˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is...

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D elhi’s Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung resigned from his post on Thursday evening ending a nearly three-and-half- year-long eventful tenure, most- ly marked by bitter confronta- tion with the AAP Government on a range of issues that virtu- ally brought governance to a halt on many occasions. His resignation that came out of the blue not only stumped the political dispen- sations in the national Capital but also set many tongues wag- ging as to what could have been the reason behind his surprise decision to quit the guberna- torial post. An undated letter in which Jung had written to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi about his planned private visit to Goa, surfaced after his res- ignation adding further fuel to speculation about the reason for his resignation. In the letter, Jung said, “I will be undertaking a private visit to Goa from December 25, 2016 to January 1, 2017. I will leave Delhi in the afternoon of Sunday, December 25, 2016, and will be back on evening of Sunday, January 1, 2017.” The latter further says that in his absence, the Delhi Chief Secretary would keep in touch with him about important developments seek MHA’s advice where necessary. Sources said that Jung’s surprise move to abdicate his post has definitely got to do with his meeting with the Union Home Secretary on Tuesday. It appears that Jung was nudged by the Home Ministry of resign. However, the Union Home Secretary said he came to know about the resignation from the media.”The L-G met me day before yesterday but he did not give any indication of submitting his resignation. Another meeting of mine with the LG is scheduled for tomorrow,” he said. Meanwhile Ajay Chowdhry the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Jung said that the Lt Governor was mulling his resignation for quite some time as he wanted to pursue his other interests such as academics. Well placed sources also said Lieutenant Governor’s decision was not unexpected as he was contemplating to quit his post. They also claimed that Jung’s resignation has got noth- ing to do with bitter relation- ship with the AAP Government. “His decision to quit was not at all related to his relationship with the Arvind Kejriwal Government. It was pure- ly a personal decision as he wanted to pursue his other interests,” they said. While announcing his res- ignation, the Lt- Governor thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “help and cooperation”. Jung, who was at loggerheads with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has also extended gratitude to the latter. Jung has expressed wish to return to academics. “He thanked the Hon’ble Prime Minister for all the help and cooperation received dur- ing his tenure as the Lt- Governor of Delhi. He also thanks the people of Delhi for all their support and affec- tion,” said a statement issued by Raj Niwas. P urchasing a vehicle may become a Herculean task soon if you are not able to fur- nish proof of legal parking space. The proposal, a highly impractical one given the ground reality of Indian cities, could trigger a massive con- troversy and attract protest from stakeholders. As traffic situation and parking problem worsening day after day, the Government is mulling to allow registration of vehicles only after the buyer produces evidence of parking space. The move, authorities hope, would decongest traffic in cities. However, the decision could be highly impractical given the fact that even in most colonies in a city like Delhi res- idents don’t have designated parking spaces. Forget about those who make use of empty spaces in unorgansiased clus- ters to park their vehicles. Insisting that he was “very keen” to put in place such rid- ers for vehicles’ registration, Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said his Ministry is in discussions with the Road Transport Ministry in this regard. “I am holding discussion with Nitin Gadkari and also sensitising the States. We are moving in that direction (to get such a mech- anism implemented),” he said. The civic administrations across Indian cities have failed to provide adequate parking spaces, leading to several cars being parked on roads, causing traffic snarl while leaving pedestrians at the receiving end. Concerned at the rising traffic in the cities, particular- ly metros like Delhi, the Government has been taking various steps to curb private vehicle usage. Some of these cities are implementing Bus Rapid Transit System, building multi-level parking lots, doling out funds to States to purchase public transport and increasing tax on new vehicles. For Delhi, a Central panel set up by the Government had recommended increasing park- ing fees to discourage use of private vehicles, imposing con- gestion tax and steep hike in penalty for parking violations by 10 times the normal rates. “Several cities in the world have changed their parking policy to decongest them. In fact, some Indian cities like Jaipur and Gangtok have taken measures to cap the number of vehicles in the city by asking people to fur- nish proof of legal parking space,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, advocacy and research, Centre for Science and Environment. New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has arrested hawala trader Paras Mal Lodha for converting over Rs 25 crore demonetised notes linked to industrialist J Sekhar Reddy and lawyer Rohit Tandon into new currency. A city court later sent Lodha to seven-day ED custody. The Kolkata-based busi- nessman was arrested on Wednesday evening after hours of questioning by the ED officials. “We had called Lodha on Wednesday for questioning him over the conversion of more than Rs 25 crore of old notes to new currency in Shekhar Reddy and Rohit Tandon cases. New Delhi: RBI Governor Urjit Patel will brief a parlia- mentary panel on January 19 on issues concerning demon- etisation and its implications on the economy, sources said. The Standing Committee on Finance, which met on Thursday under the chair- manship of Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, was briefed about demonetisation by var- ious experts. The experts, according to the sources, were divided on the Government’s decision of cash recall. The committee, the sources said, has called Patel on January 19 to brief the members about the contours of demonetisation and also the efforts being made by the central bank to ease cash crunch in the economy. Detailed report on P10 K isi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while defending his decision on demonetisation at Swatantrata Bhawan in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi on Thursday. A day after Rahul accused him of taking money from Sahara and Birla groups when he was Gujarat Chief Minister, Modi said, “He (Rahul) had been going around threatening that when he speaks, there will be an earthquake. If he hadn’t spoken, there could have been an earthquake. It would have been an earthquake that people would have had to deal with for 10 years. There is no chance of an earthquake now that he has spoken. We can rest assured that there is no danger of the natural calamity in sight.” The PM took potshots at Rahul for his assertion that payments through cards, online transfers, etc, would face hur- dles in the country due to low literacy levels, saying, “I hope he does not say that I had indulged in some sort of black magic to make illiterate those who knew how to read and write. He never thinks before he speaks and he may not have realised that he has admit- ted the failure of the long reign of his own party,” Modi said, adding his detractors have been forced “to admit, even if unwittingly, their failures”. Modi said the “young leader” of Congress does not think before speaking and had unwittingly admitted to the “failure” of his party’s reign. Calling himself “Kashi ka bachcha” (a child of Kashi, the name associated with Varanasi), Modi said, “I am, nonetheless, delighted to see that the power of this holy land has made me work and forced detractors to admit, even if unwittingly, their failures”. Modi also slammed the Opposition for stalling Parliament over demonetiza- tion. He likened it to the “cover fire” given by Pakistani forces to help terrorists in infiltration and mocked Rahul Gandhi for his “earthquake” remark, saying he has “learnt to speak”. Continued on Page 4 H ours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi poked fun at his oratory skill, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday greeted him with a poser: What was contained in the “10 packets” allegedly given by the Sahara Group to him when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister? Speaking at the ‘jan aakrosh rally’ at Bahraich the in poll- bound Uttar Pradesh, Rahul waved sheets of paper which purportedly contained details of charges against Modi having allegedly accepted money from Sahara and Birla groups when he was Gujarat Chief Minister and asked the Prime Minister to tell whether the documents were correct or not. The Congress vice president told the Prime Minister that he could make fun of him as much as he can but should answer the questions raised by him. “The charges have not been levelled by me alone but by the youth of India who feel cheat- ed as you had promised them jobs,” an aggressive Rahul said. Sticking to his guns, he alleged Modi as the Gujarat Chief Minister had taken Rs 40 crore from the Sahara group in nine installments spread over six months in 2013 and 2014. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: Though the BJP was guarded in its reaction to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung’s sudden move to quit, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said the L-G was under AAP Government’s pressure. He said a BJP delegation had met Jung on Wednesday over delimitation of municipal wards and Jung had “expressed” his dis- pleasure with the AAP Government. “Even then (yester- day) he was upset with the AAP Government stalling work. But we did not foresee this. He told us that he was going a week-long leave. Delhi needed him,” Gupta said. However, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said resignation appears to L-G’s personal decision. “Jung served Delhi quite well for almost four years and Delhiites wish him best future,” said Tiwari. “Delhi will always remember him for his firm commitment towards constitutional propriety as a constitutional head and as a remarkable poet in his individual capacity,” he added. New Delhi: Raising questions over Lt Governor Najeeb Jung’s sudden resignation, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken on Thursday demanded that the Centre should explain the reasons behind his “uncere- monious exit”, saying there is more to it than meets the eye. Maken also suggested that Jung’s sudden exit may be the result of a “deal” between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “We want to know whether there was any deal between Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal in the sudden resig- nation of Jung as he was appar- ently under pressure, or whether the BJP and the Central Government want to bring in an RSS-connected or RSS-supported person as the LG of Delhi. “The Centre must explain the circumstances leading to Jung’s exit,” he said addressing a press conference. Continued on Page 4 N ajeeb Jung’s resignation from the post of Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor on Thursday took the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its Government in Delhi by sur- prise as it said Jung was Narendra Modi’s man. The rul- ing party, which has had fre- quent run-ins with the Lt- Governor during his tenure, took a dig at the LG, saying he worked under the “influence” of the Modi dispensation. However, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal described the resignation of Lt Governor Najeeb Jung a “surprise” move while his deputy Manish Sisodia said working with him was a “bitter-sweet” experi- ence, but the AAP Government and Jung did a “good job in Delhi together”. Kejriwal and Sisodia spoke to Jung over phone and wished him luck for his future. The Delhi Chief Minister said it was “good” working with him. “Jung’s resignation is a sur- prise to me. My best wishes in all his future endeavours,” Kejriwal tweeted. Sisodia said, “(Jung) told me he was feeling tired and wanted to work for education. During the 49-day regime as well, we had bitter-sweet expe- rience with him. In health, education, electricity, we and the L-G worked together.” “Despite all the bitter-sweet experiences, I can say that together with Najeeb Jung we have good job for Delhi,” he tweeted.

Transcript of ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is...

Page 1: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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�����������������(����)������� ��� )49(48:,

Delhi’s Lieutenant GovernorNajeeb Jung resigned from

his post on Thursday eveningending a nearly three-and-half-year-long eventful tenure, most-ly marked by bitter confronta-tion with the AAP Governmenton a range of issues that virtu-ally brought governance to ahalt on many occasions.

His resignation that cameout of the blue not onlystumped the political dispen-sations in the national Capitalbut also set many tongues wag-ging as to what could have beenthe reason behind his surprisedecision to quit the guberna-torial post.

An undated letter in whichJung had written to UnionHome Secretary Rajiv Mehrishiabout his planned private visitto Goa, surfaced after his res-ignation adding further fuel tospeculation about the reasonfor his resignation.

In the letter, Jung said, “Iwill be undertaking a privatevisit to Goa from December 25,2016 to January 1, 2017. I willleave Delhi in the afternoon ofSunday, December 25, 2016,and will be back on evening ofSunday, January 1, 2017.”

The latter further says thatin his absence, the Delhi ChiefSecretary would keep in touchwith him about importantdevelopments seek MHA’sadvice where necessary.

Sources said that Jung’ssurprise move to abdicate hispost has definitely got to dowith his meeting with theUnion Home Secretary onTuesday. It appears that Jungwas nudged by the HomeMinistry of resign.

However, the Union HomeSecretary said he came to know

about the resignation from themedia.”The L-G met me daybefore yesterday but he did notgive any indication of submittinghis resignation. Another meetingof mine with the LG is scheduledfor tomorrow,” he said.

Meanwhile AjayChowdhry the Officer onSpecial Duty (OSD) to Jungsaid that the Lt Governor wasmulling his resignation forquite some time as he wantedto pursue his other interestssuch as academics.

Well placed sources alsosaid Lieutenant Governor’sdecision was not unexpected ashe was contemplating to quithis post. They also claimed thatJung’s resignation has got noth-ing to do with bitter relation-ship with the AAPGovernment. “His decision toquit was not at all related to his

relationship with theArvind KejriwalGovernment. It was pure-ly a personal decision as hewanted to pursue his otherinterests,” they said.

While announcing his res-ignation, the Lt- Governorthanked Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for “help andcooperation”. Jung, who was atloggerheads with Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal, hasalso extended gratitude to thelatter. Jung has expressed wishto return to academics.

“He thanked the Hon’blePrime Minister for all the helpand cooperation received dur-ing his tenure as the Lt-Governor of Delhi. He alsothanks the people of Delhi forall their support and affec-tion,” said a statement issued byRaj Niwas.

���� )49(48:,

Purchasing a vehicle maybecome a Herculean task

soon if you are not able to fur-nish proof of legal parkingspace. The proposal, a highlyimpractical one given theground reality of Indian cities,could trigger a massive con-troversy and attract protestfrom stakeholders.

As traffic situation andparking problem worseningday after day, the Governmentis mulling to allow registrationof vehicles only after the buyerproduces evidence of parkingspace. The move, authoritieshope, would decongest trafficin cities. However, the decisioncould be highly impracticalgiven the fact that even in mostcolonies in a city like Delhi res-idents don’t have designatedparking spaces. Forget about

those who make use of emptyspaces in unorgansiased clus-ters to park their vehicles.

Insisting that he was “verykeen” to put in place such rid-ers for vehicles’ registration,Union Urban DevelopmentMinister Venkaiah Naidu saidhis Ministry is in discussionswith the Road TransportMinistry in this regard. “I amholding discussion with NitinGadkari and also sensitising theStates. We are moving in thatdirection (to get such a mech-anism implemented),” he said.

The civic administrationsacross Indian cities have failedto provide adequate parking

spaces, leading to several carsbeing parked on roads, causingtraffic snarl while leavingpedestrians at the receivingend.

Concerned at the risingtraffic in the cities, particular-ly metros like Delhi, theGovernment has been takingvarious steps to curb privatevehicle usage. Some of thesecities are implementing BusRapid Transit System, buildingmulti-level parking lots, dolingout funds to States to purchasepublic transport and increasingtax on new vehicles.

For Delhi, a Central panelset up by the Government had

recommended increasing park-ing fees to discourage use ofprivate vehicles, imposing con-gestion tax and steep hike inpenalty for parking violationsby 10 times the normal rates.

“Several cities in theworld have changed theirparking policy to decongestthem. In fact, some Indian

cities like Jaipur and Gangtokhave taken measures to capthe number of vehicles in thecity by asking people to fur-nish proof of legal parkingspace,” said AnumitaRoychowdhury, executivedirector, advocacy andresearch, Centre for Scienceand Environment.

New Delhi: The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Thursdaysaid it has arrested hawalatrader Paras Mal Lodha forconverting over Rs 25 croredemonetised notes linked toindustrialist J Sekhar Reddyand lawyer Rohit Tandon intonew currency. A city courtlater sent Lodha to seven-dayED custody.

The Kolkata-based busi-nessman was arrested onWednesday evening after hours of questioning by the EDofficials. “We had called Lodhaon Wednesday for questioninghim over the conversion ofmore than Rs 25 crore of oldnotes to new currency inShekhar Reddy and RohitTandon cases.

New Delhi: RBI GovernorUrjit Patel will brief a parlia-mentary panel on January 19on issues concerning demon-etisation and its implications onthe economy, sources said.

The Standing Committeeon Finance, which met onThursday under the chair-manship of Congress leader MVeerappa Moily, was briefedabout demonetisation by var-ious experts. The experts,according to the sources, weredivided on the Government’sdecision of cash recall.

The committee, the sourcessaid, has called Patel on January19 to brief the members aboutthe contours of demonetisationand also the efforts being madeby the central bank to ease cashcrunch in the economy.

Detailed report on P10

��� ���������� 01+1)1',

Kisi ka kala dhan khul rahahai, to kisi ka kala mann,

(black money of some is beingdisclosed, and black intent ofsome others), said PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whiledefending his decision ondemonetisation at SwatantrataBhawan in Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) in Varanasion Thursday.

A day after Rahul accusedhim of taking money fromSahara and Birla groups whenhe was Gujarat Chief Minister,Modi said, “He (Rahul) hadbeen going around threateningthat when he speaks, therewill be an earthquake. If hehadn’t spoken, there could havebeen an earthquake. It wouldhave been an earthquake thatpeople would have had to dealwith for 10 years. There is nochance of an earthquake nowthat he has spoken. We can restassured that there is no dangerof the natural calamity in sight.”

The PM took potshots atRahul for his assertion thatpayments through cards, onlinetransfers, etc, would face hur-dles in the country due to lowliteracy levels, saying, “I hopehe does not say that I hadindulged in some sort of blackmagic to make illiterate thosewho knew how to read andwrite. He never thinks beforehe speaks and he may nothave realised that he has admit-ted the failure of the long reign

of his own party,” Modi said,adding his detractors havebeen forced “to admit, even ifunwittingly, their failures”.

Modi said the “youngleader” of Congress does notthink before speaking and hadunwittingly admitted to the“failure” of his party’s reign.

Calling himself “Kashi kabachcha” (a child of Kashi, thename associated withVaranasi), Modi said, “I am,nonetheless, delighted to see

that the power of this holy landhas made me work and forceddetractors to admit, even ifunwittingly, their failures”.

Modi also slammed theOpposition for stallingParliament over demonetiza-tion. He likened it to the “coverfire” given by Pakistani forcesto help terrorists in infiltrationand mocked Rahul Gandhi forhis “earthquake” remark, sayinghe has “learnt to speak”.

Continued on Page 4

���� )49(48:,;-1:+1,*:

Hours after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi poked fun

at his oratory skill, Congressvice president Rahul Gandhi onThursday greeted him with aposer: What was contained inthe “10 packets” allegedly givenby the Sahara Group to himwhen he was the Gujarat ChiefMinister?

Speaking at the ‘jan aakroshrally’ at Bahraich the in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Rahulwaved sheets of paper whichpurportedly contained details ofcharges against Modi havingallegedly accepted money fromSahara and Birla groups whenhe was Gujarat Chief Ministerand asked the Prime Ministerto tell whether the documentswere correct or not. TheCongress vice president told thePrime Minister that he couldmake fun of him as much as hecan but should answer the

questions raised by him. “The charges have not been

levelled by me alone but by theyouth of India who feel cheat-ed as you had promised themjobs,” an aggressive Rahul said.

Sticking to his guns, he

alleged Modi as the GujaratChief Minister had taken Rs 40crore from the Sahara group in nine installmentsspread over six months in 2013and 2014.

Continued on Page 4

New Delhi: Though the BJP wasguarded in its reaction to LtGovernor Najeeb Jung’s suddenmove to quit, Leader ofOpposition in the DelhiAssembly Vijender Gupta saidthe L-G was under AAPGovernment’s pressure. He said a BJP delegation hadmet Jung on Wednesday over

delimitation of municipal wardsand Jung had “expressed” his dis-pleasure with the AAP

Government. “Even then (yester-day) he was upset with the AAP

Government stalling work. But wedid not foresee this. He told us thathe was going a week-long leave.Delhi needed him,” Gupta said.

However, Delhi BJP presidentManoj Tiwari said resignationappears to L-G’s personal decision.“Jung served Delhi quite well foralmost four years and Delhiiteswish him best future,” said Tiwari.

“Delhi will always rememberhim for his firm commitmenttowards constitutional propriety asa constitutional head and as aremarkable poet in his individualcapacity,” he added.

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New Delhi: Raising questionsover Lt Governor Najeeb Jung’ssudden resignation, DelhiCongress chief Ajay Makenon Thursday demanded thatthe Centre should explain thereasons behind his “uncere-monious exit”, saying there ismore to it than meets the eye.

Maken also suggested thatJung’s sudden exit may be theresult of a “deal” between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andDelhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal.

“We want to know whetherthere was any deal betweenNarendra Modi and ArvindKejriwal in the sudden resig-nation of Jung as he was appar-ently under pressure, orwhether the BJP and theCentral Government want tobring in an RSS-connected orRSS-supported person as theLG of Delhi.

“The Centre must explainthe circumstances leading toJung’s exit,” he said addressinga press conference.

Continued on Page 4

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����������� )49(48:,

Najeeb Jung’s resignationfrom the post of Delhi’s

Lieutenant-Governor onThursday took the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) and itsGovernment in Delhi by sur-prise as it said Jung wasNarendra Modi’s man. The rul-ing party, which has had fre-quent run-ins with the Lt-Governor during his tenure,took a dig at the LG, saying heworked under the “influence” ofthe Modi dispensation.

However, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal described theresignation of Lt GovernorNajeeb Jung a “surprise” movewhile his deputy ManishSisodia said working with himwas a “bitter-sweet” experi-ence, but the AAP Governmentand Jung did a “good job inDelhi together”.

Kejriwal and Sisodia spoketo Jung over phone and wishedhim luck for his future. TheDelhi Chief Minister said it was“good” working with him.

“Jung’s resignation is a sur-

prise to me. My best wishes inall his future endeavours,”Kejriwal tweeted.

Sisodia said, “(Jung) toldme he was feeling tired andwanted to work for education.During the 49-day regime aswell, we had bitter-sweet expe-rience with him. In health,education, electricity, we andthe L-G worked together.”“Despite all the bitter-sweetexperiences, I can say thattogether with Najeeb Jung wehave good job for Delhi,” hetweeted.

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Page 2: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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If sources are to be believed,the State police chief is dis-

appointed over appointment ofdistrict police chiefs without hisconsent. Though the directorgeneral of police in general hasa say in the appointment of dis-trict police chiefs, inUttarakhand, the DGP appar-ently has no say in the appoint-ment of district police chiefswith political executives —Cabinet Ministers purported-ly appointing district policechiefs as per their choice.

Sources said that the Statepolice chief is learnt to have beendisappointed over the series ofappointments of the districtpolice chiefs made at the behestof the State administration with-out taking him into confidence.He is learnt to have shared hisopinion with his close aides, say-ing that such arbitrary appoint-ments stand contrary to thelong-continuing convention oftaking the State DGP into con-fidence. Such actions adverselyimpact the professional func-tioning of the law — enforcingforces. Pauri senior superinten-dent of police, Nivedita Kukretiwas recently transferred fromPauri to police headquarters inDehradun. Though she had not

made any error on her part inthe discharging of her respon-sibility of putting check oncrimes, maintaining law andorder and capable of conductingfair Vidhan Sabha election.

Before Sadanand Date wastransferred from the post ofDehradun SSP, the DGP MAGanapathy earlier had said onmany occasions that DehradunSSP Date would not be trans-ferred as he was working effi-ciently. In a move that sur-prised many, Date who hadbeen handling the post ofDehradun SSP for about 15months has been shifted topolice headquarters withSweety Aggarwal being trans-ferred from the post of NainitalSSP to replace Date.

Observers say that it was anill-timed move, given the factthat Date had worked to tack-le crimes in the district.Besides, the election beinground the corner, the moveappears doubly surprising, theysay. However, it was learnt thatDate was purportedly trans-ferred from the Dehradun SSP’spost on the direction of a statecabinet minister.

Moreover, Anant ShankarTakwale was replaced withSenthil Akdai Krishna Raj Sfrom the post of SSP Udham

Singh Nagar in October. But,before this posting, in a quicksuccession, Takwale was madeSSP of Udham Singh Nagarthrice without consent of DGPpurportedly by political exec-utives including state minister.

It is learnt that RajeevSwaroop was made SSP ofHaridwar without consent ofstate police chief. He was madeSSP of Haridwar twice. In hisfirst tenure as SSP, he wasremoved from the post forapparently failing to put acheck on crimes and maintainlaw and order in the district.

While talking to ThePioneer state DGP MAGanapathy said that police offi-cers should work effectively ontheir assignment and not both-er about where they are posted.

