K’taka plays ‘Lingayats not Hindu’ card

SAUGAR SENGUPTA/OMER FAROOQ nKOLKATA/HYDERABAD

Aweek after the dinner host-ed by UPA chairperson

Sonia Gandhi featuring all“secular” outfits — includingthe Trinamool Congress —Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Monday put astamp on her Telangana coun-terpart K ChandrashekharRao’s Third Front initiativedevoid of a tri-colour and saf-fron tinge.

The two leaders met atNabanna the State secretariat inHowrah from where KCRkicked off his mission to bringthe regional parties together toform a non-BJP, non-CongressThird Front.

At the end of more than anhour-long meeting, KCR said,“We made a very good begin-ning today. We want tostrengthen the federal struc-ture. We will soon come up

with a people’s agenda whichwill be different from what wehave seen in the last 70 years.”

Pointing out the urgency ofbringing a “real politicalchange,” he insisted that the BJPand the Congress had ruinedIndia and there was strongneed for a “federal front,” thatwould take care of the people’saspirations.

Soon after KCR hadexpressed the need for bring-ing a “qualitative change innational politics” and comingup with an alternative to theBJP-led NDA and Congress-ledUPA, Mamata had spoken tohim over phone.

“We are with you,” she hadtold him hinting at the emer-gence of Kolkata-Hyderabadaxis which became all the moreevident after a reported talkbetween Mamata and AndhraPradesh Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu who hadjust walked out of the NDA.

Continued on Page 7

Didi, KCR agreeon non-Congressfederal Opp bid

PNS n NEW DELHI

Almost a year in hospitalafter he fought death and

miraculously survived, CRPFCommandant and KirtiChakra awardee Chetan KumarCheetah has resumed activeduty as Commandant in theForce Headquarters in thenational Capital.

The Commandant of the45th Battalion of the CRPF,Chetan sustained nine bulletsin an encounter between agroup of terrorists and securi-ty forces in the wee hours ofFebruary 14, 2017, in Hajinarea of Bandipora in Jammu &

Kashmir. He had been recuper-ating in hospital for a year.

Donning a Khaki uniform,wearing an eye-patch on hisright eye, and metal glasses,Chetan said, “I am proud toresume my duty again. It isgood to be back.” Referring tothe uniform, he laughed andsaid, “This is my second skin.”

He had lost his eye duringthe operation and is undergo-ing massive physiotherapy toresume sensation in his hand.The 45-year-old had sufferedbilateral upper limbs fracturesand bullet injuries in his head.As many as three Army per-sonnel were killed and sevenothers injured in the encounter.

Chetan has been calling onhis senior officers ever since heresumed his active duty lastweek. Chetan said, “I wantyoungsters to give 100 per centto the country, that’s what Ihave done. The duty which I

had, I could have escaped, butinstead, I faced the bullets.”

The commandant duringhis year-long recovery had reit-erated several times that “mil-itary solution to Kashmir canbe the only political solution toKashmir’s problem”.

Chetan was first taken tomilitary hospital in Srinagarwhere medications were givento prevent bleeding. However,given the extent of the injuriesand his comatose state, it wasdecided to airlift him to theAIIMS trauma centre. Even,Army Chief Bipin Singh Rawatwent to meet him when he wasadmitted to AIIMS.

Chetan was awarded theKirti Chakra on the eve ofIndependence Day last year forhis brave exploits against ter-rorists in Kashmir. Kirti Chakrais considered as the secondhighest peacetime gallantrymedal.

PNS n RANCHI

RJD chief Lalu Prasad washeld guilty in another fod-

der scam case RC38A/96 bySpecial CBI Court of ShivpalSingh on Monday, while otherpoliticians, including formerChief Minister JagannathMishra, were acquitted.

Lalu has already been con-victed in three fodder scamcases and he is lodged in BirsaMunda Central Jail.

The court will hear thearguments on the quantum ofpunishment on Wednesday,Thursday and Friday and passa judgment on March 23.

Other politicians whowere acquitted include then

Continued on Page 7

Lalu convicted in 4th fodderscam case

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a setback to Congress lead-ers Sonia Gandhi and Rahul

Gandhi in the National Heraldcase, the Delhi High Court onMonday directed their compa-ny Young Indian to first deposit`10 crore before challengingthe Income Tax recovery noticeof `249.15 crore served on it.

The Bench of Justices SRavindra Bhat and AK Chawladirected the company todeposit half the amount withthe Income Tax departmentbefore March 31 and theremaining `5 crore by April 15.The High Court said subject todeposit of the amount, the taxauthorities shall not enforce the

Continued on Page 7

Legality of Siddaramaiah’smasterstroke splits experts

Setback to Cong:

HC orders deposit

of `10 crore in

Herald I-T case

Chetan Kumar Cheetah (at present)

ABRAHAM THOMAS nNEW DELHI

The Siddaramaiah dispensa-tion’s move to accord “reli-

gious minority” status to theLingayat community and for-ward its recommendation tothe Centre for considerationhas sparked a legal debate asconstitutional experts are divid-ed over the issue.

Some experts told ThePioneer that such a categorisa-tion goes against the spirit ofthe Constitution as the Statecannot be seen as supportingthe cause of a particular com-munity to be declared as a reli-gious minority. But there areothers who claimed there is noharm if the State wishes toidentify and name a certain sector group as a religious minor-ity as past decisions of theSupreme Court have held thatthe State is to be the unit todetermine the status of a reli-gious minority.

At the heart of the contro-versy is the definition of minor-ity, which is not defined by theConstitution. However, underthe National MinoritiesCommission Act 1992, theCentral Government candeclare a community as minor-ity. Even under the NationalMinorities EducationalInstitutions Act 2004, a com-munity may be declared asminority by the Centre.

Noted constitutional expertSubhash Kashyap said a StateGovernment seeking religious

minority tag for a particularcommunity defeats the secularnature of the Constitution. “Tocreate a separate identity for aparticular religion or caste is notin keeping with the spirit of ourConstitution. State has no busi-ness with religion as it is large-ly an individual affair. Stateshould not be seen supportingor promoting the demand of acommunity to claim religiousminority tag as such a demandmust come from the communi-ty itself.”

He cited how the Jain com-munity, though not envisaged asa minority community initial-ly, was later identified as a reli-gion other than Hindu religion.

In 1966, the SupremeCourt turned down thedemand of the Swaminarayansect to be distinct and separatefrom the Hindu religion. Againin 1995, the apex court refusedthe petition by RamakrishnaMission to be recognised as areligious minority, distinctfrom Hindus.

Senior advocate andMember of Parliament VivekTankha felt that the concept ofminority is to be determinedState-wise even when it is to begranted national recognition.

He quoted the TMA PaiFoundation vs Karnataka(2002) decision where an 11-judge Bench by a 7:4 majoritydecided on the scope andextent of rights enjoyed byminorities under Article 30(1)to establish and administereducational institutions.

The majority judgmentheld that for determination oflinguistic and religious minor-ity under a Central law orState law, the State will be thebasic unit and not the whole ofIndia. Hence, the determina-tion of minority is to be doneState-wise.

Interestingly, theConstitution is silent on defin-ing religion. The Constitutionneither establishes a religionnor contains provisions forcreating one. All it does is toensure the right of all religionsto practice and profess theirfaith under Article 25.

Responding to the specif-ic demand of the KarnatakaGovernment to seek religiousminority tag for the Lingayatsconstituting around 19 percent of State’s population, advo-cate Anirudh Sharma said, “Inthe past, the Supreme Courthas applied a tough scrutinyover religious communitieswithin Hindu religion claimingseparate identity as a religiousminority.”

Kashyap said, “Section 2(1)of Hindu Marriage Act 1955specifically recognisesVirashaiva, Lingayats, followersof Brahmo, Prarthana and AryaSamaj to be various forms ofHinduism. In this backdrop,the demand to provideLingayats a separate identityfrom Hindu religion appears tobe a political gimmick.” In anyevent, such a decision will facetough scrutiny from Courts, headded.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Telangana counterpart KChandrashekhar Rao address the media in Kolkata on Monday PTI

Crippled after attack

KESTUR VASUKI/PNS nBENGALURU/NEW DELHI

In a major political move inview of the impending

Assembly polls in Karnataka,the Siddaramaiah-led CongressGovernment on Mondaydecided to recognise the dom-inant Lingayats and theVeerashaiva Lingayats, believ-ers of Basava Tattva, as separatereligious minority.Subsequently, it lobbed theball in the BJP-ruled Centre’scourt for a notification in thisregard under the CentralMinority Commission Act.

In doing so, Siddaramaiahchose to ignore the dissentfrom within his own Cabineteven as the BJP asserted thatthe move would “boomerang”on the Congress.

The Veerashaivas haverejected the “divisive move”amid report of minor clasheswith some celebratingLingayats.

Slamming the decision,Opposition BJP leader in theAssembly Jagadish Shettar saidthe Siddaramaiah Governmentwas dividing society for the sakeof politics, keeping the electionin mind and accused it of “ignit-ing fire.” “The decision willboomerang on them,” he said.

Lingayats, who constitutearound 19 per cent of theState’s population and are tra-ditional BJP supporters, havean impact on about 100 of the

225 Assembly seats in the State.Facing a stiff challenge from theBJP, whose leader in the StateBS Yeddyurappa too is aLingayat, the Congress’ move isseen as an attempt to kill twobirds with one stone.

A division between theLingayats and the Veerashaivaswould benefit the Congress’cause as it may lead to a dentin the BJP’s votebank. By tak-ing a decision on a demand thathas been in place since 1942,the Congress is seeking toendear itself to the communi-ty and project itself to be cham-pioning the fraternity’s cause.But above all, by making a rec-ommendation to the Centre, itseeks to put the BJP on asticky wicket on the issue thathas the potential of making ormarring electoral fortunes inthe State.

“After due deliberationsand some discussions on con-cerns of various sections ofsociety, the Cabinet has decid-ed to accept the recommenda-tions of the Karnataka StateMinority Commission undersection 2(d) of the KarnatakaMinorities Act. It was alsodecided to forward the same tothe Central Government fornotifying under section 2(C) ofthe Central MinorityCommission Act,” State LawMinister T B Jayachandra said.

The BJP and the RSS havebeen opposing such a move.There were differences withinthe Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet tooas Ministers on both sides ofthe divide pitched for theirrespective causes.

The Veerashaiva Lingayatseers had warned the

Continued on Page 7

Cong Govt tags

dominant group

as religious

minority, moves

Centre for nod

CRPF CommandantChetan resumes dutyafter month in comaand a year in hospital

9 bullets fail to stop Cheetah’s resurgence

People of Lingayat and Veerashaiva communities clash with each other after theKarnataka Government announced to recognise Lingayats as a religious minority,in Kalburgi on Monday PTI

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PNS n LUCKNOW

On the completion of hisgovernment’s one year in

office, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath announced fourlakh jobs in the next fiscal, onemillion houses under PradhanMantri Awas Yojana, declareda decisive battle against corrup-tion and launched an anti-corruption portal on Monday.

“The government has zerotolerance to corruption. Duringthe past one year, 192 officialswere either forced to retire orsacked for corruption. Besides,departmental proceedings areunderway against 415 offi-cials,” the Chief Minister saidwhile inaugurating the anti-corruption portal, which willbe available on Jan Suvidhawebsite of the government.

“Complainants can uploadvideos (of corruption) on theportal and their identities willbe kept secret,” Yogi said.

He even compared himselfwith a monkey (Hanuman)

who would torch the ‘Lanka’ ofcorruption and dynastic rule.

With Governor Ram Naikas chief guest at a function heldat Lok Bhawan in Lucknow, theChief Minister presented the

‘report card’ of achievements ofhis government in the last oneyear and announced schemesfor the next fiscal.

In a slew of announce-ments, Yogi declared that the

government would open jobsin 64 departments in the nextfiscal and fill up around fourlakh posts.

These jobs will be in police,local bodies, education and

other departments.“The NCERT syllabus will

be introduced in all primaryand secondary schools in thestate from April 1. Out of a totalof 1.69 lakh schools in the state,2,500 have been identified asideal schools at par with con-vent schools,” the ChiefMinister said.

“The successful Investors’Summit in February has start-ed showing results. In March2018, memorandums of under-standing (MoUs) worth`25,000 crore have been imple-mented, while MoUs of similaramount will be implemented inApril,” Yogi said.

The Chief Minister alsoclaimed that in the current fis-cal, around eight lakh housesunder Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana were completed, whilein the next fiscal, the govern-ment had set a target of con-structing one million housesfor the poor in both rural andurban areas.

Yogi said that the govern-

ment had decided to waive roy-alty on soil for peasants fromApril 1. Earlier, a farmer wasallowed to take 10 trolleys ofmud for his personal use.

“If brick kiln owners decideto reduce the rate of bricks, thegovernment can consider waiv-er of soil royalty for themalso,” he said.

In another importantannouncement, the ChiefMinister said that the land ofthe poor grabbed by influentialpersons would be freed. “Ourfight against land mafia willcontinue, but the poor will notbe harassed,” he said.

In his long speech, Yogielaborated on the government’sachievements, includingimprovement in law and orderand redressal of farmers prob-lems by waiving crop loan.“This money was arrangedfrom our own resources andthis shows our commitment tosolve people’s problems,” Yogisaid, adding that the

Continued on Page 7

PNS n LUCKNOW

Asking his ministerial col-leagues to be sensitive to

people’s problems, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath askedthem to ensure proper imple-mentation of governmentschemes so that the benefitscould reach the beneficiaries.Directives were also given toministers not to ignore partyworkers.

The Chief Minister con-vened a meeting of Cabinetministers, ministers of statewith independent charge andministers of state in Lucknowon Monday evening on thecompletion of the BharatiyaJanata Party government’s oneyear in office.

Sources said that seniorparty leaders also attended themeeting to convey the party’sview points about the perfor-mance of the government inthe last one year.

A minister said that theChief Minister, in his plainspeak, asked ministers to per-form. “He did not curtly saythat they could be dropped but

threw enough hints and askedministers to pull up theirsocks,” he said.

The meeting assumedimportance as it was heldagainst the backdrop of spec-ulations of possible reshuffle inthe state Council of Ministers.

It is believed that someministers, who have failed todeliver, could be dropped andothers who have done wellcould be given importantassignments.

“Another high point wasthe directive from the ChiefMinister to listen to the griev-ances of party workers andredress them at the earliest. Nospecific guidelines were givenbut ministers were asked totake care of party workers,” theminister said.

This directive also assumesimportance because it isbelieved that the party sufferedignominious defeat in Phulpurand Gorakhpur byelectionsbecause of the apathy of partyworkers. The hour-long meet-ing ended with a resolve toimplement government poli-cies in letter and spirit.

Yogi announces 4 lakh jobs

CM launches anti-graft portal as he completes one year in office

Ensure implementation of govt schemes, mins told

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath pose for a photograph with the artists during acelebration on the completion of one year of the BJP Government in Lucknow on Monday

city 02LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

PNS n LUCKNOW

The fate of the ninth candi-date of Bharatiya Janata

Party in the biennial electionsto 10 seats of Rajya Sabhafrom UP hangs in the balancewith its ally Suheldeo BharatiyaSamaj Party (SBSP) announc-ing that its support to BJP nom-inees was uncertain.

Playing spoilsport, SBSPalso decided to skip the grandevent held to celebrate the firstanniversary of the YogiAdityanath government in officeand even took a pot-shot sayingbuilding temples in Mathura andKashi would not solve any prob-lem.

“We made this governmentand it is our duty to repeatedlypoint out shortcomings...Holding celebrations is not going

to serve the purpose... makingtemples in Mathura and Kashiwill not give education to thepoor, or toilets and pension tothem,” a visibly angry SBSPleader and UP Cabinet ministerRajbhar told newspersons here.

Refusing to take part in thecelebrations on completion ofone year in office, Rajbhar said,“Let them celebrate. I will not goto attend it till the question ofration cards, housing, educa-tion, medicine and others are notredressed”.

The SBSP has four membersin the Assembly and they wouldbe crucial in getting the 9th BJPnominee in Rajya Sabha pollselected.

Rajbhar accused the rulingBJP of “not respecting its alliancepartners”. The remark of theSBSP chief came on a day whenthe Yogi Adityanath governmentcompleted one year in office androlled out grand celebrations onthe occasion.

Rajbhar said in Lucknow onMonday that \until BJP chief

Amit Shah spoke to him and set-tled the issues raised, his legisla-tors would not participate inRajya Sabha biennial polls slatedfor March 23. “For now we arewith the National DemocraticAlliance but the BJP is not follow-ing the coalition dharma,”Rajbhar said.

Eight BJP candidates can winthe Rajya Sabha polls on thestrength of the party in theAssembly while for its ninthcandidate, the ruling party needsthe support of its allies andcross-voting.

The SBSP chief said that hewould boycott voting in RajyaSabha elections if he did not geta chance to speak to BJP presi-dent Amit Shah.

The fact that he has come outin the open to voice concernsagainst the BJP does not augurwell for the saffron party.

When asked whether hewould vote against the BJP in theRajya Sabha polls, Rajbharrefused to reveal his stand, say-ing that his party was yet to take

a final stand but he was irked bythe way the BJP behaved with itsallies. Predicting bad days for theBJP, the minister alleged that theruling party had “lost its mentalbalance in the wake of brutemajority that it got in UPAssembly”.

Rajbhar said that his partycould have got at least 30,000votes for the BJP in Phulpur andGorakhpur Lok Sabha by-elec-tions but he was not even askedto campaign, leave alone beingconsulted while finalising thecandidates.

“It seems we have no utilityfor the BJP. The BJP’s humiliat-ing bypoll defeat is the result ofits arrogance and reflects thatwithin a year, it has lost the trustof the people,” the SBSP chief said.

Rajbhar accused the BJPgovernment of paying attentiononly to temples and doing noth-ing for the poor, the backwards,Dalits and farmers.

“A lot is being said, claimedand written but on the groundnothing is visible,” he added.

PNS n LUCKNOW

In a tragic incident, fourlabourers were electrocuted

while two others suffered seri-ous burns after a high tensionwire fell over them while theywere working at a school inKamlapur area of Sitapur.

Agitated over the deaths,dozens of labourers and localresidents blocked the road,disrupting traffic on theLucknow-Sitapur highway forseveral hours. They demandedaction against the lax PowerCorporation officials and com-pensation for the families of thevictims.

Later, senior officersreached the spot and pacifiedthe protesters and cleared theroad block, assuring them oftaking up the issue of compen-sation with the governmentand action against the guiltyofficials of the PowerCorporation.

A case was registered andthe bodies were sent for autop-sy.

The labourers were con-structing a boundary wall atVidyagyan private school inKamlapur area when the hightension wire suddenly snappedand fell over them, fatally char-ring four and injuring twoothers.

The deceased were identi-fied as Madhulal (30), Ankul(16) of Suraicha (Sitapur),

Amrit Lal (25) of Imiliya(Sitapur) and Mahendra (40) ofBamera (Sitapur).

Among the injured, thecondition of Jitendra (18) wasstated to be critical.

Meanwhile in Bijnor, threepersons were killed in a roadmishap on Monday morning.

A speeding truck (HR38BC 5815) and a speedingScorpio (UP08 AN 2493) col-lided head-on at FazalpurTalebi hamlet of Najibabadclaiming three lives and injur-ing two others.

The deceased were identi-fied as Ram Prakash Kapoor(55) of Sector 62, Faridabad,Prannath Bhatia (55) ofMukherjee Nagar, New Delhiand Mohan Singh Negi (35) ofPauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand.

A case was registered andthe bodies were sent for post-mortem.

In Shahjahanpur, twoteenagers drowned in a canalwhile bathing in it on Monday.

Police said the incidenttook place when Divyanshu(18), Utkarsh (17) and fourothers ventured deep into thecanal in Puwayan area whiletaking a bath.

While others could swimback to safety, Divyanshu andUtkarsh were swept away anddrowned.

Later, their bodies werefished out by the police withhelp from locals.

Meanwhile, upset at beingharassed by two youths, a 22year-old woman committedsuicide by hanging herself in avillage under the Sikandrapolice station of neighbouringKanpur Dehat district.

The womanl, identified asNeha Kushwaha, had scribbledthe names of her alleged tor-mentors, Sanjay Kori (22), akaSanju, and his younger broth-er Sonu (19), on her hands andlegs, Superintendent of Police(Kanpur Dehat) RatankantPandey said.

A suicide note was foundin the woman’s house, the SPsaid, adding that the victim wasfound hanging from a tree inChitwakhera village by herfamily members on Sunrday.

A case under Section 306of Indian Penal Code (IPC) wasregistered against the accusedand they were detained, SPPandey said.

In Shahjahanpur, a teacherwas arrested on Monday foralleged obscene behaviour. Theof junior high school teacher inMadnapur area was arrested forallegedly acting obscenely infront of a 14-year-old Dalit girl,ASP Dinesh Tripathi said.

After the girl informed thisto her family members, theyreached the school with othervillagers and caught the teacherand beat him. They later lodgedan FIR against the teacher whowas arrested, the ASP said.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Giving a thumbs up to theYogi Adityanath gov-ernment on its perfor-

mance in the last one year,Governor Ram Naik said thatinvestors showing interest toinvest in Uttar Pradesh duringInvestors’ Summit proved thatthe face of the state hadchanged in the last one year.

“I am from Mumbai,known as the financial capitalof India. I can tell one thingthat investors will invest in onlythat area where they are assuredof returns. The way investorsfrom Mumbai showed theirinterest in investing in UPproves that they believe the UPhas changed in the last 12months,” Naik said whileaddressing a function held tocelebrate the first anniversaryof the Yogi government inLucknow on Monday.

Though he did not talkabout law and order and othercontentious issues, Naik spokeabout his relations with thegovernments – both ofSamajwadi Party and BharatiyaJanata Party.

“A Governor has a directlink with the state govern-ment. I can vouch that my rela-tionship with previous ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav wasvery good but I also enjoy amadhur (sweet) relation withYogi,” the Governor said.

Showering praise on Yogi,Naik said that the ChiefMinister was sensitive andresponsible towards the peopleof the state. Naik talked aboutsuggestions he had given to the

government from time to time.“I had given many sugges-

tions to the SP governmentwhich included celebration ofUP Day on January 24 that wasnot accepted. But I am a stead-fast type of person and whenYogi took over, I gave the samesuggestion and he agreed andorganised a huge function,” hesaid.

“Similarly, Yogi acceptedmy suggestion to celebrate 100years of the iconic call of

‘Swaraj is my birth right’ givenby Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Manypeople do not know that Tilakhad given this call in Lucknow,”Naik said.

Claiming that UP wouldtransform into an ‘UttamPradesh’ during the presentregime, the Governor said thatthe state government’s reportcard gave the entire picture ofhow serious the BJP govern-ment was on serving the peo-ple of UP.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Bahujan Samaj Party andCongress flayed the ruling

Bharatiya Janata Party for celebrat-ing one year in office, saying thatit was more of ‘Ek Saal, JanataBehal’ as the government hadfailed to extend any relief to themasses.

Reacting to BJP’s slogan ‘EkSaal, Nai Misal’, coined to celebratethe first anniversary of the YogiAdityanath government, BSP chiefMayawati said that the sloganshould ideally be ‘Ek Saal, BuraMisal’.

“This BJP government hasfailed the people in just a year ofits rule. Its impact could be seen inthe Gorakhpur and Phulpur LokSabha bypolls where peoplerebuffed the BJP for its tall claimsand no achievements,” Mayawatisaid in a statement issued inLucknow on Monday.

The BSP chief said that the BJPfailed to live up to people’s expec-tations and even in urban localbodies’ poll, it lost from the ChiefMinister’s ward in Gorakhpur.

“The BJP won the 2017 UPAssembly polls by dividing societyon communal and caste lines. Butnow people have started realisingtheir fault and are rejecting the BJPin elections,” she said.

Dismissing the Chief Minister’sclaim that no communal riotstook place in the last one year, thefour-time Chief Minister of UPsaid that Yogi’s claim was a total lie.

“Even if we discount smallerincidents, the communal riots inKasganj on Republic Day shouldnot be forgotten by the BJP,” shesaid.

Attacking Chief Minister YogiAdityanath’s one year in office,Congress state president RajBabbar said that the people werethe best judge of the performanceof any government.

“The defeat of the BJP inbypolls reflects the public viewabout the present government’sperformance,” he said.

“The BJP lost both Gorakhpurand Phulpur Lok Sabha seatsvacated by Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav Prasad Maurya.Losing these seats clearly indicatesthat their work has been rejectedby the public,” Babbar said.

“The stark reality is that thereal picture in the state is one of ‘EkSaal, Janata Behal’. Even the four-year rule of the BJP at the Centrehas a similar report card. The BJPhas been losing all Lok Sabha andAssembly bypolls across the coun-try,” the Congress leader said.

“Yogi Adityanath was awarethat he and his ministers could notwin any election hence they man-aged five MLCs of other parties,forced them to resign and enteredthe Legislative Council through theback door. The people of the stateare now ready to throw the BJP outof power in the 2019 general elec-tion,” the Congress state presidentsaid.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said onMonday that tall claims had been made by the Yogi

Adityanath government on completion of its one yearin office but no change was visible at the ground level.

“In the last one year, the Bharatiya Janata Party gov-ernment has not done anything significant. Divertingpublic attention from real issues is the BJP’s characterand only regional forces can stop its march,” the SP pres-ident said.

Akhilesh said, “The Yogi government has spent itsfirst year in office by removing the word ‘Samajwadi’ fromvarious schemes. The BJP has divided society in the nameof religion and festivals. It has duped the people after mak-ing hollow promises in its election manifesto.”

The SP chief said that though Chief Minister YogiAdityanath took the oath of office as per the IndianConstitution, he had no faith in either democracy orConstitution.

Akhilesh said that the coming together of theSamajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party hadunnerved the BJP and in desperation, the ruling partyleaders were speaking in intemperate language againstthe two parties.

Akhilesh further claimed that farmers, traders, youthand women were facing difficulties in the BJP regime.

“The BJP government has zero sensitivity. This gov-ernment has virtually destroyed helpline services likeDial-100, 1090 Women Power Line besides 108 and 102ambulance services,” he alleged.

“The people are disenchanted with the BJP govern-ments both at the Centre and in the state. The effect wasseen in the outcome of the recent Lok Sabha by-elec-tions in Gorakhpur and Phulpur. People have rejectedthe BJP and this will be visible in 2019 general elections,”Yadav said.

PNS n LUCKNOW

UP Power Corporationemployees announced to

boycott work on March 27 toprotest privatisation of electric-ity distribution in seven districts.

The power employees willstrike work for indefinite peri-od if the process of privatisationof power distribution in theseven districts is not rolled backby the state government.

Rallying under the bannerof Power Employees Joint ActionCommittee, the agitated poweremployees staged a day-longdemonstration at ShaktiBhawan, the headquarters of UPPower Corporation Limited(UPPCL), on Monday.

Joint Action Committeeconvenor Shailendra Dubeyalleged that the UPPCL officialsmisled Chief Minister YogiAdityanath into taking anti-people decision.

He pointed out that thegovernment on Mondayreleased data on improvement inpower sector that includedincreased hours of supply andnew power connections to thepoor.

“When the governmentitself is claiming all-roundimprovement in power sector inthe last one year, how can it jus-tify privatisation of power dis-tribution in seven districts?”Dubey asked.

In February, the UPPCL

floated tenders to hand overwork of power bill distribution,meter reading, revenue collec-tion and installation, change ofmeters to private companiesdescribing them as IntegratedService Providers (ISPs). TheISPs were to operate in sevendistricts — Etawah, Kannauj,Orai, Rae Bareli, Saharanpur,Mau and Ballia.

As per the tender, theprocess of awarding contract tothe ISP was to be completed byMarch 28 and a Letter of Intent(LOI) was to be given by thatdate.

Justifying the UPPCL move

of hiring ISPs, an official saidthat it was planned to generatehigher revenue in loss-makingdivisions of various districts.

“It will be initiated in divi-sions where power theft is ram-pant and causes revenue loss upto 35 per cent,” he said.

UP State ElectricityRegulatory Commission hasalso directed the UPPCL tobring down line losses to 15 percent by the end of 2018-19.

Not satisfied by the UPPCLexplanation, irate poweremployees, however, adoptedthe confrontational path andaccused the government of

introducing privatisationthrough back door to benefitprivate companies.

“We asked the managementto recall tenders already floatedfor outsourcing in seven districtswithin a week, failing which theemployees will go on strike,” thePower Employees Joint ActionCommittee convenor warned.

Dubey said the UPPCL hadalready held a pre-bid confer-ence with prospective biddersfor appointing ISPs in seven dis-tricts. He said that by March 28,power distribution in seven dis-tricts would be handed over tothe private companies.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Taking a cue from the UPPolice which is on an

encounter spree, residents ofKasganj managed to kill twocriminals and injure their threeaides during an exchange of fireon Monday afternoon.

The police later rushed tothe spot and shifted the injuredcriminals to hospital.

A case was registered andthe incident was being investi-gated.

As per reports, the localpolice after hearing gunshotsfrom Chaka in Patiyali policestation area rushed to thespot on Monday afternoonand found that the villagershad taken positions againstsome criminals, who hadreportedly attacked them withgunfire.

The police said that in theexchange of fire, two criminalswere killed and their fouraccomplices were injured whileanother managed to escape.The injured were shifted to ahospital.

The deceased were identi-fied as Sanjay Kumar Mishra(28) of Nanpara (Bahraich)and Raj Kumar (30) of Patiyali(Kasganj).

Both had several cases ofmurder and heinous crimeregistered against their names.Investigations are on.

Lucknow (PTI): As the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment completed one year in office, a farmers’ body on Mondayaccused the ruling dispensation of failing to fulfill the promisesmade to farmers during the state assembly elections last year. “TheBJP government has failed to provide relief to the farming com-munity in the state. The farmers who grow wheat, paddy, potatoand sugarcane are facing many problems,” Rashtriya Kisan Manchchief Shekhar Dixit said in a statement here. “The Yogi Adityanathgovernment had announced a crop loan redemption scheme forfarmers. But, the reality is that a number of farmers in the stategot only a minuscule amount under this step,” he said.

Printed and Published by Vijay Prakash Singh for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., 4th Floor, Sahara Shopping Centre, Faizabad Road, Lucknow-226016 and Printed at Tin Tin Printech Pvt Ltd., C-33 Amausi Industrial Area, Nadarganj, Lucknow. Tel: (0522) 2438656 / 9336266608.

Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: Vijay Prakash Singh. RNI No. 2016/57. Lucknow Telephones: EPABX: 4036600 Fax: 2345582. Allahabad Office: (95532) 2420818, 2421018, 3290460. Kanpur Office: (95512) 2304006, 2304416. Varanasi Office: (95542) 2414294, 2414295. Delhi

Office: Link House, II Floor, 3 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Tel: (011) 23755271-274, 41509074.

NOTICE

I Sandeep Singh R/o H.N.O.80, Saddopur, Buxa, Jaunpurdec lares that in my passportthe name is wrongly men-tioned as Sandeep KumarSingh, my correct name isSandeep Singh and I will beknown as Sandeep Singh forall future purposes.

Guv’s thumbs up to Yogi govt

(Left to right) Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pandey, Assembly SpeakerHriday Narayan Dikshit, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Governor Ram Naik and Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharmareleasing a booklet of state government’s achievements on completion of one year in office, in Lucknow on Monday Pioneer

Nothing done byUP govt in past1 yr: Akhilesh

Janata behal, say

BSP, Congress

Power employees to boycott

work on March 27

Power employees staging protest against move to privatise electricity distribution in seven districts, at Shakti Bhawan inLucknow on Monday Pioneer

SBSP support to BJP in RS polls uncertain: Rajbhar

Four labourers electrocuted Kasganj villagers

kill 2 criminals in

exchange of fire

Skips govtfunction

5-year-old girl

among 3 of a

family hacked

PNS n ALLAHABAD

In a heart-rending incident,unidentified miscreants

killed three persons of a fam-ily by slitting open their neckswith a sharp-edged weapon atShamsnagar under Karelipolice station in Allahabad onMonday.

Top cops, including thosefrom Kareli police station,reached the spot and reviewedinvestigations.

Police said that the motivefor the triple murder couldnot be ascertained.

The police said that evi-dences had been collectedfrom the crime scene andefforts were on to nab theassailants.

The three persons whowere hacked were identifiedas Mohammad Yunus Khan(70), his daughter SalmaBegum (28) and latter’s 5-year-old daughter namedAina.

As neighbours came toknow about the incident, theyrushed to the spot. A largenumber of people gatheredoutside the residence of Yunus Khan.

Forensic experts and dogsquad were pressed into ser-vice and the bodies were sentfor autopsy.

