ˆ rni regn. no. chheng/2012/42718, postal reg. no. - ryp ... utes after the call was made to the...

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T he ghosts of the 25-year-old Babri masjid demolition case revisited the senior lead- ership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday with the Supreme Court directing the revival of criminal conspiracy charges against LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti among several others. They will now be jointly tried at a Lucknow court on a day-to- day basis. The court also set a period of two years for com- pletion of the trial. The decision has dashed LK Advani’s hope of emerging as a likely contender for the post of President of India. The Bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton F Nariman felt that the demolition of the mosque was a crime that shook the sec- ular fabric of the Indian Constitution. The Bench said that though 25 years had elapsed, it was unfortunate that the accused could not be brought to book. The judges largely blamed the CBI for not pursuing pros- ecution of the alleged offend- ers. The court also slammed the Uttar Pradesh Government for not taking steps to rectify an error in its notification segre- gating the trial against top politicians and others. The UP Government’s noti- fication stated that eight accused including Advani, Joshi and Bharti were to be tried at a Raebareli court under FIR 198/92. The other accused, including the kar sevaks and some leaders of the BJP, Shiv Sena and Vishwa Hindu Parishad faced trial at a Lucknow court under FIR 197/92. Passing a slew of direc- tions to ensure that at least now the trial gets concluded within two years, the Bench directed the court of Additional Sessions Judge (Ayodhya matters) at Lucknow to proceed on a day- to-day basis. The court gave one month to frame an additional charge under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) against Advani, Joshi, Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara, and Vishnu Hari Dalmia. In addition, the apex court also directed revival of trial under Section 120-B and other additional charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) against ten others, including former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. Continued on Page 4 T he Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved end- ing the “laal batti” culture in the country from May 1 as it decid- ed to do away with the relevant Motor Vehicle Act provision itself that enabled its usage by high dignitaries at the Centre and State level. There will be no exemp- tions for Constitutional author- ities such as the Prime Minister, the President, the Vice- President and the Chief Justice of India. Only blue beacons will be allowed for emergency ser- vices like ambulance, fire brigade, police, etc. The vehicles with beacon lights, which are seen as a symbol of VIP culture, “have no place in a democratic coun- try”, the Government said. “After May 1, no one will be able to put red light atop his or her vehicle. Blue light will only be used for emergency vehicles in the country...Neither the States nor the Centre will have power to give any special permission (for use of beacon lights),” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said after the Cabinet meeting. He said the matter was under discussion for some time and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the deci- sion and informed the Cabinet, adding amendments will be made soon in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules to give effect to the decision. A rule that empowers the Centre or State Governments to allow use of red beacon lights to dignitaries will be altogeth- er removed from the statute books, the Minister said. “There will be no exception for anyone. The reason is very clear that the rule itself is being removed from the rule book,” he added. The Prime Minister in a tweet said every Indian is a VIP and the culture of beacon should have gone long ago. “..These symbols are out of touch with the spirit of new India,” Modi said. Continued on Page 4 I n a horrific incident, six employees of an electronic goods factory were burnt to death in a fire that engulfed a five-storey building in Noida Sector 11 in F- Block on Wednesday around 2.30 pm. Some of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, a police officer said. Unable to bear the inferno, one of the employees jumped from the fifth floor sustaining severe spinal injuries. Another employee, who survived the blaze, said fire tenders reached the spot at least 90 min- utes after the call was made to the police. Fire department officials, however, rubbished the claims and said they rushed to the spot as soon as they were informed. Continued on Page 4 I n a tragic accident, the worst in recent years, at least 44 pas- sengers travelling on a private bus from Uttarkhand died when the bus fell into Tons river near Chopal in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday morning. Search and rescue operations are still on. The deceased, include 10 women and 3 young girls, with the number is likely to increase. Only two people have survived the accident till now: A con- ductor of the bus and 13-year- old boy Ravindra, who managed to jump off the bus moments before the bus nose-dived into the river. The driver apparently lost control over the wheel near Gumma and the bus (UK 16 PA 0045 and was bound for Tyuni in Uttarakhand from Vikas- nagar) skidded off from the road and fell into the river around 250 meters down the road. As the accident took place in Himachal Pradesh territory, the rescue operation was first initiated by teams from Chopal, Nerwa of Shimla and Rohanat of Sirmour district. Later, a team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) with medical assistance from Dehradun was also rushed to the accident site by the Uttarakhand Government. Rohan Chand Thakur, Deputy Commissioner and DW Negi, Superintendent of Police, Shimla, also visited the spot of the accident. Himachal Pradesh Transport Minister G S Bali has ordered for constitution of a committee under the Regional Transport Officer, Shimla to ascertain the causes of the acci- dent. The committee has been asked to submit its report with- in seven days. Bali has also announced financial assistance of Rs50,000 to the families of the deceased. Uttarakhand Chief Minister TS Rawat also announced Rs 1 lakh ex-gratia to the families of the victims and 50,000 for the seriously injured. While there was confusion over the number of bodies recovered till evening, the authorities in the transport department confirmed recovery of 44 bodies by the evening, while in the press note released by the Chief Minister office, 46 bodies were reported to have been recovered by the evening. While the identification of the victims was on till evening, Deputy Commissioner Rohan Thakur said 17 bodies has been identified and 7 victims belonged to Himachal Pradesh while 10 belonged from Uttarakhand. Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh mourned the death of pas- sengers. The CM has expressed deep condolence with the families who lost their near and dear ones. He wished for speedy recovery of the injured. He directed the district adminis- tration to provide all possible assistance to the family members of the victims and to those injured in the accident. T he next General Election in 2019 will be conducted with new Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) that will print a paper receipt for each vote cast. Amid the Opposition’s allegations of EVM tampering, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Election Commission’s proposal to procure 16.15 lakh Voter- Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units worth 3,173.47 crore for use in all polling booths in the country. The EC said it will ensure total compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court and its commitment to use VVPATs with every EVM at all polling stations. The Government will provide funds to the EC in two installments, 1,600 crore in the current fiscal year and the rest in the next fiscal. According to the Cabinet decision, a total of 16,15,000 VVPAT units would be pur- chased at a tentative unit cost of 19,650 during 2017-18 and 2018-19 from M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bengaluru and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, Hyderabad. The VVPAT is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted. This paper slip contains the name, serial number and symbol of the chosen candidate. The voters see the slip for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election. Then the slip drops into a box and the voter cannot take it home. The Cabinet nod comes at a time when Opposition parties are asking the EC to go back to the use of paper ballots and dis- continue the use of EVMs, alleging that the devices can be tampered with. After the recent Assembly polls in five States, 16 political parties recently peti- tioned the EC to revert to paper ballot system for greater trans- parency. Both the Government and the EC have denied the charge and said the EVMs were completely safe and the commission has even thrown an ‘open challenge’ to hack EVMs. The EC had requested the Government for imme- diate release of funds to procure VVPAT machines after Opposition parties raised their pitch for abandoning EVMs for paper ballots. The Cabinet has also direct- ed the Price Negotiation Committee to negotiate with M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd to rationalise the final unit price expeditiously. The Cabinet has also allocated additional funds to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore in the current financial year for meeting the cash outgo envisaged for pur- chase of EVMs (Control Units & Ballot Units) and VVPAT Units during the year 2017-18 and payment of 40 per cent of the said amount as advance to the manufacturers and for pro- vision of balance amount as may be required in the Budget esti- mate 2018-19. Y amuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) on Wednesday said it has cancelled the building plans of 17 pro- jects in its area. They were cancelled after it came to light that the five builders had not cleared some objections raised by the Authority regarding the build- ing plans between 2014 and 2016. While 11 projects have been initiated by the Jaypee group, six other projects include those launched by some leading developers of the region. According to YEIDA offi- cials, the Jaypee group was given land in lieu of the Yamuna Expressway project between Greater Noida and Agra, in keeping with a con- cessionaire agreement the other builders have been allotted land for group housing projects in different areas of YEIDA. “The Jaypee group was to construct across a part of that land in sectors 22B, C, 25 and 19,” said Arunvir Singh, CEO, YEIDA. “The builder was to con- struct residential units on some part of land and commercial pockets in other areas. Though we approved the layout plan of 11 projects, our planning department raised some objec- tions in the building plan of the different projects. These objec- tions were to be addressed by the builder and plans should have been re-submitted for approval. However, this was not done. This came to light now and we have cancelled the building plans,” Singh explained. Singh said the problem was the same in the case of the other five builders. “They have also failed to address the objec- tions raised by us. These pro- jects are located in sectors 19, 25, 22A and 22D. No con- struction has been carried out in any of the projects,” he said. Last week YEIDA can- celled the building plans of five other projects of the Jaypee group for ignoring similar objections raised by the Authority. The developer had through a press note on April 10, 2017 maintained that “the projects were launched only after obtaining the requisite approvals from statutory authorities as per the extant guidelines of that time.” S oon after Supreme Court ordered restoring of crim- inal conspiracy charge against top BJP leaders LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharti in the Babri masjid demolition case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with his senior Cabinet colleagues and discussed the situation emerg- ing from the court ruling. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu were among those who attended the meet- ing, sources said. While Uma Bharti refused to resign from the Cabinet as demanded by the Opposition, Advani and Joshi met at the former’s resi- dence after the court order. Unfazed by the apex court’s order Uma said, she was ready to sacrifice her life for the con- struction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “A grand Ram tem- ple in Ayodhya is my dream. Ready to go to prison or be hanged for India and Ram mandir,” she told reporters. Continued on Page 4 F our employees of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP ) and four contractual workers suffered burn injuries in a mishap that took place in Blast Furnace area on Wednesday. Blast Furnace-4 was under scheduled maintenance from the morning hours of April 19, 2017. Maintenance work was being carried out by the Plant’s Pipeline Erection & Maintenance (PLEM) and Coal Dust Injection (CDI) groups around the Cast House area of the blast furnace. During the maintenance work, a sudden blast took place in one of the tuyers of the furnace, a BSP statement issued here informed. Flame along with coke particles came out through the tuyer causing burn injuries to persons working in that area. All the injured persons were immediately taken to the Plant’s Main Medical Post -1 by BSP ambulance and thereafter shifted & admitted in Burn Unit of JLN Hospital & Research Centre, Sector-9, where they are currently under- going treatment by a team of specialists, it informed The employees who have sustained burn injuries include - Rajeev Kumar, Technician, Ashwani Kumar Baghel, Sr.Tech, Abraham Rajeev Koshy, Technician – all work- ing in Blast Furnaces, and Kamlesh Kumar, Master Techn., PLEM. The contractu- al workers include Suresh Kumar Verma, Ishwar Prasad Verma, Lekhram Verma and Changur Prasad. Meanwhile, Durg District Superintendent of Police Amresh Kumar Mishra said that eight BSP employees were injured in the blast . Out of eight, two are critically injured while six of them are stable who are admitted at Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital & Research Centre in Sector-9. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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The ghosts of the 25-year-oldBabri masjid demolition

