˝ ˛+ ˘ˇ ˆ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ˆˆ !˚ˆ#$ ˘% ˆ˙ ˝ ˇ ˆ ......2019/03/12  · poll dates during...

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C ongress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday set aside all speculations about a Congress-AAP alliance in the national Capital by urging the party workers to work hard to “win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi”. “There will be no tie-up and the Congress will go it alone on all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. You should work hard to win all the seven seats of Delhi,” said Rahul while addressing the party’s booth workers in the national Capital. It seems the Congress is taking a long term view of its prospect in Delhi, where it was a force to reckon with for decades. But the arrival of AAP wiped out the Congress from the scene. In 2004 LS polls, the Congress won six out of seven seats and in 2009 it won all seven seats. But after AAP turned the 2014 polls into triangular contest, the BJP swept Delhi winning all the seven seats. The Congress had been in power for three con- secutive terms spanning 15 years from 1998-2013. Last week, after a meeting with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, Shiela Dikshit said the Congress had “no alliance yet” in Delhi. The meeting and the comment both came after AAP leaders urged Rahul for a rethink, say- ing it should be his decision and not the State Congress’ dik- tat. At a recent meeting with the Congress chief , the Delhi Congress-led by Dikshit had unanimously refused an alliance with AAP. Congress has been under pressure from the TMC to enter a tie up with AAP. Arvind Kejriwal too has been keen on a tie-up, saying it would stop the split of non-BJP votes. As the Opposition started recalibrating its campaign after the Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent air strikes, Rahul held a meeting with leaders of the Delhi Congress to discuss the issue. After the Congress refusal then, Kejriwal had tweeted, “At a time when the whole country wants to defeat Modi- Shah duo, Cong is helping BJP by splitting anti-BJP vote. Rumours are that Congress has some secret understanding with BJP. Delhi is ready to fight against Cong-BJP alliance. People will defeat this unholy alliance.” AAP leader Gopal Rai too on Monday said his party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all seven seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on its own. Rai said Kejriwal will hold a meeting with all State unit chiefs of the party and MLAs to discuss the strategy for the parliamentary polls. “The party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all the seats on its own,” the AAP’s Delhi unit convener said. In an all out attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress president flayed him on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, employ- ment generation, national secu- rity and alleged agrarian dis- tress. He also said the choice is between Mahatma Gandhi’s India or Godse’s India with love on one hand and hate on the other. “You have to decide, you want Gandhi’s India or Godse’s India. On the one hand there is love, brotherhood, on the other is hate, fear. Gandhiji was fearless, stayed in jail for years, but spoke with the British with love, while (Veer) Savarkar wrote letters to Britishers apol- ogising and asking to be let off,” he said. He said Modi keeps talking about Make in India, but his shirt, shoes and phone, with which he takes selfies, are made in China. Rahul said 40 CRPF per- sonnel were killed in the Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed whose chief Masood Azhar was released from jail by the BJP. “Two of our Prime Ministers were martyred. We don’t bow before anyone,” he said. T he Election Commission (EC) on Monday acted swiftly to nip in the bud a con- troversy generated by leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over scheduling of poll dates during Ramzan. The EC clarified that the main festival (June 4) and Fridays (falling in the holy month) have been excluded from the polling dates. The commission also said the Lok Sabha polls are being con- ducted during the Ramzan because a full month cannot be excluded. The BJP accused Opposition parties of creating a deliberate controversy over voting during Ramzan saying Hindus too would be observ- ing ‘Navratra’ fast when poll process would be underway next month. Earlier, leaders of TMC and AAP alleged that the polling schedule was designed in a way that most of the con- stituencies go to polls during Ramzan so that Muslims can- not go out and exercise their franchise. They claimed that during Ramzan, it will inconvenience to Muslims and help the BJP as the community is largely seen to be backing the Opposition parties against the ruling alliance. The Ramzan, which is a month of rigorous fasting for the Muslims, will begin on May 5 which co-incides with the polling schedule in States. Ramzan will end on June 4. After the announcement of poll schedule by the EC, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan tweeted on Sunday that elec- tions will be held in Delhi on May 12, when Muslims will be observing Ramzan. “There will be less polling among Muslims, and it will directly benefit the BJP,” he had said. Some lead- ers of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal had also spoke on similar lines. Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said the seven-phase election will be highly incon- venient for the minority pop- ulation in the States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal as the election dates coincide with the month of Ramzan. “Election Commission is a Constitutional body and we respect them. We don’t want to say anything against them. But seven-phase election will be tough for people in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal,” Hakim said, while expressing his displeasure over the EC’s decision. Criticising the Opposition, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain pointed out that Navratas, when many Hindus observe fast, will also fall dur- ing the elections. “Muslims do not observe roza by not doing their work. Islam also does not ask us to stop our work for worship. It is not that people who have jobs do not attend them during Ramzan. They keep roza and do their work as well. Creating such a contro- versy is unfortunate,” he said. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that he welcomes the conduct of the election dur- ing Ramzan. “As a Muslim I welcome the election in Ramzan. Muslims are more devotional in that month,” he said. Owaisi, the All India Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen chief, also said those who are making a controversy around the polls dates, don’t understand Islam. According to EC, Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases. The last three phases of polling — on May 6, 12, and 19 respectively - would take place during Ramzan. Polling for a total of 169 Lok Sabha seats (i.e. 31.12% of the 543 seats) will take place. The polling for 41 parliamen- tary seats in Uttar Pradesh; 21 seats in Bihar; 24 seats in West Bengal; seven in Delhi will be held during Ramzan. As per census, Muslim population in Bihar is 17 per cent; 20 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 27 per cent in West Bengal. A joint team of security forces achieved a major success on Monday when they eliminated one of the “main conspirators” of the February 26 Pulwama terror attack on a CRPF convoy. Jaish-e-Mohammed local commander Mudasir Khan, alias Mohd Bhai, a low profile trained electrician, was elimi- nated in a fierce gunfight in the Tral area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama late on Sunday. Addressing a hurriedly called Press conference in Srinagar, GoC 15 Chinar Corps Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, accompa- nied by IG Kashmir SP Pani and IG CRPF Zulfiqar Hussain said Mudasir Khan has been eliminated in the encounter. He said Mudasir was the “main conspirator” of the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama. His elimination has caused a major dent to the Jaish leadership in the Valley. Claiming that the security forces are pulling out all stops to prevent Pulwama repeat, Lt Gen Dhillon said, “We have really gone behind JeM across Kashmi.” In the last three weeks, “We have eliminated 18 terrorists, out of which 14 were JeM cadre, including 6 top commanders,” he added. “Operations against for- eign mercenaries and JeM ter- rorists will continue till we kill all of them,” he added. The fierce gunfight, which lasted several hours in Pinglish area of Tral, erupted soon after joint teams of security forces had cordoned off the area in Tral after receiving a specific input about the presence of JeM terrorists in the area on Sunday. The security forces elimi- nated two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists without suffering any collateral damage. The bodies of the two ter- rorists, charred beyond recog- nition, were recovered from the encounter site, on Monday morning. The identity of the slain terrorist was established with the help of his family members. Official sources claimed that 23-year-old Mudasir, an electrician with a graduate degree and a resident of Pulwama, reportedly arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the terror strike”. A resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, Mudasir joined the JeM in 2017 as an overground worker and was later drawn into the terror outfit by Noor Mohammed Tantrey, alias ‘Noor Trali’, who is believed to have helped the terror group’s revival in Kashmir. After Tantray was killed in December 2017, Mudasir dis- appeared from his home on January 14, 2018, and has been active since then. Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus in the CRPF convoy on February 14, had been in con- stant contact with Mudasir, officials said. M uch to the relief of conser- vationists, a Central green panel has rejected the National Highway Authority of India’s 2,196 crore proposal for the construction of 240.12 km road stretching from Gopalpur Port to Ratnapur in Odisha on the ground that it will threaten the habitat of endangered olive rid- ley turtles, migratory birds, and disturb the flow of at least 13 rivers, and affect floodplains. The proposal also involved felling of around 24,596 trees. The NHAI had proposed the construction of new National Highway 516-A passing near the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary - country’s second largest man- grove forests after Sunderban - and further dividing Balukhand Konark Wildlife Sanctuary and Chilika (Nalaban) Wildlife Sanctuary in the State. It is an important bird area and winter home for migratory birds from the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions during their onward and return migration along the east coast. Balukhand Konark is a nesting site for Olive Ridley sea turtles. The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for projects related to infrastructure devel- opment under the Union Environment Ministry in a meeting in January asked the NHAI to explore alternate route which does not affect the wildlife and wetlands. Sources in the Ministry said the proposal involved construction of 2/4 laning with paved shoulder starting from Gopalpur Port in Ganjam district and passing through Satapada, Konark, Astarang, Naugaon, Paradip Port to end at Ratanpur. The NHAI had proposed acquiring 996 hactres of land, including 33.6 forest land, for the pur- pose which involved felling of 24,596 trees. However, the fact that at least 13 stream crossings namely Rushikulya river, Chilika Lake, Kushabhadra river, Kadua river, Prachi, Baradianadi, Borwan, Saunlia, Harhua, Gobari river, NuaNai river, Devi river and Mahanadi river were to be effected did not go down well with the EAC. T he State’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) would announce the names of its candidates for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections “very soon”, said Chief Minister and BJD supre- mo Naveen Patnaik on Monday. He was responding to a reporters’ query about the sta- tus of BJD’s list of candidates for the polls. He said, “It’s per- fectly alright. We are working hard on it.” Commenting on the party’s readiness for the elections, Patnaik said that the prepara- tions are going on “very well” and the BJD would do “very well” in the polls. Asked whether admission of several former bureaucrats in the BJD would create any problem for the party, Patnaik remarked, “We will manage it well.” Meanwhile, former Khordha MLA Jyotirindra Nath Mitra joined the BJD on Monday. Popularly known as Jitu Mitra, he along with his sup- porters met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the latter’s residence and officially joined the ruling party. The two-time MLA from Khordha had earlier quit the BJD and joined the BJP prior to the 2014 elections. However, he unsuccessfully contested the election from Khordha. He had earlier been elected as Khordha MLA in 2000 as an Independent can- didate and retained his Assembly seat in 2004 on a BJD ticket. Sitting Khordha BJD MLA Rajendra Kumar Sahu was present when Mitra joined the party. It is now speculated whether Sahu would be retained as the party candidate for Khordha or would be replaced by Mitra. T he Regional Office of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) here on Monday predicted rainfall in several parts of the State from Wednesday. The IMD’s latest weather report said light rainfall and thunderstorm are likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Baragarh, Sonepur, Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts and dry weather is likely to prevail over the rest of the districts of the State on Wednesday. Similarly, light to moder- ate rain and thunderstorm is likely to occur at a few places over the districts of north interior Odisha and at one or two places over the rest of the districts of the State on March 14. Besides, thunderstorm with lightning and gusty wind are likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of north interior Odisha and Nayagarh and Kandhamal districts on March 14. Moreover, light to mod- erate rainfall and thunder- storm is likely to occur at a few places over the districts of north coastal Odisha and at one or two places over the rest districts of Odisha on March 15. Besides, thunderstorm with lightning and gusty wind likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Mayurbhanj, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar and Angul districts on March 15. The maximum tempera- ture of 39 degree Celsius was recorded at Malkangiri on Monday. T he Biju Janata Dal (BJD) criticised the decision to conduct polls in as many as four phases in Odisha and tar- geted the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for this. Opposing the move by the Election Commission of India (ECI), BJD spokesperson Amar Patnaik alleged that the CEO is influenced by the BJP. “While the polls could be held in a single phase in the States like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat having more num- ber of seats, the EC has decid- ed to conduct polls in several phases in the States where the BJP is weak,” he said. Earlier, the polls were being conducted in two phases in Odisha because of Maoist threat, he said and asked, “Why now the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls will be held in four phases in the State?” He accused the State CEO of not following a free and fair election policy. “By influencing the ECI, the BJP is trying to grab the non-BJP States,” Patnaik alleged. Not only Odisha, but also other non-BJP States are the victims of the Centre’s con- spiracy, he said. B iju Janata Dal (BJD) pres- ident and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday appointed former bureaucrat Gopabandhu Dash as his political secretary, said party State secretary Bijay Nayak in a Press release in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Before his retirement from service, Dash was post- ed at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) as the Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister.

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Page 1: ˝ ˛+ ˘ˇ ˆ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ˆˆ !˚ˆ#$ ˘% ˆ˙ ˝ ˇ ˆ ......2019/03/12  · poll dates during Ramzan. The EC clarified that the main festival (June 4) and Fridays (falling in

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Monday set

aside all speculations about aCongress-AAP alliance in thenational Capital by urging theparty workers to work hard to“win all the seven Lok Sabhaseats in Delhi”.

“There will be no tie-upand the Congress will go italone on all seven Lok Sabhaseats in Delhi. You shouldwork hard to win all the sevenseats of Delhi,” said Rahulwhile addressing the party’sbooth workers in the nationalCapital.

It seems the Congress istaking a long term view of itsprospect in Delhi, where it wasa force to reckon with fordecades. But the arrival ofAAP wiped out the Congressfrom the scene. In 2004 LSpolls, the Congress won six outof seven seats and in 2009 itwon all seven seats. But afterAAP turned the 2014 polls intotriangular contest, the BJPswept Delhi winning all theseven seats. The Congress hadbeen in power for three con-secutive terms spanning 15

years from 1998-2013. Last week, after a meeting

with UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi and Rahul, ShielaDikshit said the Congress had“no alliance yet” in Delhi. Themeeting and the commentboth came after AAP leadersurged Rahul for a rethink, say-ing it should be his decisionand not the State Congress’ dik-tat.

At a recent meeting withthe Congress chief , the DelhiCongress-led by Dikshit hadunanimously refused analliance with AAP.

Congress has been underpressure from the TMC toenter a tie up with AAP. ArvindKejriwal too has been keen ona tie-up, saying it would stopthe split of non-BJP votes.

As the Opposition startedrecalibrating its campaign afterthe Pulwama terror attack andthe subsequent air strikes,Rahul held a meeting withleaders of the Delhi Congressto discuss the issue.

After the Congress refusalthen, Kejriwal had tweeted,“At a time when the wholecountry wants to defeat Modi-Shah duo, Cong is helping BJP

by splitting anti-BJP vote.Rumours are that Congresshas some secret understandingwith BJP. Delhi is ready to fightagainst Cong-BJP alliance.People will defeat this unholyalliance.”

AAP leader Gopal Rai tooon Monday said his party is notin talks with the Congress foran alliance in Delhi and it willcontest all seven seats in theupcoming Lok Sabha electionson its own.

Rai said Kejriwal will holda meeting with all State unitchiefs of the party and MLAsto discuss the strategy for theparliamentary polls. “The partyis not in talks with theCongress for an alliance in

Delhi and it will contest all theseats on its own,” the AAP’sDelhi unit convener said.

In an all out attack againstPrime Minister NarendraModi, the Congress presidentflayed him on a host of issuessuch as the Rafale deal, employ-ment generation, national secu-rity and alleged agrarian dis-tress. He also said the choiceis between Mahatma Gandhi’sIndia or Godse’s India with loveon one hand and hate on theother.

“You have to decide, youwant Gandhi’s India or Godse’sIndia. On the one hand thereis love, brotherhood, on theother is hate, fear. Gandhiji wasfearless, stayed in jail for years,

but spoke with the British withlove, while (Veer) Savarkarwrote letters to Britishers apol-ogising and asking to be let off,”he said.

He said Modi keeps talkingabout Make in India, but hisshirt, shoes and phone, withwhich he takes selfies, aremade in China.

Rahul said 40 CRPF per-sonnel were killed in thePulwama terror attack carriedout by the Jaish-e-Mohammedwhose chief Masood Azharwas released from jail by theBJP.

“Two of our PrimeMinisters were martyred. Wedon’t bow before anyone,” hesaid.

����� ���������

The Election Commission(EC) on Monday acted

swiftly to nip in the bud a con-troversy generated by leaders ofthe Trinamool Congress(TMC) and the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) over scheduling ofpoll dates during Ramzan.

The EC clarified that themain festival (June 4) andFridays (falling in the holymonth) have been excludedfrom the polling dates. Thecommission also said the LokSabha polls are being con-ducted during the Ramzanbecause a full month cannot beexcluded.

The BJP accusedOpposition parties of creatinga deliberate controversy overvoting during Ramzan sayingHindus too would be observ-ing ‘Navratra’ fast when pollprocess would be underwaynext month.

Earlier, leaders of TMCand AAP alleged that thepolling schedule was designedin a way that most of the con-stituencies go to polls duringRamzan so that Muslims can-not go out and exercise theirfranchise.

They claimed that duringRamzan, it will inconvenienceto Muslims and help the BJP asthe community is largely seento be backing the Opposition

parties against the rulingalliance.

The Ramzan, which is amonth of rigorous fasting forthe Muslims, will begin on May5 which co-incides with thepolling schedule in States.Ramzan will end on June 4.

After the announcement ofpoll schedule by the EC, AAPleader Amanatullah Khantweeted on Sunday that elec-tions will be held in Delhi onMay 12, when Muslims will beobserving Ramzan. “There willbe less polling among Muslims,and it will directly benefit theBJP,” he had said. Some lead-ers of the ruling TrinamoolCongress in West Bengal hadalso spoke on similar lines.

Kolkata Mayor FirhadHakim said the seven-phaseelection will be highly incon-venient for the minority pop-ulation in the States of Bihar,Uttar Pradesh and West Bengalas the election dates coincidewith the month of Ramzan.

“Election Commission is aConstitutional body and werespect them. We don’t want tosay anything against them. Butseven-phase election will betough for people in Bihar, UttarPradesh and West Bengal,”Hakim said, while expressing

his displeasure over the EC’sdecision.

Criticising the Opposition,BJP spokesperson ShahnawazHussain pointed out thatNavratas, when many Hindusobserve fast, will also fall dur-ing the elections. “Muslims donot observe roza by not doingtheir work. Islam also does notask us to stop our work forworship. It is not that peoplewho have jobs do not attendthem during Ramzan. Theykeep roza and do their work aswell. Creating such a contro-versy is unfortunate,” he said.

Hyderabad MP AsaduddinOwaisi said that he welcomesthe conduct of the election dur-ing Ramzan.

“As a Muslim I welcomethe election in Ramzan.Muslims are more devotionalin that month,” he said.Owaisi, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief, alsosaid those who are making acontroversy around the pollsdates, don’t understand Islam.

According to EC, LokSabha elections will begin onApril 11 and continue for overa month till May 19 acrossseven phases. The last threephases of polling — on May 6,12, and 19 respectively - wouldtake place during Ramzan.

Polling for a total of 169Lok Sabha seats (i.e. 31.12% ofthe 543 seats) will take place.The polling for 41 parliamen-tary seats in Uttar Pradesh; 21seats in Bihar; 24 seats in WestBengal; seven in Delhi will beheld during Ramzan. As percensus, Muslim population inBihar is 17 per cent; 20 per centin Uttar Pradesh and 27 percent in West Bengal.

������� ����� ���

Ajoint team of securityforces achieved a major

success on Monday when theyeliminated one of the “mainconspirators” of the February26 Pulwama terror attack on aCRPF convoy.

Jaish-e-Mohammed localcommander Mudasir Khan,alias Mohd Bhai, a low profiletrained electrician, was elimi-nated in a fierce gunfight in theTral area of South Kashmir’sPulwama late on Sunday.

Addressing a hurriedlycalled Press conference inSrinagar, GoC 15 Chinar CorpsLt Gen KJS Dhillon, accompa-nied by IG Kashmir SP Paniand IG CRPF Zulfiqar Hussainsaid Mudasir Khan has beeneliminated in the encounter.

He said Mudasir was the“main conspirator” of the attackon the CRPF convoy inPulwama. His elimination hascaused a major dent to the Jaishleadership in the Valley.

Claiming that the securityforces are pulling out all stopsto prevent Pulwama repeat, LtGen Dhillon said, “We havereally gone behind JeM acrossKashmi.” In the last threeweeks, “We have eliminated 18terrorists, out of which 14 wereJeM cadre, including 6 topcommanders,” he added.

“Operations against for-eign mercenaries and JeM ter-rorists will continue till we killall of them,” he added.

The fierce gunfight, whichlasted several hours in Pinglisharea of Tral, erupted soon afterjoint teams of security forceshad cordoned off the area inTral after receiving a specificinput about the presence of JeMterrorists in the area on Sunday.

The security forces elimi-nated two Jaish-e-Mohammadterrorists without suffering anycollateral damage.

The bodies of the two ter-rorists, charred beyond recog-nition, were recovered from theencounter site, on Monday

morning.The identity of the slain

terrorist was established withthe help of his family members.

Official sources claimedthat 23-year-old Mudasir, anelectrician with a graduatedegree and a resident ofPulwama, reportedly arrangedthe vehicle and explosives usedin the terror strike”.

A resident of Mir Mohallaof Tral, Mudasir joined the JeMin 2017 as an overgroundworker and was later drawninto the terror outfit by Noor

Mohammed Tantrey, alias‘Noor Trali’, who is believed tohave helped the terror group’srevival in Kashmir.

After Tantray was killed inDecember 2017, Mudasir dis-appeared from his home onJanuary 14, 2018, and has beenactive since then.

Suicide attacker AdilAhmed Dar, who rammed hisexplosive-laden vehicle into abus in the CRPF convoy onFebruary 14, had been in con-stant contact with Mudasir,officials said.

������������� ��������

Much to the relief of conser-vationists, a Central green

panel has rejected the NationalHighway Authority of India’s�2,196 crore proposal for theconstruction of 240.12 km roadstretching from Gopalpur Portto Ratnapur in Odisha on theground that it will threaten thehabitat of endangered olive rid-ley turtles, migratory birds, anddisturb the flow of at least 13rivers, and affect floodplains.The proposal also involvedfelling of around 24,596 trees.

The NHAI had proposedthe construction of new National

Highway 516-A passing near theBhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary- country’s second largest man-grove forests after Sunderban -and further dividing BalukhandKonark Wildlife Sanctuary andChilika (Nalaban) WildlifeSanctuary in the State. It is animportant bird area and winterhome for migratory birds fromthe Arctic and sub-Arctic regionsduring their onward and returnmigration along the east coast.Balukhand Konark is a nestingsite for Olive Ridley sea turtles.

The Expert AppraisalCommittee (EAC) for projectsrelated to infrastructure devel-opment under the Union

Environment Ministry in ameeting in January asked theNHAI to explore alternate routewhich does not affect the wildlifeand wetlands.

Sources in the Ministrysaid the proposal involvedconstruction of 2/4 laningwith paved shoulder startingfrom Gopalpur Port in

Ganjam district and passingthrough Satapada, Konark,Astarang, Naugaon, ParadipPort to end at Ratanpur. TheNHAI had proposed acquiring996 hactres of land, including33.6 forest land, for the pur-pose which involved felling of24,596 trees. However, thefact that at least 13 streamcrossings namely Rushikulyariver, Chilika Lake,Kushabhadra river, Kaduariver, Prachi, Baradianadi,Borwan, Saunlia, Harhua,Gobari river, NuaNai river,Devi river and Mahanadi riverwere to be effected did not godown well with the EAC.

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The State’s ruling Biju JanataDal (BJD) would announce

the names of its candidates forthe Lok Sabha and Assemblyelections “very soon”, saidChief Minister and BJD supre-mo Naveen Patnaik onMonday.

He was responding to areporters’ query about the sta-tus of BJD’s list of candidatesfor the polls. He said, “It’s per-fectly alright. We are workinghard on it.”

Commenting on the party’sreadiness for the elections,Patnaik said that the prepara-tions are going on “very well”and the BJD would do “verywell” in the polls.

Asked whether admission ofseveral former bureaucrats in theBJD would create any problemfor the party, Patnaik remarked,

“We will manage it well.”Meanwhile, former

Khordha MLA JyotirindraNath Mitra joined the BJD onMonday.

Popularly known as JituMitra, he along with his sup-porters met Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik at the latter’sresidence and officially joinedthe ruling party.

The two-time MLA fromKhordha had earlier quit theBJD and joined the BJP priorto the 2014 elections.However, he unsuccessfullycontested the election fromKhordha. He had earlier beenelected as Khordha MLA in2000 as an Independent can-didate and retained hisAssembly seat in 2004 on aBJD ticket.

Sitting Khordha BJD MLARajendra Kumar Sahu waspresent when Mitra joined theparty. It is now speculatedwhether Sahu would beretained as the party candidatefor Khordha or would bereplaced by Mitra.

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The Regional Office of theIndia Meteorological

Department (IMD) here onMonday predicted rainfall inseveral parts of the State fromWednesday.

The IMD’s latest weatherreport said light rainfall andthunderstorm are likely tooccur at one or two placesover the distr icts ofSundargarh, Jharsuguda,Sambalpur, Baragarh,Sonepur, Balangir, Nuapada,Kalahandi, Kandhamal andRayagada districts and dryweather is likely to prevailover the rest of the districts ofthe State on Wednesday.

Similarly, light to moder-ate rain and thunderstorm islikely to occur at a few placesover the districts of northinterior Odisha and atone or two places over the restof the districts of the State

on March 14.Besides, thunderstorm

with lightning and gusty windare likely to occur at one ortwo places over the districts ofnorth interior Odisha andNayagarh and Kandhamaldistricts on March 14.

Moreover, light to mod-erate rainfall and thunder-storm is likely to occur at afew places over the districts ofnorth coastal Odisha and atone or two places over the rest districts of Odisha onMarch 15.

Besides, thunderstormwith lightning and gusty windlikely to occur at one or twoplaces over the districts ofMayurbhanj, Baleswar,Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada,Dhenkanal, Keonjhar andAngul districts on March 15.

The maximum tempera-ture of 39 degree Celsius wasrecorded at Malkangiri onMonday.

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The Biju Janata Dal (BJD)criticised the decision to

conduct polls in as many asfour phases in Odisha and tar-geted the State Chief ElectoralOfficer (CEO) for this.

Opposing the move by theElection Commission of India(ECI), BJD spokesperson AmarPatnaik alleged that the CEO isinfluenced by the BJP.

“While the polls could beheld in a single phase in theStates like Andhra Pradeshand Gujarat having more num-ber of seats, the EC has decid-ed to conduct polls in severalphases in the States where theBJP is weak,” he said.

Earlier, the polls were beingconducted in two phases inOdisha because of Maoist

threat, he said and asked, “Whynow the Lok Sabha andAssembly polls will be held infour phases in the State?”

He accused the State CEOof not following a free and fairelection policy.

“By influencing the ECI,the BJP is trying to grab thenon-BJP States,” Patnaikalleged.

Not only Odisha, but alsoother non-BJP States are thevictims of the Centre’s con-spiracy, he said.

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Biju Janata Dal (BJD) pres-ident and Odisha Chief

Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday appointed formerbureaucrat Gopabandhu Dashas his political secretary, said party State secretary Bijay Nayak in a Press releasein Bhubaneswar on Monday.

Before his retirementfrom service, Dash was post-ed at the Chief Minister’sOff ice (CMO) as theAdditional Secretary to theChief Minister.

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The role of survey agenciesin selection of candidates

by the major political parties inOdisha for the elections inApril is expected weigh morethan the choice of party lead-ers.

Sources say the BJD, theBJP and the Congress hademployed different profession-al agencies for the purpose. Thereports submitted by theseagencies are likely to be themajor determinants in selec-tion of party candidates.

It is to be noted that theBJD had won in 117 Assemblyand 20 Lok Sabha seats in the2014 elections. The Congresshad won 16 Assembly seatswhile the BJP won 10Assembly seats and one LokSabha seat.

This time around, three

Congress and a BJP MLA haveresigned their seats while twoCongress legislators havejoined the BJD. Besides, whilesome Congress and BJP lead-ers have joined the BJD, a fewlocal leaders of the BJD havecome to the BJP fold.

The Congress has also notlagged behind the BJD and theBJP in getting leaders fromother parties under its umbrel-la.

Some senior leaders of thethree major parties have con-fided that their parties hadengaged external survey agen-cies to impartially assess thepopularity of elected leaders intheir constituencies.

The BJD is ahead of thetwo other parties in this caseand the latest survey report isalready in its hand. TheCongress and the BJP who hadtheir agencies tagged fromDelhi have also in the meantime received the surveyreports, insiders admit.

In addition to such effortsto screen candidates, all thethree parties have also verifiedthe ground situation throughtheir own observers. Selectionof candidates will be mainlybased on reports from thesurvey agencies as well asreports obtained from partyobservers, according to polit-ical observers.

