PNS n BASEL (SWITZERLAND)

Ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu on Sundaybecame the first Indian to win theBWF World Championships,crushing Japan's Nozomi Okuhara21-7, 21-7 in just 36 minutes in aone-sided final. Sindhu's gold is thesecond medal that India won at theWorlds this year with Sai Praneethwinning a bronze in men's singlescategory. The last time Sindhu andOkuhara met in a World

Championships final was in2017. In a pulsating

encounter that last-ed nearly twohours and

involved a 73-shot rally,O k u h a r a

emerged vic-torious in the

e n d .Sindhua g a i n

reachedthe final

in 2018,only to go

down toCarolina Marínof Spain.However, shefinally brokethe jinx this

time, brushingaside her oppo-

nent with a domi-nant show from start

to finish. In stark contrast to worldNo. Sindhu, the Japanese world No.4 on Sunday looked completely atsea against the Indian star's relent-less attacks. Although Okuharawon the first point of the firstgame, Sindhu won eight straightpoints after that to race to a 8-1lead. Okuhara managed just onemore point before the interval withSindhu leading 11-2.

The mauling continued formuch of the second period of theopener, which ended in just 16minutes. Okuhara got a few con-secutive points towards the end toextend her score to 7 but Sindhusealed the issue on her first gamepoint. In the second game,Okuhara briefly kept pace until thescore was 3-2 in Sindhu's favourafter which the Indian took six

consecutive points to race to a 9-2 lead. Okuhara won two morepoints but Sindhu kept her foot onthe pedal and went into the inter-val with a 11-4 lead. Okuhara wenton to take just three more pointsin the second period as Sindhucontinued to storm her way to thetitle. Once again, she managed toget over the line on her first matchpoint. This was the 16th matchbetween Sindhu and Okuhara.Sindhu now leads 9-7 head-to-head, including three victories inthe last five meetings beforeSunday's clash. Both players hadnot won a title this year. WhileOkuhara reached the final after ahard fought 17-21, 21-18, 21-15win against Thailand's RatchanokIntanon, Sindhu swatted asideChina's Chen Yu Fei 21-7, 21-14 inher semifinal clash. This isSindhu's fifth medal at the WorldChampionships, which is the jointhighest in women's singles in thehistory of the tournament alongwith Xhang Ning of China, a two-time Olympic gold medallist.

Related report in page 16

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AS RAM OKAYS SCRIPT

OPINION 8OLD IS

STILL GOLD

SPORTS 16STOKES KEEPS ASHES ALIVE

HYDERABAD, MONDAY AUGUST 26, 2019; PAGES 16 `3

}PRODUCERS WERENOT CASTING ME

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPALRAIPUR CHANDIGARH BHUBANESWAR

RANCHI DEHRADUNVIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 1 ISSUE 323*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

By winning theChampionship, Sindhu made

the country proud. I wish herachieve many more such victories

— KCR, Chief Minister

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated August 25, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANACMonth & Paksham:Shravana & Krishna PakshaTithi : Dashami: 07:02 am, Ekadashi: 05:09 am (Next Day)Nakshatram: Ardra: 02:57 am (Next Day)Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 07:37 am – 09:11 amYamagandam: 10:44 am – 12:17 pmVarjyam: 12:01 pm – 01:33 pmGulika: 01:51 pm - 03:24 pmGood Time: (to start any

important work)Amritakalam: 05:23 pm – 06:55 pmAbhijit Muhurtham:

11:53 am – 12:42 pm

Forecast: Partly CloudyTemp: 32/22Humidity: 66%Sunrise: 06.01Sunset: 06.34

TODAY

BJP lobs bouncer at TRS

L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

In a move to cut the groundfrom under the feet of theTelangana Rashtra Samiti gov-ernment in the State, the BJP-led government at the Centreproposes to declare September17 as 'Telangana LiberationDay' and, more importantly,hold grand official celebrationsunder the aegis of the saffronparty.

This will put the TRS gov-ernment on the back foot andgive the saffron party somebrownie points in its quest toemerge as a strong politicalforce in Telangana.

For various reasons, theTelangana State has not beenholding official celebrations onSeptember 17th, despite thefact that TRS came to poweron the back of sentimentsassociated with the Telanganastatehood movements.

The BJP's state unit hasapproached Union HomeMinister Amit Shah in thisregard and the related pro-posal is said to be under'active consideration' of theUnion Ministry of HomeAffairs. To lay it on thick, AmitShah has been invited to takepart in the 'TS Liberation Day'celebrations in Telanganabeing organized on September17 on behalf of the saffronparty.

Amit Shah is expected tomake an announcement inthis regard.

TRS chief K ChandrasekharRao had promised, during thepeak of the Telangana state-hood agitation days, to holdofficial celebrations onSeptember 17.

However, he is now accusedof reneging on his promiseupon coming to power, appar-ently under pressure from theAll India Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen, which is TRS'friendly party.

The BJP is engaged in afierce political battle with TRSin Telangana, buoyed by itssurprising performance in therecent Lok Sabha elections.The saffron party won fourLok Sabha seats and eventrounced KCR's daughter K

Kavitha in the NizamabadLok Sabha seat. The BJP isdredging up 'TelanganaLiberation Day' sentiment toexpand its footprint inTelangana and emerge as analternative to TRS well beforethe 2023 Assembly polls.Speaking to The Pioneer,Union Minister of State forHome G Kishna Reddy said,"When Karnataka andMaharashtra are celebratingLiberation Day officially onSeptember 17 after certaindistricts of the erstwhileHyderabad State merged intothem, why can't TelanganaState do the same? We are notdemanding anything new.

In fact, this is the promisemade by KCR during theTelagnana statehood agita-tion. KCR has now back-tracked only to please hisfriendly party AIMIM, whichis against celebratingTelangana Liberation Day offi-cially."

Continued on Page 3

l Celebrations to be official,grand like in Maharashtra andKarnataka

l With MIM on board, TRSon the back foot

Rs 1.11 cr gold bars seized from toilet in RGIAPNS n HYDERABAD

A youngster from Hyderabad,in his early 30s, who wasallegedly trying to smuggleforeign marked gold into thecountry, was nabbed byCustoms officials at the RajivGandhi International Airporton Sunday.

The accused, identified asShaikh Abdul Sajid, havingnoticed movement of Customsofficials and the checking ofbaggage, dumped the gold barsin one of the toilets near thearrival area and tried to walkaway, but was nabbed. In all, 26gold bars were recovered, saidofficials.

Based on a tip-off, sleuthsfrom the Air Intelligence Unitof the Customs wing at the air-

port conducted checks at thegreen channel area for passen-gers. After about an hour later,they noticed Sajid moving sus-piciously and intercepted him.On inquiry, he initially plead-ed innocence, but on thorough

questioning confessed to thecrime. Based on his confes-sion, 26 foreign marked goldbars, weighing a total of 2,992grams worth Rs 1,11,60,160,were recovered from the toilet.

Inquiries revealed that he

carried the gold bars in hishand baggage. However, afterseeing Customs officials, he gotscared and dropped the plan ofcarrying them outside the air-port.

Further inquiries revealedthat the accused, who hadlanded in an Indigo Airlinesflight from Sharjah, was a con-duit, who was offered a freeticket by the operators. Officialsare extracting details about

the operator and the receiver.They suspect that he couldhave travelled to Sharjah insearch of a job. But on hisreturn, the operators offeredhim a free ticket for his returnand forced him to carry goldwith him. He was told to handover the gold bars to a personoutside the airport. The goldwas seized and the accused wasarrested. Further investigationis underway, said officials.

The passenger, identified as Shaikh Abdul Sajid,noticed movement of Customs officials and thechecking of baggage and dumped the gold bars in one of the toilets near the arrival area and tried to walk away

DEEPTHI NANDAN REDDY n HYDERABAD

The Bharatiya Janata Party isplanning to draw employees'organisations to its fold afterweaning them away from thegrasp of TRS at an opportunemoment. The saffron party iseyeing government employeesas their en masse support is cru-cial for it to emerge as the mainplayer in state politics. Towardsthis end, the saffron party aimsto leverage the perceived dis-quiet among governmentemployees due to some of ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao's recent decisions.

Employees' organisations hadplayed a key role in the rise ofthe Telangana Rashtra Samiti.Currently they have good rap-port with TRS leaders. To get

them to dump TRS, the saffronparty is planning to launch anagitation against KCR's pro-posal to scrap the RevenueDepartment (though the ChiefMinister has expressly denied it)and raise other issues facingemployees as well. BJP senior

leaders are reportedly in talkswith TNGO Association,Telangana TahsildarsAssociation and other employ-ees' associations as part of theirlarger plan to launch an agitationagainst the TRS government.

Continued on Page 4

BJP keen on attracting govtemployees to its fold

l Weaning them away from TRS

AP may have4 Capitalcities: TGVIJAYAWADA: In a con-troversial statement onSunday, Rajya SabhaMember T G Venkatesh saidthat the YSRC government isplanning to have four Capitalcities at Vizianagaram,Kakinada, Guntur andKadapa in the State.

Speaking to 'The Pioneer',he said the State governmentwas planning to set up fourregional developmentboards in the State and anequal number of Capitalcities, one each for all theregions. This was preciselythe reason why ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy had allotted DeputyChief Minister posts to eachof the four regions in theState, he said and disclosedthat he had informed thesame to BJP high command."But, our party high com-mand did not respond onthe issue," he said.

EC announcesAssemblyby-polls to four seatsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Election Commissionon Sunday announced by-elections to one assemblyseat each in Uttar Pradesh,Tripura, Chhattisgarh andKerala. The bypolls forDantewada (Chhattisgarh),Pala (Kerala), Badharghat(Tripura) and Hamirpur(Uttar Pradesh) Assemblyseats wil l be held onSeptember 23.

The bypoll in Hamirpurwas necessitated by the dis-qualification of BJP MLAAshok Chandel. By-elec-tions to 12 other Assemblyseats in UP are also due asmost of the sitting MLAswon the Lok Sabha electionsthis year. But the dates areyet to be announced by thepoll panel.

The Dantewada, Pala andBadharghat bypolls werenecessitated following thedeath of the respective sit-ting MLAs. While the noti-fication for the by-electionswould be issued on August28, counting will be held onSeptember 27, the EC said.

PNS nMANAMA

In an humanitarian gesture,the Bahrain government onSunday pardoned 250 Indiansserving sentences in the Gulfnation during the maiden visitof Prime Minister NarendraModi to the oil-rich country.The prime minister expressedhis gratitude to the Bahrainleadership for the Royal par-don. About 8,189 Indians arelodged in various prisons inforeign countries, with SaudiArabia having the highestnumber at 1,811 followed bythe UAE at 1,392. It was notclear how many Indians arelodged in jails in the Gulf king-dom.

"In a kind and humanitari-an gesture, the Government ofBahrain has pardoned 250Indians serving sentences inBahrain," the Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO) tweeted.

Bahrain pardons250 Indianprisoners

Arun Jaitley cremated with State honoursPNS n NEW DELHI

Former finance minister ArunJaitley was cremated at theNigambodh Ghat here with fullState honours on Sunday in thepresence of leaders from acrossthe political spectrum andscores of his admirers andparty workers. Jaitley's sonRohan performed the last rites.

The 66-year-old BJP stalwartpassed away at the AIIMS hereon Saturday. Vice PresidentVenkaiah Naidu, BJP veteranLK Advani, party presidentand Home Minister AmitShah, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh, party's workingpresident J P Nadda, Unionministers Nirmala Sitharaman,Smriti Irani and Anurag

Thakur; BJP MPs Vijay Goeland Vinay Sahasrabuddhe;Congress leaders JyotiradityaScindia and Kapil Sibal wereamong those present at the cre-mation ground.

Chief ministers ofMaharashtra, Gujarat,Karnataka, Bihar andUttarakhand, DevendraFadnavis, Vijay Rupani, B S

Yediyurappa, Nitish Kumarand Trivendra Singh Rawat,respectively, were also there.

Earlier in the day, his bodywas taken to the BJP head-quarters from where it was car-ried in a flower-decked guncarriage to the cremationground, amidst slogans of'Jaitley ji amar rahein' (long liveJaitley).

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

Political circles in TelanganaState are aghast at the list theCentral Election Commissionreleased on Sunday announc-ing by-polls to one assemblyseat each in Uttar Pradesh,Tripura, Chhattisgarh andKerala as it skipped by-polls tothe Huzur Nagar Assemblyconstituency, which fell vacantfollowing resignation byCongress MLA N UttamKumar Reddy upon his elec-tion as Member of Parliamentfrom the Nalgonda Lok Sabhaconstituency in May. UttamKumar tendered his resigna-tion on June 5th.

As per rules, the ElectionCommission has to conductelections within six months toany constituency that fallsvacant. Thus, EC has to con-duct elections to the HuzurNagar constituency beforeNovember. Yet, EC's notifica-tion on Sunday did not listHuzur Nagar for unstated rea-sons.

Continued on Page 3

EC shocker: No HuzurNagar Assembly bypoll

Hail the shuttle queen!SRIDHAR K PENNA n HYDERABAD

Like millions of people fromall over, those from the sportsfraternity, including legends,tend to be extremely supersti-tious. PV Sindhu is no excep-tion to the rule. Her fans, ofwhich there is no dearth, aremore so. Their 'third time'lucky prayers were answeredby Sindhu, whose obsessivelyaggressive 38-minute mas-sacre helped end an Indianjinx and won her the elusiveWorld Championship title.

Incidentally, Sunday's BWFWorld BadmintonChampionships success atBasel is her first title this sea-son. A brilliant start, so to say.

For sheer audacity anddominant performance, it wasawesome when taken underany yardstick. The first Indian,

male or female, to effectivelypenetrate the impregnableChinese Wall time and again,the 24-year-old toyed withher Japanese opponentNozomi Okuhara, who had noclue to the thunderous stroke-play that hit her. Sindhu'sruthless annihilation can begauged from the lopsided 21-7, 21-7 verdict that brought ananti-climax to the much-hyped women's championshipclash. The win marks Sindhu'smajestic way of settling scoreswith her old foe, who had con-quered the Indian after a 110-minute marathon in 2017.The summit clash jinx haunt-ed Sindhu last year when shefailed to put it across an equal-ly determined CarolinaMarine. Incidentally, thedefending champion missedthis year's edition.

Continued on Page 4

Narendra Modi (@narendramodi)The stupendously talented @Pvsindhu1 makes India proud

again! Congratulations to her for winning the Gold at the BWFWorld Championships. The passion and dedication with whichshe’s pursued badminton is inspiring. PV Sindhu’s success will inspire generations of players.

Sindhu becomes first Indian to win World Championships

On top of the world l Centre to declare Sept 17 as ‘Telangana Liberation Day'

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HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019 hyderabad 02

Gold continues to be in demandPNS n HYDERABAD

US Fed-reserve, after a meet-ing and after soliciting theviews of stakeholders, isshortly expected to announcethe interest rates. Speculationis rife that there would not beany change. Therefore, despitehigh price, the yellow metalcontinued to be in gooddemand. Barring Friday,when gold price took a halt,on all other days in the week,New York gold hoveredaround US $ 1,500 (per oz).Finally, gold closed at US $1,529.20 while silver, also fol-lowed suit at $ 17.53 (perOunce). Platinum andPalladium closed at US $.863.20 and Rs. 1,465.76respectively. Copper closed atRs.440.45 (per kg).

Other economic parame-ters, except Brent and Crudeoil, moved northward. Brentclosed at US$ 59.34 (per bar-rel) while Crude oil was quot-ed at Rs. 3,870 (per barrel).Gold MCX stood at Rs.38,822(per 10 gms) and Silver MCXat Rs.44,593 (per kg). Sensexand Nifty 50 closed at36,10701.16 and 10,829.35points respectively. Leadingforeign currencies' exchangerates were: US $: Rs.71.80,British Pound: Rs. 88.15,Euro: Rs. 80.70, Singapore $:Rs.51.76, Canadian $:Rs.53.85, Swiss Franc:Rs.73.68, Australian $:Rs.48.48, Saudi Rial: Rs.19.15, Kuwaiti Dinar 236.08and UAE Dirham: Rs.19.55.

At home, business is yet topick up. Due to high prices,imports are likely to beadversely affected. As against

the annual importof some 800tonnes, in thecurrent fis-cal year, theimports arelikely to beabout 10 per cent less. Manyof the buyers who need topurchase gold for jewellery,due to higher prices, wouldtry to economize by sellingold household jewellery,thereby substituting thedemand.

During the week, Standardgold (24 carats) appreciatedby Rs.130 and closed atRs.38,100 (per 10 gms) .Ornamental gold too, movedup in tandem and was quot-ed in the range of Rs.36,160- 36,260 on the closing day.Silver (0.999), too, appreciat-ed by Rs. 700 and closed atRs.44,500 (per kg). The sen-timent in gold and silver islikely to remain strong duringa couple of weeks from now.

COMMODITIESThe sentiment in principal

wholesale commodity mar-kets in the twin cities wasmoderate. Rythu Bazars andthe various commodity mar-kets located in Begum Bazar,Kishangunj, Mukthyargunj,

Risala Abdullah, Mir AlamMandi, Dilsukhnagar,Kukatpally, Bowenpally,General Bazar witnessedmoderate business.

To cope with the increase infestival demand, the gov-ernment has built up huge

buffer stock of essentialc o m m o d i t i e s .However, due to the

recent floods inM a h a r a s h t r a ,

Karnataka andM a d h y a

P r a d e s h ,onion priceshave shot upby 76 per

cent. The impact of risingprices of onion will be feltthroughout the country.

During the week, commonpulses such as tuar dal,moong dal, urad dal andmasoor dal remained steadyat the previous week's closinglevels; so also edible oils andvanaspati. The prices of com-mon vegetables increasedsubstantially due to heavyrains in the vegetable-growingareas. Common vegetablessuch as cabbage, cauliflower,ribbed guard, snake guard,lady fingers, cucumber, pota-toes, onions, tomatoes andFrench beans, along withother leafy vegetables, record-ed an increase in prices in therange of 40 per cent to 60 percent due to the increasedsupplies. In Hyderabad, theNECC wholesale egg-pricedeclined by Rs.27 and closedat Rs.310 (per 100). The high-est price of Rs.370 was record-ed at Lucknow, while Hospetclosed at the lowest price ofRs 290 on the closing day.

As against the annualimport of some 800tonnes, in the currentfiscal year, the importsare likely to be about10 per cent less

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

The National Institute ofTechnology-Warangal's 17thconvocation celebrated

recently was a standout day forgraduating students as is the norm,but quite unusual in some otherrespects. All freshly-minted grad-uates were advised to wear 'tradi-tional attire'. No, not the traditionalTelangana attire; they were asked towear whites with a 'saffron dupat-ta' thrown on the shoulders.Students however were all game forthe 'change of colour' and enjoyedthe proceedings at the institutewhich was till the other day knownto be slightly left-leaning or neutral.

Silence of fan vs buzz of cycle

It's been either too much or toolittle. Till a few months ago, the

TDP had kept scribes, PR pros andsuch others on their toes hoppingfrom one government event toanother to stay on top of thegoings-on and in the loop. It was abackbreaking time. In contrast,the YSRCP regime has maintaineda low profile for its own reasons,leaving info-hungry scrolling sitesto know if there is anything worth-while that they could cover. Thingsdo happen once in a while, butthere are too few and far between.

Alexa knows quite a bit

At the inaugural of Amazon's

largest campus, the company show-cased its voice assistant Alexa. Homeminister and chief guest MahmoodAli was invited to ask Alexa anything.So he asked: "Alexa, industrial poli-cy of Telangana." Stumped she maybe, but Alexa continued unapolo-getically: "Sorry I don't know". Whilethe awkward moment left the audi-ence in splits, the minister wasadvised to ask simpler questions like"the Chief Minister of Telangana?".Now, that was bang in Alexa's terri-tory, so prompt came the reply:"Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao."Then, very helpfully she even offered

more info: "Customers asked thisquestion, 'Who's the Chief Ministerof Andhra Pradesh'! Whew, MsAlexa had more than covered up forsome gaps in her knowledge.

Ex-Professors eyeing analyst jobs

While it is best to remain fruitfully

occupied post-retirement and thereis also age-limit for further educa-tion, it make sense for retired pro-fessors to do a course or two thatequips them for part-time jobs. A lotof college professors are finding outthat being an HR or Business ana-lyst can be very lucrative proposition.So, no matter their background -arts, science, English, chemistry,engineering et al - scores are sign-ing up for an MBA course. That'squite a business strategy in itself!

Whose claims are fake?

Enmity between TRS and BJP is get-

ting bitter with both parties grabbingany available opportunity to go foreach others' throats. This week BJPstate chief K Laxman and TRS work-ing president KTR sparred over theirparty membership drives. WhileKTR mocked the saffron party say-ing BJP is a "missed call party",Laxman retorted saying TRS enrollsmembers by either inducements oroutright threats. Looks like the fightmight end in a tie - for while TRSclaims it has notched up a mammoth60 lakh new members, the BJPclaims it is anyway the world's polit-ical party.

VH the long-distance runnerCongress leader V Hanumantha Raorecently turned 74, but his hecticparty-related work can shame ayouth half his age. The other day, VHsurprised the police by venturing intothe Nallamala to meet the Chenchuswho are likely to get affected by pro-posed uranium mining. In a casualchat with the Congress leader, a scribesaid he appreciated VH's very hecticand busy schedule despite his age andprayed for his wellbeing. More thanthe long miles, it's the 'mileage' thathe likes more, said the veteran leader,in true blue politico style.

(PV Kondal Rao, Sumit Onka,Naveena Ghanate, Sushma

Nagaraju, Deepthi Nandan,Kolishetty Venkateshwarlu)

REPORTERS’

D ARY

New colour at convocation

‘KCR looting public exchequer’WILL APPROACH CENTRE SEEKING CBI INQUIRY AGAINST PROJECTS’ REDESIGN: BHATTI

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Congress Legislature Party(CLP) leader Mallu BhattiVikramarka has alleged thatChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao is lootingthe state indiscriminately in thename of projects' redesign. Hesaid the Congress will approachthe Union Home Minister AmitShah seeking CBI inquiry intothe corruption. He alleged thatthe KCR family looted lakhs ofcrores of rupees in the name ofprojects redesigning.

While speaking to the mediaat Madhira in Khammam dis-trict on Sunday, Bhatti slammedTRS government saying that itenhanced the Kaleshwaram pro-ject estimations from Rs 28,000crore to Rs 80,000 crore in thename of redesign. He said thatthe KCR government increasedthe cost of Seetharama project,which is supposed to be com-pleted with Rs 1,500 crore,enhanced up to Rs 15,000 crore.He alleged that KCR govern-ment is looting the public exche-quer in the name of projectsredesign. He said that theCongress will take up 'ProjectsBata' to expose KCR govern-ment's corrupt practices.

Bhatti said that the Telanganawould have benefited with thethen Congress government'sPranahitha-Chevella project.Bhatti said that the Congresswould take up Pranahitha-Chevella project visit on Monday(August 26) only to explain thepeople as to how the funds of

Telangana state were being loot-ed.

He said that the thenCongress government had takenup Pranahitha-Chevella projectwith an estimation of Rs 38,000crore at Thummidihetti to pro-vide drinking and irrigationwater up to Chevella. The thenCongress government complet-ed works worth Rs 10,000 crore.The Pranahitha-Chevella projectwould have completed if the TRSgovernment, after the formationof Telangana, spent Rs 28,000

crore more resulting to greenTelangana.

Pranahitha-Chevella projectwould have been completedwithin three years if the TRSgovernment had spent Rs 10,000crore per year for three years.The project would have provid-ed irrigation water to 16.5 lakhacre. Almost 80 per cent of theTelangana would have got drink-ing water if Pranahitha-Chevellaproject was completed. The pro-ject would have also providedwater to industries too, he said.

Bhatti alleged that KCR gov-ernment had killed Pranahitha-Chevella project, which sup-posed to be completed withRs.28,000, and redesigned it inthe name of Kaleshwaram pro-ject with the estimations of onelakh crore rupees.

He alleged that KCR hadtaken up Mission Bhagirathawith Rs 50,000 crore to solvedrinking water problems. Heopined that the drinking andirrigation needs could havecleared if completed Pranahitha-Chevella project and Rs 50,000crore could have saved.Kaleswaram and MissionBhagiratha projects had taken uponly to loot the public money byKCR and his family members.

He said that the Congresswould explain the facts to thepeople of Telangana. The waterwould have reached to all partsof Telangana if project atThummidihetti was completedon time. The Pranahitha-Chevella project was beingdesigned in a manner that itswater would have reached toSripada Yellampally throughgravity.

Congress party willtake up ‘Projects

Bata' to expose K Chandrashekhar Raogovernment's corruptpractices

— MALLU BHATTIVIKRAMARKA, CLP leader

PNS n HYDERABAD

Of the required 1 croreBathukamma sarees, weavingof over 60 lakh sarees hasbeen completed. So far, around25 lakh sarees have been sentto districts and there are plansto send at least 50 lakh sareesby month-end.

The district administrationhas been working hard to dis-tribute the sarees prior to thefestival keeping in mind thedelay that had taken place lastyear because of the early elec-tions to State Legislative

Assembly. This year, the targetis to produce 6.84 crore metresof cloth at a cost of Rs 320crore. As of now, the powerlooms have finished weaving4.67-crore metre length of the

cloth. Of the 23,000 powerlooms in the textile town ofSircilla, weaving is going on17,000 looms.

Textiles meant for distribu-tion among the Muslims on

the occasion of Ramzan andamong Christians for the X-Mas are being woven inSircilla. Besides, the cloth forschool uniforms is being man-ufactured here.

During the past three years,the powerlooms here gotorders for over Rs 900 crore,benefiting 9435 workers. Theaverage earning per month ofeach weaver is increased to Rs26,000 as against the below Rs8,000 earlier. The NIFT experts

designed sarees in attractive 80hues. This year, the sareesmeant for the aged and seniorcitizens would have a goldenborder, while the sarees meantfor the young women wouldhave fancy designs. The state

government is keen to bring aspecial recognition to thesarees on the lines of Gadwaland Pochampalli sarees. Thehandloom department is keento get Siri Sala or Sree sala logoprinted on them.

Pranahitha-Chevella project wouldhave been completed within threeyears if the TRS government hadspent Rs 10,000 cr per year for 3 yrs.The project would have providedirrigation to 16.5 lakh acres, he said

Padayatra:Komatireddyto knock onHC's doorPNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MP from BhongirKomatireddy Venkat Reddyhas informed that he willapproach the High Court asthe state police failed torespond on his applicationsseeking permissions for theproposed 'padayatra' fromUdaya Samudram, Nalgondato Jalasoudha, Hyderabadon August 26.

The move comes after thepolice denied permission toKomatireddy's ‘Padayatra’.Nalgonda SP Ranganathissued notices toKomatireddy denying per-mission making it clear thatit is not possible to providesecurity. SP mentioned rea-sons that people would bringGanesh idols fromHyderabad to districts inthis route and the policehave to go to Hyderabad foradditional security dutiesfor Ganesh festival. Reactingon it, Komatireddy expressedanger over police. He allegedthat the police violated hisfreedom of roaming freely.He said that he will approachHigh Court on it.

He announced about his'padayatra' few days agodemanding the state gov-ernment to complete theUadaya Samudram projectimmediately. He said that hewould file a petition in theHigh Court very soon.

On Sunday in a state-ment, Komatireddyinformed that he willannounce the dates aftergetting permission for hiswalkathon from the HighCourt. Venkat Reddy saidthat he submitted an appli-cation to the DirectorGeneral of Police (DGP) M Mahender Reddy onAugust 19 seeking policepermission for his proposed'padayatra'.

BATHUKAMMA SAREE PRODUCTION GATHERS PACE

In the last three years, power looms inSircialla district received orders worth over Rs 900 crore, benefitingover 9,435 weavers

Revenueemployees'leaders to meetCM KCRPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Deputy CollectorsAssociation, TelanganaRevenue Employees ServicesAssociation, TelanganaThahasildars Association,Village Revenue OfficialsAssociation and VillageRevenue AssistantsAssociation have informedthat they will meet ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao soon in regard to discusson proposed new RevenueAct.

They said that they willshare their opinions withChief Minister in regard tonew Revenue Act. "We havealready prepared a draft inthis regard. We will play ourrole in preparing newRevenue Act", they said. TheUnions leaders, in a state-ment issued on Saturday,have condemned the newspublished in a section ofmedia and said that the newswere published intentionally.