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

The decision has dashedLK Advani’s hope of emergingas a likely contender for thepost of President of India.

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

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

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

Bharti were to be tried at aRaebareli court under FIR198/92. The other accused,including the kar sevaks andsome leaders of the BJP, ShivSena and Vishwa HinduParishad faced trial at a Lucknowcourt under FIR 197/92.

Passing a slew of direc-tions to ensure that at least now

the trial gets concluded withintwo years, the Bench directedthe court of Additional SessionsJudge (Ayodhya matters) atLucknow to proceed on a day-to-day basis. The court gave onemonth to frame an additionalcharge under Section 120-B(criminal conspiracy) againstAdvani, Joshi, Bharti, Vinay

Katiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara,and Vishnu Hari Dalmia.

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

Continued on Page 4

� ��������$���" ���&-��.-/01

The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved end-

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

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

The vehicles with beaconlights, which are seen as asymbol of VIP culture, “haveno place in a democratic coun-try”, the Government said.

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

nor the Centre will have powerto give any special permission(for use of beacon lights),”Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid after the Cabinet meeting.

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

A rule that empowers theCentre or State Governments to

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

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

Continued on Page 4

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In a horrific incident, sixemployees of an electronic

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

Unable to bear the inferno, oneof the employees jumped from thefifth floor sustaining severe spinalinjuries. Another employee, whosurvived the blaze, said fire tendersreached the spot at least 90 min-utes after the call was made to thepolice. Fire department officials,however, rubbished the claimsand said they rushed to the spot assoon as they were informed.

Continued on Page 4

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

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

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

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

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

Rohan Chand Thakur,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

���� &-��.-/01

The next General Election in2019 will be conducted with

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

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

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

The VVPAT is a machinewhich dispenses a slip with the

symbol of the party for which aperson has voted.

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

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

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

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

after Opposition parties raisedtheir pitch for abandoningEVMs for paper ballots.

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

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Yamuna ExpresswayIndustrial Development

Authority (YEIDA) onWednesday said it has cancelledthe building plans of 17 pro-jects in its area.

They were cancelled afterit came to light that the fivebuilders had not cleared someobjections raised by theAuthority regarding the build-ing plans between 2014 and2016. While 11 projects havebeen initiated by the Jaypeegroup, six other projectsinclude those launched bysome leading developers ofthe region.

According to YEIDA offi-cials, the Jaypee group was

given land in lieu of theYamuna Expressway projectbetween Greater Noida andAgra, in keeping with a con-cessionaire agreement the otherbuilders have been allottedland for group housing projectsin different areas of YEIDA.

“The Jaypee group was toconstruct across a part of thatland in sectors 22B, C, 25 and19,” said Arunvir Singh, CEO,

YEIDA.“The builder was to con-

struct residential units on somepart of land and commercialpockets in other areas. Thoughwe approved the layout plan of11 projects, our planningdepartment raised some objec-tions in the building plan of thedifferent projects. These objec-tions were to be addressed bythe builder and plans should

have been re-submitted forapproval. However, this was notdone. This came to light nowand we have cancelled thebuilding plans,” Singhexplained.

Singh said the problemwas the same in the case of theother five builders. “They havealso failed to address the objec-tions raised by us. These pro-jects are located in sectors 19,25, 22A and 22D. No con-struction has been carried outin any of the projects,” he said.

Last week YEIDA can-celled the building plans of fiveother projects of the Jaypeegroup for ignoring similarobjections raised by theAuthority. The developer hadthrough a press note on April10, 2017 maintained that “theprojects were launched onlyafter obtaining the requisiteapprovals from statutoryauthorities as per the extantguidelines of that time.”

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Soon after Supreme Courtordered restoring of crim-

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

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

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

Continued on Page 4

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Four employees of BhilaiSteel Plant (BSP ) and four

contractual workers sufferedburn injuries in a mishap thattook place in Blast Furnace areaon Wednesday.

Blast Furnace-4 was underscheduled maintenance fromthe morning hours of April 19,2017. Maintenance work wasbeing carried out by the Plant’sPipeline Erection &Maintenance (PLEM) and CoalDust Injection (CDI) groupsaround the Cast House area ofthe blast furnace. During themaintenance work, a suddenblast took place in one of thetuyers of the furnace, a BSPstatement issued hereinformed.

