedthe Prime Minister.

Modi pointed out that theCongress and the Communistsblame all institutions in thecountry. “They have zero

regards for the Country’sConstitution. They accuse theArmed Forces, ElectionCommission, judiciary, CBI,Enforcement Directorate, CVCand all other institutions. Forthem all these institutions arewrong and they are the onlyright people,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister camedown heavily on theCommunists for their stance onSabarimala Temple. “TheCommunist Government isshowing disrespect toSabarimala Temple. They areundermining and destroyingthe culture and civilisation ofKerala which had stood the testof time for thousands of years.The Congress is also notbehind them in this endeav-our,” the PM added.

Pointing out that threeMinisters of CommunistGovernment had to quit oncharges of corruption in threeyears, Modi said Communistsand the Congress were subvert-

ing the country’s strategic pro-grammes. The Congress leaderswho had to settle personal scoresbetween themselves used India’sspace programme for theirpersonal interests.

“A brilliant scientist likeNambi Narayanan who playeda crucial role in India’s spaceprogramme was made a scape-goat by the Congress andCommunist leaders. We, theNDA Government, helped himto resuscitate his reputation byhonouring him with Padmaaward,” said Modi.

The Prime Minister listedthe achievements made by theNDA Government during thelast four and half years. “Youelected me as the chowkidaar ofthe country because of mypromise that I’ll never allowanyone to loot the country. Letthem keep on abusing me, butI’ll never fail you,” said Modi. Healso charged that the Congressleaders were still in the hangoverof the internal emergency.

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Jammu: The BJP’s Jammu & Kashmir uniton Sunday advocated reservation for thepeople living along the International Border(IB) and accused the PDP of creating hur-dles during the coalition Government’s rulein fulfilling various promises made by thesaffron party to the public.

Thanking Governor Satya Pal Malik forproviding quota to the Pahari community,BJP’s State chief spokesperson Sunil Sethisaid the administration would do justice tothe people living in pitiable conditions alongthe IB by providing reservation to them inline and on par with the residents of the Lineof Actual Control.

“This will ensure upliftment of theseignored masses,” he said.

Sethi said his party had promised theresidents of areas adjoining the IB that theywill be given justice by way of reservationin education and jobs as is available to theresident of Line of Actual Control.

“The BJP is committed to fulfilling allpromises made to the people. It was the PDP in the alliance Government which

was always creatinghurdles in this direc-tion,” he said in state-ment here.

“In recent times,IB is seeing more fir-ing and infiltration,and the residents ofthese areas are required to be given bene-fits for living in such dangerous and riskyareas,” the BJP leader said.

He said the nation cannot ignore theimmense contributions of border residentswho are part of first defence along withsecurity forces and the country is indebtedto the high spirit and nationalism exhibit-ed by them.

Meanwhile, the National Panthers Partyactivists led by chairman and former min-ister Harsh Dev Singh Sunday staged aprotest against the administration for “fail-ing” to accord Scheduled Tribe (ST) statusand reservation in government jobs to theKolis community along with Pahari speak-ing people. PTI

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Mathura: Priyanka Gandhiwas made party’s general sec-retary because Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi “flopped”in politics, UP Power MinisterSrikant Sharma said on Sunday.

Cabinet Minister assertedthat induction of the partypresident’s sister would not beable to revive the Congress’electoral fortunes.

“Had Rahul not flopped,where was the need for bring-ing Priyanka?” Sharma asked inreply to a reporter’s question onPriyanka Gandhi’s possibleimpact in the ensuing LokSabha elections. PriyankaGandhi is not a new face in theCongress, she has been can-vassing for the party in Amethi

and Rae Bareli since 1998, theminister pointed out.

“Her induction in the partywould not make any impact inthe forthcoming Lok Sabhaelections,” he said.

Sharma said the elimina-tion of Congress from SP-BSPalliance is a testimony to thefact that the party is at the low-est step in the state politics.

“The way Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is working forfor poor, labourers, peasantsetc., it would be difficult to pen-etrate his fort,” said the minis-ter. Sharma also sought todownplay the importance ofgrand alliance among the anti-BJP parties, terming it as a“caucus of corrupt”. PTI

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The Gorakhpur’s Congressunit on Sunday raised a

demand for fielding PriyankaGandhi from here, depicting heras a modern “Jhansi ki Rani”.

The district unit of theparty raised the demand in twoposters that came up in thestronghold of Uttar PradeshChief Minister YogiAdityanath, who representedGorakhpur between 1998 and2017 in the 12th, 13th, 14th and15th Lok Sabha.

In the first poster, theCongress party workersdemanded that PriyankaGandhi be made the Congresscandidate from Gorakhpur forthe 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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Mumbai: The MaharashtraAnti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)has arrested a man in connec-tion with an alleged ISIS-inspired group that wanted tocarry out mass attacks at bigevents using poisonous chem-icals, police said on Sunday.

The arrest was made onSaturday from Mumbra inneighbouring Thane districtand a laptop, tablet computer,hard disk, pen drives, router,mobile phones and diaries wereseized from his residence, anATS official said.

The ATS had earlier arrest-ed eight people, and detaineda minor, from Aurangabad andThane after several teams car-ried out searches through

January 21-22, an official said.They were charged under

Indian Penal Code section120B (criminal conspiracy)and relevant provisions of theUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act (UAPA) andthe Bombay Police Act.

This group, during inter-rogation, had named theaccused who was arrested onSaturday, he added. PTI

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Gandhinagar: Men have a keyrole to play in the fight for gen-der equality, Supreme CourtJudge DY Chandrachud onSunday said as he called for theneed to de-construct thestereotype of gender roles.

Justice Chandrachud, whowas part of the five-judgebench that allowed women ofall ages to enter the Sabarimalatemple in Kerala, said violenceand discrimination faced byfemales were compounded bypeople’s “insensitivity towomen’s rights and issues”.

He was addressing gradu-ating students at the convoca-tion ceremony of the GujaratNational Law University here inthe presence of his colleaguefrom the Supreme Court,Justice AK Sikri.

“Women have to deal withshocking gender wage gaps,forms of violence and harass-ments, forced adherence tofeminine, impossible standardsof beauty, compounded bywhat I think might be theworst of all-- insensitivity towomen’s rights and issues,”Chandrachud said.

“The fight for genderequality cannot be fought bywomen alone. Men have a keyrole to play in demanding andsupporting this societal shift bybeing a part of conversationand of the movement,” headded.

Chandrachud called forthe need to de-construct thestereotypes of gender roles, anexercise that “must be practisedevery passing days”.

The country is faced with“disturbing inequalities anddisparities in access to oppor-tunities, including access toeduction,” the SC judge said

and exhorted the law studentsto use their privilege to “try andchange injustices of society”.

“The same values whichgrant privilege to some rob oth-ers of their humanity. There is,hence, an urgent need toaddress this.

“And if you choose toremain a beneficiary and donothing, you are complicit infurthering a grave injustice,” hetold the audience.

The judge said instances ofa child being denied basic edu-cation because of his parents’financial status, a person beingdenied housing because of reli-gion, a woman not gettingaccess to public spaces becauseof her menstrual status, or aDalit subjected to indignitypresent “glaring examples of the

inability of our society to granta citizen an equal and humaneexistence”. “The Constitutionenvisions an egalitarian society,but it is you the citizens, andparticularly students ofyounger generation who canmake this Constitutional visiona reality for the morrow,”Chandrachud said.

Addressing the gathering,Justice Sikri called for the needto “uphold the law andConstitution and save democ-racy” at a time when its valueswere “at stake” the world over.

He said judges have toperform “a vital role” at a timewhen the world is “undergoingtransformation of a differentkind”, and when there is “back-sliding of democratic values”.

PTI

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Page 8: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

As India celebrated its Republic Day,one’s mind goes to theConstitution and the wonderfulpromises it made. The most poet-ic of them all is liberty, equality

and fraternity, a vow taken from the centralslogan of the French Revolution that began in1789. The three words incidentally contain aharmless contradiction; namely, that libertyand equality cannot go together. If a societywants to have equality, it has to willy-nilly curbliberty. If say, the income of all its citizens isdesired to be equal or equable, inevitably, theGovernment must place control on higherincomes. And, perhaps, also add subsidy tothe lowest incomes. An extreme of this socialdesire was tried by the communist states ledby the Soviet Union.

The contradiction between liberty andequality has best been illustrated by the Hindufaith in karma. How can any society placecontrol over good or better karma? And if aperson’s karma is excellent, his bhagya or luckis also likely to be commensurate. How canthe society or its Government curb it in orderto ensure equality among the citizens? If aperson with poor karma performance isexpected to have poor luck, he could be sub-sidised or even fed and clothed for free. Butwhat about the other facets of good luckrewards? Then there is also the risk of theGovernment running out of money if toomany of its citizens are unlucky, poor andneed subsidies.

Article 15(1) states: “The state shall notdiscriminate against any citizen on groundsonly of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birthor any of them.” This Article is commend-able in insisting that there would be no dis-crimination on any ground. In other words,it means absolute equal treatment by the state.Yet, Article 30 promises minorities the rightto establish and administer educationalinstitutions. “(i) All minorities, whetherbased on religion or language, shall have theright to establish and administer education-al institutions of their choice.” This stands incontradiction of Article 15. It gives this rightand freedom to the minorities, which are notallowed to be members of the majority com-munity, namely the Hindus. Minoritiescomprise mainly Muslims. Christian schoolsare in such demand that they normally faceno problem, nor do the linguistic minoritiesencounter any difficulties. Article 30 (1A)gives the minorities the privilege of beingassured the allocation of land that is afford-able by the proposed school or its society.

A more fundamental question arises outof this inequality. That was raised by AcharyaJustice Dr Durga Das Basu, who rightly con-tended that a minority, which deserves suchspecial privilege or protection, is one whichbecame one (a minority) by circumstancesbeyond its influence or control like a warbetween two or more countries. In the caseof Muslims of the sub-continent, it is they whodemanded a separate homeland, a Darul Islamor a New Medina called Pakistan. And it had

to be granted by the departingBritish rulers and conceded to bythe Congress because theMuslim electorate in the 1945/46general elections overwhelm-ingly voted for Pakistan. Toquote from Hamid Khan’sauthoritative book,Constitutional and PoliticalHistory of Pakistan: “The resultsshowed a decisive victory for theidea of Pakistan. The Leaguewon all Muslim seats in theCentral Assembly and 446 out ofa total 495 Muslim seats inprovincial Assemblies. In Bengal,the Muslim League won 113 outof a total 119 Muslim seats andwas able to form a Governmentwith Huseyn ShaheedSuhrawardy as Chief Minister. Inthe Punjab, the Muslim Leaguecaptured 79 out of 86 Muslimseats. In Sindh, a Muslim LeagueMinistry was formed. Only inthe North-West FrontierProvince did the League fall shortof a majority by winning only 17out of a total of 36 Muslim seats.These elections proved conclu-sively that the Muslim Leaguealone represented the Muslimsof India.”

Partition was the single-point manifesto of the MuslimLeague, which obtained nearlyunanimous support in the elec-tions. The League’s proposal,repeated by MA Jinnah andseven of his senior colleagues,was that there should be anexchange of population.Thereby, ideally, all Muslimsshould gather in Pakistan and allnon-Muslims would emigrate toHindustan. Justice Gopal DasKhosla, ICS, was commissionedto survey the Punjab and report

on the immediate post-Partitionsituation. The report was print-ed in an Oxford UniversityPress published book entitledStern Reckoning: A Survey of theEvents Leading Up to andFollowing the Partition of India.Therein, the Justice wrote that anexchange of population was anintegral part of Partition. Afterall, the vivisection of the coun-try was necessary because asJinnah said that Hindus andMuslims could not co-exist inthe same country. If they wereable to co-exist, where would bethe need for the division?

Article 27 states, “Freedomas to payment of taxes for pro-motion of any particular reli-gion. No person shall be com-pelled to pay any taxes, the pro-ceeds of which are specificallyappropriated in payment ofexpenses for the promotion ormaintenance of any particularreligion or religious denomina-tion.” The writer petitioned theSupreme Court in 2007,requesting that the Haj subsidybe withdrawn as theConstitution declares that Indiais a secular country. If, howev-er, the Government was not pre-pared to do so, he should beexempted from the payment ofIncome Tax. The subsidy waspaid from the consolidatedfund of India as the Income Taxwas credited to the same fund.Four years later, JusticeMarkandey Katju delivered along judgement. Its gist was thatthe Haj subsidy was like anexpenditure made by theGovernment as incidental tomaintaining law and order atthe Kumbh Mela or on making

arrangements for a visit toMansarovar. To reduce or abol-ish the Haj subsidy would dam-age the edifice of secularism thatJawaharlal Nehru had sopainstakingly built.

The following year, namely2008, Justice Aftab Alam decid-ed, in a petition filed by one SyedIntesar Mehdi, that the Haj sub-sidy should be progressivelyreduced and discontinued in thecourse of 10 years. The subsidywas not in conformity with thetenets of Islam, the judgementsaid. Incidentally, the late SyedShahabuddin, IFS and a formerMP, had told this writer twicethat this subsidy should begradually withdrawn. So muchfor the implementation of oursecular Constitution.

In conclusion this writerwould like to quote AcharyaBasu from his book, Introductionto the Constitution of India,2002, that makes a telling point:“The leaders of divided Indiaincorporated in their draftConstitution, certain safeguardsfor minorities, notwithstand-ing the Partition, because theyrefused to concede on the prin-ciple that the Muslims in Indiaconstituted a separate nation.That India constituted onenation, whose unity and integri-ty must be maintained, wasproclaimed in the very Preambleof the draft Constitution ofdivided India. The Muslims,who did not go to Pakistan, didso with their eyes open to thisPreamble and the safeguards forminorities included in theConstitution.”