They said that it was notproper to the section ofmedia to distort the inten-tion of meeting Health andMedical AssociationMinister Etala Rajender.They alleged that the sectionof media published the newsadding falsehood things.They alleged that the sectionof media is trying to blamethe Revenue EmployeesUnions intentionally. Theunions leaders said thatthey met Etela purelyregarding one employeenamed Ramulu's sonSantosh health issue. Theymade it clear that Etela did-n't inform them about theCollectors meeting held atPragathi Bhavan.

Have time? Help out kids in schoolPNS n KHAMMAM

To overcome shortage of teach-ers in government schools, thestate government has intro-duced a scheme called'Vidyanjali' to encourageretired employees, teachers,old students, NGOs, subjectexperts and activists of volun-tary organisations to teach onpart-time basis in the schools.

Education commissionerVijay Kumar issued orders inthis regard on August 13. Infact, 533 teacher postsremained vacant in govern-ment schools in the district.Since the teacher recruitmentis not full scale, the govern-ment wants to use services ofexperienced teachers for sometime without putting burdenon the government.

Those who prefer to spendtime teaching, they shouldchoose their favourite timeslot. In the designated portal,the candidates should chooserelevant school. Having regis-tered their names, the enthusi-asts to teach will be welcomedby concerned school head mas-ter and mandal education offi-

cers. Their names would be puton display in the concernedschool, in the office of the MEDand DEO. At various celebra-

tions and at national festivals,these volunteers who opted toteach in schools will be felici-tated in an appropriate manner.

These teachers are not enti-tled to any allowances liketransport allowance or anyother allowances. The retiredemployees and subject expertscan coach students in sportsand games, culture, finearts likemusic, theatre, craft, dance,computer education and moralscience and so on. DEO PMadan Mohan exhorted thosewho are keen to teach shouldmake use of the facility.

Under ‘Vidyanjali’ scheme, retired employees,teachers, old students, NGOs, subject expertsand activists of voluntary organisations canteach on part-time basis in the schools

Andhole Congresscadre in doldrumsPNS n MEDAK

Although the former DeputyChief Minister, DamodaraRaja Narasimha has clari-fied that he wouldnot defect to anyother party fromthe Congress,the party cadrein Andhole seg-ment of Medakare in a dilemmafor the past fewweeks.

Initially, they were inflicteda huge loss by the TRS but inthe recent times the BJPsemergence as a major force inthis constituency is making theCongress cadre to think twicebefore staying in tact with theorganisation. The latest devel-opment of Damodara thougha gossip has not been takenseriously by the Congress lead-ership but the TRS is taking itas an advantage and pouncingon the Congress to wipe out allits cadre in the erstwhile bas-tion of the party.

The Andhole BJP is led byBabu Mohan and since he tooenjoyed a considerable chunkof support base, the Congressleaders in the village level isplaced in a disappointedmode. This may ultimatelytake the party towards a backseat, says the cadre.

BJP’s emergence asa major force in thisconstituency is

making theCongress cadrethink twicebefore stayingwith the party.

There were evenrumours of DamodarRaja Narasimhajoiningthe saffron party

State on path of development,says ErrabelliPNS n WARANGAL

Panchayath Raj MinisterErrabelli Dayakar Rao askedto the media to focus on thedevelopment programmeswith a positive motto whileprojecting them in the mediaand newspapers.

The Minister said certainmedia houses were trying totarnish the image of the gov-ernment for their vestedinterests. "Though the mediahouses might have their ownstands, the scribes shouldfocus on the genuineness inthe development and theyshould take utmost interest inhighlighting the facts," hesaid.

Stating that the TelanganaRashtra Samiti (TRS) gov-ernment led by KChandrashekhar Rao wastrying to implement devel-opment with a firm approach,the Minister said the all-round growth of Telanganastate is slowly becoming areality these days.

Over 25 lakh sarees have been sent to districts so far

PNS n HYDERABAD

The gruesome murder autodriver Praveen four days agowas carried out by threeassailants, including a womanwho was arrested by theMiyapur police on Sunday.

Dokku Swathi, 27 was thethird accused arrested in thecase along with two othersidentified as Dokku SrikanthYadav, 30, and Kukkala NagaSrinu, 20. All three are resi-dents of Miyapur are in thecity.

Madhapur DCP AVenkateshwara Rao saidPraveen had been movingabout for last few monthswith another person whomSrikanth had attempted to killin 2017. Srikanth suspectedthat Praveen was planning tomurder him. However, theircommon friends tried to bro-ker a compromise betweenthem. Srikanth continued tolive under constant fear thatPraveen might kill him any-time, so he planned to elimi-nate the man himself. OnAugust 23, Srikanth alongwith Srinu drove Praveen totheir house where Srikanth'swife strangulated Praveen andkilled him. Police said

Srikanth, Srinu and anotherperson Rajesh later tookPraveen's body to a desertedspot in Miyapur, severed thehead and threw it at Miyapurcrossroads.

Police registered a case ofmurder and arrested Srikanth,Srinu and Swathi based on acomplaint. Police also seized aknife, and a motorcycle fromthe accused.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019 hyderabad 03

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Srikanth fearthat Praveenmight kill himanytime, so heplanned toeliminate theman himself

Mindspace-RGIA Metrolink to give realty a pushDEEPTHI NANDAN REDDY n HYDERABAD

The proposed metro rail lineconnecting MindspaceJunction with Rajiv GandhiInternational Airport (RGIA)may finally spur the long-dor-mant real estate sector in andaround Shamshabad andspruce up the social infra-structure in the area.

Though lands inShamshabad caught the fancyof investors and attracted real-tors and builders to the areatwo decades ago, when the air-port came into existence, thedevelopment around the areadid not quite take off, giving ahuge jolt to the realtors.

In fact, several investorswho had bet big onShamshabad have burnt fin-gers, as neither residential norcommercial launches hap-pened. But with the metro railto be laid between RGI Airportand Mindspace Junction,Samshabad and surroundingareas may get a new lease oflife.

"Though everyone expectedSamshabad to become ahotspot area after the launch ofthe airport, the area did notbecome quite popular asexpected. Though initially landdevelopers and investors withdeep pockets invested in thearea, no construction compa-nies or builders have launched

projects. Even those working inthe airport are staying in thecity and traveling to the work-place, but not staying any-where nearby," said K SreedharReddy, treasurer of TelanganaReal Estate DevelopersAssociation (TREDA) speak-ing to The Pioneer.

"But now Samshabad willgrab the eyeballs if the metrorail comes into existence.Because, techies who are work-ing in Hitech city, Gachibowlisurrounds can travel betweenworkplace and office quite eas-ily in a short span, if they buya home anywhere betweenShamshabad to Gachibowli,

on either side of the metro railline. Therefore builders whoare already finding the pricesin the West Hyderabad regionunviable are thinking ofSamshabad as the next bestoption," he added.

It might take about three tofive years for the metro rail linkbetween Hitech City and theairport to come into existence,but Hyderabad Metro RailLimited is all set to launchworks, as soon as the govern-ment gives the nod. The pro-posed 31-km-long metro railstretch from MindspaceJunction to RGIA Airport willbe taken up with an investment

of about Rs 5,000 crore.Therefore, builders are alreadyseriously evolving the potentialof Samshabad for residentiallaunches.

"It is getting to a tippingpoint in West Hyderabad areaslike Gachibowli, Kokapet,Raidurg. Land prices havealready crossed one lakh markper yard. Also, there is a pres-sure on infrastructure, witheveryone flocking to WestHyderabad. Though there arebest infrastructure facilities inIT Hub, problems of trafficjams, flooding due to rains,congestion are occurring fre-quently. So it makes sense tolook beyond Gachibowli andgo towards Samshabadi orany area abutting ORR ormetro rail," said V RajashekarReddy, general secretary ofCREDAI.

"One can travel to offices inIT Hub within 30 minutesfrom Shamshabad if the metroline becomes a reality. Alsoone can get land or house atone-third of cost inShamshabad when comparedto Hitech City surroundings,keeping in view the today'sprice trends, he said explain-ing the benefits for realtycompanies and homebuyers ifShamshabad is developed.Besides attractive land prices,availability of huge land bankin Shamshabad is also entic-ing builders.

The proposed line will push the realtyprospects of Shamshabad upwardsand accelerate connectivity forresidents in many areas

TSRTC's ‘Dialyour officer'event todayPNS n HYDERABAD

To redress transport griev-ances and provide passenger-centric services, GreaterHyderabad Zone ofTelangana State RoadTransport Corporation isorganising 'Dial your RTCofficer' programme onMonday from 5pm and 6 pm.

O f f i c e r swho can becontacted dur-ing the pro-gramme include,Khusro Shah Khan, RegionalManager, Hyderabad Region,(Ph.8374499915), GYugendher, RegionalManager, SecunderabadRegion (Ph.9959900808) andMadhava Rao, DivisonalManager, Kacheguda divi-sion (Ph.9959226087),according to a press release.

MAYANK TIWARIn HYDERABAD

A majority of books at thelibrary of Telangana StateArchives and Research Institutein Tarnaka are old and fragile.The large leather-bound col-lection stacked on metal racksis lined with grime and dust.Some of these are catalogedwhile others are just namelesstomes.

The archives' library con-tains Persian literature chron-icling the time before theBritish colonised India. Thereare works in Urdu literaturetoo, which almost died in post-Nizam era. "Post-British era,Persian held official status inthe court and the administra-tion, and it heavily influencedmany of the local languages,particularly Urdu," saysWikipedia.

The public library lies almosthidden in one corner of thearchives and research insti-tute and is only frequented by

a few scholars from abroad anda handful of Indians.

Kevin Haynes, a Ph.D.Scholar from US who is digi-

tising books on Indo-Persianarchitecture, said, "This libraryis a reserve of literary wealthwhich can be found nowhereelse."

The collection of about40,000 books is mostly on his-tory, architecture and old-school philosophy. There arevery few new books dedicatedto 'Architecture and History ofHyderabad State' which weredonated by writers and pub-lishers.

"The library has free entry,although very few people showup here, although one or twovisitors come over on a regu-lar basis. If anyone is lookingfor digitisation copy of a book,

it can be had for Rs 500 amonth," said the library assis-tant. "Lack of funds and staffcrunch is the reason why thelibrary is in such a poor con-dition," he said.

"State archives is not only arepository of books but also ofold manuscripts letters, foliosand even scrolls, which makesit the largest repository with 43million of documents, somedating back to 1406 AD. Ofthese, 90 per cent of the recordsare in Persian and Urdu lan-guages, making it perhaps thelargest quantum in India," saidDr Zareena Parveen, director ofState Archives in conversationwith The Pioneer recently.

Fragile books, few patrons tells library’s tale

Last phasecounseling forMBBS seats heldPNS n HYDERABAD

Kaloji Medical HealthUniversity will conduct thefinal phase counseling forMBBS convenor quota seats inprivate and government med-ical colleges. The one-day finalcounseling began on Sunday.Most of the seats were filled inthe first three rounds of coun-seling. The last phase has beenintroduced to fill the vacantseats. Candidates can find thedetails of colleges and vacantseats in all medical colleges onthe website.

JNTUH registration: Staffers sayportal is insecure, faultyEngg teaching staff asked to register by Aug 31, TCEA

claims JNTUH portal can be accessed by anybodySUSHMA NAGARAJUn HYDERABAD

Engineering colleges affiliatedto JNTUH have been asked tosubmit lists of their teachingstaff to the university byAugust 31. The JNTUHauthorities have sent a circularto this effect asking collegemanagements to registerdetails of the teaching staff onthe JNTU Academic Auditonline portal to maintaintransparency and authenticity.

However, the TechnicalCollege Employee Association(TCEA) denies the university'sclaim that the portal is authen-tic. The association said thatthere was little use of register-ing details because as of nowthe portal is insecure and any-one from outside can access itand fill in details claiming tobe a college lecturer and evenclaim an ID. TCEA saiduploading details of their staffwould still not give the uni-versity a correct idea of thestaff number given the inse-cure nature of the portal.

On the university's part, ithas already been 20 days sinceengineering classes com-menced, and therefore it hasinstructed colleges to be quickin submitting details.

The JNTUH's making sucha request to colleges is not new.Every year, the affiliated col-leges need to register details ofnew teaching staff and existingones to JNTUH. It is meantserve as a record for the uni-versity and help avoid mal-practices in recruitment.

The authorities said thatthis practice helped it resolvedthe issue of lecturers workingfor five or six universities. Notjust that, the colleges that hadbeen running classes by

appointing B-Tech graduatesalso came to an end.

The application to registerfor staff details asks for name,experience, qualification, dateof joining, latest photo andidentification proof.Thereafter, a registration ID isgenerated for each facultymember, said the universityauthorities.

Currently, the portal showsthat 83,543 faculty membershave registered with JNTUH.However, the Telangana StateTechnical Employees'Association also contendedthat the portal is not fool-proofand authentic. It does not havea verification exercise todetermine whether the detailssubmitted for registration arefrom a genuine staff memberor any person from outside.The creation of fake registra-

tions is just one click away, theassociation said. Once thedetails are filled and a personclicks on register, a registrationID is generated. College man-agements use the registrationIDs generated in such a man-ner in files they submit whenseeking affiliation.

"According to AICTE, thenumber of lecturers inTelangana across various dis-ciplines is approximately43,286. When that is the case,how does JNTUH itself showlecturer strength of 83,543?This process is not at all anauthentic and of no use. Theportal was opened in 2015 buteven now cases surface whenduring JNTUH inspectionwhere fake numbers are pro-duced with respect to faculty,"said TCEA president SanthoshKumar.

The association said that there waslittle use of registering detailsbecause as of now the portal isinsecure and anyone from outside canaccess it and fill in details, claiming tobe a college lecturer and even get an ID issued

Mother sells baby, files‘kidnap’ complaintWoman arrested, says she was forced to sell her child out of povertyPNS n HYDERABAD

The LB Nagar police rescueda 10-month-old boy, who wassold by his mother for Rs60,000, and shifted the infantto Shishu Vihar. The womanhad cooked up a kidnap storyand even staged an accident tomislead the police. She wasarrested along with the personwho 'bought' the baby.

Police said accused DVijayalakshmi, 30, a beggar,allegedly sold her son Akhildue to poverty. She thenlodged a complaint with thepolice stating that an uniden-tified couple kidnapped Akhil

from Gunti Jangaiah Colony inLB Nagar.

She claimed that a coupleriding a scooter hit her, andsped off with Akhil while shewas lay unconscious afterthe blow.

Police collected surveillancecamera footage from the spot,identified the registrationnumber of the scooter andtracked down the vehicleowner, Oraganti Mosha, avendor. Mosha was detainedfor questioning, during whichhe confessed thatVijayalakshmi had sold thebaby to him and that the acci-dent scene was staged.

He confessed that he hadbought the infant fromVijayalakshmi for Rs 60,000 inShadnagar recently. Themother too confessed thatshe sold her child due topoverty, police said, addingthat the woman had alsoapproached other people inShadnagar to sell the childbefore selling him to Mosha.

The infant was handed overto Child Welfare Committee,which shifted him to ShishuVihar in Yousufguda for safecustody. Vijayalakshmi andMosha were produced incourt and remanded in judi-cial custody.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Department ofInformation and PublicRelations acts as 'eyes andears' of the government andplays a pivotal role in dissem-ination of information usingdifferent modes of communi-cation, said K V Ramanachary,Advisor to Government(Media Affairs) and formerCommissioner, I&PR.

He was speaking at"Atmeeya Sammelanam" pro-gramme held for the retiredemployees of the Departmentat RR District ZP MeetingHall, here on Sunday. Herecalled and hailed the servicesof the employees of the depart-ment during his three stints inthe capacity of the HOD. Theofficers and staff have to workreally hard at any point of timewith no holidays to upkeep theimage of the government. Heopined that officers who haveworked in the department caneasily afford to work in otherdepartment irrespective of thecadre.

MVS Prasad, former

Commissioner, I&PR said thatthe Department acts as abridge between the govern-ment and the general public. Itnot only provides all the pub-licity needs of the govern-ment but also bring awarenessabout the policies and pro-grammes of the government tothe downtrodden classes of thesociety.

He also shared his memo-rable experiences during hisstay in the department. A LKismat Kumar, FormerDirector, I&PR and Chairman,Organizing Committee hasinformed that the programmehas been planned as a get-together function for all theretired cadres of the

Department and it has pro-vided a much-needed plat-form to the participants toshare their experiences.

Umamaheshwar Reddy,Former Joint Director sharedhealth tips among the partic-ipants and asked them toimbibe four principles for bet-ter long life viz. eating half thanbefore, double water intake,light exercise including walk-ing and stay smiling always.Earlier, KV Ramanachary alsoreleased a book displaying theinformation about all theretired employees of theDepartment irrespective oftheir cadres of combined stateon the occasion. Further,retired employees who areaged above 80 were also felic-itated. Dr B Balaraju, GeneralPhysician and medical experthas delivered a lecture onhealth tips on the occasion. LVeerappa, former DPRO wel-comed while E Venkatesham,former Deputy Director pro-posed a vote of thanks. RetiredDirectors, M Pramoda Rao, ASubash Goud, A Satya Rao alsoparticipated.

Advisor to Government (Media Affairs) KV Ramanachary being felicitated at the event on Sunday

The collection of 40,000 books mostly on history, architecture andold-school philosophy in Persian and Urdu, is country's largest

‘Information dept servesas eyes and ears of govt'

Auto driver Praveen, who was killed

PNS n HYDERABAD

A 35-year-old man was killedon the spot in a road mishapwhile his friend sustainedinjuries at Hayathnagar crossroads on late Saturday night.

The accident occurredwhile the two were travellingin a Bolero SUV Vijayawadaduring the weekend,Hayathnagar inspector KSatish said. The deceasedwas identified as, ArunMichell, was a local musician,and his friend as Hanok, saidthe police.

Police said while the twomen were heading out of thecity, a lorry carrying elec-tronic equipment dashed intoa divider and turned turtle,crushing the driver's side ofthe Bolero. Arun was killedon the spot. Hanok however,escaped with minor injuries."The lorry was being drivenat a high speed. The driverleft the vehicle and fled thescene," said sub-inspectorNagaraju. Both the vehicleswere badly damaged in theaccident.

The accident led to km-long traffic jam on the high-way. Later, a case was bookedagainst the lorry driver underSection 304A (death by neg-ligence) of IPC. The body wasshifted to Gandhi hospital forpostmortem examination.

Man dies inSUV mishap

I&PR also actsas a bridgebetween thegovernment andthe generalpublic, said itsex-chief

Continued from Page 1

The Congress, TRS andother political parties areworked up over EC's decision.

Ruling TRS has starteddoing the ground work to grabthe Huzur Nagar seat from theparty Congress. The pink partyhas done some exercise on thecandidate to be fielded from theconstituency. TRS will mostprobably field Sanampudi SaidiReddy, who lost in theDecember 2018 elections at thehands of Uttam Kumar Reddy.There were rumours doing therounds that TRS may fieldChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao's daughterK Kavitha from Huzur Nagar.

The Congress may fieldUttam Kumar Reddy's wife

Padmavathi Reddy, who lostthe 2018 elections from theKodad constituency at thehands of TRS candidate BollamMallaiah Yadav. The saffronparty is yet to find a reliablecandidate as it barely has pres-ence in the Huzur Nagar con-stituency.

When contacted, TelanganaState Chief Electoral OfficerRajat Kumar said that he wasnot aware of the by-electionschedule issued by the CentralElection Commission. He saidthat he would find out aboutthe schedule.

TPCC working presidentJetti Kusuma Kumar suggestedthat the EC may have skippedthe Huzur Nagar constituencyas BJP does not have a candi-date in the seat.

EC shocker: No HuzurNagar Assembly bypoll

BJP's ‘TSLiberationDay’...Continued from Page 1

Referring to the BJP stateunit's request concerningTelangana Liberation Day,Kishan Reddy said: "TheHome Ministry is in receiptof such a request from theTelangana unit of BJP. Adecision on this is yet to betaken. Home minister AmitShah will take a call on thisrequest."

Telangana Liberation Dayis usually celebrated by BJPand certain other parties onSeptember 17 to commemo-rate the rebellion and the sub-sequent Police Action whichled to the freedom ofHyderabad state from theNizam's rule on September17, 1948. On that day, theNizam of Hyderabadannounced a ceasefire andthe surrender of his troops,paving the way for integrationof Hyderabad with the IndianUnion.

There is a long-pendingdemand, supported by vari-ous parties and organiza-tions, for official celebrationsto mark this day as was beingdone in Karnataka andMaharashtra. However, thisdemand could not be meteither in undivided AP or inTelangana State now.

Woman, 3rd accusedin beheading case,arrested in Miyapur

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019 hyderabad 04

PNS n NIZAMSAGAR

The recent heavy rains havebrought more than enoughinflows into Sriramsagar,Pocharam, Singitam, Kalyani,Nallavagu, Kaulas Naala irri-gation projects but not into theNizamsagar project, which isdescribed as the boon of undi-vided Nizamabad district.

Lands cultivated in thecatchment area of theNizamsagar and Singur projectis around 2.08 lakh acres.Against the FRL of 17.80 tmc,there is only 0.13 tmc inNizamsagar. Similarly, theSingur project's storage capac-ity is 29.90 tmc while thewater available in the project isat 0.45 tmc.

As per government order, ifthere is 10.5 tmc of water inSinguru project, water isreleased to Nizamsagar. Goingby the availability of water inSingur project, it is clearlyunderstood that not a singledrop is going to be releasedinto the Nizamsagar project.

Following the recent heavy

rains, farmers transplantedpaddy at many places. But, onaccount of lack of inflows intothe Nizamsagar and Singuruprojects from upper catch-ment areas of neighbouringKarnataka, the transplantedpaddy is withering away. WhenKarimza stream is in spate inBidar and Maharashtra region,there will be inflows intoSinguru.

In Nizamsagar andBanswada mandals, paddy isbeing transplanted in an extentof 30,000 acres. Transplanting

of paddy has been completedin respect of 1.50 lakh acres inNasrullahbad, Birkur, Kotagiri,Varni, Rudrur, Bodhan,Yedapalli, Renzel, Nizamabad,Armoor and Balkonda man-dals. Some of the farmers whotransplanted paddy aredependent on bore wells whilea majority of them trans-planted paddy hoping thatthere would be inflows intothe Nizamsagar project. If therains continue to play truantfor another week, these farm-ers will be in soup.

PNS n BODHAN

The threat of encroaching theNizam Sugar Factory atBodhan is looming large. Someof the lands of over 16,000 acresgiven by the erstwhile Nizam tothe sugar factory, which islocated on a 20-acre site, havebeen encroached. Thanks tothe lack of records of theNizam Sugar Factory landswith the Revenue Department,which is coming in handy forthe encroachers.

Purchase of factory lands,registration, and other deals areoften turning out to be con-troversies with a lack of puccarecords with the RevenueDepartment. Recently, somevested interests tried toencroach 2.30-acre land worthseveral crores of rupees next to

cane yard in the sugar factory.When the encroachersdeployed JCB to level theground in the land, some youthliving in Hanuman Tekdiobjected to it.

Following the privatizationof the lands in 2002, a corecommittee has been appointed

to protect the lands. The mil-lion-dollar question is what thecommittee has been doingwhen the sugar factory land isbeing encroached upon?

When the factory was set upin 1938, the erstwhile Nizamearmarked 16,000 acres forthe sugar factory. These lands

spread across Bodhan,Yedapalli, Renzel, and Koagairi,Varni, Mesra, Chandur andother mandals. Sugarcane cul-tivation has been encouragedby promoting 16 agriculturefarms.

Since 1992, the sale of fac-tory lands is going on. About8,500 acres have been distrib-uted among the landless poor

under the state government'sland purchase scheme andanother 3,500 acres have beensold through public auction.Records of the core committeeindicate that 1,292 acres havebeen allotted to the factoryemployees who retired fromservice voluntarily for theirhousing.

The poor have raised theirhouses on the factory lands,dumping yards, schools,shrines, social welfare hostelbuildings have been built onthe factory lands. The light rail-way line developed on 188acres later become a road. In2002, the factory was privatizedand the management pur-chased valuable lands in thevicinity of the factory. By thetime the factory was closed onDecember 23, 2015, the vested

interests eyed on the valuablelands of the factory. In ShakkarNagar, under the control of thecore committee, there are manyvaluable lands, some of whichare suspected to have beenencroached.

The lands distributedamong the landless poorthrough various corporationsunder the land purchasescheme ended up in contro-versy at many places. Somebeneficiaries have been giventhe land, but no pattta and viceversa. On Mondays, represen-tations of this nature are sub-mitted to the RDO office aspart of Praja Vaani. There areat least 500 cases of irregular-ities. Nizam Sugar Factory corecommittee officer Khalid Alisaid that he received at least 350such complaints.

PNS n NIZAMABAD

A seat in BC hostels for poorstudents has become hard toget without recommendationof elected people's representa-tives or Ministers. Elected rep-resentatives sending recom-mendation letters for a seat inthe hostels for their candidateshas attracted enough criticism.

A candidate is sure to get aseat if he or she is armed withthe letter. The officials set asidethe rules and give him or herpriority. On account of thispractice, the eligible candidatesare not getting the seats. Thereare 13 post-Metric hostels forBCs in the district, includingseven for BC girls. Each hostelhas 100 seats. Because of manycolleges are located in the city,demand for seats in hostels inthe city skyrocketed.

In the district headquarters,there are only two hostels eachfor BC boys and girls. There isonly one seat available in the

boys' hosel at Namdevvada(BC-A boys' hostel) for whichat least 170 have applied. Theseinclude, 20 recommended bypeople's representatives.

The hostel authorities got 20seats sanctioned additionallyand allotted them to the can-

didates. In the other hostel atMirchi Compound in the city,around 74 have applied for 23seats. At least 50 students havebeen denied seats. The same isthe case with the girls' hostel atDubba, near here. For 40 seatsin the hostel for BC girls, 220

have applied. There were novacancies in the girls hostel atSubhashnagar.

Students pursuing educa-tion in the city hail from dis-tricts such as Kamareddy,Nirmal, Jagityal, RajannaSircilla, Adilabad andWarangal. To apply for a seatin hostels, students shouldhave studied in governmentcolleges or schools. The allot-ment of seats should be pure-ly on the basis of merit. But,the BC welfare officials shelvedthe rules rendering injustice topoor but meritorious students.The elected people's represen-tatives issue recommendationletters, but rarely mount pres-sure on government to increasethe number of seats in the BChostels.

PNS n PEDDAPALLI

Police Commissioner VSatyanarayana along with localMLA Korukanti Chanderinaugurated parking zone atnew Municipal Corporationoffice in Godavarikhani town.Speaking on the occasion, theCommissioner said instead ofparking the vehicles in front ofshops, the owners and workersof the shops should park theirvehicles at municipal parkingzone paving the way for thecustomers to park their vehi-cle in central parking area.

By this facility to ease thetraffic in the town, there wouldnot be any traffic problems inLaxminagar shopping area ifvehicles were parked in centralparking area, he said. Thecommuters and the pedestri-ans had been facing problemson the roads due to haphazardparking in the town, said the

Commissioner, adding, theowners and people working atdifferent shops should parktheir vehicles at the newlyconstructed parking zone only.If any one violates the rule,they would be penalized andtheir vehicles would be shift-ed to traffic police station,warned the Commissionerwho unveiled a flexy detailingthe penalty fees for traffic vio-lations according to new motor

vehicle act. CP Satyanarayanainformed to arrange more flex-ies at important centers toeducate the motorists aboutthe revised penalities. Pitchingfor the need of wearing helmet,the CP and MLA KorukantiChandar felicitated themotorists who were wearinghelmet by giving them roseflowers. AR CommandantSanjeev, Traffic ACPVenkateshwar Rao,Godavarikhani ACP Umender,Traffic CI B Ramesh Babu,One Town CI Parsa Rameshand others also participated inthe programme.