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Should you have been follow-ing me, you would be well

aware that I am an establishedlongstanding political adver-sary of the longest-servingChief Minister of Odisha.However, I too am compelledto applaud Naveen Patnaik’s

announcement that BJD shallfollow a quota of 33per cent forits women candidates in theelection to the 17th Lok Sabha.

Odisha has 21 Lok Sabhaconstituencies and thisannouncement means nowBJD shall field a minimum of7 women candidates. I am astrong advocate of the factthat for a balanced democrat-ic system we ought to have atleast half of our representativesfrom the superior gender.

In a previously writtenpiece ‘ Naveen Patnaik Swingsboth ways! ’ I had appraisedabout the covert closeness ofPatnaik with a few top leadersof both BJP as well as Congress.My friend Jay Panda, the for-mer marksman of Patnaik whorecently has joined the BJP andhas been appointed as their VPcum spokesperson too has cor-roborated the same. The covertunderstanding between BJPand Patnaik is that he shallallow an easy win for 7-8 BJP

candidates into the 17th LokSabha from Odisha. As ondate, BJP or the NDA has onlyone MP from Odisha in myfriend Jual Oram. For the BJPtop brass an increase of tally to7-8 MPs from one is extreme-ly alluring.

However, my friends in theBJP are completely unawarethat Patnaik has struck thesame deal with his friends inthe top brass of the Congress.For the Congress, an opportu-nity to increase its score inOdisha to 7-8 MPs from zerois even more alluring.

In return all what Patnaikwants from the two nationalparties of relevance in Odisha,is to leave him and his undis-turbed in Odisha.

While people like me whogenuinely want more power forwomen stand loudly applaud-ing the decision of 33 per centwomen as BJD Lok Sabha can-didates, the real politicking issomewhere else.

Both the BJP as well asCongress top brass are nowconvinced that BJD in these 7women candidates is adheringto the promise made by Patnaikof placing weak BJD candidatesfor their respective candidatesto win easily. However, both thesides have no clue that this isnothing but a master stroke ofPatnaik and his… By the timeeach side gets to understand, itwould be the afternoon of2019 election result day.

Should someone be smart,one should dare Patnaik toannounce 33 per cent BJDwomen candidates for theforthcoming Odisha LegislativeAssembly, which too shall betaking place simultaneouslywith the general elections.

(The author is a sociopo-litical leader and chairman ofNandini Satpathy MemorialTrust. He can be found onFacebook and Twitter@SuparnoSatpathy)

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Chief Minister and BJDsupremo Naveen Patnaik

has played a masterstroke byannouncing that his partywould give 33 per cent of itstickets to women for the LokSabha elections. In fact, hisannouncement has put theBJD’s main rivals BJP andCongress under pressure togive more representations towomen.

Out of the total 3.18 crorevoters in the State, 1.54 croreare women constituting a majorvote bank.

Patnaik has earlier pro-posed to reserve 33 per cent ofseats in Parliament and StateAssemblies for women. TheOdisha Assembly has passed aunanimous Resolution urgingthe Centre to take steps in thisregard. Patnaik has also writtento Prime Minister Modi, ChiefMinisters and presidents of allnational and regional parties toconsider his proposal.

Now to take his move for-

ward, Patnaik has announcedsignificantly at a women con-vention in Kendrapada that theBJD would field 33-per centwomen candidates for the LokSabha elections.

However, State Congressvice-president AryakumarJnanendra has describedPatnaik’s announcement as an“election stunt”. He said, “If he(Patnaik) is really keen onwomen empowerment, hecould have included taken 33per cent women in hisMinistry.” At the same time,Jnanendra added, “We willalso field eligible women in theelections.”

BJP Mahila Morcha Statepresident Pravati Parida saidher party had given a 33-percent representation to womenin its organisation. “In thecoming elections too, many eli-gible women candidates will begiven party ticket”, she said.

An elated BJD spokesper-son Arun Sahoo hailed hisparty boss’s announcementsaying that it has posed chal-

lenges for other political par-ties. He said that though theBJP had earlier promised in itselection manifesto that it wouldprovide a 33-per cent reserva-tion for women, it has not beenfulfilled.

Notably, in the outgoingLok Sabha, the BJD has threewomen representatives,Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh(Kandhamal), Rita Tarai(Jajpur) and Sakuntala Laguri(Keonjhar). In the 147-seatState Assembly, the BJD has 11women members and the BJPone.

(The writer is a senior jour-nalist associated with theSambad group)

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The Biju Janata Dal (BJD)launched a campaign called

‘Haq Maguchi Odisha’ onMonday alleging the CentralGovernment’s partiality andnegligence towards the devel-opment of the State. Thousandsof members of Biju ChhatraJanata Dal (BCJD) and BijuYuva Janata Dal (BYJD) tookout a rally at Lower PMG hereseeking replies from the Centreto a number of questions.

“Even as the mineral andnatural resources rich Odishais playing a crucial role in thedevelopment of the country,the Centre has been neglectingthe State for political reasons.The Centre has been hood-winking Odisha people thoughit is earning huge revenue fromthe State,” BYJD presidentAmaresh Patri said. The BJDyouth and student wing mem-bers lashed out at the Centreover lack of political will togrant Special Category Status toOdisha, failure in creatingemployment opportunities,failure to solve the Mahanadiwater sharing dispute betweenOdisha and Chhattisgarh, poor

condition of the NationalHighways in the State, delay inrailways projects, poor bankingservice in the rural areas, nothiking the paddy MSP, Ujjwalairregularities and negligencetowards dalits and tribals.

“Through the ‘HaqMaguchi Odisha’ campaign,the party would corner the BJP-led Central Government toexpose its step-motherly atti-tude towards Odisha.Subsequently, the campaignwill be extended to other dis-tricts of the State,” said Patriand BCJD presidentRanapratap Patra. The cam-paign would be intensified byholding roadside meetingsfrom panchayats to villages inall the districts against the BJPGovernment at the Centre.The youth would beapproached to join the move-ment in giving justice toOdisha, the youth leaderssaid.

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Speculations are rife herethat local BJD MLA

Ranendra Pratap Swain wouldjoin the BJP soon ahead of theelections.

Notably, local BJP leaderBibhuti Mishra had recentlysaid in a public meeting thatSwain would join the saffronparty soon with his support-ers.

Swain is reportedly intouch with the BJP high com-mand to secure the party tick-et for the Athagarh Assemblyseat. His mentor BaijayantPanda, who is now already inthe BJP, is making all efforts totake him, Damodar Rout,Kharabela Swain and some

other State leaders into hisBJP team.

Since Swain is humiliatedin the BJD camp and renewalof his BJD ticket for electionthis time is uncertain, he isplanning to join the BJP,sources said.

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Former Minister PanchananKanungo, who is likely to be

fielded as the Congress’ candi-dates for the CuttackParliamentary constituency,visited the Athagarh Congressoffice on Monday and held dis-cussions with party workers asto how to manage the electionin the party’s favour.

Former Puri MLA UmaBallav Rath, who is likely to bethe Congress nominee for theAthagarh Assembly seat inthis election, greeted Kanungoand arranged a workers' meetin his office premises. Almostall off ice-bearers of theCongress from different gram

panchayats under localAssembly segment andAthagarh NAC were present.

They vowed that they wouldwork had for the Congress’win in both Athagarh

Assembly constituency andCuttack Lok Sabha seat thistime.

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To ensure a smooth flow oftraffic in front of the

Jagannath Temple and in itsvicinity and maintain disciplineduring darshan of the deities,the Puri district administrationhas declared the Singhadwar(Lions Gate) as a no-parkingzone.

As part of the initiative,the district administrationhas launched an eviction driveto remove all makeshift stallsin front of the Sindhadwarand in the surroundings.Neither two-wheelers norfour-wheelers would beallowed for parking in thearea, said an official.

Besides, district CollectorJyot i Prakash Dash hasdirected the officials con-cerned to strictly enforcetraffic regulations on thisstretch of road and shift beg-gars from the Singhadwar toother places.

The district administra-tion’s move has been widelyappreciated by servitors anddevotees.

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The Puri Parliamentary seatand the six Assembly seg-

ments under it would go to pollin two phases on April 23 and28.

While Puri sadar,Brahmagiri, Satyabadi andPipili Assembly segmentswould go to poll on April 23,in the Nimapara and KakatpurAssembly constituencies, elec-tion would be held on April 29.

For first phase election,the candidates can file nomina-tion paper from March 28 toApril 4. Withdrawal of nomi-nation has been scheduled forApril 8. Similarly for April 29election, candidates can filenomination papers startingfrom April 2 to April 9.Withdrawal of nominationpapers has been fixed on April

12.Out of total of 13,544,255

voters in Puri district, as manyas 7, 04,241 (males) and 6,49,954 (females) will partici-pate in the voting process.Among them, 53,645 voters arenew who will exercise theirfranchise for the first time.Similarly 18,200 physicallyimpaired voters will cast theirvotes to choose their candi-dates.

In the total of 1593 boothsin the district, 13,000Government employees wouldbe deployed to facilitate the pollprocess. While as many as4,301EVM-VPat machineswould be engaged in booths,85 micro-observers, 181 sectorofficers and 1,700 womenworkers would be assignedduty for free and fair polls.

As per ECI guidelines,every booth would be equipped

with drinking water, rest sheds,toilets, electricity and rampfacilities. Besides, specialarrangements would be madein every booth for physicallyimpaired voters. For security,seven companies of Centralforces have been requisitioned.Besides deployment of Statepolice would be made for freeand fair election, said CollectorJyotiprakash Das in a Pressmeet on Monday here.

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The Red rebels after lyinglow for some time again

wreaked havoc in the Maoist-infested district by targeting aroad construction work onMonday. Sources said nearly 40to 50 armed rebels swoopeddown on Kiribeda villageunder the Maithali police sta-tion and after terrorising theworkers of the constructioncompany torched a JCBmachine and a tipper engagedin construction of a rural road.

The ultras also thrashedthe drivers of the two vehiclesand warned the other employ-ees of dire consequences if theycarried out any further work.Till filing of the report, thepolice were yet to reach thespot. The Maoists are againstany kind of development in theregion particularly againstimproved road communica-tions because they fear securi-ty forces can easily makeinroads into their territory

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When farmers’ issues werea key deciding factor in

the Assembly polls in threeHindi-belt States likeChhattisgarh, MP andRajasthan, which were heldclose to the timing of the com-ing general elections andAssembly polls in some States,it is farmers who are veritablyin the centre of politics.

Consequently, it is not dif-ficult to understand why thereis so much buzz around thepro-farmer schemes imple-mented by the BJPGovernment at the Centre andthe BJD Government inOdisha. But the puzzle is whilethe BJD is drumbeating somuch about the KALIA schemeas a role model in the wholecountry, describing it as thebest catering to the needs of thefarmers and ending their dis-tress, the farmers for whom the

scheme is meant exclusivelyseem not to be content.

Given their old demandsfor price, prestige and pension,and their prolonged agitationover them, the KALIA schemeremains under the shadow ofskepticism and there is a nat-ural question as to whether ithas failed to show genuineconcern for the farmers andthereby win their confidence.From the threat of poll boycott

announced by the NavnirmanKrushak Sangathan (NKS), aforum which has been muchbattered and bruised over itslong struggle against the StateGovernment, having been notallowed several times to orga-nize their rally in the capitalcity and lathi charged and dis-persed, it seems theGovernment showering boonsand the farmers’ body cryingover farmers’ plights are not on

the same page.The Opposition like

the BJP and theCongress too are target-ing the BJD Governmentover the KALIA schemefor being partisan, goal-oriented at an electiontime and mired in cor-ruption.

Leader ofOpposition NarasinghaMishra blasted the StateGovernment and theBJP Government at theCentre for misleadingthe farmers over theirfinancial sops. On thecontrary, he laid stresson giving paddy bonusand MSP hike, besides a

permanent solution to theendemic problems in agricul-ture sector. He describedChhattisgarh’s new CongressGovernment’s plan to helpfarmers as ideal and more ben-eficial.

Some BJP leaders alsoflayed the BJD Government forusing KALIA as election pro-paganda. They warned thatKAILA would boomerang forthe BJD in the coming elec-

tions.Nevertheless, the BJD

remains unfazed and CMNaveen Patnaik has beenorganising rallies across theState for KALIA scheme anddistributing sops under it.

The moot point now iswhether KALIA is an electionstunt. Is it a new formula towoo voters by monetary grat-ification, albeit legally, andspread publicity about theGovernment’s pro-farmerimage? Or is it a step forwardin starting a process to mitigatethe large-scale farm distress?Only time will say.

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Disabled peoples organi-sations held a meet here

to discuss what political par-ties should include in theirmanifestoes for them for theAssembly and general elec-tions. It was supported by theSightsavers. In the welcomeaddress, Sightsavers Stateprogramme manager AkbarM Alam said that despite animportant electoral base, thePerson’s with Disabilities(PwDs) never secure a pri-ority group by political par-ties in their election mani-festo due to their geograph-ical spread and invisibleposition in society and polit-ical economy.

Most of the political andelection discourse in media oroutside media limits the scopeof disability issues to onlyaccessible election campaignsand their voting rights. As aresult, missing commitments inthe manifesto for these vul-nerable communities reduces

their chances and scope foroverall development post elec-tion development programmes,he told. The workshop pro-posed a detailed disability spe-cific manifesto in the areas ofsocial security, health, educa-tion, livelihood and employ-ment and socio-cultural andpolitical rights.

It was resolved that a‘candidate manifesto forPwDs’ shall be disseminatedto political groups for theirreference and priority con-sideration. An Odiya trans-lated version of the AccessibleElection Framework devel-oped by the Sightsavers waslaunched.

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With the State FinanceDepartment having

asked all Government depart-ments to maintain austeritywhile purchasing vehicles, theForest Department has beenregularly demanding andobtaining luxurious vehiclesfrom mining companies,industries and even PSUs.

The department insists onthe user agency to providesuch vehicles apparently forpatrolling and supervision ofcompensatory afforestationforests (CAF). Vehicles are alsoobtained for site specificwildlife conservation plans.

Almost all these luxuriousvehicles are being used bysenior officers based inBhubaneswar and Circle HQwho never carry out patrolling.

Every DFO has at least 2-3 Government vehicles alreadyat his disposal; hence there isno need for new luxuriousvehicle for supervision.Moreover, luxurious vehicleslike Toyota Innova or ToyotaCrysta model can never beused for visiting the jungles.

Information obtained videRTI application dated10.12.2018 has revealed thateven Forest Minister BijoyshreeRoutray is using a ToyotaCrysta donated by steel majorTata Steel in 2018 costing Rs 25lakh in lieu of a site specificwildlife conservation plan forJoda West Manganese mines byTata Steel. He has never donepatrolling with the luxuriousvehicle which cannot run onrough roads.

Though the ForestDepartment spends at least Rs400 crore of CAMPA moneyevery year for forest improve-ment, they have not used themoney to purchase such vehi-cles. They are aware that the

Government rules prohibitingpurchase of luxurious vehi-cles. No Government officercan purchase high end luxuri-ous AC vehicles as per the aus-terity circular dated 14.03.2001issued by Finance Department.No vehicle other than non-ACdiesel Ambassador car or non-AC diesel jeep can be pur-chased. Forest officials havebeen regularly circumventingthe ban by ensuring that vehi-cles are purchased by compa-nies directly and handed over

to them.Interestingly, no other

Government Departmentwhich badly needs vehicleslike Health and Mass Educationfor public services is recipientof such largesse because themining companies can neverget any benefits from them.The Government is aware ofthe huge conflict of interest buthas never stopped the unethi-cal practice. The ForestDepartment is the regulatorand enforces forest laws. In fact,the Forest Secretary was alsousing a vehicle in 2008 donat-ed by a mining company.

Forest officials cannot beexpected to enforce forest lawsif they use vehicles gifted bymining companies. That wasthe reason why the mega min-ing scam occurred in the for-est areas of Sundargarh andKeonjhar districts.

(Mohanty is a Member,Transparency International,India)

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With April 23 fixed as polldate for the Keonjhar

Lok Shabh seat and sevenAssembly segments under it,voters are keen to know aboutthe probable candidates of dif-ferent political parties.

According to many,incumbent BJD MPSahakuntala Laguri, who hadown 2014 election by defeatinghis rival BJP candidate AnantaNayak by a margin of 1,57,317, might not get ticket from herparty this time as she has notkept her support base intact.Names of two BJD leaders,Ramrai Munduiya and MadhavSardar, are now doing roundsfor the LS seat. Ramrai, aretired bank officer and chair-man of SDC, Keonjhar, hadearned a name both as a bankofficer and a social worker

before joining the BJD. Madhavhad won the seat on a Congressticket in 1996. Many say thatMadhab might be given a tick-et for the Sadar Assembly seatand Ramrai be fielded for theLS seat.

On the other hand,Ananta Naik, a two-time BJP

MP from 1999 to 2004, haslost the election in 2009 and2014. Despite mania, he couldget only 25.57 per cent of totalvotes polled. In 2009, he wasin third position getting only18.39 per cent of votes polled,next to the Congress’sDhanurjaya Sidhu. Now, Sidhu

is a BJP leader and expected tocontest from the TelkoiAssembly constituency.

Though Ananta has thebacking of the RSS, still helooks to have not been able tomobilise mass support for him.Besides, names of two otherBJP leaders, Dr Fakir MohanNaik and Dr RaghunathHembram, are being discussedin public for the LS seat. Naikseems to have established agood rapport with commonpeople as a doctor.

The Congress might fieldBasudev Naik, a Zila Parishadmember and known as a closeconfidante of ChampuaIndependent MLs SantanMahakud. In 2009, Basudevhad contested as an indepen-dent candidate and got 1,01,999votes, which accounted for 10per cent of the total votespolled.

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With elections datesdeclared and model code

of conduct enforced, the BJD,BJP and Congress are fullygeared up in Baleswar.

Notably, the BJD while haswon all the Assembly seatsexcept Remuna and loneParliamentary constituencythat includes Badasahi(Mayurbhanj) in 2014, it isleaving no stone unturned toretain the same position underthe leadership of district BJDpresident and local MP RKJena.

On the other hand, the BJPis also making all-out efforts toretain Remuna constituencyand snatch some more seats.

The Congress, which wasvirtually in a dormant state foryears after its MP nominee

Srikant Jena, having lost thepoll in 2014, has geared up afternew appointment of PCC chief.

The party workers areenergized after it was indicat-ed that Navajyoti Pattnayak(son of PCC president NiranjanPatnaik) is likely to be nomi-nated from Congress for theBaleswar Parliamentary seatthis time.

Meanwhile, as per specu-lations, if the BJD projects awoman candidate for BaleswarParliamentary seat, other twopolitical parties might have toalter their strategies.

While rumours run thick

and fast that many sittingMLAs would be denied ticketsby the BJD facing anti-incum-bency, the panic ridden arerunning from pillar to post toconvince the boss that theyhave winnabilty prospects.

The BJP is likely to suffera big jolt before elections,which would be going for pollson April 29, as at least two lead-ers decided to quit the partyand join the BJD.

Sources said SushamaBiswal, an active woman lead-ers of mass interested for Nilgiriticket from BJD party (unsuc-cessfully contested last time)and Sashi Sahoo, anotherleader of Simulia have decidedto quit the BJP along with theirhuge number of supportersincluding incumbent and for-mer elected representatives(PRI).

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The Union Government hasextended the tenure of the

Press Information Bureau (PIB)Principal Director General(DG) Sitanshu Ranjan Kar bysix months from his scheduledsuperannuation date of March31. Kar was given a six-monthextension as the PrincipalSpokesperson of Governmentof India and the DG of the PIB,according to an order of theMinistry of Personnel.

Odisha-born 1983-batchIndian Information Service(IIS) officer had assumed theoffice as the Principal DG ofthe PIB on May 1, 2018, replac-ing Frank Noronha.

Prior to his appointment asthe PIB head, Kar was workingas the DG in News ServiceDivision of All India Radio(AIR) in 2015.

The IIS officer has heldvarious posts in several mediadivisions under Ministry ofInformation and Broadcastingduring his 35-year-long career.

After completion of thefoundation course from the LalBahadur Shastri NationalAcademy of Administration,Mussoorie and orientationcourse from the IndianInstitute of MassCommunication (IIMC) inNew Delhi, Kar had served fora brief period in News ServiceDivision of the AIR. Later, hejoined Doordarshan where hespent 17 years in keys posts.

Later in 2005, Kar wasappointed as the Spokespersonof the Ministry of Defence in2005.

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APlus Two boy student of theFakirpur City School in

Anandpur in the districtallegedly attacked a girl class-mate in the school premises onMonday morning. According toreports, the accused BalabhadraJena allegedly stabbed the girlwith a sharp weapon andinjured her critically.

Following the incident, theschool authorities rushed thegirl to the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital andlater shifted her to the SCBMedical College Hospital inCuttack after her health con-dition deteriorated. On beinginformed, police reached thespot and initiated a probe intothe incident. Later, they man-aged to nab the accused and areinterrogating him, said sources.

Though the exact motivebehind the attack is yet to beknown, an on- sided love affairis suspected to be the reasonbehind the crime.

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Aseven-year-old girl wasallegedly raped by a 70-

year man at New Camp StreetII under the Paralakhemundipolice station in Gajapati dis-trict on Sunday.

The incident came to lightafter the girl’s father BUmasankar lodged a complaintin the connection with theParalakhemundi police at latenight.

As per the complaint,accused Barik Pradhan had

been sexually harassing theminor girl after luring her withchocolates for the last two tothree days.

On Sunday evening,Pradhan took her to an iso-lated place and raped her.After returning, when the girlnarrated her ordeal before herfamily members, the latterlodged a complaint withpolice.

“A case has been regis-tered under Section 376 (AB)and 506/34 of the IPC andSection 6 of the POCSO Act.The accused has been detainedfor interrogation and furtherinvestigation is underway,” saidParalakhemundi SDPO ThakurPrasad Patra.

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The West Bengal policeSpecial Task Force (STF) on

Monday arrested another per-son from Odisha in connectionwith the seizure of huge cacheof explosives from a truck.

The accused identified asan explosive dealer SukantSahu, was arrested from Bastain the district on charges of ille-gally transporting explosives,reports said.

Later, the West Bengal STFproduced Sahu in a local courtand took him on remand toWest Bengal for further inves-tigations.

Earlier, the STF had appre-hended the truck’s driverIndrajit Bhui and helperPadmalochan Dey, both resi-dents of Basta area.

Later, based on informa-tion provided by the duo,Sheikh Rabiul (40), who wasgoing to receive the consign-ment at Barasat in West Bengal,

was arrested.The Odisha Crime Branch

is also investigating whetherSahu has any connection withthe Maoists and from where heused to procure the explosivesand to whom he used to sup-ply them.

Notably, a truck loadedwith 1,000 kg of explosive sub-stances (potassium nitrate)stored in 27 gunny bags wasintercepted by the WB STF atTala Bridge in Chitpur area ofKolkata on March 9.

The vehicle was on its wayfrom Odisha and headingtowards North 24 Parganasdistrict of West Bengal.

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Bibhu Prasad Sahu, founderof the Youth for Social

Development (YSD), has beenselected for the InternationalVisitors LeadershipProgramme (IVLP) of theDepartment of State of theUnited States of America.

He is the first Odia civilsociety leader to be selectedunder the “Transparency andAccountability in Government”theme of the IVLP, a premierprofessional exchange pro-gramme of the US.

The theme will examinehow transparency and account-ability in Government ensure

public trust in the integrity andfairness of elected officials and

public servants. This will incor-porate case studies that illus-trate whistle blower protectionsand current and ongoing trans-parency investigations.

Sahu has worked on issuesof governance, accountability,citizen participation, childrights and youth developmentand climate justice since 2006.

He would visit WashingtonDC, Springfield, Jacksonville,Portland and Chicago duringMarch-April 2019 along withhis fellow leaders from SriLanka, Nepal, Bangladesh adMaldives.

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Ramakrishna Mutt,Dhenkanal founder presi-

dent and social workerBhubanananda Dash passedaway here.

He was 87 years old. Hewas born at Sunakhandi villagenear Salepur in Cuttack district.After retirement as a telecomengineer, he was completelyengaged in various welfareactivities of Ramakrishna Mutt.

His mortal remains wereconsigned to flame at PuriSwargadwar. He is survived byhis wife, two sons and daugh-ters-in-law, four daughters andsons-in- law. During the funer-al, his elder son retired bankerSatyaranjan Dash, younger sonengineer Manoranjan Dash,sons-in-law well known busi-nessman Bijoy Kumar Kar,retired banker and education-ist HarekrushnaPraharaj, AVPof Utkal Alumina AbinashPanda and Director HR IndianOil Ranjan Kumar Mohapatrawere present.

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The Manav AdhikarSurakshya Manch on

Monday held its 83rd “GhantaYatra” in protest against variousirregularities in the MKCGMedical College Hospital andapathetic attitude of the StateGovernment towards the pre-mier hospital.

“While nany of MKCGdoctors are attending privateclinics during duty hours, noaction is being taken againstthem. Super SpecialityDepartment has not been madefunctional and a special wardfor senior citizens has not beenconsidered. Niramaya schemehas totally failed in the hospi-tal. Despite repeated demands,the Government has sit silentover these issues,” lamentedAbani Kumar Gaya and othersof the Manch.

They too demanded thatthe Dialysis Department bemade functional at the earliestas the number of kidneypatients is on the rise inGanajm district.

Later, the Manch sent amemorandum to Health andFamily Welfare Minister PratapJena through theSuperintended of the MKCGMedical, seeking fulfillment oftheir demands.

Among others,Laxminarayan Rout,Rameshwar Satapathy,Rajanikant Mandal and AjitKumar Sahu present.

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Page 4: ˝ ˛+ ˘ˇ ˆ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ˆˆ !˚ˆ#$ ˘% ˆ˙ ˝ ˇ ˆ ......2019/03/12  · poll dates during Ramzan. The EC clarified that the main festival (June 4) and Fridays (falling in

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Villagers of Ranjana strong-ly opposed a notice sent to

them by Pallahara Tehsildarseeking their consent to leaseout 31.24 acres of land bearingKhata No-46 and Plot No-190in their village to one LaxmiSingh Samanta ofBhubaneswar.

Tehsildar served a notice tovillagers through the BatisuanRI. Knowing about the lease,villagers have filed a petitionbefore the Sub-Collector,Pallahara requesting him tocancel the lease applicationsoon.

“The land is very impor-tant for village as it is beingused as grazing field and play-

ground and for holding culturalfunctions. While theGovernment has failed to pro-vide land to landless tribals, itis disappointing that theTehsildar is showing sympathyto a outsider,” lamented vil-lagers.

They threatened to take tothe street if the lease applicationis not cancelled soon.

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Former Kendrapada MP andBJP national vice-president

Baijayant Panda visitedKendrapada district on Mondayfor the first time after joiningthe saffron panty on March 4.

A large number of youthstook Panda in a bike rallyfrom Duhuria to Baladev JewTemple. Panda alleged thatBJD leaders are shelteringcriminals for which violenceagainst women and children ison the rise in the State. He also

alleged that the State has laggedbehind in healthcare andindustrial sectors.

Panda assured his sup-porters that he would contin-ue to be with them and wouldwork for development the dis-trict like earlier years.

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The Centre for Advocacyand Research (CFAR), a

national based organisationworking for the slum dwellersin Bhubaneswar pleaded for“Balance for Batter” in thesociety observing theInternational Women’s Day(IWD) on March 8 at BudhaMandir here. Around 100 par-ticipants coming cross differentparts of the city joined.

“The celebration is torespect all those women cham-pions who have brought sig-nificant change in their life, intheir families and in the soci-ety as a whole by establishingand promoting gender justicenorms in their action,” saidJyoshna Sahu of CFAR.

Banajyoshna Parida ofKargil Basti shared the variousissues and challenges beingfaced by the women living in theslum areas of Bhubaneswar.She said, “When we are talkingof gender justice, we should

focus on what justice women aregetting living in poverty.” Shefurther drew the attention of theofficials to resolve the basicproblems being faced by womenliving in the slum areas. Besides,women from the communityshared their experiences of their

heroic act. The importantwomen issues discussed on theoccasion are woman taking careof old parent who are neglectedby their son, promoting girlchild birth, raising voice againstany kind of violence on womanin family, demanding for land

and property rights etc.BMC Deputy

Commissioner Pramod Prusty,State Commission for WomenMember Snehanjali Mohantyand Child Welfare CommitteeMember Rajalaxmi Dash,among others, spoke.

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The Wisdom Tree GlobalSchool Kindergarten

organised a discussion on‘Early Childhood Education:Benchmark Learning Practices’here. Eminent educationistPadma Shri Gowri Ishwaranand Executive Director,

Sambad Group, Tanaya Patnaikstressed on the need for incor-porating global best practices inearly childhood education sys-tems in India, including inte-gration of technology andlearning through play.

