NEARBY YogiAdityanathisnewCMofU.P. - Current … ministers in the RawatCabinetandtwoMin-sters of State also took the oathofoffice. While at least four more ministersareyettobeinduc-ted,thecurrentcomposition

CMYK

A ND-ND

march 19, 2017 Noida/Delhi

City Edition

46 pages � ₹15.00

Printed at . Chennai . Coimbatore . Bengaluru . Hyderabad . Madurai . Noida . Visakhapatnam . Thiruvananthapuram . Kochi . Vijayawada . Mangaluru . Tiruchirapalli . Kolkata . Hubballi . Mohali . Allahabad . Malappuram . Mumbai

followus:

thehindu.com

facebook.com/thehindu

twitter.com/the_hindu

SUNDAYMAGAZINE � 8 PAGES

In a grand ceremony, Triv-endra Singh Rawat wassworn in as the ninth ChiefMinister of Uttarakhand onSaturday, with the oath of of-fice being administered byGovernor K.K. Paul.

The swearing-in cere-mony at the Parade Groundhere was attended by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andother BJP leaders, includingHaryana Chief Minister Man-ohar Lal Khattar, party pres-ident Amit Shah, Union Min-ister Rajnath Singh andUnion Water Resources Min-ister Uma Bharati.

The outgoing CongressChief Minister Harish Rawatalso attended.

Seven ministers in theRawat Cabinet and two Min-sters of State also took theoath of office.

While at least four moreministers are yet to be induc-ted, the current compositionshows a balance of caste andthe State’s two regions —Garhwal and Kumaon.

While six minsters, in-cluding Mr. Rawat, are fromthe Garhwal region, fourothers are from Kumaon. Interms of caste, four of theMinisters are Rajputs, fourBrahmins and two Dalits.

Among those sworn inwere the two other chiefminister contenders —Prakash Pant and Satpal Ma-haraj. Maharaj, a two-timeCongress MP, who switchedto the BJP before the 2014Lok Sabha polls, is an MLAfrom Chaubattakhal. Mr.Pant is the MLA from Pithor-agarh.

TrivendraSingh Rawatsworn inKavita Upadhyay

Dehradun

Fiery crash: A video grab of the BMWon ire after the accidentin the early hours of Saturday in Chennai. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Professional car racer Ash-win Sundar, 27, and his wifeNiveditha, 25, a doctor, wereburnt to death as their BMWsports car, reportedlydriven above permissiblespeed limits, caught fireafter it veered around andcrashed into the spacebetween a tree and a para-pet wall at MRC Nagar herein the early hours ofSaturday.

Ashwin Sundar, son ofbusinessman Shanmu-gasundar, had participatedin many racing champion-ships in India and abroad.He married Niveditha, of SriLankan origin, in Februarylast year. The couple lived inAlapakkam near Porur.

Going to dinnerThe police said that on Fri-day night, Ashwin and hiswife were proceeding toLeela Palace Hotel for din-ner in their high-end two-seater BMW Z4 car whenthe accident took place.

Family sources said heusually took his wife for aspin around Elliots Beach orthe Marina before goinghome.

Sources said that at 1.45a.m., the couple’s car went

over a speed breaker, whichwas not illuminated, just infront of the Ambedkar Me-morial on DGS DinakaranSalai. The car then flew inthe air. It hit the median onthe right side and veeredaround, before running overthe platform on the left andcrashing.The couple appar-ently could not open thedoors, and the car instant-aneously caught fire.

The blaze that engulfedthe car was so massive thatpassers-by and others couldnot go close enough to helpthem. A few passers-byshared a video of the car onFacebook Live.

Two journalists from TheHindu, who were in the vi-cinity, witnessed the crashand the blaze that followed.

Car racer Ashwin,wife killed in accidentBoth charred to death in sports car

R. SivaramanCHENNAI

Ashwin Sundar andNiveditha * SPECIAL

ARRANGEMENT

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

A district court here on Sat-urday sentenced 13 workersof Maruti Udyog to life im-prisonment for killing theHuman Resources managerof the car manufacturer dur-ing labour unrest at its plantin Manesar in 2012. About90 executives had also beeninjured in the violence

Twelve of the 13 were of-fice-bearers of the theMaruti-Suzuki Workers’Union at that time.

Additional Sessions JudgeR.P. Goyal had on March 10held them guilty of murder,attempt to murder, destruc-tion of evidence and crim-inal conspiracy.

The court had held a totalof 31 persons guilty in thecase out which 13 were

awarded life imprisonment,14 were let off with the courtconsidering the period theyspent in jail during the trialas the term of sentence,while the remaining fourwere sentenced to five yearsimprisonment. Sixty-six ac-cused workers are abscond-ing.

13 get life sentence inMaruti violence case14 let of against time spent in jail

Special CorrespondentGurugram (Haryana)

The workers in the court onSaturday. * MANOJ KUMAR


LITERARY REVIEW � 4 PAGES

CLASSIFIEDS � PAGES 4 & 5

INSIDE

Yogi Adityanath, the contro-versial hardline advocate ofHindutva, will be the 32ndChief Minister of Uttar Pra-desh. He will be sworn in at2.15 p.m. on Sunday.

Bringing an end to the sus-pense since the Assemblyelection results were de-clared a week ago on March11, the BJP announced thefive-time Member of Parlia-ment from Gorakhpur as itsChief Minister-elect on Sat-urday after he was chosenleader of its legislature party.

The State will also havetwo deputy chief ministers —Keshav Prasad Maurya andDinesh Sharma — both ofwhom were also front run-ners for the top post. WhileMr. Maurya is the BJP’s Statepresident, Mr. Sharma is theMayor of Lucknow.

A delegation of BJP lead-ers, led by Adityanath andBJP leader and Union Minis-ter Venkaiah Naidu, later metGovernor Ram Naik andstaked claim to form the gov-ernment.

The CM-designate alsomet the DGP and the ChiefSecretary and discussed thelaw and order situation inthe State. Sources said that inhis address to party MLAs,Adityanath promised to im-plement the “Modi-model ofdevelopment” in U.P.

He resolved that like Mr.Modi, he would not rest eas-ily and would work tirelessly.“Na bhaitunga na bhaitnedunga” [neither will I rest,nor will I let others], a BJPleader quoted Adityanath assaying

Caste balanceWhile Adityanath, whosebirth name is Ajay SinghBisht, is a Thakur, Mr.Maurya is an OBC and Mr.Sharma a Brahmin. The bal-ancing of castes is intendedto guide the BJP’s futurestrategy in the State, espe-cially in the run-up to the2019 Lok Sabha election.

Union Minister Venkaiah

Naidu announced the namesat the Lok Bhawan here aftera meeting of the BJP MLAsand those of its two allies:the Apna Dal (Soney Lal) andthe Suheldev BharatiyaSamaj Party. The alliance se-cured 325 seats in the 403-member Assembly.

Mr. Naidu, who was ap-

pointed as central observerto the legislature party meet-ing, said Adityanath’s namewas unanimously passed bya voice vote.

Mr. Naidu said seniorparty MLA Suresh Khannaproposed Adityanath’s namein the meeting which wasthen endorsed by 11 other-

s.He said the BJP’s sweepingwin was a mandate in favourof development and goodgovernance and against castepolitics, religious vote bankpolitics and corruption.

Surprise choice pips Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, who will be Deputy Chief Ministers

The chosen ones: The newly elected leader of the BJP legislature party Yogi Adityanath, withKeshav PrasadMaurya (left) and Dinesh Sharma in Lucknow on Saturday. * RAJEEV BHATT

Omar RashidLUCKNOW

The 44-year-old YogiAdityanath is more thanjust a Member of Parlia-ment, or even the head ofthe powerful Gorakhnathpeeth which wields power-ful influence in eastern Ut-tar Pradesh.

Mr. Adityanath headsthe 15-year-old Hindu YuvaVahini, which describes it-self as a socio-cultural or-ganisation, but has been

involved in several incid-ents of violence in thepast.

In 2007, members of theoutfit set afire the Mumbai-Gorakhpur Godan Expressafter Mr. Adityanath wasarrested in a case re-gistered in Gorakhpur.

His exclusion from theState BJP election commit-tee before the Assemblypolls led to protests by theYuva Vahini, and it wasonly when he was de-

ployed across the State,tempers were calmed.

Minority baitingYogi Adityanath has beenthe hard Hindutva face ofthe party in the 15 years itspent in political wilder-ness in the State and afterthe influence of former CMKalyan Singh declined. Heis no stranger to controver-sies.

A hard Hindutva face of BJPNistula Hebbar

New Delhi


FARM LOANWAIVER, THE FIRST

CHALLENGE � PAGE 10


Yogi Adityanath is new CM of U.P.

Jat agitation: Section144 in Delhi from todayNEW DELHI

Prohibitory orders under

Section 144 of the CrPC will

be imposed in Delhi from

Sunday in wake of the Jat

community’s plan to gherao

the Parliament onMonday.

CITY � PAGE 2

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

NEARBY

Sui clerics resurfacein PakistanNEW DELHI

Two Sui clerics of the Hazrat

Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi,

who had gonemissing during

a visit to Pakistan, have been

reunited with their relatives

in Karachi, oicial sources at

the Indian High Commission

in Islamabad have conirmed.

NEWS � PAGE 10

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

In a relief to professors andstudents of the Centre forthe Study of Discriminationand Exclusion at JawaharlalNehru University, the Uni-versity Grants Commissionhas said that a letter sent inits name to the universitywas a “forged” one.

The letter had said thatthe UGC would not fund theCentre after the Twelfth Planand not entertain any com-munication in this regard.

The UGC had also under-lined it would continue tofund the Centre.

The JNU administrationhad not just received the let-ter but forwarded it to theCentre, after which there

was considerable unease notjust at the Centre but in 35such Centres established allover India since 2007.

“The quoted letter is a for-gery and as per records ofUGC has not been issued byMs. Sushma Rathore, UnderSecretary, UGC. The recordsof University Grants Com-mission have been checkedand it is confirmed that nosuch letter has been issuedor dispatched by the officeof University Grants Com-mission,” said the UGCrelease.

‘No Mumbai office’“The perusal of the letter re-ceived by JNU shows that theletter was faxed from Mum-bai number with 022 STD

code. University GrantsCommission does not havean office in Mumbai. TheUniversity Grants Commis-sion is contemplating takingall appropriate legal actionin this regard.” The UGC saidthe Centres would stay andcontinue to be funded by it.

“(The) University GrantsCommission has establishedCentres for Study of SocialExclusion and InclusivePolicy in various universitiesin the Tenth Plan on plan-to-plan basis provided theseCentres give a satisfactoryprogress in the areas of theirfocus. Keeping in view thesame procedure the UGCwould be extending theseCentres from 1st April, 2017onwards,” the UGC said.

UGC denies stopping fundsto JNU, says letter forgedCommission says it is contemplating taking legal action

Special CorrespondentNew Delhi

The Punjab cabinet, in itsfirst meeting after formingthe government on Saturday,decided to put an end to theVIP culture in the State, be-sides setting a Special TaskForce (STF) to deal with thedrug menace, a key issue inthe 2017 Assembly polls.

It also formed a group of

experts to assess thequantum of agriculture debtof farmers in the State.

The newly-constitutedcouncil of nine ministers,chaired by Chief MinisterCapt. Amarinder Singh, de-cided that beacon lights onall vehicles -- except emer-gency hospital, ambulance,fire brigade vehicles, thechief justice and the judges

of the Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court -- would be abol-ished after a formal notifica-tion is issued.

Bringing transperancyTo be more transparent ingovernance the cabinet de-cided that salary, allow-ances, reimbursements re-ceived by all MLAs would beupdated every month on the

up a Special Task Force (STF)in the Chief Minister’s office,which would prepare andimplement a comprehensiveprogramme. The state homedepartment has been direc-ted to prepare and submit aproposal, in the next cabinetmeeting, for the enactmentof the confiscation of DrugDealers Property Act by issu-ing an ordinance.

official website and would bemade available to the public.

“All MLAs and MPs woulddeclare their immoveableproperties on January 1every year, and for the year2017-18 the same would bedone by July 1 this year,” saidan official spokesperson.

In an attempt to eliminatethe drug menace, the newgovernment decided to set

State cabinet also sets up task force in the Chief Minister’s oice on drug menaceSpecial CorrespondentChandigarh

To end VIP culture, Punjab abolishes beacon lights

CMYK

A ND-ND

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

NOIDA/DELHI THE HINDU

SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 20172EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

CITY

Brahma Kumaris holdinternational yoga meetNEW DELHI

Change in our way of thinking

changes our health and

relationships, and also

contributes to world peace,

said motivational speaker

Sister Shivani while speaking

at a two-day international

conference on ‘Yoga for

Universal Peace and Holistic

Wellbeing’, organised by the

Brahma Kumaris at Siri Fort

auditorium. The conference,

is being supported by the

Ministry of AYUSH.STAFF REPORTER

IN BRIEF

Villagers protest againstillicit liquorGREATER NOIDA

A group of people from

Maicha village on Saturday

held a protest at the SSP

office here demanding action

against the liquor mafia.

The protesters alleged that

since the last two years, illicit

liquor supply was going on in

the village and some people

fell ill after consuming it on

Holi. The villagers met DSP

Arun Kumar Singh who has

promised action. PTI

Toddler drowns inopen drainGHAZIABAD

A two-and-a-half years old

boy drowned in an open drain

here and his body was

recovered on Saturday, the

police said. “Ujjair had gone

to play outside his house in

Chaman colony around 4 p.m.

on Friday along with his elder

brother Rihan. However, he

went out of sight of Rihan

and fell in the drain," City SP

Salman Taj Patil said. PTI

Prohibitory orders underSection 144 of the CrPC willbe imposed in Delhi fromSunday in wake of the Jatcommunity’s plan to gheraothe Parliament on Monday.To keep the protesters fromentering the Capital, all bor-der points will be underheavy police surveillance.

“Three-tier security ar-rangements have beenmade. Tractors and trollieswill not be allowed insideDelhi,” said Delhi Policespokesperson DependraPathak. He added that be-sides their own personnel,110 companies of additionalforces will be strategicallydeployed across the city onMarch 20.

Commuting nightmareThe extraordinary meas-ures, which are likely tothrow life out of gear in thecity, will be enforced in viewof Jat groups threatening tointensify their agitation forquota in education and em-ployment. The protest hasbeen called by the AkhilBharatiya Jat AarakshanSangharsh Samiti (ABJASS).

Commuters will be espe-cially affected as all routescoming to New Delhi dis-trict, including Rajiv Chowk,Rashtrapati Bhavan, andparts of south Delhi, will berestricted.

Cops on alert“Cross-over of vehicles inNew Delhi district will notbe allowed unless one has abonafide reason to enter: ifyou work in the area or if it’san emergency vehicle,” saidJCP (Traffic) Garima Bhat-nagar. “We will be checkingif they have a legitimatereason to enter New Delhi.They might have to showevidence for the same.”

Checking pointsPolice sources told The

Hindu that movement ofpeople will be regulated andsingle-file checking may bedone at certain points, ifrequired.

“Border areas such asSinghu, Tikri, Dhansa,NH-8, Badarpur, Loni andthe DND flyway will seeheavy police deployment.We may also use drones andbarricades. Law and order

will be given preferenceover public convenience,”said a senior police official.

Talking about measuresfor protesters who mighthave already entered thecity, Mr. Pathak said: “Theywill be contained and underno circumstances will anagitation or dharna beallowed”.

10 lakh people expectedNational president of AB-JASS, Yashpal Malik said thatlakhs of Jats community willarrive in Delhi on March 20and protest at the borders ifprevented from entering theCapital. “Not only will pro-testers come from neigh-bouring States, but Jats liv-ing in Delhi will also join theagitation. There will beabout 10 lakh people com-ing. If the police prevent usfrom entering Delhi, we willprotest at the borders,” Mr.Malik said.

Metro affectedAs per direction from theDelhi Police, Metro trainswill not travel beyond thecity’s borders from 11.30

p.m on Sunday.Line-2 (Guru

Dronacharya to Huda CityCentre), Line-3 and 4(Kaushambi to Vaishali andNoida Sector-15 to NoidaCity Centre) and Line-6(Sarai to Escorts Mujesar)will be affected. The ser-vices to all these Metro sta-tions will be resumed onlyafter getting clearance fromDelhi Police.

Meanwhile, 12 stations incentral Delhi will be shutfrom 8 p.m. on Sunday, tillfurther orders.

The 12 stations includeRajiv Chowk, Patel Chowk,Central Secretariat, UdyogBhawan, Lok Kalyan Marg,Janpath, Mandi House,Barakhamba Road, R.K.Ashram Marg, PragatiMaidan, Khan Market andShivaji Stadium

However, interchange fa-cility will be available at allinterchange stations.

Taking all precautionsRegarding the ongoing CBSEboard exams of Class XIIstudents, the police saidthat children should startearlier than normal in orderto reach their respectiveexam centres on time.

“Parents and candidatesshould take pre-emptivemeasures to reach their des-tination on time as checkingand blockade can causedelays,” said Mr. Pathak.

In an advisory, the UnionHome Ministry has told theDelhi Police and govern-ments of Haryana, UttarPradesh and Rajasthan to in-voke CrPC 144 to stop theprotesters from reachingthe Capital.

Capital braces for fresh round of Jat agitationAkhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti threatens to intensify stir, all border points under heavy surveillance to keep protesters from entering city

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI

With the Jats calling for amarch towards Delhi onMarch 20, the Gurugramadministration has im-posed Section 144 acrossthe district, prohibiting theassembly of five or morepersons. Also, petrolpumps have been directedto not provide fuel to tract-ors in bulk.

Gurugram Deputy Com-missioner Hardeep Singhsaid that the Akhil Bhar-

atiya Jat Arakshan San-garsh Samiti’s call for agita-tion could trigger tension,which is why Section 144had been brought in tillMay 14.

‘Don’t sell fuel in bulk’In a separate order, Mr.Singh directed petrolpump owners not toprovide fuel to tractors inbulk. The order also pro-hibits tent shop ownersand bamboo shop ownersfrom providing tents to

protesters without priorapproval from the Sub-Di-visional Magistrate.

Mr. Singh has also pro-hibited the sale of liquorwithin the district tillMarch 20. As many as 32duty magistrates havebeen appointed to ensurelaw and order and imposi-tion of Section 144 in theMillennium City. Besides,15 senior police officersand duty magistrates havebeen deployed at barri-cades across Gurugram.

Section 144 in GurugramStaff Reporter

Gurugram

The Central Board of Sec-ondary Education (CBSE)has issued an advisory forstudents of Classes X andXII, who are appearing forBoard examinations onMonday, in view of the Jatsthreatening to intensifytheir agitation.

The All-India Jat Aarak-shan Sangarsh Samiti(AIJASS), which is spear-heading the agitation de-manding reservations ineducation and jobs, hascalled for a march to‘gherao’ Parliament andhold ‘dharnas’ on the Delhiborder.

“Students and parentsare informed and advisedto take necessary measuresto reach the examinationcentres well before thescheduled time to avoidany inconvenience in anti-cipation of the gherao,” theadvisory said.

CBSE issuesadvisoryStaff Reporter

New Delhi

<> Three-tier security

arrangements have

beenmade.

Tractors and

trollies will not be

allowed inside

Delhi... Wemay

also use drones

and barricades.

Law and order will

be given

preference over

public

convenience

Dependra Pathak

Delhi Police spokesperson

The Centre has asked theDelhi Police and forces inthe neighbouring States tostop the Jat agitators beforethey reach the borders ofthe Capital.

The Union Home Min-istry told the Delhi Policeand governments of Hary-ana, Uttar Pradesh and Ra-jasthan to invoke Section144 of the CrPC to stop theprotesters, who havethreatened to stage protestsin Delhi, sources said.

Arrest or detain the pro-testers much before theyenter Delhi, disallow move-ment of buses carrying pro-testers on highways and bantractor trolley movement,an advisory issued by theMinistry said.

Situation reviewedSenior Home Ministry offi-cials, meanwhile, reviewedthe security situation in theCapital and neighbouringStates.

Union Home SecretaryRajiv Mehrishi took stock of

the law and order situationin Delhi, Haryana, UttarPradesh and Rajasthan onWednesday with senior po-lice officials from the fourstates.

Mr. Mehrishi instructedthe officials to ensure peaceand prevent attempts aimedat disrupting normal life.

Samiti president YashpalMalik had said that Jats ontractors and small vehicles,carrying ration for at least10 days will march towardsDelhi from the neighbour-ing States.

Oicials asked to prevent attempts at disrupting normal life

Press Trust of India

New Delhi

‘Arrest or detain the protesters’

Up in arms:Members of the Jat community at a dharna organised at Jantar Mantar earlier thismonth. * V. SUDERSHAN

Hunger pangs: Amonkey feasts on leftover food at an open restaurant on Saturday. * V. SUDERSHAN

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Nomonkey business

Several companies havesuccessfully turned the nearuniversal addiction ofchildren to their mobiledevices into a way to helpthem learn, though parentsare still trying to accept thefact that learning can takeplace on screen.

Kaira has been glued toher phone for nearly an hour,and her mother Anju Tanejais losing patience. She finallybursts out: “Get off yourphone and spend more timewith your books, your examsare near”.

The teenager tries toexplain that she is using anapp to understand Physics.“A lot of my friends usemobile apps that can bedownloaded for free. They gobeyond our textbooks andmake things easier by usingtutorial videos andinteractive tools,” she says.

Her mother, however,seems unsure: How cansmartphones replacetextbooks?

“We need to realise thatthe younger generation cangrasp a concept better whenit is presented on a screen. Ihave seen some of the

content and it is quite fun. Itcannot replace classroomteaching, but it is a usefulaid,” says Madhuri Tandon, aparent and a specialeducation teacher.

Innovative learningRecognising the trend, theCentral Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) launched amobile application ‘E-CBSE’in 2015. The app providese-learning material as asupplement to thecurriculum. It has beendownloaded 5,000 times.

However, it is the privateplayers that have truly taken

the lead when it comes toinnovative learning solutions.

BYJU’S, a tech firm thatdeveloped the popular K-12app — it has beendownloaded 5.5 million times— recently announced that ithas designed a ‘gamified’ appto offer young kids a platformto explore mathematicsthrough games, interactivevideos and quizzes.

“The idea is to get childreninterested. The app has beendesigned to help studentslearn math by relating it toreal-life examples. Whatworks with children of thisage is to teach them through

mini concepts and fun byte-size videos, rather thanlong-drawn lessons,” saysRanjit Radhakrishnan ofBYJU’S.

Meritnation, anotherpopular education app,provides conceptual videosand collaborative learningmethods. It goes beyond thecurriculum, which helpsstudents enhance soft-skillsand prepare for competitiveexams.

From sample papers tointeractive learning, there arehundreds of apps ready tooffer an experience that goesbeyond classroom learning.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Smartphones take learning beyond classrooms and textbooksParents yet to come to terms with educational apps that ofer material as a supplement to the curriculum

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI

Going digital: From sample papers to interactive learning,there are hundreds of apps that students can downloadfor free. * SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

A controversy erupted after avideo purportedly showingBJP president Manoj Tiwariscolding a woman teacherfor asking him to sing acouplet at a function wentviral, prompting the AamAadmi Party (AAP) to de-mand action against him by awomen’s panel.

In the video, posted byDeputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia, the singer-turned-politician is seen tak-ing offence after being re-quested to sing at thefunction to launch a CCTVproject. Mr. Tiwari is alsoseen giving a dressing downto the teacher. He later askedthe teacher to get off thestage and directed the organ-

isers to take action againsther.

After uploading the video,Mr. Sisodia said: “This is howthe Delhi BJP president treatsa teacher.”

Attacking Mr. Tiwari,

AAP’s Delhi unit convenorDilip Pandey said: “Theteacher had respectfully in-vited the BJP MP to sing acouplet, but she was scoldedand asked to get off the stage.We will request the NationalCommission for Women andthe Delhi Commission forWomen to take action againsthim so that elected repres-entatives do not insult wo-men,” Mr. Pandey said.

In his defence, Mr. Tiwarisaid he was asked to singeven before he could startspeaking at the function. “Iwas called to sing even be-fore I had spoken. Is this howyou respect someone? I en-sured that no action wastaken against her... AAP is ac-tually anti-teacher,” Mr.Tiwari said.

Video showing BJP leader ‘scolding’ a teacher goes viral


New Delhi

AAP seeks action againstTiwari for insulting teacher

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia (left) sharedthe video purportedlyshowingManoj Tiwari.

CMYK

A ND-ND

CITYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017 3EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. TNENG/2012/49939 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 7 ● No. 11

PWD scam: Complaintagainst CM transferredNEW DELHI

A criminal complaint filed

against Chief Minister Arvind

Kejriwal, his brother-in-law

and a government official in

the alleged PWD scam has

been transferred to the

Anti-Corruption Branch, the

Delhi Police told a city court

on Saturday. The court listed

the matter for further

hearing on the complaint on

March 23. PTI

IN BRIEF

Retired SHO gets 5-yearjail for custodial deathNEW DELHI

A former SHO of the Delhi

Police has been sentenced to

five years of rigorous

imprisonment for a custodial

death, with a special court

saying there is no room for a

“dehumanising” crime. Retd

inspector Dharampal Yadav,

71, was convicted for the

offences of culpable homicide

not amounting to murder,

among other charges. PTI

40-year-old Noidawoman commits suicideNOIDA

A 40-year-old woman

allegedly committed suicide

by consuming a poisonous

substance in Salarpur, police

said on Saturday. The victim’s

husband, Manoj, has

registered a complaint

against his neighbour Santosh

for abetment of suicide. He

said the neighbour refused to

return to his wife, Asha, a

loan of ₹1.60 lakh and

misbehaved with her. PTI

Even as the BJP postponed amega workers' conventionon the upcoming civic pollsin the Capital, party sourcessaid the process to select po-tential candidates for thesewould commence early nextweek. The party’s nationalpresident Amit Shah wasscheduled to address cadresin the meeting that has beenmoved to a later date.

Following its decision todisallow all sitting council-lors and their family mem-bers from contesting polls tothe three civic bodies, theparty, according to insiders,has now decided to assessthe appeal of potential can-didates through “their pop-ularity on social media”.

Social media factor“The party will begin pro-cessing applications for tick-ets to contest the civic pollson each of the 272 wardsthrough a series of meetingswhich will begin on Monday;a potential candidate's pop-ularity on social media willbe assessed and those with agood following on sites suchas Twitter and Facebook willcertainly stand a betterchance of being fielded thanothers,” said a party source.

According to a seniorleader, applications wouldgo through several levels ofevaluation before beingplaced before the nationalleadership for approval.

The party is also waitingfor a decision on the delimit-

ation of wards in addition toa verdict on the fate of 21AAP MLAs appointed Parlia-mentary Secretaries beforedeciding on tickets. “Manychanges in the party's struc-ture are expected to takeplace in relation to both theverdicts,” said anotherleader.

Workers’meetMeanwhile, the party Delhichief Manoj Tiwari an-nounced that the mega con-vention for booth-level work-ers will now be held onMarch 25 as he will be in Ut-tar Pradesh on Sunday forthe swearing-in of the BJPgovernment. Sources addedthat Mr. Shah's unavailabilitytoo was a major reason forthe postponement of theevent.

Addressing a press confer-

ence, Mr. Tiwari apologisedfor the postponement of theconvention which was ori-ginally scheduled at theRamlila Maidan on Sunday.

Shah unavailable“We did not know that theincoming ministry at UttarPradesh will take oath to-morrow. But since we will beaway we had to postpone it.It will now be held on March25,” Mr. Tiwari said. On Fri-day he had announced theprogram, which aims to mi-cromanage the BJP’s muni-cipal election campaign.

Mr. Shah and Union Min-ister Venkaiah Naidu wereslated to address the conven-tion which is likely to be at-tended by over 65,000 BJPbooth in-charges, five fromeach of the 13,372 pollingstations in the Capital.

BJP all set to shortlistcivic poll candidatesShah in UP, party convention at Ramlila Maidan postponed

In vain: Preparations were underway at the Ramlila Maidanfor the BJP rally that was postponed on Saturday. * PTI

Jatin Anand

New Delhi

The Crime Branch arrestedtwo members of a gang forallegedly selling stolen carsusing fake documents. Theaccused used to allegedlysteal cars like Innova, For-tuner and other luxuryvehicles from Uttar Pradesh,Haryana and Delhi to sellthem on websites.

The duo — ManinderSingh (23) and SukhdevSingh (34), both residents ofAmritsar — were arrested bythe police on March 4 whenthey were crossing Karnalbypass. “A team led by DCP(Crime) Madhur Verma, con-sisting of ACP SanjaySehrawat and Inspector

Neeraj Chaudhary wasformed. They received in-formation that the duo is go-ing to cross the Karnal by-pass and accordingly, a trapwas laid.

Attempts to evadeAt 6 a.m. on March 4, the po-lice noticed a Verna car, withthe duo in it. When our teamsignaled them to stop, theystarted away evasively. Theywere chased down and fi-nally nabbed almost half akilometre away,” said JCP(crime) Praveer Ranjan.

The police said the ac-cused took to stealing aftersuffering a loss in their busi-ness. Explaining their modusoperandi, they allegedly told

the police that they used toprocure damaged cars andits papers from scrap dealerswhile other gang membersstole similar cars in other cit-ies. The stolen cars weremodified by the two andthen sold as second handproperty on the Internet. Ac-cording to the police, theyhave sold over 200 cars sofar and have been operatingsince 2014.

“The damaged cars werepurchased at less than halfthe original price of thevehicle. They then changedthe chassis number andother parts of the vehicle toeasily move out of a city inthe stolen vehicle,” said Mr.Ranjan.

Two held for selling stolencars using fake documentsAccused sold cars stolen from Haryana, Delhi on websites

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI

Thank god!: Amanwho placed an idol of Shanidev at Anand Vihar foot over bridge walked away with a handful of coins and currency notes ofered by passersby on Saturday afternoon. * SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

All in a day’s work

Around 20,000 workers atdifferent Maruti plants andits vendor companies in andaround Manesar went on atool down strike for an houron Saturday night in protestagainst the sentencing ofthe convicted workers inthe Maruti violence case.

Maruti Udyog KamgarUnion general-secretaryKuldeep Jhangu said thatthere was strong resent-ment among the workersover the conviction and sen-tencing of the workers inthe Maruti violence case. Headded that, therefore, it wasdecided by the six workers'unions to put tools down foran hour from 9 p.m. to 10p.m. “An hour-long strikewould impact the produc-tion of 400-500 vehicles,”said Mr. Jhangu.

‘Conviction a conspiracy’Besides Gurugram's MarutiUdyog Kamgar Union,Maruti Suzuki Workers'Union, Manesar; Maruti Su-zuki Powertrain Union,Manesar; Suzuki Motor-cycles Employees' Union,Kherki Dhaula; FMI Employ-ees Union, Manesar andBellsonica Auto Compon-ents Employees' Union,

Manesar also took part inthe protest.

“The conviction of the ac-cused workers is a conspir-acy of the government tosuppress the workers’movement in the industrialbelt in this region. Wewould continue our fight forjustice and appeal in thehigher court in this connec-tion,” said Mr. Jhangu.

The workers of the sixunions had earlier boycot-ted the meals served at thecompanies' premises on theeve of pronouncement ofjudgment on March 10.

‘Death used as alibi’Former president of Hary-ana Centre of Indian TradeUnions, Inderjit Singh, saidthat the Maruti manage-ment had used the unfortu-nate death of an officer asan alibi to totally suppressthe right to form a tradeunion and that is why about150 active workers werejailed though most of themwere found not guilty.

20,000Maruti workers go onhour-long tool down strike

Protest against sentencing of workers in 2012 violence case

Staff Reporter

Gurugram

Judgment day: The convicted workers leave the Gurugramcourt premises after sentencing on Saturday. * MANOJ KUMAR

<> An hour-long strike

would impact

production of

400-500 vehicles

Kuldeep Jhangu

Maruti Udyog Kamgar general secy

Leader of Opposition in theDelhi Assembly VijenderGupta on Saturday wrote tothe Delhi State ElectionCommission to demandthat the State governmentbe directed to remove orcover references to itselffrom mohalla clinics andother government projects.

