16
O bserving that Hindus in the country felt “insulted” over remark made by the Supreme Court while post- poning Ram Mandir hearing to January that it had its own pri- orities, the RSS on Friday urged the apex court to reconsider its priority on the “sensitive” issue and said if needed, it would launch a 1992-like agitation to demand construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Addressing a news confer- ence at the end of a three-day All India Working Committee at Uttan Thane district, RSS’ general secretary Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi expressed dis- satisfaction over the inordinate delay in a judicial verdict over the Ram Mandir issue. Responding to a specific ques- tion if the RSS would launch a 1992-like agitation to demand the construction of Ram Mandir, Joshi said, “Avashyakta padi to karenge (If need be, we will launch an agitation). “We were expecting some good news about the Ram Mandir before the Diwali. But, the Supreme Court refused to hear the Ram Mandir case and also postponed the hearing indefinitely. The Supreme Court has powers to decide on legal matters like this. I don’t want to talk about its jurisdic- tion. When the apex court was asked when it would fix the date for start of hearing, the Judge said the apex court has different priorities. This remark has caused anguish among crores of Hindus in the coun- try,” Joshi said. “The Hindu community feels insulted about the manner in which the Judge sought to respond to a query regarding an issue that involves the faith of crores of Hindus. The fact that an issue which involves the faith of crores of Hindus does not fit into the priorities of the Supreme Court is surprising, anguishing and we as Hindus feel insulted. Hence, we urge the court not to treat the issue like this but reconsider it and change its priorities so as to expedite matters relating to the litigation,” Joshi said. Replying to a question, Joshi said the RSS had never disrespected the judicial pro- nouncements. “We are among those who believe in the Constitution. While we respect the judiciary, it also becomes the responsibility of the courts to respect the sentiments of the people. That’s what we expect. We are not saying anything about the verdicts by the court. All we are asking the Supreme Court to give priority to the Ram Mandir issue,” RSS gen- eral secretary said. Joshi said it is for the Government to decide when to come out with an Ordinance or a Bill to acquire the disputed land and hand it over for the construction of Ram Mandir. “We understand that till the Supreme Court does not decide on the issue, even the Government has its own diffi- culty in taking decisions (in matters relating to promulga- tion of Ordinance or intro- duction of a bill in Parliament),” he said. Asked as to why the BJP had not resolved the Ram Mandir issue despite having been in power at the Centre for three terms since 1992 and why it revived the issue during elec- tions, Joshi said, “It is not question of our putting pres- sure on the Government. Things are decided on con- sensus. The Government func- tions balancing the issues relat- ing to Constitution and senti- ments of the people. All the Governments have so far wait- ed for a verdict from the courts. If we (the Government) were among those who did not respect the courts, we would have enacted law to facilitate construction of Ram Mandir a long ago.” Friday was the third occa- sion during the last three days when the RSS upped the ante on the Ram Mandir issue. On Wednesday, RSS Joint General Secretary Manmohan Vaidya had mounted pressure on the Narendra Modi Government on the Ram Mandir issue, by saying that the Centre should enact a law to acquire the land and hand it over for the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya. “Ram temple is a matter of national pride and glory. Just like Sardar Patel got Somnath temple rebuilt, the Government should acquire the land and hand over it for Ram temple construction. Continued on Page 4 T he US has agreed to tem- porarily allow eight coun- tries, including India, to con- tinue buying Iranian oil after it reimposes crippling sanctions on Tehran on November 5, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday, citing significant reduction in imports of oil from the Persian Gulf nation. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg quoted a US official as saying that the eight coun- tries being exempted from sanctions include India, Japan and South Korea. While the US had previ- ously wanted the countries, including India, to completely halt oil purchases from Iran by November 4 when its full sanc- tions against Tehran come into force, it seems to have relent- ed considering the havoc the move to completely take out Iranian supplies from the mar- ket would have had on prices. India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (3,00,000 bar- rels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (4,52,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi said. Pompeo said, the US is to issue temporary exemption to eight “jurisdictions” from Iranian sanctions recognising their significant reduction in imports of oil from Iran. The names of the jurisdictions would be released on Monday. Continued on Page 4 C ongress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday mount- ed a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal and also claimed that his industrialist friend Anil Ambani received a kickback of 284 crore from the French firm Dassault Aviation in the jet fighter pur- chase deal. The Anil Ambani- headed Reliance group has flayed Rahul and said he has once again resorted to blatant lies and distorted facts to unleash an unwarranted campaign of calumny and falsehoods. Rahul alleged that the CEO of Dassault Aviation gave 284 crore to loss-making Reliance Group of Ambani. He also alleged that CBI chief Alok Verma was recently removed as he wanted to inves- tigate the deal. Without naming anyone in his second consecutive Press conference, Rahul said the CEO of the French aviation firm, Éric Trappier, is “lying” because he is shielding the “only one man — the one who is running the country”. Rahul quoted Trappier in media reports saying the rea- son Ambani’s firm was given the offset contract and not state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was that it had land for the pro- ject. Rahul alleged that the land was purchased by Ambani’s company with the money that Dassault gave. Continued on Page 4 I n a bid to rejuvenate micro, small and medium enter- prises (MSME) sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced sanction- ing of loans of up to 1 crore in 59 minutes, relaxation in labour and company laws as well as easier compliance with environmental rules for the country’s second-biggest employing sector. Announcing a slew of mea- sures, he said GST-registered MSMEs will be sanctioned a loan of 1 crore in just 59 min- utes through a new portal. GST-registered MSMEs will get 2 per cent rebate on incremental new loans of up to 1 crore, interest subvention on pre and post-shipment credit for exports by MSMEs has been increased from 3 per cent to 5 per cent, he said. Continued on Page 4 A fter its strained relation with the judiciary for a long time, the Centre has sur- prised Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by taking a few hours to approve the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommen- dation to appoint four judges to the apex court. Justices Hemant Gupta, R Subhash Reddy, MR Shah and Ajay Rastogi were sworn in by the CJI on Friday two days after the SC Collegium sent its recommen- dation to the Law Ministry. The CJI could not hide his surprise over the alacrity shown by the Centre. “We sent the rec- ommendations at about 11 am on Wednesday and on Wednesday evening, when I was informed that the medical (test of the judges to be elevat- ed) has been done, I myself was very shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I said what you are saying. I am as much in awe as you are,” the CJI said in an informal chat with journalists covering the apex court. With the induction of the new judges, the strength of the Supreme Court has now risen to 28 against a sanctioned strength of 31. After the swearing-in, CJI Gogoi and Justice SA Bobde visited the press lounge of the Supreme Court to have an informal interaction with the journalists covering court news for various print and electron- ic media. It was during the interaction that the Chief Justice expressed his admira- tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. “I was surprised by the “unprecedented” speed with which the Government cleared the names of four judges with- in 48 hours of the collegium recommending their names,” the CJI said. In the case of Justice KM Joseph, the Centre had dragged its decision for months, before returning his name through an unprecedented act of splitting the SC recommendation to notify only the appointment of Justice Indu Malhotra. Continued on Page 4 I n a first, the Navy may induct women sailors, equivalent of jawans in the Army, and also deploy women officers in com- bat role by posting them on warships and submarines. So far, women officers are induct- ed as pilots and engineers but are not allowed to join sea- going cadre which requires sailing for months together in operational role. These issues were dis- cussed in the three-day naval commanders’ conference con- cluding here on Friday. In the conference, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the Navy to give an impetus to women’s role in the force. Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba informed the Minister that the issue of inducting women as sailors, so far restricted to only eligible male candidates, was discussed in the conference. The naval top brass also discussed the possi- bility of sending women offi- cers on sea-going missions in warships and submarines like their men counterpart, sources said here on Friday. They also said the women sailors may also be deployed on warships. Continued on Page 4 R JD boss Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav wants to divorce his wife of less than six months — Aishwarya Rai. Tej, a former Minister, filed a plea in the principal judge court in the Patna civil court on Thursday through his lawyer Prabha Devi. He accused his wife of mental torture. Aishwarya, the grand- daughter of former Chief Minister Daroga Rai and daughter of former Minister Chandrika Rai, was wedded to Tej on May 12 at a grand func- tion that was attended by lead- ers of different parties in pres- ence of Lalu, who was on bail at that time. The relations between the two, sources said, were any- thing but cordial and two months back there were reports that they had a fight after that she left his house and returned to her parents’ home. The Lalu family had then denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not pick the phone to confirm it. After getting this disturb- ing news Lalu, who is getting treatment at RIMS in Ranchi under judicial custody, sum- moned Tej, who left for Ranchi and expected to meet his father on Saturday. This must be a great setback to Lalu, who is already deeply worried over the clash of interest between his two sons Tej and Tejashwi Prasad who is running the party affairs in absence of Lalu. C hief Minister Yo g i Adityanath is set to lay foundation of the groundwork for building the much-awaited 107-metre statue of Lord Ram on Diwali at Ayodhya on the banks of Saryu River. Yogi is likely to lay the bricks for building the sprawling pedestal on which the towering statute will be built. The height of the statue will be 151 metres as it will be put on a 44-metre pedestal on the bank of Saryu and will be part of Tourism department’s plan coined ‘Naya Ayodhya’. Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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Observing that Hindus inthe country felt “insulted”

over remark made by theSupreme Court while post-poning Ram Mandir hearing toJanuary that it had its own pri-orities, the RSS on Friday urgedthe apex court to reconsider itspriority on the “sensitive” issueand said if needed, it wouldlaunch a 1992-like agitation todemand construction of theRam temple at Ayodhya.

Addressing a news confer-ence at the end of a three-dayAll India Working Committeeat Uttan Thane district, RSS’general secretary Suresh‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi expressed dis-satisfaction over the inordinatedelay in a judicial verdict overthe Ram Mandir issue.Responding to a specific ques-tion if the RSS would launch a1992-like agitation to demandthe construction of RamMandir, Joshi said, “Avashyaktapadi to karenge (If need be, wewill launch an agitation).

“We were expecting somegood news about the RamMandir before the Diwali. But,

the Supreme Court refused tohear the Ram Mandir caseand also postponed the hearingindefinitely. The SupremeCourt has powers to decide onlegal matters like this. I don’twant to talk about its jurisdic-tion. When the apex court wasasked when it would fix thedate for start of hearing, theJudge said the apex court hasdifferent priorities. This remarkhas caused anguish amongcrores of Hindus in the coun-

try,” Joshi said.“The Hindu community

feels insulted about the mannerin which the Judge sought torespond to a query regardingan issue that involves the faithof crores of Hindus. The factthat an issue which involves thefaith of crores of Hindus doesnot fit into the priorities of theSupreme Court is surprising,anguishing and we as Hindusfeel insulted. Hence, we urgethe court not to treat the issue

like this but reconsider it andchange its priorities so as toexpedite matters relating tothe litigation,” Joshi said.

Replying to a question,Joshi said the RSS had neverdisrespected the judicial pro-nouncements. “We are amongthose who believe in theConstitution. While we respectthe judiciary, it also becomesthe responsibility of the courtsto respect the sentiments of thepeople. That’s what we expect.We are not saying anythingabout the verdicts by the court.All we are asking the SupremeCourt to give priority to theRam Mandir issue,” RSS gen-eral secretary said.

Joshi said it is for theGovernment to decide when tocome out with an Ordinance ora Bill to acquire the disputedland and hand it over for theconstruction of Ram Mandir.“We understand that till theSupreme Court does not decideon the issue, even theGovernment has its own diffi-culty in taking decisions (inmatters relating to promulga-tion of Ordinance or intro-duction of a bill in Parliament),”

he said.Asked as to why the BJP

had not resolved the RamMandir issue despite havingbeen in power at the Centre forthree terms since 1992 and whyit revived the issue during elec-tions, Joshi said, “It is notquestion of our putting pres-sure on the Government.Things are decided on con-sensus. The Government func-tions balancing the issues relat-ing to Constitution and senti-ments of the people. All theGovernments have so far wait-ed for a verdict from the courts.If we (the Government) wereamong those who did notrespect the courts, we wouldhave enacted law to facilitateconstruction of Ram Mandir along ago.”

Friday was the third occa-sion during the last three dayswhen the RSS upped the anteon the Ram Mandir issue.

On Wednesday, RSS JointGeneral Secretary ManmohanVaidya had mounted pressureon the Narendra ModiGovernment on the RamMandir issue, by saying that theCentre should enact a law to

acquire the land and hand itover for the construction ofRam temple at Ayodhya.

“Ram temple is a matter ofnational pride and glory. Justlike Sardar Patel got Somnathtemple rebuilt, the Governmentshould acquire the land andhand over it for Ram templeconstruction.

Continued on Page 4

����� 7��/-�8�9�

The US has agreed to tem-porarily allow eight coun-

tries, including India, to con-tinue buying Iranian oil after itreimposes crippling sanctionson Tehran on November 5,Secretary of State MikePompeo said on Friday, citingsignificant reduction in importsof oil from the Persian Gulfnation.

Earlier in the day,Bloomberg quoted a US officialas saying that the eight coun-tries being exempted fromsanctions include India, Japanand South Korea.

While the US had previ-ously wanted the countries,including India, to completelyhalt oil purchases from Iran byNovember 4 when its full sanc-tions against Tehran come intoforce, it seems to have relent-ed considering the havoc themove to completely take out

Iranian supplies from the mar-ket would have had on prices.

India, which is the secondbiggest purchaser of Iranian oilafter China, is willing to restrictits monthly purchase to 1.25million tonnes or 15 milliontonnes in a year (3,00,000 bar-rels per day), down from 22.6million tonnes (4,52,000 barrelsper day) bought in 2017-18financial year, sources in NewDelhi said.

Pompeo said, the US is toissue temporary exemption toeight “jurisdictions” fromIranian sanctions recognisingtheir significant reduction inimports of oil from Iran. Thenames of the jurisdictionswould be released on Monday.

Continued on Page 4

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

����� �:7�":;/-

Congress president RahulGandhi on Friday mount-

ed a fresh attack on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inthe Rafale deal and alsoclaimed that his industrialistfriend Anil Ambani received akickback of �284 crore fromthe French firm DassaultAviation in the jet fighter pur-chase deal.

The Anil Ambani- headedReliance group has flayedRahul and said he has once

again resorted to blatant liesand distorted facts to unleashan unwarranted campaign ofcalumny and falsehoods.

Rahul alleged that the

CEO of Dassault Aviation gave�284 crore to loss-makingReliance Group of Ambani. Healso alleged that CBI chiefAlok Verma was recently

removed as he wanted to inves-tigate the deal.

Without naming anyone inhis second consecutive Pressconference, Rahul said theCEO of the French aviationfirm, Éric Trappier, is “lying”because he is shielding the“only one man — the one whois running the country”.

Rahul quoted Trappier inmedia reports saying the rea-son Ambani’s firm was giventhe offset contract and notstate-run HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL)was that it had land for the pro-ject.

Rahul alleged that the landwas purchased by Ambani’scompany with the money thatDassault gave.

Continued on Page 4

����� �:7�":;/-

In a bid to rejuvenate micro,small and medium enter-

prises (MSME) sector, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onFriday announced sanction-ing of loans of up to �1 crorein 59 minutes, relaxation inlabour and company laws aswell as easier compliance withenvironmental rules for thecountry’s second-biggestemploying sector.

Announcing a slew of mea-sures, he said GST-registeredMSMEs will be sanctioned aloan of �1 crore in just 59 min-utes through a new portal.

GST-registered MSMEswill get 2 per cent rebate onincremental new loans of up to�1 crore, interest subvention onpre and post-shipment creditfor exports by MSMEs hasbeen increased from 3 per centto 5 per cent, he said.

Continued on Page 4

����� �:7�":;/-

After its strained relationwith the judiciary for a

long time, the Centre has sur-prised Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi by taking a fewhours to approve the SupremeCourt Collegium’s recommen-dation to appoint four judges tothe apex court. Justices HemantGupta, R Subhash Reddy, MRShah and Ajay Rastogi weresworn in by the CJI on Fridaytwo days after the SCCollegium sent its recommen-dation to the Law Ministry.

The CJI could not hide hissurprise over the alacrity shownby the Centre. “We sent the rec-ommendations at about 11 amon Wednesday and onWednesday evening, when Iwas informed that the medical(test of the judges to be elevat-ed) has been done, I myself wasvery shocked. I couldn’t believe

it. I said what you are saying. Iam as much in awe as you are,”the CJI said in an informal chatwith journalists covering theapex court.

With the induction of thenew judges, the strength of theSupreme Court has now risento 28 against a sanctionedstrength of 31.

After the swearing-in, CJIGogoi and Justice SA Bobde

visited the press lounge of theSupreme Court to have aninformal interaction with thejournalists covering court newsfor various print and electron-ic media. It was during theinteraction that the ChiefJustice expressed his admira-tion for the swift manner inwhich the appointments weredone.

“I was surprised by the“unprecedented” speed withwhich the Government clearedthe names of four judges with-in 48 hours of the collegiumrecommending their names,”the CJI said.

In the case of Justice KMJoseph, the Centre had draggedits decision for months, beforereturning his name through anunprecedented act of splittingthe SC recommendation tonotify only the appointment ofJustice Indu Malhotra.

Continued on Page 4

����� �:7�":;/-

In a first, the Navy may inductwomen sailors, equivalent of

jawans in the Army, and alsodeploy women officers in com-bat role by posting them onwarships and submarines. Sofar, women officers are induct-ed as pilots and engineers butare not allowed to join sea-going cadre which requiressailing for months together inoperational role.

These issues were dis-cussed in the three-day navalcommanders’ conference con-cluding here on Friday. In theconference, Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman urged theNavy to give an impetus towomen’s role in the force.

Navy Chief Admiral SunilLanba informed the Ministerthat the issue of inductingwomen as sailors, so farrestricted to only eligible malecandidates, was discussed inthe conference. The naval topbrass also discussed the possi-bility of sending women offi-cers on sea-going missions inwarships and submarines liketheir men counterpart, sourcessaid here on Friday. They alsosaid the women sailors mayalso be deployed on warships.

Continued on Page 4

����� 2����

RJD boss Lalu Prasad and hiswife Rabri Devi’s elder son

Tej Pratap Yadav wants todivorce his wife of less than sixmonths — Aishwarya Rai.

Tej, a former Minister, fileda plea in the principal judgecourt in the Patna civil court onThursday through his lawyerPrabha Devi. He accused hiswife of mental torture.

Aishwarya, the grand-daughter of former ChiefMinister Daroga Rai anddaughter of former MinisterChandrika Rai, was wedded toTej on May 12 at a grand func-tion that was attended by lead-ers of different parties in pres-ence of Lalu, who was on bailat that time.

The relations between the

two, sources said, were any-thing but cordial and twomonths back there were reportsthat they had a fight after thatshe left his house and returnedto her parents’ home.

The Lalu family had thendenied the report. The RJDMLA from Parsa, ChandrikaRai, did not pick the phone toconfirm it.

After getting this disturb-ing news Lalu, who is gettingtreatment at RIMS in Ranchiunder judicial custody, sum-moned Tej, who left for Ranchiand expected to meet his fatheron Saturday. This must be agreat setback to Lalu, who isalready deeply worried over theclash of interest between histwo sons Tej and TejashwiPrasad who is running theparty affairs in absence of Lalu.

���������������� ��������� ����� ��� ���� �� �� ����!�

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath is set to lay

foundation of the groundworkfor building the much-awaited107-metre statue of Lord Ramon Diwali at Ayodhya on thebanks of Saryu River. Yogi islikely to lay the bricks forbuilding the sprawling pedestalon which the towering statutewill be built.