(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Priyanka’s Gandhigiri” (January25). The appointment of PriyankaGandhi as the general secretary ofthe Congress provides an addi-tional blow to the BJP, whichalready seems to be rather jittery.That so many BJP leaders, includ-ing the Prime Minister, have com-mented on her entry proves this.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Priyanka’s Gandhigiri” (January25). So has the Congress eventu-ally realised that it takes morethan what Rahul Gandhi boasts torevive itself in a State that is wide-ly believed to hold the key toRaisina Hill? Either way, herappointment is an admission thatthe party stands virtually decimat-ed in Uttar Pradesh. It is so polit-ically distraught that it has beenpressured into playing its last‘Gandhi card’ to ward off beingreduced to a marginal player.

Indeed, Priyanka could be theone with charm — at least ade-

quate enough to convince partystalwarts who believe that RahulGandhi is no match-winner.Whether Rahul’s “front foot strat-egy” and Priyanka’s entry actual-ly revive the party’s prospects is abig imponderable for the 2019poll. The BJP has certainly beenimpacted; its fallback on the“dynasty” criticism proves that.

KS Jayatheertha Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Priyanka’s Gandhigiri”(January 25). Finally, theCongress has used its ‘trumpcard’. So far, Priyanka Gandhi’spresence was restricted to theGandhi family’s pocket boroughsof Rae Bareli and Amethi. Butnow since she has been given the

charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh,she is expected to play a biggerrole in the 2019 general election.

But the Congress must notforget that the dynamics of UttarPradesh politics are completelydifferent. The fight is largelybetween the Bahujan SamajParty-Samajwadi Party duo andthe BJP. The Congress stillremains a fringe player overthere. At best, Priyanka Gandhi

can attract crowds in her ralliesbut converting them into voteswould be the greatest challengefor her political career.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Priyanka’s Gandhigiri”(January 25). The re-entry ofPriyanka Gandhi Vadra intoactive politics is a card wellplayed by the Congress. Thisleader will now be judged on thebasis of her performance and notjust for her family’s legacy.

Of course, she also carries thebaggage of her husband, RobertVadra, who is facing corruptioncharges. Priyanka should knowthat the goodwill enjoyed by theparty in Uttar Pradesh and herresemblance to former PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi may notbe enough to translate votes.Uttar Pradesh will decide not onlythe Congress’ prospects but alsoPriyanka’s career to an extent.

Mayank Khatri Ujjain

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Page 9: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

Every day, countless families strug-gle to keep a decent roof over theirheads. There are millions of low-

income families, who live in overcrowd-ed, unsafe spatchcock dwellings,crammed between dusty paths andopen sewers with virtually no sanita-tion, environmental risk factors andlack of even the barest infrastructure.These are usually socially homogenousencampments where unskilled poorlive among themselves, disconnectedfrom others, making it harder for themto access mainstream economy.

The dwellers experience exclusion,discrimination and lack of hope toaccess adequate and affordable hous-ing. They are under constant threat ofbeing evicted without notice. A singleeviction could destabilise multipleblocks, not to account for the block towhich the family is begrudgingly relo-cated. Most of their possessions —water containers and tents among

others — are periodically steamrolledby eviction agencies.

There is little more critical to a fam-ily’s quality of life than a healthy andsafe living space. However, this sectionof India’s poor lives in inhuman con-ditions and is often under the threat ofdisplacement, harassment and arrest.Over the last decade, India has substan-tially expanded its net of welfare poli-cies, aimed at lifting millions frompoverty. It seems that the time has comefor making ‘right to shelter’ a reality.Priority for housing ought to be high-er than education and health.

Challenges for India are dauntingand homelessness has become a pow-erful monster. An estimated 65 millionpeople, or 13.6 million households, arehoused in urban slums, according tothe 2011 Census. It also showed that anadditional 1.8 million people are home-less. Recent estimates by the Ministryof Rural Development and Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs indicate ahousing shortage of nearly three croreunits in rural areas and 1.2 crore unitsin urban areas. The grim aspect of thehousing scenario is that the number ofhomeless is huge despite the fact thatits composition of urban population ismuch lower compared to other coun-

tries. According to the World Bank,urban population, as a proportion ofthe total population in 2015, stood at86 per cent in Brazil, 56 per cent inChina, 54 per cent in Indonesia, 79 percent in Mexico, 82 per cent in SouthKorea and 31 per cent in India.

By the accepted definition of slum(minimum 60 households), more than2,500 Indian cities have slums; overall,there are 33,500 slums and the totalpopulation stands at 65.5 million.About 90 per cent of the residents haveelectric power and 56 per cent haveaccess to water. These figures pose ahuge challenge for planners. Affordablehousing has assumed great importancebecause it generates direct and indirectemployment in the medium-term andsustained consumption in the long-term. A 2014 study by the NationalCouncil of Applied Economic Researchindicated that every additional rupeeof capital invested in the housing sec-tor adds �1.54 to the GDP and every�1 lakh invested in residential housingcreates 2.69 new jobs in the economy.

The lack of official land titles is amajor impediment to the acquisitionof housing finance. People do not havedocumentary proof of being owners ofthe land on which they live. Many low-

income villagers have owned their landfor generations. Landlessness and thelack of secure property rights areamong those inequities that perpetu-ate poverty, hold back economic devel-opment and generate social tensions.Demographic shifts, combined withpoor or non-existent land ownershippolicies, have spawned huge slumsacross the country.

For most of India’s poor and thevulnerable, secure property rights,including land tenure, are a rare acces-sible luxury. Land tenure determineswho can use land, under what condi-tions and for how long. Tenure arrange-ments may be based both on officiallaws and policies, and on informal cus-toms. There was a time when landless-ness affected a smaller chunk of thepopulation. However, the number oflandless people has been rising. Theones without land joined the ranks ofthe worst ones in extreme poverty andthe task of poverty alleviation becameeven more difficult. Considering thelinks between landlessness and pover-ty or the need to score better success-es against poverty, it is important to puta hard brake on the process of becom-ing landless. Land is a very price-sen-sitive commodity and its current short-

age in most city-centric areas is animpediment towards creating afford-able housing in urban areas where it ismost needed. Some suggestions fromexperts can serve as useful markers forpolicy-makers while designingGovernment programmes for housing.

• Governments should improve thelegal and regulatory environment relat-ed to housing and increase the supplyof affordable, legal shelter with tenuresecurity and access to basic amenities.

• The Government must under-take physical upgradation of informalsettlements. Informal urban settle-ments can be provided with infrastruc-ture by widening roads, creating play-grounds, laying sewage pipes andinstalling water taps and toilets. Theseservices create a high-level of tenuresecurity without a formal change oflegal status and encourage localimprovements which can transformthese slums into liveable habitats.

• Making in situ improvements tothese settlements would allow slum res-idents to remain connected to their owncritical social and economic networks.

• The Government should consid-er converting under-utilised urbanland for affordable housing and eco-nomic development with realistic stan-

dards for development. It can recognisesemi-formal titles of land as workablecollateral for home improvement loans.

• The Government should alsoendow slum dwellers with land rightsfor residential use that are inheritable,mortgageable and non-transferable.Endowing them with mortgageabletitles can open the gates for improvinghealth, education and employment.

In response to the non-availabil-ity of tangible collateral from low-income households, as required bythe formal financial sector, a newstream of lending has emerged,called ‘housing micro-finance’.Institutionalised micro-finance sys-tems have come up with innovativesolutions. These draw on the bestpractices in micro-finance butremain adapted to the classical hous-ing finance paradigm. This has beenhighly successful whereverGovernments are offering long-termtenancies and shared-ownershiphousing in a supportive context. Butthe sector is still in need of a moresustainable business model to grow.

(The writer is Member, NITIAayog’s National Committee onFinancial Literacy and Inclusion forWomen)

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Delivering a speech to mark the 40thanniversary of the 1979 ‘Messageof Compatriots in Taiwan’ onJanuary 2, Chinese President XiJinping said, “A Taiwan indepen-

dent from mainland China is not an option andno person or party can stop the trend towardsunification.” Xi also reportedly said that Chinawould not renounce the idea of using force tore-unify Taiwan with China. He further said,“Independence would only bring profound dis-aster for Taiwan” and assured the island a brightfuture under a “one-country, two-systemframework.”

In an equally strong reply to President Xi’sspeech, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen arguedthat her Government does not accept the “1992Consensus,” and emphasised that a vast major-ity of Taiwanese stand resolutely opposed to “onecountry, two systems.” She further said that thedevelopment of cross-strait relations must bebased on “the four musts”: China must face thereality of the existence of the Republic of China(Taiwan) and not deny the democratic systemthat the people of Taiwan have established togeth-er; China must respect the commitment of the23 million people of Taiwan to freedom anddemocracy and not foster divisions and offerinducements to interfere with the choices madeby the people of Taiwan; China must handlecross-strait differences peacefully, on the basisof equality, instead of using suppression andintimidation to get Taiwanese to submit; and itmust be the Government or Government-authorised agencies that should engage in thenegotiations. Any political consultation that is notauthorised or monitored by the people cannotbe called “democratic consultation.” This isTaiwan’s position, a democratic one.

Of course, the tension between Taiwan andChina is not new. In fact, the genesis of the con-flict between them goes back to 1949, when los-ing the mainland China to the Mao-ledCommunist Party of China, Chiang Kai-Shekretreated to Taiwan, establishing Taipei as the cap-ital of the Republic of China Government.Subsequently, China and Taiwan claimed to rep-resent all of China.

The ouster of Taiwan from the membershipof the United Nation General Assembly and itsSecurity Council as well as the US’ decision torecognise China as a country, ending its diplo-matic ties with the Republic of China in 1979,boosted China’s position against Taiwan. At thesame time, the Chinese leadership focussed onusing the 1992 Consensus between representa-tives of the Chinese Communist Party and theKuomintang (KMT) party of Taiwan as thestrongest tool to claim Taiwan as a part of China.

However, since President Tsai came topower in 2016, she made one thing very clearthat her Government does not recognise the1992 Consensus. At the same time, Tsai’s NewSouthbound policy to strengthen Taiwan’s tieswith Southeast Asian countries and build astrong relationship with South Asian countries,including India, and other developmentscaused heartburn in the Chinese leadership. Asif these developments were not enough forChina to initiate punitive actions against

Taiwan, US President Donald JTrump’s special focus on elevating tieswith Taiwan accentuated the riftbetween China-Taiwan relations. Thisis evident from the fact that after beingelected as President, Trump receiveda telephone call from Tsai Ing-wen andalso initially questioned the ‘OneChina Policy.’ Trump signed into lawthe National Defence AuthorisationAct (NDAA) for the 2018-19, whichmentions strengthening defence part-nership between the US and Taiwanas continuing US legal commitments.

The NDAA also stated that the USshould invite Taiwan to participate inmilitary exercises and consider re-establishing port-of-call exchangesbetween the navies of the two sides.Trump signing the Taiwan Travel Actcleared the way for the visit of high-ranking officials to Taiwan. A new defacto US Embassy was inaugurated inTaipei, among other things. InDecember 2018, the US Presidentsigned into law the Asia ReassuranceInitiative Act, which reiteratesAmerican commitment “to counterefforts to change status quo and supportpeaceful resolution acceptable to bothsides of the Taiwan Strait.”

In turn, while China has beenextensively using its economic powerto force several countries — Nigeria,Panama and others — to de-recogniseTaiwan as an independent country, italso opened a new air route over thenarrow Taiwan Strait separating Chinaand Taiwan and has been carrying outmilitary details in the vicinity. Chinaput pressure on the International CivilAviation Organisation to not initiateTaiwan as a guest of the Icao Assemblyin September 2016. Beijing wrote let-ters, asking dozens of international air-

lines to change the way they refer toTaiwan on their websites and threat-ened to disrupt their operations inChina if they did not comply.

Amid China’s offensive strategyagainst Taiwan, the defeat of theDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP)in the local elections of Taiwanencouraged Beijing because theChinese leadership saw the DPP’s elec-toral loss as the rejection of the TsaiGovernment’s efforts to make Taiwanan independent country. At the sametime, the victory of the KMT in theelections was a welcome development,given its pro-China stand. In fact,Chinese state-run media depictedthe election reversals as a vindicationof Xi’s measures to isolate Taiwan andundercut its international standing.

But the fact remains that thedefeat of the DPP in the local electionsmust not be seen as an indication ofthe change in the thinking of the peo-ple of Taiwan as far as the country’sindependence and sovereignty areconcerned. The reality is that in a poll,75 of the Taiwanese respondents sawChina and Taiwan as two differentstates. Viewing mainland China as aperverted form of Chinese culture,Taiwanese also consider their cultureand tradition as pure Chinese and feelproud of their democratic institutions,freedom of Press and other liberal val-ues. They do not want to give up thesehard-earned markers.

To argue that the DPP’s loss in theelections resulted from the TsaiGovernment’s assertive policy towardsChina would be misplaced. In fact, anumber of domestic issues, includingher Government’s labour and pensionpolicy, Tsai’s poor leadership, lack ofstrong strategy, her Government’s

performance on marriage and eco-nomic policy among others wereresponsible for the DPP’s loss in theelections. On the other hand, theKMT planned an effective electionstrategy to defeat the DPP.