In line with the removalof the words “Aam Aadmi”from mohalla clinics andthe “Aam Aadmi By-PassExpress Bus Service”, theBJP legislator said he wouldcall on Lieutenant-Gov-ernor Anil Baijal over the is-sue on Monday followed bya visit to the Commission.

‘Political propaganda’“The AAP has added thesereferences as part of itspolitical propaganda. Thishas placed other politicalparties in a disadvantage-ous situation in relation tothe upcoming civic elec-tions,” Mr. Gupta wrote.

Mr. Gupta further statedthat the retention of thesereferences had “politicaladvantages” for the AAPagainst the “spirit” of theModel Code of Conductand the words “AamAadmi”, wherever they ap-peared in public services,plans, schemes and activit-ies, “must be removedforthwith.”

“Under the Model Codeof Conduct that has comeinto force in Delhi, the rul-ing party should not getpolitical advantage due toits plans and activities,” Mr.Gupta wrote.

Remove AAPreferencesfrommohallaclinics: OppnStaff Reporter

New Delhi




CMYKCMYK

CITY

0DISCLAIMER: Readers are requested toverify and make appropriate enquiries tosatisfy themselves about the veracity ofan advertisement before responding toany published in this newspaper. Kasturi& Sons Limited, the Publisher & Owner ofthis newspaper, does not vouch for theauthenticity of any advertisement or ad-vertiser or for any of the advertiser’sproducts and/or services. In no event canthe Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Dir-ector/s, Employees of this newspaper/company be held responsible/liable inany manner whatsoever for any claimsand/or damages for advertisements inthis newspaper.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal on Saturday sought togive a pep talk to AAP’s vo-lunteers demoralised afterhis party's poor show inthe Punjab and Goa elec-tions and asked them togear up for the upcomingMCD polls.

In a Facebook interac-tion with volunteers, Mr.Kejriwal said the party’s fo-cus in the MCD polls wouldbe to “clean Delhi andmake it spic and span likeLondon and Paris,” andend corruption in civicbodies and introduce‘Swaraj’.

‘Focus on cleanliness’“If an honest party likeours wins the polls, we willclean Delhi and improveeducation and health sec-tors further,” the Chief Min-ister said.

He also asked volunteersto build booth-level organ-isations across the countryand popularise the workdone by the Delhigovernment.

“We are not Napoleon towin election after election,cover territories. We arehere for the nation’s devel-opment. You have treadedthe path of truth and theroad will be full of thorns.But at the end, truth willprevail,” the Chief Ministersaid, “saluting” the volun-teers for their “sacrificeand hard work”.

He also asked volunteersto rally behind ElvisGomes, the party’s losingchief ministerial candidatein Goa.

AAP cannotwin poll afterpoll: KejriwalPress Trust of India

New Delhi

Manisha had been waitingfor almost two hours for hermother at the entrance hallof Swami Dayanand Hospitalin Dilshad Garden on Sat-urday afternoon when shelost her patience. Half-an-hour before, she had said theservices of the out patientdepartment (OPD) at the EastDelhi Municipal Corporationhospital were “fine”.

“I just found out that mymother waited for a doctorin one room for an hour-and-a-half for nothing. Then shewas sent to another room.But, since the OPD timingswill end soon, she may notend up meeting a doctor. Atevery point there is waiting,whether it is to register or tosee a doctor or get medi-cines,” said the B.Com stu-dent.

Lure of free treatmentLike her mother, thousandsof patients flock to the sixhospitals run by Delhi’s mu-nicipal corporations everyday for free treatment. Thehospitals were supposed tobe modernised and a ‘medi-city’ was promised by theBJP dispensation during thecampaign for the 2012 muni-cipal elections. Five yearslater, as Delhi gets ready foranother election to the civicbodies on April 22, the muni-cipality-run hospitals areplagued by many of the oldproblems.

At Swami Dayanand Hos-pital in east Delhi as well asthe North Delhi MunicipalCorporation’s Bara HinduRao Hospital, long queuesand a rush for medicines areseen every day as patientsfrom Delhi as well as neigh-bouring States make theirway.

Nasreena, a resident ofRohini, had left home at 8a.m. to reach Swami Day-anand Hospital. At noon, shewas still standing in thequeue for senior citizens toget medicines.

“I had to come all the waybecause the dispensariesnear my home turned meaway saying they didn’t havethe medicines,” she said.

Another patient, Ma-hender Pal, said it had takenhim over three hours to getregistered, see a doctor andstand in line for medicines totreat a persistent cough.

The situation was differentfor the South Delhi Muni-cipal Corporation, whosePurnima Sethi Multi-Special-ity Hospital in Kalkaji re-mains only partially opera-tional despite beinginaugurated in October 2015.The SDMC does not have anyother full-fledged hospital,and the Purnima Sethi hos-pital remains nearly deser-ted.

While OPD services havebeen started at the hospital,the ‘speciality’ care has not.A senior official of the SDMCsaid that the civic body wasin talks to hand over the “in-patient services” at the hos-

pital to Safdarjung Hospital,which is run by the Centre.

‘White elephant’The official added that themunicipal corporation’s re-sponsibility was to ensureonly primary health, so the

speciality services could behanded over to SafdarjungHospital.

According to the Leader ofthe Opposition in the SDMC,Farhad Suri, the hospitalproject had become a “whiteelephant”.

“Another hospital is beingplanned in Tilak Nagar. Whatwas the need if our respons-ibility is primary healthalone?” he asked.

Old problems still fester at municipal hospitalsLong waiting time, serpentine queues order of the day at the institutions visited by The Hindu; patients say promises remain unfulilled

Damini Nath

New Delhi

No end to woes: At the Swami Dayanand Hospital in east Delhi, long queues are witnessed everyday; (right) the Purnima Sethi Multi-Speciality Hospital in south Delhi remains partiallyoperational despite being inaugurated in 2015. * SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

TOMORROW: STATE OF PARKING

LOTS IN THE CITY




YKYK

NATION

Man killed in leopardattack; animal set aireA person was mauled to

death on Saturday by a

leopard near Sariska area,

officials said, adding that the

animal was later killed by

villagers in retaliation.

An FIR will be lodged against

the villagers for killing the

animal, forest officials said. -PTI

IN BRIEF

Man held for allegedlyraping daughterMUMBAI

The police on Saturday

arrested a 38-year-sold man

for allegedly raping his

daughter. The crime came to

light when the girl, who is

14-years-old, told her teacher

that her father had been

abusing her for about a year.- PTI

Smuggler arrestedwith heroinMOTIHARI

Jawans of Sashastra Seema

Bal caught a smuggler with

210 grams of heroin valued at

over ₹one crore near

Champur Chowk on the

Indo-Nepal border in Bihar’s

East Champaran district. - PTI

Haryana to enhanceDA for pensionersCHANDIGARH

The Haryana government on

Saturday decided to increase

the rate of Dearness

Allowance on revised basic

individual and family pension

by two per cent with effect

from July 1, 2016.

The rate has been enhanced

on the pattern of the central

government. - PTI

Former ArunachalMinister passes awayITANAGAR

Former Arunachal Pradesh

Minister Nurang Tazap died in

a city hospital at Guwahati on

Saturday. He breathed his last

after prolonged illness, his

family said.

Tazap, who represented

Doimukh Assembly

constituency, is survived by

his wife and four children.- PTI

The Opposition NDA in bothHouses of Bihar Legislatureon Saturday demandedresignation of two State Min-isters in the wake of theirnames appearing in the po-lice probe into the BiharState Staff Selection Com-mission (BSSC) paper leakincident.

According to media re-ports, the Special Investiga-tion Team has submitted areport to the Special Vigil-ance court in which namesof two Ministers — Krish-nandan Prasad Varma andAlok Mehta — have appearedamong others on the basis ofcall details of arrested Sec-retary of Bihar State Staff Se-lection Commission (BSSC),Parmeshwar Ram.

LawMinisterWhile Mr Varma is from JD(U) and is the Law and PublicHealth Engineering Depart-ment (PHED) Minister in theNitish Kumar Cabinet, AlokMehta of RJD is the Cooper-ative Minister.

Besides them, names offormer MP and RJD leaderRaghubansh Prasad Singh,JD(U) MLA Ram Balak Singhand BJP MLA Suresh Kumar

Sharma have appeared inthe scam, the reports said.

Legislators of BJP and itsNDA partners trooped intothe well in the State As-sembly as well the Legislat-ive Council demanding im-mediate resignation of thetwo Ministers.

BJP leader Sushil KumarModi told reporters that the

Ministers concerned shouldbe removed immediately.

He further alleged thatOSD of Health Minister TejPratap Yadav had given threeto four instructions over thephone to the Commission of-ficials in the recruitment ofANM (Auxiliary Nurse Mid-wife) conducted by BSSCearlier.

“If a Minister telephonesany official or sends recom-mendation it is taken as or-der of the government,” hecharged.

His party colleague andLeader of Opposition in theLegislative Assembly, PremKumar said, “The Chief Min-ister had ignored the opposi-tion protest in the BSSC pa-per leak matter earlier,asking them to reveal namesof Ministers in the scam ...now the names are out. Whyis he not sacking the twoministers?”

‘Routine work’In the eye of storm, the stateLaw Minister told reporters,“It is the routine work forMLAs or MPs to fulfill ex-pectations of voters of theirconstituency. There is noevidence of exchange ofmoney in 2-3 recommenda-tions sent by my staff toBSSC Secretary...I did notask him to leak the questionpaper or get a non—meritori-ous candidate clear theexam.

“If you examine closely,all MLAs or MPs of a partysend words to officials in fa-vour of some needy peopleof their constituency,” MrVarma said in his defence.

NDA seeks sacking of BiharMinisters in paper leak case‘Names of Krishnandan Varma and Alok Mehta has appeared in SIT report’

Assembly rocked: BJP legislators stage a protest over BSSCquestion paper leak issue outside the Bihar Assembly onSaturday. * PTI


PATNA Not too long ago, 11-year-oldNandini would complainregularly about her inabilityto see what was written onthe blackboard and persist-ent headaches. These com-plaints were brushed off byher parents, who thoughtshe was simply making ex-cuses to escape studying.

However, Nandini’steacher helped open theireyes to her genuine distress.The teacher was part of aninnovative mass preventiveeye care programme thathelped detect the pre-teen’srefractive error and solvethe problem with a pair ofglasses.

A discussion last year ledthe Khordha district admin-istration to realise that manypeople like Nandini wereplagued by ocular diffi-culties. However, screening25 lakh people coupled withpoor infrastructure anddearth technical manpowerwere elephantine roadb-locks for the administration.

Although a number ofconsultations were heldwith doctors, public healthexperts and representativesof non-government organ-isations, no concrete solu-tion emerged.

It was then that KhordhaDistrict Collector NiranjanSahu hit upon a novel ideato tackle the problem on aparticipatory mode — byscreening of people by non-technical persons.

Non-technical persons“There are 32 ophthalmolo-gists and 22 ophthalmologyassistants in both public andprivate sector institutions inthe district. With this work-force it was impossible tocater to eye care of 25 lakhpeople. Since refractive er-rors and cataract problemsaccount for 80% of eye ail-ments and the two disordersdon’t require very high skillsfor detection, we decided tocreate a force of non-tech-

nical persons to identify theproblem,” said Mr. Sahu.

He approached OdishaPrimary Education Pro-gramme Authority (OPEPA),the government agency thatsupervises universalisationof education, with his pro-posal. The authority con-tributed ₹20 lakh for supplyof low-cost kits comprising aguidebook and measure-ment tool costing ₹399 eachto science teachers, ASHAs(Accredited Social HealthActivists) and Anganwadiworkers.

NGOs step inFollowing this, internationalNGOs Sightsavers India,which works towards elimin-ating avoidable blindnessacross the world, and RotaryClub stepped in. SightsaversIndia’s role was to preparethe kit for the non-technicalpersons. Its technical per-sons later tested the eyes ofstudents detected with prob-lems in urban areas. Sight-savers also partnered withRotary Club, which runs aneye hospital in Cuttack. Pa-tients with critical eye ail-ments were referred to thehospital.

“After developing the low-cost kit, 2,544 science teach-ers, 1,355 ASHAs and 2,603Anganwadi workers wereroped in. They were trainedby ophthalmologists andasked to screen people for

refractive errors and catar-act problems,” Mr. Sahuelaborated.

Senior ophthalmologistand District Blindness Con-trol Society project managerBijay Prasanna Mohantysaid, “As many as 15,73,758persons in rural areas and2,00,000 in urban pocketswere covered by the trainedpersonnel.

Around 57,000 studentswere screened by theirteachers. Of the total per-sons screened, 41,594 per-sons had eye problems.”

Ophthalmology assistantsthen carried out furthertests on people detectedwith eye problems to con-firm the findings of thetrained personnel. Dr. Mo-hanty said 3,373 studentsand 7,674 persons wereprovided glasses as a result.

“Twenty students under-went paediatric congenitalcataract surgery followingdetection of eye problemsby their teachers in the firstphase,” he said.

Minor ailmentsThe remaining 30,000people were detected as suf-fering from minor ailmentsand referred to differenthospitals.

Recognising the massiveinnovative practice, theOdisha government awar-ded Khordha district a cashprize of ₹10 lakh.

District Collector creates a force to detect eye problems

Satyasundar Barik

Bhubaneswar

Unique project: Students being given spectacles at a school inKhodha district * FILE PHOTO

It’s eye for innovation atOdisha’s Khordha district

Laws like AFSPA are “not im-posed out of any fun” andStates should create condi-tions where they are notneeded, BJP leader RamMadhav said on Saturday dis-agreeing with Chief MinisterMehbooba Mufti’s pitch forthe revocation of the Actfrom some areas of J&K.

“It is not out of fun thatsuch laws are in place insome States. They are there,

because there is some neces-sity for such laws there”, MrMadhav retorted when askedabout Ms Mehbooba’scomments.

‘See the impact’Ms Mehbooba, whose partythe PDP is in alliance withthe BJP in the State, had onWednesday last raked up theissue of revocation of contro-versial Armed Forces SpecialPowers Act (AFSPA) fromsome areas to “see the im-

pact”. “AFSPA and laws likeit have not been imposed forout of any fun. When the ne-cessity for these laws will bebrought to end by thoseState governments,wherever they are, whetherin J&K or north east and situ-ation gets changed (for bet-ter), such laws get automatic-ally scrapped,” he said.

He asked State govern-ments to ensure better se-curity, law and order to en-sure AFSPA like laws are not

needed. “State governmentsshould contribute in creatingof conducive situation wherethere is no need of imposingsuch laws”, Mr Madhav, aBJP national general secret-ary said.

‘Window of peace’Last week in New Delhi, MsMehbooba had pitched forrevocation of AFSPA, sayingshe required a “window ofpeace” for ensuring goodgovernance.

AFSPA not imposed for fun: BJP leader

Press trust of india

JAMMU

RamMadhav disagrees with Mehbooba’s pitch for revocation of the Act




CMYKCMYK

NATION

New Chief Justice of MPHigh Court takes chargeBHOPAL

Justice Hemant Gupta on

Saturday took oath as the

Chief Justice of the Madhya

Pradesh High Court at a brief

ceremony held at the Raj

Bhawan here. Governor O P

Kohli administered the oath

of office and secrecy to

Justice Gupta. The function

was attended by Chief

Minister Shivraj Singh

Chouhan and members of the

judiciary and legal fraternity.

Justice Gupta was earlier the

officiating Chief Justice of

the Patna High Court. PTI

IN BRIEF

FIR against collegeteacher for molestationBARIPADA (ODISHA)

A student of a college here

has filed an FIR against a

teacher accusing him of

molestation and sexual

harassment, police said on

Saturday. A case was

registered yesterday against

the teacher who is

absconding. She alleged in

the FIR that the accused had

molested her on March 12

when she had visited his

house for tuitions. The matter

was first brought to the

notice of the college

authorities which dismissed

the accused, a contractual

employee, after investigation,

police said. PTI

Four injured in clash overdrainageMUZAFFARNAGAR

Four persons have been

injured in a clash between

two groups over a drainage at

Kamal Pur village here, police

said on Saturday. The clash

took place last evening

wherein fire arms and lathis

were used by the groups,

they said. Two persons have

been arrested. PTI

The State government haslaunched a campaignwherein theatre artistes willbe travelling in a caravanacross West Bengal,Jharkhand and Bihar tospread awareness about hu-man trafficking.

The project is being ex-ecuted in coordination withthe office of the US Consu-late General in Kolkata andNGO Banglanatak dot com.

During their journey, theartistes will be putting up in-teractive street plays on theramifications of traffickingand the ploys used by traf-fickers.

Power of slogansThe caravan will also be ad-orned with slogans such as“Be Alert Raise Alarm” andnewspaper articles relatedto trafficking. Further, filmson human trafficking andsurvivor’s stories will beused to reach out to people.

“The caravan will be trav-elling to markets, railwaystations, schools and col-leges to spread awarenessabout human trafficking,”said Ananya Bhattacharya ofBanglanatak dot com.

The vehicle will start itsjourney in the last week ofMarch, and is expected tostop at over 60 locations.The campaign will concludeon April 19.

“The manner in which

the police, the NGO and theUS Consulate General havecome together to stop traf-ficking, success is inevit-able,” State Minister for Wo-men and ChildDevelopment Sashi Panjasaid at an event held tomark the inauguration ofthe campaign.

Dr. Panja also cautionedthat it was imperative foragencies to keep abreastabout the modus operandiof traffickers.

Cause for concernHuman trafficking has oflate assumed alarming pro-portions in the State. Statist-ics released by the Ministryof Women and Child Devel-opment a week ago revealedthat West Bengal accountsfor more than one-third ofall human trafficking cases.Of the 10,119 cases of traf-ficking of women reportedfrom the country last year,3,559 were from WestBengal.

Artistes on wheels towarn about traicking

Street plays, ilms to spread awareness

Shiv Sahay Singh

Kolkata

The caravan will start inMarch-end, stop at over 60locations. *

A 97-year-old, who enrolledfor a masters in economicshere in 2015, has been recog-nised by the Limca Book ofRecords as the oldest man todo so.

The Limca Book of Re-cords has included the nameof Raj Kumar Vaishya for en-rolling himself in a M.A. Eco-nomics in 2015 at NalandaOpen University (NOU).

Long time dreamMr Vaishya said he enrollednearly one-and-half yearsago for M.A. Economics for

two reasons: “To fulfil mylong nurtured desire to get aMasters degree and to studyeconomics to be able to un-derstand why India hasfailed to solve problems likepoverty.”

Mr Vaishya, who gradu-ated in 1938 and retired in1980 as a general manager in

a private firm in Koderma(now in Jharkhand), liveswith the family of his secondson Santosh Kumar in theposh Rajendra Nagar Colonyfor last 10 years.

Family responsibility“I did my graduation fromAgra University in 1938 andgot a degree in law in 1940,but failed to get a Mastersdegree due to increasingfamily responsibilities. Now,I am closer to fulfil mydream,” he said.

Mr Vaishya was born onApril 1, 1920, in Uttar Pra-desh’s Bareilly town.

97-year-old is oldest MA studentHe graduated in 1938, retired in 1980 from a private irm

Indo-Asian News Service

Patna

<> Want to

understandwhy

India has failed to

solve problems

like poverty

Raj Kumar Vaishya

Nalanda Open University student

A large number of brick kilns have encroached upon agricultural ields in Suratgarh, Rajasthan, making the land barren and puttingthe workers to severe health risk. * V. V. KRISHNAN


How green was the ield?

South Korean steel giant PO-SCO has offered to returnthe land it had acquired for amega steel plant proposedmore than a decade ago, theOdisha government said onSaturday.

“Recently, the POSCO au-thorities sent a communica-tion to the Odisha govern-ment. Since POSCO had notstarted construction, as perconditions in the leaseagreement, the company re-quested the government totake the land back,” saidDebi Prasad Mishra, Ministerfor Industries of Odisha.

Land bank“Subsequent to receiving theletter from POSCO, we se-cured the Chief Minister’sapproval to keep the land inthe land bank that is beingcreated for future industrialprojects,” said Mr. Mishra.

In June 2005, the com-pany had signed a memor-andum of understanding

with the State government.It had proposed setting up a12 million tonne per annumplant at an estimated invest-ment of ₹52,000 crore nearthe port town of Paradip.

Back then, this was thelargest Foreign direct invest-ment (FDI) for the country.

Protests by localsLocals, however, had pro-tested against the acquisi-tion of 4,004 acres of land.

They feared that the in-dustrial project would hit

livelihood opportunitiesbased on sustainable betelfarming and fishing.

In January 2015, anamendment to the Minesand Minerals Developmentand Regulation Act made itnecessary for POSCO to gothrough the auction route toget iron ore mines. Sincethere was uncertaintyaround the company secur-ing a mine, it started foldingoperations in the State.

By then the State govern-ment had already trans-ferred 1,723.78 acres of landto POSCO through theOdisha Industrial Infrastruc-ture DevelopmentCorporation.

Villagers arrestedHundreds of villagers werearrested during the decade-long protest while over1,200 non-bailable warrantswere pending for execution.Later, as the process of ac-quisition slowed down, thepolice stopped executingwarrants.

POSCO to returnland to Odisha govt.S. Korean steel major had acquired land for plant in Paradip

Odisha Industry MinisterDebi PrasadMishra *

Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR

A person was killed and an-other was seriously injuredin alleged post panchayatpoll violence at Rohigaon vil-lage of Kukudakhandi blockin Ganjam district of Odishalate on Friday.

The deceased has beenidentified as Ashok Jena --brother of Kukudakhandiblock president of the BJD,Sanyasi Jena. Mr. Sanyasi hadalso contested for Zilla Par-ishad member post in thepanchayat election, but wasdefeated. The deceased wasalso a BJD supporter.

The person seriously in-jured in this incident was

Srinivas Swain, who is un-dergoing treatment in a hos-pital in Visakhapatnam ofAndhra Pradesh. He was anassociate of the deceased.

Attacked by assailantsAs per initial investigation,the deceased was playing therole of the villain in a playstaged by a theatre group ofRohigaon village. The playwas scheduled to be heldduring Dandanata festivaland Ashok was rehearsingfor the play on Friday. Ataround 10 p.m, his associ-ates Mr. Srinivas, ChandanSwain and Runu Jenareached the spot of rehearsaland all of them went out on

two bikes.A group of assailants

armed with sharp weaponsattacked them near Nuasahi,which is under BerhampurSadar police station limits.Mr. Chandan and Mr. Runumanaged to escape butAshok and Mr. Srinivas wereinjured and immediatelytransported to MKCG med-ical college and hospital inBerhampur by their familymembers.

As their condition deteri-orated, both were moved toa private hospital in Vi-sakhapatnam. Doctors in Vi-sakhapatnam declaredAshok brought dead and hisbody was sent to Berhampur

for autopsy. Sources said thetwo associates who fled arecurrently absconding.

According to BerhampurSadar Sub-Divisional PoliceOfficer (SDPO), Ashok Mo-hanty, police force has beendeployed at Rohigaon tocheck any escalation of ten-sion. Five persons have beenrounded up by the police forquestioning regarding the vi-olence, the SDPO added.

On Friday afternoon,former State Minister SuryaNarayan Patra reached theforensic and toxicology de-partment of MKCG medicalcollege and interacted withfamily members of thedeceased.

One killed in post-poll violenceDeceased Ashok Jena was brother of a BJD block president and a party support

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR

Justice Ranjan Gogoi of theSupreme Court on Saturdayappreciated the TripuraHigh Court for setting a pre-cedence in reducing pen-dency of cases.

“While other High Courtsare struggling to dispose

pending cases, High Courtof Tripura has made remark-able achievement in redu-cing pendency. Since its in-cepection (March 2013),pending cases have been re-duced from 6,619 to 2,883. Itis a precedence,” he said.

Justice Gogoi was speak-ing after laying the founda-

tion stone of the new admin-istrative building here.“Yearly inflow of cases in HCand other district levelcourts in Tripura is on therise. The Court has taken abold step to organise megalok adalat to ensure speedydisposal of cases includingmotor accidents,” he said.

‘Pending cases have been reduced from 6,619 to 2,883’


Agartala

Justice Gogoi appreciatesTripura HC’s functioning




SOUTH

Heavy rush atSabarimalaPATHANAMTHITTA

The holy hillock of

Sabarimala witnessed heavy

rush as hundreds of devotees

from different parts of South

India undertook pilgrimage

to the forest shrine on

Saturday. Padipuja,

Ashtabhishekom,

Udayasthamanapuja, and

Pushpabhishekom were

performed.

IN BRIEF

Dalit bodies seek actionagainst A.P. MinisterSRIKAKULAM

The Andhra Pradesh Women’s

Association and the Kula

Vivaksha Porata Samiti on

Saturday demanded that a

case be registered under the

SC and ST (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act against Labour

Minister K. Atchannaidu. The

Minister allegedly beat up a

Dalit woman employed as an

attender in the Roads &

Buildings Department.

Leopard scare gripsresidents near KannurKANNUR

Kannur residents fear the

presence of a leopard after

two cows were found killed at

Palliyanmoola, a few

kilometres from Azhikkal, on

Saturday. Kerala Forest

Department personnel visited

the spot to search for pug

marks to confirm the

presence of the leopard.

A serial accident involvingfour vehicles claimed 14 livesand left 21 injured, some crit-ically, at Rampura in theMolakalumuru taluk ofChitradurga district,Karnataka, on Saturday.

While 11 died on the spot,two were declared broughtdead at VIMS Hospital in Bal-lari. One succumbed to hisinjuries at the hospital.Three of the four vehicleswere passenger vehicles.One of them was heading fora funeral.

Lorry driver lost controlThe accident occurred afterthe lorry driver lost controlof the vehicle when one ofthe tyres burst. The truckmowed down two commer-cial passenger vehicles (loc-ally called “tam-tams”) and amini-bus. Those in the over-loaded tam-tams were farmlabourers and constructionworkers from Rampura trav-elling to Nagasamudra. Themini-bus was ferrying per-

sons from Bengaluru toYadgir district.

As many as 21 persons arebeing treated at the VIMSHospital. The condition ofsome is said to be critical.

Superintendent of PoliceArun Rangarajan, who su-pervised the relief measure,said rash and negligent driv-ing by the truck driver mightbe the reason for the acci-dent. Police sources in Mol-akalmuru said lack of roaddividers and proper sign-

boards on the highways andmajor roads are the causes ofhigh instances of accidentson the stretch.

“We were heading to Bevi-nahalli in Yadgir district toattend a funeral,” Adeppa,one of the survivors, told The

Hindu.“We left Bengaluru

around 6.30 a.m. Around10.30 a.m., we saw a speed-ing truck from the oppositedirection. It first hit a tam-tam and then another before

hitting our mini-bus.Everything happened withinminutes. Then we heardloud cries.”

Heart-rending scenesIt was a heart-rending sceneat the hospital where chil-dren and women with bleed-ing injuries and fractureswere being treated.

According to Adeppa,there were 14 elders andseven to eight children in themini-bus, all residents ofBevinahalli and surroundingvillages, working as labour-ers in Bengaluru.

Ministers H.K. Patil andSantosh Lad, who were on atour of Ballari district,rushed to the hospital andconsoled the victims. Theyoversaw the treatment beingimparted to the injured.

Expressing grief over theaccident, Mr. Patil and Mr.Lad said they would speak tothe Chief Minister and per-suade him to give more com-pensation to the family ofthe deceased and theinjured.

14 killed in vehicle pile-upAccident in Chitradurga district involved four vehicles, including a truck

Deadly blow:One of the vehicles involved in the accident inChitradurga district on Saturday. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Special Correspondent

CHITRADURGA

With the suicide case of aminor girl at Kundara turn-ing curious, KottarakaraDSP B. Krishna Kumar,who heads the probe,moved the Kollam DistrictSessions Court on Sat-urday. He submitted a pleaseeking permission to sub-ject some of those takeninto custody to polygraphand narco analysis tests.

They include the de-ceased girl’s mother andmaternal grandfather for“not cooperating with theinvestigation.” The courthas given the green signalfor the tests and directedthe two to appear beforethe court on March 20.While the probe team has,by and large, concludedthat the 10-year-old girlcommitted suicide, thepolygraph and narco ana-lysis tests are sought tocome to a conclusion onwhether the victim wassexually assaulted beforeshe took her life.

Girl’s suicide:demand fornarco analysis


Kollam

The Left Democratic Fronthas announced DYFI districtpresident M.B. Faizal as itscandidate in the Malap-puram Lok Sabha byelec-tion to be held on April 12.

Mr. Faizal will take onP.K. Kunhalikutty of the In-dian Union Muslim League.

CPI(M) State secretaryKodiyeri Balakrishnan an-nounced Mr. Faizal’s candid-ature after a meeting of theparty district secretariathere on Saturday.

Party’s choicePresently a district pan-chayat councillor represent-ing the Changaramkulam di-vision, and CPI(M) Edappalarea committee member,Mr. Faizal was apparentlythe choice of the party Stateleadership.

Mr. Balakrishnan said theresult of the by-electionwould be a reflection of the10-month-old LDF rule in

the State. The United Demo-cratic Front was on theverge of disintegration andthe Malappuram by-electionwould hasten the process,he said.

Mr. Faizal said the LDFwould raise larger issuessuch as the importance ofsecularism in the light of in-creasing Sangh Parivar influ-ence across the country.

A law graduate, Mr. Faizalwas formerly SFI districtvice president and jointsecretary.

Faizal is LDF nomineein Malappuram

‘Will make secularism a poll plank’

Staff Reporter

MALAPPURAM

M.B. Faisal * FILE PHOTO

In a break with social cus-toms on widowhood, anNGO in Telangana’sWarangal district arrangedan ‘empowerment pro-gramme’ at which ‘sindoor’was applied to the foreheadof widows by women localbody representatives andactivists.

The NGO, Bala Vikasa,wanted to send out a mes-sage against the stigma ofapplying ‘sindoor’—the ver-milion mark—and alsopresented flowers to beworn by the widows.

The ‘empowermentawareness programme’ held

in Karimnagar on Saturdaywas attended by the con-stituency MP, B Vinod Ku-mar, Zilla Parishad chairper-son Tula Uma, Mayor S.

Ravinder Singh, CollectorSarfaraz Ahmed, DistrictWelfare Officer Girija, andmunicipal corporators.

After they were greeted,

the widows reciprocated byapplying ‘sindoor’ to thewomen corporators, amidcheers.

Bala Vikasa executive dir-ector Shoury Reddy said theNGO had launched a cam-paign to empower widowsin the State, and had so fargot 10,000 of them to applythe ‘sindoor’.

“No religion says thewidow is evil. It is societythat created the culture ofostracising them for no faultof theirs,” he said.

If the society really con-siders women as goddesses,then a widow is also a wo-man, and she should be re-spected, he said. “What is

wrong if women attend reli-gious functions or mar-riages? People shouldchange their mindset,” hesaid.

New law soughtExpressing concern at ill-treatment of widows, heurged the government tobring in a widows protec-tion Act—on the lines of thelaw protecting ScheduledCastes and Scheduled Tribesfrom atrocities.

A corporation for theireconomic uplift should beset up and reservationsgiven to their children ineducational institutions, theNGO demanded.

Marking empowerment with ‘sindoor’Activists apply the vermilion mark and give lowers to widows in Karimnagar to erase stigma

K.M. Dayashankar

KARIMNAGAR

Moving ahead:Widows being greeted at the programme inKarimnagar on Saturday. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Amid the H1N1 scare inBengaluru, the British Coun-cil library closed its doorsfor three days starting Sat-urday. The council an-nounced the closure for a‘deep clean’ of the facilityfollowing the recent H1N1scare.

The library, which is setto reopen on Tuesday, hasabout 2,100 members. “Asyou may be aware, therehave been cases of H1N1virus in Bengaluru. We havehad a confirmed case ofH1N1 in the library. As a pre-cautionary measure, we are

closing the office for a deepclean effective Saturday,”the council said in a mail toits members.

