0 $˘ · the army chief’s asser- ... the indian security forces will be at any level, any range...

16
M aintaining that the Balakot terrorist camp has been “reactivated very recently” by Pakistan and about 500 infiltrators are waiting to sneak into India, Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday sent out a clear warn- ing to Islamabad saying the response to the terror camp getting functional again may go beyond India’s previous response by way of an airstrike by the IAF in February. His warning also comes against the backdrop of reports that at least 60 terrorists have already infiltrated into Jammu & Kashmir since the abrogation of special status to the State under Article 370 and the next three-four days being crucial as the security agencies appre- hend a major strike by the ter- rorists. The Army chief’s asser- tions come a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had on Sunday during the Houston event called for a “decisive war” against terror. Rawat said the reactivation of the camp is proof that the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) facility was indeed destroyed in the airstrikes by India. Pakistan-based JeM had carried out the suicide attack in Pulwama on February 14 killing 40 CRPF personnel. The IAF conducted retaliatory strikes on the Balakot terror camp on February 26. Admitting that presence of more than 450-500 terrorists — double their strength in the last three years — at terror launch pads and camps is “indeed worrying”, sources in the security establishment said these well-trained terrorists will try to infiltrate both from the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border. Officials also said the next three to four days may see sev- eral attempts of sneak-in and cautioned that a major terror- ist strike in Jammu & Kashmir or elsewhere in the country may take place during the coming festival season. They also said the threat this year during the festival season is far more seri- ous than previous years. Moreover, at least 16 new terrorist camps have been acti- vated in the last month across the LoC thereby raising an alarm in the security estab- lishment, they said, adding the revival of the Balakot camp came in four or five days ago. Bracing for the likelihood of terrorist violence, officials, however, said the response by the Indian security forces will be at any level, any range and anywhere and local comman- ders have redrawn their strat- egy to meet any contingency. Officials also said sufficient number of security personnel is deployed to thwart any threat. They also said the tradi- tional routes of infiltration in north Kashmir, including Gurez, Machhil, Kerain, Tangdhar and Uri, will be closed by late October due to snowfall in the higher reaches. Given the limited period, Pakistan will push in as many terrorists possible as this is the only window available to the infiltrators, sources added. Interacting with reporters in Chennai at the Officers Training Academy, the Army Chief obviously pointing to the hiatus in terror operations at Balakot for several months following the cross border strike, said it highlighted the IAF action in February. Balakot had suffered dam- aged and was destroyed by the cross border strike and “that is why people have got away from there and now it has been reactivated,” he said. Asked about the response to the reactivation and if a repeat strike may be expected, he said, “Why must you expect repeat of a similar thing, earli- er we did something, then we did Balakot, why must we repeat... Why not keep the other side guessing as to what we will do; why tell him what we are going to do, why not keep him guessing, why say repeat, why not something beyond that.” Continued on Page 4 A fter free ride for women in DTC-cluster buses and beginning installation of CCTV cameras across the national Capital, the Delhi Government on Monday launched “Mukhyamantri street light scheme” for women safety and lightening dark spots in the city. With an estimated budget of 100 crore, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government plans to install around 2.1 lakh sen- sor based automatic street lights across the city. The three discoms — BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited — have been assigned the respon- sibility to install street lights. The scheme was launched on Monday by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday. The scheme will be rolled out from November 1. “Women safety and secu- rity have always been an impor- tant concern for the Delhi Government. The Government has taken many steps such as CCTV cameras to make the Delhi a safe city for woman and girls. Now, with CCTV cam- eras, it is important to eradicate dark spots by installing street lights. We will not leave even a single dark spot in Delhi,” said Kejriwal. He said local MLAs have major role in the project and cit- izens can also submit their request for installing street lights to the local leaders. After which permission from the building owner and a survey of a partic- ular locations will be conduct- ed by the power company. The officials said these lights will be automatic with sensor based technology. The lights will automatically turn on after sunset and turn off after sunrise in the morning. “In the tender, we will install 3 to 5 year warranty lights,” said Kejriwal. The Government has fur- ther decided to take electrici- ty connection for the street lights from the particular build- ing owner’s household itself. Continued on Page 4 P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday gave a clarion call for a “global people’s movement” to bring about a behavioural change to deal with climate change as he made a path-breaking pledge to more than double India’s non-fossil fuel target to 450 gigawatts by 2022. In his Independence Day speech, Modi had announced that India will produce 175 GW of non-fossil fuel as part of its commitment to the Paris Climate agreement. Monday’s announcement during Modi’s speech at the global climate summit goes well beyond the pledge of 175 GW. It comes a day after Modi and US President Donald Trump shared the stage at a gala event in Houston on Sunday and displayed a close friendship and a common vision on fighting terrorism. But the US and India differ on the issue of climate change. Trump withdrew from the Paris climate deal in 2017 and blamed India and China for his decision, saying the agreement was unfair as it would have made the US pay for nations which benefited the most from the deal. “We must accept that if we have to overcome a serious challenge like climate change, then what we are doing at the moment is just not enough,” Modi told world leaders at the summit organised by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres here. In his first engagement at the United Nations, Modi noted that various efforts are being made by different coun- tries to fight climate change and said what is needed today is a comprehensive approach which covers everything from education to values, and from lifestyle to developmental phi- losophy. “The time for talking is over. The world needs to act now,” Modi asserted in the presence of Trump, who made an unscheduled appearance at UN summit. Trump listened to Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speeches and left without saying anything. Modi said India would increase the share of non-fos- sil fuel and by 2022. Continued on Page 4 I nvestor wealth soared for the second consecutive ses- sion on Monday, rising by 10.35 lakh crore in two ses- sions, as market sentiment remained euphoric after a host of measures were announced to boost slowing economic growth. Market benchmark BSE Sensex skyrocketed by 1,075.41 points, or 2.83 per cent, to close at more than two-month high of 39,090.03 on Monday. During the day, it jumped 1,426.5 points to 39,441.12. The broader NSE Nifty zoomed by 326 points or 2.89 per cent to end at a two-month of 11,600.20 with 32 of its constituents closing with gains. “Markets for the second day in a row, after the historic decision to cut corporate tax, witnessed a stellar rally. A lot of buoyancy has come from the fact that these measures will boost the profitability of a number of companies, which will either be used to stimulate demand by lowering prices, payouts to shareholders in the form of dividends or using it for capital expenditure,” Devang Mehta, Head - Equity Advisory, Centrum Wealth Management Said. Led by the gains in equity market, the market capitalisa- tion (m-cap) of BSE-listed firms rose by 10,35,213.03 crore to 1,48,89,652.44 crore in two trading sessions. Continued on Page 4 W ith onion prices soaring in the national Capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government on Monday decided to take immediate measures and sell onions at 24 a kg across the city through fair price shops and mobile vans. “We are procuring onions that will be sold it at 24 a kg across the city via mobile vans. Tenders have been floated for the transportation of onions,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told the media on Monday. “There are 70 food circles in Delhi. Every circle has five fair price shops (FPS), totalling 350 such shops across Delhi. These shops, along with mobile vans, would be used to sell onions”, said a senior official of the Delhi Government. It may be noted that Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain had on Friday reviewed the status of onion prices which have spi- ralled due to the crop having been affected because of exces- sive rain in different parts of the country. The Minister observed the Delhi Government is consid- ering selling onions through its ‘Fair Price Shops/mobile vans’, in order to check the price rise of onions. In this regard, meet- ings with Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation (DSCSC) and transporters have also been held. The meeting was attended by the Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies (CFS), senior officers of DSCSC and Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee. Continued on Page 4 A day after the mega ‘Howdy, Modi’ event in Houston, the Opposition on Monday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of violating Indian foreign policy’s “time- honoured principle” of not interfering in the domestic elections of another country by “campaigning” for US president Donald Trump. However, the BJP hit back terming the event as “history in the making” and the charges as “preposterous”. “He referred to the ‘Aabki baar Trump sarkar’ slogan and its resonance with the Indian-American community back in 2016! Listen,” the BJP’s IT department head said, while posting a clip- ping of the PM’s speech. Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said Modi was in the US as India’s Prime Minister and not a star cam- paigner in the US elections. While another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said he is glad that Modi was remind- ed of the contributions of Jawaharlal Nehru by US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, jailed former Finance Minister P Chidamabaram, through his family, took a dig at Modi’s say- ing, “Everything is fine in India except for unemployment, loss of existing jobs, lower wages, mob violence, lockdown in Kashmir and throwing Opposition leaders in prison”. Related reports on P5 T he Union Government is set to reopen about 50,000 temples and several schools, which were shut in the Kashmir Valley. The Government will also revive and open up cinema theatres shut down years ago on the dictates of the militants. Elaborating on the devel- opment plan laid out for J&K, to be changed into two Union Territories effectively from October 31 — Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Monday said the Central Government is focused on unleashing new activities in J&K and elections will be held there once the situation returns to normalcy. The Minister said a survey of about 50,000 temples that are shut in Jammu & Kashmir will be done while plans are also on to open cinema theatres there. “Assembly elections will also be held as soon as things are normal. We have success- fully conducted sarpanch elec- tions, now we will conduct block development council elections by November or December and then we will conduct district development council election. This will give a push to our development plan for Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh,” Reddy said in Bengaluru. Speaking to reporters, he said the newly elected sarpanchs will be trained in implementing new acts, schemes and develop- mental work. Continued on Page 4 A single multipurpose iden- tity card for citizens for all utilities like Aadhaar, pass- port, driving licence and bank accounts could be a reality in the days to come as Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday termed it a “potential”. He also announced that data for the 2021 Census, to be carried out by 33 lakh employ- ees across India, will be col- lected through a mobile app. The Home Minister said there should also be a system that when a person dies, the infor- mation is updated in the pop- ulation data automatically. The planned all-in-one identity card could trigger yet another controversy just as it did by the Centre’s move mak- ing it mandatory to link Aadhaar with PAN or men- tioning it while filing Income Tax returns, with the matter reaching the Supreme Court. Shah said the data for the National Population Register (NPR), a list of usual residents of the country, will also be col- lected along with the census exercise. Officials said the NPR could be the basis for a pan- India version of Assam’s National Register of Citizens The Home Minister was speaking on the occasion of foundation stone laying cere- mony of Janganana Bhawan, the new headquarters of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. “We can have just one card for all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, bank account, driving licence, voter card. This is a potential,” suggested Shah, adding the mammoth nation- wide exercise will be carried out in 16 languages and at a cost of 12,000 crore. Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: 0 $˘ · The Army chief’s asser- ... the Indian security forces will be at any level, any range and ... witnessed a stellar rally. A lot of buoyancy has come from the

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Maintaining that theBalakot terrorist camp

has been “reactivated veryrecently” by Pakistan and about500 infiltrators are waiting tosneak into India, Army chiefGeneral Bipin Rawat onMonday sent out a clear warn-ing to Islamabad saying theresponse to the terror campgetting functional again may gobeyond India’s previousresponse by way of an airstrikeby the IAF in February.

His warning also comesagainst the backdrop of reportsthat at least 60 terrorists havealready infiltrated into Jammu& Kashmir since the abrogationof special status to the Stateunder Article 370 and the nextthree-four days being crucial asthe security agencies appre-hend a major strike by the ter-rorists. The Army chief ’s asser-tions come a day after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toohad on Sunday during theHouston event called for a“decisive war” against terror.

Rawat said the reactivation

of the camp is proof that theJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)facility was indeed destroyed inthe airstrikes by India.Pakistan-based JeM had carriedout the suicide attack inPulwama on February 14killing 40 CRPF personnel.The IAF conducted retaliatorystrikes on the Balakot terrorcamp on February 26.

Admitting that presenceof more than 450-500 terrorists— double their strength in thelast three years — at terrorlaunch pads and camps is“indeed worrying”, sources inthe security establishment saidthese well-trained terroristswill try to infiltrate both fromthe Line of Control (LoC) andthe International Border.

Officials also said the nextthree to four days may see sev-eral attempts of sneak-in andcautioned that a major terror-ist strike in Jammu & Kashmiror elsewhere in the country maytake place during the comingfestival season. They also saidthe threat this year during thefestival season is far more seri-ous than previous years.

Moreover, at least 16 newterrorist camps have been acti-

vated in the last month acrossthe LoC thereby raising analarm in the security estab-lishment, they said, adding therevival of the Balakot campcame in four or five days ago.

Bracing for the likelihoodof terrorist violence, officials,however, said the response bythe Indian security forces willbe at any level, any range andanywhere and local comman-ders have redrawn their strat-

egy to meet any contingency. Officials also said sufficient

number of security personnel isdeployed to thwart any threat.

They also said the tradi-tional routes of infiltration innorth Kashmir, includingGurez, Machhil, Kerain,Tangdhar and Uri, will beclosed by late October due tosnowfall in the higher reaches.Given the limited period,Pakistan will push in as many

terrorists possible as this is theonly window available to theinfiltrators, sources added.

Interacting with reportersin Chennai at the OfficersTraining Academy, the ArmyChief obviously pointing tothe hiatus in terror operationsat Balakot for several monthsfollowing the cross borderstrike, said it highlighted theIAF action in February.

Balakot had suffered dam-aged and was destroyed by thecross border strike and “that iswhy people have got awayfrom there and now it has beenreactivated,” he said.

Asked about the responseto the reactivation and if arepeat strike may be expected,he said, “Why must you expectrepeat of a similar thing, earli-er we did something, then wedid Balakot, why must werepeat... Why not keep theother side guessing as to whatwe will do; why tell him whatwe are going to do, why notkeep him guessing, why sayrepeat, why not somethingbeyond that.”

Continued on Page 4

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After free ride for women inDTC-cluster buses and

beginning installation of CCTVcameras across the nationalCapital, the Delhi Governmenton Monday launched“Mukhyamantri street lightscheme” for women safety andlightening dark spots in the city.With an estimated budget of�100 crore, the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) Government plansto install around 2.1 lakh sen-sor based automatic street lightsacross the city.

The three discoms — BSESRajdhani Power Limited (BRPL)and BSES Yamuna PowerLimited (BYPL) and Tata Power

Delhi Distribution Limited —have been assigned the respon-sibility to install street lights. Thescheme was launched onMonday by Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal on Monday.The scheme will be rolled outfrom November 1.

“Women safety and secu-rity have always been an impor-tant concern for the DelhiGovernment. The Governmenthas taken many steps such asCCTV cameras to make theDelhi a safe city for woman and

girls. Now, with CCTV cam-eras, it is important to eradicatedark spots by installing streetlights. We will not leave even asingle dark spot in Delhi,” saidKejriwal.

He said local MLAs havemajor role in the project and cit-izens can also submit theirrequest for installing street lightsto the local leaders. After whichpermission from the buildingowner and a survey of a partic-ular locations will be conduct-ed by the power company.

The officials said theselights will be automatic withsensor based technology. Thelights will automatically turn onafter sunset and turn off aftersunrise in the morning. “In thetender, we will install 3 to 5 yearwarranty lights,” said Kejriwal.

The Government has fur-ther decided to take electrici-ty connection for the streetlights from the particular build-ing owner’s household itself.

Continued on Page 4

����� 5-,*10�-/*,6-�

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday gave a

clarion call for a “global people’smovement” to bring about abehavioural change to dealwith climate change as he madea path-breaking pledge to morethan double India’s non-fossilfuel target to 450 gigawatts by2022.

In his Independence Dayspeech, Modi had announcedthat India will produce 175 GWof non-fossil fuel as part of its

commitment to the ParisClimate agreement.

Monday’s announcementduring Modi’s speech at theglobal climate summit goeswell beyond the pledge of 175GW. It comes a day after Modiand US President DonaldTrump shared the stage at agala event in Houston onSunday and displayed a closefriendship and a commonvision on fighting terrorism.But the US and India differ onthe issue of climate change.

Trump withdrew from the

Paris climate deal in 2017 andblamed India and China for hisdecision, saying the agreementwas unfair as it would havemade the US pay for nationswhich benefited the most fromthe deal.

“We must accept that if wehave to overcome a seriouschallenge like climate change,then what we are doing at themoment is just not enough,”Modi told world leaders at thesummit organised by UNSecretary General AntonioGuterres here.

In his first engagement atthe United Nations, Modinoted that various efforts arebeing made by different coun-

tries to fight climate change andsaid what is needed today is acomprehensive approachwhich covers everything fromeducation to values, and fromlifestyle to developmental phi-losophy.

“The time for talking isover. The world needs to actnow,” Modi asserted in thepresence of Trump, who madean unscheduled appearance atUN summit. Trump listened toModi and German ChancellorAngela Merkel’s speeches andleft without saying anything.

Modi said India wouldincrease the share of non-fos-sil fuel and by 2022.

Continued on Page 4

����� -12�013!,7$5$�/,

Investor wealth soared forthe second consecutive ses-

sion on Monday, rising by�10.35 lakh crore in two ses-sions, as market sentimentremained euphoric after a hostof measures were announced toboost slowing economicgrowth.

Market benchmark BSESensex skyrocketed by 1,075.41points, or 2.83 per cent, toclose at more than two-monthhigh of 39,090.03 on Monday.During the day, it jumped1,426.5 points to 39,441.12.The broader NSE Niftyzoomed by 326 points or 2.89per cent to end at a two-monthof 11,600.20 with 32 of itsconstituents closing with gains.

“Markets for the secondday in a row, after the historicdecision to cut corporate tax,

witnessed a stellar rally. A lotof buoyancy has come from thefact that these measures willboost the profitability of anumber of companies, whichwill either be used to stimulatedemand by lowering prices,payouts to shareholders in theform of dividends or using itfor capital expenditure,”

Devang Mehta, Head - EquityAdvisory, Centrum WealthManagement Said.

Led by the gains in equitymarket, the market capitalisa-tion (m-cap) of BSE-listedfirms rose by �10,35,213.03crore to �1,48,89,652.44 crorein two trading sessions.

Continued on Page 4

���%%��������� -12�013!,

With onion prices soaringin the national Capital,

the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)Government on Mondaydecided to take immediatemeasures and sell onions at �24a kg across the city through fairprice shops and mobile vans.

“We are procuring onionsthat will be sold it at �24 a kgacross the city via mobile vans.Tenders have been floated forthe transportation of onions,”Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal told the mediaon Monday.

“ T h e r eare 70 foodcircles inD e l h i .Every circlehas five fairprice shops(FPS), totalling 350 suchshops across Delhi. Theseshops, along with mobile vans,would be used to sell onions”,said a senior official of the

Delhi Government.It may be noted that Delhi

Food and Civil SuppliesMinister Imran Hussain had onFriday reviewed the status ofonion prices which have spi-ralled due to the crop havingbeen affected because of exces-sive rain in different parts of thecountry.

The Minister observed theDelhi Government is consid-ering selling onions through its‘Fair Price Shops/mobile vans’,in order to check the price riseof onions. In this regard, meet-ings with Delhi State CivilSupplies Corporation (DSCSC)

and transporters have alsobeen held. The meeting

was attended by theCommissioner,

Food and CivilS u p p l i e s(CFS), senior

officers ofDSCSC and AgriculturalProduce MarketingCommittee.

Continued on Page 4

����� -12�013!,

Aday after the mega ‘Howdy,Modi’ event in Houston,

the Opposition on Mondaylaunched a scathing attack onPrime Minister Narendra Modiaccusing him of violatingIndian foreign policy’s “time-honoured principle” of notinterfering in the domesticelections of another country by“campaigning” for US presidentDonald Trump.

However, the BJP hit backterming the event as “history inthe making” and the charges as“preposterous”. “He referred

to the ‘Aabki baar Trumpsarkar’ slogan and its resonancewith the Indian-Americancommunity back in 2016!Listen,” the BJP’s IT departmenthead said, while posting a clip-ping of the PM’s speech.

Congress spokespersonAnand Sharma said Modi wasin the US as India’s Prime

Minister and not a star cam-paigner in the US elections.

While another Congressleader Jairam Ramesh said heis glad that Modi was remind-ed of the contributions ofJawaharlal Nehru by US HouseMajority Leader Steny Hoyer,jailed former Finance MinisterP Chidamabaram, through hisfamily, took a dig at Modi’s say-ing, “Everything is fine in Indiaexcept for unemployment, lossof existing jobs, lower wages,mob violence, lockdown inKashmir and throwingOpposition leaders in prison”.

Related reports on P5

����� -12�013!,4�1-)/35�5�

The Union Government is setto reopen about 50,000

temples and several schools,which were shut in the KashmirValley. The Government willalso revive and open up cinematheatres shut down years ago onthe dictates of the militants.

Elaborating on the devel-opment plan laid out for J&K,to be changed into two UnionTerritories effectively fromOctober 31 — Minister of Statefor Home Affairs G Kishan

Reddy on Monday said theCentral Government is focusedon unleashing new activities inJ&K and elections will be heldthere once the situation returnsto normalcy.

The Minister said a surveyof about 50,000 temples that areshut in Jammu & Kashmir willbe done while plans are also onto open cinema theatres there.

“Assembly elections willalso be held as soon as thingsare normal. We have success-fully conducted sarpanch elec-tions, now we will conduct

block development councilelections by November orDecember and then we willconduct district developmentcouncil election. This will givea push to our development planfor Jammu & Kashmir andLadakh,” Reddy said inBengaluru.

Speaking to reporters, hesaid the newly electedsarpanchs will be trained inimplementing new acts, schemes and develop-mental work.

Continued on Page 4

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Asingle multipurpose iden-tity card for citizens for all

utilities like Aadhaar, pass-port, driving licence and bankaccounts could be a reality inthe days to come as UnionHome Minister Amit Shah onMonday termed it a “potential”.

He also announced thatdata for the 2021 Census, to becarried out by 33 lakh employ-ees across India, will be col-lected through a mobile app.The Home Minister said thereshould also be a system thatwhen a person dies, the infor-mation is updated in the pop-ulation data automatically.

The planned all-in-oneidentity card could trigger yetanother controversy just as itdid by the Centre’s move mak-ing it mandatory to linkAadhaar with PAN or men-tioning it while filing IncomeTax returns, with the matterreaching the Supreme Court.

Shah said the data for theNational Population Register(NPR), a list of usual residentsof the country, will also be col-lected along with the census

exercise. Officials said the NPRcould be the basis for a pan-India version of Assam’sNational Register of Citizens

The Home Minister wasspeaking on the occasion offoundation stone laying cere-mony of Janganana Bhawan,the new headquarters ofRegistrar General and CensusCommissioner of India.

“We can have just one cardfor all utilities like Aadhaar,passport, bank account, drivinglicence, voter card. This is apotential,” suggested Shah,adding the mammoth nation-wide exercise will be carriedout in 16 languages and at acost of �12,000 crore.

Continued on Page 4

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To avail the benefits of theschemes of the

Department of Agricultureand Farmers’ Welfare acces-sible to the farmers, a TouchScreen Digital Farmer Kioskhas been installed in theMini-Secretariat near RajivChowk.

From this kiosk, farmerscan easily get the benefits ofschemes operated by theDepartment of Agriculture.Information in both Hindiand English languages is avail-able at this kiosk.

"From Touch screenfarmer kiosk, farmers canget information about depart-mental schemes as well asinformation on solutions toproblems related to farming,toll-free numbers live chatand prize schemes etc. Peopleusually come to theSecretariat and District Courtfor their various everydaytasks. They can take advan-tage of the digital farmerkiosk," Deputy Commissioner(DC) Gurugram, Amit Khatrisaid.

"The digital kiosk hasbeen set up in collaborationwith the State Bank of IndiaGeneral Insurance Company.This digital kiosk will savefarmers time and money andtheir work will be done quick-

ly," Khatri, said.Talking about Digital Kisan

Kiosk, Additional DeputyCommissioner Mohammad(ADC), Imran Raza said that"Earlier the farmers wereinformed about the cropwastage within 72 hours in theoffice of the District Agricultureand Farmers WelfareDepartment so that they couldavail the benefits of the PrimeMinister Crop InsuranceScheme to take.

After this, the informationrelated to the application andharvest of the farmer wasuploaded on the portal by the

departmentalstaff, whichused to take alot of time, butnow throughthe digitalfarmer kiosk,the farmerswill be able toupload theinformationrelated to thecrop directlyon the portal,so that they thecompensationamount willalso be avail-able soon,"Raza said.

" T h i skiosk is helpfulin giving manytypes of infor-

mation to farmers. Throughthis digital kiosk, farmers willnot only be able to get infor-mation about the schemes ofthe Agriculture Departmentbut can also complete theclaims related to the PrimeMinister's Crop InsuranceScheme," said, Deputy Directorof Agriculture and WelfareDepartment, Atma RamGodara.

He informed that facilitieslike hotline telephone have alsobeen provided in this kiosk,through which farmers canreach their headquarters direct-ly by telephone to Panchkula.

���%%��������� -12�013!,

As the part of its initiativestowards environment pro-

tection, South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) onMonday declared TagoreGarden's fruits and vegetablemarket as single use plastic free.

The civic body started amass awareness campaign lastmonth, motivating shopkeepersto put up a board at theirshops instructing customers tocarry clothes and jute bags.Apart from this, the SDMC alsoidentifies five markets each inits all four zones to give plasticfree status.

SDMC Mayor SunitaKangra said that the civic bodyhas set up an example byachieving plastic free status forthis fruits and vegetable marketand aiming to reduce plasticwaste by promoting use of ecofriendly sustainable alterna-tives.

Chairman StandingCommittee Bhupender Guptaappreciated the efforts of mar-ket association and said that ini-tially our motive is to spreadawareness about the ill effectsof using plastic and then initi-ate providing alternatives ofpolythene bags to the shop-keepers.

"We have organised variousactivities within this market inorder to promote the messageagainst plastic and achieved ourgoal of making our plastic freemarket through mass awarenesseffective campaign and with thesupport of market associationand shopkeepers," he said.

���%%��������� -12�013!,

It appeared to have been lift-ed from the famous

Hollywood movie 'Man onLedge' scene after a 31-year-oldman climbed on the terrace ofa west Delhi hotel with the ideaof ending his life but was final-ly persuaded not to do so after17 hours of negotiations thatcarried on through the Sundaynight.

The man identified asSandeep alias Arman Malik —very famous on TikTok with 50lakh followers — first climbedthe sixth floor of the hotel inHari Nagar.

Police said Sandeep laterclimbed up to the terrace of thebuilding and threatened tocommit suicide after he had an

altercation with his wife. According to a senior

Delhi Fire Services (DFS) offi-cial, a call regarding the incident was received around

4 pm on Sunday after which three vehicles carryingladders were rushed to thespot.

The fire brigade, the policeand a CAT ambulance were onthe spot the entire night trying to convince the man sothat he could be brought downsafely.

"Sandeep was finally res-cued around 8.45 am onMonday," said the fire official.According to a senior policeofficial, on Sunday, Sandeephad checked into the hotel at1.30 pm on Sunday with hiswife Kritika Basera.

"She is his second wife andtheir marriage had taken placea year ago in the same hotel.The couple had come to Delhifrom Ahmedabad.

Sandeep is allegedly anaccused in a case lodged at

Nihal Vihar police station. He was rescued and

taken to Nihal Vihar PoliceStation for further question-ing," said the senior policeofficial.

After climbing onto theroof top Sandeep also put up avideo on TikTok threatening tocommit suicide.

The video went viral andwithin hours of uploading thevideo, Sandeep's followersincreased significantly. He haduploaded two videos of suicidethreats.

In one of the videos,Sandeep said, "My wife Payaland her family memberstogether framed me in a rapecase."

In another video, he men-tions about his maid and some-one named Neeraj.

In the third video, Sandeepuploaded a letter of suicidethreat on his TikTok account.He in his letter blames Payaland her sisters behind thismove.

���%%��������� -12�013!,

One should be on guarduploading resume online

as there are gangs who arethere to dupe job seekers on thepretext of providing jobs. CyberCell of Delhi Police have bust-ed a gang who had allegedlyduped more than 1,000 gulliblejob seekers to the tune of �2crore in the name of gettingthem high paying corporatejobs.

Police said that they havealso arrested six persons,including the mastermind whohad targeted over 10,000 jobseekers targeted by the fraud-sters.

"The accused used to pur-chase bulk data of resumesfrom a prominent job portal byimpersonating as 'PlacementService' company," said AnyeshRoy, the Deputy Commissionerof Police (DCP), Cyber Crime

Unit (CyPAD). The accused have been

identified as Kunal Singh (35),the kingpin of the gang and aresident of Noida in UttarPradesh (UP), Gaurav Gupta(26), a resident ofSahajahanpur, UP, KalpendraSingh Rajput (42), a resident ofKozhikode, Kerela, ShashankShekhar (29), a resident ofGhaziabad, UP, Shubham (23)and Vishal Tanwar (23) both

residents of Modinagar, UP. According to the DCP, a

complaint was received froma woman who stated that shereceived a call from an agentof Placement ConfirmationService of a prominent jobportal who assured the com-plainant to forward herresume to prominent com-panies and corporate groups.

