VAYU SPARES GUJARAT,MOVES TO OMANAhmedabad: Sparing Gujaratafter changing course, Cyclone Vayu on Thursday began movingaway from the State coasttowards Oman, even as thedanger of heavy winds and rainin coastal areas continued,officials said here. Though the“eye of the storm” is away fromland, the cyclone’s outer periphery would leave its impacton the coast, officials said.

MODI HAI TO MUMKIN HAI:POMPEO ON VISIT EVEWashington: Citing the popularelection slogan “Modi hai tomumkin hai”, US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo has sought to take the bilateral relationshipwith India to the next level and said the Trump Administrationand the Modi Government havea “unique opportunity” to makeit happen.

PONTY CHADHA’S SONHELD FROM AIRPORTNew Delhi: Slain liquor baronPonty Chadha’s son ManpreetSingh Chadha has been arrestedfrom the Delhi airport and remanded in judicial custody for14 days by a court here onThursday.

CAPSULE

PTI n BISHKEK

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday raised

the issue of cross-border ter-rorism emanating fromPakistan during his talks withChinese President Xi Jinpinghere and said India expects“concrete action” by Islamabadto create an atmosphere free ofterror for the resumption ofdialogue.

Modi met Xi on the side-lines of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO) Summit here and dis-cussed the full spectrum ofbilateral relations. This is thefirst meeting between the twoleaders after Modi’s re-electionfollowing the stunning victoryof the BJP in the general elec-tions last month.

The meeting also comes amonth after the 1267 Al QaedaSanctions Committee of thepowerful UN Security Councildesignated Pakistan-based ter-ror group Jaish-e-Mohammedchief Masood Azhar as a glob-al terrorist after China,Pakistan’s closest ally, lifted itstechnical hold on the propos-al to blacklist him.

After the delegation-leveltalks with Xi, Modi tweeted,“Had an extremely fruitfulmeeting with President XiJinping. Our talks includedthe full spectrum of India-China relations. We shall con-tinue working together toimprove economic and cultur-al ties between our nations.”

The Modi-Xi meeting

began with President Xi con-gratulating the Indian PrimeMinister over his election vic-tory. “After the election resultsin India, I got your message,and today again you wish meon the victory, I am very grate-ful to you for this,” Modireplied.

Briefing the reporters afterthe meeting, Foreign SecretaryVijay Gokhale said that therewas a brief discussion onPakistan during the talksbetween the two leaders. He

said India has a consistentposition with respect toPakistan that it wants peacefulrelations with Islamabad.Gokhale said Modi told Xithat he has made efforts toimprove ties with Islamabadbut these efforts have been“derailed”.

“Pakistan needs to createan atmosphere free of terror,but at this stage we do not seeit happening. We expectIslamabad to take concreteaction” to resume talks,

Gokhale quoted the PM astelling President Xi.

Modi’s comments cameahead of President Xi’s meetingwith Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan, who is also herein the Kyrgyz capital to attendthe SCO summit. Khan hastwice written to Modi, seekingresumption of dialogue on allissues, including Kashmir.

Responding to Khan’s over-tures, Modi told his Pakistanicounterpart that creating trustand an environment free of vio-

lence and terrorism was essen-tial for fostering peace andprosperity in the region. Indiahas not been engaging withPakistan since an attack on theAir Force base at Pathankot inJanuary of 2016 by a Pakistan-based terror group, maintain-ing that talks and terror cannotgo together.

Early this year, tensionsflared up between India andPakistan after a suicide bomberof Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40CRPF personnel in Kashmir’sPulwama district.

Amid mounting outrage,the Indian Air Force (IAF)carried out a counter-terroroperation, hitting the biggestJeM training camp in Balakotin Pakistan on February 26.The next day, Pakistan AirForce retaliated and downed aMiG-21 in an aerial combatand captured an IAF pilot,who was later handed over toIndia. China played a role ineasing tensions between NewDelhi and Islamabad.

The 2018 Wuhan summitbetween Prime Minister Modiand President Xi was largelycredited to have turned around

the bilateral relations soured bythe 73-day Doklam standoff,triggered by Chinese troopsattempts to build a road closeto Indian border in an area alsoclaimed by Bhutan in 2017.After the Wuhan summit, boththe countries stepped up effortsto improve relations on differ-ent spheres including the mil-itary-to-military ties. The twoleaders have met more than 10times in the last five years,including thrice after theirinformal summit in Wuhan --- first at the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO) summit held in June lastin China’s Qingdao, the secondtime at the BRICS summit inSouth Africa’s Johannesburgin July and third time inDecember last on the sidelinesof the G-20 summit inArgentina.

Ahead of the meeting,China hinted that President Xiwould highlight the need toforge a united front against USPresident Donald Trump’s poli-cies of trade protectionism andunilateralism using tariffs as aweapon. China and the UShave been in an escalatingconflict over trade for the pastyear. The scope of the battle hasexpanded in recent months asWashington has tightenedtrade restrictions on Chinesetelecom giant Huawei.

Modi also met RussianPresident Vladimir Putin hereand the two leaders reviewedall aspects of bilateral rela-tions to further strengthen thestrategic relationship.

PNS n NEW DELHI

All the 13 Air Force person-nel on board the AN-32

plane that crashed inArunachal Pradesh on June 3are confirmed dead. The searchand rescue team that landednear the crash site on Thursdayfound no survivors but recov-ered the flight data recorder orblack box. This retrieval willhelp the IAF to ascertain thecause of the accident.

“Eight members of the res-cue team reached the crash sitetoday morning. IAF is sad toinform that there are no sur-vivors from the crash of AN-32,” the IAF said in a tweet.

The 13 personnel onboardwere identified as WingCommander GM Charles,Squadron Leader H Vinod,Flight Lieutenants R Thapa, ATanwar, S Mohanty and MKGarg, Warrant Officer KKMishra, Sgt Anoop Kumar,Cpl Sherin, Leading AircraftMen (LAC) SK Singh, Pankaj,Non Combatant EnrolledNC(E) Putali and RajeshKumar.

The families of the per-sonnel have also beeninformed, officials said.

For a week, relatives of the

13 personnel were positionedat a Jorhat base camp waitingfor news about their lovedones.

On Wednesday, the firstteam of mountaineers of theIAF reached the crash site aftergetting airdropped but couldnot get close due to rain. Onreaching the exact spot onThursday, the unit did notfind any survivors. Efforts arenow on to secure the remainsof the deceased and deliver theblack box safely to the IAFauthorities for examination,sources said.

Meanwhile, ground troopsof the Army and Indo-TibetanBorder Police (ITBP) will reachthe site in day or two for sal-vaging the parts of the planeand other related activities.

Continued on Page 6

SAUGAR SENGUPTA n KOLKATA

The striking junior doctorsdefied West Bengal Chief

Minister Mamata Banerjee’sultimatum on Thursday anddecided to continue theirprotest till she withdrew herstatement in which she saw acommunal and political agen-da behind the agitation and tilltheir demand for adequatesecurity in Government hos-pitals are met.

Emergency wards, outdoorfacilities, pathological units ofmany State-run medical col-leges and hospitals and a num-ber of private medical facilitiesin the state remained closed forthe third day due to the strikeby the doctors who are protest-ing after two of their col-leagues were attacked and seri-ously injured at the NRSMedical College and Hospitalhere by a mob following thedeath of a patient.

While visiting the SSKMHospital on Thursday morn-ing, Mamata directed the doc-tors to resume work within fourhours or face consequence

attracting protest slogans fromthe agitating doctors. By theevening the medics decided tocarry on the agitation.

The doctors’ strike hastaken a pan-Indian proportionwith Indian MedicalAssociation calling for a “ceasework” nationally. The doctorsof All India Institute of MedicalSciences too would strike workas mark of solidarity on Friday.

The large group of juniordoctors who got moral supportfrom their seniors and thepan-Indian doctors’ associa-tions as well as world forum ofdoctors, demanded an apologyfrom Mamata for her state-ments.

Meanwhile, ProfessorSaibal Kumar Mukherjee andProfessor SaurabhChattopadhyay resigned as thePrincipal and MedicalSuperintendent/vice principal,respectively, of NRS MedicalCollege and Hospital where thejunior doctors were brutallyassaulted by hooligans after thedeath of a patient.

At least 18 senior doctorsworking in various medical

colleges, including Sagar DuttaMedical College, tendered theirresignation in protest againstthe Government’s “insensitivehandling of a delicate and sen-

sitive issue.”While the Chief Minister

accused some doctors ofenquiring the patients’ reli-gious background before giving

them treatment, the medicsdenied the charges saying it was“not clinically possible to asksuch questions during the dutyhours without being chal-lenged.”

Calling upon the doctors,Mamata said “on the first day,things were not political, lateron it was given political andcommunal colours as a politi-cian said the Muslim doctorsbeat up the Hindu doctorswhen it was just another caseof hooliganism.”

The Monday’s attack on thedoctors was so grievous thattwo of them had to be shiftedto ICU at Institute ofNeurology with severe braininjury. “One of them sustainedserious injury as his frontalskull bone had pierced thebrain following an attack sup-posedly with some heavy sub-stance.”

More attacks followed onThursday both at NRS MedicalCollege and Burdwan MedicalCollege with alleged TMC sup-porters assaulting the strikingdoctors with bricks and bottles.

Continued on Page 6

DEEPAK K UPRETI n NEW DELHI

The BJP is to continue withAmit Shah as party presi-

dent until Assembly polls inMaharashtra, Haryana andJharkhand by the year-end.The party on Thursdayappointed former MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan as incharge ofthe mammoth membershipdrive for the organisationalelections that will culminate inelecting Shah’s successor.

The decision to initiatemembership drive was taken ata meeting headed by the BJPpresident and attended byparty’s national office-bearers,general secretaries and presi-dents of the State units at theparty headquarters.

According to sources, Shahis likely to continue as partypresident till the organisation-al elections get over. Shah’sextended tenure would end inJanuary 2020.

Shah may later pave theway for the new party chief touphold the party’s stated poli-cy of one-man-one-post.Sources did not confirmwhether any discussion took

place on appointing a workingpresident.

The meeting also discussedchanges in the party and vacan-cies created on account of anumber of party leaders join-ing the Modi Government,including State unit presidentsof Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Party’s coordination withthe Modi-2 dispensation andeffective propagation andimplementation of flagshipGovernment policies was alsodeliberated by the meeting,the first after Shah becomingthe Union Home Minister.

Addressing a Press confer-ence after the meeting, BJP’sgeneral secretary BhupenderYadav said the party presidenttold the organisational officebearers that “the party has stillnot peaked in terms of its elec-toral performance despite win-ning the highest ever 303 seatsin 2019”.

The party’s reach is need tobe further expanded to newregions and sections of thesociety, Yadav said quotingShah.

Yadav said Shah creditedthe hard work of the crores ofparty supporters for the BJPgetting more than 50 per centvote share in 220 seats in theLok Sabha elections.

Shah said in the Lok Sabhapoll, party succeeded in spread-ing its wings in West Bengal,Telangana, Odisha and North-East States.

Continued on Page 6

PTI n NEW DELHI

India is planning to launch itsown space station, ISRO

chief K Sivan announced onThursday about this ambitiousproject which will enable theagency to send more humansto space when executed.

He also said India will notjoin the International SpaceStation (ISS). AfterChandrayaan Mission 2, alsoknown as Moon Mission 2, theIndian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) willlaunch another mission to theSun by launching Aditya-L1 inthe first half of 2020, Sivan said.

Another interplanetarymission to Venus will belaunched in the next 2-3 years,Sivan, who is also the Secretary,Department of Space, said.

Elucidating on the spacestation project, Sivan said themission will also be an exten-sion of the Gaganyaan project.

“We have to sustain theGaganyaan programme. So,subsequently, as a long-termplan, we are planning to havethe space station in India. Weare going to join the interna-tional community in mannedmissions to moon, asteroids.We have a clear plan for thespace programme,” Sivan said.

Continued on Page 6

PNS n NEW DELHI

Farmers will have to con-tribute `100 per month

under the Pradhan MantriKisan Pension Yojana(PMKPY) that seeks to providethem a minimum fixed month-ly pension of ̀ 3,000 on attain-ment of 60 years.

The Central Governmentwill also contribute an equalamount to the pension fund tobe managed by the LIC, whichwill be responsible for the pen-sion payout.

In its first Cabinet meetingafter returning to power, theModi Government hadapproved a separate pensionscheme for farmers with an aimto cover 5 crore beneficiaries inthe first three years, whichwould cost the exchequer`10,774.5 crore per annum.

Discussing the new schemewith State Agriculture

Ministers through a video con-ference, Union AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar urged all States andUnion Territories to roll out theprogramme at the earliest.

Tomar urged the States tostart enrolling farmers in theage group of 18-40 years,besides taking measures to cre-ate awareness about thescheme, an official statementsaid.

Under the PMKPY, theMinister said, “The beneficia-ry would be required to con-tribute `100 per month atmedian entry age of 29 years.”

Under the Pradhan MantriKisan Pension Yojana, a mini-mum fixed pension of `3,000per month will be provided tothe eligible small and margin-al farmers subject to certainexclusion causes on attainingthe age of 60 years.

Farmers can also opt toallow contribution to be madedirectly from the benefitsdrawn from the PradhanMantri Kisan Pension Yojana .There will also be an onlinegrievance redressal system forcomplete transparency.

The Union AgricultureMinister also discussed thePradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi Yojna (PMK-SNY), and Kisan Credit CardCampaign (KCCC).

Modi presses Xi on Pak terror

Only concrete action on terror by Pak can revive bilateral talks, asserts PM

Aircraft’s black

box retrieved

Striking doctors defy Mamata’s ultimatumDemanding security from hooligans, doctors seek CM’s apology for giving protest communal colour

Shah to head BJPtill polls in Maha,Haryana, J’khandShivraj to lead

membership drive

that will end with

picking party chief

India plans its own

space station: ISRO

Farmers to pay `100/monthfor `3,000/month pension

Had an extremelyfruitful meeting withPresident Xi Jinping.Our talks included the

full spectrum of India-China relations— PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of theShanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday PTI

Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah is garlanded by party leadersas he arrives for a meeting of BJP national office-bearers and State unit heads inNew Delhi on Thursday Ranjan Dimri | Pioneer

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at State Government-run SSKMHospital during strike of junior doctors, in Kolkata on Thursday PTI

All 13 aboard AN-32 dead,confirms IAF

ISRO Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivanaddresses the media in New Delhi onThursday PTI

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Late City Vol. 155 Issue 161*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

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OPINION 8

INDIA’S PARCHEDFUTURE

WORLD 11

UK CLEARS JULIAN ASSAGNEEXTRADITION TO US

Ex-MP Rajnath Singh ‘Surya’ passes awayPNS n LUCKNOW

Veteran journalist and for-mer member of Rajya

Sabha, Rajnath Singh `Surya’,passed away on Thursdaymorning after prolonged ill-ness. He was 80.

According to his familymembers, the leader passedaway at around 05:30 hours athis residence.

Singh was closely associat-ed with RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)from his childhood days andwent on to become itspracharak.

He possessed the inim-itable style of reporting, par-ticularly political and criminalstories. He had worked withprestigious dailies like Aaj,Dainik Jagran and was eveneditor Swatantra Bharat. Hestarted his career from the

Continued on Page 6

city 02LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

PNS n LUCKNOW

Undeterred by the humili-ating defeat in the Lok

Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh,Congress workers in the statehave started gearing up for the2022 Assembly polls and havedemanded that AICC generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra be announced theparty’s chief ministerial candi-date in UP.

The demand sprung up ata key feedback meeting inRae Bareli on Wednesday, inthe presence of Priyanka andother senior leaders, includingUnited Progressive Alliancechairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Rae Bareli MP SoniaGandhi had hosted a dinnerfor Congress leaders and work-ers in her constituency onWednesday evening.

The other key suggestiongiven by the Congress workersto the leadership was to swerveaway from alliance with anypolitical party and contest the12 UP Assembly bypolls withfull might. Priyanka, however,refrained from commentingon the issue.

‘’All the Congress workerswant Priyankaji to be theparty’s chief ministerial facewhen we contest the 2022 UPAssembly polls. I am sureCongress will bounce back if itis done,’’ said senior Congressleader and former CongressMP from Varanasi, RajeshKumar Mishra.

However, Priyanka, duringher interaction, made it clearthat the party workers did notwork with full dedication dur-ing the Lok Sabha polls andthis led to the defeat, even inAmethi.

Other key suggestions andfeedback given by theCongress workers during themeeting include careful vettingand early announcement of the

names of candidates so thatthey get ample time to dissem-inate the party’s ideology to thepeople.

Sources suggested that aweak organisational structurewas also blamed for the polldebacle in 2019 general elec-tions.

Focusing on the comingbypolls to 12 Assembly seats,Priyanka had asked her party-men to start ground levelpreparations. Sources said thatPriyanka was close to finalis-ing the names of leaders whowould be made in-charge ofthe 12 Assembly seats thatwould go for bypolls.

The local Congress leadershave also asked for the namesof three probable candidatesfor each of the 12 Assemblyseats where bypolls are slatedin the next six months.

Meanwhile, the party isalso reflecting on the possiblereasons behind party chiefRahul Gandhi’s defeat inAmethi. A report citing thereasons was submitted toPriyanka.

A two-member panel, ledby Sonia Gandhi’s representa-tive KL Sharma and AICC sec-retary Zubair Khan, metCongress workers in fiveAssembly constituencies thatmake up the Amethi LokSabha seat to ascertain the rea-

PNS n LUCKNOW

Even as the Agra policegroped in the dark for the

motive behind the sensationalmurder of Uttar Pradesh BarCouncil’s first woman presidentby another lawyer on the Agracivil court premises onWednesday, the last rites ofDarvesh Singh Yadav were per-formed in her native Chandpurvillage in Etah district onThursday.

The funeral pyre was lit bythe slain lawyer’s nephew, ParthYadav, in the presence of otherfamily members.

UP Law Minister BrijeshPathak attended the funeral,besides a large number oflawyers and members of thepublic. He announced that theUP government would provideadequate security to the lawyerson the court premises.

In a statement issued inLucknow late Wednesday night,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid, “Along with the BarCouncil, the Bar Associationand the judiciary, the state gov-ernment is committed to pro-viding adequate security on thepremises of the high court andthe district courts.” He saidclear-cut instructions in thisregard had been given to theChief Secretary and the DirectorGeneral of Police.

“The government will takeeffective steps, keeping in mindall the parameters of security,”the Chief Minister said, while

expressing grief at the demise ofthe newly-elected president ofUP Bar Council and conveyinghis condolence to the membersof the bereaved family and thelegal fraternity.

Sources said that the inves-tigation so far pointed thatboth Darvesh Yadav and lawyerManish Sharma who shot her,were having some dispute for along time and on Wednesday, itwas some colleagues of the UPBar Council president who hadcalled Manish Sharma andasked him to come to the felic-itation ceremony and forget alldifferences.

On their request, ManishSharma arrived and some wit-nesses revealed that he loadedthe weapon inside the courtpremises and went to the cham-ber of Arvind Kumar Mishrawhere Darvesh Yadav was pre-sent. Sources said that besidesDarvesh Yadav and Mishra,her maternal nephew ManojYadav and niece KanchanYadav, a sub-inspector, werealso present.

Manish first had some heat-ed arguments with Manoj afterwhich he whipped out hisweapon and fired the first shotat him. However, Manoj sur-vived and took shelter under thetable. After Manish opened fireon Manoj, Darvesh Yadavabused him and questioned hisaction. On this, Manish pumpedthree bullets in her body andlater fired at his own temple.However, it is still not clear what

differences Manish had withDarvesh Yadav’s family.

Darvesh’s nephew SunnyYadav has lodged a report withthe police in which besidesManish he has also namedManish’s wife Vandana Sharma.

Darvesh’s colleagues toldpolice that Manish was friend-ly with her since she startedpractice in 2004 and he alwayscampaigned for her whenevershe fought elections. In theelection for UP Bar Councilchairperson’s post, Manish hadworked very hard to ensure hervictory. They said it was difficultto fathom what went wrong,between the two to the extentthat Manish shot DarveshYadav.

It may be mentioned herethat Darvesh Yadav was a spin-ster and was looking after thefamily members and bearing theexpenses of the children of herbrother and sisters.

Meanwhile, work in thecourts across western UP cameto a standstill on Thursday aslawyers protested againstDarvesh Yadav’s killing.

Muzaffarnagar District BarAssociation president SyedNaseer Haider said the incidentwas condemned by lawyersduring a condolence meeting.

The call for the boycott ofwork was given by the state barcouncil. Judicial work wasaffected in Baghpat, Bijnor,Muzaffarnagar, Meerut,Saharanpur and Shamli dis-tricts.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath on Thursday

paid tributes to five CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)martyrs, including two fromthe state, who were killed dur-ing an encounter in Anantnagarea of Jammu and Kashmir.

He also expressed grief atthe death of a native ofLucknow who was on boardthe ill-fated AN-32 aircraft ofthe IAF that crashed inArunachal Pradesh.

The Chief Ministerannounced an ex gratia pay-ment of `25 lakh each to thefamilies of the two CRPF martyrs from the state and agovernment job to their depen-dants.

In a statement releasedhere on Thursday, the ChiefMinister said that roads in thenative village of the martyrswould be named after them.

The two CRPF martyrsfrom Uttar Pradesh areSatyendra Kumar from Shamliand Mahesh Kushwaha fromGhazipur.

Yogi also asked UP minis-ter Suresh Rana to go to Shamliand another minister, NeelkantTiwari, to Ghazipur to attendthe funerals of the two bravehearts.

Among the dead in the AN32 crash was non-combatPutali, a resident of Bakshi kaTalab area of the state capital.The Chief Minister expressedhis condolence on the bereavedfamily.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Condemning the murder of UttarPradesh Bar Council president

Darvesh Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Partypresident Akhilesh Yadav said that law andorder had gone from bad to worse in UttarPradesh and now people should thinkabout their own security themselves.

He also demanded a probe by a HighCourt judge into the murder of DarveshSingh Yadav.

Akhilesh gave this statement afterattending the last rites of the first womanpresident of UP Bar Council, in Etah onThursday.

“The murder of a senior lawyerinside a lawyer’s chamber on the Agracivil court premises is a shocking incidentthat cannot even be imagined by some-one. This speaks volumes about the lawand order situation in the state. What ismore shocking is that criminals were call-ing the shots when the Chief Minister washolding a meeting on law and order sit-uation,” the SP chief told reporters inEtah.

The government should provideassistance of Rs 50 lakh to the family ofthe deceased lawyer, he said.

The former Chief Minister of UttarPradesh said that there was no point in

hoping for justice from this government,adding that the probe of such a seriouscrime should be conducted by a judge ofthe High Court.

Akhilesh Yadav said, “After the (LokSabha) elections, SP workers are beingtargeted and killed. We will give a list tothe Governor of the people who havebeen murdered (after polls). The role ofthe police should also be probed in thesemurder cases. People cannot hope for jus-

tice from this government.” Raising a question on the role of the

Governor, the SP president expressed hissuspicion on the government in thesekillings and wondered if the police wereinvolved in the murders of SP workers.

“There seems to be a deep rootedcontroversy. There is an attempt to endthe Samajwadi Party. This governmentshould realise that samajwad is a philos-ophy which cannot be killed by bullets,”Yadav said.

He, however, refused to take ques-tions on his party’s relationship withBahujan Samaj Party or the reportedefforts for rapprochement in the Yadavfamily.

Meanwhile, the Congress hit out atthe Uttar Pradesh government over themurder of UP Bar Council presidentDarvesh Singh Yadav, saying there wasnot much difference between the “jun-gle rule and the law and order situation”in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state.

“Right under the nose of Ajay SinghBisht’s (Adityanath) government in UttarPradesh, the first woman president of thebar council was shot dead. There is notmuch difference left between the junglerule and law and order in BJP-ruled UP,”Congress’s chief spokesperson RandeepSurjewala said in a tweet in Hindi.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Laying stress on improvinghealthcare facilities at theground level, Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath askedchief medical officers to carryout field inspections and visitprimary and community healthcentres (PHCs/CHCs) toensure that villagers were get-ting free medicines and otherhealth facilities.

Addressing chief medicalofficers, directors and deputydirectors of Health Directoratehere on Thursday, Yogi saidthat his government was com-mitted to providing free health-care facilities to the villagers.“We have made someannouncements in this regardand it is the responsibility of theCMOs and other senior officersto ensure that people get thebenefits,” he said.

He asked the CMOs to goto field regularly and thedeputy directors and jointdirectors to carry out inspec-

tions in districts. “The CHCsand PHCs should be inspectedon regular basis because thereare reports of government doc-tors doing private practice inprivate nursing homes. Thisneeds to be curtailed. It is acriminal act that such doctorsare taking salary from govern-ment but are giving their ser-vices to private hospitals,” theChief Minister said, addingthat the officers should also

check whether patients are get-ting medicines or not fromhospitals or CHCs.

The Chief Minister sug-gested that nodal officer beappointed in far-flung hospitalsto solve the problems of the hos-pital.

“The CMOs can be innov-ative in their own way. The aimof this government is to improvehealth services and health offi-cials should work in this regard.

We need to work as a team.Around 25 years back the dis-trict hospitals used to provideexcellent services but deteriora-tion set in. We have tried tobring the situation back on rails.Earlier, medicines were notavailable in hospitals but we havebrought about a change in thelast two years. In coming dayswe will ensure that every patientgets free medicine,” he said.

Yogi also cautioned the doc-tors about the spread ofencephalitis in neighbouringstate of Bihar. “This dreaded dis-ease has killed 35 children so far.We need to be cautious.Preventive measures should betaken so that encephalitis doesnot affect our children,” he said.

The CMO of Gorakhpurpresented a report on infectiousdiseases while the CMO ofVaranasi presented a report onAayushman Bharat and PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana.

Uttar Pradesh MedicalSupplies Corporation Limitedalso presented its report.

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Yogi stresses on improving

healthcare at CHCs, PHCs

UP Congress workers pitch forPriyanka as CM candidate

sons behind the shockingdefeat.

The panel is said to havebeen informed of the “non-cooperation” by the SamajwadiParty and the Bahujan SamajParty workers at the grassrootslevel. The SP and BSP, whichhad formed an alliance to fightthe Lok Sabha polls, did notfield any candidate in Amethiin a show of tacit support to thegrand old party.

Meanwhile, AICC generalsecretary in-charge

UP West JyotiradityaScindia, will reach Lucknow onFriday morning and hold ameeting with the Lok Sabhacandidates who lost the gener-al elections 2019. He will alsomeet the district/city presi-dents of the party, former MPs,legislators and office-bearers atthe UPCC headquarters to dis-cuss the reasons for the recentdefeat as well as invite sugges-tions on how the party could dowell in the coming bypolls andthe 2022 Assembly elections.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh at thereview meeting with health officials in Lucknow on Thursday Pioneer

Slain UP Bar Council

chief cremated

CM promises security in courts

AKY slams UP govt over law, order

CM announces financial aid for kin of two CRPF martyrs

8-yr-old girl raped

Lucknow: An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped in avillage in Bareilly. Police said on Thursday the girl was luredby the accused and raped at an unknown place under theNawabganj police station on Wednesday. “The accused personknew the family members of the girl,” a senior police officialsaid. The girl’s family lodged a complaint after she narrated thesequence of events. Police have registered a case and a searchis underway to nab the accused.

Meanwhile, two persons drowned in separate incidents inShamli district while bathing in the Yamuna. In the first inci-dent near a village in Jhinjhana area on Wednesday, three per-sons were rescued from the river and shifted to a hospital whilethe body of a youth, Ankur, 19, was recovered. In Kairana, aperson drowned and another was missing when they came tobathe in the Yamuna. PTI

city 03LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Lucknow University is takingstrong, sustainable and con-

tinuous measures to see thatcases of fake marksheets didnot take place in the future.Talking to The Pioneer ,Lucknow University Vice-Chancellor SP Singh said theyhad taken a few immediatemeasures apart from setting upan inquiry committee whichwas carrying out investiga-tions. He said they had alsowritten a letter to the state gov-ernment for instituting a CBIinquiry into the matter.

Giving details of the mea-sures taken, he said they hadbegun the process of putting thecharts online. “A hard copy ofthe documents will also bemade which will be laminatedso that no overwriting takesplace. The records will be putin a fire-proof almirah under adouble lock system,” he said.The committee which is carry-ing out the investigation willtake time because theUniversity wanted to come upwith something concrete andwith proof. “The committee isalso carrying out investigation

prima facie. We are also extend-ing full help to the police inves-tigation which is also takingplace separately. Such incidentscan only be checked if theguilty are penalised,” he stated.

He said that these incidentshad occurred 10 years ago buteven then no action was taken.‘Let alone some big action noteven a small action was takenin these incidents to put a stopwhich had been an encourage-ment to the people involvedand had resulted in the forma-tion of caucuses,” he added. Hesaid that just as in the case ofall other measures which hehad taken for making improve-ments in the university, hewould take stern action in this

case. Lucknow University hasalready suspended four personswho were involved in this case.

Meanwhile, more arrestsare likely to take place shortlyin the LU fake marksheet case.According to SP, trans-Gomti,Amit Kumar, the police havelooked into documentary evi-dence and they are gettingsolid evidence in this case.

He said that they were alsogetting forged documents andmoving forward on this inputthey would arrest all thosewho were found involved in thecase. “Everybody who was sus-pected to be slightly involved inthis case is under the scanner.We are following the funnelapproach case in which we are

considering everyone and theneliminating them and comingdown to the lowest commondenominator when their crim-inality is not proved,” he said.He said that it was a reputedinstitution and hence theywould not act carelesslybecause this might affect thereputation of the people there.

On being asked what levelof employees would be arrest-ed , he said that whosoever wasinvolved in the direct forging ofdocuments would be arrested.

It may be pointed out herethat the police had securedinputs from a victim who hadgone to appear for an entrancetest and was offered a fakedegree which started the ballrolling. “We had put our per-sonnel and sent in quiet cus-tomers and the people startedrolling out. Their modusoperandi was that they wouldget the stationery from the per-son who was supplying it to theUniversity and affix a mono-gram or QR code and then scanand print a marksheet over it.They could be having access tothe staff,” the officials had ear-lier said.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Working to crack themurder case involv-ing a final year den-

tistry student, police suspectthe prime accused (PrakashChandra Arya) was pressuringthe victim (Priya Singh) tomarry him and killed her whenshe turned down the proposal.

“Things will be clear afterPrakash is arrested and inter-rogated. There is imparitybetween the social status of thetwo families. Prakash is a ClassIV employee while Priya waspursuing BDS. Prakash knewPriya as he is a resident of thesame locality,” Cantonmentcircle officer Tanu Uapdhyaysaid. She said teams had beendespatched to different loca-tions to nab Prakash while ateam was searching for him inLucknow.

She said that media reportsthat both Prakash and Priyastudied together in school wereincorrect. “Nothing of that sorthas surfaced in the probe so

far,” she said. The CO said thepolice did not get any diary ornote from Priya’s house sug-gesting her love affair withPrakash. “We still do not knowsince when Priya and Prakashknew each other,” Updhayaysaid, adding that Prakash mighthave executed the crime single-handedly. The police suspectthat Prakash befriended Priyaseveral years back and wasplanning to marry her tobrighten his future prospects.

“The family denied havingany information about Priya’s

acquaintance with Prakasheven though he knew her for along time. Maybe Priya wouldbe treating Prakash as a friendwhile he had a crush on her,”sources privy to the investiga-tion said.

Priya was staying all alonein the house in Cantonment forthe last couple of days after herparents left for their nativeplace in Gopalganj of Bihar toattend a wedding. On Tuesdaymorning, she was found lyingdead on a bed while a noosewas tied with a hook in the ceil-

ing. The police had recoveredfive mobile phones, two ofwhich belong to Prakash. Outof the recovered mobiledevices, one was foundsmashed. Police suspected thatthe damaged mobile phonewould be containing some per-sonal details.