While saying that the use of mil-itary power cannot be ruled out tobring Taiwan under the control ofChina, the Chinese President com-pletely overlooked the fact that today,Taiwan enjoys strong ties, althoughunofficial, with a number of countries,including all the other major powersof the world. It is also a fact that coun-tries across the globe have recognisedTaiwan as a champion of democraticinstitutions. At the same time, it is alsoa core interest of the US to see Taiwanflourish as a promising democraticand independent country. Given thefact that the people of Taiwan areaware of China’s dubious stand on ‘onecountry, two systems’ in Hong Kongand Tibet, Xi could not win overTaiwanese with these tactics.

Thus, it is imperative for theChinese leadership to recognise thedirection of the wind as far as theChina-Taiwan issue is concerned.Any provocative statement will onlymake the people of Taiwan moreresilient against China. At the sametime, it is also the responsibility of theglobal community to see that Taiwanmust remain a strong democraticcountry. It is only through peacetalks that the two sides can end con-flict, leading to strengthening peace,security and development in theTaiwan strait and the region.

(The writer is Visiting Fellow,National Chengchi University, Taipei,and Research Fellow, Maulana AzadInstitute of Asian Studies, Kolkata)

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Page 10: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

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In a bid to pre-vent big eco-

nomic offenderslike Vijay Mallyaand Nirav Modifrom fleeing thecountry, theGovernment hasempowered PSUbanks to requestlookout circulars(LOCs) againstwilful defaultersand fraudsters,officials said onSunday.

The HomeMinistry has alsoauthorised theSerious FraudInv e s t i g at i onOffice (SFIO), a statutory cor-porate fraud investigationagency, to request LOCs if itfeels the suspect may escapefrom India.

The ministry issued twocirculars recently, authorisingchairman-cum-managingdirectors or chief executiveofficers of public sector banksand the SFIO to request desig-nated authorities to issue LOCsagainst any wilful defaulter orfraudster if they think the per-son may flee the country.

The CMDs and CEOs ofPSU banks can now ask theHome Ministry, Ministry ofExternal Affairs, Customs andIncome Tax Departments,Directorate of RevenueIntelligence, CBI, regional pass-port officers and police to issuean LOC to alert immigrationcheck posts to stop anyoneleaving India, a home ministry

official said.The SFIO and PSU banks

can initiate the process if theysuspect that the defaulter mayleave the country to escape thelaw, the official said.

Earlier, investigating agen-cies would request LOCs incognisable offences under theIPC or other laws in case theaccused evaded arrest or didnot appear before court despiteissuance of non-bailable war-rants and other coercive mea-sures and there was a likelihoodof the accused leaving thecountry to escape arrest.

An LOC is valid for a yearunless its duration is specified.

The government's freshmove came after three high-profile escapes involving liquorbaron Vijay Mallya and dia-mantaires Nirav Modi andMehul Choksi rocked thecountry, inviting embarrass-

ment for the Government.Mallya left India on March

2, 2016 after defaulting onloan amounting to �9,000 crorehe had taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Jewellery designer Modi andhis uncle Choksi, managingdirector of Gitanjali Gems Ltd,fled the country in January 2018.They are accused of cheating thestate-run Punjab National Bankto the tune of �13,000 crore.

The Government had lastyear brought the FugitiveEconomic Offenders Act,empowering the authorities toattach and confiscate the pro-ceeds of crime and propertiesof economic offenders, likebank fraudsters or loan default-ers who fled the country.

The law is aimed at quick-ly recovering losses to theexchequer or PSBs in cases offrauds.

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Finance Minister PiyushGoyal will meet the CEOs of

public sector banks Monday totake a stock of the banking sec-tor, and discuss ways toimprove their financial health,sources said.

The meeting assumes sig-nificance as it comes just threedays ahead of the Budget 2019-20, the last from this govern-ment before the general elec-tions expected to be held inApril-May.

The full-day meeting islikely to be attended by ReserveBank of India GovernorShaktikanta Das, who is goingto announce his first monetarypolicy review on February 7.

Goyal, who was given addi-tional charge of the financeministry last Wednesday asArun Jaitley is away to the USfor a treatment, is his expect-ed to discuss a host of issuesincluding credit offtake andbad loan position of lenders.

Among the key issues,sources said, the meeting willreview progress of variousschemes of the governmentbeing implemented through thegovernment. It will also reviewthe credit flow to MSMEs, agri-culture and retail sectors.

Besides, sources said, themeeting will also review finan-cial performance of the banksfor the nine months endedDecember 2018.

Non-performing assets(NPAs) would also come up fordeliberation, they added.

Public sector banks (PSBs)

have seen decline in bad loansby over Rs 23,000 crore from apeak of Rs 9.62 lakh crore inMarch 2018 due to various ini-tiatives taken by the government.

At the same time, PSBshave also made a record inrecovery of Rs 60,726 crore inthe first half of the currentfinancial year, which is morethan double the amount recov-ered in the corresponding peri-od last year.

According to the latestfinance ministry data, non-NPA accounts overdue by 31 to90 days (Special MentionAccounts 1 & 2) of PSBs havedeclined by 61 per cent overfive successive quarters - fromRs 2.25 lakh crore as of June2017 to Rs 0.87 lakh crore inSeptember 2018.

In his first stint as financeminister for 100 days last year,Goyal was instrumental in set-ting up a committee headed bynon-executive chairman ofPunjab National Bank SunilMehta to examine whethercreation of an asset recon-struction company or assetmanagement company to helpin faster resolution of stressedassets.

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The upcoming Budget mayhave provision for Rs 4,000-

crore capital infusion for pub-lic sector general insurancecompanies to shore up theircapital.

The Budget 2019-20 is like-ly to be presented on February1.

According to sources, theDepartment of FinancialServices sought Rs 4,000 crorein the Budget for fund infusionin three insurance companies— National InsuranceCompany, Oriental InsuranceCompany and United IndiaInsurance Company.

Depending on the capitalthat Budget provides, individ-ual allocation would be made,sources added.

This capital is required tostrengthen their financialhealth.

The profitability of manygeneral insurance companies,including that of state-ownedones has been under pressureowing to rising underwritinglosses and higher claims.

It is to be noted that thegovernment, in Budget 2018-19, had proposed to mergeNational Insurance Company,Oriental Insurance Companyand United India InsuranceCompany.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley in the Budget speech hadannounced that the three com-panies would be merged into asingle insurance entity. Theprocess of merger is likely to becompleted during the currentfiscal.

As on March 31, 2017, thethree companies together hadmore than 200 insurance prod-ucts with a total premium of Rs41,461 crore and a marketshare of around 35 per cent.

Their combined net worthis Rs 9,243 crore, with totalemployee strength of around44,000 spread over 6,000offices.

In 2017, state-owned NewIndia Assurance Company andGeneral Insurance Corporationof India were listed on bours-es.

Initial estimates suggestthat the combined entityformed by merging the threeinsurers will be the largestnon-life insurance companyin India, valued at Rs 1.2-1.5lakh crore.

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In a major boost to the realestate sector, the Supreme

Court today dismissed a peti-tion filed by the Ex-CEO,Ramesh Sanka against theflagship company of IREO inIndia, namely IREO Pvt. Ltd.

Ramesh Sanka had filedthe petition in the nature ofpublic interest litigation alleg-ing financial irregularities inthe affairs of IREO Pvt. Ltdand large scale diversion offunds. Several homebuyershad also approached the apexcourt for raising their griev-ances.

The Supreme Court hadissued notice to the govern-mental agencies to look intothe allegations made by Mr.Sanka, claiming to be awhistleblower. The agencies

filed status reports in relationto the inquiry conducted bythem in relation to allegationsmade before the SupremeCourt. The Supreme Courtafter perusing the statusreports had come to the con-clusion that this was not a fitcase for grant of any relief andhas dismissed the petitiongiving a clean chit to IREO.

The Supreme Court whiledismissing the petitionobserved that personal griev-ances cannot be allowed to beraised before the apex courtand the same are not in thenature of public interest liti-gation. The Court while dis-missing the petition safe-guarded the rights of the cus-tomers by clarifying that theywill be at liberty to pursuetheir legal remedies beforeappropriate forum.

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The Government hasimposed an anti-dumping

duty on a chemical from China,used in photography and man-ufacturing of dyes, for fiveyears to protect domestic pro-ducers of the chemical inter-mediate from cheap shipments.

The anti-dumping duty onMeta Phenylenediamine(MPDA) imported from Chinawill be in the range USD573.92-USD 1,015.44 a tonne,according to a notification ofthe Central Board of IndirectTaxes and Customs (CBIC).

It is for the second time ina row that anti-dumping dutyhas been imposed on theimport of the chemical fromChina. The duty was to expirein March 2019.

The levy has been imposedafter the Directorate General ofTrade Remedies (DGTR),under the Ministry ofCommerce and Industry, madea recommendation for thesame. DGTR was earlierknown as the DirectorateGeneral of Anti-dumping andAllied Duties (DGAD).

On the recommendation ofDGAD, a definitive anti-dump-ing duty was imposed on the

chemical in March 2014.Later, Aarti Industries filed

an application before DGADfor review and continuation ofthe duty on the chemical.

Following 'Sunset Review'of an anti-dumping investiga-tion on the imports of MPDA,the DGTR recommended forimposition of the levy foranother five years.

MPDA is a chemical inter-mediate used for manufactur-ing dyes, engineering polymerand in photography and med-ical applications.

Under normal (room) con-ditions, it is a colourless orwhite colour solid, which tendsto turn red, purple (darkcolour) in air, on storage.

Countries carry out theanti-dumping probe to deter-mine whether the domesticindustries have been hurtbecause of a surge in cheapimports.

As a counter measure, theyimpose duties under the mul-tilateral regime of the WorldTrade Organization.

The duty is aimed at ensur-ing fair trading practices andcreating a level-playing field fordomestic producers withregard to foreign producersand exporters.

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India is pushing for a rev-enue-sharing agreement

with China under the pro-posed mega trade deal RCEPto ensure that domestic filmproducers get their rightfuldues from revenue generat-ed by showing Bollywoodmovies in China, an officialsaid.

Currently, Bollywoodmovies make good money inChina but due to absence ofany revenue-sharing agree-ment, domestic film pro-ducers often do not get thedue share from the hugeprofits generated in theneighbouring country fromthe movies, the of f icia ladded.

The RegionalComprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP) is amega free-trade agreementbeing negotiated by 16 coun-tries, comprising 10-memberASEAN group (Br unei ,C amb o dia , Indones ia ,Malays ia , Myanmar,Singapore, Thailand, thePhi l ippines , L aos andVietnam), India, China,Japan, S outh Korea ,Australia, and New Zealand.

“India wants this agree-

ment as part of the servicessector negotiations withChina as Indian movies aremore popular there as com-pared to other membercountries of RCEP bloc,” theofficial added.

Though revenue-sharingagreement is a private con-tract, a formal agreementunder RCEP would helpIndian film producers get abetter deal in China.

“It is part of negotia-tions. By this agreement, wewould be creating a frame-work. They (China) areusing our content and mak-ing huge money. So, theyshould pay the royalty forusage of the content,” theofficial said.

Foreign films in Chinacannot be released withoutthe permission of the gov-ernment film agencies.

Aamir Khan-starrerDangal was a super-hit inChina and raked in over Rs1,100 crore. His other moviesincluding PK, and SecretSuperstar were also hit inChinese market.

The RCEP aims to covergoods, services, investments,economic and technicalcooperation, competitionand intellectual property

rights.The 25th round of nego-

tiations are scheduled inmid-February in Indonesia.

The main issues thatneed resolution include num-ber of goods on whichimport duties should be com-pletely eliminated and normsto relax services trade amongthe 16-member countries.

Under the services, Indiawants greater market accessfor its professionals in theproposed agreement.

Trade exp er ts havewarned that India shouldnegotiate the agreementcarefully, as it has tradedeficit with as many as 10RCEP members, includingChina, South Korea andAustralia, among others.

India wants to have abalanced RECP trade agree-ment as it would cover 40 percent of the global GDP andover 42 per cent of theworld's population.

India already has a free-t rade pac t with theAssociation of South EastAsian Nations (ASEAN),Japan and South Korea. It isalso negotiating a similaragreement with Australiaand New Zealand but has nosuch plans for China.

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Since standardisation hasbeen notified, India can

become one of the most com-petitive economies in the fieldof technical textiles, Unionminister Smriti Irani saidSunday.

Speaking after inaugurat-ing a three-day 'reverse buyerssellers meet' and Global TextileExpo here, she told the foreignbuyers from over 20 countriesthat India recently ensuredthat HSN codes were notifiedfor over 207 textile items.

In the area of cotton, Indiahas a surging potential partic-ularly in the field of medicaltextiles; and because of stan-dardisation, the country canbecome the most competitiveeconomies in the technicaltextiles, she said.

The minister also appealedto Tamil Nadu to unleash theuntapped potential so that thestate can be at the forefront.

She further said that thetechnical textiles market islikely to touch USD 3 billion inanother two-and-a-half years.

Amongst all the schemesthat has been enunciated andpresented to the textile indus-try, she said, most of the ben-efits have been accrued andestablished by Tamil Nadu.

Irani also highlighted var-ious schemes where TamilNadu gained the most, whichinclude yarn bank scheme,powertex, powerloom cluster,group insurance scheme undersocial security and also GST.

