ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal...

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T he Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has come out with “mixed” find- ings while dealing with allega- tion of corruption against benched CBI Director Alok Verma. Taking note of the CVC report, the Supreme Court has given Verma time till November 19 to respond to certain “very uncomplimenta- ry findings” in the CVC report. The SC Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said there are some “very com- plimentary”, some “not so com- plimentary” and some “very uncomplimentary” findings in the “exhaustive” preliminary enquiry report. The Bench included justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph. The SC also directed that a copy of the CVC report along with annexure be given to Verma in a sealed cover and it “will be open for” him to file his response to it “again in sealed cover” by 1 pm on November 19. The apex court has fixed November 30 as the next date for hearing in the matter. “CVC has filed an exhaus- tive report. The report has been categorised in four parts and is very complimentary on some charges, not so compli- mentary on some charges and very uncomplimentary on some charges. CVC report says some charges are required to be investigated and they need time,” the CJI said and posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday. Earlier, Verma had approached the apex court challenging the Centre’s deci- sion to divest him of his duties and sending him on leave fol- lowing his feud with his deputy Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who has levelled cor- ruption allegations against him. Asthana was also divested of his duties and sent on leave. The CVC’s enquiry against Verma was conducted under the supervision of former apex court judge Justice AK Patnaik and the report was filed in the court on November 12 follow- ing a directive from the top court. During the hearing on Friday, the Bench made it clear that the confidentiality of CVC’s report was necessary “keeping in mind the need to preserve and maintain the sanctity of the institution of the CBI and public confidence in the said institution”. The Bench had noted that a copy of the report and the annexure be also furnished in a sealed cover to the offices of Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the CVC. The court turned down the plea of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Asthana, to also give him a copy of the CVC report. S etting the stage for a bitter confrontation between the Centre and States, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal Governments have withdrawn the “general consent” accorded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to exercise its authority in the States. First it was Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu whose Government declared that the CBI cannot conduct raids or investigations in his State with- out permission. Hours later West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee followed suit. Backing Andhra Pradesh CM, Mamata said, “What Chandrababu has done is right. The CBI receives instructions from the BJP.” “In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, Government hereby withdraws the general consent accorded (in GO Ms 109) to all the mem- bers of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise the powers and jurisdiction under the said Act in the State of Andhra Pradesh,” the Andhra Government notification said. Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister (Home) N China Rajappa justified the State Government’s action say- ing it was taken against the backdrop of certain allegations against the country’s premier investigating agency. “We have trust in the CBI but the recent allegations against its top officials have made us withdraw the general consent. Henceforth, the CBI has to obtain the State Government’s permission for investigating every case,” Rajappa told the media. The general consent was withdrawn on the advice of lawyers and intellectuals, Rajappa claimed. Even the Government in Karnataka had withdrawn the general consent for the CBI, he pointed out. Rajappa, howev- er, clarified the CBI could take up investigation against Central Government officials without the State’s permission. “We will grant necessary permission whenever the CBI makes a request,” he added. On August 3 this year, the AP Government issued the GO Ms No. 109 according “general consent” to all mem- bers of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise the powers and jurisdiction in AP against officials of the Central Government, Central Government undertakings and private persons for investigat- ing offences under various laws, including the Prevention of Corruption Act. Reacting to the decision taken by Andhra and Bengal, the Congress on Friday said it is a “dangerous trend” that States Governments “no longer have faith” in the CBI. “Unfortunately in the last four-and-a-half years, they (CBI and other agencies) have been treated like private armies of Amit Shah or Modi and that is why people doubt the abili- ty of the CBI to act indepen- dently,” Congress leader Pawan Khera alleged. The Congress leader said the recent goings-on in the CBI are a “very serious matter” and people should not lose faith in such premier agencies. Ever since he snapped ties with the NDA in March, Chandrababu had been accus- ing the Centre of misusing the CBI to target political oppo- nents. The recent raids by Income Tax authorities on some business establishments run by those close to the rul- ing Telugu Desam Party in the State have left Chandrababu red-faced. Subsequently, he announced that his Government would not pro- vide police cover to the IT offi- cials for conducting the raids. Continued on Page 4 T he Kochi International Airport was literally held to ransom for almost 13 hours on Friday by devotees of Lord Ayyappa who had gathered in large numbers to prevent social activist Trupti Desai, who flew down to Kerala, from entering Sabarimala Temple. The activist who reached the airport at 4.45 am could not come out of the terminal and was confined to the lounge till 6.50 pm when she told the media that she would return to Pune by a late night flight. The devotees sat in front of the arrival lounge and sang Ayyappa bha- jans non-stop till Trupti announced her decision to return to Pune. “I’ll come back soon unannounced and will sure- ly visit Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala. Today no one is willing to help me to proceed to Sabarimala or to check into a hotel,” said Desai, who was accom- panied by six of her associates. Meanwhile, hectic activities are on to resolve the stand-off between the devotees and the Kerala Government as Travancore Devaswom Board decided to approach the Supreme Court with a stay petition. If the stay is granted, the Kerala Government may get some breathing space to implement the September 28 verdict of the SC. The prelude to the Mandala Puja (the 41-day festival when devotees throng the shrine after observing penance) took place on Friday evening at Sabarimala Temple. The evening saw Thanthri (chief priest) Kantararu Rajeevaru and head priest (mel shan- thi) AV Unnikrishnan Nampoodiri opening the sanctum in the presence of hundreds of devotees and performing the traditional Puja. Continued on Page 4 C yclone Gaja ripped through Nagapattinam early on Friday uprooting trees and snapping power lines leaving a trail of destruction in coastal districts besides claiming 13 lives and flooding standing crops. The cyclonic storm crossed Tamil Nadu’s coast between Nagapattinam and near- by Vedaranyam in the wee hours of Friday, bringing in heavy rain in the coastal regions, according to a weath- er bulletin. Winds gusting up to 120 kmph uprooted trees, snapped electric cables and blew off roofing-sheets. According to officials, ten men and three women died and 28 head of cattle perished in cyclone related incidents despite authorities evacuating as many as 81,948 people to 471 relief centres in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Tiruvarur districts. The storm caused heavy damage to the 16th century Shrine Basilica at Velankanni in Nagapattinam district. Due to gusty winds, the rood cross on top of the church broke and fell, Church authorities said. The church is built in accordance with Gothic archi- tecture. Authorities said the 75-feet tall stone statue of Jesus erected in front of the Morning Star Church in the town, sustained structural damage. According to church officials, the hands of the stat- ue have suffered damage. The roof of the Museum of Offerings in the town has also been damaged. Expressing grief over the deaths, Chief Minister K Palaniswami sanc- tioned a solatium of 10 lakh to the kin of those who died and 25,000 to 1 lakh for the injured. The CM said he has ordered offi- cials to immediately determine the extent of damage to crops, fishing boats, houses, and cattle. “I have ordered relief efforts on a war-footing,” he said, adding Ministers are carrying out work in districts assigned to them. The Centre has assured the Tamil Nadu Government of all assistance to deal with the situation arising out of the cyclonic storm ‘Gaja’. Home Minister Rajnath Singh also directed Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba to monitor the situation in Tamil Nadu and provide all help to the State administration. T ata Sons on Friday con- firmed its interest in acquiring the beleaguered Jet Airways but said no concrete “proposal” has been made by the group so far. The Tatas, which already run two carriers —the full-ser- vice Vistara in a joint venture with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and AirAsia India in a similar arrangement with Malaysian carrier Air Asia — have wide- ly speculated to be planning to acquire Naresh Goyal-con- trolled airline with its Singaporean partner. “We would like to clarify that any such discussions (to acquire Jet Airways) have been preliminary,” Tata Sons said. Detailed report on P10 F acing a political backlash for firing at the protestors sit- ting on a dharna some three years back against the incidents of sacrilege in the State, the Punjab Police on Friday found itself in a tumultuous situation once again after a senior mem- ber of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the matter was asked to leave his residence by the former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. In a high voltage drama outside his Sector-4 official residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons to the former Chief Minister, his son and SAD president Sukhbir Badal, and the Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar to appear before the probing team — to question him while making it clear that he would answer only to the SIT head’s queries. As Kunwar Vijay reached Badal’s residence to quiz him in an attempt to murder case regarding Kotkapura firing inci- dent of October 2015, the Akali patriarch asked about the absence of SIT head Parbodh Kumar, and expressed his reser- vation over being questioned by the IG accusing him of being “in control of his political masters”. Kunwar Vijay called up Kumar, and Badal too spoke to him making him clear that he should himself come for the questioning as he was the SIT chairman. “I have been head of the State. Can you not come yourself…If you cannot come, I will come to you,” Badal told the ADGP Kumar amid high drama in front of the media. Minutes later, Kumar reached the venue, and Kunwar Vijay left without talking to the media. Interestingly, Badal came to see the IG off. He had earlier also come out of his flat to personally welcome the SIT members, but was surprised to see only one of them. The development assumes significance as only a day before, SAD had sought Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s intervention to remove Kunwar Vijay from the SIT for “demonstrating unprofession- al conduct, disobedience of the law of the land, his malice and his political leanings”. Kunwar Vijay, on November 11, had issued sep- arate summons to Badal, Sukhbir and Akshay to appear before it at Amritsar circuit house on November 16, 19 and 21, respectively. However, considering senior Badal’s old age, the SIT has issued fresh summons to the former Chief Minister giv- ing him reprieve to give his “place of convenience” for interrogation, in case he did not wish to appear before it at Amritsar. Responding, Badal suggested his official residence in Chandigarh for questioning. NEVER ORDERED FIR- ING: BADAL TO SIT Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday submitted before the SIT, probing sacrilege and related firing incidents of 2015, that he had never given orders for firing. The SIT, headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Pramod Kumar, questioned Badal as a witness regarding Kotkapura firing incidents of October 14, 2015, in which two persons were killed. During the questioning, that lasted for about 40-50 minutes, Badal reportedly answered all the queries by the SIT chairman patiently. Later addressing the media, Badal said that he had informed the SIT that he had Continued on Page 4

Transcript of ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal...

Page 1: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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The Central VigilanceCommission (CVC) has

come out with “mixed” find-ings while dealing with allega-tion of corruption againstbenched CBI Director AlokVerma. Taking note of theCVC report, the SupremeCourt has given Verma time tillNovember 19 to respond tocertain “very uncomplimenta-ry findings” in the CVC report.

The SC Bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoisaid there are some “very com-plimentary”, some “not so com-plimentary” and some “veryuncomplimentary” findings inthe “exhaustive” preliminaryenquiry report. The Benchincluded justices SK Kaul andKM Joseph.

The SC also directed that acopy of the CVC report alongwith annexure be given toVerma in a sealed cover and it“will be open for” him to file hisresponse to it “again in sealedcover” by 1 pm on November19. The apex court has fixedNovember 30 as the next datefor hearing in the matter.

“CVC has filed an exhaus-

tive report. The report hasbeen categorised in four partsand is very complimentary onsome charges, not so compli-mentary on some charges andvery uncomplimentary onsome charges. CVC report sayssome charges are required to beinvestigated and they needtime,” the CJI said and postedthe matter for hearing onTuesday.

Earlier, Verma hadapproached the apex courtchallenging the Centre’s deci-sion to divest him of his dutiesand sending him on leave fol-lowing his feud with his deputySpecial Director RakeshAsthana, who has levelled cor-ruption allegations against him.Asthana was also divested of hisduties and sent on leave.

The CVC’s enquiry againstVerma was conducted underthe supervision of former apexcourt judge Justice AK Patnaik

and the report was filed in thecourt on November 12 follow-ing a directive from the topcourt.

During the hearing onFriday, the Bench made it clearthat the confidentiality ofCVC’s report was necessary“keeping in mind the need topreserve and maintain thesanctity of the institution of theCBI and public confidence inthe said institution”.

The Bench had noted thata copy of the report and theannexure be also furnished ina sealed cover to the offices ofAttorney General KKVenugopal and SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, who isrepresenting the CVC.

The court turned downthe plea of senior advocateMukul Rohatgi, appearing forAsthana, to also give him acopy of the CVC report.

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Setting the stage for a bitterconfrontation between the

Centre and States, AndhraPradesh and West BengalGovernments have withdrawnthe “general consent” accordedto the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) to exerciseits authority in the States.

First it was AndhraPradesh Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu whoseGovernment declared that theCBI cannot conduct raids orinvestigations in his State with-out permission. Hours laterWest Bengal counterpartMamata Banerjee followed suit.

Backing Andhra PradeshCM, Mamata said, “WhatChandrababu has done is right.The CBI receives instructionsfrom the BJP.”

“In exercise of the powersconferred by Section 6 of theDelhi Special PoliceEstablishment Act, 1946,Government hereby withdrawsthe general consent accorded(in GO Ms 109) to all the mem-bers of the Delhi Special Police

Establishment to exercise thepowers and jurisdiction underthe said Act in the State ofAndhra Pradesh,” the AndhraGovernment notification said.

Andhra Pradesh DeputyChief Minister (Home) NChina Rajappa justified theState Government’s action say-ing it was taken against thebackdrop of certain allegationsagainst the country’s premierinvestigating agency.

“We have trust in the CBIbut the recent allegationsagainst its top officials havemade us withdraw the generalconsent. Henceforth, the CBI

has to obtain the StateGovernment’s permission forinvestigating every case,”Rajappa told the media.

The general consent waswithdrawn on the advice oflawyers and intellectuals,Rajappa claimed.

Even the Government inKarnataka had withdrawn thegeneral consent for the CBI, hepointed out. Rajappa, howev-er, clarified the CBI could takeup investigation against CentralGovernment officials withoutthe State’s permission. “We willgrant necessary permissionwhenever the CBI makes a

request,” he added.On August 3 this year, the

AP Government issued theGO Ms No. 109 according“general consent” to all mem-bers of the Delhi Special PoliceEstablishment to exercise thepowers and jurisdiction in APagainst officials of the CentralGovernment, CentralGovernment undertakings andprivate persons for investigat-ing offences under variouslaws, including the Preventionof Corruption Act.

Reacting to the decisiontaken by Andhra and Bengal,the Congress on Friday said it

is a “dangerous trend” thatStates Governments “no longerhave faith” in the CBI.

“Unfortunately in the lastfour-and-a-half years, they(CBI and other agencies) havebeen treated like private armiesof Amit Shah or Modi and thatis why people doubt the abili-ty of the CBI to act indepen-dently,” Congress leader PawanKhera alleged.

The Congress leader saidthe recent goings-on in the CBIare a “very serious matter”and people should not lose faithin such premier agencies.

Ever since he snapped tieswith the NDA in March,Chandrababu had been accus-ing the Centre of misusing theCBI to target political oppo-nents. The recent raids byIncome Tax authorities onsome business establishmentsrun by those close to the rul-ing Telugu Desam Party in theState have left Chandrababured-faced. Subsequently, heannounced that hisGovernment would not pro-vide police cover to the IT offi-cials for conducting the raids.

Continued on Page 4

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The Kochi International Airport wasliterally held to ransom for almost

13 hours on Friday by devotees of LordAyyappa who had gathered in largenumbers to prevent social activistTrupti Desai, who flew down to Kerala,from entering Sabarimala Temple.

The activist who reached the airportat 4.45 am could not come out of theterminal and was confined to thelounge till 6.50 pm when she told themedia that she would return to Pune bya late night flight.

The devotees sat in front of thearrival lounge and sang Ayyappa bha-jans non-stop till Trupti announced herdecision to return to Pune. “I’ll comeback soon unannounced and will sure-ly visit Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala.Today no one is willing to help me toproceed to Sabarimala or to check into

a hotel,” said Desai, who was accom-panied by six of her associates.

Meanwhile, hectic activities are onto resolve the stand-off between thedevotees and the Kerala Government asTravancore Devaswom Board decidedto approach the Supreme Court with astay petition. If the stay is granted, theKerala Government may get somebreathing space to implement theSeptember 28 verdict of the SC.

The prelude to the Mandala Puja(the 41-day festival when devoteesthrong the shrine after observingpenance) took place on Friday eveningat Sabarimala Temple. The evening sawThanthri (chief priest) KantararuRajeevaru and head priest (mel shan-thi) AV Unnikrishnan Nampoodiriopening the sanctum in the presence ofhundreds of devotees and performingthe traditional Puja.

Continued on Page 4

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Cyclone Gaja ripped throughNagapattinam early on Friday

uprooting trees and snapping powerlines leaving a trail of destruction incoastal districts besides claiming 13lives and flooding standing crops. Thecyclonic storm crossed Tamil Nadu’scoast between Nagapattinam and near-by Vedaranyam in the wee hours ofFriday, bringing in heavy rain in thecoastal regions, according to a weath-er bulletin.

Winds gusting up to 120 kmphuprooted trees, snapped electric cablesand blew off roofing-sheets. Accordingto officials, ten men and three womendied and 28 head of cattle perished incyclone related incidents despiteauthorities evacuating as many as81,948 people to 471 relief centres inCuddalore, Nagapattinam,Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur,Pudukottai and Tiruvarur districts. Thestorm caused heavy damage to the 16thcentury Shrine Basilica at Velankanniin Nagapattinam district.

Due to gusty winds, the rood crosson top of the church broke and fell,

Church authorities said. The church isbuilt in accordance with Gothic archi-tecture. Authorities said the 75-feet tallstone statue of Jesus erected in front ofthe Morning Star Church in the town,sustained structural damage. Accordingto church officials, the hands of the stat-ue have suffered damage. The roof ofthe Museum of Offerings in the townhas also been damaged.

Expressing grief over the deaths,Chief Minister K Palaniswami sanc-tioned a solatium of �10 lakh to the kinof those who died and �25,000 to �1lakh for the injured.

The CM said he has ordered offi-cials to immediately determine theextent of damage to crops, fishing boats,houses, and cattle. “I have ordered reliefefforts on a war-footing,” he said,adding Ministers are carrying outwork in districts assigned to them.

The Centre has assured the TamilNadu Government of all assistance todeal with the situation arising out of thecyclonic storm ‘Gaja’. Home MinisterRajnath Singh also directed HomeSecretary Rajiv Gauba to monitor thesituation in Tamil Nadu and provide allhelp to the State administration.

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Tata Sons on Friday con-firmed its interest in

acquiring the beleaguered JetAirways but said no concrete“proposal” has been made bythe group so far.

The Tatas, which alreadyrun two carriers —the full-ser-vice Vistara in a joint venturewith Singapore Airlines (SIA)

and AirAsia India in a similararrangement with Malaysiancarrier Air Asia — have wide-ly speculated to be planning toacquire Naresh Goyal-con-trolled airline with itsSingaporean partner.

“We would like to clarifythat any such discussions (toacquire Jet Airways) have beenpreliminary,” Tata Sons said.

Detailed report on P10

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Facing a political backlash forfiring at the protestors sit-

ting on a dharna some threeyears back against the incidentsof sacrilege in the State, thePunjab Police on Friday founditself in a tumultuous situationonce again after a senior mem-ber of the Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) probing the matterwas asked to leave his residenceby the former Chief MinisterParkash Singh Badal.

In a high voltage dramaoutside his Sector-4 officialresidence, Badal categoricallyrefused the SIT member IGKunwar Vijay Partap Singh —who had issued summons tothe former Chief Minister, hisson and SAD president Sukhbir

Badal, and the Bollywood actorAkshay Kumar to appearbefore the probing team — toquestion him while making itclear that he would answer onlyto the SIT head’s queries.

As Kunwar Vijay reachedBadal’s residence to quiz him inan attempt to murder caseregarding Kotkapura firing inci-dent of October 2015, the Akalipatriarch asked about theabsence of SIT head ParbodhKumar, and expressed his reser-vation over being questioned bythe IG accusing him of being “incontrol of his political masters”.

Kunwar Vijay called upKumar, and Badal too spoke tohim making him clear that heshould himself come for thequestioning as he was the SITchairman. “I have been head of

the State. Can you not comeyourself…If you cannot come,I will come to you,” Badal toldthe ADGP Kumar amid highdrama in front of the media.

Minutes later, Kumarreached the venue, and KunwarVijay left without talking to themedia. Interestingly, Badalcame to see the IG off. He hadearlier also come out of his flatto personally welcome the SITmembers, but was surprised tosee only one of them.

The development assumessignificance as only a daybefore, SAD had sought ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh’s intervention to removeKunwar Vijay from the SIT for“demonstrating unprofession-al conduct, disobedience ofthe law of the land, his malice

and his political leanings”.Kunwar Vijay, on

November 11, had issued sep-arate summons to Badal,Sukhbir and Akshay to appearbefore it at Amritsar circuithouse on November 16, 19 and21, respectively.

However, consideringsenior Badal’s old age, the SIThas issued fresh summons tothe former Chief Minister giv-ing him reprieve to give his“place of convenience” forinterrogation, in case he did notwish to appear before it atAmritsar. Responding, Badalsuggested his official residencein Chandigarh for questioning.

NEVER ORDERED FIR-ING: BADAL TO SIT

Punjab’s former Chief

Minister Parkash Singh Badalon Friday submitted beforethe SIT, probing sacrilege andrelated firing incidents of 2015,that he had never given ordersfor firing.

The SIT, headed byAdditional Director General ofPolice (ADGP) PramodKumar, questioned Badal as awitness regarding Kotkapurafiring incidents of October 14,2015, in which two personswere killed.

During the questioning,that lasted for about 40-50minutes, Badal reportedlyanswered all the queries by theSIT chairman patiently.

Later addressing the media,Badal said that he hadinformed the SIT that he had

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Friday

said that the State Governmentwould provide one time schol-arship of Rs 10,000 each to tenboys and ten girls living in BalAshrams topping in joint meritlist of the Bal Ashrams/Bal Grihof the State, from 8th to 12thstandard annual examinationsunder the Mukhya Mantri BalUddhar Yojana.

The Chief Minister saidthis while presiding over thestate level closing ceremony ofsports and cultural meet forchildren living in orphanage ofthe state organised by theDirectorate of Women and

Child Development depart-ment here at Balika Ashram,Tutikandi.

Thakur said that the StateGovernment would provideall possible help to ensure thatthe students of the Ashrams getbetter education and theybecome able to earn their prop-er livelihood.

He said that need of thehour is to bring out the bestfrom within such children byproviding them facility of goodteachers and also giving expo-sure visits in different parts ofthe country so that they couldthemselves see and feel the dis-tinct culture and customs ofIndia.

Thakur further said that he

recently visited this Ashram onDiwali and was impressed bythe talent of the students.

There are 48 registeredAshrams in the state out ofwhich eleven are being run bythe State Government. Thegovernment is ensuring thatbest facilities are made availableto the children living in theseAshrams, he said.

He said that the StateGovernment is providing socialsecurity pension of Rs 1300 permonth to the old person agedabove 70 years without anyincome limit.

He also announced that allthe 1500 students would beprovided warm jackets byDecember 15 this year.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal has approved

the inclusion of “core areas”also for registration of fourthfloor as independent dwellingunit on the already approvedconditions and approval ofmaximum permissible heightof 16.5 meters by carrying outamendment in the HaryanaBuilding Code-2017.

As per the Chief Minister’sannouncement, the matterregarding registration of fourthfloor to be allowed as separatedwelling unit in case of resi-dential plot has already beenapproved, said an officialspokesman.

He said that for increase inthe maximum permissibleheight, the figures 15 meterswould be substituted with 16.5meters in the Haryana BuildingCode-2017 with the conditionthat the same would be per-mitted subject to fire NOC andcertificate of conformity torules and structural safety.

He said that the draft ofamendments in the buildingcode would be hosted on thewebsite of Town and CountryPlanning Department andother concerned departmentsthat is Haryana Shehari VikasPradhikaran (HSVP), HaryanaState Industrial andInfrastructural DevelopmentCorporation (HSIIDC), PublicWorks (Building and Roads)and Architecture for invitingobjections and suggestionsfrom the public before publi-cation of final amendment inthe building code.

Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister also accorded admin-istrative approval amounting toover �5.15 crore for the widen-ing and strengthening of tenroads in Indri, district Karnal.

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Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar onFriday alleged that the BJP Government at

the Centre and in the State made a large numberof promises with the people at the time of elec-tions, but with exception of few, no promise hasbeen fulfilled.

Tanwar was addressing booth agents andother workers in “Booth Samrat Sammelan” heldat Sirsa on Friday.

The Congress leader charged the BJP forexploiting the autonomous institutions for its ben-efit and said that CBI vs. CBI is a glaring exam-ple before us.