Flame along with cokeparticles came out through thetuyer causing burn injuries topersons working in that area.

All the injured personswere immediately taken to thePlant’s Main Medical Post -1 byBSP ambulance and thereaftershifted & admitted in BurnUnit of JLN Hospital &Research Centre, Sector-9,where they are currently under-going treatment by a team ofspecialists, it informed

The employees who havesustained burn injuries include

- Rajeev Kumar, Technician,Ashwani Kumar Baghel,Sr.Tech, Abraham RajeevKoshy, Technician – all work-ing in Blast Furnaces, andKamlesh Kumar, MasterTechn., PLEM. The contractu-al workers include SureshKumar Verma, Ishwar PrasadVerma, Lekhram Verma andChangur Prasad.

Meanwhile, Durg DistrictSuperintendent of PoliceAmresh Kumar Mishra saidthat eight BSP employees wereinjured in the blast . Out ofeight, two are critically injuredwhile six of them are stable whoare admitted at Pt JawaharlalNehru Hospital & ResearchCentre in Sector-9.

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Page 2: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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

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

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

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

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

told reporters in Colombo onWednesday.

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

Modi had visited the coun-try earlier in 2015.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The corruption case filed bythe CBI against Dental

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

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

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

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

As per the FIR,Mazumdar, whose term as the

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

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

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

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In less than a week, India hasapproached the Pakistani

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

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

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

Thursday.Jadhav is facing a death

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

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

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

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

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The current situation inKashmir was discussed by

senior Cabinet Ministers withPrime Minister Narendra Modihere on Wednesday.

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

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

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

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

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

ary measure to prevent furtherprotests.

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

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

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

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The Congress on Wednesdayformed a Policy-Planning

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

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

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

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

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In an effort to furtherstrengthen robust strategic

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

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

here on Wednesday.The officials have held

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

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

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As part of the Gandhi’sChamparan Satyagrah cen-

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

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

Saxena also informed thatthe State unit of the KVIC

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

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

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

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

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Union Cabinet onWednesday permitted

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

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

An official release saidthe Government has approvedthe policy guidelines to allow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Governments for such projectsmay exhaust their respectiveborrowing limits.

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

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

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The Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved leave encash-

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

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

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

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

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

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The issue of Army recruit-ment examination paper

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

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

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

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

examination following thecrime branch of Thane policebusting the recruitment racket.

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

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

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

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

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Page 3: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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The Chhattisgarh StateIndustrial Development

Corporation Ltd (CSIDC) willbe setting up a new industrialarea at Lakahnpuri at Charamatehsil in insurgency infestedKanker district of Bastar, offi-cials informed.

The facility would be estab-lished under IntegratedInfrastructure DevelopmentCentre (IIDC ) scheme.

Notably, the Central gov-ernment has approved projectsworth Rs 99 crore for upgra-dation of key industrial infra-structure in Chhattisgarh lastyear.

The Centre has alsoapproved an estimated �54.81crore for upgradation of infra-structure facilities at UrlaIndustrial Area and around Rs44.60 crore for Sirgitti IndustrialArea.

Notably, the UnionMinistry of Chemicals &Fertilisers has also accorded 'inprinciple' approval to the pro-posed Plastic Park project inRajnandgaon district ofChhattisgarh, officials stated.

The proposed Plastic Parkwill be established by a SpecialPurpose Vehicle (SPV) withChhattisgarh State IndustrialDevelopment Corporation

(CSIDC) as a partner. Around50 units to be set up in thispark, officials stated.

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment would hold a mandatory26 per cent equity in the SPV.

Notably, the Chhattisgarhgovernment sent a proposal tothe Central government forsetting up a Plastic Park on July7, 2015.

Notably, the Chhattisgarhgovernment in a bid to providea major boost to industrialdevelopment is now planning toestablish many more industri-al areas and industrial parks inthe State.

Significantly, the IndustrialGrowth Centre at Urla nearRaipur is set to emerge as oneof the key industrial zones hav-ing world-class infrastructure inthe country.

The Centre has alreadyaccorded final approval forupgradation of infrastructure atIndustrial Growth Centre, Urlain Raipur district at a total pro-ject cost of �54.81 crore .

The Central government’sgrant approved for the projectis �crore, officials stated.

The upgradation of theinfrastructure is being doneunder Central government’sMIIUS scheme.

As many as 11 projects inthe country have been accord-

ed final approval with centralassistance of �283.23 crore.

Notably, CSIDC has alsoidentified Industrial GrowthCentre at Siltara near Raipur tobe developed as a ‘ Steel Cluster’under Centre’s 'IndustrialInfrastructure UpgradationScheme' (IIUS), officials stated.

The administrativeapproval of �54.10 crore hadbeen received from the Centralgovernment for the scheme.

A Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV)-- Chhattisgarh IspatBhumi Ltd., Raipur (CIBL) hasbeen formed under Public-Private Partnership for imple-mentation of the project. Theproject would be developed byCSIDC.

The objective of the IIUS isto enhance international com-petitiveness of the domestic

industry by providing qualityinfrastructure through public-private partnership approach inselected functionalclusters/locations which havegreater potential to becomeglobally competitive.

The CSIDC has also creat-ed an Amenities zone inIndustrial Area Siltara, Phase-I.

The construction of build-ing is completed and the com-plex has shops, office spaces,ATM kiosk, restaurant etc.Allotment of spaces for shopsand offices are being done.Nearly 60% of 120 spaces havebeen allotted so far, officialsstated.

The complex is situatedadjacent to NH-6 (Ring Road1), this complex is developed ona piece of land measuring 1600sqmt. Total built up area of the

complex is an estimated 3000sqm.

It may be recalled that theChhattisgarh government isalso mulling over plans toestablish a mega industrial zoneat an estimated cost of �177crore near Raipur.

The industrial zone wouldbe spread over 1730 hectares ofland, official stated.

The industrial zone wouldbe established for setting up ofsteel plants, power plants, cap-tive power plants and other coreindustries.The zone would alsobe developed by CSIDC.

With a view to acceleratingindustrial development inChhattisgarh, the State gov-ernment will be setting up anEngineering Park in every dis-trict in a sequential manner,Chief Minister Raman Singh

had stated in November lastyear.

Dedicating a newly-devel-oped Engineering Park inHathkhoj industrial area situ-ated near the Steel City Bhilai ,Singh said Bhilai is famousacross the country and abroadas ‘mini India’ and the newly setup Engineering Park is going toplay a remarkable role in boost-ing-up industrial development.He said that numerous indus-trial projects are to be estab-lished in the Engineering Parkwhich is going to openemployment opportunities forlocal populace.

Aiming to create employ-ment opportunities for peoplehere, the State government ismaking several efforts forindustrial development whichresulted in building of an opti-

mistic environment for invest-ment in sectors likeInformation Technology, elec-tronic equipment, solar energyand Agri-based industries.

Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister had also conferredregistration certificates toindustrialists who completedformalities required for settingup projects in the EngineeringPark.

Notably, the EngineeringPark is spread in a sprawlingarea of around 121 hectares isdeveloped by Chhattisgarh StateIndustrial DevelopmentCorporation (CSIDC) with anexpenditure of around �49.78crore.

As many as 215 industrialplots of varying sizes havebeen developed here in thePark for establishment of small

and medium scale industries.Industries involved in

business of producing engi-neering products, equipment,auto components, casting andforging could be established.

The Engineering Park isgoing to witness the invest-ment of around �2000 croreand expected to generateemployment opportunity forabout 5000 people.