The height of the statue willbe 151 metres as it will be puton a 44-metre pedestal on thebank of Saryu and will be partof Tourism department’s plancoined ‘Naya Ayodhya’.

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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In its bid to make the nation-al Capital a pollution free city,

the Delhi Transport departmenton Friday launched the trialruns for the first ever electricbuses for the public. The trialrun of the e-bus will continuefor three months and also theGovernment will float the ten-ders by end of this year to pur-chase 1000 more such vehicles.

The e-bus inaugurated bythe transport Minister KailashGahlot and TransportCommissioner Varsha Joshiwill run on the schedule ofroute no-522 from AmbedkarNagar to Inderpuri (KrishiKunj). The bus will be chargedat Kushak Nala bus depot .Thelow floor Air-conditioned (AC)e-bus is equipped with fourCCTV cameras, panic buttons

and GPS tracking system. "The present trial run will

be instrumental in under-standing how modern low-floor pure electric buses adaptto the road conditions of Delhi,how efficient their batteries areand how quickly can they bedeployed at scale in Delhi.

Further, the Government isalso in a planning to float ten-ders by December so that thezero-emissions vehicles arerolled out in the next five to sixmonths," said Kailash Gahlot,when flagging off the trial runof the bus from DelhiSecretariat.

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Delhi Police CommissionerAmulya Patnaik inaugu-

rated an e-malkhana project forRohini district in Police StationKN Katju Marg on Friday.

The digitisation of all case properties, their coding,packaging in boxes, andarrangement in order in proper shelves marks a leap forthe police towards achieve-ment of the objective of smartpolicing.

Rohini District has becomethe third district after South-East and Shahdra districts toachieve complete digitization ofmalkhanas in all its 11 policestations.

Speaking on the occasion,Patnaik underlined that main-tenance of Malkhana hasalways been a priority to keepthe case property in safe cus-

tody and its retrieval for pre-senting before the court, andback safely.

"After digitization, it wouldbe easy to retrieve the caseproperty and would also savevaluable time and energy.Synchronisation of functioningof malkhanas in all the 11police stations of the district

was a big challenge," said theCP.

Patnaik commendedDeputy Commissioner ofPolice-Rohini district and histeam for their dedication forputting extra efforts in digitising such large number ofcase properties in short span oftime.

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Hatred for dogs led fourwomen to beat a 23 year-

old dog owner in Welcome areaof national Capital. The victimused to take her dog on walkevery evening in the localitywhich was not liked by thesewomen.

According to complaintfiled by the girl identified asYogita, four women RachnaSahni, Muskan, Geeta andNemat Kaur allegedly beat herwhen she was returning to herhouse from work around 12:30

am on Thursday. "I was stopped by these

women in the locality. Thesewomen said you are one roam-ing on our street with dog and

started beating me. The entirescene was caught by CCTVcamera installed in the locali-ty. I had sustained injuries andwas treated in GTB hospital.They didn't like me walkingwith my dog in their street,"said the complainant in hercomplaint.

"We have got the MedicalLegal Case (MLR) report fromthe hospital. We have registereda case under section323/341/506/34 of Indian PenalCode and further investigationis going on," said the investi-gating officer.

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In view of the SupremeCourt's ban on illegal selling

and storing of firecrackerswithout a license, one personwas arrested for allegedly stor-ing 625 kgs of firecrackers ille-gally in West Delhi's TilakNagar, police revealed Friday.

"As per the directions ofSupreme Court of India, severalteams were formed in WestDistrict to take action againstillegal storage of firecrackers.The team of Tilak Nagar policestation, acting on information,conducted a raid and recovereda total of 625 kgs of fire crack-

ers, being stored withoutlicense at Tilak Nagar," DeputyCommissioner (West) MonikaBhardwaj stated.

According to police, theaccused was identified asVashinder Singh, resident ofTilak Nagar. An FIR was regis-tered under Explosives Act 1884and sections 336 and 286 of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) wereregistered in Tilak Nagar policestation. "This is the third caseregistered in Tilak Nagar policestation within the last three days.Earlier, 490 kgs and 75 kgs ofillegal firecrackers have alsobeen recovered in two separateoperations," said the DCP.

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At a time when theGovernment is cracking

down on decade old dieseland petrol vehicles plying onroads in order to curb pollutionwhile people are looking for itsalternatives, Indian Instituteof Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) ismulling on starting a centre forElectric Vehicles (e-vehicles) incoming years. The new centrewould work in close collabo-ration with the internationalautomobile giants in the elec-tric vehicle market for researchand development in the E-Vehicles.

Researchers at IIT-D arealready working on severalaspects of electric vehiclesincluding developing of fastcharging stations, fast chargingbatteries, design, other com-ponents, torque, its output,mileage etc. Students have evendisplayed the battery operatedelectric Formula racing carindigenously made by them atthe Industry day held recentlyat IIT-D.

IIT-D will work compre-hensively on drive-train, charg-ers and regenerative braking forEV's, Li-Ion battery technolo-gy for EV's, recycling andmaterials for Li-Ion batteriesand vehicles, alternate fuelsources and control of EV's.

According to IIT-D offi-cials, the new centre for the e-vehicles would draw a signifi-cant proportion of its facultyfrom the experts of automobileindustry. IIT-D, director VRamgopal Rao said that it hasbeen discussed at length in

board meeting but would takefinal shape after the approval ofsenate and board of governors.

Also a centre for the cyberphysical system would be estab-lished in IIT-D which will helpin optimizing the output of sev-eral fields for instance agricul-ture. It will do real time andground analysis of the prevail-ing conditions and will adviseand assist on how to optimizethe output.

"Like in an agriculturalfield the cyber physical systemwill help in determining theamount of fertilizer, water etcneeded in a particular plotaccording to the prevailing circumstances and other con-ditions. Thus it will help inoptimizing the productivity,"said Rao.

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The Director General ofPolice (DGP) Uttar

Pradesh OP Singh inaugurateda forensic laboratory in Niwaritown of Ghaziabad.

Speaking on this occasion,the DGP said after launchingthis lab, the State is nowequipped with 5 forensic labsafter Lucknow, Agra, Varanasiand Moradabad. "It will enablethe police to expedite the casesfast. It is 9 storied lab beingconstructed with �64 crore, itwill conduct 16 types of foren-sic tests," he said.

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Page 3: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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Delhi Environment MinisterImran Hussian on Friday

launched online monitoringsystem for Delhi PollutionControl Committee (DPCC)which will help industrialistsfor online submission of appli-cation, approval, clarification/show cause,inspections and other activitiesfor Consent to Establish (CTE),Consent to Operate (CTO),authorisation for all categoriesof industries/institutions/healthcare establishments, plasticwaste, solid waste, hazardouswaste.

The online monitoring sys-

tem has been developed by the NIC, EnvironmentInformatics Division, IndiraParyavaran Bhavan, Jor Bagh,New Delhi for the DelhiPollution Control Committee(DPCC).

“The Online ConsentManagement and MonitoringSystem of DPCC is a webbased Generic Application Software Packagefor automating the existingworkflow associated withConsent Management andMonitoring System,” the DelhiGovernment said in a state-ment.

Notably, this system willassist concerned officials of

SPCB for online processing,monitoring of various activitiesand enhances transparency inthe existing processing of appli-cation, reduce the processingtime of application and relatedpaper work.

Online ConsentManagement and Monitoring System consist ofthe following Features: Industryregistration for industries/hos-pitals/institutions, online submission of application, approval, clarifi-cation and other activities forCTE, CTO, authorisation for allcategories (red, orange, greenand white) of industries/insti-tutions.

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The much-awaited SignatureBridge on the Yamuna is set

to open for public onNovember 5 with Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodiainspecting the infrastructureproject Friday.

As per the project plan, thebridge, which will reduce thetravel time between north andnortheast Delhi, will have des-ignated selfie spots. Delhiiteswill be able to enjoy apanoramic view of the cityfrom the top of the bridge,where they will be taken in fourelevators with a total capacityof carrying 50 people.The ele-vators area likely to be opera-tional in two months, an offi-cial said.

He said the bridge willserve as a tourist destinationwith the 154-metre-high glassbox giving a bird’s-eye view ofthe city to visitors.

Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal is scheduled to inau-

gurate the bridge on November4 and it will be thrown open forpublic on November 5.

Talking to reporters duringthe inspection, Sisodia saidthe bridge will become a touristspot.

Announced in 2004, thebridge has missed several dead-lines since 2011.

The proposal for thebridge, mooted in 2004,received approval of the DelhiCabinet in 2007. It was initial-ly expected to be completed ata modified estimate of Rs 1,131crore for the CommonwealthGames, held in Delhi inOctober 2010.

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The Delhi Government is allset to install CCTV cam-

eras to ensure the safety andsecurity across the Capital afterthe approval of work advisoryboard �571 crore project. In thefirst phase, 1.4 lakh cameras tobe installed in Novembermonth only.

Incidentally, the proposalfor installing CCTV cameras,which became a bone of con-tention between LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal and theruling AAP, was passed by theDelhi Cabinet in August.

This may recalled, the

Delhi Legislative Assembly alsopassed a resolution demandingimmediate removal of ChiefSecretary Anshu Prakash,accusing him of acting onbehalf of the BJP Governmentat the Centre and trying toblock the CCTV project.

Kejriwal also hit out at theCentre, which controls theDelhi Police, over rising crimeagainst women across thenational Capital.

The Home Ministry, PMoffice, Lieutenant Governorand police have failed in pro-viding security to people ofDelhi,” Kejriwal said earlier,adding that CCTV cameras

would deter crime in the city.The project was embroiled

in a controversy with L-G AnilBaijal forming a committee toframe rules for installation,operation and monitoring ofCCTV cameras. The AAP hadslammed the move as “delayingtactics”. Picking holes in thecommittee formed by the L-G,the Chief Minister said it hadrecommended license forinstalling CCTV cameras.

It means money will haveto be paid for getting the licens-es, he said.

The Project was given inprincipal approval to theCCTV camera project by the

Delhi Government in October,2015.”With the help of officers,they moved files in a way thatthe installation of CCTV cam-eras was delayed by threeyears,” Kejriwal said in theAssembly.

He asked the BJP legislatorsto ensure that the L-G createsno further “hurdles” in theimplementation of the pro-ject. The estimated cost of theproject by the Public WorksDepartment (PWD) of DelhiGovernment is �571.40 crore. Itincludes a capital cost of�320.96 crore and maintenancecost of �250.44 crore for aperiod of five years.

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Delhi’s air quality remainedin the very poor category

on Friday despite a slew ofmeasures that were imple-mented in the national Capitalahead of Diwali when a spikein pollution was expected to hitthe city.

The Overall Air QualityIndex of the national Capitalwas recorded at 368 whichfalls in the very poor category,according to data by theCentral Pollution ControlBoard.

The PM2.5 level wasrecorded at 210. Fine particu-lates can be a matter of moreserious health concern thanPM10 (particles in the air witha diameter of less than 10micrometres).

Four areas in Delhi record-

ed “severe” air quality while 29areas recorded “very poor” airquality, according to the CPCBdata. As per the data by Centre-run System of Air QualityForecasting And Research(SAFAR), the PM10 level inDelhi stood at 333.

The SAFAR said the AQIof Delhi-NCR would continueto remain in the upper range ofthe “very poor” category in thenext three days. “This is main-

ly due to weather conditions asstubble contribution is mar-ginal now.

The moisture intrusionover Delhi and surroundingregions due to the westerliesdisturbances will increase witheffect from November 4 toenhanced holding capacity ofatmosphere resulting inincrease in PM2.5 levels,” theSAFAR website said. “Windsare calm and it is favourable forstagnation of pollution.Although upper air windswhere transport takes place arefrom stubble burning site butspeed and magnitude is lowand hence unlikely to impactDelhi air quality significantly,”it added.

According to the SAFAR,9 per cent of PM 2.5 pollutionin Delhi is caused due to stub-ble burning.

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Acitizens’ group has writtento EPCA suggesting addi-

tional steps that could be takento curb pollution like putting inpublic domain emission levelsfrom all industries in Delhi-NCR and urgingemployers to encourage office-goers to allow work from hometill November 10.

Delhi’s air quality remainedin the ‘very poor’ categoryFriday despite a slew of measures that were imple-mented in the national capitalahead of Diwali when a spikein pollution was expected to hitthe city.

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As the city air continuesshowing downward trend,

the municipal corporations inthe national Capital havestepped up efforts to containpollution.

The South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) deployed401 water tankers with an aimto settle down the dust. SouthCorporation flagged off 150tankers on Friday while Northand East Corporation deployed192 and 59 respectively. Takingstrict action against violators,the north civic body also issued42 challan in last two days fol-lowing NGT direction andimposed fine of �83,0000 forrelated violations.

A senior SDMC officialsaid that it deployed its entirefleet of 40 water tankers andhired another 110 to mitigatethe effect of air pollution. Healso said that a detailed pro-gramme of sprinkling has beenchalked out that would beimplemented in future.

The official said that theSDMC has been continuouslyissuing challans for ongoingconstruction activities despiteits suspension; carrying uncov-ered construction and demoli-tion waste and burning ofleaves/garbage which is a maincontributor of severe air pol-lution, he said.

He said that all thefour zones of SDMC duringlast two days have issued1582 challans for viola-tions and action was takenas per norms and NGTdirection. “A total of 695challans have been issued inSouth Zone followed by459 in Central Zone, 269 inNajafgarh Zone and 159challans in West Zone,” hesaid.

Further, 302 challanswere issued for violation ofNGT rules regarding con-struction and air pollutionin all four zones while 320challans issued againstburning of leaves/garbage.He also informed that 24challan were issued forthrowing refuse into drainsand 87 challans issuedunder Solid WasteManagement bylaws.

The officials have alsobeen directed to issue chal-lan to trucks carryinguncovered Constructionand demolition waste.Repeated violators will facecriminal prosecution inview of affecting health ofthe fragile senior citizensand kids as they are moreprone to pollution bornediseases,” he said.

“The Commissionerhas directed the DeputyCommissioners to focus

on containing dust and airpollution particularly inPunjabi Bagh and Dwarka

localities where the dust pol-lution noticed above dangerousmark”, the official said.

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Citing information released by the

Transparency InternationalIndia on India CorruptionSurvey 2018 report and Centrefor Media Studies CMS-IndiaCorruption Study 2018, DelhiPradesh Congress Committee(DPCC) president Ajay Makensaid the Kejriwal Governmentin Delhi, which had promisedto provide a corruption-freeGovernment, is now neck-deep in corruption, as it hasfailed on “Transparency,Accountability and Anti-Corruption”.

Addressing a Press conference at the DPCC office,

Rajiv Bhawan, on Friday ,Maken expressed his surprisethat the Aam Aadmi Party,which came to power in Delhion the “bandwagon” of theIndia Against Corruption cam-paign, promising to eradicatecorruption, ironically now topsin corruption.

He said while the special study in Delhi in2015 found that 20 per centpeople felt that corruption inpublic service governed inDelhi increased, 25 per centpeople in 2016 (study of States) felt that corruption has increased in Delhi while 34 per cent in 2018 said thatcorruption has increased inDelhi.

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Page 4: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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From Page 1An official said on Friday the

actual place where the statue will beinstalled was yet to be decided but itwould not be very far away fromSaryu the River. Yogi on his visit toAyodjhya on November 6 will layfoundation of the pedestal and thestatue will be installed later, the offi-cial said.

The statue would be built at a cost

of Rs 330 crore. It would be made ofbronze and a sculptor from Noida isworking on it.

The Government also plans to con-struct a museum near the statue. It willhave an art gallery and an auditorium.The museum and the art gallery willdepict the life of Lord Ram, while theauditorium will host Ramleela by dif-ferent outfits of the country, the offi-cial said.

From Page 1The Government should

make law for that,” Vaidya hadsaid.

On Thursday, RSS func-tionary and BJP’s nominatedmember to the Rajya SabhaRakesh Sinha said he wouldmove a Private Member’s Bill inthe Rajya Sabha demanding theconstruction of a Ram Templein Ayodhya. On their part, fourBJP MPs Gopal Shetty, Udit Raj,Roopa Ganguly, and KiritSomaiya have already pledgedtheir support for this private bill.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) president Amit Shahmet RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

on the sidelines of the organi-sation’s RSS executive meet.

Confirming that Shah didmeet Bhagwat the executivemeeting venue, RSS’ generalsecretary Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshirefused to go into details of whattranspired at the meetingbetween the BJP president andRSS chief.

“The matters that get dis-cussed in this kind of meetingswill remain private. I don’t thinkit is essential to tell you as towhat transpired at the meeting.Yes. They discussed in detailabout the Ram Mandir issue.You will get to know the out-come at a later stage,” Joshi said.

From Page 1The CJI also said that 14 benches

of two judges each will sit on Mondaysand Fridays for faster disposal ofcases to curb the pendency.

The CJI also acknowledged thatthe appointment of Justice Dave as act-ing CJ of Gujarat HC instead ofJustice Qureshi happened by an over-sight and that the mistake was cor-rected soon as it was realised.

During interaction, the CJI alsorevealed plans to give translated copiesof SC judgments to litigants in theirmother tongue if they are unable tounderstand English.

The Union Law Ministry hadnotified the appointments of JusticesHemant Gupta, Ajay Rastogi, MRShah and R Subhash Reddy late onThursday night. While Justice Guptawas the Chief Justice of the MadhyaPradesh High Court, Justice Reddy wasthe Gujarat High Court’s chief justice.Justice Shah was the chief justice of thePatna High Court and Justice Rastogiwas the chief justice of the TripuraHigh Court.

From Page 1Reliance group has, how-

ever, said Congress president isengaging in falsehood andthere are no substance in anyof the charges of kickback hehas levelled against AnilAmbani.

The Gandhi scion reiterat-ed his attack on the PM andsaid the Rafale deal is an openand shut case. “It was a part-nership between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andAnil Ambani,” Rahul said

“The Dassault CEO hadsaid the reason HAL wasn’tgiven the contract was becauseAnil had land. Now it turns outthat the land that Anil had waspurchased by money given byDassault,” Rahul said at AICCPress conference.

Rahul said the PM is hav-ing “sleepless nights” fearingaction if a probe was conduct-ed into the Rafale deal.

Trashing Rahul’s allega-tions, Reliance said Congress is

“distorting” facts to mount an“unwarranted” campaignagainst the company for polit-ical gains. In a statement,Reliance said the company andits chief Anil were continuouslybeing dragged into a politicalbattle in view of the impendingstate and general elections.

“Dassault’s investment inReliance Airport DevelopersLimited (RADL) has no linkwhatsoever with the Rafalecontract between theGovernment of India andFrance on a Government-to-Government basis, where all 36aircraft are to be exportedfrom France. This investmentis an independent arms-lengthtransaction based on fair mar-ket valuation of the land andother assets of the Company,and the future business poten-tial in the airports and relatedinfrastructure sector, Reliancegroup said in a statement.

It also claimed that theRADL transaction was com-

pleted in full compliance withapplicable FDI and all otherrules & regulations and theinformation has been disclosedin the public domain sinceDecember 2017 onwards, near-ly a year ago.

“The Congress party hasfalsely alleged that the fundsinvested in RADL have beenused for the purchase of land atMihan, Nagpur for theDassault-Reliance 49:51 JV,”the statement said, adding, “The payment for the land atMIHAN, Nagpur, Maharashtrawas made from 2015 to 2017,much before the investment byDassault in RADL..”