He said that the decision of demonetizationis a biggest scam involving Rs 8 lakh crore. Duringthe UPA Government headed by ManmohanSingh, the country was on the road to progresswhich has been faltered in current BJP regime,he added

Referring to the division in the INLD, he saidthat when family is divided how can the party besecured.

He also exhorted the people to come out bold-ly to vote for Congress in the coming electionsso that women and daughters feel secure, unem-ployed people get jobs and there is a check oncrimes.

Tanwar said that booth level worker is veryimportant in every party and where the boothlevel is weak everything goes disorganized.

He added that if the booth agents are strongthen every battle can be fought very well and askedthem to gear up for next year’s polls.

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Former Himachal PradeshPublic Service Commission

chairperson Chandra MohanSharma allegedly committedsuicide by shooting himself athis residence here on Friday.He was 67.

Major General (retired)CR Sharma was reportedlysuffering from depression.

A suicide note and hislicensed revolver used in thecrime have been recovered,Deputy Superintendent ofPolice Pramod Shukla said.

Initially, the family lodgeda complaint about his disap-pearance. Later, the police wasinformed about the recovery

of his body in the house,police said.

He was under depressionfor quite some time and wasfound dead in the basementroom of his house on Fridaymorning by his wife, whoreportedly slept in anotherroom, police said.

Besides his wife, he is sur-vived by two sons.

The police have registereda case in the matter.

He was the chairperson ofthe Public ServiceCommission from 2009 to2013.

Sharma earlier served inthe Indian Army and wascommissioned in theRegiment of Artillery in 1972.

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Page 3: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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Asub-inspector of HaryanaPolice was shot dead

allegedly by a murder accusedin Rewari district on Friday.

The incident took placewhen the 49-year-old policeofficer, identified as RanbirSingh, had gone to arrest theaccused, Naresh, a spokesmanof Police Department said.

"On getting informationregarding movement ofNaresh on the Dharuhera-Bhiwadi road (near Rajasthanborder), Ranbir Singh alongwith his team rushed near thespot in Rewari," thespokesperson said.

The accused opened fireat the police party when thesub-inspector moved ahead toarrest him," he said.

Singh was rushed to anearby hospital, where hewas declared brought dead bydoctors.

Naresh is a l legedlyinvolved in the killing of ahotel owner about two weeksago on the Delhi-JaipurHighway and is also wanted inseveral other murder andattempt to murder cases, thespokesperson said.

Expressing grief over thedemise of Singh, HaryanaDGP B S Sandhu said policewill provide all kinds of facil-it ies under the welfareschemes of the department tothe next of kin of thedeceased.

Apart from special ex-gratia grant of Rs 30 lakh,financial assistance of Rs 30lakh would also be givenunder a special agreement ofaccidental death insurancecover, Sandhu said.

In addition, free educa-tion upto class 12 would beoffered to children of thedeceased in police publicschool, he added.

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Security and vigil were beefedup further in Punjab, where

already high alert was sound-ed since Thursday, after the ter-rorist-outfit Ansar GhazwatulHind (AGH) chief Zakir Musawas reportedly spotted inAmritsar along with a fewother men on Friday. Alarmed,the Punjab Police releasedposters of the militant andsounded high alert in the state.

The Jammu and Kashmirbased Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hindterror outfit has reported linksto Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).The development comes afterthe intelligence agenciesinformed the police about hismovements near Amritsar.

Notably, the Punjab Policeare on their toes after the intel-ligence agencies had issued aletter stating that six-sevenmembers of the terror outfitJeM were believed to be sight-ed in Ferozepur. Following thedevelopment, the state hasbeen put on high alert.

Police officials across thestate have been asked to set upcheckpoints at all importantroutes, conduct strict vehicleinspections and take suitablecounter measures for all thesensitive locations.

Police areas along theIndia-Pakistan border havealso been asked to coordinate

with the Border Security Force(BSF). Officials have beenadvised to plan and implementprecautionary measures tothwart any untoward incident.

Gurdaspur SSPSwarandeep Singh said: “Wehad inputs about his (Moosa's)movements near Amritsar. Sowe have released wantedposters of him to make publicaware and have requested themto tell us if they have anyinformation.”

“We had inputs that some

JeM terrorists have infiltratedin Punjab through Ferozepur,so we have taken precautionarymeasures. Extra forces havebeen deployed along the bor-der. Checking of vehicles isunderway,” he said.

The alert stated that theinfiltrators could be movingtowards the national capital.The reports suggest that themilitants had entered Indiafrom the international borderin Ferozepur area.

A letter issued by theCounter Intelligence InspectorGeneral said: “At least six toseven militants are reportedlyin Punjab (possibly Ferozepurarea) and planning to movetowards Delhi from Punjabside.” The note advised theauthorities to step up security,especially along the borderand checking across the state.

On November 5, thePunjab Police arrested two stu-dents associated with AnsarGhazwat-ul-Hind, in connec-tion with Maqsudan PoliceStation hand-grenade blastscase of September 14.

The outfit is headed byMusa, also known as ZakirRashid Bhatt, who master-minded and guided the attack,involving Shahid Qayoom andFazil Bashir, who were studentsof ST Soldier College ofEngineering and Technology inJalandhar.

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Expelled INLD leader AjayChautala's wife and legisla-

tor Naina Chautala on Fridaydared the rival camp led byAbhay Chautala to expel herfrom the party.

After expulsion of her hus-band and sons, Hisar MPDushyant and Digvijay fromthe INLD, Naina Chautala,who is party MLA fromDabwali also hinted at the pos-sibility of major decisions at ameeting called by AjayChautala on Saturday at Jind.

“From tomorrow, there willbe a new beginning,” she saidon Friday while addressing ameeting at Ellenabad in Sirsa.

When asked if AjayChautala is likely to float a newoutfit, she told the mediaper-sons, “See what all happenstomorrow.”

Abhay Chautala, who isLeader of opposition and partyMLA from Ellenabad too hascalled a meeting on Saturday in

Chandigarh of the Haryana-based Indian National LokDal’s serving and formerMLAs, MPs and other officebearers in a show of strengthbetween the two brothers.

The feud within theChautala family escalated afterthe jailed INLD chief OmPrakash Chautala expelled hiselder son Ajay Singh Chautalafrom the primary member-ship of the party for allegedanti-party activities.

A fortnight ago, he had alsoexpelled Ajay Chautala’s twosons, Hisar MP DushyantChautala and DigvijayChautala, over alleged indisci-pline.

Ajay Chautala (57), who isserving a 10-year jail termalong with former chief min-ister Om Prakash Chautala ina teachers' recruitment scam, iscurrently out on a two-weekparole.

Though Naina Chautalahas been speaking out after theaction against her sons, she hasbeen spared disciplinary actionso far.

“Why don't you expel meand (INLD MLA) NagenderBhadana? We too have beenholding separate programmes.What was Ajay ji's fault, whatdid he do?” she said, question-ing his expulsion.

Naina Chautala said, if she

is expelled, Abhay Chautalamay lose the Leader ofOpposition status because of afall in the number of partyMLAs in the Haryana assem-bly.

Attacking Abhay Chautala,she said, “A man may dress likea ̀ sadhu’, but that won't changehis mentality.”

She also alleged that severalINLD MLAs were beingforcibly confined in a resort inParwanoo in HimachalPradesh, a charge denied by theAbhay Chautala camp.

Asked if DushyantChautala is being pitched as afuture Chief Minister by theAjay Chautala camp, she said itwas up to the people.

Meanwhile, the party sec-retary Ashok Sherwal on Fridayalso threw his weight behindAjay Chautala and announcedhis resignation from the post.

He claimed 100 partyworkers and office bearers havealso resigned with him in sup-port of Ajay Chautala.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi willinaugurate the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal

expressway, meant to divert heavy pollut-ing vehicles from Delhi, in Haryana'sGurugram district on November 19.

The Prime Minister would also inau-gurate the Ballabhgarh Metro at Sultanpurvillage in the district and lay the founda-tion stone of Shri Vishwakarma SkillUniversity on the same day, said an offi-cial spokesman of Haryana Government.

A sum of Rs 6,400 crore has been spenton the KMP expressway project and 3,846acre of land was acquired at a cost of Rs2,788 crore. Under this project, the KMPExpressway was to be made four-lane, butit remained incomplete. Keeping in viewthe significance of this project, the presentState Government has got this projectresumed and made it six-lane, thespokesman said.

Giving details, he said that the lengthof the stretch from Kundli to Manesar is83.320 km. This stretch would have fourRoB, 14 major/minor bridges, 56 under-pass/agricultural vehicular underpass,seven intersections and seven toll plazas.

The objective of this expressway is toprovide high speed link of northernHaryana with southern districts and pro-vide uninterrupted high-speed link fortraffic, especially commercial traffic, fromHaryana to neighbouring states. It wouldalso decongest the road traffic from Delhiand thereby reduce pollution, he said

The spokesman said that highwaylighting along the 83 km stretch from

Kundli to Manesar has been made for safe-ty of the road users during night time. Aworld class Art and Culture Gallery hasbeen set up to depict the project develop-ment history through 3D Holographicmodels.

One ambulance, one crane and onepolice patrolling vehicle with a helplinenumber have been stationed in every 20kmfor speedy response in case of accidents oremergencies, he said.

The spokesman said that the PrimeMinister would also inaugurate theBallabhgarh Metro Gurugram onNovember 19. Ballabhgarh will become thefourth city in Haryana to get Metro con-nectivity after Gurugram, Faridabad andBahadurgarh.

The 3.2 km long Escorts Mujesar –Raja Nahar Singh (Ballabhgarh) section ofthe Kashmere Gate – Escorts Mujesar cor-ridor also known as the Violet Line is nowready for passenger operations. After the

opening of this extension, the entireKashmere Gate – Raja Nahar Singh Metrocorridor will become 46.6 kilometreslong, he said.

Currently, 25.8 km of Metro lines areoperational across Haryana. After theopening of this section, the total length ofMetro kilometres in Haryana will become29 kilometres. All trains running on thissection are manufactured in India.

The spokesman said the Raja NaharSingh Station in Ballabhgarh is situatedadjacent to Ballabhgarh Interstate BusTerminal and Ballabhgarh Railway Station.This station is five storey building havingtwo commercial floors above track level.

This station is having parking on theother site of the national highway–2which will be directly connected to the sta-tion via a Foot Over Bridge. The SantSurdas (Sihi) Station is situated nearNational Council for Cement and BuildingMaterial Institute, he added.

About the foundation stone laying cer-emony of Shri Vishwakarma SkillUniversity on the same day, the spokesmansaid that the live telecast of this programmewould be shown at University site inDudhola. A sum of over Rs 1,000 crorewould be spent on establishing thisUniversity.

The university campus would bedeveloped over 82.7 acres. The tendersamounting to Rs 389.24 crore have beenfloated for construction of universitybuilding. The construction work would becarried out in three phases and there is aplan to complete the first phase by 2020,the spokesman added.

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Punjab’s drug control team, in a surprisecheck, on Friday seized 78 bottles of

misbranded drug, suspected to be spuri-ous or counterfeit, from a medical shop inDilkusha Market in Jalandhar.

Informing this, the state Food andDrug Administration commissioner KSPannu said that on receiving a lead aboutspurious or counterfeit medicines in themarket, a team consisting of Drug ControlOfficers of Jalandhar and Kapurthala wasconstituted for the inspection of DilkushaMarket, Jalandhar.

“Investigation revealed that a drug hav-ing a lookalike packing was available in amedical store. One of the packing’s borethe name of manufacturing firm as manda-tory under the Act, while the other did nothave the same. Another contravention

observed was that one packing had \men-tion of drug as a ‘Schedule H Drug’ whichis sold only on prescription of the doctorwhile the other didn’t,” he said.

Besides, being a case of misbrandeddrug, it is suspected to be spurious orcounterfeit, said Pannu adding that four

samples have been taken and sent for fur-ther investigation and the stock (of 78 bot-tles with 100 ml has been seized fromJalandhar.

In continuation to this, medical storesin Phagwara were also checked and 12 bot-tles of the same misbranded Vriclor syrupwere seized from a medical store inNangal Majha.

Swinging into action, theCommissionerate has constituted a specialteam to immediately investigate about thesupply of the drug at C&F (carrying andforwarding) level.

Preliminary report revealed that about4,300 bottles have been dispatched to var-ious medical stores in the State out ofwhich 800 have been seized so far.

“All the Drug Control Officers in theState have been asked to be vigilant aboutthe same in their respective jurisdictionsand weed out the misbranded product sansmandatory ‘Schedule H Drug’ declaration,”said Pannu.

He added that Drug Control Wing isconducting regular inspections of themedical stores to ensure compliance ofDrugs and Cosmetics Act as well to checkthe illegal stock of habit forming drugs.

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In a major reshuffle, HaryanaGovernment on Friday

issued transfer and postingorders of 31 IPS officers, withimmediate effect.

Alok Kumar Roy, ADGP,Railways and Commandos,Panchkula has been posted asADGP, SVB, Panchkula viceAjay Singhal who has beenposted ADGP,CAW with addi-tional charge of ADGP,Railways and Commandos.

Kuldeep Singh Siag,ADGP/Crime-II has beengiven additional charge ofADGP, SCRB relievingShrikant Jadhav of the addi-tional charge.

Navdeep Singh Virk,ADGP, Karnal Range, Karnalhas been given additionalcharge of ADG, HAP,Madhuban. CS Rao, IG, HAP,Madhuban has been posted IG,SCB, Gurugram while CharuBali, CP, Panchkula has beenposted IG/HVPNL.

M Ravi Kiran, IGPAdministration, PHQ,Panchkula goes as IG SVBwhile Sanjay Kumar, IGP, HisarRange, Hisar and Amitab SinghDhillon, CP, Faridabad willswap their place of postings.

Saurabh Singh, IGP,Security has been given addi-tional charge of CP Panchkulaand Hemant Kalson, DIG, SVB,Panchkula has been postedDIG CTI Home Guards.

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In Haryana, several steps arebeing taken to provide the

people of district Nuh with allhealthcare and educationalbenefits.

This was informed at ameeting held with officers underthe chairmanship of HaryanaChief Secretary, DS Dhesiregarding the development ofdistrict Nuh, here on Friday.

Notably, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has resolved tospeed up the development of115 most backward districts ofthe country, which included onedistrict of Haryana i.e. Nuh.

During the meeting, Dhesidirected the concerned officersof Nuh to review all theschemes being implemented in

the district every month.Besides expeditiously filling ofvacant posts of all departmentsin the district, he also asked to

take help of self help groups forensuring healthcare and edu-cational services to all people.

Discussions were held on

minimum transfers of employ-ees and officers posted at thedistrict, rationalization of postsof teachers, outsourcing of ser-

vices of the Diagnostic lab.Discussions were also held onto provide cycles to students ofclass VI, IX and XI to increasethe number of students, oneyear service in district Nuh forthe newly appointedAgriculture officers and busservice to the students of ITIand Polytechnic.

Those present included,Additional Chief Secretary,Revenue and DisasterManagement, Keshni AnandArora, ACS Agriculture andFarmers Welfare, NavrajSandhu, ACS Food, CivilSupplies and Consumer Affairs,Ram Niwas among others.

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Condemning the Congress-led Punjab Government

for raising one tax after anoth-er, the Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) on Friday stated that thecommon man was being forcedto bear the brunt for theGovernment’s “fiscal manage-ment”.

“The 10 percent surchargeon movement of freight andincrease in registration chargeson purchase of new vehicles isthe latest round of taxes beingimposed on the common manwho has already witnessed a 20percent hike in power tariffbesides municipal taxes duringthe Congress regime,” said theformer finance ministerParminder Singh Dhindsa.

He said that the latestround of taxes are beingimposed ostensibly for socialwelfare measures even thoughit is a fact that the same werebeing implemented smoothlyby the previous SAD- BJP gov-ernment. This only proves ourcontention that poor fiscalpolicies are responsible for thepresent state of affairs, he said.

Stating that the govern-ment’s decision to impose 10percent surcharge on move-ment of freight would adverse-ly affect the manufacturingand trading sector in Punjab,Dhindsa said that this was adouble blow to the industrywhich was already reeling dueto the government’s failure todeliver power at a landing costof Rs five per unit to them.

“Increase in registrationcharges could prove to becounter-productive and lead to

vehicles being registered inthe neighbouring states and theUnion Territory ofChandigarh,” he said.

Asking why the commonman should pay for the profli-gacies of the CongressGovernment, Dhindsa said thatthe Government had failed toachieve any of its targets in rev-enue collection during the lateone and a half years.

“The excise and stampduty collections have witnesseda negative growth. On theother hand, wasteful expendi-ture is being done to purchaseluxury vehicles and renovationsof ministerial bungalows…Itseems the government is obliv-ious to the suffering of the peo-ple and is bent on oppressingeach and every section of soci-ety,” he said.

Demanding a completerollback on all new taxes as wellroll back of power hikesimposed in stages in the lastone and a half years, Dhindsasaid that the SAD would orga-nize a people’s movementagainst these “inhuman andintolerable taxes” and forcethe government to take themback.

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To facilitate Punjab milkcooperative, Milkfe, to

establish Mega Milk ProcessingPlants in the state, ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh will lay the foundationstone of a Verka Mega Dairy atBassi Pathana at a state-levelfunction on Saturday.

The state CooperationMinister Sukhjinder SinghRandhawa said that the foun-dation stone ceremony willmark the 65th CooperativeWeek, underlined by the theme‘Value Addition and BrandBuilding through Cooperatives’.

The new Verka Mega Dairyat Bassi Pathana has beenplanned over 25 acres, with amega dairy for value additionof milk, to be established toprocess 11 lakh liters milk perday once fully operational,Randhawa added.

Randhawa said that

Milkfed has played a pivotalrole in improving the eco-nomic conditions of farmers.“In the true sense of aCooperative, Milkfed is oper-ating as an independent asso-ciation of farmers, united vol-untarily to meet their commoneconomic, social and culturalneeds and aspirations,” he said.

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Discouraging Punjabi youthto look for greener pastures

across seas by spending crores,Punjab Cabinet Minister BalbirSingh Sidhu on Friday urgedthem to set up “their own busi-ness or work” here instead.

Sidhu, the state AnimalHusbandry and LabourMinister, insisted that theyoungsters should adopt thework culture of abroad ratherthan heading towards abroad.

“Every year, many young-sters from the state are headingtowards abroad by spendinghuge money, and there, theywork hard facing lot of diffi-culties. Instead of this, theyshould establish their ownworks or business here. This willnot only help them for betterlivelihood, but also helps instrengthening the nation,” saidSidhu while addressing a gath-ering during a job fair organizedat ITI (Girls) Phase V in Mohali.

Sidhu said that the promisemade during elections to pro-

vide employment to everyhousehold in the state is beingfulfilled word by word byCongress Government underthe leadership of Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh.

“For this, employmentopportunities have been pro-vided to the youngsters throughjob fairs and now till November22, job fairs at 40 differentlocations are being organized inthe state which will directly pro-vide employment opportunitiesto approximate 80,000 young-sters.” he said.

The Minister expressedpleasure with the presence ofstudents in huge numbers, say-ing that no work is small or big,rather with the hard work anddedications, efficiency can beachieved in any work.

“Job fairs, being organizedby State Government, are get-ting very positive responsebecause through these job fairs,employment opportunities arebeing provided to the young-sters which makes them selfreliant,” he said.

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Page 4: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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From Page 1not ordered firing on the

Sikh protesters agitating againstthe sacrilege incidents inOctober 2015. “I have told SITeverything. I did not order thefiring,” said Badal.

“I think they were fullysatisfied with my replies. But theresult will be known after theygive their report which Iknow…They want to turn usfrom witness to accused,” said90-year-old Akali leader addingthat the report will be “whatChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh wants”.

However, Capt Amarinderhad earlier clarified that theState Government had no rolein the summoning of the formerChief Minister, former deputyChief Minister and SAD presi-dent Sukhbir Badal and actorAkshay Kumar by the SIT as itwas working “independently”.

“The team asked me sever-al questions from here andthere (edhar odhar de svaalpuchh ke chale gaye). Theyhad nothing substantial or rel-evant to ask,” he quipped.

Later, his Advisor onNational Affairs and Media,Harcharan Bains said that Badalwas supremely relaxed and con-fident before questioning butwas surprised to find that onlyone member, Kunwar VijayPratap Singh, had turned up forthe exercise.

“Badal asked him if he

could bring the SIT chairmanPramod Kumar on the phoneline. When Kunwar Vijay con-nected Badal to Kumar, theformer Chief Minister emphat-ically pointed out that the casehad immense sensitivity andthat it was surprising that thegovernment is treating it withsuch casual attitude.

“Is it because the exercise isa mere formality and that thereport of the SIT had alreadybeen written elsewhere?” heasked while urged Kumar “tofind time to come over person-ally for the questioning as the SIThad gone to the unprecedentedlimits of making a five timesChief Minister a witness in a caseunder 307 IPC,” said Bains.

Bains said that Badal point-ed out that on the one hand, thegovernment wanted the peopleto believe in the sincerity of andseriousness of the SIT exercise,while on the other, the issue wasbeing treated as a “mere ritual”,with just one member turningup to question the five-timeChief Minister.

CAPT UNLEASHINGPOLITICAL VENDETTA; SITREPORT TO BE AUTHOREDBY CAPT

Accusing Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh ofunleashing political vendettaagainst him and his party, theAkali Dal patriarch ParkashSingh Badal said that even

though “everyone knows thatthe SIT’s report will be writtenby Capt Amarinder, yet, as alaw-abiding citizen of the coun-try, he would fully cooperatewith the SIT”.

Describing SIT as“Congress government’s politi-cal tool”, Badal said that it wasmeant only to give shape to theruling party’s thirst for politicalvendetta against the formerCM and his family and col-leagues.

“The government has noth-ing to show for its performancein the past two years. Therefore,it wanted to keep the people’sattention occupied with diver-sionary tactics such as the SIT,”he said.

Saying that SIT is “politi-cally motivated”, Badal said:“Never ever had it happened inhistory of independent India,that a democratically electedChief Minister is called forquestioning in an attempt tomurder case. Neither was IndiraGandhi booked for operationblue star nor the current ChiefMinister for Amritsar rail acci-dent.”

Badal made it clear that hewas “not scared of jail”.

“SAD is peace loving party,but the Congress party is play-ing dirty politics, and they cantake Punjab to its dark history.In last term, Capt Amarinderhad sent me, my son and wifeto jail,” he said.

From Page 1Meanwhile, CBI spokesperson in Delhi, said

they have not yet received any such orders and willrespond legally to it.

Opposition parties in AP decried the move andasserted the State Government did not have theauthority to bar the CBI. The principal oppositionYSR Congress alleged the controversial decision wastaken only because the Chief Minister was scaredof the CBI.

From Page 1Later, the new head priest

VN Vasudevan Nampoodiriassumed the charges fromUnnikrishnan Nampoodiri.The new head priest wasadministered the sacred hymnby the Thanthri of the temple.

The temple was closedafter the evening Puja and willbe reopened on Saturday earlymorning at 3.30 by the newhead priest. VasudevanNampoodiri began his strictand strenuous regimen for thenext one year on Fridayevening. He has to stay in thetemple premises for the nextone year and is not allowed togo out anywhere from theshrine in the deep forests.Nampoodiri’s day begins at 3am everyday and concludes by11 pm with the night Puja.

Devotees in large num-bers have reached the foothillsof Sabarimala by Fridayevening. A heavy posse ofpolicemen and women copshave been deployed in andaround the shrine. The KeralaGovernment has taken all pre-cautions to maintain the lawand order in the shrine, whichwitnessed unprecedentedprotests by devotees as a follow-up to the September 28Supreme Court verdict.

Meanwhile, the TDB dis-closed by Friday evening thatit would move a stay petition inthe Supreme Court on Mondayasking for time to implementthe September 28 verdict of theConstitution Bench thatallowed entry of women intothe temple. This wasannounced by TDB presidentA Padmakumar.

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Page 5: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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In a unique kind of project, theSurat railway station will be

developed into a world-classfacility 'multi modal transporthub' (MMTH). The Surat multi-modal transport hub will havea swanky railway station, amodular passenger friendlyconcourse, a bus terminal, widestation lobby, big ticketing hall,retail and offices space in thecommercial towers, seamlessboarding facilities and con-necting bridges among a host ofother facilities. In other words,railway station will have a air-port like facilities for passengers.