On Wednesday, the police-had identified the killer bychance. Prakash had fled thescene, leaving his mobilephones at the crime scene anddid not go home on Mondaynight. His family called him onhis mobile phone when he didnot return till late night onMonday, but the calls wentunanswered. They firstsearched for him and laterlodged a missing complaint atCantonment police station.

In the meantime, the copsreturned a call from the mobileand it turned out to be thenumber of Prakash’s parents.Following this, his parents weresummoned and it surfacedthat Prakash was missing andan FIR was registered.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The AIIMS-2019 resultsdeclared late on

Wednesday night witnessedseveral achievers in the city.Imran Khan, a student of theRasphel Academy, was oncloud nine as he scored 50thall-India rank, which wasmuch better in comparison tohis NEET rank of 229.

Talking to The Pioneer, hesaid he was not expectingsuch a good result in theentrance test of the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Science(AIIMS) after his NEET paperhad got spoilt.

The young achiever saidthat since the first 50 rank-holders get AIIMS (Delhi), hewas hopeful that he would eable to make it. “If I do not getAIIMS (Delhi), I will opt forKGMU,” he added.

About his success mantra,he said he got a lot of help fromthe coaching which he pursuedalong with Class XI and ClassXII. He said for Biology, hemostly referred to the NCERTbooks. He said he would liketo go into cardiology or neu-rology. About research, he saidit would depend on the kind ofenvironment which the insti-tute offered and the kind ofopportunities which he got infuture.

Jay Tewari, son of Dr AKTewari, scored the 59th rank inthe AIIMS entrance examina-tion. In NEET, he had scored88th rank. “If I get AIIMS(Delhi) with this rank, nothinglike it. Otherwise, I will go forKGMU,” he said. A student ofCathedral School, Jay crackedthe exam in first attempt. He

said his success mantra wasregular studies.

The young achiever saidhe was keen on researchinstead of practising medi-cine. “I am interested in carry-ing out research in the area ofgenetics because it is a fairlynew field, and will go a longway in curing hereditary dis-eases such as Alzheimer’s andcancer,” he said.

Vineet Harsh, whosecured the 272nd rank, saidhe could get all AIIMS inother cities but not in Delhi.

The achiever, who had secured63rd rank in NEET, said hemight go into Maluana AzadMedical College in New Delhi.

Vineet had dropped a yearto appear in the exam andtaken Maths and Biology inClass XII. He said when theresults were declared late in thenight, the site almost crashed.

Saharsh Shukla, whosecured an all-India rank of736, said he would be joiningMaulana Azad College. Hesaid his success mantra was tofocus on NCERT books.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Acloud of smoke covered thesixth floor of Lok Bhawan on

Thursday evening, sending policeinto a tizzy. The police evacuat-ed the building immediately forsecurity purpose efore launchingthe rescue operation. As a full-throttle operation was underwayat Lok Bhawan, the policerestricted traffic movement onthe road stretch from Capitol cin-ema to Bapu Bhawan crossing.This restriction resulted in traf-fic jam in which commuters gotstuck for hours, even after therescue operation concluded.

SSP Kalanidhi Naithani saidthey were informed about thesmoke cloud on the sixth floorof Lok Bhawan. “Some burnt

‘Dental student murdered for

refusing marriage proposal’

articles were recovered fromthe duct and it seemed theycaused the fumes and therewas no fire,” he said.

He said the firemen andelectric officials were examin-ing the place. “The policechecked all the floors andeverything was normal.However, further investiga-tions are underway,” he added.

The incident gave tensemoments to the Lucknowpolice officers and other offi-cials. “The firemen and electri-cal officials are trying to findthe fault after dismantling the

false ceiling while policemen,including the CO and ASP, arealso there. The police are yet tofind out the reason behind themishap,” sources said.

Meanwhile, a 33-year-oldman, identified as Jaykaran,was electrocuted after hetouched a table fan and suf-fered a fatal shock. Reportssaid Jaykaran of Kakori wokeup on Thursday morning andswitched off the fan when suf-fered the shock. “He fellunconscious and we rushedhim to a hospital where he wasdeclared brought dead,”

deceased’s brother Deshraj toldthe police.

THEFTThieves sneaked into the

house of a retired PWDemployee in Saadatganj onWednesday night anddecamped with cash and valu-ables. Reports said houseowner Ramesh Chand andother family members weresleeping on the top floor oftheir house when the thefttook place. “The miscreantsdid not even spare utensils,”Ramesh said.

Fire scare at Lok Bhawan

Investigations underway at Lok Bhawan’s sixth floor Pioneer

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath paying his last respect to former BJP Rajya Sabha MP and senior journalist Rajnath Singh ‘Surya’ who died at his Gomti Nagar residenceon Thursday morning Pioneer

Varsity taking measures to check

menace of fake marksheets

City lads shine through in

AIIMS entrance exam

(Clockwise from top) Imran Khan, Jay Tewari, Vineet Harsh, and Saharsh Shukla

Imran Khan, a student of the Rasphel

Academy, was on cloud nine as he

scored all-India rank 50, which was

much better in comparison to

his NEET rank of 229

CO Tanu Uapdhyay

media reports that

Prakash and Priya

studied together in

school were

incorrect. She said

nothing of that sort

had surfaced in

the probe so far

Road Safety

Awareness

Week from

June 17

Lucknow (PNS): TheUttar Pradesh State RoadTransport Corporation(UPSRTC) will be observing‘Road Safety Awareness Week’from June 17 to 20. Mediaspokesperson Anwar Anzarsaid directions had been issuedin this regard to all the divi-sional commissioners, seniorpolice officials and districtmagistrates across the state.

He said that in UttarPradesh, 1.5 lakh deaths tookplace annually due to roadaccidents and maximum num-ber of people were injured inthe road mishaps.

“These untimely deathsimpact the families of the vic-tims emotionally and econom-ically. Several measures havebeen taken but looking into theseriousness of the situation, itis important to spread aware-ness on the issue,” he added.

Anzar said the Road SafetyAwareness Week would wit-ness several programmes inwhich all the stakeholderswould be invited.

“Medical camps will beset up with the help of CHCsand PHCs for the drivers ofheavy vehicles. NCC, RotaryClubs and others will beengaged to spread awarenessabout the use of helmets andseat belts. The use of helmetswill be strictly implemented ingovernment offices too,” hesaid. Anzar said walkathon,rallies, foot marches andbikeathons would be organisedto spread awareness.

“Nukkad nataks will alsobe organised and tributes willbe paid to those who have losttheir lives in road mishaps,” hesaid, adding that vehicleswould be checked and check-ing drives would be conduct-ed for talking on mobile whiledriving, seat belts, helmets,overloading etc.

Lucknow (PNS): An attempt was made by7-year-old Devaagyh Dixit on March 15 lastto create seven world record simultaneously atKing George’s Medical University. Authoritieshave said that the records are related todrumming and the Golden Book of WorldRecords has approved all the records. In viewof his achievements in the field of music & artand social work, the KGMU Community EyeBank has made Dixit the wellness brandambassador for the year 2019-2024. Dr ArunSharma of KGMU said it was surprising thatat the age of 5, Devaagyh had achieved theserecords, making him the only Indian to havemade seven world records in a day. Theserecords are for the fastest to perform 10,000beats, maximum beats performed in oneminute, maximum beats performed in one sec-ond, maximum drum kicks performed in oneminute and maximum drum rolls in minuteetc. He has performed more than 160 live drumsolo shows in India. He is also the India’syoungest percussionist. At the tender age of 5,Devaagyh has given performances at all lev-els, including at 2019 Kumbh Mela, ElectionCommission’s Voting Carnival, IskconAuditorium in Delhi, and Shirdi Sai Darbar.When Devaagyh was 1.5-year-old, his moth-er Rashi observed that he always showed a keeninterest in music. His mother then startedcoaching him when he was 2.

7 world records for 7-yr-old

city 04LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

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PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Homebuyers have to pay 50 per centmore on accommodations being

developed under the Prime Minister AwasYojana (PMAY) if the Centre and state gov-ernment fail to increase subsidy. The rea-son for the increased cost is escalation inbuilding material prices and wages of theskilled and semi-skilled manpower.

The subsidy is being offered jointly bythe Centre and state government so thatthose earning Rs 6,00,000 per annum orless can buy a decent places of dwellings.

Initially, the original price of a shelterwas supposed to be Rs 2 lakh. In fact, theprice was determined at Rs 4.50 lakh whenthe project was launched in 2015. But, itwas reduced, thanks to the subsidy.

The project was launched four yearsago with a view to providing homes toevery citizen by 2022 on the occasion of75th anniversary of Independence.

However, with the construction materialbecoming dearer and escalation in othercosts by over 50 per cent, the cost of ahome will now be Rs 6.50 lakh.

Lucknow Development Authority(LDA) was entrusted with the job to con-struct 6,000 shelters in the city underPMAY. LDA Vice-Chairman PN Singhsaid they were hoping for an increased sub-

sidy while several rounds of talks had beenheld between them and State UrbanDevelopment Agencies (SUDA) in thisregard. “The SUDA authorities have for-warded the request to the Union Housingand Urban Development Ministry forquick release of funds,” he said.

He added that the LDA administrationhad taken the senior officials in confidenceto pursue the issue on a war-footing as thedelay was not in public interest. The Vice-Chairman said he was optimistic that themoney was expected to be released bySeptember this year. The LDA administra-tion is developing the shelters at three dif-ferent sites — Gosainganj, Sultanpur road,Vrindavan housing scheme located on RaeBareli road and Basant Vihar housingscheme. The houses are being built on pub-lic-private participation (PPP) model.The possession of the first lot of the hous-es at Vrindavan housing scheme wasgiven in November this year.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Birbal Sahni Institute ofPalaeosciences (BSIP) will

be focusing on oil exploration,an area with which it hadstarted when it was first estab-lished. Talking to The Pioneer,new director Vandana Prasad,who had taken charge, saidthat they would try to developexpertise as consultants in thisfield. She said that the Institutewas also working in the area ofgenetics and civilisation andseveral aspects were emergingfrom these studies. Havingbeen with the Institute since1994, she said that there was alot that she knew about itwhich would be advantageous.

Talking about oil explo-ration, she said that they wouldbe developing their expertiseand would provide intellectu-al inputs wherever they wererequired because there was alot of data which the BSIP hadrelated to this field. “This isalso important in the light ofthe fact that we have to gener-ate funds for the Institute apartfrom what we are getting fromthe government. We will try toextend help to both the privateand the government sectors.For developing expertise wehave to get students andstrengthen work in this area,”she said.

She admitted that theInstitute had been mainly builtfor this initiative but down theline this area of oil explo-ration got neglected. “Thiscan be very lucrative and veryuseful for the country becauseexperts are called from abroad

for any oil exploration workwhich is being carried outhere. The country is spendinga lot of money on theseexperts,” she said. On beingasked how they would carryout value addition with otheragencies existing and workingin the same field, she said“when oil exploration is beingcarried out then it is necessaryto give results within three tofour hours of the age of the sitefrom where the drilling is tak-ing place because it is anexpensive process. The ‘agedefining’ is what we do in thisprocess. We are concernedwith bio stratography of thewhole exercise and not withthe engineering side or thegeophysical side of oil explo-ration,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said thatshe would increase the num-ber of outreach activities sothat the layman knew whatwas going on in the Institute.“Work is being done on palaeorecords and the assessment ofthe global warming. We arecarrying out studies on howdrastic is the impact on naturehow it is responding to it. Thephenomenon of global warm-ing had also taken place sev-eral million years ago whenthe humans were not thereand gradually it returned tothe normal zone. If peopleknow about these things thenthey will be more concernedabout environment.” She saidthat she wanted to reach outto the students and invitethem to see what kind ofwork was going on at the institute.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

In a society where discussingthe issue of menstruation is

still considered a taboo,Lucknow Metro RailCorporation Limited voicedits support for menstrualhealth by installing sanitarynapkin dispensing machine atCharbagh station on the occa-sion of World MenstrualHygiene Day on May 28. Thisinitiative by LMRC has beenreceiving encouragingresponse and appreciation notonly from travellers butwomen in general who are vis-iting the station just to pur-chase sanitary napkins inemergency.

“Ever since the machinehas been installed, a largenumber of passengers areavailing the benefit of thebio-degradable sanitary nap-kins. The number of beneficia-ries is so significant that themachine having the capacity

to dispense 50 units is gettingrefilled frequently,” an LMRCofficial said.

He added that passengerscould avail sanitary napkins byinserting coins up to Rs 5rupee. The machine has beenstrategically installed insidethe women’s washrooms sothat women can avail thisfacility without any discomfort.

Mahima Shrivastava, aresident of Hazratganj, laudedthe initiative of LucknowMetro, saying taking such astep in keeping with the basic

need of women was apprecia-ble. Vani Mishra, who came toCharbagh from Munshipulia,said Metro had won the heartsof women by installing themachine. She said she hopedthe initiative was replicated atother public places as well.

These machines will alsobe installed at Munshipulia,Hazratganj and CCS Airportstation in few days. “LMRCstrives to serve all its passen-gers with utmost sincerity anddedication, providing a safeand comfortable travel expe-rience for all,” an official said.

IGNOU EXAM87-year-old Laxmi

Srivastava and acid attack sur-vivors Anshu, Preeti and Rupaliappeared in the term-endexamination at Jai Narain PGCollege (IGNOU centre) onThursday. They are appearingin the examination ofCertificate in Food andNutrition Programme (CFN).Assistant regional director KirtiVikram Singh said LaxmiSrivastava, who is enrolled inthe CFN programme, partici-pated in counselling classesorganised at the study centrealong with the other studentsregularly and submitted herassignments on time. Srivastavawas a teacher by profession andshe lives in Aastha Old AgeHome. Regional directorManorama Singh said LaxmiSrivastava, along with the acidattack survivor students,appeared in the examination onThursday. She said the coun-selling classes of acid attack sur-vivors were organised at theirworkplace through mobilestudy centre.

CONFERENCEBhartiya Skill Development

University (BSDU) onThursday organised a confer-ence in Lucknow to promoteand discuss skill developmentand its requirement in India.Vice-Chancellor Surjit SinghPabla talked about how skill-

based courses benefit youthslooking for jobs and profession-al fields. “Trained staff is thedesire of each and every organ-isation. Today’s world is revolv-ing around some professionalcareer options which are func-tional in nature than relevant,like management, administra-tive, accounting, technical etc.In such functional areas, prac-tical training is never prede-fined. We at BSDU have creat-ed training modules that enablethe students to go through allmachine learning and functionlearning,” he added.

IAS EXAMD e e p a k

Mishra, analumnus of CityM o n t e s s o r iSchool, quali-fied the covetedIAS examina-tion 2018 withall-India rank 511. A meritori-ous student of CMS StationRoad Campus, Deepak hadsecured 94.4% marks in ICSE(Class X) Board examination.Deepak is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi from where he graduat-ed in 2015. Before cracking thecivil services exam, he hadalso qualified the prestigiousIndian Railway Service ofMechanical Engineers (IRSME)and served as additional divi-sional mechanical engineer(ADME) for two years.

CITYBRIEFS

PMAY: Buyers may have to pay more

BSIP to focus on

oil exploration

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The Shamli railway stationincident in which a scribe

was thrashed by illegal vendorsand Government RailwayPolice cops for running a storyon illegal vending on newschannel has exposed the rail-way claim of complete ban onsale of foodstuff, snacks, min-eral water, soft drinks andother edible by unauthorisedpersons. The railway has nodedicated squad to curb thismenace. “Illegal vending intrains and at railway platformsunder Northern Railway andNorth Eastern Railway zones isa deep rooted menace and thepassengers are forced to pur-chase foodstuff and edibles athigher price. Not only this, thevendors sell normal waterrefilled in mineral water bot-tles,” sources said.

They said the worst hit arethe general class, sleeper classand AC II coaches in which theillegal vendors sell their goods.

“The illegal vendors boarda train usually when it is leav-ing the station and get down atthe outer signal of the next rail-way station,” the sources said.They added that the vendorssell snacks, biscuits at a high-er price than the MRP printedon the packet.

The sources point out thatillegal vending is common atsmall railway stations or sta-tions like Barabanki, Budhwal,Jarwal, Gonda, Basti,Gorakhpur and other (of NERLucknow Zone) and at Unnao,Amausi, Harauni of NRLucknow Zone.

“As per rule, the sale offoodstuff is completely bannedin trains. Vendors are notallowed to sell edible items intrains when it is moving. Weused to conduct checking from

time to time to prevent thismenace. The illegal vendors getdown from trains at a placewhere cops of RailwayProtection Force (RPF) andGRP are not deployed.Sometimes they pull chains tostop trains at the outer signalof a railway station,” SeniorDivisional CommercialManager Swadesh Singh said.

He said the officials con-cerned had been asked to keepa close tab on illegal vendorsand drive them away with the

help of RPF and GRP. “We haveno special squad to check ille-gal vending,” the officer said.

Sources in railways sayillegal vending in trains and atplatforms is not a low costaffair. “This illegal business isof the tune of cores of rupeesin both NR and NER’sLucknow division. On an aver-age, over 200 trains passthrough Lucknow junctionwhich has 13 platforms. Thereare only about two dozen stallswhich have licence to sellsnacks, tea etc. This is too smalla number to cater to the pas-sengers of all these trains,” thesources said.

They disclosed that cops ofGRP and RPF were hand inglove in illegal vending. “Onecan see late in the night thelarge number of vendors in thecirculating area of Charbaghrailway station. The GRP andRPF men know about the ille-gal vending but they look awayand avoid taking any action,”the sources said.

The sources say the GRPand RPF personnel allow entryof illegal vendors on platformfor a favour. “A common manis denied entry on platform ifhe does not purchase a plat-form ticket. But for illegal ven-dors, there is no restriction,” thesources said.

Illegal vending at railway

stns remains unchecked

4 rly cops booked

for thrashing scribe

Muzaffarnagar (PTI): Four railway policemen, includ-ing a station house officer, were booked for allegedly beatingup a journalist in Shamli district, an official said on Thursday.

Police registered a case against the four personnel,including Station House Officer Rakesh Kumar, on Wednesdayunder sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to caus-ing hurt, insult, robbery and wrongful confinement, GRPSuperintendent of Police Subhash Chand Dubey said. Of thefour GRP officers, Kumar and constable Sanjay Pawar weresuspended on Wednesday. A case has been registered underthe IPC sections 323 (causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult),506 (criminal intimidation), 364 (abduction), 392 (punishmentfor robbery) and 342 (wrongful confinement), according topolice. The policemen were booked after an agitation by jour-nalists over incident.They staged a sit-in in Shamli onWednesday.

Women laud initiative of sanitary

napkin dispensing machine

4 of a family killed in mishap

PNS n ALLAHABAD

Four members of a family,including three children,

died when the motorcycle onwhich they were travellingwas hit by a speeding truckcoming from the wrong sideon the National Highway No2 in Kokhraj in Kaushambidistrict on Wednesdayevening. The truck driver fledthe spot but an alert had beensounded to trace his where-abouts and arrest him.According to a report,Rajkaran, a resident ofPathraw village in Saini, hiswife, Anita, and their threechildren, Karan (7), Anjali(5) and six-month-old Babuwere returning from the

Dhoomanganj area ofPrayagraj on a motorcycleafter attending a marriagewhen the mishap took place.While Anita sustained minorinjuries, Rajkaran and childrencame under the wheels of thetruck and died on the spot.The locals rushed to the spotand tried to stop the truck buttheir efforts ended in vain.The Kokhraj police got Anitaadmitted to a hospital and sentthe bodies of the deceased forthe post-mortem examina-tion. AdditionalSuperintendent of Police(ASP), Ashok Kumar, saidthat the kin of Rajkaran wereinformed about the incident.

Meanwhile, a woman ofPakistani origin, who was

married to a man in thePuramufti area 15 years ago,died due to an illness onWednesday evening. She hadbeen demanding Indian citi-zenship for long but all herpleas fell on deaf ears.According to a report, KaneezFatima (48), a native ofKarachi district of Pakistan,was married to Tufail Ahmed,a resident of Puramufti area,around 15 years ago. Kaneezhad applied for Indian citizen-ship many times but all herefforts proved of no avail. Herfamily members claimed thatmany applications were for-warded to the ministry con-cerned which also sought areport from the districtadministration

Vice-Chancellor of Bhartiya Skill Development University (Jaipur) Surjit SinghPabla addressing mediapersons in Lucknow on Thursday

A nukkad natak being staged near Charbagh railway station to spread awareness against child labour Pioneer

nation 05LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Thursdayraised apprehensions that

elections to the Rajya Sabhaseats falling vacant fromGujarat due to the resignationsof BJP leaders Amit Shah andSmriti Irani following theirwins in the Lok Sabha pollswill be held separately toensure the ruling dispensation’svictory on both the seats. Theparty demanded elections tothe two Rajya Sabha seats beheld together.

Congress spokespersonAbhishek Manu Singhvi saidthey came to know that therecould be a bid to hold the elec-tions for the two seats sepa-rately. “This would be a mock-ery of our constitutional ethos.It would be completely con-trary to conventions.Whenever there are two seatsof a State going vacant, you

have elections together. It isobvious to everybody that thepurpose of that is to ensurethere is a fair exercise of fran-chise of each MLA,” Singhvisaid at the AICC press briefing.

“If you have one electiontoday and one after two weeks,four weeks, six weeks then youwill enable the ruling partyMLAs (lawmakers) to simplycross 51 per cent in the assem-bly of Gujarat and elect him inthe first round and him in thesecond round which is heldafter weeks,” he said.

The BJP has 99 legislators

in the Gujarat Assembly andthe Congress 77. If the electionto each seat is held on differ-ent days, the BJP is expected towin both, while if the voting isheld on the same day, theCongress could win one of theseats.

Any such “games” shouldbe throttled at the inceptionbecause they are “unconstitu-tional games”, the Congressspokesperson said. “We willdemand from the ElectionCommission complete vigi-lance to ensure that wheneveryou want to have elec-tions...They have to be heldtogether. You cannot use atechnicality to hold them sep-arately,” Singhvi said.

He said the party willapproach the ElectionCommission with its demandof holding of the elections ofthe two Rajya Sabha seats inGujarat together.

Cong: Hold RS polls for

both Guj seats together

PNS n NEW DELHI

The CBI has booked formerSamajwadi Party MP Ateeq

Ahmed and others for alleged-ly orchestrating the abductionof a Lucknow-based business-man Mohit Jaiswal from DeoriaJail to extort money from himand take over his business.The case was initially registeredby the Uttar Pradesh Police,and the CBI took over theprobe on Wednesday followinga directive from the SupremeCourt.

The CBI has bookedAhmed on the charges of crim-inal conspiracy, extortion,cheating, forgery, robbery andcriminal intimidation amongothers.

Real estate dealer Jaiswalwas allegedly abducted fromLucknow and taken to DeoriaJail, where he was assaulted byAhmed and his aides, whowere lodged there, and forcedto transfer his business tothem, sources said.

Jaiswal, whose real estatebusiness is based at the poshGomti Nagar area in Lucknow,

had alleged in his complaintthat Ahmed was threateninghim for extortion for the lasttwo years.

Jaiswal had said he hadmade some payments toAhmed, after which thedemands for money hadstopped for a while, but Ahmedagain started asking for moneyfrom him in 2018.

He had alleged thatAhmed’s goons had taken overhis business forcibly by obtain-ing his and his sister’s digitalsignatures.

Jaiswal further alleged thaton December 26, 2018, he wastaken in his own sports utilityvehicle (SUV) by one ofAhmed’s goons to Deoria Jail,where the former MP waslodged.

Ahmed’s son Umar and 10-12 other gang members werealso present in the jail, who beathim up, causing serious injuriesto him, Jaiswal had alleged.

Four of his companies,including MJ Infra HousingPrivate Limited, were trans-ferred in the name of Farooqand Zaki Ahmad, both goons

of Ahmed who had beenthreatening him, he hadalleged.

The combined assets ofthe firms were worth ̀ 45 crore,according to the FIR.

They had also taken hissignatures on his company let-terhead in the jail, Jaiswal hadclaimed.

The businessman had alsoalleged that Ahmed threat-ened him, saying he could notbe killed inside the jail andhence, he was being allowed togo. But the politician hadforcibly kept his SUV in the jail,Jaiswal had alleged.

The matter was handedover to the CBI by the SupremeCourt, which had also orderedAhmed’s transfer to a jail inGujarat.

During the hearing in theSupreme Court, the UttarPradesh government had con-firmed the incident and saidthe CCTV cameras in the jailcomplex were tampered with atthe time of Jaiswal’s abductionand forcible visit to Deoria jail.

As many as eight casespending investigation were reg-

istered against Ahmed between2015 and 2019, of which twowere murder cases.

Ahmed was an SP MP inthe 14th Lok Sabha fromPhulpur in Uttar Pradesh from

2004 to 2009 and a five-timeMLA. He has been in jail sinceFebruary 11, 2017. In the past,he was also associated with theApna Dal (Sonelal).

CBI books ex-MP Ateeq Ahmad for extortion of bizman

PNS n NEW DELHI

The CBI has filed a chargesheet against fugitive self-

styled ‘godman’ Virendra DevDixit for allegedly raping aminor at his ashrams in UttarPradesh and Delhi in 1999.

In its chargesheet filed inthe Rouse Avenue special courthere, the CBI has pressedstringent charges of rape andcriminal intimidation on Dixit,who is absconding. The hasannounced a reward of `5lakh for any information lead-ing to his arrest.

The agency had registeredthe case on January 3, 2018 on

a directive of the Delhi HighCourt.

The CBI has alleged thatDixit, as the head of AdhyatmikVishwa Vidyalaya, which isnow renamed AdhyatmikVidyalaya, and spiritual leader,was in a position to control anddominate over the complainant,a minor girl at that time, andraped her repeatedly in May-June 1999 at his ashrams inKampil, Uttar Pradesh, andVijay Vihar in Delhi.

The accused had alleged-ly threatened to “cause injuryto her reputation” and alsoissued “life threats” to herfamily, according to the FIR.

CBI files chargesheet againstfugitive ‘godman’ for rape of minor

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a major relief to lakhs ofpeople of Gujarat, the

cyclonic storm ‘Vayu’ did notmake its scheduled land fall onThursday as it changed itscourse and drifted towardsOman. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said that the storm hasmade a small deviation, skirt-ed the Gujarat coast.

“It is moving over north-east and adjoining east centralArabian Sea. Heavy rains whichlashed the coastal areas werelikely to continue,” the IMDsaid. According to privateforecaster Skymet Weather, thecyclone which at present isCategory 2 storm may weakeninto a Category 1 storm.However, strong winds andrough seas are expected tocontinue and may cause dam-age. The cyclone may impactthe arrival of monsoon in Goa.

For his part, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singhreviewed the Navy’s prepared-

ness along the Maharashtraand Gujarat coast in view ofVayu. “Senior Navy officialsbriefed Singh at a meeting innaval headquarters duringwhich he was apprised aboutvarious measures being takenby the force to deal with pos-sible scenarios,” officials said.The railways has cancelled 86trains and short terminated 37others as a precaution eventhough the cyclone changed itscourse and is unlikely to makelandfall in Gujarat.

“The cyclone is likely tomove north-northwestwardsfor some time and then north-westwards, skirting theSaurashtra coast (and) affect-ing Gir Somnath, Diu,Junagarh, Porbandar andDevbhoomi Dwarka with windspeed of 90-100 kmph gustingto 110 kmph during the next12 hours,” the IMD said in arelease.

Pankaj Kumar, AdditionalChief Secretary, Gujarat, saidthat although the IMD has

informed that the cyclone haschanged its course, “it may stillcause heavy winds and rains,and so we are still on stand-bymode”.

“Cyclone Vayu is 110 kilo-metres from Veraval to thesouth-west and 150 kilometresfrom Porbandar to the south.The cyclone is moving towardsthe north and was crossing overSaurashtra,” he said.

The Chief Minister’s Officein Gujarat said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi spoke to ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani imme-diately after reaching Bishkekfor the SCO Summit andinquired about the cyclonepreparedness and assured allassistance and support fromCentre to mitigate the effects ofthe storm.

Skymet Weather had earli-er stated that the ‘Very SevereCyclone’ might weaken into aCategory 1 Cyclonic Stormfrom Category 2, though thewind speed will be 135-145kms per hour gusting up to 175kms per hour.

Gujarat has, meanwhile,already evacuated over 3.1 lakhpeople and the Union Territoryof Diu that touches theSaurashtra coast has movedover 10,000 people to safety.

The Coast Guard has stat-ed that the cyclone would takeup to Saturday before it com-pletely moves over into the seaat Dwarka.

Besides taking help of thearmed forces and the CoastGuard, the state governmenthas deployed 33 teams of theNational Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) (each having 90to 100 personnel) and nineteams of the State DisasterResponse Force (SDRF) in 10coastal districts of the state, hesaid.

In addition, 11 columns ofthe army (each having nearly70 personnel), two companiesof the Border Security Force, 14companies of the State ReservePolice and 300 commandos aredeployed at different locationsin the Kutch and Saurashtraareas.

Cyclone Vayu skips Gujarat, heads for Oman

PNS n NEW DELHI

Bihar cadre IAS officer Kundan Kumar willbe Private Secretary to Defence Minister

Rajnath Singh. As per an order ofDepartment of Personnel and Training,Kumar, a 2004 batch officer, will have atenure up to February 3, 2020.

Navneet Mohan Kothari will be PrivateSecretary to Agriculture and FarmersWelfare, Rural Development and PanchayatiRaj Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. Kothariis a 2001 batch IAS officer of MadhyaPradesh cadre.

IAS officer Sachin Shinde has beenappointed PS to Youth Affairs and SportsMinister Kiren Rijiju. Rijiju is also theMinister of State for Minority Affairs.

Manoj Kumar Singh will be PrivateSecretary to Power, and New and RenewableEnergy Minister Raj Kumar Singh. ManojKumar Singh is a 2009 batch IAS officer ofBihar cadre.

IRS officer Raj Kumar Digvijay has beenappointed PS to Animal Husbandry,Dairying and Fisheries Minister GirirajSingh.

IAS officer Kundan Kumar

appointed Personal Secy

to Def Min Rajnath Singh

AIIMS docs to strike today insolidarity with WB colleaguesSHIVAM PRATAP SINGH n

NEW DELHI

Residents Doctor Association(RDA) at the All India Institute of

Medical Sciences (AIIMS) onThursday treated patients wearinghelmets and bandages. The doctorshave also decided to boycott work onFriday to protest against an attack ontheir colleagues in West Bengal.

The Indian Medical Association(IMA) has also expressed solidaritywith the doctors and asked all themembers across the country to wearblack badges on Friday. The AIIMSResident Doctors’ Association hascondemned the violence in WestBengal and also urged the RDAsacross the country to join the tokenstrike. In a letter to all its state pres-idents and secretaries, the IMA hasasked them to organize demonstra-tions in front of the district collectors’offices from 10 am to 12 noon onFriday and hand over a memorandumaddressed to the prime minister to the

collectors in every district.The Delhi Medical Association

has also asked its members to observea “Black Day” on Friday. Apart fromall that, many individual members ofthe IMA and the DMA have come outto urge the Prime Minister and theHome Minister to enact a law againstviolence on medical practitioners.

The move came after the kin ofa patient who was being treated atNRS Medical College and Hospital inKolkata attacked the doctors after thepatient’s demise alleging negligence.This stirred up a statewide cease workprotest across the state with bothGovernment and private doctorsjoining the protest.

When contacted, a senior officialof RDA (AIIMS) told ‘The Pioneer’that the situation in Bengal is veryscary. “We are getting reports thatabout 200 goons are still outside thehospital and the ground situation isreally scary. Even the government inBengal is threatening the doctors tojoin duty or be thrown out,” he said.