Congress has been allegingthat the Government had putpressure on Dassault Aviationto make Reliance its offsetpartner for the deal. DassaultAviation has chosen RelianceDefence as one of its partnersin India to fulfill the offsetobligations of the Rs 58,000crore Rafale deal.

From Page 1To rid the sector of inspector raj, Modi

announced that inspections of factories inthe sector will be sanctioned only througha computerised random allotment andinspectors will have to upload reports on por-tal within 48 hours. “No inspector can nowgo anywhere. He will be asked why he wentto a factory,” he said.

Easing compliance with environmentalrules, MSMEs will need single air and waterclearance and just one consent to establisha factory. MSMEs will have to file just oneannual return on eight labour laws and 10Central rules, he said, adding that an ordi-nance has been promulgated to simplify levyof penalties for minor offences under theCompanies Act. Modi termed the 12 newmeasures “historic” that will make Deepawalibrighter for the sector and its millions ofentrepreneurs and employees.

Public sector companies, which were

mandated to source 20 per cent of theirannual procurement from MSMEs, will nowsource at least a quarter of their requirement(25 per cent) from the sector, he said, adding3 per cent of sourcing by PSUs would haveto be done from MSMEs run by women.

Also, all Central public sector enterpriseswill have to take membership of theGovernment e-Marketplace (GeM) to facil-itate online procurement of common usegoods and services by various governmentdepartments and organisations.

Modi announced Rs 6,000 crore for cre-ation of 20 hubs and 100 tool rooms for tech-nology upgradation. Clusters for MSMEs inpharma sector will be created to boost pro-duction in the sector, he said.

All companies with turnover of morethan Rs 500 crore would have to now comeon Trade Receivables e-Discounting System(TReDS) platform so that there is no cashflow problem for MSMEs.

Talking of India jumping 23 places onthe World Bank’s latest ‘Ease of DoingBusiness’ ranking, Modi said in four yearshis Government has achieved what many didnot believe and what no other nation hasdone -- leaping from 142nd rank in 2014 to77th position. Breaking into top 50 rank isnot far away, he added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Indiawould become the world’s fifth largesteconomy in 2019 and among the top threein the coming years. Speaking at the ‘Supportand Outreach Initiative for the MSME sec-tor’ event here, the Minister said since theNarendra Modi-led Government took overabout four years ago, India has moved fromthe ninth to sixth position in the global eco-nomic landscape. “Next year, India willbecome the fifth largest economy,” he said,adding hopefully in the coming years thecountry would be among the top threeeconomies of the world.

From Page 1The US will allow the eight

nations to import Iranian oilbut only at much lower levelsafter the reimposition of sanc-tions on Monday, Pompeosaid. The US will also demandthe Society for WorldwideInterbank FinancialTelecommunication (SWIFT)global financial network stopsupporting Iranian banks aspart of enforcing sanctionsover Tehran’s nuclear pro-gramme and alleged supportfor terrorism.

The sanctions will penalisecountries that do not endimporting Iranian oil and for-eign companies that do busi-ness with blacklisted Iranianfirms. Pompeo and TreasurySecretary Stephen Mnuchinmade the announcement onFriday. They said sanctionswill remain until Iran meetsdemands that include endingsupport for terrorism, endingmilitary engagement in Syriaand completely halting itsnuclear and ballistic missileprogramme.

In May, President DonaldTrump pulled the US out of the2015 landmark Joint

Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA) terming it as “disas-trous”. Under the Obama-eradeal, involving five perma-nent members of the UNSecurity Council andGermany, Iran agreed to stopits nuclear programme inexchange for relief from eco-nomic sanctions.

After the US’ withdrawalfrom the deal, Trump signedfresh sanctions against Iranand warned countries againstany cooperation with Tehranover its controversial nuclearweapons programme.

Iran has dismissed thesecharges and maintains that itsnuclear programme is forpeaceful purposes. “TheUnited States is in the midst ofan internal process to consid-er significant reduction excep-tions for individual countries,but that is only on a case-by-case basis,” State DepartmentDeputy Spokesperson RobertPaladino said on Thursday.

He was responding toquestions on the news reportsfrom South Korea and Indiathat they could get waiversfrom the US on the punitiveIranian sanctions.

From Page 1In Navy, combat role means

sailing in ships on operationalduties and the current fleetdoes not have facilities for gen-der segregation like separatewashrooms and other relatedinfrastructure, they said. Theships and submarines will haveto have these separate facilitiesif women are deployed on them,officials said.

As regards opening theNavy for entry of women assailors or other ranks below offi-cer, sources said the NavyCommanders’ conference dis-cussed it adding many moremeetings are planned before thefinal shape takes place. At pre-sent, the three Services do nothave women in lower ranksthough the Army last yeardecided to induct womenjawans into the Corps ofMilitary Police (CMP) by rais-ing one battalion (1,000women).

As regards women offi-cers in combat role, the IAFtook the lead last year byinducting three officers infighter flying stream and theyare currently undergoing inten-sive training. In the Navy, atleast 60 women officers aredeployed on P-8 I long rangemaritime patrol aircraft. Someof these women serving as tac-tical officers are empowered totake the decision to fire a mis-sile or torpedo and this role canbe termed as combat role, theysaid.

There are nearly 650women officers in the Navyand are serving their tenures inbraches like education, lawand naval construction as engi-neers besides flying Dornieraircraft. Overall, there are3,500 women officers in thethree Services.

The Army has, so far,refrained from inductingwomen in combat role andfighting units like infantry,artillery and armoured corps.However, women officers areserving in Intelligence, Judgeand Advocate General (JAG)branch, Engineers, Ordnanceand Education.

Meanwhile, giving detailsabout other issues discussed inthe Navy Commanders’ meet,sources said the DefenceMinister instructed that futureconferences of three Servicesshould also have representationfrom Integrated Defence Staff.This came in the background ofthe three Services now operat-ing together as tri-service com-mand in Andaman and NicobarCommand. The integrationcame about following the rec-ommendations of the KSubrahmanyam Committeereport on overhauling defencemanagement in the wake of theKargil war in 1999.

Sources also said more thanRs 17,000 crores worth of con-tracts for capital acquisitionlike missiles and ships for theNavy were signed in the last sixmonths. Moreover, the approvalin principle was also given forinduction 1,100 persons as addi-tional manpower, they said.

Also, the Navy will host thetenth anniversary of the IndianOcean Naval Symposium(IONS) for two days fromNovember 13 at Kochi. Indiahad taken the initiative in form-ing this group of countrieslocated on the rim of the IndianOcean which is strategicallyimportant for our country.

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Releasing the report onsouthwest monsoon 2018,

the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) said onFriday that the country hasreceived 91 per cent rainfall thisyear. As per data, 95 per centrainfall received in June, 94 percent in July, 92 per cent inAugust, and 76 per cent inSeptember.

“Out of the total 36 meteo-rological subdivisions, 23 sub-divisions constituting 68 percent of the total area of thecountry received normal seasonrainfall, one subdivisionreceived excess rainfall (oneper cent of the total area), and12 subdivisions (31 per cent ofthe total area) received deficientseason rainfall. Out of the 12deficient subdivisions, 5 subdi-visions were from East &Northeast India (ArunachalPradesh, Assam & Meghalaya,Gangetic west Bengal, Biharand Jharkhand), 3 subdivisionseach were from the CentralIndia (Saurashtra & Kutch,Gujarat region andMarathwada) and SouthPeninsula (Rayalaseema, NorthInterior Karnataka andLakshadweep) and one subdi-vision (West Rajasthan) fromNorthwest India,” the IMD said.

During the season, 10 mon-soon low pressure systems (onecyclone, one deep depression,one depressions, two wellmarked low pressure areas and

two low pressure areas) formedagainst an average of six depres-sions and eight low pressureareas.

The IMD claimed thatforecast for monsoon onsetover Kerala for this year wasvery accurate, as both the fore-casted and realised date of onsetof monsoon over Kerala wasMay 29.

The season witnessed avery large number of ‘HighImpact weather events, of which‘floods’ remained to be themost frequent and widespreadphenomenon.

“During the 2018 southwestmonsoon season, though thewarming trends in the sea sur-face temperatures (SSTs) overequatorial Pacific indicatedevolving El Nino, SSTs remainedbelow the El Nino thresholdvalue. Hence, warm ENSO neu-tral conditions prevailed overthe equatorial Pacific. Theatmospheric conditions werealso indicating neutral ENSOconditions,” it said.

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New Delhi: The ChiefCommissioner of Railway Safetywill probe the Amritsar tragedyin which 60 Dussehra revellerswere mowed down by a passingtrain, the Indian Railways saidFriday, nearly two weeks after ithad ruled out any investigationinto the tragedy.

A day after the accident onOctober 19, the railways hadtermed it a “case of trespassing”.

The probe will begin Sunday(November 4), according to anotification issued by the

Northern Railway. Through thenotification, the railways hasinvited people who have infor-mation regarding the accident todepose before the ChiefCommissioner of Railway Safety(CCRS), Sailesh Pathak, at thepremises of the RailwayMechanical Workshop, Amritsar.It will continue till November 5.

Despite refusing a CRS probeearlier, in a statement Friday, therailways, however, said since theCCRS can conduct an inquiryeven in those cases where it is not

mandatory as per law and rules,it will do the same in this case aswell. It said the accident has“become a matter of great pub-lic discourse”, especially raisingconcerns about the safety ofpeople trespassing on railwaytracks. “Gurjeet Singh Aujla, MPfrom Amritsar, met Minister ofRailways Piyush Goyal and per-sonally handed over his letterdated October 23 and requestedfor an inquiry by Commissionerof Railway Safety (CRS) in thisincident. The Ministry of

Railways has considered thisrequest and other facts, circum-stances and legal provisions,”the railways said.

It said according to law, it isnot mandatory to conduct aninquiry by CCRS in such cases,but it is not impermissible either.

CCRS, Lucknow, has ordereda statutory inquiry into the cir-cumstances that led to the acci-dent, the railways said but addedthat prima facie the transporterdoes not appear to be responsi-ble for the accident. PTI

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In a major relief to BJP national president Amit Shah,the Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a public

interest litigation questioning the CBI’s decision not chal-lenge a 2014 lower court order discharging him from themuch-discussed Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

Dismissing a PIL filed by the Bombay Lawyers’Association (BCL) seeking a direction to the CBI to filea criminal revision application challenging the specialcourt’s order dated December 30, 2014 discharging Shahfrom the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, a HC divi-sion bench comprising Justice Ranjit More and JusticeBharati Dangre said that the BCL “has no locus to insti-tute the proceedings in form of Public Interest and thattoo after a lapse of three years after the discharge orderis passed by a Court of competent institution”.

“...we are not inclined to exercise our writ jurisdic-tion either at the instance of an association of the prac-ticing Advocates or at the instance of a public spirited indi-vidual who according to us, has no locus to institute theproceedings in form of Public Interest and that too aftera lapse of three years after the discharge order is passedby a Court of competent institution. The Criminal PublicInterest Litigations are dismissed,” the HC bench ruled.

“.... we do not find any failure of duty on the part ofthe CBI. The CBI has stated before us in emphatic termsthat after going through the merits of the order of dis-charge, it has taken a conscious decision not to carry itfurther. In such circumstances, we are of the clear opin-ion that the mandamus cannot be issued to the agencywhich is an independent prosecuting agency,” the Judgesobserved.

“We are also not inclined to entertain the said litiga-tion at the instance of the present petitioner in view ofthe legal embargo which we have already discussed in theabove paragraphs. There is no statutory mandate imposedon the prosecuting agency either in the Code of CriminalProcedure nor do we find such a mandate in the DelhiPolice Establishment Act which would permit us to inter-fere with the discretion of the prosecuting agency to chal-lenge a particular order,” the two-member HC Bench said.

A “dreaded criminal” Sheikh and his wife Kausar Biwere killed in an alleged fake encounter in November 2004by the Gujarat Police near Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

Page 5: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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Additional PrincipalSecretary to the Prime

Minister, PK Mishra has saidthe Government is makingefforts with an integratedapproach and has initiated"multiple reforms" in order toachieve the target of doublingfarmers' income by 2022. Healso emphasised the need toanalyse as to "why the past ini-tiatives could not accomplishthe desired results" in the agri-culture sector.

Addressing the 78thAnnual conference of theIndian Society of AgriculturalEconomics on Thursday,Mishra said that the presentGovernment has for the firsttime ushered in a paradigmshift in the approach, fromgrowth of production toincrease in farmers' income.

Some of the initiativestaken to address price and

yield risks in the last four yearsinclude setting up of electron-ic National Agriculture Market(eNAM), upgradation of ruralhaats, new scheme PradhanMantri Annadata AaySanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA), Pradhan MantriFasal Bima Yojana.

This is a major shift in theapproach — a clear focus onfarmer and farmer welfarerather than simply productionand productivity, he said.

"For this purpose, a holis-tic strategy for the agriculturesector was visualised. Effortsare being made to follow thiswith an integrated approach byinitiating multiple reforms andprogrammes with an overallobjective of doubling farmersincome," Mishra said.

In February 2016, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadsaid farmers' income would bedoubled by 2022 to mark 75years of India's independence.

He further noted that, there isa need to analyse as to why thepast initiatives could notaccomplish the desired resultsand highlighted the need foragricultural research.

"Policymakers and practi-tioners need to look at how onecould address the farmers' risk— that affects his income andwelfare and linking activities ofnon-agriculture sector. This isalso an area of agricultureresearch," he said.

The senior PMO officialsaid that Indian Society ofAgricultural Economics (ISAE)should focus its research on top-ics like why does farmers distresshappen in areas where there ishigh agricultural growth andhow to modernise agriculture.

"Agricultural growth has astrong correlation with pover-ty reduction. In order to alle-viate rural poverty, we need tofocus on agricultural produc-tivity and farmers' income."

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The BJP on Friday releasedits first list of 177 candi-

dates for the Madhya PradeshAssembly polls, slashing tick-ets of 63 MLAs and fieldingChief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan from the Budhniseat, scotching speculation thathe may change his constituen-cy.

Among the 177 namesannounced out of the total of230 Assembly seats, 14 arewomen candidates, even as 63sitting MLAs, who have beendenied tickets, replaced withnew faces. The party alsorepeated 95 MLAs who wonthe election during 2013.

Chouhan would continueto file his nomination from histraditional Budhni seat.

The party also announcedcandidates for 28 Assemblyseats in Telangana and 24 inMizoram.

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Being ardent followers of SardarVallabhbhai Patel, Shekhar Sharma and

his friends, all hearing impaired youth, wereglued to the TV during the recent event forthe unveiling of the statue of the IndianIndependence icon but could not make aword what Prime Minister Narendra Modisaid in his speech.

They could, however, look forward tounderstanding such speeches in the days tocome.

Realising the importance of sign lan-guage interpreters (SLIs) in reaching out tothe hearing impaired persons like Shekharand his friends as well speech impaired per-sons during such important events, theGovernment has asked all the Ministriesand Departments to ensure arrangement ofSLIs in all their meetings, seminars, work-shops and conferences.

The measure, if implemented in rightearnest, will not only sensitise the peopletowards the sector but also create jobs forthe SLIs, said the activists in the sector, wel-coming the move. India has around 80 mil-lion people with disabilities. According tothe 2011 census, there are over 5 millionpeople with hearing disabilities and 2 mil-lion with speech impairment in the coun-try.

Shakuntla Gamlin, Secretary of thePersons with Disability Department underthe Ministry in a letter recently drew theattention of all the Ministries to the rightsof Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act2016 which came into force from April lastyear which recognises sign language as ameans of communication with hearing andspeech impairment.

She reminded the officials concernedthat "As per the provision of the Act, it isincumbent upon the Government to cre-ate a barrier free environment for personswith disabilities not only in respect of builtenvironment but also in the area of trans-

portation, ICT eco system and other facil-ities and services.

"As such it is incumbent upon all theMinistries and department to take steps inthis direction so that all information is avail-able in accessible format for the use of allcategories of the persons with disabilities."

Further with a view to reach out to thepersons with hearing impairment it wouldbe appropriate if sign language interpreta-tion is made available in all Governmentmeetings/workshops/organised by theMinistries /Department, Gamlin added.

Dr Satendra Singh, a disability rightsdefender, called the step as the much-need-ed one. "I had written to the NHRC to makeSLIs mandatory in hospitals. We don't seethat. Imagine a deaf patient needing emer-gency operation, how will the doctors takeconsent? It was strange that theDoordarshan did not interpret the Prime

Minister's speech at Statue of Unity launch.Diversity should be viewed as a norm andnot exception."

It needs to become a culture else the ini-tiative will fail. As we see at present, manyof the circulars on DEPwD websites aren'taccessible to visually impaired," Dr Singhrued.

Alok Bhuwan from ManovikasCharitable Society, echoed similar views say-ing that there may be some challenges suchas shortage of SLIs at various locations,absence of standardisation of contextualvocabulary for ISL etc.

However, this gap can be met throughdeploying ICT Technology solutions suchas closed captioning. The Governmentshould also consider investing in encour-aging research and innovation for locali-sation of such technology solutions, Bhuwansuggested.

To ensure supply of the SLIs and to pro-mote usage of sign language in the coun-try, the Centre on its part, in 2015, set upIndian Sign Language Research andTraining centre in Delhi, a first of its kindin the country. Last year, it came out witha dictionary with over 3,000 signs, relatingto words commonly used in academic, legaland medical circles.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court onFriday quashed an FIR against BJP MPAnurag Thakur, former HimachalPradesh Chief Minister Prem KumarDhumal and others in a case related toalleged irregularities in granting land onlease for construction of the Dharamshalacricket stadium.

A bench of justices A K Sikri, AshokBhushan and Ajay Rastogi said, "We allowthe appeal. The FIR registered isquashed."

Thakur, Dhumal and HimachalPradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) had challenged the HimachalPradesh High Court order refusing toquash the FIR registered during the thenVirbhadra Singh Government in theState.

The High Court on April 25, 2014,had refused to quash the FIR and stay thecriminal trial pending before specialjudge, Dharamshala, in a case registeredfor cheating and criminal conspiracy, andunder provisions of the Prevention ofCorruption Act.

Thakur, who is a BJP MP fromHamirpur and was then the HPCA pres-

ident, had contended in the apex courtthat the case was actually a civil disputebut the then Virbhadra Singh-ledCongress Government had made it acriminal case for political reasons.

The FIR in the case was registered bythe Dharamshala off ice of the Vigilance Bureau on August 1, 2013,months after the Congress Governmentassumed power in December 2012. PTI

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Fridaydismissed the CBI appeal against the DelhiHigh Court's 2005 verdict discharging allthe accused, including the Hinduja broth-ers, in the politically-sensitive �64 croreBofors pay-off case.

The apex court rejected the CBI pleaseeking condonation of the 13 year delayin filing the appeal against the May 31, 2005judgement of the High Court saying it isnot convinced with the grounds furnishedby the agency.

"We are not convinced with thegrounds furnished by the petitioner for theinordinate delay of 4,522 days in filing thepresent Special Leave Petitions," said abench, headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi.

The apex court said the CBI can raiseall grounds in the appeal against the highcourt verdict filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal,who has also challenged the judgement.

The top court has already admitted thepetition filed by Agrawal, the BJP leader,who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tion against the then Congress presidentSonia Gandhi from Rae Bareilly.