Critics opined that it hasbeen seen that some of the SSPrank officers in Uttarakhandappear to seek the ‘benevo-lence’ of political executives fortheir transfer unless they areposted in four districts —Haridwar, Dehradun, UdhamSingh Nagar and Nainital. Fewof them appear to be enthusi-astic about posting in moun-tainous districts of a statewhich was formed for the wel-fare of the people living inmountainous region.

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The doctors of the State cap-ital would be informed

about intricacies of the medicolegal cases by senior counsel ofthe Supreme Court during the59th annual symposium ofIndian Medical Association(IMA) Dehradun. The sympo-sium would be held onDecember 24 and 25.

Informing about the sym-posium the president of the dis-trict unit of IMA, Dr JP Sharmatold newsmen here onThursday that the symposiumis being organised to abreastthe doctors with the latestdevelopments in the fields ofmedicine, surgery, gynecology,pediatrics, neurology andnephrology. “ This year we arehaving a separate medico legalsession which is quite interac-tive to help us do our job with-in the limits of the law as wellas to deal with ever increasingincidents of nuisance againstthe doctors,’’ he said.

The secretary of the IMADehradun Dr Mohit Goyalsaid that transport ministerNav Prabhat would be thechief guest on the first day ofthe symposium. The President-the association of surgeons ofIndia, Dr SK Mishra would bethe guest of honour in the pro-gramme. Dr Goyal informedthat internationally famedspeakers like Dr PriyankUniyal, Dr Arti Luthra, ProffBrig R Kakkar,Dr AmarUpadhyaya and others wouldhold discussions on infertility,management of infections innewborn children, arthritis,kidney failure, heart attack andepilepsy. A special session onminimally invasive surgery ofthe spine and cancer of the gallbladder would also be held inthe symposium.

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The Congress in Uttarakhandis set to begin its publicity

campaign for the comingVidhan Sabha polls with theparty’s national vice-presidentRahul Gandhi slated to addressa public rally in Almora onFriday. Later, he is also sched-uled to address public gather-ings in Dehradun andHaridwar. Congress presidentSonia Gandhi is also slated toattend a programme in theState, the schedule for whichwill be announced later, said theUttarakhand Pradesh CongressCommittee chief publicitycoordinator Dhirendra Pratap.While chief minister Harish

Rawat and some other cabinetministers on a spree of inau-gurations and foundation stoneunveilings and PCC chiefKishore Upadhyay is busy withthe party’s Satat Vikas SankalpYatra, skeptics doubt whetherRahul Gandhi’s public address-es will have any positive impacton the internal friction in theCongress in Uttarakhand.

In a statement issued to themedia on Thursday evening,Pratap opined that the Congresswould secure complete major-ity in the coming Vidhan Sabhaelections in Uttarakhand. “OnDecember 23, Rahul Gandhiwill address a public gatheringat Almora to launch the cam-paign of the Congress party for

the coming Assembly polls.After Almora, the party nation-al vice president is also slated toaddress the public in the statecapital Dehradun andHaridwar,” said Pratap, who isalso the working chairman ofthe Rajya Andolankari SammanParishad. He further said thatthe All India CongressCommittee general secretaryand the party’s Utarakhand incharge Ambika Soni had initi-ated the election procedure ofthe Congress. The list ofCongress candidates for theVidhan Sabha elections will bereleased in the first week ofJanuary 2017, he said.

Observers point out thatthe recent spate of development

work ‘inaugurations’ andunveiling of foundation stonesfor projects apart from a rangeof announcements andapprovals aimed at placatingvarious segments of societyand voters could also be viewedas ground work for theCongress vice president to harpon. While the party leadershipmay focus on the develop-mental claims, the internal sit-uation of the Congress partyorganisation is not in a veryproactive state at the momentwhich might even cause someembarrassment to the partyduring Rahul Gandhi’s if nec-essary measures are not takento keep the factionalism andrelated issues.

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In order to improve administration,Dehradun SSP Sweety Aggarwal has trans-

ferred circle officers and sub-inspectors onThursday. As per Press note released, ChandraMohan Singh has been transferred fromVikasnagar and made CO, Kotwali. COManoj Katiyal who was deputed at Kotwali has

been transferred to Rishikesh. Harbans Singhhas been transferred and made CO Dowiala.He was earlier deputed as CO Traffic. PankajGairola who has deputed as CO, Dalanwala hasbeen transferred to Vikasnagar. Sub-inspectorMahesh Rawat has been transferred fromPolice lines to Patelnagar. Sub inspector (spe-cial category) Bachan Singh has been trans-ferred from Police lines to Rajpur.

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Dehradun: The university and college teachers are up in armsagainst the decision of HNB Garhwal University to hold semes-ter examination during the winter vacation. The GarhwalUniversity and college Teachers Association (GRUTA) has threat-ened that the teachers would not do invigilation duties fromJanuary 1 to January 14. The HNB Garhwal University is hold-ing its semester examination from December 19 to January 16.

The association has also dashed off a letter to the ViceChancellor (VC) of the university on the issue. The general sec-retary of GRUTA, Dr DK Tyagi said that the university owingto mismanagement declared the examination of I and III semes-ter during the winter break which is most unfortunate. He saidthat the according to the calendar of the university the wintervacations are slated between December 31 to January 14. Tyagisaid the last date of online form submission of the universitywas September 30 which was arbitrarily extended many timesand the university continued this process till December 1 dueto which the semester examinations were postponed toDecember 19 from the earlier scheduled December 12. He saidthat the university implemented the semester and CBCS sys-tem but no provision for faculty members for Modern IndianLiterature (MIL) and MIL communication which were addedin the syllabus. The GRUTA has told the University that it wouldfollow the academic calendar and all its 400 members wouldobserve winter vacation from January 1. PNS

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The agitated teachers owingallegiance with the

Rajkeeya Shikshak Sangh(RSS) locked the entrance ofthe education directorate hereon Thursday. The RSS, theassociation of lecturers and theLecturer Teachers (LT) isannoyed on the Governmentfor failure to fulfill its demands.

These teachers gatheredat the education directorateunder the leadership ofPresident of RSS, Ram SinghChauhan in the morning andundertook a Dharna. Themembers also locked the direc-torate. Addressing the teachers,Chauhan blamed the state gov-ernment for not fulfilling theagreement reached between it

and the association in themonth of September. He saidthat the department has stalledthe process of transfers of LTsand lecturers even though ithad conducted the counselingsessions for teachers eligible fortransfers. The RSS is alsodemanding that the govern-ment should abolish the quotaof basic teachers in the pro-motions over the post of prin-cipals of the junior schools.The leaders of the organiza-tions threatened to boycottinvigilation and evaluation inthe board examinations if thegovernment continues toignore its demands. TheGeneral Secretary of the asso-ciation Sohan Singh Majila,Shiv Singh Negi also addressedthe agitators.

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Dehradun: Ahead of the Vidhan Sabha election slated for 2017, the district magistrate and district election officer Ravinath Ramanhas appointed nodal officers constituency-wise for monitoring election campaigning expenditure which will be spent by candidatesof various political parties and independent candidates. Mohammad Gulfam Ahmed, chief treasury officer has been appointed as nodal

officer-election expenditure while Sanjeev Kumar Singh, senior finance officerof animal husbandry was made assistant nodal officer election expenditure.Assistant treasury officer Tyuni, Bheem Singh and assistant treasury officer, GirishLal has been deputed at expenditure monitoring cell and call centre. The elec-tion officer has made several teams including flying squad, video monitoring teamand others on constituency wise. All the Police station officers have been direct-ed to form a surveillance team comprised of four police personnel in their juris-diction. Regional Tehsildar, additional Tehsildar would assist the formed sur-veillance team at their level. Magisterial power has been given to video vigilanceteam officer and flying squad officer. The district officials who have been appoint-ed on election duty have been directed to act as per Election Commission of India’sguidelines. All the employees deputed on election duty have been directed to attenda meeting at 11.30 am at the Town Hall for their training on December 26.PNS

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Page 3: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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Spree of inauguration andfoundation laying of pro-

jects continuing in full swingwith a few days left for theElection Commission to enforcethe model code of conduct, theUnion Minister of State forWater Resources, RiverDevelopment and GangaRejuvenation, Dr SanjeevBalyan laid the foundation stoneof projects worth �50 crore forconstruction of bathing ghatsand a crematoria under theNamami Gange Project on thebanks of Ganga in Haridwar onThursday. The Minister said hewas feeling elated doing some-thing for the people who cometo Mother Ganga for pilgrimagefrom across the country and theworld. “Conservation of Gangabeing a massive task, the Centre,the State and the general pub-lic must come together to pushthings on,” he said.

Taking a dig at the former

UPA Government at theCentre, he said it had donenothing to clean and conservethe holy river. “However, we aretrying our best to fulfill our

mission of presenting a cleanGanga to the world. This is whywe are now laying the founda-tion stone of projects worth �50crore,” he added.

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Despite the Union Ministerof Water Resources, River

Development and GangaRejuvenation, Uma Bharti lay-ing foundation stone of 250projects on Rishikul groundsearlier in July this year and thedeadline of the completionbeing fixed for October thisyear, things are still incomplete,spurring criticism that theMinisters, both of the Centreand the State, are merely milk-ing the holy river to strike achord with the people and

dumping things into obliviononce the pompous announce-ments are made.

Speaking to The Pioneer,the former environmental engi-neering professor of IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT)Roorkee, Devendra Bhargavasaid, “The untreated water isstill being drained directly intothe Ganga and the capacity ofsewerage treatment plant hasnot been enhanced. Bharti haddeclared that the people wouldget a clean Ganga by 2018.However, the basic things areyet to start. This is a pity.”

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The announcement ofChief Minister Harish

Rawat that the erstwhileDoon hospital would regainits earlier status of the districthospital and a new associat-ed hospital of GovernmentDoon Medical College(GDMC) would be built at theNiranjanpur Mandi onSaharanpur Road cleared con-fusion about the status ofdistrict hospital in the Statecapital.

The CM made thisannouncement while speak-ing during the foundationstone laying ceremony of newOPD Block of Associatedhospital of GDMC onWednesday.

The declaration of theCM assumes importance asthere were divergent viewsand statement on the future ofthe district hospital and asso-ciated hospital. The erstwhileDoon hospital and Doonfemale hospital- which weredistrict male and female hos-pitals respectively- weremerged with the DoonMedical College last yearwhen the question of MCIrecognition for medical col-lege arose.

The MCI mandates that ahospital of 300 beds should bethe part of medical college. InNovember last year these dis-trict hospitals were trans-ferred to the medical educa-tion department from healthdepartment. The departmentundertook an extensive ren-ovation and constructionactivity in the hospital cam-pus. A new Operation Theatre

(OT) and emergency blockwith a budget of Rs 129 croreis coming up in the hospitalcampus and a new OPD blockis being constructed at a costof Rs 45 crore. The generalimpression was that the gov-ernment would continue withthe present plan of associat-ed medical college hospitaland would convert eitherCoronation or Premnagarhospital into district hospital.These assumptions werestrengthened by the expendi-ture the government is mak-ing on infrastructure of thehospital. However the CM onWednesday rested all suchspeculations and announcedthat the existing NiranjanpurMandi would be translocatedto some other place and a newhospital which would be theassociated hospital of themedical college would be con-structed there.

The Doon hospital andwomen hospital would regaintheir status of district hospi-tal. It also became evident thatthe state capital would remaindevoid of any district hospi-tal till a new hospital buildingcomes up at Niranjanpurmandi. The announcementof the CM has met with skep-ticism from some quarters.“The Government has spentCrores of rupees in convert-ing the Doon hospital intoassociated hospital of medicalcollege and the CM has nowdeclared that new hospitalwould be constructed byshifting the Mandi which isridiculous and wastage ofmoney and resources,’’ saidone a senior medical officer ofstate health services.

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The Health Minister ofUttarakhand Surendra

Singh Negi has directed theofficials of health departmentto expedite the distribution ofthe health cards of theMukhyamantri Swasthya BimaYojna (MSBY). The Ministertook a review meeting of thehealth department at VidhanSabha on Thursday. In themeeting the Health Ministerwas informed that 4.14 lakhhealth cards have been pre-pared in phase II of MSBY andout of them 2.89 lakh cardshave reached the beneficiaryfamilies. Negi said that theremaining cards should bedisbursed at the earliest. Healso directed the officials tocoordinate with the insurancecompany so that all pendingclaims are settled. The specialadvisor Dr Ajit Gairolainformed that 18971 patients

were examined in differentfree health camps in the monthof December this year.

The Minister also took areview of eye camps. He wastold that vision examination of17185 people has been done inthese camps and cataract oper-ations of 1197 patients havebeen performed. The ministerasked the joint secretary healthAtar Singh to release pendingpayment of the 108 emergencyambulance service so that theseservices are not hindered. Healso reviewed the status of theconstruction of residential facil-ities in health centres underNational Health Mission(NHM). Negi also reviewedthe recruitment of dental doc-tors and pharmacists. The meet-ing was attended by AdditionalSecretary health Niraj Khairwal,Director General (DG) healthServices Dr Kusum Nariyal andother senior officers of thedepartment.

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�����������Election drawing near, an influential Minister who is known

to mint money from all sources using his clout over the ChiefMinister, is now in difficulty. Recently, he has startled all bygiving a quantum jump in the grade pay of his departmentalofficers from �5,400 to �9600. The logic is that the officers ofthe same department in Jammu & Kashmir are enjoying thesame grade pay they would be now entitled to. It is learnt thatthe CM, known to fawn on the Minister, has cleared the rele-vant file. However, the bureaucrats have not been amused. APrincipal Secretary refused to approve it. His logic is two-fold.Firstly, if such a hike of �3400 in one go is approved for theofficers of a particular department it would spur the officersof other departments to demand the same, resulting in the open-ing of the proverbial Pandora box. Besides, the senior bureau-crat dismissed the analogy with the things in Jammu andKashmir, saying that the sensitive border state enjoys a specialtreatment thanks to the Article 370 being in force. He has cho-sen to send the file to the personnel department to fix things.However, things have turned embarrassing for the ‘generous’minister. He is supposed to have taken a large sum of moneyfrom the beneficiaries in lieu of his generosity. Now they areat the receiving end of the Babu putting a spanner in the exe-cution of the process.

������������Noose tightening around the neck of the BJP MLA who

allegedly purchased gold worth several crores soon afterthe PM announced the note ban, the Special Investigation team(SIT), constituted at the behest of the CM, has asked theincome tax department to provide it the CCTV footages theyhave collected from the jewellery shops. The ruling party hopesto use the probe up to the hilt for the days left for the electionto wrest the prestigious seat the redoubtable legislator has beenwinning in consecutive elections. To give the matter a fur-ther push, the head of the SIT has been changed. It is win-winfor the ruling party. On one hand, it would nail down the MLA,known to be on the winning streak, and, on the other, it wouldtry to deflate the ‘Mr Clean’ boast of the saffron camp.

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The two day inspection of theMedical Council of India

(MCI) team of the facilities ofthe Government Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) ended onThursday. The team of MCIchecked the attendance registersand the documents pertaining tothe educational qualifications ofthe faculty members on theday. It also inspected the staffquarters and hostels of the stu-dents. The inspectors alsoviewed the reports like OPD and

in-house patients and number ofnormal and caesarian childbirths in the associated hospital.The team also visited ruralhealth centers at Thano andMehuwala villages. The medicalstudents are attached with thesehealth centres during their train-ing. The Medical EducationDirector Dr Ashutosh Sayanatold The Pioneer that the teamappeared satisfied with the facil-ities in the medical college andthe associated hospital.

The three member MCIteam consisted of Professor and

Head of Department of depart-ment of community medicine,Bangalore medical College andresearch institute, Dr TSRanganath, Dr Sukre Shivaji ofGovernment Medical CollegeAurangabad and Dr Jayesh Duttof Medical College Ahmedabad.Based on the report of this teamthe apex body of medical edu-cation would issue renewal of theLetter of Permission (LoP). TheLoP was granted on June 08 thisyear based on which the collegegave admission to 150 studentsin I year MBBS course.

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The bureaucrats are in a fix inthe wake of the order of the

single Bench of the UttarakhandHigh Court that says transfer ofthe pharmacists working in thehealth sub-centres in the moun-tains shouldbe done withimmediateeffect. Theorder castsits shadow on the notificationissued by the State Governmentrecruiting 536 pharmacists forthe sub-centres, mostly in themountainous region, to takecare of the health of the peoplein view of the fact that the ser-vice of the sub-centres werecrumbling because of the dearthof doctors. Importantly, thenotification mentioned thatsuch pharmacists once recruit-ed for the sub-centres would not

be transferred either to thecommunity health centres(CHC) or the primary healthcentres (PHC). And this is theclause of the notification that thepharmacists challenged in theHigh Court after working therefor some years, asking the court

to clear decksfor their nor-mal transfer tothe highercentres.

The single Bench clearingthe decks, citing the right of thepharmacists to equality ofopportunities, has placed thebureaucrats in a dilemma. Theythink that if the pharmacists areallowed to be transferred to thehigher centres things in the sub-centres would go back to thesquare one with the serviceagain crumbling down for lackof doctors to take their places.“However, the election on the

threshold, the ruling party lead-ers are pressuring us to issue afresh notification in conso-nance with the ruling of thecourt’s single Bench. Keepingthe interests of the hill people inview, we have almost decided tochallenge the single Bench rul-ing in the double Bench. But itis proving difficult to proceed,given the pressure the politiciansare putting on us. It is certain

that once we act on the singlebench ruling the pharmacistswould use their clout with thepoliticians to get transferred toplaces in the plains likeDehradun, Haridwar andUdham Singh Nagar. How canwe ignore the interests of the hillpeople to humour the politi-cians who are out to please thepharmacists, thinking that theywould vote en bloc for them?”

said a senior bureaucrat whorequested anonymity.

However, there is anothersnag that is worrying thebureaucrats. “If we are to assumethat the court has declared thenotification that recruited thepharmacists as null and void itmeans that the recruitmentstands cancelled. Things arestill murky,” another seniorbureaucrat said.

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There were 48 categories forland use in Uttarakhand

which have been decreased toseven categories of land use. Inaddition to decreasing the num-ber of land use categories, vari-ous other important decisionswere taken in the meeting of theState Cabinet held late onWednesday evening. Further,making an amendment in adecision taken in the previousCabinet meeting, the time peri-od was reduced from eight yearsto seven years for outsourced andUttarakhand Purva SainikKalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL)workers to be categorised as con-tract workers. The State Cabinetalso decided that ill persons, agedpersons and women will be pro-vided free of cost travel in the

trial flight to be started from theDehradun airport toChinyalisaud, Pithoragarh andGauchar. Those eligible for thisfree air-service will be listed at thelevel of the district magistrate.

In the Cabinet meetingchaired till late Wednesday nightby the Chief Minister HarishRawat, it was also decided thatsimilar types of works will bebrought under one category. Asa result of this, the land use ratefor works of similar nature willalso be uniform. It was alsodecided by the Cabinet that in thecase of domestic air-servicelaunched from the Dehradun air-port on Wednesday toChinyalisaud, Gauchar andPithoragarh will be operatedthrough State plane for the timebeing. This will be a trial flight,slated to be operated for a peri-

od of about one month before thestart of regular flights by privateair-service provider companies.Among the various other impor-tant decisions taken in theCabinet meeting on Wednesday,it was also decided that the payof Kumaon University teachersfrom �25,000 to �35,000. Further,the cabinet approved the proposalfor changing the name of theUttarakhand horticulture mar-keting board to the Uttarakhandhorticulture marketing develop-ment board. The creation of atotal of 25 new posts at the teadevelopment board headquartersin Almora was also approved bythe cabinet. The State Cabinetalso granted approval to the pro-posal for allotting encroach-ments at Kalsi Dairy farm at cir-cle rate as freehold property to theencroachers.

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Madhya Pradesh nativeAlok Gautam aged 20

years strangled his 10-yearold sister to death and latercommitted suicide by slittinghis throat at his suite at a hotelat Rajpur Road on Wednesdayevening. Investigating the case,the police suspect that the 21-year old Alok may have beenunder mental stress or suffer-ing from psychiatric issues. OnDecember 20, he had alsoattacked his father MahendraGautam who has been stayingin another hotel also on RajpurRoad for about a month now.

Mahendra told the Policethat Alok’s mother had dieddue to cancer about fourmonths ago and since then thelad had been suffering frompsychiatric issues.

It should be mentionedhere that on Wednesday, thepolice were informed by ahotel employee about twobodies- that of a male and agirl were lying in the room.The girls body was foundlying near the bathroom whilethe male’s body had been lyingin pool of blood when policearrived at the scene. Policeofficers including the addi-tional director general ofpolice (law and order) RamSingh Meena and Dehradunsenior superintendent of

police Sweety Aggarwalamong others reached thehotel. After reaching the hotel,the polie found two bodies andsent them for post mortemexamination.

The deceased Alok and hislittle sister Anamika Gautamwere residents of Satna inMadhya Pradesh and werenatives of Fatehpur in UttarPradesh. The siblings hadsecured a room in HotelAjanta at around 11 am onWednesday. Both had sub-mitted their identity cardsand introduced themselves asbrother and sister before thehotel official. They had paidhotel room charge of Rs 3,973through a bank debit card.

SSP Sweety Aggarwal saidthat police recovered a mobilephone from the hotel roomand through this mobilephone, the investigating team

found that Alok’s fatherMahendra Gautam was stay-ing at Madhuban hotel alsoalong the Rajpur Road.Mahendra told the police thathe along with his son Alok anddaughter Anamika had beenliving in the hotel sinceNovember 28. Mahendra saidthat his son Alok was select-ed in Air force, Dehradunand to see him off to his join-ing, all three had come toDehradun on November 27 bytrain from Allahabad.According to Mahendra, topay hotel charge, his son Alokand daughter Anamika hadgone to bank for withdrawingmoney since at 11 am onWednesday and had notreturned to the hotel. Alok hadpaid the Madhuvan hotelcharge using his mother’s debitcard. Police contacted AirForce Station, Dehradun tofind out whether a personnamed Alok Gautam hadjoined on November 28 butAir force official denied this.Investigation also revealedthat Alok had requested hisrelative Rohit to give him Rs1.5 lakh to pay hotel charges.Hotel CCTV footage revealedthat no one, except Alok andAnamika had entered theroom booked at Ajanta hotelthroughout the day onWednesday till the bodieswere later discovered.

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Dehardun: Prime Minister Narendra Modivisiting the city on December 27 to unveil thefoundation stone of the all-weather roads forChar Dhams seems to have sent the rulingparty in a tizzy. Observers believe that the saf-fron party would try to hijack the principal pollplank of the ruling Congress which keepsclaiming that it is instrumental for the turn-around that the Char Dhams have seen in therecent time.

Informing about the visit during a Pressconference at the BJP’s State headquarters onThursday, the State BJP president and Leaderof the Opposition, Ajay Bhatt said that the dateof the visit had been confirmed from Delhi.“However, the venue from where the PM wouldunveil the foundation stone of the importantproject is yet to be fixed. Things being decid-ed at a short notice, we are now working on thedetails. We would fix things soon with approvalfrom the SPG,” he added.

State BJP brass is hoping that Modi’s visitwould provide the much-needed thrust to thecampaigning of the Opposition party. “He was

instrumental in the sweeping triumph of theparty in the general election-2014. The recordssay that then PM face of the party addressedone rally in each of the five constituencies. Theparty won hands down in all of them. We wereworried over the PM steering clear of the poll-bound state while going the whole hog to wrestpower in Uttar Pradesh. Now, our rank and fileare in a buoyant mood, hoping that he wouldtake the people by storm over his crusadeagainst black money and corruption as well ashis pitch for development ,” a senior State partyleader said.