"Subsequently she alsoreceived an email asked herto pay service registrationamount through an onlinepayment link. The amountwas paid accordingly. Afterpaying the amount, the

accused person asked thewoman to submit scannedcopies of documents on a sep-arate link and further demand-ed her to pay a refundable feefor verification of documents,"said the DCP adding that anamount of �34,000 was paid bythe complainant.

"When the complainantasked the company to returnmoney, a payment link andpromo code was sent to thewoman by the alleged agency.However, the moment victimfed that code, money got deb-ited from her UPI linkedPayment App accounts," saidthe DCP adding that a FirstInformation Report was regis-tered and investigation wastaken up.

"On September 20, thehigh end office of this ganglocated in Sector-8, Noida wasraided by the police team andthe accused Kunal Singh,Gaurav Gupta, Vishal Tanwar,Shashank Shekar and Shubhamwere arrested," said the DCP.

"During interrogation, the

accused revealed that the mas-termind of the gang Kunalhad opened his own office inthe name of 'Trevion' in Noida,UP. He targeted unemployedyouth for cheating and startedworking with 11 associateswho were given separate desk-top computers, Head-phonesand other accessories for call-ing the job aspirants, sendingemails, payment links," said theDCP.

"The accused furtherrevealed that Kunal used toreceive the cheated money inmultiple bank accounts openedin the name of bogus compa-nies such as BTT OnlineServices and Ask Solutions.The said amount was furthertransferred in multipleaccounts to hide the moneytrail," said the DCP.

Explaining the modusoperandi of the gang, the DCPsaid that each staff member ofKunal was assigned worksheetswith details of the job seekersand tele-calling was donethrough VoIP (Voice overInternet Protocol).

"The accused have confessed to have obtained thebio-data of around 10,000 jobseekers and they had been ableto dupe more than 1000 inno-cent job seekers for variousamounts in a period of eightmonths. The main accusedKunal has been found to beinvolved in a similar type offraud earlier and was arrestedby Pune Police in the year2016," said the DCP.

���%%���������)5�5)�/$

Timely help by a policeinspector saved the life of

an electrician at the policelines in Gurugram during theintervening night of September13 and 14.

According to police, onthe night of September 13/14,the power system suffered afault in flat number 603 of JTower at the police lines.Electrician Parasram was calledto fix it.

"The electrician got elec-trocuted while rectifying thefault. He started frothing andwas on the verge of collapsewhen Inspector ChanderPrakash, who lived in the oppo-site flat, arrived. With the helpof Inspector Suresh Kumarand Sub-Inspector SatishDagar, he succeeded in takingaway electrician from the elec-tric wire. They administeredfirst aid to Parasram andwas taken to the hospital inChandra Prakash's private

car. Inspector ChanderPrakash's timely interventionand presence of mind is beingappreciated," said SubhashBoken, the spokesperson ofGurugram Police.

"I immediately rushed himto a private hospital with thehelp of other policemen.Timely treatment saved hislife," Inspector ChanderPrakash said. Parasram was allpraise for the timely help thathe received from his saviourChandra Prakash.

���%%��������� -12�013!,

Despite sporadic incidents ofstreet crime being

reported in the nationalCapital, Delhi Police top brassclaimed to have brought down street crime and sendingcriminals to the Tihar jail. Tilldate some 3,499 criminalsinvolved in street crimes such as snatchings and usingillegally procured fire armshave been brought to justice.

Arrest of these desperate criminals, have brought downthe incidents of snatchings by29 per cent as compared to thelast year.

"Street crimes and illegalfirearms are 'Siamese Twins'",said a police officers. "It is anarea of concern for the forceand an intense hunt has beenordered by the Delhi PoliceCommissioner AmulyaPatnaik. All the districts, spe-cialised units have been put onthe job and during fortnightlycrime review meetings,progress made in arrestingcriminals and gangs involved in

the smuggling if illegally man-ufactured arms, is discussedand strategies are devised",said the police officer addingthat it is an ongoing drive andthere would not be any let upinto this.

According to Anil Mittal,the Additional Public RelationOfficer (APRO) of Delhi Police,since January this year thesleuths of Delhi Police havearrested 3,499 notorious crim-inals involved in snatching androbbery across national Capital."The Delhi Police has registeredaround 4,516 cases of streetcrime since January tillSeptember 15 and 2,491 caseshave been solved so far," saidMittal.

"Robberies and snatchingstogether have seen a drop bymore than 29 per cent in thelast two years. Delhi Police hastaken street crimes as a prior-ity focus-area and several mea-sures have been initiated in thelast two years or so to controlstreet crime. Visibility in vul-nerable areas has beenimproved by launching

'Raftaar' and All-WomenPatrols, Anti-snatching Teams

are now functioning in allpolice stations, and a special

drive has been launched againstillegal fire-arms," said Mittal.

"Crime by use of firearmhas also shown a steady declinedue to sustained drive launchedagainst criminals in possessionof firearms. Till September 15,2019 the Delhi Police has reg-istered 559 cases of armedsnatching which are 3.29 percent down as compared to lastyear," said Mittal.

Recently after the arrest ofseveral arms supplier andmanufacturers in nationalCapital, during interrogation, itwas revealed that the illegalarms manufacturers have builttheir factories either in forestarea or residential complexes.Police have busted several fac-tories located in Rajasthan,Mewat and Western UttarPradesh.

"Several arms suppliers indulged in supplyingillegal weapons to criminals inDelhi have been arrested bySpecial cell and Crime Branch.The retailers who act as amediator between criminalsand arms manufacturers arebeing traced and arrested bythe police," said a senior policeofficial.

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���%%��������� -12�013!,

BSES Rajdhani PowerLimited (BRPL) and BSES

Yamuna Power Limited (BYPLhave decided to provide instanttemporary electricity connec-tions for Durga Puja pandalsand wedding functions undera ‘Tatkal’ scheme for the festiveseason.

A senior BSES official saidthat under the innovativescheme, a consumer will beable to get a temporary con-nection the same day of apply-ing and completing the requi-site commercial formalities.Normally, it can take up toseven days for a temporaryconnection.

In a statement, it said thatto get a 'tatkal' electricity con-nection, all a consumer has tocontact BSES call centre num-bers 19123/ 39999707 (BRPL)and 19122/ 39999808 (BYPL)or visit the customer care cen-tre or Digi Seva Kendra at thedivision office and completesimple formalities. "They canalso apply and make paymentfor the temporary connectiononline on BSES' website(www.bsesdelhi.com) and from

BSES' Mobile App," it said. Announcing the scheme,

BSES spokesperson said, "Ourentire machinery is geared-upto make 'same day' connectionspossible.

The advanced IT capabili-ties and processes will play amajor part in facilitating this.This scheme is our way of join-ing in the celebrations andmaking the festival season evenmore memorable for our con-sumers."

"To ensure reliable powersupply during festivals, BSESdiscoms are undertaking sev-eral measures, including

putting its operations andmaintenance teams on highalert," it said.

"The incidence of power-theft also increases during thefestival season. BSES teamswill be on a high alert to catchsuch transgressions. Discomswill be relying heavily on ana-lytics to catch the powerthieves," the official added.

BRPL and BYPL are pre-mier power distribution com-panies and Joint Venturesbetween RelianceInfrastructure Limited andGovernment of the NationalCapital Territory.

���%%��������� -12�013!,

With the arrest of two peo-ple, the Delhi Police on

Monday claimed to have bust-ed a gang allegedly involved inselling expensive cancer med-icines meant for defence per-sonnel to patients at cheaprates online.

The accused have beenidentified as Dhruv Nath Jhaand Om Nath Jha - both broth-ers and residents JJ Bela Estatenear Vijay Ghat. Police said thata total cost of medicines recov-ered from the duo is around Rs30 lakhs.

According to JasmeetSingh, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),East district, on September 20,police received informationabout a gang involved in sellingcostly cancer medicines meantfor sale at defence andEmployees' State Insurance(ESI) dispensaries in the openmarket.

"A trap was laid near apetrol pump in Vikas marg bythe police team and subse-quently Dhruv Nath Jha, who

came on a scooter with a bag-ful of medicines, was nabbed.Police recovered five packets ofcostly medicines with stampsthat read - sale in Defence andESI only - from the bag whichwas in possession of theaccused," said the DCP.

"The police also recoveredseven other medicine packetsfrom which similar stamps hadbeen erased. A case under sec-tion 420, 468, 471, 409, 380,

411, 120 B of Indian Penal Code(IPC) has been registered at thePreet Vihar police stationagainst Dhruv," said the DCP.

"Based on information dis-closed by Dhruv, his brotherOm Nath Jha was also arrestedfrom his office in Laxmi Nagar.Police have also recovered largequantities of medicines andthe chemical used for erasingthe stamps from the office ofthe accused," said the DCP.

"During interrogation, theaccused disclosed that theyhad received these medicines atcheap rates from a gangs oper-ating from Gwalior, Mumbai,Ghaziabad and Noida. Theaccused used to further supplythe medicines to the patients oncheap rates online," said theDCP adding that police teamshave initiated manhunt to nabthe other criminals indulged inillegal trade.

���%%��������� -12�013!,�

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia, along with

the Excise officials, on Mondayconducted a surprise inspec-tion and raid on the wineshops that run in the name ofDepartmental stores in sever-al parts of Delhi such as KarolBagh, Janakpuri, KailashColony and Govindpuri andother areas.

Deputy CM and the Exciseofficials raided the depart-mental stores in several parts ofDelhi.During the raid, twoshops have been sealed wherea case of violation of rules wasrevealed.

"According to law, adepartmental store with theparticular license can hold 15percent of beer and wine, butit has to have 85 percent ofother inventory. These two'departmental stores' weredefaulting, apart from a few softdrinks & snacks, 80-90 percent

of the stock was of wine/beer.This is completely in violationof the law. They were runningwine and beer shops in thename of departmental stores.Delhi has 125 departmentalstores which have a license tokeep 15 percent of wine/beer.The highest limit of refrigera-tion allowed in such stores is of300 litres."

"As soon the deputy CMgot the news about the ongo-ing raid by the excise officials,Sisodia rushed to the spots toraid several shops. When theDeputy Chief Minister arrivedat the departmental store locat-ed at Arya Samaj Road,

Keekarwala Chowk, Karolbagh,where they noticed that out ofall the items being sold, almost90 per cent of them were beerand wine being sold openly,whereas only 15 percent beerand wine can be sold at adepartmental store as per therules," said a government offi-cial.

After witnessing violationsof the departmental store rules,Sisodia directed the officials toseal the shop immediately.

"We were getting com-plaints from all across Delhi, that liquor shops arebeing run in the name ofdepartmental stores, follow-

ing which raids are being doneacross Delhi.

Officers of the excisedepartment are raiding suchshops in different parts ofDelhi. I myself went to someparts to check on it today.

Till now, two departmen-tal stores have been sealed. Wherever we are find-ing a violation of law, immedi-ate action is being taken, noone will be spared," saidSisodia.

����� -12�013!,

Leaving home is never easy,even when it's across the

road and cleaner. Ask the hawk-ers of the city’s DaryaganjSunday book market, who havea new address at the MahilaHaat ground.

After 50 years of operatingfrom the crammed, congestedpavement between Delite andGolcha cinemas, the bookbazaar has moved to the ele-vated Mahila Haat ground onAsaf Ali Road nearby. And theshopkeepers — as well as buy-ers — are beset with mixed feel-ings.

"Apna ghar chod kar nayijagah jaana kis ko accha lagtahai (Who feels good about leav-ing their old house for a newone)," 67-year-old Niyazuddin,who has been selling books in

the market for the last 40 years,said on Sunday, a week after theshift.

"Letting go is always diffi-cult. I don't know how it will feelafter some time, but right nowit surely does not feel good,"Niyazuddin said.

The famed Sunday bookbazaar is where one can land arare copy of New Yorker, or evena first edition of MargaretMitchell's "Gone With theWind" for just Rs 20.

The book bazaar was closedfor several weeks, ever since July2 when the Delhi High Courtvacated a stay on a directiondeclaring Netaji Subhash Marg(also including the roadbetween Delite and Golcha) a"non-vending zone".

Each vendor has a desig-nated 4 feet by 6 feet space in thenew space allotted by the North

Delhi Municipal Corporation(NDMC) in the Mahila Haatground. The rent has gone upfrom Rs 15 to Rs 185 per weekand the space has been given ona two-year lease.

Sumit Verma, a member ofthe Daryaganj Patri SundayBook Bazaar WelfareAssociation, alleged that theadministration had violated theStreet Vendors (Protection ofLivelihood and Regulation ofStreet Vending) Act (2014),and accused them of ruining theheritage status of the book mar-ket.

"What kind of barter isthis? You take our 50-year-oldheritage market and give us anew piece of land on two yearslease. What is the surety that youwon't take this away as well?"Verma asked as some vendorsprotested outside the ground.

Despite their misgivings, hesaid many hawkers are takingup space in the new groundbecause it is a question of theirlivelihood. Of the 276 stalls, over200 were occupied this Sunday.Last week, the first Sunday at thenew venue, there were onlyabout 100 stalls, he said.

According to the Act,"Natural markets where streetvendors have conducted busi-ness for over fifty years shall bedeclared as heritage markets,and the street vendors in suchmarkets shall not be relocated".

For regular visitors, it is theidea of letting go of the originalmarket's old world charm thatis most painful. Many admithaving had a long-term rela-tionship with the market thatspans years, even decades.

They can't help but be nos-talgic about the innumerable

times they have rummagedthrough giant piles of dustybooks to find old and raretitles, including first editions ofclassics or a vintage gold foilembossed leather bound book.

"It was in Daryaganj whereI first discovered the works oflegendary playwright OscarWilde and it has stayed with mesince then. Then a naughtyteenager, and now an oldgrumpy grandmother, a trip tothis place on Sundays has beena one constant thing in my life,"said 52-year-old Renu Uppal.

Uppal, who was visitingthe new market this Sundaywith her granddaughter, said shehoped it would be moved backto its original location. "It is soout of place in this location. Itlooks like as if we have beenrobbed of our childhood," sheadded.

���%%��������� -12�013!,

The House meeting of NorthDelhi Municipal

Corporation (NMC) witnesseda high voltage drama onMonday as over 20 Aam AadmiParty (AAP) members weresuspended by its Mayor AvatarSingh for 15 days.

The move came following aspat among councillors of theruling and Opposition partiesover taking credit of reducingcases of dengue.

AAP councillor and Leaderof Opposition in the HouseSurjeet Singh Pawar described ita "black day" and claimed thatnever in the history of the MCDsuch a step has been taken.

"I wanted to raise an issue of

scam in the parking system ofthe NDMC (New DelhiMunicipal Corporation), andhad also submitted a shortnotice for it. But, I was notallowed to speak," he alleged.

Instead, the BJP members,sought to "badmouth" ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal overthe anti-dengue campaign led byhim, as the "MCD has been inef-fective over the years in con-trolling dengue in Delhi", heclaimed.

Pawar said a commotionsoon followed as several mem-bers of the AAP trooped into theWell of the House, followingwhich he and some other AAPcouncillors were "marshalledout by enforcement staff ".

"I was manhandled by the

enforcement staff, and this is ablack day for the NDMC," healleged. Mayor Avatar Singhhas "suspended 25 councillors"who were present in the Houseon Monday, the Leader ofOpposition said, adding that theAAP has 31 councillors in the104-member House.

The mayor alleged that theAAP councillors were "obstruct-ing the proceedings" of theHouse and hence, the action wastaken.

He indicated that a "specialHouse session could be con-vened in the next few days to justdiscuss the issue of dengue.Pawar said if the mayor con-venes the House in the absenceof the opposition, it amount to"sheer dictatorship".

���%%��������� -12�013!,

At least 57 cases of malariareported last week of

September, taking the totalnumber of patients sufferingfrom the disease to 304 thisyear. According to the SouthDelhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC), which tabulates thedata on vector-borne diseasesin the city, the number ofdengue cases reported tillSeptember 21 stands at 217with 46 fresh cases reported lastweek.

Meanwhile, mosquito-breeding has been reported inat least 130200 households and106602 legal notices have beenissued this year, according to amunicipal report released onMonday.

Sources in the North DelhiMunicipal Corporation (NMC)said that the number of casesmay be bigger in its areas dueto apathetic attitude of theofficials and widespread cor-ruption in public health depart-ment. He alleged that the offi-cials of the department despitehaving enough stocks of anti-larva insecticides keep busy inordering a fresh stock without

having taken necessaryapproval. The insecticides pollute water bodies and can destroy larva of culex mosquitoes which do not cause any of the vector bornedisease.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal has started ananti-dengue campaign '10Hafte10Baje 10Minute' urging peo-ple to inspect their house forany standing water.

The campaign fromSeptember 1 and November 15to combat dengue has gar-nered a massive support frompublic and several other well-known personalities across thecountry, including cricketers,Bollywood actors and famous

journalists. Bollywood actorsEmran Hashmi, TaapseePannu, Swara Bhaskar andfilmmaker Mahesh Bhat, andseveral senior journalists,including Rajdeep Sardesai,Nidhi Razdan, Faye D'Souza,have supported the campaign.

Kejriwal had said partici-pation of these public person-alities will inspire commonpeople to take precautions incombating this vector-bornedisease.

Chief Minister has alsodirected his colleagues in theCabinet to work towardsencouraging mass participationin the third week of the cam-paign. He along with his cabi-net ministers and MLAs alsovisited residential areas of thecity on Sunday, requesting peo-ple to check mosquito breedingin their surroundings.

Last year, 2,798 denguecases and four deaths wererecorded in Delhi. Both theDelhi government and the localbodies have been makingefforts to raise awarenessamong the people on precau-tions to ensure that there is nobreeding of mosquito larvae inand around their houses.

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Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind

Kejriwal on Mondaysaid the Governmentwould look intowhether two-wheel-ers and vehicles dri-ven by womenshould be exemptedfrom the odd-evenscheme, which willbe implemented inNovember.

A meeting was held onMonday with all the depart-ments and stakeholders con-cerned to discuss issues per-taining to implementation ofthe car-rationing scheme.There was discussion whetherwomen should be exempted ornot. "We are examiningwhether CNG vehicles, womenand two-wheelers may beexempted from the scheme,"Kejriwal told reporters.

On September 13, Kejriwalhad announced that the thirdedition of the odd-even schemewould be implemented fromNovember 4-15 as part of mea-sures to combat high-level air

pollution caused due to stubbleburning in neighbouring statesduring winters.

During the scheduled 12-day scheme, vehicles will plyalternately on odd and evendates as per their registrationnumbers. Earlier, a fine of Rs2,000 was imposed on the vio-lators of the rule.

Kejriwal had said thedetails of the scheme would beshared with people in the com-ing days.

Sources had claimed thatmost of the exemptions, whichhad been also given in the pre-vious two editions of the inJanuary and April 2016, mightremain the same.

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In order to ensure that thechildren rescued as labourers

are enrolled in schools and arenot pulled out to be forced intochild labourers again, the DelhiGovernment has formulatedguidelines in this regard.

According to StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs)formulated by 'SamagraShiksha', part of DelhiGovernment's educationdepartment, the District UrbanResource Coordinators(DURCC) will be included as apart of the District Task Force(DTF) set up in each district bythe Delhi Government's labourdepartment.

The DURCC's are experi-enced teachers, retired princi-pals, or officials working withthe education department.

"A list of rescued childlabour in the previous monthmay be provided to theDURCC every month. The

School ManagementCommittee (SMC) memberswith the Cluster ResourceCentre Coordinators (CRCC)will visit the parents orguardians of the rescued childlabour and counsel them to getthe child enrolled in the schoolfor his or her better futureprospect," the guidelines issuedby the Delhi government said.

It said, "They shall facilitatethe admission of the rescuedchild labour in the school in ageappropriate class and afterassessment, shift him or her tothe Special Training Centre forbridge course, if need be.

"The heads of schools andteachers shall monitor theattendance of the child for sixmonths to ensure that the childis not pulled out of school andpushed again into child labour,"it said. The Delhi High Courtlast week directed the AAP gov-ernment and the police tostrictly follow the Delhi ActionPlan for Total Abolition of

Child Labour, which gives theprocedure for interim care andprotection of the rescued chil-dren.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C HariShankar noted that the Delhiaction plan was submitted bythe National Commission forProtection of Child Rights(NCPCR) and accepted by thecourt in its orders of July 15,2009 and November 5, 2014.

The bench said it is thebounden duty of the authoritiesto ensure that there is no vio-lation of the provisions of theChild Labour (Prohibition andRegulation) Act and theBounded Labour System(Abolition) Act.

The NCPCR, after holdingconsultation with stakeholdersand after conducting researchand survey, had finalised a DelhiAction Plan for total abolition ofChild Labour, clearly definingthe role and responsibilities ofvarious departments.

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Terrorism has been sus-tained through financial,

political and moral supportfrom some nations, India tolda meeting of the inter-govern-mental forum Monday, in aveiled reference to Pakistan.

Minister of State forExternal Affairs VMuraleedharan raised India’sconcerns over the growingscourge of terrorism during theinformal meeting of theConference on Interaction andConfidence Building Measures

(CICA) Ministers for ForeignAffairs on the sidelines of the74th UN General Assemblysession. “Terrorism is a scourgethat afflicts member countriesof the CICA and others. It hasbeen sustained through finan-cial, political and moral supportof some States,” he said, with-out naming any country.

Noting that organisationssuch as Financial Action TaskForce (FATF) are engaged inmaintaining integrity of theinternational financial systemin Asia for combating terrorfinancing, Muraleedharan said

members of the CICA mustcontinue to support the FATFin its endeavours.

“We also seek your supporton an early conclusion of theComprehensive Conventionon International Terrorism, as proposed by India,” he added.

Muraleedharan furthersaid that India supports inclu-sive and consensus-based mul-tilateral cooperation. “India’spolicies of Think West, ActEast, Security and Growth forAll, and its vision of Indo-Pacific are a reflection of ourcommitment to partner withcountries of Asia in our col-lective endeavour to make the21st century a century of Asia.”

Underscoring the valueIndia attaches to its member-ship of the CICA, he said NewDelhi wishes to see the grouping evolve as a vitalforum for shaping a secure anddeveloped Asia.

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From Page 1“In Kashmir Valley many

schools are shut for severalyears now. They will bereopened in the days to come.About 50,000 temples are closed,some are 90 per cent destroyed,and those temples will be sur-veyed. There are no cinema the-atres in the Valley. They are shutfor many years. Plan is on toopen them,” he added.

The Centre had recentlyscrapped special status toJammu & Kashmir underArticle 370 of the Constitution.

Pointing out that two Union

Territories will come into forcefrom October 31, coincides withbirth anniversary of Sardar Patel,he said Lt Governors will beappointed to them.

Listing out various initia-tives taken up by theGovernment in Jammu &Kashmir, he said, “Five youthsfrom each village will be givenGovernment employmentbased on merit. Also, recruit-ment will be made into theArmy, the Navy, the Air Force,CRPF, BSF among other others.Central Government depart-ments have been asked to pre-pare an action plan for devel-opment of J&K.”

From Page 1“We will increase our

renewable energy capacity tomuch beyond 175 GW and weare committed to take it furtherto 450 GW.”

“Need, not greed, has beenour guiding principle,” Modisaid.

The Climate ActionSummit aims to boost action toimplement the ParisAgreement, which was signedin 2015. The Paris deal aims tostrengthen the global responseto the threat of climate changeby keeping a global tempera-ture rise this century well below2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursueefforts to limit the temperatureincrease even further to 1.5degrees Celsius.

“What we need is a globalpeople’s movement to bringabout behavioural change,” thePrime Minister said.

“The respect for nature, thejudicious use of resources,reducing our needs and livingwithin our means have all beenimportant aspects of both ourtraditions and present dayefforts. And therefore Indiatoday has come not just to talkabout the seriousness of thisissue, but to present a practicalapproach and a roadmap,” headded.

“We believe that an ounceof practice is worth more than

a ton of preaching,” he said.“In India we have made

plans to make our transportsector green through e-mobil-ity. India is also working toconsiderably increase the pro-portion of the biofuel blend inpetrol and diesel,” Modi said.

A recent study has foundthat India and China, whichfaced the highest burden ofdeath from air pollution, willreap the biggest health benefitsof a robust climate policyaimed at reducing carbon emis-sions. The benefits could reachtrillions of dollars in valueannually, depending on airquality policies that nationsadopt, according to theresearch by the University ofVermont and published in thejournal ‘NatureCommunications.’

Modi said India is alsofocusing on the use of com-pressed bio gas and hisGovernment has providedclean cooking gas to 150 mil-lion families, thus improvingthe health of the environment,of women and children.

Talking about hisGovernment’s ambitious ‘JalJeevan Mission’ for water con-servation, rainwater harvestingand for the development ofwater resources, Modi said Indiawill spend USD 50 billion on theproject in the next few years.

From Page 1The m-cap of BSE-listed

companies was �1,38,54,439.41crore on Thursday.

Markets are on a rise sinceFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman delivered a surprisecut in corporate tax rates.

The announcements weremade during trading hours onFriday which sent the marketssoaring. On Friday, it logged itsbiggest single-day jump in overa decade by surging 1,921.15points, or 5.32 per cent.

“The Indian benchmarkindices started the expiry weekon a strong note buoyed byimproved domestic sentimentspost a slew of measures by theGovernment last week. Themarkets registered secondstraight session of healthygains, despite unsupportiveglobal cues,” Ajit Mishra, vicepresident, research, ReligareBroking Ltd said.

The Government slashedthe base corporate tax for exist-ing companies to 22 per centfrom 30 per cent, and for newmanufacturing firms, incor-porated after October 1, 2019,to 15 per cent from 25 per cent.

From the 30-share com-ponents, 16 scrips closed theday with gains, led by BajajFinance, L&T, Asian Paints,ITC, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank,ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank,HDFC twins, Maruti and SBI,rallying up to 8.70 per cent.

In the broader market, theBSE midcap and smallcapindices rallied up to 3.08 percent. On the BSE, 1,638 scripsadvanced, while 972 declinedand 184 remained unchanged.

From Page 1The Census will have its

reference date as March 1,2021, but for snow-boundJammu & Kashmir, HimachalPradesh and Uttarakhand itwill be October 1, 2020, Shah said.

“Census data will be col-lected through a mobile app.This is for the first time that themobile app will be used for thecensus exercise. India will bemoving from the pen andpaper census to digital data,which will be a big revolutionin the country’s census exer-cise,” he said.

Referring to the 2021 cen-sus, he said the data will help infuture planning of the country,especially for development ini-tiatives and welfare schemes,and it will be a ‘Jan Bhagidari’(people’s participation) exercise.“India’s total 130-crore popula-tion should be informed aboutits benefits. How, the censusdata could be used for futureplanning, development initia-tives and welfare schemes. Theutilisation of census data ismulti-dimensional and will bea significant contribution to thenation’s progress,” Shah said.

The Home Minister alsosaid the Census will help indemarcating boundaries ofmunicipal wards, Assembliesand Lok Sabha constituencies.He appealed to census officialsto carry out the exercise sin-cerely as this is an opportuni-ty for them to do ‘Punya’ (holy

deed), which will help in nationbuilding.

The Home Minister addedon the basis of the 2011 Census,the Modi Government hadplanned 22 welfare schemesrelated to electricity connectionto every home, gas connec-tions, construction of roads,houses for the poor, toilets,bank accounts and opening ofbank branches among others.

He cited the example of theGovernment’s flagship ‘Ujjwala’scheme of providing free LPGconnection to poor families,saying it has been successful asthe scheme was prepared onthe basis of the 2011 censusdata. “By 2022, there will not bea family which will not have gasconnection,” he said.

Shah also said the 2011census reflected the poor sexratio of male and female insome States. That is why theprogramme of ‘Beti Bachao,Beti Padhao’ was launched, hesaid. “Under this scheme, theHaryana Government has doneso much work in the last fiveyears that the state’s sex ratio isnow among the best in thecountry,” he said.

The Home Minister saidIndia’s population is 17.5 percent of the world’s total popu-lation while the geographicalarea is just 2.4 per cent of thetotal geographical area of theworld. “So, naturally, India haslimited natural resources incomparison to the population.Therefore, to fill up this gap ofinequality, we will have towork hard,” he said.

From Page 1“In a day or two, we will

decide how much electricitywill be needed to run one light.We will deduct that amountfrom people’s bills. This willalso be an automatic arrange-ment,” he said adding the waypeople had given permissionto install CCTV at their homeand the enthusiasm withwhich people are involved inCCTV scheme, we hope thatthe public will be equallyinterested in theMukhyamantri StreetlightScheme.

The installation will be of20 to 40 Watt LED lights. Thetendering will include a war-ranty clause of 3 to 5 years.The scheme has an investmentof Rs 100 crores for the instal-lation and Rs 10 crore perannum subsequently. “We willnot leave a single dark spot inDelhi,” said Kejriwal.

Meanwhile, attacking thecivic agencies, the CM said,“Delhi government wanted toinstall street lights all overDelhi. But there is a lack ofspace in un-authorised

colonies and slums and theMunicipal Corporationsrefused give Non-ObjectionCertificates (NOC’s) to set upstreetlights in these places.This is why the scheme hasbeen launched. Only the per-mission of the MLA and thebuilding owner is required.People can get it installed intheir house, shop, and street,anywhere.”

