8˜ &7 9 ˙!ˆ˙#!ˆ - opinionexpress.in · were “clear and consistent” that the death of judge...

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C BI judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, died of heart attack due to natural cause, the Supreme Court categorically ruled on Thursday putting an end to the speculation raised by a bunch of petitions that alleged that he was murdered. In a hard-hitting order, a three-judge Bench trashed every charge made in the petitions filed by Congress spokesperson Tehseen Poonawala, lawyer associations, a journalist, and individual citizens, but stopped short of initiating criminal con- tempt against the lawyers who represented them despite hold- ing that the petitions scan- dalised the judiciary by levelling false charges. The Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, while dismissing the petitions, sought to expose the machinations of the peti- tioners as a “veiled attempt” to weaken the independence and credibility of judicial institutions and warned that political and business rivalries must be fought outside the court and PILs should not become instruments to settle personal scores. In its final conclusion, the Bench held that documentary mater- ial and statement of witnesses were “clear and consistent” that the death of judge Loya was due to natural causes and merits no further enquiry. The judge’s death made national news as the Sohrabuddin encounter case which he was hearing had BJP president Amit Shah as one of the accused. Though judge Loya died on December 1, 2014, the controversy surrounding his death surfaced in November 2017 when news magazine Caravan published two articles raising doubts on the theory that Loya died a natural death. On the fateful day, Loya was at Nagpur to attend a family wed- ding of a colleague. On com- plaint of chest pain, four district judges accompanying him took him to a local hospital. From there, he was referred to a car- diac specialty hospital where he breathed his last. The petitions did not believe that Loya died of heart attack. They alleged murder and sought to project the four judges as “co-conspirators”. The SC conducted extensive hear- ing of the case. A discreet enquiry conducted by the Maharashtra Government con- cluded that his death was due to natural cause. As part of the enquiry, statements of four judges were taken and all med- ical records examined. All this was submitted before the court. Continued on Page 4 I n a grand function attended by over 7,000 people and nearly 500 Jain monks, a 12- year-old son of Surat-based affluent diamond trader became a Jain monk on Thursday morning. Interestingly, the decision of the boy — Bhavya Shah — was accepted wholeheartedly by his father Dipesh and the entire Shah family. Life after accepting monk- hood wouldn’t be easy for Bhavya as he would not be able to enjoy luxury of a house- holder and would have to be completely detached emotion- ally from his family, places and things, including that of material luxuries. Jain community leader and councillor of Surat Municipal Corporation Nirav Shah said Bhavya became the 394th dis- ciple of Gunratna Surishwarji Maharaj. Bhavya, who at a very young age decided to live hard life of a monk, said he is happy to take the path of truth. He said his parents too agreed upon the path chosen by him. The boy is sure that one day his parents too would choose the same path shown by God. The boy’s father, Dipesh, who runs a diamond trading firm in Surat, said he and his family members are extreme- ly happy and fully support the decision of Bhavya. “We are celebrating three- day long process of becoming Jain monk. He would leave our family. My daughter too embraced monkhood four years ago when she was 12 years old,” said the ecstatic father of Bhavya. The process of becoming a Jain monk is not easy as the ceremony includes the ritual of “Kesa-loca”, pulling out of the hair that symbolises indiffer- ence to the body and giving up material possessions. On Wednesday, the fami- ly of Bhavya had organised a procession in Surat wherein the boy was seen riding a chariot. The entire ceremony was celebrated like an auspicious festival. There were no tears in the eyes of his parents and other kith and kin. Meanwhile, Acharya Shree Gunratna Surishwarji Maharaj, who gave “Diksha” to make Bhavya his 394th disciple, is set create a record on April 25 as on the day he would make six more persons Jain monks at Adajan area of Surat and in that process he will have 400 disciples. The ceremony “Rajoharan Pradan” will be witnessed by teams of Asia Book of records, India Book of Records and Gujarat Book of Records. According to Nirav Shah, who is standing committee chairman in Surat Municipal Corporation, having 400 dis- ciples would be a record in itself. Thousands of people would throng the diamond city to witness the historic event, he added. A s the Government has started working overtime to print new currency notes, cash crunch situation in many parts of the country reported- ly showed signs of easing on Thursday. It is understood that more than 86 per cent of ATMs are functioning normally as required cash are being trans- ported to deficit areas, accord- ing to official sources. Chairman of India’s largest bank, SBI, Rajnish Kumar assured that the problem would be resolved by Friday. “It is not a uniform cash crunch prob- lem. It is there in States like Telangana and Bihar. We are hoping that the problem will be resolved by Friday because cash is in transition and it is reaching these States by Thursday evening,” the SBI chief told reporters here. However, one of the offi- cials said special arrangements are being made to transport cash to areas that during the last three days faced an unusu- al spurt in demand, 86 per cent of the 2.2 lakh ATMs were operational, dispensing cash. “This was higher than 80 per cent operational ATMs on Wednesday and just 60 per cent working ATMs on Tuesday,” he said. When asked about the inad- equate availability of 2,000 currency notes, the officials said it could be because of hoarding ahead of elections. “Also, ATM cassettes had not been configured to dis- pense smaller sized 200 notes,” the SBI chief said. “The Government has ramped up printing of curren- cy notes and is operating all the four presses 24x7. Continued on Page 4 T he Supreme Court on Thursday made stinging criticism against the lawyers who represented the petitioners seeking an independent probe into judge BH Loya’s death. Though the court was of the view that the petitioners/interveners were liable to face criminal contempt for shunning objectivity and misrepresenting facts, the Bench refused to go that far. Nevertheless, it highlighted the conduct of each lawyer who appeared for the petitioners. About lawyer Prashant Bhushan, the court noted that he held a “dual mantle” as a lawyer appearing for an intervener and as member of Centre for Public Interest Litigation, one of the intervening organisations. The Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud commented on how Bhushan showed indi- vidual personal interest in the case by personally collecting evidence, in the form of med- ical opinion from doctors, to bolster the case. The Bench observed, “The manner in which the opinion of Dr Kaul was obtained on the basis of a laconic questionnaire leaves much to be desired and is a sin- gular reflection on the lack of objectivity which is to be expected from counsel appear- ing before this court. Continued on Page 4 W ith the Supreme Court rejecting the plea for a probe into the death of Judge BH Loya, the Government as well as the BJP on Thursday came down heavily on the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi demanding his apology to the nation for try- ing to settle political scores through the judiciary. The Congress, however, remained unfazed saying that it was a sad day and that it still held that the case needed a thorough probe. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the verdict sent out a clear message that the judiciary cannot be “mis- led” by allegations based on political vendetta. “The Supreme Court has also cau- tioned against the misuse of courts in political tug of war,” Rajnath’s tweets mentioned that several attempts have been made to target top BJP leaders through “fake news”. A number of senior BJP leaders blasted the Congress and Rahul and sought his apol- ogy for what they described as attempt to use the judiciary for a political battle aimed at “char- acter assassination” of ruling party president Amit Shah. The BJP alleged the “invisible hand” behind the pleas was of Rahul as part of “a conspiracy to finish the political career” of Amit Shah. Attacking the BJP for accusing Rahul of being the “invisible hand” behind the petitions seeking the probe, the Congress termed the allega- tions as a “malicious attempt”, which showed the ruling party’s “jitteriness”. “It is a sad letter day in India’s history. The sus- picious circumstances in which Loya died, was a matter of deep concern for those who have faith in the judiciary. Continued on Page 4 T he Supreme Court’s official website was allegedly hacked on Thursday. It could be revived only by late evening making the court’s webpage inaccessible for a good part of the day. Supreme Court offi- cials, however, said it was a technical snag and did not confirm that the website was hacked. According to a release issued by the Supreme Court, the website became “non-func- tional” from 11.35 am and could be restored despite best efforts only by late evening. One of the screenshots of the top court’s webpage circulating on some social media sites showed signs left by some Brazilian hackers who possibly targeted it. An image of cannabis leaves with a message saying “hackeado por HighTech Brazil HacTeam” could be seen. Later in the day, the webpage displayed “site under maintenance”. SC officials said the infor- mation technology department was in touch with the NIC through the day and refused to confirm reports of a possible hack of the website.

Transcript of 8˜ &7 9 ˙!ˆ˙#!ˆ - opinionexpress.in · were “clear and consistent” that the death of judge...

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CBI judge BrijgopalHarkishan Loya, hearing

the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fakeencounter case, died of heartattack due to natural cause, theSupreme Court categoricallyruled on Thursday putting anend to the speculation raised bya bunch of petitions that allegedthat he was murdered.

In a hard-hitting order, athree-judge Bench trashed everycharge made in the petitionsfiled by Congress spokespersonTehseen Poonawala, lawyerassociations, a journalist, andindividual citizens, but stoppedshort of initiating criminal con-tempt against the lawyers whorepresented them despite hold-ing that the petitions scan-dalised the judiciary by levellingfalse charges.

The Bench of Chief JusticeDipak Misra, Justices AMKhanwilkar and DYChandrachud, while dismissingthe petitions, sought to exposethe machinations of the peti-tioners as a “veiled attempt” toweaken the independence andcredibility of judicial institutionsand warned that political andbusiness rivalries must be foughtoutside the court and PILsshould not become instrumentsto settle personal scores. In itsfinal conclusion, the Benchheld that documentary mater-ial and statement of witnesseswere “clear and consistent” thatthe death of judge Loya was dueto natural causes and merits nofurther enquiry.

The judge’s death madenational news as theSohrabuddin encounter casewhich he was hearing had BJPpresident Amit Shah as one ofthe accused. Though judge Loyadied on December 1, 2014, thecontroversy surrounding hisdeath surfaced in November

2017 when news magazineCaravan published two articlesraising doubts on the theory thatLoya died a natural death. Onthe fateful day, Loya was atNagpur to attend a family wed-ding of a colleague. On com-plaint of chest pain, four districtjudges accompanying him tookhim to a local hospital. Fromthere, he was referred to a car-diac specialty hospital where hebreathed his last.

The petitions did notbelieve that Loya died of heartattack. They alleged murderand sought to project the fourjudges as “co-conspirators”. TheSC conducted extensive hear-ing of the case. A discreetenquiry conducted by theMaharashtra Government con-cluded that his death was dueto natural cause. As part of theenquiry, statements of fourjudges were taken and all med-ical records examined. All thiswas submitted before the court.

Continued on Page 4

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In a grand function attendedby over 7,000 people and

nearly 500 Jain monks, a 12-year-old son of Surat-basedaffluent diamond traderbecame a Jain monk onThursday morning.

Interestingly, the decisionof the boy — Bhavya Shah —was accepted wholeheartedlyby his father Dipesh and theentire Shah family.

Life after accepting monk-hood wouldn’t be easy forBhavya as he would not be ableto enjoy luxury of a house-holder and would have to becompletely detached emotion-ally from his family, placesand things, including that of

material luxuries.Jain community leader and

councillor of Surat MunicipalCorporation Nirav Shah saidBhavya became the 394th dis-ciple of Gunratna SurishwarjiMaharaj.

Bhavya, who at a veryyoung age decided to live hardlife of a monk, said he is happyto take the path of truth. Hesaid his parents too agreedupon the path chosen by him.

The boy is sure that oneday his parents too wouldchoose the same path shown by

God.The boy’s father, Dipesh,

who runs a diamond tradingfirm in Surat, said he and hisfamily members are extreme-ly happy and fully support thedecision of Bhavya.

“We are celebrating three-day long process of becomingJain monk. He would leave ourfamily. My daughter tooembraced monkhood fouryears ago when she was 12years old,” said the ecstaticfather of Bhavya.

The process of becoming a

Jain monk is not easy as theceremony includes the ritual of“Kesa-loca”, pulling out of thehair that symbolises indiffer-ence to the body and giving upmaterial possessions.

On Wednesday, the fami-ly of Bhavya had organised aprocession in Surat wherein theboy was seen riding a chariot.

The entire ceremony wascelebrated like an auspiciousfestival. There were no tears inthe eyes of his parents andother kith and kin.

Meanwhile, Acharya Shree

Gunratna Surishwarji Maharaj,who gave “Diksha” to makeBhavya his 394th disciple, is setcreate a record on April 25 as onthe day he would make six morepersons Jain monks at Adajanarea of Surat and in that processhe will have 400 disciples.

The ceremony “RajoharanPradan” will be witnessed byteams of Asia Book of records,India Book of Records andGujarat Book of Records.

According to Nirav Shah,who is standing committeechairman in Surat MunicipalCorporation, having 400 dis-ciples would be a record initself. Thousands of peoplewould throng the diamondcity to witness the historicevent, he added.

����� 7+81+9:'

As the Government hasstarted working overtime

to print new currency notes,cash crunch situation in manyparts of the country reported-ly showed signs of easing onThursday.

It is understood that morethan 86 per cent of ATMs arefunctioning normally asrequired cash are being trans-ported to deficit areas, accord-ing to official sources.

Chairman of India’s largestbank, SBI, Rajnish Kumarassured that the problem wouldbe resolved by Friday. “It is nota uniform cash crunch prob-lem. It is there in States likeTelangana and Bihar. We arehoping that the problem will be

resolved by Friday becausecash is in transition and it isreaching these States byThursday evening,” the SBIchief told reporters here.

However, one of the offi-cials said special arrangementsare being made to transportcash to areas that during thelast three days faced an unusu-al spurt in demand, 86 per centof the 2.2 lakh ATMs wereoperational, dispensing cash.

“This was higher than 80per cent operational ATMs onWednesday and just 60 percent working ATMs onTuesday,” he said.

When asked about the inad-equate availability of �2,000currency notes, the officials saidit could be because of hoardingahead of elections.

“Also, ATM cassettes hadnot been configured to dis-pense smaller sized �200 notes,”the SBI chief said.

“The Government hasramped up printing of curren-cy notes and is operating all thefour presses 24x7.

Continued on Page 4

������������ ������ ���� �������������������������� ��� ���������������

���������������� 7+81+9:'

The Supreme Court onThursday made stinging

criticism against the lawyerswho represented the petitionersseeking an independent probeinto judge BH Loya’s death.

Though the court was ofthe view that thepetitioners/interveners wereliable to face criminal contemptfor shunning objectivity andmisrepresenting facts, theBench refused to go that far.Nevertheless, it highlighted theconduct of each lawyer whoappeared for the petitioners.

About lawyer PrashantBhushan, the court noted that heheld a “dual mantle” as a lawyerappearing for an intervener andas member of Centre for PublicInterest Litigation, one of theintervening organisations.

The Bench of Chief JusticeDipak Misra, Justices AMKhanwilkar and DYChandrachud commented onhow Bhushan showed indi-vidual personal interest in thecase by personally collectingevidence, in the form of med-ical opinion from doctors, tobolster the case. The Bench

observed, “The manner inwhich the opinion of Dr Kaulwas obtained on the basis of alaconic questionnaire leavesmuch to be desired and is a sin-gular reflection on the lack ofobjectivity which is to beexpected from counsel appear-ing before this court.

Continued on Page 4

����� 7+81+9:'

With the Supreme Courtrejecting the plea for a

probe into the death of JudgeBH Loya, the Government aswell as the BJP on Thursdaycame down heavily on theCongress and its presidentRahul Gandhi demanding hisapology to the nation for try-ing to settle political scoresthrough the judiciary. TheCongress, however, remainedunfazed saying that it was a sadday and that it still held that thecase needed a thorough probe.

Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh said the verdict

sent out a clear message thatthe judiciary cannot be “mis-led” by allegations based onpolitical vendetta. “TheSupreme Court has also cau-tioned against the misuse ofcourts in political tug of war,”Rajnath’s tweets mentionedthat several attempts have beenmade to target top BJP leadersthrough “fake news”.

A number of senior BJPleaders blasted the Congressand Rahul and sought his apol-ogy for what they described asattempt to use the judiciary fora political battle aimed at “char-acter assassination” of rulingparty president Amit Shah.

The BJP alleged the “invisiblehand” behind the pleas was ofRahul as part of “a conspiracyto finish the political career” ofAmit Shah.

Attacking the BJP foraccusing Rahul of being the“invisible hand” behind thepetitions seeking the probe, theCongress termed the allega-tions as a “malicious attempt”,which showed the ruling party’s“jitteriness”. “It is a sad letterday in India’s history. The sus-picious circumstances in whichLoya died, was a matter of deepconcern for those who havefaith in the judiciary.

Continued on Page 4

����� 7+81+9:'

The Supreme Court’s officialwebsite was allegedly

hacked on Thursday. It couldbe revived only by late eveningmaking the court’s webpageinaccessible for a good part ofthe day. Supreme Court offi-cials, however, said it was a technical snag and didnot confirm that the websitewas hacked.

According to a releaseissued by the Supreme Court,the website became “non-func-

tional” from 11.35 am andcould be restored despite bestefforts only by late evening.One of the screenshots of thetop court’s webpage circulatingon some social media sitesshowed signs left by someBrazilian hackers who possiblytargeted it.

An image of cannabisleaves with a message saying“hackeado por HighTech Brazil HacTeam” could be seen. Later in the day, thewebpage displayed “site undermaintenance”.

SC officials said the infor-mation technology departmentwas in touch with the NICthrough the day and refused toconfirm reports of a possiblehack of the website.

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In a massive sealing drive,three municipal corporations

sealed 64 shops for misusingspaces in the national Capitalon Thursday. The South andNorth Delhi MunicipalCorporations jointly conduct-ed drive at Rajouri Garden andsealed 54 marble shops at 112points for violating laid downnorms.

Shubh Laxmi Marbels,Uttam Marbles, Fine MarbelHouse, Florex MarbelCompany, Ambaji Marble,Shine Marbel , Ambaji Marbelare some of the famous shopswhich were sealed, a seniorcorporation official informed.

East Delhi MunicipalCorporation (EDMC) alsosealed 10 properties inBhajanpura, M S Park andShahdara. The EDMC officialalso informed that two prop-erties were also sealed in WestJyoti Ngar and Soboli.”Besides,14 vehicles also been impound-

ed from Khajoori Khash forparking on road,” he said.

A senior south corporationofficial said that the move wastaken on the instruction ofMonitoring Committeeappointed by Supreme Court.

North Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NMC) also sealed37 shops in Rajouri Garden,Pitampura and Satyawati

Colony. A senior NMC officialsaid that officials of the build-ing department sealed 29 shopsat 68 points in Rajouri Garden’smarble market.

Traders in the nationalCapital have been hit hardafter building department ofthe municipal corporationshad started sealing businessestablishments for non-pay-

ment of conversion charges,encroachment and illegal con-struction on the instructions ofthe Supreme Court-appointedMonitoring Committee.

Thousands of shops havebeen sealed since lastDecember and there is still nosigh of relief amid all thealleged efforts put up by allconcerned stakeholders.

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The much-awaited under-graduate admissions of Delhi

University (DU) for the acade-mic session (2018-19) will ten-tatively begin from first week ofMay with the opening of regis-tration portal.

Confirming the com-mencement of the new academicsession for the under graduate(UG) students, a member ofDU’s Admission Committee toldThe Pioneer, “Plans are almostfinalised to kick start the onlineregistration of the students seek-ing admissions into various dis-ciplines in DU colleges”.

The delay in the beginningof UG admission process isallegedly due to the several rea-sons one of them being gettingready with the “e-payment gate-way”. Earlier, speculations wererife that DU admissions willbegin from the first week of Aprilwith admission committee alsoclaiming the same. The regis-tration for the postgraduate

courses are slated to begin onlyafter the registration for the UGcourses.

“Finalising the e-paymentgateway is taking some time asthe whole process consists of e-tendering and several other stepsincluding the meetings of com-mittee for finalising it. We are inthe process and will soon finaliseit,” said the member. He told thatother issues related to softwareand hardware are also being

resolved and are taking sometime. Also this year, the regis-tration for both entrance testbased professional undergradu-ate courses and merit basedundergraduate courses will beginsimultaneously as the DU has“streamlined” the UG admissionprocess by integrating both theportal. Last year professionalUG courses were not part ofmerit based UG portal, thoughthey were on the same DU serv-

er but its database was main-tained by the agency which con-ducted entrance for ProfessionalUG courses.

DU conducts onlineentrance for 9 professional UGcourses contrary to the other UGcourses admission for whichare made on cut-off based onpercentage. Among profession-al UG courses are courses likeBachelor of ManagementStudies, BA Business Economics,Bachelor of BusinessAdministration (FinancialInvestment Analysis), Bachelorof Science in Physical Education, Health Education and Sports ,BA (H) Multimedia and MassCommunication etc.

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It was a hot day in the nation-al Capital on Thursday with

the miximum temperature set-tling at 39 degrees Celsius andminimum at 23 degrees Celsius,a notch above the normal. Therelative humidity level duringmorning hours was registeredat 41 per cent, making theweather pleasant.

Strong surface winds sweptDelhi on Wednesday and theMeT office forecast clear skieswith strong surface windsthrough the day on Friday.However, no rainfall wasrecorded overnight. The max-imum temperature is likely tohover around 39 degrees C, aMet official said.

The minimum tempera-ture recorded at various weath-er stations in he city were -Lodhi Road (22.4°C), Ayanagar(23.6°C), Palam (24.6°C) andRidge (25.6°C), a Met depart-ment official said. OnWednesday, the maximumand minimum temperaturessettled at 38.2°C and 23.7°Crespectively.

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The Jawaharlal NehruUniversity (JNU) on

Thursday told Delhi HighCourt, peace prevails in thecampus with classes going onsmoothly and no agitation isgoing on against the 75 percentcompulsory attendance rulefor students.

The JNU’s submissioncame on a query by JusticeRekha Palli regarding the statusof protest by the students andteachers in the campus.

“It’s peace now after sever-al months. Nobody is agitating.Classes are going on smoothly,”said Central Governmentstanding Counsel MonikaArora , appearing for theJawaharlal Nehru University

(JNU). The court had earlier

termed the holding of classes onstairs in the campus amid theagitation as “unfortunate andsad”. Students were agitatingagainst the decision of making75 per cent compulsory atten-dance rule.

The court was hearing aplea by five professors of JNU’sdifferent disciplines challengingthe December 12, 2017 decisionof the varsity’s AcademicCouncil (AC), making 75 percent attendance mandatory forstudents.

In their plea, the five pro-fessors have alleged that thedecision was taken on the basisof “false and illegal minutes”contrary to the agenda and theproceedings of the 144th meet-

ing of the Academic Council.They have also challenged

the decision to replace them byan acting dean and acting chair-person saying it was arbitraryand illegal. During the hearing,the court asked the JNU’s coun-sel whether they were ready toreinstate them.

The varsity’s counsel,assisted by advocate KushalKumar, said the teachers werereplaced after they refused toimplement the compulsoryattendance, and if they agree totake attendance of the stu-dents, JNU was ready to rein-state them.

The lawyer said they weretemporarily replaced till furtherorders and an enquiry com-mittee has been set up to exam-ine their refusal to abide by theAC’s decision.

The court listed the matterfor April 27 for further hearing.

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In order to ensure the safetyof forest land and animals in

the Aravali foothills, theHaryana Government hasdecided to hire private securi-ty guards and deploy them inthe forest area. The forestdepartment has also identified52 points where those guardswill be deployed. Apart fromGurugram, these guards will beposted in Faridabad, Rewari,Nuh and Mahendragarh dis-trict in Haryana.

“These special guards willbe present 24 hours in the for-est area. We have identified 52security points where theseguards will be appointed. Thesecurity personnel will alsokeep an eye on anti-social ele-ments in the area. The guardscan seek police help wheneverthey required,” Conservator of

Forest (Gurugram circle) D.Hembram said.

The official also said that ifthe government gets goodresults due to this decision, itwill hire more private securitypersonnel in the second phase.

“These security guards willbe hired on a contractual basisand they will ensure the safetyof forest land and animals.Security personnel’s will alsoundergo training programmeso that they can prevent anddeal with anti-social elements.The guards will also attendpatrolling duties in theAravalis,” a senior forest officialsaid.

The official said the gov-ernment is mulling over givingwalkie-talkies to these securi-ty guards so that they can con-tact each other.

