2019/06/06  · pieces, samajwadi party chief akhilesh yadav on wednesday described the alliance as...

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A mid economic slowdown and rising unemployment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday constituted two new Cabinet committees under his chairmanship to spur eco- nomic growth, investment and employment in an urgent and concerted manner. The five-member Cabinet committee on investments and growth will include the Prime Minister, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Goyal also heads Commerce Ministry and Nitin Gadkari, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), two industry-linked portfolios which will be crucial while making investment-relat- ed decisions. The committee for invest- ment will be a crucial special purpose vehicle for the Modi Government’s promise to invest 100 lakh crore in infrastruc- ture in next five years. The Cabinet committee on employment and skill devel- opment, headed by the PM, will have 10 Ministers as mem- bers, including Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Agriculture and Panchayti Raj Minister Naresh Singh Tomar, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Skill and Entrepreneurship Minister Mahendra Pandey, Housing Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. Sources in the Government said the setting up of two key committees within the Cabinet indicates the realisation with- in the BJP that the Opposition may have failed to build a nar- rative against Modi in the recent Lok Sabha elections on issues like jobs and economy but the concerns flagged by the Opposition were real. Unemployment and the economy had been pitched as major issues by the Congress during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. However, the party faced a crushing defeat in the elections, winning just 52 seats in the 545-mem- ber Lok Sabha. The BJP’s vic- tory was attributed mainly to its nationalism pitch during the campaign, where the economy was barely referred to. According to the Government data released last week, the economy grew at a much slower-than-expected 5.8 per cent in the January- March quarter of fiscal year 2018-19, compared with 6.4 per cent in China. It was the slow- est growth rate in more than four years in the January- March period, falling behind China’s pace for the first time in nearly two years. Overall GDP for last financial year has been estimated at 6.8 per cent against a target of 7.2 per cent. On the employment front, just after the elections were over, the Government released the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Annual Report (July 2017 — July 2018) which put the unemployment rate at 6.1 per cent, the highest in 45 years. As per the PLFS, which covered 4.3 lakh people across 1.02 lakh households, the unemployment rate among urban workforce was 7.8 per cent, while the unemployment rate for the rural workforce was 5.3 per cent. The unemploy- ment rate among males on all- India basis was 6.2 per cent, while it was 5.7 per cent in case of females. It also showed that the unemployment rate for males was higher at 7.1 per cent in urban areas compared to 5.8 per cent in rural areas. Similarly, the unemployment rate for women was also high- er in urban areas at 10.8 per cent compared to 3.8 per cent in rural areas. The Government has reconstituted five-member Cabinet committee on securi- ty and it includes Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. In its previous term, Modi had set up six ministerial pan- els in all. These included the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, Cabinet Committee on Accommodation, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs and Cabinet Committee on Security. T he Centre is all set to intro- duce the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill that pro- poses hefty penalties for vari- ous offences pertaining to the road transport sector in the forthcoming session of the Parliament. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which had been passed by the Lok Sabha, was introduced in the Upper House in April 2017 but was referred to a select panel. After taking into account the panel’s recommendation, the Bill was re-introduced in the Rajya Sabha but the debate on the Bill remained inconclusive. The Bill has been one of the favoured agenda of Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. Gadkari has been retained by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the RTH Minister in his new Council of Ministers. He said that radical reforms are expected in the transport sector once the Bill gets Parliament nod. “The Cabinet note is ready for the Bill and once it is approved we will try to introduce it in the upcoming session of Parliament,” Gadkari said. T hree attempts to retrieve bodies of eight moun- taineers feared dead at India’s second highest mountain Nanda Devi East failed on Wednesday due to high alti- tude, bad weather and avalanche risk. The Pithoragarh district administration, the Indian Air Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the State Disaster Response Force are working on an alternative plan. It may take about 10 days to recover the bodies, sources said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a 15-member Polish team reached Nanda Devi East base camp on Wednesday but they were stopped at the base camp and the process of their safe return was initiated. Deputy Inspector General of ITBP, State Headquarters Bareilly, APS Nimbadia, said, “Earlier our team conducted reconnaissance on the route. Our attempts on Wednesday failed due to the bad weather. So far it seems it will be risky for our specialist officers to drop down in the area where the bodies were spotted. Now we are planning to attempt this mission from Pindari glacier, Bageshwar on Thursday if the weather permits.” The eight climbers — four from Britain, two from the United States, and one each from Australia and India — were reported missing last Friday after they failed to return to their base camp near Nanda Devi, An IAF helicopter had on Monday spotted five bodies partially buried in snow high on a mountain slope. The status of the other three climbers is not known, but officials have said the pos- sibility of their survival is remote, and their bodies are likely to be near the five who had been spotted. Pithoragarh District Magistrate Vijay Kumar Jogdande told The Pioneer, “We attempted three times but could not succeed. We will be attempting again on Thursday, with a different approach. IAF helicopter will again survey the area.” W ith the RLD on Wednesday declaring it will also go solo in the forth- coming Uttar Pradesh bypolls and the UP alliance falling to pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the shortcomings. BSP chief Mayawati had on Tuesday declared that her party will fight the Assembly bypolls alone, prompting Akhilesh to say his party too will go solo. “Yes, there are trials, and sometimes you are not suc- cessful, but at least you can know your shortcomings,” Akhilesh told reporters here on Wednesday. The SP chief also said that he respected Mayawati irre- spective of the political equa- tion between the parties. “I stand by my earlier statement that respecting Mayawati ji is same as respecting me,” he said. RLD UP president Masood Ahmad told news agency PTI that his party will contest the UP Assembly bypolls on its own whenever they are held. However, it is too early to comment on the political scene of the State, he said. RLD chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary will decide on the number of seats the party will contest and the matter may be discussed during a meeting in the next few days, Ahmad said. When asked about the RLD’s role in the new political landscape of the State, which sends the highest number of 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, Ahmad said, “The RLD was with the Samajwadi Party. We got the seats from the quota of Akhilesh.” The UP RLD chief said the Congress should also be a part of the ‘gathbandhan’. Eleven Assembly bypolls are due in UP after the respec- tive MLAs won the Lok Sabha polls. Nine of them are from the BJP, and one each from the BSP and the SP. “The bypolls can be announced any moment now. Under the current conditions in Uttar Pradesh, we have decided to fight the bypolls, which will happen on some seats, all alone,” Mayawati said on Tuesday. Asserting that the SP’s base vote — meaning “Yadav samaj” — has not stood along with the SP even in areas where they are in high numbers, she said, “If I feel that the SP president is able to fulfil his duties and con- vert his people into missionar- ies, then we can still walk together in future. There has been no permanent break.” T he State Government on Wednesday suspended Internet services in Kendrapada town for the next 48 hours amid possible escala- tion of communal tension dur- ing Eid-ul-Fitr. The preventive measure was taken by the Home Department to check spread of any communal tension after false and inflammatory mes- sages were circulated on social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. The Internet shut- down was forced under the provisions of Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 read with rule 2(1) of the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency/Public Safety) rules, 2017 to prohibit the use and access of the Internet and data services including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media for the next 48 hours from 11:30 am on June 5 in Kendrapada town and the adjoining areas, the department stated. A fter a brief respite from the heat wave, some places in the State recorded temperatures above 40 degree Celsius on Wednesday. The Regional Office of IMD said Jharsuguda was the hottest place on the day with the mercury soaring to 45.2 degrees Celsius. Other places which wit- nessed rise in temperatures are Malkangiri 41.6 degree, Sambalpur 43.2 degree, Sundargarh 41 degree, Hirakud 42.9 degree, Titlagarh 42.2 degree, Baleswar 37.6 degree, Chandbali 37.7 degree, Paradip 32.5 degree, Gopalpur 31.2 degree, Puri 34 degree and Baripada 37 degree. The twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack wit- nessed heat wave condition with maximum day tempera- ture of 37.2 degree and 36.5 degree, respectively.

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Page 1: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

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Amid economic slowdownand rising unemployment,

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Wednesday constituted twonew Cabinet committees underhis chairmanship to spur eco-nomic growth, investment andemployment in an urgent andconcerted manner.

The five-member Cabinetcommittee on investments andgrowth will include the PrimeMinister, Home Minister AmitShah, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal andTransport Minister NitinGadkari. Goyal also headsCommerce Ministry and NitinGadkari, Ministry of Micro,Small & Medium Enterprises(MSME), two industry-linkedportfolios which will be crucialwhile making investment-relat-ed decisions.

The committee for invest-ment will be a crucial specialpurpose vehicle for the ModiGovernment’s promise to invest�100 lakh crore in infrastruc-ture in next five years.

The Cabinet committee on

employment and skill devel-opment, headed by the PM,will have 10 Ministers as mem-bers, including NirmalaSitharaman, Piyush Goyal,Agriculture and Panchayti RajMinister Naresh Singh Tomar,

Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan, HRDMinister Ramesh PokhriyalNishank, Skill andEntrepreneurship MinisterMahendra Pandey, HousingUrban Affairs Minister

Hardeep Singh Puri.Sources in the Government

said the setting up of two keycommittees within the Cabinetindicates the realisation with-in the BJP that the Oppositionmay have failed to build a nar-

rative against Modi in therecent Lok Sabha elections onissues like jobs and economybut the concerns flagged by theOpposition were real.

Unemployment and theeconomy had been pitched asmajor issues by the Congressduring the campaign for theLok Sabha elections. However,the party faced a crushingdefeat in the elections, winningjust 52 seats in the 545-mem-ber Lok Sabha. The BJP’s vic-tory was attributed mainly to itsnationalism pitch during thecampaign, where the economywas barely referred to.

According to theGovernment data released last

week, the economy grew at amuch slower-than-expected5.8 per cent in the January-March quarter of fiscal year2018-19, compared with 6.4 percent in China. It was the slow-est growth rate in more thanfour years in the January-March period, falling behindChina’s pace for the first timein nearly two years. OverallGDP for last financial year hasbeen estimated at 6.8 per centagainst a target of 7.2 per cent.

On the employment front,just after the elections wereover, the Government releasedthe Periodic Labour ForceSurvey (PLFS) Annual Report(July 2017 — July 2018) which

put the unemployment rate at6.1 per cent, the highest in 45years. As per the PLFS, whichcovered 4.3 lakh people across1.02 lakh households, theunemployment rate amongurban workforce was 7.8 percent, while the unemploymentrate for the rural workforce was5.3 per cent. The unemploy-ment rate among males on all-India basis was 6.2 per cent,while it was 5.7 per cent in caseof females.

It also showed that theunemployment rate for maleswas higher at 7.1 per cent inurban areas compared to 5.8per cent in rural areas.Similarly, the unemploymentrate for women was also high-er in urban areas at 10.8 percent compared to 3.8 per centin rural areas.

The Government hasreconstituted five-memberCabinet committee on securi-ty and it includes HomeMinister Amit Shah, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman and ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar.

In its previous term, Modihad set up six ministerial pan-els in all. These included theAppointments Committee ofthe Cabinet, CabinetCommittee onAccommodation, CabinetCommittee on EconomicAffairs, Cabinet Committeeon Parliamentary Affairs,Cabinet Committee on PoliticalAffairs and Cabinet Committeeon Security.

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The Centre is all set to intro-duce the Motor Vehicles

(Amendment) Bill that pro-poses hefty penalties for vari-ous offences pertaining to theroad transport sector in theforthcoming session of theParliament.

The Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Bill, which hadbeen passed by the Lok Sabha,was introduced in the UpperHouse in April 2017 but wasreferred to a select panel. Aftertaking into account the panel’srecommendation, the Bill wasre-introduced in the RajyaSabha but the debate on the Billremained inconclusive.

The Bill has been one of thefavoured agenda of RoadTransport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari.

Gadkari has been retainedby Prime Minister NarendraModi as the RTH Minister in

his new Council of Ministers.He said that radical reforms areexpected in the transport sector once the Billgets Parliament nod. “The

Cabinet note is ready for theBill and once it is approved wewill try to introduce it in theupcoming session ofParliament,” Gadkari said.

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Three attempts to retrievebodies of eight moun-

taineers feared dead at India’ssecond highest mountainNanda Devi East failed onWednesday due to high alti-tude, bad weather andavalanche risk.

The Pithoragarh districtadministration, the Indian AirForce, the Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice and the State DisasterResponse Force are working onan alternative plan. It may takeabout 10 days to recover thebodies, sources said onWednesday.

Meanwhile, a 15-memberPolish team reached NandaDevi East base camp onWednesday but they werestopped at the base camp andthe process of their safe returnwas initiated.

Deputy Inspector Generalof ITBP, State HeadquartersBareilly, APS Nimbadia, said,“Earlier our team conducted

reconnaissance on the route.Our attempts on Wednesdayfailed due to the bad weather.So far it seems it will be risky

for our specialist officers todrop down in the area wherethe bodies were spotted. Nowwe are planning to attempt this

mission from Pindari glacier,Bageshwar on Thursday if theweather permits.”

The eight climbers — fourfrom Britain, two from theUnited States, and one eachfrom Australia and India —were reported missing lastFriday after they failed toreturn to their base camp nearNanda Devi,

An IAF helicopter had onMonday spotted five bodiespartially buried in snow highon a mountain slope.

The status of the otherthree climbers is not known,but officials have said the pos-sibility of their survival isremote, and their bodies arelikely to be near the five whohad been spotted.

Pithoragarh DistrictMagistrate Vijay KumarJogdande told The Pioneer,“We attempted three times butcould not succeed. We will beattempting again on Thursday,with a different approach. IAFhelicopter will again survey thearea.”

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With the RLD onWednesday declaring it

will also go solo in the forth-coming Uttar Pradesh bypollsand the UP alliance falling topieces, Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav on Wednesdaydescribed the alliance as a“trial” and said it may notalways be successful but helpsin knowing the shortcomings.

BSP chief Mayawati had onTuesday declared that her partywill fight the Assembly bypollsalone, prompting Akhilesh tosay his party too will go solo.

“Yes, there are trials, andsometimes you are not suc-cessful, but at least you canknow your shortcomings,”Akhilesh told reporters here onWednesday.

The SP chief also said thathe respected Mayawati irre-spective of the political equa-tion between the parties. “Istand by my earlier statementthat respecting Mayawati ji issame as respecting me,” hesaid.

RLD UP president MasoodAhmad told news agency PTIthat his party will contest theUP Assembly bypolls on its

own whenever they are held.However, it is too early tocomment on the political sceneof the State, he said.

RLD chief Chaudhary AjitSingh and Jayant Chaudharywill decide on the number ofseats the party will contest andthe matter may be discussedduring a meeting in the nextfew days, Ahmad said.

When asked about theRLD’s role in the new politicallandscape of the State, whichsends the highest number of 80MPs to the Lok Sabha, Ahmadsaid, “The RLD was with theSamajwadi Party. We got theseats from the quota ofAkhilesh.”

The UP RLD chief said theCongress should also be a partof the ‘gathbandhan’.

Eleven Assembly bypolls

are due in UP after the respec-tive MLAs won the Lok Sabhapolls. Nine of them are fromthe BJP, and one each from theBSP and the SP.

“The bypolls can beannounced any moment now.Under the current conditionsin Uttar Pradesh, we havedecided to fight the bypolls,which will happen on someseats, all alone,” Mayawati saidon Tuesday.

Asserting that the SP’s basevote — meaning “Yadav samaj”— has not stood along with theSP even in areas where they arein high numbers, she said, “IfI feel that the SP president isable to fulfil his duties and con-vert his people into missionar-ies, then we can still walktogether in future. There hasbeen no permanent break.”

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The State Government onWednesday suspended

Internet services inKendrapada town for the next48 hours amid possible escala-tion of communal tension dur-ing Eid-ul-Fitr.

The preventive measurewas taken by the HomeDepartment to check spread ofany communal tension afterfalse and inflammatory mes-sages were circulated on socialmedia platforms includingWhatsApp, Facebook andTwitter. The Internet shut-down was forced under theprovisions of Section 5(2) ofIndian Telegraph Act, 1885read with rule 2(1) of theTemporary Suspension ofTelecom Services (PublicEmergency/Public Safety)rules, 2017 to prohibit the useand access of the Internet anddata services includingWhatsApp, Facebook, Twitterand other social media for thenext 48 hours from 11:30 amon June 5 in Kendrapada townand the adjoining areas, thedepartment stated.

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After a brief respite from theheat wave, some places in

the State recorded temperaturesabove 40 degree Celsius onWednesday.

The Regional Office ofIMD said Jharsuguda was thehottest place on the day withthe mercury soaring to 45.2degrees Celsius.

Other places which wit-nessed rise in temperaturesare Malkangiri 41.6 degree,Sambalpur 43.2 degree,Sundargarh 41 degree, Hirakud42.9 degree, Titlagarh 42.2degree, Baleswar 37.6 degree,Chandbali 37.7 degree, Paradip32.5 degree, Gopalpur 31.2degree, Puri 34 degree andBaripada 37 degree.

The twin cities ofBhubaneswar and Cuttack wit-nessed heat wave conditionwith maximum day tempera-ture of 37.2 degree and 36.5degree, respectively.

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The longest-serving ChiefMinister is Pawan Kumar

Chamling who remained bossof Arunachal Pradesh for 24years, 5 months and 5 days, fol-lowed by Jyoti Basu, who ruledWest Bengal for 23 years 4months 7 days. They are allgone by now. But NaveenPatnaik of Odisha is poised tosmash all those records as he isentering his fifth glorious term.

No one knows how hewins massively every successiveelection so comfortably.Chamling’s Arunachal is asmall hilly State with a tribalcommunity not too consciousof subtle political happenings.

West Bengal under Basu wasthe bastion of a Marxist regimethat was brazenly illiberal andtotalitarian in nature and thecadres forced votes out of thehelpless masses.

But Naveen has been gain-ing people’s mandate in anascending order, a rare phe-nomenon in the modern times.The anti-incumbency factorthat keeps upsetting regimesevery now and then is an alienperception among Odias withregard to Naveen winningpolitical battles magically.

All leading pollsters failedin predictions for the 2019election outcomes. They hadgiven Modi a maximum 272and Naveen 85-95 seats. Onlyone lesser-known agency,Today’s Chanakya, had pre-dicted accurately. And it hadalso forecast the last UP resultsjust too correctly.

It’s not untrue that theModi-Shah duo was scepticalabout their fate as a number ofsaffron stalwarts had aban-doned the party one by one, cit-ing gross displeasure over themasterminds' dictatorial waysof choosing candidates anddevising poll strategies. It was

also believed that the NDAwould just scrape through bare-ly with a simple majority fallingshort of the magic number.

Accordingly, Modi hadclandestinely struck deals withpowerful regional outfits forpost-poll support inParliament.

But the whole world wassure Naveen would return fora fifth stint without much dif-ficulty. The Pulwama drama,not crystal clear even today,had moved the masses infavour of Modi as a ‘super war-rior' PM. The masses of thecountry believed it’s only Modiwho could teach Pakistan a fit-ting lesson by destroying terrortraining camps quite on thePakistani soil. The Pulwamaepisode may be a master bluffas the watchful internationaloutfits have not yet fullyendorsed the NDA claim, norhave they conclusively deniedthat.

All the same, that somegood acts of valour did occurcannot be denied; but the claimonly seems to have beenoverblown. However, thatworked like magic for Modi.Votes came pouring in.

Modi literally swept allconstituencies pan India exceptin Odisha. Naveen retainedthe glory with 12 Lok Sabhaseats and a whopping 112 inthe Assembly. There was pre-diction by poll masters that theBJP would eat into 15 LokSabha berths and proportion-ally into the Assembly number.That never happened. The twosaffron masterminds couldnever figure out that theOdisha BJP was only anabstract idea, not a concreteoutfit with fitness to fight themighty BJD.

The eight seats that theylapped up was because Odishavoters knew it was Modi’s turnat the Centre yet again as theprincipal opponent Congresshad spoilt all its prospects dueto stupid talk and internal dis-trust among senior members.Most literate Congress leaderstoo disapproved Rahul’s head-less harangues against Modi.

Priyanka remained just a‘shop mannequin' and herdefamed husband RobertVadra appeared before the vot-ers' eyes when they were readyto press the choice button. TheCongress in Odisha today is a

lowly-rated entity as the localboss has not been able to pro-vide right leadership.

All the same, Naveen'sstunning victory may be attrib-uted to his clean image and hisdistrust in the political class.The people of Odisha, likeelsewhere in India, have longsince developed a bitter hatredfor the political biggies becausethey keep abusing power andget away scot-free. From dayone, Naveen has tightened theropes around the necks ofmost of the political rogueswho are known as sure winnersby guile.

Fortunately, Naveen hasbeen able to identify a cohesiveband of highly intelligent andpro-poor bureaucrats who keepproviding him with criticalinformation and best ways totackle issues. Not surprisingly,Naveen trusts this skilled andknowledgeable group ofbureaucrats more than politi-cians, most of whom are igno-rant of people’s issues and therulebook.

The smart bureaucrats, asaides and advisors, are keenlywatchful of ground realities tothe last square foot and are able

to organise instant help topeople at troubled locations.

No wonder, the rescue andrestoration work after the mostsevere summer cyclone Fanicaused immeasurable devasta-tion to coastal Odisha has beenhailed as uniquely magnifi-cent.

Reconstruction workersrushed in from all regions ofthe country and expressedimmense soul-satisfaction forhaving been of use to a Statewhich had done wonders dur-ing disasters in their provinces.

Odisha people, it seems,will keep bringing the BJDback to power as long asNaveen is boss.

Though no one is surewho is going to succeedNaveen, it’s nearly made clearby Naveen himself that the peo-ple will chose his successor andit will never be a dynastic blun-der. The Congress has suf-fered horribly because of fam-ily politics. Naveen shall notcommit that mistake ever.

Team Modi has becomemuch wiser after the unex-pected BJP victory. The PrimeMinister has dealt some mas-terstrokes to win people’s

hearts. He has made PratapSarangi, a first-time parlia-mentarian from Odisha, aMinister.

Sarangi won by an appre-ciable margin by defeating anindustrialist. People love suchmoves by the executive all overthe world. Modi has gained big-ger respect for this.

Now to some hurtingdevelopment which perhapshas missed Modi’s notice:India’s first Lokpal Justice PCGhose wants an upgradation ofhis official car from the �9 lakhMaruti Ciaz to an expensiveToyota Camry costing �40lakh.

Ghose says he is equivalentto a Supreme Court judge; theCiaz is given to ordinarySecretary-level officials. Othermembers of the anti-corrup-tion body, taking cue from theboss, are now demanding bigpay and perks, including bun-galows for beingequivalent to serving HighCourt judges.

Quite at the beginning,the officials of the principalanti-corruption outfit of thecountry have started behavingin a manner that indicates that

the functionaries expected tonab corrupt public officials,particularly of the Executive,are crazy about self benefits asare accorded to top officials invery affluent countries withoutstrong ethical standards.

People must take note ofthis fact and begin to agitatefrom now, or else the very pur-pose of having a Lokpal will bebadly defeated.

Lastly what must be knownspecifically is the fact that theFani-affected Kalinga Stadiumis back to fitness to hold theFIH hockey tournament.

The credit has to be givento the Principal SecretarySports, the IDCO boss andmany other State functionarieswho forgot sleep and hunger toturn the prestigious stadiumperfectly fit to hold the biginternational sports event.

The entire sports worldhad written off the KalingaStadium for the big show. Butthe Odisha officials provedthey can achieve the impossi-ble like they did during theAsian Athletic show a couple ofyears ago as at the last momentJharkhand had chickened out.That is the magic of Odisha!

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The Alliance Air, a sub-sidiary of Air India,

launched flight services fromthe Veer Surendra Sai Airport(VSSA) at Jharsuguda toBhubaneswar and Raipur onWednesday.

The flights are operatingunder the Ude Deshka AamNagrik (UDAN) scheme ofthe Central Government.

Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari,Odisha Health & FamilyWelfare Minister Naba KishoreDas, Brajrajnagar MLA KishoreMohanty and Joint Secretary,Ministry of Civil Aviation,Usha Padhee were present onthe occasion.

While 72 air passengerstravelled from Bhubaneswarto Jharsuguda, 54 went fromJharsuguda to Bhubaneswaron Day 1.

As per the schedule, FlightAI 9719 will leave Jharsugudaat 10.35 am and reach the BijuPatnaik International Airport(BPIA) in Bhubaneswar at11:35 am. Similarly, Flight AI9727 will depart fromBhubaneswar at 9:05 amand reach Jharsuguda at 10:10am.

Flight AI 9728 will departfrom Jharsuguda at 5:15 pmand reach Raipur at 6:10 pmand Flight AI 9720 will leaveRaipur at 3:45 pm and reachJharsuguda at 4:50 pm. Slightchanges were made in theschedule only for Wednesdayon the occasion of inaugurationof the flight services.