According to DelhiGovernment, currently thereare seven lakh street lightsinstalled across the city. Butwith installation of 2.10 lakhmore CCTV camers underthe scheme, Delhi will becomethe first city in the world withlargest number of street lights.

As per a survey conduct-ed by a Non-GovernmentalOrganisation (NGO), thereare around 7000 dark spots.

“Under the MukhyamantriStreet Light Scheme, 2.10 lakhstreet lights will be installed.This is the first plan in theworld, in which a tender ofabout thirty percent of the cur-rent street light capacity isbeing launched,” said Kejriwal.

From Page 1The Minister directed

Commissioner, DSCSC,APMC/DAMB that immediatecorrective action be taken asaverage wholesale prices ofonions have risen astronomi-cally in last two-three days inLasalgaon and Nashik inMaharashtra.

Its repercussions would befelt in retail markets across thecountry, it is being appre-hended. The officers present inthe meeting informed that dueto ongoing phase of Shraadhsfollowed by the festive Navratriperiod, the demand of onionsdecrease which will help inneutralising some of the effectof price rise of onions.

Officers also informed theMinister that NAFED is in aposition to supply 200 metrictonnes of onions daily for theretail sale in Delhi. The meet-ing also discussed whethermarket intervention was need-ed for checking retail price ofonions. During the meeting,various options to make onionsavailable at affordable prices toconsumers in Delhi was alsodiscussed, an official said.

The Food and CivilSupplies Department andDSCSC have been directed toexpedite tendering process formaking adequate arrangementsfor supply of onions at variousFPSs in Delhi for their retailsales, in case any emergent sit-uation arises.

Delhi Government hasalready constituted a high levelPrice Stabilization FundManagement Committeeunder the chairmanship ofChief Secretary with PrincipalSecretary (Finance),Commissioner (F&S),Development Commissioner,Divisional Commissioner andDirector (AgriculturalMarketing) and Director(Planning) as other members

to suggest market interventionfor checking the prices ofessential commodities. ThisCommittee has been activatedto timely and effectively dealwith the situation of high retailprices of onion.

The Minister was alsoinformed that the teams of offi-cers/officials of Food and CivilSupplies Department andAPMC have already beendirected to make regular fieldinspections and carry outenforcement activities in orderto check the instances of hoard-ing, black-marketing, profi-teering etc.

Further in order to keep alid on onion prices, UnionFood and Consumers AffairsMinister Ram Vilas Paswanhad directed cooperative Nafedand NCCF, as well as MotherDairy, are selling onion in theprice-sensitive Delhi market atRs 23.90 per kg. They are tak-ing onions from the centralbuffer stock. Delhi, as well asother state governments, hasbeen asked to lift the stockfrom the buffer and boost sup-ply in their states via civil sup-plies department and rationshops, he added.

The centre has a bufferstock of 56,000 tonnes of onion,of which 16,000 tonnes hasbeen offloaded so far. In Delhi,200 tonnes a day is beingoffloaded. State-run MMTChas been asked to import 2,000tonnes of onions to improve thedomestic supply. At present,fresh onions are not available.It is mostly the stored one of thelast year’s crop.

According to sources, pro-duction of Kharif (summer)onion has been affected due tofloods, due to which the areasown under the crop is 10 per-cent less. This is likely to affectproduction, which is likely tohit the market from Novemberonwards.

From Page 1To a question on the num-

ber of infiltrators waiting to getin, Rawat said the numberskept fluctuating based on theweather pattern.

“These numbers keep fluc-tuating, but I would say yesthere are at least 500 peoplewho are waiting to infiltrateand that is the minimum num-ber,” he said. Rawat also reject-ed claims of a clampdown inJ&K and asserted that it was afacade put up by terrorists toproject a false picture of “harshmeasures” to the outside world.

In reality, the violence andkillings were down and the ter-rorists were being kept at bay, hetold reporters. While commu-nication lines are through forthe people, there is a breakdownfor handlers of terrorists inPakistan and their associates inthe Valley, he said. Also,arrangements are in place forsecurity forces to talk to theirfamilies and there is no com-munication breakdown, he said.

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Prime Minister Imran Khanadmitted on Monday that

Pakistan committed “one of thebiggest blunders” by joining theUS after the 9/11 attacks, say-ing the previous governments“should not have pledged whatthey could not deliver.”

Speaking at the Councilon Foreign Relations (CFR)think-tank here, Khan alsosaid the least he expects theinternational community to dois to urge India to lift the cur-few in Kashmir.

Responding to a question,Khan said he had urged hisIndian counterpart NarendraModi to “reset” bilateral tiesand his government waited to

resume talks until after theelections in India were over butthen it found that “India ispushing us in the blacklist ofthe Financial Action TaskForce to bankrupt us.”

He said that by abrogatingArticle 370, India had castaside the UN Security Councilresolutions, the Simla accordand its own Constitution.Khansaid he would ask the UN toplay its role on the Kashmirissue. Pakistan has been tryingto internationalise the Kashmirissue but India has assertedthat the abrogation of Article370 was its “internal matter”.New Delhi has also askedIslamabad to accept the reali-ty and stop its anti-Indiarhetoric.

New York: Describing himselfas “an extremely good arbitra-tor”, US President DonaldTrump said on Monday that hewas ready to mediate betweenPakistan and India on theKashmir issue, but both sideshave to agree on that.

Trump made the remarksduring his meeting withPakistani Prime MinisterImran Khan on the sidelines ofthe UN General Assembly ses-sion here. “If I can help, I willcertainly help,” Trump said,describing the Kashmir issue asa “complex” one which hasbeen going on for a long time.

“If both (Pakistan andIndia) want, I am ready to do

it,” he said, a day after attend-ing ‘Howdy, Modi’ rally inHouston, where he shared thestage with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and displayeda close friendship and a common vision on fightingterrorism. “At any point oftime, I would be an extremelygood arbitrator,” he said.

Trump praised the ‘Howdy,Modi’ mega rally in presence ofKhan and said he has heard a“very aggressive statement” byPrime Minister Modi.

“It was very well receivedwithin the room,” Trump said,referring to the gathering of50,000 people at the NRG sta-dium in Houston.

At the rally on Sunday,Modi hit out at Pakistan for itssupport to terrorism and saidIndia’s decision to nullify Article370 has caused trouble to thosewho cannot handle their coun-try as he called for a “decisivebattle” against terrorism.

During his press interac-tion alongside Khan, Trumprepeatedly snubbed Pakistanireporters and on one occasioneven asking one of the jour-nalists whether he is part of thePakistani delegation. “Wheredo you find reporters likethese,” Trump asked Khan inresponse to a question posed bya Pakistani journalist onKashmir. PTI

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India’s experience and capa-bilities in providing afford-

able healthcare is available foruse to all developing coun-tries, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi told the first-ever high-level meeting onUniversal Health Coveragehere on Monday, underscor-ing that a healthy life is theright of every person.

Addressing the meeting,Prime Minister Modi said,“Health does not simply meanfreedom from diseases. Ahealthy life is everyone per-sons’ right.” “The onus for thisis on our government to makeevery possible effort to ensurethis,” Modi said at the meet-ing, which will launch newefforts to provide access for allto affordable, inclusive andresilient health systems.

Modi said India’s efforts onaffordable healthcare are notlimited to just its own bound-aries. “We have helped to pro-vide access to affordable health-care by way of telemedicine toseveral other countries espe-cially African countries and wewill continue to do so. Ourexperience and our capabilitiesare available for use to alldeveloping countries,” he said.

Modi began his engage-ments at the 74th Session ofthe UN General Assembly byaddressing the Climate ActionSummit hosted by SecretaryGeneral Antonio GuterresMonday in the GeneralAssembly Hall. This was fol-lowed by his speech at the

Universal Health Coveragemeeting. Modi told the worldleaders and ministers at thesummit that the global welfarebegins with people’s welfare,and health is an importantcomponent of it and addedthat India has taken a holisticapproach towards the healthsector.

He outlined the four mainpillars of healthcare that Indiafocuses on.

“The first pillar is preven-tive healthcare. We have laidspecial emphasis on yoga,ayurveda and fitness,” he saidadding that India is buildingmore than 125,000 wellnesscentres and this focus hashelped in controlling life stylediseases such as diabetes, bloodpressure and depression.

Voicing concern over theharmful effects of e-cigarettes,Modi said the “craze for e-cig-arettes is a mater of concernfor us” due to which India hasbanned the commodity to“save the youth from thisvery severe problem”.

Further, the Clean IndiaCampaign has contributedtowards saving millions oflives and the government hasalso paid special attention toimmunization. Apart fromintroducing new vaccines, thegovernment has alsoimproved access to vaccina-tion in far flung areas. Thesecond pillar for India isaffordable healthcare andunder this the government hasrolled out the world’s largesthealth insurance scheme-Ayushman Bharat.

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New Delhi: The Centre onMonday asked all States toensure linking of emission testdata of vehicles with Vahandatabase. The Road Transportand Highways Ministry hadearlier issued a notification foramendment in the rule 115 ofthe Central Motor VehicleRules, 1989 in June, 2018 forlinkage of PUC certificate withVahan database.

“It is requested that all thePUC (pollution under control)vendors be directed to complywith the guidelines to facilitateelectronic uploading of emis-sions test data to vahan database,” the ministry said in anadvisory to the states.

In a letter to the chief sec-retaries of all the states andUnion territories, the ministryhas stressed upon adopting thisstep urgently especially since theoperationalisation of certainprovisions of the Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Act, 2019 and therevised provisions for penaltiesfor driving vehicle violating airpollution standards etc as per thedirections of the SC, the ministrysaid in a statement. PTI

New York: India has voicedconcern over the situation inthe Gulf region, saying com-peting geo-strategic interestscan lead to an avoidable con-flict that will have a disastrousimpact on the security anddevelopment of the countries inthe region and beyond.

“There is also a growingconcern over the situation in theGulf region, where competinggeo-strategic interests can leadto an avoidable conflict, whichwill have disastrous impact onthe security and development ofthe countries in the region andbeyond,” Minister of State forExternal Affairs VMuraleedharan said. PTI

Khunti: A physically disabledman was killed and two otherswere seriously injured afterthey were allegedly beaten upby a mob over suspicion ofslaughtering a cow inJharkhand’s Khunti district,police said on Monday.

The incident happenedafter local residents allegedlyspotted Kalantus Barla, FaguKacchap and Phillip Horo withthe carcass of a cow near a riverat Jaltanga village on Sunday,and assaulted them, a policeofficer said.

While Barla died on way tohospital, Kacchap and Horo areundergoing treatment at theRajendra Institute of MedicalSciences in Ranchi, the officersaid. Karra Community HealthCentre in-charge Dr JaffarKamaal said Barla, who had adisabled leg, suffered injuries inthe head, face and chest.

PTI

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Former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and

Congress president SoniaGandhi on Monday met formerFinance Minister PChidambaram in Tihar Jail,where he has been lodged sinceSeptember 5 in connectionwith the INX media case.Chidamabaram later tweetedthrough his family: "As long asthe @INCIndia party is strongand brave, I will also be strongand brave."

Sources said thatManmohan and Sonia reachedTihar at around 7 and wentdirectly to jail number 7 wherethey spoke to Chidambaramfor about half an hour.

The sources said the visit-ing leaders also enquired aboutChidambaram's health andwelfare. The two Congressleaders were accompanied byKarti Chidambaram, the for-mer Finance minister's sonwho is also a Lok Sabha MP.Chidambaram, who had askedhis family to tweet on hisbehalf, said he was honouredthat the two leaders visitedhim.

Congress has maintainedthat Chidambaram's arrest is awitch hunt by the Modi gov-ernment. P Chidambaram wassent to Tihar jail by the RouseAvenue Court. Chidambaramhas been alloted a single highsecurity cell inside Tihar.

Karti expressed his grati-tude to the two Congress lead-ers for meeting his father. "Myfather and I are extremelygrateful to Congress presidentSonia Gandhiji and formerprime minister ManmohanSinghji for visiting us today.This will give us the strengthand support in this politicalfight," he said after the meeting.

Last week, leader of theOpposition in Rajya SabhaGhulam Nabi Azad andCongress leader Ahmed Patelhad visited Chidambaram in ashow of solidarity.

Chidambaram was arrest-ed by the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) on August21 in INX media case. TheEnforcement Directorate (ED)has also accused Chidambaramof taking a bribe to allow for-eign investment into INXMedia.

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As he met a group of 169 IASofficers of the 2017 batch

at the Rashtrapati Bhavan,President Ram Nath Kovind onMonday said the gap betweenthe Government and the peo-ple must go.

The officers are currentlyattached to different ministriesand departments as assistantsecretaries.

The President told thegroup that while dischargingtheir responsibilities, they wouldhave to look at approaches thatgive optimum results, theRashtrapati Bhavan spokesper-son said in a statement.

"They must emphasise onteamwork and take everybodyalong and recognise every-body's contribution. And whilethey do so, they must lead andbe a role-model. They mustalso encourage greater people'sparticipation in socio-eco-nomic programmes, especial-ly where they are dealing withmindsets and attitudes,"Kovind said.

He said administration isno more about "us" and "them"but only about "us" and "ustogether". The gap betweenthe Government and peoplemust go, the President saidadding that the officers'approach should be people-sensitive and people-centric. "We are duty bound toenhance 'Ease of Living' for our people," Kovind said.

"IAS officers are at the cut-ting-edge of implementation

and their role is paramount ifIndia is to transform itself to afive-trillion economy, to double farm-income, to achievesocial justice and to makewomen equal stakeholders inour progress," he said.

The officers have workedhard and with sincerity toreach thus far in life, Kovindsaid, adding that they must continue with the samezeal and dedication to serve the people of India.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Monday agreed to hearthe plea of 17 disqualifiedKarnataka MLAs who are seek-ing to contest by-polls for 15Assembly seats in the state.

A three-judge Bench, head-ed by justice N V Ramana, saidit would hear on September 25the plea in which the disquali-fied MLAs have sought interimrelief to contest the by-elections.

Senior advocate MukulRohatgi, appearing for the dis-qualified MLAs, told the benchthat as per the disqualificationorders of the then Speaker KRRamesh Kumar, these personscannot contest elections for theremaining term of the currentAssembly which will end in2023.

Meanwhile, the counselrepresenting the ElectionCommission, told the benchthat by-polls for 15 vacantAssembly seats have been noti-fied and the court should notstay the elections.

The EC's counsel also saidthe Speaker's order disqualify-

ing these MLAs cannot deprivethem of their right to contestby-polls.

Kumar had disqualifiedthe MLAs which eventually ledto the fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition governmentheaded by the then chief min-ister HD Kumaraswamy

Kumaraswamy resigned asthe Chief Minister after losing atrust vote, which paved the wayfor the BJP-led Government inthe southern state under ChiefMinister BS Yediyurappa.

The lawmakers haveapproached the apex court,challenging Kumar's decisionto disqualify them.

Some of them have con-tended in their pleas that thedecision taken by Kumar beforeresigning as the speaker was anentirely illegal, arbitrary andmala fide exercise of his powerunder the 10th Schedule of ofthe Constitution.They havealso questioned Kumar's deci-sion to reject their resignationsby holding that those were notvoluntary and genuine. PTI

New Delhi: Four new SupremeCourt judges took oath ofoffice on Monday, taking thetotal strength of judges in theapex court to 34.

Chief Justice of India (CJI)Ranjan Gogoi administeredthe oath of office and secrecyto justices Krishna Murari, SRavindra Bhat, VRamasubramanian andHrishikesh Roy in a simplefunction in courtroom 1.

The appointment takes thenumber of judges in the apexcourt to the total sanctionedstrength of 34, including theCJI.Justices Murari and Bhatheaded the Punjab andHaryana and Rajasthan highcourts respectively.JusticesRamasubramanian and Royheaded the Himachal Pradeshand Kerala high courts respec-tively.

With a huge backlog ofcases in the top court, theCentre had last Wednesdaycleared the names of the fourhigh court chief justices whowere recommended by theapex court Collegium onAugust 30 for elevation. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Monday pulled upthe Kerala Government fornot complying with its ordersto demolish four apartmentcomplexes constructed atKochi's Maradu in violation ofCoastal Regulation Zone(CRZ) notifications.

The top court said it isshocked to know about illegalstructures coming up in coastalzone areas and said the chiefsecretary should conduct asurvey to gauge the extent ofdevastation caused to nature.

A bench headed by JusticeArun Mishra said it will pass adetailed order on Friday on theissue. "Have you any idea howmany people have died due tofloods and devastation causedto the environment. You areplaying with nature. Thousandsof people have died in devasta-tions. How many houses haveyou built for victims. Yet illegalstructures continue to come upin coastal areas," the bench toldthe Chief Secretary of the state.

The bench said the con-duct of the chief secretary is of

defiance and now he stands ingreat difficulty.

"What is happening therewe know. We will fix responsi-bility on those responsible.This is a colossal loss. It's a hightide area and hundreds of ille-gal structures have come up inthe coastal zone", the benchsaid.

It said the chief secretaryhas not indicated in his affi-davit as to how much time isneeded to comply with apexcourt order."We will pass adetailed order on Friday," thebench said.

In an affidavit, the chiefsecretary of Kerala had assuredthe top court that its orderwould be complied with andthe process for selecting a spe-cialised agency for "controlledimplosion" to demolish thebuildings is underway.

The top court had earlierasked the state government tofile a compliance report beforeit by September 20 failingwhich the Chief Secretary willhave to be present before it onSeptember 23. PTI

New Delhi: ElectionCommissioner Ashok Lavasa'swife Novel Singhal Lavasa hascome under the scanner of theIncome Tax Department oncharges of alleged tax evasion,official sources said on Monday.

Lavasa's wife has beenissued a notice by the departmentto explain certain details in her ITReturns (ITR) with regard to hold-ing directorship in about 10 com-panies, they said.The officialssaid after preliminary investiga-tion, the tax department hasasked her to provide more doc-uments related to her personalfinances.The department is look-ing at the ITRs of Novel SinghalLavasa to ascertain if her incomehas escaped assessment in thepast or something has beenconcealed from tax authorities,they said.The probe into allegedtax evasion and holding of direc-torship in multiple firms againstthe former banker pertains to atime period between 2015-17,they said. PTI

����� -12�013!,

The Left parties also hit outat Prime Minister Narendra

Modi on Monday saying his"virtually campaigning" forPresident Donald Trump at the'Howdy, Modi' event inHouston was "strange" and"unprecedented".

"This is a strange thing thathas happened. In India wenever allow any foreigner tocampaign in our domestic elec-tions, and our PM going thereand virtually campaigning forPresident Trump for his re-election and raising the sameslogan used in India — as"Abki baar Trump ki Sarkar'.This is something that'sunprecedented," CPI(M) gen-eral secretary Sitaram Yechurytold reporters.

He said as the head of theexecutive and theGovernment in India this issomething that we would nothave permitted anyone to doin our country.

It is believed that Modi'spitch will greatly help theRepublican Trump in winningvotes of nearly four millionIndian-Americans, who havetraditionally voted for theDemocrat Party.

"An Indian PM campaign-ing for the US President? OurPM has become the electioncampaigner for Trump, that isthe outcome of 'Howdy,Modi',"said CPI general secretary DRaja.

CPI(M) leaderMohammed Salim said whilethe US is allowing one per centof its population of NRI Indians to gather and meettheir leader, Modi was denyingsuch rights to the people ofKashmir.

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Describing the 'HowdyModi' event at Houston as

"unprecedented" and "history inthe making", the BJP onMonday said it has left anindelible footprint of a strongerIndia on the world map andthanked Prime Minister's lead-ership which, it said, broughtthe entire world stand firmlywith India in its decisive fightagainst the menace of terrorism.

The BJP also counteredCongress' criticism with its ITcell head Amit Malviya sayingsome in the Congress are peev-ed at the massive success ofHowdy Modi but to allege thatthe PM interfered in US elec-tions is preposterous.

"A historic day in worldpolitics! Leaders of the twomost powerful democraciesshared their ideas & dreams fora prosperous world together ina way that one has never seenbefore. #HowdyModi wasunprecedented. It has left anindelible footprint of a strongerIndia on world map," BJP pres-ident and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah tweeted.

In a reference to Modi'sattack on Pakistan over theissue of terrorism, he said themessage to the world is loud andclear that this "new India" willleave no stone unturned to keepthe country safe and united.

Thanks to Modi's leader-ship, the entire world todaystands firmly with India in itsdecisive fight against the men-ace of terrorism, Shah said,asserting that the prime minis-ter's popularity has soared acrossthe globe. It is a recognition ofthe people of India. The grandevent is testimony of India'spower under Modi, he said.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh said the event in Houstonhas reignited shared Indian-American dreams and theirbright futures. "The oldest andlargest democracies joinedhands today giving us hope anda promising future. It was his-tory in the making," he said.

Modi along with Trump onSunday addressed a large pub-lic rally of an Indian diasporaat Houston in South-East Texasand went on to recall how thelatter as the Republican presi-dential candidate had used " Abki baar Trump Sarkar" , animprovised tag line from theBJP's " Ab ki bar Modi Sarkar"campaign in the 2014 LokSabha poll . US polls are duenext year. Some Congressmenin the US have reportedlytaken exception to what theysaw as Modi's campaign-likeaddress in favour of Trump.

Most of the 30 lakh Indiansin the US had in the last US pres-idential poll largely voted forTrump's main opponent HillaryClinton, wife of formerAmerican president Bill Clinton.

With the main oppositionCongress accusing Modi ofcampaigning for Trump,Malviya took a dig at theOpposition while calling itscharge preposterous. "I canunderstand some in theCongress are peeved at themassive success of HowdyModi but to allege that the PMinterfered in US elections ispreposterous!

"He referred to the 'Ab kiBaar Trump Sarkar' slogan andits resonance with the Indian-American community back in2016! Listen," the BJP's ITdepartment head said whileposting a clipping of the primeminister's Speech.

����� -12�013!,

Aday after the 'Howdy,Modi' event, several

Congress leaders lashed out atPrime Minister Narendra Modieither accusing him of active-ly campaigning for US presi-dent Donald Trump or takinga dig at him using the remarksof a Democrat senator onJawaharlal Nehru.

The Opposition party saidby taking a "partisan" position,the Prime Minister has done a"disservice" to long-term strate-gic Indo-US relations. It alsotook a swipe at Modi saying itwould have been better if hewould have "shed his aversion"to Jawaharlal Nehru and joinedin endorsing what the USSenators were saying aboutthe country's first PrimeMinister.

Congress senior spokesper-son Anand Sharma said itshould not be seen that India istaking sides and the PrimeMinister using the Houstonplatform to exhort and raise theslogan of 'Ab ki baar Trumpsarkar' was better avoided. "Wehave a strategic partnershipbetween India and the UnitedStates of America which is bipar-tisan, which we fully endorse.

But, there is a time-hon-oured convention of India's for-eign policy that when weengage with the foreign gov-ernments or the President orPrime Minister when on for-eign soil, we do not take partin the domestic electoral poli-tics. Prime Minister shouldhave honoured that," Sharma told reporters. "It should not beseen that India is taking posi-tions or sides and Prime min-

ister using that platform toexhort and raise that slogan on'Ab ki baar Trump sarkar' wasbetter avoided," the Congressleader said. Sharma said Indiahas engaged with bothRepublican administration andDemocratic administration andit was a Republican adminis-tration under President George W Bush "when we successful-ly negotiated the Indo-USNuclear deal during Prime Minister ManmohanSingh's tenure".

He said when the US elec-tions came, the Indian leader-ship under Prime MinisterManmohan Singh did not takea partisan position to supportor endorse the Republicansand when Barack Obama tookover as the US President, "wecarried on with the USengagement with theDemocratic administration, aseffectively as we had done withthe previous Republicanadministration".

"As far as India's strategicinterests are concerned, we haveto engage with all the partiesconcerned. We wish the primeminister for his visit. We hopethat President Trump wouldappreciate the Indian diasporagreeting him when the primeminister was there," he said.

On President Trumpattending the 'Howdy, Modi'event in Houston, he said, theCongress has no objections toit. "But, we hope the PrimeMinister would get PresidentTrump to agree to restore allthe cuts on H1B Visas, reducethe fees and again restore theGSP so that Indian exports canget access to the US markets,"he said.

����� -12�013!,

Due to erratic and excessiverainfall this year, the

Ministry of Agriculture hasestimated foodgrain (rice andpulses) production to be slight-ly lower at 140.57 milliontonnes in the Kharif crop sea-son of 2019-20 as sowing of thekharif (summer) crops is almostcomplete and harvesting willbegin from October onwards.

According to the firstadvance estimates of Kharifcrops production, released by theMinistry of Agriculture, riceoutput has been pegged at 100.35million tonnes for the kharif sea-son of the 2019-20 crop year,lower than 102.13 million tonnesin the year-ago period

"The foodgrains produc-tion stood at 141.71 milliontonnes (MT) in the kharif sea-son of the 2018-19 crop year(July-June) and it is expected tobe lower at 140.57 milliontonnes in 2019-20," the firstadvance estimates said.

Notably, the research

agency Crisil and privateweather forecaster SkymetWeather Services had predict-ed that food production may godown slightly as compared tolast year, NCML, India's largestpost-harvest services firm, feltthat it may rise slightly. Rice,pulses and coarse cereals com-prise of the foodgrain basket.Floods in rice-growing Statessuch as Assam and Bihar anda rain deficit in West Bengaland other Eastern States mayadversely hit rice output.

The Ministry releases fourestimates at different stages ofproduction and harvest. Pulsesproduction has been estimatedto be lower at 8.23 milliontonnes as against 8.59 milliontonnes.The production of coarsecereals, however, has been esti-mated higher at 32 milliontonnes in the kharif season of thisyear from 30.99 million tonnesin the same season previous year.

Among cash crops, cottonoutput has been pegged at32.27 million bales of 170 kgeach for the 2019-20 crop year,

similar to 32.26 million balesachieved in the previous year.

Jute output has been esti-mated at 9.96 million bales of 180kg each as against 9.95 millionbales in the previous year. Evensugarcane production has beenpegged at 377.7 million tonnesfor the current year, similar towhat was achieved last year.

The IMD had predicted anormal monsoon. There was adelay in the onset of southwestmonsoon but later it picked up.However, states like Karnataka,Kerala, Gujarat, Bihar, Assam,and Maharasthra are hit byfloods due to heavy rains thathave impacted kharif crops.Presently, India recorded 889mm rainfall as against the nor-mal of 849.2 mm, an increaseof 5 percent so far.

Production of most of thecrops for the agricultural year2019-20 has been estimatedhigher than their normal pro-duction. However, these esti-mates would undergo revisionbased on further feedback fromthe states.

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The average apartment sizesin the top seven cities in

India have shrunk by 27 per-cent over the last five years —from 1,400 square feet in 2014to nearly 1,020 square feet in2019 so far — due to liquiditycrisis, changing buyer prefer-ences, and growing concernsabout affordability, according toa study by Anarock, a real estateservices company.

However, contrary to pop-ular perception the NationalCapital Region (NCR) — con-sidered to be one of the worst-hit residential markets in recentyears — has witnessed a declineof merely 6 per cent during thisperiod compared to 45 per centin Mumbai, 38 per cent inPune, 12 per cent in Bengaluru,9 per cent in Hyderabad and 8per cent in Chennai amongothers.

The current average size ofapartments in NCR is nearly1,390 sq ft, pulling ahead ofBangalore where average flatsizes reduced to 1,300 sq ft in2019. As per data, there are 1.8lakh unsold flats in the NCRareas.

"The maximum reductionhave seen in affordable homespriced less than Rs 40 lakh insizes over the previous years,while ultra-luxury homes sawthe least," said Anuj Puri, chair-man of the Anarock.

Affordable homes pricedless than Rs 40 lakh saw aver-age sizes reduced by 28 per cent- from 750 sq ft in 2014 to 540sq ft in 2019.

The mid-segment apart-ments priced from Rs 40 lakhto Rs 80 lakh saw sizes reduced

by 17 per cent - to 950 sq ft in2019 from 1,150 sq ft in 2014.Premium homes pricedbetween Rs 80 lakhs to Rs 1.25crore saw a 21 per cent reduc-tion in sizes — from 1,450 sq ftin 2014 to around 1,140 sq ft in2019. Ultra-luxury homespriced more than Rs 2.5 croresaw a mere 8 per cent declinein average sizes over the last fiveyears — from 2,400 sq ft in 2014to around 2,200 sq ft in 2019.

According to the study,Mumbai Metropolitan Region(MMR) has the least averageapartment size among all topcities, and also recorded thehighest drop of 45 per cent -from 960 sq ft in 2014 to 530sq ft in 2019. Pune registered38 per cent reduction in sizesduring this period, with theaverage apartment size cur-rently at 600 sq ft. The aver-age sizes in both MMR andPune are calculated on thecarpet area while for theremaining cities it is based onthe built-up area.