Out of 52 security points inthe Aravali foothills, 11 pointswill be in Gurugram, 8 in

Faridabad, 15 in Nuh, 10 secu-rity points in Mahendragarhand 8 in Rewari district.

Talking about the deploy-ment of the personnel theofficial said they are gettingseveral complaints about ille-gal mining activities, illegalhacking of trees, poaching.They had also recovered twometal traps in the forest areatwo months ago. Sources saidthe department has beenstruggling from a shortage ofguards, as a result of which,many senior officials them-selves attend patrolling dutiesin the Aravalis.

Last year, an animalactivist found a peacock stuckin a trap in the Raisina area ofthe Aravalis. After he raisedan alarm, activists uncoveredmore traps in the area. Thisforced the state government todeploy guards to protect birdsand animals, an official said.

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A16-year-old girl wasallegedly molested by a

34-year-old man on the pretextof getting water from herhouse. Police said that the inci-dent took place in south-eastDelhi’s Sangam Vihar onWednesday evening and theman was arrested. Parts of theepisode were captured on aCCTV camera.

Police said that the mattercame to fore when the girl’smother made a PCR call andinformed them about theirtenant having barged into theirhouse in her absence andmolested her daughter. Soonafter this, a team was rushed tothe spot and the accused wasnabbed from the house, wherehe was being thrashed by thevictim’s parents and theirneighbours.

Police said that the girl’smother was away for work

when the accused asked the girlfor water and as she went in toget a glass, he followed her in,the neighbour shut the doorbehind himself and allegedlymolested the minor girl.

Her parents, however,returned in time and thrashedthe man with the help of theirneighbours, after which shehanded him over to the cops.Police said that a case undersections of molestation andPOCSO Act has been regis-tered at the Sangam Viharpolice station and investiga-tions in the case have beentaken up. The man used to livethere as a tenant with his fam-ily members.

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The Maximum number of peoplewere booked in the south-east dis-

tricts of Delhi for violating the provi-sions of the Cigarettes and OtherTobacco Products Act (COTPA), thatprohibits smoking in public places”,Delhi Police said in a conference onAnti Tobacco drive on Thursday.

In a year-long drive, the southeastdistrict issued 7,460 challans, thenorth district issued 4,592 challans andsouth district issued 4,039 challans.Special Commissioner of police, Lawand Order (South) P Kamraj saidmore than 30,000 people were finedunder the COTPA in the national cap-ital.

“We first trained and sensitisedour police force on COTPA.Thereafter, we started taking action

against people caught smoking in pub-lic places or selling tobacco within 100yards of an educational institute,” theofficer said. Kamraj said the objectiveof this initiative was to bring inbehavioural changes in smokers.

“We will sustain this importantinitiative so that behavioural changestake place in smokers, thereby help-ing non-users who suffer the ill-effects of passive smoking. We have toprotect our future generation from

evils like tobacco,” he added. Deputy Commissioner of

Police (North) Jatin Narwalalso concurred with Kamrajsaid they had seen that whencollege students were chal-laned for smoking in public,they felt that they were doingwrong. “They not only feel thefinancial pinch of paying the

challan but also feel bad about beingchallaned by police,” the official said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police,(Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal, howev-er, said many times people challengethem about the law and they have tothen explain to them it to them indetail. “People challenge us and say,‘The place where we are smoking isnot a public place’. They are notready to accept their fault but we tryand explain them,” he said.

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A33-year-old man committed suicide byhanging himself from a ceiling fan at his

residence in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj areaon Wednesday afternoon.

According to the police, the deceasedhas been identified as Kshitij Malhotra. Thefamily of the deceased suspect foul playhowever police denied the allegation say-ing that there were no other injury markson his body. There was only a ligature markon his neck, indicating suicide,” added theofficer.

The officer said, “As per the claims ofKshitij’s family, Kshitij’s wife was not hav-ing good relations with him for the past fewmonths.” Police said that the deceased usedto work in Alliance Insurance Company.

Milind Dumbere DeputyCommissioner of Police (Southwest) said,“On April 18, at around 4pm, we receiveda PCR call from the Vasant Kunj South areaabout suicide.

When the local staff reached the crimescene, they found that the deceased has beenshifted to the Spinal hospital,”

Police said that the body of the deceasedhas been preserved at the Safdarjung hos-pital for further proceedings.

“His wife is not missing. We will ques-tion her,” said the DCP.

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Chhattisgarh Rural Roads Development AgencyVIKASH BHAVAN, CIVIL LINES, RAIPUR (C.G.)

E-Procurement Tender NoticeNIT No. 298 /CE/TECH./CGRRDA/2018 Dated :17/04/2018

The Superintending Engineer / Convener (Tender Cell), CGR-RDA on behalf of Governor of Chhattisgarh invites the percentagerate bids on SOR of PWD Bridge enforced from 01.01.2015 with10% Below applicable for CGRRDA & Approach road PMGSY SOR01.09.2014 amended till date in electronic tendering system for con-struction of roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak LSB 2018-19 Batch -I Work in the district of Balod, Kawardha, Rajnandgaon,Balrampur, Koriya, Surguja, Raipur, Mahasamund, Kanker,Kondagaon, Bastar, Dantewada for 65 number of LSB with TotalEstimate Cost Rs 16656.43 Lacs as per B.O.Q. from the eligiblecontractors registered with unified registration system (e-registra-tion). Date of release of Invitation for Bids through e-procurement:23/04/2018

Availability of Bid Documents and mode of submission: The biddocument is available online and should be submitted online inhttps://eproc.cgstate.gov.in. The bidder would be required to reg-ister in the web-site which is free of cost. For submission of the bids,the bidder is required to have a valid Digital Signature Certificate(DSC) from one of the authorized Certifying Authorities.The biddersare required to submit (a) original bid security in approved form and(b) original affidavit regarding correctness of information furnishedwith bid document as per provisions of Clause 4.4 B (a) (ii) of ITBwith Superintending Engineer / Convener, Tender Cell, CGRR-DA, Vikash Bhawan, Civil Lines, Raipur C.G. on a date not laterthan three working days after the opening of technical qualificationpart of the Bid, either by Speed/ Registered post, failing which thebids shall be declared non-responsive.

Last Date/ Time for receipt of bids through e-procurement asper time schedule. For further details please log on tohttps://eproc.cgstate.gov.in. In future any related corrigendum wouldbe seen in the notice section of the websit

Sd/-Superintending Engineer Convener (Tender Cell)

Chhattisgarh Rural Road Development AgencyR.O. No: 86279/5 Civil Lines, Raipur (C.G.)R.O. Date: 18/04/2018 E-mail: [email protected]

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Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal onThursday approved proposal of the

Delhi Government to compensate con-sumers for power outages in the nationalCapital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalhad sent a detailed proposal of his Cabinetto Baijal on Tuesday last for his finalapproval.

"Power Consumer CompensationPolicy" is a major policy push of the AamAadmi Party (AAP) to compensate con-sumers in the wake of power cuts.

Soon after approving the policy, the L-G tweeted, "Approved proposal for issue ofpolicy directions regarding payment ofcompensation to consumers in case ofpower failure."

Billed as "power consumer compen-sation policy", electricity users will be mon-etarily compensated by discoms if theunscheduled power cut lasts more than anhour. According to officials, Kejriwal onTuesday had cleared the proposal to be sentto the L-G for his nod.

According to the policy, in the firsthour exemption from penalty to be avail-

able only once a day for DISCOMS; it willhave to pay Rs 100 per hour per consumerafter first two hours of power cuts and com-pensation to be provided in consumer'smonthly electricity bill.

"In the case of an unscheduled powercut, the discoms will have to restore theelectricity within one hour. And if theprovider has failed to do so, shall result ina penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer,"the policy states.

An official said the Government is ofthe view that power distribution by privateplayers in Delhi should benefit the con-

sumers and uninterrupted powersupply for which they pay is theirright. "Our Government is confi-dent that the LG will concur withthe policy and will endorse this pro-consumer step, which will becomea model for other Governmentsacross the country to follow," theofficial said.

Elaborating further, the DelhiGovernment in its official statementhad said, "The exemption of initialone hour from the penalty shall begranted to the discoms only once a

day, and in case of recurrence of failure ofsupply for the same consumer the same day,the penalty shall accrue right from thebeginning of the duration of the unsched-uled power cut."

"This may be further noted that in caseof an individual consumer being affected,the consumer shall be required to file acomplaint through SMS, e-mail, phone, appor website and his/her particulars such asname, consumer account (CA) number,mobile number, etc, shall be noted at thetime of complaint registration," in accor-dance of the new policy.

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)Government on Thursday

slammed Lieutenant Governor(L-G) Anil Baijal after he held ameeting on the status of CCTVcameras' installation in the city.The L-G's move did not getdown well with the Government,which termed it as "illegal". TheGovernment alleged Baijal of act-ing like a dictator and advisedhim to follow the Constitution.

It may be noted that instal-lation of CCTV cameras was apre-poll promise of the AAP bywhich they promised to makeDelhi safer especially for women.The Delhi Government is in theprocess of implementing theCCTV scheme in the nationalCapital.

Baijal on Thursday chaireda law and order meeting of theDelhi Police and reviewed oper-ational and functional aspects ofCCTVs in Delhi, their utilisation,maintenance, feedback, progressin installation and future plans.

In the meeting, it was alsodiscussed that the main purposeof CCTVs is crime preventionand safety. "If CCTV cameras areinstalled by different agencieswithout coordination with policein a haphazard manner, thewhole purpose of installation ofCCTVs would be defeated. Astandard protocol for sharing ofvideo feed with the police has tobe evolved," said a Press releasefrom LG office.

"Locations which are sensi-tive, crime prone, have to beidentified in coordination withpolice. It has to be ensured thatthere is no overlapping of cam-

eras at the same location so thatscarce Government resourcesare not wasted. There are alsoissues of privacy that have to beaddressed," it added.

"LG shud respect and followthe constitution (sic)," tweetedChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalwhile his deputy Manish Sisodiasaid the L-G should not attemptto run a parallel Government.Sisodia alleged that the L-G doesnot have any power to call ameeting on issues, which areunder the Delhi Government'sdomain.

"LG sir, pl don't be a dicta-tor. This is attempt to run par-

allel govt in Delhi. Its illegal. Udon't hv power to call meeting onissues under elected govt'sdomain (sic)," Sisodia tweeted.

"Under Constitution! u canONLY express difference ofopinion on decision of electedgovt. Pl respect the Const (sic),"he added.

On the other hand, the L-Galso took to twitter saying that hehad directed authorities con-cerned to have an inter-agencygroup to formulate StandingOperating Procedure (SOP) foruniformity in installation.

"Chaired law & order meet-ing on current status of CCTVcameras in Delhi, including theirO&M issues. Directed to have aninter-agency group to formulatea SOP to have uniformity ininstallation & address issues ofprivacy, security, feed-sharing,integration & optimum utilisa-tion (sic)," tweeted Baijal.

Present in the meeting wereChief Secretary Anshu Prakash,Police Commissioner AmulyaPatnaik and other senior officers.

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Lieutenant Governor AnilBaijal on Thursday

reviewed detailed action plan tocombat air pollution with allstake holders — DelhiPollution Control Committee(DPCC), Public WorksDepartment (PWD) and allcivic agencies, including NewDelhi Municipal Council(NDMC).

Baijal directed the localbodies to submit plan for pro-cessing of bio-degradable wasteat decentralised locations.Municipal bodies were alsodirected to make plan for man-agement of fire and remedia-tion of sanitary landfill sites atGhazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla.

The L-G also askedtheChief Secretary to monitorthe progress of procurement ofMechanical Road Sweepers,sprinklers etc. by municipalcorporations as per their time-lines on a weekly basis.

"The L-G directed munic-ipal corporations to ensurethat last year episode of slippingof part of landfill site atGhazipur should not be repeat-ed and directed round theclock deputation ofEnvironmental Marshalls at

landfill sites. Barbed wireboundary to be provided atsites," quoted a Press statementfrom Raj Niwas.

To make the action plansuccessful, the L-G directed theDMRC to ensure procurementof 600 e-rickshaws for last mileconnectivity along with feederbuses and approved fuel noti-fication to be done by end ofMay, 2018.

"All works of paving/greening must be completed ineight months. Paving throughconcretisation/ interlockingtiles must be done at allunpaved places for all roadshoulders across Delhi," the L-G said.

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The Delhi unit of BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) has

demanded a public apologyfrom Congress president RahulGandhi and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal in thewake of Supreme Court's orderrejecting pleas to probe judgeLoya's death case.

Delhi BJP chief ManojTiwari alleged that the wholecampaign was to tarnish theimage of BJP president AmitShah. Tewari said several lead-ers, including Rahul andKejriwal, were at the forefrontof attacking the BJP and "drag-ging" the name of its national

president in the case. "RahulGandhi, if he believes in judi-ciary, should now tender apublic apology. Arvind Kejriwalshould also apologise," Tiwarisaid while addressing the mediaon Thursday.

After the court's observa-tion that judge Loya died a nat-ural death, it is clear that thepolitical parties, including theCongress and the AAP, wererunning a "politically motivat-ed" campaign to "tarnish" theimage of Amit Shah, he alleged.Supreme Court's judgment hascome as victory of truth andvindication of the BJP's stand,he added."The Supreme Courtof India's comment that 'it

seems that this PIL is not pub-lic interest litigation but a polit-ical interest litigation" and itvindicates BJP's stand that it waspolitically motivated.

"Lt Governor holding ameeting on CCTV issue in themajor issue for the safety andsecurity of women in thenational capital but for AAP itis political agenda. Kejriwalwho made tall promises forgotafter assuming power, Tiwarialleged when asked aboutKejriwal's attack on the LtGovernor. He further said thatManish Sisodia's reaction on LtGovernor taking lead in thematter is, a reflection of hispolitical desperation.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal's private secre-

tary Bibhav Kumar was ques-tioned for nearly three hours onThursday in connection withthe alleged assault on ChiefSecretary Anshu Prakash.

Additional DeputyCommissioner of Police(North) Harendra Singh said,"Bibhav Kumar was called forquestioning on Thursday. Hewas questioned for nearly threehours at Civil Lines police sta-tion. Since he was present withthe Chief Minister and the

AAP MLAs at the time ChiefSecretary was allegedly assault-ed, we questioned him." Theofficer said that they will callKumar again for questioning.Investigators said Kejriwal'sformer advisor VK Jain wasquestioned and if need be hewill called for questioningagain.

Police has already ques-tioned the 11 MLAs who werepresent at the Chief Minister'sresidence for the meeting inwhich Anshu Prakash hadallegedly been attacked.Kejriwal, Jain and Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia were

also present at the meeting. On February 23, a police

team had examined the CCTVsystem installed at the ChiefMinister's residence and seizedthe hard disk. The forensicreport on the hard disk is stillawaited. The alleged assault onthe Chief Secretary had trig-gered a bitter tussle betweenthe Delhi Government and itsbureaucracy.

In the assault case, AAPMLAs Amanatullah Khan andPrakash Jarwal were arrestedby the Delhi Police but werelater granted bail by a citycourts.

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From Page 1The presses this week have

been minting Rs 500 and Rs200 notes without a break tomeet an estimated Rs 70,000crore of currency shortfall inthe country,’ he said.

Sources said on an average,four presses of SecurityPrinting and MintingCorporation of India Limited(SPMCIL) operate for 18-19hours daily with a 3-4 hourbreak. But since the time ATMsran dry, the presses are oper-ating 24X7.

‘Such overtime printingwas last seen post demoneti-sation when the printing ofnew Rs 2,000 notes was fast-tracked to meet the liquidityshortage in the market,’ it

added.The Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) had on Tuesday statedthat there is sufficient cash inits vaults and currency chests.

‘Nevertheless, printing ofthe notes has been ramped upin all the 4 note presses.’

Holding accountable thosewho are hoarding cash, Kumarsaid the money should be recy-cled, meaning that if peoplewithdraw money from thebank and the money needs tobe deposited back as well. ‘If wehold everything, then whatev-er supply the banks do, it willbe insufficient for the country.So it is important that the cur-rency is also recycled,’ he said.

Meanwhile, All-IndiaBanks Employees Association(AIBEA) has threatened tolaunch an agitation saying bankemployees were facing publicanger due to the cash crunch.It blamed the government andthe RBI for the situation.

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The copy of the entirejudgment is not yet available.But there are still questionsbefore those who believe in thejudiciary,’ Congress chiefspokesman Randeep Surjewalasaid. Addressing a Press con-ference after the SC verdict,Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said the Congress andits chief Rahul Gandhi con-spired to target Shah as itbelieves that only one familyhad a right to rule the country.

‘It was a conspiracy by theCongress and its chief Rahul tofinish the political career ofShah, as part of which wrongaccusations were made and anover 100-strong delegation wastaken to the President,’ Prasadsaid. Prasad was unsparing inhis attack on Rahul and won-

dered if he wanted to enhancehis party’s political standing byseeking recourse to the corri-dors of courts by making them‘a political battleground withpolitically-vested litigations’.

Prasad said the party hadkept quiet so far on the issuewas it ‘wanted the law to takeits own course’. ‘The Congresshas been unmasked today,’ hesaid. To a query about ques-tions raised by the Congressfollowing the order, he saidsome people accept the court’sverdict only when it suits thembut the decision of the SupremeCourt is final.

BJP spokesperson SambitPatra said that the public inter-est litigations (PILs) seeking aprobe into Loya’s death werelike ‘political interest litiga-tions’. Patra said the Congress

chief should be ‘ashamed’ forwhat he described as a con-spiracy to target Shah, theIndian judiciary and the coun-try’s democracy. ‘The Congressengages in all sorts of conspir-acies after its ruling familyloses power,’ Patra alleged andadded that the attempt to usejudiciary for political purpos-es was a ‘new low’ in Indianpolitics. The BJP leader furtheralleged that the pleas werefiled to settle political scores asthe Congress was incapable oftaking on Shah and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inthe electoral field.

Joining the attack on theCongress, Union MinisterMukhtar Abbas Naqvi said theparty failed to ‘destroy’ the thenGujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi and Shah,

when it was in power at theCentre. ‘Now in Opposition,the Congress was conspiring todefame the BJP’s top leader-ship,’ he said.

However, the Congressraised 10 questions relating tothe case as Surjewala criti-cised the verdict and noted thatissue of criminality can bedecided only through a probe,contending that no investiga-tion was done into the death ofLoya, who was hearing thehigh-profile SohrabuddinSheikh fake encounter case.

‘In this background, theBJP’s attempt to make false cap-ital out of the Supreme Courtjudgment must be condemnedwith strongest possible words,’he added. Surjewala alsostressed that the Congress wasnot among the petitioners seek-

ing a probe into the judge’sdeath and recalled that theparty had instead approachedthe ‘people’s court’ andapproached President RamNath Kovind along with 14other Opposition parties.

‘The BJP’s attempt to mis-interpret the Supreme Courtjudgment reflects their jitteri-ness and frustration. We rejectand condemn the maliciousattempts of the BJP to misin-terpret the judgment for fingerpointing,’ he said.

Congress leader AbhishekManu Singhvi said that thecourt’s verdict dismissing thepleas seeking an independentprobe into Loya’s death willraise more questions and leavemany of them unansweredunless logical reasons werefound in it.

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From Page 1Justice Chandrachud, writ-

ing the judgment for the Bench,said, ‘We must lean in favour ofthe version of the four judicialofficers unless strong and indis-putable circumstances areshown to doubt their credibil-ity. This would be in the larg-er public interest to uphold theindependence and integrity ofthe institution.’

The petitioners led byadvocate Prashant Bhushan,senior advocates Indira Jaising,Dushyant Dave among othersenior counsels, who were sup-plied all records, tried to castunfounded aspersions on thejudicial officers by claimingthat they delayed taking him tohospital, did not take ECG,refused to inform judge Loya’sfamily, failed to visit thedeceased judge’s home after theincident. Rubbishing all theseclaims based on the facts ema-nating from the record, theBench said, ‘By castingunfounded aspersions on thejudicial officers, the petitionershave revealed the real motive ofthese proceedings which is tobring the judiciary into disre-pute on the basis of scurrilouscharges.’ The court wonderedhow the senior lawyers madesuch callous and unverified

allegations and felt it necessaryto protect judges of the districtjudiciary and stood by theirstatements realising how vul-nerable they are to ‘wantonattacks’ on their independence.

Judicial orders passed byBombay High Court judgeswho were part of the probewere also drawn in to makeinsinuations against them. Onesuch order was a relief grant-ed by one of the HC judges toChief Minister DevendraFadnavis in a private propertydispute of 1991. The Bench sawa larger design behind the PILsto settle political or businessrivalry that not only consumeprecious judicial time butreduces judicial process to acharade obstructing course ofjustice. Preventing courts frombecoming agencies to settleextra-judicial scores, JusticeChandrachud wrote, ‘Businessrivalries have to be resolved ina competitive market for goodsand services. Political rivalrieshave to be resolved in thegreat hall of democracy whenthe electorate votes its repre-sentatives in and out ofoffice…there is a danger thatjudicial process will be reducedto a charade if disputes beyondthe ken of legal parametersoccupy judicial space.’

From Page 1This has bordered on an

attempt to misrepresent thefacts and mislead the court.’Further, it was Bhushan whodemanded recusal of JusticesKhanwilkar and Chandrachud,since they belonged fromMaharashtra. The court refusedto bite the bait suggesting thiswould amount to abdication ofduty.

Another senior lawyerDushyant Dave, who appearedfor Bombay Lawyers’Association, was not spared formaking insinuations againstHigh Court judge BR Gavaishowing an order passed byhim quashing a criminal caseagainst Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis inan unrelated private propertydispute of 1991. The Bench sawthis ploy to ‘sensationalise’ thecase and wondered how whol-ly unfounded aspersions werecast on judges of the HighCourt by relying on decisionstaken by them in their judicialcapacity. The court noted, ‘Thisconstitutes a serious attempt toscandalise the court and

obstruct the course of justice.’His demand to cross-examinedoctors and judicial officersrelated to the case met the dis-approval of the court in theabsence of any basis or justifi-cation to doubt their claims.

Senior advocate IndiraJaising, who appeared forAdmiral Ramdas, an inter-venor, had sought to punchholes in the evidence gatheredin the case, the versions putforth by the judges accompa-nying Loya, the medicalrecords, and contradictions instatements made in postmortem report and personsrelated to the case. All the sub-missions were discarded asfalse and unverified. The alle-gation that Loya was not pro-vided a car till the hospital wastermed by the Bench as ‘redherring’. A further suggestionthat the judges accompanyingLoya did not visit the deceasedjudge’s family was also found tobe incorrect. ‘There is no rea-son for this court to discard theconsistent statements of thethree judicial officers by engag-ing in surmises of the nature

sought to be drawn by counselfor petitioners.’

Senior advocate V Girialso appearing on behalf of oneof the petitioners in the writ-ten submissions filed by hisassisting counsel alleged thatthe judges accompanying Loyawere ‘co-conspirators’ in hismurder. Finding no fault in theconduct of judges, the Benchsaid, the judicial officers actedin good faith and rejected theallegations as an attempt tomalign judicial officers.

Such conduct of the peti-tioners and intervenors primafacie constitutes criminal con-tempt, observed the Bench,and said, ‘We have chosen notto initiate contempt proceed-ings if only not to give animpression that the litigantsand lawyers appearing for themhave been subjected to anunequal battle with the author-ity of law.’ It vouched on themoral authority held by courtto assert credibility of judicialprocess rather than flexingjudicial muscle by initiatingcontempt.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday had a

series of bilateral meetingsincluding discussions with hisBangladesh counterpart SheikhHasina and SeychellesPresident Danny Faure on thesidelines of the multilateralCommonwealth Heads ofGovernment Meeting(CHOGM) here.

‘Neighbourhood first!Connecting with a neighbourand a close friend, PMNarendra Modi and PrimeMinister of Bangladesh SheikhHasina had a productiveexchange of views on variousissues of bilateral interest on thesidelines of CHOGM 2018,’Ministry of External Affairsspokesperson Raveesh Kumartweeted.

