˘ˇ - The Pioneer · ered by diesel and two nuclear-powered submarines, including ... Aerocity to...
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A seventeen-year-old youth hailing from Haridwar was killed while 32 others received injuries in a grenade attack at crowded bus stand in Jammu on Thursday around 11.45 am. Addressing a Press confer- ence in the evening, IGP Jammu MK Sinha said Yasin Javid Bhat was nabbed by a police party at toll plaza in Nagrota of Jammu for the ter- ror attack. Bhat was in contact with Farooq Ahmad Bhat, dis- trict commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kulgam, said Sinha, adding he was arrested on basis of CCTV footage and testimony by eyewitnesses. During questioning Bhat said he had procured the grenade from Farooq in Kulgam and reached Jammu on Thursday morning. The condition of four injured people is “critical” and two of them were operated upon by doctors. The injured included 11 residents of Kashmir, two from Bihar, and one each from Chattisgarh and Haryana, officials said. Eyewitness said the terror- ist lobbed a grenade while passing through the general bus stand area where several buses were parked. Due to impac t t of the blast, window panes of several parked buses and shops were shattered. Majority of injured received splinter injuries in their abdomen and chest, said police, adding that the deceased has been identi- fied as Mohammad Sharik. He was among 33 people brought to the hospital. He succumbed to splinter injuries in the chest, police said. A high alert was sounded in Jammu immediately after the grenade strike, which is believed to be aimed at dis- turbing the communal har- mony in the region. This is the third attack on Jammu bus stand since May 2018. “Obviously the intention is always to disturb the commu- nal harmony and peace,” the IGP said and requested the people to maintain calm. The blast site along BC Road was sealed off by police and a massive hunt was launched to nab the attacker, the IGP who rushed to the spot. Earlier, a police post on the bus stand premises was tar- geted by suspected terrorists on December 29, 2018. Three people, including two policemen, were injured in a similar grenade attack on May 24, 2018. Senior State Government officers, including Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, Advisor to the Governor K Vijay Kumar, visited the grenade attack location at bus stand. Several political parties in the State condemned the grenade strike at Jammu bus stand and urged the Government to ensure fool- proof security arrangements. I ndia and Russia on Thursday inked a deal worth three bil- lion dollars for a nuclear-pow- ered submarine for the Indian Navy. The submarine will be acquired on a lease of ten years to enable the Indian officers and sailors to gain operational experience in handling such complex machines. At present, India has one Russian subma- rine on lease. The Navy had acquired a submarine in the 1980s too from Russia. As of now, India has 12-14 conventional submarines pow- ered by diesel and two nuclear- powered submarines, including indigenously manufactured INS Arihant and INS Chakra. The latter was inducted on a lease for ten years some years back and the lease term is expected to end in 2022. The proposed new subma- rine, likely to be inducted in 2025, will help the Indian crew in mastering the technology and the experience will come in handy while using the three fol- low-up submarines after Arihant. They are under con- struction in India. The Russian submarine will be named INS Chakra Three. Negotiations for the submarine was on for the last two years and sources said the lease of the present INS Chakra may be extended by T he Supreme Court will take a call on Friday whether to refer Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to mediation for amicable settlement. A five- judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday had reserved the order after hear- ing various contesting parties. Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara and one fac- tion of Hindu Mahasabha opposed the suggestion to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it. Hindu bodies like Nirmohi Akhara suggested the names of Justices (retd) Kurian Joseph, AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi as mediators, while the Hindu Mahasabha faction of Swami Chakrapani proposed the names of former CJIs Justices JS Khehar and Dipak Misra and Justice (retd) AK Patnaik to the bench. The Bench, also compris- ing Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, had concluded the hearing by asking stake- holders to give the names of possible mediators. Another petitioner and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy argued mediation is sterile exercise. T he Congress has become first off the block in nam- ing candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in UP and Gujarat when its announced the list of 15 candidates — 11 for UP and four for Gujarat — on Thursday. Ending all specula- tion about Sonia Gandhi fight- ing eletion due to ill health, the Congress announced that the UPA chairperson will contest from her Rae Bareilly Lok Sabha constituency. As expect- ed, Rahul Gandhi will seek re- election from Amethi. However, the party has kept everyone guessing whether Priyanka Gandhi, assigned with the arduous task of reviving the party in east- ern Uttar Pradesh, will also contest the polls. There was widespread speculation that Priyanka will be fielded from Rae Bareli. Sonia has been representing this constituency ever since she launched herself in politics. The first list of Congress UP candidates has been announced before Priyanka revisits the State to galvanise the cadres and fine tune her campaign strategy. The list of Gujarat candidates is also sig- nificant. The Congress Working Committee is sched- uled to meet there next week followed by a public rally of Rahul-Priyanka combine in the home State of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Congress had man- aged to win from only Amethi and Rae Bareli in UP. The Congress has fielded Prashant Patel from Vadodara and Bharatsinh Solanki from Anand. Both seats are BJP strongholds. Modi had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Vadodara. Imran Masood has been fielded from Saharanpur, while former Union Minister Salman Khurshid from Farukkhabad. another five years till INS Chakra Three joins service. Incidentally, the new deal is the biggest since the two countries inked a 5.5 billion dollar deal for five S-400 mis- sile defence systems last year. The two countries recently signed another deal for manu- facturing more than seven lakh AK-203 rifles in India. The deal is worth over 12,000 crores and the rifles will be manufac- tured at Amethi factory of Ordnance Board. A head of the coming Lok Sabha polls, the Narendra Modi Government on Thursday approved the three corridors of the phase IV of Delhi Metro. In its last Cabinet meeting, the Modi Government approved Metro corridor from Aerocity to Tughlakabad, Janakpuri West to RK Ashram, and Mukundpur to Maujpur. The total length of these three corridors is 61.679 km. Out of the total 61.679 km, 22.359 km will be built under- ground and 39.320 km will be constructed as elevated section. The phase IV project of the Delhi Metro has six corridors which will connect the far- fetched areas of the capital and will ease long journeys for regular Metro passengers. According to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), these corridors will consist of 46 stations, of which 17 stations will be underground and the rest 29 stations will be constructed as elevated sec- tions. The total completion cost of the three Metro corri- dors will be 24,948.65 crore. The project will be imple- mented by Delhi Metro on the basis of the existing 50:50 Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of the Central Government and the Delhi Government. “The three corridors have been chosen as they have high- er ridership and are extremely essential to address the con- gestion and pollution issues,” the Ministry said. Reacting on the Union Cabinet decision, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that people of Delhi are very disappointed that the Centre has decided to approve only 3 of the 6 corridors. “Why is the Modi Government so much against the people of Delhi? Why does the Modi Government create obstacles in every project?” Kejriwal said. The three proposed corri- dors not yet approved are: Rithala-Bawana-Narela, Inderlok-Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block. Sources said the Finance Ministry has approved the three corridors with riders that operational losses will be borne by Delhi Metro. If it fails to pay back, the State Government will have to bear the losses. The Central Government has assigned the task of bear- ing the operating losses on the State Government along with repayment of the loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the report said. C hief Minister Kamal Nath said that the NDA Government should clarify the last month’s aerial strike on a terrorist camp in Pakistan to put to rest all doubts and sus- picions over the operation. He said details related to the February 26 aerial strike by the Indian Air Force on a ter- ror camp run by the Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM) at Balakot in Pakistan should be made public. While talking to media persons here on Thursday, Nath said, “When the air strike has become a subject of doubts and suspicions (shak-shanka), I think the central govern- ment, which has talked so much about it, should make public its details.” "There is nothing secret in it. Pakistan knows it as it has been attacked. Is it a secret to anyone? So, its details should be made public like this was what we did, this was the building, camp (that was targeted). Such number of people were killed. What is the problem in making these things public, I can't understand?" the Congress leader said. Doubts have surfaced over the aerial operation due to reports of certain internation- al agencies and material flood- ing social media sites, he said, adding that today everything is there in GPS and satellite pho- tography. Taking a dig at the BJP, he said, "They are claiming the country was safe under their leadership. This means the country was safe only in the last five years under the leadership of Modiji and unsafe for 70 years before that." Nath said the Congress has contributed in building defence institutions. "I think misleading the nation was not right. Who raised the defence forces? Who set up the Indian Military Academy (IMA), the National Defence Academy (NDA)...Sainik Schools. Were they built by the BJP or Modiji?" he asked. Taking potshots at the BJP, he said the people who are giv- ing lessons on "nationalism" nowadays did not play any role in India's independence. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008
Transcript of ˘ˇ - The Pioneer · ered by diesel and two nuclear-powered submarines, including ... Aerocity to...
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Aseventeen-year-old youthhailing from Haridwar was
killed while 32 others receivedinjuries in a grenade attack atcrowded bus stand in Jammuon Thursday around 11.45 am.
Addressing a Press confer-ence in the evening, IGPJammu MK Sinha said YasinJavid Bhat was nabbed by apolice party at toll plaza inNagrota of Jammu for the ter-ror attack. Bhat was in contactwith Farooq Ahmad Bhat, dis-trict commander of HizbulMujahideen in Kulgam, saidSinha, adding he was arrestedon basis of CCTV footage andtestimony by eyewitnesses.
During questioning Bhatsaid he had procured thegrenade from Farooq inKulgam and reached Jammu onThursday morning.
The condition of fourinjured people is “critical” andtwo of them were operatedupon by doctors. The injured
included 11 residents ofKashmir, two from Bihar, andone each from Chattisgarh andHaryana, officials said.
Eyewitness said the terror-ist lobbed a grenade whilepassing through the general busstand area where several buses
were parked. Due to impacct t ofthe blast, window panes ofseveral parked buses and shopswere shattered. Majority of
injured received splinterinjuries in their abdomen andchest, said police, adding thatthe deceased has been identi-fied as Mohammad Sharik.
He was among 33 peoplebrought to the hospital. Hesuccumbed to splinter injuriesin the chest, police said.
A high alert was soundedin Jammu immediately after thegrenade strike, which isbelieved to be aimed at dis-turbing the communal har-mony in the region. This is thethird attack on Jammu busstand since May 2018.
“Obviously the intention isalways to disturb the commu-nal harmony and peace,” theIGP said and requested thepeople to maintain calm.
The blast site along BCRoad was sealed off by policeand a massive hunt waslaunched to nab the attacker,the IGP who rushed to thespot. Earlier, a police post onthe bus stand premises was tar-geted by suspected terrorists onDecember 29, 2018.
Three people, includingtwo policemen, were injured ina similar grenade attack onMay 24, 2018.
Senior State Governmentofficers, including ChiefSecretary BVR Subrahmanyam,Advisor to the Governor KVijay Kumar, visited thegrenade attack location at busstand. Several political partiesin the State condemned thegrenade strike at Jammu busstand and urged theGovernment to ensure fool-proof security arrangements.
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India and Russia on Thursdayinked a deal worth three bil-
lion dollars for a nuclear-pow-ered submarine for the IndianNavy. The submarine will beacquired on a lease of ten yearsto enable the Indian officersand sailors to gain operationalexperience in handling suchcomplex machines. At present,India has one Russian subma-rine on lease. The Navy hadacquired a submarine in the1980s too from Russia.
As of now, India has 12-14conventional submarines pow-ered by diesel and two nuclear-powered submarines, includingindigenously manufacturedINS Arihant and INS Chakra.The latter was inducted on alease for ten years some yearsback and the lease term isexpected to end in 2022.
The proposed new subma-rine, likely to be inducted in2025, will help the Indian crewin mastering the technologyand the experience will come inhandy while using the three fol-low-up submarines afterArihant. They are under con-struction in India. The Russiansubmarine will be named INSChakra Three. Negotiationsfor the submarine was on forthe last two years and sourcessaid the lease of the present INSChakra may be extended by
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The Supreme Court will takea call on Friday whether to
refer Ayodhya’s RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjidland dispute case to mediationfor amicable settlement. A five-judge Constitution Benchheaded by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi on Wednesday hadreserved the order after hear-ing various contesting parties.
Hindu bodies exceptNirmohi Akhara and one fac-tion of Hindu Mahasabhaopposed the suggestion to referthe issue for mediation, whileMuslim bodies have supportedit. Hindu bodies like NirmohiAkhara suggested the names ofJustices (retd) Kurian Joseph,AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi asmediators, while the HinduMahasabha faction of SwamiChakrapani proposed thenames of former CJIs JusticesJS Khehar and Dipak Misraand Justice (retd) AK Patnaikto the bench.
The Bench, also compris-ing Justices SA Bobde, DYChandrachud, Ashok Bhushanand SA Nazeer, had concludedthe hearing by asking stake-holders to give the names ofpossible mediators.
Another petitioner and BJPleader Subramanian Swamyargued mediation is sterileexercise.
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The Congress has becomefirst off the block in nam-
ing candidates for the LokSabha polls in UP and Gujaratwhen its announced the list of15 candidates — 11 for UP andfour for Gujarat — onThursday. Ending all specula-tion about Sonia Gandhi fight-ing eletion due to ill health, theCongress announced that theUPA chairperson will contestfrom her Rae Bareilly LokSabha constituency. As expect-ed, Rahul Gandhi will seek re-election from Amethi.
However, the party haskept everyone guessingwhether Priyanka Gandhi,assigned with the arduous taskof reviving the party in east-ern Uttar Pradesh, will alsocontest the polls. There waswidespread speculation thatPriyanka will be fielded fromRae Bareli. Sonia has beenrepresenting this constituencyever since she launched herselfin politics.
The first list of CongressUP candidates has beenannounced before Priyankarevisits the State to galvanise
the cadres and fine tune hercampaign strategy. The list ofGujarat candidates is also sig-nificant. The CongressWorking Committee is sched-uled to meet there next weekfollowed by a public rally ofRahul-Priyanka combine inthe home State of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.
In the 2014 Lok Sabhaelections, Congress had man-aged to win from only Amethiand Rae Bareli in UP.
The Congress has fieldedPrashant Patel from Vadodaraand Bharatsinh Solanki fromAnand. Both seats are BJPstrongholds.
Modi had contested the2014 Lok Sabha elections fromVadodara. Imran Masood hasbeen fielded from Saharanpur,while former Union MinisterSalman Khurshid fromFarukkhabad.
another five years till INSChakra Three joins service.
Incidentally, the new dealis the biggest since the twocountries inked a 5.5 billion
dollar deal for five S-400 mis-sile defence systems last year.The two countries recentlysigned another deal for manu-facturing more than seven lakhAK-203 rifles in India. The dealis worth over �12,000 croresand the rifles will be manufac-tured at Amethi factory ofOrdnance Board.
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Ahead of the coming LokSabha polls, the Narendra
Modi Government onThursday approved the threecorridors of the phase IV ofDelhi Metro.
In its last Cabinet meeting,the Modi Governmentapproved Metro corridor fromAerocity to Tughlakabad,Janakpuri West to RK Ashram,and Mukundpur to Maujpur.
The total length of thesethree corridors is 61.679 km.Out of the total 61.679 km,22.359 km will be built under-ground and 39.320 km will beconstructed as elevated section.
The phase IV project of theDelhi Metro has six corridorswhich will connect the far-fetched areas of the capitaland will ease long journeys forregular Metro passengers.
According to Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs(MoHUA), these corridors willconsist of 46 stations, of which17 stations will be undergroundand the rest 29 stations will beconstructed as elevated sec-tions. The total completioncost of the three Metro corri-dors will be �24,948.65 crore.The project will be imple-mented by Delhi Metro on thebasis of the existing 50:50Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)
of the Central Governmentand the Delhi Government.