‘Confirmed incident’Rajeswari P., Senior Man-ager, Marketing and Com-munications, South India,British Council, said the de-cision to keep the libraryclosed was taken after an in-ternal review. “Following aconfirmed incident, we didan internal review and de-cided, as a precaution, to doa deep clean at our library.For privacy’s sake, wewould prefer not to give spe-cifics,” she said.

H1N1 scare: BengaluruBritish Library shut

Will reopen on Tuesday after ‘deep clean’

Staff Reporter

BENGALURU

Baahubali audio releaseon March 26BENGALURU

While the release of the

trailer of Baahubali - The

Conclusion, has already

created a buzz, preparations

are now on for the audio

launch on March 26 in

Hyderabad. Bengaluru-based

Lahari Recording Company

has paid ₹4.50 crore for the

Tamil and Telugu audio rights.

CMYK

A ND-ND




NEWS

Sentencing in Ajmerblast case put of againJAIPUR

The NIA Special Court here on

Saturday reserved its order

on sentencing of the two

convicts in the 2007 Ajmer

Dargah blast case for March

22. Both the prosecution and

the defence counsels have

completed their arguments

on the quantum of sentence.

This is the third time that the

court has deferred its

pronouncement on the

quantum of sentence.

IN BRIEF

Naxalites kill abductedvillager, let off 3 othersBHUBANESWAR

Extremists of the outlawed

Communist Party of India-

Maoist allegedly slit open the

throat of one villager, whom

they had abducted from

inside the Karlapat Wildlife

Sanctuary in Odisha’s

Kalahandi district on

Wednesday night. Three

other persons kidnapped by

Maoist rebels were let off

unharmed, police said.

Hours after there were re-ports of two low-intensityblasts in Agra early on Sat-urday morning, city policeofficials declared that pre-liminary investigations seemto indicate only one of thetwo was a “crude bombblast”. Officials clarified thatthe other blast seemed to ac-tually be a “tyre blast”.

While the investigationwas still going on, senior po-lice officials categoricallydenied any terror angle tothe explosions. No injury orloss of life was reported.

According to officials,loud sounds were heard at6.45 a.m. near the Agra Can-tonment Railway Station.

“While the first loudsound was reported when agarbage dump was beingcleared, the other onehappened in a house in thenearby slum,” said a policeofficial. The reported blasttook place a day after a notethreatening a terror attackwas found near the BhandaiRailway Station in Agra.

The Divisional RailwayManager of Agra, PrabhashKumar, told the media thatthe U.P. police was investig-ating with officials of thelocal forensic department atthe spot. “What seemed tobe two loud sounds wereheard early in the morningnear the Agra Cantt. RailwayStation. The causes of theapparent blasts are not yet

known. But the U.P. policehas initiated the investiga-tion with a forensic team onthe spot,” Mr. Kumar told themedia.

‘Forensic report awaited’Police officials told The

Hindu that the local resid-ents saw smoke in the airafter the blasts for about fif-teen minutes.

“We are still waiting forthe forensic report but thereis no evidence to indicate aterror angle to it,” a seniorpolice official told The Hindu

on phone from Agra.Security for the Taj Mahal

was stepped up on Fridayafter a link threatening pos-sible terror strikes on themonument was circulatedon social media.

‘No terror angle in Agra blasts’Preliminary investigations suggest crude bomb and tyre explosion, say police

Tight vigil: A SWAT team inspects the site behind the Taj Mahal after Saturday’s blasts. * PTI

Mohammad Ali

MEERUT

The Punjab Cabinet, in itsfirst meeting after formingthe government on Sat-urday, decided to put an endto the VIP culture in theState, besides setting up aSpecial Task Force to dealwith the drug menace,which was a key issue in the2017 Assembly polls. It alsoformed a group of experts toassess the quantum of agri-cultural debt of farmers inthe State.

In a bid to curb the VIPculture, the newly consti-tuted Council of Ministers,chaired by Chief MinisterCaptain Amarinder Singh,has decided that red andother colour beacon lightson vehicles — except ambu-lance, fire brigade vehicles,and cars of the Chief Justiceand judges of the Punjaband Haryana High Court —will be abolished after aformal notification.

To be more transparent ingovernance, the Cabinet has

decided that salary, allow-ances and reimbursementsreceived by MLAs will be up-dated every month on theofficial website.

“MLAs and MPs will de-clare their immoveableproperty on January 1 everyyear, and for the year 2017-18, the same will be done byJuly 1 this year,” said an offi-cial spokesperson.

Farm debt waiver“To asses the agriculturedebt of farmers, the expertgroup will propose ways andmeans to waive the debt in atime-bound manner. Themembers of the group will

be nominated by the ChiefMinister.

The Department of Agri-culture will follow up to en-sure that the group submitsits report within 60 days. Anew legislation will bebrought to prohibit sale and‘kurki’ (attachment) of farm-ers’ land by the lendingagencies,” said thespokesperson.

In an attempt to eliminatethe drugs menace, the newgovernment decided to setup a Special Task Force(STF) in the Chief Minister’soffice, which will prepareand implement a compre-hensive programme.

The State home depart-ment has been directed toprepare and submit a pro-posal in the next Cabinetmeeting for the enactmentof the Drug Dealers PropertyAct by issuing an ordinance.

In an effort to revive theState’s industries, the Cab-inet decided that a newpolicy would be formulatedand notified within 90 days.

Cabinet decides to abolish beacon lights on vehicles

Vikas Vasudeva

CHANDIGARH

Punjab vows to end VIPculture, crack down on drugs

Captain Amarinder Singh

Following a recent reporttabled in the Lok Sabha stat-ing that West Bengal has thehighest number of arsenic-af-fected people in the country,State Minister of PublicHealth Engineering (PHE)Subrata Mukherjee told The

Hindu that there was “a lotleft to be done” by the Stategovernment.

“Despite the State govern-ment’s efforts to curb the Ar-senic menace there is still alot to be done,” said Mr.Mukherjee. There are 83blocks in eight districts —Bardhaman, Malda, Hooghly,Howrah, Murshidabad, Na-dia, North and South 24

Paraganas — where groundwater is affected by arseniccontamination.

According the reporttabled in the Lok Sabha byUnion Minister for DrinkingWater and Sanitation Ma-hendra Singh Tomar, Bengaltopped the list with morethan 1.04 crore arsenic-af-fected persons as on March4, 2017. Bihar comes secondwith 16.88 lakh persons, withAssam in third spot with14.48 lakh victims. The totalnumber of arsenic-affectedpeople in the country isabout 1.48 crore.

According to the WHO’sguidelines for drinking waterquality (2011), the permiss-ible limit of Arsenic in

groundwater is .01 mg perlitre. However, in India thepermissible limit in drinkingwater has recently been re-vised from .05 mg per litre to.01 mg per litre. Mr. Mukher-jee pointed out that the Stategovernment had recently ini-

State’s Arsenic Task Force,K.J. Nath, also admitted thatprogress in setting up watertreatment plants has beenslow. Speaking to The Hindu

he said since the “technologyfor removal of arsenic israther new and expensive,the progress has been slow.”

The ruling Trinamool Con-gress had claimed in its 2016election manifesto that 91%of the population of arsenic-affected areas in the Statehave been provided withclean drinking water. Thewebsite of the PHE depart-ment also claims that arseniccontamination is “getting un-der control” and Bengal isexpected to be “arsenic free”in another couple of years.

tiated a project in order toprovide safe drinking waterto more than six lakh peoplein the arsenic-affected Rajar-hat and Haroa block in North24 Paraganas district andBhangar II blocks in South 24Paraganas district.

‘Expensive technology’“The water treatment plantin New Town [on the Easternfringes of the city] will beused to provide safe drinkingwater to these areas throughpipelines,” the Minister said.

He claimed that the Statehas been able to provide safedrinking water to “52% of thearsenic-affected areas inBengal.”

The chairman of the

1.04 cr hit by arsenic contamination in BengalState task force chairman admits to tardy progress in providing safe water in eight afected districts

Staff Reporter

Kolkata

Subrata Mukherjee

Dev Raj Sikka, former dir-ector of the Indian Instituteof Tropical Meteorology,Pune, who first proposed alink between the El Ninophenomenon and the In-dian monsoon, died of a car-diac arrest early on Sat-urday. He was 85.

The El Nino Southern Os-cillation phenomenon, asee-sawing of temperaturesin the equatorial Pacific, isnow among the most signi-ficant factors that meteoro-logists scan to forecast theperformance of the Indianmonsoon. Six out of 10 ElNino-years have been asso-ciated with below-normalrainfall over India.

“Dr. Sikka was the first toreport this connection in1982 but that was the timewhen meteorologists wouldgive more importance toWestern scientists,” said Dr.Madhavan Rajeevan, Secret-ary, Ministry of Earth Sci-ences.

Dr. Sikka, who began hiscareer at the India Meteoro-logical Department, wasalso credited with beingamong the pioneers of de-veloping weather models

and computer-modellingtechniques to forecast themonsoon.

Born in Jhang, Maghianain Pre-partition India (nowin Panjab, Pakistan), Dr.Sikka “established stronglinkages with scientists andinstitutions engaged in re-search and academic activit-ies in meteorology and al-lied subjects, both fromIndia and abroad,” said astatement from the IMD.

He was Chairman of theMonsoon Mission of theMinistry of Earth Sciences, aprogramme to improvemonsoon-related forecasts.

“Anybody could come tohim anytime and be edu-cated on monsoon…he usedto give wonderful lectures,”Jatin Singh, CEO, SkymetWeather Services, told The

Hindu.

Meteorologist Sikkapasses away

First to link El Nino to monsoon


NEW DELHI

Dev Raj Sikka

In an inter-State decoy oper-ation, the Rajasthan govern-ment’s Pre-Conception andPre-Natal Diagnostic Tech-niques (PCPNDT) Cell has ar-rested a doctor and two ofhis brokers in the Ferozepurdistrict of Punjab on chargesof carrying out illegal foetussex determination tests.

The police team accompa-nying the cell’s officersseized the sonography ma-chine used for the tests and₹33,000 in cash paid to thedoctor, Sandeep Singh, ashis fees. This was the 12th

inter-State decoy operationcarried out by the cell.

No record maintainedA pregnant woman, act-

ing as a decoy, was taken bythe agents from Rais-inghnagar in Sriganganagardistrict to Ferozepur for thetest. In its raid conducted onDr. Singh’s clinic, thePCPNDT Cell’s team foundthat no record was main-tained there despite its regis-tration, apparently in a bidto conceal illegal activities.

The National Health Mis-sion’s State Director NaveenJain, who is the State Appro-

priate Authority under thePCPNDT Act, said here onSaturday that the agentswere regularly taking preg-nant women for the test toneighbouring States becauseof strict surveillance of med-ical service clinics inRajasthan.

Court appearanceMr. Jain said the accusedpersons, who used to chargeextra fees for abortion of fe-male foetuses, had beenbrought to Raisinghnagar,where they will be producedin the court with the requestfor their police remand.

Three held in Punjab forsex determination testsDoctor, two brokers arrested in inter-State decoy operation

Mohammed Iqbal

JAIPUR

Eager to learn: Students take lessons late night at a roadside ‘school’ organised by 71-year-old Kamalbhai Parmar in Ahmedabad.Mr. Parmar has set up benches outside his shop in the city’s Bhudarpura area to ofer classes for the underprivileged children,mostly from nearby slums. The septuagenarian has also organised a battery of volunteers for the project. * VIJAY SONEJI


Burning the midnight oil

The long awaited NationalHealth Policy (NHP), an-nounced a few days ago,proposes to raise publichealth expenditure as a per-centage of the GDP from thecurrent 1.15% to 2.5% by2025. The resource alloca-tion to individual States willbe linked with their devel-opment indicators, absorpt-ive capacity and financial in-dicators. “There will behigher weightage given toStates with poor health in-dicators and they will re-ceive more resources. ThePolicy aims to end inequitybetween States. But at thesame time, States will be in-centivised to increase publichealth expenditure,” saysManoj Jhalani, Joint Secret-ary — Policy, Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare.

While public health ex-penditure as a percentage ofGDP will reach 2.5% only by2025, many of the goals lis-ted in the Policy have adeadline of 2025, some ofthem even sooner.

Preventive healthcareThe policy stresses pre-

ventive healthcare by enga-ging with the private sectorto offer healthcare servicesand drugs that are afford-able to all. It wants to re-duce out-of-pocket “cata-strophic” healthexpenditure by householdsby 25% from current levelsby 2025. It wants to increasethe utilisation of publichealth facilities by 50% fromthe current levels by 2025.

The Centre is working onintroducing a health card —an electronic health recordof individuals. “The healthcard will be for retrievingand sharing health data bylower [Primary HealthCentre] and higher [second-ary and tertiary] healthcarefacilities,” says Mr. Jhalani.“It will be launched in six

months to one year’s time inthose States that show in-terest to roll it out in certaindistricts or across the State.”

Like the Health Ministry’snational strategic plan fortuberculosis elimination2017-2025 report, the Policywants to reduce the incid-ence of new TB cases toreach elimination by 2025.In a similar vein, the policyhas set 2017 as the deadlineto eliminate kala-azar andlymphatic filariasis in en-demic pockets, and 2018 inthe case of leprosy. In thecase of chronic diseasessuch as diabetes, cancer andcardiovascular diseases, itenvisages a 25% reductionin premature mortality by2025.

Challenging ambitionsThe policy “aspires” toprovide secondary careright at the district level andreduce the number of pa-tients reaching tertiary hos-pitals. For the first time,there is a mention of publichospitals and facilities beingperiodically measured andcertified for quality.

But the most ambitioustarget is providing access tosafe water and sanitation byall by 2020. As per the Janu-ary 2016 Ministry of Drink-ing Water and Sanitation’scountry paper, sanitationcoverage was only 48%.

Other challenging targetsset by the Policy include re-ducing the infant mortalityrate to 28 per 1,000 livebirths by 2019 and underfive mortality to 23 per1,000 live births by 2025.According to the NationalFamily Health Survey 4(NFHS-4), IMR was 41 in2015-16; it took 10 years toreduce IMR from 57 to 41.

As against 62% children12-23 months old, who werefully immunised in 2015-16according to the NFHS-4data, the Policy has set a tar-get of 90% by 2025.

Health policy wantspublic hospitalscertiied for quality

Targets safe water for all by 2020

R. Prasad

CHENNAI

In a status quo budget,which focused primarily onthe agriculture sector of theState, Maharashtra FinanceMinister Sudhir Munganti-war on Saturday refrainedfrom announcing the farmloan waiver as demanded bythe Opposition as well as bythe ruling Shiv Sena, butpromised to double farmers’income by 2021.

In a ‘farmer friendly’budget, Mr. Mungantiwar al-located approximately

₹15,000 crore for the agrisector in the financial year2017-18.

No new schemesIn a budget that had no newschemes, the governmentchose to fund only ongoingprojects and refrained fromannouncing an increase inany of the State taxes.

“It has been proposed todouble agricultural incomeby year 2021 and to enablethis, the government has de-cided to focus on irrigation,electricity, farm roads, food

processing, agriculturaltechnology, marketing,group farming and agricul-tural credit,” said Mr. Mun-guntiwar.

The Minister’s addresswas marked by protests fromthe Opposition MLAs of theCongress and the NationalistCongress Party (NCP), whounfurled banners demand-ing farm loan waiver whileshouting slogans throughoutthe speech.

The BJP’s ally Shiv Sena,which too had demandedfarm loan waiver and had

even threatened to not letthe Minister present thebudget, ditched the opposi-tion at the last moment andchose to remain seated bynot participating in theprotest.

Among the major an-nouncements, a sum of₹8,233 crore is being alloc-ated for the Water ResourcesDepartment, ₹2,812 crore forthe project under PrimeMinister Krishi SinchaiYojana and ₹1,200 crore forthe Chief Minister’s pet pro-ject of Jalyukta Shivar.

Presentation marked by protests from the Opposition over farm loan waiver

Alok Deshpande

MUMBAI

No surprises in Maharashtra budget

CMYK

A ND-ND




NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

While his speech to theBJP MLAs after being elec-ted their leader on Saturdaywas about development, hisHindutva image and “tough-ness” are the qualities forwhich he has been chosen,senior party leaders say.

Adityanath is no strangerto controversy. Apart fromthe violence after his arrestin 2007, he compared filmstar Shah Rukh Khan to ter-rorist Hafiz Saeed duringthe debate on intolerancethat had broken out in 2015,as well as demanding, againin 2015, that those who op-posed the Surya Namaskarin Yoga could leave forPakistan.

Adopted to leadBorn Ajay Singh Bisht in Ut-tarakhand in 1972, YogiAdityanath was adopted byMahant Avaidyanath of thepowerful Gorakhnath peethin Gorakhpur as a teenager,gaining deeksha for sanyasor renunciation, at thepeeth in 1994. When hisAvaidyanath passed away,

Adityanath inherited notjust the peeth, but also theGorakhpur Lok Sabha seatthat was held by Avaidy-anath for three terms, win-ning it for himself for fiveconsecutive terms begin-ning in 1998.

The Chief Minister desig-nate has completed a BSc inMathematics from the Hem-wati Nandan Bahuguna Gar-hwal University. But is wasnot his skills with numbersthat impressed BJP chiefAmit Shah during the 2014General Elections.

“Amitbhai (Shah) wastravelling from Varanasi toAzamgarh to address a pub-lic meeting, when his pathwas blocked by members ofthe opposing party in aminority dominated area.The local police too couldn’thelp matters. But a dozenbikers with the Hindu YuvaVahini flags turned up andescorted Mr. Shah’s car pastthe blockade,” recalled aclose aide of Mr. Shah. Therescue act seems to havepaid dividends on Saturday.

A hard Hindutvaface of BJP

BJPworkers celebrate in Varanasi on Saturday after theannouncement of Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh CM. * PTI

The prosecution hadsought death sentence forthe 13 workers, while coun-sel for the convicts had ar-gued that that the capitalpunishment would be an in-justice to them since thedeath of the senior execut-ive in the violence hadhappened accidentally andwas not an planned murder.

Seeking life imprison-ment for the 13 convicts,senior lawyer Rebecca Johnargued that all the men hadmaintained a good conduct

in jail and had been pursu-ing educational courses.

For the remaining 18 con-victs held guilty of chargesof voluntarily causing hurtand other offences, the pro-secution had asked for thehighest punishment ofseven years. The defencecounsel had argued that the18 convicts had alreadyserved four or more years injail, and this period shouldbe taken into considerationwhile fixing the quantum ofpunishment for them.

13 get life term inMaruti violence case

R. Janakiraman, an ad-vertising professional fromVelachery, witnessed the ac-cident and said the car wasbeing driven at an excessivespeed, and it hit the median.“Before we could reach thecar, it caught fire, and hugeflames engulfed the entirearea. The material inside thecar was exploding one afteranother,” he said.

Passers-by informed thepolice control room, and apolice team from the Adyar

Traffic Investigation Wingrushed to the spot.

Personnel of the Fire andRescue Services reached thespot and put out the fireafter half-an-hour.

The charred remains ofthe couple were sent to theGovernment RoyapettahHospital for post-mortem.

The car was gutted, andits mangled metal remainswere taken to the police sta-tion for further investiga-tion.

Car racer Ashwin,wife killed in accident

Blowing bugle of his elec-tion campaign for the up-coming parliament byelec-tions, National Conferencepresident Dr. Farooq Abdul-lah on Saturday described itas “a battle that woulddefine and measure thestrength of people in resist-ing BJP and RSS’ tyrannicalonslaught in J&K.”

Addressing a gathering inBeerwah, Dr. Abdullah said,“It is vital to defeat RSS andits local affiliates, who havealways harboured an ambi-tion to subvert the State’spolitical rights and specialstatus.”

Dr. Abdullah, who is con-testing from Srinagar LokSabha seat on April 9, saidthe bypolls present a vitalopportunity for both peopleas well as NC “to valiantlydefend the State from thosewho have propped up theirTrojan horses among ourranks to fragment us on thebasis of region and reli-gion”.

“Make no mistake aboutthe fact that Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) is BJP andBJP is PDP. Their candidatesfor these by-polls are in factthe proxy candidates of theBJP and the RSS and come

with their blessings and sup-port from the highestlevels,” said Dr. Abdullah.

Speaking on the occa-sion, NC working presidentOmar Abdullah accused thePDP of “failing to bring any-thing to the Valley butbloodshed, strife andoppression”.

“The PDP opposed pellet-guns when in the Opposi-tion. Now it is using pelletguns to blind and maimhundreds of our youth buthas also chosen to increasethe number of pellet guns,”said Mr. Abdullah.

PDP candidate for Anant-nag parliamentary constitu-ency Tasaduq Mufti on Sat-urday said he “will fight fortruthfulness.”

‘Polls a battle to stopBJP’s onslaught’

PDP nominees are BJP proxies: Farooq

Farooq Abdullah

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

Calcutta High Court judgeC.S. Karnan has contactedBahujan Samaj Party (BSP)national president Mayawati,and she has extended her“support” to the Judge, hislawyer has said.

Speaking to The Hindu,

the lawyer W. Peter Rameshsaid the BSP chief hadoffered “full cooperation”for Justice Karnan’s pro-posed protest demonstrationand day-long hunger strikein Lucknow.

OnMarch 10, the SupremeCourt issued a bailable war-rant against him in relationto a contempt-of-court orderissued against him in Febru-ary. Justice Karnan refusedto accept the warrant.

As for the reason for con-tacting Ms. Mayawati, Mr.Ramesh said the BSP chief

was a “prominent Dalitleader”, and Justice Karnanhadmade it clear that he wasbeing “targeted by the Su-preme Court for being aDalit.”

BSP participationAccording to the judge’s as-sociates, the BSP leadershiphas not only offered full co-operation but will also “par-

ticipate in Justice Karnan’sprotest in Lucknow.” JusticeKarnan has not only accusedthe seven- judge Bench ofthe Supreme Court of target-ing him because he is a Dalitbut has also instructed theCBI to start a probe againstthem and Attorney-GeneralMukul Rohtagi.

“In the result I direct theCentral Bureau of Investiga-

tion to register, investigateand file a report before theappropriate court of law un-der Article 226 (writ jurisdic-tion of High Courts) with sec-tion 482 of CrPC (Saving ofinherent powers of HighCourt) to prevent abuse ofprocess of any Court and tosecure the ends of justice,under the appropriate crim-inal provisions of the Sched-ule Castes and ScheduledTribes(Prevention of Atrocit-ies) Act,1989 and other Penalprovisions against the ac-cused persons…” statedJustice Karnan in his writ or-der last week.

According to Mr. Ramesh,apart from Lucknow, JusticeKarnan will also holdprotests and a daylong hun-ger strike in Delhi, Chennaiand Kolkata. The dates of theprotest are yet to befinalised.

Karnan reaches out to MayawatiTo hold protests across country; BSP chief has promised support, says lawyer

Soumya Das

Kolkata

Justice C.S. Karnan Mayawati

Family of a terror suspect,who was picked up fromAgartala by a team of theKarnataka police, alleged hehad been falsely implicatedin a 12-year-old case. Fourmembers of the Anti-Terror-ist Squad of Karnataka po-lice brought one Habib Miato Bengaluru on Saturdayafter gaining transit remandfrom a city court.

Jharna Begam, spouse ofthe accused said, her hus-band, a plumber, wassummoned to the EastAgartala Police Station onThursday for ‘verification ofhis mobile SIM card’. How-ever, he was detained at thestation in connection with acase registered inBengaluru.

The Tripura police, how-ever, claimed that Habib Miawas arrested on ‘specific in-puts’ provided by theKarnataka police on his rolein a terrorist strike at the In-dian Institute of Science atSadashivnagar in Bengaluru

on December 28, 2005. “Weextended help to our coun-terparts from Karnataka todetain him from his home atJogendranagar on Friday,” asenior police official said.

He denied that Habib Miawas detained for a wholeday at the police station.

The official said theKarnataka police team hadcome to the State twiceearlier, but could not nabhim. Family membersclaimed he had never goneout of Tripura and could nothave committed the crime.

Terror suspectheld in TripuraHabib Mia falsely implicated: family

Syed Sajjad Ali

Agartala

HabibMia was allegedlyinvolved in the blast atthe IISc. in Bengaluruin 2005 * ABHISEK SAHA

One of the first things thatthe newly appointed ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradeshwill have to deal with is thefarm loan waiver promisedin the BJP manifesto for theState. Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi, famously againsthandouts, doles and loanwrite-offs, spoke often aboutthis promise and that itwould be announced in thefirst Cabinet meeting held bythe new Chief Minister aftertaking oath.

‘Not a hollow promise’How is the BJP planning tofollow through on this prom-ise? According to topsources in the party, thepromise in the manifestowas not made off the cuff.“In our party, especiallylooking at the thinking ofPrime Minister Modi and BJPchief Amit Shah on the ques-tion of doles and handouts,this was not a light promiseto make,” said the source.

The waiver will be applic-able to the one crore or so

small and marginal farmerson crop loans alone. “Theseare loans taken to buy fertil-isers or for other input costsfor the crop. Not loans takenfor weddings or deathrituals,” said the source.

“The Reserve Bank of In-dia (RBI) puts the figure ofsmall and marginal farmersin Uttar Pradesh at one croreand we will go by that figure.Now the actual outlay for thewaiver, in terms of money,will be decided on twofactors — what is the min-

imum loan write-off slabfixed and the distress level ofthe applicant. BahujanSamaj Party chief Mayawatihad promised that loansupto ₹1 lakh or even twocould be written-off if herparty was to be voted topower, but that is not whatwe are looking at. These arespecifically for crop loans asthey are called. We don’t ex-pect the outlay to be morethan ₹10,000 crore or there-abouts,” said the source.

The financial outlay of theloan waiver, however, is notthe only concern for the BJP.Senior party leaders fearthat the U.P. case would leadto other BJP-ruled Statesmaking a similar demand.Maharashtra Finance Minis-ter Sudhir Mungatiwar, forexample, while tabling theState budget on Saturdaymade a similar demand.

Reflecting this concern,Union Agriculture MinisterRadha Mohan Singh too cla-rified through a series oftweets that the farm loanwaiver in U.P. was a State-specific promise.

Farm loan waiver, the irstchallenge for AdityanathAround one crore small and marginal farmers will beneit

Nistula Hebbar

NEW DELHI

Yogi Adityanath after he wasdesignated Uttar PradeshChief Minister. * RAJEEV BHATT

Two Sufi clerics of the HazratNizamuddin Dargah inDelhi, who had gone missingduring a visit to Pakistan,have been reunited withtheir relatives in Karachi, of-ficial sources at the IndianHigh Commission in Is-lamabad have confirmed.

Syed Asif Ali Nizami, thehead priest or “Saj-jadanashin” of the Dargah inDelhi, and his relative NazimAli Nizami have beenmissingfor more than 72 hours afterbeing ‘detained’ in Lahoreand Karachi airports.

The news of their returncame soon after External Af-fairs Minister Sushma Swarajannounced that she hadspoken to Pakistan PrimeMinister’s Foreign Affairs Ad-visor Sartaj Aziz about thetwo, who had travelled toKarachi on March 8 to bewith their relatives and visitSufi shrines in Pakistan.

Aziz promises help“I spoke to Mr. Sartaj Aziz,Pakistan PM’s Adviser onForeign Affairs, regardingmissing Indian nationals. He

assured me of all help in tra-cing the missing clerics. MrSartaj Aziz is in London,” Ms.Swaraj tweeted.

The clerics travelled toLahore on March 14. The

Hindu had reported thatNazim Ali Nizami was de-tained in the Lahore airporton March 15 for inadequatetravel papers and sub-

sequently Syed Asif AliNizami was also detained,reportedly at Karachi air-port.

Speaking to The Hindu onthe phone from Karachi,Syed Wazir Nizami, relativeof the two clerics said thePakistani authorities had notcontacted the family with in-formation about the two

during their absence duringthe first two days. The sud-den disappearance of thetwo Sufi clerics from one ofIndia’s most important Sufishrines has shocked manyreligious figures, with somedemanding more securityfor such religious figures.Both clerics are expected toreturn to Delhi on Monday.

Sui clerics resurface in Pak.The two were reunited with their relatives in Karachi after 72 hours

Bolt from the blue: Sui clerics Nazim Ali Nizami and Syed Asif Ali Nizami (right) fromHazratNizamuddin Dargah in Delhi were ‘detained’ at Pakistani airports. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI

General Secretary of theCommunist Party of India(Marxist) Sitaram Yechuryon Saturday charged theVice-Chancellor of the Nag-pur University and right-wing groups of “beingscared of thought.”

Mr. Yechury spoke at theDr Ambedkar College atDeekshabhoomi after Nag-pur University Vice-Chan-cellor S.P. Kane had deniedpermission for his pro-gramme in the premises ofthe university due to “ad-ministrative reasons.”

“I don’t know why the VCis so scared of us. We are In-dia’s soldiers and nobodycan stop us from fighting forour country and dying forher. There could be no big-

ger form of cowardice thanbeing scared of merethoughts. Don’t run awayfrom dialogue, at least listento our thoughts,” he said.

Responding to a query onRSS’s allegations about viol-ence against its cadres inKerala, Mr. Yechury saidseven out 11 people killed inKerala since the last elec-tions belonged to his party.“A bomb was hurled at theCM’s victory procession res-ulting in the death of ourworker. Who is blamingwhom here?”

On the election results,he said: “It’s not good toconclude that U.P. verdictproved the demonetisationright. The informal eco-nomy, which does not re-flect in government statist-ics, stands destroyed.”

Right wing scaredof thought: Yechury

‘Don’t run away from dialogue’

Pavan Dahat

NAGPUR

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

On the draw surendra

Mr. Naidu said seniorparty MLA Suresh Khannaproposed Adityanath’sname at the meeting, whichwas then endorsed by 11 oth-ers. The BJP’s “historic win”in U.P. was a “watershedmoment” in the party’s his-tory and established it asthe “common man’s party”,Mr. Naidu told reportersduring the official pressbriefing. He said the BJP’ssweeping win was a man-date in favour of develop-ment and good governanceand against caste politics,religious vote bank politicsand corruption.

Yogi Adityanath, who wasseated beside him, did notspeak to the media. How-ever, Mr. Naidu said thatduring his acceptancespeech after being electedleader, the CM-elect has saidthat since U.P. was a largeState, he needed assistancein governing it and pro-posed the names of Mr.Sharma and Mr. Maurya asdeputy CMs.

Mr. Naidu said he then

rang up party presidentAmit Shah, who gave hisconsent to the proposal.Apart from Mr. Naidu, hisco-observer Bhupendra Ya-dav, Rajya Sabha memberOm Mathur, Union MinisterKalraj Mishra and Apna Dalleader and Central MinisterAnupriya Patel were presenton the dais.

Adityanath’s nominationcame as a surprise to ob-servers as Manoj Sinha, Min-ister of State for Railways,was considered the fron-trunner for the CM’s post tillthe very end. The CM andhis Cabinet will take theiroath on Sunday afternoon.Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah,along with the CMs of BJP-ruled States, are expected toattend the ceremony.

Party sources saidAdityanath’s nominationwould ensure that the polar-isation in the State would beretained till the 2019 elec-tion as he enjoys a Hindutvaimage and is known for hisprovocative statements onMuslims.

Yogi Adityanath willbe new CM of U.P.

As Hindutva hardliner YogiAdityanath was set to as-sume the reins of Uttar Pra-desh, Congress leaderVeerappa Moily called itthe “biggest assault” onsecularism, but the party’sofficial reaction wastempered with caution as itsaid it will act as “watch-dog of people’s interest”.

Congress communica-tions department chiefRandeep Surjewala, how-ever, said: “Congress partywill continue to act aswatchdog of people’s in-terests and play a con-structive role in progress ofthe state of U.P.”

The BJP, however, stoodbehind the Yogi, notwith-standing his strident pro-Hindutva credentials, in-sisting that “he stands fordevelopment”.