This marked their firstmeeting since the Bangladeshileader’s visit to New Delhi lastyear and ahead of her proposedvisit to India in the comingmonths.

Prime Minister Modi alsomet Seychelles President Faureand discussed cooperation inareas of trade and investmentand other bilateral issues, hesaid.

The bilateral talks betweenFaure and Modi assumes sig-nificance after Seychellesordered an inquiry into the leakof a highly classified agreementsigned with India to develop

infrastructure on AssumptionIsland, which lies southwest ofthe mainland of Mahe.

The opposition inSeychelles has decided not toratify the pact because ofAssumption’s relative proxim-ity to Aldabra atoll, a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site that ishome to the world’s largestpopulation of giant tortoises.

Cementing close friend-ship with Mauritius, PrimeMinister Modi met hisMauritius counterpart PravindKumar Jugnauth and talkedabout cooperation in trade andinvestment, maritime cooper-ation and people-to-peopleties.

The ‘pull-aside meetings’with world leaders included aninteraction with AustralianPrime Minister MalcolmTurnbull, Ugandan PresidentYoweri Museveni, GambianPresident Adama Barrow, FijiPrime Minister FrankBainimarama, St. Lucia PrimeMinister Allen Chastanet andPrime Minister of SolomonIslands, Rick Houenipwela.

Modi also interacted withPresident of Kiribati TanetiMaamau, Prime Minister ofAntigua & Barbuda GastonBrowne and Prime Minister ofTrinidad & Tobago Keith CRowley.

Some of the other worldleaders expected to have one-on-one deliberations withModi during the summit

include South AfricanPresident Cyril Ramaphosa,Cyprus President NicosAnastasiades, and JamaicanPrime Minister AndrewMichael Holness.

‘The summit offers ampleopportunity for leaders to inter-act in meeting rooms for bilat-eral discussions on matters ofmutual interest as well as coop-eration over Commonwealthissues,’ a senior official said.

Officials had earlier indi-cated that no meeting has beenrequested or scheduled withPakistan Prime MinisterShahid Khaqan Abbasi andlater confirmed there was no

interaction between the two.The bilateral talks took

place as the formal heads ofgovernment meeting gotunderway in London today, fol-lowing a formal launch byQueen Elizabeth II atBuckingham Palace.

Prime Minister Modi wasscheduled to address the sec-ond plenary meeting of theheads of government duringthe closed-door executive ses-sion of CHOGM.

At the launch of theCHOGM executive session atLancaster House open to themedia, British Prime MinisterTheresa May said: ‘The great

strength of the Commonwealthis that all our members haveequal status, an equal voice, andan equal right to make thatvoice heard. So, as we tacklethese challenges, I want tohear from everyone, and every-one will have chance to speak.

‘We face many challengesin the world today. But theCommonwealth is a uniqueorganisation and, at this sum-mit, we have an opportunity todeliver lasting change that ben-efits all of our 2.4 billion peo-ple.’

Later in the evening, the91-year-old monarch will hosta dinner for all 53 heads of gov-

ernment at the palace later onThursday evening.

‘I had not been able to visitthe last summit and this time,it was an honour that PrinceCharles came personally toIndia last year to invite me forit. The Queen herself wrote apersonal letter to me, a matterof great pride for India,’ Modihad said during his Bharat KiBaat, Sabke Saath diasporaevent in London last evening.

An Indian Prime Ministeris attending CHOGM, heldevery two years, after a hiatusof nearly a decade, havingskipped CHOGMs in Perth,Colombo and Malta since 2009.The Indian government hassaid that this symbolises thecountry’s wider efforts to stepup its role across global forums.

The executive session ofthe summit today will be fol-lowed by a retreat at WindsorCastle tomorrow, when theleaders get together in an infor-mal setting without any pre-setagenda or being accompaniedby their usual coterie of civilservants and advisers.

The summit concludestomorrow, when leaders willissue their communique and aleaders’ statement after theirretreat.

CHOGM takes place everytwo years in differentCommonwealth countries,with the next host countryalso to be announced at the endof this summit.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday shared

a poem titled ‘Ramata RamAkela’ penned by him in hismother tongue — Gujarati.

‘Here is my poem ‘RamataRam Akela’, which I hadreferred to during the pro-gramme in London lastevening,’ Modi tweeted along

with his 10-line poem. Responding to a question

at the ‘Bharat Ki Baat, SabkeSaath’ programme in London yesterday, Modihad said he writes poem inGujarati.

When requested to sharefew couplets from his poems,Modi said he can’t recall at themoment but promised toshare it on the social media.

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Some groups protestingagainst atrocities in India

during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's visit here haveturned violent after a tricolourwas torn down from one of theofficial flagpoles set up for all53 Commonwealth countries.

Modi, who is in the UK forbilateral talks and the multi-lateral Commonwealth Headsof Government Meeting(CHOGM), was greeted byprotesters as he met his Britishcounterpart Theresa May.

Some of the protesters atParliament Square yesterdayturned aggressive after theIndian tricolour was torn downfrom the flagpole.

"Police are investigatingafter an Indian f lag inParliament Square was pulleddown at 1500 (UK time) onWednesday, 18 April. The flaghas been replaced. There havebeen no arrests. Enquiries con-tinue," a Metropolitan Policestatement said.

A UK Foreign andCommonwealth Office (FCO)spokesperson said, "While peo-

ple have the right to holdpeaceful protests, we are dis-appointed with the action takenby a small minority inParliament Square and con-tacted High CommissionerYashvardhan Kumar Sinha assoon as we were made aware.

"The visit to the UK byPrime Minister Modi hasstrengthened our

relationship with India andwe look forward to workingeven more closely together ona number of important areas."

A senior broadcast journal-ist from one of the leading

Indian media channels coveringthe protests was caught in a vio-lent scrum with some of theaggressive pro-Khalistani pro-testers and Scotland Yard officerson duty had to step in to the res-cue. The group is planning to filea complaint with theMetropolitan Police.

"We have expressed ourconcerns with the Britishauthorities and they have apol-ogised for the incident. We havebeen warning against some ofthese elements out to maketrouble and they have assuredus of action. The Indian flag has

now been replaced," a seniorIndian official associated withthe PM's visit said.

The pro-Khalistani demon-strators from Sikh FederationUK and demonstrators fromthe so-called "Minorities AgainstModi" group, led by Pakistani-origin peer Lord Ahmed, wereamong nearly 500 protesterswho descended upon ParliamentSquare. These included groupsled by some Kashmiri separatistgroups and at one point, some ofthem had surrounded theMahatma statue at the squarewith their banners and flags.����� �� !�������"

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Asexual offence is commit-ted against a child in India

every 15 minutes and there hasbeen an increase of more than500 per cent over the past 10years in crime against minors,an analysis by child rightsNGO CRY has found.

The analysis, which wasreleased today, also reveals thatmore than 50 per cent of crimesagainst children have beenrecorded in just five states--Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,Madhya Pradesh, Delhi andWest Bengal.

"There has been a signifi-cant increase in crimes againstminors of more than 500 percent over the past 10 years with1,06,958 cases being reportedin 2016 over a figure of 18,967in 2006," the Child Rights andYou (CRY) analysis also said.

As per a 2016 analysis ofcrimes under Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act, sexual offences

accounted for one-third of allcrimes against children inIndia, it added.

"It is alarming to note thata sexual offence is committedagainst a child in India every 15minutes," it added.

The analysis comes at atime when there is outrage inthe country over recent rapecases involving minors inJammu and Kashmir's Kathuaand Uttar Pradesh's Unnao.

"While Uttar Pradesh topsthe list with 15 per cent ofrecorded crimes against chil-dren, Maharashtra and MadhyaPradesh closely follow with 14per cent and 13 per cent respec-tively," the report said.

6)����:;���� ������������� �2����������. �������������'����<��������

� ��� ��������!� �� �������!����!$��������!'���!������� �+��Chandigarh: A Sikh womanfrom Punjab's Hoshiarpur dis-trict who went to Pakistan ona pilgrimage has reportedlyembraced Islam and married aLahore-based Pakistani man,according to her family whichalleged that she may have fall-en into the hands of Pakistan'sInter-Services Intelligence andforced to convert and remarry.

The family of the woman,Kiran Bala, 31, said on

Thursday that they had no offi-cial communication from anyquarter about her well-beingand current status. The fami-ly is based in a village inGarhshankar sub-division ofPunjab's Hoshiarpur district,around 110 km from here.

The woman left forPakistan on the pilgrimage aspart of the ShiromaniGurdwara ParbandhakCommittee (SGPC) delega-

tion on April 12 and reportedlywent missing on April 16. Shewent to Pakistan on her Indianpassport with a Pakistani visavalid till April 21.

Reports reaching her fam-ily in Punjab indicated that thewoman embraced Islam atDarul-Aloom Jamia Naeemiain Lahore on April 16 and laterhad a "nikah" (marriage) withPakistani national MuhammedAzam. IANS

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Against the backdrop ofnationwide shock and out-

rage over the Kathua, Unnaoand Surat rape cases, the Centrehas asked all States and UnionTerritories to retrain all policeofficers on various aspects todeal with the case of sexualoffences, particularly thoserelated to the collection andpreservation of evidence.

The Centre has also askedthe State Governments to issueinstructions to all police officersto complete investigation ofsexual offences and child abusecases as per the timelines of lawand take strict action againstthose police officials who triedto collude with the accused.

In a letter to all ChiefMinisters and administratorsof Union Territories, UnionWomen and ChildDevelopment Minister ManekaSanjay Gandhi has asked to setup special cells of police officersfrom which specially trainedofficers could be deputed toinvestigate specific case of sex-ual offences and child rape.The Minister wrote the letter inthe backdrop of rape cases inKathua in J&K, Unnao andSurat in Gujarat which led tomassive public outrage andbacklash across the country.

The National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB)’s data shows20,000 cases of rape of children

were registered in 2016. It is esti-mated that a large number ofcases have been unreported.

The Minister also askedthe States to set up a state-of-the-art centre forensic sciencelaboratory (CFSL) in the linesof Chandigarh, which is ded-icated to assist the investiga-tion of sexual offences and theCentre is ready to fund fortheir CFSL projects.

“The Centre has estab-lished a state-of-the-art foren-sic laboratory in Chandigarhwhich is only dedicated to theassist in the investigation ofsexual offences. The fundshave been allocated from theNirbhaya fund. This can beused for offences all over India,”the letter read.

Notably, J&K Police had

tried to destroy the evidence inthe Kathua rape case while UPpolice has failed to act againstBJP MLA in the Unnao rapecase. There are also allega-tions against police whichshown negligence in investi-gating the Surat rape case.

“A quick and timely pro-fessional investigation is theonly method in which apotential offender can be

deterred but this can only bedone by the StateGovernment as the policedepartment is the State sub-ject . Sect ion 21 of theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences Act(POCSO) provides that anyofficer who fails to report orrecord the commission of anoffence under Section 19/20of the Act is liable for pun-ishment. This section may beinvoked in all cases wherev-er the failure to report/recordis noted,” reads the letter.

To provide safety and secu-rity, the WCD Ministry hadearlier announced to focus onthe safe city project, EmergencyResponse Support System(ERSS) and a CFSL andNirbhaya Fund.

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At least 48 MPs and MLAshave declared cases related

to crime against women, withBJP having the highest numberof such politicians at 14 followedby Shiv Sena (7) and TrinamoolCongress (6). The list includesUnnao rape case where BJPMLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar isan accused. The BJP in powerin 21 of the 29 States has, 14, thehighest number of lawmakersand Members of Parliament,with pending cases of crimesagainst women against them. Inthe last five years, the BJP hasgiven tickets to 48 candidateswith criminal cases.

As per the report ofAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR), 48 MLAs and3 MPs have declared cases ofcrime against women such ascharges related to assault ofwoman with intent to outrageher modesty, kidnapping,abducting or inducing womanto compel her to marriage,rape, domestic violence andtrafficking. Of them, 14 ofwhom are from the BJP andacross the board, 334 candi-dates with ‘tainted’ back-grounds were given tickets byrecognised political parties.The report says 33 per cent ofthe lawmakers with declaredcriminal cases are facingcharges related to crimesagainst women. Among States,Maharashtra has the highestnumber of MPs and MLAs

(12), followed by West Bengal(11), Odisha and AndhraPradesh each with five MPsand MLAs who have declaredcases related to crime againstwomen.

The report is based on ananalysis of 4,845 out of 4,896election affidavits of currentMPs and MLAs. This includes768 out of 776 affidavits of MPsand 4,077 out of 4,120 MLAsacross the country.

“Out of 1,580 (33 per cent)MPs/MLAs analysed withdeclared criminal cases, 48have declared cases related tocrime against women,” it said.

“All major political partiesgive tickets to candidates withcases of crime against womenespecially rape and thereforehindering the safety and dig-nity of women as citizens.

“These are serious caseswhere charges have beenframed and cognisance havebeen taken by the courts.Hence, political parties havebeen in a way abetting to cir-cumstances that lead to suchevents that they so easily butvehemently condemn inParliament,” the report said.

According to the report, inthe last five years, recognisedparties have given tickets to 26candidates who had declaredcases related to rape. During thisperiod, 14 independent candi-dates with declared cases relat-ed to rape have contested for LokSabha, Rajya Sabha and StateAssembly elections. As per the

analysis, 327 candidates who haddeclared cases related to crimeagainst women were given tick-ets by recognised political par-ties. Also, 118 independent can-didates with declared cases relat-ed to crime against women hadcontested for Lok Sabha, RajyaSabha and State Assembly elec-tions in the last five years.

Among major parties, in thelast five years, 47 candidates withdeclared cases related to crimeagainst women were given tick-ets by BJP. As many as 35 suchcandidates were given tickets byBSP, followed by 24 fromCongress. The candidates hadcontested in Lok Sabha, RajyaSabha and state assembly polls.The report also noted thatamong states, in the last fiveyears, Maharashtra had thehighest number of such candi-dates at 65, followed by Bihar(62) and West Bengal (52)(including independents).

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The Supreme Court onThursday decided to wait

for the report of the BarCouncil of India (BCI) on thepossible disciplinary action tobe taken against the lawyerswho obstructed filing ofchargesheet by police in theKathua rape and murder inci-dent involving an eight-yearold tribal girl.

Taking serious view of thestrike call given by the JammuHigh Court Bar Associationand the action of local lawyersto obstruct filing of chargesheetin the case before the KathuaMagistrate court, the Benchheaded by Chief Justice DipakMisra had last week sum-moned the office bearers ofKathua District BarAssociation, Jammu HighCourt Bar Association andState Bar Council.

The Bench, also comprisingJustices AM Khanwilkar andDY Chandrachud, wasinformed by the lawyersappearing on behalf of theState bar bodies that strike wascalled off on April 12, a daybefore the apex court took suomotu cognisance of the conductof lawyers. The Jammu HC BarAssociation represented bysenior advocate Vikas Singhsubmitted that his clientexpressed solidarity with thelocal lawyers only on the

demand for CBI probe and willbe the last to support theobstructionist behaviour shownby the lawyers in Kathua.

Pained at what transpiredin the State, the Bench said,“The concept of disciplineamong members of Barrequires them to keep the ruleof law at the highest pedestal.We are only concerned with

ensuring a fair trial and pro-tecting the victims.” BarCouncil of India ChairmanManan Kumar Mishrainformed the Bench that afact-finding team headed by aretired High Court judge vis-ited Kathua and is in theprocess of drafting its reporton initiating possible discipli-nary action. This report isexpected to be finalized in thenext three days, he added.

Taking this statement onrecord, the Bench directed thematter to be listed on April 26even as it reminded the Bar,“Right to practice does not meanto go on strike and create imped-iment in dispensation of justice.”The court allowed all bar asso-ciations represented in the caseto file their response explainingtheir conduct by next date.

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The Congress on Thursdayhit out at Prime Minister

Narendra Modi over his “cav-alier” conduct of foreign poli-cy at the CommonwealthSummit and bilateral meetingwith British counterpartTheresa May, saying it is “hurt-ing” India’s national interests.

Congress’ seniorspokesperson Anand Sharmasaid the Prime Minister’s“boastful” claims on surgicalstrike neutralising cross-borderterror is “embarrassing” asIndia continues to be exposedto multiple terrorist strikesfrom across the border, losingbrace officers and soldiers.

“Prime Minister Modi’s cav-alier conduct of foreign policy atthe Commonwealth Summit in

London and the bilateral meet-ing with the British PrimeMinister is hurting India’s nation-al interests. He needs a firmreminder that India engageswith its strategic partner coun-tries with maturity and gravitasand does not take sides or makean uninformed statement onissues of disputes between twostrategic partner countries,”Sharma said in a statement.

Hitting out at theGovernment’s policy towards

Pakistan, Sharma said it hasbeen a “disaster” and it was“unbecoming” of a PrimeMinister to speak out the wayhe did. “The BJP Government’sPakistan policy is a disaster. Itis both unfortunate and unbe-coming of him to say thatIndia’s Prime Minister speaks toPakistan in its own language,”he said.

Sharma said Pakistan ishome to a terror syndicate thattargets India and its people.

India, therefore, has the moralhigh ground and every right totake firm action to confront anddefeat terrorism, he said, addingthat the entire nation standsunited behind the armed forcesin fighting terrorism.

Modi told his British coun-terpart that there would be nodilution in the importance ofthe UK to India after it leavesthe EU, as the two leadersagreed to infuse new energyinto bilateral ties post-Brexit.

Later at an interaction withthe Indian diaspora, the PrimeMinister talked about surgicalstrikes on Pakistan to demol-ish terror training camps andwarned Pakistan that Indiawill not tolerate those who liketo export terror and willrespond to them “in the lan-guage they understand”.

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Noted fashion designer GavinRajah will choreograph a 20-

minute textile event, aimed at pro-jecting Khadi in a modern and trendystyle, at Sandton Convention Centrein Johannesburg on April 30, duringthe concluding session of the two-dayIndia-South Africa Business Summit,as ‘The Tribute to the Mahatma andMadiba (Nelson Mandela)’.

The programme is being held inmemory of 125 years of thePietermaritzburg incident whereGandhi was thrown out of a train byWhite supremacists, along withMandela’s birth centenary. The eventseeks to showcase New India inSouth Africa, with the intent to dou-ble two-way bilateral trade andinvestment within a five-year period.

Not only that, Khadi and VillageIndustries Commission (KVIC) hasgot its first lot of overseas order of 175gift boxes containing silk scarves forthis function from South Africa.

The High Commissioner forIndia in Pretoria Ruchira Kamboj,had requested the KVIC ChairmanVinai Kumar Saxena, to provide dif-ferent Khadi fabric, including silk andmuslin — in both embroidered andprinted forms, reflected by fashiondesigner Gavin Rajah.

In a letter to KVIC chairman,Kamboj said the Summit, with a tagline ‘United by legacy, unified forprosperity’ seeks to showcase NewIndia in South Africa, with theintent to double two-way bilateral

trade and investment within a fiveyear period. “This follows the visionset out by PM Narendra Modi andformer South African PresidentJacob Juma, in the course of PM’sState Visit to South Africa in 2016,”the letter further states.

Acting quickly on HighCommissioner’s request, the KVICimmediately dispatched more thandouble length of the desired fabric,which was delivered to them on

March 24, 2018. The most eminentfigure in the fashion landscape anda household name in South-Africa,Gavin Rajah played an active role asUNICEF's goodwill ambassadoradvocating for the rights of children.He was so satisfied with the qualityof fabric that he even tweeted aboutthis signature fabric of India.Impressed with the quality of silk fab-ric — gifted by the KVIC, the organ-isers later ordered to supply 175Khadi gift boxes containing silk fab-ric. The overall value of this order isworth approximately �2 lakh.

Jubilant on getting the first over-seas order for the KVIC, Saxena saidthat Khadi reaching South Africameans that the world is moving in thedirection of economic freedom now.“The monetary value of this ordermight not be very big, but it is a bigmorale gain for KVIC as it hascaught the attention of the worldfamous fashion designer and theorganisers as well. When Gandhijireached South Africa, a war againstapartheid and British rule was start-ed. Now, much on the expectationsof Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi, Khadi is all set to bring eco-nomic freedom as the 'Ahimsa Silk'would showcase its piousness andeconomic feasibility in the land ofMadiba,” he said.

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Ignoring the Parliamentary panelrecommendation, the

Government has decided to goahead with its plans to train theAyurveda practitioners and staffnurses in primary care and publichealth competencies through the‘bridge course’ to recruit them inHealth and Wellness Centres(HWC) to come up soon across thecountry.

By 2019, the Union HealthMinistry proposes to open 15,000centres to be expanded to 1.5 lakhcentres by 2022 in the country tomeet the basic healthcare needs ofthe community, said a senior offi-cial from the Ministry.

The panel in its report had,recently, asked the Governmentto remove the ‘bridge course’, pro-vision proposed in the NationalMedical Commission (NMC) Bill,to allow practitioners of alterna-tive medicines such ashomoeopathy and ayurveda topractice allopathy.

However, faced with acuteshortage of the MBBS doctors inthe country, the Health Ministry,which is setting up the HWCsunder its ambitious AyushmanBharat Scheme is banking on thesebridge-course trained Ayurvedaand staff nurses to run the centres.

They will be known as the MidLevel Healthcare Providers(MLHP), providing comprehensiveprimary health care (CPHC) atthese centres near the community.

The official said that the rep-resentatives from the Niti Aayog,at a meeting held recently, havebeen clearly told that positioningMBBS in these centres was not pos-

sible, at least in the near future.The move hinges on the

premise that AYUSH and modernsystems of medicine may havedistinct approaches and methods ofpractice, but there are some areasin public health where these sys-tems of medicine can function inmutual co-existence in an inte-grated manner.

In this connection, the officialcited example of the successfulresults being noticed in its pro-gramme of co-location of AYUSHfacilities at Primary HealthCentres (PHCs), CommunityHealth Centres (CHCs) andDistrict Hospitals (DHs), to treatthe NCDs like diabetes andstrokes thus enabling choice to thepatients for different systems ofmedicines under single window.

He argued that there weremany ayurvedic drugs which havebeen scientifically validated by theGovernment departments itself.“Take the case of anti-diabeticherbal drug BGR-34 which isdeveloped by the scientists from thecountry’s premier research organ-istion Council for Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR),” theofficial added.

Supporting the HealthMinistry’s move, the FinanceMinistry too noted that roping inAyurveda doctors would not onlyopen opportunities for them butalso offer a basket of choice to thepeople.

“The bridge course has beendesigned and developed by IndiraGandhi National Open University(IGNOU). Some States havealready rolled out the course underthe National Health Mission(NHM),” the official said.

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A parliamentary panel onThursday directed Ministry

of Electronics and Informationand Technology (MEITY) offi-cials to get a “written commit-ment” from Facebook and othersocial networking sites that theirplatforms would notbe used to manipu-late Indian elections.

The Parliam-entary StandingCommittee on IT,headed by BJP MPAnurag Thakur, alsotold officials of theMEITY to furnish allwritten communication andqueries sent to Facebook and itsresponse, a member of the panelsaid on condition of anonymity.

“The chairman told theMinistry officials to get a writ-ten commitment fromFacebook and other socialmedia platforms with an influ-ential market share in thecountry that their platformswould not be used to manipu-late Indian elections,” he said.

Supporting the chairman,members of the panel said theGovernment should also get inwriting the details of stepsFacebook and other social net-working platforms have taken orwill take to avoid their misuse.

After the meeting, Thakurposted a tweet inviting ques-tions and queries from the

general public on online secu-rity and privacy.

Panel members at themeeting also said that India isstill playing catch up on theissue of a robust IT data pro-tection policy.

It is learnt that theyexpressed shock at the inade-

quate data availablewith MEITY regard-ing India’s digitaleconomy, revenueand profitability oftech giants operatingin the country.

India may be leftout of the IT regula-tory framework

unless it gets its act together, themembers said. Committeemembers also said MEITYshould take a long term view ofissues and put systems and a reg-ulatory framework to protect theprivacy of Indian citizens, theyare believed to have suggested.