Stating that the visitingforeign buyers may be won-dering why she was talking

about the schemes, subsi-dies and taxation in thismeet, which was to initiatebuyers and sellers, the min-ister said, “We are hoping tolessen the burden on ourunits so that they becomecompetitive in terms ofprice. We become best pricepoint.”

Tamil Nadu handloomsminister, O S Manian,appealed to youngsters tocome forward to weavingand join the textile industryand showcase their talentand innovations to uplift

the livelihood of weavers andthe sector as a whole.

He also appealed to theUnion textiles minister to takesteps to establish a powerloomtextiles market either inSomanur in Coimbatore dis-trict or Palladam in Tirupurdistrict.

State MunicipalAdministration Minister S PVelumani, Deputy Speaker ofTamil Nadu Assembly PollachiV Jayaraman and chairper-sons of Texprocil, Pdexcil alsospoke on the occasion.

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Union Commerce andIndustry Minister Suresh

Prabhu Sunday said new poli-cies of the government willensure the doubling of exports,currently pegged at USD 321billion, in a few years.

He was speaking at theinauguration ceremony of anew office and laboratorycomplex of the ExportInspection Agency at Margaoin south Goa.

“It is our endeavour toincrease India's exports fromthe current $321 billion toalmost double in a few years.One of the principal potentialareas for export is fisheries,especially at a time when forthe first time, the country hascome out with an agricultur-al policy,” Prabhu said.

He said the policy focus-es on five key elements, name-ly agriculture, horticulture,plantation, fisheries and meat.

“All these are going to beexported. From the currentUSD 30 billion, we want totake it to USD 100 billion.Fisheries can create severallakh jobs in the country,” headded.

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With amis-

sion toi n s p i r epeople tofocus onfitness andlive ah e a l t h yl i f e s t y l e ,Born2Runhosted it'sfirst ever Born2Run HalfMarathon today at JawaharLal Nehru Stadium, NewDelhi. The marathon kick-started at 6 am tillabout 9 amwith the race categories of 5km, 10 km, and 21.1 km.Atotal of 5000runners partici-pated inthe Born2Run Halfmarathon.

Sheila Dikshit, formerChief Minister of New Delhigraced the occasion with herpresence at the marathon. Alsopresent were Maan Kaur Singh(Age:102) and Gurdev Singh(Age :80), the mother-son duo.Mann Kaur has hit the head-lines by becoming world's

fastest centenarian atAmerican Masters Games inVancouver in 2017

The vision of Born2Run isto establish a sustainable, com-munity focused pan-Indiarunning event, encouragingathletes and amateur runnersto lead healthy lifestyles andfurther improve their person-al fitness through running.Thekey highlights of the eventwere its excellent route profilewith ample hydration points,medical aid, ample parkingfacility, enough mobile toi-lets, planned transport facilityand breakfast for the partici-pating individuals.

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The cabinet on Monday islikely to approve a package

for farmers to boost theirincome and address distress inthe farm sector, sources said,adding that the move will comeahead of the general elections.

“The cabinet meeting isscheduled tomorrow (Monday)and the agriculture ministry'sproposal on addressing incomedeficit syndrome of small andmarginal farmers is on the agen-da,” a highly placed source said.

The agriculture ministryhas recommended severaloptions to provide both shortand long term solutions toaddress agrarian distress.However, a final call will betaken in the cabinet meeting asa huge cost is involved, thesources said.

One of the options pro-posed is waiving interest oncrop loans for farmers who payon time, costing an additionalRs 15,000 crore to the exche-quer, the sources stated.

There is also a proposal tocompletely waive premium fortaking insurance policy forfood crops. The centre is alsoevaluating the scheme followedby the Telangana and Odishagovernments wherein a fixedamount is transferred directlyinto the bank account of farm-ers, the sources added.

Agriculture MinisterRadha Mohan Singh hadrecently indicated that the gov-ernment would announce anagriculture package before the2019-20 Budget, to be pre-sented on February 1.

Experts said the govern-ment has less time to implementany new scheme. The measurehas to be such that it can beimplemented faster to reap thepolitical gains during the election.

It may be noted that thecentral government has takenfarmers' issues seriously afterthe ruling BJP was defeated inMadhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Chhattisgarh in the recentstate polls, where rural distresswas a key factor.

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Central public sector enter-prises (CPSEs) will imple-

ment the 10 per cent reserva-tion quota for economicallyweaker sections (EWSs) inrespect of all direct recruitmentvacancies from February 1.

There were 339 CPSEs witha total investment of over Rs13.73 lakh crore as on March 31,2018. They employed 10.88lakh people, excluding casualand contractual workers, in2017-18 compared to 11.55lakh in the previous fiscal.

An order regarding theimplementation of the EWSreservation has been issued bythe Department of PublicSector Enterprises (DPE).

The DPE also asked theCPSEs to file a fortnightlyreport beginning fromFebruary 15 on vacancies filledby them under SC, ST, OBC,EWS and unreserved cate-gories.

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Page 11: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh

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Two bombs minutes aparttore through a Roman

Catholic cathedral on a south-ern Philippine island whereMuslim terrorists are active,killing at least 20 people andwounding 111 others during aSunday Mass, officials said.

Witnesses said the firstblast inside the Jolo cathedralin the provincial capital sentchurchgoers, some of themwounded, to stampede out ofthe main door.

Army troops and policeposted outside were rushing inwhen the second bomb wentoff about one minute later nearthe main entrance, causingmore deaths and injuries.

The military was checkinga report that the second explo-sive device may have beenattached to a parked motorcycle.

The initial explosion scat-tered the wooden pews insidethe main hall and blasted win-dow glass panels, and the sec-ond bomb hurled humanremains and debris across atown square fronting theCathedral of Our Lady ofMount Carmel, witnesses said.

Cellphone signal was cutoff in the first hours after theattack. The witnesses whospoke to The Associated Pressrefused to give their names orwere busy at the scene of theblasts.

Police said at least 20 peo-ple died and 111 were wound-ed, correcting an earlier toll dueto double counting. The fatal-ities included 15 civilians andfive troops.

Among the wounded were17 troops, two police, twocoast guard and 90 civilians.Troops in armoured carrierssealed off the main road lead-

ing to the church while vehiclestransported the dead andwounded to the town hospital.Some casualties were evacuat-ed by air to nearby Zamboangacity.

“I have directed our troopsto heighten their alert level,secure all places of worshipsand public places at once, andinitiate pro-active security mea-sures to thwart hostile plans,”said Defense Secretary DelfinLorenzana in a statement.

“We will pursue to theends of the earth the ruthlessperpetrators behind this das-tardly crime until every killeris brought to justice and putbehind bars. The law will givethem no mercy,” the office ofPresident Rodrigo Duterte saidin Manila.

It said that “the enemies ofthe state boldly challenged theGovernment’s capability tosecure the safety of citizens in

that region. The (Armed Forcesof the Philippines) will rise tothe challenge and crush thesegodless criminals.”

Jolo island has long beentroubled by the presence ofAbu Sayyaf terrorists, who areblacklisted by the United Statesand the Philippines as a ter-rorist organization because ofyears of bombings, kidnap-pings and beheadings. ACatholic bishop, Benjamin deJesus, was gunned down bysuspected militants outside thecathedral in 1997.

No one has immediatelyclaimed responsibility for thelatest attack.

It came nearly a week afterminority Muslims in the pre-dominantly Roman Catholicnation endorsed a newautonomous region in thesouthern Philippines in hopesof endin nearly five decades ofa separatist rebellion that hasleft 1,50,000 people dead.

Although most of theMuslim areas approved theautonomy deal, voters in Suluprovince, where Jolo is located,rejected it. The province ishome to a rival rebel factionthat’s opposed to the deal aswell as smaller terrorist cellsthat not part of any peaceprocess.

Western Governmentshave welcomed the autonomypact. They worry that smallnumbers of Islamic State-linkedmilitants from the Middle Eastand Southeast Asia could forgean alliance with Filipino insur-gents and turn the south intoa breeding ground for extrem-ists.

“This bomb attack wasdone in a place of peace andworship, and it comes at a timewhen we are preparing foranother stage of the peaceprocess in Mindanao,” saidGov. Mujiv Hataman of theAutonomous Region inMuslim Mindanao.

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Prime Minister JustinTrudeau fired Canada’s

ambassador to China after theenvoy said it would be “great”if the US dropped its extradi-tion request for a Chinese techexecutive arrested in Canada.

Trudeau said on Saturdaythat he had asked for andaccepted John McCallum’s res-ignation on Friday night.

McCallum made theremark to the Toronto Star onFriday. That came a day after heissued a statement saying hemisspoke about the case earli-er in the week and regrettedsaying Meng Wanzhou has astrong case against extradition.

The arrest of the daughterof the founder of HuaweiTechnologies Ltd. AtVancouver’s airport Dec. 1severely damaged relationsbetween China and Canada.

The US wants her extra-dited to face charges that shecommitted fraud by misleadingbanks about Huawei’s busi-ness dealings in Iran “Lastnight I asked for and acceptedJohn McCallum’s resignation asCanada’s Ambassador toChina,” Trudeau said in a state-ment.

Trudeau said Jim Nickel,the deputy head of mission atthe Canadian Embassy inBeijing, would represent hisgovernment in China. Hethanked McCallum, a formerminister in Trudeau’s Cabinet,for his 20 years of public ser-vice.

China detained twoCanadians shortly after Meng’sarrest in an apparent attempt topressure Canada to release her.A Chinese court also sen-tenced a Canadian to death ina sudden retrial of a drug case,overturning a 15-year prisonterm handed down earlier.

McCallum told Chinese

media in the Toronto area ear-lier in the week that the extra-dition of Meng to the UnitedStates “would not be a happyoutcome.”

He suggested the case waspolitically motivated and saidthe US could make a trade dealwith China in which it wouldno longer seek her extradition,and two Canadian detained inChina could then be released.

But on ThursdayMcCallum walked back theremarks and said he “mis-spoke.”

Trudeau had earlier dis-missed calls to fire McCallum,but he clearly had enough afterthe envoy spoke off scriptagain. Trudeau and ForeignMinister Chrystia Freelandhave stressed that Canada’sgovernment can’t interferepolitically in the case.

The leader of the opposi-tion Conservative Party,Andrew Scheer, said McCallumshould have been fired days agobecause his remarks raisedconcerns about the politiciza-tion of the Meng case.

Scheer said McCallumcaused damage to Canada’sreputation by delivering dif-ferent messages through dif-ferent media on different days.

McCallum’s remarks sur-prised many and fueled spec-ulation that Canada might betrying to send a signal to Chinato reduce tensions.

A year ago, McCallum alsomade controversial comments

about how Canada had more incommon with China than theUnited States under Trump.

McCallum has strong per-sonal ties to China, and hepointed out to Chinese-lan-guage media this week that hiswife is of Chinese ethnicity andhis three sons have Chinesespouses.

Guy Saint-Jacques, a for-mer Canadian ambassador toChina, said he felt bad forMcCallum but said it was theright thing to do.

“What is worse is this ishappening in the middle of thecrisis when we need all-handson deck,” Saint-Jacques said.

He said the Chinese willnow know that McCallum wasnot speaking for the Canadiangovernment.

Roland Paris, a former for-eign policy adviser to Trudeau,said “Mr. McCallum’s remarkswere continuing to cause con-fusion about Canada’s position.

On a matter of this impor-tance, the Canadian govern-ment has to speak with a sin-gle, clear voice.” RobertBothwell, a professor at theUniversity of Toronto, said it isnot an ambassador’s job tospeak out of turn.

“Of course, McCallum canobviously take refuge in argu-ing that what he said was large-ly true, but he can’t escape thefact that it wasn’t his job to sayit. It does underline the hazardsof sending a politician to do adiplomat’s job,” Bothwell said.

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British MPs seeking to pres-sure Prime Minister

Theresa May this week to rene-gotiate her Brexit deal shouldheed EU warnings that it willnot succeed, Ireland’s foreignminister warned on Sunday.

Simon Coveney saidattempts by Brexit supportersto remove or set a time-limit ona controversial “backstop”clause on the Irish borderwould never be accepted byBrussels.

“Listen to what people aresaying in Europe,” he told BBCtelevision, saying May’s Brexitdeal was “a balanced packagethat isn’t going to change”.

“The European Parliamentwill not ratify a withdrawalagreement that doesn’t have abackstop in it, it’s as simple asthat,” he added.

He was speaking ahead ofanother showdown betweenMay and the House ofCommons over Britain’s with-drawal from the EU, which isscheduled for March 29.

MPs this month rejectedthe divorce agreement shestruck with the bloc last year.

One Tuesday night, in aseries of votes on parliamentaryamendments, they will set outwhat they want her to do next.

Some MPs want to delayBrexit or adopt a whole newstrategy, but others aredemanding changes to May’sdeal that they suggest couldallow them to support it.

These focus on the back-stop, an arrangement intendedto keep open the borderbetween the UK and Ireland bytemporarily tying London tothe EU’s trade rules.

May has already spentmonths trying to amend thebackstop with no success, buthas promised to return toBrussels if that is what her MPswant. Health Secretary MattHancock denied Coveney’scomments meant she couldnot succeed, telling the sameBBC programme that he wastaking a “negotiating position”.

He said Dublin did notwant Britain to leave the EUwithout a deal, which is thedefault position if MPs cannotreach agreement.

The EuropeanCommission this week con-ceded that without a deal.

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Venezuela defused a poten-tial showdown with the

United States, suspending ademand that US Diplomatsleave the country asWashington called on theworld to “pick a side” in theSouth American nation’s fast-moving crisis.