“Besides, technical devel-opment of Engineering units,establishment of the Park willresult in development of theregion. The companiesengaged in production of engi-neering products are going toset up projects and possibil-ities for development of othersectors, including defense, elec-tronics and automotive indus-tries would also grow,” Singhsaid.

The Chhattisgarh gov-ernment has finally completedthe development of ‘Iron andSteel Cluster’ near Raipur at anestimated cost of �54.86 crores.

The cluster project wasapproved by the Central gov-ernment on March 4, 2005during the 10th plan period.The Central government hadreleased grant of �30.79 croresfor development of the cluster,according to the availableCentral Government data.

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An amount of �3.45 crorehad been allocated for

the upgradation of equipmentin the three laboratories ofGovcernment Polytechnics inSukma, Jashpur and Kankerdistricts in the current finan-cial year, officials informed.

The authorit ies haveupgraded the equipment in allthe polytechnic colleges andhave proposals to provide thecolleges with their own build-ings. Two PolytechnicColleges have their ownbuildings at present.

The work on ten other col-lege buildings are in variousstages of completion. The col-leges will have their own build-ings in the next academic year.

Notably , the CentralGovernment has accordedapproval for establishing poly-technic institutes in 11 dis-tricts of the State includingKoriya, Jashpur, Kanker,Kondagaon, Narayanpur,Bijapur, Ramanujganj,Bilaspur, Raipur, Bastar andSurajpur, officials informed.

Presently, there are 51polytechnic col leges inChhattisgarh, which includes

31 government and 20 non-government polytechnic insti-tutes.

With the establishmentof these newly-approved 11polytechnic institutes, thetotal number of polytechniccollege will reach 62.

Notably, the CentralGovernment has Sub-MissionOn ‘Polytechnic Under TheCoordinated Action ForDevelopment’ to open poly-technic col leges in theareas/districts of the countrywhere there are no polytech-nic institutes.

Under the scheme, poly-technic colleges are beingopened in 11 districts ofChhattisgarh.

The Central Governmenthas sanctioned �12.30 crorefor establishing each poly-technic institute.

The construct ion ofbuildings for 7 out of 11newly-approved polytechniccolleges have been started inBijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker,Bilaspur, Koriya, Jashpur andRamanujganj districts fromDecember 2016, which will becompleted by year 2018.Construction of remainingbuildings will begin soon.

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One labourer was killed andthree others injured in a

blast at a residential house inAmlidih area of Raipur city onWednesday, police said.

The deceased was identi-fied as Dhanush Ratre (35)while the injured were wifeSavita Ratre (32), father RohbitRatre (55) and sister-in-lawLata Jangade (30).

The blast occurred in acontainer filled with a chem-ical at the residence of oneManoj Gwalani leading to amassive explosion in the house,Additional Superintendent ofPolice (ASP) (City) VijayAgrawal said.

The blast was so powerfulthat its impact was felt upto 4to 5 kms from the site hear-ing which the neighboursreached the spot, the ASP fur-ther said.

The injured were imme-diately rushed to a privatehospital, the ASP said, addingthat the deceased Dhanushdied on way to hospital.

The condition of one ofthe victims is reported to becritical , Agrawal added.

The police and a Forensicteam visited the spot andtook samples of chemicals, hesaid.

Police have registered acase and further investigationis on, the ASP added.

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Six persons including tworoad construction supervi-

sors were killed in a roadmishap when their vehiclewent off the road and dashedinto a parked truck atDudhgaon near NH-30 inKondagaon district, policesaid on Wednesday.

The deceased were work-ers at a road constructionproject and were returninglate on Tuesday night from thesite, Kondagaon DistrictSuperintendent of Police (SP)Santosh Singh said.

The deceased were identi-f ied as Pradeep Pande,Surendra Tiwari, AshfaqAnsari, Suresh Yadav, RajuYadav and Ashish Bais, the SPfurther said.

The deceased belonged toBihar, Jharkhand and MadhyaPradesh, Singh added.

A police team rushed tothe spot on getting informa-tion about the mishap, the SPsaid, adding the workers werealready dead and it took hoursto retrieve their mutilatedbodies from the damagedvehicle.

The team sent the bodiesfor postmortem and a case hasbeen registered in connectionwith the accident, he added.

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The 25th meeting ofUniversity Coordination

Committee under the chair-manship of Governor andChancellor Balramji DasTandon was held at Raj Bhavanon Wednesday.

During the meeting, theGovernor ordered theCommittee members for strict

compliance of the educationalcalendar at all the colleges ofthe State.

He further said that theCommittee will not compro-mise on quality of educationimparted to the students ofChhattisgarh region.

The Governor directed tocomplete the admission pro-cedure in first year for undergraduate programme from

June 1 to 30, 2017 for the aca-demic session 2017-18. Earlier,the date of admission was fixedfrom June 16.

The officials informed thatfor the distribution of pendingdegrees of students, aCommittee has been consti-tuted for which Commissionerof Higher Education would beChairman of the Committeewhereas the degrees will be dis-

tributed within next threemonths.

The Chancellor directedthe Committee members tomake neat and clean environ-ment in the colleges. Besidesthis, Tandon ordered to rundistance learning course pro-gramme in the State.

Chief Minister RamanSingh emphasized on the needfor providing quality education

programme in Chhattisgarhthe State.

On this occasion, HigherEducation Minister PremPrakash Pandey, AgricultureMinister Brijmohan Agarwal,Health Minister AjayChandrakar, Chief SecretaryVivek Dhand and all ViceChancellors and members ofthe Committee were promi-nently present.

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Page 4: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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Chhattisgarh PradeshCongress Committee

(CGPCC) president BhupeshBaghel on Wednesday said thathe is ready to provide courtaffidavit for fresh CBI probeinto Jheeram valley massacreby Maoists in 2013.

Chief Minister Raman

Singh is not aware that NIA isnot investigating Jheeram val-ley attack by Maoists on theconvoy of Congress leaders,Baghel said, adding that if therewas no security lapse on behalfof state government then thestate government must submittheir court affidavit at the officeof CBI for fresh probe intoJheeram valley attack.

Jeeram valley attack issuewas never political agenda forCongress but it was the inci-dent in which the party losttheir senior leaders in grue-some naxal attack, Bagheladded.

Congress party has rightto fight for justice in Jeeramvalley attack, Baghel furthersaid.

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While the UnionGovernment is adopting

new strategies to deal with theMaoists in the LeftwingExtremism (LWE)-hit regions,Odisha stands fourth among the10 Maoist-affected States in thecountry.

According to the annualreport 2016-17 released by theUnion Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA), Chhattisgarh toppedthe list as the worst-affected Statewith 395 incidents and 107deaths followed by Jharkhand(323 incidents and 85 deaths),Bihar (129 incidents and 28deaths), Odisha (86 incidentsand 27 deaths) and Maharashtra(73 incidents and 23 deaths).

Chhattisgarh and Jharkhandtogether accounted for 68.5 percet of the violent incidents and69 per cent of the deaths. Biharfollowed by Odisha andMaharashtra accounted for 12.3per cent, 8.2 per cent and 6.9 percent of the incidents, respec-tively, in the year.

Andhra Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh and Telangana togeth-er reported less than 4 per centincidents. Chhattisgarh, despitebeing the core area for Maoistactivity, recorded a decrease of15 per cent in incidents of vio-lence.

The LWE violence, whileremaining an area of concern for

internal security of the country,exhibited a significant improve-ment over the year. The declin-ing trend which started in 2011continued in 2016 as well.