Ramagundam Municipality gets new hi-tech parking lot

BJP planning to attract govt employees to its fold

Nizamsagar project yet to receive inflows

Situation not normal in J&K: CPI

Against the FRL of 17.80 tmc, there is only 0.13 tmc water in the reservoir currently

Following theprivatisation ofthe lands in2002, a corecommitteewas formed to protect them

A candidate is sure to get a seat if he or she isarmed with a letter from MLA or Minister

Nizam Sugar Factory land encroached upon

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The body of a woman was ina lake at Marlapalem, nearGannavaram, in Krishna dis-trict on Sunday. She used toreside at Ramnagar inGannavaram and worked atsoftware company Algorithm,Medha Towers. Identified asPushpalatha belonging toEluru, the woman marriedher lover Anil Kumar, also aresident of Eluru, eight yearsago. However, she divorcedher husband following domes-tic disputes.

Initially, she had worked asa teacher at the Delhi PublicSchool in Vijayawada after

she started living separately.Later, she took up job as a soft-ware engineer at Algorithm inGannavaram.

She left her house onSaturday evening informingher mother that she was goingto meet a friend.

Her handbag and scooty(two-wheeler) were found atthe Marlapalem lake. Thepolice searched the lake andfound her body.

The police first suspectedthat the woman might havecommitted suicide by jumpinginto the lake. But later, know-ing about her marital prob-lems, they are not ruling outthe possibility of her murder.

Mystery shrouds techie's death

PNS n HYDERABAD

Contributory PensionScheme Employees'Association of Telangana at ameeting held here on Sundayresolved not to retire until theContributory PensionScheme (CPS) is withdrawn.

Addressing the partici-pants, association president DKamalakar exhorted the stateand Central governments togive up the adamant attitudeagainst annulling the scheme.The association would stepup the agitation, if necessary,he said. The association willundertake a novel protestprogramme from September1 in support of its demands,he said explaining that themembers would work onehour additionally in all dis-tricts to register their protestagainst governments not will-ing to withdraw the CPS.Union General secretary CBhupati Rao publicity secre-tary M Raghunandan andothers spoke.

The meeting resolved tosensitise the state and centralgovernments on the agony ofthe association members andstrive to ensure that the CPSis withdrawn.

Employeesagainst CPS,to protestfrom Sep 1

When ‘recommendations’ push aside merit

PNS n HYDERABAD

CPI national general secre-tary D Raja, who came toTelangana for the first timeafter becoming the generalsecretary of the party, allegedthat the NDA government,led by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, has madeKashmir issue, which was abilateral issue till now, into aninternational issue.

He said that the Modi gov-ernment is stepping ahead totransform India as a Hindunation. As part of it, the Modigovernment abrogated Article370, which providesautonomous status to Kashmir.Moreover, the Modi govern-ment is making it clear that itabolished Article 370 only tofulfill their idealism of makingIndia as Akhand Bharat. Healleged that the abrogation ofArticle 370 is undemocraticand unconstitutional.

Participating in the"Indrajith Gupta Centenarybirth Anniversary Celebrationsat Maqdhoom Bhavan here onSunday, Raja delivered a speechon 'Abrogation of Article 370-

Consequences in Kashmir". He said that there is no

truth in the news published inthe media that Kashmir ispeaceful after the abrogation ofArticle 370. The Centre isspreading false news aboutKashmir. Prime Minister him-self is telling lies and the peo-ple of Kashmir questioning totell as to whom they believe in,he said.

Ridiculing Union HomeMinister Amit Shah's statement

that Kashmir means PakOccupied Kashmir and ChinaOccupied Aksai Chin butUnion Foreign Minister JaiShankar is stating that Indiawill stick to actual Line ofControl.

He alleged that RSS andBJP are speaking lies and theynever stand by the side oftruth. He alleged that the Modigovernment passed JammuKashmir Division Bill withouttaking the opinion of Assembly

and against the JammuKashmir people.

This Act is against theConstitution's Federal Spirit, heslammed. He alleged that BJPis suffering from Islamophobia.Ambedkar never supportedHindu State and the nationwould be destroyed if it hap-pened, he said. He called uponpeople to protect Parliament,democracy, and constitution asthe Modi government violatedall.

CPI national general secretary D Raja addresses a meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday

PNS n HYDERABAD

BJP vice president and mem-bership drive in-charge MDharma Rao slammed theTRS for belittling BJP's mem-bership drive.

"TRS working presidentKT Rama Rao and otherleaders have been trying tomislead people on BJP'smembership drive. They aresaying that BJP is givingmemberships throughmobiles as no one is showinginterest to become members.It is unfortunate that KTRand TRS leaders could notunderstand the significanceof online and mobile mem-bership campaigns, whileeveryone all over the countryare appreciating it. TRS lead-ers are making this mislead-ing propaganda, as they areunable to digest the responseBJP's membership drive isreceiving from people," saidDharma Rao.“TRS leadershave enrolled members byluring and threatening peo-ple. But BJP is enrolling onlythose who are voluntarilyjoining impressed by party'spolices,” he said.

TRSmisleadingpeople: BJP

MLA Korukanti Chander

Continued from Page 1

"We have got dependableinformation that CM KCR hasmade it clear in Collectors'Conference to scrap RevenueDepartment. He wants toweaken the RevenueDepartment by branding themas corrupt. By weakening theMunicipal Department andscrapping the RevenueDepartments and by giving fullpowers to Collector, KCRwants to keep villages andtowns in his absolute controland run the state in a dictato-rial and tyrannical way. If thishappens, then not just oppo-sition parties but even employ-ees will be diminished.Therefore, we are planning tolaunch an agitation, along withemployees' associations. Wefeel that this will be a win-wincombination as BJP will getemployees' backing, whileemployees' bodies will bestrengthened with our support,as we are in power at Centre,"said N Ramchander Rao,speaking to The Pioneer.

Although RevenueDepartment officials are

miffed at KCR's stance towardsthe wing, they have so far notdared to go to the extent oflaunching a stir against theTRS government. Still,TNGOs Association and otherpowerful bodies are disap-pointed at the ways of the TRSgovernment.

Now, with BJP buoyant inthe state and with BJP's nation-al leadership making aggres-sive moves, even employees'organisations see light at theend of the tunnel and aredetermined to ensure that TRSheeds their demands.

"Government has not imple-mented any promise it made toemployees like the announce-ment of IR, PRC and others.Even EHS has not been imple-mented satisfactorily. There is

no clarity on the increase in theretirement age till now. Nowscrapping of RevenueDepartment has become ahuge concern. Leave alonepromises, we are not even get-ting an appointment with CMmany a time. Absolute powerto TRS is making us thinktwice to take on TRS. If oppo-sition to TRS emerges power-ful, then employees will beready to fight against rulingparty," said a senior leader ofTelangana Employees JointAction Committee, highlight-ing the discontent amongemployees.

Sensing this discontentamong employees, BJP is wait-ing for an opportune momentto woo employees' organsia-tions and consolidate its base.

Continued from Page 1

It is a remarkable irony thatSindhu after two bronze (2013,2014) and an equal number ofsilver, Sindhu's fifth medal inbadminton's crème de la crèmeevent, after the All England,puts her in the illustrious com-pany of China's Xhang Ning,as the only two in its history topocket five singles medals inthe coveted championship.

In a way, with the latest tri-umph she has actually brokenthough the silver jinx thathaunted her no end. She hadto rest content with a secondbest finish at the 2016 RioGames, Gold CoastCommonwealth Games DownUnder and the Asian Games inJakarta.

In hindsight, although itwas a historic first from theIndian point of view, there isan overwhelming feeling in thecircles that this has beenachieved a tad too late. Thereare reasons for such conclu-sions as the lanky Indian was

always expected to scale exalt-ed summits like the AllEngland, Olympics and theWorlds, quite earlier.Nonetheless, it is always betterlate than never.

What stands her apart is thatunlike Saina Nehwal, shestayed loyal to her mentor,Pullela Gopichand, who cantake particular credit for mak-ing an astounding shuttler ofthe girl who stands at 5'10''.

Now that she has broughthome the medal that everybadminton player craves for,the brazenness of the politicoswill come to the fore, all overagain. States will vie with one

another to announce mind-boggling rewards to the undis-puted poster girl of Indiansport. These honourable gen-tlemen are averse to supportup-and-coming promising tal-ents but do not hesitate one bitto offer mindbogglingamounts to champions, whoare anyway entitled for heftyprize money.

One is not complainingagainst the Sindhus, Sainasand Sanias for the staggeringearnings they make and thesubsequent endorsementdeals they rightfully com-mand.

However, one should sparea thought to the ground real-ities-their successors are wait-ing in the wings but cannotknock on the doors because ofwant of financial support inthe absence of godfathers andpatrons. It is these futurehopefuls who need to be reas-sured that help is round thecorner even if they fail to makethe TOPP and Gold Questgrade.

Now, with BJP buoyant in the stateand with BJP's national leadershipmaking aggressive moves, evenemployees' organisations see light atthe end of the tunnel and aredetermined to ensure that TRS heedstheir demands

With the latesttriumph, PVSindhu hasactually brokenthough the silverjinx thathaunted her

n This facility will ease thetraffic in the town. Therewould not be any trafficproblems in Laxminagarshopping area if vehicleswere parked in centralparking area

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The iron boat that got stuck inthe 68th gate of the PrakasamBarrage was finally disentan-gled on Sunday, thanks to theefforts of experts drawn infrom Visakhapatnam,Kakinada and other places.

The experts extricated the14-tonne boat without causingany damage to it. Local irri-gation officials could haveremoved the boat sooner, butthe delay was caused as thegovernment did not want theboat to be damaged in anyway.

Officials appreciated theteam that worked hard toextricate the boat withoutcausing any damage to it. Itmay be recalled that two boatswere swept away in the flood-water at Pavitra Sangamam.While one boat passedthrough the open gate at the

Prakasam Barrage on August14, the other got stuck in thegap between the apron of thebarrage and its 68th gate.

NDRF and SDRF teamstried to disentangle the boat,but in vain. Technicians werealso called to cut the boat withwelding machines, but thatwas called off. After floodwa-ter levels came down, all thegates of the barrage wereclosed except the 68th gate,which continued to be openuntil the boat was extricated.

Boat extricated fromPrakasam Barrage

Hail the shuttle queen!

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019 nation 05SHORT READS

Rahul wants single-window for papers toflood-hit people NEW DELHI: Congress leaderand Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhihas written to Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan,seeking setting up of a single-window system for reissuanceof documents lost or damagedduring the recent devastatingfloods in the state. Gandhi, inhis letter to Vijayan, flaggedthat many flood-affectedfamilies in his constituency lostessential documents such asration cards, Aadhaar cards,school or college certificates,land titles, registereddocuments, birth certificates,death certificates, tax receipts,pan cards. The flood victimsare forced to visit multipleoffices requesting forreissuance of lost or damageddocuments, he said. Gandhisuggested that instead ofexpecting flood victims toapproach many offices, a nodalofficer at the office of thedistrict collector may bedesignated to receiveconsolidated application fromthe affected families withdetails of lost documents.

Child dies aftermanjha slits throat

Man dies under policecustody in UPAMETHI (UP): A 35-year-oldman, who was arrested on thecharges of theft, died undermysterious circumstances inpolice custody here on Sunday,an official said. Ram Avtar Pasi,35, was arrested by a patrolteam Saturday night and hedied in the custody at Inhaunaoutpost in the early hours ofSunday, Superintendent ofPolice (SP) Khyati Garg said.Deputy Superintendent of PoliceTiloi Rajkumar Singh has beenasked to investigate the matter,she added. Garg said the bodyhas been sent for post-mortem.The exact cause of Pasi's deathwill be ascertained once thepost-mortem report is out, sheadded.

13 injured in clashbetween two groups inUP's MuzaffarnagarMUZAFFARNAGAR: Thirteenpeople were injured after aclash broke out between twogroups over taking water froma public hand pump, police saidon Sunday. The incident tookplace on Saturday in Sakotivillage, which comes under thejurisdiction of Jhinjana policestation, said Dinesh Kumar, in-charge of Chosana policeoutpost. Injured persons wererushed to a nearby hospital, hesaid. Meanwhile, security wastightened and extra police forcewas deployed in the village,Kumar added.

NEW DELHI: A four-and-a-half-year-old girl, who was travellingon a motorcycle with herparents, died after her throatwas slit by a glass-coatedmanjha in Khajuri Khas area,police said on Saturday. Thevictim was identified as Ishika,a resident of Sonia Vihar. Thebaby was admitted to JPChospital where doctorsdeclared her brought dead, thepolice said. The family was onits way to the Hanuman Mandirin Jamuna Bazar when theaccident occurred. Ishika wassitting in the front while herfather Girish Kumar was ridingthe motorcycle, police said. Acase under section 304A of theIPC has been registered andfurther investigation isunderway, the police added.

Minority Affairs Ministry team for KashmirPNS n NEW DELHI

A Minority Affairs Ministryteam will visit the KashmirValley for two days fromTuesday to identify the areas toimplement centrally-sponsoreddevelopment projects after pro-visions of Article 370 wereabrogated, Union ministerMukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said.

He also asserted that thoseopposing the government'swithdrawal of J&K's special sta-tus, acting as per their "politi-cal prejudice", will also comearound to support the moveafter seeing its impact.

"A team of senior officials,including the Secretary, will bevisiting the area (KashmirValley) on August 27-28. Theteam will explore developmentpossibilities -- where schools,colleges, skill development cen-tres can be opened," Naqvi toldPTI in an interview.

The team will look at all pos-sibilities of social-economicdevelopment projects, he said.

The minister also said "pre-cautions" taken in J&K aretargeted at a "handful of sepa-ratists" who can mislead thepeople. "It is the job of aresponsible government to notallow any misinformation cam-paign to be run," he said.

Naqvi said the team will alsovisit Jammu and Ladakh at alater date.

The Minority AffairsMinister ruled out reconsider-ation on abrogation of Article370 provisions, saying there

was no going back."It is (Narendra) Modi's gov-

ernment. Everybody knowsthat in this government, deci-sion is made after a lot of think-ing, but there is no question ofa rethink after a decision hasbeen made," he said.

Asked if people of theKashmir Valley were support-ive of the government move,Naqvi claimed that they were"absolutely supportive".

Earlier this month, the gov-ernment had revoked J&K'sspecial status under Article370 of the Constitution anddivided the state into twoUnion territories -- Jammuand Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The focus of the ministry isnow on Jammu and Kashmir,

and Ladakh, Naqvi said, andemphasised that the revocationof Article 370 has opened uppossibilities of large scale devel-opment there.

Naqvi also said the PradhanMantri Jan Vikas Karyakram(PMJVK) will also be applica-ble in all areas of J&K andLadakh.

The PMJVK is a centrally-sponsored scheme that seeks toimprove the development ofminority concentration areasthrough creation of socioeco-nomic infrastructure, provisionof basic amenities, and othermeasures.

"Now the ministry will beactive in the entire region --Leh, Ladakh, Kargil, Jammuand Kashmir. We will make

efforts to set up schools col-leges, polytechnic, engineeringcolleges and hospitals," Naqvisaid.

"Because of Article 370,there were many things whichwe wanted to do, but could notdo it. Now it can be done," hesaid.

Asked about the reaction tothe government move, Naqvisaid "some opposition friends"had hopes that the country willbe "set ablaze" with the Article370 move, but the oppositehappened, and the move waswelcomed.

"It was welcomed in Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh. Article370 has not given anything tothe people there, but has takenaway from J-K and Ladakh.Over 100 laws on education,employment, human rights,minority or child rights, werenot applicable there. So, thepeople realised that Article370 was a big impediment intheir path to development," hesaid.

PNS n CHANDIGARH

Several Punjab Congress lead-ers, including two state cabinetministers, on Sunday hit out atBJP MP Subramanian Swamyfor his remarks that the workon the Kartarpur corridorshould be stopped in the inter-est of the nation.

The senior Congress leaders,including eight party MLAs,castigated Swamy and said hiscomments on the Kartarpurcorridor had hurt sentiments ofthe Sikhs.

In a joint press statement,Punjab ministers SukhjinderSingh Randhawa and BharatBhushan Ashu besides MLAsHarpratap Singh Ajnala, KuljitSingh Nagra, Amarinder SinghRaja Warring, Fatehjung SinghBajwa, Barindermeet SinghPahra, Kulbir Singh Zira,Balwinder Singh Laddi andSantokh Singh Bhalaipur saidthe BJP-ally Shiromani AkaliDal (SAD) must clear theirstand on the issue.

They said, "The entirePunjab, especially the Sikh cir-cle, knows it too well that theBadal family loves to cling to

power rather than working forSikh interests."

The Congress leaders furtheradded that the silence of theSAD on various issues, includ-ing the GST on gurdwarasand the opposition to the cor-ridor by a BJP leader, "provedthat it was hand in glove withthe BJP in this sin".

"It was part of a deep-root-ed conspiracy that Swamy gavethis statement in Chandigarh.Now, the cat has come out ofthe bag and the Punjab BJPleadership must clarify theirposition as to whether they arein agreement with the state-ment of their party leader ornot," they said.

They also said the SikhPanth would never forgive theSAD-BJP "for creating obsta-cles" in fulfilment of the long-cherished wish of Sikhs.

Swamy had on Saturday saidthe work on the Kartarpurcorridor should be stopped inthe interest of the nation andthere should be no talks withPakistan on any issue.

"In my view, in the interestof the nation, the work (onKartarpur corridor) shouldnot move ahead. Whateverwork has taken place (on theproject), let it stop there,"said Swamy talking toreporters on the sidelines aseminar here.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A 38-year-old NGO workerwas arrested for allegedly kid-napping three minor girls tofalsely implicate two assistantsub-inspectors of Kalindi Kunjpolice station who had arrest-ed him earlier, police said onSaturday.

Bimal Kumar, a resident ofNoida Sector-5, was arrestedfrom Khadda Colony in Jaitpurarea, said Chinmoy Biswal,deputy commissioner of police(southeast).

Kumar was previouslyarrested on June 30 on thecharge of breaching peace bytwo SIs and since then, hewanted to take revenge fromthe police officials, anothersenior official said.

On August 16, he saw threegirls, residents of KhaddaColony, who appeared to be

sad. Kumar approached themand asked the reason for theirsadness. They told him thatthey are sisters and their par-ents have died, police said.

They told Kumar theiruncle, with whom they nowlive, does not love them, theysaid.

Kumar hatched a conspira-

cy to extract revenge on thetwo Kalindi Kunj police stationASIs who had arrested him. Hedecided to frame them for kid-napping the girls, police said.

Kumar convinced the girlshe will take care of them andalso help them get their shareof property from their uncle,police said.

PNS n MUMBAI

Eight vehicles, which werepart of NCP MP Supriya Sule'sconvoy, were fined after beingfound parked in a no-parkingarea in Maharashtra's Solapurcity, police said on Sunday.

Sule on Tuesday eveningparticipated in an event called'Sanvad Taishi', a mass out-reach campaign ahead of thestate Assembly polls, at theIndian Medical Association'shall at Dufferin Chowk inSolapur, located around 400km from here.

As the programme started,there was traffic jam in thearea following which thepolice asked the event organ-isers to remove some vehiclesparked in the no-parking areaoutside the premises, a trafficpolice official said.

However, despite repeatedwarnings, the vehicles were

not removed, he said.Subsequently, eight vehi-

cles, including some SUVs,which were part of Sule's con-voy, were fined under relevantprovisions of the MotorVehicles Act, the official said.

These included a four-wheeler registered in theNCP's name and another vehi-cle in which Sule, the LokSabha member from Baramati(Pune district), arrived forthe event, he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The story of the fugitive dia-mantaire Nirav Modi will fillthe pages of an upcomingbook, "Flawed: The Rise andFall of India's Diamond MogulNirav Modi".

Hitting the stands onAugust 31, the book written byjournalist-author Pavan C Lallwill laid bare details of one ofthe India's biggest financialscandals and profile the manallegedly behind it. Modi, 48,currently lodged in a prison inLondon, is wanted in India inconnection with the nearlyUSD 2 billion Punjab NationalBank (PNB) fraud.

"It traces Nirav Modi's earlyyears and his roots in the busi-ness to his association with hisuncle Mehul Choksi and thephenomenal success heachieved till his taste for thehigh life led to circumstancesthat are any entrepreneur'sworst nightmare," said pub-lishing house Hachette in astatement.

Based on personal encoun-ters, incisive interviews andmeticulous research, the bookclaims to "expose the incred-ible twists and turns of theNirav Modi story".

A third-generation dia-

mantaire, Modi, moved fromBelgium to India and withtime became an astute busi-nessman whose firm grip overan intercontinental supplychain saw his branded jew-ellery stores dotting not justevery Indian metropolis butalso marquee locations in for-eign lands like London, NewYork and Hong Kong.

Modi's diamond-encrusteddesigns were worn by stars likeKate Winslet, RosieHuntington-Whiteley andNaomi Watts, while theBollywood star PriyankaChopra-Jonas appeared inadvertisements for the brand.

Give specific timelines forcleaning of Yamuna: NGT

BRO DG reaches Ladakh on 5-day visitPNS n JAMMU

Border Road Organization(BRO) Director General LtGen Harpal Singh arrived inthe Leh township of Ladakh onSunday to take stock of con-struction activities of variousstrategic road networks that arevital to Army movement in theregion.

The BRO chief 's visit to thestrategically important regionassumes significance as it cameat a time when relationsbetween India and Pakistan areunder strain following theCentre's move to scrap specialstatus to Jammu and Kashmirand its bifurcation into unionterritories of Jammu andKashmir, and Ladakh early

this month. A spokesperson ofthe BRO said Lt Gen Singh willtake stock of all constructionactivities of various strategicroad networks constructedand maintained under ProjectHimank and Vijayak inLadakh sector during his five-day visit.

He will visit the strategic andadministratively critical roadsthat are vital for Army move-ment in the region, the officialsaid.

The spokesperson said theGeneral is likely to visit the

eastern sector of Ladakh wherehe will take stock of the devel-opment of roads vital for themovement of troops.

Ladakh is the most strategicregion as it borders the coun-try with Pakistan and China.

"During his visit, theGeneral will also interact withthe top Army brass and localadministration to discuss var-ious issues involved in thedevelopment of road connec-tivity which is required tomeet the development of theregion," the spokesman said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The legend of Lord Krishna'slife, and his triumph over ene-mies, which captivates mostpeople across the country, isnow the central theme of anongoing art exhibition show-casing the Hindu god in vari-ous avatars.

"Divine Intervention", heldat Art Spice Gallery, TheMetropolitan Hotel & Spa, byartists P Gnana and GSubramanian has on displayaround 50 paintings and sculp-tures of Lord Krishna -- alongwith other gods -- connectingthe viewers to the deepesthuman chord of emotivecapacity.

The exhibition is a beautifulaffiliation where the viewer isprivileged to view enchantingsculptures and beautiful paint-ings.

"It will not only take you ona spectacular visual journeybetween master and creator,

cherishing your devotion to thesublime but will also provokeviewer's senses," saidSingapore-based Gnana, wide-ly known for his paintings,

sculpts and conceptual instal-lations.

Simple yet soulful, the allur-ing divine collection has notexperimented too much withcolours as one finds the centralcolour palette blue only, thecolour usually associated withlord Krishna, the eighth incar-nation of lord Vishnu.

Also, almost impossible toignore, the paintings depict adeep child-like innocence inall of its portrayals -- be it oflord Krishna, Buddha,Ganesha or Hanuman --beside being richly charac-terised by bursts of joyouscolours and having recurringleitmotifs of the bird and along-stalked lotus.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The National Green Tribunalhas directed stakeholders togive specific schedule forcleaning the Yamuna, whilenoting that repeated timelineshave not been adhered to inthe last 30 years and pollutionof the river was still continu-ing. A bench headed by NGTchairperson justice AdarshKumar Goel made it clear thatthe tribunal will finalise freshtimelines with clear adverseconsequences of violating suchrevised schedules.

"Such pollution needs to becontrolled at the earliest forprotection of environment andpublic health and havingregard to unique significanceof the Yamuna river, which isa major tributary of the Gangariver," the bench said.

The tribunal directed allauthorities to submit time-lines for the actions to beundertaken in terms of ordersof the NGT and directedAdditional Solicitor GeneralSanjay Jain, appearing for theDelhi government, to compile

such information and suggestextended timeline wherever ithas expired.

The green panel had earliersaid that failure of authoritiesis affecting life and health ofcitizens, and threatening theexistence of a major river likeYamuna.

The tribunal had earlier alsoexpressed dissatisfaction overthe cleaning of the Yamunariver and directed Delhi,Haryana and Uttar Pradeshgovernments to submit a per-formance guarantee of Rs 10crore each within a month.

The green panel had saidpollution in the Yamuna was of

serious concern as it was high-ly contaminated with indus-trial effluent and sewage.

It had also asked theHaryana Pollution ControlBoard to conduct a study ofwater quality and the flow ofYamuna at the point it entersHaryana, and submit the list ofindustries located in the catch-ment area.

The green panel had notedthat almost 67 per cent of thepollutants that enter theYamuna would be treated bytwo sewage treatment plants atDelhi Gate and Najafgarhunder the first phase of theYamuna Revitalisation Project.

Banned drugsworth Rs 400crore seized PNS n IMPHAL

In one of the largest drugseizures in Manipur, the policehave seized banned partydrugs worth Rs 400 crore inthe international market fromThoubal district, a seniorpolice officer said on Sunday.Acting on a tip-off, a policeteam with a help of local civilassociations detained a minitruck at Phoudel KeirambiMakha area of Thoubal dis-trict on Saturday,Superintendent of Police,Thoubal, S Ibomcha Singhsaid. The seized truck wasbrought to the Thoubal policestation. During search of thetruck the police recovered 40lakh contraband ampheta-mine-based World is Yours(WY) tablets, populary knownas party drug, valued at Rs 400crore in the international mar-ket, the SP said.

"The red-coloured tabletswere kept concealed under-neath carpets in the minitruck," Singh said, addingthat the drugs were smuggledin from Myanmar.

Baby-feedingcubicles at allUP bus stationsPNS n LUCKNOW

The Uttar Pradesh StateRoadways TransportCorporation (UPSRTC) willset up baby-feeding cubiclesat all bus stations of the statein a phased manner, an offi-cial said on Sunday.

The step is aimed towardsmaking the state's bus sta-tions "lactating mother andnewborn baby friendly", theofficial added.

In a statement, UPSRTCManaging Director RajShekhar said: "The need andrequirement was very muchfelt by the UPSRTC in lastfew years. Now looking intothe importance and therequirement of this, theUPSRTC board has approvedthe project of setting up ofB r e a s t - F e e d i n gCubicles/Kiosks (BabyFeeding Cubicles) in eachbus station of UPSRTC."

We are committed tocomplete it: PakistanPNS n ISLAMABAD

Pakistan is committed tocomplete the Kartarpur cor-ridor project for Sikh pil-grims ahead of the 550thbirth anniversary of BabaGuru Nanak despite the ten-sions in relations with India,a senior aide to the PakistaniPrime Minister said onSunday.

The Kartarpur corridorwill connect Darbar Sahib inPakistan's Kartarpur withDera Baba Nanak shrine inGurdaspur district and facil-itate visa-free movement ofIndian Sikh pilgrims, whowill have to just obtain apermit to visit KartarpurSahib, which was establishedin 1522 by Baba Guru Nanak.

Special Assistant toPakistan Prime Minister

Firdous Ashiq Awan in aseries of tweets said thatKartarpur is a sacred placefor Sikhs and is the perfectexample of interfaith har-mony. She dismissed reportsthat Pakistan had stalledwork on the corridor due tofresh strain in ties with India.

She said irrespective ofIndia-Pakistan relationsPakistan's doors are open toSikh pilgrims visiting theDarbar Sahib Kartarpur.

In the world of growingextremism and intolerance,Kartarpur corridor resonatesthe message of respect andtolerance, she was quoted assaying by Radio Pakistan.

Awan said the white colourin the Pakistani flag repre-sents minorities and it is asdear to the government as thegreen is.