Bhatt further said that the project wouldprove a milestone for the State. “The roads link-ing the world-renowned four centres of pil-grimage would have state of the art roads to bebuilt by the latest technology, now available onlyin the developed countries. The roads wouldbe so strong that even a disaster of the mag-nitude of what happened in 2013 would notaffect them in the least. For this, the Centrehas already released �11,500 crore,” he said.

PNS

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Page 4: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Thursday

strongly opposed the exclusionof Odia as a medium ofNational Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) andsought the Prime Minister’sintervention in this regard.

“Six regional languages,besides Hindi and English,have been included as mediumof examination at the NEETfrom the academic year 2017-18. But Odia has been con-spicuously left out. Studentsfrom Odisha, who have studiedin Odia, will be at a great dis-advantage. In fact, this decisionwill provide a competitive

advantage for the studentsreading in six regional lan-guages to the disadvantage ofthose from Odisha,” lamentedPatnaik in a letter to the PM.

Mentioning that theMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare has not sought anoption from the StateGovernment in this regard,the Chief Minister stated thatthe decision has now createdwide spread resentment amongthe students of Odisha, whowould be appearing for theprestigious test in 2017-18 andonwards.

“I am constrained to seekyour personal intervention inthe matter for incorporatingOdia as a medium of exami-

nation for the ensuing NEETin the larger interests of thestudents of my State,” urgedthe CM.

Meanwhile, various organ-isations, including the UtkalSammilani and the OdishaRajya Shastriya ManyataKriyanushtan Committee, havealso resented non-inclusion ofOdia in the NEET.

“Odia is one of the six clas-sical languages and one of the15 languages mentioned in thecurrency notes. It is disap-pointing that Odia, on basis ofwhich Odisha had been formed11 years before Independence,has been left out as a mediumof NEET exam,” Sammilani’sMancheswar Industrial EstateBranh president DilipDashsharma lamented anddemanded that the UnionMinister reconsider the deci-sion and announce to addOdia as a medium of NEET testat the earliest.

The Odisha RajyaShastriya Kriyanushtan

Committee expressed unhap-piness saying that non-takingof Odia as a medium of lan-guage for prestigious NEETtest is a sheer injustice to all 5.5crpre Odia people living inOdisha, negbouring States andoutside the country.

“The committee had sub-mitted memorandum fivetimes to the Prime Ministerand the Union Health Ministerto conduct medical and dentalexamination in Odia forOdisha students. The Ministerhad assured to use Odia if theState Government sends a pro-posal in this regard. Now, it isnot understood whether theState Government had sub-mitted a proposal in this regardor the Union Health Ministerhas not accepted the State’s pro-posal,” said committee chief DrRam Chandra Khuntia, SeikhMatlub Ali and Kishore Jena ata Press meet here.

They demanded that theChief Minister hold discussionwith the Union Government

and place a demand for con-ducing NEET in Odia.

A representative team ofthe committee would soonmeet the Union HealthMinister in this regard, theysaid.

In another development,BJD youth activists took out amotorcycle rally in the city inprotest against non-inclusion ofOdia in the test and submitteda memorandum, addressed toPresident Pranab Mukherhee,before Governor Dr SC Jamir.

Meanwhile, the BJP haspassed the blame on the StateGovernment saying that the lat-ter had in writing suggested tothe Centre to hold the NEET inEnglish only.

“As Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik doesn’t know Odia, hehas, by recommending to con-duct NEET in English only, hasbelittled the language and istrying to impose the foreignlanguage on Odia students,”said party’s Yuva Morcha pres-ident Tankadhar Tripathy.

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Alarmed over the massexodus of its leaders,

including sitt ing MLAs,towards the Congress party,Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)patron and Punjab ChiefMinister Parkash Singh Badalon Thursday batted for farmore stringent provisions ofanti-defection law.

“It is the need of the hourto curb mounting tendency ofshifting allegiance from oneparty to another for satiatingthe lust for power,” he said.

He pitched for strength-

ening the provisions of anti-defection law that lays down the process by whichlegislators may be disqualifiedfor defecting to another party.

“It is unfortunate that forthe sake of power, turncoatsare changing their politicalaffiliations with every passingday,” said Badal while speak-ing on the side-lines of hisSangat Darshan programme atKartarpur Assembly segment,from where SAD’s sittingMLA and former MinisterSarwan Singh Phillaur had leftthe ruling party to join theCongress along with 16 otherparty leaders and workers.

He said that this is a trendthat needs to be checkedthrough a strict anti-defectionlaw, so that “mockery ofdemocracy” could be avoided.

The Chief Ministerexhorted the people to teachthe defectors a lesson by reject-ing them in the electoral race.

“Displaying politics ofopportunism these fugitivesnot only backstab their moth-er party but show grave dis-respect to the mandate of thepeople,” he said.

Badal also urged the polit-ical parties to think twicebefore accepting "turncoats"from other parties.

He said that the people ofthe state were smart enoughto exercise their franchise asper principle rather than onthe basis of caste or religion.

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BJP's attempt to seek sup-port for Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on demoneti-zation virtually backfired onThursday in the HimachalPradesh Assembly. Retaliatingto the Private Member reso-lution brought by senior BJPlegislator Mahender Singh,Congress MLAs demandedinvestigation against PrimeMinister into the allegations ofcorruption leveled byCongress vice president RahulGandhi.

Congress raised the issueof Sahara pay off case againstModi, as the discussion start-ed on demonetization and itsrole to root out black moneyand corruption from thecountry.

Participating in the dis-cussion, Congress memberRajesh Dharmani said thatsocial media had highlightedpapers belonging to Saharaand Birla companies contain-ing information of money,that was paid to Modi, whenhe was Chief Minister ofGujarat.

The averments made byDharmani agitated the BJPmembers with Leader ofOpposition, Prem KumarDhumal demanding that thereferences made by Dharmanibe expunged from the pro-ceedings, otherwise opposi-tion would also touch theissues like coal scam, 2Gscam or Augusta-westland

deals etc.Deputy Speaker Jagat

Singh Negi who was on thechair rejected the oppositionplea stating that he could notstop a member of house toraise the issue as memberhave right of expression whichshould not be breached.

Chief Minister VirbhadraSingh said that the inconve-nience, which has been causedto common man due todemonetisation can not besupported. He said that Modifirst took the decision and

later thought about it.Earlier, Congress legisla-

tor Asha Kumari said that theentire opposition would sup-port Centre for eradicatingcorruption, but Governmentcan't be supported for creating a chaos in the country.

BJP leader Satpal SinghSatti said the move of demon-etisation would help rootingout black money and corrup-tion from the country andCongress members shouldsupport the move.

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Dharamsala: Miffed with the suspension of its three legislators,BJP on Thursday created a scene in Himachal Pradesh VidhanSabha on Thursday with its legislators raising slogans in the cor-ridor of Vidhan Sabha premises, terming the decision of sus-pension not according to the parliamentary norms.

As the House assembled in the morning, Leader ofOpposition Prem Kumar Dhumal demanded revocation of thesuspension of Suresh Bhardwaj, Rajeev Bindal and RandhirSharma who were suspended a day before.

Finding Speaker Butail not interested in discussing the issueof suspension of BJP members, BJP legislators staged walkoutfrom the Question Hour.

Later, justifying the suspension of BJP legislators, SpeakerButail said that Bhardwaj's action of sitting on Speaker's chair,while he himself was present in house, was a violation of Assemblynorms.

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From Page 1“Many people say I had not taken account the consequences of this huge step (of demoneti-

sation). In fact, the only thing that I could not take into account was the brazenness with whichmany political parties and leaders came to the rescue of the corrupt,” he said.

Pointing to demonetisation, the PM said, “Desh me bahut bada safai abhiyan chal raha hai(a big cleanliness drive is going on in the country) and whenever one launch cleanliness drive toremove the heaps of garbage, it emits foul smells.”

He said his Government is determined to remove the heaps of black money with the bless-ings of 125 crores people of the country. He also hit out at former Prime Minister ManmohanSingh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, saying their argument that promoting cash-less economy was futile due to poverty, illiteracy and electricity not reaching villages in the coun-try “exposes” their own report card.

From Page 1Maken said in the munic-

ipal corporation by-electionsheld in May, 2016, the BJP hadfinished third and perhaps thatalso went against Jung.

“The Congress gainingground in Delhi and defeatingBJP in the municipal corpora-tion by-polls has scared bothBJP and AAP,” he said.

The DPCC chief said it wasfor the first time that a LtGovernor of Delhi had to leavein such a manner.

He said Vijay Kapoorserved as the Lt Governor ofDelhi for six years while B LJoshi remained the LG forthree years before he was pro-moted as Governor.

Maken said TejinderKhanna served as the LtGovernor for six years andthree months while Jung, who

was appointed to the post inJuly, 2013 had completed onlythree years before his “uncer-emonious exit”.

He said Jung was appoint-ed to the post because of hisadministrative abilities, addingthe Congress will come out onthe streets and protest if anRSS-connected or supportedperson is appointed as the LtGovernor of Delhi.

Maken suggested that Jungwas made to resign as the BJPand the Modi government feltthat he was not serving theirinterests. In this context, he alsorecalled the criticism of Jung byBJP MP Subramanian Swamysome few months back.

The DPCC chief said theLG works under the CentralGovernment and therefore itshould explain the reasonsbehind Jung’s exit.

“He resigned under pres-sure. If he was hurt over some-thing due to tussle with theKejriwal government, then hewould have resigned earlier,” hesaid.

From Page 1Coming down hard against

note ban, he insisted that thePrime Minister came out withthe surprise decision not tohelp the poor but the “super rich50 families of India”.

Taking a dig at the PrimeMinister, Rahul dubbed him asa “super event planner” who hadmade “perfect planning” to takethe money from the poor to helpthe rich who owe as much as Rs8 lakh crore to the banks.

“Suck the money from thepoor and feed the rich. Take themoney from 99 per cent andgive it to one per cent,” saidRahul, adding that this was theessence of the note ban and notto weed out black money andhelp the poor as claimed byModi.

“Modiji first tell us what wascontained in the ten packetsfrom Sahara,” the Congress vicepresident tweeted before hewent on to address a rally inBahraich.

At a rally in Mehsana in thePrime Minister’s home turf,Rahul on Wednesday accusedModi of taking money fromSahara and Birla groups when hewas Gujarat Chief Minister. BJPhowever rejected the allega-tions as “baseless, shameful andmala fide”. Along with the tweet,Rahul posted a document pur-portedly with the Income TaxDepartment of nine entriesfrom October 2013 to February14 detailing “cash paymentsmade to Modiji”.

After having threatened an“earthquake” expose for the lastfew days during the just con-cluded Winter Session, theCongress vice-president in aPress conference, along withseveral opposition leaders, hadannounced he had some “con-crete” proof of Modi’s personalcomplicity in the “demonetisa-tion scam”.

Rahul’s comments cameclose on the heels of the PrimeMinister, at a function inVaranasi, ridiculing Rahul’sremarks about creating an“earthquake” with accusations ofcorruption against him. Modisaid he is happiest since theCongress leader has “learnt” tospeak as he has unwittinglyadmitted the “failure” of hisparty’s reign.

The Congress vice presi-dent, who stopped his speech inrespect to the ‘aazan’ at a near-by mosque, alleged the countryhas been divided into twogroups where 1 per cent rich arein one group, while 99 per centhonest the other. “The policiesof your Government over twoyears have put 60 per centwealth in the hands of 1 per centpeople of the country,” he said.

He alleged Modi is notrecovering loans from thosewho had helped him in “mar-keting” in the Lok Sabha electionand has brought note ban to haltthe wealth of 99 per cent inbanks for a long time.

“Everyday our farmers arecommitting suicide. We went tothe PM with these problems, butthe PM did not say even a word,”he alleged. He said, “Blackmoney is with those who trav-el in jets with you (the PM), notwith those who are standing inlong queues”.

“How many black moneyholders have been put in jail byModi? Not even one. He,instead, made Lalit Modi andVijay Mallya run away.Labourers don’t purchase goodsthrough debit or credit cards.They buy it with cash,” he said.

Claiming that Rajnath Singhhad said in Parliament the inten-tion behind note ban was goodbut its implementation faulty,Rahul said the Home Ministerhad perhaps failed to understandModi.

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Accusing theCommissionerate police

of acting in a partisan mannerand condemning theBhubaneswar police forshielding controversial cityMayor Ananta Narayan Jena,BJP leaders on Thursdaygheraoed the police head-

quarters here and handedover a memorandumaddressed to the DGP.Additional DG (Law andOrder) Satyajit Mohantyreceived the memorandumon behalf of DGP KB Singh.

Hundreds of BJP activistsled by senior party leaderscame to the police headquar-ters in a rally from the Netaji

Museum holding placards,banners and shouting slogansand gheraoed the office of theDGP. A minor scuffle ensuedbetween BJP activists andpolice when the former triedto get inside the police head-quarters breaking a twin bar-ricade. Around 12 platoons ofpolice were deployed to avertany untoward incident.

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Page 5: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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New Delhi: Confederation ofvarious civil services officersassociation including IRS andIPS on Thursday soughtimmediate intervention ofPrime Minister Narendra Modiin removing “discriminatoryand monopolistic” procedurefor appointment at higher postsof the Government alleging itfavours only IAS.

Confederation of CivilServices Association (CoCSA)comprising officers from IRS,IFS, IPS, Indian InformationServices, Postal services andseven others submitted a five-page plea to the Prime Ministeralleging “discrimination” inthe proper career growth ofofficers from other services.

“It also restricts the choiceof the Government, which isconstrained to select top levelofficers primarily from oneparticular service (IAS), even ifthey are not the best personssuited for the job,” the plea said.

The Confederation

referred to a circular ofDepartment of Personnel andTraining in January 1996 whichlaid down the procedures forempanelment of officers for thepost of Secretary andAdditional Secretary.

According to the circular,officials from all the 37 partic-ipating services, which includethree All India Services and 34Central Services Group 'A'under the Central StaffingScheme (CSS) had to be taken.

However, in practice, the

Confederation alleged that entrybarriers have been erected forservices other than the IAS andsystematically the share of offi-cers from other services dimin-ished over a period of time.

Giving a comparison ofofficers posted as Secretary andAdditional Secretary in theGovernment, they said in 1972there were 30 All India Servicesofficers posted as Secretary and20 as Additional Secretaries.

The figure stood at 15 forCentral Group 'A' officers asSecretaries and 11 as AdditionalSecretaries. There was no onefrom CSS and only one asAdditional Secretary.

The figures in 2015 stoodat 73 Secretary-level posts forIAS while one for IPS, 10 forScientists, two for Indian ForestServices and five for CSS.

On the Additional Secretarylevel, the figure stood at 98 forIAS, none from IPS and Scientist,one from Indian Forest Servicesand 8 from CSS. PTI

���� )49(48:,

Salt was intricately associat-ed with Mahatma Gandhi

and the Indian freedom strug-gle as much as Khadi. But, rightthrough the Khadi and VillageIndustries Commission(KVIC) had not focused onproduction and sale of salt.

This gap has been now filled.The Kshetriya Gandhi

Ashram, Sevapuri, Varanasi, anold Khadi Institution with thesupport of the KVIC has set upa salt processing plant atSevapuri in Varanasi with acapacity of eight tonnes a day.The plant has come up in an oldKhadi premises where several

other activities have been start-ed during the last 6 months.

The KVIC Chairman VKSaxena who supervised theerection and commissioning ofthe plant right from inceptionof the idea inaugurated the newplant on Wednesday. The plantwill provide direct employ-ment to 15 local persons andindirect work to 15 others.

The Ashram has a greatpast. Several leaders of thefreedom struggle had visited it.They include Gandhi ji andAcharya Vinoba Bhave.

Saxena said the trial run ofthe plant started onWednesday. It will go intocommercial production fromnext month, after completionof various formalities.

The plant will produceiodised salt and it will be soldunder the brand name of“Ashram Salt” in one kg pack-et at a price of �12 per kg, farcheaper than other brands.

���� )49(48:,

Soon locating functional toiletsacross the cities will be as easy

as finding hotels, restaurants andother establishments with the helpof Google maps.

For now, the facility is availablein Delhi and four NCR cities —Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad,Ghaziabad and Noida — and twocities in Madhya Pradesh — Indoreand Bhopal. On Thursday, UrbanDevelopment Minister VenkaiahNaidu launched an App ‘SwachchhPublic Toilet’ through which a usercan access public toilets situatednear malls, hospitals, bus and rail-way, fuel stations and metro sta-tions, and public and communitytoilets complexes in the select sevencities.

“Soon facilities will be extend-ed across the country,” Naidu saidadding that the move aims to

ensure ‘ease of access to public toi-lets’ under the Swachh BharatMission. The Ministry of UrbanDevelopment has teamed up withGoogle and AugustCommunication to enable toiletlocator tool within Maps.

The move aims to addressopen urination and open defeca-tion which has become a nuisancein the country in want of adequateand functional toilets. Presently,almost 60 per cent of the country's1.2 billion people still defecate andurinate in the open, according tothe government data.

The App also gives informa-tion about the nature of the toiletseat available, free or pay for use,working hours etc.

Using the key word ‘SwachhPublic Toilet’, users can access5,162 public toilets located nearmalls, hospitals, bus and railwaystations, fuel stations, metro sta-

tions and public and communitytoilet complexes in the five cities inNCR and 703 in Bhopal and 411in Indore.

Naidu also launched free to use‘Smart Toilets’ set up by the NewDelhi Municipal Council (NDMC)under PPP model at NationalGallery of Art on Shershah Road,opposite Haryana Bhawan onCopernicus Marg and near TolstoyMarg Metro Station. Each suchcomplex has one WC toilet seatand four urinals for gents, one WCeach for women and differentlyabled, Water ATM, Bank ATM andDigital Health Centres.

One ‘Reverse VendorMachine’ set up by NDMC atGate No.2, Palika Market, NewDelhi was also launched. When aplastic bottle is dropped in to thismachines, it gives a receipt of cred-

it of up to one rupee. NDMC is set-ting up 20 such machines whichhelp in preventing littering ofplastic bottles.

Speaking about the progress ofSwachh Bharat Mission in urbanareas since its launch inOctober,2014, Naidu said themission picked up momentumduring 2016 with 502 cities andtowns including New DelhiMunicipal Council declaring them-selves 'Open Defecation Free' dur-ing this year. Most of these of theseclaims were verified independent-ly. Another 237 cities and towns areset to become ODF by March nextyear. He said that during this year,the Mission in urban areas reachedhalfway mark in toilet constructionagainst the mission targets.

Against the target of con-struction of 66 lakh individualhousehold toilets, 27,81,883 suchtoilets have already been built andconstruction of another 21,43,222is in progress. While over five lakhcommunity and public toilet seatsare to be built, 1.07 lakh seats havealready been built so far andanother 1.30 lakh toilet seats areunder construction.

���� )49(48:,

With thousands of acres of vacantland at its disposal and lying

idle, the cash-strapped Railways hascome out with a novel idea to exploitit commercially to generate additionalrevenue besides prevent itsencroachment.

The Railways has launched theinnovative ‘Grow More Food’ scheme,under which it has given more than8,500 acres of vacant land for farm-ing purpose on license basis to rail-way employees working in Group ‘C’and ‘D’ category.

“Railways has given 8,859.18acres of land across the countryunder the Grow More Food scheme.It will help generate additional rev-enue, increase farm produce andprevent encroachment of vacant rail-way land,” said a senior RailwayMinistry official.

“Land which is not required foroperational purposes in the foresee-

able future is being identified by allRailways zones as vacant land.Railways has approximately 43,000hectares of vacant land which can beexploited commercially. Besides, aweb based application called LandManagement Module integrated withTrack Management System (TMS)Railways, has been developed," theofficial maintained.

A pilot project of GIS mapping ofrailway network and land parcel hasalready been started in Delhi divisionof the Northern Railway. After its suc-cessful implementation, the exercisewill be extended to the entire IndianRailway network.

There are about 930.75 hectaresof railway land which is currentlyencroached upon including over 206hectares of land that is under illegaloccupation in Northern Railwayzone alone. To outwit landencroachers, the Railways is nowplanning to lay new tracks on theextreme ends of existing lines. This

would effectively deal with theproblem of land encroachment, apolitically-sensitive issue in thecountry.

The construction of additionalrailway lines will be in Assam,Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra,Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,Telangana, Andhra Pradesh andChhattisgarh.

Recently, the Governmentannounced projects worth �24,000crore comprising laying of new rail-way lines at various sections of thecountry’s railway network spanningthousands of kilometres. Railways hasrecently undertaken digitisation ofrecords related to vacant plots ownedby it across the country.

Railways require land for layingof tracks, construction of yards, sta-tion buildings, platforms, setting upof workshops, repair and mainte-nance facilities and housing coloniesfor its staff. Land is also licensed forcommercial purposes.

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���� )49(48:,

The Government onThursday lashed out at

Congress vice-president RahulGandhi for accusing PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofpersonal corruption, sayingsuch “absurd allegations” wereaimed to “derail” theGovernment’s developmentagenda and fight against cor-ruption.

In a similar counter-attackon the Opposition party, theBJP alleged that the UPAGovernment had favouredbusiness houses with conces-sions and loans worth over�36.5 lakh crore which theGovernment is working torecover now.

Spearheading theGovernment’s offensive, UnionInformation & BroadcastingMinister M Venkaiah Naidusaid some people feel threat-ened as people were driftingaway from them following thesteps taken by the ModiGovernment for the empow-erment of the poor, without

naming Rahul or his party.To Rahul’s charges of Modi

taking money from Birla andSahara, Naidu said, “In 2013, itwas their (Congress-led UPA)Government. What did theydo? Were they sleeping?”

“Now they are trying todivert the attention and bringthe Prime Minister into unnec-essary controversy. They aretrying to derail the momentum,given by (Modi) to the devel-opment and fight against cor-

ruption by baseless and absurdallegations,” Naidu toldreporters here.

The Minister alleged thatprevious Governments did notdo anything for the poor but a“lip service” and said Modi wascommitted to uplift the poor.

“There are some peoplewho are feeling threatened.They feel the poor people aredrifting away from them sothey are feeling restlessnessand making such comments.

Let them say,” he said.From the party’s side, BJP

National Secretary ShrikantSharma hit back at Rahul’s“pro-rich” jibe against Modi,alleging that the UPAGovernment had showeredbusiness houses with conces-sions and loans worth over�36.5 lakh crore which theGovernment is working torecover now.

He also rejected theCongress vice-president’s cor-ruption charge against Modi,claiming even the SupremeCourt had not taken note of theallegations, earlier levelled byhis “political guru” ArvindKejriwal.

At a Press conference soonafter Rahul’s rally in UttarPradesh, Sharma said theseallegations against Modi dateback to 2013 when theCongress v-p was “super PrimeMinister” and the then UPAGovernment could find noth-ing despite agencies like CBI,ED and I-T working under it.

Sharma cited RBI figuresreleased soon after the BJP

came to power in 2014 toclaim that debts of GautamAdani, Anil Ambani, Shashiand Ravi Ruia, and Sunil Mittalwere �72,632 crore, �1.13 lakhcr, �98,412 cr and �57,744 crrespectively.