“The three corridors havebeen chosen as they have high-er ridership and are extremelyessential to address the con-gestion and pollution issues,”the Ministry said.
Reacting on the UnionCabinet decision, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidthat people of Delhi are verydisappointed that the Centrehas decided to approve only 3of the 6 corridors. “Why is theModi Government so muchagainst the people of Delhi?Why does the ModiGovernment create obstacles inevery project?” Kejriwal said.
The three proposed corri-dors not yet approved are:R i t ha l a - B aw an a - Nare l a ,Inderlok-Indraprastha andLajpat Nagar-Saket G Block.
Sources said the FinanceMinistry has approved thethree corridors with riders thatoperational losses will be borneby Delhi Metro. If it fails to payback, the State Governmentwill have to bear the losses.
The Central Governmenthas assigned the task of bear-ing the operating losses on theState Government along withrepayment of the loan from theJapan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA),the report said.
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Chief Minister Kamal Nathsaid that the NDA
Government should clarify thelast month’s aerial strike on aterrorist camp in Pakistan toput to rest all doubts and sus-picions over the operation.
He said details related to
the February 26 aerial strike bythe Indian Air Force on a ter-ror camp run by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) at Balakotin Pakistan should be madepublic.
While talking to mediapersons here on Thursday,Nath said, “When the air strikehas become a subject of doubts
and suspicions (shak-shanka),I think the central govern-ment, which has talked somuch about it, should makepublic its details.”
"There is nothing secret init. Pakistan knows it as it hasbeen attacked. Is it a secret toanyone? So, its details should bemade public like this was what
we did, this was the building,camp (that was targeted). Suchnumber of people were killed.What is the problem in makingthese things public, I can'tunderstand?" the Congressleader said.
Doubts have surfaced overthe aerial operation due toreports of certain internation-al agencies and material flood-ing social media sites, he said,adding that today everything isthere in GPS and satellite pho-tography.
Taking a dig at the BJP, hesaid, "They are claiming thecountry was safe under theirleadership. This means thecountry was safe only in the lastfive years under the leadershipof Modiji and unsafe for 70years before that."
Nath said the Congresshas contributed in buildingdefence institutions.
"I think misleading thenation was not right. Whoraised the defence forces? Whoset up the Indian MilitaryAcademy (IMA), the NationalDefence Academy(NDA)...Sainik Schools. Werethey built by the BJP orModiji?" he asked.
Taking potshots at the BJP,he said the people who are giv-ing lessons on "nationalism"nowadays did not play anyrole in India's independence.
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More than 1400 select del-egates from various parts
of the country are set to assem-ble in Gwalior on Friday toattend the AnnualRepresentative meeting of thetop policy formulation body ofthe Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS).
Talking to the media per-sons about the meeting, PracharPramukh, Arun Kumar saidthat the three day meeting to beattended by delegates from allparts of the country will delib-erate on current national, socialand religious issues.
He added that MohanBhagawat, the RSS Chief alongwith Sarkaryawah Bhayyaji willinaugurate the meeting at 8.30am on Friday.
Arun Kumar further saidthat the RSS Chief will talkabout various issues includingRam Mandir, Lok SabhaElections and the socio-polit-ical climate of the country indetail during the concludingsession of the three-day meet.
He also said that a detailedreport about the various pro-grams of the RSS, including
those in the field of education,health and religion will be pre-sented during the meeting.
The Press Conference wasalso attended by Saha PracharPramukh, Narendra Takkur;State Prachar Pramukh,Narendra Jain and CentralIndia Prachar Pramukh, OmPrakash Sisodia among others.
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In an ugly turn to the ongo-ing tussle between the
Congress and the BJP, sup-porters of both parties clashedduring the Foundation StoneLaying Ceremony of the 1000bed hospital at The ThemeRoad on Wednesday.
During the tussle,Munnalal Goyal, the CongressMLA from Gwalior East wasmanhandled and FIRs wereregistered at the Jhansi Roadpolice station against someBJP Yuva Morcha workers.
While the Congress saidthat their MLA, Munnalal wasinjured during the tussle, theBJP claimed that false cases arebeing registered against themto settle political scores.
Earlier Munnalal Goyal,who was hospitalized for abrief period of time after thealleged brawl had registered acase against some YuvaMorcha workers. According tothe FIR, the Yuva Morchaworkers have been chargedwith causing injuries and giv-ing threats.
Peeved at the cases regis-tered against them, the YuvaMorcha has decided to showblack flag to JyodiradityaScindia, the Guna MP, whothey think is responsible forthe cases against them.
The Leaders of the BJPYuva Morcha announced thatthey have decided to showblack flag to Scindia during hisnext visit to the city.
In this connection, Ajay
Dwivedi, the StateCoordinator of the BJP YuvaMorcha has been solicitingsupport on various socialmedia platforms from BJPworkers.
After the defeat in theassembly elections, the BJP is back in action mode forthe coming Lok Sabha elec-tions.
A meeting of party work-ers was held at the ModiHouse here today to discussabout the strategies to beadopted for the elections.
The leaders asked theparty workers to tell people about the achievements of the Modigovernment as well as those of the ShivrajSingh government.
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Imbibe, Inspire & InnovateTraining cell of Sagar Public
School conducted three-day pro-fessional training Developmentprogramme for its faculty mem-bers at its Rohit Nagar Campus.
The training programme wasattended by over 600 facultymembers of Sagar Public School-Katara Extension, Ratibad, RohitNagar, Gandhi Nagar and SaketNagar branches. The programmewas inaugurated by Chairman,Sagar Group, Sudhir KumarAgrawal in presence of ManagingDirector, Sagar Group, SiddharthSudhir Agrawal, Director, SagarGroup, Shubhi Agrawal, DirectorHR, Sagar Group, KK Dubey,Director, Sagar Public Schools,Jaishree Kanwar, Principal, SagarPublic School, Saket Nagar,Pankaj Sharma, Principal, SagarPublic School, Rohit Nagar,Madhubala Chauhan andPrincipal, Sagar Public School,Gandhi Nagar, Alpa Prabhu andwas convened by Mridu PrakashSaxena.
The training was aimed ataugmented teaching skillsamongst faculty members andwitnessed various sessions.Chairman, Shri Sudhir KumarAgrawal welcomed all the facul-ty members and guided them tocreate a knowledge pool bankwith sharing of best practices.
Siddharth Sudhir Agrawal in hisaddress shared the importanceand insights on role of technol-ogy and its adaptation to be thetechnology oriented teachers.Pankaj Sharma guided the facultymembers on various philosophiesof education with learningapproaches in current context.
The second day of the train-ing programme witnessed effec-tive classroom teaching sessionwhich included conduct, connectand covenant aspects on increas-ing grasping power, developingcompetitiveness etc fromMadhubala Chauhan followed bysession on innovative and cre-ative teaching methods andprocesses by Arti Khillan.
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Panic prevailed in KadiyaShah village after a 60-
year-old man was attackedwith a sharp-edged weapon inhis head and hands by uniden-tified armed miscreants late inthe night on Wednesday.
According to the police, aman was attacked by uniden-tified miscreants and wasrushed to a nearby hospitalwhere his condition is report-edly stable. Police wereinformed and on the receipt ofthe information a team reached
the spot and after preliminaryinvestigation registered a caseagainst the accused.
The victim was identifiedas Ramcharan Meena. Duringthe investigation, it was foundthat the Ramcharan was asleepin the night when he wasattacked with an axe twiceinjuring him in his head and
hands. In the early morninghours when locals were passingnear his farms he waived off tocall them and after spottinghim lying in a pool of blood hewas rushed to hospital.
Police have started search-ing for the details of the accusedas in the initial investigation thevictim and his family were not
able to provide details of theaccused and their whereabouts.In his statements victimclaimed that he had no enmityand no dispute with anyone.
Police suspect that the vic-tim might have been targeteddue to mistaken identity.
After the preliminaryinvestigation police have notregistered case of attempt tomurder and case of assault hasbeen registered. The policehave registered a case undersection 324 of the IPC and havestarted search for the miscreants.
Bhopal: Sensation prevailedin Idgah Hills area after a bodywas found dumped wrapped ina blanket late in the night onWednesday; Shahjehanabadpolice have started investiga-tion.
Police were informed aftera body was found wrapped ina blanket in the night and onthe receipt of the informationa police team reached the spotand started investigation.
Police said that at around11 in the night street dogs weretrying to pull something froma sack like thing and later alocal Dinesh Kumar Sharmainformed that a body is lyingnear water filter plant in IdgahHills.
Dinesh works as a driverand parks his car near the fil-ter plant.
CSP ShahjehanabadNagendra Pateria said that the
man is in the age group of 30-35 years.
The identity of thedeceased is not established yetas nothing which could help inestablishing the identity wasfound in the investigation.
Injury marks over necksuggest that deceased wasattacked with sharp edgedweapon and throat was silted.With the clothes, the deceasedlooked like a labourer. The cir-cumstantial evidences suggestthat the deceased was killedaround 10-12 hours ago, headded.
The police have registereda case under section 302 of theIPC and have started furtherinvestigation.
All police stations in thecity and nearby cities havebeen informed regarding thebody to establish the identity ofthe deceased. SR
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A22-year-old girl wasrobbed of her purse car-
rying cash, mobile phone anddocuments by two bike-bornemiscreants at Ashok Viharcolony under Ahsoka Gardenpolice station area onWednesday.
Police said that the victimKareena Hussain was robbednear her house in the eveningby two bike borne miscreants.
The victim approachedAshoka Garden police and inher complaint she stated policethat the incident took place onWednesday evening around7:30pm when she was on herway to home after her collegeand when she reached near herhouse two bike borne miscre-ants appeared snatched herpurse and escaped the spot.
Before she could react andraise alert for help miscreantsescaped the spot.
The miscreants robbedpurse carrying 2 mobile
phones, cash, bank passbook,ATM card and identity cards.
The victim claimed thatthe two accused were in the agegroup of 20-25 years and shewas not able to notice the reg-istration number of the vehi-cle. The victim is pursuingBHMS course from RKDFCollege.
Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation the police have regis-tered a case under section 392of the IPC and started furtherinvestigation.
During the further inves-tigation police would investi-gate CCTV cameras installedin the nearby areas whichwould help in the nabbing theaccused.
The area remains desertedlate in the evening which pro-vided easy escape for the mis-creants.
Police suspects that thebike borne miscreants fol-lowed the victim for long andtargeted her near her house.
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Stating that Congress chiefRahul Gandhi should feel
ashamed of asking for proof ofIndia’s air strike on a terrorcamp in Pakistan, BJP presi-dent Amit Shah on Thursdaysaid that people will give RahulGandhi a reply for (saying) itduring the ensuing Lok Sabhapolls.
Addressing the party'sbooth-level workers at Bamoranear Sagar, Amit Shah said anIAF official at a press confer-ence asserted that the IAF hadhit terror targets.
Even after this conclusivestatement, Rahul Gandhi isinsulting thousands of martyrsof India by asking for evi-dence of the air strike, Shah
said. The IAF conducted airstrike last month on a camp ofJaish-e-Muhammed inPakistan, in retaliation to theterror outfit 's attack atPulwama district in Jammuand Kashmir in which 40CRPF personnel were mar-tyred. The BJP chief laudedPrime Minister Narendra Modifor his work and untiring atti-tude. Earlier, only two coun-tries" were known for avengingattack on their forces. Modijihas now ensured India's nameis also counted among suchcountries, he said.
In the last 25 years, Modihas not taken a single vacation,Shah said. He targeted Gandhifor "going on vacations fre-quently Why is Congressabsolving Pakistan?
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Atwo-day InternationalConference on Social
Networking andComputational Intelligence willbe organized at Rajiv GandhiProdyokigi Vishwavidyalaya(RGPV).
The inauguration of theconference will be organized atthe conference hall of the uni-versity on March 8. The con-ference will be organised by theSchool of InformationTechnology.
Chief guest of theInternational Conference willbe Deepak Tiwari, ViceChancellor, MakhanlalChaturvedi National
Journalism University, Bhopal;and Vice Chancellor of the uni-versity Prof. Sunil Kumar.
The programme will bechaired by the Engineer, SanjivAggarwal CMD, The SageUniversity.
While sharing the infor-mation about the conference,conference coordinator, Prof.Sanjeev Sharma, Professor andHead, School of InformationTechnology, said that the objec-tive of the conference is to dis-cuss the state-of-the-art devel-opment related to the topic ofsocial networking and compu-tational intelligence.
He said that the conferencewas attended by professorSwapan Bhattacharya, former
Director (NITK Surathkal andNIT Durgapur) and formerDirector, Jadavpur University,Kolkata; Professor KaushalKumar Shukla, Professor andDean, Indian Institute ofTechnology, BHU; EngineerSanjeev Agarwal, President,Sagar Group of Institutions,Bhopal; Shri Deepak Tiwari,Vice Chancellor, MakhanlalChaturvedi, National JournalistUniversity, Bhopal will be edit-ed and Prof. SwapanBhattacharya, former Director,Jadavpur University, Kolkataand Prof. Kaushal KumarShukla, Professor and Dean,Indian Institute of Technology,BHU will be present as ChiefSpeakers.
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Arunima Sinha, the first dif-ferently abled athlete of the
country to climb the Everestsummit.
Sinha was felicitated byDirector Sports and YouthWelfare S.L. Thoussen. Sinhashared the experience of con-quering the Everest with theThoussen. Director sportsurged Arunima to join theplayers of the Academy andencouraged them.
Arunima shared her expe-rience with the players of dif-ferent sports. She told that sheworked hard to summon theEverest, keeping constant goalsin mind, prepared due to whichhe made possible the impossi-ble, and he became the firstDivyang Parivarthi of the coun-try to complete the EverestSummit.
First she made it at MountEverest 29028 feet on May 21,2013. Arunima also told theplayers that she was a volleyballplayer. While traveling toLucknow from Delhi, someanti-social elements damagedthem, due to which she had tolose one leg in the accident.
She also informed the play-ers about the difficultiesencountered during the EverestSummit.
The players asked severalquestions regarding theSummit from Arunima.Badminton's youngest player,Nitin asked him that ordinarymountaineers face difficultiesin Everest Summit, how did
you do this work with the helpof artificial legs.
Arunima told that in walk-ing with a prosthetic leg in the20 degree temperature, theprosthesis had deep woundsdue to artificial limbs in theirfeet.
During the summit shesaw the bodies of severalclimbers near the EverestSummit, which led to thebreakdown of them once.Arunima did this on her ownwill.
Arunima encouraged play-ers to work better in hardwork, perseverance and disci-pline to perform well.
She told the players thatwhen she can do such a big jobafter artificial limb after suchdifficulties, why can not they?Players praised Arunima'sachievements and achieve-ments and courage.
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The three day grand annualday fest of Radharaman
Institute Vihaan 2019 con-cluded here on Thursday.
Here on Thursday a color-ful dance competition wasorganized in the series of cul-tural competitions. UrbanAdministration MinisterJaiwardran Singh was the chiefguest of the programme whileDirector Technical EducationProf. Virendra Kumar was thechief guest.
On this occasion, Singhsaid that such programs workto bring students closer andenergy. After leaving college,the memories of these festivalsalways give them memories ofthe precious years of their stu-dent life.
The programme was start-ed by the B-3 group by givinga strong presentation of GaneshVandana. After this the seriesof good presentation of partic-ipants in colorful dresses went
on and the audience's sympa-thy and dhukana present in theauditorium did not stop till theend.