Noida: The I&B Ministry hasissued a notice to the owners ofNation Live, the news channelthat aired content allegedlydefaming UP Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, for operating underthat name without Governmentapproval, officials said.

The Information andBroadcasting Ministry issued theshowcause notice on June 10 tothe managing director ofUttarakhand-based Bharat HydelProjects Private Limited, whichowns the TV channel.

Three senior journalists ofthe Noida-based TV channelhave been arrested in recent daysfor allegedly airing defamatoryremarks against Adityanath andalso charged with fraud andforgery.

The I&B Ministry has soughtresponse from the channel own-ers within seven days, failingwhich it said ex parte proceedingswill be initiated against them.

The company has been askedas to why action should not beinitiated against them as perrules.

Nation Live owners could notbe reached for comments.

The Ministry also informedthe Uttar Pradesh Governmentthat the company was given per-mission to operate under thename of “Network 10” in 2011,officials in the state said.

The district administrationhad last week written to the I &BMinistry to apprise it about thesituation.

“It has been ascertained thatthe said news channel is beingrun by Bharat Hydel Projects PvtLtd, which was given permissionin February 2011 touplink/downlink news and cur-rent affairs by the name ofNetwork 10,” the ministry said ina letter to UP Chief SecretaryAnup Chandra Pandey on June11.

The ministry said it had notgiven “any approval” to the com-pany for the use of the name“Nation Live”.

“The company by using thename and logo of Nation Live hascontravened the provisions of theuplinking/downlinking guidelinesof 2011,” it added in the letter.

Earlier, two separate FIRswere registered against NationLive.

One of the FIRs includedcharges like promoting enmitybetween different groups andcirculating rumours, officialssaid.

The second complaint overthe illegal operation of the chan-nel was made by the district addi-tional director, information, at theNoida Phase 3 police station fol-lowing which an FIR underSections 420 (fraud), 467 (forgeryof documents) of the IPC andrelated offences was registered,police said.

Noida TV channel gets notice over

content ‘defaming’ Yogi Adityanath

New Delhi: A PIL was filed inthe Supreme Court onThursday seeking urgent stepsto protect forests, wildlife andbirds from wildfires inUttarakhand, saying forestblazes have increased over theyears causing huge loss to theenvironment.

The petition sought direc-tions to the Centre, theUttarakhand Government andthe principal chief conservatorof forests in the state to makepre-fire arrangements andframe policy to prevent forestfires.

The plea, filed by advocateRituparn Uniyal, also soughtinvestigation into the matter byan independent agency anddirections to declare the animalkingdom as legal entities hav-ing a distinct persona with cor-

responding rights, duties andliabilities of a living person.

“Forest fires inUttarakhand have been regularand historic feature. Every yearforest fires in Uttarakhandcauses great loss to the forestecosystem, diversity of floraand fauna and economicwealth. Forest fire is one of themajor disasters in the forests ofUttarakhand.

“Despite a consistent his-tory of forest fires the igno-rance, inactiveness, negligenceand unreadiness of the respon-dents (Centre, StateGovernment and chief conser-vator of forests) have rendereda great loss to forests, wildlifeand birds in Uttarakhand andthus caused ecological imbal-ance,” it said.

The plea claimed one of the

prominent forest research cen-tres was at Uttarakhand but theauthorities have not consultedthe institution for remedies totackle wildfires.

“Uttarakhand has one ofthe prominent forest researchcentres, that is, Forest ResearchInstitute Deemed to beUniversity, Dehradun.Surprisingly, the respondentshave never consulted the insti-tution for the reasons and solu-tions of devastating forest firesin the State. This clearly showsa lackadaisical approach of therespondents in tackling theforest fires,” it said.

The plea further said for-est and wildlife were the mostimportant natural resourcesand played significant role inthe human life and environ-ment. PTI

Plea seeks protection of forests,wildlife from fires in Uttarakhand

FROM THE SUPREME COURT

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday agreed tohear on June 14 a plea ofMaharashtra MLC DhananjayMunde against the BombayHigh Court order directingregistration of a case againsthim in an alleged illegal pur-chase of Government land case.

A vacation bench of justicesIndira Banerjee and AjayRastogi said it will hear the pleaon Friday in which the NCPleader has sought stay of thehigh court order which direct-ed police to file a case againsthim for allegedly purchasing aland at Pus village in Ambajogaitehsil of Beed district.

The high court’s order waspassed on Tuesday by a divisionbench on a plea filed by oneRajabhau Phad, who alleged

that the land which belonged tothe Government was purchasedand given to the BelkhandiMath in Beed as gift.

As per the law, the landcannot be transferred withoutthe Government’s permission,the initial petition had said.

Heirs of Ranit WyankaGiri, the mahant of theBelkhandi Math when the landwas given as a gift, transferredit in their names and claimedthat they were its owners andthe Government was notinformed about it.

The land was then laterbought by Munde on the basisof a general power of attorneyin 2012. Munde applied fornon-agricultural status (NA) ofthe land and got it, the petitionhad alleged. PTI

Apex court agrees to hearMaha MLC’s plea againstBombay HC order today New Delhi: The Supreme

Court agreed on Thursday tohear tomorrow a plea of med-ical aspirants, who claimed thatthe answer key of five questionsasked in NEET(UG)-2019exam was wrong and the paperneeds to be quashed.

A vacation bench of JusticesIndira Banerjee and AjayRastogi agreed to hear the pleafiled by four students whoappeared for the exam.

The petition filed by fourHyderabad-based students —Kayathi Mohan Reddy andthree others through advocateMahfooz Nazki, said thatNational Testing Agency (NTA)which conducted the examissued wrong answer keys andtherefore jeopardised the careerprospects of the aspirants whosat for the exam.

The exam was conducted

on May 5 and the officialanswer key was issued on May29 to the questions asked in theexamination. “Upon perusal ofthe key, the petitioners wereshocked to note that answers toa number of questions weredemonstrably wrong,” the pleasaid.

The students said they gavethe representation about theerrors in the official answer keyon May 30 and subsequently onJune 5, a revised answer key waspublished.

“Pertinently, no option wasgiven to the candidates to fileany objections. To the shockand chagrin of the petitioners,not only did the key continueto have errors, some answersthat had been correctly notifiedearlier, stood changed to awrong answer,” the petitionsaid. PTI

Wrong answer keys of

NEET (UG)-2019: Students’

petition to be heard today

SOME ISSUES STILL LEFT INTRIPLE TALAQ BILL: CONG

New Delhi: With the Governmentall set to bring a fresh Bill in theParliament to ban the practice ofinstant triple talaq, the Congresson Thursday said there are stillsome issues which it will debateand oppose. The Bill will beintroduced in the Budget sessionwhich begins on Monday toreplace an ordinance issued inFebruary by the previous BJP-ledNDA Government. With thedissolution of the 16th Lok Sabhalast month, the previous bill hadlapsed as it was pending in RajyaSabha.

SANSKRIT MUST BEPRESERVED: NISHANK

New Delhi: HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ onThursday said at least twoSanskrit-speaking villages mustbe developed near the centralinstitutes promoting andpreserving the language. Chairinga meeting with heads of centrallanguage institutions here onThursday, Pokhriyal said theselanguage institutions must befundamentally strong andefficient. Pokhriyal said allvacancies need to be filled topromote all Indian languageseffectively.

AN-32: SOCIAL MEDIAFLOODED WITH TRIBUTESNew Delhi: Tributes poured in onsocial media for the 13 victimsonboard the AN-32 aircraft, whichcrashed in a remote area inArunachal Pradesh, after the IAFon Thursday said there were nosurvivors from the mishap. TheIndian Air Force announced thetragic news on Twitter in theafternoon.

INSHORT

New Delhi: Mountaineers ofthe ITBP on Thursdaylaunched an over a week-longexpedition from Pithoragarh inUttarakhand to retrieve themortal remains of at least eightclimbers who were killed lastmonth in an avalanche near anunscaled peak adjoiningNanda Devi East.

“A team of 11 speciallychosen personnel of the force,many of whom have con-quered the Mount Everest andother peaks, today began theiroperation to retrieve the mor-tal remains of the climbers,”Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITPBP) spokesperson VivekKumar Pandey said.

“The personnel, led by oursecond-in-command rank offi-cer Ratan Singh Sonal, will beaided by other ground teamsand will trek over a 100 kilo-metres to finally reach the sitewhere the bodies of theclimbers were last spotted,” hesaid.

Pandey said the team ofthe ITBP, a border guardingforce tasked to guard the Chinaborder, is expected to reach thebase camp in a week and afterrequired acclimatisation, it willattempt to retrieve the bodies.

“It will be a very challeng-ing mission as the site is locat-ed at about 20,000 feet inbetween glaciers and othersnow hazard prone areas. Airsupport will also be taken forlogistics in the course of theoperation,” he said.

Eight mountaineers, includ-ing from the US, the UK andAustralia, were reported miss-ing after they left Munsiyari onMay 13 to scale the 7,434 metretall peak, but did not return tothe base camp on the scheduleddate of May 25.

The team was led byBritish mountaineer MartinMoran.

It was a 12-member groupout of which four were rescued.

Indian Air Force heli-copters had spotted five bod-ies on June 3 after multiple sor-ties to trace them.

The missing mountaineerscomprised seven from the UK,the US and Australia, and aliaison officer from Delhi’sIndian MountaineeringFoundation.

The route to the peakbegins from Munsiyari, about132 km from Pithoragarh dis-trict headquarters. The districtis about 456 km from state cap-ital Dehradun. PTI

ITBP mountaineers launch op toretrieve bodies from U’khand peak

ILLEGAL PURCHASE OF GOVT LAND

LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019 nation 06

ALL 13 ABOARD...The wreckage of the aircraft was

spotted on Tuesday 16 kms North ofLipo, North East of Tato at an approx-imate elevation of 12,000 ft by an IAFMi-17 Helicopter undertaking searchin the expanded search zone. The IAFon Thursday airdropped a 15-mem-ber team of mountaineers to look forsurvivors and retrieve the blackbox.The ill-fated transport aircraft took offfrom Jorhat in Assam at 12.25 pm forMechuka advanced landing ground inArunachal Pradesh. It lost radio con-tact at about one pm and when theplane did not land at Mecuka at thescheduled time, the IAF launched thesearch operation. The flying timebetween Jorhat and Mechuka locatedat an altitude of 6,000 feet is about 50minutes. The distance between Jorhatand Mechuka is 206 km as the crowflies. For nearly eight days the IAFsearched for the plane in an approx-imately 1,000 sq km of area mostlydense forests and steep hills by deploy-ing SU-30 fighter jets, C-130J specialoperations planes, P-8I long rangereconnaissance aircraft, MI-17 andadvanced light helicopters besidessatellites of the India Space ResearchOrganisation(ISRO).SHAH TO HEAD...

Yadav also informed that duringthe meeting it was decided that theformer Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister, who is also a vice-presidentof the BJP, will lead the party’s mem-bership drive and he will be assistedby four other leaders. Yadav said BJPhas 11 crore members at present andis aiming to increase it by 20 per cent.

He said party workers and leaderswould devote themselves to the expan-sion of party membership in nextthree years. Shah, he said pointed outthat last time 10 lakh workers weregiven training to take up party worksand expand its ideological content.

STRIKING DOCTORS...“Two of them have been hospi-

talised with severe eye and headinjuries,” their colleagues said inKolkata adding they would notresume work “until the Chief Ministerpersonally comes and inspects theinfrastructure and gives us assurancethat similar situation will not arise infuture.” Dr SB Banerjee from Asia’soldest Medical College and Hospitalsaid, “The attack was brutal but thedoctors will should keep their serviceskeeping in view the lakhs of patientsthey have to handle every day.”

Dr Purna Saha said, “TheGovernment does not give us appa-ratus to treat the patients still we doour level best. But despite utmost careif a patient succumbs to one’s injurythen we are attacked by the hooligans.We have also been asking for policeprotection for years but in lieu we havereceived only assurances. This cannotgo on for eternity.” Reminding thedoctors of a Supreme Court order, theChief Minister said “doctors cannotstrike. In some other States the strik-ing interns were punished by exten-sion of their internship period.”Incidentally senior BJP leader MukulRoy on Wednesday had accused theGovernment and the police of com-placency alleging “despite the brutal

attack on the doctors the police havefailed to take any meaningful actionbecause the attackers belong to a par-ticular community.”

INDIA PLANS...“We are planning to have a sepa-

rate space station. We will not be a partof ... (ISS). Our space station is goingto be very small. We will be launch-ing a small module and that will beused for carrying out microgravityexperiments,” Sivan told reporters.

The weight of the space station islikely to be 20 tonnes. By planning aspace station, the ISRO is “not think-ing of space tourism”, he said. Sivansaid the proposal will be sent to theGovernment for approval after thefirst Gaganyaan mission by 2022 andit is looking at 5-7 years time framefor execution of the programme. Hedid not elaborate the cost of the pro-posed Indian space station.

A space station is a spacecraftcapable of supporting crew members,designed to remain in space for anextended period of time and forother spacecraft to dock. Currently,there is only one fully functional spacestation in the Earth’s lower orbit, theInternational Space Station and astro-nauts conduct different experimentsin it. The first component of the ISSwas launched into orbit in 1998, andfirst long-term residents arrived inNovember 2000. The InternationalSpace Station is a partnership betweenEuropean countries represented byEuropean Space Agency, the UnitedStates (NASA), Japan (JAXA), Canada(CSA) and Russia (Roscosmos). It is

the world’s largest international coop-erative programme in science andtechnology. China also plans to builda space station of its own. On theGaganyaan project, Sivan said theGovernment has formed a NationalAdvisory Council comprising topIndian honchos of players from thespace industry, former ISRO chairmanK Kasturirangan, Department ofScience and Technology SecretaryAshutosh Sharma, Principal ScientificAdviser to the Prime Minister KVijayRaghvan, Defence ResearchDevelopment Organisation ChairmanG Sateesh Reddy. Elaborating onAditya L1 mission, Sivan said the mis-sion will study the corona of the Sun,which is the outermost part of itsatmosphere. “It is 1.5 million kilo-metres from the Earth. It will alwayslook at the Sun and give analysis ofcorona because it has a major impacton climate change,” he said. On theISRO’s mission to Venus, he said theplanet is a “burning body with veryhigh temperature”. “Most missionshave failed. We want to succeed andstudy atmospheric composition of theplanet,” he said, planning that theyhave set a target of 2-3 years to launchthe mission. France is also collabo-rating with India on its mission toVenus.

EX-MP RAJNATH...RSS managed news agency‘Hindustan Samachar’. Lately, hebecame a columnist. Surya’s write-upsand columns were regularly seen indifferent prominent newspapers onthe current affairs and other issues.

He also wrote editorials for somenewspapers.

He was having a good relation-ship with top leaders of the UttarPradesh cutting across political lines.

Surya was Rajya Sabha memberfrom Uttar Pradesh from 1996 to2002. As the leader had donated hisbody to the King George’s MedicalUniversity, the body was taken in agrand procession to the medical uni-versity where senior officials receivedit. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,along with several other leaders ofBharatiya Janata Party rushed to theleader’s Gomti Nagar residence to paytheir last respects to the departed soul.

Yogi Adityanath expressed hisdeepest condolences on the demise ofthe leader. “Rajnathji was a colossusin the area of journalism and hisdemise is a great loss to the state andthe country,” the Chief Minister said.

Governor Ram Naik andSamajwadi Party president AkhileshYadav also condoled the death of theveteran journalist. UP LegislativeAssembly Speaker Hriday NarayanDixit, BJP state chief and Unionminister Mahendra Nath Pandey andBJP general secretary (organisation),UP, Sunil Bansal also expressed griefover Singh’s death.

The Indian Federation ofWorking Journalists deeply condoledthe death of Rajnath Singh ‘Surya’.“IFWJ stands with the bereaved fam-ily of veteran journalist in the hourof their grief and prays to the GodAlmighty to his soul eternal peace inheaven,” IFWJ secretary PramandPandey said.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

SAUGAR SENGUPTA n KOLKATA

Bengal Chief Minister onThursday called upon the

civil society and all the like-minded parties including theLeft to form a joint front anddefeat the BJP which had spentthousands of crores to dissem-inate fake reports in the socialmedia to win the elections.

Fake and denigrating sto-ries as dirty as the one’s “paint-ing me as a blood-suckingDracula,” the Chief Ministersaid. In this regard the ChiefMinister also said that she hadparticularly spoken to theCongress leadership to jointlyset up a fact-finding team toinquire into the allegations ofEVM manipulation thatbrought BJP home withthumping majority.

While speaking to a Banglanews channel the ChiefMinister said a large amount ofthe Rs 27,000 crore spent by theBJP during the elections wentinto managing, tamperingEVMs and “spreading canardsabout me that I am a Draculawho sucks blood of theHindus.”

By doing so the BJP is try-ing to make Bengal a Gujaratwhere the BJP was running dic-tatorship. “They torture thepoor farmers and do not allowFIRs to be lodged,” she saidadding no BJP-run State wasliving in peace. But “I will notallow Bengal to be hijacked byGujarat and I will not allow thatobscurantist ideology cripplethe Bengal society and polity,which is why I want the Left tojoin hands with us.”

Not only the Congress theChief Minister whose party has

come down from 34 seats to 22seats in the recently concludedLok Sabha elections said sherespected the political person-alities like BuddhadebBhattacharjee and “I hope theLeftists would follow his viewand back the Trinamool insteadof going to the BJP.”

Stopping short of refer-ring to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi she said “Indiahas seen a number of PrimeMinisters from Nehru to IndiraGandhi to Narsimha Rao toDeve Gowda ji to IK Gujral butnone like this regime. We wantthe good old days back.”

Referring to how in UP theYadavs were being killed by theBJP men without any admin-istrative step being takenagainst the assailants. “Theother day I was speaking toPriyanka (Gandhi) and sheinformed me how 25 Yadavswere killed in UP with noaction being taken,” Banerjee

said adding the journalistswere also not being spared inthat State.

Referring to how for eachLok Sabha seat the BJP spent Rs45 crore the Chief Minister said“cash was transported in vehi-cles owned by religious organ-isations and even the vehiclescarrying the CRPF, CISF andother central forces,” adding allthese cash went in to influencethe voters.

In an apparent reference toformer Kolkata Commissionerof Police Rajiv Kumar she saidthe person who was catchingthe influx of that “bad money”was intentionally transferredout of Bengal. The manipula-tion was done in such a man-ner that the BJP’s almostmatched its pre-election pre-dictions. “They manipulated300 seats and they won them,they manipulated 18 seats inBengal and they won it here,”she said.

Mamata: They paint

me as ‘dracula’

Didi wants LF, Cong to work with her to oust BJPKUMAR CHELLAPPAN nCHENNAI

Swords are out in Tamil NaduBJP following the failure of

the party to win at least one LokSabha seat in the State in therecently held Lok Sabha elec-tions. While a senior leader ofthe party has written to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi askingfor an urgent overhaul of theparty in the State, another seniorleader blamed the ineffectivenessof the leaders in countering theDMK-led Opposition’s anti-Modi campaign.

“In Tamil Nadu there was astrong anti-Modi campaignunleashed and fanned by theDMK and other Tamil outfits.They were united in harping forthe past four years that Modi ispro-corporate and anti farmer,"said Kaattumannarkoil Kannan,leader, Kisan Morchha, in a let-ter to the Prime Minister, a copyof which was accessed by ThePioneer.

The essence of Kannan’sletter us that the present lead-ership of the BJP has provedtheir incapacity and inefficien-cy in winning any election. Hestates that though the BJP-ledGovernment at the Centrebrought in a number of pro-poor programmes and pro-farmer policies, the BJP’s TamilNadu leaders failed miserably inexplaining it to the people of theState.

Kannan says in his letter thatthe BJP should not have alignedwith either of the the dravidanparties viz, the DMK andAIADMK. "Both the parties aretainted and tarnished. These twoparties have been looting TamilNadu for the past 50 years. Ifyou make raids against bothparty leaders you can unearthhuge money," says Kannan whowas recently in the news forauthoring the book “RiverCauvery , The Most Battled”.

He points out that theintegrity of the Tamil Nadu BJP

took a beating for the worse fol-lowing the seizure of three con-tainers packed with currencynotes worth Rs 570 crore duringthe 2016 assembly election.“Some connected houses wereraided but after that there was noaction,” he says.

According to Kannan, thecentral leadership of the BJPshould take into confidence thefarming community in the Stateas TN is an agricultural econo-my. “Not a single farmer hasvoted for the BJP this time,” hesaid when asked about the rea-son behind the failure of the BJP.

Kannan also wanted thecentral leadership to order athorough overhaul and revampof the party in the State andappoint a farmer as the Stateparty chief. The words ofKannan were echoed by ArjunSampath, leader of the HinduMakkal Katchi. “The presentand past leaders of Tamil NaduBJP should make way for newfaces as they had proved their

incapability. The party whihcould poll 19 per cent votes inthe 2014 parliament election hadto content with just 3.5 per cent.Tamilissai Sounderarajan, theState BJP president was trouncedby a margin of 3,47,209 votes,while former Union MinisterPon Radhakrishnan lost by2,60,000 votes. H Raja, thnational secretary , lost by 3,32,244 votes to tainted KartiChidambaram of the Congress.The BJP should introspect whythese leaders were defeated bysuch huge margins,” said ArjunSampath. He said he had spokento the national leadership aboutthe state of affairs in TamilNadu BJP.

Interestingly, the ire of theparty cadre has also been direct-ed against the high profile PMuraleedhar Rao , the secretaryin charge of the State. “Please doan audit about his contributionstowards the BJP .That will revealthe whole story,” said a second-rung leader based in Chennai.

Blame game on in TN BJP

TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI

In a major relief to NanaPatekar, the Oshiwara police

on Thursday filed a closurereport in a local court atAndheri in north-westMumbai, stating that they hadno evidence to prosecute thesenior actor in the alleged sex-ual harassment case filedagainst him by actressTanushree Dutta.

Confirming the develop-ment, Deputy Commissionerof Police and Mumbai policespokesperson ManjunathShinge said: “Yes. We havefiled a B-summary reportbefore a MetropolitanMagistrate at Andheri (west)”.

The investigators file a B-Summary report in a courtwhen they do not find any evi-dence against the accused per-son to file a charge-sheetagainst him and seek a trial.

Reacting to the develop-ment, Tanushtree's lawyer,Nitin Satpute said that hewould challenge the B-sum-mary report in a court. “The Bor C-summary report filed bythe police is not final. We willchallenge the B-Summaryreport. After a hearing, if thecourt – if satisfied -- can againdirect the police re-investigatethe case,” Satpute said.

Demanding to know as towhat was urgency for the policeto file B-Summary report inthe case of Patekar, Tanushree

contested the “clean chIt” givento the senior actor, by alleging:“A corrupt police force andlegal system giving a clean chitto an even more corrupt per-son Nana who has beenaccused even in the past of bul-lying, intimidation and harass-ment by several women in thefilm Industry”

“Our witnesses have beensilenced by intimidation andfake witnesses have been putforth to weaken the case. Whatwas the rush to file a B-sum-mary report when all of mywitnesses have not even record-ed their statements yet?,”Tanushree asked.

“I'm neither shocked norsurprised being a woman inIndia this is something we allhave got used to. I mean if rapeaccused Alok Nath got a cleanchit and returned to moviesthen surely it was not going tobe difficult for harassmentaccused Nana Patekar to gethimself or shall we say buyhimself a clean chit to contin-ue to bully hapless youngwomen,” the actress alleged.

It may be recalled that act-

ing on a complaint filed byTanushree on October 6, 2018,the Oshiwara police had regis-tered a First InformationReport (FIR) against senioractor Nana Patekar and threeothers four days later.

After she recordedTanushree’s statement on thenight of October 10 last year,the Oshiwara police formallyregistered an FIR againstPatekar and three others undersections 354 (Assault or crim-inal force to women with intentto outrage her modesty), 354-A (Assault or use of criminalforce with intent to disrobe her)and section 509 (word, gestureor act intended to insult themodesty o a woman) of IndianPenal Code.

In her complaint lodgedwith the police on October 6,Tanushree had alleged that theincident took place on March 26,2008 during the shooting of asong in the film “Horn OkPleaseee”. The entire was to bepicturised on the actress, whilePatekar had only line in the song.She said that before the shoot,she had made it clear to the pro-ducer and director that shewould not enact or perform anylewd, vulgar or uncomfortablesteps in the particular song.

“On the 4th day of theshoot, 26th March 2008, whileshooting was going on, NanaPatekar’s behaviour was inap-propriate towards me. He wason the set despite his work in

the song being over and he wasgrabbing me by the arms andpushing me around on thepretext of teaching me how todance. When he was teachingindecently and unnecessarily,then I felt very uncomfortablebecause of his behaviour and Ifelt he has outraged my mod-esty,” Tanushree alleged.

“He (Patekar) told thechoreographer and other juniorartists to back away so that hecould teach me the dance stepsthrough he was not a choreo-grapher and he was notrequired during the choreog-raphy as per my previousrehearsals,” the actress added.

“After the incident, I wasunder tremendous shock, Isuffered psychological trauma,was unable to take up work,suffered huge monetary lossesin crores and therefore I decid-ed to take action through filmindustry by lodging a writtencomplaint with the Cine andTV Artistes Association. TheAssociation decided the matterand passed the order withoutconsidering my complaint forapology,” Tanushree stated inher police complaint.

In her complaint,Tanushreee had also namedchoreographer GaneshAcharya, producer SameeSiddiqui, director RakeshSarang and some MNS work-ers who allegedly damaged hercar and pulled her out of hercar, as co-accused.

Nana gets clean chit in #MeToo case

TN RAGHUNATHA n MUMBAI

The Western Railway onThursday chose not to take

any chances in view of the alertover the Cyclone Vayu , as itcancelled fully the operation of88 mainline trains, while itshort-terminated/ short-

orginated 40 other mainlinetrains as a precautionary mea-sure. With Thursday’s cancel-lations and short-terminations,the total number of long-dis-tance trains affected by thecyclone Vayu-triggeredinclement weather condition-sm the total number trains

affected since Wednesday wentup 128. The Western Railwaycontinued to take precaution-ary measures on the secondconsecutive day on Thursday,even as Cyclone Vayu sparedGujarat.

Till Wednesday, 77 main-line trains had been cancelled

while 33 were short terminat-ed by Western Railway in viewof cyclone. On Thursday, 11more trains were cancelledwhile seven more trains werescheduled to be short termi-nated/short originated withpartial cancellation, as a pre-cautionary measure in the

cyclone prone areas. “Varioussafety and security precautionsare also being taken by WR fortrain passengers of thesecyclone prone areas under thejurisdiction of WR i.e. Veraval,Okha, Porbandar, Bhavnagar,Bhuj and Gandhidham, etc,”the WR spokesperson said.

Cyclone Vayu: W Railways cancels 88 trains

KUMAR CHELLAPPAN nCHENNAI

The National InvestigationAgency in a surprise move

on Wednesday took into cus-tody six persons fromCoimbatore who were plan-ning to stage massive suicideattacks in South India on thepattern of the Easter Sundaybombings at Colombo whichhad claimed more than 250lives. MohammedAzharudheen, a 32-year-oldyouth, who has been taken intocustody by the NIA team, issaid to be a close associate ofZahran Hashim, the masterbrain behind the EasterSunday blasts at Colombostaged by the Thowheed Jamatof Sri Lanka . “MohammedAzharudheen was a Facebookfriend of Zahran Hashim andthey were exchanging infor-mation about the setting up of

Islamic State (IS) modules inTamil Nadu and Kerala,” said asenior NIA official who did notwant his name to be quoted.The NIA is in the process ofunravelling whetherAzharudheen had personalcontacts with Hashim in addi-tion to the exchange of infor-mation through the socialmedia sites. The six personswho have been taken into cus-tody besides Azharudheen areAkram Sindhaa (26), ShiekHdayatullah (38), MAbubacker (29), SadhaamHussein (26) and Shahin Shah@Ibrahim (28). All those whohave been taken into custodyare residents of Coimbatoredistrict, a known hub ofIslamic extremism.

The NIA team has foundthat the Facebook page KHI-LAFAH GFX was being usedby Azharudheen and others topropagate the Islamic State ide-ology and to recruit youngstersfor terrorist attacks in Keralaand Tamil Nadu. The NIAaction comes immediately afterits sleuths visited Colomborecently where it held discus-sions with their counterpartsin Sri Lanka. The Indian intel-ligence agencies had warnedtheir Sri Lankan counterpartsabout possible terrorist strikesin the island nation weeksbefore the Easter Sunday blasts.

NIA arrests sixCoimbatoreyouths as part of an ISIS terror module

LS FIASCO

PMK urges TN Guv to order

release of Rajiv case convicts

Chennai: The PMK, an allyof the BJP in Tamil Nadu, onThursday urged GovernorBanwarilal Purohit to orderthe release of seven RajivGandhi assasination caseconvicts without any furtherdelay.

Pointing out that theTamil Nadu Government hadrecommended their releaseon September 9 last year,

PMK founder leader SRamadoss, in a letter to theGovernor, said "it is sad thatno decision has been takenyet on the recommendationtill today, even after 276days."

There were no legalrestrictions to release theconvicts and the Governorhas "independent powers" onthe matter, the PMK leader

noted.Also, Supreme Court

judgments in this respectshowed that the Governor"has complete authority"under the Constitution torelease convicts, he said.

While life imprisonment"in practice" was confined to14 years, Ramadoss said theconvicts have been in prisonfor 29 years since 1991.

Nearly 1,500 people werereleased after completion of 10years of imprisonment on thebirth centenary celebrations ofthe late Chief Minister M GRamachandran, he said. "...Inmany cases life imprison-ment prisoners have beenreleased much before com-pletion of their sentence peri-od on the grounds of goodconduct." A similar privilegeshould have been granted toall the seven Tamils impris-oned for life in the Rajivcase on a humanitarian basis,he said. PTI

nation 07LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

HC: Issue of paternity can’t be decided in habeas corpus plea

Indore MP: Massage on trains is against Indian culture PTI n NEW DELHI

The railways’ plan of pro-viding massage services to

its passengers has come undercriticism, with Indore MPShankar Lalwani writing toUnion minister Piyush Goyal,saying that it is against Indianculture to offer such services inthe presence of women.

A railway official had saidon June 8 that the railways wasreadying to begin the facility inthe next couple of weeks in 39trains departing from Indore.This is a proposal from the

Ratlam division of WesternRailway zone, an official said.

The railways is looking toearn an additional revenue ofRs 20 lakh annually and an esti-mated increase of Rs 90 lakhper year through additional saleof tickets from about 20,000passenger who will be the ser-vice providers.

“Is providing these kind ofservices in front of women inaccordance with the principlesof Indian culture? Providingpassengers medical aid, doctorsare important for the railwaysnot these standardless services

in my opinion,” Lalwani wrotein his letter dated June 10.

The services have beendivided into three categories —gold, diamond and platinum.For gold, any non-sticky orolive oil will be used for Rs 100,while the diamond service willbe provided for Rs 200 with anyessential oil and the platinumpackage will be with cream forRs 300. All the services will beprovided for 15-20 minutes.

“I can understand this ser-vice being provided in touristtrains or even Shatabdi andRajdhani trains, but not in

passenger trains as is beingplanned. In passenger trainswho cares for massages?

They are poor people andthe journeys last for three tofour hours. Who needs a mas-sage there? I think this is com-pletely unnecessary and manywomen groups here have alsocomplained about it,” Lalwanitold PTI. This scheme is part ofthe railways’ scheme wherebyzones and divisions have beenasked to come out with newand innovative ideas to gener-ate non-fare revenue for thenational transporter.