According to officials, theSurat multi-modal transporthub will aim at enabling seam-less transit - with simple con-nectivity between the railwaystation, bus terminal and other

transport modes in the city. Asper plan, the transport hub willalso be linked with the citymetro rail network, Bus RapidTransit System as well as sub-urban network. Interestingly,the Surat city railway stationwill be the third one in thecountry to get an internation-al-standard revamp, the firsttwo being Habib Ganj andGandhi Nagar railway stations.

" A special purpose vehicle(SPV) 'Surat IntegratedTransport DevelopmentCorporation (SITCO)', hasbeen formed by the Centre(Railways), Surat MuncipalCorporation and RoadTransport Corporation of thestate. The bid opening date hasnow been extended toDecember 7, .2018 based onthe request of bidders by theIndian Railway Stations

Development Corporation(IRSDC)," officials said.

Sources in the Railwayssaid that the project once com-pleted, will transform the faceof Surat. The total land area ofthe station will be 3,19,700 sqmand the built-up area 57,739sqm with the size of the con-course at 9,825 sqm. The areaunder commercial develop-ment would be around 5,07,054sqm. The station would be amulti-modal transport hubwith a bus terminal having abuilt-up area of 40,724 sqm.

"The built up area (BUA) ofthe proposed commercial devel-opment has been increased from5.06 lakh square meter to 8.40lakh square meter. The built uparea will exclude basements orany upper floors for satisfyingthe parking/ fire requirements asper local byelaws. The hub will

be built at a cost of around Rs5,000 crore.

"For the first time in thehistory of the country the cen-tral government, state govern-ment and the urban local bodyare coming together to make amulti-modal transport hub bypooling their lands. It will alsohave five road under-bridgesand a parking space for 900vehicles. It is expected to caterto around 3,49,684 passengersevery day",officials said. Thecommercial area at groundlevel increased from 3,54,864sq.m. to 7,84,596 sq.m. consid-ering the local demand at Surat.

While the Habib Ganj rail-way station work is expected tobe complete by December-endthis year, the Gandhi Nagar sta-tion will open in time for theVibrant Gujarat Summit inJanuary 2019.

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Four days after the BJPreleased its first list for

Rajasthan, Congress lateThursday night gave green sig-nal to its first list of 152 candi-dates for the December 7Rajasthan Assembly elections,fielding former Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot from Sardarpuraand State party presidentSachin Pilot from Tonk seat.The Congress list was report-edly delayed over differenceson distribution of party tickets.

Former NationalCommission for Women chiefGirija Vyas will contest fromUdaipur, while senior partyleader C P Joshi will be partynominee from the Nathdwaraassembly seat. Leader ofOpposition in the RajasthanAssembly, Rameshwar Lal Dudi,is the Congress's candidate fromthe Nokha assembly seat. AICCSecretary Harish Chaudharywill contest the polls from theBaytoo seat. Former BJP MPHarish Meena, who had movedto the Congress on Wednesday,has been fielded from Deoli Uniara.

The party's central electioncommittee General SecretaryMukul Wasnik released the listafter hectic deliberations withsenior state leaders and the partyleadership. The notification forthe polls was issued on Monday

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The Centre told the DelhiHigh Court on Friday that

the land where Teen MurtiEstate, which includesJawaharlal Nehru MemorialFund (JNMF), is situated,belonged to the Governmentsince the establishment of thenational Capital.

The Centre's responsecame on a petition filed byJNMF seeking to set aside theestate officer's October 15 evic-tion notice.

The Fund has been locatedat Teen Murti, once the resi-dence of India's first primeminister Jawaharlal Nehru, since1967. JNMF was set up in 1964.

Its offices are not part ofthe main building but occupya set of barracks on its easternside with a separate entry fromTeen Murti Marg.

Justice Anu Malhotra list-

ed the matter for further hear-ing on December 4 after senioradvocate Kapil Sibal, appearingfor JNMF, said they havereceived the Government'sresponse on Thursday andsought some time to file therejoinder.

The court, which had onNovember 1 stayed the pro-ceedings before the Directorateof Estates, said status quo bemaintained till the next date of

hearing. Additional Solicitor General

Maninder Acharya and CentralGovernment standing counselMonika Arora told the courtthat they have filed a prelimi-nary affidavit along with nec-essary documents.

The JNMF has denied theclaims that it was in illegal pos-session of the property.

The affidavit, filed by thedeputy director of estates atDirectorate of Estates, claimed that the JNMF hasfailed to produce any authori-ty which allows/ permits it touse the demised premises.

"Without prejudice, thecontention raised by the peti-tioner (JNMF) cannot betermed as a bonafide title dis-pute, as the CentralGovernment is the sole ownerof the demised premises andthe Teen Murti Estate, in itsentirety," it said.

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Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Friday

said that censorship on mediais not possible now because oftechnology. He said, if theemergency was ever to be re-imposed, it would collapse forthe simple reason that one ofthe strengths of the emergencywas Press censorship and tech-nology does not permit a presscensorship today.

Addressing National PressDay event in New Delhi onFriday, Jaitley said, the greatestchallenge before media is toretain its credibility. Reassertingthat nobody can now complainthat their free speech is in dan-ger due to multiple forums forreaders and viewers, the min-ister said technology has madethat putting pressures on mediais next to impossible due to thegrowth of social media

Media's credibility will beits own maker and if misused,it can also be its own breaker,he said. At the event, Jaitleygave away the National Awards

for Excellence in Journalism,presented by the Press Councilof India (PCI). National PressDay which is celebrated onNovember 16 every year, sym-bolises free and responsiblepress in India. The PressCouncil of India started work-ing as a watchdog on this day.

Veteran journalist andHindu publishing group chair-man N Ram was presented

with the prestigious Raja RamMohan Roy Award for his out-standing contribution to jour-nalism. Awards in other cate-gories were also presented.

In his address, Jaitley saidevery political viewpoint isable to find space in some sec-tion of the media or the other."With multiple (media) forumsnow available, nobody canseriously complain my speech

is in danger. Neither the view-er or the reader, nor the onewho wants to convey. You havealternatives available," he said.

He, however, cautionedthat the alternatives are some-times grossly abused, for per-sonalised grounds, collateralpurposes, political purposes, orfor lobbying.

"I think the worst that canhappen to free speech is that ifa doubt in the mind of a read-er or a viewer is created withregard to the integrity of thenews or the opinion that he isseeing," the finance minister.

In his remarks, Jaitley alsorecalled that in the 1950s anamendment was brought in bythe Jawaharlal NehruGovernment restricting freespeech if it adversely affectedthe country's relations with aforeign country.

He claimed that it wasbrought in because Nehru-Liaquat Ali pact became a sub-ject matter of political debate andDr Syama Prasad Mookerjeedecided to lead a campaignagainst it. "We have grown out

of that 1950-1952 phase... I don'tthink that is capable of happen-ing today," he said.

"If the Emergency was everto be re-imposed, because it isfashionable to say it is anotherEmergency. If the Emergencywas ever to be re-imposed, itwould collapse for the simplereason that one of the strengthsof the Emergency was press cen-sorship. And technology doesnot permit press censorship.

"You suddenly get access toinformation through variousinstruments that technologyhas provided," Jaitley said.

The finance minister saidhe has not been able to under-stand the criticism of those"who criticise the maximum"."Well your speech can't be indanger if you are criticisingseven days a week," he said.

Speaking on the occasion,Chairman Press Council ofIndia Justice ChandramouliKumar Prasad said, regulatingmedia is unacceptable andPress Council work relentless-ly to uphold the integrity andimpartiality of the media.

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Congress president RahulGandhi Friday alleged that

under the Modi Government"fast entry gates" of Ministries"open for those who possessfake degrees". Rahul alsoattacked the RSS alleging thatits "farjical (fake) strike" con-tinues on educational insti-tutes of the Delhi University.

Taking to Twitter, helaunched a tirade against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, say-ing,"Shri chappan aur unkemantriyon ne chatron ko dikhayahai ki BJP mai mantrimandal kashighra dwar farzi degree dikhakar khulta hai. ('Mr 56' and hisMinisters have shown students

that under the BJP fast entrygates of Ministries open forthose who possess fake degrees)."

There was no immediatecomment from the PrimeMinister's Office or the BJP."The RSS' has an old traditionof attacking educational insti-tutions and helping those withfake degrees attain power.

"That is why the 'farjical

strikes' of RSS continue on DelhiUniversity," he tweeted in Hindi.

The Congress chief alsotweeted a picture of Modi,Union minister Smriti Irani andABVP's Delhi University presi-dent Ankiv Baisoya, alleging"Fake degree is in BJP's DNA".

Baisoya has stepped downfrom his post after reports ofhim possessing a fake degree.

The ABVP said ThursdayDUSU president Baisoya hasresigned from his post after itasked him to do so, and hasalso been suspended from thestudents outfit till an inquiryinto allegations that he gainedadmission to the DelhiUniversity on the basis of afake degree.

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The Supreme Court onFriday said that it will hear

in April a plea challenging thevalidity of Article 370 of theConstitution giving special sta-tus to Jammu & Kashmir. Thecourt deferred the hearing afterAttorney General K KVenugopal, appearing for theCentre sought adjournment onthe ground that the current sit-uation is very sensitive.

A bench of Justices D YChandrachud and M R Shahsaid it will hear the matter inthe first week of April 2019seemed to appreciate the con-cern raised by the AttorneyGeneral who said, "The polit-ical situation in the state is suchthat the matter should not beheard at this time."

Senior advocate RakeshDwivedi and advocate ShoebAlam, appearing for Jammuand Kashmir said that a letterhas been circulated seekingadjournment due to the ongo-

ing nine-phase Panchayat pollsin the state.

To this, the bench saidthat it can tag the matter alongwith a batch of pending peti-tions challenging Article 35A ofthe Constitution, under whichspecial rights and privileges aregranted to the "permanent res-idents" of the state.

The suggestion of thebench was opposed by thecounsels for the state sayingthat the two issues are differententirely and the plea should notbe tagged along with Article35A pending petitions. Thebench then posted the matterfor further hearing in firstweek of April, 2019.

On April 3, the apex courthad said that Article 370 of theConstitution is not a temporaryprovision. The court had saidthat in its earlier verdict of 2017in the SARFESI case, it has beenalready held that Article 370 was"not a temporary provision".

"The issue concerned iscovered by the judgement of this

court in the 2017 SARFAESImatter, where we have heldthat despite the headnote ofArticle 370, it is not a temporaryprovision," the court had said.

The court was hearing anappeal filed by petitioner KumariVijayalakshmi Jha, against theDelhi High Court's April 11,2017 order dismissing the pleaseeking a declaration that Article370 is temporary in nature.

The petitioner had claimedbefore the high court thatArticle 370 was a temporaryprovision that had lapsed withthe dissolution of theConstituent Assembly in 1957.

The petition had said thatthe continuance of the tempo-rary provision of Article 370even after dissolution ofConstituent Assembly of J&K,and that of J&K Constitutionwhich has never got the assentof the President of India orParliament or the governmentof India, "amounts to fraud onthe basic structure of ourConstitution".

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People with severe mentaldisorders (SMD) of biopo-

lar, moderate to severe depres-sion and other psychotic dis-orders not only have to battlewith their mental conditionsbut also non-communicableand communicable diseasessuch as diabetes and tubercu-losis cutting their life expectan-cy by 10-20 years when com-pared to general population.

Coming to the rescue ofthis hapless and helpless sector,the World Health Organisation(WHO) has issued for the firsttime "Guidelines on manage-ment of physical health con-ditions in adults with severemental disorders" that aims tohelp health workers to how tolookout and manage co-mor-bid physical and mental healthconditions among such patients.

The majority of these earlydeaths are due to physicalhealth conditions like diabetes,tuberculosis and cardiovascu-lar diseases. "As the physicalhealth of people with SMD iscommonly overlooked, notonly by themselves and peoplearound them, but also byhealth systems, they sufferfrom crucial physical healthdisparities and limited accessto health services.

"Many lives can be saved by

ensuring that people with SMDreceive treatment," the WHOsaid in a statement here recent-ly while releasing the guidelinesrecently for managing physicalhealth conditions of such peo-ple.

The recommendationshave come at a time when Indiais witnessing sharp increase inmental health disorders. Anestimated 150 million peopleacross India are in need ofmental health care interven-tions, both short and long-term, according to India's lat-est National Mental HealthSurvey 2015-16. The survey,which was carried out across 12states, found that the overallprevalence for current mentalhealth morbidity was 10.6 per-cent.

The WHO guidelinesinclude recommendations onhealthy lifestyle behaviorssuch as healthier diet, morephysical activity and tobaccocessation, psychosocial sup-

port and considering possibleinteractions between differentmedications prescribed formental and physical healthconditions.

"The majority of deathsamongst people with SMD areattributable to physical healthconditions, both non-commu-nicable and communicable,"said Graham Thornicroft,Chair of the guideline devel-opmental group and Professorof Community Psychiatry atKing's College London, andcolleagues wrote in the WHOexecutive summary.

"Unfortunately, such peo-ple often lack access to healthservices or receive poor quali-ty care, including promotion

and prevention, screening andtreatment. It is crucial toaddress the disparities in healthcare access and provision forpeople with such condition,"they said.

In India, poor awarenessabout the symptoms of mentalillness, stigma and the lack ofmental health services availablehas led to treatment gap, withinsufficient numbers of trainedmental health care profession-als. The survey by the NationalInstitute of Mental Health andNeuro-Sciences (NIMHANS)found that, depending on thestate, between 70 and 92 per-cent of those in need of men-tal health care failed to receiveany treatment.

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Delayed withdrawal of south-west monsoon and erratic

rainfalls across the countryimpacted the sowing of wheatand pulses crops in the ongoingseason of rabi crops. Accordingto Ministry of Agriculture'sdata, area sown to pulses has fall-en 18 per cent to 69.95 lakhhectare so far in the ongoing rabi(winter) season over the year-ago period due to less plantingin Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Sowing of wheat, the mainrabi crop, is also lagging behindmarginally at Rs 51.63 lakhhectare so far in the rabi sea-son of the 2018-19 crop yearcompared with 54.28 lakhhectare in the year-ago period.Sowing of rabi crops beginsfrom October and harvestingfrom March onwards.

According to the data, farm-ers in Karnataka have sownpulses in only 7.35 lakh hectareso far this season as against 12.98lakh hectare in the same periodlast season. Northern and southinterior parts of Karnataka arereeling under severe drought.These areas received deficientrains even during the kharif(summer) season. Sowing of rabicrops begins in November andcontinues till February.

In Maharashtra too, farmershave planted pulses in only 5.62lakh hectare so far this season asagainst 10.61 lakh hectare in theyear-ago period. However inMadhya Pradesh, pulses wascovered in 29.23 lakh hectare asagainst 30.9 lakh hectare in thesaid period. As many as pulsesacreage remained lower at 69.95lakh hectare so far this season asagainst 85.32 lakh hectare in thesame period last season.

In case of wheat, farmershave sown the crop in 51.63 lakhhectare so far this season asagainst 54.28 lakh hectare in thesame period last season. Areacoverage remained lower inPunjab at 14.68 lakh hectare asagainst 17.58 lakh hectare, whilein Haryana it stood at 5.54 lakhhectare as against 6.93 lakhhectare in the said period.

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The centuries-old idol ofGoddess Tara has gone

missing along with other valu-ables from the famous Shaktishrine Ugratara Temple inJorpukhuri area here, policesaid on Friday.

The idol, made of 'astad-hatu' (eight metals), was foundmissing when the priestopened the temple door onFriday morning. Other valu-ables including cash from thedonation box was also looted,they said.

The temple authoritiesinformed the Latasil policestation, which is located bare-ly 200 metres away from thetemple.

According to the CCTVfootage of the temple, fourpersons were seen looting andvandalising the sanctum sanc-torum of the temple and takingaway the idol.

A massive search operationhas been launched to nab the

culprits and investigations havealready begun, police said.

The Secretary of theTemple Committee, KailashSarmah, said that the idolwas in his family for centuriesand the authorities must takeurgent measures to ensurethat it was recovered at theearliest.

He said the idol datedback to to 1044 AD and thetemple is revered as one of the51 'Shaktipeeths ' in the country.

The present temple wasbuilt in 1725 AD during therule of Ahom King Siva Singh.

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The Mizoram Governmenthas allocated �52.75 crore

towards expenses of theNovember 28 state legislativeassembly pol ls , f inancedepartment of f icials said Friday.

The officials said thefinance department hasreleased �32.5 crore to thestate election department.

Of the �52.75 crore elec-tion budget, �37.75 crore willbe disbursed to eight districtelection offices, while �4 crorewill go to the State electiondirectorate.

The officials said �11crore was the total estimatefor expenses to be incurred ondeployment of 40 companiesof Central Armed PoliceForce (CAPF), which wasregarded as on the higher side.

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Siaha (Mizoram): Alleging thatthe Congress Government hadnot done anything to bringabout development in Mizoram,Union Home Minister RajnathSingh on Friday said the BJP, ifvoted to power, would upgradethe road infrastructure in theState within six months.

Addressing an electionrally here, he said the conditionof roads in the North-easternState has gone from bad toworse under the Congress rule.

“The BJP, if elected topower, will build highways andmend roads in the State with-in six months. The poll-boundState probably has the worstroad infrastructure in the coun-try even after a decade ofCongress rule,” Singh said.

The Minister also assertedthat the Centre would ensurepassage of an amendment tothe Sixth Schedule of theConstitution, providing morepower to the autonomous dis-trict councils of Mizoram.

“If the two BJP nomineesin the Mara AutonomousDistrict Council (MADC) areelected to power, the BJP-ledNDA Government at theCentre will be able to push foran amendment to the SixthSchedule of the Constitution toensure more autonomy to thedistrict councils,” he said.

MADC, one of the threeautonomous district councilswithin the State, has its head-quarters in Siaha. PTI

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Demanding to hold theupcoming Lok Sabha polls

using ballot papers instead ofElectronic Voting Machines(EVMs), former Gujarat ChiefMinister Shankersinh Vaghelasaid that he would try his bestto ensure BJP’s defeat in the2019 general elections.

“There is need to use bal-lot papers till the doubts onEVMs in the minds of voterswould vanish. A mechanismhas to be developed to spreadawareness on EVMs and VVPTamong the voters across thecountry,” said Vaghela in aninteraction with media persons.

On Friday the formerUnion Minister popularlyknown as ‘Bapu’ in political andsocial circles had organisedmedia get together lunch at hispalatial residence on the out-skirts of Gandhinagar to markbeginning of Vikram Samvant2075 (Gujarati New Year).

Vaghela had resigned fromCongress in 2017 ahead ofassembly polls along with hisMLA son Mahendra, relativeBalwantsinh Rajput and other

11 MLAs belonging to hiscamp. In the subsequent devel-opment, his son and Rajputjoined BJP. However, Mahendraresigned from the saffronbrigade in October this year.

Coming down heavily onPrime Minister NarendraModi, the strong Kshtriyaleader said that Modi failed tokeep promises he had given topeople ahead of 2014 LokSabha polls. He went on to saythat Indian voters have decid-ed to defeat NDA.

“I have started efforts tounit anti-BJP political outfits.For the purpose I am visitingacross the nation and alreadyvisited nine states. My aimwould be to create a nationallevel political front to counterBJP,” said the veteran politicianclaiming that even if anti-BJPpolitical party would fight witheach other at local level, theywould get around 300 seats andform UPA type government atthe centre. He gave examples ofWest Bengal where MamataBanerjee’s political outfit wouldfight against communist partyat local level but BJP wouldn’tget anything there.

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Continuing her tiradeagainst the BJP-led NDA

Government for “taking Indiatowards a political chaos,”Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday said the saf-fron Government had ensuredthat the key institutions of thecountry were destroyed.

In an apparent bid to catchthe bull by its horn the ChiefMinister also announcedcounter-Yatras in the wake ofBJP’s much publicised RathYatras beginning next month.The TMC Yatras will follow theroute of the BJP Yatras, she said.

The Narendra ModiGovernment was tearing downthe major institutions likeReserve Bank of India andCentral Bureau of InvestigationBanerjee said promising to doeverything to protect theseorganizations.

“They (Modi Government)are destroying all the key insti-tutions of the country,”Banerjee who had earlier beencritical of changing thePlanning Commission into NitiAyog said adding how theCentre was “trying to changethe way the RBI and the CBIfunction.”

The ruling outfit (readBJP) that was making “‘build-ing statues’ its poll agenda willitself become a statue after thecoming Lok Sabha elections,”Banerjee told a party meetingin Kolkata.

Dropping hints that theTrinamool Congress was plan-ning to take central stage inDelhi post 2019 general elec-tions, Banerjee said the way theBJP was trying to divide the

country and implementingregimes like the NationalRegister for Citizens wouldforce her party to “play a big-ger role in the coming days.

“We will not tolerate divi-sion in the society and perse-cution of innocent people inthe name of NRC,” Banerjeesaid giving a call for “BJPHatao Desh Bachao (save Indiaby driving away the BJP)”.

The Chief Minister whohad called a mega rally inJanuary to be held at the his-toric Brigade Parade Ground inKolkata where she had invitedall the anti-BJP parties said “allparties barring a few have con-firmed their desire to attend therally,” adding the same will actas the final nail in the BJP’s cof-fin.

Attacking the saffron out-fit for reintroducing the age-oldtactic of Rath Yatras to polar-ize the Hindu vote, Banerjeesaid, “the BJP is organizing theRath Yatra to divide the peoplebut we will organize similarYatras which will be called“Ekta Yatra (Unity Rally)” onthe same route that their Yatrafollows.”

The Trinamool Congress’Yatra “is aimed at uniting andnot dividing the communi-

ties,” Banerjee said.Incidentally the CPI(M)

which was locked in a battlewith the BJP for the secondplace in the State has alsoannounced rallies followingthe same path that the BJP’sYatra is like to take.

The BJP is scheduled totake out three Yatras inDecember. While the first Yatrawill start from Ganga Sagar(the southernmost tip ofBengal), the second one willcommence from Tarapeeth inBirbhum district. The thirdYatra will start from the north-ern most district o the StateCoochbehar bordering Assam.The BJP’s chariots will convergeat the Brigade Parade Groundin Kolkata on January 23 thebirth day of Netaji SubhasChandra Bose, the partysources said.

Enroute the Yatras willcover several thousand kilo-meters, during which 60 massmeetings will be held.

Top BJP leaders includingparty president Amit Shah,Assam Chief MinisterSarwananda Sonowal and hisUP counterpart YogiAdityanath will address theBJP rallies sources said.

“The Yatras will be takenout against TrinamoolCongress’ reign of terror, itsappeasement policy and itsaiding the continuing infiltra-tion through Bangladesh bor-der,” BJP State Rahul Sinha said.

However TMC MP andChief Minister’s nephew saidthe Rath Yatra would in fact bea “luxury tour of the State inair-conditioned vehicles by theBJP leaders.”

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The Shirdi police have bookedRajendra Jagtap, head of the

Saibaba Temple run by ShirdiSaibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST)for allegedly molesting a womandevotee from Rahata taluka inMaharashtra’s Ahmednagar.

Acting on a complaint by avictim woman, the Shirdipolice registered an offenceagainst Jagtap under sections354 (molestation), 323(Voluntarily causing hurt), 504(intentional insult with intentto provoke breach of the peace)and 506 (Punishment for crim-inal intimidation).

Following the victimwoman’s complaint, Jagtap hasabsconded from the pilgrimtown of Shirdi. “We are look-ing for Jagtap. He has beenmissing since yesterday. Wehope to find him soon,”Investigation Officer attachedto the Shirdi town police sta-tion B F Maghade said.

The victim woman, whoincidentally is a talukaCongress office bearer, said inher complaint that she alongwith her women friends hadgone to Saibaba temple fordarshan on Thursday night.

“At that time, Saibabapalanquin procession was on. Ataround 8.30 pm, the temple offi-cial (Jagtap) came close to meand my other friends. Hetouched and my friends misbe-haved with us and threw me outof the temple premises. Hethreatened me not to be seen onthe temple premises once againin future,” the complainant said.

The victim woman, in hercomplaint, also claimed thatthis was not the fitst time thatJagtap was misbehaving withwomen inside the temple.

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Striking a strident anti-Dalitstance, six-time independent

MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singhalias Raja Bhaiya on Fridaysaid he would float a new partyopposed to reservation in pro-motions and the “draconian”provisions of the SC, ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The former minister, whorepresents Kunda assemblyconstituency, said the newparty would have 'Jansatta'(people's power) as its prefix.