Students gave Solo, Duetand Group performanceamong light sound platformsand spectacular sound arrange-ments. The dance perfor-mances which got the mostacclaim were VandanaSuryavanshi and the group'sgram farm ... Shakib's Bejuban.... Nitish Singh's love affair ...etc were the attraction of thecompetition.
Thakur was a part of theArt and Motion Academy inSolo Dance while Priya DubeyRunner Up of MLB College.Jyashree and Vandana pairwere first in Duet Dance, thenShakib and Anish duo camesecond. Tejal and Groupremained first in group danceand B crew runner up.
On this occasion,Radharaman Institute chair-man RR Saxena, felicitated thewinners with the prizes.
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The sixth edition of thewoodworking industry’s
eagerly anticipated biennialevent, DelhiWood 2019 is allset to be put up.
The exhibition this timewill witness a huge participa-tion from Madhya Pradesh.
It will be held from March13 to 16, at the India ExpoCentre and Mart in GreaterNoida, India.
More than 550 exhibitorsfrom over 35 countries willshowcase modern cutting-edgetechnologies, machinery, tools,fittings, accessories, raw mate-rials and products for furnitureproduction and wood-basedmanufacturing.
DelhiWood 2019, is thebiggest ever woodworkingindustry show in India.
The show is expecting thelarge business enquires fromthe market of Indore,Bhopal
and Madhya Pradesh Region.It may be noted that the
woodworking industry is oneof the fastest growing sector ofthe Indian economy.
DelhiWood 2019 is expect-ed to provide a big fillip to thisgrowth by showcasing the lat-est innovations and world classproducts at the much awaitedevent.
The fair is expected toresult in huge trade outcomesand business tie-ups.
Organised byNuernbergMesse, in coopera-tion with PDA Trade Fairsand supported by Eumabois,the 14-country federation ofEuropean woodworkingmachinery manufacturers,DelhiWood has, over the last 5editions, evolved to be one ofthe largest industry-specificevents, offering a 360-degreeexperience for furniture andwood-based manufacturingindustries.
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Despite its avowed assertionto de-escalate tension,
Pakistan is yet to open its air-space on its border with Indiaeven though New Delhi hasplaced no such restrictions.There are 11 entry and exitpoints along the India-Pakistanairspace boundary.
The Pakistani airspace wasclosed after the Indian airstrikes against terror campsthere on February 26 and theretaliatory action by thePakistani fighter jets the nextday when they intruded intoIndia in Rajouri sector and triedto target military installations.
In this backdrop, the IAF isin a high state preparedness toproactively engage any per-ceived threat in the presentsecurity situation.
Moreover, the IAF has keptall its bases in Western sectoron high alert and a SU-30fighter jet shot down aPakistani military drone inBikaner sector earlier this weekwhen it tried to gather intelli-gence about India’s military
preparedness. The drone fell inPakistani territory.
Moreover, Army chiefGeneral Bipin Rawat also vis-ited forward locations along theLine Of Control(LOC) inJammu & Kashmir and theinternational border inRajasthan on Thursday to takestock of operational prepared-ness. He instructed troops toremain prepared for all even-tualities in close coordinationwith the Air Force.
The Army had warnedPakistan on Wednesday thatany “provocation or misad-venture” will be responded toin a befitting manner with
“dire consequences” after itstarted targeting civil areasand Indian posts in Rajouri andPoonch with heavy artilleryweapons in the last few days.At least three civilians werekilled and several othersinjured in shelling in the lastone week since the air strikes.Also, more than 60 ceasefireviolations by Pakistan tookplace in the same period.
As regards preparednessto thwart any threat from air,the IAF in a statement said hereon Thursday it is “in a highstate of preparedness, to proac-tively engage any perceivedthreat in the present securityscenario.
A strict vigil in the skies todetect and thwart any act ofaggression from Pakistan AirForce is being maintained.
On the issue of airspace, itsaid “as per A Notice toA i r m e n ( N O T A M ) N o .A0234/19 issued by Pakistan, ithas opened their airspace withOman, Iran, Afghanistan andChina only. The elevenEntry/Exit points located alongIndo-Pak airspace boundaryare still closed.”
A NOTAM is a notice toalert aircraft pilots of potentialhazards along a flight route orat a location that could affectthe safety of flight. Most flightsto and from Europe and the USbesides some other destinationsto India fly over the Pakistaniairspace. Since the closure ofthe airspace, all commercialflights now have to take alter-nate aerial routes, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Army chiefvisited forward areas on theLOC in Jammu & Kashmir andinternational border inRajasthan to review readiness.He toured forward locations of
Barmer and Suratgarh sectorsand was briefed and updated bylocal commanders on the cur-rent operational situation, pre-vailing security scenarios andpreparedness of the forma-tions, an Army statementissued here said.
Rawat expressed his com-plete confidence in the capa-bilities of the Indian Army tothwart any nefarious Pakistandesign to destabilise any situ-ation. He praised high state ofmorale of troops and instruct-ed them to remain prepared forall eventualities in close coor-dination with the Air Force.
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The Centre on Thursdayapproved a proposal for
promulgation of The CentralEducational Institutions(Reservation in Teachers’Cadre) Ordinance, 2019 to pro-vide for the reservation of fac-ulty in appointments by directrecruitment of persons belong-ing to Scheduled Castes (SC),Scheduled Tribes (ST) andSocially and EducationallyBackward Classes (SEBL) incentral educational institutions
It will also restore the ear-lier 200-point roster-basedreservation system in HigherEducation Institutions (HEIs).The new system will considerthe university or college as oneunit, instead of treating depart-ment or subject as one unit.
HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar said the decision willalso now pave the way for fill-ing up of more than 5,000
vacancies by direct recruitmentin teachers’ cadre.
The Ordinance will ensurethat constitutional provisions ofreservation for SC, ST andSEBL in the faculty recruitmentwill be protected and currentimpasse in recruitment wouldbe resolved.
There had been series ofprotests including fromParliamentarians in the Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha overthe issue. Javadekar had said inthe Lok Sabha on February 11that the government can “bringan ordinance if its review peti-tion filed in the top court isrejected.
University GrantsCommission (UGC) hadannounced last March that anindividual department shouldbe considered as the base unit
to calculate the number ofteaching posts to be reserved forthe SC and ST candidates, fol-lowing an order by theAllahabad High Court in April2017.
The Supreme Court had lastmonth dismissed a review peti-tion filed by the HRD Ministryafter its special leave petitionagainst the court order wasrejected by the apex court.
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In a first for any paramilitary,Prime Minister Narendra
Modi will attend the 50thRaising Day celebrations of theCentral Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) on Sunday.
“It is a moment of greatpride for the CISF as in the lastfour decades no Prime Ministerhad graced the occasion ofRaising Day parade,” CISFDirector General Rajesh Ranjansaid at the annual press brief-ing on the eve of the RaisingDay on Thursday.
On a question if there wasany specific reason behind thePM’s decision to join the event,the DG said he was not aware.
“I can guess that he maydiscuss the recent Pulwamaattack and the unfortunatedeath of a CISF trooper in aDelhi fire and enhance themorale of Central Armed PoliceForces,” Ranjan said. On aquestion if the CISF will take
over the security of the threeairports in Jammu & Kashmirincluding Jammu, Srinagar andLeh airports, Ranjan said theMinistry of Civil Aviation hascleared the proposal and theUnion Home Ministry has tovet it now. Presently, the threeairports in the insurgency-hitState are secured by the CentralReserve Police Force.
The DG said actorAmitabh Bachchan has narrat-
ed the story of bravery anddevotion of CISF personnel ina 14-minute commemorativefilm made by the force to mark50 years of its raising. The filmdepicts various operationalroles of the Force and has recit-ed a few lines from the famous‘Agneepath’ poem penned byhis father, Late Harishvansh RaiBachchan.
“We are thankful to theactor for the gesture of lending
his powerful voice to the spe-cial film made on the force,”Ranjan added.
During the event the PrimeMinister will review a paradeand address the personnel.
Raised in 1969, the 1.56lakh strong force provides secu-rity to 345 vital installationsincluding 61 airports, seaports,nuclear and space installations,Delhi Metro and different steeland power plants.
New Delhi: A compilation ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s selected speechesreflecting his vision of takingeveryone along on the path ofdevelopment will be released byFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyon Friday.
The book titled ‘SabkaSaath Sabka Vikas’ is in five vol-umes and has been brought outby Publications Division,Ministry of Information &Broadcasting. It will be releasedin Hindi as well as English, anofficial statement said.
Eachof thevolumesis cate-g o r i s e din fivesegmentscoveringP r i m eMinister’sideas ong o o dg o v e r -n a n c e ,making India competent andefficient, hailing India’s brave-hearts, farmers and brilliantscientists, taking along thepeople on an inclusive path ofgrowth and hope, and sharingthe message of a resurgentIndia with international com-munity.
Information andBroadcasting MinisterRajyavardhan Rathore will alsobe present at the event.
Last week, Jaitley hadreleased a book titled ‘Mann KiBaat —A Social Revolution onRadio’ —which is based onPrime Minister Modi’s month-ly radio broadcast.
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Aday after the Governmenttold the Supreme Court
that documents related to theRafale deal have been stolenfrom the Defence Ministry,the Opposition on Thursdayattacked the Centre over the issue.
Congress President RahulGandhi sought to know why aprobe cannot be orderedagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for a “�30,000-crore scam” when an investi-gation has been initiated intothe theft of official documentsrelated to the fighter jet deal.
Rahul said “gayab ho gaya”
(vanished) is the new taglinethat has emerged in the ModiGovernment and alleged otherthings that have ‘vanished’include two crore jobs foryouths, right prices for farmers’produce, �15 lakh in everyone’sbank accounts, farmers’ insur-ance and promise of eradicat-ing black money after demon-etisation, etc.
Alongwith Rahul, otherOpposition leaders includingWest Bengal Chief ministerMamata Banerjee and BSPsupremo Mayawti also questioned the Governmenton the matter.
Hitting back at PrimeMinister Modi for calling theCongress a “poster boy” ofPakistan for questioning the airstrike on terror camps inBalakot, Rahul said, “It is hewho is Pakistan’s poster boy,not us”. “Prime Minister got ISI
to investigate Pathankot. PrimeMinister went to NawazSharif ’s (family) wedding andwe are the poster boys. He isposter boy of Pakistan huggingMr Nawaz Sharif, calling MrNawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony doingdrama,” he said.
He alleged Modi wasresponsible for delay in deliv-ery of Rafale fighter jets as hewas holding “direct negotia-tions” in the deal and askedwhy there was no investigationagainst him when the govern-ment was talking of probingothers for theft of documents.Repeating his allegation of a“�30,000 crore scam” in theRafale deal, he also accused theGovernment of manipulatinginstitutions to “save” PrimeMinister Modi and said justiceshould be for all.
BSP chief Mayawati also
took a dig at the Centre’s dis-closure about the “stolen” doc-uments, saying it was a “verystrange and irresponsiblechowkidari”.
“The Modi Governmentmade a sensational disclosurein the Hon’ble Supreme Courtthat secret documents per-taining to Rafale fighter dealwere stolen from the DefenceMinistry. Very strange & irre-sponsible chowkidari. Isnational security & interest inthe safe hands? Think long &loud,” she tweeted.
West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said the theftwas a matter of concern anddescribed the entire matter as‘tamasha’ (farce) and hintedthat its fallout would be knownafter the Lok Sabha elections.“What would the Governmentsay on this? Who is the hiddenperson behind this? There must be an enquiry intoit,” she added.
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In a significant move toensure a “leaner and fitter”
Army to fight modern daywar, the Defence Ministry hasapproved restructuring of theArmy Headquarters based inthe national Capital.
The refashioning will freeup officers for serving activestints in field and operationalformations. The ultimateobjective of the revamping isto reduce 1.5 lakh posts overthe years and save �5,000 to�7,000 crores in revenueexpenditure.
The decision to restruc-ture the Army Headquartersby doing away with someposts by relocating officers inthe field and merging somedepartments for better co-ordination came after the forcesubmitted an in house studyconducted last year to theDefence Ministry.
At least 30 per cent of theofficers now serving in theArmy Headquarters will nowbe available for field duties in
order to maintain operationalreadiness, sources said here onThursday.
There are about 1,000 to1,200 officers now posted inthe Headquarters in variousdepartments.
A new post of MajorGeneral reporting to the ArmyChief is also on the anvil toensure probity and trans-parency in the Army.Moreover, a new post is like-ly to b created to look afterhuman rights aspects since theArmy is engaged in anti-ter-rorist and anti-insurgencyoperations for long in Jammuand Kashmir and the North-east, they said.
As regards merging ofdepartments, they said twoweapons and systems pro-curement agencies were amal-gamated. A new post ofDeputy Chief will coordinatewith military intelligence,operations and logistics wings,was also cleared, they said.
The new Deputy Chiefwill supervise strategy andoperations, intelligence colla-tion, conduct of operations
and the movement of logistics.At present, the DirectorGeneral (Military Operations)and the Director General(Military Intelligence) reportto the Vice-Chief.
Among the other merger,the Master General Ordnance(MGO), who is currentlyunder the Vice-Chief, and theDirector General (Weaponsand Equipment) will now beone department known asCapability Development.
The government has alsogiven the nod for the creationof a single information warfarewing that will subsume twoexisting wings under theDGMI and the DGMO. TheDG (Military Training) willnow be merged with theShimla-based Army TrainingCommand.
The Army also conductedthree other studies and sub-mitted them for approvalwhich is yet to be given. Theseinclude “Reorganisation andrightsizing of the Army”,“Cadre review of officers” and“Review of terms of engage-ment of rank and file”.
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Describing CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi’s
attack on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on the Rafalefighter jet issue as an attempt toshift focus of his narrative of“lies”, the BJP on Thursdayclaimed that the Congress hasbeen cornered as far as the sub-ject of National Security is con-cerned.
“The Congress has in the lastfew days through statements ofits senior leaders has boxed itselfinto a corner. They are gettinghigh TRP on Pakistan televisionbut there is revulsion as far asdomestic opinion in India is con-cerned,” senior BJP leader &Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley said during a Cabinetbriefing here .
He told reporters that everyfalsehood the Congress andRahul Gandhi have spoken onthe Rafale issue has been“exposed”, adding that no dynastcan claim that he is above theSupreme Court and the CAG.
“Words were very few, factswere completely wrong and themotivation was also collateral,”Jaitley said of Rahul’s press con-ference. He claimed that the factswhich have emerged about thematter so far have “proved” thatthe Congress and its leader havespoken “lies” on every issue.
“The Congress has in the lastfew days through statements ofits senior leaders has boxed itselfinto a corner. They are getting
high TRP on Pakistan televisionbut there is revulsion as far asdomestic opinion in India is con-cerned,” he said.
Therefore, the motivationtoday was collateral, to shift thefocus and take up an issue whichis “false” and whose every “false-hood” has been exposed, headded.
He also defended the gov-ernment’s stand in the SupremeCourt over publication of criti-cal media reports that they werebased the Rafale documents“stolen” from the defence min-istry and that they violatedOfficial Secrets Act.
“It is obvious that defencenotings of an issue of sensitiveinterest to the country havebeen leaked... We have a very free
press and we respect it. Evenframers of the Constitution saidnational security is an exceptionand that has never been chal-lenged in last 72 years,” he said.