Rawat: Party can go from defeat to

victory under Rahul’s leadership

PTI n NEW DELHI

Aday after the Congressasserted that Rahul Gandhi

will remain party president,senior leader Harish Rawat saidthe statement reflected the partyworkers’ sentiment who believedthat under Gandhi’s leadershipthe party can go from defeat tovictory. Gandhi was, is and willremain the Congress president,chief spokesperson of the partyRandeep Surjewala had said onWednesday, ending the specu-lation triggered by his insistenceto quit the post for the timebeing.

Surjewala’s assertion cameafter an informal meetingpresided by former Union min-ister AK Antony, in which seniorCongress leaders discussed theparty’s strategy and preparationsfor the assembly elections inHaryana, Jammu and Kashmir,Jharkhand and Maharashtralater this year.

Gandhi had offered to quitas the party chief during a May25 meeting of the CongressWorking Committee (CWC),which was called to analyse theparty’s poor performance in theLok Sabha polls, in which it

managed to win just 52 seats.The CWC had unanimous-

ly rejected his offer to quit butGandhi was apparently firm onhis stand. “I would like to reit-erate what Mr Surjewala saidyesterday that Rahul Gandhiwas, is and will remain theCongress president. This is alsothe sentiment of the Congressworkers and they believe thatunder his leadership the partycan go from defeat to victory,”

Rawat said. “We were not suc-cessful, but by strengthening theorganisation, we can mount achallenge to the RSS-BJP’s mali-cious propaganda,” the formerUttarakhand chief minister said.At a press conference here,Congress spokespersonAbhishek Manu Singhvi alsoreiterated Surjewala’s statementand said there “is status quo” inthe situation since the statementon Wednesday.

Following Gandhi’s insis-tence on quitting, there is aspeculation on the need to putin place an interim arrangementin the Congress for decision-making, especially in the run-upto the assembly elections.However, most leaders havebeen hoping that Gandhi willcontinue to lead the party as theNehru-Gandhi family acts as a“glue” that binds the Congresstogether.

Priyanka talks tough with Cong workersPTI n RAEBARELI

Talking tough with her party men, Congressgeneral secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on

Thursday told them that they let down the partyin the Lok Sabha polls. Accompanied by her moth-er and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi who vis-ited her constituency on a thanksgiving visit onWednesday, Priyanka Gandhi pulled up partyworkers for failing to work for the Congress dur-ing the elections. “I will find out the names of theworkers who did not work for the party in the elec-tions,” she said, adding those who had toiled hon-estly and sincerely for the party know that fromthe core of their heart. “But, those who did not,I will find out their names,” she said. A visibly

annoyed Priyanka Gandhi complained, “I am say-ing today from the bottom of my heart that youdid not fight the elections sincerely.”

“This is the time of struggle. Those who arenervous, those who are willing to compromise andthose who are not ready to give their heart to thisstruggle... For them I will leave no space in theRaebareli Congress and the UP Congress,” shesaid.

“You make up your mind, if you want to workin the right earnest, you have to struggle, this isall I have to say,” she added. Priyanka Gandhi wasappointed as the general secretary and in-chargeof eastern Uttar Pradesh just before the electionsand had campaigned vigorously for Congress can-didates in UP, especially in Raebareli and Amethi.

PTI n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court hasheld that the issue of pater-

nity cannot be determined in ahabeas corpus writ petitionafter a couple moved the pleaseeking custody of a boy in ashelter home, claiming that hewas their lost son.

The court dismissed thecouple’s plea, while grantingthem liberty to file appropriate

legal proceedings to seek dec-laration as parents and custodyof the minor.

The court was dealing witha habeas corpus petition filedby the couple, claiming that aboy in the custody of BalSahyog, a child care NGO, wastheir lost son. They claimedthat the boy showed a starkresemblance to their lost sonand that his age was about thesame as it would have been of

their lost son.A habeas corpus petition is

filed for producing before acourt a person who is underarrest or in unlawful detention.The couple had urged that theboy should be handed over tothem after conducting a pater-nity test. Their counsel hadsubmitted that the possibility oftwo failed DNA tests could beattributed to erroneous sam-pling or contamination of sam-

pling. A bench of justicesManmohan and SangitaDhingra Sehgal said, “In apetition asking for the writ ofhabeas corpus, this court is notentitled to examine the issue ofpaternity.

The primary considera-tion of the court in a writ peti-tion for custody of a minor isnot the legal right of this or thatparty, but the welfare of theminor.”

Afew days ago, a fight broke outin the city of Ranchi whichresulted in the stabbing of atleast six people. The brawl wasnot about an alleged theft or

some form of disagreement that escalatedquickly or any other incident commonlyassociated with a serious fight in broad day-light. Instead, it was over water.

Jharkhand, as also the rest of India, issuffering from an acute water crisis in thehigh heat of summer. This is why it was notsurprising that while residents in a partic-ular locality in Ranchi were standing in linepatiently for hours to draw water, a fightbroke out when an individual allegedly filledwater in large quantities, leaving little tospare for other residents. While fortunate-ly no one died in the incident, such waterriots will only rise unless we tackle this seri-ous problem with the sincerity and commit-ment it demands.

Benjamin Franklin had once said,“When the well is dry, we’ll know the worthof water.” While he meant to use this phraseas a metaphor, this quotation is now truerthan ever in its literal sense. Water is anessential component of our lives. Justimagine a single part of your day withoutit. From the moment we wake up and washour faces before having a cup of tea till thetime we sit down for dinner: Water makeseach of these activities possible.

However, today, we stand at a crucialcrossroad: To survive using judiciousnessor perish due to ignorance and recklessness.Villagers from all over the country havebeen forced to evacuate their homes insearch of newer water sources and habitats.The current water crisis, which has onlybeen aggravated due to this year’s unrelent-ing summer, has forced a number of peo-ple to leave their homes and abandon theircattle and sheep since they do not havewater to provide for them. It is no surprisethat food production, too, has been severe-ly hit.

In Chennai, IT companies are askingtheir employees to work from home becausethey do not have enough water to sustainoperations. In other firms, employees arebeing asked to bring their own drinkingwater since employers cannot guaranteedrinking water during work. It is, therefore,obvious that a lack of water will soonenough stop our daily lives as we current-ly know it.

Let me give some other worrying sta-tistics, which I hope, will jolt one into actionjust as it has affected me. By the end of May,it was reported that 43 per cent of India wasexperiencing drought conditions.Furthermore, the country has witnessed adrought every year since 2015 (other than2017). In many parts of the country, peo-ple are falling ill and are being admitted tohospitals, sometimes at huge expenses,because they are being forced to drinkuntreated water.

In terms of groundwater,the situation is even more grim.Ground water, which serves 40per cent of India’s needs, isbeing depleted at a frightening-ly unsustainable rate. The NITIAayog, a Government think-tank, has said in its report in2018 that 21 Indian cities,including Delhi, Bengaluru,Chennai and Hyderabad, willrun out of ground water by2020 and that 40 per cent ofIndia’s population will have noaccess to drinking water by2030. The year 2030 is less than11 years away. This means thatin a little more than a decade,more than one in three peoplein the country will not haveaccess to drinking water.

To bring this point closerhome, if you are a family of fouror five, it is likely that only twoor three of you will essentiallyhave access to drinking water by2030. I must apologise forsounding apocalyptic but thetime for sugar-coating is over.India is facing a ticking time-bomb and all of us, includingour future generations, willface a disastrous scenario unlesswe get our acts together andstart taking hard decisions.

A good start has alreadybeen made by the Government.The BJP has decided to inte-grate all Ministries dealing withwater-related issues into one

Ministry — the ‘Jal ShaktiMinistry’ — and has promisedto provide clean drinking waterto all households in the coun-try. Unlike other promises madeby the Government like ‘SmartCities’ or ‘Make in India’, thispromise cannot afford to fail.

Even though I am from anopposing party, I sincerely hopethat it does not turn out to beanother jumla, reserved only forrallies of the Prime Minister.The Government, however, hasnot started out on the right foot.Asked about water scarcity,Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, theJal Shakti Minister, respondedby saying, “Water crisis is not asbad as the hype created by themedia.” This comment was allthe more surprising becauseonly last month the BJPGovernment had issued adrought advisory to six Statessince water storage levels indams had dropped to a “critical”level.

Irrespective of whetherShekhawat thinks this is all“media hype” or not, it will nottake much to figure out that weare suffering from a water cri-sis. Just look around. Our wellsare drying up, getting drinkablewater is becoming more andmore expensive, we often endup standing in long queues forwater. Are these not obvioussigns of a crisis? Therefore, I

urge you to take charge yourself.There is no doubt that Indianeeds a comprehensive andwell-thought out policy to tack-le this issue. The Governmentneeds to adopt a multi-facetedapproach which examines thekind of crops we should grow,the kind of resources we needto set aside and invest amongother things.

However, merely ignoringthe problem because it seemstoo big can be disastrous. I urgeeveryone as a concerned citizenof India to take full responsibil-ity to help avert this water cri-sis. There is enough of animpact you can create if youcare enough about the situation.

For example, at home,where we often leave the tapsrunning or consume morewater than is necessary, wemust encourage family mem-bers and helps to use water judi-ciously. We can adopt water-saving techniques that are eas-ily available online. At theoffice, too, you can ask youremployers to use more water-efficient toilet stalls and hostawareness sessions for fellowemployees. All of these stepsmay eventually help us win cru-cial battles and ultimately winthe war against drought.

(The author is president ofJharkhand Pradesh CongressCommittee)

The English have always joked about their

summers. Simply because the sun is

almost always followed by the rain. When

the sun is out, the summer across England

can be splendid with bright sunshine from early

in the morning to late in the evening. This, cou-

pled with some temperate weather, can lead

to some amazing sporting events. But as we

said, the English joke about summers is often

on sports spectators because when the sun

comes out, the rain cannot be far behind. Sure,

the vagaries of the weather mean that some

years are better than others, but as the organisers at Wimbledon know well, with-

out a roof over the grass, delays can be debilitating for the schedule. And this

summer, the rains have played havoc with the World Cup, cancelling three games

so far and delaying the start of others — India’s game versus New Zealand being

the latest victim.

The Chief Executive of the Cricket World Cup, the former New Zealand Test

player Dave Richardson, has defended the scheduling, particularly the fact that

no reserve day has been kept for games in the championship. This has led crick-

et fans across the world to joke that rain will be the first team to qualify for the

knock-out games and at the rate things are going, it could very well win the tro-

phy. Richardson has a point given the tight schedule of organising games in the

league phase and the expense in shifting games and keeping the sanctity of the

tournament where teams cannot be expected to play back-to-back games on

successive days. After all, one-day internationals take over nine hours to com-

plete and are a physical drain on the athletes. They might lack the intensity of

the 90 minutes of football but are no less tiring. And while some cricket match-

es have been played in a stadium with a retractable roof, the idea is on the whole

impractical and will take years to implement even in just one country, discount-

ing the massive expenditure it will entail. However, cricket needs to find better

solutions to the problem if the tournament is to be rotated among members. If

the current format has to be maintained, then at least some contingency weath-

er planning has to be done, particularly before the start of the knock-out phas-

es. By preventing some potentially exciting games from taking place and keep-

ing alive the prospect that a capable team could fail to qualify for the knock-out

stages because of rain washing out a game, thus robbing it of a point, the World

Cup is cheating the game and spectators. This has to be addressed, and if it

keeps raining, this has to be addressed now.

Certain things don’t change in the

Kashmir Valley regardless of whether we

escalate a Pulwama, where 40 CRPF

jawans were killed, with airstrikes and smash

terror bases or de-escalate with peace talks.

When it comes to exporting terror and sub-

jecting India to “bleeding cuts”, Pakistan will

continue to be a threat to peace and stability

here and in the region and certainly won’t let

up on an offensive that is an arrowhead of its

strategic relevance. So the latest attack on a

CRPF patrol party on a key stretch of the

Amarnath Yatra route, that too just four months after Pulwama, shows that on-

ground realities do not change, whether we are aggressively combustive or mild-

ly reactive. The ambush, this time by militant shooters, had trademark charac-

teristics of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad, although claimed by a defunct Pakistan-

based militant outfit called Al Umar Mujahideen. This proves the theory that while

Pakistan apparently takes action against the terrorists it harbours on its soil in

the face of international pressure, in reality it does not eliminate them. Its terror

machinery is such a hydra-headed monster that when you shut down one mod-

ule, it mutates into another. New religious charities spring up almost overnight

to divert funding too. Although Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar and Jamaat-

ud-Dawa’ah who planned the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, was listed by the

UN as a global terrorist, the funding continued to his charities for some time before

being completely frozen. Besides, the frontline offensive was seized by the Jaish

since. Now that its chief Masood Azhar, too, features on the UN-designated list

and has assets frozen, clearly the baton has been passed on to a new claimant.

Yes, we have retaliated with non-military strikes on terror bases with Balakot,

staying well under the nuclear threshold, but the fact of the matter is can we

resort to such strikes every time and exhaust our surprise potential for deter-

rence? Can we over-saturate our response options and crow over getting ter-

rorists blacklisted while being assaulted continuously? Clearly, we need to con-

front the reality fair and square, that the Pakistan military will continue to sup-

port terrorist groups and deploy them against its neighbours and only a broad

international consensus and a sustained campaign can hold it off. Or else, it can

always wriggle itself out of conflagrations by dangling its nuclear sword, one

that has the US rush in as negotiator in our strategic backyard.

But now the Donald Trump administration has realised that while it needs

Pakistan to work with the Taliban in Afghanistan, it also needs to maintain its

strategic alliance with India in the larger interest. Which is why it is not too taken

in by Pakistan’s snap detention of militants and freezing assets of their front organ-

isations. While these steps are clearly intended to buy its way out of the Financial

Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, which would prevent it from getting loans from

the IMF and World Bank, the US has seen through such tropes. In fact, US diplo-

mat Alice Wells feels Pakistan’s steps are still reversible and recently said that

it must not only sustain these measures but expand their scope by prosecuting

terrorist leaders. Wells said she was equally concerned about Pakistan’s devel-

opment of certain categories of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Given

the complexity of the US-Pakistan paradigm, India needs to work out its own

counter-terror solutions because punitive strikes don’t guarantee anything more

than momentary, tactical victories. While working on building up international pres-

sure and even getting China to grant some leeway, there is much more work to

be done where it matters the most. The foremost task has to be about sealing

the porosity of our security apparatus that still allows militants to get up, close

and personal despite a review of operating procedures post-Pulwama. Our counter-

intelligence mechanism needs to be sharper, empowered and equipped with

resources to combat terrorism. The most frightening prospect has been the abil-

ity of Pakistan-exported terror networks to now recruit disgruntled local youth.

It is for this reason that Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s over-

tures, inviting Kashmiri youth for an open dialogue and refusal to commit on the

status of Article 370 or 35A, are significant. India now needs a cogent, mature

and ground-up approach to choke Pakistan from all sides.

Pak back to old games

The latest attack on a CRPF patrol party in J&Kshows how Jaish has mutated despite a global ban

An unusually wet summer is washing away the dramaof cricket’s biggest extravaganza in England and Wales

Stringent action required

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Lessons from Kathua” (June 12).While the family of the Kathuarape case has got justice, over onelakh daughters still await closurein our courts. It is time to stopchild rape through strong legaldeterrent and social action. Oneonly hopes that stringent andeffective punishment would offerdeterrence for ever-increasingcrimes against children. I alsothink it’s imperative that lenien-cy is not offered to perpetratorsand more so on sociological argu-ments on the identity of the crim-inal, centered on their caste,minority status or economic back-ground, ie ‘sole bread earner’ et al.

Those who file mercy peti-tions for the perpetrators ofheinous crimes or push thehuman rights rhetoric of lesserpunishment for some of them,should take a backseat. A societythat cannot safeguard its childrenhas no right to talk about therights of the perpetrators, espe-cially under the garb of a politi-cal correctness which could verywell sent us to doom.

Padmini Raghavendra Secunderabad

Ensure speedy justice

Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Lessons from Kathua” (June12). Rape victims deserve nomercy. They need to be severe-

ly punished and the Kathuarape case was no exception.

That justice has finally beenserved is welcome. The verdictis a triumph of the justice deliv-ery system. It was only due toeffective investigation, diligent

prosecution and judicial sensi-tivity that this case could get aspeedy closure. This case shouldinspire people’s confidence in thejustice system.

However, it is also a matterof concern that the country has

been a witness to a spate ofheinous crimes against minorgirls. One rape case is reportedevery 15 minutes. Even as theKathua verdict is being hailed,the gruesome murder of a three-year-old in Aligarh has shockedthe society. There are manycases that are pending for yearstogether awaiting a judgement.All such long-pending casesmust be fast-tracked so thatjustice is not delayed.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

Tackle water crisis

Sir — This refers to the article,“Searing hot conditions the newnormal” (June 13) by Kota Sriraj.With the country witnessingunprecedented heat wave condi-tions, the problem has been exac-erbated by an acute water crisis.Poor water management plan isat the root of urban nightmares.A comprehensive water policythat focusses on reusing wastewater is the need of the hour.

Alok SinhaVia email

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

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op nion 08

India’s parched future

AJOY KUMAR

Forty per cent of our population or more than one in three will have no access to drinking

water by 2030. That’s less than 11 years away. Policy must be backed by individual restraint

Congress said that we left the partybecause of fear or because TRS pur-chased us. Neither are we small kids tobe afraid, nor can we be purchased aswe are not sheep or buffaloes.

Shiv Sena leader—Gandra Venkataramana Reddy

My curly hair has got mea lot of attention and Idon't mind it. I love the fact that my hair has a life of its own.

Actor—Mithila Palkar

The Pulwama attack that sparkeda crisis between India andPakistan underscored the need to halt terrorist activity in the region.

Top US official—Alice G Wells

S O U N D B I T E

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

Rains playing spoilsport for Cup

The idiosyncrasies of the game of cricket are too manyto enumerate. Emerging as a new vibrant nation fromthe shadows of an apartheid regime, the South African

team — the darlings of the 1992 World Cup — will neverforget the impossible target they were set in their semi-final against England — 22 runs off one ball. Thanks tothe farce that so often crops up when the game’s regu-lations get themselves in a tangle, a shower is all it takesto wreck a classic contest between bat and bowl. Evenquarter of a century later, things have not changed muchwhen it comes to the rules and regulations governingcricket vis-à-vis hold-ups due to the vagaries of nature.

The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method, a math-ematical formulation designed to calculate the number ofruns to get for the team batting second in a limited overscricket, is admitted to be the most accurate to set a tar-get score. With rain threats looming large over practical-ly every venue in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, itbecomes difficult to adjudge the best team in the tour-nament. Fate will ultimately play a decisive role in decid-ing the winner in such queer situations. Hence, it becomesdifficult to understand the logic behind organising crick-eting extravaganzas in a land perennially accustomed tothe predictions of the weatherman for a bright, sunny day.

With the weather gods playing truant in the latest editionof the World Cup, match after match has been washedout. The scoring system, where both the teams are award-ed a point each in such cases, could further complicatethe matters for other sides which once again have to reck-on with various mathematical permutations and combi-nations to scrape through to the penultimate stage of thegame. It does appear that proficiency in maths, and nottheir cricketing skills, will help teams perform better thisonce. Who then is going to be the ‘lucky’ winner?

Pachu Menon Margao

Send your feedback to:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

A wet World Cup

He (the governor) is themouthpiece of the BJP. TheBJP has asked him to hold an all-party meeting and that is why it has been called.

West Bengal CM—Mamata Banerjee

LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

A GOOD STARTHAS ALREADY

BEEN MADE.THE BJP HASDECIDED TO

INTEGRATE ALLMINISTRIES

DEALING WITHWATER-

RELATEDISSUES INTO

ONE MINISTRY— THE ‘JAL

SHAKTIMINISTRY’. BUTUNLIKE OTHER

PROMISES, THISCANNOT

AFFORD TOTURN OUT TO

BE A JUMLA

Let’s grow a shared vision

WE WILL INTRODUCE THE TRIPLE TALAQ BILL IN THE

PARLIAMENT SESSION. WE ARE HOPEFUL THAT IT WILL

BE PASSED THIS TIME IN RAJYA SABHA AS WELL.

—UNION MINISTER

PRAKASH JAVADEKAR

ON TRIPLE TALAQ, WE HAVE RAISED SOME

FUNDAMENTAL POINTS. STILL ONE OR TWO POINTS

ARE LEFT... DEBATES ARE REQUIRED ON THOSE.

—CONGRESS SPOKESPERSON

ABHISHEK MANU SINGHVI

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

It’s great to see so many Indian and Americanbusiness people coming together to talk abouthow to draw our two nations closer together,

and to talk about big ideas. That project has beenin the forefront of my mind too, in preparation formy upcoming trip. I want to give you a sneak pre-view of my mission, and tell you why I truly believethat our two nations have an incredibly uniqueopportunity to move forward together, for the goodof both of our peoples, the Indo-Pacific region, andindeed the entire world.

The idea of a US-India partnership franklystretches back a long way. When the Indian peo-ple first courageously won their independence over70 years ago, a strong relationship between ourcountries was something people talked about. Ourtwo democracies and a close relationship seemedinevitable, a matter of “when” not “if.” But for toolong — indeed, for decades — we found ourselveson different trajectories. The US was fighting theCold War. And India was asserting itself, its new-found, cherished independence through its non-aligned movement, trying not to take sides. Wecooperated when we could, but frankly I think mostwould agree that we mostly fell short of our poten-tial.

We couldn’t trade much because India had aclosed economy. The Licence Raj kept businessesand innovators out of the black and covered in redtape. Five-year plans became the received wisdom,something like our 2 per cent growth here in thelast administration became sort of a new normal.We focussed our attention on other Asian tradingpartners, and what were once cubs grew up to betrue tigers in the region. But all that changed in1991, when India opened its doors to the world.Prime Minister Rao said that at the time his gov-ernment would “sweep the cobwebs of the past andusher in change.” India’s free-market reformsunleashed the innovation, the entrepreneurship, thesheer drive of its own people to do remarkablethings. First, we’ve had a seven per cent growth inIndia from 1997 to 2017, year-on-year. Millionsof Indians have been lifted out of poverty. Indiabecame a world leader in IT — IT services, engi-neering, pharmaceuticals, and so many more thingsthat you all know so well. The US-India bilateraltrade reached $142 billion just last year, a seven-fold increase since 2001. Additionally, more than500 American companies now successfully oper-ate in India. And of course, the US is a market forroughly 20 per cent of India’s exports in both goodsand services. Indian-Americans, too, have con-tributed mightily to things that happened here inthe US. We’ve watched Indians reach the heightsof industry, and academia, and government.People like Microsoft’s CEO and the FCC chair-man Ajit Pai, a great Kansan, have done remark-able things all around the world.

US Presidents of both parties have seized theopportunity for closer ties. President Clinton’s visitin 2000 set a real marker, he set the table for clos-er cooperation between the two countries, and thenPresident Bush inked a historic civil nuclear deal.More recently, President Obama granted India“Major Defence Partner” status and supportedIndia’s quest for a permanent seat on the UNSecurity Council — a position that the US contin-ues to support. And under President Trump, we’vetaken our defence cooperation to new heights, solid-

ified our common vision for the Indo-Pacific andtaken a far tougher stand on Pakistan’s unaccept-able support for terrorism in the region.

Just a few weeks ago, in a truly historic elec-tion, 600 million Indians voted in the largest exer-cise of the franchise in history. And they gave MrModi a huge mandate. Not since 1971 has an IndianPrime Minister been returned to office with a sin-gle-party majority, and — to borrow a phrase – heenjoyed an awful lot of winning. Many observerswere surprised by the result, but, frankly, I wasn’t.I’ve been watching closely. And we knew that thePrime Minister was a new kind of leader for theworld’s most populous democracy. He is the sonof a tea seller who worked his way up to govern-ing a state for 13 years and now leads one of theworld’s truly emerging powers. He’s made econom-ic development for the poorest Indians a priority.And indeed, millions who once went without lightbulbs now have electricity. And millions who lackedcook stoves now have them. It’s interesting thatyoung Indians constituted one of the PrimeMinister’s largest voting blocks, one of his biggestgroups of support in this most recent election. Ithink that tells you something.

For my part, as the Secretary of State, I knowI have a strong partner, a new, great counterpartin Minister Jaishankar — a former Ambassador tothe US. First, we have to build ever-stronger rela-tionships. In fact, we’ve sent some of our finestminds to New Delhi, thinkers like Daniel PatrickMoynihan and our current ambassador, Ken Juster.But forging stronger ties is more than that. It meansformalising these individual friendships, buildingout a diplomatic framework for our two countries.I think we’ve done that but there’s more to do. Lastyear we kicked off a 2+2 dialogue and I went toattend it alongside the Secretary of Defence. Wealso reinvigorated the Quad Dialogue among theUnited States, Japan, and Australia — all like-mind-ed democracies in the Indo-Pacific.

But I want to talk about a couple other thingsI believe we can do together. We must embracethat strategic framework that works for both ofour nations. We respect India as a truly sover-eign, important country, with its own unique pol-itics and its own unique strategic challenges. Weget it. We realise it’s different to deal with thelikes of China and Pakistan from across the oceanthan it is when they are on your borders. That’swhy in this room, not so many months ago, Ielaborated on President Trump’s vision for a Free

and Open Indo-Pacific. It starts from the premisethat we share a common set of values — the val-ues of democracy and freedom and a core beliefin the ingenuity of the human spirit.

We also have to make sure that we have eco-nomic openness. We have to have a central themebeing the idea that we have liberty and sovereign-ty in each of our two nations, and build on thoseideas. These need to be places in which econom-ic growth reinforces our democratic values, and notdictatorship. It needs to be a place where our part-nership is one of true equals, not of domination.Based on my conversations in New Delhi last year,and in subsequent phone calls and meetings, Ibelieve this is a deeply shared vision.

Third, we have to deliver. We have to execute.The Trump administration has already enabledAmerican companies to export more high-techitems to India. This includes cutting-edge defenceplatforms like armed UAVs and ballistic missiledefence systems. We’ve already launched theAsia-EDGE programme to help India raise privatecapital to meet its energy and security needs foryears to come. These are solid achievements butwe want to do so much more.

We clearly have overlapping interests: defence,energy, space. The list goes on. The first batch ofApache helicopters is coming off Boeing’s produc-tion line in Arizona even as we speak. LockheedMartin’s F-21 and Boeing’s F/A-18 are state-of-the-art fighters that could give India the capabilities itneeds to become a full-fledged security providerthroughout the Indo-Pacific.

On energy, we want to complete theWestinghouse civil nuclear project and delivermore LNG and crude. These steps will giveIndians reliable, affordable, diversified energyindependence. So they will no longer have to relyon difficult regimes like those in Venezuela andin Iran. On space, NASA is already working withthe Indian Space Research Organisation on theworld’s most advanced earth-observation satel-lite and India’s second lunar mission. I mean,how cool is that?

Now, I’m sure we’ll broach some tough topicstoo. But as we democracies have come to know, thatwe work out our disagreements. We bring themto the table honestly and fairly. And we’ll proba-bly discuss the recent decision on the GSP pro-gramme. I do hope, and remain open – and weremain open to dialogue, and hope that our friendsin India will drop their trade barriers and trust in

the competitiveness of their own companies,their own businesses, their own people, and pri-vate sector companies. We’ll also push for free flowof data across borders, not just to help Americancompanies, but to protect data and secure con-sumers’ privacy. And speaking of privacy, we areeager to help India establish secure communica-tions networks – including 5G networks as well.

I know that these conversations that we willcontinue with the new government in India thathas so much promise for its people, for our rela-tionship, and for the world – I hope together, wewill finally fulfill the great promise of cooperationthat was present at India’s birth and which remainsevident today.

I did business in India when I — before I lostmy mind and ran for Congress — ran a small busi-ness that made machine parts for the aerospaceindustry. And I spent a fair amount of time inBangalore and in Chennai working with HAL. I’lltell you what. It was tough. India was still open-ing up, it was still figuring its way through, but therewas a real value proposition there and we did well.When I think about that, when I think about whatbusinesses need when they go to invest in eachother’s countries, they need stability, they need aset of rules that they can understand, they need tomake sure that the efforts that we put forwardtogether from the US have sufficient bipartisanship,that they won’t be whipsawed as we have electionshere. That is, when you invest, your ROI oftenextends beyond any particular congress or any par-ticular administration.

It’s already happening in technology andengineers. I know all of the amazing, brilliantIndian students that come to study in our schoolsat Wichita State University in my hometown, lotsof amazing people doing amazing things wantto come work in places where they can go makemoney and be successful. They don’t care somuch if it’s with an Indian company or anAmerican company. They want to go out anduse their skill set. If we can, at the StateDepartment, lay the foundation for that, then I’mconfident the folks in this room will knock it outof the park. They’ll take risk, they’ll invest cap-ital, they’ll invest capital here and in India, andwe’ll grow both sides of the relationship.

(Excerpted from the remarks of the US Secretaryof State Michael R. Pompeo at the India Ideas Summitand 44th Annual Meeting of the US-India BusinessCouncil)

We’ll probably discuss the GSP. We remain open to dialogue, and hope that our friends in India willdrop their trade barriers and trust in the competitiveness of their own businesses, their own people

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

Restore faith in

data security

KUMARDEEP BANERJEE

While framing any future-looking policy on data,the Government must adopt a well-calibratedapproach, keeping in mind the interest of all

MICHAEL R POMPEO

Reams of paper and gigabytes of data are being used to

analyse the results/outcome and meaning of the great

Indian ‘desi data elections’ of 2019. As I sit down to type,

data analysts are still trying to slice and dice packets to arrive

at a conclusion — an exercise mirroring what went into the

2019 Lok Sabha poll. Yes, it was the biggest dance of democ-

racy but also one of the largest data-crunching exercises.

This brings us to the heart of the debate over data. To put

this byte in perspective, there are at least five pieces of open

legislation currently being discussed by various Government

departments, including a soon-to-be-tabled piece of legislation

in Parliament. The decision/policy expected to emerge will shape

industry 4.0 and pave the path for a new digitally democratic

connected India. Billions of dollars of existing and future invest-

ments, millions of jobs and digital lifestyle choices of a billion

plus Indians will ride on the outcome.

It may sound simplistic but debate and deliberations on data

democracy is at best an evolving policy framework. Globally,

each geo-political giant with its clutch of data innovation-dri-

ven companies and eco-political interest is trying to negotiate/fit

in/flag off India’s evolving policy framework on data. It will be

hard for our country to relegate the job of policy-making to a

clutch of Government officials and sectoral Ministries and not

take a wider inter-departmental framework view. Consider this:

While the new data protection Bill restricts non-consensual data

processing by certain group of fiduciaries, it allows a wide space

for non-consensual data processing by States under the broad

headline of national security/interest and an extension of wel-

fare activities.

What the Government is forgetting is that ‘right to privacy

of personal data’ is an individual’s fundamental right as ruled

by the Supreme Court. Therefore, the challenge towards infringe-

ment can potentially come from a billion plus individuals. It may

take shape in a simple challenge in the form of a ‘right to be

forgotten’ (a provision envisaged in the proposed Bill) petition,

but a question may arise on the tonnes of cache data the indi-

vidual may have produced in the past and which would have

been widely processed without any restriction by impacting

“said” consumer’s commercial and political buy-ins.

Take another example: If one visits a new “connected or

digitally smart” commercial building in Gurugram today, chances

are that access will be provided only after creating a tempo-

rary pass. Generations of temporary access passes are sub-

ject to sharing of mobile numbers, generating one-time pass-

words, filling personal details form (name, company name, per-

son visiting) and getting a picture clicked. Ok, let’s say this makes

the job fairly quick and based on individuals voluntarily shar-

ing information for access. What makes this situation poten-

tial cause of conflict and say infringement of data privacy is

the very fact of it being digital and, therefore, sitting on some

server for eternity with a potential of being sold online.