The programme wasattended by founders and headsof all major early childhood

education institutions inBhubaneswar as well as a largenumber of teachers from var-ious schools in the city.

Those who were felicitatedwere Pushpa Dhawan andNidhi Dhawan of HappyHours, Nadia Moghbelpour ofBlossoms School, Vimaljit Duaof Ruchika School, Poly Patnaik

of Mother’s Public School,Kasturi Mohapatra, formerChairperson, StateCommission for Protection ofChild Rights, Mala Mishra ofDPS Kalinga, Monalisa Bal ofKIIT International School,Sikata Das of BMPS Takshila,and Sudha Mishra of LittleSteps Preschool.

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Two medicos fromOdisha registered

their names inGuinness WorldRecords in categoriesof fastest knee strike(full contact kneestrike) and hip hopdance.

Sachin Behera andAman Chhatria ofBhubaneswar-basedHi-Tech College ofPhysiotherapy achieved successin full contact knee strike andhip hop dance respectively.

The duo will officially enterthe Guinness World Recordsafter approval from the author-ities.

The 19-year-old Sachin,who hails from Nuapada dis-trict, set the world record byhitting the objects 137 timeswith two knees in one minute.He broke the previous record of

India’s Jayant Reddy, who hadscored 115 knee strikes.

Similarly, Aman, a studentof pharmacy department of theprivate-run medical collegeand the resident of Kantabanjiarea of Balangir district, founda place in the Guinness WorldRecords in hip hop dancebreaking the previous record ofPakistan’s Farhan Ayub. Heperformed 51 steps in a minute,whereas Ayub had set therecord for 41 hip hop steps.

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The Khordha Zilla PaikaMahasangha held an exec-

utive meeting under the chair-manship of newly elected pres-ident Purnachandra Patsani atthe foothill of Barunei here onMonday. State president AshokKumar Palatasingh attending atthe meeting said Paikas would

play a vital role in the comingAssembly election.

Members demanded thatGovernment renovate the PaikaAkhadas and give school statusto them. Besides they demand-ed formation of a PaikaAkhada, Paika Regiment andprovision of allowance toPaikas.

A large number of Paikas

from nooks and corners of theState Joined the meeting.District functionaries likePrafulla Samantaray,Krushnachandra Harichandan,Bhimasen Pradhan andMrutyunjay Chhotray dis-cussed about various prob-lems of Paikas. Paika GuruPurnachandra Patsani wasfelicitated on the occasion.

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The Vedanta Limited con-cluded its ten-day long pro-

gramme for the InternationalWomen’s Day in Lanjigarhblock. The programme wit-

nessed a gathering of morethan 3,000 women from 60nearby villages on March 9.

Apart from a host of activ-ities, an intensive two-daytraining programme was con-ducted for 36 Child Care

Centre teachers on best prac-tices on child care and teach-ing skills.

Notably, out of the core vil-lages around VedantaLanjigarh, five Sarpanch head-ing the panchayat are women.

The eminent women whohave brought change and devel-opment in the Kalahandi dis-trict were felicitated. Amongthem were Banadana Naik,Inspector in-charge, Ambodalapolice station and Kumudini

Mishra – micro planning andlivelihood expert from DistrictPlanning and Monitoring Unit.

All the stakeholders andguests took an oath on collec-tive responsibility and puttingefforts for uplifting andempowering women.

The day was filled with cul-tural programmes like Odishidance, Sambalpuri dance,Adivasi dance, singing, a skit onwomen and its development,stalls with games, food, Dhokraart and Saura art (tribal paint-ing), exhibition cum sale ofSHG products and sand artbeing showcased along withfree health check-up campsset up by Vedanta Hospital.

Among others, many localofficials, beneficiaries, opin-ion makers and leaders andGovernment personnel werepresent.

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Asection of the dominantJat community has

announced to boycott the rul-ing Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in Lok Sabha polls 2019.Upset with the BJP over theirlong-pending demandsincluding reservation, some Jatoutfits have announced not tosupport the BJP and vote infavor of other political partiesin the polls.

Among the claimants ofJat vote bank in Haryana arepolitical parties includingCongress, Indian National LokDal (INLD) and JannayakJanta Party (JJP). Though Jatsin Haryana don’t traditional-ly vote for the BJP, the com-munity’s consolidation behindthe Congress or any otherpolitical party may upset BJP’spolitical fortunes in Jatland-

Haryana, having 10 Lok Sabhaseats, which goes to vote onMay 12.

The Jats constitute nearly29 percent of Haryana’s pop-ulation (25 percent electorate).Barring northern Haryana,the Jats have strongholdseverywhere across the state.

Their strength is particu-larly high in central Haryana,which includes Rohtak LokSabha constituency seat. Thecommunity also has a signif-icant presence in Hisar,Bhiwani- Mahendragarh andSonepat parliamentary seats.

There is resentmentamong the influential Jat com-munity against the BJP overtheir unfulfilled demands ofreservation in educationalinstitutions and governmentjobs, release of youths arrest-ed during quota stir 2016 andwithdrawal of cases registeredagainst them.

“The Jats will boycott theBJP in Haryana as well asother states across the country.We will support mahagath-bandhan and Congress in 2019Lok Sabha polls,” said YashpalMalik, the president of All-India Jat Aarakshan SangharshSamiti (AIJASS), while talkingto The Pioneer.

Malik, who is spearhead-ing the Jat quota agitation inHaryana, said that Bhaicharayatras are being held in vari-ous villages of Haryana toapprize people about thebetrayal of BJP to the Jat com-munity. This campaign willcontinue during next twomonths, he said.

We have decided to sup-port SP, BSP and Congress inUttar Pradesh and Congressparty in Rajasthan, he said.

When asked about AIJASSsupport to a political party inHaryana, Malik said, we will

decide this after the announce-ment of candidates. Congressand INLD have assured us tofulfill our demands while JJPis yet to make its stand clear onour demands, the Jat leadersaid.

The Jats, an upper casteare usually seen as playing akey role in electing or over-throwing Jat leaders in thepolls. In the past threedecades, the dominant Jatcommunity is stated to havealways polarized behind afavoured Jat leader in themaze of Haryana politics.

This time, Haryana will bewitnessing a multi-corneredpolitical battle with BJP,Congress, INLD, JJP of HisarMP Dushyant Chautala, AamAadmi Party and BahujanSamaj Party (BSP)- LoktantraSuraksha Party (LSP) combinein the fray.

Hawa Singh Sangwan,

who is heading another factionof the AIJASS in Haryanaalleged that the BJP is attempt-ing to consolidate the non-Jatvote bank in their favor forgeneral polls. The ruling BJPis aware of resentment amongthe Jat community and relyingon Jat vs non-Jat divide to winthe polls now, he said.

Sangwan said, “Even aftergiving assurances to the Jatcommunity to fulfill theirdemands, the BJP has betrayedthem. We have decided toboycott the BJP in the elec-tions, he said.

We will hold meetings invillages and run a campaignon social media to make anappeal to the Jat community tovote against the BJP in thepolls, he added. According tothe political analysts, the castepolitics will play a key roleduring general elections, withthe state of Haryana, bitterly

divided on caste lines follow-ing the violent Jat quota agi-tation 2016.

They also say that with thedominant Jat communityunhappy with the ruling partydue to their unfulf i l leddemands, the BJP will befocusing on cobbling togeth-er other castes includingDalits, Brahmins, Ahirs,Gujjars, Baniyas among othersto win the polls in Haryana.

The violent Jat reservationstir in 2016 and unfulfilleddemands of the Jat communi-ty is also seen as a key electionissue. 31 people had diedwhile more than 200 wereinjured during the Jat agitation2016 in the state. Apart fromthe unfulfilled demands, theBJP’s bold decision of havinga non-Jat Chief MinisterManohar Lal continues toupset the Jat community in thestate.

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Former Haryana ChiefMinister Bhupinder Singh

Hooda on Monday metCongress chief Rahul Gandhi todiscuss the political scenario inthe state. While the schedule ofLok Sabha polls has beenannounced, the Congress is yetto announce election committeesfor the state. The delay is statedto be due to the factionalism inHaryana Congress and contin-uous demand of replacement ofstate party chief Ashok Tanwar.

12 Haryana CongressMLAs, owing allegiance toHooda had in January metparty’s incharge for Haryana,Ghulam Nabi Azad anddemanded change in partystate leadership. These 12MLAs and other senior partyleaders have been demandingouster of Tanwar from the

state leadership since long.Among 10 Lok Sabha seats inHaryana, Congress had wononly one seat in 2014 polls.

Two-time former CMHooda, while talking to themediapersons that discussionon current political scenariowas held during his meetingwith the party chief. On aquestion related to factionalismin the state party unit, Hoodasaid that there is no infightingin Haryana Congress and theparty will unitedly contest theLok Sabha polls.

Notably, Rohtak MPDeepender Hooda, son ofBhupinder Singh Hooda, andformer MP Shruti Choudhry,daughter of CLP leader KiranChoudhry, are likely to bagCongress nominations fromRohtak and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh respectively for2019 general elections.

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New Delhi: A former DGP ofUttar Pradesh and an environ-mentalist have urged theSupreme Court to direct theElection Commission (EC) toban roadshows and bike ralliesduring polls, saying they violateEC’s instructions and causedamage to the environment.

The plea, filed by formerdirector general of policeVikram Singh and environ-mentalist Shaivika Agrawal,was mentioned for urgent list-ing on Monday before a benchcomprising Chief Justice RanjanGogoi and Justices DeepakGupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

The Bench, however,refused to accord urgent listing.

In their plea, the petition-ers have said roadshows andbike rallies during electionperiod cause air and noise pol-lution and traffic jams whichresult in inconvenience to thegeneral public.

The plea, drawn by advo-cate Virag Gupta, said instruc-tions issued by the EC withregard to roadshows and polit-ical processions mandate thatvehicles must be registered

and a convoy cannot havemore than ten vehicles.

As per EC’s instructions, itadded, two convoys mustmaintain a distance of at least200 metres, more than half theroad cannot be covered and thenumber of vehicles and personsjoining the roadshow has to beintimated to authorities inadvance. PTI

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The Centre has allowed StateGovernments to take some

enemy properties for publicuse. The move comes amid theCentral Government’s efforts tosell more than 9,400 enemyproperties, worth over �1 lakhcrore, and �3,000 crore worthof enemy shares.

The guidelines for dispos-al of the Enemy PropertyOrder, 2018 have been amend-ed to facilitate “usages of enemyproperty by the StateGovernment exclusively forpublic use”, according to arecent notification issued by theHome Ministry.

Enemy properties are thoseproperties that were left behindby the people who took citi-zenship of Pakistan and China.There are 9,280 such propertiesleft behind by Pakistani nation-als and 126 by Chinese nation-als, an official of the Ministrysaid. Of the total properties leftbehind by those who tookPakistani citizenship, 4,991 arelocated in Uttar Pradesh, thehighest in the country. WestBengal has 2,735 such estates

and Delhi 487. The highestnumber of properties left byChinese nationals is inMeghalaya (57).West Bengalhas 29 such properties andAssam seven.

“The estimated value of allenemy properties is approxi-mately �1 lakh crore,” UnionMinister of State for HomeHansraj Gangaram Ahir hadtold the Rajya Sabha last year.The Central Government lastmonth had constituted a high-level committee to recommendthe quantum and price or priceband for sale of enemy shares,worth �3,000 crore.

A total 6,50,75,877 sharesin 996 companies of 20,323shareholders are under thecustody of the Custodian ofEnemy Property for India,another official said. Of thesecompanies, 588 are functionalor active companies, 139 ofthese are listed and the remain-ing are unlisted.

The act was amended in2017 to ensure that the suc-cessors of those who migratedto Pakistan and China willhave no claim over the prop-erties left behind in India.

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India and the UK will discussthe entire range of maritime

co-operation during Navy chiefAdmiral Sunil Lanba’s four-dayvisit to London startingTuesday. The two navies havetraditional links and Lanbaduring his talks with UK Navycounterparts will explore newavenues to further strengthenthe Defence ties.

The relations between thetwo Navies have come a longway since institutionalisation ofvarious Defence forums forenhancing bilateral relationshipbetween the two countries.With the constitution of theIndia-UK Defence ConsultativeGroup (DCG) and the MilitarySub Group (MSG) in 1995, atwo-tier structure of coopera-tion was established to progressvarious areas of defence coop-eration, Navy officials said onMonday while explaining thesignificance of Lanba’s visit.

In September 2004, thetwo countries inked a pact toembark upon a strategic part-nership in which Defencecooperation figured promi-nently. The ‘Service-level StaffTalks’ forum, officially referredto as ‘Executive Steering Group’is the primary mechanism ofenhancing cooperationbetween the two Armed Forces.

Indian Navy and Royal Navyare partners in the Indian OceanNaval Symposium (IONS), amaritime co-operation constructconceptualised and pioneered byIndian Navy in 2008. The RoyalNavy participated in the 10thanniversary celebrations of IONSat Kochi in November 2018. Thebilateral naval exercise Konkanis a significant operational linkbetween the two navies and isheld every year, alternately off thecoast of India and the UK. Thetwo navies also interact on a hostof issues like training, doctrinalconcepts and maritime domainawareness.

During the visit, Lanba isscheduled to hold discussionswith the Chief of Defence Staff,UK in London and the First SeaLord and Chief of the NavalStaff of the Royal Navy atPortsmouth.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Monday said it has attachedassets worth �5.83 crore inFrance of Valerie Michel, ex-wife of middleman ChristianMichel who had receivedProceeds of Crime from theaccused who is an Europeanmiddleman who is facingmoney laundering charges inconnection with theAgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.

The attached property inFrance is in the name of a firmSCI Solaime situated at 45Avenue Victor Hugo, Parisbelonging to his ex-wifeValerie, officials said.

Christian Michel Jameswas extradited from UAE toIndia in December 2018. Hewas arrested on December 22,2018, under Section 19 ofPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) andwas subjected to custodialinterrogation by in ED.

The ED probe has revealedthat Michel is a middlemanwho received kickbacks fromthe VVIP Chopper deal to thetune of Euro 42 million. Duringthe course of investigation, itwas revealed that funds weretransferred from Dubai-basedcompanies to various entities.

The ED investigation alsorevealed that Michel had trans-ferred the amount received askickbacks to various entities,including Euro 922185.76equivalent to �5,83,40,422 tohis ex-wife Valerie, and subse-quently to SCI Solaime forinvestment in purchase of theattached property.

The agency would soonsend the attachment order to itsFrench counterpart and theasset would be seized and heldwith a competent court inFrance till the case was finalisedand the accused convicted inIndia, the officials added.

Further investigations toidentify the remainingProceeds of Crime are underprogress, the officials added.

Meanwhile, a Delhi courton Monday sought a responsefrom Tihar Jail authorities onthe ED’s plea to interrogate

Michel in connectionwith the AgustaWestlandchopper case inside theprison.

The court has directed thejail authority to submit itsresponse to the ED’s plea byTuesday.

Special Judge ArvindKumar also issued a productionwarrant for Tuesday againstMichel after his lawyer allegedmental torture inside jail.

The court had earlier lam-basted the jail authorities forfailing to justify the shifting ofMichel to a high-security cell inisolation, saying it will start anenquiry if it does not get aproper response.

Michel is among the threeEuropean alleged middlemenunder the probe of the CBI andthe Enforcement Directorate(ED) with the two others beingGuido Haschke and CarloGerosa.

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The number of people eli-gible to vote in the Lok

Sabha polls beginning nextmonth has increased by 8.4crore as compared to the 2014general election, and thisincludes 1.5 crore “young vot-ers” who are in the 18-19 agegroup and will exercise theirfranchise for the first time. Thetotal electorate in the countrythis year has increased toapproximately 90 crore com-pared to 81.5 crore in 2014.

According to the ElectionCommission (EC) these“young voters” constitute 1.66per cent of the total electors.

The EC had allowed enrol-ment of “transgender persons”with gender mentioned as“Others” in the electoral rollssince 2012. The number of vot-ers enrolled in this category is38,325. The EC will set upnearly 10.35 lakh polling sta-tions in the country, as com-pared to nearly 9.28 lakh set upduring 2014 polls. This marksan increase of 10.1 per cent.

“The increase is largelydue to rationalisation of pollingstations, which theCommission undertook in therecent years,” the EC said.

Nearly 39.6 lakh electron-ic voting machines and 17.4lakh paper trail or voter verifi-able paper trail machines wouldbe used in these polling stations.These include reserves. Onecontrol unit and at least one bal-lot unit where buttons areplaced constitutes EVM.

This time, the visuallyimpaired and blind voters willbe provided with braille voterslips to cast their vote. Brailleis a script with raised dots thatcan be read with fingers bypeople who are blind or whohave low vision. It is a tactilereading and writing systemused by blind and visuallyimpaired people who cannotaccess print material.

As part of its strategyframework for ‘accessible elec-tions’, the Commission hastold all chief electoral officersto issue accessible photo voterslips with braille to voters whoare visually impaired or blind.

The braille enabled slipswere used in recently heldassembly elections too. EVMsalready have the braille feature.The ballot paper pasted on themachine with name and symbolof candidates is braille-enabled.The EC also plans to providebraille election photo identitycards to visually challengedvoters across the country.

The Lok Sabha electionswill begin on April 11 and con-tinue for over a month till May19 across seven phases. Thecounting of votes will be heldon May 23, the ElectionCommission announced onSunday, kick-starting a megaelectoral battle.

New Delhi: In a real life plotresembling the Sanjay Duttstarrer film Munna Bhai MBBS,a medical college in Bhopalallegedly admitted fake andghost patients to comply withminimum requirements ofMedical Council of India, a CBIenquiry has found.

On the basis of the findingsof the agency, the SupremeCourt has barred RKDFMedical College Hospital andResearch Centre from admis-sions in its first year MBBScourse for the next two years2018-19 and 2019-20.

The apex court has alsodirected its Secretary Generalto initiate prosecution againstthe Dean of the college SSKushwaha and imposed apenalty of �5 crore for playingfraud on it.

The apex court has direct-ed the college to refund the feepaid by the students for the aca-demic year 2017-19 along witha compensation of �1 lakh toeach student.

The enquiry found that thecollege misled the SupremeCourt by manipulating and fil-ing of fabricated records. “Theassertion made by the college

regarding the genuineness of thepatients in the hospital turnedout to be false in the enquiryconducted by the Committeewhich was comprised of theofficers of the CBI and medicalexperts,” an official said.

The Central Governmentand Medical Council of Indiahad highlighted before theSupreme Court gross mal-practices in the college andinadequate infrastructure andpatients to impart education to

MBBS students. This was con-tested by the college which hadchallenged the report of theGovernment and the MCI.

In order to verify the alle-gations against the college, theSupreme Court in 2017 hadconstituted a committee head-ed by a senior officer deputed bythe CBI Director and two doc-tors of the AIIMS recommend-ed by the AIIMS Director. TheCBI registered a preliminaryenquiry and submitted its reportbefore the Supreme Court lastyear which included opinion ofAIIMS doctors.

“The Committee exposesthe evil design of the college inresorting to deceitful methodsto cheat the authorities con-cerned and this court to securepermission for admission ofstudents. Apart from the pros-ecution of the Dean, the collegeis liable to be suitably punishedfor committing perjury,” thecourt said.

The MCI in its inspectionin 2015 had found that the col-lege, for the purpose of grant-ing admission for 2014-15,admitted fake patients andothers who were without anysignificant illness. PTI

New Delhi: The ED hasattached assets worth �8.46crore of Delhi-based lawyerGautam Khaitan, an accused inthe �3,600 crore VVIP chopperscam case, as part of a secondcriminal probe against him forallegedly possessing undis-closed foreign accounts. TheED has provisionally attachedproperties of Khaitan.

While the book value ofthese properties is �8.46 crore,the present market value ofthese properties is much high-er. The attached properties arelocated in Delhi, Haryana andUttarakhand and have beenattached under the Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA), the agency said in astatement.

The ED initiated investi-gation under the provisions ofPMLA on the basis of a casebooked by Income TaxDepartment under the BlackMoney (Undisclosed ForeignIncome and Assets) AndImposition of Tax Act, 2015,against Khaitan.

“Accused has held the ben-eficial interest/ownership inforeign assets/company/accountand had failed to disclose thesame in his return of incomefiled before the Income TaxAuthorities. It was also revealedduring investigation that hehad been found launderingmoney in various personal andcompanies’ bank accounts inSingapore and Mauritius andthat he willfully did not disclosethe relevant information relat-ed to the foreign bank accountsand companies which are ben-eficially owned by him,” theagency added. PNS

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has filed a fresh

chargesheet against Nirav Modiunder the anti-money laun-dering law in connection withthe �14,000 crore PNB scam.

The chargesheet or theprosecution complaint in EDparlance against Modi has beenfiled before a special Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA) court in Mumbai,officials said.

This is a supplementarychargesheet against the dia-mantaire and few others andthe agency has recorded addi-tional evidences gathered in the case and attachmentsmade during the ongoingprobe, they said.

The development comestwo days after a British dailyreported that Nirav Modi,accused in the $2-billionPunjab National Bank (PNB)scam, is living in a swanky 8-million pound apartment inLondon’s West End and is nowinvolved in a new diamondbusiness.

In the wake of the reporton Modi’s presence in the UK,the Government is nowmulling to send a joint team ofthe CBI and the ED to expeditethe extradition proceedings inthe relevant court in the UK,sources said.

The ED had said onSaturday that the UnitedKingdom’s Home Secretary hasrecently referred India’s requestfor extraditing the tainted busi-nessman to a court for initiat-ing legal proceedings againsthim.

The ED had filed the firstchargesheet in this case in Maylast year.

The agency and the CBIare investigating Nirav Modi,his uncle Mehul Choksi andothers for alleged money laun-

dering and corruption forallegedly defrauding BradyHouse branch of the PNB inMumbai through illegal lettersof credit.

The agency had alsoattached his assets worth�1,873.08 crore under thePMLA and has seized assetslinked to him and his familyworth �489.75 crore during theongoing probe.

Nirav Modi, 48, is currentlyliving in a three-bedroom flatoccupying half of a floor of thelandmark Centre Point towerblock in London, where rent isestimated to be 17,000 poundsa month, The Telegraph of theUK had reported.

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����������-��=>��.�����������������.��$��������?����@�The Election Commission (EC) has appointed three eminent former civil servants as specialobservers for the forthcoming Parliamentary elections in Jammu & Kashmir. The observersare Amarjit Singh Gill, an IPS of 1972 Batch, former DG, CRPF, Noor Mohammad, IAS of1977 and Vinod Zutshi, (IAS 1982).

��������. ���������@�������$.����..�The Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora will hold meeting with Jammu & Kashmir admin-istration to discuss modalities for Assembly polls in the State. The EC’s decision not to holdAssembly polls in J&K along with the Lok Sabha polls drew strong criticism from the Oppositionleaders, including leaders of the Valley.

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Asserting that theOpposition represents a

bagful of contradictory partiesrivaling each other at State-lev-els, Union Minister ArunJaitley on Monday said thechoice before the people in2019 Lok Sabha poll isbetween “Modi or chaos”.

“What was promised to be‘Mahagathbandhan’ is turningout to be a ‘gathbandhan’ ofseveral conflicting gathband-hans. It is a self-destructive‘coalition of rivals’. The BSPand the SP will contest againstthe Congress but eventuallyjoin hands. So will theTrinamool and the Congress-Left alliance in West Bengal.However, in Kerala, theCongress and the Left willcontest against each other,”

Jaitley said.Writing in his blog, the

Finance Minister said the PDPand the National Conferencetried to form the Governmenttogether with the support of the Congress in Jammu & Kashmir.

“Today they are rivals inan election and on the dan-gerous agenda of either ‘auton-omy’ or ‘pre-1953 status’ butcould join hands with thegathbandhan,” he said.

Coming hard on Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi on theleadership issue, Jaitley saidRahul “is a inadequate leader.He is tried, tested and failed.His lack of understanding ofissues is frightening. He aspiresto be the leader of this chaot-ic pack.”

On the other, MamataDidi, he said is positioningherself as the ‘sutradhar’ of thisalliance. “She won’t concede asingle seat either to theCongress or the Left in WestBengal but will want them tobe her pillion riders if she dri-ves the vehicle. Her instinctivecomments on policy issues areretrograde.”

The senior BJP leader fur-ther said the Oppositionalliance is unclear and isabsolutely fragile.

“None of the political par-ties is capable of any signifi-cant number of seats. Thealliance will not have a stablenucleus. It has a set of highlyambitious, self-centred andmaverick leaders.

“Barring the Congress andthe Left, most of them havedone political business withthe BJP in the past. Their ide-ologies and commitment to

their constituents are widelydifferent,” he added.

On the other, Jaitley saidwithin the NDA there are noleadership issues.

“There is absolute clarity.Shri Narendra Modi leads theNDA and will be the PrimeMinister in the event of theNDA victory. His leadership isnationally accepted, his ratingsare very high. His track recordspeaks for itself,” Jaitley added.

The Finance Minister fur-ther said the contest in theforthcoming Lok Sabha elec-tion is between a trusted leaderModi and secure, and opposi-tion parties coalition with noprojected leader.

“There are multiple lead-ers (in the opposition), eachtrying to outwit the other.They can only promise a tem-porary Government if we goby the past precedents. Onecan be certain of chaos.

“The choice is clear - it iseither Modi or chaos,” headded. Jaitley said Modi hasproved to the world that Indiacan be administered withintegrity and honesty andIndia is capable of tough deci-sions in order to ensuregrowth to enable India tosecure itself.

“The contest is between aleader in whose hand thecountry is developing andsecure. He is trusted. Againsthim it is no one projectedleader. There are multipleleaders, each trying to outwitthe other. They can onlypromise a temporaryGovernment if we go by thepast precedents. One can becertain of chaos,” the BJPleader maintained.

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The Trinamool Congress isall set to release its candi-

dates” list in a couple of days,party sources said adding “itcould even be published asearly as tomorrow (Tuesday).”

Confident of winning allthe 42 seats, the party is readywith its candidates” list whichmay include some surprisessources said. With ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeealready announcing her targetof “42 out of 42” seats, seniorparty leader and a Ministerfrom North 24 Parganas said“we are working in that direc-tion and the party will ensurethat campaigns begin early.”Incidentally, a Bengal televisionchannel on Tuesday predicted34 seats for the ruling party“should the elections are heldtoday.” The channel has pre-dicted 8 wins for the BJPwhereas one, mighty Left Frontand its probable ally Congresswill draw a blank.

The channel has predicteda total of 42 percent votes forthe TMC, 34 percent votes forthe BJP and a paltry 15 percentvotes for the Left Front. The

Congress is likely to get amicroscopic 8 percent. Thesurvey was however conduct-ed before the alliance wasstruck between the Left and theCongress.

Currently the TMC has 34seats, the Congress has fourseats while the Left and the BJPhave 2 seats each.

Reacting to the Sunday”spredictions the Minister saidwho is also known for hisorganisational capacity said,“we will win all the seats. Thecurrent upswing in (PrimeMinister) Narendra Modi”sfavour is because of bombing inPakistan. But that fervor will goin a month”s time as the cam-paigns intensify and the peoplewill soon come back to reality

giving a second thought. Therethey will find that it is theTrinamool and the BJP whichremains by their side through-out the year. So we will win allthe 42 seats. The BJP will losethe existing two seats even.”

Apart from the TMC theBJP is also likely to announceits candidate-list by the end ofthis week. According to sourcesthree senior Bengal leadersDilip Ghosh, Rahul Sinha andMukul Roy were currently inDelhi to hold discussion withparty president Amit Shah.After the meeting with Shahthe party will draw the final listwhich will be declared thisweek, insiders said.

The CPI(M) on the otherhas already declared a list of 15

candidates. The names ofremaining 10 candidates will bedeclared by the end of this weekfollowing discussions with theCongress leadership, insiderssaid. The two parties are goingfor a seat-adjustment this timeround.

The Congress will declareits seat following discussionswith the Left, PCC sources saidadding former PCC presidentAdhir Chowdhury will contestfrom Behrampore, AbhijeetMukherjee son of former pres-ident Pranab Mukherjee willcontest from Jangipur and AbuHasem Khan Chowdhury willfight from Malda South seat.Isha Khan Chowdhury a localMLA and the nephew of lateBengal Congress patriarchABA Ghani Khan Chowdhuryis likely to contest from MaldaNorth, sources said. Son ofPCC president may contestagainst TMC MP and MamataBanerjee”s nephew AbhishekBanerjee from DiamondHarbour sources said.

