ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on...

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K arnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday sprang a major sur- prise by claiming that he would seek a trust vote to end the “confusion” triggered by resig- nation of rebel MLAs and asserted that he is “ready for everything”. With the resignation letters of as many as 16 MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) alliance pend- ing with the Speaker, it is unclear how the Chief Minister would get the numbers to cross the halfway mark. Earlier, the Supreme Court restrained the Speaker from taking any decision till next Tuesday on the resignation and disqualification of 10 rebel MLAs of the ruling Congress- JD(S) coalition. Kumaraswamy told the State Assembly that he has “voluntarily” decided to seek the vote, adding that he will continue as the CM only when he commands the support in the House. Asserting that he did not come to the Chief Minister’s position with the intention of remaining in power forever, the JD(S) leader requested Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to fix a time for the confidence vote. Later, in the business advi- sory committee meeting, Kumaraswamy proposed Wednesday for the trust vote. However, no decision was taken as the main Opposition BJP did not attend the meeting, sources said. A decision was likely to be taken on Monday, they added. Senior Congress leader Siddaramiah on Friday said the decision to seek a trust vote by the coalition Government headed by HD Kumaraswamy was taken by the two ruling partners and asserted it has the numbers. The Congress Legislature Party leader also said he had been talking to disgruntled party MLAs barring Roshan Baig because he has been sus- pended. The Assembly met on Friday for a 11-day Monsoon Session against the backdrop of resignation of 16 ruling coali- tion MLAs that has raised questions over the Government’s survival. Kumaraswamy announced his decision to brave the trust vote during the obituary reference time. The Opposition BJP took exception to the Chief Minister raising the matter during obit- uary reference. State BJP pres- ident BS Yeddyurappa later told reporters that his party would decide its strategy on the basis of Kumaraswamy’s speech on the proposed trust vote. Though Kumaraswamy wanted the Speaker to fix a time for the vote, the latter said as and when the Chief Minister informs him about the date on which he would move the con- fidence motion it will be men- tioned in the list of business. “He (CM) will have to tell me. The Chief Minister has spoken his mind that there is confusing situation and he will not stick to power. If he tells me when he will move a motion seeking trust vote, I will put it for business the next day,” the Speaker said. According to a PTI report, Kumaraswamy was later seen in a relaxed mood in the Assembly lobby and expressed confidence about the trust vote and getting numbers in favour of the coalition. According to the report, Kumaraswamy is said to be in direct talks with at least four Congress legislators, who have resigned and is hopeful that they will withdraw. The ruling coalition’s total strength is 116 (Congress-78, JD(S)-37 and BSP-1), besides the Speaker. With the support of the two independents, the BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224- member House, where the halfway mark is 113. If the res- ignations of the 16 MLAs are accepted, the coalition’s tally will be reduced to 100. In a related development, the BJP, apparently fearing poaching of its MLAs by the ruling coalition leaders, has decided to shift its legislators to a resort on the city outskirts. In the Supreme Court, the Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi cited “weighty issues that have arisen” and said the matter will be considered by it on July 16 and the status quo as of Friday should be maintained. The Bench, also compris- ing Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, specifically mentioned in the order that the Speaker would not decide on the issue of the resignation or the disqualification of rebel MLAs to enable the court to judge larger issues raised in the matter. The Bench noted the issue of maintainability of the rebel MLAs’ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution was raised by the Speaker and the Karnataka Chief Minister. The case involves issues of substantial importance related to Articles 190 and 361 of the Constitution, it said, adding that it also needs to address as to whether the Speaker is oblig- ated to decide on disqualifica- tion proceedings before accept- ing the resignation of MLAs. The Bench took into account the arguments by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the rebel MLAs, countering the Speaker’s submission that the disqualifi- cation plea of the ruling coali- tion in the southern State had to be decided before taking up the issue of resignation of the lawmakers. “In view of the weighty issues that have arisen, we are of the view that the matter be considered by us on Tuesday. We are of the view that the sta- tus quo as of today with regard to the prevailing situation be maintained. Neither the issue of resignation nor that of dis- qualification be decided till Tuesday,” the Bench said. Before passing the order, the Bench asked Kumar’s coun- sel AM Singhvi, “Is Speaker challenging the authority and power of the Supreme Court. Is it his case? Are you challenging our power to issue directions to the Speaker? Are you saying that we should stay our hands so far as the Speaker is con- cerned? You are suggesting that he is duty-bound to decide on the disqualification prior to their resignations.” Singhvi replied: “Yes, this is what is my case.” Related reports on P6 T he Supreme Court on Friday ordered com- mencement of construction work on the Delhi Metro’s fourth phase, which is over 100 km long and is estimated to add around 18.6 lakh riders per day, after the Delhi Government said it has agreed to give the go-ahead. The AAP Government has asked for starting work simul- taneously on all six corridors of Delhi Metro’s Phase-IV project, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said on Friday. “It was said by us in the court that we have no objection to starting work on the project but work should also start simultane- ously on remaining three cor- ridors which have been left by the Centre in its approval to the project,” Gahlot said in a press conference. It may be recalled that the six corridors of the project were approved by the Delhi Government in December 2018. However, the Centre in March 2019 dropped three, while allowed the rest. The apex court directed implementation of the Metro Phase-IV project while hearing a matter in which the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) had recently filed a report stating that the approval for the pro- ject was held up since 2014. The court was informed by the Delhi Government coun- sel that they have agreed to give a go-ahead to the project. The Centre had approved the Mukundpur-Maujpur, RK Ashram-Janakpuri West and Aero City-Tughlakabad cor- ridors. The three other pro- posed corridors — Rithala- Bawana-Narela, Inderlok- Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block — approved by the Delhi Government were dropped by the Centre while giving the Metro Phase-IV its go-ahead. “The Centre has not clar- ified the rationale behind picking up three corridors under the project and leaving other three,” Gahlot said. He also accused the EPCA of fil- ing a “one sided” report in the court. “EPCA filed a one-sided report. The three corridors left by the Centre finds no men- tion in the EPCA report,” he claimed. L adakh region witnessed a confrontation between Tibetans living in India and those in China last week near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Fukche area of Demchok in eastern Ladakh. However, the Chinese dressed in civilian clothes did not cross the LAC and went back after displaying banners. Giving details of the inci- dent, sources said here on Friday that Tibetans annually hold a religious festival Dole Tango to celebrate Dalai Lama’s birthday in Koyul village of Fukche on July 6. In such festival last week, a sizable number of Tibetans had gathered and waved the Tibetan flag. A group of Chinese origin Tibetans came near the LAC on their side in two SUVs and dis- played a banner saying, “ban all activities to split Tibet.” They went back and after some time, said sources, adding the villages across the LAC are sparsely populated. Officials denied reports that the Chinese Tibetans had intruded into Indian territory adding the action across the LAC was in reaction to the Tibetans on the Indian side waving the flag. Demchok is an area that has seen Chinese transgres- sions in the past. In 2014, there was a fist fight between Indian and Chinese troops during a stand-off. China has been pushing its own successor of the Dalai Lama and pressing that any other appointment should not be given any recognition. T he 90-year-old iconic Lakshman Jhula, a suspen- sion bridge bridge across the Ganga in Rishikesh, was closed on Friday on the recommen- dation of a team of experts who found that the bridge cannot sustain load. The bridge, constructed during the British Raj, has been closed for all traffic and pedestrian movement as most of its parts are in “collapse” con- dition, Additional Chief Secretary Om Prakash said. There has been unprece- dented rise in traffic and pedes- trian movement on the bridge in recent times and the bridge towers appear to be leaning towards one side, he said. The decision was taken as keeping it operational could have been risky, he said. “It is highly recommended that the bridge should be closed with immediate effect other- wise any big mishap can take place anytime,” the team of experts had said in its report. A larmed over a spate of accidents on the express- ways, the Uttar Pradesh State Roadways Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) is planning to deploy special devices in vehicles to prevent drivers from dozing off on long-distance routes. The device equipped with special sensors will initially warn the driver with a beep sound and red light in the event of him getting sleepy during driving and later slow down the vehicle and put emergency brakes to stop it altogether, UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed 29 lives. The bus driver apparent- ly fell asleep behind the wheel and lost control following which the vehicle veered of the road and fell into a drain. Bose said the special device made with Israeli technique is being manufactured by a Pune- based company and costs 40,000. As a pilot project, the device was used in two buses on the Lucknow-Nepalganj route and two others on the Lucknow-Gorakhpur route, he said, adding the proposal was sent to MD, UPSRTC Dheeraj Sahu after getting a good feed- back. The official said Sahu also gave a positive response to the idea. A proposal to acquire more such devices will now be sent to the Government, Bose said. Elaborating further on the functioning of the device, the UPSRTC regional manager said it will be deployed on the dashboard of the vehicle. The device will produce a beep sound and red light warning as soon as the driver’s hold on the steering wheel slackens due to slumber. In case, the driver does not react to the beep sound and the slackness continues, the device will automatically put brakes on the bus, he said. The device will also keep an eye on the road ahead and alert the driver in case of over- speeding and overtaking, Bose explained. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Thursday warned trans- port department officials, say- ing they cannot escape respon- sibility for road accidents by blaming drivers and asked the Yamuna Expressway authority to follow safety measures strictly. He also asked the depart- ment officials to deploy two drivers on state-run buses on routes more than 400 km long, so that they can drive the vehi- cle alternatively. Road safety experts have often warned of the dangers of overspeeding on wide express- ways, especially in early morn- ing hours and at night. C hief Minister Raghubar Das today said that the State government will help youths from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Dalit communities to set up indus- tries in the State. Keeping the fact in mind, the Government has announced to provide sub- sidy to ST-SC youths in setting up industries, under which the youths will get land on half price and they have to repay the remaining amount in 10 install- ments in a period of five years. The proposal was approved in the eighth meet- ing of the Directors’ Board of the Jharkhand Industrial Development Authority, chaired by the CM here on Friday. Chairing the meeting Das asked officials to exhort more and more youths for setting up small industries. “By establishing industries they will also become job providers. This will bring change in their lives and also accelerate speed of development in Jharkhand. A net of indus- tries in rural areas will also bring prosperity in villages of the State,” he said. During the meeting the CM instructed to hold meet- ing of Business to Government (B2G) every month. He asked to hold meeting on a fixed date every month by deputy commis- sioners of every district, who are also the regional direc- tors. Das said that the district level meetings will help resolve the local level issues of industrialists. During the meeting the 2019-20 budget of JIADA was also approved and deci- sions were taken to provide funds for setting up of plas- tic park in Deoghar and allotment of land for estab- lishing electricity feeders and sub-stations in industrial areas. Additional Chief Secretary Finance KK Kahndelwal, Principal Secretary to CM Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Road Construction Secretary KK Soan, JIADA Secretary Sunil Kumar and Independent Director Satendra Singh alongwith others were pre- sent in the meeting. T he accused in Latehar killings has confessed to the police that he sexually assault- ed one of the two children who he later beheaded and buried in the backyard of his house, police said on Friday. Thirty-year-old Sunil Oraon was arrested on Thursday late evening on charges of killing two children of his village. The matter came to light after villagers on Thursday morning found half- buried, naked and decapitated body of a 12-year-old boy in Oraon’s backyard. They informed the local police, who exhumed the boy’s body and found another half-buried and decapitated body of a 10-year- old girl in similar condition around the same area later in the day. Both the children were missing since Wednesday, police said. Oraon, who has be under- going treatment for a mental illness at a local psychiatry institute, told the police during interrogation that the 10-year- old girl came to his shop on Wednesday to buy sweets. Oraon lured her to his house, where he stripped the minor naked and sexually assaulted her, he confessed to the police. Meanwhile, the other child who became a victim of Oraon’s predation came to his house asking for his father’s mobile phone which Oraon had borrowed. Oraon, police said, also forced the boy to strip naked and later killed him. “He (Oraon) has confessed that he sexually assaulted the girl. We suspect that he might have also sexually assaulted the boy as his body too was found naked. Later, he behead- ed both of them, tried to bury them in haste and fled. The accused has been charged under sections of POCSO (Prevention of Children against Sexual Offences) Act,” said Latehar’s Superintendent of Police Prashant Anand. Anand added that Oraon was currently kept at a hospi- tal under strict security. “He is extremely violent, so we have to keep him under tight security. Due to his mental illness he has a tendency of forgetting what all happened on the fateful day, which is making our interro- gation time-consuming,” said Anand. On Thursday, the villagers suspected that the killings may have been fueled by supersti- tious beliefs of the perpetrator. However, the police on Friday rubbished the rumours and said that it was a straightfor- ward case of a mentally unsta- ble man’s barbarism. The accused also has a criminal history. Police said that he was accused in an old murder case in Palamu. The accused was deserted by two of his ex spouses, probably due to his mental illness, police said. A week before the incident, he had assaulted his current spouse, who left his place and went to live with her parents in another village.

Transcript of ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on...

Page 1: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Karnataka Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy on

Friday sprang a major sur-prise by claiming that he wouldseek a trust vote to end the“confusion” triggered by resig-nation of rebel MLAs andasserted that he is “ready foreverything”.

With the resignation lettersof as many as 16 MLAs of theCongress-JD(S) alliance pend-ing with the Speaker, it isunclear how the Chief Ministerwould get the numbers to crossthe halfway mark.

Earlier, the Supreme Courtrestrained the Speaker fromtaking any decision till nextTuesday on the resignationand disqualification of 10 rebelMLAs of the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition.

Kumaraswamy told theState Assembly that he has“voluntarily” decided to seekthe vote, adding that he willcontinue as the CM only whenhe commands the support inthe House.

Asserting that he did notcome to the Chief Minister’sposition with the intention ofremaining in power forever, theJD(S) leader requested SpeakerKR Ramesh Kumar to fix atime for the confidence vote.

Later, in the business advi-sory committee meeting,Kumaraswamy proposedWednesday for the trust vote.However, no decision wastaken as the main OppositionBJP did not attend the meeting,sources said. A decision was

likely to be taken on Monday,they added.

Senior Congress leaderSiddaramiah on Friday said thedecision to seek a trust vote bythe coalition Governmentheaded by HD Kumaraswamywas taken by the two rulingpartners and asserted it has thenumbers.

The Congress LegislatureParty leader also said he hadbeen talking to disgruntledparty MLAs barring RoshanBaig because he has been sus-pended.

The Assembly met onFriday for a 11-day MonsoonSession against the backdrop ofresignation of 16 ruling coali-

tion MLAs that has raisedquestions over theGovernment’s survival.Kumaraswamy announced hisdecision to brave the trust voteduring the obituary referencetime. The Opposition BJP tookexception to the Chief Ministerraising the matter during obit-uary reference. State BJP pres-ident BS Yeddyurappa latertold reporters that his partywould decide its strategy on thebasis of Kumaraswamy’s speechon the proposed trust vote.

Though Kumaraswamywanted the Speaker to fix atime for the vote, the latter saidas and when the Chief Ministerinforms him about the date on

which he would move the con-fidence motion it will be men-tioned in the list of business.

“He (CM) will have to tellme. The Chief Minister hasspoken his mind that there isconfusing situation and he willnot stick to power. If he tells mewhen he will move a motionseeking trust vote, I will put itfor business the next day,” theSpeaker said.

According to a PTI report,Kumaraswamy was later seenin a relaxed mood in theAssembly lobby and expressedconfidence about the trust voteand getting numbers in favourof the coalition.

According to the report,

Kumaraswamy is said to be indirect talks with at least fourCongress legislators, who haveresigned and is hopeful thatthey will withdraw.

The ruling coalition’s totalstrength is 116 (Congress-78,JD(S)-37 and BSP-1), besidesthe Speaker. With the supportof the two independents, theBJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where thehalfway mark is 113. If the res-ignations of the 16 MLAs areaccepted, the coalition’s tallywill be reduced to 100.

In a related development,the BJP, apparently fearingpoaching of its MLAs by theruling coalition leaders, hasdecided to shift its legislators toa resort on the city outskirts.

In the Supreme Court, theBench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi cited “weightyissues that have arisen” and saidthe matter will be consideredby it on July 16 and the statusquo as of Friday should bemaintained.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices Deepak Gupta andAniruddha Bose, specificallymentioned in the order that theSpeaker would not decide onthe issue of the resignation orthe disqualification of rebelMLAs to enable the court tojudge larger issues raised in thematter.

The Bench noted the issueof maintainability of the rebelMLAs’ petition under Article32 of the Constitution wasraised by the Speaker and theKarnataka Chief Minister.

The case involves issues of

substantial importance relatedto Articles 190 and 361 of theConstitution, it said, addingthat it also needs to address asto whether the Speaker is oblig-ated to decide on disqualifica-tion proceedings before accept-ing the resignation of MLAs.

The Bench took intoaccount the arguments bysenior advocate MukulRohatgi, appearing for the rebelMLAs, countering the Speaker’ssubmission that the disqualifi-cation plea of the ruling coali-tion in the southern State hadto be decided before taking upthe issue of resignation of thelawmakers.

“In view of the weightyissues that have arisen, we areof the view that the matter beconsidered by us on Tuesday.We are of the view that the sta-tus quo as of today with regardto the prevailing situation bemaintained. Neither the issue ofresignation nor that of dis-qualification be decided tillTuesday,” the Bench said.

Before passing the order,the Bench asked Kumar’s coun-sel AM Singhvi, “Is Speakerchallenging the authority andpower of the Supreme Court. Isit his case? Are you challengingour power to issue directions tothe Speaker? Are you sayingthat we should stay our handsso far as the Speaker is con-cerned? You are suggestingthat he is duty-bound to decideon the disqualification prior totheir resignations.”

Singhvi replied: “Yes, this iswhat is my case.”

Related reports on P6

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The Supreme Court onFriday ordered com-

mencement of constructionwork on the Delhi Metro’sfourth phase, which is over 100km long and is estimated toadd around 18.6 lakh riders perday, after the DelhiGovernment said it has agreedto give the go-ahead.

The AAP Government hasasked for starting work simul-taneously on all six corridors ofDelhi Metro’s Phase-IV project,Transport Minister KailashGahlot said on Friday. “It wassaid by us in the court that wehave no objection to startingwork on the project but workshould also start simultane-ously on remaining three cor-ridors which have been left bythe Centre in its approval to theproject,” Gahlot said in a pressconference.

It may be recalled that thesix corridors of the projectwere approved by the DelhiGovernment in December2018. However, the Centre inMarch 2019 dropped three,while allowed the rest.

The apex court directedimplementation of the MetroPhase-IV project while hearinga matter in which theEnvironment Pollution

Control Authority (EPCA) hadrecently filed a report statingthat the approval for the pro-ject was held up since 2014.

The court was informed bythe Delhi Government coun-sel that they have agreed to givea go-ahead to the project.

The Centre had approvedthe Mukundpur-Maujpur, RKAshram-Janakpuri West andAero City-Tughlakabad cor-ridors. The three other pro-posed corridors — Rithala-Bawana-Narela, Inderlok-Indraprastha and LajpatNagar-Saket G Block —approved by the DelhiGovernment were droppedby the Centre while giving theMetro Phase-IV its go-ahead.

“The Centre has not clar-ified the rationale behindpicking up three corridorsunder the project and leavingother three,” Gahlot said. Healso accused the EPCA of fil-ing a “one sided” report in thecourt.

“EPCA filed a one-sidedreport. The three corridors leftby the Centre finds no men-tion in the EPCA report,” heclaimed.

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Ladakh region witnessed aconfrontation between

Tibetans living in India andthose in China last week nearthe Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Fukche area ofDemchok in eastern Ladakh.

However, the Chinesedressed in civilian clothes didnot cross the LAC and wentback after displaying banners.

Giving details of the inci-dent, sources said here onFriday that Tibetans annuallyhold a religious festival DoleTango to celebrate Dalai Lama’sbirthday in Koyul village ofFukche on July 6.

In such festival last week, asizable number of Tibetanshad gathered and waved theTibetan flag.

A group of Chinese originTibetans came near the LAC ontheir side in two SUVs and dis-played a banner saying, “ban allactivities to split Tibet.” Theywent back and after some time,said sources, adding the villagesacross the LAC are sparselypopulated.

Officials denied reports

that the Chinese Tibetans hadintruded into Indian territoryadding the action across theLAC was in reaction to theTibetans on the Indian sidewaving the flag.

Demchok is an area thathas seen Chinese transgres-sions in the past. In 2014,there was a fist fight betweenIndian and Chinese troopsduring a stand-off.

China has been pushing itsown successor of the DalaiLama and pressing that anyother appointment should notbe given any recognition.

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The 90-year-old iconicLakshman Jhula, a suspen-

sion bridge bridge across theGanga in Rishikesh, was closedon Friday on the recommen-dation of a team of experts whofound that the bridge cannotsustain load.

The bridge, constructedduring the British Raj, hasbeen closed for all traffic andpedestrian movement as mostof its parts are in “collapse” con-dition, Additional ChiefSecretary Om Prakash said.

There has been unprece-dented rise in traffic and pedes-trian movement on the bridgein recent times and the bridgetowers appear to be leaningtowards one side, he said.

The decision was taken as

keeping it operational couldhave been risky, he said.

“It is highly recommendedthat the bridge should be closedwith immediate effect other-wise any big mishap can takeplace anytime,” the team ofexperts had said in its report.

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Alarmed over a spate ofaccidents on the express-

ways, the Uttar Pradesh StateRoadways TransportCorporation (UPSRTC) isplanning to deploy specialdevices in vehicles to preventdrivers from dozing off onlong-distance routes.

The device equipped withspecial sensors will initiallywarn the driver with a beepsound and red light in the eventof him getting sleepy duringdriving and later slow down thevehicle and put emergencybrakes to stop it altogether,UPSRTC regional managerPallav Bose told PTI.

The move comes close onthe heels of an accident on the165-km Yamuna Expresswayon Monday which claimed 29lives. The bus driver apparent-ly fell asleep behind the wheel

and lost control followingwhich the vehicle veered of theroad and fell into a drain.

Bose said the special devicemade with Israeli technique isbeing manufactured by a Pune-based company and costs�40,000.

As a pilot project, thedevice was used in two buseson the Lucknow-Nepalganjroute and two others on theLucknow-Gorakhpur route, hesaid, adding the proposal wassent to MD, UPSRTC DheerajSahu after getting a good feed-back.

The official said Sahu alsogave a positive response to theidea.

A proposal to acquire moresuch devices will now be sentto the Government, Bose said.

Elaborating further on thefunctioning of the device, theUPSRTC regional managersaid it will be deployed on the

dashboard of the vehicle. Thedevice will produce a beepsound and red light warning assoon as the driver’s hold on thesteering wheel slackens due to

slumber.In case, the driver does not

react to the beep sound and theslackness continues, the devicewill automatically put brakes on

the bus, he said.The device will also keep

an eye on the road ahead andalert the driver in case of over-speeding and overtaking, Boseexplained.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hadon Thursday warned trans-port department officials, say-ing they cannot escape respon-sibility for road accidents byblaming drivers and asked theYamuna Expressway authorityto follow safety measures strictly.

He also asked the depart-ment officials to deploy twodrivers on state-run buses onroutes more than 400 km long,so that they can drive the vehi-cle alternatively.

Road safety experts haveoften warned of the dangers ofoverspeeding on wide express-ways, especially in early morn-ing hours and at night.

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Chief Minister RaghubarDas today said that the

State government will helpyouths from Scheduled Caste,Scheduled Tribe and Dalitcommunities to set up indus-tries in the State. Keeping thefact in mind, the Governmenthas announced to provide sub-sidy to ST-SC youths in settingup industries, under which theyouths will get land on halfprice and they have to repay theremaining amount in 10 install-ments in a period of five years.

The proposal wasapproved in the eighth meet-ing of the Directors’ Board ofthe Jharkhand IndustrialDevelopment Authority,chaired by the CM here onFriday.

Chairing the meetingDas asked officials to exhortmore and more youths forsetting up small industries.“By establishing industriesthey will also become jobproviders.

This will bring change intheir lives and also acceleratespeed of development inJharkhand. A net of indus-tries in rural areas will alsobring prosperity in villages ofthe State,” he said.

During the meeting theCM instructed to hold meet-ing of Business toGovernment (B2G) everymonth. He asked to holdmeeting on a fixed date everymonth by deputy commis-sioners of every district, whoare also the regional direc-tors. Das said that the districtlevel meetings will helpresolve the local level issuesof industrialists.

During the meeting the2019-20 budget of JIADAwas also approved and deci-sions were taken to provide

funds for setting up of plas-tic park in Deoghar andallotment of land for estab-lishing electricity feedersand sub-stations in industrialareas.

Addit ional Chie fS ecretar y Finance KKKahndelwal , Pr inc ipa lS ecretar y to CM Suni lKumar B arnwal , RoadConstruction Secretary KKSoan, JIADA Secretary SunilKumar and IndependentDirector Satendra Singhalongwith others were pre-sent in the meeting.

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The accused in Lateharkillings has confessed to the

police that he sexually assault-ed one of the two children whohe later beheaded and buried inthe backyard of his house,police said on Friday.

Thirty-year-old SunilOraon was arrested onThursday late evening oncharges of killing two childrenof his village. The matter cameto light after villagers onThursday morning found half-buried, naked and decapitatedbody of a 12-year-old boy inOraon’s backyard. Theyinformed the local police, whoexhumed the boy’s body andfound another half-buried anddecapitated body of a 10-year-old girl in similar conditionaround the same area later inthe day. Both the children weremissing since Wednesday,police said.

Oraon, who has be under-going treatment for a mentalillness at a local psychiatryinstitute, told the police during

interrogation that the 10-year-old girl came to his shop onWednesday to buy sweets.Oraon lured her to his house,where he stripped the minornaked and sexually assaultedher, he confessed to the police.Meanwhile, the other childwho became a victim ofOraon’s predation came to hishouse asking for his father’smobile phone which Oraonhad borrowed. Oraon, policesaid, also forced the boy to stripnaked and later killed him.

“He (Oraon) has confessedthat he sexually assaulted thegirl. We suspect that he mighthave also sexually assaultedthe boy as his body too wasfound naked. Later, he behead-ed both of them, tried to burythem in haste and fled. Theaccused has been chargedunder sections of POCSO(Prevention of Children againstSexual Offences) Act,” saidLatehar’s Superintendent ofPolice Prashant Anand.

Anand added that Oraonwas currently kept at a hospi-tal under strict security. “He isextremely violent, so we have tokeep him under tight security.Due to his mental illness he hasa tendency of forgetting what

all happened on the fateful day,which is making our interro-gation time-consuming,” saidAnand.

On Thursday, the villagerssuspected that the killings mayhave been fueled by supersti-tious beliefs of the perpetrator.However, the police on Fridayrubbished the rumours andsaid that it was a straightfor-ward case of a mentally unsta-ble man’s barbarism.

The accused also has acriminal history. Police saidthat he was accused in an oldmurder case in Palamu. Theaccused was deserted by two ofhis ex spouses, probably due tohis mental illness, police said.A week before the incident, hehad assaulted his currentspouse, who left his place andwent to live with her parents inanother village.

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Page 2: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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The rising level of mercuryhas also added to water

woes in Jamshedpur. Thewater problem is more severein the areas located at the tail-end of water supply systemand on the city outskirts. Inorder to end the water woesof the residents, the districtadministration has decided todistribute water throughtankers in the areas ofBaghbera, Jugsalai, Pursudihand Karandih, which are theworst-affected areas.

In order to redress thewater woes of the citizensduring the summer season,the East Singhbhum admin-istration is gearing up to pre-pare an action plan thatincludes repair- ing of handpumps, distribution of waterthrough tankers and severalother initiatives drinkingwater programme.

“It is really difficult timesfor us. The scorching heat,along with decreasing waterlevel, has made life difficultfor us. Long queues ofwomen, standing for water at

hand pumps, are regular fea-ture,” said Yogesh Sharma, aresident of Baghbera.

According to the infor-mation, the water problem ismore severe in the areas locat-ed at the tail-end of watersupply system and on thecity outskirts.

The district administra-tion expects that due to thescanty rainfall last year, moretube wells could dry up as thegroundwater recedes further.To ensure water supply in theaffected area, the publichealth and engineeringdepartment will increase thewater tanker trips.

A senior district officialsaid that if the water crisis inthe city increases, they wouldincrease the water supplythrough tankers.

Now, as the water crisis islooming large since the cityreceived scanty rain last year,the supply of water throughtankers would be increased byaround 30 lakh litres.

Zilla Parishad member,Rajkumar Singh, said thatalmost all panchayat areasunder his jurisdiction are fac-ing an acute drinking water

crisis as it is a dry zone.Tube-wells and bore-wellshave gone dry. Absence ofrain has aggravated situation.Therefore, this year too, hehas decided to supply waterthrough tankers to overcomesufferings of the people.

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Armed rebels of JharkhandJan Mukti Parishad (JJMP)

wrecked havoc at Tori Railwaysiding under Chandwa PoliceStation of Latehar districtputting on fire at least 16 heavyvehicles at the site on the inter-vening night of Thursday andFriday. The rebels also thrashedsome people present at the siteand snatched their mobilephones.

Police reached the spot assoon as they received infor-mation of the incident, follow-ing which the rebels resorted tofiring. According to police, fir-ing continued from both sidesfor about one and half hoursand later the extremists fled thespot taking advantage of near-by forests.