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The body of a man, who had been missing for the last two days,was found floating in river Mahanadi at Jatamundia near

Banki in Cuttack district on Wednesday.The deceased was identified as Kabi Behera of Karabara vil-

lage under the Banki police station.Sources said two days ago, Kabi went outside to take bath

in the river but did not return after that. Later, his family mem-bers lodged a missing complaint with the Banki police. FireService team had launched a search operation in the river, butin vain.

In the morning, some locals found Kabi’s body floating inthe river and called up police. Soon after, police along with a firebrigade team reached the spot and fished out the body. Policealso began an investigation into the incident.

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The Commissionerate policeon Wednesday cracked a

series of two-wheeler lootingcases here with the arrest oftwo, including kingpin, fromMidnapore in West Bengal.

A juvenile of the robbers’gang was also detained in thisconnection.

The arrestees were identi-fied as kingpin Sheikh Rulaminand his aide Sheikh Mujibur ,both residents of Midnapore.

While the two arresteeswere forwarded to court, thejuvenile was sent to the cor-rectional home.

Rulamin and SheikhMujibur were using the juvenilefor lifting the vehicles. Rulaminwas supplying the stolen bikesto West Bengal and Mujubar

was engaged in selling those inKharagpur area.

The cops managed torecover three vehicles fromWest Bengal. More stolen vehi-cles would be retrieved onbasis of the information duringinterrogation of the accused,said Kharavela Nagar PS IICBiswa Ranjan Senapati.

The arrest came followinga complaint by SubashChandra Mahabhoi of Beguniaarea was lodged at theKharavela Nagar police stationon May 31, a day after his bikewas stolen in front of a bank atJanpath in Bhubaneswar.

Based on the complaint,the police verified the CCTVfootages of the bank and founda juvenile was stealing the bike.Acting promptly, the copstracked the accused followingwhich the entire racket wasbusted.

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Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks theend of the holy month of

Ramadan, was celebrated withjoy and fervour across the Stateon Wednesday.

Muslims came out of theirhomes to offer special Eid con-gregational thanksgivingprayers marking the culmina-tion of 30 days of fasting. Afteroffering Namaaz, they huggedeach other with greetings of

“Eid Mubarak”.People of the community

dressed in new clothes greetedeach other and distributedsweets after performingNamaaz. Hindus also joined inthe celebrations in many partsof the State to mark the daywith a show of harmonybetween communities.

In Bhubaneswar, Namazwas offered at several mosquesincluding the Unit-4 Masjidwhere thousands of Muslims

gathered for the prayer. Similarscenes were witnessed atmosques in the millennium cityCuttack and other parts of theState.

The festival was observedwith offering sweets, sweetdishes, biryani and varieties offood items to friends, relativesand others after holy prayers inthe morning.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik also greeted people onthe occasion.

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The Freethought Party ofIndia (FPI) on Tuesday

pulled up JD(U) chief andBihar Chief Minister NitishKumar’s “selective love” for theprinciple of “ProportionalRepresentation”.

Since the JDU has 16 MPsin the Lok Sabha and six MPsin the Rajya Sabha, Kumarinsisted that the party shouldbe given one Cabinet and 2Ministers of State berths, one ofthem with IndependentCharge, in the Narendra ModiMinistry.

“If a political leader wantsto express his love for the prin-ciple of ProportionalRepresentation then the partyshould go to the electorate-thenumber of voters that havevoted for a particular party,”

argued FPI general secretary BRamchandra CST Voltaire in astatement.

According to the principleof proportional representation,the BJP should have got only 200 members in theLok Sabha with 37.5 per centvote share, he pointed out.

While the NDA’s vote shareis 46 per cent, the BJP and alliesshould have got 245 membersin the Lok Sabha. But becauseof the defective electoral sys-tem, called the FPTP System, the NDA has grosslyover-represented in the LokSabha.

Even as the RJD got 15.38per cent votes, it has not got anyrepresentation in the LokSabha. But the Congress gotone seat with 7.7 per cent ofvotes.

As per the PR, the RJD

should have got six seats andthe Congress Party three. Withvote share of 23.58 per cent, theBJP is entitled to get nine instead of 17 MPs andwith 21.81 per cent the JDUshould have eightinstead of 16.

“The PR system of electionis now prevalent in 94 coun-tries. When will CM NitishKumar give his full-throatedsupport to the PR system ofelection,” wanted to knowVoltaire.

Voltaire said Kumar shouldsee the full-play of the princi-ple of the proportional repre-sentation in the composition ofthe Lok Sabha and that of theState Vidhan Sabha.

He should not remember itwith regard to the compositionof the coalitional Cabinet,remarked he.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik has directed all

the Ministers to submit a reportto him by 7th of every monthon the steps taken by them toimplement the promises madein the BJD manifesto whichhave been accepted asGovernment programmes.

Accordingly, the Ministerswill have to submit their firstreport by July 7.

It may be noted that theCouncil of Ministers approvedthe BJD manifesto as theGovernment programme onthe very first day the new BJDGovernment assumed poweron May 29.

The Chief Minister haddeclared that the Governmentwould make public its perfor-mances vis-à-vis implementa-tion of promises on the com-pletion of 365 days i.e. on May29, 2020. On the occasion, headded ‘Time’ to his earlier 3T(Teamwork, Technology andTransparency) mantras forachievement of better results.

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Former Biramitrapur MLAGeorge Tirkey, who unsuc-

cessfully contested polls fromthe Sundargarh Lok Sabha seatas the Congress candidate thistime, on Wednesday said EVMhacking and sabotaging bysome of his party leaders aremain reasons behind his defeat.

In support of his argu-

ments, Tirkey said Jual Oradhad won the seat in 2014because there was a Modi waveand promises of establishing asuper speciality hospital andconstructing a secondBrahmani bridge over theBrahmani river were made byModi.

Oram had got only 3.40lakh votes then. While none ofthe two promises were met,Oram lost trust of tribals andthere was no Modi wave thistime, Oram unbelievably got5.56 lakh votes this time.

Tirkey said he toured theentire Sundargarh district to get

feedback from voters. He wasconvinced that people hadvoted in favour of the Congressbut the votes were shifted to theBJP through EVM manipula-tion. Second reason he foundis that that in many places cer-tain Congress leaders had sab-otaged EVMs. Though hecouldn’t take any leaders’ name,his indication was at partyleader Hemananda Biswal,whose elder daughter was con-testing for the LS.

He said he has alreadysubmitted the names to theparty and sought disciplinaryaction against them. If party

doesn’t take any action, hewould be forced to stop thoseleaders to function in the dis-trict.

He also questioned the vic-tory of BJD candidates in thyeRourkela and RaghunathpalliAssembly segments when“people were fed up with fail-ures of the BJD Government”.

Tirkey asserted that hewould continue to work forpeople of the district despite hislosing the election. Amongothers, Congress MLA candi-dates of Rourkela,Raghunathpalli andBiramitrapur were present.

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IAS officer-turned-politicianand newly-elected

Bhubaneswar BJP MPAparajita Sarangi called onChief Minister Naveen Patnaikat the State Secretariat here onTuesday.

Calling the meeting “acourtesy call”, Sarangi said, “Itwas a beautiful discussion (withPatnaik).” “I congratulated himon his election as the ChiefMinister for a fifth time in suc-

cession. Besides, I assured him,as a Parliamentarian, that I willextend all kinds of support tothe State Government for thedevelopment of BhubaneswarLok Sabha segment,” Sarangitold reporters.

Sarangi, who had earliersaid she would makeBhubaneswar the number oneParliamentary constituency ofthe country, said,“Development has no politicalaffiliation and we have to worktogether.”

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Page 3: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

capital 03BHUBANESWAR | THURSDAY | JUNE 6, 2019

INBRIEFEX-IAS OFFICER PATNAIK’S BODY DONATEDBrahmapur: Retired IAS officer Radha Ballabh Patnaik passed away hererecently. He was 66. His body has been donated as per his last wishes.Patnaik’s body parts were donated to the Anatomy Department of MKCGMedical College Hospital. He was a supporter of the Communist Party ofIndia (Marxist). He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

MISCREANTS BREAK ATM FAI TO TAKE CASH IN SP Ragatsinghpur: Unidentified miscreants attempted to loot an United Bank of

India (UBI) ATM in the Central Market here on Sunday night but were unableto take money from the cash box. On Monday wee hours, locals reportedpolice that the ATM counter had been ransacked with its the front door, ATMdispenser, AC, server and battery broken. Acting on the tipoff, branchmanager MK Sahoo lodged an FIR in the Jagatsingpur headquarters policestation. The police immediately started an investigation, but none was yetarrested.

P US II SC RESU TS IN S M CO EGEJagatsinghpur: The students of SVM College here achieved a 94.81%results in Plus II Science examinations. College sources said 444 studentshad appeared in the examinations and 421 of them cleared the test. As manyas 225 students got first class followed by 149 in second class and 47 inthird division. Chandra Bindu Pradhan topped in the district having secured530 marks. Abinash Nayak was the second topper.

SIEMENS FOCUSES ON INNOVATION, STARTUPSBhubaneswar: The Siemens India announced that it will accelerate efforts todevelop and bring to market innovative solutions that create sustainablevalue for businesses and societies. It also announced the opening of aNext47 office in Bangalore to help connecting Siemens customers to startupinnovation from around the world. The Siemens Innovation Day 2019showcased innovative solutions that create sustainable value for businessesand societies.

PNS n PURI

The SustainableEnvironment and

Ecological DevelopmentSociety (SEEDS) announcedthe completion of their firstprototype transitional homein Biripadia village in Sardarblock of Puri, which was ravaged by cyclone Fanirecently.

With support from theUnited Way, Mumbai, theSEEDS has been undertakingwork on water, health campsand now housing in the district.

As per SEEDS methodolo-gy, the prototype transitionalhome is always built for one ofthe families most in need with-in the village. In this case, it is

Lata Mallik, a physically chal-lenged (hearing impaired) sin-gle woman, from a marginal-ized Scheduled Caste commu-nity in Biripadia.

The village is about 15 kmfrom Puri, with families whoare mainly landless and daily

wage labourers. The familiessurvived the cyclone under anuprooted tree.

Talking about the method-ology and the need for transi-tional shelters, co-founder,SEEDS Monu Gupta said:“This first house to be rebuilt

is a symbol of hope, in a settingwhere there is still devastationall around. We are very happyto hand over this first transi-tional shelter to Lata ji and lookforward to a widespreadmomentum in reconstructionthat leaves no one behind.”

PNS n BHADRAK

Awoman sustained criticalburn injuries when she

attempted self-immolation overa dispute with her husband atSanakrushnapaur village in theKasia area of Bhadrak districton Wednesday.

According to reports,

Fakurani Jena had a verbal duelwith her husband Gopal Jena inthe morning over a family dis-pute. Later, she pouredkerosene on her body and setherself ablaze.

Gopal, who tried to savehis wife, was also injured dur-ing the process. The womansustained 90 percent burninjuries.

The couple duo was ini-tially admitted to theBasudevpur hospital and latershifted to the SCB MedicalCollege Hospital in Cuttack.The condition of the womanwas stated to be critical.

PNS n NAYAGARH

Afamily dispute had a shock-ing end at Chadheipalli vil-

lage under the Sarankul policelimits in Nayagarh district aftera youth killed his elder broth-er while the latter was sleepingon Tuesday night.

However, the accused iden-tified as Dhaneswar Sahu (25)surrendered before police onWednesday morning.

Dhaneswar hacked hisbrother Kubera (36) with anaxe while the latter was sleep-ing on the terrace of the house.Kubera died on the spot.Kubera’s wife lodged a com-plaint at the Sarankul police

station. However, Dhaneswar sur-

rendered before the police earlyon Wednesday morning.

While villagers said that thetwo brothers had beenembroiled in dispute sincelong, police are investigatingthe death from various angles.

PNS n NUAPADA

Aminor girl drowned and conditions of hertwo younger sisters became critical while

bathing in a pond at Dharanimal village underthe Boden police limits in Nuapada district onWednesday morning.

The deceased was identified asKhusbupriya Sahu(11). The two other girlswere Khusli (8) and Upasana (7), who were res-cued in critical conditions and admitted to theKhariar hospital. All of them had gone to thepond with their grandmother to take bath.Unfortunately, the trio slipped into deepwater. They were rescued by the grandmotherand rushed to the Sinapali hospital, whereKhusbupriya was declared dead. Khusli andUpasana were later shifted to the Khariar hospital.

PNS n PALLAHARA

Pallahara MLA Mukesh Palon Tuesday said that he

would give priority to fulfillingpeople’s aspiration of complet-ing the Chakadhar project,converting Nijigarh gram pan-chayat to an NAC, setting up ofsome industries and establish-ing block headquarters atKhamar.

Addressing a Press meet,Pal said that he has alreadyinformed Chief MinisterNaveen Patanik about the

problems of his constituency.He also said that he would tryhis best to eradicate corruptionfrom gram panhayat to blocklevels.

On the occasion, PallaharaPress Club president DrSantosh Dehury and otherjournalists felicitated Pal forwinning the seat.

Reporters also made somesuggestions for the development of Pallhahara and strengthening coordination among Pallaharapeople.

PNS n BRAHMAPUR

The Bharatiya BikashParishad has filed a writ

petition in the High Court,challenging inaction and cal-lousness of the StateGovernment towards to itsdemands of declaring threeNACs, Aska, Bhanjabnagar andChatrapur, as municipalitiesin Ganjam district.

In its petition, the Parishadmentioned that each of theseNACs has population which isequivalent to the numberrequired for a municipality asper the 2011 Census. These

three NACs are historical townsand are deprived of gettingfacilities like communication,transport, water, electricity,education and healthcare,alleged the petitioner.

The Parishad alsoinformed that it had submitteda representation to the StateGovernment on Many 8 2018but received no response.

Parishad presidentSurendra Kumar Panigrahi hasnamed the Housing and UrbanDevelopment Secretary, RDC(Southern Division), Ganjamdistrict Collector, Sub-Collectors of Chhatrapur and

Bhanjanagar and ExecutiveOfficers of the three NACs havebeen made opposition partiesin the petition.

The petitioner alleged thatdue to non-declaration of thesethree NACs as municipalities,concerned residents are leadingmiserable life in rainy seasonand suffering from differentdeceases. Due to inadequateelectricity facilities, incidents oftheft and robbery are alsobeing reported often. TheParishad prayed to the HC toissue necessary directives to theOPs to provide relief to thepublic.

Municipality tag to 3Ganjam NACs soughtBikash Parishad moves HC against Govt inaction

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

In the name of direct invest-ment, multinational compa-

nies (MNCs) are taking awaymore money from the countrywhile there is increase numberof contract workers, sub con-tractors and informal workersengaged in firms owned bythem. Thus, multinationalcompanies must abide by theInternational Frame WorkAgreement, ILO core conven-tions and national labour laws.

National vice-president ofthe INTUC Dr RC Khuntiasaid this while addressing theBWI global conference on“Multinational Companies and

Global Agreement” held inLondon on May 27, 2019 andlater in Brighten City.

Khuntia urged upon theBWI to face the challenges ofglobal social dialogue imple-mentation of International

Frame Work Agreement (IFA).Khuntia also informed the

BWI World Council and WorldBoard that intention of theGovernment of India to con-vert 44 labour laws and fourlabour courts. He said the

Government is also trying therepeal the BuildingConstruction Welfare Act 1996.

Khuntia also gave a detailinformation about the damagesand death of 64 persons causeddue to Cyclone Fani in Odisha.He too informed about loss of41 lakh live stocks, 1.5 lakhelectricity polls and 100 trans-formers and over a thousand oftelephone towers.

BWI president Per-OlofSjoo presided over the meeting.General secretary Shei AmbetYuson and around 85 delegatesfrom Asia Pacific, NorthAmerica, South America andEurope participated in the dis-cussion.

‘MNCs must abide by int’l, national labour laws’Khuntia informs BWI in London about Fani ravages

Youth kills elderbrother in Nayagarh

While villagerssaid that the two

brothers had beenembroiled in

dispute since long

IN BHADRAK

Woman attemptsself-immolationSustained90% burninjuries

PNS n BRAHMAPUR

Police on Wednesday arrested fivemore persons in connection with the

brutal murder of Aska Congress MLAcandidate Manoj Jena on May 22.

While four accused were nabbedfrom Laxmipur area in Koraput district,one was arrested from Balugaon railwaystation.

Apart from this, the local police haveissued a lookout circular against primeaccused Bhagwan Sahu, who is abscond-ing.

Three bikes, two mousers and twoknives used in the crime were also seizedfrom their possession.

Last week, two dreaded criminals,Ganesh Nayak and Hrushi Patra alleged-

ly involved in the murder case werearrested after an encounter with policenear the city.

Notably, a day before the 2019 pollresults, unidentified miscreants hadopened fire at the Congress candidatefrom Aska near Lanjipalli here. They hadalso slit his throat with knives and fledfrom the spot.

Jena was then admitted to theMKCG Medical College Hospital fortreatment where he succumbed to hisinjuries on May 24.

The police subsequently launched amanhunt to nab the culprits and duringthe course of investigation, police iden-tified involvement of five wanted crim-inals and a few more persons in the mur-der.

Aska Cong leadermurder: 5 more arrestedMousers, knives, bikesused in crime seized

Girl drownsin NuapadaTwo sisters’conditions serious

UBACHAK MOHANTY nBALESWAR

The residents of Kalamatiavillage under Inchudi pan-

chayat of Remuna block, closeto the seacoast at Chandipur,are up in arms when they wereasked by DRDO personnel tovacate the land in which theyare residing illegally.

The patch of land (plot no111,Defence land) , under theInchudi GP of Remuna isunder the unauthorised occu-pation of around 40-50 fami-lies.

The villagers, who are sup-posedly Bangladeshi migrants,claimed that they had beenresiding on the patch of landfor generations, alleging thatrecently the DRDO securitypersonnel had asked them to vacate the land all ofa sudden.

They besides demandingthat they should be rehabili-tated before eviction from theland also threatened to under-take agitation if evicted force-fully.

They maintained that theywould fight tooth and nail toprotect their habitation. If fur-ther threatened by the DRDOofficials, they saidthey wouldembark on indefinite hungerstrike before the collectorate .

“ We have been residing inthe patch of land for genera-tions and eking out our livingwith much difficulties. TheDRDO, instead of serving anylegal notice to us, sent the secu-rity staff twice who asked us tovacate the land . If we are to beevicted then we should berehabilitated,” demanded thevillagers.

Regarding their griev-ances, they submitted a mem-orandum to the districtauthorities requesting to stop

the eviction from the land. Following the petition by

the villagers, thetehsildarRemuna and addi-tional tehsildarrespectivelySanjay Rout and AninditaAcharya visited the village andinteracted with the affectedvillagers.

Sources said around 100acres of land belonging to theDRDO is under illegal occu-pation of Bangladeshisettlers.The DRDO now has a plan toconstruct a road through theland.

Sources further said theDefence on each occasion dur-ing testing of certain missiles,asked these villagers to shift totemporary locations and paidthem compensation as well.

Further, it is learnt thatthese settlers not only con-structed houses in the landillegally but also have under-taken prawn culture by creat-ing hatcheries.

First house rebuilt for Fani-hit in Puri villageThanks toSEEDS' effort

‘Will executevarious projectsin Pallahara’

ROURKELA: A person was killed while five ofhis associates, all suspected to be robbers, werenabbed after being hit by a truck while they weretrying to loot the vehicle late on Tuesday nightnear Rourkela.

Police said six persons on two motorcyclesfollowed an iron rod-laden truck on its way fromKalunga to Ghaziabad (UP) and attempted toloot the moving vehicle at Bagadega ghat.

While two of them managed to climb intothe moving truck, four others continued to chase

the truck with two motorcycles running paral-lel in either side of the truck, said Rourkela DSPAsim Panda.

When two looters who managed to get intothe truck tried to snatch valuables and moneyfrom the driver, the latter lost control of the vehi-cle and hit the other robbers on the motorcy-cles. Three of them sustained injuries, while onerobber died on the spot after being run over thetruck.

Two others had a narrow escape from themishap. After the incident, police reached thespot and admitted the injured to the hospital.After preliminary probe, police nabbed the twoabsconding robbers, who managed to escapeafter the incident. PNS

BHUBANESWAR: The StateBank of India (SBI) organiseda relief and rehabilitation campat the Puri SBI Holiday Homeon Wednesday for helpingFani-affected victims throughvarious initiatives and reliefmeasures.

SBI Managing Director PKGupta inaugurated the camp inthe presence of SBIBhubaneswar Local HeadOffice CGM Praveena Kala,GM (Network-I) CMNCharyulu and GM (Network-II) Bejoy Kujur attended thecamp. Gupta informed that all branches and ATMs wherein electricity is available in the affected area are functioning

normally. He also said that inthe process to rebuild Odisha,the SBI has already providedmore than 11,000 loans to cus-tomers for rehabilitation andresuming their livelihood activ-ities in Fani-affected districts.

The SBI has also providedmore than 1,300 loans to SelfHelp Groups (SHGs), over8,000 agri loan plus PMEGPand MUDRA loans. Besides, ithas restructured 200 loans tosmall and medium enterprisesand house building loans. TheSBI has also proposed to pro-vide loans to 500 fishermen forpurchasing boats and nets.

He also committed to pro-vide 19,000 mosquito nets todistrict authorities for furtherdelivery to the affected victimsin Puri. The SBI has also decid-ed to plant 15,000 trees in theaffected areas and each branchin Odisha would plant 100trees during the monsoon sea-son, Gupta added. PNS

BRAHMAPUR: Newly-elected ChhatrapurMLA Subash Chandra Behera has resigned fromthe post of President of Ganjam Zilla Parishad.He submitted his resignation letter to ZillaParishad chief and Ganjam Collector Kulange.

Now, the Government’s decision is awaitedas to who will be in charge of the ZP President.Behera has also resigned from ZP Membershipfrom ZP Zone No.19.

The Government is now contemplating toconduct by-election to both the above posts

soon. ZP Vice-President Snehalata Panda mayremain charge of the ZP.

There are a total of 69 ZP Zones in Ganjamdistrict, out of which 64 had elected BJD can-didates in 2017 while four BJP nominees and onefrom the Congress won. Now, the BJD has start-ed searching a suitable candidate for the ZP chiefpost. Lingaraj Pradhan, who representsSriramachandrapur panchayat is considered bymany as the most prospective candidate, sourcessaid. PNS

p Provides 11,000loans in Fani-hitdistricts

p To give loans to500 fishermen forboats, nets

SBI holds relief, rehabilitation camp in Puri

Bid to loot truck turns fatal near Rourkela

One robber killed,five others held Chhatrapur MLA quits as Ganjam ZP chief

Chandipur villagers nowin faceoff with DRDOOver eviction

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Even as severe cyclonic stormFani has damaged millions

of trees in the State, it is hightime we thought of cyclone-resilient trees as cyclones arelikely to be more frequent inthe near future so far as the cur-rent scenario of global warm-ing and Odisha’s vulnerabilityto climate change is concerned,said eminent environmentalistProfessor Radhamohan.

He was addressing a con-sultation programme on“Restoration of Greenery postFani” attended by senior offi-cials of Forest Department,Directorate of Horticulture,Coconut Development Boardand Cashew Research Station,environmentalists and civilsociety representatives to pre-pare a Green Road Map for theState. The consultation wasorganised by the Civil Society

Responds to FANI (CSRF), agroup of civil society organi-sations and the Centre forYouth and Social Development(CYSD).

He suggested that cyclone-resilient trees like neem, Patali,Saptaparni, Pesta Badam,Arjuna, Jamun, Kusum, Ou,Sunari, tamarind, AcaciaMangium, Chironjee, Champaand Kanchana should be con-sidered for avenue plantation.Besides, species like cashew,casurina, acacia auriculiformis,sissoo, bamboo and AmericanSilk Cotton can be cosideredfor commercial plantation. Healso urged the Government tothink about regeneration ofdamaged trees and replantationof uprooted trees.

Massive plantation througha convergence mode is theneed of the hour to compensatethe green loss, saidJagadananda, Founder and

Mentor of CYSD. This requirescollective action from theGovernment, civil societyorganisations, community-

based organizations and cor-porates.

He lamented that the treeswhich survived the 1999 Super

Cyclone were damaged by Fani.He also shed light on prepara-tion of bio-manure from plantresidue, setting up of decen-

tralised nursery and mass plan-tation drives. Besides, revivinglivelihood of affected peoplewho suffered crop loss and

other losses should be the pri-ority, he added.

Speaking on the roadmapof restoration by theGovernment, Dr SandeepTripathy, Principal ChiefConservator of Forest (PCCF)said, “Plantation drive will beundertaken on around bout6,000 hectares of land in thenext 5 years. The area includescoastal belt, forest land androad sides. Around 50 lakhseedlings will be distributedfree of cost and around 25 lakhseedlings out of this will beplanted in urban areas.

He proposed for plantationof casuarina trees that are dis-aster resilient and protect envi-ronment by reducing windvelocity.