Socialist President NicolasMaduro broke relations withthe United States onWednesday after the Trumpadministration and many othernations in the region recog-nized opposition leader JuanGuaido as Venezuela’s interimpresident, a move that Madurocalled a coup attempt.

Maduro gave US diplo-mats three days to leave thecountry, but the Trump admin-istration said it wouldn’t obey,arguing that Maduro is nolonger Venezuela’s legitimatepresident. That set the stage fora showdown at the hilltop USEmbassy compound Saturdaynight, when the deadline was toexpire.

But as the sun set onVenezuela’s capital, the ForeignMinistry issued a statementsaying Maduro’s government

was suspending the expulsionto provide a 30-day window fornegotiating with US officialsabout setting up a “US interestsoffice” in Venezuela and a sim-ilar Venezuelan office in theUnited States.

The US and Cuba had asimilar arrangement fordecades before the Obamaadministration restored diplo-matic relations with the com-munist-run island.

The State Department didnot confirm the VenezuelanGovernment’s account, reiter-ating only that its priorityremains the safety of its per-sonnel and that it has no plansto close the embassy.

“That is true diplomacy,”Maduro said after reading outthe statement on national tele-vision. Earlier in the day, crit-ics and supporters of Maduro’sgovernment faced off at the UNSecurity Council, reflectingthe world’s deep divisions overVenezuela, which is mired inpolitical confrontation as wellas an economic collapse thathas caused millions to flee thecountry.

During the debate, whichwas requested by the US,Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo urged all nations toend Venezuela’s “nightmare”and support Guaido.

“Now is the time for everyother national to pick a side,”Pompeo said. “No more delays,no more games. Either youstand with the forces of free-dom, or you’re in league withMaduro and his mayhem.”

Russian AmbassadorVassily Nebenzia charged thatthe Trump administration istrying “to engineer a coup”against Maduro. He saidVenezuela doesn’t threateninternational peace and secu-rity, and he accused “extremistopponents” of Maduro’s gov-ernment of choosing “maxi-mum confrontation,” includingthe artificial creation of a par-allel government.

Nebenzia urged Pompeo tosay whether the US Will usemilitary force.

Pompeo later told reporterswho asked for a response, “I amnot going to speculate orhypothesise on what the USWill do next.”

Pompeo was accompaniedto New York by Elliott Abrams,who was named a day earlier asthe US Special representativefor Venezuela.

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London: British MPs could sitlonger hours and theirFebruary holiday may bescrapped as the governmentraces to pass its Brexit legisla-tion before Britain leaves theEU on March 29, DowningStreet said Sunday.

Prime Minister TheresaMay’s government is looking atmaking the House ofCommons sit on more Fridays— which it does not normallydo — and extend debatingtime well into the evening onsome days. It is also “reviewing”the week-long February recess,a Downing Street spokes-woman said. There are stilleight laws the governmentwants to pass to prepare thestatute books for Brexit, cov-ering areas of trade, fisheriesand agriculture, immigration,the environment and health-care. These includes any billneeded to implement a divorcedeal with the EU, which MPshave yet to agree to.

“We remain committed toensuring all necessary legisla-tion is in place for exit day onMarch 29, 2019, and it is impor-tant to stress we are confidentof meeting that commitment,”the spokeswoman said. AFP

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No retreat, no surrender ishow President Donald

Trump frames his decision totemporarily reopen the gov-ernment while still pursuing aborder wall deal.

Some of his conservativebackers have a different take:“pathetic” and “wimp.”

Other Trump supportersseem willing to give Trump thebenefit of the doubt, yet theyinsist that any ultimate gov-ernment funding deal the pres-ident signs must include moneyfor a wall.

Trump defended himselfSaturday from the conservativebacklash to his decision to endthe 35-day-old partial govern-ment shutdown the longest inUS history without money forhis promised border wall.

He said if he didn’t get a fairdeal from Congress, the gov-ernment would shut downagain on February 15 or hewould use his executive author-ity to address what he hastermed “the humanitarian andsecurity crisis” on the southernUS border. After he announcedhis decision, a New York news-paper headline dubbed him“CAVE MAN.”

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An alarm warning of animminent mining dam

rupture went up early onSunday in Brumadinho, thesame Brazilian communitywhere a dam collapsed killing34 with hundreds more feareddead, firefighters and the min-ing company said.

An alarm warning of dan-gerously high water levels at adam that is part of the Corregodo Feijao mining complex insoutheastern Brazil went off at5:30 am (0730 GMT), a state-ment by the mining companyVale said. A dam at the samemining site burst Friday, spew-ing millions of tons of treach-erous sludge and engulfingbuildings, vehicles and roads.

Firefighters said theyimmediately began evacuat-ing communities near the dam.

“Attention, general areaevacuation!” blared a warningthrough loudspeakers inBrumadinho, population39,000.

“Find the highest point inthe city,” the warning said.

Vale’s CEO FabioSchvartsman and Minas GeraisGovernor Romeu Zema earli-er warned that the death tollfrom the Friday rupture couldrise.

“From now, the odds areminimal (to find more peoplealive) and it is most likely wewill recover only bodies,” Zematold reporters late Friday.

In Rio, Schvartsman spokeof a “human tragedy.”

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Israel’s Prime Ministerwarned the head of Lebanon’s

Hezbollah of his army’s “lethal”power on Sunday, in reactionto Hassan Nasrallah cautioningthe Jewish state against furtherstrikes in Syria.

“The lethal striking force ofthe IDF (Israeli army) standsfacing Hezbollah,” Israel’s pre-mier Benjamin Netanyahu saidat the start of a cabinet meet-ing. In an interview with Beirutbased al-Mayadeen televisionon Saturday, Hezbollah chiefHassan Nasrallah had warnedNetanyahu that Syria andHezbollah could “at anymoment” decide to “deal with... Israeli aggression.”

“Don’t make an error ofjudgement and don’t lead theregion towards war or a majorclash,” Nasrallah said, statingthat Hezbollah possessed“high-precision missiles” capa-ble of hitting anywhere inIsrael.

Israel’s army has since 2013claimed hundreds of attacks onwhat it says are Iranian militarytargets and arms deliveries toTehran-backed Hezbollah.

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Tanks and air defence mis-sile systems rolled through

the heart of Saint Petersburg onSunday as the city formerlyknown as Leningrad markedthe 75th anniversary of the endof a World War II siege thatclaimed more than 8,00,000lives.

The parade in Russia’s sec-ond city was the first time war-era and modern heavy weapon-ry, including the famed T-34battle tank and multiple-launchrocket systems, have trundledpast the Hermitage Museum tomark the end of the siege ofLeningrad, sparking contro-versy with some survivors crit-icising “militarism”.

President Vladimir Putin,a native of Saint Petersburg,skipped the show of force in thesnow-covered Palace Square,although his itinerary includ-

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More than 17 years after theUS invasion of

Afghanistan, Washington andthe Taliban appear closer thanever to some sort of agreementthat could bring the insur-gents to the table for peacetalks. However with the with-drawal of US troops seen aspart of the deal, fears are risingabout what an American exitcould mean for Afghanistan,with security forces takingstaggering losses, the govern-ment facing election upheaval,and civilians paying a dispro-portionate price after nearlytwo decades of bloodshed.

Here is a rundown of thestatus of the talks and what canbe expected in the future.

The US and Taliban repre-sentatives have held severalrounds of negotiations in recentmonths, part of a diplomatic

push to get the insurgents toagree to peace talks. The latestsession ended in Qatar onSaturday after six straight daysof negotiations -- the longestconsecutive sit-down betweenthe two sides to date.

Saudi Arabia, the UnitedArab Emirates and Pakistan -- the only countries to recog-nise the Taliban regime of thelate 1990s -- have also all par-ticipated in the talks, but theAfghan government has com-plained of being cut out ofthem.

The militants are negotiat-ing from a position of strength:they have the upper hand onthe battlefield, and USPresident Donald Trump’sreported eagerness to startwithdrawing troops fromAfghanistan is weighing heavyon the discussions.

Ostensibly to find a way tobring the Taliban to the table

for peace negotiations withthe government in Kabul toend the Afghan conflict.

Doing so could requiresome movement on long-standing demands from bothsides. For the Taliban, thatincludes a timetable for thewithdrawal of foreign forces inAfghanistan, while the US isseeking promises thatAfghanistan will not be usedagain as a base for militants tolaunch attacks on foreign coun-tries.

Other issues include apotential ceasefire, a prisonersexchange, and ways to bring theTaliban into the political main-stream without underminingthe legitimacy of the electedgovernment in Kabul. TheTaliban is widely believed towant a return to power inAfghanistan and to reimposesharia law, although there issome uncertainty over whether

they might loosen their hard-line stance after a US exit.

Nothing yet. But it isbelieved the US and Talibanhave come closer to an agree-ment than ever before. For now,the two sides have agreed tokeep talking. US special envoyZalmay Khalilzad, who is head-ing the initiative forWashington, appeared upbeat,saying late Saturday that thetalks were “more productivethan they have been in the past.We made significant progresson vital issues”.

But he added: “Nothing isagreed until everything isagreed, and ‘everything’ mustinclude an intra-Afghan dia-logue and comprehensiveceasefire.”

The Taliban also citedprogress, though spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid saidreports of an 18-month with-drawal plan and a ceasefire are

“not true”. Khalilzad has said heis returning to Kabul for con-sultations, and is likely hold arange of meetings with theAfghan government.

The Taliban have said theyare planning to “share details ofthe meetings and receive guid-ance” from their leaders beforemoving forward, and vowed toresume “similar future meet-ings”.

More talks are expectedsoon, but neither side has givenany clarity on when, or whena deal might be announced.

Even if one is reached inthe near future, it will only bethe beginning of a peaceprocess. A withdrawal wouldneed to be managed carefullyto prevent the collapse ofAfghan security forces, andany negotiations between theTaliban and the Kabul govern-ment could take months, if notyears.

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India shares quite a tumultuous rela-tionship with the Academy Awards.The country has submitted over 45

films for nomination in the past, only afraction of which have been successful insecuring so. With 2018 film, Period. Endof Sentence being nominated in the BestDocumentary Short Subject categorythis year, here’s a look at the otherIndian films that have had the privilegeof an Oscar nomination.

������� !" #�$%&'()Mehboob Khan’s Mother India starringNargis and Sunil Dutt is a poignant filmthat narrates the hardships endured by a

destitute village woman named Radha,and how she meanders through themand the rigmarole of dreary life, with

the utmost adherence to morals. Thefilm presents a moving picture of the

rough times that an average Indianwoman goes through, and very moving-ly gives the message of significance ofcompassion, values and integrity. The filmlost by one vote.

#!��!��*!����+ ���,#����$%&(-)Nominated for an Academy Award forDocumentary short subject, Vidhu VinodChopra’s An Encounter With Faces is aheartwarming attempt in capturing theplight, perspectives and dimensions ofdelinquent children of Mumbai.Emotionally rousing, the film looks attheir position — socially and culturallyin the Indian societal fabric.

�#.##��/��/#0�$%&--)Arguably one of the finest films producedby India, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay!isa class apart in master storytelling.

Movingly strung together by masterdirector and raconteur Nair, the film pre-sent a bleak picture of the gaps prevalentin erstwhile Indian society.

.#1##!�$233%)Intriguing, absorbing and genuine,Ashutosh Gowarikar’s magnum opusLagaan is often looked at as a benchmarkof excellence in Indian films. Set in pre-independent India, the film looks at theinjustice of British colonialism meted onIndians through arbitrary taxes and howthese Indians stake their rightful claim totheir motherland through a game ofcricket. Powered with inspired perfor-mances from Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh,Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorne,Lagaan invokes a sense of belonging,patriotism and love in the hearts of theaudience.

. ��.�������� ���$233')Nominated for the 2005 Academy Awardfor Best Live Action Short Film, AshvinKumar’s Little Terrorist is a film about aMuslim boy from Pakistan who mistak-enly crosses the border to India and findsan unexpected friend and ally in aHindu Brahmin Boy, Bhola. A story ofacceptance, the film seeks to present a pic-ture of the various prejudices we have asa society and how there exist a few goodpeople that overlook these societal differ-ences and espouse for a society of unity,love, happiness and inclusion.

+#����$233()An Indo-Canadian film, Deepa Mehta’sWater is the last installment of her‘Elements’ trilogy that focusses on thestark misogyny, patriarchy and socio-cul-tural deprivation faced by widows in

India. Blunt, rustic and brutally honest,the films tells the story of a poverty-strick-en widow as she fights convention andsociety to escape from the dogmas ofIndia’s patriarchal, anti-feminist set-up.

��� �"4��!"��,���!��!���$23%-)Nominated in the Documentary ShortSubject, Rayka Zehtabchi’s Period. End ofSentence looks at the story of real life Pad-Man Arunachalam Muruganathan’s jour-ney of fighting against the social stigmathat surrounds menstruation and theplight of Indian women. Succinctly putand powerfully told, the film is a projec-tion of the current behavioural tenden-cies of the Indian social psyche, and chal-lenges to change it.

(The Oscars will be telecasted on StarMovies and Star Movies Select HD at6.30 pm on February 25.)

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Singer-composer ShankarMahadevan feels “humbled andhonoured” on being chosen for thePadma Shri. He also considers hismusical partners Ehsaan Nooraniand Loy Mendonsa as equal recip-ients of the country’s fourth-high-est civilian honour.

“It’s an honour to be recognisedby the government of India. It is thefourth-highest civilian honour inthe country. I don’t know if I amworthy of this but I definitely feelhappy,” said Shankar.