The data of over 80 millionFacebook users was allegedlyharvested by data analytics andpolitical consulting firmCambridge Analytica, leadingto a global backlash against thecompany. Facebook admittedthat nearly 5.62 lakh people inIndia were “potentially affected”by the incident.

According to sources, theGovernment is “examining” theresponses submitted by Facebookand Cambridge Analytica on thedata breach issue.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday directedthe chief secretaries ofHaryana and Delhi to appearbefore it on Monday after theDelhi Jal Board (DJB) said itwas not receiving enoughwater to supply to the nation-al Capital.

A Bench headed by JusticeMadan B Lokur took a strongnote of the apathy shown byauthorities in dealing with thewater woes of the residents ofthe national Capital.

“People are dying. But nourgency is being shown byyou people,” the court said,directing senior officials of thetwo State Governments toappear before it in person onApril 23.

The Delhi Governmenthad informed the apex court itwas in talks with Haryana forthe release of 450 cusec of waterof the Yamuna river daily forthe national Capital.

The apex court was hear-ing a plea filed by the DJBalleging that Haryana hadreduced by one-third the sup-ply of Yamuna water to thenational capital, leading to agrave water crisis.

The DJB has contended inits plea that Haryana was sup-plying Delhi only 330 cusec ofwater daily as against 450 cusecper day, which was agreedupon between the state and theUnion Territory. PTI

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The Group of Ministers onTransport constituted by

the Centre has recommendeda uniform structure of road taxfor vehicles across States.

In its meeting held inGuwahati on Thursday, theGoM observed that a uniformtax structure will put a checkon people registering theirvehicles in low tax States andrunning them in other States.This would also bring neces-sary relief to genuine casesrequiring transfer of vehicles.

The GoM, headed byRajasthan Transport MinisterYunus Khan and comprisingother State Transport

Ministers, seeks to find solu-tions to the various problemsplaguing the road transportsector in the country so as toimprove road safety and facil-itate ease of transport. TheGuwahati meeting which was

inaugurated by Assam ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowal,deliberated upon One Nation-One Tax and One Nation-

One Permit proposal. The GoM has also recom-

mended a national bus and taxipermit on lines of such permitfor goods transport. Publictransport in the country isgrowing annually at a rate of

just about 2 per cent, as againsta 20 per cent annual growth inprivate transport. A nationalpermit will give the muchneeded fillip to public trans-port and help reduce roadcongestion and its attendantproblems.

In order to promote alter-nate fuel for vehicles the GoMhad proposed liberalisation ofpermit system for electric vehi-cles. In addition, it has recom-mended raising the tax ondiesel vehicles by 2 per centwhile lowering the tax on elec-tric vehicles.

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Amid a clear rift in the partyover the issue of alliance

with the other parties, the22nd Congress of CPI(M) tookup the discussion on the draftpolitical resolution on the sec-ond day on Thursday.

While the draft resolutionwas introduced by the seniorparty leader and former generalsecretary Prakash Karat onbehalf of the central commit-tee , the present general secre-tary Sitaram Yechuri moved theminority point of view.

Delegates from as many as13 States took part in the dis-cussions on Thursday.

Sitaram Yechuri addressingthe delegates said there was adivergent opinion in the centralcommittee on the political lineto be pursued, which will bediscussed in the party Congresson Friday.

“One draft was presentedby Karat and the alternativeproposal was presented by me”,he said. He indicated that theremight not be an electoralunderstanding with any polit-ical party specially with theCongress. He also pointed outthat the draft as prepared threemonths ago.

He pointed out that theCPI(M) never had a tie up withany ruling party. “Even in caseof National Front the party hadextended outside support”, hesaid. He said that there were no

differences on the joining ofany alliance or Front. “Joiningany Front is an irrelevant issue.There is a complete unanimi-ty on the need for unseating theBJP from power. But how to doit will be discussed by theparty”, he said.

Yechuri said that if the leftdemocratic forces had to bestrengthened, the first theCPI(M) should be strength-ened.

Briefing the media Yechurilater said that the discussion onvarious amendments to thedraft will be held till Fridayafternoon after which the finalresolution will be adopted.

The prime objective of theparty was to free the peoplefrom the clutches of RSS con-trolled BJP, he said. Yechuridenied the reports in a sectionof press about the differences in

the party regarding the alliancewith other parties. “These areall figment of their imagina-tion”, he said.

What has emerged as thekey bone of contentionbetween the two groups — thehawks led by Prakash Karat andbacked by Kerala and Triupraleaders and the doves led byYechuri and mainly backed bythe West Bengal unit — was thequestion whether the CPI(M)should join the hands with theother secular parties includingthe Congress party.

While Karat group whichdescribes Congress as bour-geois party has ruled out anysuch understanding with it,Yechuri group was in favor ofin such an understanding tounseat the BJP from power.

The fight has become morekeen as the CPIM congress was

also scheduled to elect theparty general secretary. Whilethe majority appears to be infavor of giving another term tothe present general secretaryYechuri, the Karat group wasexploring the possibility ofanointing Manik Sarkar, theformer Chief Minister ofTripura.

Earlier the congress ofCPI(M) termed the SupremeCourt judgment rejecting thepleas for an independent probeinto the death of Justice Loyaand holding such petitions asscandalous as “unfortunate”.

“The circumstances ofJustice Loya’s death raised sev-eral questions. The CPI(M)holds that the matter should bereviewed by a larger bench ofthe court”, a statement issued bythe CPI(M) congress said.

In another resolution theCPI(M) congress expressedprofound shock at the acquit-tal by the NIA special court ofall those arrested in connectionwith the Mecca Masjid bombblast case.

It expressed deep concernthat central agencies responsi-ble for investigation and pros-ecution of crimes are increas-ingly biased in favor ofHindutva forces.

“There is a pattern inacquittals of accused owningallegiance to the Sangh Parivarin various cases of terrorismand bomb blasts”, the resolutionsaid.

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Even as the Opposition andthe ruling BJP crossed

swords over the arrest of 35-year-old Kenneth Silveira, whowas held on Wednesday forposting a fake post aboutChief Minister ManoharParrikar’s demise, a trial courtin the State capital onThursday remanded theaccused to two days in policecustody.

Earlier on Thursday, theBJP endorsed the police actionagainst Silveira, who wasarrested late on Wednesday foruploading a post on Facebook,which suggested that Parrikar,who is currently undergoingtreatment in the US, for a pan-creas related ailment, had died.

“Just got news thatParrikar is no more,” the postsaid. Silveira was arrested bythe Crime Branch after a com-plaint was filed by a BJP Stateoffice bearer. On ThursdayJudicial Magistrate First Class,Panaji, denied Silveira bailand remanded him to two

days in police custody. Speaking to The Pioneer,

South Goa MP and State BJPgeneral secretary NarendraSavoikar said that the policehad done the right thing, bybooking Silveira first and thenarresting him.

“Assuming something hasbeen done, police might have

taken action. One should con-firm information about a con-stitutional authority beforeposting it,” Savoikar said.

The Opposition mean-while has criticised both theruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) led coalitionGovernment as well as thepolice machinery for unleash-ing “police raj”, describing themove to arrest Silveira as dic-tatorial.

“Silveira may have made amistake by putting up such apost, but arresting him for aFacebook post smacks of arro-gance of power. This is noth-ing but police raj,” All IndiaCongress Committee secretaryGirish Chodankar said.

GANDHINAGAR: ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani onThursday asked Lok Rakshaksto diligently discharge theirduty towards the Constitution,maintain law-and-order situa-tion with the mantra of servicebefore self, and improve theimage of Gujarat Police.

He was speaking atGujarat’s biggest-ever passing-out parade to induct 2,301Lok Rakshaks, including 795Mahila Lok Rakshaks, in theAhmedabad City Police aftereight months’ intensive train-ing. He asked them to adopt acompassionate attitude towardsthe have-nots, persecuted,oppressed, poor and the needy.

The Chief Minister saidGujarat Police by virtue oftheir confidence and hardwork, backed by the state gov-ernment’s will power, changedthe image of cities likeAhmedabad, Porbandar andSurat, once known for theircriminal activities. He called formaking the Police Force moretechno savvy as in CCTV sur-veillance and command andcontrol wall. PNS

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As he is fighting a crucialbattle in poll bound

Karnataka BJP chief Amit Shahraked up the controversial TipuJayanti celebrated by rulingCongress Government led byChief Minister Siddaramaiah .

Addressing the OBC meetin Bengaluru on Thursday hesaid, “The Chief Minister isnever interested in observing inany Jayanti in honour ofBasavanna or literary giants ofKarnataka, but he was verymuch concerned to observeTipu Sultan Jayanti”.

“I fail to understand themindset behind such motives”,he said . In one of the meet-ings BJP chief had blamedCongress party of trying todefame Hindus by linking thecommunity to the ‘saffronterror’.

Shah also targeted theChief Minister Siddaramaiahfor wearing a costly wrist watchsaying he ought to answer onwho actually had given him theprecious gift.

He also blamed Congressand Rahul Gandhi for stallinga bill which was introduced byNarendra Modi Government togrant constitutional status tothe National Commission forOBCs.

BJP Chief took a dig atCongress leader and formerFinance Minister PChidambaram and said hecan’t appreciate the hard workof Pakoda seller.

“Chidambaram had madefun of me earlier also. He wasborn in a rich family, so he willnot understand even smalltime pakoda sellers are alsoindustrious people”, Shah saidin a reference to an earlier con-troversy that the BJPGovernment had funded smalltime pakoda sellers throughMudra loans.

He said under the Mudrascheme the BJP Governmenthad granted financial assis-tance to nine crore youth andalso ensured that poor womenget subsidised LPG connection.The BJP Chief said theCongress has hardly done any-thing for the Dalits, OBCs andtribals.

Amit Shah’s jibe atChidambaram is to woo TamilSpeaking population at ShivajiNagar constituency in the city.BJP has fielded former Ministerand senior party leader KattaSubramanya Naidu forShivajinagar, which is nowbeing represented by KarnatakaMinister Roshan Baig.

Addressing party’s boothlevel workers meeting AmitShah said Karnataka assemblypolls are not “an ordinary”election and asked them to sac-rifice their comfort and sleeptill State unit chief BSYeddyurappa is sworn in aschief minister .

Shah said, “We have wonelections in 14 states since2014. Now the elections are duein the 15th state of Karnataka.Any guess what will happen?,”he asked and the workersresponded, shouting “BJP (willwin).” “It’s not an ordinary

election. It is our grand entryin South India,” Shah said

Highlighting the impor-tance of booth level workersand Shakti Kendra chiefs, Shahsaid they are those who actu-ally lead the party to victory.

Union Minister PrakashJavadekar who is poll incharge of the state has blastedCongress on Supreme Courtverdict on Justice BH Loya’smysterious death case, dis-missing them as “meaning-less”.

He said in Bengaluru“The Congress can raise anynumber of questions. They areall meaningless. The fact of thematter is the Supreme Courthas rejected the PIL seeking anindependent probe into Loya’sdeath. The court has reaf-firmed that Justice Loya died ofnatural death.

Referring to the apex courtverdict, Congress spokesmanRandeep Singh Surjewala hadraised 10 questions relating tothe case as he criticised thejudgment and noted that theissue of criminality can bedecided only through a probe.

“The Supreme Courtfound the PIL politically moti-vated and hence, it dismissed it,and who was behind thesepetitions? Congress. It wantedto frame Amit Shah,” he said.

Demanding an apologyfrom Gandhi and Congressfor trying to frame Shah andBJP, Javadekar said Congress isresorting to dirty politics indesperation as it was losingelections in every State.

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Ei g h t y - o n e - y e a r - o l dShrinivas Loya, paternal

uncle of Special CBI Judge BHLoya, on Thursday chose not tocomment on the SupremeCourt judgement dismissingpetitions seeking an indepen-dent probe into Judge Loya’s“mysterious” death, maintain-ing that he was a “too small aman” to comment on the issue.

On a day when a three-member bench of the apexcourt, headed by Chief Justiceof India Dipak Misra, ruled thatJudge Loya had died due “nat-ural causes”, a resignedShrinivas said that the matterwas “as good as over” for hisfamily.

Talking to “The Pioneer”over telephone from Laturwhere he lives, Shrinivas said:“I am too small a man to com-ment on the Supreme Court’sjudgement. The SupremeCourt has not only dismissedthe case but it has also said thatPrashant Bhushan and othersenior lawyers have committedcriminal contempt of court.What can we do under thesecircumstances?”

When this correspondentpersisted the matter, Shrinivassaid: “The matter (Judge Loya’sdeath) is as good as over for us”.

When his attention wasdrawn to the fact that he him-self had rooted for an inde-pendent inquiry into JudgeLoya’s death, Shrinivas said:“That was long ago”.

Justice Loya (48) had diedof a “heart attack” during a pri-vate trip to Nagpur on

December 1, 2014. At thattime, Justice Loya was hearingthe alleged SohrabuddinSheikh encounter case – inwhich BJP’s current nationalpresident Amit Shah was one ofthe accused. Justice Loya’sfamily had earlier raised severalquestions about the circum-stances leading to Loya’s sud-den death.

It may be recalled that TheCaravan magazine had comeout with a series of stories onthe “suspicious” circumstancesin which Judge had died inNagpur on December 1, 2014

After late Judge Loya’sson Anuj went to town inJanuary this year saying that hehad “no suspici on” over thedeath of his father and that hisfamily no allegations to makeagainst any one, , ShrinivasLoya was quoted by TheCaravan magazine as saying:“He ( Anuj) has just crossed 18.There might be pressure [onhim.]”

“Now what should I say. Ishe adult enough? He’s justcrossed 18. There might bepressure [on him.]...... If his[Anuj’s earlier] view is to be

considered, it was to have aninquiry,” Shrinivas had said,while rooting for an inquiryinto the “mysterious” death ofJudge Loya.

Addressing a news confer-ence here along with his fam-ily lawyer Ameet Naik, Anujhad said: “I don’t have any sus-picion... There was some sus-picion before due to emotion-al turmoil, but now it is clear.I was 17 at that time and I wasin emotional turmoil. I didn’tunderstand anything at thattime”.

“I would like to make itclear that my family is under-going a lot of difficulty (overthe reports published in mediaon my father’s death). I have noallegations to make against anyone. We are pained and are try-ing to get out of whole thing.(With folded hands) I requestyou not to harass us or troubleus,” Anuj had said.

“We faced some pressurefrom politicians and NGOs. Wedon’t want to name anyone, butplease excuse my family fromcontinuously asking about myfather’s death,” an emotionalAnuj had said.

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Welcoming the SupremeCourt’s verdict dismiss-

ing a bunch of petitions seek-ing an independent enquiryinto Judge Loya’s death andruling that the judge had dieddue to “natural causes”,Maharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis said hereon Thursday that “truth hasprevailed”.

Slamming the Congress,Left parties and some mediaorganisations for trying to“malign” image of BJP’s nation-al president Amit Shah,Fadnavis said, “SatyamevaJayate (truth has prevailed).The Supreme Court hasaccepted the report (on the cir-cumstances leading to JudgeLoya’s death) submitted by theMaharashtra government. TheCongress, left parties and somemedia organisations whichwere projecting a wrong pic-ture stand exposed. The apexcourt’s verdict comes as a slapon the faces of all those whotried to create unnecessarydoubts about Judge Loya’sdeath”.

Fadnavis said that in viewof the supreme court’s verdict,

Congress president RahulGandhi, his party’s senior lead-ers, leaders of the leftist partiesand media organisations thathad tried to “sow doubts”about Judge Loya’s death in theminds should tender an apol-ogy to the nation and theSupreme Court.

Charging that theOpposition parties were car-rying out a false propagandaagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and othersenior BJP leaders, Fadnavissaid: “The Opposition partieshave nothing to talk about thedevelopment works beingdone in a big way by theNarendra Modi government.No wonder, they are carryingout false propaganda againstour government. I condemnthe conspiracy hatched by theOpposition parties to malignour government and seniorBJP leaders”.

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The Mumbai Congressfound itself in an embar-

rassing situation on Thursday,as a woman party worker com-plained to the city party chiefSanjay Nirupam that she wasallegedly molested by malecolleagues during a candlemarch organised by the partyon Sunday last to protestagainst the Kathua and Unnaorape incidents.

In a text message sent toNirupam, the victim womanparty worker stated: “Theworkers of Youth Congressand NSUI (party’s students’wing) stooped to such lowlevel that they touched, pushedand shoved women workers inan inappropriate manner, mak-ing us feel unsafe among ourvery own party’s male col-leagues.

“Sadly, some male workersdid this to us only to get aheadin the march so that their faceswere captured by the media. Iwant to know if women work-ers will be safe in similar eventsheld in future?,” she added inher message.

Confirming that he hadindeed received from a womanwho is a district-level partyworker, Nirupam said that hehad apologised to the femaleparty worker and promisedher that he would initiate strig-

nent action against those partyworkers found guilty of themisconduct.

“This is a very unfortunateincident. I condemn it. I toldthe woman that I will takeaction against the persons con-cerned if she identifies them. Ialso assured her that if she sowished, I would help her filepolice cases against theaccused. But she told me therewas too much of a crowd andthat it is not possible for her toidentify the accused con-cerned,” Nirupam said.

Nirupam said that the vic-tim woman was an active partyworker who participatedenthusiastically in all dharnasand morchas organised by theMumbai congress unit.

“She is an active partyworker. She does not partici-pate alone, but brings alongwith her more than a dozenwomen members for our dha-ranas and rallies. I have apol-ogised to her for the ordeal shesuffered on Sunday. It is diffi-cult to identify the errant maleparty workers who rush inmorchas and their faces can beseen in television footage,” hesaid.

“After this incident, I amplanning to issue the dos anddon’ts to be followed during theprotest morchas in whcihwomen participate in largenumbers,” Nirupam added.

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All 13 candidates, including10 of the ruling BJP, one of

its ally Apna Dal and one eachof Samajwadi Party andBahujan Samaj Party, weredeclared elected unopposed inthe biennial polls to UPLegislative Council onThursday.

After the time of with-drawal ended at 3 pm onThursday, Returning OfficerAshok Choubey said all 13 can-didates were elected.

However, these new members will take the oath ofoffice after the present members’ terms expire on May 5.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and his twoDeputies Keshav PrasadMaurya and Dr Dinesh Sharmagreeted the newly-electedmembers at the VidhanBhawan.

“The elected candidateswill raise people’s issues toensure that the governmentschemes reache bonafide ben-eficiaries. They will also bringthe grey areas to the notice ofthegovernment,” Yogi said.

The elected members areUP Ministers Mahendra Singhand Mohsin Raza, VijayBahadur Pathak, Dr SarojniAgarwal, Ashok Kataria, VidyaSagar Sonkar, Jaiveer Singh,Yashwant Singh, AshokDhawan and BhukkalNawab(All of the BJP), AshishSingh Patel (Apna Dal), NareshUttam (SP) and BR Ambedkar(BSP).

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After the investigating agen-cies accepted their inabil-

ity to achieve much in their“field probes” into theNarendra Dabholkar-GovindPansare murders, the BombayHigh Court on Thursdaypassed a stinging commentwhy the growing perceptionabroad about India is of beinga country of crimes and rapesand “the liberal and secularpeople are not safe here”.

Prompted by the admis-sions openly made by the coun-sels for the Maharashtra CIDand CBI told the court that theywere getting any evidence intheir “field probes” into thecases, a HC bench of JusticesSC Dharamadhikari andBharati Dangre expressed seri-ous concern over the dentingimage of India abroad about itsinability to check crimes andrapes across the country.

In observations that camein the midst of continued pub-lic outrage over the Kathua andUnnao cases, the HC benchnoted: "It is unfortunate thattoday, the image of the coun-try is such that those livingabroad feel only crimes and

rapes happen in India.Anywhere we go (outside ofIndia), we have to answer a bar-rage of questions. People areunder the impression that lib-eral, open-minded and secularpeople cannot be safe in Indiaand that they are bound to beattacked. The image of India issuffering due to the acts of afew people".

The judges also observedthat the rest of the world washesitant now to engage withIndia in educational or cultur-al matters owing to the currentstate of affairs in the country."No international body wantsto be a part of our education-al and cultural projects.Investors show interest at firstbut pull back later on. We arevery sorry to see this. Do we(India) want to live in acocoon?" the bench asked.

"No institution in the coun-try, including the judiciary, isspared from this," the HCbench averred.

Earlier, the HC benchexpressed its displeasure overthe “failure” of the State CIDand CBI to take the two casesto their logical conclusion."How do we then take the caseto its logical conclusion?..."Can

we allow for the case to reacha dead-end when similarcrimes are on the rise?" thebench asked.

The HC bench’s observa-tions came after senior coun-sel Ashok Mundargi, the lawyerfor Maharashtra CID investi-gating Pansare’s murder, toldthe high court that there waslittle hope now of achievinganything substantial from anyfurther field investigations – aview that Additional SolicitorGeneral Anil Singh, represent-ing the CBI probingDabholkar’s killing also shared.

"Field probe includingraids at possible hiding placeswill not lead to anything any-more. Our only hope is scien-tific probe and evidence fromcall detail records, forensicsetc.," Mundargi told the court.ADG Anil Singh, representingthe CBI said as much.

CPI leader Govind Pansare(82) and his wife Uma (67) hadbeen shot from a close range,near their residence “IdealHousing Society” at around8.30 am on February 16 2015,when the couple was returningfrom a morning walk from theShivaji University campus atKolhapur. Four days later,

Pansare succumbed to injuriessustained in the shoot-out,while his wife Uma survivedthe attack.

Pansare’s murder, it mayrecalled, had come on the heelsof a gruesome murder of 69-year-old anti-superstition cam-paigner Narendra Dabholkar,who was shot dead him from apoint blank range by twomotor-bicycle riding gunmen –aged between 25 and 30 years,while he was taking a morningwalk on the Omkareshwarbridge located in the heart ofPune, on August 20, 2013.

Expressing serious con-cern over the considerabledelay in the investigations intothe high-profile murders, theHC bench said that while it wasnot critical so far of the ongo-ing probes by the two agencies,it could not allow them to leaveeverything to the mere hopethat the absconding accusedpersons in the two cases, tiredof hiding or fearing threat totheir lives, would turn them-selves in one day.

"Why don’t you take stepsto completely strangulate theorganisational backing that theaccused persons must bereceiving?" the Judges asked.

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The judge, who had submit-ted his resignation hours

after acquitting the accused inMecca Masjid blast case onMonday last, resumed hisduties from Thursday.

The resignation of the 4thMetropolitan judge and thejudge of NIA court was reject-ed by the Acting Chief Justiceof Hyderabad High CourtRamesh Ranganathan and alsocancelled his leave.

The Acting Chief Justicedirected the judge to return tohis work and the judgeresumed his duty at theNampally court complex onThursday.

K Ravinder Reddy hadresigned after giving the verdictthat the prosecution had failedin proving the charges againstthe five accused belonging tothe various right wing Hindugroups. It had sparked off spec-ulations and rumors that thejudge was under pressure dur-ing the trial while others saidthat he was planning to enter

politics.

NIA’S INVESTIGATINGOFFICER WAS CHANGED

Meanwhile more detailshave emerged of how the NIA’sinvestigation officer of MeccaMasjid blast case was changedat a very crucial stage, just daysbefore the verdict.

Pratibha Ambedkar, an IPSofficer of 2007 batch belongingto the Uttar Pradesh cadre, whowas supervising the blast case

directly was suddenly trans-ferred back to her home State.She had joined the NIA for afour year term and had still fivemonths to complete it.

Sources said that she wastransferred on the request ofthe UP Government and wasrelieved within hours of theorders. Amid the lots of alle-gations and criticism that theNIA had deliberately weakenedthe Mecca Masjid blast case, thesudden transfer of the IO hasalso raised a lot of questions.

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All the major Muslim organ-isations in Hyderabad have

demanded that the MeccaMasjid blast case should beeither re-tried or the verdict ofthe NIA special court should bechallenged in the High Court.