"Also, buyers are increas-ingly looking to avail the gov-ernment's credit subsidy ben-efits for affordable housing.These require a home to bepriced less than Rs 45 lakh andnot exceed 60 sq mt carpet area

or approximately 850 sq ftbuilt-up area (including over-all loading),"says Puri.

Meanwhile, Kolkata sawsizes reduce by 9 percent overthe last five years to stand at1,120 sq. ft. now against 1,230sq. ft. in 2014. "Moreover, buy-ing an affordable home alsocomes with GST benefits. TheGST for affordable housing is1 percent, against 5 percent formid-segment homes. In short,buyers get reduced costs andadded benefits, but lose out onspace. Developers get to attractmore buyers, but many havehad to shed their cherished'luxury' market categorization,"says Puri.

According to Chawlabuilders, reduction in flat sizehas invariably been achieved byelimination of extra balconiesand in many cases all bal-conies. "The ongoing liquiditycrisis, changing buyer prefer-ences and growing concernsabout affordability have forcedreal estate developers' to recon-sider their product strategiesand prompted them to signif-icantly reduce apartment sizes.Even DDA has also reduce theapartment size in Delhi,"Ashok Chawla, proprietor ofChawla Builders, said.

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As key conspirators respon-sible for killings of BJP

leader and RSS functionary inKishtwar still at large, theJammu & Kashmir Police onMonday claimed to have solvedthe ‘sensational’ case followingthe arrest of three close aides ofHizbul Mujahideen terrorists.

According to police, allthree local terrorists, arrestedrecently from Kishtwar, had provided logistics supportto the key conspirators to execute their terror plots aimedat reviving militancy in the region.

Police also claimed thesame set of people, who hadhatched a conspiracy to revivemilitancy in the hilly district,were behind two weaponsnatching incidents reportedin the last six months inKishtwar. Terrorists snatchedservice weapon of PSOattached with DC, Kishtwar inMarch this year and anotherincident of weapon snatchingwas reported on September 13where three terrorists ran awaywith service weapon of a PSOattached with districtPresident of PDP Adv SheikhNasir.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in Jammu, InspectorGeneral of Police (Jammurange) Mukesh Singh said,“three Hizbul Mujahideen ter-rorists have been arrested fortheir involvement in four ter-

ror-related cases.He said they were part of

the HM group responsible forthe killings of BJP leader AnilParihar along with his brotherAjeet Parihar on November 1,2018 and RSS functionaryChanderkant Sharma and his PSO Rajinder Kumar inApril 2019”.

Mukesh Singh, flanked bysenior Army and State policeofficers, told reporters at ZonalPolice headquarters, the terror-related incidents were part of aconspiracy hatched in 2017-18to revive militancy in theChenab Valley region com-prising Doda, Ramban andKishtwar districts.

Labelling Jehangir Saroori,one of the most active terror-ist of the Hizbul Mujahideen inthe area, as the mastermindbehind the conspiracy, Singhsaid he conspired with NisarAhmed Sheikh, Osama andothers to revive HizbulMujahideen in Chenab valley.Under this plan they firstdecided to eliminate BJP leaderAnil Parihar last year to spread

reign of terror in the area.Rustam, a resident of

Kishtwar, was also a part of thegroup. Rustam, Singh said,built hideouts in the houses ofNishad Ahmed and AzadHussain, which were usedbefore and after every terror-related incident in Kishtwarregion in over one year.

“We have arrested NisarAhmed Sheikh, Nishad Ahmedand Azad Hussain. On theirdisclosures, their hideouts wereraided and arms and ammuni-tion including magazines, riflesand pistols were recoveredfrom them,” he added.

Singh said investigationswere on and more arrests werelikely in the days to come.

“Our effort is to arrest allterrorists ‘active’ in the regionand we will arrest them soon.In this entire exercise, thearmy, NIA and CRPF played amajor role,” he said.

Mukesh Singh also warnedagainst people giving shelter toterrorists and said that whoev-er helped them will be dealtwith sternly.

0;%#3������'���*�$(�'��-?�.�<�(��(�������������' Jammu: The Army on Monday

recovered over 40 kg of explo-sives in Jammu & Kashmir’sKathua district and the agen-cies are probing possible terrorangle, officials said.

On a specific information,the Army troops launched asearch operation and raided ahouse of one Khalil in Dewalvillage of Malhar belt inBillawar tehsil, an officer said.

As Khalil’s wife saw theapproaching troops, she tried totake the two bags carrying gun-powder explosives out of thehouse but was caught, he said.

The bags weighing 20 kgeach were seized, he added.

The Army was keeping aclose watch on the activities ofKhalil for some time, the officer said.

One person has beendetained and is being ques-tioned about the recovery, headded. PTI

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Srinagar: With virtually nobusiness being transacted for50 days, small-scale entre-preneurs and apple traders onMonday said they were des-perately hoping for an end tothe clampdown in theKashmir Valley and are unableto cope with threats from ter-ror groups.

The Valley, which wasbrought under a virtual curfewwith communication networkssnapped on August 5 after theGovernment abrogated specialstatus to Jammu & Kashmir,has seen little difference in thelast seven weeks as publictransport is still not availableand schools waiting for stu-dents to collect assignments.

The apple trade, which isthe lifeline of a majority ofpeople in North Kashmir’sSopore and three districts ofSouth Kashmir, has taken ahit. There is a shortfall of30,000 tonnes till September.

The figures til l mid-September in 2018 was 80,000tonnes and this year, it is a lit-tle less than 50,000 tonnes, theofficials said.

The reasons: Threats byterror groups, beating oforchard owners and burningdown of trucks ferrying thefruit outside the Valley.

“We have been sendingmessages to the police butnothing is forthcoming onthe ground, other than tallclaims from top police offi-cials in the media,” a traderfrom militancy-infestedShopian district of SouthKashmir said.

The trader, who did not

wish to be identified, said hehad managed to take his fruitto New Delhi during the nightand earn around �60,000.

“On my return, three mil-itants approached me and gaveme a choice. Either damagingmy truck or getting ready to beshot in the leg. I had nooption... It will take around�1.5 lakh for me to refurbishthe vehicle again,” he said.

Showing the ready toplucked apples at his orchard,he said, “I am too scared now.”

There are similar stories ofother apple orchard ownerswho have claimed that theyhave been unable to sell theirproduct because of threatfrom the terror groups.

Police said that till mid-September, at least 40 inci-dents of apple orchard owners,labourers and vehicle opera-tors being beaten up or threat-ened by the terror groupshave been reported.

“Why have the anti-terroroperations ended. Why ispolice not being able to findout the real culprits behindthe posters and threats?” saysIsaaq Ahmed, an apple

orchard owner in southKashmir.

Many officials, orchardowners and other businessowners feel the governmentshould act with firmness andend the stalemate and estab-lish the rule of law.

Though restrictions atvarious places in the Valleyhave been lifted by and large,the clampdown, which start-ed on August 5, on commu-nication, including mobilephones and internet, remainin force and there are noplans to lift them in the nearfuture, officials said.

Landlines had been acti-vated in the entire Kashmirvalley but the number of civil-ian subscribers was little over18,000 while nearly 30,000were Government, businessestablishments, schools, hos-pitals and hotels.

Farooq Khan, adviser tothe Jammu & Kashmir gov-ernor, had made it clear ear-lier that examinations wouldbe held on time. The examsare generally held in last weekof October or earlyNovember. PTI

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Srinagar: Faisal Ahmadwalked five kilometres from hishome in Rainawari in down-town Srinagar to a makeshifttelephone booth in the upscaleJawahar Nagar to make a voicecall to his brother who worksin Qatar.

Faisal says a few PCOs(Public Call Offices) have comeup in the old city area follow-ing the communication block-ade that has been in placesince Article 370 was revoked

in August, but they lack ISDfacility. Though most land-lines across the Valley havebeen restored, that has noteased the troubles facing peo-ple like Faisal.

“I have been trying to callmy brother since the morning,but lines are down and I am notable to speak to him,” he said.“I will keep trying. It’s the sec-ond time I have come to thisPCO to talk to my brothersince August 5,” he added

With mobile phones andinternet snapped across theValley, it’s deja vu 90s for mostKashmiris, who have convert-ed their landlines intomakeshift phone booths.

There are long lines ofpeople outside PCOs, mostwhich have come up in theCivil Lines area of Srinagar.They charge Rs 2 for an STDcall, and Rs 20 a minute for aninternational call.

Younis has also started a

makeshift PCO from his con-sultancy in Lal Mandi. Thoughhis PCO has come as a big reliefto people in the vicinity, Younissays business is not the his solepurpose.

“It is also to help people tocommunicate with their lovedones. There are many peoplewho come to us and don’thave money to make phonecalls, we understand businessactivities in Kashmir havestopped, so we don’t really

force people to pay for makingcalls,” he said. The Governmenthas opened phone facilities inpolice stations, but people arereluctant to make calls frompolice stations.

“It is awkward for women togo to a police station for mak-ing a phone call, it is any day bet-ter to do that from a PCO,” saidNahida waiting for her turn ata PCO. Desperate times do callfor desperate measures, but notin a man-made crisis. IANS

Chennai: The chief of Armystaff General Bipin Rawat onMonday rejected claims of aclampdown in Jammu &Kashmir and asserted that it wasa facade put up by terrorists toproject a false picture of “harshmeasures” to the outside world.

In reality, the violence andkillings were down and the ter-rorists were being kept at bay,he told reporters. While com-munication lines are throughfor the people, there is a break-down for handlers of terroristsin Pakistan and their associatesin the valley, he said.

Also, arrangements are inplace for the security forces totalk to their families and thereis no communcation break-down, he said. Assuring furthergradual easing of the situation,he said,”to say there is a clam-

pdown, I don’t agree with this.”Listing out a whole gamut

of economic activities in theKashmir valley, from move-ment of apple laden trucks toother parts of the country, oper-ation of brick kilns and sandtransportation through trucksafter its procurement from theJhelum river, he said “obvious-ly people are coming out.”

Flights were being operat-ed in and out of Srinagar andother modes of transport liketaxis were functional, he saidand wanted to know if thesecould happen in a lockdownscenario. PTI

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Kolkata: The student who hadallegedly pulled Union MinisterBabul Supriyo’s hair during anagitation by Left wing stu-dents at Jadavpur Universitysaid on Monday that there is noquestion of his apologising ashe did not do it intentionally.

Debanjan Ballav, a studentof Sanskrit College and mem-ber of Left radical UnitedDemocratic Students Front(UDSF), told reporters that itwas Babul Supriyo who hadthreatened and abused himwhen he wanted to speak of theconcerns about lakhs of peoplewho were rendered homelessdue to the NRC exercise inAssam.

Babul Supriyo had assuredthe student’s ailing mother thatno action will be taken againsther son for his action.

“As I went forward and putthe question to the minister,who was gesturing and arguingwith students for showing himblack flags, Mr Babul Supriyobecame aggressive and insteadasked me if I knew the full form

of NRC. As he continued tospeak in a rude manner, Iprotested and in the melee hissecurity guards pushed me,”Ballav claimed.

The student said that hehad lost balance when he waspushed and might havetouched the minister’s hairwhile trying to straighten him-self. “It was unintentional. Thevideo which went viral show-ing me pulling the union min-ister’s hair has been doctored byBJP’s IT cell. The video madeit appear as if I had lungedtowards him (the union min-ister) and pulled him by hishair,” he said.

“There is no question ofapologising to the central min-ister as I had not done anythingwrong that day,” he said.

Asked about his presence atJU on Thursday, Ballav claimedthat he was there to attend aUDSF programme and joinedthe protest by its students insolidarity to “stop the entry offascist forces in educationalinstitutions”. PTI

Kolkata: Former Kolkata policecommissioner Rajeev Kumaron Monday filed an anticipa-tory bail petition before theCalcutta High Court in themulti-crore Saradha chitfundscam case, days after a districtcourt rejected his prayer.

The plea is likely to bemoved by Kumar’s lawyersbefore a division bench of thehigh court on Tuesday.

A CBI lawyer said theagency has been served a copyof the petition by Kumar’scounsel. Kumar, who is now theAdditional Director General inthe Criminal InvestigationDepartment (CID), had onSaturday suffered a setback inAlipore district sessions courtwhich dismissed his anticipa-tory bail plea.

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) hadclaimed that Kumar is notcooperating with it in the probeand had been evading appear-ance before its investigationteam on frivolous grounds.

Countering the assertion,the senior IPS officer’s counselsaid he is not a fugitive and hastaken leave from Septemberone to 25.

On Thursday, the agencyhad moved the court ofAdditional Chief JudicialMagistrate (ACJM), seekingarrest warrant against Kumar.

The court had, however,told the CBI that it does notneed its warrant as the SupremeCourt and the Calcutta HC havealready lifted bar on his arrestin the chit fund case. PTI

Jodhpur: The Jodhpur HighCourt on Monday dismissedself-styled godman Asaram’splea for suspension of sentencein a rape case after it was with-drawn as not pressed.

“We decided to ‘not press’the application for suspension ofsentence after brief arguments,”said Pradeep Choudhary, coun-sel for Asaram.

However, a division benchof justices Sandeep Mehta andVK Mathur, agreed to heararguments on appeal againstsentence. “We had also prayedto begin hearing on our appealagainst the sentence and thecourt granting our plea and list-ed it for hearing in second weekof January next year”, he said.

This is the second plea ofAsaram which has been with-drawn as not pressed. PTI

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Pune: In view of the nextmonth’s Maharashtra Assemblypolls, the Kolhapur and Sanglidistrict administrations havedecided to distribute dupli-cate voter ID cards to nearly 5.5lakh people whose documentswere damaged or lost duringfloods last month, officials saidon Monday.

Over 340 villages inKolhapur were fully or partial-ly affected by the unprece-dented deluge after heavy rains.Of these, around 27 villages inShirol, Hatkanangale and

Karvir tehsils bore maximumbrunt of the calamity.

“Since the state Assemblypolls are now approaching, wehave decided to distributeduplicate voter identificationcards to voters in these 27 vil-lages,” Kolhapur CollectorDaulat Desai said.

Over 1.5 lakh duplicatevoter ID cards have been print-ed for distribution among thesevillages, he said.

Similarly, in neighboringSangli, the authorities have sofar distributed over two lakh

duplicate voter IDs to peoplefrom Shirala, Walwa, Palusand Miraj tehsils, which wereseverely affected by floods, anofficial from Sangli districtadministration said. “Assumingthat people living in theseflood-ravaged areas might havemisplaced their important doc-uments, we had sought overfour lakh duplicate voter IDs.So far, we have received over3.8 lakh duplicate voter IDs andmore than two lakh of thesehave been distributed amongpeople,” he said. PTI

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Kolkata: ABVP activists onMonday pelted stones at police-men injuring three of them andtried to break barricades aftertheir protest rally to JadavpurUniversity here was stoppedmidway, sources said.

Leaders of the AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) also alleged that six oftheir workers were injuredwhen police threw stones at them, a charge denied by police.

The students’ wing of theRSS took out the rally fromGariahat area in south Kolkatato protest against theSeptember 19 attack on Unionminister Babul Supriyo onJadavpur University campus.

As soon as the processionreached Jodhpur Park, around2 kilometres away, the policestopped them by putting upbarricades on the road, thesources said.

The protesters peltedstones to the policemen andtried to break the barricades.

Raising slogans against theTrinamool Congress govern-ment, they squatted on the roadfor an hour. They lifted theroad blockade around an hourlater. Police sources said threeof their personel were injuredin the stone pelting.

The ABVP claimed that itssix activists were injured whenpolice pelted stones at them,but the police denied the alle-gation.

Students of the JadavpurUniversity also held a pro-gramme outside its campusduring the day to protest van-dalisation of a building at theinstutue by alleged ABVPworkers on Thursday.

On that day, Supriyo washeckled and held up for sever-al hours by the students of theuniversity, where he had goneto attend a seminar organisedby the ABVP. PTI

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With just 84 hours left forfiling the nominations

for the Maharashtra Assemblypolls, the ruling BJP and ShivSena are yet to reach any con-sensus regarding seat-sharingfor the October 21 polls.

The ruling BJP appeared tobe playing hard ball, sendingwaves of anxiety in somewhatupset Shiv Sena camp.

Though Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis said onMonday that the saffronalliance partners would soonink the seat sharing dealbetween them, the ruling BJPapparently kept the Shiv Senaon tenterhooks in an effort toforce the latter agree to its termsin the seat tie-up.

Suddenly, there seems to be

a trust deficit between the twosaffron alliance partners. On itspart, the Shiv Sena has nottaken kindly to the fact that BJPnational president Amit Shah,in his speech at party workers’rally in Mumbai on Sunday,chose not to mention the nameof the Shiv Sena but said thatthe NDA would get three-fourth of majority in the StateAssembly polls. He also choseto announce that incumbentChief Minister DevendraFadnavis would return as theChief Minister after theAssembly polls.

Ahead of Shah’s visit toMumbai on Sunday, there wasspeculation in the state politi-cal circles that he would meetShiv Sena president UddhavThackeray and formalise theseat-sharing tie-up for the

Assembly polls. However, Shahleft Mumbai after the BJPworkers’ rally, without meetingUddhav, a development appar-ently miffed the Sena leader-ship to no end.

No wonder that the Sena,in an editorial published itsofficial mouth-piece ‘Saamana’on Monday, took a dig Shah forgiving more importance to theabrogation of Article 370 of theConstitution than the Stateissues ahead of the StateAssembly polls. Shah askedthe voters to those opposing theannulment of Article 370 to“show their place”.

In its editorial, the Senamouth-piece sarcasticallywrote: “Shah said that duringthe last five years, Fadnavis hastaken Maharashtra ahead inthe fields of investments, agri-

culture, industry and health.He went onto announce thatFadnavis would be the nextChief Minister of

Maharashtra. That being thecase, the MaharashtraAssembly polls have become amere formality. The people

have just to press EVMs but-tons” .

Addressing a news confer-ence in Mumbai, Fadnavis saidon Monday: “We will announcethe BJP-Sena seat-sharing pactsoon. We (BJP and Sena) willsoon hold seat-sharing talks”.

What has surprised manyas to why there has been sucha delay on the BJP’s part in for-malising seat-sharing tie-upwith the Shiv Sena.

On its part, the BJP haslong side-stepped the earlierseat-sharing formula betweenthem of sharing 135 seats eachbetween them after leaving theremaining 18 seats allies hadcome cropper. Three days ago,BJP State presidentChandrakant Patil said that noformula had been finalised onthe sharing of seats for the

Assembly polls.The BJP is no mood to

allocate 135 seats to the ShivSena on the ground that sinceit had won 122 seats as against63 seats won by the Sena in the2014 polls, it deserved morenumber of seats than theUddhav Thackeray-led party.

The BJP has thrown hintsthat it would offer anywherefrom 110 to 120 seats to theShiv Sena.

On its part, the Sena hasreportedly pushed a new for-mula — under which it wouldget 126 seat, while the BJPwould keep 162 seats. From itsquota of 162 seats, the BJPwould allocate seats to variousallies in the BJP-Sena combine-led “Maha Yuti” (grandalliance).The BJP has reserva-tions in accepting the 126

(Sena):162 (BJP+allies) for-mula. The BJP, which is confi-dent of returning to power inthe state, has hinted that it hasPlan-B of contesting all the 288seats in the state ready.

The delay in the formali-sation of seat pact with it, cou-pled with the indirect mannerin which Shah snubbed itsleadership, has put the ShivSena on the defensive.

The writing in the wall forthe Shiv Sena is: If it wants tocontest the Assembly polls inalliance with the BJP, the Senawill have to accept whatever thenumber of seats offered by theprincipal ruling in the state andat the Centre.

A final picture about thefate of the fate of the BJP-Senaalliance will emerge in thenext 48 hours.

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Allahabad/Lucknow: TheAllahabad High Court onMonday refused to grant reliefto the Shahjahanpur studentseeking a stay on her possiblearrest in an extortion case filedby BJP leader SwamiChinmayanand, who is accusedof raping her.

Chinmayanand, who wasarrested on Friday, was shifted on Monday from aShahjahanpur jail to a Lucknowhospital, where he was tested forcardiac problems.

The Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) probing the casesubmitted a report in a sealedcover before a two-judge Bench.

Expressing satisfaction withthe probe so far, the Bench ofJustices Manoj Mishra andManju Rani Chauhan fixedOctober 22 for the probe teamto submit the next report. The woman was also present inthe court room.

The postgraduate law stu-dent had sought a stay on herarrest after the SIT booked herand arrested three men forallegedly trying to extort moneyfrom Chinmayanand.

“ If the victim wants anyrelief in this regard, she may filea fresh petition before an appro-priate Bench,” the High Court said.

“ This Bench was nominat-ed to the case only for moni-toring the investigation in thismatter and has no jurisdictionto pass order on stay of arrest.”

The woman, who studied at a college run byChinmayanand’s ashram, hasalleged she was raped and phys-ically exploited by the former

Union Minister for a over a year.She first mentioned aboutharassment by him in a videoclip uploaded on social medialast month.

The Supreme Court had onSeptember 2 taken suo motucognizance of the case anddirected the high court to mon-itor the investigation. The SITwas also formed by the UttarPradesh government on thedirections of the apex court.

Meanwhile, Chinmayanandhas been admitted to the inten-sive care unit of the SanjayGandhi Post Graduate Institute(SGPGI) in Lucknow, wherecardiologists examined him,Jail Superintendent RakeshKumar said.

Hospital Chief MedicalSuperintendent Amit Agarwalsaid angiography was done andno significant blockage wasfound, adding that angioplastywas not required.

The chest painChinmayanand suffered fromwas linked to his diabetes,Agarwal said.

The 72-year-old will be sta-bilised with medicines in four or

five days and his discharge willbe planned in due course oftime, according to the doctor.

Doctors in Shahjahanpurhad earlier referred theBharatiya Janata Party leader toLucknow for angiography inview of his health condition,according to jail sources.

Chinmayanand was arrest-ed on Friday and sent to 14 days’judicial custody. He has beenbooked under sections 354 D(stalking), 342 (wrongful con-finement) and 506 (criminalintimidation) of the IndianPenal Code.

Instead of Section 376(rape), the 72-year-old has beenbooked under Section 376 C,which is usually applied incases where a person abuses hisposition to “ induce or seduce”a woman under his charge tohave “ sexual intercourse notamounting to the offence ofrape” .

If proved, a rape charge canlead to punishment of up to lifeimprisonment, while someoneconvicted under Section 376Ccan be jailed for between fiveand 10 years.

The woman had claimedthat the police were trying toweaken the case against the rul-ing party politician.

The high court on Mondayfound that the investigationwas going on in a proper way,adding that even the studenthad not made any allegation inher application regarding irreg-ularities in the investigation.

The bench also did notaccept a second prayer by thewoman, who sought permissionto record a rectified or a freshstatement under Section 164 ofthe Code Of CriminalProcedure as she said her ear-lier statement made before themagistrate was not proper.

The court observed thatthere was no allegation againstthe magistrate concerned norany provision had been shownfor recording a rectified state-ment of the woman.

According to the court, theonly allegation made was thatthe woman’s signature wasobtained only on the last pageinstead on each page of herstatement.

The bench said there wasalso no allegation against awoman, who was present whilethe student’s statement wasbeing recorded. It added that thewoman was apparently presentin the chamber so that studentmay feel comfortable during therecording of the statement

Meanwhile, some women’sorganisations in Lucknow cameout in support of the law stu-dent, demanding invoking ofSection 376 (2) againstChinmayanand and transfer ofthe case to Delhi. PTI

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Apparently taking a cuefrom Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee and havingbecome aware of the growingpolitical significance of modernDurga Pujas of Bengal, theState BJP has decided to bringHome Minister Amit Shah toKolkata to inaugurate DurgaPujas, party sources said.

Shah is likely to come toKolkata on October 1 when hewill hold a party meeting “most probably” at the NetajiIndoor Stadium and “ if we donot find a place there, then atanother facility at Salt Lake,”State BJP sources said.

After the meeting theHome Minister is likely toinaugurate at least four Durga

Pujas in Kolkata on October 2,sources said adding “ a requesthad been sent to Amit Shah jiand he has accepted the invi-tation to inaugurate the Pujas.”

Party acting president JPNadda is also likely to come onthe Mahalaya Day onSeptember 28 when he will per-form the Tarpan at the Ganges,party sources said.

On the necessity of bring-ing Shah to inaugurate the

Pujas making them a politicalaffair State party president said“ if the Chief Minister MamataBanerjee can go around inau-gurating 100s of Pujas why can-not Amit Shah ji do the same?”adding “ if there is no politicsin Mamata Banerjee’s inaugu-ration of Durga Pujas thenthere should be no politics inMr Shah’s inaugurating thePujas too.”

Reacting to the BJP’s plansto rope in the Home Ministerduring the Pujas senior StateMinister Firhad Hakim said “Durga Pujas are a communityaffair and the local people whoare associated with it take partin them. It is a year-long pro-gramme if you talk about thepreparations. The local organ-isers, some of who are politi-

cians plan and organize thePujas and prepare for it for afull year. This is a practice wehave been seeing for the pastseveral decades. Amit Shah isa rank outsider who is trying toreap political benefit withouttaking part in it.”

Hakim who also organizesa famous Durga Puja under thebanner of Chetla Agrani clubsaid “ When compared toMamata Banerjee she has beeninaugurating and organizingPujas for decades and afterbecoming the Chief Ministerthe number of Pujas she inau-gurates has only increased butthis is not a new thing with her.But in case of Mr Amit Shahpeople will not accept himand they will see through hispolitical designs.”

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Mumbai: Activist ArunFerreira, an accused in theElgar Parishad-KoregaonBhima case, on Monday toldthe Bombay High Court therewas no evidence that he andothers were creating a “ war-like situation” against theGovernment.

Ferreira’s lawyer, SudeepPasbola, told Justice SarangKotwal that nothing in thechargesheet filed by the Punepolice or the digital evidencegathered by them, nor thestatements of witnesses point toany incriminating evidenceagainst his client.

“ There is no evidence toshow that he (Ferreira) or theother accused in the case weretrying to create a war-like sit-uation in the country, wagingwar against the Government orinstigating anyone to do so,”Pasbola submitted.

Justice Kotwal is hearingthe bail pleas filed by Ferreiraand his two co-accused, SudhaBharadwaj and VernonGonsalves.

The three are among nineactivists arrested in the case last

year by the police over theiralleged Maoist links and on aslew of other charges followingviolence at Koregaon Bhima, avillage in Maharashtra’s Punedistrict, between December31, 2017 and January 1, 2018.

Pasbola argued that therewas also no evidence to showthat Ferreira was involved inorganising the Elgar Parishadconclave, which allegedly led tothe violence.

The speeches made bysome activists at the conclave,held on on December 31, 2017,“ aggravated” the violencenear the Koregaon-Bhima warmemorial the next day, accord-ing to the police chargesheet.

The lawyer said the booksand other articles seized fromFerreira’s house cannot bedescribed as incriminating.

“ None of the books seizedfrom his house are banned bythe government,” he said. “ Allthat these books show is thatFerreira has an academic inter-est in the Marxist ideology oris inspired by it.”

The lawyer contended thatthe provisions of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act, ananti-terror act, cannot beapplied in this case.

“ How can they levelcharges of terrorism whenthere has been no terroristattack?” Pasbola asked, argu-ing for bail to his client.

The bench will hear argu-ments of the prosecution onOctober 1. According to thepolice, the Elgar Parishad con-clave was funded by Maoists.The accused in the case havebeen charged with “ waging waragainst the government” ,spreading the ideology of theirbanned organisation, creatingcaste conflict, disaffection, andhatred in the society. PTI

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Gaya: A former Maoist leaderhas been killed in Bihar’s Gaya district, police said on Monday.

Middle-aged SarekhaYadav, a former self-styledcommander of CPI(Maoist),was killed with a sharp weaponat Harahi village underBhadwar police station limitson Sunday night, a senior offi-cer said.

A family feud could be thereason behind the murder,Senior Superintendent of PoliceRajiv Mishra said, adding thatthe deceased had been impris-oned for his association withthe banned outfit.

Police have started aninvestigation after lodging anFIR, the SSP said.

The body has been sent toAnugrah Narayan MagadhMedical College and Hospitalhere for post-mortem, headded. PTI

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Kolkata: Accusing the BJP ofcreating panic over NRC,West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Mondayclaimed spectre of NationalRegister of Citizens imple-mentation has led to six deathsin the state.

Addressing a trade unions’meet here, the TMC supremoiterated she will not allowNRC exercise in the state.

“ NRC exercise will not becarried out in Bengal or any-where else in country, it wasconducted in Assam due toAssam accord.

“ Even Bihar ChiefMinister (Nitish Kumar,wherethere is a NDA government)has said he won’t allow NRC inhis state. If BJP is so keen onNRC why don’t they conductthe exercise in the BJP ruledTripura, you will see TripuraChief Minister (Biplab Deb)himself is out of the list,” sheasserted. The Assam Accord,an agreement signed in 1985between the then RajivGandhi government and theAll Assam Students’ Union,had ended a six-year massmovement against immigrantsalleged to have settled illegal-ly from Bangladesh.