“A lot of my music has beencreated with my two partners —Ehsaan and Loy so, I would con-sider them as equal recipients of theaward,” added the National awardwinner.

The trio have given many hitsfor films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dil Chahta Hai andLakshya.

Getting Padma Shri meansthat “I have to work harder. There’smore melodious music comingup.”

“We are doing very good films.We are doing Chhapaak with (film-maker) Meghna Gulzar, Saaho,The Zoya Factor and Panga,” saidthe singer, who is currently beinglauded for his work inManikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi.

“I am glad that people arerecognising that work and peopleare also liking the movie. I reallyhope it does well. Kangana(Ranaut) is fabulous in the film. It’sa very important movie for the nextgeneration to know about such animportant character,” he said aboutthe film.

Teaching music to underpriv-ileged children also keeps himbusy. “Life is good,” he concluded.

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Actor Manoj Bajpayee is feeling“ecstatic” as his work has beenrecognised by the “highest office.”He says getting a Padma Shri is anhonour for “your journey andconviction.”

“It’s a huge honour for any pro-fessional because it’s not an honourfor just one particular film or per-formance. It’s an honour for yourjourney, for your conviction and

belief that you had,” Manoj said.“Also, for the government it’s a

way of recognising contributionthat one has made to cinema. Soyes, I am feeling very happy aboutit. My family, friends and fans havebeen sending messages to me. I amfeeling ecstatic that my work hasbeen recognised by the highestoffice,” he added.

Since his debut in Bollywoodin mid-1990s, the National Award-winner has acted in mainstream aswell as indie films. Last year, theBandit Queen actor featured inseven films like Aiyaary, Baaghi 2,Missing, Satyameva Jayate, GaliGuleiyan, Love Sonia and Bhonsle.

“I have always been very care-ful with my career. I don’t need tobe extra careful (after this recogni-tion). I am known for the work thatI do. So, the similar pattern will goon... choosing the films whichmatter to me...which are comingfrom my own conviction andbelief,” said Manoj.

“People who have been watch-ing my performances, my films,have been a big support. If they areproud of my filmography andwork, I am proud of what I havedone,” he added. He will be nextseen in Sonchiriya, which will hitthe screens on March 1. The filmis set in the 1970s, and focusses ona small town ruled by dacoits.

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Recognising the colossal contribu-tion of Northeast’s multi-facetedcultural icon Bhupen Hazarika, hewas picked posthumously to beconferred the Bharat Ratna, whilelate Bollywood actor Kader Khanhas been named for the Padma Shrihonour by the government.

“The songs and music ofBhupen Hazarika are admired bypeople across generations. Fromthem radiates the message of jus-tice, harmony and brotherhood. Hepopularised India’s musical tradi-tions globally. Happy that theBharat Ratna has been conferred onBhupen da ,” tweeted PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

With a magnificent oeuvre asa poet, music composer, singer,actor, journalist, author and film-maker, Hazarika continues to beregarded as a cultural philosopher.

The other posthumous awardin this year’s list is for Kader Khan,who died in December last yearafter prolonged illness in Canada.He has been recognised for hisimmense contribution to the worldof films as a writer and actor parexcellence. He was 81. G(-2#

India’s vibrant publishingmarket is attracting majorinternational bestsellingauthors, who say that thereis a great potential for

their books to find a good read-ership in India.

Once a book becomes suc-cessful in the country where itis first published, internationalrights for the books are acquiredby leading publishing houses inother countries. India, beingthe second largest publishingmarket in the world, is one hotspot where perhaps every suc-cessful author wants to be pub-lished.

Former British politicianand bestselling novelist JeffreyArcher, for instance, finds morereaders in India than anywhereelse in the world. In pure statis-tical terms, his books also sellmore in India than anywhereelse.

What message does it sendto award-winning or bestsellingauthors from other countries?That the market is ripe for har-vest.

“I think there is a lot ofpotential here; I know somegreat writers from India, theywrite from their heart. I alsothink it is a great place to pub-lish and I can only see more andmore authors coming here,”Australian author Markus Zusakof The Book Thief fame said onthe sidelines of the festival.

Scottish novelist, playwrightand short story writer IrvineWelsh echoed similar senti-ments, stating that people inIndia are reading “a lot of books.”

He said that festivals like the

JLF also provide a platform forauthors like him to find newreaders. “I think there is a greatpotential, he said.

Pulitzer Prize winningauthor Andrew Sean Greer, whois on a marathon book tour ofIndia, attending lit fests inChennai and Kolkata beforecoming to Jaipur, said that he isexcited about the new readershis book “Less” is finding inIndia.

“In the United States, wedon’t have a culture of readingmany books from outside. Wedo not import much whereas Ifind it to be very different here,”Greer said.

He said winning an awardlike the Pulitzer does contributeto international recognition, butmaintained that it is ultimatelyup to the readers, and the read-ing culture at large.

“When I come to festivalslike this in India, the one thingthat surprises me most is peoplehere read and come. I am say-ing this because people haveasked me questions about my

‘gay’ protagonist, which meansthey have read my book.

“Otherwise, they say that Ihave not read your book, or haveread only half. There is genuineinterest among readers and Ithink right now it’s the placewhere every writer wants tobe,” Greer added.

Greer also said that whileIndia is a “fascinating market”for international authors, Indianauthors should also be pub-lished in other countries.

A slew of internationalauthors, including the recipientsof major literary awards andthose who are a sensation inthemselves like Archer, havegathered here to participate inthe JLF.

In addition, OxfordDictionary announced that NariShakti as its Hindi Word of theYear for 2018 at the festival.

“The Hindi Word of theYear is a word or expression thathas attracted a great deal of atten-tion and reflects the ethos, moodor preoccupations of the pastyear,” a spokesperson from theOxford Dictionary said.

Derived from Sanskrit, Narimeans ‘woman’ and Shaktimeans ‘power.’ “Today the termis used to symbolise womentaking charge of their own lives,”the statement added.

The Hindi Word of the Yearwas chosen by the OxfordDictionaries team in India withthe help of an advisory panel oflanguage experts includingAshok Kumar Sharma, KritikaAgrawal and Namita Gokhaleamong others.

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We all wish to live in a peaceful and harmonioussociety. However, one in which every individ-ual or group is self-centred — is not a soci-

ety in the true sense of the word, for it lacks endur-ing unity of minds or commonality of abiding inter-ests of its people. Thus, it falls short of an importantcohesive force or uniting factor that should give to itsolidarity and integrity. Even if the groups constitut-ing it, have some common set of customs and socialnorms, these groups or individuals often break thesewhen their self-interests clash with those of others.Such a society is, at best, a loosely-knit network of com-munities, classes, institutions or nations, each one ofwhich thrives by manipulating the others for its owngrowth. And, a logical consequence of this is that, whena situation arises for a group to choose between whatis of benefit to all and what is of greater well-being tothat group, it opts for the latter, thus unleashing theforces of disruption, conflict and split.

In such a weak-kneed society, pressures exerted byeach ego-centric cultural, religious, ethnic, caste orpolitical group would naturally create social, politicaland economic tensions. These would further affect lawand order as well as stability. It would be a set-backto united efforts to attain set goals. Thus, these wouldwork as obstacles and cause stagnation, disturbance,deadlock and at times, even destruction. The individ-uals and groups, in such a society, may, in commonparlance, be known as civilised and they may, in theirdaily life, show manners and etiquette but, obsessedby their narrow interests, they can go to any length andadopt any means to achieve their coveted goals eventhough these are detrimental to other sections of soci-ety or humankind as a whole.

For example, a self-centred individual, who hashigh influence in power circles, may get a piece ofprime land or a flat allotted to him by manipulatingor using political pressure even though more than ahundred persons, equally entitled, may have been wait-ing ahead of him in the queue, for years. Similarly, aself-centred community may demand certain advan-tages or benefits from some political party or a pow-erful politician, promising, in turn, voting en bloc forthat party or politician and paying no heed to the factthat these demands are unreasonable and may causecommunal disharmony. Thus, the fact that a personor a community is civilised, according to commonusage of the word, is no guarantee for stability andprogress if the people are not prepared to make evena little sacrifice for the common good of all, in whichtheir own well-being also is assured. So, the mantrafor peace, progress and prosperity of all is to tune ourmind to the wisdom, summed up in the famousSanskrit slogan: “Sarvay bhavantu suhkina, sarvay santuniramaya...” which means “Let all be happy and pros-perous and let all be healthy”. Unless and until thisforms the basis of our politics, economics and busi-ness or industrial management, conflict, confrontation,tension and turmoil will always remain. But the ques-tion is how can we cultivate this attitude? For this, thesecond mantra is “Vasudhaiv kutumbakam” whichmeans that the whole world is our family.

Without working in accordance with this ancientspiritual wisdom, neither can we have principled pol-itics nor can we have value-based economics and nei-ther can we have peace or make progress which wouldgive us real happiness. In short, without following thesetwo precepts or mantras we cannot have a value-basedsociety.

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Raising a child independently evenif one has support from the fam-ily is a challenge that requires a lot

of mental toughness and positive atti-tude towards life. Few of the biggestroadblocks are financial strangulation,loneliness, unwanted questions from theso-called society and emotional stress.The situation is just like a coin whichhas two disparate faces — one, the par-ent feels quite confident while raisingtheir child on their own, making choic-es and living a life on his/her own terms.Whereas the other side brings excruci-ating pain of loneliness, dejection, anx-iety and uncertainty.

There are different reasons why aperson becomes a single-parent. Theymay choose this lifestyle. The challengesfaced by him/her vary according to theircircumstances. Here are few good prac-tices which can be helpful if you are asingle-parent.

BE FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENTThis is one topic which appears inalmost every relationship with or with-out a spouse. It’s better to have your ownsource of income irrespective of yourfamily background, alimony or any-thing else. Being financially independentgives you and your child the freedomto live life your way. Nowadays, there arelots of options as a career to choose likebeing a blogger, teacher, freelance fromhome and what not.

DEALING WITH EMOTIONALSTRESS All human beings need support —whether it’s someone to watch the kidswhile you run out to do errands or sim-ply someone to talk to when you feel

overwhelmed. The absence of such per-son abruptly or unwillingly creates a lotof trouble. You can ask friends and fam-ily members for help or could join a sin-gle-parent support group, or, if financesallow, hire a trusted sitter to help outwith the kids or someone to assist withhousework.

STRESS MANAGEMENT Come out of your comfort zone. Wehave a tendency of not meeting people,crying in loneliness and pretending tobe happy in front of others. Just be your-self, no need to punish yourself forsomething which was beyond your con-trol. Look at things the way they are. Donot procrastinate or blow-up things outof proportion as it doesn’t lead anyoneanywhere. Life is like a big hard diskwhich captures every single event thathappens in our lives. The only way tomove on in life is to create more pleas-ant events rather than focusing on for-getting pre-recorded ones.

MANAGING QUESTIONS ASKEDTO THE CHILDSometimes, we can’t choose peoplearound us, but we can certainly choosewhom to associate with and to avoid.People who can’t break you will try toinfluence your child negatively by ask-ing uncomfortable questions. The bestway to handle this is to tell the truth toyour child. Questions will come upabout the changes in your family, orabout the absence of one parent. Answeryour child’s questions in an open, hon-est and age-appropriate way. Makesure that your child gets the help andsupport he/she needs to deal with dif-ficult emotions.

Parenting in the digital agehas a whole new meaningas the psychological

development of children ishighly impacted by digitalmedia. Today, digital exposurehas a huge part to play in thephysical and mental growthand development of children.Growing up in this era has ben-efits like making information toentertainment available on ourfingertips. However, this isonly one side of the coin. Withaddiction and cyberbullyingat the top of the list, there aremultiple negative aspects ofgrowing up amidst a plethoraof devices and the internet.

The question that mostparents have is whether theyshould be worried?

Effect of excess exposure todigital mediaNumerous parents who watchtheir children become accus-tomed to spending hours ontheir computers or tablets areconcerned about their well-being and with good reason.This worry is not baseless astoo much use of digital deviceshas been proven to negativelyimpact the physical as well asmental health of children. Infact, the National HealthService (NHS) of UK recentlyreported that 11 to 19-year-oldswith mental disorders are morelikely to be regular social mediausers. Further, it is commonknowledge that too much dig-ital exposure cuts down thetime spent on healthy outdoorplay. This leads to problemssuch as laziness, obesity andeven depression. Moreover, toomuch digital media eventuallyhas an impact of the eyes. Thenegative impact, therefore, issignificant. However, the situ-ation does not need to becomethis dire or worrisome.

The Center forCommunication andDevelopment Studies recentlyfound that 25 per cent of allIndian children have access tosmartphones and 18 per centuse smartphones solely as edu-cational tools. With the inter-

net providing a wealth ofknowledge to young ones, dig-ital media can be used as asmart tool to bolster knowledgeand increase exposure to amassive amount of useful infor-mation. Furthermore, expo-sure to media can polish thereading, writing and criticalthinking skills of children. Itcan teach them how to formopinions and then express theseopinions confidently amongtheir peers.

Technology in the classroom:Enhancing education in thedigital ageAs the advantages of exposingchildren to digital mediabecome apparent, schools havestarted equipping themselveswith digital devices that

enhance the process of teach-ing. Leading schools in Indiaare now offering technology-aided learning, which includesinteractive white-boards, robot-ic learning systems, onlinelearning platforms, e-booksand much more. The youngergeneration is much more com-fortable reading and learningdigital text than printed text,which is why schools areemploying digital media,accepting it as a friend and nota foe.