E n v i r o n m e n t a l i s tSabarmatee urged the people ofaffected areas not to burn thefallen trees and leaves. FormerChief Secretary Jugal KishoreMohapatra focused on initia-tives for revival and transplan-tation of damaged plants. Hesuggested that funds fromCAMPA can be mobilized for

the purpose. Other speakers raised seri-

ous concerns over the colossalloss of green cover. They main-tained that the destructive galeuprooted at least 20 lakh treesin the capital city alone whilePuri, Khurda and Cuttack dis-tricts have been badly affectedby the storm. More than 50percent trees have been uproot-ed in Balukhanda sanctuary ofPuri coast alone.

Further, horticulture hasalso been badly affected inareas like Satapada,Krushnaprasad, Brahmagiri,Gop, Satyabadi, Nimapara,Pipili and several blocks of Puridistrict and in Bhubaneswarand Cuttack. Coconut andcashew plants, major source oflivelihoods in coastal region,are also severely damaged, theytold.

The consultation wasattended by Government offi-cials, civil society leaders, pan-chayat representatives fromthe affected areas, besides offi-cial of National Service Schemeand National Youth Project.

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Muslims’ month-longRamadan festival with

Eid-ul-Fitre on its last day wascelebrated peacefully across

the city on Wednesday.Thousands of Muslims

thronged various mosques,offered namaaz and exchangedEid Mubarak among them atdifferent places, including

Eidga Ground and BrahmapurStadium.

Brahmapur MP ChandraSekhar Sahu and MLA BikramKeshari Panda along with RMurali Mohan, SA Khallil, Md,

Khallil, Syed Razzak, SK Riyaz,SK Shabbu, Syed Imtiaz, IsmailShariff, HM Farid and MustafaShariff attended the festival.

The festival also observedat Pira Pithas at Military Lane,Bhapur Bazaar, Kampa Streetand Khaza Street. Muslimpreachers appealed to com-munity people to adhere to theprinciples and maintain peaceand brotherhood with non-Muslims.

����� 2��2���(��

The Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT),

Bhubaneswar on the occasionof the World Environment Dayorganised a plantation drive inits campus here on Wednesdayaimed at campaigning for greenculture and promoting a green-er ecosystem.

Inaugurated the camp, IITBBS Director Prof RV RajaKumar said the institute iscommitted to building a greencampus and this initiativewould help in creating more

awareness about the impor-tance of growing trees to prevent global warm-ing and thereby reducing pol-lution.

On the occasion, manyplant saplings of different typesand large size were planted bythe institute members, faculties,staffs and their family membersand students.

Among others, StudentAffairs Dean Prof VRPedireddi, Registrar Col (Dr)Subodh Kumar and Dr MSabarimalai Manikandan werepresent.

����� 2��2���(��

With their sights set on atop two finish which

enables them to make the nextround of the 2020 TokyoOlympic qualification, all eightparticipating teams expressedtheir readiness to face the FIHMen’s Series FinalsBhubaneswar Odisha to beginon Thursday (June 6) at theKalinga Hockey Stadium here.

Speaking at the all-Captains Press Conference onTuesday, Japan’s captainManabu Yamashita said, “Eventhough we have won the AsianGames and qualified for theOlympics, we want to win thistournament to gain worldranking points. That’s veryimportant for us as it decideswhich pool we will play in atthe Tokyo Olympics,” added

Manabu.India skipper Manpreet

Singh said, “After our Australiatour, when we assessed our per-formance we collective felt thatour finishing needed improve-ment. The past three weeks in

Bhubaneswar has been veryimportant for us in terms of getting these aspectsright.”

“We have also been work-ing on different variations inPCs having three good drag

flickers on our side. We areready for the tournament andexpect every team to give agood fight as all of us are eye-ing the Olympics,” Singh fur-ther said.

South Africa team empha-

sised that they want to com-pensate for a poor outing inDecember last year where theywere knocked out in the RoundRobin Stage.

Meanwhile, Russia whowould take on India in theirfirst match on Thursday said itwas an honour to play India intheir first match. “India is anexcellent team and it is anabsolute honour for us to playthe hosts in our first match. Weare looking forward to experi-ence that feeling and hope togive it our best,” Pavel Golubevof Russia.

USA skipper Ajai Dhadwalsaid his team’s fitness will be anx-factor in doing well at thetournament.

The team pays a lot ofattention to fitness and believesthis would be one of the factorsthat would help us succeed, headded.

Uzbekistan’s captain GolibKalandarov and Mexico’sMiguel Leon too expressedtheir excitement to take part inthis crucial tournament in theOlympic qualification pathway.

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Amobile phone explodedinjuring a minor boy crit-

ically at Badapalia village in theJharigaon area of Nabarangpurdistrict on Tuesday.

According to reports,Lachhman Bhunjia, the victim,had connected the cell phoneto a solar energy output sock-

et for charging it. Momentslater, the mobile phone explod-ed, as a result of which he sus-tained grievous injuries on hisface and belly.

Lachhman’s family mem-bers rushed him to theUmarkote Community Health Centre, where his con-dition was stated to be stable.

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Chief Secretary AP Padhiunderlined the importance

of coordination with the inter-national organisations whichrecently visited Fani-affectedareas and assessed the extensivedamage done to Governmentand private properties, cropsand animal resources and envi-ronment.

A high-level meetingorganised under the chair-manship of Padhi discussedwith representatives of theWorld Bank and UNO on thepost Fani construction andrestoration works.

D e v e l o p m e n tCommissioner Asit Tripathy,Agriculture ProductionCommissioner Gagan KumarDhal, Special ReliefCommissioner Bishnupada

Sethi and senior officers of dif-ferent departments were pre-sent.

The representatives of theWorld Bank and the UNO vis-ited the cyclone-ravaged areasextensively since May 15 andhave made detailed assessmentof the damages and the require-ments for reconstruction andrestoration work.

Agriculture and FarmersEmpowerment PrincipalSecretary Sourabh Garginformed the meeting thatabout 70 members of 11 organ-isatioins affiliated to the UNO,dividing themselves into vari-ous sectors, visited the affect-ed areas and assessed the quan-tum of damage in differentfields.

The organisations includ-ed UNDP, UNFPA, Unicef,WHO, World Food

Programme, Unesco, FAO,ILO, World Bank and ADB.

Construction of cyclone-resistant residential houses,private buildings, creation ofcyclone-resistant infrastruc-ture, creation of coastal safetyzone, alternative livelihood inthe coastal areas, waterresources, health and sanitationand supply of electricity werethe topics of discussion in themeeting.

Chief Secretary Padhistressed on the rescheduling ofthe ADB and World Bank pro-jects in the State and under-lined the necessity of setting upan international calamity insti-tute in the State, besides maintaining proper coordination with the interna-tional organisations in mattersof reconstruction and restora-tion work.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on

Wednesday said that the mas-sive mandate in favour of theBJP was the verdict in favourof the policies and pro-grammes of the StateGovernment.

While addressing "JanAabhar Rally" at the historicSeri Manch in Mandi, theChief Minister thanked thepeople of the state for ensur-ing historic victory of the BJPin Lok Sabha elections.

He said that the state BJPnot only won all the four par-liamentary seats, but alsomade a record by registeringlandslide victory in all the 68assembly constituencies ofHimachal.

He said that the vote shareof the BJP in the state wasnearly seventy percent, whichwas highest in the country.

In the last Lok Sabha elec-tions, BJP got about 15 lakhvotes, whereas, in the recent-ly concluded elections, theparty got about 32 lakh votes.The credit of this goes to eachand every BJP workers of thestate, Thakur said.

He also said that the peo-ple of the country and the statehad made their mind to againhandover the reins of thecountry to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. The fifteenmonth tenure of the presentState Government has beenfull of achievements andaccomplishments, he added.

Thakur further said thatperturbed by the landslideand unprecedented victory ofthe BJP, the Congress leadersinstead of taking the people’s

verdict humbly, are blamingthe EVMs for their humiliat-ing defeat. It was surprisingthat when the Congress suc-ceeded to win in Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh, the EVMs werefine, but when BJP wins, theseleaders blames EVMs for theirdefeat which speaks of thedouble standards of theCongress leaders, he added.

The Chief Minister alsosaid that one of the reasons ofthe humiliating defeat of the

Congress was the derogatoryand unmindful allegationsmade by the Congress chiefRahul Gandhi against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

The people of the countrycompleted discarded theseremarks and voted in favour ofthe BJP, he said.

He also thanked the PrimeMinister for giving place toMP Anurag Thakur in hisCabinet.

Various social, cultural,religious and political organ-

isations felicitated the ChiefMinister on the occasion.

State BJP chief SatpalSingh Satti said that theseLok Sabha Election was a bat-tle between two ideologies,one committed for making astrong India and another play-ing politics of opportunism.

He said that defeat ofCongress national president inthe Lok Sabha election fromAmethi was a verdict of thepeople against politics ofopportunism.

�$��1�������� ��� ���� ��������2$6����������'���������7������������� ����� �����' ���������8����������$1Chandigarh: Punjab ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singhon Wednesday urged the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toconsider agriculture loan waiv-er at national level on priority, asa one-time solution to help thedistressed farmers. At the sametime, the Chief Minister alsosought from the Prime Ministermodification in the PradhanMantri Fasal Bima Yojna(PMFBY).

In two separate letters,underlining the need to safeguardthe interests of Punjab’s farmers,

the Chief Minister has stressedthat a one-time agriculture debtwaiver for farmers at the nation-al level was essential, while call-ing for PMFBY modifications tomake the pro-farmer initiativemore effective in transformingthe rural economy.

The relief given by thePunjab Government “from itslimited resources” was not ade-quate and needed to be supple-mented by the UnionGovernment, he pointed whileseeking the loan waiver on anational level. PNS

,������9���� �1����� $����$����� ��������,�Dehradun: UttarakhandFinance Minister Prakash Pant,who was battling with cancer forsome time, passed away in Texasin the US on Wednesday. He was59. He had recently gone to theUS for treatment.

Born in Pithoragarh, Pantlater became an MLA from thedistrict. He was also a pharma-cist by profession.

In February, Pant had faint-ed in the Vidhan Sabha whilepresenting the state budget for2019-20. Thereafter, he washardly seen in public.

Before he left for the US,Pant handed over his portfolios-- Finance and ParliamentaryAffairs -- to Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat, a gov-ernment official said.

Pant also held the Financeportfolio in the previous BJPgovernment in 2007-12. He wasalso appointed the Speaker of theinterim Assembly, formedimmediately after the hill statewas carved out on November 9,2000. IANS

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Pakistan-based terror groupJaish-e-Mohammad chief

Maulana Masood Azhar haswarned his outfit’s jehadis oper-ating in Jammu & Kashmiragainst falling in what hetermed as ‘Female CompanionTrap’ and leaving behind theirfootprint which makes it easi-er for the security forces totrack and eliminate them.

The warning came duringone of the Khutbas (sermons)delivered every day during theongoing Ramzan by Azhar,proscribed by the UN as a glob-al terrorist.

The sophisticated termi-nology, Female CompanionTrap, for moral turpitude of thejehadis indicates that Azhar’s qutbas are also beingdrafted by Pakistan’s covertagency Inter-ServicesIntelligence, sources said.

Banned terror groups likethe JeM and Lashkar-e-Tayyebawork as terror affiliates of thePakistan Army-ISI combinewith the objective of bleedingIndia through low intensityconflicts in the form of terror-ist attacks against Indian targetsin Jammu & Kashmir and inthe hinterland.

“Just do not go after one ortwo beautiful women and leavebehind footprint for the Indiansecurity forces. Jehad is a correctIslamic objective and martyr-dom for the cause will get you72 women in heaven,” Azhartold his followers recently.

The directive by Azhar isan indication that his cohorts

in Jammu & Kashmir indulgein acts of moral turpitude andexploitation women, including minors.

A number of top terrorists,including Burhan Wani andZakir Musa, are believed tohave been killed while beingwith their female compan-ions/girlfriends.

Counter-terrorism expertDr Rituraj Mate said, “JeM bosshas asked its cadres to evade thesecurity forces and avoid anycontact with women. But themindset of the jehadis, alwayson the run, is such that they willview even an appreciative eyecontact from women can trig-ger an attack on them. Given thelatest diktat from Azhar to thejehadis, the attacks on womenin Jammu & Kashmir may risein the coming days.”

There is a need by the forceson the ground to factor in thedevelopment and incorporate itin the security calculus in orderto minimise attacks againstwomen in the State, Mate added.

The outfit has lost its entireleadership in the Valley fol-lowing sustained operationsby the security forces in Jammu& Kashmir and the Jaish isfinding it difficult to find freshrecruits especially in the back-drop of the airstrikes by theIndian Air Force against theoutfit’s suicide bombing train-ing facility in Balakot insidePakistan. As a counter to thedepleting base and diminishedrecruitment ground in theValley, the JeM has been seek-ing to shift its base to theJammu region of the State butwithout much success.

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Anew report has indicatedthat our kids are gasping

for fresh air with as many asone lakh children under age 5succumbing to toxic pollutantsevery year. The bad air risk hasbeen found to be higher for girlchild as 9.6 out of 10,000females die before attaining fiveyears of age.

“Air pollution is responsi-ble for 12.5 per cent of alldeaths in India. Its impact onchildren is equally worrying.Over 1,00,000 children belowthe age of five die due to bad airin the country,” said the reportreleased on the WorldEnvironment Day onWednesday. The Day’s themethis year is ‘Beat air pollution’.

The report has been pre-pared by environment thinktank Centre for Science andEnvironment (CSE).

The think tank said theGovernment’s schemes to fightair pollution have not been suc-cessful yet, a fact also accept-ed and acknowledged by the

Environment Ministry.Earlier this year, global

reports on air pollutionrevealed that over 1.2 millionpeople died in India due to airpollution in 2017. According toa report by Greenpeace, NewDelhi is the most polluted cap-ital city in the world.

In 2013, India had pledged

to phase out non-electric vehi-cles and achieve a target ofcumulative sale of 15-16 mil-lion hybrid and electric vehiclesby 2020.

However, as per the CSEreport, the number of e-vehi-cles till May 2019 was 0.28 mil-lion, much behind the set goal.“While India was one of the

first countries to pledge thephasing out of non-electricvehicles, its national scheme topromote the sale of e-vehiclesis yet to pick up.

“Against the target of 5-6million e-vehicles by 2020, thecounty had 0.28 million vehi-cles till May 2019,” the SoE, anannual quantified statementof environmental statistics andanalysis, said.

The study, which has cov-ered wide range of topics, alsosaid that the country is yet toidentify indicators to track its cli-mate change preparedness, aconcern which is under theUnited Nations SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDG) 2030.

“Climate change poses thebiggest economic threat in theworld today and featuresprominently in the UNSustainable DevelopmentGoals 2030. With just 10 yearsto go, India is yet to identifyindicators to track its climatechange preparedness. Of the 13SDGs the country is tracking,indicators exist for only a hand-ful of the targets,” it said.

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The massive search and res-cue operation for the miss-

ing AN-32 aircraft of the IAFcontinued for the third day onWednesday. However,inclement weather slowed downthe efforts involving scores ofaircraft and helicopters of theIAF, Navy and Army besidesground troops of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)patrolling the likely area wherethe plane was feared to havecrashed. The Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO)also deployed its satellites.

The AN-32 transport planewith 13 onboard went missingon Monday afternoon aftertaking off from Jorhat in Assamfor Mechuka advanced landingground in Arunachal Pradesh.The plane took off at 12.25 pmand lost radio contact at 1.00pm. The IAF launched the res-cue operation after the planefailed to land in Mechuka at thescheduled time of 1.25 pm. Theflying time between Jorhat andMechuka is about 50 minutesand distance is nearly 206 kmsas the crow flies. IAF EasternCommand chief Air MarshalRD Mathur on Tuesday visitedJorhat and met the families ofmissing personnel.

Mechuka landing groundlocated in West Siang district ofArunachal Pradesh is the life-line for troops guarding theLine of Actual Control (LAC)facing China as the planes andhelicopters ferry personnel,food and ammunition. TheLAC is about 30 kms as thecrow flies from Mechuka.Incidentally, an AN-32 hadcrashed near Mechuka in June2009 killing all 13 passengers.

As regards the ongoingsearch operation, officials said

here on Wednesday two SU-30s, two C-130J, two MI-17helicopters of the IAF besidesone advanced light helicopterof the army and one light heli-copter of IAF are involved.Moreover, a P-8 I long rangereconnaissance aircraft of theNavy and satellites of the ISROare also mapping the area in aneffort to locate the aircraft.Thick vegetation and inclementweather is making the task dif-ficult, they said.

The main focus, at present,is on an area forming triangle,including Along, Tato andPayum in Mechuka with planesand helicopters flying sorties.Explaining the reason behindconcentrating on these threeareas, they said the areas fall inthe flight path of the aircraft.Moreover, after it lost radio con-tact , the plane, which obvious-ly could not have turned back,may have continued on thedesignated route and may havegone down there, officials said.

The entire area is dividedinto air lanes with the specifiedplanes and helicopters flyingsorties in their demarcatedzones to and fro many times topick up any signal from ground.Unfortunately, the emergencylocator transmitter fitted onthe AN-32 has so far not emit-ted any signal, they said.

One AN-32 with 29onboard went missing in 2016while on a flight from Chennaito Port Blair and is yet to betraced. It is feared to gone downin Bay of Bengal.

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The Election Commission(EC) is considering making

a rule that provides for prose-cution of a voter if a complaint of EVM and VVPATmachine malfunction turnsout to be false.

According to ChiefElection Commissioner SunilArora, now the current elec-tions are over and theCommission will probably bediscussing it internally whetherit should be modified or softened. “We may revisit it,”he said.

Arora was responding to aquestion on the penal provisionwhich many feel is unwarrant-ed. A voter who claims that theelectronic voting machine(EVM) or the paper trailmachine did not recorded hisor her vote correctly is allowedto cast a test vote under Rule 49MA of the Conduct of ElectionRules.

But, if the voter fails toprove the mismatch, poll offi-cials can initiate action against

the complainant under sec-tion 177 of the Indian PenalCode (IPC). Section 177applies in the case as it dealswith giving false submission.

The IPC section states thatthe person “shall be punishedwith simple imprisonment fora term which may extend to sixmonths, or with fine whichmay extend to one thousandrupees, or with both...” The EChas all along maintained that ifthere is no penal provision,people may make false claims.The penal provision is used as“an exception very very veryrarely”, Arora said.

He said the intention of theprovision must have been to“discourage” those who want to“disrupt” the electoral processby making such complaints.

In April, the SupremeCourt had sought a responsefrom the poll panel on a pleaseeking setting aside the rulewhich provides for prosecutionof an elector if the complaintalleging malfunctioning ofEVMs and VVPAT machineseventually turns out to be false.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi took noteof the plea, which alleged thatRule 49MA of ‘The Conduct ofElections Rules’ was unconsti-tutional as it criminalisesreporting of malfunctioningof EVMs and Voter VerifiedPaper Audit Trail (VVPAT)machines.

The plea alleged thatputting the onus on the electorin cases of arbitrary deviantbehaviour of machines used inelection process, infringes upona citizen’s right to freedom ofexpression under theConstitution.

The petition said thatpresently, the burden of proof,rests on the elector for report-ing any deviant behaviour ofEVMs and VVPAT machines,who will face criminal chargesirrespective of whether thecomplaint was truthful andhonest.

According to EC officials,it takes 20 to 30 minutes to gothrough and settle complaintsabout VVPAT machines show-ing incorrect result.

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Expressing concern over thesafety and well-being of the

IAF personnel on board the ill-fated AN-32 aircraft that wentmissing in Arunachal Pradeshafter taking off from Assam’sJorhat, the Congress onWednesday questioned theGovernment on why it had notallocated resources to replacethe obsolete fleet.

Congress’s chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala said the DefenceMinister must answer whymeasures were not taken afterthe Indian Air Force (IAF) lostan AN-32 aircraft en route tothe Andaman and Nicobarislands, which was not tracked.

“Government must tell —Why was upgradation of AN-32 not completed despite Indiaand Ukraine agreement of2009?” Surjewala asked.

He said the Governmentand the Defence Ministrymust also answer, “Why was

the AN-32 flying on thattreacherous terrain when wehave a better aircraft to fly onthat route. Why has theGovernment not allocated suf-ficient Defence budget toreplace the AN-32 fleet.”

“The Government andDefence Minister must alsoanswer that despite a similaraccident earlier of losing an AN-32 aircraft en route to Andamanand Nicobar islands and whichwas not tracked, why have mit-

igating measures not been takenby Defence Ministry,” theCongress leader asked.

A massive search opera-tion involving a large fleet ofplanes, choppers and groundforces was underway and satel-lite imagery being used totrace the AN-32 transportplane of the IAF, two days afterit went missing near the thick-ly-forested Menchuka inArunachal Pradesh.

Aircraft equipped withadvanced sensors including C-130J, AN-32 and the IndianNavy’s long-range maritimereconnaissance aircraft, P8I,were deployed, besides Mi-17and ALH helicopters of theArmy, to locate the missingplane, officials said.

The Russian-origin trans-port aircraft, with 13 people onboard, went missing onMonday afternoon, around33 minutes after taking offfrom Jorhat in Assam forMenchuka, near the borderwith China.

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On the occasion of theWorld Environment Day

on Wednesday, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi underlinedthe need to live in harmonywith nature for a better futureand reminded that plantingsaplings is not enough andpeople have to take care of it tillit becomes a tree.

“Our planet and environ-ment is something we all cher-ish greatly. Today on#WorldEnvironmentDay, wereiterate our commitment toensure a cleaner planet,” thePrime Minister tweeted.

However, Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi was notimpressed with theGovernment’s efforts in savingthe environment, which he said,had degraded and called formaking it a political issue so thatit gets the importance it deserves.Taking to Facebook, he said mil-lions of Indians are suffering andeven dying as a direct conse-quence of environmental degra-dation and the Government’s“unwillingness” to address theseissues on a war footing.

“Our planet and environ-ment is something we all cher-ish greatly. Today on#WorldEnvironmentDay, wereiterate our commitment toensure a cleaner planet,” thePrime Minister tweeted and

also posted a short video sayingthat planting saplings is notenough and people have to takecare of it till it becomes a tree.

On the occasion, UnionEnvironment Minister PrakashJavadekar planted saplings withcricketer Kapil Dev and actorJackie Shroff as part of the new#selfiewithsapling campaign.

“I appeal to the people toplant a sapling, click a picturewith it and post it on socialmedia using ‘#SelfieWithSapling’. We need such initiativesas we are creating a carbon sink,”the Minister said, adding that the“Modi Government believesthat environment is not just aGovernment programme but apeople’s programme.”

Every year, WorldEnvironment Day is organisedaround a theme that focusesattention on a particularlypressing environmental con-cern. The theme for 2019, “BeatAir Pollution,” is a call to actionto combat this global crisis.

Javadekar, who took chargeas the environment minister onSaturday, said ‘jan bhagidari’(people’s participation) is inte-

gral to tackling environmentalissues, and it has to be a peo-ple’s movement.

Recently, the ministryreleased a music video for thisyear’s theme of WorldEnvironment Day, “HawaAane De”. The video featuresBollywood actors like AkshayKumar and Rajkummar Rao,among others. Renownedsingers like Shaan, ShankarMahadevan and SunidhiChauhan lent their voices tothe song.

In Bhubaneswar, RourkelaSteel Plant (RSP) said it hasadopted a three pronged strat-egy to protect and preserve theenvironment and produce steelin harmony with nature. Thestrategy includes: Progressiveadoption of environmentfriendly new technologies, envi-ronmental monitoring andspreading environmental aware-ness, RSP said in a statement onthe World Environment Day.

RSP, the first Indian SteelPlant to adopt environmentfriendly and energy efficientLD technology in early 60’s, isgiving top most prioritytowards adopting the latesttechnology available for mak-ing of green steel, it said.

With a view to createawareness and to take timelyaction to protect the environ-ment, the employees of IndiraGandhi National Centre for the

Arts (IGNCA), too cametogether to celebrate the daywith a difference by showcas-ing an exhibition of art worksmade out of waste material instock on the campus of theorganisation.

Inaugurated by IGNCAMember Secretary DrSachchidanand Joshi, the pro-ject has been conceptualised byKaladarsana Division with aneffort to work at an institutionallevel to bring a change amongstthe employees working here.

However, NationalCommission for ScheduledTribes (NCST) chairman NandKumar Sai took the opportu-nity to talk about the griev-ances about the tribal peoplesaying that they were being dri-ven out of forests and nobodyis willing to talk about them onWorld Environment Day.

He also suggested thatMPs hold an intensive discus-sion on the issue of pollutionon the first day of the BudgetSession of Parliament that isscheduled to begin on June 17.

“People are dying due tothe oppressive heat. You arecutting down trees in the nameof development and drivingtribal people out of their home.These people live close tonature, worship and protect it.But no one is willing to talkabout their plight on WorldEnvironment Day,” Sai said.