On Congress President’scriticism of the Rafale fighter jetdeal with France , the financeminister said the Supreme Courthas spoken on it and the peti-tioners are taking one morechance, he said, adding that theCAG has already analysed it.
During the day UnionMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadalso launched an attack on theCongress leader saying he nei-ther believes the Indian AirForce nor the Supreme Courtverdict and asked if he needed acertificate from Pakistan aboutthe fighter aircraft.
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In the wake of complaints ofparty workers and volun-
teers about the long gap afterher last visit as also thedemand from them that sheshould come to the State,newly-appointed CongressGeneral secretary PriyankaGandhi will be on a three-dayUttar Pradesh visit, startingFriday.
Priyanka is likely to holda series meetings with theincharges and coordinatorsof Eastern UP region of whichthe party has bestowed herresponsibility.
Interestingly, Priyanka’svisit coincides with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s visitto the state for holding ralliesand inaugurating projects inthe run up to the Lok Sabhapolls. Modi represents theVaranasi Parliamentary con-stituency of which Priyankahas the mandate to look forher party.
“She will also take thefeedback from the volunteerswhom she had tasked withcertain roles. She had createdan intelligence unit to gatherinformation from booth levelso that next course of actionbe undertaken,” said the partysources.
Priyanka was in the cru-cial state on February 11when she made her debut inactive politics with a massiveroadshow in Lucknow.Congress president Rahul
Gandhi and general secretaryWest UP incharge JyotiradityaScindia were among the otherparty leaders who were part ofit.
Priyanka had then stayedthere for three days and helddiscussions with state partyleaders on election prepared-ness which came as a moralebooster for Congress workersof the state after the party’spoor show in last few electionsincluding 2014 general elec-tion and 2017 assembly polls.
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Patidar leader Hardik Patel will join the Congress and like-ly to contest the Lok Sabha election from Jamnagar con-
stituency in Gujarat. AICC sources said Patel, who led theagitation demanding reservation for the Patidar communi-ty in Gujarat, is likely to join the Congress on March 12 inthe presence of party chief Rahul Gandhi who will be visit-ing the state for the Congress Working Committee.
The Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat is currently represented byPoonamben Maadam of the BJP.
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To reach out to the huge 40-50 lakh migrant population
in the national capital in over1,700 unauthorised coloniesahead of the Lok Sabha elec-tions, the Narendra ModiGovernment on Thursdayapproved a proposal to consti-tute a committee, under theLieutenant Governor of Delhi,to recommend a process toconfer ownership or transferrights to residents of unautho-rised colonies. The 10-membercommittee will submit itsreport within 90 days to theMinistry of Housing andUrban Affairs (MoHUA).
After the report is submit-ted, Cabinet Secretariat will beinformed and further actiontaken after considering rec-ommendations of theCommittee. The decision wastaken at a Cabinet meetingchaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.
The Committee will com-prise of Vice Chairman, DelhiDevelopment Authority
(DDA), Additional Secretary,MoHUA, Delhi ChiefSecretary, Commissioners ofthree MCDs, Chairman, DelhiUrban Arts Commission,Professor, Urban Transport,School of Planning &Architecture (SPA), UrbanPlanner & Director, NationalInstitute of Urban Affairs, for-mer Director, Delhi FireServices and PrincipalCommissioner, DDA asMember Secretary.
Union Minister Housingand Urban Affairs Hardeep
Singh Puri accused Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal of“delaying” the process of regu-larising unauthorised colonies.
Reacting to the UnionCabinet’s decision, Kejriwalsought to know what the BJPwas doing in the last five yearsover the issue and alleged thatthey (the BJP) do the samething before every election andlater, forget their promises.
Sources said theCommittee will suggest processor mechanism for conferring/recognizing rights of ownershipor transfer/ mortgage to theresidents of unauthorizedcolonies and consequentialbenefits.
The Committee will lookinto all these issues, examinethe need and recommend theprocess to consider confer-ment/ recognition of rights ofownership or transfer/mort-gage of property for creating anopportunity for redevelopmentof such areas for improving thequality of lives of residents ina planned manner throughurban renewal.
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The indecisiveness of filmstar-turned politician
Vijayakanth in selecting thefront with which he shouldalign for the Lok Sabha electionhas come as an embarrassmentto the BJP, which was countingon his inclusion in theAIADMK-led front. The char-ter of demands submitted byPMK founder S Ramadoss toPrime Minister Narendra Modifor staying in the front too hasshocked the BJP.
Ramadoss has asked theCentre to exempt Tamil Nadufrom NEET and also the imme-diate release of the seven assas-sins of Rajiv Gandhi serving lifesentence in a Tamil Naduprison.
Vijayakanth's intransigencenot to accept the number ofseats allocated by the AIADMKto the DMDK and the absenceof his party leaders and cadrein the election rally addressedby the Prime Minister onWednesday at Kanchipuramhas embarrassed the BJP morethan the AIADMK.
Vijayakanth is insistingthat his party should be allo-
cated seven Lok Sabha seatsand a Rajya Sabha seat whichwas the package given by theAIADMK to the PMK. DMDKgeneral secretary LK Sudhishtold reporters on Thursdaythat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tion, their party had been allo-cated 14 seats by the BJP.
It is a different matter thatthe DMDK had failed to win asingle seat and finished fourthin most of the constituencies.
This has brought to lightthe chaos, confusion and lackof cohesion in the NDA's TamilNadu unit, said a BJP leader inthe State. It was Union PowerMinister Piyush Goyal whoheld discussions with L KSudhish on Wednesday.
"There was no need for theBJP to intervene in the seatallocation discussion with theDMDK. The AIADMK shouldhave sorted out the issue," asenior BJP leader told ThePioneer on Thursday.
Though the PrimeMinister flew down to Chennaion Wednesday to launch thecampaign for the 2019 LokSabha election, the schedule ofwhich would be announced incouple of days, the AIADMKlet him down by failing to
parade the DMDK and theTamil Manila Congress for thepublic rally addressed by theformer.
Even as the Prime Ministerwas addressing the rally, theDMDK was busy holding dis-cussions with the DMK bar-gaining for more seats. Sudhish,brother-in-law of Vijayakanth,who represented the party in itstalks with the BJP was holdingparallel talks with DMK trea-surer Durai Murugan with aplea to accommodate theirparty in the UPA. Murugntold reporters that he had toldSudhish it was too late as therewas no more space in the UPA.
The absence of G K Vasanalso belied the claim by theAIADMK that the TamilManila Congress would jointhe NDA. It is said that Vasan,who was not considered by theDMK for inclusion in the UPAwas struggling to salvage hisparty by anchoring it in any ofthe fronts. "He is having reser-vations against sharing a plat-form with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as he is stillhoping that he would get a callfrom the Congress HighCommand," said a source closeto him.
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With probability of aC P I ( M ) - C o n g r e s s
alliance getting delayed over thetwo parties’ refusal to sacrificetheir claims on Raiganj andMurshidabad Lok Sabha con-stituencies, the Marxists havebegun preparations to go italone at the hustings, insidesources said.
The CPI(M) had proposeda “no mutual contest” formulafor six seats where the two out-fits have their sitting MPs.Currently Congress has its sit-ting MPs from Behrampore,Jangipur and Malda North andSouth while the CPI(M) has twoMPs from Murshidabad andRaiganj, with the latter being astronghold of late MP andUnion Minister PR Dasmunshi.
According to inside sourcesthe late Congress leader’s wifeDeepa Dasmunshi — also a for-mer Raiganj MP who lost theseat to CPI(M)’s Md Salim in2014 by a paltry 2,500 votes hasrefused to sacrifice her claim onthe seat.
Though the two partieshave been working out on a“plan-B” being — whereby theCPI(M) may be asked to backCongress’ Dasmunshi for thelone Rajya Sabha seat gettingvacated next year — the Left
have started making prepara-tions for an ekla chalo cam-paign, insiders said.
“The State committee hasdecided to begin it early. Wehave the names of our candi-dates ready. We have alreadygiven our proposal of a jointfight. Now it is upon theCongress to decide on the plan.If we fail to come to an under-standing then we are ready fora four-cornered fight,” a CPI(M)State committee member saidadding “the Left Front will domuch better than what somepeople are thinking it will do.”
Meanwhile, Congresssources said party presidentRahul Gandhi had onWednesday sent Gaurav Gogoito CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury for exploringother options to let the alliancesurvive. Gogoi is the Congress’observer for Bengal. It wasthere that the Congress pro-posed the idea of leaving aRajya Sabha seat forDasmunshi. The CPI(M) hasnot given any confirmationfrom its end, sources said.
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Srinagar: National Conferencevice president Omar Abdullahon Thursday asked PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toprove that his words have weightand are implemented on theground following an assault ontwo Kashmiris in Lucknow inUttar Pradesh.
He said Lucknow like inci-dents hurt the idea of India.
Two Kashmiris selling dryfruit were thrashed by a groupof saffron-clad men in LucknowWednesday evening, followingwhich four persons have beenarrested. "What message dothey (attackers) want to convey?What do they want to tell us?That this state is theirs but notits people, that Kashmir willremain part of India, but notKashmiris? When accession(with the Union) took place, itwas not only about land, but itspeople as well.
"You own the land, but notits people, then how do you eventhink that the people here willsay yes they are your integralpart. Just owning the land is notenough, you have to own thepeople here," Abdullah said. Hewas addressing a function herewhere former PDP MLAMohammad Shafi Wani joinedthe National Conference.
Referring to PrimeMinister's speech in the Tonkarea of Rajasthan last month
where he asserted that "ourfight is for Kashmir, not againstKashmiris", Abdullah said eitherhis words were not being imple-mented or they were just a"jumla". "You (PM) have toprove whether your words haveweight or not, you have to provethat when you talk as the PM ofthis country, your words areimplemented or not, you have toprove that the political structureyou have grown up in, learntpolitics from and, to someextent, lead, whether you haveyour say or not in that structure,"the former Jammu & KashmirChief Minister said.
Earlier, in a series of tweets,Abdullah said Lucknow likeincidents hurt the idea of India.
"Nothing will do more dam-age to the idea of India in J&Kthan videos like these. Keepthrashing Kashmiris like this onthe streets at the hands ofRSS/Bajrang Dal goons & thentry to sell the idea of 'atoot ang'(Integral part), it simply won'tfly," Abdullah said.
"Dear PM @narendramodi
Sahib, this is what you had spo-ken against & yet it continuesunabated. This is the state gov-erned by your handpicked ChiefMinister. Can we expect actionin this case or do we file yourconcern & assurances as a jumla,meant to placate but nothingmore?" he asked.
The NC leader also posed aquestion to Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh, whorepresents the Lucknow seat inLok Sabha, that if he would stepin to deliver justice in this case.
"Jenab @rajnathsingh Sahib.You represent this constituencyin the Lok Sabha, this is the con-stituency where Vajpayee Sbwas elected from & went on tobe PM. If no one else will step in& deliver justice can we expectyou to punish those guilty of thisassault?" Abdullah added. PTI
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Srinagar: A Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terroristfrom Pakistan was killed in anencounter with security forcesin Kupwara district of Jammu &Kashmir on Thursday, policesaid.
Security forces launched acordon-and-search operationin the Kralgund area ofHandwara in the north Kashmirdistrict late Wednesday nightfollowing information aboutthe presence of some terroristsin the area, a police official said.
He said the cordon wasmaintained during the nightand contact was establishedwith them in the morning afterthe forces zeroed in on the loca-tion.
There was an exchange offiring between the two sides, inwhich one terrorist was killed,the official said.
He said the slain terroristwas identified as a Pakistaninational, known as Anwar, whowas affiliated to the JeM.
Incriminating materials, includ-ing arms and ammunition, wererecovered from the site of theencounter, he added. PTI
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Wayanad (Ker): A suspectedMaoist leader, who has a slew ofcases against him, was killedearly on Thursday morning inan exchange of fire with policepersonnel which lasted for sev-eral hours, officials said.
The gunfight started onWednesday night and went ontill early Thursday morning,they said.
"A resident of Malappuramdistrict, C P Jaleel was killed dur-ing the exchange of fire betweenMaoists and the police. A coun-try-made firing weapon was
found next to his body," KannurRange IG Balram KumarUpadhyay told PTI. He said theforce was on full alert afterthere was an intelligence reporton the movement of Maoists inhilly Wayanad district whichshares border with Tamil Naduand Karnataka. "Two membersof the gang reached a privateresort on Wednesday night anddemanded food for 10 membersof their team and money... Wehave estimated that there werearound five to eight people in thegroup," IG said. PTI
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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday inaugu-
rated the 13.5 km long Khapri-Sitabuldi section of the NagpurMetro, by digitally unveiling aplaque marking the occasion.
Addressing the gatheringpresent through video confer-ence after flagging off the firstsection of the Nagpur Metro,Modi said: “The dream of thepeople of Nagpur, of having ametro has now been fulfilled.I congratulate the people of thecity for this feat. It is a specialmoment for me. It gives me akind of double happiness today.Because, it was I who laid thefoundation stone for this pro-ject in 2014 and now I have the
honour of inaugurating thefirst section of the NagpurMetro five years later on behalfof my Government at theCentre”.
The Nagpur metro is thesecond metro service inMaharashtra, after the one inMumbai. Nagpur is the secondcapital of Maharashtra.
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Handing out an ultimatum to defaulting political enti-ties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the State,
Maharashtra State Election Commissioner (M-SEC) JSSahariya on Thursday directed 14 recognised political par-ties in the State to submit details of their election expen-diture on or before March 10.
In show cause notices served on various errant par-ties, Sahariya stated that in the event of the political par-ties failing to comply with the M-SEC’s directive, the reg-istrations of errant parties would be cancelled.
As per the notification issued by the M-SEC onOctober 15, 2016, it is mandatory on the parties to sub-mit their election expenditure accounts to theCommission. “We have reminded the political parties inthis regard from time to time. We have issued the latestnotice to defaulting political parties to comply with M-SEC’s directive and avoid getting their registrations can-celled,” Sahariya said.
Among the prominent parties that have been servedshow cause notices are: the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party,Shiv Sena, and opposition parties like Congress,Nationalist Congress Party, Maharashtra Navnirman Senaand Samajwadi Party. The other smaller parties served withshow-cause notices are: the CPI, CPM, Bahujan SamajParty, Janata Dal (S), Lok Janshakti Party, AIADMK,AIMIM and JD(U).
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Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis on Thursday
ruled out the possibility ofMaharashtra going in forsimultaneous Lok Sabha andAssembly polls.
Setting at rest intense spec-ulation in the political circlesabout the possibility of simul-taneous polls in the State,Fadnavis said in Nagpur: “Thetalk about simultaneous polls inthe state is a mere rumourfloated by rival political parties.Take it from me in writing thatthere will not be simultaneousLok Sabha and Assembly pollsin Maharashtra”.
The speculation aboutsimultaneous polls hadstemmed from the fact that theState Government has taken
several major policy decisionsat its Cabinet meeting heldearly this week. This is for thefirst time that the State Cabinetwill be meeting on Friday — forthe second time in a week.Speculation has it that as manyas 50 proposals — includingseveral major policy initiativesaimed at doling sops to varioussections of the people –at itsstate Cabinet meeting sched-uled for Friday.
Fadnavis sought to dis-miss the possibility of simulta-
neous polls in the state, whenmedia persons buttonholedhim for a comment on a tweetput out by MaharashtraCongress spokesperson SachinSawant alleging that the BJP-ledgovernment in the state waspreparing to seek dissolution ofthe State Assembly and go infor Assembly polls along withLok Sabha polls.