Meanwhile, the TMC onMonday questioned the logicbehind conducting seven-phase polling in Bengal charg-ing the Election Commission of

India for showing “lack of sen-sitivity” towards the commonpeople of the State.

Questioning the “virtuebehind such long-phase elec-tion” party all-India generalsecretary and senior MinisterPartho Chatterjee said “this isunprecedented measure. Noone knows the reason behindconducting a 7-phase election.No one but the common peo-ple will face hardship due tothis decision of the ECI.”

Attacking the Commissionfor leaving “gray areas” in itsdirections regarding advertise-ments in the media about theabsconding people with non-bailable charges, the Ministersaid “they have said that suchadvertisement has to be givenin three newspapers or televi-sion channels but it is notclear as to which newspapershould be selected for purringsuch advertisements.

The BJP and the Left onthe other hand met the ChiefElectoral Officer and demand-ed the removal of posters andhordings of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee and hernephew Abhishek from streetscorners.

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With the AIADMK and theDMDK signing the deal

on late Sunday night at Chennai,the battle lines for the 2019 LokSabha elections have been drawnin Tamil Nadu. The DMK-ledfront will take on the AIADMK-led front in the 39 constituenciesfrom Tamil Nadu and the loneconstituency in the UnionTerritory of Puducherry in thepoll to be held on April 18.

The AIADMK has allocat-ed the DMDK four parliamen-tary constituencies in the elec-tion. Though Vijayakanth, thefounder of the DMDK hasinsisted that his party should beallocated seven Lok Sabha seatsand a Rajya Sabha seat (thepackage which was given by theAIADMK to the PMK), the rul-ing party in the State stood itsground. The DMDK was furtherembarrassed when the DMKleadership told the media thatthe former was holding parallelparley with them for a betterdeal.

According to the deal signedby Chief Minister Edappadi

Palaniswamy and DMDKfounder Vijayakanth in a cityhotel, the DMDK would beallocated four seats in return forthe support of the party for theAIADMK-led front in the LokSabha election. The DMDKwould extent support to theAIADMK candidates in the by-election to be held from the 21Assembly constituencies in theState.

It was announced by theElection Commission that 18Assembly constituencies wouldgo to the poll on April 18 whilethe bypoll to the three con-stituencies would be held later asthe High Court is hearing peti-

tions filed by various parties withrespect to these constituencies.

The AIADMK led front hasPMK, BJP, DMDK, All IndiaNRC, Puthiya Tamilakam andIndian Justice Party in its line–up while the DMK-led UPAhas the Congress, the CPI(M),the CPI, Muslim League, VCK,Kongunadu Jananayaka Katchi,Indian Democratic Party andthe Manithaneya Makkal Katchias its constituents.

As on Monday evening, theAIADMK has been left with 21Lok Sabha constituencies.Sources in the AIADMK and theBJP told The Pioneer that thereis a possibility of the G K Vasan-led Tamil Manila Congresspitching itself in the AIADMKfront. “Please wait for one or twodays. We will give you somegood news,” said EdappaduPalaniswamy when asked aboutthe possibility of Vasan (son offormer Congress leader late G KMoopanar ) joining the front.

The AIADMK allocating18 seats to alliance partnersmean that 19 party MPs who had won the 2014 LokSabha election may not get seatsthis time.

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Aday ahead of the CongressWorking Committee

meeting here, Jamnagar(Rural) MLA VallabhDharaviya on Monday quitthe party, tendered his resig-nation from the GujaratAssembly and joined the BJP.

Dharaviya’s is the thirdresignation of a Congress MLAin the past four days.

“Dharaviya has resigned asJamnagar (Rural) MLA. Hetold me he is resigning volun-tarily,” Speaker RajendraTrivedi confirmed.

It was a homecoming forDharaviya who was with theBJP earlier before switchingover to the Congress ahead ofthe 2017 Assembly polls andwinning on the Oppositionparty’s ticket.

“I am originally a BJP sol-dier. I had worked under PMModi and BJP president AmitShah earlier. I am leaving

Congress because of infighting.I have realised that only BJPcan ensure people’s well-being,”he said after joining the party.

“After the recent (February26) air strikes on Pakistan(terror camp), I have realisedthat Modi must be re-electedas Prime Minister. TheCongress does not have suchleadership,” he further said.

Dharaviya belongs to theSathwara community, part ofthe Other Backward Classes,which has a strong electoralpresence in Jamnagar district.

A little while beforeDharaviya quit Monday after-noon, his former party col-league Parsotam Sabariya, whohad resigned as DhrangadhraMLA on March 8, joined theruling BJP in the presence of itssenior leaders IK Jadeja andKC Patel.

Sabariya was arrested inOctober last year in connectionwith an irrigation scam andwas granted bail by the Gujarat

High Court in February.Sabariya said he was not

under pressure to join the BJPand claimed he was making theswitch to develop his con-stituency.

“I am joining the BJP todevelop my constituency. Iwas not under any pressureand have resigned from theCongress voluntarily. As far asthe FIR is concerned, the lawwill take its own course. TheBJP has to do nothing about it.I am not joining BJP to get anypost or for other benefits,” hetold reporters.

On March 8, JawaharChavda, Congress MLA fromManavadar, too had resignedfrom the Assembly and waspromptly inducted into the BJP.

He was made a CabinetMinister in the Vijay RupaniGovernment on March 9.

The total number of deser-tions of MLAs from GujaratCongress ranks in the past fewmonths now stands at five.

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Itanagar: A Congress MLA inArunachal Pradesh defectedto the BJP on Monday, a dayafter the Election Commissionannounced simultaneous LokSabha and Assembly polls inthe state on April 11.

Markio Tado representedTali constituency in Kra Daadidistrict of the BJP-ruled State.

Tado said he submittedhis resignation letter to stateCongress president TakamSanjoy and joined the BJP.

“The Congress has novision for the future of the State.So I joined the BJP in the larg-er interest of the State and thepeople of my constituency,” hetold a press conference.

The State has witnessedrapid development under thePema Khandu Government,he claimed.

Tado had won from Tali asa Peoples’ Party of Arunachalcandidate in the 2009 Assemblyelections and as a Congressnominee in the 2014 polls. PTI

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Chennai: The DMK on Mondayurged the Election Commissionto hold bypolls to three morevacant Assembly seats besidesthe 18 segments for whichbyelections have been scheduledon April 18 alongside Lok Sabhapolls in Tamil Nadu.

At a meeting of its districtsecretaries, MPs, and MLAshere, the main Opposition partyadopted a resolution which saidnot holding bypolls to the threeAssembly constituencies was“anti-democratic.”

Tamil Nadu Chief ElectoralOfficer Satyabrata Sahoo had onSunday said bypolls were notscheduled forT i r u p a r a n k u n d r a m ,Ottapidaram and Aravakurichiconstituencies, which are alsovacant, since election petitionswere pending in the MadrasHigh Court.

To this, the DMK meetsaid, “It is noteworthy that theElection Commission was not

restrained from holding bypollsto the three constituencies by thecourt.”

The resolution, hence,demanded that the EC holdbypolls to these three con-stituencies.

DMK president M K Stalinsaid his party’s Rajya SabhaMPs Tiruchy Siva and TKSElangovan would submit amemorandum to the ElectionCommission seeking holdingbypolls to these constituencies.

If the party’s request was notheeded, “We have decided toapproach the High Court and if

necessary the Supreme Court,”so that bypolls could be held inthese three seats, he said.

On bypolls, he said onlyDMK candidates would be field-ed in all the 18 constituencies.

To a question, he said hisparty’s election manifesto wouldbe released in two to three days.

While Ottapidaram andAravakurichi were representedby disqualified AIADMK MLAsSundararaj and Senthil Balaji (heis now with the DMK),Tiruparankudram legislator AKBose died last year.

Petitions challenging theirelections are pending in theMadras High Court.

Meanwhile, DMK’s losingcandidate S Saravanan, who haschallenged the victory of Bose inthe bypoll held on November 19,2016, Monday filed a petition inthe High Court, saying he want-ed to withdraw his election pleaover which the court had alreadyreserved its orders. PTI

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena onMonday said patriotism is notthe monopoly of a single partyand falsely calling people “anti-national” just because they arepolitical opponents is nothingbut suppression of freedom ofexpression.

The party’s remarks comeamid a row over politicisation ofthe air strike.

“Patriotism is not themonopoly of a single party...Wewonder when politicians willunderstand that the action (airstrike) was part of duty (of sol-diers) and not a task asked to becarried out,” the UddhavThackeray-led party said in aneditorial in its mouthpiece“Saamana”.

Those demanding proof ofthe air strike and the ones seek-ing votes donning militaryfatigues are equally wrong, theSena said, referring to Delhi BJPchief Manoj Tiwari who woremilitary fatigues at a recentrally.

The Sena said it was aninsult to the soldiers and theircourage.

“Why act frivolously bywearing soldiers” uniformswhich they have obtained afterrigorous training and hardwork? It supports the allegationsof the Opposition that the BJPis politicising the air strike,” saidthe Sena, an ally of the BJP at theCentre and in Maharashtra.

The terror attack inPulwama in which 40 CRPFsoldiers were killed was moreserious than the air strike andimages of the carnage inKashmir could be used by theOpposition to corner those inpower, the editorial in “Saamna”said.

“We have basically failed toprevent the casualties of our sol-diers, but some wear the cam-ouflage (outfits) and campaignfor political reasons. It doesn’tlook good when the ElectionCommission has to interveneand ask the political parties notto use images of jawans in polit-ical campaigns,” it said. PTI

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Mumbai: The MaharashtraGovernment on Monday toldthe Bombay High Court that itsdecision of granting reservationto the Maratha community waslegal and valid.

The Government conclud-ed its arguments before a divi-sion bench of Justices RanjitMore and Bharati Dangre, whichis hearing a bunch of petitionschallenging the quota decision.

On November 30 last year,the Maharashtra Legislaturepassed a Bill proposing 16 percent reservation in educationand Government jobs for theMarathas, declared socially andeducationally backward classby the Government.

“The quantum of reserva-tion granted to the Marathacommunity is valid and legaland the petitioners have failed to

make out a case to show that theGovernment’s decision wasmalafide and dishonest,”Government Counsel AnilSakhare argued Monday.

The petitioners, in theirpleas challenging the quota, hadsaid that no State Governmentcould exceed the 50 per centmark in reservations.

At present, the percentage ofreservation in Maharashtrastands at 68 per cent.

Sakhare told the court onMonday that as per the govern-ment, the Maratha communitywas socially and educationallybackward and hence it decidedto grant them reservation. “TheGovernment felt this was a spe-cial and extraordinary situa-tion and hence we should bepermitted to exceed the 50 percent mark,” Sakhare said. PTI

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Itanagar: Around 3,000 dif-ferently abled voters ofArunachal Pradesh will be pro-vided with special vehicles toreach polling booths in hillyareas and ramps in plains.

State Chief ElectoralOfficer Kaling Tayeng Mondaysaid the Election Commissionwould build ramps in booths inthe plains for voters with dis-abilities.

In hilly and difficult areas,the authorities would arrangefor special vehicles and otherlogistics if those voters makesuch a request, he said.

These special vehicleswould bring the differentlyabled voters from home to thepolling stations and take themback.

The CEO lamented that hedoes not have the exact num-ber of voters with disabilities inthe state.

“Many of the physicallychallenged voters in the statedid not like to register as dis-abled voters during enrolment.For this, we face difficulty ingetting the record of the exactnumber of such voters,” hetold a press conference here.

Arunachal Pradesh will gofor simultaneous Parliamentaryand Assembly elections onApril 11 this year along withother three states.

To a question on how totackle flood and landslides asmonsoon rain will begin inApril, Tayeng said helicopterwould be deployed to transportelection materials and person-nel to remote areas in case ofrain and flood.

Back-up teams would beput on place to transport menand materials in case of land-slides, he said.

“We have successfully con-ducted several elections in thestate during monsoon earlier. Idon’t think there will be anyproblem this year too withmost of the places in the stateare now well connected withall-weather roads,” Tayengadded.

Asked about use of moneyby political parties to influencevoters, Tayeng said voters alsoneed to be ethical and reject themoney culture. PTI

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A33-year old unemployedyouth, hailing from

Kalakote area of Rajouri, wasarrested by police in Poonchahead of recruitment rallyorganised by the TerritorialArmy in Surankote area ofPoonch on Monday.

Since early morning largenumber of aspirants had turnedup outside the venue of the rally.

Before gaining entry insidethe venue of the rally the localarmy authorities were carryingout frisking of the candidates.

During the same exercise, atraining grenade C-90, UBGLgrenade and detonator were

recovered from the possession ofa 33 year old Rajinder Singh S/OKrishan Lal R/O Kalakote inRajouri.

After preliminary interro-gation the army authoritieshanded him over to the Poonchpolice. Later addressing mediapersons SSP, Poonch RameshKumar Angral said, “Duringfrisking at the venue of therecruitment rally in Surankotearea, a Training Grenade C-90,UBGL grenade, and a detonatorwas recovered from his posses-sion”. SSP Poonch said, after theregistration of FIR in the case theyouth has been shifted toSurankote police station for fur-ther questioning.

Aizawl: A 36-year-old manbelonging to the Chakma com-munity was severely injured onMonday after he wandered intoMyanmar and stepped on alandmine, official sources insouth Mizoram’s Lawngtlai dis-trict said.

The incident occurred at ajungle in the neighbouringcountry near the Indo-Myanmarborder’s boundary pillar numbertwo, the sources said.

The man along with twoothers, all residents ofBangdukbanga village, wan-dered into Myanmar while look-ing for food.

He was severely injuredwhen a landmine exploded afterhe accidentally stepped on it, thesources said, adding, the 36-year-old man lost his right leg inthe blast. The two others accom-panying him escaped unhurt,the sources said. The injured,identified as Berona, was takento the Assam Rifles camp atParva village, they said. PTI

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Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Bangladesh

counterpart Sheikh Hasina onMonday jointly unveiled e-plaques for development pro-jects in Bangladesh throughvideo conference.

They unveiled e-plaques forsupply of buses and trucks,inauguration of 36 communityclinics, 11 water treatment plantsand extension of NationalKnowledge Network toBangladesh, a statement fromthe Ministry of External Affairssaid. Speaking on the occasion,Modi said this is his sixth videoconference with Hasina. He saidPM Hasina’s vision is the biggestinspiration for stronger con-nectivity between India andBangladesh. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Monday dismissed aplea by Karnataka Governmentseeking vacation of stay on theproposal to pump secondarytreated water from its sewagetreatment plants (STPs) inBengaluru into irrigation tanksin Kolar district for rechargingthe ground water table.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi expressedits displeasure that the stateGovernment has not men-tioned requisite details in itsapplication seeking vacationof the apex court’s stay order ofJanuary 7 this year.

“Are you playing aroundwith the court? There are nodetails in your application. It isa bland application,” the bench,which also comprised justicesDeepak Gupta and SanjivKhanna, said. PTI

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Mumbai: Veteran journalistand lawyer S Balakrishnan hassought a police inquiry intoMaharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) chief Raj Thackeray”sclaim of another “Pulwama-like” terror attack before theLok Sabha polls.

Balakrishnan Sunday sub-mitted a written complaint tothe Chembur police station,demanding an inquiry underrelevant laws into the claimmade by the MNS chief abouta possible terror attack in thecountry, police said Monday.

Citing media reports,Balakrishnan said Thackerayhad said, “Mark my wordsthere will be yet anotherPulwama- like incident in thecountry”.

According to the applica-tion, Thackeray is a senior andresponsible politician, whosestatements should be takenseriously.

He appears to be certain ofa repeat of the Pulwama- typeterror attack that took place onFebruary 14 and resulted in thekilling of 40 CRPF jawans inJammu and Kashmir, the jour-nalist-lawyer said.

The police should recordThackeray”s statement andinquire into his claim, saidBalakrishnan.

“We have received theapplication of the journalist inconnection with the remarks ofMNS president Raj Thackeray,”said an official of the Chemburpolice station. PTI

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Amonth after he indicatedthat he would contest from

Madha Lok Sabha constituen-cy in western Maharashtra,NCP chief Sharad Pawar onMonday backed out of thecontest, setting the stage of theentry of his grandson ParthPawar into electoral politics.

Seventy-eight-year-oldPawar, who had earlier beenpersuaded by his party leadersto contest from Madha con-stituency, announced that hehad decided not to contest theLok Sabha polls to pave way forthe younger generation.

Parth (28) is the son ofPawar’s nephew andMaharashtra’s former deputyChief Minister Ajit Pawar. Heis the third generation Pawar tomake debut in electoral politics.

Pawar will contest fromMaval Lok Sabha constituency,a seat in Pune district that iscurrently held by the ShivSena. He will take on the sittingSena MP Gajanan Babar in thepolls.

Pawar’s announcementcame after he met the partyoffice bearers from Solapur inwestern Maharashtra — atwhich he urged his party work-ers to support the NCP’s sitting

MP Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil,who will re-contest the LokSabha polls from Madha con-stituency.

Making the most of Pawar’sdecision not to the contest theLok Sabha polls, MahsarashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis termed the develop-ment as a “big victory” for theBJP-Shiv Sena alliance.“Pawar’s decision is indicator ofthe fact that Modi’s popularityis increasing in Maharashtraand across the country. Modihad once said that Pawar quick-ly gauges the changing politi-cal mood in the country. Sincehe has backed out of the LokSabha contest, Pawar musthave taken stock of the politi-cal mood in the country,”Fadnavis said.

Earlier in the afternoon,

Pawar had made it clear that hisdecision not to contest theLok Sabha polls was in no wayindication of the fact that heapprehended defeat in the polls.“Till today, I have contested 14elections. I have not beendefeated even once. That beingmy track record, the questionof nursing fear to contest thepolls does not arise”.

Without mentioningModi’s name, Pawar said thatthere was absolutely no wave inthe country. “At this juncture,there is no wave in the coun-try. There is a need for changein Government in the country.I have absolutely no fear to con-test the polls. There has to bea limit on the number of peo-ple contesting the polls fromone family. Like in the two pre-vious elections, my daughterSupriya Sule will contest fromBaramati constituency.Everyone in the party wantedmy grandson to contest fromMawal constituency. That’s whyI have decided to back out ofthe contest,” the NCP chief said.

It may be recalled that onFebruary 8, Pawar had said thathe was considering a request byhis senior party’s leaders tocontest from Madha Lok Sabhaconstituency.

“I am not interested in

contesting the Lok Sabha polls.Since all my party colleagues,including Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil (who is the sitting MPfrom Madha constituency)have insisted that I contest thepolls this time, I may considertheir request,” the NCP chiefhad said.

The Madha Lok Sabhaconstituency, from wherePawar may contest, came intobeing on February 19, 2008 asa part of the delimitation exer-cise carried on the basis of rec-ommendations made by theDelimitation Commission ofIndia constituted in July 2012.It comprises Assembly seg-ments of Madha, Karmala,Sangole, Malshrias, all fromSolapur district and Phaltanand Maan from Satara district.

In the 2009 Lok Sabhaelections — held for the firsttime after the formation of thisconstituency, Pawar won thisseat by trouncing the BJP can-didate Subhash Deshmukh bymassive margin of 3.14 lakhvotes. Pawar, however, chosenot to contest the 2014 LokSabha polls. In his place, theNCP filed local heavy VijaysinhMohite-Patil, who managed towin the seat in the 2014 LokSabha polls.

Bengaluru: Former KarnatakaChiefMinister SM Krishna onMonday said he believes thatNarendra Modi becoming thePrime Minister once again was“inevitable”.

The former External AffairsMinister also said he wouldcampaign for the BJP inKarnataka in the Lok Sabhapolls to ensure that more num-ber of party candidates winfrom the State and Modibecomes Prime Minister onceagain.

“I believe in the principlethat Narendra Modi becomingthe Prime Minister of thiscountry once again isinevitable,” Krishna said.

Speaking to reporters here,he said “For this reason, I willvisit as many constituencies aspossible and thereby ensurethat more number of BJP can-didates win from Karnatakaand Narendra Modi becomesPrime Minister once again.

With this one vision we areall putting our efforts together,”he said.

Senior State BJP leader RAshoka Monday met Krishnato discuss about the prepara-tions for the Lok Sabha polls

and requested him to campaignfor the party candidates.

Krishna, a former Congressveteran, quit the grand oldparty and joined the BJP in2017.

Krishna had served as theKarnataka Chief Ministerbetween 1999 and 2004.

He had also served as theMaharashtra Governor andeven had a stint as ExternalAffairs Minister during theUPA Government.

The BJP is likely to useKrishna’s charisma to garnermore votes in Bengaluru andnearby areas as he is widelycredited for the growth of thecity as a global IT hub.

The party is also likely toutilise him for campaigning inthe districts where Vokkaligasare dominant- like in oldMysuru region, where the BJPis weak, as Krishna belongs tothe community.

To a question on how hispresence would help BJP inBengaluru, with reports aboutformer Prime Minister HDDeve Gowda contesting as theJD(S) candidate from BangaloreNorth, Krishna said the saffronparty has strong ground in the

city and people have not for-gotten his good work as ChiefMinister.

“I’m of the feeling that thepeople of Bengaluru have not-forgotten the good work that hashappened in the three con-stituencies of Bengaluru duringmy administration in Bangalorenorth, south and central- so inall the three constituencies, BJPhas strong ground and presence.

So the BJP can face thiselection with much courage,excitement and aspiration,” hesaid.

Asked whether Gowdacontesting would have anyimpact, Krishna said individu-als would not be that important,but ideology is.

“The ideology to whichBJP is committed to, on thebasis of that ideology we willask for votes. Naturally, who allhave worked for the develop-ment of Bengaluru will be inpeople’s minds. So based on thatprinciple, we will fight thise-lection, not on the basis of per-sonality. But the only exceptioninthis is Narendra Modi shouldbecome Prime Minister onceagain, this is our strong wish,”he added. PTI

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AStudents’ Federation ofIndia (SFI) leader was

attacked allegedly by BJP work-ers at Parassala in the district,police said on Monday.

The SFI leader sustainedserious injuries in the lateSunday night attack, they added.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) activists were arrested inconnection with the incident onMonday, the police said.

Four activists of the rulingCommunist Party of India(Marxist) in Kerala, includingthe SFI leader, and three BJPworkers have been hospitalisedafter political violence erupted atParassala, the border area ofThiruvananthapuram district.

Abu Thahir, a district com-mittee member of the SFI, washacked, leading to head injuries.The SFI is the students’ wing ofthe CPI(M). “Santhosh Kumar(36) and Girikumar (38) are thetwo who have been arrested inthe case. They will be producedbefore a court on Monday.Further investigation is on,” apolice official told PTI.

Srinagar: National Conference(NC) president FarooqAbdullah on Monday madeserious allegations against theBJP-led Centre, saying itordered the air strike inPakistan’s Balakot with the “solepurpose” of winning Lok Sabhaelections.

The Srinagar MP allegedthe BJP has “failed” on allfronts and it was apprehendedthat there would be a fight orskirmish with Pakistan beforethe polls so that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi becomes somekind of an “avatar” withoutwhom India cannot survive.

“This surgical strike (airstrike) was done only for thepurpose of election...Totally forthe election. We lost an aircraftworth crores of rupees. Bethankful that the IAF pilot(Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman) sur-vived and returned fromPakistan with respect,”Abdullah told reporters here.

In a predawn exercise onFebruary 26, the Indian AirForce pounded Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest trainingcamp in Balakot. The air strikecame in response to a terroristattack in Pulwama on February14, in which 40 CRPF jawanswere killed.

Abdullah said Monday, “Inthe Parliament, we knew theyhave failed on all other thingsand that there would be a fightor a skirmish with Pakistan inKashmir so that he (PrimeMinister Narendra Modi)becomes some kind of an‘avatar’ without whom Indiacannot survive. But I want totell him that whether he or I liveor not, India will live and moveforward,” .

The NC president said anatmosphere of fear was beingcreated to help the BJP in thepolls.

“They want to create anatmosphere of fear. Therewould be no war. The wholeworld is watching. This gov-ernment is only using the seniorofficer for winning the election,the officer whom they got bysuperseding many others andwho is now dancing to theirtunes. Otherwise, there is nodanger,” he said, without nam-ing the “officer”.

“This atmosphere of fearthat they have created in thecountry that without him any-thing will happen, I want to tellhim that you were neither aGod and never will be,” he said.

Abdullah said there is noother way than to talk toPakistan over the Kashmirissue.

“They (New Delhi) havebrought this (Kashmir) intointernational limelight. Severalcountries are now involved inmaking India and Pakistan totalk over Kashmir and they willhave to engage themselves as itis the only way forward,” hesaid.

Asked about the ElectionCommission of India’s decisionto delay the assembly polls inthe state, Abdullah said hefeared some “mischief ” by theCentre in J&K.

“I think they must havethought of doing some mis-chief, that’s why they delayedthe polls. I do not understandthat when thousands of peopletook part in the Panchayat andmunicipal polls, what dangerthey think there is now whenforces are present in largernumber than they were. Andthey are present in every nookand corner of the state,” he said.

The NC president said allparties are in favour of holdingsimultaneous Lok Sabha andAssembly polls and now thepublic should understand whattheir motive is.

“If we unite, their designswill fail. We should prepare forthat..For not giving a chance tothe Centre for destruction. So,we all should stand to confrontthem...Where is the mightygovernment of India whichcannot conduct an electionhere? If this is not surrender,what is,” he said. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: TheElection Commission onMonday warned political partiesin Kerala not to use theSabarimala temple matter as acampaign issue.

Kerala Chief ElectoralOfficer Teeka Ram Meena toldthe media here that “citing orinvoking” religious propagandaon the “Sabarimala issue” wouldbe a clear violation of the modelcode of conduct.

“Inviting religious feelings,using any kind of SupremeCourt judgement, invoking orsoliciting the votes in the nameof religion or by inciting religiousfeelings is a clear violation of themodel code of conduct,” hesaid. The CEO also said thecommission would not allowany kind of violation that putsa particular political party at anadvantage over another.

“Citing or invoking or doingsomething of religious propa-ganda on the Sabarimala issueby invoking the name of SabariGod, etc., will be a clear viola-tion of the model code of con-

duct,” Meena said.He added that the

Sabarimala issue was a contro-versial matter as far as Keralawas concerned and politicalparties “need to draw a line towhat extent they have to use it”.

“Tomorrow, I am holding ameeting with political parties inthis regard and I will be request-ing them not to unnecessarilyuse this religious feeling or reli-gious traditions to solicit votesas this may create some religioustensions among people.

If that happens, action willbe taken against those respon-sible,” Meena said.

Kerala witnessed wide-spread violence by devotees andright-wing activists after thestate government decided toimplement the Supreme Court’sSeptember 28, 2018 verdictallowing women of all ages intothe Sabarimala temple.

The BJP has already pinnedits hopes on the Sabarimalaissue as it believes that it was ableto create a momentum amongits workers. PTI

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In a major setback for RajThackeray-led MNS, its lone

MLA Sharad Sonavane fromJunnar in Pune district of west-ern Maharashtra on Mondayjoined the Shiv Sena.

An erstwhile Shiv Sainik,Sonvane joined the Sena in thepresence of party presidentUddhav Thackeray.

Sonavane’s entry to the ShivSena comes one and a half yearsafter six MNS corporatorsjoined the ruling Sena in theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC).

Talking to media persons ,Sonavane said: “It’s homecom-ing for me. Raj Thackeray andhis wife Sharmila have given me

a lot of love. I have nothingagainst the MNS. It was myintense desire to return homethat prompted me to join theShiv Sena. Junnar is one of theAssembly constituencies fallingunder the Shirur Lok Sabhaconstituency, a seat currentlyheld by the Shiv Sena’sShivajirao Adhalarao Patil.

There had been consider-able resistance from the ShivSena workers in Junnar talukaof Pune district. The local Senaoffice bearers had threatened toquit the party in the event ofthe party taking Sonavane intoits fold. However, the Senaleadership has persuaded theaggrieved party workers not tomake an issue of Sonavane’sentry to the party.

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Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil, the sonof senior Congressman and

Leader of MaharashtraLegislative AssemblyRadhakrishna-Vikhe Patil, isset to join the BJP.

Sujay’s decision to quit theCongress stems from inability tocontest the Lok Sabha polls theAhmednagar Lok Sabha seat,which falls in the NCP quota.

In the past, Shrad Pawarhad offered the seat to Sujay onthe condition that he shouldcontest the seat on NCP ticket.

Sujay wants to switch overto the BJP in the hope that thenew party will nominate him tocontest the polls from LokSabha constituency.

There is uncertainty onwhether the BJP will field himas its candidate fromAhmednagar. No wonder thaton Monday, the supporters ofsitting BJP MP from DilipGandhi staged a demonstrationin front of the Maharashtra BJPheadquarters in south Mumbai,demanding Gandhi’s re-nomi-nation as the party candidate tocontest the Lok Sabha polls.