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Page 6: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

Since the Lok Sabha results wereannounced, the Indian media hasbeen speaking about rebooting,something you do when you changeyour Operating System (OS) — new

and high expectations about the newGovernment probably explain the term andModi 2.0. Though analysts usually think ofit in terms of better control about internalsecurity (with Amit Shah in command ofHome Ministry) or improvement of defencepreparedness with the trusted No 2 (RajnathSingh) as Raksha Mantri, many other fieldsneed ‘rebooting’, too.

There is, however, one domain whichis never mentioned by the commentators— it is the opening and re-organisation ofour historical records. A reboot or revampis absolutely crucial in this domain, espe-cially if India wants to become a respect-ed world player.

Remember the standoff at the tri-junc-tion between Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan dur-ing June-August 2017? Day after day,Beijing used a historical argument — the1890 Convention signed between the Britishand the Manchus, without any reference tothe main stakeholders, the Tibetans. ForBeijing, it was an occasion to conveniently“erase” several posterior agreements, partic-ularly the 1914 Simla Convention, duringwhich the north-eastern border of India wasdefined (McMahon Line).

At that time, nobody countered China onthe 1890 Convention, which spoke of an un-surveyed place called ‘Gipmochi’, but it wasonly in 1956 that a tri-junction was demarkedon a map after a bold officer from the IndianFrontier Administrative Service, TS Murty,accompanied by staff from the Survey of India,found out that the tripoint was at Batang-laand not at all Gyemochen, located a few milessouth of the physical tri-junction (Gipmochiwas a mis-spelling for Gyemochen).

The Chinese could bluff the Indianmedia for nearly three months with their1890 Convention. With the current reboot-ing, one can only hope that deep changeswill soon take place in this domain. A tellingexample is the Sikkim Papers.

Soon after the merger in 1975, theresponsibility for the Himalayan State shift-ed from the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Anacquaintance, who as a young diplomat wasposted in Gangtok in the political officer’soffice, recalled that at the end of 1975, hespent months going through all the histor-ical records kept in Gangtok relating to theperiod between 1885 and 1975 — it wasindeed the Memory of the Himalaya. Oncehis work was over, the officer was told to dis-patch the papers to Delhi — four lakh pre-cious files were moved in six trucks to Delhiunder CRPF escort.

South Block was keen to keep the papersbut other officers, probably from theIntelligence Bureau, prevailed and the cor-pus was taken away. Since then, these Sikkim

Papers are missing in action —they would have an immensehistorical value today to provethat India and Tibet had a dif-ferent relation than the one por-trayed by China. It is just symp-tomatic of a lack of interest inhistorical issues in India.

What can be done? Leavingthe Sikkim Papers aside for amoment, the first thing to do isto reopen the historical divisionin the MEA. It existed till the1990s when an officer decidedto close it down, “We don’t needone more division”. As a result,the MEA has today only a“Boundary Cell” manned by aLt Col from the Survey of India.It is insufficient when the coun-try is facing so many boundarydisputes (and will face more inthe months and years to come).

The Division needs to beheaded by a professional histo-rian and not a foreign serviceofficer bound by short tenures.When one reads some of thenotes prepared by the historicaldivision available in theNational Archives of India(NAI), one is surprised by thein-depth historical backgroundmaterial provided to thedeciders to take decision andinform the Indian public better.

The Ministry of Defencefaces a similar problem. Therecords of the Army, for exam-ple, can’t be kept by a few offi-cers posted for a short term,even if these officers areextremely dedicated. Only a

professional from outside theArmy hierarchy can provide theprofessionalism and continuityrequired.

The same argument appliesto other Ministries, particular-ly Home Affairs. One of theproblems is that very few schol-ars have the necessary knowl-edge to go through the files todecide if there is anything whichcould jeopardise India’s ‘securi-ty’ or ‘national interests’. In myexperience of years of workingin the archives, particularlywith the Nehru Papers at theNehru Memorial Museum &Library (NMML), very fewdocuments (perhaps one out oftens of thousands) would needto remain ‘classified’.

Of course, there are the‘glamourous’ cases, ie, theHenderson-Brooks-Bhagatreport on 1962 or the report intothe mysterious death of formerPrime Minister Lal BahadurShastri in 1966 in Tashkent.

In the latter case, theGovernment was ordered by theChief InformationCommissioner to “consider thefundamental right to know anddemand of the people, (and) todeclassify (them), eitherthrough an expert committee orby any other process, to get themystery probed and resolved”.Nothing happened.

The ‘right to know’ appliesto all papers more than 25-years-old. It is not that Indiahas no law; the Public Records

Act exists, but unfortunately,laws seem to have been mademore for the ‘common man’than for the Governmentoffices. It is sad!

Apart from separate divi-sions in important Ministries,what is today required is anOffice of the Historian, direct-ly under the Prime Minister’sOffice with a large oversightover the different historicaldivisions, sections or desks. Itneeds to be headed by a seniorreputed historian, with a teamof scholars, who will make surethat the different divisions workproperly and follow the lawsabout declassification. This will,of course, have to be closelycoordinated with the NAI andother State archives.

The historian, or whatevername is given to the officer,should be of Secretary to theGovernment rank and shouldbe able to coordinate withother Ministries and supervisedigitalisation of records, jointindexing and timely transfer tothe NAI. The historian shouldbe supported by an advisoryboard of senior historians,diplomats, bureaucrats andArmy generals, who could helphim to decide for difficultcases. Would this happen, it willbe a great re-booting. It wouldshow that India has become amature Republic and the ‘rightto know’ is respected.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Hindi Hungama” (June 5).To impose Hindi, Hindu orHindustan as the ideals of Indianculture is nothing but an attemptto thwart our great legacy. Onbeing asked about his views onHindi being the common lan-guage of India, Sri Aurobindohad said, “English will be allright and even necessary if Indiais to be an international state. Inthat case, English has to be themedium of expression, espe-cially as it is now replacingFrench as a world language.”

Unfortunately, constantefforts have been made toimpose Hindi on the people andto create a misconception as ifHindi is our national language.Such attempts ignore the factthat our Constitution does notmention a national language.Indeed, India, with as many as22 officially recognised lan-guages, cannot have a nationallanguage. English should, there-fore, be recognised as a link lan-guage of our country withoutany prejudice.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Review, revamp and re-emerge”(June 5) by Kalyani Shankar. Itis clear by now that the Congressunder Rahul Gandhi suffered acrushing defeat in the 2019 LokSabha elections. The Congresssuffered because though it put

forth a progressive manifestopromising jobs and a minimumincome, but it just didn’t appealto the voters. It lacked vision andideology.

Second, post the by-pollwins in Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh, theparty became complacent.

Third, Rahul’s repeatedremarks of chowkidar chor hai to

dent Prime Minister NarendraModi’s image and constant ref-erences to the Rafale deal at thebeginning and conclusion ofhis speech didn’t excite anyoneexcept possibly the committedCongress voters attending hisrallies.

Fourth, the induction ofPriyanka Gandhi Vadra at thelast moment made no impact.

Above all, the Congress lacksany ideology and has failed as anorganistaion. To regain its influ-ence, it needs to decentralise andbuild broad-based social coali-tions at the State level.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Sir — With summers at its peak,several villages are facing watercrisis. Apart from Marathwadaand Latur districts ofMaharashtra, which are in focusalmost every year, there aremany other places that are fac-ing acute water shortage.

States must shun politicsand instead help the peopleaffected by water problems.With the monsoon fastapproaching, it is the right timeto spread awareness about sav-ing rainwater and water harvest-ing. Rainwater harvesting andbuilding dams should be someof the steps that should be takenon a priority basis.

AnishVia email

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Page 7: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

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Among the many problems that engulfJammu & Kashmir, regional discriminationtops the list. Not very long ago, there was a

misconception in the country that Jammu &Kashmir means Kashmir. Many official documentsof the Government, as also the media, very oftenreferred to the State as Kashmir. Even the impor-tant organs of the State, which included police,administrative services and broadcasting services,are even today referred to as the Kashmir PoliceService, Kashmir Administrative Services, RadioKashmir and DD Kashir. The media, while report-ing incidents in the Jammu region, still headlinesthem as happening in Kashmir. This misconcep-tion has been created deliberately by the Kashmirirulers, who have ruled the State ever since its acces-sion with India, to ensure Kashmiri dominance overthe other two regions of the State.

Both Jammu and Ladakh have opposed theKashmiri hegemony ever since early 1950s whenthe Constituent Assembly was formed and there-after, the Sheikh Abdullah-led Government beganto rule the State. The Kashmir-centric leadership,with the blessings of Congress-led NehruGovernment at the Centre, began systematicdegradation of Jammu region in order to expresstheir annoyance against the Maharaja and Dogras.Ladakh was also taken for granted and neglectedfor being a Buddhist majority area.

However, Sheikh Abdullah, who enjoyedabsolute power, institutionalised the hegemonythrough arbitrary allotment of seats among the threeregions of the State when the Constituent Assemblywas convened in 1951. The elections were held arbi-trarily without any formal authority to conduct elec-tions and women were debarred from enrolling asvoters. A total of 100 seats were delineated for theConstituent Assembly. While 25 seats werereserved for the residents of Pak-occupied areas(POJK), elections were held for the remaining 75seats. There was no delimitation done, nor any yard-sticks were laid down for the distribution of seatsto the three different regions of the State. The fig-ure of 75 was also borrowed from the Maharaja towhom goes the credit of establishing in 1934 thefirst elected legislature known as Prajasabha,which had 75 members (both elected and nomi-nated, including the members of the Maharaja’sCabinet). Out of the 75 seats for which electionswere to be held to elect the Constituent Assembly,40 were allotted to Kashmir, 33 to Jammu and twoto Ladakh.

To ensure control of the legislature, SheikhAbdullah played this fraud with the people ofJammu and Ladakh, ignoring the basic principleof proportional representation since Jammu hadlarger area and almost equal population withKashmir. Though Ladakh had the largest area, itwas sparsely populated. Jammu Praja Parishad, apolitical party in Jammu, objected to the discrim-ination and boycotted the elections. The NationalConference (NC) won all 75 seats and SheikhAbdullah was elected as the Prime Minister of theState. The last session of the Constituent Assemblywas held on January 25, 1957, and the newConstitution came into force from January 26. Abicameral Legislature was envisaged for the State.

Meanwhile, a delimitation commission wasconstituted in India in 1952. However, J&K has notconstituted a single commission till date while the

rest of the country has benefitted on four occasionsso far. In J&K, delimitation has been done only oncein 1995, ordered by the then Governor Gen KVKrishna Rao. Delimitation Commission is taskedwith redrawing boundaries of various Assembly andLok Sabha constituencies based on the last Censusof 2011. In view of Article 370, the DelimitationCommission ordered by the Government of Indiadoes not have jurisdiction over J&K. But no suchcommission has been ordered by the StateGovernment as well for obvious reasons.

Till 1988, the strength of the Assembly con-tinued to be 100 with 75 elected members. Thenumber was increased to 111 vide the Constitutionof Jammu & Kashmir (20th Amendment) Act of1988. Of these, 24 seats are designated for areasunder illegal occupation of Pakistan and remainofficially vacant as per section 48 of the Constitutionand are not taken into account for voting and decid-ing quorum of the House. Elections are, thus, heldfor 87 seats, of which Kashmir has the majorityshare of 46 seats, Jammu 37 seats and Ladakh fourseats. Once again, region-wise distribution of seatswas done arbitrarily to ensure continuation ofKashmiri dominance. The term of the Assemblyis six years, contrary to the rest of the country wherethe legislatures have a five-year term. There is nojustification for the same except to emphasise theState’s presumed special status and flaunt Kashmiriidentity. However, the delineation for additional 11seats was done only in 1995 — on orders of the thenGovernor, by Justice (retd) KK Gupta, who allot-ted six seats to Kashmir and five to Jammu.Logically, the next delimitation should have beenheld in 2005.

Following in the footsteps of his father, FarooqAbdullah, who returned in 1996 as the ChiefMinister, played the biggest fraud by passing a res-olution in the State Assembly, freezing delimitationtill 2026. Concerned with the rise of growing angeramong the people of Jammu and Ladakh regionsagainst Kashmiri dominance, Farooq amended theState’s Constitution through 29th amendment of2002, inserting a new para in Section 47 (3) of the

Constitution, freezing fresh delimitation till firstCensus taken after the year 2026. As a matter offact, no fresh delimitation is possible till 2031because that is when theCensus would be due after2026, a master stroke of Farooq to ensure contin-uation of Kashmiri hegemony. While Section 49grants political reservation to SCs, the STs (Gujjars,Bakarwals, Gaddis), which form more than 12 percent of the State’s population, are denied the polit-ical reservations. Going by Farooq’s dubious mas-ter stroke, justice cannot be provided to the tribalcommunities of the State till 2031. Around 24 seatsearmarked for the people of POJK serve no pur-pose except to strengthen our claim on the illegal-ly occupied part of the State. About eight-10 seatsout of these should also be allotted to Jammu sinceall POJK refugees are settled in Jammu region.Using his guile and influence, Sheikh Abdullah didnot let any of the refugees from Mirpur-Muzaffarabad belt settle in Kashmir though goingby geographical proximity, Kashmir should havebeen the natural habitat of refugees fromMuzaffarabad. The displaced community ofKashmiri Pandits should also have reserved seatsin Kashmir.

Der ayad durust ayad (better late than never)is a popular saying. The initiative being taken byModi 2.0 Government, with Amit Shah headingthe vital Home Ministry, is a welcome step to endregional discrimination and dominance of one par-ticular region over the other two. This is vital tobridge the growing divide between the three regionsto ensure unity of the State. By empowering the peo-ple of Jammu and Ladakh, vital stakeholders andseparatist forces will be hit hard and pave way forreturn of peace and normalcy to the troubled State.Apart from removing inequity and anomaly ofregional disparity long suffered by people of Jammu,who form 44 per cent population of the State andoccupy 26 per cent of the State’s total area as perthe 2011 Census, fresh delimitation will also pro-vide representation to all reserved categories in theState Assembly.

It is not intended to raise finger on the valid-

ity of the Census 2011, but the people need to knowtwo glaring observations in the Census that ques-tion the large gap of about 15 lakh between the pop-ulations of two regions. First, the entire migrato-ry population of Gujjar, Bakerwal and Gaddis thataccount for 12 per cent of the total population(14,93,299) and is a floating population has beenincluded in the population of Kashmir region.Second, about two lakh Kashmiri Pandit popula-tion is also included in Kashmir’s population. Thefact is known world over. Kashmiri Panditsmigrated in the early 1990s and 66 per cent of themare staying in the Jammu region. The rest are divid-ed between Delhi and other parts of the country.Hardly a few thousands Kashmiri Pandits contin-ue to stay in Kashmir. The point to highlight is thatif factual position is taken, Jammu region has morepopulation than Kashmir.

Also, while constituencies in Kashmir are delin-eated for a population of 35000-40000, many inJammu have an electorate of lakh plus. WhileKashmiris want to heap the benefit of floating pop-ulation to show that the region is more populatedthan Jammu, when it comes to granting them polit-ical reservations, they deny them the same. Thisexplains the political dynamics of State which wereheavily skewed in favour of Kashmir. Since the Stateis under President’s Rule, legislative powers of thelegislature are vested with the Indian Parliamentand executive authority is with the President inaccordance with Article 356 of the Constitution.Therefore, in order to amend Section 47 of the State’sConstitution, Parliament’s approval will be need-ed based on which the President will issue thePresidential Order, paving way for the Constitutionof a Delimitation Commission. In order to protectmulti-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious andinclusive ethos of State, it is necessary to bridge thewidening distrust between the three regions.Regional disparities have to end first before othermeasures can be taken. All eyes and hopes of thepeople of Jammu and Ladakh are on Modi 2.0.

(The writer is a Jammu-based political commen-tator, columnist, security and strategic analyst)

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Another of the five-yearly anniver-saries has rolled around and it’stime to write another think-

piece about the long-term meaning ofthe massacre on Beijing’s TiananmenSquare on June 4, 1989. But 30 yearslater, what is there left to say?

Great changes were alreadyunderway in the Communist-ruledparts of Europe in 1989. MikhailGorbachev, the reformist Soviet leader,visited Beijing after the students hadtaken over the square in late April andhe obviously thought that the sameprocess was underway in China. Maybeit was, but it was violently aborted —and it has still not recovered.

That’s not what people thought atthe time. Hundreds, perhaps thousands

of students were killed on the square— the soldiers burned the bodies in amassive pyre right on the square, sothere was never an accurate count.Hundreds or thousands more died else-where because similar demonstrationswere put down in every major Chinesecity. And we all thought: This will neverbe forgotten.

The students weren’t counter-rev-olutionaries. Their hero, the manwhose death they were honouringwhen they occupied the square, was HuYaobang, a life-long communist, a vet-eran of the Long March, who believedthat it was high time to ease up on thecontrols four decades after the commu-nists took power in China.

For that Hu, the then GeneralSecretary of the Chinese communistparty, had been forced into retirementby the party’s hard-liners in 1987. Buteverybody knew what he wanted andwhen he died two years later, the stu-dents came out to demand it again:Government accountability, freedom ofthe press, freedom of speech and freetrade unions.

The dominant conservative factionin the Chinese communist party

responded by killing them and then setout to erase all popular memory of whathad happened. It can’t be done, said allthe journalists outside China: They willnever be forgiven. The crowds will beback on the streets one of these daysand there will be a great reckoning andradical change.

Well, not. Thirty years later, mostChinese millennials are ignorant ofexactly what happened in 1989. Theolder generation remember, but theydare not mention it in public and theyare a dwindling minority. JournalistLouisa Lim has accurately describedcontemporary China as the “People’sRepublic of Amnesia”.

Why did this happen and has thenotion of a freer future really gone

down the memory hole in China? Startwith the fact that the Soviet Union was72-years-old in 1989, whereas theChinese People’s Republic was only 40.

That extra generation meant thatthere was nobody still in power inRussia who had actually ordered thedeaths of thousands of people. Not onlythe revolutionary generation but alsothe Stalinist generation were gone andby the 1980s, the career communists,who had climbed the greasy pole ofpower, were mere bureaucrats.

They thought they were hardmen, too, but in fact, they weren’t any-thing of the sort. A few of them triedto carry out a coup and restore com-munist rule in 1991, but they were actu-ally trembling with fear as they spoke

on TV and they were seen off in a cou-ple of days. Whereas China’s rulers in1989 still had lots of hands-on experi-ence with killing people. Some ofthem, like Hu and his successor ZhaoZiyang, were genuine idealists, who feltthat the party’s controls must be loos-ened now that the revolution was anaccomplished fact. Zhao actually wentto the square at dawn on May 19 andaddressed the students, urging them tohold fast to their demands.

“We are already old, we do notmatter anymore,” he told them — butZhao already knew that he had lost theargument and that the communistparty leadership had decided to clearthe square by force. He had also beenstripped of his own position andwould live the last 15 years of his lifeunder house-arrest.

The actual massacre was delayedfor a further two weeks because the sol-diers in Beijing had been fraternisingwith the students and could no longerbe trusted to kill them. It took twoweeks to replace them with freshtroops, who knew nothing about whatwas happening in Beijing and wouldobediently kill the ‘counter-revolu-

tionaries.’ So the communist dictatorship sur-

vived in China while it peacefullyexpired in Russia. It still looks solidtoday: The current leader, Xi Jinping,has just effectively declared himselfpresident-for-life. But communist rulein China has now reached the magicage of 70. Is it immortal? Probably not.

Communist rule in the SovietUnion would probably have survivedif the economy had been growingstrongly. What brought it down was theinsolence of absolute power combinedwith an abject failure to deliver thegoods economically. The Chinese com-munist regime is very insolent, but itwill probably survive as long as it deliv-ers the goods.

However, China has a marketeconomy now and market economieshave recessions. The official Chinesegrowth rate is still six per cent, but thereal rate of growth has already fallen tosomewhere between three per cent andzero. The next five or 10 years shouldbe quite interesting.

(The writer’s new book is GrowingPains: The Future of Democracy andWork)

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India’s economy is projectedto grow at 7.5 per cent in the

next three years, supported byrobust investment and privateconsumption, the World Bankhas forecast, in some goodnews to the new IndianGovernment.

The bank in its GlobalEconomic Prospects releasedTuesday said that India is esti-mated to have grown 7.2 per centin fiscal year 2018/19, whichended March 31. A slowdown inGovernment consumption wasoffset by solid investment, whichbenefitted from public infra-structure spending.

As against a growth rate of6.6 per cent in 2018, China’sgrowth rate in 2019 is project-ed to be dropped to 6.2 per centand then subsequently to 6.1per cent in 2020 and 6 per centin 2021, the World Bank said.

With this, India will con-tinue to retain the position ofbeing the fastest growingemerging economy. And by2021, its growth rate is pro-jected to be 1.5 per cent morethan China’s 6 per cent.

The World Bank’s reportcame as a good news for Indiadays after Data from CentralStatistics Office (CSO) showedthat India’s economic growthslowed to a five-year low of 5.8per cent in fourth quarter of2018-19, pushing the countrybehind China.

The decline in the eco-nomic activity has been attrib-uted by the CSO to steepdecline in growth in agricultureand manufacturing sectors.

According to the WorldBank, growth in India is pro-jected at 7.5 per cent in FiscalYear 2019/20 (April 1, 2019 toMarch 31, 2020), unchangedfrom the previous forecast,and to stay at this pace throughthe next two fiscal years.

“Private consumption andinvestment will benefit fromstrengthening credit growthamid more accommodativemonetary policy, with inflationhaving fallen below the ReserveBank of India’s target,” it said.

Support from delays inplanned fiscal consolidationat the central level should par-tially offset the effects of polit-ical uncertainty around elec-tions in FY2018/19, it said.

The World Bank said thatIndia’s urban consumption wassupported by a pickup in cred-it growth, whereas rural con-sumption was hindered by softagricultural prices.

On the production side,robust growth was broad-based, with a slight moderationin services and agriculturalactivity accompanied by anacceleration in the industrial

sector. Weakening agricultur-al production reflected sub-dued harvest in major crops onthe back of less rainfalls, it said.

Services activity softenedmainly due to slowing trade,hotel, transport, and communi-cation activity. The industrialsector benefited from strongmanufacturing and constructionwith solid demand for capitalgoods. The slowing momentumin economic activity in late2018 carried into the first quar-ter of 2019, as suggested by soft-ening services and manufactur-ing Purchasing Managers’Indexes, the report said.

Observing that the newGoods and Services Tax regimeis still in the process of being fullyestablished, creating some uncer-tainty about the projections ofgovernment revenues, the reportsaid fiscal deficits continue toexceed official targets in somecountries — India, Pakistan.

The World Bank’s reportcame as New Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman is set topresent the first budget of theNarendra Modi 2.0 governmenton July 5. The former defenceminister, who inherits a frac-tured economy, is expected toaccelerate the reform process.

In her budget, 59-year-oldSitharaman will have to addressslowing economy, financial sec-tor troubles like rising Non-per-forming Assets and liquiditycrisis in non banking financialcompanies, job creation, privateinvestments, exports revival,agrarian crisis and raise publicinvestment without compro-mising on fiscal prudence.

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Housing market is showingsigns of recovery with

sales rising by 13 per cent dur-ing January-March this year inseven major cities at morethan 33,000 units, according toproperty consultant CBRE.

Housing demand stood atover 29,000 units in the year-ago period in seven citiesnamely, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai,Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru,Hyderabad and Pune.

New housing supply alsoincreased to 33,000 units in thefirst quarter of 2019 from25,700 units in the year-agoperiod.

Mumbai, Chennai,Bengaluru and Delhi-NCRwere the dominant markets,with a share of almost 70-75per cent in both new launchesand sales, the consultant said.

CBRE attributed the recov-ery in housing sector to stableprices that led to increasedactivity in the mid-end seg-ment, followed by affordableand high-end projects.

The stabilisation of keypolicy reforms such as demon-etisation and implementationof GST and RERA also helpedin revival of the market.

The positive impact ofthese reforms resulted in newlaunches and sales rising byabout 11 per cent and 19 percent, respectively in 2018 overthe previous year.

“The much-awaitedgrowth in the residential mar-ket has started to be visiblenow, and metro cities such asDelhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai,Hyderabad and Bengaluru areshowing signs of recovery,”said Anshuman Magazine,Chairman & CEO of CBRE

India, South East Asia, MiddleEast & Africa.

The sector has becomemore end-user driven anddevelopers are increasingly fac-toring in the requirements ofconsumers, he added.

“While we have witnesseda rise in developer interest onlaunching new projects, thefocus still remains on com-pleting ongoing projects andoffloading existing inventory,”Magazine said.

Listing out some key growthfactors noticed during the lastquarter, CBRE said the unsoldhousing stocks have droppedwhile demand is more driven byend users than speculators.

Factors such as developerprofile, project specifications,quality, pace of constructionand execution capabilities havecome into sharper focus, theconsultant observed.