Superintendent of Police,Latehar, Prasahnt Anand, saidthat the step taken by JJMPrebels seems to be in retaliation

with police action against JJMPchief Pappu Lohra. “Police hadapplied for court orders toseize properties of JJMP chiefPappu Lohra. The order hasbeen passed and the step seemsto be taken in desperation bythe rebels,” Anand said, addingthat a search operation hasbeen launched to nab the cul-prits in the area.

According to information,about 15 extremists hadentered the railway siding atTori and started firing indis-criminately.

One of the teams startedtorching the vehicles at the site,while the other team startedbeating the people presentthere. The extremists snatchedtorches and mobile phonesfrom people present at the site.

Locals said that the outfitclaimed the responsibility ofthe incident by leaving a handwritten note citing reason ofnon-payment of levy for theiraction. They have also threat-

ened to stop work at Tori andBiratoli coal siding if it is with-out their permission.

After the incident, police ofneighbouring districts Chatra,Lohardaga and Ranchi havebeen alerted.

Police have launched inten-sive search operation on allroads from Latehar passingthrough the three districts.Also, extra forces have beencalled to the area for increasingvigil and avoid further escala-tion of the situation.

Work has been put on haltat the railway siding as coalloading work has stopped.Railway engines have also beenstopped at the site.

Local residents said thatAdvocate Lal Arvind NathShahdeo had shown courageand started firing in the air assoon as he came to know aboutthe incident. Soon after policealso started firing and therebels had to step back andleave the place.

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In a major breakthrough,Khunti police nabbed five

CPI-Maoist ultras and recov-ered two firearms as well asammunition from AmtoVillage under MaranghadaPolice Station in KhuntiDistrict area on Friday.

Those arrested are theactive members of the CPI-Maoist’s in Marangahada area.The arrested have been identi-fied as Sukhdeo Munda (21),Samir Nagar (20) Karm SinghNagar (22), Nardeo Munda(19) and Kandra Munda (21)all of them are resident ofMaranhada area.

Acting on a tip off, a teamof police officials, led by Sub–Divisional Police Officer,Ashish Kumar Mahli and otherpolice official of the districtpolice undertook the operationsuccessfully.

Informing about the oper-ation, Mahli said that five ultraswere arrested while they weremaking plans to commit crimein Amto village with theirother colleagues.

Four or five colleagues ofthem escaped from the handsof police but the police willarrest them immediately, headded.

“All of them have criminalantecedents and during inves-tigation, they have acceptedtheir involvement in threecases. One of them is that ofmurder and another is relatedto attack on a teacher’s familywith intention to kill. Policealso got success in crackingother cases in which they areinvolved and those who havefled, the arrested ultras havegiven information about them,”said Mahli.

The Police team recoveredone country made pistol, somebanners of banned Maoistsoutfit, a green coloured Apachemotorcycle and some live car-tridges.

In another case, RanchiPolice arrested two criminalsfrom Hindpiri Police Station inRanchi on Friday.

Hindpiri Police Station In-charge Brij Kumar said that twocriminals Mohammad Sajjad(30) and Armaan Hussain (22)both of them were residents ofHindpidhi. Police arrestedthem with three country-madepistols, one six round revolverand some live cartridges.

Both of them have crimi-nal records and a couple ofmonths earlier, they came outfrom jail. Police sent them tojail after arresting them.

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“Our city receives agood 1,400 mm. of rain-

fall annually. But thispurest form of water goes

waste, flowing into thedrains. The solution is

harvesting of rainwater. Itis the least expensive formof augmenting water sup-ply. Though water from

some sources is hard, yetrainwater is clean and

soft. It reduces chances offloods, soil erosion, andsilting of lakes. In manyareas, groundwater con-

tains high amounts of dis-solved chemicals, includ-ing fluorides but they areabsent in rain water,” saidPrakash Sharma, a city-

based social worker.

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Train services will hit in theTatanagar-Adityapur sec-

tion of South Eastern Railway's

Chakradharpur railway divi-sion on Sunday due to girderinstallation work for the newJugsalai overbridge.

The Chakradharpur rail-way division declared a railwayblock of three hours from11.30 am on July 14 for theinstallation work.

Movement of over a dozen

mail, express and passengertrains would be affected duringthe railway traffic-cum-powerblock. "The overhead tractionwire will have to be dismantledfor girder installation workand this would bring move-ment of trains to a grinding haltin that section for three hours,"said H K Balmuchu, director of

Tatanagar railway station.The Hatia-Tata Passenger,

Barkakana -Tata Passenger andTata-Chakulia Passenger trainswill remain cancelled. TheDhanbad-Tata SwarnarekhaExpress will be short-termi-nated at Kandra railway station.The Bilaspur-Tata Passengerwill be short-terminated atChakradharpur. The Barbil-Tata Passenger will be short-terminated at Chaibasa whilethe Asansol-Tata Express willbe short-terminated at Chandil.

Apart from this move-ment of over half-a-dozenmail and express trains includ-ing Titlagarh-Howrah IspatSuperfast Express andMumbai-Tata AntodayaExpress would be affected inthe Chakradharpur division.

About one lakh peoplefrom the densely-populatedJugsalai and Bagbera localitiesof the city cross the Jugsalai

level crossing located betweenTatanagar and Adityapur sta-tions every day. As about 90trains, including goods trainspasses through the Jugsalailevel crossing.

The railway has finalisedthe blueprint for the �21.54crore project. The road overbridge was a long pendingdemand of the people residingat Jugsalai. Sources informedthat of the 21.54 crores, 9.77crores will be spent by the rail-way, where as the remaining�11.77 crores will be borne bythe State Government.

The road over bridgewould ensure smooth trafficand avoid decongestion asthe commuters face it nowwhile crossing the level cross-ing.

The existing Jugsalairoundabout will remain whereit is not, but its size will bereduced mariginally.

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Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR)

NML signed an MoU withAircraft Accident InvestigationBureau (AAIB) MoU onThursday. The MoU wassigned in presence of PradeepSingh Kharola, secretary,Ministry of Civil Aviation, atRajiv Gandhi Bhawan, NewDelhi for utilising NML’s labo-ratory facility and technicalexpertise for aircraft accident/incident Investigation andtraining of investigators.

The MoU was signed byDr. Indranil Chattoraj, director,CSIR-NML and ArvindoHanda, director general, AAIB.This MoU will be valid for fiveyears and will provide oppor-tunities to the scientists ofCSIR-NML to carry outResearch and Developmentactivities on aviation relatedproblems.

The Aircraft AccidentInvestigation Bureau (AAIB) isa division of the Ministry ofCivil Aviation, Government ofIndia which investigates aircraftaccidents and incidents inIndia. Earlier, the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) conducted investiga-tions and gave information tothe investigations establishedby the Court of Inquiry and theCommittee Inquiry. A separateinvestigative agency was estab-lished to comply with the

Standards And RecommendedPractices (SARPs) of theInternational Civil AviationOrganisation (ICAO).

The National MetallurgicalLaboratory, Jamshedpur is thethird in the Council ofScientific and IndustrialResearch (CSIR) family of 38laboratories. The laboratorywas formally inaugurated and

dedicated to the nation on theNovember 26, 1950 by PanditJawaharlal Nehru.

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A30-year-old man and hisfather have been arrested

for allegedly killing his uncle atKrishnanagar area underPachamba police station inGiridih here on Thursday nightover property, the police saidon Friday.

Giridih SDPO, Jit WahanOraon, said that the accusedRahul Singh and his fatherChandershekhar Singh, a resi-

dent of Krishnanagar’s Giridih,have been arrested for allegedlykilling with traditional weaponsRahul’s uncle Amar Singh onThursday night at 10 pm.

The police said that a bodywas found in his house atKrishnanagar residential colonyin Giridih with pool of blood,after which a murder case wasregistered. The SDPO said thatwhile his family members werebeing questioned, there werediscrepancies in the version of his

nephew Rahul Singh and broth-er Chandrashekhar Singh afterwhich they were detained. RahulSingh confessed to have killed hisuncle during sustained interro-gation.

The accused Rahul Singhsaid that since uncle Amar Singhlived nearby his house separate-ly with his wife and children,they could claim share in theirancestral property. He also reg-ularly assaulted his parents,added Rahul Singh.

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Breakdown of New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani express

(12302) engine disrupted twoother Rajdhani Express trainson Friday morning.

Railway official said, NewDelhi-Howrah Rajdhaniexpress was delayed for nearlytwo hours due to engine failureat Dhanbad railway stationthis morning.

The engine of the trainfailed at 6.40 am after a tech-

nical snag erupted; the snagwas rectified and the train wasdispatched after two hours at8.45 am, informed Jahangir apassenger.

The train which sufferedtwo hours delay also hits thecommunication of the route,affected several other trains too;passengers were majorly incon-venienced due to delay.

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Page 3: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Ranchi Railway Division ofSouth Eastern Railway

(SER) will organize PrizeDistribution ceremony, inwhich Union Minister of Statefor Railways Suresh Angadi willparticipate on July 14. It is 64thprize distribution programme,which will be organised byIndian Railway at three placesother than Ranchi, it isMumbai and Ambala.

The Minister will distributeprizes among the winner ofvarious competitions organisedby the various zones of Railwayfor its employees.

Addressing a press meet onFriday to inform about detailsof the mega programme,Ranchi Divisional RailwayManager (DRM) Vijay KumarGupta said that the participantsof Inter Railway Painting com-petition, Inter Railway Quizcompetition, Inter RailwayInter Railway Cultural eventcompetition and Inter RailwayDocumentary competition par-ticipated by employees of var-ious zones of Indian Railway.

“Chief Minister RaghubarDas will be chief guest of theprogramme. Chairman,Railway Board, VK Yadavalong with other members ofRailway Board and GeneralManagers of various zones will

present in the programme.This year Ministry of Railwaydecided that the prize distrib-ution programe will be organ-ised three places instead of oneas it had done earlier. Mainprogramme will be organisedin Mumbai and two otherplaces are Ranchi and Ambala.This is first time that Ranchiwill host the programme,” saidGupta.

Speaking on the details ofthe programme Gupta saidthat a cultural programme willalso be organised on the occa-sion.

An Exhibition will also beorganised in which 17 stalls willbe installed at the venue relat-ed to innovative initiativestaken by various zones andPSU of SER. “The preparationwork on war footage is goingon to ensure success of the pro-gramme.

The arrival of guests willstart on July 13 to take part inthe programme,” he added.

As just some days earlierRanchi MP, Sanjay Sethdemanded to zonal officeshould be shifted from Kolkatato Ranchi, on the issue Guptasaid that it is matter of Ministryof Railway and he can’t say onthe matter.

As General Manager PSMishra visited the State capitalto meet Chief Secretary, DKTiwari on Thursday Mishrawill also visit on July 15 to meetTiwari to discuss on variousongoing projects of Railway inthe State and its timely com-missioning, he added.

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Minister for DrinkingWater and Sanitation

Department Ram ChandraSahis on Friday counted theState’s success in makingJharkhand 100 per cent OpenDefecation Free (ODF) as oneof the greatest achievements ofhis department in the pastfour and a half years of theincumbent Government.

Addressing media personsin Ranchi on Friday, Sahissaid, “Only 16 per cent house-holds in rural Jharkhand hadpersonal toilets in 2015. At pre-sent, all the households inrural Jharkhand have person-al toilets. This is a great feat forthe State as we achieved ourtarget a year in advance.”

As per figures with theDrinking Water and Sanitation

Department, as many as6,48,959 households had per-sonal toilets back in 2015. In2019, at least 39,93,586 house-holds have personal, useabletoilets, the figures say. Thetarget was achieved in linearprogression. In year 2015-2016,at least 25 per cent householdshad personal toilets. The num-ber increased to 46 per cent inyear 2016-2017, 76 per cent inyear 2017-2018 and 100 percent in 2018-2019, a documentprovided by the Department onFriday said. On November 15,2018, Jharkhand’s StatehoodDay, the state was declared 100per cent ODF.

In the remaining fourmonths of the Government, theDepartment plans to provideclean drinking water to at least11,124 identified ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribe

populated colonies, said Sahis,adding that as many as 2,251colonies populated byParticularly Vulnerable TribeGroups (PVTG) will also comeunder the ambit of the project.“We have set up at least 19 newwater testing laboratories,

thereby ensuring that each ofthe 24 districts in Jharkhandhas a water testing lab,” saidSahis.

The Department was earli-er headed by Chandra PrakashChoudhary, who got elected tothe upper house of the parlia-

ment after the recently con-cluded 17th General Electionsand vacated the minister’s posi-tion. Sahis took charge of theDepartment hardly a monthago.

However, in the remainingfour months of his short stint as

the minister for the Department,he assured to do his best forwater conservation and supplyof clean drinking water.

“Former Minister CPChoudharyji, Prime MinisterNarendra Modiji and our ChiefMinister Raghubar Das have settargets and achieved them withease. I salute them for their ded-ication and assure to achieve allthe targets that they set for myDepartment in the days tocome,” Sahis said.

He added that hisDepartment was rigorouslyworking on setting up water har-vesting system in Governmentbuildings and focusing onafforestation to conserve water.Drinking Water and SanitationSecretary Aradhana Patnaik saidthat water harvesting system wasalready set up in the mainGovernment buildings such asProject Building in Ranchi. “Wewill run a phase-wise project inall districts for setting up ofwater harvesting system inGovernment buildings,” saidPatnaik.

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After the gap of nearly 15years, the Ranchi

University (RU) syndicate elec-tions were held today . A totalof nine candidates were in frayfor three syndicate posts. Fornon-teaching single post,Phoolchand Tirkey wasdeclared winner. He defeatedRamchandra Nayak with themargin of 23 votes. For assis-tant principal’s single post,Vinayak Lal was declared win-ner, while for category princi-pal/assistant principal catego-ry post, Jyoti Kumar wasdeclared winner.

The election was for eightsyndicate posts, but five can-didates were elected unop-posed. With Ranchi Universitygetting eight new syndicatemembers, the number of syn-dicate members at State’s old-est university has gone up to25.

In university’s parlance,the role of syndicate membersis similar to those of council ofministers in a government,while senate function is simi-lar to Legislative Assembly or

Parliament.The Ranchi University

senate meeting started today at11 am amid chaotic scenes,protests with senate membersraising promotion, regular andcontractual appointment ofteaching and non-teachingstaff, and land issues of uni-verrsity.

The senate meeting waschaired by Ranchi UniversityVC Ramesh Kumar Pandey,Pro VC Kamini Kumar, senioruniversity officials among oth-ers.

The senate meeting wasalso attended by Hatia MLANavin Jaiswal, Mandar MLAGangotri Kujur and KhijriMLA Ram Kumar Pahan. Twoformer VCs, K.K Nag and L.NBhagat, who are ex-officiomembers of senate, alsoattended the meeting.

Raising the teachers’appointment issue, K.K Nagsaid, “The Jharkhand PublicService Commission has failedto discharge its duties onappointment of teachers atuniversity. Instead of JPSC,the university should constituteUniversity Service

Commission or separate selec-tion committee for appoint-ment of teachers and promo-tion of teachers in the univer-sity.”

Senate member andteacher from Sanjay Gandhi

Memorial College, Pumpa SenBiswas too raised the issue ofappointment of teachers atvarsity.

The last teachers’ appoint-ment at Ranchi University wasdone in 2008, when around

700 teachers across the Statewere appointed. The RanchiUniversity-State biggest uni-versity received 332 teachersthrough the appointmentprocess. However, the varsitystill suffers from teachers’

shortage. The varsity has sentthe proposal for appointmentof 269 teachers to StateGovernment.

The senate members alsoraised the issue of promotionof teachers and non-teachingstaff pending for years.

The Ranchi University isState’s biggest university interms of students’ strengthand area with its jurisdictionspread to Gumla, Lohardaga,Khunti and entire Ranchi dis-trict. The varsity has 14 con-stituent colleges and morethan 50 affiliated collegesunder its banner.

The senate members alsoraised the issue of legal tanglesin acquiring land at SSMemorial College and RamLakhan Singh Yadav College.The senate members urgedthe varsity administration toapproach district administra-tion for making encroachmentfree these educational institu-tions.

At today’s senate meeting78 senate members attendedthe meet. The senate meetingwhich started at 11 am con-tinued till 7pm.

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Seven cycling enthusiastsfrom the group ‘Cycle Dost’

in Ranchi recently rode fromManali to Khardung La cover-ing a distance of about 520 Kmsin 11 days. The group strong-ly believes in ‘Hum Fit tohIndia Fit’ and ‘Go Green’.

The expedition, whichstarted in Manali on June 29,culminated at Khardung La viaLeh on July 9. The group cov-ered five treacherous mountainpasses on the way includingKhardung La which is thehighest mountain pass in theworld at approximately 18,000feet. It is also the highestmotorable road in the world. Italso crossed the second high-est mountain pass Taglang Lawhich is at 17,582 feet.

Cycle Dost is a group of

around 100 likeminded pro-fessionals, businessmen andgovernment officials who havebeen pedaling for health andenvironment. From 25 to 55years in age, the cyclists gettogether every Sunday andcover a distance of about 50- 60Kms in Ranchi and its sur-rounding areas.

52-year old Rajeev RanjanTripathi, SuperintendentCentral GST, Ranchi was thesenior most member of theexpedition. He has been a partof Cycle dost for the past threeyears. “The terrain is general-ly crossed by bikers and allthrough the trek we were theonly cyclists. The journey start-ed at about 6000 feet and wentto a height of approximately18000 feet. The purpose of thistrip was to encourage cyclingamong all age groups as Indiaimports more than 80 percentof fossil fuels and if this con-tinues, it will adversely hamperthe economy in the comingyears,” said Tripathi.

The officer strongly feels

that that the humble locals,who welcomed them to theirhouses for night halts, was themost beautiful part of the jour-

ney. Surviving with the bareminimum facilities availableand in freezing temperatureswas certainly tough. “Because

we were cycling acclimatisationin such adverse conditions wasmuch easier. We were alsopracticing ‘Pranayam’ (breath-

ing exercises) regularly frommuch before the expeditionstarted. At times some of us didget breathless but with sheerwill power, we reached our des-tination,” he further added.

Vinay Vibhakar (44) a citybased Chartered Accountanthas been a part of this group forthe past one and a half years.“We want to make cycling afashion statement in Ranchi sothat people from all age groupsand backgrounds can be a partof it. When cycling one feelsconnected with nature and thepeople around. For an expedi-tion like this one needs tohave a strong will power and anever give up attitude,” said theCA.

“This trip has taught me topush myself harder towards mygoal no matter what the cir-cumstances. Every day a newchallenge would come up likefreezing weather or extremelylow oxygen levels. You justneed to be very strong mentallyfor doing a trek like this and it’snot impossible,” he further

added.Ganesh Reddy (49) secre-

tary Citizens Foundation(NGO) feels that the expeditionhas not only built their confi-dence but has also instilled afeeling of team spirit in them.“It has trained us to survivewith the bare minimumresources and sustain in themost difficult conditions. Thistrek has taught me a veryimportant lesson that just likeclimbing mountains, life is alsofull of ups and downs and oneneeds to keep going,” asserted

Reddy.“This expedition is con-

sidered as one of the toughestroutes in the world. During thecourse of our journey we inter-acted with people from allover the world. People on bikesand in cars encouraged us allalong the way.” Reddy said.

The other four members ofthe trek were Sanchit Prasad,Superintendent Central GST,Ranchi, Rajeev Kamal Bittu- achartered accountant, dentistDr. Udeep Lal and Nipun Jaina businessman.

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Three students of the State,who had recently attended

the young scientists’ pro-gramme ‘Yuvika’ in May thisyear at Indian Space ResearchOrganisation, Bangalore,shared their experiences at thetwo-day young scientist pro-gramme organised under theaegis of Jharkhand EducationProject Council, Hazaribag atIndira Gandhi Gandhi BalikaAvasiy Vidyalaya on Friday.Students from KGBVs ofHazaribag, Chatra, Kodermaand Ramgarh districts tookpart in the programme.

On this occasion, DPS,Ranchi student Dhriti Barnwalshared her experienced of ISROvisit in the form of a presenta-tion on the purpose, utility andexperience of the tour. Barnwalapprised the students of variousaspects of ISRO tour. She saidthat ISRO was established inBengaluru in 1969. “Its objec-

tive is to provide space relatedtechniques for India. The ISROtour was quite enlighteningand exciting. A lot of informa-tion related to the space wasreceived from the excursion.Through seminars, presenta-tions, lectures, and excursions,

we get detailed informationabout India's space-relateddevelopments,” she said givingdetailed information regardingRocket Launching Pads,Satellites, Satellite LaunchVehicle, Chandrayaan, SatelliteProgramme, Human Space

Flight Programme,Mangalyaan, Mission Controletc. through the photos.

Rinki Kumari of Bokaroand Montu Pani of EastSinghbhum district, both stu-dents of KGBV, also spokeabout their experience of ISROtour. The girls said that the tourof ISRO was just like realisinga dream. “We have knownabout India's space pro-grammes.

This journey continues toincrease curiosity in the field ofscience, and inspires to dosomething for the country. Wehave learned that it is notimpossible to achieve any goal

if the girls work with devotionin the field of science,” saidPani.

During the programmecontributions of Sputnik,Aryabhatta, Explorer,Chandrayan, Mangalyan,Rakesh Sharma, KalpanaChawla, Neil Armstrong werealso discussed.

The programme was inau-gurated by IAS probationerSameera S, DEO Ludi Kumari,DEO IB Singh along with oth-ers. Principal of the school,teachers, non-teaching staffand a large number of studentswere present in the pro-gramme.

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Hrithik Roshan starrer‘Super 30’, the biopic on

ace mathematician AnandKumar from Patna, Biharreleased on screens at multi-plexes across the Country onFriday including in StateCapital and was much appre-ciated by movie lovers.

“Hrithik Roshan has donewonderful acting in the movie.The director in the movie hastried to capture the life ofAnand Kumar magnificently.Leaving aside the length of themovie everything is perfect inthe movie,” Kumar Gaurav, amovie buff who has seen moviesaid. “The film shows many upsand downs that Anand Kumarfaced while running Super 30and how he sacrificed his per-sonal gains to make Super 30a success. It is a great motiva-tional movie,” Gaurav furthersaid.

Talking to the Pioneer over

phone, Anand Kumar said,“The hardship and difficulties,which I have faced I don’twant others (children comingfrom economically poor background) to face. Every yearthrough Super 30, I select 30talented students from eco-nomically poor background.These students stay in myhouse, cooked food preparedby mother and they have noneother than any other job but tostudy.” Anand further said, “Inaround two decades sons anddaughters of labourers, rick-shaw puller, auto driver, mar-ginal farmers, jobless and oth-ers have cracked IITs under myguidance.”

The life of Anand Kumar isan inspiration for every com-mon man. The man throughhis hard work received a seat inthe prestigious University ofCambridge, but due to finan-cial crunch he failed to join theUniversity of Cambridge. PoorAnand had to even visit door-

to-door looking for sponsor-ship. When Anand was younghis father passed away and healong with his brother Pranavwere forced to sell fries madeby his mother on the streets ofPatna. In 2002, Anand got theidea to launch Super 30 whichoffers free coaching for IITentrance examination to mer-itorious students coming fromthe weaker section of the soci-ety. Selected students stay withAnand in his Patna residenceand are provided food for freeduring their stay. So far thisone-of-its-kind initiative hasbeen able to send more than400 of its students to differentIITs of the country while theremaining have been selectedfor other elite engineering col-leges.

Prior to movie, severalbooks and documentaries havebeen written and made onAnand’s life, but this is for thefirst time any movie has beenmade on Anand’s life.

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Page 4: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Aiming to extend healthcareservice among the rural

population and slum dwellersBokaro Steel Plant (BSL) organ-ised a free mega health campunder its Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) atBhawanipur Primary Health

Center, Bandhgora in Chas.At least 174 people

including chi ldren wereexamined in the camp,informed BSL PR Official.

People were providedwith an opportunity to get allessential medical check-upconducted on the honorarybasis, provided free of cost

medication prescribed by apanel of doctors in the camp.

Doctors and medicalexperts f rom BGH DrSowmayavrata, GynecologistDr Rupa Rani, Dr ArupKumar Pathak, Dr PiyusSingh, Dr S Choudhary, , DrS Hussain along with othermedical staffs comprised the

panel attended the peoplerushed in the camp, he said.

Besides others, AGM CSRof BSL N A Safi, Ashok

Kumar, Dr Ajay Kumar, GAhmad, Suraj Tiwari, SanjeevSingh along with a team ofCSR Department officials and

Primal Medical Unit teamwere also actively participat-ed in the camp.

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Punjab Cabinet Ministers onFriday demanded re-imple-

mentation of old formula of thePost-matric scholarship funds,while accusing the BJP-ledCentral Government of slash-

ing the scholarship funds toruin future of SC/BC youth.

The state Ministers —Sadhu Singh Dharamsot,Charanjit Singh Channi andAruna Chaudhary — statedthat by slashing the Post MatricScholarship funds, theNarendra Modi led Union

Government has infringedupon the rights of the Dalitsand Backward Classes of theState of Punjab.

“With the barbaric mea-sure, the anti-dalit face of theModi Government has beenexposed,” said the threeMinisters in a joint statement.

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Page 5: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Refuting the Oppositioncharge that the Union

Budget for 2019-20 lacks visionand is anti-poor and farmers,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday said inthe Rajya Sabha it reflects com-mitment to boost investment inagriculture and social sectorparticularly healthcare andeducation.

She also brushed asideCongress leader and formerFinance Minister PChidambaram’s contention thatthe Narendra ModiGovernment has not initiatedany structural reforms andshied away from bold steps andlisted at least 16 such actionsincluding GST, annual dole ofRs 6,000 to all farmers, directbenefit transfer and “radical”changes in Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) among oth-ers. She also strongly assertedthat the five trillion dollareconomy by 2025 was achiev-able after Chidambaram hadpooh-poohed this target in hisspeech on Thursday.

Devoting nearly 45 min-utes of her one hour and 40minutes reply to the three-daydebate on her maiden UnionBudget in rebuttingChidambaram’s charges madein his assertion on Thursday,Sitharaman said all the targetsmentioned in her Budget,including five trillion dollareconomy by 2024 were “realis-tic” and “achievable”.

In fact, the Minister also said

the former Finance Ministerhad attempted to “slight andridicule” the budget in a “suavemanner” and then went on tocompare the performance of thefive years of the Modi regimewith the targets achieved by theprevious UPA Government.

She said the NDAGovernment in 2014 was sad-dled with an under recovery ofmore than 1.4 lakh crore left bythe then outgoing UPAGovernment. Moreover, infla-tion was also high as admittedby then Finance MinisterChidambaram. She also point-ed out the voluntary disclosureof income scheme initiated byChidambaram as finance min-ister drew strong criticism bythe Comptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG).

Her sharp reaction cameafter Chidambaram onThursday had termed theBudget as “insipid” and lackingin bold steps and structuralreforms. He also questioned thefive trillion dollar target.

Taking on Chidambaramwho was not present in thehouse as he was away in

Chennai and had informedSitharaman about it, theMinister read out a list of 16reforms undertaken by theNDA Government and saidChidambaram only listed fourreforms during the UPA rule.

Rebutting his assertion of“unachievable” tax projections,she read out numbers to sayincome tax, excise and GST col-lection targets are achievable.

While excise collections willboost with Rs 2 per litre increasein tax on petrol and diesel andan amnesty scheme, GST col-lections will boost by over 14 percent on simplified return filingand tracking of evasion.

“It is not without a plan,”she said on increasing the sizeof the economy from USD 2.7trillion to USD 5 trillion by2024-25. She then went on thechallenge Chidambaram’s com-ment that a money lender canalso calculate regarding fivetrillion dollar economy andsaid if it is the case there is noneed for a government.

As regards the priorities ofthe Budget, she said besidesfocus on agriculture, the plan

includes increasing investmentcoming by way of further lib-eralisation of FDI rules, low-ering of corporate tax to 25 percent to companies withturnover of up to Rs 400 crore,tax cut on electric vehicles,widening scope of voluntarypension scheme for retailtraders and shopkeepers andgiving push to infrastructuredevelopment with an invest-ment of Rs 100 lakh croreover the next five years.

To criticism of her Budgetspeech on July 5 not featuringallocations, Sitharaman readout allocations made inemployment guarantee scheme,irrigation, rural roads, drinkingwater, health, education, cropinsurance and mid-day mealscheme to say funds madeavailable for 99 schemes havingimpact on common man haveall gone up.

Sitharaman said over thelast five years, public sectorbanks have been recapitalised byRs 3.19 lakh crore. “NPA prob-lem has been comprehensivelyaddressed by the Government.”

On farmer supportschemes, she said extendingscope of cash support of Rs6,000 to every farmer, giving 50per cent margin of profit on costof production and timelyannouncement of MSP increasewill help double farmer incomeby 2022. The Minister also saidthe Government is consideringa proposal for pension schemefor farmers above the age of 60.

�����1�1��������� 0/3��/�45

Stating that Railways need“big investments” if facilities

like new stations, railway linesand speed trains are to be cre-ated, Railway Minister PiyushGoyal said on Friday for thisreason his Government wouldincrease public-private part-nership even as he rejected thecharge that the national trans-porter would be privatised.

“Privatisation is neededfor new stations, railway linesand speed trains,” said Goyal,who was replying to a debate inthe Lok Sabha to the discussionon Demands for Grants of theRailways.

He said Governmentwould increase public-privatepartnership in the railwayswhich was also initiated by theCongress-led-dispensation atthe centre. “You failed, we arecapable… why shed crocodiletears,” the Minister said whilereferring to the issue of pri-vatisation and the need forinviting private investments inthe railways.