Moreover, as the job land-scape is pervaded by technol-ogy, jobs across all industriesare becoming tech-centric to acertain degree. In such a sce-nario, it is essential for studentsto be aware of leading technolo-gies such as data analytics,

artificial intelligence and cyber-security. Since these skills aremuch better grasped throughpractical and not just theoret-ical teaching methods, it is ofutmost importance to intro-duce digital technology fromchildren from an early age.

Interaction not isolation, learn-ing not addictionTechnology is all around us andour children are going to beinfluenced by it, one way oranother. The key is for parentsand educators to encouragehealthy internet and digitalmedia practices. Parents mustregulate screen time for childrenand place some degree ofparental controls on the contentthat children have access to.Furthermore, children should be

made completely aware about therepercussions of excessive digi-tal media usage. They must alsocreate a safe space wherein chil-dren can freely talk about theirexperience with digital media.

By having conversations andbuilding confidence in children,parents can make sure that dig-ital media is used as a means ofinteraction and not isolation.That the wealth of knowledgeon the internet only leads tolearning and not addiction.With healthy regulation inplace, parenting in the digitalage can be much more efficientand much less daunting. Withfamily movie nights, multi-player online gaming and manyother ways to bond as a family,it can in fact make parentingmuch more fun.

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Benefitting from an umpiring howler,Cheteshwar Pujara put Saurashtra on

brink of a victory with an unbeaten hundredbut walked out of the ground amidst 'cheater'boos in the Ranji Trophy semifinal againstKarnataka, here on Sunday.

Pujara hit his 49th first class hundred andshared an unconquered 201-run fourth-wick-et stand with Sheldon Jackson (90) to help hisside end the fourth day at 224 for three, just55 runs away from the victory.

Hosts Karnataka added just two runs totheir overnight total of 237 for eight beforebeing bundled out, setting a 279-run target forthe visitors.

Pacer R Vinay Kumar provided the hoststhe best possible start by getting rid of open-er Snell Patel (0) and Vishvaraj Jadeja (0) with-out letting them bother the scorer.

Abhimanyu Mithun scalped Harvik Desai(9) to leave Saurashtra gasping at 23 for three.It could have been worse for the visitors sincePujara pushed one from Vinay Kumar to edgeit to wicketkeeper Shrinivas Sharath butumpire turned down the appeal.

Vinay Kumar could not believe his luckand was left fuming and frustrated, consider-ing that Pujara's is a prized scalp.

The TV replays clearly showed that Pujarahad edged it but it was not Karnataka's day asthe match slipped out of their hands after that.

The home bowlers left to toil whole day asthey only saw Pujara and Jackson build the

fourth innings.The two batsmen did not offer any chance

to Karnataka bowlers after that, gradually tak-ing it away from the hosts.

Pujara has faced 216 balls for his 108-runknock which has 14 fours.

Jackson is 10 runs away from his 16th firstclass hundred as his 90 came off 205 balls with13 shots to the fence.

As the stumps were drawn and playersstarted leaving the ground, angry home fansbooed Pujara by shouting 'cheater' 'cheater'.

Saurashtra now need to knock off just 55runs on the final day with seven wickets inhands to set up the Ranji Trophy summit clashwith defending champions Vidarbha.

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Roston Chase proved the unlike-ly bowling hero as the off-spin-ner destroyed England with

career-best figures of eight for 60 asthe West Indies crushed the visitorsby 381 runs to win the first Test atKensington Oval on Saturday.

Set the improbable target of 628to win, the tourists slid to ignomin-ious defeat in bright sunshine on thefourth day, losing their last six wick-ets for 31 runs either side of the teainterval to be dismissed for 246, end-ing a winning streak of five matches.

It was the largest margin of vic-tory by the West Indies on home soiland third largest anywhere in their 91years as a Test-playing nation.

Chase made the most of a fourthday pitch showing more signs of wearbut also benefited from poor shotselection by an England side thatlooked shell-shocked from the eventsof the previous two days when theywere routed for just 77 in their firstinnings.

It was left to stand-in wicket-keeper Shai Hope to complete thedismissal which sealed the result,stumping Sam Curran down the leg-side off Chase 40 minutes into thefinal session.

Given England's dominance of SriLanka and their spinners in sub-con-tinental conditions less than two

months earlier, the manner of theircapitulation would have been partic-ularly surprising.

Not that it mattered in the leastto Chase who reaped considerablereward to eclipse his previous best Testinnings figures of five for 121 againstIndia in Jamaica in just his second Testin 2016.

If West Indies expectations in thevictory push on the fourth morningwere that pace would replicate thedevastation of the first innings, thelanky 26-year-old changed the nar-rative when he ended opening bats-man Rory Burns' quest for a maidenTest century off the final deliverybefore lunch. Burns top-scored forEngland with 84.

Enjoying the conditions and

England's indecisiveness, he added thewickets of England skipper Joe Root,Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, the off-spinning all-rounder suffering theindignity of a "pair" in the afternoonto end the tourists' hopes of taking thematch into a fifth day.

Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel,who would have had the wicket ofRoot but was called for a no-ball whenthe batsman gloved a sharp lifter toHolder in the slips, made amends bydismissing Jonny Bairstow to a leg-side catch by Hope.

Another pacer, Alzarri Joseph,had taken the first wicket of the daywhen he broke an opening partner-ship of 85 by having Keaton Jenningscaught by Holder at third slip for 14.

In contrast to Holder's outstand-ing performances in front of his homecrowd, which earned him the man ofthe match award, this has been a mis-erable experience for Root.

Reprieved by Gabriel's front footindiscretion, he failed to take fulladvantage of the let-off, eventuallywafting outside the off-stump atChase to give Darren Bravo a straight-forward catch at slip to depart for 22.

"We are a far better side than wehave played in this match and we needto remember that going into the nextmatch," said disappointed Root. "Wecould have gone down a differentroute in team selection but the impor-tant factor is that we can do a lot bet-ter than this."

With Gabriel troubled by a footinjury and Chase settling into awicket-taking groove, it was inevitablehe would be persisted with in the finalsession and did not disappoint.

Jos Buttler fell to a diving catchby John Campell at short mid-on,Shimron Hetmyer somehow heldon to a sharp chance at short-leg toremove Ben Foakes and KraiggBrathwaite judged a catch well on themidwicket boundary to get rid of AdilRashid before Hope administered thefinal flourish behind the stumps.

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Pakistan shrugged off a four-match suspension imposed on

captain Sarfraz Ahmed with acrushing eight-wicket win overSouth Africa in the fourth one-dayinternational at the WanderersStadium on Sunday.

The result levelled the five-match series at 2-2. The decidingmatch will be in Cape Town onWednesday.

Pakistan's bowlers set up thewin, bowling out South Africa for164. Imam-ul-Haq made 71 beforeplaying a loose shot when thescores were level as Pakistancruised to victory with 18.3 oversto spare.

Stand-in captain Shoaib Maliksaid at the after-match presentationthat Pakistan only found out afterthey arrived at the ground thatSarfraz had been banned under theInternational Cricket Council'santi-racism code for remarksaimed at Andile Phehlukwayo.

The ban had still not beenannounced by the ICC whenMalik walked out for the toss.

Malik handled his bowlers andfielders astutely and South Africawere kept under pressure almostfrom the time he won the toss andsent them in on a pitch which hadearly life.

Shaheen Shah Afridi madetwo early strikes before HashimAmla (59) and captain Faf duPlessis (57) made half-centuriesand put on 101 for the thirdwicket.

Malik's use of spinners ImadWasim and Shadab Khan kept thescoring rate in check and bothbatsmen fell to the slow menbefore the fast bowlers returned.

Mohammad Amir dismissed

the dangerous David Miller beforefellow left-arm fast bowler UsmanShinwari claimed four wickets insix balls. He finished with four for35 and was named man of thematch.

Shinwari had Dussen caughtbehind for 18 and bowled DaleSteyn for a two-ball duck. KagisoRabada was caught behind firstball and Beuran Hendricks sur-vived an appeal for leg beforewicket with what Shinwari hopedwas the hat-trick ball.

The ball was crashing into thestumps but Shinwari acknowl-

edged that umpire Bongani Jelehad made the right decisionbecause there was a faint insideedge.

Imam, the top scorer in theseries, looked in control from thestart of Pakistan's reply. He andFakhar Zaman (44) put on 70 forthe first wicket before he wasjoined by the in-form Babar Azam,who finished with 41 not out.

It was South Africa's firstdefeat in eight matches on whathas become known as 'Pink Day'with their players dressed in pinkin aid of breast cancer awareness.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) on Sunday expressed

disappointment at the ICC's deci-sion to suspend its captain SarfarazAhmed for four matches for hisracist comments on a SouthAfrican player during an ODImatch in Durban.

The PCB said that it thoughtthe matter to have been resolvedamicably after Sarfaraz apologisedto Proteas all-rounder AndilePhehlukwayo.

Sarfaraz was on Sunday sus-pended for four matches by theInternational Cricket Council forhis racist comments against AndilePhehlukwayo during the secondone-dayer on January 22.

After the ICC announced itsdecision, the PCB issued a state-ment expressing surprise at the banimposed of Sarfaraz.

"The PCB notes the ICC deci-sion on Sarfaraz Ahmed with itsutmost disappointment. PCB hadanticipated that the matter hadbeen resolved amicably betweenthe two players and the two Boardsfollowing Sarafraz Ahmed's pub-lic apologies, which were accept-ed by the player, the Board andSouth Africa cricket team," thestatement said.

"The PCB will be pursuing thismatter at the ICC forums with theobjective to bring reforms to theCode, promoting amicable reso-lutions to issues as opposed topenalties. Having said that, thePCB reiterates its zero-toleranceapproach towards racist commentsand behavior," it said.

The PCB also announced thatSarfaraz would be returning homeimmediately from South Africa.

Sarfraz was heard on stumpmicrophone of making racistremarks directed at AndilePhehlukwayo.

"Abey kaalay, teri ammi aajkahan baitheen hain? Kya parhwake aya hai aaj tu?(Hey black (man),where is your mother sitting?What prayer did you get her to sayfor you today)?" Sarfaraz washeard as saying.

Shoaib Malik will captain theteam for the remaining ODIs andT20 internationals while

Mohammad Rizwan has beenincluded in the T20I side.

A PCB source said that theBoard was unaware that Sarfarazwould be suspended for fourmatches when it named him onSaturday to lead the team in theT20 series in South Africa, begin-ning on February 6.

"We were not aware whatpenalty the ICC would impose onhim and and when. There wassome doubt if Sarfaraz would facea ban after he had apologised pub-licly and in person to the SouthAfrica players including AndilePhehlukwayo," a PCB official saidon Sunday.

Sarfaraz, who leads Pakistan inall three formats, became the firstPakistani player to be penalized bythe ICC under its anti-racismcode.

The source also said that theICC had considered an eight-match ban but took into accounthis prompt apology and the reportof the match referee RanjanMadugalle.

According to media reports,Pakistan's chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq and South African playersHashim Amla and Imran Tahirhad played major roles in diffus-ing the situation.

Inzamam, who is in SouthAfrica watching the one-day serieswith the World Cup in mind,used his friendship with Amla andTahir to diffuse the situation.

�����'6�%��

Indian women's hockey teamput up a spirited fight before

losing 2-3 to Spain in theiropening match here.

Udita (12th minute) andGurjit Kaur (48th) scored forIndia, while Maria Tost (23rd),Lola Reira (39th) and BegonaGarcia (40th) sounded the boardfor Spain on Saturday.

India used strong attackingstrategy to begin the first quar-ter on a positive note.

The team made the firstbreakthrough when it managedto earn a penalty corner in the8th minute but could not con-vert the shot.

However, in the followingminutes the forwardline workedtogether to support experiencedVandana who created a splendidopportunity for compatriotUdita to score in the 12thminute.

A reverse pass by Vandanawas picked up well by Udita whomade no mistake in sending itpast the Spanish goalkeeperMaria Ruiz to take a 1-0 lead.

In the second quarter, hostsSpain stepped up their gameafter the initial setback to score

an equaliser in the 23rd minutethrough Maria Tost.

While the second half sawboth teams defend well to con-tain each other from taking alead, the third quarter com-pletely belonged to Spain as theystruck two goals in the 39th and40th minute through Lola Reira

and Begona Garcia respective-ly.

The fourth quarterremained tense for India asthey fought back to makeamends to their defensive laps-es in the previous quarter.

A tactical approach to theirattack saw them win a crucial PCwhich was brilliantly convertedby dragflicker Gurjit Kaur in the48th minute.

The following minutes wereevenly fought by both teams butSpain ensured they upped theirdefence to deny India an equalis-er.

����� * 4 # 50�

The All India FootballFederation (AIFF) on

Sunday said it will launch itshunt for a new national coachin the next few days and wouldbe aiming for a "dynamic per-sonality" with considerableinternational experience insteadof a high-profile name.

Stephen Constantine'sdeparture after the heartbreak-ing group stage exit at the AFCAsian Cup has left the top postvacant.

AIFF general secretaryKushal Das said the candidateto replace him has to be wellversed in man management,adding the federation will

advertise for the coach's postwithin the first week ofFebruary.

"The experience of havingcoached a national team isalways important because whatyou get from that, you won't getelsewhere," Das said.

"He has to be good in manmanagement, has to have avision for Indian football and heshould be someone who isready to take us to the nextlevel. We are just not looking atsome big names."