BJP spokesmanSiddharth Nath Singh said:“That image may be withmedia but he has beenelected again and again. Hestands for developmentand that is the agenda wehave got and we will willstick to the agenda.”

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChouhan said U.P. will be-nefit a lot from his “com-petent leadership” and willsoon become “UttamPradesh”.

Samajwadi Party MPNaresh Agrawal reactedcautiously to the Yogi’s el-evation. “I congratulatehim on his election. Wewill wait and watch for sixmonths. We hope he willchange his thinking anddesist from creating a di-vide between Hindus andMuslims. If he does, we willgo among the people andoppose him.”

CPI(M)’s Brinda Karattermed the move a part ofthe “RSS agenda”.

Cong., BJPspar over U.P.CM choicePress Trust of India

New Delhi

CMYK




NEWS

Kanimozhi to press forpassage of Women’s BillDELHI

Rajya Sabha member

Kanimozhi on Saturday said

she would lead a protest in

the national capital for the

early passage of the Women’s

Reservation Bill, which aims

to bring 33% reservation for

women in Parliament. PTI

IN BRIEF

Govt. to build toiletsin 1 lakh madrassasNEW DELHI

The Centre plans to build

toilets in one lakh madrassas

across the country as part of

its efforts to revamp these

traditional learning centres.

Union Minister of State for

Minority Affairs Mukhtar

Abbas Naqvi said the

government also plans to

introduce mid-day meals. PTI

Stronger Prohibition Billin Gujarat gets nodAHMEDABAD

The Gujarat Prohibition

(Amendment) Bill, 2017,

which aims at giving more

teeth to the present liquor

law, was approved by

Governor O.P. Kohli on

Saturday. The Bill proposes an

increase in jail term for

bootleggers. PTI

Fossils piece together thepast, and sometimes — as inthis case of a retired Indiangeologist — can mend areputation.

On March 14, news agen-cies across the world repor-ted the discovery of a groupof fossils of a 1.6-billion-year-old red algae, a precursor toplant and animal life, fromChitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh.The findings were reportedby a group led by StefanBengtson, Emeritus Pro-fessor, Swedish Museum ofNatural History, in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS Bio-logy.

What has been eclipsed inthe announcement is thatone set of these fossils arecalled Rafatazmiachitrakootensis, named afterRafat Jamal Azmi, aDehradun-based geologist atthe Wadia Institute of Him-alayan Geology, who was thefirst to report these uniquefossils over two decades ago.

Textbook knowledgeThen, however, Dr. Azmi’sfindings were widely criti-cised by the Geological Soci-ety of India as the “small-shelly fossils” that he dis-covered seemed to suggest

that animal forms evolvedabout 1.6 billion years ago,when the textbooks say thatshelled creatures arethought to have first evolvedat the beginning of the Cam-brian “explosion of life”,around 550 million yearsago.

Moreover, Dr. Azmi inter-preted the age of thosefossils to bolster his long-standing but unorthodoxthesis that the Vindhyamountain ranges, fromwhere he sourced thefossils, were much youngerthan the Himalayas — only

about 500-600 million yearsold.

These are still matters ofdebate but Dr. Azmi wasdenied a promotion for twoto three years because ofthese finds. Speaking to TheHindu over the phone, hesaid he had to “profession-

“... the filamentous formof red alga that we report isnamed Rafatazmia, in hon-our of Dr Azmi.”

Professor Bengtson’slatest study, however, isbased on collecting fossilsfrom the same region in2011, during an expeditionin which Dr. Azmi wasn'tinvolved.

So far, the oldest knownred algae was 1.2 billionyears old, but the Ra-fatazmia predates them by400 million years andthough they are not skeletalanimals of the kind Dr. Azmibelieves them to be, theymay represent an ancientform that could “rewrite thetree of life”, ProfessorBengtson was quoted as say-ing in a news report.

‘Time of visible life’“The ‘time of visible life’seems to have begun muchearlier than we thought,” hesaid.

The material structurallyresembles red algae, embed-ded in fossil mats of cy-anobacteria inside a 1.6-bil-lion-year-old phosphorite, akind of rock, found in theChitrakoot region in UttarPradesh and MadhyaPradesh.

“You cannot be a 100%

sure about material this an-cient, as there is no DNA re-maining, but the charactersagree quite well with themorphology and structureof red algae,” said ProfessorBengtson.

His group came to theirconclusions using X-rays toobserve regularly recurringplatelets in each cell, whichthey believe are parts ofchloroplasts, the organelleswithin plant cells wherephotosynthesis takes place.

Honour for AzmiWhile Dr. Azmi “acceptedthe honour” of lending hisname for the oldest plant-like fossils, he disagrees withProfessor Bengtson’s inter-pretation.

Rather than being an an-cient precursor to plant life,he suggests that it was morelikely that they were algae-like organisms with a shell,that were widespread dur-ing the Cambrian era.

“Incidentally, we dis-agreed and probably still dis-agree about the nature andage of the fossils, but dis-agreements about interpret-ation are healthy in scienceand have of course nothingto do with fraud,” said Pro-fessor Bengtson in his e-mailto The Hindu.

ally suffer” for his finds andinterpretations. “There wereallegations in the media andeven among the scientificcommunity then that myfindings were a fraud,” hesaid.

Professor Bengtson, how-ever, played a crucial role inexonerating Dr. Azmi. Hecame to Chitrakoot and ac-companied the latter to thefossil site to assess his claimsindependently.

“I found indeed the samefossils and was thus able toexonerate Dr. Azmi from theaccusations of fraud in a Pro-ceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences (a toppeer-reviewed journal) pa-per that we published in2009,” Professor Bengtsontold The Hindu in an e-mail.

Rafat Azmi of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology was criticised for his interpretation of a similar fossil discovery two decades ago

Jacob Koshy

NEW DELHI

An X-ray tomographic picture of fossil thread-like red algae, tinted to show detail, unearthed incentral India may represent the oldest-known plants on Earth. * STEFAN BENGTSON/HO/REUTERS

Rafat Jamal Azmi

1.6-billion-year-old fossil ind puts life into Indian geologist’s theories

India and Russia have begunfirming up the agenda forPrime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Russia in June.

Mr. Modi will participatein a major international eco-nomic event in St. Peters-burg on June 1 and 2.

Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar held talks withRussian deputy foreign min-isters Igor Morgulov andSergey Ryabkov during avisit to the Russian capital onMarch 16 and 17.

Annual summit“They discussed the com-plete range of bilateral rela-tions between India and Rus-sia, including preparationsfor the forthcoming 18th In-dia-Russia Annual Summit,participation of Prime Minis-ter of India as the ChiefGuest at the 21st St. Peters-burg International Economic

Forum (SPIEF) on 1-2 June2017 and plans to celebratethe 70th Anniversary of Es-tablishment of DiplomaticRelations between India andRussia,” the External AffairsMinistry said in a statementon Saturday.

Apart from the talks with

the two deputy foreign min-isters, Mr. Jaishankar alsoheld talks with Yuri Ushakov,Russian President VladimirPutin’s foreign policy aide,and Konstantin Kosachev,chairman of the Foreign Re-lations Committee of theFederation Council.

Earlier, during the visit ofRussian Minister of Industryand Trade Denis Manturovto Delhi on Friday, bothsides inked an agreement fora long-term pact on themaintenance of SukhoiSu-30MKI fighter jets of theIndian Air Force.

PM’s Moscow plan gets setModi to attend a major international economic event on June 1 and 2

Old friends: A ile photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi, who arescheduled tomeet in St. Petersburg in June. * REUTERS


NEW DELHI

In a reference to the Su-preme Court’s unpreceden-ted midnight hearing ofMumbai blasts terror con-vict Yakub Memon hours be-fore he was hanged to deathin 2015, Chief Justice of In-dia J.S. Khehar said thatwhile the legal machineryworked overtime to give ter-rorists and hardcore crimin-als access to justice, therewas hardly a mechanism toreach out to their victims.

Survival of familiesIn his inaugural address atthe 15th All India meet ofState Legal Service Authorit-ies, Chief Justice Khehar,who is also the patron-in-chief of the authority, saidhe often wondered whathad befallen the victims ofrape, sexual assault and acidattacks, many of whomwere breadwinners for theirfamily.

“Ours is a strange coun-try. The bigger the criminal,the bigger is the outrage. Aswe have seen before that theconvict in a terrorist crimewho has failed up to the Su-preme Court and also in hisreview, can get access to

justice in a manner that weextend,” he said.

“I have wondered overthe years, what about thevictims. I have wonderedover the years what aboutthe families which have losttheir bread earner. I havewondered over the yearswhat about that acid attackvictim who has been de-faced and cannot survivethe society. I think aboutrape victims and their livesand I wonder why we don’treach out to them.”

“I wish to make an appealto you today as a patron ofthe organisation. Let usreach out to the victims.Make 2017 a year of the vic-tims,” the CJI said.

‘There is hardly any such step today’

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi

J.S. Khehar

Let’s reach out tovictims, says CJI

India’s Ambassador toChina Vijay Gokhale hasmet Wang Qi, the Chinesesoldier who was stuck in In-dia for over five decadesafter he had crossed theborder during the 1962 war.

Mr. Gokhale met Mr.Wang (77) and his family, in-cluding son Vishnua Wang,daughter-in-law, Neha, andgranddaughter Khanak,during their visit to Beijingon Friday. Mr. Gokhale as-sured him of all support, atweet by the embassy said.

Indian envoy meetsChinese soldierPress Trust of India

Beijing

A day after the Calcutta HighCourt directed the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)to initiate a preliminary in-quiry into the Narada Newssting videos, Oppositionparties in West Bengal tookto the streets on Saturday,demanding the resignationof the Trinamool Congressleaders who were purportedto have been seen in thevideos accepting bribe.

Meanwhile, the Trin-amool said it had initiatedthe process of challengingthe High Court order in theSupreme Court.

The Kolkata MunicipalCorporation witnessed viol-ence and unruly sceneswhen the Opposition Con-gress and Left councillorsdemanded the resignation ofMayor Sovan Chatterjee,who is one of the Trinamoolleaders seen in the video.When Mr. Chatterjee rose topresent the annual budget ofthe civic body, Congress andLeft councillors shouted slo-gans against him. This resul-ted in a scuffle betweenmembers of the Oppositionand the Trinamool council-lors.

“A person whose namefigured in the Narada scam isunfit to become Mayor. Wedemand his immediate resig-nation,” senior Congressleader Prakash Upadhyaysaid. Mr. Chatterjeecountered Mr. Upadhyaysaying the Trinamool hadthe people’s mandate.

“We are here because wehave the mandate of the

people. They tried to disruptthe proceedings, but couldnot stop us from presentingthe budget,” he said. TheMayor is also in charge ofStates Housing, Environ-ment and Fire and Emer-gency Services Department.

Earlier in the day, Con-gress supporters assembledin front of the Raj Bhavanand held protests demand-ing the resignation of Trin-amool leaders seen in thevideos.

Rallies were taken out bythe women’s wing of the Leftparties alleging ill-treatmentin police custody.

Meanwhile, the CBI col-lected the documents per-taining to the Narada newsvideos as directed in theHigh Court order. Theagency is likely to completethe preliminary inquiry by

Tuesday as the court hadgiven the agency 72 hours.

Trinamool move“We have already startedtalking to legal professionalsabout the procedure to chal-lenge the High Court orderin the Supreme Court,” asenior Trinamool MP toldThe Hindu. Party chiefMamata Banerjee said onFriday that the Trinamoolwould approach the highestcourt to challenge the order.

“Everyone knows that thesting operation was pub-lished from the BharatiyaJanata Party [BJP] office[and] we will approach thehigher judiciary,” she said onFriday. “It was planned. Itwas planted. The sting waspublished from the BJP of-fice at the time of Assemblyelections,” she said.

Narada sting accusedshould go: OppositionMembers clash in Kolkata Municipal Corporation


Kolkata

Out on the streets: The police arrest activists of the YouthCongress during a protest in Kolkata on Saturday. * PTI

Five alleged members ofthe outlawed CommunistParty of India (Maoist)were killed during an en-counter with securityforces in Dantewada dis-trict of south Chhattisgarhon Saturday.

Two security personnelalso suffered injuries dur-ing the exchange of fire.Some reports suggest thatseven Maoists were killed,but the security forcescould recover only fivebodies.

“One of the deadMaoists was identified asarea secretary of theMaoists’ Malangir areacommittee,” Chhattisgarh’sAnti Naxal Operations unitsaid in a statement.

The injured sub-inspect-ors, Dogendra Patro andSangram Singh, are said tobe out of danger.

Five Maoistskilled inChhattisgarhPavan Dahat

Nagpur

Senior Congress leaderPrithviraj Chavan on Sat-urday attributed his party’sfailure to form governmentin Goa to its“indecisiveness”.

The Congress, whichemerged as the singlelargest party in Goa As-sembly polls, failed to formthe government in thecoastal State where the BJP,with the help of allies andindependents, reclaimedpower.

“The Congress partycould not choose theleader and I think it a col-lective responsibility of allthe leaders in the State...and (the) party paid theprice of its indecisivenessin Goa,” Mr Chavan said atthe India Today Conclavehere.

Meanwhile, admittingthat his party was facing a“low patch”, Chavan said it“needs to do analysis“.

“We have been througha low patch earlier also. Welost badly several times inthe past including (that of )(Indira) Gandhiji. But wefought back. But this time,the crisis is real and wehave to come out of it,” hesaid.

“We lost Maharashtra,UP and a few other States.Few reason are obvious,while few are not,” he said.

Cong wasindecisive inGoa: ChavanPress Trust of India

Mumbai

The Central and the State-level schemes “stuck” in Ut-tar Pradesh will be revivedand “deprived minorities”will see growth, Union Min-ister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvisaid on Saturday.

Speaking to reportershere after the meetings ofthe governing body and gen-eral body of the MaulanaAzad Education Founda-tion, an autonomous non-profit minority welfare insti-tution under the MinorityAffairs Ministry, he said thatthe BJP does “empower-ment and notappeasement”.

NoMuslim candidateA BJP government is set totake charge in U.P. after animpressive win in the As-sembly elections by theparty, which had not giventicket to any Muslimcandidate.

“Socio-economic devel-opment schemes of both theState and the Centre werenot getting implemented.PM’s 15-point programmewas virtually shut down (inthe State) which providesfor roads, education infra-structure and jobs,” MrNaqvi alleged.

“Now, once our partyforms the governmentthere, we will talk to the CMand we are confident thatpeople belonging to thebackward and minoritycommunities will be put onthe path of growth througheducation, jobs and skill de-velopment,” the Ministersaid.

Mr Naqvi had late Febru-ary said that “It would havebeen better (if tickets weregiven to Muslims by theparty). We will address theirconcern by compensatingthem when we form govern-ment in the State.”

When asked as to what hehad meant by “compensa-tion,” before the polls, theMinister just said, “BJP gov-ernment does empower-ment and not appeasement,and one can feel thedifference.”

“We are sure, the needypeople will reap the benefitof inclusive growth, andminority community whohave been deprived of de-velopment will be em-powered,” he said.

The Minister also allegedthat in welfare schemes likeBegum Hazrat Mahal Schol-arship for girls and GaribNawaz Skill DevelopmentCentre, “irregularities weresuspected to be takingplace”.

“If these irregularities arefound to be true, we will ad-dress those issues too (inschemes mein ghapla kiyahai to government revenuestyle mein wasula jayega),”he said.

‘Deprived minoritieswill now grow in UP’

BJP is for empowerment, says Naqvi


New Delhi

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi *




CMYK

A ND-ND

WHO ●WHAT ●WHY ●WHEN ●WHERE

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC




elimination (2017-2025), has set a highlyambitious goal of “achieving a rapid de-cline in burden of TB, morbidity andmortality while working towards elimin-ation of TB by 2025.”

Though the RevisedNational Tuberculosis

Control Programme (RNTCP) hastreated 10 million patients, the rate ofdecline has been slow. Providing univer-sal access to early diagnosis and treat-ment and improving case detectionwere the main goals of the national stra-tegic plan 2012-17. But RNTCP failed onboth counts, as the Joint MonitoringMission report of 2015 pointed out. Go-ing by the current rate of decline, Indiais far from reaching the 2030 Sustain-able Development Goals — reducing thenumber of deaths by 90% and TB incid-ence by 80% compared with 2015. Yet,the latest report for TB elimination callsfor reducing TB incidence from 217 per1,00,000 in 2015 to 142 by 2020 and 44by 2025 and reduce mortality from 32 to15 by 2020 and 3 per 1,00,000 by 2025.

At the end of 50 yearsof tuberculosis control activities, thedisease remains a major health chal-lenge in India. As per new estimates, thenumber of new cases every year hasrisen to 2.8 million and mortality is putat 4,80,000 each year. These figuresmay go up when the national TB preval-ence survey is undertaken in 2017-18.Against this backdrop, the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare, in its na-tional strategic plan for tuberculosis

Radical approachesare needed to come

anywhere close to reaching these ambi-tious targets. Most importantly, the TBcontrol programme plans to do awaywith the strategy of waiting for patientsto walk in to get tested and instead en-gage in detecting more cases, both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant. The em-phasis will be on using highly sensitivediagnostic tests, undertaking universaltesting for drug-resistant TB, reachingout to TB patients seeking care fromprivate doctors and targeting people be-longing to high-risk populations.

The other priority is to provide anti-TB treatment — irrespective of wherepatients seek care from, public orprivate — and ensure that they completethe treatment. For the first time, the TBcontrol programme talks of having inplace patient-friendly systems toprovide treatment and social support. Itseeks to make the daily regimen univer-sal; currently, the thrice weekly regimenis followed by RNTCP, and the daily regi-men has been introduced only in five

States. There will be a rapid scale-up ofshort-course regimens for drug-resist-ant TB and drug sensitivity testing-guided treatment. In 2013, India“achieved complete geographical cover-age” for MDR-TB (multi-drug-resistanttuberculosis) diagnosis and treatment;93,000 people with MDR-TB had beendiagnosed and put on treatment till2015.

Though Bedaquil-ine, the drug for people who do not re-spond to any anti-TB medicine, isprovided in six sites in the country, thenumber of beneficiaries is very small.The report envisages a countrywidescale-up of Bedaquiline and Delamanid.In a marked departure, the report un-derscores the need to prevent the emer-gence of TB in susceptible populations.One such segment is those in contactwith a recently diagnosed pulmonaryTB. Incidentally, active-case finding isalready a part of the RNTCP programmebut rarely implemented. It wants to in-crease active case finding to 100% by

2020. Since RNTCP expenditure has in-creased by 27% since 2012 and is inad-equately funded, the Ministry proposesto increase funding to ₹16,500 crore. Ac-knowledging that the business-as-usualapproach will not get the Health Min-istry anywhere close to the goals, it hasearmarked critical components that willbe addressed on priority. These includesending customised SMSes to improvedrug compliance, incentivising privatedoctors to notify cases and providingfree medicines to patients approachingthe private sector, facilitating nutri-tional support to TB patients, includingfinancial support, rewarding States per-forming well in controlling TB, and us-ing management information systems tomonitor all aspects of TB control. “Theultimate impact of this national strategicplan will be transformational improve-ments in the end TB efforts of India,”the report says. It plans to take a “de-tect-treat-prevent-build approach” in itswar against TB.

R. PRASAD

P Qp qWHAT

The lowdownon India’s planto eliminate

TB by 2025WHAT IS IT

HOW DID IT

COME ABOUT

WHY DOES IT

MATTER

WHAT NEXT

presidency of Eugene Black, helped in1952 to settle the dispute between thetwo nations on the sharing of the Indusriver basin waters. He had said the es-calation of the dispute would damagethe economic development of the In-dian subcontinent. After eight years ofhard negotiations, Prime Minister Jawa-harlal Nehru and President Ayub Khansigned the IWT on September 19, 1960.The Bank is also a signatory to thetreaty. The IWT is a complex instru-ment, comprising 12 articles and eight

After her recent visit to India andPakistan, World Bank Chief ExecutiveOfficer Kristalina Georgieva reiteratedthat the Bank was keen on resolving thedisagreements between the two nationsover the interpretation of the Indus Wa-ters Treaty (IWT) following the con-struction by India of two hydroelectricpower plants. Though the two nationshave had no fresh conflict over the shar-ing of river waters for more than fivedecades, differences cropped up afterPakistan opposed the construction ofthe Kishenganga (330 MW) and Ratle(850 MW) power plants by India on theJhelum and Chenab in Jammu and Kash-mir, over which Pakistan has unrestric-ted rights under the treaty.

Whydid the Bank intervene?* Even before Partition, the Indus hadcreated problems among the states ofBritish India. The problems became in-ternational after the creation of two na-tions as the political boundary wasdrawn right across the Indus basin. TheWorld Bank (then IBRD), under the

annexures. It sets forth provisions of co-operation between the two countries intheir use of the rivers, known as the Per-manent Indus Commission (PIC).

Has there been any violation?* According to the IWT, India has con-trol over three eastern rivers of the In-dus basin — the Beas, the Ravi and theSutlej — and Pakistan has control overthe three western rivers — the Indus, theChenab and the Jhelum. All six riversflow from India to Pakistan. Among

other uses, India is permitted to con-struct power facilities on these riverssubject to regulations laid down in thetreaty. India had asked the bank for ap-pointment of a neutral expert followingPakistan’s objections to two projects,while Pakistan demanded the formationof a court of arbitration, alleging that In-dia had violated the treaty. In December2016, the Bank announced a ‘pause’ andasked both parties to resolve the issueamicably by the end of January 2017.

What stand did the Bank take?* India welcomed the Bank’s neutralstand, while Pakistan sought interven-tion of the Bank after being unable tofind an amicable solution to the disputethrough the commission. Given that In-dia has remained the Bank’s singlelargest borrower since its inception withcumulative borrowings from IBRD andIDA touching $103 billion, the bank didnot perhaps want to upset it.

With buoyancy in foreign exchangereserves, the Bank needs India morethan the other way round and this has

created some anxiety in the Bank circlesabout the future direction of theirrelationship.

Why is the Bank playing a role again?* This is because India and Pakistan areimportant partners and clients of theBank. In South Asia, Pakistan ($2,280million) received the highest lendingfrom the Bank after India ($3,845 mil-lion) during the fiscal 2016. Moreover,there are not too many borrowers witha credible record like India.

The Bank maintained its aid could beeffectively used if both nations kept thepeace and ensured better managementof the waters, on which lakhs of farmersdepend. As both nations have failed toresolve the dispute amicably, the BankCEO has initiated a dialogue. Changingits stance, India has agreed to attend ameeting of the commission in Lahorenext week. Like in the 1950s, Bank offi-cials are again playing the role ofmediator.

NAGESH PRABHU

P Qp qWHY

theWorldBank is keenon resolvingIndus divide

put in his papers and sacked him whenhe refused.

It was New York’s Democratic Sen-ator Charles Schumer who set up themeeting between Mr. Bharara and Mr.Trump in November. His sacking wasthe outcome of a debate in the WhiteHouse in which the President’s strategicadviser Stephen Bannon’s view that allappointees of the previous administra-tion must be sacked prevailed.

What has been the reaction?Indians may have mixed feelings aboutthe Firozpur-born Mr. Bharara, whogrew up in New Jersey and studied atHarvard and Columbia. The Indian-American community feted him whenhe went all guns blazing on Wall Street.But the arrest of Indian diplomat Devy-ani Khobragade under his jurisdictionin 2013 made him a villain in the eyes ofmany Indian commentators. The diplo-mat was strip-searched by U.S. mar-shals, and bilateral ties nosedived. “In-dian critics were angry because eventhough I hailed from India, I appearedto be going out of my way to act Amer-

Preet Bharara never shunned the atten-tion he got since 2009 when he becamethe U.S. Attorney for the Southern Dis-trict of New York. He did to his officewhat Vinod Rai did to the office of theComptroller and Auditor-General of In-dia. Aggressive in pursuing Wall Streetfraudsters, crime syndicates and sleazypoliticians, Mr. Bharara built strongcases, but did so with an eye on theheadlines. When the Donald Trump ad-ministration sacked 46 attorneys onMarch 11, it was once again Mr. Bhararawho stole the headline.

Whywas he fired?U.S. Federal Attorneys usually resignwhen a new President comes into office.What makes Mr. Bharara’s exit contro-versial is the fact that he was apparentlyasked by Mr. Trump to continue in of-fice, in November 2016, soon after thepresidential election. There was nostatement from the Trump transitionteam then, but Mr. Bharara said after ameeting with the President-elect that hewas asked to stay on. In an abrupt turnof events, the White House asked him to

ican and serve the interests of America,which was odd because I am Americanand the words U.S. are in my title,” hesaid later, expressing hurt over the criti-cism. Mr. Bharara also explained that itwas the State Department that initiatedthe case against the diplomat for visafraud and it was being processed in thenormal course. He becamepersonally aware of thecase only a couple ofdays before her arrest.

What is hislegacy?Mr. Bharara has left alegacy that will last,based on two factors:dozens of convictionshe obtained for insidertrading on Wall Streetand the convictions ofNew York’s legislativeleaders in corrup-tion cases.These casesnot onlybrought

individual culprits to justice but alsolaid bare the systemic rot in U.S. capital-ism and democracy. In one case, McKin-sey and Co’s former MD Rajat Gupta wasamong those convicted in a case of in-sider trading that had brought gains of$72 million for the accused. Sheldon Sil-ver, the powerful Speaker of the NewYork State Assembly, and Dean Skelos,

Majority Leader in the State Senate,were convicted of misusing theirlegislative authority for per-sonal gain.

What next?As Mr. Bharara leaves office,there are doubts about the fu-ture of such prosecutions, as alot depends on the personalityof the Attorney. As Mr. Bhararabuilt case after case of insider

trading, a New York ap-peals court raised

the bar by nar-rowing thedefinition ofwhat com-prises in-

side information in 2015, leading to aseries of acquittals. In December 2016,the U.S. Supreme Court upheld theJustice Department’s broader definitionof what is insider trading. All that makesthe role of a prosecutor significant inthe capital of global finance. Appealsfiled by Mr. Silver and Mr. Skelos arealso pending. According to latest mediareports, the Trump Cabinet member,Health and Human Services SecretaryTom Price, was being investigated byMr. Bharara.

In the past, he has defended his spot-light-gaining tactics as a means of edu-cating the public and deterring thosetempted by corruption opportunities.Critics say his tactics are not in line withthe legal tradition of evidence speakingonly in the courtroom. But the re-gistered Democrat has never been ac-cused of partisanship.

We haven’t heard the last of Mr. Bhar-ara. At 48, he has a long innings ahead.What we can be sure of is that nothingabout him will be discreet.

VARGHESE K. GEORGE

P Qp qWHO

Preet Bharara

the exit of aWall Streetbaiter

P Qp qWHEN

9March 2017

surface water resources, over-exploita-tion of groundwater to compensate forthe loss of resources in dry waterbodiesand the lack of timely policies havepushed the State into a drought.

Meteorology experts note that thesouth-west monsoon rainfall often com-plements or compensates the State’srainfall during the north-east monsoon,which accounts for a major share of theyearly rainfall, though it may not havethe same impact as in the neighbouringStates. Last year was particularly badfor farmers across all districts as bothmonsoons failed to bring sufficient rain.

Population density in many regionsof Tamil Nadu, which is higher thanother drier regions like Rayalaseema inAndhra Pradesh, also influences the im-pact of drought. The meagre share ofCauvery water received from Karnatakaadded to the farmers’ distress in thedelta region. Driven by recurring cropfailures and mounting debts, severalfarmers ended their lives or died of car-diac arrest.

Cuddalore, Puducherry and Na-

From the days of being marooned in thecoastal parts of the State and ferociouscyclones leaving a trail of destruction tosevere drought caused by recurringmonsoon failure, Tamil Nadu is emer-ging as a State of climate paradoxes withits volatile weather patterns. It’s a bitterirony for the State that witnessed unpre-cedented floods in its north coastal dis-tricts in 2015 that pushed its north-eastmonsoon rainfall to an excess of 52% tonow be in the grip of a severe drought.The devastating blow to agriculture andwater resources came with 2016 turningout to be one of the driest years.

Why this drought?The State was hit by the worst annualrainfall in 140 years as it received just543 mm of rain against the yearly aver-age of 920 mm. This is the lowest recor-ded after 1876 when Tamil Nadu re-gistered 534 mm, leaving a shortfall of42 %. While a weak La Nina over theequatorial Pacific that followed a year ofstrong El Nino is cited as one of the reas-ons for the drought, mismanagement of

makkal were among the worst affected,with a north-east monsoon rainfall defi-cit of 80%. In 11 districts, includingNagapattinam, Salem, Erode andDharmapuri, the deficit is above 70%.

As all districts recorded below normalrainfall, the State government declaredTamil Nadu drought-hit after many agit-ations, caused mainly by farmers’suicides.

A recent survey by the Tamil NaduFederation for Women Farmers’ Rightsfound that women in farming familiesbore the brunt of crop failure and thedeath of family heads.

The survey revealed that the system-atic destruction of water resources,rampant sand mining and lack of timelyand adequate compensation triggeredthe agrarian crisis. In its budget for2017-18, the State government has notedthat 32.30 lakh farmers were sufferingcrop loss to an extent of 50.35 lakhacres. Besides announcing ₹2,247 crorein subsidy relief to farmers, it hassought ₹39,565 crore in assistance fromthe Centre for drought relief initiatives.

However, the lack of water resourcesfor crops is feared to lead to a shortfallin paddy cultivation, influx from otherStates and a hike in the prices of essen-tial commodities. Experts at the Tamil

Nadu Agricultural University haveraised concerns over the failure to ob-tain target crop yields, including treecrops, owing to soaring temperatures.Drought has dealt farmers a doubleblow as the paddy crop failure will in-crease the fodder crisis, hitting livestockproduction. Several parts of the Stateare already experiencing acute drinkingwater shortage. Given the climate vari-ability in which rainfall intensity is set tobe higher and distribution will be lim-ited to a few days, the State governmentmust chalk out plans to augment thestorage capacity of waterbodies andprotect waterways and encourage farm-ers to adopt crop diversification, createfarm ponds and use fewer water-intens-ive crops. Unless the State governmentdraws up a long-term strategy to man-age its resources, prioritise agrarianneeds and come up with better crop in-surance policies, Tamil Nadu will not beable to break the vicious cycle ofdroughts and floods.

K. LAKSHMI

Tamil Nadu

in the cycleof droughtand loods

P Qp qWHERE

Music among the ruins:Mohammed Anisrefused to leave his home in easternAleppo in Syria even when ierce ightingbroke out last year between governmentand rebel forces. He showed of hiscollection of vintage cars to everyjournalist whowas interested, with AFP’sKaram al-Masri writing amoving account.When government forces inally pushedback the rebels in December, an AFPcrew, led by photographer Joseph Eid,searched him out. They found Anis, 70, inhis bombed-out neighbourhood of al-Shaar, living among the ruins of his home.When they spotted a gramophone andasked whether it still worked, he said‘yes’ and waited to light up his pipe —taped together — before cranking up themachine, and playing a 1940s Arab song.In a blog, Eid later said: “I knew the scenein front of mewas special.” Anis was lostin his ownworld, at home in the rubble.The photograph, of March 9, went viral,and touched a chord, a portrait of hopeamid devastation.

Last week, I got a frantic call from myfriend V, who seemed very upset.

“I can’t tell you what I’ve done!” hesobbed over the phone.

“What happened?” I said. “Did youstab someone in murderous rage?”

“No,” he said. “It’s worse.”“Did you accidentally slap your

boss?“Even worse.”“Did you forget your anniversary?”“I allowed a Pakistani to hug me.”“Oh my god, tell me you didn’t!”“I did, I did,” he said, and began to

wail so loudly I had to hold the phoneaway frommy ears.

I let him wail peacefully for fiveminutes.

“Okay, enough,” I said. “Sometimesbad things happen to good national-ists.”