“Rahul Gandhi has beenaccusing us of being pro-cor-porate. He should tell peoplewhy and on whose behest theUPA Government let theseindustrialists run so much ofdebt. It showered businesshouses with concessions andloans running into �36.5 lakhcrore. All these debts Modi istrying to recover,” Sharma said.

He also alleged that theUPA Government ensured thatliquor baron Vijay Mallya wasgiven a loan of �1,500 croredespite having defaulted onbank payments.

He said It has become ahabit of Rahul Gandhi to level“thoughtless” allegations and hehad earlier accused Modi ofspying on him when police vis-ited him for security details ashe is a SPG protectee, Sharmasaid.

���� )49(48:,

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj has sought

a report from the IndianAmbassador in Norway afteran Indian couple complainedthat the Norwegian authoritieshave taken away their five-year-old son, Aryan, on a frivolouscomplaint of child abuse.

“I have asked IndianAmbassador in Norway to sendme a report,” Sushma tweetedafter Bharatiya Janata Partyleader Vijay Jolly wrote to herand the Ambassador ofNorway in New Delhi aboutthe incident. NRI Anil KumarSharma and his wifeGurvinderjit Kaur wrote toJolly seeking help from theIndian Government in gettingback their child. Sharma is thevice-president of OverseasFriends of the BJP in Norway.

According to Sharma, theirson is in the custody of the

Child Welfare Department,Norway and has been kept ina different city. The child hasstopped eating and appearsupset in the absence of his par-ents, Sharma said based onvideos of his son shown to him.Sharma claimed that theNorwegian authorities have sofar not able to produce any evi-dence of child abuse againstthem and still the child waskept away from them. Sharmaalleged that his son is goingthrough a lot of mental trauma.“When we inquired about thecomplainant, it came to ournotice that the complaint wasregistered by a private person.This seems to be a fabricatedcomplaint,” Sharma wrote.

Sources in the Ministry ofExternal Affairs said the IndianEmbassy officials in Oslo havespoken to Sharma andpromised all help. However,Sharma informed the missionthat he has hired a lawyer to

represent him in the case.The Norwegian Embassy

spokesperson said diplomats inDelhi got to know about thecase on Wednesday eveningonly and they have soughtdetails of the case from author-ities in Norway.

This is the third case since2011 when children have beentaken away from their Indian-origin parents by the authori-ties in Norway on the groundsof abuse. In 2011, a three-year-old and a one-year-old wereseparated from their parents,prompting the then UPAGovernment to take up theissue with Norway. TheNorwegian court later allowedthe children to be reunited withtheir parents. In December2012, an Indian couple wasjailed on charges of ill treat-ment of their children, 7 and 2years. Later, they were sent totheir grandparents inHyderabad.

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���� )49(48:,

The Modi Government willlaunch a 100-day campaign

on December 25, observed asGood Governance Day, underwhich parliamentarians, includ-ing Union Ministers, will visitvarious parts of the country tohighlight the Centre’s key ini-tiatives.

“December 25, the birthdayof former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee, will be observedas Good Governance Day. Onthat day, the Government willlaunch a 100-day campaignacross the country on the themeof good Governance,” UnionInformation & BroadcastingMinister Venkaiah Naidu saidon Thursday.

Ministers and MPs will trav-el across the country to highlightthe key initiatives of the UnionGovernment in the last two-and-a-half years, he said, addingthe endeavour of the Modi-Government is to improve deliv-ery systems, promote digital

transformation and take forwardthe connectivity revolution in allsectors.

Earlier, Naidu released theIndian Government’s calendarfor 2017 with the theme MeraDesh Badal Raha Hai, AageBadh Raha Hai (My country ischanging, it is developing). Healso released the mobile appli-cation of the calendar which canbe downloaded from GooglePlay Store.

The calendar showcases var-ious flagship schemes and ini-tiatives of the government with

a different theme every monthlike ‘Skilling India for Youth LedDevelopment’ for January,‘Armed Forces: Pride of theNation’ for August, ‘CashlessTransactions’ for September and‘Corruption Free Governance’for November.

On the occasion, he alsoreleased the Press in IndiaReport 2015-16 prepared bythe Registrar of Newspapers ofIndia. Minister of State forInformation and BroadcastingRajyavardhan Rathore was alsopresent on the occasion.

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���� )49(48:,

The Union Home Ministryon Thursday rapped the

Manipur and NagalandGovernments for not imple-menting law and order strictlyto ensure the end of highwayblockades connecting the States.

In a tough message toManipur Chief Minister OIbobi Singh, Home MinisterRajnath Singh said there hasbeen an extremely distressingsituation caused by the con-tinuous blockade of NH-2,which has caused an acuteshortage of essential and othergoods in Manipur and break-down of law and order.

“The State Governmenthas failed to keep the NH-2open, inspite of Government ofIndia’s repeated requests andmaking available the Centralforces to assist the local forces,”said the Home Minister.

Rajnath also wrote to theNagaland Chief Minister TRZeliang asking him to ensurethat there is no disturbance inmovement of vehicle goingthrough his State as there havebeen reports of Naga StudentsFederation calling blockade ofvehicles in Nagaland.

The Home Minister toldthe Manipur CM that he isadvising him again to ensurethe supply of essential com-modities to Manipur throughNH-2, rationally using theassistance of Central forces, asnecessary.

“Maintaining of law andorder and essential supplies areconstitutional obligations ofthe State Government whichhas to do so and take leader-ship. For the sake of people ofManipur, I call upon you to dis-charge these constitutionalobligations with utmostpromptness,” said Rajnath.

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BJP president Amit Shah onThursday constituted a three-

member Parliamentary com-mittee to visit “communally dis-turbed” Dhulargarh (Howrah) toassess the situation there.

The delegation will visit theState on December 24. WestBengal BJP president DilipGhosh will join the team as amember.

The three members of thecommittee are - Jagdambika Paland Satyapal Singh- both MPsfrom Uttar Pradesh and RupaGanguli, Rajya Sabha MP andformer television actress of‘Draupadi fame’ in the epic ser-ial ‘Mahabharat’. Satyapal Singhhas been a former police com-missioner of Mumbai.

The BJP has charged theruling Trinamool Congress(TMC) with spearheadingcommunal riots in certainregions of the State.

It has also decided toappeal to the National HumanRights Commission (NHRC),while the Parliamentary partydelegation will go to Howrahfor an on-the-spot assessmentof communal violence.

BJP national secretarySidharth Nath Singh had ear-lier asked Banerjee to break her“silence” on the communalviolence at Dhulagarh area inthe State.

“The minority wing lead-ers of TMC led by Lok SabhaMP Idris Ali are targetingHindus. The TMC is unleash-ing violence especially in sixdistricts where the BJP graphhas shown growth in the recenttimes,” claimed Singh.

The raw salt for the plant willbe procured from Gujarat.

Saxena said that the peopleof Varanasi will soon get saltlocally processed by local peo-ple in a local Ashram.

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Page 6: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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In a major boost to Indianeconomy the survey team of

Geological Survey of India(GSI) has found large-scalegold deposits in Shivamoggadistrict of Karnataka.

According to an official ofthe GSI the gold deposits werefound in over 600 sq kmbetween Shikaripur inShivamogga district andHonnali taluk of Davangeredistrict. The official sources saythis is the largest gold depositin Karnataka after Kolar GoldFields and Hutti (Raichur dis-trict). Karnataka is the onlyState actively mining gold atHutti in Raichur district.

A team of experts fromRemote Sensing and Aero-Geophysical Survey unit of theGSI has camped in the districtfor the past one week to con-duct an aerial survey of the golddeposit.

According to PC Das,Superintending Geologist andhead of the team said that aremote sensing device attachedto a helicopter scans the earth’ssurface into a depth of 500metre, from an altitude of 90metres.

“We are conducting elec-tromagnetic, magnetic andradiomagnetic surveys. Theywill provide valuable inputs ongold deposits,” he said. “Thethree types of surveys haverevealed presence of golddeposits. We will demarcate theexact spot and assess the quan-tity of ore available. A reportwill be submitted to the StateGovernment by September2017, after consolidating thedata gathered during survey,”Das added.

The experts are also assess-ing the quantity of the ore avail-able. The GSI team is campingnear Sogane, where it has beenproposed to construct an air-port for Shivamogga.

The scientists of Minesand Geology department ofKarnataka had conducted a pri-mary survey in this regiondecades ago and had submitteda report to the Governmentindicating presence of signifi-cant gold deposit. Based onthis report, the StateGovernment had requested theGSI to conduct a survey.

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Rebel AIADMK leaderSasikala Pushpa on

Thursday threatened to contestthe election for the post ofgeneral secretary depending onwhat the Madras High Courtsays on her plea for maintain-ing status quo on the issue.

“The decision to contestfor the party’s top post wouldbe based on the High Courtverdict tomorrow. I will con-test just like any primarymember has the right to con-test,” she said.

Denying that the she hasbeen expelled from AIADMK,Pushpa asserted that she stillremains party MP. “If I wasexpelled I should have received

letters after a proper enquiry.Even in Rajya Sabha records Istill remain an AIADMK MP,"she added. Talking about the“dissatisfaction” among theparty cadres and the vacuumJayalalitha had left, Pushpa said

around 75 per cent of AIADMKcadres were not happy aboutdemands being made forSasikala Natarajan's elevation tothe party's top position.

“Sasikala Natarajan is not aprimary member of the party.

Amma had thrown her awayfrom the party for ‘conspiracy’”Pushpa said.

“Everyone knows her hus-band Natarajan and her familyare compelling the cadres tostage a drama before people,”she added. Commenting onthe raid in state Chief SecretaryRama Mohana Rao’s house, shesaid Jayalalitha would not haveallowed such things to happen.

Earlier in the day, Sasikalamet Minister of State forHuman Resources UpendraKushwaha to thank him for thedecision to omit certain adversereferences to the Nadar com-munity in the Social Studiestext book of class 9 in CBSE. "Itis a historic day for Nadar com-munity," she said.

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Unlike Uttar Pradesh, theCongress party is set to

contest Gujarat Assembly pollswithout projecting its ChiefMinisterial candidate saidsources in the Gujarat PradeshCongress Committee (GPCC).

In the previous three pollsthe grand old party foughtAssembly elections in Gujaratagainst Narendra Modi ledGujarat BJP in the same manner. Despite the fact theCongress party lost Assemblypolls miserably against Modiwave, it is repeating the sametheory again. The only difference is that in the upcom-ing 2017 Assembly pollsGujarat BJP would contestwithout Modi as ChiefMinister.

“It is known fact thatGujarat Congress has beendivided in many factions head-ed by senior leaders. In suchscenario, projecting the ChiefMinisterial candidate wouldonly invite more rifts and dis-content in the party,” said asenior GPCC leader, addingthat the Central leadershipwants all factions contest theAssembly polls as a single unit

as they want to take maximumadvantage out of ongoing pro-quota Patidar agitation, situa-tion post demonetisation of�500 and �1000 currency notesand incident related to floggingof Dalit youth in Saurashtraregion.

According to him the win-ning Assembly polls in PrimeMinister’s home turf wouldwork as huge morale boosterfor the Congress party andhence the focus of the nation-al leadership would increase onGujarat’s politics.

The Congress party hasbeen out of power since 1989in Gujarat and its leadershipfirmly believe that their partyhas fair chance to come inpower after the gap of almostthree decades.

Among four main aspi-rants for the coveted Chief

Minister’s position if theCongress party would come topower including GPCC presi-dent Bharatsinh Solanki, leaderof Opposition in GujaratAssembly ShankersinhVaghela, senior leaderShaktisinh Gohil and ArjunModhvadia, he said addingthat the front runner amongstthem is Vaghela.

Many in the Congressbelieve that in spite of his RSSbackground, Vaghela is theonly person in the party whogot the ability to counter BJP’spoll strategy. He was on centrestage of Gujarat politics after heuprooted Keshubhai Patel ledBJP government in 1996 andwent on to become GujaratChief Minister by forming hisown political outfit RashtriyaJanata Party (RJP). Later RJPmerged into Congress.

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In a major move to fullfil thelongstanding demands of the

local Kannadigas, the rulingCongress Government isproposing an amendment tothe existing law to provide 100per cent reservations to thelocal population in all blue-col-lar jobs in all private sectorindustries barring IT andBiotechnology sector indus-tries that secure concessionsunder industrial policy.

2018 being the electionyear for the Assembly, thisamendment aimed at garneringsupport is crucial for theCongress to keep its base intactin Karnataka.

The draft amendments tothe Karnataka IndustrialEmployment (StandingOrders) Rules of 1961, releasedby the labour department of the

state, pledge this new move,from which information andbio technology companies havebeen exempted. All otherindustries that refuse to com-ply with these rules will lose theconcessions enjoyed by themfrom the Government.

The amendment will beimplemented once the lawdepartment gives it approval asecond time, though such ashort-term appeasement poli-cy may lead to lasting griev-ances.

Karnataka Labour MinisterSantosh Lad said private indus-tries must give preference toKannadigas as first option andemploy them. He said "Theamendment will give us themeans to ensure that all privatesector industries open theirdoors to us, to identify howmany Kannadigas work in eachcompany and rectify any dis-

crepancies.”The labour department has

been careful not to mess withthe powerful IT and BT lobbies,which have massively improvedthe gross domestic product ofthe State. These industries areanyway not covered under theKarnataka IndustrialEmployment (StandingOrders) Rules of 1961 for aperiod of five years from 2014.

The draft amendments tothe Karnataka IndustrialEmployment (Standing orders)Rules, 1961, providing for 100per cent “horisontal reserva-tion” for Kannadigas has beenthrown open to the public forobjections or suggestions.

“Every industrial estab-lishment which has obtainedconcession of land, water, elec-tricity or tax rebate or defer-ment of tax as per state indus-trial policy shall provide hor-izontal reservation of 100 percent in employment to localpeople (Kannadigas) in case ofworkmen classified in sub-clause (a),(b),(c),(d),(e),(f) and

(g) and above," the notificationon the draft rules read.

“Every industrial estab-lishment shall provide not lessthan five per cent of employ-ment to persons with disabili-ties in case of workmen classi-fied in sub clause (a), (b), (c),(d), (e), (f) and (g) and abovein order to get incentives fromGovernment,” it added.

The department also pro-vided 5 per cent reservation fora disabled person who is alsoa Kannadiga. The IT-BT (infor-mation technology-biotech-nology) vertical has beenexempted as they are not cov-ered under the KarnatakaIndustrial Employment(Standing Orders) Rules of1961 for a period of five yearsfrom 2014.

According to the labourdepartment: "Local people(Kannadiga) means any personborn in the state of Karnatakaor who has lived in Karnatakafor not less than 15 years andknows to read, write, speak andunderstand Kannada."

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The large scale preparationsfor the Prakash Parv to

mark the 350th birth anniver-sary of Guru Gobind Singh arein last stage. The 9-day long cel-ebration will start fromDecember 30 and conclude onJanuary 7, 2017.

Prime Minister NarendraModi mhas given his assent toparticipate in the colourfulfunctions on January 5. Severaltop dignitaries have also beeninvited and they include DalaiLama, former PM ManmohanSingh, iconic film actorsAmitabh Bachchan andDahrmendra, Lata Mangeshkar,Milkha Singh, cricketer YuvarajSingh apart from severalGovernors and Chief Ministersbesides Union Ministers.

The 10th and last SikhGuru was born in Patna Citywhere the Gurudwara

Harmandir Saheb is situated.The Bihar Government wantedto make it a big event and gavethe entire city a facelift. Tentcities have been put up at threeplaces including GandhiMaidan where more than60,000 pilgrims would stay.About half a million peoplefrom across the world areexpected to attend the functions.

Bihar tourism departmentprincipal secretary Harjot Kaursaid the Bihar Governmentproposed to mark this auspi-cious occasion by developing amultilingual interpretation cen-ter and an institute for SikhStudies will also be inaugurat-ed on the occasion of PrakashParv.

“Apart from this, all placesassociated with the first, ninthand tenth Gurus shall be devel-oped and beautified. A Sikh cir-cuit connecting places associ-ated with the Gurus shall be

developed having significanthistorical importance has beendeveloped to educate Sikhdevotees on Bihar’s gloriouspast,” she said.

Gurudwara PrabhandakSamiti authorities said that invi-tation were being sent to all thedignitaries apart from all the 118members of the national com-mittee constituted by the UnionMinistry of Art and Culture.

The Ministry constituted acommittee for the preparationsof the grand celebrationsincluding PM Modi and BiharCM Nitish Kumar. Other mem-bers of the panel included for-mer PM Manmohan Singh,BJP president Amit Shah,Punjab CM Prakash SinghBadal and his deputy SukhbirSingh Badal, Haryana CMManohar Lal Khattar, RJD chiefLalu Prasad, former HomeMinister Buta Singh and severalUnion Ministers.

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The Election Commission ofIndia has said that it was

ready for the Assembly polls inUttar Pradesh and was satisfiedwith the law and order andpreparations in the State.

The EC also indicated thatfor free and fair conduct of theelections, it was keeping a closewatch on bureaucrats and policeofficers involved in poll and relat-ed duties. Refusing to commenton the expected date ofannouncement of the poll sched-ule, Deputy ElectionCommissioner Vijay Deo said inLucknow on Thursday that the“elections will be held very soon”.

The Deputy EC, who was ona two-day tour of the State toreview poll preparations, metofficers of Lucknow division onThursday. He has already heldsuch meetings with DistrictMagistrates and SSP/SPs of thedistricts of Varanasi, Allahabadand Kanpur divisions.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in Lucknow on Thursday,Vijay Deo said, “We expect thatwithin 24 hours of theannouncement of poll scheduleand enforcement of the modelcode of conduct, the adminis-tration will remove all hoardings,banners and other publicitymaterial put up by different par-ties and flying squads, staticsquads will be active across theState to prevent transportation ofliquor and illicit weapons.’’

Replying to a question onlaw and order situation in theState, Deo said, “The EC iscompetent to ensure the com-pliance of its instructions to theState Government officials. It istaking required measures to cre-ate fear free atmosphere for thefree and fair conduct of polls. Weare also conducting vulnerabil-ity mapping of each Assemblysegment of UP to ensure free andfair polling in the State’.

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In an attempt to woo thebackward castes ahead of

Assembly polls, the AkhileshYadav Government passed aresolution to include 17 sub-castes of Other BackwardCastes (OBCs) into theScheduled Castes (SC) category.

The State Cabinet, chairedby Chief Minister AkhileshYadav, approved the inclusionof these sub-castes intoScheduled Caste. Interestingly,it was one of the main com-mitments of the SP when infomed the Government in2012. These sub-castes includeKahaar, Kashyap, Kewat,Nishad, Bind, Bhar, Prajapati,Rajbhar, Batham, Gaur, Tura,Majhi, Mallah, Kumhar,Dheemar and Machua.

The move is directed atstrengthening the SP’s weak-ening hold over a section of theOBCs, who have traditionallyremained the most deprived lot.

The Cabinet moved anoth-er resolution to send the pro-posal to the Centre for furtherconsideration as ‘the finalpower for the change’ is vest-ed with the UnionGovernment.

It is the third time that theSP Government has made anattempt to include 17 OBCcastes into the SC bracket. Thefirst attempt was made byMulayam Singh Yadav’s regimewhen it brought a resolution in2004. The then SP Governmentamended the UP PublicServices Act, 1994, to includeas many as 17 castes of OBCsinto the SC category.

But since the power to

declare any caste as ‘ScheduledCaste’ rests with the Centre, thethen UP Government’s deci-sion taken without the Centre’sconsent, proved futile. TheAllahabad High Court laterquashed the decision declaringthe move unconstitutional andvoid.

The second attempt wasmade in 2012 – when AkhileshYadav came to power and ahigh-level committee headedby the then Chief SecretaryJawed Usmani sought detailsfrom the department of SocialWelfare in this regard. The cir-cular from the CS on March 28,2012 too, spoke about theGovernment’s priorities,

including the inclusion of 17OBC sub-castes within the SCcategory.

In 2013, just before the LokSabh polls, the Samajwadi Partyhad launched Samajik NyayaYatra demanding that these17 OBCs be included in the SCbracket. The Yatra was led byGayatri Prajapati – a Ministerin Akhilesh Government.

If these 17 OBC sub-castesare transferred to SC category,the SP will benefit from thevotes of both the OBCs, whosespace within the reservationbracket increases. The CM hadtaken up this issue with theCentre several times before butnothing concrete happened.

This move also underlinesthe SP’s strategy to consolidatethe votes that drifted away fol-lowing an overwhelming dom-inance of Yadavs over a peri-od of time. The sub-castesproposed to be included in theSC category essentially consti-tute the most backward castes(MBCs) within the OBCs.

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Page 7: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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The Income-Tax departmentis all set to initiate criminal

proceedings against MaheshShah, the Ahmedabad-basedproperty dealer who haddeclared �13,860 crore underIncome Declaration Schemebut later claimed that he madedeclaration under the influenceof some ‘big fishes’ and moneybelonged to them.

The 67-year-old land bro-ker has not yet given names ofthose ‘big fishes’ whose moneyhe was to declare before the ITofficials under IDS scheme.According to BD Gupta, ChiefCommissioner of Income Tax,from the beginning the I-Tdepartment had doubt on hisintentions and hence rejectedhis claims beforehand.

“We also did not includehis declaration as part of thenational IDS figuresannounced,” said Gupta.

Shah, a nondescript prop-erty dealer came to limelightafter he declared an unac-counted income of �13,860crore under IDS. However, hedisappeared without payingthe first instalment of the �1560crore tax on the amount. He

later reappeared before mediaand made a statement that theamount he disclosed did notbelong to him but he was a toolin the hands of some big fish-es who promised him a hefty“commission”.

The I-T officials onThursday said that they wouldnow initiate criminal proceed-ings against Mahesh Shah aswell as his chartered accountantTaihmul Shethna for “false”declaration. “We have sent in areport to nodal authorities(Central Board of Direct Taxes)and now any further steps areout of our purview. However,we are going to initiate crimi-nal proceedings against Shahand his chartered accountantunder Indian Penal Code,” PCModi, Director General,Investigation, IT, Gujarat, said.

The I-T officials in Gujaratalso refused to divulge anydetails of findings from Surat-based snacks-seller-turned-financier KishoreBhajiyawala. “We cannot giveyou any figures as his are notthe only case. We are floodedwith several similar types ofBhajiyawalas and shall be ableto share more details inJanuary,” Modi added.

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In yet another success againstblack money, the Income tax

department has seized �2.20crore, mostly in new currenciesof �2000 and �500 denomina-tions, from a businessman inAssam’s Nagaon district today.

A senior official of the ITdepartment said that theseizure came after raiding thehouse of one Amulya Das atNagaon town on Friday.

“There was specific infor-mation with us and we raidedthe house of Das today. Duringthe raid we have recovered�2.20 crore stashed in trunks,sacks and some other secretlockers in his house,” he saidadding that they are nowquizzing Das and his son TapanDas from where they got suchhuge number of new curren-cies.

“While most of the amount

was in �2000 and �500 denom-inations, there were also somecurrencies of �100 denomina-tions,” said the official.

Das and his son is involvedin different trades includingretailing of Pan Masala and andtobacco related products. Theduo also owns a hotel in thetown and claimed to have someother businesses in differentplaces of the State.

“We are verifying thesource of the new currencies.Probe is also on to ascertainwhether the amount recovered is disproportionate totheir income,” said the official while adding that theduo had not been arrested sofar.