In its earlier avatar, authorised access to buildings, in most

cases, used to be restricted to making a manual entry in a

register and a phone call made from chowkidaar chambers

to the concerned person. An affirmative response from the

other end ensured smooth passage. Precious personal infor-

mation of the visitor used to stay manually in a register as

a silo vs another byte in the individual’s data journey. Now,

the question is, will the new policy also have a view on these

micro pieces of everyday use cases? If so, would we need

another separate department in city planning to act as the

guardian for all such data access?

Clearly, the challenges are manifold and almost quantum

in terms of their being both ‘on’ and ‘off’ and at the same event

horizon. Here lies the dilemma for policy-makers. Do they just

need to restrict their knowledge horizon outreach and/consul-

tation within the technical expert committee or should they also

look at references from philosophers and thinkers? There is no

contest to claim that a citizen’s right to data should be protect-

ed at all costs, but sometimes, rights of a collective or greater

good takes over the former. It is, therefore, important to take

a calibrated approach while framing a future-looking policy hav-

ing cross-sectoral impact.

My humble solution is to keep the basic principles. Simple,

easy to follow and provide simple guiding paths towards the

journey. It will seem a considerable wash-down from the cur-

rent proposed legislation draft but it will go a long way in estab-

lishing the preamble to the exhaustive Constitutional frame-

work on data policy.

(The writer is a free thinker)

India was witness to a massiveelection exercise in the pasttwo months. We had an elec-

torate of 900 million — the turnoutin this general election was thehighest ever at 67.11 per cent — andthe mandate for the winning party,the BJP, was decisive. NarendraModi has once again been electedas the country’s Prime Minister andpolitical pundits are still busy find-ing whether it was a wave, anunder-current or a “tsunami” thatled to the party’s victory.

The factors that led to the mas-sive victory of the BJP will be dis-cussed and debated for a long timeto come but everyone seems toagree that the electoral campaign

was centered around the theme of“national security.” The PrimeMinister did touch upon this issueduring his campaigns but at thesame time, he focussed on develop-mental works. After all, there can’tbe a strong economy without secureborders.

Developmental activities in theborder areas of the country, especial-ly Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East, have been a lesser talked aspectof the Modi Government. Theseregions have historically beenignored. But prioritising them hasyielded rich dividends for the NDA,with its candidates winning 25 of the32 seats in these two regions. The BJPspecifically made deep inroads withthe electorate. This was also reflect-ed in the party’s performance in theAssembly elections held simultane-ously in Arunachal Pradesh with thegeneral elections (along with threeother States).

Arunachal Pradesh shares inter-national borders with three countries— Bhutan, Myanmar and TibetAutonomous Region of China. Areawise, it is the largest State in the entire

North-East with a population ofapproximately 14 lakh. Populationdensity of the State is around 12 peo-ple per sq km. The State boasts of 26major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes. Each tribe has a unique cul-ture and a language distinct from theother. “Arunachali Hindi” is the lin-gua franca and “Jai Hind” the pop-ular slogan. The BJP has, for the firsttime, formed an elected Governmenton its own in this important borderState under the leadership of Pema

Khandu. The party won in 41 out ofthe 60 Assembly constituencies. Itincreased its vote share from 31 percent in 2014 to 51 per cent in 2019and saw three of its candidates win-ning as uncontested even before thefirst votes were cast on April 11.

For those who did not notice,Arunachal Pradesh was the first togive an indication of this huge BJPwin and rout of the Congress. Anational party like the Congresscould manage to field only 46 can-

didates in the 60 Assembly seats.Sixteen of its candidates had a voteshare of 10 per cent or less withsome getting as low as 54 votes.Such poor statistics of a nationalparty, whose vote share only fiveyears ago was 49.5 per cent, isalarming and calls for attention.Leaving the media aside, the ironyis that even the Indian NationalCongress isn’t taking note of it.

Apathy towards the North-Eastin general and Arunachal Pradesh inparticular is to be blamed for thesame. Only incidents of violence orinsurgency get noticed. Itanagar, thecapital of Arunachal Pradesh, sawviolence for over three days inFebruary. This was hardly even cov-ered. To think that an innovativeGovernment initiative will be cov-ered is, perhaps, asking too much.

Still, Arunachal Pradesh did aunique experiment. Hundred youthfrom all across the State were select-ed for a boot camp. They worked on10 most relevant sustainable devel-opment issues for the State andmade a presentation of challengesand opportunities before

Government officials, Ministers andthe Chief Minister. It was called theArunachal Transformation andAspirational Leadership (ATAL)Conclave. Delegates were in the agegroup of 18-30 and for many of them,this was their first visit outside theirhome districts. The conclave saw par-ticipation of three Union Ministersand the response from the youth wasoverwhelming. Khandu sat throughthe entire conclave, taking notes. Isit too much of a stretch to co-relatethat the State elected the youngestChief Minister of India?

The BJP in Arunachal has shat-tered all stereotypes and promised tomake the State the “happiest.” It iseasier to overlook the hard work putin by political leaders towards devel-opmental activities and convenient-ly argue that the North-East votesonly for cash. That Prime MinisterModi won on the “national securi-ty” plank is another such manifesta-tion of arm-chair journalism. Thevoter today is aspirational and notmerely voting for slogans.

(The writer is a Fellow withIndia Foundation)

Breaching eastern boundariesThe BJP’s landslide victory in Arunachal Pradesh on the plank of ‘sustainable development’ is proof

that voters have today become aspirational and cannot be easily swayed by sloganeering

AADITYA TIWARI

LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

House Democrats areright to be aggressivewith their oversightdemands. They have littlereason to believe that MrTrump’s administration isoperating in good faith,and he seems to haveadopted a strategy similarto the one he used inbusiness: Bog thingsdown in the courts untilyour opponents give up.Or, in this case, until afterthe 2020 election.(The Guardian editorial)

ANOTHER BRICK INWHITE HOUSE WALL

money 10LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

Sensex ends marginallylower in choppy trade

PTI n MUMBAI

Domestic equity benchmarkBSE Sensex ended mar-

ginally lower after a see-saw ses-sion Thursday as lack of buyingtriggers kept trading sentimentat a low ebb.

A depreciating rupee andweak global cues also weighedon the markets, traders said.

After plunging over 300points intra-day, the BSE gaugepared most losses to settle 15.45points, or 0.04 per cent, lower at39,741.36.

However, the broader NSENifty inched up 7.85 points, or0.07 per cent, to close at11,914.05.

Yes Bank was the biggestloser in the Sensex pack for thesecond consecutive session,plummeting 12.96 per cent,after Moody’s placed the privatesector lender’s ratings underreview for a possible downgrade.

IndusInd Bank, Infosys,Maruti, Vedanta, HeroMotoCorp, Tata Motors, ONGCand RIL too fell up to 4.96 percent.

Top gainers includedPowerGrid, M&M, Kotak Bank,Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel andHDFC twins, rising up to 1.54per cent.

According to experts, mar-ket mood was subdued amid ris-ing uncertainty over trade talksbetween the US and China. Oilprices soared following con-flicting reports of attacks on twooil tankers in the Gulf of Omanand the Strait of Hormuz.

However, losses werecapped as investors took positivecues from factory output num-bers, released after market hourson Wednesday.

India’s industrial outputgrew to a six-month high of 3.4per cent in April mainly onaccount of improvement in min-ing and power generation, whileretail inflation spiked to a seven-month high of 3.05 per cent inMay, though remaining withinthe RBI’s comfort level.

“Benchmark indices endedon a flat note amid weak glob-al cues. After opening negative,Nifty reversed its trend andclosed positive above 11,900levels. However, investorsremained cautious on Niftyand Bank Nifty weekly expiryday.

“Post election euphoria,markets to shift focus on earn-ings visibility, onset of monsoonand various economic reformsand policies by way UnionBudget. On global front, US-

China trade wars along with oilprice volatility will determinefurther trend,” said HemangJani, Head - Advisory,Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Sectorally, BSE teck, auto,energy and healthcare indicesended up to 0.57 per cent lower.Realty, power, finance, con-sumer durables and utilitiesgained up to 0.62 per cent.

In the broader markets, theBSE midcap and smallcapindices under-performed thebenchmarks to close up to 0.50per cent lower.

Meanwhile, foreign institu-tional investors offloaded sharesworth a net Rs 1,050.43 crore onWednesday, provisional datamade available with theexchanges showed.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, rallied3.54 per cent to USD 62.09 perbarrel.

Elsewhere in Asia, whileShanghai Composite Index rosemarginally, Hang Seng, Nikkeiand Kospi ended in the red.

On the other hand, stockexchanges in Europe were trad-ing in the green in early deals.

On the currency front, theIndian rupee depreciated 16paise to 69.51 against the US dol-lar intra-day.

Yes Bank higgest loser, tanks 13 pc

CSCs to restart Aadhaar-related work soon

PTI n NEW DELHI

People in rural areas willsoon be able to access

Aadhaar-related services at thecommon service centres fol-lowing the UIDAI’s authorisa-tion to these centres to resumesuch services, a senior officialsaid.

Common service centres(CSC) stopped providingAadhaar-related services afterthe Unique Identification

Authority of India (UIDAI)withdrew authorisation fromthem fol lowing debatesaround data security of the12-digit unique identifier.

“UIDAI has authorisedCSCs to start printing ofAadhaar cards. Users will becharged standard fees as pre-scribed by UIDAI. This workis expected to start in a week,”CSC e-Governance ServicesCEO Dinesh Tyagi told PTI.

There are 3.9 lakh village

level entrepreneurs (VLE)that are running commonservice centres in rural areasacross the country.

VLEs provide govern-ment services like train tick-et booking, passport applica-tion, birth certificate, regis-tration for Ayushman Bharatscheme etc.

“CSCs will also be able toupdate demographic detailsof Aadhaar users like address,photo etc. This work is

expected to start by the endof this month,” Tyagi said.

Apart from CSCs, peoplecan access Aadhaar-relatedservices at bank branches,post off ices and UIDAIauthorised centres located ingovernment premises.

Earlier, CSCs were alsoallowed to process Aadhaarenrollment as well but itstopped in September 2017after privacy and data secu-rity-related debates in the

country.VLEs had threatened to

protest against the govern-ment if they are not allowedto conduct Aadhaar-relatedwork. IT Minister R aviShankar Prasad had assuredthem that they will soon beallowed to do Aadhaar relat-ed processes.

“We are gradually startingAadhaar related works. I amhopeful more projects willcome to CSC,” Tyagi said.

Indiabulls Housing Financeshares zoom nearly 12 pcPTI n NEW DELHI

Shares of Indiabulls HousingFinance rose nearly 12 per

cent Thursday after a petitionalleging misappropriation offunds was withdrawn from theSupreme Court.

The company’s scripjumped 11.78 per cent to closeat Rs 694.30 on the BSE.During the day, it climbed12.64 per cent to Rs 699.70.

At the NSE, shares zoomed11.85 per cent to close at Rs694.70. In terms of traded vol-ume, 34.28 lakh shares weretraded on the BSE and 4.85crore shares on the NSE duringthe day. Indiabulls HousingFinance Ltd (IBHFL) sharesdropped 8 per cent Tuesday fol-lowing allegations of siphoning

off Rs 98,000 crore of publicmoney. The scrip declinednearly 8 per cent the followingday also. In a big relief toIBHFL, the petitioner who hadapproached the Supreme Courtalleging misappropriation offunds, withdrew the plea onThursday, the company said.

The petition now with-drawn alleged that IBHFL mis-appropriated Rs 98,000 crore ofpublic money, a claim termed“frivolous and bizarre” by thecompany, which had soughturgent hearing in the matter.

In an affidavit, AbhayYadav, the petitioner, claimedthat he is not “aware of the con-tents and allegations men-tioned in the complaints or thepetition”, IBHFL said in a state-ment.

Extend tax sops to retail investors in

corporate bond: Mkt players to FM

PTI n NEW DELHI

Financial market playersThursday urged Finance

Minister Nirmala Sitharaman toextend tax incentives to retailinvestors in corporate bonds, andalso pitched for additional taxsops for investments in terminsurance plans.

In the pre-budget meeting,financial and capital marketsplayers made suggestions con-cerning infusion of capital inniche/regional banks, enhancedrole of Financial SectorDevelopment Council (FSDC) inthe NBFC sector and creation ofdedicated liquidity window forNBFCs.

The Union Budget for 2019-20 is scheduled to be presentedon July 5.

“Discussed how to enhancecorporate bond market. At pre-sent retail investors investthrough mutual funds. If sometax benefits can be extended toretail investors also, just like it hasextended to mutual funds, theywould benefit and corporatebond market,” IDBI Bank CEOand MD Rakesh Sharma toldreporters here after the meeting.

Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority of India(Irdai) Chairman SubhashChandra Khuntia said that hesuggested additional tax incen-tives for term plans to encourageinvestments, like in the case ofNational Pension Scheme (NPS).

The financial and capitalmarket representatives also sug-gested review of interest rates ongovernment’s small savings

schemes, review of bankingNPAs provisions through set-ting-up a committee, setting-upof Debt Exchange Traded Fund(ETF), domestic capability build-ing in audit and credit rating,rationalisation of various taxeslike Security Transaction Tax(STT) in capital market.

They also urged to set up aseparate bond exchange, allow-ing banks to invest in InvITs toaccess broader market and makecorporate tax progressive toincentivise MSME sector, amongothers.

SBI Chairman RajnishKumar said, “lot of suggestionshave come regarding infra-structure financing, reviving theeconomy and what tax benefitscan be given for encouraginginvestments in MSME, exports”.

Script Open High Low LTPRPOWER 6.01 6.01 5.45 5.64JPASSOCIAT 4.01 4.05 3.92 4.02YESBANK 130.80 130.80 116.10 117.20IBULHSGFIN 615.80 699.70 588.75 694.30JETAIRWAYS 99.40 100.95 84.80 91.95DHFL 92.15 92.15 82.20 84.25RELCAPITAL 85.50 86.60 82.00 84.40SPICEJET 143.55 146.80 141.50 142.25INDUSINDBK 1525.00 1525.00 1441.10 1490.05IBREALEST 112.90 121.90 108.85 119.45RELINFRA 63.30 64.25 61.50 62.75PCJEWELLER 62.00 63.30 59.65 61.65SUZLON 4.42 4.44 4.18 4.35IBVENTURES 260.95 297.65 253.10 292.85PNB 77.40 77.90 73.60 76.25MOTHERSUMI 122.90 125.70 122.10 124.60RELIANCE 1330.95 1334.35 1310.00 1324.30SBIN 342.20 347.00 339.55 346.30TCS 2257.00 2285.05 2241.30 2250.25TATAMOTORS 166.00 168.80 164.50 167.40INFY* 741.50 747.20 739.20 742.70BANKBARODA 121.90 121.90 117.25 120.85ZEEL 340.65 354.25 337.40 352.35STRTECH 195.50 195.50 184.75 186.55SRTRANSFIN 1067.75 1094.20 1037.70 1080.55HDFCBANK 2445.00 2454.15 2415.00 2447.30LT 1511.00 1529.20 1504.65 1516.95BHARATFIN 974.75 974.75 911.00 943.15KOTAKBANK 1483.90 1509.05 1477.45 1502.45TATASTEEL 504.80 505.80 497.00 502.85SAIL 51.50 51.90 49.75 51.45JUSTDIAL 756.75 764.00 746.00 758.25PERSISTENT* 630.75 633.95 620.65 621.00NMDC 106.75 106.75 100.25 105.80HINDPETRO 306.80 311.00 303.85 309.00MARUTI 6849.00 6860.00 6765.00 6778.20JISLJALEQS 37.70 39.10 36.80 38.55IRB 115.55 116.90 107.30 113.00INDIACEM 97.50 100.20 96.15 98.85L&TFH 121.85 122.30 118.35 122.05ICICIBANK 416.00 422.10 415.40 420.00GRUH 295.00 312.00 294.95 308.50INDIGO 1666.00 1693.70 1655.00 1673.25ASHOKLEY 89.00 89.25 87.10 88.25WIPRO 298.70 299.00 297.20 298.80AXISBANK 812.35 822.00 811.90 819.70ASIANPAINT 1438.70 1438.70 1421.10 1427.15CANBK 269.00 269.00 253.70 262.30BIOCON 257.45 258.15 250.25 256.40HDFCLIFE 443.50 453.50 440.55 451.65SUNPHARMA 392.00 393.60 385.70 390.10ITC 279.90 281.25 278.55 279.85HINDALCO 199.00 200.50 196.70 199.40RBLBANK 657.70 657.70 632.45 640.30DLF 184.00 186.55 181.60 184.10LUPIN 726.30 729.00 705.15 719.30BHEL 68.30 69.20 67.80 68.75PEL 2111.55 2124.45 2057.00 2078.75HDFC 2171.05 2201.55 2164.00 2197.00TECHM 747.40 752.85 738.65 744.95GRAPHITE 418.55 422.80 415.90 417.10IOC 162.85 163.75 158.65 160.90JINDALSTEL 165.00 169.25 161.40 168.75IBULISL 198.00 216.10 195.60 216.10BANKINDIA 87.00 88.00 84.05 86.50BPCL 384.05 389.80 383.35 387.45BAJFINANCE 3514.95 3550.00 3498.40 3542.85HEROMOTOCO 2745.15 2763.90 2687.40 2707.05UPL 1017.00 1020.00 983.90 1003.00BEL 107.75 110.20 107.25 110.05ICICIGI 1125.00 1169.75 1101.00 1149.25DBL 448.60 449.45 414.20 435.85UNIONBANK 74.40 74.40 70.70 72.65NCC 97.60 98.00 95.70 97.55TRENT 397.25 409.00 390.80 392.90RADICO 285.05 285.05 269.45 279.35BOMDYEING 117.05 118.05 111.15 114.55ICICIPRULI 371.10 371.10 360.00 361.20NTPC 135.00 135.70 133.40 134.65PFC 132.90 133.90 130.60 133.30ADANIPOWER 49.20 49.20 46.80 48.35LAKSHVILAS 61.75 67.90 59.60 67.90RCOM 1.63 1.63 1.54 1.54J&KBANK 43.10 43.10 41.00 41.70BEML 924.00 925.90 894.45 915.00TITAN 1285.45 1298.00 1277.20 1293.60VEDL 170.00 170.65 165.40 168.35GAIL 311.00 312.10 307.25 308.15CEATLTD 955.55 955.55 921.45 934.05JSWSTEEL 272.90 275.00 265.85 274.20DISHTV 30.90 30.90 28.80 30.40GODREJPROP 889.00 923.35 889.00 919.40ESCORTS 576.00 582.35 566.65 580.10HEG 1595.00 1595.00 1551.00 1560.20KTKBANK 108.65 108.90 105.70 108.15BATAINDIA 1432.95 1438.25 1424.05 1437.50UJJIVAN 333.10 342.15 326.30 338.80DRREDDY 2595.35 2601.30 2559.65 2586.15HINDUNILVR 1845.00 1847.30 1824.00 1843.80AMARAJABAT 622.20 624.05 608.00 620.50M&M 633.00 642.90 628.10 640.90BHARTIARTL 360.00 364.95 356.50 363.25APOLLOTYRE 190.60 191.65 185.70 187.50STAR 428.85 438.00 418.50 437.95SUNTECK 472.30 476.15 461.75 470.60GNFC 273.25 273.35 262.50 263.65TATAPOWER 66.85 66.85 65.15 66.00GRASIM 884.95 907.25 870.45 903.90

TATAMTRDVR 83.15 83.25 79.85 82.80MANAPPURAM 137.50 140.50 137.25 140.00INDIANB 265.15 266.65 253.45 259.50WESTLIFE 320.00 324.70 315.70 322.00IDBI 36.15 36.65 35.35 36.20TATAELXSI 854.00 856.80 835.75 843.90DELTACORP 193.05 193.05 186.05 187.90GMRINFRA 15.00 15.10 14.65 15.05IDEA 12.80 13.03 12.71 12.90IDFCFIRSTB 42.80 42.80 41.10 42.00INFIBEAM 45.70 46.20 44.40 45.70MPHASIS 967.70 989.75 964.60 979.90CIPLA 561.05 566.00 559.70 564.00CGPOWER 31.00 32.15 30.85 31.85M&MFIN 418.55 423.80 412.55 422.70COALINDIA 257.30 258.70 253.70 255.50FEDERALBNK 105.00 107.00 104.50 106.70KEI 465.00 466.00 447.25 455.00SYNGENE 334.25 360.00 330.60 352.95LTTS 1710.00 1748.05 1708.00 1739.00BERGEPAINT 334.70 335.05 328.85 329.50POWERGRID 191.25 194.40 189.80 193.95PIDILITIND 1272.00 1272.00 1246.45 1249.85RECLTD 152.85 155.80 152.00 155.20AUROPHARMA 641.65 642.75 629.00 636.65ADANITRANS 226.00 239.00 222.25 236.00ABB 1525.35 1554.00 1505.00 1508.00FSL 51.50 51.75 51.00 51.55WOCKPHARMA 385.75 390.55 377.50 383.15JUBLFOOD 1320.00 1332.50 1301.00 1326.20RCF 63.75 63.75 61.65 62.45EXIDEIND 210.10 210.40 205.75 207.20JAICORPLTD 113.10 115.65 111.90 113.60DMART 1293.30 1307.90 1284.75 1300.00SYNDIBANK 34.50 35.10 33.90 34.90BAJAJ-AUTO 2941.35 2941.35 2901.00 2931.70IGL 336.00 338.90 328.35 338.70JMFINANCIL 88.05 89.55 87.70 89.30ABCAPITAL 96.10 97.20 94.40 95.15FORCEMOT 1484.10 1499.55 1455.10 1470.90ADANIPORTS 424.00 426.30 422.85 424.40CROMPTON 237.90 237.90 232.85 234.00SBILIFE 699.95 707.75 692.20 692.20NBCC 58.70 59.40 57.25 58.95INOXLEISUR 317.70 328.35 313.40 325.30NATIONALUM 49.50 49.90 48.95 49.30ORIENTBANK 91.80 92.30 88.85 90.70BRITANNIA 2994.00 2994.00 2955.05 2980.20EDELWEISS 181.20 181.50 177.50 179.80SPARC 136.00 137.85 134.65 136.35AMBUJACEM 220.05 222.00 216.20 220.90NAUKRI 2200.00 2246.75 2153.95 2186.45BANDHANBNK 548.00 552.00 538.75 545.40RAYMOND 793.15 801.00 784.15 796.75TV18BRDCST 27.75 27.90 26.50 27.15ONGC 169.00 170.15 167.10 168.95ACC 1566.40 1588.85 1564.75 1582.60VENKYS 1900.00 1909.75 1863.95 1881.30PTC 68.25 68.65 67.05 67.25BALKRISIND 803.85 803.85 776.85 780.25PETRONET 239.10 239.35 234.60 235.75NOCIL 122.90 124.65 121.50 122.10SUNTV 523.05 534.95 517.35 530.40KEC 323.00 327.60 318.00 323.70VOLTAS 608.40 616.00 607.60 614.00DIVISLAB 1546.55 1554.00 1519.15 1551.00CHOLAFIN 1476.65 1485.00 1439.00 1475.50CASTROLIND 145.10 146.10 142.75 143.95IPCALAB 924.95 960.55 924.95 933.55HFCL 21.35 21.35 20.75 20.95THERMAX 1109.65 1136.45 1083.00 1110.00LTI 1787.25 1791.70 1752.00 1757.75CENTURYTEX 990.90 990.90 966.80 981.90OMAXE 203.65 203.65 200.95 200.95AVANTI 357.50 360.65 353.00 355.45APOLLOHOSP 1381.50 1383.25 1355.65 1373.75LICHSGFIN 547.70 547.70 533.30 542.25SRF 2890.00 2929.35 2862.90 2923.35CAPPL 416.15 439.80 416.15 431.20HCLTECH 1102.00 1105.60 1093.05 1101.25BLISSGVS 162.10 165.20 161.10 163.25RAIN 104.60 104.65 101.25 103.35ULTRACEMCO 4575.15 4584.75 4544.50 4565.00ALBK 42.00 42.00 40.15 41.80GSPL 195.65 195.65 184.50 185.00ITI 92.20 92.30 90.50 91.20SOUTHBANK 13.65 13.65 13.20 13.37GODREJCP 682.50 682.50 675.00 680.80PNCINFRA 203.40 210.55 200.65 205.80COLPAL 1170.30 1182.95 1169.55 1180.90NBVENTURES* 96.70 100.00 96.00 96.40

PIIND 1101.00 1147.00 1097.30 1143.25PHILIPCARB 133.55 134.10 130.30 131.60DEEPAKNI 280.15 283.95 275.70 280.50RAJESHEXPO 658.50 680.00 658.05 680.00TATAGLOBAL 256.90 256.90 251.25 253.80IDFC 36.75 36.75 35.10 35.70KSCL 530.25 534.40 507.05 509.55EQUITAS 137.35 137.45 134.90 137.15ADANIGREEN 43.50 43.60 42.20 43.50HAVELLS 781.30 786.20 778.30 785.00GSFC 101.50 102.20 99.10 100.95TORNTPOWER 242.00 253.25 241.00 252.55OBEROIRLTY 532.00 534.05 525.75 527.80LALPATHLAB 1061.65 1127.40 1046.20 1090.00EICHERMOT 20118.80 20177.00 19913.00 20177.00SOBHA 580.00 585.00 567.30 568.00JSWENERGY 69.85 71.30 69.55 70.70KANSAINER 464.00 469.00 453.65 463.75AARTIIND 1726.20 1735.00 1719.60 1730.00BAJAJFINSV 8205.15 8300.00 8205.15 8283.65SREINFRA 21.05 21.95 19.65 21.40KAJARIACER 613.15 614.40 600.25 609.65INDHOTEL 150.80 150.80 146.50 147.75NHPC 24.75 24.75 24.45 24.65NESTLEIND 11670.00 11671.00 11572.75 11620.00BHARATFORG 468.00 468.00 457.95 463.00OIL 180.55 180.55 176.00 177.45DCMSHRIRAM 555.10 560.00 531.00 533.80DABUR 409.95 410.10 406.10 409.80IEX 149.85 149.95 145.80 147.55DCBBANK 239.95 239.95 231.80 236.10LEMONTREE 70.00 70.00 67.00 68.05UBL 1357.50 1359.20 1345.00 1350.00AJANTPHARM 990.75 992.45 975.30 980.90CANFINHOME 346.85 353.50 339.75 351.00JUBILANT 475.40 481.00 468.90 477.00HSCL 115.85 115.85 110.75 111.05TVSMOTOR 471.00 473.70 465.30 470.00AEGISLOG 218.20 230.00 217.80 227.75TATACHEM 627.90 634.00 625.45 631.50VIPIND 460.00 464.35 455.00 458.65SIEMENS 1257.40 1280.05 1254.40 1279.95CONCOR 538.70 540.90 532.90 536.60PAGEIND 20200.00 20430.00 20007.55 20394.25IFCI 9.00 9.00 8.75 8.94MGL 876.00 883.10 871.05 883.00JAMNAAUTO 55.05 55.05 53.00 53.55EMAMILTD 341.95 342.05 333.45 335.45GLENMARK 523.50 529.50 519.35 521.90WELCORP 139.00 140.80 139.00 139.50CUB 216.10 218.75 216.10 217.95TORNTPHARM 1534.50 1551.80 1529.15 1537.30HSIL 262.00 263.65 248.85 253.05AUBANK 703.00 712.45 703.00 712.40GRANULES 104.40 104.40 101.20 102.10GUJFLUORO 1052.10 1080.00 1024.80 1065.00MFSL 440.30 440.30 427.00 430.00THYROCARE 486.75 486.75 465.45 481.00CADILAHC 246.75 248.30 244.40 246.10CHAMBLFERT 180.05 180.30 174.80 175.10MUTHOOTFIN 639.00 644.40 636.00 643.95GUJGAS 185.00 186.00 181.45 181.50ENGINERSIN 117.45 118.15 115.85 117.10INTELLECT 266.25 267.50 263.80 264.50HINDCOPPER 41.65 41.70 40.40 40.75ABFRL 217.65 218.35 213.20 214.55WELSPUNIND 56.45 57.10 55.10 56.60RNAM 215.20 217.05 215.20 215.75WHIRLPOOL 1537.20 1563.10 1526.00 1551.90PNBHOUSING 805.00 811.60 800.15 804.80FRETAIL 468.00 472.00 455.40 460.00HEXAWARE 346.00 349.30 343.25 347.40GODFRYPHLP 905.00 905.00 882.00 891.95CENTRALBK 23.25 23.40 22.60 22.95TATACOMM 488.10 495.10 485.00 486.15ASHOKA 138.65 143.60 136.00 143.00BDL 310.00 311.30 301.60 304.65ATUL 4160.00 4160.00 4093.25 4099.60NAVINFLUOR 741.00 759.35 737.00 741.70JKTYRE 80.80 80.80 78.00 78.30SCI 31.20 32.25 30.65 31.00INFRATEL 272.70 273.50 269.20 270.40PARAGMILK 244.60 248.35 244.00 245.70MCX 796.50 812.00 796.50 806.95BBTC 1134.50 1137.00 1113.50 1117.50SYMPHONY 1280.00 1318.40 1239.05 1248.80GUJALKALI 535.85 538.00 519.00 534.00JINDALSAW 83.05 83.80 82.10 82.50SUVEN 270.00 270.90 265.55 269.00REDINGTON 101.00 103.35 100.70 102.45PVR 1720.00 1732.95 1704.60 1731.60HINDZINC 241.45 241.65 239.20 240.35MEGH 66.60 66.60 64.20 64.70CUMMINSIND 748.30 754.20 744.00 745.15GREAVESCOT 148.95 150.15 147.00 147.95SADBHAV 258.60 265.55 256.05 263.75VINATIORGA 2039.00 2039.00 1993.50 2005.00NETWORK18 29.55 30.85 28.45 29.95ISEC 222.45 222.45 218.20 220.05TATACOFFEE 86.00 86.00 84.40 84.80SHANKARA 487.50 497.60 480.00 482.70SHREECEM 20366.75 20815.15 20366.75 20800.00FCONSUMER 40.65 40.65 40.00 40.30SWANENERGY 105.00 105.65 103.60 104.65GODREJIND 470.00 474.30 465.00 473.90CCL 257.65 260.20 254.00 255.25MINDTREE 975.45 975.70 969.75 974.95TIMETECHNO 97.40 98.35 94.90 95.60BIRLACORPN 633.25 635.50 620.00 633.00