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Mumbai: Security was beefedup at suburban Khar railwaystation on Sunday evening,after an unidentified callerfrom North America claimedthat a bomb was planted there,police said on Monday.

However, the call turnedout to be a hoax.

An unidentified personcalled on the landline numberof Khar police station Sundayevening, claiming that a bombwas planted at the railway sta-tion, which comes underWestern Railway, an officialsaid. PTI

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Page 8: ˝ ˛+ ˘ˇ ˆ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ˆˆ !˚ˆ#$ ˘% ˆ˙ ˝ ˇ ˆ ......2019/03/12  · poll dates during Ramzan. The EC clarified that the main festival (June 4) and Fridays (falling in

The Supreme Court’s recent deci-sion to appoint three mediatorsto attempt a solution through dis-cussion of the vexed RamJanmabhoomi issue in Ayodhya

could be the last opportunity available to allparties to attempt an amicable out-of-court resolution of the vexed dispute thathas been the perennial source of socialdisharmony. This mediation process will bea court-appointed and court monitoredexercise which will be conducted outsidemedia glare “with utmost confidentiality”.

The idea of a mediated settlement in theRam Janmabhoomi Case is not new. Twoyears ago in March, 2017, the then ChiefJustice of the Supreme Court, J S Kehar hadsuggested a negotiated settlement and hadoffered himself as a mediator. However, thisproposal did not find favour with the AllIndia Muslim Personal Law Board (AIM-PLB) and the Babri Masjid ActionCommittee.

This time around, objections if any aremuted, probably because of the court’s deter-mination to get all parties to the negotiat-ing table.

The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjiddispute has taken a torturous course, butsome of the milestones in recent times arenotable. The first of these was the SupremeCourt’s judgement in Dr M Ismail Faruquiand others vs Union of India and others inOctober, 1994. In that case, the constitution-al validity of the Acquisition of Certain Areasof Ayodhya Act, 1993 was challenged. Thecourt upheld the Act but declared itsSection 4(3) to be invalid. This judgmentresulted in the revival of all pending suitsbefore the Allahabad High Court.

The second milestone is the sovereigncommitment given by the Government ofIndia in September, 1994, before theSupreme Court that if it was established thata Hindu temple or religious structure exist-ed before the Babri Masjid, it would handover the site to the Hindus. The UnionGovernment had made a PresidentialReference under Article 143(1) of theConstitution in which it asked the SupremeCourt “Whether a Hindu temple or anyHindu religious structure existed prior to theconstruction of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid (including the premises of theinner and outer courtyards of such struc-ture) in the area on which the structurestood”.

The Presidential Reference said the gov-ernment proposed to settle the dispute afterobtaining the opinion of the SupremeCourt. In the course of the arguments whensome litigants representing Muslims’ inter-ests said the reference would serve no pur-pose, the court asked the Solicitor-Generalto respond. The Solicitor-General made awritten submission on behalf of the UnionGovernment in response to the court’s queryand what was said therein on behalf of thegovernment is significant. The government

said it was committed to theconstruction of a Ram templeand a mosque, but their actuallocation will be determinedonly after the Supreme Courtrenders its opinion in thePresidential Reference.

The government made thefollowing commitments beforethe apex court in that submis-sion: That it would treat thefinding of the Supreme Courton the question of fact referredto it in the PresidentialReference as a verdict which isfinal and binding; that consis-tent with the court’s opinion itwould make efforts to resolvethe controversy by a process ofnegotiation; that if a negotiatedsettlement is not possible, itwould be committed to enforcea solution based on the court’sopinion. It further said that “Ifthe question referred isanswered in the affirmative,namely, that a Hindutemple/structure did exist priorto the construction of thedemolished structure, govern-ment action will be in supportof the wishes of the Hindu com-munity. If, on the other hand,the question is answered in thenegative, namely, that no suchHindu temple/structure existedat the relevant time, then thegovernment action will be insupport of the wishes of theMuslim community”.

Why did the UnionGovernment put this questionto the Supreme Court. A whitepaper published by the Centreafter the demolition of theBabri Masjid provides a clue. Itsaid that during negotiationsaimed at finding an amicable

settlement, one issue that cameto the fore was whether a Hindutemple existed on the site andwhether it was demolished tobuilt the masjid. Muslim organ-isations claimed that there wasno evidence to prove this.Muslim leaders also assertedthat if this was proved, “theMuslims would voluntarilyhand over the disputed shrineto the Hindus”.

The Supreme Courtdeclined to answer this ques-tion. The five-judge Benchwhich gave its verdict in theFaruqui Case in October, 1994simultaneously disposed off thePresidential Reference. It saidthe reference was ‘superfluousand unnecessary and does notrequire to be answered”.However, the UnionGovernment’s desire to securean answer to the million dollarquestion was met when theAllahabad High Court, thepending suits before which gotrevived as a result of theSupreme Court’s order in theFaruqui Case, ordered theArchaeological Survey of India(ASI) to excavate the site and seewhat lay beneath the disputedstructure.

The ASI, after extensiveexcavations, informed the courtthat there was evidence of amassive structure below thedisputed one which had “dis-tinctive features found associat-ed with the temples of NorthIndia”. Based on this finding, allthe three judges on theLucknow Bench of theAllahabad High Court con-cluded that a Hindu templeexisted below the disputed

structure. The Supreme Courthas stayed this judgement afterit was challenged by several par-ties to the dispute.

It is not unusual for courtsto suggest mediation. This isoften suggested by courts inmany civil matters becausethere are no winners and loserswhen issues are resolvedthrough mediation. However, ifmediation fails, the court willhave to hear the matter andarrive at a conclusion, whichmay or may not please all par-ties in a dispute.

Meanwhile, what will theUnion Government do? It hascommitted itself to initially tryand settle the dispute throughnegotiations once it heardfrom the Supreme Court onthe question of fact it had putbefore it in the PresidentialReference. The court howeverdeclined to answer that ques-tion, but the observationsmade in the white paper andthe ASI’s substantive report tothe Allahabad High Courtcannot be wished away.

The three mediatorsappointed by the SupremeCourt — Justice Fakkir IbrahimKalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankarand Sriram Panchu — will haveall this material before themwhen they begin negotiations insearch of an amicable settle-ment. All parties to the disputewill need to join this effort with-out hesitation in order to resolvethe matter through mutual giveand take. They must give medi-ation a chance.

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�������������� �From the Paris Fashion Weekcomes a piece of money wastingsilliness, and it's not a dress. Afashion water bottle, if there issuch a thing, created by Evianand others went on sale for $67(US $47, £42) and suddenlythere were 4,000 people on awaiting list for it.

Even the branding of 'rain-bow inside' seems odd given thatthe cleanest water is clear andgenerally any colour is a sign ofpollution.

There is no rule that peoplecan't waste their money on anystupid item and given some ofthe recent purchases in the artworld there seems to be nolimit as to how much can bespent. A question arises as tohow could the money be spentmore sensibly or even given tocharities.

The real concern is not justwasting money on a water bot-tle but how water is undervaluedgiven that it truly is a vital needin l ife, more than any other. There are so many peoplewho have little access to waterand especially to clean potablewater.

A quick check online gives

a list of charities that buildwater projects in Africa. The firstone mentioned, the water pro-ject, can supply water to twopeople for $68 (US $47, £42), aconvenient value for compari-son. Surely this is the best wayto spend the money rather thanfor a vanity plastic bottle.

Let’s supply water to thosethat need it rather than thosewho think they will look better

carrying it around.Dennis Fitzgerald

Australia

�������������������Sir — The Chief ElectionCommission has nowannounced the general elec-tions schedule for two months inseven phases across all the states.It has also made the announce-

ment that the poll results wouldbe declared on May 23. It is amammoth exercise in one of thelargest democracies in the worldwhich is now poised to witnesshistoric elections amidst thetough political competitionamongst grand old alliance par-ties and the emerging trend ofnew regional parties.

The EC should further spec-ify regulations related to social

media aimed to be enforcedprior to the elections, as thedecision for the same is alsounder review by the Hon’bleStanding Committee onInformation Technology (IT).The challenge to smartly tacklethe menace of the possiblespread of fake news over thesocial media also remains one ofthe key challenges during theelections which would lead tothe constitution of the 17th LokSabha. This poses a huge chal-lenge to free and fair elections.

Further the ElectionCommission should also lookinto implementing a strategy toenable the launch of peoplecentric projects without muchpolitical intervention, if any,during the model code of con-duct.

The move will perhaps onlyenable the voter to avail the ben-efits of schemes and projects ina seamless and hassle free man-ner without waiting for anymajor kick-off campaign duringthe enforcement ensuing ofmodel code of conduct.

Varun SDBengaluru

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It is now universally acknowledged thatIndia has shown spectacular performance infinancial inclusion and is now a candlelight

for the developing world. Most international sur-veys and studies vouch for this. They also high-light the impressive gains for women.

According to the World Bank’s GlobalFindex Survey (2017), 80 per cent Indian adultsnow have a bank account — 27 points higherthan the 53 per cent estimated in Findex 2014round. In respect of women, 77 per cent nowown a bank account against respective 43 percent and 26 per cent in 2014 and 2011. On thisbasic measure of financial inclusion, females aremore financially included than before. India hascut its gender gap in financial access from 19.8percentage points in 2014 to 6.4 in 2017.

However, a more granular analysis showsthat gender gaps is still worrying. While morewomen have been enrolled for bank accounts,a larger gender gap persists in their usage. Andbeyond account ownership, in terms of creditand insurance usage, the gender gap remainshigh. For example, female account ownersshow an 11-percentage-point gap against menin terms of account usage; 54 per cent of womenwith an account made no deposit or withdraw-al in a year as compared to 43 per cent of men.The credit gender gap is still more stark.Distribution of outstanding credit in small bor-rower accounts shows 24.5 per cent share offemale account owners against 72 per cent bymen as on March 2017.

Women often face several barriers whichlimit their financial inclusion, other than the uni-versal constraints that low-income communitiesface: limited access to mobile phones, lower lit-eracy levels, less confidence in using technolo-gy and restrictions on travel or social interac-tion. We need to address them through behav-ioural and reformist approaches, instead of theusual hardware-based approach, so that demandand supply-side barriers that women face inaccessing finance are eliminated.

Women’s participation in the financial sys-tem can have significant benefits in terms of eco-nomic growth, greater equality and societal well-being. When women are empowered as econom-ic actors, the benefits touch everyone. They havemore child-centered preferences than men.Access and usage of financial services arelevers for increasing women's participation inthe economy. They enhance their self-confidenceand place financial decision-making power intheir hands resulting in large development pay-offs.

Women are a low-revenue segment butprove to be loyal and profitable clients whentreated with respect and served with appropri-ately-designed products. Women are more risk-aware than men and take longer to make deci-sions but they make firm decisions and whenthey do, they tend to be more trustworthy andreliable customers than men. Financial service-providers need to ensure that the fees arenot prohibitive and the design tools which areused make their engagement with financial ser-vice-providers friendly, safe, affordable and con-venient.

Professionals and practitioners have distilled

some salient features of financial prod-ucts and services that foster women’sactive participation in formal finance.They find that women don’t have astraight financial journey and havemore interruptions and life-stages intheir financial lives due to withdraw-al from employment during pregnan-cy and in medical emergencies fornursing sick family members. Theymay remain active users of the accountsduring these periods. Women shouldbe able to reactivate their accountswithout much hassles or penalties.They are also more price-point sensi-tive and expect affordable fees.

The single best way to increaseaccount use would be to more fullydigitise government transfers. Womenwithout accounts frequently interactwith governmental offices to make pay-ments (P2G) or to receive paymentsfrom them (G2P). Fees paid to accesspublic services and payments for pub-lic utilities are still made mostly in cashin the developing world, and if pay-ment was required to be made throughelectronic means it could help a firstinteraction with a digital payments sys-tem. Many state governments in Indiahave adopted the default savingsoptions by mandatorily delivering allwages to participants of governmentschemes and programmes throughformal saving accounts. For example,the Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act (MNRE-GA) states that at least one-third of itsbeneficiaries should be women andtheir payments should be delivered viaelectronic transfers to bank accounts

Providers will need to deepentheir understanding of the uniqueneeds of women consumers and devel-op products and customer experi-ences tailored to these needs. Thisdoesn’t sound like rocket science andit isn’t, except that the financial prod-ucts currently available to women areclones of regular products and do notmatch their distinct income, expendi-ture and savings patterns. For example,income, which is mostly from theircasual employment, tends to be moreirregular and unpredictable, often cob-bled together from various sources.Savings are limited; often taking the

form of small amounts saved daily thatneed to be banked quickly to preventthem from being spent. Formal cred-it histories are virtually non-existent.There is heavy reliance on informalnetworks like friends and family forfinancing big-ticket needs.

Women clients, particularly inrural areas, find interacting with malestaff at banks an intimidating experi-ence and may not trust banks as theyare not considered part of their trust-ed service-providers. To overcomesuch psychological barriers, financialinstitutions can increase women staff,and appoint dedicated ones to servefemale customers because most ofthem have a preference for a non-intimidating environment. Womencustomers are likelier to entrust sucha retailer with their finances. They lookfor a consistently high-quality experi-ence, and the qualities they look for inthese experiences include ‘trustworthi-ness’, ‘understanding’, ‘dependability’and ‘accessibility’. In failing to developclient experiences rooted in men andwomen’s fundamentally different per-spectives on finance, monetary servicesinstitutions are missing a very signif-icant business opportunity.

Employing more women as banktellers or mobile money agents canmake it easier for more from the sexto board financial services. Womenwant financial services delivered tothem by someone who is experiencingthe same issues as them. The countryhas only five per cent women asBusiness Correspondents (BCs). Indiahas 8.7 million Self-Help Groups(SHGs) comprising more than 100 mil-lion women members. The number ofSHGs in the BC space needs to bestepped up.

To make financial inclusion forwomen more relevant and meaningful,we also need to sensitise men to thepeculiarities and needs of their femalegender. The inadequacies of focussingon women in isolation have long beenrecognised: women live in communi-ties, they live in families, and they livewith men. Abstracting women fromtheir social realities distorts our under-standing of the relational nature of gen-dered power and the interdependen-

cy of women and men, and that has astrong bearing on women's motiva-tions, choices and possibilities.

At the same time, gender disaggre-gated data is extremely essential fordesigning of suitable financial productsthat can appropriately address women'sneeds. We can use time series data to bet-ter understand women's lives and theirneeds, and accordingly address supplyside disparities to create customised,affordable, convenient, and reliable finan-cial products for women.

Greater women's financial inclu-sion doesn't necessarily require gender-specific policies or making finance pink,but rather policies that work for women.Some banks ‘feminise’ the name orbrand colour of the product. These salestactics may not work. We need anenabling environment that incorporateswomen’s perspectives. They are differentfrom men, due to their gender-diverse lifecycle needs and associated risks, result-ing from constraints imposed by societyand laws and biological differences.Women spend, invest, borrow, manageand protect money differently than men.They prioritise services based on prefer-ences including safety, security, easyaccess, low cost, privacy from friends andfamily and husbands and trust inproviders.

Similarly, the insurance needs ofwomen are different from those of menas they are more at risk of losing theirincome because of pregnancy, divorce orseparation, as well as cultural norms andsocio-economic patterns. The insuranceindustry can play a major role in increas-ing financial protection for womenthrough approaches that target their spe-cific needs, particularly coverage fortheir illness, pregnancy, various life-cycle transitions, while protecting theirsavings to cope with financial chal-lenges.

In short, what is needed for a broad-er, deeper and more relevant and mean-ingful financial inclusion is a nuancedapproach that tackles the underlying,interconnected barriers that women facein accessing and using financial services.

(The writer is Member, NITIAayog's National Committee on

Financial Literacy and Inclusion forWomen)

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With increasing penetrationof internet, surging mid-dle-class and focus on cus-

tomer convenience and affordablepricing, online retail commerce inIndia has grown at a phenomenal 70per cent during the last five yearsreaching about US $40 billion dur-ing 2017. This is projected toincrease five-fold to US $200 billionby 2026.

Much of the growth has beendriven by foreign majors such asAmazon,Walmart/Flipkart and so onunder a policy notified in 2016-17which allowed 100 per cent foreigndirect investment (FDI) in the mar-ketplace model of e-commerce.

The marketplace is an electron-ic platform on which vendors sell

their products to consumers. Theplatform owner can only providesupport services viz. warehousing,logistics, order fulfillment and so onto the vendor but not undertakedirect selling. Vide a circular datedDecember 26, 2018, it was furtherclarified that the owner [or its groupcompany] can neither hold equitynor control the inventory of the ven-dor.

In the process of conductingtheir businesses, these companiesgenerate data of millions of cus-tomers. Advanced techniques suchas Artificial Intelligence (AI), dataanalytics, cloud computing andmore can be used to track consumerbehavior/history and target poten-tial consumers with customisedmarketing content. The data mayalso be susceptible to misuse and itraises privacy concerns.

In this backdrop, a draft policyon e-commerce — put up by theDepartment for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)for public comments — focusses onprotection of such data, restrictionson its cross-border movement and

sharing of ‘sensitive’ data with thirdparties (including foreign govern-ments) even when the consumerconsents to such storage. The poli-cy requires foreign companies to setup domestic data storage; mandato-rily register business locally and havea representative; give the govern-ment access to source code and algo-rithms of AI systems.

The draft proposes continuationof the extant policy on FDI in mar-ketplace and stresses the need forgiving access of these platforms tosmall traders and retailers andensures their running in a ‘transpar-ent’ and ‘non-discriminatory’ man-ner. It moots setting up of e-con-sumer courts to consider and redressgrievances. It suggests taxation ofelectronic transactions.

It does not recommend settingup of a regulator for the e-commercesector; instead, a standing group ofsecretaries is mandated to addressthe regulatory issues. The policyneeds to be evaluated on three mainplanks viz. (i) promoting business-es to catapult Indian economy to ahigh growth trajectory; (ii) protect

the fundamental rights of citizens toprivacy; (iii) safeguard nationalsecurity.

Even as the policy is expected tostrike a fine balance between thethree objectives, looking at the pro-posals, one gets a sense that there isdisproportionate emphasis on pro-tection of the data. Indeed, this isbeing pushed to a point whereby thismight even stifle innovation, dis-courage foreign investment andaffect growth.

The requirement for foreignplayers to mandatorily register theentity locally and have a represen-tative in India will dissuade themfrom investing here as the cost andhassles of running businesses andmeeting regulatory requirementsincrease. The insistence on havingtheir physical presence locally is outof sync with the underlying philos-ophy of digital transactions germaneto e-commerce.

Similarly, the cost and hasslesassociated with asking foreign com-panies to set up server/data collec-tion centre has to be weighed againstthe objective of preventing misuse

and minimising security risk. Theinsistence on access to source codeand algorithms of AI systemsappears to be too stringent a require-ment which is bound to be resistedby the foreign majors.

Instead of going for suchextreme steps, the government mayconsider a ‘pragmatic’ and ‘flexible’arrangement to address the concernson protection of ‘sensitive’ data. Itsapproach should be one of riskassessment, identification of misuseand timely pre-emptive action takenin collaboration with the foreigncompanies. The latter should extendfull cooperation to the former.

Let this be understood in noambiguous terms that merely by tak-ing possession of the ‘data key’(read: source code and algorithms ofAI systems), the state agencies won'tget anywhere. So, it can let the keyremain with the company whichshould ensure that all necessarymeasures are in place to protect thedata and address security concerns.If need be, penalty may be imposedfor non-compliance. There is anurgent need to set up a regulator.

This approach guided by thephilosophy of mutual trust andaccommodation will also help incapturing all the digital transactionsneeded for garnering tax revenue —indirect and direct — from thevendors as well as the marketplaceowner.

There are loopholes in the extantpolicy on FDI in e-commerce mar-ketplace which are being exploited byforeign majors to get into direct sell-ing. The December 26, 2018 circularhas not helped much. In a scenarioof their being completely barredfrom B2C on ground zero (unlikelyas we don’t even have a regulator),they would simply pack up. So, theway forward is to allow 100 per centFDI in retail in both ‘online’ and‘offline’ — without any riders. Thiswill create level playing field and ben-efit all stakeholders including smalltraders and retailers. The governmentneeds to rehash the policy draftshunning its overly rigid and protec-tionist stance and instead build on‘flexibility’ and ‘trust’ to maximise thedeliverables.

(The writer is a policy analyst)

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Equity benchmark Sensexon Monday spurted about

383 points to close at a near six-month high of 37,052, triggeredby broad-based buying onexpectations that the incum-bent NDA Government will getthe second term.

Besides, investor sentimentwere lifted by sustained foreignfund inflows and positive glob-al cues.

The 30-share Sensex start-ed off on a strong footing andreclaimed the 37,000 mark onwidespread buying byinvestors, and ended at37,054.10, up by 382.67 points,or 1.04 per cent.

This is the highest closinglevel since September 19 lastyear when it had closed at37,121.22.

The gauge had settled53.99 points, or 0.15 per cent,lower at 36,671.43 on Friday.

The NSE Nifty, after climb-ing to 11,172.40 - its highestsince September 26 last year -closed at 11,168.05 points, up132.65 points, or 1.20 per cent.

Experts see this as a pre-poll rally following theannouncement of 2019 gener-al election dates.

J a g a n n a d h a mThunuguntla, Sr. VP and Headof Research (Wealth),

Centrum Broking Limited,said, “The sentiment on Indianmarket has made dramaticcomeback with mid-caps andsmall-caps have seen stellar

two weeks. The market hasseen broad-based robustnesswith buying interest visibleacross the sectors.”

Foreign investors have con-tinued their relentless aggres-sive buying triggering pre-elec-tion rally, he said adding thatas border tensions appearing tohave cooled-off, and globalcentral bankers turned pro-liq-uidity, Indian markets are in“risk-on mood”.

Power, oil and gas, PSU,metal, banking, auto, capitalgoods, infrastructure andhealthcare sector stocks wit-nessed heavy buying throughthe session.

Bharti Airtel emerged bestperformers among Sensex con-stituents by surging 8.08 percent, followed by PowerGrid by3.90 per cent.

Other prominent gainersincluded Coal India, RIL,Vedanta, Tata Steel, AsianPaint, Hero MotoCorp, SBI,ONGC, Yes Bank, Bajaj Auto,ICICI Bank, M&M, MarutiSuzuki, Kotak Bank, SunPharma, Bajaj Finance, HUL,HDFC, L&T, ITC, Tata Motors,Axis Bank and HDFC Bank,rising up to 3.80 per cent.

However, TCS, HCL Tech,NTPC, IndusInd Bank andInfosys ended in the negativezone with fall of up to 0.41 percent.

Barring IT, all the BSE sec-toral indices ended in thegreen, with oil and gas indexrising 2.85 per cent, metal 2.50per cent, consumer durables

2.32 per cent, PSU 2.30 percent, auto 2.24 per cent, power2.04 per cent, infrastructure1.75 per cent, healthcare 1.54per cent, capital goods 1.19 per-cent, FMCG 1.05 per cent,realty 0.93 per cent, capitalgoods 0.95 per cent, bankex0.92 per cent, FMCG 0.74 percent and teck 0.53 per cent.

The broader markets toodisplayed a firm trend with theBSE mid-cap index surging1.96 per cent and the small-capsindex rising 1.61 per cent asinvestors accumulated recent-ly beaten down stocks availableat prevailing attractive levels.

According to experts, pre-vailing geopolitical concerns inthe wake of recent India-Pakistan military conflicts willbe a key factor in the upcom-ing general elections that mayhelp incumbent NDAGovernment at the centre, theysaid.

Lok Sabha elections willbegin on April 11 and will beheld over seven phases followedby counting of votes on May 23,the Election Commissionannounced on Sunday.

Meanwhile, on a net basis,foreign institutional investors(FIIs) bought shares worth�1,095.06 crore, while domesticinstitutional investors (DIIs) soldshares worth �470.7 crore onFriday, provisional data showed.

The Indian rupee Mondayadvanced by 25 paise to closeat 69.89 against the US dollarin line with a strong rally indomestic equities.

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Civil Aviation MinisterSuresh Prabhu has asked

aviation watchdog DGCA toundertake safety assessmentof Boeing 737 MAX planesoperated by domestic airlines.

Besides, the regulator isundertaking a detailed technicalevaluation and consulting withsafety regulators around theworld. The latest moves come aday after a 737 MAX aircraft,operated by Ethiopian Airlines,crashed killing 157 people.

Jet Airways and SpiceJethave 737 MAX aircraft in theirfleet.

In a tweet on Monday,Prabhu said he has directed offi-cials of the Directorate Generalof Civil Aviation (DGCA) toundertake “safety assessment” ofBoeing 737-MAX planes beingflown by domestic carriers.

“Safety of the passengers isour utmost concern. DirectedSecretary and DGCA to takeappropriate action immediate-ly,” Prabhu said in a tweet.

In a separate tweet,Minister of State for CivilAviation Jayant Sinha said theDGCA is undertaking adetailed technical evaluationand consulting with safety reg-ulators around the world.

The incident on Sundaywas the second time in lessthan five months that a 737MAX 8 plane crashed. InOctober 2018, an aircraft oper-ated by Lion Air crashed killingover 180 people in Indonesia.

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Cash-strapped Jet Airwayssaid on Monday it is not

operating any of the five Boeing737 MAX in its fleet.

The statement of the air-line, which has grounded asignificant number of planes,

comes amid aviation regulatorbeing asked to undertake asafety assessment of 737 MAXaircraft following the crash ofsuch a plane in Ethiopia onSunday.

Jet Airways and SpiceJetare the only two domesticcarriers that have 737 MAXplanes in their fleet.

In a statement, Jet Airwayssaid it has five Boeing 737MAX planes in its fleet “but iscurrently not flying any ofthese aircraft”.

“The airline is in contactwith the manufacturer andthe regulator in context of thisdevelopment, and remainscommitted to implementingall directives or advisories thatmay be published by thoseauthorised,” the airline said inthe context of the crash inEthiopia that killed 157 people.

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As part of a joint initiativeundertaken by Satya

MicroCapital, an Indian MFIcompany, and Sa-Dhan (Self-Regulatory Organisation),supported by HSBC, theDigital Financing LiteracyTraining was hosted. Multipleworkshops were held acrossf ive locations, namelySangrur, Dhuri, BhawanigarhMandi, Sunam Mandi andChintawala regions of Punjab,and attended by people from25 villages.

The aim of the joint projectwas to impart digital financialliteracy to approx. 500 womenclients in Punjab.

At the five-day DigitalFinancing Literacy Traininghosted in mid-February,S at y a d e ve l op e d anadvanced structure of con-t e nt an d i n n ov at ivemethodology of communi-cation as part of its educa-tional strategy to teach itsclients about digital financ-ing in an easy-to-under-stand manner.

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Former Nissan chief CarlosGhosn is seeking court per-

mission to attend a boardmeeting at the Japaneseautomaker while out on bail,his lawyer told reportersMonday.

“(Ghosn) has a duty toattend the board meeting as amember of the board, so if heis allowed, he wants to attend,”Junichiro Hironaka said incomments carried on Japan’sNTV televsion station.

Nissan is scheduled to holda board meeting Tuesday after-noon at the company’s head-quarters in the city ofYokohama.

The firm said it could notconfirm that Ghosn was seek-ing to attend the meeting butthat it would be “for the courtto decide” whether its formerchief could be present.

Nissan removed Ghosn aschief shortly after his shockNovember 19 arrest, but hecannot be officially removed

from his seaton the boardwithout as h are h ol d e rmeeting.

The com-pany hasscheduled onefor April 8, butGhosn retainsthe right toattend boardmeetings untilthen.

But hemust alsoobtain thecourt’s approval, which mayprove challenging given thestringent measures that governhis release on bail.

Under the terms of hisrelease, he is forbidden fromcontacting people who couldbe involved in his case, includ-ing Nissan executives likely toattend board meetings, such asCEO Hiroto Saikawa.

Ghosn, who paid nearly $9million in bail money, mustalso live in a residence that is

monitored from the outside bycamera, and can only access anon-internet connected com-puter at his lawyer’s office.

The 65-year-old wasreleased on bail on March 6after more than 100 days indetention.

He faces three charges offinancial misconduct over alle-gations he under-reported hiscompensation and sought totransfer personal losses toNissan’s books.

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To ensure faster implemen-tation of electronic toll col-

lection, Indian HighwaysManagement Company Ltd(IHMCL) has inked a pactwith CSC e-GovernanceServices for issuance ofFASTags through common ser-vice centres, according to anNHAI official.