On December 13 this year,CID of the Assam Police hadrecovered over �1.50 crore innew �2000 and �500 denomi-nations from a trader inGuwahati’s Beltola area.

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Among Mamata Banerjee’sNew Year pledge are Modi

Hatao (oust Modi) to-dothrough booth-wise anti-demonetisation campaigns andsubmission of a job-losers’ list-post-note-ban to PresidentPranab Mukherjee.

Intensifying her notebanditirade against Prime MinisterNarendra Modi the ChiefMinister on Thursday said his,“so called war against blackmoney is sham” and under himIndia’s future was never secure.

Addressing a meeting ofparty leaders, Banerjee saidModi was running aGovernment of “Ali Baba andthe famous four” adding, “I hadknown from the day one whenhe came to power that India’sfuture was insecure.”

Once again attacking thePrime Minister for destabilis-ing the Indian economy by set-ting off the “biggest ever scampost Independence in the nameof demonetisation”, Banerjeesaid “he talks of targeting theblack money holders but inreality the black money wallas

feel safe during his rule.”Modi was good to the

black money holders and worseto the poor she said. “He is onePrime Minister who has nocredibility and has no right tocontinue on the post. He givesspecial relief to the corrupt andattacks the farmers, labourers,middle-class in the name ofcleaning black money.”

Stopping short of repro-ducing Rahul Gandhi’s wordsBanerjee alleged that the PrimeMinister had touched not a sin-gle black money holder andsaid “despite the hullabalooagainst black money those whohave it prefer Modi and viseversa.”

The Trinamool Congresshas lined up a series of booth-wise campaign in Bengalbetween January one and 8.Instructing her party leaders tostart the campaign to mobilizepopular support againstdemonetisation Banerjee said alist of job-losers was also beingprepared to be submittedbefore the President.

Earlier she had claimedthat about 5 crore people hadlost jobs in the wake of demon-etisation. “This is aGovernment of Ali Baba andhis famous four who haveruined the Indian economyand the poor people of India.They have no idea of the poorpeople’s ordeals. So there is noway but to raise a nationwidemovement to oust Modi frompower she said.”

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Sleuths of the Income TaxDepartment, Enforcement

Directorate and the CentralBureau of Investigation wouldswoop down on many seniorGovernment officials and tradeunion leaders associated withGovernment establishmentson charges of corruption andmoney laundering. This wasrevealed by a member of theteam which raided the resi-dence and offices of P RamaMohana Rao, Tamil Nadu’sChief Secretary who was shunt-ed out on Thursday.

Many officials and tradeunion leaders associated withpublic sector undertakings andGovernment of India estab-lishments are under the scan-ner, he said.

Girija Vaidyanathan, a1981 batch IAS officer, hasbeen appointed as the ChiefSecretary of Tamil Nadu onThursday. She is the fourthwoman to become the top

bureaucrat in the State. AGovernment releases issuedby Shiv Das Meena, PrincipalSecretary to Government saidthat Girija Vaidyanathan, addi-tional Chief Secretary andCommissioner of land admin-istration has been transferredand posted as Chief Secretaryto the Government.

The release further said

she would hold additionalcharge of the posts of VigilanceCommissioner andAdministrative ReformsCommissioner. The appoint-ment of 57 year old GirijaVaidyanathan comes a dayafter sleuths from the IncomeTax Department, CBI andEnforcement Directorate raid-ed the office and residence of

P Rama Mohana Rao and hisclose relatives on Wednesday.

The fate of Rama MohanaRao is not known as theGovernment has not given himany posting. There are reportsthat he has been suspended butthe Government remainedsilent over the issue even at thetime of going to press.

Girija Vaidyanathan, a postgraduate in physics, is thedaughter of S Venktaramanan,former Governor of the ReserveBank of India. She is also thesenior most IAS officer in TamilNadu who was overlooked bythe Jayalalithaa Governmentwhile appointing Rao as ChiefSecretary in June 2016.

The raid in the residence ofRao in Chennai’s Anna Nagargot over on Thursday morning6.45 which means the sleuthsspent more than 26 hours forexamining his palatial house.“The exact amount of illegalwealth amassed by the personwill be known only after days.As on date, the IT departmenthas not released the exact

amount of cash or gold it hasseized from Rao’s house. Thedocuments have to scrutinisedbefore we could reach a figure,”said a member of the teamwhich raided Rao’s office andresidence.

The official said comingdays will see more raids in res-idences and offices of promi-nent persons in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, the residenceand offices of P Amalanathan,a Madras High Court lawyer,who is a close friend of RamaMohana Rao were raided bythe sleuths on Thursday. Theraid in the residence and busi-ness premises of Vivek, son ofRama Mohana Rao whichbegan on Wednesday morningwere continuing at the time ofgoing to press.

Meanwhile, two associatesof Shekhar Reddy, the miningbaron and a friend of RamaMohana Rao, were held by theCBI on Thursday. Reddy whowas arrested on Wednesday hasbeen sent to judicial custody tillJanuary 3.

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The I-T department onThursday said it had car-

ried out at least 43 search andsurvey operations acrossGujarat post-demonetisationand unearthed undisclosedincome as well as assets worth�73.09 crore, including newcurrency of �3.53 crore.

According to DirectorGeneral of Investigations, I-T,Gujarat, PC Mody, as many as30 searches and 13 surveyswere carried out in differentparts of the State after theCentre scrapped high valuecurrency notes on November 8.

“During our searches wehave seized cash as well asassets worth �22.93 crore,including �3.53 crore in newcurrency. During our surveyoperations, people have admit-ted of an unaccounted incomeof �50.16 crore,” said Mody atPress conference here.

The senior I-T official alsoinformed the reporters thatthe department on Friday vis-ited Memnagar branch of a pri-vate bank to verify informationrelated to transactions beingdone using dummy accounts.“We only did verification upon

receiving an input that trans-actions were made using somesuspected dummy bankaccounts. We have collectedsome documents from thebank. Further investigation isstill on," said Mody.

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Cash worth �28 lakh in new�2,000 denomination notes

was seized from a Dubai-boundpassenger at the city interna-tional airport on Thursday, aCustoms official said.

The passenger, identified asAshraf Veetil (30), was sched-uled to board a Jet Airwaysflight to Dubai when he wasintercepted by the Air

Intelligence Unit (AIU) ofCustoms, the official said.

A search of his check-inbag disclosed that he was car-rying �2,000 notes worth �28lakh, the official said. "Thesebills were hidden inside a jeanspant, over which he had keptvarious items like cooker, toysand tissue papers," he said.

During his interrogation,Veetil said that the cashbelonged to a person named

Siddiqui and he was carrying itout of India at a considerationof �20,000 and a free air tick-et to Dubai, the official said.

Veetil has been bookedunder relevant sections of theCustoms Act and further probeinto the matter is underway, hesaid.

Siddiqui had come to theairport, but escaped from thespot after getting whiff of it, theofficial said.

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Page 8: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

The Dalai Lama’s unri-valled religious author-ity and influence overBuddhists in China andaround the world is a

matter of concern to Beijing. Overthe years, Beijing has tried toshrink the space available to theDalai Lama in world capitals tolobby the Tibet cause and under-mine his influence over the differ-ent Tibetan Buddhist sects. Despitethese efforts, the Dalai Lama’sinfluence and religious authorityremain undiminished.

Since at least the past decade,Beijing has tried to restrict theDalai Lama’s interactions withworld leaders in a bid to reduce hisinternational stature and limit hiseffectiveness in lobbying supportfor the ‘Tibet cause’. In addition tostrong official protests demandingcancellation of meetings scheduledwith the Dalai Lama — consistent-ly described as a “splittist” engagedin anti-China activities — Chinahas used a mix of punitive diplo-matic and economic measures.

Studies reveal that these puni-tive actions, enforced promptlyafter the Dalai Lama is formallyreceived by a Head of State orGovernment, usually remain ineffect for periods of between sixmonths to two years. Additionally,China immediately suspends alldiplomatic, political and govern-mental contacts, including thosealready scheduled. Bilateral tradeand outbound Chinese invest-ment are also adversely affectedwith a visible slow down inChinese exports and imports.

Examples include France,with whom China suspendedrelations for four months afterFrench President Nicolas Sarkozymet the Dalai Lama in Warsaw inDecember 2008. Danish-Chineserelations were frozen for sevenmonths after a meeting betweenthe Danish Prime Minister andthe Dalai Lama in May 2009. Theseverest reaction was in the caseof Norway, when Beijing held itresponsible for awarding the 2010Nobel Prize to imprisonedChinese dissident Liu Xiaobofor “his long and non-violentstruggle for fundamental humanrights in China’, and normalisedrelations only six years later onDecember 19 this year.

Britain too, despite havinglaunched a policy of appeasingChina since October 2008, hadrelations with China suspendedafter the ‘private’ meeting betweenBritish Prime Minister DavidCameron and Deputy PrimeMinister Nick Clegg with theDalai Lama in May 2012. It capit-

ulated within a year. No Britishleader has met the Dalai Lamasince 2012 and China pointedlyplayed up the economic advantagesof the relationship during ChinesePresident Xi Jinping’s visit toLondon in 2015.

Because of China’s econom-ic heft and pressure, the numberof world leaders who havereceived the Dalai Lama in thepast couple of years has seen adramatic drop to single digits.Even US President Barack Obamadeferred a meeting with the DalaiLama in 2015. In this backdrop,Mongolia’s reception of the DalaiLama assumes importance. TheDalai Lama used it to demon-strate his religious authority and‘recognise’ the third highest rank-ing monk in Tibetan Buddhism.

A sharper edge has also beenvisible now in Chinese protests toIndia regarding the Dalai Lama.In October this year, Beijingobjected to India permitting theDalai Lama to visit ArunachalPradesh and in December, to thevisit of Ogyen Trinley Dorje,widely regarded as the 17thGyalwa Karmapa, to ArunachalPradesh, though he avoided mak-

ing any political statement. OnDecember 16, Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman GengShuang objected to the DalaiLama’s meeting with PresidentPranab Mukherjee at theRashtrapati Bhavan during a chil-dren’s summit organised onDecember 10 and said India had“insisted” on arranging the 14thDalai Lama’s visit to the presiden-tial palace. He urged India to“fully respect China’s core inter-ests and major concerns, andtake effective means to remove thenegative impact caused by theincident to avoid any disturbanceto China-India relationship.”

Of late, China appears to betrying to further restrict the spaceavailable to the Tibetans-in-exile byobjecting to meetings betweensenior officials and their Sikyong,Lobsang Sangay. China recentlyobjected to meetings betweenLobsang Sangay and British andNepalese politicians and, in thecase of the United Kingdom,warned that it had “severely dam-aged China’s core interests.”

Domestically too, the ChineseCommunist Party (CCP) leader-ship is trying to maintain controls

on the rapidly increasing numberof adherents to Buddhism. The sit-uation inside the TibetAutonomous Region (TAR) con-tinues to be restive with three self-immolations occurring this year.The most recent was on December8, in the Tibetan area of Amdo inMachu in Gansu Province. TARincreased its security budget forthis year by 54 per cent and theprevious TAR party secretaryChen Quanguo, put in place aneffective security grid comprising698 police stations ensuring thatsecurity personnel arrive at thescene within three minutes of anincident being reported. He alsoextended CCP surveillance to eachof the TAR’s 5,453 villages.

A document published by theDepartment of MilitaryPsychology, People’s Armed PoliceUniversity College of Engineeringin January this year and publicisedby the International Campaign forTibet (ICT), nevertheless reveals ahigh incidence of psychologicalproblems among police officersinvolved in ‘stability maintenance’and counter-terror operations.Another document by the SichuanPolice College in 2014 describedthe risks in tackling “violent terror-ist criminal activities in the Tibetanareas” as rather high.

Meanwhile, the ZhejiangProvincial unit of China’s officialBuddhist Association of China,issued a six-point directive onNovember 28, calling for the pre-vention and restriction of the ‘ille-gal’ propagation of TibetanBuddhism in China’s easternZhejiang Province. It prohibitsmonks practicing TibetanBuddhism from visiting ZhejiangProvince to give teachings and con-duct empowerment and other rit-uals without Governmentapproval. The directive hints at sus-picion of the Chinese authoritiesagainst the spread and popularityof Tibetan Buddhism in the larg-er Chinese society.

Notwithstanding theseefforts, the Dalai Lama retainsimmense popular goodwill andsupport from legislators in var-ious countries. His Kalachakra‘teachings’ in India attracts vis-itors from China in thousands.To discourage Tibetans andChinese from travelling to BodhGaya for the ‘Kalachakra’ inJanuary 2017, Beijing has decid-ed to impose travel restrictions,especially on Tibetans!

(The writer is formerAdditional Secretary in the CabinetSecretariat, Government of Indiaand is President of the Centre forChina Analysis and Strategy)�

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Information, real and designed”(December 22) by KushanMitra. Given the magnitude offalse news doing the rounds insocial media during the USpresidential campaign, a part ofFacebook, Twitter et al, appearsto be in the shoes of JosephGoebbels, who said, “A lie toldonce remains a lie, but a lie tolda thousand times becomes the truth.”

The chemistry of a repeated-ly told lie becoming truth isinherent in our potential forobedience. According toAmerican psychologist StanleyMilgram, human potential forobedience is the prerequisitefor social organisation but thispotentiality can also come to asticky end as human vulnerabil-ity to tyranny. Indeed, tyrannyis based on mass obedience.

So, obedience must be com-bined with a spirit of enquiry.Otherwise, gullibility can reducedemocracy to dictatorship andnationalism to jingoistic hyste-ria. We need to verify the verac-ity of the news before believingthe material.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Chandigarh sweep: note ban, anti-incumbency no issue?” (December21). Amidst the onslaught ondemonetisation, the sweeping vic-tory in Chandigarh civic polls musthave given the BJP a sigh of relief.It also has a message for the likes ofRahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal,Mamata Banerjee etc, that inspiteof facing immense hardship, peo-ple are unimpressed by their falsepropaganda on demonetisation.

However, there is little scope forthe BJP to be complacent as restric-tions on money withdrawals arecontinuing, people are standing inqueues in banks, and ATMs are stilldry. Of course, the BJP has been vic-torious in the Assembly and the LokSabha by-elections and in local bodypolls, but the real test will be theupcoming Assembly elections inUttar Pradesh and Punjab.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — After facing a backlash, theReserve Bank of India (RBI) hasamended its order on deposit limitof �5,000 and has also said that the‘Know Your Customer’ account

holders will not be questioned. Butthe barrage of confusing and con-tradictory rules, notices andannouncements, pouring forthfrom the RBI and also the FinanceMinistry, ever since November 8, issymptomatic of an administrationfloundering to deal with the falloutof demonetisation. One estimateputs the number of such notices at59, while the Congress has count-ed 125 proclamations so far.Whatever the intent, execution hasbeen botched up, leading to higheconomic and human costs.

KS PadmanabhanChennai

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Sir — Legendary singerMohammed Rafi was the mostversatile singer ever — he couldchange his style as per the char-acter of the film. His unforget-table masterpieces include, Babulki duayen leti ja and the hilariousone with Asha Bhosle, Achcha jimain hari, chalo maan jao na.There can be no match for Rafi.Till music is alive, he shall remainin the hearts of music lovers.

Mahesh KapasiVia email

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Page 9: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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It is still too early to say exactlywhat motivated the assassinwho gunned down the Russian

Ambassador to Turkey on Monday.But the ruthless, apparently pro-fessional hit broadcast on live tele-vision suggests that however shock-ing, this was not a spontaneous act.

The off-duty police officershouted “Allah Akhbar” and“Revenge for Aleppo”, but he wasclinical, not emotional, in his han-dling of the gun. Maybe his aim wasto scupper the growing rap-prochement between Russia andTurkey despite their disagreementsover Syria. Even when they are suc-cessful, assassins don’t always pro-duce the result they want. But highprofile political murders alwaysproduce big result.

Everyone remembers how therather amateurish Serbian studentGavrilo Princip set off the fuse forthe First World War by his lucky hiton the heir to the Austrian throne.At the time, the Great Powers wereunanimous in condemning it as anact of terrorism, but within sixweeks they were at war with eachother over how Vienna reacted.Condemning terrorism is some-thing everyone agrees on; how topunish it soon reveals splits as dif-ferent Governments have theirown interests.

Think back to 1982 when theIsraeli Ambassador to this countrywas gunned down in Park Lane bya Palestinian terrorist. Even ArabGovernments, certainly their diplo-mats, recognised that murderousattacks on diplomatic immunitywere not in their own interests.When, however, Israel blamedYassir Arafat’s PLO based across theborder in Lebanon and invaded thecountry to expel his fighters whenthey refused to leave, lots ofGovernments decided the responsewas disproportionate.

This week’s unanimous con-demnation of Ambassador AndreiKarlov’s murder may, therefore,

shatter very soon, depending on theresponses of Russia and Turkey,among others. The assassin’s ref-erence to Aleppo’s plight could wellexpress frustration with Turkishpolicy as much as Russia’s opensupport for Syrian President Basharal-Assad. This attack was on the eveof a planned summit between theforeign and Defence Ministers ofTurkey, Russia and Iran. Note theabsence of Turkey’s nominal alliesin Nato or the Gulf Arab states whohave backed Turkey’s fiercely anti-Assad line. The assassination mayhave been aimed at souring thisplanned summit.

Turkey has suffered an upsurgein terrorism since the failed coupin July. Most of it has been direct-ed at President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan. Partly because ofErdogan’s anger at the West’s crit-icism of his heavy-handed crack-down since the failed coup, and alsobecause he sees US PresidentBarack Obama as a wimp overSyria, he seems to have beenpreparing a diplomatic revolution.It wouldn’t be his first. Rememberthat he was a great friend of Assadin 2009, before becoming his mor-tal foe in 2011. And while Erdogannow denounces the Islamic clericFethullah Gulen as the mastermindof the coup last July, they were incahoots for years as they tried totransform Turkey along “mod-ern” Muslim lines.

The assassin is accused ofbeing a supporter of Gulen infil-trated into the police. This may

sound far fetched, but rememberhow the Turkish pilot, who shotdown the Russian fighter last year,was “exposed” and arrested as aGulenist plotter after the coup.Turks are getting used to dizzyingreversals of the official narrative.

This sudden crisis is more-over a very brutal symptom ofjust how messy the backwashfrom the crisis in Syria hasbecome. If Turkey was driftingaway from the West becauseErdogan resented what he saw asthe US-led alliance’s feebleresponse to Assad’s repression ofthe revolution, this murder couldpoison his new bromance withRussian President VladimirPutin. Imagine if either collusionor gross negligence on the part of

the Turkish security forces isrevealed as making it possible fora gunman to get so close to anobvious terrorist target. Russiamight then demand heads roll inAnkara, and Erdogan might notbe willing to sacrifice them.

For the West, the worst casescenario would be an armed con-frontation between Russia andTurkey, which is after all still a Natoally. But, sadly, if the Russian-Turkish rapprochement survivesthis assassination, the West’s sigh ofrelief at a crisis avoided will bemixed with sighs of concern thatErdogan’s drift away from theWest into a Eurasian alliance wouldcontinue. Maybe this murder willprove a dead-end, if the assassinwanted to drive a wedge betweenTurkey and Russia. But even if thatwas the aim, and Erdogan andPutin don’t fall into brutal mutualrecrimination, it is going to have bigconsequences.

Something was in the airbetween Ankara, the Kremlin andTehran. The tectonic plates whereNato meets Russia and Iran as wellas the Islamic State seemed aboutto shift dramatically. The murderof Ambassador Karlov might actu-ally speed up that process. It maynot be the cause of a geopoliticalearthquake, but it is a symptom thatthe ground is shifting from underthe West’s feet. The Syrian crisis hasnow become a Turkish crisis.

That is something the Westignores at its peril. Yet this dramaticmoment comes precisely at thetime when Washington is preoc-cupied with the transition toDonald Trump and Europe isnavel-gazing. Even if the West is notthinking beyond the headline-grabbing event, the Kremlin andthe Ayatollahs are making cold cal-culations about President Erdogan’slikely response. That could shakeus up more than the Ambassador’shome country.

(Courtesy: Daily Telegraph)

What does the crystal ballpredict for 2017?Politically, it is going to be

an eventful year. It will be the begin-ning of the second half of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s first term.He is already making efforts toexpand his party’s base as well as hispro-poor image and is also prepar-ing for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

It will be a crucial year for theBJP, the Congress, the ShiromaniAkali Dal (SAD), the SamajwadiParty (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) and the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) as all are bracing for an elec-toral battle. It is a fight for sur-vival for the SP and the BSP inUttar Pradesh. It is a gamblefor expansion for the AAP inPunjab and Goa. For theCongress, it is a question ofrevival. And for the BJP, it isessential to prove that theModi wave still continues.

The year would begin withelections in Uttar Pradesh,Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand andManipur. The BJP is a coalitionpartner in Punjab and ruling inGoa. The Congress is ruling inUttarakhand and Manipurwhile the SP is at the helm inUttar Pradesh. It is crucial forthe BJP and Modi personallyto ensure a good showing, par-ticularly in Uttar Pradesh.

Riding on the Modi wave, theBJP won 72 of the 80 seats in the 2014Lok Sabha polls. If the party winsUttar Pradesh, it will have a cascad-ing effect on the other eight Stateswhich are going to polls in 2018,including Karnataka and Gujarat.

The fate of SP chief MulayamSingh Yadav and also of BSP supre-mo Mayawati will be known after thepolls. Mayawati has been down since2014, when her party got zero seats.As for the Congress, any improve-ment in Uttar Pradesh and elsewherewill go a long way to lift its saggingimage and also leadership. An

alliance between the Congress andthe SP might help both, but it has notbeen clinched so far.

In Uttarakhand, the BJP, whichhas been alternating with theCongress, is waiting to capture poweragain. With the controversy about thedismissal of the Harish RawatGovernment (which was restored bythe courts) it is not clear whether theCongress would retain it.

Punjab too is important. TheCongress is counting on anti-incum-bency faced by the SAD-BJP com-bine. A win for either would go a longway to improve their kitty. The AAP

party is eyeing to make an entry inPunjab and Goa as well as in Gujarat.Anti-incumbency is staring in theface of the BJP in Goa and theCongress in Manipur. ‘Irom Sharmila’could impact the upcoming electionsas she has decided to contest the polls.

Meanwhile, the national partieshave to also start preparing for theAssembly polls for eight States,scheduled for 2018, including Gujaratand Karnataka. Winning Gujarat, thehome State of Modi will be a matterof prestige for the BJP.

It is also important for Modi toretain the goodwill he has earnedfrom the poor due to his bold mea-

sure on demonetisation. But he hasto also win back the middle class, thelower middle class, women, smalltraders and farmers who have beendisenchanted with the measure.

The year 2017 is also importantbecause the presidential and vicepresidential elections are due in July.Since it is the legislators and MPs whoelect the President and VicePresident, it would be easier for theBJP if could improve its position innext year’s Assembly polls.

For the grand old party, it maybe an eventful year if Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi takes over

the reins. If that happens,Congress president SoniaGandhi may become thementor of the party. This willbring a generational change.

There are other partiestoo that are braving for agenerational change. DMKpatriarch Karunanidhi is ail-ing. He has already hintedthat his son MK Stalin wouldbe his political heir. It is notknown whether it will be ayear of turbulence or stabil-ity for the AIADMK post-Jayalalithaa period. AlthoughO Panneerselvam has takenover, there is a demand thatSasikala Natarajan becomesthe Chief Minister.