Goyal said railways was infor a big expansion and referredto the Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman’s Budgetspeech which said Rs 50 lakhcrore was needed to be spenton Railways in the next 10 to12 years. Goyal said Railwaysare spending money in newcoaches and single automaticsignaling system for the entirecountry.

With several Oppositionleaders accusing theGovernment of ushering in pri-vatisation of the railways, Goyalsaid: “There is no question ofprivatisation of the railways. Therailways cannot be privatised.However, if we have to increasethe facilities in railways then

obviously we need investmentsfor it. We have taken a decisionto encourage public privatepartnerships and we will alsocorporatise some units.”

The Minister said Railwayswas running in profit despite Rs22,000 crore paid to workersafter Seventh pay commissionreport. He said Railways bor-rowing was at Rs 18,000 crore.

He said punctuality oftrains was his priority and forthis automatic monitoring oftrains arrival and departuretimes would be in place and itwould be not left to be handledby the station masters as usedto happen in olden times.

Goyal detailed figures toclaim that the ModiGovernment has performedmuch better in boosting bothinfrastructure and safety para-meters of the national trans-porter as compared to the UPAera. The minister also high-lighted how the governmenthad installed around 2,10,000bio-toilets in trains so far and

in next 12 months all trains inthe country would have them.

During his hour-longspeech there were frequentprotests by Congress mem-bers, as their leader AdhirRanjan Chowdhury accusedhim of misleading the Houseand he was backed by his partycolleagues.

He justified ending the tra-dition of presenting a separateBudget for the Railways saying,“Khayali pulao banane kapurana railway Budget ko Modijine khatam kar diya, jahan haz-aro wade kiye jate thay (Modiended the practice of separaterailway budget which madevote bank promises).” He alsowent on to quote Atal BihariVajpayee, “Main hamesha vadeleke nahin, irade leke aaya (Ibring determination/commit-ment and not promises).”

He said track kilometregrew by 39,000 km in 64 years,while in the past five years itgrew by 7,000 km. Similarly, hesaid the railways increased its

running kilometre by 12,000km between 1950-2014, whilefrom 2014-2019, it grew by5,000 running kilometre.

“The work for DedicatedFreight Corridor started in 2007.From 2007 to 2014, they had noteven managed one kilometre oftrack linking. We took on thiswork and in just five years, wehave completed 1900 km oftrack linking,” said Goyal.

He again claimed that dur-ing the Congress rule, not onecoach was manufactured inRae Bareli’s Modern CoachFactory since 2007-2008 till2014 and the first coach wasmade in August 2014 shortlyafter the BJP came to power.There was no protest orresponse coming from theCongress benches.

“We want the MCF toincrease its manufacturingcapacity to 5000 and the trainscoming out of there go to theentire world. We want it to bethe largest factory in the world,”he said.

Goyal said that between2004 and 2009, around 206accidents took place every year,while the number was 153between 2009 and 2011. Hesaid that during the BJP’stenure, it reduced to around100 every year.

Lashing out at successiveState Governments in WestBengal, Goyal said several pro-jects had been held up becausethe State was unable to provideland to railways.

“The oldest project in WestBengal is running from 1974-75. The projects don’t get com-pleted because the Governmentdoesn’t give us land. If they giveus land, work will immediate-ly start,” he said, adding simi-lar problems were also faced inKerala.

���� 0/3��/�45

Delegates from India andPakistan will meet at the

Attari-Wagah border onSunday to discuss variousissues related to the KartarpurCorridor, including connec-tivity at the Zero Point and thenumber of pilgrims to beallowed. Government officialssaid the construction fromIndian side will be completedby October 31, well before thecommemoration of 550th birthanniversary of Guru Nanak inNovember 2019.

New Delhi had earlier con-veyed its strong concerns toPakistan over the presence of aleading Khalistani separatistin a committee appointed byIslamabad on the project. “Themeeting will discuss modalitiesof the Kartarpur Corridor and

related technical issues,” saidthe officials.

The four-lane highway

connecting the Zero Point ofthe Kartarpur Corridor up toNational Highway-354 is being

constructed by the NationalHighways Authority of India(NHAI). The officials saidIndia is constructing a bridgeat the Zero Point and hasurged Pakistan to build a sim-ilar bridge on its side that willprovide safe and secure move-ment of the pilgrims andaddress concerns regardingflooding. The bridge is over acreek, of which the majoritypart falls in Pakistan.

Pakistan said it would builda mud-filled embankment, amove which would not onlylead to flooding in areas on theIndian side but also pose athreat to the structure of thebridge. The construction workat the site of passenger termi-nal complex at Dera BabaNanak in India is on full swing.The work has been planned tobe completed by October 31

before the commemoration of550th birth anniversary ofGuru Nanak in November2019. More than 250 labour-ers and 30 engineers are work-ing at the site in three shifts.The terminal is being built onaround 15 acres of land withcomprehensive facilities tocater to approximately 5,000pilgrims daily.

The passenger terminalbuilding is being constructed by the Land PortsAuthority of India.

The work for it was award-ed to the Shapoorji PallonjiGroup on May 29. The landacquisition process has beencompleted with the support ofthe Punjab government and theproject is scheduled to be com-pleted by October 31.

The total cost of the projectis Rs 177.5 crore.

���� 0/3��/�45

The Lok Sabha on Fridaypassed the Amendment

Bill to Central Universities Actto set up a Central universityand a tribal university inAndhra Pradesh.

Moving the CentralUniversities (Amendment) Bill,2019 for passage, HRDMinister Ramesh Pokhriyal‘Nishank’ said the Governmenthas allotted Rs 450 crore for thecentral university and Rs 420crore for the central tribal uni-versity. Currently these twouniversities are functioning intemporary facilities inAnantpur and Vijayanagaramrespectively.

HRD Minister said theModi Government has givenAndhra Pradesh two universi-ties and seven institutions ofimportance. Stating that at pre-sent the education departmenthas a budget of Rs 1.25 lakhcrore, he said the Governmentis moving at a fast pace in thearea of education. It has put theeducation sector under focus toensure all round development,he said.

According to the CentralUniversities (Amendment) Bill,2019, the two universitieswill increase access andquality of higher educa-tion and also promoteavenues of higher educa-tion for the people of thestate. The TribalUniversity will pro-vide instructionaland researchfacilities intribal art, cul-ture and cus-toms and

advancement in technology tothe tribal population of India.At present, there is no centraluniversity in Andhra Pradeshwhile other States, except Goa, have one or more suchinstitution.

Setting up a central uni-versity and a central tribal uni-versity in Andhra Pradesh isobligatory under the AndhraPradesh Reorganisation Act,2014 for creation of Telangana.

Participating in the dis-cussion, K Suresh (Cong) saidthat the bill has not mentionedabout detailed funding mech-anism and funding of univer-sities have remained an issue inthe country. There is also nomention about curriculum andadministration of these twouniversities in the bill, he said.

He added that it was alsonot mentioned whethertribals would get reserva-

tion in the central tribaluniversity.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP)took a swipe at the TDP for

questioning theintentions of PrimeMinister NarendraModi.

���)����+������ 0/3��/�45

Visitors to the ‘Statue ofUnity’ (SoU), world’s tallest

statue of Sardar VallabhbhaiPatel, will soon also get to enjoythe Jungle Safari housing exot-ic animals and birds as theGujarat Government is in theprocess of developing a worldclass zoo adjacent to the site atKevadia Colony in Narmadadistrict in the State.

Setting up of the SardarPatel Zoological Park is in linewith Prime Minister NarendraModi’s wishes keen to developthe spot as a major tourismhub, said a senior official from

the Gujarat Government oncondition of anonymity.

The Central Zoo Authority(CZA), a regulatory body forzoos in the country, has alreadygiven in-principle approval tothe proposal of developing thezoo to be spread over 200acres near the statue site whichwitnesses around 7 lakhtourists every year. The zoo,which is being developed inphases, is likely to be inaugu-rated in October this year,most probably on the birthanniversary of the iron man.

The official told ThePioneer that last year onDecember 22, the Prime

Minister during his visit to theSoU site had expressed desire

to develop Kevadia as a tourismhub so that the tourists visiting

from far places have full valueof their time and money.

“The Prime Minister want-ed more attraction at the venuewhere kids and families canspend entire day together. Alsoidea is to sensitise and educatethe visitors about the ecosystemand importance of wildlifeconservation.

“The zoo will have five sec-tions each for mammals, car-nivorous, herbivorous andwater animals and a walkthrough aviary besides exoticanimals as per the zoo man-date. We are in the process ofacquiring the animals fromother zoos,” said the official.

Inaugurated by Modi lastyear, the 182 meter tall SoU isalready flanked by 17-km-longpatch of colourful flowers,around 100 varieties of flowers,along the banks of RiverNarmada to make the spotresembling a rainbow of flow-ers set up on earth. In addition,two beautiful lakes — ‘Kamal’and ‘Poyani’ — are also devel-oped.

With a view to give first-hand experience of nature andenvironment to visitors, naturaltreks — Reva Trek, SadhuTrek, Vainkutth Baba Trek,Sardar Trek, and AshwasthamaTrek - have been developed. In

addition to these, the site hasAdventure Park, Garden ofFive Senses, Selfie with Statueand Sardar garden, said theofficial.

Once Sardar PatelZoological Park starts func-tioning, Gujarat will in totalhave eight zoos. The sevenother zoos are Sakkarbaug Zoo,Junagadh; Kamla NehruZoological Garden,Ahmedabad; Indroda NaturePark, Gandhi Nagar; NaturePark, Surat; Rajkot MunicipalCorporation Zoo, Rajkot; SayajiBaug Zoo, Vadodara; andSundervan Nature DiscoveryCentre in Ahmedabad.

���� 0/3��/�45�

The CBI has booked formerArunachal Pradesh Chief

Minister Nabam Tuki for allegedcorruption in award of contractsworth Rs 3.20 crore for aGovernment project in 2003.

Tuki, the then Minister ofConsumer Affairs and CivilSupplies in Arunachal Pradesh,had allegedly colluded withhis brother Nabam Tagam totake illegal gratification in lieuof the contracts given to devel-op two parking places inNirjulee and Naharlagun in thestate worth Rs 61.43 lakh andRs 2.60 crore, officials said.

Tuki was the CM of theState during 2011-16. Hisbrother Nabam Tagam, NNOsik, the then director civilsupplies, and the then chief

manager United CommercialBank Sohrab Ali Hazarika havealso been booked, they said.

Osik allegedly paid illegalgratification of Rs 30 lakh,which were credited in hisaccount in Itanagar branch ofthe United Commercial Bank.The cheque was initially issued

in the name of Tuki and waslater changed to “yourself ”, theagency alleged.

It said Hazarika, as thebranch manager, helped to getthe amount credited in Tuki’saccount and did not obtain anyauthorisation for alterationsmade in the cheque beneficia-ry column.

The account holder’s namein the bank records was “oblit-erated” and was replaced withT Nabam in the specimen sig-nature card. A picture of Tuki’sbrother Nabam Tagam wasalso put on the specimen sig-nature card.

The agency has booked allthe accused for IPC sectionsrelating to criminal conspiracyand forgery besides provisionsof the Prevention ofCorruption Act.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday stayed furtherproceedings in the MadrasHigh Court in a case againstTamil magazine ‘Nakkheeran’for publishing articles alleged-ly denigrating Tamil NaduGovernor Banwarilal Purohit.

A Bench headed by JusticeSA Nazeer agreed to examinethe State Government’s pleaagainst the order which stayedthe proceedings against themagazine and its editor. On June4, the High Court had grantedinterim relief to Nakkheeraneditor R Gopal by staying pro-ceedings against him in the casein a lower court.

Gopal was arrested onOctober 9 last year underSection 124 of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) which relates to

“assaulting President, Governoretc with intent to compel orrestrain the exercise of any law-ful power”, triggering a con-troversy.

However, he had walkedfree within hours after a localcourt had rejected the police’splea for his remand andreleased him on a personalbond. The case was filed on acomplaint from the Raj Bhavanover the publication of a seriesof articles in Nakkheeran relat-ed to a woman assistant pro-fessor of a private college whoallegedly asked girl students toextend sexual favours to uni-versity officials in return formarks and money.

Gopal approached theMadras High Court seekingquashing of the case. PTI

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Page 6: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Bengaluru: BJP in Karnatakaon Friday decided to move itsMLAs to a resort near hereamid fears of poaching bid bythe ruling Congress-JD(S)combine after Chief MinisterHD Kumarasway announcedhe would seek a trust vote inthe Assembly despite the res-ignation by rebel legislators.

Every one (BJP MLAs) feltthat they should be togetherand come together to theassembly on Monday... I havesaid okay, State BJP presidentB S Yeddyurappa told reportersin response to a question.

The MLAs were likely tostay put at a resort on the out-skirts of the city, party sourcessaid.

Resort politics is nothingnew to Karnataka and duringan earlier crisis faced by the rul-ing combine its MLAs werestaying at a resort on the cityoutskirts.

The ruling coalition's totalstrength is 116 (Congress-78,JD(S)-37 and BSP-1), besidesthe Speaker. With the supportof the two independents, whoMonday resigned from theministry, the BJP has 107MLAs in the 224-memberHouse, where the half-waymark is 113.

If the resignations of the 16

MLAs are accepted, the coali-tion's tally will be reduced to100.

To a question onKumaraswamy's surpriseannounement and how pre-pared was the BJP to the trustvote, Yeddyurappa said theywould decide their strategy onthe basis of Kumaraswamy'sspeech.

"As a Chief Minister, he hasmade a statement, how can Isay no to it. It is left to him. Wewill decide on the basis of whatthe Chief Minister speaks whenseeks the trust vote," the BJPveteran said.

Amid the crisis triggeredby the resignation of 16Congress and JD(S) MLAs,Kumaraswamy in the Assemblyearlier on Friday said he wouldprove the majority of his

Government on the floor of theHouse and asked Speaker KRRamesh Kumar to fix the timefor it.

On the Supreme CourtFriday restraining the Speakerfrom taking any decision on theresignation and disqualificationof 10 MLAs till Tuesday,Yeddyurappa said it has comeas a moral booster to the rebelswho were 'satisfied' with theorder.

He claimed even the whipissued (asking all ruling MLAsto attend the session) will notbe applicable for the ten.

The MLAs in Mumbai hadcontacted our friends, they allare satisfied with the SupremeCourt verdict, he said, addingthe BJP would wait for the out-come of the next hearing onTuesday. PTI

���$�5&��4!�����������)��$���������� Ahmedabad: Congress leader

Rahul Gandhi on Fridayclaimed that the BJP uses"money power" and "intimida-tion" to topple Governmentsand accused the saffron partyof doing the same in Karnataka.

Sixteen MLAs including13 from the Congress, haveresigned and two Independentshave withdrawn support to the13-month-old Congress-JD(S)coalition Government in thesouthern State.

"BJP uses money power orthreat to topple Governmentswherever it can. You saw thisfirst in Goa, in the Northeast,and now are trying to do thesame in Karnataka. It is theirway of functioning. They havemoney, power, and they use it.This is the reality," Gandhi toldreporters here.

"The Congress is fightingfor truth, because truth makesCongress stronger," he said inreply to a question on what his

party would do now.Reacting to defamation

cases filed against him in dif-ferent parts of the country,Gandhi said, "There is anattempt to suppress, threaten,but this does not matter to me.I do not get scared. I willstand and continue to fight.This is a fight for theConstitution, the country'sfuture. Fight against corrup-tion, against atrocity. This willgo on." PTI

Bengaluru: Three rebelCongress and JD(S) MLAsfailed to appear beforeKarnataka Assembly SpeakerKR Ramesh Kumar on Fridayas sought by him for a person-al hearing over their resigna-tions, official sources said.

The Speaker had on July 9asked the three MLAs to appearbefore him at his office between3 pm and 4 pm on Friday fora personal hearing.

The MLAs are NarayanaGowda of JDS and AnandSingh and Prathap Gouda Patilof Congress.

However, none of themturned up, the sources said.

While Gowda and Patil

remained in Mumbai alongwith other rebels, Singh islearnt to have left for Goa.

Earlier in the day, theSpeaker told reporters that Iwill start the process if theycome..."

The three MLAs are part ofthe first batch of 13 legislatorsof the ruling Congress-JD(S)combine who resigned fromthe assembly last Saturday,dealing a blow to the coalitionGovernment. Later, three otherMLAs quit.

Ramesh Kumar had heldthat the resignation letters ofonly five out of the 13 MLAswere in proper format. Besidesthat of Gowda, Patil and Singh,

the letters of K Gopaliah (JDS)and Ramalinga Reddy(Congress) were found inorder.

He had then fixed July 15for hearing Gopaliah andReddy while asking others tosubmit their resignations prop-erly.

Ten MLAs who moved theSupreme Court alleging thatthe Speaker was not acceptingtheir resignations had appearedbefore him Thursday as direct-ed by the court and submittedresignations afresh.

After the MLAs met him,the Speaker ruled out anyimmediate decision on the res-ignation. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: WithCongress lawmakers quittingand cosying up to BJP in vari-ous States, Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan tooka dig at them, saying the grandold party was giving a helpinghand in the saffron party'smembership drive.

"In various states, the peo-ple's representatives and lead-ers of the congress are joiningthe BJP.

Congress has become aparty engaged in increasing themembership of the BJP," he saidat a function here.

Apparently referring to themass resignations in Congressin various states, including

Karnataka and Goa, Vijayanasked whether a party like that"should remain an orphanwithout a leader" at a timewhen the country was goingthrough a very difficult phase.

He said the Congress lead-ership must be prepared to facethe challenges.

Not only during victories,but also during a crisis situa-tion, there is a need to face itand give strong leadership, hesaid at a function here.

The Chief Minister said theCPI(M) had for long been say-ing that those in the Congresscannot be trusted and nonewere sure when they wouldleave their party. PTI

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Lucknow: Ram JanmabhoomiNyas member Ram VilasVedanti on Friday claimed bar-ring fundamentalists, theMuslim community supportsthe idea of construction of agrand Ram temple in Ayodhya.

"Eighty per cent Muslims,barring the fundamentalists,want that the temple be con-structed at the place whereRam Lalla is installed inAyodhya," he told media here.

"The chairman of the ShiaWaqf Board, Wasim Rizvi hasalso agreed that Ram temple bebuilt in Ayodhya whereas themosque can be constructed atany other Shia-majority place inLucknow," he said.

His comments come in thewake of the Supreme Court onThursday seeking a report onthe "progress of mediation" inthe politically sensitive case ofRam Janmabhoomi-BabriMasjid land dispute in Ayodhyaand said a day-to-day hearing

may commence from July 25 ifthe court decides to concludethose proceedings.

Vedanti, described as work-ing president of RamJanmabhoomi Nyas, also saidthere was "nothing in the nameof (Mughal ruler) Babur" inAyodhya and that everything inthe city was "in the name ofLord Ram".

"There is not even a locali-ty, lane or ward named afterBabar in Ayodhya," he said.

"Muslims need to comeforward and say that Hindusshould construct their temple inAyodhya for peace, communalamity and brotherhood," hesaid, adding the Sunni WaqfBoard should withdraw thecase.

To a question, Vedanti, aformer BJP MP, said it was mostunfortunate that in a countrywhere Hindus constitute "90 percent" of the population, peopleare fighting a case in court forthe construction of Ram temple.

He said no power can builda mosque where Ram Lalla isinstalled, adding his statementcould be either taken as a 'threat'or 'suggestion'.

On December 6, 1992, theBabri Masjid, constructed at thedisputed site in the 16th centu-ry by Shia Muslim Mir Baqi,was demolished. PTI

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United Nations: India lifted271 million people out ofpoverty between 2006 and2016, recording the fastestreductions in the multidimen-sional poverty index valuesduring the period with strongimprovements in areas such as"assets, cooking fuel, sanitationand nutrition," a report by theUnited Nations said.

The 2019 globalMultidimensional PovertyIndex (MPI) from the UNDevelopment Programme(UNDP), the Oxford Povertyand Human DevelopmentInitiative (OPHI) was releasedon Thursday.

The report said that in the101 countries studied - 31 lowincome, 68 middle income and2 high income - 1.3 billion peo-ple are "multidimensionallypoor", which means that pover-ty is defined not simply byincome, but by a number ofindicators, including poorhealth, poor quality of work

and the threat of violence.The report identifies 10

countries, with a combinedpopulation of around 2 billionpeople, to illustrate the level ofpoverty reduction, and all ofthem have shown statisticallysignificant progress towardsachieving SustainableDevelopment Goal 1, namelyending poverty "in all its forms,everywhere".

The 10 countries are

Bangladesh, Cambodia,Democratic Republic of Congo,Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria,Pakistan, Peru and Vietnam.

The report said that with-in these 10 countries, datashows that 270 million peoplemoved out of multidimen-sional poverty from one surveyto the next.

"This progress was largelydriven by South Asia. In India,there were 271 million fewer

people in poverty in 2016 thanin 2006, while in Bangladeshthe number dropped by 19 mil-lion between 2004 and 2014,"it said.

The report noted that ofthe 10 selected countries forwhich changes over time wereanalysed, India and Cambodiareduced their MPI values thefastest-and they did not leavethe poorest groups behind.

India's MPI value reducedfrom 0.283 in 2005-06 to 0.123in 2015-16.

Noting the examples ofpro-poor reduction, where thepoorest regions improved thefastest, the report said thatJharkhand in India reduced theincidence of multidimension-al poverty from 74.9 per cent in2005-06 to 46.5 per cent in2015-16.

Mondol Kiri and RattanakKiri in Cambodia reduced itfrom 71.0 per cent to 55.9 percent between 2010 and 2014.

Ethiopia, India and Peru

significantly reduced depriva-tions in all 10 indicators, name-ly nutrition, sanitation, childmortality, drinking water, yearsof schooling, electricity, schoolattendance, housing, cookingfuel and assets.

In 2005-2006, the popula-tion in India living in multidi-mensional poverty stood atabout 640 million people (55.1per cent) and this reduced to369 million people (27.9 percent) living in poverty in 2015-16. India saw significant reduc-tions in number of people whoare multidimensionally poorand deprived in each of the 10indicators over this time peri-od.

India reduced deprivationin nutrition from 44.3 per centin 2005-06 to 21.2 per cent in2015-16, child mortalitydropped from 4.5 per cent to2.2 per cent, people deprived ofcooking fuel reduced from52.9 per cent to 26.2 per cent,deprivation in sanitation from

50.4 per cent to 24.6 per cent,those deprived of drinkingwater reduced from 16.6 percent to 6.2 per cent.

Further more peoplegained access to electricity asdeprivation was reduced from29.1 per cent to 8.6 per cent,housing from 44.9 per cent to23.6 per cent and assets depri-vation from 37.6 per cent to 9.5per cent.

The trends in these 10countries also shine a light onwhere poverty reduction hasbeen uneven, despite the goodprogress overall, it said.

"In all 10 countries ruralareas are poorer than urbanareas. In Cambodia, Haiti,India and Peru poverty reduc-tion in rural areas outpacedthat in urban areas-demon-strating pro-poor develop-ment-and in Bangladesh andDemocratic Republic of theCongo poverty fell at the samespeed in rural and urban areas,"it added.

The report also showedthat children suffer povertymore intensely than adults andare more likely to be deprivedin all 10 of the MPI indicators,lacking essentials such as cleanwater, sanitation, adequatenutrition or primary education.

Child poverty fell marked-ly faster than adult poverty inBangladesh, Cambodia, Haiti,India and Peru. But childrenfell further behind in Ethiopia,and their progress-togetherwith that of adults-stalled inDemocratic Republic of theCongo and Pakistan.

Globally, of the 1.3 billionpeople who are multidimen-sionally poor, more than two-thirds of them-886 million-now live in middle-incomecountries. A further 440 mil-lion live in low-income coun-tries.

Even more staggering,worldwide, one in three chil-dren is multidimensionallypoor, compared to one in six

adults. That means that near-ly half of the people living inmultidimensional poverty-663million- are children, with theyoungest children bearing thegreatest burden. The vastmajority of these children,around 85 per cent, live inSouth Asia and Sub-SaharanAfrica, split roughly equallybetween the two regions.

The report underscoredthat the traditional concept ofpoverty is outdated, demon-strating more clearly than everthat labelling countries - oreven households - as rich andpoor is an oversimplification.

"To fight poverty, oneneeds to know where poorpeople live. They are not even-ly spread across a country, noteven within a household,"UNDP Administrator AchimSteiner said.

The report also highlight-ed a positive trend that thosefurthest behind are movingup the fastest. PTI

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Jammu: The Pakistan Army onFriday violated ceasefire byfiring and mortar shelling onforward posts and civilian areasalong the LoC in three sectorsof Jammu & Kashmir's Rajouriand Poonch districts, drawingbefitting retaliation fromIndian troops, a defence PROsaid.

"At about 0800 hourstoday, Pak army initiatedunprovoked ceasefire violationwith firing of small arms &later shelling with mortarsalong LoC in Mankote,Krishna Ghati sectors ofPoonch district and Nowsherasector of Rajouri district@,Defence Public RelationsOfficer (PRO) told PTI.

The Indian Army is retal-iating beffitingly, he said,adding that there was no casu-

alty or injury to anyone in thefiring and shelling.

Pakistan troops also tar-geted civil ian areas inMankote area triggering fearpsychosis among them, theofficials said.

It may be recalled thatPakistan army resorted to fir-ing and shelling of mortarsalong LoC in Nowshera Sectorin Rajouri district last Friday.

The Indian Army report-ed 1,248 cases of ceasefireviolations (CFVs) and fourcasualties along the Line ofControl this year, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh said onTuesday.

In a written response to aquestion in the Rajya Sabha,Singh said that January saw 203cases of CFVs, followed by 215in February. PTI

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Congress in Meghalaya hasprotested against the scarcity ofbeef in markets of the State andhas blamed the BJP-backedGovernment for depriving thepeople of their favourite food.

The Congress also demand-ed that the government put animmediate stop to illegal smug-gling of cattle to Bangladesh.

Local butchers protestingagainst cattle smuggling hadrefused to sell beef for a monthforcing the authorities of EastJaintia Hills and South WastGaro Hills districts to imposeprohibitory orders under section144 CrPC along the Indo-Banglaborder.

They had called off theirprotest last weekend after the dis-trict authorities stepped up thevigil Indo-Bangladesh border.

Why has beef disappearedfrom the markets in the state?What is the reason? Where

have the cows gone? It onlymeans that the chief ministerand the state home minister aresleeping. Or they are awake, see-ing and allowing things to hap-pen, Leader of OppositionMukul Sangma said.

The government of the dayshould verify. It is their job. Weare concerned that we havebeen deprived of our most deli-cious beef. The governmentshould have responded. I amtold that there is a smuggling ofcattle going on in which somebig people are involved, healleged.

Mukul Sangma, who headsthe Congress Legislative Partysaid at a meeting here lateThursday night that the partyhas discussed the issue at length.

Cattle are coming toMeghalaya but not reaching themarkets. I think there is a sub-way to divert them somewhereelse, he said in a jibe. PTI

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Aware of the fact that mas-sive alienation had taken

place in her party in the pastfew years leading to debacle inthe parliamentary elections,Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has askedthe Trinamool Congress lead-ers to restore mass connec-tivity by shunning arroganceand being polite to the gener-al public.

Meeting her party MLAsfor the first time since theconclusion of the Lok Sabhaelections that saw the TMClosing 12 seats to the resurgentBJP, Mamata asked the legis-lators to shun arrogance, con-duct themselves more polite-ly when they meet peopleand apologise for their pastmistakes.

“Our party chief is confi-dent that the TMC will reviveits lost strength for which sheprescribed a simple formula,that is: be polite and apologiesfor your wrongs,” an MLAfrom Kolkata said.

Banerjee’s advice wasreportedly a part of a six-pointagenda prepared by electionstrategist Prashant Kishor whohas been employed by Banerjeefor rejuvenating the party andrebuilding its image in theState.

Arrogance, rampant cor-ruption, bribery, criminalisa-tion and misdemeanor weresome primary reasons identi-fied by the party think tank asthe main reason for its electoraldebacle. Out of the 42 LokSabha seats the TMC whichhad won 34 in 2014, couldmanage only 22 seats conced-ing 18 to the BJP and 2 to theCongress.

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Mumbai: A court here onFriday refused to provide inter-im protection from arrest tothree men who are accused ofuploading an inflammatoryvideo on mobile app Tik Tokfollowing a lynching incident inJharkhand.

The short video surfacedon the popular video-sharingapp after the death of TabrezAnsari last month.

Mumbai Police filed a firstinformation report (FIR) againstHasnan Khan (21), MudassirShaikh (23) and ShadanFarooqui (23) for uploading thevideo, alleging that they wereindulging in hate-mongering.

The video purportedlyshows some youths saying, "You

may have killed that innocentTabrez Ansari, but tomorrow ifhis son takes revenge, do not saythat all Muslims are terrorists."

The police charged thethree men, who were said tohave a large following on TikTok, under IPC section 153-A(promoting enmity betweendifferent groups on grounds ofreligion, etc.), after which theyfiled an anticipatory bail plea.

Their lawyer Ali KaashifKhan said police should alsohold makers of the mobile appresponsible.

He said police also ignoredthe fact that the accused had inthe past uploaded several videoscalling for communal harmonyand brotherhood. PTI

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Guwahati: With the death ofthree more patients, the JapaneseEncephalitis in Assam rose to 71,a National Health Mission(NHM) bulletin said here onFriday.