“ Shame on the BJP forcreating panic over NRC inBengal, it has led to six deaths.Have faith in me, I will neverallow the exercise in Bengal.BJP should stop spreadingfalse rumours and canardsover NRC.

“ Who are they to ask formy papers? After so manyyears where from will I get mypapers, documents might getwashed away in naturalcalamity or it might get mis-placed,” Banerjee said, with-out elaborating further.

According to the state

government sources, so far sixpeople have died in severaldistricts of Bengal with two ofthem allegedly committingsuicide after failing to gethold of old documents andfour others died after falling illwhile standing in the queuewith thousands of other vil-lagers at government offices toget their documents.

More than 19 lakh peoplein Assam have been excludedfrom the recently publishedfinal NRC, a proof of Indiancitizenship.

Criticising the saffronparty for “ underminingdemocratic values” in thecountry, the chief ministersaid, “ Democracy exists inBengal but it is under threat inseveral other parts of thecountry.”

The BJP is not talkingabout job losses or the down-ward spiral of Indian econo-my, all it wants to do is serveown political interests, shealleged. “ A rally will be takenout on October 18 against pri-vatisation and shutting downof public sector units acrossthe country. I will take part init. On September 26-27, wewould conduct protest ralliesin the city against privatisa-tion,” the TMC chief stated.

The Central Governmentis planning disinvestment of 42PSUs, out of which many ofthem are profit making. Thecentre is even planning pri-vatisation of Ordinance facto-ries, this will have a disastrousimpact on India’s defencemechanisam and compromisenational security, she said.

“ I believe protests areimportant in a democracy.The day protests lose theirvalue, India will stop beingIndia” , she said. PTI

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Jaipur: BJP MLA and formerminister Vasudev Devnani hasurged the Union governmentto implement the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) inRajasthan to get rid ofBangladeshi immigrants “ ille-gally” staying in the state.

The former education min-ister recently wrote a letter toUnion Home Minister AmitShah and claimed that theNRC was needed in the state asseveral Bangladeshi nationalshave illegally settled in Ajmer,Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur, Jodhpurand other districts.

Devnani, who representsthe Ajmer north assembly con-stituency, pointed out that sev-eral Bangladeshi nationalscome to his constituency pos-ing as pilgrims to visit theAjmer Sharif Dargah.

Instead of returning, theystay back and work as labour-ers without revealing their real

identities, the legislator alleged.He mentioned that many

such illegal Bangladeshis haveillegally encroached upon landand constructed houses inAjmer.

Some have even managedto obtain government IDs byfurnishing fake documents andwere involved in criminal activ-ities like theft and loot whichis disturbing communal har-mony. “ In view of the above,the NRC should be imple-mented in Rajasthan too,” theMLA said. PTI

Aizawl: Mizoram HomeMinister Lalchamliana onMonday said a few hundredpeople who had been exclud-ed from the NRC list in Assamwere detected and pushed backto Assam from the inter-stateborder since August 31 whenthe document was released.

Strict security arrange-ments were made in areas bor-dering Assam in the wake ofthe publication of the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC)and no serious problems havearisen for Mizoram, the min-ister told a programme of theruling Mizo National Front.

“ Mobile patrolling wasbeing conducted in severalroads where people not includ-ed in the NRC could havesneaked in and the policefound a few hundred of suchpeople. They were pushedback,” Lalchamliana said.

The final NRC list inAssam was released on August31 excluding names of over 19lakh applicants.

He said the state govern-ment is planning to comput-erise the inner line permit(ILP) system so that the docu-ment could be verified at all thepolice check posts. PTI

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Vadodara: Four crocodiles wererescued in the early hours ofMonday from Vadodara andsurrounding villages, taking thetotal number of these reptilessaved during this year’s mon-soon to 76, a senior Gujarat for-est department official said.

The four crocodiles wererescued from the campus of ahostel, a railway crossing andtwo villages, said Range ForestOfficer (RFO) Nidhi Dave. “ Thehostel for resident doctors of SirSayajirao General Hospital isnear Vishwamitri river and thecrocodile may have come fromthere. One was caught from theKalali railway crossing, whiletwo others were rescued fromHansapura and Kapurai vil-lages,” Dave said. PTI

Buldhana: Bodies of a womanand her four daughters werefound floating in a well inMaharashtra’s Buldhana district on Monday, a policeofficial said.

The woman along withher children left their home atMalegaon village in Mehekartehsil on Sunday evening, say-ing they were going to theirfarm nearby, he said.

When they did not return

home, the family membersand other villagers searched forthem in the area.

On Monday morning, thebodies of Ujjwala Baban Dhoke(35) and her daughtersVaishnavi (9), Durga (7),Aarushi (4) and Pallavi (1)were found in a well near thevillage, the official said, addingthat their slippers were alsospotted near the water body.

The police were trying to

ascertain if this was a case ofmass suicide, he said.

The bodies were laterfished out from the well andsent to a Government hospitalfor postmortem, Janefal policestation in-charge DilipMataram said.

Some villagers said UjjwalaDhoke’s husband Baban Dhoke also died a few monthsago due to a suspected poi-soning. PTI

Mumbai: The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Mondaymoved an application before aspecial court here seeking todeclare controversial Islamicpreacher, Zakir Naik, a fugitiveeconomic offender.

Naik, believed to be inMalaysia, is facing the charge ofallegedly laundering money tothe tune of Rs 193 crore.

The ED filed the applica-tion before the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) seeking that Naik bedeclared as a fugitive econom-ic offender under FugitiveEconomic Offenders Act.

The court said it wouldhear the application onSeptember 30.

Last week, the court issueda fresh non-bailable warrant(NBW) against Naik in a 2016money laundering case.

The central agency has sofar arrested two of Naik’s aidesnamely Amir Gazdar andNajamuddin Sathak.

The 53-year-old radicaltelevision preacher left India in2016 and subsequently movedto the largely Muslim Malaysia,where he was granted perma-nent residency. The ED bookedhim in 2016 on an FIR filed by

the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) under theUnlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA).

The controversial preach-er is wanted by authorities foralleged money launderingand inciting extremismthrough hate speeches.

In July this year, the courtissued summons against Naikafter taking cognisance of acomplaint filed by the EDagainst Dubai-based jewellerAbdul Kadir NajmudinSathak for allegedly assistingthe preacher in raise anddiverting funds. PTI

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Ahmedabad: A ‘fart competi-tion’ held on Sunday in Gujarat’sSurat, touted as the country’sfirst, turned out to be a lot of hotair, though not literally, as onlythree participants managed toovercome shyness and inhibi-tions to take a shot at the threetrophies on offer.

They too, however, failed topass muster after being unableto pass wind, an organiser said.

While sixty people had reg-istered to display their prowessin letting out “longest” , “loud-est” and “most musical” farts ata banquet hall in Vesu area, onlytwenty turned up on Sunday, said

organiser Yatin Sangoi. Of these,only three took to the stage, infront of 70 people in attendancealong with a few media channels,and ended up failing to “ per-form” , said Sangoi. None of thethree trophies were distributed,he said, though the participantswere given gift hampers forturning up. “ The participantswere reluctant to go on stage asthey were possibly shy and hadinhibitions due to the presenceof news channels, photogra-phers, people etc. We had evenroped in a firm to build a specialdevice to measure the fart para-meters,” he said. PTI

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Page 8: 0 $˘ · The Army chief’s asser- ... the Indian security forces will be at any level, any range and ... witnessed a stellar rally. A lot of buoyancy has come from the

Six weeks have gone by since theNarendra Modi Government tookthe historic step to abrogate Article370 and bring the erstwhile State ofJammu & Kashmir into the main-

stream. When one examines the global anddomestic response to this momentous deci-sion, one realises what a heavy price Indiahas paid for 70 years because of the indeci-siveness of the then Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru and the Nehruvians, whoran this country for close to seven decades.

The spadework done by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in terms of global diploma-cy over the last five years has really paid offwhen one sees how he has ensured that theinternational community accepts India’sposition that issues pertaining to Jammu &Kashmir are “an internal matter” of India.

The historical fact is that in 1947, allprincely States in undivided India had theoption to either remain independent oraccede to India or Pakistan. A total of 564princely States acceded to the Indian Union.This included the State of Jammu & Kashmir,which signed the Instrument of Accessionon October 26, 1947. Pakistan was unhap-py with the decision of Jammu & Kashmirbecoming a part of India; it sent the armedforces into the State and occupied a part ofits territory. Since the State acceded to India,and part of its territory is in illegal occupa-tion of Pakistan, India has to re-acquire whatis now called Pakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK) and some of the territories ceded byPakistan to China. This is what is meant by“Kashmir dispute.”

This primer on what is the “Kashmir dis-pute” is necessary because the Congress, theNehruvians and the Marxists, who consti-tuted “the Establishment” in Delhi until 2014,allowed Pakistan to get away with the argu-ment that the State, which legitimatelyacceded to India, was in dispute. The ModiGovernment has done remarkably well incorrecting this position and that is why, forthe first time in 70 years, many nations havedeclared that matters pertaining to Jammu& Kashmir are India’s “internal matter.” Thisincludes Russia, the US, Australia, France,Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United ArabEmirates, to name a few. Closer home, SriLanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh andMaldives have unequivocally taken thestand that this is India’s internal issue. Theinternational community also knows nowthat the Valley comprises just 14 per cent ofthe land area of the former State and muchof the mischief is engineered in just five dis-tricts of the Valley. Thanks to the incompe-tence of the Nehruvians, the world hadbelieved that the entire State was in strife.This stands corrected now.

As regards the internal situation inJammu & Kashmir, it must be noted thatsince the days of Sheikh Abdullah, the so-called political leaders of that State — actu-ally leaders from the Kashmir Valley —developed a vested interest in preservingArticles 370 and 35A in order to demograph-

ically insulate the State and pre-vent the blossoming of secularand democratic traditions with-in its territory. Though some ofthese leaders sometimes paid lipservice to the plight of theKashmiri Pandits — the Hinduminority which was driven outof the State 30 years ago — theydid nothing to ensure their safereturn. They were happy that theValley had become a whollyMuslim territory.

Following the Government’sdecision to abrogate Article 370,India has got to know howunconstitutional and discrimi-natory these provisions were. Forexample, it came as a shock tothe people to know that many ofthe provisions relating to thereservation of educational seatsand jobs for certain classes ofpeople, including the econom-ically backward classes, werenever enforced in the Jammu &Kashmir.

Second, while the Valmikicommunity lived in the State andattended to scavenging andother municipal works, theywere not given permanent res-idency in the old regime. Equallyabsurd was the fact that whilethey had the right to vote in theLok Sabha election, they werenot entitled to vote in the StateAssembly elections.

Third, a Kashmiri woman,who married outside the State,would lose her right to perma-nent residency and her progeny,too, would be disentitled. Theseare just three of the many suchextremely discriminatory and

unconstitutional provisions thatprevailed in the former State ofJammu & Kashmir.

Articles 370 and 35A alsoproved highly discriminatory forthe citizens of India living inother States. While Kashmiriscould study in the best of edu-cational institutions, secureemployment and set up homesall over the country, citizensfrom other States were prohib-ited from securing admission inKashmiri colleges or findingemployment there. They werealso expressly barred from buy-ing property in that State andsettling down there. Again, whileyou find Kashmiri business-men everywhere in India, espe-cially in all major tourist loca-tions, Indians from other Stateswere prohibited from setting upbusinesses in Kashmir.

It is indeed a matter ofshame that political leaders inthe Kashmir Valley, who cryhoarse about democracy, neverstood up for the rights of theHindu minority or the Valmikisor even the Kashmiri women.Nor did they see any reason forending the discriminationagainst other Indians. But thesepoliticians, who lacked thedecency and political will to pro-tect the minority, have thetemerity to speak about democ-racy and secularism and shedtears over the alleged depletionin secular values in other partsof the country.

It is even more shamefulthat many media organisations,especially some English televi-

sion channels where these politi-cians were regular fixtures, failedto ask them how India’s seculartraditions could be preserved ifthe Hindu minority in the onlyMuslim-majority State in thecountry was hounded out of theValley. These hypocritical mediaoutlets provided these politiciansa regular platform to berate therest of the country for any defi-ciencies in the working ofdemocracy without ever holdingthem accountable for the brutalassault on the Hindu minority intheir State.

The abrogation of Article370 has many virtues but thiswriter would say that one ofits singular achievements willbe to expose these dishonest,hypocrite politicians of theKashmir Valley, who whiledenying the rest of Indiaentry into the Valley, haveacquired permanent residen-cy status in Lutyens’ Delhi!

Equally shameful is howthe so-called “secular funda-mentalists” admit these rankMuslim communalists as veryspecial citizens of the Lutyens’zone and even parade them asthe symbols of secularism.Thanks to Prime MinisterModi and Home MinisterAmit Shah, these hypocritesfrom the Valley stand com-pletely exposed. They mustnow be delegitimised inLutyens’ Delhi as well.

(The writer is an authorspecialising in democracy stud-ies. Views expressed are per-sonal)

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Sir — In a game-changing move,the Indian Railways has decidedto upgrade all existing LinkeHofmann Busch (LHB) coacheswith the Head on Generation(HOG) technology. This develop-ment will certainly make theRailways, often referred to as thelifeline of the nation, becomemore cost-efficient, less pollutingand passenger-friendly.

The new system will makeuse of overhead electricity tosupply power to the entire trainand thus end the need for LHBrake trains that required twopower cars for the same purpose.In place of two generator cars,which would make a lot of noisebesides emitting fumes, the HOGtechnology will come with a sin-gle silent generator car that willbe used only during emergenciesto begin with.

The move from EOG toHOG is definitely going to reduceexpenditure cost, lessen noiseand air pollution and will be aboon to passengers. The railwayshas pegged annual savings to thetune of �800 crore per year.

M Pradyu Kannur

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Sir — The newly-appointedProteas skipper Quinton de Kockmust be lauded for his valuableinnings in both the T20 matches

played at Mohali and Bengaluruagainst Team India.

South Africa made an out-standing comeback to end theseries 1-1, beating India by ninewickets at the ChinnaswamyStadium in Bengaluru. Despite

having won the toss, where Indiaopted to bat first, we just could-n’t get going and could managejust 134 runs from 20 overs.Barring Shikhar Dhawan, none ofour cricketers could score morethan 20 runs. The current loss

must propel our team to do someself-introspection. Also, if wehave to put our best foot forwardfor the ICC World T20, which isscheduled next year, team man-agement and selection are impor-tant tasks that need a strategy.

Despite being given enoughchances to prove his mettle, wick-etkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant,has not been able to deliver. SanjuSamson and Ishan Kishan, whohave a very good record in domes-tic cricket, must be given a chanceto show their calibre.

Tushar AnandPatna

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Sir — This refers to the article,“What’s a degree worth?”(September 23) by Rinku Ghosh.I, too, frequently use Uber and Olacabs. While speaking to owner-drivers, most being young, I cameto know that most of them wereforced to take this job becausethey were pushed out of their jobs.Indeed a sad state of affairs.

Alisha Via email

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Amajor reason for the delay in taking upthe Constitutional Amendment Bill forenactment of the Goods and Services

Tax (GST) was the reluctance of the thenUnited Progressive Alliance (UPA)Government at the Centre to agree to thedemand of the States. The latter wanted com-pensation of the loss of revenue that would arisewith its launch vis-à-vis the revenue they wouldget under the subsisting dispensation of exciseduty, sales tax or value-added tax plus a hostof other local taxes. This hesitancy camealthough the concept was first introduced bythen Finance Minister P Chidambaram in hisBudget speech on February 28, 2006 with anambitious launch target of April 1, 2010.

The Narendra Modi Government, byagreeing to this demand achieved a fair degreeof success in building consensus among all theStates. Within two years of taking charge in2014, it was able to steer through theConstitutional Amendment Bill (in August-September, 2016) leading to its launch from July1, 2017. The GST Compensation Act (2017)was passed to provide for compensation for fiveyears, till 2021-22, to be calculated as the dif-ference between actual collection and the rev-enue they would have got with growth at 14 percent over the 2015-16 level.

Being an uncharted territory and theCentre not confident that under the GSTscheme of things, it would be able to generateenough surplus to pay for the shortfall facedby States, it also passed an amendment to theGST Compensation Act (2018) to levy a cesson the supply of certain goods and services. Thecess is levied on demerit goods (those whichfall in the 28 per cent tax slab) such as auto-mobiles, tobacco, drinks and so on with a pro-viso to use the proceeds for compensating theStates who face shortfall. The cess was toremain in force for five years.

The rationale behind withdrawing this levyon completion of five years is that by this time,meaning 2021-22, the GST dispensation wouldhave become buoyant enough to yield sufficientresources for the States to meet their budgetaryrequirements within prudential limits setunder the Fiscal Responsibility and BudgetManagement Act (FRBMA), thereby obviatingthe necessity of compensation.

There are still three years to go before thedeadline; yet, they have raised a demand forcontinuing this for five more years. Already,they have made a submission to the 15thFinance Commission in this regard. This is notunusual as the States are prone to looking fora safe harbour perennially.

However, the big worry is the subdued col-lections, a trend which shows no sign of abate-ment. Apart from overall growth in tax collec-tions under GST being less than five per centagainst the target of 12 per cent, even the pro-ceeds from cess, which are meant to be utilisedfor compensating the States for the shortfall,are trailing far behind.

During April-August, 2019 against therequirement of �65,000 crore (at the rate of�13,000 crore a month), the actual collectionwas only �41,000 crore (or about �8,000 crorea month) leaving a shortfall of �24,000 crore.

To make up for this, the collections inthe remaining seven months of theyear will have to be at the rate of�16,500 crore a month, which is near-ly impossible to achieve in view of thecurrent nominal GDP growth.

Even as the shortfall persists,being a constitutional obligation, theCentre will have to pay compensationto the States from out of its own kittywhich by itself is dwindling, courtesydeclining collection of both indirect aswell as direct tax. This in turn, will leadto huge slippage in the fiscal deficit tar-get of 3.3 per cent already threateningto go out of control due to a spate ofexpenditure-raising and revenue-for-going commitments made by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman (themother of all being a steep cut in thecorporate tax rate).

Both the Centre and the StateGovernments need to seriously intro-spect as to why despite the GSTregime being in place for more thantwo years, the desired buoyancy in taxrevenue has not been achieved. Anoverarching objective behind launch-ing this transformative reform — anepitome of “one nation, one tax” —was to increase revenue manifold byboosting the GDP growth on the onehand and bringing millions — hither-to evading the taxman — under the taxnet on the other. On both counts, theperformance has been far below expec-tations.

On curbing evasion and wideningthe tax net, the situation is far moreserious than initially thought. It seemsdubious businessmen and traders are

having a heyday. According to a state-ment by Minister of State for Finance,Anurag Thakur, in reply to a questionin the Rajya Sabha, loss to the exche-quer due to frauds under GST (includ-ing bogus claims of input tax credit)was about �45,500 crore since the roll-out of the tax reform on July 1, 2017.According to the West Bengal FinanceMinister Amit Mitra, this could eventouch the �100,000 crore mark.

At present, the number of entitiesregistered under the GST is about 12million. This is five million more thanthe registered entities under the erst-while dispensation prior to July 1,2017.

There is an apprehension that aslice of the increase could be fake enti-ties which were set up only to perpe-trate fraud. It shows the extent of rotin the system as without connivanceof officials in the department, fraud-ulent claims of this magnitude won’tbe possible.

No wonder then, the actual collec-tion under GST has been hoveringaround �100,000 crore a month (insome months, for instance, August,2019 it is even less) whereas theGovernment should be aiming at aminimum of �150,000 crore a month(assuming tax to GDP ratio at the rateof ten per cent).

To get there, it should undertakecomplete overhauling of the adminis-trative machinery to prevent fraudsand plug leakages (mere sacking of afew commissioners here and therewon’t do the job). The Prime Minister’szero tolerance for corruption should

get reflected in credible action andconcrete results on this most crucialfront.

Apart from enabling smooth tran-sition to a scenario of no compensa-tion beyond 2021-22 and modest taxrates (we should be aiming to abolishthe 28 per cent slab altogether andmerging 12 per cent and 18 per centinto a single say 15 per cent), this iscrucial from yet another angle.

At present, petroleum productslike crude oil, gas, Aviation TurbineFuel (ATF), petrol and diesel have beenkept out of the purview of the GST.This is because both the Centre andStates get maximum tax revenue fromthese products, which will be severe-ly impacted if they are brought underthe GST regime (this will happen evenif these are put under the highest taxslab of 28 per cent, which is signifi-cantly lower than the current incidenceof over 50 per cent under the existingdispensation).

However, the economy is paying aheavy price as continued exclusion ofthese products from the GST resultsin sharp increase in their prices due tothe sheer cascading effect of exciseduty and value added tax.

This can be avoided if GSTacquires the robustness and theresilience needed to yield the desiredrevenue which in turn, will help in per-suading State Governments to agree totheir inclusion.

How will Team Modi make it hap-pen? One can only guess.

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy analyst)

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3����������������� ���"�������������(�����������������������������������������������(�������������������������������������$���������(�������������������������������������������������(�� �������������������������!�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ����������<&���������� �����������������������������������������

> ���������������������������������������������?

The Ottoman Empire, like manyof its Middle Eastern predeces-sors, had the bad habit of

moving entire peoples around ifthey were causing trouble. Andsometimes, as happened to theArmenians during the First WorldWar, what started as deportationended up as genocide.

The empire collapsed a centu-ry ago but old habits die hard.Turkish President Recep TayyipErdogan (whose admirers often callhim ‘Sultan’) has a new plan: He’sgoing to move a million Kurds awayfrom Turkey’s southern frontier withSyria and replace them with a mil-lion Arabs.

And if his Western allies don’t

like that, he’ll dump another millionor so Arabs in Europe. “Either thishappens (in Syria),” he said recent-ly, “or we will have to open the gates(to Europe).” This is a blackmailthreat with teeth: it was the suddenarrival of a million Syrian refugeesin Europe in 2016 that energisedextreme Right-wing populists fromEngland to Hungary.

Very few of those refugees everwound up in either England orHungary — the great majority ofthem were given shelter in Germany— but their arrival gave nationalistsand racists all over Europe a stick tobeat their opponents with. Erdogan,who is an accomplished nationalistrabble-rouser himself, knows exact-ly what he is doing, and he may wellsucceed.

All this is happening becauseErdogan is obsessed with the Kurds— or at least he knows that a lot ofother Turks are obsessed about theKurds and he’s in political trouble athome, so he needs to feed their fan-tasies. You can never tell with the‘Sultan’, who has a Trump-like abil-

ity to genuinelybelieve whateverhe happens to besaying at themoment.

To be fair, theKurds are a realproblem for theTurks. They areabout a fifth ofthe country’s pop-ulation, concen-trated mostly inthe southeast, andthey have beenmistreated andtheir very identi-ty denied by theTurkish state for so long that manyof them would rather be indepen-dent. Some of them have even takenup arms against Turkey in an organ-isation called the PKK (KurdistanWorkers’ Party), which is now most-ly based across the border inKurdish-speaking northern Iraq.There was a ceasefire and peace talksearly in this decade, but Erdoganstarted bombing the PKK again in

2015 when he hada tricky election towin and neededto appeal toTurkish national-ists. Now he’s introuble again: Hisparty lost controlof all Turkey’s bigcities in the lastelection. Time towhack the Kurdsagain, and thistime it’s going tobe the SyrianKurds, anotherfragment of theKurdish people

that lives in northern Syria, justacross the border from Turkey’sKurds. But not for much longer, ifErdogan has his way.

The Turkish strongman saysthat the Syrian Kurds are really “ter-rorists” allied to the PKK, althoughthere have been absolutely no attackson Turkey from Syria during theentire eight-year Syrian civil war.What the Syrian Kurds were actual-

ly doing was defeating the real ter-rorists of the Islamic State in Syria,with strong air support and someground support from the UnitedStates of America.

However, there is no gratitude inpolitics. Erdogan now wants to evictthe Syrian Kurds from their homesand drive them south, away from theTurkish border. And to make surethey don’t come back later, he wantsto settle a million Arabs there per-manently instead.

There are four and a half millionSyrian Arab refugees in Turkey.They’d like to go home, of course, butmost of them are afraid of livingunder the control of Bashar al-Assad, the cruel dictator who haswon the Syrian civil war. And here’sthat nice Mr Erdogan, offering themhomes in a “safe zone” in northernSyria.

That’s not where their real homesare, but maybe they’ll be happythere once Erdogan has driven theKurds out. As he said recently inAnkara, “We can build towns therein lieu of the tent cities here.” The

only hitch in the plan is that the USmay feel queasy about betraying theSyrian Kurds who fought alongsideAmerican troops to destroy theIslamic State. To solve that problem,Erdogan is threatening to send a mil-lion or so Arab refugees west intoEurope. They’ll panic and make theAmericans go along with his plan, orso he believes. He’s probably right.

The European Union promisedTurkey six billion euros to keep theArab refugees in Turkey in 2016, butErdogan claims that half of it wasnever paid (which, if true, was verystupid of the Europeans). He does-n’t owe the EU any favours, and ittruly will panic if he opens the gatesand sends the Arabs west.

Donald Trump wants US troopsout of Syria before next year’s elec-tion, so he’ll probably give in toErdogan (and the Europeans). Butthe Syrian Kurds, who are yet torespond, will probably fight to pro-tect their homes.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book isGrowing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work)

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Tourist footfalls from theUnited Kingdom to Goa

are expected to take a severe hitafter British travel groupThomas Cook declared bank-ruptcy on Monday, an umbrel-la body of tour and traveloperators said here.

The 178-year-old operatorhad been desperately seeking200 million pounds ($250 mil-lion, 227 million euros) fromprivate investors to save it fromcollapse, but a last-ditch rescuedeal failed, triggering the UK’sbiggest repatriation sinceWorld War II to bring backstranded passengers.

“Around 30,000 Britonsarrived in Goa during the lasttourist season through char-tered flights, majority of whichwere flown by Thomas Cook.The firm was was flying sevendays a week with 300 seats perflight,” said Travel and TourismAssociation of Goa (TTAG)president Savio Messiah.

He added that Britishtourists were known for spend-ing long holidays in Goa, withthe average being 14 nights.

“The collapse of Thomas

Cook in UK will result inmore than 50 per reduction intheir (British tourists) arrivalsas other airlines would not beable to accommodated themnow,” he added.

Chartered flights from theUK start arriving in Goa from

November, and almost alwaysthe first one was operated byThomas Cook, Messiahclaimed.

British travel firm ThomasCook collapsed into bank-ruptcy on Monday, leavingsome 6,00,000 holidaymakers

stranded and sparking the UK’sbiggest repatriation sinceWorld War II.

The 178-year-old debt-plagued group, which hadstruggled against fierce onlinecompetition for some time andblamed Brexit uncertainty for

a recent drop in bookings,failed to secure 200 millionpounds ($250 million, 227 mil-lion euros) from privateinvestors and collapsed in theearly hours.

Monday’s bankruptcy,which followed a lengthy peri-od of chronic financial turmoilafter a disastrous 2007 mergerdeal, left some 6,00,000 touristsstranded worldwide accordingto Thomas Cook, while its22,000 staff are now out of a job.

The British Governmentlaunched emergency plans tobring some 1,50,000 UK holi-daymakers back home fromdestinations including Bulgaria,Cuba, Turkey and the UnitedStates. Thomas Cook said in astatement that “despite con-siderable efforts”, it was unableto reach an agreement betweenthe company’s stakeholdersand proposed new moneyproviders.

“The company’s board hastherefore concluded that it hadno choice but to take steps toenter into compulsory liquida-tion with immediate effect,” itadded.

The long-troubled grouphas also been blighted by enor-

mous costs arising from its dis-astrous 2007 merger withMyTravel, a deal which left itplagued with huge levels ofdebt. The UK Governmentsaid Monday it had hiredplanes to fly home Britishtourists, in a mass repatriationplan codenamed OperationMatterhorn which beganimmediately.

Launching Britain’s “largestrepatriation in peacetime his-tory”, Transport SecretaryGrant Shapps added that thegovernment and UK CivilAviation Authority had hireddozens of charter planes to flyhome Thomas Cook cus-tomers.

“All customers currentlyabroad with Thomas Cookwho are booked to return to theUK over the next two weekswill be brought home as closeas possible to their bookedreturn date,” the governmentsaid.

Both a tour operator andan airline, the travel giant’s keydestinations were in SouthernEurope and the Mediterraneanbut it offered also holidays inAsia, North Africa and theCaribbean.

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The rupee recovered fromday’s low levels to close flat

at 70.94 against the US dollaron Monday helped by foreignfund inflows into equities andlower global crude oil prices.

The domestic currencyopened lower and fell to a lowof 71.03 later on geopoliticalconcerns in West Asia andgains in the US currencyagainst major global rivals.