Farmers’ body hits out at govt

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city 03LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

In a case of kidnapping forransom, the Lucknow policerescued a class XI student of

La Martiniere Boys’ CollegeArnav Agrawal from a sugar-cane field in Sitapur onMonday evening. Arnav wastied with ropes and was in asemi-conscious state when res-cued. The police also arrestedprime accused Santosh KumarYadav of Sitapur. Santosh wasworking as a driver at Arnav’shouse, while two of his aidesAjay of Barabanki and Sarveshof Sitapur succeeded in duck-ing the police. As per policeclaim, the miscreant executedthe crime to realise a hefty sumas ransom from his father whois a prominent businessman.Efforts to nab the abscondingmiscreants are on.

Arnav of SuryodayaColony (located oppositeBotanical Garden on RanaPratap Marg in Hazratganj) waskidnapped from outside hishouse on Monday morning. Hewas going to his college whenhe was kidnapped. The inci-dent mounted pressure on thepolice and a team, consisting ofcompetent and acuminouspolice officers, was pressedinto the rescue operation. Aftera hectic search of above sevenhours, the team traced the boyand rescued him from Sitapur.

Santosh Yadav got the jobat Arnav’s house 10 monthsback and was living at the ser-vants’ quarters of Narain AutoSales on Shahnajaf road in

Hazratganj. Arnav’s fatherAnoop Agrawal said thatSantosh used to report themaround 9.30 am after droppingArnav and he got a little bitanxious when he foundSantosh’s phone switched off.

He said that he kept tryingSantosh’s phone but in vain andso he reached the college toinquire about Arnav. However,when he reached the college, hewas told that Arnav had notcome. A visibly shaken Anoopthen called up his friend andformer DGP AK Jain, whotalked to SSP, Lucknow, DeepakKumar. Later, the Hazratganj

police registered a case of kid-napping and started the probe.Later, on the instructions of IG,Lucknow range, Sujeet KumarPandey, the investigation start-ed. The CO and SHO,Hazratganj, SHO, KrishnaNagar, and a number of copsfrom the surveillance cell andcrime branch were roped in.

The team first scanned thefootages of the CCTVsinstalled on the route betweenSikanderbad crossing and LaMartiniere College. It surfacedthat Arnav was sitting on thefront seat with driver Santoshat the wheels. They were also

seen moving towards Golf Clubcrossing and then turningtowards 1090. During theinvestigation, the XUV wasspotted at Itaunja toll plaza andthat gave police a lead.

Santosh lured Arnav for adrive and reached 1090 cross-ing where he stopped for awhile and his two aides, iden-tified as Ajay of Chinhat andSarvesh of Sitapur, joined him.They drove towards theBhainsakund road and thenreached Daliganj where fromthey drove to Sitapur road viaItaunja toll plaza. Police saidthey alerted the Sitapur police

seeking their help in rescuingArnav. In the meantime, theSitapur police recovered theXUV lying abandoned on theroad in Manpur police stationarea of Sitapur. The teamcamped there and startedcombing the village. Some vil-lagers told police that they hadseen three persons and a boygoing towards a sugarcane fieldin the area. The teams movedto the place and surrounded thefield from all sides while con-verging at the location wherethe boy was held hostage.

ASP Sarvesh Mishra saidthat Arnav was in a semi-con-scious state when the policerecovered him. He said the mis-creants had sedated Arnav byinjection so that he could notreact and cry for help. He saidtwo aides of the prime accusedsucceeded in fleeing the scenewhen the police zeroed in onthe place. The ASP said theprime accused was planning todemand a hefty sum as ransombut due to the police alacrity heand his aides could not do so.He said the police recovered theXUV and Arnav’s school bagfrom Santosh’s possession. “Theprime accused knew thatAnoop is a big businessman sohe planned to kidnap Arnav forransom which could be to thetune of several crore,” he said.He said Anoop deals in surgi-cal equipment while his broth-er deals in automobiles. “Themiscreants, however, could notmake the ransom call due topolice’s sprightly action,” hesaid.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Aprime witness in a murdercase in which his daughter

was killed in 2016 was report-ed missing under mysteriouscircumstances when he was outfor morning walk in Gudambaon Sunday morning. He had toappear in the court on Monday.

Asharam Verma (58) ofAdil Nagar locality is a typist ina court. His daughter Reeta waskilled and her body was recov-ered from Rampur Kalan local-ity of Sitapur. After the bodywas recovered by Sitapur policeand Asharam identified it, helodged a case naming his son-

in-law Ashwini Verma ofBarabanki for killing her. Healleged that Ashwini had luredReeta to go for a drive on thefateful day and took her toSitapur. He added that Ashwinihad killed Reeta on the way.

“Since the case was lodged,Ashwini and his family startedthreatening us to take back thecase,” Asharam’s son Avinashtold police. He said thatAsharam was the prime witnessin the case and was also a com-plainant. Avinash feared thatAshwini or his family membersmight have a hand in the sud-den disappearance of Asharam.Inspector, Gudamba, Ram

Soorat Sonkar said the policehad registered a report andefforts to trace the man wereon. “We have detained some ofthe family members of Ashwiniand they were being interrogat-ed,” he said.

He said prime suspectAshwini was absconding sincethe disappearance of Asharambut the police traced him andtook him in custody. “A teamis interrogating him though heclaimed innocence,” he added.The inspector added that thepolice were also scanning thefootages of the CCTV on theroute on which Asharam usedto go for morning walk.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Another leopard strayed intothe state capital on Monday

morning. The leopard wasspotted near Thekwa bridge inMula Khera village ofGosainganj. The Forest depart-ment team, along with tran-quillising experts, rushed to thespot.

DFO Manoj Kumar Sonkartold The Pioneer that the leop-ard was hiding in a pipe nearIndia canal. “The leopard ishiding in the pipe below theroad. One end of the pipe hasbeen closed and at the other, wehave placed a cage so that thebig cat walks into it. The eyesof the animals can be seenthrough the darkness in thepipe,” he said.

The official said that areawas sparsely populated andwas over 15 km from the maincity. “We are making efforts totrap the leopard and the crowds

have been managed in thearea,” he added.

Incidentally, this is thefourth leopard which hasstrayed into the city limitssince the start of this year. Astray leopard was caught inschool for deaf and dumb inThakurganj area in January. Itwas tranquillised by the Forestdepartment team. The secondleopard was spotted nearChinhat in the second week ofFebruary while the third wasshot in Ashiyana recently. Acase was registered under theWildlife Protection Act, 2017.

Lucknow zoo director RKSingh said the leopard mighthave come through the fields.“It’s not difficult for an animalto move 20-30 km in the night.The animal loses it way becauseit is colour blind. It’s a shy ani-mal and normally sticks to itsown prey. The leopard will like-ly move away if not troubled,”he said.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

In an incident which exposedpolice insensitivity, the Maal

police registered a case two daysafter a girl was raped by herneighbour. The girl’s mothersaid her daughter was lured bya local youth, identified asAwadhesh (30), for guavas onSaturday afternoon. She addedthat she found her daughterlying in a field bleeding profuse-ly and later rushed her to a hos-pital. “I went to police stationto lodge a case but was deniedthe favour. Then I sought helpof villagers and decided to peti-tion my case to senior policeofficers,” she said, adding thaton the instructions of seniorpolice officers the police regis-tered the case. Police said themiscreant was arrested soonafter the family lodged thecase. The police spokesmansaid the girl was sent for med-ical examination on Mondayand further investigations areon. He said Awadhesh ownedup his crime before the police.

“The police registered a case ofrape and also slapped sectionsof POCSO Act on the miscre-ant. The girl was sent to a hos-pital in Lucknow for medicaltest and reports are awaited,” hesaid.

THEFT Unidentified miscreants

stole cash and jewellery from ahouse owned by retired inspec-tor Vijay Kumar SinghBhadauria on Sunday night.Reports said the house ownerand his family were out of thecity for some work and the inci-dent came to the notice bysome residents who informedBhadauria. Police said thehouse is located close to aschool and hoped that theymight get some clues on exam-ining the footages of the CCTVinstalled there. In Ghazipur,unidentified miscreants stoleRs 45,000 and jewellery worthseveral lakh from a houseowned by Sanjeev Kumar ofIndira Nagar on Sunday night.Sanjeev runs a coaching and he,

along with his family, had goneto their native house in Sitapurwhen the theft occurred. Themiscreants gained access intothe house scaling the roof.

CONNED Two unidentified miscre-

ants impersonating themselvesas policemen conned retiredCooperative Bank’s employeeRavi Kumar Malhotra fromoutside his house in Ghazipurpolice station area on Mondayafternoon. Reports saidMalhotra was at his housewhen miscreants reached thereand asked him about the namesof family members living in thehouse. They later told Malhotrathat loot incidents were on therise in the city and asked himto put off his gold ring and goldbracelet. They then took thoseitems to wrap them in a sachetand later gave him anothersachet. When Malhotra openedit, he found it filled with stonepieces. He lodged a case withthe police and investigationswere on.

La Marts boy kidnapped, rescued

Lucknow (PNS): Theautopsy report failed to ascer-tain sexual assault in the case inwhich a six-year-old girl, miss-ing for the last four days, waskilled and hanged from a treein Maal on Sunday.

“The girl was not raped.But she was strangulated byhanging from the tree,” SSPDeepak Kumar said. He saidthe police would seek a foren-sic test in the case for the sat-isfaction of the girl’s family.

The SSP said accusedBrijesh killed the girl to takerevenge from her father. “Theaccused suspected the girl’sfather to have a hand in the sud-

den disappearance of his sister.Both the families were at log-gerheads for a long time andBrijesh had threatened the girl’sfather with dire consequences.In the light of these facts, he hada clear motive to kill the girl,”the SSP said. He said the policewould send the samples collect-ed from the crime scene for aforensic test to collect evidenceagainst the miscreant. Thepolice had arrested Brijesh, hiswife Asha and their daughter inthe case on Sunday night.

The Madiaon girl had leftfor the school close to herhouse to take exam. However,she did not come back and

when her parents went tosearch her at school they weretold that she had left the schoolaround 11 am on the fatefulday. Her father then lodged acase and pleaded the police tohelp them in searching hisdaughter while expressingapprehension that his neigh-bour Brijesh and his family hada role in the sudden disappear-ance of the girl. On Sundaymorning, their hopes shatteredwhen they got a call about therecovery of the body of a girl,aged six. The police wereaccused of dilly dallying tacticsfollowing which two policemenwere put under suspension.

6-yr-old girl’s death: Autopsyreport fails to ascertain rape

Prime witness in murdercase goes missing

Devotees pay obeisance to the deity in Chowk’s Kali Bari temple on the second day of Navratra on Monday Pioneer

Now, leopard spotted in Gosainganj village

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Lucknow’s Rafiya Anjum andAbdul Wahid are one cou-

ple who have dedicated theirplot for conservation of spar-rows. The couple have set up‘Sparrow Conservation Centre’(Gauraiyya SanrakshanKendra) on their own landadjacent to their residence nearKukrail picnic spot. In a chatwith The Pioneer, the couplesaid that the plot attracted sev-eral sparrows and rare birdsbecause of the nests and foodas well as water provided bythem.

Abdul Wahid, who deals inused cars, said he had alwaysbeen inclined towards natureand had the habit of takingwalks within the deep forestarea of Kukrail. “I got the ideaof setting up a sparrow conser-vation centre when efforts weremade by the then state govern-ment in 2016 for the conserva-tion of sparrows. I decided touse my own land which is 1,000square feet in area for the con-servation of sparrows,” he said.

Wahid said that he placedbowls for water and containersfor food for the sparrows,planted several plants as welland created a shade for thebirds. The centre has water-proof, wooden and hut-shapednest boxes and native plantslike mehndi, bela, trumpetvine and seasonal greens. Along, wooden double-storeyedstructure with multiple cavitiesand many small wooden lad-der-type structures and swingshave been placed for the birdsto play.

Wahid said that he hadconstructed special double-decker sparrow houses inwhich the nests had beenplaced in two rows. “Everymorning I instruct the workers

to wash the bowls and placefood. From the time that westarted out there have been sev-eral sparrows along with otherbirds which come to this con-servation centre. There are somany rare varieties of birdswhich visit the centre that I feelthat these need to be listed,” hesaid. Father of a daughter anda son Wahid admitted that hehad been investing a lot ofmoney in the centre withoutgetting any help from any-where. “Yes I have been puttingin a lot of money in the centreand even the daily input of feedrequires funds but then theconservation of the sparrows isalso important. We receivesupport from nowhere,” headded. He said that the birdscome, rear, have little chicksand then later fly away.

His wife, Rafiya Anjum,points out that they considerthe sparrows also as their chil-

dren and hence were investingin them. Rafiya said that shehad been interested in theenvironment right from herchildhood days and used torear pigeons earlier.

“The conservation centrewas the brainchild of both of usand our own family has beeninvolved in this which includesmy children and my sisters-in-law. My son never plays nearthe centre at 3 pm because thatis the time when the maximumnumber of birds come there tohave their food. I am constant-ly thinking about the activitiesof the birds and so much sothat my family tells me that mymind is only filled with theiractivities,” she said. She, how-ever, admitted that with thesummer heat going up whenshe sees the birds coming to thecentre and lapping up thewater, she often feels that everyhouse should keep some water

for them.“These birds get thirsty

and are often seen drinkingwater from the dirty nullahsand hence it is important thatthey are provided water,” sheadded. Experts pointed outthat house sparrows were close-ly associated with human habi-tation and cultivation through-out the world from a historictime. “House sparrows areopportunist and are able to livewherever there are suitablenesting and roosting sites andenough food, predominantlyseeds in winter and inverte-brates in summer. The sparrowis a human habitat companionand is in close association withhuman beings and it nests in allenvironments but often in theclose vicinity of man, choosing,however, diverse places such ascrevices in walls, nest boxes andfree standing nests in thebranches of trees.

Couple dedicate land for sparrow conservation

Lucknow (PNS): Severalactivities will mark WorldSparrow Day which will be cel-ebrated on Tuesday. TheBiodiversity Board along withthe Biodiversity Lab, LucknowUniversity, and WildlifeInstitute of Sciences will beorganising a programme atRegional Science City.

Coordinator, WildlifeInstitute, Amita Kannaujiasaid that a stall would beinaugurated for distribution ofsparrow houses. Besides aquiz, a poster and a rangolicompetition would be organ-ised on the occasion and asparrow census would beorganised in the morning, shesaid. Lucknow zoo would alsohave a stall for the sale of thesparrow nests, she said.

Kannaujia said that thisyear, there had been severalqueries regarding the sparrowhouses from the public. Shesaid that they had also in thepast submitted a proposal toLucknow DevelopmentAuthority to moot a place forthe sparrows in the blueprintsof maps of houses which theycleared. She said that theWorld Sparrow Day was cele-brated every year in differentparts of the world since it wasfirst celebrated in 2010 byNature Forever Society.Among the various species ofbirds, the house sparrow isclosely associated with humanhabitations and cultivationthroughout the world from ahistoric time.

Several functions

in city to mark

World Sparrow

Day today

Neighbour held for raping girl

city 04LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

SHOOTING FOR MILANTALKIES IN LUCKNOW

Lucknow (PNS):Bollywood directorTigmanshu Dhulia startedshoot of his film ‘MilanTalkies’ in Lucknow onMonday. The film stars AliFazal, Shraddha Srinath,Reecha Sinha, Deep Raj Rana,Ashutosh Rana, SanjayMishra, Yashpal Sharma and

Sikander Kher. A romanticlove saga, film’s story, screen-play, and dialogues are writ-ten by Dhulia himself. Thedirector was excited on thefirst day of the shoot. ActorAli Fazal also expressedexcitement to be shooting forthe film in his hometown.Actress Shraddha Srinathwas a little nervous becauseshe has come from downsouth and hence it was a newexperience for her. Dhulia,who belongs to Allahabad,had earlier shot his film‘Bullet Raja’ starring Saif AliKhan in Lucknow.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Acampaign to spreadawareness about tuber-

culosis (TB) started at KingGeorge’s Medical University(KGMU) on Monday in theform of a mass signature cam-paign. The campaign will beon till March 24 to commem-orate World TB Day. Facultymembers of KGMU, staff, stu-dents, patients and variousNGOs are participating in the

awareness march. On Monday, large number

of people participated in thesignature campaign andvowed to spread awarenessabout TB. During the aware-ness week, MBBS students ofKGMU and other medicalcolleges will be conducting asurvey in different parts of thecity to assess knowledge, atti-tude and practices of generalcommunity about the disease.

The theme of this year’s

World TB Day (March 24) is‘Wanted: Leaders for a TB-freeworld. You can make history.End TB”. TB is one of the topten causes of death worldwidebut is preventable. Early detec-tion and treatment of bothpulmonary and extra pul-monary TB is important inboth children and adults.

The campaign is beingorganised to carry forward thevision of Centre to eradicateTB from India by 2025, five

years ahead of the globaldeadline. According to theWorld Health Organisation(WHO), elimination of TBmeans there should be lessthan one case of TB for apopulation of 10 lakh by 2025.

The vision is to achieve aTB-free India with zerodeaths, disease and povertydue to TB in less than eightyears from now. In India, 28lakh new cases and about fivelakh deaths occur due to TB

every year. Around 10 lakhcases remain undiagnosed orunderdiagnosed whichexperts refer to as ‘missing’cases. UP has around 3 lakhnew cases of TB each year.Every three minutes, twodeaths are caused by TB.

Head of the department ofMicrobiology and inchargeof Intermediate ReferenceTuberculosis Laboratory atKGMU Dr Amita Jain said thelab had all the latest equip-

ment required for rapid TBdiagnosis and was equippedwith drug sensitivity testingfacilities.

The department handlesmore than 5,000 cases per yearunder Revised NationalTuberculosis ControlProgramme (RNTCP). Thelaboratory offers free-of-costservices as the programme issupported by the Centre inpartnership with the stategovernment and local NGOs.

KVK AWARDED Krishi Vigyan Kendra,

ICAR-Indian Institute ofSugarcane Research, wasadjudged the best KVK (Zonal)and conferred with ‘DeendayalUpadhyay Rashtriya KrishiVigyan Protsahan Puraskar2017’ by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at the inaugur-al function of Krishi Unnati2018 at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.The award was received bydirector AD Pathak and headof KVK of ICAR-IISR(Lucknow) SN Singh from thePrime Minister. “This awardhas been conferred to IISR fordeveloping IFS-based agricul-tural production technologies,exotic vegetables cultivation,horticultural crops-basedorganic farming systems, ver-micomposting, bee-keeping,mushroom production, flowersproduction etc, and also fortransferring these technologiesparticularly to the small andmarginal farmers of Lucknowto help them double theirincome, a senior scientist fromIISR said. He added that KVKhad introduced roof-topkitchen gardening in urbanareas and also the cultivation ofexotic vegetables in peri-urbanareas and other villages inLucknow which enhanced theincome of small and marginalfarmers and thus, on an aver-age, exhibited the benefit: costratio of 5:66 as against the mea-gre returns under the tradition-al cropping systems involvingrice and wheat. “Moreover, theefforts of KVK on spreadingawareness among farmers ofthe district on higher milkproduction through round theyear forage production andanimal production technolo-gies besides establishing verminproduction units in differentvillages and soil testing facili-ties for analysing soil samplesof different farmers’ fields havealso been well recognised. TheKVK has also taken very good

initiative towards linking thefarmers and the extensionworkers through social medianetwork and knowledge portalsdirectly benefitting over 6.2lakh farmers and extensionworkers in the area,” said thescientist.

PRIZE DISTRIBUTIONThe prize distribution

function of two-day contestorganised by Himalayan Groupof Institutions was held onSunday evening. State vice-president of BJP DayashankerSingh was the chief guest on the

occasion. Javed Ahmed stoodfirst and walked away with atablet PC while AbhishekGupta bagged the second prize(a smartphone). Ten other stu-dents were also awarded.

LU CLASSESThe classes of BCA, MCA

and MSc (Electronics) will runin the second campus of theuniversity from the academicsession 2018-19. “These class-es are right now being run onthe old campus of the univer-sity. BCA and MCA will run inthe department of Computer

Science and Engineering andMSc (Electronics) will run inthe department of Electronicsand CommunicationEngineering. This step willbring these courses in focusalong with increasing students’academic performance andemployment prospects. Thiswill also help the university inpooling it’s resources for betterefficiency,” he said.

NSDC COMPETITIONNational Skill

Development Corporation(NSDC), the executive arm ofthe Ministry of SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship, along withUttar Pradesh SkillDevelopment Mission(UPSDM), launched zonal levelcompetitions for ‘India Skills2018’ in 14 zones in the state.The competitions were held forfour different skill categories —welding, automobile technolo-gy, fashion technology andelectrical installation. The win-ners, along with top two run-ners-up of the zonal level com-petitions of each skill category,will go on to participate at thestate regional level competi-tions scheduled for March 26.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The second and concludingday of the symposium on

‘Clean Environment andHealth’ at the NationalBotanical Research Instituteorganised by the CSIRPensioners’ Welfare Association(CPWA) witnessed several sci-entific lectures. The chief guestat the valedictory function wasDr SC Tiwari, head of GeriatricMental Health Department,King George’s MedicalUniversity. He spoke on‘Swachh Bharat-Swasth Bharat.’He said many health problemsoccurred due to unhygienicconditions. He cited the exam-ple of cervical cancer whichwas caused due to unhygienicpractices. All over the worldscientists had started thinkingand talking about hygiene,environmental pollution andhealth hazards arising out ofindustrial and agricultural

wastes, he said. Dr Tiwari said that in the

mid-nineties he had undertak-en a project titled ‘A study ofimpact of behavioural inter-vention on illness breedingbehaviours.’ This project wasconceptualised to modifyunhealthy behaviours in theareas of daily living (hygiene,sanitation, choice of food-stuffs, cooking and garbagedisposal), health care (vaccina-tion, exercise, consulting doc-tor during sickness, avoidingquacks and faith healers, beingcompliant to specialised doc-tors and medicines) and healthpromotions. The resultsshowed a significance drop inhealth morbidity, laudableimprovements in daily living,health care and health promo-tion. In his lecture on ‘Plantdiversity: Conservation andutilisation perspectives”, CSIR-NBRI director SK Barik dwelton the current research and

development projects under-way in the institute. Barikemphasised that conservationof medicinal plants was impor-tant not only for preserving theforest ecology but also fordevelopment of plant- desireddrugs for health care.

Anil K Saxena fromCDRI, while speaking on‘Chemistry in health care:Drug discovery and develop-ment’, said that health was ofkey importance in human life.

“Chemistry plays a majorrole in human life by preven-tion and cure of diseases. Itplays a key role in drug discov-ery and development processwhich involves multidiscipli-nary approaches for the iden-tification and optimisation ofnormal chemical entities fordesired activities. The recentadvances in the area ofgenomics, proteomics andcomputation technologies havemade significant contributions

in accelerating the drug discov-ery process through improvedunderstanding of molecularmechanisms of drug action,” hesaid. In his lecture on ‘medicalastrology and healthy living,’director of Adhyatm EvamJyotish Shodh Sansthan SatyaPrakash Dwivedi said medicalastrology was a science whichdemanded a union of knowl-edge of both astrology andmedicine. “Astrology has longbeen used for the diagnosis ofillness and to identify potentialillnesses. Nicholas Culpeper, afamous herbalist and physi-cian, used astrology along withhis herbal medicines. Thus inthe area of medical astrology adoctor can read or study a per-son’s natal chart and pinpointthe diseases. Spirituality andreligion have clearly indicatedthat individuals who are morereligious have also reportedbetter physical and mentalhealth,” he said.

ANNUAL DAYAmity International School (AIS) celebrated the Annual Day

of its Viraj Khand campus on Monday. The chief guest on theoccasion was mayor Sanyukta Bhatia while the guest of honourwas joint secretary, Kreeda Bharati Awadh Prant GeetikaKeswani. While inaugurating the programme, the mayor said tiny-tots were skilled in expressing their thoughts which made animpact on elders. “Any one from among them may well be thefuture PM,” she said. Appealing to the parents to make Lucknowcleaner and greener, the mayor said it was her dream and promiseto Lucknowites that the city would be number one on the clean-liness table.

SCHOLARSHIPTanishka Verma, a student of City

Montessori School (Kanpur Road), hassecured admission to Asia PacificUniversity (APU), Japan, with a schol-arship of US$ 43,744. This scholarshipwill be provided to her during theentire period of study at APU.

COMMISSIONING CEREMONY Commissioning ceremony of non-technical officers of

Army Medical Corps (AMC) for the year 2017 was held at MajorLaishram Jyotin Singh (Ashok Chakra) auditorium of AMCCentre and College in Lucknow on Monday. The ceremony wasconducted with military precision under the leadership of Lt GenAnup Banerji, Commandant, AMC Centre and College, OICRecords. He was assisted by Maj Gen SD Behera, Commandantand Chief Instructor, Officers Training College (OTC). A totalof 12 other ranks (ORs) were granted short service commissionin the non-technical cadre of AMC. The soldiers transitionedfrom ORs to the prestigious cadre of commissioned officers. LtGen Banerji, while addressing the newly-commissioned officers,said they had been entrusted with new roles and responsibili-ties. He advised them to maintain the highest standards of moral-ity, integrity and loyalty both in their professional and person-al lives while continuously striving for excellence.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Lucknow DevelopmentAuthority (LDA) on

Monday decided to temporar-ily withdraw designing anddeveloping flats and apart-ments and concentrate on res-idential plotting. This is beingdone to improve its financialstatus which is said to be fastdeteriorating.

Vice-Chairman PN Singhhad issued directives to itsEngineering and Planningdepartment at a meeting heldon Monday to discontinuedesign and developing flatsand apartments for the timebeing. The meeting wasattended by chief engineer ISSingh to discuss marking ofresidential plots in sectors INJand J of Basant Kunj housingscheme located on HardoiRoad.

It is said that the work tolevel the ground is in progress.Project incharge PS Mishra

said that over 303 acres wereacquired after an amicablesettlement with farmers andadded that over 2,600 residen-tial plots would be marked. Hesaid that there would be sixtypes of plots measuring 200square metres, 150 metres,120 square metres, 90 squaremetres, 75 square metres, 60square metres and 30 squaremetres.

The project incharge saidthe purpose of restricting thelargest size to 200 squaremetres was that the maxi-mum number of the peoplecould be allotted plots. LDAVice-Chairman PN Singh saidthe step was a part of the strat-egy to generate money for thedevelopment authority. Singhadded that residential plotswould be allotted to buyers byMay next year. It will take atleast one year for itsEngineering department tomark residential plots on sucha large scale.

SCHOOLSCAN

CITYBRIEFS

CANTTWATCH Signature campaign to spread awareness about TB

LDA to concentrate on residential plotting

Many health problems occur due

to unhygienic conditions: Doc

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The Lucknow DevelopmentAuthority (LDA) adminis-

tration has plans to beautifythe Dr Ram Manohar LohiaPark in Gomti Nagar andmake it more attractive forlocal visitors as well as foreigntourists. The project will betaken up with the assistance ofprivate partners that will like-ly be invited by the end of thisyear after thorough scrutiny oftheir credentials.

Garden incharge SSSisodhia said the park was ontop priority of the LDAadministration and sincere

efforts would be made torevive its part glory. The parkis not in as good a shape as itused to be during the tenure offormer Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav. LDA officialsagreed that the park was in abad shape due to lack of funds.Last time the repair and main-tenance work was carried outin the park in 2015.

The LDA administrationsaid that the top priority wouldbe to re-lay the cycling trackwhich is also in a shambles. Itwas used by over 500 cyclistson a daily basis. The track stillremains open for people

throughout the day. The gar-den incharge agreed that thecycle track was in bad shapeand said that LDA did nothave funds required for itsrepair. The setting up of a life-size aquarium is also on thepriority list. It was planned inthe past but was postponeddue to reasons best known tothe officials. Besides, re-designing of the artificial lakealso needs some work.

Sisodhia said all that waspossible with the help of pri-vate partners who could gen-erate funds. There would befee right from the entry to the

park and cycling. The lighting system also

need total change. The obso-lete lighting system existingthere will be replaced bycolourful LED bulbs forbrighter illumination.

The priority list has beenprepared but the change-overand beautification plan will befinalised by the end of thisyear. Presently, the LDAadministration is concentrat-ing on making JaneshwarMishra Park more attractive.After beautification, the parkis expected to be one of its ownkind.

LDA plans to beautify Lohia park

to attract local, foreign visitors

KVK awarded by PM Narendra Modi

Prize distributionfunction organised byHimalayan Group ofInstitutions

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nation 05LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

PM CONGRATULATESPUTIN ON HIS VICTORYNew Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi called RussianPresident Vladimir Putin tocongratulate him on his victoryin the Presidential elections heldon Sunday. Modi expressedhope that under Putin’sleadership, the ‘Special andPrivileged Strategic Partnership’between India and Russia willcontinue to grow.

BANK FRAUD CASE: CBIARRESTS MORE PEOPLENew Delhi: The CBI hasarrested two then Managers ofState Bank of India; thenManager of Canara Bank andfour private persons, includingDirectors of Kolkata-basedprivate company in an on-goinginvestigation of a Bank fraudcase. CBI had registered a caseon the allegation that during2013-14, the Directors ofKolkata-based private companyentered into a criminalconspiracy with 3 Bank Officialsof SBI and Canara Bank todefraud SBI, Industrial FinanceBranch, Kolkata to the tune ofRs 15 crore (approx).

Army: Chinese hackers targeting WhatsApp

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE nNEW DELHI

In the first warning of its kindto the countrymen, the

Indian Army has asked peopleto be vigilant as the Chinese arehacking digital media, includ-ing WhatsApp and urged themto be alert with any numbersstarting with +86.

Mobile users are also askedto regularly audit their socialmedia groups and be on guardif any new unidentified num-ber is trying to join theWhatsApp.

These sets of directivesissued in a video titled “BeAlert, Be Cautious, Be Safe”released by the Army’sDirectorate General PublicInterface on Monday comes

months after all the troopsdeployed on the Line of ActualControl (LAC) were orderednot to use Chinese made smart

phones. This precautionarystep was taken as the Chinesecould locate the position oftroops, the order said and list-

ed more than 35 brand namesto be avoided.

The latest caution to peopleat large through a tweet said “the

Chinese use all kinds of plat-form to penetrate your digitalworld. WhatsApp groups are anew way of hacking into yoursystem.”

The video said the hackerscan steal all valuable data of theuser and asked people to beexercise caution if any numberstarting with +86 appears in theWhatsApp group.

Issuing this advisory, theArmy also asked users to con-duct regular audits of theirgroups and in case if the SIMis changed it should bedestroyed completely.

This step is also applicablein case the user goes in for anew mobile number, the tweetwarning stipulated.

The advisory also saidwhen opting for a new mobile

number, the informationshould be immediately sharedwith the group administrator.

Moreover, the number ofall the known contacts shouldbe saved as a precaution andWhatsApp number of the oldmobile number should bedeleted.

The Government at regu-lar intervals keeps issuing suchadvisories to the personnel ofArmed forces, including theArmy, Navy and IAF, regardingthe perils of smart phones andrefrain from mentioningdeployment of personnel insocial media.

However, this is the firsttime that the Army has given ageneral alert to people all overthe country regarding the threatfaced by Chinese hackers.

PNS n NEW DELHI

After a Nobel Laureatewarned India of mass

unemployment, Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi onMonday hit out at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi overthe issue saying his “achchhedin” PR would take a beating.

On the other hand, partytargeted the Centre alleging itsinvolvement in the recent StaffSelection Commission (SSC)paper leak likening it to themulti-crore Vyapam scam inMadhya Pradesh. The party saidthe BJP is now spreading patent-ed “Vypam Virus” across India.

“The Nobel prize winningeconomist Paul Krugman con-firms what we’ve been sayingfor over two years now. Massunemployment is the biggestthreat India faces. Unfort-unately, we have a PM wholives in denial. Afraid his‘achchhe din’ PR will take abeating,” he said on Twitter.

Rahul also used a mediareport quoting Krugman’swarning that the India storycould end with mass unem-ployment. The Congress chiefhas been attacking the ModiGovernment over its “failure”to provide two crore jobs every

year as promised by Modi,and has alleged that it hasinstead taken away a lot of jobsdue to its decision of demon-etisation and “ill-conceived”implementation of the GST.

Upping the ante to cornerthe Government on SSC mat-

ter in which Rahul too hasexpressed his solidarity by par-ticipating in a dharna protest bythe victims, AICC chiefspokesman Randeep SinghSurjewala said SSC has become“Students Suffer Corruption”.Congress demanded that it’shigh time the SSC Chairmanshould be sacked now.