The number of registeredpositive JE cases also increasedto 334 from 306 on Thursday.

Of the three fresh deathsreported, two were fromDibrugarh and one fromGoalpara district, said the NHMbulletin.

Giving the cumulative fig-ures for JE/AES (AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome), thebulletin said there were 165deaths and 1,280 cases reportedsince January. Measures to con-

trol the mosquito borne diseasethat affects the brain continuedto be taken across the statewhich is currently undergoing atransmission season for JapaneseEncephalitis, NHM sources said.

Treatment and diagnosticcost for JE/AES is being borneby the government at state runhospitals where certain numberof beds in all the ICUs and wardswere reserved for such patients.

"The AES is inflammationof the brain and spinal cordcaused due to viral, bacterial andparasitic causes out of which JEis a virus transmitted throughculex mosquito," HealthMinister Dr Himanta BiswaSarma said recently. PTI

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Page 7: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Chennai: A train carrying 2.5million litres of water arrivedfrom Jolapettai in Vellore dis-trict to Chennai, which hasbeen grappling with an acutewater crisis over the past fewmonths, officials said on Friday.

The train with 50 tankwagons (BTPN), carrying50,000 litres of water in each ofthem, reached the filling stationat the Integral Coach FactoryYard in Villivakkam Fridayafternoon.

Around 100 inlet pipesinstalled near the railway trackswould be used to discharge 2.5million litres of water in all thewagons, to be sent to a treat-ment plant after passingthrough a conduit, an official ofChennai Metropolitan WaterSupply and Sewerage Boardsaid.

"After treatment it wouldbe sent for distribution. Thisarrangement has been made forthe next six months until the(advent of the) north-east mon-soon," the official told PTI.

The train was supposed toreach Chennai on Thursday,

but leakages in the valves led tothe delay. Jolarpettai is 217 kmaway from the southernmetropolis.

All the arrangements took

around 20 days to complete.Chennai has been grap-

pling with an acute water cri-sis over the past few months.The southern metropolis is

facing a daily water deficit of atleast 200 million litres, and thefour reservoirs supplying to thecity have run dry.

The Tamil Nadu

Government had earlierrequested the railways to helpthem ferry the water to the city.

Chief Minister KPalaniswami had announcedmitigating Chennai's waterwoes by getting drinking waterfrom Jolarpettai with an allo-cation of �65 crore.

Earlier, speaking after aceremony to receive the train,Municipal administrationMinister S P Velumani said theGovernment would bring in 10million litres of water per day(MLD) through rail fromJolarpettai.

"We have planned to bringin 10 MLD of water and haveallocated �66 crore for thepurpose," he told reporters.

The Government was intalks with the Railways to bringdown the cost of transporta-tion, he said and recalled thatthe Chief Minister had alsowritten to the Railway Ministerto offer the service at lessercost.

He said irrespective of theoutcome, the assurances givenby the CM would be fulfilled,

he added.Fisheries Minister D

Jayakumar, Minister for TamilOfficial Language and Culture'Ma Foi' K Pandiarajan, amongothers, were present at the cer-emony.

Southern Railways said ithas earmarked two rakes (eachhaving 50 BTPN wagons) forthe arrangement, which is like-ly to continue till the water sit-uation improves in Chennai.

It said in a statement thattwo locomotives in pushpullformation have been allocatedto each 'water special' train tocut down on time.

Meanwhile, DMK legisla-tor A P Nandakumar, repre-senting Anaicut in Vellore dis-trict, said in the assembly thatthe party had no objection inwater being supplied toChennai from Jolarpet.

At the same time, addi-tional quantum of water shouldbe pumped for areas under theVellore Combined DrinkingWater Scheme to ensure thatpeople of his district were notaffected. PTI

Kolkata/Jalpaiguri: Incessantrain over the past three days hasjeopardised normal life in northBengal, creating a flood-like sit-uation in the low-lying areas andtriggering landslides in the Hills.

The weatherman on Fridaypredicted downpour in northBengal and parts of Sikkim tillMonday morning.

Road connectivity betweenSikkim and other parts of thecountry has been severelyaffected with landslides block-ing National Highway 10, thelifeline of the small Himalayanstate, official sources said.

Water levels in Teesta,Diana, Lish, Ghish, Raidak,Kaljani, Sankosh and Jaldhakarivers have risen to alarminglevels and many areas inMalbazar, Moynaguri andDhupguri towns have beeninundated, they said.

Passenger train servicesbetween New Jalpaiguri andAlipurduar through Dooars areahas been suspended, a NorthFrontier Railway official said.

The trains would be takingthe Coochbehar route for thetime being, he said.

Conditions are likely to

worsen in the region with theMet department forecastingheavy to very heavy rain tillSunday in the five districts ofsub-Himalayan West Bengal -Darjeeling, Kalimpong,Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar andAlipurduar. Heavy precipita-tion has also been predicted innorth Dinajpur, south Dinajpurand Malda areas till Mondaymorning. Due to landslidestriggered by continuous rain-fall, Sikkim and Dooars regionof north Bengal have been cutoff from Siliguri, officialsources said. PTI

Guwahati: The Army wascalled for assistance in Assamas the flood situation in thestate worsened on Friday withthe toll rising to six and affect-ing nearly 8.7 lakh peopleacross 21 districts.

Officials said the Army'sassistance was sought in Baksadistrict to aid the personnel ofNational Disaster ResponseForce and State DisasterResponse Force in rescuingmarooned people.

Assam State DisasterManagement Authority(ASDMA) officials said threemore persons died in rain andflood-related incidents inGolaghat and Dima Hasao dis-tricts Friday. While two personsdied in the flood at Bokakhatrevenue circle in Golaghat, onedied in landslide in Haflong inDima Hasao district.

It said about 8.7 lakh per-sons have been hit by the del-uge in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur,

Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang,Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari,Chirang, Bongaigaon,Kokrajhar, Goalpara,Morigaon, Hojai, Nagaon,Golaghat, Majuli, Jorhat,Sivasagar, Dibrugarh andTinsukia districts.

The state has a total of 33districts and till yesterday threepersons had died in floodsand around 4.23 lakh peoplewere affected in 17 districts.

Barpeta is the worst hitwith 3.5 lakh people affected,followed by Dhemaji where 1.2lakh people are hit. They arefollowed by Bongaigaon wherethe number of affected is62,500, ASDMA said.

Massive erosions havetaken place at various places inChirang, Barpeta and Baksadue to the floods, which hassubmerged a total 1,556 villagesand damaged 27,864.16hectares of crop area, embank-ments, roads, bridges, culverts

and other infrastructure in theaffected districts.

The authorities are running68 relief camps and distributioncentres in 11 districts, where7,643 people are taking sheltercurrently, ASDMA said.

The Army, NDRF andSDRF have rescued 1,160 per-sons in the state since Thursdayand have distributed 1,281.35quintals of rice, dal, salt and1,493.46 litres of mustard oil,besides tarpaulin, water pouch,sanitary napkins, baby foodand other essential items.

Currently, Brahmaputra isflowing above its danger-markat Guwahati, at Nimatighat inJorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur andat Goalpara and Dhubri towns,it said.

Burhidehing river is flow-ing above its danger mark atKhowang in Dibrugarh,Desang river atNanglamuraghat in Sivasagar,Dhansiri river at Numaligarh in

Golaghat and Jia Bharali at NTRoad Crossing in Sonitpur dis-trict. Kopili river is above thered at Kampur in Nagaon,Puthimari river at NH RoadCrossing in Kamrup, Beki riverat Road Bridge in Barpeta,Katakhal river at Matizuri inHailakandi and Kushiyara riverat Karimganj town, theASDMA added.

With the Brahmaputraflowing 2.27 meters above thedanger level at Neematighat,ferry services to and fromMajuli island, which is Asia'slargest river island, remainedsuspended for the fifth dayFriday, Central WaterCommission officials said here.

The Inland WaterTransport Authority of thestate government has kept twoof its vessels ready loaded withanti-erosion materials to meetany situation in the erosionprone areas of the island.

The swirling flood waters

have forced the railway author-ity to control train services dueto "settlement of tracks" inLumding-Badarpur hill sec-tion, Northeast FrontierRailway Chief Public RelationsOfficer Pranav Jyoti Sharmasaid.

Heavy rains have affectedthe train tracks between JatingaLumpur to New Harangajaostation in Lumding-Badarpurhill section of the NF Railway,he added.

As a result, some trainshave either been cancelled orshort terminated, Sharma said.

Kaziranga National Park,the famed habitat of the GreatIndian Rhino and a WorldHeritage site, has been affect-ed too forcing the authorities toset up road barricades on theNational Highway passingthrough it to limit the speed ofvehicles, said KazirangaDivisional Forest OfficerRuhini Saikia. PTI

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Itanagar: Two girls were buriedin their sleep and three otherswere injured after a landslidecaused a boundary wall to col-lapse on the hostel building ofa school in Tawang district ofArunachal Pradesh, police saidon Friday.

The incident occurred atthe hostel of a governmentschool at Namtsering village onThursday when 19 girl studentswere asleep in their rooms,Tawang Superintendent ofPolice (SP) Sagar Singh Kalsisaid.

The landslide triggered byincessant downpour struck theboundary wall with tremen-dous force and it fell on the hos-tel building, a portion of whichcollapsed burying the girls.

The hostel building was ofsemi-pucca type and its wallswere weaker than the boundarywall, officials said.

Chief Minister PemaKhandu expressed grief at thedeath of Genden Wangmu andRinchi Lhamu, students of

classes 5 and 6 respectively, andannounced an exgratia of Rs 4lakh to each of their families.

An official statement saidthree girls were injured in theincident and they have beentreated at hospitals at Lumlaand Tawang.

With the state capital wit-nessing landslips, mudslidesand road blockades due toheavy rainfall for several days,the district administration hasordered closure of all schools inItanagar till Sunday.

Khandu directed the chiefsecretary to personally monitorthe situation and shift the peo-ple from vulnerable areas tosafer places.

A 23-year-old woman wasreportedly swept away by flash-flood in West Kameng districton Monday and is still untrace-able.

The Itanagar-Naharlagunstretch of NH-415, which isbeing upgraded to a four-lanehighway, is the worst hit by themonsoon fury. PTI

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Mumbai: The search for a three-year-old boy who fell into anopen stormwater drain hereWednesday has been stopped, acivic official said Friday night.

Divyansh Singh, who fellinto a drain at AmbedkarChowk in Malad East around 10pm Wednesday, remaineduntraceable even after 48 hours.

The search was finallystopped around 10 pm, thespokesperson of the

Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said.

The search team coveredover 10 km of drainage line butin vain, another official said.

The team of 50 BMC, FireBrigade and National DisasterResponse Force personnelsearched the drain line by open-ing all manholes along thestretch. The child's fall into thedrain near Goregaon-MulundLink Road was captured by

CCTV cameras. Divyansh'sfather Suraj Bhan Singh hadalleged earlier that the authori-ties were not doing enough totrace his son. "The BMC, firebrigade and NDRF are notshowing any intent to find myson. The fire brigade team didnot even have a torch. NDRFjawans came and went back. Ourfamily wanted to protest butwere stopped by the police,"Singh had claimed. PTI

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Page 8: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

Did this happen to Bengal, really?”This was the question among thetribe that has prided itself instanding apart and shaping thethoughts and culture of a State

by sheer endowment of history than an inter-active understanding of contemporary real-ity, namely the intellectual. Soon after the LokSabha verdict had announced the inevitable,that the syncretic liberalism that the State hadbeen a product of was now slowly endorsinga majoritarian conservatism, Bengal’s intel-lectuals began groping for explanations. Andthrown into a sea of confusion from theirivory tower constructs, they clutched at thenext best thing. Survival. Even if it meantchanging perspectives overnight. If somethinghad fallen, may be there was somethingindeed wrong with it, never mind that theyhad wilfully ignored the signs as long as it wasself-serving and non-threatening, and, there-fore, pragmatically moved on to the next bestthing. Nothing can better explain how a shift-ing bloc of Bengal’s cultural elite has thrivedon every regime change, picking up patron-age to ensure its legitimacy and in the nameof being the people’s conscience, has conve-niently moved on to the next sponsor.Question is do the keepers ever listen to theirown conscience? For if they had, they wouldhave realised that they have failed Bengal.

Nothing can better explain how a groupof intellectuals, fattened by 34 years of LeftFront rule and almost embedded as a pro-foundly political secret society, took up thecudgels when resistance came in the form ofthe Trinamool Congress (TMC) and MamataBanerjee at Nandigram and Singur. And nowthat the trade winds have shifted, they arenegotiating a new pole position in the nameof giving out a conscience call. Nobody isendorsing the Trinamool’s excesses or arro-gance that cost it the Lok Sabha tally but whycouldn’t the intelligentsia nurtured by it effecta course correction from within, rebel ormobilise a movement if needed, force an agen-da on the people and lead them if requiredrather than being glib deserters preening withtheir “I told you so” diagnosis? If only theyhad looked into history, they would haverealised that their predecessors never stoodin the sidelines but plunged deep into the thickof things, that they were not just agitationistsand commentators but revolutionaries, thatthey never depended on patronage of theestablishment but forged their own legacies.Most important, they remained true to thespiritual core of their civilisational identitythan don a garb of foisted ideology.

Would the Indigo Revolt of 1859 havemade such a mark if it didn’t have the sup-port of the Bengali intelligentsia, who built atide of opinion through pamphlets, protestsand dialogue? Bankim Chandra Chatterjeeand R C Dutt supported the anti-zamindariPabna Agrarian Leagues. Had RajaRammohan Roy and Ishwar ChandraVidyasagar not led from the front, theBengal Renaissance would not have become

a reality in colonial India or beenthe bedrock of social reforms thathad an impact across our DNA.Had not the enlightened elitestarted their printing pressesand encouraged sub-altern liter-ature and home-grown opinions,there would not be a discourse oneither democracy or nationalismas we know it today. And thoughBengal revolutionaries are notcredited enough in post-colonialhistory, the fact is they were bornof the urban middle class. Eventhe Leftist, socialist movementand sensibility was birthed by it.And the two icons that Bengal’selite claims lineage to —Rabindranath Tagore and SwamiVivekananda — abandoned theircity comforts and made thecountryside and the dispossessedtheir karmabhoomi. They evenbecame our first global Indians,letting in a cross-flow of culturesto be adapted and learnt from butone that never sequestered theIndic philosophy.

Bengal’s intellectual move-ment bloomed as long as it wasa connective matrix of peoplewithout prejudice and was abouta shared, humanist pursuit of asingle goal. But the moment thebhadralok got gentrified, therewas a categorisation of culture aswhat Bengal thought and othersdidn’t and the consequent imper-viousness to what people reallywanted. In the Left regime, thebhadralok became a part of anenormous cultural czardom with

entitled and guaranteed roles inacademia, the theatre, the artsand films. The Naxalist era didsee activist movements on theground but those were justpyrrhic sparks, not enough todent the deeply-set culture codesthat were quickly appropriated asan extension of the establishment.In the process, State power bredits own brand of “intellectuals”,the kind who kowtowed thanquestioned, the kind who endedup as repressive and intolerant ofotherness. That primarilyexplains why in both the Left andTrinamool regimes they havebeen posited as trophies andmedallions of courtiership ratherthan emerging as a vibrant self-check mechanism, one that couldhave either saved or annihilatedboth regimes that follow a simi-lar template of coercion andpropagation. AleksandrSolzhenitsyn defined intellectu-al in The Gulag Archipelago as “aperson whose interests in andpreoccupation with the spiritu-al side of life are insistent and con-stant and not forced by externalcircumstances, even flying inthe face of them. An intellectualis a person whose thought is non-imitative.” Contemporary intel-lectuals today are just the polaropposite. In fact, they havebecome so cultishly selfish thatthey speak when it serves theirimage and will not stake thelargesse they have accumulatedthrough years of them being

endorsed by their patron regimesto a worthwhile cause of rescu-ing Bengal’s standing. Yes, theyare a civil society alright. Thequestion is, therefore, are theybeing civil about their duties?

It is sad that Bengal is nowcited only in terms of has-beens, the first to abolish feudalsystems, the first to initiate landreforms, the first to devolvepower to the panchayats andfarmers and so on. But look atindices of development and it isa wasteland. This even prompt-ed welfare economist AmartyaSen to argue that the State haspaid for ignoring industrialisa-tion. In fact, the politics ofBengal has been predicated somuch on parties toppling eachother for the throne by foulermeans than fair that there hasbeen no revision of ideologies orideas to revive what could sus-tain it in the first place —growth and development.Without these two, there cannotbe mental enlightenment either.

For all the intellectuals, whostill get the media arclights when-ever they deign to drop a pearl ofwisdom, there are no answers onbettering growth figures, winningback industrial investment andpulling it out of a negative trap ofthe trade unionist era, or improv-ing its human developmentindices like education, whichare dismal compared to evensmaller States. Nobody is absolv-ing the political class one bit for

ignoring governance and admin-istration or being despotic aboutpriorities. The Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP), too, has already fall-en into the same trap of desper-ate power-grabs. But there’s noabsolving the cultural eliteespousing its opinion from thecomfort of Kolkata without evenso much as attempting a connectwith rural society, its aspirationto mainstream itself with the restof India, its right to live a normallife with basic parameters ratherthan being pledged as a facelessvotebank or even its deep desireto break out of the vicious trapof denial and non-recognition.

Such is the deep disconnectthat even films, where SatyajitRay and Mrinal Sen once cap-tured the rural angst, are now allabout urban concerns, relation-ships and gender identities. In theprocess, the popular cultural dis-course, even in literature, hasbecome severely restricted tothe perception of an elite Kolkata,so used to the pandering by boththe Left and Trinamool, that theybelieve they are the agenda andnot the other way around. Theresultant benefits have madethem ideological kulaks ratherthan free-thinkers and change-makers. So when a group ofactivists now criticises Mamataand seeks redress with the BengalGovernor as part of their consti-tutional right and duty, onewould like to ask them where wasthis purification campaign beforethe election or even the last fiveyears when Bengal made nation-al headlines for extortion scams,political violence or child deaths?Why were they so tepid despitebeing coopted in several state-level committees and did not usethem to sound the alarm bells?What stopped them from massresignations or signing off retire-ment benefits? Why have they, asthe protector of Bengal’s soul,been loyal to parties (and theywill in the future too) than theidea of Bengal? Why do the great-est thinking minds in the acad-emia and global institutions notspare a journal to be test-pilotedon the ground? Or remit somepractical wisdom than regretthe state of affairs? One mayargue that they are entitled totheir intellectual freedom andprivileges that come from it. Butthen one expects that intellect toalso rise above what others do.This intellectual corruption,bankruptcy and hypocrisy, onethat privileges personal capitalismover preached socialism, hasfailed the ordinary people ofBengal. And so if the commonBengal labourer is wonderingwhy his mills are shut, doles arepathetically low and he has totravel to plants in Gujarat as amigrant, everybody better beprepared to answer the question.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — It is laudable that theUnion Cabinet has given nod toamend certain sections of theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Act,2012. The Bill provides for strin-gent punishment, includingdeath, for sexual assault of chil-dren, as well as fines and jailterms for child pornography.

If indeed the BJPGovernment means what it says,it should immediately appealagainst a special court verdict,which granted life imprison-ment to three main convicts forraping and murdering an eight-year-old girl in Jammu &Kashmir’s Kathua last year.Culprits must be given the deathpunishment.

Shalini GeraldChennai

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Sir — India’s hold on the gameof cricket and the World Cuptournament notwithstanding,New Zealand was always capa-ble of creating this mega-upset.The stars failed when it mattered

the most as India’s World Cuphopes died a painful death at agloomy Old Trafford. India didf ind an unlikely hero inRavindra Jadeja who took theteam to the doorstep of victorybut failed to unlock the door.

True, Jadeja couldn’t takeIndia home, but his 59-ball 77gave a resounding reply to oneand all who dared call the

Saurashtra man a “bits-and-piecescricketer.” Sanjay Manjrekar’s“well done Jadeja” tweet at the endof the match could have beenconsidered reconciliatory had itnot come with a wink.

It’s probably an indicationthat the former India middle-order batsman hasn’t backed offfrom his earlier remark but itdoesn’t matter. Every act of val-

our doesn’t necessarily come withthe winner’s medal and Jadeja willlive with it.

But for all those “bits-and-pieces” professionals, this inningswill be an example of a never-say-die spirit that can makeone believe that nothing is impossible.

P Arihanth Secunderabad

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Sir — After the defection of 15lawmakers from both the JanataDal (Secular) and the Congress,the existing ruling coalitionGovernment in Karnataka ispoised on the edge. If the defect-ing MLAs remain true to theirdecision and vote as declared inthe trust vote, the continuationof the KumarswamyGovernment would be very dif-ficult.

The Congress was wellaware that all had not been wellin the Karnataka Government. Itbecame obvious after the gener-al election. People have now lostfaith in the grand old party. Itneeds drastic reform measuresand organisational elections. Nodoubt, there are eminent andefficient Congress leaders inthe party but it’s time to choosea capable leader as its president,who can take independent deci-sions, free from interference ofthe Gandhis as they are now aspent force.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Page 9: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Having returned to power for a second termwith a thumping majority, it was expect-ed of the Modi Government to kick off

immediate reforms for the fertiliser sector.Being just the beginning of the five-year term,now is the golden opportunity for it to opt forbig bang reforms as any adverse fall-out in theshort-run (inevitable when harsh measures areimplemented) won’t pose any threat to theGovernment. Alas, it missed the opportunity.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’sBudget, too, had no mention whatsoever of sub-stantive issues pertaining to the fertiliser policyeven as allocation for fertiliser subsidy at about�80,000 crore during 2019-20 (this does not pro-vide for the roll-over of �32,000 crore from theprevious year, including this, total payment wouldbe �112,000 crore) says it all.

The fertiliser subsidy has remained high andon a rising trajectory (only two years back, it was�66,000 crore in 2017-18) despite steps taken bythe present dispensation viz, mandatory neem-coating of urea, issue of soil health cards(SHCs), which were intended to curb diversionof urea to chemical factories and improve effi-ciency of urea use and, thus, bring about reduc-tion in subsidy payments. The anomalous situ-ation arises because successive Governments,including the NDA dispensation under AtalBihari Vajpayee (1998-2004) and the Modi 1.0Government (2014-2019), refused to carry outfundamental reforms. At the outset, let us clearsome basics regarding this sector.

To make fertilisers affordable to farmers, theCentre controls their Maximum Retail Price(MRP) at a low level, unrelated to the cost of pro-duction and distribution, which is higher. Theexcess of cost over MRP is reimbursed to themanufacturer as subsidy. In case of urea, the sub-sidy varies from unit to unit and is administeredunder the New Pricing Scheme (NPS); whereasfor decontrolled complex fertilisers, Muriate ofPotash (MoP) and single superphosphate (SSP),a “uniform” subsidy fixed on per nutrient basis,is given to all manufacturers under the NutrientBased Scheme (NBS).

The cost of transportation (it includes pri-mary movement by rails from the plant and sec-ondary movement from the unloading rake pointby road to the retailer) is reimbursed to urea man-ufacturers under a uniform freight policy. On theother hand, manufacturers of decontrolled com-plex fertilisers/MoP (excluding SSP) get reim-bursement of freight cost only towards primarymovement on the basis of actual rail freight, asper the railway receipts.

Thus, the manufacturers/importers of decon-trolled complex fertilisers, MoP and SSP receivea step-motherly treatment vis-à-vis manufactur-ers of “controlled” urea. In case ofcomplexes/MoP/SSP, even as the Governmentnormally keeps the subsidy unchanged, increasein the cost leads to ever increasing MRP. In sharpcontrast, it keeps the MRP of urea at a low level(the current price @�5,360 per tonne is more orless the same as it was nearly two decades ago)even as all escalations in cost are absorbed byincreasing subsidy.

This results in disproportionately low MRPof urea vis-a-vis the MRP of complex fertilisers,MoP and SSP, prompting the farmers to use more

of the former and less of the latter.Discrimination against complex

fertilisers and MoP is also evident intheir not getting freight subsidy on sec-ondary movement to retail point (SSPmanufacturers don’t even get primaryfreight for movement from plant to rail-head) as also in denial of natural gas —the feedstock used for the making ofammonia — an intermediate used inmanufacture of complex fertilisers —to their plants.

These disjointed policies are at theroot of increasing imbalance in NPK(nitrogen, phosphorus and potassi-um) use ratio, declining crop yield,deterioration in soil health and adverseimpact on the environment. The issueof SHC can at best guide the farmerson proper fertiliser use but it can do lit-tle to stem the opposite impact of theflawed policies.

Low MRP of urea also gives astrong incentive to traders/farmersdivert to chemical industries or smug-gle to neighboring countries where itfetches a higher price. The neem coat-ing of urea (on which the ModiGovernment banked heavily to rein inthis unhealthy practice) has not helpedmuch or else we would have seen theresults in terms of big reduction in sub-sidy (taking diversion @40 per cent),which is not visible.

The extant unit-wise NPS for ureafor subsidy determination does notreward low cost units even while pro-tecting high cost units (thus, we haveunits producing @�20,000 per tonneplus co-existing with others producingat half this cost). Even in the non-urea

segment, where every unit gets the samesubsidy, a manufacturer, who managessome savings, is not sure of retainingit as the Government reserves theright to mop it up on examination ofhigh cost data.

It gives no incentive to companiesto invest in R&D for delivering moreefficient and cost-effective products tothe farmers or explore indigenousresources (at present, India dependsheavily on import for meeting its fer-tiliser requirements viz, nearly two-thirds in nitrogen, 90 per cent inphosphate and 100 per cent in potash).As a result, even as the farmers don’t getmajor break-through in yield, thecountry remains vulnerable to exploita-tion by global suppliers.

The system is also highly prone tothe misuse of subsidy. According to theEconomic Survey (2105-16), 24 percent of the fertiliser subsidy is appro-priated by inefficient manufacturers, 41per cent gets pilfered on way to thefarmers and 24 per cent cornered bylarge farmers. Only 11 per cent of thebenefit actually goes to the poor farm-ers (those with land holding <2hectares). These glaring anomalies canbe addressed by dismantling controlson MRP and the existing system ofrouting subsidy through manufactur-ers. Instead subsidies must be givendirectly to farmers via Direct BenefitTransfer (DBT) (with this, NPS andNBS will go). A mechanism should befound to exclude better-off/rich farm-ers for better targetting and loweringsubsidy to sustainable level.

Early this year, reportedly, the

Finance Ministry and the NITI Aayogwas working on a road-map for DBTfor fertiliser subsidy and even alludedto club this with the assistance @�6,000per annum, that is currently being givenunder PM-KISAN and give the totalamount as quasi-universal basic incometransfer. But it seems the idea has notcaught the attention of the Modi 2.0Government, else it would have madethe announcement to be followed byimplementation say from January 1,2020.

The least the Government couldhave done was to bring the policy forurea at par with that for non-urea fer-tilisers by giving uniform subsidy to itsmanufacturers under NBS (a group ofministers (GoM) under thenAgriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar hadrecommended this way back in 2012).But even this is not done. Alternatively,it could have affected some increase inurea MRP to demonstrate its intent tocorrect the imbalance in its price vis-à-vis complex fertilisers and MoP.Even this wasn’t done.

Another doable was to be more“transparent” in reporting subsidy fig-ures by switching over from the exist-ing cash-based system to accounting ofsubsidies on accrual basis (as recom-mended by the “expenditure manage-ment commission” under Dr BimalJalan, former Reserve Bank of IndiaGovernor in 2015). This, too, was notdone. The Modi Government must notallow these things to linger on. It shouldget cracking on fertiliser reforms notlater than February, 2020.

(The writer is a policy analyst)

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There’s an often repeated state-ment: “Politics should never bemixed with sports.” Ideally,

this should be the case, but the factis that sports and politics do mix andthere’s nothing one can do about it.Sports are played by men and women,many of whom are as much affectedby their respective countries’ politicsas their fans and/or countrymen andwomen. So, despite the many rulesenacted by international sportingbodies to discourage this mix, poli-tics often manage to play a visible rolein how a sportsperson or their fansend up behaving on and off the field.

The most stunning example is theone in which the armies of ElSalvador and Honduras actually wentto war after the former won the deci-sive game during the qualifier series

between the two countries for the1970 FIFA World Cup. The ensuingwar became known as the ‘SoccerWar’ even though the causes of it weremore complex. Relations between ElSalvador and Honduras were alreadytense before the matches.

Clashes between fans of both thenations had already taken place dur-ing the matches. Then, after ElSalvador squared the series 1-1, itsGovernment broke off diplomaticties with Honduras. The El SalvadorianGovernment accused its Hondurancounterparts of unleashing violenceagainst refugees from El Salvador andexpelling 11,700 of them. When ElSalvador won the third game, moreviolence between fans of the two coun-tries in the stands was followed by anactual war between the two nations.

This is just one example. Duringthe 1986 Football World Cup, thememory of the 1982 war for theFalkland Islands between British andArgentinian forces was still fresh.Tension among fans of both the coun-tries was running high whenArgentina met England in the quar-ter-finals. Rioting between support-

ers of the two countries had takenplace just before the match in whichseveral British fans were hospitalised.Argentina went on to win the match,after a controversial goal from its cap-tain Diego Maradona put themahead, kicking off an intense footballrivalry between the two countries.