He said the ElectionCommission had beenapproached for the registrationof the new party as "JansattaParty", "Jansatta LoktantrikParty" or "Jansatta Dal".

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Friday, RajaBhaiya said he was alsoopposed to immediate arrest incase of registration of FIRunder the SC, ST Act.

No investigation isrequired under the SC, ST Actbefore an arrest is made, hesaid, adding that this shouldchange and the arrest shouldbe made only af ter investigation.

The MLA from Kunda saidthere should be no discrimi-nation on basis of caste in thedistribution of compensationand ex gratia to the rape vic-tims. He said rape was aheinous crime and the victim,irrespective of caste and creed,should be compensated by thegovernment.

"Reservation in promotionfor Dalits is inappropriate.Promotions should be basedonly on merit and seniority as

people join state governmentservices after passing toughcompetition," Raja Bhaiya said,adding that the wards of IASand IPS officers should bebarred from reservation as eventhe poor people were denied theAntyodaya ration cards meantfor those below poverty line asthey moved upwards in the eco-nomic ladder.

Justifying the formation ofa new political party, the inde-pendent MLA said there werealready many political outfitsand many more would come upin future but his party wouldfocus on specific issues con-cerning the lives of the masses."People are enthused over myfloating a new party," he added.

Asked whether his partywould forge alliance with otherparties, Raja Bhaiya said, "Thisquestion should be posed toother political parties, whetherthey want to ally with us on theissues we are focusing on."

He said the main agenda ofhis new party would be to raisethe issues related to disparity inthe reservation system vis-à-visnon-Dalits and issues con-cerning the youths.

Refusing to say anythingwhen asked whether his partywould contest the Lok Sabhapolls in 2019 or he would go foran alliance in the elections, theIndependent MLA clarified thatthe decision on contesting theelection would be taken after theECI recognised his party.

The MLA from Kunda,who completes his silver jubileein politics on November 25, hasalready announced to hold abig rally in Lucknow onNovember 30.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, while address-

ing the concluding session ofUP-Dexpo 2018 on CSAground on Friday, said the StateGovernment was committedto the economic uplift of UPand thus to bring in economicdevelopment and investmentthe present Government hadgirded up its loins to not onlyimprove the law and order butset up a conducive and safe envi-ronment so that investors couldinvest in the State.

He said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was also eagerto ensure the economic devel-opment of UP and thus the statehad been chosen for theDefence Corridor. He addedthat the work in that directionhad already taken off and the

bhoomi pujan would be per-formed in January 2019. Hesaid every effort would bemade to solve and settle issueslinked to the prestigious project.

He pointed out with theDefence Corridor in thepipeline the entire world waslooking to UP which was aboutto metamorphose into a devel-oped and progressive state. Hesaid top business houses wereeager to invest in the state. Heassured investors of securityand safety and added the gov-

ernment was committed toproviding a conducive envi-ronment to entrepreneurs andsafeguard their financial inter-ests. He said Single WindowSystem had been introduced tofacilitate the quick establish-ment of the Defence Corridor.He declared that the corridorwould bring in financialprogress and there would begreat employment opportuni-ties.

He said the UP govern-ment had organised a UPSummit in February 2018 inwhich Rs 468,000 crore was rat-ified. He said Dexpo-2018would greatly benefit Kanpur-Bundelkhand region and thusthe segment was on the thresh-old of economic progress oncethe Defence Corridor becamefunctional. He said this megaevent had emerged to be one of

the most remarkable events tochannelise efforts being madefor making UP DefenceCorridor a ground reality.

Later, Yogi also made a sur-prise visit to Galla Mandi wherehe personally interacted withthe farmers and assured themthat they would not get lessthan what the support pricehad been fixed by the UP gov-ernment. He warned the entryof middleman and directedofficials and farmers to ensurethey eliminated the role ofmiddlemen so that the benefitscould be availed by them. Hewarned officials of strict actionin case there was any victimi-sation of farmers. UP IndustrialDevelopment Minister SatishMahana, Satya Dev Pachauriand all MPs and MLAs werepresent along with office-bear-ers of the party.

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Senior leaders of BharatiyaJanata Party, including Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath andparty State president MahendraNath Pandey, will hit the roadon Saturday by taking part inthe Kamal Sandesh Bike Rallyto make people aware of theachievements of the Centraland the UP Governments.

The bike rally, being organ-ised in the run-up to the 2019Lok Sabha polls, will be takenout in all the 80 Lok Sabha con-stituencies in the state with Yogileading the campaign inVaranasi, the parliamentaryconstituency of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya willjoin the bike rally at Prayagraj(Allahabad) and Deputy ChiefMinister Dinesh Sharma inLucknow.

BJP state presidentMahendra Nath Pandey willlead the rally in his parlia-mentary constituencyChandauli and BJP generalsecretary (organisation) SunilBansal in Kannauj, the bastionof Samajwadi Party.

BJP state general secretaryand MLA Pankaj Singh, who isson of Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh, will lead thebike rally in Gorakhpur, thenative place of Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath.

The party leadership hasdirected the cadre and lead-ers to get at least five motor-cyclists from each pollingbooth. All the party leaders,including parliamentarians,legislators and office-bear-ers, have been directed toensure full participation inthe rally, which will be ashow of strength. There areabout 1,60,000 polling boothsin the 80 parliamentary and403 assembly constituenciesin 75 districts.

The BJP leaders will high-light the flagship schemes likecrop loan waiver, Ujjwala,Saubhagya, Swachh BharatMission and others among thepeople.

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Former MLA from Nanparain Bahraich, Dileep Verma,

whose wife Madhuri Verma isnow an MLA from the sameconstituency on BharatiyaJanata Party ticket, created aruckus in the district on Friday.

Verma first reportedlymanhandled a tehsildar andmisbehaved with a deputysuperintendent of police-rankofficer and then sat on dharna,demanding action against theofficers.

The tehsil staff also stageda massive protest, demandingarrest of the former MLA.

Reports said that DileepVerma reached the tehsil onFriday morning and went tosub-divisional magistrateSiddharth Yadav's chamber.On learning that the SDM wason leave, Verma entered theroom of tehsildar MadhusudanArya. After some argumentwith the tehsildar, Vermareportedly manhandled him,snatched the gun of the secu-rity guard and left the place,hurling abuses at the officer.

Verma later reachedKotwali police station where hemisbehaved with circle officerof Nanpara, Vijay Prakash, andalso sat on dharna, demandingaction against the governmentofficials. He alleged that it wasthe tehsildar who assaultedand threatened him with direconsequences.

In the meantime, the tehsilstaff, after learning about theincident, came on road andstaged a demonstration,demanding registration of a

case against Verma and hisarrest for manhandling twogovernment officers.

Reports said that seniorofficers reached the spot onlearning about the incidentand were making efforts topacify both the sides and makethem reach an agreement.

Both the sides were stagingprotests at the time of filing thereport.

Meanwhile, in a separateincident reported from Mau,leaders of PragatisheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia) cre-ated ruckus and reportedlytorched a police outpost whenthe cops refused to release amotorcycle.

Reports said that sub-inspector Rajan Maurya, post-

ed at Dubari police outpostunder Madhuban police station,learnt that some youths weregambling in the area. He rushedto the spot and nabbed theyouths and also seized a two-wheeler. The youths were laterreleased but the cops refused torelease the motorcycle.

Subsequently, some seniorlocal leaders belonging toPragatisheel Samajwadi Party(Lohia), including a close lieu-tenant of Samajwadi Partypatriarch Mulayam SinghYadav, called the police officersand requested them to releasethe motorcycle. When the copsrefused to oblige them, PSPLleaders gheraoed the policestation and misbehaved withthe sub-inspector. They laterattacked the cops and torchedthe police outpost and escaped.Interestingly, the local officersfirst tried to hush up the mat-ter but when the sub-inspectorraised the issue through media,a case was registered against theaccused and efforts were on tonab them.

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Senior BJP leader SudhirMungantiwar has said he is

upset at Shiv Sena chiefUddhav Thackeray’s criticismof him on tigress Avni's killing,and therefore is not willing toparticipate in alliance talkswith the latter.

Mungantiwar, the state'sForest minister, has been atthe centre of attacks frompoliticians like Thackeray andUnion minister ManekaGandhi as well as animalrights groups for the killing oftigress Avni, allegedly a man-eater, on November 2 inYavatmal.

Speaking to select media-persons recently, Mungantiwarclaimed when he called upThackeray to convey his dis-appointment over the latter'sremarks, the Sena chief toldhim that Union ministerManeka Gandhi had askedhim to do so.

"I told Uddhav ji I wasdeeply hurt by his remarks overthe Avni episode. I did notexpect this from him, especiallywhen I considered him a goodfriend. During the course of theconversation, he told meManeka ji had called him andasked him to oppose the killingof the tigress," Mungantiwar,who also holds charge of thestate Finance portfolio, said.

Mungantiwar further saidhe was in favour of an alliancewith the Sena at a time whennobody else in the party waswilling to do so, as they (party

colleagues) were irked withthe Sena's constant criticism ofthe BJP and the state govern-ment.

"Despite this, he indulgedin cheap criticism of theepisode. I am no more willingto hold alliance talks withhim now," Mungantiwar, whohas been instrumental in trying to get the Sena onboard for the forthcomingelections, said.

Speaking about theanguish the Anvi episode hadcaused him, Mungantiwarsaid, "I am not active on socialmedia platforms. However,when my daughter showed methe messages posted onTwitter and Facebook, I wasdeeply upset. People usedabusive language against me.I felt upset when I saw myfamily in distress reading suchmessages."

When approached for aresponse, Menaka Gandhi,Union Minister for Womenand Child Development,refused to comment.

Thackeray has been vocalin his criticism of the killing ofAvni and had termed the state'sgovernment's decision to set upa committee to probe thekilling as a "farce".

Thackeray had also said ifChief Minister DevendraFadnavis backed Mungantiwarsaying he could not be heldresponsible for the killing, whydid Prime Minister NarendraModi take credit for the surgi-cal strike, when the PM had nothimself conducted it.

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The authorities in Jammu &Kashmir have put in elabo-

rate security and logistic arrange-ments to conduct the maidenphase of the elongated pan-chayat polls on Saturday. Asmany as 47 Panchayat blockscovering 21 blocks in Jammuprovince, 16 in Kashmir valleyand 10 blocks in Ladakh regionare going to polls in the firstphase.

According to the ChiefElectoral Officer, 427 candi-dates are in the fray for 536Sarpanch Halqas and 5951candidates for 4048 PanchWards in the State for whichvoting and counting is sched-uled to be held tomorrow.

The polling will take placebetween 8 in the morning till2 O’ clock.

The Panchayat polls onnon party basis will be held innine phases in 316 Blocks in4483 Pachayat Halqas com-prising of over 35 ThousandPanch Constituencies.

The polls have been sched-uled on November 17, 20, 24,27, 29 and December 01, 04, 08and 11.

Adequate security arrange-ments in villages and pollbound areas have been put inplace to ensure smooth andpeaceful panchayat polls inthe State.

The last Panchayat elec-tions in the State were held in2011 after a gap of 20 years andPanchayats completed theirterm in July 2016.

Instead of EVMs, ballot

papers will decide the fate ofover 4400 Sarpanches and over35 thousand Panches.

The Model Code ofConduct (MCC) imposed onSeptember 16 continues toremain in force.

The total number of elec-tors in the State is over 58Lakh 54 Thousand who areeligible to cast their votes inPanchayat Elections.

Over 29 Lakh 91Thousand voters are regis-tered in Kashmir Divisionwhileas 28 Lakh 63 Voters areregistered in Jammu Divisionif the State.

Election Commission hasdevised a scheme to enablemigrant Kashmiri Pandits tovote through Postal Ballot inPanchayat Elections.

The Commissionannounced poll schedulesdespite the decision of twomain political parties NationalConference and People'sDemocratic Party to stay awayfrom Municipal and Panchayatpolls.

National Conference wasthe first mainstream politicalparty that announced boycottof Municipal and Panchayatelections slated this year.

The Party sought clarifi-cation from the CentralGovernment about the pro-tection of Article 35 A in andoutside the Courts. CPIM andother mainstream politicalparties also decided to stayaway from the polls.

However, Congress, BJPand other parties participatedin Municipal elections.

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Page 8: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

Knowledge is power and in this ageof information technology, bigdata has become the real power.But how the power of big data isharnessed is crucial. Since the aim

of big data is to find connections and patternsin the vast amount of information collectedand then relate it to human behaviour, orunderstanding of complex systems, process-es or institutions, insights thus gleaned canlead to innovative ideas and solutions.

One such interesting innovation has beendeveloped in Guizhou, a mountainousprovince in the southwest of China. Here, bigdata analytics have been applied in the judi-ciary to create a ‘smart court’. The Judicial BigData Application Platform provides judgeswith case assistance, trial assistance and caseanalysis and has improved the efficiency ofthe judiciary. The “judicial intelligent robot”,helps to process and analyse the history ofcase data of courts at all levels and establish-es a large database to provide ‘intelligent’ assis-tance to the judges. At present, the GuizhouHigh Court is using this system to make bet-ter-informed decisions, say local officials.

But what makes this innovation reallynovel is its judicial big data public consulta-tion system. Here, the litigants can fill in thedetails of their case and the system analysesdata of similar cases and judgments to guidethem even before they come to the courtsabout their chances of winning or losing theircase. This kind of system could be extreme-ly useful for India where about 3.3 crore casesare pending in various courts in the coun-try. According to a Law Ministry data, of allthe pending cases, 60 per cent are more thantwo years old, while 40 per cent are more thanfive years old. In the Supreme Court, morethan 30 per cent of pending cases are morethan five years old. This is because the judi-ciary faces a shortage of over 6,000 judges,including over 5,000 in the lower courts. Nowonder there are 2,76,74,499 cases awaitingappeal in the district and subordinate courts.On an average, there are 19 judges per 10 lakhpeople. A scientific collection of data acrossall courts and its intelligent use can bringdown pendency and deliver speedy justice.At least then, justice delayed will not be jus-tice denied.

Big data has also been leveraged byGuizhou to achieve remarkable economicgrowth. Once considered industrially back-ward and poor because of its hilly topogra-phy, Guizhou has used big data technologyto leapfrog from the fringes to register thethird-fastest economic growth among China’s31 provinces in 2016. The number of big datarelated companies in Guizhou increased fromless than 1,000 in 2013 to over 8,900 in 2017and big data investment into Guizhou wasapproximately 35.28 billion yuan ($5.5 bil-lion) this year. Its swanky high rise buildingsand high tech infrastructure are a testimo-ny to its upward mobility. In fact, Guizhou’scapital city, Guiyang was ranked as the best

performing city in 2016 by theMilken Institute, a not for prof-it think tank which analysedGuiyang’s growth in jobs, wages,gross domestic product, andforeign direct investment.

Guizhou embarked uponits technology overdrive afterthe Chinese President XiJinping underlined big datatechnology as a priority in2014. Guizhou has now the sec-ond highest data centres inChina with over 70,000 servers.At the centre of this boom is theGui’an, a newly developed 1,795square kilometres suburb.Gui’an , which is just a hour’sdrive from Guiyang, housesover 200 influential national andinternational companies. A slewof incentives, including rent-freeoffice space, tax benefits, statesupport, lower costs and its nat-ural temperate cool weather,have encouraged Apple,Microsoft, Huawei, HyundaiMotor, Tencent, Qualcomm,Dell, IBM and Alibaba to set updata centres here.

India’s presence here is in theform of a training academy as apart of a strategic partnershipbetween NIIT and the Guizhouprovincial Government to trainstudents, professionals and gov-ernment employees in big data.Further, NASSCOM has estab-lished an IT corridor to facilitateIndian software companies setup office in Guizhou. Zeta-VTechnology Solutions, an Indianstart-up, has been funded byGuiyang Municipal Governmentto develop a Sino-Indian DigitalCollaborative OpportunitiesPlaza (SIDCOP) to connectIndian and Chinese companies.

In addition to creatingemployment opportunities, bigdata is contributing to Guizhou’seconomic growth by increasing

incomes and alleviation ofpoverty. State officials say that 6.7million rural people have beenlifted out of poverty over the pastfive years and the growth rate ofdisposable household income inthe province is the highest inChina. This, they say, has beenpossible by accumulating realtime information on the poorpopulation and using it to maketargeted interventions. So byusing big data, they track pop-ulations who are poor, their geo-graphical locations, and theirimmediate and necessary needsto be able to provide the rightsupport. One such way has beento create e-commerce platformsand use the data to help connectpeople from different provincesto sell their farm produce orhandicrafts online and increasetheir incomes.

In Guizhou’s Anshun city,the Pingba District People’sGovernment and Guizhou E-Commerce Cloud,(the govern-ment’s commerce departmentinitiative), launched the “E-

commerce Poverty AlleviationDistrict Managers in Action”campaign to help farmers selltheir rice to bigger markets out-side the district. Big data wasused to analyse consumer needs,forecast sales, manage the inven-tory and, help improve produc-tion efficiency. However, it wasnot just the excellent quality ofthe various varieties of Pingbarice that boosted sales.

Endorsement of its qualityby the local government addedextra value leading to the sale ofmore than 150,000 kilogramsonline in a period of threemonths. It is being sold to over100 cities located in 20 provincesand has boosted the incomes of191 poor households. Officialrecords state that Guizhou cur-rently has 6,949 e-commerce ser-vice stations reaching out to 80per cent of its towns and villages.In 2017, e-commerce platformshelped rural Guizhou securesales of agricultural produce tothe tune of 15.3 billion yuan($2.2 billion).

India too, has recentlylaunched an online platformfor its farmers. The NationalAgriculture Market (eNAM), isa single-window service thatintegrates agriculture markets ormandis online so that farmersand traders can view all agricul-ture produce market relatedinformation (buying and selling)and services. Farmers can bid forthe best price across markets in21 mandis in eight States. Butpoor internet connectivity andavailability and a lack of under-standing of digital media maythrow a spanner in the works forrural farmers.

Ensuring connectivity wasalso a challenge for Guizhouwhere 92.5 percent of its land iscovered in hills. The

Government’s active push toensure infrastructure has givenalmost 96 per cent of its villagesaccess to fiber-optic broadbandand 4G. Over 200 e-commercetraining sessions by Guizhou E-Commerce Cloud, whichreached out to over 100,000 peo-ple throughout the province,raised awareness of the power ofthis platform.

Additionally, the GuiyangBig Data ApplicationDemonstration Centre has beeninstituted to further understand-ing of big data usages. Also help-ing to show the practical use ofbig data is Duocaibao, a cloudbased mobile application devel-oped by Guizhou ColorfulTreasure, a web portal of theGuizhou government servicenetwork. The app is based on theneeds of the people as analysedby big data gathered by the net-work. Downloaded by 1.33 mil-lion people, this app is a handyone stop platform that inte-grates more than 100Government services includingreal estate registrations, socialsecurity applications, seekingappointments for marriage reg-istration, birth registration cer-tificate, driving license applica-tions etc. At the same time, it alsoallows citizens to make paymentsfor water, gas and electricity bills.

One of its most useful fea-tures, which should be adaptedin India, is for the senior citizens.They no longer need to physical-ly present themselves to gettheir pension or social security.All s/he needs to do now is usethe app to send his/her photo-graph to the relevant govern-ment department and the pen-sion will be transferred to his/heraccount.

(The writer is a senior jour-nalist)

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Sir —Though India’s ace cueist,Pankaj Advani, in his 33years ofage, won his third straight IBSFbilliards crown in the 150-upformat (defeated Nay Thway Ooof Myanmar), taking his overalltally of world titles to a stagger-ing 20, the media mostlyremained silent. Why not? Likecountry’s politics, sports andgames coverage also dependsupon peoples pulse. As a brilliantsportsperson, Pankaj rightly said:“This win is extremely special forme. It’s a perfect 20 and I’m gladthat I’m still hungry for more. It’spleasing to be able to play at aquality level over the years andlooking to take this tally beyonda ‘score’.” It is an inspiration toevery sport enthusiast out there.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — Delhi saw an all-time 45-per cent high growth in collectionof Income Tax leaving Mumbai farbehind with a growth rate of just4.6 per cent. The Income TaxDepartment should now con-

centrate on other parts of thecountry other than Mumbai andDelhi, where income tax collec-tion is lesser than it should be.Senior officers in different IncomeTax circles should be motivatedthrough incentives and propertraining so that tax collection wit-nesses an increased growth rate inevery city.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — Recently, China revokedthe ban on the use of parts ofRhinoceros and tigers for med-icinal purposes. Their horns areused for water purifying purposeand as an aphrodisiac in someparts. Yemen makes daggers outof Rhino horns. Rhino poachinghas escalated in recent years

with few tribes hunting themdown. Interestingly, many for-mer poachers have been roped inas Rhino conservationists inManas. With their deep insightson the methods used for poach-ing, they are doing a great job inRhino conservation. There hasbeen a lot of celebrity endorse-ment in the conservation of rhi-noceros. Indian cricketer, RohitSharma, the brand ambassador

for World Wild Life Fund-IndiaRhino conservation, hasexpressed his confidence ingoing all the way to protect theRhinos. It’s time we give some-thing to the Nature instead ofjust taking from it.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Gaping hole” (November16). Delhi has become store-house of dreadful gases. TheNational Capital must improveits public transport system sothat people can switch fromtheir private vehicles to publicbuses.

The ultra-rich class mustmake economic use of theircars. The other Indian citiesmust start working on the pol-lution right from the outset.Delhi’s problem can be sum-marised by this saying, “mannow be silent otherwise naturewill silence you permanently.”

Gourang NaryaniUjjain

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Page 9: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

Even after over a century anda half, Rudyard Kipling’s GreatGame continues to be played,

only the turf and the players havechanged. The target, that is accessto and consolidation in IndianOcean remains the same, of coursewith different nuances.

In this context, our PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s forth-coming visit to Maldives to partic-ipate in the inauguration of the newpresidency is most welcome and astep in the right direction. But com-ing after over three years of the ear-lier cancelled visit of 2015, a lot ofground will now have to be coveredand without any further time tolose. After all, today, the IndianOcean is no longer India’s ocean.

It is worth recalling that afterbecoming the number one tradingpartner of Africa, in its policystatement, China in 2015 hademphasised that it would seize thestrategic initiative to effectivelysecure its overseas interests.Following this, we have seen heavyinvestments being made by Chinain our neighbourhood for the devel-opment of the Maritime Silk Routealong with CPEC.

Simultaneously, developmentof the ports by China at Djibouti,Gwadar and Hambantota virtuallycompletes a secure triangle aroundthe Arabian Sea and a strategicpositioning on the access routes toRed Sea and the Persian Gulf. Also,plans of the Chinese to developIhavandhoo as a deep sea port onan atoll in the Northern Maldiveshave since come to light. This loca-tion would virtually stand guard onthe seven degree channel, the mainnavigational route from China andSouth East Asia for Europe and Gulfand carrying about $18 trillion inthe terms of annual trade.

On top of this, very recently anagreement has been signed withMyanmar for construction of amulti-bil l ion dollar port atKyaukpyu , in the Rakhine state notfar from Bangladesh. ThisKyaukpyu special economic zonewill be ultimately l inked by

rail/road to Kunming and provideaccess to the Bay of Bengal on thesame pattern as Gwadar does to theArabian Sea.

However, the Chinese plan ofdeveloping Sonadia into a portwas cancelled by Bangladesh in2017. But now they are showing

their keenness on Payra port. Thisport in Bangladesh along withKyaukpyu in Myanmar would beimportant locations on the proposed Maritime Silk Route. Inthe given scenario, the great gameas of now, seems to be going theChinese way, as they can claimlegitimate access to the Bay ofBengal as also to the Arabian Sea oneither of our flanks. All these devel-opments have serious implicationsfor diplomacy in the neighbour-hood as well as our navy.

Though Arihant has happened atthe right time, future projections ofdefence acquisitions and indigenousproduction need to be scaled up. Ourmaritime strength is meagre as com-pared to the Chinese fleet. It is a his-torical fact borne out of the WorldWar II and our own 1971 (INSKhukri was sunk by submarine PNSHangool) that far more damage toenemy shipping is caused by sub-marines than any other vessel.

As such a fresh look in our pri-orities and strategy would be inorder. For instance, Japan has estab-

lished a maritime cordon againstsubmarines and deploys almost200, P-3 Orion and S-2 aircraftpatrols for detection of submarines.

Satellite technology is beingused these days to track enemyshipping and even the deeply sub-merged nuclear submarines. It isoften said that there is now hardlyany place left to hide the navalassets particularly the carriers.