Man held for kidnapping 3 girlsto implicate police officers

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Nirav Modi

NCP MP Supriya Sule

The book claimsto expose theincredible twistsand turns of theNirav Modi story

Lt Gen Singh will visit the strategic andadministratively critical roads that arevital for Army movement in the region

The exhibition isa beautifulaffiliation wherethe viewer isprivileged toview enchantingsculptures

Punjab Cong leaders flay Swamy'sstatement on Kartarpur Corridor

Book to detail ‘riseand fall' of Nirav

8 vehicles of Sule'sconvoy booked

The team will explore development possibilities --where schools, colleges, skill development centrescan be opened

MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVIUnion minister

Art show on Lord Krishna’s life

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019 nation 06SHORT READS

Police seizes 1.14 kgbrown sugar in AssamDIBRUGARH: Brown sugarworth over Rs one crore in theinternational market was seizedfrom a house in Dibrugarh townof Assam on Sunday, a policeofficer said. Brown sugarweighing 1.14 kg, Rs 19.55lakh in cash and two mobilephones were seized during asearch operation, carried out bythe police, in the house of oneRaja Ali at Kalibari area here,Deputy Superintendent of Police(Law & order) Nitumani Dassaid. Ali escaped by jumpingfrom the first floor of thebuilding and a woman has beenapprehended, the DSP said. Asearch operation has beenlaunched to nab Ali, the policeofficer said. The operation wasconducted under his leadership,along with DSP(HQ) SamirDaptar Baruah and Officer inCharge of Dibrugarh policestation, Das said.

Captured wild tuskerdies of ailment atforest camp

Wanted Maoistcommander surrendersin Chhattisgarh

DANTEWADA: A Maoist deputycommander, wanted inconnection with severalincidents of violence,surrendered in Chhattisgarh'sDantewada district on Sunday,a police official said. MuchakiBudra alias Naresh (32), whowas carrying a reward of Rs 8lakh on his head, turnedhimself in before DantewadaSuperintendent of PoliceAbhishek Pallava, he said.Budra, a native of Jagargundaarea in Sukma district,surrendered while citingdisappointment with the"hollow ideology" of Maoists,Pallava said. He was active asdeputy commander of militaryplatoon no. 24 in Malangirarea committee of Maoists inDantewada. "He wasinstrumental in carrying outseveral Maoist attacks,including at the house ofCongress leader AwdheshGautam at Nakulnar village in2010 in which two civiliansand a Naxal were killed, and ona Central Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) team in Kirandulwherein six security men and acivilian lost their lives in 2012,"Pallava said. Budra joined theoutlawed CPI (Maoist) in 2007and was elevated as deputycommander in 2010, he said.He has been given Rs 10,000cash as "encouragementmoney" for laying down arms,the official said, adding that hewill be further providedassistance as per thegovernment's surrender andrehabilitation policy.

BENGALURU: A wild tuskerdied apparently owing to astomach ailment at a forestcamp near Shivamogga onSaturday. The elephantNaganna, believed to be over30 years old, showedsymptoms of the ailment as thetusker was very slow in itsmovement, according to itsmahout. Medicines were given,but the animal did not respondto the treatment and died,deputy conservator of forest SJ Chandrashekhar told PTI.However, the forest departmentwas awaiting a forensic reportto ascertain the exact cause ofthe death, said Chandrashekhar.Naganna was captured fromthe Bhadrawati forest divisionand kept at the Shivamoggaforest camp.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Once important communityspaces, stepwells from cen-turies ago needn't just be relicsof the past for tourists and his-tory buffs but can be used toconserve water in these aridtimes, even with dippinggroundwater levels, say con-servationists and historians.

The disconnect between thepeople and Delhi's 'baolis'caused by restricted access andlack of interest have resulted inmany of the historical struc-tures being reduced to muse-um pieces. And that has donemore harm than good, they say.

Historian-author NarayaniGupta, for instance, believesauthorities should introduce"conservative use" instead ofdisallowing access to peopleentirely.

She said all the baolis weremaintained, used and cher-ished by communities in the

past but their "interaction" istoday limited to just tourists.

"A carefully used 'baoli'would make so much moresense, but the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India believes inemptying out all its buildings.Conservative use should beintroduced for many struc-tures," she told PTI.

A beginning has been madewith the 'baoli' in Delhi'sNizamuddin area, which hascontinued to remain relevantthrough its 700 years of its exis-tence.

Locals, who believe it is asource of 'sacred water', andconservationists have joinedhands to ensure that the 'baoli'

is maintained properly andregularly cleaned.

After a wall collapse in 2008,the Aga Khan Trust togetherwith the CPWD and the MCDcleaned the well to its originaldepth of 80ft. The projectrevealed that there was ablocked passage and sevenunderground aquifers.

It was the first time in 700years that it was being cleaned,said Ratish Nanda, a conser-vation architect with the AgaKhan Trust. The involvementand the interest of the com-munity made the difficult jobachievable and possible.

"Since the water is consid-

ered sacred, locals wereinvolved at every stage. At thebeginning of the project, therewas a community prayer tostart the project. Then thecommunity contributed inboth time and effort and tookgreat pride in the conserva-tion," Nanda told PTI.

According to Nanda, since amachine could not clear thesludge accumulated over thecenturies, the locals lent ahand.

"We removed about 40ft ofsludge with buckets, we madea human chain of buckets, ittook a long time to clear thesludge and then finally the con-

servation of the baoli was start-ed with the same stone whichhad collapsed," the architectrecalled.

There are a total of 15 bao-lis in Delhi under theArchaeological Survey of India(ASI) -- most of which wereused by local communities andinhabitants of the fort com-plexes and are now behind ironbars -- the ASI revealed inresponse to an RTI query byPTI.

Hussain, who has been tak-ing care of the Nizamuddinbaoli for 22 years, believes thewaters can heal what doctorscan't.

"This water is so miraculousthat if you have any health prob-lems a doctor may not be ableto heal you, but take a dip in thiswater for seven days, with apeaceful mind and everythingwill be fine," Hussain said,adding that it changes colourseven times a day.

Stepping into the past to manage water needs todayDELHI ‘BAOLIS'

"A carefully used 'baoli' would make so much moresense, but the Archaeological Survey of India

believes in emptying out all its buildings. Conservativeuse should be introduced for many structures

— NARAYANI GUPTA, Historian-aauthor

PNS n NEW DELHI

Black powdery residue of burntelectronic waste (e-waste) hasbeen removed from the banksof river Ramganga inMoradabad, an important trib-utary of the Ganges, a report bythe Uttar Pradesh governmenthas said.

The report was recently sub-mitted by the state governmentof Uttar Pradesh before abench of the National GreenTribunal pursuant to its direc-tions.

The report holds impor-tance as the tribunal had ear-lier imposed a environmentcompensation of Rs 10 lakh onthe UP government after it wastold that large number of peo-ple were involved in unscien-tific dismantling, crude chem-ical leaching of printed circuitboards, burning of wires/wasteelectrical and electronic com-ponents, grinding of residuesand washing of metal richresidue on the banks of theRamganga river.

The UP government, in itsprogress report, informed thetribunal that e-waste removedfrom the banks of riverRamganga in Moradabad is

being stored safely in a sci-entific manner at a temporarysite.

"The work of disposal ofblack powder from the banksof the river is divided into twophases – first the removal andstorage of the black powder ina scientific manner and thesecond phase comprises per-manent disposal of the powderin the proposed Treatment

Storage Disposal Facility(TSDF) in Amroha district.

"The first phase of work hasbeen completed and verified byan inter-departmental com-mittee constituted by the dis-trict magistrate of Moradabadcomprising officers from NagarNigam, Rural EngineeringServices, Public WorksDepartment, MoradabadDevelopment Authority and

UPPCB," the state governmentsaid, adding that the TSDF willalso begin functioning soon.

"Environment and publichealth are one of the primeconcerns of the state and thestate is working with utmostsincerity towards providing ahealthy environment to its cit-izens," it said.

Earlier, a committee com-prising officials of the UPPollution Control Board(UPPCB), Moradabad NagarNigam, UP Public WorksDepartment and the UP RuralEngineering Services had toldthe tribunal in a report that thee-waste lying on the banks ofthe Ramganga river containshazardous chemicals such aschromium and cadmium.

The committee, formed bythe NGT, had said the con-centration of metals in the e-waste, which was in the formof black powder, was above theprescribed level.

The report was filed in apetition by scientist MahendraPandey, seeking action againstillegal processing of electron-ic waste in Moradabad, Bareillyand Shahjahanpur districts ofUttar Pradesh along theRamganga river.

‘Burnt e-waste residue removedfrom banks of river Ramganga’

The UP government, in its progressreport, informed the tribunal that e-waste removed from the banks of riverRamganga in Moradabad is beingstored safely in a scientific manner ata temporary site

PNS n BHOPAL

The state information com-missioner of Madhya Pradeshhas issued show-cause noticesto two PWD officials forallegedly denying informationunder the RTI Act to a retiredemployee on payments owed tohim. RTI applicant ShriniwasTiwari, a senior citizen now,was posted with the PublicWorks Department (PWD) asa timekeeper in Rewa andretired in 2010.

He claimed that the PWDnever awarded him any pro-motion or tenure-based incen-tives and he has been runningfrom pillar to post to get hispayments. Madhya PradeshInformation CommissionerRahul Singh, while deciding onhis RTI appeal, held seniorauthorities responsible for hisgrievances.

Shriniwas filed a writ petitionbefore the Jabalpur bench of theMadhya Pradesh High Court in2010 which ruled in his favourand asked the state governmentto settle his pending dues.Following the court's decision,he approached the executiveengineer of PWD Rewa, HariSingh Thakur, who refused toact upon the order, Shriniwas

claimed, alleging that when heapproached other officers, theydemanded 10 per cent com-mission for settling of the dues.

Shriniwas moved a contemptpetition before the high court in2014, after which the then engi-neer-in-chief of PWD AkhileshAgarwal and Principal SecretaryK K Singh appeared before thecourt and informed that thegovernment was actively work-ing towards redressing his griev-ances. The state governmentproduced an order issued by thehead of the department, sayingthat in compliance with the highcourt order, Shriniwas' issuemust be resolved.

The court agreed with thegovernment and the contemptpetition was dismissed.

Shriniwas then moved anRTI application asking details ofhis salary break-up and benefits.Public Information OfficerThakur, who earlier as an exec-utive engineer had refused to actupon the court order, denied areply to the query.

Shriniwas then moved forfirst appeal before the superin-tendent engineer, who orderedThakur to provide the informa-tion but he did not act upon it.

Information CommissionerSingh, fixing the responsibility,made Engineer-in-Chief R KMehra as deemed PublicInformation Officer (PIO) andissued show-cause notices toExecutive Engineers Thakurand Narayan Sharma as to whydisciplinary action should notbe taken against them, alongwith a fine of Rs 25,000 for RTIviolations. Singh also ordered acompensation of Rs 10,000 toapplicant Shriniwas.

The information commis-sioner asked SuperintendentEngineer V K Jha, along withMehra, Thakur and Sharma, tobe present for a hearing onAugust 28 in Bhopal. Singhasked PWD Principal SecretaryMalay Shrivastav to ensure theearly redressal of the Shriniwas'grievances.

In 2010 Shriniwas fileda writ petition beforethe Jabalpur bench ofthe Madhya PradeshHigh Court which ruledin his favour and askedthe state government tosettle his pending dues

MP info commissioner issuesnotices to PWD officials

DENYING INFORMATION TO RETIRED EMPLOYEE

Gajapati urges devoteesto cooperate with govt'splan on Puri templePNS n BHUBANESWAR

Gajapati MaharajaDibyasingha Deb hasappealed to all devotees ofLord Jagannath to cooperatewith the Odisha govern-ment's initiative to developthe 12th century shrine andalso Puri town.

Deb, considered as the firstservitor of Lord Jagannath,issued a statement onSaturday, a day after ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaiksanctioned an additionalpackage of Rs 500 crore forthe development of Puri.

"We welcome the state gov-ernment's initiative," Gajapatisaid adding that all shouldsincerely cooperate with thedevelopment plan for thetemple and the holy town.Gajapati's statement is sig-nificant in view of the oppo-sition to the state govern-ment's initiative by a sectionof local people.

Gajapati, however, said:"All developmental activitiesshould be undertaken inaccordance with the spirit ofPuri's great spiritual, reli-gious and cultural heritagealong with traditions."

He was optimistic on thesmooth implementation ofthe developmental plan ini-tiated by the state govern-ment.

The state government in

two phases has sanctioned Rs765 crore for the overalldevelopment of Puri townand the temple.

Though the local peoplewelcome the initiative, manyresidents are opposed to thestate government's plan toevict residential, commercialand spiritual institutions like'mathas' located within 75meters from the templeboundary wall.

After announcing the spe-cial package on Friday,Patnaik had appealed thelocal people to cooperatewith the government's initia-tive including eviction drive.The chief minister said thepeople should made sacrificefor the security of LordJagannath's temple. Heassured the affected peoplewill be properly rehabilitated.

Patnaik said as terroriststarget religious establish-ments across the globe, thestate should make all arrange-ments to protect the 12thcentury shrine in Puri.

Meanwhile, the districtadministration of Puri onSaturday undertook an evic-tion drive near Baliapanda tofacilitate the construction ofa multi-layer parking lot closeto the sea beach.

The government has plansto demolish illegal structuresover an area of 1.53 acres nearthe beach.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Sunday pitched for launch-ing a "new mass movement"against single-use plastic fromOctober 2, the birth anniversaryof Mahatma Gandhi.

In his monthly radio address'Mann ki Baat', the prime min-ister said when the countryobserves the 150 birth anniver-sary of the Father of the Nation,"we will launch a new massmovement against use of plas-tic". He also called for efforts toensure proper collection andstorage of plastic to save theenvironment. In his

Independence Day address also, Modi had urged citizens toeliminate single-use plastic andsuggested that shopkeepersprovide eco-friendly bags tocustomers. His push againstsingle-use plastic is being seenas an effort to prevent envi-ronmental degradation.

MANN KI BAAT

PNS n MUMBAI

Former police officer JulioRibeiro has said people's willis the "crux of the matter" inissues like Jammu andKashmir, and he would nothave taken decisions like theones taken by the Union gov-ernment from a "moralistic"perspective.

Ribeiro, widely credited fortackling terrorism as the headof Punjab Police with a stronghand in 1980s, said from thepoliceman's perspective, hewill give full marks to the gov-ernment's "clever" moves inJammu and Kashmir.

The Centre on August 5abrogated Article 370 of theConstitution which gave spe-

cial status to Jammu andKashmir and also divided theborder state into two UnionTerritories. The governmentcarried out these moves fromNew Delhi after a virtual lock-down of the state, by puttingpoliticians and activists underhouse arrest, imposing cur-fews and suspending com-munication, much of whichstill continues.

Ribeiro questions Centre’smove, says people's will vital

PNS n NEW DELHI

Schools in Bihar have thefewest teachers per studentwith a pupil-teacher ratio(PTR) of 38, followed by Delhiat 35, while Sikkim has the beststudent-teacher ratio at four,according to HRD Ministryofficials. The Right ToEducation Act, 2009 in itsschedule has laid down PTRfor both primary and upperprimary schools. At primarylevel, the PTR norm is 30:1 andat the upper primary level it is35:1. "In upper primaryschools, Bihar has a PTR of 39.In primary schools, the PTR is38 and 35 for Bihar and Delhi,respectively," a senior HRDMinistry official said.

Bihar schools haveworst student-teacher ratio

Tea in ‘kulhads'across railwaystations, airportsand malls soonPNS n NEW DELHI

Soon, your favourite cup of teamay be served in eco-friend-ly 'kulhads' across all majorrailway stations, stalls at busdepots, airports and mallsacross the country, with UnionTransport and MSMEMinister Nitin Gadkari writ-ing to Railway Minister PiyushGoyal in this regard. Currently,caterers at two railway stations,Varanasi and Rae Bareli, useterracotta-made 'kulhads',glasses and plates.

"I have written a letter toPiyush Goyal to make use ofkulhad mandatory at 100 rail-way stations and also sug-gested airports and statetransport undertakings hav-ing tea stalls at bus depots tomake the use of kulhadsmandatory. We will alsoencourage malls to have kul-had tea stalls," Gadkari said.

PNS n CHANDIGARH

A few villages in Punjab's bor-der district Ferozepur are fac-ing a flood threat after a majorportion of an embankment inthe catchment area of the Sutlejriver was washed away follow-ing the pakistan's release ofwater into the Indian territory.

Officials on Sunday said theFerozepur district administra-tion is on high alert, while pre-cautionary deployment of theNDRF and the Army teams hasbeen made in view of theflood threat which looms largein some villages.

"Pakistan has released waterin huge quantity which causeddamage to the embankment inTendiwala village, and there isdanger of floods in some vil-lages," a spokesperson of thePunjab government said.

"Being on guard, the districtadministration has announced

evacuation in most sensitivevillages along the Sutlej river asa precautionary step besidesdeploying various teams ofthe health department, foodand civil supplies departmentand others," he said

Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh asked theWater Resources Departmentto work out a joint action planwith the Army to strengthenthe embankment at the village

on the Indo-Pak border.Presiding over a high-level

meeting to review the flood sit-uation in Ferozepur, Jalandhar,Kapurthala and Rupnagar dis-tricts, he directed the principalsecretary Water Resources toensure strengthening ofTendiwala embankment onwar footing to avert the flood-ing of nearby villages, an offi-cial statement said.

The chief minister, it said,

also directed the Ferozepurdeputy commissioner to keepNDRF teams on standby tomeet any exigency arising outof the floods.

The spokesperson said peo-ple need not panic as theadministration is geared up forthe task with relief work at vul-nerable points being under-taken at a fast pace. Irrigationand drainage departments arealready engaged to repair thedamaged embankment inTendiwala village, he said.

Sand filled gunny bags havebeen stacked in huge quantityand work is on to strengthenthe embankment, he added.

"In the wake of the damageto the embankment due toheavy discharge of water fromthe Pakistan side, the strength-ening work of Tendiwalaembankment is being under-taken on war footing," thespokesperson said.

Pakistan releases more water, flood threatin villages of Punjab's Ferozepur district

PNS n MUMBAI

Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan,who is set to direct a film onthe life of youngest Param VirChakra recipient ArunKhetarpal, says it is the mostchallenging subject for him.

Dinesh Vijan will be pro-ducing the biopic which is ten-tatively titled "Ekkis".

"Dinesh offered me thisfilm and when I heard it, Ifound it interesting. 'Ekkis' isa working title. We are set in1970s. It is the story of twoeras. We have finished thescript and are doing a rewriteand all," Raghavan told PTI.

"We have enough peoplefrom military on board. Thesethings you can't get it wrongone bit. When you are workingon a real story it is your respon-sibility to get everything rightand stay as true and authenticas possible. It is all the morechallenging for me as it is not

my zone, I am doing somethingelse. But I liked the story so Iam doing it," he added.

Speculations were rife aboutSaif Ali Khan being part of thefilm, but Raghavan said the castof the film is yet to be finalised."Whenever Saif and I meet wedo talk about various subjects.We haven't spoken to any actor.All this should be announcedformally." The director is bask-ing in the glory of his last film"Aandhadhun" winning threeNational Awards. TheAyushmann Khurrana-star-rer dark comedy thriller is nowbeing adapted in Tamil.

Film on Arun Khetarpal challenging: Sriram

PM calls for movementagainst plastic from Oct 2

world 07HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019

Hong Kong: Hong Kongpolice used water cannon forthe first time on Sunday, rais-ing the stakes against protest-ers who have staged sometimesviolent rallies that have rockedthe city for the past threemonths.

Officers were also seenwith drawn sidearms as pro-testers clashed with police inthe district of Tsuen Wan aftera rally at a nearby sports sta-dium.

The financial hub has beengripped by mass rallies thatwere initially against a pro-posed extradition bill to China,but have spun into a wider pro-democracy movement target-ing the pro-Beijing govern-ment.

As thousands of peoplemarched in the pouring rain toTsuen Wan, a group of hard-core protesters erectedmakeshift roadblocks and dugup bricks from the pavements.

After firing tear gas in anattempt to disperse the crowds,police drove water cannonvehicles onto the streets,unfurling signs warning pro-testers they would deploy thejets if they did not leave.

The jets were later firedfrom the moving truckstowards a crowd of protesterswho ran away, but hardcoregroup of protesters later threw

bricks and Molotov cocktails inviolent confrontations withriot police.

There were no immediatereports of injuries.

Police had previously saidthe vehicles, complete withsurveillance cameras and mul-tiple spray nozzles, would onlybe used in the event of a"large-scale public distur-bance".

Throughout the protests,Beijing has used a mix ofintimidation, propaganda and

economic muscle to constrictthe protests in a strategydubbed "white terror" by themovement.

The MTR - the city's metro- is the latest Hong Kongenterprise to face public cen-sure, after appearing to bend toChinese state-media attacksaccusing the transport systemof being an "exclusive" serviceto ferry protesters to rallies.

On Sunday the MTR shutstations near the main demon-stration area in Tsuen Wan, in

the second day of station clo-sures in-a-row.

"However bleak our futureis, we're trying to express our-selves rationally," said Peter, inhis 20s, before the clashesbegan.

"We have faith in our-selves and we have faith in ourcity that some day ourdemands will be answered."

A second rally in the after-noon of a few hundred people- some of them family mem-bers of police - criticised the

government for leaving officersto handle the brunt of the cri-sis, while also calling for anindependent investigation intothe police handling of theprotests.

"I believe within these twomonths, police have gotenough opprobrium," said awoman who asked not to benamed and said she was apolice officer's wife.

The city's officers are oftenthe focus of protesters' angerbecause of their perceivedheavy handling of the rallies.

Ten people were left inhospital after Saturday's clash-es - two in a serious condition- staff said, without detailing ifthey were police or protesters.

On Saturday police baton-charged protesters and firedtear gas, while demonstratorsthrew rocks and bottles laterinto the night in a working-class neighbourhood.

Protesters say Hong Kong'sunique freedoms are in jeop-ardy as Beijing tightens itspolitical chokehold on thesemi-autonomous city.

The city had appeared tohave pulled back from a sharpnosedive into violence, withthe last serious confrontationtaking place more

than a week ago, shortlyafter protests paralysed theairport. AFP

A policeman points a weapon during a protest in Hong Kong on Sunday AP

Police tighten noose on protestersHONG KONG PROTEST

Biarritz: World leaders at the G7summit have agreed to help thecountries affected by the hugewildfires ravaging the Amazonrainforest as soon as possible ,French President EmmanuelMacron said Sunday.

"We are all agreed on help-ing those countries which havebeen hit by the fires as fast aspossible," he told journalists atthe summit in the southwesternFrench resort of Biarritz.

Ahead of the gathering,Macron called on world leadersto hold urgent talks on the wild-fires ripping through the world'slargest rainforest, pledging "con-crete measures" to tackle it.

The vast forest also takes inparts of eight other countries:Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,French Guiana, Guyana, Peru,Suriname and Venezuela.

"This morning, Colombiacalled on the international com-munity (to help), so we musthelp out," he said.

"Our teams are making con-tact with all the Amazon coun-tries so we can finalise some veryconcrete commitments involv-ing technical resources andfunding." Macron's bid to putthe Amazon crisis high on theagenda at the G7 angered Brazil'sfar-right leader Jair Bolsonaro,who lashed out over what hesees as outside interference,denouncing the French leader's"colonialist mentality". AFP

G7 to help nations hit byAmazon fires: Macron

France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he speaks to the press after aplenary session at the Bellevue centre in Biarritz, southwestern France on Sunday AP

Vatican City: Pope Francis onSunday voiced concern for theAmazon rainforest, a "vital"lung for the planet, as theworst blazes in years havesparked a global outcry.

"We are concerned aboutthe vast fires that have devel-oped in the Amazon," the popetold the faithful at the Vatican.

"That forest lung is vital forour planet." He urged theworld's 1.3 billion Catholics topray for the fires to be extin-guished as quickly as possible.

Official figures show

78,383 forest fires have beenrecorded in Brazil this year, thehighest number of any yearsince 2013.

The Argentine pope, whowill gather bishops for a con-ference on the Amazon inOctober, met Brazilian indige-nous leader Raoni in 2013when he toured Europe warn-ing of the dangers of defor-estation. The pope denouncedthe exploitation of the Amazonby "huge international eco-nomic interests" in a 2015encyclical. AFP

Pope fears for Amazon,the planet's 'vital lung'

Seoul: North Korea said onSunday leader Kim Jong Unsupervised the test-firing of a"newly developed super-largemultiple rocket launcher,"another demonstration of itsexpanding weapons arsenalapparently aimed at increasingits leverage ahead of a possibleresumption of nuclear talkswith the US.

The North's KoreanCentral News Agency saidSaturday's weapons test wassuccessful and cited Kim as say-ing the rocket launcher is"indeed a great weapon."

Kim underscored the needto "continue to step up thedevelopment of Korean-stylestrategic and tactical weaponsfor resolutely frustrating theever-mounting military threatsand pressure offensive of thehostile forces," according to the

KCNA.The "hostile forces" likely

referred to the United Statesand South Korea, whoserecently ended regular militarydrills infuriated North Korea.

The North has called thedrills an invasion rehearsaland conducted a slew of mis-sile and rocket tests in response.

Some experts said North

Korea aims to show off itsweapons to try to get an upperhand ahead of a possible restartof nuclear negotiations, whichremain largely stalemated sincethe second summit betweenPresident Donald Trump andKim in Vietnam in Februaryfell apart due to squabblingover US-led sanctions on NorthKorea. AFP

N Korea tests new ‘super-large'multiple rocket launcher

Biarritz: US President DonaldTrump on Sunday said he was"not happy" about NorthKorea's latest missile test butplayed down the seriousness ofthe incident.

"I'm not happy about it butthen again he's not in violationof the agreement," Trump toldreporters on the sidelines of the

G7 summit after North Korea'sKim Jong Un supervised thetest-firing of a "super-largemultiple rocket launcher".

Trump has staked enor-mous political capital on per-sonal diplomacy with Kim in aso-far unsuccessful effort to per-suade the dictator to give up hisnuclear weapons arsenal. AFP

Trump ‘not happy' with missile test

Biarritz (France): USPresident Donald Trump onSunday denied signing off ona joint G7 message to Iran overits nuclear programme asannounced by his Frenchcounterpart EmmanuelMacron.

"No I haven't discussedthat," Trump told reporterson the sidelines of the G7 sum-mit in the southwestern Frenchresort of Biarritz.

This contradicted Macronwho shortly beforehand hadsaid the G7 countries "agreedon what to say to Iran".

Trump said: "We'll do ourown outreach. But you can'tstop people from talking. Ifthey want to talk, they cantalk."

A landmark 2015 nucleardeal between Western powersand Iran all but collapsed afterTrump unilaterally withdrewUS support last year, reimpos-

ing sanctions that have crip-pled Iran's economy.

Macron has been leadingefforts to defuse the crisis byfinding ways of resuming dia-logue, meeting Iran's top diplo-mat Mohammad Javad Zariffor rare talks in Paris on Friday

on the eve of the summit.He has also held telephone

talks with President HassanRouhani on Sunday, a diplo-matic source said G7 leadershad mutually agreed to taskMacron with sending a mes-sage to Iran. AFP

Trump says hasn't ‘discussed' joint G7 message with Iran

Biarritz (France): US PresidentDonald Trump on Sundaybacked British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson as the "rightman" for Brexit and sent mixedsignals about his trade war withChina at a G7 summit domi-nated by worries about theglobal economy.

Johnson and Trump wereon obviously friendly terms asthey sat down for a workingbreakfast in the southernFrench resort of Biarritz whereGroup of Seven leaders aregathering this weekend.

"He's going to be a fantas-tic prime minister," Trumpsaid in their first meeting sinceJohnson took office last month.

Asked what his advice was

for Brexit, Trump replied: "Heneeds no advice. He's the rightman for the job. I've been say-ing that for a long time."

In the lead-up to the talks,Johnson had appeared at painsto distance himself fromTrump after facing accusationsin the past of being too cosywith the American leader.

And at their meeting,Johnson again pressed a com-mon message from Europeanleaders at the summit aboutTrump's escalating trade warwith China.

"Just to register a faint,sheep-like note of our view onthe trade war — we are in favourof trade peace on the whole,"Johnson told Trump. AFP

Trump backs Johnson, sendsmixed signals on China at G7

Tehran: Iran's Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif land-ed in the French seaside resortof Biarritz on Sunday for talksduring a G7 summit, aspokesman for his Ministrysaid.

"Zarif... Has arrived inBiarritz, where the G7 is beingheld, to continue talks regard-ing the recent measuresbetween the presidents of Iranand France," spokesman AbbasMousavi tweeted, referring to

their efforts to salvage a nucleardeal.

"There will be no meetingsor negotiations with theAmerican delegation duringthis trip," he added.