A strong rally in equitiesamid heavy buying by foreigninvestors helped the rupee parelosses and touch a day’s high of70.87. The local currency final-ly settled at against major cur-rencies and lower crude prices.

At the interbank foreignexchange, the domestic unitopened weak and shuttledbetween a high of 70.87 and alow of 71.03 during the day.

The rupee finally closedflat at 70.94 against the US dol-lar despite a steller closing inequity markets. According toprovisional data, foreigninvestors pumped in �2,684crore on a net basis in capitalmarkets on Monday.

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Allaying fears of the auto-mobile industry, Union

Road Transport Minister NitinGadkari on Monday said thereis no need to ban petrol anddiesel vehicles as electric mobil-ity has picked up momentumon its own and all buses wouldbe electric in two years.

Earlier, Government think-tank Niti Aayog had reported-ly proposed that after 2030,only electric vehicles (EVs)should be sold in India. Later,Union ministers, includingPetroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan, triedto allay the fear of automobilemanufactures in the country bydenying that.

A panel headed by NitiAayog Chief Executive OfficerAmitabh Kant had earlier sug-gested that only EVs (three-wheelers and two-wheelers)

with an engine capacity of upto 150cc should be sold from2025 onwards.

“I always talk about EVssuch as cars, bikes, and buses.Now, it has started naturally.There is no need to make itmandatory. There is not need toban petrol and diesel vehicles. Inthe next two years, all buseswould be electric and run onbio-ethanol and CNG (com-pressed natural gas),” Gadkarisaid while speaking at a NationalConclave on Energy Efficiencyin Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSMEs) here.

Taking about the cost ben-efit, the minister said, “If we

run vehicles on electricity, itwould be like cost of Rs 15 perlitre of diesel... When I toldindustry in a meeting that Iwould prohibit smoke-emis-sion machines in the country,all were afraid... Now, we haveplastic cylinders available fromGermany which can save 50per cent cost on LNG (liquefiednatural gas) and 40 per cent onCNG.”

He also spoke about con-verting farm stubble left afterharvest into clean fuels forgenerating electricity and run-ning vehicles which canincrease farmers’ incomemanyfold.

Currently, farmers burnstubble that causes air and soilpollution. The governmentthrough its firms such as powergiant NTPC has started procur-ing stubble pellets for usingthose as fuel in coal-firedplants.

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India’s containerised tradegrowth slowed to one per cent

during April-June 2019 owingto various factors like growingglobal trade tensions and liq-uidity issues in the domesticmarket, the report said.

According to a report byglobal integrated logistics com-pany Maersk, the trade growthduring April-June 2018 stoodat a healthy nine per centgrowth, almost three timeshigher than the global growthaverage of 2-3 per cent.

“India’s containerised tradegrowth slowed to one per centin Q2 2019, due to a cocktail ofinternational factors such asslowing trade growth, andgrowing trade tensions coupledwith domestic factors like ruralconsumer distress, tighteningliquidity and a slow-down inkey manufacturing sectors,”the report said.

����� -12�013!,

The Government is planningto come out with a policy

to revive closed sugar mills byusing their land for ethanolproduction, Union MinisterNitin Gadkari said on Monday.

He said the ethanol econ-omy has the potential to reach�1 lakh crore from about�25,000 crore and can reducethe annual �7 lakh crore crudeimports.

“A lot of sugar mills areclosed... I am going to frame apolicy. Condition of these sugarmills is such that they are notgetting finances. I want to pro-ceed for a Cabinet note. ...Some5-6 acres of land in a closedsugar mill which can be usedfor making of ethanol,” Gadkarisaid. The Minister said land ofthe sugar mill can be utilisedfor ethanol production fromsugar, sugarcane juice andmolasses and a policy will beframed soon.

Gadkari said there was an

agreement with multilateralbanks like KfW for low-costfunds green energy.

“Already we have signed anagreement with KfW for greenenergy in MSMEes. I will try toconvince them to finance sugarmills proposal and we will findout a mechanism with thepetroleum ministry for this,”the Minister said.

He said ethanol productionthrough sugar could boost theeconomy of sugarcane-pro-ducing states like UttarPradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra,Punjab and Haryana.

The minister also said thegovernment does not intend toban petrol or diesel by givingthrust to alternative fuel.

“There are no talks on banof petrol or diesel...We want toencourage alternative energy...GST is less( on alternativeenergy fuel) . A time will comewhen India will become thehub for manufacturing of elec-tric vehicles and vehicles onalternative fuel,” he said.

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The “under-invoicing” ofbicycles by some unscrupu-

lous dealers in Ludhiana has hitthe market of organised play-ers and is also leading to GSTevasion, cycle makers haveclaimed. Organised bicyclesmanufacturers on Monday saidit has become difficult to holdonto their existing marketbecause of the “rampant illegalpractice of under-invoicing”taking place in Ludhiana — thecountry’s major manufacturinghub of cycles and cycle parts.

An ordinary bicycle, pricedat �2,500 a unit, is being invoicedat �900 a bicycle by some illegaldealers, leading to the evasion ofthe GST, they said while citingan example. Twelve per centGST is charged on a bicycle.

“By under-invoicing, someillegal dealers are evading GSTof �192 on one unit of bicycleas against payable tax of �300(GST on �2,500),” said aLudhiana-based owner of aprominent brand of bicyclewho wished not to be named.

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Walmart-owned Flipkarton Monday said it does

not see its sellers or consumerstightening their purse stringsduring the festive season aheadand expressed confidence inclocking strong sales this year with demand beingdriven by Tier II and III markets.

Speaking to PTI, FlipkartGroup CEO KalyanKrishnamurthy said this year’sedition of The Big Billion Days(TBBD), which will be heldfrom September 29 to October4, will see the company takingits “expansive selection to about19,000 pin codes in the country”.

ICICI Bank is adding 450branches to take its network to5,300 by March 2020 and willbe hiring around 3,500 per-sonnel for the same, Bagchitold PTI.

“We believe e-commercehas the potential to boost theconsumption story and bringabout good economic activity...We do not see our sellers or

����� -12�013!,

Steel Minister DharmendraPradhan on Monday said

that in the next two-threeyears, India will be in a positionto remain a net exporter of steelfor years.

The minister was speakingat an event ‘Chintan Shivir’,organised by the steel ministry.The event had a theme ofmaking the domestic steel sec-tor “vibrant, efficient and glob-ally competitive”.

Currently, India has a pro-duction capacity of about 140million tonne (MT) capacityand produces over 100 MT of

steel annually, he said.“We also produce saleable

steel. We sometimes becomeimporter, sometimes we areexporter. At present, we are netimporter, we are importingabout 2-3 MT. The outcome ofthis Chintan Shivir will be thatwithin the next two-three years,India will remain a net exporterof steel for years. There will beno import,” he said.

With an aim to increaseexports, India has also startedtalking to countries from whichit buys petroleum, saidPradhan, who is also the min-ister for petroleum and natur-al gas.

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The ongoing slump in therealty sector is helping

ICICI Bank in its expansiondrive as it is adding branches bynearly a tenth of its existing footprint, a top officialsaid.

According to executivedirector Anup Bagchi, thebranch expansion plan is notaffected much by the ongoingslowdown, as the bank hasonly a small share of the over-all activity and thus seesenough scope to grow its pres-ence.

ICICI Bank is adding 450branches to take its network to5,300 by March 2020 and willbe hiring around 3,500 per-sonnel for the same, Bagchitold PTI.

����� -12�013!,

Shares of hotel companieszoomed up to 20 per cent on

Monday after the GST Councilreduced tax rate for hotel roomtariffs. The scrip of Taj GVKHotels & Resorts jumped 19.98per cent and Royal OrchidHotels advanced 16.30 per centon the BSE.

Among others, IndianHotels Company zoomed 8.20per cent, ITC rose 6.95 per centand Hotel Leela Ventureadvanced 3.59 per cent.

Post market hours on

Friday, the GST Councilreduced tax rate on hotel roomtariffs, a move aimed at givinga boost to the hospitality sec-tor. The GST (goods and ser-vices tax) rate on hotel roomswith tariffs of up to �7,500 pernight has been cut to 12 percent from the existing 18 percent.

Similarly, the tax on roomswith tariff above �7,500 hasbeen slashed to 18 per centfrom the existing 28 per cent.

There will be no GST onrooms with tariffs below �1,000per night.

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Massive reduction in cor-porate tax rates will have

minimal impact to revive thesteeply falling auto demand asthe 10-12 percentage pointsreduction in the levy on com-panies can at best lead to a 1-2 percent discounts only, saysa report. As against this, hadthe government offered a GSTreduction, demand could havebeen propped up well, helpingautomakers offer a 7-8 percentdiscounts, the report adds.

The auto industry, which isfacing its worst crisis in twodecades, had been pleadingfor a GST cut to 18 percentfrom 28 percent now to boostsagging sales.

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US securities regulators onMonday charged Japanese

automaker Nissan and its for-mer CEO Carlos Ghosn withhiding more than $140 millionin Ghosn’s expected retirementincome from investors.

Ghosn will pay $1 millionin fines to settle the matterwithout admitting wrongdoing,and will be barred from serv-ing as a corporate executive for10 years, the Securities andExchange Commission said ina statement.

Nissan will pay a $15 mil-lion fine. The SEC also chargedformer board member GregKelly aiding in the fraud.

The SEC said Ghosn,working with Kelly and othersubordinates, devised ways todisguise large amounts of com-pensation to Ghosn.

These included enteringinto secret contracts, backdat-ing letters to grant Ghosninterest in Nissan’s long-termcompensation plan and chang-ing the calculation of Ghosn’spension to allow more than $50million in additional benefits,the SEC said.

“Investors are entitled toknow how, and how much, acompany compensates its top executives,” saidStephanie Avakian, co-directorof the SEC’s Division ofEnforcement.

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Providing care to people withAlzheimer’s can be challeng-

ing. Though only basic assis-tance is required in the earlystages, with time, the care needsto be intensified. One of themost cited difficulties that care-givers face is the behaviouralchanges. Caregiving for peoplewith this condition needspatience, time, flexibility, andunderstanding.

Make a schedule: It isimportant to establish a routine.Schedule tasks like bathing ormedical appointments whenthe person is alert and fresh. For

days that are difficult, allow forsome flexibility. It is alwaysgood to organise activities antic-ipating possible delays. Allowtime for breaks during tasks.

Involve them: Try to helpthem to certain tasks with leastamount of assistance. This willhelp them improve coordinationand cognition. For instance,they could carry out basic activ-ities such as changing clothes oreating their meals themselvesbut under supervision.

Make communication sim-ple: People with Alzheimer’sneed time to comprehend and

understand. Break down yourinstructions in simple and clearlanguage. They understand clearand one-step communication.

Remove distractions: It isimportant to help people withAlzheimer’s to focus on the taskat hand. Imagine a small childwho is easily distracted. Turn offthe television or remove otherdistractions as it will help themfocus and remember better.

Create a safe environment:People with Alzheimer’s lack aclear sense of judgment or prob-lem-solving skills. This can evenincrease the risk of falls andinjury. Ensure that safety mea-sures are put in place aroundthem. Alzheimer’s progressesdifferently in every individualand therefore adapting is key.Tailoring caregiving according totheir needs and being patientcan help caregivers deal betterwith the challenges. /���.�����������;�����$��+�������� ��

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Monsoon season is always beautiful, but it also brings humidand dry weather. Which has a adverse impact on our skin.

However, the humidity and the moisture in the atmosphere afterthe monsoon can lead to skin related issues like rashes, pimples,eczema and so on. Our skin naturally has several very small micro-organisms. The local skin temperature and environmental humid-ity are most conducive for the growth of microorganisms in thishumid climate. People who are suffering from diseases which low-ers the immunity, there is a higher risk of infection when the humid-ity in the atmosphere rises, particularly in the changing weather.Therefore it is essential to take care of our skin health this seasontoo. Inflammation of skin folds can be caused by skin-on-skin scrap-ing which can increase due to moisture. Such inflammation is both-ersome in obese adults as well as children. Also, such swelling canalso occur in natural body folds.

During the humid and adverse weather, it becomes impera-tive to take care of the skin. This can result in all sorts of skin prob-lems, ranging from irritation and rashes to ringworm. If an infec-tion is severe and causes itching or pain, consult a doctor withoutdelay.

In this season, it is quite common for clothes and shoes to getwet and humid. Wet clothes and shoes become a hotbed for aller-gies especially when a person is out for some work and is caught

in the rain, wet with sweat andstays in the wet clothes andshoes. Synthetic clothes havechemicals and the wet clothestend to rub against the body caus-ing allergies on the skin. Theseallergies can give rise to fungalinfections especially in the bodyfolds such as inside of the elbows,back of the knees and others.

This humid climate alsotranslates to sweaty feet and wetsticky shoes. The roads are full ofdirty water and muck and itenters the footwear easily. Peoplewear these wet shoes for hoursand the result is unclean, smellyfeet that are the perfect candidatefor skin allergies to develop.Chemicals such as bonding

agents, glue, adhesives and treatment agents are present in the rub-ber or plastic shoes which react with water and cause contact der-matitis, which is a kind of painful and uncomfortable allergy.

Tips for Staying Healthy during the changing weather season: �People with diabetes are more susceptible to skin allergies

and infections during monsoon especially the nail infection andtherefore they should take extra care.

�If you see the onset of any kind of skin allergies then visit adermatologist instead of visiting a saloon.

�Wear loose fitting, comfortable clothing.�Practice good personal hygiene. Keep yourself and the clothes

clean.�Don’t stay wet for too long. .�Opt for simple and airy footwear during this humid climate.

This will help keep the feet dry.�Skin infections can be contagious sometimes. Keep your tow-

els and other personal belongings separate form others.�If you are going to swim then post swimming, take a bath

with a disinfectant and use a fungal powder at your underarms,in the groin area and in the gap between the fingers and toes.

�Do not scratch the skin.�Keep pets out of the bedroom to prevent eczema.�Use dust and mite proof covers on mattress and pillows.�Keep yourself hydrated at all times. Drinking purified water

at regular intervals.

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�3��������� A sweet potato is asweet and starchy root vegetable. It is

a great source of fibre, vitamins andminerals. They are also rich inantioxidants which help promotegut health.

Sweet potatoes alsocontain significant amountof magnesium which helpto reduce stress andanxiety. They are alsoknows for their anti-inflammatory propertieswhich help reduceinflammation on thebody.

Sweet potatoes canhelp in controlling bloodpressure because they are richin both magnesium andpotassium. They also contain alot of vitamin A it is good for ourvision. It is also believed that sweetpotatoes are memory enhancing food.

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Encouraging physi-cal activity andimproving diet in

children is crucial to cutdeaths from cardiovasculardisease (CVD), a new study suggests.“Atherosclerosis — clogged arteries —starts in childhood and is more likely witha sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet,”said study lead author Karine Turke.

“Exposure to these behavioursthroughout life increases the risk of heartattacks and strokes, so prevention shouldbegin in childhood,” Turke said.Cardiovascular disease is the world’snumber one killer, causing 17.9 milliondeaths a year. The median age was 13 yearsand 51 per cent were male. The mediantime spent doing mild, moderate and vig-orous physical activity over a week was 40and 60 minutes, respectively. The medi-an sitting time was 360 minutes a week.

“Physical activity is well below the levelrecommended by the WHO, which is 300minutes per week for children and ado-lescents,” said Turke. Regarding food, 53per cent had consumed leafy vegetables theprevious day, 69 per cent fruit, 91 per centcarbohydrates like rice or pasta, 70 per centlegumes, 79 per cent meat, 42 per cent softdrinks, 39 per cent chocolate, 39 per centpowdered beverage mixes, 42 per centsausages and 49 per cent candy, includingchocolate or any other sweets.

“Many had eaten processed foods,which are easier for parents to prepare thancooking from fresh ingredients,” saidTurke. — IANS

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We all love the tooth-less smile of a baby.It means that he is

happy and healthy. Butteething can be a trying timesince the little one is inpain and hencecrying lookingfor some relief.There are sev-eral homeremedies thatone can fol-low.

Cold is apopular, andsimple remedy.One can freeze anumber items for thebaby to chew on like a teether.Many parents use a wash-cloth.

Put it under water,squeeze out excess water andkeep it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Put this on thegums of the baby to soothe

the pain. One can give afrozen pop as well.

Use ginger, it has anti-inflammatory properties thathelps to relieve the pain by

soothing the nerve end-ings in the gums.

Rub a sl ice ofpeeled gingerover the baby’sgums for acouple of min-utes.

Sometimesthe simplest

solution works.Rub and massage

the baby’s gumswith a firm touch from

your index finger. If theydon’t have too many teeth letthem gnaw on the finger!

A warm bath will helpyour baby to relax. It will takethe baby’s mind off the painsince there is a change ofscene.

Do you have a baby at homewho is teething? If yes, you will

know that a teething baby is nota happy one. ROSHANI DEVIshares home remedies that can

soothe the pain and keep thelittle one smiling

The recent vaping related deaths in theUS have once again put a question

mark over the possible toxicity of chem-icals present in an e-cigarette. While theinvestigation into those deaths havestill not been conclusive andpoint to the possibility of spu-rious products, we mustrefrain from looking at e-cigarettes as a safe alterna-tive.

Dr DharminderNagar, MD ParasHealthcare said: “Therehave been long-standingdoubts over what manufactur-ers and some health experts call“relative safety” of e-cigarettes overtobacco cigarettes. We do not have suffi-cient research to understand the long-termhealth effects of e-cigarettes. There is no‘good smoke’ and all forms of smoke arebad. The major difference between con-

ventional and e-cigarettes is that the lat-ter do not contain tobacco,”

However, tobacco is not the only cul-prit in cigarette smoke; there is an entire

array of other harmful chemicals,many of which are also present

in e-cigarettes. This approachto present e-cigarettes as a“safer” option is flawed.

People continue vap-ing believing it to be lessharmful. The presence ofnicotine makes e-ciga-

rettes equally addictive.Youngsters who have never

smoked may fall for this formof smoking believing it to be safe.

We welcome the Government’s expect-ed move to ban e-cigarettes. According toa draft ordinance, the storage of e-ciga-rettes will also be punishable with impris-onment up to six months or fine up to�50,000 or both.

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Everyone loves a healthy glow but owing toa hectic lifestyle, pollution and improper

skincare regime we often end up with our skinlooking dull and worn out. To restore your nat-ural glow, it is essential to follow a skincare rou-tine you can rely on. If you are battling an oilyshine or puffy eyes or excessive dryness hereare a few tips that can help you restoring yourskin’s health.

An oily shineA natural glow is what we want, but a

greasy sheen is what many of us end up with,especially on a long, warm day. Adding layersof makeup is of little help. Instead to fix thisissue, what you need is an oily skin cleanserlike Cetaphil Oily Skin Cleanser that will washout the excess oil without stripping your skinoff natural oils.

Puffy eyesTried and puffy-eyes can make you look

dull and exhausted. If you haven’t slept thewhole night or have been staring at the screenfor long hours with little hydration and no restit can lead to excessive puffiness. The best rem-edy is to apply cool cucumber slices on youreyes for five to 10 minutes when needed &immediately apply an under eye product thatcontains Vitamin C.

Parched skinWhen the skin is already dry, the last thing

you want to do is moisturise it as a quick fix.Swap in a moisturiser, that’ll get rid of dirt, oil& makeup while actually putting some ofhydration that’s been lost, back into your skin.Apply a good moisturiser in the morning andat night.

Daily VitaminsWhile a few skincare products help you res-

cue from skin damage, your food and vitaminintake play a pivotal in maintaining your skin’swell-being. Ensure your vitamin levels do notindicate a deficiency and choose the right sup-plement under the guidance of your doctor.

Allergic reactionFor sensitive skin it is essential to take extra

care and use products that are trusted. . For awhile, avoid using excessive make-up and gonatural for a couple of days. Avoid usingparaben products, sulfate, and lanolin. Opt forproducts like Cetaphil Skin Cleanser followedby the Cetaphil Moisturising Lotion or Creamthat soothes & reduces the inflammation./���.����������� ���+�������#�������$��+���(

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Alzheimer’s disease, a form ofdementia, is still one of thelesser known problems in

India. According to estimates, thenumber of patients with demen-tia in India is about 4 million andaround the world, there will beapproximately 131.5 million peo-ple with the condition by 2050.There is a need to raise awarenesson the fact that Alzheimer’s is anirreversible condition and peoplewho suffer may be unable to carryout even the most basic dailyactivities over time. It is, therefore,

important to undertake some pre-ventive measures right from ayoung age to reduce the risk ofAlzheimer’s later in life.�(�A��.��9!B-"8� ��8."C".B

Any form of physical activityis not only beneficial for a healthyheart but also for better brainfunction.

This is because physical activ-ity boosts circulation and thereforemaintains oxygen supply to thebrain. This increases alertnessand keeps the brain cells healthyfor a longer time.

�+).'+ �B+�'�/ ++(�9'�--�'�Hypertension or high blood

pressure is a major risk factor fornot only heart problems but alsocertain neurological conditions,including Alzheimer’s. It is there-fore important to reduce the con-sumption of salt and maintain abalance.��� .!B���.");��)(���/� �)8�(�("�.

Certain types of foods canincrease the risk of Alzheimer’sdisease while a balanced diet isgood for the brain. Make sure yourdiet is rich in fruits and vegetables,

whole grains, and omega-3 fattyacids. These will keep your weightin check and reduce associated riskfactors that lead to Alzheimer’sover time.3�.8!�+�.�<+'�(�9'�--"+)

Research indicates that peoplewith untreated depression have ahuge risk of acquiring Alzheimer'sdisease. This becomes moreimportant in the elderly as thesymptoms may be difficult toidentify.

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Alzheimer’s is no more an old man’s disease.Case reports indicate a decreasing onset of age.

In spite of being home to more than 4 millionpatients, Alzheimer’s in India is still neither for-mally diagnosed nor treated. Most of us consid-er loss of memory as a natural sign of ageing anddon’t associate it with a probable degenerative dis-order. But what if the first signs of dementia startshowing at a much younger age? Missing thesesigns can prove fatal. A proper awareness of thewarning signs of the disease, necessary tests to con-firm diagnosis and appropriate interventions tomitigate the condition if confirmed of the diseasecan help in tackling Alzheimer’s efficiently.

Cause: While concrete evidences are scarceto explain the reason behind early onset ofAlzheimer’s disease, people with a parent or grand-parent who also developed the disease early werefound to have increased risks. Therefore, thosewith a family history of the disease are recom-mended to undergo a genetic counseling for anearly diagnosis.

Diagnosis: Visible changes show in the bodyalmost a decade after the actual damage to thebrain has happened. While these symptoms mayvary from person to person, recurrence of somecommonly found signs can signal the early inci-dence of the disease. Once signs of mental declineare noticed in an individual, academic protocolswill suggest him/her to undergo a series of cog-nitive tests, followed by testing the blood, urineand spinal fluid. A CT and MRI scan will con-firm the incidence of Alzheimer’s and the extentof the damage caused to the brain.

Treatment: It is classified as one among themany incurable diseases. However, medical cir-cles have seen positive results on patients who wereintroduced to the many available treatmentoptions at an early stage./���.�����������;�4���:���+� �������� ������.������������

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�Disrupted sleep isperhaps the only sign ofthe disease that surfacesmuch ahead of thedevelopment of othercognitive signs likememory loss. Researchhas shown Alzheimer’splaques can disruptsleep, so can interrupt-ed sleep promote thedevelopment of the for-mer. Those with sleep

efficiency lower than 75per cent are five timesmore prone to havepreclinical Alzheimer’sthan the ones who sleepwell.

�Forgetting thesame piece of infor-mation in spite ofrepeatedly checking on

it could be a warningsign of the disease.

�Inability to per-form an otherwisefamiliar task is deemedto be another sign. Forinstance, it is natural forsomeone to seek helpwhile cooking a newdish but if you have

completely forgottenmaking your favouriterecipe, then it isn’t com-mon.

� Sudden visionproblems like difficul-ty to identify colours,shapes and distancebetween objects couldindicate neural dys-function.

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President Hassan Rouhaniset off for New York on

Monday to attend the UNGeneral Assembly on a mis-sion to win Iran supportagainst “cruel” pressure fromarch-foe the United States.

His departure came as Iransaid an oil tanker flying the flagof US ally Britain was “free” toleave more than two monthsafter its forces seized it in sen-sitive Gulf waters.

Speaking before boardinghis flight, Rouhani said his del-egation was heading to the UNgathering despite reluctancefrom President DonaldTrump’s administration toissue them visas.

Tehran and Washingtonhave been at loggerheads sinceMay last year when Trumpabandoned a 2015 nuclear dealand subsequently began reim-posing sanctions on Iran in astated campaign of “maximumpressure”.

“When the Americansaren’t willing (to let Iran par-ticipate), we must insist ontravelling,” Rouhani said.

“It is essential for us to takepart in the UN GeneralAssembly and talk at variouslevels,” he told a news confer-ence at Tehran’s Mehrabad air-port.

“The cruel actions thathave been taken against theIranian nation and also the dif-ficult and complicated issuesthat our region faces withthem need to be explained tothe people and countries of theworld.”

Tensions have flared inthe Gulf since May this yearwhen Iran began reducing itscommitments under thenuclear deal and the USdeployed military assets to theregion.

The US has since formeda naval coalition with its alliesBritain, Australia, Bahrain,Saudi Arabia and the UnitedArab Emirates to escort com-mercial ships, in response to aspate of incidents in the Gulf.

The tensions escalated fur-ther in the wake of devastatingSeptember 14 attacks on Saudioil installations thatWashington and Riyadh have,to varying degrees, blamed onTehran.

British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson said Monday hisgovernment was drawing asimilar conclusion to its allies.

“The UK is attributingresponsibility with a very highdegree of probability to Iran”for the Saudi attacks, he said,quoted by the UK’s Press

Association news agency.Johnson was himself en-

route to New York, where hewas scheduled to meet withIran’s president.

Long-fraught relationsbetween London and Tehranwere further soured after Iranseized the British-flagged StenaImpero on July 19 for alleged-ly breaking “international mar-itime laws”.

Iran said on Monday thatthe tanker was “free” to leaveafter the completion of legalproceedings.

But governmentspokesman Ali Rabiei did notspecify when the vessel, whichis owned by a Swedish com-pany, would set sail.

The Iranian announce-ment comes after a court inBritish overseas territoryGibraltar ordered the release ofan Iranian oil tanker in mid-August despite an 11th-hourUS legal bid to keep it indetention.

Before departing for NewYork, Rouhani said Iran wouldput forward a plan to de-esca-late tensions in the Gulf dur-ing the UN meeting. Under theplan dubbed the HormuzPeace Endeavour, or HOPE, hesaid, “all the coastal states ofthe Persian Gulf are invited tojoin this coalition to provideand maintain regional securi-ty”.

Rouhani said theAmericans were “at the root”of conflicts in the region and

their motive for blaming Iranwas to deploy its forces in theGulf and have access to its oil.

“It is clear that they wantto own all of the oil that is inthe east of Saudi Arabia.

“It is clear that the US hasother goals and such incidentsare their pretext to be morepresent in the region.”

Since pulling out of thenuclear deal, Washington hasslapped sanctions on Tehran’sarmed forces, financial sectorand top officials includingForeign Minister MohammadJavad Zarif.

Iran has responded byscaling back its commitmentsunder the 2015 deal with worldpowers that gave it the promiseof sanctions relief in return forlimiting the scope of its nuclearprogramme.

The US has said it wouldmake its case against Iran at theGeneral Assembly.

Secretary of State MikePompeo said the US wanted togive diplomacy “every oppor-tunity to succeed” in the wakeof the attacks that set aflameAbqaiq plant and the Khuraisoil field in eastern SaudiArabia.

Following the attacks, theUS announced it was imposingfurther sanctions on Iran’scentral bank.

That may have dealt afinal blow to efforts by Franceto arrange a meeting betweenRouhani and Trump duringthe UN General Assembly.

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Chinese officials have heldtalks with a Taliban delega-

tion ahead of the presidentialelections in Afghanistan onSeptember 28, days after USPresident Donald Trump can-celled a meeting with the militantgroup in the war-torn country.

The Taliban delegation,headed by Mullah Baradar,spoke to China’s special envoyto Afghanistan Deng Xijun onSunday, the spokesman of theChinese Foreign Ministry,Geng Shuang, said at a mediabriefing here on Monday.

Though Geng confirmedthe Taliban delegation’s visit onMonday, he gave few details.

The situation in

Afghanistan has changed dra-matically after US PresidentDonald Trump called off hismeeting with Taliban repre-sentatives two weeks ago fol-lowing a deadly attack by insur-gent groups in Kabul that killedan American soldier.

The proposed US-Talibantalks and a reported agreementbetween the two about thewithdrawal of American troopsraised concern about furtherviolence and political uncer-tainty in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is due tohold presidential elections onSeptember 28 in whichPresident Ashraf Ghani isseeking re-election. The elec-tion is already marred by violence.

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Britain has concluded thatIran was responsible for

attacks on oil facilities in SaudiArabia, UK Prime MinisterBoris Johnson said Sunday.