Punjab Chief Minister PrakashSingh Badal too is fighting his lastelectoral battle. Win or lose, he mayhand over the baton to his sonSukhbir Singh Badal. Similarly,although not announced, MulayamSingh Yadav might hand over theparty to his son Akilesh Yadav. InJammu & Kashmir, the coming yearwill be a test for Chief MinisterMehbooba Mufti’s governance. PostAssembly poll scenario might resultin some political realignment in theOpposition as well as ruling NDA,depending on the results.

(The writer is a political com-mentator and a syndicated columnist)

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There is now even agreater push for thedigital era. This is per-

fectly understandable, giventhe lure of a technology-dri-ven ambience. It fuels anunderstandable scramble formodernity. A look at the layof the land in general andgoing-ons in the electronicworld may be in order.

Technology in the con-sumer electronics domainhas its roots in theA m e r i c a n / J a p a n e s e/English/German experi-ence. The economy of thesecountries is in-a-manner-of-speaking a ‘replacementeconomy’. The life of thegadget is over not by a nat-ural wear and tear, but whenthe corporate manufactur-ing brand decides to phaseout one set of equipmentwith the invariable claim ofan up-scaled version.

Very often up-scaling istoken, if at all. However, thespecification of the part issuitably altered to make surethat maintenance/replace-ment of parts becomes anoutdated concept. This obvi-ously lubricates the wheels ofthe producer’s investmentand a feeling of well-being isgenerated amongst investors.

The backup of this econ-omy has certain financialassumptions. Poverty is notseen as a factor. For another,these countries do not rank98th in the human hungerindex of a survey of 113 coun-tries, as does India. There isno premium on fixed depositsin banks because the interestrates are low.

Compare that to what ishappening in India. Aboutnine-tenth of the population inthe so-called retired category

in India survives on income offixed deposits. The remainingone per cent keeps moving,through re-employment orsurvives on assets accumulat-ed over the working period.

This variation alone isenough to show that thenature of consumer electron-ics in India cannot be viewedparallely with the nature ofconsumer electronics in coun-tries named earlier.

The results are for all tosee. In April 2014, Microsoftstopped offering securityupdates patches and techni-cal support for a very largenumber (72 per cent) of the2,02,000 ATM machines inIndia, run on windows XP.

Today, they are all ahackers’ delight. The newssurfaces in business repeat-edly. The argument for-warded is that it is for thebanks to upgrade the soft-ware of the ATM’s. Globally,Windows XP in ATM’s havegraduated to Windows 7.India has yet to find its way.

Is it possible that the ini-tial contracts were signedwithout reading the fineprint? The writer of theselines in the last few weeks hashad two experiences of goingthrough contracts with reput-ed organisations.

In one case, because ofcertain office exigencies, hehad to look into the possi-bility of opening an accountwith a multinational bank.The multinational bank rep-resentative produced a con-tract where in a font of sizesix pts said everything whichtotaled up to protecting theso-called interest of the bank,giving to the applicant prac-tically no protection.

Indeed, it went on to say

that all subsequent changes inthe rules and regulations ofthe said bank would apply tothe customer even if he wasnot so informed.

This would stretch theimagination of the mostgullible and cooperative ones.The story doesn’t end there.To download the software ofa taxi provider you are askedto sign electronically on astatement that you have readall the rules and regulations!

The present writer again,wanting to be careful, had tospend time finding out wherehe could get these rules andregulations. The source ofinformation was difficult toget and when reached thewebsite refused to down-load! Clearly if you care, youdo not proceed.

The above is not theapproach of a fevered mind.Several newspapers havereported that suspected out-ages have become a menaceacross points of sale terminalsat key Gurgaon outlets.

The story rolls on andsmall vendors say that manycustomers are technologicallysimply not savvy enough toeven use card swipingmachines. The argument is forsmall changes. Obviously thiswill effect business. The cab-bies refuse e-cash and wantnotes; machines which hangand you can’t operate it whenyou want to.

We would all love to gocashless. But perhaps it maynot be too much to expect toput a deliver y infrastructure in place.

(The writer is seniormanaging director and principal economic advisor, Protiviti IndiaMember Pvt Ltd)

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Page 10: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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National Company LawTribunal on Thursday

refused to hear the plea for inter-im relief of Cyrus Investmentscompany pending disposal of apetition filed by family-ownedcompanies of Cyrus Mistry, theousted Chairman of Tata Sons,alleging bad practices, oppressionand mismanagement in the hold-ing company.

A division bench of NCLTcomprising BSV Prasad Kumar(Member-Judicial) and VNallasenapathy (Member-Technical) decided to finally hearthe petition filed by CyrusInvestments Pvt Ltd and SterlingInvestments Corporation Ltd,on January 31 and February 1next year, saying it would not con-sider granting interim relief nowor entertain interim proceed-ings.

The bench asked Respondentno 11, Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, tofile a reply to the petition withina week from Thursday.

It also directed Tata Sons andother respondents to file a replywithin 15 days, after Mistry filesa reply. They have been asked torespond to Mistry’s reply and thepetition.

The NCLT directed the peti-tioner companies to file a rejoin-der a fortnight thereafter.

The bench made it clear that

instead of hearing the parties onthe point of interim relief, it wouldhear the matter expeditiouslyand give an order in about amonth. With the consent of theparties, it then fixed January 31and February 1 next year for hear-ing the matter and decidingexpeditiously.

The NCLT also asked theparties to argue first on the main-tainability of the petition and thenon the merits.

Mistry’s family-owned com-panies had moved the NCLTunder sections 241 and 242 of theCompanies Act which deal withrelief in case of oppression andpowers of the tribunal to act insuch cases, respectively.

Mistry, who was removed asthe Chairman of Tata Sons, con-tinues to be on the board of theholding company. Mistry’s fam-ily holds over 18 per cent in TataSons while Tata Trusts headed byRatan Tata, the newly appointedinterim Chairman, has a 66 percent stake.

The petition, argued bysenior counsel A Sundaram,urged the tribunal to direct TataSons and its Interim ChairmanRatan Tata not to remove CyrusMistry from the board of theholding company and other TataGroup companies until the peti-tion is finally heard and disposedof. The petitioner’s lawyer soughtan interim relief to restrain Ratan

Tata from attending any Boardmeetings of Tata Sons or inter-fering in the affairs of Tata Sons.

It also sought an interim relieffrom the tribunal to restrainRatan Tata and other directors

from removing Mistry as direc-tor of Tata Sons and other com-panies.

However, the prayer for inter-im relief was not considered onThursday by NCLT.

The other prayers in thepetition included supercedingthe board of Tata Sons andappointing an administrator tocontrol its affairs.

In the alternative, the petition

sought to appoint a retiredSupreme court judge as a non-executive Chairman of Tata Sonsto appoint new independentdirectors.

The petition also prayed for

a direction to Tata Sons not toissue any securities which resultin dilution of the present paid-upcapital of the petitioners in TataSons.

Alleging oppression in theholding company, the petitionalleged that Tata Sons had madea veiled threat in a special noticeunder section 169 of CompaniesAct (to remove directors) to theextent that if Tata operating com-panies and non-promoting direc-tors do not support the removalof Mistry as director, these com-panies would no longer have theright to use ‘Tata’ brand name.

The petition further allegedthat Nusli Wadia, an independentdirector, was also sought to beremoved in the same manner asCyrus Mistry and that he hadraised concerns about statementsmade by Kumar Bhattacharya,advisor and close aide of RatanTata, which may attract provisionsunder the regulations of insidertrading.

The petitioner’s lawyer, ASundaram, said the allegationshave not been rebutted by therespondents so far.

The bench, however, askedthe petitioner’s lawyer to showmaterial in regard to allegationsmade in the petition against TataSons and Ratan Tata.

Responding to this, thelawyer said there was enoughmaterial to support the allegations

raised in the petition and addedthat the petition was maintainableon the basis of the avermentsmade therein.

Senior counsel AbhishekSinghvi, appearing for Tata Sons,termed the allegations as baselessand said he would file a reply tothe petition whenever NCLTdirects him.

Senior counsel JanakDwarkadas, appearing for CyrusMistry, said he would respond tothe petition within the timeframe given by the tribunal.

Mistry had moved the tri-bunal after quitting on December19 from the board of six listedoperating firms of the groupahead of shareholder voting, ona resolution moved by Tata Sonsseeking his removal.

He alleged a breakdown ofgovernance, oppression and mis-management of minority inter-est.The petition alleged thatMistry was removed asExecutiveChairman of Tata Sons withoutany notice and without any expla-nation at the behest of Ratan Tata.

It also alleged that specificindependent directors of somelisted companies like Nusli Wadia,who acted independently andendorsed the good performanceof the management, were “threat-ened” with oppressive action.

The petition also questionedsome of the deals of the TataGroup.

.����������� ���#6�.%�0�����+������� ������%�������)49(48:,

Independent Director NusliWadia has been removed

from Tata Steel board with90.8 per cent of shareholderspresent at last WednesdayEGM voting in favour of hisouster.

In a regulatory filing, thecompany said out of its totalshares of 97.12 crore, 62.54crore votes were polled, whichtranslate into 64.4 per cent.

“Total vote in favour ofthe resolution was 56.79 crore,i.E. 90.80 per cent, and totalvote against the motion was5.75 crore, i.E. 9.20 per cent,”it said.

“The motion (was) car-ried in favour of the resolutionwith overwhelming majorityway beyond a special resolu-tion hurdle of 75 per cent,even though this motion wasan ordinary resolution requir-ing simple majority,” the com-pany added.

The promoter and pro-moter firms held 30.45 croreshares in the company, ofwhich 29.59 crore voted.

It further said the totalnumber of votes polled bynon-promoter shareholderswas 32.95 crore, of which27.20 crore, that is 82.5 percent, was in favour of the res-olution.

The total number of votespolled against the proposalwas 5.75 crore, accounting for17.5 per cent of non-promot-ers.

The company claimedthat even if the promotervotes were excluded, the vot-ing result showed an over-whelming majority (3/4th) infavour of the resolution.

Institutional investorsheld a total of 42.64 croreshares out of which 31.99crore, which is 75 per cent,were polled.

As much as 26.39 crore ofinstitutional shares, which is

82.5 per cent, voted in favourof Wadia’s removal, Tata Steelsaid. The share of institution-al shares which polled againstthe resolution was 5.60 crore,that is 17.5 per cent.

As for retail shareholders,the company said that out ofa total of 24.02 crore shares,96.14 lakh voted, with 81.21lakh (84.4 per cent) in favourand 15 lakh (15.6 per cent)against.

“Both institutional andretail voted on a similar pat-

tern with significant majoritywell beyond the 3/4th major-ity mark in all categories,” thecompany said.

Wadia had stayed awayfrom yesterday’s EGM, sayingit was stage-managed.

Last week, he filed a�3,000-crore defamation suitagainst Ratan Tata, Tata Sonsand some of its directors. Heflied the case in the BombayHigh Court following themove by Tata Sons to removehim from the board of thethree companies.

Wadia had denied allega-tions by Tata Sons that he wasacting in concert with oustedchairman Cyrus Mistry.Besides, he has refuted claimsthat he was “galvanising” inde-pendent directors and mobil-ising opinion, forcing disrup-tions and issuing statements”which were contrary to theinterest of the companies as“totally baseless and com-pletelyunsubstantiated”.

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� �� ��� �The all power-f u l G S T C o u n c i l onThursday reached a “broadconsensus” on the CGSTl aw, b ut u n c e r t a i nt yremains on the vexed issueof j u r i s d i c t i on ov e rassessees under the pro-posed Goods and ServicesTax (GST) regime.

On the first day of thetwo-day meeting of statefinance ministers chairedby Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley cleared most of197 clauses of the CGST. Itis the seventh meeting ofthe Council.

“Four-five” issues areleft as they require morediscussions that have beenflagged, sources said.

Tomorrow, the Councilwould take up the con-tent ious i s sue of cross

empowerment of Centreand states to avoid dualcontrol over assessees in thenew indirect tax regime.

Sources further said theIGST which also deals withj u r i s d i c t i on ov e r t a xassessees would be dis-cussed tomorrow. They said

the issue requires more dis-cussion as there is diversionof opinion between statesand Centre as who will taxwhich set of assessees. TheGST Compensation law isalso scheduled for tomor-row.

The Emp owere d

Committee of State FinanceMinisters, which met aftert he C ounci l meet ing ,approved proceedings of theday.

Parliament has amendedthe Constitution for theintroduction of GST, whichseeks to subsume variousstate and central levies.

However, as consensuseluded in the earlier meet-ings of the Council, the sub-sequent GST legislations --CGST, IGST and compensa-tion law -- could not beintroduced in the Wintersession of Parliament.

This has threatened theApril 2017 roll out target oft he GST. Due toConstitutional requirements,the new indirect tax regimehas to be implemented bySeptember 2017. ���

��42�����������>�$���$�������$����������$������������+����)49(48:,

Income Tax Department hasidentified an additional 67.54

lakh non-filers with potential taxliabilities who carried out highvalue transactions in 2014-15 butdid not file return of income.

The Non-Filers MonitoringSystem (NMS) was initiated byCBDT, the policy making body ofI-T Department, for identificationof non-filers with potential tax lia-bilities.

“The Income Tax Departmenthas conducted the fifth cycle of datamatching which has identified an

additional 67.54 lakh potentialnon-filers who have carried outhigh value transactions in thefinancial year 2014-15 but did notfile return of income for the rele-vant assessment year i.E. AY 2015-16,” CBDT said in a statement.

Non-filers have been identifiedbased on data analytics carried outby the Systems Directorate ofCentral Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) about whom specificinformation is available in theAnnual Information Return (AIR),Central Information Branch (CIB)and TDS/TCS databases.

“While the Government urges

all tax payers to disclose their trueincome and pay taxes according-ly, the Department would contin-ue to pursue the non-filers vigor-ously till all the high potential non-filers are covered,” the statementsaid.

CBDT has made available inthe ‘Compliance Module’ on the e-filing portal of the Income TaxDepartment the information relat-ing to the identified non-filers.

The information will be visi-ble only to the specific PAN hold-er when they log into the e-filingportal at https.//incometaxindiae-filing.Gov.In.

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����)49(48:,

The Income Tax department onThursday said now-defunct

�500 and �1,000 notes can be usedtill December 30 for paying tax ondisclosures made under the taxevasion amnesty scheme.

The Government has comeout with Taxation and InvestmentRegime for Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Yojana (PMGKY), 2016,under which those with unac-counted cash were offered achance to come clean by paying50 per cent of it as tax, penalty andsurcharge, while parking an addi-tional 25 per cent in a non-inter-est bearing deposit for four years.

“It is stated that up toDecember 30, 2016, the paymenttowards tax, surcharge, penalty anddeposit under the PMGKY can bemade in old bank notes of rupees500 and rupees 1000 denomina-tion issued by the RBI,” a financeministry statement said.

����� :48',)!,

Nokia announced onThursday it is suing Apple

in German and US courts forpatent infringement, claimingthe US tech giant was usingNokia technology in “many”products without paying for it.

Finnish Nokia, once theworld’s top mobile phonemaker, said the two companieshad signed a licensing agree-ment in 2011, and since then“Apple has declined subsequentoffers made by Nokia to licenseother of its patented inventionswhich are used by many ofApple’s products.”

“After several years of nego-tiations trying to reach agree-ment to cover Apple’s use ofthese patents, we are now tak-ing action to defend our rights,”Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Nokia’spatent business, said in a state-ment.

The complaints, filed inthree German cities and a dis-trict court in Texas, concern 32patents for innovations relatedto displays, user interface, soft-ware, antennae, chipsets andvideo coding. Nokia said itwas preparing further legalaction elsewhere.

Nokia was the world’s lead-ing mobile phone maker from1998 until 2011 when it bet onMicrosoft’s Windows mobileplatform, which proved to be aflop. Analysts say the company

failed to grasp the growingimportance of smartphone appscompared to hardware.

It sold its unprofitablehandset unit in 2014 for some$7.2 billion to Microsoft, whichdropped the Nokia name fromits Lumia smartphone handsets.

Meanwhile Nokia has con-centrated on developing itsmobile network equipmentbusiness by acquiring itsFrench-American rival Alcatel-Lucent.

Including its 2013 fullacquisition of joint ventureNokia Siemens Networks,Nokia said the three companiesunited represent more than115 billion euros of R&Dinvestment, with a massiveportfolio of tens of thousandsof patents.

The 2011 licensing dealfollowed years of clashes withApple, which has also sparredwith main rival Samsung overpatent claims.

At the time, Apple cut thedeal to settle 46 separate com-plaints Nokia had lodgedagainst it for violation of intel-lectual property.

.���������,���� �������� ��� ��

����)49(48:,

With the note ban is reaching45th day, the Standing

Committee on Finance met onThursday under the chairmanshipof Congress leader M VeerappaMoily and various issues and itsimpact were briefed by variousexperts on demonetisation. Most ofthe economists were divided on theGovernment’s decision of cashrecall and expressed deep concerntowards the demonetisation beingpursued by the Bhartiya JanataParty as well.

However, sources said ReserveBank of India (RBI) Governor UrjitPatel will brief a parliamentary panelon January 19 on issues concern-ing demonetisation and its impli-cations on the economy.

Patel, who was supposed tobrief the finance panel, was report-edly absent due to some official rea-sons. But some independentexperts who offered their viewbefore the panel were noted econ-omists Rajiv Kumar and MaheshVyas, former chief statisticianPronab Sen and Kavita Rao ofNational Institute of Public Financeand Policy (NIPFP). The meetingwas also attended by former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh.

However, sources said Patelwill brief a parliamentary panel onJanuary 19 on issues concerningdemonetisation and its implications

on the economy. During the dis-cussion, the panel also sought toknow from the experts their opin-ion on the existing cash to GDP andtax to GDP ratios. “The commit-tee has called Patel on January 19to brief the members about the con-tours of demonetisation and alsothe efforts being made by the cen-tral bank to ease cash crunch in theeconomy. The panel will also lendan ear to bankers and IndianBanks’ Association,” the sourcessaid.

Sources further added that theexperts also sought how the con-version of cash economy into dig-ital would take place within the con-fined time declared by the centralGovernment. All three economistswho expressed concern on demon-etization spoke on the issue of coun-terfeit currency, inflation and blackmoney.

Before taking on record theview of RBI Governor, the 31-member panel will question

Finance Ministry officials and alsoIT experts on demonetisation andsteps taken to promote digitaleconomy.

Explaining the crux of the issueof note ban, it was, however, point-ed out that the digital economy atpresent is 3 per cent and efforts areon to take it to 90 per cent. Besides,other experts are likely to give theiropinion on demonetisation, whichcame into effect from November 9.

One economist also argued theimplications of note ban whichmight hamper the short termgrowth of the country’s economy.“This committee will submit itsreport on demonetisation on thefirst day of the Budget Session of theParliament,” said one of the Panelmembers who requested not to benamed. Besides, it was also arguedthat for a meaningful war againstblack money, the denotification ofa part of the currency every twoyears.

Lastly, the sources said that therewould be another meeting with theexperts on December 27, a daybefore Prime Minister’s 50-daydeadline ends. “Even the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is expect-ed to meet the economists onDecember 27 to discuss the state ofthe economy. The economists in thefirst half of the day will meet theFinance Minister Arun Jaitley andspend the second half with the PrimeMinister,” the sources added.

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Mobile payments companyPaytm is still facing issues

in transacting as many users havecomplained that money wasdeducted from their bankaccounts but did not reach the e-wallet. Besides, the users saidthey are not able to see the exist-ing balance in their Paytm wal-let and their attempts to transferthe balance back to bankaccounts were failing. Paytmcustomers have been facing suchissues for the last few days.

Its customer care hasn’t beenof much help as no transaction IDsare getting generated on its plat-form to help track details, they said.Several customers using Applehandsets complained that theycould not even access theiraccounts and pay through using.

When contacted, a Paytmspokesperson said there are regu-

lar cases wherein owing to serverconnectivity issues, bank down-time or other technical reasons,many times money gets deductedfrom the account but does not getcredited to the recipient. “Suchtransactions are automatically cor-rected within 48 hours. Currently,bank servers are strained thereby,increasing the frequency of suchissues,” the spokesperson added.

Some users claimed that they

are still waiting to get their trans-ferred money back despite raisingthe issue with Paytm customercare. Government’s move to scrapold �500 and �1,000 notes and theresultant cash crunch has forcedmany people to use digital plat-forms like Paytm to make trans-actions. However, given the hugespurt in transactions, failure ratesof transactions have also gone up.

“As we continue to route the

traffic to new servers and installadditional capacity, certain cus-tomers are facing the time out,” thecompany had said when askedabout the reasons for the techni-cal errors being faced by cus-tomers. On Apple handset usersfacing difficulties, Paytm in a blogsaid the company had “found abug in its iOS app where certainapp users were not able to pay,thereby hanging their app. Soonthe system logged them out pre-venting them from further access-ing their account.”

“We are sending an appupdate to Apple immediately andrequesting them to approve thesame as soon as possible. Oncelive, we request our users toupdate their iOS app,” it added.The company also sought topacify users saying the users’“data and money is absolutelysafe and secure. This is a minorissue that we are fixing,” it said.

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NEW DELHI: Investments indomestic capital markets throughparticipatory notes (P-Notes)plunged to its lowest level in near-ly three years to �1.79 lakh crore inend-November. P-Notes are typi-cal instruments issued by registeredforeign portfolio investors (FPIs) tooverseas investors who wish to par-ticipate in Indian markets withoutregistering themselves directly inthe country to save time. But theystill need to go through a properdue diligence process.

According to the data availablewith Sebi, the total value of P-Notesinvestment in Indian marketsequity, debt and derivatives -- fellto �1,79,648 crore in November-end, from �1,99,987 crore at theend of October. This was the low-est level since February 2014 whenthe cumulative value of suchinvestments stood at �1,72,738crore. The investment through theroute was �2,12,509 crore,�2,16,232 crore and �2,12,179crore at the end of September,August and July, respectively. PTI

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MUMBAI: Pain for stocks inten-sified for the seventh day as theSensex went below the key 26,000mark to nearly one-month low byplunging 263 points on fears of alikely hit to corporate earningsdue to currency recall andabsence of any major trigger.

This is its longest declinesince March 2015. Global indicestoo remained weak in the wakeof overnight losses on the WallStreet and worries over Italy'sstruggling banking sector, which

depressed the Indian market.Market participants wererestrained as they waited for out-come of the crucial two-day GSTCouncil meet.

The Nifty cracked below the8,000-level and closed at its near-ly one-month low, whose fallduration was the longest sinceJune 2015. Starting lower, theSensex hit a low of 25,940.14, butrecovered marginally to closethe day lower by 262.78 points, or1 per cent, at 25,979.60. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Corporate board-rooms remained abuzz with dealactivities in 2016 with mergersand acquisitions worth over $52-billion and the tally may get evenbigger in the new year on grow-ing interest of global investors inthe Indian businesses. The surgein deal value this year was large-ly driven by big-ticket transac-tions and consolidation in manysectors, experts said, while addingthat similar trends may contin-ue going forward in 2017.