"Furthermore, we have noticed that inthe criminal appeal filed against the verysame order by the complainant, the peti-tioner herein i.e. Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) is a party and wouldbe heard in the said appeal. We, therefore,are not inclined to entertain the presentSpecial Leave Petitions," the bench, alsocomprising Justices K M Joseph andHemant Gupta, said.

The CBI had filed the appeal onFebruary 2 this year.

Attorney General K K Venugopalasked the top court to make it clear in itsorder that dismissal of CBI appeal wouldnot preclude the probe agency from car-rying out investigation in the case.

The apex court, however, did notmention anything in its order on this issue.

The High Court in its 2005 judgementhad quashed all charges against the threeHinduja brothers — S P Hinduja, G PHinduja and P P Hinduja — and othersunder the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In December 2016, during the hearingof Agrawal's appeal, the apex court hadasked the CBI why it had not filed the appealwithin the mandatory time limit of 90 days.The agency had said that it did not get thenod from the previous UPA Government.

After the NDA Government came topower, there were speculations that the CBIwould take a call to either respond asrespondent in Agrawal's petition or prefera separate appeal.

After lot of deliberation, the CBI thisyear got the nod from the NDAGovernment to file an appeal in the apexcourt. PTI

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2:�-�-9��—SC bench

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court hasdirected the AAP Government to "redo"the exercise of fixing the minimumwages for the scheduled employment"afresh" within three months.

The top court said that the minimumwages for all classes of workmen in allscheduled employment would be gov-erned by the notification issue by the AAPGovernment on an interim basis.

A bench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi, however, made it clear that,at this stage, no arrears need to be paidbut the current wages will be as per thenotification dated March 3, 2017 till thetime it decides the appeal against theDelhi High Court judgement.

"We also make it clear that the ques-tion of arrears under the notificationdated March 3, 2017 will be governed bysuch wages as may be re-fixed pursuantto the fresh exercise ordered to be under-taken.

"We also make it clear that no recov-ery of amount paid shall be made byemployer(s). Needless to say, in the denovo exercise ordered to be carried outwill be open for all the stakeholders toraise all issues as may be relevant," thebench also comprising Justices U U Lalitand K M Joseph, said.

The high court on August 4 hadquashed Delhi Government's March 2017notification revising minimum wagesfor all classes of workmen in all scheduledemployment, saying the "hurried" deci-sion was taken without hearing theemployers or employees.

As per the notification, the minimumwages for unskilled, semi-skilled andskilled labour were fixed at �13,500,�14,698 and �16,182, respectively.

The decision by the court came onseveral pleas filed by various industrialunits and companies who employ work-ers on minimum wages.

The high court had also set aside aSeptember 2016 notification by which aMinimum Wages Advisory Committeefor all scheduled employments

was set up, saying that its constitutionwas "completely flawed". PTI

Dharamshala: BJP MP Anurag Thakur onFriday welcomed the Supreme Courtorder quashing an FIR against him relat-ed to alleged irregularities in a land dealfor a cricket stadium here, saying the pre-vious Congress Government in HimachalPradesh was against the development ofsports in the State.

He said this is the victory of all thebudding players and sports lovers in thestate.

"The cricket stadium in Dharamshalawas created for promoting the game in

Himachal Pradesh, but the CongressGovernment took every possible stepagainst it," he said.

"The intention of that government wasnot towards development, but for destruc-tion of sports," the Hamirpur MP said.

The Supreme Court Friday quashedthe FIR filed against Thakur, formerHimachal Pradesh chief minister PremKumar Dhumal and others in a case relat-ed to alleged irregularities in granting landon lease for construction of theDharamshala cricket stadium. PTI

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Jaipur: Rajasthan Congresson Friday said it will soonbring out a "report card" ofChief Minister VasundharaRaje-led State Government'sperformance, highlighting its"unfulfilled promises".

Addressing a press con-ference here, RajasthanCongress president SachinPilot said the "report card"would be an analysis of thepromises made by theGovernment and those ful-filled in the last five years.

Speaking about theCongress' list of candidatesfor next month's assemblyelections, he said the first willbe released after Diwali.

Pilot said the party'smanifesto will incorporate

suggestions and demands ofall sections of society.

The Congress had earli-er said the manifesto wouldbe announced by the secondweek of this month.

Party manifesto com-mittee in-charge HarishChaudhary said people cangive their suggestions by call-ing a toll-free helpline num-ber, messaging or throughshort videos.

He said the suggestionscan also be given throughFacebook within a week'stime.

Polling will be held inRajasthan on December 7.The results will beannounced on December 11along with four other States.

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Page 6: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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JD(S) supremo HD DeveGowda who is in a calculat-

ed way pitching for Congress’president Rahul Gandhi as theprime ministerial candidatefor the 2019 general electionshas to face a litmus test in thebattlefield Ballari, a by-electionfor Lok Saba on Saturday. TheCongress candidate VSUgrappa, supported by thecoalition of JD(S) and Congressis facing the heat in the dustyterrain of Ballari where miningbaron Reddy brothers arevigoursly campaigning for JShantha of the BJP. Shantha isthe sister of powerful ScheduleTribe leader J Sriramulu. Ballariis reserved ST constituency.The by election was necessi-tated by the resignation ofSriramulu from Lok Sabha ashe had won the election toKarnataka Assembly.

Many insiders in the rulingGovernment feel it is really atough fight taking on Reddybrothers and the stronghold ofSriramulu. It is also testing timefor the JD(S)- Congress combinewho dream of taking this unityto the 2019 general elections tofight the BJP and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Karnataka is witnessingthree by polls to Ballari,Shivamogga and Mandya andtwo assembly seats atRamanagara and Jamakhandi

on Saturday. Even though theelections are not an indicator ofthe future keeping in mind2019 general elections, it is cru-cial for all the three politicalparties, Congress, BJP andJD(S) to establish theirsupremacy in the politicalsphere of the State.

In Jamakhandi, the lateMLA’s son Anand Nyamagoudais contesting on Congress tick-et, but faces serious challengefrom BJP’s Shrikant Kulkarni.Kulkarni is a BJP veteran inlocal politics and confident ofsailing through. At Ramanagaraassembly constituency in anembarrassment to BJP its can-didate L Chandrashekharretired from the fray in supportof Anita Kumaraswamy, thewife of Chief Minister HDKumaraswamy.

At Shivamogga lok sabaconstituency which is facing bypolls after Lingayat strongmanBS Yeddyurappa got elected toassembly, his son BYRaghavendra is contesting andfighting a fierce battle facing theson of former Chief MinisterMadhu Bangarappa of the JD(S).Another candidate Mahima Patilof the JD(U) and son of lateChief Minister J H Patel is alsoin the fray. In Mandya the coali-tion combine has put up JD(S)candidate L Shivarame Gowdafacing BJP’s Siddaramaiah.

At Ballari it is a keen con-test between Congress Minister

DK Shivakumar and BJPstrongman J Sriramulu. Theyare fighting to establish polit-ical supremacy in the crucialHyderabad Karnataka.

In Ballari the Congresshas been leaving no stoneunturned to clinch the seatfrom the BJP in a bid to regainits lost glory, which it hadenjoyed ever since electionswere held in 1952 till 2000. Theparty is also in buoyant moodafter it won six out of nineAssembly seats in the recent-ly concluded elections. Casteplays a major role in Ballariand it’s controlled by STs andother backward communities.

The Congress won six outof the nine assembly seats inMay, but the electorate hasmore often favoured the BJP innational elections. Sriramulu,who had left the BJP before2013, rejoined the party and hadsuccessfully contested the 2014Lok Sabha election and 2018assembly polls. In May, he choseto retain his assembly seat.

Meanwhile in anotherpolitical development theKarnataka BJP , which wasstumped on Thursday by thewithdrawal of its candidate inthe Ramanagara Assembly bye-poll favouring JD(S) candidateAnita Kumaraswamy just twodays ahead of the election, hasnow sought the polling to bepostponed in the seat. Theyhave petitioned the EC.

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When the helicopter carry-ing Chief Minister Nitish

Kumar and his officials liftedup from the airport at Gayaafter the sunset, when he hada pleasant surprise to see belowthe streaks of lights on theentire fully illuminated routedown to Patna. He asked hissecretaries to take out theirmobile phones and take thepictures. “This was a real pleas-ant surprise,” he said whileaddressing a meeting to markthe completion of his ambitiousproject “Har ghar bijli” underhis seven resolves. All thehouseholds in Bihar have beenconnected with power in arecord time and two monthsprior to the deadline ofDecember 31, 2018.

What a huge contrast! InFebruary 2004, The Economistin A Survey of India specialsupplement said, “Satellite pho-tos of India at night showBihar at centre of an area ofdarkness. Electricity is a spo-radic luxury.”

Nitish and his EnergyMinister Bijendra Prasad Yadavhave another interesting folkstory to link with darkness ornon-electricity in rural areas.They revealed a “bhoot” (ghost)story at the glittering pro-gramme to mark the sixth foun-dation day of Bihar State PowerHolding Company (BSPHC)hours after the Halloween dayobserved across the world .

“The mothers used to dis-allow children going out ofhome by scaring them thatbhoot in the darkness will catchthem. Now with electricityeverywhere the bhoot has beendriven away. This is a big socialreform,” said Nitish. “Under thelight they read, play and moveout without a fear because moth-ers can no longer scare themwith ghosts of darkness. Theghost is gone”, Yadav added ,

Energy department princi-pal secretary and BSPHC CMDPratyaya Amrit said under themission mode all hands in thecompanies worked constantlybeating the weather woes tocomplete the gigantic task.

Bihar is eighth States toachieve total electrification.Until 2005 electricity was a lux-ury and even in big townsincluding State capital 24 hourspower was beyond imagination.

Amrit said “har ghar bijli”scheme was launched by theCM on November 15, 2016 fix-ing a target to take power to allthe households desirous tohave connection by December31, 2018. “We worked withdedication and zeal andachieved this goal two monthsearlier. Our work becamemodel for the country andteams from other States andCentre visited to see it. TheCentre adopted this schemeunder its Saubhagya Yojna,”said Amrit under whose lead-ership the herculean task oflighting Bihar turned a realityin just few years. “2719 un-elec-trified villages and 26,000 set-tlements were electrified inonly 87 days and our team didit with precision,” he added.

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Family members of formerFinance Minister and

Congress strongman PChidambaram got a major reliefin a legal battle against theCentre as the Madras HighCourt on Friday quashed a sanc-tion order by an income tax offi-cial to prosecute them under the

Black Money (UndisclosedForeign Income and Assets) andImposition of Tax Act of 2015.

Nalini Chidambaram(lawyer wife of Chidambaram),Karti P Chidambaram (son)and Srinidhi KartiChidambaram (daughter-in-law)had challenged the prosecutionprocess launched against themby the Department of IncomeTax under the above mentioned

Act. They had contended thatthe Principal Director of IncomeTax (Investigation) was not thecompetent officer to launchprosecution under Section 50 ofthe Act and hence the complaintfiled against them should bequashed.

Justices S Manikumar andSubramonium Prasad who heardthe petition quashed the sanctionorders issued by the Income Tax

official stating that the sanctionhad not been given in accor-dance with law. The judges alsoquashed the private complaintslodged by the Income TaxDepartment against the familybefore the MetropolitanMagistrate Court in Chennai.

The judges ruled that thesanction had not been given inaccordance with the law. Thepetitioners had told the courtthat the Principal Director ofIncome Tax (Investigation )was not the competent author-ity to launch prosecution underSection 50 of the Act and hencethe complaint filed against themshould be quashed. The ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate Courtat Egmore Chennai was notdesignated as a special courtunder the act, they argued.

The cases were filed after ithas been found by the Income Taxdepartment that Karti, his moth-er and wife had purchased a prop-erty in London (5, Holben Close,Barton, Cambridge, UK). The ITDepartment found that the prop-erty was purchased for �5.37

crore but this was not disclosed inthe IT returns filed by them.

The petitioners also con-tended that if any proceedingswere initiated by the ChiefMetroplitan Magistrate basedon the prosecution complaintfiled by the second respondent(Principal Director), who isincompetent to file the com-plaint, it would cause prejudiceto the respondents. “The peti-tioner does not have any undis-closed foreign asset and hencedoes not come within thepurview of the Black MoneyAct,” the petitioners had claimed.

But G Rajagopal, addi-tional solicitor general whoappeared for the Governmentsaid the Income Tax depart-ment would definitely chal-lenge Friday’s decision of theMadras High Court as theChief Metroplitan MagistrateCourt was the competent courtfor the trial of the case andthere was no discrepancy in theprincipal director initiatingprosecution proceedingsagainst the petitioners.

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Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal on

Friday warned stern actionagainst those involved in themassacre of five Bengali Hinduin Tinsukia district of easternAssam on Thursday eveningand said that the Governmentwill also take action against asection of people, organisationsand public representatives whomade inflammatory statementsin the past that led to the inci-dent on Thursday.

Three Ministers of theChief Minister SarbanandaSonowal led Assam cabinetvisited the place of occur-rence on Friday and interact-ed with the people to assuresecurity to them. TheGovernment have alsoannounced ex-gratia of �5lakh and Government jobs tothe next keen of the victims’family.

“We will take strongestaction against the perpetratorsof this heinous crime. I havedirected all law enforcing agen-cies to maintain peace andtake stern action against any-body trying to destabilise ourpeaceful society and State,”Sonowal tweeted on Friday.

“I strongly condemn thecowardly attack on innocentpeople at Sadiya. My hearfeltcondolence to the family mem-bers of those who have losttheir lives Sonowal tweeted onFriday. “My police departmenthas started taking actionagainst the culprits involved inthe killing,” said Sonowal inanother tweet on Friday.

“Some individuals, organi-

zations, a section of media,social media and inflammato-ry statements by a section ofpeoples’ representatives haveled to the situation yesterday.We appeal all to maintainrestrain or we will be forced totake action against them,”Sonowal said.

Interestingly, the anti-talkfaction of Ulfa, who the policehad suspected to be behind theincident, denied their involve-ment in the incident on Friday.

Assam DGP KuladharSaikia refused to name any par-ticular outfit behind the inci-dent on Friday and only saidthat the police have started theinvestigation to bring the cul-prits to the book. “Our first jobis to instill a sense of securityamong the people living hereand we are doing that. I hopethat police will arrest the cul-prits soon,” said the DGP.

In another development,police in Assam’s capital townGuwahati have arrested MrinalHazarika, a senior leader of thepro-talk faction of Ulfa for

allegedly making inflammatorystatements against a particularcommunity a few days back.

Police said that Hazarikawhile speaking against theCitizenship (Amendment)Bill recently had threatenedthe Bengali Hindus of direconsequences.

It may be mentioned herethat Assam has been witnessingsevere protests over the BJP ledGovernment’s move to pass inthe parliament the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016—a con-stitutional amendment bill thatseeks to grant citizenship topersecuted minority commu-nities in Bangladesh, Pakistanand Afghanistan. While severalorganizations including theindigenous communities areopposing the Bill, some of theHindu Bengali organizations aresupporting the Bill. SeveralHindu Bengali organization hadalso planned to organize a rallyin support of the Bill onNovember 17, to which, howeverthe BJP led Assam Governmentdenied permission.

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Thiruvananthapuram: Withthe Sabarimala temple set toopen for a day on Monday, theCongress on Friday accused theKerala Government of "creatingtrouble" over the temple issue.

Addressing the media here,Leader of Opposition RameshChennithala said that instead ofdousing passions, it was mostunfortunate that the LeftGovernment was trying to cre-ate frictions.

"The BJP and SanghParivar have one agenda. TheVijayan Government shouldhave come out with a properplan to avoid any trouble. Theirdecision to appoint 1,500 partyworkers on temporary basis inthe temple town for the twomonth long pilgrimage seasonis a challenge to peace in thetemple town," said

Chennithala."The Government has no

business to interfere in the pil-grimage," he added.

Ever since the SupremeCourt ruled that women of allage can visit the Sabarimalatemple, the Kerala Governmenthas said it will uphold the ver-

dict, angering tra-ditionalists. TheKerala High Courthas patted the StateGovernment.

In a relateddevelopment, anorganisation of theHindu Nair com-munity which hastaken a standagainst the LeftGovernment hadthree of its officesattacked, forcing

its General SecretarySukumaran Nair to warn theCPI-M on Friday "not to playwith them".

"We know who is behindthe attacks," said Nair, addingthat the need of the hour wasto resolve the Sabarimala issue.

IANS

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Even as situation remainedtense in communally sen-

sitive Kishtwar after the 'brutal'killing of a top BJP leader, AnilParihar, and his elder brother,Ajeet Parihar, on ground zerofear is lurking in the minds oflocal residents over the revivalof terrorism in the region.

Deputy Commissioner,Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana,had imposed curfew restric-tions in the area late Thursdaynight to contain public angeragainst the killing. Mobileinternet services were snappedin the hilly districts whileInternet services were sloweddown across Jammu region toprevent spread of rumours andcommunally sensitive propa-ganda material/literature.

Parihar was one of thebravest right wing politicians inthe region and had counteredseparatism and terrorism 'firm-ly'. He along with his brother wasrunning a stationary and sportsgoods business in Kishtwar. Theduo were returning home when'unidentified' gunmen hit themin the head,leading to their sud-den death.

Recently, he had publiclyopposed calls for support ofArticle 35A at the peak ofcontroversy over granting spe-cial status to the State of J&K.

Almost 25 years ago onMay 10, 1993 one of the mostvocal and popular leader ofVishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),Satish Bhandari, too was gunneddown in the same area by'unidentified' terrorists. He wastargeted by the terrorists tospread panic among the mem-bers of the Hindu community tofled away from the hilly district.

On the same pattern sus-

pected terrorists, believed to becadre of Hizbul Mujahideen, tar-geted Anil Parihar to eliminatetall leaders and instil fear in theirminds, local residents alleged.

Former BJP Minister and alocal MLA, Sunil Sharma,echoed similar sentiments inKishtwar ahead of their cre-mation ceremony.

Speaking to media per-sons at his residence SunilSharma said, "it is due to thefailure of the security agencieswe have lost such a senior BJPleader who represented voice ofthe people of Kishtwar regionand played key role in ongoingfight against revival of terror-ism in the region".

Sharma said, series of eventswhich have taken place clearlyindicate attempts are being madeto once again revive terrorism inthe region to scare away Hindupopulation.He also raised ques-tion marks over the decision todisband Special Operations

group (SOG) from the area,chiefly responsible for tacklingthe threat posed by terrorists.

He said each and every BJPworker present in Kishtwar isalert and ready to foil sinisterdesign of anti national forces.

Before the cremation cere-mony Army columns stagedflag march in Kishtwar andneighbouring Bhaderwah townin Doda district to restore peacein the region. Protests rockeddifferent district headquarters ofJammu region where BJP work-ers and various other socio-politico organisations stagedprotest demonstrations andshouted anti-Pak slogans.

Former Deputy ChiefMinister Kavinder Guptademanded high level probebehind the brutal killing. Hesaid it could be a case of polit-ically motivated murder and ahigh level probe should beordered to unravel the mys-tery behind the attack.

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Jammu: Minister of State inthe Prime Minister's OfficeDr Jitendra Singh was 'heckled'by angry mourners after thecremation ceremony was overin Kishtwar on Friday.

Surrounded by thick posseof security personnel whenDr Singh was stepping out ofthe cremation ground, localresidents tried to approachhim but were prevented fromcoming closer.