“Post the ‘Vyapam Scam’,‘SSC Scam’ has marred thefuture of India’s youth underModi Government’s watch.Instead of giving two crorejobs per year, career of twocrore youth, who apply everyyear to SSC for around 50,000vacancies has been jeopardised.Typical of Modi Government ofbrushing every such issue underthe carpet, students demandingjustice are hounded, beaten upand evacuated with an arrogantGovernment refusing to order a thorough investigationinto the corrupt practices in the examination process,”Surjewala said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

In yet another achievementrelated to export of locomo-

tives, the Indian Railways onMonday handed over 18 micro-processor-controlled locomo-tives to Myanmar Railways.

It is the first project com-pleted in the current IndianLine of Credit while earlier alsolocomotives were exported toneigbouring Bangaldesh andSri Lanka through the IndianRailway’s arm RITES which isthe principal partner ofMyanmar Railways.

Minister of State of RailwaysRajen Gohain attended the for-mal handing over ceremony ofthe diesel electric locomotives toMyanmar Railways manufac-tured by Diesel LocomotiveWorks, Varanasi, India.

Speaking on the occasionGohain expressed his pleasure onthe close cooperation betweenthe two railway systems on reg-ular basis since last 20 years.Most of these supplies in the rail-

way sector have been carried outunder Indian Line of Credit.

On the occasion, U ThantSin Moung, Minister ofTransportation and Comm-unication mentioned the val-ued cordial relationshipbetween the two countries andhow it can go beyond the pre-sent interaction.

These 18 locomotives arefitted with micro-processorcontrol based system. 1,350 HPAC/DC main line diesel loco-

motives with maximum speedof 100 KM PH have been cus-tomised for Myanma Railways.

“They are extremely fuelefficient equipped with the lat-est features. As per the agree-ment schedule, all locomo-tives were to be delivered bySeptember, 2018. They havebeen delivered six monthsahead of the schedule. We arekeen to increase our engage-ment in railways sector withMyanmar,” said CMD RITES

Rajeev Mehrotra. RITES, a PSE under the

Ministry of Railways, is theexport arm of the railwaysundertaking various projectsworldwide. RITES has beenengaged in the supply ofRailway rolling stock (loco-motives, coaches, wagons, per-manent way maintenance vehi-cles), maintenance of railwayinfrastructure, technical stud-ies, training of MyanmarRailway officials.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Taking a cue fromKunnamthanam village in

Kerala where at least one mem-ber of every family is yoga prac-titioner, the Modi Governmentis mulling to launch a similarinitiative to turn at least 500 vil-lages in the country into“Sampoorna Yoga Grams”(complete yoga village) with atleast a member of each household following the disci-pline diligently.

The AYUSH (Ayurveda,Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani,Siddha, Homeopathy) Ministrywill announce the launch of the“Sampoorna Yoga Grams” planas a part of the Government’sambitious Ayushman BharatScheme with much fan-fare atthe three-day InternationalYoga Festival, being held fromWednesday at TalkatoraStadium here.

Ayush Secretary VaidyaRajesh Kotecha told ThePioneer that “We are very muchinspired by the initiative takenby the village panchayat of

Kunnamthanam village inKerala. They have shown thathow by simple initiatives, yogacan become an integral part oflifestyle and lead a healthylifestyle without much efforts.

“We want to replicate theKunnamthanam model acrossIndia. But we will start with thepilot project and later spreadacross the country, particular-ly in the aspirational districtswhere health facilities are leastavailable.”

As a part of the SampoornaYoga Grams’ initiative, everyvillage will have a researchextension unit so that healthparametres can be periodical-ly measured.

The initiative will be thepart of the Government’s ambi-tious Ayushman BharatScheme wherein Health andWellness Centres which arebeing proposed to be set upacross the country. These willhave AYUSH componentbesides allopathy to ensurebasic preventive and curativehealth facilities to the commonman.

Dr Ishwar V Basavaraddi,Director of the Delhi-basedMorarji Desai NationalInstitute of Yoga (MDNIY), anautonomous body of the AyushMinistry said that “Yoga is themost suited system for selfhealth and regular practice ofyoga can substantially help inreducing the incidence of dis-eases and impact macro healthindicators such as lifeexpectancy, infant mortalityrate and maternal mortalityrate among others.”

Giving details of the three-day IYF, he said a plethora ofevents like yoga sessions, pre-sentation of research worksamong others have beenplanned as a curtain raiser tothe International Yoga Day onJune 21.

Around 30,000 participantsbesides eminent yoga mastersfrom across the country aswell as 30 nations will partici-pate in the IYF to be inaugu-rated by Minister of State forPMO, Dr Jitendra Singh andpresided by AYUSH MinisterShripad Naik.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India on Monday brought tothe notice of Pakistan fresh

round of harassment on itsdiplomats posted in Islamabad.Sources said on Monday twoofficials of the Indian High

Commission were aggressive-ly followed by two persons ina car in close proximity at var-ious locations when they wentfor shopping to Safa Gold Mall.

In another case, two offi-cials of the High Commissiontravelling in High Commission’svehicle were aggressively fol-lowed by two unknown personson a motorbike while going toSuper Market for shopping.

“The website of the HighCommission of India continuesto be intermittently blocked.This is causing inconvenienceand has affected normal func-tioning of the Mission. Suchincidents of harassment, intim-idation and threats to physicalsecurity of diplomats and offi-cials are in violation of the

Vienna Convention onDiplomatic Relations of 1961,and a threat to the security andsafety of the personnel of theHigh Commission of India,”sources said.

Sources added Pakistanhas been told that the safetyand security of Indian HighCommission, its officers, staffmembers and their families isthe responsibility of theGovernment of Pakistan.

They added Pakistan hasbeen requested to immediate-ly investigate all these incidentsand direct the relevant author-ities to ensure that such inci-dents do not recur. “Results ofthe investigations may kindlybe shared with the HighCommission,” sources said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Aarushi Talwarmurder case on

Monday reached theSupreme Court yet againwith the wife of domestichelp Hemraj challengingthe acquittal of the dentistcouple by the AllahabadHigh Court.

The apex court admit-ted the appeal filed byKhumkala Banjade, thewidow of Hemraj, domes-tic help of the Talwars whowas killed along withAarushi on the fateful dayin May 2008. His body waslater discovered from theterrace of the Noida flatwhere the Talwars resided.

Both Nupur and RajeshTalwar will now respond tothe appeal filed by Hemraj’swife. The Bench headed byJustice Ranjan Gogoi wasinformed that the investi-gating agency — CentralBureau of Investigation(CBI) too has filed anappeal challenging theorder of acquittal of thedentist couple that came onOctober 12 last year.

This is the secondround of litigation concerningthis case in the apex court. Inthe first round, the dentistcouple had questioned thedecision of the trial court toreopen investigations after theCBI filed a closure report. Aspecial CBI court in Ghaziabadsentenced the Talwars to lifeimprisonment on November26, 2013, following which thecase travelled to AllahabadHigh Court. Following the HCorder, the dentist couple was setfree from Dasna Jail.

With their acquittal, ques-tions arose over the mysteriousdeaths - both of the 14-year-oldgirl and the domestic help.What intrigued the investiga-

tors was the absence of anyeyewitnesses, no forced entryor entrance of any third partyinto the house. The body ofAarushi was found in her bed-room while that of 45-year oldHemraj was discovered fromthe terrace.

Although initial suspicionfell on Hemraj, the discovery ofhis body two days later fromthe terrace led the UP Police toinvestigate the involvement ofthe couple. Later, when CBItook over the botched up probefollowing which they narratedthe possible motive and inci-dent of crime in its closurereport, paving way for the trialcourt to revive the case.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court onMonday refused to direct

the Centre to provide basicamenities, health and amenitiesto Rohingya refugees settled inthe country and instead orderthe respective StateGovernments where they arestaying to present a status reporton the actual situ-ation on ground.

Following theCentre’s stand onaffidavit denyingreports thatRohingya Muslimwere denied med-ical facility atG o v e r n m e n tHospitals or health centres, thelawyers representing therefugees brought news reportsto suggest that the communitywere denied basic water, sani-tation and health facilities.

Additional SolicitorGeneral (ASG) Tushar Mehtaappearing for Centre informed

a Bench headed by ChiefJustice Dipak Misra that theGovernment was humane tothe needs of the refugeesalready settled in the countrybut denied permission to allowmore refugees to come in fromMyanmar. He suggested theseare matters to be tackleddiplomatically at the executivelevel of the two countries.

While the issueof infiltration ofrefugees posed asecurity threat tonation’s sovereignty,Mehta maintainedthat with this PIL,an attempt is beingmade to change thedemographic pro-

file of the country in order todestabilise our security.

Refusing to pass any inter-im orders, the Court sought acomprehensive report on theconditions prevailing at therefugee camps in Haryana,Rajasthan and J&K. The casewill be heard next on April 9.

AARUSHIMURDERCASE

Apex court to hear plea challengingparents’ acquittal

‘Achchhe din’ PR will take a beating: RaGa

Loco handing over ceremony held atNey Pi Taw, Myanmar, on Monday

SC asks States to report onconditions in Rohingya camps

New Delhi: The Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) onMonday summonedPakistan’s Deputy HighCommissioner, Syed HaiderShah, to register India’s strongprotest over the killing ofcivilians on the Indian side.

Five Indian civilians (afamily comprising of hus-band, wife and three children)were killed while there weregrievous injuries to two otherminor children in unpro-voked ceasefire violations byPakistan forces on 18 Marchin Bhimber Gali Sector acrossthe LoC in J&K.

India conveyed that thedeliberate targeting of innocentcivilians by Pakistan forcesusing high caliber weapons, ishighly deplorable and is con-demned in strongest terms.

“Such heinous acts areagainst established humani-tarian norms and profession-al military conduct. Pakistanauthorities are called upon toinvestigate into such heinousacts and instruct its forces todesist from such acts imme-diately. Our strong concernswere shared at continuedunprovoked firing and cease-fire violations across the LoCand the International Border.More than 560 such violationshave been carried out by thePakistan forces so far in 2018in which 23 Indian civilianshave been killed and 70 oth-ers injured. The Pakistan sidewas also asked to end supportbeing given to cross borderinfiltration of terrorists,including through coveringfire,” the MEA said in ademarche. PNS

India raises fresh harassment

of two diplomats in Pakistan

Officials followed by unknownpeople in car and motorbike

Civilians killing:

MEA summons

Pak’s Deputy High

Commissioner

RAJESH KUMAR n NEW DELHI

Rustam, a murrah bull, val-ued at a whopping of `11

crore, with a height of six feetand tail-to-head length of 16.5feet, grabbed eyeballs at the“Krishi Unnati Mela”, organ-ised by the AgricultureMinistry at Pusa Institute inthe national Capital.

His daily diet consists of 20litres of milk, five kg curd and10 kg feed, including carrotand fruits. His regimen alsoincludes a six to 10 kilometrewalk. Even Union AgricultureMinister Radha Mohan Singhcouldn’t stop himself for aphotograph with Rustam. Themela was organised fromMarch 16 to March 18.

Dalel Singh, a resident ofJhajjar district in Haryana, toldThe Pioneer that Rustam is a starattraction at the Krishi Mela.

“The bull is like our fam-ily member. I spend morethan Rs 60,000 to 70,000 permonth on his upkeep. Lastyear, a foreigner fromGermany did offer me Rs 11crore for Rustam but I refused,”the bull owner said, adding he

has earned Rs 40 lakh last yearby selling Rustam’s semen.

Singh said every weekbeauticians come to his resi-dence for hair dressing ofRustam. Two people have beendeputed for his body massageon daily basis in morning andevening. According to Singh,Rustam had won first place inthe 10th National Livestock

Championship held in Punjab’sMuktsar in 2017.

Notably, there is also ahuge demand for high-yieldingMurrah buffaloes in Haryana.It is mainly found in Northernand Central India and is con-sidered among the best high-yield native breed.

The demand for Murrahbreed of buffalo, which is knownfor high milk yield, has alsoincreased because of the quali-ty progeny of the breed. Whileearlier, panchayati bulls wereused for mating with the buffa-los, these brand names havebeen in demand among farmersfor artificial insemination forbetter quality of progeny.

Rustam grabs eyeballs at Krishi Mela

l Rustam is a murrah bullvalued at a whopping of Rs11 crore, with a height ofsix feet and tail-to-headlength of 16.5 feet

l His daily diet consists of 20litres of milk, five kg curdand 10 kg feed, includingcarrot and fruits

l His regimen also includes asix to 10 km walk daily

Going Kerala way! Centre plans toturn 500 villages into yoga grams

q A village in Kerala,Kunnamthanam, where atleast one member of everyfamily is yoga practitioner,the Modi Government ismulling to launch‘Sampoorna Yoga Grams’(complete yoga village) withat least a member of eachhousehold following thediscipline diligently

q The AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga& Naturopathy, Unani,Siddha, Homeopathy)Ministry will announce thelaunch of the plan at thethree-day International YogaFestival being held fromWednesday at TalkatoraStadium

q As a part of the SampoornaYoga Grams’ initiative, everyvillage will have a researchextension unit so that healthparametres can beperiodically measured

Rlys hand over 18 MCL to Myanmar

v Indian Army has asked peopleto be alert with any numbersstarting with +86

v Mobile users are also asked toregularly audit their socialmedia groups and be on guardif any new unidentified numberis trying to join the WhatsApp

v These sets of directives issuedin a video titled “Be Alert, BeCautious, Be Safe” released bythe Army’s Directorate GeneralPublic Interface

v Troops deployed along LACordered not to use Chinesemade smart phones

v This precautionary step wastaken as the Chinese couldlocate the position of troops

v The latest caution to people atlarge through a tweet said“the Chinese use all kinds ofplatform to penetrate yourdigital world. WhatsAppgroups are a new way ofhacking into your system

v Issuing this advisory, theArmy also asked users toconduct regular audits of theirgroups and in case if the SIMis changed it should bedestroyed completely

Cong targets Centre alleging its involvement in recent SSC paper leak

m Congress demanded that it’s high time the SSCChairman should be sacked now

m The ‘SSC Scam’ has marred the future of India’s youth.Instead of giving 2 crore jobs per year, career of twocrore youth, who apply every year to SSC for around50,000 vacancies has been jeopardised, AICC chiefspokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, addingSSC has become ‘Students Suffer Corruption’

The Nobel prize winningeconomist Paul Krugmanconfirms what we’ve beensaying for over two yearsnow. Massunemployment is thebiggest threat India faces.Unfortunately, we have aPM who lives in denial

RAHUL GANDHI

INSHORT

m The apex court admitted theappeal filed by KhumkalaBanjade, the widow of Hemraj,domestic help of the Talwars whowas killed along with Aarushi onthe fateful day in May 2008

m The Bench headed by JusticeRanjan Gogoi was informed thatthe investigating agency —Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) too has filed an appealchallenging the order of acquittal

m This is the second round oflitigation concerning this case inthe apex court

Indians warned to be alert with any numbers starting with +86

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018 nation 06

MAYABHUSHAN n PANAJI

Amob of several thousandpro-mining agitators held

the State capital of Panaji toransom for nearly five hours onMonday, blocking all entryand exit roads to the city,demanding immediateresumption of mining in Goa,which has been stopped on thedirections of the SupremeCourt of India since March 15.

The agitation which lastedfor several hours also turnedviolent on Monday afternoon,after some agitators stonedpolice and fire department

vehicles and also stoned policepersonnel on duty and hurledbottles at Public WorksDepartment Minister SudinDhavalikar, who tried to reason

with the agitators to withdrawthe strike.

Several hundred schoolchildren, many of whomwere answers Class XII stu-

dents who were appearing fortheir board examination werestranded in their schools forhours after their respectiveexams, while thousands oftourists who were enrouteairport, railway stations or totheir dest inat ions werestranded because of thestrike.

The National Highway 17passing through the State cap-ital was blocked for nearlyfive hours. Police had to lathi-charge the mob late onMonday afternoon to clear thekey road, as a result of whichnearly half a dozen protestorsreceived minor injuries.

Speaking to reportersPWD Minister Dhavalikarsaid, that he empathised withthose who were protesting,adding that he had assured

them that a solution to themining imbroglio as soon aspossible.

"I have assured them thatthe Government is with themand a solution would be foundas soon as possible," Dhavalikarsaid, adding that, UnionMinister for Shipping NitinGadkari would be arriving inGoa on Tuesday and speakingto representatives from thepro-mining agitators, amongother stakeholders linked to themining industry.

"Gadkari ji is willing tomeet everyone who is affectedby the ban, whether it is work-ers' unions and those who arein trouble and need helpbecause of the stoppage inmining," Dhavalikar said.

Monday's protest wasorganised by truck and barge

owners and workers linked tothe mining industry, whichhas accused the State BJP-ledcoalition governments in thestate and the Centre of notdoing enough to contest theapex court's decision lastmonth.

The Supreme Court orderin February had cancelled all 88mining leases, which wererenewed by the BJP-led coali-tion Government in Goa infavour of the same miningcompanies implicated in the`35,000 crore illegal miningscam.

The order also mandatesthat mining leases should beissued anew, after getting all thenecessary environment clear-ances, a process which couldtake nearly one and a half to twoyears according to experts.

Demand immediate

resumption of

mining

Pro-mining agitators hold Panaji to ransom for 5 hours

Police lathi-charge mining industry workers protesting in Panaji, Goa, on MondayPTI

Andhra offers 736 acre tocreate S Korean auto cluster

T N RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI

MNS chief Raj Thackeray’sfierce “Gudi Padwa”

speech had its backlash in theState on Monday, with a fewBJP workers from Sangli lodg-ing a police complaint againsthim for his statement that“communal riots” might breakout in the country in the com-ing months on the RamMandir issue and his partyworkers smashing the Gujaratiname boards from shops,hotels and other establishmentsin areas adjoining Gujaratalong the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway.

A day after he warned thepeople of the efforts beingmade in certain quarters toengineer “communal riots”across country on the RamMandir issue to win the forth-

coming Lok Sabha elections,BJP workers staged a protestagainst the MNS chief ’s “objec-tionable” statement and a fewof them lodged a complaintagainst Raj with the local policestatement for allegedly seekingto disturb peace and commu-nal harmony in the society.

At his “Gudi Padwa” rallyheld at the Shivaji Park groundsin north-central Mumbai, Rajhad said: “I have definite

information that there will becommunal riots in the comingmonths on the issue of RamMandir. These riots are beingorganised to win elections. Wedefinitely want Ram Mandirbut not to serve someone’svested interests. I do not mindRam Mandir being built atAyodhya even after the 2019Lok Sabha polls. But, we shouldensure that the BJP does notpoliticise the Ram Mandir issueto win elections”.

In a related development, agroup of MNS workers —apparently angered by theirparty president’s statement thatinfluence of Gujaratis wasincreasing in areas of Palghardistrict of Maharashtra alongthe Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-way — smashed the Gujaratiname plates of hotels, shopsand business establishments.

The MNS workers claimedthat they had smashed “20 to25” Gujarati name plates, whilethe police said that “someunknown” activists had forcedthe owners of shops and hotelsto remove “10 to 12” Gujaratiname boards. The police reg-istered an offence but no arrestswere made till the evening.

During his speech, theMNS chief had among otherthings called upon all theOpposition parties to cometogether to ensure “Modi-Mukt” Bharat in the 2019 LokSabha polls. “Under the pre-vailing situation in the countrynow, what we should do is tofight for third freedom in thecountry. We need is `ModiMukt’ Bharat. I appeal to all theOpposition parties to cometogether to herald ‘Modi Mukt’Bharat in the country, in 2019

polls,” Raj had said.The MNS chief charged

that after failing to separateMumbai from Maharashtra,the Modi Government wasdesperately trying to reduce theinfluence of Mumbai to bene-fit Ahmedabad and Gujarat.

Meanwhile, Mumbai BJPchief Ashish Shelar hit out atRaj Thackeray, saying: “It isironical that a man ( RajThackeray) who has been ren-dered “Rojgari Mukt” (jobless)by the people of Maharashtrashould be speaking in terms of“Modi Mukt Bharat”. RajThackeray should know hislimits before making such bigstatements. He finds himself insuch a situation wherein hisState Assembly had become“MNS Mukt” and all his cor-porators from Mumbai havefled to other parties”.

Complaint against Raj over fierce ‘Gudi Padwa’ speech

KHURSHEED WANI n SRINAGAR

Octogenarian Kashmiri sep-aratist leader Syed Ali

Geelani, known for his hardlinestance on dialogue process andengagement with New Delhi,on Monday appointed his long-term aide Muhammad AshrafSehrai to lead his partyTahreek-e-Hurriyat Kashmir(THK), a constituent of a fac-tion of Hurriyat Conference ledby Geelani. This is seen asimportant step in drawing cur-tains on Geelani’s politicalcareer spanning more than halfa century, which saw him elect-ed as member of the LegislativeAssembly for 15 years beforequitting the electoral politicsand joining separatist cam-paign in Jammu and Kashmir.

Observers say that Geelani’sdeparture from active politicswould have far-reaching impacton the politics of Kashmir. The89-year-old leader has beencontinuously put under housearrest for the past 8 years. Hehas rarely been allowed tomove out of his house inuptowan Hyderpora localitythat remains under round-the-

clock security vigil. Geelani isnot keeping well for the pastseveral years. His one kidneyhas been removed and hasunderwent heart by-pass surg-eries.

The decision to appointSehrai as the interim leader ofTHK was taken in an extraor-dinary meeting of the party’shighest decision making bodyor Majlis-e-Shoora here. “Sehraiwill take over as the interimChairman till the elections areheld later this year,” aspokesman of the party said.

The spokesman lamentedthat the state authorities hasgagged political activities andTHK workers have speciallybeen targeted.

“Gagging the political envi-ronment, jailing the entire manforce of the organisation andjudicial onslaught on our work-ers has left us with no otheroption than to fight back withmore will and vigor. Neither themission of TeH is alien nor isthe path chosen to achieve itunique. Everywhere and any-where suppressed andoppressed nations struggle andstrive to get rid of forceful

occupation. We all have chosenthis rough and torturous pathwillfully and wishfully andevery testing endeavour makesour resolve hard and strong,” hewas quoted as saying.

Referring to his perpetualhouse-arrest, Geelani said thathe was not able to contribute tothe party’s activities. “Merelyholding a position withoutpractical contribution is injus-tice not only with the post butto the conscience as well. So,today I willfully step-downfrom the chairmanship andadvise the shoora to arrange analternative at the earliest,” hesaid.

Later, the Shura unani-mously appointed Sehrai asinterim chairman.

Sehrai is Geelani’s long-term aide. Both parted waysfrom their parent organizationJamaat-e-Islami in 2003 underan agreement to float Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, close on the heels ofHurriyat Conference’s split in2003. Geelani parted ways fromHurriyat Conference sayingthat several leaders of thegrouping tacitly supportedAssembly elections in 2002.

Geelani paves way forlong-time aide Sehrai

PNS n GANDHINAGAR

After remaining in hiberna-tion post Gujarat Assembly

polls, pro-quota Patidar leaderHardik Patel has become activeagain as he decided to launchGujarat Jagruti Yatra (aware-ness march) in view of upcom-ing Lok Sabha elections.

Indicating about his plansthe 24-year-old Patidar leadersaid that the Yatra would cover26 out of 33 districts in Gujarat.“We will create awareness onburning issues related to farm-ers, unemployment and reser-vation. The Yatra will roamaround breadth and Length ofthe state for 18 days,” said thePatidar Anamat AndolanSamiti (PAAS) leader addingthat exact date and schedule ofthe Yatra will be announced incoming days.

Sources in PAAS said thatthe Yatra would begin in themonth of June and it would befocused on rural parts of thestate. It would also passedthrough major urban centre ofthe State, he added.

During the Yatra PAASworkers would create aware-ness on poor policies ofGovernment and bad gover-nance in Gujarat. Most proba-bly the 18-day long Yatra willbe started from the mountaintown Junagadh.

Patel said that he would

like to bring change with loveand compassion not hatred.Interestingly Patel is no empha-sising alone on the issue ofreservation to his communityunder OBC category but clear-ly he is trying to woo othercommunities also by raisingissues of farmers and unem-ployment. The PAAS leader isturning 25 next year and hewould be eligible to contestelections. In the political circlesof Gujarat speculations arehigh that Hardik may contestLok Sabha elections fromMorbi constituency the wayOBC leader Alpesh Thakoreand Dalit leader JigneshMevani fought Assembly elec-tions successfully in 2017.

Hardik to launchGujarat Jagruti Yatra

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti meets the displaced families and victims of cross-border shelling inPoonch sector of Jammu on Monday PTI

Dalit leader and Congresssupported independent MLAJignesh Mevani is all set to forman organisation named ‘DalitMuslim Ekta Manch’. Mevanisurfaced in the political arena ofGujarat post infamous Una Dalitflogging incident that took place inJuly 2015. The activist turnedpolitician is clearly preparing forthe upcoming assembly polls witha view to snatch away Dalit votesfrom the saffron party. If sourceshave to be believed, Mevani’s movewould be beneficial for the mainOpposition Congress party.

Dalit-Muslim Ekta Manch:

Mevani’s new move

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U.P. POWER TRANS-MISSION CORPORA-TION LIMITED Time

Extension Notice Due to someunavoidable circumstances openingdate of E-Tender No. 92/2017-2018/ETC/VNS is re-extended upto27-03-2018. Other terms & condi-tions shall remain unaltered. SUPER-INTENDING ENGINEER ELEC-TRICITY TRANSMISSION CIRCLEUPPTCL, VARANASI No. 272Date 19.3.2018 Save electricity inthe interest of Nation.

Ekbote’s policeremand extendedtill March 21

T N RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI

In developments in theBhima-Koregaon riots case,

Hindu Ekta Aghadi (HEA)leader and accused MilindEkbote was remanded in fur-ther custody till March 21 andanother right-wing leaderSambhaji Bhide alias Gurujidemanded the arrest of seniorDalit leader Prakash Ambedkarand others in connection withthe incident.

On a day when an attemptwas made to blacken Ekbote’sface by an activist on thepremises of a Pune court whichsent extended his police custodyfor another two days, BhideGuruji—as Sambhaji Bhide isknown in Maharashtra – uppedthe ante by demanding thearrest of Prakash Ambedkarand others for allegedly incitingthe January 1, 2018 distur-bances at Bhima-Koregaon inPune district.

Talking to media persons atSangli in western Maharashtra,Bhide Guruji – who is thepresident of Shri ShivPratishthan, charged that theroots of the January 1 riots layat the ‘Yalgar Parishad’ (con-ference) organised by variousgroups on December 31 atPune Prominent among thespeakers at the conference were:Ambedkar Gujarat Dalit leaderJignesh Mevani, JNU leaderUmar Khalid, retired high courtjudge, Justice B. G. Kolse-Patiland other left and Dalit leaders.

“At this meeting, all theseleaders including Ambedkarhad incited gathering presentinto indulging in violence andrioting… We demand that theGovernment must immediate-ly arrest them for the Bhima-Koregaon riots,” Bhide Gurujisaid.

V. SUDHAKAR RAO n AMARAVATI

Worrisome Andhra Pradesh has got a big boost in automo-tive sector.

The fighting State, for Special Status for Industrial Development,has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Hyundai Mobis,a sister group of Kia Motors of South Korea. Before Chief MinisterChandra Babu Naidu, MOU was signed by State’s IndustriesMinister Amarnath Reddy and Principle Secretary Soloman ArokiaRaj on Monday. State Government has allocated 736 acres inAnanthapuram District to develop automotive sector by HyundaiMobis. The 16 Companies which are part of Hyundai Mobis wouldinvest `4970 Crore to develop Automobile Cluster to create 6583employment in the District.

While appreciating Kia Motors and Korean Companies, theCM has said Automobile Corridor would be developed betweenAnanthapuram, Nellore Districts via Chittor as Suzuki Motors, HeroMotors, Appolo Tyres, Bharat Benz, Ashok Leyland have alreadystarted their manufacturing activity.

As Ananthapuram District is nearer to Visakhapatnam-Chennai and Banglore- Chennai Industrial Corridor, because ofState Government’s Automobile friendly Policy, total ̀ 24000 CroreInvestments have come to State, the Chief Minister said. Naiduaspired Kia’s first car release by this month end and 3 lakh cars pro-duction per annum. Korean Companies Hyundai Dymos,Hyundai Steels, Hyundai Glovis, Sungwoo, Saehan, Seoyan Ewha,NVH, Hyundai Materials, Forecia, SL, Wooyoung, Hwaseung, INZI,Boogook, DSC etc.

nation 07LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI

Acity court on Mondayacquitted Chief Minister

Arvind Kejriwal and his deputyManish Sisodia in two separatedefamation cases lodgedagainst them by UnionMinister Nitin Gadkari andadvocate Amit Sibal afterKeriwal and Sisodia tenderedapology to both of them.

Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate(ACMM) Samar Vishal alsoacquitted Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia, a co-accused with Kejriwal in thedefamation case lodged bySibal, after he too tendered anapology to the lawyer througha letter. The relief came fromthe court after the apologieswere accepted by the com-plainants in both the cases.

However, the proceedingsagainst lawyer PrashantBhushan and BJP leader ShaziaIlmi will continue in thedefamation case lodged byAmit Sibal. Earlier Kejriwalwrote to Gadkari expressingregret over certain statementshe made against the BJP leader,who had filed a defamation suitagainst him, the court wasinformed on Monday. Kejriwaland Gadkari also submitted ajoint application before thecourt seeking withdrawal of thedefamation case filed againstthe AAP leader. The applica-tion was moved before thecourt of ACMM Samar Vishalafter Kejriwal’s counsel sub-mitted the letter in which theAAP leader has expressedregret for making statements

without regard to their verifi-ability. “I made certain state-ments, without regard to itsverifiability, which seem tohave hurt you and therefore,you have filed a defamationcase against me. I have nothingpersonal against you. I regretthe same,” Kejriwal’s letter writ-ten on March 16 said. Gadkarihad moved the court againstKejriwal for allegedly defaminghim by including his name inthe Aam Aadmi Party’s list of“India’s most corrupt”. Kejriwaland Sisodia also tendered anapology to senior advocateAmit Sibal, son of formerUnion Minster Kapil Sibal, in acriminal defamation case filedby him. Kejriwal and Sisodiaapologised for making“unfounded allegations” againstSibal in a letter which was sub-mitted before the ACMM court.Sibal and the AAP leaders alsofiled a joint application in thecourt seeking withdrawal of thecase filed in 2013. Besides,Kejriwal and Sisodia, com-plainant Amit Sibal had alsonamed former AAP membersPrashant Bhushan and ShaziaIlmi as accused in the case. Thelower court on September 20,2014, had put all the fouraccused on trial for the chargeunder section 500 (defama-tion) of the IPC. Respondingto questions Sisodia said theyare not interested in any “egofight” and don’t want to spendtime in legal wrangling but inservice of people.

Kejriwal, Sisodia go on ‘sorry’ spree

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Monday moved

the Delhi High Court challeng-ing the trial court judgment inthe 2G scam acquitting formerTelecom Minister A Raja, DMKMP Kanimozhi and others in themoney laundering case. TheED, in its appeal, listed outmany points where Special JudgeOP Saini “ignored the gravity ofthe office” and “committed graveerror” even after the proof of a`200-crore kickback was sub-mitted. The CBI is also expect-ed to file its appeal soon.

“The Special Judge grave-ly erred by not appreciating thefact that the Supreme Courthad examined large number ofdocuments and various othermaterial and ordered cancella-tion of 122 licences grantedduring the Ministership of ARaja to various persons,” saidthe ED in its appeal filed bySpecial Public ProsecutorRajeev Awasthi. In the petition,the ED said the trial court judgefailed to consider the manyprovisions of the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) and ignored their caseby merely rejecting the CBI’scharges.

“The Special Judge verycasually ignored the proved evi-dence through documents aswell as supported by the testi-mony of the witnesses that Rs43.75-crore cash was given forthe accommodation by takingcheque of the equal amount,”the ED said arguing that thejudge totally ignored the testi-monies of witnesses and doc-uments establishing the Rs200-crore money trail fromShahid Balwa’s telecom firm tothe DMK-run Kalaignar TV.The telecom firm transferredthe money to the TV channelthrough a vegetable firm andmovie distribution company.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Telugu Desam Party(TDP) and the YSR

Congress on Monday failed totable their no-confidencemotions yet again as the Housedidn’t function due to disrup-tions by the AIADMK prompt-ing the Speaker to adjourn theHouse till Tuesday. TheOpposition blamed theAIADMK for acting at thebehest of the Centre even asHome Minister Rajnath Singhsaid the Government is readyfor a discussion on any issue.

The BJP’s disgruntled allyShiv Sena, in the meantime, saidit will abstain from the no-con-fidence motion. “We will nei-ther support the Governmentnor the Opposition. We willabstain,” Sena MP ArvindSawant said. Sena’s abstentationwould further make it easier forthe BJP to tide over the crisis.