They said the new year lookspromising in terms of domestic,inbound as well as outbound deals,but this outlook is dependent onmacro-economic trends andreforms in sectors like infrastruc-ture and power among others.According to consultancy major EY,the total quantum of announceddeal value for 2016 is estimated at$52.6 billion, sharply higher than$31.3 billion in 2015, though thedeal count declined to 756 deals(from 886 deals in 2015). PTI

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����8������������� )49(48:,

The Government’s plan to morethan double the share of nat-

ural gas country’s energy mixfrom 6.5 per cent in 2015 to 15 percent would necessitate invest-ments of at least �65,000 crore(nearly $10 billion) just to aug-ment infrastructure for gas importand for laying pipelines, says areport from Crisil

Energy mix refers to the pro-portion of various fuels in over-all energy consumption. Thereport said if the share of gas inIndia’s energy mix has to rise to10 per cent by 2020, it wouldmean a doubling of gas con-

sumption to over 100 billioncubic meter (BCM) from currentlevels. But given that domestic gasproduction is limited, demand forimported LNG would surge three-fold to 65 BCM, or over 50 mil-lion tonnes.

Collaterally, to import thisLNG, India’s regasification capaci-ty will have to increase to 60 mil-lion tonnes compared with 25 mil-lion tonnes now. Crisil Research saidits analysis shows that would entailinvestments of �30,000-35,000crore. And for all that gas to be con-sumed, 9,000 km of pipelineswould have to be laid in east andsouth India, which would costanother �25,000- 30,000 crore.

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NEW DELHI: Drug major Sun PharmaceuticalIndustries on Thursday said it will acquire a brand-ed oncology product, Odomzo, from Novartis for anupfront payment of $175 million. The pact has beeninked between arms of both the firms and will closefollowing anti-trust clearance and further closing con-ditions, the Mumbai-based company said. The pacthas been signed for an upfront payment of $175 mil-lion and additional milestone payments, it added.

“Odomzo gives us a chance to meaningfully expandour already established branded dermatology busi-ness and support our expansion into branded oncol-ogy with a launched brand,” Kirti Ganorkar, GlobalHead Business Development at Sun Pharma, said.It sees meaningful global potential for Odomzo byleveraging Sun Pharmas existing dermatology andoncology infrastructure to provide an innovativeproduct to patients worldwide, he added. PTI

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Denouncing the deadlyattack on a Christmas

market in Germany, President-elect Donald Trump renewedhis vow to stop radical terrorgroups and appeared to suggesta willingness to move aheadwith his campaign pledge toban temporarily Muslim immi-grants from coming to theUnited States.

Trump proposed theMuslim ban during theRepublican primary campaign,drawing sharp criticism fromboth parties. During the generalelection, he shifted his rhetoricto focus on temporarily haltingimmigration from an unspeci-fied list of countries with ties toterrorism, though he did notdisavow the Muslim ban, whichis still prominently displayed on

his campaign website.The president-elect, when

asked Wednesday if the attack

in Berlin would cause him toevaluate the proposed ban or apossible registry of Muslims in

the United States, said “Youknow my plans. All along, I’vebeen proven to be right, 100percent correct.”

“What’s happening is dis-graceful,” said Trump, whodeemed the violence “an attackon humanity, and it’s got to bestopped.”

A transition spokesmansaid later Wednesday thatTrump’s plans “might upsetthose with their heads stuck inthe politically correct sand.”

“President-elect Trump hasbeen clear that we will suspendadmission of those from coun-tries with high terrorism ratesand apply a strict vetting pro-

cedure for those seeking entryin order to protect Americanlives,” spokesman Jason Millersaid. But transition officials didnot comment on whetherTrump could also push for theoverarching ban on Muslims.

The Islamic State group hasclaimed responsibility forMonday’s attack in Berlin thatleft 12 people dead and 48injured. On Wednesday,German officials launched aEurope-wide manhunt for a“violent and armed” Tunisianman suspected in the killings.

Former Trump campaignmanager Kellyanne Conwaysaid during an interview withABC on Thursday morningthat Trump is “the guy outthere saying we need extremevetting policies, that we need tohave a better system vis a viscountries that train, harbor

and export terrorists.”“He said during the cam-

paign long after he originallyproposed that that this wouldbe more strictly tied to coun-tries where we know they havea history of terrorism and thatthis is not a complete ban,” sheadded.

Trump’s transition teamannounced Thursday thatConway is headed to the WhiteHouse, where she’ll serve ascounselor to the president.

Trump, who addressedreporters for less than twominutes Wednesday outsidehis palatial South Florida estate,said he has not spoken toPresident Barack Obama sincethe attack. Aides said that hereceived the classified presi-dential daily intelligence brief-ing on Wednesday and metwith incoming White House

national security adviserMichael Flynn.

Trump was spending thefinal days of 2016 huddledwith advisers at Mar-a-Lago,his grand resort in Palm Beach.He also met Wednesday withthe heads of Boeing andLockheed Martin, companieswith high-dollar governmentcontracts that Trump has crit-icized. Boeing has a contract tobuild two new Air Force Oneplanes and Lockheed Martinbuilds the F-35 fighter jet.

Trump said of his meetingwith Lockheed Martin CEOMarillyn Hewson, “It’s a littlebit of a dance. We’re trying toget costs down.”

Dennis Muilenburg, CEOof Boeing, said his companywas committed to workingwith Trump to lower costs onthe Air Force One project.

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China on Thursday refutedallegations by Taiwan that

it is luring small countrieswith “money diplomacy” toenforce its ‘One China’ policyafter Sao Tome and Principe, acentral African nation, cut offits diplomatic ties with Taipeiand moved closer to Beijing.

“How can the one-Chinaprinciple be traded withmoney? The Chinese govern-ment never trades its princi-ples,” Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingtold a media briefing herereacting to Taiwan’s assertionthat Sao Tome opted for “high-est bidder” namely China totide over its economic diffi-culties. Hua said the ‘OneChina’ principle had broadconsensus in the internationalcommunity, while representingpeople’s aspirations.

“We appreciate and wel-come Sao Tome and Principe

returning to the correct trackof sticking to the ‘One China’policy. Justice lies in people’shearts,” she said.

Moscow: Russia’s military isnow stronger than any poten-tial foe, President VladimirPutin told an annual end-of-year meeting with the DefenceMinistry on Thursday.

“We can say with certain-ty, we are stronger now thanany potential aggressor,” hetold the meeting. “Anyone!”

His comments come at theend of a year when tensionsbetween Russia and the Westhave remained strained, large-ly to do with differing approach-es to the civil war in Syria.Tensions between Russia andthe West escalated after Russia’sannexation in Crimea in 2014and its involvement in the con-flict in eastern Ukraine. Last

year, Russia began an air forceoperation in Syria to supportPresident Bashar Assad that’sirked the US in particular.

Both Russia and NATOmembers conducted a flurry ofmilitary drills near the Russianborder this year. Russia hasinsisted that it’s bolstering itsforces at the border to react to agrowing NATO threat. Speakingat the Defence Ministry’s head-quarters in Moscow Putin saidRussia should follow closely anymilitary movement along itsborder as well as changes “in themilitary and political situationglobally.” He said Russia shouldbe swift in “adjusting plans toneutralise potential threats to ourcountry.” AFP

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Evacuations from rebel-heldparts of Aleppo continued

overnight with dozens of vehi-cles leaving the city and theoperation likely to end onThursday, aid workers said.

The InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross,which is assisting in the evac-uation, said dozens more busesand smaller vehicles wereexpected to carry rebel fighters and civilians out of thecity on Thursday.

“We expect today to be thelast convoys, the operation willcontinue all day long and dur-ing the night. If it goes smooth-ly the evacuation will endtonight,” said Ingy Sedky, theICRC’s spokeswoman in Syria.

Around 30,000 people haveleft the one-time oppositionstronghold of east Aleppo sinceThursday, including all of thewounded and sick in criticalcondition, according to theICRC. Ahmad al-Dbis, whoheads a team of doctors andvolunteers coordinating evac-

uations, said some 400 vehicles,including trucks and cars, hadarrived overnight in Khan al-Assal, the staging groundwhere evacuees from Aleppoarrive after leaving the city.

From there, most haveheaded for territory to thewest of the city still under thecontrol of Syrian rebels, who

are suffering their biggest defeatin more than five years of civilwar after agreeing to with-draw from Aleppo.

President Bashar al-Assad’sgovernment is waiting for theend of the evacuations so it candeclare the completion of theoffensive to recapture the one-time rebel stronghold.

London: Reindeers, bestknown for pulling Santa’s sleighon Christmas Eve, may have asignificant part to play in slow-ing down climate change, a newstudy has found. Researchersfound that when reindeerreduce the height and abun-dance of shrubs on the Arctictundra through grazing, thelevel of surface albedo — theamount of solar energy reflect-ed by the Earth back into space— is increased.

“Our theory was that heavygrazing by reindeer increasessummer albedo, through areduction in shrub height, abun-dance and leaf area index (LAI),”said Mariska te Beest, from

Umea University in Sweden.“The effect reindeer graz-

ing can have on albedo andenergy balances is potentiallylarge enough to be regionallyimportant,” said te Beest. “It alsopoints towards herbivore man-agement being a possible tool tocombat future warming. Most

of the arctic tundra is grazed byeither domesticated or wildreindeer, so this is an importantfinding,” she said. “Of course,the impact the reindeer havewill vary according to their den-sities and the subsequent effectson the vegetation levels acrossthe whole tundra,” she added.

Islamabad: Pakistan onThursday said its foreign sec-retary will travel to Russia toparticipate in a trilateral meet-ing with Russia and Chinanext week which will discusskey regional issues includingpeace process in Afghanistan.

“The Foreign Secretary willlead the Pakistani delegation inthis meeting. This is an exist-ing forum for undertakinginformal discussions on issuesof regional peace and stability,including situation inAfghanistan,” Foreign Office(FO) spokesman NafeesZakaria said at the weeklypress briefing here.

The trilateral meeting will beheld on December 27 and peacein Afghanistan will be on the topof the agenda due to increasingthreat of ISIS to Central Asia,which is considered as Russianbackyard, there are also reportsof contacts between Taliban andRussian officials as the latterrecognise the importance ofTaliban in checking the threat ofISIS. PTI

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Beijing: Over 53 per cent offamilies with one child inChina do not want a secondchild despite the government’smove to amend the decades oldone-child policy by permittingtwo children, an official surveysaid. The survey interviewed10,000 families with childrenunder 15 years old in 10provincial-level regions, includ-ing Beijing and Liaoning tofind majority of one child couples reluctant to havea second baby.

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Over 53 per cent of familieswith one child in China do

not want a second child despitethe government’s move toamend the decades old one-child policy by permitting twochildren, an official survey said.

The survey, co-conductedby state-run All-China Women’sFederation along with BeijingNormal University’s NationalInnovation Centre forAssessment of Basic EducationQuality, interviewed 10,000families with children under 15years old in 10 provincial-levelregions, including Beijing andLiaoning to find majority of onechild couples reluctant to havea second baby.

The key factor for most par-ents considering a second childis quality of public services,including kindergartens andschools, quality of baby prod-ucts, living environment andaccess to medical treatment,state-run Xinhua news agencyquoted the survey as saying. Thesurvey results are regarded as setback for the government as itwants to encourage couples tohave second child in order tocounter the demographic crisis.

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E-TENDER NOTICE NO. 26/2016-17WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

TENDER NOTICE-Online Tenders (e-tender) in B-1 form for the following work are invited on behalf of Governor ofMaharashtra by the Executive Engineer, Chandrapur Irrigation Division, Chandrapur Phone No.(07172) 255898, Fax No. 07172-270139 e- mail [email protected] on GoM Electronic TenderManagement System http://www.mahatenders.gov.in

The details can be viewed and downloaded online directly from the GoM e-Tendering Portalhttp://www.mahatenders.gov.in or sub portal of Water Resouces Department http://www.maha-tenders.gov.in Blank tender Document will not be sold by this office

Sr. Name of the Work Tender CostNo. (Rs in Lakhs)1 2 31 Repair and Renovation of Ghot Ex-Mal Tank,

Tah. Chamorshi, Dist. Gadchiroli 67.602 Repair and Renovation of Waddha Ex-Mal Tank,

Tah. Armori, Dist. Gadchiroli 58.623 Repair and Renovation of Dongargaon Ex-Mal Tank,

Tah. Mul, Dist. Gadchiroli 60.204 Repair and Renovation of Padasgao Ex-Mal Tank,

Tah. Chimur, Dist. Chandrapur 55.745 Repair and Renovation of Wasera Ex-Mal Tank,

Tah.Sindewahi, Dist. Chandrapur 85.67

For more details on the tender and bidding process you may please visit the above mentionedportal.

NOTE:-1. All eligible / interested contractors are mandated to get enrolled on e- Tendering Portal

(http://www.mahatenders.gov.in)2. To process the tenders online, to encrypt their bid and to sign the bid hashes, bidders are

required to obtain DSC. For details bidders can contact Help Desk.3. Contractors can contact Help Desk for any clarification of their doubts regarding the process

of Electronic Tender System. Help Desk NATIONAL INFORMATION CENTER (NIC) No180030702232 (Toll Free) Mobile No 7878007973, 7878007972 e-mail [email protected] Online viewing of Detailed Notice Inviting tenders :-

4. The Contractors can view the Detailed Tender Notice along with the Time Schedule (KeyDates) for all Live Tenders released by WRD on the home page of WRD e-Tendering Portalon http://maharashtra.etenders.in under the section Recent Online Tender.

5. Right for any amendment in the Terms & Condition of Tender and the right to reject any orall offers without assigning any reason thereof is reserved with Competent Authority

Sd/-Executve Engineer,

Chandrapur litigation Division,DGIPR/2016-2017/4136 Chandrapur

Page 13: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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Engaging the audi-ence for December

month, DLF Mall ofIndia celebrated theentire month withback to backenthralling activitieslike a visit from RealSanta from Finland,first ever LegoChristmas tree pre-pared by kids andmusical themed play.Along with all theChristmas engagementand activity happeninginside the mall , it willhave carol group per-forming from 23rd to25th December on fre-quent intervals .

The Great IndiaPlace Mall

showcases India’slargest digital greet-ing card thisChristmas (25ft. by25ft). It integrates aphoto fly booththat enables cus-tomers to click sta-tic or dynamicimages and postthem on the threescreens placed onthe card. They canalso share the pho-tographs on theirsocial media pages.It is also hostingChristmas bazaarfrom 23rd to 25thDecember.

She has inundated India’s retail galaxy with brands likeAlberta Ferretti, Lanvin, Moschino, Alexander

McQueen, Saint Laurent, DvF, Stella McCartney, Jean PaulGaultier, Dolce&Gabbana and many more. Priya Sachdev,who straddles the chic corridors of Delhi and Mumbai, hasbecome a significant style presence over the years. Sachdeventered the fashion scene with a passion and emerged real-ising she would go further with an entrepreneurial bentof mind than with merely a sartorial one.

However, entrepreneurship was not always in her plans.“I use to work as an Investment Banker in London, andthen I worked with my father in the automotive retail busi-ness. But as it happens to all of us at a certain point whenthe entrepreneur bug bites and things change. It happenedto me and I decided to start something of my own,” saidSachdev.

She came up with her online store two years back andintroduced theinternational brandsin the Indian e-commerce market.Sachdev decidednot to retail Indianbrands in her storesunless they cancompete on aninternational level.“Bringing luxurybrands at an onlinemarketplace wasnot very challengingsince the demandin India for interna-tional brands ishigh. There is a seg-ment of buyers wholook for thesebrands and makethe purchase. Westarted with 12brands and todaywe have more than300 brands. Thisgives us the fair ideaabout the demand,”she said.

Why the transi-tion from a retailstore to e-com-merce website hap-pened? “We had todo this transitionbecause it was get-ting difficult to caterto our customerswith a single store.Also, opening

branches is tad difficult. There are real estate challenges,man-power challenges and more. So for us, going onlinewas comparatively a better option,” said Sachdev.

When asked about the scope of fashion marketgrowth in India, she said, “Luxury market in Indian is $35billion market today and is growing at the rate of 30 percent a year. Indian consumers are spending $85 million oninternational online websites for shopping. This data clear-ly depicts the size of Indian luxury apparel market. In com-ing years, if we are able to serve the luxury apparel, jew-ellery and decor customer base in India, it will surelyincrease the consumer base and profit of the seller.”

The store which started with fashion brands, now caterin kids wear, fine jewellery, gadgets and many other cat-egories. She said agreed there is not much competition inthe luxury e-commerce space presently but there will bemany players who might enter this space soon. She con-cluded by encouraging the women entrepreneur and said,“Continue to realise your dreams and believe in your entre-preneurship skills. They should not let anybody discour-age them for their spirit.”

Usher in Christmas withall the fervor and festiv-

ities and marvel at thebiggest Santa in town, asDLF Place, Saket has set upa giant installation of theSanta at the Plaza. The instal-lation is made up of 5,00,000fairy light. In addition to this,visit Hamleys ‘Santa’s ToyFactory’— where one cansee little elves at work, mak-ing toys for Santa to distrib-ute. To make the festivaleven more special for kids,Hamleys will give kids achance to write a letter toSanta wishing for a toy theywant. Dimensions : 11 ft (height)x 12.5 ft (width) x 10 ft(depth)

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World-travelling, Grammy-award win-ning producer, DJ and car enthusiastNick van de Wall, popularly known as

Afrojack, is on top of the world right now.Performing at a litany of festival all across theworld has the towering Dutchman jettingbetween nearly daily gigs in different countries.Super kicked to play at the 10th year celebra-tion of Sunburn happening in Kesnand District,Pune from 28th-31st of December, Afrojack hasa lot for the crowd to dance on.

�When did DJing come to you and how didthe journey begin?

Dance music was huge where I grew up, itwas our upbringing. Holland is a really smallcountry with a very strong club scene. Growingup in Holland, it’s normal to go to clubs and Ithink experiencing it and getting to watch someof the best DJs in the world made us want to doit too. So there were a lot of opportunities forproducers to release records and play live. It’sin the culture so it makes it normal for peopleto think, ‘I want to DJ’.

�In one of the interviews you said that you arenot an EDM guy. How else do you describeyourself?

I’m not EDM. If I wanted to be a success-ful EDM artist, I wouldn’t put 80 per cent ofeverything back into the show. I would be chill-ing, demanding 20 hotel rooms, playing for one-and-a-half hours and being miserable. But I don’twant to be an EDM artist. I want to make some-thing that people can be proud of. I want to makean album my grandma and my fans are goingto like. I want to make my grandma understanda drop and make club fans understand a song.

�Six or seven years ago, you were a young DJ,in what was then one of those new genres,Dutch house. How did you transition fromthere to where you are now?

For me, it’s still exactly the same. I’m still try-ing to find new sounds. I’m still trying to con-stantly reinvent what I’m doing. And it’s diffi-cult. After making “Take Over Control” a cou-ple of years ago, everyone started to use thebleepy pitch sounds. I was like, “Ahh, you know?

“Should I try to do something else, now thateverybody is doing the same, or should I try tokeep doing this?” Eventually, it was neither ofthe two. It was just sit in the studio and do what-ever feels right. I used to constantly be botheredby people copying my sounds or just other gen-res going totally different ways. I used to be com-pletely engulfed by that and constantly focusedon that. Now I’m just focused on doing what-ever I want.

�How would you say being a huge success hasaffected your life and the time you spend withfamily and friends?

I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anythingyet. I feel like I’m on the road to accomplishingsomething. I live life for my family, fans andmyself, and those are the people who sum upwho I really am.

�You have recently collaborated with Ty forGone. Who else is on your hip-hop collabo-rators wish list?

I like the more out-of-the-ordinary artists.I’d love to do something for Kanye West some-time. Same thing with Rihanna. I love whenartists are so out of the box that every song theymake is like, what is it? It’s not describable inwords. Just a weird piece of music that is a mixof all kinds of genres.

�What genres and sounds are you inspired bycurrently?

The Skrillex sound, but more the hip-hopside of it. I started noticing more and more howthe trap culture and all the hip-hop-trap-dub-step DJs- it’s starting to get louder and crazierbut also better mixed and way better arranged.It has way more breathing room in it. I’m real-ly getting excited about those sounds. I’ve alwaysproduced pop, hip-hop … all kinds of stuff. Mostpeople don't know that Give Me Everything wasmy breakthrough song even though my namewas all the way at the end. But then I producedLook At Me Now for Chris Brown and later con-tributed to Beyoncé’s Run the World withMajor Lazer. I have a lot of hip-hop lying aroundthat we don’t know how to place yet, but we’reworking at it. With the growth of this trap soundand everything that Skrillex has been doing withthe whole Jack U thing … it’s been really inspir-ing to me.

�You’re making albums; you’re DJing aroundthe world. What comes first? What’s yourfavourite? DJing or producing?

I want to diversify more as the artistAfrojack instead of just the producer Afrojack.I feel more confident as my sets have diversi-fied as well. I play more hip-hop and trap now.Because I became famous as a dance producer,my shows automatically became dance-orient-ed. At one point, my entire set was 128 bpm. ButI didn’t grow up as a 128 bpm person. I loveEDM but I do more than that. A lot of peopledon't appreciate that and have tried to put meback in a box. I don’t like boxes.

�What one key quality must a DJ possess? The ability to mix the hits with new music.

If you just play the hits then people will say, “I’veheard all the hits, thank you” and they’re out.They’re never going to come back. Let peopleexperience the necessary amount of hits to getthem excited and then let them hear somethingnew they never expected and would be open toliking. That’s the job of a DJ. Playing the right songat the right time but also sometimes creating theright time for the right song, especially if it’s new.

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Bayern Munich eased to a comfortable 3-0 victory over promoted Leipzig in theirtop-of-the-table clash to claim the

Bundesliga's unofficial title of 'autumn cham-pion' before the winter break.

"We wanted to send a signal," Bayern cap-tain Philipp Lahm said.

The two sides had been level going intotheir 16th-round showdown, with Leipzig,boasting the league's best away record, quiet-ly confident of causing another upset toround off a remarkable first half-season of top-flight football.

Only founded in 2009, Leipzig was pro-moted as second-division runner-up last sea-son but surprised many by making the bestever start for a new team in the Bundesliga.

But the visitors were already two goalsdown when their hopes were virtually extin-guished with Emil Forsberg's sending off fora dangerous lunge in the 30th minute.

"We all make mistakes," Leipzig coachRalph Hasenhuettl said. "It didn't go as weimagined it would."

Thiago Alcantara opened the scoringinside 20 minutes, when he arrived at the righttime to convert from close range with his thighafter Robert Lewandowski's initial effort hit theright post.

Douglas Costa almost added anotherimmediately afterward, only to see his effortfrom 14 yards (meters) strike the left post.

Bayern had more shots on goal, more pos-session and was winning more tackles than thevisiting side.

Xabi Alonso made Bayern's dominancecount minutes later. Naby Keita, a key playerfor Leipzig, lost the ball to Arturo Vidal, andit went through Lewandowski and thenThiago, who set up a rare goal from open playfor Alonso.

Leipzig's task grew harder when Forsbergwas sent off for a bad challenge on Lahm frombehind.

Lewandowski made it 3-0 with a penaltybefore the break after Leipzig 'keeper Gulacsibrought down Costa. It meant Lewandowskihas scored against every Bundesliga club, theonly active player to do so.

Gulacsi atoned somewhat by getting thebetter of Lewandowski in a one-on-one afterthe break, before substitute Franck Riberystruck the crossbar.

By then the game was decided, however,and players were already looking forward totheir month-long winter break.

"It was a lesson. The best team won.Congratulations to Bayern," Hasenhuettl said.