“But why me?” he said tearfully.“I’ve hated Pakistan all my life. I’vebeen a member of the ABVP since theage of two. What will I do now? Withwhat face will I ask anti-nationals to goto Pakistan? They will laugh at me.”

He blew his nose extensively, whichseemed to calm him a bit, but gratedon my nerves.

“Look, we all make mistakes,” Isaid. “What matters is how we makeamends.”

“I know what you mean,” he said.“I’ll surrender myself to the police. I’llconfess that I was hugged by aPakistani.”

“But how did this happen?”He then told me the whole sordid

story. Apparently, V, a tax consultant,had attended a conference of tax con-sultants in the Bahamas, which is aMecca for tax consultants, and a fa-vourite tax haven of patriotic Indianpoliticians, some of whom were his cli-ents. One of the conference delegateshappened to be from Pakistan, a man

named — you guessed it — Khan.One balmy evening, after a day

spent exchanging notes about theglobal best practices in tax dodging, Vwas having dinner in an open-air res-taurant and generally minding his ownbusiness, when the Pakistani sat downat his table and began to make smalltalk. V, of course, put up a strong res-istance.

“Nice weather,” Khan had said.“Pakistan must be hell,” replied V.

“How do you guys manage?”“I love your shirt,” said the

Pakistani.“What was Kasab like as a friend?”“I quite enjoyed your presentation.”“Do you work for the ISI?” V per-

sisted. “How do you juggle tax con-sultancy and terrorism?”

“India is a beautiful country,” Khananswered. “Indian women are lovely.”

“Really?” V snarled. “Your ‘love ji-had’ won’t work any more.”

“India and Pakistan have so much incommon,” Khan said. “It would bewonderful if we could visit each othereasily.”

“You guys visit us anyway, sneakingacross the border once the snowmelts.”

“I’ve always condemned cross-bor-der terrorism,” Khan said, helpinghimself to an olive.

“Do you dodge bullets on your wayto work?” V said. “How does it feel tolive in a failed state right next to a vi-brant democracy like India?”

Khan’s response was sedate. “As ayoung nation, we have a lot to learn,

and we are learning from India too.”“He was charming like the devil,” V

recalled. “He paid for my food, mydrink, and even shared a few account-ing tricks I didn’t know before.”

“You mean, you actually liked thisPakistani guy?” I said, disbelievingly.

“I... I couldn’t help it,” Vstammered. “By the time we were leav-ing, we’d become such great friends,he gave me a hug. To be honest, Ididn’t mind it at the time.”

“That’s utterly shameful,” I said.“I realise that,” V said. “My biggest

fear is, what if every Pakistani turnsout to be as likeable as the one I met?What if they are not all devious, evilmonsters out to destroy India?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “You aresounding like Arundhati Roy,” I said,which was the worst insult I couldthink of, and I hung up.

I am sharing this story as a caution-ary tale of what could happen to thebest of Pakistan-hating patriots if theyare not vigilant enough, and if Indiansand Pakistanis are allowed to minglewithout adequate state supervision.

I just have one piece of advice for allthose gullible Indians brainwashed byleftist, pseudo-liberal propaganda thatsays Pakistanis and Indians are likebrothers, etc. It may be true that a tinyminority of Pakistanis are not terror-ists and don’t really hate India. But ifyou happen to bump into them some-where and find your hatred forPakistan abating, just remember: theystill picked the wrong country to beborn in.

To gullible Indians who believe that Pakistanis and Indians are like brothers

What to do if you can’thate a Pakistani

ALLEGEDLY

G. SAMPATH

is Social Afairs Editor, The Hindu,and the author of two books

*GETTYIM

AGES/ISTOCK




CMYK

A ND-ND

COLUMNWIDTH

What is democracy? Abraham Lincoln’sphrase — that it is political rule of thepeople, by the people, for the people —is surely a cliché. But is it also a good de-scription of democracy? Is it weightierthan what we have come to supposeand frequently dismiss?

The cycle as a metaphorLet’s take a simple example. A villagehas a bicycle to fetch goods of daily use.So far, the cycle is used exclusively bythe Pradhan, to procure goods only forhimself and his family; but now, follow-ing a change of heart or popular pres-sure, the Pradhan also uses the bicycle

to ferry goods he thinks would meet thebasic needs of other village folks. Thecycle is now used, at least some times,also for the people. On receiving somearticles of subsistence, they begin hop-ing that a day will come when theywould be able to ride the cycle, see,touch, smell the goods themselves andchoose what they really want. Instead ofbeing content with things handed out tothem, they can now go to the market,see the entire range of goods on displayand decide what, by their own reckon-ing, best satisfies them. So, they some-how manage to persuade the Pradhanto let them ride the bicycle and visit themarket. They now realise that therewere many things that they had noteven conceived they needed. They alsobegin to enjoy the ride to the marketand back. Indeed, the cycle takes themto entirely new worlds, beyond the mar-ket, beyond the immediate world ofthings they need. It fires up their ima-gination, helps them forge new rela-tions, conjure up new worlds. Ridingthe cycle has its own rewards, its ownthrill. The bicycle now doesn’t merelywork for them, but is also worked by

them and for that reason works evenbetter.

At this stage, however, the Pradhanchanges his mind and takes this cycleaway from them; and the village is backto square one — the people return totheir deprived state. In a fix, the poor

tional mechanismwhich helps us obtainresources that potentially satisfy us, en-able us to lead the life we wish andchoose. But it works for us only if we alltake part in running it. If we allow someelites (the Pradhans) to take charge, relyexclusively on them to get us the re-sources that we need, the chances arethat we may never get the resources, orreceive them sporadically, dependenton the elites’ whims and fancies. Be-sides, we would be deprived of thesheer pleasure of decision-making, oftaking an active part in choosing and al-locating resources, of determining thecourse of our collective and individuallives. And, finally, if we don’t have astake in democracy, if we feel we don’town it, don’t see it as belonging to us, asa constitutive part of our identity, thenone day it might even be taken awayfrom us; hijacked from right under ournose by someone. So, we must ensurethat democracy is not just for thepeople, is run by the people but also isof the people. It belongs to us; that is tosay, it is ours. A lot of thought, it ap-pears, was invested by Lincoln in thisshort, by now clichéd, phrase!

stance, its use depended on their havinga permanent, inalienable right to it. Sonow they strive to make the cycle theirs,to prevent it remaining an exclusive pos-session of the Pradhan. They realisethat they should not even view the cycleas a thing of mere use, with an instru-mental value. Rather, it should alwayshave been something of intrinsic value,indeed an integral part of who they are.Losing it would not just be a temporarydeprivation from which they can re-cover easily and quickly by getting a re-placement, but the alienation of a basiccapacity to determine the course oftheir life, a shattering blow to their self-confidence and self-esteem, to theirvery sense of self. Once they reclaim it,they can legitimately say that the cyclenot only functions for them, is run bythem, but also belongs to them. It istheirs; for them, by them, and evenmore importantly perhaps, of them.

Decision-making and identityI hope the reader has understood thatwhat is true of a simple bicycle is alsotrue of the far more complex practice ofdemocracy. Democracy is an institu-

villagers realise that the mere opportun-ity to use the cycle was never enough. Itshould always have belonged to them.They should have claimed it as theirs,have had a greater stake in it. They, andnot the Pradhan, should have collect-ively owned it because, in the last in-

If we don’t have a stake in democracy, don’t see it as belonging to us, it might even be hijacked from right under our nose

A simple bicycle and the complex practice of democracy

THE PUBLIC EYE

rajeev bhargava

is a political theorist at the Centre for theStudy of Developing Societies, New Delhi

*AP

One whose Throat is BlueI bow to Nilakantha [who has] ten arms,three eyes,is sky-clad [and] lord of the directions,dark-eyed and adorned by/with poison.— Translated by Rohini Bakshi

One of the most famous legends,which has been described in theBhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata,and the Vishnu Purana, is that ofsamudra manthan, or churning of theocean. It is about the time when thegods and demons fought and thedemons often got the upper hand. Onbeing appealed to, Lord Vishnu ad-vised the gods to solve the problemdiplomatically, which resulted in an al-liance between the gods and demonsto churn the sea of milk for the nectarof immortality, which they would di-vide equally between them. LordVishnu assured the gods that he wouldensure that they alone got the nectarof immortality. During the churning,many objects came up. One was thehalahala, a pot of potent poison whichcould destroy everyone. Again, onLord Vishnu’s advice, the gods ap-proached Lord Shiva, who was theonly one capable of swallowing itwithout being affected.

Lord Shiva swallowed the poisonwhile his consort Goddess Parvati, it issaid, held his neck to prevent it fromgoing into his stomach. The poisonturned his throat blue, which is whyhe’s called Neelkanth, or the one with ablue throat. Though the poison didn’tharm him, Lord Shiva’s throat wasburning and he came to earth to rest.According to legend, that place wasKalinjar where the Chandela rulers,who were Shiva bhakts, built in the10th century a magnificent Neelkanthtemple. The Chandela rulers of

Bundelkhand also built the Kalinjarfort, which lives up to its name, ‘Thedestroyer of time’, between the 9thand 13th centuries. It is one of the fewforts that stood against the invasions ofMahmud of Ghazni. It lies on a hillyplateau, 1,203 ft above the plains in theVindhya range.

The breathtaking templeThe entrance to the fort and thepalaces inside are impressive, but itwas Neelkanth temple that took mybreath away. It was the best part of mytrip to Bundelkhand. From the top, the165 steps that lead down to it in a longand winding route look daunting, butdon’t let that deter you. It’s worthevery bit of the effort.

Though the scenery accompanyingthe journey down the steps is enoughto refresh tired feet, it was the firstsight of the Grecian altar-looking 16-pillared yagna mandap from the topthat was enough to give us a sense ofpurpose. We continued with renewedvigour. The mandap, which is said tohave once been covered, now standsunder the open sky as a testimony totime.

There are carvings and statues onthe rocks all along the route. At themuseum of Kalinjar fort, the Archae-ological Survey of India officer saidthat out of the 874 specimens of sculp-ture they had there, most were foundduring excavations of the temple. I canwell believe him after seeing the richesthere.

A door leads to the village. On theway, an adorable Ganesha statue keepsguard. On the rock, just a little wayabove the mandap, are spectacularstatues of Chamundi Devi.

Behind the mandap is a small shrinecut into the rock itself, with a tallShivling installed in it. The unique fea-ture of the Shivling is that it is alwayswet near the throat portion, even ifthere is a drought or famine in thisarea.

The door of the cave is a massivestone shutter-like thing, which the pu-jari told me used to move, but they nolonger know the secret lever.

To the right of the temple, a fewsteps down, is the most amazing statueof Kal Bhairav (incarnation of LordShiva) carved in the rocks. This is easyto miss as most people return from themandap area. It is 24 ft high, 17 ft wide,has 18 arms, and is garlanded by skulls.The statue is majestic and stunning,and gave us the feel of the power ofdestiny, for which it is worshipped.

Just above the temple is a naturalwater source that never dries up. Wa-ter continually drips onto the Shivling,keeping the neck moist. Thirty-fivesteps lead up to the sarovar cut in themountains behind the temple. It is saidthat this contains treasure, and thereare some indications written on itswalls. I don’t know how true this is, forsurely someone must have found it if itwas material treasure. To my mind, it’streasure of the spiritual kind, for I felta great sense of peace here.

Finding treasure in the Neelkanth temple in Bundelkhand

Peace and belonging inan ancient land

WHERE STONES SPEAK

rana safvi

is a historiam, author and bloggerdocumenting India’s syncretic culture

*RANASAFVI

For years we have been trying to defusevarious kinds of militant fundamental-ism by offering alternative messages: Is-lam is a religion of peace, Hinduism isall-inclusive, America is a nation of im-migrants, etc. Such messages have hadvery little effect on the fundamentalistsconcerned. As a consequence, liberalsand decent conservatives — all thosemillions of well-meaning people at thecentre and a bit to its right or left — of-ten exclaim in rare unison: “Nothingseems to make a difference! What canbe done?”

Of course, nothing seems to make adifference, because the solution doesnot lie in the message of any religious,cultural or political text. Not the mes-sage of a text, but the process of reading

it is the antidote to fundamentalism.You might be wondering what this

process that I am talking about mightbe. Well, let us start at the beginning.Let us ask: what is it that all fundament-alists share?

Refusal to engageDespite the fact that different religiousfundamentalists seem anxious to chopoff each other’s heads, they share twofeatures. Of these, one I have writtenabout in the past: a bid to control wo-men. But there is another feature that isshared by all of them, and even by theirsecular counterparts. This is their com-mon tendency to reduce texts, includ-ing their own sacred ones, to a singularmessage.

It is no coincidence that Islamists donot allow Muslims to discuss the holytexts of Islam openly and historically,and Hindutva fundamentalists want cer-tain readings of their holy texts — evenA.K. Ramanujan’s scholarly thesis aboutthe various rewritings of the Ramayanaand Mahabharata — banned. There areChristian fundamentalists in the U.S.who get upset if the mythical SantaClaus is played by an African and whoare unwilling to concede that Jesus, a

Jew from West Asia, must have lookedmore like an Arab than like DonaldTrump.

There is a total refusal among funda-mentalists to engage with texts and stor-ies in a contemplative, critical and his-

spectives and interpretations that theyoffer. Unfortunately, with the demise ofthe Arts, this necessary engagementwith texts is dying out: even literature ismarketed in a singular manner today,reduced to a ‘selling point.’

Fertile ground for fundamentalismThe technocratic nature of today’s soci-ety is partly to blame. It is not a coincid-ence that so many of the founders ofHindutva had a technocratic education,as had many European National Social-ists, and so many Islamists seem to betechnocrats too. Unlike the Arts andpure Science, technology has singularapplications. You can use a screwdriverto peel an orange, but it is basicallymeant to turn a screw. The numericallogic of capitalism — two plus twoequals four — has combined with ouradoration of technology and its currentdigital pundits to create fertile groundsfor fundamentalism.

The antidote to this trend is not to of-fer other messages but to learn againhow to read — and hence think — withcomplexity. Facile as it may sound, thebest way to counter fundamentalism isto teach our children the skills of liter-ary exegesis.

texts in the past, and as neo-liberals aredoing today, by reducing even capital toonly one of its forms, finance capital.

To argue that wealth trickles down isa message that runs contrary to thecomplexities of economics and experi-ence, just as it is a form of fundamental-ism to reduce the state of health of a na-tional economy to basically theindicators of the share market. SocialDarwinists reduced and continue to re-duce Darwin’s complex texts on evolu-tion — and other texts that followed Dar-win — in a similar manner.

All fundamentalists — secular or reli-gious — take the complex realities of lifeand language, and reduce them to a fewparameters. They not only ban certaintexts, they mostly even confine the‘sanctioned’ texts to a single message.

Learning again how to readThis runs against everything that literat-ure does and that students of literaturewere trained to do. No significant liter-ary text offers only one message. In thatsense, the trend to append simplisticmorals to literary works is a serious mis-reading. Even early religious texts —such as the Indian epics — make fullsense only in the multiplicity of per-

torical manner. Not only do they wantto ban certain texts, but even the onesthey accept are reduced to limited,sometimes singular, messages. Secularfundamentalists do this too, as the Com-munists did with Karl Marx’s complex

All fundamentalists, whether secular or religious, take the complex realities of life and language and reduce them to a few parameters

Why literature is the answer to fundamentalism

THE CONTROVERSIAL INDIAN

tabish khair

is an Indian novelist and academicwho teaches in Denmark

*GETTYIM

AGES/ISTOCK

CMYK

A ND-ND

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



Penguin homebodies

It is not just humans whosupport grown up childrenwho have already left home.It happens in Galapagospenguins, too. Fully grownGalapagos penguins whohave fledged — or left thenest — continue to beg theirparents for food. Andsometimes, when the bountyof the sea is in plenty,parents oblige and feed theiradult offspring. Gentoopenguins too continue tofeed grown ups.Observing penguinbehaviour in the GalapagosIslands, Prof. DeeBoersmawe from theUniversity of Washingtonfound isolated instances ofadults feeding individualswho had left the nest. “Wehave collected enough fieldobservations to say thatpost-fledging parental careis a normal — probably rare —part of Galapagos penguinbehaviour,” he says in auniversity press release. Inpenguin species, parents andoffspring recognise eachother using a variety of cues.

ODD & END

The two chains of clusterin protein,which are normally expressed in sev-eral tissues and can be found in sev-eral body fluids, when present to-gether tend to lower lipid levels butadministration of one of its chains —alpha or beta — results in completelydifferent outcomes. Cells treatedwith a recombinant beta chain tendto accumulate fat while cells treatedwith an alpha chain showed no in-crease in lipid accumulation. Rabbitsadministered with a recombinantbeta chain showed nearly 40% in-crease in weight while animals givenan alpha chain showed no such in-crease. The results were published inthe journal Scientific Reports.

“Two chains of clusterin whenpresent together tend to decreasebody weight but one of the twochains (beta clusterin) increasesbody weight. This is quite unusual,”says Dr. Ch. Mohan Rao from theCentre for Cellular and MolecularBiology (CCMB), Hyderabad, and thecorresponding author of the paper.“So the alpha chain should ideally becompensating for increase in bodyweight. But the alpha chain does notdo that.”

Only leanmass, no fat“While excess energy gets accumu-lated in the form of fat when betachain was injected into rats, we didnot see this in the case of alphachain. One possibility is that the al-pha chain helps in the metabolism offood in such a way that fat does notaccumulate,” he says. “Dissected ratsthat were given alpha chain showedincreased levels of lean mass.”

Apparently, there was no differ-ence in the food intake between an-imals treated with alpha or betachain. “It means that weight increase

can happen even when there is no in-crease in food intake. It is the energymanagement by the body that is im-portant. And alpha chain seems tomodulate metabolism in such a wayto promote energy expenditure andthus prevent fat accumulation,” hesays.

The effect of alpha and betachains were tested on myoblast cells,fibroblast and cancer cells. The indi-vidual chains were injected into rab-bits as well. “In my lab we study theeffect of small heat shock protein onhealth and disease. To raise antibodyfor clusterin we injected the chainsseparately into rabbits. One set ofrabbits was gaining weight while theother did not. That’s when we invest-igated the reasons. The animal-house

in-charge noticed the change in theanimals,” recalls Dr. Rao.

Rats too gained weightThough the effects of the two chainswere seen in rabbits, the researchersturned to rats as more animals wererequired for investigating the effectof individual chains on animals.

“We could see fat accumulation incells from day two onwards. We ob-served for 10 days and fat accumula-tion continued for all the 10 days; wecould study cells continuously onlyfor 10 days,” says Suvarsha RaoMatukumalli from CCMB and the firstauthor of the paper. “In the case ofanimals injected with beta chain, fataccumulation continued for four-fivemonths. The controls and animals

given alpha chain did not showweight or fat gain.”

When cells were administeredboth the chains simultaneously, thecells did not accumulate fat for two-three days but started thereafter.“Fat accumulation was not as muchas when only the beta chain wasgiven but fat accumulation neverthe-less continued,” says Ms. Matuku-malli. But the effect of both thechains in animals was quite different.“When we introduced both alphaand beta chains together in animalswe did not see any weight gain. Theanimals were very much like the con-trols,” she says. “Only large-scale, in-depth studies can reveal if alphachain prevents weight gain.”

CCMB researchers control weightand fat gain in animalsMetabolism of rats, rabbits seems modulated through intervention to promote energy expenditure

Instant response: Ramakrishna T. (left), Mohan Rao (centre) and SuvarshaMatukumalli studied rats injected with betachain and found fat accumulation from day two onwards. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

R. Prasad

The GRAPES-3 experiment at TIFR’sCosmic Ray Laboratory inOotacamund is getting upgraded.The telescope made news last yearwhen it detected the effect of a solarstorm that hit the earth in June 2015.The upgrade will play a major role ingetting precise information about thepropagation of storms in ‘the last mil-lion miles’ (from the L-1 point) oftheir journey from the Sun to theearth.

The upgraded detector will havean increased coverage of the sky andimproved capacity to determine thedirection of incident cosmic rays.The latter property, of being able todiscern the direction of detectedparticles, makes it unique amongcosmic ray detectors in the world; itcan also to measure the intensity ofthe particles. Since the enhanced fa-cility can cover a wider field of view(from present 37% to 57%), thechances of spotting solar storms willbe higher.

The sun is at a distance of 150 mil-lion kilometres from the earth, and

satellites have been placed at a dis-tance of nearly 1.5 million kilo-metres, at the so-called L1 point,where they orbit the Sun along withthe Earth. Since charged particlesfrom a solar storm will first impactthe satellites before hitting the earth,they act as an early warning system.Depending on the speed of thestorm, it will take about 20-40minutes to reach the earth from theL1 point.

However, the GRAPES-3 may differfrom the satellite estimates of the

travel time. This is what Sunil Gupta,Head of the GRAPES-3 experiment,terms traversing the ‘last millionmiles’. He says: “GRAPES-3 has animportant role in understanding thepropagation of storms from the L1point to its impact on the Earth. Wehave seen indications that the actualtime taken may not be what the satel-lites predict.”

Taking preventive stepsIt is important to know the timewhen plasma will reach the earth, ac-

curately, so that preventive and pro-tective measures can be put intoplace in case a solar storm were tostrike the earth.

If the earth’s magnetic field wereto be weakened by extreme solarstorms, charged particles wouldshower on to the planet. Apart fromrendering electronic devices de-funct, charged particles in an ex-treme solar storm can also short cur-rent carrying over-head high voltagelines, leading to large-scale trans-formers burn out and thereby, powerblackouts. A 2008 study conductedby the U.S. National Academy of Sci-ences estimated that an extremeevent could lead to a loss of 40% oftransformers in the U.S., which, inturn, could take years to restore.

The up side is that the way to pre-vent such a disaster is well under-stood: simply switch off the powerlines on being informed of an ap-proaching solar storm! And for thisto be possible, an accurate determin-ation of the time taken for the solarstorm to travel to the earth isneeded, which is where theGRAPES-3 set up comes in.

Telescope upgrade to snif out solar stormsIt can accurately determine the time taken for the solar storm to travel to the earth

Cross section: A closeup of themuon telescope showing detectors in twolayers, to help ix the direction of the incident particles. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Shubashree Desikan

Turning to nanotechnology,a group of marine research-ers from Kerala is attempt-ing to combat corrosion ofsteel used for making fishingboats. Corrosion of steel hasbeen a major cause of con-cern for the fishing sector ofKerala where steel vesselshave almost replacedwooden ones.

There is enhanced threatof corrosion in the case ofwelding joints and the hullof a vessel. The non-availab-ility of good quality steel(BIS 2062 Grade B steel) asspecified for boat-buildinghas compounded theproblem.

Scientists at the CentralInstitute of Fisheries Tech-nology (CIFT), Kochi, havesuccessfully tried applyingnanomaterials like nanoiron oxide, zinc oxide,cerium oxide and titaniumoxides on steel surfaces un-der lab conditions. Accord-ing to Dr. C.N. Ravishankar,director of the institute,these nanomaterials havehigh surface area and in-creased adhesiveness to thesubstrate. According to Dr.P. Muhammed Ashraf, Prin-cipal Scientist at CIFT, who

led the research pro-gramme, the boat-buildingsteel was coated with nano-trimetal oxide mixtures, andits evaluation in laboratoryshowed about 40% corro-sion inhibition under mar-ine environments. He saidthat the coating also exhib-ited healing stress at a fasterrate.

Conventional methods ofcoating of steel materialswith ceramic, polymericand electro-deposition areeffective only to a limited ex-tent. Corrosion-protectionmethodologies usually em-ploy organic or inorganic-based coatings on steel. Theresearchers pointed out thatthe major disadvantagesshown by these coatings arepoor adhesion, coating de-fects, poor scratch resist-ance, optical transparency,low coating flexibility andvulnerability to abrasion.

Even the recently intro-duced nanomaterial-incor-porated polymer coatingshave their own set of chal-lenges — they tend to de-velop pinholes and pores,which could lead to the pen-etration of corrosive agentsinto the matrix followed bycorrosion.

Flexing nanotech toprevent steel corrosionOther methods have shown limitations

K.S. Sudhi

Sleeper T cells exposedLong-lived, HIV-infected T

cells evade discovery, thereby

thwart attempts to find a cure.

Now researchers report in

Nature that they have

identified a protein which sits

on the surface of such

dormant, infected T cells, and

leads to their exposure,

towards developing a cure.

CAPSULE

Easy exerciseExperiments on mice showed

whole body vibration, can be

effective as a form of exercise.

The process involves sitting,

standing or lying down on a

system with a vibrating

platform. The vibration

transmits energy, serving to

stretch and relax the muscles

multiple times, a paper in

Endocrinology noted.

Talking chimps?Recent research published in

Science challenges the long-

held belief that non-human

primates like marmosets and

chimps lacked the key

elements needed for speech.

They showed that many such

primates can learn or modify

sounds in response to

environmental or social

stimuli.

Biological clocksScientists have discovered how

the world’s oldest biological

clocks - those of cyanobacteria

- work. By refrigerating the

bacteria and literally stopping

time, they understood how

transitions from stage to stage

take place. Cyanobacteria are

amongst the first living

organisms to produce oxygen

using photosynthesis.

Geomagnetic stormsNew research tells us that

when solar storms take place

on the Sun, they not only send

bursts of charged particles on

to the earth, disrupting its

magnetic field. The storms can

also decrease the number of

free electrons over polar

regions of the ionosphere. This

could lead to improving radio

communication and navigation

over the Arctic.

Transparency of glass

Why is glass transparent tovisible light but opaque to UVlight?

■ Bhavani, Bengaluru

When light is incident on amaterial, it can be eitherreflected, absorbed ortransmitted, or acombination of all the abovephenomena might occur. Asfar as opacity (ortransparency) of a materialis concerned, we need tothink in terms of absorptionand transmission. Based onthe material’s compositionand property, a specificwavelength or a range ofwavelengths might haveenough energy to transfer anelectron from the groundstate to the excited state andhence that wavelength getsabsorbed. The material thusappears as opaque to thatwavelength. On the otherhand, if the materialtransmits most of theincident light, it appears astransparent with respect tothe incident light. In the caseof glass which mostly

consists of silica andaluminates, the energyassociated with of UV light(~7eV) is enough to exciteelectrons from the groundstate (valence band) toexcited state (conductionband) and consequently thislight gets absorbed. Beyondthe range of UV light(wavelength >400 nm), theenergy of visible andinfrared light are not enoughto excite the electrons andmost of the incident lightgets transmitted. Thus glassappears transparent tovisible and infrared light.■ Chandan Kumar Mishra.

JNCASR, Bengaluru

This week’s question

Why do newly bought cellphones have to be charged forseven to eight hours at astretch?

■ E. Duvarahesh,

Tiruchendur, Tamil Nadu

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCQuestion Corner

Compared to earlier centuries, people livelonger now. Longevity has steadily in-creased across the world, thanks to vari-ous health care efforts. This has also leadto an increase in the incidence of age-re-lated disorders, such as senile dementia.Today there are about 47 million peopleacross the world affected by cognitive dis-orders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’sand related disorders. We have about 4.1million people across India affected by de-mentia, China is worse, with 9.2 millionthere.

An individual with dementia tends tohave short-term memory loss, problemsin movement of limbs, incoherent speechand related problems. It is a cognitive dis-order where the normal nerve circuitry inthe brain has become distorted. Nervefibres tend to get entangled (much like across connection or short circuit), proteinmolecules in the cells precipitate out ofsolution and form plaques, affectingnerve conduction. Part of the brain be-comes dysfunctional. As of today, thereare no effective drugs to treat and over-come Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and re-lated disorders, though molecules such asL-Dopa offer some short-term relief. And

it is well nigh impossible to take the brainout, correct the misconnection, do somerewiring and place the repaired brainback. Transplanting a brain is, of course,unthinkable, since it effectively meanstransplanting a person!

Signs of hopeAgainst this bleak picture, there are somehopeful signs. If we cannot remove errorsand rewire, can we stop further damage,allow neighbouring nerve cells to dodouble duty and make up for what hasbeen damaged? We know that this may be

possible; for example when a finger is lostor amputated, the neighbouring brainareas take over the functions of that areaof the brain which previously handled theamputated digit. In other words, the brainis not a static, stone-like entity but aplastic, remouldable one. If we can findways to trigger such neuro-plasticity, wemay be able to recover some of the lostfunctions, and hopefully delay any fur-ther damage to the brain circuitry.

Remarkably, and gratifyingly, music isable to do so. We have now come to real-ize that music not only calms and com-

forts the mind but also can take on atherapeutic role. “Music Therapy is a non-pharmacological way, with a long historyof use and a fine usability for dementiapatients” write Dr David Calimag and col-leagues in their paper ‘Music Therapy ispotential intervention for cognition ofAlzheimer’s disease: a mini-review’,which has appears in the journal Transla-tional Neurodegeneration (2017) (DOI:10.1186/s40035-017-0073-98).

That music plays a key role in cognitivedevelopment has long been known. Weprocess music with almost every part ofour brain. The baby in the womb feels thepulse of the mother, and likely even herhumming in tune. Lullabies calm andcomfort and teach the baby. While the oft-quoted claim that the IQ of children im-proves upon listening to Mozart needssolid scientific proof, it seems likely thatnot just listening, but training in music ap-pears to foster cognitive development.The book ‘Musicophilia: Tales of Musicand the Brain’ by the famous neurologist-writer Dr. Oliver Sacks points out that mu-sic is part of being human. And that manypeople with neurological damage learn tomove better, remember more and evenregain speech through listening to andplaying music.

Therapy for Alzheimer’sThis is the basis of music therapy. Dr. Con-cetta Tomaino, a music therapist, is repor-ted to have played an old Yiddish song toan old man in the last stages ofAlzheimer’s, and after repeatedly listen-ing to it for a month, he attempted to

speak and sing it himself and resumedtalking and moving about. Closer home,the renowned music therapist Mrs. RajamShankar of Secunderabad tells me that hersinging the Raga Kalyani likewise activateda lady patient, who eventually startedsinging herself and slowly regained heractivities. Readers will also enjoy the cap-tivating award-winning film ‘Alive Inside’which tells the stories of several dementia-afflicted patients and how music turnedtheir lives around (available athttps://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=6FwfV9pnj8o).Music therapy is a growing field, taught

and practised in India and across theworld. But it is important that appropriateand rigorous guidelines are drawn and cer-tification done in order to separate thewheat from the chaff. It is also useful toanalyse the reported individual caseswhere it has helped (and where it has not),and attempt to draw rational and empir-ical guidelines, particularly since it in-volves human subjects.

Not without caveatsSome caveats are in order. There areclaims on the Web that raga X helps liverfunction, raga Y helps in diabetes, and soforth. These are over-claims, since musicaffects the brain and helps in cognition,not in curing metabolic disorders. Someothers claim that some ragas are betterthan others for dementia. This too is a“one size fits all” claim. Music therapy is adeeply personal one, and depends on themental condition, background and similarfactors and thus is individual-specific.Also, is a song better or just chanting anote or even meditating - or a combinationthereof? Here again, is it not better for thetherapist to decide, based on the condi-tions of each specific patient?

[email protected]

Turn tomusic to keep your brain itThe brain is a plastic, remouldable entity, and triggering this property can help us recover some lost functions

Tunes and health:Music not only soothes and comforts but can also play a therapeuticrole and trigger the brain. * THULASI KAKKAT

SPEAKING OF SCIENCED. Balasubramanian

Readers can send theirquestions/ answers [email protected]

CMYK

A ND-ND




BEING

DR HUMERUS KESHAV

What is a ‘vernal window’?With the irst day of spring around the corner, temperaturesstart to rise, ice melts away, and the world around us starts toblossom. Scientists refer to this transition fromwinter to thegrowing season as the “vernal window”, and a new study led bythe University of NewHampshire, U.S., shows this windowmaybe getting longer.“Historically, the transition into spring is comparatively shorterthan other seasons,” says Alexandra Contosta, a researchassistant professor at the University of NewHampshire’s EarthSystems Research Center. “You have snowmelting and lots ofwater moving through aquatic systems, nutrients lushingthrough that water, soils warming up, and buds breaking ontrees. Something striking happens after a very cold winter orwhen there’s been a lot of snow. Things seem to wake up alltogether, which is why spring seems to happen so quickly andcan feel so dramatic.”However, research shows that the extent of snow cover overthe Northern Hemisphere has declined signiicantly in the past30 years. Climate change is altering the timing and duration ofthe vernal window.