He said the UK wouldconsider taking part in a US-led military effort to bolster theGulf kingdom’s defenses, whileIran’s president announcedplans for a rival Iranian-ledsecurity coalition.

The UK Conservativeprime minister also said the hewould work with allies to “de-escalate” Middle East tensionsthat have soared since theSeptember 14 attack on theworld’s largest oil processor andan oil field. Britain had previ-ously held back from attribut-ing blame for the drone andmissile attack. Saudi Arabiaand the United States say Iranwas responsible, somethingTehran denies.

Johnson told reporters fly-ing with him late Sunday toNew York for the UN GeneralAssembly that now “the UK isattributing responsibility witha very high degree of proba-bility to Iran” for the attack bydrones and cruise missiles.

“We will be working withour American friends and ourEuropean friends to construct

a response that tries to de-esca-late tensions in the Gulf region,”Johnson said.

Shortly before leaving forthe UN meetings Monday,Iranian President HassanRouhani said that his countrywill invite “all littoral states ofthe Persian Gulf ” to join anIranian-led coalition “to guar-antee the region’s security.”

His remarks were broad-cast on state television.

Rouhani said the plan —details of which he will presentat the United Nations — is notlimited to “security” but alsoencompasses economic coop-eration and an initiative for“long-term” peace.

Iran’s president had alreadycalled on Western powersSunday to leave the security ofthe Persian Gulf to regionalnations led by Tehran.

Johnson said he wouldmeet Rouhani at this week’shigh-level UN gathering.

Johnson is also due tohold talks with US PresidentDonald Trump, GermanChancellor Angela Merkel andFrench President EmmanuelMacron.

He said he wanted Britainto be “a bridge between ourEuropean friends and theAmericans when it comes tothe crisis in the Gulf.”

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Israel’s president wrappedup his second and final day

of crucial talks to find a newprime minister and a way outof political deadlock, aftermeeting Monday with thesmaller parties elected in lastweek’s vote.

After hearing the recom-mendations from the remain-ing party for who should heada government, PresidentReuven Rivlin must now selectthe candidate he deems mostable to form a stable coalition.He is set to make his decisionby Wednesday.

The post-election consul-tations are usually a formali-ty, but the largely ceremonialpresident is now playing akey role after an almost tiedelection result.

“There is one thing that

the people are largely unitedover and that is the desire thatthere won’t be third elections,”Rivlin said.

The smaller parties’ rec-ommendations were splitbetween Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and Blueand White’s Benny Gantz.

That would suggest that,coming out of the talks,Netanyahu holds a small edgeover Gantz.

Rivlin will likely pick thecandidate with the most rec-ommendations who will thenhave 28 days to try to cobbletogether a government.

If the first candidate cho-sen fails within that time, thesecond is given the opportu-nity. If he too doesn’t manage,the country could head to athird, unprecedented election.

In Rivlin’s first round oftalks on Sunday, the Joint

Arab List threw its supportbehind Gantz, the first timethe Arab parties had recom-mended a candidate since1992, saying it was doing so ina bid to topple Netanyahu,whose anti-Arab rhetoric hasinfuriated and offended Arabsin Israel during his decade inpower.

The backing promised togive Gantz a slight edge insupport.

But on Monday, the JointArab List said it was with-drawing some of its members’recommendations for Gantz,trimming his support to belowNetanyahu’s.

Last week’s repeat electionproduced no clear winner,with Blue and White receiving33 seats in Israel’s 120-mem-ber parliament andNetanyahu’s Likud garnering31 seats.

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At least 40 civilians at awedding party were killed

during a raid conducted byAfghan special forces and sup-ported by US airstrikes onTaliban hideouts in the south-ern Helmand province,Afghan officials said.

The violence has furtherrattled Afghanistan which isfacing an upsurge in violenceafter US-Taliban peace talks toend America’s longest war col-lapsed earlier this month.

Abdul Majed Akhund,deputy provincial councilman,said that the majority of thedead are women and childrenwho were at a wedding cere-mony that was taking place inMusa Qala district on Sundaynight.

Akhund said that 12 othercivilians were wounded and

are in the hospital in LashkarGah the capital of theprovince.

There were conflictingreports on the numbers ofkilled and wounded from dif-ferent sources as the area isunder Taliban control.

Attahullah Afghan, headof the provincial council, saidthere were two separate raidsin different areas of MusaQala. The first operation killedsix foreign fighters, while thesecond raid “mistakenly” hitcivilians, he said. Akhund saidauthorities are investigatingreports civilians attending awedding died in the raidSunday night in Musa Qala.

Afghanistan’s defense min-istry in a statement said that asa result of the operations inMusa Qala district, 22 foreignmembers of the Taliban werekilled and 14 arrested. The

arrested terrorists include fivePakistani nationals and oneBangladeshi.

“The foreign terroristgroup was actively engaged inorganizing terrorist attacks,”said the statement and addedthat a large warehouse of theterrorists’ supplies and equip-ment was also destroyed.

Omar Zwak, the provin-cial governor’s spokesman,said 14 insurgents includingsix foreigners were killed dur-ing the raid. They were inves-tigating reports of civiliancasualties.

The deadly strike cameafter a drone attack last weekin eastern Afghanistan’sNangarhar province blamedon U.S. Forces killed at least 16and wounded tens of others,most of them civilians. U.S.Forces said that attack was tar-geting Islamic State militants.

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Britain’s main oppositionLabour Party was set

Monday to decide on a newBrexit strategy at a fractiousconference that has piled pres-sure on leader Jeremy Corbynto openly campaign to remainin the European Union.

Labour’s identity crisis isbeing played out as Britainspeeds toward a potentiallychaotic “no-deal” departurefrom the EU on October 31and a likely general election.

Opinion polls showCorbyn’s efforts to unite boththe pro- and anti-Brexit wingsof his party by either delaying adecision on departure or leav-ing it in voters’ hands have ledto a dramatic drop in support.

Two surveys published

over the weekend put Labour15 percentage points behindPrime Minister Boris Johnson’sConservatives and in danger oflosing second place to the pro-EU Liberal Democrats.

Grass roots activists spenthours deep into Sunday nighttrying to come up with a sin-gle Brexit motion that could beput up for a vote at the confer-ence on Monday. They endedup with three. One motionbacked by regional partybranches says Labour “mustreflect the overwhelming viewof its members and voters,who want to stay in the EU.

“Labour will thereforecampaign energetically for apublic vote and to stay in theEU in the referendum, whilerecognising the rights of thosewho want to argue anotherview.”

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China’s Government onMonday denounced US

Secretary of State MikePompeo for saying that Beijingis trying to erase Muslim cul-ture in its northwest.

A foreign ministryspokesman rejected Pompeo’scomment at the United Nationsthat the detention of Uighurswas unrelated to anti-terrorismactivity.

Pompeo on Sunday calledon Central Asian governmentsto reject Chinese demands thatthey send home ethnic minori-ties who might face repressionin China. Pompeo said Chinais trying “to erase” minority cul-tures and religions.

The ministry spokesman,Geng Shuang, said Chineseactivities in the northwesternregion of Xinjiang, whereMuslims are held in detentioncamps, are the same as de-rad-icalization efforts in othercountries.

Geng complained thatAmerican politicians “slan-dered China’s policy towardXinjiang and grossly interferedin China’s internal affairs.”

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The collapse of US-Taliban talks isan untimely setback for Pakistan,

which had hoped its efforts to bringthe militants to the table would berewarded with an economic boostand American support in its disputewith India over Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan haspromised to issue a rallying cry at theUN General Assembly in New Yorknext week over India’s moves in thedisputed Himalayan region.

But Pakistan, long condemnedfor its support for militant groups,needs political capital if it is to swaya global community that has beenhistorically reluctant to challengeNew Delhi over Kashmir.

Helping the United States with itsfervent wish to leave Afghanistan

after nearly 18 years of war was wide-ly seen as an opportunity to get backinto Washington’s good books afteryears of being accused of duplicity.

For a brief moment in July, itappeared to be working.

President Donald Trumpdelighted Khan in Washington bydeclaring his willingness to mediateon Kashmir, over which India andPakistan have fought two wars andcountless skirmishes since the end ofBritish colonial rule in 1947.

New Delhi repeated its positionthat Kashmir is a purely bilateralissue with Islamabad and dismissedthe possibility of foreign mediation,but still, Pakistan’s star once againappeared on the rise in Washington.

The relief was short-lived.Last month, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi revoked the region’s

autonomy, igniting outrage inPakistan.

And as Islamabad scrambled towin international support for its posi-tion on Kashmir, in a separate twist,Trump abruptly called off talks withthe Taliban, blowing up nearly a yearof painstaking efforts to secure a dealthat would have seen the beginningof US troop withdrawal.

Pakistan has for years called fora political solution in Afghanistan,and had used its influence over theTaliban to help facilitate talks

with the United States, hoping asuccessful outcome would help gen-erate diplomatic capital — especial-ly for Kashmir.

Khan told reporters last weekthat he will meet with the USPresident on Monday to urge aresumption of talks with the Taliban.

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Egyptian security forcesrounded up hundreds of

people following small but rareanti-government protests,rights lawyers said Monday.

The protests broke out inseveral Egyptian cities includ-ing the capital, Cairo, over theweekend, calling for PresidentAbdel-Fattah el-Sissi to stepdown.

All protests were quicklybroken up by police. But theymarked a startling eruption ofstreet unrest, which has beenalmost completely silenced thepast years by draconian mea-sures imposed under el-Sissi.

On Monday, lawyers MalekAdly and Khaled el-Masry said

security forces had arrested atleast 400 people in Cairo andelsewhere across the country.El-Masry says prosecutors havequestioned at least 220 people,over claims that they took partin activities of an outlawedgroup, a reference to theMuslim Brotherhood group,and disseminating false news.

The new protests emergefrom an online campaign, ledby an Egyptian businessmanliving in self-imposed exilewho has presented himself as awhistleblower against corrup-tion. His calls for demonstra-tions come at a time whenEgypt’s lower and middle class-es have been badly squeezed byyears of economic reforms andausterity measures.

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Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time inHollywood” is heading to China on October

25.According to Variety, the Leonardo

DiCaprio and Brad Pitt-starrer will be the direc-tor’s first movie to get a proper release in thecountry. The film, set in 1960s reimagines themurder of actor Sharon Tate and three othersat the hands of the Manson Family cult, willarrive in the Chinese theatres after the country’sNational Day holiday.

Interestingly, the Chinese authorities typi-cally impose an unofficial blackout on foreigntitles in order to support the local industry overthe week-long holiday period.

The weekend, this year, will be dominatedby animated titles and patriotic films praisingthe ruling Communist Party of China.

Bona Film Group, one of China’s longest-running production companies, was a co-investor in the title.

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How often are supportingroles appreciated for the

difference that they make to theplot of the film? There is a com-mon perception where peopleterm those actors as sidekicksbut they are much more thanjust that. Enter actors like KirtiKulhari who add flesh, bloodand meat to any film or show.Her unconventional scriptchoices have been apparent inthe past and she takes it for-ward with the latest Netflixshow Bard of Blood. She does-n’t care a hoot about whetherher role is subliminal or not.Kirti ensures that each role thatshe plays holds out somethingdifferent in the way the charac-ter is portrayed. “If everybodyexpects every actor to be theprotagonist, who will do therest of the roles?,” she questionsand says, “I am speaking to a lotof other people through youbecause media is really respon-sible for changing mindsets.Hence, I am trying to give youa new perspective. From thatspace, if I call myself an actor,I will not be driven by visibili-ty and wonder if it will put mein the main lead category or asa sidekick? That’s not how itworks. It will be a mix of every-thing. Sometimes you will seeme in the lead and at times notat the centre of a film. But yet,I will be making my presencefelt. So it’s a combination of allthat. My script choices dependon great roles, good storiesand the director because it is hisvision ultimately. I need tohave enough faith on the direc-

tor, who is going to bring thestory and eventually my role onthe screen alive.”

She does not bother if theaudience will slot her. “I willkeep doing the roles no matterwhat people feel about it orwhether they are small or big.They are my roles, I do themwith complete honesty, effortand hardwork,” adds Kirti.

As the series is based on theeponymous novel by BilalSiddiqi, she tells us that hercharacter is not in the book andthat it was developed only forthe series. She plays a Baluchigirl and her look was very dif-ferent from all of the projectsthat she has worked in so far. “Itwas tough to find a referencefor a Baluchi girl. I happened tocatch hold of a documentary tounderstand the geography, thedialect of Baluchistan, the into-nations when they talk. It gaveme a lot of input,” she says.

It was her interpretationand understanding of how they

(author and director) envi-sioned the character. “That’s thewhole idea of collaboration,isn’t?,” she asks. “When I cameon board, I was planning toread the book but Bilal suggest-ed that I should read the show’sscript because it’s a much more

detailed version of what thebook is about because the char-acters are nuanced,” she says.

It’s not the first time thatsomething on RAW and howthe agency works is beingmade. The film industry hasalso had a fair share of spythri l lers. Director RibhuDasgupta tells us that he hasjust adapted the book into aseven-part series. Just like howone makes films out of variousbooks, this is a show. “There areso many films being made onbooks, no matter whether theyare bestsellers or not. It wouldhave been a bit difficult tomake it into a film because theamount of content and mater-ial the book has was vast. Weembedded it into a series and itwas more intriguing and couldbe played around more effi-ciently,” he says.

Ask the director how diffi-cult was it to create the landscapesimilar to the Afghan terrain andcapture the exact essence and hesays, “We couldn’t go toAfghanistan and shoot obvi-ously because of the conflict. Sowe had to create it in India. Wehad to shoot in negative temper-atures. It was challenging notonly for me but for the entirecast. But when you have a goodteam, it works automaticallyand creates a good energyaround you, keeps you motivat-ed to work. It did turn out to bea great experience.”

SMM Ausaja, a film archivist andposter collector, has hit the gold-

mine in a local scrap shop ofMahim, Mumbai. He has discovereda tattered suitcase that belonged toPandit Ravi Shankar and his sonShubho, which contains originalmusical notes, handwritten letters,rare photographs, old press clip-pings, autographed brochures andeven a poem written and signed bylegendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak.

“I am film archivist and a postercollector and I keep going to placeswhere this antique material or junkmaterial is sold in the hope I mightfind something on cinema. I am acinema archivist so when someonecalled me saying that there is mate-rial on Pandit Ravi Shankar,” Ausajasaid. “I was not really interestedbecause he has done very few films.Still, I asked if there were anyposters. They said there were pho-tographs. I thought I’d get pho-tographs of him composing forShatranj Ke Khiladi or maybeGulzar’s Meera or so many rare filmshe did,” Ausaja added.

He said that when he reachedthe scrap shop there was no mate-rial pertaining to cinema. “Therewere perhaps one or two files with

names of Bengali and Punjabi filmswritten, and some notations. ThenI realised these are actual notationswritten by him in the file. These aremusic notations in his handwriting.That was surprising. I thought it wasprecious and needs to be preserved,”Ausaja said. He added that therewere beautiful illustrations and sig-natures in Bengali as well as inEnglish. “There are a lot ofbrochures — some pertaining to hisconcert in Russia, so (these are) inRussian language. So in his ownhandwriting, (outlining) where ithappened and on what date,” he said.

Some press clippings were foundtoo. “He went to Czechoslovakia,China and all those countries so(there are) press clipping in thoselanguages which appeared on him.So there are two three files of thepress clipping from 1954-55,” headded.

Ausaja also found some picturesof Pandit Ravi Shankar’s wifeAnnapurna Devi. “There are a lot ofphotographs. I found AnnapurnaDevi’s photographs, which is impos-sible to find now because shebecame a recluse and never got pub-licized anywhere,” he said.

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The searing TV series on the plightof the Central Park Five created amemorable Emmy moment when

the five exonerated men stood and werehonoured at the awards show. The four-part Netflix series explores the truestory of five black and Latino teenagersfrom Harlem who were coerced into con-fessing to a rape they didn’t commit in1989 and follows them over the courseof 25 years to their eventual exoneration.

Show creator Ava DuVernay lost inthe directing and writing categories butJharrel Jerome won for best lead actor ina limited series. “I feel like I should justbe in the Bronx right now, just chilling,waiting for my mom’s cooking. But I amhere in front of my inspirations,” saidJerome, a New Yorker whose mothertold him about this ugly chapter incity history. He then acknowl-edged the Central Park Five —Yusef Salaam, AntronMcCray, Kevin Richardson,Raymond Santana, andKorey Wise.

“This is for Raymond,Yusef, Antron, Kevin, andKing Korey Wise. Thank youso much, it’s an honour. It’sa blessing,” said Jerome.Some of the men raised fistsin the air, while others,including Wise, had tears intheir eyes. Jerome playedWise in the series. The caseof the Central Park Five cutthe city along racial linesfrom the outset, with thevictim being a young whitewoman. It drew worldwideattention. It took years for thefive to be exonerated, and theyspent most of their youth inprison. Another man later con-fessed to the attack.

Thrones, Fleabag topEmmys, Billy Porter makeshistory

Game of Thrones resur-rected the Iron Throneat the ceremo-ny, ruling astop dramaon a nightof surpris-es in whichPose star BillyPorter made his-tory and the come-dy series Fleabag led a Britishinvasion that overturned expecta-

tions. “This all started in the dementedmind of George RR Martin,” said Game

of Thrones producer DavidBenioff, thanking the authorwhose novels were the basisof HBO’s fantasy saga. Porter,who stars in the FX dramaset in the LGBTQ ball sceneof the late 20th century,became the first openly gayman to win a best drama

series.“God bless you all.

The category is love,you all, love. I’m sooverjoyed and sooverwhelmed to havelived to see this day,”said an exuberantPorter, resplendent ina sparkling suit andswooping hat.

A m a z o n ’ sFleabag, a dark com-edy about a dysfunc-tional woman, washonoured as bestcomedy and earnedwriting and topacting honours forits British creatorand star, Phoebe

Waller-Bridge, aswell as a best director

trophy. “This is gettingridiculous,” Waller-Bridge said in her thirdtrip to the stage to col-lect the top trophy.Her acting winblocked Veep starJulia Louis-Dreyfusfrom setting arecord as themost-honouredperformer inEmmy history.“Nooooo!” ashocked-lookingWa l ler-Br idgesaid as Louis-Dreyfus smiledfor the cameras.

“Oh, my God,no. Thank you. I

find acting really hard and painful. Butit’s all about this,” she said, her acting tro-phy firmly in hand.

Porter, a Tony and Grammy Awardwinning performer, relished his ground-breaking moment. Quoting the latewriter James Baldwin, he said it took him

many years to believe he has the right toexist. English actress Jodie Comer washonoured as best drama actress forKilling Eve. “My mum and dad are inLiverpool (England) and I didn’t invitethem because I didn’t think this was goingto be my time. One, I’m sorry, two I loveyou,” Comer said after saluting Oh.

Peter Dinklage, named best support-ing actor for Game of Thrones, set a recordfor most wins for the same role, four,breaking a tie with Aaron Paul of BreakingBad. “I count myself so fortunate to be amember of a community that is aboutnothing but tolerance and diversity,because in no other place I could bestanding on a stage like this,” saidDinklage, who is a dwarf.

Ozark star Julia Garner won the bestsupporting drama actress trophy againsta field including four actresses fromGame of Thrones.

It was the only honour for theacclaimed Netflix series of the evening;Chernobyl won the best limited serieshonour. Amazon Prime winners, TheMarvelous Mrs. Maisel and A Very EnglishScandal, and Netflix’s Bandersnatch(Black Mirror), honored as best film.

HBO retained its durable front-run-ner status with the help of Game ofThrones record-tying 12 wins. Netflix col-lected 27 awards and Amazon nabbed 15.

Dual-tone gowns of pink and redruled the Emmys carpet

Did someone send a memo? Taraji PHenson, Zoe Kazan, Susan KelechiWatson, Mandy Moore and MarisaTomei all showed up to the Emmys intwo-tone looks of pink and red that stoodout on the awards’ purple carpet. The dualtones were the strongest trend among thewomen, where outfits from Zendaya,Gwendoline Christie and current red car-pet darling Billy Porter also turnedheads.

While it’s common to see manystars wearing a certain colour, the com-bination of pink and red was particular-ly eye popping on the purple carpet.“With many also showcasing 80s hints ofbold shoulders, it shows an emergingoptimism on the red carpet and a will-ingness to have a little fun with fashion,”said Kerry Pieri, the fashion and featuresdirector for HarpersBazaar.

Henson’s French tulle gown with asheer red cape was custom Vera WangCollection. Kazan’s black, magenta andpink silk gown with bow detail wasGucci. Badgley Mischka created KelechiWatson’s version, in ruby crepe withblush pink sleeves that fell off the shoul-der. Moore wore Brandon Maxwell, a pinktwill gazar blouse with a red crepe cum-merbund skirt.

Corsets, too, had a wow moment.Indya Moore wore white Louis Vuittonand Zendaya rocked Vera Wang in greenwith a daring top. “Both also had slits upto there, making this the current approachto something sexy. Maybe it means we’reall finally ready to move on from the nakeddress,” Pieri said. Pieri considered Christie’sintensely Game of Thrones Bordeaux capelook a near miss. While costume-y, shesaid, “celebrating the end of a major epicfantasy drama sometimes calls for gildedrobes.”

Christie was Brienne of Tarth on thepopular, defunct HBO series, which wontop honours for best drama at the ceremo-ny. Marielle Bobo, fashion director forEssence, said seafoam was another shadedu jour — on Regina King, Brittany Snow,Jameela Jamil and Padma Lakshmi. “Theystunned in the soft pastel hue which com-plements a variety of skin tones,” Bobosaid, also noting the red and pink paradethat made for an “unexpected yet refresh-ing combination.”

There were some classic Hollywoodmetallic moments as well, including JuliaLouis-Dreyfus in sequined gold and RachelBrosnahan in navy blue, the latter offeringa “modern take on Hollywood glam witharchitectural accents,” Bobo said.

Laura Linney, Chrissy Metz, NiecyNash, Dominique Jackson and PatriciaClarkson embraced heavily sequinedlooks.

Kerry Washington, Angela Bassettand Amy Poehler all opted for pants, whilePorter, who has made headlines with hisred-carpet gowns, chose sparkling stripetrousers from Michael Kors and a hugestatement hat with a towering brim on oneside by Stephen Jones. Porter ended upmaking history later as the first openly gayman to win an Emmy for best actor in adrama series for his role of Pray Tell on FX’sPose.

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The possibility of creationfrom paper is infinite,said Japanese origamist

Akira Yoshizawa. Landscapearchitect and origami maestroAnkon Mitra turned his wordsinto reality through his instal-lation of khadi, The WheelsThat Spin Infinity.

He sourced the two tonnesof khadi fabric from KhadiGramodyog in Rajiv Chowk tocreate his magnum opus thatpresents a contemporary takeon Mahatma Gandhi’s charkha(spinning wheel).

“This is an installationmade of 17 handcrafted Khadi-clad toroidal forms. The workreferences our simple heirloomcharkhas, the glorious past ofour freedom struggle embodiedwithin the simplest of hand-

crafted machines. It also exem-plifies the present and vaultsthat onto an even more gloriousfuture — one where the Indiancivilisation works with renewedvigour on the monumentalachievements of our past likethe discovery of zero. It goes onto understand, interpret andharness its mathematical coun-terpart — the principle of infin-ity — represented through anetwork of interlocked spinningwheels,” said Ankon.

If one looks carefully, thenetwork of the toroids reveals ahidden symbol of infinity with-in. According to Ankon, Gandhibequeathed to us many things— Satyagraha, a personal questfor truth and freedom — wasone of those treasures. The 17toroids in this work represent

the 17 fasts that Gandhi under-took during India’s freedomstruggle. His longest fasts last-ed for 21 days. There are 210folds in the larger toroidal formsto commemorate this number.Gandhi deployed fasting as partof his philosophy of Ahimsa(non-violence) and Satyagraha.

Ankon adds an elegiac eulo-gy to his installation as he adds,“Fasting is an ancient Indiantechnique of renunciation,cleansing and self-analysis andGandhian use of it for largerpolitical ends was extremelyunique and novel. Today, eachone of us must engage in ourown Satyagraha, choosing livesof innovation, frugality, wisdomand the zeal to take our nationto newer heights of freedom andawakening.”

The spinning wheel wasthe physical embodiment andsymbol of Gandhi’s constructiveprogramme. It representsSwadeshi, self-sufficiency, and atthe same time, inter-depen-dence, because the wheel is atthe centre of a network of cot-ton-growers, carders, weavers,distributors, and users. It alsoembodied the dignity of labour,equality, unity, as all volun-teers were to spin each day. Andfinally, independence as Britishcontrol of India was rooted inthe control of indigenous indus-tries such as textiles. For artlovers, Ankon’s Wheels that SpinInfinity will bring forward his-tory in a tangible tensile way.

(The exhibition starts fromOctober 2 to 22 at Lalit KalaAkademi.)

For some years now,Vikram Bachawat, direc-

tor of Aakriti Art Gallery,Kolkata, has been virtuallyrewriting the rules of clas-sical traditions in collectingcontemporary artworks. Hisaffordable art exhibition isan annual event that some-times subtly and often dra-matically draws in collectorsfrom all walks of life.

The gallery is now host-ing the seventh edition ofthe Affordable SeptemberArt Mela. “There have beensix successful editions of thefair at the Kolkata gallery,where we constantly strivedto make art more accessible.The exhibition hopes tobring art into the lives ofpeople who harbour a pas-sion and love for it,” saysBachawat.

The gallery showcasesworks of over a 100 artistswith more than a thousandartworks priced between�1,000 to �1,00,000.According to Bachawat, thisis a one-of–a-kind occa-sion for art enthusiasts tocollect original and rarepieces at the best prices.“The pursuit of owninggreat works of art shouldnot be limited to a few. Thepleasure of living with andsavouring great artworks isincomparable to merelylooking at them in gal-leries,” he adds.

����������%���Artist Lalu Prasad

Shaw’s portrait of a Marwarigentleman in a kurtasmelling a flower is a testi-mony to observation andsatirical slants in thelifestyles of the peo-ple he captures withwinsome detail.

On the other hand,artist Jogen Chowdhury’sacrylic on canvas is a min-imally-rendered flower thatrecalls the tradition of ran-goli and his love for nature.His penchant for carvingcontours speak of the beau-ty of nature’s many evoca-tive epochs that runthrough the tide of time.

������$��� ��� ��Sculptor Asim Basu’s

Man with Grandson is abrilliant cubist renderingof the human figure done ina style that celebrates min-imalism and speaks of itsenduring power. Basu trans-lates his imagery into 3D.

Another sculptor, AkhilChandra Das’ Goat remindsone of the famous she goatof Pablo Picasso. Das’ fer-vour and a perfection ofunderstanding forms andimager y is

evident in his work in termsof the stylisation he doesand the natural flow of theanatomical accentuations.

Sculptor Subrata Biswas’terracotta image at oncecelebrates the iconographicpower of religiosity withanimals and humans. Thebeauty of terracotta is itstensile and tactile qualitiesas well as the earthy tonal-ity that keeps the rhythms of

resonance and power ofsacred and profane intact.

Next up is BimalKundu’s head, which is arendition that scores in its

vitality and simplicity. Theimage signifies both ardour

and strength ofcomposition.

For the affi-cionados of art,this is certainly anevent which islooked forward tofor picking upworks that are col-lectible yet afford-able.

(The collec-tion is on dis-play from

September 28.)

The art of enamelling hasbeen a showstopper

through the centuries dueto its brilliance and gloss,which are hard andlong-lasting. It hasbecome a substitutefor inlaying of mir-rors, precious ands e m i - p r e c i o u sstones and paint onmetal.

The exhibitiontitled EnamelRevisited relives thiserstwhile tradition inan entirely new avatarof collector’s art via theartistry of contemporaryartists. Fashioned by 10 enam-ellists, who have been masters ofthe art for over a decade, these worksreflect a combination of creativity, coupledwith their unique technical practices, learntfrom their family heritage or experts.

Veenu Shah, founder of EnamelingSociety of India, who has been creating thesevivid art works for 30 years, tells us aboutwhat it means to her. She says, “It’s my life,my passion. I love its process, colours andenjoy the almost meditative sense of creat-ing something when I am in the studio. Timeseems to stand still and all the nitty-grittiesand tragedies of life are pushed to the backwhen I am into it.” Her works, as shedescribes, are celebratory of the spontane-ity and transience. They are “imperfect, inti-mate, irregular, unpretentious and above all,startlingly simple.”

Artist Deepak Sankit, master craftsmanof Meenakari jewellery who is from the fam-ily of the late Deen Dayal Meenakar, aimsto take his skills and designs learnt from thetraditional workshops of his father to a new

l e v e l .Throughthe tech-

niques ofcloisonné, he

and his sisterPreeti create

bejewelled splen-dour and plique-a-

jour, where the metalsurfaces evoke a rare translu-

cence. Ankit says, “There is a new interestin the traditional craft in Rajasthan with amarket for royal-inspired jewellery and cos-tumes and we are delighted to create thesebeautiful pieces keeping that mind.”