BAJAJELEC 510.70 512.90 500.55 506.00NESCO 562.25 569.80 544.65 555.00MARICO 376.40 378.00 375.20 378.00COCHINSHIP 394.40 402.00 394.40 397.05QUESS 616.00 623.05 614.05 619.60MRF 55547.55 55786.45 54258.50 54513.00NIITTECH 1339.85 1341.00 1329.05 1334.20WABAG 319.95 321.00 316.50 317.65BAJAJHLDNG 3742.00 3742.00 3671.10 3696.00MAHSCOOTER 4580.00 4683.85 4568.10 4650.00GESHIP 269.95 270.00 263.50 263.50TAKE 135.65 136.45 131.00 132.20NIACL 158.55 160.00 152.00 154.00OFSS 3313.55 3314.00 3243.55 3268.70TNPL 182.20 186.20 180.25 183.35MRPL 60.85 60.85 58.80 58.80ADVENZYMES 192.05 192.05 183.10 186.90LAXMIMACH 5301.00 5301.00 5252.00 5275.85CHENNPETRO 217.80 219.45 212.75 214.20HUDCO 40.30 40.30 39.65 40.00MOTILALOFS 712.15 723.40 698.05 706.90TRIDENT 66.80 66.80 65.50 66.00TEJASNET 173.25 175.10 166.70 169.70VGUARD 239.90 241.75 237.00 241.00NATCOPHARM 545.00 545.00 535.95 542.00THOMASCOOK 227.90 227.90 223.30 223.55VBL 944.40 946.40 936.00 942.25FORTIS 130.65 132.55 129.60 131.30GODREJAGRO 500.15 502.35 496.75 502.35COROMANDEL 423.00 426.65 413.05 425.30PGHL 3956.00 3979.80 3909.00 3960.00MOIL 148.95 152.30 148.95 149.95BOSCHLTD 17000.00 17029.95 16831.60 16994.35FINOLEXIND 504.05 510.00 500.05 505.70ECLERX 909.35 911.00 886.60 901.65DEEPAKFERT 134.55 134.55 130.85 131.85PRSMJOHNSN 93.10 94.00 92.75 93.45NLCINDIA 65.00 65.00 63.75 64.10RALLIS 147.95 148.40 146.00 147.30IOB 11.75 11.80 11.30 11.64UCOBANK 18.15 18.20 17.75 18.15EIDPARRY 175.10 175.15 170.10 170.75CRISIL 1468.35 1469.90 1425.00 1432.00JSL 38.25 38.25 36.95 37.25BASF 1404.55 1405.65 1377.75 1390.90HEIDELBERG 203.95 204.65 200.30 202.50PRESTIGE 262.35 266.30 260.00 263.40KALPATPOWR 509.90 509.90 486.00 490.00GPPL 83.60 84.20 81.95 82.85MMTC 24.70 24.85 24.40 24.50MAHABANK 16.45 16.65 15.95 16.10JKLAKSHMI 362.50 362.50 352.05 354.95APLAPOLLO 1560.10 1600.00 1541.00 1584.75ZENSARTECH 257.00 257.00 254.10 255.00EIHOTEL 168.05 171.00 163.65 167.75

KRBL 326.10 332.00 324.00 329.85MAXINDIA 67.05 67.85 63.55 66.40ANDHRABANK 24.15 24.30 23.80 24.00MAHINDCIE 241.40 241.55 234.00 236.40ORIENTCEM 115.00 115.70 112.00 112.00REPCOHOME 376.20 382.55 374.25 379.90AIAENG 1835.70 1835.70 1770.00 1808.90SHK 142.00 144.90 139.65 141.25CENTURYPLY 163.00 167.45 161.00 165.05ENDURANCE 1193.30 1215.00 1167.55 1215.00SUPRAJIT 207.80 209.65 200.00 201.00FINCABLES 451.15 451.50 441.50 447.05TEAMLEASE 2885.45 3030.00 2854.55 2940.00MINDAIND 332.85 338.00 330.55 336.00CARBORUNIV 352.10 354.20 346.20 346.80LINDEINDIA 544.00 544.00 536.00 542.00ALKEM 1798.00 1817.35 1764.00 1786.20GULFOILLUB 897.05 905.00 890.00 896.95ISGEC 465.05 475.35 464.00 465.00GHCL 241.60 242.10 237.00 237.20BALMLAWRIE 188.05 190.90 187.30 189.10MINDACORP 118.90 119.65 115.60 115.95PFIZER 3220.00 3220.00 3156.00 3214.95KPRMILL 630.00 642.15 630.00 637.00HIMATSEIDE 166.60 167.10 161.50 165.80SONATSOFTW 354.95 359.00 352.30 355.65CORPBANK 24.10 24.20 23.10 23.60ASTRAL 1337.60 1339.00 1303.15 1307.55

KNRCON 290.20 290.90 287.25 290.90SANOFI 5400.05 5422.95 5380.65 5391.00CYIENT 562.60 562.65 554.45 555.00GET&D 247.20 247.20 239.10 241.60NAVKARCORP 31.55 31.80 31.00 31.75GICHSGFIN 249.00 249.00 243.00 248.50SUNDRMFAST 532.85 535.80 527.05 535.50HERITGFOOD 412.00 417.40 400.20 403.00TIMKEN 673.95 684.45 660.80 675.90SCHNEIDER 98.75 98.80 96.45 97.00VTL 1087.45 1102.00 1080.15 1082.10JAGRAN 111.00 111.15 109.10 109.85DCAL 247.20 249.60 243.35 244.80FORBESCO 1888.85 1937.95 1888.00 1900.45MAHLOG 498.60 507.70 495.00 507.70SUDARSCHEM 329.35 330.00 324.25 330.00JBCHEPHARM 372.25 373.55 369.00 369.00SHARDACROP 355.00 357.15 352.65 356.00RAMCOCEM 786.65 795.00 782.65 793.95AKZOINDIA 1780.30 1806.30 1754.40 1803.00JSLHISAR 81.25 81.25 79.25 80.20ZYDUSWELL 1361.30 1377.85 1344.55 1367.30SJVN 24.95 25.20 24.95 25.00RATNAMANI 980.00 987.30 941.70 982.00NILKAMAL 1199.00 1213.00 1193.80 1211.00UFLEX 244.95 246.90 242.85 244.10ABBOTINDIA 8669.95 8670.00 8507.40 8617.95GICRE 217.50 218.10 215.30 216.00UNITEDBNK 10.28 10.35 10.10 10.22WABCOINDIA 6124.20 6180.95 6111.05 6173.10ALLCARGO 110.65 111.40 108.05 108.25LAURUSLABS 340.85 348.70 332.15 335.35GDL 134.50 134.50 130.00 133.35GLAXO 1267.75 1267.85 1256.00 1256.00BLUESTARCO 798.00 804.45 790.00 790.00HAL 696.00 697.95 689.20 691.85FDC 175.55 176.05 172.30 174.00LUXIND 1275.00 1284.60 1255.00 1272.80BAYERCROP 3605.00 3644.00 3576.35 3595.20TVTODAY 266.00 272.80 265.60 268.15APLLTD 497.35 503.50 497.20 500.65SIS 937.90 954.70 925.00 948.25FLFL 447.80 453.05 447.00 449.95EVEREADY 89.00 89.00 86.10 87.05CARERATING 956.40 966.80 952.00 952.00GILLETTE 7405.05 7489.80 7370.90 7466.95ASTERDM 136.40 138.00 135.00 135.00GMDCLTD 75.05 75.50 74.55 75.45NH 227.00 232.45 218.30 232.45GREENPLY 166.00 166.00 160.55 160.60RELAXO 835.85 840.00 823.00 830.10JKCEMENT 1034.70 1035.00 1015.00 1015.05VMART 2150.00 2193.00 2129.00 2156.25ERIS 491.45 517.00 489.20 509.30ASTRAZEN 1875.35 1898.90 1867.90 1890.00MHRIL 228.35 234.40 225.95 234.40PHOENIXLTD 637.20 645.00 635.45 641.00ELGIEQUIP 263.00 263.35 259.95 261.10SOMANYCERA 432.00 432.00 422.05 424.35INOXWIND 68.35 68.80 68.00 68.65JYOTHYLAB 171.50 171.50 168.05 168.55IFBIND 809.70 814.05 799.00 813.90NAVNETEDUL 109.95 110.10 108.50 110.10GALAXYSURF 1150.40 1170.00 1150.40 1160.80TIINDIA 389.95 396.90 389.95 396.10ITDCEM 112.05 113.30 111.10 111.90TVSSRICHAK 1991.00 1991.00 1976.00 1980.00ITDC 272.00 272.50 267.15 268.70MAGMA 132.25 132.25 129.80 130.20ESSELPRO 130.20 130.90 129.75 130.20GSKCONS 7712.70 7776.95 7670.10 7741.70SCHAEFFLER 4976.00 5007.60 4925.45 4988.10CENTRUM 28.65 28.65 27.30 27.85GEPIL 873.00 880.00 866.15 866.15TRITURBINE 110.85 112.00 109.00 109.00TTKPRESTIG 7038.40 7051.20 7000.10 7000.50TATAMETALI 601.85 605.00 598.00 598.00STARCEMENT 120.00 120.85 119.95 120.65BAJAJCON 328.35 335.10 328.35 333.60COFFEEDAY 226.65 227.25 225.25 226.00MAHLIFE 421.70 422.60 418.90 419.203MINDIA 22435.70 22655.00 22361.05 22395.00PGHH 11150.00 11150.00 10937.00 11117.20DHANUKA 378.50 384.45 375.00 380.95DBCORP 197.05 199.00 196.55 198.00SOLARINDS 1150.50 1175.00 1145.90 1175.00TATAINVEST 875.60 880.00 875.00 878.00CERA 2954.00 3034.90 2952.60 3025.00SHILPAMED 336.80 344.55 336.75 343.95BLUEDART 2704.15 2711.05 2685.10 2711.05SKFINDIA 1909.90 1935.00 1900.00 1934.95GRINDWELL 583.60 586.10 581.00 586.00MANPASAND 34.30 34.30 34.30 34.30SUPREMEIND 1082.95 1084.00 1080.00 1084.00HATSUN 715.00 715.00 707.40 714.00INDOSTAR 361.00 363.30 356.10 361.45SFL 1287.00 1299.95 1271.30 1271.30SUPPETRO 201.00 204.60 200.00 201.25GAYAPROJ 168.00 168.05 166.00 167.00ASAHIINDIA 219.10 221.00 219.10 220.60LAOPALA 193.00 194.45 192.40 194.00MONSANTO 2350.00 2361.80 2342.00 2342.00HONAUT 25640.05 25808.55 25500.05 25748.55CHOLAHLDNG 490.00 498.40 488.75 492.00SHRIRAMCIT 1479.45 1479.45 1465.40 1465.40JCHAC 1752.00 1782.05 1752.00 1782.05SUNCLAYLTD 2480.00 2480.00 2460.00 2461.00SHOPERSTOP 481.45 482.70 480.55 482.70APARINDS 612.10 612.10 612.00 612.00

NIFTY 50

SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11873.90 11931.35 11817.05 11914.05 7.85IBULHSGFIN 614.10 698.80 588.20 694.70 73.65ZEEL 340.20 354.00 336.60 352.95 10.10BPCL 384.90 390.50 383.00 387.90 6.90GRASIM 884.00 907.50 869.70 903.00 14.70KOTAKBANK 1482.00 1509.00 1476.95 1504.05 20.55POWERGRID 191.20 194.45 189.65 193.60 2.45M&M 632.00 642.70 628.10 640.10 7.90BAJFINANCE 3505.00 3551.00 3500.00 3545.00 39.15AXISBANK 811.25 823.40 810.75 822.25 8.70BHARTIARTL 357.05 364.95 357.05 363.55 3.65JSWSTEEL 272.00 275.00 265.65 274.00 2.75LT 1509.00 1529.00 1504.60 1521.00 11.75BAJAJFINSV 8237.45 8320.00 8213.00 8307.00 61.40HDFCBANK 2435.95 2452.00 2415.95 2443.00 15.95HDFC 2180.00 2200.80 2161.35 2196.00 14.05SBIN 343.00 347.45 339.80 346.00 2.00TITAN 1283.00 1298.25 1276.40 1296.20 7.35ASIANPAINT 1429.00 1438.90 1422.20 1425.80 8.00ICICIBANK 416.70 422.30 415.30 420.15 2.15EICHERMOT 20048.00 20200.00 19900.00 20180.00 74.05CIPLA 560.05 566.60 559.25 563.00 1.40WIPRO 298.00 298.90 297.15 298.55 0.55NTPC 134.50 135.85 133.30 134.55 0.15HINDALCO 198.95 200.35 196.70 199.50 0.20ULTRACEMCO 4565.00 4579.45 4543.10 4570.95 1.85ITC 278.90 281.35 278.55 280.05 0.10DRREDDY 2591.00 2602.60 2557.40 2589.05 -0.65ADANIPORTS 424.00 426.30 422.50 424.60 -0.35INFY 740.00 747.20 740.00 742.20 -1.10HINDUNILVR 1847.05 1848.70 1823.05 1841.85 -5.25GAIL 310.30 311.80 307.10 308.90 -1.20SUNPHARMA 391.00 393.75 385.40 389.80 -1.60VEDL 170.00 170.55 165.20 169.30 -0.80BRITANNIA 2989.30 2994.60 2952.00 2980.00 -16.90TECHM 744.00 752.70 738.50 743.60 -4.35BAJAJ-AUTO 2951.00 2955.00 2901.25 2927.00 -17.50RELIANCE 1330.00 1334.70 1308.65 1323.65 -8.50TATASTEEL 504.00 505.85 496.55 502.30 -3.55COALINDIA 256.00 258.70 253.60 255.10 -1.90TCS 2264.00 2285.00 2243.05 2244.00 -16.90TATAMOTORS 166.90 168.90 164.50 167.65 -1.40HEROMOTOCO2730.00 2772.00 2685.35 2704.00 -24.05HCLTECH 1103.00 1106.10 1093.00 1097.95 -10.15INFRATEL 274.05 274.55 269.15 270.65 -2.60ONGC 168.80 170.20 167.00 168.95 -1.90MARUTI 6843.00 6863.70 6766.30 6770.00 -82.00IOC 163.20 163.50 158.05 160.40 -2.15UPL 1019.50 1021.00 983.50 1003.35 -17.40INDUSINDBK 1520.00 1525.00 1440.00 1497.35 -72.50YESBANK 130.80 130.80 116.00 116.60 -18.15

SE 500B

NIFTY NEXT 50

SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27383.70 27408.90 27147.15 27379.20 -16.05ICICIGI 1124.90 1170.00 1100.95 1165.90 37.85HDFCLIFE 444.80 453.65 440.50 453.40 12.45HINDPETRO 306.45 311.00 304.00 310.00 7.85SAIL 51.35 51.95 49.75 51.40 1.05MOTHERSUMI 122.35 125.90 121.90 124.65 2.30HDFCAMC 1854.90 1898.90 1831.85 1894.00 32.40INDIGO 1672.65 1694.00 1655.05 1675.25 24.30SRTRANSFIN 1061.00 1095.35 1037.00 1082.80 14.60SHREECEM 20600.00 20875.00 20410.80 20811.00 264.95SIEMENS 1260.00 1275.00 1254.05 1274.50 14.65DIVISLAB 1539.95 1554.40 1517.00 1550.00 15.45BHEL 68.20 69.25 67.80 68.75 0.55PAGEIND 20285.00 20500.00 20000.00 20455.85 127.70BOSCHLTD 16925.15 17049.90 16815.00 17006.00 104.80COLPAL 1168.30 1183.20 1168.30 1181.00 6.80ACC 1577.00 1585.50 1564.00 1585.00 5.95MARICO 375.10 378.85 375.05 377.25 1.40HAVELLS 781.00 786.75 777.20 783.50 1.60L&TFH 121.10 122.30 118.20 122.00 0.20CADILAHC 246.20 248.15 244.15 246.30 0.10SBILIFE 700.00 709.00 694.00 700.00 0.05BANKBARODA 121.25 122.00 117.10 121.30 0.00DABUR 410.85 411.00 406.20 408.80 -0.20AMBUJACEM 220.95 222.00 216.15 220.25 -0.30DLF 183.95 186.75 181.60 184.30 -0.25ABB 1510.00 1554.00 1502.00 1504.10 -2.45GODREJCP 683.90 683.90 673.10 679.50 -1.45BIOCON 256.90 258.70 250.05 257.30 -0.60PGHH 11050.00 11082.10 10935.00 11060.00 -39.05IDEA 12.80 13.05 12.75 12.80 -0.05DMART 1280.00 1308.45 1280.00 1303.10 -7.40UBL 1362.55 1362.55 1346.15 1347.95 -9.60HINDZINC 243.75 243.75 238.80 240.00 -1.85BANDHANBNK 545.00 552.70 538.10 550.00 -4.90LUPIN 725.00 729.50 705.05 719.90 -6.40AUROPHARMA 639.80 642.75 628.70 635.50 -6.05CONCOR 539.65 541.50 531.65 536.00 -5.40NHPC 24.85 24.85 24.45 24.60 -0.25PETRONET 239.30 239.30 234.55 236.75 -2.60OFSS 3308.05 3313.90 3243.85 3269.50 -44.05ASHOKLEY 89.05 89.20 87.05 88.05 -1.20GICRE 218.70 219.40 215.55 215.80 -3.00NMDC 105.50 106.40 100.15 105.95 -1.55MCDOWELL-N 578.40 578.40 563.25 565.85 -9.70MRF 55999.00 55999.00 54251.00 54650.85 -1058.65BAJAJHLDNG 3742.80 3763.00 3651.00 3662.20 -80.60PIDILITIND 1272.00 1272.00 1247.10 1250.00 -29.85ICICIPRULI 369.00 370.95 360.45 361.50 -9.30PEL 2109.05 2117.95 2055.00 2066.50 -64.70NIACL 158.30 160.35 153.05 153.05 -6.45

LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019world 11

US Navy assisting 2 tankers targeted in Gulf of Oman

AP n DUBAI

Two oil tankers near thestrategic Strait of Hormuz

were reportedly attacked onThursday, an assault that leftone ablaze and adrift as sailorswere evacuated from both ves-sels and the US Navy rushed toassist amid heightened ten-sions between Washington andTehran.

Japan’s Trade Ministry saidthe two vessels had “Japan-related cargo” as PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe was wrap-ping up a high-stakes visit inTehran that sought to easetensions between Iran and theUnited States.

Benchmark Brent crudespiked at one point by as much4 per cent in trading followingthe reported attack, to overUSD 62 a barrel, highlightinghow crucial the area remains toglobal energy supplies.

A third of all oil traded bysea passes through the strait,which is the narrow mouth ofthe Persian Gulf.

The latest incident comesafter the US alleged that Iranused mines to attack four oiltankers off the nearby Emiratiport of Fujairah last month.Iran has denied being involved,but it comes as Iranian-backedrebels in Yemen also havelaunched missile and droneattacks on Saudi Arabia.

Cmdr. Joshua Frey, a 5thFleet spokesman, said the USNavy was assisting the two ves-sels that he described as beinghit in a “reported attack.” Hedid not say how the ships wereattacked or who was suspectedof being behind the assault.

Dryad Global, a maritimeintelligence firm, preliminari-ly identified one of the vesselsinvolved as the MT FrontAltair, a Marshall Islands-flagged crude oil tanker. Thevessel was “on fire and adrift,”Dryad added. It did not offer acause for the incident or men-tion the second ship.

The firm that operates theFront Altair told TheAssociated Press that an explo-

sion was the cause of the fireonboard. International TankerManagement declined to com-ment further saying they arestill investigating what causedthe explosion. Its crew of 23 issafe after being evacuated by

the nearby Hyundai Dubaivessel, it said.

The second vessel wasidentified as the KokukaCourageous. BSM ShipManagement said it sustainedhull damage and 21 sailors

had been evacuated, with onesuffering minor injuries.

Iranian state television said44 sailors from the two tankershave been transferred to anIranian port in the southernprovince of Hormozgan.

The timing of Thursday’sreported attack was especiallysensitive as Abe’s high-stakesdiplomacy mission was under-way in Iran.

On Wednesday, after talkswith Iranian President Hassan

Rouhani, Abe warned that any“accidental conflict” that couldbe sparked amid the height-ened US-Iran tensions must beavoided. His message camejust hours after Yemen’sIranian-backed Houthi rebelsattacked a Saudi airport, strik-ing its arrivals hall before dawnand wounding 26 peopleWednesday.

Abe met with Iran’sSupreme Leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei on Thursday, thesecond and final day of his visit.There were no immediatedetails about what they dis-cussed.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo,Japan’s Chief Cabinet SecretaryYoshihide Suga, a top govern-ment spokesman, toldreporters that Abe’s trip wasintended to help de-escalatetensions in the Mideast — butnot specifically mediatebetween Tehran andWashington.

His remarks were appar-ently meant to downplay andlower expectations amid uncer-

tain prospects for Abe’s mis-sion.

Tensions have escalated inthe Mideast as Iran appearspoised to break the 2015nuclear deal with world pow-ers, an accord that the Trumpadministration pulled out oflast year.

Iran’s nuclear deal, reachedin 2015 by China, Russia,France, Germany, the UnitedKingdom and the US, sawTehran agree to limit its enrich-ment of uranium in exchangefor the lifting of crippling sanc-tions.

Western powers fearedIran’s atomic program couldallow it to build nuclearweapons, although Iran longhas insisted its program was forpeaceful purposes.

In withdrawing from thedeal last year, Trump pointed tothe accord not limiting Iran’sballistic missile program andnot addressing what Americanofficials describe as Tehran’smalign influence across thewider Middle East.

Iran says timing of tanker

attacks ‘suspicious’

AFP n TEHERAN

Iranian Foreign MinisterMohammd Javad Zarif said

Thursday that reported attackson two tankers off the Iraniancoast just as Japan’s prime min-ister held Tehran talks wasmore than suspicious.

“Reported attacks onJapan-related tankers occurred

while PM @AbeShinzo wasmeeting with Ayatollah@khamenei_ir for extensiveand friendly talks. Suspiciousdoesn’t begin to describe whatlikely transpired this morning,”Zarif tweeted.

Meanwhile, Iran’s supremeleader said on Thursday hedoes not consider US PresidentDonald Trump “worthy” of

exchanging messages with.“I don’t consider Trump as

a person worthy of exchangingmessages with. I have noresponse for him and will notanswer him,” Ayatollah AliKhamenei told Japan’s PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe, in footageof their meeting aired by statetelevision in a rarity for suchhigh-level talks.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shake hands after their joint press conferenceat the Saadabad Palace in Tehran on Wednesday. The Japanese leader is in Tehran on an mission to calm tensions between theUS and Iran. AP

UK clears Julian Assagne extradition to USPTI n LONDON

UK Home Secretary SajidJavid confirmed Thursday

that he has signed an order fol-lowing a request from the USgovernment to extraditeWikileaks co-founder JulianAssange to face charges ofcomputer hacking before theAmerican courts.

The senior Pakistani-originminister said the decision nowlay with the UK courts toanalyse if the case meets all thetests required for Assange’sextradition to the US.

“He’s rightly behind bars.There’s an extradition requestfrom the US that is before thecourts tomorrow [Friday] butyesterday [Wednesday] I signedthe extradition order and cer-tified it and that will be goingin front of the courts tomor-row,” Javid told the BBC.

“It is a decision ultimately

for the courts, but there is avery important part of it for thehome secretary and I want tosee justice done at all times andwe’ve got a legitimate extradi-tion request, so I’ve signed it,but the final decision is nowwith the courts,” he said.

Assange, who faces an 18-count indictment by the USJustice Department, was too illto appear before WestminsterMagistrates’ Court at a sched-uled hearing last month and hisnext hearing is expected to takeplace at the high-securityBelmarsh jail in London, wherehe is being held.

Chief Magistrate EmmaArbuthnot, who presides overa number of high-profileIndian extradition requestsincluding that of liquor baronVijay Mallya and diamondmerchant Nirav Modi, is due tohear the case at its next hear-ing on Friday.

Unlike the India-UKExtradition Treaty, the US-UKtreaty involves a relatively sim-pler legal process for extradi-tion as the requesting state doesnot require to establish anelaborate prima facie caseagainst the accused before theBritish courts.

“We have received the full

extradition request, which hasbeen certified by the HomeSecretary. This case is nowbefore the courts and it wouldbe inappropriate to commentfurther,” a UK Home Officestatement said.

The charges againstAssange under the USEspionage Act accuse him ofsoliciting and publishing clas-sified information and con-spiring to hack into a govern-ment computer.

The 47-year-old Australiannational has consistentlydenied the allegations and hissupporters have accused the USand the UK governments of anattack on free speech.

It emerged last week thatplans for an extradition requestfrom Sweden over allegationsof sexual attacks in the coun-try had suffered a setback as aSwedish district court ruledagainst Assange’s detention.

Swedish prosecutors haddropped their rape investiga-tion in 2017 but reopened itafter Ecuador withdrew itsoffer of asylum to Assange inApril this year and allowedScotland Yard to arrest him.

The Wikileaks co-founderis currently serving a 50-weeksentence in Britain for breachof his bail conditions after hespent seven years at theEcuadorian embassy inLondon, where he had soughtasylum.

US prosecutors had ini-tially charged Assange with asingle count of computer intru-sion, but last month added 17new counts, including contro-versial charges under theEspionage Act for encouraging,receiving and publishingnational defence information inconcert with former Armyintelligence analyst ChelseaManning.

HK police face mounting brutality claims

AFP n HONG KONG

Their motto has been “Asia’s Finest”since colonial times, but videos of

Hong Kong police beating unarmedprotesters have fuelled public angerand sparked accusations of brutality.

Tens of thousands of demon-strators occupying city streets scat-tered when police used tear gas, pep-per spray, rubber bullets and bean bagrounds on Wednesday.

Police insisted the force was nec-essary to fend off protesters throw-ing bricks and metal bars.

But critics said officers usedlocalised violence by small groups ofhardcore activists to launch anunprecedented operation against themuch larger mass of peaceful pro-testers who had taken over parts ofthe city on Wednesday.

Criticism of police tactics pouredin Thursday as videos of the clasheswent viral.

The Hong Kong Bar Associationslammed the “deployment of whol-ly unnecessary force against largelyunarmed protesters who did notappear to pose any immediate threatto the police or the public at large.”The group said the police “may wellhave over-stepped its lawful powersin maintaining public order.”

An influential legal group on acommittee that elects Hong Kong’sleader called for an independentinquiry into what it said was “exces-sive use of force” by officers.

The clashes were broadcast livethroughout the day on news networkswhile activists have been sharing mul-tiple clips of officers using extremeforce.

In one Apple Daily clip filmed atWednesday’s protests, a youngwoman who falls to the floor whilerunning away is hit by at least fourriot police with batons, while onebrings his plastic riot shield crashingdown on her.

In another, a man sitting on awall is approached by riot police, withwhom he is seen exchanging a fewwords before they spray pepperrepeatedly into his face at closerange.

A third online clip shows sever-al policemen slam a protester hold-ing a box of water bottles to theground, where several kneel on himto hold him down until he releases hisphone.

“The police have taken advantageof the violent acts of a small minor-ity as a pretext to use excessive forceagainst the vast majority of peacefulprotesters,” said Man-Kei Tam, direc-tor of Amnesty International HongKong.

“Protesters were just sitting thereand demonstrating peacefully, butthey used tear gas in their faces... Youcan only use the word hideous todescribe this,” lawmaker Claudia Motold reporters.

The Hong Kong JournalistsAssociation said it has received morethan 15 complaints from reporters —including some who say they weretargeted with pepper spray — andcalled for more witness accounts fromreporters of any abuses by police.

Police chief Stephen Lo defend-ed his officers Wednesday, sayingthey had shown restraint until “mob-sters” tried to storm parliament.

“These violent protesters keptcharging at our line of defence, andused very dangerous weapons,including... throwing metal barri-cades at us and throwing bricks,” hesaid.

“This is a very dangerous act, itcan kill people.” Several police offi-cers were among the injured, withlocal TV showing one unconsciousofficer being carried away afterappearing to have been hit by a pro-jectile.

Two people are in a serious con-dition and 77 more were injured.

A protester bows to riot police after they fire tear gas towards protesters outside the Legislative Council inHong Kong. Hong Kong police have resorted to harsher-than-usual tactics to suppress protesters this week inthe city s most violent turmoil in decades. Police fired rubber bullets and beanbag rounds at the crowds,weapons that have not been widely used in recent history. AP

Protests were riots: BeijingBeijing (AFP): Beijing on Thursdaydescribed the mass protests against HongKong’s extradition bill as “riots”, and saidit supported the local government’sresponse.

Police used rubber bullets and tear gasto break up crowds Wednesday afterdemonstrators — angry over legislationthey say would leave people vulnerable toChina’s politicised justice system —blocked roads and brought the city to astandstill.

Videos of Hong Kong police beatingunarmed protesters have also sparked

accusations of brutality.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman

Geng Shuang said Hong Kong’s chiefexecutive Carrie Lam and other city offi-cials “have already spoken on the lateststate of affairs, pointing out that whathappened in the Admiralty area was nota peaceful rally, but a riot organised bya group.”

“I think that any act that underminesHong Kong’s prosperity and stabilitygoes against Hong Kong mainstreampublic opinion,” Geng said at a regularpress briefing.

Pompeo: Modi hai

to mumkin hai

Washington (PTI): Citing thepopular election slogan “Modi haito mumkin hai”, Secretary of StateMike Pompeo has expressedconfidence in taking the Indo-USstrategic ties to the next level andsaid the two leading democracieshave an “incredibly uniqueopportunity” to move ahead,including to make sure a free andopen Indo-Pacific.

Giving a “sneak preview” ofhis upcoming visit to New Delhilater this month to meet PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and thenew External Affairs Minister SJaishankar, Pompeo said bothcountries should build ever-stronger relationships.

Noting that the US has a longbond with India, Pompeo saidtime has come to forge morestronger ties. He said both sidesshould formalise these individualfriendships, building out a diplo-matic framework for the twocountries.

“As Prime Minister(Narendra) Modi said in his lat-est (election) campaign, ‘Modi haito mumkin hai,’ (Modi makes itpossible), I’m looking forward to

exploring what’s possible betweenour people,” Pompeo said in hismajor India policy speech at theIndia Ideas Summit of US-IndiaBusiness Council here onWednesday.

Pompeo listed out some ofthe “big ideas and big opportu-nities” that can take the Indo-USbilateral relationship to a newlevel.

Pompeo said he trulybelieves the two nations have aunique opportunity to move for-ward together for the good oftheir peoples, the Indo-Pacificregion, and the world.

Pompeo will travel to India,Sri Lanka, Japan and SouthKorea from June 24 to 30. Hisfour-nation is aimed at deepen-ing US partnerships in the strate-gic Indo-Pacific region whereChina is flexing its military mus-cles.

China has been trying toexpand its military presence inthe Indo-Pacific, which is a bio-geographic region, comprisingthe Indian Ocean and the west-ern and central Pacific Ocean,including the South China Sea.

Indian market allows Google to develop new products: PichaiPTI n WASHINGTON

The scale of India’s markethas allowed Google to

develop new products in thecountry and take it to theglobal level, the internet giant’sIndian-American CEO SundarPichai has said.

Addressing the India IdeasSummit of US India BusinessCouncil (USIBC), Pichai alsosaid that India and the US canlead on standardisation of pri-vacy frameworks for bettersafeguards against privacy toensure free flow of digital trade.

Observing that Google hasbeen in India now for “a veryvery long time”, Pichai said thatthe number of Indian manu-facturers who would makedevices ‘Made in India’.

The Indian government, hesaid, has done a great job ofmaking technology, one of thepillars by which, they willimprove governance and aswell as socioeconomic condi-tions there. “So we’ve beenproud to be part of it,” 46-year-old Pichai said at the summitafter he received the GlobalLeadership Awards.

Nasdaq president and CEOAdena Friedman was also hon-ourd with an award.

“And we deeply care aboutmaking phones cheaper everyyear so that more people canafford it and access it. In 2004,there were maybe two localIndian manufacturers whowould make devices made inIndia. Now that number is upto well over 200 or so,” he said.

“Our products have playeda foundational role. Butincreasingly it’s also happeningin reverse. The scale of theIndian market, allows us to

now develop maybe productsthere and actually take it outglobally as well. So it’s been aninteresting trend for the lastthree to four years or so,”Pichai said.

“Our payments product…India was moving towards dig-ital payments, so we thought itwas the best market to push thefuture of payments. We tried itthere and it’s worked very well.And now that team is takingthat payments product andbringing it out of India to theglobal market,” he said.

“So increasingly we see

India not just as, as an oppor-tunity, but you know, buildingin India and serving the rest ofthe world as well. And so it’sexciting time,” he said.

Seeking better safeguardsagainst privacy to ensure freeflow of digital trade, Pichai saidthat India and the US can leadon standardisation of privacyframeworks.

If standardisation was doneacross the world, it could sig-nificantly enhance digital trade,he said.