During the 2004 Football AsiaCup in China, when the home sideplayed their “historical nemesis”Japan (the country had occupiedChina during World War II), thecrowds did their best to drown out theJapanese national anthem with loudchanting and booing. In the late1960s, black American athletes andthe former world heavyweight box-ing champion, the great MuhammadAli, often expressed “black power”symbolism and rhetoric during inter-national meets. Recently, the multi-million-dollar American footballscene was rocked by controversywhen many black major league play-ers refused to stand straight duringthe playing of the American nation-al anthem in a show of dissentagainst what they saw as prevalentracism in the US.

Last week, fighting broke outbetween Pakistani and Afghan fans,outside and inside the stadium dur-ing an after Pakistan’s close gameagainst Afghanistan in the CricketWorld Cup in England. Some Afghanfans also jumped into the ground inan apparent attempt to attack thePakistani players after the match.Pakistan and Afghanistan have hada long history of rocky relations andmistrust.

There are millions of Afghanrefugees in Pakistan, who began toarrive in the 1980s during the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan,which was funded by the US andSaudi Arabia and willingly facilitat-ed by Pakistan. Just before the match,during this year’s World Cup game,the CEO of the Afghan CricketBoard had told the media thatPakistani cricketers should learnfrom Afghan players. Retaliatoryremarks by some former Pakistanicricket stars, about Afghan playersonce being refugees in Pakistan,fuelled the clashes between the fans.Most eyewitness reports suggest thatthe Afghan fans were more proactive

in this respect.Relations between India and

Pakistan have been rockier andboth countries have fought four warsagainst each other. Yet, interesting-ly, their matches at internationalcricket events have never witnessedany clashes between fans of the twocricket-crazy countries. However, inthe fifth Test match in Karachi dur-ing the 1982-83 Pakistan-India seriesin Pakistan, youth belonging to aright-wing student group invadedthe ground and attempted to attackthe two Indian batsmen who were atthe crease.

Then, in Ahmedabad, during thefourth Test match of the 1987Pakistan-India series in India, thePakistan team walked off the groundafter it was pelted with stones by thecrowd. During Pakistan’s 1999 tour ofIndia, the Pakistan team often trav-elled with security guards and com-mandos after a right-wing Hindunationalist group threatened to attackthe players at their hotels and on theground. The radical outfit had alreadydestroyed the pitch at one venue andannounced that it would release poi-

sonous snakes into the stands if thePakistan series was not called off.

But, surprisingly, despite the factthat Pakistan-India matches oftenattract fans from both the countriesto watch the matches from the stands,there have never been incidents suchas the one witnessed recently duringthe Pakistan-Afghanistan game.

Bangladesh’s relations withPakistan have blown hot and coldever since East Pakistan separated in1971 to become Bangladesh.Thousands of Pakistani troops and afar larger number of ordinaryBengalis were killed during the civilwar. Bengali separatists living inEngland threatened to attack the vis-iting Pakistan team during the 1971England-Pakistan series. ThePakistani squad then refused to signa bat that was to be auctioned to helpthe victims of a cyclone in EastPakistan. Some players claimed thatthe money would end up in the cof-fers of militant Bengali separatists.

In 1979, when the Pakistan teamundertook a short tour of Bangladesh— which was still not an official Testplaying nation — Pakistani players had

to be escorted out of the ground dur-ing a match in Chittagong when ahuge crowd invaded the field to attackthem. The mob followed the team busall the way to the team’s hotel, wherethe police dispersed the enragedcrowd with batons and tear gas.

During a recent run of seminarsby the University Of Chicago’sInstitute Of Politics on the topic of‘Power and Politics of Sports’, speak-ers were of the view that “The sportsworld is bigger and more powerfulthan ever, with athletes wieldingmore and more influence over cul-ture and politics.” In an essay for theNortheastern University PoliticalReview, Meredith McClearly writesthat such an influence has oftenbeen used by heads of state and gov-ernments “to assert their politicaldominance.” This interrelationshipbetween the two often boils overand impacts the behaviour of thecrowds, even when the sports per-sonnel or a Government decides todownplay it. The underlying polit-ical tensions are not lost on thecrowds.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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India’s industrial outputgrowth slipped to 3.1 per cent

in May mainly on account ofsubdued performance of min-ing and manufacturing sectors,according to Government datareleased Friday.

The Index of IndustrialProduction (IIP) had expand-ed by 3.8 per cent in May 2018.The index grew at 4.3 per centin April and 0.4 per cent inMarch this year.

The expansion in the min-ing sector was merely 3.2 percent in May, as compared to 5.8per cent in the year-ago month.

Similarly, the growth in themanufacturing sector was alsosubdued at 2.5 per cent in May,compared to 3.6 per cent in thecorresponding month of thelast fiscal. However, the powergeneration grew at 7.4 per centin May, against 4.2 per cent insame month last year.

As per Central StatisticsOffice (CSO) data, the capitalgoods output, which is abarometer of investment, grewat 0.8 per cent compared to 6.4per cent in May last year.

As per use-based classifi-cation, the growth rates inMay 2019 over the same month

last year are 2.5 per cent in pri-mary goods, 0.6 per cent inintermediate goods and 5.5per cent in infrastructure/ con-struction goods. The consumerdurables and consumer non-durables have recorded growthof (-) 0.1 per cent and 7.7 percent, respectively.

In terms of industries, 12out of the 23 industry groupsin the manufacturing sectorhave shown positive growth inMay over the same month last year.

The industry group‘Manufacture of wood andproducts of wood and cork,except furniture; manufacture

of articles of straw and plaitingmaterials’ have shown the high-est positive growth of 24.8 percent followed by 15.9 per centin ‘Manufacture of food prod-ucts’ and 9.4 per cent in‘Manufacture of computer,electronic and optical products’.

On the other hand, theindustry group ‘Manufacture ofpaper and paper products’ hasshown the highest negativegrowth of (-) 12.2 per cent fol-lowed by (-) 9.9 per cent in‘Manufacture of furniture’ and(-) 8.7 per cent in ‘Manufactureof fabricated metal products,except machinery and equipment’.

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Department of FinancialServices (DFS) has

informed that RBI is examin-ing the priority sector lendingnorms for promoting exportcredit, Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal said.

Certain enabling guidelinesare under consideration andwhen issued, those are expect-ed to release additional �35,000-68,000 crore export credit underpriority sector, he said.

“DFS has informed thatRBI is currently examining thepriority sector lending normsfor export credit and certainenabling guidelines are underconsideration,” he said in awritten reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He also said that as per datacompiled by RBI, the balanceoutstanding for export credit byall scheduled commercialbanks increased from �1,85,591crore as on March 31, 2015 to�2,43,890 crore as at March-end 2018 before declining to�2,26,363 crore as on March 31,2019.

The Government has takenvarious steps to increase theflow of credit to micro, smalland medium enterprises’(MSMEs) exporters.

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Retail inflation increasedmarginally to 3.18 per cent

in June over the previousmonth, mainly due to rise infood prices, according to offi-cial data.

The retail inflation basedon the Consumer Price Indiex(CPI) stood at 3.05 per cent inMay and 4.92 per cent in June2018.

The retail inflation is onthe rise since January this year.

As per the CPI data

released by the CentralStatistics Office (CSO), thefood inflation was 2.17 per centin June 2019, up from 1.83 percent in the preceding month.

Inflation in protein richfood items, like egg, meat andfish, was higher in June com-pared to the previous month.

However, the rate of pricerise in vegetables and fruits wasslower.

The Reserve Bank of Indiamainly factors in the retailinflation while deciding the bi-monthly monetary policy.

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India is involved in 14 WTOdisputes currently and

domestic law firms are han-dling all of them, Parliamentwas informed on Friday.

In one of these disputes,the expertise of the Geneva-based international law organ-isation ‘Advisory Centre onWTO Law’ was engaged toguide a domestic law firm,Commerce Minister PiyushGoyal said in a written reply tothe Rajya Sabha.

‘Advisory Centre on WTOLaw’ assists developing coun-tries on WTO law.

The World TradeOrganisation (WTO) is a glob-al trade rule making body.

India is a part of the 164-mem-ber multi-lateral organisation.

“At present, India is involvedin 14 WTO disputes, all ofwhich are being handled bydomestic law firms,” Goyal said.

The disputes include mea-sures concerning importationof certain agricultural productswith the US and certain mea-sures on imports of iron andsteel products with Japan.

In a separate reply, he saidthere is no proposal to set upa separate logistics departmentunder active consideration ofthe ministry.

In another reply, he said asmany as 55 FDI proposals havebeen received till June this cal-ender year under the govern-ment approval route.

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Two-way trade betweenIndia and the US is pro-

jected to touch $238 billion by2025 from $143 billion cur-rently if it grows 7.5 per centeach year, the US-IndiaStrategic Partnership Forumsaid on Friday.

This growth will occur iftrade grows by average 7.5 percent a year, as has been thetrend for the past seven years,the USISPF said in a report.

The body also estimatedthat by 2025, bilateral tradecould range between $283 bil-lion and $327 billion, at anannual average growth rate of10 to 12.5 per cent, as witnessedin 2017 and 2018.

The assessment under-scores pathways for growthand economic opportunity inour bilateral ties by highlight-ing current trends.

“Sectors such as defencetrade, commercial aircrafts, oiland LNG, coal, machinery andelectronics are areas of poten-tial growth in US investmentsand commerce into India.

Similarly, Indian industry hasan opportunity to promote theautomotive, pharmaceuticals,seafood, IT (information tech-nology) and travel services tothe US market,” the USISPF said.

The assessment waslaunched at its second annualleadership summit in the US,which was attended by NancyPelosi, Speaker of the UnitedStates House of Representatives;Rick Perry, United StatesSecretary of Energy; andWilbur Ross, US CommerceSecretary; among others.

“While India’s ambition tobecome a $5-trillion economyby 2025 is certainly welcomefor businesses, Government,and individual citizens in theUS and India, it is essential thatwe level the playing field andstay away from protectionism.

“I am confident that we canachieve $327 billion in bilater-al trade by 2025 if we grow at13 per cent every year. I chal-lenge the Government andindustry to work together toadvance this objective,” USISPFChair John Chambers said.

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To become a $5-trillioneconomy in the next five

years, the country should growat eight per cent per annumand it requires a clear roadmap,former RBI governor CRangarajan said here Friday.

Speaking at the ninth con-vocation of Icfai Foundation forHigher Education, he saidthough investments are thekey drivers of economicgrowth, policymakers must tryhard to create the right climatefor investments.

The major task of the coun-try is to move as fast as it canto achieve a higher standard ofliving. The goal is to make theeconomy a $5-trillion one in thenext few years,” he said.

This requires a growth of 8per cent per annum and a clearroadmap, he said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi recently said the unionbudget for 2019-20 lays downa roadmap for nearly doublingthe size of the Indian economyto $5 trillion in five years by

raising per capita income,boosting consumption andincreasing productivity.

“Investment is the key dri-ver of economic growth. Thereare limits to which publicinvestment can grow as thedemand for welfare expendi-ture keeps increasing,”Rangarajan said.

Private investment bycompanies both small and largehave a bigger burden to bear.Policymakers must try hard tocreate the right climate forinvestments to come, he said.

On the draft new educationpolicy 2019 released recently,he said it recognises the needfor improving quality of high-er education though the ques-tion is whether this improve-ment could be achieved by thevarious changes proposed bythe new draft.

According to him, thoughthe “multidisciplinary liberaleducation approach” is welltaken, it should not be pushedtoo far and it “it is going too farto abolish all specialised insti-tutions such as IITs and IIMs.

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Terming the proposedissuance of sovereign

bonds in overseas markets asthe “boldest announcement”of the Budget, FinanceSecretary Subhash ChandraGarg Friday indicated thatabout �70,000 crore could bemobilised through this route.

He said diversification ofGovernment resource mobil-isation is the only way ofleaving more funds for the pri-vate sector.

“That’s why this is theboldest announcement whichhas been made, that is open-ing up of sovereign bonds foroverseas market,” he said at aCII event here.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in Budget 2019-20announced that theGovernment would start rais-ing a part of its gross bor-rowing programme from

external markets in foreigncurrencies.

She added that India’s sov-ereign external debt-to-GDPlevel is among the lowestglobally at less than 5 per cent.

“We will raise a part of ourborrowing abroad now in for-eign currency. It will leavesome more domestic savingfor the private sector. Weraise �7 lakh crore as bor-rowing. We take it all from thedomestic market and so muchless is left for the private sec-tor. If I raise about 10 per centof that, additional �70,000crore would be left for the pri-vate sector,” Garg said.

This will increase supplyof money in the domesticmarket, he said, adding that allof these measures are part ofthe larger story of opening ofthe Indian private sector andgiving it more investibleresources.

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Four senior executives ofIndiGo airline were issued

show cause notices on Fridayby the DGCA after a specialaudit team of the aviation reg-ulator found safety lapses,according to sources privy tothe development.

The Directorate General ofCivil Aviation (DGCA) carriedout the audit at the IndiGooffice in Gurgaon on July 8 andJuly 9, the sources said.

“Captain Sanjiv Bhalla, thehead of training; CaptainHemant Kumar, the chief offlight safety; Captain AshimMitra, the senior vice-president- operations; Captain RakeshSrivastava, the QA (QualityAssurance) and Ops Safety, havebeen issued show cause noticestoday,” a source told PTI.

The DGCA is conductingspecial audit of all airlines andairports which are in mon-soon-affected areas in the wakeof multiple landing incidentsacross the country.

In its notice to company’straining chief Bhalla, the reg-ulator said that pilots’ correc-tive training “was either notcarried out or delayed” in num-ber of cases when it was rec-ommended by the Flight Safetyand Operations Department ofthe airline.

The regulator said thedepartment sent these recom-mendations for correctivetraining after analyzing thedata coming out of FlightsOperations Quality Assurance(FOQA).

���� 0/3��/�45

7th Asia-Pacific HousingForum organised by Habitat

for Humanity India on July 18-19, 2019 at India HabitatCentre, New Delhi will discussinnovative and scalable ideas tofoster collaborations andopportunities for transformingthe affordable housing land-scape in India.

With its theme as PoweringCollaboration for HousingEcosystem, the sector confer-ence will be attended by nearly 400 delegates.

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Adani Power has soughtshareholders’ approval to

raise up to �7,000 crorethrough the issuance of equi-ty shares, convertible deben-tures, bonds or any othersecurities in one or morecurrencies and in tranches inits annual general meeting onAugust 8.

The special resolutionalso seeks to empower theboard of directors to under-take a qualified institutionalplacement with qualifiedinstitutional buyers for raisingthe funds.

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Page 11: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Kolkata (PTI): Diversified conglom-erate ITC will foray into new categories andsub-segments in FMCG vertical whichwill be supported by multi-dimensionalinvestments and strategic opportunities foracquisitions, its Chairman Sanjiv Puri saidon Friday.

Addressing the company’s shareholdersat its annual general meeting, Puri said thecompany is seeking to be an engine ofgrowth for Indian economy through avibrant portfolio of future-ready business-es. “Today, around 25 per cent of ITC’s seg-ment revenue is from newer FMCG busi-nesses... To accelerate growth in the FMCGbusinesses, the endeavour is not only to for-tify the existing categories towards deliver-ing industry leading performance but alsoto foray into newer categories and sub-seg-

ments,” he said. Puri further said, “Thiswould be supported by multi-dimensionalinvestments as also strategic opportunitiesfor acquisitions.”

In the last two to three years, ITC hasexpanded its FMCG portfolio by forayinginto new segments. Over 50 products werelaunched last year to strengthen existing cat-egories and enter newer segments, headded. Reiterating the company’s vision, Purisaid, “ITC seeks to be an engine of growthfor the Indian economy through a vibrantportfolio of future-ready businesses that arewell poised to serve the emerging needs ofa growing market through world-classIndian brands.”

These businesses also anchor compet-itive value chains that empower millions offarmers and trade partners, generating

livelihoods for more than 6 million peoplein the country, he added.

Stating that ITC’s annual turnover wasover �18,000 crore, he said the company hadmany brands with multi-crore sales.

Puri said ITC had been able to createunique competitive advantage by leverag-ing on its enterprise strength.

He also said the integrated fruits, veg-etables and perishables value chain hasenabled ITC to foray into new segments witha wide range of offerings including frozenfood, dehydrated onions, potatoes, mangopulp and prawns. ITC is investing in build-ing state-of-the-art manufacturing infra-structure across India to rapidly scale up theFMCG businesses, build an extremely com-petitive supply chain and contribute to thecountry’s Make in India vision, Puri added.

����� 0/3��/�45

The country’s second-largestIT services firm Infosys

on Friday reported 5.2 percent growth in consolidated netprofit to �3,802 crore for thequarter ended June 30, 2019.

It had posted a net profit of�3,612 crore in the April-June2018 quarter, Infosys said in aBSE filing.

Revenue from operationsof the Bengaluru-based firmgrew 13.9 per cent to �21,803crore in the June 2019 quarter,compared to �19,128 crore inthe year-ago period, it added.

Infosys has increased itsrevenue growth guidance forFY20 to 8.5-10 per cent in con-stant currency. In April quar-ter, Infosys had said it expect-ed a revenue growth of 7.5-9.5per cent in FY 2019-20.

“We had a strong start toFY’20 with constant currencygrowth accelerating to 12.4per cent on year over year basisand digital revenue growth of41.9 per cent. This wasachieved through our consis-tent client focus and invest-ments which have strengthenedour client relationships,” InfosysCEO and Managing DirectorSalil Parekh said.

He added that the compa-ny has consequently raised itsrevenue guidance for the yearfrom 7.5-9.5 per cent to 8.5-10per cent.

In US dollars terms,Infosys net profit grew to USD546 million in the June quar-ter from USD 534 million inthe year-ago period, while rev-enues rose to USD 3.13 billionas against USD 2.83 billion.

The company noted that itscurrent policy entails paying upto 70 per cent of the free cashflow annually by way of divi-dend and/or buyback.

The Board has reviewedand approved a revised CapitalAllocation Policy after takinginto consideration the strategicand operational cash require-ments, it said.

“Effective from Financialyear 2020, the company expectsto return approximately 85 percent of the free cash flowcumulatively over a five-yearperiod through a combinationof semi-annual dividendsand/or share buyback and/orspecial dividends, subject toapplicable laws and requisiteapprovals, if any,” it added.

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Infosys said it would makean additional investment ofUSD 6 million (over �41 crore)in data preparation softwarecompany Trifacta Inc. “Theboard at the meeting held overJuly 11-12 approved a follow-on investment of USD 6 mil-lion in Trifacta Inc,” Infosyssaid in a regulatory filing.

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Equity benchmarks werecaught in a late-session bear

grip on Friday as trading senti-ment remained risk-averse amidglobal headwinds and uncer-tainty over the earnings front.Investors were also cautiousahead of the release of keymacroeconomic data, traderssaid.

Building on its positiveopening, the 30-share BSESensex crossed the 39,000-markin afternoon trade, but suffereda sudden bout of selling to endat 38,736.23, down by 86.88points or 0.22 per cent.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty dropped 30.40 points, or0.26 per cent, to 11,552.50.

In the post-Budget week,the Sensex lost 777.16 points or1.96 per cent, while the Niftydropped 258.65 points or 2.18per cent.

Global equities were tradingflat as investors digested a slew ofeconomic data amid heightenedgeopolitical and trade tensions.Domestic market participantsare also tracking developmentssurrounding India-US tradetalks, traders added.

Top losers in the Sensexpack on Friday included BajajFinance, ONGC, IndusIndBank, PowerGrid, L&T, AxisBank, NTPC, Bharti Airtel,HDFC, HDFC Bank and KotakMahindra Bank, falling up to

2.08 per cent.On the other hand, Vedanta,

Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, AsianPaints, Hero MotoCorp andYes Bank were among the gain-ers, rising up to 2.44 per cent.

Shares of Infosys ended 0.87per cent higher ahead of thecompany’s quarterly results.

“Volatility continued givensubdued expectation on Q1FY20 results which is increasingrisk of downgrade in futureearnings. Investors remainfocused on today’s CPI inflationdata to get cues on interest ratetrajectory. Currently market isexpecting reduction in interestrate in the medium-term.

“Lack of stimulus to theeconomy and premium valua-tion is influencing investors tohave a cautious approach in themarket,” said Vinod Nair, headof research, Geojit FinancialServices.

Sectorally, BSE capital goods,telecom, oil and gas, industrials,energy, bankex and financeindices lost up to 1.22 per cent.Metals, basic materials, realty andhealthcare gained up to 0.91 percent. The broader BSE midcapand smallcap indices outper-formed the benchmarks, risingup to 0.41 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, ShanghaiComposite Index, Hang Seng,Nikkei and Kospi ended in thegreen. Equities in Europe werealso trading higher in earlydeals.

����� 0/3��/�45

Dutch bankruptcyadministrator on Fridaymoved the National

company Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT) on the JetAirways matter, which hasagreed to hear the case here.

A three-member NCLATbench headed by ChairmanJustice SJ Mukhopadhaya alsoasked the Dutch bankruptcyadministrator to assist in theinsolvency proceedings of JetAirways going in India.

Dutch insolvency court

administrator has agreed beforethe NCLAT not to sell the con-fiscated assets of debt-riddenJet Airways.

NCLAT has also issuednotice to the consortium of JetAirways lenders directing themto file their reply within twoweeks. It has directed to list thematter on August 21, for nexthearing.

Earlier, National CompanyLaw Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai,had rejected Dutch insolvencyadministrator’s appeal torecognise their proceedings.

Jet Airways is facing

Insolvency proceedings in theNetherlands and was declaredbankrupt in response to a com-plaint filed by two Europeancreditors.

In April, H Esser FinanceCompany and WallenbornTransport had filed a petitionciting unpaid claims wortharound �280 crore. Followingthis, a trustee in charge wasappointed by the Dutch courtand it had approached itsIndian counterpart for access tothe financials as well as assetsof the airline.

One of the Jet Airways

aircraft, parked in the SchipholAirport in Amsterdam, hasalready been seized.

Jet Airways, which has notflown since April 18, is goingthrough insolvency proceed-ings in India as well.

A consortium of 26bankers led by State Bank ofIndia had approached theNCLT to recover dues of over�8,500 crore from Jet Airways.

Apart from banks, it alsoowes over �10,000 crore to itshundreds of vendors, primar-ily aircraft lessors and over�3,000 crore to its employees.

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Script Open High Low LTPJPASSOCIAT 2.78 2.78 2.65 2.70RPOWER 4.21 4.34 4.19 4.21INDUSINDBK 1546.00 1562.00 1493.40 1510.35YESBANK 93.20 94.90 91.70 94.15QUESS 445.00 521.00 442.80 480.95GRAPHITE 281.00 304.60 273.25 295.75INDIGO 1354.90 1388.95 1339.30 1356.60SPICEJET 122.50 125.80 121.25 124.80TATASTEEL 464.00 479.60 460.55 472.60DHFL 72.35 72.70 67.60 68.45RELIANCE 1284.70 1299.80 1278.00 1280.60RELINFRA 51.25 53.75 50.20 50.85BAJFINANCE 3478.95 3478.95 3366.00 3377.75LT 1501.70 1501.70 1462.00 1467.30TATAMOTORS 156.40 162.70 153.95 159.30SUNPHARMA 400.20 411.20 397.30 407.70IBULHSGFIN 675.45 679.45 662.00 666.00RELCAPITAL 57.90 60.10 57.10 57.90HEG 1185.00 1251.00 1160.90 1191.65RECLTD 145.80 151.70 142.70 148.80MARUTI 6020.00 6089.45 5955.00 5971.95DISHTV 30.60 32.35 30.30 31.10ADANIPOWER 62.55 65.65 62.55 63.80JINDALSTEL 133.95 141.60 133.40 139.20ICICIBANK 426.70 432.50 423.90 427.05CANBK 281.00 287.30 279.05 283.95SBIN 363.35 366.40 361.50 363.55INFY* 723.30 730.85 719.35 727.10TITAN 1104.95 1128.95 1090.40 1101.25AXISBANK 767.00 768.00 751.10 755.45IDEA 11.75 12.05 11.56 11.73SBILIFE 755.00 789.00 754.00 780.60BEML 916.95 938.70 893.90 903.05WIPRO 267.50 268.45 258.30 259.00

BANKBARODA 126.00 127.25 124.95 125.85JUSTDIAL 769.80 794.00 767.00 783.80HDFCBANK 2415.25 2418.30 2386.70 2393.45FEDERALBNK 105.10 106.85 104.70 106.25PNB 74.70 75.90 73.60 75.35ADANIENT 141.20 143.35 137.95 140.30HDFCLIFE 472.00 484.95 469.75 480.75VEDL 164.85 168.70 162.40 167.70BANKINDIA 86.80 87.90 85.70 87.00PFC 126.95 128.00 122.45 124.00L&TFH 119.30 122.80 119.10 120.45ZEEL 356.50 357.25 348.00 350.50IOC 147.00 147.80 144.45 146.60UPL 631.00 646.50 627.70 629.90CIPLA 554.00 566.05 547.95 555.15ESCORTS 544.85 552.00 538.15 541.65NTPC 129.80 132.50 126.50 128.20STRTECH 165.50 167.50 162.45 163.90JSWSTEEL 267.00 270.75 261.80 268.10TCS 2108.50 2118.00 2094.05 2110.00HDFC 2274.90 2282.40 2251.00 2256.65PHILIPCARB 108.60 116.70 108.20 113.65HINDPETRO 286.05 289.00 280.90 281.50INTELLECT 265.40 287.00 264.85 281.00HEROMOTOCO 2520.00 2583.00 2473.25 2558.50SUZLON 5.10 5.10 4.90 4.95ASHOKLEY 84.80 85.55 83.75 84.90DLF 184.05 188.10 183.30 185.85ITC 277.50 277.50 273.20 274.95NAUKRI 2314.95 2328.70 2141.70 2193.75SAIL 46.75 48.20 46.25 47.20BAJAJFINSV 7675.00 7776.60 7636.95 7751.00KOTAKBANK 1481.05 1494.70 1475.90 1475.95BHEL 65.15 65.60 64.50 64.85APOLLOHOSP 1322.10 1369.60 1318.00 1366.65DBL 409.75 432.00 409.75 415.45DRREDDY 2654.95 2660.00 2587.35 2631.60DMART 1377.75 1389.00 1352.85 1356.70PCJEWELLER 39.70 39.70 38.75 39.15SRTRANSFIN 1047.25 1058.55 1039.00 1046.55BEL 106.55 107.00 104.25 105.20IBREALEST 116.00 118.20 115.80 116.40AUROPHARMA 606.00 608.50 594.00 595.40NLCINDIA 64.40 72.50 64.35 69.40IGL 307.00 314.50 306.00 310.40RAIN 97.00 97.60 94.65 95.25ICICIGI 1065.00 1083.10 1048.00 1060.15