A delegation of Muslimleaders led by the HyderabdMP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM)president Asaduddin Owaisimet the State Governor ESLNarasimhan on Thursday anddemanded a retrial. A memo-randum presented by the del-egation to the Governor high-lighted various acts of omissionand commission by the inves-tigative agency NIA leading tothe weakening of the case andacquittal of the five accusedbelonging to the Hindu rightwing groups.

“We requested theGovernor to not only conveyour sense of despair and sad-ness to the Centre but alsorequested to appeal for a retri-

al or appeal in the highercourts of law against this ver-dict that let the terrorists gofree”, Owaisi told the mediaafter meeting the Governor atRaj Bhavan this afternoon.

Earlier several Muslimorganisations also held a mas-sive protest meeting in the citylast evening, which wasaddressed by the prominentcity Muslim leaders and repre-sentatives of various organisa-tions.

Addressing the mammothgathering Asaduddin Owaisisaid the blast case should bereheard under the sections173, sub section 8 of CriminalProcedure Code(CrPC). “If thesurvivors of any of the victimsof the blast were willing to fighta legal battle, AIMIM andother Muslim organisationswill extend them the assis-tance”, he said. Owaisi was ofthe view that if the families ofthe survivors become the partyin the case it will have a posi-tive impact.

He made it clear that theprotest was not against thejudiciary but against the neg-ligence and the bias shows bythe NIA during the trial.

9 people were killed and 58others were injured in thebomb blast during the Fridaycongregation in the historic

mosque of Hyderabad on May18, 2007.

“NIA weakened the case inan organised manner at thebehest of the political masters”,he said.

Contrasting the attitude ofNIA in Mecca Masjid casewith the Dilsukhnagar bombblast case in which a specialcourt was set up at Charalapallyjail to try Yaseen Bhatkal andother two accused. “During thetrial a senior IPS officer used tobe present. This serious inter-est of the investigative agencyand the prosecution resulted inthe accused getting convictedand the court gave them deathpenalty”, he said.

He recalled that when twoaccused of Mecca Masjid blastcase were granted bail onMarch 12, 2014, he had per-sonally contacted the thenHome Minister Sushil KumarShinde and asked him to chal-

lenge the bail, the CongressGovernment did nothing. AfterNarendra Modi Governmentcame to power when the trialbegan in June 2014, NIAchanged the lawyer andappointed a person who hadnot even fought one murdercase in his life. More than 60witnesses turned hostile andmaterial evidence was van-ished. He said an unexplodedbomb was found wrapped inred shirt in the mosque butduring the trial the shirt, whichwas vital evidence vanished.

“The case was deliberatelyweakened to save the saffronclad accused”, he said. Owaisialleged that not only MeccaMasjid but the Governmentwas trying to save the accusedin all other such cases likeMalegaon and Smajhautaexpresse blasts. “This if the firstGovernment which instead ofsupporting the victims of ter-rorist attacks was standing withaccused”, he said demanding toknow the position of theGovernment.

The other speakers at themeet included HamidMohammed Khan of Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Ziauddin Nayyarof Tameer-e-Millat, MoulanaJafar Pasha, Moulana QaboolPasha Shuttari and MoulanaSafi Ahmad Madani.

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As the heat is on in the pollbound Karnataka, a BJP

MLA has courted a controver-sy by saying “this election isabout Hindus versus Muslims.BJP MLA from Belagavi Rural,Sanjay Patil has raked up a con-troversy by saying the upcom-ing State Assembly election is

“not about roads and drinkingwater but about Hindu-Muslimincidents”.

A video of the commentsby MLA Sanjay Patil inBelagavi went viral andCongress has filed a caseagainst him. In the allegedvideo Sanjay Patil in Kannadasays “I am Sanjay Patil, I amHindu, this is a Hindu rashtra(nation) and we want to buildthe Ram temple. If LakshmiHebbalkar (Congress candi-date and president of KPCCwomen’s wing) says she canbuild the mandir — vote forher. They will build BabriMasjid instead. Whoever wants

Babri Masjid, Tipu Jayanthithey should vote for theCongress. And who wantsShivaji Maharaj and RamMandir and ShambhajiMaharaj should vote for theBJP.”

Sanjay Patil the BJP MLAis heard saying in Kannada atwhat appears to be a publicmeeting. It is however, notclear from the video when andwhere it was recorded. Thevideo went viral in the socialmedia and it has raked up acontroversy ahead of crucialelections.

Karnataka will go to pollson May 12 and the results will

be declared on May 15. Thepolls are crucial for both theCongress and the BJP. BJPpresident Amit Shah andCongress President RahulGandhi are locked in a poll bat-tle working out strategies toprove a point. Karnataka elec-tion is expected as a preambleto the 2019 general elections.

Recently a BJP MLASurendra Singh had courted acontroversy by saying that the2019 Lok Sabha elections willbe a contest between two “men-talities” — Hindu and Islamic.After Union MinisterAnantkumar Hegde who cre-ated a row over his commentabout the Constitution, now

Sanjay Patil, has been cap-tured on camera making polar-ising statements by invokingreligion at what appears to bean election rally.

Meanwhile BJP chief min-isterial face and Lingayat strongman BS Yeddyurappa has filedhis nomination fromShikaripura in Shivamoggaafter holding a road showaccompanied by UnionMinister Ananth Kumar,Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterRaman Singh and BJP leaderSriramulu.

DK Shivakumar theCongress strongman and oneof the aspirants for the hot seathas also filed his nominationfrom Kanakapura.

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Claiming that the SupremeCourt’s verdict on the

Judge BH Loya case hasexposed Congress, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidthe Congress president shouldapologise to the nation forpoliticising the issue.

“The term Public InterestLitigation (PIL) has beenchanged to ‘Political InterestLitigation’ by the Congress andits allied parties therebymaligning the status and imageof the judiciary,” the ChiefMinister said while addressinga hurriedly called press con-ference in Lucknow onThursday.

Yogi said Rahul Gandhihad submitted a memoran-dum signed by 150 MPs to thePresident of India for a probeinto Judge Loya’s death andcharged the BJP brass with hisdeath. He had even claimedthat the BJP was trying toscuttle the probe.

“But the Supreme Courtverdict has once again vindi-cated BJP president Amit Shahthat he was totally innocent andjudge Loya died due to natur-al reasons,” the CM said andadded that the court also ruledthat the PIL was political moti-

vated. “The verdict in JudgeLoya case has exposed theCongress once again. Now,Rahul Gandhi should apologiseto the people of the country, asthe Congress has tried to cre-ate such an environment thatmaligned the image of judicia-ry and created a negative feel-ing for the Government,” hesaid. Yogi Adityanath said thatthrough frivolous PILs, theCongress tried to do politicsand create disturbances in thecountry.

“Rahul Gandhi shouldcounter the BJP politically andshould not indulge in suchnasty conspiracy that includesinsulting even the judiciary,” hesaid. “Congress leaders alwaysfelt that only a family can rulethe country. When a poor andcommon man gets the highestpost, they go for such conspir-acy to defame him,” Yogi saidreferring to the humble back-ground of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

The CM was also critical ofthe statement issued by somesenior lawyers after the SC rul-ing, who termed the judgementas unfortunate. “Some seniorlawyers have insulted theirown profession which is veryunfortunate,” Yogi said withouttaking any names.

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Alesser known legal battle lostby US President DonaldTrump in the UK SupremeCourt in 2015 was on block-ing the installation of 11 wind

energy machines off the coast of Scotland.News reports earlier this month stated thatthe first unit of this facility has just beeninstalled by the Swedish energy compa-ny Vattenfall at a site close to the city ofAberdeen. This wind farm is located 1.5miles from the coast, and is permanent-ly visible from the exclusive golf coursebuilt by US President Trump as part of hisbusiness activity some years ago.Objections of the Trump business estab-lishment against this development, there-fore, have literally gone with the wind.

Significantly, two of the 11 machineshave been upgraded to a capacity of 8.8MW, a size attained for the first time indeveloping offshore wind energy capac-ity. The power of these machines can beimagined from the fact that just one rota-tion of its blades would be capable ofpowering an average UK home for a full24-hour day.

President Trump’s objection to thiswind farm, which he pursued through thelegal system in Scotland and the UK, wasdoubtless motivated by the fact that eachturbine reaches 190m into the air, whichis twice the height of Big Ben, London’sand Britain’s most prominent landmark.Significantly, the objections of the Trumpbusiness organisation were not upheld byboth the Scottish and UK courts.

Once this project is completed, itwould have an installed capacity of 93.2MW, and would be able to provide 70 percent of Aberdeen’s domestic electricitydemand as the developers, Vattenfall, esti-mate. This wind farm will also accountfor a reduction of 134,000 tonne of CO2emissions as compared to those of a fossil fuel-based generating plant.

Wind energy, and particularly offshore wind, provides growing promiseacross the globe. Taking into accountonshore wind potential, this form of ener-gy supply will make a huge difference inthe future. If we look at the state of Texasin the US, the very emblem of fossil fuel-based energy supply wind energy, nowaccounts for one-fourth of the US wind-powered electricity generation, and oncethe data for 2017 is available, it is likelyto exceed this figure in 2017.

More than 5,000 MW of additionalwind generation capacity are under con-struction, and at the end of 2016, Texasalready had 21,450 megawatts of windcapacity installed. This is the result ofmajor improvements in wind energy gen-eration technologies which have result-ed in reduced costs per unit of capacityinstalled and higher efficiency of

machines, which are able to convert ahigher share of wind which falls on turbine blades into electricity.

Globally, wind power capacity andgeneration have grown substantially overthe years. According to REN21, theglobal renewable energy policy multi-stakeholder network, the installed windpower capacity in 2006 was only 74,000MW or 74 Gigawatts (GW). By the endof 2016 this had grown to 487 GW, withadditions of 55 GW in that year alone. Bythe end of 2016, 90 countries accountedfor commercial wind energy activities,and 29 countries had over one GW inoperation. At the end of that year, Chinahad a capacity of 23.6 GW installed, andwas by far the leader in this field. Indiahad an installed capacity of 3.6 GW in thefourth position, with the US andGermany in the second and third positions respectively.

Wind power can be generated fromonshore as well as offshore sites. As faras the latter option is concerned, offshorewind capacity is still much lower than inonshore locations, and stood at the global aggregate of 14.4 GW at the endof 2016. India has a coastline of over7,500 kms, and several locations offshorewould provide viable sites for installationof wind power systems. Yet, thus far, off-shore wind capacity has hardly taken offin this country. Overall, wind poweraccounts for nearly 9.87 per cent of India’stotal installed power generation capaci-

ty and in the fiscal year 2016-17 windpower installations generated 46,011million kWh, which is nearly three percent of total electricity generation.Denmark generates the largest share ofpower from wind at a level approaching40 per cent of the total, followed byIreland with close to 30 per cent.

In terms of manufacture of windenergy equipment also, India has a greatdeal of catching up to do. Among the top10 wind turbine manufacturers, thehighest share is accounted for by Vestasof Denmark at 16 per cent of the worldtotal, followed by GE of the US at 12 percent and Goldwind of China also at 12per cent. If we are to implement thePrime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ pro-gramme then it is in “sunshine” indus-tries, like production of wind turbines,that India should excel. This is a fieldwhere the market will expand rapidly, andIndia should be at the table with thebiggest manufacturers in the world.

Manufacture within India will alsohelp serve the growing market for newcapacity to be created for wind energysupply in the country. The Governmentof India changed its policy recently tomove away from feed-in-tariffs to invit-ing bids and awarding renewable ener-gy supply projects to enterprises whichprovide the most favourable terms.

In bids that the Solar EnergyCorporation of India invited recently, allthe bidders came up with offers of �2.44

to �2.45 per Kwh, which is equivalent toUS 3.8 cents per Kwh. Bids were invit-ed for setting up a capacity of twogigawatts, but prospective developersaggregated a total 2.75 GW in the offersthat they submitted.

This experience provides an indica-tion of what lies ahead and the brightprospects for wind energy in India withexpectations of further cost reductionsthrough improvements in technology andeconomies of scale. The auction route wasopened by the Government of India inFebruary 2017, and this last round is thefifth wind energy auction carried out.

Significantly, cost reduction in thelowest tariff on offer between the firstauction and the fifth is almost 30 percent. This clearly highlights the attractionof moving away from fossil fuels in powergeneration projects and pursuing aggres-sively the implementation of renewableenergy supply options.

The lowest solar power bid on recordis at a level of �2.43 per Kwh, which isin line with the cost of wind generatedpower. However, there is need for a com-prehensive strategy which takes intoaccount incentives for and facilitation ofmanufacture of wind turbines on a largescale in India and seeing this as a product for export in a globally expanding market.

(The writer is former chairman,Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange, 2002-15)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“BJP must rethink strategy”(April 17) by Jasim Mohammad.If we closely analyse the fouryears of Modi governance, thereis a long list of achievementswhich is mostly invisible to mostpeople. For them, what mattersmore are things l ike the (imagined) dilution of theScheduled Castes and Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act,while succumbing to divisivedemands by the Opposition.

But they are not to be blamedbecause generally, people tend tobe short-sighted. In a situationlike this, it is important thatPrime Minister Modi shows howthe lives of common man areimproving, how acche din haveactually arrived.

Arun Via web

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Sir — When someone does a jobwell, we say that he deserves a‘pat on the back’. The ‘pat’ inessence amounts to mark ofappreciation of the work done.Though this term can be figuratively used in writing, onehas to be more careful when onedecides to pat someone literally,notwithstanding the intentions,more so if it revolves round amale-female interaction.

Tamil Nadu GovernorBanwarilal Purohit’s pat on thecheek of a woman journalist isthe talk of the town. After thenews vent viral and the journal-ist herself tweeted that it was

inappropriate, notwithstandingthe explanations offered by theGovernor, the latter, in his letter,expressed regret.

It is common to hug oneanother during religious or socialfunctions. This is a form ofgreeting. But like it is said, thebeauty is in the eye of the behold-er. Exchange of such pleasantrieseven with no mala fide intentioncan be interpreted in a differentmanner when unsolicited. Toput it succinctly, it is just not on.

VS Jayaraman Chennai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “A cashless society” (April 19).As per reports, ATMs in severalparts of the country are runningdry. This awkward incident hasproved atleast one thing: Thatcashless society is a Westernconcept which cannot be imple-mented in India. For the peopleof this country, cashless in tototo meet day-to-day life expens-es is never possible as it is themost convenient and trustworthyoption for them. Equally, it is afact that post-demonetisationcorruption has not reduced a bitwith black money in the form of�2,000 notes being hoarded bythe rich. The Reserve Bank ofIndia is now printing more notesbut without fulfilling the rules forprinting new notes and takingadequate safety measures, itwould lead to more inflation.

Mahesh Kumar Via email

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If the model is broken, should youtry to fix it, or should you scrap itand get a new one? In questions of

technology, increasingly the answer is:Scrap it. Computer repair shops aredying out: If your laptop doesn’t work,just buy a new one. What applies toconsumer technology, however, doesnot necessarily apply to politics.

The political model of Western-style democracy, which grew upalongside and then within a capital-ist economic model, is now broken.Exhibit Number One is US PresidentDonald Trump, but there’s lots of otherevidence too.

One-third of French voters backedMarine Le Pen, a cleaned-up, user-friendly neo-fascist, in last year’s presi-dential election. In last September’s

German election, one-eighth of the elec-torate voted for Alternative for Germany,a party whose more extreme wing is neo-Nazi — but it is now leads theOpposition in the Bundestag, theGerman Parliament.

In Italy, the two biggest parties toemerge from the election were both ledby populist rabble-rousers, one from theleft and one from the right. Not to men-tion Brexit in Britain. And in every case,the themes that dominated the populists’rhetoric were racism, nationalism, hos-tility to immigrants and jobs.

Trump rarely talked about anythingelse during the presidential election cam-paign: Immigrants are stealing the jobs,free-trading American businessmen areexporting jobs, foreigners are eatingAmerica’s lunch. Down with free trade!America First! Etc! (Hint: Trump is nota Republican. He is a populist.)

Trump may not know a lot, but heknows One Big Thing. We are living ina new era of mass unemployment, andnobody has noticed. As Trump said thenight after he won the New Hampshireprimary in February 2016: “Don’t believethose phony numbers when you hear 4.9

and five per cent unemployment. Thenumber’s probably 28, 29, as high as 35.In fact, I even heard recently 42.”

It’s not really 42 per cent, but it’snot 4.1 per cent (the current official USrate) either. According to NicholasEberstadt’s ‘Men Without Work’, thereal unemployment rate amongAmerican men of prime working age(24-55), including those who don’t getcounted because they have given uplooking for work —is 17 per cent.

Why didn’t we notice? Because theunemployed weren’t protesting in thestreets like they did in the GreatDepression of the 1930s, although therate is getting up to depression era lev-els. After the Second World War, allWestern democracies built welfarestates, mainly so a new generation ofradical populist leaders would notcome to power the next time there ismass unemployment.

It has worked, in the sense thatthere is not blood in the streets thistime around, but the jobless millionsare angry even if the welfare statemeans that they are not starving. Theydo vote, and unless something is

done to ease their anger, next time theymay vote for somebody who makesTrump look good by comparison.

One-third of American manufactur-ing jobs have vanished in the past 20years, and the vast majority of them (85per cent) were destroyed by automation.The algorithms and the robot arms havealready killed the Rust Belt, and there isa plausible prediction that almost half ofexisting American jobs may be automat-ed out of existence in the next 20 years.

What would our politics look likethen? Not very democratic, unless we dosomething to ease anger of the unem-ployed. This doesn’t just mean givingthem more money — a massive expan-sion of the welfare state — but also find-ing way of taking shame out of unem-ployment, because it is the humiliationof being seen as a loser that breeds anger.

The leading proposal on the tableright now is called universal basicincome. Every citizen would get enoughto live a decent life whether they areworking or not, although most peoplewould probably keep working as well inorder to have more money. And mak-ing it ‘universal’ takes the shame and

anger out of it: UBI would be a birthright,not charity handed down to those whohave lost their jobs.

UBI may not work in practice, butat least it is addressing the right prob-lem. And there is enough money totake this approach: Jobs are beingdestroyed, but Western economies arestill growing richer. Whatever thesolution is, it has to tick two boxes:Putting money in the pockets of thosewithout work (which is very much inthe interest of the owners and man-agers, whose business model is alsobroken unless their customers havemoney to buy their goods and ser-vices), and doing it in a way that doesnot breed humiliation, resentmentand radicalism.

Some may argue that this is sav-ing capitalism, not smashing it, andthey would be right. But evolution isbetter than revolution, and fixing themodel that is currently broken,essentially by a major expansion ofthe welfare state, is a better bet thanabandoning it.

(The writer is an independent journalist)

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The most interesting part of theupcoming Parliamentary pollin Bangladesh, which will bekeenly watched, is whetherthe minorities, especially the

Hindus, will be able to muster enoughcourage to turn up at the voting centresto cast their votes or whether they will succumb to the coercive tactics of theBangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami combine and refrainfrom voting. And if they indeed go tovote, it will be interesting to see whichparty they finally vote for.

Hindu votes have suddenly becomeextremely crucial for this poll. Having suffered the most at the hands of theBNP-Jamaat combine for en bloc votingfor the Awami League, the Hindus areuncertain about their future and aremortally terrified of becoming the tar-gets of attack for voting the AwamiLeague to power once again. Desperateand deliberate attempts are being madethis time round by the Islamist allianceto disturb the safe and secure tradition-al Hindu vote-bank of the ruling party.

Fed on BNP-Jamaat’s consistentanti-Awami League campaign, themindset of Bangladeshi Hindus hasundergone a significant change in recentyears, with a large section singing thepraise of not only BNP supremoKhaleda Zia but also of Jamatis, some ofwho are accused of committing grosscrimes against humanity. BNP leadersare confident that if the elections are heldin a free and fair manner, results will bequite close. Moreover, if Hindus boycottvoting or if they vote for the BNP (evenan insignificant number), it will swingresults in their favour becauseParliamentary polls in Bangladesh, theysay, are decided by a thin margin of twoto four per cent votes and if this percent-age of Hindu voters stay away from vot-ing, it will ensure a BNP victory. In therecent Comilla Mayoral election, theAwami League candidate lost because asizable percentage of the towns’ Hinduvoters boycotted the poll in protestagainst the persecution of Hindus inneighbouring Brahmanbaria.

The irony is that with BNP andJamaat having contributed handsome-ly to Bangladesh’s dwindling Hindu pop-ulation (from 30 per cent in 1971 to a10 per cent at present), the Hindus havenever been as insecure as they are now.It is to win over Hindu voters that manyIslamist party leaders have made solemnpledges not to persecute the minorities,especially the Hindus, if they are elect-ed. This, of course, is against their unde-clared agenda of ridding the country ofall minorities through forced and silentmigration to India. This agenda is a ref-lection of the Pakistani mindset whichalways sought non-Muslims not havingany say in the country’s election politics.

In 2001, there were 123 constituen-cies where the percentage of Hindu vot-ers varied between 20 per cent and 60

per cent. Today, that figure has dwindledto 82 constituencies where Hindus arestill a determining factor in the outcomeof elections. This drastic drop is largelydue to the pogrom that the BNP-Jamaat combine had jointly carriedout against the Hindus after the 2001Parliamentary poll as retribution for notvoting in their favour.

Surprisingly, the Awami League issaying and doing nothing to counter thispsychological onslaught and to reassureits Hindu voters that it will stand bythem and defeat the BNP-Jamaat’scommunal political game plan. Anothersinister campaign doing the roundspresently is that Sheikh Hasina is nolonger in need of Hindu votes becausewith fundamentalist Hefajat-e-Islam’s (ithas a large following among Muslims)support for Awami League alreadyannounced, the party will secure eightper cent more Muslim votes which willbe more than enough to compensate theloss if Hindu voters decide to turn awayfrom the ruling party.

As a result, both Khaleda Zia andJamaat leaders are desperately trying totake full advantage of the insecureHindu psyche. They are aggravating itby openly alleging that whenever theAwami League comes to power, there isa sudden spurt in attacks on minorities,as exemplified by the recent large-scalelooting and destruction of Hindu prop-erties and places of worship in Hindupopulated areas of Brahmanbaria,Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jessore and Pabna.Even properties of Santhals and othertribal groups have been targeted.

The purpose of levelling such alle-gations against the Awami League is tocreate hatred and antipathy in the

minds of Hindus towards the rulingparty so that it no longer remains theirfirst electoral choice. The BNP-Jamaat-strategy is that minorities, especiallyHindus, must support the Islamists tobuy peace and security for themselves.Many Hindus think that this is the safestbet to save themselves from the onsla-ught of Islamists. Interestingly, this mis-chievous propaganda is being carried outby those who are the actual persecutorsof minorities and have gone unpunishedeven under Hasina’s rule.

“Confusion is being deliberately cre-ated in the minds of minorities so as todisturb the Awami League’s assured votebank. Scores of my patients come run-ning to me everyday to inquire whetherthey will be allowed to vote this time orwill it be safe to vote for the ruling partyat all,” said Hasina’s personal physicianPran Gopal Datta. “While I share theirpredicament, I try to assure them by say-ing not to lose heart. But it makes noimpact. Minorities have been so badlytraumatised that they have been tellingboth BNP-Jamaat and Awami League toleave them alone as they don’t want tofall prey to a fresh round of persecution.For them, the election at once evokesimages of rape of their womenfolk andtotal destruction and encroachment oftheir properties.”

Unfortunately, the League is losingthe goodwill of the minorities as its lowerlevel leaders have allowed Jamaat infil-tration by using Jamaat cadres in theirinternecine feuds to gain organisationcontrol. But the Jamatis enjoying the rul-ing party’s protection, follow their ownagenda of persecuting the minorities.

“This politics of opportunism isgoing to cost the Awami League dearly

in this election. The extent of Jamaatinfiltration into the Awami League canbe gauged from the fact that 169 Jamatisgot elected to the village-level UnionParishad poll on Awami League ticket.This has tarnished the party’s image con-siderably for compromising withIslamists,” said a leading lawyer and oneof the prosecutors of International WarCrimes Tribunal Rana Dasgupta.