Promoted by the NationalHighways Authority of India(NHAI), IHMCL has beenmandated to implement theNational Electronic TollCollection (NETC) pro-gramme under the brand name’FASTag’.

“In a major fillip to ensureeasy availability of FASTags,IHMCL, a company promotedby NHAI, has signed a mem-orandum of understanding(MoU) with CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd,a special purpose vehicle, set up

by the Ministry of Electronics& IT, for issuance of IHMCLFASTag through common ser-vice centres (CSC),” the NHAIofficial said.

The collaboration aimsat making FASTags availableto citizens through an exten-sive network of over 1 lakhCSC outlets across the coun-try.

The FASTag programme isan initiative by the NHAI andthe Ministry of Road Transportand Highways (MoRTH) toenable road users to pay the tollelectronically without stoppingby at toll plazas and thus reduc-ing congestion.

The programme waslaunched in April 2016.

Currently, it is operationalat over 480 toll plazas alongthe national highways andselect state toll plazas. Tilldate, more than 4.3 millionFASTags have been issued,the official said.

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IT company IBM on Mondaysaid it will collaborate with

with Central and StateGovernments to upskill aroundone million female students inscience technology, engineeringand maths fields over a periodof three years.

“We can see 100 per centjobs are going to change. Youneed more women in workforce.We are announcing for 200,000from grade eight to twelve, weare going to prepare them forSTEM over a three year period,”IBM Chairman, President andCEO Ginni Rometty said at acompany event.

She said the program is notabout conducting technicaltraining session, but to focus onbasics of critical thinking, lifeskills, among others.

“All of us are capable ofteaching our employees sort ofhardskills. It is softskill, intechnology world that we haveto learn. Collectively our pro-grams are doing one million innumbers and helping four mil-lion teachers,” Rometty said.

The company will collabo-rate with seven StateGovernments across India toprepare over 200,000 girls andwomen in Government schoolsover the next three years for“new collar” jobs through theexploration and study of STEM

subjects in classrooms andonline, a company official said.

As part of its ongoingengagement with theGovernment, around 4,000mentors and 6 lakh menteeswill benefit from IBM’s AI-powered mentor platformwhich will include 5 lakhwomen students.

Rometty announced IBM’scollaboration with KendriyaVidyalaya school network tosupport maths teachers acrossIndia with its artificial intelli-gence platform ’TeacherAdvisor With Watson’ that willcater to around 3 lakh femalestudents.

IBM also announced atwo-year Advanced DiplomaProgramme in emerging tech-nologies created in collabora-tion with the Ministry of SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship which will beavailable to 100 IndustrialTraining Institutes (ITI),including 50 all-women ITIs,over the next three years.

The company will alsooffer internships of up to fivemonths to some students underthe program.

Under the skills and edu-cational program, IBM willoffer science training resourcesto four million teachers in theIndian Open EducationalResources community forSTEM.

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Markets watchdog Sebi haslevied a penalty of �25

lakh on Indus Portfolio for car-rying out reversal of trades inthe illiquid stock options seg-ment on the BSE.

Sebi conducted a probebetween April 2014 andSeptember 2015 after observ-ing large-scale reversal of tradesin the stock options segment onthe bourse which led to the cre-ation of artificial volume.

The firm had indulged inexecution of reversal trades withthe same counter parties duringthe same day at substantial pricedifference, Sebi noted in anorder dated March 8.

Such trades are non-gen-uine as they are not executed innormal course of trading, lackbasic trading rationale, and leadto creation of artificial volume.

“Trades of the noticee werenon-genuine and have createdfalse or misleading appearanceof trading in terms of artificialvolume in stock options and,therefore, manipulative anddeceptive in nature,” Sebi said.

Further, the regulator saidthat “the scheme, plan, deviceand artifice employed by thenoticee in this case of execut-ing reversal trades in illiquidstock options contracts at irra-tional, unrealistic and unrea-sonable prices, tantamount tofraud on the securities market.”

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Buoyed by the winning bidfor Lanco's Teesta VI,

State-owned NHPC will bidfor Jal Power Corporation'sRangit hydro project inSikkim, which is undergoinginsolvency proceedings,NHPC Chairman and MDBalraj Joshi said. The RangitStage IV 120 MW project is astressed asset and is undergo-ing insolvency proceedingsin the National Company LawTribunal (NCLT).

Earlier this month, theCCEA approved NHPC's pro-posed acquisition of LancoTeesta Hydro Power in Sikkimat a bid out price of �907 crore.The total investment approvalfor the project is �5,748.04crore which includes �907crore bid amount.

"We are also looking atanother project which is alsoin Sikkim again. We are justwaiting for the (commercialbid to open). This is a JalPower project. This is also atthe same status as Teesta VI.They are yet to call for EoI(expression of interest). NCLTwill hear the case on March15," Joshi told reporters in apress conference.

NHPC Director FinanceM K Mittal said this is the firsttime a public sector firm isbuying a private entitythrough NCLT. "We havebeen a frontrunner in buyingone project through NCLT.No other PSU has been able to

do so. We have been veryaggressive," Mittal said.

Sikkim Government hadawarded Rangit project to JalPower on November 1, 2004.An agreement for setting up ofRangit Stage-IV was inkedwith the state on December 9,2005 on build, own, operateand transfer (BOOT) basis.The project envisages instal-lation of three units of 40 MWeach (3X40).

These proposed acquisi-tions by NHPC assume sig-nificance in view of its plansto achieve 10 GW installedgeneration capacity by 2022,up from 7071.2 MW at pre-sent.

Talking about the perfor-mance of NHPC, Joshi said thecumulative generation from

all power stations for the cur-rent fiscal stands at 23,057 mil-lion units (MUs) (as on March10, 2019) and shall surpass pre-vious record of 23,404 MUs.

Joshi also told reportersthat NHPC has been appoint-ed as an aggregator underPilot Scheme-II for procure-ment of aggregated power of2500 MW for 3 years throughPFC Consultancy Ltd, whichis a nodal agency for that.Now the process is for engag-ing generators to supplypower under the scheme. Thescheme shall involve transac-tion of electricity of around18,615 MUs at 85 per centplant load factor (capacityutilisation) of 2500 MW andturnover of more than of�7,000 crore on yearly basis.

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Page 11: ˝ ˛+ ˘ˇ ˆ˙ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ˆˆ !˚ˆ#$ ˘% ˆ˙ ˝ ˇ ˆ ......2019/03/12  · poll dates during Ramzan. The EC clarified that the main festival (June 4) and Fridays (falling in

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Chemotherapy is used in treatment of cancer globally.However, there are several side effects that need to be man-

aged effectively in order to improve quality of life of patientsand their adherence to the treatment. Many patients drop outor delay their treatment due to these side effects and so it isimportant to understand the side effects and ways to managethem.

The most critical side effects of chemotherapy arechemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV), cancercachexia, oral mucositis, chemotherapy-induced neutropenia,and chemotherapy-induced anaemia.�Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV): Itis the most common and critical side effect of chemotherapy,affects 70-80 per cent patients receiving chemotherapy. CINVcan result in loss of energy as the body is not able to consumenecessary vitamins and minerals from food, loss of appetiteand taste, dehydration, and slow healing of wounds. A patientgenerally has CINV for about seven to 10 days afterchemotherapy and this needs to be controlled through appro-priate medicines. Earlier patients had to take multiple drugsat regular intervals per chemotherapy cycle to effectively man-age CINV but with recent advancements in supportive carein cancer, a proven medicine that needs to be taken only onceper chemotherapy cycle is available in India.�Cancer cachexia or wasting syndrome, characterised byweight loss, muscle atrophy, fatigue, weakness and significantloss of appetite in someone not actively trying to lose weight

occurs usually at the advancedstages of cancer. It is mostcommonly seen in pancreaticand gastric cancer. Recent ther-apies for the cachectic syn-drome involve a multi-discipli-nary approach with diet mod-ification and or exercise alongwith necessary medications.�Oral mucositisis an inflam-mation of the mucosa of themouth ranging from redness tosevere ulceration. It is a com-mon, debilitating complicationof chemotherapy and radio-therapy, affecting about 40 per

cent of patients. Oral mucositis usually begins five to 10 dayspost initiation of chemotherapy and lastsupto six weeks ormore. Different treatments for mucositis include general oralcare protocols, topical anaesthetics, antiseptics, antibacterial,antifungal and antiviral agents,mucosal barriers and coatingagents, mucosal cell stimulants, psychotherapy and others.�Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN): It is causedwhen the amount of white blood cells called neutrophils sig-nificantly drops due to chemotherapy. At present, CIN is man-aged by delaying and reducing dose of chemotherapy treat-ment with hematopoietic growth factors and with intravenousantibiotic therapy. Reducing chemotherapy may compromisetreatment outcomes in potentially curable malignancies,such as early stage breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.�Chemotherapy-induced anaemia (CIA): It is a frequentcomplication of malignancy. CIA risk varies depending on thetype of chemotherapy, the stage and type of cancer, the num-ber of chemotherapy cycles and patient's overall health. CIAtreatment includes providing supportive care through trans-fusion with packed red blood cells (PRBC) or administrationof erythropoiesisstimulating agents (ESAs), with or withoutiron supplementation.

While new medicines for cancer treatment are being intro-duced, improving quality of life of patients remains a challengedue to the treatment side effects. Supportive care in cancer isa comprehensive approach for effective management of theseside effects and awareness about supportive care medicationsneeds to increase among all stakeholders as cancer continuesto spread rapidly in the country.

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���&�,�� ��C Ashwangandha is a plant in thenightshade family. It is used is

used to tone, support, and revitalisebody functions. It has been reveredover time for its dual capacity toenergise and calm at the sametime.

Stress can cause fatigue,often manifesting as hypersigns like agitation anddifficulty sleeping. Byproviding a nourishing, yetenergising effect, ashwagandhacan support a healthy nervoussystem.

With the use of ashwagandha,stress doesn’t impact the nervous sys-tem with such intensity, and the signs ofstress and agitation will naturally resolve overtime. Due to its heating effect, a small quantity of it can also helpto cure cough and cold.

It also supports a healthy immune system and foster healthysleep patterns. It promotes thyroid health and proper function-ing of the adrenals.

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Getting enoughsleep can helpprotect against

cardiovascular disease bypreventing the build-up ofplaques in the arteries, as per a study. Theresearch describes the mechanism bywhich insufficient sleep increases produc-tion of inflammatory white blood cells,which are known to be major contributorsto atherosclerosis. It also found that a hor-mone in the brain known to control wake-fulness controls processes in the bone mar-row and protects against cardiovasculardisease.

One of every five patients in India suf-fers from sleeping disorder, as per a studyand about 20.3% patients visiting doctorsfor such issues ask for sleeping pills. Manypatients suffer from sleep disturbances, thereasons for which include hectic schedule,night shifts, and high stress levels.Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) seems tobe one of the most common problem.

Tips from Heart Care Foundation ofIndia

�Try to go to bed and get up at thesame time every day — at least, on week-days.

�Create a sleep sanctuary. Reserveyour bedroom for sleep and intimacy.

�Banish TV, computer, smartphoneor tablet, and other diversions you’re yourbedroom

�Avoid caffeine after noon and golight on alcohol.

�Get regular exercise, but not with-in three hours of bedtime.

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There are many peopleout there who sufferfrom indoor or outdoor

allergies like pollen and dustmites especially with thechanges in season. Itchy eyes,wheezing and sneezing arecommon symptoms.

Apple cider vinegar is oneof the most commonitem found in kitchens.It can help reducemucous productionand cleanse thelymphatic system.If possible swal-low a tablespoonof it otherwiseadd a tablespoonto a cup of hotwater with a smallbit of honey anddrink it.

Honey is another itemfound is most households.However, a tablespoon or twowill not immediately have the

desired effect but taken overtime, will show results.

Sometimes allergies are aresult of poor immune system.Probiotics give the system themuch needed boost. A goodsource of probiotics is

kimchi. Eat lots of

fresh vegetables andfruits like grapes, apples,

oranges, and tomatoes. Ahealthy diet is good for your

whole body. There was a reason

why our grandparentsinsisted that we leaveour shoes at the doorand wash our hands

and feet before enteringthe house. Each time you

walk into your home, youbring small pieces of the

outside world with you. Takea shower and change yourclothes to wash away any aller-gens.

Seasonal allergies are commonbut a cause of irritation for

those who suffer from it.ROSHANI DEVI tells you how

one can deal with them withsimple and useful condiments

found in your kitchen

Warning symptoms often precedethe sudden cardiac arrest eventin a large number of patients,

but symptoms may be unrecognised orminimised by patients, and subse-quent ascertainment of symp-toms is often limited, partic-ularly in patients who donot survive the event.

In addition, patientswho have sudden cardiacarrest and are resuscitat-ed often have a retro-grade amnesia and hencedo not remember events orsymptoms that may havebeen present.

In most studies 51 per centpatients have warning symptoms withinfour weeks preceding SCA and 80 per

cent of patients experience symptoms atleast one hour before sudden cardiacarrest and 34 per cent having symptomsmore than 24 hours before the arrest.

Chest pain (46 per cent), dysp-noea (18 per cent) and dizzi-

ness, fainting, or palpitations(4 per cent) are the mostcommon symptoms, withwomen more likely tohave dyspnoea than chestpain (31 versus 24 percent).

Patients with symp-toms concerning for car-

diac disease, particularly newor unstable symptoms, should

seek prompt medical care for poten-tially life-saving evaluation and treat-ment.

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Adecade ago, if one had to think about replac-ing a missing tooth, there were choices such

as Removable Partial Dentures (RPD) or FixedBridge. However, today, there are better options.Technology has brought about developments inosseointegration utilising titanium as a noblemetal which can provide foundation of single,multiple, or all the teeth. Doctors say they arefar more effective, and enduring.

“With bone loss, one’s face sags and startslooking old. A sagging jaw further leads to poor-ly formed facial profile. However, the preserva-tion of bone has produced unimaginable pos-sibilities. Today, it has been reliably proven thattill the time a tooth remains, the bone remains— else you’ve lost a tooth! The methods usedtill date are either fixed partial, removable or par-tial dentures. However, in all these the bone isnot recovered. Implants are the only solutionwhich can promise bone recovery,” says Dr SheoSewak Pandey, Implantologist, Clove Dental.

Missing teeth can be more than just a sourceof embarrassment and low self-esteem for peo-ple of all age groups. They are unhealthy for themouth and overall health. Tooth loss is a rela-tively common phenomenon. According to sta-tistics about 70 per cent of adults in the age groupof 35 to 49 years have at least one missing ordecaying tooth. Another one in four peopleabove the age of 74 are missing all of their teeth.Studies show that in the ancient times, missingteeth were replaced using dentures made froma combination of rare hippopotamus ivory,human bone and metal fasteners. “The fact thatwe have better options today makes the loss ofteeth a little more bearable,” Pandey says.

While a person’s confidence suffers withtooth loss, the latter also affects health in the longterm. Infections followed by a serious gum dis-ease have also been linked to heart diseases anddiabetes. “Missing teeth affect a person’s jawstructure (and the tooth next to this gap maytry occupying the space too). Tooth shifts likethis create a domino effect wherein the teethmove, the jawbone shifts over time, and thestructure becomes unstable. Within some time,all of this can lead to tooth decay and therebyloss of more pearly whites,” Pandey tells you.

Removable teeth replacements that come ina full or partial set are called dentures. For a goodtime, conventional dentures have been the mostpopular option for missing teeth. There has beena lot of advancement in their look and feel overtime and today, they look more natural than theydid years ago.

“Dental implants are permanent teethreplacements implanted surgically into thejawbone. Provided a person maintains good oralhygiene, dental implants can last for a long time(in some instances cases of it lasting longer than20 years were also recorded) without replace-ment. Although expensive, it is important toconsider the fact that they can help in savingmoney on any health complications that arisedue to missing teeth,” he shares.

It also helps that they are easier to maintainthan conventional dentures as the person neednot worry about them falling out. In addition,they tend to look and feel more natural.

Although dental implants can provide bet-ter health outcomes, it is important to weighyour options and talk to the dentist. Once youunderstand the differences in detail, they canhelp you in arriving at a choice and therebyensure healthier teeth and gums — and overallhealth in the longer run. The development inimplant material has brought the prognosis intoacceptable limits. Implants are the most viablesolution for missing teeth. There is no doubt thatthey will continue to rule till research in stemcells takes over these as a viable replacement formissing teeth.

I M P L A N T I N GNEW WAYS

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Ahealthy family starts withthe women of the house ishealthy. Trying to balance

the demands of family and workor school and coping with all thepressure it is difficult to copy upwith the nutritional requirements.The right food will not only helpto boost the energy levels, moodand also it will maintain a healthyweight of women. A healthylifestyle is very important for awomen as there are a lot of phys-ical changes that happens in thelife of a women, it starts from hermenstrual cycle at the age of tento 15 years, pre-menstrual syn-drome (PMS) and then pregnan-cy and then menopause, at everystage a women’s body needsrequired amount of nutrients.

Having the required amountof nutrients will help women tomaintain a healthy and balancedlife. While women needs morecalories than men, the require-ments of some vitamins and min-erals in a females body is muchhigher. Stages like hormonalchanges, menopause, anemia,osteoporosis and weakness whilePMS, the nutrient requirementsincreases. Some important nutri-ents that a woman requires are cal-cium, iron, iodine, protein, goodfat, Vitamin-D, folic acid, Vitamin-C, omega-3, fibre, Vitamin B12,potassium, antioxidant, Vitamin-

B6, water, magnesium, zinc, car-bohydrates, vitamin-K, andVitamin-E. In daily life we neglectthe daily dietary requirements. � Calcium: It is important in

women’s diet as they are moreprone to osteoporosis and tokeep one’s heart healthy calci-um is important. As calciumhelps to regulate heartsrhythm, and ensure our ner-vous system functions proper-ly. Calcium deficiency leads tomood problems, anxiety,depression, sleep disorder.Food rich in calcium areyogurt, almonds, beans, wheyprotein, chia seeds, cheese,spinach, kale, barley, tofu, figsand milk.

� Iron: The deficiency of ironcan cause anemia and can leadto fatigue. Iron is important tobe taken as it is required inmenstrual cycle and for healthyheart. Some iron rich foodspinach, chickpeas, peas, soy-abean, pumpkin seeds, quinoa,broccoli and dark chocolate.

� Iodine: Iodine rich food likeapple, eggs, berries like cran-berries, strawberries, blueber-ries, banana, tofu, prunes,almond and walnuts. All theseare rich in iodine helps to keepa healthy heart.

� Protein: It is very important inone’s diet as it helps to boostmetabolism and does repairand muscle building. For ahealthy heart it is important todo intake of protein in a prop-er amount. Having more ofred-meat can lead to heartproblems and problems likecholesterol. Some protein richfoods are fish, nuts, low fatyogurt and milk.

� Good fat: Good fat foods likeavocados, dark chocolate, fish,nuts, olive oil, whole eggs,chia seeds, coconut oil and lowfat yogurt.

� Vitamin-D: It is very impor-tant f or the absorption of cal-cium in our body. For a healthyheart

� Folic acid: The daily dose of

folic acid can reduce the risk ofheart disease and strokes.Some of the food rich in folicacid are beans, leafy greenvegetables — spinach, orangejuice, bread and rice.

� Vitamin-C: It helps to lowerthe blood pressure, lowers cho-lesterol and builds up theimmune system. Some vitaminC rich food are grapefruit,broccoli, bell peppers, tomatoand sweet potato.

� Omega-3: It can decreasetriglycerides and lowers bloodpressure and decreases strokesand irregular heart beat. Someomega 3 rich foods are fish,flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds.

� Fibre: Oats, beans andflaxseeds provides fibre andhelps to lower blood choles-terol levels and lowering badcholesterol levels.

� Vitamin-B12: It helps toimprove heart help by decreas-ing homocysteine, whichreduces the risk of heart dis-eases. Vitamin B12 is natural-ly found in animal productslike fish, egg, milk and milkproducts.

� Antioxidant: It helps to reducethe risk of (CHD) coronaryheart diseases. Antioxidantsrich foods are green tea, onion,garlic, berries and spinach.

� Vitamin B6: It helps to reduceheart strokes and it may reducethe risk of heart failure. Somevitamin B6 rich food is chick-en, egg and brown rice.

� Water: Hydrated heart is ableto pump blood easily. Havingthree litres of water in a day isessential.

� Magnesium: It is important forheart as it helps to keep nervesworking properly.

� Zinc: The antioxidant proper-ty in zinc keeps the hearthealthy, shell fish, nuts andeggs are some foods that arerich in zinc.

� Carbohydrates: It is impor-tant for the body to workproperly. Some rich carbohy-drates are bread, wheat flourand rice.

� Vitamin K: It helps to keep cal-cium out of the arteries, someof the vitamin K rich food arefish, eggs, sprouts and broccoli.

� Vitamin E: Vegetable oils andnuts are rich in Vitamin Ewhich helps to maintain ahealthy heart.

� Potassium: Helps to ease ten-sion in our blood vessel walls.Banana, orange, cucumber,raisins and broccoli are richsources.

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Lot of times diets plansare helpful for shed-

ding few kg in the begin-ning but then there comesa time when people shedno more. It is then whenmost people give up andfeel disappointed. But itsimportant to understandthe reason of plateau andlittle things which can becorrected.

Make a food diary, itwill help giving detailedidea of our eating pat-terns, cheatings done,meal skipped, over indul-gence and most important

real picture of our waterintake. Most commonmistake done during theweight loss exercise is, nothydrating the body prop-erly.

Water is not only con-sumed as its liquid formbut also the food we eathas been water contentwhich releases in ourbody. Our body is morethan 70 per cent water, sohydration becomes sec-ond important factor.

“Sometimes weightloss on scale isn’t there butvisible inch loss is there,

that is because when weburn fat get gain muscles,one see visible inch loss orBCA (Body CompositionAnalysis) test can give thereal picture of fat range

drop off. So, there nothingto worry if visible inch lossis there. Check your dailyfood menu, if it does notinclude seasonal vegeta-bles, adequate amount ofprotein (lean meat, fish,eggs, tofu, beans, legumes,nuts, milk and its productslike yogurt, cheese) andsalad, this could be thereason of weight lossplateau,” Shweta Diwanfrom Slimage Diet Clinic,explains and tells you thatone must eat dark greenleafy vegetables, salads,sprouts.

“No one diet works forall and so is the reason forplateau for every individ-ual. It is always suggestedto take professional helpand build your relation-ship with food for a longterm benefit and constantweight loss rather thangoing on a crash diet. If westart eating mindfullythere is no reason that ourweight shall be stuck. “Weshould strive towards alifestyle modification andnot diet for a limited peri-od for a long term holisticwellness,” Diwan says.

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The EU’s chief Brexit nego-tiator Michel Barnier told

AFP on Monday that negotia-tions to break a deadlock on adeal to leave the bloc are nowbetween British Prime MinisterTheresa May and members ofher parliament.

“We held talks over theweekend and the negotiationsnow are between the govern-ment in London and the par-liament in London,” Barniersaid as he arrived at EU head-quarters in Brussels to discussBritain’s exit from the blocwith envoys from the other 27member states.

Hopes had been high thatMay would come to Brussels tofinalise a deal with the EU onMonday, but a European sourcethese plans had been shelveddue to a lack of progress.

With time running out,May had hoped for a signalfrom Brussels to help get aBrexit deal over the line in time

for Britain’s looming departurefrom the European Union —scheduled for March 29.

Instead, she spoke toEuropean Commission chiefJean-Claude Junkcer lateSunday by phone, with both

sides agreeing to stay in touch.“No further meetings at

political level are scheduled, butboth sides will remain in closecontact this week,” Juncker’sspokesman Margaritis Schinassaid.

“We are committed to rat-ifying this deal before March29. It is now for the House ofCommons to take an importantset of decisions this week,” headded. British MPs over-whelmingly rejected the deal

when it was first put to them inJanuary — with many citing thecontroversial Irish “backstop”clause. A second parliamentaryvote will take place on Tuesday.

The backstop would keepthe whole of the UK in a cus-

toms union with the EU inorder to keep the land borderbetween the British province ofNorthern Ireland and theRepublic of Ireland free-flowing.

A European source said theembattled May had failed to

convince her Cabinet over theweekend and that talks with theEU could go no further.

Barnier said his teams hadoffered all they could, includ-ing a last-minute proposal thatBritain could leave the bloc’scustoms union after thedivorce.

But this offer would notinclude Northern Ireland,which infuriated Barnier’sBritish counterparts who calledit a “rerun of old arguments”.

The Europeans have alsoproposed to sign a legallybacked “joint interpretativedocument” of the Irish back-stop. This would reiterate waysBritain could attempt to sus-pend the backstop if Londonwere to request a suspension ofsome of its obligations.

To assess the document,British MPs are awaiting theopinion of Attorney GeneralGeoffrey Cox, the MayGovernment’s top lawyer whotook a lead role in the negoti-ations with Barnier last week.

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$�8� � �������������������$�� ���+�$�����London: British PrimeMinister Theresa May is fight-ing to save her European Uniondivorce deal with the negotia-tions deadlocked a day beforeParliament is scheduled to voteon the plan.

May promised lawmakerstwo weeks ago they would geta second vote on the deal byMarch 12, but hard-line Brexitsupporters are warning sheshould postpone the vote ratherthan risk another crushingdefeat. The House of

Commons overwhelminglyrejected the deal in January, pri-marily because of concernsover arrangements for the Irishborder.

“Technical” talks aimed atsecuring concessions from theEU failed to secure a break-through over the weekend.

Former chief whip AndrewMitchell told the Times ofLondon that “anything thatavoids what looks like a mas-sive defeat on Tuesday is worthconsidering.” AP

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Bangladesh Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina on Monday

assured her Indian counterpartNarendra Modi that her gov-ernment would never allow thecountry’s soil to be used by anyterrorist organisation underits “zero tolerance policy”.

Dhaka was firmly com-mitted to stamp out terrorismfrom the South Asian regionthrough bilateral, regional andmultilateral cooperation, shesaid after jointly inauguratingfour projects in Bangladeshwith Prime Minister Modithrough video-conferencing.

Terming the spread of rad-icalism as a “grave threat” notonly to the two countries but tothe entire region, India andBangladesh last year resolved tostep up anti-terror cooperation.

“We remain steadfast inour resolve to root out thescourge of terrorism from ourregion and beyond throughbilateral, regional and multi-lateral cooperation,” Hasinasaid.

The Bangladesh premiersaid her government wouldnever allow Bangladesh soil tobe used by any terrorist organ-isation under its “zero tolerancepolicy” against terrorism “in allits forms and manifestations”.

Hasina also expressed her“utmost sympathy” for thefamily members of the Indianparamilitary police personnelwho were killed in last month’sterror attack in Pulwama inKashmir.

“We reiterate our strongcondemnation of this dastard-ly act,” she said.

A suicide bomber of

Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed killed 40 CRPFpersonnel in Kashmir’sPulwama district on February14, the incident led to flaringup of tensions between Indiaand Pakistan.

Hasina said that the rela-tions between Dhaka and NewDelhi is now a “role model” ofgood neighbours for the rest ofthe world as a result of multi-faceted and multi-dimension-al cooperation.

“I strongly believe thismomentum will continue,” shesaid.

The Bangladesh premiersaid over the last decade, twocountries have witnessedremarkable progress on coop-eration in different conven-tional and unconventionalareas like security, power, tradeand commerce, energy, con-nectivity, infrastructure devel-opment, environment, renew-able energy, education, cul-ture, people-to-people contactand health.

She said at the same time,the two countries have expand-ed cooperation in new areaslike blue economy and mar-itime cooperation, peacefuluses of the nuclear energy,cooperation in outer space,internet bandwidth sharing,cyber security etc.

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China’s civil aviation regula-tor on Monday ordered

domestic carriers to groundnearly 100 Boeing 737 MAX 8planes, citing flight safety, a dayafter an aircraft of similarmodel operated by EthiopianAirlines crashed in AddisAbaba killing all 157 passengersand crew, including fourIndians.

The crash of EthiopianAirlines plane came fivemonths after another Boeing737 MAX 8 of Lion Air crashedin Indonesia that killed 189passengers and crew.

Apart from China,Indonesia and Ethiopia havealso ordered airlines to groundtheir Boeing 737 MAX 8planes. There were similaritiesbetween the two mishaps, sincethey both occurred duringtake-off, involving new air-craft that had just been deliv-ered, the Hong Kong-basedSouth China Morning Postreported quoting a statementby the Civil Aviation Authorityof China (CAAC).

“In accordance with theCAAC’s management principleof zero tolerance for safety

hazards, the authority hasinstructed all domestic carriersto temporarily halt operationsinvolving the aircraft modelbefore 6pm (local time) onMarch 11,” the Post quoted theCAAC statement as saying.