Agitated residents thenstarted raising the issue of 'selec-tive' killing of members of the

minority community and poorsecurity arrangements in thedistrict to ensure their safety.

Section of the people alsovent their ire highlighting longabsence of MoS PMO from hisparliamentary constituency. Atthis moment Inspector Generalof Police, Jammu range Dr SDSingh Jamwal escorted Dr Singhsafely from the spot and whiskedhim away in his official car.Slogans were also raised againstthe district police and localauthorities for failing to ensuresafety of residents. PNS

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Trinamool Congress andCPI(M) erupted in a big

way condemning Thursday’sTinsukia killings with BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday turningher social media display pictureblack as a mark of solidaritywith the Assam victims’ fami-lies and lambasting the BJP forinjecting fear in every house-hold of the country.

Five people of Bengalicommunity were brutallygunned down by unknownassailants at Tinsukia onThursday evening.

While the CPI(M) tookout a rally on Friday eveningTMC MP and AbhishekBanerjee led a huge rally in thenoon demanding Assam ChiefMinister’ Sarbanand Sonwal’sresignation for “presiding overa Government of killers” andfailing to protect the lives ofinnocent, hapless people.

The TMC leaders tweeted“in solidarity, on Protest day tocondemn the brutal killings ofBengalis by a State ruled by theBJP we are turning outTwitter/FB DPs into black,”adding street protests wouldcontinue throughout Bengaleven as an embarrassed BJPleadership wondered why theTrinamool and the Left weremaking an issue out of the inci-dent as “the AssamGovernment has taken promptaction over the issue.”

Calling the Thursday’skillings as an “extension ofAssam Government’s NRCdrive” the Bengal ChiefMinister said “the people whowere killed on Thursday belongto the poorest of the poor sec-tion of the society” wonderingwhether the killings were adirect fallout of the animosityprovoked by the NRC drive inthat State.

The BJP was driving outthe Biharis from Gujarat,

Bengalis and UP wallahs fromAssam so that it had becomedifficult to survive peacefullyin one’s own country, Banerjeealleged saying her party wouldalways remain by the side ofthe victims of such massextraditions.

“Under this Government(in Centre) India is in the gripof fear. Every household is infear. There is fear of demon-etisation, there is fear of mur-der like the one happened inTinsukia, the fear of beingejected in the name of NRC,the fear of central Agencies,”Banerjee said.

Attacking the BJP for creat-ing a rift among the people of thecountry the Chief Minister saidthose who were talking aboutnationalism and unity of thecountry were actually trying todivide its citizens along thelines of religion, caste, language.

Her nephew and party MPAbhishek Banerjee who ledthe Friday’s rally too demand-ed immediate halt in persecu-tion of Bengalis in Assam say-ing “there is a clear BJP handin the Assam killings. The factof the matter is that the ChiefMinister of that State who hadled the NRC movement shouldimmediately resign for failingto protect the lives of the inno-cent citizens.”

CPI(M) which also tookout an impressive rally onFriday evening said the partywould continue to carry outprotest movements against theBJP’s divisive politics. “Eversince the BJP has come topower either in Delhi or inAssam or anywhere the placesconcerned have seen killingslike this. These are no ordinarypolitical murders but they con-tain communal and sectarianvenom which may have farreaching effect,” CPI(M) centralcommittee member SujanChakrabarty said.

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Accompanied by his Gujaratcounterpart Vijay Rupani,

Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministerand star campaigner of rulingBJP for the upcoming LokSabha polls Yogi Adityanath onFriday paid tribute to SardarVallabhbhai Patel by visiting‘Statue of Unity’ – the talleststatue of the world situated nearSardar Sarovar Dam.

Yogi, who was personallyinvited by Gujarat CM Rupanicouldn’t remain present inthe inauguration ceremonyof the Statue on the birthanniversary of Sardar Patel onOctober 31 in presence ofPrime Minister NarendraModi. Sources in Gujarat BJPsaid that other BJP ruled CMswould visit the statue site incoming days. Even PresidentRamnath Kovind is alsoscheduled to visit the statue onDecember 15.

Meanwhile, during his briefinteraction with the local mediaYogi praise GujaratGovernment’s efforts to pay

befitting tribute to the ‘Ironmanof India’ by constructing histallest statue at Sadhu Bet situ-ated on the River Narmada.Despite repeated questionsabout Ram temple at Ayodhya,Yogi didn’t make any remarksbefore a group of newsmen.

“It was Sardar’s vision tomerge more than 550 PrincelyStates into Union of Indiaimmediately after the inde-pendence. The statue wouldgive inspiration for unity to

generations in future,” he saidadding that the Statue of Unitywould also bring prosperityand employment opportunitiesin the tribal dominatedNarmada district.

Officials of Sardar SarovarNarmada Nigam Limitedbriefed the UP CM about the‘Statue of Unity’ project. Healso visited ‘Valley of Flowers’near the Statue apart fromclimbing the statue up to view-ing gallery.

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The men and women inkhaki, all trainee consta-

bles, on Friday went on ram-page, attacking and assaultingtheir seniors and vendalisingthe new police line, hitting atthe media people and com-moners breaking their camerasand equipment and vehicle.They were protesting over thedeath of a woman constableSavita Pathak due to dengueand denial of leave to her. Theofficials including city SP, ruralSP, DSP and sergeant majorwho reached the spot wereabused and chased with ram-paging cops throwing stone atthem. A DSP rank official wasseen bleeding with his uniformblood soaked.

In bid to ensure that theirvandalism was not video-graphed they assaulted the cam-eramen and broke their equip-ment. Those who tried to filmtheir acts on their mobile phoneswere also attacked and phoneswere snatched and smashedunder their boots. They alsorampaged a temple adjacent tothe police line and smashed itsCCTV camera unit. Over tenpolice vehicles were ransacked.

Even the tough and nonon-sense SSP of Patna ManuMaharaaj could not dare to

enter the police line. It was likea police revolt against thepolice force when the juniorpolicemen were seen attackingand assaulting with sticks andstones violently the senior offi-cials. Ten rounds were alsofired but to no avail.

The daughter of a DSP rankofficial Maslehuddin Ahmad,whose residence is inside policeline said they numbered no lessthan 300 and smashed over tenvehicles badly with flower potsand showed her own scootywhich was destroyed.

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Author Lew Wallace had oncesaid, “The monuments of thenations are all protests againstnothingness after death; so arestatues and inscriptions; so is

history.” Yet, from the momentous zeal oftheir commemoration, they get easilybronzed over with layers of interpretationthat settle one over the other till the curat-ed gleam is gone. Then they descend intothe heat and dust of everydayness, becom-ing a part of the gush of life that doesn’t real-ly care what they stand for or not. And theyend up being a scaffolding of life itself, aperch for natural life forms, a shelteringshadow for refugees who have nowhere togo and a landmark for people to map theirjourneys with. This is the fundamental truthof extraordinary efforts that in the endbecome ordinary statistics.

Yet statues have a visual narrative thatnobody in the world can unstring them-selves from. They are the most visible mark-ers of our civilisational history, from theEgyptian pyramids to the Bamiyan Buddhas.And their unshakeable giganticism seeks totranscend time and space, sometimesimprinting themselves, at other timesencroaching on collective consciousness.They even acquire a spiritual aura as a repos-itory of collective faith. Do we really thenneed statues in an information age? Yes,because there is no scale-flexing in a flatworld of digital uniformity. So we want tostand out more in the physical world. Thisexplains why the Chinese demolished thestatus of the Statue of Liberty as the tallestwith its Buddhist statue at Henan and Indiatoppled that with its Statue of Unity dedi-cated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, nevermind if Buddha is India’s most successfulexport to China or that the Patel statue hasChinese bronze. Both examples of shininghuman endeavour and might, they gentri-fy the appreciation of it in the process…wehave it, you don’t. Even making the digitalplane subservient to them.

In fact, statues continue to be a focalpoint of posturing and messaging. One justhas to go back to the viral images of anAfrican-American woman climbing andclinging to the skirts of the Statue ofLiberty, protesting against US PresidentDonald Trump’s immigration policies andpolice trying to talk her down. That imagewas the most potent reminder of what theAmerican nation was born of and stood for,an instant reckoner of history and itsobfuscation too. If there was collective amne-sia about the essence of the proverbialAmerican dream, one unremarkable womancould get that back by courting at the feetof the Statue of Liberty. Simply because itwas there to anchor history in the first place.What could be a tokenism turned into amilestone on a civilisational timeline.

That explains the current swirl of opin-ionating on the statue on the banks of theSabarmati at Kevadiya in Gujarat. And per-

haps in a post-truth world,myth-making becomes easierwith statues embodying theviewpoint of the story-teller. Inthat sense, statues, museumsand public monuments aremutual extensions of each other,offering a manicured version ofhistory as well as encouragingits dissidence in the publicspace. So for critics questioningthe delayed iconisation ofSardar Patel as an appropriationof his legacy for political mon-gering by the ruling BJP, factremains that it was necessary torescue him from his relativeanonymity in the Congressannals. Yes, he was the architectof the modern republic as weknow it today, uniting theimpossible princely states andtackling internal emergenciesand Kashmir with a deft hand.In that sense he was a truenationalist. However, out ofthe Gandhi-Nehru aura, hedrifted to the right end of theCongress spectrum and there-fore, policy-wise, found a reso-nance in today’s BJP, which ispositing itself as his rescuer inhistory and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as a fellowGujarati appropriating the goodintentions of a “son of the soil”like himself. The BJP may notend up practising Patel’s ideolo-gies as such but the fact remainsthat the statue was a historicalnecessity of sorts too amid aplethora of commemorativeplaques, platitudes, busts andmemorials.

Statues around the worldhave been installed anddethroned in this continuousprocess called revision of histo-ry. Be it the desecration of theConfederate statues in the US orthe tumble of Lenin-Stalinshrines with the collapse of

Communism, or the neo-recla-mation of BR Ambedkar andother Dalit icons by a flurry ofmonoliths commissioned byBSP chief Mayawati, all seem toharp on the need to archive anddocument history as is and notits coloured versions. It’s for thesame reason that the busts ofBengal revolutionaries contin-ue to be venerated in that state,once by the Left and now by theTrinamool Congress, simplybecause they do not find duespace in the Congress-dominat-ed retelling of our story ofIndependence. And even ifthere’s inclusivity in texts andrecorded material, truth is therecannot be denial in the publicspace, which ought to allowdemocratic discourse, onewhere everybody can find a res-onance, can invest his identityand claim a stake. Such coop-tion and acceptance of ideaswill, therefore, for some time tocome, rest with public monu-ments. And perhaps whenevery ship finds a lighthouse,will we wake up to our fullpotential as an eclectic culture.Right now, we are in the processof historical correction and stillquite a long way away fromaccepting guilt too for the manyindiscretions of societal violenceand genocide. Will these too fig-ure in statues like the SaltMarch of Dandi?

So statues will continue toendure, either by their installa-tion or their decimation ortheir reinterpretation, simplybecause people look up to tan-gible, tactile heroes and feel atransformative moment of ris-ing to their potential, if onlybriefly. People like to look up toa Netaji Subhash Chandra Bosethan the many netajis of con-temporary politics who have

eroded the allure of leadership.So they make a hue and cry inKolkata when his bronzed like-ness gets crusted with birddroppings. Or feel respectfulenough to not even smokearound the statue ofVivekananda in Kanyakumari,his bigness reminding them toelevate themselves momentar-ily. And nobody may haveheeded the angst of RohithVermula when he was alive butthe Dalit student, who commit-ted suicide driven by casteistmoves against him, has man-aged to galvanise a movementin his university and ensure thathuman rights are executed, notgiven out as a dole. Talking infront of his newly-constructedstatue, one of the student lead-ers Sreerag P had said, “Rohithwas an imperative force, whothrough his memories, rekin-dles the ethos of resistancewhich are carved into our polit-ical psyche.”

Call it retributive, restora-tive or retrospective justice buttill we deal with falsification anddenials of history tellers, the pol-itics and debates around build-ing statues will continue togather steam. And since we area far cry from developing livingicons, except in the spiritualsphere, and humans cannoteasily become demi-gods, therewill be no easy answers. Hadthat been the case, we would becelebrating modern shrines likethe Jammu & Kashmir Railway,an unimaginable feat and tem-ple of modern India among theshifting Himalayas with theworld’s highest arch bridge. Butwe have not yet learnt to cele-brate or acknowledge the effortsof little big men.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Sardar Patel: New India’scrisis man”(October 31) bySuresh Prabhu. The writer hasrightly paid rich tributes toSardar Patel, the unsung hero ofindependence, and has given thefinest detail about his contribu-tion towards India’s indepen-dence and its unity. It is a factthat history books in schoolshave less space for Patel.Instead, our present generationor even generations post India’sIndependence were forced tolearn again and again aboutthose very leaders who werealready declared national heroes.

Currently, the presentGovernment at the Centre hasdone the right thing to haveinstalled the Statue of Unity inremembrance of the Iron Man.The statue is not only the tallestin the world, but it spreadsacross the message that it wasbecause of Sardar Patel’s effortsthat India stands untied today.His contributions to the nation’scause are taller than his statue onthe banks of the Narmada river.

Sharadchandran SNew Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Save the world” (November 2).We, humans, are the mostdestructive animals on this plan-et Earth. While other species killonly for food, we kill for pleasure.Further, our appetite for killingremains insatiable. We destroyforests to satisfy our greed with-

out thinking that we are destroy-ing the environment.

Ashok MehtaVia web

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Sir — This refers to the edito-rial, “Sardar Patel: New India’scrisis man”(October 31) bySuresh Prabhu. The Statue of

Unity, the tallest in the world,inaugurated by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in Gujarat willserve as a reminder to the entireworld and also future genera-tions about the courage, capabil-ity and resolution of the Ironman (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel)who did the holy work of thwart-ing the conspiracy to disintegratemother India into pieces. Thestatue will also remind those

who keep questioning India’sexistence since it is the talleststatue in the world made of purebronze.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Sir — This refers to the edito-rial, “Cure worse than disease”(November 1). It is not that onlyoutlived vehicles running onDelhi’s roads are responsiblefor the air pollution. There areothers factors, too, that need tobe dealt with all seriousness.Factory emissions in and aroundthe National Capital Regioncontribute greatly in the form ofcarbon emissions. Farmers, too,resort to burning of their agri-cultural wastes.

Action should be taken toreduce the emission from facto-ries and ways should be devisedto destroy the agricultural wastesbesides banning outdated auto-mobiles polluting the air in theNCR.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

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Page 9: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

Businesses today are on the con-stant lookout for an increasingcompetitive advantage by

improving employee engagement,increasing productivity and expand-ing globally, while ensuring securityand cost management. The move-ment from desk-first to mobile-firstis the primary driving force behindworkplace evolution across the globe.

The fruitful combination of realestate, technology and human behav-iour results in successful workplacetransformation — by crafting flexibleand innovative set-ups. To trulyembrace the evolution of workplacesand derive a wholesome collaborativeenvironment, what’s required is a newway of thinking — the fruition of tra-ditional beliefs of ‘from work being a

place’ to ‘work being a concept’.There has been a fundamental

shift in workspaces from the idea ofsupervision to the idea of fulfillingobjectives. The older format of run-ning cubes was majorly driven by thebelief that if the employees are notpresent in the manager’s line ofvision, they must not be working.However, latest surveys show that thetrust factor between employees is theprimary force behind meeting dead-lines. This breaks the fundamentalnotion behind standard set-ups, giv-ing way to more open layouts andflexible formats.

Open plans, that are economical-ly efficient, predicate on establishingparity across the workspace toenhance employee experience andwell-being, whilst eliminating thephysical metaphors of authoritarian-ism. It also dissolves traditionalnotions of professional hierarchy andembraces democratic engagement.Infrastructure, too, steers collabora-tive and transparent environment.

There is a growing shift towardsdesigning workplaces that reflect an

egalitarian structure through recep-tive design, disregarding orthodoxnorms. As the role of employees isbeing imagined beyond a static loca-tion, their spaces have become moredynamic and temporal according tothe changing nature of work.

Work needs to be portrayed assomething more than the confine-ment of a cubicle-dynamic in its fun-damental approach. Cubicle set-upsare rigid, often forcing individuals toget through the assigned work froma location, which hampers humanpotential as different kinds of spacesthat are required to drive differentrequirements at work environments.

The dynamic nature of spacesallows for a differentiated group for-mation and activity, which benefitsteam-building efforts. Every individ-ual is unique and tackles situationsdifferently. What is needed as per theever-evolving corporate space is a wayto substantiate the requirements of all,while managing to achieve the deco-rum of a workplace. This means pro-viding collaborative spaces, meetingspaces, team rooms and allowing peo-

ple to work from any corner of a set-up that helps them achieve efficien-cy. As the spaces become sociallyreceptive, the transfer of informationand networks acquires differentforms, thereby inviting collabora-tion. Such a breakdown of hierarchyin workplaces is a new concept.Offices should be transformed toaccommodate the kind of work thatsupports business outcomes.

Beyond developing a new mind-set, these transformations are a directoutcome of three areas: Real estate,technology, and people. For the realestate, it is imperative to move awayfrom assigned seating to open seat-ing, where organisational teams canfunction together. Providing a varietyof seating spaces for employees tomove around and work according totheir requirement is not only feasible,but is also modular. More needs canbe identified using data analysis tomeet the changing spatial require-ments. To decouple the physicalspace, consumption from employeeheadcount to lower real estate cost isimperative to provide spaces that

remain economically inclusive forsmaller organisations.

With growth in consumer-basedtechnology, the need of the hour is toleverage existing investments in wire-less infrastructure and remote accesscontrol. Collaboration tools are thenew meeting rooms. With employeesspread across the globe, it is impor-tant to have everyone on one portalto facilitate discussions. Here, theemployees’ choice of device often endsup being a vital factor in meetingdeadlines with productive work. So,the choice of device is the fundamen-tal factor behind the design of spaces,delineating the nature of their use.

The present trend of globalisationhas created a combinatorial explosionof ideas amongst people, wheredesires, needs and choices are notdefined by region, but by approach.The present rate of globalisationrequires everyone to be prompt withnew devices and techniques of collab-oration. Training sessions to bringeveryone on the same platform willenhance productivity and engage-ment. Collaboration is being encour-

aged via meeting rooms and tools.Flexible workstations are a must.

Transformed workplaces, in linewith the requirements of an organi-sation, often result in happier employ-ees. They also enable better hiring,thus bringing in the most qualifiedcandidates for the position as locationno longer dictates success. This alsoenhances space utilisation, as seatingis only provided based on the employ-ees coming in on a day, which resultsin greater employee engagement andcompetitive advantage for the busi-ness. Thus, a collaborative approachto workplaces is not only a market-ing approach, but a performance-based intervention that retains cre-ative output. Thus, workspaces aretransforming from product-centricenvironments to customer-centricenvironments, being able to incorpo-rate a research-based, operation-based and consultancy-based atmos-phere within the confinements of asingle space, which is evidently muchmore sustainable.

(The writer is COO of a designconsultancy firm)

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Any economic growth, beyond justtransactional trade and investments,is based on people-to-people links,starting at the leadership level. TheIndia Economic Strategy (IES) 2035

report, authored by Peter N Varghese,Chancellor, University of Queensland, recognis-es the importance of people-to-people links asa part of the bilateral architecture and is lead-ership driven.