“The Shiv Sena, which wasruling the state in alliance withthe BJP in the state in thenineties, had gone in for earlyAssembly polls in 1999. Atthat time, the people hadshown the door to the Sena-BJP Government in the state.The situation is no different thisnow. The Congress is fully pre-pared to face simultaneousAssembly and Lok Sabha elec-tions in the state,” Sawant said.
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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeon Thursday said the theft of Rafale files from the UnionMinistry of Defence was a matter of concern anddemanded an enquiry into it.
She also sought the Central Government's versionabout the theft and asked who was the 'chhuppa rustam'(hidden person) behind this act.
In a tweet in Hindi, Banerjee, also the TrinamoolCongress supremo, described the entire matter as'tamasha' (farce) and hinted that its fallout would beknown after the Lok Sabha elections.
"What farce is going on in the country? Documentsare being stolen from the Ministry of Defence itself. Thisis a very dangerous situation for the country," she tweet-ed. "What would the Government say on this? Who isthe hidden person behind this? There must be an enquiryinto it," she added.
Later, in the secretariat, the Chief Minister wonderedif it was not the "fault" of the Government, adding "if aGovernment cannot protect a document, how can thecountry be safe under it"? "The country is under threat.Has there been any FIR lodged in this case? We also runa government and we lodge FIRs if we lose a document,"she said, terming the episode as "big corruption". PTI
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Mumbai: NCP chief SharadPawar on Thursday termed as"shocking" the Centre's state-ment that documents related tothe Rafale fighter jet deal havebeen stolen from the defenceministry, and wondered whatwill then be the country's sit-uation on the security front.
He said it was now obviousthe deal was done for the "ben-efit of some people" and soughtto know why the Governmenthid the theft from Parliament.
He also accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofpoliticising the Indian AirForce's (IAF) air strikes onJaish-e-Mohammed's camp inPakistan in retaliation to theterror outfit 's attack atPulwama in Kashmir where 40CRPF personnel were killedlast month.
The Centre told theSupreme Court on Tuesdaythat documents related to theRafale aircraft deal being stolen,prompting the Opposition par-ties to again raise questionsover the �58,000-crore defencedeal which is already mired incontroversy.
"If confidential papers arestolen, then what will be the sit-uation on the security front,"Pawar wondered while inter-acting with NCP workers inKolhapur through video- con-ferencing.
"How can confidentialpapers go missing from theMinistry of Defence. It is clearnow that the Rafale deal wasdone to benefit some people.Why did the Government hidethe theft from Parliament.The papers definitely hadsome important information,"he said.
Terming the Government'sstand on Rafale deal issue assurprising, he said, "These arethe same people who are refus-ing an inquiry into the dealwhile having demanded aprobe into the Bofors case."
Taking a swipe at the prime
minister's earlier remark "nakhaoonga na khane doonga"(would not take bribes, nor letanyone do so), Pawar allegedthat during ModiGovernment's rule, the Rafaleaircraft cost was increased.
"The contract was takenaway from HAL and given to anew company of industrialistAnil Ambani which had noexperience in aircraft manu-facturing," he further charged.
The Government andAmbani have, however, beendenying any wrongdoing.
Further hitting out at Modiover IAF's air strikes inPakistan, Pawar said, "It is notthe Opposition, but PM Modipoliticising the situation, andthat's sad."
India wanted peaceful andfriendly relations with allneighbours, including Pakistan."But Pakistan's intentions arenot similar," he said.
Even the families of mar-tyrs are saying sacrifices of sol-diers should not be politicised,he added.
Pawar also claimed thatduring the recent all-partymeeting over the issue, the BJPdid not have a representative.
Criticising the BJP-ledGovernment over its demon-etisation, he claimed around 15lakh people lost their jobs dueto the note ban decision.
There is no record of howmuch black money wasunearthed, but people had toface lot of hardships, he said.
Pawar also claimed that inthe last two-and-a-half years,"11,000 farmers have commit-ted suicide".
He acknowledged the roleof social media and said itplayed a "very important role"in BJP's victory in 2014.
Referring to the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra,Pawar said two joint rallies havetaken place so far and discus-sions are underway for a cou-ple of seats. PTI
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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on Thursday saidindiscipline will not be tolerated in theparty, a day after two elected represen-tatives of the ruling BJP came to blowsduring an official meeting.
The fight, caught on tape, took placeduring a meeting at the district collec-torate in Sant Kabir Nagar in the pres-ence of minister in charge of the district,Ashutosh Tandon.
Speaking at a programme here,Adityanath said, "BJP is a disciplinedparty. Indiscipline will not be tolerated.In this particular case, strict action willbe taken against the guilty."
Sant Kabir Nagar MP SharadTripathi and Mehdawal MLA RakeshBaghel got into an argument at themeeting over taking credit for a newlylaid road.
After a brief exchange of words, theMP got up from his seat and began
thrashing the MLA with his shoe, astelevision cameras recorded the episode.The MLA reacted, landing a few blowson Tripathi.
The incident had left the party red-faced.
Meanwhile, the UP CM exudedconfidence that the BJP will win over 74seats in the northern state, includingAmethi and Azamgarh.
"I believe that people will give usmore seats," he said.
"In the last 23 months, we haveefficiently improved law and order sit-uation in the state. The successfulorganisation of Kumbh and PravasiBharatiya Divas speaks volume aboutthe change in the state administration,"he said. The priest-turned-politicianalso said that there should be no poli-tics on issues related to national secu-rity, while referring to the Pulwama ter-ror attack. PTI
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Gorakhpur (UP): The UttarPradesh parliamentarian fromGorakhpur and 20 others weredetained on Thursday whilestaging a demonstration forgranting reservation to theNishad community under theScheduled Caste category,police said.
Gorakhpur MP PraveenNishad and people from thecommunity were staging ademonstration in Bhagwanpurarea.
Nishad said they weregoing towards the 'mini office'of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath at the Gorakhnathtemple to hand over a memo-randum, but the police used
force and stopped them."The police had used
batons on us. Around 100 peo-ple were injured... I have alsoreceived injuries at my hand.We were demonstrating forour constitutional right," hesaid, adding that even an MPwas not safe under theAdityanath government.
Senior Superintendent ofPolice (SSP) Sunil Gupta saidthe protesters had permissionfor the programme inBhagwanpur only.
The SSP said when theprotesters started marchingtowards the temple, the policetried to stop them but they didnot listen. PTI
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annual pilgrimage to theAmarnath cave shrine in southKashmir Himalayas will beginon July 1, a Raj Bhavan officialsaid here on Thursday.
The decision was taken atthe 36th meeting of the ShriAmarnathji Shrine Board(SASB) which met at the RajBhavan under the chairman-ship of Governor Satya PalMalik, he said.
The SASB manages theannual pilgrimage on the tra-ditional Pahalgam route inAnantnag district and theshorter, Baltal track, inGanderbal district.
Based on the approach setby the Sri Sri Ravi ShankarCommittee, the board decid-ed the 46-day-long yatra will
begin on July 1, the day ofMasik Shivratri according tothe Hindu calender and wouldconclude on August 15, theday of Shravan Purnima andRaksha Bandhan festival, theofficial said.
The Sri Sri Ravi ShankarCommittee had been set up toadvise the board regardingthe duration and schedule ofthe pilgrimage.
After considering the car-rying capacity of the tracksand available infrastructurein the yatra area, the boarddecided to allow 7,500 pil-grims per day on each of thetwo routes, excluding thosetravelling by choppers, tosecure advance registrationfor the pilgrimage, thespokesperson said. PTI
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Bengaluru: Sparking a majorrow, senior Congress leader BK Hariprasad on Thursdayalleged there was a "match fix-ing" between Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and hisPakistani counterpart ImranKhan on the Pulwama terrorattack.
"There is a match fixingbetween Narendra Modi andImran Khan, or else thisPulwama incident would nothave taken place," Prasad, aRajya Sabha member, toldreporters here.
BJP in Karnataka sharplyreacted to Hariprasad's charge,calling it irresponsible andsaying he should be ashamedof making such statements.
Hariprasad's commentscame while reacting to unionlaw minister Ravi ShankarPrasad's attack on Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi on the"stolen" Rafale papers.
Earlier in the day, Gandhiasked why a probe cannot beordered against Modi for a "Rs30,000-crore scam" when aninvestigation has been initiat-ed into the theft of official doc-uments related to the fighter jetdeal.
Hitting back, Prasad said:"I totally condemn blatant lies
of Rahul Gandhi. He does notbelieve the Indian Air Force,does not trust the SupremeCourt verdict that clearly saidthere is no commercial impro-priety in the (Rafale) procure-ment process. He does notbelieve the CAG."
Coming down on theunion government, Hariprasadsought to know how the hugecache of RDX went undetect-ed when the government agen-cies could find beef at differ-ent places.
"People who talk aboutthe security of the nation, theycan detect two kg of beef fromAkhlaq's house, they can detecttwo kg of beef in Kerala guesthouse, they can't detect 350 kgof RDX on the national high-way. It's a shame on them," hesaid.
BJP state general secretaryand MLC N Ravikumarslammed Hariprasad for hisremarks.
"This is a highly con-demnable, irresponsible state-ment. He should be ashamedof making such statements.Where had he mortgaged hisbrain before making such astatement," he said. He blamedthe Congress for terrorism inthe country. PTI
������������� 8�#�-������5�������������-���"���������-$�����������+����� Itanagar: The Arunachal
Pradesh unit of the BJP onThursday blamed the Congressfor instigating people over thePermanent Resident Certificate(PRC) protests which claimedthree lives besides leaving a trailof destruction in the state cap-ital last month.
The development came aday after opposition partiesincluding the Congress, JanataDal (Secular), Peoples Party ofArunachal and NationalPeoples Party on Wednesdaysubmitted a memorandum toGovernor B D Mishra
demanding resignation ofChief Minister Pema Khandu,Deputy Chief MinisterChowna Mein and UnionMinister of State for HomeKiren Rijiju.
The Opposition partiesunder the banner of All PartyCoordination Committee(APCC) demanded the resig-nation of Khandu, Mein andRijiju for their inability to con-trol law and order situationduring the mob frenzy.
"The Congress misled theyouths, took advantage of thePRC issue and incited the
youth, even school-goingminors, to go on a massiverampage from February 22 to24 last, BJP vice presidentDominic Tadar told reportersat party office here, flanked byanother VP Tame Phassang.
While condemning theOpposition for making suchdemand, both the party leadersalleged that the PRC issue wasa handiwork of the Congress."The Opposition parties haveno genuine issue to raise andhence demanded the resigna-tion of Khandu, Mein andRijiju," Tadar said. PTI
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Mumbai: The Bombay HighCourt on Thursday asked theElection Commission of Indiawhy it was hesitant to issuespecific directions to prohib-it political advertisements onsocial media 48 hours beforeelection day.
A bench of Chief JusticeNaresh Patil and Justice N MJamdar posed the questionafter the poll panel submittedthat it was deliberating onbringing in such a direction,and currently, consultingexperts and stakeholders.
"But, how long will the
deliberations go on? Whydon't you take a decision, sayyes, we are going to issue spe-cific orders (to the aboveeffect)?" the bench said.
It was hearing a PublicInterest Litigation (PIL) filedby a lawyer, SagarSuryavanshi, seeking direc-tions to the ElectionCommission of India (ECI) toregulate fake news in the formof paid political ads on socialmedia.
The PIL had also urgedthe court to direct the ECI toprohibit all persons, whether
politicians or private individ-uals, from posting advertise-ments related to politics or theelections, or paid politicalcontent on social media plat-forms such as YouTube,Facebook, and Twitter, 48hours before election day.
During the previous hear-ing, social media platformFacebook had told the courtthat it had introduced a strict"pre-verification processes"for all political ads and paidcontent of "national interest"on their websites in Indiaahead of the 2019 general
elections.The new system ensures
that only bona fide individu-als, who are citizens of India,and political organisationsbased in the country can placepolitical ads.
Twitter and YouTube toldthe bench Thursday that theyonly permitted such politicalads that had been verified bythe ECI.
The social media sites,however, told the court thatthey could not voluntarilyimpose a 48-hour ban assought by the petitioner. PTI
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Jaipur: The RajasthanGovernment has granted Indiancitizenship to 44 Pakistanimigrants living in the state sinceJanuary this year under a specialcampaign, a senior official saidon Thursday.
Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Rajeeva Swarup said ina statement that Indian citizen-ship was awarded to 44 Pakistanimigrants.
He said the migrants hadbeen living in the country from
long time.Out of the total, 15 migrants
of Udaipur, 11 of Pali, six ofJalore and 12 living in Barmerwere awarded Indian citizenship.
The cases had been pendingfor long due to deficiency indocuments, he added. PTI
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The Government onThursday approved a
scheme for rebate of all Stateand Central embedded leviesfor apparel and made-up textilesegments, which would makeshipments zero-rated, therebyboosting the country’s com-petitiveness in export markets.
The decision was taken ata meeting of the Union Cabinetchaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi here.
It also enhanced the rebatefor apparel and made-up seg-ments. The made-up segment oftextiles includes products likebed-sheets, blankets and curtains.
Currently, Remission ofState Levies (RoSL), which is tooffset indirect taxes levied bystates such as stamp duty,petroleum tax, electricity dutyand mandi tax that wereembedded in exports, is pro-vided to textiles exporters.
“The decision which also
extends rebate up to March 31,2020, will greatly benefit appar-el & made-ups manufactur-ers/exporters,” Textiles MinisterSmriti Irani said in a tweet.
She said the apparel andmade-ups have a combinedshare of 55 per cent (aroundUSD 21 billion) in the totalIndian textile export basketand the decision to enhancerebate will have a direct impacton these segments, therebyincreasing competitiveness ofIndia’s textile exports globally.
The decision also entailschange in disbursal mechanismwhereby the rebate of all embed-ded state and central levies willbe done through the scrip system.
“Fulfilling one of the pri-mary demands of the industry,Rebate of State and CentreLevies/Taxes will be donethrough IT-driven Scrip Systemthereby preventing delay &ensuring speedy disbursal,”Irani said in another tweet.
The decision will enable
the Government to take vari-ous measures for makingexports of apparel and made-ups zero rated.
“Fulfilling one of the pri-mary demands of the industry,Rebate of State and CentreLevies/Taxes will be donethrough IT-driven Scrip Systemthereby preventing delay &ensuring speedy disbursal,”Irani said in another tweet.
The decision will enable thegovernment to take various mea-sures for making exports ofapparel and made-ups zero rated.
“The proposed measuresare expected to make the tex-tile sector competitive. Rebateof all embedded state and cen-tral taxes/levies for appareland made-ups segments wouldmake exports zero-rated, there-by boosting India’s competi-tiveness in export markets andensure equitable and inclusivegrowth of textile and apparelsector,” an official statementsaid.
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The rupee darted up 28 paiseto close at 70 against the US
dollar on Thursday amidrobust foreign inflows andstrong buying in domesticequities.
This is the third straightsession of gain for the domes-tic currency, during which ithas strengthened by 92 paise.
Forex traders said opti-mism regarding a trade dealbetween the US and China andweakening of the greenbackversus other currencies over-seas also supported the rupee.However, rising crude pricescapped the gains.
At the Interbank ForeignExchange market, the rupeeopened stronger at 70.08 adollar. The local unit moved ina range of 70.15 to 69.94 beforefinally ending at 70.00, show-ing a gain of 28 paise over itslast close.