In the given circumstances, it ishigh time that considering ourexpertise in space missions, wedevelop our own satellite basednaval surveillance systems and areable to detect the threats well inadvance for putting effectivecounter measures in place.

In the long run, it has to be leftto our diplomats and the politicalexecutive supported by armedforces to create a strong andfavourable geopolitical environ-ment in our neighbourhood and theIndian Ocean region.

(The writer is a retired DelhiPolice Commissioner and formerUttarakhand Governor)

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The door is ajar in Madhya Pradesh —for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)to exit and the Congress to enter thecorridors of power in Bhopal. That isthe impression we gathered after

travelling about 2,500 kilometres, touchinginterior areas of all the regions, starting clock-wise, from Malwa — both north and south,Madhya Bharath-Bhopal, Chambal-Gwalior,Bundelkhand, Bagelkhand and Mahakoshalbetween last week of October and the first weekof November.

We met farmers, farm labour, young peo-ple from both urban and rural areas, govern-ment employees, traders, female farm workersas well as home makers, professionals such asdoctors and lawyers, small businessmen, advo-cates, and students in campuses. In the process,inescapably, we also met persons who are affil-iated to major political parties. We have chosennot to meet political leaders or opinion mak-ers. We spoke to all these segments in all theregions of the State at length.

The method was not about administering ofa questionnaire to generate quantitative data andarrive at percentages of vote share and numberor seats of each party. It was about gathering ofqualitative data in contradistinction to quanti-tative data. The method adopted was to conducta series of rather long conversations with indi-viduals and small groups (not exceeding sixmembers) to understand their socio-econom-ic condition in order to grasp what issues weresalient for them and how their life experiencesin grappling with those issues was likely to influ-ence their voting choices.

It was to sniff the air, so to speak, and seewhich way the wind was blowing. The over-whelming sense that our team gathered was thatnot a single person among those we met wasindifferent to the upcoming election. They’refully aware of the power they wield with theirparticipation in it. Polling in this election, there-fore, is likely to be on the higher side.

Acute farm distress is evident from the con-versations in the countryside. ‘Bhavantar’, a StateGovernment’s scheme to give price support tofarmers is unlikely to yield any substantial div-idends to the ruling party. Deep resentmentagainst price rise across the State is palpable.Anger against demonetisation is likely to woundthe ruling establishment in the forthcomingAssembly elections. Lack of employment oppor-tunities has alienated the youth in both rural andurban areas.

In Malwa especially, the upper castes aredecidedly opting to desert the BJP because ofChief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s 2016‘mai ka lal’ remark on the SC/ST reservationsissue. Many rural women said they would waitfor their menfolk and other family members totell them whom to vote. Or perhaps they did notwant to reveal their minds to the strangers fromHyderabad.

Significantly, Hindu-Muslim issues, RamMandir, the so-called Rafale and Vyapam scamsdid not find any resonance with the voters.Professionals did mention about the NarendraModi Government’s attempts to weaken the con-stitutional institutions.

Words like ‘badlaav’ and ‘parivartan’ are spo-

ken in high decibels across the State,more prominently in the countryside.People who claimed to have voted forthe BJP last time said they wanted toshift to the Congress this time.However, Shivraj Singh Chouhanremains popular. Those who want tovote against the BJP, too, acknowl-edged his good work. He comesacross as a much popular leader andmore influential with the voter thanPrime Minister Narendra Modi inMadhya Pradesh. However, the pos-sibility of “Shivraj fatigue” neutralis-ing the impact of his popularity andletting farm distress, price rise, unem-ployment and demonetisation effectsto hurt the ruling party cannot beruled out.

There is still a significant chunkof undecided voters in the State. Agood number of them are likely to goalong with the tide that becomes evi-dent nearer the polling day. Themajority of the BJP voters said theywould vote in its favour to rewardChief Miniter Chouhan’s work and notbecause of the Prime Minister. Thosewho preferred the Congress wereunconcerned about the ChiefMinisterial face of the party. They areprepared to take anyone who theCongress decides as the Chief Ministerafter the elections.

Karyakartas of the saffron party,who participated in the conversationsare assertive about the BJP’s winningchances. The Congress workers, onthe other hand, are meek and lackconfidence about their party’s victo-ry. It is the common unattached pub-lic who are more emphatic about theCongress’ chances of forming theGovernment.

Those who wanted the BJP to win,do not think that an anti-incumbencycould cut so deep as to unseat the party.But they’re prepared to accept that theparty will return with much reducedstrength in the 230-strong House, andthe party’s candidates will win withreduced majorities in the constituen-cies. Even strong BJP supporters are notprepared to think that it will be an easyride this time for the party. Politicalheadwinds are strongly sensed by theBJP sympathisers and its cadre.

The Congress argument, if it hasone, is not yet part of the political con-versation among voters. Chouhan isat an advantage on this score as hiswork is known and talked about.Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, asa campaigner, is yet to make animpression in the State.

State Congress is organisational-ly an enfeebled entity as the party hasbeen out of office for three consecu-

tive terms. It is a divided house, unableto stitch together a narrative for theState or constituency, region specificvariants of the campaign theme. TheBJP is ahead on this score.

The large number of conversationswe had across the State in essencerevealed that the Madhya Pradeshelection is not a wrestling contestbetween an incumbent BJP and a chal-lenger Congress.

It is a spectacle of the two con-tenders with strong political head-winds in the form of anti-incumben-cy, farm distress, price rise, ill-effectsof demonetisation, erosion of uppercaste support, unemployment andconsequent youth apathy, and, “Shivrajfatigue.”

Neither Prime Minister Modi norCongress president Rahul Gandhiare likely to play more than a margin-al role in influencing the outcome ofthe Madhya Pradesh poll. TheCongress, our conversations across theState reveal, stands to benefit from thefailure of the BJP to contend with theheadwinds. And the headwinds arestrong at the moment in the State.

(The authors are ManagingDirector and Executive Director respec-tively of RightFOLIO, a Hyderabadbased Research and PolicyConsultancy)

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Union Minister for MinorityAffairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on

Friday formally inaugurated“HunarHaat”, which has become a“Credible Brand” for empowermentof artisans and craftsmen, atPragatiMaidan in New Delhi.

This “HunarHaat” is beingorganised from 14thNovember to27th November, 2018 at IITF,PragatiMaidan.

Naqvi said here that“HunarHaat” has proved to be“Empowerment & EmploymentExchange” for master artisans andcraftsmen.

“HunarHaat” at PragatiMaidan,is a part of series of “HunarHaat”,being organised in various parts ofthe country under a mission to pro-vide market and employment oppor-tunities to master artisans and crafts-men.

Naqvi said that master artisans,including a large number of womenartisans, from across the country areparticipating in this “HunarHaat”.The artisans have brought with themvery exquisite pieces of Handicraft &Handloom work products likeAjarakh, Bagh print, Bandhej,

Barmer Ajrakh & Applique,Bidriware, Cane and Bamboo,Carpet, Chanderi, Chaniya Choli,Chikankari, Copper Bell Product,Copperware, Ceramic Products, DryFlowers, GotaPati, Handloom &Home Furnishings from every cor-ner of the country.

Products such as Jute Craft, Lacstone studded Bangles, Lacquerware,Linen Products, Metalware,Mudwork, Mulberry Silk, PaithaniSilk, Phulkari, Punjabi Jutti, Zari

Bags, etc are also available. For thefirst time, products fromChhattisgarh and Namda & ChinnonSilk of Jammu & Kashmir are alsoavailable in this “HunarHaat” atPragatiMaidan.

Naqvi said that the employmentoriented programmes of the ModiGovernment like “HunarHaat” hassignificantly encouraged and pro-moted the rich traditional heritage ofmaster artisans which had beenmarginalised for a long time.

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Tata Sons on Friday said ithas not made any concrete

proposal for taking over thestruggling carrier Jet Airways,and that it has held only “pre-liminary” discussions on thematter.

The Tatas, which alreadyrun two carriers-the full- ser-vice Vistara in a joint venturewith Singapore Airlines and

AirAsia India in a similararrangement with Air Asia ofMalaysia, have widely specu-lated to be planning an com-plete takeover of the NareshGoyal-run airline with its inter-national partner SingaporeAirlines.

“We would like to clarifythat any such discussions totake over Jet Airways) havebeen preliminary and no pro-posal has been made,” a state-ment from the diversified con-glomerate said after a boardmeeting here.

The speculation has sentthe Jet counter soaring over 40percent in the past five tradingsessions alone.

The speculation has sentthe Jet stock soaring. Thecounter closed over 8 percent

at �346.85 on the BSE, whoseindex jumped 0.56 percent to35,457.16. The Jet stock openedwith an over 14 percent gap inthe morning expecting a pos-itive outcome from the TataSons board meeting.

The rumour of the rescuedeal by the Tatas, reportedlybeing brokered by the govern-ment, sent Jet shares zooming26.41 percent Thursday.

Jet Airways’ deputy chiefexecutive and chief financialofficer Amit Agarwal earlierthis week had admitted thatthe company was in talkswith “multiple interested par-ties” for fund infusion as wellas selling six of its Boeing 777planes along with a stake in itsloyalty progarmme JetPrivilege.

Chairman and promoterNaresh Goyal along with hisfamily owns 51 percent stakein the airline, while Gulf car-rier Etihad Airways owns 24percent in the cash-strappedairline, which earlier this weekreported �1,261 crore in lossfor the September quarteragainst a profit of �71 crore y-o-y, making it the thirdstraight quarters of heavy loss-es. This had the airline alsoputting as many as six of itsBoeing 777s on sale to part-fund liquidity.

Media reports suggest thatthe parent company of Vistara,Tata-Singapore Airlines, islooking at an all-stock mergerof Jet as part of the Tata group’splans to board Goyal’s full ser-vice carrier.

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The partial credit enhance-ment (PCE)facility by the

Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI)for non-bank lenders is unlike-ly to have the desired impact ofincreasing credit flow to thetroubled sector, a report said onFriday.

On November 2, RBI hadallowed banks to provide PCEfor debt raised by non-deposit-taking systematically importantnon-banking financial com-panies (NBFCs) and housingfinance companies (HFCs).

“The issuance volumes forNBFCs/HFCsunder thePCE frame-work are like-ly to remainm u t e d , ”domestic rat-ing agencyIcra said inthe note.

C r e d i tenhancementis a tool typi-cally aimed at

improving credit worthiness ofa borrower, in this case theNBFCs. The RBI move cameamid a strong pitch for many,including its central boardmembers, to increase the cred-it supply to the troubled sector.

NBFCs and HFCs are fac-ing a crisis of confidence fol-lowing the default by IL&FSsince late-August, which led toits takeover by the Governmentlast month. This in turn led toa liquidity crunch for the sec-tor, which has a credit demandof around �1 trillion to redeemtheir debt obligations inNovember.

It can be noted that even inimmediate reactions, analystswere doubtful about the impactwhich can be created throughthe new regulations.

Icra drew parallels betweenthe corporate sector and theNBFCs and voiced its fears of thenon-bank lenders also not issu-ing any PCE-backed debt instru-ments like the corporate sector,which has not been able to raiseany debt despite the same facili-ty being around for three years.

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The BSE Sensex on Friday continuedits rising streak for the second day

to end at near a four-week high of35,436.33, fuelled by gains in RelianceIndustries, Bharti Airtel and otherbluechips amid continued foreign fundinflows and strengthening rupee.

A higher opening in Europeanshares too influenced sentiments here.

Both benchmark indices — Sensexand Nifty — recorded their thirdstraight weekly gains by rising 298.61points and 97 points, respectively.

The Sensex opened higher andadvanced further to scale the day’s highof 35,545.85, but settled at 35,457.16points, a gain of 196.62 points, or 0.56per cent, due to profit-taking activity.

This is the highest closing sinceOctober 17, when it had closed at34,779.58. The gauge had risen 119points in Thursday’s trade.

The 50-share NSE Nifty settled65.50 points, or 0.62 per cent higher, at10,682.20 after shuttling between10,695.15 and 10,631.15.

Bharti Airtel led the gains onSensex, rallying 9.81 per cent, fol-lowed by Reliance Industries (RIL) thatrose 2.79 per cent.

RIL piped Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) in becoming the most-valuedcompany in terms of market capitalisa-tion. The IT company ended the session0.90 per cent higher at �1,882.25 .

On BSE, RIL’s market capitalisationwas �7,14,668.54 crore, while TCSslipped to the second spot with a val-uation of �7,06,292.61 crore.

Other big movers included HeroMotoCorp rising 1.81 per cent, SBI 1.75per cent, HDFC 1.67 per cent, HDFCBank 1.28 per cent, Asian Paints 1.12per cent, Sun Pharma 0.90 per cent,Bajaj Auto 0.89 per cent, ITC 0.66 percent and Kotak Bank 0.42 per cent.

Shares of Jet Airways surged for a sec-ond straight day, climbing 8.07 per cent.on Thursday, shares of Jet airways had ral-lied up to 26 per cent on bourses.

Among laggards, Yes Bank extend-ed its slide, declining 7.14 per cent toa two-week low after former SBI chair-man O P Bhatt resigned Thursday fromthe panel set up by private-sectorlender to find a successor to its MD andCEO Rana Kapoor.

Tata Steel, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki,ONGC, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank,Infosys, ICICI Bank, HUL, Vedanta,Tata Motors and and L&T too retreat-ed up to 2.47 per cent.

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The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India has

sought public views on makingpaper bills for post-paid tele-com services optional and set-ting electronic bills as a defaultoption.

Environmental concernsrelating to cutting of trees forpapers used in printing of billsand changing mobile usagescenario in the context of mas-sive surge in data usage onsmartphones were put forth tobolster their demand as themain rationale to this demand,the regulator clarified in itsconsultation paper.

Trai said that it has receivedrepresentations from telecomservice providers requesting areview of the provision of theTelecom Tariff order whichmandates provision of hard copyof the bill or the printed copy ofthe bill to post-paid subscribersand removal of the mandate ofproviding hard copy of the billwith Mobile Bill (M-Bill) or E-Bill as the default option.

“Is there a need to changethe extant default option, i.E.,provision of paper bill withoutany charge to postpaid sub-scribers of wire line and mobileservices?” and “should e-billnow be made the defaultoption?” Trai has asked in itsconsultation paper.

“Authority has recentlyreceived twenty four similarrepresentations from Hon’bleMPs/MLAs/MLCs, some promi-nent citizens and telecom serviceproviders, who have argued thatdoing away with mandatoryprovision of hard copy of bill,would be in tune with ‘DigitalIndia Mission’, apart fromaddressing a serious environ-mental concern,” Trai said.

The regulator said that con-sumers form the most impor-tant segment of stakeholders onthis issue and therefore Trai hasdecided to hold a public con-sultation to have views of all thestakeholders, in the matter sothat a holistic approach couldbe adopted to address thisimportant issue affectingTelecom consumer’s rights.

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Page 11: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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New Delhi (PTI): All telecom operators, except Reliance Jio,failed to meet call drop benchmark in drive test conducted by sec-tor regulator Trai on different highway and rail routes, says a report.According to a Trai report published on Thursday, while networkperformance of telcos differed on highways, none of them, exceptRJio, could meet call drop benchmark on the three rail routes cov-ered under the test. “Only RJio is meeting quality of service bench-mark of drop call rate ...,” the report said.

According to the quality of service rules, not more than 2 percent of total calls in a telecom circle on a network should automat-ically get disconnected. The highways between Asansol to Gaya,Digha to Asansol, Gaya to Danapur, Bengaluru to Murdeshwar,Raipur to Jagdalpur, Dehradun to Nainital, Mount Abu to Jaipurand Sri Nagar to Leh were covered in the test. Railway routesbetween Allahabad to Gorakhpur, Delhi to Mumbai and Jabalpurto Singrauli were covered. Either 3G or 2G network ofBharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL failed to meet calldrop benchmark on four highway routes and all the three rail routes.

Trai also named Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTL) network for notcomplying with service quality norms on select highways. The reportfound that TTL, which is in the process of merging mobile busi-ness with Airtel, failed to even complete call connection as perbenchmark between Bengaluru to Murdeshwar, Dehradun toNainital and Gaya to Danapur and on the three rail routes. Airtelcould not meet call connection rate or call setup success rate (CSSR)on Gaya to Danapur highway and the three rail routes.

Vodafone Idea network could not meet CSSR rate on Raipurto Jagdalpur highway and all the three rail routes. Some of thesetests were conducted before completion of their merger.

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Online fashion retailerMyntra on Friday said it

would completely integrate itssister company Jabong, whichwould continue to operate as aseparate brand.

Myntra chief executive offi-cer Ananth Narayanan wouldlead the Myntra-Jabong team,the company said in a release,dismissing speculations abouthis exit.

Flipkart had acquired onlinefashion portal Myntra in 2014and Myntra had acquiredJabong in 2016.

The company said sinceMyntra’s purchase of Jabong, thetwo brands had been steadilyintegrating key business func-tions and streamlining process-es. “As the next step in thisprocess, Myntra and Jabongwill now fully integrate all theremaining functions including

technology, marketing, catego-ry, revenue, finance and creativeteams,” it added.

The company said Myntra’sindependence as a businesswould be preserved and theteam would continue to operateindependently. “The closer inte-gration of Myntra and Jabong isa necessary step in our contin-uing development. By betteraligning our resources with ourlong-term plans, we can put thebest structure in place to serveour sellers and brand partnersand ultimately benefit our cus-tomers,” it added.

The development comesjust days after the resignation byFlipkart group chief executiveofficer and co-founder BinnyBansal following a probe into analleged “serious personal mis-conduct”. Bansal, however, hasdenied the allegations.

There were also somereports that Narayanan is likelyto step down after being askedto report to Flipkart chief exec-utive officer KalyanKrishnamurthy.

Clearing the air over recent

reports, Narayanan told PTI: “Icontinue to be here and I con-tinue to lead the business”.

Narayanan had joinedMyntra as the chief executive in2015, succeeding Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal.

Narayanan asserted thatwhile there would be “someredundancies” as a result of theintegration of the back-endfunctions of Myntra and Jabonglike technology, marketing,finance and creative, but “it’s lessthan 10 per cent of the overallMyntra and Jabong headcount”.

Narayanan, however,declined to quantify the numberof people impacted as a result ofthe integration process or thetotal headcount.

“The integration process isstill on. Our employees are valu-able but... reason we are doingit is eventually, this is the bestbusiness process to have in themarket and serve the customers,”he said.

US retail giant Walmarthad in August bought 77 percent stake in Flipkart for USD 16billion.

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German luxury carmakerMercedes-Benz on Friday

launched new CLS model witha starting price of �84.70 lakh(ex-showroom, all India).

The third generation CLS ispowered by a new two-litre BSVI compliant diesel engine withpower of 180 kw, the companysaid in a statement.

“With the launch of the newCLS 300 d, Mercedes-Benz con-tinues its offensive with its 12thproduct launched in 2018,”Mercedes-Benz India vice-pres-ident (sales and marketing)Michael Jopp said.

“We have an exciting line-upfor 2019 as well and our prod-uct innovations will continue inthe coming months,” he furthersaid. Jopp said the company isconfident that the third gener-

ation CLS would offer “superi-or luxury and comfort” to itscustomers and will continue todelight them.

The new CLS has luxuryfeatures like Burmester sur-round sound system, whichincludes 13 high-performance

speakers precisely tailored to thevehicle interiors providing anacoustic experience, the compa-ny added.

The vehicle is also equippedwith smartphone integration,which supports android autoand Apple CarPlay, it added.

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New Delhi (PTI): Mahindra & Mahindra on Friday said itwould increase price of its newly-launched multi-purpose vehi-cle (MPV) Marazzo by �30,000 to �40,000 from January 1, 2019.

The Marazzo was launched in September with introductoryprices starting at �9.99 lakh and going up to �13.90 lakh, depend-ing on variants. “As mentioned at the launch, the price of Marazzowas an introductory one. Effective January 1, 2019, we will be tak-ing a price hike on the Marazzo, after a reasonable period of fourmonths from its launch,” Mahindra and Mahindra chief of salesand marketing (Automotive division} Veejay Ram Nakra said ina statement.

New Delhi (PTI): The gov-ernment will soon unveil a newindustrial policy which mayinclude a dedicated chapteron the importance of design, atop official said on Friday.

Highlighting the signifi-cance of design and innova-

tion in India’s economicprogress, Secretary of theDepartment of IndustrialPolicy and Promotion (DIPP)Ramesh Abhishek alsoextended his “full support” tothe setting up of a NationalDesign Centre as early as pos-

sible. “We are also bringing out

a new industrial policy soonand we are proposing toinclude a substantial chapterand paragraphs on the impor-tance of design, and how itshould be taken forward,” he

said at a CII event here.DIPP, in August last year,

floated a draft industrial pol-icy with the aim to create jobsfor the next two decades, pro-mote foreign technologytransfer and attract USD 100billion foreign direct invest-

ment (FDI) annually.The proposed policy will

completely revamp theIndustrial Policy of 1991.

Among other things, thepolicy would endeavour toreduce regulations and bringnew industries in focus.

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New Delhi (PTI): GVKPower and InfrastructureFriday said that it has gotshareholders’ approval to raiseup to �8,000 crore. The resolu-tion to raise the funds has beenpassed by the requisite major-ity, the firm stated in a BSE fil-ing on Friday.