He added, “Sheikh Hasina’sGovernment is the only one which hasdone a great deal for the upliftment ofHindus and other minorities. Also,there is no state-sponsored persecutionof minorities whenever the AwamiLeague comes to power. That can’t besaid about the BNP-Jamaat.”

After the death of Awami Leagueleader Suranjit Sengupta last year, theabsence of a credible leader who canspeak on behalf of all minorities hasmade the crisis of existence of minori-ties even more acute. As a result, therehas been a mushrooming of Hindu lead-ers of various shades who have launcheddubious Hindu parties like the HinduMohajot, with support from BNP-Jamaat. Their sole purpose is to split theLeague’s minority vote bank. This newbreed of Hindu leaders is widely knownas ‘Hindu Razakars’.

Pran Gopal Datta said that Hasinamust meet some of the pressingdemands of the Hindu community to getback its support and confidence like set-ting up a Minorities Commission andpenalise bureaucrats who are subvertingher attempts to restore vested propertiesto their rightful Hindu owners.

(The writer is a veteran Kolkata-based journalist)

(Concluded)

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Chairman of India’s largestbank State Bank of India

(SBI) Rajnish Kumar onThursday said time is not ripe forlarge scale privatisation of pub-lic sector banks (PSBs) given thecurrent socio-economic condi-tions in the country.

“Privatisation has not alwaysworked well, and ownershipdoes not matter as there are bothgood and bad companies inboth private and public sectors.On banking, my view is that thesocial economic conditions inIndia as of now are not ripe forlarge scale privatisation of thebanks,” Kumar said atMindmine Summit 2018 here.

As part of banking consoli-dation, the Government wants tomake large 4-5 banks in the coun-try by merging smaller and weak-er banks with large banks. “Maybe, you will reach that stage ofdevelopment in next 50 years ifyou continue to grow at the paceat which we are growing. PSBs are

much more than commercialentities as they have to fulfil socialobligations, and that they havedone quite well,” he said.

Certain industry chambershave stated that the Governmentshould consider privatising PSBsas over Rs 2.6 lakh crore capitalinfusion in the past 11 years hashad limited impact in improvingtheir health.

Several experts, includingChief Economic Adviser ArvindSubramanian and former NITIAayog Vice-Chairman Arvind

Panagariya, had pitched forprivatisation of PSBs after aspate of frauds were unearthedin state-owned banks, includ-ing the more than RS 13,000-crore scam in the PunjabNational Bank (PNB).

However, Nobel PeacePrize-winning economistMuhammad Yunus has saidthat he was not in favour of pri-vatisation of PSBs as privatebanks had not shown any‘exceptional performance’ inmany countries.

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The country’s largest softwareexporter TCS on Thursday

reported a 4.4 per cent growth in itsconsolidated net profit at Rs 6,904crore for the March 2018 quarterand its board recommended a 1:1bonus share issue.

The company had reported a netprofit of Rs 6,608 crore in the sameperiod last fiscal, TCS said in a reg-ulatory filing.

The Tata Group company,which accounts for a lion’s share ofthe group’s overall profit, reporteda revenue growth of 8.2 per cent atRs 32,075 crore for the said quarter,up from Rs 29,642 crore a year ear-lier.

“Strong demand in digital acrossall industry verticals and large trans-formational deal wins have madethis one of our best fourth quartersin recent years. The strong exitallows us to start the new fiscal ona confident note,” TCS CEO and

MD Rajesh Gopinathan said.Strong deal wins and a good

pipeline positions TCS very well inthe new f iscal, TCS ChiefOperating Officer and ExecutiveDirector N GanapathySubramaniam said.Digital revenueaccounted for 23.8 per cent of therevenue, up 42.8 per cent year-on-

year. For the entire 2017-18, TCSsaw its net profit dipping 1.7 percent to Rs 25,826 crore, while rev-enue rose 4.3 per cent to Rs 1.23lakh crore.

At the end of March 2018, TCShad 3,94,998 employees with attri-tion rate at 11 per cent in IT services.PTI AA SR MBI MKJ 04191829

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Reliance Industries and itspartner BP plc on Thursday

announced sanctioning of asecond project to develop satel-lite gas fields in the KG-D6 blockto help reverse the flagging out-put at the Bay of Bengal block.

The RIL-BP combine woulddevelop a cluster of four gas dis-coveries in the Krishna Godavaribasin block by 2020-22, the twofirms said in a joint statement.

Previously, the two hadmade a final investment decision(FID) to develop the R-Series gasfield by 2019-20.

“The ‘Satellite cluster’ is thesecond of three projects in theBlock KG D6 integrated devel-opment. The first of the projects,development of the ‘R-Series’deep-water gas fields, was sanc-tioned in June 2017,” the state-ment said.

“Together the three projectswill develop a total of about 3trillion cubic feet of discoveredgas resources with a total invest-ment of Rs 40,000 crore. Theyare expected to bring a total 30-35 million cubic metres a day(mmscmd) new domestic gas

production onstream, phasedover 2020-2022,” it added.

RIL is the operator of blockKG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 with60 per cent stake while UK’s BPPlc has 30 per cent interest, andNiko Resources of Canada theremaining 10 per cent. Thepartners have been focusing ondeveloping R-Series, satellitecluster and MJ (D55) deep dis-covery to revive the flagging out-put at the block. While thecompanies did not give invest-ment breakup, they had inAugust 2013 secured regulatorynod for investing $3.18 billion indeveloping D-34 or R-Series gasfield in the block. In Februarythis year, they got nod for invest-ing around $4 billion in the othertwo sets of discoveries.

RIL has so far made 19 gasdiscoveries in the KG-D6 block.Of these, D-1 and D-3 — the lar-gest among the lot — were br-ought into production from Ap-ril 2009, but output has fallen sh-arply from 54 mmscmd in Ma-rch 2010. They together withMA oil and gas field, the onlyfield in production, currentlyproduce 4.9 mmscmd.

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Markets regulator Sebi is planningto seek banking details and call

data records of several individualsincluding senior executives at about adozen listed blue-chip firms in itsprobe into alleged leak of price-sensi-tive information, including financialresults, through WhatsApp. Accordingto top officials, the regulator will takea tough stand on the companies that failto fix individual responsibility for thealleged leak of price-sensitive infor-mation before they were made public,as it probes suspected unlawful gainsthrough insider trading.

While all the concerned companieshave already been asked to conductinternal investigations to identify thoseguilty of the leak and take steps to checkany recurrence, most of them haveavoided fixing any individual responsi-bility and have mostly talked in theircommunication to the regulator abouthow ‘robust’ their systems are, the reg-ulatory officials said.

“The regulator is of firm view thatthe companies must fix individualresponsibility rather than making just

rhetoric statements about robustness oftheir systems as those have already beenexposed by the large-scale leak that cameto light late last year,” a top official said.

Among various measures, the reg-ulator may issue stern warnings to theconcerned companies and take totask the individuals found guilty ofleaking the unpublished price-sensi-tive information as such acts severelyjeopardise the interest of commoninvestors, he added.

As the companies under probeinclude some banks as well, theSecurities and Exchange Board of India(Sebi) may also refer the case to thebanking sector regulator Reserve Bankof India (RBI) for any further action attheir end, the officials said.

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Entities having sufficient net-worth and the ability to run

Air India (AI) can bid for 76 percent stake in the national carri-er, DIPAM Secretary NeerajGupta said on Thursday.

Prodding venture capitalfunds to participate in the PSUdisinvestment programme,Gupta said such funds may tieup with domestic companies tobid for state-run assets.

“Even in Air India, we arenot looking for only an airline totake over...Finance is the maincriteria and the capability to takeover and run such an asset is themain criteria,” said the secretaryin the Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM).

The government had lastmonth floated a preliminaryinformation memoranduminviting bidders to buy 76 percent stake in Air India along with

transfer of management control.“We had given a small

carve-out for airline, how thedomestic airline can be fitted interms of eligibility of consortiumbut otherwise anybody who has(required) networth and fundscan bid for Air India,” Gupta saidat an Assocham event here.

The proposed disinvest-ment would also include profit-making Air India Express andjoint venture AISATS. The lat-ter is an equal joint venturebetween the national carrierand Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

Air India has a cumulativedebt of nearly Rs 49,000 crore ofwhich over Rs 33,000 crore willremain with Air India and AirIndia Express post the disin-vestment.

As per the bid document,bidders would be required tohave a minimum net worth ofRs 5,000 crore and should haveposted profit after tax (PAT) inthree of the previous five finan-cial years from the Expression ofInterest (EoI) deadline. The lastdate for submission of the bidsis May 14.

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Midsize private sector lenderIndusInd Bank on Thursday

posted a 27 per cent surge in Marchquarter net at �953.09 crore despitea surge in bad loans as the bank forthe first time disclosed a Rs 1,350-crore divergence in its bad loansreporting for fiscal 2017. For the fullfiscal 2017-18, the Hinduja Group-run bank reported a 27 per centgrowth in its bottomline at�3,605.99 crore.

IndusInd Bank, known for itshealthy asset quality despite itsoverdependence on vehicle financ-ing which constitutes close to a thirdof its �1.44-trillion loan book, is the

latest to join the list of NPA under-reporting private sector lendersafter HDFC Bank,ICICI Bank AxisBank, and Yes Bank. Among thelarge private sector banks onlyKotak Mahindra Bank is yet toreport to do so.

The maiden under-reportingof bad loans, as found by a ReserveBank audit, had the bank counterslipping 0.6 per cent at Rs 1,834.10after rallying over 3 percent inanticipation of the earningsannouncement. Against this, the becnchmark Sensex rose 0.3per cent.

This had the bank’s gross badloans rising to 1.17 per cent of itsloan book at Rs 1,700 crore, and net

NPAs jumping to Rs 750 crore or0.51 per cent. This has led to a 42 percent spike in provisions sequential-ly at �335 crore, or a 0.93 per centrise annually from 0.73 per cent. Thecore net interest income grew 20 percent during the reporting quarter to�2,007.59 crore, while a 56 per centdip in trading income resulted innon-interest income staying flat at�1,208.51 crore.

Managing director and chiefexecutive Romesh Sobti said it didnot make any mark-to-marketlosses on its investments, thereforethere was nothing to be ammor-tised but there was a dip in trad-ing income due to a massive spikein bond yields during the quarter.

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In a move to avoid cashcrunch in some parts of the

country, country’s largest bankState Bank of India (SBI) onThursday said people insmaller towns can withdrawup to �2,000 a day from itspoint of sale or PoS machinesat retail outlets free of charge.

“For withdrawals up toRs 2000, @TheOfficialSBIhas cash@POS facility @ 4.78lac POS machines.“Customer can use SBI & anyother bank debit card towithdraw cash up to Rs 2,000in Tier 3 to 6 & up to Rs1,000 in Tier 1 & 2 cities percard per day presently with-out any charges,” said NeerajVyas, DMD (chief operatingofficer) of SBI in a tweet.

As per the RBI guide-

lines, the withdrawal limitfrom PoS machines at retailoutlets in Tier 1 and 2 citiesis Rs 1,000 per card, per dayand Rs 2,000 in smallertowns. SBI has a total of6.08 lakh PoS machines ofwhich 4.78 lakh are enabledto dispense cash to the cus-tomers of SBI as well asother banks which offer thisfacility.

There have been reportsof ATMs running dry fromAndhra Pradesh, Telengana,Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.While talking to reporters onThursday morning, SBIChairman Rajnish Kumar saidthe problem of cash crunchbeing faced in some states willbe resolved by Friday as currencyis being transported to areaswhich are facing the shortage.

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Claiming that bank staff isfacing public anger due to

cash crunch at banks andATMs, the All-India BanksEmployees Association(AIBEA) on Thursday threat-ened to launch an agitation asit blamed the Government andthe RBI for the situation.

Bank employees are facingthe wrath of the public for aproblem created by theGovernment and the ReserveBank, association’s general sec-retary CH Venkatachalam said.

“Customers are shouting atus and abusing bank staff forno fault of theirs. Mere state-ments will not help. Concrete,immediate action is needed toimprove the supply of curren-cy notes,” he told PTI overphone.

He threatened a nation-wide agitation by the unions if

the situation is not resolved atthe earliest. However, he didnot specify any timeline.

For the past few weeks,banks in several states, espe-cially in UP, MP, Rajasthan,Gujarat, Telangana, Andhraand the poll-bound Karnatakahave been facing severe cashshortages, with many ATMsshowing ‘no cash’ signboards.While the central bank hasclaimed that there is enough

printing and supply of cash, thegovernment attributed theunusual spike in cash demandto ongoing farm procurement.

Blaming the governmentand the Reserve Bank for inad-equate supply of cash, he said, infact, the problem started with thedecision to print Rs 2,000 notesafter the note-ban announce-ment in November 2016.

“If the Rs 1,000-notes werewithdrawn to prevent black

money and cash hoarding, it isonly obvious now that bothhave become easier with the Rs2,000 notes,” he said.

Blaming the central bankfor the poor cash managementthat has led to the presentshortage, he wondered if theRBI governor is to be believedwhere have all the money gone.

“The RBI governor hasmade a statement that adequateamount of currency notes areprinted. But then where havethese notes gone? Are they notto investigate? Are they not toensure that banks have enoughcash to meet the requirementsof the public?” he asked.

He also alleged that even 16months since the demonetisa-tion, many ATMs are still notre-calibrated for the newlydesigned banknotes.

“This is adding to the prob-lem,” he said, and noted that theFinancial Resolution and

Deposit Insurance Bill, pend-ing for Parliamentary approval,has also added to the problem.

The Bill seeks to bail out afailing bank with the depositors’money if the proposed resolu-tion corporation deems it to doso, and can refer a bank for liq-uidation. He said there is a fearamong the public about the pro-posed bail-in clause in the Bill.

He demanded that the gov-ernment immediately with-draw the Bill.

The present shortage iscreating more doubts and fearsamong the public whether allis well with the banks. “It is theduty of the RBI and the gov-ernment to dispel thesefears,”he said.

Meanwhile, the largestlender SBI said the cash short-age will be resolved by tomor-row as currency is being trans-ported to the areas facing theshortage.

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German steel giantThyssenkrupp expects its

proposed joint venture withTata Steel Europe to be finalisedby the end of this calendar year,a senior company official saidhere on Thursday.

Both the companies inSeptember last year hadannounced plans to combinetheir European operations andform an equal joint venture,creating Europe’s second largeststeel maker, after ArcelorMittal.

“The JV is an ongoingprocess. The talks with UKlabour union are on and weexpect closure by end of currentcalendar year,” Jens Overrath,chairman of the executiveboard, Thyssenkrupp ElectricalSteel told reporters here.

He was speaking on thesidelines of an event to inau-gurate the expanded cold rolled

grain oriented (CRGO) elec-trical steel unit at Nashik inMaharashtra.

The company plans to pro-duce 35,000 million tonnes(mt) per annum of CRGOelectrical steel used in trans-formers for power sector fromthe expanded factory, againstthe current capacity of 10,000mt.

“India is a very important

market for us and we are theonly manufacturers of CRGOsteel in the country. The expan-sion will enable us to enhancethe innovative approach thatwe take towards all our prod-ucts, thereby providing cuttingedge technology to all ourofferings,” he said.

The country’s demand forthis specialised steel is esti-mated at 400,000 mt, which isbeing met by imports at pre-sent. Overrath said the newproduct line set-up will help inmeeting the continuouslyincreasing demand of coldrolled grain oriented in theIndian market. The companyalso hopes to shift its exportsto Asia from European plantsto the Nashik unit.

“We are also hopeful ofcommencing exports toThailand, Indonesia and SriLanka from the Nashik facili-ty,” he added.

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Tata Sons, the promoter ofmajor operating compa-

nies of the Tata group, todayannounced appointment ofNupur Mallick as the newGroup Chief Human ResourceOfficer.

Mallick, who is at presentDirector Human Resourcesfor Tata Consultancy Servicesin the UK and Ireland, willreport to Chairman of TataSons N Chandrasekaran inher new role, the companysaid in a statement.

She will take over from SPadmanabhan who is holdingthe responsibility presently, itadded.

A long-time Tata Groupemployee, Mallick started hercareer with TCS in 1997 andhas worked across variousHR functions, the statementsaid.

After the transition,Padmanabhan will continueto be Executive Chairman,Tata Business Excellence Groupand Head, Sustainability Groupreporting to Chandrasekaran,Tata Sons said.

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Benchmarks ticked higher insee-saw trade on Thursday

as metal stocks outperformed intandem with soaring globalcommodities prices.

The BSE Metal index wasthe session’s best performer bya wide margin, zooming 4.46 percent, after global aluminiumprices jumped following USsanctions on Russian producerRusal.

Other metals like nickelalso surged over fears of retal-iatory action by Russia, while oilprices climbed to three-and-a-

half year highs on supply con-cerns.

On the domestic front,investor sentiment was largelyoptimistic ahead of quarterlyearnings of some key companies,

including TCS, brokers said. The BSE Sensex jumped

almost 96 points to close at34,427.29, while the broaderNSE Nifty finished at 10,565.30,up 39 points.

“Metal stocks led the markethigher against the backdropof...Higher metal prices. IT sec-tor continued to support themarket anticipating better Q4results. RBI minutes will be seenin the backdrop of the continuedascent in oil prices,” said AnandJames, Chief Market Strategist,Geojit Financial Services.

The 30-share Sensex res-umed higher and advanced to

34,478.82, but soon slipped onprofit-taking to touch a low of34,358.91. It finally ended 95.61points, or 0.28 per cent, higherat 34,427.29. The gauge had lost63.38 points in the previoussession.

The NSE 50-share index,after moving between 10,572.20and 10,546.20, ended at10,565.30, up 39.10 points, or0.37 per cent. On a net basis, do-mestic institutional investors(DIIs) bought equities to the tuneof Rs 869.70 crore, while foreignportfolio investors (FPIs) soldshares worth Rs 915.71 crore yes-terday, as per provisional data.

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With four suitors in race,Fortis Healthcare board on

Thursday approved evaluation ofonly binding offers and formedan expert committee to evaluatethe proposals and make a finalrecommendation by April 26.

The troubled healthcarechain had received binding offersfrom Manipal/TPG consortium,and Munjal and Burman fami-ly offices. It had also receivednon-binding expression of inter-ests from Malaysia’s IHH Hea-lthcare Berhad and Chinese firmFosun Health Holdings Ltd.

“In exercise of its fiduciaryduties, the board has decided toevaluate the binding offers and

has appointed an advisory com-mittee and also directedStandard Chartered Bank (SCB)to assist the committee,” Fortissaid in a statement after itsboard meeting.

The Manipal/TPG led con-sortium had raised their offer forFortis last week to Rs 155 pershare by valuing the hospitalbusiness higher at Rs 6,061crore from Rs 5,003 crore in itsinitial offer on March 27.

On the other hand, thismorning Hero EnterpriseInvestment Office and BurmanFamily Office made improvedoffer by willing to invest Rs 1,500crore directly at a valuation of Rs161.6 per share from the earli-er Rs 1,250 crore.

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India has 19 crore adults with-out a bank account despite the

success of the ambitious JanDhan Yojana, making it theworld’s second largest unbankedpopulation after that of China,the World Bank said onThursday.

Besides, almost half of thebank accounts remained inactivein the past year, the multilater-al financial institution said in areport, even as it lauded theGovernment’s financial inclu-sion scheme, the Jan Dhan Yoj-ana, for bringing in additional 31crore Indians into formal bank-ing system by March 2018. Italso said the country’s adult pop-ulation with a bank account hasmore than doubled to 80 percent since 2011. The Jan DhanYojana was launched by theModi government in 2014.

According to the latestGlobal Findex Database releasedby the World Bank on the side-lines of the annual Spring meet-ing of the InternationalMonetary Fund and the WorldBank, 11 per cent of the world’sunbanked adults are in India.

Globally, 69 per cent ofadults - 3.8 billion people - nowhave an account at a bank ormobile money provider, a cru-cial step in escaping poverty.

This is up from 62 per centin 2014 and just 51 per cent in2011. From 2014 to 2017, 515million adults obtained anaccount, and 1.2 billion havedone so since 2011, according tothe Global Findex database.

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Islamabad: Pakistan onThursday rejected as “false andbaseless” Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s remarks onthe ‘surgical strikes’ across theLine of Control in 2016 , say-ing “repeating a lie doesn’tturn it into the truth.”

Speaking at the ‘Bharat KiBaat, Sabke Saath’ programmein London on Wednesday,Modi had said India waited toinform Pakistan about theoperation before disclosing it tothe media and the people.

“I said before India gets toknow, we should call Pakistanand tell them. We were callingthem since 11 AM but they werescared to come on phone, at 12we spoke to them and then toldthe Indian media,” Modi hadsaid. Reacting to Prime MinisterModi’s remarks, PakistanForeign Office spokespersonMohammad Faisal said India’sclaims about the “surgical strikewere false and baseless”.

“Repeating a lie doesn’tturn it into the truth,” thespokesperson was quoted assaying by Dawn. PTI

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The Iraqi air force onThursday carried out a

“deadly raid” against positionsof the ISISI in neighbouringSyria, Prime Minister Haideral-Abadi’s office said.

Abadi ordered the strikeagainst the jihadists “because ofthe danger they pose to Iraqiterritory,” a statement said.

A video released by the airforce showed two F-16 fighterjets in action. “These raidsdemonstrate the growing capac-ity of our armed forces to hunt

down and liquidate terrorists,”it added. Iraq declared victoryin December against ISIS, whichlaunched a sweeping offensivein 2014 and at one point con-trolled a third of the country.

The jehadis still controlpockets of desert along theborder with Syria, where Iraqhad already carried out limit-ed raids against ISIS beforeThursday’s strike.

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China on Thursday said sub-stantial progress have been

made on negotiations on theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP),in which India is a part, and itwill work with other parties toreach a modern, comprehen-sive and mutually beneficialagreement as soon as possible.

The RCEP is a free tradearea (FTA) consisting of 10ASEAN members (Brunei,Cambodia, Indonesia,Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore,Thailand, the Philippines, Laosand Vietnam) and their sixFTA partners: India, China,Japan, South Korea, Australiaand New Zealand.

Negotiations on theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP)are moving forward, with sub-stantial progress, China’sMinistry of Commerce said.

“Related parties are show-ing an active attitude in push-

ing the RCEP, and the pace ofnegotiations is speeding up,”Ministry spokesperson GaoFeng was quoted as saying bythe state-run Xinhua newsagency. Key areas includingtrade of goods, services andinvestments, have entered sub-stantial pricing talks, and the22nd round of negotiationswill be held in Singapore fromApril 28 to May 8.

The last round of talkswere held in Hyderabad lastyear. “China will work withother parties to reach a mod-ern, comprehensive and mutu-ally beneficial agreement assoon as possible,” Gao said.

The RCEP aims at liberal-ising norms for trade in goodsand services and boost invest-ment among 16-member coun-tries. China is pushing for RECPafter US President DonaldTrump pulled Washington outof the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP), a trade alliance workedby the previous Obama admin-istration.

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled her willingnessto find compromises with France when it comes to reforming theEuropean Union, as she hosted French President EmmanuelMacron for talks on Thursday in Berlin. Macron has outlinedambitious plans for greater economic integration across the bloc,but these have met resistance in some member countries, includ-ing among conservatives in Merkel’s party. Merkel, who was recent-ly confirmed for a fourth term at the helm of Europe’s biggest econ-omy, said that at the very least she is willing to talk.

“There are of course always different starting points when itcomes to the opinions of Germany and France,” she said. “We needopen debates and in the end we need the ability to compromise.”While Germany and France agree on the need to better protectthe EU’s external borders and forge a common asylum policy, it’sunclear how much backing Macron can expect from Germanyfor his plans to reform the bloc’s financial structure. AP

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Cuba is poised for the end ofan era on Thursday as

President Raul Castro stepsdown, formally handing powerto his long-time deputy MiguelDiaz-Canel — and therebyending his family’s six-decadegrip on the island.

The silver-haired Diaz-Canel, 57 — a top CommunistParty figure who has served asfirst vice president since 2013— will become the island’sfirst leader born after the 1959revolution, and the first in 60years who is not named Castro.