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Asian markets largely roseon Wednesday, tracking

rallies on Wall Street after theUS Federal Reserve chief indi-cated greater openness to low-ering interest rates andacknowledged the impact oftrade tensions on growth.

Speaking in Chicago onTuesday, Fed chair JeromePowell admitted that ongoingtrade conflicts had dimmedthe growth outlook — remarkswidely seen as opening thedoor to a potential interest rate cut.

“We are closely monitor-ing the implications of thesedevelopments for the US eco-nomic outlook and, as always,we will act as appropriate tosustain the expansion,” Powell said.

The comments signal ashift in the policy of the Fed,which has kept interest ratesunchanged in 2019 after aseries of hikes in 2018 and pre-vious years.

“Powell changed the Fedmessaging just enough toavoid signalling a shift frompatient to panicked... It wasmusic to US investors’ earswho have been starved of pos-itive news of late”, said StephenInnes, managing partner at SPIAsset Management.

The Dow closed withgains of 2.1 percent.

In Asia, Tokyo jumped1.8 percent, while Hong Kongwas up 0.5 percent. Seouledged up 0.1 percent and

Taipei climbed 0.3 percent.Shanghai was flat.

Sydney managed anincrease of 0.4 percent even asgovernment statistics showednear-zero growth the previousquarter, underscoring fearsfor the economy.

The Australian economyhas avoided recession foralmost 28 years, but a housingslump, rising unemploymentand below-target inflationprompted the central bank onTuesday to cut its key interestrate to a historic low of 1.25percent.

European markets alsoregistered gains, with Londonadding 0.4 percent, whileFrankfurt and Paris rose 0.5percent.

The buying was support-ed by more favourable news onthe trade front, with Beijingbacking negotiations to resolveits spat with Washington andcongressional Republicansopposing President DonaldTrump’s tariff threats againstMexico.

Worries over the US-China trade war “have easedfollowing reports that China’scommerce ministry said thetrade friction should beresolved through dialogue”,Okasan Online Securities’chief strategist Yoshihiro Itosaid in a commentary.

But a new World Bankreport showing reduced glob-al growth forecasts for the yearsuggested that investors couldexpect the trade headwinds tocontinue for some time yet.

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Foreign direct investmentin services sector grew

36.5 per cent to $9.15 billionin 2018-19, according to theDepartment for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade(DPIIT).

The sector attracted FDIworth $6.7 billion in 2017-18.Ser vices sector includesfinance, banking, insurance,outsourcing, R&D, courier,tech testing and analysis.

The Government hastaken several measures likefixing timeliness for approvalsand streamlining proceduresto improve ease of doingbusiness in the country andattract foreign investments.

Increasing FDI inflowsin services sector is vital as itcontributes over 60 per centto the gross domestic prod-uct.

The sector accounts forabout 18 per cent of the totalFDI India received betweenApril 2000 and March 2019.

Other sectors that record-ed healthy growth in FDI

inflows include computersoftware and hardware, trad-ing, automobile industry, andchemicals.

The overall FDI inflowsdeclined for the first time inthe last six years in 2018-19,falling 1 per cent to $44.37billion as foreign investmentsfell significantly in telecom-munication and pharmaceu-tical sectors, official datashowed.

Foreign investments arecrucial for India as the coun-try needs around $1 trillionfor overhauling its infra-structure sector such as ports,airports and highways toboost growth.

A strong inflow of foreigninvestments helps improvethe country’s balance of pay-ments situation and strength-ens the value of rupee againstglobal currencies, especiallythe US dollar.

FDI in chemicals sectortoo registered a marginaldecline in 2017-18, when itattracted $1.30 billion invest-ments as compared to $1.39billion in 2016-17.

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The Government is likely toannounce infusion of about

�4,000 crore in three publicsector general insurance com-panies to shore up their capi-tal.

The capital infusion willhelp them improve their finan-cial health to an extent that theproposed merger of the gener-al insurance firms could takeplace, sources said.

The announcement to thiseffect could be made in the firstfull-fledged Budget of Modi 2.0government, to be presented inParliament on July 5.

According to the sources,the Department of FinancialServices will seek around Rs4,000 crore in the Budget forfund infusion in three insur-ance companies — NationalInsurance Company, OrientalInsurance Company andUnited India InsuranceCompany.

Depending on the capitalthat Budget provides, individ-ual allocation would be made,they added.

The profitability of manygeneral insurance companies,including that of state-ownedones has been under pressureowing to rising underwritinglosses and higher claims.

The two of these publicsector companies are struggling

to maintain the solvency ratio.As against the insurance regu-lator Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority’s(IRDA) solvency ratio norm of1.5, National Insurance has aninsolvency ratio of 1.5, whileUnited India’s level is compar-atively lower at 1.21.

It is to be noted that thegovernment, in the Budget2018-19, had proposed tomerge National InsuranceCompany, Oriental InsuranceCompany and United IndiaInsurance Company.

The then Finance MinisterArun Jaitley in the Budget speechhad announced that the threecompanies would be mergedinto a single insurance entity.

The process of mergercould not be completed due tovarious reasons, including poorfinancial health of these com-panies.

As on March 31, 2017, thethree companies together hadmore than 200 insurance prod-ucts with a total premium of�41,461 crore and a marketshare of around 35 per cent.

Their combined net worthis �9,243 crore, with totalemployee strength of around44,000 spread over 6,000offices. In 2017, state-ownedNew India AssuranceCompany and GeneralInsurance Corporation of Indiawere listed on the bourses.

Initial estimates suggestthat the combined entityformed by merging the threeinsurers will be the largestnon-life insurance companyin India, valued at �1.2-1.5 lakh crore.

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Th eInternational

Monetary Fundon Wednesdaysaid it was lower-ing China’s eco-nomic growthforecast for 2019and 2020, citing“uncer tainty”over the tradewar betweenBeijing and Washington.

The world’s second-largesteconomy is expected to rise by6.2 percent this year and 6.0percent in the next, the IMFsaid, down from previous fore-casts of 6.3 percent and 6.1 per-cent, respectively.

“Everybody loses in aproactive trade war. If trade isthreatened, if trade is damaged,growth will suffer,” KennethKang, deputy director of theIMF’s Asia and Pacific depart-ment, said at a press conferencein Beijing to present the find-ings of a visit to China.

Talks to resolve the tradewar between the world’s twobiggest economies have stalled,

leaving in place bruising tariffson $360 billion worth of two-way commerce.

“Uncertainty around tradetensions remains high and risksare tilted to the downside,” theIMF said in a statement.

The downgrade comes asChina’s government launches aseries of measures to reversethe downward trend, with pol-icymakers turning the credittaps back on and rolling outmassive tax cuts.

The IMF’s forecast remainswithin the government’s officialtarget of growth rangingbetween 6.0 and 6.5 percentthis year, down from 6.6 per-cent in 2018.

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Arate cut by the RBI in thesecond bi-monthly mon-

etary policy statement for2019-20 is unlikely to stimu-late demand in the near termdue to the absence of quickresonance in the financialmarket, India Ratings said ina report.

There is widespread expec-tation that the central bankwould cut policy rate Thursdayto prop up growth which hashit a five year-low of 6.8 percent in FY19.

Despite the RBI cuttingpolicy rate by 50 basis point sofar in 2019, banks have notadjusted their lending/depositrates accordingly. On the con-trary, a number of banks haveraised their deposit rates tomobilise funds, the ratingsagency said.

At the core of this mis-match between the RBI’s actionand the banks’ inability to passon the benefit to the borrow-ers is the slowdown in house-hold savings, it said.

“Increased governmentborrowing and elevated small

savings rate have rendereddeposit/investment mobilisa-tion by banks/NBFCs expen-sive. Also India’s consumptiondemand is still not a pro-nounced credit fuelled or lever-aged demand,” it said.

However, it said more thanthe rate cut, it is its transmis-sion into the economy that hasemerged as the bigger chal-lenge.

It is well known that the

impact of the monetary policyon the Indian economy is feltwith a significant lag, but thesituation at the current juncturehas become further complicat-ed due to the ongoing crisis inboth the banking and the shad-ow banking sectors, it said.

While banks are strugglingwith high NPAs, NBFCs arestruggling with solvency issuesleading to credit freeze, itadded.

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Industry body CII onWednesday said it has come

out with a ‘Fiscal PerformanceIndex’ to assess quality of bud-gets presented by the Centreand state governments.

“The composite FiscalPerformance Index (FPI)developed by CII is an innov-ative tool using multiple indi-cators to examine quality ofBudgets at the Central andState levels,” CII said in astatement.

The index has been con-structed using UNDP’s HumanDevelopment Index method-ology, CII said, adding the pro-posed composite index of fis-cal performance comprises sixcomponents for holistic assess-ment of the quality of govern-ment budgets.

“These include 1) quality ofrevenue expenditure: measuredby the share of revenue expen-diture other than interest pay-ments, subsidies, pensions anddefence in GDP. 2) Quality of

capital expenditure: measuredby share of capital expenditure(other than defence) in GDP. 3)Quality of revenue: ratio of nettax revenue to GDP (own taxrevenue in case of States). 4)Degree of fiscal prudence I: fis-cal deficit to GDP. 5) Degree offiscal prudence II: revenuedeficit to GDP and 6) Debtindex: Change in debt andguarantees to GDP,” it added.

As per the new index,expenditure on infrastructure,education, healthcare and othersocial sectors can be consideredbeneficial for economic growth.At the same time, tax revenuesare sustainable sources of rev-enue for the government ascompared to one-time incomesources, it said.

In view of the resultsobtained from its analysis, CIIsaid it recommends that theFiscal Responsibility andBudget Management (FRBM)Act which sets targets for thegovernments to reduce fiscaldeficits should not solely focuson one component.

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Energy Efficiency ServicesLimited (EESL), a joint ven-

ture firm under the Union powerministry, and the AhmedabadMunicipal Corporation (AMC)entered into a partnershipWednesday to build 100 charg-ing stations for e-vehicles (EVs)in the city over 10 years.

EESL will work with theAMC to “fast-track adoption ofe-mobility in Ahmedabad byinstalling around 100 publiccharging stations and promotingelectric vehicles (EVs) on rentaland purchase basis”, it said in arelease. The Memorandum ofUnderstanding was signedWednesday, the WorldEnvironment Day, in the pres-ence of Gujarat Chief MinisterVijay Rupani.

EESL will invest for ser-vices pertaining to operationand maintenance of publiccharging infrastructure, whilethe AMC will provide space forsetting up stations and providepower connection.

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New Delhi: UPI payments app, BharatPe announced the com-pany’s foray into small value, short duration loans to merchants.It is also planning to apply for its own lending licence to lendto merchants who are accepting payments through BharatPe QRcodes, showing consistent transactions on the platform for thelast three months.

Recently, BharatPe has partnered with Apollo Finvest for suchloans and plans to rope in more partners. The loan amount, whichranges from �10,000 to �1 lakh, charges an interest rate of 1.67%per month.

BharatPe is planning to co-lend in collaboration with otherfinanciers and try to keep interest rates under control once it getsa licence. PNS

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Page 9: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

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In a circuitous but obviousreference to the BJP which

has made massive inroads inBengal politics Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee onWednesday attacked the “con-spirators” who had “tamperedthe EVM machines” and toldan Eid gathering to “remainunited for the sake of the coun-try” as the “tricksters whomanipulated EVMs would dis-appear soon.”

Making a political state-ment from the platform of anEid gathering inKolkataBanerjee told the Muslimsdevotees that “those who havecome up rapidly by tamperingEVMs will go as rapidly as theycame,” and till then “all of uswill have to remain united.”

Drawing a huge applausefrom the congregation Banerjeesaid “when the sun comes upit is initially hot but it coolsdown as the day goes by.Similarly those who tamperedthe EVMs will fade away as fastas they came up.”

Stopping short stop ofnaming the BJP, Banerjee saidthe unity of the people wouldfinally see the back of the saf-fron outfit. She warned, “Johum se takrayega chur chur hojayega (anyone who would tryto mess with her would beblown into pieces.)”

The BJP had effected ameteoric rise in Bengal win-ning 18 out of 42 seats in the

recently concluded electionsleaving 22 for the rulingTrinamool Congress and twofor the Congress. In at least twoseats the TMC could win onlyby a whisker of a margin.

Banerjee’s speech also cameamid an ongoing war of wordsbetween the two parties overthe chanting of the Jai Shri Ramslogan by the saffron support-ers. The TMC has responded tothe BJP’s slogan with its owncatchphrase of “Jai Hind, BandeMataram and Jai Bangla.”

Asking the people toremain united at the time ofdefeat Banerjee asked the gath-ering to “shun fear and actbravely. You are dead themoment you are afraid. So

don’t be afraid and remainunited. We will win all the bat-tles if we remain united.”

Reacting to Banerjee’sstatements Bengal BJP presi-dent Dilip Ghosh said “onewho accuses others of politi-cising religion herself is doingso by making political state-ments in religious gathering,”adding “she is being haunted bythe EVMs but is refusing to accept the verdict of the people.”

On “Chur Chur” sloganGhosh said “the person who isthreatening others with suchslogans should mind their ownparty which is getting disinte-grated by the day. Soon therewill be no TMC in Bengal.”

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The holy month of Ramzanin Kashmir Valley ended

on a violent note as shortly afterEid prayers a young womanwas shot dead inside her homeby suspected terrorists in SouthKashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday.

This is the second incidentin last 72 hours where a civil-ian was shot dead by ‘uniden-tified’ terrorist from a veryclose range. A 32-year-old manwas earlier killed nearPanthchowk late on Mondayevening.

According to policerecords, around two dozen ter-rorists were killed duringRamzan in relentless opera-tions across South Kashmirdistricts. Meanwhile, sporadicprotests were reported fromdifferent parts of kashmir val-ley after the Eid prayers.

A group of protesters,wearing masks, pelted stoneson security forces near JamiaMasjid in Srinagar.

Protesters were also seenholding up posters of terroristsZakir Musa and UN designat-ed terrorist Masood Azharwhile engaging with the secu-rity forces in the area.

According to police, imme-diately after the Eid prayersended at the historic JamiaMasjid, youths assembled out-side the mosque started peltingstones on security forces onduty. The security forces usedtear gas shells to disperse theprotesters.

Similar protests eruptedbetween the youth and Jammuand Kashmir Police in Baramulladistrict of North Kashmir soonafter the Eid prayers.

The clashes took place nearJamia Masjid in Sopore town inthe district. According to eye-witnesses, the youths clashedwith the security forces afterEid prayers ended. Policelobbed teargas shells to dispersethe protesters.

In Pulwama, a police offi-cer said, “some unknown gun-men barged inside the resi-dential house of Nageena Janwife of late Mohammad YousufLone and opened fire uponher”. In the incident, “Nageena

suffered critical bullet woundsand died instantly while asanother person namelyJalaludin Bhufanda also suf-fered bullet injuries,” he said.

Mohd Yousuf Lone, hus-band of Nageena Jan was alsokilled by some unknown gun-men on May 19, 2017.

On the other hand, seniorofficers of the Indian andPakistan army exchanged sweetpackets along the line of con-trol at Chakan-da-bagh inPoonch while BSF officers andPak rangers met each other atthe zero line along theInternational border acrossJammu frontier on the occasionof Eid.

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The 1,000 MW Unit-1 of theKudankulam Nuclear

Power Plant which resumedproduction on May 18 after asix-month long hiatus has beenshut down for the umpteenthtime on Tuesday night and hishas caused apprehension in theminds of veteran reactor engi-neers about the safety anddurability of the plant. The fre-quent break downs of the reac-tor has cast a shadow on India’snuclear power programme.

The unit-1 was shut downin November 2018 citing tech-nical problems. The NuclearPower Corporation of IndiaLimited (NPCIL) which ownsand operates the reactor hadsaid at that time that rectorwould resume production ‘soon’.

“Works of this reactorbegan in 2002 and was com-missioned in December 2014.But it has been facing problemssince the day it was commis-sioned and had undergonemany breakdowns and clo-sures. The unit-one has beenshut down for most of the timesince its commissioning andthis is a matter of serious con-cern,” said a NPCIL directorwith decades of experience indesigning and commissioningnuclear power reactors.

Kudankulam NuclearPower Stations, situated inTirunelveli district of TamilNadu was built with technicalcollaboration of Rosatom StateAtomic Energy Corporation.The reactor was importedfrom Russia in a knocked-down stage and assembled atKudankulam by a team ofIndian and Russian engineers.The second unit of 1000 MWof the KKNPS was commis-

sioned in 2016. It cost theexchequer Rs 17,270 crore forbuilding and commissioningthe two reactors.

Construction of Units 3and 4 (each of 1000 MW) areunderway at Kudanulam evenas the first unit has conked out.The director , who did not wanthis name to be disclosed, saidthe unit-one has been describedand projected by theDepartment of Atomic Energyas well as the NPCIL as astate-of-the-art reactor belong-ing to the Third Generation cat-egory. “Since this was of 1000MW capacity , we were underthe impression that the reactormay take time to synchronise tothe Indian situation and theproject managers were operat-ing it cautiously. It was consid-ered a normal delay as the crewof this a new reactor, which isof the highest capacity to beinstalled in India , would taketime to familiarize with the sys-tem. But frequent shut downsare causing apprehension,” saidthis reactor engineer.

Dr M Srinivasan, former

director, Theoretical PhysicsGroup, Bhabha Atomic ResearchCentre, Trombay, the hub of thecountry’s nuclear energy pro-gramme, said that the matterwas serious. “The frequent shutdowns and break downs by anew reactor is a matter of con-cern,” he told The Pioneer.

The Kudankulam NuclearPower Station has been miredin controversy even as works ofthe unit-one were progressing. The period 2011 to 2014 sawanti-nuclear activists spon-sored by various NGOs andreligious organisations stagingdemonstration in front of thesite orcing the NPCIL to stopthe works.

Kamlesh Nilkanth Vyas,chairman, Atomic EnergyCommission, had told reportersin April this year that there weresome problems nagging theKudankulam nuclear reactors.“We are trying to address theproblems,” Vyas had said . Healso said that there was some-thing unusual with the multiplebreakdowns and the resultantshut downs of these reactors.

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The Kerala Government onWednesday said the condi-

tion of the college student beingtreated at a private hospital herefor Nipah virus is stable while sixothers have been kept underwatch at a local Governmentmedical college hospital.

Authorities have scram-bled to trace the source of thepotentially deadly virus whichresurfaced in the state a yearafter it struck two north Keraladistricts, claiming 17 lives.

A total of 314 people fromvarious districts are currentlyunder observation, aGovernment bulletin said onWednesday evening. Accordingto the bulletin, of the 314, sixpeople have been shifted to theisolation ward of the medicalcollege hospital.

“The condition of the stu-dent is stable. It has not turnedworse,” State Health Minister KK Shailaja said, a day after the23-year-old student was con-firmed to be infected with theNipah virus. An official in theprivate hospital where the stu-dent is being treated also saidhis condition was stable.

“He is conscious. He is tak-ing food,” the official said. Amedical bulletin said there wasenough stock of rebavirin med-icine for treating the disease. Other medical equip-ment required for treatmenthave also been made available,it said.

“All situations in the Statearising out of Nipah are undercontrol,” it said. The bulletinsaid samples collected from thesix people, currently beingtreated at the isolation ward of

Kalamassery medical collegehospital, have been sent to theNational Institute of Virologyat Pune and a Government labin Alappuzha.

Earlier in the day, the min-ister said thepreliminaryassessment of the health of fiveof them showed that they werenot “in a severe condition.”

“Their health now is betterthan yesterday. But they areunder constant watch of doc-tors. We expect tests of theirblood samples would be nega-tive. But we should wait till thefinal results come,” Shailaja,who is constantly monitoringthe situation with medicalexperts and top health officials,said. The sixth man was shift-ed to the isolation ward later onWednesday.

The Minister said treat-ment for Nipah will start onlyif their blood test confirm theyhave contracted the infectiousdisease.

The results are expected byThursday evening.

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Despite several reminders,the Maharashtra

Government is yet to respond tothe National Tiger ConservationAuthority’s (NTCA) noticeseeking action against the offi-cials responsible for violatingseveral norms during the killingof “man-eating” tigress Avni inYavatmal in the State almosthalf-a-year ago, to be precise lastNovember, 2018.

“We have issued them sev-eral reminders to reply whataction they have taken in thecase, but we are yet to get anyreply from the States forestauthorities,” said AK Nayak,NTCA member secretary.

The case pertains to thekilling of Avni, which was onNovember 2, shot dead by ateam of forest staff members,and Asghar Ali, the son of inde-pendent sharpshooter NawabShafat Ali Khan, who was hiredby the forest department. Thedepartment wanted to eithertranquilise the animal or kill it,as Avni was said to have killed13 people since June 2016.

The killing of Avni ledwith wildlife activists to allegethat the big cat was shot downwithout following any stipu-lated norms. The allegationswere found to be true by aprobe panel formed by theNTCA to intervene into thecause of death of the tigress.The NTCA is the apex statu-tory body tasked with provid-

ing funding support to theStates for tiger conservation.

The probe panel found thatseveral rules were broken andset guidelines were violated inthe killing of tigress T-1, or Avni,an alleged maneater. “Therewere also violations under theWildlife Protection Act, 1972,glaring lapses and violation ofSection 3(1) of the Arms Act,1958; the Indian VeterinaryCouncil Act, 1984; the Wildlife(Protection) Act, 1972, andNTCA Standard OperatingProcedure (SOP). Also the per-son authorised by theMaharashtra forest departmentto either tranquilise or kill theanimal was Shafat Ali Khan andnot his son,” said the report.

A showcause notice fol-lowed by several reminders hasbeen issued to the Maharashtraforest department in the last sixmonths while an action takenreport regarding inconsistenciesidentified by NTCA needs to beanswered by the Maharashtraprincipal chief conservator offorest (Wildlife). However, theState Government has failed torespond to our notices till date,said Nayak.

New Delhi: Former CivilAviation Minister and NCPleader Praful Patel is expectedto depose before the ED onThursday in connection with amoney-laundering probe relat-ed to the losses suffered bynational carrier Air India aspart of an alleged multi-crore-rupee aviation scam.

Patel (62) has also beennamed in a recent chargesheetfiled by the federal agencybefore a court as a personknown to alleged aviation lob-byist Deepak Talwar.

The NCP leader, who wasin charge of the Civil AviationMinistry between 2004 and2011, has not been mentionedas an accused in the case. TheED, sources said, had alreadyquestioned a number of peoplein the senior management ofthe state-owned airline andthe Aviation Ministry. PTI

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Amodern world-class zoo,which will showcase a slew

of rare wild animals, trails andjungle safaris, nature educationcentre, a separate breedingcentre and other facilities, iscoming up near the Film cityand Sanjay Gandhi NationalPark in north Mumbai.

To be set up at a cost of Rs500 crore, the proposed zoowill be second zoo in themetropolis after the BMC-runVeermata Jijabai Bhosale (VJB)Udyan and Zoo at Byculla,which is undergoing a mod-ernisation programme. Owingto space constraints, the expan-sion in terms of area is not pos-sible in the existing zoo.

A Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) wassigned between theMaharashtra Government’sForest Department andBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC). The State

forest department and BMCofficials exchanged the docu-ments were exchanged in pres-ence of Shiv Sena presidentUddhav Thackeray and StateForest Minister SudhirMungantiwar.

Spread over 100 acres ofland, the proposed zoo willhave night/moonlight Safari, aLeopard Safari, different typesof big and small reptiles, noc-turnal animals and daytimehunting animals, apes andother attractions. “Among otherwild animals, we plan to houselions, big apes, panthers andgiraffe at the zoo. We will takea call on this as per guidelinesof Central Zoo Authority(CZA) and on the advice ofexperts in the matter.

The land required for theproject will be carved from the

190 acres of government landat Goregaon’s Aarey MilkColony. The BMC will fund theentire project from its funds.The revenue to be generatedfrom the project will be sharedbe between the BMC and stateforest department.

According to the MoU, theState Forest department willprovide technical expertise formanaging the proposed Zooand help in procurement of ani-mals. The BMC will acquirenecessary permissions for pro-curement of animals, as per theguidelines of the Central ZooAuthority. The BMC developand manage a conservationbreeding centre outside the zoo.

The new zoo is being set upin the vicinity of the SanjayGandhi National Park (SNGP),as the existing the VJB Udyan

and Zoo at Byculla zoo doesnot have adequate space tohouse big wild animals.

Spread over 103 sq km, theSNGP is home to a number ofendangered species of floraand fauna and harboursapproximately 800 species offlowering plants, 274 species ofbirds, 35 species of mammals,78 species of reptiles, snakesand amphibians and 170species of butterflies. TheSNGP is also home to a num-ber of endangered species offlora and fauna and harboursapproximately 800 species offlowering plants.

