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T he ghosts of the 25-year-old Babri masjid demolition case revisited the senior lead- ership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday with the Supreme Court directing the revival of criminal conspiracy charges against LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti among several others. They will now be jointly tried at a Lucknow court on a day-to- day basis. The court also set a period of two years for com- pletion of the trial. The decision has dashed LK Advani’s hope of emerging as a likely contender for the post of President of India. The Bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton F Nariman felt that the demolition of the mosque was a crime that shook the sec- ular fabric of the Indian Constitution. The Bench said that though 25 years had elapsed, it was unfortunate that the accused could not be brought to book. The judges largely blamed the CBI for not pursuing pros- ecution of the alleged offenders. The court also slammed the Uttar Pradesh Government for not taking steps to rectify an error in its notification segre- gating the trial against top politicians and others. The UP Government’s noti- fication stated that eight accused including Advani, Joshi and Bharti were to be tried at a Raebareli court under FIR 198/92. The other accused, including the kar sevaks and some leaders of the BJP, Shiv Sena and Vishwa Hindu Parishad faced trial at a Lucknow court under FIR 197/92. Passing a slew of direc- tions to ensure that at least now the trial gets concluded within two years, the Bench directed the court of Additional Sessions Judge (Ayodhya matters) at Lucknow to proceed on a day- to-day basis. The court gave one month to frame an additional charge under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) against Advani, Joshi, Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara, and Vishnu Hari Dalmia. In addition, the apex court also directed revival of trial under Section 120-B and other additional charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) against ten others, including former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. T he Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved end- ing the “laal batti” culture in the country from May 1 as it decid- ed to do away with the relevant Motor Vehicle Act provision itself that enabled its usage by high dignitaries at the Centre and State level. There will be no exemp- tions for Constitutional author- ities such as the Prime Minister, the President, the Vice- President and the Chief Justice of India. Only blue beacons will be allowed for emergency ser- vices like ambulance, fire brigade, police, etc. The vehicles with beacon lights, which are seen as a sym- bol of VIP culture, “have no place in a democratic country”, the Government said. “After May 1, no one will be able to put red light atop his or her vehicle. Blue light will only be used for emergency vehicles in the country...Neither the States nor the Centre will have power to give any special per- mission (for use of beacon lights),” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said after the Cabinet meeting. He said the matter was under discussion for some time and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the deci- sion and informed the Cabinet, adding amendments will be made soon in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules to give effect to the decision. A rule that empowers the Centre or State Governments to allow use of red beacon lights to dignitaries will be altogeth- er removed from the statute books, the Minister said. “There will be no exception for anyone. The reason is very clear that the rule itself is being removed from the rule book,” he added. The Prime Minister in a tweet said every Indian is a VIP and the culture of beacon should have gone long ago. “..These symbols are out of touch with the spirit of new India,” Modi said. I n a horrific incident, six employees of an electronic goods factory were burnt to death in a fire that engulfed a five-storey building in Noida Sector 11 in F- Block on Wednesday around 2.30 pm. Some of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, a police officer said. Unable to bear the inferno, one of the employees jumped from the fifth floor sustaining severe spinal injuries. Another employee, who survived the blaze, said fire tenders reached the spot at least 90 minutes after the call was made to the police. Fire department officials, however, rubbished the claims and said they rushed to the spot as soon as they were informed. I n a tragic accident, the worst in recent years, at least 44 pas- sengers travelling on a private bus from Uttarkhand died when the bus fell into Tons river near Chopal in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday morning. Search and rescue operations are still on. The deceased, include 10 women and 3 young girls, with the number is likely to increase. Only two people have survived the accident till now: A con- ductor of the bus and 13-year- old boy Ravindra, who managed to jump off the bus moments before the bus nose-dived into the river. The driver apparently lost control over the wheel near Gumma and the bus (UK 16 PA 0045 and was bound for Tyuni in Uttarakhand from Vikas- nagar) skidded off from the road and fell into the river around 250 meters down the road. As the accident took place in Himachal Pradesh territory, the rescue operation was first initiated by teams from Chopal, Nerwa of Shimla and Rohanat of Sirmour district. Later, a team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) with medical assistance from Dehradun was also rushed to the accident site by the Uttarakhand Government. Rohan Chand Thakur, Deputy Commissioner and DW Negi, Superintendent of Police, Shimla, also visited the spot of the accident. Himachal Pradesh Transport Minister G S Bali has ordered for constitution of a committee under the Regional Transport Officer, Shimla to ascertain the causes of the acci- dent. The committee has been asked to submit its report with- in seven days. Bali has also announced financial assistance of Rs50,000 to the families of the deceased. Uttarakhand Chief Minister TS Rawat also announced Rs 1 lakh ex-gratia to the families of the victims and 50,000 for the seriously injured. While there was confusion over the number of bodies recovered till evening, the authorities in the transport department confirmed recovery of 44 bodies by the evening, while in the press note released by the Chief Minister office, 46 bodies were reported to have been recovered by the evening. While the identification of the victims was on till evening, Deputy Commissioner Rohan Thakur said 17 bodies has been identified and 7 victims belonged to Himachal Pradesh while 10 belonged from Uttarakhand. Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh mourned the death of pas- sengers. The CM has expressed deep condolence with the families who lost their near and dear ones. He wished for speedy recovery of the injured. He directed the district adminis- tration to provide all possible assistance to the family members of the victims and to those injured in the accident. T he next General Election in 2019 will be conducted with new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) that will print a paper receipt for each vote cast. Amid the Opposition’s allegations of EVM tampering, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Election Commission’s proposal to procure 16.15 lakh Voter- Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units worth 3,173.47 crore for use in all polling booths in the country. The EC said it will ensure total compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court and its commitment to use VVPATs with every EVM at all polling stations. The Government will provide funds to the EC in two installments, 1,600 crore in the current fiscal year and the rest in the next fiscal. According to the Cabinet decision, a total of 16,15,000 VVPAT units would be pur- chased at a tentative unit cost of 19,650 during 2017-18 and 2018-19 from M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bengaluru and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, Hyderabad. The VVPAT is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted. This paper slip contains the name, serial number and symbol of the chosen candidate. The voters see the slip for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election. Then the slip drops into a box and the voter cannot take it home. The Cabinet nod comes at a time when Opposition parties are asking the EC to go back to the use of paper ballots and dis- continue the use of EVMs, alleging that the devices can be tampered with. After the recent Assembly polls in five States, 16 political parties recently peti- tioned the EC to revert to paper ballot system for greater trans- parency. Both the Government and the EC have denied the charge and said the EVMs were completely safe and the commission has even thrown an ‘open challenge’ to hack EVMs. The EC had requested the Government for imme- diate release of funds to procure VVPAT machines after Opposition parties raised their pitch for abandoning EVMs for paper ballots. The Cabinet has also direct- ed the Price Negotiation Committee to negotiate with M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd to rationalise the final unit price expeditiously. The Cabinet has also allocated additional funds to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore in the current financial year for meeting the cash outgo envisaged for pur- chase of EVMs (Control Units & Ballot Units) and VVPAT Units during the year 2017-18 and payment of 40 per cent of the said amount as advance to the manufacturers and for pro- vision of balance amount as may be required in the Budget esti- mate 2018-19. S oon after Supreme Court ordered restoring of crim- inal conspiracy charge against top BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharti in the Babri masjid demolition case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with his senior Cabinet colleagues and discussed the situation emerg- ing from the court ruling. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu were among those who attended the meet- ing, sources said. While Uma Bharti refused to resign from the Cabinet as demanded by the Opposition, Advani and Joshi met at the former’s resi- dence after the court order. Unfazed by the apex court’s order Uma said, she was ready to sacrifice her life for the con- struction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “A grand Ram tem- ple in Ayodhya is my dream. Ready to go to prison or be hanged for India and Ram mandir,” she told reporters. B order Security Force (BSF) jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav, who had triggered a nationwide furore by posting series of videos alleging jawans deployed along the line of con- trol were being served poor quality food and even forced to sleep ‘empty stomach’, was dis- missed from service on Wednesday after an internal enquiry found him guilty of making false accusations and neglecting orders of the force. His social media campaign, in violation of the service rules, had even forced the Union Home Ministry to initiate a for- mal probe in to the allegations levelled by him. The Prime Minister’s Office had also sought a detailed report from the Home Ministry and the BSF after his video went viral on the social media. On Wednesday the BSF said in a statement that Yadav was dismissed from service by the summary security force court (SSFC) that commenced from April 13 and concluded on April 19. The official statement released by BSF held Yadav guilty of lying about food qual- ity and not adhering to formal grievance redressal mechanism of the force. BSF official statement also accused Yadav of “neglect to obey general orders of the force in which he carried two mobile phones while on oper- ational duty against the SOP and also posted photographs in uniform on social media in contravention of instructions. “It added that all opportu- nities were given to Yadav for his defence during the proceedings. As per BSF act and rules, he can now submit an appeal against the punishment to the higher authorities within three months. During the court of enquiry, Yadav’s colleagues did not support his claim of sub- standard food at the camps. Yadav was serving in the 29th battalion of the force when he made a mobile video while standing guard in front of a BSF camp in Poonch. He was subsequently trans- ferred to Jammu and his plea for voluntary retirement was also rejected. Soon after he was dismissed Yadav, attached with 80 Bn BSF in Samba left for his native village in Haryana. Before boarding the bus Yadav told media persons, “I will continue to fight for justice. I will seek legal recourse against this order. After I raised the issue of poor quality of food the jawans have started getting fair deal and quality of food has improved a lot.” U nable to execute arrest war- rant issued against JVM leg- islator Pradeep Yadav the Godda district administration has come up with lots of excuses. District officials maintained that the agi- tators in the leadership of the MLA were using women and children as human shield obstructing their way to duty. Godda SP Harilal Chauhan said that the situation at the agi- tation site was such that the police had to backtrack on many occasions. “Since the dharna has started we have tried twice to arrest the MLA and execute the warrant already issued against him for disrupting a public hearing for Adani power plant. Both our attempts have failed due to their tactics to use women and children as shied. They are brining them forward whenev- er the police advance,” the SP told The Pioneer on Wednesday stating the reasons behind fail- ure to execute the warrant even when the agitation enters into its fourth day. Nevertheless following the recent protest started against the power plant on April 16 Yadav has been slapped with two additional FIRs for obstructing police, creating disturbances and several other issues cog- nizable under different sections of the IPC and the CrPC. “Yesterday itself (on Tuesday) the DDC and the SDO went there for any amica- ble solution and reconciliation. But again they brought the women and children present over there forward with tradi- tional weapons and surround- ed the officials. They have cre- ated a different kind of envi- ronment and theatrics is taking place there by deploying music, DJ, singers. Many of the people at the site are outsiders and have been brought on rent to create nuisance,” said Harilal Chauhan. The party is opposing set- ting up the power plant on var- ious grounds including dis- placement, rehabilitation, water shortage, environmental degra- dation and compensation. Earlier it had objected to the public hearings conducted for the company by the concerned officials terming those fake. Now when the adminis- tration has gone ahead with demarcation of raiyati lands and inching ahead towards final land acquisition for the company, the JVM has staged protest at Gaighat of Godda whereas its president Babulal Continued on Page 2

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Page 1: ˙ 9˙ !’%() * $+ % +,-%. .$˜ + at least 90 minutes after the call was made to the police. Fire ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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The ghosts of the 25-year-oldBabri masjid demolition

case revisited the senior lead-ership of the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) on Wednesday withthe Supreme Court directing therevival of criminal conspiracycharges against LK Advani,Murli Manohar Joshi and UmaBharti among several others.They will now be jointly tried ata Lucknow court on a day-to-day basis. The court also set aperiod of two years for com-pletion of the trial.

The decision has dashed LKAdvani’s hope of emerging as alikely contender for the post ofPresident of India.

The Bench of JusticesPinaki Chandra Ghose andRohinton F Nariman felt thatthe demolition of the mosquewas a crime that shook the sec-ular fabric of the IndianConstitution. The Bench saidthat though 25 years hadelapsed, it was unfortunate thatthe accused could not bebrought to book.

The judges largely blamedthe CBI for not pursuing pros-ecution of the alleged offenders.The court also slammed theUttar Pradesh Government fornot taking steps to rectify anerror in its notification segre-gating the trial against toppoliticians and others.

The UP Government’s noti-fication stated that eight accusedincluding Advani, Joshi and

Bharti were to be tried at aRaebareli court under FIR198/92. The other accused,including the kar sevaks andsome leaders of the BJP, ShivSena and Vishwa HinduParishad faced trial at aLucknow court under FIR197/92.

Passing a slew of direc-

tions to ensure that at least nowthe trial gets concluded withintwo years, the Bench directedthe court of Additional SessionsJudge (Ayodhya matters) atLucknow to proceed on a day-to-day basis. The court gave onemonth to frame an additionalcharge under Section 120-B(criminal conspiracy) against

Advani, Joshi, Bharti, VinayKatiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara,and Vishnu Hari Dalmia.

In addition, the apex courtalso directed revival of trialunder Section 120-B and otheradditional charges under IndianPenal Code (IPC) against tenothers, including former UPChief Minister Kalyan Singh.

� ��������$���" ��� &-�.-/01

The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved end-

ing the “laal batti” culture in thecountry from May 1 as it decid-ed to do away with the relevantMotor Vehicle Act provisionitself that enabled its usage byhigh dignitaries at the Centreand State level.

There will be no exemp-tions for Constitutional author-ities such as the Prime Minister,the President, the Vice-President and the Chief Justiceof India. Only blue beacons willbe allowed for emergency ser-vices like ambulance, firebrigade, police, etc.

The vehicles with beaconlights, which are seen as a sym-bol of VIP culture, “have noplace in a democratic country”,the Government said.

“After May 1, no one will beable to put red light atop his orher vehicle. Blue light will onlybe used for emergency vehiclesin the country...Neither the

States nor the Centre will havepower to give any special per-mission (for use of beaconlights),” Finance Minister ArunJaitley said after the Cabinetmeeting.

He said the matter wasunder discussion for some timeand the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi took the deci-sion and informed the Cabinet,adding amendments will bemade soon in the CentralMotor Vehicles Rules to giveeffect to the decision.

A rule that empowers the

Centre or State Governments toallow use of red beacon lightsto dignitaries will be altogeth-er removed from the statutebooks, the Minister said. “Therewill be no exception for anyone.The reason is very clear that therule itself is being removedfrom the rule book,” he added.

The Prime Minister in atweet said every Indian is a VIPand the culture of beaconshould have gone long ago.“..These symbols are out oftouch with the spirit of newIndia,” Modi said.

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In a horrific incident, sixemployees of an electronic

goods factory were burnt to deathin a fire that engulfed a five-storeybuilding in Noida Sector 11 in F-Block on Wednesday around 2.30pm. Some of the bodies werecharred beyond recognition, apolice officer said.

Unable to bear the inferno,one of the employees jumpedfrom the fifth floor sustainingsevere spinal injuries. Anotheremployee, who survived the blaze,said fire tenders reached the spotat least 90 minutes after the callwas made to the police. Firedepartment officials, however,rubbished the claims and said theyrushed to the spot as soon as theywere informed.

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In a tragic accident, the worstin recent years, at least 44 pas-

sengers travelling on a privatebus from Uttarkhand died whenthe bus fell into Tons river nearChopal in Shimla district ofHimachal Pradesh onWednesday morning. Searchand rescue operations are stillon.

The deceased, include 10women and 3 young girls, withthe number is likely to increase.Only two people have survivedthe accident till now: A con-ductor of the bus and 13-year-old boy Ravindra, who managedto jump off the bus momentsbefore the bus nose-dived intothe river.

The driver apparently lostcontrol over the wheel nearGumma and the bus (UK 16 PA0045 and was bound for Tyuniin Uttarakhand from Vikas-nagar) skidded off from the roadand fell into the river around 250meters down the road.

As the accident took placein Himachal Pradesh territory,the rescue operation was firstinitiated by teams from Chopal,Nerwa of Shimla and Rohanatof Sirmour district. Later, ateam of the State DisasterResponse Force (SDRF) withmedical assistance fromDehradun was also rushed to theaccident site by the UttarakhandGovernment.

Rohan Chand Thakur,

Deputy Commissioner and DWNegi, Superintendent of Police,Shimla, also visited the spot ofthe accident.

Himachal PradeshTransport Minister G S Bali hasordered for constitution of acommittee under the RegionalTransport Officer, Shimla toascertain the causes of the acci-dent.

The committee has beenasked to submit its report with-in seven days. Bali has alsoannounced financial assistanceof Rs50,000 to the families of thedeceased.

Uttarakhand Chief MinisterTS Rawat also announced Rs 1lakh ex-gratia to the families ofthe victims and �50,000 for theseriously injured.

While there was confusionover the number of bodiesrecovered till evening, theauthorities in the transportdepartment confirmed recovery

of 44 bodies by the evening,while in the press note releasedby the Chief Minister office, 46bodies were reported to havebeen recovered by the evening.

While the identification ofthe victims was on till evening,Deputy Commissioner RohanThakur said 17 bodies has beenidentified and 7 victimsbelonged to Himachal Pradeshwhile 10 belonged fromUttarakhand.

Governor Acharya Devvratand Chief Minister VirbhadraSingh mourned the death of pas-sengers.

The CM has expressed deepcondolence with the familieswho lost their near and dearones. He wished for speedyrecovery of the injured. Hedirected the district adminis-tration to provide all possibleassistance to the family membersof the victims and to thoseinjured in the accident.

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The next General Election in2019 will be conducted with

new Electronic VotingMachines (EVMs) that willprint a paper receipt foreach vote cast. Amid theOpposition’s allegations ofEVM tampering, the UnionCabinet on Wednesdayapproved the ElectionCommission’s proposal toprocure 16.15 lakh Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail(VVPAT) units worth �3,173.47crore for use in all pollingbooths in the country.

The EC said it will ensuretotal compliance with the ordersof the Supreme Court and itscommitment to use VVPATswith every EVM at all pollingstations. The Government willprovide funds to the EC in twoinstallments, �1,600 crore in thecurrent fiscal year and the restin the next fiscal.

According to the Cabinetdecision, a total of 16,15,000VVPAT units would be pur-chased at a tentative unit cost of�19,650 during 2017-18 and2018-19 from M/s BharatElectronics Ltd, Bengaluru andM/s Electronics Corporation ofIndia Ltd, Hyderabad.

The VVPAT is a machinewhich dispenses a slip with the

symbol of the party for which aperson has voted.

This paper slip containsthe name, serial number andsymbol of the chosen candidate.The voters see the slip for sevenseconds, which would be anacknowledgement receipt forthe party they voted for in theelection. Then the slip dropsinto a box and the voter cannottake it home.

The Cabinet nod comes ata time when Opposition partiesare asking the EC to go back tothe use of paper ballots and dis-continue the use of EVMs,alleging that the devices can betampered with. After the recentAssembly polls in five States, 16political parties recently peti-tioned the EC to revert to paperballot system for greater trans-parency.

Both the Governmentand the EC have denied thecharge and said the EVMswere completely safe and thecommission has eventhrown an ‘open challenge’to hack EVMs.

The EC had requestedthe Government for imme-diate release of funds toprocure VVPAT machines

after Opposition parties raisedtheir pitch for abandoningEVMs for paper ballots.

The Cabinet has also direct-ed the Price NegotiationCommittee to negotiate withM/s Bharat Electronics Ltd andM/s Electronics Corporationof India Ltd to rationalise thefinal unit price expeditiously.The Cabinet has also allocatedadditional funds to the tune ofRs 1,600 crore in the currentfinancial year for meeting thecash outgo envisaged for pur-chase of EVMs (Control Units& Ballot Units) and VVPATUnits during the year 2017-18and payment of 40 per cent ofthe said amount as advance tothe manufacturers and for pro-vision of balance amount as maybe required in the Budget esti-mate 2018-19.

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Soon after Supreme Courtordered restoring of crim-

inal conspiracy charge againsttop BJP leaders LK Advani,MM Joshi and Uma Bharti inthe Babri masjid demolitioncase, Prime Minister NarendraModi held a meeting with hissenior Cabinet colleagues anddiscussed the situation emerg-ing from the court ruling.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley, Home Minister RajnathSingh, Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari and Informationand Broadcasting MinisterVenkaiah Naidu were amongthose who attended the meet-ing, sources said. While UmaBharti refused to resign fromthe Cabinet as demanded bythe Opposition, Advani andJoshi met at the former’s resi-dence after the court order.

Unfazed by the apex court’sorder Uma said, she was readyto sacrifice her life for the con-struction of the Ram temple inAyodhya. “A grand Ram tem-ple in Ayodhya is my dream.Ready to go to prison or behanged for India and Rammandir,” she told reporters.

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Border Security Force (BSF)jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav,

who had triggered a nationwidefurore by posting series ofvideos alleging jawansdeployed along the line of con-trol were being served poorquality food and even forced tosleep ‘empty stomach’, was dis-missed from service onWednesday after an internalenquiry found him guilty ofmaking false accusations andneglecting orders of the force.

His social media campaign,in violation of the service rules,had even forced the UnionHome Ministry to initiate a for-mal probe in to the allegationslevelled by him.

The Prime Minister’s Officehad also sought a detailedreport from the Home Ministryand the BSF after his video wentviral on the social media.

On Wednesday the BSFsaid in a statement that Yadavwas dismissed from service bythe summary security forcecourt (SSFC) that commencedfrom April 13 and concludedon April 19.

The official statementreleased by BSF held Yadavguilty of lying about food qual-ity and not adhering to formalgrievance redressal mechanismof the force.

BSF official statement also

accused Yadav of “neglect toobey general orders of theforce in which he carried twomobile phones while on oper-ational duty against the SOPand also posted photographs inuniform on social media incontravention of instructions.

“It added that all opportu-nities were given to Yadav for hisdefence during the proceedings.

As per BSF act and rules,he can now submit an appealagainst the punishment to thehigher authorities within threemonths.

During the court ofenquiry, Yadav’s colleagues didnot support his claim of sub-standard food at the camps.

Yadav was serving in the29th battalion of the forcewhen he made a mobile videowhile standing guard in frontof a BSF camp in Poonch.

He was subsequently trans-ferred to Jammu and his pleafor voluntary retirement wasalso rejected. Soon after he wasdismissed Yadav, attached with80 Bn BSF in Samba left for hisnative village in Haryana.Before boarding the bus Yadavtold media persons, “I willcontinue to fight for justice. Iwill seek legal recourse againstthis order. After I raised theissue of poor quality of food thejawans have started getting fairdeal and quality of food hasimproved a lot.”

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Unable to execute arrest war-rant issued against JVM leg-

islator Pradeep Yadav the Goddadistrict administration has comeup with lots of excuses. Districtofficials maintained that the agi-tators in the leadership of theMLA were using women andchildren as human shieldobstructing their way to duty.

Godda SP Harilal Chauhansaid that the situation at the agi-tation site was such that thepolice had to backtrack on manyoccasions. “Since the dharna hasstarted we have tried twice toarrest the MLA and execute thewarrant already issued against

him for disrupting a publichearing for Adani power plant.Both our attempts have faileddue to their tactics to use womenand children as shied. They arebrining them forward whenev-er the police advance,” the SPtold The Pioneer on Wednesdaystating the reasons behind fail-ure to execute the warrant evenwhen the agitation enters into itsfourth day.

Nevertheless following therecent protest started against thepower plant on April 16 Yadav

has been slapped with twoadditional FIRs for obstructingpolice, creating disturbancesand several other issues cog-nizable under different sectionsof the IPC and the CrPC.

“Yesterday itself (onTuesday) the DDC and theSDO went there for any amica-ble solution and reconciliation.But again they brought thewomen and children presentover there forward with tradi-tional weapons and surround-ed the officials. They have cre-

ated a different kind of envi-ronment and theatrics is takingplace there by deploying music,DJ, singers. Many of the peopleat the site are outsiders and havebeen brought on rent to createnuisance,” said Harilal Chauhan.

The party is opposing set-ting up the power plant on var-ious grounds including dis-placement, rehabilitation, watershortage, environmental degra-dation and compensation.Earlier it had objected to thepublic hearings conducted forthe company by the concernedofficials terming those fake.

Now when the adminis-tration has gone ahead withdemarcation of raiyati landsand inching ahead towardsfinal land acquisition for thecompany, the JVM has stagedprotest at Gaighat of Goddawhereas its president Babulal

Continued on Page 2

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Train movements inChakradharpur railway

division of South EasternRailway ( SER) will be affectedfor upto six hours on Saturday(April 22), from 12 noon to 6pm. The services will be hit dueto installation of a flyover gird-er for the new third line projectbetween Adityapur andGamharia stations, in adjoiningSeraikela-Kharsawan district.