This diplomacy approach includes political,bureaucratic, business and sectoral leaders at theground level to build trust, social understand-ing and cultural capacity between countries overa period of time consistently, and goes beyondongoing arts and cultural exchanges or pro-grammes between the countries. Crisis such asthe Doklam conflict between India and Chinawas diffused by a well-planned “informal”meeting between Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chinese President Xi Jinping atWuhan, China. The summit was set with socialand cultural exposure to reiterate the bondbetween the two leadership, translating to abilateral relationship.

In a similar way, it was a conscious decisionby Prime Minister Modi to bond with formerAustralian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbullwith a metro ride to the Akshardham Templeto establish leadership trust. In doing so,Narendra Modi signalled that India’s foreignrelations have grown in strength not onlybased on its strategic and economic priorities,but also its history, multi-cultural values andsocial equity.

Cultural intelligence and capacity: Indiaand Australia both have a multi-cultural soci-ety and work environment that requires theGovernment and leaders across various sectorsto be equipped with cultural intelligence as askill. Cultural intelligence not only plays animportant role among stakeholders in shapingdiplomatic, domestic and international policies,but also nurtures businesses, industries, com-munities and society. Cultural intelligence is alsoknown within businesses as cultural quotient(CQ), which is a theory within management andorganisational psychology. This is a critical gapI see where bilateral stakeholders are unable toapply this skill, which is commonly misunder-stood for cultural exposure or knowledge of acountry.

Cultural intelligence and capacity will makepositive impacts at three broad levels forAustralia in context of bilateral relationship:

�� Diplomacy and policy: In Australiandiplomacy, bureaucrats and political leadershipneed to consider shifting from the lens of‘Anglospheric or Anglo-Saxon’ to a ‘socio-cul-tural’ lens of India for bilateral engagement. Thiswill allow Australia to interpret India’s vision ofdevelopment and build a new strategic narra-tive from non-alignment to multi-alignment incontext to India’s foreign policy of a new glob-al order. Australia’s foreign policy towardsIndia can lend a new dimension with relevantinclusion of cultural diplomacy, which is stillconventionally viewed as state-sponsored/sup-ported arts and cultural exchange.

Cultural diplomacy needs to have an inclu-

sive approach of bringing theGovernment and business leaders toconsult with the social sector and sus-tainability and cultural leaders for pol-icy development. The case for suchpolicy consultation required is thateconomic investments can’t be madein any geography without a social, eco-logical and cultural audit of theregion. Socio-cultural insights makethe deployment of investments effec-tive and mitigates on-ground resis-tance or bottlenecks, such as theAdani case. Australia’s own domesticpolicies for a multi-cultural societyand economy could benefit frombuilding cultural capacity among pol-icy-makers and influencers. A positivestart in this direction has been thelaunch of ‘Victoria’s India strategy’ in2018, underpinning the importance ofcultural understanding in its domes-tic policy approach and Indianengagement.

�� Trade and business: India’ssocio-cultural diversity and complex-ities can be leveraged as a demograph-ic dividend with an access to thelargest youth population in the world.The report highlights this opportuni-ty in each sector and state-wise focus.Australian trade and business ecosys-tem is inclined towards short-termresults. It is transactional rather than

long-term relationship, unlike theIndian counterpart that prioritisestrust and relationship building as apropeller for transactional trade andbusiness collaborations. MacquarieCEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, hademphasised on Australia looking atIndia for business with patience andnurturing a long-term relationship.The bilateral ecosystem of stakehold-ers, including bodies like AustraliaIndia Business Council, need to inte-grate cultural capacity as a tool ofengagement for business and tradeopportunities. Australian corporatecompanies, that also employs a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic workforce,would benefit from cultural intelli-gence skills in their work environmentas they expand across the Indo-pacif-ic region.

�� Education and exposure:Leadership starts with education andcommunity engagement. TheAustralian education sector can leadtowards capacity-building of cultur-al intelligence among education lead-ers and student community as futureleaders. Education is Australia’s thirdlargest export sector and is also hometo the second largest student popula-tion from India. Cultural capacity isan ideal tool to bring diverse studentpopulation (including local Australian

student’s cultural capacity) acrossAustralian universities, not just toleverage this skill in their educationor work environment, but also in theirrespective communities/societies. Thisskill is also helpful to the Australianleadership, team and faculties withinuniversities to be more effective inattracting Indian students to study. Butmost importantly, it helps in mentor-ing students to thrive as working pro-fessionals and positive contributors tothe society.

Additionally, there is a critical gapbetween the Australian mainstreammedia and the online platform’s pres-ence in India for consistent and on-ground coverage of our diverse coun-try. A biased exposure and skewedinterpretation of India hasn’t helpedthe Australians with the current multi-dimensional perspectives of India.

The strategy and opportunitieslaid out in the IES 2035 report can berealised when leadership across thebilateral spectrum recognise culturalcapacity as a multiplier of growth.Cultural diplomacy and intelligencecan be a strong lever that can propelthe economic prosperity vision of2035 for Australia with India.

(The writer is Director,Collaborative Community and SteeringCommittee member of AIYD)

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Investor wealth rose by �1.72lakh crore Friday helped by a

smart rally in the broader mar-ket where the BSE benchmarkindex surged almost 580 points.

Tracking gains in stocks,the market capitalisation ofthe BSE listed companiessurged by �1,72,870.06 crore to�1,40,78,702.09 crore.

The 30-share key indexsoared 579.68 points, or 1.68per cent, to end at 35,011.65.

“After a flat start toNovember, stock markets Fridaytraded with a strong positivemomentum and registered sharpgains. Trading sentiment got aboost amid a fall in global crudeprices and rising rupee. Positiveglobal cues also triggered buy-ing,” said Abhijeet Dey, seniorfund manager-Equities, BNPParibas Mutual Fund.

The rupee on Fridayclocked its biggest single-daygain in over five years, surgingby 100 paise to close at 72.45against the US dollar.

Brent crude, the interna-tional benchmark, droppedbelow the $73-mark to quote ata seven-month low of $72.65 byfalling 3.48 per cent.

From the 30-share pack, 25stocks ended with gains led byMaruti Suzuki India, TataMotors, Vedanta and InduslndBank.

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The Indian rupee on Friday clocked its biggest single-day gainin over five years, surging by 100 paise to close at 72.45 against

the US dollar on easing crude oil prices and possibility that theUS might grant waivers to India from sanctions on Iranian oilimports.

Besides, a bullish trend in the equity market and fresh for-eign fund inflows provided support to the domestic currency,which has witnessed a massive 150 paise rise in the last two trad-ing sessions. The domestic currency had Thursday gained 50paise.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, thedomestic unit Friday opened on a higher note at 73.14, thengained further ground and touched an intra-day high of 72.43,a jump of 102 paise. It, however, closed at 72.45 against the green-back, showing a rise of 100 paise — the best day for the Indianunit since September 2013.

With crude oil prices constantly dipping, concerns overwidening current account deficit have slightly eased, helping therupee claw back some lost ground.

The reports have suggested that the Trump administrationis considering granting waivers to India and some other coun-tries, which will allow these nations to continue buying oil fromIran, despite the renewal of US sanctions from next week.

The US had told various countries, including India, to cutoil imports from the Persian Gulf nation to “zero” by November4 or face sanctions.

“Broad-based weakness in dollar along with fall in crude oilprices boosted the Indian rupee, which climbed 1.40 per centto 72.44. Local currency had a single biggest day gain in five yearsamid improvement in macro environment. Foreign funds haveturned buyer in domestic equity and debt market,” an analyst said.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at$72.98 per barrel.

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The Government on Fridaypromulgated an ordinance

to amend the companies law, asenior official said.

The proposal to issue anordinance to amend theCompanies Act, 2013, wascleared by the Cabinet onThursday.

The official said the ordi-nance had received assent fromPresident Ram Nath Kovindand has been promulgated.

Details about the proposedamendments could not beimmediately ascertained.

The Corporate AffairsMinistry, which is implement-ing the Act, has been lookingat ways to promote ease ofdoing business as well as ensurebetter compliance levels.

In August, a Government-appointed panel suggested var-ious changes to the Act, includ-ing restructuring of corporateoffences under the companieslaw and an in-house adjudica-tion mechanism to ensure thatcourts get more time to dealwith serious violations.

Apart from restructuring ofcorporate offences to relievespecial courts from adjudicat-ing routine offences, the panelhas mooted “re-categorisationof 16 out of the 81 compound-able offences” under the Act.

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The Reserve Bank shouldprovide a liquidity credit

line of �30,000-40,000 crore tonon-banking financial com-panies (NBFC) as a temporaryrelief from tight liquidity con-ditions, Assocham said onFriday.

In a statement, the cham-ber’s Secretary General UdayKumar Varma said such stepswere essential in view of thecurrent ‘liquidity crisis’ faced bythe Indian economy. He alsovoiced industry concerns andthe growing unease amonginvestors and businesses atlarge.

Varma observed that inview of the liquidity challenges,monetary policy easing by wayof lowering interest rates wouldgive the necessary boost toinvestor confidence.

He highlighted that due tothe various factors that havetriggered this liquidity crunch,“beginning with the IL&FSdefault and measures to keepthe rupee from depreciatingfurther, the money marketshave seen higher costs of bor-rowing capital”.

Seeking urgent attention tothe crisis, he appealed forimmediate measures to infuseliquidity into the system by

RBI.Varma reiterated the need

for decisions to be guided bypublic interest and therequirements of the Indianeconomy, given that there aremultiple trade influences andfactors.

He highlighted that whilethe government continues toundertake favourable measuresand its progressive policieshave catapulted India to the77th rank in Ease of DoingBusiness, certain segments suchas NBFCs and micro, small andmedium enterprises (MSMEs)have been affected by the liq-uidity crisis.

“This warrants seriousattention, given the fact thatNBFCs being the strong linkbetween the banks and theMSMEs are under seriousstress,” he said.

The chamber noted that forIndia to transition from beinga developing to a developedeconomy with commensuratenorms, it is pertinent thatgrowth of 7-9 per cent bemaintained to improve percapita income.

“This calls for a radicalshift towards flexible policiesamidst a conducive environ-ment, rather than continuingon a stringent regulatory path,”Assocham said.

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Two subsidiaries of cash-laden Infrastructure

Leasing & Financial Services(IL&FS) on Friday havedefaulted on a total interestpayment of �63.60 crore of var-ious debt instruments.

The group’s non-bankingfinance arm, IL&FS FinancialServices (IFIN) on Friday saidit has defaulted on repaymentof various debt obligationworth �61.31 crore, due onThursday, the company said ina filing to exchanges.

“The company was unableto service its obligations of inter-est on cash credit facilities/short-term loans/term loans worth�61.31 crore,” the company said.

IFIN, on Thursday, alsodefaulted on repayment of �106crore of term loans and �0.77crore of interest on short termloan, due on October 31, 2018.

In a separate filing toexchanges, IL&FS Transportationalso Friday said it has defaultedon payment of interest worth�2.29 crore on non-convertibledebentures (NCD), which waspayable on November 2, 2018. Ithad defaulted on interest pay-ment of a similar amount on adifferent NCD, which wasNovember 1, 2018.

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National Stock Exchange ofIndia Limited (NSE),

India’s leading stock exchange,through its Electronic BiddingPlatform, NSE- EBP, facilitat-ed the �2000 crores debt rais-ing program for India’s leadingbank, the State Bank of India.This Debt program will helpmeet SBI’s entire Tier II capi-tal requirement for the currentfinancial year.

The capital raise was of thenature of Non-Convertible,Taxable, Redeemable,Subordinated Bonds, whichare Basel III compliant. TheBonds are Unsecured Debtinstrument issued in the formof debentures. The issue size ofthese Tier II Bonds was �2000crore, with Green Shoe optionto retain over subscription.The issue was oversubscribedover two times of the issue sizeand is the largest single tranchesuccessful issue in currentfinancial year with acceptedsubscription of more than4,000 crore for a 10-year tenureon Electronic BiddingPlatform.

Vikram Limaye, MD andCEO, NSE, congratulated SBIfor successfully raisingAdditional Tier 2 Bonds on theNSE EBP Platform at a verycompetitive pricing and achiev-ing oversubscription of aroundtwo times.

“It is encouraging to seesuch widened investor partic-ipation that led to an efficientprice discovery for the Bank.NSE EBP has been the pre-ferred choice of marqueeissuers for their private place-ments and we thank SBI forpartnering with us,” Limayesaid.

Prashant Kumar, DMDand CFO, SBI, said “Investorshave reposed their faith in SBIby oversubscribing the issue bytwo times. NSE-EBP hasbroadened our access to thewider pool of investors and thisdigital initiative will surely leadto creation of vibrant primarydebt markets in India.”

The Bonds are priced atpar with face value of �10Lakhs per bond andredeemable after 10 years fromthe deemed date of allotment,with an exercisable call optionafter five years.

The Electronic BiddingPlatform (EBP) is an initiativeby SEBI mandated for privateplacement of debt issues by cor-porates. This Platform has beenutilized by Banks, NBFCs,Housing Finance companiesand other corporates to raisedebt funding. The platformhelps widen the issuer access toinvestors including PensionFunds, Provident Funds,Insurance Companies, MutualFunds, Banks and other QIBsand non QIBs.

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The country’s largest steelmaker SAIL Friday posted

a standalone profit of �553.69crore for the July-Septemberquarter of 2018-19 driven by animpressive growth in income.

The steel PSU had posteda standalone loss of �539.06crore in the July-Septemberperiod of the previous fiscal.

The standalone incomeduring the second quarterincreased by 23.1 per cent to�16,832.37 crore, compared to�13,666.05 crore in the year-ago period, according to a reg-ulatory filing by SAIL.

“Raising volumes, targetingto operate at rated capacitiesand focussing to meet therequirement of the railways interms of rails and wheels andaxles are our foremost priori-ties, along with upholding safe-ty practices at the core”, SAILChairman Anil KumarChaudhary said.

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President Donald Trump hasclaimed that the provision

of birthright citizenship hascreated an entire industry ofbirth tourism in the US withChinese people benefitting a lotfrom this “crazy, lunatic policy”.

Birth tourism refers to thepractice of people travelling toanother country solely to givebirth there. Most leave fortheir home countries rightafter.

In his latest hardline immi-gration rhetoric, the USPresident on Tuesday expressedhis intention to take the path ofan executive order to denyautomatic citizenship to chil-dren born of non-Americanparents in the US.

“This policy (birthrightcitizenship) has even created anentire industry. It’s called birthtourism, where pregnant moth-ers from all over the world trav-el to America to make theirchildren instant lifelong citizenswith guaranteed everything,”Trump told his supporters at anelection rally in Columbia,

Missouri.Trump alleged that the

opposition Democrats want tocontinue giving automaticbirthright citizenship to everychild born to an illegal alien.“Even if they’ve been on oursoil for a mere matter of sec-onds,” he said.

“Hundreds of thousands ofchildren born to illegal immi-grants are made automatic cit-izens of the United States everyyear because of this crazy,lunatic policy that we can end,”he said amidst applause fromhis supporters.

“We need support, but wecan do it. They’re all made

instantly eligible for every priv-ilege and benefit of Americancitizenship. You get nothingmore than they do. They’re fullcitizens,” he said.

This is costing US manybillions of dollars a year.

“You don’t realise what abig industry — it’s an industry.Many come from China. You’llbe surprised. China now isnumber one. We’re not talkingjust South America, LatinAmerica. We’re talking aboutChina, parts of Asia. It’s crazy,”he said.

“Think of it. You’re anenemy of our country. You’re ageneral with war on your mind.You’re a dictator who we hateand who’s against us. And thatdictator has his wife have ababy on American soil.Congratulations. Your son ordaughter is now an Americancitizen. Does anybody thinkthis makes sense?” he asked theaudience.

“It’s crazy. But we’re gettingit all worked out,” he saidassuring his supporters that hewill work to end birthright cit-izenship.

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United Nations: The killing ofjournalists around the worldfor doing their job is “outra-geous” and should not becomethe “new normal,” UN chiefAntonio Guterres said.

In just over a decade, some1,010 journalists have beenkilled for reporting the news,and in nine out of 10 cases, theperpetrators are never broughtto justice. In 2018 alone, at least88 journalists have been killedaccording to the UN.

Many thousands morehave been “attacked, harassed,detained or imprisoned onspurious charges, without dueprocess,” Guterres said in avideo message for TheInternational Day to EndImpunity for Crimes AgainstJournalists, marked annuallyon November 2.

Secretary-General Guterrespaid tribute to the reporters inthe field “who do their jobsevery day despite intimidationand threats.” And he called onthe international community“to protect journalists and cre-ate the conditions they need todo their work.” PTI

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US President Donald Trumpappeared to be considerate

to the hundreds of thousandsof skilled professionals includ-ing Indians patiently waitingfor years to receive green cards,saying they have done every-thing perfectly and they aregoing to enter America.

His comments came amidtension over a caravan of anestimated 5,000 to 7,000 peo-ple mostly from three LatinAmerican countries ElSalvador, Honduras andGuatemala who are currentlymarching towards the southernUS border of Mexico with theintention to enter the US.

As per the official esti-mates, more than 600,000Indians in the US are waitingto receive green cards or legalpermanent residency, whichis a step short of American cit-izenship. Letting illegal immi-grants enter the country inthousands and then lettingthem take advantage of the“catch and release” policy isquite unfair to these skilledprofessionals.

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Islamabad/Karachi: PakistanArmy on Friday warned hun-dreds of radical Islamists hard-liners not to test their “patience”and asked them to end thestandoff peacefully to avoidthe use of force as the massprotests against the acquittal ofa Christian woman for blas-phemy entered its third day.

Asia Bibi, a 47-year-oldmother of four, was convictedin 2010 after being accused ofinsulting Islam in a row withher neighbours. She alwaysmaintained her innocence, buthas spent most of the past eightyears in solitary confinement.

The apex court’s judge-ment, which was pronouncedlast Wednesday, triggeredprotests across Pakistan withprotestors led by Islamic polit-ical party Tehreek-i-LabaikPakistan and other groups.

PTI

Washington: NASA’s pioneer-ing Dawn spacecraft — whichorbited the two largest objectsin the asteroid belt — has runout of fuel, ending a historic 11-year mission that unravelledmany mysteries of our solarsystem, the US space agency said.

The USD 467 millionDawn mission, launched in2007 to study the protoplanetVesta and the dwarf planetCeres, missed scheduled com-munications sessions withNASA’s Deep Space Networkon October 31 and November1, NASA said in a statement.

After the flight team elim-inated other possible causes forthe missed communications,mission managers concludedthat the spacecraft finally ranout of hydrazine. PTI

Colombo: In a boost fornewly-appointed Sri LankanPrime Minister MahindaRajapaksa, a lawmaker fromthe main Tamil party defectedto the premier’s side and wasmade a Minister on Fridayeven as President MaithripalaSirisena agreed to summonParliament on November 7 fora floor test to end the politicalturmoil. Rajapaksa claims henow has enough numbers toprove his majority and at leastfive of ousted premier RanilWickremasinghe’s men havedefected to his side.

The current suspension ofParliament is seen as key to

Rajapaksa negotiating forenough defections.

Rajapaksa was further bol-stered by the defection of TNAMP S Vilenthiriyan from theeastern district of Batticaloa,who was made the deputyminister of eastern develop-ment. Wickremasinghe’sUnited National Party saidthey have handed over amotion of no confidenceagainst new Prime MinisterRajapaksa.