The rupee Wednesday hadstrengthened by 21 paise toclose at 70.28 against the USdollar.
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Equity indices ticked higherfor the fourth straight ses-
sion on Thursday as investorssentiment remained positiveamid a strengthening rupeeand sustained foreign fundinflows.
The BSE benchmarkSensex climbed 89.32 points or0.24 per cent to finish at36,725.42, while the broaderNSE Nifty inched up 5.20points or 0.05 per cent to11,058.20. The Sensex has nowgained nearly 858 points in foursessions.
Larsen and Toubroemerged as the top performerin the 30-share Sensex packafter the engineering majorannounced large order winsfrom domestic clients.
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The recent reforms ush-ered in by the
Government are creating newlivelihoods across existing andemerging sectors, with eightsegments of the economyalone expected to create over10 crore jobs by 2025, CII saidon Thursday.
“With skill levels risingand substantial growth instartups and new businesses,the quality of jobs is being alsoenhanced, including throughhigher incomes,” CII PresidentRakesh Bharti Mittal told PTI.
According to Mittal, themeasures to promote ease ofdoing business, cut in tax ratesfor smaller enterprises to 25 percent, and reduction in interestrates are creating the rightatmosphere for new businessesto flourish, particularly SMEs.
“This is an effective stim-ulant for job creation,” he said.
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Honda CarsIndia Ltd.
on Thursdaylaunched All-New 10thG e n e r a t i o nHonda Civicin the Indianmarket. TheHonda Civicpromises todeliver an allnew customerdriving expe-rience with its striking sporty design,powerful driving performance,advanced set of key technologies andinnovations, and premium qualityand upscale interior. The Civic isHonda’s longest-running automotivenameplate and its largest-selling modelglobally.
Presenting the All New HondaCivic to customers in India, GakuNakanishi, President & CEO, HondaCars India said, “We are delighted to
expand our product portfolio in Indiawith launch of the iconic and our glob-al best seller Honda Civic. This isHonda’s 3rd new model introductionin FY19 and the launch of Civic com-pletes our premium sedan line-up inIndia.We have received an over-whelming response during the pre-launch phase and we believe that theAll New Civic will have the opportu-nity to revive the executive sedan seg-ment in India.”
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Railways Minister PiyushGoyal laid the foundation
stone for new coaching termi-nal at Nemom and unveiledWAP-7HS passenger locomo-tive through video conferenc-ing on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion,Goyal said that the presentGovernment has consistentlyfocused on development for allareas in the country. “This newcoaching terminal at Nemomin the ThiruvananthapuramDivision will help in decon-gesting the already overloadedcurrent coaching terminals,” hesaid.
With the commencementof work at this new coachingterminal, Indian Railwayscan start providing largenumber of new trains whichwill either originate or ter-minate inThiruvananthapuram, hesaid.
He further informed thatthere is no ‘Unmanned LevelCrossings’ in the entire state ofKerala and all the stationshave been converted into 100per cent LED lighting.
Indian Railways is com-mitted to faster developmentof Kerala and committed tomake Kerala a better tourismdestination which will helptransform the local economyand give a big boost to thegeneration of the employ-ment and improve customeramenities and facilities for allthe people using trains inKerala, he added.
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Assets worth �28.19 crore ofParamount Airways pro-
moter M Thiagarajan havebeen attached under the anti-money laundering law in a caserelated to alleged bank fraud,the ED said on Thursday.
It said a provisional orderfor attachment of assets hasbeen issued by it under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).
Seventeen immovableassets in Madurai and Tenkasi(Tirunelveli) and companyshare investments held byThiagarajan have been seized aspart of the latest action, it said.
“Immovable and movableproperties worth �28.19 crorehave been attached under the
PMLA in an ongoing investi-gation against M Thiagarajanand Paramount AirwaysPrivate Limited, Madurai,” theagency said in a statement.
Thiagarajan was the pro-moter and the managing direc-tor of Paramount AirwaysPrivate Limited, a commercialairline company, which till2010 was operating in thedomestic sector, it said. It start-ed operations in 2005 and wasflying passengers to south andeastern parts of India.
Paramount AirwaysPrivate Limited availed variouscredit facilities from fivenationalised banks on the basisof credit insurance policiesissued by Oriental InsuranceCompany Limited, the agencysaid.
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The trade deficit betweenIndia and the US decreased
by $1.6 billion, almost sevenper cent, in 2018 as comparedto the previous year, accordingto the latest official figures.
India recorded a decreasein the deficit from $22.9 billionin 2017 to $21.3 billion in2018, according to the latest fig-ures revealed by the Bureau ofEconomy Analysis onWednesday.
The US trade deficit ingoods and services increased by$9.5 billion from $50.3 billionin November to $59.8 billion inDecember, according to the fig-ures.
For 2018, the US goodsand services deficit was $621.0billion, up $68.8 billion from$552.3 billion in 2017.
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The European Union (EU)has issued an ultimatum for
the UK to come up with somefresh proposals by Friday tobreak the deadlock over ongo-ing negotiations to strike a dealin time for the March 29 Brexitdeadline.
While the EuropeanCommission’s spokesperson saidthat “no solution” was in sight asBritish ministers left Brusselsafter talks on Wednesday, theUK has claimed that “reason-able” proposals to satisfy BritishMPs’ concerns about being tiedto EU rules post-Brexit hadbeen made.
“These are very sensitivediscussions, we are in the meatof the matter now. We’ve put for-ward some proposals, very rea-sonable proposals, are we arenow really into the detail of thediscussion,” said UK Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox.
“Both sides have exchangedrobust strong views,” said Cox,who, along with Brexit SecretaryStephen Barclay, are in charge offinalising a renewed Brexit dealthat would stand a better chanceof being voted through by theUK Parliament in a crucial votenext Tuesday.
British Prime MinisterTheresa May is seeking legally-
enforceable changes to the con-troversial “backstop” clause inthe withdrawal agreement – aninsurance policy designed toprevent physical checks on theborder between UK territoryNorthern Ireland and EU mem-ber-country Ireland.
MPs, who had decisivelyrejected the agreement earlierthis year, are due to vote for asecond time on the deal in a so-called “meaningful vote” nextweek. If they reject the deal onceagain, they will get to choose between leaving the EUwithout a deal, a prospect not supported by a majority ofMPs, or deferring the UK’s exit from the economic blocbeyond the scheduled date ofMarch 29. The House ofCommons remains deeplydivided on all of the optionsavailable at this late stage in thenegotiations.
“If the Prime Minister’sdeal does not get approved onTuesday then it is likely that theHouse of Commons will vote toextend the Article 50 procedure,to not leave the EuropeanUnion without a deal, andwhere we go thereafter is high-ly uncertain,” said UKChancellor Philip Hammond.
Meanwhile, OppositionLabour Party leader JeremyCorbyn met senior
Conservative Party back-benchers proposing the UKenter a Norway-plus relationshipwith the EU, which would keepthe UK in the single market andCustoms Union, maintainingfree movement of people.
This soft Brexit option hasfew takers across the politicalspectrum, with many favouringa much harder Brexit and oth-ers calling for a second referen-dum to put the issue back to thepublic. At this stage in theprocess, the practical deadlinefor securing changes to thewithdrawal agreement is beingpegged as Sunday night.
If there is a breakthrough,May is likely to travel to Brusselsover the weekend to sign offchanges with EuropeanCommission President JeanClaude Juncker.
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Amortar attack on a large cer-emony attended by
Afghanistan’s chief executiveand other leading governmentfigures in Kabul on Thursdaykilled three people and injured22 others, officials said.
The attack claimed by theIslamic State group represents amajor security breach and marksa resumption of violence in thecapital after weeks of calm amidongoing peace talks between theUS and Taliban in Doha.
“Stay calm, the area of theblast is far from us,” said formerlower house speakerMohammad Younus Qanoonifrom the stage during a livebroadcast of the outdoor event.
But moments after the an-nouncement, another explosion
and gunfire could be heard thatsent people running. A secondunidentified voice then ad-dressed the screaming crowd,saying: “I request my country-men to stay calm. The mortarattack is far from the gathering.”The blasts took place during aceremony marking the 24thanniversary of the death of Sh-iite Hazara leader Abdul AliMazari that was attended bymany of the country’s politicalelite, including Afghanistan chiefexecutive Abdullah Abdullahand ex-president Hamid Karzai.
IS later claimed the barragesaying its fighters targeted theceremony with mortar fire,according to a statement pub-lished by the group’s propagan-da agency Amaq.
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Manchester Unitedmanager OleGunnar Solskjaer
said his side "can go all theway" in the ChampionsLeague after MarcusRashford's dramaticstoppage-time penaltygave them a stunning 3-1 win away to ParisSaint-Germain as theyimprobably reached the
quarter-finals on awaygoals.
A seriously depleted Unitedlooked to have given themselves toomuch to do after losing 2-0 in thefirst leg of their last-16 tie lastmonth, yet a Romelu Lukakubrace in the first half at the Parcdes Princes gave them hope onWednesday.
Even so, Juan Bernat had net-ted in between for PSG, and itlooked as though the French sidewould stumble on until thedrama at the death.
Slovenian referee DamirSkomina awarded a spot-kick
after reviewing the images whenhe had been alerted of a possiblehandball by PSG defender Presnel
Kimpembe in the box.Rashford duly beat Gianluigi Buffon
from 12 yards, as United won a Europeantie after losing the first leg at home for thefirst time in their history.
"We always believed, that's the thing,"an elated Solskjaer said.
"The plan was to get the first goal, bein the game with five or 10 minutes to go,and we were." Their improbable victory-- following Ajax's similarly stunning turn-around against holders Real Madrid 24hours earlier -- takes them through to thelast eight for the first time since 2014.
"Of course we fancy ourselves. We cango all the way, but we just have to wait forthe draw and then take the game as itcomes," said the Norwegian, who has nowoverseen nine consecutive away wins, aclub record.
"We have had loads of injuries andsuspensions but that was maybe a good
thing today because we had a fresh team,and loads of energy."
)������)��#While United celebrate, for PSG and
their Qatari owners this defeat will feel likegroundhog day.
For the third year running they failto make the quarter-finals, after theirdefeat at the hands of Real Madrid a yearago and their humiliating collapse againstBarcelona in 2017.
Electric at Old Trafford in the first leg,Kylian Mbappe was poor here andNeymar was again missing, watching fromthe stands as he recovers from injury.
United were missing Paul Pogbathrough suspension and nine more play-ers were sidelined due to fitness problems.
Despite that, they achieved one oftheir greatest European results, up therewith their 3-2 win at Juventus in the 1999semi-finals, which came after they fell twogoals behind early on.
!�������� !�Solskjaer was on the bench that
night, and the Norwegian watched fromthe sideline here — as his side went infront inside two minutes.
A dreadful back-pass attempt byPSG defender Thilo Kehrer fell to Lukaku,who rounded Buffon and scored.
The hosts pulled themselves togeth-er to equalise in the 12th minute whenMbappe squared for Bernat to turn in histhird Champions League goal this season.
However, the visitors were giftedanother goal half an hour in.
Not closed down 25 yards out,Rashford tried a shot that was powerfulbut straight at Buffon. Yet the veteranItalian spilled the ball, and Lukaku fol-lowed in to score his sixth goal in threegames.
PSG — so slick in France — werewobbling again at the business end of theChampions League.
Angel Di Maria had a goal ruled outfor offside in the 56th minute andMbappe then managed to fall whenclean through late on, with Bernat send-ing the loose ball against the post.
It still looked as though they wouldhang on, but then VAR intervened, andRashford sent United into ecstasy.
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Nestled amongst four fertilebasins, productive plains and
scenic blue mountains, the state ofManipur harbours great diversity interms of nature. The cultural milieuof Manipur, on the other hand,paints a picture of a greater varietyof cultures mingling together, withMeitei, Kuki and Nagas being thedominant tribal conglomeratesentwining their history and tradi-tions with the essence of this state.In this mosaic of cultures, certainancient traditions which are inpractise till today are bound tocatch an onlooker’s eye, for exam-ple Manipur’s renowned pottery. Apottery tradition in Manipur is anumbrella term since several varia-tions in these traditions exist,depending on the area and the soilavailable like the Stone Pottery ofLongpi, Coil Pottery of Thongjaoand Andro villages etc. In thisambit of pottery traditions, one ofthem is intrinsic to Manipur, andthat is the tradition of women pot-ters. Manipur is perhaps the onlystate that regards pottery as a‘woman’s craft’, with less than five
percent of potters being men. Apopular myth goes that the goddessPanthoibi created the first earthenpot, and the women consider theart of pottery as a divine giftendowed to them by the goddess.Manipur also houses one of the old-est markets dating back to the 16thcentury called Ema Keithel inImphal, with its rich traditionintact. It’s arguably the largest mar-ket run solely by women, render-ing the role of women as central inthe family Thus, as the traditiongoes, some districts in Manipurhave women exclusively continuingpottery and passing on their tech-niques as their legacy. With theupcoming exhibition ‘Kumhar Para’organized by Indira GandhiRashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya(IGRMS), five Manipuri womenpotters contributed to the exhibi-tion with their craft, namely LshilaDevi (44) and Langoubi Devi (48)from Thongjao, K-Loidang (50), K-Mombi (65), and K-TamashiniDevi (60) from Thoubal inManipur. After an engaging discus-sion with them regarding theirpractise of pottery, it was clear thatthese women were experts in thisfield, with swift and synchronised
steps of making pots. With 12 yearsof experience in black earthenwarepottery in her stead, Lshila Devi isthe sole bread-earner in her fami-ly, earning a steady income fromher own pottery workshop and sell-ing pots in markets and institu-
tions. When asked about thedemand of pottery, she remarksthat pottery is an intrinsic and avery important part of Manipuriculture, with religious ceremoniesand utilitarian uses embedded inthe tradition. Working in tandem
with each other, these respectedwomen spend most of their timeworking together, laughing andsharing jokes to pass the time andare well-versed in the dutiesassigned to each other. Being askedthe question of if they feel empow-
ered being self-sufficient, thewomen say that pottery is inheri-tance which has passed on sincegenerations, having learned fromtheir mothers or mother-in-lawsand will pass on this craft to theirdaughters and daughter-in-laws.
Langoubi Devi on asked the lat-ter question remarks that menrespect and accept the primal roleof women in the pottery sector,making women independent inthis regard, earning their ownincome and supporting their fam-ilies comfortably, thus giving thema standing in the society. Pottery isthe sole occupation of these womenas demand of pottery is steady andthey are well-respected in theirsociety. When asked to give a mes-sage to the young generation ofgirls, they say with wizened smilesthat women should harbour andcultivate a skill which will securetheir future, and every womanshould earn her own livelihood.Further, they say that instilling thetradition of pottery in the younggeneration will endow them withproficiency, enabling them to earna steady income, thus serving thepurpose of making these girlsindependent in their own right andsecuring the legacy of Manipuripottery. Having a conversationwith these women potters who holdthe reigns of their own life is sure-ly empowering, with their ideas andoutlook containing gravity andeternal wisdom.
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The tourism sites of Madhya Pradeshhave not only become the mostloved destination among the
tourists but are also emerging as the hotfavourite hub among the film producers.An ideal atmosphere for film productionand facilities in the state as well as widescale publicity of the important heritagesand destinations are attracting film pro-ducers towards Madhya Pradesh.
The film ‘Manikarnika’, featuringKanganaRanaut in a lead role and ‘SuiDhaga’ released recently, have been shotin Maheshwar, Chanderi and Bhopal.