The grounding of the air-craft is likely to affect morethan a dozen Chinese carriers,which have taken delivery ofclose to 100 of the latest single-aisle plane from the US aircraftmaker, it said.

CNN, quoting state-runmedia, said Chinese carriershave 97 Boeing 737 MAX 8planes. As many as 246 Chinesedomestic routes and 355domestic flights were sched-uled on Monday for the 737MAX 8 planes, excluding inter-national services, the reportsaid quoting Chinese flightdata provider VariFlight.

As many as 29 flights havealready been cancelled, while259 fights were replaced byother aircraft.

China Southern Airlines,Air China, China EasternAirlines, Hainan Airlines areamong the carriers that fly theaircraft, which can carrybetween 138 to 230 passengersdepending on their configura-

tions, the report said. Meanwhile, the Chicago-

based Boeing said it did notintend to issue any new guid-ance to its customers and acompany’s technical team willbe travelling to the crash site toprovide technical assistance toEthiopian and US investigators.

“Boeing is deeply saddenedto learn of the passing of thepassengers and crew onEthiopian Airlines Flight 302,a 737 MAX 8 airplane. Weextend our heartfelt sympathiesto the families and loved onesof the passengers and crew onboard and stand ready to sup-port the Ethiopian Airlinesteam.

“A Boeing technical teamwill be travelling to the crashsite to provide technical assis-tance under the direction of theEthiopia Accident InvestigationBureau and US NationalTransportation Safety Board,”the statement from the com-pany said.

The 737 is the best-sellingairliner in history. Its newestversion 737 MAX 8 has morefuel-efficient engines. The air-craft is a central part ofBoeing’s strategy to competewith its European rival Airbus.

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Ethiopian Airlines hasgrounded all of its Boeing

737 Max 8 aircraft as “an extrasafety precaution” followingthe crash of one of its planes inwhich 157 people were killed,a spokesman said Monday, asEthiopia marked a day ofmourning and the plane’s dam-aged “black box” of data wasfound. Although it wasn’t yetknown what caused the crashof the new plane in clear weath-er outside Addis Ababa onSunday, the airline decided toground its remaining four 737Max 8s until further notice,spokesman Asrat Begashawsaid. Ethiopian Airlines hadbeen using five of the planesand awaiting delivery of 25more.

Some other airlines aroundthe world were deciding to dothe same. Aviation authoritiesin China and Indonesia alongwith Caribbean carrierCayman Airways temporarilygrounded their Max 8s.

Red Cross workers slowlypicked through the widely scat-tered debris near the blackenedcrash crater, looking for the

remains of 157 lives. A shred-ded book. A battered passport.Business cards in multiple lan-guages.

Heavy machinery dug forlarger pieces of the plane.

The plane’s “black box” offlight data and cockpit voicerecorder had been found,Ethiopian Airlines said. Anairline official, however, toldThe Associated Press that thebox was partially damaged and“we will see what we canretrieve from it.” The officialspoke on condition ofanonymity for lack of autho-rization to speak to the media.

Forensic experts fromIsrael had arrived to help withthe investigation, saidEthiopian Airlines’ spokesmanAsrat. Ethiopian authoritieslead the investigation into thecrash, assisted by the U.S.,Kenya and others.

“These kinds of things taketime,” Kenya’s transport min-ister, James Macharia, toldreporters. People from 35countries died in the Sundaymorning crash six minutesafter the plane took off fromEthiopia’s capital en route toNairobi.

Ethiopian Airlines said thesenior pilot issued a distress calland was told to return but allcontact was lost shortly after-ward. The plane plowed intothe ground at Hejere nearBishoftu.

“I heard this big noise,” onelocal resident, Tsegaye Reta,told the AP on Monday.

“The villagers said that itwas a plane crash, and werushed to the site. There was ahuge smoke that we couldn’teven see the plane. The parts ofthe plane were falling apart.”Kenya lost 32 people, morethan any country. Relatives of25 of the victims had been con-tacted, Macharia said, and tak-ing care of their welfare was ofutmost importance.

“Some of them, as youknow, they are very distressed,”he said. “They are in shock likewe are. They are grieving.”Canada, Ethiopia, the U.S.,China, Italy, France, Britain,Egypt, Germany, India andSlovakia all lost four or morecitizens. Leaders of the UnitedNations, the UN Refugeeagency and the World FoodProgram announced that col-leagues had been on the plane.

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Iran’s President HassanRouhani hit back on Monday

against pressure from the“aggressor” United States onIraq to limit ties with its neigh-bour, during his first officialvisit to Baghdad.

Shiite-majority Iraq iswalking a fine line to maintaingood relations with its keypartners Iran and the UnitedStates which themselves arearch-foes.

It has been under pressurefrom Washington not to get tooclose to the Islamic republicnext door, particularly after theUnited States last year with-drew from the 2015 nucleardeal with Iran and hit Tehranwith sanctions.

Baghdad was given limitedwaivers to continue buyingelectricity and natural gas fromIran, but Washington has urgedIraq to partner with US com-panies to become energy inde-pendent.

Rouhani, who is on his firsttrip to Iraq since becoming

president in 2013, hailed hiscountry’s “special” ties with itsneighbour.

These relations could notbe compared to Iraq’s ties “withan aggressor country likeAmerica”, he said before flyingMonday to Baghdad for thethree-day visit.

“America is despised inthe region. The bombs that theAmericans dropped on Iraqis,Syrian people and other coun-tries cannot be forgotten,” headded. Iran is always ready tohelp its neighbours, he said, ina nod to the role Tehran playedto help Iraq battle the IslamicState group (IS).

Iraq’s President BarhamSaleh, at a joint news confer-ence with Rouhani in Baghdad,thanked Iran for its “support”and said he was “lucky” to haveit as a neighbour, without mak-ing any reference to the US.

Rouhani, who is heading alarge political and economicdelegation, said relationsbetween the two countriesshould be further “reinforcedand developed”.

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An Indonesian womanaccused of assassinating

the North Korean leader’s half-brother was freed on Mondayafter Malaysian prosecutorsdropped a murder chargeagainst her, in a shock decisiona year and a half after she wenton trial.

Siti Aisyah smiled as shewas ushered through a pack ofjournalists and into a car out-side the court, where she hadbeen on trial alongside aVietnamese woman for themurder of Kim Jong Nam atKuala Lumpur airport inFebruary 2017.

“I feel happy. I did notknow this will happen. I did notexpect it,” said Aisyah, who waswearing a red headscarf.

It was a surprise move asthe Shah Alam High Court,outside Kuala Lumpur, hadbeen due only to hear Huong’stestimony on Monday. Herlawyers said they were seekingan adjournment.

The women, in their 20s,had always denied murder,saying they believed they were

taking part in a prank and weretricked by North Korean agentsinto carrying out the ColdWar-style hit using VX nerveagent.

Their lawyers had present-ed them as scapegoats, sayingthat authorities were unable tocatch the real killers.

Four North Koreans —formally accused of the murderalongside the women — fledMalaysia shortly after the mur-der. The trial, which began inOctober 2017, was due to

resume Monday with thedefence stage of proceedingsafter a break of several months.

But at the start of the hear-ing, prosecutor MuhammadIskandar Ahmad requestedthat the murder charge againstAisyah be withdrawn and thatshe be given a discharge.

He gave no reason for therequest.

“Siti Aisyah is freed,” judgeAzmin Ariffin told the court, ashe approved a request. “She canleave now.” Indonesian ambas-

sador to Malaysia Rusdi Kiranatold reporters outside court:“We are pleased with the courtdecision. We will try to fly Sitiback to Indonesia today or assoon as possible.” Prosecutorshad presented their case in thefirst stage of the trial. Witnessesdescribed how the victim —the estranged half-brother ofKim Jong Un and once seen asheir apparent to the NorthKorean leadership — died inagony shortly after beingattacked.

In August, a judge ruledthere was sufficient evidencethe suspects had engaged in a“well-planned conspiracy” withthe four North Koreans tomurder Kim, and ordered thatthe trial continue to the defencestage.

South Korea has accusedthe North of ordering the hit,which Pyongyang denies.

A murder conviction car-ries a mandatory penalty ofdeath in Malaysia.

The Government hasvowed to abolish capital pun-ishment for all crimes, althoughParliament still needs to voteon changing the law.

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Democratic presidentialhopeful Tulsi Gabbard, the

first Hindu lawmaker in the USCongress, has said she is unsurewhether Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad is a war criminal.

Gabbard, who met Assadin 2017, has previously drawncriticism for voicing skepticismthat his regime was behind thechemical weapons attacks oncivilian people.

“I think that the evidenceneeds to be gathered and, as I

have said before, if there is evi-dence that he has committedwar crimes, he should be prosecuted as such,”Gabbard said at a CNN townhall on Sunday.

Gabbard also said lastmonth that Assad is “not theenemy of the United Statesbecause Syria does not pose adirect threat to the US”.

Asked if she is unsurewhether Assad is a war crimi-nal, Gabbard said, “Everythingthat I have said requires that wetake action based on evidence.(If) the evidence is there, there

should be accountability”.She said there had been

reports showing that chemicalweapons have been used inSyria, both by the Syrian gov-ernment as well as different ter-rorist groups on the ground inthe war-torn country.

Gabbard cited her experi-ence serving in Iraq as inform-ing her approach to Syria.

“I served in a war in Iraq,a war that was launched basedon lies, and a war that waslaunched without evidence.And so the American peoplewere duped,” she said.

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The Russian military hascommissioned more than

1,000 new aircraft and thou-sands of tanks in the past fewyears in a massive modernisa-tion effort amid tensions withthe West, the nation’s defenseminister said on Monday.

Sergei Shoigu boasted ofthe military’s achievements inhis six years on the job, sayingin a speech to lawmakers thatthe armed forces have turnedinto a highly mobile forcecapable of projecting power to

distant areas. Shoigu notedthat the military received morethan 1,000 warplanes and com-bat helicopters and over 3,700tanks in 2012-2018.

He added that the armedforces have received 109ground-based intercontinentalballistic missiles and 108 sub-marine-launched ICBMs andformed 10 brigades armed withstate-of-the-art short-rangeIskander missiles. Shoigu saidthat the campaign in Syria thatRussia has waged since 2015showcases its military might andallowed the military to test its

new weapons in combat, includ-ing shipborne and air-launchedlong-range cruise missiles.

He noted that the militaryalso has seen a quick expansionin the number of drones, laser-guided artillery projectiles andother precision weapons.

The defense ministeremphasised that the 1-million-strong military has nearly4,00,000 professional enlistedpersonnel and non-commis-sioned officers, a major shift forthe armed forces that in therecent past relied exclusively onthe draft.

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Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s forth-coming film Mere Pyare Prime Minister is count-ing stars even before its release. At a screening,

Milkha Singh, Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar,Kartik Murali and Kirron Kher showered their loveon the film.

Indian Sprinter Milkha shares a warm bond withthe director Rakeysh after working on the former’sbiopic together. Owing to the special friendshipbetween the sports star and director, Rakeysh held aspecial screening for the flying Sikh and his entire fam-ily.

Presenting an emotionally inclined story of a boywho struggles to make an appeal to the Prime Ministerof India raising the issue of open defecation after hismother gets raped.

Actress Kirron Kher was left emotional by the endof it. Unanimously the sportsmen were touched bythe emotional appeal of the story while the social prob-lem struck a chord with the audience.

Talking about the film, Sunil shared, “Everyonehas acted really well, especially the kid — Om. He haswon my heart. The movie carries an important mes-sage about the necessity of having a toilet. We neverrealize the problems of people living in the slums andI hope this film spreads the message across the nation.We already have toilets building up in the nation sincequite years and I wish the same continues throughthe film’s message for the sanity.”

Milkha shares, “The film’s idea is quite touching.Rakeysh is my favorite director and the way he depictsthe storyline in a movie is amazing. I hope people givelove and acceptance that Mere Pyare Prime Ministerdeserves.”

The film is set to release on March 15.

The sari is a metaphor of his-tory, its seamless andunstitched character makes itmoldable for every bodytype. It is one of the few

ensembles that has withstood the testof time, tide, trends and has heldwomen’s undaunted interest for decades.It is this multi-identity that LotusMakeup India Fashion Week AutumnWinter 2019 will pay a tribute to at thegrand finale.

Sunil Sethi, President FDCI says,“The grand finale pays homage to theadaptability ingrained in the warp andweft of this traditional fabric, which has-n’t lost its relevance pan-India despiteWestern onslaught. Today the sari hasseen many innovative and artisanal ren-ditions to woo the modern-thinkingwoman in a youthful way.”

The country’s most ingeniousdesigners — Akaaro, Alpana & Neeraj,Amit Aggarwal, Anamika Khanna,Anavila, Anita Dongre, Bodice, GauravGupta, Little Shilpa, Neeru Kumar,Pankaj & Nidhi, Payal Khandwala,Prashant Verma, Raw Mango, RimzimDadu, Rohit Bal, Rohit Gandhi + RahulKhanna, TAANI by Tanira Sethi, TarunTahiliani, Urvashi Kaur and WendellRodricks will showcase their collections.

Designer Pooja Shroff will also bedisplaying her collection — Resist AurDye, which is inspired by a line of hand-made Indonesian batiks that sheacquired during her travels to Jakarta.

Actress Rakul Preet Singh will turnshowstopper for designer Julie Shah.The designer will showcase her new col-lection The High Noon Affair, whichderives inspiration from the bloomingtree of peony flowers, capturing itsabstract beauty and varied textures.

“The subtle creases in each petal hasbeen beautifully showcased by delicate-ly interweaving within the layeredfoliage, creating manifold striped pat-terns and illusions,” said Shah.

Actress Karisma Kapoor will walkin a Mekhela Chador, a traditionalAssamese attire, for designer SanjuktaDutta, as part of her new collection,Morom, meaning ‘love’ in Assamese. It

is inspired by flowers and butterfly.Dutta’s collection is especially

designed for the modern women inhandwoven Assamese silk, by theweavers of Assam. It’s a collection bywomen for women.

LMIFW WILL HOST VARIOUSSESSIONS

Pledge against child labour byFDCI designers along with KailashSatyarthi, a Nobel Prize winner andfounder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan,to wage war against child labour. In sup-port of the council’s determination tomake India child labour-free, 12 design-ers are taking a pledge to manufacturegarments that do not use child labour.

New York-basedtrend forecaster,Fashion Snoops isholding an exclusiveTrend ForecastingSeminar. The work-shop will targetSpring/Summer2020 trends forboth men andwomen and willprovide key insightsinto the essentialapparel items, mate-rials, patterns, graph-ics, silhouettes andcolour reports tar-geted at the forth-coming season.

Recently, FDCI curat-ed a show titled Made inSouth Asia, which displayed60 outfits made from textilescreated by women self-helpgroups from Afghanistan,Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,Nepal and Pakistan. WithinIndia, the textiles came fromeight states (Assam, Bihar,Gujarat, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Odisha, Telanganaand Uttar Pradesh). FifteenFDCI designers participatedin the event, each of themworking with the craft and tex-tiles of a particular South Asiaregion. The designers were AlpanaNeeraj, Amrich, Anjana Bhargava,Munkee See Munkee Doo, Nitin BalChauhan, Nought One, Pankaj & Nidhi,Payal Jain, Payal Pratap, PratimaaPandey, Reynu Taandon, Rina Dhaka,Sonam Dubal, Suket Dhir and SuneetVarma. While the show was very wellreceived, FDCI believes the tremendouswork done by the women’s self-helpgroups as well as the designers’ creativeefforts need to be shared with a wideraudience on a large platform. And theLMIFW is all set to provide such a stageto them.

(The fashion week starts from March13 and will go on till March 17 at the JLNStadium.)

As he mouths a dialogue for hisnew thriller Badla, the growly

voice resonates in my echo chamber:Main vo 6 dekhu jo tum dikha rahiho ya vo 9 jo mujhe dekhna chahiye.It has a different quality about it andstays with your residual memory. Amitabh Bachchan and his craft hascaptivated several generations now,ageless as he is, the thespian hascompleted 50 years in an industrywhich he straddles like a colossus.

Bachchan sends a message oversomething that has caused him greatpain and distress in recent memory,he said, “Condolence and prayers forthe brave hearts we lost in Pulwama,and for those who fight and protectus every hour for our safety.”

Excerpts:

*How would you describe your50-year journey from the time AbbasSaheb picked a young man fromCalcutta to be one of SaatHindustani?

Another day another job then...But I have worked in the past withSujoy, I liked the story and thedirector, the element of suspense andthrill in the story got to me. Sujoy hasmade Kahaani and is restless, seek-ing perfection from his artistes, veryclear in his thought process and howhe wants to roll with it. He under-stands the grammar of cinema intel-ligently.

*A fulfilling journey where youhave worked with great directors andactors, would you say Hrishida andPran are your favourites, they wereboth lucky for you in differentways... you made 10 films withHrishida?

Every director, actor, writer, pro-ducer, colleague that I have workedwith wil l always remain myfavourites.

*Lots of top American actorspursued the method acting model ascrafted by Lee Strasberg whom wethen saw as Hyman Roth inGodfather 2 pitted against his pupilAl Pacino, it was riveting cinema.When you hit your strides, did youtake acting classes?

No, I never took any actinglessons, nor did I consciously orunconsciously imitate someone,unless asked by my makers to do so

and there were a few such occasions.I have no idea on the method of act-ing, and have never taken or hitany strides.

*One hears of RanveerSingh living and breathinghis roles these days. I amsure many of your roleswould have required majorpreparation, for instance Paaor Black, if you could explainyour craft for suchdifficult roles?

I have no craftand no idea of whatthe others do. Ihave followed asdiligently as possi-ble the writtenwords of thewriter, and thedirection given tome by the direc-tors. For Black,we learnt thesign language ofthe differently-abled. Badla is adifferent genre,a thriller whichfor years nowhas hookedus, for some-one of my gen-eration. Mahalremains embed-ded in my memo-ry recesses since it was acult film from 1949 star-ring Ashok Kumar andMadhubala with seminalmusic. They have beenpart and parcel of Hindicinema’s strong fabric.Obviously Alfred Hitchcockwas the master of this genre.Thrillers are an integral partof the history of universalcinema. (In his formativeyears, Bachchan himselfacted in two very powerfulsuspense thrillers —Parwana and GehriChaal.)

*You have always said that youhave been fortunate in your actingcareer — Main akela hi chala ja rhatha, log judte chale gaye aur karvanbanta chala gaya — is that the credothat has determined your life?

I do not know the meaning ofcredo in my profession. I do knowthat I have been fortunate enough.

*During a large part ofyour peak years, you actuallyhad a very difficult relation-ship with media, including amajor part when media boy-

cotted you and you now havea fabulous relationship with

them. Explain this paradox,and did you work

towards bridgingthe divide, whatled to it in thefirst place?

I am cer-tain you aremore thanaware that onecan never betoo close tothe media ortoo far awayfrom them.The media isthe fourthestate, theconscience ofthe nation. Ishall have thecapacity, orthe audacity tolive with myconscience, butnot that of the

media’s. It wouldbe foolish of me

to think so.

*Is Hindi cinemain good hands with anew gen of young direc-tors and actors l ikeRanveer Singh,Ayushmann Khurrana,Alia Bhatt, Rajkumar oreven the Sher from GullyBoy telling simple talesthat resonate with people?Biopics or true life storieswith a slight amount ofpoetic licence seem to bedoing well, Akshay hasperfected this art form,

you too are doing Jhundwith Nagraj Manjule. Tell usif this is due to the absence

of original scripts or is it theflavour of the season?

Times and circumstances

change. They change for every pro-fession too. Films are no different.The present generation is an auda-cious package of incredible talent. Iam in immense admiration of them,and fortunate that I get to play asmall part in their company. It is aneducation for me. They provide a dif-ferent and alternative world-viewand this is learning. Never everunderestimate the credibility, dexter-ity, adroitness and skill of the writ-ers and makers of today’s entertain-ment world. They have been the rea-son and cause of the flourish andproliferated blossoming in our cre-ativity for the past 100 years. To havea meaning and standing after 100years is not a joke. It deservesrespect and dignity. Originality is adichotomous terminology. It needsto be used and expressed most care-fully.

*Do you get irritated with thefact that now actors have to sing fortheir supper as in market and devotea lot of time and energy which was-n’t the case when you were theundisputed Shahenshah. How andwhy have things changed in tactics?

Look around, not just actors, butdoes not everyone in today’s timeshave to sing for their supper?

*From eight releases in a year inyour time, the stars now do onemovie in a year or even two years, isthis a function of new age com-merce?

It is a recognition of better manage-ment, both financial and personal. Thegood thing is that music and melody areback in Hindi cinema, Music is enjoyedby one and all, music plucks the chordsand strings of our souls.

*From the age of parallel cinemato small cinema like Raazi andBadhai Ho taking on pulp, how hasHindi cinema evolved? Has thepalate of Hindi film goers changedor has the definition of pulp itselfchanged?

I do not know what is ‘pulp’ or‘parallel’. Cinema is cinema — sizeand girth, small or big are measure-ment tags on apparel. The palate ofevery generation in every corner ofthe world changes, not just for filmbut for every walk of life.

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While one would wonder whatpottery has to do with an exhi-bition of photographs, at theIndia Habitat Centre’sPhotosphere this year, there

were a number of pottery exhibits that exploredcultural expression under the esoteric title

Bhu, by architect-turned-studio potter ManjariSharma’s Earth Shaman.

REALMS OF EXPRESSIONAs a practising studio potter, Manjari

does not need an introduction. Placed on a stoolamidst the green environs, her Earth Shamanwas about all things earthly and the power of

human expression that could invite the gaze toponder and probe. For Manjari, imagination is the

power of the mind to create and work with images.This ability can open us to other realms, assist usin healing, help us to discover lost knowledge, opento a higher vision and even prophesy. Manjari’sShaman was about the inherent insignia ofmoulding and the penchant for perfection in themany elements she endowed the sculpture witheven as it speaks about spirit beings.

“We do not have to believe that these imagesand totems are beings of great intelligence, butthat there is an archetypal power that residesbehind, oversees and manifests through thesecreatures,” states Manjari.

She adds, “The reality of spirit beings andtheir assistance to those in the physical realmhas been a part of every religion. Spiritual guidesoften used animals to communicate their pur-

pose and roles to humans. Gods and goddesseswere often depicted as animals.”

FERTILE AND TRANSFORMATIVE ENER-GIEs

At once inventive and ingenious, this ceram-ic sculpture is about the Earth Shaman, who chan-nels the fertile and transformative energies of theserpent to the passionate, fulfilling, determinedand virile energies of the Bull. “The Shamanreconnects conscious human life with nature andspirits through Totems and rituals,” elucidatesManjari, adding, “The form of the animal helpsthe Shaman to transcend the normal, wakingconsciousness and tune in to the more ethere-al realms of the being through transcending thequalities and characteristics which are reflect-

ed in the behaviour and activities of the animal.This helps us access the medicine, magic and

power, specific to that particular form.”

ELEMENTS AND MOTHER EARTHThis stoneware sculpture is about three and

a half-feet tall. It is made of stoneware, clay, andglaze fired upto 1,260 degrees centigrade. Thepieces are worked on the wheel, before they arehand-modelled. Looking at the sculpture inManjari’s studio before it was glazed became amoment in the magic of alchemy.

‘The Snakes’ symbolise the umbilical chordto the mother earth. They are seen as a creativelife force, transforming and healing. Believed totraverse to other realms, snakes are seen asimmortal, shedding skin to renew and rebirth.‘The Bull’ symbolises the passion and power ofthe manifest earth, the virility and commitmentto procreate. The strength and endurance to cre-ate, and the stability and fulfillment to sustain.‘The Bird’ that sits right on top, symbolises love,vulnerability and flight.

FIGURATIVE SPLENDOURIn this sculpture, the Shaman invokes the

Earth’s energies. He shuts his eyes to the outsideworld to immerse in the sensual knowing of thebody to feel and touch. He traverses through theyin and yang qualities of the Serpents and theBull, to come face to face with the mysteries andpower of earth energies. The love and fragilityof the bird nurtures this power to positively cre-ate and sustain.

For Manjari, the writer, holistic healer,thinker, and stoneware sculptor and mentor, theprocess begins with a thought, a vision, a lookand a triggering force that draws her to the clay.Gone are the days of exhaustive preliminarysketches and maquettes, she simply visualises howshe wants the clay to look, and begins to throwit into a solid mass. Slowly and painstakingly, shebegins to build and tear at the surface, gradual-ly making aesthetic changes as she sees fit.

Interestingly, her glaze surfaces are texturedand busy, random but precise. Once she feels thatshe has nothing else to offer to the clay, she beginsthe task of tearing down the piece, gutting the sec-tions, re-attaching and preparing for firing.Perfection, for Manjari, in moulding and mod-elling is what sets her apart as a ceramic sculp-tor. The glaze surfaces are rough but delicious-ly matte, and it is the entire ensemble of the fig-urative, stoneware sculpture that entices andexcites the vision of the viewer.

Among many other works, the city’s celebration ofthe women artists for Women’s Day was a set ofceramic plates by artist Kristine Michael, which

were created as a tribute to Pablo Neruda’s An Ode toSalt. Through the six plates, created with decal overglaze,Kristine, a practitioner for four decades, has translatedthe verbal poetics of Neruda into a visual vocabulary.

VISUAL VOCABULARYNeruda’s ode is taken as a form by Kristine and with-

in the six stoneware plates, we can espie an inspirationalanchor and an aesthetic starting point for her work. Thesemonochromatic plates with subtle strokes including a seashell, unravels many references, specifically of theGreek poets, notably Pindar, who began writing odes asa celebration to chariot races, but the ode eventually cameinto much wider use.

Neruda didn’t write his odes in praise of a rich per-son’s chariot, though. He wrote what he called theElemental Odes — odes in praise of ordinary things usedand enjoyed by ordinary people. For instance, Ode to theWatermelon, Ode to My Socks. One look at the plates,and the lines from these poems come rushing throughone’s recollections.

‘And in its crevices/ rock salt, mountains/ of buriedlight/ a transparent cathedral/ sea crystals, forgotten/ bythe waves.’

Kristine, in reality, presents us with the gaze of thepoet through her Salt Song, a modernist mooring ofinstincts and intuitive reckoning. In many ways, Kristinecompels us to think how Neruda goes way beyond praisebecause the poem for him was not just a description ofsalt, but an act of imagination created as an ode.

SALT SIGNATURESIn poetic terms, Neruda starts with the basic build-

ing block of salt in line one, and then in the next two

lines begins to permutate that word into ‘saltshaker’ and ‘salt flats.’ Scholars state thatNeruda names this unusual landscape — theregion of Antofagasta in his native Chile, whichis part of the Atacama Desert, often called thedriest place on earth. Interestingly, the greatthinker and researcher of evolution, CharlesDarwin, during the voyage of the Beagle, wroteof the desert, “It was almost a pity to see thesun shining over so useless a country.”

Kristine’s plates also make us think of theAtacama Desert. It is a place of hallucinato-ry strangeness, where rain sometimes does-n’t fall for decades at a time, and when itdoes, the air is so dry that the water some-times evaporates before it could even touchthe ground. Some of the lakes in this area arepink or silver-gray from the minerals inthem, even when gathered in a clear bottle.In parts of the Atacama Desert, the salt formsstrange sculptures. Kristine uses abstractionand the dynamics of alphabets as sheincludes text on the plates.

“The text is typed on my mother’s oldOlivetti typewriter to give a vintage atmos-phere,” states Kristine. “The images are blackand white photographs of my early spiralseries on shells converted into decal trans-fers... the patterns are all black and white insync with the look and feel of salt. I wantedit to resonate with Neruda’s essence of life in

his poem and this is why I called the seriesSalt Song,” she says.

ASSOCIATIONS AND ALLUSIONSNeruda’s lines speak of multiple associa-

tions and allusions. The plates by Kristine epit-omise this in a remarkably minimalist yetstriking manner, with the painterly, abstractsplashes of black contrasting pleasingly againstthe ground of white transfer decal glaze. Thestriking patterns highlight the plates’ undulat-ing profile, exemplifying the swelling formsand dynamic contours and the intonations ofsalt that were created as a work of praise byNeruda. Scholars have said that often a workof praise is created out of a deep sense ofresponsibility.

In Neruda’s poem, he makes the salt flatstake on an other worldly beauty — mountains/of buried light — a transparent cathedral.These images of fantasy transform this desolate,impoverished area into a place of splendour.Neruda makes this forsaken region the mostholy place because of the dignity of the humansweat that goes into it, suggesting medievalcathedrals that were an accumulation of decadesand even centuries of work. His words bring usback to the reality of the everyday idiom.