It was the 11th consecutive

day that the proceedings werea complete washout. Eyebrowswere, however, raised as towhy some members of theTDP, the mover of the no-con-fidence motion, was also seenagitating in the House. TheTDP, YSR Congress, the TRS

and the AIADMK continuedtheir noisy protests over variousissues, including the bankingscam, setting up of the Cauveryriver management board andspecial status for AndhraPradesh. The TRS and theAIADMK are not backing the

no-confidence motion of YSRCongress and the TDP. “TheOpposition is ready for discus-sion on the no-confidencemotion but it seems theAIADMK is acting at the behestof the Central Governmentand not letting the House func-

tion,” said Ramgopal Yadav,Samajwadi Party MP. Theexpelled AIADMK spokesper-son K C Palanisamy had recent-ly alleged that Tamil Nadu’s rul-ing party has become a ‘puppet’of the saffron party. Palanisamywas stripped of his primarymembership of the AIADMKafter he wanted the party tosupport the TDP and YSRCongress’ no-confidencemotion against the BJP-ledNDA Government at theCentre. Amid the familiarscenes of Opposition mem-bers trooping in the well of theHouse and shouting slogans,Home Minister Rajnath Singhsaid the Government was readyfor discussion on any issue,including on the no-confidencemotion. The House wasadjourned at about 12.15 hours.For its part, the Rajya Sabha wasadjourned for the day withinabout ten minutes after it hadassembled in the morning.

ED moves HC

against clean

chit to Raja

No-confidence motion stuck in din

Gadkari, Sibalwithdrawdefamationcases

2G SCAM

Opposition members protest during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament in the Lok Sabha on Monday PTI

K’TAKA PLAYS...Congress dispensation

against recommending theminority status for Lingayatsalone. Hence, the Congresswent ahead with accordingminority status to Lingayats,including Veerashaivas, whofollow the teachings of thepatron saint of the Lingayatcommunity Basaveshwara.Basaveshwara rebelled againstestablished Hindu traditionby defying the caste systemand vedic rituals. In their bidfor a separate religion status,the Lingayats wanted to dis-sociate themselves fromVeerashaaivas, who adhereto the Vedas and Hinduism.

Earlier on Sunday, agroup of Lingayat seers hadmet Siddaramaiah and urgedhim to implement the reportof an official committee thatrecommended conferring aseparate religious and minor-ity status to their communi-ty. The Lingayats have beendemanding a separate religiontag on the lines of Jainism andBuddhism and a delinkingfrom Hinduism. Ever since itcame onto its own, the BJPhas been largely dependent onthis dominant community asits vote bank. The communi-ty, which is spread across theState has a very vibrant eco-nomic base and supports theBJP. The State Governmentappointed Justice NagamohanDas committee in December2017 to decide on the issue.The committee had recom-mended that Lingayats beidentified as a separate reli-gion.

On March 8, WaterResources Minister MB Patiland Higher EducationMinister Basavaraj Rayareddi- both Lingayats - had arguedin favour of going ahead withthe Justice Das Committeereport. However, they werestrongly opposed byMunicipal AdministrationMinister Eshwar Khandre andHorticulture Minister SSMallikarjun. SS Mallikarjun isthe son of All IndiaVeerashaiva MahasabhaPresident ShamanurShivashankarappa whileKhandre has previously saidthat Veerashaivas andLingayats should not be divid-ed. The movement for a sep-arate religion tag, which wasstarted as far back as 1942,was resurrected in 2017 byChief Minister Siddaramaiah’spromise to look into thedemand for a separate reli-gion status for Lingayats andVeerashaivas. A court caserelated to the issue in theKarnataka High Court is stillbeing heard. The court hadearlier put a rider on theprocess initiated by theKarnataka Government onthe formation of the paneland its report and said furthersteps will be subject to thecourt’s final decision. SriVeera SomeshwaraShivachar ya Swami ofRambhapuri Peetha ofBalehonnur, one of the seersheading the Veerashaivacamps, condemned theCabinet decision. He allegedthat the recommendationmay have got accepted fol-lowing the “conspiracy of afew people,” but thatVeerashaivas together willfight against it and are plan-ning legal recourse.

“Chief Minister and oth-ers will have to face the dis-grace of dividing the community. People will teachthem a lesson,” he added.

DIDI, KCR AGREE...Batting for a Federal

Front --- floated unsuccess-fully by Mamata on earlieroccasions, KCR said in 2019there would be a front whichwill be a “for the people ofIndia.” The Telengana ChiefMinister, who along with histeam of party leaders andadvisers flew in a charteredaircraft from Hyderabad toKolkata to discuss with herthe present political situa-tions, was likely to visit otherState capitals -- includingBengaluru, Bhuvaneshwar,Ranchi, Patna, Mumbai andLucknow in search of anationwide consensus.

The Bengal ChiefMinister, who greeted KCRwith a bouquet of flowers eye-catchingly smaller than theone she received from himlater, circumvented questionson any viable alternativedevoid of the Congress.Though not completely com-fortable with Rahul Gandhi’sleadership, Mamata tended tobe cautious with her choice ofwords.

She said, “This is a goodbeginning. We have to explorefurther possibilities by talkingto the other like-minded par-ties. Every political party hasits own identity and respect.”Insisting and apparently send-ing across a message to theCongress, she added, “Noone party should rule thecountry. We need to worktogether, maintain good rela-tions with all parties. We arenot in a hurr y and areapproaching others also.”

Mamata is likely to fly offto Delhi next week whereshe would meet NationalistCongress Party chief SharadPawar and “some other like-minded parties” on or afterMarch 25, said Trinamoolsources, adding “there is al ikel ihood of the ChiefMinister meeting RahulGandhi also.”

SETBACK TO CONG...demand of `249.15 croremade on the company for theassessment year 2011-12. TheHigh Court also sought the ITdepartment’s response onYoung Indian’s (YI) plea chal-lenging the demand and theproceedings emanating fromit and listed the matter forfurther hearing on April 24.

Senior advocate ArvindDatar, appearing for YoungIndian, told the court that itwill have extreme difficulty inraising `10 crore and soughtthat the amount be fixed at`7.5 crore. He said theamount was being collectedfrom contributions by indi-viduals and it would thereforebe tough to get more money.He also urged the bench toallow the company to depositthe amount in court, saying itwas extremely difficult to geta refund from the IT department.

Advocate Ashish Jain,representing the IT depart-ment, opposed the oral pleasmade on YI’s behalf and saidthe company had to actuallydeposit `49 crore, 20 per centof the demand, for its appealto be heard.

On December 27, 2017,the Income Tax Department’sAssessment Order found thatYoung Indian had hushed uptaxable income of more than`414 crore. The Congressleadership had maintainedsilence on this Income TaxOrder. But, on January 20,BJP leader and main peti-tioner Subramanian Swamy

produced the copy of thisIncome Tax Order in the trialcourt.

Income Tax departmenthas declared that theCongress’s claim of giving`90-crore loan to the news-paper was a total sham anda wrong claim to facilitate theGandhi family-controlledcompany Young Indian todubiously take over the own-ership of the lands and build-ings across India. After thisorder, the Income Tax finedand issued recovery noticefor `249.15 crore to YoungIndian.

LALU CONVICTED...Chairmen of Public

Accounts Committee DhruvBhagat and Jagdish Sharma,former MP RK Rana and for-mer Bihar MinisterVidyasagar Nishad alongwith three IAS officers (nowretired) Beck Julius, MCSubarno and Mahesh Prasadwere also let off by the Court.However, the court foundPhoolchand Singh, anotherIAS officer, guilty.

Other accused personsacquitted by the Court are -the then IT CommissionerAdheep ChandraChaudhary, Proprietor ofLaxmi Entreprises Benu Jha,Proprietor of RK AgenciesLal Mohan Prasad andProprietor of SR EnterprisesSaraswati Chandra.

Remarkably, the Courtdid not have had any infor-mation about health prob-lems of Prasad, who is cur-rently admitted to RajendraInstitute of Medical Sciences(RIMS). So, he was broughtlate to the Court by the jailauthorities after the pro-nouncement of judgment.

"I don't have any infor-mation related to his ill-ness…I will ask the jailauthorities why they did notinform me about it," said theCourt. It, however, askedPrasad whether he was beingtreated properly at RIMS or

not to which the RJD Chiefresponded that he did nothad any problem there in thehospital.

"If you have any prob-lem, get yourself referred toDelhi where you will nothave any problem," the Courtsaid. Surprisingly, Prasad didnot respond to it and askedabout the quantum of pun-ishment and was informedby the Court that it will bepronounced on Friday.

RC64A/96 is relates tofraudulent withdrawal of Rs89,4417 lakh from DeogharTreasury with the help of 6fake allotment letters during1991 to 1994. Initially, atotal of 48 persons weremade accused in the case outof which 14 persons diedduring the trial and two ofthem -- RameshwarChaudhary and Dr Sayeed,were made governmentapprovers. The f irstchargesheet was filed in thecourt in May 2000. Criminalproceeding against anotheraccused the then DivisionalCommissioner of Dumka SNDubey, however, was stoppedafter a quashing order waspassed by the JharkhandHigh Court.

YOGI ANNOUNCES...government also ensuredcheating-free examinationsof the UP Board. The ChiefMinister claimed that publicdistribution system (PDS)had been l inked withAadhaar card after which a`3,500 crore foodgrain scamwas exposed.

“This year, the govern-ment transferred over`80,000 through Direct BankTransfer (DBT) to farmers’accounts and the govern-ment purchased 37 lakh met-r ic tons of wheat and 45 lakh tons of paddy,” Yogisaid.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced 50 pink busesfor women in the state, con-struction of Panki thermal

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1power station in Kanpur at acost of `5,800 crore to gener-ate 660 Megawatt electricityand to connect all remainingtehsils and blocks with two-lane roads in the next fiscal.

Besides, `35,000 crorewere earmarked for Metrorail projects in Kanpur, Agraand Meerut, while similarprojects in Noida and GreaterNoida would be completed in2018-19.

“Gates will be built at allthe 54 entry points to UP ata cost of `1,333 crore, signi-fying commuters had enteredthe state,” he said

Earlier, Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav PrasadMaurya welcomed the guestswhile Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma proposed avote of thanks.

In July 2018, the United Nations willlikely undertake its sixth bi-annualreview of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy that was adopt-ed by consensus in 2006. In the

dozen years that have since elapsed, ter-ror attacks have spread all over the globe,challenging authorities with their shape-shifting tactics — bomb attacks at civiliantargets, armed attacks on military camps,suicide bombers, gunning down schoolchildren in cold blood, taking hostages inpopular café’s, weaponising heavy vehicles,even ferocious knife attacks — all of whichare difficult to envisage and control.

The United Nations recognises terror-ism as a scourge of our times, but has notbeen able to arrive at a uniform definitionof terrorism. Upon reflection, this is notas astonishing as it seems, because terror-ism does not rise from a single root. Sincethe turn of the century, the world has wit-nessed a plethora of groups claiming alle-giance to and inspiration from a particu-lar faith, and having the ability to act in ser-vice of its goal of world domination.

Unlike the rest of the world, modernIndia has suffered Islamic fundamentalismand terrorism spawned by its proponentsfrom at least the Great Calcutta Killing of1946, an episode of such chilling barbar-ity that it led the Congress to concedePartition. Sadly, the party thereafter toler-ated controlled fundamentalism in Jammu& Kashmir and other places in a quest forpolitical longevity, forcing citizens toingest this poison harvest.

Simultaneously, India has been a vic-tim of a ruthless terror with non-religiousroots, viz, Naxalism, or Maoism, a mil-lenarian ideology that aggressively seeksto undermine the state while ostensiblyrepresenting rural and tribal grievances. Inpast decades, other nations have also expe-rienced violence with differing origins andobjectives. Hence, it is understandable thatGovernments concur that terrorism can-not be conflated with any creed, and thata single definition cannot encompass reli-gious and secular denominations of terror.

Having said that, most contemporaryterrorist organisations claim loyalty to onephilosophy; the most virulent is theIslamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) orDaesh (Dawlat al-Islamiyah f ’al-Iraq wBelaad al-Sham). Many successful terror-ists are professionally qualified, even fromrich families; their motivations are religio-political and are driven by an irrationalambition to forcefully bring the worldunder a so-called caliphate based on aninterpretation of the Quran that evenWahhabi Riyadh finds unduly extreme.

These groups have created a power-ful and below the radar system of identi-fying vulnerable persons through socialnetworks or social media, and selecting

them for indoctrination. Recruits areencouraged to cut themselves off fromfamily and friends and listen only to thementor(s), which is how they end up introuble spots like Syria. The mostappalling aspect of this brainwashing is theluring of young girls to provide sex to jiha-di fighters, in defiance of all religious andcultural norms; some clerics publiclycalled for such ‘volunteers’ at the heightof the ISIS’s power. These ‘volunteers’ aredifferent from the girls/women abductedand raped by the jihadis in territory undertheir control. Alarmed at their continuingability to make recruits, some Muslimcountries have developed counter-radical-isation programmes, with limited success.

International cooperation is impera-tive to defeat terrorism, and is the reasonfor ISIS’s seriously degraded capabilitiestoday. But eradicating the scourge intotality involves tracking and severing itsfinancial lifelines and resource-generatingabilities (raising funds through frontorganisations, seizing oil wells and sellingoil illegally, raiding banks, ransomingprisoners, etc). Besides, all known assetsof the organisations and/or key leadershave to be frozen, and nations harboringterrorists pressured to act against them orgive them up.

The most important tool against ter-rorism is intelligence, especially real timeintelligence, which can thwart attacks bytimely intervention. Intelligence agenciesthe world over are upgrading their cyberintelligence systems as terrorist networkscannot function without technology for

their operations, viz, recruiting cadre; dis-seminating propaganda through videos(Zakir Naik) or literature (Dabiq); show-ing off power through videos showing vic-tims being beheaded or set on fire; plan-ning and executing operations, transferringfunds, et al. All these leave a digital foot-print, however small.

Technology is, therefore, a near per-fect solution to tackle terrorism whileinvesting in improving human intelligenceon the ground. At the India Foundation’sCounter Terrorism Conference 2018(Changing Contours of Global Terror,March 14-16, 2018), renowned nationaland international experts discussed the col-lection, analysis and sharing of intelligenceon terrorist organisations in real time toneutralise threats.

One method under trial in somecountries involves monitoring activity in,say, the cellphone tower of a particular site,such as a railway station or industrialinstallation. This is legally possible anddoable. Technology involves looking forcertain patterns amidst the plethora ofmobile phones used by people visiting astation. Those making lengthy calls are fil-tered out.

Terrorists invariably make very briefcalls to avoid being overheard or taped.They inform their handlers that theyhave reached a destination, and laterreport success or failure; this digital sig-nature is how they are traced later.Sometimes it takes only a few hours tounravel a conspiracy and identify the cul-prits and the location of their handlers.

Cyber sleuths ‘listen in’ at towers in sen-sitive public places and create Big Dataplatforms for Virtual IntelligenceCollection and Analysis System (VICAS)for speedy responses.

Ultimately, the challenge is to ‘listen in’in the vicinity of likely terrorist hideoutsand share intelligence through Interpol;technology is being constantly improvedand is reputed to have thwarted attacks insome places. As technology improves, itmay be possible to monitor large publicgatherings, such as Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s rally in Patna in 2014,where some bombs went off and otherswere recovered later, and protect innocentcivilians.

However, an insurmountable problemremains the ready access to weapons by ter-rorist groups. So far, all weapons-produc-ing nations have refused to bring ‘smallarms’ under the ambit of internationalarms control treaties. These weapons area major revenue earner for the nations con-cerned, and populate the illicit armsbazar. They are lethal enough to wreakhavoc in crowded places, such as coffeehouses. The failure to regulate their salesenables nations to distribute arms toproxy groups in order to achieve certainpolitical objectives. This makes a mockeryof all international counter-terrorismefforts and protocols. The UN GlobalCounter-Terrorism Strategy needs to revis-it this issue with utmost seriousness.

(The writer is Senior Fellow, NehruMemorial Museum and Library. The viewsexpressed here are personal)

Imperial Russia, the state formed after the rise of the Romanov dynasty, never hada Tsar Vladimir. However, modern post-Soviet Russia clearly does have a new Tsar.Vladimir Putin was just elected to his fourth term in office, including his time as

Prime Minister where he ran things for President Dmitry Medvedev before the rulesover term limits were changed. Putin has run Russia since January 1, 2000, whenhis predecessor Boris Yeltsin resigned. While Yeltsin had overseen the downfall ofthe Soviet Empire, thanks to his leadership in the attempted coup d’etat against MikhailGorbachev in 1991, few predicted that his surprise appointment of Putin would definethe Russian state in the 21st century. Under Putin, Russia halted its post-commu-nist decline and regained some of its stature in the world. He is seen across the worldas a strongman. His actions against some other former Communist states, notablyGeorgia and the Ukraine, including annexing the Crimean peninsula, have invited glob-al condemnation and yet he is increasingly popular inside his own country. At thesame time, Putin and his allies have been accused of undermining Russian democ-racy, so much so that commentators never thought the Russian election results were

in any doubt, however, Putin and theRussian States alleged interference inelections elsewhere have many in theworld up in arms, particularly allegationsof Russian interference in the USPresidential elections of 2016.

That said, while Putin maintains anexterior of incredible calm — few worldleaders in the recent past would put upbare-chested photographs of them-selves — Russia has been in a state ofdecline. Western sanctions imposed onRussia after their Eastern Ukrainianexcursion are biting hard. While Russiacontrols huge amounts of oil and gas,falling prices of these and other com-

modities have hit the Russian economy hard. Putin is also accused of using force tocrush his opponents inside Russia, including using murder as a tool. At the sametime, Putin and his Government are accused of murdering or attempting to murderopponents in foreign soil, most recently of attempting to murder double-agent SergeiSkripal. In the past, Russian agents used Polonium to murder another double-agentAlexander Litvinenko. And while Russian hackers have gained fame and notoriety acrossthe world, Russia’s famed hardware development is today bankrolled by China andin recent India-Russia Track-2 diplomatic talks, Indian attendees were horrified thatthe Kremlin kowtows to Beijing’s line. India’s various defence programs with the Russiansare stalled and ties, despite Narendra Modi’s bonhomie with Putin, are at multi-decadelows. However, Putin is clearly going to remain in power for another decade or two,and despite the problems, India and the rest of the world have to deal with him.

For somebody whose coronation took a long time coming, Congress president RahulGandhi’s aggression wasn’t really that mint-fresh. It ought to have come a longtime ago. As Aldous Huxley famously said, “There are things known and there

are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception,” which Rahul hasswung open in the run-up to the 2019 general election. If not now, then when? Afterall politics is a game of perception though he has pledged his commitment to dhar-ma and truth. For long, the Congress cadre has been waiting to be galvanised intoaction with a robust clarion call and a sense of solidity and unity of purpose. The shockdefeats of BJP poster boys in the latest round of bypolls, particularly in its heartlandlaboratory, and the Teflon-scrapped Modi magic was too much of a fertile ground forRahul to ignore. Question is whether Rahul’s version of Mahabharata reloaded willbe able to settle the mahabharta in his own party. Although he likened the BJP-RSScombine to the Kauravas — armed with an extensive organisational network, advi-sors but tempered with hubris, a hunger for power and arrogance — and the Congressto the Pandavas, is the party itself, apart from the friendly and winnable smile of itsnew chief, full of grace and humility? Is it also not drunk on power, with a genuflect-ing coterie of courtiers, old warhorses who want their meat and crony capitalists, thefraternity that Rahul is lampooning the Modi regime with? The Congress hasn’t changedmuch since Rahul’s father Rajiv Gandhi addressed the party’s centenary session on

December 28, 1985. He had then spokenof enthusiastic Congress workers being“handicapped” by the “brokers of powerand influence” in the party, who “dispensepatronage to convert a mass movementinto a feudal oligarchy.” Rahul had lookedup the notes when he said he woulddemolish the “wall” between leaders andworkers, where party tickets are denied tohard-working aspirants by those who“parachute” at the last moment. Clearly,the senior power-brokers have retainedtheir tough spot and bargaining chipenough to make or break the party’s tenure.Rahul proposed that this process of inter-nal cleansing and rejuvenation be carriedout “not with anger but with love” and bygiving “due respect to the senior leader-

ship.” But with the old guard having tamed the organisational network into atrophiedsubservience, one that has become chronic, can Rahul wave the magic wand of change?Will the old guard budge? More importantly, can he accommodate a non-dynasticdeputy chief as a Young Turk moment? That too within a year?

By equating the Congress with the Pandavas, Rahul must also remember thatthey had to endure exile and indulge in political subterfuge before the battle royale.Although Sonia Gandhi has engaged in dinner diplomacy and spared no effort to stitchan Opposition alliance of numbers, Rahul needs to engage with each regional satrapwith a mutually beneficial action plan. Which means he will have to be out touringthe hinterland and camping there and cut short his mini breaks. By playing on Modi’seponymous familiarity with businessmen and insisting that the Prime Minister wasnervous after reading the tea leaves in Gujarat, he resorted to an old trope that is nomore byte-worthy. Instead, the AICC session was a good opportunity to put his cred-ible growth plan in place, one that would end the ills he is accusing the ruling partyof. Even there he sounded flat hoping to take care of joblessness, farmer distress andsuicides with fair-price food parks, farm waivers and interest-free loans, poweringSMEs and technological help for job generation. Aren’t these already in place thoughthey may be lacking in execution? If indeed Rahul has to hardsell his India middlepath between an American and Chinese vision, then he better evolve with practica-ble turnaround strategies. Otherwise he could be equally charged with fakery.

Waiting for dynamism

Rahul’s aggression and admission of problems is

fine but his party must be ready for an overhaul

opinion 08LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

Counter terrorism'sgrowing footprint

All hail the Tsar

Putin’s re-election means a stable Russia but is

the world ready for inevitable muscle-flexing?

Uphold transparency

Sir — This refers to the report, “AfterCong, AAP pitches for ballot paper”(March 18). A huge chunk of ourpolitical outfits still seek for conven-tional ballot paper electoral systems,as EVMs (Electronic VotingMachines) are subject to tamperingdue its vulnerable nature. A num-ber of Western countries havealready reverted to the ballot paperprocedure as these electronicdevices are apparently not tamperproof and election results can bemanipulated, as claimed by the AamAadmi Party (AAP).

Like political parties, manyvoters too have apprehensionsabout the credibility of such con-voluted machines. AAP’s allegationthat the Election Commission ofIndia is not ready to allow EVMsto be verified for impartiality isutterly significant and cannot bedownplayed. In a democracy, peo-ple’s trust and satisfaction are thetwin significant ingredients.Therefore, the election watchdogshould introspect and hold seriousdebates and revert to the paper bal-lot mechanism.

TKM KumbalamchuvattilMuvattupuzha

Buckle up

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Web of alliances” (March16).The BJP’s defeat in the three LokSabha by-polls, especially inGorakhpur and Phulpur, shouldbe an eye-opener for the party.Nevertheless, the coming togeth-er of the Samajwadi Party (SP) andthe Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)proves that in politics, nothing is

eternal, neither friendship norenmity, everything is ephemeral.

The SP-BSP combine are like-ly to follow the same path in theKairana Lok Sabha (UttarPradesh) by-poll, which is againnot a bed of roses for the BJP asAjit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal isalso a figure to be reckoned with,along with the SP-BSP alliance.

The BJP should not remainsmug, thinking that the Congresshas fared even worse. Having for-feited its deposits on two crucialseats, comparisons must be madewith good deeds and not bad ones.The NDA is losing its partners oneafter the another. It must have theelbow to outcast its competitors inorder to stand in merit.

Sagar Singh Delhi

Beware of ditchers

Sir — In a democracy like ours,voters are the ‘makers and throw-ers’. In the recent by-elections, theSP-BSP combine won bothParliamentary seats in UttarPradesh. But both parties have atrack record of being ditchers —lending support to a party andthen withdrawing.

Moreover, they are also theones who take the lead in stallingParliament. Elected representa-tives are expected to represent thevoters in Parliament and work forthem. Instead, they don’t allowParliament to function. Votersmust beware of tactics and games-play of such political parties.

CK SardanaBhopal

www.dailypioneer.com

p a p e r w i t h p a s s i o n

Send your feedback to: letterstopioneer@gmail.com

SOUNDBITE

The people of Jammu &

Kashmir are paying the

price of enmity and parti-

tion between India and

Pakistan. I appeal to the

Prime Minister and

Pakistan that exchange of

fire should imme-

diately stop.

J&K Chief Minister

—Mehbooba Mufti

SANDHYAJAIN

While technology can be a near-perfect solution to tackle the menace, the failure to regulatethe sale of arms makes a mockery of all international counter-terrorism efforts and protocol

It is time the US and

India play a key role to

restore normalcy and

democracy in Maldives

which is under a state of

emergency.

Former foreign

affairs minister of

Maldives

—Ahmed Naseem

Secure future of the

hands that feed us

This refers to the article, “Another empty promise to farmers?” (March19) by Uttam Gupta. If we fail to take care of the hands that feed usthen we have to face the music. And there is no escape. A recent Oxfam

report shows that inequality is widening. How can we harmonise our econ-omy in such a reality? How can business persons and farmers markettheir products if the purchasing power of the masses gets reduced? Evena machine cannot work well if there is a conflict among its parts, let alonea state or a society.

We need to become a labour and farmer-friendly economy to achievehealthy inclusive growth and human development. First, we need to empow-er our small farmers with the help of land reforms. Our banking sectormust have a paradigm shift in their policy to replace non-performing asset(NPA) generating macro credits by providing micro loans for farming, cot-tage and small enterprises that mainly contribute to current livelihoodsin our country. This will generate more employment and thus, boost themarket by enhancing the purchasing power of the masses.

We must create, so to speak, an employment bridge by which ourfarmers can take excess food to hungry mouths to solve the ludicrousproblems of agricultural overproduction and food wastage in the land ofhunger where 48.2 million children have stunted growth as a result ofmalnutrition and hunger. That bridge can only be built with the help oflabour intensive technology, land reforms and micro loans. This tridentcan indeed banish poverty and make India a strong and happy country.

Sujit DeKolkata

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I want Mamata Banerjee

to lead the Third Front to

oust Prime Minister

Narendra Modi in the next

general election. Mamata

has the ability to be the

Prime Minister.

Lawyer

—Ram Jethmalani

I am trying to keep myself

positive because this

industry can engulf you

and pull you down and

cause negativity where it

can just cause you to doubt

yourself as an actor.

Actor

—Ileana D'Cruz

India feels happy as macro data sug-gests an economic turnaround.However, incidents like the farmers’

protest in Maharashtra, the impositionof congestion tax or for that matter slip-ping to the 133rd position in happinessindex are signals that the country needsto do more than what has been done.

The global situation itself is notvery happy. India, with its large popu-lation, and being home to more poorthan anywhere in the world, is not inan unenviable situation — it is exacer-bating with increasing protectionismand US President Donald Trump’s planto make America Great again.

Indeed, it is an uneasy world.Steering the country through such amyriad situation is not a comfortablejob, more so with a restive population

that wants the Government to functionlike a genie. A small slip can lead to anuncomfortable election result, as wasseen in the recent Lok Sabha by-elec-tions in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

After years of difficulties —growth-less jobs, problems in the farmsector, higher taxes and tolls, amongothers — people have higher aspira-tions. Uttar Pradesh by-poll resultscame as a surprise soon after the UttarPradesh Government signed 1,045MoUs, amounting to proposed invest-ments worth `4.28 lakh crore at theInvestors Summit. It is a fact that Indianeconomics or politics cannot sustain onstatistics. It needs much more than that.While in search of happiness, it is slip-ping. Disparity is increasing.

Despite the recent slowdown in theIndian market, the overall situation isa cause for concern. Economists havefailed in suggesting effective ways tocurb the continuous inflationary situ-ation since 2010. Consumer priceindices have risen by over 60 per cent.Pay hikes are not enough to curb dis-content. People have been wonderingwhy, despite crude prices stagnating

around $60-64 per barrel, half of whatwas during the UPA regime, there is adaily revision of diesel, petrol prices.

Economists have created a fear psy-chosis among planners to rake inmore revenue, forgetting that it hurtsbasic economics. The Government hasnow better understanding of the peo-ple. It needs to realise that allGovernment and semi-Governmentorganisations, like municipal corpora-tions, panchayats, oil companies, banks,water boards and other utility servicesare perceived as extortive, as theyindulge in profiteering and greed.Every paisa they earn adds to inflation.

India has the most unstable priceregime. While boasting of ease of doingbusiness, it needs to keep the prices —not through artificial means — afford-able. Wages must rise, as now banks aredemanding, but economists have todevise a long-term solution. Prices mustremain stable and Government organ-isations must be put on a leash.

Bureaucrats, who suggest conges-tion tax on its model, forget the levelof affluence and the fact that the high-est number of poor live in the Capital.

They are unaware that the Delhimetro is unaffordable for slumdwellers. Is there any logic to chargea toll of ̀ 100 per entry for a taxi (usedby people under compulsion) andhigher rates for goods vehicle?Economists do not realise that tollcharge is paid by poor consumers andincreases price of every commodity.

While taxing all sales under GST,they forget that most Indian small busi-nesses’ profit is limited to whatever taxthey can save. The so-called ‘tax eva-sion’ is a compulsion in a country witha complex multi-tax regime.

Despite GST, States continuewith excise and other levies that weresupposed to have been subsumed.The GST Council has to look into it.Piecemeal solutions have led to polit-ical quagmire. The country forgetsthat in October 2012, thousands ofpoor farmers from Kerala to WestBengal to the North-East gathered inGwalior to march to Delhi. A simi-lar, smaller march had an insufficientimpact in 2007.

There are many who may arguethat such views are naive and that India’s

development — and thus the eradica-tion of poverty — depends on urban-isation, massive investment in infra-structure and the development of amanufacturing base capable of provid-ing employment to a large number ofpeople, especially the young. But sixyears later, in March 2018, 35,000 farm-ers marched from Nashik toMaharashtra secretariat in Mumbaiafter a 180 km-weeklong-trek with thesame demands and protection of theirlivelihood.

Since the CPM-led All India KisanSabha (AIKS) was behind this move,it is being perceived that the Left stillpossibly is not irrelevant in Indian pol-itics despite their decimation in the LokSabha. The reality is that most farmers,70 per cent of them, debt-ridden, arenot AIKS members but they hold thekey to change the political direction.The farmers needed someone to organ-ise and help vent their grievance.

If the Bharatiya Kisan Sanghhad taken lead, they could havegone with them too.

The march, however, raised a fun-damental question on the country’s

economic model. There has been aclamour to change that model with-in the Congress in 2012. The echoescould be heard today in all other par-ties. Yes, India has to plan for happi-ness, not just growth.

The Narendra Modi Governmenthas the opportunity to reshape thecountry’s economy on Gandhian prin-ciples or Deendayal Upadhyay’s inte-gral humanism — ekatma manavavad.

The present growth model hasbenefited a small population andcaused deprivation for a larger num-ber. If Trump has to be defeated in hisglobal trade war, it can be done byuplifting India’s poor farmers who havethe capacity to be the pivot of the econ-omy, a factor the liberalised-globalisedworld ignored.

Let the country debate but act fastto reorient the economic model. Thefarm distress is a socio-politico-eco-nomic reality. It calls for a change in theprice-tax regime and a real equitablesociety, where the food grower isgiven respect, better livelihood and notdoles in the name of waivers.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

A relook at the Constitution

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

We (YSR) will continue to move no-confidence motion as

long as the debate is taking place, and also pressurise

the Centre to grant special category status to AP.

—YSRCP leader

K PARTHASARATHY

We (BJP) are ready to face no-confidence motion to

be moved by the YSR Congress in Lok Sabha as we

have support in the House. We are confident.

—Union Minister

ANANTH KUMAR

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The Preamble to the Constitutionswears by “We the People” whichgives an impression that it was

approved by popular will. It was, how-ever, voted by the Constituent Assembly,which initially comprised of 389 repre-sentatives. Of these, 292 representedProvincial Assemblies, 93 were appoint-ed by rulers of princely States. Four morecame from the Chief Commissioner’sProvinces, namely Delhi, Ajmer, Coorgand British Baluchistan. The 292 mem-bers were chosen by an electorate whichconsisted mainly of property owners.Each member represented about a mil-lion adults. This number was furthersub-divided between Hindus, Muslimsand Sikhs in proportion to their popu-lation. The suffrage, thus, was extreme-ly limited; one representative for a mil-lion people. Of the 292, the Congresswon 208, while the Muslim League won73. Of these 73, 26 members were thoseMuslims who remained in Hindustan,the rest went to Pakistan.