DEMYSTIFYING SCIENCE

On February 9, when 31-year-old Mumbai resident Au-gustine Chettiar underwent

an angioplasty, a top-of-the-linedrug-eluting stent called Alpine byAbbott cost him ₹1.2 lakh. He re-quired two stents — tiny mesh-likedevices that release measureddoses of medication in the blockedartery — for two of his blockages.But during the procedure, a com-plication forced the doctor to useboth stents in one single artery. Mr.Chettiar was advised to get thesecond blockage fixed after a fewweeks.

On February 14, the NationalPharmaceutical Pricing Authority(NPPA) announced a ceiling on theprices of stents. The bare metalstent was capped at ₹7,260 whileall drug-eluting stents were cappedat ₹29,600.

When Mr. Chettiar went for hissecond angioplasty on March 3, ahigh-end drug-eluting stent calledXpedition from Abbott cost himmerely ₹29,600. And to top it, healso received a clear bill thatmarked out the stent price.

Hospitals under the scannerHospitals across the country areclosely being watched by the NPPAand the State Food and Drug Ad-ministration authorities on theirpattern of billing after the cappingof stent prices.

The NPPA has directed all hos-pitals to issue detailed bills to the

patients, specifically and separ-ately mentioning the cost of thecoronary stents, along with thebrand name of the manufacturer,importer, batch number and otherdetails. Those who fail to complystand to be pulled up by drugcontrollers.

“When we got the hospital billafter the second angioplasty, it wassimple and understandable. Moreimportantly, the price of the over-all procedure reduced drastically,”

says Mr. Chettiar’s wife Angela.“My husband had an insurance of₹5 lakh. But the first procedure atHoly Spirit Hospital in Andhericost us ₹4.5 lakh, of which ₹2.24lakh was merely for the two stents.Fortunately, his company got theinsurance firm to pass the addi-tional amount for the second pro-cedure that he underwent at Sur-ana Hospital. It cost us merely ₹1.5lakh,” she adds.

While lakhs of patients have be-

nefitted from the government’s de-cision, the NPPA continues to re-ceive complaints from across thecountry of overcharging and lackof clarity in the bill.

“Most of the complainants havegot a refund from the hospitals.There are some others for whomwe have asked for copies of the billfor better clarity,” says NPPA Chair-man Bhupendra Singh, adding thatthey have asked the State drugcontrollers to re-audit all an-

gioplasty cases from February 14,of hospitals that have complaintsagainst them. A month since theprice ceiling was introduced, theNPPA has received 37 cases ofwhich five are fresh complaints.

Don’t miss the fine printActivists say that patients need tocome forward and complainagainst any kind of non-compli-ance. “The government has set upa system in place. So it is now up tothe patients and relatives to ensurethat the bill they get is itemised,”says health activist Dr. AbhayShukla.

The new rule has drained out amajor chunk of revenue for hospit-als and thus there are chances ofthem trying to recover the moneyby inflating other costs. “The idealway to compare is to get a bill of apatient who has undergone theprocedure before February 14 andcheck if the hospital is overchar-ging in other aspects of the bill,”suggests Dr. Shukla.

Hospital owners, however, see anew era of trust and greatervolumes that will offset potentiallosses. “People who needed morestents and underwent cardiac sur-geries can now afford an-gioplasties. The number of an-gioplasties will definitely see a risenow,” says Dr. Prince Surana, med-ical director of the Surana Groupof Hospitals in Mumbai.

[email protected]

Need stents? Skip a beat nomoreThe ceiling on prices of stents comes as a boon for patients. The onus is now on them to hold hospitals to account

Minutiae: “The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has directed all hospitals to issue detailed bills topatients, speciically and separately mentioning the cost of the coronary stents, along with the brand name ofthemanufacturer, importer, batch number and other details.” * GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Jyoti Shelar

Disease control in In-dia is a story of con-

tradictions and tubercu-losis (TB) is noexception. Earlier thisweek, India’s HealthMinister, J.P. Nadda,

spoke at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Re-gional Health Ministers’ meeting in Delhi — on TB —stating his government’s intention to address the dis-ease aggressively. Not too long ago, India’s FinanceMinister too spoke of TB elimination.

Welcome and well-intentioned, these claims are atodds with India’s full-blown epidemic of TB and drug-resistant (DR) TB — a crisis that is decades in the mak-ing, from benign neglect by successive administrations.TB is a staggering epidemic that affects 2.8 million andkills 485,000 Indians, pushing individuals, families andcommunities into poverty, suffering and debt. Suchclaims then must be borne out by thoughtful strategy,commitment backed by sufficient funding. However,these seem to be missing. India recently released adraft of its latest strategic five-year plan to control TBwhich takes the approach to find, treat, prevent andbuild for TB control on a massive scale. However, theplan ignores the fact that most Indians affected by TBdo not seek care under the government programme. Itis usually their last choice. Even the poorest prefer topay and go to the private sector because it is efficientand accessible. They land up in the public sector pen-niless and much sicker. That most TB-affected need ef-ficient care with dignity and respect has escaped In-dia’s health programme planners.

Glossed overTB’s institutionalised neglect is not limited to the gov-ernment alone. In its recently released first ever prior-ity list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the WHO didn’tinclude DR-TB. The list is supposed to provide direc-tion globally to government priorities for research onbacteria for which we need new antibiotics. There isalready shrinking support for research into new TB an-tibiotics primarily because TB is a disease with a largemarket at the base of the pyramid. This is borne by thefact that despite its massive human costs, only twodrugs have been developed in four decades and remainexpensive and inaccessible to most. Such omissions letthe pharmaceutical sector and government off thehook from pressure to invest in research for new drugs.

Why is TB ignored? Perhaps because its fundament-als are beyond the capacity of the health establish-ment. A lack of preventive strategies, poor nutrition,and rapid urbanisation with limited public awarenessall feed India’s epidemic. Many of these are domainstraditionally outside of disease control programmesthough they have an impact on disease control.

Mr. Nadda listed numerous achievements amongwhich were mandatory case notification from theprivate sector, inclusion of new Cartridge Based Nuc-leic Acid Amplification Test (CB NAAT) machines forearly detection, and the introduction of new drugssuch as Bedaquiline. What missed mention was thatthe increased case notification is but only a fraction ofthe cases detected and treated privately. The govern-ment has failed to implement TB notification success-fully. India does have 500 new CB NAAT machines butthey remain underutilised, highly rationed and of lim-ited reach to most of the TB-affected. We still don’tknow the government’s forecasting mechanism forprocuring cartridges to make these tests accessible.What’s more, most TB patients rarely get tested up-front for drug resistance. As a result, numerous casesof DR-TB remain undiagnosed, poorly treated and of-ten lost or what the WHO terms “missing”.

Access to new drugs like Bedaquiline is best ex-plained in the struggle of an 18-year-old girl who des-perately needed the drug and went to the SupremeCourt to get it. Had she got this treatment sooner, shemay not have died.

India’s spending per TB patient is the least amongBRICS countries. The answers lie in expanding the ca-pacity of the public sector, aggressively engaging theprivate sector, increasing budgets, and creating amassive campaign to ensure awareness and empower-ment among those most severely affected. We need ac-cess to a free and reliable TB test, counselling, freehigh-quality treatment, and economic and nutritionalsupport. Until then, TB will continue to devastate thefoundations of this aspirational superpower.

Chapal Mehra is a Public Health Specialist and independent writerwho works with TB survivors. He is the Convener of SurvivorsAgainst TB

Chapal Mehra

The TB time bomb

Train of hope: The sight of the 18-carriage ‘clinic-on-rails’ is something what thousands of South Africans are welcoming asit tours the country and treats people. It provides access to general medicine, dentistry and psychology services, and has afully stocked pharmacy and an eye clinic. The train, called Phelophepa, whichmeans “Good, clean health” in South Africa’sTswana and Sotho dialects, is said to have treatedmore than 24million patients since its launch in 1994. Final year medicalstudents at universities across South Africa help with services on the train, which follows a primary health-care model.Picture shows a doctor giving a patient an eye test, in Pienaarsrivier near Pretoria. * AFP

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Full steam ahead

The first rigorous test ofan expensive new drug

that radically lowers choles-terol levels has found that itsignificantly reduces thechance that a high-risk pa-tient would have a heart at-tack or stroke. These weremen and women who hadexhausted all other options.

The results of the study,which cost about $1 billionand was paid for by Amgen,maker of the drug, werepublished on Friday in TheNew England Journal ofMedicine and presented atthe annual meeting of theAmerican College ofCardiology.

The drug, Repatha, iscalled a PCSK9 inhibitorand can make cholesteroltumble to levels almostnever seen naturally inadults, or even in peopletaking cholesterol-loweringstatins. The Amgen drugand a similar one, sold bySanofi and Regeneron, wereapproved by the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration in2015 with the hope — andexpectation — that theywould lower the risk ofheart attacks and strokes,and not just reduce levels ofLDL cholesterol, the dan-gerous kind.

That hope has now beenrealised for the Amgendrug.

“This is like the era of thestatins coming in,” says Dr.Eugene Braunwald, a cardi-ologist at Harvard Medical

School, who was foundingchairman of the researchgroup that conducted thestudy, but was not an in-vestigator on it. Like statins,which were introduced inthe 1980s, the new class ofdrugs has the potential toimprove the health andlongevity of millions ofAmericans with heart dis-ease, the nation’s leadingkiller, accounting for 1 in 4deaths.

“It’s a new ball game,” hesays.

Issue of costBut cost will be an issue.Statins are available ascheap generics. The newdrugs have a list price of$14,523 a year. “The nextbig challenge is financial:how to pay for it,” says Dr.David Maron, director ofpreventive cardiology atStanford, who also was notinvolved in the study.

Insurance companieshave been reluctant to payfor the drug without evid-

ence it protected high-riskpatients from heart attacksand strokes. Kristine Grow,a spokeswoman for the in-surers’ organisation, Amer-ica’s Health InsurancePlans, says insurers wouldconsider the new data.

Investors greeted thetrial results with initial dis-appointment and appearedto assume that insurerswould continue to restrictaccess to the drug, in partbecause it did not show abenefit in overall deathrates from cardiovascularcauses.

Dr. Harlan Krumholz, aYale cardiologist, agreesthat given the expense ofthe drug, the results raisequestions about what it isworth and who should getit. But he called the study “asolid outcomes trial” andsaid “we should celebrate”that it showed the drug iscapable of reducing risk.

The problem, he said,was that expectations wererunning so high. “There

was a lot of hubris abouthow pushing LDL down to30 would eliminate heartdisease,” he says. Of course,it did not. About 10% of pa-tients taking the drug had aheart attack or stroke, ordied of heart disease duringthe trial.

The studyThe study involved 27,564men and women. About80% had already had aheart attack, and the resthad had a stroke or hadpain in their legs and feetfrom narrowed arteries.They were taking optimaldoses of inexpensive, cho-lesterol-lowering statins,which gave them an averageLDL of 92, well within therange — an LDL of under100 — that has been advisedfor high-risk patients.

All continued with theirstatins, but half were as-signed to inject themselveswith Repatha, also knownas evolocumab, and the restwere assigned a placebo.Those taking the new drugreached an average LDL of30. A quarter of parti-cipants got to an LDL of 19or lower. Amgen estimatesthat about 11 million Amer-icans are eligible to take thedrug. They include peoplelike those in the study andpeople who have a geneticcondition, familial hyper-cholesterolemia, that res-ults in intractably high LDLlevels and a grave risk of aheart attack. NYT

Clinical beneit yes, cost-beneit no?Medical practitioners are upbeat about the advantages of using

cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha, but investors are not impressed

* GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

gina kolata

Howmuch a good sleepis worthImproving your sleep quality is as

beneicial to health and happiness as

winning the lottery, according to

research by the University of Warwick,

U.K. Dr. Nicole Tang of the

Department of Psychology has

discovered that working on getting a better night’s sleep can

lead to optimal physical andmental well-being over time and

that quality of sleep is more important than howmany hours of

it you get. Analysing the sleep patterns of more than 30,500

people in U.K. households across four years, Dr. Tang found

that improving your sleep quality leads to levels of mental and

physical health comparable to those of somebody who’s won a

jackpot of around £200,000.

The study shows that positive changes in sleep over time —

improved quality and quantity, and using less sleepmedication

— are linked with improved scores on the General Health

Questionnaire (GHQ), which is used bymental health

professionals tomonitor psychological well-being in patients.

AROUND THE WORLD

GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Shaped by the climateThe size and shape of the nose in

diferent human populations is not

simply the result of chance but evolved,

at least in part, in response to local

climate conditions, report Arslan Zaidi

andMark Shriver of Pennsylvania State

University, U.S. in a study published on

March 16, 2017, in PLOS Genetics.

The nose is one of humanity’s most distinctive facial features,

which also has the important job of conditioning the air that we

breathe, to ensure that it is warm andmoist when it reaches the

lungs, which helps to prevent infections. Previous studies

suggest that people whose ancestors lived in hot, humid places

tend to have wider nostrils than people whose ancestors came

from cold and dry environments, but whether these diferences

arose in response to local climates or just due to chance was

unknown. In the current study, researchers looked atWest

African, South Asian, East Asian, or Northern European

ancestry.


On a crust huntRock samples from northeastern

Canada retain chemical signals that

help explain what the earth’s crust was

like more than 4 billion years ago,

reveals newwork from Carnegie’s

Richard Carlson and Jonathan O’Neil of

the University of Ottawa. Their work is

published by Science.

There is much about Earth’s ancient crust that scientists don’t

understand. This is becausemost of the planet’s original crust

simply isn’t around any longer to be studied directly — it has

either sunk back into the planet’s interior due to the action of

plate tectonics or been transformed by geological activity on

the earth’s surface tomake new, younger rocks.

“Finding remnants of this ancient crust has proven diicult, but

a new approach ofers the ability to detect the presence of truly

ancient crust that has been reworked into ‘merely’ really old

rocks,” Dr. Carlson says.

GETTY IMAGES

The ‘why’ of OCDSome people have an extreme fear of

dirt or bacteria. As a result, theymay

develop a habit of compulsive washing

and repeatedly cleaning their hands or

body. They are trapped in a vicious

cycle, as the fear of new contamination

returns quickly after washing. Suferers

see no way out. They are even incapable of changing their

behaviour when the excessive washing has led to skin irritation

or damage. Around 2% of the general population sufers from

some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) at least

once in their life. The disorder is characterised by persistent

intrusive thoughts which the suferers try to compensate for by

repetitive behaviour. Professor Kai Schuh from the Institute of

Physiology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU)

Würzburg (Germany) and his team are exploring the underlying

causes of OCD in collaboration with the JMU’s Departments of

Psychiatry and Neurology.


They have thehealthiest heartsThe Tsimane people — a forager-

horticulturalist population of the

Bolivian Amazon — have the lowest

reported levels of vascular ageing for

any population, with coronary

atherosclerosis (hardening of the

arteries) being ive times less common than in the U.S.,

according to a study published in The Lancet and being

presented at the American College of Cardiology conference.

The researchers propose that the loss of subsistence diets and

lifestyles in contemporary society could be classed as a new risk

factor for heart disease. Themain risk factors are age, smoking,

high cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity,

obesity and diabetes.

AP

CMYK

A ND-ND

The writer takes aprovocative stand against bigdata and scientism, providinginstead a furious defence ofan arts and humanities-basededucation. He draws up ablueprint for how companiesand leaders can use humanintelligence to solveproblems, and calls hismethod sensemaking. Heargues that today’s biggestsuccess stories stem from acompany's deep engagementwith its customers.

■ Sensemaking: WhatMakes HumanIntelligence Essential inthe Age of the AlgorithmChristian MadsbjergHachette India₹599

For decades, globalisa-tion was the mantra toeradicate poverty and

lift developing countries tohigher levels of growth andwelfare. Openness to tradeplays an important part in it.The World Trade Organisa-tion (WTO) tried hard to es-tablish rules-based globaltrading system and faileddue to lacerating differencesbetween developed and de-veloping countries. In itswake, there has been amushrooming of regionaltrading arrangements.

Even though, the SouthAsian Association for Re-gional Cooperation (SAARC)was established in 1985, theregion has not been able tomake much headway. Intra-regional trade is at anabysmally low level of 5%against ASEAN’s 25%. Theuntapped potential is im-mense and there is no doubtthat closer regional coopera-tion would bring about lar-ger gains in welfare andgrowth. Unfortunately, theregion remains “one of themost fractured parts of theworld.”

Hurdles to growthCloser studies led to the viewthat the absence of a moreintegrated regional transportnetwork was a serious draw-back for the SAARC missionof building a South Asianfree trade area. The UnitedNations Economic and SocialCommission for Asia and thePacific (UNESCAP) initiatedseveral studies/projects forthe establishment of AsianLand Transport and Infra-structure Development(ALTID), Asian Highway (AH)and Trans-Asian Railway(TAR). Multilateral or re-gional agreements were alsosigned, though implementa-tion of projects has beentardy. Mohamad Rahmatul-lah was closely involved inthese projects in UNESCAPand in the planning body inBangladesh. This volume is acollection of essays by his co-researchers in his honour.

The introductory chapterby two World Bank econom-ists on ‘boosting trade andprosperity in South Asia’ is ata broader or theoretical leveland categorises the obstaclesby chipping in standardWashington formulae suchas removing non-trade barri-ers, normalising tradepolicies, reducing transport-ation costs, creating supplychains, promoting intra-re-

gional FDI and so forth.The next chapter draws at-

tention to the need to estab-lish dry ports to improve lo-gistics for landlockedcountries. Cross-bordertransport facilitation isplagued by non-physical bar-riers. Sub-regional transportinitiatives are many and in-clude ASEAN, BIMSTEC, etc.However, challenges facedby them include varying in-frastructure standards, miss-ing links in railway lines, fin-ancing and a plethora ofnon-physical and proceduralbarriers.

Attention in somechapters is centred onSAARC Motor Vehicle Agree-ment (SAARC-MVA) and itssub-regional variant BBIN-MVA, encompassingBangladesh, Bhutan, Indiaand Nepal. Though work onthe former commenced in2007, it is incomplete tilldate; the latter was signed byall members on June 15,2015. Prabir De narrates suc-cinctly the challenges facedby BBIN-MVA and how itmight replicate mini versionsamong others in the region.Sadly, these do not offertransit for third countrytrade, particularly ‘betweenIndia’s Northeast and therest of India throughBangladesh.’

Political complicationsThe chapter on trade andtransit cooperation betweenAfghanistan and Pakistan isinsightful. Geography andpolitics play havoc with theirtrade. Increasing volumes ofinformal trade pose specialthreats. It is seen that Afgh-anistan’s imports are far inexcess of its local demandand the surplus is sent intoPakistan through illicitchannels.

The section on Nepal’strade logistics throws lighton issues peculiar to a land-locked country. Nepal’s ex-port to GDP is the lowestamong all SAARC countriesexcept Afghanistan. ThoughIndia has been offering ac-cess to its ports under Tradeand Transit Treaty, there arerecurrent strains in relations.Letters were exchanged inFebruary last year betweenthe two to simplify transitbetween Nepal andBangladesh through India’scorridor and to operational-ise Visakhapatnam Port.During his visit to China inMarch 2015, Nepali PrimeMinister signed an agree-ment on transit trade. Thismay end Nepal’s sole de-pendence on India. WithChina’s roads and railwaysgetting closer to Nepal bor-der and with some addi-tional road connectivity,Nepal will be able to accessworld trade through China’sports at affordable costs.

Mohamad Yunus ofBangladesh Institute of De-velopment Studies draws at-tention to the strategic loca-tion occupied by his countryas the route to connect coun-

tries covered under the BIM-STEC initiative with the Kun-ming initiative and, thereby,extend them to mimic thehistoric Southern Silk Route.Even for its internal trade,India can send merchandisethrough Bangla corridorsavoiding the ‘chicken neck.’Many ambitious projects arevisualised with competingcorridors entailing huge fin-ancial outlays. The questionis who will bear the cost.Bangladesh can charge onlytransit fees and the benefitsof higher trade volumes willgo to others, especiallyIndia.

Indo-Pak tradeIndia Pakistan trade is a com-plicated and vexed story. It isclear that there are comple-mentarities and scope to re-vive trade to very high levels.Political and security issuesstand in the way. While Indiahas accorded MFN status toPakistan, Pakistan continuesto adopt a negative list for In-dian imports. Indeed, thereare lobbies in Pakistan whichresist the import of thoseitems. However, strangely,Pakistan imports the verysame items from other coun-tries, especially China.

This book is a valuable ad-dition to studies on promot-ing regional integration. Itdraws heavily on the workdone by UNESCAP for acouple of decades. However,it is beset with a narrow vis-ion by emphasising regionalconnectivity in isolation andfailing to take adequate careof environmental impact ofprojects displacing people. Ifmany of the ambitious pro-jects are delayed, one maylook at such concerns andthe relative costs and bene-fits. There is more to welfarethan trade.

Fractured networkHow the absence of an integrated regional transport network is standing in theway of a South Asian free trade area

Borderline: There is scope to revive Indo-Pak trade to very high levels. * PTI

■ Regional Integration inSouth Asia: Essays inhonour of Dr. M.RahmatullahPrabir De &MustaizurRahmanKWPublications₹800

Kandaswami

Subramanian

As promised, ManobiBandyopadhyay bares

her heart in this biography,while fending off social dis-approval and legal persecu-tion.

She remembers growingup as Somnath, feeling girl-ish at a very young age,dressing in his sisters’ frocksand wearing their cosmetics.By his teens he became soopen in his mannerisms andhabits that his family des-paired about his future. Andindeed, in his search for af-fection, he often becametrapped in a culture of ab-use.

The writer’s language isbarefaced and often crude,but she is honest about herobsession with love and ro-mance, writing with self-confidence as well as self-pity. She admits much of thelove she found was ‘animal’love, which she did notwholly dislike. But her writ-ing soon gets maudlin, heavywith heartbeats, goosebumps and tears. Lackinghumour and irony, it leaves

the reader squirming withimpatience.

Manobi’s life story is nother first published work,and it is certainly not thefirst soul-baring from atransgender. It is not evenwritten well. But when asubgroup struggles toachieve social equality andrespect, an accretion of itswork helps break down pre-judices. That is one reasonto read this biography.

The book is otherwise

wordy and sentimental andreveals weakness of thoughtthat the author seems en-tirely unaware of. She talksof being more educated andgifted than her transgenderfriends, or indeed anyfriend, but she shows littleevidence of actual superior-ity in thinking. Only whenshe embarks on her M.Phildoes she finally feel it is timeto develop intellectually.When she earns, she hopesto buy cosmetics and clothesrather than to achieve inde-pendence. We tremble thatsuch a slow-maturing mindgravitates toward teaching.

Despite this unpromisingstart Somnath does get a lec-turer’s post, becomes self-supporting, and stabilisesenough to transition towardbodily femininity throughhormone therapy and sur-gery. Her ideas of becomingmore female—flirting coyly,being glamorous and attract-ive to men—will troublemany women readers. Man-obi is outwardly female, butsurely this is not all that wo-manhood amounts to.

Story of a transitionThis narration of life as a transgender should helpbreak down prejudices, despite the laws in the account

■ A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi:A Candid Biography of theFirst Transgender PrincipalManobi Bandyopadhyaywith Jhimli MukherjeePandeyPenguin RandomHouse₹399

Latha Anantharaman

CMYK

A ND-ND




NON-FICTION

We have heard the legend ofKing Uttanapada who re-jected his first wife and

her son Dhruv, reserving all his at-tention and affection for hissecond wife and her son. Dhruvlongs for paternal love, he dreamsof being caressed by his father. Heundertakes a long penance in theforest seeking a boon, to be takenon his father’s lap.

Sometimes myths ‘photograph’reality. Reading Bhimsen Joshi, MyFather by son Raghavendra Bhim-sen Joshi (Raghu) is to see a mod-ern Dhruv undergoing the sameemotions felt by his ancient coun-terpart. Right from the dedicationwe know that the biographer re-cognises his mother’s and wife’slifelong support, but his heart isgiven to a far from ideal father,whotreated his wife and legitimate sonswith scant respect. He surrenders“to the divine notes of my fatherBhimsen Joshi,” and signs off with arevealing image, “to which I am al-ways tied through my umbilicalcord.” A desperate longing for ac-ceptance as the true son fires thebookwith passion.

The author also declares that he“received and understood”Hindustani classical maestroBhimsen Joshi (Bhimanna) throughhis music, but there is little in thebook of that music beyond somemention of riyaz, and eulogies ofperformances. It is about the paterfamilias, his foibles, failings andfame, arousing mixed reactions inthe son.

When the author says, “I amcontent with (my) ordinarinessthat enabledme to understand andappreciate Bhimanna’s greatness,”

we realise that wemust engage notwith what is stated in words, butwith the waves of distress that riseand roll and recede through the220 pages that follow. We begin tohear the son’s sad story, not thefather’s glorious epic.

Tales of abandonmentThis story begins in Nagpur, withthe six-year-old Raghu waking upto hismother’s loudwail, “I am un-done.” The father has been ‘en-trapped’ by another womanwhomthe writer stubbornly refuses toname. She remains ‘She’ and ‘Her’to the dispossessed boy.

What did his father find in theother womanwhen he had a beau-tiful and loving wife in his motherSunanda? Had he notmet Sunandaon visits to her hometown Badami,surreptitiously gifted her with facecream, talcum powder and blousepiece with the impassioned plea,“Marry me, don’t say no!” Later,finding his wife drawing waterfrom a well, had he not shouted,“My wife will not do such chores!”Did he not bring fresh marigoldflowers for her to wear at night?And didn’t Sunanda’s unremittingcare help him get through a severebout of typhoid and recover hisvoice?

When Sunanda was forced tostop at her sister’s place because ofa downpour, didn’t Bhimannacycle through the slush to arrive at3 am, to take her home as hecouldn’t do without her? Howcould the same man decamp onenight with a co-actor? Abandon hislawful wedded partner and theirthree children, even steal her jew-els? How could he allow the home-breaker to use thewife’s gold chain

for hermangalsutra?Sunanda follows her husband to

Pune to beg for help to raise hischildren. She becomes a hanger-onand housemaid in his home,nurses the other woman throughher pregnancy, babysits the new-born. After being shifted to herown humble quarters, Sunandahas to be satisfied with stealthy vis-its and erratic support from Bhi-manna, now famous and earningwell, but too scared of his mistressto give his first family proper pro-tection and financial security.

Raghu describes Bhimanna’ssudden visits with gifts—a bicycle,sharkskin trousers, dresses, roso-golla, giving the son a motorbikeride, driving his family around in

his Dodge car, taking photographswith his new camera, parodying afilm dance for their amusement.“Such moments were few and farbetween: most times, there werealtercations and arguments.”

What is interesting about allthese intimate gossipy happeningsbetween two warring householdsis the fact that Raghu never blameshis father. All rancour is reservedfor ‘her’. It is she who is evil, jeal-ous, who deprives Raghu’s patri-mony, hates to see the legitimateson do well in music without theformal training given to her son.

The author’s ‘father worship’ re-mains unaffected. It is a living pres-ence in memories as when thechild Raghu wakes up to Joshi’s

morning riyaz in the days before‘she’ parted them. “I snuggledcloser… He paused for a minute,picked me up, kissed me on mycheek. The fragrance of his bodyand touch of his hairy chest comeback tome even now.”

Reading about honours won byhis father, finding his house cor-doned off by security personnelwhen VIPs visited the famous mu-sician, why, even hearing his fath-er’s name announced in Hindi andEnglish before the national radiobroadcasts were to the son “match-less… unforgettable moments ofjoy.” You hear the rapture in thevoice when he says, “A singleshower of his music was worth ahundred blows of indifference.”

In his translation Shirish Chind-hade retains the flavours of the ori-ginal Marathi, the texture of bilin-gual (Kannada-Marathi) townculture, a personal and conversa-tional tone. The continual citing ofexamples frommyths adds authen-ticity to the narrative.

Raghu loves to recall incidentsfrom Bhimanna’s early life—the in-fant of three teaching hismother tosing a Purandaradasa bhajan; thechild singing to the crowding henswhen he gets stuck in a chickencoop; the schoolboy saying, “But Iam only going to sing,” whenthrashed for failing in all subjects;the actor who covers his head andspins the charkha as KasturbaGandhi; the disciple hiding fromhis guru in friend and classmateGangubai Hangal’s bathroom; thesinger who astounds with his clas-sic Yaman, but can alsowalk on thestreets chanting bhajans with pil-grims.

Father’s boyThe son never sees weak-minded-ness or lack of moral strength inthe father, only misleading vulner-ability, endearing innocence. Ex-ploited by the other woman, herfamily and her children, he suffersin silence. He doesn’t know how todeal with their rapacity, nor is heable to right wrongs done to his le-gitimate family. The son believesthat painful experiences and someguilt make Bhimanna’s music radi-ant, profound. Bhimanna’s lifeends in sickness, neglect, like“Bhishma on a bed of arrows.” Herefuses to move to Raghu’s caringhome because he believes thatthose who had robbed him shouldalso perform the distasteful duty ofnursing him in his last days.

The biographer rants against theinjustice done to him and his fam-ily by ill wishers.

At the end of the book, you areleft with the question: did this writ-ing become an act of catharsis forthe author?

A hundred blows of indiferenceA desperate longing for acceptance makes us hear a son’s sad story, not a legend’s glorious voice

■ Bhimsen Joshi, My FatherRaghavendra Bhimsen JoshiTranslated by Shirish ChindhadeOxford University Press₹550

Gowri Ramnarayan

Mixed emotions: The author sees only endearing innocence in his father,Bhimanna. * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The tradition of a fatherwriting to his child is a

long and glorious one in liter-ature. There is, of course, Ifby Rudyard Kipling with itsevocation of honour andgood sense though some-whatmoralistic. There isWil-liam Butler Yeats expressinghis fears in the poignant APrayer for My Daughter. Let-ters have often provided amore sustained way of com-municating with a childwhen separated due to un-avoidable reasons, the bestexample being Nehru’s let-ters to his daughter, Indira,written fromprison. In eachsuch attempt, there is thestriving of a parent to com-municate and leave behindsomethingmore tangible andlasting thanmerememories.

Omar Saif Ghobash is theambassador of the UnitedArab Emirates to Russia. InLetters to a YoungMuslim, hewrites a series of long but in-timate letters tohis elder son,aged 17. Written in lucidprose, there are no earth-shattering revelations norany moments of epiphany.Instead, he tells his son that

the questions he faces, suchas how to be a ‘good’ Muslimin the presentworld, and thesolutions he finds or ispresented with, are ques-tions andsolutions thatmanyothers have faced aswell.

Ghobash’s father waskilled in a terrorist attack in1977. These letters are an at-tempt to pass on somethinghe himself was deprived ofand,more importantly, as hewrites: “I do not want you tolearn themost important les-sons in life from people whodo not love you as I loveyou... I want you to knowabout the things I believeafter more than thirty yearsof thinking aboutmy father's

death.His death forcedme toanswer... difficult questions;it shaped the way in which Iview theworld.”

Unflinchingly, Ghobashaddresses several thorny is-sues: the constant linkagebetween Islam and terror-ism, the sectarianism thatcauses a Sunni Muslim totake up arms against a Shia,the growth of IS, the influx ofMuslim refugees in Europe,the notion of jihad and itsmooring in Islam, whethertheKoran should be the onlybook of knowledge forMuslims, theMuslim’s prob-lematic relationshipwith theWest and vice-versa. At amore personal level, Gho-bash talks of being ‘a half-race Arab who spoke Arabicwith difficulty’ (since hismotherwas Russian) and hisencounters with ‘language,blood and patriarchs’ as helearnt to negotiate racism.