India went into the AsianCup rejecting rumours of alongstanding feud betweenConstantine and a few seniorplayers, including the talis-manic Sunil Chhetri, and the

AIFF wants to avoid a similarsituation in the future.

The apex body had, in thepast, refused to acknowledgewhen asked if all was goodbetween the coach and players.

Das stressed on the needfor the head coach to have goodrelations with players, supportstaff, Indian football adminis-trators and the clubs.

"Ideally, he should be afather figure working in tandemwith the players, clubs and AllIndia Football Federation. Hehas to tell us about his visionand be willing to accept thechallenge of taking our footballto the next level, which isexactly what we want," Das said.

Without reading much into

the rumours around his disputewith players and his penchantfor frequently experimentingwith the personnel, Das feltConstantine's tenure was fruit-ful for the Indian team.

"We have come a long wayfrom the 2011 tournament. Butstill we have impressed and Ithink we were unlucky againstUAE and Bahrain.

"With the talent we have inour U-16, U-20 national teamsI am confident that Indianfootball can only go up fromhere," Das said.

He said that at a time whenIndian football is trying toclimb up the ladder, a foreign-er will be better suited for thetop job.

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KL Rahul scored only 13 on his return from suspensionbut India A sealed the series against England Lions with

a comfortable 60-run win taking an unassailable 3-0 leadin the five-match series.

In a low-scoring encounter, India A could manage only172 in 47.1 overs but then did well enough to bowl out Lionsfor 112 in only 30.5 overs.

On a slow deck, it was left-arm spinners Krunal Pandya(4/21 in 5.5 overs) andAxar Patel (2/26 inovers), who inflicted bulkof the damage.

If Axar dealt theopening blows, man ofthe match Krunal pol-ished the lower-half afterchipping in with useful21 runs.

Credit should alsobe given to DeepakChahar as his 39 off 65balls took India from110 for 7 to 172 afterskipper Ajinkya Rahane(0) and Rahul were dismissed cheaply at the top of the order.

All eyes were on Rahul, who had a nightmarish twoweeks after BCCI's provisional suspension for his commentsin TV chat show 'Koffee with Karan'.

Having got a long rope during the tours of England andAustralia, where he has been an absolute failure, theKarnataka opener didn't do his case any good on his return,looking completely rusty.

His 13 off 25 balls had two boundaries but he was unableto find the gaps during the Powerplay overs. It was seam-er Jamie Overton, who dismissed him caught by ZachariahChappell.

Rahul, considered to be a favourite of the team man-agement, will still get two more shots in the ongoing A series.

The team management is still undecided on thereserve opener's slot and Rahane with scores of 59 and 91in the first two games has made a case for himself.

In the final two matches, young Rishabh Pant will beopening the batting as he is also a strong candidate for theWorld Cup berth.

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Novak Djokovic said he played his "best finalin a Grand Slam" to win a record mag-nificent seventh Australian Open with a

6-3, 6-2, 6-3 rout of Rafael Nadal on Sunday."It's one of the best, if not the best, matches

I've played in a Grand Slam final," the Serbianworld number one said after winning his 15thmajor title in just 2hr 4min.

The demolition of second seed Nadal putDjokovic, 31, out on his own ahead of RogerFederer and Roy Emerson, who both won sixAustralian Open men's singles titles.

The top seed dropped to his knees and kissedthe ground after vanquishing his greatest rival.

"It's quite unreal we are still playing at thislevel and still competing for the biggest titles insport and it's just an amazing evening," he said,pausing frequently to hold back his emotions.

"Under the circumstances, maybe this is thebest quality tennis I have played against Rafa ina final."

;����������I���F"I'm just trying to contemplate on the jour-

ney in the last 12 months. I had the surgery exact-ly 12 months ago," he added, referring to an elbowoperation that saw him slump out of the world'stop 20 before bouncing back to win Wimbledonand the US Open. "To be standing now here infront of you today and managing to win this titleand three out of four Slams, this is amazing. I amspeechless."

The pair's only previous final in Australia, in2012, developed into a record-breaking 5hr 53minslugfest — the longest in Grand Slam history.

A repeat of that epic never materialised withNadal uncharacteristically nervous at the start andDjokovic taking an immediate advantage that hewould never relinquish. Djokovic said a fast starthad always been his plan.

"(It was) exactly what I intended to do, to stepout and bring on the intensity because I knewthere would be intensity waiting for me on theother side."

The Spaniard had not lost a set and had nothad his service broken since the third set of hisfirst round match but that streak ended in a flashas the Serb came sprinting out of the blocks.

"I definitely needed a good start, we had bothbeen playing well coming into the match," saidDjokovic.

"I knew I had a good chance if could dictatethe play."

�������������Djokovic was in total control on his own

delivery and won his first four service games with-out conceding a single point, even inducing Nadalto miss a forehand completely on the way to grab-

bing the set in 36 minutes.The second set followed a similar pattern,

with Djokovic racing through games on his ownserve, while Nadal struggled to hold.

The pressure told in the fifth game andDjokovic broke again when Nadal hit a lob vol-ley long after an exchange at the net.

The on-song Serb was so fired up he brokeNadal again to go to 5-2 before serving out for atwo-set lead with three aces in a row with just 1hr16min on the clock.

The statistics were as telling as the scoreline:Djokovic had served eight aces to Nadal's one andmade just four unforced errors while the Spaniardhad coughed up 20. When Djokovic brokeagain in the third game of the third set it was just

a matter of how quickly he would finish off Nadal.The end was swift, as Djokovic withstood one

break point at 3-2 before administering the lastrites in a flurry of winners off both wings.

"Even if tonight was not my best day of courseI had someone that played a lot better than metonight," said Nadal.

Victory extended the Serb's win-loss recordagainst Nadal to 28-25 and squared the GrandSlam final count between the pair at 4-4.

Djokovic has now completed a hat-trick ofSlams following his wins at Wimbledon and theUS Open.

He will go to Paris in May for the FrenchOpen seeking to become the only man in theOpen Era to win all four majors twice.

������������� � * 4 # 50�

Naomi Osaka's win over Petra Kvitova in the women sin-gles final of Australian Open on Saturday hitched the

21 year old Japanese young superstar name in the record bookof women's tennis, as the going to be world number onewomen's player (when the list gets updated on Monday)becomes the first player since Jennifer Capriati to win the nextGrand Slam after her maiden major title.

Speaking about Osaka's sensational performance in thenight of final, former Indian number one singles playersSomdev Devvarman was full of praise for the young achiev-er, who first grabs spotlight after mauling Serena Williamsin one-sided US Open final in September 2018.

"The stakes were very high in the final. Not just the titlethat was on the line but also world number one that neitherof the women had accomplished before."

"It was a veryinteresting game andI think the two girlsfaced quite phenom-enal in this matchwithout a doubt win-ning plenty of greatpoints."

"Osaka was bril-liant in the tiebreak.And then she didreally well especiallyin the third set totake a path from thebreak at the end ofsecond and composeherself again, refocusand come back andwin the match. I wasan unbelievableeffort for Naomi anda tough one for Kvitova," said Somdev who was one of theguest panelists for Sony Sports live studio show for AustralianOpen.

Speaking further about Naomi the 33-year-old veteran,whose best performance in the season's first Grand Slam wasway back in 2013 when he entered the second round said thatshe has proved that her US Open win wasn't a fluke and sheis well deserved for the number one ranking.

"I think Osaka is one of the brighter futures for WTA cir-cuit, US final was unfortunate (because of the crowd boo-ing Serena) but at the end of the day she won it very grace-fully and here she did it once again proving that win was nota fluke."

"She is now the world number one and I think she is wellearned, well deserved."

"In Australia, she only lost three sets on the way to thetitle. She is playing really well and obviously has improveda lot; she has learned how to deal with pressure. It's not easyto deal with pressure and expectations coming into the tour-nament as a number four seed but she has done a great job."

"We have to congratulate her on her feet, I think win-ning two Slams final back to back and that too your first Slamfinal something has never done long back. She has joined avery privileged group of Chris Evert and other greats and agroup that has a lot of success at the WTA tour. Pretty greatfuture for her ahead and I think she will be a wonderful ambas-sador for women's tennis," he said.

�����'76*� '�6*.�*6�

Awell-deserved break on thecards, India captain Virat

Kohli will be aiming to seal thefive-match series when his teamsquare off against a confusedNew Zealand in the third ODIhere on Monday.

The Indian captain has beengiven a break as part of BCCI'sworkload management pro-gramme and he would ensure thathe finishes his assignment DownUnder on a high after the maid-en Test and ODI victories inAustralia.

An unassailable 3-0 leadwould be a fitting revenge toIndia's abject 0-4 humiliationduring the 2014 limited oversseries.

One of the primary focuses ofMonday's encounter could beinclusion of Indian cricket's latestenfant terrible Hardik Pandya,who is coming back from provi-sional suspension for his loose talkon a TV chat show.

Pandya's presence lends solid-ity and balance to the side and theskipper has time and again admit-ted it.

The Baroda all rounder'sreplacement Vijay Shankar is adecent cricketer but is yet to pos-sess the X factor that Pandya has.

That Shankar was given onlytwo overs in the second ODI is anexample that he is still not ready

to shoulder extra responsibility.Pandya is a few clicks quick-

er than Shankar whose bowling inthe three ODIs that he has playedhas not been penetrative.

Pandya can also bat at No 6 ifsituation arises and his busyapproach in batting can also get

the scoreboard tick-ing in middle overs asthe skipper wants.

O t h e r w i s eIndian team doesn't require muchtinkering.

New Zealand, on the otherhand, has looked clueless against

India's wrist-spinduo of KuldeepYadav andYuzvendra Chahal,

who accounted for 12 of the 20wickets in the last two ODIs.

Kuldeep has looked the mostmenacing as he claimed two four-

wicket hauls in the first two ODIs,while Chahal returned with twowickets on both the matches.

Seamers BhuvneshwarKumar and Mohammed Shamialso have done their job well, get-ting crucial breakthroughs for theteam.

India's batting too have com-plemented the bowlers, lookingrock solid in both the games withShikhar Dhawan's return to formlending the team the much-need-ed support at the top.

If he had scored an unbeaten75 in the first ODI, he cracked a67-ball 66 in the second game.

Vice captain Rohit Sharma,who had flopped in the firstODI, too entertained the specta-tors here with a strokeful 87 enroute his 14th century stand withopening partner Dhawan.

Skipper Kohli also looked ingood nick in both the matches,while Ambati Rayudu seemed tohave found his mojo back with a49-ball 47 on Saturday.

An ageless Mahendra SinghDhoni too continued his ram-paging run with yet anotherunbeaten 33-ball 48 to take Indiaacross the 300-mark, while KedarJadhav has also grabbed the roleof a finisher with both hands.

While the batting looked inplace, there is a slight concernabout the visitors fifth bowler'sslot where Pandya might fit in.

For Black Caps, captain KaneWilliamson, who had top-scoredin the first ODI, looked good dur-ing his short stay in the secondODI, while all-rounder DougBracewell tried to take the gameto the wires with a 46-ball 57 butnone of the other batters couldconvert their starts.

����� =�/����

Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal claimedher first BWF title in two years after

three-time world champion CarolinaMarin of Spain limped out of theIndonesia Masters final due to a leginjury, here on Sunday.

The London Olympics Bronzemedallist, who last won a BWF title in2017 in Malaysia, was trailing 4-10 in theopening game when Marin decided towithdraw from the contest.

"It is important year for all of us. Itwas not good to see at all. It is painful. Ihave been getting injured a lot in the lastfew years and to see something like thison court is really painful," said Saina, whohad suffered a career-threatening kneeinjury at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"I know how it is mentally becausewhen I got that knee injury at theOlympics. I was very upset. I was cryinglike anything. So I know how difficult itis for a player to go through such kind ofinjuries but the sport is like that, it is cruel."

It is a creditable performance for theIndian, who had suffered a shin injury late

last year."I took a break the whole of

December. I played these events to seehow good I am and I was surprised withmyself. January 1 was my first match

(PBL) against Sindhu after the injury. Ididn't do any kind of training. Doctorsasked me not to do any training," Sainasaid.

"But I am not happy with the way Igot it today. Of course I am happy thatI could reach the finals, beating difficultopponents like He Bingjiao. Both thetournaments, I am very happy with myperformance. It is great to beat (Nozomi)Okuhara, Binjiao, Dinar (DyahAyustine).

"In the finals, of course Carolina hadthe upper hand and I wanted to fight andsee how the match goes but it was unfor-tunate what happened," added the 28-year-old from Hyderabad.

Olympic champion Marin wasfavourite to win the title. Coming intothis match, she led 6-5 in her head-to-head record against Saina, an opponentshe beat last week at the MalaysiaMasters semifinal in Kuala Lumpur.

The fast-moving Spaniard made arampaging start to take the first twopoints before Saina started to engage herin rallies and caught the Spaniard at thenet to log her first point.

But the Indian missed the backlinea couple of times and also found the netto allow Marin lead 6-2 at the IstoraSenayan.

The Spaniard looked in good form,unleashing her aggressive brand of bad-minton but an unfortunate injurybrought a premature end of the matchwhen Marin, leading 9-2, landed badlyon her right leg and fall on the court inagony holding her knee.

After a medical time out, Marin triedto continue but eventually collapsed tothe ground crying.

She conceded the match at 10-4 up,limping out of the stadium in tears.

For Saina, it turned out to be yetanother impressive outing, following thesemifinal finish at Malaysia Masters lastweek.

Next would be All EnglandChampionship, a title Saina has not beenable to win yet.

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