Winston Churchill condemned theConstituent Assembly as having beenelected on an “inadequate and unrepre-sentative franchise”, as recorded by VPMenon in his book, The Transfer ofPower in India. The 26 Muslim mem-bers who stayed back, participated in theframing of the Constitution and sever-al of them demanded separate electorates

and reservation of jobs for Muslims. Thatprovoked Sardar Patel to say the follow-ing: “I want to ask the Indian Muslimsonly one question. In the recent All-IndiaMuslim Conference, why did you notopen your mouth on the Kashmirissue? Why did you not condemn theaction of Pakistan? These things createdoubt in the minds of the people. So, Iwant to say a word as a friend of Muslimsas it is the duty of a good friend to speakfrankly. It is your duty now to sail in thesame boat and sink or swim together. Iwant to tell you very clearly that you can-not ride two horses. You select one horse,whichever you like best”.

In the Constituent Assembly, oneof the Lucknow Muslim League mem-bers pleaded for separate electoratesand reservation of seats. I had to openmy mouth and say that he could nothave it both ways. Now he (ChaudhryKhaliquzzaman) is in Pakistan. Thosewho want to go to Pakistan can go thereand live in peace. Let us live here inpeace and work for ourselves. This wasrecorded by KM Munshi in his book,The End of an Era.

Evidently, the Constituent Assemblyrepresented only the upper class and thatalso by a limited number of representa-tives. The assertion “We the People”looks incorrect. Moreover, the Partition,drawn for a Muslim homeland, raisedthe question of special rights for thisminority which in any case MohammedAli Jinnah had asserted was a nation andnot a minority. In fact, a division on thebasis of religion made the separate rightsnot only irrelevant but also unjust bymaking the majority of the people lessthan equal. Article 25 to 30 deniesHindus the rights that are given to the

minorities, who, for instance, can estab-lish educational institutions freely whichHindus cannot do. Whereas, Article 14insists on equality before the law: Thestate shall not deny to any personequality before the law or the equal pro-tection of the laws within the territoryof India. Article 15 (1) says: The stateshall not discriminate against any citi-zen on grounds only of religion, race,caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

Article 30 reads: Right of minoritiesto establish and administer education-al institutions. Article 30(1) reads: Allminorities, whether based on religion orlanguage, shall have the right to estab-lish and administer educational institu-tions of their choice.

Contradictions, so apparent, may beexcused on the ground that the enor-mous national document was drafted ina hurry. Moreover, the political atmos-phere was tumultuous and full of uncer-tainity, followed by the Partition and theconsequent mass slaughters. No wonder,the Constitution had to be amendedagain and again (123 times in 70 years).In contrast, the US national documentwas amended 26 times in the course of236 years. India had no political expe-rience on a national scale until 1947.

Under these circumstances, it mightnot have been possible to produce theConstitution with all its inadequacies byJanuary 1950. But for the Governmentof India Act, 1935, which was enactedby the Westminster Parliament for gov-erning the Indian empire, even animperfect document would have beenvery difficult to draft. This Act came inhandy for adapting readily to indepen-dent India’s Constitution. As with anysubstantial duplication, there were

bound to be faults.It was suggested to Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru by several politicalfriends to place the whole documentbefore the first Lok Sabha election byuniversal adult franchise in 1952. Anendorsement by a popularly elected bodywould have legitimised the claim of thePreamble “We the People”. One personvoting per million people with some ofthem unwillingly left behind inHindustan; in fact a few of them likeJanab Khaliquzzaman emigrated toPakistan after participating in the debateson Constitution-making. Yet otherswere direct appointees of the mahara-jahs and nawabs of the princely Stateslike Indore, Baroda and Bhopal.Moreover, a debate by MPs elected byadult franchise would have lent usefulswotting up or editing to the document.The Prime Minister did not deem suchan exercise necessary.

There are a number of areaswhich need attention. One glaringdefect we have mentioned wherebythe majority community and theminorities are not treated as equal.Articles 15 and 30 contradict eachother. A second one is the confusionthat the concurrent subjects cause. Forexample, law and order is a state sub-ject yet there is a Central ReservePolice, the largest para-military force,which is mainly for duties in the States.

Then agriculture, for which theCabinet has a Minister and so haseach State. Who is the ultimateauthority? A thorough revision isobviously necessary. Or preferably anew document.

(The writer is a well-known colum-nist and an author)

Reorient India’s governance modelthinknow

Before I lost

my voice, it

was slurred,

so only those

close to me could

understand, but

with the

computer voice, I

found I could give

popular lectures.

I enjoy

communicating

science. It is

important that

the public

understands

basic science, if

they are not to

leave vital

decisions to

others.

—Stephen

Hawking

English physicist

Challenge of public

school education

There are a number of areas in the Indian Constitution that require correction. Itis time that the document is amended to purge it of all defects

Present growth model of the country has benefited just a small population and caused deprivation for a larger number. The

only solution for a better economic model is to alleviate farm distress. Our policy-makers must act fast

PRAFULLGORADIA

SHIVAJISARKAR

Positive outcomes have been registered in theeducation sector but the need is to bridge the class

divide which reflects in the quality of education

THE RHETORIC FOUNDIN THE PREAMBLE,

THAT OF LIBERTY ANDEQUALITY OF STATUS,

IS VIOLATED ATNUMEROUS PLACES IN

THE CONSTITUTIONITSELF. THERE IS ONLYPARTIAL EQUALITY OF

STATUS IN LAW ININDIA. PEOPLE ARE

DIFFERENTLY TREATEDIN THE CONSTITUTION

BASED ON CASTEDISTINCTIONS. AND

THE RESTRICTIONS ONFREEDOM IMPOSED IN

THE CONSTITUTIONMAKE A FARCE OF THE

WORD ‘LIBERTY'

Public education in everynation has a pivotalrole as the cost of edu-

cation is completely or insome cases, mostly borneby the Government. On theother hand, the cost of pri-vate education is borne bythe learners or their parents.In public education, the State creates infrastructure, suppliesconsumables and also pays for the salary of the teachers andother employees.

The beneficiaries ie, the learners, get the services for free, onthe taxpayers’ money, as the Government considers providing edu-cation as a public good and in the interest of the State. PanditDeendayal Upadhyay, in his seminal lecture, Integral Humanism,mentioned that we plant saplings and nurture them till they growto become a tree and give back many times more than they wereserved. We never ask for payment from the trees as we know theywill grow up and give in return in the form of fruits back to thesociety. Similarly, why should we ask the children or their parentsto pay for the education of the children if we expect them to growup and serve the nation in the future? Ideally, education until theage of 18 should be completely free and compulsory.

Education incorporates within its definition ‘quality', whichensures a certain level of learning which must be of ‘good’ qual-ity. Education bereft of ‘quality’ is no education. So, every learn-er, after years of spending time in a school, must learn what he/sheis expected to learn. For this, it is important that we first definethe expected ‘learning outcomes' after every year of schooling. Ifthe child does not learn what is expected of him, then the loss isirreparable. Children who come from less privileged families con-tribute towards the family income by either helping their parentsin their work or by taking care of their siblings, which allows theparents to work by generating income for the family.

By doing so, the child is contributing towards family income.If the child, at the end of schooling, fails to attend the expect-ed levels of learning then he/she will lag behind. If educationdecides our future, then education bereft of quality will be tan-tamount to no education. The loss is two-fold: The child losestime and income too. It is the primary concern of the state toensure that every child, who ‘donates' his/her time in school,must learn as much as possible, failing which, the state mustcompensate for the loss of time and opportunity.

Until the 1980's, children, who could get admission in aGovernment school, felt proud of themselves. Those who hadto go to a private school felt they were not good enough to getadmission to a Government school. However, towards the begin-ning of this century, the scenario changed completely. By andlarge, children, who get admission in Government schools, donot feel proud of their alma mater, except the KendriyaVidyalayas, the Navodaya Vidyalayas and a few other schoolsunder Government management.

Similarly, children, till a few decades back, felt ashamed ofgoing for a private tuition. But now, it has become a matter ofsocial pride for them to go for a private tuition. Both the devel-opments — the slipping of Government schools to subservientposition and also the promotion of private tuition — go againstthe interest of the less privileged children who cannot affordexpensive education. As most Government schools do not pro-vide quality education, it becomes fait accompli for those whogo to Government schools to come out with a sub-acceptablequality of education and settle for a second rate life.

A revealing and disturbing indication is that teachers wantto get employed in Government schools but send their childrento private schools. The indication is clear. Service condition ofGovernment school teachers is much better when compared toprivate school teachers. The quality of teaching in Governmentschools is generally below acceptable level. The loss is of theeconomically less privileged learners. The question which mustbe asked is: Who is responsible for this state of affairs?

The National Council for Educational Research and Training(NCERT), on insistence of the Minister for Human ResourceDevelopment Prakash Javadekar, recently came out with a doc-ument defining “learning outcomes” after every year of school-ing. Javadekar, while assuming charge of the Ministry, hadannounced that one of his priority is to declare learning out-comes so that schools can be assessed on a transparent scale.This is commendable.

Based on the scale, a nation-wide survey was conducted andthe outcome is awaited. This is the largest survey ever done any-where in the world. All other surveys done by agencies in thecountry or abroad are much smaller in terms of sample size whencompared to this survey. The methodology adopted too is sci-entific and meticulous.

However, the question all want the Human ResourceDevelopment Ministry to answer is: What is the Governmentgoing to do about private tuition and also about the exorbitantfee charged by some institutions? Unless and until we create alevel-playing field, no norm can give the less privileged therequired support to compete with affluent societies.

(The writer is Professor of Education at the Indira GandhiNational Open University, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal)

CBSHARMA

3rdeye 09

Separating science from the myths is extreme-ly important. We keep reading about whatwe should be doing when it comes to health,

but today we tell you what are we doing and believ-ing, that we should stop. You will be surprised tolearn about the wrong efforts that go into follow-ing some of these myths.Myth 1: Drink at least 2-3 litres of water

The one piece of advice that you will hear isthis now that summers are here. Drink as muchwater as your body needs. Not everyone needs 3litres of water every day. If you drink more waterthan your body needs, it may cause water reten-tion and you appear bloated. Check the colour ofyour pee to determine how much water you need.If it is colourless and without much smell, you aregood to go. Even if you have consumed just a litre.Myth 2: Late night dinner is a no-no!

We have this often that a late night dinnercauses a weight gain. You will be glad to know, thatit doesn’t. The time of your meals doesn’t matter.Missing your meals does as it makes you binge eat.Just make sure there is an hour gap between yourmeal and your sleep.Myth 3: Weekends are for catching up on sleep

Most of us have a crazy schedule all weekwhere we miss out on our sleep. We think we can‘make up’ for our missed by sleeping on weekends.It doesn’t help! The attention span and the levelsof fatigue do not return to normal if you sleep extrahours on weekends.Myth 4: Sugar rush!

Sugar rush is a myth. Numerous independentstudies have proven that consuming large amountsof sugar doesn’t affect the stimulus of a child result-ing in hyperactivity.Myth 5: A poop a day — healthy bowel

Regular bowel movement prevents constipa-tion but a perfectly healthy person may not movetheir bowels on a daily basis. A regular bowelmovement isn’t necessarily a sign of a healthy (oran unhealthy) bowel.Myth 6: The five-second rule

When you drop food on the ground and pickit up within five seconds, don’t be too pleased withit. Scientists have found out by putting the five-second rule to test that as soon as the food hitsthe ground, it picks up large amount of bacteria.Next time throw dropped food in the bin.Myth 7: If you exercise, eat whatever you want!

No one thing can contribute to the all-rounddevelopment of your mind and body. It is a com-bined effort. We eat more than we move aroundand our body is mostly made up of that. Also, fatpeople do not necessarily need to watch what theyeat, thin people should too. Our body needs vitalnutrients, which only food can give us.Myth 8: Chocolate causes acne

Teenagers are told that chocolate cause acne.Chocolate is not related to skin problems and infact, some of them are actually good for your skin.Myth 9: Carbohydrates make you gain weight

Carbohydrates don’t make you fat, eating toomany calories makes you fat. If you cut out thecarbs from your diet, your body will lose the fuelit needs. A low carb diet is also harder to stick within the long run and can’t sustain your diet plan.Myth 10: Microwave radiation is dangerous

The microwaves are many times weaker thanthe harmful radiation that we keep talking about.In fact X-rays are more harmful than themicrowaves and I see no one objecting to get-ting one done when the doctor asks for it.Myth 11: Having many mini meals is betterthan three large meals

Every time we eat, our body’s metabolismdoes try to burn the food. So having many minimeals would account for more burning calories.But the difference is so minuscule that the effortput into this is not worth it. Each meal is anopportunity to lose control and snacking maynot help. Stick to a comfortable routine that youcan sustain.

The writer is Health, and Fitness Expert At UrbanClap.com

DON’T FOLLOW

BLINDLYBHAVYA SHARMAbusts a few mythsthat we have beenfollowing for years

pioneer THE PIONEER LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018 10

Using e-cigarettes may lead to an accumulation of fat in the liver, a study

of mice exposed to the devices suggests. The researchers also found

that genes related to circadian rhythmswere changed. Circadian rhythm

dysfunction accelerates the development of liver disease including

fatty liver diseases

Harmfuldevice

Recently Irrfan in a statement saidthat he has neuroendocrinetumour. PIONEER HEALTHtells you all that youneed to now about it

With Irrfan Tweeting lastweek that he has neuroen-docrine tumour (NET)

— a rare tumour that develops fromcells of the neuroendocrine systemand grows typically in the digestiveor respiratory tract — lungs, appen-dix, small intestine, rectum andpancreas. However, it can occur inany body part.

WHAT IS NET?They are abnormal growths

that begin in the neuroendocrinecells, which are distributed widelythroughout the body. While someclinical and pathologic features ofNETs are unique to the site of ori-gin, other characteristics are shared,regardless of site of origin. NETs arealso sometimes referred to as car-cinoid tumours.

NETs are rare neoplasms, butthe incidence is increasing. MostNETs are slow proliferating andclinically silent, and so are oftendiagnosed at a stage with advanceddisease.

Many NETs first appear in thelungs or the gastrointestinal tract,including the stomach, pancreas,appendix, intestines, colon andrectum. NETs may also appear inthe thymus, thyroid gland, adren-al gland and pituitary gland.

NETs may be benign or malig-nant. Although NETs compriseless than 2% of GI malignancies,these tumours are actually moreprevalent than stomach and pancre-atic cancers combined.

THE SYMPTOMSIt depends on the tumour loca-

tion and whether it is functional ornonfunctional.

Functioning NETs are definedbased upon the presence of clinicalsymptoms due to excess hormonesecretion by the tumour.Functioning (hormone-secreting)pancreatic NETs are classifiedaccording to the predominant hor-mone they secrete and the result-ing clinical syndrome (insulinoma,gastrinoma, glucagonoma, VIPoma,somatostatinoma.

Non-functional NETs (NENs)do not secrete hormones and symp-toms due to them are caused by thetumour’s growth.

They are often asymptomatic inthe early stage. When present,symptoms appear similar to thosecaused by other common condi-tions. Therefore, NETs are at times

misdiagnosed as irri-table bowel syndrome(IBS). But abdominal dis-comfort in IBS is usuallyrelieved by going to the bathroom.

THe NENs arising in the diges-tive tract may be grouped into twomajor categories: well-differentiat-ed NETs and poorly differentiatedneuroendocrine carcinomas(NECs).

TYPESProliferative rate, as assessed by

mitotic count and Ki-67 labelingindex, is of prognostic significancein well-differentiated NETs, inde-pendent of tumour stage. A grad-ing scheme endorsed by the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) andthe American Joint Committee onCancer (AJCC) for NETs of thepancreas and tubular gastrointesti-nal tract classifies well-differentiat-ed NETs into low and intermediategrades based on the proliferativerate.

Poorly differentiated NECs areoften associated with a rapid clin-ical course, while well-differentiat-ed NETs of the digestive systemgenerally have a much better prog-nosis. However, well-differentiatedNETs are not a homogeneousgroup, and there is a spectrum ofaggressiveness. The biologic behav-ior of well-differentiated NETs can-not be predicted based on morphol-ogy alone.

To accurately grade the tumourand provide better guidance forchemotherapy, it may be necessaryto assess the tumour’s proliferativerate by both mitotic count and Ki-67 labeling index.

WHY IT HAPPENS?n As a result of the carcinoid

syndrome: Chronic flushingand/or diarrhoea are the typicalmanifestations of the carcinoidsyndrome, which is the result ofsecretion of serotonin and othervasoactive substances into thesystemic circulation. The carci-noid syndrome is primarilyassociated with metastatictumours originating in themidgut (distal small intestineand proximal colon). In con-trast, hindgut (distal colorectal)and foregut (gastroduodenal,lung) NETs uncommonly pro-duce the carcinoid syndrome.)

n As a result of tumour growth:Small bowel NETs may cause

chronic/recurrent abdominalpain, occasionally leading tobowel obstruction. Metastatictumours in the liver can causeright upper quadrant pain,hepatomegaly, and early satiety.

n As an incidental finding: ManyNETs are discovered duringendoscopic or radiographic pro-cedures planned for other pur-poses; this is especially true ofcarcinoids of the stomach andrectum.The presence of the carcinoid

syndrome may be suspected whena patient has suggestive symptoms,such as otherwise unexplaineddiarrhea or flushing. However,other diagnoses must be consid-ered.

The differential diagnosis of

flushing, for example, includesphysiologic events, drugs, and anumber of diseases other than thecarcinoid syndrome. Moreover,other neuroendocrine tumour typescan cause severe chronic diarrhea

DIAGNOSTIC TESTA useful initial diagnostic test

for the carcinoid syndrome is tomeasure 24-hour urinary excretionof 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), which is the end product ofserotonin metabolism. This test hasa sensitivity of over 90% and speci-ficity of 90% for the carcinoid syn-drome.

Falsepositive results

may be induced bythe ingestion of certain

drugs (acetaminophen,coumaric acid, guaifenisin,mephenisin, phenobarbital, reser-pine, acetanilid, ephedrine,methamphetamine, nicotine, phen-tolamine, phenmetrazine, caffeine,flourouracil, melphalan, metho-carbamol, phenacetin, mesalamine)and tryptophan-rich foods such asavocados, pineapples, bananas, kiwifruit, plums, eggplants, walnuts,hickory nuts, pecans, tomatoes,plantains, and butternut. Thesefoods should be avoided for threedays prior to urine collection

Measurement of urinary 5-HIAA excretion is generally notuseful in foregut (gastroduodenal,lung) neuroendocrine tumours,which often lack aromatic aminoacid decarboxylase. In such a situ-ation, imaging studies are done tosearch for a carcinoid tumour.

HOW IT SPREADS?NETs may spread to other

parts of the body, most common-ly to the liver, peritoneal cavity orbone. At the time of diagnosis, morethan 50 per cent of NETs havealready spread to other parts of thebody.

Once the biochemical diagno-sis of the carcinoid syndrome isconfirmed, usually by an elevated24-hour excretion of 5-HIAA, thetumour must be localized. Twotechniques, standard cross-section-al imaging and diagnostic imagingwith radiolabeled somatostatinanalogs, have a complementaryrole in tumour localization.

TREATMENTThe primary treatment goal for

patients with NETs should be cura-tive (complete resection of tumour),with symptom control and thelimitation of tumour progression assecondary goals.

Surgery to remove the prima-ry malignancy and/or local lymphnodes is the only possible curativeapproach and so represents the tra-ditional first-line therapy.Somatostatin analogs are the main-stay of therapy for the alleviation ofsymptoms of so-called functioningtumours.

— Dr KK Aggarwal, Vice PresidentConfederation of Medical Associations of

Asia and Oceania

Spherule Foundation has started anawareness programme on menstru-al hygiene in schools, colleges,

orphanages, slums, villages and commu-nities across the length and breadth of thiscountry. An educational book titled MoonTime by founder of Spherule Foundation,Dr Geeta Bora, which reflects power ofmenstruation, explains our young girls increative way about biology of their bod-

ies, what periods are, why it happens andhow it’s completely natural, important andhealthy process and most importantly itwill explain why period is completely nor-mal and it should not affect their normalday to day life and they can do all the activ-ities and should not feel restrained.

Besides creating awareness, theFoundation is also providing sanitary nap-kins in slum areas and remote areas.

SLIMLINE

World Sleep Day wascelebrated onMarch 16, 2018,

Brightsandz Clean Tech, aleader in providingElectromotive force (EMF) shieldingsolutions for better health and environment, hasreleased the findings of its survey conducted tomeasure the — Health of Our Sleep and Effectsof EMF Radiation on Our Sleep

As per the estimates of the survey, 81 % of400 respondents sleep with their mobilephones under the pillow or in the proximityless than two feet. Using mobiles phones beforesleeping affects the quality of sleep, yet thereare 75% of the respondents who have the habitof pre -sleep browsing which makes them vul-nerable to sleeping disorders.

“Through this survey, we intend to mea-sure and amplify the awareness about theimpact of EMF radiation from handhelddevices that affects our sleeping pattern”Manas Ganguly, founder of Brightsandz CleanTech Private Limited, said.

Results of the survey also show that 60%of the respondents who sleep in proximity tothe stabilizer and 68% of the respondents whohave an external power distribution sourcesuch as HT power line or a distribution trans-former within the radius of 20 meters sufferfrom problems such as lack of energy, vitalityand tiredness, anxiety and edginess and list-lessness during the day.

Apart from raising the awareness about theimportance of a healthy sleep, Brightsandz alsoendeavours to educate society about preven-tive measures that can help them lead a bet-ter life by having a quality sleep.

TIPTOPSTUDYCENTRE

If you have an important dayat work puffy eyes make youlook ill and tired. But one

can easily take care of it by fol-lowing a few home remedies.

A common cause of puffyeyes could bewater retention.So drink water.When the body ishydrated, there isless chance ofwater retentionthat can causeyour under-eyearea and otherparts of yourbody as well.

Use cold spoons. Chill sixmetal spoons in the fridge for10 to 15 minutes. Hold therounded portion of one of thecold spoons against your eye fora few minutes until the spoonbecomes warm. As the spoonwarms, replace it with another

cold one. This will help get ridof tired eyes.

Use green or black tea bagsto help soothe puffy and irritat-ed eyes. The tea contains anti-irritant properties that help

reduce swellingaround youreyes.

Almost allbeauticians willtell you thatchilled cucum-bers make agood remedyfor treatingpuffy eyes. The

enzymes and the astringentproperties in cucumbers helpreduce inflammation. Cut acucumber into thick slices.Chill the slices. Place the coldslices on your eyelids for about10 minutes or until theybecome warm. Repeat a fewtimes.

DadiKaKehnaPuffy eyes are a common prob-

lem. There are many reasons forthis like physical stress, hormonal

changes in the body, change inweather etc. Here are a few tips to

get rid of them, says ROSHANI DEVI

Studies indicate that intermittent fastingcan help in improving a person’s bloodpressure, cholesterol levels, and insulin

sensitivity. Chaitra or Basant Navratri isobserved at the start of thesummer for preparing the bodyto tolerate summer. Fasting isan integral aspect of thisfestival in India, makingNavratri a process ofdetoxifying the body, mind,and soul. Some fast forreligious reasons, and othersdo it to cut back on unwantedcalories and lose weight.

Fast (vrat) does not mean ‘not eating’but rather controlling desires andsimultaneously cultivating positive mentalattitudes. Body detoxification involvesspecial Navratri diet principles of eating less,once a day with no cereals. Rajgira flourused during this season is a good source ofVitamins A, B6, K, and C, as also folate,riboflavin, calcium, potassium, iron (60% of

RDA), copper, magnesium, phosphorus, andmanganese. Cooked amaranth is also 90%digestible. Tips for fasting:

nPlan your diet especially if you havemedical conditions such as diabetes

and hypertension. Do not skip yourmedication schedule. Keep ahealthy snack handy for thosecravings.

nKeep yourself hydratedby drinking water, coconut water,green tea, buttermilk, and lime

juice. Avoid aerated drinks.nAvoid gorging on salty ‘vrat

snacks’. Eat something that is boiled orroasted instead.

nUse rock salt in your food instead ofusual salt as it helps in better mineral absorp-tion. It is also beneficial for those who have highor low blood pressure.

nEat lighter meals as it aids digestion.nFor dessert, you can try eating dates or

fruit yogurt. Also, add honey instead of sugar.nEat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Coconut Water (Nariyal Pani): Coconut water keeps you hydrated,which is why a lot of athletes use it as a post-workout drink. Coconut

water, which has high water content and is rich innutrients and fiber, helps replenish your bodyand good for digestive system. Tender coconutwater, preferably fresh, can be had once a dayto improve cardiovascular health. It is highin potassium which can be a perfectsubstitute for any energy drink. Coconutwater contains a significant amount ofcalcium and magnesium that isnecessary for healthy bones. Bloating isusually gas-related. But it can also be caused due to high sodium intake,which coconut water can reduce. Coconut water is good for diabetespatient as it not only helps reduce blood sugar, but it also prevents theoccurrence of blood clots. Coconut water is a must-have liquid for thosesuffering from diarrhea. It will prevent the need for hospitalisation byreplacing the fluid loss from the GI (Gastrointestinal) tract

C O O L D O W N

DOCYARD

DR VINIT SURI

President, Indian StrokeAssociation & Seniorconsultant, neurology

INDRAPRASTHA APOLLO HOSPITAL

NEW ADVANCEMENT IN

STROKE MANAGEMENT

Stroke or brain attack is the second largest cause of deathamongst people above the age of 60 years. 17 million strokesper year occur across the globe. Out of these, 6.5 million

per year will die and another five million will remain perma-nently disabled. One in six people will suffer from stroke in theirlifetime and stroke claims one life every six seconds across theglobe.

The incidence of stroke is reducing in the higher incomecountries due to implementation of preventive strategies. Onthe other hand, the incidence of stroke in lower and middleincome countries (like India) is increasing because of poor imple-mentation of preventive strategies and hence the global burdenof stroke is increasing. To reduce the global burden of Stroke,active work towards prevention and management of Stroke hasto be conducted in these lower and middle-income countriesincluding India and China.

RECOGNISE STROKERemember the mnemonic FAST — Face, Arm, Speech Time.

If the face appears drooped, the arm drifts on raising it and thespeech is slurred. This would indicate a stroke and it is time toact FAST. 60-70 per cent of strokes can be identified by thismnemonic of FAST. Other manifestations of Stroke include:n Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyesn Vertigo and imbalancen Sudden catastrophic headache with vomiting

WHAT TO DO? 1.9 million neurons can die every minute after Stroke starts and

hence, urgent treatment is of extreme importance. Time lostis Brain lost. Two therapies that can be urgently offered inthe first few hours called as the “Golden period” and mayproduce significant benefit are:

n Intravenous thrombolysis (drug given through vein): Canbe given up to a window period of 4.5 hours (the earlier thebetter)

n Mechanical thrombectomy (Stent placed in brain vesselthrough leg vein and clot pulled out): Can be performed with-in six hours (the earlier the better).

ADVANCEMENT IN STROKE MANAGEMENTMajor advances and changes in the treatment of Stroke have

happened since February 2018. These two advances are — expan-sion of patients eligibility for intravenous thrombolysis andexpansion of time window for Mechanical thrombectomy up to24 hours for selected patients. These are major advancementsin the field of stroke management and will change the waypatients. It includes:n Indications for Intravenous thrombolysis have been expand-

ed to k Some patients who have had heart attack in last three

monthsk Elderly above 80 years and patients with history of dia-

betes and previous strokek Patients on blood thinners and those who develop stroke,

post cardiac interventionk Patients on dialysis, pregnant patients and patients with

diabetic, eye changesn Duration of Mechanical thrombectomy has been extended

to 24 hours for selected population

PREVENT ITn Stroke occurs more commonly amongst the population with

risk factors.n Regular medication prescribed by doctor to control BP, sug-

ars, cholesterol and blood thinning medicationn Stroke can be prevented by risk factor reduction.

Unmodifiable risk factors include advancing age,male sex andfamily history of Stroke. Modifiable risk factors include:

All about

NETNET

THE PRIMARYTREATMENT GOAL

FOR PATIENTS WITHNETS SHOULD BE

CURATIVE (COMPLETERESECTION OF

TUMOUR), WITHSYMPTOM CONTROLAND THE LIMITATION

OF TUMOURPROGRESSION ASSECONDARY GOAL

All about

Risk Factors Measures to reduce Stroke incidence

Smoking,Tobacco ingestion CessationHypertension Control of BP by medication and lifestyle (Low salt

intake & Exercise)Diabetes Control of Blood Sugar levels (HbA1C <7.0%)Heart disease Regular medications and exerciseAlcohol intake Only moderate intake with one to two drinks per day in

men and one drink per day for womenDyslipidemia Diet control and medicationPhysical inactivity Exercise of moderate intensity 40 minutes three to five

times a week or 150 minutes of moderate physicalactivity over one week

Dietary Intake Low fat, high fibre and low salt dietObesity Reduce BMI to less than 25 kg/m2

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018 money 11

We are facing many challengesin the WTO and outside. Trade environment globally is veryrisky at this point of time. —WTO DIRECTOR GENERALROBERTO AZEVEDO

This is an excellent responsefrom the investing public. Thesuccess of the issue shows thatthe people have accepted theBandhan Bank model—CHANDRA SHEKHAR GHOSH,MD & CEO, BANDHAN BANK GOVT/CORP

FROM

BUZZ

BHEL COMMISSIONS FIRST UNIT OF KISHANGANGA HEP IN J&KBharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully commissioned the first 110 MW generating unit of the

prestigious 330 MW Kishanganga Hydro-Electric Project (HEP) in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), being developed by

NHPC Ltd. Located on the river Kishanganga, a tributary of the river Jhelum, in Bandipora district of J&K, the three

units of Kishanganga HEP on being commissioned, will be able to generate 1,350 Million Units (MU) of clean

electricity annually. The balance two units are also in advanced stages of commissioning. BHEL was entrusted with

execution of the Electro-Mechanical (E&M) package for the project comprising design, manufacture, supply,

installation and commissioning of Vertical Shaft Pelton Turbines and matching synchronous Generators, Controls &

Monitoring (SCADA) System along with electrical and mechanical auxiliaries. The equipment was supplied from

BHEL's manufacturing units at Bhopal, Jhansi, Rudrapur and Bengaluru while the execution of works on site was

carried out by the company's Power Sector Northern Region division and Transmission Business Group. In the state

of J&K, BHEL has so far commissioned 31 Hydro sets with a cumulative capacity of 1,257 MW.

19TH QC CONVENTION OF NTPCGenx LQC of Korba bagged the 1st position

in the 19th NTPC Quality Circles Convention

that concluded in Farakka on March 17.

Anusandhan QC of Farakka and Udaan QC

of Sipat secured the 2nd and 3rd positions

respectively. Nirvaran of Badarpur bagged

the Best QC Unit award. The first position in

the Model Exhibition section went to

Pragati QC of Tanda, while the second and

the third positions went to Niruiram Chakra

QC and Niyantran QC of Ramagundum and

Solapur respectively. Altogether 14 QC

teams, representing various regions of

NTPC participated in the two day

convention. The awards were given away

to the winning teams by NN Rai, ED, BE,

Kunal Gupta, GGM, Farakka and others at

the concluding session of the convention. The Two day meet was inaugurated on March 16 by Saptarshi Roy,

Director (HR & Fin) through the VC mode from Corporate Centre.

NBCC DIVERSIFIES INTO HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION NBCC (India) Ltd., the Navratna CPSE under Ministry of

Housing and Urban Affairs, has added yet another aspect to

its expanding business by diversifying into the Road

construction space. A Memorandum of Understanding

(MoU) was signed between Yogesh JP Sharma, Executive

Director (Engg.) NBCC and Anup Malik, Managing Director

from Ecotourism Development Corporation of Uttarakhand

Ltd (EDCUL) in the presence of Harak Singh Rawat, Minister

for Forest, Government of Uttarakhand to construct an eco-

tourism circuit along Kotdwar-Ramnagar Kandi Road in the

State of Uttarakhand. The 50 km four lane highway road

project will be partly straight road and partly elevated road,

like flyover/bridge etc., to allow for free movement of wild

animals underneath. The project will be developed under Green Infrastructure/Green Road Model and is estimated to

cost Rs. 2,000 crore. The Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun will be the partner institute of NBCC for ecological

planning of the project which will be conducted through Satellite data.

HOME MINISTER LAYS FOUNDATION STONE FOR REDEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYSTATIONS AT LUCKNOWUnion Home Minister Rajnath Singh has laid the

foundation stone for Redevelopment of Gomti

Nagar & Charbagh Railway Stations at Lucknow.