The VJB Udyan and Zoo atByculla had come under sharpfocus on August 22, 2018, aftera baby Humboldt Penguin diedon the zoo premises in southMumbai, just a week after its

much-publicised birth.It may be recalled that a

day after the birth of the babyPenguin at 8.02 pm on August15, 2018, the authorities hadcelebrated the event by releas-ing photographs and a shortvideo of the newly-born chickto the media.

After mating in captivitywith male Penguin Molt, thefemale Penguin Flipper deliv-ered had delivered an egg lastmonth at the VJB Udyan andZoo. The mating of Molt andFlipper had happened betweenMarch and April this yearAfter the female penguin laideggs in a month and a half, andboth parents took turn to incu-bate them.

While Mr Molt is theyoungest male, Flipper is theoldest female in the zoo

Penguin colony.The first chick was born at

the VJB Udyan and Zoo more

than a year after eightHumboldt penguins —Donald, Daisy, Popeye, Olive,

Flipper, Bubble, Mr Molt andDory — were brought herefrom Seoul in South Korea.

Of the eight importedPenguins, female Dory hadsuccumbed to some illness onOctober 23 2017, after showingsymptoms of dullness, inap-petance, greenish stools andlaboured breathing and wasdiagnosed withthe Gram nega-tive bacteria.

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The entwinement of laughter and comedywith politics and current news hasn’t been

a new one. There have been abundant shows onthe lines which have presented news with a moresatirical and ‘punny’ touch.

Actor Shruti Seth, who has been seen as ahost in various reality TV shows, will be seenon Sab TV’s short comedy series Apna NewsAayega as a performer. The comedy show willfeature gags and jokes interspersed with news,trending topics and imitation of celebrities.

Sharing her experience, Seth says, “The solereason for taking up the role was the freshnessand uniqueness of its concept. It’s not similarto what I have done in the past. It presents enter-taining gags and mimicries based on Bollywoodgossips, current affairs and much more. It’s a funweekend show that can enlighten anyone’smood. I recently completed my first shoot withRajesh Kumar and Aditi Bhatia (co-stars). I feelblessed to have got the opportunity.”

For Seth, the biggest challenge about stand-up comedy is people’s reactions since the genreis tremendously demanding and challenging. “Asa host in various comedy shows, I was not muchconcerned about the public attention. But now,being on the other side, I have realised that peo-ple might not find your jokes amusing enoughto laugh. However, my team is my strength. Theyassist me a lot,” says she.

The actress feels that due to a lack of appeal-ing offers, she hadn’t been taking up many rolesrecently. “However, I didn’t want to limitmyself and preferred to host comedy shows

instead. While in this show, I will beenacting various roles and charac-ters, which is extremely challenging.”

Seth reveals that grabbing therole in the show is like coming backhome since she has worked with thesame production team earlier. Theactress, who is very specific aboutthe work she takes up says, “I amdeliberately making an effort not tobe part of the shows that require a

daily investment of time. No one canhelp you with time management aseveryone is working hard againstdeadlines. I salute all the mother-actors who are working in suchshows.

Shruti has been a part of variousBollywood films such as Tara RumPum and Fanna, and never beenseen in any ‘Saas-Bahu’ dramas. “Itake up roles that have strong con-

tent and an appealing story line. IfI find the characters realistic enoughthen I wouldn’t mind working onthem even on daily soaps. But mostshows are based on similar kind ofcontent, where people mourn orplan conspiracies all the time tobring down the other person, or atother times, there would be a tiffbetween the mother-in-law and thedaughter-in-law. I can’t relate to allthat in real life,” says she.

The former VJ is set to makeher online debut with ALTBalaji’sseries Mentalhood, an ironic showon motherhood, that focusses onthe lives of five mothers dealingwith different ways of parenting.The web series deals with a funnyas well as pragmatic take on bring-ing up their kids. Seth, who will beessaying the role of a single moth-er and a yoga teacher in the show,says, “Being a mother myself, I canperfectly relate to the complexitiesof my character. Today’s generationof parenting seems to be over-con-trolling and very demanding fortheir children. I still remember howI used to get irritated with my momalways roaming around me whileI was young. I am sure today’s par-ents can easily associate them-selves with the show.”

It was Shararat (2003-2007),starring Farida Jalal, PoonamNarula and Shruti Seth, a showrevolving around three-generationof women fairies, that describedSeth’s career. The bubbly actor isrecently poking her fans about thecomeback of the season 2 withposting reunion pictures on hersocial media. “I definitely want toshare the screen space with themagain. We were in talks about theidea of its second season but it’s nothappening anytime soon,” addsshe.

(The show starts from June 8.)

Technology has become an integralpart of life at work as well as athome. It has given employees access

to computing power, communicationchannels, social networks and a variety oftools to help them in every sphere of theirwork.

Employees are increasingly seekingflexibility in their working arrangementsnot only with respect to their hours anddays of work but also in their ability toperform their work remotely. It is impor-tant to understand more about the trendsin device usage among employees andhow these changing trends are influenc-ing their health. The Workplace andErgonomics Research Cell of GodrejInterio conducted a study across anoffice-going population of over 500 peo-ple from across a variety of demograph-ics, industry types and Indian cities.

Estimates are that, on an average anemployee spends eight to nine hours atwork in the office. Seventy per cent of thatworkforce spend around 8.5 hours sittingat their desk. It was also observed thatsome employees sit for 2.5 hours at astretch without taking a break.

The work day is not necessarilyrestricted to the office for the Indianoffice-goer. A study by IWG in June 2018,revealed that 58 per cent of people workremotely at least once a week and thatmore than 53 per cent of the respondentssurveyed worked remotely for half theweek or more and that 10 per cent workedoutside the office for as many as five daysin the working week.

This indicates a significant trend ofemployees working from other placesincluding home as well. Working withtech gadgets for prolonged periods of timecan adversely affect their health. Theyidentified that more than 56 per cent ofthe surveyed population had experi-enced multiple pain problems such asback pain, headache, fatigue and distrac-tion after the prolonged use of any gad-gets.

There were variances in the nature ofthe complaints based on device usage. Thecomplaints of musculoskeletal pain werehigher among laptop users (87 per cent)as compared to desktop users (60 percent). Almost 45 per cent of the users hadexperienced a tingling sensation in theirarm, shoulder or hand after typing on asmartphone or a hand-held device or afterusing laptops at a height without a key-board. Fifty six per cent of the users com-plained of eye strain and more than 50 percent of users reported neck pain.

In the context of desktop work, theprincipal ergonomic risk factor is the tra-ditional work design that doesn’t allow theusers the flexibility to work anywhereapart from their designated space.Working in awkward postures was anoth-er area observed as a risk factor. It wasfound that users were sitting in non-neu-tral postures like sitting halfway throughthe chair, having inadequate back supportand slouching or sitting in un-natural, legstucked on the chair castors or twisted pos-tures for long hours.

Laptops are now standard equipmentin workplaces. They usually tend to beprovided to those with a travelling workprofile like those in sales and field service.It was found that 66 per cent of the office-going population used a laptop while atwork. More than 50 per cent of the usersinteracted with the laptop for a minimumof six to seven hours a day and 28 per centused it for more than eight hours a day.

While the device gave them the free-

dom to move, it was found that the mostfavoured laptop computing location wasstill observed to be the workstation andchair. Though the majority of the usersused the laptop at their workstation, 73per cent did not vary their work posturewhile working there. The static behaviourobserved may have been because of a lackof awareness of issues arising out of incor-rect ergonomics, recommended userbehaviour, work culture or their work pro-

file.As the design of the gadget is fixed,

it affords some challenges to be usedergonomically while ensuring the correctwork posture for different individuals. Forinstance, Laptops have an in-built key-board resulting in the users adopting aninward posture causing pain in the shoul-ders and upper back.

The study also showed that 96 percent of people use smartphones at home.This usage extends beyond work — forsocial media, for gaming etc. It wasobserved that almost 79 per cent of users

were using the smartphone extensively atwork for an average of four to six hoursper day. In smartphones, the smallerscreen devices put additional strain on thecervical spine and upper back muscles.Holding the phone up to the ear for longperiods of time or surfing for longer peri-od can cause problems with the elbows,neck and shoulders like Text NeckSyndrome and Carpal tunnel syndrome.

Clearly, these numbers are alarmingand they give strength to the case thatdevice usage is a major risk factor foremployee health.

Actor-singer AparshaktiKhurana, who is receiving a

positive response for his debutsong Kudiye Ni, says initially thesong was locked for one of VarunDhawan’s films and that it was theactor who gave him the confidenceto release it as a single.

Sharing the story, Aparshaktisaid, “Honestly, when I wrote thesong, I had no idea that it will bereleased as an independent videothe way it has come out now... Icame to T-Series, in fact, thinkingif we could use the song for anyfilm. The fact is that the song isbased so much on Chandigarhthat if I take out those lines from

the song, it loses its essence. Now,because getting an exact situationto fit the song was difficult for afilm... Kudiye Ni was almost lockedfor a film, but then we had tochange the plan.”

He added, “Varun andShashank Khaitan, the filmmak-er also heard the song for one oftheir films, but eventually, it didnot work out. That is when Varuntold me that if the song does notget a film, I should release it as sin-

gle because he loved it. Somewherethose words gave me confidence.”

According to Aparshakti, suchsupport was important for a newsinger to go ahead and work bet-ter. While sitting in a vanity vanduring the shoot of Dangal someyears ago, the actor barely had aplans to collaborate with some ofhis close friends and family mem-bers for his debut song. Co-sungby Neeti Mohan, the song featuresactress Sargun Mehta and is direct-

ed by director and Aparshakti’s sis-ter-in-law Tahira Kashyap.

“And guess what? We shot thevideo in Chandigarh, at one of myfriend's farmhouse and my wifeAkriti was the art director for thevideo... I kept everything inside thefamily,” said the Stree actor.

Neeti, who is friends with theactor for more than 10 years, said,“When Apar played the basicsong to me that he initially wrote,I found it very cute. The song andits composition is very simple,conversational and almost person-al... These days, if there is anythingthat we are missing out from life,it is simplicity.” @"�%�

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On World Environment Day, theEnvironment and House Keeping wing,

mechanical department at the NorthernRailway headquarter, Baroda House, held sev-eral activities to make the employees aware andconscious of their responsibility towards theenvironment.

An awareness rally was lead by ArchanaJoshi, additional general manager. ChandralekhaMukherjee, senior deputy general manager,Arun Arora, principal chief mechanical engi-neer, senior officials and staff of NorthernRailway were also the participants.

The rally was followed by a rangoli-mak-ing competition. Prizes were given to the win-

ners of the completions by Arora on Wednesday. Following the year’s theme — Air Pollution

— banners and posters showcasing its perilswere also being displayed.

Organisations canuse human

resources better throughorganised training pro-grams and skill-upgra-dation of their employ-ees. It’s a known conceptin organisation manage-ment. The effect of thispowerful concept, ifapplied in a PSU, wouldnot have been gauzeduntil recently when theprinciple was applied by the HR team atSouth Eastern Coalfields (SECL).

Human resource systems are a backbone of any organisation. A robust HRframework leads to dedicated and dis-ciplined work force committed to itsorganisational targets. Under the lead-ership of Dr RS Jha, director (personnel)of SECL, an attempt was made to utiliseskills available within the organisationfor bigger responsibilities in the coalmine. The experiment took off withneed-based training programs for spe-cialised trades of utility in coal mines.SECL employees at the entry level wereinspired to take training in trade of theirchoice. The employees got an opportu-nity to enrich their job and assume moreresponsibility. They felt more commit-ted towards organisational goals.

Going ahead with theHR wave, during FY 2018-19, SECL absorbed 199general majdoors, afterskill-upgradation in varioushighly skilled jobs. Around57 of them were employedas drill operators, 46 asdozer operators, 24 as grad-er operators, 39 as pay-loader operators and 33 ascrane operators. The work-ers in the general majdoor

category, through skill-upgradation,were given an opportunity to enrich theirjobs and assume higher responsibilitiesin coal mines. During FY 2017-18,around 1,617 employees were absorbedin various skilled jobs through internalselection.

In a recent HR initiative, SECLunder the Apprenticeship Act, hadselected youth for a defined period ofapprentice. In FY 2019-20, SECL hasalready initiated process to take 5,500apprentices in various disciplines andskilled jobs.

The efforts of the HR team at SECLare clearly visible in the organisationalresults. The organisation now produceshumongous 157.35 million tonnes ofcoal. Many more experiments are beingcarried out as well.

SS Chahar, VSM, inspector general, Border SecurityForce (BSF), has been promoted to the rank of

Additional Director General and has been posted to BSFAcademy at Tekanpur, Gwalior.

In 1983, the officer had joined the BSF as assistantcommandant. He has served in Nagaland, Manipur,Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat,Bengal, Tripura and Chhattisgarh. He has been award-ed the VishistSeva medal (VSM), a police medal for mer-itorious services and the President's police medal for dis-tinguished services.

Chahar got emotional while remembering hisfather, late Sunhari Lal Chahar during celebrations ofhis promotion.

Entrepreneur, pioneer, philan-thropist, political campaign-

er and now a member ofEuropean Parliament, DineshDhamija is a man of many parts.

In the early 1980s, he gave uphis job at IBM to start a travelagency from a kiosk in Earl’sCourt tube station in London. By1996, the company employedover 235 people and had becomethe 10th largest leisure busi-ness. Soon after, Dhamijabecame an early dot-com pio-neers as he took the businessonline with the launch of ebook-ers in 1999, UK’s first onlinetravel agency.

He led the company for thenext six years, surviving notonly the dot-com bust but other chal-lenges including the 9/11 attacksand the consequent global waron terror and natural disasters.The company sold in 2005 for£247 million, making Dhamijaone of the richest Asians inBritain.

Perhaps his own trajectorymakes immigration issues, espe-cially of the South Asian diaspo-ra, close to Dhamija’s heart, “Wedon’t hear about what Asianimmigrants contribution, that weare law-abiding, we bring somuch to this country. Thesestories need to be told.”

Following the sale of ebook-ers, Dhamija founded theCopper Beech group, a proper-ty investment firm with interestsin Romania and India. He alsojoined the charity sector, servingon boards of UK and interna-tional charit ies includingLEPRA, dedicated to beatingleprosy. In India, he has set upShiksha, a charity that providesfree education to 1,100 studentsand Chikitsa, a charity that givesfree medicine to 1,20,000 peoplea year.

Dhamija is a big backer ofthe Liberal Democrats, the partyhe now represents in theEuropean Parliament. He says, “Iwent into back office politics inNovember 2014 and worked myway up with various positions forthe party.” His words belie therange and impact of his activities.

He was appointed as a businessadviser to the party leader in2016, became the DeputyTreasurer in 2017 and was elect-ed the Vice Chairman of theFederal Board, the governingbody of the party in 2018.

He has emerged as a passion-ate voice for Remain and served asthe spokesman and advisor forOpen Britain. His electoral cam-paign also made his views amplyclear, “I am a Remainer and inthese elections, we were fightingthe Brexit party. We wanted to givethe other side of the story.”

He is clear why Britain mustremain in the EU noting that “wecannot fight climate change asBritain alone but we have a chanceas part of the EU. And we have ahigher chance of better trade dealsas part of the largest single marketthan as a smaller economy.”

But Dhamija’s interests inBritain’s ties with the Europe do notstop with Remaining. He reels offa dizzying list of issues includingEuropean arrest warrants, moneylaundering laws and more. In lightof Dhamija’s achievements so far,perhaps these are achievable goalsrather than a mere wishlist.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, UnionMinister for Minority

Affairs, while addressing a meet-ing of ministry officials atAntyodaya Bhawan, said thatensuring socio-economic-edu-cational empowerment ofminorities through 3E —Education, Employment andEmpowerment is our target.

He said, “We have to remaincautious to ensure that there is nospeed breaker or obstacle on thehighway of development.”

Naqvi emphasised on Padho-Badho campaign, which he said

will be launched across the coun-try to encourage education ofminorities and women. He said,“Our target is to providePradhanmantri scholarship tofive crore students in the next fiveyears, which will include 50 per

cent women.”Employment-oriented skill

development schemes such asSeekho aur Kamao, Nai Manzil,Garib Nawaz Skill Development,Ustaad will be made more effec-tive to ensure skill developmentof 25 lakh.

The ministry has also devel-oped people-friendly, 100 percent online system to ensuretransparency in all the welfareschemes.

Union Minister of State forMinority Affairs Kiren Rijijuwas also present.

Reckitt Benckiser, consumerhealth and hygiene company,collaborated with the Global

Citizen India, to celebrate the suc-cess of the three-year completion ofits Dettol School Hygiene Educationcurriculum through a hi-impact,one-of-its-kind event named asChaka Chak Mela, in New Delhi.The event was carefully crafted toeducate children in an edutainmentenvironment. RB is delivering thecurriculum in partnership with theAga Khan Foundation, Samhita,Collective Good Foundation,Learning Links Foundation ADRAand Pehel across urban and ruralschools in the states of Bihar,Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Telangana and UttarPradesh.

Congratulating the partners onthe historic moment, Gaurav Jain,

senior vice president, Africa, theMiddle East and South Asia(AMESA), RB Health India, said,“Children are the change-agents ofthe society and reaching out early tothem means ensuring that weinspire these young minds to incul-cate the learning into a habit. We areproud to see the positive impact onthe handwashing habits of childrenexposed to the curriculum. Wehave focussed on a five-step expe-riential learning method, whichhas allowed us to touch upon fivecrucial everyday aspects of hygiene.I am sure that once the studentsunderstand these basic hygienemeasures, they would turn intoinfluencers for others and nation-builders of tomorrow.”

The curriculum is designed tosuit grade-appropriate learning ofstudents — level one is for grade one

and two, level two is for grade threeand four and level three is forgrade five and above. The contentis structured into five focus themesthat addresses personal hygiene,hygiene at home, in schools, duringillness and in neighbourhood. Intotal, the curriculum covers 15 top-ics across the five themes.

“We are proud of our strongpartnership with RB that has enabledthe Aga Khan foundation and itspartners to implement a vibrantand effective programme across1,000 schools in some of the mostvulnerable geographies. We areworking to collectively address theissue of sanitation and hygiene byinculcating regular handwashingpractices as well as strengtheningschool capacity to prioritise Wash-in-Schools. The simple child friendlytools, messages and campaigns have

been widely appreciated by districtofficials across all our project loca-tions, facilitating wider outreachand scaling up of the initiative to over3,000 schools in 2019.”

The curriculum also focusses onsensitising children about six criticaloccasions for handwashing, whichinclude washing hands after defeca-tion and the use of toilets; before eat-ing; before preparing and servingfood; before feeding infants/childrenand after coughing or sneezing.

The event was designed aroundthe theme of a mela. It focussed onseeding the information that sanita-tion and hygiene are concepts thatcan be easily taught. Each of theseactivities were carefully selected toorganise a familiar yet informativeand engaging experience. It wit-nessed activities such as street play,puppetry, hip-hop and rap.

The event also saw a parallelactivity involving training of teach-ers, who are most influential stake-holders, if we need to win against dis-eases that proliferate because of badhygiene practices. The experientialactivity delivered exercise on devel-oping soft skills, becoming leadersand role models for students, with afocus on imparting knowledge onhand-hygiene.

The objective of the initiative isto use five step experiential learningmethods to increase knowledge andinculcate good habits of hygiene-related behaviours among kids froman early age. These various sessionsalso resulted in children influencingtheir families, thereby, creating a mul-tiplier effect. Under the programme,690 soap banks were installed thatdelivered direct benefits to approx-imately 38,000 children.

ChittaranjanLocomotive

Works (CLW)celebrated theW o r l dEnvironment Dayon Wednesday.

An awarenessrally was organ-ised by the BharatScouts andGuides andChittaranjan unitat various places inChittaranjan township.Volunteers held placards onenvironment conservationand its awareness.

Earlier, a tree plantationdrive was organised in theenvironment park atChittaranjan golf course.

To educate people aboutdifferent ways and means toconserve the environment,leaflets pertaining to varioussteps regarding energy con-servation, water conserva-tion and waste management,were distributed. Under the

theme — air pollution —posters and banners werealso being displayed.

The electrical mainte-nance department alsoappealed to the residents ofthe township to adopt variousenergy-saving measures.

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts(IGNCA) has introduced two new courses

among its seven PG Diploma courses in Art,Culture and related subjects.

The institution has decided to introduce fiveshort-term certificate courses in art, culture andrelated subjects. Basic aim of these courses is tocreate arts and culture with all its dimension andinformation technology to design and developcontent exploration systems to intensify culturelearning and visualisation. It employees mod-ern digital tools, techniques, and methodologiesto achieve the intended purposes. This initiativeattempts to make our ancient knowledge andachievements accessible on a multimedia plat-

form, thus enabling communication between theancient and modern knowledge.

The seven courses, which will commencefrom August 1, are introduced to attract peopletowards Indian art with an endeavour to nur-ture trained manpower in the related fields.

Apart from subjects like CulturalInformatics, Preventive Conservation, BuddhistStudies, Digital Library and Data Management,Manuscriptology and Palaeography, The twonew additions to PG Diploma courses are inCultural Management and South-East (Agneya)Asian Studies.

For the courses, interested candidates canapply before July 8.

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Page 12: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

BHUBANESWAR | THURSDAY | JUNE 6, 2019 world 12

TROTTINGTROTTINGGLOBE

HIGH HEELS ‘NECESSARY',SAYS JAPAN MINISTER Tokyo: Japan's Health andLabour Minister has defendedworkplaces that require womento wear high heels to work,arguing it is "necessary andappropriate" after a petition wasfiled against the practice.

JAPAN ARRESTS SEVENIN ‘RECORD' DRUG BUSTTokyo: Seven Chinese citizenshave been arrested in connectionwith a drug bust reported to bethe largest in Japanese history,Tokyo Police said on Wednesday.The men, aged between 24 and40 years old, were arrested on abeach in central Japan onMonday and Tuesday for"possession of a large amount" ofstimulants, a Tokyo MetropolitanPolice spokeswoman told AFP.

‘DOZENS MISSING AFTERUGANDA LANDSLIDES’Kampala: Dozens of people aremissing after heavy rains causedlandslides in eastern Uganda'sBududa district, the Red Crosssaid on Wednesday.

TRANSGENDER ARMY BAN:TRUMP BLAMES DRUGSLondon: US President DonaldTrump said Wednesday hedecided to ban transgenderAmericans from serving in themilitary because they take a"massive amounts of drugs".

Khartoum: Gunfire crackled inSudan's capital on Wednesdayas tensions remained high aftera two-day crackdown that doc-tors close to the country'sprotest movement said had leftat least 60 people dead.

Despite mounting interna-tional concern at what demon-strators called a "bloody mas-sacre", a bid at the UN SecurityCouncil to condemn thekillings was blocked by Chinawith support from Russia.

Hospitals in Khartoum saidthey were struggling to copewith the number of woundedafter security forces launched adeadly raid on Monday on aweeks-long sit-in outside armyheadquarters.

"The situation is very diffi-cult. Most of the hospitals havetaken in more casualties thanthey have capacity for," a doc-tor who works at two hospitalsin the city told AFP.

"There's a shortage of med-ical staff, a shortage of blood,and it's difficult to do surgerybecause some operations canonly be done in certain hospi-tals," said the doctor, who askednot to be named.

"Among the wounded thereare still people in a serious con-dition and I expect the number

of deaths to rise." Sudan's mil-itary ousted veteran presidentOmar al-Bashir in April aftermonths of protests against hisauthoritarian rule and hadagreed a three-year transitionperiod to a civilian adminis-tration.

But army ruler GeneralAbdel Fattah al-Burhan said fol-lowing the crackdown that theplan had been ditched and anelection would take place with-in nine months — a plan reject-ed by demonstrators.

Protest leaders called ontheir supporters to take part in"total civil disobedience" totopple the ruling military coun-cil.

On Wednesday, hundredsof residents of the northKhartoum blocked off streets

with barricades made fromstones, and waited by them insilence, a witness told AFP.

In the distance gunfire washeard.

In the early morning, spo-radic shooting was heard in theKhartoum 2 neighbourhood,an area where there are sever-al embassies, an AFP reportersaid.

The Central Committee ofSudanese Doctors, which islinked to the protesters, said thedeath toll had jumped to 60with hundreds more wounded.

An eight-year-old child wasamong the dead, it added.

The committee said it held"the militias of the (military)council... Responsible for thismassacre." The Rapid SupportForces, paramilitaries with ori-

gins in the 16-year-old war inthe western region of Darfur,are thought to have been large-ly behind the crackdown.

Their commander isdeputy chairman on the rulingmilitary council.

The Sudanese ProfessionalsAssociation (SPA), which spear-headed protests against Bashir,urged the global community "toisolate and stop dealing with theso-called military council".

It also called for an inde-pendent investigation into thekillings under internationalsupervision.

The Transitional MilitaryCouncil said it "regrets" theevents, calling it a "clean-upoperation" that went wrong.