According to information,a low height subway would alsobe launched simultaneouslyduring the 'Traffic-cum-powerblock' between Rajkharsawanand Barabamboo railway sta-

tions which falls under thesame railway division.

Officials at Garden Reach,the Kolkata-based headquartersof SER today said that movementof trains would be affected in boththe Up and Down lines duringthe traffic-cum-power block.

According to a circular issuedby SER today, as many as a dozentrains will remain cancelled onApril 22. The trains includeJhargram-Midnapore MEMUPassenger, Tata-Gua Passenger,Hatia-Tata Passenger, Tata-Kharagpur MEMU Passenger,Tata-Chakradharpur Passenger,Tata-Chakulia Passenger,Howrah-Purulia Express andPurulia-Jhargram Express.

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Bokaro Superintendent ofpolice YSRamresh said on

Thursday that there was a sig-nificant drop in the coal belt'scrime and illegal coal smug-gling rate this yearamid the policeintensified crack-down on coal sus-pects. A total of 100and above coalsmugglers and localcriminals ,mean-while have beenarrested in police operationwithin limits of BokaroThermal, Nawadih, Bermo,Jaridih, Pannak and Gomiapolice stations,he added .WhileRajesh Kujur Inspector ofBokaro Thermal police sta-tion and Lady Officer in chargeRadha Kumari said the declinein index crime incidents is adirect effect of police chiefaggressive operation againstillegal coal smugglers and crim-inals.

SP Y.S. Ramesh, who com-pleted his one and 7 month

tenure in Bokaro in the capac-ity of SP always wants to instillthis spirit of law in people'sminds. Ramesh has to his cred-it many successful anti-Naxalites operations especiallyin Jhumra and Nawadih .He

always saidCriminals shouldhave sense of fearand the law –abid-ing citizens shouldfeel comfortable andfriendly whileapproaching thepolice. This message

would be always conveyed tothe people and special attentionwould be given to improve thepolice-public relationship.

While Ramesh has begunmany moral boosting drives,specially the community polic-ing among the villagers whostay in the naxal-infested zone. "If you win the hearts of vil-lagers ,then major battle againstthe Maoists became easier .TheMaoists cannot spread if thevillagers stop extending sup-port to them at the grassroots–level," Ramesh said.

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Garhwa district administrationon Wednesday organized a

Janata Darbar at Maoists infest-ed village Kulhi in Bargarh blockof the district to discuss the cir-cumstances that leads to migra-tion and the measures that needsto be taken to curb the menace.

On the occasion DC NehaArora said that Kulhi, Hesatuand Sruwat villages have beenselected as focus area. All typeof devlopment work woulddone here which needed. Amedical camp would be heldjust at Saruwat village. Shesaid to the villagers you madeavailable a list of litrateyouths, district adminisra-tion would available thememployment after given train-ing under Kaushal Vikash.Mamta Vaahan should avail-able at every where. for thisshe directed to the BDO andMukhiya.

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Chief Minister RaghubarDas travelling to far-flung

village Kushichara of Dumkaknocked doors of the villagerspersuading them to send theirchildren to schools. The ini-tiative has come under theGovernment’s ‘School chalen,chalayen’ drive continuingacross the State.

The CM accompanied byhis Cabinet colleague LouisMarandi and Secretary ofSchool Education and LiteracyDepartment Aradhana Patnaikalso listened to the other issuesof the villagers, ranging fromdrinking water to sanitationand jobs.

“He appealed to the vil-lagers to admit their childreninto Government schools at

any cost and added that theGovernment is providing allfacilities in this regard free ofcost. The villagers also narrat-ed their ordeals relating towater, old age pension, houseand other welfare schemes.The CM assured them to sortout the issues,” said theSecretary.

The CM also inaugurateda ‘shishu sadan’ at High Schoolat Kushichara and formallyopened the school admissiondrive. “My aim is to strength-en the educational system fur-ther. Only education can bringchange in our life. We have toponder why the children goingto Government schools do notget quality education despitethe teachers are paid goodsalary. At the same time we arealso working to raise the stan-

dards of school at par with pri-vate schools,” said the CMaddressing the locals.

The CM announced thatschool children would be sentfor excursion outside the State

and also appealed to the vil-lagers to not to discriminatebetween boy and girl in pro-viding them education. Dasaddressing children presentthere told them not to skip

schools at any cost. He alsofacilitated mukhia of the villagefor ending school dropout andhanded over education mate-rials to the children.

Talking about SanthalPargana, he said that the regioncan lead the State in terms ofdevelopment. “There is nodearth of talent in the people ofthe region. What needed is justto provide them right direction.Some are misguiding them butI want to reassure here that noone can snatch away their landfrom them,” said the CMterming youths as fate of thecountry and the State.

He reiterated that elimi-nating poverty was his primetarget and underlined the roleof middlemen that, he said, hadbeen coming in the way whichwould be abolished complete-

ly in the days to come. Welfare Minister Louis

Marandi stressing over impor-tance of education termed it theonly way for growth. “The CMis so sincere about developmentof Dumka that he started thedrive from here only,” said theMinister.

The Secretary on the occa-sion reminded the parents oftheir duty in sending theirwards to school and added thatjust 100 per cent enrollmentwas not enough but regularattendance in schools.“Dropout rate in the State is 5.5per cent but it is as high as 20per cent in Santhal Paragana.You all have to play a role inimproving the scenario,” saidPatnaik. State Project DirectorMukesh Kumar also stressedon children staying in schools.

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The three-day inspection byNational Assessment and

Accreditation Council (NAAC)team of Ranchi University (RU)concluded on Wednesday. Theteam handed over the report touniversity VC, Dr. RameshKumar Pandey in the presenceof varsity officials. The finalfindings with the grading willbe presented within a monthafter the UGC approval.

Dean Student Welfare, RU,Dr. SC Gupta said that the teamwas satisfied after assessingthe university on differentparameters and asked RU offi-cials to focus on up-gradationof library, laboratories and dig-italization so that the studentsand research scholars can getthe experience of State of theart learning here.

The NAAC team headedby retired Vice-Chancellor ofCentral University ofKarnataka, Professor IMPathan appreciated the projectwork and publications of var-ious departments. However,Pathan after verifying the totalnumber of the teachers lendingtheir service to RU had askedthe senior officers of the uni-versity to address the staffcrunch immediately.

“The university must focus

on research projects andappoint professors. Senior pro-fessors must motivate youngteaching professionals. Theamount that is given to toppersas teaching assistance is worthappreciating. After discussingit with the Governor who hap-pens to be the Chancellor of theuniversity has assured that theteaching assistance will beincreased from �4000 to�15,000 soon,” said, Pathan.

The peer team memberprofessor SK Tiwari appreciat-ed the total strength ofScheduled Caste (SC), ScheduleTribes (ST) and other backwardcaste (OBC) students studyingat one of the oldest State ownedvarsities. The team membersunanimously applauded theefforts taken up by the univer-sity to upgrade tribal languagedepartment essential for bothconserving the tribal dialectsand in imparting education.

“The exit meeting was suc-cessful and the team membershighlighted on improvement ofsome basic amenities. The teamasked the varsity to get basicfacilities like ATMs, canteens,health centers including pro-vision of city buses for the stu-dents. The university is seriousabout it and will address all theneed at the earliest,” said, theDSW.

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Gangster Akhilesh Singh'smentor Vikram Sharma

who was arrested fromDehradun on Thursday night,was sent to Ghaghidih CentralJail after his production beforethe court of additional districtjudge XII on Wednesday.

Sharma (45) a resident ofDehradun had been broughthere on a transit remand onTuesday and was producedbefore the court of RameshChandra where a warrant waspending against him in con-nection to the Om PrakashKabra murder case.

Deputy Superintendent ofPolice (crime control room)Subodh Kumar said while pro-ducing before the court, theyhave prayed for seven day policeremand for Sharma.

"We want to gather all infor-mation from him. We haveprayed for seven day police

remand for Sharma who is to begrilled in connection with hislink with gangster AkhileshSingh and the latter's criminalactivities in the steel city and elsewhere in the country," saidKumar.

Sources said the police willalso soon initiate legal procedureto get landed properties of thegangster spread across variouscities with the help of Sharma.

Police gathered from docu-ment procured from Akhilesh'sShristy Garden residential flat inBaridih on March 29 had madethe Prashant Anand SP (City) tofocus on Dehradun where thegangster's mentor was supposedto have been staying. AsAkhilesh was in touch withSharma constantly, the policesuspect he (Sharma) might havebeen known much about thegangster's whereabouts. During2002 and 2008 Sharma wasmade accused in more than adozen criminal case.

���� 728�52

District court Bokaro hasissued proclamation order

under CRPC section 82against Chas Mayor BholuPaswan who was wanted in athrashing case, and declaredhim as an absconder after alocal court issued a non-bail-able warrant against him.

The order was pasted onthe walls of Mayor’s house, ifagain he failed to appear beforethe court, the court will issueproperty attachment (kurkiwarrant) against him,informed Advocate Ranjit Giri.

Police have launched aseveral search operation toarrest the Mayor after thecourt issued a non-bailablewarrant against him, forreportedly thrashing one per-son at his residence, said KKishor officer-in-charge ChasPolice Station.

“After getting the non-bailable warrant against themayor a team of police, visit-ed Rohtas in Bihar but failedto nab him”, he added.

Police had lodged a com-plaint (77/17) against themayor for reportedly thrashingthree persons, including histwo brothers Satish Singh andServjeet Singh and their fatherGanga Prasad Singh, over afamily dispute on 24 March.

���� 728�52

To mark the Fire ServicesWeek form 14 to 20 April

a live demonstration on FireSafety and Fire Extinguisherswas organised in DPS Bokaroby the Fire Services, Oil andNatural Gas Corporation(ONGC), Bokaro.

Surendra Yadav, DeputyManager, Fire Services, in-charge Fire Department andNishant Choudhary, SeniorSecurity Officer of ONGCexplained about the varioustypes of fire and their causes tostudents during the programme.

They showed the differentfire extinguishers used for var-

ious kinds of fire. They alsogave a live demonstrationshowing how to use the extin-guisher to put the fire off;shared a very interesting pre-

sentation on DisasterManagement and Fire Safety toincrease awareness amongstthe students, school authorityinformed.

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Afive member team of air-port authority of India

completed its two day long visitof Hazaribagh on Wednesday.Captain SP Sinha was theleader of this team. The teammembers inspected Nagwa airstrip situated in the headquar-ter of North Chotanagpur divi-sion yesterday and today theytalked with the district officialsin local circuit house to find outthe possibility of starting airpassenger service fromHazaribagh.

Before leaving Hazaribaghthe team leader talked withsome local media men at circuithouse and said that the purposeof their visit is to prepare a sur-vey report and possibility ofstarting air passenger servicefrom Hazaribagh under theregional connectivity scheme of

civil aviation department.Captain Sinha said that

the present CentralGovernment is keen to connectsmall towns of the country withair passenger service and for itregional connectivity scheme

has been launched. He said thatour team has already made ameeting with CM RaghuvarDas who is also interested inthis scheme.

When asked about thefindings of their visit, inspec-tion and talks Captain Sinhasaid that Hazaribagh possesbetter possibility of develop-ment and the place of air striphere gives an added advantageto this town because it is verynear to the main town. He saidthat they will submit theirreport in which their recom-mendation will also be includ-ed to the Government.

With this visit of a highlevel team of Airport Authorityof India now the denizens ofHazaribagh have startedsmelling a new gift for thistown by their MP Jayant Sinhawho is fortunately MoS in civilaviation ministry presently.

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Ateam of Airport Authorityof India (AAI) on

Wednesday gave thumbs-upfor starting of air services fromthe abandoned World War IIrunaway in Chakulia andDhalbhumgarh in Ghatshilasub-division, about 70-kmsfrom Jamshedpur.

State civil aviation director(operation), Col SP Sinha saidthis evening at Sonari Airportsaid that the team from AAI ison a visit to different airstripsin the State as part of a MoU

between State Government andAAI for developing sites to beconnected under RegionalConnectivity Scheme of theUnion government.

“Today’s visit was fruitful asthere are chances to develop thearea. The visit is in view of thechief minister Raghubar Dastalks with the Union govern-ment for exploring feasibility ofconnecting more cities under

Regional Connectivity Scheme(RCS). The team has alreadyvisited Bokaro yesterday.Theteam gave positive signals aftervisiting the airstrip at Chakuliaand Dhalbhumgarh and termedit fit for being developed as abigger airport,” said Col Sinha.

The five-member AAI teamcomprising Ganapati Das (DGMoperations), Sudesh Sharma(DGM AAI), Santanu Pannikar,

Neeraj Gupta and GaneshSharma (all senior managers)will submit feasibility reportbased on survey of the airstripsto the State Government withsuggestions about shortcomingwhich the state civil aviationdepartment will try to rectify andthen submit proposal to theCentral Government.

While, World War II eraabandoned airfield in Chakulia,barely 70 km from Jamshedpur,built by the British in the 1940sat an estimated cost of �3crore, and later used extensivelyduring the 1962 war withChina and the 1971 war withPakistan for the liberation ofBangladesh is spread across anarea of 515.44 acres.

Jamshedpur MP BidyutBaran Mahto, who was alsoinvited during the visit of theAAI team later speaking to

media at the Circuit House, saidthat the team were memberswere satisfied with the runawayand the area which was fit foreven international flights.

“The team was happy duringthe visit. The airstrip was praisedby the AAI team and they sug-gested some modification andacquisition of lands the airstripcan be developed to accommo-date international flights. I hadmet the Union civil aviationminister Ashok Gajapathi Rajuand union civil aviation ministerof state, Jayant Sinha in Marchthis year and urged them aboutthe importance of internationalair connectivity in Kolhan andmentioned about the abandonedairstrip in Chakulia and am con-fident that soon the mineralrich Kolhan will be soon ininternational air map,” said theJamshedpur MP.

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Afive-member team ofAirport Authority of India

(AAI) along with Jharkhand’scaptain SK Sinha Director flighton Wednesday inspected theChiyanki air strip barely threekilometers away fromDaltonganj. The team wasassisted by Director RuralDevelopment Palamu, HaiderAli along with a host of otherofficials.

The AAI Delhi team hadSudesh Sharma (DGM), GanpatiDas (DGM operation), SantanuPanicker (DGM0, SD Tiwary(DGM) and Ganesh Sharma.

Sources said the AAI teaminspected the runway, sur-rounding, took stock of at leasttwo buildings close to the run-way, status of existing runwayshaving chips and black top,entry exit, passengers’ lounge,parking safety measures etc.

The team arrived here in twosmall planes. The Chiyanki airstrip is in use for chopper andeven Prime Minister NarenderModi has been to this Chiyankiair strip twice in connection withLok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhaelections here. There is no nightlanding facility for even chopperhere.

State DGP GK Pandey hasalways campaigned for the upgradation and face lifting of thisair strip which is of high strate-gic value in the combat with theMaoists here.

Sources said the air strip isto be strengthened and extend-ed for the landing and takeoff ofthe medium size plane.

Sources said the land onwhich the Chiyanki air strip is setup belongs to the irrigationdepartment and land which wasacquired for it was done whenBihar was undivided. Sourcessaid many related files of landacquisitions are still with bihar’sAurangabad collectorate.However Circle Officer SadarPalamu has arranged some mapof the land which was shown tothe inspecting team.

Sources said the presentrunway is unfit as for plane thepitch is to be strong and thick as

thick as 9 inches to 12 inches.The team saw two houses

built 150 meter away from theexisting runway which the teamfound itching for landing of anybig plane in the future.

Chiyanki air strip is sans anyboundary wall and a fencing toit is most essential for reason ofits getting encroached upon.

About five years back a sumof rupees 62 lakh did reachPalamu for the construction ofthe boundary wall but the fundremained un spent because ofsome ticklish land issue.

The team put GPS to usehere to find out the longitude, lat-itude and other things.

Jharkhand building con-struction corporation has pre-pared a DPR ( detailed projectreport) of this air strip and thisDPR has been sent to the civilaviation department of the StateGovernment.

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New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will have apacked schedule of foreign vis-its from next month till July,starting with a trip of Sri Lanka.

Besides Sri Lanka, he isslated to travel to the US,Israel, Russia, Germany, Spainand Kazakshstan, officials saidhere on Wednesday.

Modi will visit Sri Lanka inthe second week of next month,mainly to participate in the cel-ebrations marking the UN‘Vesak Day’, the most importantin the Buddhist calendar.

The ‘International Day ofVesak’ celebrations, to be heldin Colombo from May 12 to14, will include anInternational BuddhistConference in which over 400delegates from more than 100countries will participate.

“The Indian PrimeMinister has confirmed hisvisit,” Sri Lanka’s Minister ofJustice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe

told reporters in Colombo onWednesday.

During the trip, his secondto Sri Lanka since becomingthe Prime Minister, Modi isalso likely to visit Jaffna andKandy, the officials said.

Modi had visited the coun-try earlier in 2015.

Vesak, the most impor-tant day in the Buddhist cal-endar, marks commemorationof Lord Buddha’s birth, enlight-enment and passing away.

After Sri Lanka, the PrimeMinister will be travelling to StPetersburg in Russia to attendthe St Petersburg International

Economic Forum (SPIEF) to beheld from June 1-3.

Along with that, he isexpected to travel to Germanyand Spain on bilateral visits, theofficials said.

Subsequently, Modi will bevisiting Kazakhstan to attendthe Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) meet to beheld in Astana on June 7-8.

Significantly, PakistanPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif isalso expected to attend theSummit of the SCO, a groupingwhich includes Russia, China,Kazakshstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Thereafter, the PrimeMinister is slated to travel toHamburg in Germany to attendthe G-20 Summit scheduled totake place on July 7-8, the offi-cials said.

He will also be travelling tothe US and Israel, for whichdates are being finalised, theofficials said.

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The corruption case filed bythe CBI against Dental

Council of India (DCI) presidentDibyendu Mazumdar, forallegedly using corrupt means toretain the post for the secondterm has reached the doorstep ofthe Prime Minister’s Office.Seeking PMO’s intervention inthe matter, ex-DCI member JMJeyaraj alleged that even theUnion Health Ministry hasmaintained silence in the matter.

Jeyaraj further alleged thatMazumdar does not have avalid membership in theCouncil and is booked for cor-ruption by the CBI. Allowinghim to occupy the chair isagainst the rules, he maintained.

The CBI has bookedMazumdar, along with thechairman of a dental college, aformer vice-chancellor of auniversity and others, forallegedly using corrupt meansto retain the post for the sec-ond term.

Those named in the FIRare Mazumdar, VananchalDental College and Hospital(Garhwa, Jharkhand) chair-man Dinesh Prasad Singh, for-mer vice-chancellor ofNilamber Pitamber University(Palamu) and Firoz Ahmadand other unknown persons. Acase is also pending in theJharkhand court in the matter.

As per the FIR,Mazumdar, whose term as the

DCI president was to end oncehis membership with theCouncil expired on May 31,2015, regained the membershipfrom the Nilamber PitamberUniversity by claiming to be thehonorary visiting professor ofVananchal Dental College andHospital.

The CBI alleged that foracquiring the membership dur-ing the second time,Mazumdar extended favours tothe dental college by grantingpermission for doubling thenumber of BDS seats from 50to 100, knowing well that thecollege did not meet therequired norms as stipulated bythe DCI.

During preliminaryenquiry, it was revealed that hisnomination or appointmentas honorary visiting professorwas illegal and therefore,invalid. He was never appoint-ed a dental faculty with the uni-versity, the CBI said.

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In less than a week, India hasapproached the Pakistani

Government again with a freshappeal for consular access to ex-Indian Navy officialKulbhushan Jadhav, who iscurrently in Pakistan Army’scustody. This is India’s 15threquest for consularaccess which has not gota favourable responsefrom Pakistan.

On Wednesday, theMinistry of ExternalAffairs summonedPakistan Deputy HighCommissioner Haider Shah andhanded him over a note verbaledemanding consular access toJadhav. India cited the clausesunder Vienna Convention onConsular Matters and remindedthat being a signatory to theVienna Convention, Pakistan isalso bound by internationalnorms.

In Islamabad, Indian HighCommissioner GautamBambawale was to meetPakistan Foreign SecretaryTehmima Janjua to pursueIndia’s demands. However, thismeeting was postponed for

Thursday.Jadhav is facing a death

sentence following a summarytrial by Pakistan Army’s FieldGeneral Court Martial (FGCM).India last week made a requestto Pakistan Foreign Office toallow Indian diplomats posi-tioned in its Embassy inIslamabad to meet Jadhav. Whilethe Pakistani Foreign Officehas not communicated any-thing to India so far, its Armyspokesperson made a statementrecently that Jadhav is not eligi-ble for consular access.

India has also sought certi-fied copies of pro-ceedings of Court ofInquiry, summary ofevidence and medicalreport of Jadhav. Indiahas also askedPakistan for assistancewith a lawyer to

defend Jadhav in the appealcourt after Lahore High Court’sBar Association warned its lawyeragainst defending Jadhav. In addi-tion, India has also sought visasfor Jadhav’s family members tovisit Pakistanfor the legal process.

India has been constantlypursuing for a consular access toJadhav, which it feels is the firststep towards justice. India believesthat Jadhav has not been given afair trial and in the absence of anopportunity to defend himselfwithout proper lawyer the entireprocess of justice will be farce inhis case.

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The current situation inKashmir was discussed by

senior Cabinet Ministers withPrime Minister Narendra Modihere on Wednesday.

Among those who attend-ed the meeting includedRajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley,Sushma Swaraj,VenkaiahNaidu and Jitendra Singh.

The State has witnessedwide-spread violence with stonepelting youth disrupting thebypoll in the Kashmir Valley andclashing with security forces. Itis understood that Pakistan’sagent provocateurs were large-ly behind the violence.

A 22-year-old man, whowas injured during clashesbetween protestors and securi-ty forces on polling day inSrinagar Lok Sabha con-stituency, succumbed to injurieson Wednesday taking the toll inbypoll violence to nine.

The Kashmir Universityand colleges across the Valleyremained closed for the secondconsecutive Wednesday onGovernment orders in thewake of widespread violence bythe students on Monday.

These educational institu-tions were closed on Tuesdayon the orders of DivisionalCommissioner, Kashmir,Baseer Khan, as a precaution-

ary measure to prevent furtherprotests.

Students of many of thecolleges in the Valley onMonday held protests demon-strations against alleged high-handedness of security forcesagainst students of DegreeCollege, Pulwama, on Saturday.

The Monday clashes hadleft injured several dozen stu-dents and five police personnel.

Centre has been closelymonitoring the situation inthe J&K. Wednesday’s meetingreviewed the situation anddeliberated on the necessarysteps to calm down the situa-tion in the valley, sourcessaid.

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The Congress on Wednesdayformed a Policy-Planning

Group for Jammu & Kashmirunder the chairmanship of for-mer Prime MinisterManmohan Singh. The groupwas constituted by AICC pres-ident Sonia Gandhi. The groupcomprising nine leaders,including Singh has been con-stituted with the aim to holddialogue with all stakeholdersand help in peace building.

The group was constitutedafter the newly-inducted leaderTariq Hameed Karra urged theparty high command to takeconcrete steps regarding theresolution of Kashmir issue.

Congresss sources said thatthat the group was formed fol-lowing the continuation of frag-ile political and security situationin the Valley.

Besides Manmohan Singh,other eight leaders in the groupare senior Congress leader andRajya Sabha member KaranSingh, former Finance MinisterP Chidambaram, Leader ofOpposition in Rajya Sabha,Ghulam Nabi Azad, GeneralSecretary of AICC, AmbikaSoni, JKPCC Chief, GhulamAhmad Mir, Senior Congressleader, Nawang Rigzin Jora,Senior Congress leader and for-mer MP, Tariq Hameed Karra,and senior Congress leader,Shyam Lal Sharma.

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In an effort to furtherstrengthen robust strategic

ties, India and Russia will holdthe first-ever joint tri-serviceexercise in Russia in Octoberthis year thereby signalling anew chapter in the time-test-ed relations.