Also, a few scenes in the film ‘Kalank’produced by the famous Karan Johar,starring Aliya Bhatt and Sonakshi Sinhain lead roles have also been shot inChanderi. Eminent spots like the UpperLake, Raja Bhoj statue, Raja Bhojsetu andVIP road and many more are featuredtime and again in the TV serial ‘MaikeChali Jaoongi’ being telecasted on SonyTV. The story of the serial does mentionBhopal several times. The shooting of thefilm ‘Stri’ of Rajkumar Rao Abhinit wasalso held in Chanderi some time back.Similarly, shooting of the well acknowl-edged film Pipli Live was held in Raisendistrict and a song of ‘Sool’ and ‘Jis Deshmein Ganga Beahti Hai’ films have beenpicturised at Bhedaghat.
Famous films are persistently shot inMadhya Pradesh (Bhopal), includingthe film ‘Arakshan’ starring the GreatestActor of the Century- Amitabh Bachchanand ‘Rajiniti’ with Katrina Kaif playingthe lead role. The scenes of the filmRajniti were filmed at the old Minto Hall,Gouhar Mahal and Kaliasot dam. Therenowned Minto Hall has now beentransformed into an InternationalConvention Centre which hosts manysignificant events. ‘The Adventure Next’,an event of a global standard was alsoheld here. Similarly, the film Chakravyuh,based on the theme of naxalites’ problemwas shot at the mesmerizing hill station,Pachmarhi.
The films ‘Singh Sahab the Great’ and‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ starring SunnyDeol were also filmed in Bhopal. Besidesthis, many films like ‘Gali Galimein ChorHe’, ‘SoormaBhopali’ and others were alsoshot in Bhopal and the film Mohenjo-Daro was picturized at Maheshwar andBhedaghat waterfall.
In true sense, the inception of shoot-ing of popular films begun with the film‘Aan’ in 1952. Later the shooting of thefilm Shri -420 of Raj Kapoor, RaniRoopmati, MujheJeene Do, Teesri Qasam,Putli Bai, Pran Jaye par Vachannajaye,Kinara, SoormaBhopali, Bandit Queen,Ashoka, Yuva, Peepli Live, Ravan, ToiletEk Prem Katha, Padman, PansinghTomar, Yara, Gangajal (2), BajiraoMastani, Neerja and several other filmstook place in Madhya Pradesh. In addi-tion to this, TV serials l ikeSathNibhanaSathiya, Pari, Bhagya Laxmi,Razia Sultan, SapnonkeBhanvarmein,Punarvivah, SilsilaPyar ka, Lutere, Diya
aur Baati, Thodisi Bewafai,Adishankaracharya, Kaal BhairavRahasya, Crime Patrol, Savdhaan Indiaand many other Ad films have also beenfilmed in Madhya Pradesh.
Along with the City of Lakes, Bhopal,enriched with natural beauty and lushgreen pastures besides places likeMaheshwar, Balaghat, Jabalpur, the Cityof Joy-Mandu, Hill Station-Pachmari, thegrasslands of Budhni and mesmerizing
beauty of ghats have extremely fascinat-ed the film directors and producers.
Nowadays, destinations like the wellestablished Hing Lauge near Gandhisagardam in Mandsaur, the Sailani Ileandresort near Omkareshwar, TheHanuwantia Water Sports Complex nearIndira Sagar Dam, along with Tava andMadai Parsali resort and numerous cap-tivating locations are favorable and prof-itable for film shooting. In addition to
these, the World Famous Khajuraho,Orchha, Datia, Amarkantak, Gwalior,Indore, Ujjain, Jabalpur and GovindgarhPalace, Jahangir Palace, Lalbaug Palace,Mahendra Bahvan in Panna, Burhanpur,Asirgarh Fort, Panna, Bandavgarh,Kanha, Pench are also convenientlyavailable for film shooting.
Owing to the fruitful result of theseefforts, Madhya Pradesh has been hon-oured with ‘Most Film Friendly State’
National Award. The state has beenselected by the jury chaired by the FilmProducer Ramesh Sippy. Keeping inview the efforts made for ensuring bestfacilities in film production, the jury hasdecided to confer this award to the state.Moreover, initiative as regard to betterpreservation of database and marketingrelated to films is being taken in MadhyaPradesh and a descriptive website has alsobeen made.
The TVCs of Madhya PradeshTourism have also become populararound the globe and have been con-ferred with several prestigious awards.Recently, the TVC focusing tourismdestinations of Madhya Pradesh hasbeen conferred with the ‘BestPromotional Film’ award at ‘Fitur’ orga-nized in Madrid, Spain. The TVC hasbeen chosen from the 58 films made indifferent destinations.
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It’s International Women’s Day and guesswhat could be the most surprising ele-
ment? An airline announced a thought-ful initiative, #PadsOnBoard whereby itwill provide sanitary pads onboard towomen travellers on request, startingfrom today.
This makes Vistara the first Indian air-line to offer sanitary pads on flights with-in India. The airline will provide ISO cer-tified, bio-degradable and organic sanitarynapkins made from plant-based fibres thatare free of plastic, toxins and perfume.
Recognising the need for this essen-tial amenity, the airline introduced this ser-vice to assure women travellers of a com-fortable flying experience. The cabincrew will also make in-flight announce-ments to create awareness among travellersthat sanitary pads are now availableonboard.
Additionally, to celebrate the big day,all-women crew and pilots will operateretro-themed flights between Delhi andGoa. The cabin crew on these flights willbe dressed in limited-edition retro-styleuniforms, and customers will be invitedto dress retro as well, and will be welcomedwith memorabilia and served specialdishes.
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Even though not everyfilm is made to impactpeople’s mindsets buteach of it has the powerto chronicle the tiniest
change in the society. However,there is a stark difference when awoman directs a film to when aman does.
The IAWRT Asian Women’sFilm Festival has been making theconstant and conscious efforts tomake this difference reflectedand showcase narratives woven bywomen filmmakers from differentparts of Asia. Since the festivalentered its 15th edition this year,Gauri D Chakraborty, director,
felt that she had to make itmore “befitting” now that sheis assigned to work for it.
“Even though the Bollywoodis beginning to change andincreasingly shifting towardsappreciating women, how manytimes have we seen them celebrat-ing the spirit of women and thefemale filmmakers in the indus-try?” questioned Chakraborty.She believed that this is not justabout Bollywood or other Indianfemale filmmakers, rather a uni-versal purview.
While the festival, held at theIndia International Centre (IIC),this year received 755 film entriesfrom 37 different countries,choosing out on around 50 filmsfrom 20 countries were sometough choices to make. “Initially,after the first round for selection,we cut it down to 257 films, andthen finally moved on choosingon a total of 51 films from at least20 different nations.”
Even though women directorsare taking charge of cinema andmaking an effort to make the soci-ety realise of concerns that areimportant to be looked uponresponsibly, there have beendebates around the commercialprospects of stories driven byfemale characters, general percep-tions around women on the filmsets, and the truth that evenfemale-centric films have been, attimes, misogynistic and regressive.
Chakraborty felt that while
going through the selectionprocess, they didn’t want anythingto be “clichéd.”
“We chose films which high-light the current discourse, andthe filmmakers who are aware ofwhat is happening in the societytoday and are able to tell throughtheir research what society actu-ally needs when it comes toempowering women and enablethem to express themselves freely,”said she.
The three-day festival marked
debates on the #MeToo movementand how it has been a “criticaltime” for the film industry andeven the women to be awakenedand realise what has been wrongover the years that now need achange. Led by Bina Paul andNupur Basu, the debate included60 other representatives fromvarious organisations includingthe UN Women. One amongmany other subjects was alsofemale gaze and a gaze at them —how women on the film sets are
looked upon through variouslenses.
“Though female gaze is avery academic term, it’s interpre-tation is very subjective. It’s impor-tant to also show and include thewoman’s perspective when itcomes to cinema. A woman’s nar-rative through the cinematic formgives us a view into their worldand how they look at other thingsaround them. Men need to under-stand what the systems mean tothem and what they want. They
are a voice of all the other womenwho have been suffering but areunable to speak up,” she said,adding that the debate went on tobe very “dynamic and concrete.”
The festival also showcased aspecial art work installation titled,Bioscopewaali, that made onereminisce about the age-old bio-scopes and how peeping throughits lenses could still give a toughcompetition to the currentadvanced technology — TVs andsmartphones.
Chakraborty shared that sur-prisingly there were people of allage groups who were delighted tosee the installation. She said,“The impact was completely dif-ferent. I didn’t imagine that thiswould be so attractive to people,especially the senior people. Theyfelt as if something very close tothem from their childhood hascome back. They were eager to seewhat the bioscope showed. Eventhe children of the current gener-ation were happy as they hadnever seen it before.”
One of the most loved yester-year entertainers, Chakraborty’sbioscope gave a surge of nostalgiaamong the more mature genera-tion who have run around on thestreets, fascinated, behind thebioscopewalla as soon as heentered their gullys. She said thatthe bioscope showed visuals ofgender texts and people couldchoose what they wanted to seefrom a set of films and videos. “Ifelt it was a great idea to representfilm and cinema. It was after all,one of the first ways that cinemacame to houses, knocking onpeople’s doors,” said she.
The festival also saw a two-day workshop conducted spe-cially for underprivileged adoles-cent girls, titled The LittleDirectors, led by Meena Sabnaniand Samina Mishra.
Women are often stereotyped andassociated to being “emotional.”
On International Women’s Day, KaraRivers, programme manager of Snapchattalks about how the social media platformis about creativity and self-expression,making it a place to portray one’s true self.
She brings six women artists fromacross India who have “unique perspec-tives on what it means to be women andto use Snapchat as a ‘microphone’ toempower them and give them a voice.”
Sumouli Dutta, from Kolkata, shares,“There are different kinds of women in theworld, all striving to do and give their best.By my doodle, I want to keep it Indian andshowcase that being desi can also be fun.”
Mira Malhotra, from Mumbai, sharesone of her experiences from which herdoodle has been inspired, “When Ireturned to India after the Gulf War ended,I could spot the difference between thefreedom that women experience in Indiaas compared to that in Saudi Arabia. I hadto delve deeper into the Indian culture. Mywork is inspired by both being an outsider,and an insider as well from witnessing theevolution of the Indian culture in the lastdecade.”
She adds, “My idea was to use thepower of women, their femininity and howthey are stronger when together. All of thefive concepts tie in to power: Women’spower as shown in Indian concepts ofdivinity (Goddess); power of friendshipbetween women (saheliyan, saheli swag);power of the sisterhood (sister shakti); andpower of women’s protest (mahila may-hem/stand together).”
Tanya Eden from Mumbai, believes in“overcoming hate and judgement every-day.”
She says, “As a woman this is what
inspires me to create my artwork onSnapchat, serving it back with boldnessand a hint of humour to represent women.The focus is to present a liberal, powerfulyoung woman who speaks her truth in thelocal slag lingo, sporting a bindi and non-traditional dresses,” and adds, “We are lib-erated today, but our journey has overcomehuge hurdles of judgement. Women inIndia come from diverse backgrounds, tra-ditions, religions and a misogynistic soci-ety. We have grown up thinking that thiswas the norm and been a blind eye to it.Being ‘woke’ today, we fight our past tobuild a better future, and celebrate theWomen’s Day in honour of our journey.”
Chaaya Prabhat and Sandhya Prabhat,sisters from Chennai, believe in bringingout the ‘extra-ordinariness of the ordinaryIndian woman.’ They say, “It aims to por-tray power, creativity and free expression,and hearty female friendships in theIndian context.”
For Parvati Pillai, from Kerala,“being a woman is about camaraderie,courage, determination and inner beau-ty. My stickers focus on independence,sisterhood and love which are animportant part of being an Indianwoman in the current time. ThisWomen’s Day, I hope my stickersinspire women to continue to overcomebigotry and live their lives to theirfullest. My art is a tribute to thewomen who inspire me to be strongerand better everyday.”
Jyotirmayee Patra, from Odisha,says, “I create art related to life and well-ness. I practice and promote self-loveand self-empowerment through mywork. The stickers are a combination ofbold and organic lettering, especially thewarm tones like reds and yellows whichare some of the significant colours in theIndian festivals. The type and illustra-tions are inspired by Indian matchboxand packaging graphics. Some of the slo-gans/ phrases are in Hinglish which is themillennial lingo.”
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Studies and research on womenchefs the world over are few and farbetween. However, a 2014 researchcame as a huge surprise to JoannaJames, a journalist-turned-film-
maker who is also the daughter of a femalerestaurateur, Val James. When she decidedto make her first documentary about hermother’s journey as a chef, restaurantowner and a single mother, she had no ideathat her mother’s struggle to establish her-self in the culinary industry was an ordinarystep among other women.
Joanna James’s film, A Fine Line unveiledas a love note to her mom in which shechronicled the difficulties that Val Jamesovercame, from finding bank loans tobabysitters — as she established her ownrestaurant in the early 1990s in centralMassachusetts. Eventually the documentarygrew into a much bigger story filled withdozens of additional voices from across theindustry. “I suddenly realised that what mymother had faced was part of a larger dis-cussion. I wanted my mom’s story to be thecompelling factor that moved everythingforward, but to also weave in the stories ofother female chefs,” said James.
THE INDIAN STORYMoving to the Indian scene. There are fewwomen chefs who climbed up the ladder toexecutive chef domains. One remembersNeeta Nagaraj of Taj Hotels who joined
Jaypee.She was
a frontrunner in
research aswell as haute
cuisine diploma-cy, if not an inspiration
to many younger womenchefs across the country. Despite
numerous examples and testimonies onthe internet, few studies have been done onthe challenges and success of women chefs.Even lesser studies are done with an aim toidentify the barriers women face and howthey have succeeded to achieve top chefs’positions in different specifics of culinaryhaute cuisine.
Fewer still are objective evaluations ofan entrepreneurial path, its motives, and theadvantages it offers to these women chefs.Among the few who have climbed the lad-der is chef Veena from The Imperial whohas a number of awards and accolades upher sleeve. Humble yet ingenious, versatileand charming, her prowess at Thai cuisinegoes back to her days in South East Asia andher family kitchen in which she watched the
matriarchs cook up different authenticrecipes. In India there are very few execu-tive chefs among women.
At the Imperial ever since 1996, chefVeena has been attached to the Spice RouteKitchen, as their Chef De Cuisine creatingcutting edge globally-renowned menus forevery season and occasion, throughout theyear. In her two decade long association, shecontinues to create different versions ofSouth East Asian cuisine for Neo-Thai foodlovers. Spice Route’s reckoning among thebest names on the global haute cuisinegraph is something chef Veena is proud of.
GENDER PERCEPTIONSWhile most might not voice it, but barriersfor women chefs are many. These includegender perceptions about their skills, capa-bilities and conforming to the work-life bal-ance. To face them, they have to be resilientwhile at the same time keep learning andcontinue to prove their competence at alltimes and at all levels. There are also veryfew instances of women chefs being giventhe chance to acquire management and lead-ership skills. It is not easy to be wholly ded-icated to careers at the expense of one’s ownfamily and social responsibilities.
History is full of examples of womenwho in pursuit of better balance moved toother niches of the profession or followedthe entrepreneurial path. The need of thehour then is better time management,flexibility and opportunities for profession-al evolution. Studying women in manage-ment positions in this Haute Cuisine fieldis particularly interesting because of thedichotomy of cooking which is considereda female task in the domestic sphere andmale one in the professional. In India toowe are in dire need of qualitative and quan-titative research so as to research gender bar-riers and success factors for women to lead-ership.