French PresidentEmmanuel Macron and hisIranian counterpart HassanRouhani have held a series ofphone calls in recent weeksaimed at de-escalating ten-sions between Tehran andWashington. AFP

Iran's Zarif lands in France's Biarritz

Kutupalong: Some 200,000Rohingya rallied in a Bangladeshrefugee camp to mark two yearssince they fled a violent crack-down by Myanmar forces, justdays after a second failed attemptto repatriate the refugees.

Around 740,000 Rohingyafrom Myanmar's Rakhine stateescaped in August 2017 duringthe brutal offensive, joininganother 200,000 who fled earli-er persecution in vast camps insoutheast Bangladesh.

Children, hijab-wearingwomen, and men in long-skirtlungis shouted "God is Great,Long Live Rohingya" as theymarched at the heart of theworld's largest refugee camp tocommemorate what theydescribed as "Genocide Day".

Under the scorching sun,thousands joined in a popularsong with the lyrics "the worlddoes not listen to the woes ofRohingya". "I have come here toseek justice for the murder of my

two sons. I will continue to seekjustice till my last breath," 50-year-old Tayaba Khatun said astears rolled down her cheeks.

Myanmar had said theywere conducting counter-insur-

gency operations againstRohingya extremists after theyattacked police posts, but theUN last year called forMyanmar's top generals to beprosecuted for genocide over the

crisis. Rohingya leader MohibUllah said the stateless minori-ty wanted to return home, butonly after they were granted cit-izenship, their security wasensured and they were allowedto settle back in their villages.

"We have asked theBurmese government for dia-logue. But we haven't got anyresponse from them yet," Ullahtold the rally. "We were beaten,killed and raped in Rakhine. Butstill that is our home. And wewant to go back." Police officerZakir Hassan told AFP some200,000 Rohingya took part inthe peaceful gathering.

Security has been tightacross Kutupalang camp, theworld's largest refugee settlementand home to more than 600,000

Rohingya. "Hundreds of police,army and border guards havebeen deployed to prevent anyviolence," local police chief AbulMonsur said. The rally camethree days after the failedattempt to repatriate therefugees, which saw not a singleRohingya turn up to returnacross the border. On Saturday,Bangladesh police said theyshot dead two refugees during agunfight in a camp after the pairwere accused of killing a rulingparty official. The Rohingya arenot recognised as an officialminority by the Myanmar gov-ernment, which considers themBengali interlopers despite manyfamilies having lived in thecountry for generations.

AFP

Thousands of Rohingya rally in B’desh campsGENOCIDE DAY

Beirut: Two Israeli dronescrashed in a Hezbollah strong-hold in the Lebanese capitalovernight, Lebanese andHezbollah officials said onSunday, saying the first fell onthe roof of a building housingthe group's media office whilethe second landed in a plotbehind it. The spokesman forthe Iran-backed Hezbollah saidthe group did not fire on any ofthe drones, which crashed amidheightened tensions betweenneighbouring Israel and Iranand shortly after Israeli war-planes attacked targets nearthe Syrian capital, Damascus.Israeli aircraft continued toviolate Lebanese airspaceSunday, flying low over Beiruthours after the drones hadcrashed, raising fears of a widerconflict. Hezbollah spokesmanMohammed Afif said a small,unmanned reconnaissancedrone fell on a building hous-ing Hezbollah's media office inthe Moawwad neighborhood inDahyeh, the group's strongholdin southern Beirut.

He said a second drone,which appeared to have beensent by Israel to search for thefirst one less than 45 minuteslater, exploded in the air and

crashed in an empty plot near-by, shattering windows in sur-rounding buildings. He said thesecond drone was likely armed,judging by the damage itcaused. AFP

2 Israeli drones crashover Beirut, Hezbollahdenies firing

Beirut: Lebanon condemnedan Israeli "aggression" after twodrones Sunday targeted theBeirut stronghold of the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah,warning of further regionaltensions.

Hezbollah, considered aterrorist organisation by Israeland the United States, is amajor political actor in Lebanonand a key backer of theDamascus regime in war-tornSyria. The early morning inci-dent in south Beirut camehours after Israel said it hadconducted air strikes in neigh-bouring Syria to prevent anIranian force from launching anattack on the Jewish state. AFP

Lebanon condemnsIsrael ‘aggression'after anti-Hezbollahdrone attack

Tehran: A high-ranking Iranianofficial on Sunday deniedIranian positions had been hit byIsraeli air strikes near the Syriancapital overnight.

"This is a lie and it is nottrue," Mohsen Rezaie, the sec-retary of the ExpediencyCouncil, told ILNA news agencyin response to Israeli claims itsair force struck Iranian positionsin the war-torn country.

"Israel and America do nothave the power to attack variouscentres of Iran, while the advi-sory centres that we have, havenot been harmed," said Rezaie,a former commander of Iran'sRevolutionary Guards. "Actionstaken jointly by Israel andAmerica in Syria and Iraq areagainst international regulationsand defenders of Syria and Iraqwill soon respond to them." AFP

Iran denies itsSyria positions hitby Israeli strikes

Tehran: Iran has blacklistedUS-based think-tank theFoundation for Defense ofDemocracies and its chief MarkDubowitz on accusations ofbeing behind "economic ter-rorism" against the Islamicrepublic.

The Iranian ForeignMinistry said in a statementissued late Saturday that it had"added the so-called Foundationfor Defence of Democracies(FDD) and its director to thesanctions list".

"The American institutionwith the deceitful name" andDubowitz were accused of beinginvolved in "designing, impos-ing and intensifying the impactsof economic terrorism againstIran", it said.

The FDD and Dubowitzwere blamed for "seriously andactively trying to harm the

Iranian people's security andvital interests", according to theEnglish-language statementposted on the ministry's website.

They were accused of doingso through "fabricating andspreading lies, encouraging,providing consultations, lob-bying, and launching a smearcampaign" against Iran.

As a result, they would be"subject to legal consequences",it said.

The move would be "with-out prejudice to any further legalmeasures that the other admin-istrative, judicial or securityinstitutions and organisationsmay take" against them andtheir "collaborators and accom-plices". The FDD describes itselfas a Washington-based "non-partisan research institute focus-ing on national security and for-eign policy". AFP

Iran blacklists US-basedthink-tank, says Ministry

French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump participates in a G-7 Working Session on the GlobalEconomy, Foreign Policy, and Security Affairs at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France on Sunday AP

The Government is about to makea terrible mistake with its seedpolicy. The Ministry ofAgriculture & Farmers’ Welfarehas decided to withdraw certi-

fied/notified varieties of seeds that are olderthan 10 years from the market. TheGovernment system, backed by the IndianCouncil of Agricultural Research (ICAR),cancelled the indent of seed producers, whohave requested for popular varietiesbetween 10-15 years old.

Several small and medium seed com-panies across the country obtain breederseeds from ICAR every year and take upthe production of foundation seeds and cer-tified seeds to distribute them to thefarmers. Older varieties, between 10 and 15years, are still very popular among thefarmers. In fact, they demand varieties thatare older than 25 years, too, because of theiradaptability, resilience and high-yieldingcapabilities under adverse conditions. Thesudden disappearance of the seeds from themarket will rob the farmers of freedom,their right to choose the seeds he/she wantsto grow and the market of laissez-faire prin-ciples. Besides, this conservative policydecision may also cause extreme chaosamong the farming community, disrupt theseed economy and impact crop productionnegatively.

Any sound agriculturist will tell youthat diversity breeds resilience, deliveringboth higher yields and immunity for theplants from diseases and pests. This can beachieved through breeding and introduc-tion of newer varieties to maintain pacewith natural evolution among pests andpathogens. With time, older varieties needreplacement as they become vulnerable tobiotic and abiotic factors. Seeds bred for dis-ease resistance may lose those traits aspests/diseases keep evolving, depending onagro-climatic conditions, among otherthings. This results in decreased efficien-cy of the seed or requirements of more cropprotection or artificial boosters to maintainsustained yields. So when it comes to sci-ence, the Government is making an objec-tive decision, a scientific one.

But a one size fits all approach does notwork in the farm sector. And why shouldit? The category of the Indian farmer isoccupied by many — starting from the for-est-dwelling Santhal farmers of Jharkhandto the progressive cereal farmers fromPunjab, the Gond farmers growing corn incentral India, the Assamese farmer culti-vating paddy in the fields of North-East, thedesert farmers of Ladakh and Thar and thecoastal farmers from Kerala. The list cango on and on.

The Indian farmers are a diverse groupwith different qualities and limitation buthave one common requirement of certi-fied/superior seeds. While farmers inPunjab are very progressive and quick toadapt to newer schemes and seeds, the

Gond farmers of MadhyaPradesh may not even knowabout the many Governmentschemes and seeds, given theyare remotely located.

It can be concluded fromhistorical evidence based on thespread of Green Revolution inIndia that there are threegroups — Core areas, coveringPunjab, Haryana, WesternUttar Pradesh, AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu; periph-ery, covering eastern UttarPradesh, Bihar, Karnataka,Kerala; and remote, coveringNorth-Eastern and hilly States,Goa and Puducherry — whenit comes to the spread of tech-nological innovation in agricul-ture.

The time of adaptation oreven a variety being accepted byone zone differs to a greatdegree. After the commercial-isation of a variety, it may takearound one to three years for itto be widely accepted by coreareas such as Punjab andHaryana. For the same varietyto trickle down to eastern UttarPradesh, it may take anotherthree to four years and for it toreach remote areas likeJharkhand, six to eight years. Bythe time farmers across thesezones gain confidence in thevariety and raise demands, the10-year period is already over.

Old is gold, there is no bet-ter adherent to this adage thanIndian farmers. General con-sensus on a good seed is builton how it performed last yearor when some farmers gethigher yields or less disease.The approach to buying seedsis very conservative. Mostly,varieties that have provedthemselves over a season or twoin the region are sold. Smallerfarmers do not gamble withnew varieties. Medium/largefarms may experiment withnewer varieties but it takestwo to three seasons before theintended advantage is delivered.

Farmers need to trust avariety before they adopt it.And given the climatic varia-tions and water scarcity, it maytake a longer time for the seedto perform ideally. Hence, thetime of adaptation increases,depending on the area.

The harshest truth of theseed world is that its economyis based on the choices made bythe farmers. The market is dri-ven by demand and is based notonly on science but farmers’intuition. They trust their logicover and above theGovernment/seed retailer orthe labelling. To cultivatedemand for a particular varietyof seed, therefore, may take tenyears or more. In India, the sat-

uration point may be reachedway beyond the 25-30 yearperiod. There are many exam-ples. PBW-343 (1996), WH-147(1978) in wheat, Varuna (1976)for mustard, Pusa Basmati 1(1989), Govind (1989) in paddyamong others are still the farm-ers’ favorites and they have con-tinuously given yields and per-formed optimally. If suddenlythey are removed from themarket, with no alternative tothe farmers, this may lead todiscontentment among theagrarian community.

This will also encourageblack marketing, hoarding oftrusted varieties as the farmerswill not gamble. Besides, itmay give birth to a shadow seedeconomy. Instead of aiding thefarmers, the Government maywell push them to act complic-itly with black marketers. Therural economy will suffer andthe seed economy along withthe markets will see a decline,which may translate to adecrease in crop production.

But the Government canstill steer the moment towardscreating a positive impact. Itmay begin by allowing varietiestill 15 years to be producedthrough the ICAR system.Then, it should do a detailedstudy to get an estimate of mar-ket penetration of new varieties

and understand market trendsto bring transformativechanges. This policy needs to bereviewed on a case-to-casebasis.

While less popular varietiescan be phased out after 10-12years, more popular varietiesmay continue up to 20-22years. Preparing for the replace-ment drive of a variety of seed,the Government can use digi-tal media to showcase effi-ciency, using farmer-friendlyvideos in regional languages and live crop demon-strations.

This campaign can bestrengthened by efforts of Krishimitra/village-level agricultureofficers. The Government cansupply new varieties to thefarmers directly so that they cansow them in small patches intheir region. Once the farmerssee the new varieties performbetter, they will develop trustfor new seeds and, thus, natur-al demand can be created. TheGovernment must not onlymake the best use of scientificprinciples but also keep inmind economic forces ofdemand as for many farmers,old seed is still gold.

(The writer is ProgrammeDirector for Policy and Outreachat the National Seed Associationof India)

It would perhaps be easy enough to concludethat some senior Congressmen leading the“stop demonising Modi” chorus have been

coopted by prevalent nationalist thinking andare in a rebellious mood as the party goes adriftevery day. Some would say the simmeringdown of the attack could perhaps be influencedby the severity of government probes againstfellow Congressman P Chidambaram. But whatsenior leaders like Bhupinder Hooda, who hasrefused to critique the abrogation of Article 370,or Jairam Ramesh said of appreciating the gov-

ernance of the Modi regime when it did right, is perhaps indicative of what couldrepair the Congress. If one looks back at the party’s heady days of winning cru-cial heartland polls last December and the slide within months in the Lok Sabhapolls this summer, then one could find the answers. For the Assemblies, theCongress campaign relied strongly on regional CM faces, an issue-based counterand practical alternatives to the existing governance. In contrast, the party’s nation-al election campaign played into the personality cult war that Team Modi had setup with “Modi versus Who,” and the Congress atrociously relying on a catchybut self-defeating tag of “Chowkidaar Chor Hai.” Given the Congress’ own bur-den of corruption, it was no doubt easier for Modi to rightfully project himself asa vigilante of the nation’s interests and turn the nomenclature on its head.Undoubtedly, the negative campaign against Modi only ended up lionising him.Many senior leaders had then murmured privately that the party was just not cutout for a presidential style contest and needed a different sales pitch. It couldhave countered “sabka vishwas” with its own broad-based alliance of varied inter-ests and regional aspirations, one which it failed at. And by the time it unfurledNYAY as its vision document and policy statement, it had missed the bus. It com-pletely misread the nationalist surge after Balakot and would now want to burythe Rafale allegations with the ghosts of history.

While the Young Turks have set their terms of engagement, refusing to crit-icise the Government’s Kashmir policy for the sake of it and wanting to strength-en their network in States where Assembly polls are due, some saner seniorshave claimed the “nationalist” tag of the INC. They are urging the leadership todevelop a template on issues that have been mishandled by the Modi regimerather than just being a petulant noise-maker. Jairam Ramesh, although consid-ered a close inner circle member, at least knows that true loyalty is not aboutacquiescence but about showing the mirror to the leadership so that it under-takes a much-needed course correction. He was pragmatic enough to admit thatModi’s “economics of governance” and the Ujjwala Scheme to provide cookinggas connections to BPL households did generate a groundswell that no rhetoriccould check. In fact, continued attacks would only make the Congress look likea vituperative irritant and not the serious national party it is. Besides, focussingon Modi would automatically draw attention away from the gravity of issues andthe Prime Minister, too, would be happy with that. What the Congress must realiseis that a responsible Opposition means that its criticism is worth respecting andpaid heed to instead of becoming the subject of an internet joke fest. If such mus-ings do inspire a change of thinking, then maybe the party will actually look towardsworking on issues and develop an alternate matrix of governance. The Congresssupreme leader can be powerful not by entitlement any longer, certainly not byindividual charisma but by drawing on organisational strength and giving hopeto the rank and file. In short, giving Congressmen a workable narrative.

The Government is right about something,the Indian economy is still growing. Butthe problem is nobody believes that it

is doing so or that it is catching up as fastas it should and this lacklustre conviction isthe Government’s fault. Growth numbers havebeen manipulated and uncomfortable figuresmassaged, others have been withheld to spina particular narrative. But not all numbers canbe fudged. Declining sales and growth fig-ures for publicly listed companies do comeout as does Government data. These num-

bers are painting a grim picture. And while Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman may be right in arguing that India too will be impacted as the worlditself is headed towards a cyclical slowdown, the fact is that the Indian econ-omy is still largely based on domestic consumption. This makes argumentsfrom the likes of former vice chairman of Niti Aayog, Arvind Panagariya —which essentially went (with due apologies to Marie Antoinette) “let them export”when he was talking of the troubles faced by the Indian automotive industry— belie an understanding of the situation. But at least someone in theGovernment, maybe even the Prime Minister, saw that private sector invest-ment in our country was hurtling downhill. This, coupled with little or no majorforeign investment, will worsen the job crisis further. India, which mind youneeds to create a million jobs a month over the next decade to absorb its “demo-graphic dividend,” might actually start losing them.

At least the realisation has dawned that unless domestic consumption isenhanced, there can be no short-term growth. So the measures announced bythe Finance Minister, crucially about bank recapitalisation and associated issuesas well as the Government paying back its dues to ease working capital crisisalongside, are a good start. It is the cup of coffee that many people have to starttheir day. It is, however, not a full meal and one hopes that the Government thinksof some other radical new measures to boost the economy. While cutting taxrates is an anathema to Indian Governments — whether on the personal sideor on products — it might become essential to boost spending because whenpeople are worried about the state of the economy, they will not spend unlessone actually puts money in their hands. Cheaper loans will not make an iota ofdifference if people do not want them. At the same time, the Government has torein in motormouths inside the official structure, who have actively gone and harmedindustries with comments that have been out of line. Many of those remarks havecome from motivated individuals inside policy-making institutions and others,who hold important roles. There is no doubt that this Government, or any Indiangovernment, will have major social sector priorities but if economic growth fal-ters, the aim to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty will remain a pipe-dream.The situation is frankly quite critical and while one should not go as far as to saythat the survival of the modern Indian nation state depends on competent han-dling of the situation, anyone who makes such an argument today will have theattention of many. We are hoping that this stimulus will lift sentiments and ener-gise the equity market. Others still want the big bang reforms, not a nudge.

Booster shot

Welfarist approach

Sir — The Bombay High Courthas asked the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) to file a reply on aPublic Interest Litigation (PIL)filed by the National Associationfor the Blind, seeking the Centralbank’s assurance that sizes ofcurrency notes will not bechanged in future as visuallychallenged people take time to getfamiliar with new-sized notes.

The subject came to lightafter the size of `100 and `500notes were gradually changedafter demonetisation. The RBIshould give an assurance that inthe future, if notes are required tobe changed, it will be done simul-taneously for notes of all denom-inations. The problem alsoextended to coins.

Visually differently abled peo-ple face the same problem whennew `2 coins of exactly the samesize, shape and weight of the thenprevailing old `1 coins are circu-lated. The RBI should also ensurethat similar sized coins in differ-ent denominations are not in cir-culation simultaneously. We mustbe sensitive in policy-making.

SC AgrawalDelhi

Law is supreme

Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Chidambaram in a spot”(August 22). The ugly spectacleof a former Union HomeMinister going through unseem-ly contretemps and evasions tododge the Central Bureau of

Investigation (CBI) had unnec-essarily rivetted the nation to itstelevision sets.

Any top politician gettingarrested — be it Lalu Prasad ofRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in thefodder scam in 1997 or MKarunanidhi in 2001 — becomesa premise for settling political

scores. A look at all such cases,where high-profile leaders areinvolved, points to a similaroutrage and hullabaloo sur-rounding their arrest, though themerits of allegations in eachcase may vary drastically.

So, the Congress’ charadethat Chidambaram is a victim of

“political vendetta” ought to bedismissed. Whether the chargeslevelled against him are true ornot is for the judiciary to deter-mine. Nobody is above the law.Ultimately, corruption in highplaces must be weeded out.

J Akshay Bengaluru

Custody blues

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Chidambaram in a spot”(August 22). It is indeed ironicalthat Congress leader PChidambaram has had to spendtime in custody of the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI) atthe very guest house that wasinaugurated by him. Whether thecharges against him in the INXMedia case are true are not, itcannot be denied that the modusoperandi adopted by the CBI toarrest him was deplorable. Italso defies logic as to whyChidambaram had to knock thecourt’s door numerous times ifindeed he is not guilty?

Shubham KashyapVia email

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionHYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019

08

Old is still gold

INDRA SHEKHAR SINGH

The Govt’s decision to abruptly remove 10-year-old seed varieties from the market maydo more harm than good. It must phase them out gradually and earn farmers’ trust

She (Mira) is creative and has agreat sense of clothes and isvery good with food, too. Havingsaid that, she is pretty comfort-able in front of the camera, too.

Actor— Shahid Kapoor

For many years China (andmany other countries) hasbeen taking advantage of theUS. As President, I can nolonger allow this to happen.

US President—Donald Trump

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Healthy criticism is a must for democracy

At last, some Opposition parties, including Congressleaders, have come out in the open to highlightPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s success in the “eco-

nomics of governance.” A section of the Congress’ seniorleadership, including Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek ManuSinghvi and Shashi Tharoor, has said that “demonising”the Prime Minister will not help the Opposition’s causeand accepted that he “talks in a language that connectshim with the people.” The lingering impression amongthe citizens, too, is that the rabid “anti-Modi” stanceadopted by the Congress led to the Modi Government’sresounding victory in 2019. Demeaning and demonis-ing the Prime Minister of a country, despite public opin-ion to the contrary, cannot bring laurels to theOpposition. When a leader is denounced on a consis-tent basis by any party, it tends to lose acceptability andtrustworthiness even if the condemnation is genuine.

Though Modi 1.0 could not dissect the problemsfaced by the nation and find a long-lasting solution, cit-izens still reposed faith in it. Even the economic slow-down did not change their standing. The Congress brassmust take note of Jairam Ramesh’s remarks. Instead of

ganging up against him, it must re-evaluate its campaignstrategy to emerge victorious. With Rahul Gandhi goneand Sonia Gandhi at the helm, she must enthuse the spir-it of party workers, rebuild the organisation, reviving com-munication strategy in order to connect with the mass-es and sharpen the economic critique. Instead of criti-cising the Government for the sake of it, it must takerecourse to healthy criticism.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Cong’s inner voice

In the interest of the nation, thework (Kartarpur corridor) mustnot move ahead. Whateverwork has been done (on theproject), let it stop there.

BJP MP —Subramanian Swamy

Can Sitharaman’s announcements be the energy drink thatthe Indian economy needs to wake up from its slumber?

Seniors are against ‘demonising’ Modi or drawing comparisonsbut want the party to fight the government cogently on issues

Opposition parties couldhave visited Srinagar andtold the truth to the coun-try. It would have built confidence among people.

Rajasthan Chief Minister —Ashok Gehlot

Integration wasn't won in a day

THE MEASURES ANNOUNCED BY THE FINANCE MINISTERWILL FACILITATE EASE OF DOING BUSINESS, IMPROVE

DEMAND AND BOOST THE OVERALL ECONOMY.—PRIME MINISTER

NARENDRA MODI

THE NATION IS REELING UNDER RECESSION. THE MODIGOVERNMENT IS ONLY DOING HALF AND INCOMPLETEROLLBACK OF THE PROVISIONS IT IMPOSED.—CONGRESS CHIEF SPOKESPERSONRANDEEP SURJEWALA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The political movement headed by SheikhAbdullah, that originated in Kashmir in 1931,to some extent remained unsuccessful in gain-

ing the support of Jammu, especially the Hindu-dominated areas. Its genesis, growth and ideolog-ical moorings made it suspect in the eyes of Dogranationalists who viewed it as something alien andunacceptable. Pandit Prem Nath Dogra led the AllJammu and Kashmir Rajya Hindu Sabha as the mainopposition party. It merged with Praja Parishadwhich was formed in Jammu immediately after thetribal invasion in November 1947.

The struggle for total integration of Jammu andKashmir (J&K) with India began with the birth ofthe All Jammu & Kashmir Praja Parishad, popu-larly known as Praja Parishad. It opposed Abdullah’smajor policy planks such as abolition of landlords,anti-Dogra drive, attempts at framing a separate con-stitution for J&K, a separate flag and so on.

Sheikh Abdullah became the Prime Ministerof J&K in March 1948. He abhorred opposition andwanted to become de facto ruler of the state. As anadvocate of a one-party State, he forced the thenPrime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to introduceArticle 370 in the Constitution of India to ensureKashmiri Muslim domination. After, that he beganannihilation of the opposition. His cronies chant-ed slogans like, “ek rehnuma (mentor), SheikhMohammad Abdullah, ek tanzeem (organisation)National Conference, ek jhanda (flag), Halwala, ekmanshoor (manifesto) Naya Kashmir, whichalarmed the pro-integration Dogras of Jammu.Prem Nath Dogra and his colleagues felt this wasdangerous for democracy and would fulfillAbdullah’s totalitarian ambitions.

Moreover, Abdullah’s policies were exclusive-ly confined to the welfare of Kashmiri Muslims andignored the sentiments and interests of the peo-ple of Jammu and Ladakh. His animosity towardsthe Maharaja transformed into hatred for theDogras of Jammu. Unfortunately, he had clout withthe ruling party at the Centre which had a Kashmir-centric inclination. This was a major cause of con-cern for the people of Jammu. Praja Parishad wascommitted to full integration of J&K with theIndian union and safeguarding the legitimatedemocratic rights of the people of Jammu.Consequently, it became popular in Jammu,including among Muslims there. Its growing pop-ularity irked Abdullah who resorted to suppress-ing its growth. Several activists, including theauthor’s grandfather, Bishan Das Mahajan, wereexpelled from the state. Praja Parishad leaders werealso put behind bars in February 1949 and by mid-1949, Abdullah imprisoned as many as 294 of itsworkers. In May 1949, the Parishad began a protestfor the release of Prem Nath Dogra.

Abdullah finally yielded to the combined pres-sure and intervention of some nationalist leadersin Delhi and released him from jail in October1949. However, the persecution did not end thereand Abdullah’s hatred for the nationalists was fur-ther aggravated by the fact that the Parishad’sdemand for full integration clashed directly withthe National Conference (NC) demand for com-plete autonomy for J&K. As many as 15 youthswere shot and some others injured at various placesfor hoisting the Tricolour. The agitationists evenincluded the demand for abolishing the permit sys-tem for entering or leaving J&K.

Many may argue about the relevance of this

article under the changed circumstancesbut it is imperative for the present gen-eration to be aware of the struggles andsacrifices made by their predecessorswhich acted as the enabler of the presentlandmark achievement.

The Parishad tirelessly tried to unitethe people of Jammu with a view to foilthe attempts of those who either favouredautonomy or tried to separate the statefrom the Indian Union. It also opposedthe setting up of a separate ConstituentAssembly and favoured the application ofthe Indian Constitution.

Despite being opposed to a separateconstitution for the state, a special sessionof the party held on May 8, 1951, decid-ed to contest the elections to theConstituent Assembly. Because of large-scale rejection of nomination papers of itscandidates and nefarious manipulation ofthe elections by Abdullah, the partydecided to boycott the elections. In spiteof its strong support base, it did not havea single member in the ConstituentAssembly, which under Abdullah’s lead-ership, framed a constitution that promot-ed the concept of “State within a State.”

The NC and Abdullah did everythingto ensure that all party members were partof the J&K Assembly. Abdullah dubbedthe Parishad as communal, ignoring thefact that many Muslims were also contest-ing on its tickets. Slowly, the Parishadturned into a mass movement and playeda key role in opposing separatist and com-munal politics in J&K.

Emboldened by the support heenjoyed from Nehru and after signing ofthe Delhi Agreement, Abdullah beganhoisting the NC flag at official functionsand atop government buildings. However,

in keeping with his habit of double-speak,he implemented the agreement only inpart to further his agenda of autonomy.On January 15, 1952, he delivered a speechat an official function at Gandhi MemorialCollege, Jammu and hoisted the NC’s flagalongside the Tricolour, asking the stu-dents to salute it but they objected. Thisinfuriated Abdullah and he ensured thatthey were penalised.

This was followed by a 38-dayhunger strike by students in 1952. OnFebruary 8, 1952, the people of Jammucame out in solidarity with them that ledAbdullah to impose curfew and get PNDogra arrested. The intense publicpressure that followed this forced Delhito act and ensure the release of Dograand others. It soon turned into a pub-lic movement against Abdullah’s despo-tism and his anti-national activities. Themovement found support nationally inthe form of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh,which was formed in 1951.

Another mass movement waslaunched by the Parishad in November1952 against the separatist and commu-nal politics of Abdullah. In December1952, Jan Sangh president Syama PrasadMookerjee announced the launch of anation-wide agitation for the abolition ofArticle 370. On May 8, 1953 he decidedto enter J&K, thus violating the prevalentpermit system and was arrested byAbdullah as soon as he set foot in the state.He was jailed and tortured at Srinagar,which led to his mysterious death on June23, 1953. An estimated 10,000 activistswere imprisoned in Jammu, Punjab andDelhi, including Members of Parliament,leading to an uproar in India.