So far, the two countriesused to hold service to serviceexercise called INDRA everyyear alternately in India andRussia. However, it was decid-ed in a recent meeting betweentop officials of two nations toramp up the scale of exerciseand have a combined exerciseinvolving three services name-ly Army, Air Force and Navy,Defence Ministry officials said

here on Wednesday.The officials have held

preliminary meetings to firmup the exercise schedule as itis the first one of its kind,sources said adding the drillwill take place in October inRussia. Moreover, the twocountries plan to have a jointannual exercise instead of sep-arate exercises of three servicesto promote synergy and joint-manship amongst the threearms, they said.

Incidentally, the need for ajoint exercise was felt due tofast changing nature of warfarefighting wherein the threearms operate jointly to achievethe political and military objec-tives in the shortest possibletime by pooling resources,they said.

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As part of the Gandhi’sChamparan Satyagrah cen-

tenary celebrations, the Khadiand Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC) onWednesday organised severalprograms at Patna andMotihari, the district head-quarters of East Champaran.

KVIC Chairman VKSaxena informed that the com-misison has set up the largestpavilion in Gandhi Maidan inPatna.

Saxena also informed thatthe State unit of the KVIC

organised a State-level exhibi-tion at Town Hall Maidan inMotihari, where local Khadiinstitutions and Prime MinisterEmployment GenerationProgram (PMEGP) units of fivedistricts of Bihar and adjoiningStates took active part.

“Besides providing 60eight-spindle New ModelCharkha (NMC) to EastChamparan Khadi GramodyogSangh, the KVIC also distrib-uted five charkhas and onelooms each in those 13 villageswhich Mahatma Gandhi hadvisited during his SatyagrahMovement in 1917,” he said,

adding, “One Khadi Sammelan(conclave) was also held atTown Hall there in which asmany as 500 artisans fromBihar and adjoining statesshowed their enthusiastic par-ticipations.”

Saxena further informedthat as a token of respect toMahatma Gandhi, the ‘BaraBariarpur Bypass Chowk’ofMotihari had been rechris-tened as ‘Charkha Chowk’.“The sanction letters of loanunder PMEGP in Motiharidistrict were also distributedamong the beneficiaries onthis occasion,” he added.

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Union Cabinet onWednesday permitted

State Government entities toborrow directly from bilater-al overseas lending agencieslike Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA) tofund infrastructure projects.

The decision will directly ben-efit large infrastructure pro-jects like the Mumbai trans-harbour link (MTHL),Finance Minister Arun Jaitleytold reporters here after theUnion Cabinet took a decisionin this regard.

An official release saidthe Government has approvedthe policy guidelines to allow

financially sound StateGovernment entities to bor-row directly from bilateralODA (Official DevelopmentAssistance) partners for imple-mentation of vital infrastruc-ture projects.

The Mumbai MetropolitanRegion DevelopmentAuthority (MMRDA), a StateGovernment entity, has alsobeen allowed to borrow direct-ly from JICA for implementa-tion of MTHL project.

The estimated project costfor MTHL is �17,854 crore, outof which JICA loan portion is

expected to be �15,109 crore.Jaitley said the decision willhelp create infrastructure asState Government entities cannow get funds for big projects.While State Governments willfurnish guarantees for loans,the Centre will providecounter-guarantees.

Jaitley said the decisionwill help States manage theirFiscal Responsibility andBudget Management (FRBM)targets. Presently, externaldevelopment assistance frombilateral and multilateralsources is received by the

Government of India for pro-jects/programmes in the cen-tral sector; for projects exe-cuted by central PSUs; and onbehalf of the state govern-ments for state sector pro-jects/programmes.

The existing guidelines donot allow direct borrowings bythe State Government entitiesfrom external agencies. Severalstate agencies are implement-ing major infrastructure pro-jects. These projects, even ifviable and sound, have hugefunding requirements andborrowing by the State

Governments for such projectsmay exhaust their respectiveborrowing limits.

“This dispensation willallow the financially soundState entities to directly bor-row and repay the loanrequired for major infrastruc-ture projects without burden-ing the State exchequer,” therelease said.

The approval of theseguidelines reiterates theCentral Government’s com-mitment to promote inclusivegrowth and strengthen theeconomy, it added.

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The Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved leave encash-

ment up to 180 days in respectof those Defence personnelwho died or were invalidatedout of service between30.12.1991 to 29.11.1999 withless than 15 years of service.The decision will benefit thefamilies of 9,777 Officers andother personnel of DefenceServices who died or wereinvalidated out of service dur-ing this period, which is verysignificant as a large numberof casualities took place dur-ing the Kargil conflict(“Operation Vijay”) and incounter insurgency operationsin J&K and North East.

This period is very signifi-cant as a large number of casu-alties took place during theKargil conflict and in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu& Kashmir and the Northeast,the Government said.

The Union Cabinetchaired by the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi also has givenEx-post facto approval forintroduction of Constitution(One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill 2017and National Commission forBackward Classes (Repeal)Bill, 2017 in the Parliament.

“Approval for retention ofposts/incumbents and officepremises held by the existingNational Commission forBackward Classes by the proposednew National Commission forBackward Classes,” saidGovernment in a statement.

“The proposed Act ofrepeal is necessary in view ofsetting up of the NationalCommission for BackwardClasses by insertion of Article338B of the Constitution. Thedecision will also enable effect-ing continuity in the function-ing of the National Commissionfor Backward Classes underArticle 338B,” it added.

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The issue of Army recruit-ment examination paper

leak in February has comeunder the scanner of the CBIwhich has initiated a prelimi-nary enquiry into it.

Sources said the CBI hadreceived a complaint from theDefence Ministry alleging thatthe examination paper of ArmyRecruitment Board for lowerlevel posts was leaked a daybefore the test was scheduledon February 26.

The agency has started apreliminary enquiry into thealleged leakage of the questionpaper of the CommonEntrance Examination to beheld in Maharashtra, Gujarat

and Goa, they said.The Army had to cancel the

examination following thecrime branch of Thane policebusting the recruitment racket.

Police had arrested 18 peo-ple from Maharashtra and Goafor their alleged involvement inthe leak.

Thane police had said 350students were also detained forquestioning and later let off.

The test was cancelled atexamination centres inKamptee, Nagpur, Ahmednagar,Ahmedabad, Goa and Kirkee.

The examination was to beheld for a number of postsincluding those of soldier clerk,strongman and soldier trades-man at 52 centres across thecountry.

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Assamese will soon be mademandatory up to Class X in

the State. However, if someoneis not comfortable choosing thesubject, he or she can have theoption to choose from Bengalior Bodo as mandatory subject.

Assam Education MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma saidthis on Wednesday whileadding that the Government isgoing to bring a new legislationin the August session of theAssam Legislative Assembly,which will make Assamese orBengali or Bodo a compulso-ry subject upto Class X.

“States like Kerala andKarnataka already has similarlegislation. We are trying tobringing the copy of the sameand are going to place the newlegislation before the House inthe forthcoming session inAugust this year,” said theMinister.

He said that the legislationwill enforce the language to allthe schools, including thoseunder CBSE curriculum and

those under Kendriya Vidyal-aya Sangathan (KVS).“Students in Barak Valley canopt for Bangali as mandatorysubject instead of Assamese.While the rest of the studentsmust choose one subjectbetween Assamese or Bodo asa mandatory subject,” said theMinister.

The Minister further saidthat the Central Governmenthas relaxed the existing normof having B.Ed. or D. El.Ed. asrequirement for appointmentof TET qualified candidates inLower Primary (LP) and UpperPrimary (UP) schools for nextone year four months and 25days. “This is going to help theTET qualified candidates inAssam to get jobs withoutobtaining a B.Ed. or D.El.Eddegree. There are about 19,000TET qualified candidates inAssam as of now, but we havenot been able to appoint them.According to the Right toEducation Act, Governmentcannot appoint teachers with-out B.Ed. or D.El.Ed qualifica-tion," said the Minister.

"����������� 82�01

The sparkling victory ofCongress-led Opposition

UDF’s Muslim League candi-date PK Kunhalikutty in the by-election in Kerala’s Malapp-uram Lok Sabha Constituencyhas boosted the confidence ofthe front prompting it to startefforts for getting stronger evenas the BJP is sitting baffled byits candidate N Sreeprakash’sunexpected poor performance.

When UDF leaders gettogether on Friday for the front’sfirst meeting after the by-electionfor which polling was held onApril 12 and result was declaredon Monday, a main discussionpoint would be how the coalitioncould be made stronger. It mayalso look at the possibility of rop-ing in more partners and bring-ing back those who had left it inthe recent past.

In the by-election that wasfought furiously despite thefact that it had no substantialpolitical significance in theState or national level,Kunhalikutty, national generalsecretary of the Muslim Leagueand former State Minister, hademerged as the winner defeat-ing his nearest CPI(M) rival MBFaisal of the ruling LDF by amargin of 1,71,023 votes.

Though Kunhalikutty’swinning margin did not reachthe one achieved by his prede-cessor, former Union MinisterE Ahmed whose death hadnecessitated the by-poll, in 2014,the victory enabled the UDF toclaim that it is still the guardianof ‘secularism’ in Kerala and thecrusader for minorities’ rights,especially as Malappuram is aMuslim-majority Constituency.

“The CPI(M) and the BJPare going around saying that acommunal polarisation infavour of the Muslim Leaguehad brought such a victory toKunhalikutty. Effectively, it isan affront at the politicallyconscious voters of Malapp-uram. This by-election wasvery political and the fact is thatboth the Marxists and the BJPfail to see that,” said a seniorCongress leader.

A section in the UDF wantsthe Kerala Congress (M) of for-mer Minister KM Mani, whichhad left the front in August last,to return. Some Congress lead-ers are vehemently opposing it.According to sources, therewere furious arguments overthis question among Congressleaders at a PCC meeting heldin Thiruvananthapuram onWednesday.

At the same time, the State

BJP leadership is still unable topinpoint what went wrong forit in the Malappuram by-poll inwhich NDA’s young candidateSreeprakash failed to attain areasonable increase in votescompared to his own perfor-mance in the 2014 generalelection despite the party’sclaims during the campaignphase about raising the score bysix times.

Though this claim was a bitexaggerated, the leadership’s‘realistic’ hope was thatSreeprakash could poll wellover 100,000 votes but he polledonly 65,675 votes, up by just 970votes from 2014. State partypresident KummanamRajasekharan, however, doesnot want to find fault with thepartymen and he said the work-ers had put up a valorous cam-paign effort for Sreepra-kash. The State BJP leadershipis arguing that Sreeprakash hadpolled the maximum numberof votes the party could musterin a Constituency whereMuslims constituted 74 percent of the electorate andHindus were a small minorityat 24 per cent. However, obser-vers say that the State leadershipwill have a tough time explain-ing the poor performance to thenational leaders.

���� �0-&&�1

The prospects of the merg-er of the two warring

groups of the AIADMKbrightened by Wednesdaywith TTV Dinakaran, thebeleaguered deputy generalsecretary of the Sasikala fac-tion giving enough hints thathe would move out of theparty leadership.

In a tweet on Wednesday,he thanked the AIADMK lead-ers and cadre for the coopera-tion extended to him andsought that unity be main-tained in the party. Though hehas not announced his resig-nation, the tweet read like afarewell message.

With the Delhi Police issu-ing a lookout notice for him onWednesday in connection withthe revelations made by con-man Sukesh Chandrasekharwho was arrested in the nation-al capital with an amount of�1.3 crore of unaccountedmoney, the continuation ofDinakaran as deputy general

secretary of the AIADMK hasbecome untenable.

“I am ready to move out ofthe leadership of the partywith my family members. Thedecision made by the Ministersand MLAs last night that weshould step out of the partycould have been made out offear. There should not be any

fear in the minds of the partyleaders or workers. Somebodyis creating fear in their minds,”Dinakaran told reporters inChennai on Wednesday.

Though Dinakaran hadconvened a meeting of the partyMLAs in the morning, it wascancelled because he had to bepresent in the Additional Chief

Metropolitan Court in connec-tion with two FERA violationcases against him. Except fortwo MLAs of the AIADMK, noother senior leaders has comeout in support of Dinakaranduring the last two days.

Interestingly, all Ministerswho had ridiculed O Pannee-rselvam has started singing a

different tune by Wednesday.RB Udayakumar, the Ministerwho first went public demand-ing the resignation ofPanneerselvam from the postof Chief Minister immediate-ly after the coronation ofSasikala as general secretary inDecember 2016 said onWednesday that it was allbecause of some kind of mis-understanding.

But the Panneerselvam fac-tion has hardened its stance inspite of the announcement byFinance Minister D Jayakumarthat Sasikala, Dinakaran andother members of theMannargudi clan would nothave any role in running theAIADMK.

“This is a first round vic-tory for us in our DharmaYudha to regain and bringback the rule of Amma inTamil Nadu. Our demand fora probe into the hospitalisationand demise of Jayalalithaa hasto be met by the Government,"Panneerselvam told reporters athis residence in Chennai.

The only question whichremains unanswered is whetherEdappadi Palaniswamy wouldmove out and Panneerselvambe made the Chief Minister.With enough hints of the jailed

VK Sasikala and her Mannar-gudi clan are on their way out,the merger is a matter of time.

Dr V Mythreyan, a closeconfidante of Panneerselvamtold The Pioneer that it was tooearly to come to a conclusionbased on the happenings dur-ing the last two days. “Letthem (Sasikala faction) comeout with official statements onthe demands which we havemade. The properties in thename of Jayalalithaa too shouldbe transferred to the party,” saidMythreyan.

Jayakumar, the FinanceMinister, had said late Tuesdaynight that a committee ofsenior Ministers has been con-stituted to run the party affairstill a new general secretary iselected by the cadre. “We,which include the ChiefMinister, Ministers, MLAs,MPs, district secretaries, headquarters office bearers, grassroot level office bearers, havecome together and took aunanimous decision to keepDinakaran and family awayfrom the party affairs. This isthe wish of the 1.5 crore partycadre. We have decided tokeep the Sasikala family awayfrom party affairs,” Jayakumarhad told after the meeting.

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While the administration isgrappling to restore nor-

malcy in Kashmir followingwidespread violence on April 9when bypoll for Srinagar-Budgam Parliamentary Consti-tuency was held, tension grip-ped south Kashmir when ano-ther bullet-hit youngster succu-mbed to his injuries in a Sri-

nagar hospital on Wednesday.Sources said 25-year-old

Muzaffar Ahmad Mir, a resi-dent of Zangalpora area insouth Kashmir’s Kulgam dis-trict was injured when securi-ty forces resorted to firing atBarsoo village in Ganderbaldistrict on the culmination ofthe polling day. A local villagerOmar Farooq, 22, had died inthe firing instantly while Mir

was critically injured. The twoyoungsters were operating atruck together and were in thevillage when clashes eruptedbetween anti-poll protestersand the withdrawing securitypersonnel.

Mir is the ninth victim ofthe poll day violence that hastriggered massive public resent-ment in Valley. While theValley remains on edge since

the polling day, the ElectionCommission of India subse-quently postponed by-electionfor Anantnag Constituencyscheduled for April 12 to May25. Some security agencies,however, have sought furtherpostponement of the electionsin the backdrop of fragile sit-uation in the region.

Meanwhile, the studentscontinued protests against the

alleged highhandedness ofsecurity forces at GovernmentThe authorities announced tosuspend teaching activities inall colleges and universitiesfor two more days to avoid fur-ther protests.

College students onMonday staged large scaleprotests and clashed with secu-rity forces resulting in injuriesto around 70 students.

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Asking officers to act toughagainst ‘fly-by-night’ com-

panies, Chief Minister AdityaNath Yogi said that stringentlaws should be made againstsuch companies. He also askedthe bureaucracy to promote‘Make in UP’ on the lines of‘Make in India.’

“There are reports offinancial companies dupinginvestors. Prepare tough lawsto check such ‘fly-by-night’companies. These companieshave brought a bad name toUttar Pradesh,” Yogi said dur-ing a presentation of StateI n s t i t u t i -onal Finance Department inLucknow on Tuesday night.

Yogi also asked officials tostart a scheme to promote‘Make in UP’ in lines of Makein India. “There are productswhich are UP — specific, butwe are not able to marketthem. There is brasswareindustry in UP. The carpetand leather industries areworld famous. And then thereis furniture of Saharanpur.All these things need a push,”he said.

The CM also asked officialsto link life certificates withAadhar card which will bene-fit over 12 lakh pensioners.“Ensure pensioners get theirpension by the first day of eachmonth and the money is trans-ferred digitally,” Yogi said.

During presentation ofExcise Department, the CMsaid that total prohibitionshould be followed in religiousplaces like Ayodhya, Vrindav-an, Chitrakoot and Deva Sharif.Aditya Nath directed officialsthat the 8,544 liquor shopswhose location has to bechanged following a SupremeCourt order banning liquor salealong highways should beallowed to open only at a pre-scribed distance from schools,places of worship, hospitalsand populated areas.

During Mining depart-ment’s presentation, the CMordered completion of e-ten-dering process of Mining leasecontracts within 20 days.

During presentation ofEntertainment Tax department,Yogi asked concerned officialsto explore the possibility ofrunning single screen cinemahalls in State.

"����������� 82�01

The inability of the KeralaState Beverages Corpora-

tion (Bevco), Kerala’s publicsector monopoly booze sup-plier, to relocate its retail liquorshops situated within the 500-metre distance limit fromnational and state highways to

‘safer’ areas as per a SupremeCourt order is allegedly threat-ening its very existence becauseof steep fall in revenue.

Bevco’s serious revenue fallhas also turned into a bigproblem for the StateGovernment as a good part ofits income used to come fromthe corporation’s booze sales.

The situation has also affectedthe Department of Finance,which was relying on the dailysales income at Bevco shops, totide over the shortage of cur-rency notes.

In a report submitted to thelaw secretary, Bevco MD HVenkitesh said that the corpo-ration would have to be closed

down if the Government didnot intervene effectively andimmediately into the issue.

According to the report,Bevco is facing an averagedaily revenue loss of �8 croreto �10 crore. After the courtorder came to force on April 1,Bevco has reportedly suffereda loss of nearly �200 crore.

���������������82/8�*�

As a part of his plans to leadby example and reach out

to the people of the State, BJPpresident Amit Shah will begina three-day tour of Bengalfrom April 25, party sourcessaid. On the said day, he willvisit Siliguri where he will holdmeetings with the workersfrom North Bengal and thenext day he will visit Kolkataand meet voters, sources said.

With Shah leaving it on theBengal State unit to decide onthe area where he should meetthe voters, a majority of theState unit wants him to com-

mence his programme fromBhawanipore Assembly Consti-tuency area. Bhawanipore is thehome constituency of ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee. Infact the Trinamool Congresshad trailed to the BJP in 2014general elections from this seg-ment. Shah will also hold talkswith booth-level workers, dinewith people from different sec-tions of society.

Incidentally PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadpraised Shah’s organisationalprowess and ways in the partynational executive meeting say-ing the party needed ‘workerslike Shah at each booth.’

��������������� 82/8�*�

All the 12 senior TrinamoolCongress leaders accused

in Narada sting case have forthe time decided to ‘avoid con-frontation’ with the CBI whichis investigating the case and ‘co-operate with the officers.’ In aclosed door ‘accused-only’meeting, the leaders have beenasked to quickly respond to thesummons that might be issuedby the agency, sources said.

This is a sharp shift fromthe earlier stances adopted bythe party in the Narada andRose Valley chit fund caseswhere the accused leaders likeMadan Mitra, Sudip Bando-padhyay and Tapas Paul choseto ignore the summons.

A number of TrinamoolCongress leaders includingMinisters Subroto Mukherjee,

Firhad Hakim, SubhenduAdhikary, Sovan Chatterjee,Madan Mitra and MPs SougatoRoy, Prasun Banerjee, AparupaPoddar, Kakoli Ghoshdastidar,Sultan Ahmed and his broth-er and MLA Iqbal Ahmedwere seen in a sting video tapeaccepting cash from a journal-ist who posed as a prospectiveinvestor. The tape that wasreleased in March 2016 washowever shot just before the2014 general elections.

According to sources threeaccused leaders suggested filingof a fresh petition against theFIR drawn earlier by the CBI.However former RailwayMinister Mukul Roy who calledthe meeting and others ruledagainst rushing to the court andadvised the accused to coop-erate with the investigatingofficers instead.

Meanwhile Union MinisterSmriti Irani on Wednesdayrubbished Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee’s ‘conspiracy’charges in Narada and Sharadacases saying such accusationswere a result of nervousness inthe Trinamool Congress ranksas they are losing ground inBengal fast.

Referring to the party’sgood show in the South ContaiAssembly by-elections, theUnion leader, who was inKolkata, said it was not onlyindicative of the efforts made bythe party workers but also’indicative of declining popu-larity of TMC in Bengal.’ Iranihowever did not comment onthe CBI probe into the Naradacase saying she could not do soas a Union Minister. “The courtsand agencies will ensure thatjustice is done,” she said.

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In lines with CentralGovernment’s decision to

ban the use of red beacons atopvehicles of dignitaries andGovernment officials, includ-ing the Prime Minister and thePresident, Gujarat Governmentwill also implement similarban on State Government offi-cials and dignitaries includingthat of Chief Minister.

“After detail study ofCentral Government’s guide-lines on beacons atop vehicles,Gujarat Government too willalso take decision on similarban. Just like Government ofIndia, the decision will comeinto effect in the State fromMay onwards. Co-incidentallyGujarat celebrates itsFoundation Day on May 1,”said Deputy Chief MinisterNitin Patel couple of hours afterthe Modi Government’s deci-sion on Wednesday.

According to Patel, theblue flasher would be allowedonly on vehicles belonging topublic services like the fire ser-vice, police, army and ambu-lances, to ensure passagethrough traffic.

It is worth mentioning thatalready decision on such banhas been taken by UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath as well as PunjabChief Minister AmarinderSingh after formation on theirrespective Governments inMarch.

Even Supreme Court ofIndia termed use of beacons bydignitaries and Governmentofficials as ridiculous and syn-onymous with power in 2013.

The Apex Court remarkedthat beacons should removeinstantly. However, neither theUPA Government at Centrenor a single State Governmentacross the country put ban onbeacons.

Meanwhile, former GujaratChief Minister and PrimeMinister’s bête noireShankersinh Vaghela applaudedPrime Minister Narendra Modifor the beacon ban decision. “Iappreciate Narendra Modi forremoving red beacons. This wassomething I had implementedduring my tenure as ChiefMinister of Gujarat during 1996-1997,” Vaghela tweeted.

In fact Vaghela Govern-ment that time didn’t issuedany notification in this regardbut it was he who decided toremove beacon from his owncar which was followed by hisM i n i s t e r sand subse-q u e n t l ybureaucrats.

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Welcoming the Centre’sdecision to ban the use of

red beacons by VVIPs witheffect fromMay 1, MaharashtraChief Minister Devendra Fadn-avis on Wednesday becamethe first VVIP to follow PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s ini-tiative by stopping the use ofred beacon on his official car.

Within hours after theUnion Cabinet decided to banthe use of red beacons byVVIPs, including the President,PM and CMs, Fadnavis took totweeter saying: “Maharashtrawelcomes Hon PM @naren-dramodi ji’s step towards end-ing VIP culture by stopping theuse of #RedBeacons atop #VIPvehicles”

“And to celebrate such epicstep for strengthening ourdemocracy, I have stopped usingthe #RedBeacon atop my car !#PowerToPeople,” Fadnavistweeted.

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To counter Indian Army’saggressive posture along

the Line of Control PakistaniArmy is learnt to have rushed‘snipers’ (sharp shooters) to allits forward posts to targetIndian jawans.

In the last six months morethan one dozen Indian soldiershave lost their lives in differentsniping incidents.

On Tuesday an Indian sol-dier deployed at a forwardpost in Bhimbder Gali area ofPoonch was targeted fromacross the Line of Control byjawans of Pak Army’s 650Mujahid.

Defence Spokesman inJammu, however, deniedreports of sniping.

These snipers remainparked at odd locations close tothe forward posts to targetIndian jawans proceeding onlong patrols and forward loca-tions.

When border skirmishespeaked in the aftermath ofSurgical strikes by the eliteIndian commandos the jawanswere even directed to usetrenches to move betweenbunkers across all the forwardposts. These instructions weregiven to the post commandersto minimise the risk factor.These instructions were issuedafter closely observing a patternof sniper attacks by the PakArmy from across the LoC.

Late monday night anoth-er Indian jawan lost his life in‘accidental’ firing while he wasmoving through communica-tion trench on the orders ofpost commander in Mendharsector.