Script Last Abs ChangeTraded Price Change %3MINDIA 20623 -62.45 -0.38KMILES 117.35 5.55 4.96AARTIIND 1436.1 -1.25 -0.09ABB 1321 28.65 2.22ABBOTINDIA 7575 -53.3 -0.7ABCAPITAL 113.35 3.2 2.91ABFRL 191 1.75 0.92ACC 1502.4 -8.65 -0.57ADANIPORTS 346.65 1.35 0.39ADANIPOWER 47.4 -1.25 -2.57ADANITRANS 214.6 5.2 2.48ADVENZYMES 190.6 4.1 2.2AEGISLOG 216.75 -5.2 -2.34AIAENG 1682.95 18.65 1.12AJANTPHARM1119.65 36.35 3.36AKZOINDIA 1580.15 7.8 0.5ALBK 43.25 1 2.37ALKEM 1940 -1.95 -0.1ALLCARGO 107.9 1.85 1.74AMARAJABAT734.55 -4.35 -0.59AMBUJACEM 216.2 -0.9 -0.41ANDHRABANK 28.7 0.45 1.59APARINDS 611.5 -13.3 -2.13APLAPOLLO 1288 17.65 1.39APLLTD 565 -13.8 -2.38APOLLOHOSP1233.95 -31.7 -2.5APOLLOTYRE 226.6 -3.2 -1.39ARVIND 319 8.55 2.75ASAHIINDIA 274.8 -2.65 -0.96ASHOKA 125.55 0.25 0.2ASHOKLEY 105.7 -0.65 -0.61ASIANPAINT 1327 14.75 1.12ASTRAL 1044 -1.65 -0.16ATUL 3540 44 1.26AUBANK 596.7 12.05 2.06AUROPHARMA780.25 0.05 0.01AVANTI 372.5 5.25 1.43AXISBANK 616.8 -8.85 -1.41BAJAJ-AUTO 2694.95 23.65 0.89BAJAJCORP 357.9 1.05 0.29BAJAJELEC 502.25 9.45 1.92BAJAJFINSV 5684.4 87 1.55BAJAJHLDNG 3120 158.15 5.34BAJFINANCE2397.15 57.75 2.47BALKRISIND 953.15 -10.9 -1.13BALMLAWRIE196.05 -2.1 -1.06BALRAMCHIN109.45 -3.3 -2.93BANDHANBNK476.05 16.05 3.49BANKBARODA115.15 2.15 1.9BANKINDIA 88.15 3.85 4.57BASF 1525.05 -34.5 -2.21BATAINDIA 1004 3.9 0.39BAYERCROP 4050 48.25 1.21BBTC 1357.15 0.75 0.06BEL 93.1 -3.45 -3.57BEML 700.4 -24.35 -3.36BERGEPAINT 317.05 -1.8 -0.56BHARATFIN 926.15 -13.55 -1.44BHARATFORG 592.4 3.05 0.52BHARTIARTL 333.6 29.8 9.81BHEL 66.65 -0.15 -0.22BIOCON 624.35 -1.95 -0.31BIRLACORPN 640 -19.1 -2.9BLISSGVS 169.25 0.2 0.12BLUEDART 3140 77.3 2.52BLUESTARCO 610.7 17.55 2.96BOMDYEING 116 -4.1 -3.41BOSCHLTD 18790.1 -471.35 -2.45BPCL 322.5 1.2 0.37BRITANNIA 5945.5 130.8 2.25CADILAHC 355.5 -4.25 -1.18CANBK 263.2 7.45 2.91CANFINHOME 265.6 -11.95 -4.31CAPF 493.2 -4.7 -0.94CAPPL 425.05 -7.3 -1.69CARBORUNIV 357.9 4.25 1.2CARERATING 1005 -5.55 -0.55CASTROLIND 150.95 1.1 0.73CCL 269.05 -4.2 -1.54CEATLTD 1256.25 0.15 0.01CENTRALBK 31.1 0.45 1.47CENTRUM 42.5 0.55 1.31CENTURYPLY 165.75 -1 -0.6CENTURYTEX 901.2 -3.55 -0.39CERA 2455.8 27.6 1.14CGPOWER 36 0.95 2.71CHAMBLFERT144.35 1.8 1.26CHENNPETRO266.85 -5.15 -1.89CHOLAFIN 1253.4 -41.15 -3.18CIPLA 530.9 11.9 2.29

COALINDIA 263.45 0.4 0.15COCHINSHIP 380.5 -2.9 -0.76COFFEEDAY 276.3 -1.85 -0.67COLPAL 1147.8 23.85 2.12CONCOR 672.85 -8.65 -1.27COROMANDEL 421 0.75 0.18CORPBANK 27.8 0.1 0.36CRISIL 1505 10.35 0.69CROMPTON 205.05 1.75 0.86CUB 164.25 0.4 0.24CUMMINSIND 795 -21.45 -2.63CYIENT 654.15 -3.15 -0.48DABUR 394.55 5.65 1.45DALMIABHA 2246 6.5 0.29DBCORP 179 -0.1 -0.06DBL 481.2 -9.65 -1.97DCBBANK 154.95 -1.4 -0.9DCMSHRIRAM 407.6 -3.6 -0.88DEEPAKFERT 177.35 -5.5 -3.01DEEPAKNI 257.15 -7.2 -2.72DELTACORP 238.85 -0.15 -0.06DENABANK 16.65 0 0DHANUKA 442.2 20.55 4.87DHFL 225.4 -18.95 -7.76DISHTV 37.3 -0.7 -1.84DIVISLAB 1557 26.15 1.71DLF 169.45 -0.2 -0.12DMART 1384.4 -6.25 -0.45DRREDDY 2475.2 13.25 0.54ECLERX 1149 -7.85 -0.68EDELWEISS 169 1.55 0.93EICHERMOT 24718.8 842.05 3.53EIDPARRY 223.1 -6.8 -2.96EIHOTEL 163 -1.7 -1.03ELGIEQUIP 236.65 -9.2 -3.74EMAMILTD 464 5.25 1.14ENDURANCE 1150 -48.45 -4.04ENGINERSIN 115 -4.05 -3.4ENIL 614 -13.55 -2.16EQUITAS 109 -0.2 -0.18ERIS 609 -9.1 -1.47ESCORTS 663.6 -1.45 -0.22ESSELPRO 87.35 -0.05 -0.06EVEREADY 202.05 11 5.76EXIDEIND 246.3 -2.6 -1.04FCONSUMER 51.5 -0.2 -0.39FDC 189.35 -4.2 -2.17FEDERALBNK 79.8 1.35 1.72FINCABLES 488.25 0.1 0.02FINOLEXIND 515 1.8 0.35FLFL 381.5 -6.4 -1.65FORBESCO 2055 19.55 0.96FORCEMOT 1808.5 -7.35 -0.4FORTIS 146.35 2.7 1.88FRETAIL 534.25 5.1 0.96FSL 52.95 -1.25 -2.31GAIL 342 -6.05 -1.74GDL 165.4 7.55 4.78GEPIL 830 -19.5 -2.3GESHIP 280.95 -2.7 -0.95GET&D 233 6.5 2.87GHCL 217.65 -4.7 -2.11GICHSGFIN 249.4 -4.25 -1.68GICRE 310 -1.8 -0.58GILLETTE 6450.05 -39.85 -0.61GLAXO 1349.45 13.1 0.98GLENMARK 647.6 -16.85 -2.54GMDCLTD 86.85 -0.05 -0.06GMRINFRA 16.05 -0.1 -0.62GNFC 358.9 6.4 1.82GODFRYPHLP842.05 -25.1 -2.89GODREJAGRO 515 -3.9 -0.75GODREJCP 719.25 -0.55 -0.08GODREJIND 518.65 9.8 1.93GODREJPROP 631.5 -4.35 -0.68GPPL 97.55 -0.3 -0.31GRANULES 100.2 -2.1 -2.05GRAPHITE 972.5 -12.05 -1.22GRASIM 833.1 25.5 3.16GREAVESCOT 129.6 0.35 0.27GREENPLY 134.45 -1.45 -1.07GRINDWELL 489.55 -4.1 -0.83GRUH 305.65 3.85 1.28GSFC 105.6 -0.2 -0.19GSKCONS 7195 123.95 1.75GSPL 178.6 -0.9 -0.5GUJALKALI 573.75 -3.2 -0.55GUJFLUORO 893 -5.6 -0.62GUJGAS 625 3.05 0.49GULFOILLUB 755 -8.75 -1.15HAL 823.85 -14.3 -1.71HATSUN 613.1 -18.5 -2.93

HAVELLS 677 -8.75 -1.28HCC 13.88 -0.17 -1.21HCLTECH 1022.2 33.2 3.36HDFC 1883.2 31 1.67HDFCBANK 1998.9 24.85 1.26HDFCLIFE 392.7 -5.9 -1.48HDIL 22.05 -1 -4.34HEG 4216.85 105.95 2.58HEIDELBERG 147.4 -1.3 -0.87HERITGFOOD 509.4 -17.3 -3.28HEROMOTOCO2970 52.8 1.81HEXAWARE 308 -7.5 -2.38HFCL 19.95 -0.2 -0.99HIMATSEIDE 240.05 1.65 0.69HINDALCO 230.1 -3.3 -1.41HINDCOPPER 50.7 0.15 0.3HINDPETRO 243.2 -6.15 -2.47

HINDUNILVR1690.75 -14.85 -0.87HINDZINC 267.05 0.7 0.26HONAUT 21341.85 141.9 0.67HSCL 131 -0.3 -0.23HSIL 230 -11.55 -4.78HUDCO 44.1 -0.4 -0.9IBREALEST 83.35 -3.1 -3.59IBULHSGFIN 766.2 -38 -4.73IBVENTURES 454.35 -4.8 -1.05ICICIBANK 367.4 -2.2 -0.6ICICIGI 827 0.75 0.09ICICIPRULI 328.5 2.5 0.77ICIL 59.9 -0.05 -0.08IDBI 60.95 0.2 0.33IDEA 42.9 6.05 16.42IDFC 39.1 0.25 0.64IDFCBANK 36.45 -0.15 -0.41IEX 156.6 -0.8 -0.51IFBIND 912.15 -16.25 -1.75IFCI 14.22 0.33 2.38IGL 268.05 -3.8 -1.4IL&FSTRANS 19.15 -0.2 -1.03INDHOTEL 135.65 3.7 2.8INDIACEM 93.85 0.8 0.86

INDIANB 228.9 3.55 1.58INDIGO 1044.1 0.9 0.09INDUSINDBK 1497 -16.8 -1.11INFIBEAM 47.2 -5.35 -10.18INFRATEL 259.3 3.55 1.39INFY 650.45 -5.9 -0.9INOXLEISUR 214.8 0.05 0.02INOXWIND 82.75 -2.65 -3.1INTELLECT 240 -3.7 -1.52IOB 15 0.1 0.67IOC 143.4 -3.55 -2.42IPCALAB 755 1.9 0.25IRB 135.1 -7.75 -5.43ISGEC 5321 -131.45 -2.41ITC 276.25 1.8 0.66ITDC 306.2 -0.15 -0.05ITDCEM 111.55 -1.5 -1.33ITI 87.1 -2.5 -2.79J&KBANK 39.7 0.6 1.53JAGRAN 116.55 2.6 2.28JAICORPLTD 116.15 6.05 5.5JAMNAAUTO 71.15 -0.35 -0.49JBCHEPHARM309.15 1.1 0.36JCHAC 1778 -10 -0.56JETAIRWAYS 346.85 25.9 8.07JINDALSAW 83.65 -1.1 -1.3JINDALSTEL 175.2 -5.95 -3.28ZYDUSWELL 1130 24.2 2.19KRBL 338.85 -2.65 -0.78KSCL 519.35 0.2 0.04KTKBANK 108 1.15 1.08KWALITY 8.07 0.38 4.94L&TFH 132.45 -3.1 -2.29LAKSHVILAS 89.3 -1.15 -1.27LALPATHLAB 829 -32.85 -3.81LAOPALA 230.55 -1.3 -0.56LAURUSLABS 396.8 14.4 3.77LAXMIMACH* 6000 38.3 0.64LICHSGFIN 453.1 -13 -2.79LINDEINDIA 644.85 -8.05 -1.23LT 1396 -1.35 -0.1LTI 1640.2 5.3 0.32LTTS 1519.5 -36.15 -2.32LUPIN 863.45 10.85 1.27LUXIND 1539.3 -5.65 -0.37M&M 767.35 1.55 0.2M&MFIN 436.55 -7.05 -1.59MAGMA 109.75 -4.35 -3.81MAHABANK 13.66 -0.03 -0.22MAHINDCIE 257.85 -7.3 -2.75MAHLIFE 406.2 -1.55 -0.38MANAPPURAM 85.9 -1 -1.15MANPASAND 95.8 2 2.13MARICO 346.45 0.7 0.2MARUTI 7332.05 -150.8 -2.02MAXINDIA 72.7 -0.5 -0.68MCX 702.25 -10.65 -1.49MEGH 68.05 0 0MFSL 421 -7.85 -1.83MGL 843.3 -12.5 -1.46MHRIL 219.5 2.25 1.04MINDACORP 129.55 -2.5 -1.89MINDAIND 357.6 -6.6 -1.81MINDTREE 837.35 -1.3 -0.16MMTC 30.3 0.35 1.17MOIL 173.9 -1.2 -0.69MONSANTO 2501.05 -21.3 -0.84MOTHERSUMI149.15 6.1 4.26MOTILALOFS 645.1 -2.6 -0.4

MPHASIS 953.45 4.9 0.52MRF 65700 90.85 0.14MRPL 80.5 -0.4 -0.49MUTHOOTFIN 460.4 -6 -1.29NATCOPHARM 735.05 12.35 1.71NATIONALUM 66.1 -0.5 -0.75NAUKRI 1370 -6.65 -0.48NAVINFLUOR 673.7 6.25 0.94NAVKARCORP 61.8 -1.65 -2.6NAVNETEDUL 107.8 0.15 0.14NBCC 59.4 -1.05 -1.74NBVENTURES 118.95 -0.65 -0.54NCC 87.8 -1.95 -2.17NESTLEIND 10655.05 207.25 1.98NETWORK18 39.15 -0.4 -1.01NH 235.7 -4.4 -1.83NHPC 26.25 0.2 0.77NIACL 210.7 -10.4 -4.7NIITTECH 1128.85 -18.9 -1.65NILKAMAL 1551 -14.35 -0.92NLCINDIA 81.45 -0.15 -0.18NMDC 100.6 -6.5 -6.07NOCIL 166.5 -2.25 -1.33NTPC 154.05 0.15 0.1OBEROIRLTY 412.6 7.25 1.79OFSS 3566 83.6 2.4OIL 199.2 -4.05 -1.99OMAXE 210 -0.1 -0.05ONGC 156.55 -2.35 -1.48ORIENTBANK 91.65 3.7 4.21ORIENTCEM 83.35 0.15 0.18PAGEIND 25302 -393.7 -1.53PARAGMILK 244.35 1.65 0.68PCJEWELLER 74.35 -1.8 -2.36PEL 2356.1 66.3 2.9PERSISTENT 549.45 12.3 2.29PETRONET 216.9 3.55 1.66PFC 101.3 -6.35 -5.9PFIZER 2828.8 50.05 1.8PFS 17 -0.25 -1.45PGHH 9500 7.95 0.08PHILIPCARB 212.55 -2.4 -1.12PHOENIXLTD 609 6.4 1.06PIDILITIND 1109.05 2.85 0.26PIIND 828.05 -4.2 -0.5PNB 73.2 2.05 2.88PNBHOUSING 996 -4.25 -0.42PNCINFRA 149 3.85 2.65POWERGRID 187.95 0.75 0.4PRESTIGE 179.9 2.4 1.35PRSMJOHNSN 87.1 -0.4 -0.46PTC 80.9 -0.3 -0.37PVR 1423.7 16.7 1.19QUESS 765.5 -1.6 -0.21RADICO 437.6 -1.25 -0.28RAIN 151.3 -15.2 -9.13RAJESHEXPO 567 7.4 1.32RALLIS 165 1.6 0.98RAMCOCEM 620 -8.6 -1.37RATNAMANI 885.9 5.9 0.67RAYMOND 776.4 10 1.3RBLBANK 557.75 6.5 1.18RCF 59.65 -0.6 -1RCOM 13.56 0.12 0.89RECLTD 120.9 -5.25 -4.16REDINGTON 92.6 0.4 0.43RELAXO 804.05 16.95 2.15RELCAPITAL 237.75 -13.05 -5.2RELIANCE 1127.5 30.6 2.79RELINFRA 329.95 -22.35 -6.34REPCOHOME 397.8 -10.75 -2.63RNAM 168.65 -2.5 -1.46RNAVAL 13.39 -0.24 -1.76RPOWER 30.35 -0.75 -2.41SADBHAV 219.55 -1.85 -0.84SAIL 64.05 -0.6 -0.93SANOFI 6080 -60.35 -0.98SBILIFE 577.4 -2.15 -0.37SBIN 290.3 5 1.75SCHAEFFLER 5452 -82.15 -1.48SCHNEIDER 118 3.95 3.46SCI 45.15 -0.05 -0.11SFL 1390 4 0.29SHANKARA 840.05 -54.15 -6.06SHARDACROP 308 -6.65 -2.11SHILPAMED 390.3 16.3 4.36SHK 192 -0.8 -0.41SHOPERSTOP 494.6 -4.35 -0.87SHREECEM 15990 158.9 1SHRIRAMCIT 1643.3 29.4 1.82SIEMENS 978.5 45.65 4.89SIS 793 -12 -1.49

SJVN 27.3 -0.1 -0.36SKFINDIA 1864.95 -0.35 -0.02SOBHA 464 22 4.98SOLARINDS 995.5 -5.4 -0.54SOMANYCERA 303.45 3.8 1.27SONATSOFTW 332.9 -2.3 -0.69SOUTHBANK 14.54 -0.16 -1.09SPARC 270.6 -1 -0.37SPICEJET 81.45 -1.5 -1.81SREINFRA 35.05 0.25 0.72SRF 2042.95 -12.1 -0.59SRTRANSFIN 1231.1 -29.5 -2.34STARCEMENT 99.1 -1.15 -1.15STRTECH 356.65 -7.25 -1.99SUDARSCHEM 374.45 2.85 0.77SUNCLAYLTD 3605 -19.95 -0.55SUNDRMFAST 526 -6.7 -1.26SUNPHARMA 519.6 4.65 0.9SUNTECK 347.15 -0.5 -0.14SUNTV 607.85 11.45 1.92SUPPETRO 200 -3.15 -1.55SUPRAJIT 218 -2.4 -1.09SUPREMEIND 982.5 0.85 0.09SUVEN 247.45 -7.2 -2.83SUZLON 5.67 -0.01 -0.18SWANENERGY 106.1 5.15 5.1SYMPHONY 974.3 7 0.72SYNDIBANK 35.55 0.4 1.14SYNGENE 579 1.85 0.32TAKE 141.6 -14 -9TATACHEM 696.15 6.75 0.98TATACOFFEE 98.25 -0.3 -0.3TATACOMM 548.35 30.6 5.91TATAELXSI 963.45 -34.2 -3.43TATAGLOBAL 222 0.6 0.27TATAINVEST 823.05 18.65 2.32TATAMETALI 683 -16.75 -2.39TATAMOTORS 179.4 -0.55 -0.31TATAMTRDVR 98.8 0.4 0.41TATAPOWER 76.4 -0.2 -0.26TATASTEEL 574.1 -14.55 -2.47TCS 1882.25 16.75 0.9TEAMLEASE 2731.45 -66.75 -2.39TECHM 726.8 13.3 1.86TEJASNET 259.15 -4.55 -1.73TEXRAIL 64 -0.4 -0.62THERMAX 997.15 -20.85 -2.05THOMASCOOK 226 0.55 0.24THYROCARE 551.8 0.05 0.01TIFHL 490 11.7 2.45TIMETECHNO 111.65 -3 -2.62TIMKEN 525 -0.6 -0.11TITAN 917.95 -3.15 -0.34TNPL 252.05 -5.95 -2.31TORNTPHARM 1652.5 -19.65 -1.18TORNTPOWER 260 -6.2 -2.33TRENT 331.35 -0.95 -0.29TRIDENT 69.3 1.1 1.61TRITURBINE 115.5 -1.6 -1.37TTKPRESTIG 6870 127.3 1.89TV18BRDCST 36.8 0 0TVSMOTOR 551 0.85 0.15TVSSRICHAK 2617 -0.5 -0.02TVTODAY 381.3 -1.25 -0.33UBL 1312.25 0.9 0.07UCOBANK 19.3 0.15 0.78UFLEX 312 -4.55 -1.44UJJIVAN 229.25 -5.95 -2.53ULTRACEMCO 3945 37.25 0.95UNICHEMLAB 213 0.9 0.42UNIONBANK 82.55 1 1.23UPL 768 4.25 0.56VBL 806.75 7.9 0.99VEDL 206.7 -0.85 -0.41VENKYS 2439 175.5 7.75VGUARD 195.9 1.05 0.54VIJAYABANK 43.25 0.65 1.53VINATIORGA 1562 -1.3 -0.08VIPIND 461.7 -7.25 -1.55VMART 2251 64.85 2.97VOLTAS 551 -1.85 -0.33VTL 1052.95 -4.15 -0.39WABAG 289 -0.25 -0.09WABCOINDIA 6671 -129.25 -1.9WELCORP 154.05 6.55 4.44WELSPUNIND 62.65 0 0WHIRLPOOL 1431.25 13.1 0.92WIPRO 324.3 0.35 0.11WOCKPHARMA 525 1.8 0.34YESBANK 191.3 -14.7 -7.14ZEEL 443.1 0.65 0.15ZENSARTECH 242 3.7 1.55

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SCRIP OPEN HIGH LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10,644.00 10,695.15 10,631.15 10,682.20 65.50BHARTIARTL 302.90 336.80 302.00 332.10 27.70EICHERMOT 24,120.00 24,830.00 23,925.10 24,796.10 850.75HCLTECH 997.00 1,037.80 993.75 1,022.00 33.25BAJFINANCE 2,342.00 2,417.20 2,340.00 2,413.00 71.70RELIANCE 1,097.95 1,129.95 1,097.10 1,125.00 28.15GRASIM 816.00 837.70 810.00 829.00 20.30CIPLA 521.70 534.00 521.10 531.15 12.00SBIN 285.90 291.80 282.60 291.55 6.15BAJAJFINSV 5,640.00 5,730.00 5,612.70 5,710.00 112.90TECHM 714.70 732.30 711.00 727.95 13.05HDFC 1,861.00 1,892.90 1,850.00 1,884.05 30.45INFRATEL 257.80 262.25 256.00 259.40 4.00ULTRACEMCO 3,952.00 3,980.00 3,911.05 3,970.00 57.05HDFCBANK 1,981.00 2,013.00 1,980.00 2,002.80 27.65HEROMOTOCO 2,930.00 2,970.00 2,925.25 2,954.00 31.85UPL 762.00 774.65 757.85 771.45 7.80BAJAJ-AUTO 2,680.00 2,705.90 2,675.15 2,694.95 26.10SUNPHARMA 518.40 525.55 513.40 520.05 4.95ITC 275.80 278.30 275.25 277.00 2.50TCS 1,889.00 1,899.80 1,870.25 1,889.00 16.15KOTAKBANK 1,172.00 1,173.00 1,152.75 1,172.00 9.75WIPRO 323.50 330.40 323.50 325.60 2.45ZEEL 444.00 451.50 435.50 444.00 2.80DRREDDY 2,463.00 2,496.80 2,442.05 2,472.90 11.10ASIANPAINT 1,320.00 1,329.80 1,313.20 1,323.90 5.60ADANIPORTS 346.00 351.40 342.00 347.20 1.00M&M 767.65 776.50 759.75 768.20 1.70COALINDIA 264.00 265.80 261.30 263.50 0.35LT 1,402.75 1,414.00 1,391.50 1,400.00 1.50POWERGRID 187.00 190.00 186.20 187.30 0.20TATAMOTORS 180.90 181.85 177.85 180.25 0.05NTPC 153.20 155.50 153.00 153.60 -0.20TITAN 921.00 928.70 912.70 919.00 -1.80VEDL 208.00 209.00 205.55 206.80 -0.75INFY 659.90 662.50 644.20 652.00 -4.40BPCL 319.60 325.25 315.90 319.50 -2.35HINDUNILVR 1,704.90 1,718.00 1,683.30 1,693.00 -13.05ICICIBANK 370.10 375.30 365.55 366.95 -3.05INDUSINDBK 1,519.00 1,526.00 1,486.75 1,498.35 -13.80AXISBANK 626.60 636.70 616.55 617.55 -8.55GAIL 349.00 351.70 341.25 342.70 -4.85ONGC 158.00 158.00 152.80 156.00 -2.85MARUTI 7,500.00 7,544.05 7,302.55 7,340.00 -138.30HINDALCO 232.60 235.45 228.50 229.00 -4.60IOC 144.60 145.70 141.25 143.25 -3.40TATASTEEL 590.00 591.00 569.55 574.60 -14.75HINDPETRO 246.30 251.65 239.10 242.60 -6.50JSWSTEEL 344.10 344.25 332.20 335.50 -9.10IBULHSGFIN 808.40 816.70 755.10 765.00 -39.85YESBANK 201.75 201.75 187.80 192.50 -13.35

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SCRIP OPEN HIGH LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27,307.80 27,435.15 27,207.20 27,359.35 104.7IDEA 37.00 43.90 36.20 42.35 5.45SIEMENS 936.00 986.20 920.50 979.85 47.00MOTHERSUMI 141.00 153.30 140.50 149.25 5.75BANDHANBNK 465.00 489.90 462.00 474.70 14.95PEL 2,313.45 2,369.80 2,286.75 2,361.20 71.40BANKBARODA 113.45 116.30 110.05 116.10 3.30OFSS 3,494.90 3,619.35 3,455.00 3,580.00 98.55SUNTV 596.60 615.50 584.00 613.10 16.50ABCAPITAL 110.75 114.00 110.75 113.45 3.05ABB 1,296.00 1,329.95 1,296.00 1,322.00 30.35BRITANNIA 5,833.00 5,990.00 5,790.00 5,944.65 126.50COLPAL 1,126.00 1,157.00 1,126.00 1,148.10 22.60DABUR 392.85 397.00 388.30 395.45 6.60ICICIPRULI 327.45 334.70 325.10 329.80 3.85PETRONET 213.00 217.05 212.15 215.60 2.35LUPIN 857.90 869.90 855.45 862.00 8.25NHPC 26.10 26.35 26.00 26.25 0.25PIDILITIND 1,109.00 1,122.25 1,101.05 1,118.00 9.75MCDOWELL-N 646.00 652.80 641.95 647.10 3.50MARICO 347.90 351.90 344.00 348.00 1.50INDIGO 1,043.00 1,070.00 1,028.00 1,046.85 2.90SHREECEM 15,955.00 16,300.00 15,620.10 15,900.00 41.60HINDZINC 268.45 273.30 265.10 267.15 0.45AUROPHARMA 779.00 792.50 773.00 781.45 0.85DMART 1,396.40 1,419.45 1,375.10 1,389.95 1.50PGHH 9,500.05 9,560.00 9,490.00 9,515.00 10.60AMBUJACEM 217.90 219.00 215.00 218.00 0.15GODREJCP 718.00 727.50 711.00 721.75 0.25ICICIGI 821.00 830.00 811.00 829.00 -0.15MRF 65,900.00 66,800.00 65,588.45 65,600.00 -184.85BHEL 67.00 67.05 65.65 66.65 -0.20DLF 170.15 171.60 164.80 169.30 -0.55SBILIFE 581.90 581.90 567.00 577.00 -2.05BIOCON 630.00 633.95 622.50 623.65 -2.50ASHOKLEY 106.55 107.50 105.05 105.60 -0.50ACC 1,516.80 1,528.00 1,492.20 1,504.10 -9.45GICRE 312.65 313.95 307.90 309.40 -2.40CADILAHC 359.30 364.45 351.60 356.35 -2.95SAIL 64.65 65.10 63.55 64.05 -0.60CONCOR 680.00 695.80 659.55 674.00 -8.65HAVELLS 687.10 687.45 664.30 676.60 -9.45HDFCLIFE 397.00 399.60 391.70 392.00 -5.80SRTRANSFIN 1,267.50 1,275.00 1,218.00 1,236.25 -24.25BOSCHLTD 19,365.00 19,365.00 18,551.00 18,850.00 -370.90L&TFH 136.00 136.75 131.20 132.80 -2.75OIL 201.30 202.05 194.00 199.10 -4.25LICHSGFIN 468.90 468.90 448.30 454.50 -11.50BEL 97.00 97.05 91.60 92.55 -4.15NIACL 219.25 219.60 208.20 210.00 -10.70NMDC 107.50 108.35 99.20 101.60 -5.65

Page 12: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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WikiLeaks founder JulianAssange has been

charged in the United States,the organisation said, in adevelopment that could haveimplications for RobertMueller’s probe into allegedRussian meddling in the USpresidential election.