The Sudanese DoctorsUnion accused security forcesof attacks on hospitals and staffacross the country, and allegedsome women had been raped inan area of the capital withoutgiving details of how the grouphad learned of the assaults.

A push for the UN SecurityCouncil to condemn the killingof civilians and call on the mil-itary and protesters to worktogether was blocked by China,which was backed by Russia,during a closed-door meetingon Tuesday. AFP

60 killed in Sudan crackdownATTACK ON PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS

Lahore: For the first time inyears, Mumbai attack master-mind and Jammat-ud-Dawa(JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was notallowed by the Government onWednesday to lead Eid-ul-Fitrprayers at his favourite venueQaddafi Stadium here, an offi-cial said.

Instead, Saeed, chief ofUN-designated terrorist organ-isation JuD, offered prayers ata local mosque adjacent to hisJauhar Town residence here.

"JuD chief Saeed wanted tolead the Eid prayers at theQaddafi Stadium but he wasconveyed by an official of thePunjab Government a daybefore (Tuesday) that he couldnot do so. In case he goes aheadwith his plan (to lead the Eidprayers) the Government mayarrest him,” the official privy tothe development told PTI.

He said Saeed having noother option "followed theGovernment direction" anddropped the idea of leading theprayers at the Qaddafi Stadium.

Saeed had been leadingthe prayers on both Eid-ul Fitrand Eid-ul Azha at the QaddafiStadium for last many yearswithout any hindrance. Ratherthe Government used to pro-vide him foolproof security.

In the past Saeed not onlyled the prayers but also prop-agated his views especially onKashmir before a large gather-ing of people assembled onsuch religious festivals.

Saeed, who was banned onDecember 10, 2008 by the UNSecurity Council after the hor-rific Mumbai attacks in which166 people were killed, is keep-ing a low profile since theImran Khan Governmentlaunched a crackdown on pro-scribed organisations somethree months ago to fulfil itsobligations regarding interna-tional terror financing watch-dog Financial Action TaskForce (FATF).

In February, Paris-basedinternational terror financingwatchdog FATF decided tocontinue the 'Grey' listing of

Pakistan for its failure to stopfunding of terrorist groupssuch as the Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM), the Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) and the JuD.

In March, Saeed wasbarred by the Governmentfrom delivering weekly Fridaysermon at Jamia Masjid Qadsia,the JuD headquarters inLahore.

Saeed was never stoppedfrom delivering Friday ser-mons even during the yearswhen Masjid Qadsia's controlwas under the PunjabGovernment.

The JuD is believed to bethe front organisation for theLeT which is responsible forcarrying out the Mumbaiattacks. It had been declared asa foreign terrorist organisationby the US in June 2014. PTI

Pak stops Hafiz Saeed from leading Eidprayers at his ‘favourite’ venue in Lahore

Washington: An Indian-originSikh neuroscientist, who isbisexual, has found praise fromformer US president BarackObama for his rainbow turbanto ring in this year's 'PrideMonth' in the US.

Jiwandeep Kohli, who isbased in San Diego, shared animage of his elaborate creationof the rainbow turban thatfeatures the colours of theLGBT flag on Twitter.

"I'm proud to be a bisexu-al bearded baking brain scien-tist," he captioned the image. "Ifeel fortunate to be able toexpress all these aspects of myidentity and will continue towork towards ensuring thesame freedom for others," hetweeted.

Praising Kohli, Obamatweeted on Tuesday: "You'vegot a lot to be proud of,Jiwandeep. Thanks for every-thing you do to make this

country a little more equal.Turban looks great, by the way.Happy Pride Month, every-body!"

To which, Kohli replied,"I'm a fairly verbose person, buttoday I am lost for words," hewrote.

"Thank you for your sup-port and the compliment, MrObama," the tweet said.

Pride Month kicked off onJune 1 and honours theLGBTQ community whilecommemorating New York'sStonewall riots in June 1969that signalled a turning pointin the movement for equalrights.

There were a few peopleasking where they can get theirown rainbow turban. Kohli inresponse, said he wanted themto know that turbans were aresponsibility for Sikhs andit's not the same as throwing ona rainbow hat. PTI

Obama praises Sikh man with rainbow turbanfor Pride in CaliforniaMoscow: Chinese President Xi

Jinping arrived in Russia onWednesday for talks he saidwould boost strategic cooper-ation, as Beijing and Moscowcontinue to spar with the US.

The leader was receivedwith full honours at Moscow'sVnukovo airport in the earlyafternoon ahead of a plannedmeeting with Vladimir Putinat the Kremlin.

Xi said the visit would"serve as an incentive for thedevelopment of Chinese-Russian relations, compre-hensive partnership and strate-gic interaction in a new era,"according to Russian newsagencies.

"I am certain this visitwill yield fruitful results," hesaid.

The trip comes five yearsafter Moscow's annexation ofCrimea led to a serious riftwith its Western partners andsubsequent turn toward itsneighbour to the east.

After watching a perfor-

mance at the Bolshoi Theatreon Wednesday evening, Xi isset to travel to Russia's formerimperial capital SaintPetersburg.

There he will attend aneconomic forum hosted byPutin on Thursday and Friday.China and Russia "have strongpolitical mutual trust, andsupport each other firmly onissues concerning each other'score interests and major con-cerns," Xi said during an inter-view with Russian mediaahead of the visit.

Putin's foreign policy aideYury Ushakov said the visitwas "a crucial event for ourbilateral relations". The SovietUnion was the first country torecognise Communist-ruledChina in 1949, he noted.

Ushakov said Xi and Putinwould sign a new declarationon "global partnership andstrategic cooperation, whichare entering a new era".

The Chinese delegation isbringing two pandas as gifts,

which are bound for theMoscow Zoo. "The animal is asymbol of China and the ges-ture is very important to ourpartners," Ushakov said.

The partnership is yieldingincreasing trade, which hasincreased by 25 percent in2018 to hit a record $108 bil-lion, he added, calling China"Russia's most important eco-nomic partner".

Chinese Vice ForeignMinister Zhang Hanhuipraised the upcoming visit ashaving a "milestone signifi-cance in the development ofbilateral relations".

Russia may have had unre-alistic expectations from itspivot to the east followingWestern sanctions overUkraine, said AlexanderGabuev, who heads the Asiaprogramme at the CarnegieMoscow Center.

Nevertheless, China'sshare in Russian foreign tradehas nearly doubled since then,he added. AFP

China's Xi in Russia to usher‘new era' of cooperation

Washington: Senators acrossthe political spectrum onWednesday moved to blockPresident Donald Trump's planto sell $8.1 billion in arms toSaudi Arabia and other Araballies as US lawmakers' frustra-tion with the kingdom soars.

The Trump administrationlast month said it would useemergency powers to defyCongress and provide muni-tions, aircraft maintenance andother military components toSaudi Arabia along with theUnited Arab Emirates.

The move infuriated law-makers who believe the weaponscould be used to kill civilians inYemen, where the Saudis andEmiratis are mounting an offen-sive and millions are at risk ofstarvation.

Senator Lindsey Graham, aRepublican who is usually inlockstep with Trump, voicedhope for "strong bipartisan sup-port" in preventing the sales.

"While I understand that

Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally,the behavior of Mohammedbin Salman cannot be ignored.Now is not the time to do busi-ness as usual with Saudi Arabia,"Graham said, referring to thekingdom's ambitious crownprince. Secretary of State MikePompeo said the administrationwould not follow the usualprocess of submitting the salesto Congress due to an emer-gency caused by Iran, SaudiArabia's regional rival which hasbacked the Huthi rebels whocontrol much of Yemen.

The senators nonethelesssaid they would go ahead andintroduce resolutions of disap-proval -- as they could for salesthat are formally submitted -- foreach of the 22 arms deals.

The chances of success areuncertain as Trump could vetoany disapproval resolutions, withthe Senate and House ofRepresentatives both needingtwo-thirds votes to overridehim. Trump in April vetoed a

resolution that would end USmilitary support for the Saudi-led forces in Yemen.

Anger with Saudi Arabiahas grown in Congress since theOctober killing of dissidentwriter Jamal Khashoggi, whowrote for The Washington Postand lived in Virginia.

He was strangled and hisbody dismembered after heentered the Saudi consulate inIstanbul to sort out marriagepaperwork, according to Turkishand US officials.

Senator Chris Murphy, aDemocrat who has been amongthe most outspoken critics ofSaudi Arabia, said that onlyCongress could change thedynamics between the twocountries. "Selling more bombsto the Saudis simply means thatthe famine and cholera outbreakin Yemen will get worse, Iran willget stronger and al-Qaeda andISIS will continue to flourishamidst the chaos of the civil war,"Murphy said. AFP

Senators seek to block PrezTrump's arms sales to Saudis

The sun rises as cars and trucks drive on a highway near Frankfurt, Germany on Wednesday PTI

Kathmandu: A total of 11,000 kggarbage and four dead bodieswere removed from the MountEverest during a two-monthlong cleanliness drive conduct-ed by the Nepal government onthe world's highest mountain.

The garbage, which includ-ed empty oxygen cylinders,plastic bottles, cans, batteries,food wrappings, faecal matterand kitchen waste, was flown toKathmandu in army helicoptersfrom the Everest base camp.

"Some of the garbage washanded over to the NGO 'BlueWaste to Value', which recycleswaste products, during a func-tion in Kathmandu in the pres-ence of Nepal Army chiefGeneral Purnachandra Thapaon Wednesday, coinciding withthe World Environment Day,"

Bigyan Dev Pandey, Director atPublic Relations Directorate ofNepal Army, told PTI.

The ceremony officiallyconcluded the cleaning cam-paign, which began on April 14,to bring back tonnes of trashfrom the world's highest peakthat has lately turned into a"garbage dump".

Of the total 11,000 kg rub-bish, 1,000 kg was broughtdown from the Everest on thefirst day of the cleaning cam-paign. "On Tuesday, we broughtdown 5,000 kg of the last con-signment of garbage from theEverest," Pandey said.

Some of the biodegradablegarbage were dumped atNamche Bazaar, a famous mar-ket near the gateway to theEverest, he said. "We will con-

tinue this cleanliness drive nextyear also under our Safa HimalCampaign," Pandey added.

He also said that the deadbodies included that of a Russianmountaineer and a Nepaliclimber. The two other bodiesare yet to be identified, he said.

Besides the Nepal Army,the other agencies involved in thecleaning expedition includedthe Nepal MountaineeringAssociation, the tourism min-istry and the Everest PollutionControl Organisation. Everyyear, hundreds of climbers,Sherpas make their way toEverest, leaving behind tonnes ofboth biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste on the high-est peak, which has latelyacquired notoriety as the "world'shighest garbage dump". PTI

11,000 kg garbage, four deadbodies removed from Everest

TWO-MONTH LONG CLEANLINESS DRIVE UN: 2mn Somalis could dieof starvation amid droughtUnited Nations: A UnitedNations emergency relief coor-dinator says more than 2 millionmen, women and children coulddie of starvation in Somalia bysummer's end if foreign aid isnot sent quickly to the drought-stricken African country.

UN Undersecretary-General Mark Lowcock saysabout $700 million is neededafter a rainless season that haskilled both livestock and crops.

He said Tuesday that theUN's Central EmergencyResponse Fund has allocated$45 million to cover food short-ages, water and daily necessitiesin Somalia as well as parts ofKenya and Ethiopia affected bydroughts. Of a Somali popula-tion of 15 million people, morethan 3 million are struggling justto meet minimum food require-ments, he said, and the shortages

are about 40 percent worse nowthan this past winter.

"What was forecast to be anaverage rainy season in Somaliais now one of the driest onrecord in over 35 years," he said."Communities that were alreadyvulnerable due to past droughtsare again facing severe hungerand water scarcity and are at riskfrom deadly communicable dis-eases." The U.N. Aid comple-ments efforts by governments ofthe three countries to assisttheir people, especially thosewith disabilities or who areinternally displaced.

Somalia's humanitarianfund is currently depleted. Iffinancial aid is delayed, the costof saving lives on the margin ofdeath are much higher, Lowcocksaid, adding that the optionthen is to turn to expensive, ther-apeutic feeding programs. AP

Beijing: For the first time,China on Wednesday success-fully launched a rocket from amobile launch platform in theYellow Sea, sending two tech-nology experiment satellitesand five commercial satellitesinto space.

A Long March-11 solidpropellant carrier rocket blast-ed off from a launch padaboard a ship in the Yellow Seaoff the coast of Shandongprovince at 12:06 pm (localtime).

It is China's first spacelaunch from a sea-based plat-form and the 306th mission ofthe Long March carrier rocketseries, official media herereported.

China in recent years has

emerged as a major spacepower with first ever mission tothe dark side of the moon aswell as manned missionsbesides building its own spacestation to be ready by 2022.

It is also a leading countryin launching number of satel-lites from its launch stations onland.

Launching a carrier rocketfrom an ocean-based platformhas many advantages over aland launch. The closer to theequator a rocket launch can get,the greater the speed boost itwill receive. It reduces theamount of energy required toget into space and means thatless fuel is required, state-runXinhua news agency reported.

The launch site is flexible

and falling rocket remains poseless danger. Using civilian shipsto launch rockets at sea wouldlower launch costs and give ita commercial edge.

The seaborne launch tech-nology will meet the growinglaunch demand of low inclina-tion satellites and help Chinaprovide launch services forcountries participating in theBelt and Road Initiative,Xinhua quoted Chinese expertsas saying.

The two satellites, devel-oped by China Academy ofSpace Technology, are expect-ed to step up all-weather mon-itoring of ocean wind fields andimprove typhoon monitoringand accuracy of the weatherforecast in China. PTI

China launches its first rocketfrom mobile platform in sea

Paris: Humans eat and breathein tens of thousands ofmicroplastic particles every year,according to a new analysis onWednesday that raised freshquestions over how plastic wastecould directly impact our health.

Microplastics — tiny plasticshards broken down from man-made products such as synthet-ic clothing, car tyres and contactlenses — are among the mostubiquitous materials on theplanet. They have been found onsome of the world's highestglaciers and at the bottom of thedeepest ocean trenches.

Several previous studieshave shown how microplastics

may enter the human foodchain, including one last yearthat found them in nearly allmajor bottled water brandssampled.

In Wednesday's research,Canadian scientists analysedhundreds of data sets onmicroplastic contamination andcompared them to the typicaldiet and consumption habits ofAmericans. They found that anadult male could expect to ingestup to 52,000 microplastic parti-cles each year. Taking intoaccount the pollution we breathein, that figure rose to 121,000particles — equivalent to over320 particles every day. AFP

Humans consume ‘tensof thousands' of plasticpieces each year Seoul: South Korea approved

$8 million in humanitarianaid for the impoverished Northon Wednesday, authorities said,with negotiations overPyongyang's nuclear arsenaldeadlocked and inter-Koreanrelations at a standstill.

It will be the first such aidSeoul has provided Pyongyangsince 2015 and follows theNorth's lowest recorded harvestfor a decade, according to theUnited Nations.

The donation — to be madethrough the UN — comes asPresident Moon Jae-in seeks tosalvage diplomacy betweenPyongyang and Washingtonfollowing the breakdown of the

Hanoi summit, when Kim JongUn and Donald Trump failed toreach a deal on the North'snuclear programme and sanc-tions relief.

Pyongyang has since large-ly cut off contact with bothSeoul and Washington, withthe South's unification minis-ter saying this week he had lastspoken to a North Korean offi-cial at the beginning of May.

Seoul's UnificationMinistry, which handles inter-Korean relations, said the gov-ernment had approved a planto provide the funds amid con-cerns over the "worsening foodsituation".

It will given $4.5 million to

the World Food Programme(WFP) to help address malnu-trition, along with $3.5 millionto UNICEF for health issuesamong children and pregnantwomen.

More than 10 millionNorth Koreans — 40 percent ofthe population — were suffer-ing from severe food shortages,according to recent UN esti-mates. The figure is similar torecent years.

"WFP and other interna-tional bodies have requestedassistance to the North on theback of concerns for deterio-rating conditions among thevulnerable there," the ministrysaid in a statement. AFP

South Korea approves $8mnin aid for hungry North Korea

Page 13: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

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Meet Dr Pratibha Salvi. She isall of 78 and happily punctu-

ating the stands at the CricketWorld Cup all alone, all the wayfrom Goa. She has done so since2003, rating the Jo’burg Final as thebiggest Indian disaster. For 78, sheis pretty young at heart and full ofpraise for MS Dhoni. “He hasbrought me here,” she tells you withtypical fan passion. Not that herassociation with cricket is at onlyfrom the stand level. She happenedto be Clive Lloyd's physician atManchester when he played forLancashire alongside Farooq

Engineer. “If you see Clive aroundtell him the doc is here and he willknow,” she says. Salvi’s son Neilplayed for Oxford Blue and figuresin the 1987 Wisden edition. Salvitravels alone for all the big-ticketgames and is the proud owner of abat signed by the entire West Indiesand India cricket teams of 1983 onone side and the English andAustralian teams at the back. “Idon’t think I will be at the nextWorld Cup. I am already 78,” shelaments. So, she plans to auctionthis precious bat once this WorldCup is over. “Cricket is no longerthe same. Gone is that groovy WestIndian era of pace and fun. ButIndia is in its best phase,” she con-cludes.

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Then there is other lady SujataGhatoskar who stepped out

of the straitjacket to havelaunched a cricket team inBelgium some 25 years back, ifyou please! Now Belgium isabout everything other thancricket. It is about football,rugby,hockey and a lot of dia-monds. “You will be amazed toknow that they did not do cricketbut were absolutely passionateabout Kho-Kho and had aninternational team for it,” Sujatatells you. Not that cricket wasalien to her. She is the prouddaughter-in- law of the legendaryTest match umpire of the 60s, 70sand 80s MV Ghatoskar. “Wemade an under-19 team in

Belgium and my son, then 15,was a member of it,” she tells youfrom the Hampshire Bowlstands.

The team’s coach was formerWest Indies player FazalMahmood.

So, who did they playagainst? “We played against Israelfor which I was the official scor-er. But the most amazing thingwas that some of the Israeli play-ers spoke fluent Marathi andthen I discovered most of themwere from Kolhapur, Thane,Pune and that zone,” she recalls.And who funded the games?“Diamond merchants, of course,”she says, refusing to say if NiravModi’s father was one of them!Sadly, Belgium has no trace ofcricket on its soil today.

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Startlingly, India's first matchin this tournament did not

draw a full house. The pic-turesque Hampshire Bowl hadbalding stands much into thegame after South Africa won thetoss and elected to bat.Hearteningly, however, much ofthe strength present was Blue incolour and 17,000-capacity sta-dium had many empty patches,especially on the Westend side.The total crowd strength wasYYYYYY. Maybe at The Ovalwhere India meets its toughestopponent Australia, it will be afuller more handsome fan storyto narrate.

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Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahalgrabbed four wickets, helpingIndia restrict South Africa toa sub-par 227 for 9 in theiropening encounter of the

World Cup here Wednesday.South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis'

decision to bat under overcast condi-tions backfired with Jasprit Bumrah(10-1-35-2) setting the tone with twinblows in his opening spell.

Chahal (10-0-51-4) then tight-ened the noose on South African bats-men as they could never really force thepace during the middle overs.Incidentally, this was the best 10-oversingle spell (in terms of wickets taken)by any bowler in a World Cup game.

South Africa's total got some sem-blance of respectability courtesy ChrisMorris (42 off 34) and Kagiso Rabada(31 not out off 35), who shared a muchneeded 66-run stand for the eighthwicket.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (10-0-44-2)coming in place of Mohammed Shamiwas impressive in his second spell.

Under a thick cloud cover and apitch that offered bounce,

Bumrah was unplayable in hisinitial five over spell where hepitched on good length orback of it, getting the deliv-eries to rear up awkwardlyand shape away from open-ers Quinton de Kock and

Hashim Amla.Bumrah dismissed Amla (6) with

a beautiful delivery that rose fromlength outside the off-stump and theoutside edge was taken low in the slipsby Rohit Sharma.

De Kock (10) was out in his nextover when his back of length deliverywas angled across and the left-hander'sslash was pouched by skipper ViratKohli at the third slip.

Skipper Du Plessis (38 off 54 balls)and Rassie van der Dussen (22 off 37balls) did add 44 runs for the thirdwicket but it was more of a consolida-tion job as they found scoring runs dif-ficult.

The Powerplay yielded only 34 runsand even though the Proteas skipper hitfour boundaries, he never looked com-fortable.

Third seamer Hardik Pandya (6-0-31-0) also hit the hard lengths and oneof his deliveries, a nasty snorter, hit Du

Plessis flush on the gloves, leaving himin pain. Along with Kedar Jadhav (4-0-16-0), they shared the fifth bowler'sduties admirably giving away only 45runs.

Once Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav(10-0-46-1) started operating in tan-dem, something was waiting to happen.

Van der Dussen, who was showingcomposure till then, suddenly had abrain fade as the right-hander tried anambitious reverse sweep to a deliverydrifting on his pads only to bebowled.

From 78 for 2, it soon became 80for 4 as Du Plessis failed to read aChahal googly and was bowledthrough the gate.

Kuldeep then had a horribly out-of-form JP Duminy (3 off 11) plumbin-front with scoreboard reading 89 for5. David Miller (31 off 40 balls) andAndile Phehlukwayo (34 off 61 balls)again had to carry out a repair jobadding 46 runs but Chahal collectedanother two wickets quickly to reducethem to 158 for 7.

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Afghanistan were beaten by Sri Lanka by34 runs at the Cardiff Wales Stadium.Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi are

both in the ICC top three all-rounders and arekey for Afghanistan With Rashid Khan andMohammad Nabi in their team, Afghanistanalways have a chance.

The spin duo are ranked second and thirdin the world ODI all-rounder standings andoften shoulder the weight of a nation’s hopesevery time they go into battle for their side.

Both have been central figures inAfghanistan’s ascension; from playing inWorld Cricket League Division Five in 2008to contesting their second World Cup.

And their significance to their country wasunderlined emphatically against Sri Lankaafter their intervention in Cardiff promptedyet another batting collapse from their oppo-nents.

Just three days after surrendering to 136all out against New Zealand, Sri Lankaappeared to have put their batting woes behindthem as they coasted to 144/1 after 21 overs.

Afghanistan’s fielding during that periodhad left a lot to be desired, with no balls, over-throws and missed run-out opportunitiesallowing Sri Lanka to ease any nerves they mayhave felt.

Enter Rashid and Nabi. The latter hadalready taken one scalp — capturing the keywicket of Sri Lanka captain DimuthKarunaratne in the 14th over — before turn-ing the match on its head.

The experienced campaigner returned inthe 22nd over and wreaked havoc with his offspin as Lahiru Thirimanne became his secondvictim after dragging a slow ball onto hisstumps.

It kick-started an astonishing spell in thegame, which saw Sri Lanka lose seven wick-ets for 36 runs in the space of 11 overs beforethe rain brought an untimely halt to proceed-ings.

Having taken Thirimanne’s wicket with hissecond ball of the over, Nabi tempted KusalMendis forward two deliveries later with alooped effort and saw him caught at first slip.

Nabi was now in his element and cappedoff a sensational over with his andAfghanistan’s fourth wicket of the day, withAngelo Mathews suffering his second consec-utive duck.

With the floodgates now well and trulyopen, Afghanistan went for the kill and HamidHassan joined the party in the next over bytaking the wicket of the scoreless Dhananjayade Silva.

Sri Lanka’s frailties were now clear for allto see and Thisara Perera’s run out in the 26thover piled on more pressure as Nabi contin-ued to frustrate the batsmen with his decep-tive flight.

To this point, Rashid had only played a

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Bangladesh was all out for 244after New Zealand won the toss

and put the squeeze on at the Ovalin their Cricket World Cup day-night match on Wednesday.

The top five batsmen all madestarts but invariably got themselvesout under pressure to escape NewZealand's grip.

Shakib Al Hasan, the thirdBangladeshi to play 200 ODIs, topscored with 64. He was the only bats-man to make more than 30.

The New Zealand battery,backed up by smart fielding, tookadvantage of a fresh pitch, overcastskies, and disciplined bowling to seta gettable target.

Matt Henry took 4-47 and TrentBoult a pair, while Lockie Ferguson,Colin de Grandhomme, andMitchell Santner bagged one each.They all deserved them.

Santner, the slow left-armer,was unhittable through the middleovers, not conceding a boundary until his ninth over,and the only six of the match in his 10th. But his per-formance will also have heartened the Bangladesh spin-ners.

New Zealand has a 4-0 win record againstBangladesh at the World Cup, batting second each time.

Fast bowlers Henry and Boult were given the newball and tied down openers Soumya Sarkar and TamimIqbal, who punished loose balls, though there weren'tmany.

Soumya edged Henry on to his stumps to end thepartnership in the ninth over at 45-1, beginning a runof eight overs in which Bangladesh didn't hit a bound-ary.