Blinded by his ambition, Abdullah

indulged in competitive communalismand worked towards the establishment ofan independent Muslim majority-stateclaiming that India was not secularenough. The Parishad opposed it toothand nail and accused Abdullah of notbeing Indian enough. Abdullah wasfinally arrested in August 1953 after hemade secessionist speeches at RS Pura onApril 10 and on July 13.

After this, the Praja Parishadmovement largely subsided and it final-ly merged with the Jana Sangh in 1963.Ever since then, Jana Sangh and later itssuccessor, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), had been struggling and agitat-ing for ending J&K’s special status,which not only promoted separatism,religious militancy but was the majorcause of rampant corruption and poordevelopment. The re-entry of SheikhAbdullah in state politics in 1975 underan agreement with the then PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi and the subse-quent Rajiv-Farooq accord and Rahul-Omar bonhomie gave a new fillip to thedemand for autonomy and saw the riseof jihadi and radical forces in Kashmir.

The historic decision of August 5,2019 is the result of the struggle andsacrifices of three generations of PrajaParishad, Jana Sangh and BJP workers.The BJP, as a successor of the JanaSangh, remained focussed and commit-ted to abolition of Article 370 and J&K’sfull integration with India. Manyaccused the party of using it only as anelection plank to woo voters in theHindi heartland but all of them havebeen proved wrong.

(The author is a Jammu based political commentator and columnist)

The fight for total mainstreaming of J&K with the rest of India began with thebirth of the All Jammu & Kashmir Praja Parishad in 1947

analysis 09F I R S T C O L U M N

Greenland'sgamble

GWYNNE DYER

It makes little difference to Greenlanders whetherforeign investment comes from Denmark, Chinaor the US, so long as they have political control

ANIL GUPTA

MANY MAYARGUE ABOUT

THE RELEVANCEOF THIS ARTICLE

UNDER THECHANGED

CIRCUMSTANCES,BUT IT IS

IMPERATIVE FORTHE PRESENT

GENERATION TOBE AWARE OF THESTRUGGLES AND

SACRIFICES MADEBY THEIR

PREDECESSORSWHICH ACTED ASTHE ENABLER OF

THE PRESENTLANDMARK

ACHIEVEMENT OFABROGATION OF

ARTICLE 370

Right from his purchase of New Jersey casinos to his proposedacquisition of Greenland, Donald Trump’s real estate dealshave always been plagued by bad timing. The US could prob-

ably have bought Greenland from Denmark in 1917 (when it didbuy the US Virgin Islands from the Danes), but it’s a century toolate now. Nevertheless, the US President’s latest bad idea does giveus an incentive to catch up with what’s been happening in Greenlandand it’s quite interesting. Trump may not know this, since he rarelyreads intelligence reports, but in November 2017 Greenland’s pre-mier, Kim Kielsen, led a government delegation to Beijing to seekChinese investment.

Greenland, the world’s biggest island, is not yet fully indepen-dent but it is autonomous from Denmark in everything except for-eign affairs and defence. Kielsen was looking mainly for Chineseinvestment in mining enterprises but he was also interested in attract-ing a Chinese bid to build three modern airports on the island, whichcurrently depends on World War II-era airstrips.

This set off a security panic in NATO, involving implausible night-mare visions about Greenland getting so deep in debt to Chinesebanks that it would end up letting China (which has comically declareditself a “near-Arctic nation”) operate military aircraft from those air-ports. The US military, which has a large air base at Thule in north-ern Greenland, then took fright. Washington strongly urged the Danishgovernment, which provides two-thirds of Greenland’s budget rev-enue, to nip this threat in the bud. Copenhagen had previously refusedto fund the new Greenland airports but late last year it suddenlycame up with very low-interest loans for them. End of panic.

By then Kielsen’s government in the tiny capital of Nuuk (pop-ulation 17,000) had collapsed but his Siumut Party came out aheadin the election last April and he is back. And the issue of Chinesemines in Greenland is still on the table. In fact, there already is onein southern Greenland, producing uranium and rare earths for aChinese-Australian consortium. Other projects potentially involvingChinese capital and workers are under discussion, including an open-cast iron-ore mine near Nuuk, a zinc mine in the north, and bothoffshore and onshore oil and gas leases.

For the 56,000 Greenlanders, 90 per cent of whom are Inuit(Eskimo), the geo-strategic implications of Chinese investment areirrelevant and they are probably right about that. What worries them,and occupies a central place in Greenlandic politics, are the cul-tural and social implications of foreign investment by anybody,Chinese or not.

The Greenland Inuits are one of the few indigenous societiesin the world that have full or almost full control over their own des-tiny but the impact of the modern world on their traditional culturehas been as destructive as it was for all the others: depression andother psychological illnesses, rampant alcoholism and drug use,and an epidemic of suicides. So they face a choice. Do you go ontrying to preserve what is left of the old Arctic hunting and fishingculture, although it’s already so damaged and discouraged that theisland has the highest suicide rate on the planet? Or do you seeksalvation in full modernisation through high-speed economic growth,while keeping your language and what you can of your culture?

What’s remarkable about Greenlandic politics is how aware theplayers are of their dilemma and their options. “If you want to becomerich, it comes at a price,” says Aqqaluk Lynge, one of the foundersof the Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community of the People) party that ran thegovernment until 2013. Lynge and many others didn’t want to paythat price, and under the Inuit Ataqatigiit administration, all miningwas banned in Greenland. Quite apart from the environmental costsof large-scale mining operations, they believed, the many thousandsof foreign workers they would bring in would have a devastatingimpact on the already very fragile Greenlandic culture.

The decision was made in 2013, when the Siumut Party tookpower. It believes that modernisation has gone too far to turn backnow. Better to gamble on solving the current huge social problemsby enabling everybody to live fully modern, prosperous lives. If you’reno longer marginalised and poverty-stricken, you’ll feel better aboutyourself. Let us hope so but the die is cast. Greenland will mod-ernise, and in due course, we will find out if that helps. It makeslittle difference to Greenlanders whether the foreign investment comesfrom Denmark, China or the US, so long as they have political con-trol — but they certainly don’t want to become Americans. The“Greenland Purchase” is not going to happen. As Soren Espersen,foreign affairs spokesman of the Danish People’s Party, said lastweek: “If (Trump) is truly contemplating this, then this is final proofthat he has gone mad.”

(The writer’s new book is Growing Pains, the Future ofDemocracy and Work)

The newly-introduced Surrogacy(Regulation) Bill, 2019, passed bythe Lok Sabha, has once again

stirred the big debate regarding reproduc-tive autonomy, women’s rights and theextent to which the State should intervene.The Bill prohibits commercial surrogacybut allows it for altruistic purposes. It man-dates that the intending couple shouldhave a “certificate of essentiality” and a“certificate of eligibility” that are issuedupon fulfillment of certain conditions.

For instance, the couple must beIndian citizens and married for at least fiveyears; the wife should be between 23 to 50years of age and the husband between 26to 55-years-old. They must not have anysurviving child (biological, adopted or sur-rogate). However, this would not include

a child who is mentally or physically chal-lenged or suffers from life-threatening dis-order or fatal illness. This apart, the cou-ple must also fulfill other conditions thatmay be specified by regulations.

The Bill was introduced to clampdown on rampant commercial surrogacy,with India fast becoming a hub. Surrogacyis a $400 million a year business with anestimated 3,000 fertility clinics in majorIndian cities, says a 2012 UN study.

Worldwide, it is estimated that around15 per cent of reproductive-aged couplesare affected by infertility. According to theWorld Health Organisation (WHO), theinfertility rate in India is between 3.9 to16.8 per cent. Infertility rates vary fromState to State. While it is 3.7 per cent inUttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh andMaharashtra, it’s 5 per cent in AndhraPradesh and 15 per cent in Kashmir.

Hence, there’s a big population thatneeds help starting a family but the newlaw will make surrogacy inaccessible forthis cohort. There are arguments for easyavailability of the option for adoption inIndia, but in the end, the state shouldn’tdecide how couples expand the family.

While this Bill makes altruistic surro-gacy legal in India just like South Korea,

Hong Kong and Vietnam, in most of theneighbouring countries it’s either bannedor there are no regulations governing it.After widespread reports of Indian womentravelling to Nepal once India enforcedvisa restrictions for foreigners commis-sioning surrogacy in India in 2013, theSupreme Court of Nepal ruled againstcommercial surrogacy in August 2015.

To date, however, normative standardson surrogacy have been relatively limited.The UN international human rightsmechanisms have not yet taken up theissue of surrogacy in a focussed or uniformway. The UN Special rapporteur on thesale of children, child prostitution andchild pornography has addressed theissue and highlighted the lack of regula-tion of commercial surrogacy. It hascalled upon countries to adopt legislationto protect the rights of women and chil-dren and develop and implement interna-tional standards.

Coming back to the Bill, another stick-ing point is that surrogacy remains onlyfor the married heterosexual couples andcompletely excludes singles, live-in part-ners and same-sex couples.

The other problem that various sec-tions of women groups and activists have

with this Bill is that the following aspectsare missing from it and must be addressed.

First, the reason for not having a com-mon position on surrogacy as outlined inthe Assisted Reproductive Technology(Regulation) Bill, 2017 is not having anintegrated approach towards the use ofassisted reproductive technologies.

Second, as per the definition of “infer-tility”, the Bill excludes women who con-ceive but are unable to carry a childthrough the period of the pregnancy dueto miscarriage, fibroids, hypertensionand diabetes. In some countries like TheNetherlands, South Africa and Greecemedical conditions that permit altruisticsurrogacy are well-defined.

Third, the Bill includes a sub-clausefor National Surrogacy Board to define“any other condition or disease” for whichsurrogacy may be allowed. For a robustimplementation, the eligibility criteriashould not be left to regulations but be partof the law.

Fourth, as part of the certificate ofessentiality, the Bill outlines the followingconditions, a certificate of proven infer-tility of one or both the partners from aDistrict Medical Board; an order ofparentage and custody of the surrogate

child passed by a magistrate’s court.However, the Bill lacks any review orappeal procedure in case of rejection of theapplication.

Fifth, the surrogate mother is requiredto be a close relative of the intending cou-ple. However, the “close relative” or thenature of this relationship is not defined.

While it provides flexibility to theintending couple to broaden the choice ofsurrogates, it may also be subjected to per-ceptional scrutiny at the time of receivingthe certificate of essentiality.

Sixth, the eligibility criterion thatspecifies that the couple should be mar-ried for at least five years stops the cou-ple from deciding the size of their familyas per their requirement. It’s not clear thatonce infertility is established, why a cou-ple should be made to wait for five years.

Seven, the criteria of not having“been a surrogate mother earlier” cannotbe monitored until there’s a centralised sys-tem to record pregnancies in the country.

Eight, the purpose of imposing a focuson “altruistic surrogacy” is an assumptionthat it will not be exploitative or coercive.With commercial surrogacy, there is atleast an option for stringent contract andlegal provisions but it will be difficult to

monitor altruistic surrogacy. There isenough evidence that families can also beexploitative towards women who may becoerced to become surrogates for close rel-atives. Thus, the argument that the altru-istic surrogacy cannot be an exploitativearrangement does not stand.

From a surrogate mother’s perspective,there are several concerns like preventionof coercion or any other form of exploita-tion, legal counselling for the implicationsof surrogacy on health and lives, informedconsent, access to remuneration for sur-rogacy, nature of the relationship with thelegal family of the child, among others.

The Bill violates the fundamentalrights of surrogates and potential parents.The banning of surrogacy will make itmore discreet and underground, puttinga lot of these women at further risk.

Despite all the intricacies of the Bill,it leaves us with these questions — Whereis the choice of surrogate women? Willbanning commercial surrogacy address allthese pressing issues? Why ban surroga-cy and not regulate it?

(The writer is Senior Technical Advisor,Advocacy and Accountability atInternational Planned ParenthoodFederation, South Asia)

The great surrogacy debate The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, which prohibits commercial surrogacy but allows it for altruistic purposes, has once again put

the spotlight on reproductive autonomy, women's rights and the extent to which the State should intervene

NEHA CHAUHAN

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019

www.dailypioneer.com

PNS n NEW DELHI

Seven of the 10 most valueddomestic companies cumula-tively lost Rs 86,879.7 crore inmarket valuation last week,with FMCG major ITC takingthe biggest hit.

In a weak broader market,Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL),HDFC Bank, HDFC, KotakMahindra Bank, ICICI Bankand SBI were the other firmswhich witnessed a drop intheir market capitalisation(m-cap), while TCS, HUL andInfosys finished with gains.

The m-cap of ITC droppedby Rs 20,748.4 crore to stand atRs 2,89,740.59 crore.

It was followed by SBI whosemarket cap tumbled Rs17,715.4 crore to Rs 2,41,946.22crore.

The m-cap of HDFC Banktanked Rs 17,335.3 crore to Rs5,91,490.98 crore and that ofICICI Bank declined by Rs

15,084.5 crore to Rs2,55,484.91 crore.

HDFC's valuation fellby Rs 9,921.2 crore to Rs3,52,202.72 crore and thatof Kotak Mahindra Bankdipped Rs 5,155.85 crore to Rs2,81,185.14 crore.

The m-cap of RIL wentdown by Rs 919.16 crore to Rs

8,08,836 crore.In contrast, the

valuation of TCSzoomed Rs 31,538.79crore to Rs8,43,367.22 crore and

that of Infosys jumped Rs11,746.94 crore to Rs3,44,419.45 crore.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd

(HUL) added Rs 7,176.31 croreto its m-cap to reach Rs4,02,512.28 crore.

In the ranking of top-10firms, Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS) led from thefront followed by RIL, HDFCBank, HUL, HDFC, Infosys,ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank,ICICI Bank and SBI.

CAPSULE

New measures bygovt to boost leatherindustry: CLENEW DELHI: The measuresannounced by the governmentto push economic growth willhelp attract investments andboost exports of leathersector, CLE said on Sunday.Council for Leather Exports(CLE) Chairman P R AqeelAhmed said the stimulusmeasures have come at theright time, as leather, leatherproducts and footwearindustry is currently facingchallenges in the globalmarket. Exports from thesector have declined by 4.90per cent during April–June2019, primarily due toreduction in exports toEurope, which is the majormarket, accounting for about53 per cent of exports.

For G7, ‘tooearly' toreintegrateRussiaPNS n BIARRITZ

G7 leaders back strengthen-ing cooperation with Russiaafter its expulsion from thegroup in 2014 but believe itis too early to reintegrateMoscow and return to a G8,diplomatic sources saidSunday. "The leaders of theG7 are in favour of reinforc-ing coordination with Russiaon current crises (but)... it istoo early for reintegration,"said a diplomatic source, whoasked not to be named.Russia was thrown out ofwhat was the G8 in 2014 afterit seized Ukraine's Black Seapeninsula of Crimea, anannexation never recognisedby the international com-munity. The G7 now bringstogether Britain, Canada,France, Germany, Italy, Japan,and the United States.

Nalco gets Dun &Bradstreet Awardfor excellenceBHUBANESWAR: Aluminiummajor NALCO has bagged theDun and Bradstreet PSU award2019 for excellence in exportperformance. The award waspresented in recognition of thestellar role played by NavaratnaNALCO among the publicsector undertakings (PSUs) inthe Indian economy as well asin the wider socio-economicdevelopment, a companyrelease said. Union Minister ofHeavy Industries and PublicEnterprises Arvind Sawantpresented the award at thePSU Award ceremony heldover the weekend in NewDelhi. NALCO clocked exportearnings of Rs 4,792.71 crorein 2018-19.

Mother Dairy tolaunch Orange Barfi NAGPUR: This GaneshChaturthi, Mother Dairy is setto launch Orange Barfi here, alocal delicacy made usingorange pulp and milk sourcedfrom farmers, on a call givenby Union Minister NitinGadkari. "The sweet isprepared with 25 per centorange juice and milk.Therefore, it will help orangegrowers as well as dairyfarmers," Gadkari said in NewDelhi. The Road Transport &Highways and MSME minister,who is a MP from Nagpur, saidthe dairy brand would launchthe 'Orange Burfi' on GaneshChaturthi.

Seven of top-10 firms loseRs 86,880 cr in m-capl ITC takes biggest knock

In a weak broadermarket, RelianceIndustries Ltd (RIL),HDFC Bank, HDFC,Kotak Mahindra Bank,ICICI Bank and SBIwere the other firmswhich witnessed adrop in their marketcapitalisation (m-cap),while TCS, HUL andInfosys finished withgains

PNS n NEW DELHI

Overseas investors have pulledout a net amount of Rs 3,014crore from the Indian capitalmarkets this month so far, butthe trend may reverse followingthe removal of enhanced sur-charge on FPIs, experts said.

According to depositoriesdata, foreign portfolio investors(FPI) withdrew a net amount ofRs 12,105.33 crore from equi-ties, but pumped in Rs 9,090.61crore into the debt segment dur-ing August 1-23.

This has translated into a totalnet outflow of Rs 3,014.72 crorefrom the capital markets (bothequity and debt).

"Out of 15 trading sessions,foreign investors were net buy-ers in only two sessions. The selloff in equities continued due toa mix of factors including USFed rate cut, US-China tradewar and the post Budget taxhike on high income investors,"said Harsh Jain, co-founderand COO of Groww.

The Centre on Fridayannounced a slew of measuresto revive growth momentum,including rollback of enhancedsuper-rich tax on foreign and

domestic equity investorsimposed in the Budget.

Prior to the announcement ofenhanced super-rich tax in theUnion Budget for 2019-20 inJuly, FPIs were net buyers forfive consecutive months.

FPIs had infused a net Rs10,384.54 crore in June, Rs9,031.15 crore in May, Rs 16,093crore in April, Rs 45,981 crorein March and Rs 11,182 crore inFebruary into the Indian capi-tal markets. However, the posi-tion reversed in July, when FPIsturned net sellers to the tune ofRs 2,985.88 crore.

Now, with the withdrawal ofthe enhanced surcharge on

FPIs, confidence in the marketis likely to be restored, analystssaid. "One can now expectreversal of the FPI selling. Themarket is likely to look upfrom now on. However, sus-tained rally in the market willhappen only when we have vis-ibility on good earnings growthand reversal of the slowdownunderway in the economywhich requires more reforms.

"The Finance Minister hasannounced that she will comeback with more reforms soon.So, there is hope," said V KVijayakumar, chief investmentstrategist at Geojit FinancialServices.

FPIs withdraw Rs 3,014 crfrom capital markets in Aug

PNS n MUMBAI

Whether it is in employing oneof the longest English words orrecalling a character in Frenchphilosopher Voltaire's novel inorder to cheer an otherwisegloomy economic countenance,the RBI's messaging betweencontinuous rate cuts is leavingcentral bank observers scurry-ing for their dictionaries.

The Mint Road mavens, fromRBI chief Shaktikanta Das topanel member Chetan Ghate,seem to be borrowing a leaf ortwo from the lexicon of leg-endary US Federal Reserve chairAlan Greenspan, who was oncedescribed as someone practicingthe art of "constructive ambi-guity".

Closer home, Parliamentarianand erudite speaker-writer

Shashi Tharoor's usages havebeen lessons in vocabulary andone of them found its way in ref-erence to the growth forecast byMonetary Policy Committeemember Ghate. "The estimatesof economic growth have unfor-

tunately been subject to a fairdegree of floccinaucinihilipilifi-cation. Notwithstanding this,growth is likely to pick up," hesaid during the previous three-day MPC meet, as per the min-utes released on August 21.

The Oxford dictionaryd e f i n e s‘Floccinaucinihilipilification' asan "action or habit of estimatingsomething as worthless". The29-letter word, one of thelongest, is based on four Latinterms that mean "at little value"— flocci, nauci, nihili and pili.

Governor Das, a history grad-uate and unlike his immediatepredecessors Urjit Patel andRaghuram Rajan who have

reams of academic papers oneconomics and monetary poli-cy, on August 19 left the MintRoad watchers and bankersscrambling for dictionaries todecipher his remarks at a bank-ing summit in the financialcapital. Das invoked the Frenchphilosopher and novelistVoltaire in a speech on theeconomy. "I am not saying wemaintain a Panglossian counte-nance and smile away every dif-

ficulty," he remarked. The dic-tionary meaning of 'Panglossian'is "a way of life characterised byone of extreme optimism". Theexpression refers to ProfessorPangloss, a character in'Candide, ou l'Optimisme' or'Candide: Optimism' — a satirewritten by Voltaire in 1759.

Earlier this month, the MPCunanimously voted for a rate cutand with a 4:2 majority chose anunconventional 35 basis points— the first in the history of theReserve Bank, while the othertwo voted for a 25 bps reduction.The central bank has slashedrates four times in a row.

Maybe given the complexway the Street and the realeconomy have been behaving,policy wonks are trying to deci-pher more meaning into the cri-sis. Ghate is an external mem-

ber of the MPC and is a profes-sor of economics and planningat the Indian Statistical Institutein the national capital.

If we look at the central banklanguages elsewhere, especiallyin the US, there is somethingcalled the Fedspeak akaGreenspeak, which was full ofindecipherable delphic dialects.

Those were usages that AlanGreenspan, one of the longestserving US Federal Reservechairmen, popularised and wereeven derided as "a turgid dialectof English", a parallel to the'newspeak' language portrayedin George Orwell's novel '1984'.

Greenspan was known formaking wordy, vague, andambiguous statements and thestrategy was used to prevent thefinancial markets from overre-acting to his remarks.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Assets managed by goldexchange traded funds rose toRs 5,079.22 crore in the first fourmonths of the current fiscal, aperiod during which stock mar-ket dropped 3 per cent asinvestors turned to the yellowmetal amid economic head-winds. Data from Morningstarshowed that assets under man-agement (AUM) of gold ETFs(Exchange Traded Funds) havebeen rising since April thisyear. In contrast, the 30-shareSensex has fallen 1,191.79 pointsor 3 per cent during the April-July period. The BSE's bench-mark index suffered a massivedrop of nearly 5 per cent in Julycompared to the previousmonth.

"For a long time, investorshave stayed away from invest-ing in gold ETFs/funds, as goldprices, after making a higharound 2012, has retracted andremained range-bound sincethen. However, there has beena reversal in trend this year, withgold prices again moving up,"Himanshu Srivastava, SeniorResearch Analyst and ManagerResearch, MorningstarInvestment Adviser India said.

While gold as an asset classacts as a hedge against inflation,it is also a safe haven in timesof economic turmoil, he said,

adding that the global economyhas been facing headwinds inthe recent times, gold has onceagain found its safe havenappeal. In April, gold ETFsAUM stood at Rs 4,594.06 croreand rose to Rs 4,606.69 crore inMay. It further climbed to Rs4,931.16 crore and Rs 5,079.22crore in June and July, respec-tively, as per the data.

V K Sharma, Head PCG &Capital Markets Strategy, HDFCSecurities said the US-Chinatrade war, plunging bond yieldsand fears of recession haveattracted safe haven buying ingold.

Gold ETFs are passive invest-ment instruments that are basedon price movements and invest-ments in physical gold.

In this financial year, gold hasgiven spectacular returns toinvestors and has outperformedstock markets handsomely, headded.

He also noted that goldwould continue to attract buy-ers as economic uncertaintiesprevail and fearful investorsshy away from financial assets.

Regarding stock markets yetto give positive returns in thecurrent fiscal, Lakshmi Iyer,Chief Investment Officer (Debt)and Head Products at KotakMutual Fund Company, saidthere has been a global trend ofrisk aversion, which has meantless money into risk asset classlike equities and money flowinto safe haven asset class likefixed income and gold.

RBI REINVENTS GREENSPEAK

The Mint Road mavens, from RBI chiefShaktikanta Das to panel member ChetanGhate, seem to be borrowing a leaf or twofrom the lexicon of legendary US FederalReserve chair Alan Greenspan, who was oncedescribed as someone practicing the art of‘constructive ambiguity’

From ‘Panglossian countenance' to ‘floccinaucinihilipilification'

l First 4 months of FY20

Assets under gold ETFsjump to Rs 5,000 crore

PNS n NEW DELHI

Pharma major Glenmark isrecalling over 31,000 tubes ofanti-fungal Clotrimazole andBetamethasone Dipropionatecream from the US market, asper a report by the Americanhealth regulator. The compa-ny's US-based arm is recallingthe lots. According to the lat-est Enforcement Report by theUS Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA),Glenmark PharmaceuticalsInc USA is recalling 31,224tubes of Clotrimazole andBetamethasone Dipropionatecream USP, 1 per cent/0.05 percent, 15 gram tubes, manu-factured by GlenmarkPharmaceuticals Ltd at itsBaddi facility in HimachalPradesh. The ongoing volun-tary class III recall is onaccount of "TemperatureAbuse: complaints receivedof liquidy texture," it added.

The recall is a nationwidewithin the United States, theUSFDA said. Clotrimazoleand BetamethasoneDipropionate cream is used onthe skin to treat fungal infec-tions of the feet, genitals, innerthighs and buttocks, arms andlegs and other body parts.

As per USFDA, a class IIIrecall is initiated in a situation

"in which use of or exposureto a violative product is notlikely to cause adverse healthconsequences".

Lupin's arm, LupinPharmaceuticals Inc, is alsorecalling 39,216 bottles ofLisinopril andHydrochlorothiazide tabletsUSP, 10 mg/12.5 mg, 100tablet bottle manufactured atits Pithampur facility fromthe US market, the reportsaid.

According to thelatest EnforcementReport by the USFDA,GlenmarkPharmaceuticals IncUSA is recalling31,224 tubes ofClotrimazole andBetamethasoneDipropionate creamUSP

PNS n NEW DELHI

Investors and lenders of powerequipment maker CG Power& Industrial Solutions Ltdwant tycoon Gautam Thaparto be removed as chairman ofthe company after an investi-gation unearthed a multi-crore financial scam in thefirm, sources privy to thedevelopment said.

The company had in a reg-ulatory filing on August 20stated that an investigationinstituted by its board hadfound major governance andfinancial lapses includingsome assets being provided ascollateral and the money fromthe loans siphoned off by"identified company person-nel, both current and past,including certain non-execu-tive directors." Also, some lia-bilities and advances to relat-ed and unrelated parties hadbeen understated.

While the board had onMay 10 sent CEO andManaging Director K NNeelkant on leave pending aninvestigation into some "sus-pect, unauthorised and undis-closed" transaction, Thaparhas continued as the compa-ny Chairman.

The sources said some

investors, at whose behest theprobe was launched, now wantThapar and Neelkant to beremoved from their posts toenable a thorough cleanup ofthe company affairs.

An email sent to Thaparseeking his comments on thescam and move by investorsremained unanswered.

While the regulatory filinghad not named anyoneinvolved in the scam, thesources said the investigationhad found strong links to thepresent management.

Though the company with8,000-plus employees andmanufacturing units at 21locations worldwide has anexcellent track record and astrong order book, the allegedirregularities had led to itbecoming over-leveraged,investors and lenders felt.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Digital investment platformPaytm Money expects its mar-ket share in direct mutualfund subscriptions to go up to50 per cent in six monthswith a 'Switch' option that itplans to start in a fortnight, atop company official said.

Currently, its market sharestands at around 40 per cent oftotal such subscriptions.

The company is planning tostart 'Paytm Switch' option formutual funds (MFs) in 10-15days that will enable customers

to switch from regular MF todirect MF, from banks, stockbrokers, distributors and assetmanagement companies toPaytm Money.

"Currently, we have 40 percent of total direct mutualfund subscribed from our plat-form. With Paytm Switch, we

expect it to go to 50 per centin next 5-6 months," PravinJadhav, whole-time directorat Paytm Money, said. He saidregular MF, in which com-mission is charged by the sell-er, accounts for 85 per cent oftotal market share and directMF is around 15 per cent.

"We expect direct MF sharein the market to increase to 25per cent in 2 years. In the directMF segment, Paytm Moneycontribution will reach around50 per cent in 5-6 months from40 per cent at present," Jadhavsaid.

Insolvency proceedings begin against Today Homes PNS n NEW DELHI

The NCLT has initiated insol-vency proceedings againstNCR-based real estate firmToday Homes Noida Ltd on apetition filed by a group ofhomebuyers.

A two-member NCLTbench, headed by PresidentJustice M M Kumar, hasappointed an interim resolu-tion professional (IRP) to takeover the management of thecompany.