Senior UNP memberLakshman Kiriella saidSecretary General ofParliament was informed of themotion. PTI

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China on Friday reportedlyagreed to provide $6 billion

in aid to Pakistan, which isgoing through a “low point”, tominimise the cash-strappedcountry’s dependence on anIMF bailout package as PrimeMinister Imran Khan heldtalks with Chinese President XiJinping.

Khan, who is here on hismaiden visit, met Xi in theGreat Hall of People where thetwo leaders also held one-on-one meeting besides delega-tion-level talks, Pakistani media

reports said. Pakistan is expect-ed to receive $6 billion eco-nomic package from Chinaduring the visit, Geo TV quot-ed sources as saying.

A loan of $1.5 billion is alsoexpected to be offered, alongwith an additional package ofUSD three billion for theChina-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC), the reportsaid.

The loan and the invest-ments were reportedly part ofthe $6 billion package.However, there was no imme-diate official comment fromBeijing on the report.

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Despite rapid economicgrowth, the Asia-Pacific

region has 486 million peoplewho go hungry as progressstalls in improving food secu-rity and basic living conditions,a United Nations report saidFriday. Even in relatively well-to-do cities like Bangkok andthe Malaysian capital KualaLumpur, poor families cannotafford enough good food fortheir children, often with dev-astating long-term conse-quences for their health andfuture productivity, says thereport.

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Top Pakistani cleric MaulanaSamiul Haq, who was also

known as the ‘godfather ofTaliban’, was stabbed to deathat his residence in the garrisoncity of Rawalpindi on Friday,his family said. Haq, 82, wasthe head of the Islamic religiousseminary Darul UloomHaqqania in KhyberPakhtunkhwa’s Akora Khattaktown and also the chief of thehardline political party JamiatUlema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S).

Haq, a heart patient, waskilled by unidentified attackerswhile he was resting in hisroom, his son MaulanaHamidul Haq was quoted assaying by Geo News.

His personal guard hadgone out to the market andwhen he came back he saw Haqlying “in a pool of blood” onthe bed, Hamidul added. JUI-S’s Peshawar president alsoconfirmed Haq’s death follow-ing an assassination attempt inRawalpindi. Initially there wereconflicting reports about howHaq was killed. Some Pakistanimedia had reported that he was

killed in a gun attack. Haq’s sonhas clarified that the clericwas attacked with knife.Mulana Abdul Majid Hazarwi,a close associate of Haq, alsoconfirmed that he was attackedwith knife. So far, no outfit hasclaimed the responsibility ofthe killing. Haq was electedtwice to Pakistan’s parliamenton Islami Jamhoori Itehad tick-et. He was also the chairman ofthe Difa-e-Pakistan Council— an umbrella coalition ofmore than 40 groups, includ-ing Hafeez Saeed-led Jamat-udDawa (JuD) and the bannedSipah-e-Sahaba.

Haq’s madrassa in AkoraKhattak is known for havingseveral top Afghan Talibanleaders among its alumni,including Mullah Omar whohad received an honorary doc-torate from the seminary.

Haqqani Network founderJalaluddin Haqqani, Al-Qaedain the Indian Subcontinent(AIQS) leader Asim Umar andslain Afghan Taliban chiefMullah Akhtar Mansoor werealso among the alumni of theseminary which is dubbed asthe “University of Jehad”.

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Atop congressional rightsbody on Friday praised

Pakistan’s Supreme Courtjudges who acquitted aChristian woman convicted ofblasphemy.

Asia Bibi, a 47-year-oldmother of four, was convictedin 2010 after being accused ofinsulting Islam in a row withher neighbours. She alwaysmaintained her innocence, buthas spent most of the past eightyears in solitary confinement.

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Riverdale is a thrilling dramafilled with secrets, mysteries

and scandals and far removedfrom the Archie Comics it isbased on. The genre-bendingshow follows the story of the res-idents of the not-so-sleepy town ofRiverdale. While the first seasonunravelled the saga surroundingthe tragic death of high school boyJason Blossom, the second seasondealt with the mystery of theBlack Hood and the third one isfollowing a separate genre of itsown. We catch up with ColeSprouse, who plays Jughead Jonesin the show, to find out how sea-son three will pan out.

What excites you the most aboutJughead’s storyline in seasonthree? Jughead’s mother [played by GinaGershon] and his sister [played byTrinity Rose Likins] are comingback into town, so that will shakeup his family dynamic. For awhile, Jughead was the only onewithout a second parent in the pic-ture - but that’s no longer the case.

How will Jughead be a differentleader to his father, FP [played bySkeet Ulrich]?Jughead’s a tactician. He’s a cere-bral leader. He doesn’t think thatmight is right. He was a pacifist formuch for season two, and he’sgoing to be bringing that feelinginto the Serpents; how do werebuild without making so manyenemies while simultaneouslystanding our ground? It’s going tobe interesting.

Season two ended in a bit of amess for the Serpents. Howmuch danger will they face in theupcoming season? The Serpents are in a rag-tag place.Their ranks are really depleted, soa lot of it is about recruitment anda lot of it is about building back up.For much of the season, Jugheadis going to be tested as the leaderof the Serpents. He’s in a muchmore calm and collected placenow that he’s had this near-deathexperience, so he’s not as hot-head-ed anymore. That helps.

Is Jughead out for revenge?I don’t know if revenge is part ofhis leadership quality. I don’tknow if revenge really suits him.I think he’s going to be calm and

collected and more tactical abouthow he approaches leadership. No,I don’t think revenge is in the pic-ture.

How will the arrival of Jughead’smother and sister change his roleas the leader of the Serpents?It’s going to breed some discontentbetween him and his leadership.He’s also got some people testingthemselves against his leadership,so we’ll see where that goes, too.

What do you hope to see happenin season three? We are still in the dark for most ofit but I want to find out aboutJughead’s relationship with hisyounger sister. I want to see whatthat means to him. I want to seehow protective he is towards her.

He will introduce her to this sh*t-show that’s going on around hislife, which is going to be a reallyinteresting and fun dynamic toplay. I also want to see how theSerpents react to his family.

At the end of season two, Jugheadasked Betty [played by LiliReinhart] to be his Serpentqueen. What exactly does thatinvolve?I have no idea. It is a bit ambigu-ous and we actually address thatin the first episode [of seasonthree]. We clarify exactly what thatmeans. I think it’s more of a part-nership thing. It means, “I’ve gotyour back, and you’ve got myback.” His unwillingness to includeher in the Serpents before was anattempt to protect her, so his will-

ingness to include her now is anattempt to say, “I feel confidentabout you.”

What else can fans expect to seein season three of Riverdale? Every season seems to have a dif-ference in genre. Season One wasa murder mystery. The first partof Season Two was a horror andthe second was a mafia crimedrama. This season, it’s looking likea cult narrative is going to be theover-arching theme, which isgoing to be super-interesting.

There are rumours that there willbe a supernatural element to sea-son three.It seems like some of the supernat-ural elements that [Riverdale exec-utive producer] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] has been training his penon for Sabrina have woven theirway slightly into the show.

What do you think of the show’ssoaring success?We’re very lucky on Riverdale. Wework really hard on the show. Allof us do. We’re taking a propertythat already had a built-in fan baseand we’re adding interesting peo-ple, interesting actors, interestingcasting and interesting narrativesto the plot and we hope that ittakes off. In some way or anoth-er, as long as we do that justice,then we’re going to end up in agood place and people are goingto continue to like the show. (Season Three of Riverdale airsevery Thursday at 10 pm on ColorsInfinity)

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Filmmakers Sriram Raghavan and SujoyGhosh have joined a new initiative to recog-

nise short filmmakers in India. The mediumfinds most ground in the digital space but theamount of effort and talent needed is same asthat of a feature.

The standard of the Critics Choice ShortFilm Awards is expected to be extremely highwith such fine minds coming together tojudge it.

Ghosh shares, “It’s a great challenge to beable to do storytelling in short film format butthey are great learning platforms for peoplewho want to get into filmmaking, especially

when you have tolearn about script-ing, editing, cine-matography andmore from scratch.All faculties aresame as a featurefilm and the onlything that is differ-ent is the medium ofpresentation. Ibelieve a short filmhas to be a veryclever project andhigh on content aswell.”

NVS Media, a company owned by theVistas Media Capital Pte Ltd (Singapore) hasalso become associated with the Critics’ ChoiceShort Film Awards.

Sujoy shares, “A short film’s publicitydepends on word of mouth. And for that it hasto leave an impact on the viewer so he/she isable to talk further about it. To make your shortfilm as a commercial product is a challenge. It’sa great learning experience at the same time.I personally feel it’s an incredible initiativebecause it gives some legitimacy to short film-makers and will hopefully encourage more andmore creative minds.”

Film Critics Guild in partnership withMotion Content Group is all set to present thefirst-ever short film awards Critics Choice ShortFilm Awards. The event will be held inMumbai in December.

Kolkata was once the intellectual andcultural capital of the nation but

today it’s become hard to find a succinctdescription that would do justice to thecity of joy. The state is no longer calledWest Bengal and the city too is caughtbetween modernity and colonial times.With dilapidated structures from the Rajbeing torn down and a 62-floor build-ing standing tall in the central businessdistrict of Chowringhee and moreexpansion planned, the urban landscapeis no longer the one we read about it inByomkesh Bakshi novels or films ofUttam Kumar.

The book features black and whitepictures of places such as Mother House;the Marble Palace, built by the Mullicksof Sovabazar, who were bullion mer-chants; pictures of the Great BengalFamine of 1943 claiming the lives of threemillion; another shows what used to bethe city’s lifeline — the tram.

In visuals depicting the modern lifein the city, one of them shows wrestlersand bodybuilders on the banks ofHooghly.

In another, a man with perfectlyparted hair sits besides the carriage dri-ver and seems unaffected by the staresfrom the cars nearby. This photo of thequintessential Bengali Babu is just one ofthe many fascinating images found in thetwo-part book published by Roli. It cap-tures the essence of a people tornbetween their habits and forces ofchange. The book is a sweeping ode to

the city and narrates the story of mod-ern India’s first capital through its pastand present.

Author Sunanda K Datta-Ray, whocaptured the ‘Calcutta Then’, dives intothe rich history of the city using rareimages of its iconic monuments, includ-ing the Victoria Memorial under con-struction and the Howrah bridge thatcrosses the Hooghly river. Many of thephotos in the book have never been seenbefore. Founder-publisher of Roli Booksand also the photo editor of the book,Pramod Kapoor said, “I met around 40old families living in the city, some ofthem were formerly zamindars (land-lords) or linked to the maharajas, andsome who settled there many years agofor business. I got disappointed at someplaces but also succeeded at others.” Headded, “I have an umbilical connectionto the city. I was born in Jorasanko andhave very fond memories of the timespent there. I have visited Kolkata manytimes since my birth, but it wasn’t untillate last year when I was researching forthis book that I realised those memoriescannot be that easily erased.”

Author Indrajit Hazra of ‘KolkataNow’ said that “for visitors and those whoonce left the city, like I did, it can be awalk through time, a ride on a tram, ora constant return to the scene of oldhappy times on Park Street.”

The book was launched onNovember 1 by the Ambassador ofFrance, Alexandre Ziegler.

Performance art can traversecontinents, bridge differ-ences among communities

and trace commonalities but thereis a delicate balance that needs tobe maintained with respect to theimperative of politics and culturediplomacy. However, that doesn’tmean that one would stop trying.“There is work to be done inAustralia in giving the right spaceto the Aboriginal people, whogained voting rights only in 1976.They then pushed for land rightsand recently a change in the con-stitution was sought but we did-n’t have the opportunity to vote onthat. The government has beenslow to take initiatives but we trythrough Bangarra Dance Theatreto make indigenous culture acces-sible, not political but education-al. That’s what we’re trying todemonstrate. If you find the rightbalance, you can really broadenpeople’s mind and connect. Indiacould do with that too,” saidPhilippe Magid, executive direc-tor of the dance company that hadstarted 30 years ago with the aimto showcase only traditional per-formance art of the first nationpeople of Australia.

“Performance art can bringpeople together and Bangarra isthe purest form of reconciliation.We focus on inclusion, changingperceptions and making peopleunderstand the oldest living cul-ture in the world needs to be hon-oured,” he said.

During their India tour, theyconnected with the tribes of Indiain Mizoram, Bengal’s Purulia dis-trict and Madhya Pradesh. In thelast, they did a workshop with theforest-dwelling community ofBaigas, who are spread acrossMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarhand Jharkhand. They also met theAttakkalari dance company inBengaluru. He mentioned that theworkshops could lead to collab-orations in the future. “We taught

traditional aboriginal dance andTorres traditional dance. It wasabout the cultural exchangethrough dance theory and move-ment. In fact, a contemporarychoreographer in Northeast wasinterested in working with us inthe future,” he said.

The multi-city tour was partof the company’s commitment toAsia for a cultural exchange.After India, they will be visitingJapan, and spending more time inAsia next year.

The performance theybrought to India was a mix of con-temporary and traditional perfor-mance art from different indige-nous communities of mainlandAustralia and Torres Strait islandsapart from their older creations

that date as far back to 1996. Whatstood out most were the narrative-based stories of creation. Theirstyle is grounded in the earthunlike ballet, which is more up inthe air. They don’t just mix thecontemporary with the tradition-al, the preferred word for folk,they also let the latter shinethrough between sections. Theirspecific style evolved over a peri-od of 30 years and has becomesought after because of the inno-vations they factored in.

One of the stories performedwas from 2007, about the artistNyapanyapa Yunupingu, who is afamous indigenous artist DownUnder, and is an exploration ofhow she paints. “We show smokein an evocative way, which in abo-

riginal culture is used as a cleans-ing medium. There are three sec-tions in which we work with claythat is used to paint the dancersbody. One of them is a tradition-al male dance, warrior style andit transitions woman’s story, whichis ethereal and beautiful. Anothercreation story called Moth, isabout its unravelling from acocoon,” Magid said.

He added, “We are deliberate-ly increasing the number of com-munity engagement activities toset a benchmark for future. We’reproud to share the resilience andstrength of Australia’s First Nationpeople with other indigenouscommunities and groups and arelooking forward to continue ourtradition globally.”

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Actress Sanya Malhotra, whorecently enthralled the audi-

ence with her impeccable perfor-mance in Patakha and BadhaaiHo, shared insights about herinterest in dance and cooking ina candid conversation with actressand comedian Mallika Dua on thesets of Midnight Misadventureswith Mallika Dua.

She revealed that she is a self-taught dancer, and has beenactively dancing since young. “Istarted dancing when I was threeto four years old and performedon Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mastsong. Dance makes me reallyhappy and after my fifth or sixthfilm, I would like to take a sab-batical to learn the tap danceform.”

Talking about her love forfood, Sanya, said, “I love to cook,especially for my friends. ForPatakha, I had to put on 12 kg andthat was the best part about thatfilm. I used to eat bananas, icecream shakes, pan cakes, fries, dalchawal which is my favouritefood. It was amazing.”

(The show will be aired onTLC and its official YouTube pageRISE BY TLC on November 5.)

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Page 14: The Pioneer · company with the money that ... tion for the swift manner in which the appointments were done. ... denied the report. The RJD MLA from Parsa, Chandrika Rai, did not

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For around six decades he has beenmesmerising both adults and

teenagers with his vivid and variedcharacterisation, gripping plots, andimpeccable story telling. A deep loveof humanity and humane values, witand humour are the hallmarks of hisshort stories and novels, where thosein teens love to get lost in a world offantasy and funny ghosts and theequally lovable good and bad people.On Friday Mukhopadhyay turned 84.

Meet Sahitya Akademi awardeeShirshendu Mukhopadhyay, rated asone of the finest and popular writersof modern Bengali literature. As hestepped into his 84th yearMukhopadhyay is least bothered abouthis advancing age, and has adaptedmagnificently to a new world of lap-tops and tabs. “I am not at all con-cerned about my age, or that I amgrowing old. I consider myself young.I still play pranks on my grandchildren.I face no issues with the change in tech-nology as I am in favour of the change.I myself use new gadgets and devicesand practice writing on them. I havebeen using laptops for a long time.Currently I am writing stories on mynew tab,” Mukhopadhyay said.

Mukhopadhyay, who has pennednearly 100 books of short stories andnovels for the adult readers, and 34 forteenagers — most of them best sellers— does not believe that emergence ofe-books would put writers in trouble.

“I believe e-books are the future.We can get almost 40 to 50 novels with-in one small portable device and readthem any time we want. It is of greatconvenience to the readers.” said theauthor, who won the Sahitya Akademiin 1989 for his novel Manabjamin.

He himself uses various socialmedia platforms.

“Social media allows free interac-tion between the author and readers.It has opened up new horizon for thewriters as they can reach out to morepeople easily and also use the platformto advertise their books if needed. Ihave accounts on various social mediaplatforms like Facebook and Whatsappbut I do not use them a lot as I don’t

get time but the impact of socialmedia on writers have been positive,”he said.

Mukhopadhyay, who was mas-sively influenced by the works ofRabindranath Tagore and BankimChandra Chattopadhyay, rued thatgreat translations commissioned by theSahitya Akademi remain unsold aspeople do not know about them. Hesuggested Sahitya Akademi set up itsown retail shops to get more visibilityamong the literature enthusiasts.

Born in Mymensingh (now inBangladesh) in 1935, his family migrat-ed to Kolkata during the partition.However, Mukhopadhyay spent his for-mative years shuttling between variousplaces as his father had a transferablejob.

“I came across a great variety ofpeople, This obviously helped me inportraying a wide array of characters.The experience of staying in differentmofussil and rural areas greatly shapedbackdrop of my novels and stories,” saidMukhopadhyay, whose first publishedstory was Jol Torongo in 1959. The firstnovel Ghunpoka came out in the mid-sixties.

A deep undertone of spiritualityruns through his works. They add tothe depth, but never hinder the flow.Mukhopadhyay credits this to theinfluence of his guru (spiritual guide)Thakur Anukulchandra. “I believe, toportray some idealism in one’s writing,it is important to first assimilate theideals. Otherwise it would sound likean advertisement. I could do it success-fully. The reference to Thakur in mywritings comes from my belief in hisphilosophy,” he said.

Mukhopadhyay’s magnificentouvre of adult fiction includes suchevergreen books like Kagojer Bou,Durbin, Ujaan, Akranta and Parthibo.Many of his works have been translat-ed into various languages.Mukhopadhyay delved into the worldof children’s literature much later, in themid- 1970s, and got instant successwith the novel Manojder Adbhut Bari.

“I don’t face issues in writing forthe children and the grown ups simul-taneously. I have been doing it for manyyears. But the truth is there is no secretformula behind this. I won’t be able toexplain how I do it. May be, it is some-thing within me,” he said.

His treasure trove of children’s lit-erature is enriched with elements likethrill, suspense, humour, colloquialismand often the not-at-all-scary supernat-ural entities. His Goshaibaganer Bhoot,Goynar Baksho and Chhayamoy, all ofwhich were turned into movies, havethe presence of ghosts. “I believe inghosts. But what’s more significant, Ifeel the ghosts too believe in me. Theycome to grace my writings wheneverI need them. I have a mutual relation-ship with them,” Shirshendu said in histrademark humorous style.

G�")1

If you have the skills, you may have to strug-gle but success can be yours, says actor ManojBajpayee who hails from a small town in Bihar,

shifted to Delhi to study and then moved toMumbai to make a mark.

“You can’t complain about nepotism by justsitting in a small town. Come to Bombay, startstruggling, do theatre and learn some skills. If onehas to compete with film industry children, youreally have to be good. It is skills versus oppor-tunities, and I feel skills matter the most,”Manoj said.