In comparison to IndianArmy, Pak Army relies more ontheir team of snipers to targetenemy jawans.

According to official

sources not more than 2 snipersare attached with one Batalliondeployed along the LoC.

Indian snipers follow thesimple mantra dushman shikarhum shikari, while keeping awatch on the movement ofenemy posts from a forwardlocation.

Armed with high precisionsniper rifle these sharp shoot-ers are an asset of a unitdeployed on the Line ofControl. They have the capac-ity to shoot a target of 1,200metres away and prevent anyphysical assault on own post.

On the other hand snipersof Pak Army can target the for-ward Indian posts from a dis-tance ranging between 1 km to2 km using their high precisionsniper rifles.

In some areas Pak Armysoldiers even enjoy the advan-tage of high altitude and caneasily target routine move-ment of Indian jawans insidetheir posts.

According to officialsources, Sepoy Sudesh Kumarof 6 Rajput was killed by a Paksniper, a fortnight after the sur-gical strikes on October 16.Kumar was on patrol dutyalong the LoC in Rajouri whenhe was hit by a sniper. A weeklater BSF jawan Gurnam Singh

was killed along the Interna-tional border on October 21.He was shot in the head inHiranagar sector, Jammu.

Rifleman Sandeep SinghRawat was hit in the neck,killing him instantly as hestood guard along the fence inthe Kupwara sector onNovember 9, 2016.

On March 9 this year,sepoy Deepak JagannathGhadge of Maharashtra diedafter he was hit by a similarsniper fire by Pakistani troopsin Gulpur area of Poonch.

On April 2, a JCO waskilled in an IED blast near theLoC in Poonch district. It wassuspected that the mine wasplanted by ‘rogue’ elementsfrom Pakistan inside the Indianterritory to inflict casualties.

A few months ago, aninternal report of the Army HQhad clearly stated, “Snipers areforce multipliers to any infantrybattalion. The high standard ofsniper training and their imag-inative employment leads todecisive and out-of-propor-tion results.”

In view of the rising inci-dents of sniper fire fromPakistan, even the BSF hastaken preventive measures suchas placing nets in border out-posts and observation posts.

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Reacting to the SupremeCourt order on Babri

demolition and role of BJP’s topleaders, RJD supremo LaluPrasad on Wednesday saidPrime Minister Narendra Modieliminated his political mentor.“Who was Modi’s biggest pro-tector? Now the same person(LK Advani) has been elimi-nated by the BJP Government,”quipped Lalu.

Lalu was the ChiefMinister of Bihar when thecontroversial structure atAyodhya was pulled down byKar Sevaks on December 6,1992 throwing the entire nationinto a communal frenzy. Also,it was Lalu who stopped therath of Advani by arresting himat Samastipur in north Bihar onOctober 23, 1990.

The RJD chief said thoseinvolved in the conspiracy todemolish Babri Masjid shouldbe punished. “When theGovernment through the CBI isinsisting in the court that caseshould be initiated, it smacks ofinternal politics within the BJP.Advani’s prospects of beingappointed President of Indiawas in the news but now nob-ody will dare to take his nameafter Apex Court’s order. This isthe Modi brand of politics," saidLalu in sarcastic tone.

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Unfazed by a raging contro-versy over his ‘aazan’

remarks, a defiant singer SonuNigam shaved off his head onWednesday in protest against afatwa issued against him by aMuslim cleric from West Bengalwho had offered �10 lakh toanyone who shaved the singer’shair and paraded him aroundthe country with a garland ofold shoes around his neck.

Castigating Nigam for his‘azaan’ remarks and dubbingthe singer as an anti-nationalvice president of West BengalMinority United Council SyedShah Atef Ali Al Quaderi hadsaid in Kolkata on Tuesday “Ifanyone can shave his hair, puta garland of old torn shoesaround his neck and tour himaround the country I person-ally announce an award of `10lakh for that person.”

Calling Muslim cleric

Quaderi’s bluff, Nigam took totwitter in the morning and said:“Today at 2pm Aalim willcome to my place, and shavemy head. Keep your 10 lakhsready Maulavi.”

Following up on his tweet,Sonu Nigam called celebrityhair stylist Aalim Hakim anddecided to shave his head.

Nigam elaborated later inthe day: “I have requestedAalim (Hakim) to come. Hewill shave my head, but it isn’tany agitation or challenge. The

one who is cutting hair is aMuslim and I am a Hindu.There is no animosity.”

Be-spectacled Nigam, whoappeared before journalistswith a clean-shaven pate, saidat a hurriedly convened a newsconference “This is not an agi-tation, not a challenge that I amhanding it to someone. I amshaving off my head just toshow that the person cuttingmy hair is a Muslim. It’s allabout interpreting things theright way.”

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Azam Khan loyalist and StateInformatio Commis-

sioner Hafiz Usman created a stiron Wednesday by raising sloganof ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and also oppos-ing the practice of triple talaq ata function in Moradabad.

While addressing a meet-ing on Right to Information inMoradabad on Wednesday,Usman said, “What to talk oftriple talaq, I am opposed toeven one talaq.'”

Later he asked the partici-pants in the meeting to raise theslogan of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ alongwith him. The organisers of theprogramme objected to theconduct of Usman but he con-tinued to raise slogans in praiseof Lord Ram. Hafiz Usman alsoasked Muslims to raise slogansdenouncing Pakistan during

any sports event between Indiaand Pakistan.

The programme was heldat Panchayt Byhawan inMoradabad and Hafiz Usmanwas the chief guest. DistrictMagistrate, DivisionalCommissioner and Deputy

Inspector General of Policewas also present in the pro-gramme on RTI.

As the organisers invitedUsman to address the meeting,the SIC instead of speaking onthe agenda started speakingagainst triple talaq.

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The VHP international pres-ident Pravin Togadia has

sought approaching largerbench of Supreme Court and anew law be brought inParliament to facilitate con-struction of Ram temple atAyodhya.

Togadia was reacting to theruling of Supreme Court onWednesday seeking senior fig-ures of ruling Bharatiya JanataParty, including LK Advani,Uma Bharati, Murli ManoharJoshi, be tried for criminalconspiracy over the destructionof a 16th Century mosque. Thecourt has said that the trialmust conclude within twoyears.

“Lakhs had reachedAyodhya and lakhs do notreach a place on the word ofone person. It cannot be a con-spiracy,” he told mediapersonson Wednesday, demanding that

Central Government mustapproach Supreme Court.

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The Babri Masjid ActionCommittee and Muslims

outfits have welcomed theSupreme Court order forordering trial of 13 BJP lead-ers including Union MinisterUma Bahrti for criminal con-spiracy for demolition of thestructure.

The Babri mosque wasdemolished on December 61992 while Kalyan Singh wasChief Minister of UttarPradesh. Though Singh isalso an accused in the case, hehas been exempted by theApex Court as he enjoysConstitutional immunity onaccount of being the Gover-nor of a State.

The Supreme Court hashowever created moral pres-sure on Uma Bharti to resignfrom the Modi Cabinet. The13 BJP leaders include LKAdvani, Murli Manohar Joshiand others. As per the ApexCourt’s order, the trial has tobe completed in two yearsand a Special CBI court inLucknow will hold trial on a

day-to-day basis.Former Additional

Advocate General in previousSamajwadi Party regime andConvener of Babri MasjidAction Committee (BMAC)Jafarayeb Jilani said inLukcnow, “We welcome theSupreme Court order as wehad waited for this for the last16 years. The order hasstrengthened the people’sfaith in judiciary, seculardemocracy and rule of law inthe country. We hope that allthose who conspired fordemolition of Babri mosquewill be brought to justice asthe SC has ordered trialunder the provision of crim-inal conspiracy,'” said Jilani.

Sunni cleric and Imam ofEidgah of Lucknow, MaulanaKhalid Rashid Firangi Mahalisaid, “Better late than never.It is too late, still we welcomeit. We have been waiting forthis decision for the last 25years. We hope that in thenext two years, we will knowas to who was responsible forthe demolition of themosque.”

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Appendix ‘A’ to HQ CESZ letter No.89557/RANG/II/E8 dated 05 Apr 2017)

MILITARY ENGINEER SERVICESNOTICE INVITING E-TENDERS

Chief Engineer Shillong ZoNE military Engineer Services. SpreadEagle Fails, Shillong, Meghalaya-793011. On behalf ofPresident of India invites online item rate bids on Single StageTwo Cover Bid System for the following work:-

1 Name of work PROVN OF GEYSER FOR CERTAIN MDACCN AT RANGAPAHAR

2 Estimated cost Rs. 278.50 Lakhs (At Par Market)3 Period of completion 365 Days4. Tender ID 2017_MES_113822_1

For further detail refer web site eprocuremes.gov.indavp/10102/11/0084/1718

Page 8: ˙ 9˙ !’%() * $+ % +,-%. .$˜ + at least 90 minutes after the call was made to the police. Fire ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

Xinjiang, China’s westernprovince, has often beenin the news during thelast few months, main-ly due to instability of

the region and the repressive mea-sures taken by Beijing to curb ‘reli-gious extremism’ and the rise of ‘ter-rorism and separatism’ amongst theUyghur local population. It is inter-esting to look at how communistChina annexed the ‘NewDominion’, as Xinjiang was known.

It was perhaps one of thegreatest strategic feats in modernmilitary annals. Mao Zedong’swords are telling about the mind-set of the Chinese military leadersat that time (has it changed today?):“People may ask if there is contra-diction to abandon a territorygained by heroic battle. This is to putthe wrong question. Does one eatto no purpose simply because herelieves himself later? Does onesleep in vain because one wakes upand goes about? These are illusionsborn out of subjectivism and for-malism and do not exist in real life.”

There was no question of Maoof losing territory in 1949; in fact,‘real life’ meant controlling theperiphery of the Middle Kingdomas fast as possible, starting by the‘liberation’ of Xinjiang and Tibet.

On February 4, 1949, during ameeting with Soviet Foreign TradeMinister Anastas Mikoyan, MaoZedong raised the issue of Xinjiangand pointed to the northwesterndistrict of Ili (today’s Ili KazakhAutonomous Prefecture), whereChina had noted the presence of aCommunist Party. Mikoyan saidthat he did not know about the exis-tence of communists in the area, buthe was aware of nationalist forceswanting independence: “Thismovement was triggered by theincorrect policy of the ChineseGovernment, which does not wantto take into account the nationalspecifics of these nationalities, doesnot permit the development of thenational culture.”

The Russian Minister contin-ued: “If the nationalities of Xinjiangwere given autonomy, the soil forthe independence movementwould likely [disappear]. We do notstand for the movement of indepen-dence of the Xinjiang nationalitiesand do not have any claims onXinjiang territory.” After Mao hadbeen the green light he needed, heexplained that China planned “giv-ing Xinjiang autonomy, in thesame manner as for InnerMongolia, which is already anautonomous region”.

Interestingly, Mao enquired“whether there is a lot of oil inXinjiang or a little”. He also suggest-

ed the construction of “a railroadconnecting the Chinese railroadswith the Soviet railroads throughXinjiang. This would have great sig-nificance for joint defence in caseof a new war [with the West]”. Hadhe in mind a project similar to XiJinping’s One Belt One Road?

While the remnants of thenationalist forces were systematical-ly annihilated in the mainland, inXinjiang, Mao used a two-pronged‘war’ tactic: First inducing the sur-render of the nationalist forcesand then sending a large number oftroops in two different directions(north and south Xinjiang); theassurance of support received fromthe Soviets made things easier.

By swiftly taking over Xinjiang,the communists would control thewestern borders of the MiddleKingdom, access trade with CentralAsia, block any possibility of Sovietadvance in the region (in case theSoviet leaders changed their mindlater) and come in contact with theIndian frontiers, particularly in theAksai Chin area. By the end ofSeptember 1949, a large contingentof communist troops started mov-ing towards the New Dominionwhere a 70,000-strong nationalist

force was still stationed. Following the Hexi (Gansu)

Corridor, the PLA advancedtowards Urumqi, which was ruledby a coalition comprising theNationalists (KMT) and represen-tatives of the former Second EastTurkistan Republic (ETR), support-ed by the Soviet Union. The ETRsympathisers were particularlystrong in the three districts innorthwestern Xinjiang, where theyhad retained some autonomy, whilethe KMT controlled most of south-ern Xinjiang. After having obtainedthe Soviet support, the secondphase was marked by ChiangKaishek’s Generals turning coat. OnSeptember 25, Tao Zhiyue, theNationalist Commander-in-Chiefof the Xinjiang garrison and BurhanShahidi, the Political Commissar,announced the formal surrender ofthe nationalist forces to the Chinesecommunists. Several KuomintangGenerals joined the PLA and beganserving the communists; thosewho refused to surrender fled toTaiwan or Turkey. A second victo-ry for Mao …without fighting!

Later, the five ETR leaderswho were to negotiate with thecommunists, died in an air crash in

Soviet airspace over the KazakhSoviet Socialist Republic; it wasrumoured that they were murdered.The way was now open for Mao’stroops. Starting from Yumen, eastof Jiuquan in Gansu Province, thecommunist troops went throughindescribably harsh terrain, deepgorges, cold desert, and “they start-ed a massive advance of forcestowards Xinjiang along north andsouth of Tian mountain”, says theChinese account.

With poor communications,the advance of communist forcesinto Xinjiang was extremely ‘diffi-cult and risky’; the distances werelong, 1,253km from Jiuquan toUrumqi and 2,547km fromKashgar: “In order to overcome thecommunication and transportationdifficulties, Soviet Union came forassistance with 40 transport planesso as to quickly transport soldiersfrom Jiuquan towards Urumqi”,notes the Chinese account.

On October 14, supported bya tank regiment, the main forces of4 and 5 Division of the 2 Armyreached Hami in NorthernXinjiang. They then took a south-ward turn and ten days later, the 4Division ‘liberated’ Yanchi, wherethe troops stayed a couple of weeksto recover from the quick march. Bythat time, the 400 motor vehiclesgiven by the Soviets had all col-lapsed… in any case there was nofuel anymore. To complete theiradvance towards Kashgar, thetroops…to walk more than1,000km in one month.

The Chinese records say: “Themain force, in more than twomonths’ time, successively liberat-ed each important town and city inthe north and south of Xinjiang,pinned down uprising launched byreactionaries of Nationalist Party atmany.” Marshal Peng Dehuai and XiZhongxun (Xi Jinping’s father)praised the troops in a telegram:“You have created an unprece-dented record of the advance offorces.” Strategically, communistChina was at the Gate of Tibet —and, of India. Soon, constructionacross Indian territory in the AksaiChin area would start.

Nearly 70 years later, oneunderstands the enormous impor-tance of the annexation of Xinjiangwith its natural resources such as oil,but also the trade routes such as theOne Belt One Road initiative or theChina Pakistan Economic Corridor.But in the process, Mao had forgot-ten his promises to give autonomyto Xinjiang; this probably explainsChina’s present difficulties.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations and an author)$

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Trinamool’s faux protest” (April19). It is not surprising that WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee has termed the CentralBureau of Investigation’s (CBI)recent action, to book 12Trinamool Congress (TMC) lead-ers in the Narada sting operationcase, as political conspiracy.

Knowing her volatile nature, itis obvious that Banerjee will blamethe BJP for the CBI action. She feelsthat not only she, but her party lead-ers too have a clean character. Butas they say, there is no smoke with-out fire. The TMC leaders musthave done something wrong to findthemselves into the CBI net.

There is no shame in admit-ting that she is a true mass leaderand the ruling party will not tryto do anything wrong to targether party leaders without any rea-son. Anyhow, the BJP is nowslowly but gradually makinginroads into her State. We allknow that the TMC and its work-ers will not shy away from takinglaw into their hands and createviolence as we have seen in recentpast how the BJP office was putto fire by TMC workers.

Bal Govind Noida

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Govt to SC: Don’t debar convict-ed politicians from election for life”(April 19). Criminalisation in pol-itics must be avoided at all costs; asit causes damage to the society andthe nation. The more we get outfrom the clutches of corrupt politi-cians; the faster will we movetowards national development.

The Government’s action inthis regard seems to be undesirable;because corruption cannot be han-dled through ‘softness’. There’snothing wrong if convicted politi-cians are being debarred throughout their life-time.

Gulab Shanker SinghLucknow

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Sir — Political managers must becomplimented for their appreciablerole in uniting warring All IndiaAnna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam factions in Tamil Nadu,making the erring Sasikala campand her family members out ofTamil Nadu politics.

This merger would also be intune with the sense that one moreregional party could not be addedto the ever-increasing number of

outfits in the country, especiallyin the regional space.

The latest development is like-ly to be significant for national pol-itics. It is now hoped that the twomain regional political parties inTamil Nadu will align with either ofthe two major national parties,paving the way for an ideal politi-cal system divided between onlytwo major camps.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Kashmir situation grim” (April 17).More than the mainstream politi-cians, the Union Government hasto take firm action to liberate theKashmiri youth from the clutchesof Pakistani terrorists. The IndianArmy must be asked to respond tothe stone-pelters with an over-whelming force. The security forcesmust also be given the liberty towipe out all pro-Pakistani ele-ments, including leaderships. Thelonger the Indian Governmentallows this situation to continue, theworse it will get.

Marty MartelVia web

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Arecent tweet by notedsinger Sonu Nigam onforced religiousness, in

India, through loudspeakers,landed him in the crosshairsof the twitterati who werequick to respond with thechoicest of criticisms, whilesome supported his tweet aswell. Though the tweet gener-ated quite a sensation andsparked off an intense debateon the social media, the mainissue of noise pollution thatfaces urban India todayescaped the popular attention.

Whether it’s a religiousprocession, a series of fire-works going off during apolitical rally, or a weddingparty, loud sounds are a majorcause of disturbance.

Technically, as per guide-lines laid down by the Ministryof Environment and Forests inFebruary, 2000, residentialareas — which are the mostaffected ones — should have

noise as loud as 50 decibelsduring the day and 45 decibelsat night. If one were to draw acomparison, 50 decibels is thesame as a quiet suburb, while45 decibels is the sound onehears in a library.

Most of the metro cities inIndia today, are suffering fromexcessive noise, especiallyduring rush hours, that is asloud as 150 decibels across thecity; the sound generated dur-ing this time is the same as ofa jet taking off.

Noise pollution poses sev-eral health risks as it worksjust like nano-sized air pollu-tants do by stimulating thebrain to secrete hormonesthat create a vasospasm, a sud-den constriction of a bloodvessel whereby the blood ves-sel diameter is drasticallyreduced eventually leading todreadful diseases, such asAtherosclerosis. The otherharmful impacts of noise pol-

lution are loss of hearing,stress and brain damage.Keeping these factors in mind,a 2016 ruling by the ministry,disallowed loudspeakers tooperate after 10 pm andbefore 6 am, moreover, all theloudspeakers were required tobe f itted with a ‘SoundLimiter’.

The rule also totallybanned the use of loudspeak-ers in silent zones, which are100 metres around thepremises of hospitals, nursinghomes, educational institu-tions and courts. But theserules are lacking comprehen-sive implementation every-where, and this is resulting inspiraling decibel levels.

The Government needs tohave a stringent drive that haszero tolerance for noise pol-lution and specifies heavypenalties for the offenders.The efforts by the authoritiesneed to be complimented by

a social campaign that aims atinstilling civic sense amongstthe urban populace andemphasises the importanceand sanctity of silent zones inour cities.

Noise pollution is still to berecognised for the potentialthreat it poses. Whenever envi-ronmental degradation andpollution is mentioned, thediscussion invariably veerstowards other forms of chal-lenges such as air and waterpollution, but noise pollutionis yet to assume a centre stagein public discourse.

The seriousness of noisepollution can be assessed by thefact that according to a latestranking of 50 large cities world-wide, in hearing loss and urbannoise pollution, conducted byMimi and Charité UniversityHospital, Berlin, urban areassuch as New Delhi,Guangzhou, Cairo and Istanbul— topped the list of cities

where, presently, hearing wasmost degraded.

The constant din of city lifecoupled with health disordersis wreaking havoc on the hear-ing ability of urban population.

To deal with this, theGovernment must break anew path in dealing with thegrowing menace of noise pol-lution. As a foremost initiative,the urban municipal authori-ties can accelerate tree-plant-ing drives as trees aren’t justgood for controlling air pollu-tion and maintaining envi-ronmental health but the rightcombination of tree variety canlower the ambient decibel lev-els by about 50 per cent.

Scientific studies haveproven that apart from thegreen factor of trees, the soundof leaves rustling, offset thesound of other noises, such asmachines used in constructionactivities and the sound of carson the road. In general, trees

and shrubs with dense foliagewhich are green year-long arethe best option, but having adiverse set of plants with dif-ferent leaf shapes can alsohelp cover the full spectrum ofpotential noise pollutants.

The urban infrastructureplanning must also draw onthe latest engineering break-throughs from across theworld in using constructionand town planning practicesthat use simple yet ingeniousmethods to bring down noiselevels in the city.

Even as Indian cities postever-increasing literacy levels,the same is not getting reflect-ed in our civic behaviour andour loud cities are a testamentof the same.

We should not wait to paya heavy price before weunderstand and appreciatethe value of silence.

(The writer is an environ-mental journalist)

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The most potent anti imperi-alist weapon of Satyagrahawas experimented and field-tested in Champaran districtof Bihar, by Mahatma

Gandhi exactly 100 years ago in April,1917. It was this Satyagraha whichimmensely contributed to Gandhi,becoming the Mahatma in later years.

Champaran in north Bihar, bor-dering Nepal on one side and easternUttar Pradesh on the other, is one geo-graphical area which Gandhi himselfadmitted in his autobiography —The Story of My Experiments withTruth — that he had never heard of,before visiting the place.

Satyagraha or non-violent resis-tance to an unjust regime, one of themost powerful tools against imperial-ism in the last century, was experiment-ed for the first time on a large massscale in Champaran and that is the sig-nificance of the district; known for itsBuddhist relics, forests, mango orchardsand productive agricultural land. It washere, that Gandhi field tested thispowerful weapon, which manyGandhians now describe as more pow-erful than even the atom bomb.Gandhians insist that Satyagrahadestroyed the moral fabric of the impe-rialists to rule in the medium and longterm and what began in Champaranwas within months replicated in Khedain Gujarat in 1918 and elsewhere in thecountry and thereafter throughout thefreedom struggle till 1947.

As we commemorate 100 years ofSatyagraha of the father of the nationin Champaran against the BritishIndigo planters in the hot month ofApril in 1917, it would be befitting torecall the struggle he country is com-memorating. It was Raj Kumar Shukla,whose persistent efforts over a periodof time brought Gandhi to this district.Shukla; a farmer cum money lenderfrom the district, was so relentless in hisattempts that Gandhi promised that hewould visit the place when he went toCalcutta. “This illiterate but determinedfarmer won my heart,” he later wrotein The Story of My Experiments withTruth, referring to his meetings withShukla in the Lucknow Convention ofthe Congress in 1916, Kanpur and thenCalcutta from where he left for Patnaby train and then for Motihari inChamparan. In all these meetings,Shukla had only one request —Gandhiji should come to Champaran;feel the pulse of the exploited peasantsand take remedial measures.

He did come with his prominentlieutenants Rajendra Prasad, AnugrahNarayan Sinha, JB Kripalani and oth-ers to oppose the exploitation of thefarmers under the Tinkathia systemand other cess and taxes imposed bythe then Government. In the exploita-tive Tinkathia system, farmers hadbeen forced to plant Indigo in a partof their land (in 3/20 part of a land)compulsorily for almost 60 years.They had to clean the plant which con-sumed a lot of time, dry it and thenfinally pack it for use in industrialisedEurope. All this, was done practical-ly for free, as forced labour. Thoughthe farmers had protested twice ear-

lier against this exploitative system,they were suppressed by the police.

Two things happened at the sametime. Gandhi’s Satyagraha forced theBritish rulers to relent and end theTinkathia system. At the same time,industrial coloring agent, which wascheaper and did not involve exploita-tion of the peasants, started being usedon a much wider scale by the industri-alised west. Indigo plantation finallyended in Champaran in 1922-23 whenthe demand died down completely andnine sugar mills were opened by theBritish to keep happy the ‘White’ farm-ers who had settled in the area throughwhat were called kothis (bungalows) asa headquarter, specifically to controlIndigo cultivation. Each kothi had aBritish owner with retinues, support-ed by the local police and hundreds ofacres of land in their possession. Whencommercial sugarcane farming started,Indigo cultivation ended.