The last two-and-a-halfyears has seen an unprecedent-ed improvement in the LWEscenario across the country.There has been an overall 7 percent reduction in violent inci-dents (1136 to 1048) and 30 percent reduction (397 to 278) inLWE-related deaths since end-2013, the report said.

Over the same period, therehas been an increase of 50 percent in encounters (218 to 328)and an unprecedented 122 percent increase (100 to 222) inelimination of armed Maoistcadres.

On the other hand, therehas been a 43 per cent reduction(115 to 65) in casualties to secu-rity forces personnel. The figuresare a reflection of the efficacy ofoperations being conducted bythe security and the capacitybuilding measures undertakenby the MHA.

At the same time, the devel-opmental outreach by theGovernment of India has seenan increasingly large number ofLWE cadres shunning the pathof violence and returning to thesocial mainstream. Compared to2013, there has been an increaseof 411 per cent (282 to 1442) insurrenders by LWE cadres in

2016.In comparison to 2015, the

year 2016 saw a decline of 3 percent (1,089 to 1,048) in incidentsof violence while the number ofdeaths increased by 21 per cent(230 to 278), which is mainlycontributed by an increase indeath of civilians. 123 out of the278 deaths are attributable tokilling of alleged ‘police inform-ers’ by the Maoists.

On the operational front,222 LWE cadres were eliminat-ed in 2016 as compared to just89 in 2015. 1,840 LWE cadreswere arrested and 1,442 surren-dered in 2016 as against 1,668and 570, respectively, in 2015.

The improvement in theLWE scenario can be attributedto greater presence and

increased capacity of the secu-rity forces in the LWE-affectedStates, better operational strat-egy and better monitoring ofdevelopment schemes in affect-ed areas.

The CPI(Maoist) contin-ued to be the most potentamong the various LWE outfitsand accounted for more than 80per cent of total LWE violentincidents and resultant deaths.Amidst increasing reverses, theCPI(Maoist) made efforts atreviving erstwhile strongholdsalong inter-State boundarieswith the intention to divert theattention of the security forcesfrom its core areas.

However, revival efforts byMaoists in Jharkhand, AndhraPradesh-Odisha border areas,

establishment of a base at thetri-junction of Kerala-Karnataka-Tamil Nadu andformation of a new Zone at thetri-junction of Madhya PradeshMaharashtra and Chhattisgarhdid not meet the desired suc-cess due to periodic interdic-tions of senior leaders by thesecurity forces. While extor-tion/ levy activities by Maoistscontinued, the demonetisationdrive delivered a major dent totheir finances.

The Maoists tried tostrengthen coordinationbetween its mass organisationsand other likeminded organi-sations to undertake pro-grammes against alleged stateviolence and for protection ofdemocratic rights. In 2016, theissue of displacement of localcommunities remained themain plank of mobilisation bythe mass organisations.

Especially, in the NiyamgiriHills in Rayagada andKalahandi districts of Odisha,the outfit continued to guidethe activities of the NiyamgiriSuraksha Samiti. Similarly inJharkhand, the VisthapanVirodhi Jan Vikas Andolan, afront of the CPI(Maoist), triedto take up pro-tribal issues andopposed amendments to theChhotanagpur and SanthalPargana Tenancy Acts, modi-fications in Domicile Policy,etc.

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Afive member team of air-port authority of India

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

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

Captain Sinha said thatthe present CentralGovernment is keen to con-nect small towns of the coun-try with air passenger serviceand for it regional connectiv-ity scheme has been launched.

He said that our team hasalready made a meeting withCM Raghuvar Das who isalso interested in this scheme.

When asked about thefindings of their visit, inspec-tion and talks Captain Sinhasaid that Hazaribagh possesbetter possibility of develop-ment and the place of airstrip here gives an addedadvantage to this townbecause it is very near to themain town. He said that theywill submit their report inwhich their recommendationwill also be included to theGovernment.

With this visit of a highlevel team of AirportAuthority of India now thedenizens of Hazaribagh havestarted smelling a new gift forthis town by their MP JayantSinha who is fortunately MoSin civil aviation ministrypresently.

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Afive-member team ofAirport Authority of India

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

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

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

The team arrived here in twosmall planes. The Chiyanki airstrip is in use for chopper andeven Prime Minister Narender

Modi has been to this Chiyankiair strip twice in connection withLok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhaelections here. There is no nightlanding facility for even chopperhere.

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

Sources said the air strip isto be strengthened and extend-ed for the landing and takeoff of

the medium size plane.Sources said the land on

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

Sources said the presentrunway is unfit as for plane thepitch is to be strong and thick asthick as 9 inches to 12 inches.

The team saw two housesbuilt 150 meter away from theexisting runway which the teamfound itching for landing of anybig plane in the future.

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

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

The team put GPS to usehere to find out the longitude,latitude and other things.Jharkhand building construc-tion corporation has prepared aDPR ( detailed project report)of this air strip and this DPR hasbeen sent to the civil aviationdepartment of the StateGovernment.

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From Page 1Road Transport and

Highways Minister NitinGadkari was the first UnionMinister who took the red bea-con off his official vehicle imme-diately after the Cabinet meeting.Gadkari said, “This Governmentis a Government of masses andhas decided to abolish VIP cul-ture of beacon lights and sirens”.The decision, he said, was takento strengthen “healthy democ-ratic values” in the country.

“The Government is of theconsidered opinion that beaconson vehicles are perceived sym-bols of VIP culture and have noplace in a democratic country.They have no relevance what-soever,” Gadkari added, latertalking to media after theCabinet decision.

Beacons, however, will beallowed on vehicles concerningemergency and relief services,ambulance, fire service, police

etc. In light of the decision, theMinistry of Road Transport andHighways will make necessaryprovisions in law.

According to Gadkari, thisis the start of a healthy cultureand tradition as blaring of sirensand blazing of beacons used toanger the masses. In severalStates, even MLAs blatantlyused beacon lights, he said,adding that some of them hadthe practice of using detachablebeacons.

He added the use of sirensby Ministers is not legal as thesecan be used only by pilot policevehicles. Asked what will be thepunitive measures in case of vio-lations, the minister said actionwill be taken as per provisionsin the law.

He said a detailed notifica-tion in this regard will be issuedsoon and there is no need forany amendment in the MotorVehicles Act. “We can issue thenotification under respectiverules and before that, a noticewill be issued for public hearing,”he said.

From Page 1Asserting she was “proud,

unapologetic” and did notrepent her role in the RamJanmabhoomi campaign,Bharti said she was ready toface whatever punishmentcame her way in her fight forthe construction of the Ramtemple.

Jaitley also virtually ruledout Bharti’s resignation anddescribed as “hypothetical”the possibility of the SC rul-ing having any bearing inselection of candidates forpresidential and vice-presi-dential polls.

While the term ofPresident Pranab Mukherjeeis coming to an end on July 24,the term of Vice-PresidentHamid Ansari ends on August10.

“This case is going onsince 1993. Somehow it isgoing on and no new situationhas arisen. So the situationwhich was prevailing will con-

tinue,” Jaitley told reporters.He was asked whether the

ruling would mean resigna-tion of Bharti, the Minister forWater Resources, RiverDevelopment and GangaRejuvenation from the UnionCabinet and of Kalyan Singhas Rajasthan Governor.

Jaitley retorted saying ifresignation following a chargesheet in a case was the crite-ria then some of the currentCongress Chief Ministerswould have to quit.

“There have beenMinisters, there have beendeputy Prime Ministers... Ifcharge sheet is the rule (toresign), then just calculate,how many Congress ChiefMinisters will (have to go),” hesaid.

Reacting to the SC order,the BJP said it will study indetail the SC’s verdict beforeoffering comments.