‘And you’re on every table/ on this earth/salt/ your eager/ sustenance/ scattering/ vitallight/ over/ our food.’

Being brought up at thecountryside of France,artist Maite Delteil’s context

in her paintings was relativelyconservative — one wherewomen were not allowed thefreedom that they could accesstoday. As the Art Alive gallerypresents the artist’s collection of20 to 30 of her artworks from the1960s, titled The Yellow Room,Delteil talks about how theseworks came into existence whenshe was young, exploring thedepths of her thoughts.

Her series of paintings havebeen seen as a reminder of free-dom and intimacy that is primar-ily reserved for oneself, in privatechambers. The domesticity thatone views in her paintings is notthe domesticity that is tradition-ally ascribed to women as theirresponsibility, but one thatVirginia Woolf would haveapproved of — women in roomsof their own.

Empowered by travel andtime spent in Spain and Greece,Delteil transcended her circum-stances to grow as an artist, andmarry the man of her choice,Indian artist Sakti Burman, toher family’s displeasure.

When a friend asked theartist that why there are onlywomen in her paintings of the60s and why generally is there asingle woman in each of it?

She replied, “In the 60s, thesocial life in France was a bit con-servative. My father had reject-ed me from the family when Imarried my Indian friend. It wasmy unconscious thought thatwomen have to solely find their

place in the society, withoutanyone’s guidance. Hence,unconsciously it were thethoughts of single women I wasfeaturing at that time.”

Inspired and “impressed” byartists like Berthe Morisot,Edward Vuillard or PierreBonnard, she feels that at the endof the 1960s, when she wasworking in Japan, she began tofind herself in the paintings. “Isearched for vibrant colours todepict the intimate interiors andpresent women in gentleboudoirs, in a contemplativeappearance, more than in a banalsentimental vision,” said she.

Delteil’s use of yellow, thebrightest colour that the eye canregister, and also the colour of thesun, opens up the rooms in herworks from being “stuffy andclaustrophobic.” She lends theman outdoor-like quality, as if inbroad daylight, reminiscent ofher later works, where the sub-ject matter is indeed placedunder the open sky, to be

observed from a distance, con-trary to the immediate encounterpredicated in these works. It’sthrough her vivid colours thatDelteil showcases how thewomen roam around in theirrooms with free imaginationand the only space they ownwithout boundaries.

For Delteil, in the airy, light-filled spaces, women lounge in alltheir nudity, immersed in con-templation. They are contempla-tive dreamers, desiring for some-thing that is denied to them bytheir prescribed realities.

Empowering the feminineimpulse, she paints a worldwhere women are empowered bythe right to define themselves,and can indulge in their ownthoughts and “dare to dream.”

The exhibition will alsorelease and premiere a film onthe artist by Joy Banerjee, titledMaîte Enchanted.

(The show is on from March15 to April 15 at Art AliveGallery.)

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Two-time winner SainaNehwal and defending

champion Sameer Verma will look to shrug offtheir All England disappointment when theyspearhead India's campaign at the Swiss Open,starting with the qualifiers on Tuesday.

For Sameer, this event started his journey thatculminated into a World Tour Final semifinal fin-ish last year and a career-high ranking of 11. Hehad defeated newly-crowned All EnglandChampion Kento Momota in the quarterfinals, afew months before the Japanese went on to becomethe world No 1 and world champion last year.

World No 14 Sameer will be opening his cam-paign in $150,000 event against a qualifier afterhis elder brother Sourabh, who had also battledinjuries on his way to becoming the SeniorNational Champion last month at Guwahati,pulled out of the tournament.

Sameer might face fellow Indian B SaiPraneeth in the second round and a favourableresult is likely to hand him over the chance to set-tle scores with former world No 1 Viktor Axelsen,who had defeated him in the first round of AllEngland Championships in Birmingham last week.

The BWF World Tour Super 300 event willbe Saina's fourth outing this season, having wonthe Indonesia Masters before losing in the semi-finals and quarterfinals at Malaysia Masters andAll England Championship respectively.

She begins her campaign against a qualifier,eying to secure her third title at Swiss. She had wonthe event in 2011 and 2012 in the past.

Seeded third, Saina is expected to face secondseeded He Bingjiao of China in the semifinals ifthe results fall in her favour.

Among other Indians in fray, ParupalliKashyap, a former Commonwealth Games cham-pion, will face a qualifier, Praneeth will meetEngland's Rajiv Ouseph and Subhankar Dey willalso take on a qualifier in first round.

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World number two Rafael Nadalraced into the third round of

the ATP Indian Wells Masters asRoger Federer made a less speedy butstill successful start to his quest for asixth title on Sunday.

Nadal, a three-time Indian Wellswinner, needed just 72 minutes to getpast overmatched Jared Donaldson,6-1, 6-1.

Federer, who is seeking to breakout of a tie with top seed NovakDjokovic for most titles in theCalifornia desert, looked set for a sim-ilarly easy time of it, but had to turnback a second-set challenge fromGerman Peter Gojowczyk in a 6-1, 7-5 win.

Fourth-seeded Federer said hewas relieved not to go to a second-settiebreaker after falling behind 3-1 tothe free-swinging German, who isranked 85th in the world.

The Swiss regained the break and,after saving four break points to makeit 4-4, cruised home.

"I struggled a little bit with myserving in that second set and thatgave him chances. Because he wasserving better, he started to swingmore freely and then it was tough,"Federer said.

"I'm really happy I found a wayin that second set."

Federer next faces compatriotStan Wawrinka, a three-time GrandSlam champion currently unseeded ashe continues his return from injury.

Wawrinka won a taut thrilleragainst 29th-seeded HungarianMarton Fucsovics, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, finally sealing it on his fifth matchpoint after three hours and 24 min-utes when Fucsovics lofted a lob long.

Nadal, playing his third tourna-ment of a year that started with a

crushing loss to Djokovic in theAustralian Open final and includedan early exit in Acapulco, convertedfive of his six break chances againstDonaldson and never faced a breakpoint himself.

He next faces DiegoSchwartzman, who beat Spain'sRoberto Carballes, 6-3, 6-1. Nadal is6-0 against the Argentine.

In other early matches, sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan sur-vived a scare in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4)victory over France's AdrianMannarino.

Nishikori next faces67th-ranked HubertHurkacz of Poland, whodefeated France's LucasPouille, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

E i g h t h - s e e d e dAmerican John Isner routedAustralian qualifier Alexei Popyrin, 6-0, 6-2, the most lopsided win of Isner'scareer.

He'll play Guido Pella, who wonhis first title at Sao Paulo last week.Pella ended the hopes of anotherAussie qualifier, Alex Bolt, 7-6 (7/5),2-6, 6-3.

Tenth-seeded Croatian MarinCilic downed Serbian Dusan Lajovic,6-3, 6-4 to book a meeting with 19-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov,the 24th seed who beat AmericanSteve Johnson, 6-3, 6-4.

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Serena Williams's first tour-nament since the

Australian Open came to anabrupt end on Sunday as theailing 23-time Grand Slamchampion retired from herthird-round WTA matchagainst Garbine Muguruza atIndian Wells.

Muguruza was leading 6-3, 1-0 whenWilliams called it a day in the battle of formerworld number ones because of a viral illness.

"Before the match, I did not feel great,and then it just got worse with every sec-ond; extreme dizziness and extremefatigue," Williams said in commentsreleased via tournament organizers.

The 10th-seeded American, contin-uing to work her way back up the rank-

ings in the wake of time off to have a baby, hadmade a strong start, winning the first threegames.

But she called for the trainer after droppingsix straight.

After a long talk with medical personnelWilliams took the court for the second set, butafter Muguruza held serve at love Williams calleda halt.

"By the score, it might have looked like Istarted well, but I was not feeling at all well phys-ically," Williams said. "I will focus on getting bet-ter and start preparing for Miami."

It was the sixth meeting between Muguruzaand Williams, all five prior coming in Grand

Slams.The Spaniard, who advanced to a fourth-

round clash with seventh-seeded Kiki Bertensof the Netherlands, a 7-6 (12/10), 6-4 winner overBritain's Johanna Konta.

World number two Simona Halep had herhands full with Ukrainian qualifier KaterynaKozlova but emerged with a 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 vic-tory in her first meeting with the 114th-rankedplayer.

Halep next faces 61st-ranked Czech MarketaVondrousova, who followed up her win over2018 finalist Daria Kasatkina with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over 22nd seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

Sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina also advanced,holding of Australian Daria Gavrilova 7-5, 6-4.

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Juventus's Champions League hopes arehanging on Cristiano Ronaldo pullingoff another sensational comeback as the

Italians trail 2-0 to defensive specialistsAtletico Madrid going into the last 16,second-leg tie in Turin on Tuesday.

"We didn't expect to lose the firstleg 2-0, but anything can happen, andwe want to give a great response inour home, in front of our fans,"Ronaldo told Juventus TV ahead ofthe game in the Allianz Stadium.

"These are the great nights,the fantastic ones: theChampions League nights," hecontinued.

"The team is confidentof playing a great game andI am too. To the fans I say:think positive, let'sbelieve.

"Get ready to comeback!"

The seven-timereigning Italianchampions boughtRonaldo last summerfrom Real Madrid for100 million euros ($117 million) to endtheir Champions League heartbreak goingback 23 years.

The 34-year-old's stunning overheadkick for Real in the quarter-finals in Turinlast April had dumped Juventus out of thetournament once again.

Expectations are high that he canreproduce his improbable hat-trick whichlifted Real Madrid past Wolfsburg in April2016 with the Spaniards 2-0 down to theGermans after the first leg.

Juventus have come from behind inthe elite European competition eighttimes — including in the 1996 quarter-finals against Real Madrid on their way towinning the title.

They also lifted the European trophyin 1985, but have finished runners-up fivetimes since their last success, includingtwice in the past four years.

�������?� ����������"CR7 is here for that," wrote Italian

sports daily Corriere dello Sport, of "a gameCristiano cannot get wrong."

"He wasn't signed to win the Scudettoor to boost merchandising, Juve are wait-ing to end years of disappointments."

Ronaldo won five Champions Leaguetitles with Manchester United and RealMadrid and has scored a record 121 goalsof which 57 have proved decisive.

The top scorer in the Champions

League for the last six seasons, he has how-ever scored just once in this year's competi-tion, delivering a performance far belowexpectations in Madrid.

Since the Madrid game he has not scoredin the league and has been overtaken as thetop Serie A scorer by Sampdoria's FabioQuagliarella, who has 20 goals to Ronaldo's19.

The problem for Juventus is they need toscore at least twice against a team that spe-cialises in defence.

Diego Simeone's Atletico — second in LaLiga — have not conceded a goal for fivegames.

"Everyone knows that they are a strongteam, they defend very well, they don't takea lot of risks and they play on the counter-attack, but we are ready, and we will do every-thing we can to beat them," said Ronaldo, whohas scored 22 goals against Atletico.

"The fine details will make the difference,and we want to win and qualify for the quar-ter-finals."

�,�������Former-Wolfsburg manager Dieter

Hecking believes Ronaldo can make a differ-ence.

"Ronaldo is capable of everything, he canalso score three goals again as he did againstmy Wolfsburg. Of course he can," Hecking toldGazzetta Dello Sport.

"Atletico have the best defence in Europeand an excellent attack: without Ronaldo, whocan invent goals in any way, it would be impos-sible.

"If I said that Ronaldo is not the strongestplayer I have ever met, I would lie.

"I remember that night I told the team thatwe should not be afraid neither of him nor theBernabeu, but at 17 minutes we were already2-0 with a double by CR7, it was monstrous."

Allegri's future at the club he has won 10trophies with since 2014 will likely hinge onthis game. The Juventus coach knows thestakes are high.

"I think expectations have been raised fartoo much and it has become an obsession,"said the 51 year-old.

"Since I arrived, the Champions Leaguehas always been an objective, but if people saythat it's a failure if Juventus go out, that is notright."

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Manchester City managerPep Guardiola has again

cast doubt on the PremierLeague champions' readiness towin the Champions League forthe first time despite beingfavourites for the competition.

City host Bundesliga strug-glers Schalke on Tuesday witha 3-2 first leg lead in their last16 tie hoping to avoid the pit-falls that did for Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid inChampions League shocks lastweek.

Guardiola admitted even hewas taken aback by ManchesterUnited's stunning 3-1 win inParis and holders Madrid'scapitulation to a talented youngAjax team, but refuted sugges-tions their elimination hadcleared the way for City to final-ly conquer Europe.

"We are teenagers in thiscompetition that's my feeling.It's not excuses, of course wewant to win it," said the Catalancoach on Monday.

"You have to dream andpoint as high as possible but inthe same time you have toaccept there are other teamsthinking the same with a lot ofquality and lot of talent."

Guardiola was annoyed byCity's mistakes in concedingtwo penalties and havingNicolas Otamendi sent off 22minutes from time inGelsenkirchen three weeks agodespite turning around a 2-1deficit with 10 men through lategoals from Leroy Sane andRaheem Sterling.

And he used that experi-ence to warn his players againstany complacency.

"In domestic competitionthere is another game, in thiscompetition there is not anoth-er game. It is something unique,the focus is incredible andwhen you make somethingwrong they (the opponent)punish it," he added.

"Schalke had two shots ontarget and scored two goals. Weplayed 23 minutes 10 v 11when we could avoid that sec-ond yellow card from Nico.

"We are lucky today we arehere 3-2 up when we could be3-1 or 4-1 down. That's the real-ity in this competition. (Thereis) work to do, be calm andfocused."

Along with the suspendedOtamendi, Fernandinho willagain miss out through injury,but the Brazilian's absence hasnot been felt as badly as firstfeared due to Ilkay Gundogan's

form.The German has deputised

ably in the holding midfieldrole.

� ��������,�,���Schalke travel to

Manchester City for last 16second leg with head coachDomenico Tedesco barely hang-ing onto his job and confidenceat rock bottom.

Schalke's fortunes havenose-dived since first leg defeatafter leading at break, leaking 11goals in three heavy defeats toleave them four points from theBundesliga relegation places.

Tedesco, 33, has been toldhe has two games to prove him-self.

Schalke's new sportingdirector Jochen Schneider saysonly good performances at Cityand home to third-placed RBLeipzig next Saturday can saveTedesco.

Man City have won theirlast nine games at the EtihadStadium, but the Schalke squadare hoping for an unlikely awayvictory and want Tedesco to stayon.

"Of course we do — no one

has ever said anything different,"said striker Guido Burgstaller.

Morale in the Schalkesquad is so low after Friday'sdefeat that all the talk was onavoiding relegation, with theprospect of facing the PremierLeague leaders in their ownbackyard barely registering.

"This is not a pleasure trip,"says Schneider.

"The anticipation is over-shadowed by the situation in theBundesliga."

To compound their prob-lems, Schalke's playmakerDaniel Caligiuri misses the tripto Manchester, sidelined forthe next four weeks by a leginjury.

Likewise, striker Mark Uthand midfielder Amine Harit,who were dropped for thedefeat at Bremen, have also beenleft out of the squad forManchester for disciplinary rea-sons, but full-back HamzaMendyl has been added.

It's all a far cry from last sea-son when the Royal Blues fin-ished second in the Bundesligato qualify for the ChampionsLeague in Tedesco's first season.

Despite qualifying for theknockout stages in Europe, theyhave been no higher than 11thin the Bundesliga this cam-paign.

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Zinedine Zidane will make ashock return as coach of Real

Madrid after the club decided onMonday to sack Santiago Solari, sayreports in the Spanish press.

Madrid president FlorentinoPerez has reportedly met with theboard and resolved to dismissSolari, with Zidane set to be hisreplacement, nine months after thehe resigned at the end of last sea-son.

Zidane could take training asearly as Tuesday and be in chargefor Madrid's La Liga game at

home to Celta Vigo onSaturday.

His priority will beto secure Madrid's placein the top four after aturbulent fortnight thathas seen them lose twiceto Barcelona and knocked out byAjax in the Champions League.

Zidane won that tournamentin each of his three seasons incharge at the Santiago Bernabeu, aswell as La Liga in 2016-17, whileenjoying a strong relationship withthe majority of the players.

Gareth Bale was one of the fewnot to see eye-to-eye with the

Frenchman and Bale's future willbecome even more uncertain,should Zidane's appointment beconfirmed.

Sergio Ramos had said earlieron Monday he accepts blame forthe club's "deeply disappointing"season but insists the players haveno say on the coaching situation.

Ramos posed a series of ques-tions to himself on social mediaafter Madrid beat Real Valladolid4-1 in La Liga on Sunday night.

"As footballers we like to doour talking on the pitch but thisseason is not turning out that way,"Ramos wrote.

"Recent events have been dis-astrous and I'm not hiding. We arenot hiding. We the players are pri-marily responsible and I, as captain,more than anyone." On Solari'sposition, Ramos said: "It's a deci-sion that's not ours to make and inwhich we never interfere. We haveenormous respect for the positionand we always support the RealMadrid coach.

"These reflections are, withoutdoubt, the result of a deeply disap-pointing season but if success did-n't stop us, we're not going to letdefeat stop us. It's our obligation tocarry on, to work and to evolve."

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David Willey spearheaded anoth-er rout of an indisciplined West

Indies batting line-up as Englandcompleted a 3-0 sweep of the serieswith an eight-wicket victory in thethird and final T20 International atWarner Park in St Kitts.

Medium-pacer Willey knockedover the top-order in finishing withcareer-best T20I figures of four forseven from three overs to take theman of the match award as the hostswere demolished for 71 off just 13overs on Sunday.

Willey's teammate and fellow all-rounder Chris Jordan was named manof the series.

Jonny Bairstow, man of the matchin the first fixture in St Lucia five daysearlier, then sped the visitors towardtheir target with 37 (31 balls, two sixes,four fours) as the whitewash was com-pleted with almost ten overs to spare.

Bairstow fell to Devendra Bishoowith victory in sight leaving captainEoin Morgan to cart the leg-spinnerfor a six and a four off successive deliv-eries to seal the comprehensive result.

"It's been outstanding to see guyscome in and take full advantage of theopportunity in this series," saidMorgan in reflecting on his team'scomplete dominance of the threematches.

Fast bowler Mark Wood, playinghis first game of the T20 series inplace of the fast-medium LiamPlunkett, maintained the pressure

after Willey's early successes in tak-ing three for nine while leg-spinnerAdil Rashid finished off anotherpitiful batting effort by the worldchampion Caribbean side with twowickets in two overs.

Dismantled for their lowest T20total ever, 45, on the way to a 137-runthrashing in the second match twodays earlier at the same venue, JasonHolder's decision to bat first on win-ning the toss made no difference withShai Hope falling to the very first ballof the match from Willey to set thetone for another collapse.

Hope's opening partner, JohnCampbell, making his T20I debut inplace of the rested Chris Gayle, wasone of four players to get into dou-ble-figures — twice as many as onFriday — although it made no mean-ingful difference to the innings.

��&� �.�C�Ace gymnast DipaKarmakar is set to representIndia in the upcoming WorldCups at Baku, Azerbaijan andDoha, Qatar. She says for her,every competition is very toughbut she doesn't feel pressurised.

Ahead of the competitionsthat will start from March 14,Karmakar said: "Training hasbeen going well. I was trainingin Agartala all this while. I willtry my best to do well there."

For her, all the champi-onships are the same.

"We are always on the field.Whether it is Olympics or anyworld championship, all are thesame. For us, every competitionis very tough," said the youngsports star.

But she maintains that thereis no pressure.

"The performance of play-ers either goes up or down. Ithas always been like that. Forinstance, I didn't do well at theAsian Games... whatever wasthe reason," she said referring toher disappointing fifth spot in

the women's balance beam finalat the 18th Asian Games lastyear.

"But I have no pressure. Ihave to do my best, I need to feelsatisfied myself first," addedKarmakar, who bagged theGold in the women's vault eventat the Artistic GymnasticsWorld Challenge Cup in Mersinin Turkey in 2018.

Like her competitors fromRussia and the US, her aim is toget good scores that can lift herto a podium finish. IANS

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Adouble ton from Ross Taylorand three quick Bangladesh

wickets put New Zealand in aprime position to pull off anexceptional victory in the rain-shortened second Test inWellington on Monday.

At stumps on day four atBasin Reserve, where the firsttwo days were washed out,Bangladesh were 80 for three,still 141 from making NewZealand bat again. Taylor,dropped twice on 20, proceededto punish the Bangladesh attackwith a rollicking 200 from 212balls before New Zealanddeclared at 432 for six.

With 23 overs left in the day,Bangladesh had a disastrousstart to their second inningswhen Tamim Iqbal was bowledin the first over.

After innings of 126 and 74twice so far in the series,Bangladesh's leading run-scorerwas out for four.

Mominul Haque followedfor 10 and Shadman Islam for 29leaving Mohammad Mithun on25 with Soumya Sarkar not out12.

New Zealand resumed theday at 38 for two and piled on394 runs in 73 overs beforesending Bangladesh back in.

Taylor, after surviving thetwo early chances, madeBangladesh pay a high price fortheir fielding errors.

He clouted Taijul Islam forsix over the long-on boundary tobring up his century which tookhim past his mentor, the lateMartin Crowe, to become NewZealand's second most prolificcentury-maker with 18, twobehind Kane Williamson.

He put on 172 withWilliamson for the third wicketand then 216 with Henr y

Nicholls for the fourth in aninnings which included 19 foursand four sixes.

But after reaching 200 for thethird time in his career, and rais-

ing his bat in salute, he was dis-missed from the next ball hefaced, caught behind offMustafizur. Williamson, whobatted with a painful shoulder

injury, made it through to 74before he was dismissed andtaken for a scan which provedinconclusive.

Nicholls swept Taijul Islam to

the boundary to bring up hisfifth century in the second overafter tea, but only faced anotherseven deliveries before Taijulbowled him for 107.

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Shikhar Dhawan has the knackof bouncing back just when

his detractors write him off andthe Indian batsman says he man-ages to stay afloat in the tough-est of times by shutting out thecriticism that comes with leanpatches.

Without an internationalhundred for the past six months,Dhawan announced his come-back with a career-best 143against Australia, albeit in a los-ing cause, in the fourth one-dayer on Sunday.

Asked how he reacts to crit-icism, the happy-go-lucky crick-eter said living in his own bub-ble helps him keep it calm in themind.

"First of all, I don't read newspapers andI don't take information which I don't wantto. So I don't know what's happening around

me and I live in my own world.So, I decide in which directionmy thoughts are going," saidthe 33-year-old after the match.

Dhawan offered a sympa-thetic view on his junior state-mate Rishabh Pant, who had aterrible day behind the stumps.The youngster, who replacedMahendra Singh Dhoni forthe last two games, was shod-dy with his glovework andalso missed an easy stumpingchance.

"Like any other youngbloke, you have to give himtime too. I mean Dhoni bhaihas played so many games andfor how many years. You sim-ply can't compare.

"Yes, had he effected thestumping, may be the game could havechanged but then it slipped quickly out of ourhands and for that, dew played a big role.That's what it was," he signed off.

On personal front,Handscomb termed Australia'sfour-wicket victory in thefourth ODI against India as the"best match of his career",something that will give themmomentum ahead of WorldCup in England.

"It is a lovely feeling. I haveno words to describe my feel-ing. This was the best match ofmy career so far. This win willgive us a great momentum forthe decider and then the WorldCup in England. I am just gladthat I contributed in the victo-ry," Handscomb said after thematch.

On his maiden century, hesaid: "I am happy, I did notknow I was going to play ODIagain and it's funny how thingschange. It's nice to get oppor-tunity to play for Australiaand take it. The faith of selec-tors to keep me in that was nice.To get it today was pretty spe-cial."

Handscomb was alsohappy with the fact that theyhave been able to chase downbig totals in the tour irrespec-tive of formats.

"High scoring chase isalways special. It just gives youso much competition. Wechased down 189 in Bengaluru(in second T20 International)and today we proved that itwasn't a fluke," he said.

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A"Shane Warne like drift"makes Kuldeep Yadav a

more difficult bowler to facecompared to YuzvendraChahal, feels former Australiaopener Matthew Hayden, whosays wrist spinners like the twoIndians are becoming more rel-evant because of finger spin-ners' lack of "courage".

Kuldeep and Chahal, thetwo Indian wrist spinners, havetroubled the world's best bats-men in the shorter formats.

So what makes them spe-cial?

"Leg spinners provideoption and variety. In particu-lar, if you look at Kuldeep, his

strength is not how far he turnsthe ball but his strength is howthe ball just like Shane Warne'sdeliveries arrives at the bats-man. It has a distinct curve inthe air," Hayden said.

Chahal can, however, benegotiated, feels Hayden, whowas hugely successful againstHarbhajan Singh and AnilKumble at their peak.

"Chahal is a differentbowler. He is a very stump-to-stump. He bowls much flatterand straighter. He doesn't getthe drift. If I was a player, Iwould prefer facing Chahalbecause he doesn't get thedrift," said Hayden, who has8000-plus Test and 6000 plusODI runs for Australia.

The finger spinners are notmuch in demand in the 50-over format and Haydenblames it on the restrictiveapproach which has been theirundoing.

"What has happened isthat off-spinners have learnt theart to contain batsmen, whichhad kept them in play for a cer-tain period of time.

"But now, the players have

got used to the flatter trajecto-ry of the off-spinners. Off-spin-ners have lost the art of beingable to get the pace to drop(vary pace)," said Hayden.

Working as an analyst dur-ing the ongoing series, Haydenwas seen working with thejunior members of theAustralian team, especially,Ashton Turner, who has nowbecome an overnight sensationwinning the fourth ODI witha scintillating knock.

"It's not my doing," Haydensaid with a lot of modesty.

"The boys have workedvery hard on their game andthat created the change. I havebeen working more withyounger boys like AshtonTurner," he added.

The veteran of 103 Testsand 161 ODIs is happy thatAustralians have been able toforce Kedar Jadhav to bowl adifferent line.

The part-time off-spinner,with an unconventional side-arm action, was taken to taskby Aaron Finch in Ranchi andthe duo of Usman Khawaja andPeter Handscomb in Mohali.

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The International CricketCouncil (ICC) on Monday said

India was granted permission towear camouflage military caps inthe third ODI against Australia asa tribute to the country's armedforces, a gesture which Pakistan hasobjected to.

In the third ODI in Ranchi onMarch 8, the Indian team sported

military caps as a mark of respectto the CRPF personnel who werekilled in the Pulwama terror attackand donated its match fee to theNational Defence Fund.

"The BCCI sought permissionfrom the ICC to wear the caps aspart of a fundraising drive and inmemory of fallen soldiers whohave died, which was granted,"ICC's General Manager StrategicCommunications Claire Furlong

said in a statement.The Pakistan Cricket Board

had sent a strongly-worded letterto the ICC, calling for actionagainst India for wearing thecaps.

"They took permission fromICC for some other purpose andused it to do something else,which is not acceptable," PCBChairman Ehsan Mani said onSunday in Karachi.

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Ross Taylor whispered aprayer and an apology to the

late Martin Crowe Monday ashe overtook his mentor's centu-ry tally during an exceptionalinnings of 200 that put NewZealand in a strong position inthe second Test.

The number four's sterlingeffort was his third Test doublehundred and achieved his long-held ambition to fulfil Crowe'sprophecy that Taylor would

one day overtake the late greatbatsman's mark.

"I told Hogan (Crowe) 'myapologies' for taking so long toget there," said Taylor whoscored his 17th century in 2017,nearly two years after Crowedied from cancer.

In the course of his innings,Taylor also passed Crowe'srecord for the most runs scoredat the Basin Reserve "so he'sprobably a bit annoyed with thatone," the batting mainstayquipped.

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Peter Handscomb, one of thearchitects of Australia's recordbreaking run-chase against

India in the fourth ODI, wasconfident that youngAshton Turner could repli-cate his big-hitting exploitsin domestic cricket at theinternational stage.

Turner on Sunday smashedunbeaten 84 off 43 balls as Australiachased down a mammoth target of359 with four wickets in hand and13 balls to spare to level the five-match series 2-2.

The series-deciding fifth andfinal ODI will be played in NewDelhi on Wednesday.

"Ashton (Turner) is an amaz-ing player. We have seen what hehas done in the Big Bash League(for Perth Scorchers) for the pastcouple of years. We knew he can getthe job done. The way he operat-ed against Bumrah was quite amaz-ing. This knock will give him somuch confidence going forward,"Handscomb said after the famouswin on Sunday night.

He said that once Turner start-ed hitting, everyone in the dressingroom became superstitious.

"That was awesome. No onewas moving around with all thosesuperstitions coming into play.That's incredible. To see him comein at international stage and play aninnings of this kind is phenomenal."

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