Prosecutors inadvertentlydisclosed the existence of asealed indictment in a court fil-ing in an unrelated case,WikiLeaks said on Thursday.

The exact nature of thecharges against Assange wasnot immediately known.

“SCOOP: US Departmentof Justice ‘accidentally’ revealsexistence of sealed charges (ora draft for them) againstWikiLeaks’ publisher JulianAssange in apparent cut-and-paste error in an unrelatedcase also at the Eastern Districtof Virginia,” Wikileaks wroteon Twitter.

The still-unsealed chargesagainst Assange were revealedby Assistant US Attorney

Kellen Dwyer as he made a fil-ing in the unrelated case andurged a judge to keep that fil-ing sealed.

Dwyer wrote: “Due to thesophistication of the defen-dant and the publicity sur-rounding the case, no otherprocedure is likely to keepconfidential the fact thatAssange has been charged,”according to The WashingtonPost.

The charges would “needto remain sealed until Assangeis arrested,” Dwyer wrote.

Federal prosecutors havebeen investigating Assange overWikiLeaks’ 2010 publication ofa trove of US diplomatic cablesthat proved an acute embar-rassment to Washington.

But the charging ofAssange in the US could haveimplications for special coun-sel Robert Mueller’s probe intowhether Donald Trump’s elec-tion campaign team colludedwith Russia to influence the2016 presidential vote, andwhether Trump tried toobstruct the probe into that.

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British Prime MinisterTheresa May battled to sal-

vage a draft Brexit deal and herpolitical future, as Ministersresigned and members of herown party plotted to oust her.

The Conservative leadersaid she believed with “everyfibre of my being” in the Brexitcourse she had set, hours afterfacing a hostile parliament andseeing four Ministers, includ-ing Brexit Secretary DominicRaab, quit the Government.

Members of Parliament onall sides warned her there wasno way the plan could win theirapproval, but she dismissedcalls to quit, saying: “Am Igoing to see this through?Yes!”.

The Daily Telegraph news-paper said Northern Ireland’sDemocratic Unionist Party(DUP), whose 10 MPs helpMay command a slim majori-ty, would vote against the deal.

Their alliance with theTories is over unless the primeminister is replaced, the papersaid, citing sources close toDUP leader Arlene Foster.

The Prime Minister admit-ted “concerns about the back-stop” solution to the Irish bor-der question within the deal,which Brexit supporters fearwould keep Britain tied indef-initely into a customs union.

Critics also believe May hasconceded too much to Brusselsin other key areas, while EUsupporters are calling for a sec-ond referendum on a finaldeal. May, however, said therewould be no second vote “as faras I’m concerned”.

The 585-page draft aims toensure a smooth divorce fromthe EU after more than fourdecades of membership andoutlines a transition period

for both sides to adjust to thebreak. Key provisions seek toavoid a hard border betweenEU member Ireland and theBritish province of NorthernIreland, protect citizens’ rightsand settle Britain’s last bill.

Amid the political turmoil,the pound dropped by 2 percent against the dollar to a one-month low and a similaramount against the euro.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg,leader of the Brexit hardlineEuropean Research Group,submitted a letter of no-confi-dence in the prime ministersaying: “It would be in theinterest of the party and thecountry if she were to standaside.”

At least 48 letters fromConservative MPs are requiredto trigger a vote of no-confi-dence in the party leader, buta majority of the party’s 315lawmakers would have to voteagainst May in order for her tobe ousted.

Although other MPs havealready sent letters, all eyeswere on Rees-Mogg given hisinfluence over Brexit support-ing MPs.

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Families and business own-ers near the Irish border

that separates the UnitedKingdom from the rest of theEU are watching in apprehen-sion as political chaos inLondon threatens to torpedo aBrexit deal that aims to avoida return of customs checks andpossible sectarian violence tothe region.

The border between theUK’s Northern Ireland theEuropean Union’s Republic of Ireland is current-ly unpoliced and invisiblethanks to an EU rule thatallows people and goods totravel freely.

The main difficulty in theBrexit talks has been how to notdisturb that liberty, which hashelped to ensure peace since1998.

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French Economy MinisterBruno Le Maire said on

Friday that Brexit advocatesmust choose between acceptingthe deal negotiated by Londonand Brussels for leaving the EUor risk “economic disaster”.

“The choice now faced byBritish political leaders whohave advocated Brexit is torenounce their absurd politicalpromise or face economic dis-aster, with the British people themain victims,” Le Maire said.

“What does Brexit demon-strate? It shows that leaving thecommon European market hasan exorbitant economic cost,”he said. “There are a number oflying and irresponsible politi-cians in Britain who told theBritish people that Brexit wouldturn out to be a golden tomor-row,” he added.

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Colombo: Sri Lanka’sParliament witnessed completechaos on Friday as rival law-makers threw chilli powder andfurniture at each other, dis-rupting the proceedings for thesecond day, forcing the Speakerto summon police inside theHouse and adjourn the sessionuntil Monday.

The brawl occurred a dayafter Speaker Karu Jayasuriyaannounced there is no prime

Minister or Government fol-lowing a no-confidence motionagainst disputed prime minis-ter Mahinda Rajapaksa.Friday’s proceedings were torepeat the floor test which wasdisrupted on Thursday.

Ousted prime minister andUnited National Party (UNP)leader Ranil Wickremesinghewarned of anarchy if the situ-ation in the country was notresolved.

The status quo must returnto what it was before October26, he was quoted as saying byColombo Gazette. PresidentMaithripala Sirisena, whoinstalled Rajapaksa as PrimeMinister last month in a con-troversial move, had agreed toa floor test with the leaders ofousted prime minister RanilWickremesinghe’s coalitionduring crisis talks last night.PTI

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Seoul: North Korea on Fridaysaid it will deport an Americancitizen it detained for illegalentrance, an apparent conces-sion to the United States thatcame even as it announced thetest of a newly developed butunspecified “ultramodern”weapon that will be seen as apressuring tactic byWashington.

The two whiplashannouncements, which seemed

aimed at both appeasing andannoying Washington, suggestNorth Korea wants to keepalive dialogue with the UnitedStates even as it struggles toexpress its frustration at stallednuclear diplomacy.

North Korea in the past hasheld arrested American citizensfor an extended period beforehigh-profile US figures trav-elled to Pyongyang to securetheir freedom. AP

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Sailing on a giant cruiseship with arms open

in the air, the breezepassing through thehair, running aroundin an open field orjust dreaming about aprince on a whitehorse... all thesehave been a part ofthe fantastical worldthat the Hindi filmindustry has givento many youngwomen.

Actor ShwetaTripathi, who hasbecome one of theprominent names inthe industry, had alsodreamt of runningaround in an openfield wearing a yellowsuit while its dupattaflew in the air. Shesaid, “I didn’t knowabout anything likeIndie cinema, parallelcinema, or even thecontent of the films. Ijust knew that I wantedto be an actress and be onthe stage, or in front of thecamera.”

The actress, whomade her acting debutwith TV show, Kya MastHai Life, shared thatshe has come a longway since her role ofZenia Khan, a geekbut full-of-life andever-excited collegestudent, to today’s GoluGupta in Mirzapur.

“It was a very hyper activekind of a role where I would cribabout food or other petty littlethings. If I look at that, I would saythat I have come a really long way,”she says.

It was all because of workingunder various directors that sheunderstood the subtlety of rolesand acting. “I realised that therewas a lot more to acting and cin-ema than just being romantic orhappy or running around withexcitement. I explored the otherside of being an actress.”

Films like Masaan,Haraamkhor, Trishna star Shwetain some unconventional rolescompared to the ideal of of some-one glamourous, who is supposedto support an actor’s heroic image.Her roles rather take centrestagewith a fierce approach. How?

She says that it works bothways. “It’s not like you choosescripts rather sometimes theychoose you. I had also auditionedfor Fukrey once, but didn’t quitelike the role. Not like I didn’t wantto do any commercial films butsomehow all the scripts that I wasgetting, I didn’t want to do those.”

And then, “Haraamkhor,Masaan, and Mirzapur really excit-ed me. And that’s how I chosethem.” If the scripts “excite” her, shewould definitely take it up.

Actor Ali Fazal’s story is alsoquite similar. He talks about his role,Guddu Pandit, the kid who hasgrown up watching his lower mid-dle class family and aspired to belike them. “The family has alwayswanted their kid to be a ‘hero.’ Evenhis aspirations’ length is as short astransitioning from having a bicycleto having a Luna (scooty),” he says.If there is a problem with the cycleand he finds a jeep nearby, he wouldbe excited to see that and only thinkof having it and “looking like a hero”when his hair would flow in theopen jeep.

“Hum banayenge Mirzapur koAmrika (We’ll transform Mirzapurinto America.),” says Guddu Panditaka Ali Fazal of Mirzapur. That ishow Ali’s role adds various shadesof red to the show’s palette, whereeven though it is the 21st century“his aspirations are full of innocenceand non-materialistic.”

Shweta finds his role “endear-ing” as even though “he appears tobe the Hulk or Thor, he is very sim-ple in his own world.” She says, “Ifyou look at Fukrey’s chocolate boy

and 3 Idiots’s sweet Joy to today’sGuddu Pandit, it is a treat.”

Among the huge star cast of theshow is Pankaj Tripathi, SheebaChaddha, Rasika Dugal, VikrantMassey, Divyendu Sharma, andShriya Pilgaonkar. Ali was the lastone to enter the stage. And, this lastminute entry has a unique run-and-return story that Ali tells us.

“I had put my feet in the West,and then I was back here when I gotMirzapur. I was stuck when I readthe script. But that wasn’t the partoffered to me and I made an excuseto escape from it. But after a fewdays, the role of Guddu Pandit cameto me and I immediately agreed,”laughs Ali.

He believes that the heart doesstick to something and there arecertain roles that “don’t leave you”until you make them happen.

While the actor had also pre-pared for a role in his forthcoming,Milan Talkies, he says, “I did eat alot. It took a lot of patience as I hadto shed around 10 kg weight for therole.”

While Shweta’s role of Golu, ayoung nerd, is a very tender andmild one. Ali describes it as “A TomHanks film — slow yet beautiful.”They both agree that there is a Goluin every girl as “she is the one liv-ing in this world of misogyny justlike we have been since ages, butthere’s more to her today, muchmore fierce and ahead of time,” saysAli.

Her apparent masturbationscene in the show has become thetalk of the town and she feels thatit is not anything that is “unusual”or even “bold,” rather somethingthat is real and “was hidden for along time. Now through suchscenes, the quietness around it willseem unusual. It should be normal.It’s not just a scene, rather a reali-ty. Men do it, women do it as well.”

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From Gandhi’s friendship to criti-cal theories on postcolonial Indian

literature, the night was a rewardingone for readers and academicians.

The Indian Institute of AdvancedStudy, Rashtrapati Nivas, Shimla,organised, The Fifth RabindranathTagore Memorial Lecture, which wasdelivered by Padma Shri professorRamesh Chandra Shah, a noted poet,novelist and critic on the rehabilita-tion of sacred.

Six books were launched duringthe lecture. In Gandhi’s Ark authoredby Shashi Joshi, the focus was onGandhi’s relationship with hisChristian friends with whom he dis-cussed religion and spirituality. Thecentral theme of the book reveals hisaffinity to Catholic Christianity andopenness to all the religious ideas,beliefs and practices while another

book, Postcolonial Indian LiteratureToward a Critical Framework bySatish C. Aikant takes a comprehen-sive view of Indian literatures from apostcolonial perspective.

Mahesh Champaklal’s Bhasa’sRamayan Plays From Page to Stage,meanwhile involved the analysis ofthe epic ascribed to Bhasa namely,Abhisheka Natakam and PratimaNatakam both in terms of languagein theatre. It tries to establish the inter-relation between both, the dramatictext composed by the playwright andthe performance text designed by thedirector for the production of the play.How the dramatic text is trans-formed into the performance textforms the subject of the book thusestablishing the relation between textand performance.

Dancing in the Sky of

Consciousness authored byAleksandra Wenta is an interdiscipli-nary attempt to look at variousdimensions of aesthetics of power inmedieval Cidambaram temple andbeyond. It weaves its discourse aroundthe figure of dancing Siva, to whomthe temple was dedicated. Incidentally,the god is one of the most powerfulicons in the history of world religions.The book tries to combine the fieldsof philosophy, history, aesthetics,performing arts, architecture, ritualand textual studies.

The last two books includedUrban Spaces in Modern India edit-ed by Partho Dutta and NarayaniGupta and Modernity and Changing

Social Fabric of Punjab and Haryanawhich is edited by Yogesh Snehi andLallan S Baghel.

In his lecture, professor Shahspoke about, “The Indian tradition ofAdvaita Vedanta emphasises onJivanmukti, the idea that moksha(freedom, liberation) is achievable inthis life in contrast to Indian philoso-phies that emphasises on moksha afterdeath.”

Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdulwho’s a Buddhist scholar, was themoderator of the lecture and hesummed it up when he said, “Wehave to admit that modern sciencehas changed the world but to get theinner freedom and peace of mind

we have to maintain a fine balancebetween modern science and phi-losophy. This balance helps us insetting our minds free from thematerialistic world. The philosophyof west and India tried to seek andexplore the ultimate reality andsame was also searched through therule and principals of Physics.Knowing the complete truth isvery important, for instance, onecould have tremendous cravingfor cheese cake, but when you’ll seecheese from a microscope andyou’ll see the bacteria in the cakeyour craving for the cake will goaway. This is the result knowing theultimate truth.”

The word festival brings cheerand when you add food to it,you get the undivided atten-

tion of all gourmets. And a foodtruck festival in the capital is tryingto do just that.

Skewers of meat and paneerbeing barbequed on hot coals whilecustomers line up with a chill beeror mocktail is a normal scene at thisthree-day annual market. TheJawahar Lal Nehru stadium hasbeen transformed into small kiosksthat smell of food and baked goods.

We started our food journey atHorn Ok Please with sushis anddimsums, which tried to stayauthentic to its Japanese origins,while an Italian food truck servedpastas and pizzas nearby and givenDelhi’s love for food from thisMediterranean country, a long lineof waiting people was certainly nota surprise.

The culture of food trucks is anorm in the US where young pro-fessionals step out of their offices tograb a bite for lunch and is catchingup in India and has added colourand variety to the Indian foodscene.

A food truck, Wheelys, offeredcoffee on wheels with a twist whereone got a chance to brew their owncoffee. You could choose a flavourand add your favourite topping likecrushed oreo, vanilla scoop, orwhipped cream. Owner AbhaySingh Luthra said that they haveover seven crore combination of cof-fee and toppings on offer.

“In my experience, when itcomes to food festivals, the audienceusually tries to explore disparate cui-sine and delicacies and that is whyI think keeping your menu com-pletely Indian does not work becauseit is easily available everywhere. It’svery difficult to judge the demandsof the public which is why we keeptrying out new thing,” said PulekAgrawaal, who runs Flip, which spe-cialises in a variety of cuisine. “I pre-

fer using the ingredients, spicesand even breads that are madeinhouse,” he said.

The concept of bringing foodfrom different parts of the countryunder one roof is not somethingunheard of. But the dishes laid outby vendors from more than 150eatries across the city can’t go unno-ticed. And the festival scored not just

on account of its rich traditional andcontemporary flavours, but alsodue to the pricing where some ofthem were priced as low as �40 perplate.

And then there were those whowere there for a cause. The KeshavSuri Foundation which aims to worktowards the upliftment of the mar-ginalised LGBTQ+ community, hadpainted their food truck in the rain-bow colours. This caught the atten-tion of the visitors and was a huge hit.

“This time we have Mexicandishes like, Crunchy fried avocadotaco, Mexican sliders, Mexican chick-en rice with brownie. I think food fes-tivals are a good way of promotingand marketing your new ventures.We have also set up a pop up of KittySu, our nightclub, in addition to thefood truck this time,” said PrernaThakur, assistant manager, market-ing and communication of The Lalit

group. This also a great trial space for

fusion food. The brave can ventureinto unchartered territory likeChinese choley or a fusion like Idli ital-iano chaat that caught our eye but weshied away from this unexpectedcombination. However, you can trythese at your own peril.

A drawback of festivals is that itoffers only the tried and testedbrands. A food blogger AnamikaKarmakar said, “If I’m attending afood fest, my focus is on trying andexploring things that are new and notavailable in the market. Why wouldI be heading for something which Ican get easily in the market.Obviously, I would be looking for dis-

parate delicacies which I haven’ttasted before. Like I would be reallyinteresed to try something which isfrom Kolkata or from some otherstate, which I cannot get in Delhi. Ithink these food festivals need tochange their concept in terms of get-ting cuisines across the globe and ifnot from across the globe thenatleast from various states of all thecountries.”

Apart from the cons, the festi-val is a really great way to enjoy awarm Sunday afternoon and an evenbetter way to spend your Saturdayevening grabbing few beers andplenty of scrumptious grub whilehanging out with friends.

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In the tussle between man and thewild, animals have drawn the

short straw. With land encroach-ments in every part of the world,wildlife population is estimated todecline by two-third till 2020. Wehave already lost 60 per cent of thewildlife, according to a report.

People are aware of climatechange, of plastics’ harmful effectsbut not enough about wildlife loss,according to Jonathan Keeling, con-sulting executive producer of BBC’sPlanet Earth II. His work has takenhim to each of the seven continentsand his next, Seven Worlds will showthe challenges that wildlife is facing.Most of his shows are on view onSony BBC Earth in India.

The show is partially shot inMumbai, which is a city of 20 mil-lion people and also has the dens-est population of leopards any-where in the world. “It is a uniquesituation. No jungle, noother place but Mumbai hasthe most concentratednumber of leopards,”said he.

To shoot thesequence, theyused camerasthat didn’tneed

lights at night. Technology hasadvanced enough that miniaturecameras, that can be mounted onanimals, drones and buggies areused. The storytelling technique hasalso changed so that it’s emotionaland dramatic, with a protagonistand an antagonist, which is what ispulling younger crowds, he believes.

“Last year, when Blue Planet IIreleased, it had the highest viewingnumbers in the UK and soon ban-ning plastics was on the agenda forthe parliament and companies.People on the streets were talkingabout how plastic was damaging themarine life,” he said, adding that theyounger generation is now interest-ed in watching documentaries asmuch as sports events or pop real-ity shows, which he also enjoyswatching.

During his travels, he’s closelyobserved how human encroachment

is affecting animals andtheir behaviour. So,while conservation has

become a hot topicin this space so isshowing thenew species andold with their

behaviour. “How a monkey would

behave with you depends on ifit’s being fed,” jokes Jonathan.“Some run and hide, some aremore relaxed with people. If you

go to a temple, there are monkeysbut they have seen humans forhundreds of years and their behav-iour is calm. There are places whereanimals encountered people butare much more shy. In Papua NewGuinea, my team looked for a newspecies in a volcanic crater in a jun-

gle, which hasn’t been explored in60,000 years. Local people haven’tgone there since it is a sacred place.I picked a Tree Kangaroo off abranch and held it and it was justrelaxed. We picked up a Cuscus,looked at it and put it back. It was-n’t bothered. We also found theworld’s biggest rodent, the Bosavirat, which was the highlight for me.And, it was super relaxed. It is acomplex relationship,” he said.

As more urban centres come upand humans move into animallandscape and dominate that withbuildings and roads, it’s hugelytransformed which is true for largeparts of Europe and Asia. In suchsituations, wildlife corridors areimportant which make space foranimals is important. “Forty yearsago we made the first global wildlifedocumentary called Life on Earth.Since that time we lost somewhereclose to 2/3 of the population of biganimals. We are the first generationthat has been able to observe theimpact through satellites and also onthe ground. Previous generationsweren’t aware but now we are. It’stime to do something,” he said.

They have also been able toreach a Chinese audience nowwhich translates to around 250 mil-lion people and the global scope, agegroup and sheer numbers have areally big impact.

While politicians debate global-ly if climate change is real or not andit’s impacts — the North and SouthPole are melting. And Jonathanwonders if the penguin populationcan adapt quickly enough for it tosurvive through this man made cri-sis.

Now 21, Sanjay Kandasamywas just 18 months old

when his father had to donatea part of his liver to him inNovember 1998.

In doing so, Sanjay and hisdoctors created history in theannals of Indian medicine asthe country’s first successfulliver transplant surgery,Indraprastha Apollo hospitalssaid in statement.

Not only has Sanjay doneexceedingly well, without hav-ing any other complicationssince the transplant, he is nowtraining to be a doctor himself.

Since it has been morethan 20 years that the trans-plant took place, he explainedhow the difficulty level of suchsurgeries have changed.

He said, “At that time, myfather donated his organ oth-erwise it wouldn’t have beenthat easy.” Being a medicalstudent himself, he added,“Today, the situation haschanged due to a better avail-ability of resources, technolo-gy, doctors and even donors,which have risen in numbers.The information has spreadmuch easily today.”

On the 20th anniversary ofthe operation that changed theface of medical sciences inIndia, the hospital showcasedthe evolution that liver trans-plants have gone through overthe last two decades.

Dr Preetha Reddy, vicechairperson of the ApolloHospitals Group, said liver dis-ease is a major cause for con-cern in the country with asmany as two lakh people dyingfrom it every year. Whilearound 1,800 liver transplantsare done annually, as many as20,000 people need a livertransplant at any given point.

“The fact is around 10lakh people are diagnosed withliver disease every year, mak-ing it the 10th most-commoncause of death in India as perthe WHO. While India hascome a long way since the firstoperation, there is still a huge

gap to be filled,” Dr Reddy said.Ace Indian cricketer,

Gautam Gambhir, a long-timeproponent of organ donationwas also present on the occa-sion.

“Every three minutes a per-son gets added to the list whoneed a transplant. Today, overtwo lakh Indians are on the listwhile less than 10 per cent geta transplant. We have to work asa nation to increase our organdonation rate. I have pledged myorgans in 2011 and encouragethe youth to raise awareness onorgan donation and becomedonors themselves. This needsto become a national move-ment,” he said.

Apollo Hospitals’ Groupmedical director and seniorpediatric gastroenterologist,Dr Anupam Sibal, said thatover the last 20 years theApollo Institutes of Transplanthas performed more than 3,200liver transplants in patientsfrom over 50 countries ofwhich 302 have been children.

“While there is still lack ininfrastructure for life-savingorgan donations and trans-plants, the numbers in thecountry are showing someimprovement in the country.Out of 301 hospitals equippedto handle the process, 250have registered with NationalOrgan and Tissue TransplantOrganisation (NOTTO), show-ing that in order to conduct anorgan transplant, there existsone fully equipped hospitalfor around 43 lakh people,” DrSibal said.

Sanjay, who is currentlypursuing his medical studies atthe Srilakshmi NarayanInstitute of Medical Sciences,Pondicherry, has been onimmuno suppressent medica-tion for 15 to 16 years. Heaspires to be a blood donorhimself. However, his suppres-sants medication wouldn’tallow him to donate. “I want tobe a donor, but unfortunatelyI can’t donate,” said Sanjay.