Kana Lomror’s works reflect an innov-ative style that has provided the input forlarge-scale ones in 3D and 2D formats.Hailing from Santiniketan, Lomror’s worksare replete with innovative touches andexperimental techniques as she uses vitre-ous enamelling on copper surfaces. ForKana, enamelling gives the feeling of instantgratification, “which can only come fromcompleting an artwork after a few hours. Theversatility of the medium where there areendless possibilities has always fascinatedme,” says he.

Avanti Mehta cashed upon her trav-els through the country to stoke herartistry. She works with copper andpainstakingly cuts the pieces with a fret

saw, thereby making a visual grid of floraand fauna. She says, “I like to work on aminiature scale, carving away bits ofcopper to create a filigree of leaves orbranches, within which I place the silhou-ettes of a bird or an insect or a butterflyand then colour them with enamel andfires.”

An enamellist whose forte is repoussework, Seema Lalit Uppal banks on herimmediate surroundings as the anchor forher inspiration. She finds the way out inthe natural world, which “is highly sen-sitised for making a lasting impact on herviewers.” The artist likes working on

metal with a hammer, texturing andbending. She finds it extremely therapeu-tic. She says, “The play of colours and theunpredictability of the final result fasci-nate me. There is a beauty in uncertain-ty that draws me to it. Everything — thesense of playfulness of imperfection, therisks one can take with the piece — makeenamelling very attractive.”

While Seema looks at enamelling asa therapeutic art form, designer KavitaDhankar, through it, explores the possi-bilities of vitreous enamelling for jew-ellery-making as a fine art. Juxtaposing thejeweller’s art with professional artistry, herpalette encompasses nature and cityscapes,which has found favour at many interna-tional workshops in Italy, Russia andBudapest.

For artist Ritu Sangal, enamelling itselfhas so many possibilities that she looks atit as a medium to learn new techniques,methods and a potential to experimentfreely with mixing media. Her works intextile art are detailed compositions thatdepict the current political and social tur-moils across the world.

Artist Smriti Sangal, in her works, cre-ates patterns and enamelled surfaces thatdefine cityscapes through her gaze. Shesays, “The medium has a great scope tobe the top choice for art in public spacesdue to its infinite possibilities.”

While for artist Triveni Mahajan, itwas a thirst to learn new techniques thategged her into experimenting with enam-eling, cementing it into a limitless passion,for artist Jyoti Singh, it was the drama ofcopper being fired, hammered, cut,coloured and pierced into shapes that cre-ated landscapes, sacred spaces and pil-grimages. She thus travels to exotic des-tinations to connect the dots between herartistic pursuits and her inner energies.

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Alexander Zverev sealed a dramat-ic Laver Cup victory for Europe

over Team World in Geneva onSunday, as the German beat MilosRaonic in the deciding singles match.

The holders trailed 11-7 midwaythrough the final day but Zverev, afterRoger Federer had edged past JohnIsner, downed Raonic 6-4, 3-6, 10-4to deny John McEnroe’s visitors theirmaiden triumph in the third editionof the event.

Instead, Bjorn Borg’s Europemade it three wins from three sincethe inaugural staging in 2017.

“Team World came once againvery close but we won the right pointsand had maybe a little bit of luck,” saidcaptain Borg.

“I’m very proud of my team, theydid a hell of a job. I’m a very happycaptain.”

After Rafael Nadal withdrewfrom Sunday’s play with a handinjury, Isner and Jack Sock beatFederer and Stefanos Tsitsipas in theopening doubles encounter, beforeTaylor Fritz saw off Dominic Thiemto leave Team World one win fromthe trophy.

But Federer claimed a 6-4, 7-6(7/3) victory over Isner to set up awinner-takes-all clash between Zverevand Raonic.

World number six Zverev tookthe first set courtesy of a break ingame seven, with big-servingCanadian Raonic hitting back toforce a super tie-break, saving fourbreak points to serve out the secondset. But Zverev, selected by Borgahead of Tsitsipas and Fabio Fogninifor the first-ever Laver Cup decider,raced to victory as Raonic’s servedeserted him.

The 22-year-old, who alsoclinched Europe’s win last year bybeating Kevin Anderson, fired a bril-liant cross-court forehand past Raonicon his first match point.

“I’ve never played in somethinglike that, it was unbelievable,” saidZverev.

“It’s very special, especially play-ing in front of those guys and themtrusting me to play the last singlesgame. This event is something Ihope to play in every single year of mycareer.”

Europe will defend their title in2020 at TD Garden in Boston fromSeptember 25-27.

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Real Madrid eased the pressure onZinedine Zidane and delivered aresounding response to their loss

to Paris Saint-Germain by winning 1-0away at high-flying Sevilla in La Liga onSunday.

Karim Benzema headed in the deci-sive goal at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuanto secure an impressive victory against aSevilla side that were unbeaten and hop-ing to return to the top of the table.

Instead, it is Madrid that go level onpoints with Athletic Bilbao in first placeafter a controlled and determined perfor-mance that was by some distance theirbest since Zidane’s returnas coach in March.

“We have had a quitedifficult time but theplayers reacted,” Zidanesaid.

His position hadcome under scrutiny afterMadrid’s woeful 3-0defeat by PSG in theChampions League onWednesday, a result thatcontinued their bumpystart to the season, fol-lowing a turbulent sum-mer in the transfer mar-ket.

But this win shoulddo wonders for beliefand leaves Barcelona as Spain’s chief clubin crisis, with Ernesto Valverde underpressure after they were beaten 2-0 byGranada on Saturday. Madrid are nowfour points clear of the Catalans after fivegames played.

“I am very happy as people have beenquestioning us a lot,” said Zidane. “But wedon’t think much about that. We played90 minutes at a very high level in a dif-ficult stadium. We must congratulate allthe players.”

Not for the first time this season,Zidane singled out Gareth Bale forpraise. “Today hard work was the key,” hesaid. “The effort made by James, Gareth,all of them.”

Sevilla’s newly-installed coach JulenLopetegui was sacked by Madrid 11months ago, 139 days after taking the job

that cost him the chance to lead Spain atthe World Cup.

He insisted on Saturday there was nodesire for revenge but it is hard to imag-ine victory would not have brought a lit-tle extra satisfaction.

LOPETEGUI BOOKEDA frantic opening half an hour made

for an engrossing contest but there werefew chances, as Lopetegui earned himselfa booking for beckoning Gareth Bale tobe shown a yellow card.

Real Madrid probablyjust shaded the first peri-od and had its two bestchances as Eden Hazardwas slipped in byBenzema, only to bedenied by Tomas Vaclikon the angle, before DaniCarvajal was sent clear byJames Rodriguez but thistime Vaclik’s right footblocked the defender’sfinish.

There was little in it,as Bale’s excellent crossalmost found James atthe back post shortly afterhalf-time while Luuk deJong went close with a

header, prompting Carvajal to hack theball clear at the far post.

Still, Madrid looked more likely andso it proved as Raphael Varane won backpossession high up, allowing Bale tothread Carvajal in behind. He dug out across, which Benzema met brilliantly,rising high to head home his fifth goalof the season.

Sevilla might have equalised butDe Jong headed wide under pres-sure from Carvajal and thenJavier Hernandez did score, inthe 87th minute, poking in at thenear post, only for the assistantto raise his flag.

Bale could have made ittwo late on but hit the side-net-ting from an acute angle. Onewas enough.

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Neymar scored a finelate winner as Paris

Saint-Germain beat Lyon1-0 on Sunday to movethree points clear at thetop of the Ligue 1 table.

The Brazilian finallybeat Anthony Lopes, whohad pulled off numerousimpressive saves, withthree minutes of normaltime to play at theGroupama Stadium.

It was Neymar’s sec-ond winning goal in asmany league games sincebeing reinstated to theteam following aprotracted transfersaga.

“Neymar cando better,” said PSGcoach ThomasTuchel. “It’s the sec-ond or third game in fourmonths for him. He’s notat 100 percent capacity.

“He is not at his limit.

He can do better, he willdo better. He’s going to getto his best level, withmatches and decisive goalslike that, it’s going to helphim.”

The Parisians sit topon 15 points after Angersand Nice both won over

the weekend to tem-porarily join Tuchel’sside at the summit.

Sylvinho’s Lyonremain in ninthplace and are with-out a win since mid-

August.He was targeted by

home fans when takingset-pieces from the left-

hand side as they threwplastic bottles and

rolled-up bin bags athim.

With 87 min-utes on the clock,

s u b s t i t u t eV e r r a t t i

f o u n dNeymar inthe boxwho drib-bled into

space andfinally beat Lopes to thekeeper’s left with a lowshot.

He celebrated by run-ning towards the samecorner of the groundwhere he had earlier beentaunted by the Lyon sup-porters.

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World champion Lewis Hamilton felt Mercedes hadthe car to win the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday

but strategic errors in the middle of the race costhim a chance of victory as the championship leaderhad to settle for a fourth-place finish.

Hamilton started alongside pole-sitterCharles Leclerc on the front row with the sec-ond Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’sMax Verstappen behind him.

After fighting off Vettel to slot in behindLeclerc on the opening lap, Mercedes opted tokeep Hamilton out for longer than his rivalsrather than attempt an undercut to claim thelead, but the plan backfired when he emergedfrom his pit stop behind the Ferraris and the

Red Bull.“It’s not been the weekend we wanted at

all. I was all over Charles in the first stint andI think we had the pace to win the race today,”

Hamilton told reporters after the Grand Prix finishedwith a Vettel-Leclerc Ferrari one-two and Verstappencompleting the podium.

“We made mistakes tonight, but in this team,we win and we lose together.

“We don’t point the finger at people, that’s alwaysbeen our philosophy and that won’t change becauseof one race.

“We’re fighting a Ferrari team who are superhungry and pushing very hard,” he added of theItalian outfit, who have now won the last three races.

“It’s on each one of us to do a better job. I believewe’re the best team, but we’ve got to push on. We’ll

debrief tonight, put our heads back in the scrum,and then come back fighting at the next race.”

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World champion P V Sindhu will seekto quickly get over the disappoint-

ment of an early exit in the China Openwhen she resumes her quest for a BWFWorld Tour title this season at the KoreaOpen Super 500 tournament beginninghere today.

After the high of winning the WorldChampionships, Sindhu was knocked outof the China Open Super 1000 event byThailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in thesecond round last week.

The 26-year-old Indian, who hadwon the Korea Open title in 2017, will haveto sort out the little things that had led toher early ouster in China and turn herfocus on the $ 400,000 tournament inIncheon, where she will face USA’s BeiwenZhang in a tricky opener.

A win in the first round may handSindhu a chance to avenge her loss inChina as she is likely to face Chochuwongagain.

Besides the World Championshipsfinal, Sindhu has reached the summit clashof only one BWF World Tour Final thisyear — the Indonesia Open Super 1000 —but the title eluded her.

Saina Nehwal, who had claimed theIndonesia Masters early in the season, has-n’t looked her usual self this year.

Saina, who has been bothered by pan-creatitis and few injuries, lost in the firstround of Malaysia Open, New ZealandOpen, Sudirman Cup and China Open.

The eighth seeded Saina will hope toturn around her indifferent form when sheopens her campaign against Korean KimGa Eun.

She has a 2-0 head-to-head recordagainst Kim and another win over theKorean is likely to pit her againstIndonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.

B Sai Praneeth will also look to con-tinue his impressive run after a quarterfi-nal finish in China Open. However, he willface a dangerous opponent in fifth seedAnders Antonsen of Denmark.

Parupalli Kashyap, who has lookedimpressive this season, will take on a qual-ifier in his opening round.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and ChiragShetty, who had broken into world’s top 10after winning the Thailand Open lastmonth, will face fourth seeded Japanesepair of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonodain the men’s doubles opening round.

Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy willtake on a qualifying pair.

BAIRSTOW DROPPED FOR NZ TEST SERIESLondon: 1������ � �� ���&&��� ������ � ���������� ��� �� *���� �M��� ���� ���� ��������-���W������ ��� &���� ����� /�������� �� �#��� ���� ������=������� �������������� �%���'��������&&��&������� ���#���������&����; 2�� ��� ����&����0�� � � � #����� ����� #����� W�� (������ ��3��� ���& ���M #�$���������$������ ����'��������������������������� ��1��������2����(�&��� ��&��� �������������� �� ������������:+=�������*�����M���������� �� ����/�������� ������ �������8=8� ��������'��������#�����6�� ����&�� �#�� �� ���� �M��� �� ��� ���� �������� � ��� #�� ���� ������&��� �� -��� W����� ���� ��� � �������#����'�*���� ����*�������$�����$����� ����������-� ��#��� 8:'� *��� ��� ��� �� ���� ������� �� �������2�����*����(��& ���� &'

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MILLER EQUALS T20 RECORD FOR CATCHESBengaluru: ������/�� ���0 ��$ ���������M��������� ������ ���� ����� ���#��� ��� ����� �� *89,���� ��� ���� � ��� ���� � ���� ,�� � �� ���� $(� ������� ��� ��'� 6�� ������� $ ����� ����!�� �������������=������ �������:D���� ���������,�� �� �� ������� ������&��������� �������� ��+9����� ��*89,�� ���'�*���<9=���=�������+9��������� ������ ��N8�*89,�������������� ����&�� ����� ��������� #�$� ������������������������#��������������� ������ ��:::������'�*� ����� ���� � ��� �� �������������� �� &&���/�� ���F �� ���� ���TT���������� ����������������#�������*����KTTL������������ ��KT8L'

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World Championships’ Silver medal-winningboxer Amit Panghal reckons securing an

Olympic spot at next year’s Asian qualifiers will bea tough task but vowed to leave no stone unturnedin his quest for glory at the Tokyo Games.

Panghal (52kg), became the first Indian maleboxer to win a Silver at the World Championship,which concluded in Ekaterinburg on Saturday.

The 23-year-old Indian Armyman said he wassure of a podium finish after putting in the hard yardsahead of the prestigious tournament.

“It is a great feeling to win this medal. Given thepreparation that I had, I was confident that I won’treturn without a medal. No Indian boxer has gonebeyond the Bronze, so I wanted to do something dif-ferent, change the colour of the medal,” Panghal saidafter returning to the country on Monday.

“I want to keep repeating what is working for meand keep improving on my weaknesses. I want topractice so much, put in so much effort in my train-ing that I not only return with a medal but also changethe colour of the medal at Tokyo,” he added referringto Bronze medal won by Vijender Singh back in 2008.

The world championships in Russia no longerhave Olympic qualifier status after the InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC) suspended theInternational Boxing Association (AIBA) from con-ducting the event in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

“At least 3-4 of us would have qualified if WorldChampionships were still the Olympic qualifiers. Itwould have been a big achievement. Now the AsianOlympic qualifiers is the next big tournament for us.All the focus will be on that,” said Panghal.

The Olympic qualifiers will start in February nextyear with the Asia/Oceania zone qualifiers in China.“For us who are in the lower weight category, the levelof competition at Asian qualifiers is same as worldchampionships. Most of the Asian boxers win medalat the Olympics or World Championships. So it willbe tough,” Panghal said.

“Of course, the World qualifiers will be tougheras US and European boxers will also participate.”

Panghal, who had shifted to the 52kg categoryafter a stellar run in the 49kg division, said he needsto work on his strength and power.

“I will work on my strength and stamina. We willimprove as we inch towards the qualifiers. We haveto held on to our top form, we can’t effort to let it slipa bit till the Olympics.”

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His eyes trained on next year’s T20World Cup, skipper Virat Kohliis willing to take risks in order

to mould his India players into an“unfazed” unit, one that is able to “taketoss out of the equation”.

His bold but surprising decision tobat first in a venue always known tofavour the chasing teams may have back-fired during the third T20l againstSouth Africa, but Kohli said they willhave to take risks to find the best com-bination.

“Look, we will have to take risks.Even when you want to win a game ofcricket you have to take risks, so noth-ing is a given, nothing is a guaranteebefore you start playing,” Kohli said atthe post-match press conference onSunday.

“I think as a team if we are willingto get out of our comfort zone a lot more,then we will be unfazed with what hap-pens at the toss. That’s our basis idea: try-ing to take the toss out of the equationas a side.”

His long batting line-up gives himthe leeway to experiment but India stilllost the series’ final game by nine wick-ets to settle for a 1-1 stalemate.

“That’s why we are trying to play thebest combination we can, (with) peoplebatting till nine. So that if you bat firstor bowl first, you know we are in a goodposition,” Kohli said.

“Mentally, if we put ourselves in asituation where we are ready to do any-thing rather than wanting to do onething, we will be in a better position asa side to capitalise on any situation thatwe are in.

“Unless you do that, unless you starttaking those risks, you are always goingto be put under somewhere or the other.We want to make sure that we iron allthose out before we head into theWorld Cup.”

No team had ever chosen to bat firstin six previous T20Is at this ground, butKohli wants his team to also becomestronger in defending totals.

134 was not a good score on this sur-face, admitted Kohli but refused to beharsh on his bowlers after the big nine-wicket drubbing.

“Bowlers coming out of their com-fort zone mean at least they get 160 (todefend). You can’t defend 130, we did-n’t get it right with the bat and you can’tbe too harsh on the bowlers in a T20game with this kind of total when thereis a bit of dew as well.

“They should not be analysed or

criticised on defending this low total. Wedidn’t have enough runs on the board,so the bowlers are always under pressureknowing that one or two overs can takethe game away from you.

“But I think they have done decent-ly well (in the series overall), we will haveto be patient with the combination weare playing at the moment. We will haveto strengthen one or two things.”

At the toss, in the presentation aswell as the post-match media conference,Kohli said he doesn’t want his team tobe in a comfort zone.

“... But quickly we realised the pitchdidn’t allow us to keep doing that. So I

think the kind of start we got, 63 for oneafter that, I think we could havereassessed, thing about 170 rather than200.”

He acknowledged the South Africansexecuted their plans better.

“Not to take anything away fromSouth Africa, they hit the right areas, theybowled really well, understood the pitch.So it was a combination of good bowl-ing, not great decision-making but, as Isaid, these kinds of games will keep hap-pening,” Kohli said.

“As long as we are wanting to comeout of our comfort zone and putting our-selves in situations which could be the

case in a big tournament.”The focus now shifts to the three-

match Test series and Kohli expressedconfidence, which stemmed more sofrom the bowling attack at his disposal.

“Our Test team is as strong as it getsin world cricket, especially in our con-ditions we are one of the best teams. Weknow exactly what we need to do,” hesaid.

“The kind of bowling attack that wehave is always going to be challenging,but at the same time, you have torespect all opposition and make sure thatyou are playing consistent, solid cricketin all the sessions.”

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England captain EoinMorgan on Monday said

Jofra Archer has proved to bean ‘X-factor’ in his short careerso far but insisted that the bestof the tearaway pacer is yet tocome.

Archer was rewarded witha central contract for Test andwhite-ball cricket by theEngland and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) recently for hissuperb performances in theODI World Cup and the Ashes.

And, Morgan was full ofpraise for the 24-year-old fastbowler, stating that Archermanaged to overcome everyobstacle that was thrown onhim to make his name in worldcricket.

“I think it is fantastic. Jofrais very exciting to watch and hebowls fast and has an X-factor.He can bowl in any format ofthe game and any circum-stances and to any plan,”Morgan said.

“Every obstacle that isbeing put in front of him, heovercame that. We haven’t seenthe best of him, he still wantsto learn all the time.”

Archer was England’s lead-ing wicket-taker in their tri-umphant World Cup campaignat home.

He then followed up hisWorld Cup performance byscalping 22 wickets at an aver-age of 20.27 in the four AshesTests against Australia.

Morgan also hailed BenStokes’ heroics this summer,terming him as an excep-tional cricketer.

“Who would havethought after theWorld Cup final per-formance that tookabsolutely every-thing that he couldcome up with, onhis own we wouldwin a game (thirdAshes Test) atHeadingley.

“The innings exposedevery attribute that youneed to be a Test matchbatsman. It was exception-al,” he said.

Morgan said thatEngland have now settheir sights on nextyear’s WorldTwenty20 after ful-filling their long-cherished dreamof winning theICC ODI World

Cup.“We have 18 T20

International games frombetween now and then and wewill try to build a squad thatcan potentially win that tour-nament (World T20),” Morgantold a group of reporters.

“Realistically we do (standa chance of winning). We cameto India in 2016 and made it tothe final. We had a similarsquad during the World Cup inEngland this year.

“If we can build ourmomentum and gel together asa side, it will give us the bestchance,” added the left-handedbatsman.

Asked whether they wouldcreate another such templatefor the World T20, Morgananswered in the affirmative.

“It will be very similarbecause we have some excep-tional T20 players and we willtry to get them in the best pos-sible position in our team andneed to find out how it lookslike,” he said.

“Over the last two years inparticular, we have always seenT20 cricket as an opportunityto give young guys a game sim-ply because our main focus hasbeen the 50-over World Cup.

“Our strategy will changein the new year towards the(T20) World Cup. It is beenlong summer for some of usand some need rest. I think, inthe immediate future, we mightexperiment a little bit. Butnext year, we will definitely be

working towardsbuilding a

s t r o n gteam.”

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Describing Jasprit Bumrah as a “special tal-ent”, former India speedster Zaheer Khan

feels that his awkward action has worked as anadvantage rather than a weakness.

“He (Bumrah) is a special talent, he has gotthat awkward action which works as anadvantage for him over the batsmen. He is keen

to learn and drive to excel. He has been work-ing on his fitness, adding new things to hisbowling. He has evolved as a bowler in a shorttime, that have been the keys to success,” Zaheersaid on Monday.

“It is about how you take things into strideand what kind of approach you have. I thinkBumrah has shown all the attitude of achiev-ing that success,” added the 40-year-old for-mer pacer.

Zaheer has also a piece of advice for youngSouth African pacer Kasigo Rabada, that heshould quickly adapt to conditions and use thereverse swing to be successful in India in theupcoming Test series, which begins inVisakhapatnam on October 2.

Rabada is one of the top bowlers in theworld. In 37 Tests, he has taken a staggering176 wickets.

“There are so many good bowlers and(Kasigo) Rabada has been right up there andyou have seen that in such a short time. He hasmade such massive impact on Test cricket andthe numbers are a reflection of that fact.

“In India, we will have to see how he adaptsto conditions. You have to adapt to conditionsand for any fast bowler to be successful in India,he should possess the ability to bowl with theold ball and use the reverse swing. So, I amlooking forward to see how Rabada goes aboutit and how quickly he adapts in the (Test)series,” said Zaheer.

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Rishabh Pant’s natural aggressive game is notworking for him at the No 4 position, says Indian

batting great VVS Laxman, who feels the youngstercan regain his form by coming in lower down the order.

He said the solution to Pant’s problems could beas simple as dropping down the order.

“The nature of Rishabh Pant’s batting is that heplays aggressive shots...Unfortunately at the interna-tional level he is not able to succeed at the number fourposition,” Laxman said on Star Sports.

“Pant should bat at number 5 and 6, where youhave the license to go out and express yourself and atthe moment he doesn’t know the right method of scor-ing runs at number 4,” he pointed out.

However he said that the 21-year-old shouldn’t beput under too much pressure as every player goesthrough rough patches at some point.

“Every player goes through this phase, his natur-al game is free flowing but suddenly he is not gainingthe same results (which he did with Delhi franchisein the IPL),” Laxman said.

“He is trying to evolve and trying to add differ-ent dimensions to his game by rotating the strike thatwe saw in the previous match but unfortunately, hisshot selection at the start of the innings has not beengreat,” he added. Laxman said Shreyas Iyer and HardikPandya seem better options for the No 4 slot as of now.

“There are other people to bat at number 4 likeHardik Pandya and Shreyas Iyer who are experiencedand could play at that spot,” he said.

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India women can’t afford to take South Africawomen lightly despite their recent domination

over the visitors in T20Is when the two sides faceoff in the first game of the five-match T20I serieshere today.

In the last five matches between the two sides,India women won three while lost one with the othergame ending in no result.

Playing on familiar home conditions, Indiawomen would definitely have an edge over the vis-itors in the upcoming series but they can’t take thingsfor granted as South Africa women have proved howdangerous they can be in the second warm-up gameplayed on Sunday.

The Proteas would be brimming with confi-dence and will depend on opener Lizelle Lee, whoscored a quick 65 in the second warm-up game, andMignon du Preez to take the responsibility of theirbatting department in the company of skipper SuneLuus.

Harmanpreet Kaur-led India women, on theother hand, would heavily rely on opener SmritiMandhana for a good start, while VedaKrishnamurthy, the skipper herself and JemimahRodrigues too would need to be at their best to helpIndia dish out a fine batting effort in the absenceof a reliable Mithali Raj, who retired from T20 crick-et recently.

India’s bowling attack will be led by pacer ShikhaPandey and fast bowling colleague Pooja Vastrakar.

The spin department will be spearheaded by leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, while the likes of Anuja Patil,all-rounder Deepti Sharma and Anuja Patil will alsoshoulder the responsibility.

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An Olympic berth already secured,World championship Bronze medal-

list wrestler Vinesh Phogat says she hasunfinished business to attend to in 2020Tokyo.

The fear of 2016 Rio Olympics injurystill playing on her mind, Vinesh onMonday said she is eyeing to complete herbout in next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

One of India’s biggest medal prospectsat the Rio Olympics, Vinesh’s campaignended in agony in the quarterfinals of thewomen’s 48kg freestyle category after suf-fering a career-threatening knee injury.

“Hopefully in Tokyo I will play theentire six minutes of a bout. A lot was leftout for me to achieve in Rio. I was not ableto play my entire match. There are a lotof things going in my mind regarding theOlympics,” Vinesh said on the sidelines ofthe launch of Zee Kushti Dangal.

“So whatever the results, whether Ilose or win I want to complete my six min-utes. When I do that whatever questionsI have in my mind right now will becleared,” she added.

However since then, the 25-year-oldhas made a strong comeback, winningGolds in the Commonwealth Games and

Asian Games last year in the 50kg cate-

gory.In the-recently concluded World

Championships, the star wrestler qualifiedfor the 2020 Olympics before winning theBronze medal in the 53kg.

Relieved to have sealed an Olympicberth, Vinesh said the injury in Rio moti-vated her to make a strong comeback.

“After my injury in Rio I neverthought I’d be able to go back to theOlympics. Somewhere in my mind I feltincomplete. That feeling always kept ondriving me to do better. I am very stub-born, I motivated myself to do better andthat is why I am going to the Olympics,”she said.

Vinesh, who was earlier competing inthe 50kg category but switched to 53kgearly this year, said the shift has been ben-eficial for her.

“The change in weight category hashas been advantageous for me. I have wonback-to-back medals,” she said.

Asked about the competition at theOlympics, Vinesh said playing at home,the Japanese wrestlers will be top con-tenders.

“I feel everyone is strong in the 53kgcategory. Japan, of course, is the power-house and will also have the home advan-tage. I would love to beat them and winthe Gold,” she said.

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Afghanistan captainRashid Khan said he is

unsure he will play in the tri-nation Twenty20 internation-al final against Bangladeshtoday as he is nursing a ham-string injury.

Rashid left the fieldinjured against the sameopponents in their last matchof the league phase inChittagong on Saturday,before returning to bowl twoovers and picking 2-27 intheir four-wicket loss.

“I can’t say anything rightnow,” Rashid said Mondayabout his chances of playingin the final.

“I had some work on myhamstring yesterday andtoday. We will decide tomor-row.”

Rashid said he wouldrather not have bowled in theprevious game, but the teamneeded his services.

“The main reason tocome back to bowl was thatI wanted to know the sever-

ity of the injury,” he said.“The physio and coaches

didn’t want me to bowl. I wasOK with the first two overs,but after going for a run it gotworse. “I think I shouldn’thave bowled, but when theteam needs you, you have tobe there. We give our all forthe country.”

Rashid said that if heeven had a “10 percentchance” to take to the field,he would give it a shot.

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“Miscommunication” betweenRishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer

nearly saw both players walking out tobat at the same time, creating confu-sion during the third T20I betweenIndia and South Africa on Sunday.

After the dismissal of openerShikhar Dhawan, both Iyer and Pantseemed headed towards the pitchbefore the latter eventually walked into join his captain at the number fourposition.

Kohli was asked about it at thepost-match press conference afterSouth Africa emerged winners bynine wickets. “I think there was a mis-communication. That was what Iunderstood afterwards,” he said.

“The batting coach had a wordwith both of them. There was a mis-understanding over who has to go atwhat stage,” Kohli said. “It was a littlefunny as well afterwards because theyboth wanted to walk in. So it wouldhave been very funny if both reachedthe pitch, you know three batsmen inthe field.”

Asked who was originally slated tobat at number four, Kohli said they“had plans” according to phases.

“I think after 10 overs what we haddecided was that Rishabh would walkin, and before that, Shreyas had to walkin. But I think both of them got con-fused and didn’t realise who has to walkin at what stage of the game,” Kolhisaid.

Dhawan got out the eighth overwith India at 63 for two.

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