The 49-year-old actor’s initial journey inBollywood was full of struggle and hardships. Butit was his dedication which helped him to achieveheights in his career.

Manoj said: “After doing Bandit Queen, Ishifted to Mumbai and living in Mumbai was noteasy. I was not getting work. People were notbelieving in my abilities. I felt dejected and start-ed doubting my capabilities.

“I was not having any work, I started feelingthat my theatre work was just a fluke. But I did-n’t quit. I got up, started knocking at the doorsand worked on my skills.” After Bandit Queen theactor did crime thriller Satya for which he gotimmense fame and also his first National Award.

For Manoj, getting a National Award wasalways his big dream.

He said: “The 1990s was a dark age ofcinema and Satya came right at the end.

It was a landmark film of Indian cine-ma and changed the face of our indus-try. I always had a dream of achieving

National Award. Getting this awardmeans getting into league of

legends and big actors. Itcame as a surprise and I feelfortunate that I did film likeSatya.”

Manoj is inDharamshala for theo n g o i n gD h a r a m s h a l aInternational FilmFestival, where hisBhonsle will bescreened. He engagedin a discussion onfilms and about his“ideal way of direc-tion” during a session.

“When I am infront of the camera, Ijust want to be leftalone. I want to beobserved by mydirector. If I am real-ly going wrong, then

I want my director tocounter me. Sometimes,

directors give too much infor-mation during the shots which I

feel disturbing. I like to be briefedbefore the shots,” he added. G�")1

It is a known fact thatFantastic Beasts: The crimes

of the Grindelwald is the pre-decessor of the Potter series.The film is based on J.K.Rowling’s wizarding worldwhich was set 70 years beforethe Harry Potter booksexplored the adventure of“magizoologist.” The screen-writer and producer of boththe series, JK Rowling confess-es that Albus Dumbledore isher favorite character of theseries. However, the belovedHogwarts’ future headmasterDumbledore does not make anappearance in Fantastic Beastsand Where to Find Them. Heonly returns in the secondinstallment.

Rowling feels, “Within theFantastic Beasts franchise, I amtelling a story that is onlyhinted at in the Harry Potter

books — the rise ofGrindelwald, who profoundlythreatened both the wizardingand non-wizarding worlds,and his antagonist,Dumbledore, who, of course, isa key figure in the Potter sto-ries. Grindelwald is first men-tioned in Harry Potter and thePhilosopher’s Stone, so he wasthere from the beginningthough he was more of a mys-terious background character.You know that he must havebeen important to figure soprominently in Dumbledore’sown history, but it is only whenyou reach the end of the Potterseries that you find out justhow important he was and youmight also intuit that theremust be much more to tell. Ithink this was the story I wasmost interested in revisitingbecause it’s so crucial to under-

standing Dumbledore, who ismy favorite character,” sheacknowledges.

The film which is not a re-introduction to the magicalworld but is the legitimatebuild off from the world JKRowling established, in whichJohnny Depp playsGrindelwald — the dark andpowerful wizard who has oncebeen a friend of Dumbledore.Others in the cast includeEddie Redmayne, KatherineWaterston, Alison Sudol, JudeLaw, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller,Claudia Kim, ZoëKravitz andBrontis Jodorowsky.

The film is written by JKRowling and directed by DavidYates. The film is set to releasePan India on November 16 inEnglish, Hindi, Tamil andTelugu by Warner BrosPictures India.

Long ago, tunes of legendary actorRaj Kapoor’s iconic song “Sir parlal topi roosi, phir bhi dil hai

Hindustani” would echo on the streetsof Moscow and St Petersburg. The linkbetween the two nations is subliminaland Bollywood, arts and politics haveplayed a major part in maintainingthem over the years. Which is why gen-erations have grown up on nostalgia.But it is the generation next that thechildren’s folk dance group calledKalinka is intent on nurturing, indica-tive of an ethno-surge that is sweepingboth countries at the moment.

Directed by Natalya Levitskaya-Flippova, the traditional folk dancegroup from Russia celebrated the 15thanniversary of its first concert in Delhiand recently performed at the RosatomFestival of Science and Culture.

“Besides showing the best part ofRussia, we meet representatives ofdifferent cultures from all around theworld and learn a lot from them. Thebest way to learn a new culture is byexperiencing it. Arts and culture arefree of politics so when people sharewhat they have, the world becomes abetter place. Such programmes shouldhappen more often,” Natalya says.

Founded in 1986 by AlexanderFlippov, the Kalinka has trained morethan 20,000 children in 50 years. It isa legacy that Natalya has followed since

her childhood. She says thatAlexander Flippov was a “verybright person,” who created ateam that “gives joy and love toboth — children, who dance,and spectators, who come to theconcerts.”

Talking about how the grouphas evolved over the years, sheadds, “We are trying to preservewhat he had created as much aswe can. There haven’t beenmany changes since it had start-ed. There has been developmentwith time and there is alwaysspace for some improvement.The team’s task is not just tochange but to take itself to an all-new level through choreogra-phy, stunts and elements whilekeep its originality intact,” shebelieves.

One of the most uniquefeatures were that the teamcame with 3,000 hand-sewn costumes. Fromsarafan (peasant pinaforedress), red headdresses,white skirts, kokoshnik,kosovorotka to plaindark-coloured trousers,the stage was filled withfrills for their folkdances: Lozhkari, therhythm of spoons, and

Yablochko, the dance of the Russiansailors.

With the focus on choreography,the dances by both boys and girlsreflected the richness of the nationalculture with many regional spices.Natalya believes that India and Russiashare a similarity, i.e. both have a richand diverse heritage in arts. “Russianculture differs from one region toanother. I think it’s the same in Indiaas well,” she says.

It takes a lot of preparation when itcomes to leading a team on the interna-tional forefront, so what were Natalya’sstruggles and practices? She answers, “Wehave performed abroad for several years.Though pre-activities don’t take toomuch time, we choose the programmecarefully and then do the necessary num-ber of rehearsals. It’s always interestingto come to different countries like Indiato perform. We have daily rehearsalsbefore we travel abroad.” On an average,20-30 dancers go on the tour. Followinga discipline during the rehearsals, itbecomes simple for the trainers to workbackstage as well as onstage.

This time, only 11 children per-formed. “I can’t say it was a challenge forus because we were ready to perform ina number as big as up to 100 people andmore as well,” she says.

She loves watching different kinds ofclassical Indian dances. “Indian dance

consists of thousand of symbols, whereevery gesture means something. Since Iam an amateur from the point of viewof Indian culture, I do not undertake per-forming it for the fear of doing somethingwrong. I would love to consider anopportunity to work with an Indianchoreographer and create somethingtogether,” she says.

She shares one of her experiencesof collaborating with Indian dancers.“We performed with a few Indiangirls. And it turned out to be awe-some. Our children watched theIndian dancers open-mouthed,” shesays.

She believes that thepeople of India are its“biggest asset. They arehighly sensitive whenit comes to their tastein art, especiallymusic and dance.”

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India leg-spinner YuzvendraChahal broke into the top-10of the ICC rankings while

Shikhar Dhawan dropped fourplaces in the batsmen standingsfollowing a lean home seriesagainst the West Indies.

India captain Virat Kohlicompleted 10,000 ODI runs on hisway to a series aggregate of 453runs and has consolidated hisposition as the top-ranked bats-man.

He earned 15 points, whichhas lifted him to 899 points, 28ahead of second-ranked team-mate Rohit Sharma, who has col-lected 29 points following hisseries total of 389 runs. His pointstally of 871 is his highest to-date.

Dhawan, who failed to regis-ter a half century in the fiveinnings against the West Indies,has slipped four places to beninth.

In the bowlers' table, Chahal,Akila Dananjaya and RavindraJadeja have made big impacts,while number-one-ranked JaspritBumrah has achieved a career-high 841 rating points, which is

the highest in ODI bowling sinceShaun Pollock had 894 points in2008.

Bumrah leads third-rankedKuldeep Yadav by 118 points.

Yadav is also at a career-high 723rating points.

Chahal has entered the top-10for the first time in his career byrising three places to eighth, Sri

Lanka's Dananjaya has achieved acareer-high ranking of 13th afterhis nine wickets helped him jumpeight places, and Jadeja hasclimbed 16 places to move to 25th

spot after picking up seven wick-ets.

For the West Indies, ShaiHope and Shimron Hetmyer arethe biggest gainers in the batsmenrankings.

Hope scored 250 runs in theseries at 62.50 and has beenrewarded with a jump of 22 placesthat has not only put him in 25thposition but has also confirmedhis status as the highest-rankedWindies batsman.

Hetmyer, who captained theWindies to the ICC U19 CricketWorld Cup title in 2016, was hisside's leading run-getter with 259runs at 51.80. This performancereflects in the latest batting tableas the left-hander has vaulted 31places to claim 26th position.

The two batsmen are enjoyingtheir career-high rankings and arenow separated by only ninepoints. But, more importantly, theWindies now have two represen-tatives inside the top-30 amongbatsmen.

England are the number-oneranked side, while India are sec-ond. India trail England by fivepoints, but lead third-ranked NewZealand by nine points.

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All-rounder Shivam Dubey'ssmashing hundred comple-

mented by pacer TusharDeshpande's late evening burstsaw Mumbai gain upperhandagainst Railways on the secondday of the Ranji Trophy group Aencounter on Friday.

After Siddhesh Lad (99)missed out on a hundred, Dubey(114) struck his maiden centuryin only his second first-classgame as Mumbai scored 411 intheir first essay.

The Railways were down inthe dumps at 115 for 6 withDeshpande (3/29 in 11 overs)struck a double blow with thesemi-new ball.

Dubey on his part took awicket while senior seamerDhawal Kulkarni also got a wick-et.

For Railways, their senior proArindam Ghosh is at the creasehaving crawled his way to 39 off115 deliveries.

At the start of the day, Lad,who hit a couple of boundariesto reach into the 90's was bowledby left-arm spinner AvinashYadav with a just a run requiredfor his coveted three-figure mark.Lad faced 189 deliveries and hit14 boundaries.

However left-handed Shivamplayed a counter-attackingknock, hitting 13 fours and foursixes in 139 balls.

He was severe on the spintroika of Harsh Tyagi (4/83),Avinash Yadav (3/99) andMadhur Khatri (0/77 in 17overs).

Dubey shared a 56-run sev-enth wicket stand with skipperKulkarni (22) and then upped theante alongside tailenders to gethis side passed 400-run mark.

He was the ninth batsman tobe dismissed after Tyagi found anick which was pouched by rivalskipper Mahesh Rawat.

Nicely warmd up after hishundred, Dubey then came on asfirst-change bowler to removeopener Saurabh Wakaskar (22)after Deshpande and Kulkarnigot rid of Nitin Bhille and PSSingh respectively.

Reduced to 62 for 4, Rawat(30) and Ghosh added 49 runsfor the fifth wicket beforeDeshpande struck twice at the fagend of the day.

Elsewhere in Dindigul RajatPatidar missed out on a well-deserved double century by fourruns, but helped MadhyaPradesh make 393 against TamilNadu in Elite Group B Match.

Test spinner R Ashwin andpaceman M Mohammed fin-ished with four wickets each tohelp TN restrict MadhyaPradesh from posting a hugetotal.

The home team was zero forno loss in two overs at stumps onday two.

Resuming at the overnightscore of 214 for 3, Patidar forgedanother useful partnership withShubham Sharma (43) to put theteam in a strong position.

However, things went awryafter the exit of Sharma as theyslid from 317 for 4 to 393 all out.

Shubham Sharma wassnapped up by wicketkeeper NJagadeesan off Rahil Shah'sbowling following which Patidarand Yash Dubey (6) added 42runs.

Patidar defied the TamilNadu bowlers like he did onThursday.

He slammed 17 fours and asix in his 406-ball knock.

Mohammed and Ashwintook over after the exit of Patidarto engineer a collapse.

Ashwin snapped the lastthree wickets to fall (AveshKhan, Ishwar Pandey andKuldeep Sen) to finish with 4 for85 from 38.4 overs. Mohammedended with 4 for 98.

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Virat Kohli is a "superstar" whowill be at the forefront of keep-

ing Test cricket alive, feels formerSouth African captain Graeme Smith.

The year 2018 has been great forthe Indian captain, who has producedsome exceptional ODI feats includ-ing the fastest to reach the 10,000club, elevating his stature as the bestbatsman in the world.

"World cricket is lacking hugeamount of superstars. May be one ortwo in England. I think Virat (Kohli)is that guy (superstar)," Smith said inhis address at the Jagmohan DalmiyaAnnual Conclave (Chapter II) hereFriday.

"The fact that he loves Test crick-et and puts in performances, it keepsTest cricket relevant in a country thatloves the game with IPL and otherT20s. It's huge for the game.

"As long as Virat keeps promot-ing Test cricket as an icon and super-star, we all have the chance to keepthe game relevant," he added.

Smith, who played 117 Testswhile captaining South Africa in 109of them, criticised the Kookaburraballs for adding to Test cricket'smisery.

This has come at a time whenmembers of the Indian team, includ-ing Kohli, who have slammed thequality of SG balls.

Terming the quality ofKookaburra balls as huge issue,Smith said: "The Kookaburra balls inparticular is letting people down.

"It's a ball that softens and doesnot swing for a long period of time.I think Test cricket cannot afford tohave boring draws.

"It needs the ball to spin, itneeds the ball to swing and move-ment in the air. It needs competitionbetween the bat and the ball so as tokeep Test cricket stay relevant," headded.

There has been a lot of debateover tweaking Test cricket to keep italive and the 37-year-old SouthAfrican offered a "simple solution" tobring in more competitiveness in theformat.

"Unfortunately in Test cricket, wehave lost a few dynamic teams.There are teams who are going

through transformation phases. Ibelieve if world cricket is competitiveall formats will work," he said.

"Test cricket is the ultimate testof your ability and skill and yourphysical state. The challenge is to getcompetitive teams outside the topthree. Then if we add some of thenuances people will start take seri-ously."

India will be in Australia for a fulltour starting next month with an aimto script a maiden series DownUnder.

In their recent overseas tour toEngland, India suffered a 1-4 drub-bing while earlier this year they lost1-2 in South Africa.

Showering praise on India's paceattack, Smith said India have it inthem to win Down Under this time.

"They (India) will be disap-pointed that they have not won a Testseries in South Africa and England.Certainly the ability is there. I thinkthey can challenge teams in their ownconditions. They have the talent andability to do well in Australia," hesaid.

"India's seam attack is one of thebest that we have seen. Not just one,but the whole attack is outstanding.You now have young seamers whocan hurt the opposition," Smithsigned off.

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Handed an unforgiving start asArsenal's first new manager fornearly a quarter of a century,

Unai Emery has quickly put defeats toManchester City and Chelsea behindhim with a 13-game unbeaten run toearn the respect of the Gunners' sup-port.

However, the real test of how farEmery's Arsenal have evolved sincebeing outclassed by City on the open-ing weekend of the season comeswhen Liverpool travel to the Emirateson Saturday.

Arsenal have won 12 of those 13games unbeaten, the only slip comingat Crystal Palace last weekend whenthey conceded two penalties in a 2-2draw.

Yet, they haven't faced any of thePremier League's top six from last sea-son in that run, with defeats of Watfordand Everton their only victories oversides in the top half of the table.

Emery still seems to be searchingfor the right balance, while also gettingtwo star centre-forwards in AlexandreLacazette and Pierre-EmerickAubameyang into the side.

Lacazette and Aubameyang havealready combined for 14 goals betweenthem this season and their firepowerhas so far got Arsenal out of trouble,particularly late in games with Emery'smen yet to enjoy a half-time lead in thePremier League.

It is to Emery's credit that his

changes have often impacted the gamepositively for his side, and that Arsenalonly trail league leaders City andLiverpool by four points heading intothis weekend.

The priority for Arsenal this sea-

son remains a topfour finish and areturn to theChampions Leaguerather than a title

challenge, and Emery is well oncourse for that goal

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Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp says Arsenalboss Unai Emery has proved himself asa top manager as the two coaches prepareto go head to head for the first time sincethe 2016 Europa League final.

Emery, then in charge at Sevilla, gotthe better of Klopp in the final in Basel,

with his side coming from behind to win3-1, and subsequently won the Frenchleague title with Paris Saint-Germain.

Klopp believes Emery has wonenough in his career —three successiveEuropa League titles and five major tro-phies at PSG — to warrant the respect hiscurrent 13-match unbeaten run deserves.

"All people in football knew howgood he is but I am not sure all Arsenalfans were over the moon at first whenthey heard it would be Emery," saidKlopp.

"But that's England a little bit, youwant the poster boys. Unai was inFrance and before that in Spain in asmaller club, so you can go a bit underthe radar.

Klopp's record against Arsenal sincearriving in England is impressive. He hasnever lost against the Gunners, with threewins and two draws from five matches.

The fixture has a history of highscores, with the past nine PremierLeague matches bringing 42 goals.

"It doesn't look like that willchange. They score a lot of goals and

are really good offensively," saidKlopp.

"We have to see how this game willdevelop. With two very offensive-orien-tated teams it can often happen. It does-n't have to — we saw in the ManchesterCity game (a goalless draw) that, but itis possible at least."

Klopp will still be without mid-fielders Jordan Henderson and NabyKeita, who are not likely to be in con-tention for a recall until next weekend.

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Roger Federer's bid for a100th career title

remains on as he beat FabioFognini 6-4, 6-3 onThursday to reach the ParisMasters quarterfinals.

If he wins that, againstKei Nishikori, he could faceNovak Djokovic in the semi-finals - but Federer is think-ing more about winning theseason-ending ATP Finals,which start November 11.

"My objective is

London. If I can do well herein Paris and beat (Djokovic),all the better," Federer said."But I'm not there yet. We'llsee."

Federer, 37 and return-ing to the tournament forthe first time since 2015, washardly tested as he beatFognini for the fourth timein four matches. He wasfresh after Milos Raonicpulled out injured beforetheir second-round matchon Wednesday.

"It was welcome because

my body needed it," Federersaid. "I needed an extra dayand this is what I got. It wasa lot of luck."

Third seed Federer isplaying the Paris Masters forthe first time since 2015 andis bidding to clinch thetournament for just the sec-ond time after winning it in2011.

"I think both of us werefar from our best, but wefought with what we hadand at the end I think Imaybe served a bit better in

the important momentsthan Fabio did," Federersaid.

A double break of serveput Federer 4-1 up beforeFognini broke back with abackhand winner down theline. Fognini had a chance topressure Federer in the 10thgame when the 20-timeGrand Slam champion was15-40 down on serve.

But Federer, who gotthrough a few difficult situ-ations last week on his wayto winning the Swiss

Indoors for the ninth time,saved both and then held toclinch the first set.

Federer responded wellin the eighth game of thesecond set, again saving twobreak points at 15-40 downon his way to leading 5-3.Fognini cracked in the nextgame and was broken tolove, double faulting onmatch point.

Federer was given astanding ovation after hiswin.

"It was wonderful to

have such a welcome fromthe French public," he said."The atmosphere was won-derful."

Nishikori, seeded 10,made the quarter-finals bybeating Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4 to avenge his defeat tothe big South African inSunday's Vienna final.

Federer leads Nishikori6-2 in career meetings hav-ing won their last four clash-es. The Japanese's last winover the 20-time major win-ner came in 2014.

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