There are many companiesin Delhi-NCR which are facinginsolvency proceedings,including Jaypee Infratech,because of default to homebuyers and bankers.

The tribunal rejected thesubmission of the real estatefirm that it has got four-yearextension from UP Real EstateRegulation Authority (RERA)to complete the project, sayingthat Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC) over-rides provisions under the

realty law.Today Homes Noida Ltd

had contended that UP-RERAhas extended its timeline tillJune, 2021 to complete theRidge Residency housing pro-ject in sector 135, Noida.

Observing that there is"overwhelming evidence to

prove default" against the com-pany, the tribunal directed theerstwhile promoters, directorsand employees of TodayHomes Noida to "provide everyassistance and cooperation" toIRP in managing the affairs ofthe company.

The National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) also grantedit protection from the lendersby prohibiting them to recov-er the amount for a certainperiod.

The tribunal order cameover a batch of petitions filedby home buyers of the realestate firms, who are now afinancial creditor of the com-pany following amendments inthe IBC.

The tribunalrejected thesubmission of thereal estate firmthat it has got four-year extensionfrom UP RERA tocomplete theproject

Direct MF: Paytm Money expects50% increase market share

Investors, lenders don’twant tycoon GautamThapar as CG Power chief

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019 money 10

Glenmark recallsproducts from US

On an otherwise dull and cloudy Sunday morning, 25kpeople took to the streets to take part in the Airtel

marathon. The runners had an exhilarating time as they hadscores of citizens and musicians to goad them on

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@TheDailyPioneer

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dailypioneer

MondayAugust 26, 2019

arathons havebecome an integralpart of weekends formany in the city.And this Sundaywas no less as people

came out in large numbers tocheer over 25,000 runners par-ticipating in the 9th edition ofthe Airtel Hyderabad Marathon.

Over 12 music bands kept therunners in high spirits whilesports enthusiasts and citizens

lined the entire route.Athletes received their prizes

at GMC Balayogi Stadium,Gachibowli from Mr AbhijeetMadnurkar, race director, MrAvneet Singh Puri, CEO, BhartiAirtel Andhra Pradesh &Telangana and Mr MuraliNannapaneni, President,Hyderabad Runners Society.

A total of 1,235 runners par-ticipated in the Full Marathonwhich was flagged off by Shri

Anjani Kumar, IPS,Commissioner of Police,Hyderabad and 4,516 runnerstook part in the Half Marathonflagged off by Shri M DanaKishore, IAS, GHMCCommissioner at People’s Plaza.The 10K run saw 8,292 runnersand was flagged off in the pres-ence of dignitaries from the gov-ernment, corporate houses andthe organising team fromHyderabad Runners Society.

9TH EDITION OF AIRTELMARATHON TEEMS

WITH 25K RUNNERS

r 9,181 RUNNERS REGISTERED IN 5K FUN RUN r 8,292 TOOK PART IN 10K RUNr 4,516 PEOPLE TOOK PART IN HALF MARATHON AND 1,235 IN

FULL MARATHONr MORE THAN 1,200 RUNNERS PARTICIPATED FOR CHARITIESr OVER RS 30 LAKH RAISED BY 150 PARTICIPANTS RUNNING FOR

50 CHARITY ORGANISATIONS AND NGOSr 250 PARAMEDICS | 21 MEDICAL STATIONS | 5 FULLY-EQUIPPED

AMBULANCES WERE DEPLOYED AT THE SITE FROM CAREHOSPITALS

M

aapsee Pannu, who isnow one of the mostcritically acclaimedBollywood actresses,was once shunned awayfrom South industry as

she was considered to be “bad luck”.Currently basking in the success of

Mission Mangal, Taapsee did not havea smooth journey initially. The actressshared a few incidents from the pastthat had almost ended her career in

the industry.“The producers were not cast-

ing me because they thought myfive scenes and two songs in the

film made a hell lot of differ-ence to the film’s resultbecause I’m sheer bad luck.That was really hurtful andscary because it ques-tioned my credibility andexistence at a point. Butthank God, that partdidn’t take over me and

I survived,” Hindusan

Times quoted her as saying. Taapseefurther said that she was extremelydiscouraged by people, who had rig-orously cautioned her about castingcouch and other negative aspects ofthe industry. However, she remainedfocussed, and achieved heights with-out compromising on her morals.

“When you’re not from a film back-ground, and work to carve a niche,people try and paint a different imageabout the film industry. I was told,‘Everyone will pounce upon you ortake advantage of you’. And if youenter the industry, you’d have to bendbackwards or do things against yourmorals. It was a scary image for a girlwho was sitting in Delhi having a mid-dle-class life. Thankfully, the imagedidn’t turn out to be true and I didn’tcompromise on my ethics, or bendrules to fit in,” she added.

The actress further asserted thatevery industry has positive and neg-ative sides, but she is blessed to havesome people from the industry who

are still her support system.“Everything has a good and a bad

side (to it), but I only saw the bad sidebeing portrayed very gloriously, every-where. When I entered the film indus-try, there were experiences that weren’tgreat but I had some people who weregenuine, and they’re still with me onmy journey,” the actress said.

After the success of multi-starrerMission Mangal, Taapsee will next beseen in films like Saand Ki Aankh andTadka.

‘Producers were notcasting me because

I am sheer bad luck'T

‘I WAS EXTREMELYDISCOURAGED BYPEOPLE, WHO HADRIGOROUSLY CAUTIONEDME ABOUT CASTINGCOUCH AND OTHERNEGATIVE ASPECTS’

t seems like the two-star kids,Mahesh Babu’s daughter Sitaraand Vamshi Paidipally’s daugh-ter Aadya are making theirmark on social media by start-ing their YouTube channel

Aadya&Sitara (A & S). The little duo post-ed their debuted video ‘3 MarkerChallenge’ in which they showcased play-

ing games and doing some activities. Withjust two videos on air, their YouTube chan-nel has already crossed 25,000 subscrip-tions with their debut video crossing threelakh views until today.

Actor Mahesh Babu, wishing their suc-cess, tweeted, “Some fun time for these lit-tle girls!!! Enjoy ur YouTube stint Wishingyou two all the very BEST (sic).”

ISitara's YouTube entryTa

apse

e Pan

nu

12

Hyderabad Monday August 26, 2019

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

FUN TIME

MUSICAL NIGHT

It was a great evening for

socialites and music lovers who

attended the Monster Ultra

White Nights by DJ Ankit Kocher

at Farzi cafe over the weekend. Set

with the theme ‘glow in the dark

mode', young music aficionados

enjoyed the evening with delicious

food, booze along with a unique

musical extravaganza.

lNa

mith

a Pr

asad

lSn

eha

l Shivika

l Kulsum

l Nishetha

l Lithika

l Priyal DJ Ankytrixx

MAJESTICFURNITURESocialites attended in

large numbers for afurniture shop

launch in the city. Visitorsenjoyed watching the

latest material on display.

CITY GUIDE

LIKE THE AIR I BREATHElArtist Bakula Nayak exhibits her paintingsinspired by the beautiful epic love poemRitusamharam and vintage ephemeras.Ongoing, until September 2, 6.30 pm, KalakritiArt Gallery, Banjara Hills.

DRAMA

SUNDEEP SHARMA LIVE

RUCKUS NIGHT 3.0l3-hour non-stop comedy trip where we assureyou all would be tripping because of laughter.Stand-up comedy in India is moving out of itsinfancy and garnering major attention among theworking professionals. Sightsavers' wishes tohost a charity event "Ruckus Night 3.0" of whichthe entire funds raised shall be used in setting upvision centers across the nation equipped withquality eye care equipment made freely accessibleto everyone who needs it.September 7, 6 pm, Shilpakala Vedika

COMEDY

CHALAM’S ‘MAIDANAM’l Maidanam, oneof the mostfamous and mostcontroversial ofChalam's novels,dramatises hisideas on marriage,freedom and themoral issuesinvolved in them.Rajeswari, is a young, frustrated housewife. It allstarts with her thorough disillusionment with hertradition-bound, unfeeling, emotionally sterilelawyer-husband who is given to treating her as apiece of property, as one who fulfills his sexualand social needs.September 7 onwards, Phoenix Arena

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your events listed,please send your details along with a poster andcontact number to pioneer.features@gmail.com

PARKl A comedy play about three men in a parkfighting for their place; there are three benchesbut not enough. The play touches upon that thingwhich is at a premium these days - space -literally and metaphorically. What starts of aslight-hearted banter evolves into a serious conflictabout space, territory, and ownership. Thesebecome the main issues. August 31, TSIIC Park

lSundeep Sharma is the"Brahman bro" of comedy.This Bareilly guy has a typicalNorth Indian accent andperforms jokes with a desiflair. He is a storyteller andincorporates social, politicaland general issues in hiscomedy. His mimicry offamous national andinternational personalities only adds to hishilariousness.August 31 onwards, Oakwood Residence Kapil

l Mannara Chopra

what’s brewing?PARTY

lose on the heels ofgreen-lighting ShivaKandukuri’s next with debutante VaidehiChandrasekhar, Hippi girl DiganganaSuryavanshi has signed another film. This

time it’s alongside a debutant Laksh and the film, a sus-pense thriller, will mark the directorial debut of RameshKadumula. Production house Sri Tirumala TirupatiVenkateswara Films, which released films like

Bichagadu and Tik Tik Tik in Telugu in the past,is bankrolling the film, which had its

muhurat over the weekend.A Shekar Chandra musical, the

untitled film features a bevy ofnoted faces like Ravi Prakash, RaviVarma, Noel Sean and ChitramSrinu in supporting roles.

Meanwhile, the shooting ofDigangana’s film with Shiva

will commence in US inOctober first week, with

a month schedule fol-lowed by an Indianouting of 10 days.

DiganganaON A

ROLLThe actress

will staralongside

debutantLaksh

in asuspense

thriller

Office-bearers ofTelangana film chamber

Ramakrishna Goud, AM Ratnam, Gururaj, RRavindra Gupta and Ali Bhai were on Sunday elect-ed President, Chief Advisor, Vice-president andSecretaries respectively for Telangana FilmChamber of Commerce (TSFCC). Speaking

later, Goud said, he would strive hard to come up withlands for the construction of new building for the bodyand a cultural centre. He also noted that he would seethat the workers of 24 crafts of filmmaking would getwork on a regular basis. He said he would be meet-ing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in this regard.

VETERANS boost an anthology

DRAMA

Although names like Kamal Haasan, Venkatesh andSharwanand were rallied around for his next

Kuchipudi Vari Veedhi, nothing concrete hasemerged until now, writes NAGARAJ GOUD

ne colossal flop can derail areputed director’s career andthat is exactly what happenedto Sreekanth Addala afterBrahmotsavam. It’s been overfour years since his last film

released and he is still waiting to get a nod froman A-lister to get going with his next project.

Although names like Kamal Haasan,Venkatesh and Sharwanand were ralliedaround for his next, nothing concrete hasemerged until now. The Pioneer has learntthat Addala has managed to get a nodfrom Ram, who is currently basking in the

success of iSmart Shankar, with the story-line of Kuchipudi Vari Veedhi.

A source close to the development shares, “Addala has met Ram’suncle Sravanthi Ravi Kishore and pitched the story of KuchipudiVari Veedhi. The veteran who liked the script had suggested somechanges and Addala agreed to them. Later, Ram heard the narra-tion and said he is interested. As things stand now, Ravi Kishore islikely to produce the film under Sravanthi Movies.”

The source further adds that after the success of iSmart Shankar,Ram was looking at a mass entertainer to consolidate on his marketfurther but we hear nothing caught his fancy. “He had to overlookThadam remake and a script from Rahul Sankrityan, director ofTaxiwala to continue with the winning streak. He believes Addala mightnot be a commercial entertainer, but has elements to attract a large

section of the audience, which is why he has was keen on doing it,”the source concludes.

Hyderabad Monday August 26, 2019

13

tollywood

lready an owner ofthree high-endSUVs, actor AlluArjun has addedanother beast to his

car collection. And he aptlytitled it as ‘Beast’. The actor,who shared an image of thevehicle on his Twitter handle,wrote, “New Car in theHouse. I named him BEAST.Everytime I buy something...

there is only one thing on mymind . Gratitude. #rangerover#aabeast (sic).”

For those who are late, thisis the brand new model ofRange Rover that Bunny, whohas two films in the pipelinebesides the on-sets one AlaVaikunthapuramlo withTrivikram, has acquired for anapprox of Rs 2.3 crore.

The actor has recently

made headlines for his pur-chase of new vanity van worthalmost Rs 3.5 crore. A techno-logical marvel, it was trans-formed in a way that it lookslike a home on the inside,matching with the tastes ofthe actor. According tosources, the renovation by aMumbai automotive designerhad costed him another Rs 3.5 crore.

BUNNY's new BEAST

Ao

iven their reputation and experience, getting thenod of a happening actress alongside AkhilAkkineni for their next with BommarilluBhasker, has turned out to be an arduous taskfor leading production house Geetha Arts. The

as-yet-untitled film, a romantic comedy, has gone to setssometime back without a heroine and it seems the mak-ers have finally convinced someone to be the film’s lead-ing face. Although names like Kiara Advani, Priyanka Aruland Rashmika Mandanna were considered, with whom thestory was even narrated, they couldn’t be a part of the filmover conflicting schedules. And if the word in the corri-dors of Tollywood is anything to go by, then producerBunny Vaas has got the nod of Pooja Hedge and it seemshe had to agree to pay a bomb for her participation. “Thefemale lead part has equal importance to that of the malelead and Bhasker was on the lookout for a performer whois an A-lister as well. The sentiment was echoed by the pro-ducers and Akhil. And so, the casting rigmarole went onand on,” notes a source. We tried reaching out to Vaas fora confirmation on the development but he didn’t get backto us till the time of going to press. — NG

POOJA HEGDE tostar opposite Akhil?g

p

sther Anil who was seen asVenkatesh’s daughter inDrishyam and NainaGanguly of Vangaveetifame are headlining new

director Teja Marni’s Johar, ananthology drama produced bySandeep Marni under DharmaSurya Pictures banner. The likes ofacclaimed faces SubhalekhaSudhakar, Easwari Rao andRohini are playing other keyroles in the film, which hascompleted its shooting for-malities. “The entire storywill revolve around five liveswith four stories and areaffected by one strong deci-sion or a superior lie,” theteam said about the film’score. Shot in Rajahmundry,Kakinada, Visakhapatnamand Varanasi, the film isbeing edited by Siddharth,who directed the dampsquib Bhairava Geethalast year, while noted faceChaitanya Prasad pennedthe dialogues.

e

c

ADDALA's dry runends as RAMokays script

Actress Emma Stone will be bringing the storyof one of Disney's greatest villains, Cruella deVil, on the big screen with Cruella, and she

says it comes with a fresh approach and is very“punk rock”. Disney on Saturday shared a first lookof the actress as the iconic villain at the D23 Expohere. Stone could not attend the event, but sharedinformation about the project through a videomessage, in which a dalmatian also made anappearance. “Since you're such huge Disney fans,we wanted to let you know a bit about the story,”Stone said, adding, “1970's set in London, it'spunk rock”. In the first look of the live-actionproject, Stone as Cruella is seen with shortpermed hair with de Vil's signature blackand white colour-blocked hairstyle. She iswearing a black leather checkered jacket,and is holding onto three leashes attachedto three dalmatians. Her henchmen Jasperand Horace (essayed by Joel Fry and PaulWalter Hauser) are in the background. Anon-Dalmatian puppy can also be spottedin the back. The film also stars EmmaThompson.Cruella first appeared in 1961's animatedfeature 101 Dalmatians, in which shekidnaps dalmatian puppies with an aim touse their fur to make coats. The characterwas voiced by Betty Lou Gerson in theanimated version. Glenn Close played thevillain in a 1996 live-action reboot and its2000 sequel, 102 Dalmatians.Disney's Cruella will delve intothe backstory Cruella, and tryto find an answer to thequestion — “How didshe get this way?”Directed by CraigGillespie, Cruellais slated torelease in2021.

EMMA STONEGOES ‘PUNK

ROCK' FORCRUELLA

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has announced that actor Kit Harington has boarded

the star-studded cast of The Eternals movie. Harington is the second star from HBO's

epic fantasy show, Game of Thrones, who is set to make his Marvel Cinematic

Universe (MCU) debut after fellow-actor Richard Madden joined the film's team earlier this

year. Madden is leading the cast which also boast the names of Hollywood stars like Angelina

Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Don Lee,

and Barry Keoghan. “We have assembled a giant cast for you.... We pull back the cosmic

curtains on MCU in ways that you can't imagine,” Feige said at the D23 Expo here. Created

by Jack Kirby in 1976, the story of The Eternals is set millions of years ago when the

cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans to create super-

powered individuals known as the Eternals along with the villainous Deviants.

About Harington's character, Feige said he is playing “non-Eternal” Dane Whitman, who goes

by the name of Black Knight in the comics. Though Harington was not present at the event,

the rest of the cast joined Feige on the stage, standing in front of concept art sketches of their

respective characters. Madden has been confirmed to portray the film's lead, the all-powerful

Ikaris, while Jolie will essay the role of fierce warrior Thena. Hayek will be playing the wise

and spiritual leader Ajak. Ridloff makes her debut as the first deaf hero in the MCU. She

will portray the super-fast Makkari. Nanjiani will star as cosmic-powered Kingo.

Henry has been cast as intelligent inventor Phastos; McHugh as the eternally young,

old-soul Sprite; Keoghan as aloof loner Druig; and Lee as the powerful Gilgamesh.

Feige also confirmed that Captain Marvel star Gemma Chan is set to start her

second innings in the MCU with The Eternals. The actor will portray the role of

humankind-loving Sersi.

Critically-acclaimed filmmaker Chloe Zhao is attached to direct the movie

from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo. The Eternals is scheduled to

release on November 6, 2020.

KIT HARINGTON BOARDS ‘THE

ETERNALS', GEMMA CHAN

ALSO JOINS FILM

EVELYN SHARMA IN AWE OF BAHUBALI STAR

MUMBAI: Actress Evelyn Sharma said she is a huge fanof Bahubali and that she got too excited when she was

offered a role in Prabhas-starrer Saaho.“Being a huge fan of Bahubali', you can imaginehow excited I was to work with Prabhas. When I

got the call from Sujeeth asking me to join Saahoto play the role of Jennifer, there was only one

answer: yes,” Evelyn wrote on Instagram. Alongwith it, she posted a photograph in which she

can be seen sharing smiles with Prabhas.Saaho, a Sujeeth directorial, is scheduled torelease in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil on August

30. It also features Shraddha Kapoor and NeilNitin Mukesh.

Hyderabad Monday August 26, 2019

14

celeb talks

Bollywood heartthrobAlia Bhatt is currentlyrocking the internetand the musicchannels with her

scorching appearance in themusic video of the single titledPrada. The peppy number issung by The Doorbeen, ofLamberghini fame, withnewcomer Shreya Sharma.Alia's presence has donewonders for the song aswell as its singers. Itpitches the two-memberband, The Doorbeen, aswell as their co-singerShreya, to a leaguewhere their names willnow draw automaticrecall. If their earlierhit Lamberghinimade The Doorbeena household nameamong music buffs,

Alia's presence in theirnew music video underlines the fact that theindustry is now taking them seriously.This year's National Award-winning actorVicky Kaushal has also taken the “non-filmy”path. In singer Arijit Singh's new single,Pachtaoge, Vicky plays a passionate man,who is madly in love. Nora Fatehi of Dilbar

fame also features in the over four-minutevideo that is more like a movie oozing loveand betrayal.When busy new-age stars as Alia and Vickytake out time to foray the non-film musicvideo territory, it signals a trend. It has beenhappening for a while now, with a few otherGenNow stars going the music video way.Hrithik Roshan and Sonam Kapoor did it awhile back for Yo Yo Honey Singh's Dheeredheere se meri zindagi mein aana. TigerShroff has done it more than once. He wasseen with Disha Patani in the Befikravideo, filmed on the song sung by MeetBros, Aditi Singh Sharma and Natalie DiLuccio. Tiger also filmed Arijit Singh's non-film hit Chal wahaan jaate hain with KritiSanon. Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani did apeppy dance number to Yo Yo Honey Singh'snon-film recreation of Urvashi. TaapseePannu and Saqib Saleem featured in Tum hotoh, Amaal Mallik's song featuring Shaan.There are more instances.Why do stars of the big screen get into theworld of music videos, which gives themfootage of a mere few minutes? The reasonscould be varied for different stars. For Hrithik,a hit video during a phase of hiatus betweenreleases let the actor stay in the limelight.Tiger Shroff's videos mostly happened in hisearly years — they were a good supplementto his early releases, to endear him to alarger fan base. Shahid Kapoor's video with

Kiara Advani strategically came before therelease of their film, Kabir Singh, ideally towhet fan curiosity about the actor's first-timepairing with the budding actress.But mostly it is about catching instant publicattention, as Nora Fatehi of Pachtaoge, whohas carved a niche as a dancer lately, wouldtell you.“This year the audience gets to slowly seemy acting abilities with projects such asBatla House and the forthcoming StreetDancer 3D! I've been waiting for suchopportunities to come my way as I've alwayswanted to be an actress. With a project likePachtaoge, I got to purely showcase myacting skills to another level,” said Nora.The new generation of stars getting intomusic videos, however, are merely following the footsteps of older actors.Before bursting onto the Bollywood scene,John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor and BipashaBasu showed their acting skills in pop musicvideos. This was in the nineties. AmitabhBachchan was at the peak of popularity when he appeared in Adnan Sami's musicvideo Kabhi nahi in 2002. Sami was atrendsetter of sorts in the early 2000s,casting stars like Govinda and Rani Mukerjiin his song videos.If top stars are at it, lesser celebrities willnaturally do it, too. Earlier this month, theOye Lucky! Lucky Oye! actress NeetuChandra added oomph to the music video of

singer Payal Dev's Ishqa.Asked what made her take up a non-filmsong, she told IANS, “In today's time whendigital platforms are grabbing so muchlimelight, I don't think it matters if you do anon-film song or a film song. Good contentsells on whichever platform you may show it.Payal Dev's voice is wonderful — it's classy,husky and has a folk-peppy feel which hasmade the song sound so amazing. Combineit with Mudassar's choreography and RajAshu's beats and we definitely have awinner.”Of course, filming a song on a star naturallymeans there is a chance that the singer —the real artiste of the creation — will getsidelined. Ever since Prada released, forinstance, most of the talk about the song hasbeen around Alia's presence.The song's budding singer Shreya Sharma,asked if this made her feel a little left out,points at the fact that star power isimportant, adding that Alia's lip-synching toher voice is more than enough.Lamberghini was a huge success and itmade sense to stick with the same theme.Also, the song is doing really well and AliaBhatt has performed on my vocals. I don'tthink I could have asked for anything more,Shreya told IANS.While some singers might be open to havinga Bollywood face fronting their song's video,there are others who wish to be the voice as

well as the face of their project.“It's good to see the importance being givento non-film songs. It would have been betterhad those non-film songs' videos featuredsingers instead of actors. There are songs infilms for actors, so they get to showcasetheir skills there. Non-film songs, on theother hand, give facial recognition tocomposers like us,” popular composerTanishk Bagchi said.“If you look at previous songs like SilkRoute's Dooba dooba or Lucky Ali's Osanam, the singers had featured in thevideos, too. Those songs were big hits. Ihope that phase returns,” added Tanishk,who along with actress-singer Zara Khanrecently released a single, Khud se zyada,featuring them.Yes, there are films for actors but Neetuthinks it is a fantastic opportunity for them tobe able to feature in music videos. “They take their own path nowadays and areloved by audiences. There are so many non-filmy songs which are huge hits, havecrossed millions of views, and have changedan actor's life,” she said.“Music and dance are essential in ourcountry and along with films, it gives usactors a chance to do different things. Ithelps us grow in different ways, exploreourselves as dancers and emote onsomeone's singing,” added Neetu.

— IANS

SOUND OF MUSIC, VISION OF STARSSONG THERAPY

BREAKING BAD MOVIETO DEBUT ON

NETFLIX IN OCTOBER

Long the subject of rumor, but confirmed to exist just this

week, The New York Times reports that the Breaking Bad

movie, officially titled El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, will

debut on Netflix in October. The title comes from the vehicle Jesse

used to escape in in the final minutes of the series finale.

An official announcement from the streaming service is expected

to arrive today, but NYT reports the film will be released on

October 11. Written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan,

the film is described as follows, “In the wake of his dramatic

escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in

order to forge some kind of future.” Emmy winner Aaron Paul will

reprise his role for the film, calling it “a chapter of Breaking Bad”

that he didn't realise he wanted. “And now that I have it, I'm so

happy that it's there,” he added. Paul revealed that the idea first

came to him from Gilligan about two years ago as they were

talking about the tenth anniversary of the series' premiere. “At the

very end of the conversation he mentioned that he had an idea of

where to take it from here, and he wanted to hear my thoughts

on it. I quickly told Vince that I would follow him into a fire.” It's

unclear what other characters from the Breaking Bad universe

will appear in the series, though one photo included in the NYT

write up on the story features recurring character Skinny Pete,

now with a full head of hair.

The Emmy Award-winning series aired on AMC before seasons

were later made available on Netflix. Vince Gilligan credited the

streamer for its contribution to the show's success in his 2013

Emmy acceptance speech, saying that he thinks Netflix helped

keep the show on the air. AMC's Breaking Bad ended its

critically acclaimed five-season run with a finale that brought in a

series record 10.3 million viewers. It was followed by the

prequel series Better Call Saul, focused on Bob Odenkirk's

small-time lawyer Jimmy

McGill, which just got

renewed for afifth season.

sport 15HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019

IND BLUE CONCEDE LEAD TO INDIA RED Bengaluru: Maharashtra batsman Ankit Bawne madean unbeaten 121 but could not prevent India Blue fromconceding a 30-run lead to India Red on the third day ofthe Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday. After bowlingout India Blue for 255 in 83.2 overs, India Red (285 in1st innings) extended the advantage by moving to 93 for2 at stumps, a lead of 123 runs. At stumps, Nair wasbatting on 43 (55 balls, 7 fours) while Kalsi was on 21(34 balls, 3X4), looking to be a lot more positive than inhis first-innings ton. India Red hit back after a wicketlessfirst session with right-arm paceman Avesh Khan (4 for58) and left-arm medium-pacer Jaydev Unadkat (3 for52) and Vidarbha spinner Akshay Wakhare (3 for 32)helping the team pull things back.

WAQAR APPLIES FOR BOWLING COACH JOBKarachi: Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis hasapplied for the bowling coach role with the national teamas he is not mentally prepared to take charge as headcoach for the third time. Waqar, 47, who has twiceworked as head coach of the Pakistan team in 2010 andin 2014-2016, applied for the bowling coach positionwith the PCB's application deadline ending on Sunday. "Ihave applied for the position of bowling coach because Ithink I can contribute a lot in this area. Frankly speaking,I am not averse to being the head coach but this time, tobe honest, I am not mentally prepared for it," Waqar saidfrom Australia. "Would prefer to work in the bowingdepartment if the board shows faith in me," he said.

HURKACZ BEAT PAIRE, WIN 1ST ATP TITLELos Angeles: Poland's Hubert Hurkacz upset top seedBenoit Paire in three sets at the Winston-Salem ATPtournament to clinch his first career title. The towering22-year-old became the first Polish player to win a toursingles event since Wojtek Fibak lifted the WCT Chicagocrown in 1982, winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Hurkacz recordedfive service breaks en route to victory in 2hr 9min againstthe 30-year-old Frenchman. Hurkacz is the 14th player tobecome a first-time tournament winner on the ATP Tourin 2019. Saturday's win completed an impressive weekfor Hurkacz, who knocked off 16th seed Feliciano Lopez,10th seed Frances Tiafoe and second seed DenisShapovalov en route to his maiden title.

WERNER EXTENDS LEIPZIG CONTRACT Munich: Bayern Munich transfer target Timo Wernerhas signed a four-year contract extension at RB Leipzig,the Bundesliga club confirmed on Sunday. Theannouncement, which was made just before Leipzig'sfirst home game of the season against EintrachtFrankfurt, ends speculation that Bayern would signWerner on a free transfer in 2020. "I am happy to haveextended my contract. It was a long process, but Iwanted to be completely sure that I could make the nextsteps in my development at this club," said Werner. The23-year-old striker had previously held firm against allnew contract offers, and openly hinted at his interest in amove to Munich last season.