The redevelopment project is being executed by

NBCC (India) Ltd., a Navratna CPSE under the

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA),

Govt. of India. NBCC has been entrusted with the

Redevelopment of 10 Railway Stations across

India. The other dignitaries who were present

during the ceremony were Piyush Goyal, Union

Railway and Coal Minister and Dr. Anoop Kumar

Mittal, CMD, NBCC. The redevelopment of these

Railway stations shall be carried out in phases

and the estimated project cost of Phase 1 is

approx. Rs 374 Cr and Rs1206 Cr for Gomti

Nagar and Charbagh respectively. NBCC shall be executing this project on a self-revenue generation model by

commercial utilization of vacant railway land parcels.

B U S I N E S S C O R N E R

PNS n NEW DELHI

The benchmark BSE Sensexon Monday cracked below

the 33,000-mark by falling near-ly 253 points to extend its slidefor the fifth straight session dueto selling in metal, telecom andbanking stocks amid worriesover widening current accountdeficit and possible US Fedrate hike.

The 30-share index closeddown 252.88 points or 0.76 percent at 32,923.12. This is theweakest closing since December6 last when it settled at32,597.18. The index had lost741.94 points in the previousfour sessions.

The broader NSE Nifty toofell below the 10,100 level bydropping 100.10 points toend at 10,094.25 due to for-eign fund outflows amid ris-ing bond yields on prospectsof a 25 basis point hike ininterest rate by the US Federalreserve this week.

Overall market sentimentremained weak after the RBIdata released after market hourson Friday showed currentaccount deficit (CAD) rising to2 per cent of the GDP at $13.5

billion in the December quar-ter, up from 1.4 per cent in theyear-ago period, due to a high-er trade deficit.

The rupee also depreciatedby 19 paise intra-day against thedollar at 65.13, which too hada negative influence.

Global cues too were weakas investors moved cautiouslybefore the US Federal Reservemeeting, that is likely to raise USinterest rates.

“Market continues to dragunder global market volatilityahead of the FOMC meettomorrow, where consensus

hints at a 25bps rate hike. Bondyield remains at elevated levelsand concern on trade tensionsis influencing investors to bookprofit. Back home, rupee weak-ened due to widening currentaccount deficit and led investorsto remain cautious,” Vinod Nair,Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services Ltd said.

“Widened fiscal deficit andfresh developments on the polit-ical front dampened the marketsentiment”, said Manoj Choraria,a Delhi-based NSE stock broker.

Tata Steel was the biggestloser among Sensex compo-

nents, plunging by 4.24 percent, followed by Bharti Airtel at4.16 per cent. Other laggardsincluded Wipro, Yes Bank, CoalIndia, Infosys, Asian Paint,Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports, SBI,Tata Motors, Kotak Bank, SunPharma, ICICI Bank, HeroMotoCorp, Dr Reddy's, HDFCLtd, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank,RIL, ITC Ltd, ONGC, HDFCBank and M&M that lost up to2.60 per cent.

In contrast, counters likePower Grid, NTPC, L&T,Maruti Suzuki, HindustanUnilever and TCS were the topperformers in the Sensex pack,rising up to 1.12 per cent. Metalstocks bore the brunt after pricesof base metals dropped in glob-al markets. Chinese ore fell to itslowest level since November onhigh inventories.

In the metal segment, coun-ters such as NMDC, SAIL,Hindalco, JSW Steel, JindalSteel and Power, HindustanZinc and Vedanta fell up to 6.47per cent. State-run oil market-ing companies such as IOC andBPCL fell on reports that refin-ers may buy stake in GAIL.BPCL, HPCL and IOC declinedup to 4.01 per cent.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Aditya Birla Group’sUltraTech Cement onMonday said it would

buy Binani Cements Ltd (BCL)from its promoter companyBinani Industries Ltd (BIL) andagreed to provide `7,266 croreto the company. Besides, thecompany also sought to com-plete the termination of IBCproceedings and enter intodefinitive agreement and othercustomary and regulatoryapprovals soon.

The move comes days afterrival Dalmia Cement said its`6,350 crore bid to buy BCLhas been accepted by thelenders. Besides offering`6,350 crore, Dalmia had alsooffered 20 per cent equity inBinani to the lenders.

UltraTech said in a state-ment that Binani Industries Ltd(BIL) — the promoter firm ofBCL — had approached it forarranging funds to pay-off thelenders.

The company's boardagreed to issue 'comfort letter' toprovide `7,266 crore in returnfor 98.43 per cent stake inBinani Cement.

“The board of directors atits meeting held today after con-sidering the request made byBIL has agreed to issue thecomfort letter confirming thatthe company will providefunds amounting `7,266 crorebeing the amount it hadoffered to the CoC in terms of

the resolution plans submittedby it for acquiring BCL,” saidUltraTech Cement.

However, this would be“subject to termination of IBCproceedings, entering intodefinitive agreement and othercustomary and regulatoryapprovals”, it added.

According to UltraTech,BIL has requested the companyto issue a comfort letter whichshall be used as a support in itsapplication seeking termina-tion of the IBC proceeding.

UltraTech Cement wasone of the resolution appli-cants for the debt ridden BCLand its plan was not approvedby the Committee of Creditors(CoC) of BCL.

Last week, BIL had movedNational Company LawAppellate Tribunal (NCLAT) fil-ing contempt petition againstthe conducts of the ResolutionProfessional (RP) of BCL, alleg-ing that its order was not fol-

lowed while declaring the suc-cessful resolution plan for thestruggling cement maker.

Filing a contempt pleaagainst RP and representative ofDeloitte who is assisting reso-lution plan, Binani Industrieshas also asked the NCLAT todeclare the meeting of CoC ofBCL held on March 14, 2018 as“null and void” in which bid ofDalmia Bharat Cement wasapproved.

It also raised questions overthe valuation of Dalmia Cementby RP in the resolution processand alleged that he is conductingin a manner which is detrimen-tal to the interests of theCorporate Debtor (BCL).

UltraTech Cement is theleader in the cement industrywith a 92.5 million tonneinstalled annual capacity, and thismakes it the fourth largest cementcompany in the world excludingChina. BCL capacity, on theother hand, is 6.25 MT.

NEW DELHI: Expressing con-cerns over rising protectionismin developed countries, especiallyin the US which has imposedhigh import duties on steel andaluminium, WTO (World TradeOrganization) Director GeneralRoberto Azevedo on Mondaycalled upon the member nationsto come together and resolve theissues related to global trade.

The WTO chief, who ishere for a mini ministerial meet-ing called by India, said thatencouraging trends in globaltrade such as rising export ordersand volumes could be jeopar-dised by protectionist measures.

He was speaking at anindustry interaction here organ-ised by CII. Azevedo, accordingto the CII statement, pointed “torising risks to this positive out-look with recent incidents ofincreased protectionist moves bymembers”.

He cited the recent tariffincreases by the US for steel andaluminium among other protec-tionist measures by other coun-tries. He stressed upon the needfor WTO members to cometogether, adopt a flexible postureand cooperate in resolving theglobal trade related issues.

The WTO chief appreciatedthe initiative and the leadershiprole of India in organising themini ministerial meeting.

“We are facing many chal-lenges in the WTO and outside.Trade environment globally isvery risky at this point of time. Wewill try to have an open and hon-est conversation at the informalWTO meeting here," Azevedosaid. He also called on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi. PNS

PTI n KOLKATA

The initial public offer (IPO)of Bandhan Bank was over-

subscribed 14.56 times, elicitinggood response from QIP andHNI investors, a top official ofthe bank said. Monday was thelast date of the offer.

MD and CEO of BandhanBank Chandra Shekhar Ghoshsaid that oversubscription onaccount of QIP was 38.67 timesand that of HNI investors was13.89 times.

The price band had beenfixed between `370 and `375per share, with a face value of`10 each to raise `4,500 crore.

The entire proceeds of theoffer would be utilised for cap-ital requirements.

Retail oversubscription was1.05 times which is going to risefurther and applications receivedon this count was approximate-ly 10 lakh, Ghosh said.

“This was exce l lentresponse from the investingpublic. The success of theissue showed the people hasaccepted the Bandhan Bankmodel,” Ghosh said.

Kotak Mahindra Capital,JM Financia l , GoldmanSachs and JP Morgan werethe book running lead man-agers of the issue.

Among the anchor investorswere Abu Dhabi InvestmentAuthority - Behave, BlackrockIndia Equities (Mauritius),HSBC Indian Equity MotherFund, UTI - Mastershare UnitScheme, BNP Paribas Arbitrage,Amansa Holdings and TataBalanced Fund.

The Kolkata-based privatesector lender was mandated bythe RBI to come out with an IPOafter three years of completionof banking operations aftermigrating from microfinanc-ing activity only.

UltraTech to buy Binani

Cements for `7,266 cr

Weak trade continues; Sensex below33k-mark on CAD, Fed hike worries

MUMBAI: The rupee on Monday

slid by 23 paise to close at one-

week low of 65.17 against the

US currency due to concerns

over widening current account

deficit and a strong dollar ahead

of a crucial US Federal Reserve

meet. The sentiment in forex

market turned weak after the

country's current account deficit

widened in the December

quarter on the back of higher

trade deficit.

Bandhan Bankpublic offeroversubscribedover 14 times

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a bid to provide relief to thetelecom sector, reeling under

deep financial stress,Department of Telecom (DoT)on Monday amended licencenorms of service providers toincrease number of install-ments for spectrum paymentsand radiowaves frequencyholding limit.

“The Licensee may opt onetime for higher number of instal-ments including in the currentfinancial year 2017-18 (maxi-mum 16 instalments) fordeferred payment liabilities asper Notice Inviting Application(NIA) for auctions conductedfor award of spectrum in theyears 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and2016,” a DoT note on licenceamendment said.

Before this amendment, aportion of spectrum auctionamount used to be taken asupfront payment by DoT andthe balance, after a two-yearmoratorium, was paid out everyyear — 10 instalments in all.

The amendment is part ofrelief measures approved by theCabinet early this month for thesector reeling under debt of 7.87lakh crore and suffering fromreduction in margins due to cut-throat competition induced withentry of Reliance Jio.

There will be no change invalue and interest rate that tele-com companies have to pay forthe spectrum. The total amountthat telecom operators will payfor the spectrum will be higherby ̀ 74,446.01 crore till 2034-35if they opt for more number ofinstalments.

It will be optional for tele-

com operators to choosebetween current number ofinstalments and increased num-ber of instalments.

“The instalments that havealready been paid shall not bemodified,” the note said.

Before 2012, the DoT hadheld auction of 3G and BWA(Broadband Wireless Access)spectrum in 2010.

The DoT has also amendedspectrum holding limit of tele-com operators as per the Cabinetdecision, which will provideexit route for loss making mobileservice providers.

“The overall spectrum capis revised from the current limitof 25 per cent to 35 per cent,” theDoT note said.

A telecom operator wasearlier allowed to hold maxi-mum of 25 per cent of all spec-trum allocated in a service areafor mobile telephony.

The new licence normsends spectrum holding limit inand above frequency range of1,000 megahertz band. However,the spectrum holding cap willremain in frequency rangebelow 1 gigahertz.

“The current intra-bandcap is removed. Instead, there isa cap of 50% on the combined

spectrum holding in the sub-1GHz bands (700 MHz, 800MHz and 900 MHz bands),” thenote said.

The DoT will continue touse existing method to deter-mine spectrum cap. Underpresent norm, all spectrum,including allocated throughauction, unsold in auctionand surrendered by mobileoperators, will be consideredas total spectrum for calcu-

lating spectrum cap.The spectrum that may be

made available to DoT for com-mercial use by other ministriesor departments as result ofrefarming will not be consideredas part of total spectrum fordetermining radiowaves cap.

The revised spectrum capsmay be revisited after Final Actsof World RadiocommunicationConference (WRC) 2019, thenote said.

DoT ups spectrum cap, installments

WTO Director Genconcerned overprotectionism indeveloped nations

NEW DELHI: Telecom department

has ordered that bank guarantees

from Axis Bank should not be

taken, as the country's third-largest

private sector lender had failed to

honour a guarantee issued

previously.

The Department of

Telecommunications (DoT) in a

March 16 office memorandum

titled ‘non-adherence to contractual

obligation of bank guarantees by

Axis Bank’ said no new bank

guarantee from the lender should

be accepted.

“Axis Bank has failed to invoke a

Bank Guarantee issued by them on

behalf of Aircel Group of

Companies,” DoT said. “This

action by Axis Bank is a serious

breach of trust and contract with

Government of India.”

Telecom companies have to

routinely furnish bank guarantees

to meet their contractual

commitments. A failure may result

in the government encashing the

bank guarantee as a tool to punish

the defaulter.

Typically, a bank guarantee is

issued by a bank or any other

lending institution promising to

make up for a pre-stated sum of

money in case of default by the

entity on whose behalf it is issued.

When contacted, an Axis Bank

official spokesperson, said: “The

bank guarantees have been issued

by us on behalf of Bharti Airtel.”

Listing the reason for not

honouring encashment of the bank

guarantee, he said, “Payment of

the said guarantees, at present, will

be in violation of the orders of the

Telecom Disputes Settlement and

Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT)”.

Without giving details of the

injunction passed or the matter

before TDSAT, the spokesperson

said: “Once the order is vacated,

the bank will be pleased to honour

the said guarantees, as per the

underlying terms. This matter has

been communicated to the DoT.”

A source who did not wish to be

named explained that said bank

guarantee was not issued for Aircel

but rather Bharti Airtel, in a matter

involving the use of Aircel's

spectrum by Bharti Airtel. PNS

No new bank guarantee fromAxis Bank to be accepted: DoT

PNS n NEW DELHI

MG Motors, the former British mar-que owned by Chinese automotive

company SAIC on Monday outlinedtheir India plans.

According to Rajeev Chaba, Presidentand Managing Director, MG Motors Indiaand a former General Motors India boss,the carmaker will roll out their first vehi-cle, a sports-utility vehicle, likely to be theMG ZS which would compete against theHyundai Creta, by the middle of next year.

SAIC, one of China’s largest industri-al corporations and carmakers has alreadybought the former General Motors Indiafacilities at Halol, Gujarat to make their carsand has a five-year outlay of over `5,000crore with `2,000 crore already spent.

According to Chaba, SAIC is makingmajor updates to the Halol facilitiesincluding a whole new bodyshop, bring-ing up the facilities to modern standards.

It also plans to have at least 300 cus-tomer touchpoints at the time of launch.

Following the first launch, the car-maker plans to launch a new vehicle everyyear. With an existing workforce of 150,plans are ongoing to recruit up to 1,000workers for the manufacturing facilities atHalol and talks are also ongoing with sev-eral Indian automotive ancillary manu-facturers.

The MG brand, which stood for‘Morris Garages’ is being used by SAIC topower their global expansion. In 2006, afterthe collapse of MG Rover in the UK, theywere bought out by Chinese carmaker

Nanjing Automotive, which in turn wasacquired by SAIC which was noted forbeing the joint-venture Chinese partner toGeneral Motors and Volkswagen in China.

However, only some research anddevelopment facilities remain in theUnited Kingdom. The plans for India arejust a part of the Chinese carmaker’s inten-tion to create a global car empire, with newfacilities in Thailand and Latin Americaalso planned.

However, with the Indian passenger carmarket dominated by two players —Maruti-Suzuki and Hyundai with overthree-quarters of sales and many multina-tionals not making a mark, Chaba expect-ed MG to be different. “We will give assur-ances to our customers and dealers that weare here to stay and we will bring meaningfulproducts that add value to our customerslives. We are also committed to India in thelong-term and have plans of 80 percentlocalisation from the very start.”

MG Motors outlines India growth plansTotal investments of `5k cr; to launch first vehicle by mid-2019

Co seeks an end to insolvency proceedings soon

Rupee slides 23 paise

to 1-wk low of 65.17

R E L I E F T O T E L C O S : L I C E N C E N O R M S R E V I S E D

world 12LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

Taylor Swift didn’t persuade Camila

Cabello to quit Fifth Harmony

London: Singer Camila Cabello has shutdown the rumours that pop diva TaylorSwift was behind her decision to quit girlband Fifth Harmony. Cabello, who left theband in December 2016, said her decisionto embark on a solo career was purely hers,reported Contactmusic. “It annoyed me thatpeople said she was encouraging me becauseI know that she probably got a lot of nega-tive criticism for that. Absolutely nobodycould ever persuade me to do something.If I don’t want to do something the wholeworld could be telling me and I won’t do it.And if I do then the whole world could betelling me to not do it and I’ll do it. I’vealways been that way,” she said on The Sun’sDan Wootton Interview. Cabello, 21, saidwhenever she and Swift meet they do notdiscuss work. “To be honest with you, she’snever ever had anything to do with (FifthHarmony). It’s so funny, because whenTaylor and I talk and whenever we hang outwe talk about love and boys,” she said.

Eddie Redmayne and wife Hannah

welcome a baby boy

London: Actor Eddie Redmayne and wifeHannah Bagshawe have welcomed their sec-ond child, a baby boy. The couple havenamed their son Luke Richard Bagshawe,reported The Sunday Times. In the officialannouncement published in the newspaper,the duo revealed that their boy was born onMarch 10. Luke joins Redmayne andHannah’s little girl Iris, who was born in June2016. The 36-year-old Oscar-winning actorannounced he was expecting for the secondtime with Hannah in November last year –and the couple said they were “delighted” bythe news. Redmayne’s happy family news fol-lows the very first trailer for “FantasticBeasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” drop-ping last week.“The Crimes of Grindelwald”follows the events of “Fantastic Beasts andWhere to Find Them”, with Grindelwald(Johnny Depp) having gone on the run withthe powerful Elder Wand.

GLOBEGLOBETROTTINGTROTTING

Putin wins 4

th

term

AFP n MOSCOW

Vladimir Putin on Mondayfaced another six years in

power after a record win inRussia’s presidential election,but congratulations fromabroad were largely mutedafter opponents accused him ofrigging the vote and Moscow’srelations with the West wors-ened. Putin, who has ruledRussia for almost two decades,recorded his best ever electionperformance with 76.66 per-cent of the vote but rejected thepossibility of staying in powerindefinitely.

Opposition and indepen-dent monitors reported ballotstuffing and other cases ofalleged fraud as the Kremlinpushed for a high turnout togive greater legitimacy toPutin’s historic fourth term. ButPutin’s supporters said Westernpressure on Putin includingBritain’s accusations in a spyrow and the Olympic dopingban prompted Russians to closeranks behind their leader.

Putin, who is now set toextend his rule until at least2024 and is already Russia’slongest-serving leader sinceJoseph Stalin, appeared to ruleout remaining president for life.“What, am I going to sit hereuntil I am 100 years old? No,”

he told reporters Sunday nightwhen asked if he saw himselfrunning for president again in2030.

The Russian strongmanran against seven candidates,but his most vocal opponentAlexei Navalny was barredfrom the ballot for legal reasonsand the final outcome wasnever in doubt. “I see in this(result) the confidence andhope of our people,” a beamingPutin told supporters on asquare next to the KremlinSunday night.

Putin’s campaignspokesman AndreiKondrashov said that at morethan 67 percent, turnout was 8to 10 percentage points high-er than expected “thanks toBritain.” “Several foreign lead-ers — I won’t say their names— made their contribution,”said head of the CentralElection Commission EllaPamfilova. “Our people alwaysunite in the trying hour.” Putinreceived more than 92 percentof the vote in Crimea, annexedfrom Ukraine in 2014. Most ofthe voters AFP spoke to saidthey had backed Putin despiteRussia’s problems of povertyand poor healthcare, praisinghis foreign policies.Moscowfaces increasing global isolationover its interventions in

Ukraine and in Syria, and afresh round of US sanctionsover alleged Russian electionmeddling in 2016. In the runup to the vote, a new crisisbroke out with the West asBritain implicated Putin in thepoisoning of former doubleagent Sergei Skripal in Englandwith a Soviet-designed nerveagent.

Authorities used both thecarrot and the stick to boostengagement in the polls. Selfiecompetitions, giveaways, foodfestivals and children’s enter-tainers were laid on at pollingstations to entice voters.Butemployees of state and privatecompanies, as well as students,reported coming under pres-sure to vote. During cam-paigning, Putin, a 65-year-oldformer KGB officer, stressedRussia’s role as a major worldpower, boasting of its “invin-cible” new nuclear weapons.Analysts said Putin used ten-sions with the West to rallysupport and suggested thatarmed with a strong new man-date, he could push throughfurther punitive measuresagainst dissenters. “He wants toshow that there is a little bit ofPutin in every Russian, that heplays the Russian soul like aguitar,” said political analystKonstantin Kalachev.

... opponents say vote rigged

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to supporters during a rally near the Kremlin in Moscow on Sunday. AP

Abe and Xi

hail Putin’s

re-electionTokyo (AFP): Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe onMonday congratulatedRussian President VladimirPutin on his re-election andthe two leaders agreed towork together to help achieveNorth Korea’s denuclearisa-tion, the foreign ministrysaid. Abe expressed congrat-ulations in telephone talksafter Putin cruised to victo-ry in Russia’s presidentialelection, giving him at leastanother six years in power.

“The two leaders con-firmed their close coopera-tion in realising North Korea’sdenuclearisation” before anexpected summit betweenUS President Donald Trumpand North Korean leaderKim Jong Un, the ministrysaid in a statement.

Meanwhile ChinesePresident Xi Jinping onMonday congratulatedRussian counterpart VladimirPutin, saying Beijing waswilling to work with Moscowto bring ties to a “higherlevel”.

“Currently, the China-Russia comprehensive strate-gic cooperative partnership isat the best level in history,which sets an example forbuilding a new type of inter-national relations,” Xi said.

Putin’s victory boosted by Western ostracism: MediaMoscow (AFP): Russian media on Mondaysaid Vladimir Putin’s growing standoff withthe West had boosted the size of his elec-tion victory, while liberal journalists voicedfears over his stranglehold on politics.

“An absolute victory and a completeknockout for his opponents,” pro-Kremlintabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda headlinedits story.The result deals a “crushing blow”to the West, the tabloid added, saying that“the worst nightmare of our Western‘partners’ has come true.” “Unprecedented

pressure from the outside world on Russiaforce Russians to close ranks and unitearound the authorities,” political analystAndrei Kolyadin told Vedomosti liberalbusiness daily.

Russians were spurred by issues thathave isolated Moscow on the internation-al scene such as the Olympic ban over dop-ing and the poisoning of Russian doubleagent Sergei Skripal and his daughter inBritain, analysts said. Nezavisimaya Gazetaquoted political analyst Alexei Mukhin esti-

mating that the fact that Western powers“are ostracising our country” added 5 to 10percent points to the turnout.

“The foreign policy factor guaran-teed a high turnout,” the newspaperwrote. Media also attributed Putin’s con-vincing victory to the mass campaign byelection officials to rally voters.Meanwhile Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny’scalls to boycott the vote had the oppo-site effect — bolstering turnout, somenewspapers wrote.

PTI n DHAKA

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Mondaystayed the release of former prime min-

ister Khaleda Zia on bail in a corruptioncase under which she was sentenced to fiveyears imprisonment, in a setback to herpolitical ambitions in this year’s general elec-tion.

Zia, 72, was sentenced on February 8in connection with the embezzlement of 21million taka (about USD 250,000) in for-eign donations meant for the ZiaOrphanage Trust, named after her late hus-band Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-politician.

In the same case, her son TariqueRahman and four others were sentenced to10 years in jail. On March 12, the HighCourt here granted the chairperson of theBangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) afour-month interim bail.

However, today a full bench of theAppellate Division led by Chief Justice SyedMahmud Hossain passed the order to stayuntil May 8 the High Court order whichgranted bail to Zia in the graft case.Following Monday’s Supreme Court order,Zia will not be released from jail till May

8, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan wasquoted as saying by Daily Star.

The apex court asked the ACC andgovernment to submit concise statementson the appeal in two weeks after receivingthe leave granting order, the report said. Ziahas also been asked to submit concise state-ment on the appeal in two weeks after theACC and government file their concisestatements. A concise statement contains thepoints on which the lawyer placed argu-ments on the appeals before the court.

After passing the order, Hossain said allthe four judges of the apex court passed theorder unanimously after examining therecords of the case. Zia’s lawyer said that itis unprecedented that the Supreme Courtdid not assign any reason for granting leave-to-appeal petition filed by the ACC and gov-ernment against the High Court order ofbail to his client.

Earlier on March 15, the ACC and thestate filed two leave-to-appeal petitionsbefore the Appellate Division of theSupreme Court, challenging the BNPchief ’s bail. The ex-premier on November30, 2014 lost her last ditch effort to evadethe graft trial as the Supreme Court turneddown her second ‘leave to appeal’ petitionchallenging her indictment and asked herto face trial in the lower court

The High Court earlier validated thetrial in the lower court which on March 19,2014 had indicted Zia on two graft chargesbrought by the ACC.The ACC alleged thatthe two charities, the other being the ZiaCharitable Trust, existed only on paper anda huge amount of money was misappro-priated in the name of the two organisationswhile Zia was premier during the BNP’s2001-2006 government.

Bangla SC stays release of Zia on bail

Britain must prove Russia’s involvementin spy poisoning or apologise: KremlinMoscow (AFP): Britain mustprove Russia’s involvement inthe poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal inthe UK or apologise, theKremlin said on Monday.“Sooner or later these unsub-stantiated allegations will haveto be answered for: eitherbacked up with the appropri-ate evidence or apologised for,”presidential spokesman DmitryPeskov said.

Peskov was responding toa question about whether theexacerbation of tensions with

the West had boosted Putin’sperformance in Russia’s presi-dential elections Sunday. “Iwouldn’t use the phrase ‘exac-erbation of tensions with theWest’.

It’s a question of this streamof slander, that is hard toexplain and difficult to under-stand the motivation for, fromthe British side towards Russia,”he said. Putin on Sunday reject-ed as “nonsense” allegations byLondon and its allies thatRussia was behind the March4 attack on Sergei Skripal and

his daughter Yulia in theEnglish city of Salisbury.Inresponse British ForeignSecretary Boris Johnson saidMoscow’s denials were becom-ing “increasinglyabsurd”.London says the Soviet-designed military grade nerveagent Novichok was used totarget Skripal and last weekBritain, France, Germany andthe United States issued a jointstatement blaming Russia forthe first offensive use of chem-ical weapons in Europe sinceWorld War Two.

Meant no disrespect to any individual or group: Clinton on her India remarks

New York (PTI): FormerUS Secretary of State HillaryClinton, who faced flak for hercontroversial comments recent-ly in India about how womenvoters in 2016 presidential elec-tions were more swayed bymen, says she meant no disre-spect to any individual or group.In a lengthy Facebook post,Clinton referred to her remarksat the India Today Conclave inMumbai, saying her comments“in passing” about women“unfortunately” being moreswayed by men in the 2016Presidential elections got a lot of“negative attention.”

“I was also asked aboutwomen, specifically whitewomen, the majority of whomhave not voted for Democrats inrecent history. I did better withthem than previous Democraticnominees, but still lost themoverall to a candidate who relies

on scare tactics and false attacks,masking the fact that he is oth-erwise no friend to mostAmericans,” the 70-year-oldformer presidential candidatesaid in the post. She said hercomments that there is anec-dotal evidence and someresearch to suggest that “womenare unfortunately more swayedby men than the other wayaround” received negative feed-back from various quarters.

“I understand howsome of what I saidupset people and canbe misinterpreted. Imeant no disrespectto any individual orgroup. And I want tolook to the future asmuch as anybody,” shesaid in the post.In particu-lar she saidthe the

party struggled to attract mar-ried, white women because of “asort of ongoing pressure to votethe way that your husband,your boss, your son, whoever,believes you should”.

Speaking at the recently-concluded India TodayConclave in Mumbai, Clintonsuggested that those peoplewho supported Trump did sobecause they did not like blackpeople getting rights, womengetting jobs or Indian-

Americans succeedingmore than them. “Youknow, you didn’t likeblack people gettingrights. You don’t like

women, you know, gettingjobs. You don’t want to see

that Indian-American suc-ceeding more than you

are. Whatever yourproblem is, I’mgoing to solve it,”

Clinton had said during theconclave.

Clinton further wrote in thepost that as much as she“hate(s)” the possibility, and“hate saying it, it’s not thatcrazy when you think about ourongoing struggle to reach gen-der balance – even within thesame household. I did notrealise how hard it would hitmany who heard it.” Explainingher comments, she said theissue about women voters wasone piece of a larger pointabout how Democrats need todo better with white women.“Do I believe that some womenlook at a powerful woman andquestion whether she can lead,maybe voting for the man theirhusband is voting for instead? Itmay not be universally true oreasy to hear, but yes, it’s adynamic still at play in our soci-ety,” she said.

Two hurt in fourth Texas bombing

Houston (PTI): Two peo-ple were injured in anotherexplosion in Texas’ capitalAustin, the fourth mysteriousbombing in the city this month,police said today, sparkingpanic among the residents.The latest blast occurred lastnight in a suburban neigh-bourhood in southwest Austin.

Authorities believe theexplosion may have been trig-gered by a tripwire, but cau-tioned that they were still pro-cessing the scene. Austin policeChief Brian Manley said todaythat based on the evidencethat had been seen they believea bomb did detonate.

Manley said that policewere “working under thebelief ” that the explosion wasrelated to the three others, butinvestigators still had yet toprocess the entire scene. “Wewant to put out the messagethat we’ve been putting out andthat is, not only do not touchany packages or anything thatlooks like a package, do noteven go near it at this time,”Manley said.

Two men in their 20s suf-fered non-life threateninginjuries in the blast. A rewardof USD 115,000 has been

offered for information leadingto the arrest and conviction ofthe person or people responsi-ble for the mysterious blasts.

Sunday’sexplosion was thefourth to rock Austin withinthree weeks. However, the threeprevious blasts occurred on theeastside of the city. The first wasa package bomb that explodedat a northeast Austin home onMarch 2, killing a 39-year-oldman. Two more packagebombs then exploded farthersouth on March 12, killing a17-year-old, wounding hismother and injuring a 75-year-old woman.

Police said all three ofthose were likely related andinvolved packages that had notbeen mailed or delivered byprivate carrier but leftovernight on doorsteps.Shonda Mace, 38, lives just oneblock from where the explosionwas reported.

She was in bed watchingTV when the incident first hap-pened, she said, but soon herphone “started blowing up”with text from friends who hadheard the news. Mace told theHouston Chronicle that she hasbeen alert since the first bomb-ing.

Washington (PTI): Whilesocial media has been linked toa negative impact on children,most parents believe that it alsohelps them keep track of theirtweens, a US poll has found.“The tween stage brings newchallenges for parents as theyoften must balance their child’sdesire for more freedom andindependence with supervi-sion. It’s not an easy balancingact,” said Sarah Clark fromUniversity of Michigan in theUS. The C S Mott Children’sHospital National Poll foundthat nearly all parents of tweensaged 9-12 agree that socialmedia makes it easier for kidsto get in trouble. However, 61per cent also felt that socialmedia helps parents keep trackof tweens.

The survey found that 55per cent of parents read theirtween’s texts or social mediapages to learn more informa-tion if their tween was invitedto a boy-girl party at the homeof an unfamiliar family. It alsofound that 39 per cent parentstrack their tween’s location ontheir cell phone during theparty. Mothers were morelikely than fathers to say they

would use technology to mon-itor their tweens.

“Social media has openedanother door of questionsabout what parents should bekeeping tabs on,” said Clark, co-director of the poll.“Establishing family rulesaround the use of social media,and discussing the reasons forthose rules, is an importantpart of parenting tweens,” Clarksaid.

The majority of parentsstill wanted to learn moreabout what their kids were upto the traditional way, with 91per cent saying they would talkwith a classmate’s parents whendropping their tween at a partyif they did not know the fam-ily. Seventy-six per cent would

call ahead to make sure theclassmate’s parents would besupervising the party,researchers said. About one infour parents in the survey werevery concerned about theirtweens experimenting withsexual activity, marijuana orother drugs, beer or liquor, andguns or other weapons. Parentsreported greater concern abouttween boys experimenting withguns, but otherwise had simi-lar levels of concern for theirtween boys and girls. Manypolled acknowledged the pushand pull between allowingchildren reasonable space whilestill monitoring their activities.Two-thirds of parents agreedthat tweens need some freedomto make mistakes.

Two lion cubs look up as they are released into a large enclosure in JohannesburgZoo, South Africa on Monday. AP

Parents using social media tokeep tabs on kids: US poll

world 13LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018

China unveils brand new Cabinet

PTI n BEIJING

Chinese Premier Li Keqiangon Monday unveiled his

new Cabinet as part of the gov-ernment’s efforts to stabilise theworld’s second largest economyand appointed a missile expertas the defence minister amidstregional tensions with itsneighbours over territorial dis-putes.

The new line-up approvedby the rubber-stamp parlia-ment, the National People’sCongress, includes four VicePremiers, Han Zheng, SunChunlan, Hu Chunhua andLiu He.