Senior BJP leader andLaw Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad asserted that his partyhighly respects leaders likeAdvani and Joshi along withBharti and others to be triednow following the apex court’sdecision.

From Page 1But since he currently

holds the post of Governor ofRajasthan, he enjoysConstitutional immunityunder Article 361. The Benchdirected the CBI to framecharges against him “as soonas” he ceases to be Governor.

The proceedings against 21accused, including the onesnamed above, were dropped bythe Lucknow court on May 4,2001. The Allahabad HighCourt on May 22, 2010 upheldthe order. But the SC Benchset aside the two orders on theground that the CBI had fileda consolidated charge sheetagainst all the 48 accused nam-ing even the eight people beingtried separately at Raebareli.For this reason, the Benchheld that the trial court andHC committed errors by ask-ing the CBI to separately file acharge sheet under IPC Section

120-B against the 21 accused.It was the CBI that had file

an appeal in the SC against the2010 HC order and prayed forrevival of criminal conspiracycharges against all the accused.The CBI relied on anotherorder passed by the AllahabadHC on February 12, 2001which held that prima facieoffences of criminal conspira-cy were proved against all theaccused.

Advani, Joshi, Bharti andfive others faced offencesunder IPC Sections 153A (pro-moting enmity), 153B (asser-tions prejudicial to nationalintegration) and 505 (state-ments creating ill-will andhatred between classes). This,the CBI cured by filing a sup-plementary charge sheet beforethe Raebareli court. But onedefect still remained to becured as the State Governmentfailed to obtain concurrence ofthe HC before issuing a noti-fication on October 8, 1993adding FIR 198/92 to the list ofother cases being tried atLucknow.

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From Page 1The fire station is located

just 2 kilometre away from thesite of the incident. “Twelve firetenders, one 32 meters andanother 42 meters hydraulic liftmachines reached the spotwithin 30 minutes of beinginformed. It took us time toreach the spot because of traf-fic and encroachment on theroad. Our Ghaziabad staff tooreached the spot and lent us ahelping hand,” said AmanSharma, a fire department offi-cial.

Initial estimates suggestthat goods worth at least Rs 15crore was gutted in the fire.

Sources said that the blazebrings to the fore major lapseswith regards to jurisdiction.Employees trapped inside thebuilding said they kept calling100 to inform Noida policeabout the incident but their callwas diverted to neighbouringDelhi and Ghaziabad.

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Border Security Force (BSF)jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav,

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

His social media cam-paign, in violation of the ser-vice rules, had even forced theUnion Home Ministry to ini-tiate a formal probe in to theallegations levelled by him.

The Prime Minister’sOffice had also sought adetailed report from the HomeMinistry and the BSF after hisvideo went viral on the social

media.On Wednesday the BSF

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

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

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

“It added that all opportu-nities were given to Yadav forhis defence during the pro-ceedings.

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China, a close ally of NorthKorea, on Wednesday

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

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

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

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

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

�� �� /2&.2&

British Prime MinisterTheresa May on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Venezuela braced for rivaldemonstrations on Wedn-

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

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

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

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At least 14 Taliban fighters,including the shadow gov-

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

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

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

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

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US Defence Secretary JimMattis met Saudi King

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

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

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

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

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Financing for development isthe key to the implementa-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

�� �� /2&.2&

Both the sons of PrincessDiana have opened up about

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

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

“I still have shock within

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

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

William said hewants people to speak moreopenly about mental health.

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

�� � ���01&6*2&

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

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

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

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

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

unusual,” Police Chief BillyGrogan said.

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

The police are calling thecase an assault.

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

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

�� �� 7-191&6

China on Wednesdayannounced that it has

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

he said.Asked about the timing of

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

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

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

�� �� /2&.2&

Awoman on a train inIreland has been caught on

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

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

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

She messaged the IrishRail account during the trip,

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

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

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

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

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

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

�� �� ���01&6*2&

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

United States.“We believe jobs must be

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

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

�� � 8�*0��&.#

Nepal President Bidya DeviBhandari’s ongoing state

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

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

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

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Page 6: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

force was still stationed. Following the Hexi (Gansu)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bal Govind Noida

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

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

Gulab Shanker SinghLucknow

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

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

outfits in the country, especiallyin the regional space.

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

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

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

Marty MartelVia web

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Page 7: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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Arecent tweet by notedsinger Sonu Nigam onforced religiousness, in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

where, presently, hearing wasmost degraded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(The writer is an environ-mental journalist)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Gandhiji was charged with

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

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

The role of rumour and oral his-

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

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

(The writer is Senior Editor, ThePioneer, Chandigarh)

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Assamese will soon be mademandatory up to Class X in

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

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

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

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

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

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

"����������� 82�01

The sparkling victory ofCongress-led Opposition

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the same time, the State

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

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

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The prospects of the merg-er of the two warring

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

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

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

secretary of the AIADMK hasbecome untenable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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While the administration isgrappling to restore nor-

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile, the studentscontinued protests against the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"����������� 82�01

The inability of the KeralaState Beverages Corpora-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

��������������� 82/8�*�

All the 12 senior TrinamoolCongress leaders accused

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

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

A number of TrinamoolCongress leaders includingMinisters Subroto Mukherjee,

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

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

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

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

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In lines with CentralGovernment’s decision to

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Welcoming the Centre’sdecision to ban the use of

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

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

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

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To counter Indian Army’saggressive posture along

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

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

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

Defence Spokesman inJammu, however, deniedreports of sniping.

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

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

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

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

According to official

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Reacting to the SupremeCourt order on Babri

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calling Muslim cleric

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

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

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

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

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

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Azam Khan loyalist and StateInformatio Commis-

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

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

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

any sports event between Indiaand Pakistan.

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

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

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

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The VHP international pres-ident Pravin Togadia has

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

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

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

Central Government mustapproach Supreme Court.

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The Babri Masjid ActionCommittee and Muslims

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

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

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

day-to-day basis.Former Additional

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

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

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

MILITARY ENGINEER SERVICESNOTICE INVITING E-TENDERS

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

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

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

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

Page 10: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources said that Indian

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

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

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

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

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

“The said deals are undervarious stages. The buyers have

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

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

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

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

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

Sahara lawyer GautamAwasthy separately said thegroup has deposited around

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

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

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

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

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

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The UN must use all powersthat it has in its command

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Subramanian said that thepopular response to this policyof Prime Minister Narendra

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Notwithstanding theimpact of demonetisa-

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

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

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

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

enterprises.“The expected rollout of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

business unit, Ravi Pisharodytold the news agency heretoday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

On exports, Pisharodyrefused to hazard an estimate

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

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

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

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

��������� ��>����:96:"?� ��������+@���������-�����$� ���� �� Finance Minister

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

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

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

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

term work.Companies like Tata

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“This is in addition to the

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

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

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

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

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

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Page 11: ˆ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP ... utes after the call was made to the police. ... women and 3 young girls, with ... Dehradun was also rushed to the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

�� �� 1&.25-

On a roll with four consecutivevictories, two-time champions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ings. The lone battle

was fought by MananVohra in the lastmatch against

Sunrisers Hyderabad,as he scored a fabulous

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

Kings XIwould desper-ately want the

big names tostand up and

make their presence feltagainst Mumbai onThursday.

Their bowling unit,which includes a reliable

Mohit Sharma, experiencedIshant Sharma and talented

Axar Patel, needs to fire in unison.

�� �� 82/8�*�

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

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

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

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

compete with anyone but focus on hisown game.