During that period, Tamim was out, too, miscu-

ing a Ferguson bouncer on 24.Musfiqur Rahim joined Shakib

Al Hasan and they struggled initial-ly, three days after their record cen-tury stand against South Africa.Overs 10-20 gave up only 33 runs.

Shakib finally broke out whenthe fast Ferguson - his first stintgoing for 4-0-7-1 - was replaced bymedium-pacer Jimmy Neesham.Neesham gave up three consecutiveboundaries to Shakib in his secondover and wasn't used again.

But just when Mushfiqur andShakib were set and brought up their50 partnership, Musfiqur ran him-self out on 19. Shakib could takesome of the blame for calling for therun then changing his mind whenhe saw Martin Guptill swoop on theball.

Shakib was shaky between thewickets. He almost ran out Tamimin the 12th over, and himself in the22nd.

He needed to make amends,and hit his third half-century in four

matches, but he was out for 64, trying to cut medium-pacer de Grandhomme only to edge to Latham stand-ing up at the stumps. The run rate dropped below 5and stayed there.

Bangladesh went another five overs, Nos. 30-35without hitting a boundary, and the pressure wastelling.

In trying to hit away, Mohammad Mithun (26) wasout to a mistimed pull to fine leg, Mahmudullah (20)hit straight to cover, Mosddaek Hossain (11) holed outin the deep, Mehedi Hasan (8) edged behind trying apull, captain Mashrafe Mortaza (1) hit straight to thirdman, and Mohammad Saifuddin (29) was bowled, giv-ing Henry two wickets in two balls.

There were four balls left over.

support act. His first three overs had not producedany wickets, but the talented 20-year-old had alsoonly conceded 11 runs.

Only two runs came from his next two overs,which saw him confound the opposition with hisbag of tricks, as Afghanistan cranked up the pres-sure on Sri Lanka’s batsmen.

It paid off when Isuru Udana gave away hiswicket to Dawlat Zadran in the next over, beforeRashid returned to take the wicket he deserved asthe rain began to fall.

Kusal Perera had been Sri Lanka’s best bats-

man but an attempted reverse sweep backfired andhe gloved the ball into the grateful hands ofMohammad Shahzad for 78. With Sri Lanka onthe cusp of being bowled out, the weather cameto their rescue and gave them a stay of execution,with the score at 182/8 as the two teams took anearly lunch.

Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, they were forcedto bat another eight overs on their return to thecrease after the rain subsided and the game wasadjusted to 41-overs per side.

And they were unable to bat out their oversas Dawlat took his second wicket of the afternoonbefore Rashid bowled Nuwan Pradeep with asnorter of a delivery to end the innings.

Rashid finished with 2-17 from 7.5 oversalongside Nabi’s figures of 4-30, but their effortsproved to be in vain as Afghanistan fell short oftheir revised target of 187 under DSL.

Ultimately, Afghanistan’s performance inCardiff was emblematic of their current situation.Their batting in the one-day game remains a weak-ness that is costing them all-too frequently.

But in Nabi and Rashid they possess genuinematch-winning bowlers. Their heroics with the balleven masked over the fact that Sri Lanka’s secondtop-scorer was extras with 35 runs.

This was a game they would have been tar-geting for a potential victory, though. Now,Afghanistan must regroup and find a way to backup their bowling superstars.

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Page 15: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

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Jason Holder’s West Indies are reviv-ing memories of their World Cupglory days with a pace attack that has

the ability to strike fear into oppositionbatsmen.

The two-time champions openedtheir campaign at the tournament inEngland and Wales by skittling outPakistan for just 105 at Trent Bridge astheir quicks made good use of thebouncer.

Oshane Thomas led the way withfour for 27, while Andre Russell, SheldonCottrell and captain Holder providedgood support as the West Indies cruisedto a seven-wicket win.

When West Indies beat Australia inthe inaugural 1975 World Cup final atLord’s, their side included a four-manpace battery.

And when they defeated Englandfour years later in another Lord’s final toretain their title, the West Indies did sowith the original ‘fearsome foursome’ ofAndy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin

Croft and Joel Garner.Nobody is suggesting the current

line-up is yet in that class but the fact theybowled Pakistan out cheaply withoutKemar Roach and Shannon Gabrielshows that, once again, West Indies havean impressive stock of fast bowlers.

And it was further evidence that,although they only scraped into thisWorld Cup via a qualifying tournament,they are more than capable of beatinganyone on their day.

Australia, who began the defence oftheir title with a seven-wicket rout of out-siders Afghanistan, will pose a far stern-er challenge at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

But the West Indies, who have wontwo of the past three World Twenty20tournaments, will take heart from theway Thomas bounced out David Warnerin a warm-up match in Southampton lastmonth.

�6 �8���One danger for the West Indies is

that they become ‘bouncer happy’ anduse the tactic too often, with Warner andSteve Smith, both returning from one-year bans for ball tampering, more thancapable of putting away any misdirect-ed short stuff.

Former Australia captain SteveWaugh, a two-time World Cup winner,has been impressed by what he has seenfrom the West Indies so far.

“For the first time in a long whilethey have fast-bowling depth,” Waughsaid.

“Every side in this tournament willbe wary of playing the Windies and Iwouldn’t want to face them in a knock-out match. “They are the sort of teamthat, if they get on a roll and build somemomentum, then they could win it all.”

As for a batting order in which ChrisGayle is one of several big-hitters,Waugh said: “They are the most watch-able team in the tournament with a bat-ting line-up that can kidnap any bowl-ing attack with brute force.”

Australia, however, have plenty ofpace in left-arm quick Mitchell Starc andPat Cummins. Clive Lloyd, the captainof the West Indies sides that won the1975 and 1979 World Cups, said:“Australia have got some firepower andsome very good batsmen.

“We just need to see what happenswhen the pressure is on the West Indies,but the game against Australia should dothat, as that will be a good test of wherewe are at.”

�= �+Australia: Aaron Finch (c), DavidWarner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith,Shaun Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), MarcusStoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc,Kane Richardson, Pat Cummins, JasonBehrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, AdamZampa, Nathan LyonWest Indies: Jason Holder (c), FabianAllen, Darren Bravo, Shannon Gabriel,Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, NicholasPooran, Andre Russell, CarlosBrathwaite, Sheldon Cottrell, ChrisGayle, Shai Hope, Ashley Nurse, KemarRoach, Oshane Thomas

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Justin Langer has hailed the WestIndies’ Calypso cricket, admittingthey were his heroes when he was

growing up as he prepares Australia toface their current battery of fast bowlers.

The two teams, who have wonseven out of the 11 World Cups so farbetween them, meet at Trent Bridge onThursday after both cruised to comfort-able opening victories.

Head coach Langer said defendingchampions Australia would need to

adjust their mindset to take on the WestIndies quicks and other fast bowlers atthe tournament in England and Wales.

“We’ve probably spent four monthsthinking and playing against spin bowl-ing,” he said on Tuesday.

“We have to adapt to West Indies no

doubt, who have got a number of good,fast bowlers. South Africa will be same.England will be the same. Have to adaptour game plan and adapt pretty quick-ly.

“Obviously a very dangerous teamthe way they bat and aggressive bowl-ing, but they’ve got weaknesses as welland we’re playing pretty good cricket,”he added.

West Indies, who won the first twoWorld Cups, in 1975 and 1979, were thedominant force in the world game fortwo decades and boasted a successionof world-class fast bowlers and thrillingbatsmen.

“When I was a kid it was Calypsocricket, and I think we’re seeing plentyof signs of Calypso cricket,” said Langersaid.

“Running and bowling fast. They’renot necessarily going to be bowling thesame spot every ball, but going to beexciting to watch. They all try to hitsixes most balls so Darren Bravo'sprobably a little bit more unorthodox.

“Always exciting playing the WestIndies. When I was growing up theywere my heroes.”

Langer described veteran opener

Chris Gayle, who scored 50 in the WestIndies’ seven-wicket victory againstPakistan, as a ‘brilliant player’.

“They got a number of dangerousplayers,” he said.

“With him on the team they seemedto grow a leg. They take confidencefrom him. Again, hopefully don’t taketoo much confidence on today."

Australia were on the end of athumping last year when England post-ed a world record one-day internation-al score of 481 for six at Trent Bridgeand Langer described the experience as‘brutal’.

“Had some really good times hereat Trent Bridge and last year was adown,” he said.

Laxnger welcomed David Warner’sinnings of 89 not out in Australia’s winagainst Afghanistan, his first officialinternational match since completing aone-year ban for ball tampering.

“You can see the look in his eyes,”he said.

“A lot of people are talking. Looksdetermined. For him to battle through90 or 80, whatever it was, and to still bethere at the end and get the job done forthe team, that's a great sign for us.”

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�How you’ve had a look at the wicket. Isthere anything to suggest you won’t go inwith an unchanged 11 for today?

Probably not at this stage. I think we’llsit down and have a chat about it as a selec-tion group. Got some guys that are still fin-ishing up training now, but yeah, looks likea pretty similar wicket to what we expect-ed it to be.�You played a lot against the WestIndies over the years, you’ve got a lotmore talk about execution.

They’re a very dangerous side. It’simportant that you start really well, whetheryou bat or bowl first in the first 10-overperiods are going to be really crucial,because we how damaging West Indies canbe during that period. But also, equally, ifwe get off to a good start, then we can startto try and to get into our work a bit.�The pitch is known as a world recordpitch; it’s all about the runs scored here.When you looked at it yesterday, does itlook like it’s so batter friendly?

It’s probably a little bit drier than Iexpected. I can’t imagine they would haveput a huge amount of water into it over thelast couple of days with there being so muchweather around. No, I’m not surprised howit looks, but I think you have to understandthat in conditions like this you’re going togo for boundaries, so the key to bowling Ithink is to make sure that they’re hittingyour best ball.�Do you have to change things, know-ing how run friendly it can be?

We know how fast the outfields arehere. We know how flat wickets can be attimes, so you have to be prepared to suckup some pressure and soak up a few bound-aries here and there, as long as we're get-ting hitting in our areas and we often talkabout now good execution versus poor exe-cution, and that’s all it is.�The West Indies did a lot of damageagainst Pakistan with the short ball. Areyou prepared for that?

We have prepared for it. It’s something,we played them in a warm-up game downat Southampton on the Nursery Groundthere, and they bowled very similar. Alsohad a lot of success with it last game andgot off to a really good start, so I expect thatthey will come with a similar-type plan. Butthe follow-up from bouncers in short bowl-ing is the key. I think if you just stick to oneplan, then teams get on top of you prettyquickly or they adjust quick enough.

�Have you got an update on the fitnessof some of your players, Andre and Chris?

We’ve had a few days off. They havebeen recovering nicely. We expect both ofthem to be fit and ready to go today.�Where do you put this rivalry betweenWest Indies and Australia in your time?

It’s always been a great rivalry betweenWest Indies and Australia. I think every-body is expecting a really good contest.We’re up for the challenge. I think they’reup for the challenge, as well. I wouldn’t real-ly get too deep into rivalries, but we expecta really good contest from the Australians.�A lot of people are riding the WestIndies’ chances of doing something in thistournament. How big is this game?

We’re just taking it game by game.Today, is our country versus Australia.We’ve got a hurdle to overcome. I thinkwhen we overcome that hurdle, then we’llmove deeper into the tournament. But I justdon’t want to single out teams particular-ly. I think all teams are evenly matched andwell-balanced, so it’s just a matter of play-ing good cricket on any given day. That’sour rule. We want to execute in all threedepartments.�Does Pakistan’s display against Englandsuggest that your win over them is actu-ally better than many people gave cred-it for?

I don’t think so. As I said, it’s a wide-open tournament. All 10 teams are capa-ble of lifting the World Cup. That’s whywe’re here, they’re the 10 best teams in theworld. So I wouldn’t get into the games thathave been played. I just want to keep mov-ing forward. We’ve played Pakistan alreadyand that’s a hurdle that we’ve overcome.We've got Australia today, and that’s ournext hurdle, and that's what I want to focuson.�Can you do some real damage if you getto bat first and let your hitters have theirway?

When we bat we just want to executeour batting plans. We’ve all seen the waythe world cricket has gone the last couplemonths — well, last two years per se. Andthere have been some high totals and therehave been some aggressive stroke play. Wejust want to be as positive as we possiblycan be. Whether we bat first or if we chase,we’ve got to show intent. Intent is some-thing that we spoke about in the dressingroom, and it’s something that we want togo about our goal with when we go into ourinnings.�Does the fact you played here a weekago give you slight advantage?

We obviously had one game herebefore. We bowled 22 overs. We didn’t geta full allotment. But having said that, we’vegot a bit of knowledge about the ground,how the wicket plays. But having said that,there are quite a few strips on this square.I’m not sure which one we’re on today.

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Page 16: 2019/06/06  · pieces, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday described the alliance as a “trial” and said it may not always be successful but helps in knowing the

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Points on the board are vital for SriLanka but there is still a lot more tocome from this team, particularly in

the batting department.Looking at the wicket for the game

against Afghanistan in Cardiff, it was clearthis was never going to be a high-scoringgame. However there is no question thatSri Lanka could have batted better.

After such a good start, where KusalPerera batted beautifully and they had twobig partnerships, it was disappointing tosee them lose their way in the middle.

In fairness to Mohammad Nabi, hebowled well, but the spinners were strug-gling to get much purchase and were justtrying to hold the line.

The way Sri Lanka lost wickets to himin the middle order is a real concern andthere were too many soft dismissals. Theyneed to be more proactive in that situa-tion and put the bowler under pressure.

I felt that too many players stayedback in their crease and that was thewrong approach. They should have beenlooking at 250-plus in Cardiff and it issomething they will need to put right.

The hope is that the boost from thiswin will help the batting unit, which looksshort of confidence at the moment.

The bowlers did very well in difficultcircumstances, with Nuwan Pradeep whowas excellent and then some good bowl-ing by Lasith Malinga at the back end ofthe innings.

With their five quick bowlers inthose conditions, they always had a bitmore in the tank and that made the dif-ference in the end in the 34-run victory.

The fielding was a mixed bag with acouple of great dismissals, Thisara Perera'scatch and Dimuth Karunaratne's run out,but they also dropped a couple of catch-es and can do much better in that depart-ment.

Overall though, I know there is moreto come from this team. There are

enough match-winners in the side forthem to beat anybody which is why I wantto see more out of them.

Kusal’s innings was great, he playedhis natural game and applied it really well.And Dimuth has batted well in these con-ditions.

However they need those aroundthem to play the roles allocated to them.At times they lacked application and didnot stick to a game plan. That comes froma lack of confidence which will hopefullychange thanks to this win.

Playing Pakistan next in Bristol will bea very interesting game. After losing a low-scoring game against New Zealand, and

after another low-scoring match here, weneed to see them put it all together withthe bat.

If they can do that, then the bowlershave a bit more freedom to put in placetheir game plans.

A flat track would certainly helpthem with that confidence, but untilthen, the batters need to dig in.

Afghanistan are a good team andcould upset a few teams in this ICC Men’sCricket World Cup, so in that sense it’s agood win.

The ability is there, the team just needto believe in themselves.

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Sri Lanka were far from perfectafter yet another batting collapseagainst Afghanistan, but all-

rounder Thisara Perera said the teamalways had faith in their “experiencedbowling unit” to pull off the win.

Sri Lanka registered their first winof the World Cup against Afghanistanafter facing a massive defeat at thehands of New Zealand in their tour-nament opener.

After being put into bat, SriLanka could only manage to put 201on the scoreboard before NuwanPradeep (4/31) and Lasith Malinga(3/39) starred with the ball to bundleout Afghanistan for 152.

“We all believed in ourselves andwe knew we have an experiencedbowling unit, which is why we had

five fast bowlers as we have that expe-rience,” Perera said after the victory.

“We had to take wickets otherwisewe would have lost. So that’s why wehad to stick to our basic plans and notdo anything extra.”

Having crumbled to 136 all outagainst New Zealand three days ago,Sri Lanka made a strong start with thebat against Afghanistan as KusalPerera made 78.

But they faced yet another battingdisaster, collapsing from 144/1 to 201all out in 36.5 overs in a dramatic turnof events in the first innings.

“As a batting unit we are disap-pointed because we got a nice startand after that we folded and lost fivewickets almost back-to-back beforethe rain delay,” Perera said.

“We know we have some issues asa batting unit and I think we have to

try and improve going forward. Hopefully thiswin will give us confidence for rest of the tour-nament.”

Captain Dimuth Karunaratne also struck 30and Lahiru Thirimanne 25 but Sri Lanka lostseven wickets for 36 runs in the space of 11 oversbefore rain stopped play.

They lost their remaining two wickets on theresumption of play, leaving Afghanistan with atarget of 187 under DSL.

Relieved with the win, Karunaratne admit-ted that the batting department needs improve-ment.

“We had a good start after a long time butsuddenly, we lost a couple of wickets and wereon the back foot. That's the negative part but oth-erwise, the bowling and fielding was really good.After losing the first game, it’s not easy to keepyour mind positive,” Karunaratne said.

“We have the experience in these conditionsand that helped. Only thing we need to work onis to improve our batting in the middle overs.”

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Sri Lanka coach Chandika Hathurusinghabelieves that his side’s 34-run DLS victo-ry over Afghanistan can give them confi-

dence to kick-start their campaign.Sri Lanka’s tight win at Cardiff Wales

Stadium was only their second ODI win in 11completed matches, a run that included eightstraight defeats.

Hathurusingha said: “This gives us a lot ofconfidence because we really needed a win. Wehaven't had much success lately. I'm sure youwill see a better team, a better approach fromour team after this win. We need this win badly.”

Sri Lanka’s next match is on Friday againstPakistan, conquerors of favourites England, atBristol County Ground.

Hathurusingha admitted that his batsmenstruggled to come to terms with the bowler-friendly conditions, but he could not under-stand their mid-innings collapse where they lostfour wickets for five runs in 11 balls.

He said: “It’s very hard to explain. We werein a very good position at one stage. I think the

wicket is such, it’s very dif-ficult to start I think. Whena batsman is in it looked aneasy wicket to bat on, but welose one wicket and then welose three wickets in oneover.

“There were a lot of tentative shots, that wasthe cause of some of the dismissals. We’re lack-ing in confidence because of what happenedlately. We allowed them to come into the game.”

Hathurusingha paid tribute to Sri Lanka'stwo match-winning bowlers, Nuwan Pradeep,who returned to the side to take career-bestODI figures of four for 31, and veteran LasithMalinga, who produced two trademark york-ers to clean up Afghanistan's tail.

He said: “That’s what you expect fromLasith. He’s a world-class performer and stepsup when it matters.

“Nuwan had bowled really well in the twopractice games as well and he single-handed-ly kept us in the game.”

On Sri Lanka's match-winner with the bat,Kusal Perera, Hathurusingha said: “He’s anamazing player. We have given him full licenceto bat the way he wants to bat. We know thatwhen he comes off, most of the time it’s matchwinning.”

Hathurusingha does not believe there ismuch that he can do to inspire his sidebetween now and their next match but hebelieves the players are desperate to improve.

He said: “When you play for your countrythere is a lot of pride at stake. They were allhurting (after New Zealand) — I’m sure aboutthat. They really want to perform well for thecountry.”

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India had a mixed day in office as top shuttlers PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma progressed to the

second round but HS Prannoy made an early exitat the $ 150,000 Australian Open World Tour Super300 tournament here on Wednesday.

World No 5 Sindhu defeated Indonesia'sChoirunnisa 21-14, 21-9 in a lop-sided contest inwomen's singles. The Indian will meet experiencedThai Nitchaon Jindapol next.

Sixth seed Sameer exacted revenge againstMalaysia's Lee Zii Jia 21-15, 16-21, 21-12 in a thrillingopening round men's singles match. The Indian hadlost to Lee at the Sudirman Cup last month.

Among others, former Singapore Open cham-pion B Sai Praneeth, who had reached the finals atSwiss Open this year, beat Korea's Lee Dong Keun21-16, 21-14, to set up a clash with second seedIndonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting next.

Former Commonwealth Games championParupalli Kashyap also cleared the opening hurdle,entering the second round with a 21-16, 21-15 winover Thailand's Suppanyu Avihingsanon. He willnext cross swords with Lin Dan, who recently wonthe Malaysia Open.

However, Prannoy found the going toughagainst Lin Dan, going down 18-21, 19-21 to theeighth seeded Chinese legend.

In men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty defeated compatriots Manu Attri andB Sumeeth Reddy 21-12, 21-16.

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England's long wait for afirst international trophy

since 1966 could be just daysaway at the Nations Leaguefinals in Portugal, but RonaldKoeman's resurgentNetherlands present a haz-ardous hurdle for the ThreeLions in Thursday's semi-finalin Guimaraes.

A run to the semi-finals oflast year's World Cup andmemorable victories over Spainand Croatia to make the lastfour of another tournamentwithin 12 months have raisedexpectations that GarethSouthgate in coaching the gen-eration to finally end England's

wait for glory.By contrast, the Dutch have

had a lean few years after fail-ing to make it to Russia last yearor qualify for Euro 2016.

Even though the Dutchlost a thrilling opening Euro2020 qualifier 3-2 to Germanyin March there are no fears theywill miss out for a third consec-utive major tournament.

The side captained by theimperious Virgil van Dijk is alsoblessed with the core of an Ajaxside that were seconds awayfrom facing Van Dijk'sLiverpool in the ChampionsLeague final.

Tottenham robbed theEredivisie of its first ChampionsLeague finalist since 1996 with

a dramatic late semi-final, sec-ond leg winner in Amsterdamas the Premier League dominat-ed European competition thisseason.

But there is no guaranteeEnglish success will carry overto the international stage.

Indeed, there were as manyDutchman as English players inLiverpool's starting line-up asthey lifted the European Cup onSaturday with Van Dijk andGeorginio Wijnaldum.

One of Koeman's first actswhen taking charge of his coun-try last year was to make VanDijk his skipper having workedwith him at Southampton.

Van Dijk's man-of-the-match display in the

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Talismanic captainSunil Chhetri struck

in his milestone matchbut India lost 1-3 to high-er-ranked Curacao intheir opening tie of theKing's Cup football tour-nament in Igor Stimac'sfirst game in charge hereWednesday.

Chhetri became themost capped India play-er by surpassingBhaichung Bhutia's 107international matches andhe scored the lone goal forhis side in the 31st minutefrom a spot kick for his69th goal, though it didnot make any differenceto the result of the match.

The 82nd rankedCaribbean island nation,which has two playersplying trade in EnglishPremier League and someothers in Europeanleagues, scored three inthe space of 18 minutes —through Roly Bonevacia(16th), Elson Hooi (18th)and Leandro Bacuna(33rd).

A sloppy first half inwhich India — ranked101 — defended andattacked poorly, saw theteam trailing 1-3 at thebreather. The new defen-sive set up — with RahulBheke coming in as cen-tral defender — was look-ing out of sorts with lackof anticipation and com-munication.

India played a vastlyimproved football in thesecond 45 minutes —which was played most-ly under rain — but couldnot score another goal.

Stimac's chargesmade at least fourchances in the secondhalf with two coming tothe 34-year-old Chhetriwhose first attempt hitthe upright and the other— another free header —sailing over the bar.

Though high-profileStimac, a World Cupbronze medallist and for-mer Croatia manager,began his stint as Indiacoach on a losing note,there were positives to betaken from the matchagainst a more technical-ly superior side.

The Croatian gaffergave international debutsto as many as five players,including to Under-17

World Cup captainAmarjit Singh, and theIndian side played pos-session football andmostly through groundpasses.

"Conceding threegoals in the first halfagainst a technicallysuperior team was alwaysgoing to be difficult tocome back. It's a newteam with a lot of newplayers coming in,"Chhetri said after thematch.

"We made mistakes,especially in the first half.We are going to go to thedrawing board and seewhat we did wrong. Wehope to recover fast forthe third-place match anddo better," he added.

India play the losingteam of the matchbetween Thailand andVietnam in the third-place play-off on Friday.

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5��� ������ ����+� ���Champions League finalto go with his PremierLeague players' player of theyear award has increasedhis chances of winning theBallon d'Or.

Lifting the NationsLeague would onlystrengthen his case and it ishis centre-back partner atinternational level who maytake his tag as the world'smost expensive defender.

Matthijs de Ligt is alsoa leader at just 19. The tow-ering Ajax captain is want-ed by a host of Europe's topclubs after a stellar season.

The Netherlands' spineis further strengthened byanother two Ajax productsFrenkie de Jong and Donnyvan de Beek alongsideWijnaldum in midfield.

Koeman's men havealready shown their capa-bilities in knocking outworld champions Franceand Germany to make theNations League last four.

Koeman played whenthe Netherlands gainedtheir only major tourna-ment win at the EuropeanChampionships in 1988.While he insisted NationsLeague success is not on apar with that feat, it wouldsend a strong signal that theDutch really are back.

"It's Nations League.It's not a Euros; it's not aworld championship," headded. "Winning theNations League is impor-tant, but you cannot com-pare."