During his April 1917 visit toChamparan, Gandhi built theBhitiharwa ashram, ran a campaignagainst the prevailing practice ofuntouchability, emphasised on educa-tion, cleanliness and health. Helped bywife Kasturba Gandhi, MahatmaGandhi opened several basic teachingschools. In fact, it was here, that thebasic schools, imparting skills forlivelihood, were opened for the firsttime on land donated by the prosper-ous farmers.

When Gandhiji was charged with

“creating unrest”, following his on thespot assessments of peasant exploita-tion, talks with the farmers and theirmobilisation, there was a massiveshow of strength in his support whichforced the judicial officer to withdrawthe case against him in Motihari. Byword of mouth, the message hadspread that the British were about tojail Gandhiji, triggering an outflow offarmers from the district to the districtcourt. In a nutshell, the ChamparanSatyagraha, even though the wordSatyagraha came to be used more fre-quently during the protest against theRowlatt Act agitation, triggering thefirst non-violent struggle, anywhere inthe world, on such a large scale.

Raj Kumar Shukla, the man whobrought Gandhi to Champaran, contin-ued with his efforts of mobilisation ofpeople against the British regime evenafter he left. Shukla participated in theagitation against the Rowlatt Act in1919 and in the non-cooperationmovement of 1922. He died at the rel-atively young age of 54 in 1929, leav-ing behind a rich legacy for Champaranwhich the people of the district stillremember fondly. However, much afterGandhi left Champaran after a success-ful Satyagraha against the BritishIndigo planters of the district, the oraltradition glorifying what he did contin-ued for years. He was seen as a messi-ah whose presence brought a paradigmshift in the politics of the district.

The role of rumour and oral his-

tory were extremely important in themaking of the Mahatma Gandhi, overa period of time. It is important in anysocial movement and it was thiswhich helped people of Champarangalvanise themselves in the anti-British struggle whole heartedly. Allthe subsequent protests by Congressand Gandhiji — be it the non-coop-eration movement in 1922, or the CivilDisobedience Movement in 1932 andthe Quit India Movement in 1942found great traction in Champaranand saw maximum arrests.

Postscript : As I hail fromChamparan, some of the oral traditionwhich I have narrated, belongs to mygreat grandfather Pandit Bhola Shuklaand grandfather Satya Narayan Shuklawho narrated this to me in my child-hood. My great grandfather bought a60 bigha plot (90 acres of land) from aBritish named Benson around the year1940 in village Sabeya of Champarandistrict. Benson was engaged in the cul-tivation of Indigo before the Satyagrahaof Gandhi and later sugarcane when thefirst mill was set up. When farming wasno longer profitable according toBritish standards, he gave up andshifted to England after selling his landto different people. I still own five acresof that land after several family parti-tions and the original papers of thoseperiod still have Bensons’s name; theindigo cultivator.

(The writer is Senior Editor, ThePioneer, Chandigarh)

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��$����� D�A large number ofcorporates, including Tatas,Godrej, Adani and Patanjali,have shown interest in buyingembattled Sahara group’s 30properties estimated to be worthabout �7,400 crore.

The properties, mostly landparcels being auctioned by realestate consultant Knight FrankIndia, have also generated inter-est from several real estate devel-opers including Omaxe andEldeco, as also from HNIs and atleast one public sector firmIndian Oil, sources familiar withthe process said.

Besides, Chennai-basedApollo Hospital has shown inter-est in acquiring Sahara Hospitalin Lucknow.

Sources, however, said thatthe sale process and the valuationcould get impacted due to a hurryin getting the deals closed with-in a short time because of anurgency on part of Saharas to getthe money and deposit the samewith the regulator Sebi as perSupreme Court directions.

All prospective buyers areasking for 2-3 months for duediligence, which is considered tobe normal period of time in thehigh-value real estate transac-tions, sources added.

When contacted, a Saharagroup spokesperson declined todisclose the names of prospectivebuyers, saying “deals are inprocess and will materialise soon”.

He also said the details have beensubmitted to the Supreme Court.

Godrej Properties’ ExecutiveChairman Pirojsha Godrej said,“We are looking at part of one ofthe Pune land parcels for whichKnight Frank is running the bid-ding process. It is still at a pre-liminary stage.”

Omaxe’s CMD Rohtas Goelalso confirmed that his compa-ny was interested in some prop-erties.

“As a prudent businessorganisation, we always keepexploring growth opportunities,”he said.

Eldeco’s Managing DirectorPankaj Bajaj said they are inter-ested in some properties butwould not be like to share theexact details at this stage.

An Apollo Hospitalsspokesperson said, “The Apollohas submitted an expression ofinterest for Sahara Hospital and(we) are conducting our evalua-tion and due diligence process.”

Tata Housing declined tocomment, while there were noreplies to specific queries madeto Adani Group and Patanjali.

“The advertisement got anoverwhelming response. Over250 expressions of interest (EOIs)have been received. EOIs havebeen received for all sites withmajority of sites having multipleEOIs,” Knight Frank India said inresponse to queries from thenews agency PTI.

“Process is an intense processthat constitutes due diligence, siteinspections, financial bids (pric-ing to be on as-is-where-is-what-ever-it-is basis) and shall culmi-nate on finalisation of successfulbidder.

“Due diligence and siteinspections are either completedor underway in most cases. Weexpect to receive the final bidsshortly,” it added.

Sources said there were alarge number of individuals asalso some educational institutionswho have submitted expressionsof interest for the properties. Theshortlisted entities are now beingasked to submit their financialbids.

The group is expecting to getthe first instalment from the saleof these properties by June 17 andget all the money, estimated ataround �7,400 crore, in threemonths.

Earlier this week, theSupreme Court also directedsale of Sahara group’s AambyValley township in Lonavala,which the group estimates to beworth over �1 lakh crore andfears that a hurried sale willfavour only those wanting to“grab Aamby Valley cheaper”.

The Sahara spokespersonsaid the group had committed todeposit the directed amount of�10,500 crore by July-August2017, including �7,400 crorefrom sale of the 30 properties

being auctioned and paymentsfrom other deals, but the courtdeclined and asked for theAamby Valley auction whichwill take much longer.

“We committed around�1,500 crore from overseas hotels,expected to reach India within 45days. Also we informed aboutVasai land where we are going toget around �800 crore (and)also around �800 crore fromGhaziabad,” he added.

On February 28, theSupreme Court had allowedSahara to sell certain propertiesafter market regulator Sebi foundit difficult to auction them evenwith the help of specialised agen-cies. Sahara sought six months’time for the sale, but the court

asked them to complete the salein six weeks (rpt) weeks forproperties worth about �5,092crore.

Sahara subsequentlyappointed Knight Frank for car-rying out the sale process andadvertisements were issued innewspapers twice to inviteprospective buyers.

Knight Frank was asked tocomplete the sale by April 13 tomeet the Supreme Court dead-line, but it was found to be dif-ficult because of the timedemanded by the prospectivebuyers for going through vari-ous stages of such high valuetransactions to ensure optimalvalue realisation.

Sources said that Indian

Oil, which was interested in oneproperty in Bihar, sought exten-sion of time for submitting bidon the grounds that the projectcalled for approvals and reportsfrom various departments andagencies.

Apollo also sought exten-sion of time for carrying out thedue diligence, inspections andevaluation of the property.

Replying to specific queries,the Sahara group spokespersonsaid, “We twice advertised invarious newspapers all over thecountry for selling around 30properties. In response, we havereceived 163 Expressions from59 prospective buyers and thedeals are in process and willmaterialise soon.”

Asked about the details ofthe prospective buyers, thespokesperson said, “We havesubmitted the details to theCourt. It will not be possible tocomment on each prospectivebuyer and share details of thebuyers and the deals at this levelas it might not be conducivewhen the deals are in process.”

In reply to another query onthe due diligence process andwhether the court direction toclose the deal faster and submitmoney could affect the sale andthe valuation, he said the realestate deals undergo multipleprocesses.

“The said deals are undervarious stages. The buyers have

asked for 2-3 months for com-pleting due diligence and otherprocesses, which is the industry-accepted minimum requiredtime for such deals, even if allprocesses are expedited.

“On February 28, 2017, theCourt ordered to sell 14 prop-erties and to deposit the total saleproceeds of �5,090 crore byApril 17, meaning in 46 days wehad to sell and get the money.

“On April 17, we also pre-sented to the Court our com-mitment of getting first instal-ments out of all sales by June 17,and in three months we said weshall get all the money which isaround �7,400 crore,” he said.

On the ordered sale ofAamby Valley, the group said,“The court’s insistence to sellAamby Valley whose value ismore than �1 lakh crore willonly be a big favour to thoseone- two corporates who wantto grab it cheaper”.

The 30 advertised propertiesare located across India --including in Delhi, Pune, Indore,Lucknow, Coimbatore,Chandigarh, Bhopal, Guna,Kolkata, Haridwar, Aligarh,Bareilly, Dewas, Faridabad,Guwahati, Gwalior, Jhansi,Kanpur, Kurukshetra,Noida/Greater Noida, Patna andPorbandar.

Sahara lawyer GautamAwasthy separately said thegroup has deposited around

�12,000 crore in last four years,which comes to an average of�250 crore per month deposit-ed in the SEBI-Sahara account.The interest component takesthe deposited amount to closeto �15,000 crore.

This account was createdfor the money Sahara groupwas asked to deposit with theregulator for further refund tothe bondholders from whichthe group had raised money,though the conglomerateclaims to have already refund-ed more than 93 per centmoney directly to the investors.

Awasthy further said, “Byany Indian corporate standard,�250 crore every month for 48months is a huge amount andSahara could have been appre-ciated for obedience of theHonourable Court’s order.

“The most commendablepoint is that Sahara could pay�250 crore every month on anaverage after Sahara havingalready repaid more than 93per cent of its liability of OFCDof the two companies -- SaharaIndia Real Estate CorporationLimited and Sahara HousingInvestment CorporationLimited.

“Meaning more than�22,000 crore of liabilitySahara has already been paidand this �12,000 crore is inaddition, that is duplication ofpayment.” ��

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The UN must use all powersthat it has in its command

to ensure that the developedworld does not shut the doorson global trade and does notstart to close their borders forpeople to move around, promi-nent Indian industrialist SunilBharti Mittal said.

“We know the globalisationand liberalisation in trade haslifted at least a billion people outof poverty across the globe.There is so much potential thatglobal trade allows the devel-oping world to achieve whichno other measure can trulyrealise,” Mittal, Founder andChairman of Bharti Enterprises,said in his address to a high-level meeting on SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs)Financing Lab here on lastTuesday.

Mittal, 59, speaking in hiscapacity as Chairman of theworld’s largest business organ-isation International Chamberof Commerce (ICC), said it is amatter of concern that parts ofthe developed world are nowembracing a protectionist atti-tude.

He emphasised that theUN must use “all powers that ithas in its command” to ensurethat the developed world “doesnot shut the doors on global

trade and does not start toclose their borders for people tomove around”.

“Then, ICC notices thevoice coming out of the devel-oped world, parts of Europe,right here in the US, which aresounding protectionist innature, sounding movingtowards nationalist politics innature,” he told the gathering inthe UN, which includedPresident of the UN GeneralAssembly Peter Thomson andUN Permanent Representatives.

“It is a matter of deep con-cern for some of us in ICCbecause we believe there is noother recourse to uplifting theworld out of poverty than tohave global trade at the heart ofthe agenda of the world politi-cal leaders,” Mittal said.

He asserted that inclusivetrade must be the “central pri-ority” if nations have to achieve

the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals.

“Business is already takingaction, we need the right poli-cies and partnerships in place toachieve the SDGs,” he said.

The Chairman of BhartiAirtel, one of India’s leadingconglomerates, said the emerg-ing markets, Sub-SaharanAfrica, India, Bangladesh,Pakistan and Sri Lanka andother nations greatly benefitfrom the opening of globaltrade.

Over the last 10 to 20 years,business leaders have been“knocking very hard on thedoors of our own countries” toopen up to global trade.

He told the gathering thatIndia today is one of the mostopen countries in terms ofglobal trade and investmentsand invites FDI in India inalmost all major industries.

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India’s high economic growthrate last fiscal may not reflect the

actual impact of demonetisationparticularly on the informal sec-tor, and it may take a few monthsto assess its real fallout, ChiefEconomic Adviser ArvindSubramanian has said.

He, however, said the impactof the sudden withdrawal of 86 percent of currency is “pretty muchover” as the newly- printed 500and 2,000 rupee notes hit thebanking system, replacing theold 500 and 1,000 rupee notes thatwere voided overnight onNovember 8, last year.

India is estimated to haveclocked a surprising 7.1 per centGDP growth in 2016-17 fiscalwith a 7 per cent growth rate inthe October-December quarter,notwithstanding demonetisation.

“There (has) been an impactof it (demonetisation) on theinformal sector which would bedifficult to assess. But, I think it ispretty much over. It was related tocash in the economy. The cash isback, so hopefully those short-term costs are pretty much behindus,” Subramanian said at theCentre for Global Development,a top American think tank.

Subramanian, who is here toattend the annual Spring Meetingsof the International Monetary

Fund and the World Bank, saidthe actual impact of demonetisa-tion is not reflected in the GDPnumbers.

“That being said, I do thinkthat the headline number mightnot give the actual impact ofdemonetisation. I think we will getto know over the course of thenext few months what the actualimpact is going to be,” he said.

The informal sector, whichdoes the bulk of its transactions incash, had borne the biggest bruntof demonetisation.

“A lot of impact of demon-etisation is really a case of too earlyto tell and (we) will find out overthe course of (the) next fewmonths, except for the impact onthe informal sector, which I do notthink we are really going to get ahandle on at all,” he said.

Subramanian said that thepopular response to this policyof Prime Minister Narendra

Modi has “humbled him” in hisunderstanding of Indian politicsand to some extent economics aswell.

“...What you have seen ondemonetisation in terms of thepopular response...It certainlyhumbled me in my understand-ing of Indian politics and to someextent Indian economics,” hesaid.

Responding to a series ofquestions on demonetisation,the chief economic adviser saidthat it was over and it signalleda regime change.

Demonetisation on the partof the government does signal a“regime shift” which says “if youare not going to be compliant onyour tax payments, theGovernment is going to makeextra efforts to do so”, he said.

So, it is kind of signalling aregime change, he added.

Acknowledging that a lot ofdemonetisation was part eco-nomics, part politics,Subramanian said it does raisesome really interesting ques-tions about the popular responseto demonetisation.

He conceded that this was astep towards digitisation andbroadening of the tax base.

“It is really about creating aninfrastructure, using technologyto better deliver Governmentservices in the long run,” he said.

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Notwithstanding theimpact of demonetisa-

tion, India returned to fiscalconsolidation in the fiscalyear 2016-17 largely due to thenear-elimination of fuel sub-sidies and enhanced targetingof social benefits, the IMF saidon Wednesday.

“India returned to fiscalconsolidation in fiscal year2016/17, supported by thenear-elimination of fuel sub-sidies and enhanced targetingof social benefits, notwith-standing the deceleration ingrowth related to the country’srecent currency exchange ini-tiative,” the IMF said in itsreport on Fiscal Monitorreleased on the sidelines of theannual Spring Meeting of theInternational Monetary Fundand the World Bank.

The IMF said, in India,the headline deficit is pro-jected to decline modestly infiscal year 2017/18, with con-tinued delay in reaching themedium-term deficit target.

The budget envisages agrowth-friendly fiscal adjust-ment underpinned by expen-diture cuts that protect infra-structure investment, as wellas more progressive incometaxes for individuals com-bined with lower taxes onsmall and medium- sized

enterprises.“The expected rollout of

the nationwide Goods andServices Tax (GST) this yearwill enhance the efficiency ofthe internal movement ofgoods and services and effec-tively create a commonnational market,” the IMFsaid.

India is also makingprogress toward strengthen-ing its fiscal responsibilityframework, includingthrough anchoring fiscaladjustment by means of adebt-to-GDP ratio of 60 percent to be achieved by fiscalyear 2022/23, it said.

The IMF said in India,growth-friendly fiscal con-solidation should continueby reorienting public expen-diture away from untargetedsubsidies, especially on foodand fertilisers, and towardcapital and social spending.

In India, the authoritiesshould continue to raise taxeson petroleum products whileoil prices remain low, thereport said, adding that oneimportant factor to considerwhen assessing the scope andneed for enhancing revenue isthe initial tax burden.

Overhauling India’s foodand fertiliser subsidy regimethrough better targeting andefficiency could generate sub-stantial fiscal gains, it said.

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����� ��Tata Motors expectsvolumes, led by light com-mercial vehicles (LCVs) andbuses, to grow by 10- 15 percent in fiscal 2018 aided by afavourable GST rate and themonsoons, which is forecast tobe normal.

The company will also cre-ate a new segment in the busmarket with an AMT (auto-matic manual transmission)version shortly, apart fromlaunching an AMT version ofits premium pick-up Xenon.

“We led the LCV growthby more than doubled theindustry growth rate last finan-cial year clipping at 22 per centvolume. We’re confident ofthis trend continuing in fiscal2018 as well, and overall I seeTata Motors driving the indus-try volumes by clocking 10-15per cent growth,” executivedirector, commercial vehicle

business unit, Ravi Pisharodytold the news agency heretoday.

As against this, the indus-try lobby Siam has forecast a 4-6 per cent growth in fiscal 2018for the commercial vehiclessegment.

Tata Motors has overtakenthe long-time industry leaderAshok Leyland to become theNo 1 bus brand in fiscal 2017.In 2016-17, Tata Motors’ busvolumes (medium and heavysegment) grew by 22 per centto 18,198 units from 14,917units a year ago. On the con-trary, Ashok Leyland, saw itsbus sales declining by 10 percent to 17,725 units against19,586 units.

For fiscal 2017, Tatas’cumulative sales stood at5,42,561 units, up 6 per centover 5,11,705 vehicles sold in2015-16. During the year, the

bus market (medium andheavy) grew by 8 per cent to47,262 units. Tata and Leylandtogether dominate the marketwith a combined market shareof about 76 per cent, withTatas commanding around 40per cent now.

“We added almost 7 per-centage points to our marketshare in the year”, Pisharodysaid, adding “as our volumesclipped 26 per cent in theIMHCV (intermediate, medi-um & heavy commercial vehi-cle) bus category.”

He said this was driven pri-marily by orders from statetransport undertakings. Duringthe year, it bagged an order forover 1,500 buses from UttarPradesh, around 870 fromRajasthan and Haryana and630 from Andhra.

On exports, Pisharodyrefused to hazard an estimate

saying it depends a lot onexternal factors. In fiscal 2017,its bus exports improved mar-ginally to 5,650 units from5,142 units, while Leyland’sdeclined massively to to 4,877units from 6,135 units.

On the AMT buses,Pisharody said the move is fol-lowing the better prospects forthe bus market. “We will veryshortly launch an AMT versionof Ultra range bus. We are alsoplanning an AMT version ofthe Xenon pickups, which willbe shipped to Australia fromthis month.”

He said the new Xenon hasbeen received well in thedomestic market with over1,000 units sales so far andexpects sales to touch 1,500shortly

Pisharody also claimed anAMT bus and pick-up is a firstfor the domestic industry. ��

#����$����>�����:95:�?"��������')���������3������$� ���� �� Finance Minister

Arun Jaitley on Wednesdayindicated that he would take upthe visa issue with the USauthorities during his visit toAmerica.

“These (IT industry issues)are matters of discussion withthe appropriate authoritiesthere. Once I do discuss and getan opportunity, I will let youknow,” he told reporters whenasked whether he would takeup concerns of the Indian ITsector with the US adminis-tration.

Jaitley will reachWashington tomorrow toattend the Spring Meetings ofIMF and World Bank as well asdeliberations of G20 nations.He is slated to meet the USTreasury Secretary, among oth-ers, during his five-day visit.

The Indian IT industryhas expressed serious con-cerns over the US Governmentmoving towards tighteningthe rules for grant of H-1Bvisa, mainly used by domesticIT professionals for short-

term work.Companies like Tata

Consultancy Services andInfosys that send engineers onH-1B visas to the US couldcome under pressure in com-ing days as US PresidentDonald Trump has signed anexecutive order to replace thecurrent lottery system for issu-ing work visas with a so-called merit-based approach.

IT Secretary ArunaSundararajan said there wasno cause for alarm, as thereview process has just start-ed.

Industry body Nasscomwarned that the move couldhave “unintended conse-quences” even though it down-played any immediate impacton IT companies this year.

“No new changes are beingimplemented immediately ...Nothing is being proposedthat would impact or changethe FY18 H-1B lottery that iscurrently underway,” Nasscomsaid in a statement onWednesday ��

����� ��Jet Airways is treatingIndian pilots in a “step-mother-ly” manner compared to expats,pilots’ body NAG said onWednesday even as the airlineasserted that it has a strict andcommon code for employees.

Seeking swift action againstalleged racist approach of expatpilots at the airline, the NationalAviators Guild (NAG) called fordisallowing such pilots in thecockpit.

The group’s statement fol-lows its direction on April 15asking its members not to flywith the expats in the cockpitafter one of the foreign pilotsallegedly assaulted a trainer inBengaluru recently.

The carrier has around 60expat commanders, who main-ly operate its Boeing 737 andATR fleet.

In a strongly-worded state-ment, NAG said disparaging,inappropriate and racist com-ments allegedly made by certainexpat pilots cannot be takenlightly.

“This is in addition to the

verbal and physical abuse of asenior trainer by an expat pilotemployed by the airline,” NAGclaimed.

“The management has for avery long time treated the Indianemployees, including the pilots,in a step-motherly manner andhas disregarded the legitimateexpectations of its employees tobe treated fairly, reasonably andin a just manner,” it noted.

A Jet Airways spokespersonsaid as part of the airline’s opendoor policy, it encourages allemployee groups to engage inconsultative processes and arriveat amicable solutions.

“As an Indian airline oper-ating internationally, all employ-ees, regardless of nationality,are governed by a strict andcommon code of conduct,” thespokesperson said in a state-ment.

He noted that there arerobust HR processes to ensurethat instances of contradictorynature are duly investigated andappropriate actions taken as percompany policy. ��

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Fintech company Paytm isbelieved to be in discussions

with Japanese conglomerateSoftBank to raise over $1 billion.The deal, if successful, willvalue the Alibaba-backed Paytmat over $7 billion from the cur-rent $5 billion, multiple sourcessaid. When contacted, Paytmand SoftBank declined to com-ment. Interestingly, SoftBankwas an early investor in Alibaba.

The talks come at a timewhen SoftBank is working on asale plan of e-commerce firmSnapdeal and is likely to makean announcement in the nextfew weeks. SoftBank is thelargest shareholder in Snapdeal,which is locked in an intensebattle with Amazon India andFlipkart.

One of the sources saidPaytm may buy Snapdeal-owned payments firmFreecharge as part of the trans-action with SoftBank. The fund-ing will also help Paytm accel-erate expansion ahead of thelaunch of its payments bank ser-vice. The Alibaba-backed com-pany already runs mobile wal-

let and e- commerce services.Paytm has seen manifoldgrowth in transactions on itsplatform after the Governmentscrapped high denominationnotes in November last year.

SoftBank, which has com-mitted an investment of over$10 billion in the Indian mar-ket, is also engaged in sale dis-cussion for Snapdeal to rivalFlipkart.

Paytm, which countsChina’s Alibaba as a promi-nent shareholder, was valuedat about $5 billion last yearwhen it had raised $60 millionfrom Mediatek. Also, RelianceCapital recently sold its 1 percent stake to Alibaba for anestimated �275 crore.

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India, with a young skilledwork force, high growth rate

and deregulation being under-taken by the Government, is setto become an important desti-nation for foreign investment, aformer top US trade official hassaid.

“With the young skilledwork force, its growth rate thatis going to surpass China for thecoming years as well as the mar-ket opening and deregulationundertaken by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will make thisa really important destinationfor foreign investment,” WendyCutler, who was the ActingDeputy US TradeRepresentative under Obamaadministration told aWashington audience onTuesday.

Speaking at a panel discus-sion on the occasion of launchof Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) Confidence Index, Cutlersaid, India under Modi hasemerged as among the favouritedestinations for foreigninvestors. For the second con-secutive year, India appears intop 10 of the index. This year,it was placed at eighth spot asagainst ninth last year. Chinahas slipped to the third spot.