Their names wereapproved by nearly 3,000deputies of the NPC after theywere proposed by Premier LiKeqiang, who himself was re-appointed to the post under thenew political setup headed byPresident Xi Jinping.

Xi was re-elected last weekfor a second five-year term,days after the NPC ratified con-stitutional amendment, remov-ing term limits for Presidentand Vice President. His closeconfidant and former anti-cor-ruption chief Wang Qishanhas been elected as the VicePresident.

Vice Premier Liu He isexpected to play a bigger rolein the management of theChinese economy, the world’ssecond largest after the US.

China which was witness-ing nearly three decades ofdouble-digit growth sloweddown in 2016 with a slightimprovement last year. Debt—fuelled investment in infra-structure and real estate hasunderpinned China’s growthfor years.

While Chinese ForeignMinister Wang Yi has been ele-vated as the State Councillorwhich makes him a top diplo-mat holding dual posts, anoth-er key appointment fromIndia’s point of view was that ofthe appointment of Lt Gen WeiFenghe as the new DefenceMinister.

Wei is widely regarded asthe man behind the interna-tional face of China’s rapidmilitary modernisation and itsreorganisation. He played akey role in splitting the strate-gic missile force into two partsof Rocket Force and theStrategic Support Force. ChenWenqing remains the securityczar overseeing the internalsecurity, including espionageand counterintelligence as wellas counter terrorism speciallyin the volatile Xinjiangprovince.

Also, the Yi Gang, a

reformist has been appointed asthe new governor of its centralbank, the People’s Bank ofChina, marking the first changeat its helm in 15 years.

He will replace ZhouXiaochuan who has headed thecentral bank for more than 15years during which China hastransitioned to become world’ssecond largest economy replac-ing Japan.Yi was deputy toZhou and was largely regardedas a reformist and head of theState Administration of ForeignExchange which oversees thecountry’s over USD 3 trillionforex reserves, the highest inthe world.

The new appointmentscame as China unveiled a mas-sive reshuffle plan of variousministries to make the gov-ernment better-structured,more efficient and service-ori-ented, affecting more than twodozen ministries and organi-sations.

The new revamped admin-istration will have 26 min-istries and commissions of theState Council which is the cen-tral Cabinet. The new entitiesincluded ministry of naturalresources, veterans’ affairs andemergency management. Theplan includes merger of theMinistry of Culture andNational TourismAdministration into one. Thesweeping changes include themerger of China’s banking andinsurance regulators and thesetting up of a special bureauto oversee immigration issues.

China has been involved interritorial disputes with itsneighbours. China claimsalmost all of South China Seaand also laid claims on theSenkaku islands under the con-trol of Japan in East China Seaand resorted to aggressivepatrols in the last two years.

China also claimsArunachal Pradesh as part ofSouth Tibet. The India-Chinaborder dispute covered 3,488km along the Line of ActualControl (LAC).

Another territorial disputeChina had with India was onDokalam. The Dokalam stand-off began on June 16 after thePeople’s Liberation Army’stroops began building a road inan area claimed by Bhutan. TheIndian troops intervened tostop it, saying it posed a secu-rity risk to the Chicken Neck,the narrow corridor connectingIndia with its northeasternstates.

The standoff ended onAugust 28 following mutualagreement under which Chinastopped the road building andIndia withdrew its troops.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, leaves after a plenary session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) (2) ForeignMinster and newly-appointed State Counselor Wang Yi, left, and newly-appointed Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Wei Fenghe take theoath of office during a plenary session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People andin pic(3)Newly-appointed Vice Premiers, from left, Hu Chunhua, Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan and Liu He take the oath of office during aplenary session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. AP

Wang Yi promoted as top diplomat,may lead Indo-China border talks

Beijing (PTI): China’s tough-talking ForeignMinister Wang Yi was elevated on Sunday to thetop diplomatic post of State Councillor, a movewhich could make him the new SpecialRepresentative to handle the vexed boundarynegotiations with India, according to officials.Wang, 65, would also continue to head the ForeignMinistry, becoming the first Chinese official tohold the dual post in recent years. Wang’s namefor the post of State Councillor and Foreign wasendorsed by the parliament - the NationalPeople’s Congress (NPC), state-run Xinhua newsagency reported.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang proposed Wang’sname as part of a new set of officials to head var-ious positions for the next five years in the gov-ernment headed by President Xi Jinping.

In Chinese power hierarchy, State Councilloris ranked higher than Foreign Minister and con-sidered as the top diplomat of the country and isresponsible for ensuring the implementation ofthe policies of the ruling Communist Party ofChina (CPC).Wang succeeds Yang Jiechi, 67, wholast year has been elevated to become member ofthe CPC’s Politburo, a high ranking body of theCPC headed by Xi.

By virtue of being the State Councillor, Wangis also expected to succeed Yang as China’s SpecialRepresentative for India-China boundary talks,though officials say the Chinese government’sposition will become clear only after an officialnotification.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval isIndia’s Special Representative. Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson Hua Chunying told amedia briefing today that one has to wait and seewhether Wang would take over as the SpecialRepresentative for the India-China boundary talks.“As who will be special representative we will waitand see,” she said when replying to a question.Under this mechanism, the two countries have sofar held 20 rounds of talks with limited success.

The post of the Special Representative isregarded a key one as its plays a major role in pro-viding a broader policy framework for the courseof the India-China relations because the two offi-cials have the political mandate to discuss thewhole gamut of the relations during their annu-al meetings. The India–China border dispute cov-ers the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control

(LAC). While China claims Arunachal Pradeshas Southern Tibet, India asserts that the disputecovered Aksai Chin area which was occupied byChina during the 1962 war.

Answering a question on the India-Chinaboundary talks, Hua praised the border talksmechanism saying it helped to maintain strate-gic communication between the two countries.Special Representatives mechanism is “a high-levelchannel for the border issue exchanges. It is alsoa high- level mechanism for the exchangesbetween the two sides. China attaches great impor-tance to it”, she said.

“I hope the two sides can make best use ofthis mechanism to maintain frequent strategiccommunication with the Indian side and makeconcerted effort to step up strategic mutual trustbetween China and India and uphold the soundand steady development of China-India relations”,she said.

The tough-talking, suave and articulatecareer diplomat, Wang served as China’s ViceForeign Minister, China’s Ambassador to Japanand Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office.

A fluent speaker of English and Japanese, hetook over as Foreign Minister from Yang in 2013.Chinese diplomats say under Wang’s stewardship,the Foreign Ministry has acquired a higher pro-file unlike in the past when it worked under theshadows of the CPC and the military.

He along with Yang were expected to play abigger role in strengthening China’s influence inthe neighbourhood and beyond under the lead-ership of Xi who is now set for a longer tenure,perhaps for life as China’s leader heading the CPC,the military and the presidency following theremoval of the two-term limit for the president.While outlining Beijing’s foreign policy perspec-tives earlier this month, Wang had called on bothIndia and China to shed thier “confrontationiststance” on issues of differences.

“The Chinese dragon and Indian elephantmust not fight each other but dance with eachother,” he had said, adding “if China and India areunited, one plus one is not equal to two but eleven”.During the Dokalam stand-off, Wang had claimedthat India “admitted” to entering Chinese terri-tory and said the solution to the standoff was forits troops to “conscientiously withdraw” from theDoklam area in the Sikkim sector.

Modi congratulates Xi on re-election as PresidentBeijing (PTI): Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondaycongratulated Chinese PresidentXi Jinping on his re-election fora second five-year term, sayinghe looks forward to work withhim to further develop Sino-India relations.

Xi, 64, was unanimouslyelected by the 2,970 deputies ofChinese parliament theNational People’s Congress(NPC) last week. “DearPresident Xi Jinping, congratu-lations on getting re-elected asthe President of the People’sRepublic of China”, Modi said in

his message posted on hisaccount on the Chinese socialmedia platform Weibo onMonday. “I look forward toworking with you for furtherdevelopment of our bilateralrelations,” he said. Modi hadopened his account in the pop-ular social media blog Weiboduring his visit China in 2015.He has 1,83,379 followers.

Earlier, the NPC also rati-fied a proposal to remove thetwo-term limit for Presidentpaving the way for Xi to becomeleader for life. India and Chinaare currently making diplo-

matic efforts to improve therelations following the 73-daylong standoff at Doklam in theSikkim section. ForeignSecretary Vijay Gokhale recent-ly visited Beijing and held talkswith top level Chinese officials,while Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman has recently saidthat she planned to visit Chinanext month. Modi and Xi areexpected to meet this year onthe side-lines of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO) summit to be held inJune this year at the Chinese cityof Qingdao.

Islamabad (PTI): Pakistanon Monday expressed disap-pointment at India for notissuing visas to more than 500Pakistani pilgrims for visitingthe famed shrine of KhawajaMoinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.

The visit was to take placeunder the 1974 Pakistan-IndiaProtocol on Visits to ReligiousShrines and is a regular annu-al feature, Foreign Office (FO)said in a statement. “Pakistannotes with deep disappoint-ment the non-issuance of visasby India for the visit of the 503Pakistani Zaireen (pilgrims)to participate in the Urs ofHazrat Khawaja MoinuddinChishti (RA) at Ajmer Sharif,India from 19-29 March 2018,”the statement said.

Due to India’s decision,the Pakistani pilgrims havebeen deprived of the opportu-nity to participate in the Urs,which is of special signifi-cance, it said. Earlier 192Pakistani pilgrims could notparticipate in the Urs of HazratKhawaja NizamuddinAulia inDelhi from 1-8 January due to

the non-issuance of visas byIndia, it said. The FO said thatduring 2017, despite Pakistan’soffer to send a special train,Indian delays had resulted inSikh yatrees (pilgrims) fromIndia being unable to partici-pate in the MartyrdomAnniversary of Guru ArjanDev and the death anniversaryof Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

In February, Pakistan hadmade all the arrangements forthe visit of 173 Katas Raj pil-grims, who were “forced” towithdraw their applicationsfrom the Pakistan HighCommission in New Delhi dueto non-issuance of necessaryclearance by the Ministry of

External Affairs of India, thestatement said.

“Besides being violative ofthe bilateral Protocol of 1974and the basic human right toreligious freedom, such mea-sures also undermine theefforts aimed at improving theenvironment, increasing peo-ple-to-people contacts and nor-malising relations between thetwo countries,” the FO said.Itwas again “ironic” that Indiafailed to issue visas on the occa-sion of Urs of KhawajaMoinuddin Chishti who forcenturies has been the symbolof bringing communities clos-er to each other, the statementadded.

Pak disappointed at India for not issuing visas to pilgrims

China’s missileman is newDefence Min

Beijing (PTI): Chinaappointed a former missileunit commander as its newdefence minister today, whosefirst guest of honour could behis Indian counterpart NirmalaSitharaman.

Lieutenant General WeiFenghe, 63, a close confidant ofPresident Xi Jinping, was thelast commander of China’smissile unit, the SecondArtillery Corps, before it wassplit into two — the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) RocketForce and the Strategic SupportForce — making them a potentforce.

He was appointed as theDefence Minister by the rub-ber-stamp Parliament, theNational People’s Congress(NPC).

Sitharaman recentlyannounced that she would visitChina next month, the firstvisit by a top Indian officialsince last year’s 73-day longstandoff at Dokalam in Sikkimsection. The visit wasannounced amid diplomaticefforts by both the countries toreset the relations on a positivemode with high-level visitsincluding the expected visit ofPrime Minister Narendra Modito take part in the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO) summit to be held inJune at the Chinese city ofQingdao.

In China, the militaryfunctions under the CentralMilitary Commission (CMC)headed by Xi.

On Sunday, the NPCappointed Xu Qiliang andZhang Youxia, the twoGenerals close to Xi, as vicechairmen of the CMC. GenWei had backed Xi’s unprece-dented overhaul of the coun-try’s 2.3-million strong militarywhich has now been downsizedto two million after laying offthree lakh troops.

F-16 jet production in India will be exclusive: Lockheed

Washington (PTI): Theplan to set up a F-16 jet pro-duction unit in India will be an“exclusive” proposition thatwill help the country inachieving its operational needsas well as the ‘Make in India’initiative, according toAmerican aerospace anddefence major LockheedMartin.

As India continues to shoparound to add new fighter jetsinto its air force, LockheedMartin has offered to relocateits entire production line toIndia. The company said itintends to create far morethan an “assembly line” inIndia.

“We plan to introduce twonew words into the lexicon ofinternational fighter aircraftmanufacturing: ‘India’ and‘exclusive’. F-16 production inIndia will be exclusive —something that has neverbefore been presented by anyother fighter aircraft manu-facturer, past or present,” VivekLall, vice president, Strategyand Business Development,

Lockheed Martin told PTI inan interview.

“The F-16 gives the Indianindustry a unique opportuni-ty to be at the centre of theworld’s largest fighter aircraftecosystem,” said Lall, whoplayed a key role in some ofthe big ticket American mili-tary sales to India, includingthe General Atomics-builtGuardian Predator Dronesannounced by the US lastyear. Responding to a ques-tion, Lall claimed the offerfrom Lockheed is cost advan-tageous for India.

“The F-16 is the only air-craft programme in this com-petition with the proven per-formance and industrial scaleto meet India’s operationalneeds and Make in India pri-orities,” he said, claiming thatthat no competing aircraftcomes close to matching the F-16’s operational effectivenessand industrial success.The F-16 remains the backbone ofthe US Air Force, the world’smost capable air force, hesaid. Structural and avionic

upgrades to the US F-16 fleetwill extend service life to 2045,while the F-16 becomes evenmore capable as technologyenhancements from the F-22and F-35 are continuouslyintegrated across all three plat-forms, he added. Lall, howev-er, refused to reply to ques-tions on F-35.

“Any discussions regard-ing potential new F-35 cus-tomers begin at the govern-ment-to-government level. It isnot our place to speak onbehalf of the US governmentor the government of India,”he said. Notably, US PacificCommand CommanderAdmiral Harry Harris duringhis two recent Congressionaltestimonies have supportedselling F-35 fighter jets toIndia.“At the moment, India isconsidering a number of USsystems for purchase, all ofwhich USPACOM fully sup-ports: the F-16 for India’s largesingle-engine, multi-role fight-er acquisition programme,”Harris told the Congressionalcommittees last week.

‘It’s time US,India restorenormalcy inMaldivesWashington: It is time the US andIndia play a key role to restorenormalcy and democracy inMaldives which is under a stateof emergency, a top oppositionleader from the troubled islandnation has said here.

President Abdulla Yameenhad imposed emergency whichwas extended by another 30 dayslast month by parliament, citingan ongoing national securitythreat and a constitutional crisis.

Several countries includingthe US and India along with theUN have urged the Yameen gov-ernment to lift the emergency andrestore normalcy. AhmedNaseem, former foreign affairsminister of Maldives and a lead-ing opposition leader, has said thathe is hoping that the internationalcommunity led by the US andIndia would come to the rescueof Maldives given the gravity ofthe situation and the threat thatit poses to the free flow of glob-al commerce though this strate-gic sea trade route.

Naseem is here for the pastcouple of days meeting top USofficials and members of the UNSecurity Council. He is also seek-ing a discussion on the current sit-uation in Maldives by the 15-member powerful wing of theUnited Nations.The United Statesand India are the two key playersand it is time that these two coun-tries restore normalcy anddemocracy in Maldives, Naseemsaid. “Obviously, the United Statesis deeply concerned about what’shappening in Maldives and theydon’t like to see this undemocra-tic behaviour anywhere in theworld. Besides, they will evaluatethe repercussions of what is hap-pening in light of the security ofthe Indian Ocean region,”Naseem told PTI in an interviewon Sunday. PTI

London (PTI): A Britishwoman who had joined aKurdish militia to fight theIslamic State (ISIS) terror grouphas been killed in war-tornSyria, according to her father.

Anna Campbell, a 26-year-old plumber from the town ofLewes in East Sussex, died onMarch 15 in Syria’s Afrin citywhile with the KurdishWomen’s Protection Units – theYPJ. Her father, Dirk Campbell,said it is feared she was killedby Turkish airstrikes.

“She wanted to create a bet-ter world and she would doeverything in her power to dothat,” he said, describing his

daughter as fiercely determinedand idealistic.

“I feel I should have donemore to persuade her to comeback, but she was completelyadamant,” he added. Turkey hasbeen fighting Kurdish groups

on Syrian territory close to itsborder since January this year.Campbell had travelled to Syriafrom Bristol in May, 2017 tohelp the Kurds, who were bat-tling ISIS at the time.

The YPJ is an all-femalebrigade of the Kurdish People’sProtection Units (YPG), whichhas around 50,000 Kurdishmen and women fightingagainst the terrorist network innorthern Syria.

The group has beendefending the Kurdish-major-ity city of Afrin from Turkishforces backed by Syrian rebelsafter they launched an offensivein mid-January.

Brit woman fighting against IS killed Abe hits back over scandalas support plunges

Tokyo (AFP): Japan’sembattled prime minister hitback on Monday at critics overa favouritism and cover-upscandal that has seen his pop-ularity plunge and loosened hisiron grip on power. In a hotlyawaited statement in parlia-ment, Shinzo Abe stressed hehad not ordered bureaucrats toalter documents relating to acontroversial land sale as hecomes under mounting pres-sure over the scandal.

“I have never orderedchanges,” he said. The scandal

surrounds the 2016 sale ofstate-owned land to a nation-alist operator of schools whoclaims ties to Abe and his wifeAkie. The sale was clinched at

a price well below market valueamid allegations that the high-level connections helped greasethe deal. The affair firstemerged early last year, butresurfaced after the revelationthat official documents relatedto the sale had been changed.Versions of the original anddoctored documents madepublic by opposition lawmak-ers appeared to show passingreferences to Abe werescrubbed, along with severalreferences to his wife Akie andFinance Minister Taro Aso.

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018 sport 14

USAIN BOLT TO ATTEND CWGSYDNEY: Sprint legend Usain Bolt will attendnext month's Commonwealth Games onAustralia's Gold Coast to watch the 100-metres final, former Jamaican world championYohan Blake has revealed. Bolt, 31, who retiredfrom athletics after August's WorldChampionships in London, has been busypreparing for a tilt at football and has alsoworked with Australia's cricketers to boosttheir running between the wickets. Blake, oneof the track stars at the April 4-15 Games,arrived in Australia on Sunday and toldreporters the eight-time Olympic championand world record holder in the 100m and200m was "coming to watch the 100m final".

MI REPLACE JASON BEHRENDORFF NEW DELHI: The IPL Technical Committee hasapproved New Zealand's MitchellMcClenaghan as a replacement for Australianleft-arm fast bowler Jason Behrendorff in theMumbai Indian's squad. Behrendorff, who issuffering from a back problem, has been ruledout of this edition of the IPL. "In accordancewith the Player Regulations, the MumbaiIndians were allowed to choose a replacementfrom the Registered and Available Player Pool,"an IPL media release said. The MumbaiIndians subsequently picked McClenaghan athis base price of `one crore.

ENGLAND WOMEN BEAT INDIA AMUMBAI: England women warmed up instyle ahead of the upcoming T20 tri-series asthey defeated India A by 45 runs in the first ofthe two practice games here on Monday.England women shone with both bat and ballas they looked to get used to the conditions.Besides England and hosts India, Australia arethe other side in the tri-series. After posting amassive 176 for four, England womenbundled out the hosts for 131 at theBrabourne Stadium.

BENGAL BLANK MANIPUR; KERALA BEAT CHANDIGARHKOLKATA: Bengal began their title defencewith a 3-0 blanking of Manipur, while Keralahammered Chandigarh 5-1 on the opening dayof the national football championship for the72nd Santosh Trophy here on Monday. Bengal,the record 32 times champions, constantlypressed on the attack as Sumit Das struck adouble (sixth and 15th minutes) to give thema 2-0 lead at the break in a display of sheerdominance at the Howrah Stadium. Dasscored off a corner from the rebound to openhis account, while he added a second in nineminutes, heading home a Bidyasagar Singh'scross. Bidyasagar sealed the issue for Bengalwith a 82nd minute goal in what was a poorclearance from Manipur defence.

KKR BEGIN CAMP SANS KARTHIK, KALLISKOLKATA: Man of the moment Dinesh Karthikwas yet to join as skipper of his franchise asKolkata Knight Riders sweated it out in theirfirst practice session ahead of the 11th seasonof Indian Premier League, here on Monday.The newly-appointed KKR skipper'ssensational 28 not out from eight balls in theirlast-ball win over Bangladesh in the T20 Tri-Series final last night has given a big boost tothe Kolkata franchise who have overhauled thesquad for the 11th season. Karthik is expectedto join the squad later this month along withcoach Jacques Kallis.

RABADA TO GET BAN APPEAL RESULT BY WEDNESDAYCAPE TOWN: Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada willlearn the result of his appeal against a ban forthe remaining two Tests against Australiawithin 48 hours following a hearing onMonday, Cricket South Africa said. Thehearing, via teleconference with judicialcommissioner Michael Heron of New Zealand,lasted for more than five hours. Cricket SouthAfrica said the International Cricket Councilwould announce the outcome by Wednesday,the day before the start of the third Testagainst Australia. The series is currently 1-1.

Agencies

AP n LONDON

Manchester United will play Tottenham inthe FA Cup semifinals at Spurs' temporary

Wembley Stadium home.The draw on Sunday saw last year's final-

ists Chelsea face Southampton in the other semi-final.

Both matches will be played at Wembleyover the weekend of April 21-22.

Wembley is the designated neutral groundfor the semifinals — and final — but Tottenhamare well accustomed to it after taking up tem-porary residence at the national stadium thisseason while their home at White Hart Lane isbeing redeveloped.

The draw followed Sunday's quarterfinalswhere Chelsea beat Leicester 2-1 thanks toPedro's extra time winner, and Southamptonbeat third-tier Wigan 2-0 in Mark Hughes' firstgame in charge of the Saints.

Twelve-time FA Cup champions ManchesterUnited and Tottenham secured their passagesto the semifinals on Saturday. United beatBrighton 2-0, and Tottenham defeated Swansea3-0.

PEDRO HEADS CHELSEA THROUGHPedro scored with a header in extra time for

Chelsea to advance to the FA Cup semifinalswith a 2-1 win at Leicester on Sunday.

Chelsea next face Southampton at WembleyStadium after new manager Mark Hughes' sidebeat Wigan 2-0.

Manchester United play Tottenham in theother semifinal, which is also at Spurs' tempo-rary Wembley home.

Chelsea were made to work hard to progressin the only remaining competition they can winthis season. Alvaro Morata got the visitors goingwith his first goal of the year.

The Spanish striker scored on a counterat-tack minutes before the break. Willian won theball near his own penalty area and found Moratawith a fine pass. Morata took one touch and thensent the ball over the outrushing KasperSchmeichel with a fine finish.

Leicester improved after the interval andJamie Vardy might have equalized when heheaded a good opportunity over.

The home side's pressure finally paid offwhen Vardy equalized with a quarter-hourremaining. Riyad Mahrez crossed and Vardy'sinitial effort was blocked by a defender, as wasVicente Iborra's attempt. Chelsea goalkeeperWilly Caballero saved Iborra's follow-up, beforeVardy finally scored at the fourth attempt.

AP n INDIAN WELLS

Juan Martin del Potro keeps surprisinghimself.

Close to quitting tennis after fourwrist surgeries in recent years, theArgentine fought to get back to the ATPTour even as he was reduced to hittinghis backhand with one hand instead ofhis usual two.

The struggle paid off Sunday, whenDel Potro staved off three match pointsin the third set to beat top-rankedRoger Federer 6-4,7-6 (8), 7-6 (2) for theBNP Paribas Open title.

The win ranks up there with DelPotro's 2009 US Open title, in which hebeat Federer, and helping Argentinawin the Davis Cup in 2016.

"I cannot believe I won this tourna-ment, beating Roger in a great final andlevel of tennis," Del Potro said.

Naomi Osaka of Japan won thewomen's title 6-3, 6-2 over RussianDaria Kasatkina in a match-up of 20-year-old rising stars.

Del Potro and Osaka each earned$1.3 million.

Del Potro became the first Argentinechampion in the 42-year history of thedesert tournament. He handed Federerhis first loss of the year, snapping theSwiss superstar's 17-match winningstreak that was the best of his career.

"I feel frustrated that I let an oppor-tunity like this go by," Federer said.

Del Potro held a match point at 8-7in the second-set tiebreaker, but he lostthe final three points on his own errorsthat allowed Federer to force a third set.

"It was a lot of frustration after thatmatch point, but then I play well," DelPotro said.

They were on serve in the third untilFederer broke for a 5-4 lead with a back-hand winner off del Potro's serve.

Federer had a chance to serve out thematch, holding two match points. But delPotro staved both off to force deuce.

Federer's forehand went long, givingdel Potro a break point. Federer answeredwith a backhand that hit del Potro at thenet and then gained his third match pointon del Potro's forehand error.

Del Potro recovered to deuce with aforehand winner. Federer mis-hit a fore-hand high into the air beyond the base-line, giving del Potro another break point.

The Argentine cashed in with a well-placed forehand in the corner to tie theset, 5-all.

In the tiebreaker, Del Potro raced toa 6-1 lead, helped by two of Federer'sdouble faults. He closed out the win onhis third match point when Federer'sforehand failed.

"I would like to play that tiebreakeragain because I don't know what the hellhappened," Federer said.

Del Potro lost just six points on his

serve in the first set.In the second-set tiebreaker, Del

Potro and Federer took turns arguingwith chair umpire Fergus Murphy. DelPotro was annoyed the crowd was mak-ing noise on his serve and told the umpirehe wasn't warning them enough to bequiet.

"It had no effect on the outcome ofthe match," Federer said. "I was just alsojust trying to pump myself up more, toget energy for me."

PTI n NEW DELHI

The controversy surround-ing Mohammad Shami on

Monday took another turn asPakistani woman Alishba admit-ted meeting him in Dubai butrefuted any monetary dealingswith the India pacer as claimedby his wife.

Alishba's name surfaced inthe controversy after Shami'swife Hasin Jahan alleged that hecould have a relationship withthe Pakistani woman.

"Yes, I met him. I am a fre-quent flyer to Dubai because mysister stays in Sharjah. As a per-son, I really like Shami. As anyfan that has idolised a celebrity,they always dream of meetingtheir idol. I had the desire tomeet him (Shami) like any otherfan would want to, which Idon't think is a big deal," Alishbatold ABP news.

Shami had been booked

under various non-bailable,including attempt to murder,and bailable sections after hiswife lodged a complaint ofdomestic violence and infideli-ty against him.

Hasin then hinted that herhusband may have cheated Indiafollowing his alleged relationshipwith girlfriends from Pakistanand Dubai, which had prompt-ed the Committee ofAdministrators (CoA) chiefVinod Rai to ask BCCI's anti-corruption body to submit areport in a week's time.

Hasin had said in the samenews channel, "Alishba is aPakistani citizen and Shamiclaimed that she gave him

money. I have never been told byShami for what purpose thatmoney was given. I don't knowbut if he can fraud me he canfraud the country too."

Alishba claimed she andShami are just friends.

"I am one of his followers,which is how I became Shami'sfriend. Just like he has lakhs offollowers, I am one among thosenormal fans. I have sent himmessages," she said.

"No, I directly went to mysister's house. However, I visit-ed the hotel next morning ataround 9 am and had a break-fast with him," she said. "I per-sonally don't know MohammedBhai and have nothing to dowith him and there was noinvolvement of money transac-tion between us. The personwho does not even lie to anyone,how he can be disloyal to hiscountry," Alishba said.

Earlier in the day, Hasingave a confidential statement toa magistrate at Kolkata's Aliporecourt in connection to thecharges she brought against thecricketer. She then went to theresidence of chief ministerMamata Banerjee to submit awritten plea to meet her.

AFP n BIRMINGHAM

Chinese star Lin Dan wasdenied a seventh All-

England Open title as his youngcompatriot Shi Yuqi clinched ashock victory in Sunday's final.

Seventh seeded Shi profitedfrom Lin's lacklustre play towin 21-19, 16-21, 21-9 inBirmingham.

The surprising absence ofLin's famed attacking skillshelped Shi to grow in confidence.

The 22-year-old was able toutilise his speed and hard-to-read overhead attacks withoutinhibition against one of thesport's all-time greats.

"I was more patient andcontrolled my pace, whichhelped me get the match back,"said Shi, who admitted he wasrelieved to erase the memory oflast year's final loss to Malaysia'sLee Chong Wei.

Lin would have been theoldest player in 63 years to winthe All-England men's singlestitle had he prevailed.

But just when he had lev-elled the match with a burst of

delicate drops and sliced smash-es, he suddenly lost his rhythm.

"To (still) play at this level isgood," said Lin, 34.

Lin became the first playerever to play in 10 All-Englandmen's singles finals and made itthe first all-Chinese men's Openfinal for a decade.

"I feel good about myself andI want to congratulate myyounger opponent," he said.

Both Chen Long, theOlympic champion who lost toShi in the quarter-finals, and Linhave been nurturing the devel-opment of their compatriot.

ManU drawnagainst Spurs inFA Cup semis

AP n MADRID

Atletico Madrid's title hopes werefurther damaged after they con-ceded two late goals in a 2-1 loss

at Villarreal on Sunday, allowingBarcelona to open up an 11-point leadin the Spanish league with nine match-es remaining.

Real Madrid, still far behind in thetitle race, are in third place after a 6-3win over Girona with four goals byCristiano Ronaldo.

Atletico looked set to keep pacewith Barcelona at the top until EnesUnal led Villarreal to a come-from-behind win with goals in the 82ndminute and in injury time.

Antoine Griezmann had putAtletico ahead by converting a first-halfpenalty kick at Ceramica Stadium.

"We were controlling the game wellbut in the end they took advantage ofthose two plays," Atletico coach DiegoSimeone said. "We have to keep doingwhat we have been doing, keep tryingto win as many points as possible."

Barcelona earlier defeated AthleticBilbao 2-0 at Camp Nou Stadium withanother stellar performance by LionelMessi, who scored a goal and helped setup the other.

Atletico striker Vitolo was sent offafter Villarreal's second goal for shov-ing an opponent.

Villarreal moved to fifth placewith therir second straight victory.

RONALDO IMPRESSESRonaldo scored once in the first half

and three times in the second, reach-ing 21 goals in his last 11 matches in allcompetitions. The Portugal star also setup Lucas Vazquez's goal at Santiago

Bernabeu Stadium. Gareth Bale scoredMadrid's other goal.

Ronaldo has scored at least one goalin his last eight matches, and he tookhis league tally to 22 goals, one morethan Barcelona's Luis Suarez and threebehind top scorer Messi.

"It's incredible," Madrid defenderNacho Fernandez said of Ronaldo."Again he is showing that he is the best."

It was the fourth straight win in allcompetitions for Madrid, who movedwithin four points of Atletico. Madridare 15 points behind Barcelona.

MESSI THRIVES AGAINMessi added to his scoring streak

with a first-half goal in Barcelona's winagainst Athletic, netting his eighthgoal in six matches with a firm, low shotfrom outside the area in the 30thminute. He was also involved in therunup to Barcelona's first goal, a shotby Paco Alcacer from near the penal-ty spot after a low cross by Jordi Alba.

"Every day Messi shows he can dosomething different," said Alcacer, whohadn't scored in nearly three months.

Messi set the pace from the startand Barcelona were always in controlat Camp Nou, comfortably earning theirfourth straight win in all competitions.

The Argentina playmaker hadscored twice in Barcelona's 3-0 win overChelsea in the Champions League onWednesday, helping the Catalan clubreach the quarterfinals of the Europeancompetition.

Messi has scored at least a goal inhis last six matches.

SEVILLA AT RISKSevilla lost 2-1 to Leganes, putting

at risk their chances of securing a

Europa League spot.The loss in southern Madrid

dropped Sevilla to sixth in the stand-ings, the last automatic qualificationspot for the second-tier Europeancompetition. They had already lost fifthplace when Villarreal defeated AtleticoMadrid 2-1, and it could have been sur-passed by Girona.

Sevilla's recent struggles in theleague left them virtually out of con-tention for a Champions League spot.They trail fourth-place Valencia by 14points.

Sevilla were coming off a loss toValencia in the previous round. Theystayed alive in the Champions Leagueby eliminating Manchester United inthe round of 16 on Tuesday.

Unai Bustinza put Leganes in frontwith a header in the 41st minute atButarque Stadium, sending the ball overgoalkeeper Sergio Rico after a pass byNabil El Zhar across the penalty area.

Javier Eraso added to the lead forthe hosts in the 69th with a shot fromnear the penalty spot after a low crossby Diego Rico. Sevilla's lone goal wasscored by Miguel Layun in the 90th.