Between them, father ofthe nation Fidel and hisyounger brother Raul made theCaribbean island a key playerin the Cold War and helpedkeep communism afloatdespite the collapse of theSoviet Union.

Raul, now 86, has been inpower since 2006, when hetook over after illness sidelinedFidel, who seized power in therevolution.

Diaz-Canel, who has spentyears climbing the party ranks,was named the sole candidatefor the presidency onWednesday.

He will formally be con-firmed as the country’s leaderat roughly 9:00 am (1300GMT) Thursday — theanniversary of the 1961 Bay ofPigs invasion, when FidelCastro’s forces defeated 1,400US-backed rebels seeking tooverthrow him.

Havana has long hailedthe showdown as Americanimperialism’s first great defeatin Latin America.

It is also the day before thenew president’s 58th birthday.

Diaz-Canel, who some say

bears a passing resemblance toAmerican actor Richard Gere,is a fan of The Beatles whosepenchant for wearing jeanshas set him apart in Havana’scorridors of power.

Although he has advocat-ed fewer restrictions on thepress and a greater openness to

the internet, he also has aruthless streak, with harshwords for Cuba’s dissidentsand the United States.

Crucially, he will remainunder the watchful eye ofCastro, who will continue toserve as the head of Cuba’s all-powerful Communist Party.

Once sworn in, Diaz-Canelwill be tasked with pursuingreforms begun by Castro toopen up Cuba’s economy tosmall private entrepreneursand reach a rapprochementwith its Cold War arch-enemy,the United States.

In 2015, Havana andWashington renewed diplo-matic ties, with then presidentBarack Obama making a his-toric visit to the island a yearlater.

But, steps towards a nor-malization of ties have beenseverely curtailed since DonaldTrump arrived in the WhiteHouse last year.

Diaz-Canel will also inher-it a youthful population hun-gry for change on theCaribbean island — one of theworld’s last outposts ofCommunism since the col-lapse of the Soviet Union.

����� 8��:'7;�?7

US President Donald Trumphas warned that if his

planned talks with NorthKorean leader Kim Jong-un are“not fruitful” he will “walkout”. Trump said he will bemeeting with Kim in the com-ing weeks to discuss the de-nuclearisation of the KoreanPeninsula.

At a joint news conference,Trump and Japanese PMShinzo Abe on Wednesdaysaid maximum pressure mustbe maintained on North Koreaover nuclear disarmament.

“If we don’t think it’s goingto be successful.. We won’thave it. We won’t have it. If Ithink it’s a meeting that is notgoing to be fruitful, we are notgoing to go,” Trump said.

“If the meeting, when I’mthere is not fruitful, I willrespectfully leave the meetingand will continue what we aredoing or whatever it is that we’llcontinue, but something willhappen,” Trump said a dayafter he told reporters that he islikely to meet Kim in June orbefore that. Officials from thetwo countries are looking at fivedifferent venues for the meet-ing. None of them are in the US.

“Hopefully, that meetingwill be a great success and we’relooking forward to it,” Trumpsaid, adding that it would betremendous for the world if themeeting went well.

Trump expressed hope thatthe Korean Peninsula could live

together “in safety, prosperity,and peace” following a series ofmeetings between North Koreaand South Korea.

“This is the destiny of theKorean people, who deserveand have gone through somuch over the years. We hopeit all works it and we’ll be try-ing very hard,” he added.

North Korea has been iso-lated for decades because of its

alleged human rights abusesand its pursuit of nuclearweapons, in defiance of inter-national laws and UN sanc-tions. It has carried out sixnuclear tests, and has missilesthat it says could reach the USmainland. Trump said therelease of three American pris-oners in North Korea would beamong the topics of his dis-cussion with Kim.

Qamishli: A Syrian-bornGerman national accused ofhelping to plan the September11, 2001 attacks has beendetained by Kurdish forces inSyria, a senior Kurdish com-mander has said.

“Mohammed HaydarZammar has been arrested byKurdish security forces innorthern Syria and is nowbeing interrogated,” the topofficial said, without providingfurther details.

Zammar, who is in hismid-fifties, has been accused ofrecruiting some of theSeptember 11 hijackers. Hewas detained in Morocco inDecember 2001 in an operationinvolving CIA agents, and washanded over to the Syrianauthorities two weeks later.

A Syrian court sentencedZammar to 12 years in prisonin 2007 for belonging to theMuslim Brotherhood, a chargethat at the time could haveresulted in the death penalty.

AFP

Islamabad: Pakistan is expected to file itscounter rejoinder on or before July 17 in theICJ relating to the case of Indian nationalKulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced todeath by a Pakistani military court in April lastyear on charges of espionage and terrorism, amedia report said on Thursday.

Pakistan’s rejoinder will be in response to afresh set of pleadings filed by India in theInternational Court of Justice on April 17 relat-ing to the case. The office of Pakistan’s attorneygeneral, which is overseeing the case, is expect-ed to receive the copy of the Indian rejoinder ina day or two, Dawn reported. Khawar Qureshi,who pleaded Pakistan’s case at the initial stage,is expected to plead the case, the report said.

India had moved the Hague-based ICJ inMay last after Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to deathby a Pakistani military court on charges of espi-onage and terrorism. A 10-member bench ofthe ICJ on May 18 had restrained Pakistan fromexecuting Jadhav till adjudication of the case.In its written pleadings, India had accusedPakistan of violating the Vienna Convention bynot giving consular access to Jadhav arguing thatthe convention did not say that such accesswould not be available to an individual arrest-ed on espionage charges. PTI

Washington: The Trump Administration plansto continue to expand its defence and securitycooperation with India and support New Delhi’sgrowing relationships throughout South Asia, atop US official has said.

Speaking with PTI, Principal DeputyAssistant Secretary for South and Central AsianAffairs Alice Wells said the US-India strategicpartnership was based on a shared commitmentto uphold the rule of law and free and fair tradeamong other things.

“The US-India strategic partnership standsfirmly upon a shared commitment to uphold therule of law, freedom of navigation, democratic val-ues, and free and fair trade. We plan to contin-ue to expand our defence and security cooper-ation and support India’s growing relationshipsthroughout the region,” Wells said.

Wells has been running the crucial South andCentral Asia Bureau of the State Department formore than a year now in the TrumpAdministration in the absence of an AssistantSecretary of State.

Responding to a question on her impressionabout the India-US relationship in more than ayear of the Trump Administration, Wells quot-ed the US president and said the ties “had neverbeen stronger, never been better”.

PTI

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#�����������%��6����6����6��� �"�9 �������6�<������7 �Geneva: Talks between the US and North Korean leaders willstrive for “concrete” steps towards denuclearisation andPresident Donald Trump’s deal-making “abilities” will be cru-cial, Washington’s disarmament ambassador said on Thursday.

“We do not want to go through (the) traditional process thathappened over the years where you get this gradual kind ofapproach that the North eventually goes back on,” the US envoyto the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, RobertWood, told reporters. “That is why we are insisting on concretesteps,” he said, adding the US needed to see “bold action” fromNorth Korea.

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The Yaris is a brand name that manyover here have been wanting Toyotato bring for a while, but the car

they’re bringing is not the hatchback thatyou might have seen in Europe but a sedanversion that Toyota developed for emerg-ing economies. Now, to prevent confusion,but in reality to confuse you some more,the Yaris as launched in India is actuallybased on the Toyota Vios and is the samecar that Toyota calls the Yaris ATIV inThailand. But you can carry on aboutbrand names and the logic behind themfor hours on end. What matters is that theYaris is here, it drops squarely into whatfor years was known as the “City” segment,and carmakers call this the “B High” or“B+” segment. Essentially this is a sedansegment where the car length is around4,400-4,500 mm; and while the Yaris is theshortest car in this segment at 4,425 mm,it is not considerably shorter than the com-petition, and ITV is strangely enoughamong the wider cars in the segment.

But let’s not get into the dimensionsbattle here, what matters is what is underthe bonnet of the car. Interestingly, ToyotaKirloskar Motors has decided not to fit theYaris with a diesel engine. This might beindicative of the overall pricing directionwith fuels that the government has beentaking of late but also the fact that whenBSVI fuel norms become mandatory onApril 1, 2020, emissions norms will meanthat smaller diesel engines will becomeunviable not because of emissions controlbut because of the additional costs of con-trolling emissions — the urea injector andthe fuel burn required will add on consid-erable costs to diesel engines. That may notmake a difference to cars with larger dieselengines, like the Innova but in smallerdiesel cars, the additional 1-1.5 lakh willmake them unviable for all but those whodrive for hours on end every day.

So long story short, Toyota has fittedthe Yaris with a 1.5 litre Variable ValveTiming engine with 108 horsepower. Thatamount of power, while considerablyhigher than that of the woefully underpow-ered Ciaz, falls short of both the City andVerna which have 119 and 123 horsepow-er from their engines respectively. Thepower is delivered through a six-speed

manual or a seven-speed steppedContinuously Variable Transmission(CVT) unit. A CVT automatic is in theo-ry the most efficient gear system insteadof having different gears, where power isdelivered to the drive wheels thanks to asystem of cones and a band (rubber ormetal) connecting them. While a CVTcould theoretically deliver a whole rangeof ratios, they are usually “stepped” that isin this case (as in the Honda City) haveseven pre-programmed positions.

Now, while a CVT works excellent forsmall motors such as those on automaticscooters or larger engines, I have alwaysfound CVTs to be a fit off. Sometimes theycan be nice, as in the case of the HondaCity, but they never feel appropriate whenit comes to aggressive acceleration and dri-ving. You constantly find yourself instrange parts of the power range and thepower often fluctuates between 3000-4000 revs. This is not unique to the Yaris,you feel the same way in the Baleno CVT.However, much like in Automated ManualTransmission (AMT) vehicles, you have tolearn to drive a CVT as well. In a more sub-tle acceleration environment, the Yaris’CVT becomes quite smooth and thepower and speed rise nicely together. Sounlike the Verna automatic, which some-times has a “throw me around” vibe to it,the Yaris is a vehicle that is less get up andgo and more, how do I put this, gentle? Youcan manipulate the CVT using the paddle-shifter and that does make things a lotnicer. However like on the City and theEcoSport, the paddle-shifter is an optiononly available in the top-specification.

After a few hours of the CVT variant,and Toyota does one smart thing with theCVT here, which is to offer it across allvariants, I also got a chance to drive thesix-speed manual. Now, I have a strongopinion about six-speed boxes, that is Idon’t like them. However, I must admit thatI’m softening my stand. Partially becauseI drive a lot of automatics nowadays andalso because on the highways, six-speedboxes can deliver incredible amounts offuel economy because of the low drive ratioof the sixth gear. Both the manual andCVT top-spec VX variant also get acruise control system, which while not as

refined as the system on Volkswagen groupvehicles, is fairly simple to operateand kept me well below the80 km per hour high-way speed limit.

Handling andride comfort arepar for thecourse, and onthe windingroad up to NandiHills, the Yarisdealt with theswitchbacks, noquestions asked. It didnot feel like an involvedvehicle but it did not feel out of place atany time either. So quite sedate, as was theride comfort. The Yaris is very comfort-able. Sure these were brand-new factory-fresh cars with a suspension that had notfaced the rigours of daily driving on some

of India’s less niceroads. However, if

the Altis and Innova areany indication, the Yaris should also sur-vive unscathed if properly maintained.

Now, the looks. And immediately Ihave to admit that this is not the Yaris’

strong suit. The car’s side profile makes itlook and feel like a scaled-down CorollaAltis and the rear three-quarter is really thestrongest angle to look at this car. Thefront-on look makes the car look even nar-rower than it is, it looks squashed actual-ly and not particularly attractive by anystretch. The interior cabin again is not abad place to be, it is relatively bright withits beige interiors and the dual-tone blackand beige interiors don’t look bad at all inthe VX model. I also drove the fabric inte-riors of the “V” specification (the manu-al) and it felt perfectly, how to put this,ordinary. Nothing spectacular at all, butthat is a good thing. However, there wereindications that Toyota is going to sell thiscar as “luxurious” and that frankly is astretch, but that applies to all other cars inthis segment. As for rear-loading area, itis very good and the boot is spacious, evenleading an auto-writing colleague to com-ment that it was perfect for a CNG-tankas well as a suitcase.

The Yaris has some great and somenot-so-great aspects to its interiors. Thegreat features are things like the flat floorat the rear which makes ingress and

egress easier and does not make theperson in the middle seat

feel like a squashedegg. The second is

the ductless,f a n - b a s e dand roof-mounted airc i rc u l at i onsystem. This isan ingenious

e n g i n e e r i n gsolution that doesaway with the

heavy ductingrequired for either a cen-

tre-console mounted air-conditioningvent or the ducting for ventilated seats(which is still the Verna’s single-best fea-ture in my humble opinion). It also takesadvantage of basic physics (hot air rises andcold air descends) and low-mounted air-con ducts have the effect of just coolingyour knees and your b***s. This solutionactually helps the rear passenger and thevent can be directed forward to cool the

driver and front passengers necks as well.In addition, the information cluster has aninnovative feature that displays how muchfuel you are saving according to your dri-ving style and how that translates into coldhard cash. Of course, to properly test that,one will need to keep the Yaris for a monthand see just how much one can save.

The not-so-great? Well, I for one wasdisappointed with the onboard audio sys-tem that Toyota is fitting on the car. Sure,the gesture control feature is great but itis a gimmick given the car does not havesupport for Apple CarPlay or AndroidAuto. You can still hook up your mobiledevice using Bluetooth but I was disap-pointed with the screen contrast as well.Of course, this can be corrected throughan after market kit. In addition anotherissue was the fact that there is only oneUSB charging port, that too attached to theaudio system on the car. The Verna hastwo, and believe me when you drivearound with your spouse, you should notfight about who should charge theirphones. Toyota has put a few 12V charg-ing points but direct USB is the way to gonowadays and I hope Toyota quicklyaddresses this issue.

So how will the Yaris do? A lotdepends on price, but everyone expects thecar to be priced between �8.5-13 lakh. Inaddition, given that the CVT is availableacross the range, I do not believe there willbe a huge price difference between themanual and automatic, and Toyota canactually change the game for buyers whowant a clutchless driving experience.Toyota is also offering seven airbags alongwith Anti-Lock Brakes as standard acrossall variants. So on the safety and comfortfront, Toyota can easily convert a lot ofvalue-driven buyers in the low-to-mid ver-sions of the segment. Towards higher trimlevels, Toyota might face a challenge withbetter equipped rivals such as the Verna,but this car may not be going after that seg-ment at all. And then there is anotherthing, the Yaris is perfectly positioned ina slightly larger taxi segment. Keeping inmind that the Etios and Innova areimmensely popular with cabbies, the Yarismight just have that segment sewn upalready ahead of launch.

The non-conformist Abhay Deolhas created a niche for himself in

the film fraternity by making certainchoices and opting for unconvention-al projects. Known as someone whonever shies away from speaking hismind, his films have been quite aquirky mix, his latest Nanu Ki Jaanubeing a horror comedy. But only the“thinking” Deol can be blaséabout it and even justify thelegitimacy of the oddballtheme. “I do the kind of filmsI believe in and those whichgo away from formula. Thesefilms are written very rarelyand their stories need to betold. If I had gone down theformula road, youwould have seen a lotmore work from me.But because ofthe choices Ihave made, itcan go only asfast as peopleproducing dif-ferent content,”he told us.

Nanu Ki Jaanurevolves around a Delhiland mafia agent (essayedby Abhay Deol) who triesto deal with the arrival ofa cleanliness-freak ghost(essayed by PatralekhaPaul) in his apartment.Directed by Faraz Haider,the film also features RajeshSharma and Manu RishiChadha. Abhay said that hewill be seen as the perfectDilli ka launda, a return to hisOye Lucky! Lucky Oye! days.“My Hindi has a touch ofPunjabi in it which proved to bean advantage because of my ori-gins. But the twist is that thoughNaanu has a good background, heis still a criminal. The dichotomydictates the person’s body lan-guage, the way of talking and youwork among these things to getit right. Manu Rishi is good totrain with, he is not just a fab-ulous writer and actor but he’sa great teacher in many ways.We (me and Manu) have doneworkshops before for Oye Lucky!Lucky Oye! and we brushed up on thatsame thing this time.”

Of late, Abhay is known for hisstance on issues like his recent slamof Bollywood endorsements for fair-ness products. He also steers clear ofendorsing alcohol, cigarettes or any-thing else that spreads a wrong mes-sage in the society. Said he, “I don’thave any problem with endorsing analcohol brand which invests in aresponsible drinking campaign. You

will never see me in an advertisementpromoting cigarette-smoking andfairness creams. I will not endorse softdrinks. My stand on fairness creamsthrough a Facebook post was an out-burst. Now I feel that if an outburstor a confrontation doesn’t give you aresult, then you have to find a newtrack. A lot of times when a celebri-ty picks up an issue, the issue is for-gotten and the star becomes theissue. Sometimes their words aremisinterpreted and taken out of con-text. So, if you genuinely want to makea change, you should do it behind thescenes.” Which is why he has slippedinto the active citizen mode.

He doesn’t want to be judged thewrong way. “There are people outthere who do things for publicity andwe all know that. I hate publicity anddon’t put myself in the papers.”

All the women characters in hisfilms are empowered. When hedid Dev D, Chanda was shown asweak as Dev, which is why theyconnected but Paro was not weak.She loved Dev but she would not

take bullshit from him. Abhaytries to do such movies

with a subliminal mes-sage at times but that is

not his primaryobjective. “If youwatch a moviewith strongfemale charac-ters, you will

walk out feelinga certain way. I

focus on this aspect,hoping it will raise theconsciousness of people alittle bit or have themappreciate things whichare under-appreciated.”

On sexism inBollywood, he said,“Sexism exists not onlyin our industry but alsoaround the world. Theposition of women isbelow men.Scandinavian countrieshave taken huge stridesin gender equality, somaybe we can startlooking at other coun-tries who have tackledthis issue and had suc-cess with it. As far assexism in our industryis concerned, we arenot isolated from ourculture. And the peo-ple inhabiting thisindustry come fromthe same culture. Soit’s not somethingthat will go immedi-ately. Neither hasfeudalism or chau-

vinism been created by the industrybut is being carried forward by them.What can be done is to stop feedingthe beast. The more substantial roleswomen get, the more they will not beseen as objects but as individuals whowork, think, are intelligent anddynamic. More likely people’s attitudewill change and that will come backinto the industry to stop sexism.”

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We always talk aboutthe objectification ofwomen in Bollywood

item numbers but there needsto be a serious relook at folk popmusic, particularly the party-popping Punjabi numberswhich, by virtue of pan-Indiaappeal, fuel the culture of gen-der domination in the popularculture space. Songs like MainHoon Balatkari, which had ledto the arrest of popular iconHoney Singh and which he hadsubsequently denied singing orBad Wali Feeling are examplesof Punjabi lyrics that havebecome notorious for their vul-garity, often promoting drugs,sex and violence through guns.The songs give in to feral desiresof rustic men and involve court-ing wild White or fair women (asymbolic conquest of the Westor the unattainable), a risque girlwho parties through the nightwith the boys and the male rightto go on a flight of perversefancy. It is always the male’sinterpretation of the femaleand she is not even given theidentity of her own.

On a day-to day basis, wecome across innumberable girls,who have been targeted throughtaunts and remarks at publicplaces, including buses wheresuch songs blare in the back-ground. Though the use of vul-gar and provocative music in thestate run transport buses wasstopped in Punjab with imme-diate effect, there is little that haschanged in the commercialalbum space. Particularly at atime when rapes are becominga pan-India epidemic that isheadlining news everyday.

�������������$�����Surprisingly young Indian

singers like Kavita Seth are notall for commercialisation andhotselling songs overturningthe rules of sensitivity. “We arealready facing the repercus-sions of our actions. I feel oneshould leave music in pureform so it heals individualsand helps them emerge out ofnegativity,” she tells us.

Vipin Aneja, Indian play-back singer, doesn’t approve ofthe corruption of lyrics.“Personally, I would neverappreciate vulgar lyrics and Ifeel it is an easy way to cutthrough the fierce competitionand get noticed overnight. I feelthe youth is equally responsiblefor having accepted the obscenelyrics because why else wouldthese songs be doing so well and

garnering millionhits. This accep-tance is encour-aging thesesongwritersto come upwith rub-bish. It isalso allow-ing thea s p i r a n tfringe amainstreamcredibility.”

He also

feels there is a misplaced senseof rebellion by extolling theunderbelly. “I have seen college-goers grooving to these songs.I think it is the psyche whereregular, mundane and pre-dictable lyrics are passe and any-thing nihilistic passes off asedgy.”

Aneja even wonders why afew women enjoy what theseartists are dishing out. “Thequestion that haunts me is whyare women promoting and sup-

porting these artists whoare perpetuating a culture ofdominating women?”

Seth also highlights thepaucity of female lyricists inthe industry that can change

the cultural subtext.“Vulgar lyrics in

Punjabi songsare nei-t h e rh e a l t h y

nor good. Everyonedoes not have thecapacity to reasonand filter the goodfrom the bad. Themasses are easily

influenced,” says psy-chologist Swarnalatha

Iyer. The problem is with theyoungest generation whichgrows up on these songs with-out understanding their importor associations.

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Songs have become anoth-er tool to establish a suprema-cist viewpoint. “Writers are wellaware about the fact that theselyrics make women uncom-fortable, so they are a form ofdomination. Ours has alwaysbeen a patriarchal society wherewomen have always beenviewed as objects, born for sat-isfying the needs of men. If youlook at lyricists, majority ofthem are men. Even whenromance is expressed in songs,it is from the perspective of amale but the expression ofromance from a female’s view-point is quite different. Untiland unless we have womenlyricists, we won’t be able to getthe women’s perspective at all.In all the lyrics one hears, onegets a very skewed idea aboutthe male-female relationship.The commodification is suchthat you feel all other women,apart from those in your corecircle, are available or worsenegotiable. Also both male andfemale expressions against theestablishment in songs have asexual aggressive connotation,”feels Iyer.

The insiduous nature ofpopular culture is what we mustwatch against, say experts.“Though we do not bring upour sons to disrespect women,our children are exposed tosomething which has massacceptance. What’s more thereis no defined way of correctingit,” says Iyer. “I do counsellingsessions where the kind ofissues that are cropping up areso filmi and ‘imported’ innature. Ten years ago, the issueswere real. Now they seemimposed. Even the fear of beingoppressed is guided by thewords in a song,” she adds.

Be it images or imagination,it doesn’t speak well of a soci-ety that is moving away fromthe moorings of upbringing. AsAneja said, “Music is just onemedium. If the impact of musicis stonger than that of theupbringing, then, there is some-thing very wrong in society. Thevalue system should be deeplyingrained. You might sway tothe tune of an artist but itshouldn’t change you as ahuman being.”

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Say Barcelos and the two picturesthat pop up in the head are redand black burgers. But the restau-

rant has decided to push the envelopeand expanded its menu which now fea-tures chicken parmesan, quesadilla,fajitas, Mexican burritos and Italianpasta. It takes guests on a culinaryworld tour with international delica-cies inspired by Portugal, Italy, Spainand Mexico.

Its Saket outlet is quite spaciousand has sofas as well as chairs for a cozyexperience. Dim lighting, unique wallpaintings and upbeat music in eveninghours add to the fun vibe.

The restaurant is renowned fortheir non-vegetarian delicacies, par-ticularly their flame-grilled peri perichicken but there are lip-smacking veg-etarian options as well. It servesaround 21 varieties of Sangria.Barcelos’ first restaurant in Pretoria,South Africa, dates back to 1993 andit has five outlets in India. ThePortugal-inspired dishes include arice bowl which has grilled chicken legstossed with onions, bell peppers,olives, chickpeas served on a spicy bedof rice. Another option is Trinchadowith rice, mixed peppers, onions andtomatoes cooked in peri peri sauce,which is served with sour doughbread and butter.