Germany has now becomethe second top destination in theFDI Confidence Index after theUS, which takes the fifth spot forthe fifth year in a row. “Five ofthe top 10 countries are fromAsia. There is a lot of optimismabout investment opportunitiesin Asia, not only among Asianbut also global investors as well.

Clearly China and Indiaseems to be the cause of this lot

of optimism. India movedeighth on the index,” she said.Cutler said the optimism aboutinvestment in China ‘does notseem to be in line from what weare hearing’from not only theUS business community butalso the European businesscommunity as well.

In her previous stint in theUnited States TradeRepresentative, she was respon-sible for the Trans-Pacific

Partnership agreement (TPP),US China trade relations and USIndia Trade Policy Forum.

“The investment climate isgetting worse in China.Companies are facing a lot ofrestrictions in China, whether itbe licensing or approval processor favourable treatment ofdomestic competitors orrequirements to share technol-ogy. We are hearing from ourcompanies that their optimism

is declining,” Cutler said. Notingthat the Chinese FDI in the USand vice versa should bewatched closely, she said thereis a growing concern that whilethe US and foreign companiesare facing restrictions in China,there is a feeling that Chinesecompanies face few restrictionshere in the US. “India on theother hand is moving towardsbecoming a favourite FDI des-tination,” she said.

“When you loom at India,it is moving from a close mar-ket to an open market. Thereforms that are being under-taken are perhaps not as ambi-tious as one would hope for. Butunder Prime Minister Modi,India is really under tracktowards opening,” she said.Contrasting India, a little bitwith China, Cutler said thatChina was really open to foreign

direct investment. “But we areseeing that trend going in a dif-ferent direction,” Cutler said.“The other thing that makes methink very favourably aboutIndia is that it does not face thesame demographic challengesthat many Asian countries face.India with most of its popula-tion under 40 offers a veryattractive destination, coupledwith the high skilled nature ofthe work force,” she said.

However, she said India is‘one of the difficult countries’to negotiate. “So while all thesedevelopments are positive, theyhave a way to go here, but theyare moving in the right direc-tion,” Cutler said. GlobalBusiness Policy Councilchairman Paul Laudicina saidthat India’s youth populationgives India wage price advan-tage over China.

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Maruti Suzuki tightened itsgrip on the Indian passen-

ger vehicles market with withseven of its models featuring in theten best selling list in 2016-17,with its small car Alto retainingthe top seller tag for the 13th con-secutive year. According to datareleased by Society of IndianAutomobile Manufacturers(SIAM), Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) had only six models in thetop ten list in 2015-16.

The Indian passenger vehi-cles (PV) market saw a totalsales of 30,46,727 units in FY17as against 27,89,208 units in theprevious year, a growth of 9.23per cent. MSI’s top seven best sell-ing models accounted for over 35per cent of the domestic PV salesat 10,74,937 units. Overall, thecompany which sold a total of14,43,641 units last fiscal had amarket share of 47.38 per cent inthe PV segment. In the fiscal endedMarch 31, 2017, Alto retained thetop slot despite 8.27 per centdecline in sales at 2,41,635 units ascompared with 2,63,422 units in

the year before. MSI's Wagon Rmoved to second position in FY17with sales of 1,72,346 units fromfourth in FY16 at 1,69,555 units,a growth of 1.64 per cent. Anothermodel from the company's stable,Dzire compact sedan occupied thethird slot with 1,67,266 units inFY17 as against 1,95,939 units inthe previous year, a decline of 14.63per cent.

Dzire was the second bestselling model in 2015-16.Coming in the fourth spot wasMSI's Swift with 1,66,885 units.In the previous fiscal the modelwas the third best selling modelwith 1,95,043 units.Rival HyundaiMotor India's compact car Grandi10 was the fifth best sellingmodel in 2016-17 with 1,46,228units swapping places with thecompany's Elite i20, which wassixth with 1,26,304 units. MarutiSuzuki’s premium hatchbackBaleno was in seventh position.

NEW DELHI: Electronics giantSamsung on Wednesdayunveiled its latest flagshipsmartphone, Galaxy S8, that willbe available in India for �57,900onwards. The handset will beavailable in two versions -Galaxy S 8 and Galaxy S8 Plus (�64,900).The devices will be available at select retailoutlets and online exclusively on SamsungShop and Flipkart from May 5, 2017. Pre-booking for the phones begins on

Wednesday. These two premiumdevices will compete head-on withApple's iPhone as well as productsfrom the stables of Sony, LG andAsus. “These two devices areamong the most awaited smart-phones and are already receiving

great response worldwide. These push theboundaries of traditional smartphoneswith its design, technology and services,”Samsung India Senior Vice President,Mobile Business, Asim Warsi said. Coupled

with Samsung DeX, users can transformtheir smartphone into a full desktop-likeexperience, he added.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8Plus buyers will also get a double data offerfrom Reliance Jio. On a monthly rechargeof INR 309, users will get 448 GB of 4Gdata over 8 months. The response toGalaxy S8 will be crucial for Samsungwhich was on the receiving end last yearfollowing incidents of its big-ticket flagship,Galaxy Note 7, catching fire. PNS

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Industry body Nasscom onWednesday warned that the

US’ move to replace the lot-tery system for issuing H-1Bwork visas with a merit-basedapproach could have ‘unin-tended consequences’ evenas it sought to downplay anyimmediate impact on ITcompanies this year.

Under a new executiveorder signed by US PresidentDonald Trump, America isreviewing its visa programmefor foreign workers, whileensuring a crackdown on visaabuse and frauds. The H-1Bvisa programme is most sought-after by Indian IT firms andprofessionals to work on cus-tomer sites. Every year, the USgrants 65,000 H-1B visas, while

another 20,000 are set aside forthose with US advanceddegrees.

“No new changes are beingimplemented immediately...Nothing is being proposed thatwould impact or change theFY18 H-1B lottery that is cur-rently underway,” Nasscom saidin a statement. The proposedchanges are forward-lookingand non- specific, it contended.Any change in visa norms canaffect the movement of labouras well as spike operationalcosts for IT players. Most IndianIT companies get over 60 percent of their revenues from theNorth American market.

The Indian Government,on its part, has said it will takeup the issue with the Americanauthorities during the upcom-ing visit of Finance Minister

Arun Jaitley to the US. Anotherindustry body Assocham alsoexpressed concern over thetightening of the visa norms.

“...Indian IT companies arebound to face disruptions byway of higher costs and evensome laying off work force backhome, as the rising rupee isaggravating the situation furtherfor the technology export firms,”it said. Indian IT firms, howev-er, put a brave face to theimpending changes being moot-ed by the US.

“We continue to invest inthe local communities in whichwe operate, including hiringlocal American top talent, bring-ing education and training toour clients to shrink the skillsgap in the US, and working withpolicymakers to foster innova-tion,” Infosys said in a statement.

!������%��2�����%�5��%��5�����%�������%������%���%&:,4%5����GANDHINAGAR: Prime

Minister Narendra Modi will inau-gurate Textiles India -a mega eventshowcasing the country as a glob-al sourcing hub -here on June 30,where several Union Ministers andkey policymakers will deliberateupon issues and challenges facedby the sector. The 3-day confer-ence will be attended by UnionMinisters including FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley, SmritiIrani, Nitin Gadkari, NirmalaSitharaman, among others.

It will provide a platform to con-nect and collaborate with globalmanufacturers, investors and buy-ers in the textiles sector, and isexpected to draw participation fromaround 25 countries. “The PM shallopen this world-class event. Thevaledictory session will be chairedby the Finance Minister. SeniorMinisters, NITI Aayog CEOAmitabh Kant and many other dig-nitaries have confirmed their par-ticipation,” Irani told reporters. PNS

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ABU DHABI: Oil-exportingcartel OPEC is optimistic thatproduction cuts agreed withnon-members to prop up priceswill lead to a recovery in the mar-ket, its chief said on Wednes.“We are optimistic that the pol-icy measures we have takenalready place us on the path ofrecovery,” OPECSecretary GeneralMohammad SanusiBarkindo said at an ener-gy forum in Abu Dhabi.

OPEC membersagreed in November tocut production by 1.2million barrels per day for sixmonths beginning from the startof the year. Some non-cartel pro-ducers, led by Russia, joined inin December committing to cutoutput by 558 million bpd. TheOPEC chief did not take a posi-tion on whether oil ministersfrom participating countries

would extend the cuts when theymeet in Vienna next month.“These 24 countries, I believe,will take a decision that will bein the best interest of not onlyproducers but also consumersand the global industry in gen-eral,” he said.

OPEC and non-OPEC pro-ducers said after talks inKuwait last month thatthey were looking intoextending the output cuts,as compliance with theagreement has increased.Barkindo said the jointaction has put OPEC and

other producers in the ‘driving seat’to dictate events instead of ‘react-ing to market developments’. Thecuts were agreed to help restoremarket stability “by addressing onevariable, which is stock,” he said.“As a result of the rising stock overthe past years, the equation hasgone out of balance.” AFP

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NEW DELHI: India M&Aactivity saw a robust start in thefirst quarter of this year withthe value of deals doubling to$17.9 billion, says a report. Inthe corresponding threemonths a year ago, the dealswere valued at $9.2 billion.

According to global dealtracking firm Mergermarket,notwithstanding the signifi-cant rise in the value of deals,the number of transactionsdeclined to 76 in January-March this year from 110 in theyear-ago quarter.

Moreover, India’s marketshare grew significantly in theAsia-Pacific (excluding Japan)region comprising 13.2 percent of the total regional dealvalue, the highest proportionacross all quarters since 2013,Mergermarket India M&Atrend report Q1 2017 said.

The telecom sector attract-ed deals worth $13.6 billionfrom three deals in theJanuary-March period, as com-pared to only $60 million fromtwo deals a year ago. The topdeal this quarter was Vodafone

Group's merger of VodafoneIndia with Idea Cellular, con-tributed $12.7 billion to thesector, which accounted 70.6per cent of the total value.

Another noteworthy dealin the sector was KohlbergKravis Roberts & Co's (KKR)$948 million investment inBharti Infratel Limited for a10.3 per cent stake. Energy,Mining & Utilities (EMU)was the second biggest M&Asector by deal value with $1.5billion in January-March,attracting 11 deals. PNS

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Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited(A Government of India Enterprise)

Expression of lnterest (EOI) Notification

EOI Ref. No.: BECIL/IT/STB/01/DTH Set Top Box ManufacturingBECIL is hereby inviting sealed "Expression of Interest" for empanelment of agen-cies For manufacturing of Set Top Box (MPEG-4 DVB-S2 and MPEG-2 DVB-S). For moreinformation interested bidders are requested to visit the website www.becil.com fordownloading the detailed EOI docurmen. The bids will be received till 113:00 hrs on28.04.2017 and will be opened on the same day at 14:30 hrs at BECIL's CorporateOffice.

davp 22113/11/0005/1718

Gujarat State Seeds Corporation LimitedTENDER NOTICE NO. 1 of 2017-18

Online tender (E-Tendering) for the following works (EPC work) are pub-lically invited by the Executive Engineer, (Civil), PIU, Gujrat State SeedsCorporation Limited, Gandhinagar, Beej Bhavan, Sector-10/A,Gandhinagar (Gujrat State), from eligible contractors registred in appro-priate class.Sr. Name of work Estimated Qualification of BidderNo. cost (Rs. (1) Class

in Crore) (2) EMD(3) Tender Fee(4) Time Limit(5) Solvency

01 Construction of seeds 44.11 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 44.11 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Miroli Dist. Ahemdabad (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs. 8.82 Crore

02 Construction of seeds 24.85 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 24.85 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Halol Dist. Panchmahal (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs. 4.97 Crore

03 Construction of seeds 30.61 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 30.61 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Dehgam Dist. Gandhinagar (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs. 6.12 Crore

04 Construction of seeds 18.08 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 18.08 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Chalthan Dist. Surat (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs. 3.62 Crore

05 Construction of seeds 21.30 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 21.30 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Barolia Dist.Valasad and (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs. 4.26 Crore

06 Construction of seeds 44.95 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 44.95 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Vanthali Dist. Junagadh (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs. 8.99 Crore

07 Construction of seeds 26.89 (1) 'AA' Classstorage Structure along (2) Rs. 26.89 Lacswith amenities at village (3) RS. 18000.00Kutiana Dist. Porbander (4) 12 Months (Excludingwith 5 Years Maintenance 5 Year O & M Period)On EPC Basis (5) Rs.5.38 Crore

Schedule of E-tendering:1) Date of uploading: Dt. 20/04/20172) Pre-bid meeting: Dt. 01/05/52017 at 12.00 hrs.3) Last date for Downloading of tender documents and online submis-

sion (uploading) of tender documents i.e. last date for receipt of ten-der by GSSNL: Dt. 22/05/2017, up to 18.00 hrs.

4) Last date for Physical submission of Tender fee, EMD and other doc-uments in the separate cover: Dt. 31/05/2017 upto 18.00 hrs. byRPAD/Speed post only.

5) Online Verification of tender fee, EMD other Documents : Dt.01/06/2017, 11.00 hrs. onward (If possible) and opening of P.Q. bidonline other documents.

6) Online opening of price bids of qualified bidder only: Dt. 05/06/2017,12.00 hrs. (if possible) The internet site address for e-tendering iswww.nwr.nprocure.com and the details of the above notice will beavailabe on www.nwr.nprocure.com

No./INF/VPN/2017/G/162Dt. 19/4/2017

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China, a close ally of NorthKorea, on Wednesday

expressed serious concern overPyongyang’s plans to step up itsnuclear and missile programmes.

China is seriously concernedabout the latest developments inthe nuclear and missile pro-grammes of the DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea(DPRK), Foreign Ministryspokesperson Lu Kang said.

Lu’s comments came afterNorth Korea’s deputy ambas-sador to the UN and its viceForeign Minister reportedly saidthat a new nuclear test wasunder preparation and moremissile tests would be conduct-ed on a weekly, monthly andyearly basis.

“China is committed to den-uclearising the Korean Peninsula,maintaining peace and stabilitythere, and resolving problemsthrough dialogue and consulta-tion. China’s stance on this isunswerving,” Lu said in strongestcomments against North Koreain the present crisis.

Lu stressed that given thecomplicated and sensitive situa-tion on the Korean Peninsula,China firmly opposes any wordsand deeds that could heightenhostility and tension and calledon all parties involved to makeefforts to ease the tension.

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British Prime MinisterTheresa May on

Wednesday won the backingof Parliament to hold an early general election on June 8.

The House of Commonsvoted by 522 to 13 in favourof the snap poll, which thePrime Minister hadannounced on Tuesday.

There was a short debateon the motion in the House ofCommons to over-ride theFixed Terms Parliaments Act, which would have seen an election being heldonly in 2020.

Opening the debate, Maysaid a snap general electionwas “in our country’s nation-al interest” and urged MPs to do the “right andresponsible thing” and backan early poll.

She told MPs: “There arethree things a country needs,a strong economy, strongdefence and strong, stableleadership.

“That is what our plansfor Brexit and our plan forBritain will deliver, and thatis what the Conservative Party will be offering at thiselection.”

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Venezuela braced for rivaldemonstrations on Wedn-

esday for and against PresidentNicolas Maduro, whose moves totighten his grip on power havetriggered deadly unrest and esca-lated the country’s political andeconomic crisis.

Maduro’s opponents arevowing to stage the “mother ofall protests” calling for his ouster,after two weeks of violent demosthat have left five people deadand dozens wounded.

Sowing fears of more vio-lence, Maduro is in turn urginghis supporters, the militaryand civilian militias to defendthe leftist “revolution” launchedby his late predecessor HugoChavez in 1999.

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At least 14 Taliban fighters,including the shadow gov-

ernor of the northern Baghlanprovince, have been killed inheavy fighting with Afghanforces, officials said today.

Amir Gul Hussainkhil, thedeputy provincial police chief,said Afghan security forceslaunched a large-scale attack onthe insurgents the night before inthe western part of the province,setting off five hours of intensefighting and killing Talibanshadow governor Mawlavi LalMohammad.

Hussainkhil said the deadalso included a number of expertbomb makers. He says no gov-ernment forces were killed.

The Taliban confirmed thatthe shadow governor was killedand said four other fighters diedin the clashes. Elsewhere inAfghanistan, a roadside bombkilled a district police chief andhis driver in the southern Zabulprovince late on Wednesday.

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US Defence Secretary JimMattis met Saudi King

Salman on Wednesday, begin-ning a series of talks to rein-vigorate the Riyadh-Washi-ngton alliance in the face ofcommon adversary Iran.

The retired four-star Marinegeneral, accompanied by a USdelegation, was welcomed bySalman at Al-Yamama Palace inRiyadh, telling the monarch: “It’sgood to be back.”

Mattis, who commandedtroops during the 2003 inva-sion of Iraq, arrived in thekingdom on Tuesday after-noon to listen to Saudi leadersand learn “what are their pri-orities”, an American defenceofficial said earlier.

The United States andSaudi Arabia have a decades-old relationship based on theexchange of American securi-ty for Saudi oil.

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Financing for development isthe key to the implementa-

tion of the 2030 Agenda for Sus-tainable Development, the guide-line to end poverty by 2030, theBRICS economic grouping tolda UN meeting here.

The statement came as LiuJieyi, the Chinese permanentrepresentative to the UN, onTuesday took the floor at the UNmeeting on the financing forSustainable Development Goals(SDGs) on behalf of the BRICSmembers — Brazil, Russia,India, China and South Africa.

This was the first time forthe bloc to air its views onimportant global issues since itsestablishment in 2006. Chinahas earlier this year assumedthe BRICS’ presidency for 2017,Xinhua news agency reported.

“Financing for develop-ment is the key to the imple-mentation of the 2030 Agendafor Sustainable Development,”Liu said.

“Assured and predicablefinancial flow is indispensableto the realisation of sustainabledevelopment, particularly bydeveloping countries.”

The SDGs serve as theblueprint for global develop-ment efforts for the years run-ning up to 2030.

Jakarta: Jakarta’s ChristianGovernor on Wednesday lostheavily to a Muslim former Go-vernment Minister in an electionrun-off, private polls indicated,after a divisive battle that hasdamaged Indonesia’s reputationas a bastion of tolerant Islam.

Anies Baswedan, who wasaccused of pandering to hard-liners to win votes, and his sup-porters cheered as news camethrough that surveys showedhim winning by over 10 per-centage points against BasukiTjahaja Purnama, who was fight-ing for his job while standing trialfor blasphemy.

Official results are notexpected until early May but theprivate pollsters, who count asample of votes, are usuallyaccurate. The vote was seen as atest of whether the moderateIslam traditionally practised inthe world’s most populousMuslim country is under threatfrom hardliners, who have led aseries of mass demonstrationsagainst Purnama over allegationshe insulted the Koran.

It came against a backdropof rising religious intolerance thathas tainted the image of thediverse Indonesian archipelagoas a pluralistic country in recentyears, with a surge in attacks onminorities. AFP

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Both the sons of PrincessDiana have opened up about

the shock and the mental trau-ma they faced after losing theirmother in a tragic carcrash in Paris in 1997.

Days after PrinceHarry revealed that hehad to undergo coun-selling to help come toterms with their moth-er’s death, his olderbrother said that theshock of losing hismother is still withhim, 20 years after she waskilled. The 34-year-old Duke ofCambridge revealed in a newBBC documentary to be airedtomorrow that the shock “neverleaves you”.

“I still have shock within

me — people say it can’t last thatlong but it does,” he told the‘Mind over Marathon’ docu-mentary, made to promote hissupport for mental health char-ities in the UK.

“The shock is thebiggest thing (which) Istill feel 20 years later,about my mother. Younever get over it, it’ssuch an unbelievablybig moment in your lifethat it never leaves you.You just learn to dealwith it,” William said.

William said hewants people to speak moreopenly about mental health.

On Monday, Harry had saidthat he had to “shut down all hisemotions” for almost twodecades after losing his mother,Diana, Princess of Wales.

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A14-year-old Muslim girl’sheadscarf was ripped off by

an unidentified man yelling “ter-rorist” in the US state of Georgia.

The victim was walkingwith a group in the parking lotof Perimeter Mall nearMaggiano’s Little Italy inAtlanta at 9.40 pm on Mondaywhen the man approached andfled after snatching the hijab,police said.

Dunwoody police said theywere searching for the manaccused of ripping the headscarfoff the Muslim girl while yelling“terrorist”, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“Dunwoody is a verydiverse community, welcomingpeople of all faiths. Therefore,an incident such as this one is

unusual,” Police Chief BillyGrogan said.

“The Dunwoody PoliceDepartment is committed toprotecting our citizens andwill conduct a thorough inves-tigation,” Grogan said.

The police are calling thecase an assault.

The Georgia chapter of theCouncil on American-IslamicRelations (CAIR) is offering aUSD 1,000 reward for infor-mation leading to the arrest andconviction of the man.

“We thank local lawenforcement for pledging toinvestigate this despicable attack,which is the latest in a wave ofanti-Muslim hate crimes acrossthe nation,” Edward AhmedMitchell, executive director ofCAIR-Georgia, was quoted as saying by the report.

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China on Wednesdayannounced that it has

“standardised” official namesfor six places in ArunachalPradesh and termed theprovocative move as “legiti-mate”, days after it lodgedstrong protests with India overthe Dalai Lama’s visit to thefrontier state.

The state media heresaidthe move was aimed atreaffirming China’s claim overArunachal Pradesh. Chinaclaims the state as ‘South Tibet’.

“China’s Ministry of CivilAffairs announced on April 14that it had standardised inChinese characters, Tibetan

and Roman alphabet the namesof six places in ‘South Tibet’,which India calls ‘ArunachalPradesh’, in accordance with theregulations of the central gov-ernment,” state-run GlobalTimes reported today.

The official names of thesix places using the Romanalphabet are Wo’gyainling, MilaRi, Qoidengarbo Ri, Mainquka,Bumo La and Namkapub Ri.

Standardisation of Chinesenames to six places inArunachal Pradesh is a “legit-imate” action, Foreign MinistrySpokesperson Lu Kang said ata briefing.

The Dalai Lama’s activitiesare against Indian govern-ment’s commitment to China,

he said.Asked about the timing of

the announcement, he saidChina is now doing a secondcensus of names of localitiesand an important part of it isto standardise names in ethniclanguage.

The India-China borderdispute covers the 3,488 km-long Line of Actual Control(LAC). While China claimsArunachal Pradesh as SouthTibet, India asserts that the dis-pute covers Aksai Chin areawhich was occupied by Chinaduring the 1962 war.

The two sides have so farheld 19 rounds of SpecialRepresentatives talks to resolvethe boundary dispute.

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Awoman on a train inIreland has been caught on

camera making expletive-rid-den racist comments towardsfellow Asian passengers, tellingone of them to “go back toIndia” for placing a bag on anempty seat, media reports saidon Wednesday.

In the videos, originallyposted on Twitter, the womancan be seen and heard makingexpletive-ridden commentstowards fellow passengers.

Twitter user ‘TheBexWay’filmed the woman on a trainfrom Limerick Colbert stationto Limerick Junction onSunday, Irish Independentreported.

She messaged the IrishRail account during the trip,

saying the woman had beenmaking abusive comments for10 minutes, the report said.

Go back to India. Don’tgive me your guff, the womanwas heard saying in the video.

The woman then targetedanother passenger who appearedto stand up for the people shewas abusing, saying: “look at theugly head of that fella.

“That’s the only reason he’sbacking you up is because he’sugly”.

The passengers left theirseats after 16 minutes of verbalabuse, the report said.

“You don’t really get the fulleffect of what happened fromthe video. She was literally sit-ting beside them, screamingbloody murder in their faces. Itwent on for almost the wholetrain ride,” she said.

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In a blow to Indian IT indus-try and professionals, US

President Donald Trump hassigned an executive order fortightening the rules of the H-1Bvisa programme to stop its“abuse” and ensure that the visasare given to the “most-skilled orhighest paid” petitioners.

Acting on his‘Buy American, HireAmerican’ pledge,Trump signed theorder that calls for anoverhaul of the pro-gramme at theKenosha, Wisconsin,headquarters of tool-maker Snap-on Incyesterday.

“Right now, widespreadabuse in our immigration systemis allowing American workers ofall backgrounds to be replaced byworkers brought in from othercountries to fill the same job for,sometimes, less pay. This willstop,” Trump told an enthusias-tic audience in Wisconsin beforesigning the order.