“The free flow of informa-tion is essential to digital trade

and we all can see the benefitsof it. But to ensure that we canactually do it we need bettersafeguards around user priva-cy,” Pichai said in response toa question.

Noting that rightfully so,users are increasingly con-cerned about it, he said that itis an important moment to cre-ate standardised frameworksboth for users to have choice,control and transparency andfor companies to be account-able as well with a clear set ofa clear set of rules.

“I think it’s an area where,

both in US and India we havereasonably aligned notionsaround a free and open inter-net; both countries have safe-guarded principles of freeexpression. And so there’senough shared values here, Ithink, we can lead in privacyframeworks,” he said.

“And to the extent you canstandardise this globally will bea huge factor which drivesdigital trade. And so hence thisis very, very critical to it,”Pichai said responding to aquestion from Nisha DesaiBiswal, president of the USIBC.

Last month, Pichai had awritten an op-ed in The NewYork Times, in which he stat-ed that privacy should not bea luxury.

“Now, as you know, inIndia and in the United States,there are efforts at trying todraft new privacy legislation.Share some of your thoughtswith us on how the US-Indiaand other global systems cantry to create an appropriate bal-ance. And are there ways thatwe can have a consensus and aconvergent way of approachingthis?” Biswal asked.

Boris tops firstround of pollfor British PMPTI n LONDON

Boris Johnson on Thursdaysecured his position as the

frontrunner in the race to suc-ceed Theresa May as BritishPrime Minister as he won thehighest number of votes in thefirst round of the leadershippoll. The former Cabinet minis-ter received 114 votes in the firstround of a secret ballot of ToryMPs held in the House ofCommons, followed by UK for-eign secretary Jeremy Hunt insecond place with 43 and envi-ronment secretary Michael Govethird with 37 votes. Mark Harper,Andrea Leadsom and EstherMcVey — were knocked out ofthe race after failing to secure theminimum requirement of 17votes. It leaves seven candidatesin the fray for the second roundof voting next week, includingformer Brexit secretary DominicRaab in fourth place with 27votes, home secretary Sajid Javidfifth with 23, health secretaryMatt Hancock sixth with 20 andinternational development sec-retary Rory Stewart in last placewith 19.

LUCKNOW | FRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019

Actor SHAH RUKHKHAN will be the chiefguest at the tenthIndian festival atMelbourne. Thisyear, the festivalis set to cele-brate the cen-tral theme of‘courage’,which isengraved indiversity ofthe Indian filmbusiness.

“I’m hon-oured anddelighted toaccept the invi-tation fromthe Victoriangovernment andthe Indian FilmFestival ofMelbourne to opentheir festival as theirchief guest,” he said.

Actor ARJUNKAPOOR hasswitched on hiswarrior mode ashe preps for hisforthcoming filmPanipat.

He is workingtowards aHerculean body for the perioddrama and finds it a challenge toplay a bald Maratha warrior. “It’s achallenge for me to play a baldMaratha warrior. It is not somethingI would imagine doing. I have notdone anything to prove a point toanybody. I am just here to do myjob,” the actor said.

The film also stars Kriti Sanonand Sanjay Dutt will tell the story ofthe third Battle of Panipat. The filmwill release on December 6. It isproduced by Sunita Gowariker.

Latin singer PRINCE ROYCE sayshe’s looking forward toheadlining the 2019 MajorLeague Soccer All-StarConcert because he lovessinging live.

“I think for meit’s a great way tocontinue to gain abigger audience. It’sa whole differenttype of crowd,”said Royce.

The concertwill kick off fivedays of soccer fes-tivities, with the MLSAll-Star Game cap-ping the events onJuly 31 at ExploriaStadium. Hereleased his self-titled debut albumin 2010, toppedthe Latin charts with songs like LasCosas Pequenas and Darte unBeso and earned 13 Latin Grammynominations.

‘I start myjourneyfrom zeroon everyFriday sothat I canprovemyself. Ihave always believedin maintaining a finebalance betweencreative satisfactionand commercialsuccess. The idea isto make films so thatthe producers canearn money and I cankeep doing myexperimental worksince I enjoy doinglight-heartedcommercial films.’—Diljit Dosanjh

vivacity 12

SRK to be guestat Melbourne fest

Royce to sing inAll-Star concert

We’ve known for longthat dance promotes

agility and brain develop-ment. But then we alsoknow that we are not awareof what this most cerebral oforgans is capable of. Andsometimes it takes art tofurther this understanding.

Lu Yang, who wasselected unanimously as thewinner from a shortlist ofthree artists as the nextBMW Art Journey’s“Human Machine ReverseMotion Capture Project,”has shown how the humanbody can be trained to over-come its physical limita-tions. Her research willexplore the deployment ofthe human body in histori-cal and present-day cul-tures, looking at tradition-al and contemporary dancespractised in Indonesia,India, and Japan.

Steeped in the latestdigital technologies, LuYang will employ sophisti-cated motion capturedevices to record thedancers’ gestures, includ-ing facial, finger-and eye-capture techniques that cancollect and analyse the sub-tlest body movements, andwill mimic these usingrobotic technologies. Herworks were exhibited in theDiscoveries sector at thisyear’s Art Basel show inHong Kong. Yang is repre-sented by the gallery Sociétéin Berlin.

She has demonstratedhow in Legong, a tradition-al Balinese dance, for exam-ple, movement is controlledto such a degree thatdancers are able to manip-ulate their finger joints indi-vidually. The facial and eyemovements of India’sKathakali dancers resemblethe workings of sensors andmotors in advancedhumanoid robots. A similarrobotic precision isexpressed in the Japanese

pop dances. Thus, Lu Yang’sArt Journey links tradition-al and modern culturalforms to radically transfor-mative contemporary tech-nologies. In a larger sense,it will look into how wenegotiate our evolving rela-tionship with machines thatmay ultimately surpass ourhuman limitations.

“This gives a great start-ing point for long-termresearch projects. This is notjust an art journey. It will bea wonderful start for me toopen a new chapter of mycreation,” says Lu Yang.

The international juryconsisted of Claire Hsu,

Director, Asia Art Archive,Hong Kong; MatthiasMühling, Director,Städtische Galerie imLenbachhaus undKunstbau, Munich; PatriziaSandretto Re Rebaudengo,President FondazioneSandretto Re Rebaudengo,Turin; Philip Tinari,Director Ullens Center forContemporary Art(UCCA), Beijing; andSamson Young, artist andwinner of the first BMWArt Journey.

“What we found excitingabout Lu Yang’s proposaland work,” the jury noted inits statement, “is the way she

draws connections acrosstime, space, and geography— traversing different realms— from Kathakali andLegong dance to Japanesepop with our potential futurerobotic selves. She demon-strates that humanity’s searchfor an answer to why we arehere is continuous – it justtakes different forms.” Theproposed BMW Art Journeyevokes urgent dilemmas intoday’s society, the jurynoted. “We appreciated theidea that the vocabularywithin the database used forrobotic human expressionswould be expanded toinclude the expressionsfound in multiple traditions— a much needed expansionof reference points in today’sworld.”

Art Basel and BMW willcollaborate with the artist todocument the journey andshare it with a broader pub-lic. In addition to Lu Yang,the shortlisted artists fromthe Discoveries sector foremerging artists at Art Baselin Hong Kong were: ClarissaTossin (represented byCommonwealth andCouncil, Los Angeles) andShen Xin (represented byMadeln Gallery, Shanghai).

Launched in 2015, theArt Journey is a collabora-tion between Art Basel andBMW, created to recogniseand support emerging artistsworldwide. The uniqueaward is open to artists whoare exhibiting in theDiscoveries sector duringArt Basel in Hong Kong. Ajudging panel comprised ofinternationally renownedexperts meet first to select ashortlist three artists fromthe sector, who are theninvited to submit proposalsfor a journey aimed to fur-ther develop their ideas andartistic work. The juryreconvenes to choose a win-ner from the three propos-als.

Imagine entering a school whereyou can touch and feel thenumbers and alphabets, sense

their character and simply discov-er the world around by runningyour fingers over the walls.Aradhana Agarwal, head of prod-uct development and CSR (corpo-rate social responsibility) at aresearch lab in New Delhi, who hasconceived digitally-printed tilesas a tool of learning in governmentschools, was inspired by normalchildren’s behaviour. She observedhow kids, while walking aroundthe corridors, normally rub theirhands against the walls and bul-letins which in turn damaged thepaint and the chart papers on theboards. This became the basis of EkAcha Bhavishya, where she decid-ed that, “Instead of using electron-ic boards or simple tiles around,why not fill the tiles with content?Usually, the kids at governmentschools do not find the rightatmosphere in their surroundingsor at home to learn. In some cases,even in schools, they might notfind the right exposure,” she said.

It was at a primary school at TilBegampur, Sikandrabad, UttarPradesh, that the first set of thesetiles were installed in the premis-es. These make for informative andinteractive visuals all around thewalls and floors of the school build-ing. There are also revamped class-room set-ups with educative yetaesthetically attractive digitally-printed tiles with numbers, dia-grams, alphabets and maps plas-tered across the school. If that is notenough, washrooms are coveredwith patented germ-free tiles toensure hygiene.

Recalling her own time inschool, Aradhana said that thereused to be bulletin boards acrossthe classrooms and corridors,which were decorated with chart

papers and cut-outs of differentdiagrams. However, they stayedonly for a limited time span andneeded a lot of time and new ideasto be re-decorated. “Also, childrenscrapped or tore off bits of thosecharts on the board. This is wherethe idea of creating and usinginformative tiles birthed from,” shesaid.

Aradhana, who had beenteaching in primary schools for 10years, started with Class I tounderstand the kind of content thatshould be printed. She said, “Wereferred to textbooks. We tried todig out the things students normal-ly wouldn’t want to read themselvesfrom their books but would feelattracted to when they saw themprojected on the walls. It wouldmake them want to learn that. Sowe charted out what goes forwhich class. This way it kept ongrowing to higher classes.”

There could also be audio-visual teaching aids such as videosand guest lectures or 3D modelslike abacus and shape models inmathematics, alphabets models inEnglish and interactive globes forSocial Science.

However, the advantage ofthese tiles is that they last long andcannot be easily tampered with bystudents and thus are highly con-venient teaching tools, which con-sume less time to convey informa-tion to the students. RavindraKumar, principal of the Til

Begampur school, said, “Earlier, theteacher used to enter the class,draw the diagram or the map orwrite the tables on the board andthe process would be time-con-suming. Now, they can simply takeforward the lessons. It enables aquick revision of topics and activevisual learning while on the move.”

Another observation made byhim was that during recesses, stu-dents would idle away their timein corridors. “Now, since the tilesattract them, they are much moreinvolved. I have observed themmoving around those tile charts intheir spare time. They challengeeach other to find out Rome inItaly’s map or other stuff like that.It has resulted in an increasedretention of complex conceptsand subjects,” he said.

Apart from the Til Begampurschool, the tiles have been installedat five other centres in India, withconstant efforts of making it reach-able to as many governmentschools as possible. These arePrathamik Vidyalaya, PisanhariaPratham in Varanasi; PrimarySchool, Jokhababad, Bulandshahar;Rajkiya Madhyamik Vidhyalaya,Panchayawala in Jaipur; ShankarDham Campus in Ahmedabad;and Nirmal Primary School,Connaught Place.

Looking at the data specifica-tions from these schools, after theinstallation of these scribble-prooftiles, there has been a 36 per centrise in enrollment of children intwo years. While absenteeism hasreduced by 31 per cent (from 52per cent to 12 per cent), an

improvement in results has alsobeen observed.

However, since there is adearth of proper infrastructure,competitive and committed teach-ers as well as quality education,especially in rural schools, onemight question about how canthese tiles be affordable whenbasic infrastructure is not in place?Moreover, massive installation andimplementation of such initia-tives is an uphill task in a poorcountry like India with a vast pop-ulation.

Alok Agarwal, chief marketingofficer of the project, said that it isa mammoth task to ensure thereachability of the tiles in as manyschools as possible. He added,“However, we have been givingpresentations to the government

about how we can introduce andmanufacture ‘Tiles That Educate’for low-budget schools, since theyare designed keeping their afford-ability for rural schools in focus asprivate schools already haveenough resources and budget.”

Talking about the costs, he toldus that a set of tiles with a worldmap would cost around ̀ 1,600 anda set of tiles for all the classes wouldbe around `40,000 to `50,000.“However, low-budget schools canavail them at `20,000,” he says.

While there have beennumerous discussions about howeducation can promote sustain-able development among futureleaders, how often have therebeen conversations around howeducation methods need to besustainable?

Classical music that was zesty and foot-tapping wafted through the air at the

Russian Embassy as it geared up to cele-brate Russia Day. The occasion commem-orates the adoption of the Declaration ofState Sovereignty of the Russian SovietFederative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) onJune 12, 1990. Given the long-standingrelationship that India shares with thecountry, the embassy in Chanakyapuri wasabuzz with guests from all walks of life.

Foreign Secretary V K Gokhale was thechief guest while Najma Heptulla,Governor of Manipur, was the guest ofhonour. Heptulla was also presented withthe Russian State award called the Orderof Friendship.

The food at the do was catered by theLaLit Group of Hotels. The highlight of theevening was the ensemble, STRADI-VALENKI, which comprised four virtuosoviolin, accordion, piano and double-bassplayers and played numbers that had theguests shaking their heads.

Nikolay Kudashev, Ambassador ofRussia to India, while addressing theguests, reiterated that Russia highly valuedand respected India’s rich history, cultureand traditions. “We are very proud to notethat one of the first major international ini-tiatives taken by new Russia was the sign-ing of the Treaty on Friendship andCooperation with India on January 28,1993 which reaffirmed the continuity ofour unique relationship,” he said. He fur-ther elaborated that the Declaration ofStrategic Partnership of 2000 laid thefoundation of the modern relationship,which since 2010 has enjoyed the status of

Special and Privileged Strategic Partnershipthat is immune to any changes in domes-tic affairs or vagaries.

He went on to add, “In 2018 our lead-ers, Russian President Vladimir Putin andIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,met twice for bilateral summits bothinformal and the full-fledged one and sev-eral times on the sidelines of various inter-national fora.”

The ambassador also highlighted thatRussia and India are time-tested partnersin the military and military-technicalspheres and recent years have seen a hostof deals being signed for production of mil-itary equipment under the Make in Indiaprogramme. “Economic cooperation is alsoone of the top priorities of our relations.The 2018 October summit in New Delhiresulted in a new series of important agree-ments and MoUs, introducing a new plat-form for aspiring entrepreneurs — Russia-India Business Summit, which showedeagerness and ability of our companies toenhance trade, economic and investmentpartnership.”

He was pleased to note that the rela-tionship was not confined to the two gov-ernments as “it is gratifying and inspiringthat people-to-people contacts and mutu-al affinity are the key drivers of theRussian-Indian friendship giving newimpetus to the ever-expanding areas of ourcooperation. This is the reason why weproudly declare that the amity betweenRussia and India has become a deep-root-ed popular tradition in both countries.”

The evening ended on a high note forthe guests and the delegates.

Beyond physical limitations

Goodbye to

chalk

By replacing chartpapers and

blackboards withdigitally-printed

tiles, governmentschools across the

country are notonly initiating

sustainableeducation but

creating a recallvalue for students

as well asteachers, says

CHAHAK MITTAL

Shanghai-based artist LU YANG is exploring the human mimicry of robotsby capturing the movements of dancers in India, Indonesia and Japan

AN EVENING TOREMEMBERGreat music, good food aplenty, guests from different walksof life and the underlying bonhomie between our twocountries made for a memorable Russia Day

LUCKNOWFRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019● Pakistan have failed to beat India in any of the six World Cup games they played against them 13

PLAYING FOR INDIA MEANS

EVERYTHING TO ME, THIS IS

MY LIFE. I AM SOMEONE WHO

PLAYS THE GAME WITH LOVE,

PASSION AND LOVES

CHALLENGES

— HARDIK PANDYA

O T H E R S P O R T S

AFP n PUTRAJAYA

Cancer-hit badminton star Lee Chong Weiannounced his retirement on Thursday, endinga brilliant career in which he collected a swatheof honours but never won a world or Olympictitle.

Lee, who spent a total of 348 weeks as worldnumber one but lost six world and Olympicfinals, wept as he called it quits months after suf-fering a cancer scare.

"My decision to retire is a heavy one. I real-ly love this sport. But it is a demanding sport.I thank all Malaysians for the past 19 years," atearful Lee, 36, told a news conference.

Lee, a father of two, was diagnosed withearly-stage nose cancer last year and after inten-sive treatment in Taiwan, said he was keen toplay again.

But he hasn't trained since Apriland after missing a series of self-imposed deadlines to return tocompetition, his hopes of beingeligible for next year's TokyoOlympics were remote.

The three-time Olympic Silvermedallist said he now wanted torest and spend time with hisfamily, and even take hiswife on a “honeymoon”,a trip that has beendelayed since theirmarriage in 2012.

Lee’s unsuccessfulattempts to captureMalaysia's first everOlympic Gold medal,reaching three con-secutive finals, werefollowed avidly by hisfans, as was his long-running rivalry withChinese superstar LinDan.

His last shot at the Olympic title at Rio 2016ended in crushing disappointment when theMalaysian lost out to China's Chen Long in anail-biting final.

‘SAD DAY'Cancer proved the career-ending blow but

it wasn’t the only low for Lee, who was bannedafter testing positive for a banned anti-inflam-matory at the 2014 world championships.

The long-time former world number onereturned to the sport in 2015, after authoritiesaccepted he took the drug inadvertently.

“I have no regrets. More important is myhealth, the decision to retire is very tough,” saidLee, adding that his cancer treatment was nowover.

"My plan to retire was originally after theOlympic Games. I made this decision due to myhealth.

"You know I got married in2012. But we (have) never

gone for a honeymoon. Iowe this promise (tomy wife), now I have toplease her."

As he beganannouncing his retire-

ment, Lee paused foralmost a minute as tears

rolled down his cheeks.Badminton Association of

Malaysia (BAM) president NorzaZakaria, who was at the news conference,

described Lee as a "legend"."It is a sad day. Lee is a legend and very

dependable. We accept his decision," Norzasaid.

Lee has slipped to 191 in the BadmintonWorld rankings.

"I fought for my country all the way,"he said, at one point, his voice chok-

ing."It's my retirement day."

PTI n BHUBANESWAR

Atricky opponent inAsian Games championJapan is sure to test

India but home advantage givesManpreet Singh and his menthe upper-hand in the semifi-nal of the FIH Series Finalshockey tournament here onFriday.

Even though they regis-tered some big wins in the pre-liminary stages against lower-ranked opponents, the Indians,under new chief coach GrahamReid, are yet to showcase theirperfect game on the turf. Thefinalists will qualify for the FIHOlympic Qualifiers to be heldin October-November this year.

India notched up 10-0 winsover Russia and Uzbekistan andscraped past Poland 3-1 in thepool stages.

The performance of theManpreet Singh-led side is farfrom impressive. While themidfield has done well underManpreet, it is the finishingwhich is a cause of concern forthe Indians.

In all the three matches,India created innumerablescoring chances, but the strikeforce lacked the finishingtouch.

Barring Akashdeep Singh,no other striker has lookedthreatening in the tournamentso far.

While Mandeep Singh andyoung Gursahibjit Singh playedwell in patches, RamandeepSingh, who returned to the sideafter nearly a one-year injurylay-off, looked a pale shadow ofhis past self.

The Indian defence toohas hardly been tested in thetournament so far with Polandbeing the only team to causesome trouble.

Both the goalkeepers — PRSreejesh and Krishan BahadurPathak — were mostly specta-tors in the pool matches but thescenario would be differenton Friday as the Japanese areexpected to trouble the hosts.

The Asian Games champi-ons gave India a tough fight

even though they lost in thepast two encounters.

While India beat Japan 3-2 in the semifinal of the AsianChampions Trophy in Dohalast year, in their last meetingin the Azlan Shah Cup earlierthis year, Manpreet and Coeked out a 2-0 win.

Japan, on the other hand,have nothing to lose as they arealready assured of an Olympicberth by virtue of being thehosts as well as continental

champions.Japan are taking this tour-

nament as a preparation for theGames to be held in Tokyo.

Siegfried Aikman and hismen would be desperate toprove a point that their AsianGames Gold was not a fluke.

After a below-par poolround where they finished sec-ond behind lower-ranked USA,world No 18 Japan thrashedPoland 6-2 in the cross-overson Wednesday.

Indian players celebrate after scoring during FIH Series Finals group game Hockey India/Twitter

When Pakistan playIndia it’s always ahuge game, but

their meeting on Sunday isshaping up to be more cru-cial than ever.

It’s simple — if Pakistanwant to stay in the tourna-ment, they have to bring an‘A plus’ performance andwin that game.

The match has alwaysmeant so much to bothcountries. There will be bil-lions watching the game.

Pakistan’s track record isvery mixed, but that’s allgone. That’s all history. It’s anew game, a new day.

Pakistan have got to takepositives out of what they didto India in the final of theICC Champions Trophy acouple of years ago. Theymust think positively goinginto this game.

I hope they have gottheir best game in the lock-er for India, who showedagainst Australia that they area very fine side.

What I have seen in thisWorld Cup so far is that ifyou don’t pick up early wick-ets, you’re in trouble. Thenew ball is so crucial andopeners are being more care-ful in the first ten overs thisyear.

They’re not really goingfull throttle, they are being abit more watchful. Once youdon’t lose any wickets earlyon, it becomes easier becausethe ball doesn’t swing andbatting becomes easier.

It was with the new ball,in both batting and bowling,

that I felt Pakistan missed atrick in their entertainingdefeat to Australia atTaunton.

Early on, we were notreally sharp enough andSarfaraz Ahmed was not onhis toes. Mohammad Amirdidn’t get any support fromthe other end.

No-one really saw thecomeback coming and forthat, you have to take yourhat off to Amir. Full marks tohim for the way he bowled.

Even with the new ball,I thought he bowled quitenicely. He could have pickedup more than five wickets inthe end. He was unfortunate

with a couple of nicks earlyon.

Pakistan pulled it backvery nicely. They were sharpafter 25 overs and startedpicking up wickets. Theyfound the right lengths.

Amir bowled superbly.He showed us all his cutters,variations and short pitched

deliveries. I think we all know Amir

is mentally very, very strong.He showed once again thatclass is permanent — he is nodoubt a match-winner.

Dealing with short bowl-ing again proved an issue forthe batsmen. It’s been a realproblem for them on this

tour.I felt they managed it

well against England but notagainst West Indies, only toget exposed again byAustralia. They haven’t quitefigured it out yet.

The batsmen are suchgood players, they just needto avoid playing into thehands of the opposition withsome of the shots they play.

It may be that MickeyArthur looks at changingthe team for Sunday. I spoketo Mickey in Taunton and heis thinking in terms of hors-es for courses, and I agreewith him to an extent.

The pitch there was goodfor pacers and he rightlywent with four of them. Theissue was not the nature ofthe plan, but the execution.

Shadab is the key man inthis side and I think they willlook to bring him back inagainst India. They might gofor five bowlers, use four pac-ers and Shadab and dropsomeone like Shoaib Malik.

It depends a lot on whatconditions are like inManchester, up to a fewhours before the game.

Going from a defeat toplaying the old rivalry againstIndia isn’t going to be easy.India probably watched theAustralia game very closelyand know what needs to bedone.

Pakistan need to liftthemselves up and I hopethey bring their best onSunday.Courtesy- ICC Business Corporation

FZ LLC 2019

PTI n TAUNTON

Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haqdescribed the World Cup matchagainst India on Sunday as a"huge-pressure game", whichhas also become a must-win onefor his side following the loss toAustralia.

Despite some late defiancefrom captain Sarfaraz Ahmedand freewheeling number nineWahab Riaz, Pakistan suc-cumbed to a 41-run loss toAustralia on Wednesday and arenow in an increasingly precar-ious position in eighth place inthe standings.

Asked if the defeat made thehigh-pressure match againstIndia at Old Trafford a must-win affair, Imam admitted: "Yes,we've had one game rained offwhich was very important for us

— every game now is veryimportant for us, so yes you cansay that.

"Obviously, to be part ofthat kind of game, it's great. It'sin Manchester, lots of Pakistanifans there so I'm really excitedabout it. It's a huge pressuregame, obviously. Pakistan andIndia, there's a lot of mysteriesbehind that but we want to justfocus on our cricket strengthsand how we can get better."

Imam also felt "hugely dis-appointed" after getting outtamely just when he thought hewas in a position to inspire hisside to a famous win over

defending champions Australia.Pakistan's opener looked

in fine form and had justreached his 50 in a dangerous-looking partnership with veter-an Mohammad Hafeez. At thatstage his side was at 136/2, chas-ing what seemed a reachabletarget of 308.

But he was dismissed for 53off 75 balls in soft fashion by PatCummins. From a ball whichwas short down the leg side, andwould have been called a widehad he left it alone, Imam triedto pull but could only glove itto the Australian wicket-keep-er Alex Carey.

It was a dismissal that trans-formed the match with threemore wickets tumbling quicklyand it left Imam so crestfallenthat he hung his head andcould barely drag himself backto the pavilion.

"Obviously, I'm playing well- and this team depends on meand Babar (Azam). When Babargot out (for 30), it was then myresponsibility and I was goingwell but it was not a good ballthat got me out, the same as Idid against the West Indies.

"I knew I'd spent a hell of alot of time on a tricky wicket soI knew it wouldn't be easy for anynew batsman to come in. So itwas a huge disappointmentbecause it's a World Cup stageand if you get set, you really haveto make it count if you want tostay in the tournament," he said.

PTI n TAUNTON

Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed haswarned his teammates to raise their field-ing standards ahead of the crucial gameagainst India following the side's sloppydisplay on the field against Australia.

"We made too many mistakes in alldepartments. I'm very disappointed withour fielding, it is not up to the mark orstandard expected. We will have to workhard to improve on this before we playIndia, there can be no excuse," Sarfarazsaid after the loss on Wednesday.

Pakistan had upset tournamentfavourites England last week largelybecause Eoin Morgan's side produced apoor display in the field. But roles werereversed against Australia, as droppedcatches, mis-fields and overthrows madea big difference in Pakistan's loss.

Asif Ali dropped opener Aaron Finchon 33 and then saw him go on to addanother 49 runs to his score, in an ulti-mately decisive first wicket partnershipwith Warner. Asif 's day didn't get any bet-ter when he also dropped Warner later on.

But there are some positives forPakistan Sarfaraz to take into this week-end's clash with India. Mohammad Amirproduced a brilliant display of swing andseam bowling to bank career best figuresof 5/30 as Australia lost their last sevenwickets for just 86 runs.

Sarfaraz was lavish in his praise ofAmir, who was originally left out of theWorld Cup team but now the leadingwicket taker at the tournament after hisfirst-ever five wicket haul.

"If you take a positive from thismatch it is how Mohammad is bowling forus, that is a big thing to take into our nextmatches."

"He's a world-class bowler. Whenhe's swinging it, it's very difficult to try toget on top of him. Then when it's seam-ing and swinging, it's even harder,"Sarfaraz said.

Sarfaraz and Wahab Riaz put on arecord eighth wicket stand for Pakistan atthe World Cup.

"I'm very disappointed. We lost threewickets in 15 balls and that's why we lost.We conceded too many runs in the first20 overs, we came back and restrictedthem well but it was a 270-280 pitch.

"We made some runs and got starts butwe've got to convert them and go long. Ifyou want to win matches your top fourmust score runs," he added.

ReverseSwing

By WAQAR YOUNIS

Former Pakistan Captain

Need A+ performance against India

Pakistan players celebrate after the end of Australia’s first innings PCB/Twitter

Imam-ul-Haq bats during practice session ICC/Twitter

Field well,says Sarfaraz

Even though

India

registered

some big wins

in the

preliminary

stages

against lower-

ranked

opponents,

the team,

under new

chief coach

Graham Reid,

are yet to

showcase

their perfect

game on the

turf

In pressure cooker

Lee quits aftercancer battle

India to face Japan in semis

IT'S A HUGEPRESSURE GAME —PAKISTAN AND INDIA.

THERE'S A LOT OFMYSTERIES BEHINDTHAT BUT WE WANTTO JUST FOCUS ON

OUR CRICKETSTRENGTHS AND HOWWE CAN GET BETTER

— IMAM-UL-HAQ

LUCKNOWFRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019● Australia’s 41-run win at Taunton was Aaron Finch’s side sixth consecutive win against Pakistan in One Day Internationals14

WE DIDN'T BAT OUT 50

OVERS, WHICH WAS REALLY

DISAPPOINTING. WHEN YOU

GO IN WITH THE EXTRA

BATTER YOU STACK THE

BATTERS TO DO THAT JOB

— AARON FINCH

AFP n TAUNTON

Pace spearhead Mohammad Amir soaked up the adu-lation from Pakistan fans as he roared to the top of

the World Cup bowling charts with career-best figuresagainst Australia on Wednesday.

Amir was back in Taunton, in southwest England,where he made his return to first-class cricket three yearsago following a ban for spot-fixing.

The 27-year-old was a rising star in world cricketwhen his career came to a stunning halt in 2010 afterboth he and new-ball partner Mohammad Asif werecaught bowling no-balls on the orders of then Pakistancaptain Salman Butt as part of a newspaper sting.

The trio all received five-year bans from cricket andjail terms, taking a huge chunk out of the left-arm pace-man’s career.

The intervening years have not been easy for Amirand he almost missed what is his first World Cup aftertaking just five wickets in 14 matches before a recentone-day international series inEngland.

He did not bowl in the rain-ruined first match of that bilateralseries against England and missedthe last four games with chickenpox. England won the series4-0.

Now he is back with abang, taking five for 30 inhis 10 overs on Wednesdayto improve on his previousbest figures of 4-28 againstSri Lanka a decade ago.

With the crowdchanting “Amir, Amir,Shabash” (come on)from the stands inTaunton, he deliveredtwo maiden overs in hisfirst spell as Australiaopeners Aaron Finchand David Warnerplayed and missed.

Amir conceded just 11 runsoff his opening four overs andthen returned to snare Australiacaptain Finch before taking thewickets of Usman Khawaja,Shaun Marsh, Alex Carey andMitchell Starc.

His efforts helped pegAustralia back to 307 but thatultimately proved too much forPakistan, who lost wicketsconsistently during their replyto slip to a 41-run loss — theirsecond defeat of the World Cup.

Australia century-maker Warner hailed Amir,describing his second spell as ‘fantastic’.

Amir’s haul against Australia took him to 10 wick-ets for the tournament after three matches at an aver-age of 12.30 and an impressive economy rate of 4.73.

Last week Amir said how he was thankful he wasfor the backing of Pakistan’s passionate supporters

“It’s really amazing, I mean the crowd support,” Amirsaid. “We have so many Pakistani fans at all Englandgrounds and when they shout my name it pumps meup.”

He was left out of Pakistan’s preliminary squad forthe World Cup but he made it into the final 15 and hasproved his worth from the start of the tournament.

His WC debut was a rare Pak highlight after theyslumped to 105 all out against the WI, with Amir tak-ing 3-26 in a seven-wicket loss.

Australia aren’t playing attheir best but they are win-ning matches — that’s the

way I saw the win over Pakistan.They hung in there, rode out

some pressure and came out withthe victory.

The bottom line is there’s roomfor improvement from JustinLanger’s team, and that’s a goodthing that will only worry everyother side in this World Cup.

Australia were 126 withoutloss from 22 overs in Taunton, sothey will have been disappointedto only post 307. It’s a very goodscore, but they should have gotmore.

You can’t knock the inningsDavid Warner played. A few peo-ple have been saying he’s scoringtoo slowly, but the ball was doinga bit and there was a little bit ofswing and seam.

He was typically belligerentand upped the scoring rate. AaronFinch was his usual aggressiveself, hitting the ball here, there andeverywhere.