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

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

said with a lot of conviction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

�� �� 5�982*

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

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

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

"I like that name(UniverseBoss). Fans want to watchChris Gayle, it's been fantastic. A special occasion to reach10000 runs. People still looking out for Chris Gayle. The

UniverseBoss is still here and still alive," said Gayle, whowas adjudged the Man of the Match.

Talking about his stance, Gayle said: "Alot of guys spoke to me about my stance.

Even Shaun Pollock spoke to meabout my stance. You're never too oldto learn."

RCB skipper Virat Kohli said heis fit and the injury is not botheringhim. "There's a lot of strapping on theshoulder, not getting to my head

anymore, shoulder fit and fine. Happyto get those two points," he said.

Lavishing praise on Gayle for hissuperb innings, Kohli said: "Christook his opportunity beautifully. Hebatting like that allows me to batthrough the innings, and I can chipmy way out. We thought we were

30 runs above par."The spinners —

Yuzvendra Chahal(3/31) and Pawan Negi(1/21) played a pivotalrole in the 21-runwin and Kohli show-

ered accolades onthe duo. "Negiwas outstanding,

very brave, notgetting scared. Not

many people believein his abilities. Chahal is notscared," he said.

�� �� 5�982*

Royal Challengers Bangalorecoach Daniel Vettori heaped

praise on Chris Gayle for his 38 ball77, saying that the batsmen likeswashbuckling West Indies openerdo not need guidance from anycoach or captain with regard to theirbatting.

Gayle smashed a blisteringhalf-century before YuzvendraChahal returned with a three-wick-et haul as Royal ChallengersBangalore defeated Gujarat Lions by21 runs here Tuesday night.

"Good thing about interna-tional cricketers is that they prob-

ably talk to themselves more thanany captain or coach talking to themabout their performances," saidVettori at the post match press con-ference. "They take pride in theirperformances, they really want tocontribute to the team and Chris isa really prideful man, he wants todo well for RCB, do well for anyteam he plays for. Chris is thestrongest and powerful player onthese kind of wickets and he cantake any bowler down."

The former New Zealand skip-per said Gayle made the most of theopportunity he got because of ABde Villiers' injury.

"Today was his opportunity.

AB's injury allowed him to come outand play. We wanted him to playwith freedom and we had given himthe confidence," Vettori said.

The 38-year-old coach also

applauded leg-spinner Chahal'sthree for 31.

"I have been lucky enough tohave worked with Chahal for thepast four years and also playedagainst him when he was inMumbai. The way he bowled inthe Champions League final wasthe reason why we wanted to gethim into RCB," said Vettori. "He iscompetitive coupled with a lot ofskills. I think those two qualitiesmake a formidable combination fora spin bowler and he is positive andconfident of what he is doing. If youcan succeed in a stadium likeChinnaswamy then it means youare special," he added.

�� �� 82/8�*�

West Indies' World T20-winning allrounderDwayne Bravo is mighty impressed with

uncapped Kerala speedster Basil Thampi, saying hecould soon represent India.

Both Bravo and Thampi are turning out for GujaratLions in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

"Basil Thampi is a very, very talented youngster. Iwould say he will get the opportunity to play for TeamIndia in a year or so. He has the talent, obviously, buthe also has a lot of heart, pace and the skill. He's alwayswilling to learn," Bravo said on Wednesday.

During GujaratLions' match againstMumbai Indians, thetall pacer impressedeveryone by consis-tently bowling yorkers.

On Tuesday, whenRoyal ChallengersBangalore took theGujarat Lions attack tothe cleaners, Thampireturned economicalfigures of 1/31 andbowled the maximum(11) dot balls.

Thampi's maidenIPL wicket came in theform of Chris Gayle, after the opener had smashed a38-ball 77. The bowler set it up with a yorker andtrapped him next ball with another full-length deliv-ery. An excited Bravo, who is recovering from a ham-string injury, went straight to the Kerala pacer and saidhe would like to take him under his wings.

"He's willing to learn. He asks the right questions.I think India cricket is in right direction when you havesomeone like him. Bowling 140-plus, like Indian speed-sters Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Thampi hasthe skill and is really good. I really wish him all the bestfrom the bottom of my heart."

Bravo is ever ready to offer tips to the 23-year-old."I follow him very closely, I try to give him a lot of

confidence and experience, explain to him, break downthe game to him. He's still in a learning phase. He hasthe raw natural talent and ability, Bravo added."

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The weariest Leicester players col-lapsed to the ground as their

teammates received the consolingembraces of their rivals from AtleticoMadrid.

For the unlikeliest of PremierLeague champions, England's lastremaining representatives in theChampions League quarterfinals,the journey ended in a 1-1 drawTuesday night.

It was the end not only ofLeicester's first foray in Europeansoccer's elite competition, but also theincredible ascent of the modest cen-tral England club that had gate-crashed the soccer hierarchy in a runthat captured global attention.

Leicester didn't go out meekly -that wouldn't be the style of the team

that seized the Premier League titleat pre-season odds of 5,000-1 for thefirst time last May with a 10-pointadvantage. Instead, the quarterfinalsecond leg provided a snapshot of the

kind of resolve that stirred a remark-able chapter in the history ofLeicester City. Outplayed in the firsthalf, allowing Saul Niguez space toscore unmarked with a header,

Leicester went back to the direct stylethat so unsettled opponents in itstitle-winning campaign. Jamie Vardy,the striker signed from a non-leagueclub five years ago, powered in anequalizer just after the hour-mark.

In an exhilarating conclusion atthe King Power Stadium, Leicesterharried Atletico but was left frus-trated as Diego Simeone's well-drilled defense got bodies in the wayof shots. The 1-1 draw left Leicesterexiting the Champions League witha 2-1 aggregate loss to a team that hascontested two of the last three finals.

"We have to be proud of our-selves, we gave our all," said captainWes Morgan, who returned for amonth-long absence. "In the secondhalf, we threw everything we had atthe goal. They had a few blocks onthe line."

���� ��.51.

It had been a quiet season for Cristiano Ronaldo so far.He was being outshined by the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis

Suarez and Neymar both in the Spanish league and in theChampions League.

He hadn't been scoring a lot of goals and was evenjeered at times by Real Madrid fans at the Santiago BernabeuStadium.

But things quickly changed in two decisive gamesagainst Bayern Munich in the Champions League quar-terfinals, when the star forward scored a total of five goalsto keep alive Madrid's hopes of retaining the trophy.

Ronaldo had scored only two goals in the eightChampions League games he had played before the quar-terfinals. He came into the series against Bayern in a scor-ing drought of nearly seven months in the European tour-nament, and had scored only once in his last five Madridgames in all competitions.

In the Spanish league, Ronaldo's 19 goals leave him fivebehind Suarez and 10 behind Messi. But Ronaldo knewthings were about to start going his way. "I said after thefirst leg that I prepared to reach the end of the season ingood shape," Ronaldo said. "It's something that I've strug-gled to do over the last three or four years. But now I'mfeeling good and the team has been playing really well, that'swhat's important."

Ronaldo scored a hat trick on Tuesday as Madrid defeat-ed Bayern 4-2 after extra time to advance to the semifi-nals 6-3 on aggregate.

"I always try to play well and I'm fortunate enough tohave scored three really important goals," he said. "I'mincredibly happy."

The Portugal forward had scored both goals inMadrid's 2-1 first-leg win in Germany last week. The hattrick made him the first player to score 100 ChampionsLeague goals. "What you see Cristiano doing is reallyimpressive," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. "The goals,the way he finishes them, in such key moments... He alwaysknows when there's an important occasion and he's goingto be there. There are few players who can do what Ronaldohas done and we all know that."