He said the order sets inmotion the first steps to initi-ate “long-overdue” reforms toend “visa abuses”. “Right now,

H-1B visas are awarded in atotally random lottery, andthat’s wrong. Instead, theyshould be given to the mostskilled and highest-paid appli-cants, and they should never,ever be used to replaceAmericans,” he asserted.

“No one can compete withAmerican workers when they’regiven a fair and level playing

field, which has nothappened fordecades,” he said.Trump said hisadministration isgoing to enforce‘Hire American’rules that aredesigned to protectjobs and wages ofworkers in the

United States.“We believe jobs must be

offered to American workersfirst. Does that make sense?” hesaid.

But the New York Timesnoted that Trump’s announce-ment came at a jittery time forthe White House, as he faces the100th day of his presidencywithout much to show for it inthe way of legislative accom-plishment, after the defeat of hishealth care overhaul.

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Nepal President Bidya DeviBhandari’s ongoing state

visit to India has been “fruitful”in enhancing the bilateral rela-tions and goodwill between thetwo neighbours, ForeignAffairs Minister PrakashSharan Mahat said here onWednesday.

India’s President PranabMukherjee, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and variouspolitical parties highlighted thesignificance of the Nepal-Indiaties during their meetings withBhandari and extended bestwishes to Nepal in its effortstowards implementing theConstitution and holding thelocal level elections, he said.

“This visit has been fruitfulin enhancing the relations andgoodwill between the two coun-tries,” Mahat, who was a mem-ber of the high-level delegationaccompanying Bhandari toIndia, told reporters upon hisarrival at the TribhuvanInternational Airport.

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�Isn’t it rather late in the day that youhave thought about setting up theRamesh Sippy Academy of Cinemaand Entertainment?

I guess there was something in myhead always at some point. But I wantedto do things right and different. I want-ed to encapsulate my vision and my filmsfor the younger generation. Though theolder and middling generation may talkabout my cult hits, there is a whole newgeneration that has probably just heard ofthem or seen bits and pieces. Through theacademy, I will not only be able to sharemy experiences but also the challenges ittook to make a film those days.

I made technological innovations inmy time and now there are tools in abun-dance to enhance the cinematic appeal.But ultimately it boils down to how youuse that technology in telling your story,how innovatively you can use it, notoveruse it and ensure the story gets toldin a smooth way. As a bridge between gen-erations, I am the right person to talkabout balancing art and technique.Whichis why the academy becomes relevant inmy time.

Indian cinema is going throughinteresting times. There’s a film like Pink,a hard take on gender rights and equal-ity from an urban standpoint. Thenthere’s the earthy Dangal, which is abiopic, about woman power, original,massy and the biggest hit of the year.

This variety needs to be understood andmade a part of film studies. We do havea few institutions but they are inadequatewhen it comes to factoring in contempo-rary dynamics. My academy is one smallmove in that direction. Besides, my cur-riculum is expansive, factoring in movies,television, web, documentaries and adfilms. I don’t see any harm in more peo-ple being trained for specialised disci-plines.

Talent is everywhere and will contin-ue to spurt. I didn’t take any training anddidn’t go to film school. But then myfather was already in the movies and I hadan opportunity. Not everybody has thatopportunity. Apart from film-makingand production, my academy will alsohave interesting subjects like film man-agement. Today’s directors and filmmak-ers should know that it is not only impor-tant to make a film, you will have to sellit in theatres and ensure money comesback without leaching here and there. Yes,there are experts to do the job but at leastyou should be aware as a filmmaker; theyshould know that you know. Screen-writ-ing is another area we are emphasising.

I am enjoying my role as a mentor butI hope each individual aspirant has thepassion to express themselves.

�Since you are now starting a filmschool, which areas do you think needworking on in these digital times?

It is still the story. You should be ableto transform technology into a subjectand make the entire movie-watchingexperience worth its while. I was able todo it to some extent in Sholay.

You must use technology for yourbenefits. See how you can save cost andmoney and yet give something very dif-ferent to the people. People are not goingto waste their time and money just to seesomeone flying around. Those days aregone. It’s no longer fascinating. If there’sa flight scene, you should be able to takeoff with the audience. That’s the flight offantasy. And that is how it should be.

�You did a Western-inspired Sholay ata time when technology wasn’t asdeveloped. Now that it is, why don’t wesee you work with an epical venture?

(Laughs) Is this (academy) not anepical venture? At this moment, I amexcited about this challenge. I havealways loved challenges and I have donethings differently in my life. My first film(Andaaz) was a mature love story abouta widow and widower. My second film(Seeta Aur Geeta) was about two sistersand what they go through in life. In itsown time, it was a path-breaker. Thencame Sholay with all its technical excel-lence of sound and picture and their cor-rect use. Silences tell the story as muchas the sound. I have crafted my own jour-ney and now it is time to pass it down.

My students will understand the phi-losophy behind what I did. Once they dothat, they will be able to balance tech-nique and stories. And that will be mylasting legacy.

�Who and what were your early cine-matic influences?

I loved the cinema of both the Westand India. I loved the works ofMehboob Khan, Guru Dutt, RajKapoor, Bimal Roy and K Asif. Theyare giants and maestros. Also theyounger brigade is making beau-tiful films too. I look up to themand their work as well. There areRaju Hirani and Shoojit Sircar andI am forgetting some names. Ialways fear that if I miss someone,they will feel left out. See everypoint in time has good filmmak-ers. Because cinema is anevolving art.

People willalways say pastmasters were thebest, the singerswere unparalleled.History retainsmemory of the few.Those days alsothere were 5,000songs a year. Butyou only remember10 or 15. That’sbecause the rest havejust passed on. It is,therefore, unfair tocompare time peri-ods.

�As a filmmaker, you have handled a

different genre of film every time andmanaged to connect with both themasses and the classes. How did you dothat?

I don’t think there’s any big theorybehind it. You need to tell a story sim-ply. We can make it sensible, intelligentand entertaining. That’s how you will getthe larger audience to enjoy it. You caneven take a simple story and complicateits telling for a more thinking audience.Cinema does not really have rules. Thebasic rule is to be clear in what you wantto do. If you are trying to keep it as a mys-tery, there has to be reason why you keptit as a mystery so that when it is unveiled,it has its impact. Like in Sholay, the revealabout the Thakur’s missing hands hap-pens during interval and sets up thedrama in the second half.

�You made Seeta Aur Geeta at a timewhen women actors were given lesserimportance. How do you see womenactors now?

It is definitely better than it was. Let’sput it this way, there’s a long way to go.We still do not have enough womendirectors. Of course, a few like GauriShinde, Aruna Raje and Zoya Akhtar

have made theirmark. Societal injus-tice will always bethere, we have tofight it. And what dowe fight it with?With our movies,telling our stories ina manner that has animpact on people. Ifwe can combineentertainment witha little bit of message,all is good.

�You have set a bench-mark with Sholay and

gave television its firstlongest running show,Buniyaad. Yet you havechosen to stay away fromthe two media except maybe as a producer. Why?

Well, I took some timeoff. My son started makingfilms. So I tried and paved theway for him to be able to dothat. Also, I am heading sever-al industry organisations and

associations that take up most ofmy time. Somebody has got to

look into the backend job-related issuesin the industry. Unfancied but very cru-cial.

�Does it bother you that you are iden-tified as the director of Sholay althoughyou have done other successful films?

I feel happy about all the work thatI have done. Sholay happens to have beenthe most popular of them all and it standsout even today. Why would I feel bad, it’snot anybody else’s, it’s mine and I amhappy about it.

�What did it take to bring two stal-warts, Amitabh Bachchan and DilipKumar, in Shakti?

Oh! Very little effort. I was lucky. Ihad good writers who had a great script.I had a record of making good films. Sothey were happy to jump in.

�Any anecdote that you rememberfrom the days of the shoot?

I have always been asked if there wasany problem making this film with twosuperstars. The problem is I didn’t haveany problem (laughs). But truly they aresuch fine actors, I had very little to doexcept to bring them together in aframe. The story was there, the dialogueswere there to tell them what kind ofmood and range I was looking at....therest they did on their own and gave memore than what I had expected. I am surethere are people who have loved it. Shaktiwasn’t as big a success as Sholay was butI am very happy with that film.

What needs to change in Indian cin-ema today now that corporatisation andvaried content are turning the rules ofthe game?

All that happens is for the best.Corporates have come in for sure but Iwould like them to show a little moreconfidence and take a broader perspec-tive. They are doing a lot of good workbut they are still too star-driven. The pur-pose of corporatisation isn’t served then.Amitabh Bachchan would not have beena star if people didn’t have the guts to signhim up when he was not a star. So thathas to continue happening. It is happen-ing, the youngsters are coming up butmore encouragement can be given bythese people because they have a lot ofmoney. I am sure they are trying.

�Is TV going to be irrelevant with theweb revolution?

No. See it came as a big boss and nowhas flattened to the wall though there areinnovations with 3D and allied gizmos.Today you can see everything in yourmobile, which is personal consumption.For as long as we have Indian families,television will continue to be the centre-piece of entertainment. It will never goaway. I don’t think we need to worryabout the health of the industry. It willtransform itself. People watch good con-tent anywhere, be it on television or anyother platform.

�One unknown fact about Sholay...(Laughs) Can there be anything

after 42 years that I have not shared aboutSholay? I would love to share it but bynow what’s left unknown? My list has rundry, else I would have rattled off.

�Advice for budding filmmakers...Passion! Passion to tell your story in

your way. Make it grow, let it be there.#����?�#��*�:�5(���

Amid all the blitz surroundingkhadi, indigenous fabrics from all

over India are deprived of the recog-nition they rightfully deserve. Withdiverse spinning equipment andunique weaving patterns combinedwith authentic motifs, regional Indianhandloom textiles have a distinct roleto play in the authentic textile sce-nario of today. With the inception oftechnical mills and looms, the sacredartistry behind these traditional tex-tiles has been lost over time.

Gujarat’s Kutch is home to onesuch forgotten textile — the Kutchkala cotton. Chaman Lal Premji Siju,an artisan from Gujarat, who comesfrom a long legacy spanning 11 gen-erations of weavers, works to redefinehis family’s artistry. His Kutch kalacotton sarees were exhibited duringthe curtain raiser for Textiles India2017, which celebrated fabrics fromvarious regions of India. Talkingabout the importance of promotingindigenous artisans, Premji said,“Our fabric is hand-spun from thecotton grown locally. We as artisansalways had the support of the govern-ment but this new spin on usingindigenous materials to create uniquefashion creations is a great initiativeto uplift the artisans working with tra-ditional textiles and handlooms.”

Kutch kala cotton is somewhatcoarse and is the livelihood of 4,000farmers. The extraction process ofKala cotton fibre is tedious and theweaving procedure extremely chal-lenging. These factors account for thelow demand of this fibre in the tex-tile industry. The weavers workingwith this fibre choose to use hand-spinning looms over technical millsto preserve the authenticity of the fab-ric. These shortcomings have led tothe stagnation of its productionprocess.

Apart from the kala cotton,other fabrics like tussar silk, Malkhacotton, handloom Assam silk andAndhra Mangalgiri cotton were alsohighlighted in the hope of develop-ing genuine interest among themasses.

The Crafts Village ofDelhi’s Crafts Museumwitnessed a vibrant andlavish fashion show withthe red brick path trans-forming itself into aramp for models wear-ing creations ofrenowned fashiondesigners of India. Thecascading canopies oftrees under the nightsky contrasted wellwith shifting amberlights bathing theshow area in theirwarm, golden glow. Amagnificent, lushbanyan tree served asthe centrepiece forthe runway modelsto maneuver them-selves gracefullyaround it exhibitingthe finest works inhandloom and tra-ditional textiles ofIndia.

Regional embroidery

styles alsofound a placein the showw i t hchikankar i ,K u t c h i ,K a s h m i r iand zardoziembroidery.P r i n t e dt e x t i l e s ,using print-

ing methodsranging fromt r a d i t i o n a lAndhra doubleikats and Baghh a n d b l o c kprints, to moremechanised andmodern digitalprinting meth-ods, also spunbeautiful fabricsfor the runway.Contrasting the

mosaic of tradi-tional designs, futur-

istic textiles were dis-

played with specialemphasis on recycled andup-cycled varieties.

Minister of Textiles,Smriti Irani said, “Whetherit is hand-woven textile or

technically produced tex-tile, the textile sector in

our country is diverse.This curtain raiserwas a small repre-

sentation of thisdiverse industrywhere some ofIndia’s finest fash-ion designers andregional artisansshared the samestage. The textileindustry is recog-nisably one of thelargest industriesin the countrywith a hugee m p l o y a b i l i t ypotential andTextiles India2017 will pave theway towardsachieving thatpotential.”

FDCI presi-dent Sunil Sethisaid, “Handloomhas as much ascope in fashionas any mecha-nised form of

textile. Handloom hasa niche but it canappeal to the massestoo. The hard workthat goes into each cre-

ation of handloom isunique in its own and that is the trueessence of it.”

Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee,who was also present at the event,urged budding fashion designers inIndia to experiment with handloom.“Discover India in its true spirit oftraditional handlooms and artistryand take pride in knowing what itrepresents”, he said.

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Sunil Grover is teaming up with his TheKapil Sharma Show co-actor Ali Asgar

for an upcoming episode of Sabse BadaKalakaar.

The ongoing reality show will soon havethese two comedians amuse the audience.

Ever since Sunil and Kapil Sharma’s uglyspat both Sunil and Ali have gone missingfrom the show.

Meanwhile, Kapil Sharma has broughtback Upasna Singh on the show as hismaternal aunt.

Sunil’s fans have been missing him onthe comedy show, but the actor has not bro-ken his fans hearts, instead he has beenappearing on several shows. He also gavea live performance in Delhi, which was amajor hit.

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Union Minister of State (IC) for Power,Coal, New and Renewable Energy and

Mines, Piyush Goyal, presided over thesigning of Power Purchase Agreements(PPA) between Delhi Metro RailwaysCorporation (DMRC) and Madhya PradeshPower Management Company (MPPMC)with Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited, theimplementing agency for the ‘world’slargest single-site solar power project’, theRewa Ultra Mega Solar Power Project(UMSPP, 750MW) in Bhopal. Other dig-nitaries present on the occasion wereUnion Minister for Urban Development,Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviationand Information and Broadcasting, M.Venkaiah Naidu and Shivraj SinghChouhan, Chief Minister of MadhyaPradesh.

Addressing the gathering, Naidu saidthat Madhya Pradesh is a special state hav-ing huge resource base that is being har-nessed under Chouhan’s leadership. Takinga huge step towards realizing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s vision of 24x7 Affordable,Quality Power for All, Madhya Pradesh hassuccessfully brought down the rate of solarpower to �3.30/ unit, which is a huge rev-

olution in its own right, In his address,Chouhan said that the Madhya Pradesh gov-ernment has set three guiding principles ofits performance — equitable growth, socialempowerment and sustainable develop-ment. The Chief Minister noted that adecade ago even water, electricity and roadsused to be challenges in the State but nowdue to the dynamic development modelbeing implemented, the year on year agri-cultural growth will touch 25 per cent thisyear and milestones like the cheapest solarpower in the country are being achieved inRewa. Madhya Pradesh has become theleading state in renewable energy sector inIndia, the Chief Minister said.

Goyal also mentioned that with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s leadership andcooperation of all Chief Ministers of vari-ous states, in the last three years, renewableenergy has seen a growth of over 370 percent. As compared to 2,600 MW of installedsolar power capacity in 2014, today in Indiathere is a total of 12,200 MW of installedsolar power capacity and the country wouldachieve the 20,000 MW solar power capac-ity target five years ahead of schedule by theend of 2017, the Minister noted.

Deendayal Antodaya Yojana - NationalRural Livelihoods Mission is an

important rural poverty alleviation pro-gram implemented by the Ministry ofRural Development with the support ofState Governments. The mission is cur-rently being implemented in about 3400blocks 2.3 lakh villages spread across 520districts of 29 states and five UTs. It hasmobilised about 3.63 crore householdsinto 31 lakh SHGs. Women from ruralpoor households are provided financialassistance in addition facilitating accessto bank loans for undertaking livelihoodsactivities.

The Ministry of Rural Development,Government of India held a national con-sultation with SHG women of all Statesand UTs on “transforming lives throughlivelihoods thrust and Strategy for PovertyFree Gram Panchayats” at Pragati Maidanon April 14, 2017. The event also markedthe inauguration of a 10 day AajeevikaMela that is being organized to promoteexhibition and sale of products produced

by SHGs from different parts of the coun-try. As part of the mela, 500 Stalls havebeen set up in Hall No. 18 of PragatiMaidan. About 3,500 SHG women fromall states and UTs participated in the con-sultation.

Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary (RD),Government of India inaugurated theconsultation and the mela, while LCGoyal, Chairman, ITPO delivered a spe-

cial address. Sinha outlined the contoursof the Mission Antyodaya that seeks tobring 1 crore households from 50000gram panchayats spread across 5000clusters out of poverty. He emphasized theneed for promoting effective convergenceof all rural development and related pro-grams at the village level.

Sinha also acknowledged the pivotalrole played by SHG members in the suc-cessful implementation of the rural devel-opment programs. In this context, herequested select SHG members to sharetheir experiences in tackling povertyand diversifying their livelihoods. .

L.C. Goyal in his message stated thatthe DAY-NRLM program is the realanswer to rural poverty alleviation in thecountry as the SHGs promoted couldbecome the effective service deliveryagents in the last mile. Goyal acknowl-edged the critical role played by SHGmembers working as CommunityResource Persons in implementation ofDAY-NRLM.

Considering the need forhigh-end medical services

for people living and workingin the industrial belt ofChennai on NH 48, theSaveetha Medical Centre wasinaugurated by Union Ministerfor Health and Family Welfare,Mr Jagat Prakash Nadda, at the eponymous MedicalCollege and Hospital. SaveethaMedical Centre is envisaged asa super speciality healthcarefacility with the latest in tech-nology, well trained profes-sionals and focusing on ethicsand empathy.

Dr N.M. Veeraiyan,Chancellor, Saveetha University,declared the commitment ofthe institutions to make highquality and affordable health-care available to all sections ofthe society. He reminded theaudience about the GuinnessWorld Record that SaveethaMedical College & Hospitalholds for training 30,000 peo-ple (the maximum number) inCPR. He informed the Ministerabout the “Save a Life” move-ment, through which we planto impart CPR training to1,00,000 people this year.

The aim of the movementwould be to impart CPR train-ing to at least one person in eachof the families living in thevicinity. He said that the launchof Saveetha Medical Center is a

reiteration of our commitmentto be the best centre for all-round and holistic healthcare.

Speaking on the occasion,Mr Nadda congratulatedSaveetha Medical College andHospital for the inauguration ofSaveetha Medical Center. Heappreciated Saveetha’s initiatives

such as “Save a Life” and pro-viding dialysis at �800 for poorpatients. He mentioned thatdespite all odds, “We have suc-cessfully eradicated polio andour response for importanthealth-related contingenciessuch as ebola and immunisa-tion. has been steadfast.”

The Jaipuria School ofBusiness (JSB) organiseda national conference on

financial inclusion as it is amuch cherished policy objec-tive for us in India. The themeof the conference was “Bankingthe Unbanked: FinancialInclusion in Digital India”. Oureconomic policy has alwaysbeen driven by an underlyingintent of a sustainable andinclusive growth. The policymakers in India, i.e.Government of India and theRBI, have been working at it fordecades as without completeaccess of the marginalised sec-tions of society to institution-al finance, poverty could not beeliminated. Access to bankingservices for remote areas of thecountry can truly eliminatepoverty and set the stage forrapid economic growth and all-round development of India.

The current initiatives ofthe Government, especiallyafter launching of the Jan DhanYojna, has raised tremendous

hope for rapid development.Digital technology has creatednew opportunities for remoteaccess to banking and institu-tional finance. But theGovernment cannot do every-thing and we the intelligentsiafrom all sections of the society,need to partner theGovernment in this journey fora new developed India.

Santosh Gangwar, UnionMinister of State for Finance,was the chief guest for the occa-sion who inaugurated the con-ference through his video mes-sage. He congratulated JSB fororganising such a well-timedconference and emphaticallytalked about the government’sinitiative and policies. Themost inspiring message fromhim was that he wanted a gistof the talks and recommenda-tions to be prepared and pre-sented to the Ministry so thatthe suitable recommendationscould be incorporated in thegovernment’s policy towardsfinancial inclusion.

The conference startedwith the traditional lamp light-ing ceremony to seek blessingsof Goddess Saraswati. ShishirJaipuria, Chairman, Board ofGovernors, Jaipuria School ofBusiness, addressed the gath-ering and welcomed all the dig-nitaries and guests to the event.He thoroughly emphasised theimportance of financial inclu-sion for fulfilling the vision of

Prime Minister NarendraModi for a new wholly devel-oped India by 2022.

Over 200 intellectuals fromthe academia, banking, corpo-rate and the civil society par-ticipated in the conference.During the plenary session,esteemed speakers from theacademia and the corporatelike Prasanto K Roy, Head,NASSCOM Internet Mobile

and E-Commerce Council; DrKaushik Basu, Senior NationalAdvisor, Natural ResourceManagement; Atul Bhatnagar,Advisor - Youth4Work(Former COO at National SkillDevelopment Corporation andBarclays, Kenya); and Dr N RBhanumurthy, Professor,National Institute of PublicFinance and Policy, New Delhideliberated on the issue offinancial inclusion and putforth their viewpoints.

In the first panel discus-sion, which was based on thetrack one and two of the themei.e., Importance of FinancialInclusion and Challenges andIssues in Financial Inclusion, thedistinguished panellistsexplored the roadmap ahead.Over twenty eminent intellec-tuals addressed the gathering atthe conference and aroundeight selected papers were pre-sented at the conference out ofwhich two best presentationswere awarded in the valedic-tory session.

Haryana Governor and Visitor of SRM University, Haryana,Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki, addressed the valedictory func-

tion for the two-day National Seminar held on “Concept ofBharat in the Eyes of Constitution Makers” at SRM UniversityHaryana, Sonepat on Thursday. Hundreds of students, facul-ty and scholars participated with great fervor and spirit. TheSeminar was jointly organized by the Faculty of Law, SRMUniversity, Sonepat Constitution Club and JK Study Centre asa part of Haryana Golden Jubilee Year and Dr. B.R. AmbedkarBirth Anniversary. Prof. S. Rajarajan, Vice-Chancellor, SRMUniversity, welcomed the dignitaries and audience, andemphatically articulated the need, progress and innovation dis-course of the modern science and technology and its impor-tance in a developing society, perpetuated and imbibed withnew modules in innovation, most specifically in the field ofresearch. Shri Ravi Pachamoothoo, Chancellor, SRM University

and ‘Best Entrepreneur of the Year 2014’awardee, who laid theFoundation Stone for a branch of City Union Bank in theUniversity premises earlier, presided over the function. Heencouraged the audience, and exhorted his vision of makinga world class University.

Meritorious Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribe students of

Secondary and Senior School examinationwere awarded with the Dr AmbedkarNational Merit Award at a function.Ministers of State for Social Justice &Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar, VijaySampla and Ramdas Athawale presentedthe aAwards to the SC and ST students,who have topped the 10th and 12th stan-dards examination of 2016. A newprinted version of Collected Works ofBabasaheb Ambedkar (CWBA) and a setof audio CDs on CWBA were released onthe occasion. The function was organisedby Dr Ambedkar Foundation (DAF)under the Ministry of Social Justice andEmpowerment.

The awards were distributed in twocategories. The first category featured SCand ST students, who had excelled in theSecondary School Examination in 2016.In the second category of awards, the top

graded SC and ST students of SeniorSecondary School Examination 2016were awarded. In his message,Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister for SocialJustice and Empowerment and Chairman,Dr Ambedkar Foundation said that edu-cation is a very powerful tool to whichevery student needs to have access. Hecalled upon the students to dedicatethemselves purely to studies.

Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, theMinister of Railways, discussed

major ongoing and futuristic rail-way infrastructural projects ofMumbai and Maharashtra duringa meeting with DevendraFadnavis, Chief Minister ofMaharashtra on April 18.

As per the WR press releaseissued by Ravinder Bhakar, ChiefPublic Relations Officer ofWestern Railway, the need wasemphasised to expedite the exe-cution of various rail projects in

the region. State officials willextend full support for landacquisition, release of funds andapproach roads for railway pro-jects. It was also decided that allformalities regarding a joint ven-ture between Indian Railwaysand the government ofMaharashtra will be completed byMay 2017.

Further, it was also discussedthat consensus will be madetowards state support for theBandra-Virar elevated corridor.