TECHM 666.00 672.60 663.45 667.00PEL 1965.05 1990.00 1939.55 1941.00COALINDIA 235.70 236.30 229.50 231.00JUBLFOOD 1221.05 1233.40 1201.40 1207.95ULTRACEMCO 4544.00 4617.25 4521.00 4564.20SPARC 118.20 126.65 118.20 124.90INDIACEM 96.30 97.85 95.50 96.25ONGC 153.25 153.50 148.15 149.85MFSL 408.45 442.05 408.45 421.10EDELWEISS 169.85 176.30 169.20 173.15ADANIPORTS 412.45 419.10 409.85 415.15IBVENTURES 305.10 309.60 297.35 298.95BPCL 352.10 354.70 345.10 345.70BHARATFORG 465.45 469.50 460.00 462.40ACC 1559.00 1589.00 1555.10 1576.25TATACOMM 513.80 513.80 482.10 491.30HINDUNILVR 1737.90 1738.00 1709.00 1719.20RCOM 1.81 1.89 1.73 1.89HFCL 21.65 22.30 21.45 21.70TORNTPOWER 305.55 309.00 304.90 307.95KPRMILL 571.25 598.50 570.05 594.05AMBUJACEM 213.05 216.15 212.55 214.00UJJIVAN 284.00 289.15 279.40 281.00GODFRYPHLP 770.75 781.50 766.50 774.70KTKBANK 100.75 102.45 100.25 101.50M&MFIN 381.00 386.75 379.40 383.10ASIANPAINT 1331.00 1367.70 1326.20 1360.00GODREJCP 641.00 641.00 625.25 629.00ENGINERSIN 110.10 112.20 107.75 108.60GODREJPROP 938.00 949.50 936.00 942.20EQUITAS 119.90 119.90 114.60 117.85ICICIPRULI 386.70 390.00 381.70 384.95GLENMARK 459.00 459.00 448.55 450.60DABUR 410.00 412.80 406.20 408.05TATAGLOBAL 255.00 260.20 253.15 257.95TATAMTRDVR 75.85 79.10 74.70 77.10BOMDYEING 101.90 102.90 99.50 99.85PETRONET 251.00 251.80 247.15 247.85LICHSGFIN 545.90 545.90 533.60 536.60NCC 86.60 89.15 86.60 87.55TVSMOTOR 430.00 438.15 424.45 433.55SUNTV 469.85 484.30 468.75 478.55HAVELLS 719.00 721.45 709.00 710.70UNIONBANK 78.40 79.35 77.50 78.55RBLBANK 630.10 648.00 630.10 641.20LUPIN 757.75 764.20 751.80 761.85THOMASCOOK 196.35 196.50 190.60 195.50DCBBANK 239.00 244.05 235.05 236.80GNFC 233.15 238.50 231.85 232.40GAIL 149.00 150.00 146.00 146.75TATAPOWER 67.95 69.00 67.20 68.00TRENT 452.90 458.70 447.00 457.90NMDC 110.30 113.40 110.30 111.80SUVEN 235.00 243.00 235.00 239.85DEEPAKFERT 105.20 105.75 101.10 101.80MINDTREE 771.00 771.00 751.00 752.10BIOCON 254.90 255.60 251.55 253.45BERGEPAINT 301.70 310.75 301.70 310.75BHARTIARTL 361.00 361.00 354.25 355.95CENTURYTEX 909.00 932.60 909.00 929.10BRITANNIA 2769.60 2799.50 2751.00 2779.75IDFCFIRSTB 42.85 43.30 42.45 43.10SRF 2760.00 2780.00 2708.65 2740.00M&M 633.65 637.00 628.65 630.50NATIONALUM 46.90 47.95 46.80 47.35JAICORPLTD 102.50 102.50 99.30 99.65PVR 1729.35 1762.20 1720.60 1746.65EMAMILTD 303.00 312.35 302.75 309.95BATAINDIA 1348.00 1356.00 1330.00 1343.95NBCC 55.65 56.10 55.00 55.65VGUARD 234.40 248.85 233.90 247.75HINDALCO 198.00 201.35 197.40 198.95AMARAJABAT 652.75 664.00 647.85 651.10STAR 370.20 380.05 370.20 376.10OBEROIRLTY 561.75 568.85 552.60 555.25HDFCAMC 1928.40 1965.00 1927.00 1947.15BANDHANBNK 557.70 562.40 555.55 561.00BAJAJ-AUTO 2715.00 2752.40 2695.00 2725.25ERIS 481.05 483.45 450.00 453.00NIITTECH 1329.90 1351.55 1329.90 1347.00JISLJALEQS 25.80 25.80 23.70 24.70ITI 88.50 89.35 87.55 87.90ADANIGREEN 49.40 50.75 49.00 49.55WOCKPHARMA 357.45 361.60 352.85 353.75ADANIGAS 164.70 166.50 163.00 163.20SUNTECK 449.10 462.50 446.75 454.85MEGH 61.65 62.15 60.75 61.10VOLTAS 592.00 600.00 584.70 588.90ABFRL 200.65 209.40 200.40 208.60COLPAL 1134.60 1146.05 1126.50 1138.00HCLTECH 1022.65 1029.20 1009.10 1020.90FORCEMOT 1299.80 1306.95 1280.00 1285.35HEXAWARE 359.00 360.70 356.00 358.00CANFINHOME 374.90 376.20 370.10 372.00SJVN 26.50 27.50 25.65 26.60SIEMENS 1249.90 1249.90 1221.00 1231.30GRASIM 917.95 927.65 911.70 916.90RALLIS 154.00 160.75 152.00 154.95DIVISLAB 1613.75 1620.45 1587.35 1607.10KEI 464.50 473.05 458.90 469.70TIINDIA 385.60 414.80 385.60 405.30INDIANB 244.35 245.60 241.50 242.50POWERGRID 208.95 209.80 204.50 204.80MANAPPURAM 130.00 130.65 127.35 129.60RAYMOND 710.00 720.35 703.00 711.55CHENNPETRO 179.85 189.00 178.60 188.95CADILAHC 235.00 239.20 232.70 235.45CONCOR 555.00 565.00 555.00 555.15LTI 1580.00 1609.20 1575.10 1600.30

BALKRISIND 734.00 746.00 725.95 739.00MOTHERSUMI 121.20 121.20 118.20 118.45PTC 64.10 64.25 63.60 64.25MCX 825.00 837.00 816.55 831.00TATAELXSI 845.00 852.75 841.15 849.05MARICO 369.00 373.70 368.65 370.80GSPL 192.60 198.65 192.00 197.05TATACHEM 600.00 603.00 592.75 599.50WABAG 305.15 312.00 300.60 303.20NESTLEIND 11567.00 11715.20 11511.10 11641.10BLISSGVS 159.00 159.50 156.90 158.45CHOLAFIN 282.00 283.30 278.55 279.65SOUTHBANK 13.25 13.25 12.93 13.10HINDZINC 229.50 230.00 224.70 228.30OMAXE 200.45 201.25 199.30 199.45GSFC 87.85 88.20 86.95 87.20OIL 174.00 175.70 170.45 173.65SCI 30.85 31.65 30.15 30.80ASHOKA 130.95 133.00 130.30 131.45CEATLTD 895.05 903.30 888.65 893.80SYNDIBANK 40.00 40.40 39.75 39.95ABCAPITAL 90.50 91.30 90.10 91.00WELCORP 135.90 139.40 135.00 138.90HIMATSEIDE 167.00 169.05 162.40 162.85CASTROLIND 126.50 127.45 125.25 126.85GRUH 286.80 288.90 285.10 286.65UBL 1375.00 1394.35 1350.80 1386.80EICHERMOT 19004.85 19069.05 18875.00 18974.70CGPOWER 21.80 21.80 20.90 21.00MPHASIS 959.00 959.00 930.30 942.85KAJARIACER 568.00 573.05 559.80 567.50SOBHA 551.00 573.40 545.25 567.65GULFOILLUB 845.00 867.95 841.00 860.00APOLLOTYRE 188.50 189.10 186.45 187.35JSLHISAR 75.50 76.25 74.05 74.05HSCL 98.85 98.85 95.00 95.40BAJAJELEC 470.20 481.00 469.70 477.20WESTLIFE 306.05 318.40 306.00 316.60MGL 813.00 815.55 801.25 804.90UFLEX 233.00 234.20 228.85 231.50FSL 51.20 52.75 51.20 52.00RADICO 290.00 290.00 284.50 285.20THERMAX 1028.85 1043.85 1016.00 1040.00SADBHAV 190.00 190.65 182.00 183.85AVANTI 339.45 341.35 329.00 335.45IDBI 34.85 35.30 34.55 35.25CENTURYPLY 146.00 148.60 145.15 147.30PIDILITIND 1185.40 1193.50 1180.00 1187.00RITES 285.30 290.00 285.20 285.60NAVINFLUOR 670.00 670.00 647.35 651.00NOCIL 111.85 112.30 109.80 110.40CROMPTON 226.00 234.40 224.80 229.10EXIDEIND 202.75 205.90 202.55 205.50CHAMBLFERT 161.00 164.25 159.15 162.10INFRATEL 265.70 268.35 262.05 262.65PRESTIGE 272.00 275.50 272.00 272.05EIDPARRY 168.05 174.00 164.75 171.30TRIDENT 59.40 60.70 59.30 60.40HEIDELBERG 191.85 198.20 191.60 196.25IRB 93.00 93.00 91.10 91.10MUTHOOTFIN 617.55 623.90 612.30 620.65ALLCARGO 98.50 99.85 96.85 97.95ORIENTBANK 89.50 89.60 88.70 88.70TATACOFFEE 76.65 78.50 76.55 78.35SHANKARA 382.00 393.00 373.40 378.10KEC 323.50 332.85 323.05 329.85CUMMINSIND 756.90 766.20 752.10 756.50KRBL 238.45 241.20 235.00 235.80SWANENERGY 104.55 104.80 102.95 104.00DELTACORP 168.00 168.00 164.40 164.45SYNGENE 310.15 317.50 310.00 314.35HATHWAY 23.35 25.00 23.35 24.30BIRLACORPN 634.90 654.00 634.90 649.05JINDALSAW 78.00 78.50 76.50 76.65DCMSHRIRAM 529.70 544.75 522.50 535.00KALPATPOWR 505.65 514.50 501.40 509.55VIPIND 426.50 429.00 420.75 427.30JMFINANCIL 76.05 76.25 74.10 74.30LTTS 1659.95 1663.90 1614.85 1628.20GICRE 232.00 232.80 227.00 227.70VENKYS 1575.00 1577.00 1551.75 1566.00RCF 57.05 57.25 56.15 56.35JSWENERGY 68.65 69.80 68.65 69.20MINDAIND 303.15 310.50 302.00 309.00GREAVESCOT 131.00 132.20 129.65 130.10RAJESHEXPO 695.50 697.40 690.60 696.00GMRINFRA 15.02 15.24 15.00 15.09KANSAINER 422.35 439.30 416.70 439.00AJANTPHARM 906.00 906.00 890.85 898.00AUBANK 671.65 679.65 665.00 665.00PAGEIND 20875.55 20996.15 20487.90 20500.00JUBILANT 475.00 478.15 472.00 473.80IBULISL 167.00 173.20 161.50 168.50IRCON 388.85 411.00 387.50 395.15TORNTPHARM 1556.05 1564.20 1539.60 1553.40RAMCOCEM 779.00 782.60 770.00 773.65PNBHOUSING 778.55 780.85 768.65 768.80NILKAMAL 1161.00 1163.00 1144.00 1160.75HUDCO 39.30 39.30 38.50 38.80TV18BRDCST 23.00 23.30 22.55 23.25MAHLOG 460.45 470.00 441.00 470.00PNCINFRA 195.00 195.00 189.00 190.70SONATSOFTW 348.25 354.00 348.25 352.00TAKE 122.50 126.50 122.50 124.75ALBK 47.45 47.65 46.80 47.00JAGRAN 103.75 104.25 101.00 103.80PFIZER 3156.75 3196.80 3135.00 3167.55PGHL 4202.05 4299.00 4202.05 4264.45SREINFRA 16.10 17.05 16.00 16.80

ABB 1508.00 1518.65 1488.00 1503.15FCONSUMER 39.75 39.90 39.25 39.25LAXMIMACH 4785.00 4785.00 4650.00 4664.60VINATIORGA 2093.00 2100.50 2050.00 2060.55INDHOTEL 149.15 150.20 147.20 148.10BDL 304.30 304.30 299.00 299.65PARAGMILK 259.60 261.60 258.95 259.85JSL 31.75 32.30 31.75 32.20ASTERDM 119.65 124.30 119.60 122.35LALPATHLAB 1108.00 1108.00 1070.00 1071.60NHPC 23.95 24.25 23.80 24.10SUNDRMFAST 469.95 479.00 468.00 475.00BAJAJHLDNG 3460.00 3591.00 3460.00 3506.55IPCALAB 955.35 963.45 949.50 963.45HSIL 236.00 242.00 233.80 239.60ORIENTELEC 158.70 160.40 157.80 160.00INFIBEAM 42.85 43.30 42.35 42.55VARROC 454.00 456.45 442.30 453.30IFCI 8.88 8.88 8.60 8.70LEMONTREE 66.50 66.50 64.70 65.00LINDEINDIA 502.85 523.90 502.85 510.90J&KBANK 39.90 40.00 39.20 39.80JBCHEPHARM 366.20 377.00 366.20 376.85LAKSHVILAS 66.20 66.25 64.65 65.00BBTC 911.10 919.85 905.00 914.00UCOBANK 19.00 19.05 18.45 18.50CARERATING 856.20 886.80 850.70 886.80JKLAKSHMI 335.50 335.50 331.00 331.30LAURUSLABS 343.55 363.50 340.45 354.05CAPPL 413.85 417.70 410.50 415.00JKTYRE 78.00 78.00 76.50 77.65APLLTD 543.70 548.25 534.30 538.55TIMETECHNO 91.75 94.00 90.45 91.65AEGISLOG 212.75 212.95 206.25 207.70GRANULES 92.85 94.90 92.85 94.40JKCEMENT 983.25 987.60 965.00 976.95MMTC 22.50 23.10 22.50 22.85THYROCARE 466.00 480.70 466.00 478.55MRPL 60.65 60.65 59.45 59.45GLAXO 1148.00 1160.00 1131.05 1157.60GUJGAS 164.60 166.70 164.10 164.90SUPREMEIND 1089.75 1100.00 1088.75 1091.55ECLERX 670.00 675.00 663.90 663.90FINCABLES 384.10 387.40 383.85 384.00PERSISTENT 610.00 624.05 610.00 622.40SHREECEM 21568.45 21657.00 21253.75 21331.60GODREJIND 483.00 484.00 479.10 481.30CENTRALBK 19.85 20.05 19.70 19.95CYIENT 536.60 541.45 531.80 537.40WHIRLPOOL 1556.00 1570.00 1548.20 1552.85TEJASNET 131.00 133.35 130.75 132.50HINDCOPPER 38.15 38.35 37.80 38.00ORIENTCEM 109.00 109.00 105.15 107.75REPCOHOME 372.95 376.00 371.05 371.15FINOLEXIND 498.20 505.00 497.00 502.00CENTRUM 26.25 26.25 25.05 25.55MINDACORP 101.75 105.65 100.00 103.25SANOFI 5781.00 5848.00 5750.05 5783.05NATCOPHARM 530.60 532.00 527.35 528.50GAYAPROJ 150.00 152.00 142.25 142.25EVEREADY 71.05 73.15 70.00 73.15ATUL 3730.40 3759.45 3720.00 3755.00DEEPAKNI 300.35 302.30 299.00 300.45CUB 204.00 204.90 202.00 204.45HERITGFOOD 403.15 403.50 393.80 394.00ISEC 219.95 221.00 217.40 219.80IDFC 36.05 36.20 35.80 35.90WELSPUNIND 55.75 56.30 55.20 56.30ASTRAL 1303.95 1305.00 1272.00 1282.00GODREJAGRO 494.00 499.50 491.75 491.75CCL 240.00 240.00 236.20 238.25PHOENIXLTD 654.20 658.05 643.20 649.35IEX 144.10 146.10 144.10 145.00JAMNAAUTO 49.90 49.90 48.50 48.65MAHSCOOTER 4204.80 4212.00 4137.60 4160.90BASF 1200.30 1200.30 1174.25 1174.95LUXIND 1163.50 1163.55 1129.45 1140.20TATAMETALI 592.05 596.95 579.20 579.20MAHINDCIE 215.50 216.30 213.05 213.15PIIND 1132.00 1154.30 1129.55 1140.00ADVENZYMES 159.65 162.10 159.60 161.50MAHSEAMLES 420.00 420.00 412.05 413.00GUJFLUORO 909.00 924.35 901.00 914.65NETWORK18 25.10 25.40 24.50 25.40MRF 56154.45 56167.85 55651.00 56167.85HAL 671.10 683.05 671.00 675.80COCHINSHIP 374.00 376.95 373.50 375.60GSKCONS 7516.00 7516.10 7414.00 7439.85GMDCLTD 72.40 72.90 71.50 71.80MAXINDIA 64.95 66.10 64.50 65.10AAVAS 1508.90 1517.10 1489.75 1506.80COROMANDEL 394.90 400.00 393.40 400.00NESCO 558.00 566.20 558.00 560.00

BLUESTARCO 760.00 762.65 745.20 747.30GICHSGFIN 258.70 262.10 257.40 262.00CORPBANK 27.40 27.90 26.95 27.65GHCL 221.70 225.85 221.70 223.00GESHIP* 249.80 255.90 249.80 254.00ADANITRANS 225.05 225.25 222.45 222.70IOB 12.00 12.45 12.00 12.19NIACL 142.05 142.60 140.45 140.65CRISIL 1457.30 1472.50 1431.70 1431.70JETAIRWAYS 48.75 48.75 48.75 48.75RNAM 225.00 225.45 224.85 225.25RELAXO 425.10 429.25 423.00 423.00MOIL 153.05 153.10 150.60 151.60MASFIN 599.00 614.80 591.00 602.55FORTIS 128.10 129.10 127.90 128.60APLAPOLLO 1565.25 1580.90 1557.00 1557.00INOXLEISUR 324.35 324.35 316.45 317.35ALKEM 1781.60 1804.30 1781.60 1798.00ANDHRABANK 22.75 23.00 22.65 22.80EIHOTEL 172.65 173.85 169.10 169.15ZENSARTECH 245.65 248.55 241.30 248.40ABBOTINDIA 8928.70 8950.00 8855.50 8900.00OFSS 3265.00 3302.20 3265.00 3298.00CHOLAHLDNG 495.00 497.50 485.10 487.25MHRIL 234.00 237.80 232.00 234.85BALMLAWRIE 181.00 181.40 180.00 180.50CREDITACC 492.15 492.15 488.15 488.15SUPRAJIT 196.75 204.85 196.60 204.50PRSMJOHNSN 91.95 92.15 91.50 91.55INDOSTAR 352.55 358.55 350.00 352.45ENDURANCE 1001.55 1021.65 999.85 1021.65SHK 126.00 127.20 126.00 126.60GPPL 81.40 82.05 80.75 81.00JYOTHYLAB 161.00 162.90 160.30 162.90BOSCHLTD 16019.05 16070.85 15963.10 16041.65GILLETTE 7170.00 7276.50 7047.60 7160.00DHANUKA 403.95 410.80 396.70 397.80TATAINVEST 880.00 886.95 880.00 880.85GUJALKALI 499.40 503.00 495.00 497.40MAGMA 106.20 108.20 106.05 107.10GET&D 226.05 229.65 223.65 226.10MAHABANK 16.30 16.30 15.85 16.00FRETAIL 478.80 478.80 468.00 472.75VBL 964.80 968.00 962.15 968.00ITDCEM 97.85 100.50 97.50 98.65SUDARSCHEM 314.50 321.00 314.50 321.00SCHNEIDER 91.90 92.00 90.25 91.00MAHLIFE 409.45 410.75 405.10 407.50GRINDWELL 597.45 599.00 584.45 587.30DCAL 215.60 218.25 215.00 216.15ASAHIINDIA 202.20 207.90 200.00 207.00ZYDUSWELL 1370.00 1376.70 1359.40 1367.05SYMPHONY 1221.55 1225.95 1215.35 1215.35LAOPALA 199.20 202.00 193.60 193.60TTKPRESTIG 6324.50 6460.00 6285.00 6365.70TIMKEN 724.75 733.45 716.60 733.45BLUEDART 2621.15 2621.15 2561.55 2561.55FLFL 469.00 474.25 467.25 474.25SOLARINDS 1160.10 1188.00 1155.00 1175.00ITDC 250.00 250.00 243.00 244.30ASTRAZEN 1995.00 2009.00 1987.60 1990.00TVTODAY 275.70 275.70 272.00 275.00AKZOINDIA 1746.30 1755.70 1712.10 1748.85COFFEEDAY 217.05 218.40 216.80 217.05SCHAEFFLER 4500.00 4500.00 4428.80 4450.50GDL 121.00 121.10 119.35 119.90ELGIEQUIP 256.00 266.00 255.00 263.00CERA 2848.85 2912.55 2848.85 2866.70UNITEDBNK 10.01 10.12 10.01 10.10APARINDS 560.00 575.25 556.05 572.55REDINGTON 99.45 102.60 99.45 101.90PGHH 10956.40 10956.40 10750.00 10890.10AIAENG 1759.40 1759.85 1739.35 1750.00NBVENTURES* 91.55 91.95 90.00 90.45TRITURBINE 102.85 102.85 100.25 100.25SOMANYCERA 420.50 429.30 420.50 425.20TVSSRICHAK 1904.50 1929.30 1895.00 1903.50SHILPAMED 343.50 347.80 342.00 347.40GEPIL 852.50 856.90 841.15 841.15MOTILALOFS 671.40 672.90 662.20 662.20MONSANTO 2130.05 2212.75 2130.05 2171.05TNPL 173.00 178.00 173.00 176.55IFBIND 738.95 748.00 737.00 746.10KNRCON 270.90 272.60 270.90 271.25GALAXYSURF 1243.10 1245.00 1233.25 1242.00FDC 167.55 169.40 166.80 169.20SKFINDIA 1953.95 1960.00 1942.50 1942.50STARCEMENT 112.70 114.25 112.50 113.85VMART 2103.15 2116.20 2087.00 2090.00CARBORUNIV 350.55 353.60 350.20 353.60FINEORG 1421.15 1421.15 1384.95 1385.20VTL 1040.40 1042.70 1038.00 1039.70DBCORP 186.00 188.75 185.55 186.95JCHAC 1675.40 1690.80 1664.80 1673.60TCNSBRANDS 785.00 788.85 764.40 764.40BAJAJCON 317.45 320.40 317.45 318.003MINDIA 21800.00 21929.00 21770.00 21911.00TEAMLEASE 2982.50 3026.25 2980.00 2983.45ESSELPRO 130.10 130.60 129.70 130.60BAYERCROP 3340.00 3410.75 3340.00 3393.60INOXWIND 68.00 68.50 67.75 68.40SIS 832.00 865.45 832.00 865.45SHOPERSTOP 479.15 479.15 470.30 470.35SHRIRAMCIT 1506.70 1508.80 1497.90 1497.90NH 233.00 234.55 229.75 229.75HONAUT 23519.00 23581.00 23330.00 23330.00WABCOINDIA 6133.80 6145.00 6126.05 6137.00SFL 1285.60 1285.60 1281.60 1281.60HATSUN 710.00 711.10 710.00 711.10

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11601.15 11639.55 11538.60 11552.50 -30.40VEDL 164.10 168.65 162.35 167.60 3.95SUNPHARMA 400.50 411.50 397.35 407.55 9.40TATASTEEL 464.30 479.45 460.25 472.60 10.60ASIANPAINT 1332.45 1369.55 1325.45 1362.80 30.35YESBANK 93.25 94.85 91.65 94.35 1.90HEROMOTOCO2502.00 2584.40 2472.40 2557.00 49.20TATAMOTORS 155.90 162.85 154.00 159.00 2.20BAJAJFINSV 7690.00 7779.90 7635.00 7750.00 104.30INFY 722.50 730.60 719.60 730.05 8.55BRITANNIA 2763.00 2800.00 2750.75 2786.05 20.90ADANIPORTS 411.95 419.40 409.60 415.90 3.00BAJAJ-AUTO 2720.00 2751.90 2693.35 2729.85 18.15ULTRACEMCO 4543.80 4618.90 4520.10 4569.55 30.45CIPLA 554.00 566.50 547.20 555.80 3.40TITAN 1104.00 1129.00 1090.00 1102.00 5.00TCS 2102.10 2119.75 2093.10 2108.00 5.45TECHM 665.00 672.90 663.00 667.40 1.70HCLTECH 1016.05 1029.70 1009.00 1022.80 2.00ICICIBANK 427.30 433.00 424.00 427.30 0.75JSWSTEEL 267.30 270.85 261.70 267.40 0.10HINDALCO 199.00 201.45 197.40 198.50 0.05SBIN 363.00 366.55 361.50 363.30 0.10GRASIM 920.00 927.85 911.25 918.90 -0.35UPL 632.00 646.90 627.00 630.80 -0.45KOTAKBANK 1486.95 1494.50 1475.90 1482.95 -1.20RELIANCE 1283.00 1300.00 1278.05 1278.55 -3.00ITC 275.40 276.45 273.10 274.70 -0.95EICHERMOT 18984.15 19100.00 18860.00 18950.00 -84.15HDFC 2270.00 2282.00 2250.75 2250.80 -11.10GAIL 148.35 150.80 145.75 146.60 -0.85IBULHSGFIN 675.95 679.70 661.30 668.00 -4.15HINDUNILVR 1726.80 1738.25 1708.25 1720.00 -10.90M&M 634.10 637.00 628.50 630.05 -4.10HDFCBANK 2418.00 2418.00 2385.05 2390.00 -17.15INFRATEL 264.00 268.45 262.00 262.70 -2.20BHARTIARTL 360.80 360.80 354.15 357.60 -3.15DRREDDY 2648.00 2660.25 2585.15 2630.00 -23.05NTPC 129.85 132.45 126.45 127.35 -1.60MARUTI 6017.70 6090.00 5951.95 5956.00 -75.20ZEEL 357.40 357.85 347.70 350.30 -4.50BPCL 352.75 354.80 345.00 345.60 -4.95INDUSINDBK 1550.00 1562.50 1493.65 1517.05 -24.20IOC 147.00 147.90 144.20 145.55 -2.35AXISBANK 766.10 768.60 751.00 754.05 -12.35POWERGRID 208.60 209.85 204.40 205.00 -3.60LT 1499.00 1499.00 1462.00 1468.00 -27.20COALINDIA 234.90 236.35 229.30 230.50 -4.40BAJFINANCE 3470.00 3470.00 3366.00 3382.00 -69.05ONGC 153.00 153.35 148.00 148.90 -4.20WIPRO 268.00 268.65 258.05 259.80 -7.95

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 26977.75 27139.65 26933.25 26983.65 51.55SBILIFE 756.00 789.30 753.35 781.90 27.80MCDOWELL-N 565.10 593.35 560.10 585.60 19.40HDFCLIFE 471.00 485.00 469.10 480.60 12.80NMDC 110.95 113.55 110.50 111.95 1.90UBL 1365.35 1394.90 1351.00 1388.00 22.65ACC 1564.00 1589.80 1554.25 1573.00 23.00AMBUJACEM 213.30 216.25 212.50 214.30 2.60SAIL 46.70 48.20 46.30 47.25 0.50HDFCAMC 1920.00 1965.00 1920.00 1940.20 20.40LUPIN 757.00 764.70 752.00 761.55 7.90ICICIPRULI 383.55 390.30 381.50 385.00 3.70BANDHANBNK 559.30 563.90 555.10 561.05 4.95IDEA 11.65 12.05 11.55 11.75 0.10NHPC 23.90 24.30 23.85 24.10 0.20OFSS 3270.00 3308.45 3255.65 3307.00 24.00CADILAHC 235.00 239.20 232.50 236.00 1.65MARICO 368.15 373.75 368.15 370.15 2.05L&TFH 119.70 122.80 119.00 120.55 0.65BIOCON 252.15 255.70 251.55 254.00 1.35ICICIGI 1061.80 1083.30 1051.00 1062.50 5.50ASHOKLEY 84.60 85.65 83.70 85.45 0.30MRF 56148.00 56291.80 55680.00 56279.95 116.05HINDZINC 227.95 229.95 224.30 228.35 0.30SRTRANSFIN 1051.40 1058.90 1038.20 1044.50 0.95COLPAL 1130.00 1146.85 1125.90 1137.50 0.70DLF 184.00 188.35 183.25 186.00 0.00PGHH 10900.00 10953.50 10730.20 10900.00 -1.35DIVISLAB 1614.95 1621.00 1587.10 1608.00 -0.65DABUR 410.05 413.00 406.00 408.80 -0.45PIDILITIND 1184.15 1194.50 1179.80 1186.00 -1.30BOSCHLTD 16025.00 16100.00 15949.10 16000.00 -24.75BANKBARODA 125.95 127.30 124.95 125.80 -0.20ABB 1517.90 1517.90 1486.00 1505.00 -2.95SIEMENS 1240.95 1244.30 1220.55 1232.00 -3.95BHEL 65.00 65.60 64.40 64.80 -0.25CONCOR 558.50 565.40 555.00 555.65 -2.25INDIGO 1352.00 1389.00 1339.45 1348.00 -6.50SHREECEM 21457.50 21661.05 21214.00 21280.00 -156.75NIACL 142.85 142.85 140.00 140.70 -1.25GODREJCP 638.00 641.00 625.40 629.65 -5.90HAVELLS 719.05 721.75 709.50 712.00 -7.10PETRONET 251.35 252.00 247.25 247.50 -2.75BAJAJHLDNG 3545.10 3574.90 3490.00 3506.00 -40.95PEL 1970.00 1991.00 1939.85 1941.00 -22.60DMART 1370.00 1390.00 1352.00 1356.00 -17.00AUROPHARMA 605.00 608.85 593.80 596.95 -8.35MOTHERSUMI 121.00 121.45 118.10 118.50 -1.70PAGEIND 20972.25 20978.95 20500.00 20530.00 -312.00GICRE 232.40 233.25 226.30 227.75 -4.45HINDPETRO 287.40 289.20 280.75 281.00 -5.60

Page 12: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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Iran on Friday demandedthat the British navy release

an Iranian oil tanker seized lastweek off Gibraltar, accusingLondon of playing a "danger-ous game" and threatening ret-ribution, while Londonannounced it was sending adestroyer to the Persian Gulfamid heightened tension.

The comments from Iran'sForeign Ministry came the dayafter police in Gibraltar, aBritish overseas territory on thesouthern tip of Spain, saidthey arrested the captain andchief officer of the supertankersuspected of breachingEuropean Union sanctions bycarrying a shipment of Iraniancrude oil to Syria.

Foreign Ministryspokesman Abbas Mousavitold Iranian state news agencyIRNA that "the legal pretextsfor the capture are not valid ...The release of the tanker is inall countries' interest."

"This is a dangerous gameand has consequences," hewarned.

During Friday prayers,Kazem Sedighi, an adviser toIran's Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei,threatened retribution.

"Rest assured, Britons willsoon feel the slap of the pow-erful hands of the IslamicRepublic," he said.

The British navy saidThursday it had stopped threeIranian paramilitary vesselsfrom disrupting the passage ofa British oil tanker through the

Strait of Hormuz, a criticalshipping lane at the mouth ofthe Persian Gulf.

Iran's Revolutionary Guarddenied any incident hadoccurred in the strait.

That brief but tense stand-off is believed to have stemmedfrom the British seizure of theIranian tanker off Gibraltaron July 4.

On Friday, the BritishMinistry of Defence said it wasmoving up its timetable forrelieve the HMS Montrose, afrigate operating in the PersianGulf, with the larger HMSDuncan destroyer in the wakeof the recent developments.