DABANG DELHI BEAT UP YODDHA New Delhi: Naveen Kumar was once again the star forhome side Dabang Delhi as they beat UP Yoddha 36-27in a Pro Kabaddi League match here on Sunday. The 19-year-old raider picked up a Super 10 (16 points) for theseventh consecutive time this season as Dabang securedan important victory to keep their record of 100 per centwin at home intact and push them to the top of theSeason 7 points table. Meraj Sheykh got a place in thestarting seven for Dabang Delhi after his influentialcameo in their win against Bengaluru Bulls in theprevious outing while there was no Rishank Devadiga inthe seven for UP Yoddha who went in with Monu Goyatas their chief raider. Elsewhere, Rohit Kumar'simpressive show helped defending championsBengaluru Bulls beat league toppers Jaipur PinkPanthers 41-30.

INDIA FINISHES WITH 12 MEDALS Basel: India's Pramod Bhagat made a strong comebackto defeat England's Daniel Bethell and clinch his third titlein the men's singles SL3 category at the BWF ParaBadminton World Championships on Sunday. It wasworld No 1 Bhagat's second Gold in this WorldChampionships having won his men's doubles SL3-4title on the penultimate day of the competitions.Interestingly in that match, he and his partner ManojSarkar came from a game down to defeat compatriotsNitesh Kumar and Tarun Dhillon 14-21, 21-15, 21-16 inthe final. Overall, India finished with 12 medals, includingthree Gold. Though the total number of medals is sameas in 2015 Worlds, but back then India had four Gold,making it the best ever show.

AGENCIES

SINGLES

AFP n COLOMBO

Contrasting half-centuriesfrom BJ Watling and Colin

de Grandhomme helped NewZealand lead by 138 runs intheir first innings against SriLanka on day four of the rain-hit second Test on Sunday.

Only 48 of the scheduled98 overs were possible as NewZealand reached 382 for five atstumps. The tourists resumedthe day on 196-4. The first ses-sion was washed out by rainand a wet outfield at Colombo’sP Sara Oval.

De Grandhomme scored83 in an unbeaten 113-runstand for the sixth wicket withWatling, who finished the dayon 81.

Watling also played thesupporting role in an earlier

partnership of 143 with TomLatham, who hit 154.

Off-spinner DilruwanPerera broke the marathonstand after trapping Latham legbefore on a delivery thatpitched and hurried on to thebatsman’s pad.

Latham, who started theday on 111, registered his fifth150-plus score in Tests. Hiscareer-best 264 not out alsocame against Sri Lanka inWellington last year.

No 7 De Grandhommeattacked hitting the homebowlers around the ground,smashing five fours and fivesixes.

Watling, who started theday on 25, played a patientknock during his 208-ball stay.

Sri Lanka were withoutcaptain and opening batsman

Dimuth Karunaratne, whostrained a muscle of his left legand will be unable to bat untilthe fall of the fifth wicket, andwicketkeeper NiroshanDickwella.

Angelo Mathews is thestand-in-captain and substituteDinesh Chandimal is keepingwicket in the absence ofDickwella, who sustained a cuton the little finger of his left-hand on day three.

The Kane Williamson-ledNew Zealand will be lookingto bat only once and then lettheir pace duo of Tim Southeeand Trent Boult have a crackat the Sri Lankan batsmen ina bid to square the series.

Play will get under way at9:45 am (0415 GMT) today,the final day of the match,weather permitting.

PTI n NORTH SOUND

Ajinkya Rahane remained on courseto score his first Test century in

two years while Hanuma Vihari hit afluent fifty as India tightened their gripover the West Indies in the series-open-er, here on Sunday.

Vihari (57) and Rahane (90) raisedan unbeaten 100-run partnership forthe fifth wicket after India lost skipperVirat Kohli, taking India to 287 for fourat lunch on the fourth day for an over-all lead 362.

Rahane, who scored 81 in the firstinnings, has not scored a Test hundredsince his 132 against Sri Lanka inAugust 2017.

For Vihari it's only his second Testfifty.

Resuming at 185 for three,India lost Kohli (51) whenhis leading edge offRoston Chase flew toJohn Campbell, whotook the catch onsecond attempt.

That endedthe fourth-wicket part-n e r s h i pb e t w e e nKohli andRahane thatyielded 106runs forIndia.

The otherovernight bats-man Rahane wasjoined byVihari, whoeasily workedthe bal laround in gaps

to keep the scoreboard ticking.Holder now made it all-spin attack

by introducing John Campbell fromthe other end.

As soon as the new ball was avail-able, pacers Kemar Roach andShannon Gabriel operated in tandembut before that West Indies part-timers had bowled 41 overs in thisinnings alone.

While Roach and Gabriel bowleda few testing deliveries, it largelyremained an untroubled stay for bothRahane and Vihari.

Opener Mayank Agarwal (16) wasthe first wicket to fall for India in thesecond innings, trapped by Chase inthe 14th over although TV replays

showed the ball wasmissing the legstump but thebatsman didn'tgo for review

ion Saturday.A f t e r

Agarwal's depar-ture, KL Rahul (38)and ChesteshwarPujara (25) added 43runs for the secondwicket to take Indiaforward.

Rahul, however,gave away his wicket,bowled by Chase. He

went acrossh i ss t u m p s

while goingfor a sweep,

only to expose allthe three stumps

and the West Indianspinner stuck as thebatsman failed to con-

nect the ball.An over later, Roach went through

Pujara's defence to reduce India to 81for three.

Before that, India bowled out WestIndies for 222 in 74.2 overs in their first

innings in reply to 297 with IshantSharma returning with best figures of5 for 43. Besides Ishant, MohammedShami (2/48) and left-arm spinnerRavindra Jadeja (2/64) scalped twowickets a piece.

AFP n HEADINGLEY (LEEDS)

Ben Stokes was the hero yet again ashis incredible unbeaten centurysaw England to a thrilling one-

wicket win in the third Ashes Test atHeadingley on Sunday.

England — all out for a woeful 67 intheir first innings — were 286-9, stillneeding 73 more runs to reach a victo-ry target of 359 when bespectacled No11 Jack Leach walked out to bat to joinStokes at the crease.

Leach, however, held firm withWorld Cup final winning batting starStokes’ astonishing 135 not out seeingEngland complete their highest success-ful fourth innings chase as they squaredthe five-match series at 1-1.

“There’s nothing like being out therein the end and getting your team over theline. I didn’t get nervous till we neededsingle figures, I didn’t know what to dothen,” admitted Stokes.

Australia, who would have retainedthe Ashes had they won, missed a clearchance to run Leach out when NathanLyon failed to gather a throw and thenpaid dearly for squandering a review.

All-rounder Stokes eventually playedfast bowler Pat Cummins for four to seala famous victory arguably even more

improbable than England’s celebrated1981 Ashes Test success at Headingleywhen they won after following-on.

This was only the fourth time a teamhad made more than 300 to win in thefourth innings of a Test at Headingley.

“It was a very special feeling. Stokesywas unbelievable. It was like nothing I’veever seen before. And the crowd wasinsane,” admitted Leach.

Australia captain Tim Paine said: “It’shard to take, losing that from that posi-tion but you tip your hat sometimes.

“Ben Stokes played an unbelievableinnings and in the end he was too goodfor us.”

As Leach looked on, all-rounderStokes went into one-day mode by dri-ving off-spinner Lyon for two straightsixes and then produced a stunningreverse against him that sailed high overdeep point.

Stokes’s extravagant scooped six offCummins reduced the target to 40.

Despite Australia captain Tim Painehaving scattered all his fielders to theboundary, Stokes pulled Josh Hazlewoodfor four to complete a remarkable 199ball-century — his second in a row afterhis 115 not out in the drawn second Testat Lord’s — featuring eight fours and fivesixes.

Stokes then hoisted the next two ballsfor six.

He rode his luck when a sliced twooff Cummins was dropped by a divingMarcus Harris at third man.

Stokes, however, commandinglypulled and drove Cummins's next twoballs for for four to leave England justnine runs shy of victory.

RUN-OUT CHANCEBut a single left Leach on strike with

two balls left in the over.The first of those sailed over Leach’s

head and the next saw Australia waste areview for a ball that pitched outside legstump.

England now needed eight — or twoboundaries — as Stokes faced Leach.

The third ball of the over saw Stokes

drive Lyon for a six that just clearedMarnus Labuschagne at long-on andEngland needed two to win.

A colossal mix-up between Stokesand Leach should have seen the No 11run out but Lyon fumbled the return.

Lyon then had an lbw appeal againstStokes turned down by umpire JoelWilson only for replays to suggest itwould have been out.

But Australia had used up all theirreviews.

England still needed two to win butLeach, who made a career best 92 asnightwatchman in a recent Test win overIreland, was on strike to Cummins.

Leach though managed a singlethat tied the scores as he got off the markafter 59 minutes at the crease.

And Stokes then cut Cummins for

a boundary to seal an astounding tri-umph.

The left-handed batsman faced 219balls in total, with 11 fours and eight sixesin a superbly paced five-and-a-half hourinninngs.

It seemed England’s chances hadevaporated when they lost three wicketsfor just 16 runs after lunch to be reelingat 261-7.

Stokes keeps Ashes aliveBen’s historic innings help hosts chase 359 with 1 wicket remaining to beat Aus in Headingley Test

AFP n LONDON

Steve Smith is set to make hisreturn to action in a tour match

against Derbyshire after the Australiastar batted against bowlers for the firsttime on Sunday since being con-cussed.

He is expected to return to actionin a three-day tour match at Derbystarting Thursday with a view to beingavailable for selection for the fourthTest at Old Trafford, Manchester, thatbegins on September 4.

“Steve Smith batted againstbowlers for the first time today(Sunday),” said an Australia teamspokesman.

“The session lasted 25 minutes.He also did some high intensity run-ning.”

The spokesman added: “He willcontinue to be assessed but is expect-ed to play in the tour match atDerby.”

Smith has made a spectacularreturn to Test cricket in what is theformer Australia captain’s first seriessince he completed a 12-month banfor his role in a ball-tampering scan-

dal in South Africa.He made 144 and 142 in

Australia’s 251-run win in the firstTest at Edgbaston and 92 at Lord’s,having retired hurt on 80 whenstruck on his unprotected neck byArcher.

Smith set for tour match return “I have no sister but if I did I’dwant her to marry Ben Stokes.”— GRAEME SWANN

“ARISE SIR BEN STOKES.”—ENGLAND’S BARMY ARMYSUPPORTERS GROUP.

“I’ve seen some remarkable cricketmoments in my life but that is the bestI've seen in over 50 years. @benstokes38saved the Ashes and gave a magicalinspirational innings. Even better than hisWorld Cup performance.”—GEOFFREY BOYCOTT

“Hi, my name is Ben, Ben Stokes!”— KEVIN PIETERSEN.

“That was special from Ben Stokes.Single handedly winning the test match.Great viewing.”—VIRENDER SEHWAG

“One of the best innings of test matchcricket you will see, well played@benstokes38. What a game, what a testmatch.#ashesaliveandkicking. Both teamsso close together. Go the Aussies for thenext test.”—DARREN LEHMANN

“The greatest ever innings by anEnglishman.”—ALASTAIR COOK

“You cannot do that Ben Stokes .....”—NASSER HUSSAIN.

“Wow, just Wow. The Ashes issomething else. England and Australiakeeping test cricket alive. The rest of theworld MUST come to the party now...”—ALVIRO PETERSEN

Rahane, Vihari take India ahead

PTI n NORTH SOUND

Not standing up to a challenge hasbecome a “common thing” for

West Indies’ top-order batsmen,lamented an “extremely disappointed”captain Jason Holder.

Holder expressed his disappoint-ment after West Indies were bowledout for 222 in reply to India's first-innings total of 297 all out in theiropening World Championship Testmatch.

"Extremely disappointed... It hasbeen a common thing for our batsmennow. We have not been able to step upas a top-order, the middle and lowerorder have done an exceptional job,"Holder said.

"We are behind the eight ballbecause we did not bat well in the firstinnings," he said during a media con-ference at the end of third day's play.

"The boys are fighting, the effortwas exceptional, we have been in thematch with the bowling effort. We kepttoiling away, it is not a surface onwhich you can bowl out a side cheap-ly. We hope to restrict India and then

chase down the total," he added. Holder spoke after Virat Kohli (51)

and Ajinkya Rahane (53) propelledIndia to a commanding position withtheir unbroken 104-run partnershipfor the fourth wicket, extending thevisitors' overall lead to 260.

He lauded his pace attack, espe-cially Kemar Roach, for his consisten-cy.

"Bowlers are doing an exception-al job. India is scoring at two and a halfruns per over, we are fighting veryhard. The body language has beenright up there. We got early wicketsand they built a partnership in the firstinnings. We just need to play smartcricket in the remaining match.

"Kemar has been brilliant. We, asa fast-bowling group, have done agood job. Kemar keeps you guessing,there is never a situation in which hegets predictable. It is a plus havingKemar in this side. He makes some-thing happen with the ball.

"Yes, Ishant got five wickets in thefirst innings, but in my opinion,Kemar has been the standout bowlerin this match," he added.

Holder ‘extremely disappointed’with Windies top-order failure

Watling, CDG put Kiwis on front

sport 16HYDERABAD | MONDAY | AUGUST 26, 2019

AFP n NEW YORK

While a host of young rivals hope to dis-rupt the dominance of the “Big

Three” in men’s tennis, Novak Djokovic,Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer remain theUS Open favorites.

The year’s final Grand Slam showdownstarts today on the Flushing Meadows hard-courts with top-ranked Djokovic, 20-timeGrand Slam champion Federer and Spanishsuperstar Nadal having combined to win thepast 11 Grand Slam titles.

Federer, 38, doesn’t see a problemwith the dominance by the sport’s elderstatesmen, who together own 54 of the past65 Slam titles.

“I don’t think it’s a problem, per se,”Federer said. “Now that Novak, Rafa and meare healthy again, Andy (Murray) also slow-ly coming back again, has made it muchharder for young guys to come through.

“They are definitely knocking on thedoor big-time now. I think that’s veryencouraging for those who want to seesomebody else win. I think also Novak’sdomination, Rafa’s domination is also notnormal for the game of tennis.

“I think there’s going to be chancesmoving forward, but it’s not surprising withthe type of tennis they’ve been playing inrecent years.”

Third-seeded Federer also throws in achance for Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka,who like Britain’s injured Murray has wonthree Slam crowns during the “Big Three”reign, but figures a familiar face will be lift-ing the US Open trophy.

“Yeah, it seems like the same guys arethe favorites again this time around,”Federer said. “It will be a surprise if anybodyelse won.”

Defending champion Djokovic, seek-ing a 17th career Grand Slam title, has wonfour of the past five Slams, denied only byNadal’s French Open win in June. The 32-year-old Serbian says he has adjusted to theextra pressure of defending over the years.

“It’s a paramount challenge to defenda Grand Slam title,” he said. “These are thetournaments you want to win the most. Thisis where you want to shine.”

Nadal, 33, has made an impressive runwith titles at Rome, the French Open andMontreal and a Wimbledon semi-final lossto Federer.

But the second-ranked isn’t too excit-

ed over Federer and Djokovic both beingin the opposite half of the draw.

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev has enjoyeda stellar US Open run-up with a win atCincinnati and runner-up efforts atWashington and Montreal.

Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiemlost to Nadal in the Roland Garros final andwill be a threat.

Germany’s sixth-ranked AlexanderZverev warns not to ignore other lowerseeds such as Japan’s seventh-seeded KeiNishikori, the 2014 US Open runner-up,and Greece’s eighth-ranked StefanosTsitsipas.

ANDERSON OUTTwo-time Grand Slam finalist Kevin

Anderson withdrew from the tournamenton Saturday due to a right knee injury.

The 33-year-old South African lost the2017 final at Flushing Meadows to RafaelNadal and finished runner-up to NovakDjokovic last year at Wimbledon.

Anderson’s place in the draw will go toItalian lucky loser Paolo Lorenzi, the USTennis Association announced.

World number 17 Anderson has notplayed since his third-round exit atWimbledon last month. Injury ruled himout of the recent hardcourt events atWashington, Montreal and Cincinnati.

AFP n NEW YORK

Serena Williams faces MariaSharapova in a blockbuster first-

round match today at the USOpen, the feature showdown onthe first day of the year’s finalGrand Slam tennis event.

Eighth-ranked Williams, wholost to Naomi Osaka in last year’sUS Open final and to SimonaHalep in last month’s Wimbledonfinal, is seeking her 24th careerGrand Slam singles title to matchMargaret Court’s all-time record.

The 37-year-old Americanowns a 19-2 record against Russia’s87th-ranked Sharapova and hasbeaten her 18 consecutive timesdating to 2005.

That lopsided rivalry, howev-er, has not prevented the matchupfrom being the talk of the tourna-ment since Thursday’s drawannouncement.

“Of course I’m going to watchit,” Osaka said. “I think everyonein New York is going to watch it.”

Williams owns a 3-1 recordover Sharapova in Grand Slammatchups, having lost their firstsuch meeting in 2004 atWimbledon, but this will mark thefirst time they have met in a USOpen.

Williams last won aGrand Slam at the 2017Australian Open,while pregnant.

F i v e - t i m eGrand Slam champi-on Sharapova, 32, failed a drug testat the 2016 Australian Open andserved a one-year ban. The 2006US Open winner last won a Slamat the 2014 French Open. She hasreached the fourth round at thepast two US Opens.

Other first-day matches inArthur Ashe Stadium send Swissthird seed Roger Federer againstIndia’s 190th-ranked Sumit Nagal,top-seeded defending championNovak Djokovic against Spain’s76th-ranked Roberto CarballesBaena and French Open champi-on Ashleigh Barty, the secondseed from Australia, against 77th-ranked Zarina Diyas ofKazakhstan.

Eighth-seeded Williams could

meet second-seeded French Openchampion Ashleigh Barty ofAustralia in the quarter-finals.

Barty, Osaka, Halep andCzech third seed KarolinaPliskova, seeking her firstSlam title, are among the

foes trying to deny Williamsyet again in a quest she insists does-n’t dominate her thoughts.

She has not played since retir-ing from the WTA Toronto finalwith back spasms, handingCanada’s Bianca Andreescu thetitle.

OSAKA VERY CONFIDENTOsaka won last year’s final after

Williams was given a game penal-ty by umpire Carlos Ramos, whoUS Open officials have decided willnot work on any match withSerena or Venus Williams at thisyear’s US Open.

This time, Osaka has had abetter run-up to the Open despitea first-round Wimbledon crashout.

“This year I went to two quar-ter-finals back to back and I feelvery confident about how I amright now.”

While it’s Osaka’s first timedefending a Slam, she had her firsttaste of defending a title this yearat Indian Wells.

Meanwhile, Halep, who hascrashed out of the US Open in thefirst round the past two years,enters with confidence after beat-ing Williams at Wimbledon.

“It cannot be worse than thelast two years, to lose in the firstround,” Halep said. “I’m reallygood. I’m feeling healthy. I’m feel-ing fresh.

“The pressure of doing some-thing special, it’s off. Now whatcomes, comes as a bonus. I’m stillworking, I’m still motivated to wintitles. I’ve started to feel more andmore that I’m capable to do that somy confidence is very high.”

Barty says “nothing has reallychanged for me” since her title atRoland Garros.

“I just come here to play anddo the best that I can,” Barty said.“I’m focused on my first round onMonday and that’s all I’m worriedabout for the moment.”

PTI n BASEL

Two-time Silver medallist P VSindhu was left speechless afterher agonising wait for the elusive

Gold finally ended with a maidenWorld Championship title here onSunday.

Sindhu became the first Indian towin World Championships Gold bythrashing familiar rival NozomiOkuhara of Japan 21-7, 21-7 in one ofthe most lop-sided finals ever.

Two years after being robbed of theGold by Okuhara in an epic 110-minutefinal that went down as one of the great-est battles in badminton history, Sindhufinally exorcised the ghost of thatheart-wrenching loss with a dominat-ing win over the same opponent.

“I am really very happy. I have wait-ed for this victory and finally I havebecome a world champion,” Sindhu toldreporters.

“I have no words toexpress, because I havebeen waiting for so long.Last time, it was Silver,before that it was Silverand finally I am a worldchampion so I am really really happy.I have been expecting this for a verylong time. So I got it finally and I wantto enjoy it, feel it.”

It was Sindhu’s fifth WorldChampionships medal — most by afemale singles player alongside formerOlympic and world champion ZhangNing of China — to go with the twosuccessive Silvers and a couple ofBronze medals.

Sindhu has also won an OlympicSilver in 2016 Rio Games, a Silver atGold Coast Commonwealth Games, anAsian Games Silver at Jakarta and theBWF World Tour Finals last year.

Sindhu credited her coaches for theperformance and dedicated the win toher mother P Vijaya.

“A lot of credit to my coaches, GopiSir and Kim (Ji Hyun) and also to myparents, my support staff and sponsorswho believed in me,” she said.

“I dedicate this win to my mom, itsher birthday today. I thought I will gifther something and finally I gift her thisGold medal. It is because of my parentsthat I am here today.”

As the Indian national anthemreverberated across the St Jakobshallestadium here, Sindhu stood at the podi-um with moist eyes.

“It was really special when the flagwent up and national anthem was play-ing and I had goosebumps, I have nowords to express because you play foryour country and it is definitely a proudmoment for me,” she said.

The Olympic Silver medallist said

she approached the finals like any othermatch and it took the pressure off heras she could produce her best.

“I think I just focused on mymatch and didn’t think it was a final. Ijust thought it was just another matchlike I played the semifinals and quar-terfinals. I just went in that way andgave my 100 percent.

“Winning and losing is secondarybut for me just going to the court andgiving my 100 percent is very impor-tant.”

Talking about the final, Sindhusaid, “Usually the Japanese girls play alot of rallies, so there were long ralliesand then I was dominating all of themand from the starting I maintained the

lead and finished it off.“I was very confident even though

I was giving one or two points, then Iwas getting those points back and final-ly I did it.”

Crestfallen after the devastatingloss, Okuhara, the 2017 champion, saidshe just couldn’t match up to the paceof Sindhu.

“Sindhu played very speedy returnsand I couldn’t move fast enough. Icouldn’t defend. It can happen insports, this time it didn’t work out,” saidthe World No 4 Japanese.

“I have lost matches in other com-petitions so I know I will have toimprove my physical and mental fitnessto be prepared for next time.”

AFP n LONDON

Sergio Aguero bagged a braceand David Silva marked his

400th appearance forManchester City by playing arole in all three goals as thechampions won 3-1 atBournemouth on Sunday.

First half efforts fromAguero and RaheemSterling ensured PepGuardiola’s side led at theinterval despite a stun-ning free-kick reply fromBournemouth’s HarryWilson.

Argentina strikerAguero wrapped upCity’s second PremierLeague victory of the seasonwith his second goal of thegame after half-time.

It was Silva, though, whowas the architect of the win andhaving already announced thiswill be his last season at theEtihad Stadium, this displayonly underlined how much hewill be missed.

The Spanish midfielderremains an integral part ofGuardiola’s team, with his con-tribution to City’s goalsdemonstrating exactly why heis so valued by his manager.

For the 15th minute open-ing goal, it was Silva who oper-ated as the fulcrum towards the

start of the move with the mid-fielder finding OleksandrZinchenko on the left, allowingthe left-back to drill in the lowcross that eventually led toAguero’s finish.

Silva’s contribution to thesecond was even more eye-catching, with his superblyweighted ball picking out

Sterling’s darting runinto the box before theEngland attacker struckpast keeper AaronRamsdale.

Then a positivesurge into theBournemouth areacaused confusionamong the home back-

line before Aguero pounced forthe third.

Those moments helpedCity maintain control of agame that could easily haveslipped from their grasp hadEddie Howe’s side enjoyed bet-ter fortune.

Aguero’s predatory finish-ing was the perfect tonic forCity after Brazil striker GabrielJesus was withdrawn from thesquad with a hamstring prob-lem sustained in training.

City said Jesus will be backto full fitness after next month’sinternational break, meaninghe should miss only next week-end’s clash with Brighton.

Serena vs SharapovaLive from 4:30am ISTSTAR SPORTS NETWORK

Every season of the Pro Kabaddi League is a rollercoaster ride and this season has not been any dif-

ferent for the Haryana Steelers. It has been an hon-our for me to lead an inspiring bunch of players onthe mat throughout the season so far. We were inmajor trouble when we lost three matches in a rowat the start of the tournament, but the way the sidehas fought back has been incredible. Grit and deter-mination is far more important than talent in sport

and the players in theHaryana team have showntheir mettle in this competi-tion. It was magnificent todefeat Patna Pirates,Bengaluru Bulls and UPYoddha in consecutivematches. The side gained a lotof confidence after triumph-ing in tough contests.

After performing well inthe first match against PuneriPaltan, we couldn’t play to ourpotential in the next three

matches. And then wechanged our strategy. Our fortunes changed fromthereon. We had issues in our defense unit. The coach-es and the team management thought about whichplayer will be most suitable in which position.Thereafter, we had our strategies in place for the raidersof the opposition team. The better the defense does,the better the team will perform.

Haryana’s raider Vikash Kandola has been a bigboost for the team. We missed him terribly in the firstthree matches. The team’s spirits were uplifted afterhis return. He has been in tremendous form and hewill continue to contribute to the side’s victories in theupcoming matches. Vikash has been our top raiderwith 58 points in 6 matches.

Along with Vikash, it has been brilliant to see theway our youngsters and especially Vinay (raider) per-form in this season. The 19-year-old Sunil has alsomade vital contributions for the team in the defenseset-up.

However, the Haryana Steelers’ main advantagethis season has been our coach Rakesh Kumar. Ourcoach is also young, who was playing until last year.He has a good knowledge about how much a certainplayer should practice and how far to push a certainathlete. He decides the amount of practice for eachplayer. Rakesh knows what is best for each athlete toperform at his best.

The Haryana Steelers are in a good position inthe standings, but we have to keep believing in our-selves to win games. The most important aspect in aleague format is momentum. Therefore, once we wina match, we should ensure that our performance does-n't drop in the next game. Mistakes happened, but theteam is prepared to correct each of its mistakes andmove forward in the tournament. The team dissectsits performance after each game to play even betterin the upcoming matches.

The team has put up a great performance in theseason so far. The management isn’t looking too farahead as yet. We are aiming to qualify for the knock-out stages at the moment and then we’ll think aboutthe semi-finals of the tournament.

(The writer is captain of Pro Kabaddi League side Haryana Steelers)

Haryana Steelerswill continue tobuild momentum

Dharmaraj Cheralatha

Champion for the agesSindhu says ‘No words to express happiness, have waited Gold for so long’

“Amazing performance! Congratulationson becoming the 1st ever to win theBWF World Championships! You havemade India proud, yet again,”—SACHIN TENDULKAR

“PV Sindhu creates history bybecoming the first-ever Indian to claimgold in BWF World BadmintonChampionships! India is proud of@Pvsindhu1. My heartycongratulations! Govt will continue toprovide best support & facilities toproduce champions,”—KIREN RIJIJU

“Congratulations to @Pvsindhu1 for thefirst ever world championships goldmedal from India.”—SAINA NEHWAL

“What a champion you are girl@Pvsindhu1 congratulations.. Enjoy themoment,”—SANIA MIRZA

“Congratulations @Pvsindhu1 forwinning the BWF World Championship.This is a proud moment for the entirecountry. Your magic on the court,hardwork and perseverance enthrallsand inspires millions. Best wishesWorld Champion for all your futurebattles.”—RAM NATH KOVIND

“Congratulations, Sindhu, on becomingthe first Indian to win the gold medal atthe BWF World Championships. (You)dominated right from the start andfinished like a true champion.” —Y S JAGAN MOHAN REDDY

“The stupendously talented@Pvsindhu1 makes India proud again!Congratulations to her for winning theGold at the BWF World Championships.The passion and dedication with whichshe's pursued badminton is inspiring.PV Sindhu's success will inspiregenerations of players,”—NARENDRA MODI

“BAI President @himantabiswaannounces cash award of ` 20 lakh forWorld Champion @Pvsindhu1 and `lakh for @saiprneeth92 for their historicperformance at the#bwfworldchampionship2019.”—BAI

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