Ronaldo scored Madrid's goal in regulation time witha header, then put Madrid in control in extra time with aclose-range shot in the 105th minute. He netted again frominside the area in a breakaway in the 110th to secure hisclub a place in the semifinals of the Champions League forthe seventh straight season. "It's a special competition forReal Madrid," Ronaldo said. "We want to win it again thisyear. We are going to fight for it."

Ronaldo was cheered by the crowd at the SantiagoBernabeu Stadium after the match, with fans loudly chant-ing his name, but he took the opportunity to send a mes-sage to those who had criticized him recently.

"All I ask is that they don't boo me here, that's all,"Ronaldo said. "I always give my best, and even when I don'tscore I'm trying to help the team."

���� �2&��2

Top-ranked Andy Murrayreturned from an elbow

injury to beat Gilles Muller ofLuxembourg 7-5, 7-5 in the sec-ond round of the Monte CarloMasters on Wednesday.

The right elbow injuryprompted Murray to withdrawfrom last month's Miami Openand he also missed Britain'srecent quarterfinal loss to Francein the Davis Cup.

Murray looked a bit sluggishearly on, dropping serve in theopening game. He saved two setpoints in the ninth but thenbroke and held to love to move6-5 up.

He took the first set onMuller's serve when, havingdone well to retrieve two dropshots from Murray, Mullermissed an easy smash at the net.He whacked his racket againsthis shoe in frustration and thensmashed it on the ground, buck-ling it in half.

Murray dropped serveagain in the opening game ofthe second set but brokestraight back. He set up amatch point with an excellentbackhand cross-court winneras he retrieved a shot deep intothe court, and clinched victo-ry on his first opportunitywhen Muller hit a forehandwide.

�������:��"���� ����"���������� Rohan Bopanna andPablo Cuevas recorded theirfirst win together at theMasters level when theydowned Marcin Matkowskiand Alexander Peya in theopening round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Master, here.

The unseeded Ind-Uruguay pair fought past therivals 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-2 in anhour and 27 minutes.

They had played in twoMasters series event — IndianWells and Miami — and lostin the first rounds in both.

���� 72�*2&

Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez hangedhimself in his prison cell early Wednesday

while serving a life sentence for murder, author-ities said.

Hernandez, 27, was found by guards at theSouza-Baranowski Correctional Center inShirley just after 3 am, Department of Correctionspokesman Christopher Fallon said in a state-ment. The former New England Patriots tightend was pronounced dead at a hospital about anhour later. His death comes just days after he wasacquitted of a double murder and on the sameday the Patriots were set to visit the White Houseto mark their Super Bowl win. The team had noimmediate comment.

Hernandez was in a single cell in a generalpopulation housing unit in the maximum-secu-

rity state prison. He hanged himself with a bedsheet that he attached to a window, Fallon said.Hernandez tried to block the cell door from theinside by jamming it with various items, Fallonsaid. He added that he's not aware of any sui-cide note written by Hernandez. He said that offi-cials had no concern that Hernandez might takehis own life, and said if they had had any suchworries he would have been transferred to a men-tal health unit.

Hernandez was moved to tears on Fridayafter he was acquitted of the 2012 fatal shoot-ings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado inBoston. Before his acquittal, Hernandez onWednesday was seen blowing kisses to the lit-tle girl he fathered with fiancée ShayannaJenkins. Cameras captured the tender exchange.

Hernandez grew up in Connecticut andplayed for the Patriots from 2010 to 2012.

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With a hat trick that made him the firstplayer to score 100 Champions Leaguegoals, Cristiano Ronaldo led Real

Madrid to a 4-2 win over 10-man Bayern Munichafter extra time on Tuesday and put the defend-ing champions back in the semifinals.

Ronaldo scored once in regulation and twicein extra time, while Marco Asensio also nettedlate for Madrid, which advanced 6-3 on aggre-gate after a 2-1 first leg win in Germany.

"In the big moments, Ronaldo always comesthrough," Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said."He scored five times in these two games, whatelse can I say?"

Ronaldo had scored both goalsfor Madrid in the first leg, whenhe became the first player toreach 100 goals in Europeanclub competition.

Bayern played a man downfrom the 84th minute afterArturo Vidal picked uphis second yellow cardof the night for a foul onAsensio.

"We deserved more," said Bayern coachCarlo Ancelotti, who complained about the ref-ereeing. "The calls made by the referee hurt usa lot. The second yellow for Arturo should nothave been a card, and Ronaldo had two goalswhen he was offside."

Ronaldo appeared to be in front of thedefenders, and just offside, for his first goal inextra time.

Vidal appeared to mainly get the ball in hischallenge on Asensio, although he could havereceived a second yellow earlier for a foul onCasemiro.

After Robert Lewandowski had scored a53rd minute penalty for Bayern, an own-goal byMadrid defender Sergio Ramos in the 78th hadgiven the German side a 2-1 lead in regulationtime, and sent the game into extra time.

The victory at the Santiago BernabeuStadium put Madrid into the semifinals for theseventh straight season and kept alive its hopesof becoming the first team to retain theChampions League title since the competition'snew format was created in 1992.

Madrid defeated city rival Atletico Madrid

i n

t h efinal both in2014 and 2016.

Atletico alsomade it to thesemifinals by elim-inating Leicester 2-1 on aggregate after a1-1 draw in Tuesday'sother quarterfinal, sec-ond-leg match.

Bayern, the 2013Champions League winner,had made it at least to thesemifinals for the last fiveseasons.

"We played a lot of difficultmatches this season, but this onewas the most difficult one," Zidanesaid. "In the end, over the two legs, wedeserved to go through."

The opening 45 minutes were bal-anced between the two sides, but Bayernwas dominant after halftime as it pressedforward, trying to overturn the first-legdeficit.

"The team was courageous," Bayerndefender Philipp Lahm said. "It hurts to go outin extra time, but we were a man down for overan hour across the tie. I think the team deservedto go through."

Bayern also played with 10 men in the sec-ond half of the game in Germany.

Lewandowski, who had missed the first legbecause of a right shoulder injury, calmly scoredfrom the spot with a right-foot shot, sendingKeylor Navas the wrong way.

The penalty was awarded after a foul byCasemiro on Arjen Robben.

Not long before the penalty, Marcelo hadprevented Bayern from scoring by making agoal line clearance after a shot by Robben hadbeaten Navas.

Ronaldo scored his first goal of the nightwith a header in the 76th minute after a well-placed cross by Casemiro from the right flank.

Two minutes later, though, Ramos foundhis own net when his deflection sent the balltrickling across the goal line. The Spanishdefender was making his 100th ChampionsLeague appearance.

Ronaldo put Madrid back in controlwhen he chested down a pass by Ramos andfired a left-foot shot that went underneathBayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the 105thminute. He added another from close rangeafter a run by Marcelo down the left flank inthe 110th, and Asensio sealed the victory aftergetting past a series of defenders and firinghome from inside the area in the 112th.

����������#����������� ���Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuerhas been ruled out for the rest of the season aftersuffering a fracture to his left foot in BayernMunich's Champions League quarterfinaldefeat at Real Madrid on Tuesday.

The club says Neuer sustained the injuryin extra time, as Cristiano Ronaldo scored histhird goal of Madrid's 4-2 victory. The 31-year-old Neuer had already had a minor operationon his left foot on March 29 after a training-ground injury. Bayern chairman Karl-HeinzRummenigge says, "Neuer is seriously injured.He'll be out for eight weeks." Neuer will missBayern's remaining five league games of the sea-son, and the German Cup semifinal at hometo Borussia Dortmund next Wednesday.

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