The research statistics also show thatmany female chefs believe that offering men-torships and apprenticeships, and havingthem in leadership positions, is critical toestablishing equal opportunities within theworkplace and policies that provide morework-life balance. Of great fame are someorganisations that are set up to helpadvancement of career and leadershipavenues for women. In India too we needorganisations like the James BeardFoundation and Les Dames d’Escoffier thathave established programmes aimed specif-ically at helping women advance within theculinary industry. Indeed this Women’s Day,we must admit we have a long way to go.
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Similar to fashion, baking alsoexplores, reinvents and reimaginecountless possibilities. It simply
means that baked delicacies that werepopular in 90s are now comparative-ly very less. For instance, an ice-creamcake which was a rave decades ago butsince then it is rarely served or eaten.Every year adds something new to abaker’s recipe and allows him/her toexperiment with new ingredients.
This year holds tremendousopportunities for gregarious bakerswho pave the culinary road ahead.Here are a few delectable treats, ingre-dients and techniques that chefs areexperimenting with.
A SOFT SPOT FOR BROWNBUTTER
Brown butter or Noisette butter isquite popular among chefs who bakespicy or salty food as well as amongchefs who are masters of sweet delica-cies. Expect more baked foods to bemade using brown butter in 2019. Beon the lookout for cinnamon sconesmade using brown butter or thoseslathered in brown butter creamcheese.
USE OF NATURAL COLOURS Artificial colours are no longer
being used in bakery products. Cakersfavour natural colours extracted fromfruits, vegetables, and various otherplants. Not only do natural coloursenhance the appearance of finishedbaked products, but they also enrichits taste. The added bonus — they arehealthier.
QUIRKY IS INPicture perfect edibles like deco-
rated cakes and pastries can be heart-breaking at times as one worriesabout ruining them. This is the major
reason why baking ideal food will notbe taken so seriously. Cakes will nolonger be a picture-perfect sculp-tures. In fact, it’s better if they don’t andinstead look offbeat and have a quirkyshape. Baking is supposed to be enjoy-able as is eating. Rather than focusing
on the aesthetical appearance of a cake,a greater emphasis will be placed onenjoying it while eating it.
RETRO BAKINGJust like in fashion, baking trends
too make a comeback after a certain
time. This is likely to be the case in2019. You can expect more nostalgicbaked treats like tea cakes that werefrequently served with the beverage afew decades ago. When searching fora good dessert at an upmarket bakeryor bistro in 2019, expect to see sconeson the menu.
TANGY TOUCH TO A SWEETDESSERT
Finally in 2019 many sweet dish-es will be accompanied by a fresh tangyflavour. Expect extra tanginess intarts and sour creams.
While baking is taking a tradition-al route today by using natural flavoursand discarding aesthetics in favour of
authenticity, therecould be surprisesahead as well. The con-tinuous experimenta-tion and effort frombakers will see a com-bination of dessertsthat were never eatenbefore and a resurgenceof those which werelast enjoyed duringchildhood.
THE CULINARYCHRONICLES
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Mahendra Singh Dhoni's final home-coming forms a poignant subplot
of an utterly dominant Indian team'squest for an unassailable 3-0 lead in thethird ODI against Australia on Friday.
A 3-0 lead in the five-match serieswill be a perfect parting gift for Ranchi'sfavourite son, who, in all likelihood, willbe seen wearing the India Blues for thelast time at his home ground.
There has been a sense of déjà vuevery time Dhoni has stepped on to thefield in the ongoing series.
It reminded many of Tendulkar'spenultimate Test series against Australiain 2013, when the cheer from the standswould amplify with each passing match.
Something similar has been happen-ing at every ground in this series, withthe fans possibly beginning to realise thatthe legend may not be around whenIndia next play at home.
Amidst the emotional side story, theIndian team is grappling with a fewteething issues regarding its top-orderbatting, especially senior opener ShikharDhawan's poor form, which has affect-ed India's starts of late.
Despite Dhawan having gone off theboil with only two half-centuries in thelast 15 ODIs, India are unlikely to tin-ker with the winning combination of thefirst two encounters.
KL Rahul, who is back in form, mayhave to wait till India clinch the series,but the team management could well tryhim out at the No 3 position.
The two victories — by six wicketsand eight runs — weren't exactly con-vincing but pulling off close matchesunder pressure will certainly add to theconfidence.
The bowling has been superb in bothgames with Australia failing to reach 250but save Virat Kohli, who stamped hisclass with another hundred on a slowJamtha track, none of the other batsmenhave looked the part so far.
Vice-captain Rohit Sharma, the sec-ond most consistent player in this line-up, looked good in the first game before
he got out.Kedar Jadhav and Dhoni shepherd-
ed India in the first match and didn'ttrouble the scorers in the next.
Ambati Rayudu, whose only signif-icant knock was the 90 against NewZealand in the last away series, has alsobeen inconsistent and can be replacedwith Rahul.
Rayudu, who has retired from first-class cricket, has found it difficult andhis primary problem has been not beingable to rotate the strike.
If Dhawan is persisted with, the best
way to give Rahul at least three gamesis to bring him at No 3 and the skippercoming at No 4 in place of Rayudu.
There are no such worries aboutIndian bowling as they have performedas a unit. The biggest gain in the secondgame has been Kedar Jadhav and VijayShankar performing their combinedrole of a fifth bowler to perfection.
Shankar's two wickets while bowlingthe final over will also instil confidencein his captain that in case HardikPandya has a breakdown, he has a fall-back option in the Tamil Nadu all-rounder.
However, he is still not somebodywho can bowl six to seven overs consis-tently in each game.
Mohammed Shami and JaspritBumrah have been outstanding in thetwo games so far. If Shami was lethalduring the opening spell of the firstgame, Bumrah set it up with anotherincredible effort at the death in the sec-ond.
One who is quietly inching towardsa slot in the World Cup-bound squad is
Ravindra Jadeja, who has bowled bril-liantly in those middle overs in tandemwith Kuldeep Yadav.
Siddarth Kaul has gone back and it'sclear that he is not the back-up pacerwhile Bhuvneshwar Kumar is back afterbeing rested.
His direct throw to get PeterHandscomb run-out once again provedhis utility in the field, more so in the 30-yard circle.
�9��India: Virat Kohli (captain), ShikharDhawan, Rohit Sharma, AmbatiRayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar,MS Dhoni (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, JaspritBumrah, Mohammed Shami, RavindraJadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rishabh Pant.Australia: Aaron Finch, UsmanKhawaja, Peter Handscomb, ShaunMarsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis,Ashton Turner, Jhye Richardson, AdamZampa, Andrew Tye, Pat Cummins,Nathan Coulter-Nile, Alex Carey,Nathan Lyon, Jason Behrendorff.
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The Indian women's cricket team suffereda five-wicket defeat to England in the
second T20 International, surrendering theseries with a sixth straight loss in the short-est format.
Chasing 112 for an unassailable 2-0 leadin the three-match series, England complet-ed the task in 19.1 overs, holding nerves afterlosing a few quick wickets.
Opener Danielle Wyatt was Engalnd'sstar performer with the bat, top-scoring withan unbeaten 64 off 55 balls. During her stayin the middle, Wyatt struck six boundaries,and was ably supported by Lauren Winfield(29).
While Wyatt held one end firm on theway to her fourth T20 half- century,England needed three back-to-back bound-aries by Winfield to take the game awayfrom India.
Opting to bowl, England produced abrilliant performance to prevent the hostsfrom putting up a big score at the BarsaparaCricket Stadium, with Katherine Bruntemerging as the most successful bowler.
The veteran seamer returned figures of3/17, sending back stand-in skipper SmritiMandhana (12) and Jemimah Rodrigues toput India on the backfoot.
The wicket of Mandhana was impor-tant for England as the opener had poweredIndia to 24 for no loss in 2.3 overs beforeBrunt had her caught behind.
Coming in to bat at one drop, the youngRodrigues (2) did not last long, gettingbowled by Brunt.
In the next over, the dismissal ofHarleen Deol by left-arm spinner LinseySmith (2/11) left the hosts in a spot of both-er at 34 for three.
The experienced Mithali Raj, in the lastleg of her career, top-scored with 20 off 27balls, while Deepti Sharma and BharatiFulmali contributed 18 each.
England were off to a steady start butslow left-armer Radha Yadav did not let theopening partnership flourish, disturbingTammy Beaumont's stumps in the fifth over.
Leg-spinner Poonam Yadav had AmyJones caught and bowled in a soft dismissaland Ekta Bisht picked up two wickets,including the big one of skipper HeatherKnight, to leave the visitors in trouble at 56for four.
But Wyatt and Winfield saw Englandthrough with their 47-run partnership forthe fifth wicket.
India bowled tightly and conceded justthree extras in comparison to England's 18.
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Former India captain SouravGanguly on Thursday backed
veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni tocontinue after the upcoming ODIWorld Cup, saying if someone hastalent "age is not a factor".
With the World Cup round thecorner, people have been predictingthe show-piece event to be Dhoni'slast international outing but Gangulythinks otherwise.
"Dhoni can continue after theWorld Cup. If India wins the Cupand Dhoni performs consistentlythen why should he retire. Age isnever a factor if talent is there,"Ganguly said.
Ganguly termed the currentIndian pace attack as "fantastic" andsaid the duo of Jasprit Bumrah andMohammed Shami will play a cru-cial role during the World Cup.
"The Indian pace attack is fan-tastic. Whether its Bumrah or Shami,the Indian pacers are performingconsistently. The pacers will play animportant factor for the team inEngland," said Ganguly.
According to Ganguly, UmeshYadav will go to the World Cup asfourth pacer after BhuvneshwarKumar.
Shikhar Dhawan might be goingthrough a lean patch off late, butGanguly backed the aggressive left-hander to partner Rohit Sharma upthe order.
"The opening combinationshould not be tweaked. RohitSharma and Shikhar Dhawan are theideal pair to give India a fast start.But K L Rahul is also there," he said.
"Shikhar and Rohit should open.
selection in the World Cup squad atthe cost of the Tamil Nadu all-rounder.
"Ravindra Jadeja should not bein the World Cup team. VijayShankar bowled beautifully in theNagpur match. I think Vijay deserveshis World Cup spot," he said.
Ganguly reiterated that India areamong one of the favourites to winthe World Cup, starting May 30 atthe Oval, London.
"India are one of the favouritesfor sure. But West Indies, NewZealand, Sri Lanka are also there inthe mix. Recently Sri Lanka havebeen in terrific form. They defeat-ed South Africa. I think it will be asuperb World Cup," he said.
Australia may be going throughone of their worst phases butGanguly still believes the return ofSteve Smith and David Warner willbe a big boost for the reigning worldchampions.
"Australia may be going througha rough patch. But there is nodoubt that the return of Smith andWarner will change the entire com-plexion of the team and withMaxwell already there, they will bea totally different outfit," he said.
Ganguly feels it's too early topredict India's playing XI in theWorld Cup but has picked up his 15-man probable squad.
"My squad will be — Rohitsharma, Shikhar Dhawan, K LRahul, Virat Kohli, Ambati Rayudu,Mahendra Singh Dhoni, KedarYadav, Hardik Pandya, VijayShankar, Kuldeep Yadav, YuzvendraChahal, Jasprit Bumrah,Mohammed Shami, BhuvneshwarKumar and Umesh Yadav," he con-cluded.
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India's World Cup-boundbowlers could pick and
choose matches during the sec-ond phase of IPL as part of theworkload management pro-gramme, senior pacerBhuvneshwar Kumar said onThursday.
The Indian team manage-ment has been categorical in itsdemand that the troika of JaspritBumrah, Mohammed Shamiand Bhuvneshwar Kumar'sworkload be effectively man-aged by franchises ahead of theWorld Cup starting May 30.
Asked about the gruellingIPL schedule, Bhuvneshwar,who is Sunrisers Hyderabad'skey bowler, said: "That's there inour minds. It will come intoplay after the first half of IPL,six-seven matches then we canknow how we can approach thesecond half of IPL and what weneed to do to remain fit for theWorld Cup.
"Yes, it (World Cup) is thereon our minds but we'll lookafter (our fitness) in the secondhalf of IPL," repliedBhuvneshwar, making it clearthat it will also be a prerogativeof the players and their discus-sions with franchises.
Bhuvneshwar said that if hefeels tired, he will take rest, butonly after taking the franchiseinto confidence.
"There isn't a surety for any-thing. Yes there is somethingwhich is mind, if I feel that youknow if I feel that I am tired,then we can take rest. So ofcourse it upto the franchise."
The pacer is hopeful thateach and every franchise willhave the Indian team's interestsin mind.
"I am sure they will coop-erate with each and every play-er because WC is a very impor-tant thing for us and BCCI mayalso talk to them," he said,adding that it is for "everyplayer playing World Cup".
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Committee ofAdministrators (COA)
chairman Vinod Rai onThursday said the BCCI is stillseeking an ICC ban on coun-tries that harbour terrorismdespite a recent rejection butwas non-committal onwhether India will boycottPakistan at the World Cup.
At its board meeting inDubai last week, theInternational Cricket Council(ICC) dismissed the BCCI'srequest to sever ties withcountries from where terror-ism emanates though theIndian Board did not make aspecific reference to Pakistan.
India and Pakistan are
scheduled to play in the WorldCup on June 16 and Rai saiddue process will be followedbefore the final decision istaken on boycotting the high-
octane clash in the wake of thePulwama terror attack.
"Let the time come. It isstill four months away. Wehave expressed our concerns
(over security) and they (ICC)said yes, 'security will be tight-ened' and everything else,"said Rai after a COA meeting.
Rai insisted that the ICChas not shot down BCCI'srequest of banning Pakistanfrom international cricket.
"The letter was placed. Itclearly says Pakistan. It is aprocess which goes slow. Havewe been able to boycott any ofthe countries in the SecurityCouncil? The process goes onslowly. We have started aprocess," said the formerCAG.
The India-Pakistan matterwill be among the issues theCOA will discuss with ICCchairman Shashank Manoharin Mumbai later this month.
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The Committee of Administrators(COA) running Indian cricket on
Thursday referred the investigation intoK L Rahul and Hardik Pandya's sexistremarks to the newly-appointedOmbudsman D K Jain, who will decide ifthe cricketers will get a punishment moresevere than the already served provision-al suspensions.
Rahul and Pandya were suspended fortheir loose talk on women on a popularTV show but their suspension was even-tually revoked pending an inquiry to beconducted by a Supreme Court-appoint-ed Ombudsman.
"We have referred the matter concern-ing Rahul and Pandya to the Ombudsman.He has just taken charge (earlier thismonth) and it is the only case we have
referred so far. It is his domain entirely andhe will take a call," said COA chief VinodRai when asked about the possibility ofRahul and Pandya receiving a stricter pun-ishment.
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Other than the two, Rahul isanother batsman who can open."
Ganguly feels in-form Indiaskipper Virat Kohli should con-tinue to bat at the crucial No 3position followed by AmbattiRayudu, Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav.
"Virat is being Virat. He is ontop of his game," he said.
"Virat should bat in is usualnumber 3 slot. Rayudu at 4,Dhoni at 5 and Kedar at number6."
The resurgence of VijayShankar will prove to be aheadache for the selectors, opinesGanguly, adding that RavindraJadeja shouldn't be considered for