An outsider from themainstream, born withoutthe luxury of having all hisboxes ticked, Ghobash cau-tions his son against preju-dice. This is a book by a braveman, awiseMuslimanda lov-ing father; it shouldbe read.

A plea against prejudiceA diplomat writes to his son on how to view Islam,while touching upon thorny issues like religious terrorism

■ Letters to a Young MuslimOmar Saif GhobashPanMacmillan₹499

Rakhshanda Jalil

Who or what is ‘anti-national’? The JawaharlalNehru University Teachers’Association organised ateach-in for a month lastFebruary to address themeaning, history andexperience of nationalismand its unresolved dilemmasin India and the world. Thelectures have now beencollected in a book.

BOOKSHELF

■ What the Nation ReallyNeeds to Know: The JNUNationalism LecturesRohit Azad, Janaki Nair,Mohinder Singh, MallarikaSinha RoyHarperCollins₹299

A grandfather’s impoverishedlife in rural Tamil Nadu in the1920s gives us a glimpse ofthe complex history of thetime. The book explores thelife of an ordinary man—orphan, refugee,shopkeeper—during a centuryof tremendous hope andupheaval. It’s a fascinatingstory of someone who found‘modest success in a life oftrouble, chance, nerve andruse.’

■ Ayya’s Accounts: ALedger of Hope inModern IndiaAnand Pandian &M.P.MariappanTranquebar/WestlandBooks₹399

A compilation of writingshighlights key issues anddevelopments of theAndaman and Nicobar islandsover the last two decades.Pankaj Sekhsaria, anenvironmental journalist whohas tracked the fragile islandsassiduously, maps thevolatile region and provides aframework for the wayforward. He puts a spotlighton the region to help readersunderstand this volatile chainof islands better.

■ Islands in Flux: TheAndaman and NicobarStoryPankaj SekhsariaHarperCollins India₹299

In this short history of theHolocaust, the author makesextensive use of previouslyuntapped resources such asdiaries and letters fromwithin the ghettos andcamps. He also adopts arigorously Judeocentricapproach so that the wholenarrative of themarch togenocide and its aftermath ispresented in a subtlydiferent timeline which castsafresh the horror of theperiod.

■ Final Solution: The Fateof The Jews 1933-49David CesaraniPanMacmillan₹599

CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

THIRD TEST, DAY 3, JSCA INTERNATIONAL STADIUM, RANCHI

AUSTRALIA — 1ST INNINGS 451

INDIA — 1ST INNINGS RUNS BALLS 4s 6s

K.L. Rahul c Wade b Cumminsdddddddddddd ddd 67 ddddd 102 dddddddd 9 dddddddddd

M. Vijay st Wade b O’Keefeddddddddddddddd ddd 82 ddddd 183 dddddd 10 dddddddd 1

Cheteshwar Pujara (batting)ddddddddddddd dd130 ddddd 328 dddddd 17 dddddddddd

Virat Kohli c Smith b Cummins ddddddddddd ddddd6 dddddd 23 dddddddddd dddddddddd

Ajinkya Rahane c Wade b Cummins dddddd ddd 14 dddddd 33 dddddddd 2 dddddddddd

Karun Nair b Hazlewood ddddddddddddddddd ddd 23 dddddd 47 dddddddd 2 dddddddddd

R. Ashwin c Wade b Cummins dddddddddddd ddddd3 dddddd 22 dddddddddd dddddddddd

Wriddhiman Saha (batting) dddddddddddddd ddd 18 dddddd 42 dddddddd 3 dddddddddd

Extras (b-14, lb-3) ddddddddddddddddddddddd ddd 17

Total (for six wkts. in 130 overs) ddddddddd dd 360

Fall of wickets:1-91 (Rahul, 31.2 overs), 2-193 (Vijay, 70.4), 3-225 (Kohli, 80.4), 4-276(Rahane, 91.2), 5-320 (Nair, 107.4), 6-328 (Ashwin, 115.4).

AUSTRALIA BOWLING: Hazlewood 31-9-66-1, Cummins 25-8-59-4, O’Keefe 43-11-117-1, Lyon 29-2-97-0, Maxwell 2-0-4-0.

Sometimes small technicaladjustments can make a bigdifference. Take the case ofCheteshwar Pujara. He ismore relaxed and comfort-able inhis stance thesedays.

Earlier, he used to crouchand this affected his transferof weight and movement,particularly on to the backfoot. He was putting moreweight onhis front leg andhisbat was coming down from awider angle. More uprightnow, his willow is travellingdown straighter.

Defending solidly anddriv-ing with fluency, authorityand footwork, Pujara, battingon 130, was at the heart of anIndian fightback at the JSCAStadiumhere onSaturday.

And the host, replying toAustralia’s 451, progressed to360 for six at stumps on thethirddayof the thirdTest.

Intense contestOn a surface still playing goodbut for the odd delivery keep-ing low, the contest in themiddlewas intense. Australiabowled tight in the first hourbefore India broke free. Thehost gained some mo-mentum in the middle ses-sion but the visitor camebackin the third.

For the Indians, Pujarawasthe hub. He got himself intolovely positions for his drivesand flicks and excelled withhis shots down the ground.

The right-hander also cut andpunchedoff theback foot.

For Australia, Pat Cum-mins bowledwith fire and ve-locity to scalp four; he usedhis high-arm release to ex-tract bounce. He has a rock-back in his action and em-ploys thenon-bowling armef-fectively to generate speed.

The second-wicket part-nership of 102 between Pu-

jara and opener M. Vijay (82)was thehighest of theday.

The two Indians handledspinners Nathan Lyon andSteveO’Keefewith feetmove-ment and confidence.

Vijay employed the sweepshot effectively, particularlyagainst Lyon and slog-sweptO’Keefe.

Organised at the creasewith his movements meas-

ured, Vijay seemed on coursefor a hundred. But then, in arush of blood, he jumped outtoO’Keefe in the final over be-fore lunch andwas stumped.

On resumption, the redhot Cummins took out a tent-ative Virat Kohli — the Indiancaptain had walked in afterundergoing a net session un-der coachAnil Kumble —whofollowed and nicked awidish

delivery to the slip cordon.Then, Cummins removed

Ajinkya Rahane — the Indiancould have left the lifter alone— with the second new ball.The paceman returned to dis-miss R. Ashwin with anotherrising delivery that kissed thegloves.

With the spinners handledcapably by the Indians, theAussie pacemen kept the vis-

itors in the game.Josh Hazlewood followed

the two-card trick, sendingdown a reverse-swinging de-livery after a bouncer tocastleKarunNair.

DRS came under the spot-light again. On 22, Pujara sur-vived a vociferous shout forleg-before when he playedO’Keefe for spin and saw theball go through straight. Theappeal was turned down, theAustralians reviewed, and re-plays were inconclusiveabout the ball striking thepadfirst.

The Australians ran out ofreviews and Vijaymight havebeen out caught bat-pad inthe next over sent down byLyon.

DRS continues to rear itshead in the series. And theumpires are coming under in-creasingpressure.

Pujara, though, appearedto be under no stress, produ-cing the first hundred by anIndian in this series. He is ontheball all right.

Pujara’s ton forms the fulcrum of the India inningsVijay lends a hand in a century stand; Cummins’ strike-power to the fore; the host 91 behind with four wickets in hand

Done in: Josh Hazlewood is delighted after breaching Karun Nair’s defence with reverse swing. * K.R. DEEPAK

S. Dinakar

Ranchi

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

� Pujara, with his seventh

First Class hundred of the

season, emulated M.A.K.

Pataudi (1964-65) and

Sunil Gavaskar (1978-79).

� Only V.V.S. Laxman has

made more — eight

(1999-2000).

� The 102-run stand for the

second wicket was Vijay

and Pujara’s sixth century

partnership of the season.

� Matthew Hayden and

Ricky Ponting hold the

record with seven in

2005-06.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

In the history of cricket, the India-Aus-tralia rivalry occupies a special posi-tion. We, as fans, are enthralled by abattle of equals. The twists and turns inthe ongoing Test series have fuelledemotions and led to debates, specula-tion and opinions.

The debate on Steve Smith’s ‘Dress-ing-room Review System’ refuses to diedown despite a joint statement by theBCCI and Cricket Australia. I hope theserious issues that have been discernedduring this series will not be forgottenin this frenzy.

The nature of the pitch has a signific-ant influence on the outcome, as we

witnessed. Test cricket certainly de-serves better pitches and this mattershould be critically examined.

There have been times in the pastwhen this issue was raised and solu-tions were sought. After observing theIndians struggle on seaming pitchesabroad, the BCCI’s technical committeeintroduced a novel method of playingon green tops during the domestic sea-son. Assessing the local conditions, thecommittee decided to leave 3 to 4 mmof grass on the pitch. This marginalsolution was agreed to by both the tech-nical committee experts and thepitches and grounds committee.

However, the associations refused toforego the home advantage and contin-ued to prepare pitches according to thestate of the match.

In another attempt to arrest thistrend, the technical committee hitupon the experiment of playing RanjiTrophymatches on neutral grounds. Al-

though this succeeded to some extent,the spinners suffered. With the usage ofSG Test balls, the pacers, who could ex-ploit both conventional and reverseswing, were utilised for almost 70% ofthe overs.

Spinners were summoned only whena team was short of overs. Interestingly,when the ball turned , the batsmenstruggled as they lacked practice. Theart of playing spin was thus forgotten.

The most recent example was atPune and Bengaluru when the Indianbatsmen were all at sea against the mostordinary left-arm spin of Steve O’Keefe.Surprisingly, even Mumbaikar AjinkyaRahane, trained in tough maidaan con-ditions, wasn’t confident . His coach,Praveen Amre, may not have appreci-ated his eagerness to play the sweepand lofted shots.

The young generation has to realisethat this game has been played in thepast. The key to developing the perfect

technique is to scrutinise the techniqueand approach of those top-class bats-men. Did we ever see Gavaskar,Viswanath or Vengsarkar employingpremeditated sweep shots against spin-ners on a turning track?

If the idea was to have turnersagainst visiting teams, why did the BCCIexperiment with green tops in Ranjimatches? This clearly indicates a com-munication gap between the Indianteam management and the two BCCIcommittees.

With a 13-Test home season, India isfortunate that both Ashwin and Jadejaare fit to bowl long spells with greatpenetration. At the rapid rate withwhich Ashwin is bowling in interna-tional cricket, he might exceed AnilKumble’s 600 overs and reach 800 inone season! He stands the risk of injur-ing the rotator cuff. Didn’t Kumble suf-fer a similar injury?

Spin is India’s strength wherever we

play. At the moment, India can boast ofonly two top-quality international spin-ners. The rest are incapable of runningthrough teams.

A few seasons ago, some BCCI offi-cials contemplated playing all domestictournaments on uncovered pitches.This suggestion was not accepted as thetechnical committee felt it wasn’t in ac-cordance with the conditions laid downby the ICC.

The advantage of playing on un-covered pitches is that it tightens tech-nique. Players learn to adapt.

On such pitches in the morning, abowler is effective because of the dew.Especially during the Indian winter, itgives him an added advantage. This istricky for batsmen to negotiate. Fromthe third day, even the spinners get tobe more penetrative. Therefore, thequality of cricket is enhanced.

Former India opener and Wankhedestadium curator Sudhir Naik says, “We

always practised at 7 in the morningwhen the pitch had dew. It taught ushow to deal with all sorts of bowling.Modern batsmen are unwilling to baton a practice pitch which is a littledamp. They just don’t want to be out oftheir comfort zone. I feel Indian cricketshould be played on uncovered pitchesat all levels.”

With covered pitches at the juniorand senior level of cricket of BCCI, bats-men are deep in their comfort zone.

When a majority of local Indiancricket is played on uncovered pitches,why shouldn’t the BCCI conduct itsmatches on such pitches? In fact, if oneanalyses the technique of Indian bats-men, they were better equipped whenthey were not playing on coveredpitches.

Sometimes, the old ways provide thebest solutions. Going back to uncoveredpitches will certainly change the face ofIndian cricket.

A return to uncovered pitches will change the face of our cricketIt will take batsmen out of their comfort zones, tighten their technique and help them learn to adapt to diferent challenges

FRANKLY SPEAKINGMakarand Waingankar

M. Vijay’s visagemasked thedisappointment ofmissing agilt-edged opportunity toscore ahundred.

On the stroke that led tohis dismissal, Vijay said, “Iwas not disappointed actu-ally because the shotwas on.Mid-on andmid-off inside. Ithought it was my shot, butsituation [just before lunch]was wrong and, I guess, theexecution was not up to themark.”

The opener said, “Thegame is evenly poised. If wecan get closer to the targetand maybe, if possible, ex-tend a lead from there, itwould be a good game forus.” Vijay admitted that theAussie bowling gave littleaway in the first session andsaid he and Cheteshwar Pu-jara, after a chat, had de-cided to take on thebowling.

On Pujara, who notchedup his 11th Test hundred, Vi-

jay said, “He takes a lot ofpressureoff others.His gameis such that you can dependonhimandplay your naturalgame.”

Queried about lack ofruns from skipper ViratKohli, Vijay said, “He’s aworld-class player. To judgeany player on two or threeinnings is unfair. It’s just amatter of time for him to getback into runs. I think itwouldbe sooner than later.”

Australia’s bowling coachDavid Saker was impressedby Pat Cummins’ comeback.“I thought last night hebowled particularly well buttoday he backed that up. Toproduce some of the balls hebowled to get wickets waspretty exciting.”

Revealing the Aussie planagainst Kohli, Saker said, “Ifplayers have got upper bodyinjuries then sometimesyou’re trying to bowl someshort balls to themandmakethemmovequickly.”

‘I thought theshot was on’But the execution was not up to themark, says the India opener


Ranchi

Reliable: Cheteshwar Pujara takes a lot of pressure of otherbatsmen, allowing them to play their natural game, accordingtoM. Vijay. * K.R. DEEPAK

“He would be disappointedwith that,” muttered RaviShastri after opener M. Vijay,suffering a momentary lapseof reason, gifted his wicketat the stroke of lunch.

“You know, I told himwhen I saw him first that heis a 20-Test-hundred man.Vijay’s that good.”

This is a momentous Testfor the 32-year-old Vijay —the 50th of his career — anda hundred, there for the tak-ing, would have capped theoccasion.

“But he will play a lotmore Tests, get a lot moreruns,” said Shastri during achat with The Hindu.

Determined openerShastri, a courageous anddetermined opener in hisdays, also served as the Dir-ector of the Indian cricket

team till June, 2016. He com-prehends Vijay well.

“We’ve had long conver-sations about batting in dif-ferent conditions. The talkswere engaging. Vijay is veryfocused,” said Shastri.

The former India all-rounder highlighted Vijay’stechnical attributes.

“He’s a fine ‘leaver’ of theball, handles the short ballwell. For an opener, he is aterrific player of spin. He’s

just a solid player whomakes runs in allconditions.”

Shastri said, “Vijayhandles pressure well, canchange the tempo. And he’sa team-man.”

Shastri, who opened withanother Chennai cricketer,the swashbuckling enter-tainer K. Srikkanth duringhis time, said, “Vijay andSrikkanth are as different aschalk and cheese.”

Shastri’s Vijay prediction‘When I irst saw him, told him he is a 20-Test-hundred man’

S. Dinakar

Ranchi

Rush of blood:M. Vijay jumps out to Steve O’Keefe andMatthewWade does the rest. * K.R. DEEPAK

After two days of peace, thingsmay be getting out of handagain.

The Indian camp was un-happy with Glenn Maxwellmimicking India captain ViratKohli’s shoulder injury afterdiving to stop a ball near theropes here on Saturday.

Talking about the incident,Vijay said, “A lot of things arehappening, but we are reallyfocused on the game.

“We have a match on hand,we have to get close to theAustralian total, these are thethings running in our heads inthe dressing room.”

He added, “All the playersare aware of the incident.

Whatever they are doing, weare taking it sportingly. There'sgoing to be a second innings,so if they can take it that way, itwould be great.”

Interestingly, it was Max-well’s spectacular fielding thatkept Kohli on strike when theAussies were targeting the In-dia skipper through spearheadPat Cummins. And, the Aussiefast bowler got his man.

After Australia lost its tworeviews in the first 80 overs,Kohli came to the balcony andclapped.

Commenting on that incid-ent, Aussie bowling coachDavid Saker said, “I know hecame out and clapped. I don’tknow if it was directed at any-one in particular but that’s the

way he’s been playing thisseries.”

He added, “It’s a really cut-throat series for everyone andit’s first versus second, there’s alot of pressure on him at themoment.”

Saker said, “I don’t think itwas directed at anything, I justthink when you lose your tworeviews it’s a bit of a relief tothe opposition and he probablyjust showed that.”

There was also speculationabout Steve Smith rubbing hisshoulder and mocking Kohliafter the latter’s dismissal.

However, it turned out to bean optical illusion and thebroadcaster clarified that it wasPeter Handscomb’s hand on theAustralian skipper’s shoulder.

Maxwell ‘antics’ don’t bother IndiaSpecial Correspondent

Ranchi

The mass appeal of M.S.Dhoni stood underlined as acrowd of over a 1000thronged the FerozeshahKotla expecting to watch himplay the winning role forJharkhand. But that was notto be. Bengal did not let mo-mentary lapses upset itsplans of making Monday’s fi-nal of the Vijay HazareTrophy against Tamil Naduhere.

After confidently march-ing to 329 for four in 50overs, Bengal bowled outJharkhand for 288 to registera comfortable 41-run victory.

The crowd cheered everyrun the former India captainhit, but was left disappoin-ted when Dhoni was bowledafter an entertaining 62-ball70.

Earlier, a business-likeBengal made the most of theinvitation to bat. OpenersShreevats Goswami and Ab-himanyu Easwaran scoredcenturies each as they laidthe foundation for the team’sbig score.

Skipper Manoj Tiwaryprovided the necessary im-petus by scoring an un-beaten 75 off just 49 deliver-ies as the last 10 oversproduced 99 runs.The scores:

Bengal: Shreevats Goswami cDeobrat b Monu Kumar 101,Abhimanyu Easwaran run out101, Manoj Tiwary (not out) 75,Agniv Pan c Nadeem b Aaron19, Sudip Chatterjee c Jaggi bAaron 19, Anustup Majumdar(not out) 1; Extras (b-1, lb-4,w-8): 13; Total (for four wickets

in 50 overs): 329

Fall of wickets: 1-198, 2-229, 3-270, 4-316.

Jharkhand bowling: VarunAaron 10-1-89-2, Monu Kumar10-0-40-1, Rahul Shukla 10-0-75-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 10-0-60-0, Kaushal Singh 10-0-60-0.

Jharkhand: Virat Singh c Gos-wami b Ghosh 24, PratyushSingh b Seth 11, Kumar Deobratc Goswami b Seth 37, SaurabhTiwary b Dinda 48, M.S. Dhoni bOjha 70, Ishank Jaggi lbw bGhosh 59, Kaushal Singh c Sethb Ojha 16, Monu Kumar b Ojha0, Varun Aaron st. Goswami bOjha 7, Shahbaz Nadeem cGhosh b Ojha 8, Rahul Shukla(not out) 2; Extras (lb-3, w-3):6; Total (in 50 overs): 288.

Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-56, 3-99, 4-153, 5-250, 6-258, 7-259,8-276, 9-285.

Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda10-1-44-1, Kanishk Seth 10-0-48-2, Sayan Ghosh 9-0-52-2,Aamir Gani 10-0-56-0, PragyanOjha 10-0-71-5, AnustupMajumdar 1-0-14-0.

Toss: Jharkhand.

Dhoni fails tostop BengalGoswami, Abhimanyu hit centuries;Ojha bags ive wicketsRakesh Rao

New Delhi

Shreevats Goswami andAbhimanyu Easwaran (facingcamera) made 101 each. * PTI

The Supreme Court ap-pointed Committee of Ad-ministrators (CoA) made itsfirst significant move at itsmeeting in New Delhi onFriday by adopting theJustice Lodha Committee-authored Memorandum ofAssociation, Rules andRegulations.

It’s understood the CoAhad taken legal opinion be-fore adopting the MoA andRules and Regulations andeven going a step furtherand putting it up on theBCCI website.

The CoA is expected tomention this particular as-pect, among others, in itssecond status report to theSupreme Court onMonday, when a handful ofpetitions will be up forhearing.

After being given themandate to enforce theLodha Committee recom-mendations (with modific-ations), the CoA will nowapproach the Apex Courtto find out if it has done theright thing.

Should the CoA receive afavourable response, it willprobably give threemonths to the 31 full mem-bers to adopt it.

The full members willalso be given two weeks torespond to the findings inthe Deloitte report.

CoA gets setfor SC actiononMondayG. Viswanath

Mumbai

Mustafizur Rahman andShakib Al Hasan shared sixwickets between them butSri Lanka fought backthrough Dimuth Karunar-atne’s fighting century inthe second cricket Testhere on Saturday.

Karunaratne held oneend for a long period toscore 126 before a doggedunbeaten innings of Dil-ruwan Perera helped SriLanka reach 268 for eightat stumps on the fourthday to stretch its lead to 139runs.

That lead looked a dis-tant possibility onceMustafizur and Shakibtriggered a collapse duringthe post-lunch session butKarunaratne hung on toscore 126 before Pereramade 26 off 126 balls.

AdvantageBangladeshAgence France-Presse

Colombo

Sri Lanka — 1st innings: 338.Bangladesh — 1st innings:467.Sri Lanka — 2nd innings: D.Karunaratne c Sarkar b Shakib126, U. Tharanga bMehedi 26,K. Mendis c Mushfiqur bMustafizur 36, D. Chandimal cMushfiqur b Mustafizur 5, A.Gunaratne lbw b Shakib 7, D.de Silva c Mushfiqur bMustafizur 0, N. Dickwella cMushfiqur b Shakib 5, D. Per-era (batting) 26, R. Herathlbw b Taijul 9, S. Lakmal (bat-ting) 16, Extras (b-4, lb-7,w-1) 12; Total (for eight wkts.in 100 overs) 268.Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-143, 3-165, 4-176, 5-177, 6-190, 7-217, 8-238.Bangladesh bowling: Sub-ashis 16-4-36-0, Mehedi 22-0-67-1, Mustafizur 19-3-52-3,Shakib 30-8-61-3, Mosaddek3-0-10-0, Taijul 10-1-31-1.

SCOREBOARD

CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

SUDOKU

Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Mathews out of ODIseries, Tharanga captainCOLOMBO

Sri Lanka skipper Angelo

Mathews was left out of a

15-member squad for the

three-match One-Day

International series against

Bangladesh that starts next

week. Sri Lanka Cricket said in

a statement on Saturday that

Upul Tharanga would be

captain after Mathews failed

to recover from injury. AFP

IN BRIEF

Pro- and anti-Wengerfans duke it outWEST BROMWICH

Rival groups of Arsenal fans

paid for planes trailing both

critical and supportive Arsene

Wenger banners to fly over

The Hawthorns during

Saturday’s game against West

Bromwich Albion.

A banner that read “NO

CONTRACT #WENGER OUT”

was seen flying above the

stadium shortly before the

Premier League game kicked

off.

But in the 16th minute, with

the score 1-1, another plane

was spotted overhead with a

banner that read: “IN

ARSENE WE TRUST

#RESPECTAW”.AFP

New Zealand — 1st innings:268.

South Africa — 1st innings: S.Cook c Neesham b Southee 3, D.Elgar c Neesham b de Grand-homme 9, K. Rabada b Southee9, H. Amla c Nicholls b deGrandhomme 21, J-P Duminy cNicholls b Wagner 16, F. duPlessis c Watling b de Grand-homme 22, T. Bavuma c Nee-sham b Wagner 89, Q. de Kock cWatling b Neesham 91, V. Phil-ander (not out) 37, K. Maharaj cWilliamson b Wagner 1, M.Morkel b Patel 40; Extras (b-4,lb-5, w-12): 21; Total (in 98overs): 359.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-12, 3-26,4-59, 5-79, 6-94, 7-254, 8-290,9-302.

New Zealand bowling: Southee27-7-98-2, de Grandhomme 23-7-52-3, Wagner 22-1-102-3, Pa-tel 14-1-57-1, Neesham12-2-41-1

New Zealand — 2nd innings: T.Latham c Duminy b Morkel 6, J.Raval st. de Kock b Maharaj 80,K. Williamson c de Kock bMorkel 1, N. Broom c de Kock bMorkel 20, H. Nicholls b Maharaj7, J. Neesham c du Plessis b Ma-haraj 4, B. Watling c Duminy bMaharaj 29, C. de Grandhommeb Maharaj 0, T. Southee c Du-miny b Maharaj 4, J. Patel c deKock b Rabada 0, N. Wagner(not out) 4; Extras (b-10, lb-1,w-5): 16; Total (in 63.2 overs):171.

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-26, 3-

64, 4-86, 5-90, 6-155, 7-161, 8-167, 9-167.

South Africa bowling: Morkel11-0-50-3, Philander 12-3-28-0,Rabada 17-5-38-1, Maharaj 20.2-7-40-6, Duminy 3-1-4-0.

South Africa — 2nd innings: S.Cook c Neesham b Southee 11,D. Elgar c Watling b Wagner 17,H. Amla (not out) 38, J. Duminy(not out) 15; Extras (w-2): 2;Total (for two wkts. in 24.3overs): 83.

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-48.

New Zealand bowling: Southee6-2-17-1, de Grandhomme 8-1-20-0, Wagner 8-2-18-1, Nee-sham 2.3-0-28-0.

Man-of-the-Match: Maharaj.South Africa won by eight wick-ets.

SCOREBOARD NEW ZEALAND VS SOUTH AFRICA, 2ND TEST

MUMBAI: Timeless, who ran thirdin his last start, is in good shapeand should make amends in theShapoorji Pallonji Breeders’ Ju-venile Colts’ Championship andSummer Rays should score in theForbes Breeders’ Juvenile Fillies’Championship, the stellar attrac-tions of the races to be held hereon Sunday (March 19).There will be no false rails.

1 P. R. MEHTA TROPHY

(2,400m), Cl. III, rated 40 to66, 3-00 pm: 1. Vulcan (3) Trevor59, 2. Geranium (2) Neeraj 54.5, 3.June (1) C.S.Jodha 54 and 4. OllyBoy (-) (-) 54.1. GERANIUM, 2. VULCAN

2 R. M & RUKMANI GOCULDAS

MILLION (1,400m), 4-y-o &over, 3-30: 1. Your Royal Majesty(4) Trevor 59, 2. Dancing Prances(2) A.Imran Khan 57, 3. Brah-machari (5) Parmar 53, 4. CelticPrince (1) Neeraj 51, 5. RuleDownunder (6) C.S.Jodha 51 and6. Champagne (3) Sandesh 49.5.1. YOUR ROYAL MAJESTY, 2. DAN-

CING PRANCES

3 FORBES BREEDERS’ JUVENILE

FILLIES’ CHAMPIONSHIP (Gr.III) (1,600m), Indian Fillies, 3-y-oonly, 4-00: 1. Angels Touch (1)P.S.Chouhan 57, 2. Manifold (6)Neeraj 57, 3. Selfie Star (3)

Sandesh 57, 4. Summer Rays (5)Suraj Narredu 57, 5. Swiftness (2)S.Amit 57 and 6. Themis (4) Tre-vor 57.1. SUMMER RAYS, 2. SELFIE STAR

4 RACING WORLD TROPHY

(1,600m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to46, 4-30: 1. Irises (1) Daman 59, 2.Trombone (9) Sandesh 59, 3.Furious N’ Fast (3) S.Amit 58, 4.Celestial Light (5) Trevor 56, 5. Di-wali Lights (8) Bhawani 54,6.Smasher (6) Akshay 54, 7. Com-mandperformance (2) Merchant53, 8. Untitled (7) Parbat 52.5 and9. Aurora Australis (4) K.Kadam52.1. TROMBONE, 2. CELESTIAL

LIGHT, 3. IRISES

5 SHAPOORJI PALLONJI BREED-

ERS’ JUVENILE COLTS’CHAMPI-

ONSHIP (Gr. III) (1,600m), IndianColts and Geldings, 3-y-o only, 5-00: 1. Big Sur (6) Dashrath 57, 2.Caprisca (3) Trevor 57, 3. Lord OfThe Sea (4) Neeraj 57, 4. Mygrator(2) Sandesh 57, 5. Pure Zinc (7)J.Chinoy 57, 6. Rochester (1) SurajNarredu 57 and 7. Timeless (5)A.Imran Khan 57.1. TIMELESS, 2. CAPRISCA

6 J. RUSTOMJI SOPARIVALA

TROPHY (1,000m), Cl. IV,rated 20 to 46, 5-30: 1. RomanticLass (5) Neeraj 61.5, 2. Moneywise

(9) Joseph 61, 3. Dazzling Dancer(10) Shahrukh 60.5, 4. Gulfoss (6)C.S.Jodha 60.5, 5. Alfredo (1) San-tosh 58.5, 6. Baryshnikhov (11)Trevor 58, 7. Locarno (2) Nadeem58, 8. Logano (3) S.Amit 55.5, 9.Royal Sapphire (4) Dashrath 55.5,10. Speedo (7) Parbat 54.5 and 11.Asahi (8) Raj Pawar 50.

1. LOCARNO, 2. BARYSHNIKHOV, 3.

ROMANTIC LASS

7 PRONTO PRONTO PLATE(1,400m), Cl. V, rated 01 to 26,

6-00: 1. Allegria (10) Trevor 60, 2.Kiss From A Rose (2) A.Gaikwad60, 3. Firenze (3) Neeraj 59.5, 4.The Big Revival (12) Jaykumar59.5, 5. Smoky Haze (8) Daman59, 6. Vitesse (6) J.Chinoy 58.5, 7.Baker Street (13) Zeeshan 58, 8.Armando (1) Bhawani 56, 9. ArcOf Passion (11) C.S.Jodha 55.5, 10.Western Lights (4) Ayyar 53.5, 11.Coat Of Arms (9) Kuldeep 52.5, 12.Secret Flame (5) Dashrath 52.5and 13. Gold Streak (7) S.Amit 50.

1. KISS FROM A ROSE 2. BAKER

STREET, 3. SECRET FLAME

Day’s best: GERANIUM

Double: YOUR ROYAL MAJESTY –

TROMBONE

Jackpot: 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7. Treble : 5, 6& 7. Tanala : 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7. SuperJackpot : 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.

Timeless, Summer Rays fancied

BENGALURU:CapoDe Capi (P. Tre-vor up) won the Bangalore Juven-ile Million, the chief event of theconcluding day’s races held hereon Saturday (March 18). The win-ner is owned by United Racing &Bloodstock Breeders Ltd. rep. byMr &Mrs. VijayMallya and trainedby IrfanGhatala.CHAMPION TRAINER: PrasannaKumar 24winners.CHAMPION JOCKEY: Suraj Narredu36winners.CHAMPION JOCKEY CLAIMING AL-

LOWANCE: Rayan Ahmed sevenwinners.HORSE OF THE SEASON: MickeyMouse (won three races andplaced twice).CHAMPIONHORSE:Temerity.THERESULTS:

1 SOMANATHPUR PLATE

(1,200m), rated 00 to 20, 5-y-o& over: SHIVALIK BOY (Srinath) 1,Arziki (Darshan) 2, Tic Tac Toe (S.John) 3 and Golden Friend (A. Im-ran Khan) 4. 1/2, 1-3/4 and Shd. 1m15.21s. Rs. 37 (w), 17, 22 and 22 (p),SHP: Rs. 62, FP: Rs. 222, Q: Rs. 115,Trinella: Rs. 498 and Rs. 249, Ex-acta: Rs. 4,433 and Rs. 2,090. Fa-vourite: Shivalik Boy. Owners: Mr.SanjayRai &Mrs. PrabhaDominic.Trainer: S. Britto.