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One of the primary cultures thatIndian students and young

professionals who live abroad bringback with them is their love of finewine. While everyone loves foodmade by their mother, qualitywines and spirits they have had aresought out on their return to Indiaas well. And in the third largestliquor market of the world, whereevery year almost 20 million peo-ple enter legal drinking age, it is theyoung that a Sicilian wine brand isvying for.

“It is my dream that we serveSicilian wine with Indian food. It isa misconception that Italian winecan only be paired with food fromthe region,” says Elena Bortoletto,export manager, Donnafugata.

It doesn’t hurt that the 1983 ori-gin company comes with an inter-esting history that involves runawayqueens. The name Donnafugatatranslates to fugitive woman or thewoman who fled. The town has acastle with the same name. And oneof the legends say that it refers toQueen Blanche of Navarre, widowof King Martin I of Aragon. Thelabels on the bottles are a work ofart by the famed Stefano Vitale,who had designed the cover forPaolo Coehlo’s The Alchemist.

It seems just like the drink,families that run wineries also getfiner with each generation. Thefifth-generation run family businesshas fresh and fruit wines that areaccessible but premium and makefor easy drinking. The bottles,which come with instructions, tell

clearly that the white wine goes bet-ter with fruits and cheese while thered is meant for meat. The Anthiliamade with peach and pear scents,is crisp and soft on the palate andis better served with fish or vegeta-bles while the Sedara has a balanceof red fruits and spicy flavours.

To ensure the wine quality, theyharvest grapes by handpickingthem for their Chardonnay, forwhich the fruits ripen the earliest.At their vineyard in the town ofRagusa they are harvested by night,when the temperatures are as lowas 18-20 degree Celsius instead ofthe peak of 45 degree Celsius in theday. No chemical fertiliser or pes-ticides go into the grapes. Theirfocus has been on sustainability aswell since harvesting at night saveselectricity needed to cool down thefruit if it is picked during the day.

Bortoletto adds that the mar-ket in Asia is opening to wine whileit was earlier dominated by spirits.

China has wine bars in Shanghaiand Beijing and with the openingof Wine & Spirit Education Trust,awareness has been percolating intothe urban people. She also addedthat tourism to Italy has been thekey to a growth in their market.

While an entry level wine isplaced around �700-1500, theDonnafugata is priced more than�3300, which is definitely not aninaccessible mark for the upwardmoving Indian. It has already madeinroads into key metros in thecountry and has been placed atwell-known places like the IndianAccent. But they agree that to reacha new market of amateur winedrinkers, dinners and workshopsthat lets one experience the wineand how it should be had is the key.

However, they are in no hurryto see results since the normal turn-around time to see profits is fiveyears. During that time, they hopeto triple their sales.

The transluscent paper still cov-ers the huge 149.5 x 105 cmpiece which rests against the

wall as it is yet to be hung up. Peoplehover around as “the pièce de résis-tance” as Gaurav Bhatia, managingdirector, India, Sotheby’s describesTyeb Mehta’s Durga MahisasuraMardini (1993), is to be unveiled. Heemphasises, “You are officially thefirst Indian journalist to see this,”

He then embarks on the storybehind the painting. “A Muslim, thecosmopolitan ethos of Bombay (nowMumbai), where he settled down,really appealed to the artist who wasborn in Kapadwanj, a small town inGujarat. But his faith was rudelyshaken when during the 1992-93 postBabri Masjid demolition riots, hereceived threats on account of his reli-gion. He left for Santiniketan toescape this madness. In the heat ofthe moment, when all this politicalupheaval was happening, he was asked to make a painting and he creat-ed a strong political statement withthis,” says Gaurav gesturing towardsthe painting. It reveals a blue back-drop and there are just three morecolours — saffron, white and green— and when the idea hits you in allits force, it makes for a goosebumpsmoment. “It is interesting to note thatTyeb, a Muslim, painted a HinduGoddess for the first time and thattoo in colours of the Indian flag toreiterate what the country was about,”emphasises Gaurav. The work ispainted with an economy of lines andis deeply symbolic as Goddess Durgarepresents enlightenment and hopeover darkness and ignorance.

“It is a positive painting where alarge part is painted blue like theAshoka chakra but the colour alsostands for hope and renewal. It is def-initely more relevant today,” saysGaurav, who has his roots inLucknow and takes pride in theGanga Jamuni tehzeeb with its inter-mingling of cultures, religion, foodand language.

He goes on to recount how hechanced upon this piece that has notbeen displayed by any gallery in Indiatill date. “I had gone to my father’sfriend’s place for a drink along withmy wife in December 2016. He hasan impressive art collection, most ofwhich is displayed on the groundfloor of his house. As we took thestairs for the first floor, I saw thispainting on a wall. When I was leav-ing, he told me that if I ever wantedanything, all I had to do was ask. Myprompt reply was, ‘The Tyeb Mehta’.It’s another story that my wife chid-ed me later for saying so. But with-in two days he called up and agreedto sell it. It was timely as we had juststarted putting Boundless:India,Sotheby’s inaugural auction in thecountry,” he says. The painting is apart of the display at the BikanerHouse and will feature in the auctionwhich will take place at the TajMahal Hotel in Mumbai onNovember 29. He says, “The artworks

are a visual commentary on SouthAsia that narrate the story of the rich-ness and sophistication of art anddesign from the Indian Subcontinent.The 50 artworks including paintings,sculpture, photography and designare made in and inspired by theIndian subcontinent. Interestingly,except for two, none of the workshave ever been displayed to the pub-lic.”

Gaurav says that there is a reasonSotheby, a brand which was estab-lished in 1742, decided to set up officein India two years back. “We have thefirst records in 1930s of an Indiantransacting with Sotheby’s when theMaharaja of Darbangha boughtMarie Antoinette’s jewels in London.So Indians have been doing businesswith Sotheby’s for almost a hundredyears. What further prompted themove was in the last five years werecorded that South Asians, which islargely Indians, had done transactionsworth over $250 million across allcategories including Impressionist art,Western art, jewellery watches andcars with us,” he says.

He also points out that while theartworks that Indians gravitatedtowards were mostly from the home

country a few clients have evenstarted buying Monets and Picassos.“Maybe not in terms of volume butin value, these are big. The numberspicking these works are small due toa mix of prohibitive pricing as wellas taste,” he adds.

But coming back to the auction,he says, “The ethos of the sale isIndia’s boundless treasures. We curat-ed this over two years so we literal-ly had the cream of the crop. Weselected 50 works which are superclean and each piece represents avisual vocabulary as well as thesophistication and elegance of India.”So, there are works by artist based inthe country and even those outsideit. He flips through the catalogue andpoints to an image Blue City, Jodhpurby Steve McCurry which was clickedin 2010. The intensity of the colourreminds one of his other iconicwork Afghan Girl which featuredSharbat Gula. The other one calledTaj Mahal and Train, Agra, 1983 toois up at the auction. The list of famousinternational artists don’t end there.There is also Henri Cartier Bresson’sstunning black and white image,Srinagar, Kashmir 1948. But perhapsit is the Brazilian Sebastiao Salgado’s

Churchgate Station, Western RailroadLine, Bombay, India 1955 which bestshowcases an outsider’s view of Indiawith its crowd, din and flurry ofmovement.

Gaurav recounts interesting talesbehind some of the art. An early workof Amrita Shergill Girl in Blue whereshe painted her cousin Babeet Kaurin 1934 is mounted on one wall.“Amrita’s mother said it wasn’t good.Babeet’s mother too didn’t like it asshe thought her daughter had beenpainted a bit too dark. Amrita keptit away and displayed the painting ather first show at Falleti’s Hotel inLahore. It was bought by CharlesFabri, a historian with whom Shergillis rumored to have had an affair andwas in his family for the last 80 years.This work is important because justafter this she painted her very famous,Three Girls. Stylistically the move-ment and fluidity in both the worksis same,” he says.

But interestingly, the story doesnot end there. When Sotheby’sacquired the painting six months ago,it was published in an English news-paper. What happened after that iswhat history is made of. “Sotheby’sgot a call from a lady saying that the

girl in the painting was her mother-in-law who was 94 years old and livedin Delhi,” says Gaurav. Needless to sayBabeet Kaur attended the preview atBikaner House yesterday.

There is also Francis NewtonSouza’s Untitled (St Paul’s Cathedral)1961, a piece in blue, white and blackthat makes use of his slashing tech-nique to perfection. “When you lookat the painting, it is beautiful but acloser look reveals a lot of violence.The artist grew up in Goa with strictCatholic parents and he almost start-ed rebelling against the church as theyput too much emphasis on religion,”explains Gaurav.

Moving from the master, in thecontemporary oeuvre, Gaurav ges-tures at a work by Arpita Singh whois considered one of the most impor-tant female artists of India. “Thisextraordinary work, Men Sitting,Men Standing is a political statementon the political chair revolving onlyamong them,” he says.

One cannot miss out on anoth-er contemporary artist Bharti Kherand Priti Paul’s Belladonna, an instal-lation which features a dressing tablewith lipsticks, shoes and a sari — allmade in steel. “This too is a politicalstatement about women’s perceptionof themselves in the society. Is it justmake up, hair, shoes and sari or heroutward appearance that make for awoman’s identity or is there more toher?” explains Gaurav.

The exhibition also has a lot ofsculptures as this was an importantart form even before the written wordexisted in India. “A terracotta headdone by G Ravinder Reddy is impor-tant because he usually makes thesein metallic gold. It is the first time thathe worked in this medium.”

Another striking sculpture isProdosh Das Gupta’s Egg Bird (1975).“It’s sophisticated and refined wherethe bird is protecting her egg and nur-turing it like a mother,” says Gauravwho earlier worked with LVMHMoët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

But what really caught the atten-tion was an interesting series of 20photographs by Nandini ValliMuthiah which show Vishnu onearth for a day. So he can be seen rid-ing a Cadillac to a wedding, visitinga house where he is treated as a god,going to a bar and finally reaching hishotel room where he can be seen dis-illusioned with what is going on onearth.

There are works by other artistslike Bhupen Kakkar’s water colours,Gulam Rasool Santosh’s take ontantra, Krishna Reddy’s print calledWhirlpool, the Aligarh artist ZareenaHashmi’s works which question theidea of home and displacement, ABala’s glamorous thumb print as wellas a series of photographs by MadanMahatta. The immersive walk cer-tainly encompasses what can becalled some of the best representationof art that looks at India.

The show is on till 1 pm onNovember 17.

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Page 15: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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Wayne Rooney believes thefuture is bright for

England as a youthful ThreeLions eased past the UnitedStates 3-0 at Wembley on hisinternational swansong.

Jesse Lingard, TrentAlexander-Arnold and debutantCallum Wilson grabbed thegoals in a dominant Englanddisplay despite Gareth Southgatefielding a very inexperiencedside on Thursday.

Should England avengetheir heartbreaking World Cupsemi-final defeat by Croatia onSunday at Wembley, Southgate'smen can build on the progressmade by surpassing expectationsin Russia this summer by qual-ifying for the semi-finals of theinaugural Nations League.

"It's my opinion thatEngland are in very safe handsfrom what I've seen this week,"said Rooney.

"The way they are beingcoached is brilliant, it's a greatgroup of young players whohave a bright future.

"They will go close to beingthe next team to bring a trophyback for England." The decisionto honour Rooney with a firstcap for two years divided opin-ion.

However, the biggest cheer

of the night was reserved for theintroduction of England's great-est ever goalscorer just before thehour mark on his 120th inter-national appearance.

"It will live with me for along time," added Rooney.

"It is something which cre-ated debate because it was thefirst time something like thishappened, but it is the rightthing to do for the players if youachieve and leave your mark onthe England team."

England's former captainwas also honoured before kick-off with a guard of honour andthe presentation of a plaquebearing a golden Three Lions

badge by current skipper HarryKane.

"I asked Harry Kane to pre-sent me with the award becauseI believe he will beat mygoalscoring record and I lookforward to presenting him withthe trophy," added Rooney.

Kane didn't get the chanceto add to his 19 internationalgoals as Southgate prioritisedkeeping most of his key playersfresh for Croatia's visit onSunday.

England quickly put thegame to bed with two goals inas many minutes midwaythrough the first half as firstlyLingard received Dele Alli's passbefore curling high into the farcorner.

Sancho has quickly made aname for himself at BorussiaDortmund and the 18-year-oldbuilt on his fine Bundesligaform by teeing up Alexander-Arnold to drill his first interna-tional goal into the far corner.

Wilson did get his goal tocap a dream debut for theBournemouth striker, who hasbattled through the lowerleagues and two cruciate liga-ment injuries in both knees tomake it to the internationalstage. Wilson got ahead of hismarker to turn Fabian Delph'scross in at the near post 13 min-utes from time.

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Page 16: ˇ - The Pioneer › uploads › 2018 › epaper › ... · 2019-03-04 · residence, Badal categorically refused the SIT member IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh — who had issued summons

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Mike Hussey, who has a fair ideaabout the current crop of Indiaplayers, feels that all-rounder

Hardik Pandya's absence will "hurt" thevisitors in the upcoming Test seriesagainst Australia staring from December6 in Adelaide.

Pandya is undergoing rehabilitationafter suffering a lower-back injury dur-ing the Asia Cup in Dubai last September.

"I think Hardik is a wonderful talentand I am sure his game style would havebeen suited to the Australian conditions.Add to that, the balance he offers the teamwith his all-round abilities, yes I think hisabsence will hurt India," Hussey said.

India have a good chance of doingwell against a depleted Australia but 'MrCricket' is confident that the hometeam's seasoned bowling attack will testsome of the younger batsmen in the vis-iting team.

India are being dubbed as favouritesin many quarters primarily due to theabsence of Smith and Warner.

But India could face a different chal-lenge with the likes of Prithvi Shaw,Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari set toface Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, PatCummins and Nathan Lyon for the firsttime.

"I do think India have a good chanceas they have an excellent team with somevery good fast bowlers. However, I thinkAustralia's bowling attack is world classand will challenge the Indian team, par-ticularly the younger players in Australianconditions. Australia always play well athome and hence will be very hard to beat."

Virat Kohli remains the biggest threatto Australia having scored four hundredsduring the 2014-15 series and Husseyreckoned that the home team bowlersneed to be patient against the Indian skip-per.

"The Australians will prepare wellagainst Kohli, but it comes down to exe-cution. In my view the Aussies need to

be incredibly patient and disciplined forlong periods of time against a world classplayer like Kohli," said the 43-year-old,who has played 79 Tests and 185 ODIs for

Australia.India's 1-4 series defeat against

England will have no bearing on theAustralia series as the scoreline is not an

accurate representation of how well Indiacompeted, said the former left-hander.

"It's a completely new series in com-pletely different conditions. I think Indiaplayed some brilliant cricket in Englandbut unfortunately, the results didn't gotheir way," opined Hussey.

Unlike some of the experts who arestill not convinced about Tim Paine's lead-ership skills, the current Test captain hasHussey's vote of approval.

"I wouldn't underestimate Tim Paine,he is an excellent competitor and will be

up for the fight against India. Yes, he hasthe mental strength to lead this Australianside," he asserted.

The Indian bowling attack has beentop notch in all away series but Husseywants the Australian batsmen to look atthe upcoming series as an opportunity tocement their place in the side.

"The batting will be tested against anexcellent Indian attack but there are somegreat opportunities for Australian battersto cement a place in the team with somebig runs. So motivation will be high."

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Senior pros Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane weredismissed cheaply but young guns Prithvi Shaw and

Hanuma Vihari warmed up nicely for the AustraliaTest series with half-centuries for India A against NewZealand in the first unofficial 'Test'.

At stumps on the opening day, India A scored 340for five with Australia bound opener Shaw (62, 88balls), middle-order batsman Hanuma Vihari (86, 150balls) and comeback man Parthiv Patel (79 batting,111 balls) utilised the opportunity to the fullest.However opener Vijay(28, 64 balls) and Testvie-captain Rahane(12, 19 balls) foundtheir defencesbreached by BlairTickner and DougBracewell respective-ly.

In-form Vihari,who made his Testdebut against Englandwith a half-century,was dismissed in thelast ball of the day.

Vihari hit eightboundaries during hisstay in the middle,while Patel has so farfound the fence 10 times.

Also scoring a half-century was Mayank Agarwal(65), who came in at No 3.

After the visitors opted to bat first, India A weregiven a fine start by Shaw and his senior partner Vijay.

The Mumbaikar then added exactly 50 runs forthe second wicket with Agarwal, before he was dis-missed by slow-left-arm spinner Theo van Woerkom.

Vihari joined Agarwal in the middle and added73 runs for the third wicket till the Karnataka play-er was bowled by medium pacer Blair Tickner.

Shaw struck six boundaries and a six in his 88-ball stay, while Agarwal hit 10 fours and two sixes.

Skipper Rahane did not last long but the duo ofVihari and Patel put together a stand of 138 runs forthe sixth wicket to consolidate India A's position atthe Bay Oval.

Tickner was the most successful bowler for thehosts, finishing the day with 2/48 in 15 overs.

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India will face their biggest chal-lenge so far in the ICC Women's

World T20 when they lock hornswith a gifted Australian team in aninconsequential game here onSaturday.

Considered title contenders,both India and Australia stormedinto the semifinals of the show-piece with a game to spare.

Assured of a place in the last-four stage, the result of Saturday'smatch may not be of much sig-nificance, but India are aware thatbeating a superior side will helpthem take the confidence into theknockouts.

The two fancied teams wast-ed no time in switching into topgear in the Caribbean, havingconvincingly won all their threematches so far, and another victo-ry in the next round robin gamewould certainly be a huge moralebooster.

While India skipperHarmanpreet Kaur provided thebest possible start to the tourna-ment with her blazing centuryagainst New Zealand, the seasonedMithali Raj showed there is no sub-stitute for experience with two finehalf-centuries, the knocks comingin times when the team neededthem the most.

While Harmanpreet's scintil-lating innings, which contained asmany as eight sixes, will be remem-bered for years, Mithali got into theact in the much-awaited matchagainst arch-rivals Pakistan andcalmly saw the team through.

A downpour in the morningmade the conditions difficult forbatting against Ireland, but open-er Mithali battled her way to her17th T20I half-century helping herside put up a challenging total,

anchoring the innings tillthe 19th over.

The spinners then rattledthe Irish batswomen andensured an easy win forIndia.

India cruised into the semi-

finals with a 52-run defeat ofIreland at the ProvidenceStadium. The result meantthat Group B's top-two spotswere decided, with Australia

being the other semifinalist. It alsomeant New Zealand and Pakistan

were knocked out of the tourna-ment.

The Aussies, too, have been inexceptional form. They easily sawoff Pakistan in their first poolmatch by 52 runs, comprehensivelydefeated Ireland in their second bynine wickets and then beat NewZealand by 33 runs.

While Meg Lanning's side hasquite a few match-winners, thename that stands out at the

moment is opening batter andwicketkeeper Alyssa Healy.

Her form with the bat recent-ly has been very impressive and shehas scored more runs than any ofher teammates. Since the begin-ning of October, Alyssa has scoredsix half centuries in eight innings.

�E����India: Harmanpreet Kaur (cap-tain), Smriti Mandhana, MithaliRaj, Jemimah Rodrigues, VedaKrishnamurthy, Deepti Sharma,Taniya Bhatia, Poonam Yadav,Radha Yadav, Anuja Patil, EktaBisht, Dayalan Hemalatha, MansiJoshi, Pooja Vastrakar, ArundhatiReddyAustralia: Meg Lanning (cap-tain), Rachael Haynes, NicoleBolton, Ashleigh Gardner, AlyssaHealy, Delissa Kimmince, SophieMolineux, Beth Mooney, EllysePerry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani,Tayla Vlaeminck, GeorgiaWareham, Nicola Carey.

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Captain Joe Root smashed 124 andnewcomer Ben Foakes again hit

valuable tail end runs to put Englandin command of the second Test againstSri Lanka on Friday.

England reached 324 for nine — asecond innings lead of 278 — when badlight stopped play for the day at Kandy.

Foakes was batting on 51 alongsideJames Anderson on four.

Spinner Akila Danajanya, whoseaction is under investigation by theInternational Cricket Council, claimedsix wickets on the turning pitch.

He trapped Root lbw and thenbowled Sam Curran for nought with hisnext ball. Adil Rashid thwarted the hat-trick but soon fell to Dananjaya's guilefor two.

It was his third five wicket haul injust his fifth Test for Dananjaya, whomust rush off to Australia after the gamefor an ICC examination of his bowling.

He, however, could not stop Rootand Foakes swinging the game.

Root reached his 15th Test ton soonafter tea, making the sweep and reversesweep valuable weapons, as he hit 10fours and two sixes in his 146-ballknock.

Root said he enjoyed making theruns despite the pressure.

"That's what it should be. Youshouldn't feel pressurelike the pressure is toomuch for you, youshould enjoy the occa-sion and make the mostof the opportunity infront of you," he said after the day's play.

Root made an 82-run seventhwicket stand with Foakes, who reachedhis fifty with a six off Dilruwan Perera.The hit turned out to be the last ball ofthe day with dark clouds gathering andthunder heard in the distance.

As he did in his sparkling century

on his Test debut in the opening gameof the series, Foakes mixed caution andaggression to push up the Englandscore.

Earlier, left-hander Rory Burnsregistered his maiden Test half-centu-ry in just his second match. He was

trapped lbw offM a l i n d aPushpakumarafor 59.

Perera wast-ed little time in

sending nightwatchman Jack Leachback to the pavilion for one in the sec-ond over of the day.

Burns then put together 73 runs forthe second wicket with KeatonJennings, who made 26, to steady theinnings and help England overcometheir 46-run deficit.

���� �76�-/�70�

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah led adouble-barrelled attack of

spin and pace to leave Pakistansitting comfortably on theopening day of the first Testagainst New Zealand on Friday.

Yasir led the varied attackwith 3/54 as New Zealand,who won the toss and batted ona grass-less Sheikh ZayedStadium pitch, were bowled outfor a below-par 153 in 66.3overs at the stroke of tea.

The day saw 12 wickets fallas Pakistan closed at 59/2, hav-ing lost both their openersImam-ul-Haq (six) andMohammad Hafeez (20) beforeHaris Sohail (22 not out) andAzhar Ali (10 not out) stoppedthe rot.

Pakistan need 94 more totake a lead and enforce a 1-0lead in the three-match series.

Imam was first to go as heedged Colin de Grandhomme'sdelivery to the slip while Hafeezmiscued a pull straight to short

mid-wicket — both caught byKane Williamson.

New Zealand skipperWilliamson, declared fit aftermissing last Sunday's third one-day international due to a groininjury, top-scored with 63before falling softly to mediumpacer Hasan Ali, who finishedwith 2-38.

Williamson's 112-ballknock had five boundaries andhe added 72 for the fourthwicket with Henry Nichollswho made 28 with four bound-aries.

In the same over Hasantrapped De Grandhomme for afirst-ball duck before Sohaildismissed Ish Sodhi (four) and

BJ Watling (four) — both weretrapped leg-before.

Mohammad Abbas, whohas figures of 2-13, hadremoved Nicholls, caughtbehind by Sarfraz soon afterlunch.

Pakistan dominated thefirst session as New Zealandwere 81-3 at lunch, with leg-spinner Yasir Shah taking thefirst of his two wickets in hisopening overs.

Yasir had derailed NewZealand's progress in the firstsession with the wickets ofopener Tom Latham (13) andRoss Taylor (two) in his firstspell.

New Zealand handed Testdebut to 30-year-old left-armspinner Ajaz Patel, leaving outexperienced pacer TimSouthee. The second Test is inDubai (November 24-28) andthird in Abu Dhabi (Dec 3-7).

���� 710�7�%+

South African captain Faf duPlessis said on Friday the

Twenty20 World Cup inAustralia in two years' time willbe his last.

The 34-year-old, who hasled his country in two WorldT20 campaigns, in 2014 and2016, is keen to play a third butwill then step aside.

"The T20 World Cup in

2020 is something I'm reallylooking forward to. I thinkright now that will probably bethe last tournament for me," hesaid in Brisbane ahead of a one-off T20 against Australia onSaturday.

Du Plessis, who is skipper

across all three formats, madehis T20 debut in 2012 and hasplayed 41 times, scoring 1,237runs at an average of 35.34.

The 2020 World Cup takesplace between October 18 andNovember 15 across eightAustralian cities.

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