We started our meal with Onionrings, Crunchy cheese poppers andEmpanadas. The Crunchy cheese pop-pers were crisp on the outside and meltin the mouth with the creamy good-ness of cheddar and mozzarella cheese.The Onion rings looked perfect but ascan often happen with food, the lookswere deceiving. These turned out to besuper oily, so much so that we couldactually taste the heaviness. It wasserved with condiments like the perimayo and an African chilli infusedmayo which had chopped onion andcorn and was tangy and spicy. TheEmpanadas were basically half-moontortilla pockets with a generous filling

of beans, carrots, peas, sweet corn,onions and carrots. The sauce, how-ever, was too dry for our taste buds.Also, the inner layer was under-cooked, which further added to ourdissatisfaction. But the next dish thatcame up more than made up for it. Justa bite into the bruschetta and I wasoverpowered by a delicious garlickytaste. Add to it the freshness of toma-toes coupled with the soft and saltytaste of paneer — which made it comeclose to perfection. The only underside— had it been toasted a bit more, itwould have taken the dish a notchhigher.

Barcelos also serves alcoholicshakes and refreshing drinks. A tallglass of Kiwi cooler with its strong sweetand sour taste was a sure winner. Itwent well with Tostada chips (deep-fried tortilla chips), a Mexican delica-cy which came loaded with tomatoes,jalapenos, beans topped with salsa andsour cream. The appetising dish wasone of the highlights of the newmenu. A perfect dish to be paired with

alcohol. What came to our

table next straight from the oven wasa piping hot Farm fresh pizza with gen-erous toppings of broccoli, tomato, yel-low and red bell pepper, corn, cap-sicum on a thin crust base. The tempt-ing pizza tasted as good as it lookedand was baked to perfection.

We dug into the Soft shell tacosserved with black beans and Mexicanrice. The palatable rice was packed withflavours and veggies (corn, carrot,onion) and the spice quotient wastaken care of by peri peri and tasteddelicious with piquant black beansauce. The taco shells were a bitunder-cooked, the quantity of veggies(lettuce beans onion, capsicum) wasadequate but another blooper was thatthe cottage cheese was not marinated.Overall, the soft shell tortillas are notsomething we would recommend. Weended the meal with vegetarian que-sadilla. The thicker than usual tortillawrap was filled with cottage cheese,capsicum but it was a bit dry as theamount of mozzarella and red ched-dar cheese was way less than wewould have preferred.

������The sulphur compounds in garlic are essen-

tial for supporting the liver and activate theenzymes that are responsible for flushing out tox-ins and waste from the body.

����Walnuts are an excellent source of an amino

acid called arginine that helps in liver cleansing.These nuts are also rich in Omega-3 fatty acidsthat support liver detoxification.

������Apples are high in anti-oxidant content

which detoxifies the liver and protects it from var-ious ailments. Apples are rich in pectin, the sol-uble fibre that helps remove cholesterol from theblood, which helps your liver big time. They’re alsorich in malic acid, a naturally cleans-ing nutrient that removes car-cinogens and other toxins fromthe bloodstream.

���������Green tea has

plant-based antiox-idants known ascatechins. Thesecompounds assistliver function andeliminate liver fat accumu-lation.

�����������Citrus fruits are rich sources of

vitamin C and anti-oxidantsthat are powerful livercleansers.

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B r o c c o l i ,spinach and let-tuce contain vitaminsA, C and K along with cal-cium and other anti-oxidantsthat help in flushing out the toxins that help reducethe incidence of liver disease.

�������Turmeric is one of the most powerful spices

that helps maintain a healthy liver. It helps in diges-tion by producing chemicals. Liver produces bilewhich aids digestion.

����������������Fibre-rich foods like cabbage, beetroot and

cauliflower help get rid of toxins in the liver, whilealso providing support to the digestive tract. Theyinhibit the absorption of fats and sugars. Somefibres, such as pysllium, have prebiotic effects. Thismeans that they provide nourishment for the goodgut bacteria. This bacteria eases the workload onyour liver.

������Carrot consists ofcarotenoids known asbeta-carotene that keeps

the liver healthy. It alsohelps stimulate bileproduction andremoves toxicity.

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The greener the vegeta-bles on your plate, the better it is for your

liver. These vegetables have cleansingcompounds that naturally clean

your liver out.

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like olive oil, avocadosare good cleansersfor the liver.

Ayurveda too hasits recommendations:

�����$�������The juice from aloe vera is important for rem-

edying the ill-effects of a diet high in processedsugars and fat deposition in the liver. The prepa-ration can improve functional efficiency of theliver.

����The Indian gooseberry helps resolve digestive

issues and aids in detoxification.

�������������������The water that is left after boiling rice is called

maand and maximises liver output.

��������(Buttermilk is a better dairy alternative to milk

or curd, as it has more water and less amount ofcream.

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Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukakuscored as Manchester United earneda routine 2-0 win at Bournemouth

on Wednesday to strengthen its grip on sec-ond place in the Premier League.

Smalling netted his third goal in sixleague games by meeting a low cross fromJesse Lingard and slotting into an empty netin the 28th minute. Lukaku then sealed thewin in the 70th after coming off the benchand running onto a through-ball from PaulPogba and finishing with a first-timeshot.

Bournemouth were denied a penaltyshortly after the halftime break when LukeShaw held on to Callum Wilson as thestriker tried to reach a cross from Josh King,but referee Graham Scott waved away theappeals.

It was a much-needed win for United,which lost 1-0 at home to West BromwichAlbion on Sunday to hand the league titleto crosstown rival Manchester City. It keepsJose Mouinho's team four points abovethird-place Liverpool and rebuilds somemomentum going into Saturday's FA Cupsemifinal against Tottenham.

"We all knew we weren't good enoughagainst West Brom and we needed to standup tonight and put on a performance. Youcould see the lads were up for it," Smallingsaid. "Our goal for a little while now hasbeen to make sure we get to the FA Cupfinal. This is the perfect way to lead intothe weekend."

Mourinho made seven changes fromthe West Brom loss with that semifinal in

mind, keeping Alexis Sanchez and Lukakuon the bench. And he said this performancewill give him a selection headache onSaturday.

"It was a good team performance, pro-fessional, controlled, good effort, goodresponsibility," Mourinho said. "I would saythat every player on the pitch was positiveand put himself available for Saturday."

������������9;���������Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso

will serve a three-match ban for achallenge on Shane Long that wasmissed by officials during Saturday'swin at Southampton.

The left wingback stood on the back

of Long's leg during the Premier Leaguegame.

The Football Association says Alonsowas found guilty of violent conduct at aregulatory commission hearing.

Alonso was immediately ruled out ofthe Premier League game at Burnley on

Thursday the FA Cup semifinal matchagainst Southampton on Sunday and theleague trip to Swansea on April 28.

The 27-year-old Alonso was Chelsea'sonly representative in the ProfessionalFootballers' Association Premier Leagueteam of the year that was announced

Wednesday.Chelsea is fifth in the league, chasing

Tottenham for the final ChampionsLeague qualification place.

�������������$������Sergio Aguero is recovering after

surgery on his left knee and will starttreatment soon, Argentina's footballassociation said on Wednesday amiduncertainty about the player's fitness forthis summer's World Cup.

The Manchester City striker suf-fered from pain in his knee since March11 and was forced out of action forArgentina in two friendlies at the end ofMarch.

On Tuesday, Aguero underwentsurgery in Barcelona and will be sidelinedfor at least four weeks. Argentina's firstgame the World Cup in Russia is on June16 against Iceland.

The AFA said on its Twitter accountthat Aguero "is recovering correctly afterthe surgery and tomorrow (Thursday)will begin his treatment."

Earlier, AFA doctor HomeroD'Agostino told radio station Radio 10that Aguero's recovery "should take atleast five weeks" and that the striker'scondition was "worrisome."

D'Agostino added on sports net-work TyC Sports that Aguero "is not goingto be 100 percent in shape with so littletime prior to the World Cup."

Aguero scored 30 goals forManchester City this season and is con-sidered Argentina's second most impor-tant player, behind Lionel Messi.

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For now, Rafael Nadal doesn't see himself skippingany major tournaments the way Roger Federer has

been sitting out the French Open.The veterans are back at the top of world tennis,

with Nadal needing to win the Monte Carlo Mastersthis week to avoid losing his top ranking once again toFederer in their seemingly eternal battle for tennissupremacy.

For the second consecutive season, the 36-year-oldFederer is skipping the entire clay-court season in orderto be at his best on grass. The Swiss star is keeping hisaging body fresher by playing a bit less - avoiding Nadalon clay at Roland Garros or elsewhere - and it is work-ing for him.

But Nadal still thinks he can play a full schedule."There (are) tournaments that I can't imagine missingon purpose, because (they are) tournaments that I loveto play," Nadal said on Wednesday. "I don't see myselfmissing Monte Carlo on purpose. I don't see myselfmissing Wimbledon on purpose, or the US Open, orAustralian, or Rome. These kind of events, I don't seemissing (them)."

The 31-year-old Spaniard recently returned froma right hip injury which forced him to retire during thefifth set of his Australian Open quarterfinal againstMarin Cilic.

With his 32nd birthday coming up during theFrench Open the 16-time Grand Slam champion acceptshe may think differently when he gets closer to Federer'sage. "Of course, when you get older, you need to adjusta little bit more the efforts and the calendar. But for me(it) is difficult to say I don't play, for example, grass, orI don't play hard (courts)," Nadal said.

�� � ������ The Indian Olympic Association(IOA) on Thursday disclosed their intentions ofbidding for the 2026 Youth Olympics as well asthe 2030 Asian Games and the 2032 Olympics.

Addressing a press conference here in thepresence of International Olympic Committee(IOC) President Thomas Bach, IOA PresidentNarinder Batra announced, "We are bidding forthree events. 2026 Youth Olympics, 2030 AsianGames and 2032 Olympics. We don't knowwhether they will come to India or not. Let us seehow fierce the competition is."

Thomas Bach, who is on a two-day visit toIndia, acknowledged the intentions of the IOAwith appreciation, but only before he advised thenational Olympic body to wait for the IOC tocome up with a schedule for the bidding process.

"We have taken note with great appreciationof the intention of IOA to host future YouthOlympics and Summer Olympics," Bach admit-ted.

"It would be fantastic for Indian athletes tohave their Olympics in their home country. It willbe a major boost to sports in India and developinterest among the youth to take up sports," theIOA President added before he went on to sug-gest that this might not be the right time to dwellupon that subject.

"But it's not the time to have a detailed dis-cussion about future candidates. Currently thereis no procedure open for either the OlympicGames or the Youth Olympics. The next availableslot for the Youth Olympics is 2026 but before thatwe are yet to reach a decision on the host city forthe 2022 edition. The process is underway andonly after we finalise the hosts for the 2022 YouthOlympics, we will able to start the procedure for2026," Bach explained.

As for India's bid to host the 2032 Olympics,Bach said, "There is a lot of time left till we openthe bidding procedure for the 2032 Olympics. Wehave to wait till then."

During the press meet, Narinder Batra alsoreflected on National Rifle Association of India(NRAI) President Raninder Singh's calls for boy-cotting the 2022 Commonwealth Games onaccount of shooting being dropped out of theGames' roster.

Tagging the move to be "too extreme" Batrasaid, "Raninder is free to make his statements.There are a lot of things related to government.We will certainly pick up the issue of shootingnot being there in the 2022 CWG but it does notstart or end with not participating."

Bach, meanwhile, also shared the subject ofhis discussion with India's Minister of Sports andYouth Affairs, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

"We talked about sports science, coaching,sports for all and the significance of sports in soci-ety. The IOC can assist and put its expertise inall these matters. We can see some initiativeswhich will be beneficial for Indian athletes so thatthey can excel in 2020 Olympics," Bach stated.

Another subject that crept up during the con-ference was that of India's embarrassing recordof getting into the bad books of the IOC for dop-ing violations.

Thomas Bach, however, seemed assured thatthe Indian bodies will look to deal with that par-ticular stigma efficiently.

"We have received a very clear and firm com-mitment from the minister that fair sports andclean sports is the first priority for the govern-ment. We are confident this issue will beaddressed properly with the help of WADA," hesaid. PNS

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Rajasthan Royals and ChennaiSuper Kings, the two franchis-

es that returned to the IPL afterserving bans in the aftermath of the2013 spot-fixing scandal, will comeface to face for the first time in theongoing edition, keen to regain lostmomentum here on Friday.

A loss in their last outing hashurt both the former championsand they will look to get back towinning ways when they face off.

With two wins and two defeats,Rajasthan Royals are fifth with fourpoints, while Chennai have alsogathered an equal number of pointswith two victories from threematches. They are placed fourthbecause of better net run rate.

Both the teams were missing inaction owing to a two-year ban forcorruption.

Rajasthan, under new captainAjinkya Rahane, had a bad start tothe campaign but they have donewell with two back-to-back winsbefore Kolkata Knight Riders out-classed them by seven wickets.

Sanju Samson has been the bat-ting star for Rajasthan as he hasscored 185 runs so far with anunbeaten 92-run innings beingthe highlight but he didn't get the

desired support from other bats-men.

Rahane has made some usefulcontributions but he failed to cap-italise on the starts.

Their bowling unit, led by KGowtham and Ben Laughlin, havedone well. But England all-rounderBen Stokes, who was bought for awhopping � 12.5 crore byRajasthan, has been a big let downand he needs to live up to thebilling.

Two-time champions Chennai,on the other hand, made a ram-paging start to their campaignwith back-to-back wins againstdefending champions MumbaiIndians and Kolkata Knight Riders.

But in their last match againstKings XI Punjab despite AmbatiRayudu (49) and MS Dhoni (79)brought the Super Kings close tothe victory target of 198 beforefalling short by four runs.

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Chris Gayle gave a fittinganswer to the sceptics with ablistering hundred as Kings

XI Punjab overpowered SunrisersHyderabad by 15 runs in an IPLencounter, here on Thursday.

Gayle's unbeaten 63-ball-104,his 21st hundred in shortest formatpropelled KXIP to 193 for 3 in 20overs and they then restrictedSunrisers to 178 for 4, recordingtheir third win in the tournament.

For Sunrisers, it was their firstdefeat after three successive wins.

A cornered tiger can be dan-gerous and Gayle showed why hehas taken the initial lack of interestof franchises to his heart.

"A lot of people thought I'm tooold. After this innings, I have noth-ing to prove," Gayle said immedi-ately after his knock.

While chasing, Sunrisers' weredealt with a blow at the onset whenShikhar Dhawan was hit on theelbow off the very first delivery thathe faced from Barinder Sran.

Wriddhiman Saha (6) tried across-batted heave only to be cleanbowled in the process by MohitSharma. Yusuf Pathan (19) got tworeprieves with Ashwin and YuvrajSingh dropping sitters off Mohit andBarinder Sran's bowling respec-tively. Mohit however had the lastlaugh as the former India playerdragged one back to his stumps.

Pacer Andrew Tye (2/23 in 4overs) and rookie mystery spinnerMujeeb ur Rahman (0/26 in 4overs) then stifled Sunrisers in themiddle overs despite KaneWilliamson's 54 off 41 balls andManish Pandey's unbeaten 57 off 42balls.

In between themselves, Tye andMujeeb bowled 15 dot balls, whichproved to be crucial in the end. Even

Barinder Sran (0/22 in 4 overs) waseconomical opening the bowling.

Earlier, Gayle scythed throughSunrisers Hyderabad bowling attackwith a 21st T20 hundred firingKings XI Punjab to 193 for 3 in 20

overs.Arguably one of the greatest

exponents of T20 batsmanship,Gayle showed that he is far from fin-ished en route his magnificentknock that had 11 towering sixesand a solitary boundary.

Gayle's 58-ball-hundred inci-dentally is the first of this edition ofIPL and also against a bowlingline-up that is being touted as themost balanced of all eight teams.

Gayle moved to 99 with his 11thsix hit off Bhuvneshwar Kumarover long-off. In Siddarth Kaul'snext over, he dabbed the balltowards point to complete a quicksingle. As a mark of celebration,Gayle gestured rocking a baby in acradle, with his wife and daughterin the VIP box.

"This hundred is dedicated tomy daughter. Friday is her birthday,"the doting father said.

The first 50 came off 39 ballsand he took a mere 19 balls to com-plete the second 50.

Each and every six was signa-ture Gayle. Minimum footworkand maximum power behind theshots.

It was the 14th over of theinnings when Gayle actually turnedthe heat on. Already batting on 51,he smote leg-spinner Rashid Khanfor four consecutive sixes. The firstwas over long-off, followed by a cou-ple down the ground hits landinginto sightscreen. The fourth sixwas slogged in the deep mid-wick-et region.

"This is a good wicket to baton, just have to go out and defendit. I am very dedicated. Sincejoining Kings XI, Sehwag told meto stick with the yoga guy and amassage guy, that's the secret, Iguess (laughs). In a week's time, Iwill be able to touch my toes,"Gayle said in jest.

����� 2�'3D�

Explosive Kolkata Knight Riders batsmanRobin Uthappa feels cricket is going through

a paradigm shift to a power game and any totalon board now looks chaseable.

"The changes in the game are dynamic. It ischanging as a sport, anything looks like chaseable,I feel cricket is shifting to a power game now sochasing is the choice. There is a paradigm shiftin the nature of the sport," said Uthappa, whoplayed a 36-ball 48-run knock to chase downRajasthan Royal's total of 160-8 on a slow wick-et.

With three wins from five matches, Uthappasaid he is satisfied with KKR's progress in the tour-nament.

"We are happy in the position we are. We areat the top and might have played a game morebut we played good cricket. It is important to peakat the right time," he said.

"It is a two-halve tournament. Initially wewere looking to qualify for the playoffs, you needthe momentum. After six games we would havea nice break so we are quite happy where we are.Every game is important for us," said Uthappa.

The 32-year-old was also happy with his bat-ting form after making useful contributions in themiddle order.

"I did not have a good domestic season butI always felt I was striking the ball well. That iswhat I feel now. Need to get better and better,"said Uthappa.

He also praised Man of the Match Nitesh

Rana, who has scored 162 in five matches so far.'I feel Rana is a very fine batsman with a

mature head on his shoulders. We have not shuf-

fled much with batting order and the top threehave been almost the same. We tried but had torevert soon to same top order," he said.

"If Sunil Narine and 'lynny' click at the topand likes of Rana, I, Dinesh Karthick and Russelcoming in things does look nice. That has beenworking for us."

When asked to compare between two cap-tains -- Gautam Gambhir and now DineshKarthik, Uthappa said: "They were different kindof personalities. Karthik is more composed andthinks a lot but also gives space to players to playwith their instincts while Gambhir is more proac-tive."

On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals captainAjinkya Rahane blamed himself for the lossagainst KKR.

"I feel it was a different wicket from what weplayed on against Delhi Daredevils. It was slowand ball was also keeping low. I feel it was myresponsibility to take that innings forward," hesaid.

"It is hard to recover from slow start becauseT20 is all about one or two big overs. I was bat-ting well at the other and wanted to continue tillthe 14th or 15th over."

Rahane also refused to blame his bowlers forthe debacle. "Not really, our bowlers have donea good job in all three matches. In T20 sometimesyou go for runs but we have a good combination.When you lose people start talking about badbowling or batting," he said, adding that the field-ing was not up to the mark and there was scopefor much improvement.

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Chennai Super Kings may not beplaying its home matches at the

M A Chidambaram stadium hereanymore, but would not be short ofsupport as fans are travelling to Punefor cheering them in Friday's gameagainst Rajasthan Royals.

About 1,000 CSK fans left forPune from here this morning by aspecial train to attend the match inPune, thanks to an arrangementmade by the franchise.

CSK's home matches were movedout of Chennai over security concernsfollowing protests by pro-Tamilgroups on the Cauvery issue leadingto the first home game against KKRon April 10.

"It is entirely an initiative taken byCSK fans and it was taken forward bythe CSK management," a CSK officialsaid. CSK official fan club joint sec-retary A R R Sriram said that the fansfrom across the state and placesincluding Bengaluru left for Pune thismorning.

"We just put in a request to themanagement if any arrangementcould be made for our (fans') travel

to Pune. And, they have come up withthis effort. We can't thank themenough," he added. As a goodwill ges-ture, the franchise also arrangedcomplimentary passes for the matchalong with free food and accommo-dation in Pune, Sriram said.

Saravanan Hari, a die-hard fan ofM S Dhoni, known for painting hisbody during CSK's matches, who isalso on board the train, said he wasthrilled beyond words to be part of the

supporters group to watch the gamein Pune.

Prabhu Damodaran, a textileprofessional, said the move by CSK totake fans to Pune showed how thefranchise cared for the supporters.The fans will return to the city onSunday.

CSK returned to IPL after serv-ing a two-year suspension due to thespot-fixing issue and played its firstmatch in Chennai after May 2015.

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Bangladesh axed six players from national contractsafter a year of poor performances with players who

escaped the chop being denied a pay rise, an officialsaid Thursday.

Opening batsmen Soumya Sarkar and Imrul Kayeswere among the six to miss out on a contract asBangladesh cricket warned players to shape up, selec-tor Habibul Bashar said.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board late Wednesdaydecided to retain just 10 players on contract, with threeothers to be added at a later time.

"For contracts, we mostly preferred players whowould perform regularly over the next one year," Basharsaid.

"Some players have lost their regular spot in theteam. They needed to be sent a message. Gettingdropped does not mean the door is closed for them.Everyone will get a fair chance in future."

Mosaddek Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, TaskinAhmed and Kamrul Islam Rabbi were the four oth-ers whose contracts were not renewed. Sabbir wasalready excluded from a contract on disciplinarygrounds.

Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe

Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, MominulHaque, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, TaijulIslam and Mehedi Hasan were the 10 players award-ed contracts.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan told reporters thatcontracted players would not be given a pay rise thisyear.

The top remunerated players Shakib, Mushfiqurand Mortaza are paid 420,000 taka ($5,121) per monthfrom the board.

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Australia Test captain Tim Painepledged on Thursday to embark

on a new era of "respectful" cricketand rebuild public trust after theball-tampering scandal that rockedthe sport.

The newly appointed leadersaid the fallout from the tamperingepisode was greater than players hadanticipated and promised a differentstyle of cricket in the future.

"Going forward we have a cleanslate. We can rewrite the way we playa little bit," the 33-year-old toldreporters in Tasmania's capitalHobart.

"The main thing for us is tobring the fans back to Australiancricket and make sure they like theway we are going about it, they wantto come and watch and be proud ofthe Australian cricket team," headded.

The ball-tampering scandal dur-ing the third Test in South Africa lastmonth stunned the sport and

sparked reviews into the culturewithin Australian cricket.

Then captain Steve Smith andhis deputy David Warner have beenbanned from international anddomestic cricket for a year, whileCameron Bancroft was exiled fornine months, leaving the squadbadly weakened.

They have all apologised andaccepted the sanctions.

Paine said all three would bewelcomed back to the national sidebut in a new environment that metpublic expectations.

"Certainly playing internation-al cricket you have to be as com-petitive as you possibly can be, butwe just have to look at different waysof doing that," said, "more respect-ful ways of putting opposition teamsunder the pump."

Australia has been under heavyscrutiny for sledging and Paine saidon-field talk with the opposition "willbe very different going forward".

Cricket Australia (CA)announced a meeting Friday to dis-

cuss who will replace head coachDarren Lehmann, who despite beingcleared of any wrongdoing resignedamid the scandal fallout.

But it denied media reportsthat former Aussie opener JustinLanger had already been selected forthe job.

"The process to be undertakenfor the appointment of a newAustralian men's head coach will bediscussed and agreed at the CAboard meeting this Friday," aspokesperson said in a statement.

"No appointment has beenmade, and nor will any candidate beput to the board for ratification onFriday." Paine on Thursday endorsedLanger but added there were manyhighly-regarded candidates worldwide.

Langer remains favourite totake the top job but has indicated hewants to maintain his coaching andfamily commitments in his homestate of Western Australia.

Former Australian Test captainRicky Ponting, along with formerpacemen Jason Gillespie, have alsobeen touted as potential replace-ments for Lehmann.

Some commentators have sug-gested the coaching appointments besplit across the three forms of thegame -- Tests, one-day internation-als and Twenty20s.

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