2 LEADING TIPSTER TROPHY

(1,600m), rated 00 to 20:KINGS KID (Srinath) 1, Reverberat-ing (S. John) 2, Simple Sum (SurajNarredu) 3 and Crazy Pineapple(Rayan Ahmed) 4. Not run: Brave-heart. 1, 3/4 and 1-1/4. 1m41.18s. Rs.45 (w), 16, 20 and 20 (p), SHP: Rs.

56, FP: Rs. 183, Q: Rs. 88, Trinella:Rs. 521 and Rs. 162, Exacta: Rs.2,123 and Rs. 1,385. Favourite:Midnight Sky. Owner: Mr. Mritun-jay Sharan Thakur. Trainer: ImtiazKhan.

3 TOTALIZATOR CUP (Div. II),(1,200m), rated 15 to 35, 5-y-o&

over: GAME GUY (Raja Rao) 1, CoolSprings (Shobhan) 2,White Snow-drops (Syed Imran) 3 and El Mata-dor (K.Mukesh) 4. Not run: LovelyDancer and OneMan Show. Nk, 1-1/4 and 1-3/4. 1m 14.18s. Rs. 40 (w),17, 22 and 49 (p), SHP: Rs. 68, FP:Rs. 317, Q: Rs. 150, Trinella: Rs.8,193 and Rs. 3,160, Exacta: Rs.31,734 and Rs. 13,600. Favourite:Game Guy. Owner: Mr. H.S.Chandre Gowda. Trainer: FarazArshad.

4 CHAMPION JOCKEY TROPHY

(2,000m), rated 15 to 35: JER-SEY BEAUTY (P. Trevor) 1, TreeLounge (S. John) 2, Ocean Park (R.Manish) 3 and Granada (K.Mukesh) 4. 2-1/4, Hd. and Lnk. 2m09.64s. Rs. 25 (w), 12, 23 and 88(p), SHP: Rs. 62, FP: Rs. 177, Q: Rs.102, Trinella: Rs. 2,118 and Rs.1,297, Exacta: Rs. 7,329 and Rs.4,083. Favourite: Ninon. Owners:Mr.Ananth Iyengar&Mr. JairamG.Kimmane. Trainer: PrasannaKumar.

5 TOTALIZATOR CUP (Div. I),(1,200m), rated 15 to 35, 5-y-o &

over: CHICAGO (Srinath) 1, Celes-tial Storm (Chetan Gowda) 2,Fioroloco (M. Prabhakaran) 3 andAll Thats Nice (Rayan Ahmed) 4.

Not run: Boysterous. Snk, 7 and3/4. 1m 13.98s. Rs. 29 (w), 15, 18 and25 (p), SHP: Rs. 60, FP: Rs. 133, Q:Rs. 72, Trinella: Rs. 402 and Rs.183, Exacta: Rs. 3,244 and Rs.1,998. Favourite: Chicago. Own-ers: Mr. Naresh Kumar Pawar &Mr. R.M. Ramaswamy. Trainer:Azhar Ali.

6 LEADINGOWNERTROPHY (Div.I), (1,400m), rated 45 to 65, 5-

y-o & over: EL FENIX (Srinath) 1,Honour (A. Imran Khan) 2, Virat(K.Mukesh) 3 andNative Elements(M. Prabhakaran) 4. Lnk, 1-3/4 and3/4. 1m 25.46s. Rs. 39 (w), 18, 27and 160 (p), SHP: Rs. 95, FP: Rs.530, Q: Rs. 318, Trinella: Rs. 18,161and Rs. 10,378, Exacta: Rs.1,07,034 (carried over). Favourite:Eragon. Owners: Mr. Rajan Aggar-wal & Mr. Gautam Aggarwal.Trainer: Darius.

7 BANGALORE JUVENILE MIL-

LION (1,400m), 3-y-o, (Terms):CAPO DE CAPI (P. Trevor) 1, LadyBarrington (David Allan) 2, AngelPower (Suraj Narredu) 3 and LordBuckingham (Irvan Singh) 4. 3-1/4,Shd and 5-1/4. 1m25.17s. Rs. 52 (w),17, 12 and 20 (p), SHP: Rs. 51, FP:Rs. 172, Q: Rs. 46, Trinella: Rs. 493and Rs. 329, Exacta: Rs. 2,933 andRs. 1,671. Favourite: Lady Barring-ton. Owners: United Racing &Bloodstock Breeders Ltd. rep. byMr &Mrs. VijayMallya. Trainer: Ir-fanGhatala.

8 LEADING STUD TROPHY

(1,200m), rated 60 & above:LIGHTNING STRIKES (P. Trevor) 1,

Saladin (David Allan) 2, TopStriker (K. Mukesh) 3 and SideWinder (S. John) 4. 1-1/4, 3-1/4 and3/4. 1m 12.42s. Rs. 59 (w), 17, 16 and74 (p), SHP: Rs. 44, FP: Rs. 155, Q:Rs. 84, Trinella: Rs. 3,337 and Rs.2,574, Exacta: Rs. 20,356 and Rs.3,116. Favourite: Saladin. Owners:Mr. Rajan Aggarwal &Mr. GautamAggarwal. Trainer: G. Sandhu.

9 CHAMPION TRAINER TROPHY

(1,600m), rated 30 to 50:TINDERELLA (David Allan) 1, Ad-miral One (Rayan Ahmed) 2, Lam-rei (A. Ramu) 3 and Tanoura (SurajNarredu) 4. Not run: Lightning At-tack and Proudprince. Shd, Lnkand 1-1/2. 1m 39.19s. Rs. 28 (w), 15,18 and 120 (p), SHP: Rs. 50, FP: Rs.116, Q: Rs. 86, Trinella: Rs. 2,086and Rs. 1,660, Exacta: Rs. 11,213and Rs. 3,204. Favourite: Tinder-ella. Owner: Mr. T.S. Suresh.Trainer: S. Padmanabhan.

1 0LEADING OWNER TROPHY

(Div. II), (1,400m), rated 45 to65, 5-y-o & over: FAIR GAME

(Shobhan) 1, Hector (SurajNarredu) 2, Majestic Style (P. Tre-vor) 3 and China One (Irvan Singh)4. Nk, 3-1/4 and 1. 1m 25.32s. Rs.109 (w), 27, 14 and 18 (p), SHP: Rs.43, FP: Rs. 275, Q: Rs. 111, Trinella:Rs. 434 and Rs. 243, Exacta: Rs.3,235 and Rs. 1,791. Favourite:Hector. Owner: Mr. B. Yathiraj Sh-etty. Trainer: KishanThomas.Jackpot: Rs. 44,750 (14 tkts.); Run-ner-up: Rs. 932 (288 tkts.); Treble(i): Rs. 403 (40 tkts.); (ii): Rs. 484(41 tkts.); (iii): Rs. 831 (83 tkts.).

Capo De Capi runs away withBangalore Juvenile Million

Keshav Maharaj took a career-best six wickets to set up aneight-wicket win for SouthAfrica inside three days afterNew Zealand crumpled onSaturday.

It gave South Africa an un-beatable 1-0 lead in the serieswith one Test to play.

Faced with Maharaj's left-arm spin and the seam andbounce of Morne Morkel, NewZealand struggled through thesecond innings to be all outfor 171.

Maharaj finished with sixfor 40, the best figures andsecond five-wicket haul in hisfledgling six-Test career whileMorkel took the top off theNew Zealand innings to havethree for 50.

Morkel chips in with three top-order scalps

Maharaj’s six sets up three-daywin for South Africa

Career-best returns:Maharaj took the second ive-wicket haulof his six-Test career. * HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES

Agence France-Presse

Wellington

Second seed N. Sriram Balajicame back from a set downto beat top seed PrajneshGunneswaran 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 inthe final of the $15,000 ITFFutures tournament here onSaturday.

This was Balaji’s secondsingles title in the last fivetournaments, and coming asit did on the day he turned27 against a player who hadbeaten him in the previousfinal in Bhilai, it was indeeddoubly sweet.

Pressure

“I was under pressure,” Bal-aji said after the win. “InBhilai too because, in thepast, I’d lost to him in thethird-set tie-break after hav-ing had match-points. [InBhilai] I didn’t focus on mygame and played to hisstrengths.

“This time i changedthings and managed to pull itoff.”

But, for a set and a half, itwas Prajnesh who held theupper hand. The first set wasover quickly, with breaks ofserve in the third and thefifth games.

In the second set, at 2-2and at 3-3, Balaji was in a

spot, coming to within twopoints of getting broken. Buthe managed to wriggle out,went on to break Prajneshfor 5-3, and then levelled thematch.

This he did with a stringof huge serves and impress-ive volleys. On more thanone occasion he combinedboth, serving-and-volleying

even on second serves.“At first, I was playing

from the back. He has got abig game and a big forehand.So my plans weren’t work-ing. In the second set I star-ted serving and volleying.That put some pressure onhim,” Balaji said.

And Prajnesh clearly feltit. At 3-3 in the third, there

were four unforced errorswhich handed Balaji thebreak.

With Balaji serving for thematch at 5-4, Prajnesh hittwo fine return winners andearned a break-point.

But Balaji, as he had donebefore, fired three hugeserves to close out thematch.

Balaji wins Bengaluru legTurns the tables on Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the title matchPrincipal

Correspondent

BENGALURU

Irresistible surge: Against an opponent he has had trouble with in the past, Sriram Balajirecalibrated after losing the irst set to pull of a special victory. * SUDHAKARA JAIN

Ahead of the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-I tie againstUzbekistan to be held here inApril, Zeeshan Ali, selectorand India coach, said thatthere would be no selectionheadaches this time.

Mahesh Bhupathi, makinghis debut as captain, had an-nounced a six-man squadcomprising Yuki Bhambriand RamkumarRamanathan, doubles spe-cialists Leander Paes and Ro-han Bopanna, along with Sri-ram Balaji and PrajneshGunneswaran.

But with Balaji and Pra-jnesh raking up impressiveresults in the lead-up to thetie, and with Bhupathi opento the idea of playing morethan two singles specialistsin the final four, the team’seventual composition is any-body’s guess.

“It was an excellent choiceby the selection committeeto have both Balaji and Pra-jnesh in the squad,” said Zee-shan. “Both the boys havebeen doing extremely well,have got a lot of matches un-der their belt. They will beplaying in Trivandrum nextweek.

“So, very match sharp.Nothing better than getting alot of matches coming intothe tie.”

While Bhambri andRamkumar remain India’sfrontline singles players, Bal-aji has been in form. In thelast five Futures tourna-ments, he has bagged twosingles titles, three doublestitles, and finished runner-up twice in the singles andonce in doubles.

The doubles results areparticularly significant as it isimportant for the flexibilityit provides the team with.

Prajnesh, on the otherhand, has a singles title and arunner-up finish, apart fromthe fact that he held threematch-points against DenisIstomin, the Uzbek No. 1, at

the Australian Open wild-card play-off tournament.

“We have looked at it fromall possible angles,” Zeeshansaid. “We wanted to havehim [Prajnesh] because ofhis past result with Istominjust before the Aussie Open.

“Balaji will be one of thetop contenders to playsingles or the doubles. Defin-itely. The six players we havenow are definitely the sixbest we need to choosefrom.”

Still Zeeshan was confid-ent that it wasn’t a problemof plenty. “The final fourneeds to be announced 10days before the tie,” he said.“But the other two playerswho are the reserves can bebrought in till an hour beforethe draw ceremony. We willname the four players now,but they may not necessarilybe the final four. We willleave that completely open.”

“The team is getting to-gether on the Sunday (April2) before the tie. That givesus extra sessions to get accli-matised to the conditions.Then the way they are prac-tising, the fitness issues, allwill be looked at. Then wewill decide the final four onthe day of the draw.”

No selection headache ahead ofUzbekistan match: Zeeshan Ali

With a pool of six players, India will keep its options openN. Sudarshan

BENGALURU

Zeeshan Ali.

In September 2012, when heearned his first Davis Cupcall-up for the tie againstNew Zealand, Sriram Balajihad described the momentas a ‘major break in his ca-reer’. A few months later, hereturned to the squad for In-donesia. But on both occa-sions, he was left warmingthe bench.

Now, Balaji is in the squadof six again, with arguably amuch better chance of mak-ing the final four. When In-dia plays Uzbekistan in theAsia Oceania Group-I tie

here, Balaji will hope to bethird-time lucky.

“It is a privilege to repres-ent the country once again,”he said.

“Last time, I was part ofthe six-member squad andnot the playing four, buthopefully this time, thingswill be different.”

India’s Davis Cup coachZeeshan Ali was in attend-ance as the 27-year-old wonthe Bengaluru Futures onSaturday.

“I noticed him (ZeeshanAli) at the end of the thirdset,” said Balaji with a smile.“I was a little nervous. I got a

break and I was two gamesaway from winning. I was ac-tually happy that he waswatching me. Thankfully Ipulled it off.”

Apart from his singles suc-cess this Futures serieswhere he has two titles andtwo runner-up trophies, Bal-aji has also won threedoubles titles and finishedsecond best once.

“That’s the whole reasonwe have him in the squad,”said Zeeshan.

“The way he has beenplaying, he will be one of thetop contenders to playsingles or the doubles.”

Third-time lucky? Balaji hopes soAyan Acharya

Bengaluru

Olympian Apurvi Chandelabeat Anjum Moudgil by 1.7points to win the women’sair rifle gold in the 11thSardar Sajjan Singh SethiMasters shooting champion-ship at the Dr. Karni SinghRange, Tughlakabad, onSaturday.

The 24-year-old beat astrong field in which formerAsian champion PoojaGhatkar had to make dowith bronze.

Qualification topperSuma Shirur finished fourthahead of Mampi Das,Dilreen Gill, TejaswaniSawant and Simrat Chahal.

In men’s air rifle, HridayHazarika swept three goldmedals as he clinched thejuniors and youth titles inback to back finals.

In men’s 50-metre freepistol, Arjun clinched thegold ahead of Kisto Langand Gurpal Singh. OmPrakash who also scored554, like Arjun, placedeighth.The results: 10m air rifle: Men:1. Hriday Hazarika 250.7(617.8); 2. Om Kubal 249.5

(617.7); 3. Satyendra Singh227.6 (618.3).

Juniors: 1. Hazarika 250.2(617.8); 2. Vinay Patil 244.5(616.9); 3. Shivam Kumar 222.1(613.8).

Youth: 1. Hazarika 246.8(617.8); 2. Shivam Kumar 245.9(613.8); 3. Sachet Pinnanath224.2 (617.5).

50m free pistol: Men: 1. Arjun226.1 (554); 2. Kisto Lang 217.5(549); 3. Gurpal Singh 203.8(548).

Juniors: 1. Surinder Singh 225.5(537); 2. Anmol Jain 223.0(549); 3. Arjun Singh Cheema202.7 (562).

10m air rifle: Women: 1. ApurviChandela 249.9 (414.9); 2. An-jum Moudgil 248.2 (415.8); 3.Pooja Ghatkar 227.3 (414.8).

Juniors: 1. Mehuli Ghosh 248.7(412.5); 2. Manini Kaushik 247.7(411.7); 3. Prachi Gadkari 226.0(413.5).

Youth: 1. Mehuli 245.8(412.5;2. Manini 245.8 (411.7); 3.Shraddha Thumar 223.5(409.1).

25m sports pistol: Women: 1.Gauri Sheoran 32 (570); 2.Annu Raj Siingh 30 (571); 3.Muskan 28 (574).

Juniors: 1. Gauri 28 (570); 2.Muskan 27 (574); 3. Chinki Ya-dav 17 (570).

Apurvi bests AnjumKamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI

The owner of three I-League‘Golden Boots’ OnyekaOkolie Odafa returned aftera break of a season to signup with Second Division I-League club Southern Sam-ity.

One of the top scorers ofthe premier tournament,the Nigerian striker will donthe No. 9 jersey this time ashis new employer seeks tofind a berth in the top divi-sion of the I-League.

Odafa, who has scoredmore than 150 goals in thehistory of NFL/I-League,will be spearheading theteam’s attack in the finalstage of the Second DivisionI-League, which is sched-uled to start in the first weekof April.

Dubbed as the most ex-pensive footballer of Indianclub football once, Odafawas left without a club inthe last two seasons as re-current injuries coupled

with age kept him out of se-lection.

“It does not matter whereI am playing, Odafa is stillOdafa,” was how the ownerof most number of hat-tricksin I-League announced hisreturn.

“I have won all thetrophies in India except theFederation Cup. I am stilllooking for new challenges,which is why I agreed toplay in the Second DivisionI-League this time,” he saidduring a news conferencearranged by his new club.

Odafa praised the pro-gress made by the little-known Aizawl FC, which iscurrently leading the stand-ings with 30 points in the I-League proper, saying thatits coach Khalid Jamil is “do-ing a great job.”

Odafa to play forSouthern SamitySpecial Correspondent

Kolkata

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

B Odafa has scored morethan 150 goals in thehistory of the NFL/I-League

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Britain’s Mo Farah andKenya’s David Rudisha areamong the athletes who willcompete in the Racers TrackClub Grand Prix on June 10,the final Jamaican competi-tion for superstar UsainBolt, organisers said.

The two are part of a star-

studded international ath-letics field who will join theretiring Bolt for themeeting.

“It will be my last com-petition on home soil. Imight shed a tear, eventhough I’m not an emo-tional person,” said Bolt ofthe event which is beingdubbed ‘Salute to a Legend’.

Star athletes assembleto salute a legendAgence France-Presse

Kingston

YKA ND-ND

SPORTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



Pelicans toppleRocketsNEW ORLEANS

Solomon Hill scored a career-high 30 points as NewOrleans Pelicans defeatedHouston Rockets 128-112 inan NBA showdown.Other results: Bucks 107 btLakers 103; Wizards 112 btBulls 107; Heat 123 btTimberwolves 105; Celtics 98bt Nets 95; Raptors 87 btPistons 75; 76ers 116 btMavericks 74. AGENCIES

IN BRIEF

The death of former Na-tional champion AshwinSundar has plunged the mo-torsports fraternity intoshock and grief. The 27-year-old was a versatile racer onthe domestic racing scene,winning National titles intwo and four-wheelercategories.

In the late 2000s, Ashwinwas part of former F1 driverNarain Karthikeyan’s racingteam Speed NK Racing.

“When we started the ra-cing academy, he was one ofthe drivers shortlisted from30. He raced for two yearswith us and went on to winthe Formula Rolon Chevro-let title in 2009,” saidNarain.

“It is extremely sad andunfortunate what hashappened, and I still can’tbelieve it.”

Competitors who haveraced with Ashwin ex-pressed shock at his deathwhile recalling his outstand-ing talent on the track.

“He was one of the finestcar racers I’ve racedagainst,” said Saran VikramTmars, who was Ashwin’smain competitor for 17 yearsfrom 1999.

Saran recalled his memor-ies of racing with Ashwin inthe JK National racing cham-pionship last year in theBMW support race, the For-mula LGB4.

“He was easily the finest,a complete package,” saidSaran.

Saran insisted Ashwinwas a very safe driver withclean habits, and it was diffi-cult to believe that he wasspeeding on this fateful Sat-urday.

“I can’t believe this. Heused to tell his friends,‘when someone is sitting

with you, always drivecarefully’.

“It is a great loss for mo-torsports,” Saran said.

Fellow International racerArmaan Ebrahim said: “Wegrew up together andentered Formula LGB racingat the same time in 2004. Hewas exceptionally talentedand was good on both twoand four-wheelers. I am ex-tremely shocked to hearthis.”

Gokul Krishna, formerNational Formula Swiftchampion, said Ashwin wasone of the best racers in thecountry.

“I drove against him from

2010-2013 in the FormulaSwift category in the JK TyreNational championship. Hewas very confident of hisabilities. And that reflectedin his attitude on the track,”said Gokul.

Ashwin’s friend and fel-low-racer Raghul Ran-gaswami said the last raceAshwin drove was in Coim-batore in the JK Tyre Na-tional racing championshipfor the Dark Don team in theFLGB4 category last year.

“He taught me the basicsof the sport when I enteredthe scene in 2012. Ashwinwas an example of an idealcar racer. His car control wasamazing,” he said.

FMSCI president AkbarEbrahim expressed his shockthrough social media: “Tra-gic news. Ashwin Sundar, afine youngman who excelledin all formats of motor sportis no more. It’s hard to di-gest. Known him since an in-fant when he took to thesport and was always thrilledto see him perform in all dis-ciplines. It’s sad. Reallyreally sad. Rest in peace Ash-win and (his wife) Niveditha.May God bless both yoursouls.”

Competitors recall his outstanding talent on the track

K. Keerthivasan &

S. Dipak Ragav

Chennai

Ashwin Sundar’s deathleaves fraternity shocked

Tragic: Ashwin Sundar and his wife Niveditha died in a horriiccar crash in Chennai on Saturday. * PTI

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Ashwin’s titles

Two-wheeler: National cham-pion in 115cc 4-stroke and150cc 4-stroke class in 2006.Four-wheeler: MRF-FormulaMondial National champion in2003 and 2004; Champion inFormula Hyundai and FormulaSwift categories in 2007.JK Tyre-Formula Rolon Chev-rolet winner in 2009.MRF-Formula 1600 Interna-tional Challenge champion in2010 and 2011.MRF-FF 1600 winner in 2013.DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Yuki Bhambri losesin semifinalsSHENZHEN

Yuki Bhambri lost 4-6, 6-4,6-3 to second seed YuichiSugita in the semifinals of the$75,000 Challenger tennistournament here on Saturday.The results: $75,000Challenger, Shenzhen:Semifinals: Yuichi Sugita(Jpn) bt Yuki Bhambri 4-6,6-4, 6-3.ITF grade-1 juniors, Kuching,Malaysia: Semifinals: ZeelDesai bt Naho Sato (Jpn)7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3; Mahak JainbtMihika Yadav 6-2, 6-2.

Prannoy bows outin quarterfinalsBASEL

It was curtains for India at theSwiss Open Grand Prix Goldafter defending championand fifth seed H.S. Prannoywas knocked out of the men’ssingles following a 19-21,11-21 loss to the second-seeded Shi Yuqi of China inthe quarterfinals of the$120,000 event here.Earlier, the fourth-seededmixed doubles pair ofPranaav Jerry Chopra and N.Sikki Reddy also lost 19-21,17-21 to the fifth-seededChinese duo of Zhang Nanand Li Yinhui. PTI

Defending champion Ser-vices’ prodigality and de-fensive errors giftedMeghalaya its first win ingroup-A of the 71st SantoshTrophy football tournamentat the Tilak Maidan here onSaturday.

The North Eastern Statenotched up a 2-0 win as Ser-vices suffered its second de-feat thereby diminishing itssemifinal chances whereasMeghalaya kept its hopesvery much alive.

Chandigarh bowed outthe tournament on a highnote by holding host Goa to a1-1 draw at GMC stadium,Bambolim. Chandigarh com-pleted its engagements withfour points from four

matches. The draw hasthrown open the group, withGoa, Meghalaya and Bengalin with semifinal chances.

Services fell behind via aDibinroy Nongspung goal inthe eighth minute. The goalwas a result of poor defend-ing; a Services full-backfailed to intercept a high ballfrom Enester Malnogiang,and the unmarked Dibinroyhad all the time in the worldto slam it home.

Services quickly re-grouped and launched aseries of attacks at theMeghalaya goal but thechances created werefrittered away. Goalie KenioLyngkhoi denied P. Jain from

close in the 10th minute, andfive minutes later parriedaway a stiff shot fromFrancis.

In the 35th, the normallyreliable Arjun Tudu shotwide from close off Britto’s aprecise pass from the leftflank. Britto turned out toculprit in the 39th minutewhen he headed wide off ahigh ball from Jain on theright flank.

Services had a goal disal-lowed for off-side in the 55thminute, and in the 65th, Mo-hammed Irshad shot toohigh.

Meanwhile, Meghalayaplugged its defence andswitched to attack mode. Itcreated serveral chances,and it was Services’ goalieVishnu’s alacrity under bar

which prevented any furthergoals.

However, Vishnu wasagain let down by his de-fence which waited for thereferee to raise the off-sideflag as the ball reached anunmarked Bisharlang Khar-umnuid, who scored with aleft-footer in the 76thminute.

Vishnu again had to be athis best to deny Nongspungin the 86th minute asMeghalaya pressed.

On Sunday, Kerala takeson Mizoram while Maha-rashtra plays Punjab.The results:Meghalaya 2 (Dib-inroy Nongspung 8, BisharlangKharumnuid 76) bt Services 0.Goa 1 (Aaren D’ Silva 13) drewwith Chandigarh 1 (SehjpalSingh 51).

Holder Services stunned by MeghalayaPays for proligacy and defensive lapses as it goes down 2-0

M.R. Praveen Chandran

Vasco SANTOSH TROPHY

Defender Craig Dawsonscored twice in a 3-1 win forWest Bromwich Albion overArsenal in the PremierLeague on Saturday.

In between, Alexis Sanc-hez equalised for Arsenal be-fore substitute Hal Robson-Kanu restored the host’s leadimmediately after he cameoff the bench.The results: Premier League:West Brom 3 (Dawson 12, 75,Robson-Kanu 55) bt Arsenal 1(Sanchez 15); Crystal Palace 1(Deeney 68-og) bt Watford 0;Everon 4 (Calvert-Lewin 9,Valencia 78, Lukaku 90+1,90+4) bt Hull City 0; Stoke City1 (Walters 38-p) lost to Chelsea2 (Willian 13, Cahill 87); Sunder-land 0 drew with Burnley 0;West Ham 2 (Lanzini 20, Ayew60) lost to Leicester City 3(Mahrez 5, Huth 7, Vardy 38).La Liga: Eibar 1 (Kike 20) drewwith Espanyol 1 (Jurado 50);

Las Palmas 1 (Boateng 10) btVillarreal 0.

Bundesliga: Dortmund 1 (Au-bameyang 14) bt Ingolstadt 0;Augsburg 1 (Stafylidis 38) drewwith Freiburg 1 (Niederlechner

30-pen); Hoffenheim 1 (Wagner62) bt Bayer Leverkusen 0; Co-logne 4 (Osaka 6, Modeste 35,

37, 63) bt Hertha Berlin 2 (Ibi-sevic 50, Brooks 69); Wolfsburg1 (Gomez 45+1) bt Darmstadt 0.

Werder Bremen 3 (Junuzovic34, Grillitsch 59, Kainz 90) btLeipzig 0.

Dawson double downs ArsenalRobson-Kanu scores immediately after stepping of the bench


West Bromwich

Striking defender:West Brom’s Craig Dawsonmade Arsenal pay for some slack markingwith two bullet headers. * REUTERS

EUROPEAN LEAGUES

SPORTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



Svetlana Kuznetsovatoppled World No. 3 Karo-lina Pliskova 7-6(5), 7-6(2) onFriday to book an all-Rus-sian Indian Wells finalagainst Elena Vesnina.

Vesnina powered pastFrance’s Kristina Mladen-ovic 6-3, 6-4, continuing asparkling campaign that hasseen her shock German’ssoon-to-be World No. 1 An-gelique Kerber in the fourthround and seven-timeGrand Slam championVenus Williams in thequarterfinals. It’s a sharpturnaround from Vesnina’sfirst round ouster in qualify-ing here last year, and marksher first trip to a final of oneof the WTA’s elite PremierMandatory events.

World No. 8 Kuznetsova isback in the Indian Wells fi-nal for the first time sinceback-to-back runner-up fin-ishes in 2007 and 2008.

She withstood 10 acesfrom Pliskova, who hasalready won titles at Bris-bane and Doha this year.

“I tried my best to fightevery point,” said the 31-year-old Kuznetsova, ownerof two Grand Slam singlestitles who enjoyed a resur-gence in 2016, winning twotitles as she returned to the

top 10 in the world for thefirst time since 2010. “Karo-lina is one of the best play-ers this year.”

After falling behind 5-3,the Czech made Kuznetsovawork to close out the open-ing set, saving a set point inthe ninth game and fourmore in the tiebreaker afterKuznetsova seized a 6-2 leadin the decider.

A double fault left Kuznet-sova with one more chanceat 6-5, and she grabbed itwith a forehand passingshot. After an exchange of

breaks in the second theywent to the tiebreaker,where Kuznetsova againtook a 6-2 lead and the in-creasingly frustratedPliskova surrendered with astring of errors.

The results: Men: Quarterfi-nals: Jack Sock bt Kei Nishikori6-3, 2-6, 6-2; Roger Federerw/o Nick Kyrgios.

Women: Semifinals: SvetlanaKuznetsova bt KarolţnaPliskova 7-6(5), 7-6(2), ElenaVesnina bt Kristina Mladenovic6-3, 6-4.

Kuznetsova stuns

World No. 3 PliskovaSets up an all-Russian inal with Vesnina

Easy win: Elena Vesnina of Russia powered past France’sKristina Mladenovic. * AFP


Indian Wells

Kaushal Yadav and NiteshKumar swept eight of the 10races in the Hobie 16 cat-egory of the Goa Interna-tional Sailing Week on Sat-urday.

Apart from the late start inthe ninth, which saw a slightslip in their dominance, theArtillery Water Sports Asso-ciation (AWSA) brooked no

challenge whatsoever.The superiority of their

craft was underscored in theday’s concluding race whenthey finished a full fiveminutes ahead of compatri-ots Indramani Yadav andNaveen Vashist.

“This is by far the bestsailing venue in the country,”said Kaushal, satisfactionwrit large on his face.The results: Hobie 16: Race

VIII: 1. Kaushal Yadav & NiteshKumar (AWSA); 2. Indramani Ya-dav & Naveen Vashist (AWSA);3. Ajay Patel & Gurunath(GBSA). IX: 1. Kaushal & Nitesh;2. Jaydeep Dadhal & K. Kulegi(INSA); 3. Patel & Gurunath. X:1. Kaushal & Nitesh; 2. In-

dramani & Naveen; 3. Patel &Gurunath.RS:X: Race VIII: 1. MaheswarPadhan (INWTC); 2. RahulChoudhary (INSA); 3. Kam-lapathi Ojha (EMESA). IX: 1.Ojha; 2. Padhan; 3. Choudhary.X: 1. Padhan; 2. Choudhary; 3.

Ojha. Laser Standard: VIII: 1.Upamanyu Dutta (INWTC); 2.Himanshu Yadav (INSA); 3.Deelip Kumar (EMESA). IX: 1.Upamanyu; 2. Ajay Singh Rajput(INSA); 3. Mohd. Israj Ali(EMESA). X: 1. Deelip; 2.Upamanyu; 3. Ajay Singh.

Kaushal & Nitesh dominate Hobie 16 racesA. JOSEPH ANTONY

PANaJI

The doubles rubber proveddecisive as Japan beat Aus-tralia 2-1 in the final of theAsia-Oceania Junior (un-der-16) Davis Cup tennistournament at the DLTAComplex on Saturday.

India finished 10th afterlosing 2-0 to New Zealand inthe match for ninth place.

The top four teams of the

16 which competed here —Japan, Australia, ChineseTaipei and China — will nowplay in the World Group Fi-nals in Budapest inSeptember.

The results:

Final: Japan bt Australia 2-1[Keisuke Saitoh bt StefanStorch 6-1, 6-3; FumiyaHoshino lost to Rinky Hijakata4-6, 6-4, 6-2; Tomoya Ikeda &Fumiya Yoshino bt Ken Cavrak &Stefan Storch 6-4, 6-4].

For 9th place: New Zealand btIndia 2-0 [Chris Wei ShengZhang bt Rithvik Choudary Bol-lipalli 6-4, 6-4; George DuncanStoupe bt Sacchitt Sharma 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0].

The final standings: 1. Japan, 2.Australia, 3. Chinese Taipei, 4.China, 5. Korea, 6. Hong Kong,7. Thailand, 8. Uzbekistan, 9.New Zealand, 10. India, 11. In-donesia, 12. Singapore, 13. ThePhilippines, 14. Kazakhstan, 15.Malaysia, 16. Syria.

Japan bags title, India inishes 10thSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Documents

NEARBY YogiAdityanathisnewCMofU.P. - Current … ministers in the RawatCabinetandtwoMin-sters of State also took the oathofoffice. While at least four more ministersareyettobeinduc-ted,thecurrentcomposition