"This will ensure that theUK alongside internationalpartners can continue to sup-port freedom of navigation forvessels transiting through thisvital shipping lane."

The Iranian tanker inter-

cepted last week was carrying2.1 million barrels of lightcrude oil, the head ofGibraltar's government saidFriday.

A senior Spanish officialhad previously said the inter-ception was carried out at therequest of the United States, butGibraltar's Chief MinisterFabian Picardo told parlia-ment no other governmenthad asked the territory to act.

"These important decisionsabout breaches of our lawswere certainly not decisionstaken at the political behest orinstruction of any other state orof any third party," he said.

He said the ship is sus-pected of breaching EuropeanUnion sanctions on SyrianPresident Bashar Assad's gov-ernment and that any nationwith a claim to the vessel andits cargo can file a claim in

court.Iranian Foreign Minister

Mohammad Javad Zarif scoffedat the accusation Iran was vio-lating sanctions, which he said"are meant "to stop Europefrom buying Syria's oil, they arenot about another country sell-ing oil to Syria." Z a r i fspoke in an interview Thursdaywith the pro-Iran Lebanesesatellite news channel Al-Mayadeen.

"This is a very childishand ridiculous excuse by theBritish," he said. "They shouldofficially announce that we areservants of America and act onbehalf of America. America hasreturned their favour well byinsulting their ambassador andtheir prime minister."

The tanker's interceptionhas stoked already high ten-sions in the region, as theTrump administration contin-

ues its campaign of maximumpressure on Iran.

The US has sent thou-sands of troops, an aircraft car-rier, nuclear-capable B-52bombers and advanced fighterjets to the West Asia, and fearsare growing of a wider conflictafter mysterious oil tankerattacks near the Strait ofHormuz blamed on Iran,attacks by Iranian-backed ShiaZaydi Houthi rebels in Yemenon Saudi Arabia and Iran'sdowning of a US militarydrone.

Iran has recently begunsurpassing uranium enrich-ment limits set in its 2015nuclear deal with world pow-ers in response to PresidentDonald Trump's decision topull the US out of the accord ayear ago.

The US has also re-imposed tough sanctions onTehran's oil exports, exacer-bating an economic crisis thathas sent its currency plum-meting.

Iran has said its breaches ofthe nuclear pact can bereversed if the other parties tothe agreement — Germany,France, Britain, China, Russiaand the European Union —can come up with enough eco-nomic incentives to effective-ly offset the American sanc-tions.

China on Friday reiteratedit opposes unilateral sanctionsagainst Iran and criticized whatit described as the "long armjurisdiction" of the US.

A Foreign Ministryspokesman in Beijing said thatinternational trade with Iran"within the framework of inter-national law is reasonable andlegitimate and deserves to berespected and protected."

"We will resolutely defendour legitimate and lawful rightsand interests," the spokesmanadded.

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For the fifth time, Pakistanextended its airspace ban

along its eastern border withIndia till July 26, the country'scivil aviation authorityannounced Friday.

Pakistan fully closed itsairspace on February 26 afterthe Indian Air Force (IAF)fighter jets struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terroristtraining camp in Balakot fol-lowing the Pulwama terrorattack in Kashmir.

However, in March, it par-tially opened its airspace butkept its ban for the Indianflights.

"Pakistani airspace will beclosed until July 26 along itseastern border with India. ThePanjgoor airspace will remainopen for overflying transitflights from the western side asAir India had already beenusing that airspace," the CivilAviation Authority (CAA) saidin a notice.

A CAA official told PTIthat the Pakistan governmentwill review whether to open itsspace for Indian flights or noton July 26.

"However, this issue is abilateral one and no progresswill be made till both

Islamabad and New Delhidecide it mutually," he said.

Last month, Pakistan gavespecial permission to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi'sVVIP flight to use its airspacefor his official trip to attend theShanghai CooperationOrganisation summit inBishkek, the capital ofKyrgyzstan.

However Prime MinisterModi's VVIP aircraft avoidedflying over Pakistan. Earlier,Pakistan had allowed India'sformer External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj to flydirectly though Pakistani air-space to participate in themeeting of SCO foreign min-isters in Bishkek on May 21.

India aviation industry hassuffered huge losses due to theairspace ban by Pakistan.

On Thursday, India's CivilAviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri told Parliamentthat due to the closure ofPakistan airspace, Air India hadto spend an extra Rs 430 croreon longer routes.

Pakistan earlier indicatedthat it may lift the airspace banalong its eastern border withIndia imposed on February 27to reciprocate India's decisionto remove all restrictions on allair routes in its airspace.

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Sweden will not sign a UNtreaty calling for the ban of

nuclear weapons, foreign min-ister Margot Wallstrom saidFriday.

"The government will, as itstands now, not sign the con-vention on a prohibition ofnuclear arms," Wallstrom toldreporters at a press briefing inStockholm.

The UN treaty on theProhibition of NuclearWeapons (TPNW), which callsfor the ban of "nuclear weaponsor other nuclear explosivedevices," was adopted by theUN General Assembly in Julyof 2017 with the approval of122 countries, including that ofSweden.

Wallstrom noted that whileSweden had voted in favour, ithad also expressed concernabout the lack of a clear defin-ition in the treaty of whichweapons would be covered,and how it would relate to othertreaties, such as the Treaty onthe Non-Proliferation ofNuclear Weapons (NPT).

Instead of signing thetreaty, Sweden would seekobserver status, Wallstrom said,adding her country remainedcommitted to a world free ofnuclear arms.

"I would have wished wehad a convention that is possi-ble to sign... But you also haveto be a realist," Wallstrom said.

The treaty has been signedby 70 countries and ratified by23. It will come into force withratification by 50 countries.

The accord is seen as large-ly symbolic since none of thenine countries known or sus-pected to have nuclear weaponsput their names down.

Islamabad: Over 55 execu-tives and CEOs of leadingChinese companies on Fridaycalled on Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan andpledged to invest USD 5 billionin the cash-strapped nationover the next five years, accord-ing to an official statement.

The visiting Chinese busi-ness delegation representedvarious sectors including con-struction, machinery, glass,automobile, electrical, power,transportation, informationtechnology and technologicalresearch among others.

"Chinese business execu-tives expressed confidence inthe business friendly policies ofthe government and committedto invest USD 5 billion over aperiod of five years in varioussmall and medium size indus-trial sectors," the statement said.

Pakistan has so far receivedbillions in financial aid pack-ages from friendly countrieslike Saudi Arabia, China andthe UAE during the current fis-cal year. During the meeting,Khan welcomed the Chinesedelegation and stated thatChina has always been a trust-ed partner of Pakistan.

“The sagacity, wisdom andvision of the Chinese leadershipfor peace & development, goodgovernance and poverty allevi-ation is highly impressive andworth emulating,” said Khan.

He added that the interestof Chinese companies towardsinvestment and relocating busi-ness and industrial units toPakistan reflected the trust ofthe Chinese side in the grow-ing economy of Pakistan.

He said the Chinese sidehave a strong desire to translatePak-China equation into a win-win economic partnership.

“Our Government is facil-itating investors and reducingimpediments in ‘ease of doingbusiness'. Partnership withChinese companies and theirinvestment will reap multiplebenefits for both the countriesincluding employment gener-ation, transfer of technologyand economic growth," he said.

Talking about China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), Khan reiterated thatambitious project will prove tobe a game-changer with respectto enhancing trade activitiesand further cementing Pak-China relations. PTI

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NATO said Friday it was"concerned" by Turkey's

acquisition of Russia's S-400missile defence system afterAnkara took delivery of its firstbatch.

The alliance has repeated-ly warned Turkey that theRussian system is incompatiblewith other NATO weaponssystems, not least the F-35fighter jet.

"We are concerned aboutthe potential consequences ofTurkey's decision to acquire theS-400 system," a NATO officialtold AFP.

"Interoperability of ourarmed forces is fundamental toNATO for the conduct of ouroperations and missions."

The US fears that if NATOmember Turkey integrates the

S-400 into its defences, there isa risk that sensitive data aboutthe F-35, a new generationmulti-role stealth fighter, couldleak back to the Russians.

President Donald Trump'spick for Pentagon chief, MarkEsper, confronted the Turkishdefence minister about thedeal on the sidelines of a NATOmeeting last month.

Washington has threat-ened to expel Turkey from itsF-35 programme, givingAnkara until July 31 to cancelthe S-400 purchase or have itspilots kicked off the trainingcourse and expelled from theUS.

But Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan hasrefused to back down and saidhe is confident Turkey will notface US sanctions.

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China on Friday dismissedas "totally untrue" reports

of having Xinjiang-like massdetention centres in Tibet.

Head of the Tibetan gov-ernment-in exile LobsangSangay, in an interview to theBBC earlier this month, saidthat such detention campsexisted in Tibet.

When asked about thereports that such camps werebeing held by China in Tibettoo, Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Geng Shuang,during a media briefing onFriday, said, "What has beenmotioned in the report is total-ly untrue."

Sangey, in the BBC's 'HardTalk' programme on July 1, hadsaid that the ruling CommunistParty of China (CPC) secretaryof Xinjiang Chen Quanguowas previously the party sec-retary of Tibet before he wasshifted to Xinjiang.

"He is the same architect.He implemented the samerepressive policies in Tibet forfive years which he is imple-menting in one year time inXinjiang," Sangey had claimed.

"We do have these camps,but not as large as the Uighurcamps. So, lot of people havebeen sent for educationthrough labour, imprisonment,tension," he said.

Asked whether he has anyfigure about the number ofpeople detained in such campsin Tibet, he said "that we did-n't know. Even for Xinjiang itis being estimated that morethan million or more (havebeen detained)."

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Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has

expressed concern that mon-soon floods could threaten thelives of Rohingya refugees insprawling camps inBangladesh.

Ban, who was visiting inhis role as head of The Hague-based Global Commission onAdaptation to climate change,or GCA, said he was "saddenedand dismayed" by what he sawwhile visiting the Kutupalongcamp on Wednesday in thesouthern coastal district ofCox's Bazar, where more than1 million Rohingya Muslimsfrom Myanmar have fled mil-itary-backed persecution intheir home country.

Bangladesh has a history ofviolent cyclones but hasreduced the number of casual-ties from such natural disastersby investing in roads and otherpublic infrastructure, buildingcyclone shelters and trainingvolunteers across its vast coastalregion, which has the world'slargest continuous beach.

Still, the U.N.'s children'sagency UNICEF said earlier thisweek in a statement that thou-sands of families living in therefugee camps and Bangladeshicommunities in surroundingvillages are at risk from floodingand landslides caused by heavyrainfall in the last few days.

The situation is particularlygrim in the camps, thoughmany of the more than 4,000families affected have beenrelocated to safer areas, it said.

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The one subject that filmmaker RakeyshOmprakash Mehra likes the most to work uponis ‘people’ as they become easier to relate to in

everyday life. And in the process, encourage otherswith a greater sense of purpose and meaning. Andit’s the same drive that had led him to create filmslike Rang De Basanti, Delhi-6, Bhaag Milkha Bhaagand many more. Layers keep unravelling with everyvisit to his films, be it after long intervals as their sub-jects stay ever-relevant. But as Rang De Basanti marksits 12th anniversary, he feels, “Rather than a delight,it is very disheartening to see the film being relevantto the times and the audience even today. However,only a few parts of it and not in totality.”

But why? He says, “When you start thinking interms of people and their context, it’s a cycle, whichhas been going on since forever. The world has beendivided and ruled by religion since the beginning.There has been nothing new. So it’s a cycle, it keepscoming back in different ways.”

Among other things in history, the film takes oneback to the 2002 MIG-21 crash when an Indian AirForce Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis had crashed intoan office building in Jalandhar, Punjab, killing eightand injuring 17 people on the ground. Since 1970 to2018, around 170 Indian pilots have been killed inMIG-21 crashes. “The film talks about corruption andeven today, it prevails widely. Back then, during thetime of George Fernandes, the then defence minis-ter, there was a BJP government for 18 months whenwe made the film. That’s what struck me. There wasa �2,000 crore corruption scandal in the defence. TheMIGs were going down. Pilots were dying. Iresearched. They sat on the MIG-21 wearing a G-suit,there were front-face photographs in all the news-papers that they went for a joyride. They had declaredthe plane safe but they are crashing even today. Soit’s a cycle. The first scene where they come with thesaffron flags — I feel it is present even today. Theyare very much there. Hence, I don’t want it to be rel-evant. It’s sad. Ab voh cheez huye 12 saal hogye hain.Aage badho aur khatam karo (It’s been 12 years sinceit first took place. They should move on and finishthe case).”

There is no price for a human life in this coun-try, he feels. “Humare desh mei insaan ki keemat kyahai? Kuch bhi nahi. The dignity of labour is a high-ly refined concept. Life is very cheap. Millionscan keep dying and it would be in the nameof service. ‘Somebody has to risk it. It’s theirjob,’ they say. We think creating wealth enti-tles us. If I become Mukesh Ambanitomorrow, it does not entitle me. I creat-ed wealth from people’s resources, whichhas to go back. You are not entitled to keepit, it’s not yours to keep. You are not therichest man in the world. You have usedresources beautifully because you had anamazing mind to use it,” says he.

The two characters — LakshmanPandit (played by Atul Kulkarni) andAslam (played by Kunal Kapoor), hepoints out, could be found in the coun-try even today. “History is witness thatHindus and Muslims have been encour-aged to hate each other and wanted eachother to be wiped out. But in the film, aHindu and a Muslim had come together.And this is what I have made. I felt verystrongly and, not to forget,this was 12 years ago.”

So what droveyou to make the filmat that time? Hesays that all that heshowcased in thefilm was inspiredby real-life experi-ences and stories.The reason — itconnects. “I knew aWahida Rahman,from real life, whoplays the mother of aflight lieutenant AjayRathore (played by RMadhavan). I knew afriend of mine who losthis life in Sri Lanka fly-ing in helicopter. Whenexperienced thingscome to picture, yourelate to life,” adds he.

Films should be cre-ated keeping “perpetu-ity” in mind, or sobelieves the director.Says he, “The moment you cre-ate content keeping Friday andnumbers in mind, you are dead,at least I am (laughs). For me,the work should be perpetu-al. Looking at the numbersis like living in a cocoon.Just by attaining num-bers at the box officedoes not mean thatyou are growing at all.It is the overall evolu-tion in the larger picture. So

I come from that space where growing is the need.The content should be like my favourite book whichI will stare, see it again and discover something neweverytime I go back to it. When I read To Kill aMokingbird or Devdas or any other book, I feel kuchto naya ho raha hai yaar. People would have watchedRang De.., when it released, in a different way thanthey would watch it today.”

So, for him, it’s about going to the core of a storyand finding out why he wants to tell the story andwhy should it be told. The idea just has to be newand original everytime, without ignoring the failures.He says, “Just like a human being, content and sto-ries are unique but subjective to interpretations. Evenmy story is open to how you interpret it. Same thingshappen to people but everyone writes it in a differ-ent way. There is no one formula that I own. I havenot invented the Ford Mustang in metallic red thathas suddenly got the fancy of the world. Now we canmake one million more cars and replicate the suc-cess. But a second film cannot be replicated. The onlything we can replicate is platforms — the point of pur-chase. So we can have more and more screens (notmobile screens but theatres) but not the same con-tent.”

Talking about the idea of platforms and how thereis a need to have more of them and even find alter-natives to those which are out of reach, he reflectsupon how if someone has a “brilliant thought” andwants to make a film, s/he will not get a start, “if s/heis not in Mumbai, struggling. And why should she getit? This is the idea.” He says that it indirectly does affectthe storytelling. “I have asked this from the Delhi gov-ernment that why can’t we create filmmaking facili-ties out of Delhi itself? If someone wants to create afilm, s/he would survive in Mumbai for approximate-ly six months with his/her savings and budget as thecity is very expensive. Even more than Tokyo. So howwill one sustain? It might take six years for them tocome around and express themselves with their firstfeature film, documentary or anything. Unless webuild an alternative, the revolution won’t be massive.It is easier to sustain here, in Delhi or even the NCR.Or maybe even Rajasthan. Also they don’t need to readthe tabloids. They do not present the idea of cinema.Conversations and platforms are very important. More

and more representation not in terms of just meet-ing the content but more in consuming it as their

voice is so important,” he says and goes on toquestion, “But when the content does not thereach the audience, how will they consume it?It’s a loss for both the viewers and the creators.Currently, there are only 8,000 screens in thecountry and they are only reducing. The min-imum need right now is 30,000 screens. Ina way, we need to launch 22,000 screens bytomorrow morning. Then the content willgo on at least some of the screens. And thepeople will watch it. It would be the chanceto grow,” says he.

The Screening Room, an endeavourby PVR, at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj,offers a platform for those cinemalovers who want to engage, co-createfilms, socialise and collaborate with

like-minded people. “It’s a screen fornetizens to look beyond the mobilescreens and create more space for film-makers to evolve. This will help creative

minds and even independentfilmmakers to prosper and

connect,” says Mehra.Talking about cre-

ativity and business,the two main thingsin cinema, and howbalancing both couldbe strenuous, he says,“It’s not arduous orlimiting, but veryempowering. Thestarting point for me isto tell a story, creative-ly express myself andtry to say somethingwith it. It is limited tomy talent and feeling.And then once my feel-ing is out through thefilm, I make money. It isempowering that way. ButI also at the same timegiving myself a chance orkeep a probability for fail-ure. We are people whowrite and direct films, getactors and singers to actand sing in it and then

people consume it. So thereare a lot of emotions getting trans-ferred to a lot of people collective-ly. And it is so much fun as well.It is like playing Holi, which youcan’t play alone. Apne hi rang

lagaoge kya?”He ends with a laugh as he

walks towards creating anoth-er film, which he hopes willbe another phenomenon.

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Did you know that the Nile has a remark-able biodiversity and cannot be filmed eas-

ily because it is full of hippos, elephants andcrocodiles at any given time? Or that theMississippi changes character by the bend orthat Amazon as a river is nearly twice as bigof the entirety of India? These unknown factsare being showcased for the first time in Earth’sGreatest Rivers, which has not only document-ed a scarce water resource but looked intricate-ly into what sustains them and what we needto do to not lose them.

�What prompted you to come up with a con-cept?

Rivers are the arteries of life on earth. I havecombined natural history, geography, geologyand people to present a holistic view of riversthat reveal them as complete entities. The riversare much more than just standing on a bankand looking across a channel of water to theother side. The most exciting thing we did wasto look at them from a height. They appear likea tree-network, the main channel breaks up intobranches forming a network, which shows howbig and far reaching a river is. We also want-ed to take the audience on the ultimate rivercruise that one could dream of.

�How different was filming across the threewaterways? What were the challenges?

The Nile was tricky because it is the world’slongest river and flows through various coun-tries. It is quite challenging to film on a riverwhere there are hippos, elephants and croco-diles. Mississippi was tough because thereeverything, from filming coyotes in minus tem-peratures, in the rocky mountains with mos-quitoes chewing the crew alive, acted as a chal-lenge. Some parts of the Mississippi are verycontrolled and industrial, so it was hard to findgood sequences. But we were proud to get ateam onto the giant river barges, which basi-cally joined together to make it almost explod-ing. We travelled down almost hundreds ofmiles of the Mississippi in seconds and this willbe an interesting watch for the Indian audience.Now looking at Amazon, I thought the surfacearea of India is about 3.287 million sq km andthe river is nearly twice as big of its entirety.The challenge here was to find the right loca-tion as its size and scale is mind-blowing.

�Tell us something interesting about thewildlife habitats surrounding these rivers.

In the Nile, the most interesting thing wasthe ruin hunting lodge of Idi Amin. For all kindof trail camera in the ruins of the huntinglounge, it was like an absolute conversion of theJungle Book. In the upper water of the Niles,there are big beds of papyrus trees. Papyrus isthe word ‘paper’ and what the ancient Egyptiansused to write on. What we didn’t know aboutthem is that the Papyrus bed breaks up intofloating islands. When the sun sequences in theNile, it is like a ballet of dancing islands ofPapyrus trees — a beautiful sight. It is amaz-ing to go to a place which is so transformed.The Amazon has different colours and chem-icals, which is another interesting thing that wefound. The water is so distinct that it gives anenriching experience altogether. Some majortheories about Mississippi are that it reachedas far it should and it was a delight to watchbecause it surfs you from the cold icy Northto almost the tropical South. Spring in this river

arrives with the arrival of thousands of giantwhite pelicans, an incredible symbol of spring.A river so seasonal in the temperate world.

�All these rivers are known to be quite tor-rential as waterways. Were there any specialpreparations that you made for filming?

We had one scene when the Blue Nile wasflooded which gave us a really exciting footage.When it floods, you need to choose your tim-ing of filming carefully and also be cautiousabout your safety as there is a lot of water. WithAmazon, we got lucky because we got someamazing footage from its parts. We got aremarkable footage in the upper reaches of theAmazon when the whole forest gets flooded.I am happy we timed it well as such floods hap-pens over months in Amazon. If there is a slowrise of water, it’s hard to prepare because it isdifficult to predict. We used drones to fixedpositions on GPS and that’s how we showedthe rise of the Amazon over months and it isthe first time you’d see a massive transforma-tion of a landscape by a giant river in flood.

�Any memorable incident or anecdote youremember from the shoots?

I’ve been interested in tropical fish sincechildhood. I kept one in an aquarium. Becauseof my interest in it, it got me absorbed in riversand its life all around the world. I was about12 when my brother and I had an interest forfishes and it was absolutely amazing when wewere in the Amazon to find some pools wherethe water is as clear as an aquarium. It was sucha dream come true. One of the fun things wetried were making little remote-control boatswith cameras on and they managed to get upclose and personal with some hippos in theNile. Another funny incident that happenedwas when we found a dam where water wasgushing out and it was making the fish quiteconfused and the pelicans basically had amassive fight to catch them. It was a treat tothe eyes to see the contrasting characteristicsof the pelicans at the Mississippi.

�Rivers around the world are drying up. Insuch a context, what should we as common-ers do to ensure their conservation?

The main thing we all need to do is cher-ish fresh water and value it. It is an amazingcommodity. Use it carefully. All we need todo is to really try and minimise pollution -chemical pollution and plastic pollutionbecause fresh water is fine as. The rivers seemto be so giant, such a huge entity but we needto also realise how fragile they are. There arethings we need to take care of and respect andI think really value and think of the freshwater you use.

�The show premieres in India this month.What would your message to the audience?

Having major theories, I really think thatrivers really are the life blood of our planet.They carry the ultimate commodity, thatmakes life that we all depend on which is freshwater and we need to ensure they flow. Weneed to ensure that they have clean water andwe need to prep them so that they can con-tinue to be nice to the lands. Rivers are a truepart of our haves and they are vital elementsof our future, we need them.

(The show premieres on July 29 at 9 pmon Sony BBC Earth.)

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Waiting excitedly for theshow to begin in the cozy

and intimate indoor auditoriumof the Akshara, the somewhatyoung-looking audience spentmost of their time taking picturesof the beautiful set-up on thesmall wooden stage, under dul-cet lighting. A divan covered ina white sheet accompanied bytwo white bolsters sat in betweentwo tall white candles, whichheightened the intensity oncethe show began. Two decorativesilver bowls had been placed oneither sides of the divan, whichall three pairs of Dastangos (nar-rators) drank water from, regu-larly. An enthusiastic and respon-sive audience helped the story-tellers gain confidence with occa-sional laughs and applause. Whatseemed to be a mixed audience,in terms of age, enjoyed every bitof the dastaans or stories andended with them making plans ofthem wanting to attend theDastangoi Summer Festival at theAkshara.

For those of you who aren’tfamiliar with the word, Dastangoisimply means the art of story-telling. Derived from two Persianwords dastan and goi that meansimply “to tell a dastan.” A das-tan was an epic about adventure,magic and warfare, which wereusually recited or read aloud. Inthis tradition, the story of Hamzaseemed to stand out early on. ThePersian versions of the storynarrated the life and adventuresof Amir Hamza, supposedly anuncle of the Prophet Mohammed.Marked out by fairies, djinns andprophecies, Hamza travels todifferent lands and even as ayoung child shows great skill andcourage. Summoned by the chiefminister of the King of Persia dueto his proficiency, to aid the Kingin his troubles, encounteringmany journeys, beings, speciesand realms, Hamza remains vic-torious and unvanquished rightto the end.

Akbar was very fond of the

narrative and would recite ithimself. In fact, one of the firstartistic projects under him wasan illustrated version of theHamza story, which came to beknown as Hamzanama. It was amammoth task which consistedof over 1,200 folios, each at leasta yard and a half by a yard in size,making it a one of a kind project.Nothing of that size, ambition orscale was ever attempted again bythe Mughal Empire, with regardto the Hamza story. The next two

centuries saw various Persianversions of the Hamza story cir-culated in India, with an occa-sional mention of the Dastangos,who performed them. While theHamza story was performed andrecited in many other parts of theIslamic world, in places as faraway as Morocco and Indonesia,in most other places it was a partof a musical story-telling tradi-tion.

The Dastangoi Collectivewas founded by Shamsur

Rahman Faruqi, MahmoodFarooqui and Anusha Rizviaround 2005. Mir Baqar Ali,who passed away in 1928, is saidto be the last greatest Dastangoof Delhi. Farooqui tells us howhe revived the tradition duringa performance with his schoolfriend. “We now have around 50to 60 people in the country whoare properly trained in the art ofancient Urdu story-telling orDastangoi. We are very happy tosee it growing. People are doingit in Pakistan and just the otherday I got a call from someone inNagpur, who informed me thathe was doing it there,” says he.

Senior dastango, PoonamGirdhani tells us that she start-ed her life as a theatre actress butshe finds Dastangoi a very flex-ible format to work in, both as aperformer and in terms of thestorytelling. For instance, shesays, “I recently incorporated thestory of Buddha into a dastan.You can easily spin storiesaround contemporary politicsand happenings as well, whichmakes it an exciting form towork in.”

Farooqui says that theresponse from the audienceseems to be very supporting,warm as well as encouraging.“On the first day of the festival,we had a totally new and quiteyoung audience, who weren’twell-versed in Urdu at all, yetthey were receptive and support-ive. It’s so wonderful to seeyoungsters supporting and show-ing enthusiasm. We usually con-duct workshops where we areable to select a few people.However, Dastangoi needs yearsof practice and cannot be donein simply two months,” he adds.Farooqui further tells us that thetradition is far from dying andgives us an opportunity to exper-iment with the way we narratestories. “The Veda, Ramayana,Mahabharata were all meant tobe recited aloud and Dastangoiis also done on the same basis.”

It was 25 years ago when he first cameto Mumbai with dreams of becomingan actor. But because of his physique

and appearance, actor-director SaurabhShukla was offered roles which werefunny and comic. As he came from a the-atre background so he didn’t want to dojust that. “I have refused a lot of work inmy initial years. It makes sense if I do itnow. But it did not then. People think Iam choosy but back then when I did that,they probably would have thought thatI do not have brains.” Narrating aninstance, he says, “This incident proba-bly sums up my whole journey in theindustry. I was coming back from NewYork. I was at the airport, there were alot of Indians. Just being in virtue of filmsand seemingly star-struck, some of themcame up to me and said that they are abig fan of mine. You definitely respect thatand you have a constant smile on yourface. And I can recall a man saying ‘MrShukla, I am a big fan of yours’. I gentlythanked him. I moved ahead. But thisman came back to me and told me thathe wanted to make a correction. He said‘more than you, I am a big fan of yourchoices.’ And that’s about it,” he says.

And indeed Shukla is known for hisextra-ordinary film choices, be it KalluMama of Satya, Judge Tripathy of JollyLLB, Tapasvi Maharaj of PK or anantagonist in Ajay Devgn-starrer Raid.No matter if it’s a negative character ora positive one, the actor, who is all set forFamily of Thakurganj, knows how to slayit rather effortlessly.

Shukla tells us that he loves acting tothe core. He feels alive when he’s at it. Hesays, “When I practice my art, I love beingthe part of the whole process. I have awarm corner towards it. I don’t adoreanything more than acting, not writingand not even directing.” In a bid to putit in a more refined way, he explains, “Ilove cars. I drive them myself. But morethan the cars, what I love is the fact thatwhere the car is taking me. The destina-

tion matters. So instead of a swanky car, whichdoesn’t take me anywhere, I would rather pre-fer a simple one, which takes me to differentplaces.”

The actor shares that it was the storylinethat first fascinated him towards the film. “Ithas so many characters and that too, very wellastounded ones,” says he. Another thing thatgrabbed his attention were its screenplay anddialogues. The language that has been used,he says, is quite ornamental. “Dialogue-baazijisse bolte hain,” he says it as if he was puttingit forth as one of his dialogues of a film. Headds, “It has been a tradition in India since thebeginning. People still remember Raj Kumarsahab’s dailogue, ‘Sheeshon ke gharon meinrehene vaale log dusron ke gharon par patharnahi mara karte.’ Such dialogues stay with theaudience and become household phrases. Myprevious roles have been a lot different. Thelanguage has been simpler and realistic.Surely, it also has dialogue-baazi but in a veryhidden and subtle manner. So, that way, thefilm is an interesting combination of orna-mented language played in a realistic way.”

Shukla has backed films which didn’t nec-essarily have commercial scripts and they haveturned out magnificently. So what has beenhis process of choosing a script? He answersswiftly, “Every actor has a different criteria ofpicking it. First, the storyline has to bestrong. Second, the character. I examinewhether my character is interesting andimportant. Third, you need to know your co-actors. Will they be able to reach at a certainpoint? You need to be one of them and simul-taneously shine with them. It’s a choice andtrust me, it’s not an easy one.”