The past the years have been quite challeng-ing for the steel industry. The Government

intervened strategically at regular intervals toprovide policy and regulatory support as andwhen required. MIP, dafeguard duties, anti-dumping duties, construction and infrastruc-ture investment were brought in to provide alevel-playing field. The focussed strategy ofPRIDE has given desired results. India has nowemerged as a leading country among steel-pro-ducing nations. It is heartening to note that weare among the few countries to have a positivedemand growth for steel.

In the financial year 2016-17, the steelindustry has performed exceedingly well. Wedoubled our exports of steel products. In fact,India became a net exporter of steel after a gapof three years. We reduced our steel importsby 1/3rd and increased production of crude steelby around 9 per cent. Congratulating the gath-ering, the Steel Minister said, “I am sure that2017-18 will also be a record-breaking year, withIndia leading the growth trend.”

As part of Mahatma Gandhi’s ChamparanSatyagrah centenary celebrations, the Khadi

and Village Industries Commission (KVIC),organised several programmes at Patna andMotihari, the district headquarters of EastChamparan.

Chairman V K Saxena informed that KVIChad set up the largest pavilion at GandhiMaidan. “Selfie with Gandhi and honey-beeinformation centres were hot spots and most vis-ited places at Patna and Motihari as well,” hesaid.

Saxena also informed that the state unit ofKVIC had organised a state-level exhibition atTown Hall Maidan in Motihari, where localkhadi institutions and Prime MinisterEmployment Generation Programme (PMEGP)units of five districts of Bihar and adjoining

states took an active part. “Besides providing 68-spindle new model charkhas (NMC) to EastChamparan Khadi Gramodyog Sangh, KVICalso distributed five charkhas and one loom eachin 13 villages which Mahatma Gandhi had vis-ited during his Satyagraha Movement in 1917,”he said, adding, “One Khadi Sammelan (con-clave) was also held at Town Hall with 500 arti-sans from Bihar and adjoining states.”

The National Public Relations Daywill be celebrated by the national

body of Public Relations andCommunication Management, thePublic Relations Society of India(PRSI) in a big way by all the chapterson April 21, 2017. The theme for thisyear would be “Salutations IndianArmed Forces.” Disclosing this, thepresident of PRSI, Dr Ajit Pathak, saidthat this is an opportunity to expressthe nation’s gratitude to the forces fortheir sacrifices and dedication for“Mother India and guarding Indiafrom external as well as internal ene-mies. We, the coun-trymen shouldraise our voices tocondemn the ter-rorist and enemyactivities.”

Dr Pathakinformed thatIndian armedhorces have joinedhands with PRSI tocelebrate theNational PR Day . To mark the occa-sion, various competitions for studentswill be organised on the theme of“Salutation Indian Armed Forces”

Every year, public relations prac-titioners across the country observeApril 21 as National PR Day. ThePublic Relations Society of India(PRSI) was established in 1958 to for-mulate and interpret the objectives andpotential of public relations as a pro-fession and also to undertake profes-sional development programmes. Adecade later, PR professionals from allover the country met for the first timein New Delhi at the first All IndiaPublic Relations Conference on April21, 1968. The code of ethics for PR pro-fessionals was adopted on this historicday.

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Kane Williamson smashed abrilliant 89 off just 51 ballsand shared 136 runs with

opener Shikhar Dhawan (70) asSunrisers Hyderabad scored 191 for4 in their IPL match against DelhiDaredevils here on Wednesday.

Electing to bat, Hyderabad cap-tain David Warner fell early in thesecond over for just four butWilliamson and Dhawan treatedthe home supporters with somebreathtaking shots to take the homeside to a challenging total.

Playing in his first match of theseason, Williamson was the moreaggressor of the duo as he hit sixfours and five sixes in his 51-ballknock before he was out in the 17thover.

Dhawan, on the other hand, hitseven fours and a six in his 50-ballinnings.

Yuvraj Singh did not contributemuch as he was out for three afterfacing four balls. Moises Henriquesand Deepak Hooda remained notout on 12 and nine respectively.

For Delhi, pacer Chris Morrisbowled a superb spell, grabbingfour wickets while giving away 26runs. He was on a hat-trick in the19th overs after taking the wicketsof Dhawan and Yuvraj but Hoodadenied him the feat.

New Zealander Williamsonwas the star of the Hyderabadinnings and his 136-run partner-ship with Dhawan for the secondwicket the highlight of theHyderabad innings.

Coming at the fall of Warner inthe second over, Williamson tookjust a few deliveries to guage thepitch before opening up with hisshots. He hit two consecutive sixesoff Angelo Matthews in the seventhover before to take the Hyderabadscore to 80 for one at the halfwaymark.

Williamson took 19 runs fromAmit Mishra in the 14th over withtwo sixes in that over before beingout in the 17th over.

Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh fellin consecutive deliveries in the19th over but Deepak Hooda andMoises Henriques took 17 runsfrom the final over bowled byZaheer Khan to take the score past 190.

�� �� 1&.25-

On a roll with four consecutivevictories, two-time champions

Mumbai Indians would look to con-tinue the winning streak when theytake on Kings XI Punjab in anIndian Premier League match, hereon Thursday.

Having won four out of the fivematches they played so far, MumbaiIndians are placed second with eightpoints and would certainly start asfavourites against Kings XI Punjab,who have managed to win just twoof their five games.

Even though Mumbai's top orderis yet to click, the middle and lowerorder have more than made up forthe poor starts. Skipper RohitSharma, who did not have an idealstart to the tournament, made astrong comeback in the previousmatch against Gujarat Lions with anunbeaten 40 off 29 deliveries, whileKieron Pollard continued with hisfine run, scoring a quickfire 23-ball39.

Young Nitish Rana has been aconsistent con-tributer forMumbai thiss e a s o n . H echipped in witha brilliant half-century in thelast match toenable Mumbaitoppled GujaratLions by six wick-ets. In fact, one of thebiggest positives forMumbai has been the form ofthe Pandya brothers —Hardik and Krunal. The duohave come up with significantall-round performances.

Harbhajan Singh hasbeen fantastic in the power-play overs, while LasithMalinga and MitchellMcClenaghan have alsobeen among wickets.McClenaghan returnedwith impressive figures oftwo for 24 to help the teamrestrict Gujarat to 176 forfour in their last game.

Kings XI Punjab, onthe other hand, will havetheir task cut out against astrong Mumbai outfit.Despite starting their cam-paign with back-to-back

victories, Kings XI slipped in the nextthree games and would now be des-perate to get back to winning ways.

Kings XI have some dangerousbatsmen, especially the three 'Ms' —skipper Glenn Maxwell, David Millerand Eoin Morgan — besides HashimAmla who can pile up runs but noneof them clicked in the last three out-

ings. The lone battle

was fought by MananVohra in the lastmatch against

Sunrisers Hyderabad,as he scored a fabulous

50 -ball 90 butKings XI still lostby five runs whilechasing a modest160-run targetdue to lack ofsupport fromthe other end.

Kings XIwould desper-ately want the

big names tostand up and

make their presence feltagainst Mumbai onThursday.

Their bowling unit,which includes a reliable

Mohit Sharma, experiencedIshant Sharma and talented

Axar Patel, needs to fire in unison.

�� �� 82/8�*�

He wants to finish games like he didfor the Kolkata Knight Riders

against Delhi Daredevils but YusufPathan won't change his flamboyantstyle of batsmanship.

"There was a lot of pressure I justwanted to play my natural game. Youwill always get out at some point, be itin the first ball or in the 40th ball. Butit's about playing my shots and makingthe balls count," Pathan told PTI dur-ing an interview.

On his own admission, Pathan feelsthat he is a special talent, who need not

compete with anyone but focus on hisown game.

"Everyone has some spe-cial talents, and I am also spe-cial in my way. I don't want tocompete with anyone. I want

to prove myself with my per-formance on the field," Pathan

said with a lot of conviction.

So does he harbour hopes of anIndia comeback with so many ahead ofhim for those couple of slots in the mid-dle- order? "It does not matter to mewho's ahead of me (in representingIndia). I consider myself as a special tal-ent," Pathan said.

Having scored 39-ball-59 againstDelhi Daeredevils, the India discardproved why he is so highly rated in theKolkata Knight Riders ranks despite hisgame-changing knocks being few andfar in between.

"I have to back my talent. It doesnot take time for things to change. If Icontinue to perform well, at some pointI will get an opportunity if not todaythen tomorrow," Pathan seemed posi-tive that he may once again don theIndia blues. "I don't want to look at oth-ers. My job is to play good cricket andthe start has been good this time. Ishould be satisfied with my cricket andbe prepared whenever I get a chance,"he said.

Pathan has had his share of disap-pointment with the team especially dur-ing their maiden title-winning cam-paign in 2012 when he managed just194 in 17 matches without a single half-century but the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise has backed himthroughout these years.

In fact, his 112 matches since 2011is one more than skipper GautamGambhir's 111 games for the popularKolkata franchise.

"The only message from ShahRukh Khan continue to entertain theway you have been," Pathan said.

Pathan refused to agree his style haschanged but says he's keen to finish offgames now.

"Having played for so long, you areaware of your team's strength. If you areset, it's all about finishing the game. It'sabout setting a precedent for theyoungsters in the team as well. Theyshould also get an opportunity tolearn. It's about winning comfortably."

�� �� 5�982*

Swashbuckling West Indies opener Chris Gayle onTuesday described it as a "special occasion" to become

the first cricketer to score 10,000 runs in twenty20 crick-et.

The self-proclaimed "UniverseBoss" Gayle also warnedhis rival IPL teams, saying he is still here and alive after hereturned to form with a smashing 77 against Gujarat Lionsto guide RCB to 21-run win.

"I like that name(UniverseBoss). Fans want to watchChris Gayle, it's been fantastic. A special occasion to reach10000 runs. People still looking out for Chris Gayle. The

UniverseBoss is still here and still alive," said Gayle, whowas adjudged the Man of the Match.

Talking about his stance, Gayle said: "Alot of guys spoke to me about my stance.

Even Shaun Pollock spoke to meabout my stance. You're never too oldto learn."

RCB skipper Virat Kohli said heis fit and the injury is not botheringhim. "There's a lot of strapping on theshoulder, not getting to my head

anymore, shoulder fit and fine. Happyto get those two points," he said.

Lavishing praise on Gayle for hissuperb innings, Kohli said: "Christook his opportunity beautifully. Hebatting like that allows me to batthrough the innings, and I can chipmy way out. We thought we were

30 runs above par."The spinners —

Yuzvendra Chahal(3/31) and Pawan Negi(1/21) played a pivotalrole in the 21-runwin and Kohli show-

ered accolades onthe duo. "Negiwas outstanding,

very brave, notgetting scared. Not

many people believein his abilities. Chahal is notscared," he said.

�� �� 5�982*

Royal Challengers Bangalorecoach Daniel Vettori heaped

praise on Chris Gayle for his 38 ball77, saying that the batsmen likeswashbuckling West Indies openerdo not need guidance from anycoach or captain with regard to theirbatting.

Gayle smashed a blisteringhalf-century before YuzvendraChahal returned with a three-wick-et haul as Royal ChallengersBangalore defeated Gujarat Lions by21 runs here Tuesday night.

"Good thing about interna-tional cricketers is that they prob-

ably talk to themselves more thanany captain or coach talking to themabout their performances," saidVettori at the post match press con-ference. "They take pride in theirperformances, they really want tocontribute to the team and Chris isa really prideful man, he wants todo well for RCB, do well for anyteam he plays for. Chris is thestrongest and powerful player onthese kind of wickets and he cantake any bowler down."

The former New Zealand skip-per said Gayle made the most of theopportunity he got because of ABde Villiers' injury.

"Today was his opportunity.

AB's injury allowed him to come outand play. We wanted him to playwith freedom and we had given himthe confidence," Vettori said.

The 38-year-old coach also

applauded leg-spinner Chahal'sthree for 31.

"I have been lucky enough tohave worked with Chahal for thepast four years and also playedagainst him when he was inMumbai. The way he bowled inthe Champions League final wasthe reason why we wanted to gethim into RCB," said Vettori. "He iscompetitive coupled with a lot ofskills. I think those two qualitiesmake a formidable combination fora spin bowler and he is positive andconfident of what he is doing. If youcan succeed in a stadium likeChinnaswamy then it means youare special," he added.

�� �� 82/8�*�

West Indies' World T20-winning allrounderDwayne Bravo is mighty impressed with

uncapped Kerala speedster Basil Thampi, saying hecould soon represent India.

Both Bravo and Thampi are turning out for GujaratLions in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

"Basil Thampi is a very, very talented youngster. Iwould say he will get the opportunity to play for TeamIndia in a year or so. He has the talent, obviously, buthe also has a lot of heart, pace and the skill. He's alwayswilling to learn," Bravo said on Wednesday.

During GujaratLions' match againstMumbai Indians, thetall pacer impressedeveryone by consis-tently bowling yorkers.

On Tuesday, whenRoyal ChallengersBangalore took theGujarat Lions attack tothe cleaners, Thampireturned economicalfigures of 1/31 andbowled the maximum(11) dot balls.

Thampi's maidenIPL wicket came in theform of Chris Gayle, after the opener had smashed a38-ball 77. The bowler set it up with a yorker andtrapped him next ball with another full-length deliv-ery. An excited Bravo, who is recovering from a ham-string injury, went straight to the Kerala pacer and saidhe would like to take him under his wings.

"He's willing to learn. He asks the right questions.I think India cricket is in right direction when you havesomeone like him. Bowling 140-plus, like Indian speed-sters Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Thampi hasthe skill and is really good. I really wish him all the bestfrom the bottom of my heart."

Bravo is ever ready to offer tips to the 23-year-old."I follow him very closely, I try to give him a lot of

confidence and experience, explain to him, break downthe game to him. He's still in a learning phase. He hasthe raw natural talent and ability, Bravo added."

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The weariest Leicester players col-lapsed to the ground as their

teammates received the consolingembraces of their rivals from AtleticoMadrid.

For the unlikeliest of PremierLeague champions, England's lastremaining representatives in theChampions League quarterfinals,the journey ended in a 1-1 drawTuesday night.

It was the end not only ofLeicester's first foray in Europeansoccer's elite competition, but also theincredible ascent of the modest cen-tral England club that had gate-crashed the soccer hierarchy in a runthat captured global attention.

Leicester didn't go out meekly -that wouldn't be the style of the team

that seized the Premier League titleat pre-season odds of 5,000-1 for thefirst time last May with a 10-pointadvantage. Instead, the quarterfinalsecond leg provided a snapshot of the

kind of resolve that stirred a remark-able chapter in the history ofLeicester City. Outplayed in the firsthalf, allowing Saul Niguez space toscore unmarked with a header,

Leicester went back to the direct stylethat so unsettled opponents in itstitle-winning campaign. Jamie Vardy,the striker signed from a non-leagueclub five years ago, powered in anequalizer just after the hour-mark.

In an exhilarating conclusion atthe King Power Stadium, Leicesterharried Atletico but was left frus-trated as Diego Simeone's well-drilled defense got bodies in the wayof shots. The 1-1 draw left Leicesterexiting the Champions League witha 2-1 aggregate loss to a team that hascontested two of the last three finals.

"We have to be proud of our-selves, we gave our all," said captainWes Morgan, who returned for amonth-long absence. "In the secondhalf, we threw everything we had atthe goal. They had a few blocks onthe line."

���� ��.51.

It had been a quiet season for Cristiano Ronaldo so far.He was being outshined by the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis

Suarez and Neymar both in the Spanish league and in theChampions League.

He hadn't been scoring a lot of goals and was evenjeered at times by Real Madrid fans at the Santiago BernabeuStadium.

But things quickly changed in two decisive gamesagainst Bayern Munich in the Champions League quar-terfinals, when the star forward scored a total of five goalsto keep alive Madrid's hopes of retaining the trophy.

Ronaldo had scored only two goals in the eightChampions League games he had played before the quar-terfinals. He came into the series against Bayern in a scor-ing drought of nearly seven months in the European tour-nament, and had scored only once in his last five Madridgames in all competitions.

In the Spanish league, Ronaldo's 19 goals leave him fivebehind Suarez and 10 behind Messi. But Ronaldo knewthings were about to start going his way. "I said after thefirst leg that I prepared to reach the end of the season ingood shape," Ronaldo said. "It's something that I've strug-gled to do over the last three or four years. But now I'mfeeling good and the team has been playing really well, that'swhat's important."

Ronaldo scored a hat trick on Tuesday as Madrid defeat-ed Bayern 4-2 after extra time to advance to the semifi-nals 6-3 on aggregate.

"I always try to play well and I'm fortunate enough tohave scored three really important goals," he said. "I'mincredibly happy."

The Portugal forward had scored both goals inMadrid's 2-1 first-leg win in Germany last week. The hattrick made him the first player to score 100 ChampionsLeague goals. "What you see Cristiano doing is reallyimpressive," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. "The goals,the way he finishes them, in such key moments... He alwaysknows when there's an important occasion and he's goingto be there. There are few players who can do what Ronaldohas done and we all know that."

Ronaldo scored Madrid's goal in regulation time witha header, then put Madrid in control in extra time with aclose-range shot in the 105th minute. He netted again frominside the area in a breakaway in the 110th to secure hisclub a place in the semifinals of the Champions League forthe seventh straight season. "It's a special competition forReal Madrid," Ronaldo said. "We want to win it again thisyear. We are going to fight for it."

Ronaldo was cheered by the crowd at the SantiagoBernabeu Stadium after the match, with fans loudly chant-ing his name, but he took the opportunity to send a mes-sage to those who had criticized him recently.

"All I ask is that they don't boo me here, that's all,"Ronaldo said. "I always give my best, and even when I don'tscore I'm trying to help the team."

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Top-ranked Andy Murrayreturned from an elbow

injury to beat Gilles Muller ofLuxembourg 7-5, 7-5 in the sec-ond round of the Monte CarloMasters on Wednesday.

The right elbow injuryprompted Murray to withdrawfrom last month's Miami Openand he also missed Britain'srecent quarterfinal loss to Francein the Davis Cup.

Murray looked a bit sluggishearly on, dropping serve in theopening game. He saved two setpoints in the ninth but thenbroke and held to love to move6-5 up.

He took the first set onMuller's serve when, havingdone well to retrieve two dropshots from Murray, Mullermissed an easy smash at the net.He whacked his racket againsthis shoe in frustration and thensmashed it on the ground, buck-ling it in half.

Murray dropped serveagain in the opening game ofthe second set but brokestraight back. He set up amatch point with an excellentbackhand cross-court winneras he retrieved a shot deep intothe court, and clinched victo-ry on his first opportunitywhen Muller hit a forehandwide.

�������:��"���� ����"���������� Rohan Bopanna andPablo Cuevas recorded theirfirst win together at theMasters level when theydowned Marcin Matkowskiand Alexander Peya in theopening round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Master, here.

The unseeded Ind-Uruguay pair fought past therivals 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-2 in anhour and 27 minutes.

They had played in twoMasters series event — IndianWells and Miami — and lostin the first rounds in both.

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Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez hangedhimself in his prison cell early Wednesday

while serving a life sentence for murder, author-ities said.

Hernandez, 27, was found by guards at theSouza-Baranowski Correctional Center inShirley just after 3 am, Department of Correctionspokesman Christopher Fallon said in a state-ment. The former New England Patriots tightend was pronounced dead at a hospital about anhour later. His death comes just days after he wasacquitted of a double murder and on the sameday the Patriots were set to visit the White Houseto mark their Super Bowl win. The team had noimmediate comment.

Hernandez was in a single cell in a generalpopulation housing unit in the maximum-secu-

rity state prison. He hanged himself with a bedsheet that he attached to a window, Fallon said.Hernandez tried to block the cell door from theinside by jamming it with various items, Fallonsaid. He added that he's not aware of any sui-cide note written by Hernandez. He said that offi-cials had no concern that Hernandez might takehis own life, and said if they had had any suchworries he would have been transferred to a men-tal health unit.

Hernandez was moved to tears on Fridayafter he was acquitted of the 2012 fatal shoot-ings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado inBoston. Before his acquittal, Hernandez onWednesday was seen blowing kisses to the lit-tle girl he fathered with fiancée ShayannaJenkins. Cameras captured the tender exchange.

Hernandez grew up in Connecticut andplayed for the Patriots from 2010 to 2012.

���� ��.51.

With a hat trick that made him the firstplayer to score 100 Champions Leaguegoals, Cristiano Ronaldo led Real

Madrid to a 4-2 win over 10-man Bayern Munichafter extra time on Tuesday and put the defend-ing champions back in the semifinals.

Ronaldo scored once in regulation and twicein extra time, while Marco Asensio also nettedlate for Madrid, which advanced 6-3 on aggre-gate after a 2-1 first leg win in Germany.

"In the big moments, Ronaldo always comesthrough," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said."He scored five times in these two games, whatelse can I say?"

Ronaldo had scored both goalsfor Madrid in the first leg, whenhe became the first player toreach 100 goals in Europeanclub competition.

Bayern played a man downfrom the 84th minute afterArturo Vidal picked uphis second yellow cardof the night for a foul onAsensio.

"We deserved more," said Bayern coachCarlo Ancelotti, who complained about the ref-ereeing. "The calls made by the referee hurt usa lot. The second yellow for Arturo should nothave been a card, and Ronaldo had two goalswhen he was offside."

Ronaldo appeared to be in front of thedefenders, and just offside, for his first goal inextra time.

Vidal appeared to mainly get the ball in hischallenge on Asensio, although he could havereceived a second yellow earlier for a foul onCasemiro.

After Robert Lewandowski had scored a53rd minute penalty for Bayern, an own-goal byMadrid defender Sergio Ramos in the 78th hadgiven the German side a 2-1 lead in regulationtime, and sent the game into extra time.

The victory at the Santiago BernabeuStadium put Madrid into the semifinals for theseventh straight season and kept alive its hopesof becoming the first team to retain theChampions League title since the competition'snew format was created in 1992.

Madrid defeated city rival Atletico Madrid

i n

t h efinal both in2014 and 2016.

Atletico alsomade it to thesemifinals by elim-inating Leicester 2-1 on aggregate after a1-1 draw in Tuesday'sother quarterfinal, sec-ond-leg match.

Bayern, the 2013Champions League winner,had made it at least to thesemifinals for the last fiveseasons.

"We played a lot of difficultmatches this season, but this onewas the most difficult one," Zidanesaid. "In the end, over the two legs, wedeserved to go through."

The opening 45 minutes were bal-anced between the two sides, but Bayernwas dominant after halftime as it pressedforward, trying to overturn the first-legdeficit.

"The team was courageous," Bayerndefender Philipp Lahm said. "It hurts to go outin extra time, but we were a man down for overan hour across the tie. I think the team deservedto go through."

Bayern also played with 10 men in the sec-ond half of the game in Germany.

Lewandowski, who had missed the first legbecause of a right shoulder injury, calmly scoredfrom the spot with a right-foot shot, sendingKeylor Navas the wrong way.

The penalty was awarded after a foul byCasemiro on Arjen Robben.

Not long before the penalty, Marcelo hadprevented Bayern from scoring by making agoal line clearance after a shot by Robben hadbeaten Navas.

Ronaldo scored his first goal of the nightwith a header in the 76th minute after a well-placed cross by Casemiro from the right flank.

Two minutes later, though, Ramos foundhis own net when his deflection sent the balltrickling across the goal line. The Spanishdefender was making his 100th ChampionsLeague appearance.

Ronaldo put Madrid back in controlwhen he chested down a pass by Ramos andfired a left-foot shot that went underneathBayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the 105thminute. He added another from close rangeafter a run by Marcelo down the left flank inthe 110th, and Asensio sealed the victory aftergetting past a series of defenders and firinghome from inside the area in the 112th.

����������#����������� ���Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuerhas been ruled out for the rest of the season aftersuffering a fracture to his left foot in BayernMunich's Champions League quarterfinaldefeat at Real Madrid on Tuesday.

The club says Neuer sustained the injuryin extra time, as Cristiano Ronaldo scored histhird goal of Madrid's 4-2 victory. The 31-year-old Neuer had already had a minor operationon his left foot on March 29 after a training-ground injury. Bayern chairman Karl-HeinzRummenigge says, "Neuer is seriously injured.He'll be out for eight weeks." Neuer will missBayern's remaining five league games of the sea-son, and the German Cup semifinal at hometo Borussia Dortmund next Wednesday.

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