Bayern now leads Leipzig by three points,with third-place Hertha Berlin six points fur-ther back at the season's halfway stage.

Here's a look at other matches Wednesday:

� �����) �����'�����������EFootball was overshadowed in Berlin,

where 12 people died and many more wereinjured following Monday's attack with a truckon a Christmas market.

Darmstadt fans held up a banner saying"Stay strong Berlin" and thousands of candleswere lit around the Olympiastadion as bothteams and supporters observed a minute ofsilence for the victims.

It was early in the second half before homefans had reason to cheer when MarvinPlattenhardt struck with a brilliant free kickfor Hertha. Plattenhardt sent another free kickin for Salomon Kalou to head Hertha's second

goal in the 66th minute. "We won for the cityof Berlin," Kalou said. "Our fans showed thatlove is more important than anything else."

���� �� ������ �� ��)� � ���Sandro Wagner's first half strike looked to

be enough for unbeaten Hoffenheim to staythird, but Serge Gnabry, arguably the bestyoung player this season, equalized in the finalminutes for relegation-threatened Bremen tograb a valuable point and allow Hertha sneakthird place.

������ ����)�� ��� � ��� ���Cologne will be happier to share the spoils

from the Rhine derby, with Leverkusen coachRoger Schmidt under pressure after a disap-pointing opening half of the season left his sideninth, 16 points off the pace.

Anthony Modeste fired the home sideahead in the 21st minute with a brilliant touchwith the inside of his right boot to FrederikSoerensen's cross, sending the ball over the'keeper and under the crossbar.

But Brazilian defender Wendell equalizedbefore the break, and ran to celebrate with hisbeleaguered coach.

Elsewhere, Two goals from FlorianNiederlechner in the first half were enough forFreiburg to win 2-1 at Ingolstadt.

���� -4+8,)

Few imagined at the start of the season that a fifth-tier clubupon its foundation in 2009 would prove Bayern Munich's

biggest obstacle to an unprecedented fifth straight Bundesligatitle.

But Leipzig has got the rest of the league sitting up and tak-ing notice, even if it failed its biggest test Wednesday by losing3-0 in Munich.

"A lesson," Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuettl called it, as asense of normality returned to the top of the league.

Elsewhere, however, the big clubs are struggling, with Leipzigtrailed by a host of unlikely candidates as sheer graft and untir-ing teamwork prove their worth over underperforming stars.

Modest Freiburg, which won the second division ahead ofLeipzig last season, is enjoying its best season since 2012-13despite a net investment of just 5 million euros ($5.2 million)on transfers following promotion.

Coaches have been paying the price for their sides' inepti-tude.

Borussia Moenchengladbach's Andre Schubert became theseventh Bundesliga coach to lose his position this season onWednesday, and it's unlikely he'll be the last with counterpartsat Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen facing uneasy Christmases.

One man who'll enjoy the festivities is Bayern president UliHoeness, back in charge after serving half of his 42-month prisonterm for tax evasion.

More than 97 percent of 7,152 club members voted for the64-year-old Hoeness to take his old position in November andthe club bounced back from two straight defeats the next day.Bayern has won each of its six games since his return.

���� ���� It seems only Leipzig can stop Bayern from claiming yet

another title with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Bayer

Leverkusen, Moenchengladbach, Wolfsburg and Schalke all fal-tering.

Carlo Ancelotti made the best start by any Bayern coach,winning seven competitive games straight before Atletico Madridended his run in the Champions League.

That's where his tenure will be judged after predecessor PepGuardiola failed to capture Europe's biggest prize in three sea-sons at the Bavarian club.

Ancelotti has had to listen to some criticism as Bayern nolonger looked as dominant as in previous seasons, but the Italianis experienced enough to have heard it all before.

Leipzig's original aim for the season was stability in the topflight, but now Europa League or even Champions League foot-ball is a real possibility. The title is probably just one dream toomany for Hasenhuettl's side.

���������� ����� �Leipzig's push at the top of the table would not be possible

without the contribution of Naby Keita.The combative Guinea international, who arrived from sis-

ter club RB Salzburg in the summer, has been producing stand-out performances from the outset, pulling the strings in Leipzig'smidfield, acting as a pivot between defense and attack, and chip-ping in four goals as well as setting up two more.

Keita was laboring with a strain before the Bayern game anduncharacteristically caught in possession for one of the goals.Clearly not fully fit, he was taken off at half time as Leipzigslumped to only its second defeat in his absence.

���� >.:1))4'-/+�

The coach of South Africa's national teamwas fired on Thursday following a dis-

ciplinary hearing into his public outburstafter a World Cup qualifier last month.

Shakes Mashaba was suspended after atelevision camera caught him ranting at hiscritics, while reports claimed he also insult-ed the head of the country's soccer federationafter a 2-1 win against Senegal on Nov. 12.

At a hearing that took place over fivedays this month, Mashaba was found guiltyof three charges - gross misconduct/pro-fessional misconduct, gross insubordina-tion/professional misconduct, and violationof the federation's communications policy- and was released with immediate effect.

"It is regrettable that we had to face theevents of the past month at a time when the

national team is experiencing a resurgencein its quest to qualify for the 2018 WorldCup," said Dennis Mumble, chief executiveof the South African Football Association.

South Africa has collected four pointsfrom its opening two games in qualificationto lie in second place in Group D, behindBurkino Faso on goal difference. Only the

first-place team qualifies.Footage showed Mashaba being calmed

by a reporter and a SAFA official just beforea post-match TV interview for the nation-al broadcaster following the win overSenegal. The video showed a clearly angryMashaba shouting and pointing his fingeras he moves into position for the interview.

"This is my second life. These peoplehave already buried me, you know that,"Mashaba said in reference to the media.

South African media reported that thecharges also followed comments made byMashaba to SAFA President Danny Jordaanand other federation officials when theyentered the dressing room to congratulatethe team.

Assistant coach Owen da Gama tookcharge of a friendly against Mozambiquewhile Mashala was suspended.

���� �1+,'

Striker Edinson Cavani scored his18th league goal of the season as Paris

Saint-Germain trounced woeful Lorient5-0 on Wednesday to take some pressureoff coach Unai Emery heading into thewinter break.

Third-place PSG is three pointsbehind Monaco, which beat Caen 2-1 athome, and five behind league leader Nice,which drew 0-0 away to Bordeaux.

The spotlight was firmly on Emeryafter last weekend's 2-1 defeat away toGuingamp - PSG's fourth loss in theleague so far - but Lorient's abysmaldefending made it too easy.

After a quiet opening spell, right backThomas Meunier put PSG ahead in the25th minute with an audacious piece ofskill, clipping the ball over the head of aGuingamp defender and floating a shotinto the opposite corner.

Lorient center half Zargo Tourescore an own goal just before halftimeand Brazilian defender Thiago Silvarose unchallenged to head in a corner inthe 51st minute.

The communication between goal-keeper Paul Delecroix and his defenseappeared non-existent all night.

For the fourth goal, a gaping hole wasleft as Cavani ran onto a through ball and

then appeared to go down before anycontact from Delecroix. The penaltywas awarded, and Cavani sent Delecroixthe wrong way for his 24th goal in allcompetitions.

Brazilian winger Lucas expertly con-trolled Marco Verratti's long ball andcoolly lobbed Delecroix to make it 5-0with 20 minutes left.

Still, given how bad last-place Lorientwas, there is little reason to suggestEmery has turned the corner.

PSG has already lost twice as manyleague games as it did last season, whenit was unbeaten in the league until Feb.28, won Ligue 1 by a record 31 points,and scored 102 goals.

Emery will need some goodg per-formances to convince the club's Qatariowners that they made the right decisionto fire Laurent Blanc and hire him afterhe guided Spanish club Sevilla to athird straight Europa League title.

PSG lost only four games last seasonin all competitions as it won a secondstraight domestic treble under Blanc, whowas replaced because he failed to get pastthe quarterfinals of the ChampionsLeague.

Five-time European championBarcelona stands between PSG and aplace in the quarterfinals. But before that,PSG resumes league duties on Jan. 14

with a tough match away to Rennes.BORDEAUX 0, NICE 0Nice had striker Mario Balotelli and

midfielder Younes Belhanda sent off inthe last minute of an even encounter.

Balotelli was red carded for kickingout at Polish defender Igor Lewczuk andBelhanda joined him in the dressingroom moments later for another per-ceived retaliation.

Nice striker Alassane Plea andBordeaux's Brazilian forward Malcomwent close in the first half, during whichBalotelli had to change his bloodied shirtafter getting caught by a stray arm fromBordeaux midfielder Jeremy Toulalan.

Bordeaux striker Diego Rolan hit thepost and Balotelli had a shot saved in aneven second half.

MONACO 2, CAEN 1Monaco survived an early scare to

beat 10-man Caen.Caen almost scored in the 16th

minute, when midfielder Julien Feretplayed in Croatian striker Ivan Santiniwith a clever pass and Santini's deflect-ed shot hit the crossbar.

Monaco made the most of thereprieve when Colombia striker RadamelFalcao earned and scored a penalty in the48th minute for his 11th goal in 13 leaguegames this season.

Moments later, defender DamienDa Silva was shown a second yellow cardfor hauling back 17-year-old forwardKylian Mbappe.

Midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko madeit 2-0 in the 76th, while Caen strikerHerve Bazile pulled a goal back in injurytime.

LYON 2, ANGERS 0Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette

continued his fine form with his 13th goal

in 14 league games.Lacazette later turned provider, mak-

ing a fine run and then cushioning a passperfectly for forward Nabil Fekir madeit 2-0 near the end.

Lyon is in fourth place, five pointsbehind PSG but with a game in hand.

OTHER MATCHESStriker Bafetimbi Gomis netted his

10th of the season and forward ClintonN'Jie scored an injury-minute winner asMarseille beat Bastia 2-1 to make it fourleague wins in a row.

Sixth-place Marseille is level onpoints with Guingamp, which has a bet-ter goal difference.

Veteran forward Jimmy Briandscored twice for Guingamp in a 2-2 drawaway to Metz.

Portugal forward Eder - scorer of theextra time winner in the EuropeanChampionship final against France inJuly - equalized in the 89th for Lille in a1-1 home draw against Rennes.

Nancy had defender Erick Cabacosent off on the hour mark but drew 0-0away to Saint-Etienne.

Former Portugal winger SergioConceicao celebrated his third straightwin since taking charge of Nantes witha 1-0 home victory against Montpellier.

Dijon beat Toulouse 2-0 to moveaway from the relegation zone.

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Page 16: ˚(01 ,, ( -2334, &1 Kisi ka kala dhan khul raha hai, to kisi ka kala mann, (black money of some is being disclosed, and black intent of some others), said Prime Minister Narendra

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����� (/-1,

It turned out to be double delight forRavichandran Ashwin at the ICCAnnual Awards here on Thursdayas he became only the third Indianplayer ever to win the Sir Garfield

Sobers Trophy after being named theICC Cricketer of the Year besides the ICCTest Cricketer of the Year.

The off-spinner thus became thethird India player and 12th overall to win

the prestigious Sir Garfield SobersTrophy. Ashwin follows in the foot-steps of Rahul Dravid (2004) andSachin Tendulkar (2010), whileother recipients of the Sir GarfieldSobers Trophy include AndrewFlintoff and Jacques Kallis(joint-winners in 2005), RickyPonting (2006 and 2007),Shivnarine Chanderpaul(2008), Mitchell Johnson

(2009 and 2014), JonathanTrott (2011), Kumar Sangakkara(2012), Michael Clarke (2013) and

Steve Smith (2015).Ashwin was also adjudged

the ICC Test Cricketer of theYear, which has made himonly the second India player

after Dravid (2004) to bagthe two coveted prizes in

the same year.Kallis (2005),

Ponting (2006),Sangakkara (2012),Clarke (2013),

Johnson (2014) andSmith (2015) are the

other players to annex boththe awards in the same year.

During the voting peri-od, which ran fromSeptember 14, 2015 toSeptember 20, 2016, the30-year-old off-spinnerfrom Chennai played eightTests in which he took 48wickets and scored 336runs. Ashwin alsoclaimed 27 wickets in 19T20Is. Ashwin had fin-ished 2015 as thenumber-one rankedTest bowler in theworld, a positionhe twice reclaimedin 2016.

A delightedAshwin said: "It'san absolute plea-sure to be award-

ed with this great honour. It feels great tofollow the likes of Sachin Tendulkar andRahul Dravid in being named as the ICCCricketer of the Year. To also win the ICCTest Cricketer of the Year makes it even bet-ter. There are a lot of people to thank forthis wonderful achievement I have made.It has been a great couple of years but thisyear has been even more special."

Among other awards, South Africa'swicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kockwas named ICC ODI Cricketer of theYear. He is the second South Africa play-er after AB de Villiers (2010, 2014 and2015) and ninth overall to clinch thisaward. In the voting period, de Kockscored 793 runs in 16 ODIs with four cen-turies and a half-century. He averagedover 56 and held a strike-rate of just under98. With the gloves, de Kock dismissed15 batsmen behind the wickets.

Besides, West Indies' CarlosBrathwaite won the ICC T20IPerformance of the Year awardfor his match-winning 34 notout off 10 balls in the ICC WorldTwenty20 India 2016 finalagainst England in Kolkata.

The innings included four con-secutive sixes in the final over,which helped the West Indiessnatch victory from the jaws ofdefeat. The 24-year-old fromBarbados is the first WestIndies cricketer to winthis award.

Bangladesh fast bowling sensationMustafizur Rahman was named ICCEmerging Cricketer of the Year award.In the period under consideration,Mustafizur played three ODIs andtook eight wickets, while he yielded19 wickets in 10 T20Is. He is the firstBangladesh cricketer to win an annu-al ICC award.

Afghanistan's flamboyant wick-etkeeper-batsman MohammadShahzad also won the ICCAssociate and AffiliateCricketer of the Year after hefinished as the leading ODIrun-scorer with 699 runs in 16one-day matches.

Shahzad also scored 301runs in four innings of three ICCIntercontinental Cup first-classmatches and also contributed 533runs in 17 T20Is. He is the firstAfghanistan player to win this awardwhich serves to recognise and rewardthe efforts in all international match-es of outstanding cricketers from teamsoutside the 10 Test nations.

����� (/-1,

He might be on an 18-matchunbeaten streak as India's Test

captain but Virat Kohli was onThursday ignored from the ICC Testteam of the year even though he wasnamed skipper of the ODI all-star XIwhich also featured Rohit Sharma and

Ravindra Jadeja.Kohli, who is the vice-captain of

India's ODI and T20 teams, hasbeen named as leader of the 12-member side which features four

South Africans and threeAustralian cricketersbesides one each fromEngland and West Indies.

Explosive batsmanAB de Villiers, wicket-keeper

Quinton de Kock, pacer KagisoRabada and leg-spinner ImranTahir are the South African

cricketers, while David Warner,Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc rep-

resent Australia in the ICC ODI teamof the year. Englishman Jos Buttler and wilyWest Indian spinner Sunil Narine are the othertwo players in the side.

But despite becoming man-of-the-serieswith 655 runs while leading India to the 4-0drubbing of England recently, Kohli surpris-ingly missed a berth in the ICC Test team ofthe year 2016.

Star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin isthe lone Indian in the Test side, which sur-prisingly will be led by Alastair Cook, whofaces an uncertain future as England's captain.

Warner and Starc are two cricketerswho have found out a place in boththe teams.

The other selected cricketers inICC Test team of the Year 2016 are New

Zealand's Kane Williamson, England'sJoe Root, Jonny Bairstow (wicket-keeper)

and Ben Stokes, Australia's Steven Smith andAdam Voges, South African speedster DaleSteyn, New Zealand's Kane Williamson and SriLankan left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Besides, South Africa's Marais Erasmus hasbeen honoured with the David ShepherdTrophy for ICC Umpire of the Year, whilePakistan captain, Misbah-ul-Haq won theICC Spirit of Cricket Award.

����� )49(48:,

Indian tennis legend Mahesh Bhupathi was onThursday named the new non-playing captain

of the Davis Cup team and will take charge afterthe Asia/Oceania zone group I home tie againstNew Zealand in Pune from February 3 to 5.

The tie against New Zealand will be AnandAmritraj's last tie as non-playing captain as AITAwants to give him a "farewell".

Multiple Grand Slam winner Bhupathi wasthe hot favourite the moment AITA decided toreplace Amritraj. "Everybody should get achance to be captain. No post stays with one per-son forever. I personally spoke to Mahesh andasked if he is available, he said 'Yes'. That wasit. Also we wanted Anand to be given a farewelltie," AITA Secretary General HiranmoyChatterjee said.

Asked if Amritraj is happy with the decision,Chatterjee tersely replied: "No one wants to go.But everyone deserves a chance to be the captain."

Asked if players were taken into confidencesince they had rallied around Amritraj,Chatterjee replied: "It's not their prerogative. Wedon't need to consult the players. Even LeanderPaes was not consulted."

Asked about the history of strained rela-tionship between Leander and Mahesh andwhether the latter's elevation would prove to beend of the road for the former, Chatterjee said:"We will cross that bridge when it comes."

On whether Amritraj giving leeway toplayers as far as discipline is concerned was anissue alongwith his views in media, the AITAtop official did not deny. "When a committeemeets, we discuss a lot of things. But let me tellyou that we did not receive any letter of supportfrom the players," he asserted.

Chatterjee also said that there was no com-munication with either Somdev Devvarman orRamesh Krishnan regarding coach and non-playing captain's role.

Chatterjee also said that Bhupathi has notdemanded any special favours.

)��� �* ��� ����� ��������8India's outgoing Davis Cup captain Anand

Amritraj on Thursday termed as bitter-sweet, theAITA decision to hand him a farewell tie inFebruary and predicted some tough time for thenext man in charge, Mahesh Bhupathi.

The AITA Executive Committee decided togive Amritraj one last tie as reports emergedrecently that he will be asked to go on accountof indiscipline in the Indian team.

"It's an interesting decision by the AITA. Iam a little disappointed because I had request-ed them for one more year, after which I wouldhave stepped down from the captaincy volun-tarily if they wanted me to. Now it seems likethe NZ tie will be my farewell tie and that's bit-ter-sweet to me, considering the three good yearswe've had," Amritraj said.

Amritraj had taken over as captain from SPMisra in 2013 after leading players revolted againstthe way AITA was handling Davis Cup issues. TheUS-based Amritraj said Bhupathi, who will takethe captain's position from April, has a task athand since the players loved the way he handledthem. "Till yesterday, I did not even know thatMahesh was interested in the captaincy. He willcertainly have challenges like all new captains andhe will have to handle them as he thinks best. Hisstyle of management will surely be different frommine and without sounding too cocky, he'll havea hard act to follow, considering the rapport I havewith the team," Amritraj said.

����� )49(48:,

Former US Open finalistand two- time Olympian

Rohan Bopanna has beendropped from the Indian DavisCup squad for the tie againstNew Zealand in Pune fromFebruary 3-5.

The AITA selection com-mittee comprising S P Misra,Rohit Rajpal, Nandan Bal,Zeeshan Ali and secretaryHiranmoy Chatterjee decidedthat Leander Paes and SakethMyneni will be the preferredchoice for their good showagainst Rafael Nadal and MarcLopez in the previous DavisCup tie against Spain.

While Bopanna's worldranking is 28, Paes is current-ly 59 and Myneni is 210 in theATP doubles ranking list.

"Picking Rohan blocks aplace for a third singles playerthat we wanted to have in thesquad. Also Leander andSaketh were brilliant againstSpain. But whenever Leander

and Rohan have played togeth-er, they have not done well.Take Czech Republic tie as anexample," national selectorMisra said. "The other factorbeing Rohan being an ad courtplayer. Even Saketh is an adcourt player while Leanderprefers deuce court (right sideof the court). If we pick Rohanand Saketh, then we have twoad court players. Even Rohanand Saketh have not done wellas a pair," Misra said.

"Look we don't know howlong Leander (43 years) will beplaying. Rohan (36 years) ismuch younger and he canalways make a comeback."

India's squad for NewZealand tie will witness YukiBhambri's comeback withMyneni and RamkumarRamanathan being the othertwo. Yuki's comeback meansthat Sumit Nagal has also beenaxed from the squad. The fifthplayer in the squad is lefthanded PrajneshGunneswaran.

����� !.8!1�1

Top Indian golfer SSPChawrasia has lashed out at

the Indian Olympic Associationand Sports ministry for not yetreceiving the full amount ofpromised �30 lakh earmarked aspreparatory money for the RioOlympics. Both Chawrasia and fel-low golfer Anirban Lahiri are yetto receive the allocated amountfrom the Sports ministry. A lividChawrasia termed the shoddytreatment by IOA officials at theRio Games as if they were "ser-vants".

It has been four months andthey have had several paperworksdone but Lahiri, a winner of 16titles around the world, was noteven paid a penny, whileChawrasia himself managed to get�5.5 lakh so far, Chawrasia toldreporters. "I have the letter wherethey promised to reimburse up toRs 30 lakh. But post-Rio we're toldthat the amount is reduced to �15

lakh," fumed Chawrasia, whowon the Hero Indian Open andResorts World Manila Masters thisyear.

Asked about horrible experi-ence at Rio, Chawrasia vented hisire at IOA officials. "There were noproper arrangement right fromvehicle arrangement. It was freez-ing cold and kept raining and they

did not even arrange an umbrel-la or raincoat for us. They wouldbehave as if they were 'maalik'(owners) and we were their'naukars' (servants)," Chawrasiaclaimed.

"We were asked to wait at theairport for four hours for a vehi-cle and Lahiri came on his own.We were feeling so bad. Now we

will think twice before represent-ing India at Olympics. We don'tlike to keep on harping on thissubject as we want to concentrateon the tougher assignmentsahead," he added.

Highlighting the paymentissue, he said the sports ministryin a written communication hadpromised the amount of �30 lakhtowards their expense incurred inRio and also for the coachingcamps they attended in the build-up to the Olympics. "Lahiri has notgot anything yet and was told thathe has missed the deadline to sub-mit the papers. It's only because ofa friend of mine, who maderounds of the office in Delhi forseveral days to submit the bills, thatI could get �5.5 lakh."

Chawrasia however saidthere's a ray of hope as a few daysback was an e-mail that has comefrom the ministry asking him tosubmit the details again.

"I hope it's sorted now," hesigned off.

����� >.:1))4'-/+�

Alviro Petersen, a veteran of 36Test matches, became the high-

est-profile South African cricketer tobe banned for corruption since for-mer captain Hansie Cronje in 2000.

Former opening batsmanPetersen, 36, was banned for twoyears yesterday after agreeing a pleabargain with Cricket South Africa(CSA). He is the sixth player to bebanned following a corruption scan-dal which led to former internation-al player Gulam Bodi being bannedfor 20 years for attempting to fixmatches in South Africa's domesticTwenty20 competition during the2014/15 season. More players couldyet be charged. A statement by CSAannouncing Petersen's ban said inves-tigations were continuing.

Petersen admitted severalbreaches of CSA's anti-corruptioncode — four charges of failing to dis-close details of an approach to engage

in corrupt conduct; four charges offailing to disclose full details of evi-dence involving another player, fourcharges of failing to provide accurateand complete information to inves-tigators; and one charge of conceal-ing and destroying information thatwas relevant to the investigation.

After considering representa-tions made by Petersen, CSA with-drew other charges, including thoserelating to fixing or contriving to fixany match and seeking, accepting oroffering to accept any bribe or otherreward to fix or influence any match.

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