In the middle overs, Australianeed to be a bit smarter. When youget a flying start, like they did atTaunton, you’re desperate to keepthat momentum going and it’shard to do.

Someone has to be prepared tojust knock the ball around for a fewovers but Pakistan didn't really letthem do that. Mohammad Amirbowled beautifully and gave histeam a chance.

I’ve got no problem with bat-ting Glenn Maxwell at four, given

the start Australia had. He’s so dan-gerous.

He might not stick around, likeSteve Smith, Usman Khawaja orShaun Marsh, but he can take thegame away from you and I think

his team understand that a bitmore than they did in the past.

The bowlers did the job upfront. Pat Cummins bowled fantas-tically well and that's a good sign,that him and Mitchell Starc are car-

rying the fight at the top.Pakistan had their tails up at

one stage with Sarfaraz and Wahabat the crease and it was when Finchhad to bowl either himself orMaxwell that you saw a sign of

weakness.The fifth, and even the fourth,

bowling option is looking like aslight concern for them.

Nathan Coulter-Nile bowledpretty well and got the big wicketof Babar, while Kane Richardsonwas a bit expensive.

Finch’s low full-toss did the jobin the end, but I think they shouldlook at Steve Smith having a bowl,I really do.

Leg spin takes wickets andwhether it's Adam Zampa comingback in or Smith trying a bit of hisspin, that should improve theattack dramatically.

All sides are working towardsputting in that perfect, 100-overperformance.

In the early stages of the WorldCup, you want to be right amongstthe pacesetters after four roundsand Australia very much are.

They’re building nicely and all10 teams will feel the total packageis still in them.

Australia play Sri Lanka onSaturday and they won’t want torelax at all.

They’ll talk about being relent-less and consistent in their teammeetings and they can createmomentum for some of the bigteams they still have to play.

You want to be building con-fidence, not dropping your bundleagainst any team.

Sri Lanka are dangerous butAustralia will be confident they canget across the line at The Oval.

Courtesy- ICC Business Corporation FZLLC 2019.

AFP n TAUNTON

David Warner said wife Candicehad been his “rock” and the

driving force behind his return toAustralia duty after the openerscored his first international cen-tury since a ball-tampering banduring a 41-runs win overPakistan.

The opener made 107, hisfirst hundred in Australia colourssince an Ashes century againstEngland during the 2017 BoxingDay Test at Melbourne.

Both Warner and former cap-tain Steve Smith were given 12-month bans by Cricket Australiafollowing their roles in a ball-tam-pering scandal in South Africa.

“I was always coming back tointernational cricket if selected,”Warner told reporters after stumpsin his first major press conferencesince his suspension expired.

“The thing that kept me goingwas my wife and kids. My wife isjust, she’s just my rock. She’s unbe-lievable. She’s determined, disci-plined, selfless,” the 32-year-oldleft-hander added.

“She’s a strong woman. Andshe got me out of bed a lot in thosesort of first 12 weeks, and got meback running and training hard as

I could... She really nailed that intome.”

Candice Warner, who is preg-nant with the couple’s third child,is now in England.

Australia, whose next match isagainst Sri Lanka at the Oval onSaturday, now have an officialperiod of ‘family time’ today whenplayers can see their wives andfamilies.

“We’re fortunate enough tohave our families away with uswhich is great and obviously we’regoing to be here for a while in theUK,” said Warner, set for a long staygiven Australia remain in Englandfor an Ashes series after the WorldCup.

While Smith and CameronBancroft, who received a nine-month ban for applying sandpaperto the ball during a Test at CapeTown, gave interviews during theirsuspensions, Warner maintainedhis silence following an emotion-al press conference at SydneyAirport after he was sent homefrom the tour.

“I didn't need to say any-thing,” explained Warner, report-ed to be the instigator of the ball-tampering incident. What wassaid was said back in those Pressconferences. And now it’s about

looking forward.”Warner’s century was also his third fifty

in four innings this World Cup after scoresof 89 not out against Afghanistan and anuncharacteristically slow 56 off 84 balls ina defeat by India last time out.

“Personally, it’s a great thing,” saidWarner of his hundred. “It was a long timecoming. Against Afghanistan I felt like I hadno rhythm.

“And still last game they (India) bowledreally straight to me. But to come out here,play the way I know I can play was awe-some,” explained Warner, who faced just111 balls at Taunton.

Warner and Australia captain AaronFinch (82) shared an opening stand of 146— the highest partnership for any wicketof this World Cup so far.

But they had to see off a testing open-ing spell from Pakistan left-arm quickMohammad Amir, who finished withcareer-best figures of 5-30.

“He’s a world-class bowler,” said Warner.“When he's swinging it, it’s very difficult totry to get on top of him. I tried my best tosee him off but still try and rotate the strike.”

Pakistan fans in Taunton largely heed-ed a pre-match plea from captain SarfarazAhmed not to ‘boo’ Smith and Warner —indeed many of them cheered and clappedWarner after he was out.

This was in marked contrast to thecrowd taunts that had come Warner’s wayin previous World Cup games, with furtherjeers expected during the Ashes.

“The boos, we don’t really hear thatwhen we’re out there... It’s water off a duck’sback,” Warner insisted. “I’ve heard it mywhole career.

“Actually it eggs us on a lot and makesus knuckle down and try to score more runsif anything.”

PTI n TAUNTON

Emphasising on the impor-tance of dot balls in limit-

ed overs cricket, Australiapacer Pat Cummins is delight-ed that the hard work he hasput in to become accurate isstarting to pay off.

Cummins is increasinglylooking like the workhorse ofthis Australian team, plug-ging away with the wicketswhile others hog the head-lines. The 26-year-old lookedin great rhythm againstPakistan, taking 3 for 33 toderail their chase.

The right-arm pacer hasbowled the most number ofdot balls in the ongoingWorld Cup and the twobowlers that follow him arealso from Australia —Mitchell Starc and NathanCoulter-Nile.

“That’s the big improve-ment in my game in the lastcouple of years, the ability tohold a length and make it dif-ficult to get runs,” Cumminssaid after Australia’s 41-runagainst Pakistan onWednesday.

“If you give away easysingles then 300 becomesquite an achievable score.Cutting out the singles ishuge, it means if you give

away a boundary it might not be thatbig over of ten or 11, it may just bea five or a six,” Cummins added.

After they were set 308 for win,Pakistan scored steadily butAustralia held their nerve and tookwickets at regular intervals.

An eighth-wicket stand betweenSarfaraz and Wahab Riaz, whoscored 45 from just 39 balls, madeit nervy for the defending champi-ons until the last three wickets fellfor just two runs — securing a thirdvictory.

“It goes to show that everyonecan bat these days. It was a bit clos-er than we would have liked, so it wasgood to get those couple of wicketsand finish it off. We gave them a bittoo much width and suddenly theywere back in the game, it’s a good les-son to learn,” Cummins said.

Cummins and his strike partnerStarc have 18 wickets between themin the tournament while the rest ofthe team have a combined 12.

Meanwhile, Australian seamerKane Richardson is determined toseize every chance that comes his wayat the ICC Men’s World Cup.

Richardson was a late call upwhen namesake Jhye was ruled outwith a dislocated shoulder, capping adramatic change in fortunes for the28-year old South Australian.

On the eve of the tournament cap-tain Aaron Finch admitted he thoughtRichardson’s international career wasover after a run of disappointing per-

formances.But some attention-grabbing per-

formances in the Big Bash forMelbourne Renegades earned his slotfor the defending champions.

With the Taunton track favouringpace, he was picked ahead of JasonBehrendorff to replace spinner AdamZampa, as Australia claimed 41-runwin over Pakistan at Taunton.

And he took two wickets to stakehis claim for another shot whenAustralia take on Sri Lanka at the Ovalthis weekend.

“Anytime someone questions yourbottle its tough but I was pretty dis-appointed in my performances at thetime and knew something had tochange,” he said.

“I knew he (Aaron) thought thatbecause I remembered sitting downwith him and talking about it.

“I remember going on a tour toZimbabwe and not playing a game,you learn pretty quickly that you areoutside the pecking order.

“I’ve tried to stop caring aboutselection and just focussed on doingmy best and playing cricket.Throughout the summer I took somewickets and a few blokes fell down andI’m the next man in.

“There was no point crying aboutit. I just thought I’ll do everything Ican, if I do end up not playing againthen so be it.

“It’s good to know the guys thinkI’ve made progress and have confi-dence in me.”

BORDERLINE

By ALLAN BORDER

Former Australia captain

Best yet to come

Aaron Finch celebrates after dismissing Mohammad Hafeez during Australia Pakistan clash at County Ground in Taunton ICC/Twitter

Pat Cummins celebrates after taking the wicket of Asif Ali as he was caughtbehind by wicket keeper Alex Carey AP

David Warner plays a shot during his 107-run innings against Pakistan ICC/Twitter

Game of dots

PERSONALLY,IT’S (100) A

GREAT THING.IT WAS A

LONG TIMECOMING.AGAINST

AFGHANISTANI FELT LIKE I

HAD NORHYTHM

❝

❝

Fall & rise

of Amir

Boos egg Oz on

PAT CUMMINSHAS BOWLED THEMOST NUMBER OFDOT BALLS IN THEONGOING WORLD

CUP. THE TWOBOWLERS THAT

FOLLOW HIM AREALSO FROM OZ— STARC ANDCOULTER-NILE

Warner says fans’ criticism boosts his confidence

THERE’S ROOMFOR

IMPROVEMENTFROM JUSTIN

LANGER’S TEAM,AND IT’S A GOODTHING. THIS WILL

ONLY WORRYEVERY OTHERSIDE IN THISWORLD CUP

❝

❝

PTI n SOUTHAMPTON

England and West Indies will carrytheir intense rivalry from theCaribbean into the Rose Bowl

today with Barbados-born pace sensationJofra Archer adding spice to the WorldCup contest.

Both teams ended at 2-2 in theirhigh-scoring five-match ODI series inFebruary with one game being a washout.The series, which took place in theCaribbean islands, saw sensational per-formances from Chris Gayle, whosmashed as many 39 sixes and amassed424 runs in four innings.

The ‘Universe Boss’ will be backinghimself for an encore against Englandwhose bowling attack has become morepotent with Archer’s addition. He hasbowled with fire and venom so far in thecompetition and his face-off with Gayleis the one to watch out for.

Archer, who has played his juniorcricket in the Caribbean and qualified toplay for England only in April, is a famil-iar figure for the West Indies camp andit knows what the 24-year-old is capableof.

“To be honest, we knew Jofra for along time. He is from Barbados, wherewe are from. We knew him from theU15s, U17s, U19s so he is not new to us.Yes, he’s bowling quickly, but there’s noth-ing that we are not accustomed to. We arelooking forward to the challenge. So wewill see how it goes today,” said WestIndies coach Floyd Reifer ahead of thegame.

West Indies too boast of express pacein their arsenal, adding to the excitementof what promises to be a mouthwateringbattle. The Jason Holder-led side wouldbe itching to take the field after awashout against South Africa at the samevenue on Monday. All-rounder AndreRussell, who has had chronic knee issues,was not named in the playing 11 againstthe Proteas. It remains to be seen if heregains full fitness for the England clash.

England too had their fitness issueswith key player Jos Buttler hurting hisright hip against Bangladesh but coachTrevor Bayliss said he is expected to befit for Friday's game. The fickle Englishweather has been a constant concern inthis World Cup but rain is predicted tostay away for the majority of the game.

SQUAD

England: Eoin Morgan (captain),Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow,Jos Buttler (wicket keeper), TomCurran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett,Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, BenStokes,James Vince, Chris Woakes,Mark Wood. West Indies: Jason Holder (captain),Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, DarrenBravo, Sheldon Cottrell, ShannonGabriel, Chris Gayle,Shimron Hetmyer,Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse,Nicholas Pooran, Kemar Roach, AndreRussell, Oshane Thomas.

LUCKNOWFRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019● Jason Roy is the highest run-scorer for England this year. The right hand batsman scored 617 runs in eight innings of nine matches 15

EOIN MORGAN (ENGLAND)

The skipper is yet to produce an innings thatwould match his stature in the tournament so far.

Morgan, who averages 76.25 at the HampshireBowl and was the highest run-scorer for Englandin the ODI series against West Indies earlier this

year, might be the biggest threat to his opponentstoday.

CHRIS GAYLE (WEST INDIES)

He had lit up the tournament with a power-packed 50against Pakistan but could last only till the fifth over against

Australia. The Universe Boss relishes batting againstEngland averaging 51.42 against the hosts, contrary to his

career average of 38.14 and will look to stamp his authorityearly on in the innings.

It would be a cloudy start to the day whichwould assist the fast bowlers early on, temptingthe captains to field first. The afternoon will seerain becoming a bit showery with some brighterspells developing later.

UNDER THE

WEATHER

MARK WOOD WILL HAVE A

FITNESS TEST IN THE MORNING.

HE HAS NOT BOWLED FOR TWO

DAYS SO WE WILL SEE HOW HE

IS, IF HE IS SORE THEN WE MAY

NOT TAKE THE RISK

— EOIN MORGAN

— Courtesy: © ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 18

3:00 pm IST

LIVE ON

UPNEXT

VS

Ultimate speed show

Gayle and Archer to add spice to the match as Poms take on Windies

HEAD TO HEAD

Played Eng WI Tied N/R

Matches 101 51 44 - 6

Day matches 85 40 40 - 5

In World Cup6 5 1 - -

Last 5 matches 5 2 2 - 1

HIGHEST TOTALS

England: 418-6 in 50 overs at St George's 27-02-2019

West Indies: 389 in 48 overs at St George's 27-02-2019

PERFORMANCE IN WC

Team P W L T N/R Success%

England 75 43 30 1 1 58.66

West Indies 74 42 30 - 2 58.18

FAISEL FEATURES

Chris Gayle trains during West Indies practice session Windies/Twitter

Jofra Archer prepares to bowl during England’s training session England Cricket/Twitter

XFACTOR■ Battle of quicks

■ Chris Gayle vs Jason Roy

■ Andre Russell’s all-round show

■ Hampshire’s bowl track

■ England’s track record againstWest Indies in recent months

■ Jason Holder’s leadership

■ Jos Buttler’s fitness

M E N W H O M A T T E R

n Is Jos Buttler fully fit?Yes. Mark Wood is going to have a fit-

ness test. Nothing too serious. He pulledup a little bit sore — his ankle is a little bitsore — from the game in Cardiff so he isthe only concern at the moment.nMoeen Ali comes back in?

Yes, great news obviously. Mo’s wifegave birth to a baby girl, all healthy and wellso it’s great to see him back.nWhat is the decision you have got tomake in terms of the seamer?

Whether we feel we might go with four,like we did in Cardiff, or two spinnersmight be more effective. The decisionbehind what seamers is always a balanceto be good enough to win the gameagainst the West Indies.nRains are a big impact on this tourna-ment. Is there any concern for you?

I don’t think the rain will be the rea-son we don’t make the semifinals. Yesterdaywas probably the last of the significant rainfor the next few days. I know the last threedays I think haven’t been great for sides try-ing to get games in. But at some stage dur-ing the tournament we will be hit by a smallbit of rain. It’s great that it’s not too muchand, hopefully, it doesn’t impact one teammore than twice.nWhat is your feeling on the fact thereare no reserve days? Is it fair?

Yes, I do think it is fair. The tournamentis quite a long tournament as it is. To havereserve days in the group stages is toomuch. I do think later in the tournamentthey are necessary, but for group stagegames it’s part and parcel of being anywherein the world t that it might rain at somestage.nHow do you rate this West Indies side?

They are a strong outfit. We expect thesame today. They are explosive with the bat.And a different challenge with the ball. Alot of their seamers are quite tall and lookto hit the wicket and obviously the major-ity of the time they only play one spinner,so that is going to be the challenge here.n Is this the perfect opportunity forArcher to show them what they missed?

No, that sort of opportunity has beengone for some time now. Jofra’s been veryconsistent over a long period of time sincehe came to Sussex. It is great that he’s in anEngland shirt at the moment.nHas anything you have seen from theWI changed your view of how to playagainst them?

Yes, it’s still the same. Right from thefirst game that they have played in this tour-nament. Even when you go back to gamesthat we played in the winter, big games, thebig contributions all had to do with the fastbowlers.nAre you expecting a slightly differentkind of game than the ones we saw in theCaribbean?

I’d be surprised if the wicket is as good.The parameters of the ground here are alot bigger than the West Indies as well.Given the wicket has been under cover forthe last 24 hours, I don’t think it will be asgood.n Is it frustrating that WI is the only teamyou have failed to beat in recent series?

It is not frustration because we learnta huge amount about growing our game outin the West Indies. The fact that we are notgetting carried away about some of the suc-cess we have had. It’s important to have dayswhere you are beaten or can’t beat a sidebecause you then look even more into areasof improvement as opposed to beating sidesconvincingly, or even getting over the lineshowing good character and playing well. nHave you gone back over the way ChisGayle has had a great sucees?

We’ve looked at previous series wherewe have played at home and plans that haveworked and also when we’ve played on likerecently in the Caribbean on very flat wick-ets where he is hard to contain. We’ve alsoplanned for that as well.

— Courtesy © ICC Business CorporationFZ LLC 2018

TROLLED!

APakistan fanwas trolled on

social media afterthe team failed tobeat Australia, evenafter getting thechance to be on thedriver's seat, intheir World Cupclash onWednesday. Eventhe InternationalCricket Council(ICC), used theperson's dejectedlook, turning hisface away from theaction at the ground,as a GIF to depict the grim picture duringthe match. There were many other memeswhich flooded Twitter as fans brought tothe fore a familiar picture where Pakistancome so close to winning but, more oftenthan not, stumble at the final hurdle. PacerMohammed Amir returned with career-best figures of 5/30 to bowl out Australiafor 307 in 49 overs, with David Warner(107) starring with a hundred while skip-per Aaron Finch scored 82. Despite losingwickets at regular intervals, Pakistan werein the hunt till the end with captainSarfaraz Ahmed (40) and Wahab Riaz (45)sharing a 64-run eighth wicket partnership.But Mitchell Starc got Wahab out and it wasdownhill from there on as Pakistan lost by41 runs. IANS

captainspeakEOIN MORGAN, ENGLAND

AFP n SOUTHAMPTON

West Indies captain Jason Holder sayshis resurgent side are using their

brains as well as brawn ahead of a WorldCup clash with hosts England on Friday.

The West Indies have already shownwhat they are capable of, bowling Pakistanout for just 105 thanks to a barrage ofbouncers on the way to a seven-wicket winin their opening game.

The two-time World Cup championslost narrowly to Australia after beingwell-placed to beat the reigning title-holders, before rain wrecked their matchagainst South Africa, with the sides takinga point each.

But they will enter their match againstEngland in Southampton with confidenceas the only team at the World Cup not tohave lost their previous one-day interna-tional series to Eoin Morgan’s men, draw-ing 2-2 in the Caribbean earlier this year.

With pace in abundance from the likesof Oshane Thomas, Andre Russell, SheldonCottrell, as well as Holder himself, the WestIndies have an attack to worry everyteam.

But Holder believes it is their ability tooutfox batsmen in the middle overs that hassparked an upturn in form since the 2015

World Cup — a four-year period in whichthey did not win an ODI series.

“We have always got wickets with thenew ball,” he said in his pre-match Pressconference on Thursday. But previously wehaven't been able to get wickets in the mid-dle overs.

“And it’s been the talking point over thelast couple of months in one-day cricketand now in this tournament we have beenable to get wickets in the middle overs,which has definitely broken the back ofmost teams.”

Following the South Africa no result,the England game has taken on evengreater importance for the West Indies.

But Holder is not worried yet and, withall-rounder Russell likely to be fit follow-ing a knee injury, he expects his side tothrow all they have at the hosts.

“I think the brand of cricket we havebeen playing so far in this World Cup, youknow what to expect of West Indies now,”he said.

“For us, we are not going to back downfrom the challenge. Most of our guys arealways up for the challenge and it is just amatter for us to be smart.

“And I don’t think there is anything elseto be said, just be smart and play the brandof cricket we want to play,” he added.

Brains & brawn play

The brand of cricket wehave been playing sofar in this World Cup,

you know what toexpect us now. we are

not going to back downfrom the challenge.

Most of our guys arealways up for the

challenge and it is just amatter for us to be

smart— Jason Holder,

WI captain

Andre Russell during nets practice Windies/Twitter

Pak fan reacts after a failedcatch ICC/Twitter

LUCKNOWFRIDAY | JUNE 14, 2019● Thursday’s game against New Zealand was the first time in World Cup that India’s match was called off due to rain16

SHIKHAR WILL BE IN A PLASTER

FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS,

WE'LL ASSESS AND SEE.

HOPEFULLY, HE'LL BE

AVAILABLE FOR THE LATER

HALF AND THE SEMI-FINALS

— VIRAT KOHLI

CRICKETCRADLE

Indian tunesIndia have started their campaign in the ongo-ing World Cup in an emphatic manner winningboth their opening encounters against SouthAfrica and Australia. The team has beenappreciated for their all-round display with thebat and ball and fans, not just Indians but fromother nations too, are in awe of the Indiancricket team. However, it's not just Virat Kohli'smen who are winning the hearts in England.The Indian culture is also taking over thestreets as foreign tourists and Indians are hav-ing a gala time during the showpiece event.One such example is the latest video whichhas surfaced on social media where foreignerscan be seen dancing on Bollywood tracks.Women in electric blue ghagra-choli are seendoing dandiya on Chogada from Loveyatri andNagara sang dhol baaje from Goliyon kiRasleela Ram-Leela. Before this video, anoth-er video had surfaced in which hundreds ofEuropeans were seen dancing to the tune ofthe extremely popular and timeless Bhojpurifolk song, Jila Top Lagelu. It was also sharedwidely on Twitter and Facebook. Many poststhen had suggested it was shot in London,however, it turned out to be the BerlinKarneval.

Sundar thoughtGoogle's Indian-American CEO Sundar Pichaihas predicted that India and England wouldclash in the finals of the ICC Cricket WorldCup 2019 and said he was “rooting” for themen in blue to emerge victorious. Describinghimself as a passionate cricket fan, the 46-year-old head of California-based internetgiant said that when he came to the US, hefound baseball a bit challenging. “It (ICCCricket World Cup final match) should be(between) England and India. But, you know,Australia and New Zealand, these are all very,very good teams,” Pichai said during the IndiaIdeas Summit of USIBC wherein he receivedthe Global Leadership Award on Wednesday.He was replying to USIBC president NishaDesai Biswal who asked “who do you think isgoing to play the final match.”

WI tour for IndiaIndia will begin its ICC World TestChampionship campaign with the two-Testseries to be played in the West Indies in lateAugust. The two Tests will be played at theVivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua(August 22-26) and at Sabina Park in Jamaica(August 30-September 3). Before that, boththe teams will play three T20I and three ODIs.The tour kicks off with two T20Is at theBroward County Stadium in Florida, US -played on August 3 and 4. They will then trav-el to Guyana to play the final T20I on August 6at the Guyana National Stadium. After that,both the teams play the first ODI of the three-match series at the same ground in Guyanaon August 8, followed by the remaining two50-over matches to be played at the Queen'sPark Oval in Trinidad on August 11 and 14.And after a week's gap, the teams will playtheir first ever World Test Championshipmatch. AGENCIES

England vs West Indies3:00 pm IST

VENUE: The Rose Bowl, Southampton

TODAY LIVE

PRELIMINARY STAGE

Pos Team P W L N/R Net RR Pts

1 NZ 4 3 0 1 +2.163 7

2 ENG 3 2 1 0 +1.307 4

3 IND 3 2 0 1 +0.539 5

4 AUS 3 2 1 0 +0.483 4

5 SL 4 1 1 2 -1.517 4

6 WI 3 1 1 1 +2.054 3

7 B’DESH 4 1 2 1 -0.714 3

8 PAK 3 1 1 1 -2.412 3

9 RSA 4 0 3 1 -0.952 1

10 AFG 3 0 3 0 -1.493 0

Foreigners dance on Bollywood music tracks in streets of London IANS

PNS n TRENT BRIDGE(NOTTINGHAM)

The India-New Zealand tieat the Trent Bridge stadi-um was abandoned late

on Thursday as the rain tookNottingham to the cleaners lit-erally and the players, alongwith a motely crowd in thestands and the media contin-gent in the Press box, waited forsunshine Godot to break out ofthe laden skies, quite unsuccess-fully.

The washed-out scenariomeans India has lost one pointand come to a tally of just 5from three games as opposed tothe Kiwis who will continue tobe on the top with seven pointsfrom four games, having won allthe three matches they playedbefore India.

This would be the fourthmatch in the tournament to beabandoned, with the ICC turn-

ing down requests for reservedays in the preliminary roundon grounds of logistics issuesand prolonging an alreadystretched tournament. Theother teams to have suffered onthe points tally because ofweather conditions are Pakistan,South Africa, Bangladesh, WestIndies and Sri Lanka. Washoutshave particularly upset theapplecart Pakistan which isnow staring an early ouster if itloses the match against India inManchester on June 16.

Incidentally, Manchester,too, is showing up on the riskyweather chart on the block-buster Sunday with intermittentshower and sunshine forecastfor match day. So, the morealarming thing now for not justthe ICC but also India andPakistan is the precipitationgathering around Manchesterwhere the humidity will be 70per cent and chances of rain

mounting to 53 per cent around2 pm, impacting the marqueeevent and giving India morethan Pakistan reason to worryabout a compromised pointstable in case rain manages toplay spoilsport, or the matchgets slashed in overs or theDuckworth-Lewis tenet comesinto play. Abandonment is astricky as a shortened or D/L hitmatch for either team. Losingyet another point to weatherwill mean India will have a nar-rower window for a bad day atwork.

However, as India fieldingcoach Sreedhar said, “the out-field at Trent Bridge resembleda skating rink so there was noquestion of risking injuries,”even though he admitted thatthe momentum gets upset withsuch breaks. “To be waiting inthe dressing room, to switchdown but not switch off, is high-ly frustrating for the players,” he

added.Not that New Zealand, who

are table toppers for now, hav-ing started early in the tourna-ment, are any less upset with thebreak in playing schedules. “Wewould have loved to have playedIndia. They're obviously goinghot and we feel as though we'replaying reasonably well as well,so it would have been a nicematch-up. Having said that,It's quite ironic that our last fourtrainings have all been indoors.It's just what we have to dealwith and we try to pride our-selves on our adaptability. Thefirst thing we're going to do ishave a couple of days off. Wedon't play again for about sixdays now, and it's importantthat we manage the break,”Kiwi coach Gary Stead said.

The rain rules of the tour-nament allow the match to becut to a minimum of 20 overs.The umpires have the discretion

of extending extra time to up to75 minutes beyond the sched-uled play time and to another 75minutes conditions permitting.

Earlier in the day, in theirbid to save the match somehow,the umpires kept on theirinspection rounds till 3 pmlocal time before announcingthat that the match had beenabandoned. There was notmuch activity in the groundother than the umpires inspect-ing the ground four times andthen anointing yet another timefor yet another inspection andthe ground staff working outtheir muscles with the heavycovers pulling them off and onwhile airing the pitch and drain-ing the outfield. Even the extrasuper-soppers ordered in onWednesday stood haplesslyacross the afternoon with thedrizzle in no mood to relent andthe sun peeping in just for a fewminutes.

India lose point to rain

MORE ALARMING: Clouds gather over India-Pak tie at Manchester

Giant screen declares World Cup match between India and New Zealand called off due to rain at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Thursday AP

PNS n TRENT BRIDGE(NOTTINGHAM)

India fielding coach Sridharsaid India are on the top of their

game where fielding is con-cerned though direct throws is anarea one needs to work on.

"It is something which Ihave my eye on and we practicea lot for that. I would say convert-ing, whether it's a run-out or not,converting one in three or fourthrows is a good conversion rate.In my opinion, picking up oneout of four, you're doing a goodjob as a direct unit. But we failedto do that in the last game. Wehad over 10 strikes and hit onlyonce. On some days we hit threeout of five. It's a practice thing butthat is one area we work hard onin every session," he said.

Talking about criticismaround modern fielders throwingunnecessarily, he said if there isan opportunity, a fielder isencouraged to go for the stumps."We believe that his teammatewill be backing up. We encour-age fielders to create an opportu-nity where none exists. Weencourage them to try and con-vert an opportunity which theyhave created. So that is a rule wewould like to take as a fieldingunit, to be more on the aggres-sive side. We all know where itcomes from. It comes from thecaptain himself," he said.

That, he asserted, was thekind of cricket India want to play."There is a brand of cricket wewant to play as a fielding unit, sowe encourage that. In the bargain,we lose one here or there, it does-n't matter because on a good daywe pull off two or three brilliantrun-outs. Also, if you keep throw-ing at the stumps, it keeps yourshoulder warm in conditions

like this".Speaking about managing

players like Bumrah, Chahal andKedar in the outfield, Sridhar saidthey have been working hard onit, especially Bumrah who hasshown a marked improvement inhis fitness levels. "Bumrah is oneof the hardest workers as far asfielding goes. From when hejoined the team in 2016 to whathe is now, he's a massive improve-ment, although still a work inprogress, but a massive improve-ment," Sridhar said, adding thatwhat is needed is the right mind-set of the players combined withthe increased levels of fitness."Then we can chip in with thetechnical aspect of fielding likeawareness and anticipation."

So how does it go to practicein such cold weather wherecatches are being dropped by allteams? "Hand warmers is obvi-ously the first option to keephands warm. Also, if you're run-ning around in the groundbetween overs or between fieldpositions and throwing the ballaround to the players, that keepsyou warm between overs anddoesn't allow your body to cooldown. We also practice in thesame weather, so that also givesus a heads up," he said.

On training an injuredShikhar Dhawan, Sridhar said:"It's his bottom hand while bat-ting, if I'm not mistaken. It's not

even his dominant hand becausehe's a right-hander. Throwingwon't be a problem, but definite-ly the impact while fielding andcatching, especially as he's a slipfielder in the initial phase of theinnings. That can be an issue.We'll test him out with lighterballs first and gradually move onto the cricket ball and see how itgoes from there. But yes, it willbe a challenge," he added.

Sridhar is happy with thekind of resources he has. "Wehave a terrific slip catcher and asafe catcher in Rohit, and we havetwo guys, Virat and Jadhav, whoare very intimidating in the field.They can intimidate any bats-man, and they are prowling in the30-yard range. To complementthat, we have a player in HardikPandya, who can really helpwhen needed. We are safe catch-ers. We're not fast bowlers. Theseare all the usual suspects, but wesaw Chahal and Bumrah crack itup in the last game, diving afterbowling long spells. We were inthe penalty minute ball of theinning, diving and stopping runs.So that all goes well," the coachsaid.

The biggest thing for Sridharhas been the attitude of the field-ers, where they put the teamahead of themselves, qualitieswhich you need when you wantto go out and win champi-onships.

We need to work on direct throw: SridharCoach bets on aggressive fielding & shy at stumps

Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav stand with officials during team's training session AP

We have a terrific slip catcher and a safe catcherin Rohit, and we have Virat and Jadhav who are

very intimidating in the field. They can intimidateany batsman while prowling in the 30-yard range.To complement that, we have Hardik Pandya whocan help when needed. We are safe catchers. We

saw Chahal and Bumrah crack it up in the lastgame, diving after bowling long spells.

So that all goes well too—Fielding coach Ramakrishnan Sridhar

THE WASHED-OUTSCENARIO MEANS

INDIA HAS LOST ONEPOINT AND COME TO A

TALLY OF JUST 5FROM THREE GAMESAS OPPOSED TO THE

KIWIS WHO WILLCONTINUE TO BE ON

THE TOP WITH SEVENPOINTS FROM FOUR

GAMES, HAVING WONALL THE THREEMATCHES THEY

PLAYED BEFORE INDIA