There would have been countless theo-ries on evolution and how a person trans-forms with time. But the actor believes thatevolution is simply a natural process and onecannot plan it. “It takes its own course. Weall move towards evolution and it is becauseof our surroundings and the choices that youmake. And in turn, it’s always those choicesthat make us and help us evolve.”

Talking about how original content hasbecome the most important thing for both

filmmakers as well as actors, and eventhe viewers, Shukla says that it wasnot the case previously. Sharinganother instance, he says, “In1993, when I came to Mumbai,I wrote for Satya, KamalHaasan, Sudhir Mishra andeven Rajat Kapoor. Mywriting has always beenappreciated but I neverclaimed myself as a pro-fessional writer. Meand my friends,Tigmanshu Dhulia,Victor (VijayKrishna Acharya)and Kannan Iyerused to discussstories together andthen go to differentproducers with ourrespective stories. Weused to tell them that thisis our original story ideasand how can we work on it.The producers questionedthat why should they doexperiments with our storieswhich are so new and fresh?Please come up with some-thing that has been doneearlier. They were afraid toinvest in something thatmight not land themdesired results. This was thereal issue that we were fac-ing. And then we came upwith a strategy. We went tothe producers with our orig-inal story ideas but tell themthat the story was aRomanian film, which no onehas seen.”

However, today, he says,the same producers talk aboutoriginality. “They tell us thatplease come to us with some-thing original and new, whichis a great transition. So whatwe saw and felt decades agohas come alive today,” he adds.

The web platform has beenallowing many to push bound-aries. Shukla agrees. “It’s a won-derful space. But one mustunderstand that a mediumis never good orbad. It’s the peoplewho make it thatthrough the con-tent. So it’s not nec-essary that badwork cannot bedone on a digitalmedium too. It justdepends on the con-tent,” says Shukla as hesigns off with a hugesmile on his face.

(The film releases onJuly 19.)

National award winning filmmakerSujoy Ghosh, after making his

mark with Kahaani and Badla, is step-ping into the world of web series withhis forthcoming show, Typewriter.

The process of writing stories for along format medium such as a webseries is quite tough, and Typewriterwas a learning process. “I literally hadto unlearn so much from my habit ofwriting the script of a film, which hasa duration of just three hours. I havealso written a short film, and this (webseries) is such a long format of story-telling. I had a hard time in the begin-ning. The good thing is that now I amdone with my first web series, so I canwrite and direct another one with theease I do a film. Creatively, I know thepath,” he added.

A self-taught writer, Sujoy said hewould have loved to take all the liber-ty that a web series normally offers —of being experimental, exploitative andindulgent as a creative writer but heavoided the temptation because he didnot want to be a ‘selfish’ one.

“That is why it was important forme to find the right balance and I haveto say that the Netflix team helped meto stay at it. I learnt the process in writ-ing,” said Sujoy, who, besides hisacclaimed feature films, has also wonapplauds for the short films, Ahalya andAnukul.

Sujoy does not keep any specificactor in mind while writing a script, andhe has his reasons for casting PurabKohli, Paulami Ghosh, Jisshu Senguptaand a group of children in the show.

“I live in the characters as I writethem, so I know their physical appear-ance, their essence, which I look for inthe actors I casts. If Jisshu does not looklike (his character) Amit, then as adirector it is my failure, because I haveto bring out the character through theactor’s personality,” he explained.

“Purab is very talented and so is

Palomi Ghosh. Her personality has arelatable factor, which worked for thestory,” said Sujoy.

However, the director conductedseveral rounds of auditions and work-shops to select the child actors for theshow.

“This is the first time I worked withchildren, so for me it was a new expe-rience. I never worked with a child artistbefore apart from Aarna Sharma.”

“In fact, I wanted to cast Aarna inKahaani 2 but that did not happen. Forthe other children on the show, I heldworkshops to decide the right group ofkids who would be interactive,” sharedthe filmmaker who has worked withiconic actors such as AmitabhBachchan, Soumitra Chatterjee,Saurabh Shukla, Parambrata Chatterjeeand Vidya Balan.

(The show premieres on Netflixfrom July 19.) —(!�"

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Actress Parineeti Chopra has said that shewould love to do an action with her cousin

sister Priyanka Chopra Jonas in future.“We would love to do an action film

together. We talk a lot about working togeth-er in the same film but the subject of the filmhas to be correct,” said Parineeti, when askedif she would like to do a film with Priyanka.

Parineeti was interacting with the mediain Mumbai, at the launch of the song, UP hilezilla hilela, from her forthcoming film,Jabariya Jodi. Her co-star Sidharth Malhotraand film’s director Prashant Singh were alsopresent.

In her new film, Parineeti does a desiavatar. When the media pointed out that hercousin Priyanka was known as the originalDesi Girl, she couldn’t agree more. “I think inthis industry and in this world, there could beonly one Desi Girl. I will not try to competewith her (Priyanka Chopra) but Sidharth andI are really desi in this film. I think there is oneand only desi girl and nobody can take herplace,” she said.

Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotraearlier worked together inHasee Toh Phasee and thebig-city audience lovedtheir chemistry in thatfilm.

Jabariya Jodi is setagainst an entirely differ-ent backdrop than theurban landscape ofHasee Toh Phasee andParineeti admitted shewas apprehensive if theaudience would accepttheir new film.

“Honestly, beforethe trailer of this filmwas launched, I wasbit worried. It’stotally a new worldand we didn’tknow if Hasee TohPhasee loverswould accept us ornot. However, weare actually excit-ed and motivatedafter theresponse to thetrailer, becausethe kind offeedback we aregetting is reallypositive. So, nowour fingers, legs andarms are crossed. Ihope that on August 2,there will be the samemadness in the theatres.”

The plot of JabariyaJodi revolves around AbhaySingh (Sidharth Malhotra),who is famous for getsforced weddings done.He is a badass until hemeets and falls in love with Babli Yadav(Parineeti Chopra), who has political ambi-tions.

Apart from Sidharth and Parineeti, the filmalso features Aparshakti Khurana, SanjayMishra, Neeraj Sood, Gopal Dutt, Javed Jaffrey,and Chandan Roy Sanyal in pivotal roles.

(The film will release on August 2) —(!�"

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Page 15: ˇ ˝˛˚˜ - The Pioneer · UPSRTC regional manager Pallav Bose told PTI. The move comes close on the heels of an accident on the 165-km Yamuna Expressway on Monday which claimed

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The New Zealand head coach GaryStead gives his team a 50/50chance at the Sunday Final when

the Black Caps take on resurgent hostsEngland at The Lord's Cricket Ground.

"We are giving ourselves a 50/50chance of winning and we have to be justa little bit better than England are onSunday," he said.

This will be the second successiveWorld Cup Final for the New Zealandteam after 2015 which they lost toeventual champions Australia.

New Zealand, tagged as the eternalunderdogs by the media and the Beringcommunity had on 2015 sagged underthe big moment pressure but this timeround, Stead says his team is betterequipped. Sounds true when one wouldsee the way they handled it against theintense semi-final against India.

"It's pressure on both teams, it is howyou handle that and what's made of it.The exciting thing is neither team haswon a World Cup ... you are going tohave a different winner than last time ...but India and England were the two whowere touted as winners then maybe thereis more pressure on them, " he said.

Gary Stead was earlier a ground staffat Lord's where he will now guide histeam to pick up the king's pie on Sundaybut he cherishes his run back then whenhe cleaned dressing room windows orwas on scoreboard box duty as partof his job.

It is as. If an occasion for NewZealand as it will be for Englandwhen the two sides will fight outthe final battle at the Mecca ofcricket this Sunday.

The game to be telecastfree to air in both coun-tries where rugbyscores over all else,is being touted asthe biggestboost to thegame. NewZ e a l a n dbeing sev-eral timezones awayfrom the realaction, will betuning into theSunday Final at 9.30

pm which means an entire night out."Many people can stay up late andMonday will be a public holiday backhome because most of New Zealand will

be up watching the game," he said.But for now he is focused on the

last of the three key goals that hadbeen set for the team to navigatethis biggest tournament of cricket.

"There is a fight and steelinessin the way we have played. We

don't have to play the perfectgame but what we do

have to do is to be ableto adapt to the condi-

tions in front of ussometimes work-

ing out a 240 is agood score," hesaid.

S t e a dinvested a lot ofconfidence in

the Kiwi middleorder "especially

with the likes of Kane(Williamson) and

Ross (Taylor)", he said."We have seven guys who were part

of that squad so we will certainly lean ontheir experiences."

But at the end of the day, if we stripeverything back it is a game of cricket....there will be a winner at the end of it.There will be loser at the end of it youwill have one team that will be happy andone team that will be disappointed so weare trying to keep things as real as wecan" Stead said.

For Stead, this World Cup wasnever about 300 plus scores somethingwhich he had said at the beginning of thetournament. And this came through inthe semifinal against India too.

Gary is mighty pleased about theway the semi final panned out againstIndia. "A lot of characteristics we talkedabout within our team came through,"he said.

"When we started the game, wethought it was a game of 300 but wequickly worked out that maybe 250 wewould be happy to get to ... the openingbowling spell of Matt Henry and Trent

Boult was absolutely superb. The Indianbowlers bowled to us upfront as well butwe took the edges and got some edgesthere which put us on the front foot butI guess it was a little bit of a game of attri-tion as well so never thought we wouldblast them outright the way through but240 was good knowing the way our guysstruggled with the bat," Stead said.

He was all praise for the partnershipof Jadeja and Dhoni and said it "was out-standing and it was also a very goodexample of our guys withstood thepressure," he said.

New Zealand have been up anddown in the tournament but Stead ishappy that as a team they worked onthree key goals. "We have achieved twoof them now we have just one to go," hesaid.

In an all out defence of underper-forming star Michael Guptill who hasbeen having a horrible tournament so farwith the bat, Gary said: "There are nopromises in cricket but I am still confi-dent that the man has big match expe-rience under his belt, he has big hundredsin New Zealand and he has done it inEngland in the past as well. Hopefully hecan show what's on offer on Sunday," headded.

Stead is well aware of the hostility ofthe English bowlers when the two teamsmeet in the Final. "I don't see anythingfriendly in the middle when bowlers arecoming at you at 150 km per hour speed.Both teams will really play the game real-ly hard in the middle," he said.

In the semi final against India thewicket really suited Mitchell Santner andthen those guys who could come into thewicket and bowl quite fast ... there wasenough variation. "The spinners whoattack the stumps are a little bit moredangerous. Mitchell's spell of 2 for 6 or7 was unbelievable and world classbowling. But it still shows when Jadejacame hard at them you need to be brave."

Talking of Santner withstanding allthe pressure, Stead said: "He is a specialbowler for us. He has really good con-trol of line and length and his ability inT20 cricket helps him in the longer gameas well," Stead said.

For Stead it has been particularly sat-isfying to have won a lot of tight gameslike the ones against Bangladesh, WestIndies and India. "It's been a number thatcould have gone either way," he said.

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Ruthless and relentlesswith both bat and ball,

England should be full ofconfidence after theirsemi-final victory overAustralia.

It was great to watchthem do what they dobest, they didn’t show anysigns of nerves and start-ed really well which helpsyou settle, both as anindividual and as a team.

They didn’t really giveAustralia a sniff and that’sso impressive — oursemi-final from the 2017ICC Women’s World Cupwas a nail-biter, but thisperformance was reallycomprehensive.

In tournament crick-et it’s about gainingmomentum and havingthat confidence going intothe most importantmatches.

They were obviouslygoing to be anxious butthey were outstandingand got into the gamefrom the start.

They perhaps would-n’t have wanted to chase ifEoin Morgan had won thetoss but the way Jason Royand Jonny Bairstow start-ed, taking time to assessthe conditions and thenstriking the ball superbly,it was excellent.

Setting a platformwas always going to be theway of denying theAussies a sniff in whatcould have been a trickychase.

It was a good toss tolose in the end, there wasa little bit of moisture inthe surface and ChrisWoakes and Jofra Archerbowled beautifullysuperbly to make themost of it.

The first ball went forfour but from ball twothey found the lengths,got consistent movementand were able to do lots ofdamage.

Eoin (Morgan)looked to have a reallygood game as captain, he

attacked a lot, kept com-ing at the Australians andthey were always fightingagainst the start.

England were relent-less, and it was really niceto see Adil Rashid getthree wickets as well.

He’s been a bitunlucky this tournamentbut for him to be firing isa real plus for England. Itdoes turn at Lord’s andwith the slope as well, hecould really importantfor that final.

England seem to bein a very different place tothe side that lost againstAustralia at Lord’s.

The confidence levelsseem really different, theyhad a sit down andworked things out andthey’ve managed to goback to doing what theydo best.

They’re committedto how they want to playtheir cricket, how theywant to be positive, smartand aggressive and we’re

seeing that pay off now.In a weird way those

losses might have helpthem re-focus a little bit,and get back to what’sbeen so successful forthem.

The way Englandhave been playing in theirlast three games, they’veeffectively had threeknockouts and they’veput in their best perfor-mances.

As a captain it’salways a nervy one whenyou head to the knock-outs. You don’t know howeveryone is going to go —you’re the one everyonelooks at to steer the ship,be very clear on the direc-tion of the team and it’s atricky job.

Morgan does thatvery well with the bat andin the field, he backs hisbowlers and wants themto pursue positiveoptions.

England have somany match-winners,from 1-11 they havesomeone who can winthem a game. And whenyou have that, it takes thepressure off everyone —if it’s not your day thenthe odds suggest thatsomeone else will come inand back you up.

England are in a real-ly good place, they’ve hadthree knockout gameswhich they’ve won andthey’ll take so much con-fidence going into thefinal.

They’ll probably befavourites but they’ll bebrimming with confi-dence, they’ll have thenerves of an occasionthey’ve never been inbefore.

But when they’replaying cricket like theydid against Australia, it’san exciting time to be aplayer and supporter.

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TREVOR’S TIME IS UP

England head coach Trevor Bayliss has nointention of staying in the job, even if his

side go on to win the World Cup and theAshes. Australian Bayliss, 56, is set to stepdown at the end of his current deal inSeptember. “I have always been a believer thatfour or five years is long enough, whether youare doing well or not,” Bayliss told BBC radio.“It is time for a new voice for the boys, tohopefully take them to another level.”

KUMAR, ERASMUS NAMED FINAL UMPIRES

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena and MariasErasmus of South Africa were on Friday

appointed as the on-field umpires for theWorld Cup final between hosts England andNew Zealand at the iconic Lord’s on Sunday.Australia’s Rod Tucker will be the thirdumpire while Pakistan’s Aleem Dar will be thefourth official, the ICC said in a statement. SriLanka’s Ranjan Madugalle will be the matchreferee for the summit clash. All the officialsappointed for the final were also in charge ofthe second semifinal between England andAustralia.

WILLIAMSON IN NEW ZEALAND GREATEST

Martin Crowe’s batting was grace personi-fied and had he been alive, he would

have been the first one to acknowledge thatKane Williamson probably is the greatestbatsman to have played for New Zealand,feels former wicketkeeper Ian Smith. FromBert Sutcliffe in the 50’s to Bevan Congdonand Glenn Turner through the 60’s and 70’sand Crowe in 80’s, unarguably New Zealand’sbest player of reverse swing, Williamson withhis stylish batting and able leadership has sur-passed them all, according to 62-year-oldSmith. “Kane is so highly ranked in the world,so it’s no surprise that he is seriously highlyranked in New Zealand too. Probably our bestplayer and when you combine leadership withit, I think we can safely say so,” Smith said. “Iwas a great friend of Martin Crowe. I thinkeven Martin would have acknowledged thatKane is pretty special, and it’s hard to denythat” said Smith, who was a part of NewZealand team that reached semi-final in 1992.

LUCKY TO GET DIRECT HIT

It was called a game-changing moment ofbrilliance but New Zealand batsman Martin

Guptill says his direct hit that ran out M SDhoni in the World Cup semifinal againstIndia was more a case of luck doing its bit forhim. With that run out in the 49th over,India’s hopes ended in the tense semifinal atOld Trafford on Wednesday. The formerchampions went down by 18 runs against thelast edition’s finalists. “I did not think the ballwas actually coming to me, I tried to get thereas soon as I could. Once I got hold of the ball,I thought it was actually quite straight. Luckyenough to get a direct hit from out there,lucky for us he was out of his ground,” Guptillsaid in a short video uploaded by the ICC onsocial media.

BEYOND IMAGINATION

Aeuphoric England captain Eoin Morgansays he never imagined that his side

would be making its first World Cup final in27 years after the disappointing preliminarystage exit it endured in the 2015 edition.“Everybody out there on the field and even inthe changing room loved every ball that wasbowled. There was no lack of commitment,application and we had a bit of a day outwhich, it’s cool when it happens like that, par-ticularly when the bowlers bowl like that, it isawesome,” Morgan said. “I think as a team wehave learnt to enjoy ourselves, particularlydays like this, even if they don’t go well. If youhad offered us the position to play in a finalthe day after we were knocked out of the 2015World Cup, I would have laughed at you,” hequipped.

FANS WARNED OVER FINAL TICKETS

Cricket World Cup chiefs on Friday warnedfans wishing to attend the final at Lord’s

between England and New Zealand againstpaying thousands of pounds on secondaryticket websites. The prospect of witnessing thehost nation make history has led to a frenzieddemand for tickets, with some put up for saleon unofficial resale platforms. The cost ofmany of the tickets exceed $1,250 while someare upwards of $5,000. The InternationalCricket Council reiterated its stance that it is“actively monitoring and taking action”against those trying to sell on secondary plat-forms. Cricket's governing body warned it can“cancel the accounts and tickets we see beingsold on secondary sites” and that the only waysupporters can guarantee a ticket is throughthe official resale site.

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From the outside Jofra Archerdoes not seem to be affected

by nerves and according to theman himself that is true of thisentire England team.

Archer set the ball rollingwith his very first delivery of theICC Men’s Cricket World Cupsemi-final victory over Australia,trapping Aaron Finch leg beforefor a duck as England marchedto an eight-wicket win atEdgbaston.

The success was as compre-hensive as it was impressive withArcher later shaking up AlexCarey with a rapid bouncer andthen removing Glenn Maxwelljust as the big-hitting all-rounderwas preparing to tee off.

And for Archer, it was clearfrom the moment the team gottogether on Thursday that theywould be ready for England’s firstICC Men’s Cricket World Cupsemi-final in 27 years.

He said: “I’m really calm. Yougot that feeling, even when wewere at breakfast, I don’t thinkanyone looked nervous. I mightbe wrong.

“Everyone just lookedfocused from the time we gotinto the ground. It’s those littlethings that make you think theguys are ready.

“I’ve always been like this. Itry not to get nervous becausethen you do things you are notmeant to do. The calmer you are,the better you are in a situation.”

It has been a remarkable risefor Archer, who only made hisinternational bow against Irelandat the start of May.

He finished with figures of2/32 from his ten overs in thisgame, but the fast bowler insistspersonal glory takes a back seatto the team’s success in reachingthe final against New Zealand atLord’s.

He added: “It hasn’t sunk injust yet. I’m just happy to playgames and win games.

“We probably would havebatted first. Personally I like tobowl first and get the work done.Emotions were definitely flyingafter that (first wicket). Everyonelooked a lot more focused andswitched on.

“I’m just glad the team isdoing well. I could be doing ter-ribly but as long as the team iswinning, I’m alright.

“It’s been mixed feelings atLord’s. Sometimes I do ok, some-times I don’t do as well as I’d like.Hopefully Sunday goes England’sway, not just my way butEngland’s way.”���� ���1�L�(���$�������������� ��

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Defending championNovak Djokovic reached

his sixth Wimbledon finalFriday as Roger Federer andRafael Nadal prepared tomeet at the All England Clubfor the first time since theirepic 2008 title showdown.

World number oneand four-timeWimbledon winnerDjokovic bookedhis 25th GrandSlam final appear-ance with a nervy6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2triumph overSpain's 23rd seedRoberto BautistaAgut.

"This has beena remarkable tour-nament for me and tobe in another final isa dream come true,"said the top seed.

"I had to dig deep,Roberto was playing hisfirst semi-final at a GrandSlam and he was not reallyoverwhelmed.

"It was a really closeopening four to five games ofthe third set that could havegone either way — thankful-ly it went mine."

The 32-year-old will gointo Sunday's final seeking a16th major title with a careeradvantage over both his greatrivals.

He leads Federer 25-22and Nadal 28-26.

"I will watch Federer andNadal. I am a fan of thatmatch up — it's one of themost epic rivalries of all time."

Watched by a Royal Boxcrammed with sports andmovie A-listers — DavidBeckham, Rod Laver, GaryPlayer, Jude Law, DamianLewis — Djokovic sweptthrough the first set withbreaks in the second andeighth games.

It seemed certain thatDjokovic was going tospend a lot less time on

court in this semi-final compared to12 months agowhen he needed

five setsand f ive

hours and15 minutes

to beatNadal.

However, Baut istaAgut, who had already

defeated the Serb twicethis year, eventually

settled and broke for2-1 in the second set.

Djokovic foughtoff two break points,via a 23-shot rally, inthe fifth game.

But the 31-year-old Bautista Agutheld his nerve toeventually levelthe semi-final at

6-4 off a fortuitous net cord.Djokovic, increasingly

irritated by a restless crowd,broke for 4-2 in the third setand held for 5-2 off the backof a lung-busting 45-shotrally.

The set was secured,ironically off another netcord which fell this time inthe Serb's favour.

Bautista Agut, who hadplanned to be in Ibiza thisweek for his stag party,fought off break points in theopening game of the fourthset.

But Djokovic was relent-less and tightened his grip,breaking twice for a 4-1 lead,and eventually claimed vic-tory on a fifth match point.

Federer and Nadal willbattle for a place in the finallater on Friday, 11 years afterthey mesmerised CentreCourt in a Grand Slamchampionship match widelyregarded as the greatest everplayed.

Nadal emerged tr i-umphant that day, winningin five sets in a four-hour 48-minute epic of fluctuatingfortunes that stretched outover seven hours because ofconstant, momentum-shift-ing rain interruptions.

The Spaniard won 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (8/10), 9-7 asthe clock ticked past 9pmand with the famous stadiumin near-darkness.

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Retired South Africa greatA B de Villiers on Fridaybroke his silence on the

controversy surrounding hisinternational comeback thatnever happened, saying he didnot demand an 11th hourreturn before the World Cup.

In a detailed statement, deVilliers gave his side of thestory after he was criticised forpicking and choosing interna-tional assingnents afterannouncing his retirement lastyear.

“I made absolutely nodemands at all. I certainly didnot try to force my way into theWorld Cup squad on the eve ofthe tournament, and did notexpect to be included. Therewas no burning issue from myside, and no sense of injustice,”said one of the modern greatswho played 114 Tests and 228ODIs.

In the middle of SouthAfrica’s World Cup campaign,a media report had claimedthat the 35-year-old had offeredto come out out of retirementa day before the squad for theevent was to be picked but theteam management rejected it.

South Africa crashed out ofthe tournament with threewins in nine games.

De Villiers said he wasprivately asked on the day of hisretirement if he was open toplay the World Cup and he didnot offer. “During the weeksand months that followed (his

retirement), there was no for-mal contact between CricketSouth Africa or the Proteas andme. I didn’t call them, and theydidn’t call me. I had made mydecision and the Proteas movedon, enjoying success under theexpert guidance of coach OttisGibson and the outstandingcaptaincy of Faf du Plessis.”

During his chat with cap-tain and friend du Plessis, deVilliers said he made it clearthat he was available only ifrequired.

“Faf and I have beenfriends since we were at schooltogether and, two days beforethe World Cup squad wasannounced, I contacted him fora chat. I had been in decentform during the IndianPremier League and casuallyrepeated what I had said whenasked a year earlier, that I wasavailable if required... But onlyif required.”

It hurt de Villiers that hisprivate conversation with theskipper was leaked in the

media following the team’s lossto India. “Then, out of the blue,on the evening after the Proteaslost to India, suffering a thirdsuccessive World Cup defeat,elements of our private conver-sation were disclosed to themedia, and distorted to cast mein the worst possible light.

“The story was not leakedby me, or anybody associatedwith me, or by Faf. Maybesomeone wanted to deflectcriticism. I don't know. As aresult, I was unfairly describedas arrogant, selfish and indeci-sive but, with all humility, myconscience is clear.”

Notwithstanding the con-troversy over his comeback, deVilliers said his relationshipwith the national team playersremains strong as ever.

"Now, at this stage of mylife, I would like to continuespending time with my familyand to play in selected T20tournaments in SA and aroundthe world.

"I have been massivelyproud to have played for, andindeed captain, my country onthe cricket field. My relation-ships with the Protea playersremain as strong as ever, and Iwill always be available to sup-port and assist the next gener-ation," he added.

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Barcelona announced the signing ofAntoine Griezmann on Friday after the

Spanish champions paid La Liga rivalsAtletico Madrid the 120 million euro($135 million) release clause required tosign the World Cup winner.

"The player will sign a contract with hisnew club for the next five seasons, throughto 30 June 2024, with a buyout clause of 800million euros," Barca said in a statement.

Friday's announcement brings to anend a dispute between the two clubs andGriezmann, who had long aimed to moveto the Catalan giants.

The 28-year-old failed to show up forhis side's pre-season gathering on Sundayafter he had announced in May he wouldbe leaving the Wanda Metropolitano,even though he could not reveal his des-tination until his release clause droppedfrom 200 million euros to 120 millioneuros at the start of the month.

Last week Atletico accused Barcelonaand Griezmann of a "lack of respect" afterthe Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeurevealed the two clubs had held talks aboutthe former Real Sociedad forward.

Atletico also claimed that Griezmannhad told the club that he had struck a dealwith Barcelona in March, just days beforethe second leg of their Champions Leaguelast-16 tie with Juventus, which saw themdumped out by a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick after winning the first leg 2-0 inMadrid.

Griezmann joined Atletico in 2014 andhas scored 133 goals in 257 appearances,lifting the Europa League in 2018.

He won the Golden Boot at Euro 2016when France were beaten in the final onhome soil by Portugal before helping toguide his team to World Cup triumph inRussia last year.

The sale of Griezmann comes afterAtletico stumped up a whopping 126 mil-lion euros to sign rising star Joao Felixfrom Benfica last week, making the 19-year-old one of the five most expensiveplayers in history. The fee was a record paidby the capital club and the highest everreceived by a Portuguese outfit, and the

inevitable sale of Griezmann helps financesuch a huge transfer for a young player.

Felix burst onto the scene last season,scoring 20 times and making 11 assists inall competitions for Benfica as they wonthe Primeira Liga and reached the quar-

ter-finals of the Europa League.On Friday Atletico also unveiled

Felix's former Benfica teammate IvanSaponjic, the 20-year-old arriving aftersigning a three-year deal with the Spanishclub.

����� �70�70

Former Australia captainSteve Waugh believesthat his country has the

best phasing out policy for thebiggest names unlike the sub-continent where it becomesdifficult to move on onceplayers attain legendary status.

Waugh was asked thequestion in context of thedebate surroundingMahendra Singh Dhoni'sfuture in international crick-et after India's semi-final exitfrom the World Cup.

"It's interesting. Australiadefinitely do that. It doesn'tmatter who you are becauseyou have got to move on,"

Waugh said when asked aboutCricket Australia's retirementpolicy and his own exit frominternational scene in early2004.

But Waugh, one ofAustralia's most successfulskippers, feels that it wont becorrect to equate Australia'ssituation with India.

"May be in the sub-conti-nent you get a bit more leewaywith 1.4 billion people follow-ing you. People no longerremain people. They becomelegends, Gods. It's very hard tomove on," he said.

"It becomes increasinglychallenging when people getto a certain age. MahendraSingh Dhoni you are referring

to is still a great player," saidWaugh.

The World Cup winningformer captain is, however,happy with Australia's overallperformance consideringwhere they were 12 monthsback.

"I think it's a fair commentthat Australia have done wellin the World Cup compared towhere they were 12 monthsago," he said on his country'sdefeat against England atEdgbaston on Thursday.

"Once they got to thesemi-finals, there were highexpectations. They might bedisappointed this morningbut overall I think AaronFinch did great job as captain

as well as a player," Waugh,who is a brand ambassador ofICC's community cricket tour-nament called Criiio.

Talking about the initia-tive, he said, "I think it's a greatinitiative and it is what sportis all about. It's about sports atgrassroot level and peopleenjoying it. Learning aboutsportsman spirit."

Asked to whom he wouldput his money in Sunday'sfinal between England andNew Zealand at the Lord's, hereplied: "I don't put money onsport. I expect a great final asNew Zealand has been play-ing well. They have nowreached two finals. So I expecta good match."

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It was called a game-changing moment of

brilliance but NewZealand batsman MartinGuptill says his direct hitthat ran out M S Dhoniin the World Cup semi-final against India wasmore a case of luck doingits bit for him.

With that run out inthe 49th over, India'shopes ended in the tensesemifinal at Old Traffordon Wednesday. The for-

mer champions wentdown by 18 runs againstthe last edition's finalists.

"I did not think theball was actually comingto me, I tried to getthere as soon as I could.Once I got hold of theball, I thought it wasactually quite straight.Lucky enough to get adirect hit from out there,lucky for us he was out ofhis ground," Guptill saidin a short videouploaded by the ICC onsocial media.

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