Sevilla midfielder Pablo Sarabia wassent off in the 84th for a hard foul thatprompted a second yellow card.

CELTA HELDCelta Vigo could not manage more

than a 0-0 draw against last-placeMalaga, moving further away from aEuropa League spot.

The disappointing performance athome left the Galician outfit in 10thplace.

Malaga, who have only 14 pointsfrom 29 matches, had lost seven straightgames.

BARCELONA HAVE NOW PROCURED AN 11-POINTLEAD OVER ATLETICO, WHO PRESENTLY OCCUPYSECOND PLACE WITH A FOUR-POINT ADVANTAGE

OVER THIRD-PLACED REAL MADRID

S I N G L E S

Del Potro upsets Federer to win title

Pak woman admits meeting Shami Shi stuns Lin Dan

in All England Final

RONALDO, MESSI’S GOAL RUSH CONTINUES

Portuguese star nets 4 in Madrid’s emphatic victory; Messi sizzles against Bilbao in La Liga

But refutesmonetarydealing claims

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018sport 15

PTI n COLOMBO

Dinesh Karthik is always ready todeliver whatever the situationmay be and his experience and

repertoire of strokes make him a suit-able candidate to provide the finalflourish for India at the death overs,skipper Rohit Sharma said.

Wicket-keeper batsman Karthik(29 of 8 balls), who has made sporadicinternational appearances, produced alast-ball six as India pulled off anincredible chase beating Bangladesh byfour wickets in the Nidhas T20 Tri-seriesfinal, here on Sunday.

"He was with us on the previous tourin South Africa and didn't get muchgame time. To do what he did today willgive him a lot of confidence going for-ward," Rohit said.

"Most important thing he has isbelief in himself. Whatever situationcomes, he's ready — whether he bats upthe order or down the order. That's thekind of guy we need in our team."

Rohit revealed Karthik was nothappy that he was not batting higher inthe order but the Indian skipper defend-ed his decision of sending him at num-ber 7 saying his experience and skillsmade him a suitable candidate to pro-vide the late charge in the final overs.

"When I got out, I went and sat inthe dugout and Dinesh was quite upsetthat he didn't bat at No. 6," Rohit said.

"But I told him: 'I want you to batand finish off the game for us, becausewhatever skill you have, it will berequired in the last three or four overs'.That is the only reason he was not bat-ting at No. 6 in the 13th over when I gotout. He was upset with that, but he'll bequite happy now how he finished off thegame."

Lavishing praise on Karthik, Rohitsaid: "I have to go back to the kinds ofshots that he has in his books - it suitshim to finish off games at the deathwhere you have to use that one fielderthat is inside the circle - either fine leg,or mid-off or short third man.

"He can always play those rampshots which he played in the end toRubel Hossain. He knows that. I thoughtMustafizur [Rahman] would bowl prob-ably the 18th and the 20th overs, and wewanted an experienced guy to handlehim.

"We knew he would come out withhis offcutters and Dinesh probablywould have been a better choice at thatpoint. He has done it for his state teamand also for Mumbai Indians."

Washington Sundar alongwithYuzvendra Chahal finished as the tour-nament's highest wicket-takers, witheight dismissals apiece and Rohit singledout the allrounder for special praise.

"I think throughout the seriesSundar's bowling has been magical forus. What he has done with the new ballis quite incredible, I would say. Notanyone can just take the pressure ofbowling within the Powerplay. Not toforget he also got wickets at the sametime. He didn't allow any of the oppo-sition to score runs really in thePowerplay," Rohit said.

"The skillset that he has - he'squite courageous to do what he wantsto do in the middle. It's not just one ortwo games. He consistently bowled in

the Powerplay, and always kept us in thegames. We identified him as one of thepromising talents who can play for thenational team for many years. This tour-nament will give him a lot of confi-dence."

Rohit said the young team showedcharacter and executed the plans per-fectly. "Great tournament for us.Everybody who played, they showed lotsof character. These games are not easyand these guys have not played a lot forthe national team. And this performancewill give them a lot of confidence. Someof them went for runs, but they will learnfrom it," he said.

Sundar, who was adjudged the Manof the Series, said it was challenging tobowl in the powerplay.

"It means a lot, especially such anaward at such a young age. It's a chal-lenging role (bowling in Powerplay) butwhen playing for your country, it's justan honour," he said.

I've always wanted to read the bats-men's mind, and that's what I have beentrying to do. I really wanted to be therewhen we win the game and I thinkDinesh bhai played really well and itturned out to be a memorable series forme."

Though disappointed to end up onthe losing side, Bangladesh skipperShakib Al Hasan praised his team forplaying well throughout the series andcredited India for showing better nervesunder pressure to pull off the narrowwin in the final.

"You can't ask for more in a final likethis. I thought we played superbly, any-body could have won the game, butIndia held their nerves well," he said.

"We wanted to bowl our best bowlerin the 18th and 19th. But even if Rubelhad gone for 15 an over, we could havehandled it. He didn't miss his length toomuch but credit to Dinesh Karthik to justcome out and hit sixes from his first ball.”

PTI n COLOMBO

Dinesh Karthik is no Hrishikesh Kanitkar orJoginder Sharma but the Indian batsman is not

complaining about the "memories of a lifetime" thathis last-ball six against Bangladesh created.

Kanitkar's boundary against Pakistan under fad-ing Bangabandhu Stadium lights in Dhaka orJoginder Sharma's final over act against the arch-rivalsin the inaugural World Cup at the Wanderers wereone-off acts that made them household names.

Karthik, during hissporadic India appear-ances in the last 13 andhalf years, has certain-ly done more thanKanitkar or Joginderbut perhaps never hadthat "me too" momentthat every cricketercraves for.

"It's an amazingfeeling. These arethings which remainin your memory for alifetime," an ecstaticKarthik told bcci.tv.

Karthik did a JavedMiandad with a last-ball six as India pulledoff an incredible chasebeating Bangladesh byfour wickets.

Needing five off the final delivery, Karthiksmashed Soumya Sarkar over extra-cover to secuirewhat would certainly be one of India's most famouslast ball sixes.

"It's been a great journey for the past one year andI am very happy to be a part of this. We have put ina lot of hard work and it's good to have won the tour-nament at the end of it all. I want to thank the sup-port staff for the effort they have put in," the 32-year-old said. "At that stage, all I was trying to do was hita boundary every ball. I was positioning myself onthe crease according to what he would bowl. It kindof paid off," the affable Tamil Nadu cricketer was try-ing to be modest.

PTI n DUBAI

Yuzvendra Chahal jumped12 spots to number two

while Washington Sundarmoved up a phenomenal 151places to 31st in the ICC T20IPlayer Rankings for bowlers onthe back of their impressiveshow in the just-concludedNidahas Trophy Tri-Series inSri Lanka.

Leg-spinner Chahal nowhas a career-high 706 ratingpoints while off-spinner

Sundar, who was named Manof the Series, has 496 points.

Both the spinners werepart of the five games Indiaplayed, and picked up eightwickets apiece.

Sundar, who bowled main-ly in the Powerplay, had anincredible economy rate of5.70, while Chahal finishedwith 6.45.

Also making significantgains in the bowling chartswere some of the other per-formers from the Nidahas

Trophy: Akila Dananjaya of SriLanka, Rubel Hossain ofBangladesh and India's JaydevUnadkat and Shardul Thakur.

All of them achieved theircareer-best rating points at theend of the tournament.

Unadkat (joint 52nd) andThakur (joint 76th), India's

premier pacemen in the tour-nament, went up 26 and 85 spotsrespectively with their bestpoints ever -- 435 and 358.

Dinesh Karthik, who had anoutstanding tournament bat-ting in the lower middle-order,jumped from No 126 to No 95,with his best-ever 246 points.

PTI n COLOMBO

Bangladesh skipper ShakibAl Hasan on Monday said

there is no point "crying" overthe heartbreaking defeat toIndia in the final of NidahasT20 Tri-Series here and willrather focus on rectifyingthe mistakes for future.

Shakib was asked howdifficult was it to hide hisemotions after the loss.

"I actually don't know.There is no point cryingabout it. Yes, there can beemotions attached to suchoccasions but there isn't any-thing to do here," Sakib said.

Wicket-keeper batsmanDinesh Karthik (29 of 8 balls)smashed a last-ball six asIndia pulled off a four-wick-et win last night.

"It's not possible torewind time, so we have to dobetter when there is a simi-lar situation again. We havelost many close games andfinals.

"This was the fifth one(final) and all of them wereclose matches. The closest Ithink was the Asia Cup andthen today's one (Sunday)…I think this was even closer(than the Asia Cup). I thinkwe are moving forward."

Shakib said he will nothesitate to again hand overthe ball to Rubel Hossaindespite the bowler conceding22 runs in the 19th over.

"To be honest he did notmiss much of the plan whenhe bowled. I don't know ifthere are many batsmen whocan come and hit a six off thefirst ball," Shakib was quotedas saying by The Daily Star.

AFP n COLOMBO

Former Australia fast bowlerBrett Lee says emotion and

aggression are part of the gameand doesn't want to see robots onthe field, but he warned againstbehaviour "crossing the line".

The ongoing Australia tourof South Africa has been marredby on-field altercations withSouth African speedster KagisoRabada appealing against a two-Test ban for a shoulder barge onAussie skipper Steve Smith in thesecond Test.

The 41-year-old Lee, a fear-some fast bowler during asparkling career for Australiafrom 1999 to 2012, told AFP thatcontrolled aggression is good forthe sport.

"The thing that I will sayabout that, in all honesty, is wedon't want robots on the field,"he told AFP ahead of the T20 tri-series final between India andBangladesh in Colombo onSunday.

"Of course, there is a line thatthe players should not cross," Leeadded, without offering anyjudgement on the incidentinvolving Rabada, whose appealis due to be heard by theInternational Cricket Councillater on Monday.

"You don't racially vilifysomeone. You don't use excessiveswearing or stuff that can upsetchildren who are listening in.Other than that you've got to playhard cricket.

"Now I am not saying Iagree with what happened and Iam not saying that I don't agreewith what happened, but what Ican say is that we don't want toget into a stage where playerscan't even look at a batsman,batsman can't even look at abowler without getting into trou-ble."

Rabada returned match fig-ures of 11 for 150 at PortElizabeth, an effort that was

praised even by his opponents,but he stands to miss the finaltwo Tests of the series, which islocked at 1-1, should his appealfail.

Lee, who would regularlybowl at speeds of over 87 milesan hour (140 kph) during hispeak, was full of praise for youngRabada's ability to bowl consis-tent lengths.

"He's good, I like him. Getsgood shape on the ball," Lee saidof the 22-year-old paceman whohas already claimed 135 wicketsin 28 Tests at an average of 21.45.

"He comes around the wick-et a fair bit to the left-handers,which I like and has got goodpace and aggression and that'swhat you need," Lee said.

However Lee rues the factthat modern-day quicks are notkeeping the yorker in their fastbowling armoury especially inthe Twenty20 format.

Lee, who was in the TVcommentary team for the recent-ly concluded T20 tri-series in SriLanka, said bowling in the short-est format was challenging, espe-

cially towards the end of theinnings.

"I think it's a different style...But one thing I haven't seenthroughout the tournamentenough is yorkers," said Lee.

"A yorker in Test, one-day orT20 cricket can still take wicketsand for some reasons bowlersnow, in particular, fast bowlers,are hitting a length at the end. Idon't necessarily agree that's thebest tactic."

Lee though was impressedwith Bangladesh fast bowlerRubel Hossain for his variationsthroughout the tournament,including consistent use of theyorker.

Hossain, a veteran of 85one-day internationals and 25Tests, played a key role inBangladesh making the final ofthe tri-series, which they lost ina last-ball thriller to India.

"To me he is a guy that prob-ably has been the only one in thistournament that has kept theseam upright, comes off a shortrun-up and he bowls a goodyorker," said Lee.

AP n BERLIN

Runaway Bundesliga leaderBayern Munich lost 2-1 at

Leipzig on Sunday in a rarestumble ahead of the interna-tional break.

Sandro Wagner headedthe visitors into an early leadbut Naby Keita equalizedbefore the break and TimoWerner claimed the winner 10minutes after it.

"We didn't play like wehave in the last weeks," Bayerncoach Jupp Heynckes said."Leipzig is the deserved win-ner. You get such games."

It was Bayern's third defeatin 27 German league gamesand Leipzig's first-ever winover the Bavarian powerhouseafter three losses in theBundesliga and a defeat onpenalties in the German Cuplast October.

Bayern leads Schalke by 17points with seven gamesremaining. It can wrap up itsrecord-extending sixth con-secutive title with a win athome over third-placeBorussia Dortmund on March31 - if Schalke drops points toFreiburg on the same day.

Schalke and Dortmundhad already postponed thecelebrations by winning their27th-round games, butWagner got Bayern fans cheer-

ing when he scored in the 12thminute.

Wagner, selected to giveRobert Lewandowski a rest,was one of several Bayernplayers waiting to head JamesRodriguez' brilliant crossinside the far post.

But Bayern failed to copewith Leipzig's pressing gameand Keita deservedly equalizedon a rebound after Werner'seffort was blocked.

Keita then sent Wernerthrough to score his first goalsince Jan. 20 and end Leipzig'sfour-game winless run.

Heynckes, who had calledup Bayern under-19 midfield-er Meritan Shabani to thesenior squad for the first time,

sent Lewandowski on for thelast 20 minutes but the Polandstriker was unable to add to hisleague-leading tally.

Cologne, which made theworst-ever league start by anyteam, rekindled its slim hopesof survival by beating BayerLeverkusen 2-0 in the Rhinederby to leave the bottom ofthe table for the first time sincethe third round.

"The corpse is still alive,"said Leonardo Bittencourt,who was impressive forCologne.

Yuya Osako fired thehome side into an early leadafter good work fromBittencourt, and Simon Zollersealed the win with 20 minutes

remaining when he lifted theball over the outrushing goal-keeper.

Leverkusen's hopes ofclaiming an equalizer weredamaged after a half-hourwhen Lucas Alario swung hiselbow back into DominicMaroh in an off-the-ball inci-dent, leaving the Colognedefender on the ground clutch-ing his neck. Referee HarmOsmers sent the Argentineoff after consulting videoreplays.

Cologne moved twopoints above Hamburger SVand five points behind Mainzin the relegation playoff placewith seven games remaining.Relegation rivals Hamburg,Mainz, Wolfsburg andFreiburg all lost in the 27thround.

Leverkusen dropped tofifth, one point behindEintracht Frankfurt in the lastChampions League qualifica-tion place.

Michy Batshuayi's brilliantfirst-half strike was enough forBorussia Dortmund to beatvisiting Hannover 1-0 andconsolidate third place in theBundesliga on Sunday.

The home side enjoyed thebetter start as it looked to makea statement following its dis-appointing Europa League exitto Salzburg on Thursday.

PTI n ORLANDO

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri ended a dis-appointing week with a horrendous card

of six-over 78 to finish T-75 at theArnold Palmer Invitational here.

Lahiri dropped six bogeys, a doublebogey and two birdies in his final roundto total nine-over 297.

Four-time Major champion RoryMcIlroy, meanwhile, made a back-ninecharge like never before with five birdiesin six closing holes to end a nearly 18-month winless period dating back to theday Arnold Palmer passed away onSeptember 25, 2016.

Ironically, McIlroy's first win sincecame at the Arnold Palmer Invitationalwhere he carded a final day 8-under 64and won by three shots. "I wish I walkedup that hill and got a handshake from him.But I'm so happy to put my name on thattrophy," he said.

Much before McIllroy produced hisfireworks, Tiger Woods was the man infocus, as he has been since his return at

the Hero World Challenge in December2017. There was a stage when Woods, cladin trademark Sunday red-shirt, madethree birdies in a four-hole stretch to startthe back nine and he was within a shot offthe lead.

Then came the 16th, where his driveron the par-5 16th hole went far left andover a fence and out-of-bounds. It was abogey when he desperately needed abirdie. It ended his momentum and he fin-ished bogey-bogey-par for a 3-under 69and tumbled down the leaderboard intoa tie for fifth.

Just around then McIlroy began hischarge and at that stage five players wereseparated by one shot. And then McIlroyran away.

He made a 15-foot birdie putt on the13th to take the lead over hard-luckHenrik Stenson, and then rolled one infrom 20 feet on the next hole. To add tothat McIlroy chipped in from 40 feet onthe 15th hole, and then pounded a 375-yard drive on the 16th that set up a two-putt birdie.

Bryson DeChambeau chased hardand at 16th he came out of the rough andwent over the water and found the green.His eagle putt caught just enough of thecup to drop in and he was only onebehind.

But, McIlroy putted from about 25 feetabove the hole on 18th to experience afeeling in a manner like Woods did in2001, 2008 and 2009.

McIlroy raised both arms in the airand turned to slam his fist as the crowdsbroke into a huge roar.

It gave McIlroy a two-shot lead andwhen DeChambeau needing to hole outfrom the fairway for eagle failed, McIlroyhad won his 22nd title.

DeChambeau made bogey from thebunker on the 18th for a 68 and finishedalone in second three shots behind.

Justin Rose (67) finished 14-under inthird, and Henrik Stenson lost a thirdchance in four years to win the ArnoldPalmer Invitational. He led by as many astwo shots on the front nine before theputts stopped falling.

‘Whatever situation comes, DK's ready’

Whether he bats up or down, Karthik’s ready for challenge, feels Rohit

Memory oflifetime: Karthikon last-ball six

Chahal, Sundar move up in T20s

No point cryingover defeat toIndia: Shakib

Aggression's fine, wedon't want robots: Lee

McIlroy ends streak with title win

Bayern slump to rare defeat

To do whathe did todaywill give him

a lot ofconfidence

going forward— Rohit

Sharma onDineshKarthik

Katrina takes a school break Actress Katrina Kaif who is cur-rently working around the clock,shooting for Aanand L Rai's Zeroand rehearsing for the forthcom-ing Dabangg Tour in Pune willtake some time off to visitthe students of MountainView School in TamilNadu.

According to asource, “Katrina has achoc-o-bloc schedulebut despite it all willtake a day off to flyto Tamil Nadu andmeet the students ofMountain ViewSchool?” MountainView School,was opened in2015 as part ofRelief ProjectIndia, to provideEnglish-medium educa-tion to underprivileged students.Katrina's mother Suzanne haslong been associated with theschool and has been teachingthere as well. She will take a dayoff to join her mother and hasplanned a day full of activities withthe students there.

Actress SWARA BHASKAR saysweb series The Story, will reflectsome flaws in her personality,opening up her ‘less savoury’ sideto her fans. The Story is a webseries, features celebri-ties turning storytellersto let viewers knowabout a tale — bizarre,humorous and terrify-ing — of their own per-sonal lives. “But fanswill definitely get to seea less savoury side of me. Someflaws in my personality will bereflected in its episode,” she said.She also said the story she will tellis not ‘100 per cent accurate’, butis closely based on actual things.

LUCKNOW | TUESDAY | MARCH 20, 2018 vivacity 16

John is morethan an actor

‘From when I started,my life has gonethrough phaseswhere my prioritieschanged. Initially I

took a breakfor four years,and thencame backand againtook a twoyears break.

In Bollywood, ifyou’re not presentwhen opportunitycomes, it will affectyour career’—Chitrangada Singh

Actor JOHN BOYEGA, the break-out star of Star Wars: The ForceAwakens, says his forthcomingfilm Pacific Rim Uprising gavehim the opportunity to exploreother aspects of filmmaking.

In the film, John Boyegawill be seen playing the role ofJake Pentecost, son ofStacker Pentecost.

However, Boyega wasn't simply interest-

ed in acting in it. He feltthat if he would give thetime and energy neces-sary to be on set, thenhe would want to serveas an on-set producer.

“In my previous films, Iwas just an actor,” Boyegasaid in a statement.

Said Boyega, “NowI'd be a producer aswell, and I loved thechallenge of having to live up tothat form of leadership, co-pro-ducing alongside a studio that Iadmire, acting in a fantastic role,and working with Steven...some-one I've wanted to work with afterhis incredible work on Spartacus and Daredevil.

Elizabeth Marvel is essaying thepowerhouse character of presi-

dent-elect Elizabeth Keane onHomeland Season 7. She stronglybelieves that the more we see a femalepresident on screen, the sooner it willbecome a reality.

The actress has appeared in anarray of films and TV shows like Burnafter reading, Lincoln and recently inLaw and order: SVU. Playing HeatherDunbar, a politician who challengesFrank Underwood for democraticpresidential nomination in House ofCards became a defining moment inher career. nHomeland is known for emulatingreal life chronicles in its plot. What’sSeason 7 been like?

Season 7 is running alongsidereal time, which I think is totally valid.The environment of paranoia andanxiety, the rate at which things arehappening now in our culture and inthe political world is completely insync with what we are mirroring onthe show this season!

nTell us something about your char-acter?

I think Elizabeth Keane has themakings of a great leader. She was nottaken down by assassination attemptbut it did make her paranoid whichresulted in an overwhelming need todominate the situation. But she’s smartenough for a political animal to be ableto step back from those instincts andget the lay of the land and figure outwhat she needs to do to move forwardand have a successful presidency. I feelwhat we work with and what one wit-nesses in this season with Keane is inregard to someone at the core of thisincredibly paranoid and volatile whitehouse with political landscape aroundher.

It focuses on how she navigatesfrom a place of strength which isastonishing and interesting to me.They keep pushing her to move for-ward in a strong way considering thather entire administration was wipedout, the military basically performeda coup against her and how one getsback up after that is what we get towatch.

nWhat can we expect from this sea-son?

This season will revolve aroundthe round up of everyone in heradministration, government, all thetentacles in various departments held

for two hundred days. It begins withher in the crisis trying to stay in a placeof control and power after military hasturned against her. It’s fascinating asyou can’t deny looking through thelens of gender by casting a female pres-ident. The ramifications and theechoes of the decision are seenthroughout the season.

nWhat about the dynamics betweenher and David Wellington, the WhiteHouse Chief of Staff to the President?

It is expanding and evolving thisseason. It mainly began from a deepplace as they had such an intense his-tory and more of that is getting uncov-ered. We will learn a lot about theirbackstory and I think, anyone who’sbeen in a bunker with someone, theyhave an intense intimacy that is height-ened when you go through things likewar or political campaign.

They tend to trust each other,depend on each other in a way that Ithink president Keane doesn’t feel safewith anyone else the way she does withWellington until she doesn’t.

nHow is the season similar to thecurrent scenario?

It’s pretty demoralised andinflamed and it’s pretty divided. Thereis a lot of polarisation happeningalong the lines of race prevalent inhighly weaponised and under-seizedcountry by an outdoor government.that has infiltrated its democracy.

nHow has it been like working onthis season? You’re the Presidentnow.

It’s my environment and my envi-ronment has forms of everything I do.Since, it is the oval office this season,it’s a sanctuary as well as a shrine. It’ssuch a sacred room with iconic space.So when you’re in it, it is impossibleto separate from those feelings.

It constantly echoes in one’s mind.Historically from all of the imageswe’ve seen over the decades of differ-ent people in that room, in that posi-tion, it just sort of reverberates yourmind when you’re in that space.

(Season 7 of Homeland airs on StarWorld every sunday at 9 pm)

Designer Malini Ramani hascome a long way from her

dramatic debut in 2000 on theIndian fashion scene with herRock star meets Indian Princesscollection to being synony-mous with new-age tribal wear.Dip-dyed drapes, tribal influ-ences, regal capes, sequins,mirror work on black outfitsand an abundance of gold werethe standout elements of herlatest collection, The HighPriestess, inspired by the mean-dering course of a woman’sjourney. One of the strikinglooks was a model sporting thehorns of a ram on her head,which reminded us ofMaleficent. Talking about thesame, Ramani revealed, “AnAmerican hair stylist friend vis-ited me a month back. Shecame over to my office and sawmy mood board with The HighPriestess looks. After whichshe designed the headgear all byherself and went back and said,‘I have a surprise for you. I ammaking something for yourshow and will send it to yousoon’. And it arrived two daysbefore the show, I had no ideawhat it will be like but found itsuper wild which really workedout for the show. It was a pow-erful headgear, enchanting andmagical just like the highpriestess.”

She informed us that it wasa conscious call to fuse the trib-al elements. “My brand, mylook, and style are actuallyquite tribal, gypsy andnomadic. So, that’s just mystyle and how I dress whichreflected in what I wanted to dowith this collection.” Thedesigner divulged details aboutthe colour palette, an interplayof brown, white and blue in thefirst segment and play of blackand white along with mirrorwork in the second segment. “Ihad actually tried to experimentwith various colours. My moodboard had myriad hues. I loveblack and white and I amwearing these shades right nowtoo. I also love tie-dye, brownsand muted colours. Even if Imake a plan to do somethingelse, the sheer love for it keepsdragging me back to that.”

Ramani’s fascination withkaftan silhouette dates long

back. “I thinkkaftans are chic,elegant andsophisticatedpiece of cloth-ing. It can beworn by any agegroup, mymother and Iboth wear thekaftan. Africans,M o r o c c a n s ,French — every nation wearsthe kaftan. It can be worn dur-ing the day or at night, can becasual or dressy, one can go toa wedding in it or go to sleepwearing it. It’s flexible, loose,flowy and sexy at the sametime. I just like it.” She believesthat her latest collection istravel-friendly. “You can packall these items in a suitcase andnone of them will get crushed.You can wear all of them whiletravelling. You can put on acape if you are feeling cold in

a plane or wearjumpsuits and dressit up in the eveningor even wear theseoutfits for lunch ordinner. The one-piece saris are a greatchoice especially fordestination wed-dings.” Althoughthese one-piece saris

were presented inblack and white for theAmazon AW’18 collection, thebuyers can opt from an array ofcolour options. She added thatwhile she is travelling, shecomes across certain people,even at airports which at timesinspires elements in her cre-ations.

Recalling her time spent inDelhi, Ramani said, “I havelived here for most of my life,even though I did not plan that.Currently, I am here on a visaas I live in New York mostly.

Delhi was much more fun andempty with hardly any trafficearlier. I was younger and allover the place. Now my fondmemories are related to thepeople that I know and theexperiences I had with them. Ihave completed 18 years in thefashion business. I have manygood memories related to thattoo.” When asked about herfavourite hangout spots in thecity, she quipped, “My house!As you get older, it’s not abouthanging out at certain placesand more about the people youare hanging out with and moodyou are in. I have created myown cocoon where I like to bein and that’s actually my house.”

When asked how has thisinfluenced her worldview andfashion sensibilities. Ramanireplied, “I see women on thestreets still dressed in saris, any-where I go around there arecolours. The city is not on topof my inspiration list, that isNew York as I visit it a lot. I amborn there and live there. Whenyou look around, you areassaulted with distinct styles,colours, madness and creativ-ity on every corner.”

She is not interested in par-tying now and has a valid rea-son for it — she has grown up.Ramani also spoke about herstudio in Goa. “The business isquite seasonal and only forthree months it is good. I pre-fer Goa over Delhi as it hasclean, pleasant weather, freshair, relaxed and laid-back atti-tude. Everyone is in a cheerfulmood there. It’s easy to get toplaces and there is no pollu-tion.” On what keeps her going,she said, “It’s creativity and pas-sion. I am passionate about sev-eral things — yoga, food, mywork and my dog. I am on aspiritual journey and that’swhat keeps me going. Also, tosee new things and go onadventures. I love sharing andgiving, inspiring people andbeing inspired.”

On her forthcoming pro-jects, “I am working onYogalini, my kundalini yogaline. I am going to Dubai soonfor an exhibition and manytrunk shows and pop-ups arein line which I do once a year.So, I am packed with that.”

When Jennifer Emejuluwent to see BlackPanther, the New Jersey

resident didn’t feel like wearingany of the traditional Nigerianclothing she routinely wears forfamily parties.

She enjoyed seeing photos ofthose who did come out to seethe global blockbuster about thesuperhero leader of a fictionalAfrican nation dressed in theirAfrican-inspired outfits, butEmejulu found it a little ironic,too.

“Growing up, we used to getmade fun of for being African”by black Americans, says the 36-year-old physical therapist whowas born and raised in theUnited States to Nigerian immi-grant parents. “Now ... we’re in,we’re cool.”

In the weeks since its release,Black Panther has been a jugger-naut — holding the top box-office spot, bringing in morethan $560 million domesticallyand $1 billion globally. Featuringa predominantly black cast hail-ing from all over the world, it’san American-made film from anAfrican-American director, RyanCoogler, that’s an ode to Africa— set in the fictional, never-

colonised and immeasurablypowerful nation ofWakanda, with costuming

and sets heavily inspired byexisting African cultures.

Its central story pits T’Challa,the Black Panther, and king ofWakanda, against ErikKillmonger, the son of T’Challa’suncle and an American woman,who was abandoned in Americaand touches on how and whetherthe country’s power should beused in aid of black people glob-ally.

Kil lmonger, played byMichael B Jordan, feels hisfather’s African homeland shouldarm black people in global upris-ings, while T’Challa, played byChadwick Boseman, questionshis country’s history of isolation-ism but doesn’t want to seeglobal bloodshed or Wakandanimperialism.

In touching on the questionsof what’s the connection or dis-placement among peoples ofAfrican descent all over theworld, it puts a spotlight on areal-world issue that’s beentalked about for more than a

century and had an impact onhow Africans and African-Americans have interacted witheach other.

African-American figuresincluding WEB Du Bois andMalcolm X have long invoked aconnection between Americanblacks, descended from thosewho were forced to come here asslaves and stripped of everythingincluding their cultural heritage,with Africans on the continentand Africa itself, said JonathanGray, associate professor at JohnJay College in Manhattan.

“For a lot of people who are‘conscious’, there is this traditionwhere we’ve tried to discern thisconnection,” he said.

“It’s an act of diasporicimagination. It’s the same actof imagination that allowsfor a Jew living in Portugal, aJew living in Brazil and a Jewliving in Poland to think ofJerusalem as their home eventhough, let’s say in 1930, noneof them had ever been toJerusalem.”

Some of the context of theneed and desire for that con-nection has been the legalisedracism of the systems African-Americans were forced to liveunder, first slavery and thensegregation, for much of thehistory of the United States, thathas made it extremely difficultfor most African-Americans to

trace their particular ancestriesback past a handful of genera-tions in this country.

“If we had been allowed tocome here of our own volitionand we were able to maintain asense of identity with where weactually come from with a sense

of specificity, there mightnot be the reaction thatpeople have right now,” saidTony Armstrong, 46, an ITconsultant in Miami whohas done genetic testing tofind even a general sense ofwhere his roots in Africamight be.

“We need to know thatwe don’t come from noth-ing,” said Shara Taylor, 34, of

Nashville, Tennessee. “We needto know that we came fromsomewhere, that we didn’t justspring from the ground in chainsin the United States.”

But as much as there’s beena push for connection in somecorners, there’s been plenty of

disconnect as well, and even dis-dain from one group to theother, as stereotypes like thoseabout poverty-stricken Africaor dangerous inner-city Americahave been absorbed by bothgroups, and there’s a lack of realknowledge of the harsh realitiesof slavery on one hand andcolonialism on the other, expertssaid.

“We meet and encountereach other through these lensesof mutual ignorance,” saidMwatabu Okantah, assistant pro-fessor at Kent State University inKent, Ohio. “It makes relating toeach other difficult.”

Writing for the HuffingtonPost, Jolie A Doggett questionedwhether black Americans wouldbe welcome if Wakanda were areal place. She was doubtful.

“I found myself having toface the harsh reality that thereis a division within our diaspo-ra that’s not going to easily heal,”she said.

Funmilola Fagbamila,adjunct professor at CaliforniaState University, Los Angeles,said, “There are complexitieswithin black identity, betweenAfrican-Americans and specifi-cally black people in Africawhere they would say, no, youare not us.”

But that has been shiftingover time, especially in recentyears, and the movie could playa role in opening dialogues, saidMelina Abdullah, also a profes-sor at Cal State LA, and chair-woman of Pan-African Studies.

“I think the movie is spark-ing a conversation and con-sciousness among people,” shesaid. “The role of black art hasalways been to kind of awakenus, to get us to think creatively,critically, use our imagination tothink about what freedommeans.”

—AP

Black Panther brings to attention a real-world issue that’s been talkedabout for more than a century and had an impact on how Africans andAfrican-Americans have interacted with each other

ELIZABETH MARVEL talksabout her character inHomeland, the relationshipdynamics, the aftermath ofbeing a female President andthe allure of the Oval office

UNTESTED PLOTORIGINAL BOHEMIAN Designer MALINI RAMANI spoke to KRITIKA DUA about hertravel-friendly collection, admiration for tribal elements and why sheprefers Goa over Delhi

‘I am on aspiritualjourney

and that’swhat

keeps megoing’

SOCIAL ENGINEERING

THROUGH CINEMA